I’ve always wondered why the web, which is a medium perfectly tailored to be perfectly targeted, so often carries advertising that is not. True, people don’t like to be spied on, and rarely leave the true information about what they earn in a year on some form they have to fill out – if they even bother filling it out – but how difficult is it, exactly, to place baby clothes ads on expectant mothers’ sites, and apple software ads on apple fan sites? Thanks to google adwords these days,
you can place ads nearly everywhere that fit quite well in the context they are in. But advertisers tend want a bigger bang than a few points of text on some random blog.

Enter user generated ads. Back in the times of pens and home pianos, it was “write our slogan” or “write our jingle” contests that were all the rage. When everybody had cameras, photo competitions took over, and now that seemingly every kid has a video camera, a software editing suite and loads of spare time, we’ve arrived at “make our commercial”. User generated ads
are simply a new twist to an old truth: to get the consumer involved with your brand, involve the consumer.

One mustn’t forget though, that the consumer never really cares to make your brand famous, they want to make themselves famous. MTV style VIP-treatment prizes are a bigger hit than a few bucks and a chance to see their own ad on TV. Heck, put their name in the ad on TV, and I’ll promise you they’ll work harder to win. What wins though?

STAY TUNED (The rest of Ask’s post will be up before you can say, ‘WEEKEND’)

Promote Yourself
Another great way to get the clients you want is to let them come to you. The best way to do this is make sure your work is in their face everyday. This means writing press releases on a monthly basis to showcase your recent projects, updating your website consistently with your new work, writing articles for industry pubs that your client reads, submitting to awards and competitions that your client recognizes, and even having a blog that teaches clients how you can make their jobs easier.

Have Promotion Materials
There is nothing more discerning than meeting a contact from a client that you really want to work with and having no business card to give him/her your contact info. So what do you do, you end up writing your email on a napkin, or index card, or some other random piece of paper. Instead, make sure you always have business cards on you and a promotional packet or two. The best promotional packets tend to be little flip books that can show the client exactly what you do, how you do it, and why you are the best fit for them. href=”http://www.flickr.com/do/more/”>Flickr has a great flip book you can purchase that pulls the pictures directly from your account, or if you want more creative control, href=”http://www.lulu.com/”>Lulu Publishing lets you self publish your own books. Read the rest of this entry »

I just read a great interview with illustrator/animator Kao Lee Thao.

Kao mentions that the one theme that resonates in her work is the swirl, ‘…the swirl is a symbol of proportional perfection but what I’m drawn to more is the visual appearance of having no beginning or end is could easily travel on forever. A swirl has an underlying energy that dissipates from the central origin and reaches out to the viewer.

Check out Kao Lee Thao’s swirls as she gets ready to launch her personal website soon at www.innerswirl.com.

As designers we often have a hard time putting on our sales cap and going out to get new clients. The harsh reality is that if you are a freelancer or own your own studio then you need to make sales an important part of your daily activities. When trying to get a new client it isn’t just about getting a name and phone number, rather, the more important thing is that you truly understand what the client needs and how you can fulfill that need. Here are 10 things that I have found helpful to keep you focused and help you keep getting new clients and projects on a continuous basis.

Make a Wish List
You can’t really find the clients you want to work with until you know who they are. Make a wish list of the types of clients you want to work with and be as specific as possible, including things like the projects you would like from that client. Good examples include:

Family Run Catering Company looking for a new identity
Micro-website for HBO Espanol
Website and banner ads for Sean John clothing line

Feel free to update your wish list throughout the year. At the beginning of each month I refine the list and look at who I have gotten in the previous month and who I would like to add.
Read the rest of this entry »

Step’s Best of Web Design 2007 competition is open. The winner gets interviewed in Step (very cool) and the competition jury includes Hillman Curtis, Kelly Goto, and Joe Pemberton (not too shabby). Deadline is April 2. Categories include website, interactive advertising, and motion graphics.

Learn more.

Dynamic Graphics Magazine’s Re:Design competition invites you to submit before and after designs. If you have saved a client’s bad ad, logo, website, etc., then enter your rescue effort into this competition.

Learn more here

Lew Baldwin

Lew Baldwin is a creative art director for web, film, sound, broadcast and motion graphic design projects. He works out of his Los Angeles-based studio team agency, which just recently located from New York.

