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- November 23, 2009
Sell Sheet Evolution
November 23, 2009Read moreThe sell sheet from last week was created in Illustrator CS4, so I took some time Monday afternoon to convert it into an InDesign CS4 document. InDesign is a page layout program that’s more suitable for creating multi-page documents, and generally it is faster at handling large amounts of text, applying common styling to multiple pages, and so forth. The newer versions of InDesign add quite a few nice effects like drop shadowing, flexible rounded corner tools, and transparency, which makes it possible to do more final compositing in InDesign than “baking the effects” in Illustrator and Photoshop.
The image shows the front cover and the sample inner page. The inner pages will be two-page spreads, so the inner page shown here will be on the left side. The right side will have more information about the page template, which I need to write first.
One of the creative concepts I’m playing with on the front cover is the idea of ready to wear. Making template-based websites with minimal alterations is not unlike buying a suit off-the-rack and having it tailored slightly, so this might be a good metaphor. The suit in this picture, ironically, is a custom suit that my Dad helped me get last time I was in Taiwan, but the material is nice and I thought it would be a good backdrop. I shot the pic with a 50mm macro lens on my Canon 40D DSLR with a single 150W halogen bulb to create the background texture, and edited the resulting RAW file in Photoshop, editing out the dust specks and cat hair before importing it into InDesign. It’s an 8.5×11 150DPI image; kind of low in resolution for a printer, but acceptable for my purposes.
When I get a chance, I’m planning on printing an actual physical label and arranging it artfully on top of the suit, and shooting it in natural light by a big window at the studio. I’ll have to remember to switch the 40d from SRAW to RAW shooting; this will give me the necessary resolution to print very sharp when I output the final catalog at a digital print-on-demand service like Blurb or Lulu. This will be nice to show to prospective clients in person.
- November 23, 2009
Agenceum Logo Final Candidate
November 23, 2009Read more
I decided to choose Draft 6 and make some final tweaks. First, I lengthened the stem to give it more of a “growing” feel, as Erin suggested in the last round. I added a few subtle tweaks to the leaf and left-side swirl so their bases were a little thicker (it’s a bit more organic). The point of the leaf was adjusted very slightly to point following the line of the inside vein more accurately. Finally, I fixed the spacing between the top and bottom horizontal lines in the leaf shading (there was too much space at the bottom versus the top).
Next up: color! I didn’t spend too much time picking color variations. I decided I liked the brighter, lighter colors (it’s so very Web 2.0), and pretty much went with color swatches close to what is already in the default Illustrator choices. I liked the purple and green one myself, because it reminds me of old Apple II computer color palette, but decided that the “green plant, blue water” felt the liveliest and freshest. The brown was interesting too, but it’s very earthy. Next, picking between the lighter blue or darker blue required some consideration of how much “weight” the logo should have. The dark blue creates more gravity at the bottom of the logo, whereas the light blue does not. Theoretically, I believe this is because the dark blue has more contrast than the green of the plant shape, and the increase of tone from light to dark creates that sense of grounding. The light blue, however, is practically the same contrast (tone-wise) as the green, so an overall sense of balance is created throughout the shape. It would have been interesting to make the green plant darker than the bottom logo to see if it felt unstable.
Finally, it was time to make sure that the logo would work against dark, light, and medium backgrounds. I had to add a variation of the logo that does not have the shading in the leaf, which will be used on backgrounds that are not white.
- November 23, 2009
Monday Staff Meeting
November 23, 2009Read moreIt’s now November 23, 2009. This is the third staff meeting, and from this I can get a sense of how much time I am realistically spending on Agenceum. But first, let’s see what I got done:
Last Week’s Goals, Continued
Bold are ones that got done. Italic designates in-progress.
- Post descriptions on blog. [est design/implementation time: 6 hours?]
- Create simple package for $50-$250 based on two designs. [est: 2 hours?]
- Create marketing message / value proposition / benefit statement. [est time: 2 hours?]
- Create simple advertisement poster.
- Adapt poster to web for agenceum.com
- Establish sales goals and metrics
- Assemble a list of prospective local clients from friend network
- Create “get the word out” checklist.
