Should you use the backs of a business card?
September 1, 2008 by Maria G. Nozza |
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Monday’s Promotion Tip for Graphic Designers
When designing stationery, there is one question about designing business cards that causes some debate. “To use or not to use the backs of the business cards. That is the question.”
You’ve got 2 camps: one that says you should and the other that says a resounding “NO!” (I know, deep!)
Those that say “NO” claim it’s because you want to leave it blank so that the recipient of the business card can write notes about you on the back. They also say that there should be “no confusion” as to which is the front and which is the back.
Those that say “YES!” say it’s because the back of the cards are prime real estate for an ad or additional information. They say that the back is a continuation of the front and be treated as sort of a billboard.
In design school, everyone always told me it was a no-no to put stuff on the backs of business cards. When I started working at the print shop, the majority of business cards were one-sided. In fact, printers hated double-sided cards.
Well, I’ve come across one man’s solution for combining these 2 seemingly opposing views. You can check out the post here.
He does use the backs. He uses a “next action form” on the backs so that the prospect can write notes. Brilliant.
TAKEAWAY:
The reason I like this is 3-fold.
It’s original and practical. You never see anyone really create the backs of the business cards as something to be used. It’s practical because the prospect has a place to write notes.
But, most importantly, it’s engaging. You are ensuring that they remember you. More likely than not, the prospect write out stuff to remember. Or, at the very least, he’ll remember your original business card (and of course the person that gave out the card).
The importance of the concept in design
August 15, 2008 by Maria G. Nozza |
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Filed under Blog, Swipe File
Friday’s Creative Review for Graphic Designers
Well, this week, a bomb exploded in the form of posters from the Spanish basketball teams. Not one, but both the men and women’s teams.
For the Beijing Olympics, Spain’s Basketball Federation published a “good luck” ad for their basketball teams (the men’s are world champions, no less!) in which the members are making a slit-eyed gestures on a floor picturing a dragon.
Well, this generated a firestorm.
I doubt that their intent was to anger their Olympic hosts, that would be foolish. But seriously, who can think that this was a good idea? And that it would not be taken badly?
As a result, they are being accused of racism.
It does beg the question: should it be considered racism when there is no malice intent behind it? Or are they just ignorant? Personally, I don’t think it’s ever acceptable to joke about, mock, poke fun, or imitate others.
In The Guardian there was an article by Sid Lowe. He is a Madrid-based correspondent for The Guardian’s football weekly podcast — about the photograph. Here’s what he had to say:
Spain’s Olympic basketball teams have risked upsetting their Chinese hosts by posing for a pre-Games advert making slit-eyed gestures. The advert for a courier company, which is an official sponsor of the Spanish Basketball Federation, occupied a full page in the sports daily Marca, the country’s best-selling newspaper.
The advert features two large photographs, one of the men’s basketball team, above, and one of the women’s team. Both squads pose in full Olympic kit on a basketball court decorated with a picture of a Chinese dragon. Every single player appears pulling back the skin on either side of their eyes. The advert carries the symbol of the sport’s governing body.
No one involved in the advert appears to have considered it inappropriate nor contemplated the manner in which it could be interpreted in China and elsewhere.
Pete Thamel, who reports for The Times, wrote “The typically sedate Chinese crowds vigorously booed the Spanish basketball team at times in Spain’s overtime victory here on Tuesday night. It’s unknown whether it has anything to do with the publication of insensitive pictures in which the Spanish men’s and women’s team appear to be mocking people of Asian descent by pulling back their skin behind their eyes.”
El Mundo, in their post “¿Racismo o guiño cariñoso?” (Racism or affectionate wink?) made an attempt to answer the obvious question: What the heck were they thinking?
The photograph, widely disseminated now by the press, was made during the preparation campaign for the Olympic Games in Beijing. …
Jose Manuel Calderon, an icon of the national team, explains in his blog at elmundo.es that it was a wink of the sponsor, something they thought appropriate and affectionate. He is blunt: “Whoever wants to interpret something different, totally confused.”
“It turns out that in the photo shoot for the submission of our team, one of our sponsors asked us to make, as a ‘wink’ to our participation in Beijing, an expression of Eastern eyes. We felt it was something appropriate and that it would always be interpreted as an affectionate gesture,” says Calderon. “However, some European media have not looked on it well,” laments the linchpin of the national team.
Calderon denies any racist tinge in the gesture and expressed his “great respect for the East and its people.” The Extremaduran highlighted his great personal relationship with several Chinese friends by his team in the NBA, Toronto Raptors, and recalled that the sports brand Li Ning China outfits the Spanish team as one of its sponsors.
