Illustration by: Kendrick Kidd

In the lovely state of Virginia where I reside, citizens are not required to designate a political party affiliation when registering to vote. For that reason, I’m hesitant to unveil my affiliation to all the designers in the DC metro area.

But, for the sake of this article, I’ll say that if Virginia did require citizens to declare their affiliation, my voter registration card would have a check in the box next to “Republican.”

It wasn’t until college that I realized I was somewhat alone in my political beliefs. During my freshman year, my roommate and every other girl on my floor was a die-hard Al Gore supporter. I never openly expressed my view of Al Gore because I was nervous to be seen as an outsider. Instead, I carried on and didn’t say much during the closest election since 1876.

From then on, I became acutely aware of my place in the political spectrum — especially among the girls who lived in my dorm. Surely, the designers with whom I was studying at the time didn’t feel the same way.

I was wrong, not to mention confused.

Fast forward to the election of 2008. The isolating experiences I recalled during the presidential election of 2000 were back with a vengeance as the election built toward November 4. Yet again, everyone around me was vying for the guy I was against.

While struggling through that year, I ultimately came to realize that through my silence, I was hiding my beliefs. With this type of self-imposed restriction, I was refusing to consider other ways of thinking and, as a result, dramatically limiting the possibilities available to me.

So, I decided to make a choice: either be proud of my political stance and engage in positive dialogue with those around me, or spend my life retreating to avoid judgment and potentially uncomfortable discussions with fellow designers.

Obviously (because I’m writing this article), I decided to stand up for my beliefs. I researched the issues well enough to discuss them with Democrats, and I put a McCain + Palin bumper sticker on my car. I thought to myself, “Yes, it’s time to tell the world (or at least those who drive into Tyson’s Corner) what I believe in!” And having the courage to stand up for my party was the first step toward genuinely exercising one of the freedoms America affords me. It was not only my right, but also my duty to cast a vote for what I believed was in my country’s best interests.

But being honest about my Republican affiliation has been difficult in my industry. Not everyone is willing to have hearty conversations or to consider my opinions without casting harsh judgment. Even my mother worried and tried to convince me to remove the sticker from my car (for fear that my car would be stolen, if not vandalized). I’ve wondered throughout the past two(ish) years if my decision to be open about my political opinions is really worth the challenges I’ve experienced along the way.

And now, I can confidently say that it is worth it. Because, aside from making me feel empowered with my voice, it’s made me a better designer.

How? Well, I learned the most important lesson of my life (so far): that open-minded conversations with someone whose opinion is completely different than mine is the best way I can learn, grow, and develop an awareness of myself and my ideas. To be successful, I realized that my mind must be open to new possibilities — especially if they aren’t exactly what I had imagined they were before.

Here’s an example. I recently had a discussion with a close friend of mine about my personal stance on being pro-life. He then asked if I was opposed to the death penalty, and I replied that I was not opposed to it. However, as our conversation continued, I began to see a connection between those two statements that I hadn’t seen before. By considering something completely opposite from my original path of thinking, I saw two different ideas in an entirely new way.

To accomplish something similar during my design consultations with clients, I’ve now adopted the same approach when critically analyzing a company’s strategic message. I typically ask my clients to describe their message; then I ask them to consider an opposing message. By articulating what they think is the most ridiculous message they can imagine, my clients are able to strengthen their current messages. This process not only builds confidence, but it helps everyone to explore all options early, which leads to more cohesive and targeted products later.

As a designer in my industry, I am proudly among a unique group of communicators who disseminate messages through visual experiences on everything from websites or signs to a company’s logo or letterhead. My goal is to stimulate an individual’s senses in order to attract, inspire, and create desires that motivate them to respond to messages while positively affecting the bottom line. This process is strategic in thinking and planning, uses content based on research, and stretches the limits of my creativity; it’s a process in which success is based upon the development and implementation of new ideas and possibilities.

So, the next time I’m in a client meeting or having a discussion with someone whose opinion is different from mine, I’ll undoubtedly take a deep breath and swallow my pride if the conversation starts to challenge my beliefs. By opening my mind and senses to the potential of success through new possibilities, I know *now* that I can see the world differently and create something extraordinary.

The Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington turns 61 years old this year. That’s an incredible amount of history and heritage, especially for a city of transients like DC. If you haven’t already, take a look at our history.

What you might already know is that, since the 50’s, ADCMW has put on a great variety of events and competitions for the local creative community. But have you ever wondered who makes this all happen?

The ADCMW Board of Directors comprises a group of passionate creatives who volunteer their time to organize events and work behind the scenes ensuring that DC creatives have the opportunity to network, compete, and hear great presentations from some of the most famous faces in design.

I’m just finishing up my first term as VP of Publications and am looking forward to being involved with ADCMW for a long time to come. Serving on the Board has been an eye-opening experience when it comes to understanding how much planning and effort it takes to to organize a successful event. I’ve gained a huge appreciation for the Club’s role in our community and have worked — and become friends with — some of the most talented creatives around.

