Design-Design » Peter Simcoe

YouTube Video Editor

Peter Simcoe — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:30:52 +0000

Overview

The YouTube Video Editor is free to access and use to edit clips together if you have a YouTube account. I created a Simcoemedia YouTube account and channel for my video portfolio and a hidden channel called VisualSnippet for my experimental videos. These hidden videos give me opportunity to try out some of the YouTube features without the risk of interfering with a channel I use as a portfolio of Simcoemedia commercial productions.

If you upload some videos to your YouTube Channel you can view them and edit them together with the YouTube Video Editor using a variety of transitions and titling tools. In addition you can add a soundtrack and even incorporate creative commons video to add additional clips appropriate to your narrative.

During experimentation with the system these features were tried out and 1080p HD video edited together. For maximum compatibility I used Google’s Chrome browser.

Advantages

The YouTube video editor will handle video up to 1080p and will edit clips together with a variety of transitions, most of which I would not recommend for the majority of video work. However, having used the fade and horizontal wipe to join clips these provided some useful alternatives to cutting clips directly.
Titling is simple but reasonably stylish if used carefully, though the choice of a single font and centre alignment of text does prove limiting if text goes onto two lines. The titler will only handle three lines of text.
The built in royalty free audio library is extensive and varied. With a bit of patience a suitable soundtrack can be found for the majority of circumstances. As audio makes up a significant proportion of the video experience, it is worth spending time selecting the best track.
Video is created on Google’s own YouTube servers therefore rendering 1080p video quickly and without using your own computers resources which is valuable if you need to get on with other tasks and onlt have one PC. Usually a 5 minute video can be ready within 40 minutes.

Disadvantages

When adding a soundtrack to the edited 1080p sequence, the audio noticeably stuttered and restarted within the first 10 seconds which essentially made it unusable. This problem was replicated several times.
Fade transitions were not completely smooth. The final part of the fades on 1080p video noticeably seemed overcompensate on the bright areas of the video creating a distracting oversaturation on bright areas just prior to completely fading.
When using both fade transitions and audio an internal server error occurred when I tried to publish the video. This occurred on all attempts until the music track was removed and only the original audio used. Audio can be added once the clips have been edited together but this is not clear during the main editing processes.

Conclusion

The YouTube video editor provides a useful tool for those people who want to create video but do not necessarily have the processing power to deal with the high volumes of data used when processing HD.

The online editor is not without its problems such as dubious transition accuracy and some of the fine tuning related to audio but overall it makes editing 1080p or 720p video accessible to those users with severely underpowered machines by allowing ‘The Cloud’ to do all the work.

Your Digital Footprint Having a significant digital footprint of quality content is not...
Google vs Mark Hillary What happens when a blogger comes up against the disapproval...
Google Wave Google Wave is set to redefine the way we collaborate...

Anaglyph 3D Images

Peter Simcoe — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 12:10:03 +0000

You can see the sample images below. Click on the thumbnail to see the full anaglyph 3D image created with the FujiFilm Finepix W3 3D camera. The images are sharp and really do present a detailed level of depth that would be very hard to achieve through other means such as two separate cameras or with separate shots [especially with moving elements such as people, trees or vehicles]. Enjoy!

In addition, I ve been experimenting with the YouTube 3D conversion features from some of the video footage taken from Australia and the USA. Below you can see some of the video taken with the FujiFilm FinePix W3 3D camera. The main advantages are the that the camera provides the ability for conversion software to easily display the video in a variety of formats such as Red / Cyan anaglyph, HTML5 3D or interlaced but the quality at higher resolution is poor, the 3D effect limited unless within 2m of an object and with no image stabilising technology on the FujiFilm camera the picture is pretty shakey. To view the 3D Red / Cyan version, prepare your Red / Cyan anaglyph glasses and then click the 3D button on the video controls – the ideal setting is the ‘Colour’ using enhanced, optimised Dubois anaglyph mode at 720p.

NOTE: The video above was created with the YouTube 3D conversion tool but it looks like this facility has been withdrawn in terms of supporting a side-by-side AVI file created with the FujiFilm Finepix camera. I will keep an eye on progress but since this test clip was created I have tried numerous ways to repeat the process without success and information on the FujiFilm AVI’s is limited.

Sample .mpo 3D Images A selection of .mpo files for you to view on...
Finepix W3 3D Review Review of the FujiFilm Finepix W3 3D Digital Camera -...
Finepix Real3D printing With the renewed interest in 3D viewing technology and the...

Sample .mpo 3D Images

Peter Simcoe — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 11:45:39 +0000

Below are a selection of examples of .mpo files taken in Australia and the USA in February 2011 using FujiFilm’s Finepix Real3D digital camera. To see the 3D versions download the original files in two parts by clicking on the links to the 3D .mpo files beneath the gallery – you will then need to view on a device such as a 3D television, a Nintendo 3DS or FujiFilm V1 viewer. All images are Copyright Simcoemedia 2011. All Rights Reserved.

Download MPO files part 1
Download MPO files part 2

[PROCESSING CAN BE SLOW DEPENDING ON ACROBAT.COM TRAFFIC]

See the review of the FujiFilm Real3D 3D Digital Camera and also the detailed description of lenticular technology.

Anaglyph 3D Images Following the interest received in Design-Design's 3D MPO files, we...
Finepix Real3D printing With the renewed interest in 3D viewing technology and the...
Finepix W3 3D Review Review of the FujiFilm Finepix W3 3D Digital Camera -...

Your Digital Footprint

Peter Simcoe — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 13:22:29 +0000

Digital footprint in this particular article refers to the breadth and depth of web content produced by a company or individual related to relevant subjects – though it is usually used in reference to a trail of logins, web locations and cookie data that can be used by companies to target advertising. When we talk about web content we could be discussing static web pages on a subject such as design eg basic overview pages of a company website or dynamic news based content such as latest product updates on a content management system. We can also be talking about the use of social media to contribute to information about us as individuals, a company or brand – so our tweets, contributions to LinkedIn, our input on Google + and Facebook add to the extent and image of our footprint. There are also other forms of digital content such as photography, audio, video and even PDF documents that can be linked to our brand or personal information – so sites like iStockphoto.com, AudioJungle.net, YouTube.com and individual sites such as www.audio-echo.co.uk [a Simcoemedia website] all help in contributing to a network of documents, MP3 files, videos and images linked to the Simcoemedia brand and image as a creative multimedia company.

Momentary Lapse of Reason: A Quick Warning

The proliferation and ease of publishing content in the public domain throughout the web should also be considered too – a momentary lapse of tweeting can lead to some serious offence, such as Jimmy Carrs recent lack of judgement in making “car crash jokes” around the same time as a tragic event on the M5 near Taunton. The result of your own lack of judgement could be potential loss of business or even something more serious events such as investigation from the police as two seventeen year old boys found out recently when they added racially charged comments to their Twitter feed and were subject to legal action.

The examples given are fairly extreme but with the power of the web, and ease of access to it in the western world, comes responsibility to ensure that what you publish is in line with your own strict [or conciously liberal] policies on what is appropriate within the law and within your public image.

An Example: Simcoemedia Design Consultancy

Over the last 10 years Simcoemedia has built up a solid reputation and brand as a creative multimedia agency which both reinforces company values to existing clients and attracts new work. Much of the work in establishing this has been built up online through the use of the following media:

Portfolio or bloging websites

Simcoemedia runs several independent websites containing design portfolio items, design articles, audio-soundtracks and film reviews. The content on these sites are all original and generated by Peter Simcoe as part of ongoing creative output in one form or another. They are particularly valuable in that the direction, management and contribution to Simcoemedia branding are completely unique – there are no other companies with vested interests in sharing any revenue or search listings. On the downside, they take time to establish, optimise for SEO and populate with appropriate content and links before they are noticed by search engines as having any importance. Here is a list of these sites:

Simcoemedia Design Consultancy – design portfolio items
Design-Design – design articles for business and academia
Audio-Echo – audio porfolio with shopping cart and film reviews
Simcoe-Shop – photographic portfolio with shopping cart

Stock Websites

For creative people, uploading audio, video and images to stock websites to sell to the public [they may be other designers, video producers or publishers] provides another channel of exposure for your work. Being part of a large online shop in one form or another does group you with the rest of the creatives and community so it is harder to stand out amongst the crowd but with larger numbers of people involved comes larger budgets and more investment in advertising with a greater reach. iStockphoto has a worldwide reputation with creative networks such as The Envato Network gaining ground in popularity. As a contributing artist to these global network websites I am able to have a profile page with links to my other portfolios that provide SEO value through the ability to add a profile page and link to pages with a good page rank [and even if theres a no-follow tag disallowing 'link juice'*, external links are still important], increase in my digital footprint and provide reassurance to potential buyers by the fact that I have passed the rigorous standards of websites such as iStockphoto.com.

* Link Juice, in simple terms, is the value search engines place upon the recommendation or linking of an external site to another – eg if Microsoft or Apple were to directly link to my website without the addition of a ‘no follow’ tag, then search engines would think that I must be an important site because I ve been linked to by a very important site and will increase my Page Rank [importance on the web] and therefore my search engine rankings.

Simcoemedia on iStockphoto.com
Simcoemedia on AudioJungle.net
Simcoemedia on Photodune.net

Social Media and Other sites

As we get closer to social media in our discussion regarding digital footprint, the lines between professional and non-professional activity can more easily be crossed and therefore more caution is urged. Just because something is freely available and can publish any thoughts you may have on any subject does not mean it should be used. I have a pretty strict policy on social media use – ie do not allow anything to be published that you would not be happy for your clients to read or view. The list of social media below is in order of priority and preference I place on it along with a brief summary of its use:

Simcoemedia YouTube Channel – video portfolio
Simcoemedia Twitter Account – design related tweets
LinkedIn – online resume and updated business related news
Simcoemedia Google + Page – interesting photos and basic company updates
Simcoemedia Facebook Account – linked to twitter with less formal design commentary

Digital Footprint Diagram

Below is a diagram of Simcoemedia’s digital footprint – you can also download the Simcoemedia Digital Footprint Diagram in PDF format. Larger circles indicate priority in time and content whereas smaller circles are considered to be of lower priority. Twitter is linked to many of the sites and can be seen on the footer of Simcoemedia, Design-Design, Audio-Echo as well as being fed into Facebook, Linked In and other sites – you can see Twitter’s main stream as a dotted line connecting many of the sites together. RSS feeds are broadcast from WordPress based websites and are fed into sites such as Linked In – titles also appear in the footers of all Simcoemedia WordPress based sites.

Simcoemedia uses many different sites for different purposes and goals. Some sites require updates and effort put into creating content more than others – others remain static for longer. Design-Design, the blog you are reading is updated once each month at least and new articles require detailed attention and significant time to produce. Simcoemedia Design Consultancy website is updated when certain projects are completed that add to the overall portfolio breadth and depth – not all projects make it to the porfolio as some skills, design styles or methods are already covered.

Conclusion

Expanding your digital footprint in the ways I have described and illustrated above assist your business in the following ways:

Allowing you to expand the different types of relevent content around a subject such as design and optimise these pages through the use of keywords and titles so that you can be found in as many search engine results as possible. Using different websites is a good way of keeping a focus upon different ‘angles of attack’ in terms of appearing in search engine results
Allowing you to exchange the maximum number of focussed, relevant external links between sites to improve Page Rank and search engine results for specific subject areas
Allows users to find your content by having a presence on channels that different groups of people may be familiar with eg many of the Facebook users I link to as friends do not use Twitter and would not necessarily know about certain design activities unless I linked them together so that my Tweets appear on my Facebook Wall

Twittering on about stuff! Latest Tweets from the Simcoemedia Network. These tweets are designed...
What is an RSS Feed? Using RSS feeds can save you significant time in collecting...
A Brief Introduction to Design-Design "You need to tell the client what he wants and...

Encouraging Keen Readers

Peter Simcoe — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 14:59:33 +0000

The web is full of content ranging from interesting and valuable insight to all the way through a sea of bland generic information and detail to outright lies and cynical speculation. Keeping up to date with information and making the most relevant information available through various channels to your audience is crucial to firstly, respect, secondly, attention and third and most importantly, customer / reader loyalty.

Existing Example

For the benefit of providing a good example for this article, we will take the example of a client of mine – Torse Ltd – as they have a particularly tricky dilemma in the way they present information to their current and potential future customers. Torse Ltd is an energy broker based in Nottingham in the East Midlands of England. Their ongoing struggle is with 4 aspects of providing information for their customers:

Dealing with the tarnished reputation that energy brokers and similar services have across the UK. Torse Ltd happen to be an honest, straightforward, straight talking company with a loyal customer base. However, when dealing with potential customers they must wrestle with the generally corrupt and devious reputation these type of services have acquired.
Providing a detailed and customised individual response to the energy requirements and recommendations for each client, ensuring that the right energy contracts are provided for them. This means that it is very difficult to create an online energy assessment form where ‘one size fits all’ – a contract is assessed and finalised using human judgement and experience. The problem here is that on initial impressions Torse are then at a disadvantage because they cannot offer an immediate web based answer to the question “how much can I save with Torse?”.
Generating high quality and useful output from the media channels available to the company. The energy market is a notoriously fluctuating beast with sensitivity to changes in world affairs and economics. Keeping up with all of this and generating good quality content is a difficult task.
Producing content that is relevant to business owners with varying degrees of knowledge and understanding is a skill that requires a deep understanding of the activities, motivators and range of knowledge that your audience will have and providing a medium level of depth for the majority whilst catering for those who need to know more about specific aspects of the subject to make an informed decision by providing access to these. The browsers and HTML were designed for this purpose amongst others.

Opportunities

Website static content

Generating web content describing your aims, services, products or even terms is usually at the very least a time consuming task, but is also usually a very difficult task in that taking the principle of not wasting potential clients time – you want to provide the least complexity that provides maximum results. Almost every product or service we use has a level of complexity beyond our desire or need to know and so we pick and choose the elements we read to ensure we know the most in the shortest time. This is where it becomes tricky – where do people begin to switch off and either lose interest or experience information overload?

News items and dynamic content

Quality news items for the purpose of blog pages on a website, or even in a PDF newsletter, are tough to write – no matter which sector you work in. Why? Because a really good news item delves into a subject that is either brand new or provides a different perspective for consideration whilst reaching directly to the audience. If you are writing bland, generic, self congratulatory news items for the sake of writing then you are doing more harm than good both in terms of your time and effort and the reputation you are trying to establish – provide news items clearly targeted for your audiences needs, aspirations and expectations and provide a unique style or perspective to ensure that they begin to pick you out from the wealth of web pages clambering for attention. Essentially, do alot of in depth research and ensure you can be bold, daring and get your facts right all at the same time!

Short messages and pointers

I am really talking about the power of Twitter here – limited and overrated as it is, it does have a place. It is the marketing answer to a quick heads up about the latest goings on in a company and if written intelligently, can provide the public and followers with an insight into completed projects, upgrades, new offices, news items worthy of attention – communication that your audience wants to hear that could impact upon or benefit them or communication that relays your honesty and commitment to a specific product or service.

Other websites recommending your services

Carefully selected partnerships or lists of ‘friends’ can really be an advantage in sharing good quality sites – the visitors of one site are recommended to the other sites of a similar or ‘of interest’ nature. These are often found in a footer or sidebar of a website and almost act as mini-ads for the partners / friends. Facebook has not been mentioned here yet and for many in business to business based services it is not an appropriate or particularly productive channel in my opinion.

Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing on the web has the potential for increasing traffic and sales from your website via groups of people online who are given the task of selling your products via blogs, adverts, links and other methods familiar to those browsing the web. However, I personally think that in certain circumstances this can lead to the web being populated with biased reviews and misleading or exaggerated information. Why? Well, if you are paid to review a product or can make money from people buying a product or service you are more likely to write a dishonest or misleading review unless you have the ability to only sell those products or services that you rate the highest. Affiliate marketing is a method that works but there is no doubt it is open to abuse and tends to populate the web with exaggeration or misinformation.

Other media types

If there are other methods for communicating your message then these may be attractive to returning viewers. Creating episodes of video content, a series of exhibition or a podcast can ensure that returning readers find something of benefit to them each time therefore increasing the real value of the site.

Measuring Success or Failure

The key to keeping customers interested in coming back to the example site, www.torse.co.uk, is to make it of value to the reader. How do we measure what is of value to customers? There are various tools and techniques that could be employed to establish where customer value could be attributed:

Web Statistics

There are many ways of obtaining webstats including the use of Google Analytics and most web hosting companies will have their own statistics generators from log files on your site. How are these useful? Well, you can establish where people are spending most of their time and which pages tend to get overlooked. Then it is a case of analysing whether it is because the information is buried or simply not of interest. Once these trends have been analysed it is down to the analyst to provide insight as to recommending change, removal or redesign of a page.

Voting via Google +1, Digg, Stumble Upon [or other]

Allowing your readers to easily “like”, “+1″ or “digg” a news item, page, gallery or portfolio could generate a whole raft of interest from other sites designed to highlight or promote popular news items, useful websites and those pages that are of particular interest to internet groups. The traditional “like” system on Facebook is currently facing a small but growing challenge from Google’s +1 and with Google having such dominance over the web, it is important to take note of this development.

Direct feedback via survey email or phone

This has to be handled fairly delicately in many ways so as not to annoy your existing / potential clients or even use data you have access to in the form of email addresses, phone numbers or addresses in an illegal or inappropriate manner. Sending simple customer surveys through phone, email or even postal channels can provide an insight into what aspects of your content were useful to them and what they as readers or customers would like to see on the site in the form of articles or frequently asked questions. In many instances a guide to content can be found by assessing the enquiries made via web forms or phone and looking at how these can be covered on the website to answer these questions.

