Steve Jencks

“Yet another Charleton Heston Reference…I’m on a roll!”

I was reading this article on cnn about how Google is starting to lose a lot of their key people. Definitely a red flag to a company that’s supposed to be about innovation and being one the top places to work. Reading some of their perks like massages, all you can eat cuisine, and obviously the big salary checks you’d have to wonder why people are leaving in droves at every level. While I think it’s great that Google gives dedicated time for it’s employees to create innovative ideas and hires a lot of passionate people with their own entrepeneurships ideas, that can be a double edged sword.

You always run the risk that those type of people will want to go out on their own to start pursuing their own dreams when they don’t feel like the company is supportive and has lost that type of innovative drive that they have. My opinion is that Google is more a corporate monster like Microsoft than they’d lead on. They’re not as nimble as they used to be. Where’s the innovation? Where’s that passion? They’ve become complacent in their cash cow of their their advertisement division and majority control of the search industry. What other innovation from them has really taken off or that was something so amazing that it was an industry changer? When you’re the big elephant sitting on the fence someone is liable to knock you down (I have no idea what that analogy means but it sounds good!)

Anybody even remember Google Chat, gmail is ok but lacks any serious innovation over other comparable web mail services. Yahoo mail offers a superior user experience in my opinion. When you look at a company like Apple and Facebook you see them changing the game in several areas while constantly evolving and improving. Google seems to be more of a follower not a leader anymore and the talent that once got them to the successful company they are now are heading off to pursue newer greener pastures.

Microsoft’s purchase of Razorfish was supposed to usher in a new era of usable interface design. I had used Microsoft live.com in the past and found the interface was actually pretty decent. A sort of modernized version of Google with some simple thin line divider tabs and subtle color usage to designate relevant content areas. But It seems now they’ve gone the opposite extreme direction. After months of supposed major enhancement this was the design they came up? Take a look below.

I am all for a simple clean interface but this has gone to the extreme of literally no design elements to enhance the usability at all. Just a strange white box with a search field and links that you’re not even sure are actually links all floating aimlessly in this void. There’s also a buried personalized link in the lower right that I totally missed while tiny advanced search features and options are barely visible in the upper right. Then there are these other weird advertisers text links for MSN messenger. Based on it’s verbage I thought the link would explain to me how I could use MSM to do real time searches in MSU and results through a network of instant message users. Like a live Twitter-ish search of MSM messages of my friends and have it highlight the search term I was looking for. But nope, it just sends me to MSM homepage with no explanation of how that correlates to live.com services at all. Lost opportunity.

I will give props to Microsoft that the search generation is faster now than it used to be but they sacrificed some usability enhancements and general aesthetics in the process and I’m not sure that trade off was worth it. I also like the related searches and related images on the results page though it doesn’t always correlate well to what I was looking for. So remember you can sometimes go a bit too minimalist in your design and basically have no useable design or layout at that point.
 

I’ve been noticing a trend with movie poster designs lately and it’s a sad commentary about mass production and the lack of originality. They’re mostly large photos of movie star faces in a blue duotones looking serious with possibly a smaller background image. This isn’t neccessarily a reflection on the quality of the movie but it shows a lack of creativity and originlity on the studios part in how they want to promote their films. I’m just concerned the creative craftsmanship that used to go into poster design has been lost to some studio executives deciding they know what looks best or simply copying another poster’s design because that other movie was successful. You can almost hear the studio executive yelling at the poor graphic design intern “Let’s just put our main stars photos on it..ok make them bigger..I know what the audience wants! Ok now make it blue…make it moody…this is is a scary movie and nothing is scarier than blue!!! More blue!!!!!…nevermind just let me do it!! Go get me a coffee instead!”

Here’s some samples. Notice any similarities? I mean really how long would it take to make these in photoshop? There’s no creative concept, not much time or care at all put into these designs. They are just big glamor shots of the actors. We no longer value craftsmanship in our society it’s all about quick, easy, and cheap.

Now below are what I consider some good poster designs. Someone actually was allowed to use their talent and they took their time to put something together that’s unique and artistic. Isn’t that what the movies are supposed to be about anyways? 

Word to your coders.

This fake satirical article is absolutely hilarious. take a read through.

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/potential_employee_uprising

I think it does make some valid points though. Unhappy employees can’t be band-aided with short term small rewards to plug a cracking damn. I definitely think it’s important to do small things like that though for your employees to show your appreciation whenever possible but when there’s major employee issues/problems that needs to be addressed steps have to be taken immediately and incrementally to improve and work on those. If the employee is in the loop and sees that you’re making that effort and you’re transparent and honest about reasons to them then you gain their trust. If an employee doesn’t feel their voice is being heard or their issues aren’t being looked at seriously you can run the risk of losing them in the future. Feeling valued and respected and knowing your voice is heard goes a long ways.

The Mid-Michigan Creative Alliance (formerly Lansing Ad Club) put on a nice event called the Studio Crawl I attended earlier today. It was a chance to tour professional creative studios specializing in graphic design, video production, and photography. It ran from 3:00pm - 6:00pm which was no where near enough time to explore all these great spaces and talk with some wonderfully creative talent.