But don’t just take it from me…

Eric Stewart, Acting President:
Being on the ADCMW Board of Directors gives me benefits I couldn’t get anywhere else. It’s connecting with other professionals and building friendships, and keeping my finger on the pulse of the constantly evolving design community. It’s a lot of fun and a sense of accomplishment; working as a team, we’re able to create programs and events that none of us as individuals could. It’s a chance to learn and grow, and it’s rare that I come away from a challenge without gaining a new skill or understanding. It’s also an opportunity to interact with a variety of unique professionals who inspire me with their creativity, wit, business savvy, and dedication to their field. Most of all, it’s an honor to feel that I can give back to a design community that has been very welcoming and generous to me over the years.

Vernon Dunning, Website Chair:
What the ADCMW represents to me is energy, passion, and sharing. I may be biased, but there’s no community of professionals I’m aware of who are more passionate about the work they do and their quest for new and exciting ideas. Over my many years of watching the DC creative scene evolve, I’m constantly amazed at the energy and willingness to share among all those involved. The ADCMW has been a dynamic part of that evolution. Over the years, the Club’s focus has stayed true to its mission to provide meaningful programs, champion education efforts for young creatives, and sponsor two of the most prestigious (and sought after) awards competitions—The Annual Show and The Real Show. The ADCMW is a mirror of the DC creative community at any given point in its history because the Board of Directors is made up of practicing volunteers who are excited about giving back to their peers. For me it’s this passion, sharing, and energy that evolve with each new year that keep the club relevant and a tremendous value for its members.

Samantha Warren, Marketing Chair:
For me, ADCMW laid the foundation of the importance of community in the creative industry when I was first introduced to the Club as a student at JMU. The promotion of local talent and the diversity of creative professions is symbolic of the larger creative ecosystem that exists in the DC communications industry. Few of us check our work at the door when we leave the office; we aren’t just creative professionals but we also live creative lifestyles. ADCMW is about harnessing that passion to enrich our local community and finding new ways to be inspired about what we spend our professional lives doing as creatives.

Nick Whitmoyer, Treasurer:
ADCMW has been a great source of design inspiration to me for several years now. Seeing renowned design professionals like Steven Heller, Chip Kidd, Paula Scher, and Kyle Cooper — along with meeting and mingling with some of the great local creatives — has been an invaluable experience. At one point, it just became clear to me that I needed to give back and lend a helping hand as appreciation to everything it has done for me.

Jessica Eldredge, Membership Chair:
I joined ADCMW in an effort to connect with other creatives and reach outside my comfort zone of web design. Although I’m a relatively new member, I’ve already been amazed by the diversity and experience of the Club membership. It’s served as a great resource to find creative services in DC, learn new skills, and meet inspiring people.

Selena Robleto, VP Programs:
Being on the ADCMW Board has given me the opportunity to become part of the community of local creatives. In a city with such great talent, this has been a great way to become a part of it. It has been a source of motivation and inspiration that encourages me to be a better professional. And as much as I feel like I get out of meeting new people, hearing about the latest in the community, and rubbing elbows with some of the greatest rockstars in the industry, I also feel like I am making a contribution and that I am playing my part in giving back to a group that has been so embracing of its members.

Mae Coughlan, Secretary:
My experience with ADCMW has been a series of pleasant surprises from the start — from joining the board and volunteering, to attending events and socializing, I could not have asked for a more welcoming group of people. The generosity I have personally experienced has been a great inspiration to me and has moved me to give back to the design community whenever possible. It has also proven how strong the community can be when its members work together towards common goals. And the benefits of involvement can be invaluable — support, encouragement, growth (professional and personal), and friendship are just a few of the things I’ve been lucky enough to take away from my experience, and I hope for continued opportunities to offer them in return.

So, why should you care? (Right! As if you don’t already!)

Because we’re going to hang out at Blackfinn in DC from 6:30-8:30 PM on Tuesday, July 13, and you should join us. And because we’re looking for a few good people to keep the ADCMW Board populated with dynamic individuals who want to help the DC creative community continue to flourish.

Come out and tell us what ADCMW means to you.

Register for the Happy Hour here.

Rich Roat, co-founder of House Industries, shared his love for typography, the history behind House Industries, and the design process for several of their most popular type collections. On top of all that, he shared some of the new alphabet projects that we can expect to see in the very near future!

A big thanks to House Industries for letting us borrow Rich for the evening, Boston University Center for Digital Imaging Arts (CDIA) for providing their campus, Digi-Link for printing the event poster, and also a special thanks to our programs committee (Jessica Avison Eldredge and Selena Robleto) for bringing everything together.

Randi Meredith, http://www.randimeredith.com

They’re short, they’re cute, and they’re strategically important with respect to brand impressions: custom short URLs. Sure, they’re beneficial in that they make short shorter, drive traffic, and adhere to character-limit constraints in tools like Twitter. But what makes custom short URLs even more beneficial is that they maximize brand awareness and impressions by adapting to changes in technology and user behavior.

