Your Art Director

Subscription vs. Purchase

2011-11-21T14:19:00.001-07:00

I just received an offer from Adobe to upgrade from Creative Suite 5 Design Premium to Creative Suite 5.5 for $399 to buy, or $95/month for a year or $139/month, month to month to subscribe. Interesting idea, renting my software, but is it better?

Adobe averages an upgrade about every 1.3 years as best I can figure, some have been faster, like 5 - 5.5 some longer. So if I buy CS5.5 it's $399, if I subscribe for a year it's $1140 and if CS6 takes longer than a year to come out it would be more. Obviously if your a designer you know that Adobe Creative Suite is part of what you must have to do your job so subscription really isn't a benefit. However in some situations subscriptions might be an advantage. I was considering looking into getting an intern and one hang up is a lack of software for them, subscription might be an advantage there.

This deal came in the form of an email. I went to the link and a sales chat popped open and asked if they could help me with my decision. I assume subscription confuses people so Adobe is actively trying to help people with their decision. I went ahead and chatted with them and asked a couple of questions: (This isn't the whole conversation, just parts that pertain to this post).

Kenton: What does subscription mean?
Adobe: Kenton, purchasing the subscription is like renting the software.
Kenton: So what are the advantages of subscription?
Adobe: If you purchase the monthly subscription you can use it for any number of months and can cancel it when you do not need it.
Kenton: So what is the advantage of owning it?
Adobe: If you own the software, you will be eligible for any future upgrade.
Adobe: Once the latest version is released in future you can just pay the upgrade price and get the latest version.
Adobe: However, if you purchase the subscription, it is not eligible for an upgrade.
Kenton: If I subscribe to to CS5.5 for a year and in 9 Months CS6 comes out, can I subscribe to CS6 at that point and apply the 3 months left on my CS5.5 subscription to CS6?
Adobe: I am sorry, we do not have an option for that.
(Some of the information in this conversation is incorrect, please see the end for a correction from an Adobe Representative)

So it appears if you're a designer and you must have Adobe Creative Suite to do your job buying it is to your advantage. Your first purchase is a bit painful at over $1000, but once you have it the upgrade prices are easier to take. So keep that in mind when your asking for design school graduation presents.

Subscription based software is a growing phenomenon, I subscribe to the Wordpress Theme I use for most of my websites, (iThemes Builder). It will be interesting to see how this changes future of doing business as a designer.

--UPDATE--

Thanks to Jennifer Kremer from Adobe for posting the correct information in a comment. This makes a lot more sense and makes subscribing much better. Hopefully Jennifer will let the sales support team know there is a little misinformation going out over chat.

Here is some of Jennifer's comment:
...if you subscribe to CS5.5 now, when CS6 comes out you will automatically get CS6 via your subscription. You can learn more here:
http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/cssubscription.html?promoid=INOTE

Postcards are Popular

2011-11-08T16:08:00.000-07:00

I seem to be doing a lot of postcards lately, but not all of them are for mailing. It seems it's really popular to have a postcard instead of a flyer to handout at trade shows, job fairs or just a little informational piece. Maybe it's because it's so easy to get them printed for so little money right now. Possibly it's the smaller size and versatility of it. Whatever the reason it can be a lot of fun.

The way printers have cut costs on printing 4 over 4, or full color on both sides, is by ganging up the work. You send in your job and they print it with a bunch of other jobs and then cut everything up into card sizes.

The advantage of this is obvious, huge cost savings. The disadvantage is no press check, so your file has to be right because you can't adjust the color on press. Also you usually have to adhere to pretty strict rules to be sure file comes out correctly. Another disadvantage is no spot color or spot varnish, just CMYK with an aqueous coating to protect the printing.

I personally have a couple printers I use for this kind of work. They've always worked well for me. The first is Molding Box and I talk to Matt. They're local and it's nice to know your printer in person. The other one I've used is is Modern Postcard. Bigger and more strict but they have their advantages too.

Here's a couple of pieces I've done recently.


This was a handout at a car show.


This was actually a bit more complicated because it had some scratch to win boxes on the back. It was printed at Rastar with the help of Kae Lynne.

So think about a post card as an alternative to your usual handout.

Color Calibration, Differing Opinions

2011-07-23T10:02:00.003-06:00

What tools do you use for: Color Calibration, from my LinkedIn Group, In House Designers 

Color Calibration is a touchy subject with many differing opinions. I've done pretty much everything to have my screens match my proofs and have come all the back around to the thought that it really doesn't matter unless you work in the dark, have an expensive monitor, and spend the time and money to use a color calibration system often. After all that, if your not doing the same thing all the time it doesn't matter anyway. So it makes sense for for a photographer, and a pre-press department to spend the time and money to calibrate, but what about designers?

That's my opinion anyway, but Arnold Kirschner an active member of the In House Designers group had a different opinion that I found very interesting and wanted to share.

What you are doing is the first step. Go for the highest highlight with detail, the same goes for the shadows and set them in by whatever means is the most comfortable for you. I use curves because you can get a better idea of how other tones are being effected by looking at the graph. Next pick a part of the image that you want as the mid-tone area and set that. On the RGB value scale I go for these numbers:240-120-15 (or 20). From that point on I use CMYK measurements because it's easier keep a percentage no higher than 95% and no lower than 5%. When checking the value of a color try not to blow out anything when detail carrying tone have to count. Example: for a red it's better to have c1%-m100%-y85%-k (black) 0% than to drop out the cyan altogether. You will still get a bright red with detail protected by leaving in that cyan.  As colors get darker the lowest primary gets higher. At some point the wanted colors reach maximum (99%) but the low color, the darkening color, can still go higher and at about 50% the color that you want to keep will start to go neutral, example: (all numbers are in the CMYK order) A red will start to gray up when, 50-100-100-0. For inkjet or press try adjusting the color to: 20-100-100-25. The black will darken the color without making it neutral while the cyan will and is the neutralizing color. This principal hold true across the board.  With enough experience you can pretty much know what values will work for just about any color or tonal step.  There is much more to say about this but the principal is sound and will start you on the way there. I even won a very nice bet by color correcting a job with the monitor set to BW. No color display. If I can do it anyone can do it.

I hope this helped a little. There is much to know.
--
Arnold

Arnold Kirschner teaches a class called "Photographer's Photoshop". It's currently not available online but I'm working on him to do it.

Thanks Arnold, I'm going to check it out.

How Do Designers Survive?

2011-05-06T12:29:00.000-06:00

I have been doing graphic and web design for 5 years. In the past while my passion and creativity has dwindled due to the disrespect for this profession and too many of the same issues. I would get hired for my portfolio and then get told to do something that I know is wrong and does not follow design standards. I have tried both defending my designs and just doing what they want. Neither one of these things works or makes them happy. Furthermore, don't forget to maintain office etiquette and a smile at all times while they sh*t all over your work that they claimed to love so much in the interview!

I find most clients think they know what they want already and expect you to carry out that vision. How is that design??? I am a button pusher who takes the blame for the end product; which of course sucks under these conditions!

My friend recently came up with an analogy that is pretty funny. He compared this type of work to going to cooking school and becoming a pretty good chef. Unfortunately, the only job you could get is at an average restaurant where the food is not very good. Furthermore your boss is not a chef but makes you cook the food that he learned from a recipe online somewhere (with his own twist of course) and don't forget to cut the vegetables into perfect squares! This restaurant "has a reputation to uphold"! Trying to make a suggestion as a chef will get you labelled as "hard to work with" or kicked out.

So I ask, what is the point exactly? I have run into this situation over and over and am seriously considering quitting. I truly love design, but I can't remember the last time that somebody let me do it. I'm 31 now and feel like I have to start from scratch in a different career. Do you have any advice? Inspirations? Your own rant? Thanks for reading.

From Nadia, LinkedIn Group In-House Designers

First of all take a deep breath Nadia. I quit once, but design isn't just what we do, it's a part of who we are. We may not need to be a designer but we do have to have a creative release, and preferably one that makes us a living.

I've been doing this a long time. Many bosses/clients just have a hard time telling us what they think. They're afraid they'll hurt our feelings, or don't understand the design process. There are some that know why they hire a designer and let the designer do their job and appreciate what they do. Those clients/bosses are why we keep doing it.

There are always going to be those that don't appreciate what we do. They don't appreciate talent and the value of it. They download music for free, they use pictures off the web with no regard for where they come from or the time and money that went into creating the song, image or design. Best we can do is try to educate them and hope they learn.

Right now The Web, Crowd Sourcing, and Social Networking are changing the way we work. Let me tell you a story. Go back in time to the early 80s. The Mac was a new shiny toy and every corporation had to have one. Thing is they just assumed that by having a Mac and giving it to their administrative assistant they could get great designs. They would push the design button and beautiful design would come out of it. Well it took a little while but after a time they realized the Mac is a Pencil, it takes a designer to make the design.

Crowd Sourcing (i.e. iStock, Stinky Logo) is changing the way creative people work. We will adapt and people, the smart people, will realize that there is a designer behind that webpage. Social Networking is cheap, free even, so everyone is doing it, and doing it themselves. After a while there will be so many people pushing crap on Twitter and Facebook that it will take creative people to push the good stuff to the top and the junk will settle to the bottom.

My advice is be picky. I know it is hard in this economy; you want to take what you can get but only do what you feel good about. Then explain your process to them, don’t let them think design is about your mood, tell them the science of color psychology, the research that goes into design, why things are on the page to lead the eye, that logos are designed to elicit the desired response from potential clients, not just look good on a business card. The people you want to work for will understand, the ones that don’t should go to the nearest Crowd Sourcing site and they’ll get what they want, cheap designs they lay on the page.

Does Branding Enhance the Users Experience?

2011-01-31T09:00:00.002-07:00

Sitting on a plane headed home in that end of trip fog, tired, glad to be headed home to family and at the same time I'll be missing eating out and having someone else make my bed. I took note that on this trip a strong brand really did make for a better experience for me.

Let's start with a simple example of how a weak or inconstant brand can hurt the user experience. You buy a product and the packaging design is different from the manual design and the logo on the product doesn't match the logo on the box. Did you get the right instructions; is the product I bought old in a new box? No wants to feel unsure about a purchase, but branding inconsistencies can create doubt in your customers. Your logo, website, packaging, documentation, font, company personality, colors and much more all go into your brand. Having a strong brand communicates that your company is professional, organized and knows what it is doing. All of which give your customers piece of mind.

This particular trip it was my pleasure to stay in a Hard Rock Hotel. I've never stayed in one before always assuming it would be too expensive. This trip however it was a cheaper option than the nearby alternatives. As this was a business trip the hotel wasn't something I was particularly concerned with but upon arrival I was immediately taken by the interesting surroundings and friendly employees—it's fun to look around and see the music memorabilia. Once in my room I was struck by the consistency of one particular branding element. They use a tribal tattoo as a branding accent and it was everywhere, but it was subtle. The edge of a mirror, pattern on a towel, a custom ironing board cover, a bag that held an extra roll of toilet paper. You can see a bit of it on the Hard Rock Website on the bar at the bottom of the main images. There were other subtle branding elements everywhere. Classic Rock played in the lobby, elevators and even in the room when you entered it. The walls were covered in music memorabilia donated by different musicians and the other artwork was related to music in some way. Even the iron had a neon light around the base. They could have purchased cheaper irons but by going that extra step it added to the overall appeal of the brand.

It also became evident that the Hard Rock has a target market they were appealing to. High tech TV system, lots of black, simple clean designs, leather, the right brands of alcohol in the fridge, the attire of the female staff, the masculine fragrance of the shampoo and soap, this is a hotel for guys. Which isn't to say woman won't like it, I'm just saying this strong brand hit the mark and the mark is primarily men.

I had a great time and would stay in a Hard Rock again. Does a strong brand enhance the user experience? I'd have to say yes, in this case it did.

Facebook Profile and Pages Usernames

2011-01-08T15:52:00.002-07:00

I made a mistake setting up a username for my Facebook account and I wanted to share it so maybe others won't make the same mistake.

Terms:
First off lets get some terms out of the way so you'll be able to understand what your reading here and in Facebook forums. A Facebook Profile is for a person and a Facebook Page, (Formally a Fan Page), is for a business. A Username, (sometimes called a vanity URL), is a way to make you or your business easier to find. For example my business, Your Art Director, has the Facebook link, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Your-Art-Director/122752040711, if I had not made a little error I could of set up a username and made the link, http://www.facebook.com/YourArtDirector, (Don't click that link, it goes nowhere). Much easier for people to find.

Rules:
You can go to this link to sign up for your Facebook Page for your company, but you need to understand that Facebook was intended to be a place for individuals to connect and you will need to link the company page to a personal profile to be able to do certain things, like get a username, but I'll get to that later. Here is a little known rule, you're only allowed one Facebook account, and according to Facebook rules you can lose access to all your accounts for having more than one. So once you set up the business page you are expected to set up a profile, or link it to your existing profile. Then your going to want to set up your user name to make it easy for people to find you, but you can't yet, you must have 25 people like your business page before you can set up a user name. So copy the long link and email to everyone you know and ask them to log into their Facebook accounts and click the LIKE button at the top of the page next to your business name.

This post from All Facebook, How To Create A Business Account On Facebook Without A Personal One, says you don't have to link the business page to a personal profile, and that's true, however I was unable to make a username until I had linked the page to a profile. I suggest you set up your page, get your 25 LIKEs and then try to make a username at this link. Maybe it will work for you.

My Mistake:
My mistake was that I entered the username I wanted for my business page in the personal profile settings. To set up a username for a business page you must be sure you do it here, facebook.com/username. You're only allowed to change your personal profile username once. As soon as I realized my mistake I quickly changed the username on my personal profile, for the one time, in hopes the username would become available for my business page, but alas, it didn't. I have seen many posts, i.e. Transfer personal facebook username to business page, about people that have made the same mistake asking Facebook for help. Here is a post on changing usernames, note the red letters warning you you may lose the username altogether.

I am now talking to Facebook Tech Support. They are asking for proof the company names are a registered trademark. Hopefully I will be able to get it all squared away. Good Luck to you, I hope this post helps.

Do you have trouble getting colleagues to invest in your creative vision?

2010-11-11T21:17:00.002-07:00

This is a great topic for all designers, and I'd like to say I wrote the eloquent headline and next paragraph, but it was actually written by a member of my LinkedIn Group, In House Designers, (Thanks Marcy).

