Noisy Decent Graphics

Jackson Pollock web thing

Great fun this, and it's not often I like this kinda thing.

Click on the site and make your own web based Jackson Pollock. Doesn't need any explanation from me, just try it.

Simple and beautiful, really.

What makes Will tick?

Will Humphrey wants a job in advertising. That's bloody obvious.

Getting a job in advertising (certainly with an agency you've heard of) is hard. So Will did what most sensible people should do and started a blog.

Will sometimes comments on this blog, quite often comments on Russell's, occasionally comments on w+k's and has been kind enough to link back here.

I don't read Will's blog everyday, in fact he doesn't update that often, but I take a look every now and then. Today, just by chance, I saw a PowerPoint Presentation in the side bar. It was called Confessions of a (wannabe) Advertising Man. I downloaded it and it's brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

It's a CV, but a million times better. And for an Account Guy or a Planner it's double fucking brilliant.

From this short ppt I know more about Will than a 100 pages of CV would ever tell me.

I know:

that he's creative
that he can think differently
that he's willing to take a (little) risk
that he wears shit earmuffs
that he supports Stoke
that he can write
that he likes the Clash
that he can use PowerPoint
that he's good fun and probably a decent bloke to have around
that's he a little rough round the edges (and who wants to employ people that aren't?)
that he understands how to tell a story
that he's had experience at Fallon and DLKW
that he has dreadful taste in fonts and backgrounds
that he's embraced failure
that he likes The Mighty Boosh
that he's interesting and much, much more

I have no idea what GCSE's he got and I don't know if likes going to the cinema and swimming. I don't know what university he went to. I don't know when his birthday is. I don't even know which part of the country he lives in.

But none of that matters, because the stuff I do know is so much more valuable.

Don't you want to get him in for an interview now?

Download the ppt here.

If you could come back as a file format, which file format would it be?

That last post reminded me of a question a friend of mine asked me a few months back.

If you could come back as a file format, which file format would it be?

He said he’d come back as a PDF, which is understandable. What would your answer be?

Experts and file formats

I had a frustrating conversation today, one that happens quite a lot.

We producing some promotional stuff for a client. I won't say exactly what it is, but you know those companies that make rulers, stress balls and clocks? Yeah, all that kind of stuff.

One of these things involves printing white on to a red plastic. It's an off the shelf item. I asked the rep from the company to give me a template so I could create the artwork for said item.

She sent me a jpeg.

The graphic designers reading this will know how frustrating that is. For the non graphic designers, you can't print from a jpeg. Well, technically you can, but not really good enough quality for most print jobs. It's certainly not the first choice file format for printing.

For printing on to plastic it's best to use a vector file, like an eps.

I asked the rep if they print from the jpeg, "Oh no" she replied, "we print from, hold on,  er, veck torr ee pee ess. Does that mean anything to you?". Great, I said, could she send me an eps template? "Err, no, no. I don't actually have one."

So I've had to create one from scratch, drop the artwork in and send it off. I warned her that she wouldn't be able to open the eps on her PC, but I assured her that the print dept would know what to do with it. I bet I still get a phone call saying she can't open the file in the morning.

OK, this isn't really a big deal. It didn't take much time, and I was kind of expecting it. But it's so frustrating when you have to talk to people who have no real idea what they're talking about. Printing is difficult, and I don't think people appreciate that.

We often get told our printers are too expensive but the thing is they know what they're talking about. They can help out. They add value. They know the difference between and eps and an indd. They'll ring if a file looks wrong, whereas most printers go ahead and then, whoops, we have to pay for a reprint.

Experts, that's who I like dealing with.

Take your own medicine

Flew to Scotland on Friday.

Client rang late Thursday and asked us to attend a briefing the next day. They want ideas for this Wednesday. Lovely, lovely brief but obviously the time thing is a bit of a problem.

We had a load of really good ideas this morning in a lunch / brainstorm kinda way.

But how to present?

Take your own medicine, present passion not perfection and welcome to the second Post It Note Presentation.

Obvious really.

No 2 - How can I attract a bread and butter client without sacrificing my style?

Here's the second question from Alex at thinkdust: I want to keep my style of creating work but that does not attract the bread and butter clients to keep the money afloat. So how do I go about tacking this?

There are probably several answers to this question.

I don't think there is anything you can actively do to find a bread and butter client who likes your style. I'm sure they're out there, and I'm sure you will find one, but I don't think you can actively target one. Just keep showing the work you like, on your website and in your portfolio, and eventually clients will get to know you for that style.

You could obviously try targeting clients that already commission work similar to your style.

If you have a style that you desperately want to keep hold of and you don't want clients diluting your style, then the simple answer is to say no. Say no to projects that don't fit your style, say no to clients who haven't bought in to your style, say no to clients who try to dictate your style.

I don't like this approach though, I'm very much a function over form kind of designer. I believe you solve the problem first and the style will probably come from that, rather than applying a distinct style to every solution. However, other people think differently.

Most consultancies have bread and butter clients and shop window clients. In fact most businesses operate like this. There is stuff that you'd probably never show anyone that pays the rent and stuff that looks fantastic but would make you go bust.

We make sure that all potential projects meet at least two of these criteria;

1) the client has the budget to pay our fees
2) the project is one where (we know) the end result will look great in our portfolio
3) the client is of a profile that will attract more clients

If a project only meets one of those criteria, we turn it down. We are working towards all clients ticking all three criteria.

Anyone else got any ideas?

Alex, how did you get on with last weeks suggestions?

Graphic Design Planners?

Another question for you all.

Marcus wants to know, "which design agencies have a good planning arm - be it within packaging, retail, identity, or as 'design generalists'."

I know that Imagination do, anyone know of any others? As ever, your comments are really valuable.

View from the Tate, late

"I think it's called the internet or blogs or something - I don't know, I've only just got used to letters John, I haven't got into all this new technology"

As said by the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, yesterday.

And to think, you lot were spending all that time worrying about 2.0. Some people still need help with 1.0.

Cover Art

Brilliant. A little application that lets you browse your iTunes by flicking through the covers. Just like in the old days.

From Cool Hunting.

Txtual Healing

This is really lovely.

I'm not sure if this is by an artist or a student or some sort of company. I think it's a thesis. This guy projects a speech bubble onto walls, preferably near windows or doors. He then hands out flyers with a mobile number on to passers by. They txt the number and their messages appear in the bubble.

The images he's taken are gorgeous.

I can't help thinking it would make a nice ad campaign for summits. Or great album covers.

.

Unforgivable spelling error

How on earth can you make a mistake like this?

Secret Menu

I've just discovered that In N Out Burger have a Secret Menu. Things that aren't listed on the menu in the restaurant nor advertised. Absolutely brilliant.

More brands should have secret stuff. Maybe they do, how would we know?

For the uninitiated I'm not really sure how to describe In N Out. It's always described as a healthy Californian burger bar. But they're not just in California any more (I've been to one in Vegas) and is "healthy" the right word for any burger place?

WHARF

Portugal vs France

Can anyone spot what's wrong with these posters I saw in William Hill this afternoon?

No 1 - What is the best way to generate new work?

Alex Haigh from Sheffield has just set up his graphic design business and he's emailed me to ask for some advice. He's very kindly agreed for me to put his questions and my responses on this blog. His new company has been going 3 weeks and it's called thinkdust.

I think this could be a fascinating insight into what it's like to start up a design company from scratch, a test of what I've learnt of the last decade or so, an interesting series of conversations and decent publicity for a new start up.

Without wanting to sound arrogant I think this is quite a risky, innovative thing to do. Let's see how it goes.

Let me also make something clear from the start. This advice is aimed at Alex, in Sheffield starting a graphic design company. It's not advice for starting your business, necessarily. I feel qualified to talk about this because I've done it.

OK. First question: What is the best way to generate new work without sending tons of emails, and spending endless amounts of money on google adwords, and useless flyers?

When we started out I asked this question all the time and almost all the answers I received were unsatisfactory. I didn't have the staff, the budget, the profile or the clients to do any of the things suggested. In fact, like Alex, we had no staff, no profile and no clients. (Hence the question, idiot.)

Also, lots of this sort of advice can be very wooly and not practical at all. So I'll try and list practical things Alex (in Sheffield, with no employees and no budget) can do, right now.

1. Think small
Pick 4 companies you can easily get to (so Sheffield, Nottingham etc) that you really, really want to work with. A big push of any kind won't work. You don't have the resource. A small, bespoke, innovative, careful, nimble approach will work.

2. Get their correct details
Contact those 4 companies and get the correct details of the people who buy design. That might be a marketing manager, brand manager, or comms person. It might be the sales director, in smaller companies it often is. Get the right details. The correct name. Spelt right. The correct job title. The right address. Basic stuff but very important. How to get these details? DO NOT rely on the internet. Get off your arse and make some calls (say you're updating the Christmas card list or say you just want to check a spelling, all these old tricks still work). Ask the receptionist which person deals with design companies, they will probably tell you. Remember to be nice to the receptionists, that's very important.

3. Research
OK, we've got four companies, we may have eight names. That's more than enough to be getting on with. Research them. Google the names. Go visit their offices or their shops. Find out what they're about. Try and take a stab at how you might be useful to them. The more you know about them, the more genuine you will seem and the easier it will be to speak to them.

3. Send them something
This DOES NOT necessarily mean sending them a mailer. It might just be some samples, it might be a box of chocolates, it might be a sock with a video in it. But it will be researched, it will be interesting and it will be targeted at that particular person. You're not overly selling anything, you're just saying , 'Hello I'm interesting and good'.

4. Follow this up with a phone call
Again, get off your arse and make some calls. Calling is hard, but you've got to do it. You'll say, 'Hello John, remember I sent you a sock with a video I'd made about your branding' - John will say 'No',

Don't get disheartened. John gets loads of stuff like this everyday. Be nice, be polite and offer to send your sock in again, he will probably say yes. Ring him next week and ask the same question. If you're lucky, he'll say 'Yeah, that was interesting, let's meet up'. Out of the eight people you contact probably only two of these people will agree to see you.

5. The big meeting
John has agreed to see you. Don't blow it. Be on time, wear clean clothes (as someone once said to me, if you're going to wear your scruffy old jeans, wear your best scruffy old jeans) be polite, speak up, be confident. Be at the right address.

6. Selling not telling
Every single creative person I've ever met makes this mistake. Here's the difference:

'I was looking at the lovely patterns electronics things make and I wondered if I could  design something as beautiful as that. I've used my three favourite colours and added in some more complimentary ones. I think the best bit is this bit here, where the five lines cross over.'

or

'This design makes navigating a really complex system of underground trains really quick and easy for the passengers. It will improve the experience of your customers.'

See what I mean? Sell the benefits of your design.

Don't take shit loads of work, John will get bored. Take 3 or 4 things that are relevant to his company.

7. Follow this up with a phone call (again)
John will probably say he likes your stuff but he doesn't have any projects at the moment. That's OK, that's the truth. He will ask you to call back in 6 months. PUT THIS IN YOUR DIARY and call back in six months.

That little lot should probably take you a month. When that month is over, start again with another 4 companies. Do things carefully, don't piss people off, don't try and do too much. Getting work will take a long time. Maybe even six months. Sorry, but it will.

You are (trying) to build a relationship, or at least a rapport. That takes time and consideration.

There is some other obvious stuff you can do.

1. Ask all your friends and family if they know anyone who needs any design work doing. Don't be afraid to sell. You have rent to pay. You've already asked? Ask again.

2. Get as much free press as you can, where you can. Press works. People like young and new, so play on that. Contact your old college magazine, they love stuff like this.

3. Meet as many people as you can. Go to Business Link events, go to conferences, go to networking events. All this sounds hideous but it's how the world of commerce works I'm afraid.

4. Get onto as many online design directories as you can. Don't pay more than about £30 for a listing. It's not worth it.

5. DO NOT pay for any ridiculous advertorials, adverts or directory enquiry type nonsense. It won't work. In fact, as above don't pay more than about £30 for anything, yet.

6. Don't listen to anyone who tells you they can get you new business. They can't.

7. Get proper, well designed, well printed business cards made. Hand them out liberally. Ask people you meet for a business card in return (again, almost every single creative person I know forgets this bit).

8. Don't go for massive bits of work from massive companies. You won't get it. Ask them to try you out on a small brief and make yourself invaluable. You'll get asked back.

9. Never sell yourself too cheaply. No one ever says, 'Ooh I've got more money than last time, can you put your fees up?'.

10. AdWords works, but it has to be really targeted and you have to be really strict with what you spend. Don't just advertise design, advertise expertise in toothpaste packaging for example. But don't use AdWords just yet.

Phew. That was longer than I expected. I guess there's a lot to say.

So, has anyone else got any advice for Alex? Alex, was that helpful? Anyone in Sheffield got any design work that needs doing?

Does anyone think this could make an interesting series of posts?

As ever, all comments welcome.

Museum of Almost

This almost says museum.

So does this.

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