I’m honored to be asked by the good folks at the Las Vegas chapter of the AIGA (Professional Organization for Design) to be a panelist for an upcoming Social Media Panel Discussion.
Check out the LV AIGA’s Group Page on Facebook here.
Social Media Smucktard Cindy Waters discusses social ROI and how to navigate through the sh*t storm. Plus an allstar panel to discuss the future of all things PR & Web technology featuring
0Posted by Nate Ludens on July 29, 2010 at 6:06 am
Here in Las Vegas, design means commerce. Here’s a testimonial that says this is not always the case.
For the 2nd year in a row, I’m designing shirts for a memorial bike rally honoring a family who recently lost 2 brothers (husbands, fathers, friends) in Nebraska and Wyoming, near my hometown. Long-time friends of my family as a kid, and good guys to have a cold one or catch a concert with. And, for the 2nd year in a row, I’m feeling lucky as hell that I can contribute to the event. Today I received photos of the last event and it really hit home, especially now that I’m a father.
I’m reminded of a song by Rancid called Indestructible. The jist of it is that as an artist, you can live forever – indestructible – through your art. I get it. You can, without a doubt. Another way to be indestructible is to be a good friend, a father, a brother, a mother, a sister and leave your mark on things through helping other people and causes. That’s what these types of projects are about. Try getting this kind of emotion, longevity and gratification from a routine paycheck. Fat chance.
One year after closing my creative services studio, and hearing about more and more layoffs in ad agencies and belly up studios like mine, I can’t help but to sometimes think about creative services as sort of a paralyzed industry. In my case, there were several reasons contributing to my studio’s demise: my inexperience, some poor judgement, some bad luck and probably more than all those combined: bad goddamn timing. But I’m not bitter. I’m evolving, and the rest of my industry should, too. Okay, maybe the creative services industry isn’t exactly dying, but it sure is starving – at best.
But I think I’ve been wrong. The industry isn’t paralyzed, it’s just changing – quickly. In a different era, advertising ROI wasn’t as prevalent and Agencies could staff up – becuase profits were high all around. Now, the temptation to use a smaller, less expensive company or a freelancer is great. Crowdsourced creative, template sites and stock houses are tempting to companies on tighter budgets – and sometimes they can work quite well. Sometimes they’re a disaster. The importance of quality photography and design in all areas of your campaign has never been more important. Advertise smarter, in other words.
Today’s advertising industry has expanded to encompass traditional print and brodcast mediums as well as the new engagement/experience driven marketplace, and I predict this should boost the creative services industry – and here’s how I think it will go down.
Quality control will be at the forefront of your strategy. Here’s why: Your product cannot “suck.” If it does, with poor ad placement or a bad – say – retail product, people will A) know and amplify the shortfalls via social networks; or worse B) not even see it and it will dissolve into obscurity. if you hire a lousy designer to make a lousy menu – someone will tweet about it, write a review on Yelp and post it on Facebook. Hire a lousy guy to design your brakes. Ask Toyota how that could go down. Hire a lousy designer to design your website, your business card, your menu, your packaging… all potential public or financial FAIL. This is why its so important to invest in good design, or suffer the consequences.
To summarize, companies must put their best foot forward at all times to get noticed and do it alongside a good creative professional team. Stakes are higher now than ever. After all, the new consumer is the media, and they’re still always right.
Of course they are. But there’s a few no-brainers I want to shed some light on that can help your company save some money and evolve your 12 point piece of paper into a conversation piece, instead of something someone writes notes on.
1. Retail & sales contacts need cards. Back of the house staff don’t. Save yourself some dough and make a company card for those who don’t need a lot of them.
2. Don’t use a template that came with Microsoft Word/Publisher, etc. There’s a reason nobody uses clip art anymore. It’s garbage. Usually these are the wrong resolution, the wrong color mode, and incompatible with any professional software your printer can work with. Pay for a real designer who knows what it means to build a cohesive brand identity for your company.
3. Don’t have cheap cards. If you do, I fully expect you to show up to your next business meeting in sweatpants and a torn, stained white shirt, because you clearly don’t value first impressions.
4. Websites like LinkedIn, Facebook, eLance, etc. won’t kill the business card industry. Why? Not everyone has bump (or an iPhone, for that matter), and what are you going to give people at mixers, bars and golf courses?
Want some cards designed? Email me, maybe I can help.
If you’re in the creative industry, (unless you live under a rock) you have probably noticed in the last few years or so, most professional Graphic Designers have successfully adpoted the use of quality photography and the way it is utilized in advertising. We rarely see low-resolution photos in print anymore, and more often than not, the images are using correct exposure and beautiful depth of field, therefore lending great imagery to commercial projects. Now, I’m issuing a challenge on behalf of designers: Photographers, its time to raise your design game.
This is the week the WPPI (Wedding & Portrait Photographers) Convention comes here to Vegas. It’s always a great show. On behalf of my city, I’d like to welcome some of the best photographic talent in the world.
I have attended the last 3 or 4 WPPI conventions, and it’s clear that my email and mailing address has been cycled through several mailing lists. Let me tell you – there’s something awry with much of this massive load of photo-promotions. It’s not just email marketing, either. Many of the trade publications, sites, signage, and mail pieces, too. Most of it’s really, really poor.
Look, typography is a science in itself, so don’t be surprised to learn that cute font that came with your wife’s Dell just doesn’t cut it. While you were in the darkroom, Designers were in their second semester of color theory. Look at the “big guys” at the trade show. They have beautiful booklets, great logos and packed booths. Not a coincidence.
Investing in porfessional design shouldn’t be hard to grasp for shutterbugs. And its certainly not meant to sound condescending or offensive. All of us creatives need to check our egos and take a critique from time to time. The experienced Designer’s mantra is identical to yours, Photographers: when your clients hire true, experienced professionals, they get top-notch results. Designers carry the same responsibilities as Photographers, too. Deliver results on behalf of your client, or your phone may not ring again for awhile. In this, the era of facebook and twitter… word gets out about poor service in a short moment.
I’m as aware as anyone of the financial challenges both industries face, so my advice is this: Buddy up. Professional photographers should seek partnerships with Professional Designers and vice versa. Build it in the budget. Find a way. Work out trade deals, retainers, industry-rates… hell, issue frequent flyer miles if you have to!
Tonight I had some fun playing with a logo redesign for a band. Good friends, Slow To Surface called last week to see if I could help with a shirt design based on their recent album, The Reason We Do This. (Available on iTunes- pick it up, you won’t be sorry). I designed the CD last spring for the band – see below. (For the record, I like their current logo, but it could use a little more “edge” to match their new style, in my opinion).
Here’s a sped-up version of the process. The first thing I did was (duh) put on the album. Then I started to search through my database of fonts from recent projects. Probably about 375 selections. Most are completely incompatible… but I narrow it down to a typeface that conveys their style of music – I settled on Dirty & Classic by one of my favorite artists and fontographers, Billy Argel. I tweaked it until it was easier to read at a smaller size (from a distance, in this particular application), but still gets across the “vibe” I was going for.
Check out this video I made using Jing (killer app!) and let me know what you think. Starts out a little slow (no pun intended).
