Roughstock Studios | Blog!

Maine, Ayup.

noreply@blogger.com (Jessie Jane) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:09:00 +0000

I just uploaded some photos from my Maine adventure. The Captain was very patient with my obsession of taking useless snaps of signs. You can check out the still-growing Flickr set by clicking here, or on the images below.

Breakwater

'Eat' by Robert Indiana

Barber Shop

Marketing Fail #76

noreply@blogger.com (Jessie Jane) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:07:00 +0000

Please stop "combining" your years of experience with your business partners' to make your company sound more experienced than it is. If you're claiming to have "over 85 years of combined experience" in any specialty whatsoever, you're not fooling anyone.

It's just bad math, and it makes you look like you're trying too hard.

When Second Place (or Third) Means a Win for Graphic Designers Everywhere

noreply@blogger.com (Jessie Jane) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:48:00 +0000

Well, the results are in (sort of) for the Cooper Hewitt People's Design Award. My Re-nourish team has actually waited to post anything about the results because we were trying to find out what our final ranking was. Unfortunately, the Cooper Hewitt won't actually give us that information (nor will they release how many votes each nominee received).

Doesn't matter, though. The fact is, we placed in the top three, and we gave some pretty big players a run for their money. And way more important than that is that everyone who supported us sent a message that it's high time the design industry changes how it defines "good design."

Re-nourish believes design has to expand beyond politics, personalities, and mere aesthetics, and address—in real terms—both social and environmental impacts. Please read Re-nourish's full "thank you," because I think it says a lot about why we're doing this in the first place.

And please, let us know what your thoughts are—either here, or over there.

Thank you to everyone who voted, or has otherwise supported us as we continue to bring independent tools and information to working designers everywhere!

Vacation Is Good

noreply@blogger.com (Jessie Jane) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:32:00 +0000

This was one of the first gentlemen The Captain and I ran into this morning. Yesterday, we floated by this:

Re-nourish Could Use Your Help

noreply@blogger.com (Jessie Jane) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:35:00 +0000

Wow. Re-nourish is currently in the #2 spot for the Cooper Hewitt People's Choice Awards. Having just posted a few weeks ago about how ambivalent I generally am about awards competitions, I have to admit: this is kind of cool.

The truth is, it would really say something if the public boosted Re-nourish to a win. The Cooper Hewitt is pretty fancypants, and sending a message that designers care about this stuff would be pretty hot shit. If you're so inclined, please check out the nominees and vote.

But even cooler than the nomination itself is the growing list of comments. It honestly feels damn good to know that this project has found a place in designers' daily workflow. That it's actually teaching people stuff they didn't yet know. That it's helping designers reduce their own environmental impact, and that of their clients.

So yeah, I (sheepishly) would love to win this one! Feel free to tweet, facebook, and blog about it as you see fit.

Vote for the People's Choice

The Fun Theory

noreply@blogger.com (Jessie Jane) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:00:00 +0000

Making an action more fun makes people more likely to do it. We seem to forget this too often.

Passenger Elevators

noreply@blogger.com (Jessie Jane) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 04:51:00 +0000

Taken this afternoon inside the Masonic Center garage. Nob Hill is a goldmine of architecture and signage.

Re-nourish wins Sustainable Organization award in AIGA competition

noreply@blogger.com (Jessie Jane) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:00:00 +0000

We got the good word this weekend that Re-nourish placed third in AIGA's (re)designAwards competition, which recognizes "those designers whose work best represents an environmentally and socially sustainable approach in every element of their professional lives." We're obviously extremely excited to be recognized for our efforts—especially among such an impressive roster of winners—yet the three of us (myself, Eric Benson and Yvette Perullo) have found ourselves wondering aloud about the real implications of such an award.

I've always been on the fence about awards competitions—I've never entered any of Roughstock's work in one because I feel like I should be able to derive confidence in my work based on my own values, beliefs, and opinions rather than a judge's. And I know I'm not the only designer who thinks these competitions tend to lie somewhere between a beauty pageant and a popularity contest.