Signed-up…got started…made a u-turn
Vision Creative was the closes to our offices so we stopped in there first to pay our entry dues and get our maps. I felt $5 was more than reasonable for this event. Of course I realized I only had a single dollar bill in my pocket at that point…luckily I still had a blank check in there (in case I had the spur of the moment feeling of paying a utility bill.)

Vision has a very nice space. Lots of brick work exposed on the walls. Vision has a sort of modernized industrialized feel to it that suits it well. There’s exposed duct work and smooth curved color walls to contrast against the rugged brick and metallic pillars. I Loved the open floor plan. They also had a neat lower-level space with multicolored walls where they showcased some of their portfolio pieces even the Artemis folder they did a while back. We enjoyed chatting with Cameron and some of his co-workers but it was time to get moving on. Too little time and too many places to see. When we left we made a u-turn on Grand River to avoid construction…illegal? Probably, but a good shortcut suggestion from Cameron.

here’s some photos from Vision Creative

You’ll feel right at home at Tria Design
Next we headed into Old Town Lansing and stopped at Tria Design. It’s a large victorian older home that’s been converted into a nice cozzy office space that sits across the street from Elderly Instruments. Warm colored walls with energetic vintage paintings are everywhere and there’s even a full kitchen up stairs amongst the other office rooms for those late night design jam sessions. The studio is run by an all women business team and they’ve made it into a very inviting warm environment and are putting together some nice print work. There’s also a very sweet lab that greats you at the door.

here’s a blurry photo from Tria Design..I best never become a photographer

Ciesa Design…If I could design my perfect office space you would be it.
Ciesa is pretty much the ideal creative environment. An inviting colorful entry way and stylish front desk with hardwood floors. Some of their best poster work from their various sponsored BWL events adoring the wall under some unique shaped lighting. The conference room had a impressive LCD with a mac-mini hooked up for client presentations running a Keynote of their space rennovation. There was free popcorn as you strolled their stunning wood deck overlooking the river. A great place to relax and gather some creative inspiration. Downstairs a secondary meeting room with a full kitchen and additional offices as well as room to grow for their expanding staff. Attractive warm colors stretching into each room and tall high beam ceiling with exposed duct works adds to the creative atmosphere. Creative eclectic furniture including original pieces from the restoration of the building break up the spaces and shelves of great resource material and design magazines are around in various offices. The photos I took don’t do this place justice. This is how you make an office space.

photos from Ciesa Design

Such Video…such a cool space
Upon entering Such Video your immediately struck by the giant vintage art decco mural on the brick wall facing you. At first I figured they painted themselves but turns out it was actually there when they exposed the wall. They mentioned the upstairs studio has an original Coca-Cola mural on it. Amazing, and what a great unexpected touch to give their space a unique feel for clients and employees. Such Video does some great high-end video production for commercial/business uses.

Their studio setups are maxed out with the latest editing software and equipment spotlighted in some mood lighting and there’s even an area in the back where they do green screen effects (perhaps where I can film my battle with a hell demon beast for my own b-movie?) We were shown a few samples of their latest work and I was very impressed by their vision and creative edge. Hollywood quality in our small town.

Most interesting was their website which was a 3d object fly through that represented a bookshelf of interactive elements. It took nearly a year for them to get the site together and the attention to detail and quality of it’s presentation show through. It goes to show you need to take your time and build your brand. Do your best on your own work to show others what you can do for them. It’s worth the time investment.

photos from Such Video

Pace and Partners Hip High-end Agency.

Pace was our last stop right before the 6:00pm cut off time even though I wish we could have toured many more places. Pace has an expansive professional creative space that overlooks the Grand River. Their strong theme of red and metallic textures are evident throughout the studio and make for a nice high scale environment as a leading ad agency. Meshed metallic and the popular exposed duct work carry you through the space leading to a large open deck over the river from their larger picture bay windows for that space to get away to for inspiration from nature. There’s also a neat alcove in the office that contains a wide selection of design materials and soft cushy furniture that I would never leave. I talked with Jack Hedler there who is a skilled copywriter and all around great guy. I’m going to be sending him some of b-movie reviews for pointers on my writing style and skill. He knows of a few other people I should talk with as well. Awesome.

pictures from Pace and Partners

The End of the Day
So it was such a great experience and has gotten my creative fires burning again. I made some good business connections as many of them we’re interested in what Artemis could offer as well and in seeing my work. In talking with the other creatives I found some good resources to help me with my own creative endeavors and to network with. It just goes to show there are some great hidden secrets in Lansing with a booming creative culture that is enriching the community. I hope I can become a big part of that.

