This year’s Water Dragon embodies balance. Dragons are forceful, stubborn, disruptive, and breathe fire; water flows around obstacles, nourishes growth, and quenches flames. Together, these two symbols harmonize left-brain reason with right-brain creativity.

But if the new year has not yet set you straight, you can easily check your own poise and the grade of your surroundings with this handy device.

Place the level:
- on your desk to find the dipping edge
- on your dinner plate to check for a balanced diet
- on your head to reveal your inner equilibrium

Now fold this mailing back up and set it under the short leg of your desk. Add some kale to your dinner. Do something fun and unpredictable — or responsible and efficient. Whatever it takes to stop that pen from rolling, and to steady your day.

Could this become the Macktez mascot?

We find ourselves particularly drawn to this year’s Water Dragon, since the Macktez Approach has a lot to do with the balance of forethought and flexibility.

Regular office visits from our Team Members set a steady tempo of support for our clients. But there are always unexpected obstacles to work around, for which creative solutions are necessary. Both our left brains and right brains get a full workout during the workweek.

Our own growth and expansion has confirmed the usefulness of that approach. Macktez now has its largest number of Team Members ever, and we’ve been rearranging storage units and assembling new desks to make sure there’s room for everyone on Grand Street.

Systems that regulate our interactions with clients and manage our Team internally have proven to be remarkably effective during this period of transition. (For example, comprehensive Post-visit Reports, written in a consistent style, keep Team Members and clients at any point on the globe abreast of completed tasks and to-do lists.)

But of course we can’t anticipate every contingency, and we’re looking for as much balance as we can find, too. We’ll be using that little level frequently over the coming year to check our progress.

Living on this concrete island, we don’t often think about the simple, ancient tools that can shape the world in a lasting way. But if you take a deep breath and look around, you won’t need to guess what the future will bring … you’ll just bring it.

Seeds were purchased from TreeHelp.com, maybe the most accommodating vendor we’ve ever worked with on these mailings.

Step One

The seeds in your hands are those of the white spruce native to North America. Adult trees can be trimmed as hedges or let loose to reach up to the sky.

First soak your seeds in water for 24 hours. Then poke your finger in soil just 1/8-inch deep, drop in a seed, cover, and mulch.

If you can’t make up your mind where to plant, you can keep the seeds in your refrigerator for as long as a year.

Step Two

Once you’ve picked a spot and sowed your seed, you’ll need to check in from time to time to make sure your sapling has what it needs: water, drainage, and sunshine. Not much else to it.

White spruce will grow between 12 and 18 inches a year until reaching a mature height of around 50 feet. Ten years from now, you should have a tree about twice as tall as you are.

Looking back … looking forward …

It is undoubtedly an appropriate week for retrospection. We suggest, respectfully, that means it’s also a good time to talk about our future.

What’s in store for us ten years from now? Go ahead, close your eyes. See the robot shop-keepers returning your dry-cleaning in compostable shrink-wrap? Can you look up movie times on the backs of your eyelids? Has Corlears Hook been reclaimed by a warm and rising East River?

Maybe, maybe not. But there are some details about the future that we already know, and they’re worth looking forward to.

Like the Taxi of Tomorrow — anti-bacterial seats, sliding doors and sunroofs, along with power outlets for charging your gizmos. Did you know the new yellow cabs will come equipped with an exterior “horn light” to cut down on honks?

Or think of the new skyline that’s already taking shape. Towers planned for Brooklyn and Queens will become the highest points in those two boroughs. The dense collection of skyscrapers in midtown is marching west to the Hudson. And what’s finally rising in lower Manhattan, of course, will become new icons for our vertical city.

And then there’s the way each of us can shape the future ourselves. You won’t need a seer to show you the way, just your own vision and work and care. May it come from your hands in the dirt or your fertile imagination, September 2021 is yours to create.

— The Team at Macktez

Thank you to all of our 2011 Summer Stipend Finalists.