And while all three of us readily admit to feeling the occasional yearning for a pat on the back, we haven't put in hundreds of unpaid hours into this site to rack up compliments or awards—we've done it to make genuinely useful sustainability information accessible to all. Let me say that again: this information should be accessible. To everyone. But it's a huge undertaking, and it's hard. So to really make Re-nourish work, we need to use every decent tool we can to expose more people to our message.

This is why we've embraced entering Re-nourish in competitions. The truth—calculated as it may be—is that it gives us leverage. That, to me, is the most important thing if we want to put this information into the hands of designers everywhere. In other words, entering these competitions is not a way to prove ourselves (our user statistics and ultimate influence must do that for us), but as a strategy to increase our exposure and build credibility within our target audiences.

And yes, it does feel pretty good to get that pat on the back, too.

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It should go without saying but I'll say it anyway: we're hugely grateful to our support team of developers and contributors for all their hard work on Re-nourish. This win belongs to them, too.

Jar Tops: A Product Extends the Life of Other Products

noreply@blogger.com (Jessie Jane) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:29:00 +0000

Product designers face a whopping problem when trying to develop sustainable ideas. Their very industry hinges on making more stuff. And making more stuff is often unsustainable, because doing so typically consumes finite natural resources while producing environmentally-damaging waste. One way around this conundrum is to design stuff that allows us to extend the useful life of other stuff, thereby reducing such waste.

Jorre van Ast's resusable Jar Tops (designed for Royal VKB) do this quite well:

Designed to screw onto standard glass containers (mayo and mustard jars, salsa jars, jam and jelly jars, and almost any other kind of jar you buy in a supermarket), these plastic lids convert what would otherwise become waste into a variety of useful kitchen containers.

There are a lot of advantages to this product solution: the uniformity of appearance keeps the repurposed containers looking like an attractive matched set, even if different jar shapes are used. Different tops accommodate different sized jars and the variety of uses (which includes two varieties of pour spout, an oil and vinegar cap, a powder shaker lid, and a sugar pourer) pretty much guarantees anyone with a kitchen can use the full set.

I can see only a couple of minor issues that might be considered:

The tops are made from polypropylene, which isn't the most recyclable material (commonly known as #5 plastic, the most accessible way to recycle it for most is through Preserve's Gimme 5 program). Luckily, the useful life of this product is extremely long, so that isn't too significant of an issue.
I'd also like to see the pour spouts come with a closed lid. As they are, they can be used only to serve food products, not to store them.

North Americans can purchase a set of jar tops through Generate Design, and Europeans can get them through Royal VKB.

Fun with Film Strips: A Guide to TV Advertising

noreply@blogger.com (Jessie Jane) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:00:00 +0000

I recently discovered a treasure trove of old filmstrips archived over at AV Geeks (no doubt!). I remember being fascinated by this one when seeing it in elementary school:

I wonder how many grade schools still teach kids about media literacy and critical analysis. I also distinctly remember a mathematics filmstrip featuring Donald Duck that taught principles of geometry using a pool table.

And then there's this 1971 gem about the emotional buying habits of consumers (who is that encyclopedia salesman, anyway?):

Be sure to peruse the AV Geeks online archives; it's a celluloid goldmine!

If I'm ever in Albany

noreply@blogger.com (Jessie Jane) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 12:00:00 +0000

If I ever find myself in Albany, the Hotsy Totsy Club will be my first stop. Tin ceilings, ample pool tables, a free 45-rpm juke, and Old Overholt behind the bar. That's my kind of joint.

Enjoy your weekend, kids. And remember: if you're drinkin', don't drive and if you're drivin', don't drink.

Screen Printing Adventures Part 1: Getting My Sea Legs

noreply@blogger.com (Jessie Jane) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:00:00 +0000

I've never screen printed before. Block printing (lino cut), yes. Screen printing, no. Holy heck, it ain't easy. With a new-found respect for print pullers, I figured I would post the process just to give those of you unfamiliar with the art some idea of what goes into it.

