How to keep your designers on the job

Following up from my previous post, Employers: Why your designers are leaving you, I shared a long-winded tale of my 2 awful working experiences. My on-going communication with friends who share similar bad working experiences have lead me to dispense some tips to non-design savvy bosses on how they can keep their graphic designers, at least for longer.

We all know its no fun to have your fresh hireling quit within a short span of time, having to go through all over again, the daunting tasks of posting the job up and organising interviews.

1. Understand your designer’s style through his/her portfolio

Save yourself tons of headache by going through each portfolio of your interviewee. For example, if you are looking for a corporate magazine designer, make sure you seek out relevant pieces of portfolio work that shows magazine layouts of corporate nature. Don’t settle for the “if you are a designer, you should be able to design anything” sort of mentality. Yes, designers can design anything in a sense, but more importantly, their portfolios indicate their strengths and weaknesses in certain areas and styles, as well as their background knowledge in relevant industries. Cultural backgrounds and overseas qualification also reflect the designer’s design style and tastes. If your designer is a foreigner, make sure the individual is able to adopt and adapt to the graphic design styles and rules in the host country. Trying out the new recruit on an internship or freelance basis will be helpful in making your final decision on hiring.

2. Be realistic about your designer’s skill level

Designers are classified at specific skill levels: junior (entry), middle and senior. Don’t expect a junior to work at a speed of a senior, nor expect your graphic designer to be a pro at video-editing when the latter is not their expertise. It is important to be realistic about their design ability, skill level, expertise and technical know-how. Do not push the designer to do something he or she is not be able to achieve. It not only takes time for your designer to adjust to and settle in the new company, but also understand the company’s demands, style and ethos. This is especially so if your designer just migrated from a different working background (eg. multi-disciplined agency to in-house / freelance to full-time / fashion to corporate). Provide your designers references to what you are looking to achieve. Be patient if your designer is learning through trial and error. You will soon see your efforts pay off.

If you need to hire only one designer for your company, it is best to invest in a senior designer who knows the industry in and out, works faster, has better attention span to detail and requires little supervision unlike a junior designer.

3. Understand your designer’s job scope

Design is NOT easy. You may not have attended design school to understand the mechanics and processes of design, but your designer did. If the job was easy, she or he should not have spend thousands on design education, and you could have done it all by yourself, right? But you hired a designer for a reason, to create and achieve results that you are looking for that you otherwise cannot do.

The common misconception among employers is that design takes a short while to do. You’ll be surprised that designing a logo can take up to an hour, or creating a 10-page brochure can eat up almost half a day. You even may reject the first few designs before arriving to your final decision. Don’t panic. This is common. Your designer is going through what we call brainstorming whereby he or she will do the necessary research and deep thinking before and while creating the artwork. Brainstorming is necessary in producing good and relevant artworks. The production of the artwork (creating graphics in a separate program, delivering the comps, outlining the artwork for print, exporting the artwork for final delivery etc.) also contributes to the time it takes to produce the work. So don’t start to pop your eyes or rush into smacking your designer’s “unproductivity” when you see your designer creating what looks like an unfinished product. As long as it’s not yet the final product, your designer is still in the midst of execution. Likewise, you do not tell the construction worker how ugly the building looks when he is still in the midst of piecing the skeleton pieces together. Read up books on graphic design or get advice from your networks who have long dealt with in-house staff designers first-hand to expand your knowledge in their field. Try not to hurry your designer every once in a while as this will produce unnecessary pressure, nervousness and possibly a mental block. It takes time for your designer to understand your personality and style, just as building relationships takes time.

If you have hired a design agency to design for you before, you’d have realised how fast the turnover is. Don’t expect your designer to do the same. Unlike an agency where there are multiple designers doing your projects, your designer is doing a lot of these projects alone – this is especially true when you pass on more and more projects to your designer, which can interfere and delay the current work that he or she is doing.

4. Know your boundaries

Just because you like how a certain style or design looks doesn’t mean that your designer may always agree to it. Now don’t get into a fight with your designer or misunderstand that his or her disagreement is threatening your position as the boss. Your designer is dispensing professional advice to you. After all, you did not pay for an executioner, but a thinker as well. Your designer is trained not to tie personal emotions to a design, but to look at the perspective of the target market. So the look and feel you like may not be what your audience like.

Respect your designer’s job. Let your management and team know where their boundaries are. Each member has to respect the designer’s advice and job rather than insisting their own style preferences, unless you the boss has specifically tasked certain individuals to do so. Otherwise, unnecessary interference can not only cause a lot of friction and miscommunication between your team members, but also erode the designer’s worth as an equal contributor to the team.

5. Know some graphic design vocabulary

 

Unfortunately, many design schools are not well-equipped in training graphic students to use a different lingo when communicating to non-design professionals. While middle and senior designers are much more seasoned in this area of conversation, most junior designers struggle to wean off from using complex graphical terms that many non-designers otherwise have no clue to. I remembered as a junior, my ex-boss screamed at me in frustration when she demanded something “creative”, while I had no clue what it meant because a minimal look can be deemed “creative” just as a mixed collage is under the same term.

