Daily Brad, the blog

I was sitting in a doctor’s office the other day and the only magazine that wasn’t too “girly” for me to look at was In Style Magazine. But as a designer, anywhere you can find a chance to scope out good design, it’s worth the time. On page 178 of their January 2007 issue they had a page that highlighted several card companies under the heading “Thank-You Notes: After the presents and parties, here’s how to show your appreciation.” This page reminded me of a post that I’ve wanted to put together, and with Christmas in a couple days, I think it appropriate.

Every identity with a side of thanks
As an independent graphic design consultant (I’m getting better at dropping that whole “freelance designer” thing, aren’t I?) you should always look for opportunities to say “thanks”. When I first came up with my brand for Brad McCall, designer, I printed thank-you cards along with my business cards. I think every stationery (or “identity system”) should have a thank-you card included with the letterhead, envelope, and business card that comes standard. I’ve recommended this to most of my clients, and even a couple of the companies I’ve worked for. The surprising thing was that it took a little while to get people to use them. Have we been trained not to say thank-you? Or has email replaced the art of the thank-you card all-together?

I remember as a child my mother sitting me down after Christmas and having me write my thank-you notes. “Be sure to thank grandma for the $5 and tell her what you plan to spend it on” she would say. She understood the power of “thank-you”. But we shouldn’t just say thanks after we recieve a gift, but at anytime someone goes out of their way to enhance your life OR your business.

Make your thank-you special
Some of the thank-you note stationers that In Style recommended had some beautiful handmade and letterpress cards. Cards that not only are beautiful but also have a tactile quality that enhances the experience of anyone receiving them. Here’s who they recommended:

Keep it business, but keep it fun
Whether your print your own custom cards, or choose one off the shelf, don’t forget a couple key ingredients to add:

1. Throw a couple business cards and don’t miss this opportunity to remind your contact that you’re still in the business of doing good business.
2. Never send a thank-you card without a handwritten note. Short and sweet is fine, but the “handwritten” part is critical.
3. Show them you have a sense of humor by using a funny stamp or card. My most recent thank-yous went out with the “SuperHeros” stamps the Post Office recently put out. In the past I used “Scooby-doo” thank-you cards, since I’ve always been a fan of the mystery-solving dog.

And thank-you to all who read this blog. I’d be happy to send you a card, if I only had your address. Snail mail rocks!

Paris Hilton. Even the mention of her name elicits some kind of response in most everyone. You either like her or hate her. But either way, as a graphic design and developer of brands, I’ve gotta hand it to the girl - she’s a brand powerhouse.

I recently read a blog post by the folks over at Strategic Name Development about Paris Hilton launching a new Heiress brand fragrance which prompted me to write this post. I got curious about the brand “Paris Hilton” versus the hotel chain her grandfather started. So I headed on over to Google Trends and entered Paris Hilton vs. Hilton. Since the search term “Paris Hilton” contained “Hilton” the search wasn’t as dramatic as I’d liked. So I thought of one of Hilton’s (the hotel) biggest competitors and entered them. Paris Hilton versus Marriott.

It’s interesting to see how one individual’s popularity (in searches anyhow) nearly equals and sometimes surpasses the popularity of an entire hotel chain with over 499,165 rooms world wide in almost 3,000 properties. The large spike in the graph reflects one of the many scandals that have either been caused by or put upon the hotel heiress. This one happened to be when her cell phone was hacked and all her famous friend’s personal emails and phone numbers were exposed.

Okay, so she was born an heiress, so have a lot of girls. But what has Paris done with it? (more…)

It’s funny, I remember that Janet Meiners (the blogger who got me started doing this blog) said that one of the reasons she started blogging, is that she didn’t have that great of a memory. She said that she blogs to remember ideas she’s come across or had herself to save for reference later.

So I thought I’d blog about a recent discovery that prompted a few ideas in my brain that I thought I might forget. (That’s the funny part… at least to me anyhow.)

While poking around the web to find cool things, I ran across an offering called MOO. Moo? Yup, MOO. Even though the story behind their name is a well-guarded secret, the grand statement on their website states why they exist and what they do:

The web. You can’t touch it, write on it or put it on the mantle. You can’t hang it on the wall or pass it to the cutie on the bus and you certainly can’t give it to your mum for her birthday. MOO want to change all this. We dream up new products, personalised by your stuff on the web, that let you take that virtual life offline. We hope you like them.

So what does that all mean? Well, for starters at least, NO MORE BORING BUSINESS CARDS.

MOO allows you to make small business-like cards called MiniCards (28mm x 70mm). You create unique designs for the back of the card, and share your Skype name, Flickr pics, email, blog, and vital statistics with friends and attractive strangers, in the real world on the front of the card. There are some examples on how people are using their cards on the MOO Flickr Pool. There even seems to be a movement to collect and share these cards.

But my thought - what a FANTASTIC tool for a graphic designer, photographer, illustrator, etc to show off his work. Since each card in the pack of 100 can have a different back-side… the possibilities are endless!

This is just another one of those in a long-line of new personalization products that are out there that I just love. I’m excited to give these a try myself and see how it goes. I also like their web-page design - very fresh.

I was clicking through the list of Utah Illustrators I compiled for my Daily Brad Blog and was impressed with Trent Call’s website, his drawings/paintings, and overall talent. Under his “current” link I discovered where his website “SWINJ” gets its name, (though I don’t know what it means exactly.) or perhaps where his publication gets its name.

SWINJ (A limited edition book produced by Call that showcases local artwork) recently released their sixth edition. SWINJ #6 features the work of 31 Utah-based artists that was collected over the period of a year. The limited edition book has some great work in it, looks good aesthetically, is well put together, and exemplifies the growth that the ‘zine has experienced since it started out as just a small xeroxed publication in 1998. Trent Call is responsible for the publishing, editing, and organization of the book. If you’d like to purchase a copy, they’re $15.

Listed contributors include: Endur, Eliza Strack, Cein Watson, Fletcher Booth, Camilla Taylor, Liz Evans, Toward Feeling in the Blank, Jonathon Clarke, Trent Call, Vile Blue Shades, Alex Ferguson, Nick Bottman, Tessa Lindsey, Ryan Jensen, Alexa Filanowicz, Stephani Dykes, Russel Daniels, Kevin, Camron Larson, Patrick Eddington, David Clarke, Jason Jones, Sri Whipple, Oliver Chipping, Jenni Lord, Ruby Claire Johnson, Gentry Blackburn, Leia Bell, Zak Jensen, Jessica Minckley, and Steven Larson.

Attention illustrators and designers - if you need to promote yourself and your illustration skills (and make a few extra dollars as well), why not give Threadless a try? What is Threadless? Threadless was created by a couple of guys called “the Jakes” under their DBA Skinny Corp. to give designers and artists an opportunity to unleash a little creativity and display it to the masses. Anyone can visit the site, download their templates and submit a t-shirt design. Then, the designs are voted on. The winning designers receive $2,000 in cash and prizes, huge amounts of notoriety and their design printed and sold on a tee.

Since they launched the site, Skinny Corp has received over 60,000 tee shirt design submissions. It’s been a great way for designers and illustrators to get their name out there. Over 300 winning designs have been printed and sold so far, with 6 new ones coming out every week.

The site features interviews with some of their designers, some who’ve won only a few times, while one guy from Louisianna has won over 13 times. (That’s a hefty chunk of cash and prizes) Plus, it worked into a job for this particular guy - and now he works at Threadless.

One of their winners, S. Bradley Askew when asked if he thinks Threadless helps designers:

Honestly, its one of the best things in the design community right now. Some of publicity T receives helps catapult designers who get featured in magazines like ‘GQ.’ PR like that is great and to tell clients you had work featured in publications like that, that wasn’t some sort of paid advertisement, it’s golden.

So if you’ve ever had a good idea for a t-shirt design - design it, enter it. There could be some recognition as well as a little cash in your future. (Heck, I’ll give it a try and post my design - wish me luck!)