My adventures started with a stack of old New York Times Sunday editions in the corner of the apartment and an itch to get back to the good old fashioned art projects I used to do all the time. I figured the newspaper sheets were already poster-sized, so why not put them to good use instead of chucking them into the recycle bin?

I started reading. Asking around. Collecting supplies. Anticipating all the various disaster scenarios that were likely to occur. Screwed some hinge clamps to a board so I could set up shop on the dining room table. And then finally the weekend came.

The Work Area

I knew from the get-go I'd have to run the posters off in (very small) batches, since our lil' space is limited. To start, I screwed a couple of hinge clamps to a 2'x3' board that would serve as the main printing surface. (I made sure to place the hinge clamps just far enough apart that I can use the board for both my larger 16" x 20" screen and a smaller 8" x 10" version should I get the itch for that.) My printing area is nothing more than the kitchen table wrapped in newsprint, which provides ample room to hold the printing board, the ink and squeegee setup, and a stack of newspaper sheets.

Our clothes drying rack and a crapload of binder clips would hold the prints as they came off the table. Of course, that only holds 20 or so newspaper sheets but I figure once I get the hang of things, I can always rig up a couple of temporary clothes lines to hold more.

Getting the system down

The Captain (who was to be my assistant) was called out of town at the last minute to mix the biggest-selling band in Mexico, which left me a nice empty apartment in which to make a mess, curse under my breath at my constant mistakes without hurting anyone's feelings, and play Loretta Lynn just a little too loud in the background (quick aside: this experience afforded me some excellent iPod moments, including moving from the lovely Loretta Lynn straight into Too $hort...whoa).

I'm a planner, so my process was pretty well-coordinated:

Set up work area.
Prepare newsprint.
This involved halving the full sheets and ironing them under a pillow case to try and get the creases out. The ironing helped a little, but I half-assed it and most of the sheets were still pretty creased. That shouldn't matter much, though, right? Heh. Wrong.
Tape off screen.
So this was a brand new screen and I didn't degrease it. Probably not smart, but I figured this first pass was just going to be a solid block of white ink to create a fresh background for my print, and I'm using a stencil instead of photoemulsion chemicals. So I just used blue painters tape to tape off the screen edges. Clever lady that I am, I ran the squeegee over the tape sans ink to be sure it would travel smoothly. Not so much (the painters tape was too thick, and the squeegee kept catching at the edge). So I slapped some clear packaging tape over the edges to create a smoother surface.
Set up my registration.
In order to keep your design (in my case, a giant white rectangle) in the same place on every sheet, you need to mark where the corners of each sheet should lie on the work surface. I just used a couple scraps of tape to mark the registration. When it comes time to print the actual design, I'll use a more exact system to be described later.
Mix the paint.
I wasn't too sure how much paint I'd need, but I'd read a calculation that with water-based paints, one should allow about 1 cup of paint for 75 square feet of coverage. My sheets were about two square feet each, and with 20 sheets that gave me about 40 square feet—or just over a 1/2 cup of paint. I poured that amount of Speedball's standard water-based acrylic into a plastic cup, added a dallop of retarder and a dallop of extender (I wasn't sure if I should just pick one, but I figured it was a life lesson and went for broke), and stirred that sucker up.

And then all of a sudden, I realized I was ready to go.

Pulling the prints

And this it where it all went to hell. Actually, I should be more accurate: it all went incredibly smoothly, but my ink coverage was pretty terrible from start to finish. I'd read a whole lot about technique; what angle to hold the squeegee at (anywhere from 10-45°), how much paint to pour out, how to flood the screen before the actual pull, how hard to push down, et cetera and so forth. Boy was I ready.

I place the first sheet at the registration marks, and pour a thick line of ink along the bottom of the screen. I hadn't left much tape around the top and bottom edges, as the newspaper sheet was pretty tall and I didn't want 6" gaps of articles still visible. So, I lift the screen off the work surface slightly, and run the squeegee over the screen from bottom to top for the first flood stroke. I push down pretty hard to make sure I get full ink coverage across the screen, and it looks good. I drop the screen onto the work surface, and pull from the top down. Completely uneven! Wacky vertical streaks, and one thick horizontal streak where the newspaper was folded through its middle. Oops.

