I designed and sent out my first corporate e-newsletter back in 2010. The technology and the MagnetMail CMS were both fairly new to me. I was professionally familiar with the concept, but had never before had my designs virtually blasted into the inbox of over 10,000 professionals in one stroke of a keyboard! Years earlier, I was charged with layout of the quarterly (print) newsletter of the American Institute of Architects, a wholly different animal.

Today, I’ve just completed the layout of a new experiment in e-newsletters. My organization tasked me with turning a Google Site into the host and archive for our monthly news. I’m marrying website and newsletter here., now having the opportunity to hide expanded content in the eNews domain.  This is a far cry from the beginning of our marketing efforts…take a peek at the timeline:

From a multi-page PDF, to an online document, to today's site...

First, a print PDF that at times spanned 7 pages, Next 2-page Printable PDF, Now the Google Site

Enewsletters, while distinct in their layout and content are still built on the foundations of effective writing and basic HTML—things many design professions should be grounded in. What’s the difference between the e-newsletter, print newsletter, and a regular website?

Compare: Newsletter, E-News, & Websites

These three are all content marketing tools, simultaneously informational and promotional. However, they employ slightly different delivery methods.

NEWSLETTERS
The newsletter is largely a print publication, with multiple pages, multiple articles, and (usually) multiple advertisements, to financially sustain such a expensive routine undertaking. Printing costs money folks.

• Benefits of a newsletter include, very importantly, the user experience. Newsletters are delivered to members, there’s a exclusivity in membership (… this is not something that just anybody receives)! Recipients of this newsletter can read and reread articles, dog-ear the pages, make notes in margins, use them to augment scholarly work, and save them for later…or even just place them strategically around an office or living room to look smart.
• Cons of a newsletter: a major con is that while everything above it possible, you will rarely know if people do one or more of those activities. Paper and ink do not yield analytics.

WEBSITES
Websites are fantastic for sharing your company, organization, and ideas with your target audiences and anyone else interested in your topic—who stumbles across your site. It’s a fact that many of us who should be updating our website content on a regular basis, rarely do. Instead websites are repositories for much important, if static, information. We more often rely on social media for up-to-the-minute updates for our clients, audience, and followers.

• Benefits of websites: your voice, your design, your rules! This is a huge benefit over having an online presence comprised only of social media. As for others, your website is a unique URL that can the address for seekers of knowledge, truth, or your expertise. The more it gets known, the more it is shared, and saved, and distributed by search engines. It can grow in popularity without any additional monetary output on the part of your audiences ...hopefully that makes sense.
• Cons of a website: remember to update your website! Larger sites can become unwieldy and difficulty to keep up-to-date on a regular basis. Sad but true.

ENEWS
This medium relies upon two things we’ve already discussed, effective writing and websites. The enews letter is not a fully developed website with sub-pages, main and secondary navigation. Instead, it’s snippets of useful, interesting content that leads the reader AWAY from the newsletter TO your websites, or contact forms, or articles, or informational pages…things that invariably live on your website, related websites, or your social media platforms. They also rely upon pithy, interesting writing.

www.kb.mailchimp.com/campaigns/ab/about-ab-testing-campaigns

Effective writing is a science: Enews designers go through rigorous testing—of seemingly simplistic aspects of the content—to find a formula that works. In my career, I’ve worked with different communications teams to test various aspects of organizations’ newsletters for the winning combinations that yield a  greater rates of  opens, click-throughs, reads, subscribes (as opposed to unsubscribe), and shares… much of the important testing starts at the subject line. Poorly written subjects mean your email might never get opened. Effective e-News testing goes beyond that, of course, from the placement of images in relation to text, to different ways to present seemingly indistinct information.

• Benefits of ENews: If you want to know how many of your audience is reading your newsletter, it’s all right there in your analytics. Enews publications also dive traffic to other places here you can track your audience, your website, and social media streams.
• Cons of ENews: Brevity is the key here. Your enews article MUST be a textual sound bite—the appetizer that entices your reader to click to read more, learn more, or sign up! It’s possible to host a feature article in your enewsletter, but it’s a terrible risk that your readers will stop there and not interact with the rest of the analytics driven document. Needless to say, you want good writers working on the e-news, people who can turn a phrase….not the most verbose member of your team.

