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Gordon here. This week, I want to share a new tool that I just found. There are a bunch of habit trackers out there, but I recently found one called Habitica. I love the 8-bit feel, and the ability to level up. I’m still a bit new to this, but it seems like a great way to track and reach your personal and professional goals. We’ll see how it goes over the next few weeks—I’ll share more as I explore this site.

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Gordon here. This week, I've been working on some design assets for our training curriculum. I've done some work with designs that contain multiple messages before, so I though I would try it with a module on creativity. Here's the hand drawn rough draft as a proof of concept. Can you see both messages?

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Multi-language phrasebooks

Gordon here. This week, we’re working on some language/culture curriculum. We recently stumbled upon these phrasebooks, developed by the Cultural Orientation Resource Center in the 1980s and 1990s. While they may be a bit dated, they are still a phenomenal resource. So glad we found this!

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Hiya, Erin here! This week has been a pretty exciting one. The last few weeks I've been working on a stop motion video. It's gone through several iterations and I've changed directions quite a few times. I started with physical assets and taking pictures on a smartphone, but ultimately ended​ up using Adobe After Effects for the animation. I'm excited to share the final product with you!

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Gordon here. This week, we've been working on understanding the business model canvas, both for ourselves and as a useful skill. There are definitely some really interesting pieces, and we even came across a "multi-layer" version that included environmental and social considerations. Because we have some many moving parts, this exercise was actually quite challenging. While everything we've seen suggested creating multiple canvases, we found it more useful to view the various projects together in a given section, particularly because there is so much overlap. Anyway, here's what we came up with for the Customer Segments section.

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Hiya, Erin here! Last week I was in the process of making assets for our stop motion video. This week I’ve been putting those assets to work. I’ve gotten a little creative with the tools and resources I’m using, since we have limited resources. We utilized one of our volunteers to help make the assets. While it might take some additional human resources to make a stop motion video, it’s something that any non-profit could do with limited resources. Stay tuned for the final video!

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Gordon here. A few weeks ago, Erin mentioned the portfolio pages we’re asking all 2kH fellows to make. I finally have some thoughts about how I want my portfolio page to look. There are the preliminary sketches. Things may change, but I find it helpful to at least get something down on paper.

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Hiya, Erin here! I’ve been working on design assets this week for a stop motion video to introduce the 2kH model and introduce people to what 2kH is about. I’m pretty excited about the potential this video has, but stop motion (really any video work) is pretty new to me. If any of you have any tips, let me know!

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Gordon here. We’ve been working with the basic English classes at the Faribault Diversity Coalition, and noticed a challenge for new immigrants. It can be incredibly difficult to try to live your life (like going grocery shopping) when you don’t speak the language. We wanted to try to help, and wound up creating this card. It can be used both to communicate with others and as a study resource. We’ll see if this helps! Possibly more cards coming soon!

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Hiya, Erin here! I have a terrible habit of taking a lot of pictures and then dumping them onto a hard drive without really sorting or renaming them. I just got a new (and significantly bigger) hard drive for photo storage. I’ve vowed that I will create (and use) a better file structure and come up with some standard naming conventions to keep my photos better organized—both original files and final edits. I haven’t completely worked out what it’s going to look like yet. Photographers out there, help me out! How do you organize your images? What recommendations do you have for file structure and naming conventions?

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Gordon here. The 2kH model relies heavily on a strategic approach to earned revenue. We've decided to create a social enterprise that will allow local businesses to leverage the skills of 2kH staff members. Essentially, this will be a consulting firm that supports the work of 2kH. I've been working on some design assets for the web page for this new project, including this canvas of icons. I love using non-photo blue graph paper to help keep my doodles aligned properly. Once I ink it and scan it, I'll be able to fairly easily remove the blue grid lines. Anyway, here's what I have so far. Are there any icons that I missed?

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Hiya, Erin here! This week we’ve been creating icons and images to depict small, rural towns—drawing inspiration from the town where we live and work. While we’re hoping to come up with images that universally depict small towns, we also want some of the images to resonate with the people who call this little corner of the world home. So, we’ve spent a lot of time talking about what the iconic building or structure of downtown is, but haven’t had much luck in picking one landmark that really stands out. This has resulted in several days of taking pictures of the main street that runs through town and various buildings from a number of angles. The architecture of the buildings really stands out and is something we definitely want to embrace in whatever final product we come up with. Do you live in a small rural town? What specific landmarks make your downtown unique?

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Gordon here. Most (if not all) organizations rely on creative solutions. Creativity, however, often seems very passive: it is seem as something that happens to us. Here at 2kH, we take a more active view and work hard to strengthen our creative muscles. I recently came across this book: Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko. I haven’t had much time to dive into this book yet, but I’m super excited to explore some tools for intentional creativity. I’ll try to post some thoughts as I get a bit deeper into it. Until next time!

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Hiya, Erin here! We’ve been talking a lot this week about different personal projects our fellows will work on during their service year—one being an online portfolio. The majority of my background is in nursing, but I’m an avid photographer. So I’ve been thinking about how I would create an online photography portfolio and whether I should include any of my nursing background (and if I do, what that would look like). I’m in the process of mocking up a site using Google Slides. What would you (or have you) include in your online portfolio?

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Gordon here. We've been working with a local adult ESL class here in town for a couple of weeks now. This experience has been incredibly valuable. There are so many opportunities for us to impact this learning process. This week, we're trying to create some simple references for common nouns. There seems to be quite a bit of potential with this project, so stay tuned for more info!

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Hiya, Erin here! I love taking photos, but we don’t always have the time or resources to get what we need. This week, we came across pexels.com. We don’t know a lot about it yet, but are pretty excited. It looks like they have quality images and use a creative commons license that allows for commercial use and modifications. Have any of you tried Pexels? What resources do you use for stock photos?

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Social Media Types

Gordon here. This week, we've been thinking about how we view social media. Platforms come and go, making it difficult for beginners to really understand how these channels interact with one another. How do we use these channels? Which platforms best suit our needs? This is the framework we've developed to help us better utilize social media channels. More details to come in tomorrow's blog post. Until then!