The Fine Art of Remembering
If you are like me than you likely never received a user’s manual on how the brain works when you were born. If you are a guy like me than let’s face it, we wouldn’t have read the manual anyway. If we had though, we would have learned some interesting and not well publicized things about how our memories and our minds actual do work.

I’ll Talk, You Listen
“That isn’t exactly what I meant”. “I don’t think you understood me.” “You didn’t hear me correctly.” These are some of the most commonly used phrases in our country. We generally tend to think that talking and hearing are simple mechanisms.

Ethics Is Not Just A Word In The Dictionary
Let me be clear from the start; I am neither an ethics professor, nor do I play one on TV. (Sorry, just couldn’t resist that.) But I am going to address a serious topic because, as designers, you will come across it all the time.

Highlights from Do-It-Yourself: Email Marketing
First off, thank you to those who were able to attend. I hope you found what you were looking for and I hope to speak again at different venues. (I’m available.)

Here are some key points from Do-It-Yourself: E-mail Marketing

Art, Science and Luck: How to Plan Your Next Direct Marketing Campaign
Are you getting ready to launch your next direct marketing campaign? If so, you've probably come across helpful tips such as making strong, one-time offers or adding a "forward to a friend" message at the bottom of an e-mail - sound and rational pieces of advice, but without a broader, strategic overview, essentially worthless.

Why Dedicate Time to Get Published
Increased Credibility
When people read a story written by an industry expert they are more likely to recognize the expert and have a favorable opinion of the organization. . . .

Tips For A Successful Direct Mail Campaign
It has often been said that the success of a direct mail campaign can be broken down into three primary components:

1. The mailing list or target audience
2. The offer or incentive for the customer to buy the product
3. The creative package or communication message conveyed in the overall package

Getting Inside The Head Of A Publisher
Did you ever get the feeling that trade publishers have favorites? If you begin to recognize the same companies getting their products featured on covers, and their ads always getting prime locations, you are probably right.

In & Out of Scope
A new client can be a tricky thing. You never know going in what it will be like. Kind of like dating. They could be your dream client, loving every design idea you create and trusting your abilities. On the flip side, you’ll run into clients who will haggle over cost, if you give them an inch they will take a mile or worst yet they think they can design and you end up feeling like technical support. The best thing you can do is prepare yourself and stay within scope of your project.

Listening As A Marketing Tool
No matter what type of business you are in, when meeting with current or potential clients, the importance of good listening skills cannot be underestimated. In fact, utilizing active listening skills can set you apart from others - just like branding or keep-in-touch campaigns.

Networking When You’re the Youngest Person in the Room
First of all, get over it! Other people may focus on your age, but your focus should be on networking and making connections, not what other people think. You are young, you cannot change that fact, but you are ambitious. That is what matters.

Advertising and the Recently Graduated Designer
You just graduated, and now you have college loans to pay back and no job lined up.
What are you to do?

Simple Marketing Plan Outline
A brief overview of what a marketing plan is all about.

Get Ready For The Real World
You are a senior design major in college and on the verge of receiving your diploma. You, along with everyone else in your class are rushing around trying to build up your portfolios on a diet of coffee, vending machine snacks, and lack of sleep. You keep telling yourself, “This will all be over soon, once I graduate I will get to rest.” Rest?? You chose design as your career path, there is no rest in design the design world, only competition and drive.

There is More to Your Career Than Just Design
Wait…wait don’t feel insulted. I am only trying to help you become a well rounded designer.
So what else do you need to know? Lots!

What Does A Marketing Department Do?
Not too long ago, a friend posed the following questions to me: What should a marketing department do? And, what should they be responsible for?