Increase in sales

Another indicator of success can be an increase in sales. However, attributing this to web content can be a difficult task though using tools such as Google Analytics, iMapt and other similar tracking tools can provide an insight into the popularity of your content and consequential activity. Paid for tools such as iMapt do provide additional insight into activity on your site and in some cases provide live warnings when someone enters the site.

Conclusion

Web content should be very carefully researched in terms of what your audience need to know to enable them to make a purchase or agreement to use your services. The methods for assessment listed above should provide guidance as to the value of certain sections of your site. Where appropriate, senior members of the company should play a reasonably large part in writing text, selecting images or at the very least proof reading prior to release [if a marketing 'expert' does the majority of creation] – no-one knows more about the company as a whole than those involved directly with its running. A copywriter could be consulted for additional evaluation of your content, further distilling the message to something direct, meaningful and making conversions to purchase or sign a contract an easy and informed decision.
There are both free and paid-for tools available to make assessment on how your existing and potential customers are using your content. These should be used in conjunction with a process of content distillation to assess points at which customers pursue or abandon your message. Just because people are moving through your site does not necessarily mean they value what you have to say.
Use external affiliate networks and telemarketing companies with care – they can do more damage if not correctly vetted in that their interest in receiving commission and further work from the companies they are promoting could lead them to exaggerate, omit or make misleading claims about the benefits or terms. I’m not against using external resources in this way but remember that an external company will never have the same dedication to your company principles and ideals as you even if they say they do.

What is an RSS Feed? Using RSS feeds can save you significant time in collecting...
Creating A Social Network There are so many opportunities to connect and create networks...
Cafepress.com Review Feeling like you want to express your creativity all over...

Project Meetings

Peter Simcoe — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 08:05:15 +0000

When working in a company, academic institution or other organisation there are a variety of tasks that require people to get together in the same place to discuss face to face rather than over the phone, via Skype or other network based meetings. There’s nothing better than a face-to-face meeting for focusing the mind, reducing distraction and providing the more subconscious communication of body language. However, the time and effort, and therefore financial implications, for each member of staff attending should never be underestimated. So how should the appropriate time for a meeting be determined and managed?

The best way to begin analysis is to look at the nature and perceived value of different communication methods:

Email

Can be trashed, unread or even lost. Make a note to respond and backup your emails.
Can be misinterpreted or misquoted though does have the advantage of allowing media attachments and being a written records of discussion
Recommended use: When familiar with those being sent the message eg track record of previous contact and non-essential, day-to-day discussion. Initial contact with potential clients could appear impersonal and spamming for business is not acceptable / illegal

Telephone

Direct conversation allows for greater communication accuracy than email through tone of voice and emotion but is more convenient and less time consuming than a face to face meeting
Communicates sincerity, trustworthiness more effectively than email but not as well as a face-to-face meeting
Recommended use: For initial contact, discussing detailed complex issues where immediate feedback will drive a conversation or to finalise email discussion with clients

Meeting

Communication through speech, body language and visual media can also include senses such as taste, touch etc for product evaluation
Does require note taking where serious issues or matters that may be refered to later are discussed – can be difficult to do both at the same time so usually a secretarial role or dedicated notation tool is required
Recommended use: When intensive discussion is required, for example, the start of a project or the completion of a phase of the project. Useful for providing a focus or pressure to ensure certain tasks are complete as it will be necessary to present them

Net Meeting

[Use of webcam and / or mic to communicate visually and audibly]

This is a slight improvement on just using the phone but with broadband speeds occassionally dropping and limited scope of what can be achieved in front of the camera it does not make it much better than a telephone conversation
Has certain visual benefits in terms of being able to share screens give demonstrations or present a lo-res version of the person at the other end of the line but not much more.
Screensharing is a major benefit of a net meeting and online software such as Skype or www.acrobat.com does a good job of allowing others to view and control a remote computer.

So, lets say you’re working on a project, you have used email and phone methods for communicating and now there are team members and management personel brought together for a face-to-face meeting and assessment of progress. You need to focus on a variety of issues to ensure the smooth running of the meeting [or even just participation] and your own peace-of-mind when preparing

Goals

What is the ultimate outcome of the meeting? Usually if a meeting is called to look at a subject like the promotion of a product or service, as often occurs for clients I work with, there is a need to focus any preparation such as the creation of a document or sequence of slides – all of which should provide information that will always lead the viewer to an answer to the original reason for meeting. This could be described as FOCUSING on the objectives.

Participants

Who is involved in the meeting? Which staff will be making a contribution to the meeting. This is important for working out the sort of questions you will be asked and preparing answers for those. It is never possible to anticipate every question you may be asked but the intelligent approach is to ensure you cover yourself by preparing for the most likely and the most difficult questions. For example, you are a designer preparing for a meeting and there is a programmer present – he or she will always want to know the fine detail related to their part of the work and providing a suitable level of detail to give them enough confidence to back your idea as feasible is crucial. You are not trying to become a programmer, you are showing that you appreciate to a reasonable degree what is involved with their part of the work and get them on-board with your idea.

If the MD is present, then the questions will be different – what will the cost be? What is the timescale? Why is this idea, product or direction good for the company? Once one or two people are convinced that your idea is good then this builds momentum and can ultimately lead to an acknowledgment that you are able to command respect and lead innovation in one form or another.

Location

Where will the meeting be held? Environmental issues can help or hinder the progress of a meeting. If held in a designated meeting room then there is less likelihood of interruptions and the mentality of those involved with the meeting may encourage them to reduce the number of interruption by signifying time in their schedule, switching off their phone and dealing with important business before they attend. If you hold a meeting in a place where there is a thoroughfare or in a public place such as a cafe then your meeting focus may be distracted by unforeseen circumstances. Location and environmental factors associated with this can make or break a focus and ultimately reduce progress.