Non-customized short URLs — made possible through URL shorteners like TinyURL and Bitly, for example — have an obvious value; namely, their shortness. After all, the shorter a URL, the easier (perceptively speaking) to ultimately “share” that URL. But what’s notable here is that the ability for content to be shared is growing in popularity. Within most major news publications (according to Alexa), Google accounts for about 18-22 percent of site traffic while shared content enablers — such as Twitter, Facebook and Digg — account for 8-14 percent, collectively; a percentage that is increasing each month.

And, because of this trend in content sharing, users are being exposed to more messages now than ever before. Connecting with a message is easy enough online; indeed, you demonstrate it through each click-through whenever you see a message, ad, or brand identifier and click on it to be transported instantly to the source of that idea. In this action alone, you indicate that you’ve not only consumed some piece of content, but that it had enough personal meaning to inspire you to take some desired action — in most cases, a click.

However, using third-party URL shorteners hides our brands and, thus, decreases maximum brand exposure. For example, when Tweeting about a New York Times article, only the title and a bit.ly URL are originally sent. There is no brand recognition … no exposure, credit, or impression. So, if that URL isn’t recognizable, you’re missing a great opportunity to connect that message and user’s corresponding action with your brand. Being exposed to something like washpost.com/3mWu6 or nyt.com/3mWu6 (rather than bit.ly/3mWu6) conveys much more brand value to an otherwise passive consumer of online content. And, even if that consumer receives shared content within his or her social stream but chooses not to click-through, there’s still — at the very least — an association formed with that brand.

It is by realizing the value of this brand exposure that is the case for custom short URLs. We can’t control what is shared or how it is shared, but by removing the barriers of auto-shortening as well as coming out from behind the curtain of third-party shorteners, we allow our brands to flourish. It’s about building relationships through association; it’s about being as visible in the consumption stream as possible.

THE CURRENT ECOSYSTEM

Being visible remains a priority for brands that have worked tirelessly to achieve the highest degrees of search engine optimization (SEO) possible. But beyond SEO, the leading brands online now also employ community managers to facilitate or respond to brand-related conversations in innumerable social media outlets. Why? Because those brands understand that social shared content will eventually drive as much traffic to them as concerted SEO efforts once did. And custom short URLs are a strong identifier for brands competing for their messages to stand out and be consumed in that social stream.

Since the very first custom short URLs started appearing, much has evolved in the way of adoption and progress. From major news publications such as The New York Times, POLITICO and The Washington Post to social networks such as YouTube, Flickr and Foursquare, the links are spreading — shorter, branded, and much more recognizable.

But another benefit beyond the value of that brand recognition is that custom short URLs convey context essential to our wading through an endless stream of information. The increasing mobility of our content consumption and the decreasing space (and attention spans) for communicating that content almost requires additional context provided by custom short URLs.

For example, the message “I am with Barack Obama” accompanied by a generic link can imply a number of things. But custom short URLs can remove that ambiguity. So, if the URL accompanying the above statement is:

• A New York Times link, it implies that the statement is in reference to a news source citing the President.
• A Foursquare link, it implies that the statement is in reference to a physical location related to the President.
• A Flickr or YouTube link, it implies being physically next to or in very close proximity with the President, with evidence!
• An Onion article link, it implies that the statement is humorous and satirical in nature.

In all situations, the statement is consumed and the source is revealed. The source gets brand recognition, the messenger gives context to his or her message, and we as the consumer now have contextual expectations.

More and more content publishers are shortening their URLs for shortness sake and branding them for recognition … and now, users appreciate those efforts thanks to the added context.

MAKING SHORT, SHORTER

You might notice organizations using country-specific domain extensions to make short representative forms of their more traditional URLs. For example: The Washington Post recently has created http://wpo.st, POLITICO recently acquired http://politi.co, Flickr uses http://flic.kr, The New York Times makes use of http://nyti.ms, and the Gowalla custom short URL is http://gowal.la. While short and cute, they’re practical, even if not always exactly memorable. They separate themselves from their traditional URLs, sometimes for technical reasons, but often times to be as short as possible while almost always being fun; we’re being social, let’s be fun, too! The objective is to stay short but ensure the brand recognition is still in tact.

DO IT YOURSELF CUSTOM SHORT URLS

It’s new and exciting, but far from complicated! If you’re a technical whiz on the server-side, you can set up a redirect script in a matter of hours. For the rest of us, there are three popular services for accomplishing custom short URLs: “Shorty,” “Yourls,” and “Awe.sm.”

Shorty, http://get-shorty.com, is a free service and one of the most popular. It does require that you install it on your server; which, of course, requires a tad bit of technical know-how (it always requires a PHP environment). It’s quick, simple, and does the trick!

Yourls, http://yourls.org, is another free PHP-based service that requires an install on your server; but, it does come with a very easy-to-use (and set up) WordPress plug-in! They also have an API available for all of you more-developer-minded folks out there.

Awe.sm, http://awe.sm, is well, totally awesome! It’s the simplest and easiest to use service out there, and it requires no real technical know-how or server nonsense! However, it does come with a price-tag; $99/year. Perhaps not worth it for a personal blog, but a nominal cost for any organization!

