http://www.creativematch.co.uk/blogs/MarkLesbirel/ What this blog is all about en-us Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:08:03 GMT Tue, 02 Sep 2008 07:47:14 GMT CF Blogger by DayDream Inc http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss mark.lesbirel@creativematch.co.uk mark.lesbirel@creativematch.co.uk http://www.creativematch.co.uk/blogs/MarkLesbirel/front.cfm?action=display_blog&bid=220795EC-1185-BAC1-E9C89C5E62D2A49C This has been a bug bear of mine for some years. You know, where you're offered something in a headline and the reality is something else - covered by some caveat at the bottom or in the terms and conditions. It's lazy advertising. And it seems it's just become part of our culture. Of course, I am aware that just because I buy a Golf, it does not mean I have money to waste at a casino in Cannes, or that (unfortunately) I am really that good looking. I am really talking about figures that are quoted providing a 'reasonable expectation' to the consumer where in fact the caveat and reality is nothing of the sort. Here's a couple of examples; BT Broadband 'up to 8Mb'. Now, we've all heard about 'contention ratio' - a get out clause which allows BT and others to advertise speeds which we dont actually get. So I thought 'up to 8Mb' actually meant sometimes, maybe even rarely, I'd get 8Mb but a lot of the time less. But in a conversation I have just had with their technical support, it seems even this was misplaced. Having asked them to test my line, they said my speed was as good as I could expect which should be anything between .5Mb and 6Mb. So, that will be 'up to 6Mb' then. I also remember Orange, the mobile phone operator, launching with ads suggesting something like '90% of UK population covered' and a graphic showing the UK map. But when you thought about it, 90% of the UK population live in about 10% of the UK's total land mass. And certainly my experience of Orange coverage when it launched was that I often had trouble getting through. But the advert gave me the impression that 90% of the UK was covered because of the map graphic. Is it just me, or is this type of advertising lazy or incredibly clever? And another thing... Tue, 02 Sep 2008 07:47:14 GMT http://www.creativematch.co.uk/blogs/MarkLesbirel/front.cfm?action=display_blog&bid=220795EC-1185-BAC1-E9C89C5E62D2A49C http://www.creativematch.co.uk/blogs/MarkLesbirel/front.cfm?action=display_blog&bid=084B5FB5-1185-BAC1-E96B65FC98192BB5 With the year seemingly disappearing before my very eyes, I found myself staring out of the window wondering what the final quarter of 2008 will bring us. We've had a bumpy ride, some ups and downs too. I wondered what you thought might happen over the next 3-4 months. Here's my starter for ten. 1. Apple iPhone backlash - people get fed up with battery problems and a new issue will surface. 2. The now biting credit crunch will impact further on design/marketing budgets, although Digital (and all that encompasses) will continue to grow. 3. We'll see a number of small/mid sized agencies group hug as sharing resources, skills and clients becomes more cost effective. 4. We'll also see more business filter downstream (for want of a better word) - clients will look more at using smaller agencies/freelance/consultants as tighter budgets rule. Do you agree? Have you got any predictions? creative 'business' Thu, 28 Aug 2008 07:51:09 GMT http://www.creativematch.co.uk/blogs/MarkLesbirel/front.cfm?action=display_blog&bid=084B5FB5-1185-BAC1-E96B65FC98192BB5 http://www.creativematch.co.uk/blogs/MarkLesbirel/front.cfm?action=display_blog&bid=77DF5752-1185-BAC1-E95390465FC43DE0 I have always loved macs, since they first came out I have been a devotee. The design of the products has been much lauded over the past 10 years or so, thanks to Jonathan Ive and his team, but it was the original user interface and system that drove them that made them such great products to own and use. But there was always one thing that bothered me. When you copied a file to another disc, very handily you were told how long it was going to take. So, unlike PC users who just got a 'clock' - a mac told you how long in hours/minutes, and had a nice bar so you could see where you were. But then, almost immediately the time would change. So you'd be told '1hr 10 minutes' - then a few seconds later '45 minutes', then '30 seconds' etc. This type of 'misinformation design' is now all around us. On our local underground station there are some swanky, relatively new signs which helpfully tell us what order the trains are going to arrive and at what time. Now, your thinking 'trains are always late, so?' That's another discussion, but what I am talking about here is not unusual... Yesterday, I looked up and was told the 18.15 would arrive on time, I had a couple of minutes to plan my journey so I was busily working out my connection at Richmond and home in time to read the kids a story. Great. A couple of minutes pass. No train. At 18.18, the 18.15 which has not arrived, will still be 'on time'. Then, at 18.19, the sign changes to tell me the next train is at 18.24 and is a completely different train (overland not underground). Where has hundreds of tons of machinery and a few hundred people gone? Is there a new 'Gunnersbury Triangle' into which trains disappear? Trains are often late, but why design a system and make information available that is so completely wrong? Why can't it work out that if a few hundred tons of machinery and people hasn't got somewhere by a certain time, it can't still be 'on time'? It's not rocket science... In some ways, if you look at the current 'information-super-hypeway' that is the internet, the same applies. A search on Google rarely gives you an answer, usually it's thousands (hundreds of thousands) of pages - most of which is either not the answer (misinformation), or answers you'll never get to see. What examples of 'misinformation design' have you seen? And another thing... Thu, 31 Jul 2008 06:47:50 GMT http://www.creativematch.co.uk/blogs/MarkLesbirel/front.cfm?action=display_blog&bid=77DF5752-1185-BAC1-E95390465FC43DE0 http://www.creativematch.co.uk/blogs/MarkLesbirel/front.cfm?action=display_blog&bid=0DA82329-1185-BAC1-E9914DC0738584D5 Just chatting here at New Designers to students, and one discussion caught my minds eye, so to speak. One of the students, Andy Griggs, had come up with a great snowboard/ski waxer - and was showing this on the university stand. It caught my eye because snowboarding is a passion for me, but it was our discussion that got me thinking. We talked about how he got to the final design, why the more obvious 'iron' shape with handle had not been used, for instance. It transpired that what he described as his 'original' design may have been the best solution - although the end product still looked great. But he was in education, and the project was supposed to take a year, so he continued working on it. Perhaps it was this that made what was a hot idea not what it might have been. In the design process, I have often found that the original ideas are often the best. Sometimes, working on more ideas is about fee building and massaging client egos rather than coming up with a solution - and perhaps this is 'embeded' in education. Would our quality of life be better if we (and our clients) accepted less design collateral, but still got the original and best ideas? Just think we could work for 20% of the time, earn 80% of the money and have LOADS more fun on the slopes.   creative 'business' Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:47:47 GMT http://www.creativematch.co.uk/blogs/MarkLesbirel/front.cfm?action=display_blog&bid=0DA82329-1185-BAC1-E9914DC0738584D5 http://www.creativematch.co.uk/blogs/MarkLesbirel/front.cfm?action=display_blog&bid=FCAEC203-1185-BAC1-E9A1EB8AB9858D1D Later on this week, we're at New Designers. It's our second year at this event for Students and Graduates - and we'll be talking about our Student Portfolio Competition. We're providing some free technology to students and graduates to help them move from education to employment, in the shape of free online Portfolios - and to help promote this we've come up with the competition, supported by Quark. In fact, we hope this will be the start of a new student 'area' on our site with loads of content, services and support for new talent. If you've a mind to, pop down to see us at the show...   creative 'business' Mon, 07 Jul 2008 08:41:28 GMT http://www.creativematch.co.uk/blogs/MarkLesbirel/front.cfm?action=display_blog&bid=FCAEC203-1185-BAC1-E9A1EB8AB9858D1D http://www.creativematch.co.uk/blogs/MarkLesbirel/front.cfm?action=display_blog&bid=BEDFEC88-1185-BAC1-E96CDCB3E2203548 G, o, o, g, l, e Well - for those of us without a religous bone in their body, and who navigate the virtual landscape that is the internet. Search, or more accurately, search engine optimisation (SEO) is top of our minds just about all of the time. Portals like creativematch work hard to increase our own SEO and therefore traffic, and also increase the SEO of sites linked from them - like in a 'directory' - increasing visitors to their sites too. SEO (and there is a vast amount of advice, some good some not good) out there both in terms of content and 'consultants', can be complex to get a grasp of. We're definitely still learning too. There are currently 232,000,000 pages on Google about SEO (take a look). But much of this is technical and can be regarded as the domain of web developers and SEO specialists. Here's Wikipedia's definition. It's a succinct definition, but how does anyone who is not a professional increase thier SEO and traffic? So, assuming you have content that your target audience want to browse... What's the best way to get more traffic to your site? Get links from high ranking, relevant sites. It's the single most important part of any SEO strategy. Google says 'The quantity, quality, and relevance of links count towards your rating.' It makes sense to not only list your website in directory sites that rank highly and are relevant, but also publish relevant content in news, blogs and forums that links to you. There are lots of other things you can do, but follow this basic tenet and you can take prayer out of the equation. webstuff Wed, 25 Jun 2008 08:38:43 GMT http://www.creativematch.co.uk/blogs/MarkLesbirel/front.cfm?action=display_blog&bid=BEDFEC88-1185-BAC1-E96CDCB3E2203548 http://www.creativematch.co.uk/blogs/MarkLesbirel/front.cfm?action=display_blog&bid=6C88F014-1185-BAC1-E922FB9B05C2ABB7 I was speaking last week with a very busy Design Company - we were talking about 'client relationships' and how they 'felt differently' recently. What used to be very calm, professional but still demanding clients were turning into the 'clients from hell'. We've all experienced them... Now, of course this may have been a factor of overtrading, or of client fatigue, maybe the design company just weren't cutting the mustard in terms of servicing - but in our conversation we came up with another possible scenario. Perhaps the clients were stressed out. The individuals involved were seeing the value of their houses/flats drop (perhaps for the first time), interest rates are on the up, jobs cuts are looming and debt looks less manageable. Are clients more stressed than say 12 months ago? Are you seeing client relationships suffer through no fault in your control? creative 'business' Mon, 09 Jun 2008 08:54:51 GMT http://www.creativematch.co.uk/blogs/MarkLesbirel/front.cfm?action=display_blog&bid=6C88F014-1185-BAC1-E922FB9B05C2ABB7 http://www.creativematch.co.uk/blogs/MarkLesbirel/front.cfm?action=display_blog&bid=33C0CC2F-1185-BAC1-E9CCFBFCCE29F05C I was reading with interest today about the purchase of Iomega by EMC. This caught my eye for several reasons. Iomega manufactured a seminal 90's product called a Zip drive. Most creatives had one as work could be sent on these re writable discs - I think they used to take 50-100mb or so. Their share price was $100 plus and they were one of the darlings of the high tech boom, providing network storage and disc devices. Now, the shares stand at around $3. Technology moved on. So, what about the current darlings of '.com'. Google have in the past 10 years done incredible business. But their technology is no longer the domain of the uber developers. Building a search engine with an algorithm and displaying the results isn't that difficult now. OK - serving billions of pages and building 10yrs worth of brand loyalty is difficult to catch up with, but they are spending a lot of time and effort moving into new areas and building new alliances. I would too, because the bubble may be at breaking point and they may be in for a fall. I am not sure the original shareholders care too much though, I think Larry and Brin will be fine. YouTube, FaceBook and Bebo etc have moved the playing field on a bit, but for the rest of us who is going to come up with the next 'Google' and what shape will it be? webstuff Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:14:43 GMT http://www.creativematch.co.uk/blogs/MarkLesbirel/front.cfm?action=display_blog&bid=33C0CC2F-1185-BAC1-E9CCFBFCCE29F05C http://www.creativematch.co.uk/blogs/MarkLesbirel/front.cfm?action=display_blog&bid=0A6753AA-1185-BAC1-E9014F91221C87A8 Got this from our friends at Whitespace up in Edinburgh. They are being challenged in the courts for the use of their website address. Apparently some irregularities in the registration means White's Pacers shoes should have their images on the whitespacers website. Don't see a problem, there's plenty of space. Have you got any favourite April fool emails? favourite stuff Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:32:33 GMT http://www.creativematch.co.uk/blogs/MarkLesbirel/front.cfm?action=display_blog&bid=0A6753AA-1185-BAC1-E9014F91221C87A8 http://www.creativematch.co.uk/blogs/MarkLesbirel/front.cfm?action=display_blog&bid=C7F41811-1185-BAC1-E9CEF2EED8D1646E Over the years this subject pops up across the creative press quite regularly. There have been attempts at some sort of regulation, lots of animated discussion about the relative benefits and many stories of wasted hours and missed opportunities. Over the past few weeks we've been getting some feedback, both from searches on our site, calls to the office for advice and stories of woe. We have just done a quick straw pole in our newsletter, and 65% of those that answered would pitch for free and include creative work. What parameters do you use before deciding to invest your creative skills in a pitch? - How many others are pitching - What's the budget - Who's making the decision? What are your 'Golden' questions and how do you tread the 'Pitch for free' minefield? creative 'business' Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:51:45 GMT http://www.creativematch.co.uk/blogs/MarkLesbirel/front.cfm?action=display_blog&bid=C7F41811-1185-BAC1-E9CEF2EED8D1646E http://www.creativematch.co.uk/blogs/MarkLesbirel/front.cfm?action=display_blog&bid=A9CCF82D-1185-BAC1-E96BB29A9E86195B We all get loads of spam - but the most amusing emails can often be those sent in error. People who think they are emailing someone and send to the wrong address. Here's one I have received today via our site that caught my eye, I am not sure if this is system generated or not, but it is surreal (is this a new artform?); Here we go again, John Schmitt wants out of the forest, i have worked with forest people and always found them friendly, I have always been given the respect that have given them. Of course i am speaking of true forest people not those outsiders who move in and want change things, i might sugest if mr Schmitt is so fond of ross and ledbury there is a very good bus service. The names have been changed just in case, please do the same if you post examples here. webstuff Thu, 13 Mar 2008 20:20:25 GMT http://www.creativematch.co.uk/blogs/MarkLesbirel/front.cfm?action=display_blog&bid=A9CCF82D-1185-BAC1-E96BB29A9E86195B http://www.creativematch.co.uk/blogs/MarkLesbirel/front.cfm?action=display_blog&bid=38A598B0-1185-BAC1-E9AA53B720D4DCCE Just one of the highlights of this years Publishing Expo was Bruno Maag taking us through the history of Typography in his seminar, 'Fonts right and wrong'. Bruno's passion for the subject as well as his knowledge came across in one of the best presentations of the 2 days. Although he did have it in the neck for that old favourite, Helvetica. We had a great day there too - with many of you coming down to put a name to a face so to speak. It was great to meet some Flair winners face to face, and get feedback from many other people who visit and use the website. The creativematch live seminar theatre was, by all accounts, a tremendous success which we hope to build on. A big thanks to those that took the time to speak, and especially to Aidan Walker and Nick Field and his team at Publishing Expo for organising a thought provoking, seamless and varied program over both the days. I am looking forward to next year.   creative 'business' Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:00:19 GMT http://www.creativematch.co.uk/blogs/MarkLesbirel/front.cfm?action=display_blog&bid=38A598B0-1185-BAC1-E9AA53B720D4DCCE http://www.creativematch.co.uk/blogs/MarkLesbirel/front.cfm?action=display_blog&bid=CF20D356-1185-BAC1-E946536868B5C345 We've been asking our Flair Winners to send in their illustrations so we can print them for a Flair Winners Wall at the upcoming PublishingExpo. The files are big (20mb plus) - so one of the winners, Naomi Ryder, sent her file using this service. You don't have to register, you can just upload your file and a message, which gets sent with a link to download the file. Simple, useful, easy to use - brilliant. www.mailbigfile.com   webstuff Thu, 31 Jan 2008 09:15:10 GMT http://www.creativematch.co.uk/blogs/MarkLesbirel/front.cfm?action=display_blog&bid=CF20D356-1185-BAC1-E946536868B5C345 http://www.creativematch.co.uk/blogs/MarkLesbirel/front.cfm?action=display_blog&bid=AA968025-1185-BAC1-E932D9235535092D I thought it was the 21st century. I thought buying a new intel mac would not only make me look cool, buying CS3 would mean increased productivity. Stronger, faster, more productive. That's me. No it isn't. In a previous post I have talked about moving everything over to my new set up - an Intel Mac and CS3. But I am having even more problems. Somehow, it's not faster at all than my G4 764GHz tower, or my £300 Acer laptop. I have had to endure 'locking up' whilst Entourage thinks about what its going to do next. And Dreamweaver CS3 on my Intel REALLY sucks. It's unworkable. Here's some discussion I found on Google Groups. I am writing this on my £300 Acer, where I am also using Dreamweaver 8... It reminds me of the film Robots...'upgrades, upgrades'. No thanks. Well maybe. If anyone knows how to resolve this, I may just be able to reclaim some of my cool (it went a long time ago) - and I'll owe you a beer. webstuff Thu, 24 Jan 2008 06:57:45 GMT http://www.creativematch.co.uk/blogs/MarkLesbirel/front.cfm?action=display_blog&bid=AA968025-1185-BAC1-E932D9235535092D http://www.creativematch.co.uk/blogs/MarkLesbirel/front.cfm?action=display_blog&bid=AF07CF8F-1185-BAC1-E946952B32CC78FC I have been reading a lot about this recently, both in New Media as well as more 'traditional' skills. There are obviously still lots of jobs out there (nearly 2500 on our site alone) - but are there skills shortages and if so why do they occur? Are print designers more interested in a move to new media (wed/mobile/tv) - so leaving a gap in print? Is the ability to multi skill reducing the expertise level. A quick look at ONE CV sent today suggests the applicant can take the following roles; Account Manager, Account/Project Director, Art Director, Creative Manager, Production Manager, Purchasing Manager, Designer, Artworker and Typographer... Is training too expensive (time and money)? Or are we just living in a time of flux as we (gradually) move over to New Media - so there are bound to be fluctuations and reductions in skills available as response to market takes time. What are your thoughts? creative 'business' Thu, 06 Dec 2007 10:37:12 GMT http://www.creativematch.co.uk/blogs/MarkLesbirel/front.cfm?action=display_blog&bid=AF07CF8F-1185-BAC1-E946952B32CC78FC