Alberta Design Blog

I wrote recently about the conundrum of content. As a designer, you’re paid to create the visuals the content goes into. As a client you pay designers for communications solutions (design is one part of this). It’s neither cost-effective or efficient to write content as a designer – designers know design and clients know stuff.

I’d like to offer some additional insight, but also tackle it from a different angle. I want to offer thoughts as a content manager (I wrote this site – about 60 pages over about four+ weeks, not to mention blogging and twitter). Let’s ignore the incessantly nagging designer whining for better copy from people who would rather be doing other things… let’s talk like one of You – the strong, the free, the client.

I want to offer thoughts as a content manager,  not as the incessantly nagging designer whining for better copy, but one of You – the strong, the free, the client.

I learned how hard it is to generate decent copy for your own marketing when I wrote this site, I had to generate the mental horsepower while paying the rent and actually working. I was bloody well exhausted.

I realized I am exactly like my own clients. I’m not a full-time writer (I’m ok, but my grammar bad is), I’m a designer who does stuff like build print outputs and cut HTML. Our clients do stuff like welding and driving trucks. My stuff is more important than my website, just as their stuff is more important than their marketing. At one point last fall, I even thought about hiring a real writer. Because I was utterly spent. read more

Social Bookmarks:

I’ve been thinking a lot over the past couple of months about content. All sorts of content, from brochure text, trade show display lists, and website pages. The old adage goes “content is King”, but from the point of view of many projects, actual content is more often the elephant in the room.

I say this from the perspective of a graphic designer who’s often charged with the task of creating something groovy to catch a customer’s eye, or do some fancy information architecture on a website so it is logical to read and navigate. The reality is – we hardly ever write anyone’s content. Oh, we might cut a tagline, or a bullet list here and there, but we rarely speak for our clients. Most often the disclaimer on the quote goes something like this: Client responsible to supply all copy and images. read more

Social Bookmarks:

We recently completed two tradeshow banners for Pink Suede Imaging. They turned out so wonderful I felt the need to blog. Pink Suede is a service that assists women in the area of personal image. Think of them as the What Not to Wear of Red Deer. If Clint & Stacy came to pay a visit I think they would be rather pleased. An awesome  opportunity for central Alberta women to step-up their confidence.

The flirty design was a nice change of direction here at Redpoint. Especially because we were able to use a colour we don’t often choose out of the swatch-book… PINK, and lots of it. With fashion on the brain we decided to create a look that women would be drawn to. We incorporated some girly illustration to play off the looseness of the logo – so much fun! I am a doodler at heart, so it was a delight to be able to create artwork for these banners.

The text creates a curvy female silhouette, which compliments the Pink Suede motto Inner Confidence, Outward Style quite nicely. The words within the image represent Pink Suede and highlight services. The pink scalloped header gives the illusion of a boutique window which ties in the polka-dot pattern in the background. We really wanted to push the detail by adding in illustrated icons and ribbons. The goal was to project a visually compelling piece that targets women specifically.

Check out the banners, and Pink Suede for yourself at the Bower Place Shopping Center on December 18, 19 & Boxing Day.

Social Bookmarks:

2009 has been a year of stops and starts, there is no doubt. One thing has really become clear, though. Managing any type of marketing requires a lot of effort. A lot of our clients are small central Alberta companies and associations who don’t have full time marketers on payroll. There is even more pressure when people are just trying to keep the doors open and cash flow up.

I suppose the most notable example is writing copy for a website that may contain 20 to 30 pages and have supporting images, graphics and data to go with it. Creating that is a formidable task – it needs to be done fairly quickly in the project life cycle, takes a long time and usually requires gathering resources a client might not have access to (photoshop files, vector logos and the like).

