Advertising is great. I make a pretty good living at providing new suits for fledgling products. It is a world that is constantly changing and evolving. There are new technologies, new tools and new media to exploit for the greater evil and nefarious advertising plan of global consumerism. (Stumbling into an abrupt segue) So it should not be a surprise that I would post a link here on my blog of a great example of new media greatness.

It is called Dr. Horribles Sing Along Blog.

As geeky and strange as I freely admit that I am within my closeted circle of friends, This show is just weird times ten. Therefore I love it and have bookmarked, RSS feeded, digged, and now outbound-linked it to geeky stardom. It ranks up their with my other web serial passion The Guild.

Could it be that I have a middle-age crush on Felicia Day? Pass out the pocket protectors and over clock my motherboard, I am hopeless.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming (sigh).

I am a big believer in testing ad response where ever possible. This is harder to do with branding type ads, but for your average display ad it does not take much to drop some sort of call to action into an offer. Testing not only reveals an ad’s effectiveness, but it can also be a great test for the publication you are advertising in. Case in Point; Our local newspaper. I have repeatedly tested ads of varying sizes, times, and placements in our local newspaper against the local “freebie” Nickels Worth” classified directory, (which also accepts display ads). Because the classified directory covers a broad geographical area, it claims (it’s free?) a large circulation. The newspaper numbers are a matter of record and they are comparable. The main difference is the cost. The local newspaper is 4 to 5 times the cost. What is interesting is the test results always favor the classified directory. It is a repeat winer.

Better rates, better response, more flexible contracts, and a large and apparently loyal readership. It makes a guy wonder what kind of boondoggle are the newspaper guys running.

The last sale time I was contacted by the newspaper sales rep I laid the numbers out for him and said. “tell you what. I will place the same ad on the same day and in the same proportional size per page (newspaper pages are bigger.) in both papers. If your paper gets a better response I will pay for both ads, If however the classified directory pulls better, your paper pays for both ads.”

He said “The newspaper business doesn’t work that way.”

Anyway … here is an ad for Gary Bills, DDS. He apparently does a fair amount of worker’s comp claims and knows the system well enough to seek out such business. I love the tooth ache guy. Slicing his face in half adds a little tension and the copy is straight forward and clean.

We are of course testing the ad for response rates.

I teach part time (2 sections of Illustration I & II) at the local community college. It is not exactly a philanthropic venture, and yet not really a money making deal either. I like teaching. I like the energy the students bring to class and the gig forces me to leave my cave at least once a day and interact with other humans. It is something that I do because I like it and because I can.

Most of my Fall semester students are fresh from high school and under the romantic delusion that illustration means; “Paint me a dog.” “OK. I painted you a dog” “Wonderful! here is money for painting me a dog.” Of course it rarely goes like this and having recently chronicled the creation of a simple cartoon for a web site, I thought of using this eloquent blow by blow serial as a real world teaching example. The thumbnail to the left has a large jpg you can view and if you feel so inclined, here is a pdf (the-process) for your off-line enjoyment.

My sketches are always a step between what exists inside my head and where reality lies. I sometimes have a very clear mental image that I am working from; images that include color and even expression. Sometimes it feels like the image is located in my fingertips and my mind is completely unaware of what is happening. It plays a passive role at best in these circumstances.

Then there are those times where I think I know where I am going, but am surprised by the end result. I am talking in particular about the power shopping lady. I knew where we were going, I saw the sketch, but it really didn’t “click” until I colored it and took a step back. I had imagined her in a little black dress. It came out looking like a slip or corset. My teenage son called it Madonna gear. I don’t think it is offensive, but I somewhat agree with the description.

Now the question is; is it appropriate for prime time? I think it is fun. I think it is a bit edgy. I think it will make people stop and look. All of which is good. But I definitely feel like I am walking a line in our conservative based North Idaho mores.

We will see what the client says

Yeah! The Intermax “Yes you can” campaign was approved. There was some discussion concerning the “devilish” look of the online gaming graphic. I did my best to describe the average MMORPGer and avatars and the creation/adoption of a persona outside of your RL (real life) self, and received blank stares in return. I’m afraid my geek flag was completely unfurled and snapping loudly in the wind. Oh well. They decided to trust me on this point and gave the OK for postcard test mailers.

We are printing them in gangs of four, SO I am quickly working on the first four graphics today. The cyber dating is already done. I sketched out the remainder (Media streaming, super shopping, power selling) this morning and hope to get them vectorized by this afternoon.

We opted out of doing the Dateline Diving (To catch a predator) and Pervy Porning

A new project commissioned by Stuart Advertising in Spokane, Washington features a pharmacist with a pill bottle in one hand and a gas-pump handle in the other. This was a fun gig (started Monday, finished Wednesday.) It was fun, first, because I was allowed to do the illustration and layout — which is always cool — but also because they sent me the ad copy and said “do whatever, be creative!”

So with an emphasis on simplicity, and directness I came up with the female pharmacist pump-jockey. You really can’t see it here but the background pattern is a series of pill bottles. Used on a variety of display cards and sizes From 11 x 17 to 4.5 x 7 and a 2″ x 6″ banner. Gotta love vector versatility!

Because we wanted to skew this cartoon more towards real than towards wacky, I used a piece of scrap from istockphoto. I made her younger and changed her hair. Of course there is not a lot of pictures of pharmacists with gas pump handles in their hand, so I scrubbed for a piece of scrap for that as well. I then reversed it (and altered the sketch for a left hand grip). Filled in the blanks, mapped the logo onto the bottle and name tag using Illustrator’s envelope tool and voila; Pharmacy gas gal.

Is it just me or do all the sites created by designers and ad agencies start to look the same after a while? A giant blur of super slick flash based professionalism that has all the personality of white noise. Not all sites are this way, there are exceptions of course.

This past month or so, as I was assembling my new version of this web site; trying to make my life simpler by combining bits and parts of other sites that I own, I kept reviewing what I liked and didn’t like about what I saw on the web and came up with a personal site plan for my own:

I am a blogger. There I said it. It is out and I am proud of it. Is it SOOOOO bad to have a real unvarnished face on your site that has not been combed and spit polished to the point where it is interchangeable with a dozen other sites? Most of my clients, who honestly don’t spend a lot of time here, say they see the sites point blank, laid back, casual frankness as a true reflection of me.

I do a lot of varied things. All of it is commercial art in one form or another. Somebody told me when I was in art school that I needed to specialize. I suspect that he was right. However, I make a darn good living (Well, from OK to darn good depending on the month) doing my version of commercial art. My version includes Illustration, some logo work, advertising design, some web work, teaching and sculpting. I know it doesn’t make sense. I know that it is an eclectic mish-mash of specialties. The people who do work for me often raise their eyebrows in disbelief when I explain what we are going to do next. But it is what it is, and I’m good at it. I’m not going to reinvent design as we know it, but I am having fun so get off my case about it already.

My portfolio is (and should) reflect all of the above. It should also be easy to update and annotate as well as to navigate. My portfolio before was laid out across the top of this page in various sections and was a bit of a pain to add things to and the scrolling was obnoxious. It was also centered around illustration, which was cool, it is a major portion of my business but it also limited me (see above). So I have unashamedly combined all my portfolios together. They are in clear sections under one tab and you can jump around at will. If you don’t want to see illustration or sculpting, don’t look at them. If you are looking for advertising but find yourself sneaking peaks at my illustration; I won’t tell, your secret is safe with me.

So what does this give us? Well, this site doesn’t have flash (not that I couldn’t have incorporated flash into it.) and I am OK with that. It doesn’t have all the spit and polish of a designer heavy site. I am OK with that too. The portfolio is eclectic which is a reflection of my studio, and I am OK with that.

It is almost exactly what I need. Which means I will be making little changes for months. But it is not your typical corporate motion media design site, with the inevitable “click here to enter” button at the bottom.

For all intents and purposes it is the anti-site. And I am OK with that most of all.

There is a new buzz term in the industry and its called Design 2.0. I see and understand the implications and even some of the reasoning behind calling this trend something new. But I find so much of what is being talked about as hype and hyperbole that it is hard to not laugh when the phrase is spoken out loud. A friend of mine (Chris Inman from visual riot.com) pointed out an article of one such writer, an editor for HOW magazine (Aug 2008) and what she had to say about it.

“we’re facing a radical shift in the roles designers play… a shift from CREATOR to facilitators of participation, conversation and collaboration … That in the future, designers would become the engineers of possibilities.”

Once in a marketing meeting I was asked to explain why a particular design was arranged in a particular way, in order to justifiy the change in direction on a new product line that I was in charge of developing. As I explained the design process, the copy writer raised an eyebrow and rolled his eyes. I smiled and continued spreading the manure of life which basically distilled down to “It works, I like it, and in the same manner as the emperor’s new clothes; you should like it too.” It of course was more complex than that. Years of marketing experience and research and trends came into play but the bottom line was; they bought the whole idea and I even heard my descriptions of harmony and balance used in upper level executive meetings where the ties huddle together, and grunt in silver back alpha male bonding rituals.

As I read this quote from HOW, my eyebrow raised and I smiled thinking to myself, “Sounds like the written version of the manure of life. Good for her (the author) … but I’m not buying any today, thank you. I am full-up.

Thousands of years ago an aspiring designer carved a petroglyph on a rock. He created the first branded logo separating his rock from all other rocks and creating a small if significant creative burst of energy that has lasted till today. Todays rocks are a bit more complex in creation and instead of glyphs we call them user interfaces. The tools have changed but I doubt if we are any more facilitators or engineers than that first schmuck who picked up his rock, looked at his carving and said “coooool.”

Of course afterwards he had to justify to his clan why he had done it, so he went about in a eloquent way to explain the process. Which is when the manure of life was born.

As soon as it slipped from my teeth, it got busy again. One of the things (OK, the FUN one) that I have been working on is a new project in for a client who wants a new fresh direction for a direct marketing campaign. The concept I am pitching is “YES YOU CAN.” It is a benefit driven message that moves the exisiting message from “Here’s what we offer you.” (Which may or may not mean anything to the customer) to “Here’s what you can do!”

The client is a broadband service provider that uses microwave relays instead of cable/DSL/satellite connections. In rural areas, or city areas on the back side of a DSL trunk, or with areas with a ton of shared connections over the cable, broadband speed is a real issue. Most of these people feel there is no options and suffer with dial-up or very slow satellite connections.

The illustrative element switches out to reflect the multiple popular uses of the internet. There will be six to eight of these. Some of these will be used singularly on postcards and some will be grouped together on mini-posters all with the tag line “Yes You Can.”

I sketched them in Sketchbook pro, and inked and colored them in Illustrator using a pressure sensitive brush.

I pitched it last night. we will see where it goes.

Things are slowing down. I am using the time to put finishing touches on a handful of projects and taking a breath. I am currently working on:

1. Final changes on Cock-a-doodle kids e-com site
2. Changes on Braided Accents product catalog
3. Starting Braided Accents Price list
4. Final Return to Excellence forum look and feel changes.

Feeling caught up is good. Feeling caught up on a Friday is priceless! It will give me time to work on my Gullible project.