Lew recently shot and directed a series of video for Nike Soccer, including a music video starring Clint Dempsey from the U.S. National Team. He is also a musician and created the musical score for the Sony feature film “November” (sonyclassics.com/November) starring Courteney Cox.

He has exhibited artwork at The Whitney Museum of American Art, The New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, Foundation Polar in Caracas, Venezuela and is recognized internationally for his videos, visual art and installations.

Lew currently resides in Los Angeles.

Margaret Penney has known much of Lew’s work since he launched one of the first online interactive narrative art projects at Redsmoke.com.  Lew’s style is distinctive, as it moves across a variety of mediums from new media to film, television, theater, and music.

Margaret interviewed Lew about his career, inspirations, and designer toolkit.

Q: What did you want to be when you grew up?

Lew: Well, at first I wanted to be a pilot, when I was a little kid.  Then I wanted to be an artist and filmmaker pretty early on.  I was a big fan of Andy Warhol and his multi-tasking work ethic when I was quite young, around 16.  My older brother was always turning me on to interesting creative people at a young age.  He would bring stuff back from Austin where he was attending college.

I used to skip school and silkscreen.  I sold my first ‘product’ – a stenciled, painted belt – to a clothing shop in Austin when I was 17, so I was pretty psyched to do my own thing. 

Q:  Were you always interested in visual communication?

Lew: I was always pretty visually-oriented.  I wasn’t interested in visual communication for corporate purposes until I needed to make a living.  I always associated design with Advertising— which was not fine art so to speak.   I used to keep commercial work separate from my personal work, but the lines are more blurry these days.

Q: How did you get started?

Lew: I studied at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). When I got out of school I only wanted to pursue Filmmaking and Art.  I was never interested in design.  While in school, I made a few shorts and I worked as a PA on the all-star film A League of Their Own and several big-budget John Hughes films like Home Alone 2 and Dennis the Menace. 

Read the rest of this entry »

Outfoxing the Small Business Owner: Crafty Techniques for Creating a Profitable Relationship, by Gene Marks (2005, ISBN 1-59337-157-8) is worth reading if you’re thinking of freelancing. Small businesses make up the vast majority of potential clients, and the approaches you’ll take to work with them profitably are different from those you’ll take with large corporate clients. I’ve worked with both, and found this book to be up-to-date and practical.

(FULL DISCLOSURE: I received my copy as a gift for contributing to one of Gene Marks’ other books about small business management.)

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From the NoD Sponsor:

Sessions Online Schools of Art and Design is an accredited online graphic and web design school offering design career preparation including Web Design Certificates, Graphic Design Certificates, Multimedia Arts Certificates.

People quite often ask me “How did you know that?” I usually answer “I don’t know.” (Not wanting to get into a long conversation!) However, as any successful designer will attest, you must know everything there is to know about a subject before you can create successful designs for it.

The problem usually arises in this quest for knowledge when the client draws a blank page. There have been many times when my own research, or prodding questions to the client has turned up more useful information about the product than even the client knew. So with every client, every new job; you have to dig in and learn what it is, how it works, who it benefits and why its important. These are the tools you’ll need to produce effective, persuasive design work.

You’ll be thrilled when you discover that the most usable aspect of the subject is what the client didn’t tell you.

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From the NoD Sponsor:

Sessions Online Schools of Art and Design is an accredited online graphic and web design school offering:

- Graphic design classes and graphic design Certificate Programs taught by renowned design instructors.

A look at the launch of Tab’s new Tab Energy Drink prompts an interesting comparison between the designers’ approach to the branding and advertising for this product versus the old Tab Diet Cola you may remember from the days when Disco was the rage. Tab Diet Cola ads from the 1960s and 70s feature imagery that would probably give any feminist plenty to rage about. The commercials play a soothing soundtrack as an older man in an executive-type suit stops to ponder a certain woman: a wife or girlfriend, or maybe someone he doesn’t even know. She is noticeably youthful, dressed to reveal a slender figure and a pampered lifestyle; she’s shown playing tennis, enjoying a garden party, or somesuch leisure activity….

MORE

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From the NoD Sponsor:

Sessions Online Schools of Art and Design is an accredited online graphic and web design school offering design career preparation including Web Design Certificates, Graphic Design Certificates, Multimedia Arts Certificates.