Late last night I was working on a slide template for a client/friend for his presentation. The design needed to be at 1600 by 1200 which is one heck of a presentation (perhaps running in Times Square that week?). So I added some gradients and his branding I designed a while back and BLAM!!! instant branded template. Should only be about an hours job or so and then I could move onto critical things like standing in line for Grand Theft Auto 4 with a bunch of other videogamers. But low and behold he noticed something I didn’t. The gradient was color banding when zoomed in. Not something you’d see at a smaller resolution, but this was definitely noticeable at this higher resolution. I racked my brain trying to get the gradient to smooth out even adjusting my bit color depth in Photoshop to 32bit. I ran some surface blur filters and gaussian blurs and those helped a tiny bit but still the band played on. Cursing the Adobe gods and their cruelty to designers, I decided to try running a noise filter to add some visual noise at about a .4% setting to see if that would help. BLAM!! perfect gradient resulted and now the client is happy. Didn’t you hear the choir sing? Here’s an idea Adobe, why not just do that by default so the gradient is perfect to begin with and I don’t feel tempted to install Corel Paint (gasp!). So my 1 hour job took over 2 hours and It turned out the line was so long for Grand Theft Auto 4 that I just went to the Meijers instead and picked it up in 10 minutes. So I guess I should actually be thanking Adobe for saving me time from waiting in line.

This is what the template would look like…. If you were flying above it in a plane at 2000 ft.
 

Over at Shuellers books in East Lansing there’s a small gift area I like to browse before I begrudgingly pay $50 for a design book. I can often find a few stocking stuffers there the night before Christmas or on a frantic rush for a last minute Valentine’s day present.

They always have some unique gifts that catch my designer’s eye. In particular there’s some great items from a company called BlueQ and it’s not so much the products themselves which is usually just an average assortment of lip balms, mouths sprays, soaps, and air fresheners, but it’s their stunning retro package designs and their edgy sense of humor that really makes them stand out from other gift ideas.

I personally love vintage style and retro designing and these are some great examples of it. It just goes to show that packaging design can sell if you do something unique and creative when given something ordinary to promote. Now if I can just fine someone willing to pay me to design them some Totally Awesome 80’s cologne packaging. “Smell like a 1984 Camaro’s interior after a summer BBQ. Cut-off Quiet Riot shirt not included.”
 

Marketing and specifically branding has been greatly misunderstood. A common misconception is that branding is just the logo. I’d say a logo is probably the easiest part of making an effective brand but is only the visual identifier. A brand is an idea and perceived value by it’s intended audience based on a company’s culture, products, and services. It’s not what you are saying about yourself it’s what other people are saying about you. In a way your brand is an like a person with both a face, muscles, heart, and bones that your customer interacts with.

The “Face” is the visual things you see about a brand. It’s the logo, the colors, font that are used, even the language of your marketing efforts. Your website’s design, your printed marketing materials right down to how you design your fax cover letters look needs to have a consistent visual identity so that people recognize it immediately and associate it to your business. That visual identity takes on a life of it’s own it represents your organizations character.

The “muscle” is the quality that goes into your service or product. How well does it perform? Does the design of the service or product reflect who you are and how you want to be portrayed. Apple excels at this portion. The level of attention they give to every component of their products design is scrutinized down to the tiniest level and they’re known for that.

When you get to the “heart” of branding you get down to the core culture of your business and the employees attitudes in how they interact with each other and their customers. A main principle is a company’s ethics and morals. Are they being honest about who they really are? The importance of being honest and consistent can’t be understated. Without honesty your hiding behind a mask that the customers will see through. You’ll set yourself away from others competitors when you talk honestly with your customers.

Finally there’s the ”bones” that give strength to rest of the the brand. These are really the unseen factor to a brand but are just as important. Bones are the business structure consisting of a company’s processes, policies and procedures as well their systems and tools they use to do their job effectively. 

When you are developing your brand or revising it, a good approach is to develop a sense of amnesia about who you are currently and get feedback from your customers and community about how they perceive your current identity. You maybe surprised that how you’d like to be known or what you currently think of yourself aren’t matching up with public perception. Figure out who your target audience is and market your brand towards them. 

 In summary you should continue to strive to better your processes and quality, be consistent and honest about who you are and let your branding build from what your customers are saying about you. Don’t spoon feed them some marketing jargon that glosses over what the core is of who you are. Be precise and work hard to make sure it’s what you want them to say about you.

Microsoft is attempting to tie all our data together on a single new platform across multiple devices like cell phones, mp3 players, laptops, desktops (yes including my Mac) and have it exist in a “cloud.” Okay I’m a little confused by how this thing is being marketed but the potential is definitely there. It’s sort of extends the permissions on a file folder into a virtual web zone that you can subscribe to from different devices (unfortunately meaning yet another thing to download to your individual machines to get it to work). Other people can subscribe to it as well and you can track changes in the folder through feeds. Like getting twitters on your documents that reside there and being able to access them anywhere from any device. What makes it interesting is that it can potentially extend to other services so I could take a picture with my iPhone then it automatically goes to my mesh and is sent to my flickr account automatically. I’m not sure Microsoft has a way to get a lock on this type of idea as many other companies and services are already bridging the gap between desktop, web services, and portable devices but it’s good to see some them batting some new ideas around. Check out their demo at www.mesh.com