Do you have trouble getting colleagues to invest in your creative vision?

Does this happen to you? A colleague asks for you to design something to meet the needs of their department. You use your expertise to do just that, but as they have no creative, design or marketing background they tear it down into something that simply pleases their taste. They have the final say but you know that what they want doesn't meet what they need. I am often frustrated because I believe I can articulate well the reasons why their ideas will make the marketing efforts useless but yet they don't listen and I end up delivering a very sub-par end product I'm not proud of. Would love to hear any comments/feedback/experiences...

By Marcy, LinkedIn. Link to Marcy's Site and Blog

My Response

I've been in a company where that was an issue, and not for the reasons you'd think. At first I was the only guy, in a company that did trade shows and a magazine for the scrapbook industry. I always felt like some of the women I worked with trusted my technical skills but weren't sure I had what it took to design something that would appeal to women.

Honestly though I've had some problems with this throughout my career. Here are two things I have found that have helped me.

1. People think that what designers do is based on a whim or mood, they see no science behind it. Show them the science, eye tracking studies, color psychology, anything to show them the method behind your madness.

2. Have a strong brand and a document to back it up. If you have a strong brand and a document that tells them what the corporate colors, corporate fonts, what you can and can't do with the logo, like size and what it can be placed on, you eliminate a lot of what they can complain about. A detailed brand doc lets you point to something and say, "Can't do it, it's against the brand!". Of course you should probably say it nicer than that, lol.

Armed with those two things you'll have an answer for just about everything.

InDesign Print Booklet Issue Solved, Thanks Adobe

2010-10-10T23:01:00.002-06:00

I was having an issue with Adobe CS5 InDesign's Print booklet function. First off though I should explain Print Booklet to those of you that may not be familiar with this tool. Then tell you why you might have a problem with it too, and how to fix it.

What is Print Booklet:
Print booklet let you take your InDesign multi page documents and print them in Printer Spreads. For example, I have a document with a finished page size of 5.5″x8.5″. The document is 8 pages long. I want to make a PDF in printer spreads with the page size of 11″x8.5″, two pages per sheet so I can fold and staple it. When it's in Printer spreads the first page will show me page 8 and 1 and the second page will show you page 2 and 7 and so on.

Here's the problem:
When I go to Print Booklet in Indesign CS5, on a MacBook Pro running OS X 10.6.4, and try to make a PDF file the page rotates the wrong direction. You can't make a PDF from the print window, or export to PDF from Print Booklet and there is no PDF printer in Indesign CS5 on OS X 10.6.4. The only way I can see to make a PDF from Print Booklet is to make a Postscript file and use Acrobat Distiller to make the PDF. I'm using the printer, Postscript® File, with the Postscript Printer Definition (PPD), Device Independent. That's where the problem occurs, there are no page rotation controls for this Printer. It looks fine in the preview, but the PDF page is always vertical with a horizontal image on it.

Adobe Tech Support Answer:
It took jumping through a few hoops to get to a higher level in Adobe's Tech Support System, but when I got to the right person they were great.

The reason PDF printer doesn't install with CS5 on Mac OS X 10.6.4 is a security setting on the Mac side. There are talks going on to resolve the issue.

Fix 1:
Edit the Adobe Distiller settings to force the page to rotate in the right direction. In my case this is a good fix for me because all my pages are 11″ wide x 8.5″ tall. The path is, Settings>Edit Adobe PDF Settings…, at the bottom of the first page that opens is Default Page Size. In my case I reversed the numbers and it fixed my problem. I then saved the settings with the word landscape on the end of the settings name. If your doing a lot of different size pages and having this issue you'd have to make a new settings file for each page size.

Fix 2:
This is the fix I was looking for. I loaded the PPD for Adobe PDF 9. The file is ADPDF9.PPD. Here is a link to download it from InDesign Secrets. Open the Indesign Folder in applications, go to the presets folder and make a folder called PPDs, put the file, ADPDF9.PPD, in that folder. That was what Adobe tech support told me to name the folder, I'm not sure it has to be that name but I bet it does. I restarted InDesign, went to print booklet, edited the print settings, and picked Adobe PDF 9 from the PPD drop down list. This PPD lets me edit the rotation, and page size. A better solution if your dealing with different file sizes.

Problem solved.

Apple made me a Fanboy

2010-08-11T19:56:00.001-06:00

Customer service is a wonderful thing when you come across a good example. I had a customer service experience with Apple recently that explains why they are rapidly becoming the number one computer company.

Many designers and creative people prefer Apple Macintosh computers. I count myself as one of them. I'm on my fourth Macintosh, I own an iPod and we have an iPad in the house. My Third Mac, a MacBook Pro, was a bit of challenge. It had two screens replaced, an airport card, (Apples Wi-Fi card), and a logic board, (mother board) and there may have been something else that I have forgotten. All of these repairs took place over a two and half year period. Finally it was going to need a second logic board and I contacted Apple. They listened to my story and looked at the repair history and decided that I had been through enough and offered me a replacement. Not just any replacement though, a brand new MacBook Pro with the new unibody. Same ram—but it's newer and improved, same speed processor—but the cache is bigger, same speed hard drive—but twice as big because they don't sell them as small as my old one, and my matte monitor—which had to be special ordered. I was ecstatic, needless to say, but then they did something I never expected. They prorated the 6 months left on my extended warranty toward the purchase of an extended warranty for the new laptop. SO I have a brand new computer with a three year warranty.

On a side note, I don't know if you believe in extended warranties or not, but mine saved my butt on this computer and if there is anything that is going to get some abuse, it's a laptop.

It's this type of service that's going to keep me coming back to apple every time I need a new computer, or anything else Apple. I've been eyeing that Apple TV for a while now, just need a really good freelance design job.

Dropbox, you gotta love free stuff that works!

2010-07-06T16:29:00.000-06:00

Okay I am pitching something that will benefit me, (it will get me a little more free space), but I'm really doing it because it's just a really great product. When I sent my computer in to be repaired recently I had Dropbox set up and had access to my critical files on the loaner Mac I was using, my Phone, and my wife's iPad.

If your not using Dropbox your missing out. It is a syncing tool and it is one of my favorite things a friend at work has told me about, (Thanks Brannon). Let me tell you what it does, and then if you want to try it and you click this link we both get a little extra space.

It sits on my Apple menu bar and in the menus on my Mac. I can grab things like links, photos, notes and toss them in my dropbox and I will have them on my Android Phone, iPad, iPhone, other computes, windows, Mac, Linux etc. It's cool, but that's not the best part.

I use 1Password, (another favorite program of mine), to manage all my passwords and secure notes. I put the 1Password database file in my Dropbox folder. So every time I add a password it is automatically updated on my my phone etc. Cool huh? Anything that saves to a file or database that you set the location of can be set up this way, CDfinder, possibly iTunes and iPhoto, but I haven't tried.

It also gives me a separate folder for people to come grab stuff from me, like files for a client or printer. I hardly use my FTP site anymore. I don't think it lets people upload to your Dropbox, my FTP site would go away if it did that.

Okay here's the best part, 2gigs for free, more if you sign other people up. I love this thing. Sign Up!

Oh, if your already using it, be sure to go hit the "Getting starting" link from the website, you might get a little more space for free.