There are many other third-party services that make custom short URLs possible. Most include tracking and analytics to really see how your custom short URLs are being used and working.

And you might not know this, but many of the content management systems we already use today, such as WordPress and ExpressionEngine, have had short URL alternatives since their inception. For example, naturally, http://mashable.com/2010/05/28/ipad-international-launch/ is also http://mashable.com/?p=288150 (a shorter version inherent in WordPress).

LET’S KEEP THIS SHORT

Short is practical and often necessary, but custom should be strategic and always recognizable.

Illustration by Jim Starr

At your local supermarket, “shelf life” represents the length of time a tomato, cup of yogurt, or carton of eggs will stay fresh and desirable. Some foods last longer on the shelf than others, thanks to a combination of ingredients and packaging. When a company wants to extend the shelf life of a food product, it will often create a new form factor that holds up better over time.

Shelf life is also a crucial concept in the design world. When you kick off a new web design project, you must assess the shelf life of your project.

Will it be a quick-hit, six-week campaign that is timed to fly with other coordinated marketing efforts? Is it a task-based application that will help the staff of an organization work more efficiently for months or even years? Understanding the shelf life of your project before you start designing clarifies — to everyone involved — the criteria with which to evaluate and refine the design.

The Learning Curve

While any experience should be easy for users to understand, its intrinsic learning curve should be appropriate to the amount of time they will spend with it. In addition, the learning curve shouldn’t obscure the ultimate goal of the experience.

Marketing experiences typically are focused on brand awareness, acquisition, and conversion. In light of the ubiquity of advertising today, users should be able to recognize instantly the purpose of the experience as well as the desired response. They can’t be expected to learn a new kind of behavior or interaction model just to achieve the task. In addition, the marketing experience needs to be engaging: Grab the user’s attention, hold it, and channel the focus to the ONE main task you want to achieve in the ad, micro-site, or banner.

The likelihood of a return visit to a marketing experience is low. You must take advantage of the moment you’ve created to get users to your campaign and keep them engaged. Highly ornamented distractions, alternate paths, and obnoxious design patterns all serve to get in the way of the main task. More than likely, users were not setting out to visit your site. One bump in the road, and they’re off your site and back to their original intent.

Applications afford designers a bit more leeway. They typically do more than one thing, so the initial presentation has to present those choices clearly. From there, though, there is an opportunity to clearly and cleanly communicate how to proceed. Users are expected to learn, interact, succeed, and then return. With each return visit, they will handle the application more efficiently.

Because it provides more than one path, an application can be designed with multiple users AND multiple engagements in mind. For example, the initial learning curve can focus on the app’s most common, essential features. Return visits can slowly reveal more advanced ways to interact with the product. Since an application is intended for a longer shelf life, the designer can create multiple paths of learning and success. The added bonus is that these paths, if designed correctly, can support users’ increasingly sophisticated engagement with the app.

Engaging vs. Usable

The disparate goals of marketing and application sites may require different tactics for success, but designers of either needn’t sacrifice usability to win engagement. To engage the user in a marketing site, the experience must be an extension of the brand by using core attributes like colors, voice and tone, and imagery. The marketing property should support the brand by demonstrating the desired outcome and identifying where, on the site, users can achieve it. No company wants its brand associated with phrases like “hard to use” and “confusing.” Remember, users have made a choice to be on your site. One click too many and you’ve lost them … likely never to return and with a bad impression of your brand.

Applications are not always a choice for users. Yes, some decision maker somewhere may have chosen to purchase access to it, but most of your users will have its purpose and use dictated to them. This provides the designer the benefit of time. To increase the likelihood that users will complete a task, the designer can include elements such as wizards with numbered steps, instructional text, and links to help and support sites. Your users will take the time to read and use these assets because their goal is pre-determined. These tactics, far too time- and resource-consuming for a marketing experience, make it easier for them to achieve that goal and to get through the process more efficiently.

Investment

The amount of time invested in these efforts also varies based on purpose. If a short-shelf-life marketing project has one goal — such as convincing users to sign up for an email newsletter — you needn’t invest in secondary navigation, breadcrumb trails, or even multiple pages. Create the shortest path to finding the form fields, and your task is complete. This focus reduces the scope of the engagement across the discipline spectrum and provides faster results for your clients.

Applications are more labor intensive. Given that they’re more complex, you will benefit from conducting research up-front to understand your target audiences, their pain points, and the ways they currently go about overcoming those pain points. This initial investment returns a leaner, more efficient, and more usable experience that translates into greater product adoption and sales.

Summary

The shelf life of your application determines the best way to design it and how long you should spend doing so. Short-shelf-life marketing projects should focus on ONE explicit goal — like click-throughs, purchases, and raising awareness. A web application endures significantly longer; it requires up-front research and design time to ensure its user experience supports the application’s purpose efficiently and repeatedly.

When setting out on your next project, ask yourself how long the project will live, and then focus your efforts in proportion to that shelf life.

