More Washroom/Design Related Stories…

The washroom scene is getting pretty creative I have to say. First it was women peeing standing, now its a game for men peeing. You have to see to believe. I guess the tagline for it is ‘Practice your SHOT now”

Roxy Pool Hauz *9 Ball Shoot

TITLE: 9- Ball Shoot
AGENCY: Saatchi & Saatchi, Jakarta, Indonesia
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: James Bernardo
ART DIRECTOR: Alvin Dharmawan, Rady Sutama
COPYWRITER: Ichwan Rinaldi
AGENCY PRODUCER: Maya Permatasari, Vivi Gemala
PHOTOGRAPHER: Hakalam Sutandi
DIGITAL IMAGING: Yudi Haryanto

Rat Race: Quit or Die Trying

“The trouble with the rat-race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.” – Lily Tomlin

It’s Friday afternoon, another week gone by, another weekend beginning. And so it seems the cycle continues week after week. The rat race must go on. As much as I like being a part of it, I want more. I want to reach out of of my comfort zone and achieve more…oh and be able to take 3 month vacas without having to check with someone. Seems like you only become more of a salve after school, much to my dismay. I want to be free.

I read somewhere,
”Your mind is your first and biggest stumbling block when you consider breaking free of your comfort zone. Add fear, insecurity and painful experiences of past failures, and it all becomes one humongous frightful monster of a vicious cycle. You end up pushing your dreams aside because not doing anything means you won’t fail!”

The mind is a strong weapon. We can only go as far as we picture in our minds.
So here’s a few things I deem important on a journey to being a successful freelancer. Mind you I haven’t ‘arrived’ to my success point as yet, so you can either take this or skip to read some articles below.

1. Change your mindset to believe you can get there. Make goals and set dates.

2. There’s a lot of blogs and such online with really good advice on these topics. Google them, search them, read them, soak them.

3. Avoid talking about your goals or strategies to people who aren’t optimistic about it. You need encouragement, not the opposite (i think we get enough of that on the news).

4. Get yourself out there. People cant hire you if they don’t know you exist. Invest in some advertising. Put yourself up on free classifieds like Craigslist or Kijiji. Send out a mass email to everyone on your contact list, so they can forward to their friends and so on (6 degrees of separation does work). Most of your clients will be a friend of a friend of a cousin of a sister….you get my drift.

5. Granted you are starting out, but be ready to invest into your business. Marketing, printing, websites or whatever else you need. You get what you pay for, so don’t cheese out on this. Get it done right the first time, so you don’t have to keep investing.

6. Remember there will be down times, but remember your goals and keep moving ahead. If one strategy doesn’t work, try another and another…

Here are a few articles I came across in my daily browsings,

Breaking Free Of A Salaried Existence – Being Your Own Boss

A Comprehensive Guide to Starting Your Freelance Career

The Secret to Landing Clients Nearly 100% of the Time

Graphic Design enables women to pee standing!?!

I couldn’t help but applaud this one. What a classic idea to avoid all those nasty washrooms. Although, I must say, peeing in this stance would need some getting used to.
I can’t help but think, ‘another genius idea, brought to you by graphic design’. I wonder if this will reach Canada…
Click on the image below to view the idea in its full glory!

Print Advertising, “What’s your statement?”

What kind of statement are you making, in your advertising? I came across this excellent article on advertising. I’ve only added a few of the tips on my blog, the rest can be read here.

Pre-Qualify Buyers
Example: “Homes Starting From The Low $300’s.”

This saves sales staff time because inquiries will come from more qualified buyers. People who can’t afford it won’t call.

Ads Can Stop Buyers From Eliminating Themselves
Examples: “Only $199 per month” or “Four Easy Payments of $39.95.”

Your ad helps buyers to understand that your offer is affordable, and they don’t eliminate themselves as potential customers.

Print Advertising Can Make You Look Professional
Examples: For your prospects, your advertising is your business. The level of professionalism in your marketing materials indicates how professional your business is. And if you have better marketing materials than the competition, your prospects will assume that yours is the better company.

You might list memberships, associations, years in business, name brands, or awards in your ads to look more professional. And of course use professional colors, imagery, and design in your ads.

People like to do business with professional organizations. Professionalism leads to trust and added value. Make sure your ads present you in the best light. Remember, your print advertisement is the first impression you make.

Print Advertisements Can Build A Perception Of Quality That Reduces Price Sensitivity
Examples: “Forty Years Of Craftsmanship” or “Our Award Winning Service…” or “Certified By…”

People will pay a premium for quality – if you can clearly and believably communicate the benefits that come from that quality. An indirect competitive comparison is often used to show higher quality products or services that justify a higher price.

Ads Can Help To Protect You From Legal Problems
Examples: “All Work Conditionally Guaranteed” or “subject to terms and conditions.”

