Everything OC. Tips to be creative. http://ocimageworks.com/rss.php The complexity of digital marketing is growing exponentially, which is why forming partnerships to help you implement your strategy is crucial. No single agency or marketing solutions company has the answer to all the challenges, so finding partners who know how to collaborate should be your first priority when shopping for experts. As creative content providers, OC Imageworks is often called ... to read more visit our blog! Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:04:16 -0500 http://ocimageworks.com/module/blog/single.php?id=58 Pre-planning on the part of the client allows time for creativity and innovation on the part of the designer. One of the most important aspects of a design for the client to consider before coming into a design meeting is the designs objective. It is always best to come into a design meeting with a clear objective. Consider the following: What are the exact dimensions of your finished proj ... to read more visit our blog! Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:03:47 -0500 http://ocimageworks.com/module/blog/single.php?id=57 When you use passive voice, it can make you seem less confident as a writer especially in business communications. Passive voice eliminates the subject of your sentence, which implies that your sentences subject is either unimportant or intentionally being withheld. Use this entertaining trick to eliminate passive voice from your written communications. Passive voice looks like this: The blog ... to read more visit our blog! Fri, 12 Apr 2013 10:01:44 -0500 http://ocimageworks.com/module/blog/single.php?id=56 A clear concept is crucial to planning a design. Your designer can and will assist you in clarifying your concept, but the clearer it is in your mind before you meet with your designer, the less time your designer will need to finish your design. To present a clearer concept to your designer, you can: Bring examples. If youre putting together a print ad, look at examples of other print ads. A ... to read more visit our blog! Mon, 01 Apr 2013 09:34:03 -0500 http://ocimageworks.com/module/blog/single.php?id=55 In this digital era, any small business can design, host, and manage a website for less than what I pay for my Netflix account. Everyone understands that an effective logo, a clean website, and search engine optimization are essential to successful marketing. However, now that everyone understands that these qualities are essential, they are no longer sufficient to guarantee success. So, how do y ... to read more visit our blog! Mon, 25 Mar 2013 13:04:06 -0500 http://ocimageworks.com/module/blog/single.php?id=54 Like it or not, and evidently most of us do like it, just about all of the information and entertainment we consume is coming to us through a screenour phones, our computers, or our televisions. It seems we have an insatiable appetite for stories, whether they are delivered in as a full course meal of 13 hour-long episodes, like the recently released House of Cards from Netflix, or distributed in ... to read more visit our blog! Wed, 20 Mar 2013 12:22:37 -0500 http://ocimageworks.com/module/blog/single.php?id=53 In the design world, time equals money. The easier you make it for the designer, the lower your final cost will be. Plus, you will be more satisfied with the final product and less frustrated with the process. The design process can be daunting. The first step is taking a visual idea and trying to convey it verbally. This process of communication is made more challenging because both parties ... to read more visit our blog! Mon, 11 Mar 2013 15:50:14 -0500 http://ocimageworks.com/module/blog/single.php?id=51 All videos are not created equal. Take a look at these categories and consider the different ways a video production can work for your business. Are you an established company with a new product you want to introduce? Or a new company that needs to inspire confidence in prospective clients? Are you trying to connect with a specific demographic? Tailor your video production to your specific busine ... to read more visit our blog! Mon, 11 Feb 2013 12:46:23 -0600 http://ocimageworks.com/module/blog/single.php?id=50 Elise writes a lot of our social network entries, so we dont expect her to blow her own horn. But we will. Elise is doing a great job on much of the written content we produce for Resource Banks publication, Your Resource for Living. She also produces copy for everything from brochures to web sites, and she is an invaluable proofer of our written materials. Elise is an English major at NIU who s ... to read more visit our blog! Mon, 28 Jan 2013 09:29:15 -0600 http://ocimageworks.com/module/blog/single.php?id=49 Maurice Herzog died recently, at the age of 93. He was the first person to ascend an 8,000 meter peak and return