Photo by Pat Padua

I should tell you up-front that this is not a Snowmageddon story or a tale of Washington’s winter woes of 2010. No, it’s nothing like that. In fact, the story starts about five years ago when DC winters produced a few dustings of snow each year, and the stretch of non-federal holidays from President’s Day to Memorial Day was what we feared most in the mid-winter months before the approaching Spring. And, come to think of it, it hasn’t got much to do with the weather at all.

It’s about connections. And, of course, I am referring to the Butterfly Effect; a metaphor encapsulating the concept of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory; namely, that small differences in the initial condition of a dynamical system may produce— Wait a second. There’s an easier way…

Just as the story in the film “Juno” “all started with a chair,” this one quite literally started with a pair of earmuffs. No, nobody got pregnant. But I did get a job — for a while.

DC is a small city. The longer you live here, the smaller it gets. I guess that’s true no matter we live. We meet and interact with people every day and sometimes those interactions and connections trigger an odd series of events. I started taking the bus to work on a regular basis after moving to Bethesda in 2003. I picked it up directly behind my apartment building, and it dropped me off on K St. just a block from my office. It couldn’t have been easier. And the route down MacArthur Boulevard through the Palisades neighbor of DC was just off the beaten path enough that I actually enjoyed the commute.

And when you take the same route at pretty much the same time five days a week, eventually you might even become friendly with a few of the regular passengers.

I enjoyed that part of it, too. Just ask any of my “bus friends.”

But Washingtonians know that striking up a random conversation with a fellow commuter is not always welcome. You need a reason.

This is what happened when one fellow D5 rider (Mr. A.) dropped his earmuffs as he exited one night, and I happened to pick them up.

The earmuff exchange became my reason and eventually led to the fully established bus-friendship with Mr. A. Then, a short time later, he was looking for someone to fill a vacant position in his firm and asked if I knew of anyone — which I did. I gave his card to my friend and co-worker, Ms. B., whom I knew was looking. And, not surprisingly, she got the job!

Once comfortable in the position, she recruited Mr. C. from the association from whence she came. (OK, sure, my meddling was creating a minor exodus from the association but, hey, when you need to move on you move on. But I digress.)

Fast forward a couple years when Ms. B. left the firm; Mr. C. then called upon his friend and former colleague Mr. D. to take her place. Mr. D. also happened to be a friend and former colleague of mine. (Foreshadowing!)

During this time, I was laid off from the association. I spent most of 2008 consulting and getting some short-term freelance contracts and, luckily, stayed very busy. Then, just as a current contract of mine was ending back in January 2009, I got an email from Mr. D., who was looking for a freelancer. I started working with him two weeks later.

And, after a few months and a little reorganizing, I was hired full-time. Connection complete!

Now, as 2010 begins, I’m cherishing the connections that will help me grow in new directions while, at the same time, allowing me to help others find new opportunities, too.

And, yes, I recognize that the Earmuff Effect has changed dramatically. In 2003, the only example of “social media” was when you let your friend borrow your iPod. Now we are Linked and we Follow and we Friend. Nouns have become verbs — that alone is enough to make my head spin.

But as much as the Internet is really helping to expand communities and help people find jobs, I say let’s never lose sight of the tremendous potential that personal connections can bring.

This winter is certainly trying the patience of each and everyone in Washington, so I’m not going to recommend striking up that random conversation just yet. But the snow will melt, and the commutes will get easier — and that will make us all feel a little friendlier.

Until then, we could just blame the butterfly.

Illustration courtesy of Owen Shifflett

The latest polarizing dust-up in the Wide World of Web Design involves the methods and tools we designer-types use to solve our clients’ (or our own) problems. This most recent round of misunderstood comments, edge case examples, and generally circular arguing was touched off by two posts (one and two) from the 2009 edition of 24 ways.

The authors, respected designers Andy Clarke and Meagan Fisher, propose similar-but-slightly-different design strategies, which may be boiled down to: “design in the browser.” Meagan even goes so far as to proclaim, “Die, Photoshop, Die.” A bold statement, for sure. Both posts are insightful peeks into the processes of two well-known web practitioners.

Upon first reading, though, I was disappointed that the authors failed to present a balance to their position: neither addressed the potential “gotchas” of his or her method. Most of the ensuing discussion in the posts’ comments dealt with such concerns.

Being a “shades of grey” type (or, “moderate” if you will), I did what came naturally: asked designers smarter than me for their opinion on the issue. Overwhelmingly, the responses I received favored balanced approaches over an either-or binary choice.

Balance to The Force

“Designing in the browser has influenced me to explore unfamiliar CSS3 functionality,” writes Dave DeSandro. However, he continues, “jumping right into markup dissuades me from trying more visually evocative composition.”

Hashrocket’s Doris Steere agrees that designing in the browser is great: “It’s quick, easy to manipulate, and gets you instant feedback.” She does worry, though, that there’s the potential for less creativity and exploration when using this method.

“I think it’s important for designers to have spent a decent amount of time in both modes,” writes Jackson Wilkinson. “Designing in the browser helps you learn to understand the web as a medium, but I think there’s a better opportunity to produce sophisticated, high-quality work using Photoshop as your composition tool.”