With each subsequent print I tried making little adjustments. I tried more and less paint (didn't seem to make much difference, though I did need to be generally pretty generous with it). I tried pushing harder on the flood. I tried pushing harder on the second pull. I tried adjusting the angle of the squeegee. Nothing completely eliminated the streaks. The best prints, though, were the result of generous ink, an almost completely upright squeegee, a single gentle flood stroke, and single hard second pull.

Troubleshooting

I suspect the terrible coverage was a result of several things, not least of which was the paper choice. Newsprint is thin, and these sheets weren't completely flat. Although I was doing no-contact printing, where the screen rests about 1/8" from the surface of the paper when it's down, I got zero snap-off (which is when the screen lifts itself off the paper after the pull...I think).

But I know I was probably butchering those pull strokes. Had I had an assistant, they would have held the screen up while I pulled the flood, holding the squeegee with both hands for a nice even coat. But I only had one hand, and I suspect my pulls were a little janky. I have arthritis, and this was also a lot harder on my wrists and hands than I expected. Maybe I was pressing too hard on the squeegee, but I can't imagine doing this for much more than the 20 sheets I did.

Finally, I have to wonder if either my ink mixing was off, or if not degreasing the screen was a huge mistake. I suppose I'll have to hit up some pros for input, and adjust on the next run. All said, although my prints are all uneven, I loved the process. Hopefully I'll figure out what I was doing wrong, and the next few runs will be better. My saving grace was that the crease marks were much less visible once the ink dried, and my hope is that subsequent layers will cover them up even more.

So stay tuned for round two, in which I attempt to lay down the first layer of the design.

Why We Need "Socialized" Health Care

noreply@blogger.com (Jessie Jane) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:08:00 +0000

Thanks to Worldchanging's Andy Lubershane, we now have an easy-to-follow, entirely sensible argument in support of health care reform:

Now, can someone produce a similar short describing Congress' various proposals?

"Sustainability is the competitive strategy in boom time..."

noreply@blogger.com (Jessie Jane) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 19:41:00 +0000

"Sustainability is the competitive strategy in boom time, turnaround strategy in down time and survival strategy in collapse."

—Hunter Lovins

Keeping It Real Green: PDF Now Available

noreply@blogger.com (Jessie Jane) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 23:20:00 +0000

Yep, I finally got a PDF version of Keeping It Real Green up and online:

> Click to Download <

It's begging to be expanded into a full-on e-book, so if there are additional issues or subjects you'd like to see covered, do let me know.

To read about the design thinking that went into the guide, or to order a hard copy version, go here and fill out the form at the bottom of the page.

United Skull of America

noreply@blogger.com (Jessie Jane) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 12:00:00 +0000

On the heels of my last post, we have Noah Scalin's lovely United Skull of America:

And be sure to check out the rest of Noah's Skull-a-Day project.

States United

noreply@blogger.com (Jessie Jane) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 12:00:00 +0000

Love this poster from Gregory aka Beauchamping:

Marketing Blog Formula No. 47

noreply@blogger.com (Jessie Jane) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:00:00 +0000

Describing how sports/current events/your latest bathroom visit is like your product/service/the marketplace.

Please, for the love of all that is good and holy, stop relying on tired old constructs to develop your blog content. I understand we're not all professional writers, and some folks need structured prompts to get inspired every once in a while (I know I do). But so many of these posts are grasping at straws, creating parallels where there are none. Worse still, such constructs don't generally lead to good writing. Because even when you've drawn a nice straight comparison between Michael Jackson's struggle for sanity and the solo entrepreneur's struggle for work-life balance, you're still left with the giant unanswered question of so what?

How do such metaphors (similes?) help your readers understand the significance of your point? Too often, they don't. What they do offer is an easy way for bloggers to keep talking about themselves, rather than anything that really matters.

So here's a quick challenge: the next time you're inclined to write your post around a comparison between some current pop culture phenomenon and your own business, take an extra minute to keep writing. Write about why anyone should care in the first place, and write about what it really means for your readers. Then go back, re-read it, edit the hell out of it, and then post it.

Flow

noreply@blogger.com (Jessie Jane) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 17:19:00 +0000

I finally had a chance to watch Flow, an incredible (and incredibly disturbing) documentary about the privatization of the world's water supply. More than just an anti-corporate diatribe, the film speaks to the inevitability of the looming water crisis, and what that might look like based on where the battles are being fought now. And they are battles.

Water is a $400 billion industry—the third largest behind electricity and oil. My mind kind of explodes at that statistic. We're talking about water. The slow commodification of the natural resources most fundamental to human existence should raise alarm bells in every human being. And yet, one in five Americans refuse to drink anything but purchased bottled water; even though a four-year study by the NRDC found over a third of the tested bottle brands were contaminated with synthetic chemicals, bacteria, and arsenic.

This isn't just an "over there" issue impacting the lives of underdeveloped or developing countries: as of May 2009, over 30% of America was experiencing "abnormally dry or drought" conditions. Public water supplies are being handed over to private corporations, who are then denying entire populations access to clean water supplies—and frequently contaminating the remainder.

We can each participate in the change

One of the strengths of Flow is the movie's focus on solutions. There is a growing movement of ordinary citizens across the globe who are banding together to demand safe access to clean water. Here are just a few easy things you can do to help:

Watch Flow, and talk about it with people you know. Information needs to spread, and you're how it happens.
Sign the petition to add "the right to clean and accessible water, adequate for the health and well-being of the individual and family" to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This simple act will enable those struggling for safe water a powerful tool in the struggle for access.
Delve deeper by exploring the various resources and groups working on this issue.

Sustainable Design Town Hall: Nathan Shedroff

noreply@blogger.com (Jessie Jane) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 12:00:00 +0000

Back in early May, I wrote about a group of about 20 or so designers and educators who attended a Designers Accord town hall meeting in San Francisco to explore the subject of sustainable design and exchange ideas. This post is part of a short series in which I continue the conversation with some of the other presenters there about designing messaging that drives measurable, ground-level change.

Previous posts:
Series Introduction
Lynda Grose and the Sustainable Cotton Project

Nathan Shedroff is the chair of the MBA in Design Strategy program at California College of the Arts, really one of the only programs of its kind in the U.S. He's a prolific author whose most recent book, Design Is the Problem: The Future of Design Must be Sustainable, outlines a stunningly accessible vision of the future of design. At the town hall in May, Nathan discussed the interdependence of design, business, and sustainability—as he pointed out, "you can't have one without the other."

More recently, I asked Nathan a few questions via email about how individuals and organizations can translate sustainable design thinking into practice. His responses—along with the whole of Design Is the Problem—reveal a pragmatism infused with optimism that is often lacking among sustainability proponents, and that is utterly necessary if real change is going to take place in both the private and public sectors.

Jess: What has teaching this stuff taught you about how people best respond to sustainable design issues? How did that influence the writing of Design Is the Problem?

Nathan: I've been teaching sustainability and product development for at least three years—and some of experiences definitely influenced the book. One of the things that sometimes happens is that people assume sustainability is only about the environment. Another is that a lot of business students, though not engineers and designers as much, aren't terribly interested in sustainability at first. I should note that these aren't my students, luckily.

Next, many students go through a profound kind of depression at first. In the first 6-8 weeks of our Sustainability Studio in the program, our students were noticeably discouraged. It's not that they didn't realize that the impact we've had on the planet and other people was bad, but the extent in both breadth and depth is pretty staggering. It's not until about weeks 8-10 that they really pull themselves out of it, and that's mostly because we not only talk about the tools available and the strategies to create more sustainable solutions, but they actually use these. We don't teach about sustainability [as an exclusive concept], but in the context of making solutions. I think this context is critical because it simultaneously informs and enables, and that sense of enablement is important for sustainability, and is at the core of design.

