October 19, 2006

Are Designers Allowed to Hate Junk Direct Mail?

So I come home tonight and visit my mailbox. What do I find under my 1 letter, and 1 bill? That’s right, a stack of junk mail. “Have you seen me?” shows a face of a missing child on one side of the card, sponsored by a happy steam cleaner pictured on the back. Attention Ladies! Yells a bright pink flyer that calls me Contours Express to get my thighs whipped into shape. Lower in the stack is typical fare from Capital One with a big stamped “CONFIRMED OFFER” on the front. (I guess better than their most recent ones which told me “DO NOT DISCARD” in giant letters) And what’s next? You got it, my weekly supply of newspaper-based ads that I never read, that should come in the newspaper I don’t wish to describe to. (Including pizza offers I get when I call, and deals I’ll get if I decided to come in the store).

Thank goodness the city I live in recycles, because my recycle bin fills up very fast nearly entirely with crap direct mail. Where in the world is the spam filter for my mailbox? But that’s not my point. There’s this little voice inside my head that as a graphic designer says, “why are you throwing this away?” What is this voice you say? It’s the voice of someone learning from user experience.

How many of you have had to design something that you knew was unappealing? How many times have you had to make the logo bigger because the boss said so? I remember one of my first task as an intern for Salt Lake Magazine was to design a postage-paid reply card. You know the one – those pesky little pieces of paper they blow-into every 50th page that fall out when you read them in the airport. I remember laughing to myself when designing it – “I hate these things” I thought. But still, as an intern, I designed the best damn postage-paid reply card possible. It even felt worthy to put in my portfolio at the time.

I remember at one of the first businesses I started, we sent direct mail to stir up new business. The piece I designed was great fun, and yet it got pretty typical direct response numbers (even with a poor mailing list). And yet, I was proud of the design. When I first launched the Brad McCall, designer brand, I sent direct mail to introduce my new status as a freelancer and to show my new portfolio website. It was wildly successful by direct mail standards, and also a fun experience.

So we’ve all had to design it, and perhaps we’ll have to design much more. So I guess it’s all up to us to learn from those who try to sell something to us. What makes one piece appealing (Nissan sent me a GREAT one, as well as Infinity), and another trash? Understanding your own user experience with direct mail will help you design those pesky little projects that don’t seem so appealing.

October 14, 2006

When Product Placement Goes Bad

Think about the movies you saw that you’ve seen in the past. Okay so think about Spiderman, Austin Powers, and James Bond for examples, what do they have in common?

Time’s up.

Did you know that these movies made millions of dollars even before they were ever released? How you ask? It’s called product placement. It’s when a company pays Hollywood to include their product in a movie. Companies do it all the time! James Bond introduced us to the BMW Z3 Roadster in Goldeneye (there was a huge uprising from the Austin Martin lovers at the time), Spiderman almost got trampled on by a Terminix truck, and let’s not forget the Mini Cooper in Austin Powers Goldmember. Wonder what it cost them to do this? Well, just to give you an idea, Burger King spent $15 million in MIB II just to get their products featured on the screen.

Sometimes it’s obvious, and sometimes it’s subtle, and then other times (as in a recent Wayne’s World rerun I saw on TV lately) they make fun of the fact they’re doing it. Ever seen a floating blur over people on reality shows? I assume that’d be about as opposite as you can get of product placement.

But what happens when product placement goes wrong? I got a good laugh out of a recent Yahoo news article entitled “Heroes” Lawsuit Down the Drain” where Disposal maker Emerson filed a federal lawsuit Monday (Oct 2) against NBC to prevent the network from re-airing the pilot episode of the new drama Heroes, which featured one of the title characters demonstrating her superhuman healing prowess by sticking her hand down the drain. The drain featured the company’s In-Sink-Erator product in clear view and according to the lawsuit’s claim “casts the disposer in an unsavory light, irreparably tarnishing the product” by suggesting that the appliance “will cause debilitating and severe injuries, including the loss of fingers, in the event consumers were to accidentally insert their hand into one.”

Oops, better edit that footage.

October 13, 2006

User Experience Should be a goodexperience(.com)

So I use to be religious about reading Mark Hurst’s emailed newsletter about creating good user experiences, but through my last several email changes I lost the link to his site, and forgot what the name of his website was. (You’d think that goodexperience.com would not be a hard one to remember.)

But looking through some old things today, I found a print-out of a whitepaper he produced years and years ago entitled “White Paper One – Building A Great Customer Experience to Develop Brand, Increase Loyalty and Grow Revenues” under his Creative Good brand. (Creative Good is the industry’s first and oldest customer experience firm according to his website.) Creative Good just consulted with del.icio.us, a popular social bookmarking service, to create a new customer experience strategy. (They have the case study online)

Creative Good’s business – a user experience firm focuses on results. Their consulting projects have raised key metrics (like revenue, conversion rate, and usage rate) between 40% and 150%. These projects have also improved branding, competitive positioning, and the customer focus of the organization. The difference between one user experience and another can effect the bottom line significantly.

So I’m back on the newsletter, and so I’ll keep you in touch on that end on what Mark has to say about usability. Another site he’s put together is thisisbroken.com, which is a riot. It shows “broken” user experiences in everyday life as well as the web. One of my favorites is the pencil in the shape of a cactus, such that the eraser becomes completely unusable.

October 12, 2006

How Does an In-House Designer Stay Creative?

Calling all in-house designers! Yeah you, I need your advice.

Following my illustrious one year stint as a freelance designer (a fantastic year that was proceeded by nearly 3 years of agency work) I went to work for MyComputer.com as their one (and only) designer. No, I hadn’t read the book about being an in-house designer, the whole story about having one client, one boss, one brand, one message… forever… and so I just dove in and did my job. Lucky for me, and just in time for me to get sick of the same brand, they announced we were rebranding. We created Omniture from scratch, and I got to do it all. This was an adventure! It enlivened me for another year or so, until I began to get bored again.

So how does an in-house designer stay excited about a brand? How can I work day-in and day-out with the same client (my employer) and not get bored?

Now there is something positive to be said for being in-house, as you get the opportunity to know the company inside and out. But sometimes I go crazy that I’m the only “creative” person working with engineers, marketers, and business people. Who can I brainstorm with that won’t think I’m totally crazy? Earlier today I thought that if I heard the word “webinar”, or “landing page” one more time I might pull my hair out. (And I’ve got such a nice head of it too.)

Here’s a couple things that have worked for me:

1. Balance. I do all the design work. I mean all of it. Lots of it is very boring stuff. I’ve designed and changed the copy on our product sheets probably a hundred times by now, and powerpoints can get old very quickly. So every day I try to balance those tedious production tasks, with the more creative tasks. I even push myself to get involved in other parts of the company and learn more about what others do. I find that design echo’s all across an organization from the look of the office space to how the brand appears on our invoices.

2. Get away. Vacations are CRITICAL to being a good designer. And when I’m away on vacation, I get new fresh ideas in the strangest places. I feel refreshed and alive and ready to make a button for our next webinar. (Not THAT word again) I even do what I call “computer fasts”, where I don’t turn on my computer at home, but instead I read or look at magazines for inspiration.

3. Take a break from design. Have another interest that has nothing to do with design. This is one of my reasons for my blog Tweet Sweet. Though there is always a mention of design in my posts on tweetsweet.com, I delight that my dream of having a chocolate shop has nothing to do with technology.

4. Connect with the design community. This is a new effort of mine, and I’m just beginning. I’ve been so out of the loop with how things have changed in design. I subscribed again to magazines I use to love like Print, Communication Arts, and How. I’m looking into design conferences I can attend, and just joined the local AIGA chapter. There are some talented people out there – and I need to rubb some more inspiration off them.

Any other ideas? (I pose the question to my readership, even though I think at this point only a couple of my friends visit my blog.)

Creative Worksheet – Getting the Download From the Client

When I partnered with some friends to create a small agency back in 1999 called Gear Media, I found that many download meetings with our clients would end up being stretched out and repetative. I found that the same questions were asked over and over again, and it ended up being a waste of time for me (though a necessary waste of time). So that’s when I discovered the concept of a Creative Brief. Also called a Creative Worksheet (I guess because they aren’t so brief sometimes), this document allowed me to cut these primary download meetings in half, and give me a better idea of what the client was after.

Soon after Gear Media failed, I had many people ask me for the Creative Brief I had put together, apparently they felt the need for it as well. I happen to think about this today, while looking for it, and thought I’d share it. The following version was the version used for a logo design.

INTRODUCTION
—————————————-
A significant amount of time can be consumed in meetings, phone calls or emails produce a quality product that meets your needs.

By using the Creative Brief as an information gathering tool, it allows us to assess your product or service. We can more effectively meet your needs and the needs of your target market through the use of this brief.

I . YOUR COMPANY
—————————————-
1. Your Name: (Name of person filling out brief)

2. Company Name/DBA:

3. Web Address/URL:

4. What products/services does your company provide?

5. How long has your company been in existence?

6. How would you describe your company’s image? (Not how others view your company, but how you view yourself.)

II . COMPETITION
—————————————-
7. Who are your top 5 competitors? Do they have Web sites? If so, where are their Web sites located? (Web site address/URL, for example: http://www.sitename.com)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

7a. (Optional) Any comments on the above companies? (For example: what is well done on their Web site? What could have been done better? Why are they on your competitor list?, etc.)

8. What should we know about your competition?

9. How does your product/service compare with your competitors?
Weaknesses of your product/service:

Strengths of your product/service:

III . TARGET MARKET
—————————————-
10. Who is your target market? Of the entire market you address, what percentage does the primary or secondary audience hold?

10a. Primary Target Market:

10b. Secondary Market:

11. What are the needs/skills/interests of the audiences listed in 10a & 10b?

12. What does this audience watch, read, listen to?

13. How Web savvy is the majority of your target market listed in 10a?

14. What perceptions DOES your target market (10a) currently have about your product/company?

15. What perceptions WOULD YOU LIKE your target market (10a) to have about your product/company?

16. What persuasive message(s) will most powerfully impact your target market’s perceptions?

IV . LOGO DESIGN
—————————————-
17. Is your logo identity a:
[ ] NEW logo design
[ ] Redesign of an exisiting log

18. If your logo is a REDESIGN of an existing logo, list your concerns with the current logo?

19. Where will this logo be used? (Check all that apply)
[ ] Corporate Package (letterhead, envelope, business card)
[ ] Signage (building/office)
[ ] Internal memos and fax cover sheets (black and white)
[ ] Checks, invoices
[ ] Screen (Internet, Intranet, email)
[ ] Printed collateral (brochures, spec sheets)
[ ] Advertising (direct mail, direct email and print)
[ ] Shirts, hats, jackets, etc.
[ ] Misc. spiff items (pens, mouse pads, mugs, key chains, etc.

20. Which versions of this logo will you need?
[ ] RGB (screen use)
[ ] CMYK (full color – process printing)
[ ] Black and White (gray scale also)

V . DATES, APPROVALS, AND BUDGETS
—————————————-
21. Who is the primary contact person at your company for this project?
Name:
Title:
Phone Number:
Email Address:

22. If Different than above (Question #21), who will approve work done by Brad McCall, designer? (Choose one)
[ ] Same as above (preferred)
[ ] Different from above:
Name:
Title:
Phone Number:
Email Address:

Many of the services Brad McCall provides have fixed costs, while others vary according to such factors as complexity, functionality, expandability, deadlines, etc. To help us make recommendations, ensuring that the functionality you desire is in agreement with your budget, provide us with an estimated price range for this project.

23. What is your budget?

Creative Design:
Web Programming:
Other (stock photography, copywriting, etc): $

Other Budgetary Comments:

24. Do you have any other questions, or final comments?

SUMMARY
—————————————-
Once a contract is submitted, approved, and the project has commenced, the content of this Creative Worksheet will be used to direct the design, development, and marketing processes.

October 10, 2006

See the Font Before You Buy It at Veer

Have you ever heard of Flont? If you’ve bought type from Veer you have. Most of the font companies these days have a nifty tool that allows you to see the type you want in the font they’re selling, but Flont from Veer takes it one step further.

In order to use the tool, you’ve got to have an account with them. (It’s free to sign up) Then visit their font section and type in the text you’d like to see, and select the font family and they’ll show you all of them in that type. For the example below, I used my brand name (Brad McCall, designer) and tried a few script fonts.

This is an exercise I always use to do with all my own fonts when choosing a font for a corporate ID. To see the letterforms and combine them with the actual font, helps me to determine if the font matches the personality of the company. Now I can do it with fonts before I own them and make presentations to the client to get their buy-off. Veer also gives you access to many of the large type libraries such as Adobe using this tool as well. Give it a try!

Are You a Naive Designer? Top 10 Client Lies

Here’s a handy little tip for all you freelancers out there. I ran across this article from a link on Performancing.com and had a good laugh, since most of these I’ve heard before in my freelancing days. NEVER believe them… they may literally have good expectations when they tell these lies, but it’s not worth the risk.

  • “Do this one cheap (or free) and we’ll make it up on the next one.”
  • “We never pay a cent until we see the final product.”
  • “Do this for us and you’ll get great exposure! The jobs will just pour in!”
  • On looking at sketches or concepts: “Well, we aren’t sure if we want to use you yet, but leave your material here so I can talk to my partner/investor/wife/clergy.”
  • “Well, the job isn’t CANCELLED, just delayed. Keep the account open and we’ll continue in a month or two.”
  • “Contract? We don’t need no stinking contact! Aren’t we friends?”
  • “Send me a bill after the work goes to press.”
  • “The last guy did it for XXX dollars.”
  • “Our budget is XXX dollars, firm.”
  • “We are having financial problems. Give us the work, we’ll make some money and we’ll pay you. Simple.”

    Painter Creativity who came up with the original list says, “You are GOING to be dealing with people who are unlike yourself. Their motivations are their own and their attitudes are probably different than yours. There are going to be demands, problems, issues and all the hassles that go with practically ANY work/job/money situation. Too many times I see the sad example of someone walking in to a situation with noble intentions and then getting royally screwed, because what they see as an opportunity and a labor of love, the other party sees as something else entirely, not at all romantic or idealized, but raw and simple.”

    So as freelance graphic designers we all want good, challenging DESIGN problems. Graphic designers are communicators, passionate problem solvers – we delight in doing good design. But sometimes along the way this passion for good design overcomes our business-minded self (left beats out the right brain). Whether or not we get an “award winning” piece with every project, we desserve to be rewarded with the satisfaction of a job well-done AND get paid. So ALWAYS get the contract, commit to budgets, assign payment deadlines, and never sell yourself short hoping on the promise of more work.

    • October 9, 2006

    The Commodore 64 – My First Computer

    So I happened upon a few YouTube commercials for the Commodore 64, my first computer. Here’s one of them:

    I was 11 or 12 when we first got my Commodore. My mom had saved for months to purchase it and then still ended up putting it on a payment plan from a local department store. I seem to remember that with everything included, it cost just over $1,200. We had a monitor, keyboard and a large floppy drive (I mean large AND floppy). I enjoyed playing with Print Shop and making all sorts of banners or greeting cards on our dot-matrix printer. I got my first chance at creating computer art using a Koala drawing pad which amazed me (huge upgrade from my etch-a-sketch), and used different programs to make pixel-based graphics (a skill which I still use when I’m doing icon design). I remember typing in code that I found in a magazine to make a little monster jump across the screen. (I spent over 4 hours doing this as a kid – even now that baffles me.)

    Computers have come a long way, and yet they still improve all the time. The Commodore 64 was an amazing machine… they could do so much with so little. 64K? If only they would match that proportion of functionality to computer size today – just think how much more amazing computers would be?

    Just a little tid-bit of nostalgia for you. I know the company filed bankruptcy in 1994, but whatever happened to the Commodore 64?

    October 5, 2006

    AIGA Event – Brian Collins: Ogilvy & Mather

    So my friend Tyrone Gibson, who’s one of those designer-types that lives and breaths good design, sent me an email this week inviting me to an AIGA event that he’s involved with. Here’s the sum-up:

    Brian Collins will be coming to Salt Lake and BYU on THU October 26 to discuss “How Design Can Change the Future” – it may seem a bit egotistical but ladies and gents – this guy has got some incredible thinking. He comes from Ogilvy Mather in New York and runs “BIG” Brand Innovation Group. His thoughts will open minds and leap bounds in telling the story of any business or organization.

    Read a recent article at Brand Packaging about what he’s thinking:
    http://brandpackaging.com/content.php?s=BP/2006/08&p=4

    They’re still looking for a few sponsors, if interested. The full event details are included on the AIGA Salt Lake Website at this link:
    http://aigasaltlake.com/2006/08/brian-collins/

    Date:
    Thursday, October 26th, 2006

    Time:
    6:30-7:00 Mingle
    7:00-8:00 Presentation
    8:00-8:30 Q&A

    Location:
    Salt Lake Art Center
    20 South West Temple
    Salt Lake City, UT 84101
    www.slartcenter.org

    Admission:
    AIGA Students – Free
    Non-member Students – $5
    AIGA Members – $10
    Non-Members – $15

    Brad McCall, designer – Beginnings of the Brand

    So the year was 2000 and we had just launched into a new decade (and a new millenium) without too many Y2K headaches. Remember the Y2K buzz? I remember watching the news before that New Years Night and airports around the world were nearly empty for fears that planes would start crashing into each other when the New Year started. It seems silly now, but it was big business then.

    Thrust into being Self-Employed (Kinda)
    This was the year I became a freelance designer full-time. It was half by choice, and half forced into it. When the company that I had helped found, Gear Media, lost a couple of its partners, (one on good terms, the other not so good) the remaining partner and I had a heart-to-heart discussion about the future of the company. We both decided that we would not keep our doors open. We had a beautiful office, a great staff, a long list of portfolio clients who’d we’ve done work for… but after some big adventures (long story) my heart was no longer in it. So that’s when I decided it was a great opportunity to go at it alone.

    The Dot Com era was still heating up… and people were inventing new concepts and launching new websites all over the place. Venture Capital money was flowing like water and business plans were napkins with coffee stains. I had 6+ good years of graphic design experience under my belt, a dedicated (though small) group of freelance clients with whom I had moonlighted along the way and so I decided I would go for it.

    Choosing My Brand Name
    So first things first. A name. I needed a business license, a website, a brand… holy cow (a Utahnism), but what should I call myself? The names I thought of back then seem a bit silly to me now, names that were based primarily on nicknames as a child or words that I thought had a cool sound to them. But then I thought what am I selling? And then the choice was easy – Brad McCall, designer became my company name.

    Creating A Logo
    My logo really came as a natural extension of everything being created at once. It first started with my favorite color, and then moved with my concept with being outside the office (working outside the “cubie”, being outside the “box”) and became a simple treatment of a block of orange. I used a combination of my favorite fonts at the time – Swiss 721 and Trade Gothic Condensed. (I am still VERY fond of these fonts, so they were lasting choices for me).

    My stationery identity/business system was a bit unique as well:

    What made it especially unique, is I did everything on a small budget. I went to a label manufacturer and had 3,000 one color square labels printed with my logo on it. I could use regular stationery paper and envelopes for my identity and use the glossy orange sticker to give them that high-end touch. I also used the logo stickers on any folders, CD media, or other items my clients would recieve from me.

    I even went so far to make my signature style to wrap gifts in white paper and put my single orange sticker on the top when giving gifts to clients and friends. The business card I designed was simple (it gang-printed with my first promo and thank you card to save money) and an odd size (square). It had my logo on the front and my URL on the back. Since I’m not a big fan of phone calls, this was a perfect solution for me. It was printed uncoated so I could write whatever contact info it needed on it for its recipient.

    The final items were my promo and website, but I’ll save those for another blog. The new website design is coming soon, and I’ll post comps when they’re ready. But another note on budget – my entire start-up costs including hiring a webprogrammer, having a promo printed and mailed, creating my business identity system was less that $1,000.

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