Thanks to everyone who gave our January contest a try. We had a total of three people who completed 100% of the answers correctly, including Troy Date, Andrew Pritikin, and Craig Margaret. Additionally, there were a few ‘close calls’ including  Lauralee Carbone and Katie Fleming.

Randomly selected among those that got 100% right was Craig Margaret. Nicely done! We will be sending him a $50 gift certificate go Amazon.com in addition to a set of our hand printed coasters.

Stay tuned for our second contest – titled William Shakespeare, marketing copywriter – to be delivered later this month!

In case you wanted to know the answers, they are 1: The Matrix, 2: The Godfather, 3: Harry Potter, 4: Twilight, 5: The Lord of the Rings, 6: Star Wars, 7: Woody Allen.

Shew Design is by no means an anti-Microsoft company. We have used (and enjoyed) Microsoft products for years. I think Windows continues to get better and better and my Windows based design computers are, despite the occasional hiccup, wonderful, remarkable contraptions. No creative person in the history in the world prior to this point has had access to such amazing tools.

Yet, I have had my fill of some Microsoft products and practices, Office in particular. I basically use 1% of Word’s capabilities, but that 1% seems to be hidden afresh with every new software release. I’m struck by how incredibly large the programs are, the myriad options for customizing them, the constant clutter, the complexity, the cost.

Ultimately, I’m struck that there are other products out there that do the job better. Google Docs has changed the way we develop copywriting concepts. Google Docs uses a super stripped down Word interface and allows a single document to be accessible to multiple people at the same time. Also: it’s easy.

Open Office is a non-cloud based solution. In some ways, it is a “low rent” version of MS Office in terms of visual appeal, but for our purposes it holds its own. It’s free and it can reliably do things like read and write to the Microsoft Word format – a process that it does *mostly* reliably. Open Office has its own version of Excel, PowerPoint, and Access. You could, as we have, install it alongside Word and implement a gradual phase in strategy for the products that work best for you. There are no shortage of options.

In truth, Shew Design has not completely extricated ourselves from Office. The final, probably painful, departure from Outlook will be the last step in the process. However, I think our company will be the better for it. In this era of collaborative creativity and ever dwindling budgets, there are much better ways of spending your money than the endlessly spooling upgrade for software that has essentially stayed still for decades.

Garamond is one of a handful of typefaces that designers of all eras return to again and again.

Apple used the condensed form in the late eighties, and it became the quintessential typographic solution for business communications in the early nineties.

People who make lists of the most readable fonts tend to pick Garamond first.  It is ideally suited for book design. The Harry Potter books were set in Adobe Garamond, as are The Hunger Games books – even Dr. Seuss. It is also a staple for technical documentation for high end technology firms (like Nvidea).

It’s a remarkable thing that a 500 year old design would be perpetually connected with innovation and fresh, modern storytelling. The reason is at heart very simple: Garamond is a masterpiece of form and function. It works. Seen from distance or up close, it is simply beautiful *and* functional.

Designers categorize Garamond as a humanist typeface, meaning that it comes from a human (i.e. handwriting). Upon inspection, you can see how the forms were created by a brush with a wedge tip by a right handed person. If type is like an illustration, what does the quality of line reveal about the person who made it? To my mind, Garamond reveals a combination of intelligence, warmth, and mastery of control. It reminds me of Bach’s music -  particularly such things as the Brandenburg Concertos or the Goldberg Variations.

Yet, there are ways in which the type departs from its humanist origins. In translating handwriting to movable types, type design began to evolve from being about ink to being about metal. In the example above, Jenson – which predates Garamond by only a few decades – is more closely linked with handwriting. In comparison, Garamond seems sturdier, more in alignment with a horizontal and vertical grid. This is the reason why Garamond (and not Jenson) is fresh and relevant today and will remain so for years to come. It is merely a first step in an evolution of type that would unfold for centuries to come – with successive type designers each attempting to reconcile an organic flowing motion of handwriting within an outlying grid.

Hidden messages, conveyed through optical illusions, puns, subliminal messages, riddles, and in jokes, have always played a unique role in visual communications. They raise questions that are fun to ask, but often impossible to answer. More than anything, they appeal to a childlike delight we all share in finding  in things ‘hidden in plain sight.’

I’ve read that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos remarked “whoever doesn’t like this, hates puppies” when discussing the Amazon logo. The double meaning of the arrow and smile is brilliant.

The FedEx logo contains an arrow in the “Ex.”

This inspired us to develop a hidden message in the the Interfaith Community Health Clinic logo, as a visual pun combining healthcare (symbolized by the cross) and a community.

The Guild of Food Writers is a visual pun combining a pen nib and a spoon. The interaction of positive and negative space creates many opportunities for using one image to combine multiple symbols.