Management

How will you conduct the meeting as a leader or participant? Will you take the lead or are you expecting another to lead the meeting. If so, are they aware of their responsibility. Are you prepared enough to take the lead should the meeting stall because of a lack of contribution from others? Have you got relevant, direct and appropriate questions in mind that will assist you to make progress with your part of the work? Are these questions appropriate and positive in nature? Being prepared is the key and management of a meeting can confidently be executed by being aware of the potential wide range of agendas and experience in the group meeting and ensuring that concerns related to these can be sufficiently tackled.

Negativity

How will you deal with negative comments from participants or people who are unhappy with the direction taken or the methods used for making decisions? My approach would be to ensure that all the positive reasons are available for discussion in detail and any anticipated negative comments are received with careful consideration and never taken personally whether they are intended as such or not.

It is never possible to please everyone but it is possible to ensure you deal with others with honesty, integrity and respect. I usually find that if I am ensuring I put the needs of a team first and aim to work effectively to ensure that a project is successful irrespective of personal agendas then it is usually a difference of opinion on direction and philosophy that creates the more intensive discussion rather than anything personal. Also, when I am asked to manage a project and provide instructions for others to follow, I tend to find I get more respect from people who I ask to do certain tasks when I have already completed the background work for them with appropriate detail and accuracy.

Equipment

Are you aware of what equipment is available – for example, if you needed to use a projector or have examples to pass around the room are these booked or prepared. What if the power supply fails? Have you got some printed notes to work from? All of these sort of things provide confidence that you have got circumstances covered adequately – it can certainly save you some embarrassment and allow your presentation to continue, what ever other factors may disrupt it.

Output

Are you going to record the meeting via a set of notes or even an audio recording or is it an informal discussion? By making a record of the meeting then it is possible to hold people to account and timescales can be applied to the notes made for delivery to all participants. This encourages a level of accountability.

Conclusion

Preparation is the key to most of the issues discussed. Being aware of others and ensuring your knowledge and experience is adequate to backup any impressions you may make through professional presentations. People are very quick to get a sense of whether they can take what you have to say seriously or not and should you lose their confidence it is a difficult task to regain that. Believe in yourself but do not assume you know it all and act accordingly by ensuring you have the company or project mission statement in the centre of your project argument with all the necessary detail associated with that.

Writing Skills for Designers Do graphic designers need good writing skills? This article looks...
Design Process: Part 1 The first of three articles looking at the some of...
Design Process: Part 3 We have looked at the brief, collected relevant facts, experienced...

Creating A Social Network

Peter Simcoe — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 11:16:06 +0000

Before the internet a person wanting to join a society, interest group or even a professional body would usually find that their means of finding other interested parties, communication and news would be through the physical world – noticeboards, publications or letter. Now, with a significant proportion of the developed and developing world connected together via the internet, the process of finding like minded people or those with similar goals is much easier. Here are some of the benefits to creating or joining a community online:

The ability to promote your group or network across the globe and encourage people from beyond your physical community to become involved
To create interactive experiences where members can login and share information such as video, images and relevant articles
To use online calendars and planning tools to organise events and meetings with the ability to present media from the events
To allow online payment via Paypal or other web technologies for products and services related to your network
To allow members to post information about themselves, their motives and interests, enabling others to establish effective links or connections with people and their projects or activities
Deliver news and information to your group immediately
Provide an internal communication system separate from the users own personal email system should it be beneficial to keep more personal details private or distinct from professional details

Success or Failure

Should you choose to start your own community you will need to consider a variety of issues from your available time to the quality of information flowing through the online space for your users. The success of a community or network is significantly influenced by the following factors:

Your reach to the relevant groups or people who may wish to become involved. Do you have access to people on the web such as bulletin boards, forums or even a large and keen Twitter following, or in the physical world such as printed adverts, noticeboards where your information can be posted and taken notice of? If the answer is no, how will your message be read or even found? Word of mouth? Email? Getting enthusiastic responses via blog posts, responses, retweets or recommendations is the key to kickstarting your community.
Do you have a reputation that encourages people to act upon your recommendation? Or do you know someone who has a good reputation in your activity area who would be willing to put their name to your endeavours? If you want people to join a community, this can be a significant pull towards establishing the group. A reputation is not vital but does provide support in your message to the world.
Once you have overcome the first hurdle of establishing the interest of a few, or even many interested parties, have you or other contributors the time, inspiration and resources to consistently create quality interesting content for your network? Do you have a policy related to the regularity and style of your contributions whether it is through video, written blog items or even audio?
Are you, or others in your community able to monitor the quality of the information put onto the site. How will you deal with the inevitable abuse of the system and spamming?
Can your website sustain a reliable, effective service should there be a sudden explosion in readers or contributions? Consult your ISP or your IT service to work out the capacity of your webserver and assess how much data and bandwidth you have available.

Example – Drawing Research Network

As part of my work for the Open University, in 2003 I set up a website for the drawing community – The Drawing Research Network otherwise known as the DRN. The most recent version of the site was upgraded from static HTML to WordPress back in 2009 with social network plugins such as Mingle as with the traditional blogging features allowing users to create their own visible profiles and Twitter style timelines as well as upload articles with images to the site for viewing by other members. During July 2011 management responsibility of the website was given Loughborough School of the Arts who have funded an administrator [Pete Simcoe] to ensure the quality of the articles is high both in content and formatting and the content is as useful as possible to a worldwide community of academics, artists, designers and other people with a passion and interest in this subject.

As of August 2011 there are around 210 listed members with many others reading and referring to the site. Below is a summary of some of the functionality of the site in video format, designed to demonstrate some of the capability to new users. Some of the functionality has been slightly altered, in that you now need an invite similar to Google Plus to become part of the group with reasons given below the video:

Benefits of WordPress

The main benefits of using the WordPress system on the Drawing Research Network are the fact that WordPress is designed for this sort of group activity – a series of bloggers can contribute to a continual stream of online discussion. It is also an online software system that is free and has a worldwide support network as well as many custom designed templates. The template for the DRN can be seen at Themeforest.net where for $35 much of the programming and layout is complete – it is down to the administrator or IT support unit to customise and style the blog as required.