I’ve gained more and more respect for clients who go through the process to present themselves and their businesses in an effective way. I say this because we’ve recently done significant work on our own website and was reminded of how much work it is to re-write and re-compile a companies data, profile and identity. read more

Social Bookmarks:

The concept of the creative process is a pretty cloudy one. Shops guard their “process” carefully, larger shops acting aloof and technical, and the smaller shops tend to try and look bouncy and approachable to counteract the larger shops. The client is either being force fed or trapped in endless game of ping-pong. I’m not saying that either approach doesn’t work, on the contrary, both do work. read more

Social Bookmarks:

Today was a pretty cool day. We visited the Red Deer Museum + Art Gallery in their new temporary location at the Parkland Mall in Red Deer.

The Museum staff were very excited to embark on this new adventure. Firstly, they have closed the regular downtown location for a major overhaul and building upgrade. secondly, their temporary location at the mall gives them exposure they’ve not had in a long time.

We played a part in all this – we designed the signage you see depicted here, and we are especially proud of the fish poster on the left. We wanted to bring part of the old building to the new location, and also bridge something at harkened back to the old space, once it is renovated. The Koi pond in the foyer not only will stay, but is getting an enhancement. THe poster looks more like a painting than a photograph. Fitting for an art gallery, and a sneak peek for those waiting to see the new MAG website set to launch in a few weeks.

Social Bookmarks:

After quite a few months, we’ve finally launched the new website for the Career Assistance Network in Red Deer. It has been a fun process and the amazing thing about a site is watching the content come together. I have to admit, I’m a sceptic when talk turns to the active management of content. I like simple web tools that get used. I’m pretty shameless in my promotion of that.

Well, Aaron at the CAN office really impressed me. I have not worked with many people (particularly small business owners) who write as diligently as Aaron. Kudos certainly go to the content here. Not flashiest, but it is accurate. read more

Social Bookmarks:

t’s not often we get gifts from clients – usually we are the one giving them to our clients. But a few weeks back, we received a card in the mail from a client with a tip inside. A small token that allowed for some free and easy ordering at the local watering hole – City Roast Coffee. Can you say super-chocolatey-once-in-a-lifetime-coffee event? Yep. We can.

Gratitude is a funny thing. Usually we are happy to have the work and collaborate with interesting people, so I suppose that counts as gratitude. But I don’t suppose our clients necessarily know that we feel like that. Au contraire, our clients likely are pleased as punch to have good solutions to their marketing problems, and may not mention it. A small token of appreciation certainly goes along way. read more

Social Bookmarks:

We have been having a race lately to see which projects get completed first and We recently went live with a web project for X-cel communications. It’s a nice site with a few really nice features. As usual, the client has complete access to all content and can create and edit content at will. But aside from that, we created a widget for the homepage to profile the primary product offerings and allow for a little play-ability (don’t get dizzy).

Another nice feature is the product information page. With a broad product offering, X-cel has to have fairly specific information when responding to client inquiries. After a bit of thought, we presented a form tool with a selector for each product type. Once a potential client selects a product, the form automatically loads the appropriate set of questions. Simple.

This site was a pleasure to design – in part thanks to Bell Canada, for allowing their dealers access to high res images for most of the products.

Social Bookmarks:

We took in the Festival of Trees Opening event – the Celebration of Lights last night. All the sponsors (Redpoint was a Gold sponsor this year) were treated to a private viewing of the event that will take over Red Deer this weekend.

I think the humbling thing I noticed (after eating the yummy dinner) was that for our meagre contribution, we are “GOLD” sponsors… but the hundred of volunteers and board members whose passion for the event has promoted some to volunteer 15 years in a row! When you consider how much it would take to be involved for one year, 15 is unbelievable.

The charity supports the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre and it certainly is worthy of our support. So take in the festival, buy a raffle ticket and enjoy the desert event friday night! The dessert event is Friday night. So remember: the dessert event is Friday night!

Merry Start-of-the-Christmas Season and remember to thank the Festival ED Tanya if you can find her this weekend!

Social Bookmarks: