Upcoming Design Conferences

Whether you fly solo as an entrepreneur, are an in-houser with a generous employer who's willing to send you, or if you're just looking to keep your finger on the creative pulse, here are some upcoming events (in no particular order) to budget into to your 2009 calendar.

Front-End Design Conference: July 31, 2009, St. Petersburg, FL. Geared for web designers and coders.

HOW Freelancer Conference: August 26-28, 2009, Omni San Diego Hotel. Early Bird discount permanently extended! Check out the Conference Info section for new registration options, as well as what attendees from last year's conference had to say.

The IDEA Conference, presented by Advertising Age: November 12, 2009, New York City. Aimed towards all who are deeply immersed in the business of creativity. Click on the "more..." link in The IDEA Conference Is... section for Attendee Highlights.

HOW Designers' Bootcamp: Various locations and dates (to follow). Seminar-styled two day workshops designed to help fine-tune your design career! For freelancers, in-housers, project managers, business developers. Check out their Early Bird registration specials.

Running a Successful Design Business: September 17 and 18, 2009, New York Marriott Marquis, NYC. Presented by Daniel Schutzsmith (downloadable brochure available)

Moving from Print to Web, September 29 and 30, 2009, Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University, Atlanta GA. Presenter: Patrick McNeil

Marketing and Self-Promotion: October 20 and 21, 2009, Chambers Hotel, Minneapolis, MN. Presenter: Jeff Fisher

Building a Profitable Creative Business: October 26 and 27, 2009, Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA. Presenter: Emily Cohen

MAKE | THINK, AIGA Design Conference: October 8-11, 2009, Memphis, TN. Check out their links for possible Hotel and Travel accommodations and click on the vid link of their highlights from the 2007 Conference. There is also a discount for AIGA members, so one is encouraged to join.

A Chunk of My Youth Died Today

Okay so obviously I'm late in the game. Obviously I shouldn't have remained glued to the radio all day, or the T.V., or tried to break the news as it happened to P. Diddy who was on a shoot today from my minivan. I obviously shouldn't feel bad that Farrah suddenly became a fast and hard footnote at about 12:30pm Pacific today. But damn it all, I do. I grew up watching J5 in it's various incarnations (loved their animated show as a kid) or playing with my Jill doll's hair and dressing her in hip 70's outfits. I coveted my sister's We Are the World record, and marveled at the strength of a battered woman pushed too far in the Burning Bed, still using it as a joke warning to men who recognize the reference to this day.

I admit, I am no stranger to partaking in some rousing ribbing when it comes to the darker side of their legacies. Truth told, when all is said and done, I don't really care about the scandals and sensationalism, both of which shared a-plenty. For me and for now, the good deeds outweigh the bad by a loooong country mile. I imagine I'm not alone. A big part of my childhood and adolescence died today in these two. Two who died way too young and for one in particular, so suddenly. Still I pray they both found a peace that they perhaps were not destined to enjoy in life by their very stature. And I pray that there really is an afterlife, so that they can reunite with their loved ones once again.

Rest in peace Angel...King of Pop. May your loved ones find some measure of solace amid the frenzied love of fans instead of the slings of naysayers in the coming days and weeks.

Leaving a Lasting Impression

In this visually motivated market, leaving a positive, lasting impression is key to generating consumer interest in a company. Here are some reasons why it pays to properly invest in the promotion of one's business.

A successful business doesn't just rely on location, location, location anymore. Visual promotions like business cards, a web site, logo and advertisements represent your company in your absence, long after your face to face meeting with a potential client has faded into memory. They can virtually speak volumes on the quality of service and product you are promoting to provide.

Take business cards as an example. They are the most popular and widely used promotional collateral in the business world—nearly everyone has one. Often to cut a few corners in the budget, entrepreneurs repeatedly make an even more costly decision to forego hiring an experienced professional who understands how to tailor an attractive and effective look for their company. By utilizing inexpensive pre-fabricated cards or by leaving design execution in inexperienced hands who create pretty pictures instead of potent brands, a valuable, prominently visible, promotional resource meant to generate consumer interest fails to attract new business outside of referrals. What started out as an opportunity to save a few bucks may have unwittingly ended in missing out on potential clients that they never even knew they had.

Here's a fun little exercise. Pull out your business card and take an objective, impersonal look at it. Picture yourself as a customer who knows little to nothing about your company. There isn't a shopper alive that doesn't want to be sure that they're investing their hard earned cash in a quality service or product. Your card should not only contain the required contact information, it should also aesthetically emote this commitment through your brand and it's design layout as a reaffirmation of this guarantee—potential clients should psychologically feel confident that you can deliver. So, does your card exude this quality assurance of service you hope to provide, or will they pass yours up in favor of a competitor?

Feel free to take the same little exercise with the rest of your promotional collateral, or even your business' logo identity. Take the extra step and compare it to cards, ads or other collateral that you like. Whether it will ultimately end up being "fun" or not, depends on how effective you feel the current state of your brand marketing is.

Projecting professionalism through one's web site should be equally important. It leaves as indelible an imprint on unique visitors as a business card would. As with any marketing promotion, it's there to provide the viewer with pertinent information—range of services, product line, contact information and an image gallery. However, the site's interface should also pique a visitor's curiosity enough to make them want to learn more about what you might have to offer, or to ideally bookmark it as a resource or reference.

A web design layout that doesn't quite align with one's brand goals, even one that has all of the necessary information, might inadvertently leave an undesirable imprint to a potential client. That could lead to wondering "what could have been"—even with all the right information it may very well receive a decent amount of traffic, however if it's creative and functional potential were reached it could have accomplished so much more.

Effective design isn't just about making something attractive looking, it's about making it attractive to the right people and through optimum channels. It's one earmark in leaving a lasting impression which in turn strengthens a brand. Accomplishing that end isn't simply a matter of picking any random professional to do the job, either. A Creative or firm should also be able to visually understand how to forge an indelible connection between brand and consumer.

You've invested a great deal into the success of your business, it only makes sense to ensure that every facet of your company is working towards leaving the best, lasting impression to make that ultimate goal a reality.

Two Little Hands image by Dagmar Jeffrey.
Storefront image and web site still source: Peabody Gallery.
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