Be smart when using intellectual property

2010-05-10T20:34:00.000-06:00

All designers use the creative property of others, we have to, time and budget constraints don't allow us the luxury to sit for hours and draw, or head out with camera in hand to find the perfect photo for our ideas. But do you always read the small print on those user agreements? You should, others intellectual property is something that needs to be respected.

Here are some excerpts from a few samples of the fine print.

iStock.com, excerpt from the standard user agreement:
Do not:
use or display the Content on websites or other venues designed to induce or involving the sale, license or other distribution of “on demand” products, including postcards, mugs, t-shirts, posters and other items (this includes custom designed websites, as well as sites such as www.cafepress.com)

Have you ever used an iStock just to show placement on a product image on your website?

MyFonts.com, excerpt from the standard user agreement:
Service Bureaus: You may send a copy of any Nick’s Fonts font data along with your documents to a commercial printer or other service bureau to enable the editing or printing of your document, provided that such party agrees to delete the font or fonts from his/her/their system upon completion of your project.

Is your printer deleting your fonts after your job is finished?

DeviantArt.com, excerpt of EverythingIsInStock's user agreement
6. You MAY use my stocks as drawing references, however I expect to be given credit all the same.

When you do an illustration do you credit every resource you used?

Most of the time when you download fonts or images from the web you'll see something like; Free for personal use or Not for commercial use. Remember, just because it's for personal use doesn't mean you can't contact the creator and buy a license.

Be sure to read the small print, give credit where credit is due, and don't be afraid to contact the creator or webmaster to ask questions.

Operation: Twitter Automation, not autopilot, but a time saver.

2010-02-23T10:30:00.003-07:00

I mentioned in my post, Searching Through Web Content, Part One of Three, RSS Feeds, that I search through a lot information looking for things to post to my LinkedIn Group, In House Designers and my Twitter accounts, @YourArtDirector and @IHDesigners. Well it just became too much and I had to figure out a way to automate it.

I took what I had learned from searching through all those blogs and websites and automated it. I choose what I let go to Twitter automatically very carefully. If the site or blog becomes a constant sales pitch I drop it. I also follow some great designers on Twitter and use Google Alerts to find blogs and sites to automate.

First I use a program called SocialOomph. What it does is follow everyone that follows me, and rotates automated messages thanking them for following me. Why in the world would I want to do that? Following others is a fast way to get more followers. I use lists to follow the people I'm most interested in, the rest I glance at from time to time to see if I want to ad them to my lists. It took me about 9 months to get 400 followers. Now that SocialOomph is turned on it has taken me about a month to go from 400 to about 650.

I use TweetDeck to monitor Twitter. I used to use HootSuite, but I switched for reasons I will explain later. I use multiple columns in TweetDeck to follow my lists, direct messages, mentions and other things. One column is monitoring what I tweet so I can make sure the automation isn't getting too salesish. This isn't an obvious function in TweetDeck. Here's what I did to set up monitoring myself. I made a private list of all my Twitter accounts in Twitter, then in TweetDeck I made a column to watch that list. That's where I find my posts for my LinkedIn Group, In House Designers. It allows me to look at only the posts that have gone out in the last day. I can also use TweetDeck to schedule tweets for a time I want them to go out. I use that feature to send out things I want to Tweet about that aren't automated.

I use a site called TwitterFeed to do my automatic posts. I know a lot of people think automating Twitter is missing the point of Twitter, but I was spending two hours a night to search through RSS feeds and posting them to go out the next morning from 9:00am to around 1:00pm my time. Now I enter those same RSS feeds into TwitterFeed and they go out all day and night, which exposes me to a much wider audience, and I post more information. I was doing the same exact thing manually as I do now automatically only I'm doing it better. TwitterFeed also has some filtering you can use to limit some posts. Like I mentioned above, I mix in tweets about my company, products, trade shows, webinars using TweetDeck, but because I am growing my followers, the messages I care about are going to a lot more people.

Lastly I use Bit.ly to track clicks and make URLS smaller for Twitter. Bit.ly ties in directly with TweetDeck and TwitterFeed to shorten URLs automatically. I also have a bit.ly widget in my browser's bookmark bar to quickly post anything I see while surfing sites and blogs. I also recently saw that Bit.ly has Bit.ly Pro in Beta now. It has more features and allows for custom URL shortening.  

Best of all, all of these sites and programs are free. I could do the same thing, (except SocialOomph), in HootSuite for $20/month, which is why I stopped using it; I'm not making any money doing what I do in Twitter and LinkedIn. I do it to build resources for other designers and myself.

Take some time to set it up, watch what it is doing, so you don't become a sales tool for someone else. It isn't exactly autopilot, but it is a lot less time than it could be.

Searching Through Web Content, Part Three of Three, Google Alerts

2010-01-10T09:28:00.001-07:00

This is the last of my three part post on Searching Through Web Content. The three parts were RSS Feeds, Twitter and now, Google Alerts. It's taken a while to write this because between the second and third post I completely changed the way I post information to my Twitter feeds, @YourArtDirector and @IHDesigners. I still use these ways to find content online, but I am letting Twitter do the work instead of me. I'll be writing about automating Twitter soon.

What Are Google Alerts?

Google Alerts are a good way to get content delivered right to your inbox. Basically your telling Google to save a search and send you an email when it finds results. Google Alerts are still in Beta, but already it's a powerful tool.

Setting up a search

You have choices of the type of content you'd like to receive, news, blogs, videos etc. Then you can set how often you'd like to be notified—for example as it happens, once a day, once a week. Maybe you just want to see the newest information—you don't have time to wade through a giant list. You can limit the number of posts you receive in your email alerts.

Email is just the start of ways to receive Google Alerts. You can have your alerts come to your RSS feed reader. As I mentioned in part one, Searching Through Web Content, RSS Feeds, this is a good way to look through lots of content quickly.

You can receive your alerts as a CSV file, in other languages and as HTML or plain text. So customizing your alerts to fit how you want to work is very easy.

What can I use Google Alerts for?

Google Alerts are a great way to see who's talking about your company or product on the web. Just enter the name of your company, a product, a person or anything you need to keep an eye on. If you set it up to receive emails in HTML, like I did, it will look a lot like a google search result.

What does a Google Alert look like?

One of my searches is for "In House Graphic Designer". With this search I find a lot of job posts for my Linked in Group, Design Job List. A typical post will look something like this.

Journalist and IN HOUSE Graphic Designer Wanted (Midtown West ...

By admin

Journalists Wanted A weekly newspaper needs experienced journalists with strong writing background and unsurpassed editing skills, as well as very good organizational abilities. Minimum of 2-3 years of editorial experienced required. ...

Web Design Jobs - http://www.thesiteurl.com/

You can see you can get a lot of info very fast and easy. So go to Google Alerts, set up a search and see what you find in your inbox.

Some Related Posts

How To Get More From Google Alerts

Google Alerts: A Great Freelance Writing Tool

Searching Through Web Content, Part Two of Three, Twitter

2009-10-29T23:09:00.002-06:00

It's not known how many Twitter users there are now. It is estimated to be about 18 million at the end of 2009. That's a lot of information flying around the web. So how do you sort through the tweets about what Ashton Kutcher's doing and what someone had for lunch and find information you can use?

I use HootSuite, but other popular programs like TweetDeck and Seesmic allow you to save a search. Here's how it works in HootSuite. I have the option to save a column in the window. I can have Search Term, KeyWord, or group users together. For example I have a Keyword column called Illustrator|Photoshop|InDesign. This finds all the Twitter feeds that have those Keywords in them. I find tutorials, and advice on the Adobe programs I use.

Search Columns can be very powerful. You can customize your searches to find words, exclude words and focus your searches.

Here are examples of ways to search for information on a company called Luxul Wireless:

"luxul" and "wireless" = searches for tweets that contain both words

"luxul wireless" = searches for the exact phrase

luxul or wireless = searches for one or the other

luxul -wireless = searches for luxul but not wireless

luxul since:2009-02-02 = search for luxul since the date entered

luxul until:2009-02-02 = search for luxul up to the date entered

luxul filter:links = searches for luxul tweets with a url in the post

With these options you can tweak your searches to find exactly what your looking for.

Another way to find info about a certain topic are Twitter HashTags. HashTags are words that follow the # symbol. For example #HomeAutomation is a HashTag used to focus information about Home Automation products and services. The idea is to let people follow subjects instead of people to find what they are looking for, or post to others with their interests. I use the site hashtags.org to find HashTags on subjects I am interested in. I then set up searches to watch Twitter and report to me when someone posts to those Hashtags.

So there you have it, with a little bit effort you can find the information your looking for, monitor what people are saying about subjects your interested in and really keep you eye on Twitter.

In part three I will discuss how to set a web search to deliver content to your inbox.

Searching Through Web Content, Part One of Three, RSS Feeds

2009-10-07T09:49:00.021-06:00

I'm always searching the web for content for my LinkedIn groups, (In House Designers and Design Job List), Twitter, blog, design inspirations and just to keep up on the latest trends. Trying to sort through all the blogs and websites can be a real challenge. In this first installment, of my three part article, on searching through content I am going to focus on using RSS feeds to help you quickly go through content and find what your interested in.

What is RSS?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Basically what it does is takes the text from a website or blog, strips all the formatting and gives it to you a text only, (sometimes text and an image), format that is the same for every site. This makes it easy to search the information easily and find what your looking for. This is particularly important for news sites, blogs and sites that have a lot of text that changes often.

How do I find RSS feeds?

Most sites have RSS feeds and make it easy for you to subscribe to it. Look for the subscribe button. The icon usually looks something like this:

Some sites use services because maybe they have multiple feeds. Sites with a feed service may ask what reader your using.

If you can't find the icon you might want to try typing the site address then slash and Feeds, like this:

http://yourartdirector.blogspot.com/feeds

You might have to search a bit, but most of the time the feed is there.

I set up a list of design job feeds in my LinkedIn group call Design Job List. If you'd like to set up a search for design jobs you can go to the discussion tab of Design Job List and find a lot of sites that have design job RSS feeds. I'm going to use this as my example for explanation purposes here.

Here is an example of one site and it's feed address.

The site is: Talent Zoo

The feed is: http://www.talentzoo.com/rss.php

Once you have all the feeds entered you will have a large list of sites feeding you jobs, probably more than you can handle. You can set up searches for used cars, photoshop tutorials, scrapbooking, anything you're interested in.

Setting up a search

I use an RSS feed reader. I am on a Mac, so I like NewsFire. If your on a PC you can use something like NewsGator. You can use web browsers and even mail programs, anything that will track RSS feeds. The reader you use doesn't matter, but I like readers that will do Smart Searches, and/or Saved Searches because I make them do a lot of the work for me. I have a design jobs feed setup in my reader and receive about 500 posts a day, so I have to filter the RSS feeds to get it to a manageable amount.

Filtering the feed

Now that you have all your feeds you'll want to filter them so you can have a more focused search. This is the reason I like feed readers that supports smart searches. Keep in mind I am using NewsFire so my instructions may not apply to the feed reader you're using. The first thing I did was make a group called jobs and drop all my job list site feeds into the group. Then I set up a smart search. A smart search looks at all the RSS feeds and collects the posts that fit the search criteria or filter I've set up. I search for the city I live in, words like art director or graphic designer in the title and content of the post, and the date of the post. After the smart feed is set up I'll have a handful of posts to look through. If the smart feed is producing no results you may need to change the settings. It may require more than one smart search to get everything you want.

I can now look through all 500 posts quickly and see if there's anything I'm interested in. This is a lot easier than going to every job list site, everyday and searching for what I am interested in. If I had to do that it would be a full time job in itself.

In part two I will discuss how to use Twitter to search for content.

Green is making me Green

2009-09-28T15:12:00.003-06:00

I like the idea of Green, who doesn't? But when Green is Green for the sake of PR and not for the sake of the environment who needs that.

I recently had the experience of working with a small company to put together First Article for a large customer. Now for those of you that may not know, a first article is an example of the product exactly as they will receive it when you start shipping your merchandize. The large customer had a lot of regulations on how things had to be put together, labeled, packaged. Much of instructions had to do with their green initiative.

Normal Procedure

Normally the product shipped in a cardboard box with no printing on it and a plain cardboard insert to hold the product. The small screws and cables went in a heat seal tube. The tube got sealed on one side, the products went in and the other side got sealed. Other than when you got to the end of the roll there was no waste. The Quick Install Guide was four pages long.

The Green Initiative

Every piece of packaging had to have a recycle logo on it. The box and its insert had to have two Recycle logos printed on it. Printing is not an environmentally friendly process. When a plastic heat seal tube with recycle logos couldn't be found, plastic zip-lock bags were purchased. The parts are slipped into the bags, the bags are heat sealed and about an inch of bag, including the zip lock, becomes waste. The User guide, after adding all the required legal text, was 16 pages long. In defense of the customer, most of the legal wording was because of government requirements.

It's not all bad news, circuit boards were changed to meet ROHS, (Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive) standards.

I am not advocating doing away with Green processes, I'm all for them. What I am saying is blindly following a Green Initiatives without seeing if it is truly helping the environment isn't Green at all.

If a Font Manager is doing it's job you'll forget it's there

2009-09-15T10:49:00.001-06:00

I recently changed to a new font manager. Normally this would not be a big issue, but I am writing about it for two reasons.

The font manager I was using I have used for many years and always loved. I will refer to it as Font Manager A (I really don't want to name names since I am speaking badly of it).
The new font manager was unknown to me, I had never heard of it. Not only do I like the way it works much, much better, but the support staff was really great.

I wanted to write about it is because it works a little different than the Font Manager I was using, which is also the font manager that most people I know use also. I am so pleased with the new one I wanted to explain why.

The Problem:

I have been a Font Manager A user for many years. Recently I upgraded my MacBookPro's operating system to SnowLeopard. A couple of days after that I saw that Font Manager A had a SnowLeopard patch. I installed it and after that when I tried to save a file in InDesign, it not only crashed, but it corrupted the file. This happened three times, you can imagine how frustrating that was.

So I twittered about the problem I was having and got a response from someone that said they used FontAgent. I had heard of Font Manager A, and the Font Manager that had merged with it, Mac's Font Book, and even a free font manager called Font Xplorer, but I had never even heard of Font Agent.

So let me explain some of the differences and some of the cool things.

