providing graphic design, branding, photography and marketing expertise to denver and the world

Quote of the Week:

All solitary dreamers know that they hear differently when they close their eyes.
-Gaston Bachelard

Notes from Notchcode

7.31.2006

Thursday Hits

Using Feedburner to track my RSS feed readers (you know who you are), I've discovered I get three times as many hits on Thursdays than any other day of the week, on average. What explains this?

My new theory: that's when people want to start thinking about design, branding, and so on. I mean, you're not just reading this blog for the pictures, right?

While it's tempting to only post new articles on Thursdays because of this new info, I will keep writing and elucidating y'all as often as possible. Because I care. I really, really care.

Now get back to work.

posted at 1:49 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

7.27.2006

Book of the day: Cascading Style Sheets: the Definitive Guide


I can't say enough good things about this book. It's a great reference, and nothing beats having a bound paper reference in-hand when trying to remember whether background-color: none or background-color: transparent is correct. Get a copy now and thank me later.

posted at 7:45 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

Semicolon Hell


Just spent the last three hours scratching my head over a font-display problem on a site I'm developing: Safari was showing the correct font-family attribute, however all the other browsers weren't. The rest of the style sheet was being utilized, but for some reason, the font wasn't. Here's what the typical font-family CSS declaration looked like:

font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; Lucida-Grande, 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, sans-serif;

ok, so you see the problem? If you spot it in under three hours, you can have a job with me.

Of course, the issue is with the semicolon right after 'Lucida Grande'...that effectively ends the declaration right there, and ignores the rest of the string.

Big Duh, right there. I did about a hundred other things before eleting all but the basic generic font-family declaration, and as I was doing that, I noticed the ill-placed semicolon. The good thing is that it's all better now, and I can move forward with actually getting a site proof online for the client to look at. But let this be a warning: if you prototype in Safari, it will let the semicolon pass, and read the whole line...Firefox, IE, Netscape, and Opera won't. It goes without saying you should always double-check your homework before handing it in, but I'd also say you should double-check it while in-process, and make sure you're not missing something stupid or obvious or just plain odd that may eat into your development time as you're prepping the site to go out the door.

posted at 3:17 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

7.21.2006

Know Peace, No War


Our subversive alter-ego, CultureVictim, is ramping up production. The site is still nonoperational, but that hasn't stopped us from making stuff. The first offering is a sticker, suitable for pasting to the windshield of any Secret Service vehicles you may encounter. Get it here.

posted at 2:57 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

7.19.2006

To Office? Or not To Office?


I know there are a lot of posts out on the intarweb about working from home, and the virtual office, but I haven't seen a lot from Denver-area designers/branding people on this topic. When is not having a storefront a bad thing?

I've posed this question to some of my clients. Not one of them cares that I am not paying rent, don't have another person answering the phone and watering the plants, or without off-street parking (well, you are welcome to park in the driveway, if you really want to). Of course, since these are my clients, they are self-selected to respond this way. Perhaps my lack of office space has scared prospective clients away: "no Pavillion chairs in the reception area? Forget this guy!" So I want to know what you, dear reader, think of this.

I have worked in a small office, and a large office, and they both have their charms (well, I preferred the smaller one). But they were still an Office with a capital O, and there was rent, overhead, commuting, eating out, and other stuff that I don't really miss too much (well, the eating out part was nice). And I noticed, that especially in the smaller office, we still often left our space to meet clients, even though we had a relatively nice conference room. Having an office did make it easy for a client to pop in and look at a proof, but this was at the Dawn of Time, before PDFs, and other e-lek-tronik thingies made such things easier. I also take the viewpoint that when I am seeing a client, it's usually a CEO or equivalent, and they would rather have me come to them, anyhow. They see my value in my creativity, resourcefulness, and experience--not in how nice my conference table is. And while I do envy the cool factor that a nice LoDo or Pearl St. address can bring, how important is it in bringing in business?

I imagine some of you may say "a lot: you have to have a marquee space in order to bring in marquee clients." well, I don't dispute that there are some clients who may hire on the basis of the real estate you occupy ("they've got a huge renovated warehouse in the Golden Triangle; imaginge the rent they're paying; they HAVE to be making money!"). However, I am not convinced that they are in the majority. Am I wrong? Because if I am, tell me, so I can get out there, rent a nice place, and start bringing in the really big fish!

posted at 7:10 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

7.17.2006

retina scans for everyone!

Why should biometrics become a standard way to authenticate someone and allow them to buy stuff?

I bring you the example of the OfficeMax cashier line.

I was in the local office supply store this morning, buying boxes to store old client files, and ended up behind two lovely old ladies, who were buying pens (or something). The first lady paid for her purchase with a credit card, and the transaction was completed in about thirty seconds. The second woman, presented with a tab of (I'm not kidding) $1.78, whipped out her checkbook. Now, I know that everyone has their own preferences when it comes to handling cash. I carry no actual money on me, as I'll usually run to the nearest bakery and spend it on fudge. Checks are a hassle, and I prefer the simple minimalism of one credit card (actually it's a debit card, but same thing). One little thing to carry around, and that's that.

[[ An aside: paying vendors is another matter: checks are very convenient, unless I'm paying off my mob-run web database company, in which case it's rolls of cash stuffed into cannoli ]]

Well, the nice woman in front of me wrote out her check for her sub-two-dollar purchase. It took a while. Nearly a minute to write the check (although I'm sure her penmanship was much better than mine ever is on a check). Another thirty seconds for the cashier to verify her identity with a driver's license check, writing the info out onto the check itself. Another thirty seconds to run the check through what is basically a scanner, which converts the check into an automatic bank transfer from the woman's checking account to the office supply store--essentially making it a debit card purchase. Five more seconds for the receipt, bringing our total to about two minutes and five seconds for a buck seventy-eight.

