How magazine - Friday, May 02, 2008

Vancouver-based design firm smashLAB just posted a great white paper explaining the importance of social media. Print this out and send it to clients who are having trouble getting it.

Traditional marketers are accustomed to carefully honing messages. This allows for control, but the results are difficult and costly to measure. Social media turns this whole scenario around. With it, control is shared with the crowd, and real feedback becomes immediate.
Organizations now have the opportunity to collect detailed information on users and their habits, elicit real feedback and suggestions, and refine their offering and messaging to better suit user demands. Although there are trade-offs with this new way of communicating, the opportunities for companies to understand and work with their customers have never been as great.

Posted by Megan

Design Resources

Friday, May 02, 2008 7:07:04 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Thursday, May 01, 2008

Marketing and Pricing

Over at the MarketingMixBlog, pricing is always a hot topic. Last week, there was a heated discussion about whether designers should charge credit card fees back to clients when they pay with a credit card. Some say it's a cost of doing business; others don't think they should have to cover that expense. What do you think?

This is just one tiny tidbit from a treasure trove of business information in the new book by Ilise Benun and Peleg Top, co-founders of Marketing-Mentor.com, The Designer's Guide to Marketing and Pricing: How to Win Clients and What to Charge Them. They're also giving a pre-conference workshop based on the book at the HOW Conference on Sunday, May 18, bright and early at 8 AM.

That's not all! Ilise and Peleg have also recorded a series of 12 podcasts, one for each chapter, to go along with the book. Listen to Chapter 1: Who Is My Market? here and find lots more information on the new website for the book.

Posted by Megan

HOW Books

Thursday, May 01, 2008 7:53:27 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Never Been

I can't stop looking at this panoramic illustration by Stuart Kolakovic. It started as a 9 meter long installation at a gallery and then his brother helped him turn it into an interactive web page. The meandering image tells the story of a small Eastern European village over the course of one year.

via Drawn

Posted by Megan

Illustration

Thursday, May 01, 2008 2:11:08 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Commands

This series of three digital prints from Atmostheory, celebrating often used Mac commands, can be had for just $12.

via Swissmiss

Posted by Megan

Gifts and Goodies

Wednesday, April 30, 2008 4:50:09 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Tuesday, April 29, 2008

News, etc.

As per usual, the paper companies are dominating the news this week with a flurry of releases, including:

• Wausau Paper launched Digital Space, a website geared toward helping designers with the technical and production aspects of papers for digital print jobs.

• Distributor Legion Paper now carries the U.K. brand Mirricard, a highly reflective paper in nine colors, with a super-smooth finish that, remarkably, is printable.

• Sappi announced the Silver and Bronze winners in its North American Printer of the Year competition. Among the whole slew of recipients in various categores are several names we recognize from HOW's own design competitions, including The Hennegan Co., Williamson Printing, The Fox Co. Lithographers, Anderson Litho, Blanchette Press, Sandy Alexander and Continental Colorcraft.

• Domtar's got a new swatchbook for its "workhorse" offset sheet, Husky. Domtar's Lynx brand is now FSC certified.

In some non-paper news:

• Auto FX Software released a limited-time bundle of products (available through August 31) that includes Corel Painter X, Auto FX Mystical Tint Tone and Color, Mystical Lighting and several training videos. The package retails for $349, a savings of more than $550.

• FunctionFox has released TimeFox Premier, which includes significant upgrades to task assignment, scheduling and calendar functions vs. the standard TimeFox edition. Learn more about this web-based product and compare the standard and premier versions.

• YouSendIt, which enables users to send huge files over the web without using FTP sites or crashing their e-mail system, launched a "virtual mailbox" that firms can post on their websites, allowing partners or customers to drag and drop files delivery.

Posted by Bryn

Industry News

Tuesday, April 29, 2008 9:29:54 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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What When Where And Y

I hope I'm not late to the game, but I just noticed this cool nutrition drink for kids called Y Water. The bottle was designed by Yves Behar and they're not only recyclable, they're reusable. The bottles link together with biodegradable rubber connectors to form a building toy.

Posted by Megan

Designers

Tuesday, April 29, 2008 5:53:04 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Comments [3]

Your First Job

Carmen Pease, who writes HOW's email newsletter, is starting a new feature called "Design Question of the Week." Here's the first question: "What was the best and/or worst part of your first design job? What made it memorable?" You can share your answer and see what other designers had to say in the Forum.

Best part:
Design was a new department with the company, so we got to really make it our own and stretch our design legs while we figured out what the heck we were going to do with it.

Worst part:
Design was a new department with the company, so they had no clue what to pay us and thus decided the answer was "not very much".

Memorable:
When we came up with our "no altering photos of anyone with Photoshop installed on their computer" pact - turnabout is fair play after all.

Posted by Megan

HOW Magazine

Tuesday, April 29, 2008 1:50:28 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Monday, April 28, 2008

Save the Dates!

OK, so you know about the big HOW Design Conference, which is coming up in less than 3 weeks (gulp!) in Boston. As if that weren't enough, here are some other design events coming up that you should have on your calendar. Registration for all three events will open in May and June; visit the websites to get more info and to sign up for the free email newsletter so you'll be among the first to know when registration opens.

• Mind Your Own Business Conference, September 25–28, Hyatt Lost Pines Resort, Austin, TX. Principals of design firms, small ad agencies, marcomm firms and PR shops are invited to join our top-notch group of business consultants for a retreat that will bolster your marketing and management skills and rejuvenate your business. This year's MYOB features a return engagement by popular speaker Blair Enns. Plus, you can plan to stay over Sunday (the conference ends Saturday night) for bonus sessions, software demos and a working day.

• Back by popular demand, the In-HOWse Designer Conference lands this year in San Francisco, October 3–5. In two years, the event has seen explosive growth and is now the business and management conference for in-house design managers. Sign up early; the past two events have sold out quickly.

and ... <drumroll please>

• HOW is proud to announce a brand-new event: The Creative Freelancer Conference, August 27–29 in Chicago. Co-sponsored by Marketing Mentor, this event is specifically geared toward designers, illustrators, writers, photographers and other creative solopreneurs.

Posted by Bryn

Events

Monday, April 28, 2008 8:56:33 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Smoking Type

For a treasure trove of early 19th-century typographic inspiration, check out Rolling Paper Graphics from Gingko Press. This unique collection presents 540 different kinds of rolling paper plus seventy posters.

via Fly

Posted by Megan

Typography

Monday, April 28, 2008 5:50:09 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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