If you are working with a junior designer, be sure to be specific in your demands. If you do not know how to describe it, send your designer some image references, which can clear many miscommunications. However, some graphic vocabulary is necessary in communicating at all levels especially when outsourcing (eg. CMYK, spot colour, HTML/CSS, D.I (digital imaging), F.A (final artwork), vectors etc.). Websites like this are an excellent source for non-designers to learn some graphic design vocabulary.

6. Get to know and appreciate your designer

This is pretty much commonsensical. There is no need for me to reiterate this basic etiquette for grown-ups, but I must. Build a good relationship with your designer, because she or he will just as much desire a good working relationship with you.

Accept the reasons and advice he or she gives you (not blindly of course!). Your designer probably knows much more than you on brand guidelines, and what to do and what not to do in design, having that trained eye and experience in the field. You did not hire an amateur, but a qualified professional. What your friends think will look nice may not ring the same rhythm with a professional designer. That’s why you don’t see brands like Coca Cola, Canon or Virgin engaging friends, but professional designers to design for them.

Thank your designer for the hard work and effort they did. It is after all, no fun staring at the computer and burning out brain power for a full working day. People would rather stay with someone appreciative than to be stuck in the same room with a twittering complainer.

How bad design killed MySpace

How did we ever endure this monstrous atrocity??

MySpace or My _____, as it is now known, was the ultimate holy grail of social networking way back then – those born in the 80s and 90s can reminisce with me…NOT!

You were out of the space of you were not in my Space. It was the undisputed leading social network that took over the world, the social drug that circles of friends log-in secretly behind computer screens during class . However, MySpace’s early success would eventually be its own bitter medicine.

I recalled how classmates and friends competed with each other to see who has the “prettiest and coolest” profile layouts. MySpace enabled each user to customise their profile by adding and altering their own HTML/CSS codes. To facilitate such demand, there were dozens of sites providing free ready-made MySpace layout designs based on a variety of themes: celebrities, weather, party, fantasy….etc. You just copied the code and pasted it into your profile palette. The task can be daunting if your customised buttons or images did not aim well at where the default links are supposed to be underneath…those who frequently design MySpace layouts would know what I mean.

Meanwhile, everyone who opened a MySpace account would have this default friend called “Tom”, whom I thought, since its “A Place for Friends” as their slogan points out, why the heck would I want him there anywhere? It was also the place for musicians to reach out to their target audiences since it provided the convenience to attach a music player to play selected songs, as well as send out multiple invitations and establish many viral marketing schemes. Rumours has it that Lily Allen’s claim to fame through MySpace was nothing but a marketing sham in order to attract more artists and musicians to its site… sorry Lily.

On the back-end side, MySpace was not compliant with the HTML/CSS citeria set out by WS3. With little set restrictions, malformed CSS codes and poorly contructed layouts meant longer loading times, or freezing altogether. It became a hotbed for spams and spyware alike, peppered with cheap-looking emoticons and irritating gif. banners. I can go on and on about its faltering elements which Wikipedia has pretty much got it covered in detail.

Despite that, we still had fun checking out our friends’ updates daily. We seemed pretty much accustomed to live peacefully with the faults of the network, until an avalanche of a new, burgeoning social network shook our deep slumber – Facebook.

How on earth were we mortals prepared that a mere college student our age would one day topple this giant from its pedestal? I know – a good user-interface that was clean, easy-to-use with a much faster downloading time. The opportunity for big money could not be easier.

Facebook’s USPs were practically the opposite of MySpace. No more fanciful layouts, kill off those spam comments and bulletins, and of course, ultra-privacy. The layout was monotonous throughout for every individual (and we appreciate it), and the apps and little games that came along with it were fun. See, you still can make money out of the cleanest and minimalist layout. Loading time was much faster, and getting automated reminders of your friends’ updates were one huge sigh of relief. New functions included update tweets (which Twitter eventually expanded upon), tagging of photos and the “like” buttons. Ads are strewn neatly on the right while our profile information sits still in a much more readable manner with black text on a white background. Can we never stop being forever grateful to the elimination of vommit-induced, coloured texts that became unreadable on multi-fanciful layouts in MySpace!

Necessary restriction enforcement by Facebook ironically meant greater expansion of creative apps, for the network was compliant with WS3 standards and the such, calling for proper web coding and WS3 complaint apps.

MySpace has since been close to reduced to ashes due to rapidly dwindling number of users eager to migrate to Facebook. Not only has it lost millions of dollars, it had to lay-off thousands of employees as a result. Their new look now eliminates all the blasphemous atrocities, having news feeds and functions similar to Facebook, catering to music and entertainment instead. My MySpace profile has since been altered and no longer in working condition after the changes. But the changes may have come too late to win back popularity if MySpace had not sat too comfortably for years in its trophy state, resulting in its complacency and insistence of its monopolist functioning.

