Human Spark

04/17/2023

We’re proud to share that Human Spark is a winner of the iF Design Award 2023 for our Life Planning - No Normal Retirement Journey Tool, a new, free collection of research and guidance for how to plan for retirement in a modern, post-pandemic world we created for our clients at the Alliance for Lifetime Income and Georgetown University AgingWell Hub.

Kudos to our cross-disciplinary research/strategy/content/design team for the first iF Design Award in our 13-year history: Sidney Brinson, Jim Combs, Evelyn Creekmore, Ines Kuhn, and Scott Lehman

The world’s oldest independent design organization, Hannover-based iF International Forum Design GmbH, organizes the annual iF Design Award that honors design achievements in all disciplines: product, packaging, communication and service design, architecture, and interior architecture as well as professional concept, user experience (UX) and user interface (UI).

Almost 11,000 entries from 56 countries were submitted this year in hopes of receiving the seal of quality. Our entry won in the Communication discipline and Publishing category.

Human Spark team members are looking forward to celebrating our win at the iF Design Award Gala 2023 in Berlin, Germany on May 15, 2023.

The No Normal Retirement Journey is a new collection of research and guidance for how to plan for retirement in a modern post-pandemic world. It offers financial advisors and consumers interactive, lifelong tools to visualize stages, events and decisions along their retirement journey and the person...

09/07/2022

Americans are experiencing a huge shift in what today’s looks like compared to what previous generations prepared for and envisioned after fulltime work.

The No Normal Retirement Planning Guide, a collaboration between the Alliance for Lifetime Income, Georgetown University AgingWell Hub and Human Spark, can help consumers explore the 6 themes of no normal retirement and create a personalized Journey Map that helps ensure objectives, goals and desires are met.

Get the planning resources!https://businessforimpact.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Georgetown-AgingWell-Hub-No-Normal-Retirement-Journey-Maps-and-Guide.pdf

08/23/2022

https://businessforimpact.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Georgetown-AgingWell-Hub-No-Normal-Retirement-Journey-Maps-and-Guide.pdf

08/23/2022

Everyday, we do amazing work at Human Spark for global enterprise clients: Strategic-level qualitative research and analysis, service design and blueprinting, product design, writing and communications design, visual design, and implementation.

More often than not, our work is highly sensitive, under NDA, and intended for internal audiences only. It’s rare when we get a chance to celebrate our work in a public forum. Today is different.

For anyone starting a career, planning for retirement, or caregiving for dependents or aging relatives, we present the No Normal Retirement Journey Map and Guide. Please share far and wide.

Americans planning for retirement face once-in-a-generation challenges presented by today’s persistent high inflation, market volatility, economic uncertainty, and pandemic-related health care concerns. This amidst a wave of Baby Boomers retiring—10,000 a day and accelerating—that will peak in 2024 when the U.S. will have more 65-year-olds than ever in its history. It’s in this environment that Georgetown University’s AgingWell Hub has released the first No Normal Retirement Journey Map and Guide, a practical and interactive tool for re-imagining and charting paths to and through retirement.

This new resource offers individuals tools to visualize and plan the various stages, events and decision points along the retirement journey, and the personal, emotional, and financial consequences of each. The Journey Map illustrates how six primary levers—health, finances, learning, purpose, community, and resilience—can be used to navigate the journey to a happy, financially secure and fulfilled life after a full-time career.

The Retirement Journey Map was developed by the Georgetown AgingWell Hub, designed by Human Spark, and commissioned through the support of the Alliance for Lifetime Income’s Retirement Income Institute. The Journey Map draws on the expertise of twenty-nine of the world’s leading experts on life in retirement as well as a comprehensive review and integration of findings from more than 200 pieces of research on the evolving nature of retirement.

“The nature of retirement is evolving and highly personal. It spans a non-linear path of growth and activity, such as the enjoyment of continued work, travel, volunteering, and family, through declining health and loss of independence at the end of life. The Journey Map represents various aspects of each retirement journey—the goals, decisions, emotions, and unforeseen events—with which individuals can identify,” says Jeanne de Cervens, director of the AgingWell Hub.

Retirement Income Institute

03/12/2020

If y'all haven't seen this series on Netflix yet, you are missing out.

Meet eight of the most creative thinkers and imaginative minds working in the world of art and design today in the new Netflix original documentary series, A...

01/01/2020

Happy 2020!

08/01/2019

What happens when you make bad products.

I love the last line of the article.

Recently, a strange video—showing hundreds of Gibson Firebird X guitars being lined up and run over by a construction vehicle—surfaced on YouTube. As the video

07/31/2019

Reposting this InVision list of 12 must-watch design-related shows and movies on Netflix right now. What are other suggestions you'd make?

Planning your next Netflix and chill? If you’re a designer, start with these 12 movies and shows.

06/21/2019

Beautiful summer day at Human Spark HQ!

06/21/2019

Scott has been burning the midnight oil and creating 3D models of Ed's sketches and putting them onto his 3D people in their 3D home. Sleep will soon be Scott's friend.

06/20/2019

Ed is hand sketching a boat load of new product ideas and user scenarios that will be digitized and turned into 3D models and surfaces for our client.

04/12/2019

Scott is building new client cross-channel marketing assets. Love the integration between digital, ambient, and physical modes! As a side note, got enough Aeron Chairs?