Learn more about testing Enews and mailing lists from Media Shift
Learn more about testing campaigns from MailChimp

1. Ditch the Box: technology advances mean that we can leave the large portfolio case at home. Especially since a printed book that outlines your best works just as well. Some designers have ditched print altogether and showcase digital media samples; bringing a tablet/laptop on which to show their work. This can still allow for interactivity, if you design the digital portfolio with this built in
2. Simplicity. Simplify. Simple: use an uncluttered simple layout.
3. Brand Consistency is key. Keep the look of all consistent: the book, the leave behind, the resume, cover letter and business card.
4. Get Feedback: once you’ve settled on your designs find out from peers, industry professions and art directors what they think.
5. Leave a Leave Behind: after a stellar interview and portfolio review, you must put something in the interviewer's hand that will remind them of your fabulous self once you've gone. You want them to reach for their phone (or whatever) and have their hand linger over your leave behind...instead of making tha call they pick up your designed piece and handle it. At they review they can't help but ponder how awesome it would be to have someone with your skill, talent and creativity working on heir team... they could finally get "X" done right, etc.

Get some design inspiration from Pinterest

Your Website Vs. Social Media Presence


Social media platforms are great for building community and knowledge of your goods, services, brand...but you don't own or control the platform. We'r all aware of the ever-changing landscape of social media: look at how 'groups', 'pages', 'individual' Facebook account (sharing and privacy) rules have changed in the past few years. Users get very little input on how these evolve.

A website allows you to market yourself on your own terms. On your own site you get to:

• set rules and guidelines for how you share content
• have and build direct relationships with your audience
• organize your branding content how you want  it organized

Roberto Blake gives a lot of food for thought on the topic:

This winter I got to plan the Office of Educational Technology Open House for the Technology Incubator Lab. Planning began in early fall and ended with this event. This was the start of our winter season and a great kickoff for the Ed Tech Team. Especially after having outrnew branding in place (and fabulous)!

And there was wine… thanks Bota Box.

For my part, I worked to:

Demo technology included this Surface Pro, iPad pro, Mac Book Air, and much more...

You may not see the "Robot Phone' but it can see you...

In doing some research I found several fantastic leave behind ideas for graphic design inspiration. If you opt for professional finishing or taking the handmade route, the leave behind is definitely worth it:

I just completed 2 back-to-back logo designs from folks that I love working with.

The first is a university initiative focused on reducing paper consumption. The second is a clothing designer/website. The time I spent on both projects combined is about 8 hours; from industry research, to preliminary sketches, to comp submission to finals (roughly). I effin’ LOVE when clients/projects are easy and fun!!

I know that several freelance designers have run through the spectrum of difficult clients. I've been lucky in in my near-decade to not have had too many of these folk (barring one freelance photography client and a website for a notoriously difficult and dishonest pothead in Fells Point). Great clients make this job the best job ever.

Take a look at what the abridged process for one of these clients:

I've discussed this a couple times here on the blog and also in forums on LinkedIn and Facebook. New graphic designers and recent graduates want to know! The truth is that salary ranges continue to drop for graphic designers and those in related fields. I know what you're thinking, "I should have studied engineering."

Not so. Experienced and multi-talented designers still garner higher salaries than our less- experienced counterparts. So, don't let these numbers discourage you. Use them as incentive to grow your abilities!

Average Graphic Designer salaries for job postings nationwide are 8% lower than average salaries for all job postings nationwide.

http://www.indeed.com/salary/Graphic-Designer.html

I just participated in a conversation on the topic with colleagues. It was a bit like preaching with a choir, but I want to share some of the commentary here.

I recently had the chance to work with a newly graduated designer who habitually goes straight to the computer whenever a design project is presented. If needing to change gears or develop more design solutions, there was always the need to go back to the drawing board; I personally, found it an inefficient process.

When faced with a new design challenge I always whip out my pencil and sketchbook. This is owing to my fine arts background; it's how I brainstorm, storyboard, script, plan, and develop my ideas. Plus, my poor memory means that I take a lot of notes, so there's always a hard-bound sketch book in my hand.

Here's how some of my seasoned colleagues replied when asked, "Do you sketch before you design?"