safely. In 1950, three years before Hillary and Norgay climbed Everest and eclipsed every previous milestone, Herzog climbed Annapurna, a mountain almost as tall as Everest and arguably more difficult to climb. He and his partner climbed without supplemental oxygen, and both men lost m ... to read more visit our blog! Mon, 21 Jan 2013 12:06:01 -0600 http://ocimageworks.com/module/blog/single.php?id=48 Congratulations to Miguel Sierra, OC Imageworks new Video Production Team Leader and Director of Photography. Miguel brings a broad set of skills to this position, and the entire OC team is excited about the projects we will be able to tackle under Miguels guidance and leadership. With the help Miguels enthusiasm for production, his love of collaboration, and his expert eye, we expect great thing ... to read more visit our blog! Mon, 14 Jan 2013 11:37:11 -0600 http://ocimageworks.com/module/blog/single.php?id=47 I agree that no person or business is irreplaceable. Michael Jordan, Steve Jobs, Borders, Hostess and the shoes of other bests have all been filled by someone else. But if you stopped working tomorrow, would your work be missed? What if your company folded next week, would what it created be difficult to find elsewhere? Seth Godin, author and marketing guru, asked a question in a recent blog, ... to read more visit our blog! Fri, 04 Jan 2013 10:29:39 -0600 http://ocimageworks.com/module/blog/single.php?id=46 I just read an opinion piece in the New York Times that seemed to pose this as an either/or choice. In reality, its never either/or. We can use irony in the pursuit of sincere ends, and we can project sincerity for cynical ends. Intended sincerity can always be perceived as ironic, depending on the context in which it is received by some viewer or reader. And if someone doesnt get the irony of ... to read more visit our blog! Tue, 20 Nov 2012 08:38:35 -0600 http://ocimageworks.com/module/blog/single.php?id=45 Sometimes marketing is, quite by accident, a very personal experience. Take for example the bottle of wine my wife brought home last night. Its name was Gaga, which also happens to be the name my late father was given by his first grandchild. As so often happens, what a grandparent is called by the first grandchild tends to stick, so my father was, thereafter, simply Gaga. My mother somehow ended ... to read more visit our blog! Wed, 07 Nov 2012 15:44:25 -0600 http://ocimageworks.com/module/blog/single.php?id=44 At the end of the day, marketing is a form of storytelling. Yes, we are always telling a story about something, so its not as though anything goes. The stories have a referent. But there is no correct story waiting to be told. There is only the last, best story that someone has gone to the trouble to tell. It will always seem like the best possible story if it trumps all the stories that went bef ... to read more visit our blog! Mon, 29 Oct 2012 16:23:19 -0500 http://ocimageworks.com/module/blog/single.php?id=43 This past July, Thomas Mazetti and Hannah Frey of Swedish ad agency Studio Total risked their lives in one of the boldest campaigns to date. The two men flew a single engine plane in from neighboring country Lithuania and tossed out nearly 900 plush teddy bears, equipped with parachutes and signs calling for improved human rights in Belarus, a country whose domineering dictator is determined ... to read more visit our blog! Wed, 10 Oct 2012 13:35:25 -0500 http://ocimageworks.com/module/blog/single.php?id=42 We understand the importance of setting yourself apart from the competition. To be successful, it isnt enough to be just like every other company playing it safe wont cut it anymore. Zeke Camusio, CEO of Digital Aptitude, does an incredibly good job of explaining why that is in his blog article, Why Playing It Safe Is Actually Very Risky. Camusio blames fruitless business endeavors on predict ... to read more visit our blog! Thu, 27 Sep 2012 08:45:59 -0500 http://ocimageworks.com/module/blog/single.php?id=41 Can Convenience and Quality Coexist?We all love the convenience of going into a supermarket and finding everything we need to stock our pantry for a week or two. But we also know that the meat we get from the specialty butcher shop or the vegetables we buy from the green grocer are probably tastier than the commodities well find at the one-stop shop. Of course, the specialty shops are pricier. ... to read more visit our blog! Thu, 13 Sep 2012 08:23:48 -0500 http://ocimageworks.com/module/blog/single.php?id=40 On Thursday, June 14, 2012, Lehan Drugs unveiled their History Wall, a fifty foot visual chronicle that spans the companys 65 years of success in DeKalb. Customers and friends from the community were invited to a reception commemorating this new addition to the Lehan store on South Fourth Street. Four generations of the Lehan family were on hand to