El Pais reported that the Chinese embassy in Spain has pronounced the ad “ni racista ni ofensivo.” (neither racist nor offensive).
U P D A T E :
The Argentine Women soccer team did the same thing!!!
T A K E A W A Y :
- Has it become so “common” to make this gesture that we couldn’t tell that this might be considered offensive to the Chinese?
- It doesn’t matter what your design will look like. If it’s offensive, no one will pay attention to the graphics — but they wll to the content of it.
Promote yourself in your message
August 4, 2008 by Maria G. Nozza |
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Monday’s Promotion Tip for Graphic Designers
I heard something the other day which I thought was brilliant.
I called the office of someone and got their answering machine. Usually, it’s not that big a deal as you get the typical “You’ve reached the desk of _____. I am currently away from my desk or on another call. Blah, blah, blahh”.
Well, this time, it was different.
It started off in the usual way, “you’ve reached the office of _______ from [company name]” and then I heard the tagline of the company!
What an interesting thing. She actually promoted her company in her voice message!
T A K E A W A Y :
I then wondered how many other promotional oppotunities I’m missing. Something so simple and yet hardly anyone does it.
What to me is very telling is that what needs to happen is that every single point of contact between us and our clients always hold an opportunity to promote ourselves and our company.
E-mail etiquette
July 24, 2008 by Maria G. Nozza |
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Thursday’s Management Tip for Graphic Designers
E-mail has just exploded in the last decade. Everyone does it, but not everyone does it well.
It’s always been interesting to me that the subject of e-mail manners or courtesy is another of those things that is frequently overlooked and never really dealt with.
You would think that since everyone’s doing it, that everyone would be sharing how to do “correctly”. Or at least, share some simple “rules” of conduct when emailing people.
Here’s my list (which can also be considered my pet peeves)
This list to me should be given to everyone once they get an e-mail address. I’ve got a much longer list, but I thought I’d give you the basics for now:
- Never write an e-mail if you are drunk or pissed off. You’ll write something you’ll regret and it always shows!
- Never write things that you’ll later regret or shared with others. Words come and go, but emails are forever and in writing. AND, they can be instantly sent off to a whole bunch of people.
- Don’t put the e-mail address into the To: field until you are finished. You may accidentally press send (or it somehow magically happens) before it’s ready for primetime. This way, it won’t get sent until the e-mail address is in the To: field.
- When e-mailing a group of people, their e-mail address should be in the BCC field. It’s an issue of privacy and some may not want their email spread around (or worse, become spammed by being placed on others lists inadvertently).
- The e-mail subject line should make sense and reflect the content in the e-mail! Nothing generic like “hi”. I get so much email, I’d like to see at a glance what the subject of it really is (the title “subject” in this case should not be considered a misnomer! It should really be the subject of the email!)
- Keep your e-mails short and to the point. No likes to read a loooooonnnnnnng email. If it can be said in 2 sentences, don’t take 10 to do it.
- Don’t clog inboxes with large attachments: Never clog up e-mails with huge attachments and use up the person’s allotted memory. Instead use services like YouSendIt and then send the link to the file.
- Multiple attachments: If you are sending way more than 1 attachment, Zip it!
- Don’t send “Read Notification Receipts”: It’s annoying and what’s the point? You’ll go back and tell the person, “but I know you read it!” It means they opened it, not necessarily read it.
- SPELL CHECK! It always looks bad and you never know who’s going to read it.
- Remove personal information (like phone numbers or cells) if you know that many people may get the e-mail.
- Always reply to e-mails! Believe me, the person sending them is expecting to hear back from you!!!
T A K E A W A Y S :
It’s about good manners. And with all the emails we get, these things should be no brainers!
This list (to me, at least) is about courtesy and being conscious of the fact that we get so many emails, these guidelines should be a necessity!
Use signature files from your email program
July 23, 2008 by Maria G. Nozza |
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Wednesday’s Production Tip for Graphic Designers
There’s no reason to have only 1 general signature for all your emails you send.
With today’s e-mail programs, you can create a bunch of signatures all tailored to your needs.
Tailor your signatures to your audience:
- Clients (Professional)
- Clients (Personal)
- Newsletter subscribers
- People looking for info on your website
- Prospects
- Customers (past and future)
- Family and friends
T A K E A W A Y
Creating separate files for your signatures is a necessity because it makes responding to emails automatic and tailored to who your audience for that email.
You don’t want to retype or copy and paste the signature each time you send an email. Just take the time to set up the various signatures and then reuse them over and over.