My long-time collaborator and co-conspirator Nguyet Vuong sent along her approach to design and how she works with her clients:

“Designing in the browser using CSS is a great idea if it’s applicable to the needs of the project. Whether it’s more efficient as a design tool than Photoshop or Fireworks or Illustrator is irrelevant. They are all good tools as long as we know how to use them well.

“Due to the graphically intense nature of our designs, we show clients static mock-ups done in HTML and CSS when it’s applicable and makes sense. When presenting comps, we use a hybrid approach: designs start in Photoshop and comps are presented with some coding and interactivity if needed. It is more efficient for us to design graphics in Photoshop and present text in HTML and CSS so that clients can see how text is rendered in a browser.”

So… What’s a Designer To Do?

Do what feels right. Do what works for you and works for your clients. Stay on top of the latest trends and developments. Be open to alternative (new! scary!) methods of designing.

Don’t, however, go blindly charging down a path dictated in a blog post from an “industry expert.” Doug March sums it up: “Pick the tool that serves you. Who cares what others say? Just make things.”

Your homework: Try designing an upcoming project in a way that is not your norm. You may find great success. If not, at least you’ve learned something new and different along the way.

Further Reading

• Web Design in Photoshop or the Browser: A Polarizing Topic from Samantha Warren
• Designing in the Browser forum discussion on Drawar
• What Works Best for Design Presentation? on Monday By Noon

In Part I of Marketing for Designers, ADCMW’s own long-time member Deane Nettles shared how he has learned to leverage the web as a foundation toward promoting his creative work. In Part II, he discusses social media’s role to other ADCMW members who, like him, have found themselves asking, “What are all these social media tools about?”

Social media tools provide people with ways to reach a large number of contacts while establishing individualized relationships, too. Through these tools, you as a creative can talk about your interesting new clients, the things your clients are up to, the new work you are doing for them, the photographers and illustrators and copywriters you’ve gotten to work with on that project, the techniques you’ve learned in the process, and the fabulous awards you’ve received. It’s also a way of getting worldwide exposure for your work — without a world-class budget.

In short, like Peter Corbett wrote in FullBleed last year, social media can be used to market yourself and your business. So your overall social media strategy should consider questions like: what are my strengths? Who is my target market? Who inspires me? Whom do I inspire? What would my target market find valuable about my strengths?

In Part I, I described how I’ve been helping clients and students understand the importance of websites and newsletters as a baseline for promoting their work. In Part II, I’m building upon that foundation to describe several social media tools that I’ve found are helping people extend their reach. Specifically, here’s what I’ve learned about writing for social media and using some popular tools.

WRITING

Being active with social media involves a lot of writing, which can be intimidating. You want to demonstrate your expertise, build trust, and land new connections and projects. To do that successfully and sustainably, I’ve found you have to write about what you know in a way that’s true to your voice.

For example, remember the e-mails that Katie O’Brien sent out to the listserv for the Art Directors Club a few years ago? They were ideal examples of communicating expertise in a friendly, upbeat tone. Her creative ideas and “Gee-whiz, I wish I’d said that” style seemed easy. But Katie said it was hard work, and difficult to keep up that level of inventiveness and commitment over time. Her communication efforts went a long way to build community and good-will, and that sort of model is perfect for finding success in social media.

Know your limitations. Take writing courses, or ask colleagues how they approach writing on the web. Once you start, stick with it; like anything, it’s best to create your own regular deadlines. If you don’t enjoy writing, or aren’t disciplined enough to do it consistently, you might want to hire someone else to learn your voice and do your writing for you. (Even Obama admits he’s never tweeted, but his more than 2 million Twitter followers might not have guessed as much!)

BLOGS

Blogs are a good way to share industry news, promote your latest work, and hone your writing skills about what is happening now. They are structured to provide feedback in most cases, offering a “comments” field (like here in FullBleed) to encourage responses. I’ve found that blogs, like newsletters, are at their best when there is an overall topic (like http://www.ilovetypography.com), and their advantage over a newsletter is that you can post quickly and easily whenever you have new information without worrying about contacts or recipients. It also exists permanently on a website — instead of buried deep in someone’s e-mail — and search engines can see it, so it becomes a searchable reference.

STRATEGY:
Post new and interesting information regularly; find blogs that are important to clients like yours and participate in them.

POSITIVES:
Blogs are good for quick updates. Relatively easy to maintain. Can capture readers’ information if they respond via the “comments” field.

NEGATIVES:
Content and style needs to match your business and your audience. And anyone can respond, so needs to be monitored to avoid spam or inappropriate postings, or respond positively to negative feedback.

FACEBOOK

Facebook is an informal way to find and keep track of people you know, and to let people know what’s up with you. You set up a profile and request to be friends with people in your network or those whom you find through the “friend finder” search feature. It’s really useful for keeping people in your network up-to-speed about new work you’ve created, new links you’ve found, or that great new design exhibit you’re going to. A standard Facebook profile isn’t searchable by search engines, but you can set up a profile for “Fans of” your studio site, which is searchable.

