Notes from Notchcode

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

blog

Notes from Notchcode

12.31.2008

You know what I am FOR SURE doing in 2009?

REDESIGNING THIS WEBSITE. It is so old it's set in TABLES. Which is basically the web developer's equivalent of a "Your momma's so fat" joke. Ugh.

I have some solid ideas for how I am going to retool the site, but anyone who has advice, send it to me. Don't spare me my feelings, either--straight shootin' is what we're all about out here.
Labels: web design

posted at 7:38 AM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

12.30.2008

Sometimes the best thing for you is that which is the most tasty.

Thanks, Meghan, for this nugget:

Labels: advertising, advice

posted at 10:02 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

12.29.2008

My favorite apps of 2008

Well, for those of us in the office on this last week of 2008, we may as well get more productive as we work away, oblivious to the tweets and Facebook postings of our friends and officemates as they remark upon the quality of the snow in Alta, or the lovely front-porch weather they are enjoying.

Right?

With that in mind, here is a quick rundown of a few applications that have made me, as a creative professional, more productive. I encourage you to give them a try, too!

Groundwork , by enormego, gets your Basecamp-managed projects onto your iPhone and iPod Touch. The interface is the best of the three Basecamp-porting iPhone apps I tried, and so far I'm very impressed. It's only $3.99, too, so you're not out a lot of cash to try it.

Side note: Basecamp, you say? Since I've been using it for a couple of years, I don't want to go into it too much here, but it is a productivity booster for anyone who has lots of people touching a project.

Having a good backup strategy is crucial. Earlier this year my hard drive kicked the bucket (luckily it was still under warranty). While it was being replaced, I utilized my nightly backup to keep client projects moving. iBackup is something I just started using, but it is already paying off. When my previous backup solution, DejaVu, started hogging hard disk space while processing the day's backup (rendering the Mac unusable more often than not), I started looking for another backup option.

Long ago I used Retrospect, but wanted something that added offsite storage into the mix. Offsite backups ensure that my clients' projects aren't lost even if something really bad happens to the office. The way iBackup boosts productivity over other solutions is its deference to the user (allows you to control how much bandwidth it uses when you're working on the computer, allows you to force it to pause a backup after a specified time of day, etc.). This allows me to work without worrying about the backup, while having the backup do its thing behind the scenes.

DYMOStamps are great: get yourself a DYMO Labeler and some stamp labels, and print your own postage. You still have to pay for it, but at least you don't have to run to the P.O.

1Password, from Agile Web Solutions, lets you keep all your internet and banking (and any other sensitive data) secure--and you can access it with just one password. They also released a great iPhone version, which you can, of course, sync with your Mac.

Some apps that didn't quite make the cut for me? OmniFocus (you mean I have to buy ANOTHER app to be productive? AND learn how to use it? Maybe in 2009). Jott Express (wasn't prepared to pay for the service that seemed to duplicate Evernote, another service I wasn't using enough to justify having around).

What were your favorite productivity apps for the year? I'd love to hear about them!

Labels: advice, productivity

posted at 3:46 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

Leveraging the netizens to edit for you

Change.gov is making government even easier to get involved in. Not only are they providing webcasts of the president-elect, and videos and statements from key personnell, but they are also soliciting questions from everyone, and asking site visitors to rate others' questions. The ones with the most votes get answered in the new year.

Go check it out, and rate some questions yourself.

The tool uses Google Moderator to parse the data. Also worth checking out.
Labels: google, information graphics, interface, nonprofits, politics

posted at 1:50 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

12.23.2008

Brand New: Best & Worst 2008 logo rebrandings

It's that time of year again: best/worst lists abound. Brand New did a little review of the best and worst rebrandings of the year, and it's a nice little list. What did they miss? I'd like to submit Miller Coors as one heck of a nice branding job, from Pentagram:
Labels: branding

posted at 2:34 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

12.19.2008

Santa's On His Way

Before everyone leaves town for the holidays (or as I call it, "the two weeks at the end of the year when I can't get anyone to return my calls from the office"), I wanted to wish you all a wonderful holiday season. I hope you've all been good little boys and girls, because Santa is on his way right now!

Labels: art, holiday, illustration

posted at 8:59 AM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

12.17.2008

Website refresh: BalePhoto.com goes live!

I created a website a couple of years ago for Andrew Bale, an excellent photographer and teacher in Pennsylvania. After it was up and running for a while, we both wanted to make some tweaks.

The refresh of the website has just launched, and it looks and works great. Check it out at BalePhoto.com.