The moral of the story? Well, the title speaks for itself!

Employers: why your designers are leaving you

If more than 2 freshly-hired designers have quit the same job in less than half a year in the same company, you know what to do – run! Who cannot relate to extremely bad working experiences?

Okay designers, its one thing where the world does not understand your job, but it’s another where the boss refuse to understand your job at all. Hear that, employers?

While employers who are creative directors are much more able to understand the designer in a rightfully relevant manner, the issue here are with bosses who have no background in design or understanding of design. What makes you think that design is an easy job? If it is, I would not have needed to spend a few grand at a design school for bloody 4 years! Microsoft Word should have been my instant magic wand to easy money, right? Actually, Microsoft Word is blasphemy in the design community. Not even in-house studios of famous MNCs use that for their newsletters!

Pardon me, but allow me to rant my 2 awful working experiences with inexperienced non-design-savvy bosses here.

The first experience was while I was working in London as an in-house magazine designer. It was for a dual-language luxury magazine. By the time I was granted a job there, as many as 10 people had already left the company, being hired and replaced by another. This was going on for some time, but as a fresh graduate with a naive desire of getting my first full-time job, I did not know any better. My taste buds were not yet seasoned to understand the mechanics of office politics. The moment I was hired, the graphic designer who was to be my senior, left immediately and with a smile, for she had planned it some time ago to leave right after the new recruit came in. Instantly, I became the sole designer (and 3rd replacement) of the fledgling company, and in less than 2 weeks, was sabotaged by the unrealistic demands and exploitation of the 2 owners of the company.

I discovered that I was not the only unhappy one. The rest of the colleagues were regularly complaining about their jobs and the 2 bosses. We were underpaid and overworked. The 2 bosses argued in front of us, and displayed childish behavior of throwing tantrums and cursing at each other, not to mention their ill manners towards their employees.

Without brand guidelines, every magazine issue became a playground for them. Their prototype was also their finished product. The first issue received a bad review on the internet regarding their inconsistent layout and content. It was not the previous designer’s error, obviously. Yet, they refused to repent. Their logo, though designed 6 months ago, needed change again…the 3rd time, I heard. Using 3 fonts or less were frowned upon. Their preferences changed like a flickering switch, initially loving very much the new layout, before demanding for multiple changes each time after their repeated sightings of a new layout bore them. Their constant referrals to their competitors meant ripping of layouts rather than creating their own identity, and their differing cultural and racial backgrounds meant their design preferences were worlds apart with little hope of reconciliation, leading to a disastrous design fusion that resembled Tatler bathed in cheap Chinese tea egg soup broth. This resulted in insurmountable delays of the publication. All mistakes were the employees’, never theirs. Our professional advice which could have saved them tonnes of shame and money were frequently pushed aside.

Some of their most memorable quotes included:

“I read somewhere that in all magazine covers, the face of the model turns towards the left. Go back and read your design textbook!”

“(Laughs)…consistency? Maria, don’t be in a box, be creative.”

“This looks simple…I also can do!” (then why hire a designer?)

“£200 per day?!! That’s means I must be underpaying Maria (£200 per week)! Ha! Let’s get this interviewee in just to take a p***!”

Needless to say, within 2 months, I quit the job. Non of the colleagues remained as well. The next designer hired right after me went through the same fate before leaving the job in less than a month.

My next stint was not any better, though much more tolerable. Again in-house, this time as a web designer and product photographer in Singapore for a new luxury online store. The good thing was I was paid reasonable wages. The store had enormous help and investment from a big national company here.

My few months with them was pretty enjoyable, and the colleagues seemed sociable and friendly despite the 2 cliques that were forming – the boss and the management team vs the studio team (developers and designers). As the workload got heavy, I requested for additional help, which the boss eventually did. Due to her young entrepreneurial leadership skills and lack of understanding on design, the boss was keen on hiring part-time a schooling 16-year-old to help out (despite my horror) as “he is good with Photoshop and video”. The young lad’s lack of attention to detail and experience, and little time for the job meant me staying up late nights re-doing his digital imaging (D.I) works. On the insistence of my request for a full-time professional, the boss finally hired a fresh graduate on board. The junior designer was a great help along side, for both photography and graphic design, even though photography was not our fields of expertise, yet we managed to meet every deadline and did a fairly good job in coming up with the work. Since she had little working experience, I had to guide her and spend more time double-checking her work before sending them off for publishing. One of the developers, whose years in web exceeded ours, helped out in the design too.

The downside was not only were we overloaded as the boss refused to dispense additional budget on the right people (choosing multi-taskers rather than specialists), there were no brand guidelines to establish the road path for the studio. We were told to come up with web banners and photography styles that “look good”. The atrocious use of more than 3 fonts, the differing photography style for each web banner, the unnecessary glowing edges around the fonts, and the eye-sore adoption of different button structures plus low-quality images led me to protest (in a gentle manner, of course), to the surprise of the “design is easy, everybody can do” management team. I was free to offer 4 years of professional design advice to the team, or so I thought.

