Sarah's

We must find ways to use the opportunities that we already have in addition to creating new opportunities. I work with a team to grow the giving at our school. We were looking for opportunities to tell our community about the need and why they should give. Rather than creating tons of new events we saw that we already had built in events that were centered around other topics but allowed us the opportunity to interject this new information. This could mean a person speaking, having print material available, etc. We used our resources of pre-scheduled events in addition to new specific events to communicate the information.

We translate that into communications and design. When/where do we have “built in” opportunities where it’s natural to communicate or market to a community? This year our school decided to create a campaign around Christmas. There was no give or action other than touching our community and creating a warm fuzzy. It got rave reviews and spread like wildfire. This created good will within our community. Come to find out digital greeting cards during the holiday season is a common practice with schools. Here are several examples of greeting cards from 2012. Ours wasn’t as elaborate as some of these but it’s a good opportunity for a touch. Enjoy!

http://www.higher-education-marketing.com/blog/favourite-2012-higher-ed-holiday
There are a few schools in this list of videos, like Mohawk College, who uses solely graphics but I think people want to see other people – their students, friends, teachers, etc. I would recommend thinking about your audience and what they want to see.

Social media isn’t just to find out what’s going on in your friends’ everyday lives. Businesses and schools also use social media to reach audiences.

In my experience, I have found that visuals – photos and videos get the largest reactions. People love to seem themselves, their friends, their children, etc. Posting photos and videos of what’s going on at your business or school is critical. These also encourage sharing and the more users share the farther widespread your brand will be.

Facebook is always adding and changing what they offer. One of their newest additions is the timeline header photo. This is a photo that captures attention but shouldn’t have copy in it and sits at the top of your facebook page. You can learn more about timeline header images at http://patrickpowers.net/2012/07/5-ways-to-optimize-a-universitys-facebook-timeline-cover-picture/

This was just another thing for us to tackle and keep up with. Our school uses this large photo as a splash of color and as a visual capture for our school. We tend to change it as needed. When there’s a big event that happens and I have a striking photo I will update it.

At my school I like to keep our profile image small and consistant. I use an image of the school that is recognizable and use the header photo as the means to capture the users’ attention. You can view some examples of other school’s use at http://patrickpowers.net/2010/10/take-control-of-your-facebook-profile-picture/

I am guilty. My inbox is usually overflowing or I’m stoping in the middle of my work every few seconds to read my newest email. I also have a problem with hoarding my emails and not permenatly deleting them. Can’t you tell my IT guy loves me already? He recently held a competition at work to see who could clear out their delete boxes and free up the most space. I didn’t win.

I think that if we have help to organize our emails (and we actually take the time DO it) then we can be more effective designers and leaders. We can concentrate more on what matters.

My husband is always complaining about all of the “junk” email that I receive. It’s not completely junk but they are extra emails that I could unsubscribe from. Opening or deleting 1-2 Pottery Barn emails per day is time wasted. Start unsubscribing from emails that you don’t need or lower the frequency if you want to still find out about a sale just not that often. Many places now will allow you to choose once a week, once a month, etc. emails.

If the email requires a response or task takes you less than one minute to complete then go ahead and do it right away. If not, flag it or put it into a folder to come back and do later. I use a tool called Evernote that allows you to send copies of your email to it and then you can tag it put it into folders or save for later use. I need to use that more!

Schedule some time each day where you go through those emails that you’ve set aside and respond, sort, or do the needed task. This is a practice that the dean at a university I work for does. He sets aside about 30 minutes in the morning and afternoon and that allows him to work more efficiently.

This past week a leader in education sent my supervisor some tips on how they make email more effective at their school. He passed this along to us and I’ve begun implementing it. I’ve found that it already has helped me to organize and find emails for reference quicker than before. It’s also much easier not having to sort through lots of carbon copied emails. These guidelines are listed below.

Subject Lines:

• Write a short, accurate, descriptive subject line for every message. The subject is the message.   We should be able to glance at the subject line and know exactly what the email is about.
• Start a NEW email MESSAGE with a NEW SUBJECT line for each NEW SUBJECT or topic.
• Do NOT start a different topic in an existing email conversation/thread.

Message Length/Formatting:

• Keep emails short.
• Write your message in short paragraphs. Long complex paragraphs are hard to read and they make finding important information difficult.
• Bold key information, e.g., dates, names, amounts, etc.
• Use bullet points whenever possible.
• Most emails should not be longer than one computer screen length.  Minimize the need for the read to scroll.

Message Recipients:

• Do not cc or bcc others unless they really need to see the email.
• Don’t “Reply All” unless all need so see the reply.

Being newer to the graphic design industry, I have found it interesting to learn more about the shifts that graphic designers have had to make in recent years. It seems that we are constantly adapting and changing. Coming into the industry, my original assumption was that graphic designers made things look appealing but there is so much more that goes into a project. Not only do we research the project in depth (from our competitors to the impact on the environment) we also have many tools to use and technology to keep up with. How do we get our message across in a world of so much information that is all easily accessible? Is putting an advertisement on Youtube or during an NBC show on the computer effective? If not, how do we make it effective and what behaviors will the user have while it’s on? Will they get up and walk away or check their email on their phone during the commercial? We have created a world of “attention economy.” The growth and constant change of technology has caused us to compete for people’s attention. People can only take so much into their mind and we as designers have to figure out how to be the most effective capture their attention.

Not only do we have multiple kinds of information or tools (the television, computer, tablet, cell phone, etc.) competing but information is constantly being added on social media like Twitter and Facebook and can be gone in an instant because of the constant flow of newer information. I find myself with the television on in the background while I work on ten different things and checking my several email accounts and social media. How can we as designers do better at gaining the attention of the user?

(For some reason the blog isn’t allowing me to insert this video so here’s the link – http://www.youtube.com/v/owGykVbfgUE?)

Graphic design is a type of creative problem solving. There is a need or a problem that needs to be solved. The issue and surrounding appropriate areas that may include similar problems or products, audiences, and best practices are researched. Then, through creative and/or systematic processes ideas are obtained on how to solve the problem. Not only are ideas formed, but also as designers we want to find the most effective ways to solve the problem. Through the process there may be several people involved making decisions. Not only are designers creating but also there are managers, clients, etc. who in addition to the research may drive decisions and final outcomes. Different mediums, shapes, fonts, words, colors, etc. can be used to conclude the final project and outcome. At times these problems can be solved with simple solutions but I think that the most interesting and effective solutions come from a creative process of thinking out side of the box. For me it helps to have others to brainstorm with or to have time set aside specifically to brainstorm ideas of how to reach a creative outcome. I believe that this should be part of the design process. I began as a designer only thinking that we made things look pretty and had only the end product in mind. As I’ve taken classes at SCAD it has taught me that the process of design is just as if not more important than the end result and product. Graphic design is not only the product but the overall experience of problem solving from problem to solution.