slide 28 | creativity + business require a slightly schizophrenic personality. (but in a good way!)
As a creative professional, know that at some point, during your professional career (through either your own desire or necessity) you will have the opportunity to “strike out on your own”. These are some lessons that I have learned during my 30 year career.
On Tuesday, I presented this in webinar form, to friends and colleagues from my alma mater, Rochester Institute of Technology, RIT. Enjoy! –Doug.
The Jefferson Space Museum features a collection of apace flown, US $2 bills.
One of the most rewarding aspects of my profession, is my constant exposure to people from all walks of life, with unique knowledge and interests. I learn something new every single day.
Richard Jurek, founder and curator: Jefferson Space Museum
Richard Jurek, who with David Meerman Scott, recently co-authored: “Marketing the Moon: The Selling of the Apollo Lunar Program”–the beautiful coffee table book concerning what has now become to be known as: 'The most successful marketing and public relations campaign in history.’
During the workday, Richard is a high-level corporate executive. In his spare time, he is a space enthusiast who collects artifacts from the space program–including space-flown, US, two dollar bills. Many of these bills, signed by astronauts and crew members, are available for viewing at Richard’s virtual gallery at the Jefferson Space Museum, www.jeffersonspacemuseum.com.
EYMER BRAND Laboratories + Think Tank, recently assisted Mr. Jurek, in the redesign and development of the online museum website/blog.
Unlike a brick-and-mortar museum, where you are several inches away from the displays, the Jefferson Space Museum brings the artifacts to near lifelike proportion and clarity.
TIP OF THE DAY: For those parents of vacationing school students, this might be a good week to plan a quick visit!
And…
As Richard Jurek states: “Make sure you stop by the gift shop on your way out.” — Doug.
K+S Design is located in Scituate MA. For more information, call Kathleen 781.424.8585 or Suzanne 617.512.9880.
EYMER BRAND Laboratories + Think Tank, recently completed a corporate identity project for Boston-area interior designers, K+S Design.
Business card, front + back.
The K+S "base mark" is a circle emblazoned with the initials 'K' and 'S' (referring to business partners, Kathleen Thomson and Suzanne Rubenstein).
To visually demonstrate the breadth of their expertise–spanning from classical to modern–the two letterforms are rendered in a formal serif typeface, while the '+' is depicted as a more modern sans serif typeface.
To emphasize the teams abilities to work in a variety of different materials — the base logo that can be easily adapted, through time, to many different treatments.
To better demonstrate this principle, the graphic above shows the gray base logo (left-hand corner).
Beneath, are variations shown in many different materials:
and finally…
Trust us.
Any corporate identity that can stand up to duct tape and Jell-O–will surely stand up to the test of time. — Doug.
We are going through another one of many winter storms, here in New England.
I have recently observed how shrewd marketers have jumped on to the weather-hype bandwagon–encouraging advanced preparation (through product hoarding) for severe weather events.
It is not unusual to receive a pre-storm email from either big-box office supply store, drugstore chain, grocery store, etc.–reminding consumers to pick up that extra loaf bread, carton of milk, disposable diapers, package of AA batteries, and cat food.
While doing some design maintenance work on David Meerman Scott's website, I have been subliminally re-indoctrinated with some of David’s ingenious marketing concepts–including NewsJacking.
It was early this morning that I came up with the concept of eMailJacking.
With a slightly worn, storm-preparation email–received from a corner drug store brand (as in–the drug store located on almost every single street corner in America) and some virtual patching materials (digital duck tape, masking tape, and torn paper), I was able to create a fun snow promotion for my local retail client, The Good Sport.
Where other stores promote the bare necessities, Cohasset's Good Sport offers the supplies that make snow fun! – Enjoy!
For the majority of my professional life I have run my own business. This wasn't actually part of my master plan, it just happened to work out this way.
To be quite honest, I love the control, the balancing of roles, and the freedom — although I tend to work most weekends and at least 12 hours a day during the week.