The tables turned on me in less than 6 months, when the boss summoned me to her office. A surprising wave of revelations spewed from her mouth regarding my “performance and behavior”, information shared to her from her management clique, who never once mentioned any dissatisfaction to me first-hand. The nice, angelic-faced boss whom I thought I knew revealed an unprofessional and childish demeanor; she’d rather believe her clique than my innocence. She vented her frustration as to why I had to re-shoot the products (which is apparently common according to insiders of this industry) and spend so much time in D.I rather taking one perfect shot that required little or no D.I, accusing me of being “unproductive” as a result despite my explanations that each of the studio team member was taking double the load.

“The freelance photographer at _______ can deliver the finished 100 images in 2 days. Why can’t you?”, she added, unaware of her unreasonable comparison of a graphic designer who only started intense product photography in 4 months to a professional photographer with years of experience and expertise, who since being able to work from home, can work fast and freely without any interference of additional projects.

She then went on to compare how the developer could deliver web banners with the look she wanted (yucks!), oblivious to the fact that the developer was told detail by detail on what to do by another amateur in her clique, while no communication regarding changes were fed to me at that time. I, the “lead designer” – as she puts it, had no say whatsoever while her hand-picked batch had every right to interfere with their “holier than thou” advice because “our friends like this and that” and “I have seen how the photographer did it”. Our once-a-week meetings became non-existent, leading to a massive communication breakdown. Even the director from a branding company they outsourced was having a tough time coaxing them to remain consistent in their identity. Their “yes” to him became a “no” once he left, and I can’t recall how many dozens of times they have changed the defining design elements due to their refusal to heed our advice.

She exclaimed: “I thought you were a team player, but I am shocked!”…. excuse me? Further on, she explained her initial, exploitative intention not to employ anyone else except me to do everything (photography, web and print design), expressing her disappointment that I was “not fast as she would have liked”. Without experience in such an industry, she did not realise how common it was to hire many designers and photographers for the workload she was assigning.

Despite me having met every deadline imaginable, and spending awful amounts of O.T without pay, her only gratitude was emailing me and a management team member of the big investor company regarding my “unreasonable attitude and dismal performance”. It took me some time to digest before I replied a long email detailing the miscommunication and correcting her understanding of our studio’s job scopes and the work overload – much to her surprise. Knowing that my reply was CC-ed to the upper management team member, she replied curtly and shortly that she stands by her conclusion and that of her clique’s “observations”, without concrete back-up, of course. Apart from accusing me of talking condescendingly to my other member (which he admits I never did) and stating that I have been over-domineering towards everyone (she claimed people tried to tell me but were too afraid, which the former never did happen), the boss’ asserted: “I call the shots here!”.

Yeah..whatever..

Her growing favouritism of her own clique and their gossips were getting too unbearable, despite her little pets becoming more over-domineering, interrogative and unreasonable (she dismissed their attitudes as exuding “family atmosphere”) in their demands towards the studio. The junior designer was also getting uncomfortable about the whole thing. I could no longer tolerate the disrespectful ordering of us to commit design fornication. I deserved better than that. Within a week, I handed in my resignation with a wider grin than usual over my face on my last day.

Oh, happy days!

The boss decided to hasten my resignation, much to my delight. She ended with a comment: “I can tell you have never worked with clients before.”

???!!

Lady, you have NOT read my CV clearly, and to you, any Tom, Dick or Harry who states “photography”, “design”, “Microsoft Word”, whatever in their CV regardless of level is a “pro” to you, but I decided not to waste time debating with you. Want to pay cheap? Expect cheap!

Soon after I left, the junior designer left too, and rumours abound that the new recruit was having a hard time. The last time I checked, they changed their outlook again, resembling very much like their competitor whom they regularly refer like a main textbook. O well, I could not care less to associate myself with them anymore.

To conclude, both my experiences had recounting similarities which eventually made me wiser when it came to job-hunting. I made sure from now on, I won’t blindly pick any job for the sake of $$. I’d rather pursue happiness than to lose my sanity in such bewildering settings.

Protect Your Brand, Invest in Brand Guidelines

The recent spotting of fake Apple stores in Kunming, China by American blogger, BirdAbroad, has sparked intense international interest and controversy.

The Apple stores looked so real that even the employees were fooled into thinking that they were really working for Steve Jobs, so said the news. Yet, the stores’ haphazard floor planning and shoddy workmanship were among the few loopholes that aroused suspicion on its authenticity. This was confirmed when the city of Kunming was not on the list of resellers as mentioned in Apple’s website.