A lot of this rethinking of the design process seems to require three things: the commitment, the know-how, and the resources to implement. That seems like a tall order for the average American business, which is statistically likely to be small (under 100-500 employees, depending on the industry); how does a single person operating within an organization begin to pull those three things together?

The first thing organizations can do is familiarize everyone in the company with the basic principles and frameworks of sustainability. Everyone should know what sustainability is and shouldn't be afraid to talk to others about it. Walmart has done this very effectively through their engagement with Act Now Productions, now known as Saatchi & Saatchi S.

I was at a sustainability conference recently and there were too many people who got up on stage and essentially said "I'm not sure why I'm here because I don't really know anything about sustainability." I challenged the entire audience not only to be more informed next year but to set a goal that everyone in their organization, by the end of the year, should know enough to be comfortable getting onto any stage and speaking about sustainability. It sounds like a tall order but I don't actually think it's that difficult. It's actually much easier for smaller companies than for larger ones.

Sustainability is just one important business trend but it represents a major failing of most organizations. They don't know how to both engage their own employees and inform them about their own business. Everyone in an organization should know and be able to respond to the organization's strategy, business goals, industry drivers, and customer profiles. It's crazy that most employees can't articulate this and it's the fault of leadership, not the employees. Sustainability is just a new business driver to add to this overall need.

The book spends a lot of time discussing the need for a "systems perspective" and what that means. But it seems to me that American culture and institutions are designed to celebrate the individual—individual experience, individual expression, individual success. First, can you talk a little about the value of a systems perspective and second, how can a society like ours reconcile its individualistic nature with the need for a broader view?

Perhaps we've emphasized the individual over the system too much, in the same way we emphasize competition over cooperation. Neither is better than the other, and neither can exist without the other—not if things are to progress. Evolution wraps these same two dichotomies together as proof that they're both natural and necessary.

Individuals can't function nor be individualistic without a supporting society (which is a set of systems). There's nothing incompatible with supporting both systems and individuals, cooperation and competition, and standards and innovation. Maybe, we simple need to tell the rest of the story. In the U.S. media, we tend to present everything as an either/or choice across one, narrow spectrum. You're either a Liberal or a Conservative, a business person or an environmentalist, etc.

The truth, of course is that life is more rich and complex than these false choices. It used to be common that people identified as "fiscally conservative but socially liberal" but even this has disappeared from the national dialog. We're asked to choose between being prudent or being sympathetic, as if the two were mutually exclusive. Business is seen as being all about money and profit despite that not being the initial history of business in the U.S., nor reflecting why so many people start their own companies.

We have to cast off these false choices and old stories. Even if they were true in the past (and I don't think many of them ever were), they're not relevant now.

Where is this reconciliation happening right now? Where is it most lacking?

It's more lacking in large organizations of all types: businesses, governments, and even nonprofits. The culture of doing business or running an organization must be completely reconsidered, starting with hierarchy, strategy, and instituting a service-oriented culture.

We are grossly inefficient but in ways most pundits don't consider. For example, most every critic of government points to businesses as an example for being more efficient and effective. I'm not sure how many companies they've ever worked in but most businesses aren't a terribly good example of efficiency nor effectiveness. There are exceptions, for sure, but really, our government would have failed long ago if it had suffered some of the disasters business has been responsible for. Local governments have, undoubtedly, moved faster in many cases and are more effective than state and national governments but, again, there are exceptions.

We also need to rethink our economic models. The ones we've been using for the past 5-10 decades were flawed from the start. We've been patching them for years but the patches aren't good enough. You get what you measure and we've been only measuring money—not any other element of a successful society or lifestyle. It's no wonder that's the world we've gotten, and we find it increasingly difficult to value anything else.

You also co-wrote the book Making Meaning: How Successful Businesses Deliver Meaningful Customer Experiences, in which you discuss the many ways businesses can connect to customers to develop deeper, longer-lasting relationships. In a recent interview, you discuss how important it is to use meaning as a way of connecting with people on the issue of sustainability. But is there more to it than that? Is there something inherently parallel about meaning and a sustainable system? Is a sustainable system itself inherently meaningful?