STRATEGY:
Connect with friends and let them know what you’re up to or what you have questions about. You never know who knows the answer or who might need your skills.

POSITIVES:
Easy to expand to people you don’t know well, easy to push new information and post new work.

NEGATIVES:
Easy to get involved in your friends’ lives and lose sight of professional aspect.

LINKEDIN

LinkedIn is a professional connection site, based on the theory of “six degrees of separation“. You create a LinkedIn profile listing who you are, what you do, where you’ve worked and where you went to school; LinkedIn will help you find associates you’ve worked for previously and people you went to school with. Then you can search your associates’ contacts for the connections you need. You can also post your latest business news, which is broadcast to all your associates. Your associates can also “recommend” you. LinkedIn’s format is formal and managed; for your protection, you probably only want to link to people you know. Joining groups on LinkedIn also lends itself to the professional social networking benefits of gaining access to information about what’s going on with that group.

STRATEGY:
Link to your clients, collect recommendations from your clients, request connections.

POSITIVES:
Formal; intended for business connections (more than Facebook). Possible to create connections to business contacts who work places you want to work; who know things you need to know. (Very useful for job hunting.)

NEGATIVES:
Limits to what you can post.

TWITTER

Twitter allows you to send out a 144-character message about what you are doing. People who want your updates will “follow” you so they can receive your “tweets” much like they would a newsletter. Tweeting about accomplishments should be occasionally sprinkled among more general information — like upcoming events, interesting links, or questions about specific challenges — that you provide followers. It’s informal and quick, and you can follow anyone from your neighbor to big brands like Starbucks or Dell.

STRATEGY:
Post short snippets of useful information and events that confirm your business strengths, build community, and validate your expertise.

POSITIVES:
Keeps you up-to-date on what’s happening with people and brands you want to hear from.

NEGATIVES:
Having something useful to say; knowing whose tweets are worth following.

FLICKR and YOUTUBE

Flickr and YouTube are media sites. On Flickr, you can maintain portfolios of still images and videos, and YouTube stores videos only. Each has the capability of allowing viewers of your uploaded pieces to comment on them. In the Fall 2009 issue of PhotoMedia magazine, writer Rosh Sillars says that Getty Images searches Flickr in search of new talent, so it can increase your chances of being found by distributing your content to social media sites like these two.

STRATEGY:
Post new work to create additional exposure.

POSITIVES:
Searchable, more exposure.

NEGATIVES:
Duplication of effort and content management, if you maintain these separate from your website/portfolio.

OVERALL

Social media is a class of online tools that facilitate publicity and interpersonal relationships. They help people connect with supporters, current clients, or prospective clients. Plus, there are tons of tools out there not mentioned above (like Posterous & Tumblr) that also help to bridge the gap of distribution across social networks.

But using social media tools appropriately takes time and effort even though they’re almost all free — and it has to be something you *want* to do. For example, if you are just punching the design time clock, so to speak, then social media probably won’t be useful. You have to be excited about the work you are doing, or it just won’t come off well or be interesting to others.

If you are better at talking to people directly, you may be more productive going out and networking. But consider social media tools to help you follow up with the leads you generate by networking and help you find new leads online.

With tens of thousands of people jumping on the bandwagon every day, hitting the jackpot through social media is as probable as hitting any jackpot. But if you pick your media carefully, and limit your intent, it can be worthwhile — and you’ll gain expertise that can be valuable for your clients, and new connections that can be valuable to you.

One of the regular features here on FullBleed is our “Three Questions” article. Throughout the year, we hand the microphone over to our fellow ADCMW members to answer questions that plague the creative community. We’ve recently switched the format of “Three” from asking three questions over the course of a month, to asking three chosen creatives a single question every month. Got all that?

For each article we also spotlight a featured illustrator who is assigned the vague task of “representing the number three in some shape, as obvious or abstract as you want”. Being the end of the year, it’s a good time to gather up all their creativity and to learn a little more about 2009’s featured “Three” illustrators.

BRITT IRICK

Britt Irick is a senior illustration student at the Savannah College of Art and Design. He was a self-taught animator throughout high school who learned to paint and switched to illustration. Influenced heavily by Saturday morning cartoons and a long shopping list of comic-book artists, he uses many different media, both traditional and digital. In his work he uses bright colors, a sense of humor and a little bit of weirdness for a unique look.

For the past four years he has taught film and animation at a summer camp in Arlington, VA while doing illustration and painting projects on the side, including a 310 sq. ft. mural, portraits and event posters. Summer 2009 he spent in an internship with the Non-profit, Safe Kids Worldwide, doing pamphlet and spot illustrations. Currently he is working on an animated short, and is halfway through writing and illustrating a children’s book. After he graduates in June 2010 with a BFA in Illustration he plans to get into poster and character design and book illustration but is open to just about anything so long as he has a pot of coffee and a pencil. You can view at his sketch/art blog at ttribit.blogspot.com.