The most eye-catching to the graphic design police and to BirdAbroad was the spotting of the words “Apple Store” next to the iconic Apple logo:

(Photos by BirdAbroad)

If it was not for Apple’s brand guidelines, almost non of us could have guessed it. Just in case you do not know what are brand guidelines, this article by Matt McMillann of Fuse 8 explains it. Giant advertising group, Saatchi&Saatchi provides 20 top tips for designing effective brand guidelines.

The moral of the story? Protect your brand, invest in brand guidelines! Brand guidelines is the holy grail that will stand the test of time for generations, the heart that pumps blood into the brand. Following up from my previous post “Good Design + Inconsistency = Bad Design“, I cannot help but repetitively emphasize the importance of establishing brand guidelines to many start-up entrepreneurs before they go on designing their brand. Sadly, many choose to ignore this life-saving advice due to budget reasons and common misconceptions that brand guidelines are “restrictive”.

As evident from the fake Apple store logo incident, brand guidelines are necessary in enabling customers to help identify the real brand itself. If it were not for BirdAbroad’s observation and recognition of a regular Apple store logo based on her travelling experiences, I don’t think she would even think twice about entering the store.

Apple is not the only victim. Major fashion labels are magnets for copycats out there hungry to make a quick buck. In a flea market in Thailand, I once chanced upon an “LV” bag riddled with cartoon-like cherries with eyes (!!) all around its iconic brown leather skin…can someone say ew? Even consumers know its fake, and LV will never sell its products at low-end shops and cheap streets. Why we know that? Exactly because of long-established branding framework and ethos.

I sighed as I recalled a nauseating experience with a company which commissioned me to design their website and site banners. Not only was the boss and the management team inexperienced in their encounters with a designer and design itself, their refusal to spend on brand guidelines in order to cut costs and their unrealistic expectations and differing opinions resulted in banner designs that required changing in its key style every so often after its launch, confusing both its identity and users. The last time I checked, they changed again, this time looking very much like one of their competitors whom they rely as their design textbook, and I wondered truly, any tom, dick and harry out there can copy and design the banners in the similar haphazard manner and still claim they are representing the company itself! Or maybe their competitor would sue over design imitation issues. Even their products were poorly packed before they invested in proper packaging, leading earlier consumers to question if they were really serious about what they claimed they are – upmarket luxury. I was not surprised by the resulting dismal sales and the complaints on their social media. Now that is really costly if you count the loss in potential profits.

If you are not confident in your identity, no one will be confident in you, simple as that. Brand guidelines may not protect the intellectual property completely, but they do protect the integrity and authenticity of the brand.

For start-ups on a low budget, it would be worth-while hiring a small branding agency or freelancer to help you establish your brand guidelines. Take it seriously, because your consumers do too.

Good Design + Inconsistency = Bad Design

I was recently bogged with a client’s multiple changes to the design of a site, reaching to a point where I had to tell her to stop.

Not because she did not have enough money, but because of too many choices. By that, I mean that her decisions were swayed with uncertainty through constant comparison to her competitors and what she thought “looks nice” rather than establishing an identity of her own – the wanting of standing out from the crowd yet fearful of taking the risk of standing too much outside the crowd. Such common mindset of this kind of clients I come across is this: “what the competitor does must look right thus we must follow”. This reminded me of my previous job as a designer at a magazine company, which was an absolute nightmare. With both inexperienced directors coming from different backgrounds, the irreconcilable artistic tastes between the two led to a disastrous art direction that made a supposedly luxurious magazine look like Tatler baptised in lime juice, thanks to the dreaded use of cheap stock art, refusal to stick to consistency as “it is boring”, ripping off layouts from dozens of other competing magazines and indecisiveness. The result: very very poor sales.

It is time to see the importance of consistency contributing to establishing brand identity AND good design. This is especially not easy for a typical, adventurous first-time client to comprehend and who hardly possess a trained eye like an experienced designer does. Consistency does not equal to being boring. In fact, empirical evidence shows quite the opposite. Even if a design of an element looks good, having multiple elements of different ‘good’ designs does more harm than good due to a lack of cohesion as a group:

1. It confuses your audience
2. Lack of consistent and recognisable identity
3. Greater indecisiveness
4. Unnecessary headaches and work done in the long run
5. Lack of confidence among your audience towards your brand

Thinking outside the box does NOT mean accepting every creative style without a fixed consideration and organization in place, such as whether styles of photography, colours, type, tone of voice and layout compliment each other or not.

Most successful brands in the world attribute to their establishment of strict brand guidelines for all their collateral that resonate a common cohesion and stand the test of time. For example, Coca Cola’s use of red and white colours resulted in them being extremely memorable, even without looking at the logo. Aviva’s yellow colour and their use of the light rays in their photography has established them as being positive and hopeful, while Skype’s constant use of cyan colour and vector illustrations on their graphic layout has earned their reputation as being reliable and warm towards consumers.