- Consolidate backups onto archival DVDR and hard disks
- Create basic Agenceum identity sytem; use this to bootstrap the identity offering.
Yep, not a lot of things on the checklist got done. What did get done, though are:
- Logo Design [6 hours]
- Simple Package Sell Sheet [4 hours or so]
The Sell Sheet embodies the marketing message / description aspects. However, I’m probably going to have to spend some time drawing up a better focusing worksheet. In my old workplace we put up a whiteboard with the list of weekly goals, and during breaks we’d go stare at it and figure out what we could do to make progress on them. Since I work in three different locations (coffee shops, Sid’s studio, and my home office), there is no single place where I can maintain the whiteboard. This blog is probably the closest thing to it, but it is inaccessible from the studio because we don’t have Internet there. I’d like to make a portable office command center out of folding medium density particle board; this might be a nice project to test out Ponoko, the online laser-cutting fabrication company.
Other Things Done
- This was an unusually social week, with an out-of-town appointment scheduled almost every day. MURDER on productivity.
- Reviewed quite a lot of simple CMS systems, as this will be a necessary component for easy-to-edit solutions for the low entry point clients. I am probably going to use WordPress as the base for blog-style sites, and ModX for simpler sites that don’t have the blog requirement. I also looked at SilverStripe, but it lacked that mystery snap that I look for in software (it would have been a cool introduction to Python, though). I also very quickly installed the Expression Engine 2.0 Beta (Kaylee), which is going to Release Candidate on December 1st, but this is way overkill for what Agenceum needs.
- Thought quite a bit about the marketing plan and product positioning. The marketing plan is Word of Mouth currently using the materials I’m developing. Product positioning can be two levels: the $50-$250 “get started”, and the regular custom development starting at $1500-$2500. I need to work out the ala carte pricing though.
- Attended a “Scrum Club” meeting, learning more about agile development methodologies (Kanban, specifically). I’m going to be trying to adapt Scrum to Agenceum’s practice.
- Attending the November Board of Directors meeting for Float Left Labs. It’s very exciting to see Kelley start her non-profit business, and see the positive press it’s getting.
Things to be Mindful of This Week
- Maintain focus on deliverable and tangible items on my list.
- Try to schedule fewer social engagements.
- November 22, 2009
In Search of an Alternate Economy
November 22, 2009Read moreI had dinner with SXSW buddy Britt Raybould last night, and during our conversation I finally put into words something that’s been on my mind: an “alternative economy” that I sense I’m being drawn into. This is the larger pattern behind trends like DIY, Social Media, Open Source, Crowd Sourcing, CSAs, NPR, non-profits, BarCamp, PodCamp, independent film and music, idling, global microbranding, the long tail, sustainability, and good old fashioned face-to-face. This is perhaps what the New Economy was supposed to be about, before the wave was hijacked by the Old Economy’s model for making a quick buck. In the implosion of 2000, lots of people re-evaluated their value systems amidst the smoldering ruins of their stock-optioned lives, and refocused on building community. My thought was that it might be possible to eschew the “old economy”, which is currently in shambles.
I don’t have much to say on this yet, but I wanted to stick this post up to see how it resonates. I’ve found a few other terms related to this:
- Social Economy – between public and private economies, this embodies charities and non-profits.
- Ethical Economies – I came across a blog post called “The political economy of peer production: Adam Arvidsson and the Ethical Economy”, which seems similar to what I’m investigating.
Anyone looking at anything similar?
- November 19, 2009
Logos for Agenceum
November 19, 2009Read more
In the meantime, over at Agenceum Intranet, I’ve been working on logos and sell sheets. Agenceum is the pseudo design agency I’m working on to give myself a focus for targeting super low-budget clients. My main focus at the moment is to just create some sellable templates that I can show to a few people in my local area; for that, I need to have a handout (the “sell sheet”) that makes sense to them. Of course, such a handout should have some kind of logo on it! Whee!
- Logo Round 1 – the first pass at a “column” idea
- Logo Round 2 – a wrong turn, and a new design idea
- Sell Sheet Draft – pulling all the information together
If you’re interested in process and how I am thinking about the design business, check it out and leave some comments.