First I noticed that I could not activate a font temporarily. I could go into the preferences and set it so that any manually activated fonts would open after a restart, but on second thought I didn't want that. Here's why. I have 20 fonts that I want on all the time. When I am designing a logo I manually turn on 50 fonts. If I set it to activate manually activated fonts after a restart all 70 fonts would come on. The way around this is to leave it set so that manually activated fonts turn off after a restart (which is the default), and make what is called a start up set. I made a new set, then right clicked and selected Start up set. Then I dragged my 20 fonts I want open all the time into the set and Font Agent activates those 20 fonts every time I restart. The 50 fonts, I opened for a logo project, get turned off on a restart. It's a different way of thinking about it, but it achieves the same result.

It seems that when I open an Illustrator or InDesign file Font Manager A activated the fonts the files needed and they were all there when the file was drawn to screen. Font Agent activates all my fonts also, but it seems like it does it a little later in the file opening process. I see a window about missing fonts, click okay, the missing font window closes and I see the activating fonts messages. This is so far the biggest problem I have had, and it doesn't really bother me.

On a side note, Font Manager A would deactivate a font of mine all the time after a restart, even though I had it set to be permanently activated. I have not had this problem since I put the same font in a start up group.

The next thing I noticed is Font Agent activates fonts in Illustrator, InDesign, Quark and Photoshop. Font Manager A didn't activate for Photoshop.

It also activates fonts for Safari and Mail. Now this may not seem like a big thing, most web designers use only web safe fonts and all computers have those. But much to my surprise as I surf the web or scroll through email I see Font Agent messages about fonts being activated, (this can be turned off) non-standard, non-websafe fonts. After I saw that I started to pay attention to webpages and they looked different, they looked the way the were meant to, non standard. I was really surprised by this. I think you can put programs into the preferences in Font Manager A to have it activate fonts for other programs, but I had never done that, I never knew I could until I started to write this.

Font Agent's font menu can be set to WYSIWYG so you can see your font names in the font style. I think Font Manager A can do this, but is was really slow on my machine.

Font Agents tools for classifying fonts seems much more comprehensive and the search tools seem to work a little better. Now maybe I will finally get my fonts organized, but just in case I don't Font Agent has something called the Font Player. It allows you to select a group of fonts and quickly automatically scroll through them. I could manually scroll through my fonts with Font Manager A (I can with Font Agent also) but every once in a while it would crash and the font would get marked as a bad font. So far with Font Agent I have not had it lock up and mark any fonts as bad. As I understand it Font Agent does a better job of fixing, and excluding bad fonts during the adding fonts process.

When I dragged all my fonts into Font Manager A I had 9874 fonts. When I dragged them into Font Agent I had 10381.

Both Font Manger A and Font Agent let you make smart sets, set attributes about fonts, make multiple sets, store your fonts in one folder, organize your font folder, and collect for output.

It may not seem like a big deal, but then it shouldn't be. If I am having to think about managing fonts, my Font Manager isn't doing it's job. I hope you check it out, FontAgent.

Sharing what you do to develop working relationships

2009-08-25T11:29:00.001-06:00

Lets face it, as a designer many people think what we do is magic based on a mood or whim. The challenge is to develop relationships and show people there are reasons we do the things we do. Developing a good relationships is a lot of work, but well worth it.

Here are some things I have done in my career to foster good relationships, help build the brand and explain what I do.

Talk: When I worked for a larger company I would walk around every morning and talk to people. See how it was going, what they were working on and offer to help where I could. This is hard because as an In House Designer I had a full schedule, but I thought it was important. Another advantage is sometimes I could see things coming that I needed to get ready for and spot possible problems, like brand issues. I'd like nothing more than to crawl into my cubicle, put my IPod on and zone out, but sometimes grabbing a cup of coffee and heading down the cubicle rows can be rewarding.

Cheer Lead: I'd love to claim this idea as mine but it was our HR managers. We got an old monitor and computer and put it up in the main hall. I sent emails out asking what people were doing outside work. I got hobbies, baby and wedding announcements and garage sales, etc. I also asked for sales info and new deals the sales team was working on. I used a looping powerpoint show, if I had an old Mac I would have used Keynote. It played on the monitor all day and people would stop and check it out. I also did slides about using the right logo and font, and I made sure the presentation fit the company brand. This gave me contact with all the other departments and helped reinforce the brand.

Push Info: A weekly newsletter is another fun way to get info out and have a reason to make contact with other departments. In one issue I did a story about the new fountain in front of the building that looked like a satellite dish. I retouched a photo of aliens by the fountain and said they were putting a communications device in front of the building. People loved it and would stop by and ask how I did it. It was fun, got people to talk to me and gave me the opportunity to show a little of my photoshop skills.

Communicate: When ever possible tell people what you're doing and if you can, show some science behind it. Color psychology, why you wanted an image facing a certain direction to pull the readers eye in that direction. Share articles about why a strong brand is so important. Make them understand what you do is not just your whim. Show them the method behind your madness.

Pro-Bono: Help someone with a garage sale flyer, or side business, you might even get a freelance customer out of it. I did a logo for a fellow employee that was starting an online storage business. In trade he gave me some storage space, but the people that came by and commented about how they liked the logo, and gave me an opportunity to share why I did it was the real benefit.

Be sure to check with your boss to make sure they are okay with all of these, You don't want them feeling like you're undermining them or being distracted from your job. As crappy as it is, designers have to deal with the reality of office politics all to often.

An interesting post in the Pushing Rock Blog on this topic.

Have fun making new friends and explaining your skills.

Tracking Twitter

2009-08-11T17:52:00.007-06:00

I must admit, when I first heard of Twitter my initial reaction was, What, 140 characters, micro blogging, how stupid is that. Well that was a about three months, 350 tweets, and 110 followers ago, now I'm hooked, and with anywhere between 2.5 million to 10 million accounts worldwide, (Twitter is keeping this under their hat), you can't afford to ignore Twitter.

Twitter Takes Time

I will be first to admit that twitter has the potential to suck the life out of my morning schedule. Marketing is about the numbers, knowing the effect my message is having, or at least how many people it's getting to is the only way to know if the time I'm spending is worth the effort. So if I am going to give some of my already busy schedule to Twittering I need to be able to see what happens to my tweets.

Google Analytics

I am a designer, not an SEO expert, so I am just going to relay, in the simplest terms, what I have done to be able check my twittering. For a really detailed approach to measuring your tweets check out this blog post by Hendrylee.

The first step is what do you want to measure? You may have a specific goal, driving traffic to your website of blog. You can track clicks from twitter but your going to have to have something like Google Analytics to measure what happens on your site or blog. Here are some links to help you add Google Analytics to your varies web assets.

Google Analytics
Add Google Analytics to your Blogger blog.
WordPress plugin for Google Analytics

Another reason to add Google Analytics to your assets is because you can take your Twitter feed and add it to your blog or website. If people click through a Twitter link from your blog or website you would have no way to track that.

Twitter Tools

There are a lot of ways to send and follow your twitters. I have tried a few and like a couple of them a lot. I have to admit The one I like the most is not the one I use. I like TweatDeck and Seesmic. They look great, work well, save searches, group people you follow, run multiple accounts, and they are AdobeAir programs so they run on any computer platform. The draw back is they have no tools to measure Twitter click throughs. There is a way to measure your clicks though, it's called Bit.Ly. You have to sign up for a Bit.ly account and be sure to use Bit.y to shorten your links in your tweets. This means re-shrinking links in the tweets you re-transmit, if you want to track those. That is extra work, but how serious do you want to be about tracking click throughs? There is a good discussion called, A Simple Way to Measure Twitter Effectiveness, about how Bit.Ly works on the Meteor Blog.