As previously mentioned, a variety of plugins provide additional functionality for the blog including the ability to pull photos from the Drawing Research’s Flickr account.

Spamming Hazards

The main problem with most blogs is that unless steps are taken to prevent abuse, they are open to spamming, abusive comments and other unpleasantness. The Drawing Research Network is no exception. However, an effort has been made to reduce the number of spam comments and timewasters by using the following:

Askimet Anti-Spam system available to WordPress users which reduces comment spam
SI CAPTCHA Anti-Spam plugin creating a barrier to spam-bots by using keyboard input
Secure Invites plugin meaning registration can only occur via an invite from another user

It has been an uphill struggle to resolve the spamming issue on this and other sites and whilst Invite Only websites have their limitations, the individual users of the DRN now have the ability to invite up to 10 other users which does create a kind of vetting process with shared responsibility in only allowing people with a genuine interest in drawing and drawing research onto the site.

Real Names and Photos

Recently there was outrage at Google’s decision to remove users on their new Google+ account that had not used their real names and one thing the DRN team have tried to encourage is the creation of realistic profiles. By this I am referring to the input of full names and legitimate email addresses along with a photo or example of artwork – the theory being that this firstly enables the detection of spam-bots or fake users more easily and secondly encourages responsibility and accountability on the site. If people are not happy putting their details online then they still have access to the main articles, the gallery and any downloads associated with these. It is also useful to note that the members list cannot be accessed by anyone other than the registered members themselves which provides additional security for users.

Conclusion

If you belong to a group, society, club, organisation or in the example given, a group of professionals with an interest in an aspect of art and design, and that group or organisation does not have a community website then considering using WordPress or other social networking sites to provide content and keep people in the loop is worth considering. For a list of all the social networking sites see Wikipedia’s list of social networks

Contributing Constructively Why spend your time contributing when you could be earning...
What is WordPress? Wordpress was originally designed as a free blogging system for...
Twittering on about stuff! Latest Tweets from the Simcoemedia Network. These tweets are designed...

Design Centre Review 2011

Peter Simcoe — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 12:40:42 +0000

The New Designers exhibition took place from 29 June – 9 July 2011 at the Design Business Centre in Islington, London. I went along to interview some of the Loughborough Design School students about their product and industrial design projects currently exhibiting at the show as well as discussion about their experiences at the Design School.

Loughborough Design School Experience

The students were asked to highlight elements of the Loughborough Design School education that they found particularly beneficial and describe why students considering a course of study in design should choose Loughborough.

Example Projects at New Designers

Here are some of the products Loughborough students have created for their final year projects that have been taken to the Business Design Centre to display to other students, potential employers and other Universities. It is a great opportunity to see the very latest and best design talent leaving education establishments in the UK.

Photographs from New Designers

Find out more about Loughborough Design School

Theory and Practice Part 1 Learning the theory behind great design and professional practice is...
Finepix W3 3D Review Review of the FujiFilm Finepix W3 3D Digital Camera -...
A Brief Introduction to Design-Design "You need to tell the client what he wants and...

Setting Up A Business

Peter Simcoe — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 12:04:51 +0000

Business is tough. Working for yourself is tough. Get it right and it can be rewarding in terms of your lifestyle, artistic output [in the case of designers, crafts persons or artists] and ability to manage your time in a way that benefits you and your clients. One of the key benefits to running your own business is the sense of achievement and the knowledge that you have led and directed a series of projects under your own steam and initiative. This article is aimed at anyone wanting to start a business but admittedly, does have a bias towards freelancer or sole traders.

Initial Questions

When considering setting up a business start by asking these questions:

What skills and experience can I offer a potential client?

Personally I can offer a variety of skills and abilities to a potential client – these include web design, print design, photography, creative brainstorming and ideas development as well as video and audio production. Each of these skills is honed in a way that allows me to offer competitive products and rates without trying to become an expert at everything – see wide but focused skill-sets for further explanation.

What is the market like for my area of expertise?

It is often quite difficult to know how many people will offer you work unless you have been building up a list of contacts who are talking money and offering you paid work. However, the trick in many cases is to find guaranteed work that will bring in a guaranteed income whilst you experiment with your network and cast your net out for new jobs. This may be in the form of temporary work in a call centre, coffee shop or just simply asking the boss if you can go part time. With the last option – I always find it best to be honest about your position in that, an explanation to the boss of your intentions is fair to the employer and sets a precedent of open, honest deal-making even in difficult situations.

To a degree your research for understanding the market will come from an evaluation of the following:

- How many companies perform similar tasks in your area? Search Google and type in your company’s activity and the name of your city for examples of local companies. Expand your search as appropriate.
- What are their clients like? similar to your your desired clients?
- Do you think you can compete with similar companies in quality and price? Could they be a business partner?
- Can you identify companies you would like to target? Are they open to you discussing freelance work with them? [ie some companies may have in-house skills and never look externally]

Are you able to pitch an idea to a potential client?

The ability to network or pitch ideas to potential clients is one of the most crucial things as person starting a company -especially in the field of freelance design. An understanding of the industry, the motivation of clients and methods for negotiating and dealing with costs confidently will make or break a deal. Clients want a clear understanding of two things – benefits and cost.

