Musings

When you're an independent professional, and even when you're not, time management is always a challenge. Now, I'm a paper calendar person. I think the act of writing something down helps it stick in my brain, and I need to see chunks of time available or unavailable. I've tried iCal and the calendar on my phone and for whatever reason, it just doesn't work for me.

So, paper calendars/planners it is for me. But I can't ever seem to find just the right one. I've spent many hours combing through office supply stores, Franklin Covey stores, bookstores and online looking for the perfect planner. There always seems to be too much or not enough there. Or I don't like the way it's organized. Let's face it I am REALLY picky.

Being a graphic designer, I was going to design my own. It's a tedious process and printing isn't cheap. I was planning this out, getting print bids and moving forward when completely out of the blue, I got something in the mail from a company called Planner Pads out of Omaha, Nebraska. I say out of the blue because the mailing label used a version of my name that is usually on random catalogs and junk mail. It was just one of those things when it's such a coincidence that you can't help but check it out.

What I found was the closest I have EVER come to a perfect planner. It not only had the week on a 2-page spread and the days broken out into hours, but it combined this with another separate sheet of paper I was using -- my Weekly Action Plan.

They use what they call a "funnel system" to get your butt organized. You list your projects across the top, everything you have to do broken out by day under that, and then the hourly breakdowns under that. Talk about get 'er done!

I will begin using this planner full time next week. I'll let you know how it goes!!

I recently completed a direct mail piece in which I ran into something that I run into frequently -- the overwhelming desire of a business owner to tell absolutely everything about their business in a marketing piece. And their absolute refusal to edit the copy.

An ad in any form, be it print, direct mail, TV, web banner, whatever, is meant to be a teaser. Something that will entice a customer to visit your place of business or your website. Really all you need to tell them is who you are, what you do and what makes you different from/better than the others. If that appeal is well done, the customers you want will respond.

Your website, your office or store, and YOU on the phone or in person is the best place for people to find out more about you. A marketing piece will never sell you as completely as you do yourself.

This is all beside the plain fact that there's not a lot of room to work with in an ad or even a brochure (or a radio or TV spot, for that matter). This direct mail postcard ended up with four paragraphs of eight point type on the back, plus a coupon. There is no way I'm going to wade through all that when I get it in the mail. The coupon will catch my eye, but the rest is yadda, yadda, yadda.

Oh, yeah -- I forgot to mention that included on the coupon is a QR code that links you directly to the website, and the website URL. Where the owner says all that stuff again. If I take the time to go to your site, the least you can offer is some new information.

The upshot here is listen to your designer or marketing person when they tell you to think in bullets and headlines. The rule of thumb is that people look at something for no more than three seconds before they decide to stay or move on. Give your audience just a taste of who you are. You have other outlets that they can go to for more information -- the best one being you. That's why we make the phone number so big, eh?

Last weekend I got together with a friend of mine who is an interior designer for movie night. I had told her about the movie Helvetica and she responded like most people:

"There's a movie? ...About Helvetica? ...The font?"

Yes, there is. It came out in 2007 and I'd seen it before. It gives the history of the creation of the font and shows that people are in one of two camps: Either you love the font, think it's a timeless classic and cannot be improved upon OR you think it's boring and overused (because it literally is everywhere!). I happen to be in the Timeless Classic camp, just so ya know.

She checked the DVD out of the library and while she was there found the second film by the same director called Objectified, about product design which was more in her area of geekness. So we had a really geeky double feature film festival. We agreed that most people wouldn't make it through one of these films, not to mention both back-to-back, but we had a blast! We sat in rapt attention, munching popcorn and absorbing every detail we could. And remember this was my second viewing of Helvetica.

Turns out the director is hard at work on a new film called Urbanized about the design of cities. I can't wait!!!

"Part of the problem these days is there’s so much choice. At some point, someone just has to say: We’re going to do it like this because I want to do it this way. Because, if you don’t, you’re going to be churning out oatmeal. You look at some graphic design today, and you can tell that nobody is in charge."

This quote from designer James Victore struck a nerve with me. He's referring to what I call "design by committee" and it's getting pretty ridiculous. When I design material for any business or organization of more than one person, it seems that everyone HAS to have their say in the design. And what you end up with is a pile of mush -- something that's trying to please everyone and ends up pleasing no one.

There's nothing wrong with running things by people to make sure you have the information correct and complete, but really -- just because Bob in Accounting doesn't like blue we need to change the whole color palette? Has Bob sat in on any of my meetings with the communications team discussing target market strategy and "look and feel"? Most likely not.

Bob in Accounting probably really doesn't care what this marketing piece actually looks like. But, because he's been asked, he's going to give an opinion. He's only answering the question, "What do you think of our new marketing piece?" Instead, say, "Bob, could you read this over and make sure the content is readable and that we've covered everything?" That gives him clear expectations and lets him off the hook.

Leave the design decisions to the designer and the Communications/Marketing folks. It's our job, it's what we do.

After attending the Creative Freelancer's Conference and HOW Design Conference this past week, I have come away very aware of the fact that graphic designers are not just people who make things pretty. We are the marketing powerhouse, the idea factory for any business, and we should be considered as an integral part of a business team.

A successful business owner will surround him or herself with other professionals to help that business run. A graphic designer should be part of that team right along with the accountant, bookkeeper, attorney, financial planner, etc. A graphic designer is the one who helps get business in the first place.

There are tools out there to let small businesses do everything themselves these days, including all the professions mentioned above. But we all know we can get only so far doing those things ourselves, and that includes our own marketing and graphic design.