"Absolutely! I almost never design on the computer. The computer is a tool and that's it. My creativity flows faster and easier with a pen/pencil and paper. Plus you have a reason to spend an insane amount of money on cool drawing utensils and books!" - PD

"There has to be some preparation before spending the time in design. UX items need to come into play and UX protype tools such as Axure let the designer plan out the site and give it a testing before going into the visual design work. Or, it can be as simple as a drawing in a notebook to plan out a page. So, a sketch is part of the process and can give you as a designer a clear vision." - MS

"Absolutely, I can usually get half-a-dozen concepts out sketching in the time takes my computer to get warmed up. Purely from an efficiency perspective it makes sense." - JS

"90% of the time I do. The other 10%, I do what I call block sketching. It is where I go into Illustrator and just create shapes and build them together. I do this to create a font or build a wireframe for a website. It's quick fun and doesn't take long to get the idea from your head to screen." - TS

"Design begins with the thought process that follows a thorough investigation of the client's needs and the market they're in. Generally for me that is word based, especially for branding. I distil everything down to what I refer to a key words, a very concise summary of the discovery process. In turn this is the start of creating visual proposals and working with the client as 'ownership' by the client is vital. Other projects may be layout and production only where the client has already compiled the material but lacks the ability, skill and experience to turn the material into a professional piece of literature, or other form of marketing or promotional material, exhibition or packaging. Sometimes it is a combination of both. The vital skill for me is drawing out the essence of what is required before any form of creative work begins. Do I draw or sketch first after this? Yes, the pencil or pen is much more flexible than the computer. Do I present this to the client? Sometimes." - RS

Although he didn't participate in the disucssion, Milton Glaser said this about jumping on the computer to create  design, "Computers are to design as microwaves are to cooking." Hey, the soup is hot, but is it good?

I got a question from my former intern last week and had to share. She’s ready to graduate and is now looking for her first ‘real job’ (thanks).

Her question: Do I Include Student work in My Portfolio?

Were this anyone else my answer may be different. In the past four years she has built a portfolio of exceptional student work, freelance projects and a few pieces from her internships.

Through color we express and experience emotion. Effective branding uses color to effectively reach the consumer, market and audience.

Today is the perfect day to get started on yours. OR to update your existing online presence with recent work!

I got a printed scan of our signature on my desk this morning. This sheet of paper looked terrible, but it was all I had so I needed to make it work. Here’s the quick and dirty on how to make salvage a low quality printed signature for digital use.

1. Rescan the image and set the output to TIFF or other image file type. Be sure to select the highest resolution setting. This will yield a lot of artifacts on the image but you can remove them pretty easily. 
2. Open the file in Photoshop, and crop it; removing all excess white space around your work area.
3. Go to the layers panel and create a new layer filled with white. Move this layer below your working layer and reselect the top layer. 

 Now, let’s get to work! 
First: Increase contrast. Go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast. With Preview on, move the brightness slider down to around -150 and increase contrast to 100. You may need to repeat this once more before you continue. Eyeball it, then hit OK.

 

Next: Zoom in on a section of the signature—I chose 200% for this one—and select the Lasso tool. Then: Start with a small area, and select stray pixel artifacts surrounding the main letterforms.


Hold down Command + X (Mac) or Ctrl + X(Windows) to remove the pixels.





Repeat. Make sure that you zoom out to 100% every-so-often to be sure the right pixels have been removed.


 Final Clean up

1. Merge down layers. In the Layers panel select your top layer and select merge down from the dropdown.
2. Increase contrast. Go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast. With Preview on, move the brightness slider down to -150 and increase contrast to 100. Do this only once! . Then hit OK.
3. Save it. Select File > Save As>

One of the most valuable lessons taught to undergrad design students at University of Baltimore comes in the form of a class called Print Design. This elective class takes students through every step of the design process; from conceptualization, revision, and completion. However, the main focus of the class is getting it printed.

Instructor Bert Smith uses the resource text Getting It Printed to teach the ins and outs of the printing process. Students learn terminology, binding styles, measuring lines of type, the difference between: various paper weights, emboss, deboss, letterpress and sheet fed printing, different paper finishes, and die cutting, plus everything in between. This is book is a valuable resource and a definite keeper post-graduation.

Getting It Printed takes a comprehensive look at how to work with printers on everything from estimates, pricing and negotiating to trade customs and quality guidelines. It has been a primary resource for the production industry for over 17 years, offering practical, jargon-free information about how to stay on schedule, control costs, and get quality results. Now in its 4th edition, this invaluable reference continues to offer tried and true printing advice and has been updated to include all the latest digital technologies and reflect changes in the printing industry.

