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Quote of the Week:

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

Notes from Notchcode

12.31.2007

Just as I get used to writing "2007" on everything, here comes another year.

The Wall, December 31, 2007
Happy New Year, loyal reader. This has been a great year at Notchcode. Lots of creative projects, and clients who actually get the fact that good design gets good results. We did a lot of interesting and worthwhile work. Some notable bits:
  • I learned more than I ever wanted to know about Yahoo! Media Group Flash advertising guidelines (thanks, ClickHere, for being so patient). For someone who really loves trying to avoid using Flash, I actually do a lot of it now, and have gotten to the point where I don't cringe when someone asks me to to 20 versions of the same ad, with different specs, programming, actions, and dimensions.

  • I got a even deeper into branding methodologies. Finding a good process for building a brand identity from the ground up can be a challenge. I found a great model in Alina Wheeler's work, and have built on it. It really doesn't matter if you are a low-budget startup or a multimillion dollar corporation; if you need branding work, the process is the same regardless of who you are. The difference is the resources you can bring to bear on things like competitive audits, testing, brand expressions, marketing, and the rest. But the philosophy and process is the same for a non-profit with a $5,000 budget as it is for a multinational corporation with a million dollar budget. This year I helped build two really nice brands for very different organizations, with different budgets, and by having a good process in place I was able to achieve success with both projects.

  • Print advertising was on the rise this year. I know that some folks keep talking recession, and downturn, but we had a record number of print ad accounts show up at our door this year. These are fun, because I got to work with very specific goals for each campaign, and we applied tracking practices to measure success whenever possible. And I know people keep talking about how print is dead, yaddah yaddah yaddah--it really isn't. If you can build a solid print campaign, it can work very well within a lot of markets.

  • Time management and project management is possible in a small office, if you have the right tools. Basecamp from 37 signals has been a great tool in keeping projects focused, on-time, and on-budget. And David Allen's Getting Things Done methodology, along with tweaks online fron Kinkless, the Omni Group, and 43folders keeps me from wanting to drive my car off a bridge because I have too much to do.

  • Sometimes the best projects are the ones you don't get paid to do. I could tell you horror stories about the pro bono work that comes with clients who assume that since you're doing it for free, then you must have plenty of time on your hands to make twenty additional revisions, change the concept right before it goes to press, and otherwise alter the scope of work and make your life crazy. Yes, that is the stereotype, and I have had my share. But I worked on a couple of pro bono project this year that were lovely, notably a re-election website for my local city councilperson, and ongoing work for a photographer friend of mine who makes amazing photographs of people, places, and things. They were both committed to the process, the project, and in making sure things worked well between us. Pro bono doesn't have to make you run the other way; just find projects you really care about, and get the right person on the other end of the project to align scope, expectations, and the rest with you so it doesn't go off the rails.

  • Once again, I have the most amazing vendors and partners in the world. I am talking about the great folks like Dave at Wandel, Keith at D&K, Tamera at Sprint, Justin at MailMasters of Colorado, the good folks at the local Compass Bank, and so many more. Combined with help, advice, and services from copywriter Jon, cartographer Nick, designer Heather, and SEO-program-dude Knox, Notchcode delivers a large agency footprint in a small agency package. You make me look good, and (more importantly) make my clients look great. Thanks, guys!
I got to meet some interesting and passionate lighting engineers. Passionate business executives. Passionate water and land use advocates. In fact, pretty much all of the clients around here were passionate about what they do. Which, obviously, helps make them so good at what they do. So a little unasked-for advice for 2008: be passionate about what you do!

Have a great new year's celebration out there, and we'll see you in 2008.

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posted at 4:17 PM Leave your comments here: 1 comments

10.31.2007

Happy Froggie-Princess Day, everyone!


It's Halloween, which means we're out asking the neighbors for candy. this image is from last year, when Sophie couldn't decide between being a frog and a fairie princess.

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9.03.2007

crash and burn (or, why you ALWAYS get AppleCare when you buy a Mac)

Well, entropy finally struck one of my Macs, hard. All last week the little 12-inch G4 Powerbook I use for most of my day-to-day applications had been hiccupping, in different ways each time. Sometimes it was slow to start. Other times, it took a long time to build out the file directory views when saving or opening from within an application. Sometimes it wouldn't shut down properly....So I repaired the file permissions using Disk Utility, as I usually do every couple of weeks, and thought nothing of it.

Until Friday.

