- Cheryl Heller
-
Cheryl Heller is an American communication strategist, writer, and designer whose work focuses on using communication design to transform organizations into living systems. She has helped Fortune 100, entrepreneurs, social innovators and non-profit organizations in nearly every industry grow, through identity and communication strategy, employee programs, naming, start-up and product launches, interactive design and complete communication programs. She has founded three successful enterprises and is now CEO of Heller Communication Design. Beyond her consulting work, she is best known for teaching and mentoring social innovators and entrepreneurs, bringing design solutions to the developing world with Paul Polack, as a faculty and board Vice Chair of PopTech, and through her accomplishments as a thought-leader on communication and innovation.[1]
Contents
Philosophy
She believes that communication design is the single most important tool we have to solve the challenges we face, and that current communication methods were developed to serve the industrial age that got us into trouble in the first place. Communication design can transform data into wisdom, and align diverse perspectives around a common goals. She believes that humor is highly underrated as a tool for creating significant change.[2]
Communication Design
A quantum perspective of communication, and of information as energy, that, when designed as a system rather than a series of unconnected events, creates a shared identity for an organization, fostering wide spread creativity aligned around a common goal.
Influences
➢ Community-based economies
➢ Nature and all natural systems
=Use of word Brand
Heller led brand strategy consultation for many years, helping companies define who they were through the concept of their “brand” and “brand promise.” REF: As the term became increasingly ubiquitous in business, she felt it lost its meaning and value. Now, she uses “identity” and “communication” as more potent constructs, and supports an abandonment of the word brand. She announced and described this shift in her blog, “How To Communicate,” in early 2010.[3]
Current Work
In 2000, Heller founded Heller Communication Design. The company has worked with clients including Seventh Generation, L’Oreal, the Human Company, Kodak, Reebok, Hachette Filipacci Media, Cemex, Sappi, American Express, Ford Motor Company, and others. The company is focused on the mission: “We make businesses more human, humans more innovative, communication more inspiring, and organizations more truthful, relevant and resilient.”[4]
She balances her commitments to socially responsible clients while augmenting her reputation for impactful, inspiring and human design.
Crowflies
Heller Communication Design also encompasses, Crowflies, 107 acres (0.43 km2) of land dedicated to sustainable living, recognition and articulation of culture in nature, nature in culture, and sustainability throughout. The space is a collaborative space for artists, designers, animals, land, and more.[5]
Teaching, Coaching, and Mentorship
She is chair of the School of Visual Arts MFA, Design for Social Innovation, beginning in Fall 2012.
She was a judge in The Financial Times-Justmeans Social Innovation Awards.[6] The Social Innovation Awards present a forum for organizations to highlight their latest concepts and practical applications to improve to advance social needs and better business. The entries will be evaluated in the areas of Finance, Purchasing, Product Design, Philanthropy, Supply Chain, Sales, Operations, Communications, and Human Resources.
In 2008, Heller launched "Good Brand Camp", a one-day workshop for nonprofit organizations and social entrepreneurs to help them accomplish their missions by developing powerful brand strategies and communication systems. "The growing number of mission-driven organizations has brought with it a more intense level of competition for support and attention", Heller said. "Over the years, we’ve worked mostly with for-profit companies, helping them strengthen their messages and methods of delivery. We felt it was time to share this experience with as many nonprofit organizations as possible by developing this 'almost free' workshop.”[7]
She also sits as on the following boards and faculties: Executive Board, AIGA, Collections: Library of Congress. Harvard University, Design Strategy Executive Program; Faculty, Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship; Faculty, Pop!Tech Fellows; Faculty, Milago Foundation Ranier Fellows; Faculty, Cambridge University Programme for Sustainability Leadership. She has been a speaker at the StartingBloc, Institute for Social Innovation, and is a Member of Aspen Design Summit.
Design for the other 90%
She is an advisor to Design for the Other 90%,[8] an NGO led by Paul Polak, and helped to create a related exhibit at both the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. and the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum.
Past career
Heller is currently Vice Chair of the board of Pop!Tech, an organization that explores how technology accelerates social and environmental change.
Heller has been a strategy consultant for a number of large non-profit organizations, including the World Wide Fund for Nature, Audubon New York, IDE (an international organization dedicated to poverty elimination), The Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education, SafeHorizon, and the Joyful Heart Foundation.
In the 1980s, Heller ran a design agency in Boston called HellerBreene. She became Executive Creative Director at Wells Rich Greene, in New York City, in 1990. From 1994 until 2000, Heller was the Executive Creative Director and Managing Partner at Siegel and Gale.
Published Works
“What Women are Worth” Communication Arts Magazine; “Why Clients Always Get the Work They Deserve.” Design Management Journal; “A Seat at the Table” Adobe Proxy Magazine; “What every business needs. And how.” AIGA; “Sustainability: They’re Counting on Us.” Step Inside Design; “Using Communications to Engage Stakeholders in CSR” BSR Magazine; “Branding CSR” CRO Magazine; “Where is the Art of Communication?” Communication Arts Magazine; “Yesterday’s Brand Promise Doesn’t Hold Much Promise for Tomorrow.” Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship Magazine ; “The Design Revolution. Which Side Are You On?” Communication Arts Magazine[9][10]
Education
Heller earned a Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts at Ohio Wesleyan University, and later studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
References
- ^ http://www.stepinsidedesign.com/STEPMagazine/Article/28688
- ^ http://www.stepinsidedesign.com/STEPMagazine/Article/28688
- ^ http://howtocommunicate.wordpress.com/2010/04/05/a-personal-movement-to-ban-the-brand/
- ^ http://www.hellercd.com/onemin/onemin.html
- ^ http://www.hellercd.com/crowflies/crowflies.html
- ^ http://www.socialinnovationawards.com/
- ^ http://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/13991-Heller-Launches-Good-Brand-Camp-Inspires-Mission-Driven-Organizations-to-Redefine-Message-in-Current-Competitive-Climate
- ^ http://www.artbook.com/9780910503976.html
- ^ http://www.hellercd.com/articles.html#column2
- ^ http://www.commarts.com/columns/where-art-communication.html
Categories:- American management consultants
- Living people
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