Not to mention, the infamous MTV logo that sparked a debated between me and an ignorant sales manager who insisted that changing his corporate logo every now and then was okay because MTV does it! Yet, he forgot that MTV retains their logo’s skeletal structure and adopts a fun, witty an thematic way of doing their iconic adaptations since they are in a music industry where change is rampant, and creativity is an all-time high.

In order for entrepreneurs to establish the look for their brand identity, it is important to take these considerations while setting up their brand guidelines for all their promotional materials:

1. Typography
There should not be more than 3 different fonts, and the fonts must be able to compliment each other.

2. Tone of voice
Depending on your target audience, is your tone of voice (in copywriting and/or design) going to be witty or serious?

3. Colour scheme
Like typography, keep the use of colours minimal. This can include variations of the same colour, and whether the main colour should be used for the header, while the other colours are used for the body text, for example.

4. Photography
Still or live shots? Are photos going to contain zoom-up sections of an image rather than as a whole etc.?

5. Layout
Will rectangles be the main elements throughout your design? Or the header be tilted 45 degrees with a full straight body text below etc.?

Brand guidelines are the foundation of good, consistent design and branding, and as we can see, will take just as much time as writing up a business plan. These guidelines can be printed and saved as PDF for reference for design agencies and designers when they are hired to created promotional materials for the company. Alternatively, entrepreneurs can either seek brand strategist companies to establish their brand guidelines for them or hire freelance help if they are on a budget.

Ultimately, the importance of establishing of a brand design cannot simply be ignored.

Singapore advertising – so so behind….

“Philips sorry for ad stunt ” was the breaking news of the local papers Straits Times Singapore, on 14 Oct 2010.

It happened that electronics giant Philips was running a guerrilla marketing campaign by using a bear mascot which appeared along Ulu Pandan Road. Thanks to the nation’s rigid culture and stringent laws, Philips was charged with triggering public nuisance.

Not too long ago in July this year, national mail service provider SingPost’s viral campaign using unconventional method to their mailbox designs – graffiti. Not only were the boxes mistaken by the public for vandalism, the “act” was reported to the police. (Note: Vandalism is punishable by law in Singapore, hence the almost absence of graffiti of any sort in this highly cleanliness-obsessed, boring, artificial urban state.) SingPost was hence fined…as expected.

Sadly, such news highlights the rigidity of the nation’s sense of design, and ironically, they are pumping in money into the creative industries to encourage greater “creativity”.

Hey, at least the agencies behind those ads got publicity!

While we fine creativity of such, we are accepting ads of lower calibre such as the current irritating jingle sung by 3 whorish-looking cabaret girls that plays every time an MRT train approaches the platform:

The government’s “Love Your RIde” campaign to encourage Singaporeans to be more courteous in the already over-crowded public transport with its carriages plagued by sweaty body odour in the hot, tropical country just does not ease my queasy stomach or make my ride any lovable…

At the same time, the current TV ad by slimming centre SlimFit featured a thin sexy woman walking passed a few gazing men, her countenance changed once in the elevator, revealing that all along she had been sucking in her bloated tummy to give the illusion of a slim figure. Any youtuber who loves to hunt for weird Japanese commercials will not be fooled knowing that the idea was copied from an original Japanese commercial that was promoting low-fat tuna:

Disappointingly, Singapore’s advertising scene looks years away from the more established advertising industries in UK and Japan. It would take a relaxing of its stringent policies and the changing of the people’s risk-free mindset to change all that!

Direct mail: Does yours stand out?

For the marketer, this is one of the most common low-cost, below-the-line advertising tactics, but direct mail (a.k.a DM) can be every receiver’s nightmare, hence DM is like a salesman in print form, intruding every household without the need to knock and flooding the mailbox with excessive advertising shout-outs.

Last week, I managed to clear out my already cluttered mailbox. About 95% of the junk did not appeal to me. However, before I binned them, I decided to study closely the design and marketing tactics of each one.

Many of the DM came in various forms: flyers sealed neatly in plastic sleeves, envelope-sealed anonymous letters, postcards, brochures, magazines, business cards..you name it. As long as they fit into the mouth of the mailbox.

I was bored by the unimaginative copy-writing of some: “Here’s a special (company’s name) surprise for you” on a blank envelope, and all those common blank mail from I-don’t-know-who-and-I-don’t care-who whose only address to you is “The Resident”, and any marketer who thinks that such “surprise” will lead the receiver to open it, will be sorely disappointed that we residents know all to well its a giveaway that this is junk mail.

My take on this: Don’t waste my time.

If you want to sell me something, tell me directly what it is unless you can conjure up some pretty strong and convincing copy-writing such as one I received from FitnessFirst whose logo appears on the front, plus its message on the envelope:

“Advice from a billionaire: Q: What is the biggest piece of advice you would give to young investors?”…the answer revealed inside!”

Now that would get me intrigued! Another was from an anonymous mailer who cleverly hand-written the address on the envelope which I would otherwise have thrown away if it was typed. Needless to say, the mail was from a housing agent introducing his services that I was not interested in, but at least he got me to open his mail!

In addition, design plays an important factor to get me reading further. The worst I got was a childish-looking flyer advertising a party which I am 100% absolute that it was done on Microsoft Word. The fonts were mismatched and the faint ink made readability hard. As expected, it ended up in the bin.

Some of the better ones I have encountered are the ones that explored papers of different textures with exceptional layout and colours that not only made it readable, but easier (and pretty) to keep for future references in the household.

Perhaps the best kinds of direct mail are the ones that really catch your attention in terms of mediums and layouts as seen in this link. Such tactics can greatly increased attention span and ultimately sales. How nice if everyone could do something similar! Sadly, such creative DM are very costly to produce.

My advice for those who are keen to stick to DM:
- keep it short, readable and direct (don’t try to be too clever like those anonymous DM) as many of us are busy people
- keep in mind who your audiences are to make your DM relevant to those groups of people
- make sure it fits in the letterbox
- try to experiment with different mediums to stand out from the other DM
- have great copy-writing that effectively engages the audience
- have it professionally designed and not look as if some amateur did it
- if cost is a factor, explore different paper sizes or use the internet to send out your mail

Such etiquette must be kept in mind as there are already too many rude ones out there that deserve a whack from the bin cover.

Designers, do your business cards speak clarity to your receivers?

While we designers try to make our business cards as fanciful, creative and professional as possible, the thing that struck me most when I pass my beautiful cards is being bombarded with this common question: “Graphic designer…so what exactly do you do?”

It seems that there are people who have no clue to what we even do! The next best thing was encountering those who knew what we do, but always asking what kind of mediums we design for (eg. web, print, mobile, music, advertising, publishing etc.). I got fed up having to repeat myself in every meeting I go to. When my cards had run out, the following design was to incorporate a summary of what my graphic design business involve at the back of the card: “Communication design for: brochures | flyers | music albums | websites | …” etc. Plus, I added some white space above the summary so that my contacts can jot down notes on where and when they met me.

The next time time I distributed the new cards, it saved me a LOT of headache. Potential clients not only had my contact, they were offered convenience by the simple flip of the card to understand what my job involves and how it can help their businesses.

Currently, there are many designers whose cards do not go beyond their job title. In the name of aesthetics, some designers have made their cards (however beautiful) clueless and distant for the receiver to understand. A tagline and/or point-summary will be extremely useful for potential clients and contacts at meetings. Including your URLs from the popular social media networks like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook is great in providing options for the receiver to stay in touch with you as well as adding one more contact to your list.

Of course, you can go beyond the standard business card format and create those moo cards that are so common these days, or get inspiration from 51 Creative Business Cards That Will Make You Look Twice. Innovative cards can really make heads turn, but are not without the pros and cons as the writer points out on each piece.

Otherwise, the normal standard format is more than enough. Hardly any complaints and people find it much easier to store in their wallets and business card folders.

Young, Talented, Female and Patronised

Now that years have added more credibility to my profession as a designer, I recall the early days in London when I first started out freelance a year straight after graduation.

One of the tiring activities involved were attendances to many networking events in order to fish for potential clients. Networking can be fun at times but it is work at the end of the day. Many of the people were around their 30s and 40s. Only a handful were in their 20s. That is not the issue. The real problem arises when the older ones tend to treat the younger ones condescendingly. There were times I was the only 20-something in the meetings.

I am not talking about seasoned professionals trying to give advice to the juniors. I am referring to the ones, whether in the same profession or not, assuming that because you are younger, you are not to be taken seriously or even worth doing business with. It was even harder considering that my Asian face looked relatively younger than my age compared to my Caucasian counterparts, and being female did not make the situation any better.

You’re a graphic designer? What’s that?
Oh Singapore. Which part of China is that?
You look so young. How many years of experience do you have?

Just some of those typical questions that I get. I have encountered a fair share of the rude, arrogant…and rude. The plus side of it was I managed to encounter people who shared the similar fate with me.

One young British female entrepreneur had lost count the number of times people have sought free work from her rather than pay her (so did I), and another baby-faced entrepreneur recalled how people, even till this day, did not take her seriously despite the fact that she had over 10 years of experience! The most disturbing were the sexual advances that a few female entrepreneurs encountered during meetings, disappointed that they were not being listened to the whole time. Others (male and female) chose to succumb by accepting projects which pay less than half of what they deserved. Anything and anywhere to get them a head start. Honestly, I have encountered and done some of the things mentioned above before, only to come out much stronger and stiffer, and being able to say no to dodgy offers.

Age, rather than business skills, can sometimes cloud people’s judgment in determining your credibility. This does not just happen in networking, but also in the office and in the internet. In Asia where hierarchy is taken seriously, the situation is more magnified. Friends shared with me their experiences where their bosses would give no hoots about their ideas or even listen to them, only to find out later that they made grave mistakes. As an active participator in discussions in various forums, I do get a few commentators asking if I was a young designer in the public post rather than actively critiquing the discussions.

