Since starting up with my new client, NAPMA, I've learned a great deal about direct-response marketing, Dan Kennedy style. What's surprising to me, though, as a graphic designer, is the utter irrelevance of good design to effective results.

Looking at some of the direct response materials my client uses, which include direct mail, space ads, websites, e-mail blasts, etc., I am struck my how "ugly" they look. Poor layout and organization, the most simple fonts available, ichy colors.

But you know, the darned things work! They sell product and services like crazy.

Am I out of a job? I don't think so.

These pieces have a place -- to attract customers to listen to the message. But interestingly, although this client uses many of these ugly pieces, when it comes to the products offered to their members and customers, my services come in handy.

I add the "professional touch" to the information being sent out: reports, ad campaigns members can use -- even a monthly magazine. All done to the normal standards of professional design.

So I look at it like this:

Prospects like to get the "raw" information -- not filtered through "pretty" design, but something that looks like it's hot off the press and filled with really urgent information.

But when they pay for the product -- be it information or a tangible they -- customers, or former prospects, want it to look as if someone put some thought into it and that it is a quality product.

Doesn't have to be top-of-the-line design -- just professional looking and confidence inspiring.

So I gotten back in touch with my inner "grunge" designer and can use Times Roman with the best of them now. But there will always be a need for the "pretty" design.

Even after 35 years in the business, lessons are learned!

Later...

In 35 years in the graphics/marketing/advertising/publishing business, I've discovered that it's always "feast or famine". That is, you're either crazy busy or crazy bored. The first nine months of last year were insane with work and deadlines. It was "feast" time.

Then I gave up a major account (it was consuming 80% of my time but only contributed 40% of my income -- long story), and things got real slow.

It was mostly my fault. I neglected to keep my client base properly diffused, and relied too much on just a few clients. So I had no prospects to work, and frankly, not a lot of enthusiasm for rebuilding a graphic design practice. So it was "famine" time.

I thought for a while of just giving up freelancing and finding a job, but here in Atlanta, design jobs don't pay very well. So I thought I'd temp for other companies, but those don't pay well either, and were interfering with the few clients I had left. Still "famine" time! Bummer. Perhaps it was time to just bail out of graphics altogether.

But then I contacted an old client to see what additional work I could drum up, and lo and behold, it looks like I'll be handling the entire creative services function for an industry association he purchased recently, including a magazine, promo materials and other goodies. "Feast" again, indeed!

It's still a dependence on one client, but this one has been with me for about seven years and I feel he's pretty stable. I really do better with fewer larger clients rather than lots of little ones -- it enables me to really get into their business and do my best creative work.

So I'm looking forward to this period of "feast". It'll be a lot of work, but that's OK. However, in the meantime, Jackie will (hopefully) be continuing to develop our own content, like the employee handbook, for us to fall on in the "famine" times.

At least, that's the plan.

So I'm off to a performance of "Godspell" I'm playing in for a local community group. Then, Monday morning, it's time to dive into production planning for the new account.

Later.

My experience with digital production started way back in 1988, with a copy of version 1 of PageMaker. I soon switched to QuarkXpress, version 2, to be able to output phototype galleys. For nearly 20 years, Quark has been my friend and constant companion, each day helping me make a living in graphics. We had a good relationship.

But over the years, my friend became very high-maintenance. Cranky and creaky, it complained about too much code bloat, and took forever to do the tasks once accomplished very quickly. The cost of minor upgrades went up and up. But I stuck with my friend. I knew its quirks, had written and purchased many custom extensions to help with production, and generally considered it to be worth an investment of patience.

But the relationship began to sour about 18 months ago, with the release of version 6. Slow and overly complicated, trying to do too much in one program, it was buggy and unstable with old and new documents alike. Few of my painstakingly-collected production scripts worked. It's age was showing.

Finally, I gave up and retired Quark to the pasture and converted old documents and produced new ones in InDesign. What a refreshing change! Easy and intuitive to use, lots and lots of control, stable and forgiving. Wow! And when it does crash, it politely makes a recovery copy to open when you re-start the program. Amazing! So now I work exclusively in InDesign.

Except yesterday when I needed to revise a booklet originally done in Quark, and I didn't want to re-do the work in InDesign. Sheesh, what a pain in the rear end! The program is angry with me for not using it in some time and crashed multiple times, when it wasn't sulking and taking ten minutes to open a small file.

I finally got through the revisions and painfully made a PDF file (a one-step process in ID), but what an ordeal! No wonder the majority of designers are switching.

It's hard to say goodbye to old friends, but after yesterday's experience, I'm glad to say "good riddence."

Daughter Abby and I too a field trip to the art supply store yesterday. She's a first-year student at the Art Institute of Atlanta, studying video game design. Many of her courses are basic art courses, which require lots of art supplies.

Of source, being an "art geek" myself, I should call the art supply store the "art toy store", since looking around in one is like being inside the world's largest toy store -- for artists.

There's gadgets and gizmos galore, most of which will only appeal to artists. Like 70 kinds of paper, 100 kinds of pencils, charcoals and drawing pigments lined up in orderly ranks. Projectors, airbrushes, easels, etc. All guaranteed to turn a poor art director's head. Being completely digital, I've forgotten the joys of "hands-on" art!

Abby had a great time spending some of her Christmas gift card on neat supplies, some of which she may actually use in class! It was fun to find cool discoveries among the shelves and marvel at the ingenuity of the manufacturers.

We'll be back to that store, I'm sure. I know I will, to pick up some calligraphy supplies, something I haven't done since I was my daughter's age. It's time for me to get my fingers off the keyboard and make into the ink!

Later...

It's Monday, the last one of 2007, and I'm sure glad that year is over!

Not really a bad year, but the last week has been interesting. First, last Saturday, just before Christmas, all our communication services went out -- Internet, email, phones, TV -- the works! And remained out for five days....

We hadn't realized how dependent we'd become on the Internet.

Turns out it was a power problem with the power cabling coming into the house; our ground was bad. So Georgia Power came out and installed a temporary transformed to convert the two-phase power we had into the needed three-phase. Our cable modem was acting up by taking power over the ground and sending it out to the street, thereby frying Comcast's electronics. The service guy had never seen a cable connection post smoking before! Heh. Only in my life!

So the power is fixed temporarily, as they need to come out and install a brand new power line. And the modem is fixed, so we have web and email back, plus the phones! All is well.

Although I'm thinking about switching the phones back to AT&T rather than have everything coming through one wire.

After worrying about not having enough work to do this winter, now I seem to have more than I need!

After asking clients and vendors I've worked with for references for temp work I was planning, one good soul revealed he had just purchased another company and would I be interested in helping to refresh the design of 14 years worth of ad slicks, posters, postcard, and other promotional items.

Would I? You bet!

So now I have about 100 CDs to copy into my system and start sorting through. Yay! It's work, it pays well, and it will pay quickly, so I have no problem if it's not the vaunted "high-end" work. It's all good.

Back to copying.

Later...

The happiness just keeps on coming.

I heard from a fellow who wanted to place an ad on my employee handbook blog HR News and Tools, that I started as a place for interesting articles I find while researching material for Your Employee Handbook, which Jackie and I have published for almost ten years.

Just some simple links, easy as pie to code with various stories on the site. And even better, he wanted some ads for Feline Follies, our other content site. Cool!

Hope they work for him. And while it's not a huge amount of money, it pays our hosting bill for a few months, and it's given us renewed motivation to keep putting up and expanding the content on both sites.

Later...

Happy, happy days are here again!

After almost a full year without any kind of health insurance, and 25 years with no life insurance, my esteemed wife, Jackie, was able to get me signed up for a health insurance policy, a couple of small life insurance policies, and an AD&D policy that pays in the event of my death -- a quasi-life insurance policy.

Have I mentioned happy days!

I've been unable to get insurance since the COBRA expired on Jackie's policy through her last employer due to some nasty pre-existing conditions. Every insurance company she called for 18 months said, literally, "We don't insure sick people."

What changed? Well, we re-joined the Printing Industries Association of Georgia. They had a benefits trust which merged with the national organization, and voila, a full-fledged, full-coverage insurance program was born! No pre-existing conditions in the HMO plan, all my doctors are included, and prescriptions are covered (all $1,500/month worth!).

Yay!

So if you're in a printing-related job, join the PIAG. It's well worth the money!

Later...

Some folks have asked about my blogname, "GraphicBass," wondering if I'm identifying with a graphically-designed fish.

Um, no. I catch grooves, not fish.

I'm a long-time bass guitar player, starting at age 17 and continuing now for 35 years. I've played in all sorts of bands, from rock (classic and alternative), to country, to jazz groups. I've even enjoyed a stint in a backup band for an Elvis impersonator. Great fun!

Now, I'm playing in a community band of 60-some musicians. Plus, I play regularly in a swing band configured as a 19-member big band, and am a substitute player for three others.

Too bad I don't get paid for any of this work, except occasional gas money and maybe dinner at a gig. But it's fun and relaxing and keeps the blood pressure down.

Keep an eye out. You may see me at a gig sometime!

Later...

It's been a little strange this year. Usually, I'm slammed to the wall with end of the year project work: publications that must be printed by the new year. But this year, since I did not renew a major contract this summer, it's strangely calm. I'll actually be able to take off for the holidays.

On the other hand, new project work is coming in, although at a little slower rate than I'd like. So I decided to hook up with a creative temporary agency for some fill-in work.

I signed up with The Creative Group, which is part of Robert Half International, the giant recruitment firm. They will send me out on design assignments in print and web, but were particularly interested in my web skills. I'm looking for ward to my first assignment, but it'll be interesting to juggle those with my deadline-oriented projects. No problem!

The fun thing about it is that I have access to their training website, which is chock full of tutorials about everything under the sun. They have online or downloadable course in Flash, which I've wanted to learn, but have been intimidated by the steep (self) learning curve. And, they have course in CSS! I really need that!

Too cool! So instead of working this Thanksgiving, I'll probably be taking in a CSS course.

Except for a movie or two we want to see. And Thanksgiving dinner. And swing band rehearsal.

I hope I have some time for work.

Later...

OK, so I pledged to convert this site to "pure" CSS layout, meaning no table code.

OK, so I had a bit of success with the home page, although it took two days to figure out how to do it and make it work.

OK, so when I started on the content pages, I couldn't get the darned columns to line up side-by-side.

OK, so when I researched the problem, my head started to spin with the adjustments needed to make the thing work with Internet Explorer.

OK, so I put the darned thing aside and it can stay table-based for a while.

OK, anyone know a good class on coding CSS for layout?

Please???

After much knashing of teeth and clenching of jaw, I've decided to embrace the present and teach myself tableless web layout using CSS. I've used tables all these years, and am getting tired of the endless code required to position elements on the screen, with the accompanying difficulty of updates and maintenance.

Technically, this is known as separating content from presentation. Presentation, that is, layout geometry and type formatting is handled by a single file, with a bare minimum of code in the HTML document itself. The rest is content. Better for the search engines, and better for the poor sap coming along after me to update the pages.

So I started converting youremployeehandbook.com, which I am redesigning. But then I figured, what better place to learn than on my own site, this one here?

So I have successfully (I think) converted the home page to CSS layout. A file full of tables and TDs and TRs, to three DIVs. Took a whole lot of trial and error, but it looks ok so far. Using GoLive is nice, as I can play with the various CSS settings in an interactive manner and see what setting changes what element in what way. Very cool. (Too bad GoLive has been discontinued by Adobe and I have to learn Dreamweaver. I think I'd rather hand-code everything than make that switch!)

Don't bother looking at the source code. I haven't uploaded the page yet, but will do so this weekend after I test it in a bunch of browsers to see what surprises are waiting.

So next up is making a template for the rest of the site. It's just one more way to keep me up late at night thinking about something technical. Sigh....

Later...

I've reluctantly decided to join the ranks of those who use Instant Messaging.

I used AIM some years ago, and decided it was a distraction, what with beeps and pops and doors opening and closing all the time. I respond to e-mail almost instantly, and it seemed that having to respond to AIM instantly as well was getting in the way of actually getting some work done.

But, I need to be a little more accessible, and instant messaging seems to be a help to many folks I've talked to. So I'm dipping a toe back into the water to see how it goes, and signed up for Yahoo Instant Messaging. My screenname is "GraphicBass". So if e-mail is just not fast enough, feel free to "IM me"! You can also reach me through my gmail account at graphicbass AT gmail DOT com.

I can't promise to respond, since I may forget to start up the application, but I'll do my best to create a habit of starting it after a restart.

Later...

Color is very important, especially in print, where the correct color balance of a photograph i essential to communicating the meaning of the photo. Bad color distracts and interferes with absorbing the subject matter, and just plain looks bad.

Accordingly, I spend a lot of time on color correcting and retouching photos for print and web. One of the projects I do regularly is Georgia Generations magazine and Michigan Generations magazine, geared towards folks who provide care for elderly or disabled people. Both have sections with regional news, and I often receive poorly exposed digital photos which require extensive correction, which I'm happy to do. Takes a lot of hours, as you might expect, but the quality results are worth the effort.

So I'm generally unhappy when a printer screws up the color!

Our printer for that project protested me being on press checks, as I insisted they actually match the color on the press sheet to the color on the proof. They said I took up too much time. I pointed out that if they matched the press proof, there would be no problem and no extra time spent. They eventually refused to allow any more press checks, with me or the publisher in attendance, without a payment of an additional $500.

Now, I've been buying printing for 30 years and press-checking for most of that time. I can inspect a press sheet and instruct a pressman in what to change within minutes, very concious that paper is rolling through that press at the rate of 20,000 copies an hours. So I've learned to identify the problem quickly, communicate it effectively, and get the job rolling.

This printer, apparently having bid the job low, was determined to cut costs, time and paper, in any way possible, so...no more press checks. They said they would absolutely match the color on the proof and I shouldn't worry about it.

Well, since then, out of six issues, two have had significant color problems. Mostly too much yellow. Uggh.

So I'll be going out this week to match a printed issue against the digital proof we signed and "discuss" the issue, again. This time, the client and I have agreed to insist on a press sheet check. When they get a sheet off the press they consider "final" color, I'll be there to look at it and agree or not agree. Should be a good compromise that continues to save my client money yet provides for a quality job.

We'll see.

Later...

SEO has been running through my mind lately, search engine optimization, that is.That's the process of fine-tuning a web site so that web searchers can find it more easily. To do this, the site must be made attractive to search engines, which tend to like organized, well-coded sites with lots of relevant copy.

So I've been working on the Atlanta Metro Travel Association's Web site. It's a very nicely done site, coded well in the Etomite CMS, but there's still a lot of holes to fill.

For one, no keywords were embedded into various element tags, and were haphazard through the copy. The keywords in the META tags were not the ones used by web searchers. So although the site is well indexed in the search engines, there's not a lot of relevant keywords in the copy.

My task: find out which keywords folks use, then embed them everywhere. Whew! What a task. Some parts are very interesting, but others are tedious. But it's almost done, and hopefully, the web site will show up higher in the rankings on the user's search terms. All I can say is, "thank goodness for Google Analytics!"

And in the meantime, I've gotten a good look at Etomite, which I've been meaning to do. As much as I love the PostNuke CMS, there are things it can't do easily that Etomite handles easily. I used to "nuke" sites from static to dynamic; now, I think I'll try and "mite" a site.

Doesn't quite have the same ring to it, does it?

Later...

I'm in the middle of re-redesigning and re-launching wells-smith.com, a badly-needed renovation.

Like the cobbler's children who are always in need of new shoes, my web site that is supposed to showcase my work has languished, untouched, for about six years. Shame on me! Very embarassing when folks visit and comment to me, "Well, nice site, but you haven't updated it in a while, have you?"

So now it's got a new look, a little more "design-ey", and some new code. The portfolio page is something I'm pleased with, using Javascript layer technology and Flash to open thumbnails of samples in a new larger window, with a cool animation. No, I didn't write the script, but I'm very good at finding little programming gems like that.

Hopefully, I'll stay motivated to keep the sample page up to date and write some news occasionally. Wish me luck!

Later...