I use a program called HootSuite to monitor Twitter. It does much of what TweatDeck and Seesmic does, but it has statistics about your tweets when you use Ow.Ly, the URL shortener in HootSuite. You still have to re-shorten the links you re-transmit, but that's the cost of knowing. It also lets you schedule when your tweets post so they go out when your followers are online. The thing I don't like about it is it's web-based. I like to keep my Twitter Dashboard, as TweetDeck, Seesmic and HootSuite are called, open all the time, this is difficult in a web browser. The way I get around this is to use a program called Fluid. Fluid is a web browser that uses very little system resources and lets you close all of the navigation and menus so it looks like an application. Unfortunately for some, it is a Mac application.

Other Statistics

Tweet Stats lets you see statistics about what and when you are twittering.
See how your followers are growing on Twitter Counter.
The following sites have some Statistics about Twitter:
ComScore
Twitter statistics that make you go "hmmmm"

So good luck and good tracking. Remember, knowledge is power.

Crowdsourcing – Is it another way to devalue creativity?

2009-07-24T12:13:00.001-06:00

What is crowdsourcing?
You can’t hear the word crowdsourcing without thinking of outsourcing which has become the word for shipping jobs overseas. Crowdsourcing has become the term used to describe using as many people as possible to get things done as cheap as you can.

The word crowdsourcing was coined by Jeff Howe in a June 2006 Wired magazine article, The Rise of Crowdsourcing, by Jeff Howe. But the act of crowdsourcing has been around for longer than that.

Wikipedia defines crowdsourcing as a neologism for the act of taking a task traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people or community in the form of an open call. For example, the public may be invited to develop a new technology, carry out a design task (also known as community-based design and distributed participatory design), refine or carry out the steps of an algorithm (see Human-based computation), or help capture, systematize or analyze large amounts of data (see also citizen science).

My opinion on crowdsourcing?
In my opinion, crowdsourcing is to the creative industry, e.g. Graphic Design, Photography, what Wal-Mart is to small businesses and customer service.

If you’re a Wal-Mart shopper you might think great, crowdsourcing is going to make Graphic Designers more affordable right? If you don’t care for the big box stores you might wonder if the customer service you have come to love from your graphic designer is going away? The answer to both those questions may be yes.

The pros and cons of crowdsourcing are in the eye of the beholder. If your Encyclopedia Britannica, Wikipedia means less sales, but need to know some information quickly on your phone, or you know something and want to share it easily, it’s great. Istock photo is bad for professional photographers, but great to small businesses with a tiny budget. If you’re a designer the big logo design sites take away your logo work, but need a quick cheap logo and they’re great.

As prices are forced lower by crowdsourcing designers have to spend less time on each task to make the same amount of money. The time it takes to design and build a file won’t change much; so personal contact with the customer is what will suffer.

So how does crowdsourcing affect design?
When I design a logo I talk to my clients, I ask questions to get to know them, the personality of their company or product, and learn whom their target audience is. I consider where the client is in their market, leader or just entering. I consider color psychology and the nature of shapes. When you go to a logo box store site the main question you’re asked is how much do you want to pay? As a designer for big box logo site you have to churn out logos like a machine to make any money. You create a bike shop logo with a bicycle rim in the middle and the next week you swap out the bike rim for a car tire and present it to the next client. I am not saying these are bad designers, on the contrary, I have seen some great logos come out of these shops. However with little to no interaction with the client they are just creating good-looking logos, not necessarily the right logo for your company or product.

What happens from prolonged exposure to this level of design, it becomes normal; just like the lack of customer service and personal attention we have come expect from a big box store. So while crowdsourcing is a great way to get design work done cheap, it may not be a way to get great design work.

Some examples of when crowdsourcing works:
Crowdsourcing News: The Guardian and MP expenses investigation into the MP Expense Scandal in the UK. The newspaper created a system to allow the public to search methodically through 700,000 expense claim documents. Over 20,000 people participated in finding erroneous and remarkable expense claims by Members of Parliament.

Timeline: Steve Fossett disappearance. The search for aviator Steve Fossett, whose plane went missing in Nevada in 2007, in which up to 50,000 people examined high-resolution satellite imagery from DigitalGlobe that was made available via Amazon Mechanical Turk. The search was ultimately unsuccessful. Fosset's remains were eventually located by more traditional means.

The ESP Game by Luis von Ahn (later acquired by Google and renamed Google Image Labeler) was launched in 2004 and gets people to label images as a side-effect of playing a game. The image labels can be used to improve image search on the Web. This game led to the concept of Games with a purpose.

SETI@home is a scientific experiment that uses Internet-connected computers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). You can participate by running a free program that downloads and analyzes radio telescope data.

Other things writen about crowdsourcing:
Phantom Captain:  Art and Crowdsourcing , by Andrea Grover
The Rise of Crowdsourcing, by Jeff Howe
Is Crowdsourcing Evil? The Design Community Weighs In, by Jeff Howe

What's in a name change.

2009-07-02T10:18:00.000-06:00

I was listening to the radio and heard a story on the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and how they're thinking of changing the name of the state to Rhode Island. Yes the full name of Rhode Island is Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. It made me think about company names and changing them.

I have developed a strong brand and, I think, a rather unique and recognizable, though sometimes difficult to use, logo.

Now that I have developed a brand I find that sometimes I need a simpler logo and name. I use YAD, Your Art Director's acronym, and a YAD button.

Now I don't have the resources, or brand recognition, to change my company name like International Business Machines, IBM, did and because YAD* has another meaning, I make sure that when I use YAD it is always in conjunction with Your Art Director in some way.

In these days of texting and twittering LOL, RT and @, 2 ur friends, when is it right to make the switch from your full name to a shortened name or acronym?

Some things to ask yourself before you make a switch.

Do I have a strong brand, would I be giving up brand equity to make a switch?
Do people have an emotional attachment to my companies brand?
Is anyone using the new name or acronym already?
Is there a problem with the new name, it's acronym or URL?
Does my new name work internationally?
Why do I need to change the name?

A strong brand - Kleenex® and Band-Aid® wouldn't think of changing their names, they have actually had to sue people to not use their name. An interesting article about just that: American Red Cross Sued For Using a Red Cross

An emotional attachment to the brand - McDonalds® and the Golden Arches® have many childhood memories attached to them for a lot of people, using Mickey D's may be okay in more playful marketing targeting younger customers, but the loss of an emotional attachment to your customers could prove devastating.

Is the name or acronym already used - In many cases people base their company name on the availability of a URL. I think you should choose the best name for your company then figure out the URL. That said, be sure the URL that matches your company name isn't being used by your competition, or something worse. An article on acronym problems in the Credit Uunion industry

Is the new name a problem - It's easy to think that the company American Sprinkler Systems (I made this up, not affiliated with American Sprinkler) could use it's acronym, but it might not be in their best interest. Sharing expert information online is a great idea, so who wouldn't like the Experts Exchange, well some spam blockers might not, expertsexchange.com. The top 10 unintentionally worst company URLs

The new name internationally - When General Motors introduced the Chevy Nova in South America they didn't know that "no va" meant "it won't go." After the company figured out why it wasn't selling any cars, it renamed the car in its Spanish markets to the Caribe. This is a horrible website, but it has some fun international marketing mistakes, well, I'm sure they weren't fun for the marketing professionals in charge.

