Ads That Sell

Recently, I went on a binge of reading nothing but books on advertising. One book led to another. The first book I read was Ogilvy On Advertising by David Ogilvy himself. In that book he mentioned a another book that influenced his thought process on advertising. That book was Test Advertising Methods by John Caples. Of course, if an advertising giant like David Ogilvy names a book that was influential to them, you have to read it. Read more

Posted: June 4, 2010

80+ Newspapers = A lot of Advertisements

I just want to stop by and give an update on myself. About a month ago I got a job with Gannett, which owns 80+ newspapers. I, along with some other talented graphic artists, design the ads for these newspapers. Read more

Posted: April 5, 2010

Are Periodical Subscriptions Relevant?

If I asked you to tell me what some of your favorite subscriptions are, you would probably name off Netflix, MobileMe, or your favorite blogs and podcasts.  It appears that the monthly magazine or the daily newspaper has gotten lost in the age of electronic media. People used to rely on periodicals for the latest information. Now with so many alternate ways to receive information, are periodicals still relevant today?

Do It Yourself

All the traditional means of distributing information are gone. If I want to know the score of last night’s game, I don’t have to ask a friend or wait to hear about it on the news, I can get online and look it up. If someone asks me a question that I don’t know the answer to, I’ll search for it on Google. (And in the back of my mind I’m thinking, “Can’t this person google it, too?”) I also fight the urge to know everything as soon as it happens. I have podcasts I like to listen to on a regular basis, my RSS feeder is full of blogs I like to read, I follow people who are “in the know” on Twitter, I constantly check the websites of the major news organizations for the latest news, I listen to talk radio, and I even at one time had a news ticker running across the bottom of my screen.

Hire An Assistant

The need to stay “in the know” can be stressful and take up a lot of time. I think of subscribing to a periodical the same as hiring an assistant. When I buy a subscription I am actually hiring people to gather information for me. They go to the news sites, read the blogs, listen to the podcasts, and interview people I would never get the chance to. After they gather the information, they package it up and present it to me. The idea is that it saves me time. I can do other things now, like work, instead of stressing out over catching the next headline.

Final Thoughts

All I did was rearrange my priorities. I recognized a periodical subscription, not as an expense, but as a service. I received a magazine in the mail today. I can’t wait to see what my assistants found for me this month!

Posted: January 25, 2010

News Break

Since my last post, I got a final analysis on recovering data from my zeroed-out drive. Recovering the data that I needed was possible at a price tag of $1,800. Like I previously said, I was going to have to decide what the data on the hard drive was worth to me. Well, I decided it was not worth $1,800.

How great would it be if I could add some Web sites to my portfolio? A friend of mine was gracious enough to pass a Web design project my way. I am currently in the process of sketching out my ideas. I will post more about this project as it unfolds.

Posted: December 18, 2009

A Backup Plan

What If...

You were going to reinstall the operating system on your computer and before doing so decided to zero-out the hard drive, erasing all your data. In the process of zeroing-out the hard drive you remember that all of your family videos are stored there.

What If...

One day you turn on your laptop and the screen doesn't work. You send the computer off for a logic board replacement and when you get the computer back you discover that not only was the logic board replaced, but the hard drive was as well.

The two scenarios above happened to me last month. In the first scenario, it may be possible to get some of the data on the hard drive back. Doing so can be very expensive. I've been quoted $700–2,700. So it almost comes down to me determining how much that data is worth to me. The second scenario is probably the worst. It's about the same as having the hard drive stolen. Right now my hard drive is sitting in some random recycling bin and I've been told that it would be nearly impossible to get it back.

Gone, Just Like That

Losing data is devastating. On my laptop I had my resume, my company letterhead, and client projects. You may be thinking that I should have important stuff like that backed up somewhere. Well the occasional back ups that I did went on the hard drive that I zeroed-out. It wasn't until I lost all of my data that I realized how important and irreplaceable the items on my hard drives were. I took unneccessary chances with my data. I felt that if my computer was running well that there was little to worry about, but accidents happen.

The Backup Plan

Instead of dwelling on all the files that I lost and the incidents that led up to the catastrophe, I am in the process of implementing a new backup plan to prevent something like this from happening again. An article in the November 2009 issue of Macworld helped me pick out an online backup service that was right for me. With CrashPlan Central I am able to backup all my data to their online servers as well as to another computer in my home. For only $100 per year I'll have the peace of mind knowing that my data is safe.

If you are not currently backing up your files, I recommend reading the Macworld article. Make sure you have a backup plan. You don't know what you'll be missing.

Posted: December 7, 2009

A New Look

For the past couple of months I’ve been playing with a free HTML editor called Kompozer (see the logo on the right). To see how useful this program could be to me, I decided to try making my existing Web site with it. In remaking my Web site, I discovered other options that Kompozer offered that would be fun to implement on my site. I wanted to see where Kompozer’s limits were, so I let my mind run wild. Although the program did have it’s limits, a simple Google search would normally help provide a work around. My previous Web site ended up morphing into what you see here.

So What’s Different?

Probably the first you’ll notice is that I’ve added a blog and that it’s on the homepage. A blog is a great way to drive traffic to a Web site and it can also add credibility to the writer. Putting the blog on the homepage will help keep the site looking fresh. Another way to help keep the Web site from going stale, I’ve added my current Twitter status to the right hand column on every page.

There are some other changes you may notice: the Web site is centered in the browser window, the Portfolio page is now called Work, and my work samples are displayed using Lightbox.

Special Thanks

Although Kompozer is free, most people want to charge you for their tutorials on how to use the program. The exception was Greg Chapman. Greg has written tutorials that walk you through how to build a Web site using Kompozer. He excepts donations, but offers his tutorials for free on his Web site. It was Greg’s tutorials that got me to the point where I could just let my mind run wild. That’s definitely a great feeling for a designer.

Posted: November 17, 2009