The main differences are in the portfolio categories, and in the way we present the images. They are similar to the galleries I used for CarlSanderSocolow.com, but more refined: we have back/forward/close functionality (both by clicking on the image, and using the keyboard). And the load time is better.

Andy was great at letting me know what he wanted the site to do, and what his priorities were. In some cases, you have to sacrifice one preference in favor of another, and he knew what he wanted. I was also able to show him some alternatives that presented opportunities for usability and presentation that make his images look good.

But, really, a photography portfolio site is only as good as the images in it; Andy has some lovely and compelling work, and I hope you head over and check it out!

Congrats, Andy!
Labels: branding, interface, photography, web design

posted at 5:33 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

No place is boring

"No place is boring, if you've had a good night's sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film."

- Robert Adams

Note: The New West
was just re-released by Aperture this year. It's an excellent reprint of a seminal book dealing with modern american landscape photography. Go buy it for yourself, or for your favorite photographer.
Labels: advice, photography

posted at 9:41 AM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

12.16.2008

Brand update, in the wild

I was picking up a gift for a family our preschool is sponsoring for Christmas, and spotted this excellent brand update for Habitrail:

The linked letterforms echo the essence of the product: interconnected plastic tubes that rodents can wander around. The gray color of the typography allows the product and secondary banding (the product name) to stand out. Really excellent work!
Labels: branding, logo, typography

posted at 3:50 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

Brand yourself

Don't think you need a personal brand? Don't think you already have one?

What sort of clothes are you seen in?
What sort of food do you eat?
What car do you drive?
What sort of exercise do you enjoy?
What type of pen or pencil do you write with?
What sort of computer do you use?

A lot of these items are functional. Everyone needs to eat. Most people need to wear clothes. And a lot of people don't give these things a second thought. And I'm not suggesting you change what you eat merely to keep up appearances; I eat what tastes good! But recognize that all of these things make up a picture of who you are perceived to be, by the outside world.

If you don't care about that, that's fine. But if your business is driven by who you are, and you are the company...you should give some thought to how you are put together.
Labels: branding

posted at 12:09 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

12.15.2008

Take the edge off

...by laughing at others' pain. I bring you 30 Ways to Electrocute Yourself, a flickr photoset from bre pettis. This collection of well-drawn illustrations hails from pre-war Germany.
Labels: accident, advice, flickr, illustration

posted at 2:27 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

12.10.2008

Six marketing ideas for a recession

Now that the recession is "official", why not use it as an excuse to tighten things up?

Not tighten your belt, necessarily, but tighten up the way you use your marketing? What serves you well in a recession will serve you well when times are good, too. So, to that end, I bring you:

Six marketing ideas for use in a recession (and when things bounce back):

The amuse-bouche.

Give your clients a little something extra, that you enjoy doing and also benefits them.

Nontraditional uses of traditional marketing pathways

Forget about the coupon in direct mail. What about a "secret word" that brings your customers a discount or access to special services...that only "select" people receive via your permission-based email blasts...or getting your clients involved in an online dialog that benefits all of them (on your site, of course)...none of these suggestions are groundbreaking, but think about how much they cost, compared to traditional direct mail, etc....

Redefine what "essential" is, in relation to marketing and brand expressions

What's more important: meeting someone face-to-face, or sending ten people a direct mail piece talking about your services? Getting new clients, or strengthening ties with existing ones? Or both? Having that nice rounded die-cut corner on your letterhead, or spending that extra $250 on overhead for an informational seminar for your clients?

Now is the time to think hard about what you really need, and why you are using the marketing strategy you currently employ.

Less is more, and now's your chance to prove it

Do you really need a fax machine? Need a fax number on your business card? When was the last time you actually sent a fax versus an e-mail? Use cost-trimming as an excuse to streamline your communication pathways, clearing out the chaff of old technology and ways of thinking and replacing them with methods and channels that are relevant to your audience.

An opportunity to enter new markets or new marketing channels

How about an iPhone app that pushes relevant info to your target market? Outdoor advertising to get someone's attention focused on your issue? Permission-based e-mail campaigns to build brand impressions? If you haven't thought about these options, now is a good time to do so. Why? Because approaching people from another angle allows you to catch them off guard, and hopefully even give them information or motivation that they really need in order to get your company in their life.

Redefine your brand

Why not? If things are really going down the tubes, take a hard look at your existing brand. Is it reflective of your organization, your product, and your culture? Does it address the relationship between your organization and the public at this moment? What about in five years? Time and money spent refining your brand right now, when things are down, will get paid back in spades down the road, as other organizations play catch-up.