Now, let's forget the waiting, the eternal waiting, that someone (or a whole line of people) have to endure behind one or two check-writers. Let's focus on the cost to the business. It's obviously about four times more costly to process a check than a credit card, when looking at the time the hourly employee is spending on the transaction. Credit card companies will charge 2 percent or so per transaction, but it's a net savings if you account for the employee time spent on the transaction as well. So, the quicker you transact, the more money you save, and the happier you make your customers, which means they're not pissed off enough at you to go somewhere else next time you need ink cartridges.

So, my solution: Give everyone who has a checkbook a free retina scan/fingerprint scan/DNA fingerprint when they renew their check order. That way, they will be able to pay more quickly!

This is more than a little tongue in cheek: I know that there are obvious privacy issues with this solution, not to mention probable social/class discrimination issues, as I'm sure some demographics are much more likely to write checks for absolutely everything, ensuring that they would unduly be forced to be scanned/fingerprinted/whatever. But the office supply store example does show one thing: Time is money, and the quicker you can make a buck, the more bucks you are going to make (and the happier your client is going to be).


If you're a retailer. As for me, since I charge a million dollars an hour, I only need to work one hour a year. That's my strategy and I'm sticking to it.

posted at 4:22 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

7.13.2006

Odd InDesign Palette Behavior

Check this out: When opening InDesign CS2 today, my palettes showed up all cropped:



...clicking on the caret in the palette made it do this:


...another click brought it to the familiar "rolled-up" tab:


...then another click brought the tab into full view:


Now, I hadn't crashed, or loaded any odd documents, or anything like that, before this happened. Anyone have any ideas? I haven't seen any reports of this happening on Adobe's site, or elsewhere in the internets. Let me know if you've got an answer.

posted at 6:00 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

Fire a Client? You Bet!

Sometimes there are jobs that, for one reason or another, you just can't pass up. Maybe your income is a little low for the quarter. Perhaps it's a high-profile client. Maybe you're doing somebody a favor. In any case, you take the job, even if a little part of your brain is telling you "stop! This is nuts! They're trouble! I can feel it!"

Down the line, you find out that little part of your brain is proved right. Some clients just can't help being rude, irresponsible, or overbearing. And for a price/exposure/good karma, you can take it--for a while. But what happens when their behavior becomes more than just irritating, unprofessional, or bothersome? Do you stick it out, hoping for another job that will keep you in cash, or bring you more exposure?

I say: no.

Yes, you may be losing money by not banging your head against unreturned voice mail. You may be losing precious exposure in the business community by not allowing your client to circumvent the creative process. But enough is enough.

Is it really work a few hundred, or even thousand, dollars to wake up in the morning and dread going to work? Nope. For those of us who are running our own shops, isn't that why we left "working for the man" to someone else, anyway?

Is having a great piece in your portfolio worth the stress, headaches, and loss of sleep that dealing with a client like this brings? No chance. There are always other chances to shine.

Now, I am not talking about "normal" stress, deadlines, pressures, or other issues that inevitably come with the territory. I'm talking about bullies who, in either a passive/aggressive, or just plain aggressive, way, keep you from performing at your best. You know the type:

They ask you to bid on a job and never call you back, even to say "no". But then they e-mail to ask for copies of their final text files that they used in their latest brochure.

They hound you to produce a piece, then put it on hold, then expect it to be ready to print/upload when they call out of the blue months later.

What do these examples have in common? They all show a lack of respect. And where there is a lack of respect, there is a lack of trust. And where there is a lack of trust, it is impossible to make great design. We need to trust our clients, and they must trust us; otherwise, the end result is guaranteed to be mediocre. Think of all the mediocre pieces you've created. Some are mediocre because of time or budget constraints, sure. But I'm willing to bet over half of those projects that had bland endings had plenty of time and adequate cash on hand to get a good result. I'm willing to bet these projects suffered from a lack of trust.

So: what to do? Well, we have a couple of options. If you want to keep the client's business, the first, best option, is to confront the client about the problem. Explain in as neutral and professional a tone as possible what the issue is (bad communication, lack of trust, doing end-runs around the designer to vendors, whatever). And see how they react. Hopefully it can be the beginning of the end of such behavior. They will see you've called their bluff, or realize that they've been behaving inappropriately. And they have the opportunity to modify their behavior.

And, of course, there are people who refuse to modify anything. They are always in the right. They are perfect, at the top of their game, and no one tells them what to do. If they are making it impossible for you to do your job, impossible to meet goals you and they set together, it's time to part ways. To remain in a sick relationship that won't get better is bad for you. Let the client find another victim. Cut your losses and go.

Maybe I'm stating the obvious here. But I have heard plenty of creatives talk about some crummy assignment they've taken--again, and again, and again-- for one reason or another. And I'm the first to admit that if I need the cash, I'll take almost any job, even if I know the client is a jerk. But if it's not a matter of putting food on your plate, save your sanity and go. After all, isn't life about more than just money and deadlines and awards? It's about living. Living a full life. So get rid of the jerks, and breathe in a lungfull of fresh air, and remember there are more important things in your life besides making a living.

posted at 4:43 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

7.07.2006

Book of the day: The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America : A Guide to Field Identification

The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America : A Guide to Field Identification is a great take on the usual flora and fauna guidebooks you see earnest hikers with binoculars toting around. One that shows the various types of shopping carts in their native environments, is much more handy for us suburban types. Author Julian Montague has nailed the genre, with color-coded symbols to indicate various species of carts, etc.

posted at 9:45 AM Leave your comments here: 0 comments


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