Alta Website Redesign

In February I was asked by the Alta Team to join them in their efforts to redesign their website. Alta is known as the premiere print shop of Gainesville and North Florida. Ata has over 26 years of experience and pride themselves on their friendly staff and community roots. So, needless to say I was very excited to work for this reputable company!

Alta traditionally has offered print services. When I met with the team and discussed the project I was very excited to hear that they are now expanding their services to the online market as well. For their redesign they wanted something that was fresh and friendly. They are very confident in selling not only a traditional product and service to a consumer but they also want the consumer to realize that they are also gaining a strong, reliable professional relationship. Alta treats their customers like their family – they want you to be comfortable and feel like you can go to them with for any of your marketing questions or needs.

A tight deadline was given for this project but I felt confident in accomplishing the task as they were prepared with a project manager, content writers, and photographer while I took the reigns on the design and HTML/CSS. For this initial phase we decided to push the simple static version of the site and are choosing to integrate this into a CMS in the near future.

In our initial design discovery meeting Alta expressed they wanted a look that was layered and had depth. They wanted fresh colors of greens and blues to accentuate their eco-friendly business approaches, and they wanted friendly icons to make the text more visually appealing.

For the design I worked with Fireworks and pulled out the trusty grid-based layout template. Having this template has been a great resource in efficiency and it is a great visual guide to guarantee perfect visual spacing.

Alta expressed they wanted a seamless background that would look nice in all browsers. I went into Photoshop and created an abstract blue banner that would fill the background as a bar and added depth to this piece so elements falling on top felt as though they were layered. For the navigation I made it layered over the brown and grey to add that next element of layering. I wanted a nice background for the main content areas so I played around with drop shadows on simple lines to add a clean visual separator. The footer is a light color that reflects the same visual pattern as the strong blue banner to bring in the consistency of the elements.

From there the pages began to lay themselves out. I wanted the design to have flexibility for the future – easily take elements out and put elements in. The elements bring in a personality and character to this site that evokes a community-based, friendly feel. In the end we made our deadlines and I am very happy with the process!

Writing Woes – Developing Workflow Map to Solve Content Creation Issues

As the Creative Manager at Holbrook I am presented with the task of helping to solve work flow issues between the design department and all the other departments of Holbrook. One of the biggest issues that seemed to arise in my position on a daily basis is solving the issue of content creation. We do not have a hired writer, many times people will be put to the task or volunteer to write but that has established vital flaws in our writing including inconsistency in style, tone, and grammar.

I also find myself frustrated because as a designer content is king. In the past year I have learned this lesson many times! I am always an eager designer – ready to get started and move quickly – but I have found myself in situations where I know the project is on my task list but there is no content for me to reference to get started. I would try and go ahead and start a project but in the end found myself completely starting from scratch because it really had NOTHING to do with the content.

In an effort to solve this huge crack in our marketing work flow I met with two other co-workers to develop a work flow proposal to present to senior management to resolve our content woes.

We decided to develop a process off of our Product Flyers. Every year Holbrook develops Set Programs that we sell to schools, organizations, and groups.  These flyers traditionally come with an introductory paragraph, highlights, and a backside day by day.

We analyzed current process:

1. Recycle content or develop content
2. Post to staff to make edits
3. Verify pricing and terms and conditions
4. Put into design shell for production
5. Post for edits
6. Final Revisions
7. File PDF and Word Doc on Server and Post to Website

Right off the bat there are more than a few holes in this process.

1. No delegated roles or responsibilities.
2. No manager of this process
3. No expertise being referenced
4. No official filing system of content, images, designs
5. No dynamic interaction of information sharing at all

I do not want this to seem like everything is chaotic – it is not but it can be improved upon greatly. Being a small business and having employees spread very thin filling many different roles has brought us to this fork in the road. We can either go down the same path of miscommunication, frustration, and low confidence in quality of marketing materials or we can forge the new path! One that is really intimidating – how are we going to assign these roles when do not have these positions filled? If we are going to ask people to begin to fill the roles, is it realistic? Will they have the sufficient time to dedicate to this additional role?