What are some ideas you have? Let's hear about them in the comments!

photo by jtloweryphotography
Labels: advertising, advice, b2b, b2c, branding, clients, creativity, design, graphic design, marketing, nonprofits, process, productivity, small business, web design

posted at 11:27 AM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

12.09.2008

From the Archives: Design Versus Style

From January 2006, on this very blog:

For something to be well-designed, it must meet the functional needs and expectations of the user. For it to be styled well, it must live up to the aesthetic needs and expectations of the user. An important difference. Often, design and style influence each other, and good style often is just as important to a successful marketing effort, or branding effort, or architectural effort, as design. But a fun style doesn't always lead to a beneficial experience, at least in the funcitonal sense.

Check out the whole post on design versus style here.
Labels: advice, branding, design, marketing, visual information

posted at 5:33 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

Good customer service: Don't let it go in the middle of a recession

I had a good printer friend bid on a project recently. It was too small for them, and he recommended a small, family-run shop out on the west side of Denver for me to try. They've been in business for over 20 years, and according to him and others, do a good job.

So I took my friend up on his advice, and sent over to this new printer a small project, with a relatively tight turnaround (about 7 working days...about three less than I usually give for a printer to deliver a project).

From almost the very start, there were issues with communication. The estimate came back, and seemed fine. I submitted the project, with the specifications identical to the quoted estimate. After a day of no communication, I call. "We got it, and we'll let you know if we have questions", they said. Another day later: "Oh, we need to know what sort of paper you want to use; we've been waiting to order the paper for a couple of days..." I told them the stock was the same as was quoted to me and was typed onto the specifications that accompanied the job files, I told him. "And what about ink color?" he asks. The same as I specified on the job ticket, I told him. By now, we're getting pretty close to deadline: less than three full days. Still doable, but close.

The deadline comes, and goes, with no word from the printer. I call the next day. They tell me the film was just completed the night before, and they were going to go pick it up. At this point, if the job doesn't deliver that morning, my client can't use it.

After conferring with my client, I call the printer back, and get voicemail. I tell them to cancel the project; the client can't use the materials at this late date. The printer had held up the project for over three days, without communicating any needs or questions to me about the job. Every time I called, I was asked a question that could have been answered by looking at the job ticket. Very unprofessional.

I call twice more within an hour; I finally get someone on the other end. Yes, they got my message. The printer will call me back in 15 minutes to talk it over. Yes, we won't print the project.

That was almost a week ago. No call from them.

The sad thing is that I could really use another smaller printer, especially so close to west Denver, to handle smaller projects like business cards, letterhead, and short-run point of sale and direct mail pieces. And if the printer had actually called back, I might have been able to figure out what went wrong and give them another chance, on a project that wasn't so time-sensitive. But without hearing from them, I'll never know what happened, other than that they apparently ignored my spec sheet, even though they had to read it in order to get the job file which they processed and sent me proofs from.

The bottom line: They are a small, family-run shop. We're in a recession. I have business for them. Why won't they stay on top of their customer service?
Labels: customer service, marketing, printing

posted at 1:30 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

When are enough revisions enough?

The short answer is: when either your budget is exhausted, or your are satisfied that it's perfect, whichever comes first.

Why a set number of revisions in an agreement?

Some graphic design and web design clients may have trouble respecting your revision cycle. That's why designers have a set number of revision cycles for conceptual development and typographical edits built into their agreements. But it's up to the designer to keep the lines of communication open to make sure the client knows they are approaching the edge of the cliff that is The End Of The Revision Cycle.

What Happens if you don't tell them they have run out of time?

If you don't let a client know that they are nearing the end of the revision cycle, expect to pick up the tab of your client's extra revisions; it's unprofessional to let them keep revising and revising and then expect them to pick up the tab on a bunch of AAs without giving them fair warning. Additionally, it will help to keep the client's process tighter; if they know they only have a set number of shots at refining a concept down to razor-sharp accurate expression, then they WILL pay better attention. Trust me.

The end goal: a great design that does its job

In the end, the most important thing is making sure that the design clearly articulates the vision set forth by the objectives set forth by you and the client in the design brief. Keeping the lines of communication open, and having respect on both sides for each others' time and effort will go a long way to making this happen.
Labels: advertising, advice, branding, design, graphic design, performance, web design

posted at 11:12 AM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

12.08.2008

Great Graphic Design makes everything better

One thing I remind people about all the time: everything anyone has ever made has been designed by someone. Great graphic design makes products, companies, and ideas more accessible by more people. Bad graphic design just makes products, companies, and ideas more opaque.