On Friday, the PB started doing really odd stuff. Like shutting down instead of sleeping when I closed the case. Or refusing to wake up when it was in screen saver mode. Then, on Saturday morning, when I was trying to bang out some Flash ads for a client, it took an hour to start up. An hour. Let's just say that's about an hour longer than it usually takes to get moving. I ran Disk Utility, this time from the CD. Couldn't repair the disk. Try again. Still no luck. I spent about two hours trying to get this fixed, burning all the time I had set aside for work before Robyn and I went off for our 24 hours of no kids anniversary date, which we do every year. I left the computer shut down, awaiting a solution.

The next day, fresh copy of DiskWarrior in hand, I ran its tests. While it was able to read the files, the physical structure of the disk was so badly compromised that it could only show me that, well, if the disk wan't completely hosed, why yes, it could fix the directory...but since the drive was as flaky as a pubescent nerd's scalp, well, sorry!

I ran Tech Tool Deluxe's Surface Scan overnight to check the physical disk integrity. When I awoke and checked the machine 12 hours later, only ten percent of the disk had been scanned, showing a whopping 160 errors. Now, that in itself isn't necessarily a high number, but the fact that it took all night and was still only one tenth the way through scanning an 80GB disk meant that it was trying really hard to read blocks that did report success, and so my fear is that those blocks would be the next ones to go. and if you multiply an average of 160 blocks by ten, that gives me an estimated 1,600 bad blocks on the entire disk...about three times as many as some experts assert is the definition of a "irretrevable disk failure."

My backups were in order, but there were a couple of folders I don't normally back up that I needed. Fortunately, I was able to connect the PB up to the server in target disk mode and pull them down...they check out ok on their new home according to all the utilities. I took the PB down to the local Apple Store and they sent it off to Nashville, where Apple will replace the disk and check out the rest of the CPU as well. Hopefully, they tell me, it will be cback in my hands in about a week--although I have had excellent results with them returning larger repairs even more quickly.

So what to do in the interim? Well, that's why I keep the 6 year-old TiBook around. A quick install of CS3 and BBEdit and I should be back in business. The worst part of it is that I burned what was essentially one and a half full days of work time on this, which I cannot get back.

Now, I should say, this is a very unusual experience for me, Mac-wise. I have had three incidents with Macs I've owned, over eight years. That's not too bad, especially if what my PC-owning brethren tell me is true about the PC fixit rate. And Each time I've had a problem, it was covered under Apple Care, Apple's extended (three year) warranty program. Worth every penny if, say, you need your PB's $2,000 screen replaced, or need $300 worth of work done to replace a $150 drive. So my advice to you Mac-folk: figure on dropping the extra cash for Apple Care when you make your Mac purchase, and compute without worrying about the repair bill (jsut don't drop your mac...not covered ;) ).

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7.03.2007

Happy Fourth

Happy Fourth of July, from the wonderful graphic designers of the Works Progress Administration:



Found on Shorpy, the lazy man's way to see the past.

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12.29.2006

anyone else working today?

I routinely feel like Ebenezer Scrooge. Not that I'm tighter than a high-strung violin, or stingier than a pack rat, but because I find myself working on these days before holiday weekends...the days my clients and most of the rest of the country seems to be taking off.

I've stopped trying to actually go to client offices on days like these (unless I call ahead), or to schedule meetings, which is a good thing; I suffer from the small businessperson's curse of being drawn into working. all. the. time.

Having a home office as well doesn't help matters. I do have the self-discipline--most weeks--to stay away from it when the notchcode offices are "closed".

And that's what we are today, for the most part (blogging activities excluded, of course): closed.

Have a wonderful last couple of 2006 days, and we'll see you on the other side.

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12.01.2006

Slowing Down

Well, the holiday slowdown is upon us. If you're in a B2B service industry, you know what I'm talking about: no one wants to work between Thanksgiving and about a week after New Year's.

Well, there's one exception to that: There is always the one or two clients I have that are desperately trying to push something out before the Christmas/NewYear's vortex (from which no productive time can escape, it seems), and EVERYTHING HAS TO BE DONE RIGHT NOW! I MEAN NOW, MISTER!!!

Yeah, so it's basically a mix of laid-back clients who may or may not return a phone call in the next six weeks, and people who want to surgically implant a Blackberry into your brain so they can have constant contact with you. Not quite enough lassitude to allow for a full-on vacation, but enough that the manic clients with the rush projects can be accommodated. Quite an equitable balance, I suppose.

I am not alone in this observation, by the way. Every shop I've ever worked in, ever printer I've talked to, has mentioned this. Businesses just want to not deal with new projects right now. But trust me, January is a whole different story.

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