Resolution:

1. Development presents product to marketing; this includes correct pricing and terms and conditions.
2. Development and assigned writer meet and discuss product. Writer targets key areas of interest:
   1. Price Point of program
   2. Feel of program (casual learner, expert learner, etc)
   3. Desired highlights of program
   4. Unique selling features (Why was this developed, why so uniqe?)
3. Marketing team meets and writer explains what was learned in meeting with development.
   1. What could be the unique marketing techniques for market/program?
   2. Develop tag lines, titles, phrases
   3. More than a flyer, what else can we develop to promote market/programs? Social streams, apps, photo albums, etc.
4. Designer researches and finds unique avenues to promote programs; print and web mediums, integrations, etc.
5. Writer begins writing. In this phase the writer will do extensive research, meeting with an assigned content expert, going back to development with more questions, and developing or referencing a Resources List to support the writing. Our writing pertains to specific, unique destinations and interests – we need to be 100% sure our content is correct, strong, and relevant.
6. Editor is given copy and reviews to assure piece meets Holbrook Travel Writing Guidelines – establishing appropriate tone, grammar, and feel. We need our writing to have a signature style and sound – just like branding a company’s colors and logo we need to brand the writing.
7. Once reviewed and polished by writer and editor the copy is passed on one more time to writing manager for review.
8. Writer stores copy in designated storage area on network drive for filing.
9. Marketing comes back together with copy and research.  Brainstorming session on integration of content to markets – how will design go what other solutions and tools can be used to sell this product. Key imagery will be pinpointed for this program as well.
10. Designer works on elements and provides finished results to marketing director for approval
11. Product Published in all areas of chosen marketing.

This is our proposed plan of action; still a ways to go but it is a start. We know that this is going to be an ever-evolving process especially in the beginning as we find out what works and what does not. I want this to be the foundation to how we develop many of the work flows around marketing. By delegating roles and assigning tasks we can be guaranteed initiatives are not only met but are confidently established by the correct interaction between departments, exploration of key knowledge in the intricate field/destination, and looking at how we can market a product in more non-traditional methods that can touch our wide range markets.

Sweet Nothings – Altered Found Objects. Jenn Kahn

My good friend and soon to be MFA graduate Jenn Kahn asked me to help her with a card to advertise and debut her upcoming showcase of artwork. Jenn and I go way back to high school AP art classes in 2002. She always had an intellectual and precise approach to her work. She is savvy, keen, and knows what she wants and understands that there is much more to modern art than craft, there is an understanding of culture, society, and sensory experiences; the ability to combine these elements into a transferable experience for the viewer. Always pushing the envelope on things dainty, feminine, delicate, and pastel I love listening to her perception of her art and its affect on your senses when you enter its environment; she doesn’t just want you to see something visually appealing she wants you to be swept away into a feeling – a time and a place you may know or will begin to know from her work.

For her card she wanted a clean look accentuating the figurines that are at the center of her current work. A strong typography that is elaborate, yet legible, sweet and “precious”. This card is a huge statement of her work and initiating that sensory experience she wants you to expose yourself to. We found the wonderful serif font Old Script that evokes those feelings described, elaborated the area with a soft glow and delicate line underneath. We juxtaposed the elaborate, fancy script with the clean dependable Helvetica Neue. We played around with the kerning and height allowing this delicate san-serif to stand strong against the elaborate serif.

The typography on this card is also going to be repeated on the entrance windows of her gallery. This clean look will stand strong and compliment her work. For the back of the card we went for a very simple one color. Repeated the developed typography and allowed the different variants of Helvetica Neue to write the details of the event. The back had to be flexible to be able to be mailed and handed out as a simple card.

After our session we were very pleased with the outcome; it was really great to think that we used to be in AP art sketching still lifes and counting down the days to college and now she is graduating with her MFA. I am so happy and excited for Jenn to be completing her degree and moving on to New York City. She is taking the plunge and I promise one day we will be bougie in Brooklyn.

Gainesvillians – come to this great event March 26th!!

ServiceBox.com – Helping with first marketing push

Recently I worked with ServiceBox.com to produce a simple mailer to be passed out at local businesses and events to promote this social community beta website.

