mono is taking its understanding of design to the frontier of design education. The award-winning Minneapolis-based creative branding and advertising agency today announced that Parsons The New School for Design (Parsons) in New York has become their newest client.
mono's charge will be to invent a creative campaign that inspires an understanding of the Parsons vision as well as the school's approach to transdisciplinary design.
"The most creative people in business and public service are now looking to the world of design to create intricate social, environmental and creative challenges," said mono founder and creative co-chair Chris Lange. "This initiative is about updating people's perceptions of design while building on the understanding that design is an expansive discipline, uniquely capable of addressing the most vexing issues of the 21st century."
"Designers are increasingly called on to confront complex problems from a number of perspectives with the ability to translate design knowledge across different disciplines. Parsons is visionary in this realm and our work together will showcase this thought-leadership," Lange continued.
Parsons initially approached mono because of the agency's ingenious initiative behind the internationally acclaimed Real Good Experiment for the furniture designer and manufacturer Blu Dot.
As a two-day event, mono placed Blu Dot's Real Good Chairs on curbs throughout New York City free for the taking, then electronically followed them using Twitter, GPS and a short documentary film to tell their contagious story.
The school was all the more impressed by mono's ability to distill complex propositions into simple, straightforward narratives.
Joel Towers, dean of Parsons, said, "We're excited to be partnering with mono. Parsons has been on the leading edge of art and design education for more than one hundred years. As Parsons advances art and design in the context of a rapidly changing world, we're looking forward to having mono at our side as creative collaborators."
The partnership with Parsons is the latest in a series of new business success for mono. The agency continues to establish relationships with some of the most progressive brands in the country, helping to solve business and marketing challenges with innovative and non-traditional creative ideas.
"This campaign is a perfect fit for our agency," Lange said. "mono was built around the philosophy of leveraging different disciplines to solve the challenges that face our clients. We could not be more excited to partner with a client who approaches the world like we do."