It is vital that you carefully word your print ads to follow the letter of the law. By publishing your print advertisement, you are notifying the public of the terms of doing business with you. This can protect you from future legal problems.

Ads can allow you to have a private conversation with your clients
Examples: “The Secrets of…” or “Your home is…” or “Did your hear what…”

Advertising works because you can talk one to one with your clients – If you write carefully, and respect their time and needs. Also, note that people tend to believe an overheard conversation, so let them listen in.

Ask for Help
It is recommended that you hire a professional designer to create your ads. It is also encouraged to ask a marketing professional about your print ads and issues related to your marketing and advertising program. It’s an inexpensive investment for something as important as the success of your marketing program.

Freelancers Guide to Blogging

Another awesome post, explaining the madness behind ‘blogging’! This post is brought to you by Robert Janelle, an avid writer and contributer on Freelance Switch

Everyone with a blog, please raise your hand.

Alright, those of you with hands up can leave the classroom and hit the bar early. The rest of you, stay here, because this lesson is important.

Lets start with the quick summary of what a blog is. Short for Weblog, a blog is a website that displays posts by the author in chronological order. Their popularity is immense since most blogging platforms make it insanely simple for anyone to publish their thoughts on the web.

You’re reading one right now.

But why do freelancers need one?
It’s an extension of your portfolio

First and foremost, a blog is yet another place to show off your writing, design, photography or coding skills.

As such, it’s another place for potential clients to find you.

The ideal freelancer’s blog should be another part of his or her portfolio site (you already have one of those, right?)

But a key difference is showing off a little more personality on the blog since I’ve found most online portfolios to be a little on the sterile side (I’m just as guilty on that front.)

Along with a different method of posting from a more traditional portfolio site, most blogging platforms allow readers to leave comments giving you quick feedback on what you’re showing off (once you have readers, more on that later.)
Networking and marketing

One of the biggest advantages to having a blog is being able to build relationships with fellow freelancers who also blog by linking out and leaving comments on each other’s sites.

I’ve met people who’ve expanded their business into other countries thanks to relationships they’ve built up through blogging.
Now start one!

Getting a blog is easy and for the most part, free.

Go to one of the major blogging platforms like Blogger or WordPress and sign-up for a blog. If you can’t think up a clever domain name, just go with your own name.

Using one of the free providers by default will give you a .blogspot or .wordpress domain but both providers support domain mapping (Blogger does it for free, WordPress charges $10 per year though for $15 they’ll deal with registering it as well.)

Many people suggest that having a stand-alone domain makes you look more professional, but personally I don’t think it’s that big of a deal — especially since I’ve met company CEOs who have .blogspot.com domains.
Blogging away

So, now you’ve got your own little soap-box on the web that can be updated quickly and easily, what do you do with it now?

Well, an introduction post is usually good. Who are you and what are you doing?

Since we’re looking at this as a marketing tool, after that you should be writing about your field of work. Write with authority and establish yourself as an expert on what you do.

Post sketches and doodles of what you’re working on (or the equivalent in whatever you do) to show off your work.

As an example, I tend to use mine to post material that my current roster of clients aren’t buying but I still feel like writing. These days my bread and butter comes from monthly publications so I’ll also write up topics that will be stale by deadline which kind of brings back the feeling of being a daily newspaper intern (it even includes the glorious feeling of not getting paid!)

I’ve known programmers who’ll post about whatever platform they’re currently coding on along with whatever they love or hate about it along with giving progress reports on various projects. There are lots of possibilities.

Most important of all though, inject your personality into it. This should provide a good opportunity for potential clients to get an idea of the person behind the work.

While blogging isn’t a form of passive marketing, it also doesn’t need to take up that much time. Generally, it’s best to aim for one post per week at a minimum and try your best not to let it go stale.
Promotion

Finally, having a blog is pretty useless if the only one reading it is your mother, so let’s talk about promoting it.

Now, we’re not trying to build the next big web publication here, so there’s no need to go into all-out spam mode. Adding the link to your e-mail signature, your business card and leaving it when you comment on other blogs (most of them have a separate field to do this in the comments) should suffice to build a moderate readership.

Whitespace Beauties (A collection of ads with good use of whitespace)

Aren’t the OMAC ads the cutest?

White Space, Love of my life

As a designer, I feel whitespace is a very very important factor in design. It’s what makes the design a masterpiece. However, there are many whitespace haters out there, and I’ve had my fair share of them. Below is an article I came across, about whitespace. Hopefully I can convert the haters into lovers…My next post will be a collection of successful/witty ads/posters with whitespace

Please note, this article is from Design Matters.

The space surrounding this block of text is just as important as other factors such as appropriate use of color, type and graphics. I know, there is a tendency, specially on the web, to fill every single corner with text. “White space is evil,” seems to be the rallying cry,“it must be removed!” “Down with white space!”

