Studio Accord

Just had a crazy weekend at the BEIGIN Conference 2013!

I believe we are all feeling somewhat relieved but also quite proud of ourselves. The three of us (particularly Vivian and I, Rikki) probably spent a bit too much time sitting in front of laptops in our little room, but all in all, good fun.

Here's to our first web project done now (:

Check out the website for videos from the conference!

SO! Design Ignites Change has finally released their article on us! Check us out at http://www.designigniteschange.org/news/460-meet-studio-accord

http://www.designigniteschange.org/news/460-meet-studio-accord Studio Accord is a design firm formed by North American ex-pats in China with a very innovative business model: they take on both for-profit paying clients and non-profit pro-bono work and their proceeds are donated to a non-profit. It’s a group of enterprising, smart and dedicated women—who also ha...

This past weekend has indeed be spent productively for all three of us (Emily, Vivian, and Rikki). Emily and Vivian spent their time at the Lean Startup Machine even here in Beijing, while Rikki stayed home and studied for the SATs.
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/lean-startup-machine-returns-beijing-033743878.html
Check out the article (there is a Vivian and a small bit of Emily there in the picture). They just so happened to be on the winning team so here is a huge WHOOOP (or some kind of joyful exclamation) for them (:

Lean Startup Machine returns to Beijing Lean Startup Machine held a dual three-day event in both Beijing and Shanghai over the weekend. This was Beijing’s second time to host LSM, this time in the new Tech Temple co-working space. The format ...

Hello world.
It's been a while since the last post, but we are indeed still alive and well and stil functioning. School is school, and stress and stress, but Studio Accord a bit of a highlight in this whole thing called "Life as High Schoolers".
We plan on going around Shunyi this weekend (via moped) to further our efforts at advertising, so that is DEFINITELY going to be quite exciting.
Wish us luck!

Hi there!
We're super excited here, at Studio Accord, now to be working with Roundabout
( http://www.roundaboutchina.com/ ), and just thought we'd let you guys know. Roundabout is a really great charity that we are proud to be able to work with, so if you haven't before (or even if you have), check it out.
:)
Also, just a shoutout to you people liking this Studio Accord page and supporting us THANK YOU DEARLY, IT IS QUITE A SELF ESTEEM BOOST.
:)
And now we have a couple days off from school to get cracking on projects, so all is well.

News just came in! :)

I'm proud to announce that Studio Accord will be at BEIGIN and running a workshop! This will be our first conference as Studio Accord and we're excited to inspire students and teachers with a new popular concept called "design thinking".

You can check out more details on the BEIGIN website designed by us! http://www.beigin2013.org.

After securing our workshop session at BEIGIN, Studio Accord is excited to move forward and expand in the china market by first translating our website. It's time to work those Chinese skills that all of us detest exercising..

This week our Sunday meeting was rather interesting..! Vivian brought a camera over to take pictures for our DIC (Design Ignites Change) feature and if you know us... it took FOREVER.

After photos and photos accompanied with difficulties such as our photographer's confusion with fancy DSLRs and our cries of "WAIT NO. NOT THIS ONE. MY HAIR IS MESSED UP." or "WHY ARE YOUR EYES CLOSED. THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN PERFECT" and maybe even "IT'S OKAY. WE CAN PHOTOSHOP IT LATER AND LIQUIFY OUR FACES TO MAKE OURSELVES SKINNER" (coughviviancough)

AHH! Our team is super excited! I hope you guys are too :D We just got our email back from DIC (Design Ignites Change, our charity) and they sent us some interview questions so that they could feature us.

Determined to answer the questions and update our website/mission, we entered a 2 hour Skype call eager to get things done. After lots of discussion and perhaps some intense non-Studio Accord related topics, ;) (COUGHBOYSCOUGH jk.) we are well on our paths to redefining Studio Accord and writing up answers for DIC's feature! Not bad for a school night.

Also, we are hoping to host a workshop in the BEIGIN conference that's coming up. So far it's likely that we'll have the opportunity to rant about our adventures for a whole hour. We're hoping that after an hour of (intense, amazing, mind blowing) bonding, we'll gain some support from the audience and charm our potential clients (: Stay updated with us!

Hey guys. Studio Accord has been busybusy looking for new website projects and finalizing our BEIGIN project (which you can check out at http://www.beigin2013.org! As a team we realized that instead of focusing on finding new projects we should work on advertising ourselves, updating the website, "china" our business, and redefine ourselves. We're looking forward to a weekend of productivity and NO procrastination (:

BEIGIN 2013 The United Nations has designated 2013 as the International Year of Water. Unquestionably, the future of humankind will be shaped by the way the world interprets the ownership, appropriation, and conservation of this most vital resource. The Global Issues Network conference, to be held November 8-10...

Hello there! So we here at Studio Accord are still alive and well and functioning. As a matter of fact, we happen to be doing quite well, having gotten our first web design project for the BEI-GIN(Global Issues Network) conference to be held at the International School of Beijing. From the end of the last post to this moment, we've gone through some exciting stuff, from early morning (5 A.M.) Skype meetings, to spending all of 4 hours enclosed in a small(ish) area, going through every imaginable shade of blue. Those hours came close to being traumatic (Imagine: "no no no no NO NO NO NO NOOOOOO!!!!!! WRONG SHADE OF BLUUUUEEEE"), but in the end it turns out that we did manage to be productive and stay relatively sane. All is well.

So, if you were to ask, "How was this marvelous machine of a thing of Studio Accord born?", to this I would say, "are you sure you want to ask me this question? " (because you might get a more useful, albeit dull, answer elsewhere, but because I write the blog and therefore control the world, I will tell you :)

Studio Accord began as only an idea, a vague idea floating in cloud form over our (Vivian, Rikki, Emily) heads. This cloud grew slowly into a cumulonimbus(storm cloud) and then the lightning from this cloud struck shrub on the side of the road, the thunder rumbled something that sounded strikingly similar to "I DUB THEE STUDIO ACCORD", and this shrub was mystically transformed into a tree.

Somehow, this story translates as a metaphor for the way that the idea of starting Studio Accord grew from idea to well…Studio Accord.

We've been, for the past few months, going through the process of setting up our website, creating our own branding, and generally building Studio Accord slowly but surely, like trees (:

Thankfully, our first client was not far off, and so Bethel China showed up, followed by UFH (United Family Healthcare), Cal Japan Club of UC Berkeley, and Strikingly.(BIG FAT SHOUT-OUT to the people we've worked with) We are now embarking on our first website design project for the upcoming GIN conference to be held here in Beijing. EXCITEMENT IS IN THE AIRRAHAHAHAHAHAH

So for the past couple months we have been growing (like a tree). FOR SURE an experience to be noted is our beginning attempt at advertising through (hopefully) not-too-annoying, calls to politely make businesses aware of our existence in the world. It seems as though the idea of STRANGER DANGER is deeply embedded in the minds of many people of the more youthful generation, but we managed to overcome this delusion (if any kids sees this, just FYI, stranger danger isn't actually a delusion. Beware of sketchy strangers…but realize that if you're the one calling them to advertise, and they happen to be a manager or something, you should be fine.), as well as a small language barrier, and were met with some success. Now we're starting to feel for all the telemarketers we've ever hung up on before. (Remember, they're people too.)

So this for now is the tale of Studio Accord (so far, as we are still growing, like trees). Dear reader, await the next installment with anticipation. Keep a weather eye on the horizon.