Organise and Manage

One of the key skills for someone starting a company is to be able to organise and manage time. Sounds obvious but there are several factors to consider all at once when you are running a business day to day:

Energetic, vibrant and creative application of your skills and abilities to stand out from the crowd of other companies who want the same business
Keeping up to date with the latest information, technology and activity within your sector to ensure your knowledge and understanding of the sector is up to date. Finding quality sources for this information is vital as there is pressure on your time to maximise understanding with minimal effort.
Sourcing new work is an ongoing effort for the freelance designer or other sole trader. Every event attended, simple conversation on the train or most importantly, your last piece of work, is a stepping stone to a potentially new and exciting project or lead which must be exploited in a careful and considered manner. There is nothing more off-putting to a new lead than conversation with an entirely selfish “I need more work and money” agenda – business is a two way thing – the benefits you the client and the benefits to you or your company.
In amongst all this intensive activity you need to be developing your skills and maintaining your edge to ensure that you are able to deliver what is expected.
Ability to remain calm and professional under pressure is vital. There are many pressures on a company including client expectations, non-payment of fees, staffing issues and projects not going according to plan that all require patience and the ability to separate the personal from the professional
Finally, but not least – a healthy balance of work and inspiring play is vital to anyone running a business and in fact, it can aid in your creative, dynamic edge in any sector. Whether you are a sports enthusiast, arts fan or musician – giving yourself time to indulge in a way that compliments your business can reduce the possibility of burn out or a lack of enthusiasm for your direction.

The Business of Business

To use a classic line of business-speak – “the business of business is business” which essentially refers to the fact that the world revolves [ideally] through the fair exchange of skills, abilities and money. In the world of business we are constantly looking to produce quality work and be paid for this. Simple as that.

It is possible to be friends with your clients but the primary connection with a person should never mix with the friendship side – they are expected to pay you and you are expected to return that agreement with the best work you can produce. However, I personally work with some great people with whom I can have direct business conversations with but then as a separate issue I can have a good chat with about business, life and the world in general….I just need to remember our initial agreement at all times and enjoy the business relationship with that in mind.

Wide But Focused Skill-set

As a designer I am always keen to make myself available for as much work in the design industry as possible. Targeting a narrow area of web design in your daily activity can render some highly paid specialised jobs but it may be that your specialism is only sold to a client 3 or 4 times a year and unless your fame spreads far and wide there is a chance that you may exhaust your leads very quickly. On the other end of the scale is the ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ where skills are so thinly spread that there is little opportunity to refine your offering to industry and therefore clients lose interest because there are more capable companies or individuals. This is where a ‘wide but focused’ skill-set comes into play:

I focus on producing websites using the highly capable WordPress platform which enables me to produce a reasonably wide variety of website types without needing to learn HTML, PHP or CSS in very fine detail [I do need to understand it to a reasonable level] whilst maintaining industry standards.
I focus on design for print for manufacturing companies, businesses requiring information design and banners for exhibitions. By understanding the typical needs of these sort of clients I can offer a quality service and reach effective design decisions swiftly.
My video is focused upon documentary making in relation to projects or business activity and uses a very similar series of probing questions to really maximise the benefits of including an interview as part of a presentation DVD, website link or other application.
I do offer Flash design on a limited basis but have a reduced rate for this service as I have less experience in this area of design and production. This allows me to develop Flash skills whilst producing the quality of projects a client would expect for the money spent.

Should I Ever Turn Work Down?

What happens if you are asked to complete a project outside of your usual skills base or do not feel the usual level of confidence in the specification? There are two options.

Make a judgment on the complexity of the project in relation to your previous experience and if it is a calculated risk that will push your skills then it is worth pursuing for the benefits to both you and your client. The end result has the potential to be a compliment and asset to your progression as a company or freelancer.
If the project is reasonably far displaced from your usual line of work then it maybe unfair to the client, yourself and your companies reputation to undertake the job.

In the second instance, all is not lost – a client will respect you for explaining where your skills are focused and if you make a recommendation to another company or freelancer then it may be that you will get a phone call from the same potential client when they have a project that is within your ability to complete professionally.

Do I Need To Buy The Latest Equipment?

As a designer I need to own a suitable computer system, internet connection, mobile phone and other means to complete my work – see Designer Top 5 Tips for an overview of my own personal priorities on equipment and other resources for designers.

My personal opinion is that when the hardware is appropriate for the type and style of work you are doing then an upgrade should only really be occurring every 3 years on average. For example, upgrading Adobe Software costs me around £700.00 each time, a suitable desktop – around £800 for the base unit and a laptop is £1000.00. On a year by year basis this is unnecessary to complete quality design work but the purchase of new equipment can open up some new channels of design and production and increase efficiency…..so there is a balance to be had.

How Much Should I Charge?

This is a tricky one but I would suggest that the formula for setting your pricing would involve three factors:

Regional and national cost comparison eg what do others charge?
Evaluation of your skills / experience
Overheads and outlay for equipment, transportation and materials

Should I Ever Work For Free?

The old chestnut of speculative projects or competitions has been covered by Design-Design previously in the article Speculative Design and You where the topic is explored in all its cynical glory. This is a tricky area which applies to many areas of industry and whilst they should not be completely discounted, should be approached very cautiously.

Quoting

Quoting is one of those time consuming business facts-of-life that may or may not lead to business but really has to be done as part of the process. For those in business and generating quotes they will know that quotes are expensive to produce if you consider time as money. The only advice I can give is that quotations should respect the client in quoting fairly and accurately by stating any reservations or limitations of the project to ensure a happy outcome.

The other side to this is that if you ask for a quote from a supplier or project partner then you should respect the use of their time and limit the efforts they need to go to by stating clearly what you are requesting and giving them an estimated percentage chance of the quote being used. There are many people who have asked for quotations or meetings in my own history who have no respect for your time, expense or effort you put into just getting to see them and prepare for them – this in a way is an interview regarding their attitude and whether you respect them professionally. In my opinion, those who a careful with you and your business are the clients to seek and those others – well, they set the rules in their approach to you shall we say.

The Mac vs PC Thing

People often make the statement that ‘designers should use Macs’. Not necessarily true – the software is identical on both platforms and performs equally well. The issue is mainly about price and preference differences, though it has to be said that the quality of Windows driven PC machines vary considerably more. Macs are on average about 30% more expensive than the equivalent PCs, though salespersons and Mac fans will always qualify the difference in speed and efficiency. They may be right to a certain degree but not to the extent that they do believe in their own hype……and to be fair, the speed of design style and creativity is independent of the Mac / PC platform .