The jury is still out on that. I believe that the more meaning we have in our lives, whether that's from buying and having more meaningful things, experiences or relationships, the less stuff we ultimately need. I don't, however, have research on this and I'm not aware of it. All of my experience is anecdotal but I do see evidence of it all around me.

The people I see with the most meaningful lives have stuff, for sure, but less of it than most others, and they tend to consider their purchases more carefully and in a wider context. They tend to be more engaged with sustainability—and [engaged] more deeply. They're not the people rushing out to "acquire" bamboo floors and green this-and-that for the sake of it. That's largely a fad at the moment. If they were remodeling, they would certainly make these choices but not for the sake of having these things.

I find that the people who live their values more tend to be happier or, at least, more at ease. I attribute this to being more engaged at the level of meaning. So, in a very real way, I believe that helping people live more sustainably will, necessary, need to engage them at the level of meanings and values—at least for any long-term effect. Thankfully, we have models for doing this, now. We just need to use them.

You can read about these models in Nathan's book, Design Is the Problem. I highly recommend it, whether you're a designer or communicator, business owner, or simply interested in new ways of thinking about old systems. You can also visit Nathan at his personal website, and learn more about CCA's MBA in Design Strategy.

Is It Worth Paying Extra for Professional Expertise?

noreply@blogger.com (Jessie Jane) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:04:00 +0000

Listen, I'm a big fan of DIY. I'm also a fan of bootstrapping, and self-education. But it's so important to know your limitations - to know when you just don't know enough - and to pay someone who does. When you hire a pro, you get someone with both expertise and experience, which translates into better work overall. More importantly, perhaps, it results in fewer screw-ups on your project and actually less money invested over the long term, even if the pro costs more (good clean-ups get mighty pricey, especially because folks are often in a hurry to get the clean-up done quick).

Case in point

This is just a simple paint job on a simple delivery van:

One just needs the basic info, a decent painter, and that's that: what could possibly go wrong? Of course, someone with little design experience might not realize that painting an object with moveable parts might result in unaccounted-for scenarios. They may fail to ask the burning question: That looks great on the side of your van, but what happens when you open the door?

So yeah, just think about that the next time you're trying to do something you've never done before. Moral of the post (a.k.a. DIY design tip): account for multiple user scenarios or cough up for an expert who knows what to look for!

[Images from Jalopnik, originally posted to FailBlog]

Roughstock Posters to be Published in "Designing for the Greater Good"

noreply@blogger.com (Jessie Jane) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:00:00 +0000

Just got the good news that two political posters I designed will be published in Peleg Top and Jonathan Cleveland's upcoming Designing for the Greater Good: The Best of Cause-Related Marketing and Nonprofit Design. I'm pretty thrilled to be included in a collection that celebrates the power graphic designers have to impact the world around us, and I'm particularly honored to be featured next to some incredible designers.

Designing for the Greater Good is scheduled to be published by Crescent Hill Books in January of 2010.

Happy Fourth! Ink Initiative Poster Sale for A Great Cause

noreply@blogger.com (Jessie Jane) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 12:00:00 +0000

The Ink Initiative produces high-end illustrated posters that are screen printed by hand, and donates all profits to charity (this year's nonprofit organization is Philabundance). Talk about a worthy business model. Anyway, they're having a 2-for-1 sale while supplies last.

In the meantime, drive safe, enjoy your BBQ, and don't lose any fingers!

Four Quick Email Marketing Tips

noreply@blogger.com (Jessie Jane) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:00:00 +0000

I don't usually do the standard top five tip list rigmarole, but I get a lot of email newsletters, and I'm noticing a few not-so-positive trends lately. So in the interest of easing the in-box crunch, you might want to think about the following issues before sending out that next email blast.

