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

9.19.2006

ahhhh......


I spent last night cleaning out my inbox, and I just had to gloat. It's just like before the Internets became so importsnt.....

posted at 8:08 AM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

9.15.2006

What do Designers do when they get sick?

We are eternaly thankful that we have a project which includes drawing outlines of lots and lots and lots of boulders. It's about the only thing I can manage today.

Have a wonderful, non-ill, weekend, everyone.

posted at 3:52 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

9.13.2006

Productivity for the Small Design Studio


Well, not all of us can have full-time traffic managers, account executives, and so forth (aside from ourselves and our design comrades in the shop doing all of these things in addition to our more creative tasks). With that in mind, I thought I'd share some insights into how we manage workflow, job responsibilities, and tracking in the Notchcode office.

In the beginning, it was pretty simple. Since we had just a few clients, a small desktop file folder holder stored all our active projects. We could access things quickly, and keep on top of jobs because there weren't many of them. Scheduling and milestone tracking were also pretty simple; chances were there was only one milestone happening on any given day, across the entire set of projects that we had active.



Me and the Big BoardThen, we got bigger. Added more clients. The desktop file was still there, but was now overflowing with active job folders. Sometimes two job folders would share a slot in the holder...not too good. We bought a big whiteboard for tracking job status, upcoming milestones, and project completion dates. This worked pretty well: the deadlines were right there, in front of you, all the time. A good motivator. The problem was that sometimes we had even more jobs in-house than we had room for on the job board. Not good.

So recently, we've taken the next step. We now use an online project management tool: Basecamp, from 37Signals. And we're implementing David Allen's Getting Things Done methodology for tracking all the "stuff" that floats in for projects. There are a number of things a creative agency like ours can use to make Allen's GTD methodology really easy, especially if you are a Mac user. If you've bought a Mac in the last couple of years, chances are it came with a great little program called Omni Outliner. Upgrade to the Pro version for a paltry $35 bucks or so, and you've got a powerful thought organizer tool. I use it all the time to get my ideas in order before a client meeting, or even to take notes when meeting with clients. And now, I find out, there are free scripts available for Omni Outliner Professional called Kinkless GTD, which basically lets you do a brain dump into an Omni Outliner document, and then populate your iCal schedule and To-Do List with actionable items. Change one of these in iCal, and it changes in the Omni Outliner doc too. Pretty cool, especially since it's free.

The upshot for us is this: We can manage scores of active projects and stay on top of things, without enlarging our office staff. That said, we have a part-time project manager now, keeping tabs on things and making sure everyone gets stuff done when it needs too.Just because you have great tools doesn't mean you don't need someone cracking the whip occasionally, just to stay in-the-know.

posted at 2:32 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

9.08.2006

avoir un bon vendredi !



Yes, my french is not so good, but I thought I'd wish all of the blog's ten or so readers a Happy Friday--especially my loyal reader(s) in France. Hope the nice autumnal weather over there is keeping you cool, and making everything as beautiful as I imagine it is there.

posted at 10:34 AM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

9.06.2006

A brand identity case study

I've posted another branding case study to my website here. It summarizes the eight-step process I use to go about creating a brand, from initial evaluation and information gathering, to implementation. It's not as detailed as I'd like, mainly because the main purpose of the page is to summarize the process. But I'd love to share the whole shebang with anyone who is interested. Let me know, and I'll send you a PDF with all of the steps outlined and diagrammed.

The main thing about creating a brand identity is this: It's not just a logo. It's your business's soul, it's yearnings for the future, and it's direct emptional connection to your current and proaspective customers. Anyone who says it's just a logo is looking for a quick buck, and not looking for the value it has for your company. Remember that when you see those cheezy spam e-mails for "$300 logo design, GUARANT33D!!!"

posted at 8:19 AM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

9.01.2006

The Office

The Office

Yes, there's a reason I love location photography, and the image above says it all. I spent 50 hours away from my desk this week, and went down to Hinsdale County to make photography for the Division of Reclamation, Mining, & Safety. And this is the sort of sight I was greeted with every minute I was down there.

Yes, I am gloating, a little, but it's gigs like this one that made me get out of the standard 9-to-5 job and into my own business. The good news is there are a lot of jobs that put you out here in the wilderness on a regular basis. Want to? I advise schooling in biology, hydrology, geology, or environmental science. Then find a company (or government) that needs field people. And then you won't have to envy shots like the one above any longer.

[[Or, just become a location photographer!]]

posted at 10:01 AM Leave your comments here: 0 comments


Business Blog Top Sites
Subscribe with Bloglines
View Alan Bucknam's profile on LinkedIn

Add to Technorati Favorites