greet community members in attendance at the ... to read more visit our blog! Tue, 26 Jun 2012 15:02:50 -0500 http://ocimageworks.com/module/blog/single.php?id=39 The joint After Hours party with OC Imageworks and Redeemed Office Furniture was a tremendous success, with an estimated 120 people in attendance (see photo gallery below). Our thanks to all those who attended, as well as to our staff, who worked so hard to get everything ready for our guests. The green-screen set up was a huge hit. John Moore from Hall Associates Flying Effects and model ... to read more visit our blog! Thu, 14 Jun 2012 11:34:10 -0500 http://ocimageworks.com/module/blog/single.php?id=38 We changed the layout of the OC Imageworks office this past week. Desks were relocated; partitions were raised; storage was organized; feng shui was achieved. Now when Im working, I see the lovely face of my colleague, Erin Nolan, I have a nice view of the office entrance, and Im at least ten steps closer to the water cooler. At the same time, I had grown accustomed to my little corner in the bac ... to read more visit our blog! Thu, 31 May 2012 15:56:49 -0500 http://ocimageworks.com/module/blog/single.php?id=37 OC Imageworks produces its first nationally distributed commercial for Proven Winners, the #1 plant brand in the world. The spot will be aired around the country on The Weather Channels traffic report and can be viewed at www.vimeo.com/40022674. The commercial, which was shot at Danville Gardens in Danville, Illinois, garnered the most positive responses among a group of commercials submitted ... to read more visit our blog! Thu, 10 May 2012 12:49:29 -0500 http://ocimageworks.com/module/blog/single.php?id=34 Brian Barrow and I have made an annual tradition of attending the National Association of Broadcasters convention (NAB) and tradeshow in Las Vegas. Its a great opportunity to catch up on industry trends, attend some valuable seminars on best practices and new techniques for video production, and lay our hands on the latest and greatest gear. Two years ago, during our first visit to the NAB, we ... to read more visit our blog! Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:08:56 -0500 http://ocimageworks.com/module/blog/single.php?id=27 Nothing makes the team at OC Imageworks happier than the success of our clients. Imagine our pleasure when we found out that Resource Banks Your Resource for Living magazine was nominated for Best External Publication by PR News, the nations most prestigious information clearinghouse for public relations professionals. OC Imageworks has teamed with Resource Bank for the past three years on ... to read more visit our blog! Wed, 25 Apr 2012 17:37:20 -0500 http://ocimageworks.com/module/blog/single.php?id=26 Greetings from the deep end! My name is Lindsay Massie, and Im currently learning to swim here in the OC Imageworks pool. My water-treading abilities are fairly advanced, but I did experience one panicked moment when I thought I might cramp up and go under. I know what youre thinkingenough already with the clichd metaphor (but I had something really pithy to say about a paddle, a diving board, an ... to read more visit our blog! Tue, 10 Apr 2012 09:22:05 -0500 http://ocimageworks.com/module/blog/single.php?id=25 The title of this blog probably sounds like a contradiction in terms to some people, but successful creativity depends heavily on rules. Thats because truly creative people dont ignore rules. Indeed, they pay more attention to them than most people, because originality is all about knowing when and where the rules can be broken to create something new. Robert Frost used to complain that wr ... to read more visit our blog! Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:38:01 -0600 http://ocimageworks.com/module/blog/single.php?id=20 Creative people dont like creating estimates. What they really want is for someone to tell them to go out and produce the most amazing thing possible and then charge whats fair. Of course, clients rarely make that kind of commitment, and who can blame them. Give a filmmaker an inch, and theyll take a helicopter shot and two car crashes. Throw in some underwater work for good measure. The d ... to read more visit our blog! Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:07:42 -0600 http://ocimageworks.com/module/blog/single.php?id=14 This Sunday morning on MSNBC's Your Business, web video was cited as one of the top five trends for small business in 2012. That's no surprise, considering the benefits web video can bring to your business. Videos are classically "sticky" marketing pieces, meaning that potential customers tend to click on video links more often than other types of links and tend more often to view the entire mess ... to read more visit our blog! Mon, 09 Jan 2012 12:00:28 -0600 http://ocimageworks.com/module/blog/single.php?id=11