1. Don't send your email newsletter on Tuesday

There's always a lot of talk about the best day to send your e-newsletter, and apparently every single email marketer recommends Tuesday. I get maybe two dozen e-newsletters on Tuesday, and I can't handle it anymore. I know why this is, though: everyone's cranky on Monday because it's Monday, on Wednesday everyone's in a bad mood because it's hump day, on Thursday everyone's scrambling to get work done before the week ends, and on Friday everyone's checked out (either mentally or physically). So, Tuesday it is.

But maybe, just maybe, you should consider the possibility that picking a less-than-ideal day of the week is still better than getting lost among two dozen other e-newsletters.

2. Don't subscribe me without explicit permission. Ever.

I don't care if you think I'd be interested in your products. I don't care if we hang out on the same forum. I don't care if you paid good money for my name on a list. Subscribe me to your email newsletter without asking first, and you're getting instantly marked as junk.

I play by the three strikes rule (and I consider that generous): the first newsletter I simply unsubscribe from, then send to my junk mail folder. The second time, I reply directly with a complaint, and go through the whole thing again. If I get a third e-newsletter with no acknowledgment of my complaint, the sender gets reported to SpamCop. And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one doing this.

3. Make sure I can unsubscribe easily

I know, I know. This tip ends up on every "Top 5 Ways to Improve Your Email Marketing" list on the internet, but hear me out. Probably 5% of the e-newsletters I get either have no unsubscribe link at all, another 5% have an unsubscribe link that doesn't work, and maybe 20% require a whole song and dance to get off the damn list. Keep it simple: put the link at the top and bottom of your email (text smaller than 8 points is unacceptable), make sure it works (you know, actually test it), and don't require the recipient to enter their name, address, password, and favorite breakfast cereal to unsubscribe. I promise you, the animosity you save will far outweigh the number of actual unsubscribes you get.

4. Double-check your subject line

In the last two weeks, I've had three separate email newsletters or announcements land in my in-box with either "DRAFT - please review: [subject here]," or "TEST." Accidents happen, sure, but this kind of accident seems to be happening more and more. I'm really not finicky, but it just looks lazy when an oversight like this happens. The subject line is a crucial component of your newsletter, and if you're not looking at it, you're making a big mistake. Not only is your e-newsletter more likely to end up in the spam folder, you end up looking, well, less than attentive.

Now, these tips aren't going to change your life, double your click-through rate, or land you a date to the prom. But they will help keep from mildly annoying your recipients. And in the world of marketing, that's really half the battle.

Keeping It Real Green: How to Market Your Efforts In an Age of Greenwashing

noreply@blogger.com (Jessie Jane) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:00:00 +0000

Now that green has become a marketable attribute for better or worse, everybody and their brother is pushing how green they are. And, given the general standards of our fine American culture, that means greenwashing is now just as ubiquitous. I've been watching a rather sad back-and-forth, in which more and more businesses claim they or their products are "green" and consumers roll their eyes and wag their fingers, for a while now. So when I was asked to speak on a panel about greening your business for San Francisco's Small Business Week, I figured it might be helpful to provide some guidance for attendees.

The result is "Keeping It Real Green: How to Market Your Efforts In an Age of Greenwashing," a short little piece of work written to help organizations connect with their customers without lying, misleading, or otherwise confusing the hell out of people. This is a pretty big kettle of fish to fry, of course, and it was difficult to get everything into such a compact format. But believe me, I tried! There's not a lot of fluff in here; this sucker is a legitimately informative resource for any business, however deeply involved in environmental issues it may be.

If you'd like a free copy of the pamphlet, you can request one using the contact page, or give me a call at (415) 643-0121.

~~I will be expanding this into a PDF, but it may take some time as~~ I'm up to my eyeballs in content for the upcoming relaunch of re-nourish.com (another exciting project I'll talk about soon). The nice thing about the hardcopy version, though, is that you can keep it in your desk drawer for reference. Let me know what you think!

Edited 7/22/09: For those of you who might be concerned about my decision to create a printed piece, rather than only produce a PDF version of the guide, please see the comments. A lot of thought went into this, and I've explained that thought process to a commenter who took issue with my terrible choice.

Edited 8/3/09: The PDF has arrived! Download Keeping It Real Green while supplies last!