Portland, OR-based design firm HUB (which has caught our eye by landing work in HOW's International Design Awards), is employing an interesting marketing tactic that's right on target for our economic woes: They're having a sale. And they're promoting it with a well-designed postcard.

In a downturn, many creative pros hit the panic button, slash their rates and are then stuck with those rates when the economy rebounds and new clients come calling. Bad idea. Instead, offer to scale back the scope of a project (one round of revisions instead of three) or consider a free consulting session with your clients (to help them maximize their own budgets and hopefully land you additional work).

Or, you could try an eye-catching (and temporary) marketing hook: a sale.

Legion Paper, which sells fine art and printing paper, as well as envelopes, is offering a great promotion through Dec. 31. 10% of every purchase made in their Overstock store will be donated to The Children's Health Fund. The prices are amazing. For example, you can get 100 sheets of Mohawk Superfine 80lb cover, 26x40, for $52 (regular price, $100). Or get 100 Stardream Envelopes, 6.5x6.5, ruby, for $14 (regular price, $74). Handmade holiday cards, anyone?

Posted by Megan

Product Designer
Facebook

Facebook is looking for an experienced Product Designer to be a key member in a very small team of designers. This position is part of the engineering organization so candidates must be able to write the code to build what they design. The position is full-time and reports to the Product Design Lead. The position is based in our main office in downtown Palo Alto, CA.

Posted by Megan

Or at least I would be if I had this gorgeous umbrella from the Umbrella Society. There are lots of designer patterns to choose from.

Posted by Megan

We at HOW are open about our love for our pets, and if you mention your own, we'll demand to see cute photos. So we were thrilled to see Design Observer's "Dogs and their Designers" feature. We found this cute pic our friend Debbie Millman with her Shih-Tzu Scruffy.



Next up: Designer's and their Cats!

Posted by Megan

Former HOW art director Amy Hawk and two of her fellow instructors at the University of Akron (John Morrison and Dave Szalay) recently gave their Type 3 classes an assignment that Amy knows all too well: design a cover for HOW's Self-Promotion Issue.

Amy forwarded all the cover designs here to HOW HQ and asked us to choose the three strongest designs. Here's the work that caught our eyes:

First place, by Ashley Engelhardt: We liked the scribbled HOW logo, the great contrast, the textured background and the concept itself, which references the Xeroxed personal ads with the little tear-off tabs that are ubiquitous on college campuses.




Second place, by Melissa Olson: Though we were a bit befuddled by the weird family photo, we liked the cover-as-corkboard concept and thought the masking-tape logo treatment was clever.




Third place, by Rachel Von Hendrix: The typographic illustration, though not an original idea, was well-done, and we liked the color scheme.




And we selected a runner up, too, by Slyeri Lee. We didn't get it, but we thought the image was cool.

Industrial/Interactive Design Professor
Syracuse University

The School of Art and Design at Syracuse University invites applications for a full-time tenure track position within the Industrial and Interaction Design program. This Assistant / Associate Professor level position will begin Fall 2009. The Industrial and Interaction Design program is one of the oldest and most highly respected five year programs in this nation. Qualifications for this position include a masters degree in Industrial or Interaction Design, prior teaching experience, extensive knowledge of Computer Aided Industrial Design and rapid prototyping. In addition, the candidate must demonstrate a commitment to undergraduate design education, a strong record of professional practice and experience with curriculum development. The candidate will also be expected to participate fully in department duties, college, and committee work.

Posted by Megan

Textile Designer
Target

As a Textile Designer, you will develop and execute textile designs that achieve overall product strategy and merchant objectives.
SEE YOURSELF:

Executing designs for a given season, business segment and Target guest.
Participating in research & development of seasonal trends, themes, concepts, color, fabric, and styling.
Ensuring designs meet merchant line plans, assortment strategies, price points and overall creative direction.
Ensuring textile design package is complete, accurate and handed off to Technical Design/AMC/Merchandising/Sr. Designer on time.
Maintaining consistent POV (point of view) and POD (point of difference) within the brand through collaboration with Design Manager and peers.
Collaborating with Merchandising, AMC/Sourcing and vendors to achieve product execution and maintain design integrity.
Producing cohesive product presentations to sell concepts to merchants, including boards, tears, samples, etc.
Developing an understanding of business and assortment strategies.
Interacting and develop relationships with Tech Designers, buyers, vendors, Color Office to exchange ideas, leverage expertise and streamline the process.
Managing expenses to budget.

Posted by Megan

Grace Bonney of Design*Sponge recently partnered with the New York City Public Library to create a series of videos following five NYC artists as they find inspiration at the library.

Together we invited five brooklyn-based artists to come to the library, become inspired by its collections and have us film their entire creative process from the beginning to the final finished product, whatever that may be.

The first video introduces the artists, and I'm looking forward to future episodes.

Posted by Megan