The Toblerone logo contains a bear.

Though its an open question if this image actually contains hidden messages, beyond a doubt the discussion makes the logo more interesting.

Whatever the album’s creators intended, the messages woven into this piece add enormously to its memorability.

In the design world, adding a “hidden message” is a great way to subtly reinforce a message without adding clutter, and also a great way to reward viewers when they “get it”.

The Power Past Coal website was conceived to be a media hub around the coal train issue impacting the Pacific Northwest. For the unfamiliar: the issue is about a coal terminal proposed to be built at Cherry Point in Whatcom County. If built, this would create an enormous influx of trains carrying coal – and with it a tremendous health and economic cost to dozens of communities in as many as five or six states states.

This issue will unfold for years to come. It is complicated — comparatively easy to grasp the enormity of the cost of the coal trains but difficult for an everyday person to know how to invest their time in influencing the outcome. At heart, it is the type of issue that makes people feel helpless and insignificant.

Our solution began with identifying and delivering “actions” as the site’s core purpose. Amazon made a book store where you could be buy a book in a click. OK. We will do the same thing, but we will deliver actions instead of books. The site is an action delivery mechanism, a project management system of sorts.

Our concept began with the idea of utilizing a group of content providers to “broadcast” actions to various counties and states. Each location would be evaluating and prioritizing the actions based on time, importance, and location. We wanted it be as simple as possible, with only three actions for each location, and with the ability to make the action as simple or as complex as they needed.

Of course, a context would be required to make the actions meaningful. Topical news stories, videos, interactive maps, a document library, etc. would be filtered and broadcast using the same local broadcast concept.

The action oriented site concept helped us think of the site differently, creating an alternative to the more general information oriented sites out there. Additionally, it created a goal that helped us evaluate and prioritize other features, favoring an “action oriented” functionality perspective.

As with all websites, PowerPastCoal.org will be an ongoing process of development and refining. We are very happy with the initial version and look forward to helping our community (and others) Power Past Coal.

“A camel,” the old saying goes, “is a horse designed by committee.”

‘Design by committee’ is not code for horrible design, but rather bland, unremarkable design — work compromised by being unfocused trying to please too many, while actually pleasing too few.

mouse designed by an opensource development team

Yet, most marketing work is actually designed by groups of people – much of it very successfully. Groups that do it best have some characteristics in common, and below are five of the most important characteristics I’ve noticed over the years.

stability
Successful design benefits from a group of people who are able to participate in all phases of the project, allowing for stable, efficient communications.

variety of perspective
Successful design benefits from collaboration among many points of view. Engineers, for example, are very different than creatives. Writers different than illustrators. Managers different than sales people. The best solutions are to be found by threading a needle between multiple perspectives.

size
There’s a magical moment that takes place when a large group vocalizes the thought that “there’s too many of us to make decisions effectively.” The choice to trust a few in their group to be the ultimate evaluators and decision makers of the creative work can be an essential part of a project’s success.

comfort with writing
Strategic thinking begins and ends with writing. Strong social personalities are often uncomfortable with writing, and rely on multiple, sometime excessively long meetings and phone calls. Effective writing is predicated on shutting the door, being alone with one’s thoughts, and confronting with truth and vulnerability that is unique to the writing process.

trust
At some point, effective leadership boils down to hiring someone to do a job, and then knowing when to step out of the way to let them complete the job. Let your designer (or writer, media planner, plumber, etc.) complete their work without unnecessary or unproductive interference.

Keeping the above five characteristics in mind when organizing a new committee or working with an established one can do much to keep your creative project on track and on budget. You might even be surprised how enjoyable the process can be.

speak friend and enter

A fundamental principal about marketing communication relates to making it easy for the audience to understand what you’re trying to say. A message that requires serious thought is almost certainly going to be upstaged by less demanding messages.

Yet, as I see marketing as the strategic breaking of rules, I can justify throwing the audience a few challenges from time to time.  Executed effectively, this practice rewards the viewer for paying attention, communicating  substance and depth, a sense that “there’s more here than meets the eye.” In addition, the marketing and design both have traditions of using riddles and visual puns, and I like to think our company’s work continues these traditions.

One such opportunity emerged when creating graphics for the  Bellingham – Whatcom County Commission Against Domestic Violence for the Domestic Violence (or DV) Awareness month. Readers of this blog will know that our take on resolving this issue begins with perception. Learning to see domestic violence – as individuals and as a culture – is requisite for ending it.

Form follows function. Seeing the message as a challenge to perception, we embedded a few riddles into the campaign graphics. The first was a visual pun combing Forget-Me-Nots – a flower that for many is symbolic of dv awareness – with a calendar, highlighting event dates with a larger flower. We liked the idea of combining this concept with buttons people could wear, thinking of each person attending the event as a flower.