It may not be common knowledge that in-house graphic designers are often expected to concept and design projects, create apps, manage content management systems, create social media content, and even help out staff with Microsoft Word formatting issues. Working outside of a dedicated design department or  design firm presents unique challenges. One huge challenge is that of designing on a shoestring budget.

Public Domain Photography
Your project calls for images of fireworks filling the night sky, but: you don’t have the cash to hire a photographer to shoot a dozen pics, there are no fireworks scheduled in your town for months, purchasing stock licenses is a costly last resort.

You can scour the web in search of creative commons if you have the time or you can check out this public domain photography site that over a dozen fireworks photos—plus much more.

Public Domain Quotes 
You are now tasked with creating Tweets and Facebook status updates to promote Woman’s History Month but you’ve already created 15 interesting and creative ones and your mind is completely blank.

Check out this site that offers inspirational quotes ordered by categories like: Thanksgiving, Patriotism, Women, the Tooth Fairy, and Insults--to name a few.

Thinking about going it alone—or at least getting started as a freelance designer?? There are hundreds of resources out there to help you get started.

 A favorite of mine is the book “The Business Side of Creativity” by Cameron Foote. This book offers practical advice on getting started, preparing contracts, doing your taxes, and even incorporating yourself. If you’ve never heard of this book, you have now. Pick it up.

Recently, a designer asked me how I approach the copyright issue when approaching a new project. The best advice that I could offer—without scanning and emailing a page from the book above –was to direct her to the AIGA Documents page. AIGA has a huge offering of sample contracts and advice for the freelancer. Members must login!

Graphic Design Forum also has a post that includes one of the most comprehensive list of contracts and documents that you might need.

Speaking of the interweb, Envato notes directed me to an awesome blog that they also produce, http://freelanceswitch.com/. This blog is pretty comprehensive and offers answers to questions that working designers come across all the damn time.

Another great blog –as I ALWAYS say—is Bittbox.com. Jay Hilgert is a designer/developer who spends all his time creating and finding various tools for the graphic designer. I’ve bookmarked him and check in every week to find tutorials and vectors that might help in my design work.

Good luck, y’all!

Just back from some R’nR in Costa Rica to a new post on ENVATO Notes .  Lasts week's discussion topic was about the state of our work space-- is your desk messy?

The short answer is YES, my desk is more messy than not.  A great stopgap measure that  I devised was my sample wall. I post designs that I'm presently in love with on the wall and refer to that as needed.

The wall is 6'x4' and full of push-pins, magazines, postcards, and one special memento (place cards from my lunch with the president of the Ravens). Almost every square inch is covered. This is not my only repository of samples, but it is the place where I keep the most useful, relevant and interesting pieces. I also rotate the pieces on a monthly basis as I get more beautiful design work to look at.
Here's to getting organized!
-Bueno SuertE!

Communications Station is in the middle of a newsletter redesign. My advice is always 'work smarter, not harder'. There are templates that can be modified by--or at least--give inspiration to, the harried graphic designer. Now, if I can follow that advice, myself, I'm golden.

A few years back, around the height of CS3 or so, I went searching for a newsletter template for a writing class with Arthur Magida. I stumbled upon the Adobe Exchange. From time to time I still flip through the pages there. I'v e found tutorials, templates, graphics and outlines that have proved helpful in the past.

Check out "Browse  by Category" in the sidebar.

In my Gmail box this morning is the latest monthly Envato Newsletter.



While in Grad School, I visited the ThemeForest site to browse through their templates for inspiration. Eventually, I bought one of their excellent, professional templates, and continued paging through their site. The following month I got their newsletter. It was okay, they hyped themselves and offered items for sale--you know, the usual stuff. When I got to the bottom of the page, I saw it. This Month's Freebies. I clicked the link and my eyes goggled. Their monthly freebies aren't throw away items either, they're high quality digital art: professional game graphics, in-depth design tutorials, multi-page Websites, studio quality audio productions, and sexy-futuristic motion graphics!

I've gotten used to high quality products from Envato. However, the February downloads have far surpassed my expectations.

 The Web template, Xero Portfolio, is sexy, Java-y, Lightbox-y, and full of options. I'm so Happy!