Vacations?
Huh! They are a sign of weakness.
Can you go and see a movie in the middle of the day?
Sure.
However, you will most likely be burning the midnight oil while ‘serial employees’ are tucked snuggly in their beds.
I went to a great college, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)–but my real professional preparation came from a gentleman that I worked for, during my high school and college summers.
Bud Jenkins, was the golf pro at the Pennhills Club in my hometown of Bradford Pennsylvania. Bud was like a second father to me, and provided the ‘push’ that I needed to get out of my rural western Pennsylvania town and into a big city environment–where I could best succeed in the professional path that I had selected.
It was Bud who taught me the phrase, “If you can’t go first class, don’t go at all.”
He was a risk-taker and many times, marched to the beat of his own drum.
In his youth, unsuccessfully tried out for a catching position with the Chicago Cubs.
As a young man, Bud spent many years working as assistant pro and later pro at the New Orleans Country Club, where he enjoyed the colorful clientele that you might expect from such an establishment.
He once told me that if he could do anything that he wanted in life, he would find a job on Bourbon Street, where as a barker, he would usher people in and out of one seedy establishment or another.
As a golf professional, within a private country club, Bud supplemented his modest salary with profits from his pro shop retail sales as well as by providing one-on-one golf lessons.
As members of Bud’s pro shop team, it was our responsibility to take care of members as they entered and exited the golf course. The serious golfers kept their bags in the back room of the golf shop, where they were carefully cleaned and stowed after each round.
In addition to teaching me the general rules of business, Bud taught me was how to professionally manage my personal feelings, while conducting professional business services. In other words, how to bite your lip, and remain polite–despite whatever might be being tossed your way.
In the back room of the pro shop, where no customers were permitted, Bud had placed a small business card size sign above doorway.
We could read it. Members could not.
The sign read:
I can be working around the clock for days on end–but when there is a sudden lull in the action, this little sign suddenly pops into my head.
This in a nutshell, is the most difficult part of running your own business. The merry-go-round never stops. But at the end of a long day–what a feeling of accomplishment!
A couple of years ago, I was able to track down Bud through his daughter, Teresa. He was still living at the time but his mind was being ravished by Alzheimer’s Disease.
In my short telephone conversation with Teresa, she said that he would often say, “I know that I had a great life, I just wish that I could remember it.” – Doug.
This is today's update to THE GOOD SPORT website home page.
It's a SNOW DAY for Cohasset students and a great time to pick up snow gear!
For the past few years, EYMER BRAND Laboratories + Think Tank, has had the pleasure of working with Cohasset sporting goods retailer–THE GOOD SPORT.
Now in its 36th year, the brick and mortar retailer, offers a wide variety of sports-related products from brands such as NIKE, Adidas, Saucony, Brine, Maverik and many others. Owner, Austin Lyne, and his staff of local high schoolers, offer the customer service that is obviously missing from many of the BIG BOX sporting goods retailers.
Talk to any parent (in our Boston south shore community) about the first day of soccer practice and how THE GOOD SPORT saved the day with their inventory of cleats and shin guards.
"I didn't realize that Suzie's feet had grown 6 inches over the winter."
"I knew that Buster had a thing for shoes–but never recognized his insatiable appetite for soccer shoes!"
Unlike the sports mega-store, THE GOOD SPORT actually measures your child's foot–and provides a shoe that will meet peer approval–and not drain Mom or Dad's wallet.
So what do we do?
In addition to managing the store's website, EYMER also maintains the social media network and e-mail marketing efforts.
With new marketing tools appearing almost daily, there is always some form of experimentation happening behind the scenes. For the near future, EYMER and THE GOOD SPORT will be working with FACEBOOK–as we continue push the local brand in the right marketing direction!
How is your local business marketing itself?
We would love to hear how your local business is. How are you bringing customers in the door?