The funny thing is that, most of us have been taught since elementary school to use white space. I remember how my teachers would always insist that we draw a 1.5″ margin on the left hand side of every page. They drilled it into our minds, until it became a habit that I have been unable to break, even to this day. Which is actually a good thing, since my handwriting is atrocious.

So why is white space so important? Part of the reason is pshychological, and part of it is physical: the text needs room to breathe. When text crowds all the way to the edge, it leaves us feeling crowded and cramped. Long passages of text, written edge to edge can actually tire the eyes.

Try it for yourself. Take a sheet of plain paper, and write several lines of text from one edge of the page to the other, without leaving any space at the top or the left and right margin. Now take another sheet of paper and right in the middle, write a few lines of text right in the middle, leaving a generous amount of white space on all sides (say 21/2″ on the left and right, and 4″ on the top.) Now compare the two pages. Which one is easier to read?

By the way, note that white space doesn’t always have to be white. It can be any other color. White space refers to any empty area (colored or white, opaque or transparent) that is devoid of text.

This column itself, you might notice is surrounded by a generous amount of white space. This combined with a smaller column width, improves the readability of the text and makes it that much easier to read.

Another reason for using white space is related to a topic that I will revisit in more detail in a later column: contrast. Surrounding a block of text with a lot of white space, can actually draw the reader in, especially in a crowded layout such as a newspaper, where every nook and cranny is jam-packed with information.

Like this text, for example.

You might find your eyes being drawn to the text above. That’s the power of white space. Often times, in newspapers like the Wall Street Journal or New York Times, you will find full page ads with almost nothing else on the page except one lone sentence of text. You might think it rather silly, that a company would pay thousands of dollars to pay for this full page ad, and then not take advantage of it by filling it with text, messages and what not. And yet, you might find it impossible to skip that ad, as you browser through the paper, try as you might. That’s the power of white space, baby (and contrast.)

So the next time, you find yourself preparing a report, a newsletter, or an ad for a garage sale, think about white space. The first time you do it consciously, you might find it difficult (I know. I did.) But eventually you will get used to it, and wonder how you did without it.

Your Fired!!! xoxoxo Sir Alan Sugar

Sir Alan Michael Sugar, the UK version of The Apprentice. Pookey, follows this show on a more than regular basis. Sometimes he’ll play the show over and fwd or rewind to his favourite parts.
He’s tried to get me to watch it and for the most part I do watch it, but not like him. This morning it was down to the final 4! I was extremely sad to find out Lucinda Ledgerwood (Born in Singapore, and began her career in Risk Management before undertaking various roles involving I.T. in the financial sector.) was fired. I liked Lucinda, she always stood out, in her bright colours, she was her own boss and apparently the highest earner from all the contestants.

People who I didn’t like, ‘good jewish boy’ Michael Sophocles, who couldn’t tell ‘kosher’ from ‘halal’. Also Jenny Celerier (woman of the world), who not know was ignorant about the difference between ‘kosher’ and ‘halal’, but tried to sabotage the other teams progress by trying to bribe the sports shop assistants not to string the other team’s racquet. Definitely, distastefully conniving.

Double trouble

Week 7 Sir Alan shocked everyone in episode seven of The Apprentice by sending not one but two contestants home. Even show insiders were unprepared for Sir Alan’s actions and programme makers had to hastily scramble a second film crew to ensure coverage of not one but two taxi rides out of the show.

“Is it ‘Get rid of Jenny day’ or what?” – Jennifer Maguire

Sir Alan seemed disgusted by the goings-on in Morocco, and he certainly had plenty of potential candidates to get rid of as mistake after mistake mounted up. He told them, “There’s no written rule that says I can only fire one person… I can fire three of you today. I’ll fire all bloody five of you if I have to; it don’t bother me”.

In the end it was the two Jennifers who felt his wrath the strongest. “It was like he said, I’m not feeling the Jennys”, said Jennifer Maguire. “There’s a room there that needs to be cleared out. Let’s just get rid of the two of them”.

Already room mates, the women found themselves on the same team this week as Jennifer Maguire led Jenny Celerier in team Renaissance. While Jennifer Maguire was disorganised and lacked attention to detail, Jenny C’s crimes were more blatant. From trying to bribe the sports shop assistants not to string the other team’s racquets to some highly dubious shenanigans surrounding a kosher chicken, her actions didn’t impress Sir Alan at all. He fired her first and then told the others it was “because she’s a bit of a snake”.

“At the start I thought she was bright and articulate, but the tennis racquet trick is dirty cheap sabotage,” he said to his aides. “There is some element of dishonesty about her.”
read more…

Here’s a video of the boardroom going ons during this double whammy.

Now with Lucinda fired, theres Helene, Alex and Lee (yay Lee)

Lets see who wins shall we?