I am an avid reader of design and advertising books. As geeky as it sounds, I read those types of books as my pleasure reading. I always want to know more about how to excel at my craft. Every so often there comes along a book that completely changes the way that I think about… More
One of my favorite neighborhood restaurants is taking advantage of location marketing. For those of you that don’t know, location marketing takes advantage of smart phones equipped with GPS. On location-based social sites, also known as “lo-so”s, like Facebook, Yelp! and Loopt, a user can “check in” to establishments near him/her and the savvy business… More
So, upon closer examination, Groupon is not the deal that I thought it was. I read an article about restaurants having bad experiences with Groupon and thought that it was bad business on their part; they gave away too much to the digital coupon clippers. Up until a few weeks ago, I thought Groupon would… More
One of the goals of marketers is to create a message that the viewer believes is meant solely for him/her. Considerable time, money and effort is spent developing the right message for the right audience. The smaller the audience, the more specific and compelling the marketing message can be. The practice of delivering messages to… More
So I was engaged in a conversation earlier today about User Experience, UX for short. This, along with User Interface (UI) design, are the hot button topics of web design now. Suddenly, companies care about their users now that the web has evolved and flattened so that users have a say in how they interact… More
Check out this article on the length of emails: (It’ll open in a new window) I check most of my emails to get information about the state of the medium. I have found that emails are getting longer and longer and LONGER. They present so much material that my eyes glaze by the first scroll.… More
I had a fascinating kick-off conversation with a new client today, Jim Israel formerly of Culinary Concepts in Philadelphia, PA. He is starting a new consulting company aimed at the hospitality industry. Usually, my clients struggle with their identities, their mission and their unique selling points. Jim had all of that in spades. I was… More
a little something interesting I found: http://lnkd.in/dgHftfK from LinkedIn via IFTTT
Years ago, when the web was relatively young, I remember business owners asking me to build them a website with the rationale that “they just needed one.” There was no more discussion than that. Me, being young and hungry, built them a site that, for the time and my skill level, looked great. But then… More
Part of my goings-on about the user experience include knowing your audience and understanding what makes them tick. A huge part of the behavioral information that you can glean about a particular audience segment is culture. I came across an article on Business Insider that represents visually how cultures around the world negotiate. Why should… More
An often overlooked logo design element is the knockout version. The knockout is the version of the logo that would appear on a dark background. There are many times when a logo cannot be reproduced in full color due to the environment where the logo will be placed or the costs associated with printing in… More
Check out this article: It’s about Comcast Direct Response TV. Direct Response TV allows the viewer to use their remote control to interact with or take an action suggested by the content and I just saw a DRTV ad for the Ford Focus this evening. DRTV is in the Philly/Wilmington media market! I am familiar… More
So I am spending Saturday watching SNL and browsing the App Store when I came across the IFTTT app. It is AMAZING for people who generate content across many social media platforms. IFTTT stands for If This, Then That and it allows you to create conditional statements called “recipes” that help you manage aspects of… More
You know what’s fun? Brand guidelines. Seriously. It’s cool to take a design and develop a system around it. Right now, I am working on brand guidelines for a client that is undergoing a complete rebrand. It started innocently enough…”Hey, can you whip up a sales video for us?” “We need a new white paper… More
So I’m spelunking around the web as I like to do on a quiet Saturday evening after burping up code all day… I revisited the HUGE website. These guys rock as far as creative is concerned and I feel connected to them in that we chose the same color to represent our brand. It takes… More
You know, we humans have a peculiar habit: we like to name things. They give us a sense of order in a chaotic world. Look at the title of this post…it brings an image to mind. A smell. A memory. A Golden Girl. A connection. It’s the same with naming products. Companies have spent millions… More
JustĀ a quick shout out that an actual news agency is following yours truly at M19 MEDIA. We count @denverpost (The Denver Post) and @denverbusiness (Denver Business News) as our followers! My only question: where is the Delaware News Journal?
A lot has been said about User Experience and how critical it is to the success of any web site. I couldn’t agree more. Here is an example of what I mean: I’m in an Asian restaurant for the first time today. I’ve been past it, looked at the menu in the window but never… More