A second small riddle was a pun in the campaign title “the solution is in sight,” meaning that both the solution was close at hand and that the solution could be found in perception. This was a huge stretch, so we told our client that this message was  something that could be brought up at the events themselves. The graphics, in other words, were part of a larger conversation that included designs, buttons, social media, and vocal performance.

I think the most important part of developing marketing messages with this in mind is moderation – doing it only rarely and making sure that the real message is manifestly clear even if a few aspects of it are lost with some, perhaps even most of the audience.

“I would have written you a shorter letter, but I didn’t have the time.”
— Mark Twain

The process of developing meaningful content for websites is sometimes a bigger challenge than the technical construction of the website itself.

One reason for this is there being essentially no limit to need. The freeform nature of the web is that any content area can be endlessly broken down and refined. What’s more, there’s rarely a permanent solution — only a series of provisional drafts.

In a sense, it’s a resource management question, with time being the most important resource. The question to ask is not “what’s important?” but “what’s MOST important?”

The answer to that question is rarely formatting. If your goal in developing content it to tell a story, appeal to emotions, persuade your audience, or some similar goal, the process of adding to or adjusting the formatting will not only not bear fruit, but it will distract you from achieving meaningful results. The choices you make —  inevitably to “stand out” or “add interest” — will read as inconsistency, then clutter, then desperation.

Making this phrase bold, centering this image, adding a border here or there can consume hours of time while providing only the illusion of progress. It’s like having a sad little sofa in a sad little apartment –  moving it to this wall or that wall really doesn’t matter. Quoting Wargames, a movie from my youth, “the only way to win the game is not to play it at all.”

give me your time

The real solution is  the age old process of writing, thinking seriously about your message and then using formatting to clarify — not compete against — your content.

Our web development processes are based on this concept, with templates presenting  a core of only a few formatting options.  This acts as a foundation that helps people work quickly, make simple choices, and produce consistent results.

Most people have experienced falling in love with a paint color only to be appalled by the same color when seeing it covering an entire wall or room.

Color is not just a tricky thing, it is the trickest thing. Everyone views color differently to varying degrees.  I seem to remember a dispute my parents had about painting over the “barn red”, “no, brown!” paint color of our new house. Additionally, different print environments, materials or digital displays will produce different colors. Usually the difference is slight.

I recently got the chance to explore color values in a new way by painting a series of oversized Pantone chips on small canvases. Mixing acrylic paints with the goal of matching actual Pantone colors just by eye was a fun challenge. And it seems the end result for most of the colors was a pretty close match.

The quality of the paint, canvas, and natural lighting exert an enormous influence in how these colors are perceived. Under some environments, the colors are dead on; on others, they seem off.  Which is “right?” The concept of color accuracy is a crucial, and often unattainable ideal. I’ve heard it described as the “Holy Grail” of our industry.

Here’s yet another complication. In the print world, uncoated paper (your typical bond paper, newsprint, etc.) soaks up ink and therefore has a completely different quality than a coated sheet (a magazine page, for example) which creates a glossy surface upon which the ink “sits.” The result is that glossy paper is more reflective and colors appear lighter.

The photos above demonstrate this. Coated ink swatches are on the left and uncoated swatches are on the right. Exact same ink colors are printed on each, with different results.

Most people are oblivious to the nuances of different production methods. You have to make a conscious choice about looking – a good thing, really, because I think the eye is ultimately very forgiving.  “Mere color,” Wilde said, “unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways.”

the source material

The combination of new location, a daily bike commute, and quick daily walks have made Becca and I much more sensitive to the changing seasons this year. Readers of previous posts will remember that leaves are of particular interest to us this fall.

We were especially struck with the incredible richness and range of colors, and Becca had a great idea to use them in our office entry room signage. The concept was to isolate each leaf against a perfectly white background.

three of the fifty-four leaves we used

Although completely natural, the project had the feeling of a design exercise – with the different size, shape, and patterns of each – creating a sense of both diversity and unity that makes the natural world endlessly fascinating. It reminded me of the evolution of typography, how the interplay of form and function propelled countless designers to reinterpret the same essential forms, over and over again.

a close up

Most striking is that the leaves were all gathered within a few blocks of our office. In an urban setting of concrete and cars, it is easy to think of the natural world as something “out there.” Yet, the diversity of the these leaves tells another story; we have only to open our eyes and see.

the finished result

A call out to the person who wrote down “leaf” with a felt pen on a leaf at Maritime Park. Somehow, among the millions – perhaps billions of leaves – we found your message and included it in our project. What are the odds?