Why change the name - Changing a name and logo is the quickest way for a marketing profession to put their mark on a company, but is it the best thing for the company or just their portfolio? There needs to be a good compelling argument to make a big change to your brand. Sometimes through no fault of it's own a company finds it's name has become a bad thing. You wouldn't blame a company with 911 in it's name for feeling like it needed a change. Sometimes a company outgrows it's name. Apple Computer® changed it's name to Apple® after the rise of the Ipod.

What can you gain from making a brand and name change? In many case's a lot but whatever you decide to do, be sure to build some matrix to measure the effect the brand change is having.

Some more information on naming companies.

Entrepreneur.com's naming rsources
Why Companies Change Their Name, Name Wire
The 10 Commandments of a Great Business Name, About.com

As for Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in my opinion, changing the name is a waste of time and money. No one refers to it as Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, I've only ever heard it refered to as Rhode Island, they also have the distinction of having the longest state name and it's going to cost a lot of money to change all the documents and signs.

*A YAD (Hebrew: יד‎), literally, "hand," is a Jewish ritual pointer, used to point to the text during the Torah reading from the parchment Torah scrolls. It is intended to prevent anyone from touching the parchment, which is considered sacred.

Missing Plug-ins CS 4, a bit of a Rant

2009-06-27T01:05:00.006-06:00

You know when your working and in the zone and something brings it all to grinding halt? It happened to me yesterday when I went to use Contact Sheet II in Adobe PhotoShop CS4. It's always been in PhotoShop for as long as I can remember, ->File/Automate/Proof Sheet II, like a friend ready to help me do my work. Why would they get rid of a tool that collects all your images into proof sheets automatically and saves them to any file format you want so clients can easily pick photos.

Adobe decided that you need to use another program to do this. Adobe Bridge will now handle the Contact Sheet duties, and Contact Sheet II would be an optional install for Photoshop. You have to change your Bridge CS4 workspace to output, and a panel will appear to let you go through many more steps than you used to, only the Panel didn't appear. What did appear were peoples comments on forum pages asking why the Panel didn't appear.

It was then I decided to do the optional install of Contact Sheet II and found that Adobe felt other things were optional as well. Bigger Tiles, ContactSheetII, ExtractPlus, Layer Comps to WPG, PatternMaker, PhotomergeUI, Texture presets for Texturizer, TWAIN, and Web Photo Gallery (WebContactSheetII) were all optional now. Twain, the plugin to run many scanners and input devices, is now optional, go figure.

Apparently they are on one of the install disks that came with CS4. I also found them here:
Macintosh
Windows

The install locations are all over the place, so be sure to read the file OptionalPluginsReadMe.pdf to make sure you get them in the right place, then take a deep breath, grab a fresh cup of coffe, restart your timer and get back to work.

Orphan Works Legislation

2009-06-17T23:34:00.010-06:00

As a designer and artist this legislation scares me. Before I get into why, let me give you some info about both sides.

This is what Marybeth Peters, Register of Copyrights has to say in favor of the legislation.

Based on the recommendation of my office, as published in our 2006 Report on Orphan Works, the legislation would allow good-faith users of copyrighted content to move forward in cases where they wish to license a use but cannot locate the copyright owner after a diligent search. It has benefited from many months of discussion, reflection and fine-tuning under the leadership of Senators Patrick Leahy and Orrin Hatch and Representatives Howard Berman and Lamar Smith.

Read the full article

Here's a bit of the side against the legislation.

If the Orphan Works Act is passed, all of your copyright holdings will be retroactively “orphaned” and lose their associated protections. You will have to register each of them with the federal Copyright Office in order to regain said protection. In addition, any future work of yours will have to be registered as well. This registration will cost a fee, and will likely be too expensive for most individuals to pay.

Read the full article

Here are some links to others with an opinion on the Orphan Legislation.

Sell your concepts

Photoburner

Open Congress

My opinion.

What if someone sees an illustration on my portfolio site and innocently copies it for their vacation blog. They shouldn't do it, but we all know this happens. They stop updating the blog, time goes by and they change their email. Someone looking for a picture for their project comes across my image and can't find contact information for anyone connected to the blog? They send a few emails, maybe look up a name, no luck. As I understand this law they can now take my image and do anything they want. I don’t think someone should be able to do that after a feeble attempt to find the creator. What if they put it on a product and sell it, worse yet, what if they take the image and use it in connection something I don't agree with?

If an illustration, photo, story, song, blog is found on the web and the owner can't be located it should not be used, it should be assumed it is protected and left alone. If someone really wants to use the work they should hire an artist to create something that will fit their needs. This law will cheat the creator out of control of their work, and cost other artists work because people can just find images, do an unsuccessful search and then use the image as they see fit. When in history has it ever been okay to find something someone has used their talent to create and just take it.

We are at time in human history where technology has made the ability to be creative and share that creativity in ways that are unprecedented, and now we are going to make a law that not only will cost us to be creative with government fees, but also let our creativity be stolen legally.

Please do something to help stop this legislation from becoming law, send a message that creativity is valued.

Contact your congressperson here

Learn more about current copyright law,

Government Copyright Site

Can I wear tan socks?

2009-05-20T15:04:00.006-06:00

It occurred to me this morning when I looked in the sock drawer and saw nothing but tan, I don't wear tan socks, black socks and black shoes are what I wear, part of my brand.

I started to think about clients calling and saying, I need to change things up, generate some excitement, I want to change the colors of my logo for this project, ad, or whatever, can I do it? Sure you can, it's your logo, but before you do I want you to think about branding. Branding lets your audience know it's not only you, but the you they are comfortable with. Your brand is more than just colors. It's a collection of expectations about a product, company or person. You go to McDonalds® and it's always the same, Golden Arches®, food that tastes the way you expect. Starbucks® too, it isn't just a logo and green color, it's music, people, a feeling, the taste. Think about Coke®, when you see a Coke ad you know it is Coke, even when it's real people or animations, an iPod® ad is an iPod® ad, even if the Apple® logo is on colors, or black. Why? because of branding.

These examples are big companies, they have a very well developed brand with teams of people managing it. Most of my customers are smaller, the brand is still forming and may not be able to handle something as simple as a color change, but maybe it can, if the rest of the presentation is consistent and meets the audience's expectations of your brand.

Social Networking

2009-05-05T17:01:00.007-06:00

Social Networking is all the rage. I have succumb to it myself. But why should you do it? Keep in contact with business associates, stay in front of clients and meet new ones, keep up with friends, meet new people, learn about new trends, for fun?

Yes!

Social Networking is not going solve all your marketing issues, fix communication with clients, and make your world a better happier place,

Where should you start?

I have some I like, but you need to think about a couple things. What are your customers, associates and friends doing? Ask them, then take a look at these links and see how many people are using social networking sites.

List of social networking websites

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Top 100 Social Media Tools

Posted on March 31, 2008 by Steve Dale in Social Media, Software

Social Networking Websites Services Review

TopTenReviews.com

What should you do?

So can you measure your results? See what Brian Ellefritz says in, Is Social Media Held to a Higher Standard?

Time spent per month 32 hours average.