Sure, there are times my age does highlight that I need more experience rather than trying to act as if I know-it-all. Yet, people still forget that in business, it is the skills and expertise that count. Look at Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, who at my age is now a billionaire. I can imagine what it must be like for him when he and his mates first started out.

The saying is true that your physical presentation is very important for the first impression. No, I am not saying that you should draw wrinkles around your face. Rather, professionalism and a great attitude can help overcome those barriers, which can make it twice as hard. Depending on where you go and who you meet, you can come across some of the greatest and nicest people around who will later consult your business.

Overall, I have to say the experience was worth it. I really enjoyed myself in learning new things. It was not easy as I had no prior experience then. Good to start off early and get yourself established on time.

Ugliest website gets the hits!

The below was voted #1 worst website award in 2009 by Webpages that Suck and it belongs to UK-based entrepreneur, Ling Valentine:

How on earth the most ghastly web page in the Worldwide Web gets such popularity and manages to earn any money is perhaps not that all puzzling if we analyse the marketing tactics beneath the embarrassing and ugly facade.

A closer study of the site (if you can spare a few minutes of breath-taking eyesore) and of the entrepreneur herself reveals an intelligent lady who dares to cross the boundaries which most of us would not dream of doing: using ugliness to sell.

Born in China, Ling and her Finnish husband settled in the UK. There, she started LingsCars, a car-rental company that has managed to undercut many major car rental companies in UK. Ling’s popularity soared after appearing in the UK’s version of Dragon’s Den (guess who the proud youtube user who posted it is) in 2007.

The confident, petite, plumped-faced, award-winning female entrepreneur walked into the den clad in casual winter vest and jeans, before a panel of formally-dressed, multi-millionaire “dragons”. Despite her imperfect English (Chinglish (Chinese-English…get it?) as she calls it), Ling started off by giving instant noodle packs as free lunch to each dragon and managed to make the judges laugh when she joked: “We Chinese eat dragons for breakfast”. In the end, she rejected one of the dragons, Richard Farleigh’s offer in return for a higher equity share than Lings’ initial offer. Her performance was one of the show’s highlights since then, being mentioned as well in the BBC’s published book “Dragons Den: Success from Pitch to Profit”.

She didn’t need the investment; I believe the whole idea of Ling appearing on Dragon’s Den was simply to get free nationwide publicity. Her marketing tactics are as desperately ridiculous yet hilarious as her website suggests. And it worked. Not only was her site flooded with visitors after the show, she managed to lease about £3.5 million worth of vehicles monthly!

In her poorly-planned website, Ling does not seem to mind getting very close and personal with her audience. So close, that every page is peppered with clones of the unglamorous entrepreneur’s own face. It is hard to find someone who does not mind poking fun at herself by colouring the glasses of her lens with atrocious-looking designs, positioning herself in various poses to promote new products – one image of her with a body of a machine gun, a Ling with a cartoonish superman body, another with 5 of her clones dressed like Chinese Mafians holding placards with different messages. And what’s that?? At the top left hand corner of her homepage, you can command her to go up or down on the menu bar! She is there in every page and every section when you scroll down. Hand-drawn words that looks as if some two-year-old had just scribbled graffiti appear on every page. A proper colour scheme and layout is non-existent. Cheap-looking, ugly GIF animations protrude from nowhere and her copywriting is filled with grammatical errors and carries a tone of confidence and lunatic wit (unintentionally or not). One example is on her “How it works” page, with the 7th step stating: “Drive and show off & impress stupid friends”. It is hard to focus on the products without seeing her everywhere, or even take her seriously at first sight.

She talks whenever and whatever is going on in her life and in the UK, even as far as mentioning her being a gay icon, down to which World Cup team she was supporting. So transparent is she about her life that the viewer in a way, does feel close and personal to her and she has successfully managed to endear loyal customers through her personality. Proudly, she declares: “PEOPLE OF BRITAIN…you can trust me, I AM LING!”.

Her most famous promotional stunt to date is her “nuclear missile truck”: a life-size rocket with that all so familiar face and website link pasted on its body, sitting on a military jeep. Her reason for this: “Missile truck was initially next to A1 Motorway in Tony Blair’s consituency of Sedgefield, near Darlington. It pointed West towards George Bush!”. This promotional idea does not make sense as to how it relates to her service and products. In fact, many of the ways she promotes her service does not make sense either. It is precisely because it does not make sense that one would find it hard to forget. She does much of her own PR and her unconventional, “cute” approach has garnered both criticism and praise by viewers alike, being featured in various press, TV and radio.

Ling unabashedly highlights in yellow “SUPPOSED ‘WORST WEBSITE’” in an article that talks about her, in addition to offering free badges with the slogan: “I love Ling’s website!”. And she is proudly unashamed of it.