GLENN LUCAS

As a youngster, Glenn took to drawing like many kids but soon found it to be an obsession, doodling on everything from desks, to notebooks, to other kids. He graduated from Central Michigan University where he majored in graphic design, minored in advertising and more importantly was introduced to the Mac computer.

Glenn cut his graphics chops at a service bureau in Rockville, MD where he learned the craft of imaging, layout and design, 2D, 3D, and Cel animation. In 1996 he and a partner formed a company called Highwire Studios which specialized in interactive and animation projects. In 2001 Glenn joined Erickson Barnett, a marketing agency in Reston, VA where he split most of his time between project management and Flash development.

After EB went the way of the Dodo in 2009, Mr. Lucas, as he is affectionately known to his children, has taken on a short-term contract with Tandberg. He continues to take on the occasional freelance projects as interest and time allow. In his spare time (hah, hah) he enjoys noodling on the bass, fooling with his t-shirt designs, frittering on the web, and spending time with his family. You can view more about Glenn at www.gelucas.com.

CHRISTA SMITH

Christa Smith studied visual communication at The University of Kansas on a four year portfolio scholarship where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. She began her career in Los Angeles working as a package designer. She later opened her own graphic design and illustration business and transitioned into doing illustration full-time. Christa’s illustrations are nature rich, evocotive images created on scratchboard inspired by her love of carving sgraffito-style on pottery.

She works on black scratchboard as well as in color on white scratchboard using watercolor mediums and india ink. She creates illustrations for packaging, magazines and publishers from her studio on historic Duke of Gloucester Street in the Colonial area of Williamsburg, Virginia. Christa gives scratchboard workshops and is a member of the AIGA, SCBWI, and Illustrators Club. Her website is christasmithillustration.tumblr.com.

The democratizing nature of the Internet has redrawn the competitive landscape of everything from music distribution to telephone service to the creative process. Even Joe the Plumber can pick up some nice, decorative swag for his van.

While the creative process stands in stark contrast to music distribution and other industries, we do find online services spreading the playing field, increasing competition, and lowering fees … and in the case of spec, lowering fees to zero with the possibility of compensation. While spec threatens the value of design, I think it is the core *idea* of design that faces greater danger. The rise of DIY and “every man design” are re-imagining what design means in the minds of our clients. No research. No process. Just tweak a Bezier here, push a pixel there. Kern some type? We can only hope.

Not long ago, two events put the design community over the edge. Ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CPB), with annual billings exceeding $1 billion, used crowdsourcing site crowdSpring to collect logo ideas for client Brammo. The award? $1,000. And legitimacy for crowdsourcing.

If that wasn’t enough, iStockphoto announced that it was adding logos to its member-generated library. Vector files start at the unbelievably low price of $5 with exclusive rights.

The communal outrage between these two events generated myriad blog posts, even more tweets, and a syndicated backlash on CPB’s home page. Maybe the fervor was due to the fact that designers saw each of these events as a betrayal. iStockphoto and CPB were supposed to be on our side. How could they? Alex Bogusky did post a thoughtful response to his agency’s use of crowdSpring and the lesson of his grandfather. Ideas are, in fact, a dime a dozen.

We have been given the gift of hindsight as the Internet effect on industries resistant to change plays out again and again. Consider the music and telephone industries as examples.

Musician magazine, December 1993

The labels had no less than six years to adapt to the sweeping changes (read: “threats”) that file sharing and digital distribution posed to their businesses. Said then-MCA Records Chairman Al Teller in reference to the labels’ lack of mobilization, “We, as record companies, are already in the distribution business. So why would we empower somebody else to do that? [...] We should own that.”

Distribution, and the piles of cash it generates, makes up the main difference between major labels and the independents. So the record companies were of the belief that it should be their responsibility to develop the next music distribution paradigm, which is to say develop a system that would be the most lucrative for them.

Likewise, the phone companies’ decades-old infrastructure, failure to innovate, and ever-increasing fees and surcharges have driven customers away. Their response? Lower customer service standards. It’s almost as though they held the door as people fled for services offering a VoIP alternative.

In both cases, instead of adapting to the new reality, music and telephone industry executives arguably took only tiny steps forward, if that, while spending a lot of time and money protecting the business models that had made them successful in the first place.

Readily available high‐speed Internet access and affordable software represent the deregulation of design. And a similar sea change is now upon us.

There will always be a market for design thinking and craftsmanship. And there will always be those whose budgets demand decoration. What there won’t be is any sort of sign saying we’ve gone too far. Picking sides will serve us well for a time, but spec is not going anywhere. Some of us like to talk about certification and turning the community into a walled garden for card-carrying professionals. Embracing a hardline for the demise of spec could prove profoundly more negative. The worst possible outcome — and a true disservice — would be creating the perception that professional designers chose digging in our heels, campaigning for the status quo, and insisting that our output is valuable in and of itself.

Instead, we should consider why some opt for that type of solution and appreciate that we were probably never going to work together anyway — spec or no spec. And for those with the wisdom to choose a design solution based on research and thinking, they should be invited into the process. Any opportunity we have to demonstrate to our clients what they are paying for and the inherent value of the way we work is an idea we should embrace.