Sean from ServiceBox.com asked me to go over their website and come up with some ideas on how to market this new website. In our conversation we discussed what ServiceBox is, who the target audience is, and what is the point of this first advertising piece.

ServiceBox is a one stop for neighborhood news, events, marketplace products & service listings, networking, local business deals and savings. The point of this site is to get users to build their local community/neighborhood for information that directly affects them on a daily basis. It is like taking your local newspaper, craigslist, neighborhood watch meetings, town hall meetings, etc and bringing them into one large, organized arena.

For this initial push ServiceBox wanted to target a single user – they need to get people to sign up and start creating these virtual communities. I went to ServiceBox.com and created my own account and browsed through the different layouts of functionality offered for a user. Why would a user want to create an account with ServiceBox?

This is why: Join, Interact, Discover. I wanted to unveil the 3 actions that will result in a satisfied need for going to ServiceBox.

First, you want to join; it is free, you get a cool personal profile, you can invite friends and family to join in, and you can even create a microsite if you have a small business.

Second, you will get to interact. If you interact you can read interesting local stories or you can even write and post your own story you would like others to view and get involved in. ServiceBox has a great community organizer tool; you can organize an event online and have people respond if they are going to attend – this is an efficient tool as it can spread to more people and information can be shared more easily. Lastly, a user can join free, powerful group sites. These group sites can be about anything really and it allows for that gathering of like-minded individuals.

Third, a user will inevitably discover great things about their community they never knew. You can browse your local marketplace for services and goods for sale. A powerful tool is the ability to meet local business owners on their microsites where you can get exclusive coupons and savings. From joining ServiceBox you will also get information on local sports, local politics, and local family issues you could never get from a national news source.

These three defined benefits of joining ServiceBox are directly targeted at the single user. The design brings in the brand recognition of this new virtual company and iterates the clean, friendly style of the company.

It was really great working with Sean from ServiceBox. He was easy to work with, very flexible, and the project went along very smoothly. I am excited to see the response on these pieces and have the opportunity to work with ServiceBox in the future.

Presenting 101: University of Florida PR and Marketing Class

In November of 2009 my design partner Marien asked if I would present with her for a PR and Marking class at the University of Florida. At first I was a little shocked, I had just finished design school in April. I remember the presenters coming to my classes; they were seasoned veterans, had really great advice to give and I hardly felt like I was anywhere near that experience level. At this point Marien and I had done quite a few freelance projects together. We were definitely still in that green stage of learning how to work with print vendors, set pricing, and writing up contracts.

My worries and feelings of doubt were quickly reassured as Marien told me that Professor Martinez wanted us to speak about our experience coming out of school, trying to be young freelance artists, and what a student should know about a designer when working with one in a professional environment.

Marien and I were very excited for this presentation – we got to speak about what we love doing everyday and how to make that experience better by informing these one day potential clients the basic principles to know when working with a designer.

Image Resolution

We decided to begin the talk with the discussion about image resolution. We felt this was particularly important because on a constant basis we will get people that send us a picture on the internet or picture from their phone and ask if we can use that in a high quality print job. If I didn’t go to design school I would have no idea about these qualities or differences.

We opened the doors of “dots per inch” and “pixels per inch” to the students. We informed them about the distinct difference and what to expect when speaking with not only a designer but also a print shop or even web designer.

Very close up example of what ink looks like printed on paper -dpi.

DPI stands for dots per inch. This terminology is used in the print world. When a piece is printed it literally is laid in a certain number of dots per inch. Each layer of color and its percentage of dots are put together to form an image. The more dots per inch will get a better resolution and higher quality.

Very close up example of pixels - tiny squares making up image - ppi.

PPI stands for pixels per inch. Computers are made up of pixels per inch. Pixels are tiny little squares of color that make up an image. When a low quality image is blown up really big it will look kind of blurry or rough. The more tiny pixels per inch the better quality the image is.

Know your colors I

Next we discussed the different methods of color: Pantone, Process, and RGB. These methods of color are probably the most important thing to know when working with a designer and print vendor. We explained that it was very important whichever designer they may work with in the future knows the difference of these three.