What differentiates the good from the bad? Lots of things. Focus. Brand integration. Accessibility. Grokability.

Paying someone $150, or $400, to design a logo will almost always result in bad design. Does that mean the designer who made it is not a good designer? Not necessarily. What it does mean is they aren't taking the time to find out what the essence of that brand should be. The same thing goes for paying a similar amount to design a website. Or a brochure. Even if you think about that money in terms of an hourly rate, rather than the value the design has for you (which is really how you should look at it), what does $150 translate to, in hours? I'll tell you: very, very little.

Would you trust a lawyer to draft the articles of incorporation for your business for $50? Would you let a $400 doctor operate on your heart?
Labels: advertising, advice, aiga, b2b, b2c, branding, graphic design, illustration, information graphics, interface, licensing, logo, marketing, nonprofits, packaging, process, ROI, seo, typography, visual information, web design, work

posted at 9:48 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

Great user interface design: now for mechanics!

Don't have a torque wrench handy? No prob. If you use a Smartbolt, the disc in its head will change color as the right amount of torque is applied to it. This is no different from breadcrumbs in website interfaces (which shows the user where on the site they are at a given moment). Or an activated menu item in a software program (or website). Excellent idea and execution!

via BoingBoing/RedFerret
Labels: interface, visual information

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

12.04.2008

Want to keep your clients' business in a recession? I offer you the Amuse-bouche

An amuse-bouche is an unasked-for, bite-sized appetizer, typically served at finer establishments, which reflects the chef's mood for the day. They:

are served as an excitement of taste buds to both prepare the guest for the meal and to offer a glimpse into the chef's approach to cooking.

The term is French, literally translated to "mouth amuser" [for bouche = mouth; amuser = to amuse, to please].

Take this concept to heart, if you want to impress and retain your clients when everyone is cutting costs to the bone. Why not offer a little something from your heart that you not only enjoy doing, but also offers your "guests" some insight into your process, your personality, and your interest in them?

Some examples:
Offer to help them out, for free, when they call you and ask for help with a catchphrase for an e-mail blast.

Or, better yet, offer the advice before they ask for it. Send them a design for a holiday card in September, "just because".

Drop in and chat about how their brand is performing.

The important thing is that your service is something you really enjoy doing (which makes it enjoyable for you) and is valuable to your client (which makes it enjoyable for them). In the process, you turn something that feels good for everyone involved into good business as well. Give it a try!
Labels: advice, clients

posted at 8:00 AM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

12.03.2008

Who is copywriting over at Microsoft?

...apparently someone who writes business plans, or business positioning briefs. Does the internet really care Microsoft was "Founded in 1975"? And why the vague language about what MSFT does? Apparently, this mystery company, (founded in 1975) "help(s) people and businesses realize their full potential." WOW! I am so totally going out and buying a Microsoft or whatever it is they sell. I need full potential NOW!

Please, "Microsoft", for your next Facebook ad please hire a real copywriter, and maybe use a graphic that tells us a little more (does Microsoft sell inflatable plastic dolls? What are these things, LEGOs?)
Labels: advertising, writing

posted at 4:58 PM Leave your comments here: 1 comments

Still don't think that text messaging is changing our world?

From the Independent:

A doctor volunteering in war-torn Congo performed a life-saving amputation on a teenage boy using text message instructions from a colleague in London.

This is impressive because of the other circumstances involved (read the article for the specifics), AND because these two colleagues, separated by thousands of miles, even THOUGHT to communicate this way.
Labels: nonprofits, productivity

posted at 8:13 AM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

Distillation

Can you define your brand's essence into half a dozen words?

Not words that your customers will see in marketing, necessarily. But words that can help you drive the expression of your brand.

If you can't, can someone else in your organization?

Without knowing the essence of your brand, your brand identity is just an empty symbol.
Labels: branding

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

12.01.2008

Snippets of Design and Branding interest for today

Some graphic design and branding news from today:

A nice take on the calendar: Calendar Tape! This is a nice modular design which would integrate well with just about any office/home/workspace:

via Better Living Through Design

My friend Nick takes us through the process of making a classic Commedia mask in the traditional fashion over at his blog:

An excellent product design here in a children's scooter:

via BabyGadget

A Periodic Table of Branding, via Logo Design Love:

Labels: branding, graphic design

posted at 1:23 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments