Season your Greetings

'Tis the season once again for designers to thank their clients for their business, wish them well, and perhaps take one last shameless opportunity for a little subtle holiday plugging of their services before the end of the year.

There are several ways to leave a jolly ol' mark, but the common denominator in all of them is "tailor it."

If you can afford it, give your valued clients the ho-ho-whole enchilada. Take a page from design firms and create custom greeting cards and gift packaging. Think of it as another vehicle to showcase your talent. It can also lead to business in the future—after all, a client may see your nice presentation and decide to hire you to design their own holiday greeting cards for next year. It's also the ultimate personal touch that makes the guys and gals that sustain your business feel like they're your "number one."

Regarding gifts, if you can also spring for it (and in some measure, you should) find out what the company heads have an interest in, and buy them a nice gift that in some way reflects it (don't forget to include a nice assortment of holiday goodies for their employees...or the department with whom you've worked with).

It doesn't need to break the bank to be special. For example, I plan on surprising a good client of mine who is launching a fashion line branded around Ancient Egypt with a magnet. Not just any ol' magnet, mind you, but a 3D magnet replica of "William" the faience hippo that resides at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (one of his favorite museums). I plan to create a unique little shipping crate "seared" with the Archetype Design Studio mark. Hopefully he doesn't follow this web log otherwise my surprise is ruined, but I digress. It's an affordable, customized gesture to show my appreciation for his continued patronage.

Failing time to even do that for whatever the reason, there is always the fall back plan of gift card giving. All major stores have them and it takes no time to figure out what store or drink or sport or restaurant a client likes and just buy them a simple card. And for the exceedingly, shall we say..."overwhelmed"...designer who has time as their enemy, pay a visit to Gift Certificates.com. They have such a broad selection of merchants ranging from home improvement to fine dining that they're bound to walk away happy. If you aren't going to mail directly from the site to the client, buy a nifty gift card tin.

If you can't afford (neither in time nor finances) to create a unique card or gift package from scratch, at least try to buy the best that you can afford from what's available. The simple action of selecting a card that a client can identify with will resonate with them far more than some generic card. There are a few designers and shops who have lovely and/or whimsical selections to choose from, which I'll list below. You can also take a walk around your local shops to see what you find. You'll never know when or where a nice, client/vendor worthy card will capture your attention.

Dear Nic
Sunlit Media | Letterpress
Jane Hancock Papers
A Little Hut
Tea Leaf Design
LSV Galleria
Kate's Paperie
Melissa head Designs
Luxe Paperie

For clients or vendors that may be from out of state or country, you can purchase a card that identifies with your region, or with theirs and add a little special personal touch inside. Artist Alexander Chen licensed a line of cards through Tim Binder Fine Arts that identifies with Christmas in my hometown of New York City. They ended up being so nice that I just may be persuaded to send a couple of out of state/country vendors a taste of the holidays in NYC along with a nice little gift.

In the end, it's not so much what you buy or create more than how much they will ultimately enjoy—and thus appreciate—a thoughtful gift over a generic one.

"Merry Christmas" holiday card by Sunlit Media. All rights reserved.

Creative Hustle and Flow

I can appreciate creativity in everything. It's everywhere, especially here in the Big Apple. I can sit and admire a well conceived campaign in a subway car, or take in the myriad of outdoor sculptures that adorn many a Manhattan building entrance, appreciate excellent architectural styles from Harlem to the Bowery and beyond, check out galleries, cuisine and museums, sidewalk exhibits, the list goes on. It's just wonderful to just sit somewhere and absorb all the buzzing culture and rhythm that permeates this place. I feel as though I live and breathe it from dusk til' dawn.

But mostly, I like to doodle and lose myself with great books on design or art or anything that stimulates ye olde senses. When I take a bike ride, walk or drive I can't help but pick a scenic route...nature's beauty is the best and I'm always motivated when I'm somewhere with nice atmosphere. When I'm lounging at home I lose myself in Home and Garden channels. Can't get enough of good interior design. I often enjoy cooking a good meal or take photographs (although developing them is another matter). I don't take up an instrument like I used to, but I certainly appreciate a good beat. And I'll give whatever craft that catches my fancy a shot at least once. Lately for example I've been "gettin' knitty wit it." Made a pretty neat bag after a slew of scarves.

