Chances are, you’re going to go with the traditional, letterhead (name at top or lefthand corner) , and non-shocking business card. Is it because you want to look respectable? Or because nobody else uses non-traditional media for these things and… you might look weird? or are you just a scaredy cat?

I’m just asking you to challenge your own perceptions. Ask yourself, WHY am I hung up on this idea of respectable and classic? What does that even mean, if you don’t stand out from the competition? Come, think outside of the box with me. It’s ok, we’re just thinking.

form factor

maybe your card could be a comb if you’re a hairstylist. A coaster if you are a restauranteur or sommelier. A picture if you are a photographer. A usb drive if you’re a computer nerd.

traditional printing techniques, seldom used

What if you had a business-card had a hole in it (on purpose)? Die cuts are a very fancy way of making your card or letterhead non-rectangular. think of all that you could do with just a little something missing from your card or letterhead. it could be cool. Or maybe just your name is shiny, and the rest of the card isn’t. Or perhaps we go old school, and get some embossing done! yummmm. Expensive, but very worth it.

super cheap and avant garde

How about your favorite quotes, each one different, on the back of a card? or pictures of your work or inventory? Think in color for the paper or cardstock, and just use a typical old photocopier. Why not, if the effect is eye-catching?

Just Say No to .jpgs

So many business owners are using a jpg of their logo in a word doc as their letterhead. it’s sad. Presentation is everything. If you stand out from the other guys, you’ll probably get the gig. If you don’t believe me, go watch one of those shows where they redo a house in two days with some paint and cool lighting fixtures, and sell it for a huge profit. They don’t spend a bundle, but they do make some creative choices. Time and time again, it’s all about impressions and grabbing someone’s attention. Your identity package is the place to do that.

Apparently, I had no idea what I wanted. And no clue how to really present my own company. And, still, the site is evolving like any work of art. But as it turns out, I think that’s what I wanted. And I didn’t know then, but now I do.

I wonder what I’ve learned here that can help smooth out the design and decision-making processes with clients?

Recently I’ve dealt with a few people (like myself) who were not trusting of the design process. Instead they were looking for that magical spark. They seemed to want to fall in love with the art or the mark. Perhaps be transported. Maybe realize something. Or maybe, like me, there was an unformed thought in their head, and they were looking for the perfect symbol that would say ‘this is real”.

Instead of following the design path to a logical conclusion, the process leapt all over the place; comps flying and research everywhere, later a fatigued designer and muddled, less-than-awesome designs.

Still, I don’t know how to stop this process. Do you walk away? Or, attempt to find the origin of the confusion? I think my job (as a self-proclaimed Design Therapist) is to find the origin of the confusion.

Trust is a big factor

You need to trust your designer, or at least be willing to take a leap of faith that their art and ingenuity is going to come up with something that suits you, but surpasses your expectations. That’s a tall order for oneself, maybe it’s easier to put your faith in someone else. Maybe, one should trust the business itself, before entrusting it to a designer.

Baby Steps

Another way to develop trust in any process, design or otherwise, is to ease into it. Through sketches and wireframes and research and planning and sitemaps ad comps, you start to trust the design process, or so I believe. But this is always the long road, if we don’t know what our business is, what image it should project. Time and time again, we get stuck at the sketches and wireframe phase when we don’t know what the heck our goals are.

My New Years Resolution

I guess I am glad The Logo took so long to figure out, so that I could learn this lesson. My New Years Resolution will now be to make sure my clients know who they are, and have defined their goals before we begin a costly and exhausting design process that could be shortened with proper planning and a whole lot of soul-searching at the outset.

…I learned while waiting tables.

I was a terrible waitress. The kind that gets complaint letters sent to the restaurant.

It wasn’t because I was mean to the customers, I just didn’t have the sort of brain that could handle the job. Or so I thought. And when it got busy, really busy, I was dropping orders and forgetting stuff all over the place. But, I learned a few things.

lesson 1: it’s all about customer service. Every single action is about customer service. Every drink or salad that you forget says “you’re not important” to a customer. Every smile, or unrequested drink refill says “you matter to us”. This is a fundamental of customer service.

lesson 2: the customer is always right. No matter what the issue, no matter how much of the steak got eaten before they complain, offer a way to make it right, and get creative. Chances are, you won’t get hate mail, and you could probably get them to come back again if you wanted.

lesson 3: Take care of the people who take care of you, whether co-workers or bosses or clients. it’s a win-win for all. Plus if you don’t you’ll probably get fired.

lesson 4: When you don’t have tables, go do your sidework. If you don’t, you’ll be doing it at 2 am when you’d rather be sleeping. Sigh. If only I could remember this one more regularly….

lesson 5: Memorize the menu. learn the computer system. know your facts. If you don’t you might promise something that isn’t on the menu. conversely if you do know your menu, those extra requests can turn out to be lucrative up-selling opportunities.

lesson 6: A customer’s experience should feel effortless: never tell them that the chef just yelled at you, so you’re afraid to go into the kitchen. They don’t care what the problem is, or how it happened. They just want to know that you’re going to fix it.

I’ve been in many conversations these days about social media, and using online communities to create buzz for a product or a company or a brand. These talks all seem to go the same way: We sit around and brainstorm about it, although we’re not really brainstorming. We’re talking about all the ways in which we don’t know how to make it work. Then, we start sharing anecdotes and surfing Youtube and Facebook, showing each other success stories, viral content, and other social network ad campaigns that “just worked”. But we never define what makes them work. And if we do manage to define some features that work, then we don’t know how we could parlay that success into a success for ourselves. We give up, saying my brain hurts, let’s go get lunch.

But recently, I have realized two truths that connnect these success stories:

1. social media is peers serving peers, because they want to.

2. An online service or company must offer value to its audience.

That’s really all that I have found so far. You can create something for people to interact with or look at, but unless there is some aspect of the promotion that provides a value to their lives or work, they will not use it. They will not invite their friends. They will not interact.

Generating value seems tough enough by itself, if you’re comparing your own efforts to big-time marketers like McDonalds or Mercedes. But think of value in terms of your own sphere of influence: What do you, business owner, have that is of value to your customers? Obviously, there is something. You are in business after all. Then, what can you create, that shows the value points of your product, in such a way that people want to learn more?

I make art. I also dispense advice, and help people come up with creative strategies that solve business problems. So, I could offer any one of those things for free on my website. By doing this, I can create a group of people who look to me for free stuff that is of value to them.

I could do something similar on my facebook page, or through twitter. I know for a fact that design sites get lots and lots of hits when they give away quality, free art. As those sites continue to provide value, their audiences grow, and many visitors will become return visitors.

Will any of those people ask for a logo, or a web page? Well, the laws of probability state that if you have more chances to sell to people, you’re going to get more sales. So, it turns out that yes, they will. But those people who just take the freebies and run away? Well they are walking advertisements for your services. Any one of those people can spread the word about how cool your offerings are.

Finally, when thinking of strategy for integrating social media into your marketing arsenal, remember that social media is just people. You can sell to them as you normally do out in the analog world. However, you can make more sales if you work to increase your audience in online media, because a larger audience means more opportunity to make sales.