Pantone is the base of branding. Usually any big company will have specific Pantone colors that brand their company. We referred to the University of Florida – the signature Orange and Blue; you learn to know these by heart working in Gainesville, FL. The signature orange and blue are integral in the branding of the University, you can usually tell when the colors aren’t correct.

CMYK makes up what is known as process printing.

C = Cyan, M = Magenta, Y = Yellow, and finally K = Black.

The combinations of these colors make up the world of color we see in process printing. We explained the significant difference between process and Pantone colors was the accuracy. When choosing a Pantone color you can be guaranteed you are going to get that same color every single time, process is different. In the complex world of printers, machinery, and other factors the process colors can sometimes come out a little different and the vibrancy of process compared to that of Pantone is not as high.

Different examples of how CMYK can make up an image.

Finally,

Red, Green, Blue = RGB

Our computer screens and televisions are made of RGB. The mix of red, green, and blue gives us the result we see. We explained the importance of knowing that images look different on a computer screen color wise than when they do printed. Again, this reiterates why it is so important to know about CMYK and Pantone colors. We expressed that a designer should understand these concepts and also should work from a color swatch book to show true color for a project for specific color printing jobs.

This is how Red, Green, and Blue make up an image on your computer.

Know your colors II

Next we brought the idea of communicating the needs of a color. When speaking with a designer or print shop about color it helps to understand the terminology to better explain the needs one may want from a piece or editing a piece. We spoke about the basics of color:

A HUE is the purest form of a color. They are the ones usually seen on the color wheel.

A TINT is color with white added to it. They are also referred to as pastels.

A SHADE is color with black added to it

A TONE is a color with both black and white added to it

Being able to express what kind of color is wanted in these terms greatly helps a designer choose the right palette and make edits.

Always see a proof

Next we stressed the importance of seeing a proof for anything that is being printed. Proofs are integral in the process of getting a professional print job done. This is your chance to check if the color is what you want, layout is appeasing, and most importantly check for ANY errors – design wise or grammatically. Thousands of dollars can be lost if a proof is not provided or approved correctly.

Communicate. Communicate. Communicate.

We stressed the importance of communication. Projects are successful because of clear communication of goals, expectations, and contracts.

All forms of communication should be documented. We expressed if you meet with a designer in person, do a write up of the meeting and send it over to the designer to not only recap and review but also ensure that you all have a mutual understanding of what went on. By having this email sent you would also have the written proof of this communication for the future.

Communication also helps to avoid the common issue of “I though you said…” Always be open and never hesitate to ask questions. Questions are always welcome on either side of a design relationship. Questioning establishes confidence, rapport, and security revealing personalities and also expertise.

Conclusion

At the end we left questions open to the students. They were eager to know more about web design and seemed highly confident in what they were approaching to do in their lives.

Overall, the presentation went great. This presentation helped Marien and I to look back and realized how much we have learned in such a short period of time. It allowed us to stop and take some pride in what we have accomplished. We were happy when leaving the meeting and even more excited to see what the future has to hold.

Doodling never grows old!

Mom taught me well.

Another late night of designing. Sporadic breaks take me on virtual ventures into my past. I came across a doodle of mine my mom kept from 1989 on a pizza eatery table mat. Needless to say I have always been a people watcher, even at four depicting the family and the waitress. I still find myself doodling while on the phone, at the doctor’s office, and even repetitive circles and zig-zags in intense meetings.  Doodling calms my mind and lets me focus and unveils pieces of creativity that may have never surfaced without those great opportunities. Many of my freelance illustrations have come from doodles and turn out to be some of my favorite pieces. Keeps me exercising those creative juices that can get lost in the daily grind of work flow mapping and managing design projects.

Doodle from a class.

Some of the greatest ideas have come from doodles off of napkins at coffee shops or notepads by the telephone. Francis Scott Key Scribbled the first words of The Star Spangled Banner on the back of an envelope and Obama’s famous doodle sold for over $2,000 on eBay. Who says doodling can’t get you anywhere?

Some of my favorite designers are dedicated doodler’s and try to doodle at least a few times a week to keep that spontaneous spirit alive which inevitably helps in the design process.

I am happy for these nights that reveal little appreciations and those fine grains of gratitude that I find so much joy in what I get to do everyday.