I also collect things. I have a massive comic book collection, for example. And I like to write. That's pretty obvious for those who know how often I support my forum habit as well as blog.

A stimulating workspace is also key. I've got a few posters and nice or meaningful chatchkas that adorn my desk (among the clutter, which is why I'm not posting an image of it...oh, the "humanity"). For example, Crayola™ recently re-released a series of "vintage" 64 color crayola boxes. I kept one on top of my DVD drive, behind the little ceramic Met™ bag which has one of my Google Guys™ dangling from the strap (remind me to post a "how-to" on that one day).

So that's just a few ways on how I draw upon the creativity around me to stimulate my own without the need for a tropical getaway or participating in a cultural event. I see it just by taking a minute to stop and take in my immediate surroundings.

Who to Be, or Who Not to Be...That is the Question

The topic of naming one's independent (freelance) business has come up quite a few times during my forum romps lately. It usually unfolds like this: a grad or in-house designer wishes to branch out on their own and are seeking sources of inspiration by asking folks who are already entrepreneurs on how they decided on their business names. I thought I'd journal my own process here because a name...though not the most important factor in one's business, bears as much thoughtful "tailored" consideration as designing the identity itself. It should to some degree be a reflection of one's aspiration, motivation or personality as well as service. That said, I considered several factors:

1. Who do I want to woo? If I came up with a name that's too cute, kitschy or quirky, it might scare off corporate prospects because it didn't exude enough professionalism. If I decided on a name that was too stale, it would rub against the creative grain. I knew I couldn't appeal to everybody, but I did want to toss as wide a net as possible. That said, I decided that "clever" was going to be the operative word.

2. I wanted a name that would come up high in any alphabetized directory listing. My former incarnation of "Seahorse Productions" left me way too low—it was doubtful that any prospect looking for a designer wouldn't find someone else before reaching the "S" listings. I wanted a name that was high up enough to come up (hopefully) in the first page of any given listing.

3. I didn't want to use my own name. Why? Partly because I thought "Dagmar Designs" or some such name was too silly sounding to even consider, partly because it wasn't creative sounding enough to satisfy me and because I also wanted a name that was versatile enough to grow with my business' goals.

4. The domain had to be available. Just a given these days that a dot com denotes professionalism more than any of the others. Either way I did buy the dot net as well. Incidently, that's one reason why I settled on Archetype Design Studio..."Archetype" was bought by a broker and I didn't want the dot net. I also thought it was more descriptive of my services (see 5).

5. It had to be understood what I did for a living to a degree. I can't tell you how many times I had to explain my services with my former, more vague incarnation. Just felt it did more harm than good for enticing any "window shoppers," aka potential clients.

So with all that in mind, I searched dictionaries and domain availability. I finally settled on "Archetype" because it worked on so many levels for me. "Type" implied my niche of design to a degree and "Arche" can be easily interpreted as "Architect" therefore "Architect of Type" (many who are familiar with design jargon have told me that they also refer "type" as a shortened form of "typography"). What really sold the deal for me was the actual meaning of archetype (the original pattern or model of which all things of the same type are representations or copies : prototype; also : a perfect example) which vibed quite well with my personal creative ambitions.

Here are some examples of clever and distinct name solutions within our industry. I tried to show a nice variety of typographic and pictorial graphic solutions.

I wanted to add that for Jeff Fisher's Logomotives, (lucky for us) he wrote about the evolution of his own identity not too long ago. It's worth including a link. I would also be remiss if I didn't mention that a good old fashioned google search would probably yield volumes on the topic.

Everyone has their own personal criteria for settling on a name—as such, there is no standard formula. So long as the name is one that in some way reflects not only you as a designer, but also does it in a way that will generate interest from the target market, as they say, "let it flow."

All design identities are copyrighted by their respective individual authors.
William Shakespeare's Identity Crisis cartoon by Dagmar Jeffrey. All rights reserved.