As a woman I should probably be offended. But as a marketer I can’t help but to see the brilliance behind yet another Volkswagen ad from the 1950s. If you’ve followed this blog at all you probably already know that second only to Seth Godin I think the marketers, writers and designers that were behind the Volkswagen ads from the 1950s and 1960s were some of the most brilliant minds in the industry.

Below I have included the full text from this ad I found on Vintage Ads.com.

Sooner or later, your wife will drive home one of the best reasons for owning a Volkswagen.

Women are soft and gentle, but they hit things.

If your wife hits something in a Volkswagen, it doesn’t hurt you very much.

VW parts are easy to replace. And cheap. A fender comes off without dismantling half the car. A new one goes on with just ten bolts. For $24.95*, plus labor.

And a VW dealer always has the kind of fender you need. Because that’s the one kind he has.

Most other VW parts are interchangeable too. Inside and out. Which means your wife isn’t limited to fender smashing.

She can jab the hood. Graze the door. Or bump the bumper. It may make you furious, but it won’t make you poor.

So when your wife goes window-shopping in a Volkkswagen, don’t worry.

You can conveniently replace anything she uses to stop the car.

Even the brakes.

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Wow. This time yesterday I was in the middle of an extentsial melt down. I had restarted my machine only to realize in the process of my furiously fast workflow I had inadvertently dragged my desktop and profile files to an invisible folder. Thus when my machined logged in I was met with what appeared to be a fresh installation of Leopard X.

To say I freaked may be putting it mildly. The good news however, is that I’ve been using Mozy Unlimited for quite some time now and have all my files automatically backed up with them. As simply as checking my account online and ordering my back up disks, I had a full backup of over 100 GBs of work being sent to my home. If you haven’t invested in a good backup solution I would suggest you do so before you get that gut wrenching feeling of re-doing your work and disappointing your clients.

Good BackUp Solutions:

• A third party solution like MOZY Unlimited–they are easy to use, incremental backups and reliable.
• Back up to an external Hard Drive. For a Mac you can use Time Machine or Carbon Copy to make this a breeze.

Bad BackUp Solutions:

• Burning to a CD or DVD —the shelf life on these is too small and too unpredictable. Not to mention the fact that you would have to spend ALL your time backing up and very little actually working!
• Uploading to an SFTP site —the server load and time constraints are much to heavy for most web servers and hosts out there and again, all your processing time would go to backing up your files!

We all enjoy what we do, but having to do it OVER again is no fun. Don’t despair! There is hope! Backing up regularly and reliably will keep you from having to go through the pain of rebuilding!

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Golf Example

We all learn from one another. Sometimes watching what someone else does can change the way we approach things ourselves. As designers we are no different. Often we get inspiration from the work of a fellow artist. Unfortunately, this same principle works in the negative as well! We can easily see what NOT to do by learning from the mistakes of others.

If you’ve been designing any length of time, chances are you’re familiar with 3 basic terms of post-production that have to be accounted for in any advertising design. Got ‘em?

The concepts I’m referring to are, Live Area, Trim Line and Bleed Area.

Live Area refers to the “safe-zone”, this area is close enough to the inside of the page that any text or images that are imperative to the design will not be cut off when the edges are cut off or bound in a magazine or other publication.

Trim Line is the actual “cut-line” where the trim is SUPPOSED to happen. Clearly if that were always precise there would be no need for the Live Area or Bleed Area, but alas, machines are not perfect. When a 100,000 magazines are being mass-produced I’m sure you can understand that a little shifting can occur and the cut will not always be EXACTLY on that line.

Bleed Area is the space on the outside of the Trim Line that accounts for any trim shifting that may occur to the outer edge of the ad. This eliminates the likelihood of there being an awkward white line that is not covered by the advertisement or unintentional edges to the piece.

Recently, I learned an important lesson that really made me chuckle on this particular topic. Now, what made it even funnier this particular time is that the mistake was made by an internationally known brand. They had sent a print-ready ad to be placed in a booklet.

Going what they thought was the extra mile they had added a series of dotted and dashed lines to the ad to indicate the Live Area, Trim Line and Bleed Area, each line was accompanied by a corresponding Word and Arrow. It looked great, until I opened the file in Photoshop and realized that the image they had actually sent me was flattened into a JPEG and their “template” was flattened on top of the ad.

To protect the guilty party here and save any embarassment I have recreated the effect on a generica ‘dummy ad’. The moral of the story? Make sure you remove your templates before sending in your artwork, or send layers. We can all learn from others—the good and the mistakes!

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Sometimes it seems that as designers we are asked to do the impossible. Recently I had this experience with a client. While designing their business card the client kept thinking of things they wanted to add. A logo. Title. Name. Phone Number. Email. Address. PO Box. Another photo. OH! And only a one-sided card!

I squeezed and rearranged. I struggled and brainstormed. But in the end? The business card turned out very well and I was glad that I had one more card to add to my portfolio.

Never write off a client’s demands as an impossible task. Attack it! Conquer and you may just be pleased with the result. Let’s have a few more miracle working designers out there!

Wanna see some of MY business cards? The card I’m referring to is somewhere on this page! Happy hunting!

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Recently while mulling over a new design for a magazine layout, I once again found myself going through stacks and stacks of periodicals. I was looking at the current trends, what works and what doesn’t. What I discovered was a growing popularity with split column design.

This new trend actually features columns set it different widths. Let’s face it, symmetry is BORING. By creating a two column layout of varying widths, you can add visual interest to otherwise stuffy content.

Look at these examples below:

Equal Column Layout

Split Columns

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If your a designer, whether working at an agency or off on your own freelancing chances are at some time or another you’ve found yourself working under incredibly intense pressure. The kind where you feel that if one more task or problem comes your way, you’ll burst from the sheer weight of it all.

If this describes a recent day you’ve had, don’t despair, tomorrow is a new day, but there are things you can do TODAY to keep the pressure under control and keep your sanity.

1. Stop Checking Your Email: If you’re actively working on a project, complete it before checking your email again. Often, checking in to many times, will not only stop your production, but seeing the list of jobs piling up will only serve to weigh you down.
2. Make Lists: When you do check your email make a To-Do list. Committing your work to a list will get it off your mind and allow you to concentrate on the task at hand. There are tons of easy to use Web apps for list keeping and organization. Find the system that works for you.

   Remember the Milk
   BackPackIt
   Toodledo
   TaDa List
   Intuit Task Manager

3. Stay Organized: The more you organize your files and folders when you have time, the less stress you’ll have in the crunch times. Being able to quickly and efficiently find the files you’re looking for is one of the first steps to managing your workflow.

I’m sure everybody will have tips and tricks that work for them, but on a basic level and across the board, following these three basic principles will help to keep you sane!

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I LOVED these images found on Toxel.com. I hope you find as much inspiration as I did!

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One of the hardest things we deal with as Designers is continually opening ourselves up for rejection. Every time we design something we pour a little part of ourselves into it. Is there a way to avoid that? Not if your truly passionate about what you do.

At the same time, it’s important that we don’t allow the rejection and criticisms of our work to alter our self-confidence. Sometimes one of the most difficult things we encounter is the “finger-pointing” that often goes along with design.

I recently ran into a similar instance while working on a project for a friend. They had an idea of what they wanted. I rushed home, designed the piece, excited to send it to them. It was disheartening to say the least. While they had something else in mind I had designed exactly what they directed me to the best of my ability.

Many times, “lack of communication” is the main cause for rejected work. In this case, I was shocked to find that what I had done was not apparently what they had in mind. Even worse, occasionally your client may refuse to “work through” a piece with you, instead wanting to turn to another designer or halt production. My best advice? Let them go. You’ll be much happier in the long run. There are good clients out there, don’t settle for any that mistreat you.

However, a lack of “designer trust” also can play a key role. As an employer if you want the best for your marketing, design and promotions, then you need to trust your designer.

If they were good enough to hire, then let them do their job. So MANY times, I’ve seen good design completely re-worked and re-created based on the “client’s” wishes. While this is definitely their perrogative it’s no small surprise when those pieces turn out sub-par. The worst of these situations is when the client literally takes it upon themselves to select a stock graphic for their piece.

When that happens, I generally know the piece will NOT be making it to my portfolio. While it’s sad to see, it also happens to the best of us and we must not let it wear us down. Remember that YOU are equipped to do your job, regardless of what your boss or your client may think. When you do that, your designs will reflect your confidence.

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Enjoy this guest post by Senior Designer, Amanda King! With a solid degree in Communications, Amanda King found herself exploring her creative nature through an internship with a ministry in Tulsa, OK. Quickly her innate creativity was revealed as she was assigned more and more tasks and today, the rest is history. King’s responsibilities include creative branding for a variety of groups and ministries. She frequently finds herself working on print projects ranging from letterhead to magazine layout.

I know we have all had to work with people that aren’t always easy to work with and lets be honest, that drive us crazy! But sometimes, we get the opportunity to work with someone that is not only easy to work with, but that challenges you to do better. And you come out with a product that wouldn’t have been as good if you hadn’t worked with that person.

Collaboration is one of the most important tools at our disposal as designers. I had the opportunity this last week to pick up a job from another designer in the office. Long story short the job I picked up should have taken about an hour or two to complete, but the concept behind the design was a little more difficult to create than initially anticipated. So, it literally took myself and the original designer assigned to the job, a whole day going back and forth on the design until we really nailed it. And I have to say, I definitely couldn’t have gotten to that point without the collaboration with my co-worker.

So don’t be afraid to ask some of your co-workers, colleagues, friends, whoever, that you trust of course, for their input. They may be able to see something you don’t, or have an idea you haven’t thought of, and that’s okay. Sometimes we get stuck in this competition mindset. There are times to be competitive, don’t get me wrong, I like a good competition, but sometimes you need to let someone else give you an honest constructive opinion, and that’s when something good can become something awesome!

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Beginner's Corner

We’ve already discussed when we started this series on typography that typography may very well be one of the most important elements in any design. How do you know if your typography is strong enough? It should answer the following criteria:

• Lends to the design, not taking away from it.
• Easy to read and comprehend.
• Makes an impact and draws attention as needed.

You may be thinking, that SOUNDS easy but it can’t possibly be. How do you actually accomplish ALL those things in a single design?

Typography is funny that way. To ensure that it’s ADDING to your design, ask yourself the following questions:

• Does it really EXPRESS what I want it to say?
• Can it be read easily from a distance?
• If I’ve used “Fancy” fonts, am I sure they are at least 16pt? Large enough to read?

Now that we’ve determined what your text should accomplish, let’s take a step back and discuss some other types of fonts. We’ve briefly mentioned that any “fancy” fonts would need to be large enough to read, so what does that entail? What are these “fancy” fonts I’m referring to?

To me, “fancy” fonts refer to anything that is not either simply Serif or Sans Serif.

DaFont.com, one of my favorite sites for typography inspiration, has several categories of these type faces, ranging from Grunge, Comic Book to Scripts and Calligraphy. Let’s look at a few of these (the fonts I’m showcasing here are avialable on Dafont.com!)

Western Fonts

One important thing to note when you’re looking at free fonts, watch the licensing laws they were released under. You will find that information on DaFont on the right side of the screen. Some are only free for personal use, others are simply free.

Script Fonts

We’re gonna end here for today in an effort to avoid overloading you with information. We will pick up this topic and continue!

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