Mary described her project — Instant Film Documentation of Brooklyn Torch exchanges — this way:

To document every monetary exchange I make with reverse engineered Polaroid film in a classic Business Edition Polaroid camera for 31 days representing one month.

On average, I participate in two to four cash-based monetary or service exchanges per day. This proposal is to document each exchange with a Polaroid camera at the point of purchase. The resulting photo document project will serve as evidence of my local exchanges within New York City. Each photograph will constitute a record of me using a Brooklyn Torch to attempt to purchase a good or service from my encounters during normal daily spending habits. These exchange encounters will be an opportunity for me put the local currency into goods and service providers’ minds.

She earned overwhelming praise from our panelists:

“There is a lot being taken on here – an economic idea about local currency, revitalizing an older technology that might otherwise be obsolete, the power of photographic documentation, etc.”

“I got very excited reading about this project. the convergence of the Brooklyn Torch Project and the Impossible Project is a compelling idea. Both projects seem particularly appropriate in this time of financial instability and interest in local empowerment. By highlighting the local transactions through a medium that is in itself a rejection of the status quo, you are bringing attention to the power of individual initiative and resourcefulness.”

Read more about Mary’s project from her Stipend application.

Ann Marshall

My Tool: The Bic 4-Color Pen

I used to occasionally consult for retailers. Consultants tend to be heavy note takers (at least, they should be), especially when gathering data. After a while, note pads can become a mess. I love my little 4-color pen, which allows me to easily color code and organize data. Also, there are no lids to lose. It blots rarely. The line is thin and even. With three colors to back you up, running out of ink is rarely an issue. My only complaint is that green ink is rather week and hard to see. Bic should work on that.

My Project: Paper Reconstructions

For the past few years, I’ve been working as a portrait artist and have used a unique technique combining traditional mediums and paper collage. This summer, I want to turn away from more popular subject matter to a rediscovered interest in the natural world. I plan to construct a series of large scale paintings depicting the vanishing landscape entirely from our discarded paper products and oil paint.

Since discarded materials are free, the $500 will cover the remaining material, research, and exhibition costs.

For more information about myself or my work, please see my website at www.annmarshallart.com.

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Mary Jeys

My Tool: The Action Method

Super great task management tool. I use it for all of my projects both at work and in the studio. It has great delegation capabilities if members of your team use it too. Visual, satisfying checkboxes that make tasks disappear, date/time assignment capabilities make the experience really engaging and nice- not to mention the mobile phone syncing. So good … transformed my task management, helps me stay on task, and less overwhelmed.

My Project: Instant Film Documentation of Brooklyn Torch exchanges

To document every monetary exchange I make with reverse engineered Polaroid film in a classic Business Edition Polaroid camera for 31 days representing one month.

On average, I participate in two to four cash-based monetary or service exchanges per day. This proposal is to document each exchange with a Polaroid camera at the point of purchase. The resulting photo document project will serve as evidence of my local exchanges within New York City. Each photograph will constitute a record of me using a Brooklyn Torch to attempt to purchase a good or service from my encounters during normal daily spending habits. These exchange encounters will be an opportunity for me put the local currency into goods and service providers’ minds.

About the Brooklyn Torch Project:
We are a local currency project aimed at providing a paper means of exchange in North Brooklyn that will circulate and support the resident community in North Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Torch will bring together both artist and immigrant communities living in our neighborhoods to improve integration of social groups and economies.

The Brooklyn Torch has received numerous press articles including, The New York Daily News, WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show, NY Times Freakonomics Blog, American Banker, The Brooklyn Rail, and many more. For full press listing see: http://brooklyntorch.org/2009/11/were-in-the-news/

More about the Brooklyn Torch: http://www.brooklyntorch.org

What is a Local Currency?
A local currency is a method of trading goods and services meant to supplement other means of trade while improving the community wealth. Local currencies circulate in a defined region. Money does not leave the area because trade is restricted by the currency boundaries.

I will be using Impossible Project film because I feel that it is an apt medium to document this project. Like the Brooklyn Torch whose goal is to reverse engineer a new economy based on the US Dollar’s economy, the Impossible Project film has been reverse engineered since the Polaroid company closed its factory. There is a poetic resonance to rebuilding a local economy during a down economy that is repeated in the Impossible Project’s goal to build a new business from the photo science in instant film over again.

About the Instant Film:
In October 2008 The Impossible Project saved the last Polaroid production plant for integral instant film in Enschede (NL) and started to invent and produce totally new instant film materials for traditional Polaroid cameras. In 2010 Impossible saved analog instant photography from extinction by releasing various, brand new and unique instant films.

Therewith Impossible prevents more than 300,000,000 perfectly functioning Polaroid cameras from becoming obsolete, changes the world of photography and keeps variety, tangibility and analogue creativity and possibilities alive. http://www.the-impossible-project.com

Budget for the project:
With an average 3 exchanges per day, and 31 days requires 93 exposures. I estimate that $325 of the stipend will be used to purchase film from Impossible Project: $25 per impossible film pack x 13 packs = $325; 8 exposures per pack x 13 packs = 104 exposures.

The remaining money will be used for the monetary exchanges. This $175 divided between 93 exposures is an average of $2 to offset the cost of exchanges that I may make in order to target specific businesses that are not on my regular purchase circuit but would benefit the Brooklyn Torch system overall.

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Nicole Kenney

My Tool: Yellow Paper Clips

You have a lot of yellow office supplies, but no paper clips. As everything becomes digital, I use less of them, but I still use them … like to keep receipts together.

My Project: black. white. 31.

Starting on my 31st birthday, July 29, 2011, I will begin Phase 2 of my autobiographical 365 project. I will post a photo-a-day on blackwhite31.com for the entirety that I’m 31-years-old.

Phase 1 is entitled Diary29 (www.diary29.com). I posted a photo each day for the last year of my twenties. The BBC reported on this project calling it “a fascinating travelogue through a year in someone’s life.”

This year, I will document my life again, but in black and white. If awarded the stipend, the funds will cover roughly 125 rolls of black and white film.

As in many of my projects (beforeidieiwantto.org, diary29.com, nicolekenney.com/boys.html, love and loss), black. white. 31. will explore universal themes such as the passage of time, impermanence, and intimacy.

Project website: www.blackwhite31.com
More on me: www.nicolekenney.com

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Prin Limphongpand

My Tool: Globe

To remind ourselves of where we are in the world, where we come from, where we’re going, what can we do for the world — and occasionally, where places are when you read or hear the news.

My Project: Redisplaying Adverse Effects in Medications

Inspired by the international symbol for “man” used primarily in airport signage. I want to redesign the packaging of medicine to highlight the side effects. The goal of the project is to show that this information can be done in a visually informative manner as opposed to a text-heavy small print found on traditional medicine labels. With the “international man” as the core visual element used in this communication, the project will convey that the most important information when taking medication is to show the side effects, not what it cures, since that information is already given verbally by the doctor or pharmacist.

The Macktez Summer Stipend would be used for printing costs (the current paper stock used on the actual bottle is static paper — water proofed, but would be too fragile for actual production), research, and the testing of new material that will be used to finalize the look and feel of the label.

Additional project information: http://www.raxyl.com/#1387655/Thesis

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Laurie Sumiye

My Tool: Project Box

I made several of these project boxes to keep my paper, folders, visual references, notes & printouts organized. A manila folder was not cutting it!! I made them out used USPS boxes and old calendars instead of buying pricey (and less interesting) off-the-shelf magazine holders.

My Project: Post-Ford

Post-Ford is a documentary project following the lives of four friends from the town of Dearborn, Michigan, where Ford Motor Company is based. Once upon a time, they worked at Ford and lived comfortably. In 2002 Ford began shedding its workforce to cut costs. Despite Ford’s return to solvency in 2011, many who formerly worked there haven’t yet found their footing in these uncertain times. The film is about what has happened to them and how they are trying to reshape their career paths and lives.

The media has covered recession stories about baby boomers worried about retirement, blue-collar factory workers, and newly minted college grads unemployed and living at home. The stories in Post-Ford are about “GenX-ers” (now in their 30s), and how they have dealt with financial, work and personal challenges since leaving Ford. Post-Ford questions the security of advanced education and experience, and considers the frayed economy of a town whose fortunes heavily depend on the auto industry.

The title “Post-Ford” references Post-Fordism, an economic term in which large-scale mass-production methods pioneered by Henry Ford have faded away, replaced by small, flexible manufacturing units. It now more widely encompasses cultural and social theories defining an emphasis on globalization, and a technology and service-based workforce. What is happening in Dearborn represents the extended recession happening in parts of America and the world, and the necessary paradigm shift towards new models of productivity and commerce.

I will be shooting in Michigan in early September for one week to create a short video of one character to present to fundraisers a taste of what the project will entail. Tom worked as a factory line electrician for over 10 years, and took the educational buyout in 2005 to attend Wayne State in downtown Detroit. He is now finishing his bachelor’s degree in urban planning, and I will follow him in his day to day activities; hanging out at his home, shopping at thrift stores, managing his resale business on eBay, playing poker at the local casinos to earn money, and drinking at the bar with his friends.

While this project is not in the “finishing” phase and rather the early production phase, the $500 will help defray production expenses as well as be the first development grant this project would receive and hopefully seed other grants and funding sources. Post-Ford hits close to home as these people are close friends of my husband, and his family in Dearborn are supporting us through this early push to help bring this project come to fruition.

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Finalists for the 2011 Stipend will be posted right here on July 27, 2011.

Macktez has a number of useful tools our Consultants rely on every day, including paper products we’ve designed ourselves. Our project this summer is to reprint those products to a stricter standard and document their utility on our updated website.

We’ve also got a new addition to our toolkit: the amazing gridded memo notebook!

But what tools are we missing? If you can help us with our summer project, we’d like to help you with yours. Apply for the Macktez Summer Stipend by July 22.

Summer Stipend

The Macktez Summer Stipend is a $500 development grant to encourage one of the many people we meet and work with every day to finish their summer project. We evaluate applications on three simple criteria: originality, relevance, and conviction.

This year’s fabulous panelists are: Dan Berger, Brian Sisco, Alan Polinsky, Josh Heitler, Ken Carbone, Sarah Gephart, and David Meredith. Apply below by July 22.

Macktez Tools

Learn more about the tools we use.

Here’s the thing: tools and technology are not digital bits that fly through the ether, they are objects you hold in your hands and use. It’s always been like that, since the first time a little stone became a flint. And, as precious as your smartphone may be to you today, it’s still not the only tool you use. There are pencils and post-its, irreplaceable and awesome. That’s technology too.

Macktez has a well-defined set of objects we stock in our office and use all the time: shock-proof cases for secure transport of hard drives; simple nylon bags for miscellaneous toting; lunch trays for arranging and organizing in-house repair projects.

We’ve also made our own tools that we and our clients use all the time: small notebooks you can keep in your pocket; large pads with gridlines, good for sketching network layouts; post-its with the same useful grid; even business cards that double as equipment labels. (We build databases, too; but honestly, there’s no substitute for a good post-it.)

This summer, we’d like your help to expand our toolkit: what useful item should we add to our utility closet? Your suggestion will be judged alongside your own summer project description. If our esteemed panelists choose your application, you’ll receive the $500 Macktez Summer Stipend to finish your project.

Apply right now — deadline July 22.

Summer Stipend Application