Some Practicalities

Down to the basics. On a practical level, here are a few bits of advice related to the physical aspects of your company:

Have you decided whether you will work from home? If so, is there a suitable location where you feel comfortable working? What will happen when you need to get away from the potential isolation – can you work in other locations?
If you require a building for machinery or offices, have you investigated the cost of doing this considering the business rates, rental costs and cleaning of the building?
Are you looking to recruit staff? Have you considered the appropriate employment law surrounding employment? Have you considered how you will select your candidates and how you will ensure that a fair and efficient process is applied to managing staff and the respective expectations of working conditions?
Do you know how you will resolve disputes with clients or staff? Have you got a process for recovering payment from late payers? Are you aware of the legal implications of your actions related to clients and staff?
Do you have a list of terms and conditions for your products or services? See Business Links example terms and conditions.
Have you got a suitable bank account? For example, HSBC will provide ‘Free’ business accounts for those with limited cheques or payments each month which is perfect for many freelancers.
Are you aware of pension schemes for you and your staff? If you are not part of a scheme, have you got a savings strategy appropriate for both now and the future.
Do you require indemnity insurance to cover legal costs in the event of liability?

Alot of these issues are covered on the Business Link website which provides a useful starting point when considering the legal and management side of you business. If you’re interested in the latest business and technology news then online sources such as Mashable and BBC Click. My suggestion is that you use Google Reader to build a collection of RSS Feeds that you can briefly glance through each day to check for new and relevant information.

Conclusion

Hopefully this article has encouraged and inspired rather than putting you off. I’m a great believer in the principle that if you’re in a job and the thought ‘I can do better than this’ enters your mind then you need to act upon that and make it happen at the right time. Respect your current boss and current job, but move on to create your own company in a way that fulfills your obligation and allows you to move on knowing that you started your independent business career in the honest and fair way you mean to carry on.

Design Bubble Assessing your ability as a designer is one of the...
Writing Skills for Designers Do graphic designers need good writing skills? This article looks...
Speculative Design and You Whether a designer, business owner or academic, you may have...

Social Media Experts?

Peter Simcoe — Fri, 27 May 2011 16:08:25 +0000

I recently read a scathing online blog article about Social Media Experts by Peter Shankman, who describes himself as a Social Media Entrepreneur, Angel Investor, CEO, Speaker, Consultant & Adventurist – which is quite a statement considering he points the finger at those who over inflate their role in industry and commerce. Hopefully he lives up to his own hype because he certainly does not hold back on criticising those working in Social Media as a full time job.

Constructing An Argument

If you read his article, “I Will Never Hire a “Social Media Expert,” and Neither Should You“, then you might be able to identify with the sentiment but if you describe yourself as one of the experts, then maybe not. The problem with the article is that Shankman has not spent time considering his argument in terms of intellectual content and it ends up sounding like a slightly insane rant:

…..Being an expert in Social Media is like being an expert at taking the bread out of the refrigerator. You might be the best bread-taker-outer in the world, but you know what? The goal is to make an amazing sandwich, and you can’t do that if all you’ve done in your life is taken the bread out of the fridge [...] “It’s not about building a website anymore! It’s so much cooler! It’s about Facebook, and fans, and followers, and engagement, and influence, and…”. Will you please shut up before you make me vomit on your shoes? [...]

The irony is that part of me that thinks the guy needs someone who deals with social media [but not a 'professional expert'] to help him write his blog article because he tends to discredit anything useful he is saying by writing what appears to be the first thing that comes into his head. However, I do think Shankman is onto something and I can see where this article could have gone with a bit more care and attention to detail [and arguments sounding less 'foaming at the mouth' shall we say]. This whole issue could be broken down into the following arguments:

Knowledge of the way Social Media works is not necessarily going to go hand in hand with the ability to apply that knowledge respectably or effectively in business.
Understanding marketing power and the way social media can influence this should come from a sound level of research and experience in branding and user interaction within a company rather than allowing social media to drive a process because ‘everyone is doing it these days’.
Experience and maturity should be applied to strategy and action taken when making yourself heard online. If you have something of value to offer customers then social media should be treated with delicate care and those who access your tweets, blogs or Facebook page should be under no illusion of how they can both ‘make’ and ‘break’.

My interpretation of Shankman’s dubious ranting is that he is enraged by the tidal wave of young, inexperienced social media ‘experts’ with little or no knowledge of business methods or processes. Where the article does fall down is that he does seem to dismiss any value to having followers on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook or other. In some respects he is completely wrong – blogs, Twitter and Facebook do have value but the level of importance to the business, the time allocated using social media and appropriate use or tone are the issues. Maturity, knowledge and business experience will dictate how much value is assigned to this in increasing sales or strengthening a brand but it is the knowledge beyond the hype [ie understanding the real advantages and disadvantages of these tools] that many business owners struggle to see and end up giving credit, in a respect and financial sense of the word, to those who deserve neither because there’s limited or no guidance / benchmark made accessible to them. Where business owners will also struggle when making decisions on spending time using social media is in the statistics – it is difficult to accurately assess how many of these social media tools really do or could affect the income a company or individual product could achieve and like all web based ‘booms’ for every success story there seem to be many other examples of failure or wasted effort.

You’d never give the intern permission to write the corporate press release to accompany an earnings announcement, so why the hell are you listening to the 22-year-old who says “we’re going to do this social media thing because it’s cool?”
- One of the more sane rants from Peter Shankman’s article

Characteristics Of These ‘Experts’

In my own experience I’ve often read the output of these so called experts. They do not usually last that long on Twitter [where you can prove you've little to offer the world in less than 143 characters] before they are removed – but their dross and the overall weight assigned to it seems to thrive – with the ‘icing on the disappointingly demoralising cake’ being the tragic thrill that most newsreaders on the BBC or Channel 4 news seem to get by giving Twitter or Facebook a mention during their broadcasts. Those with little to contribute easily outweigh those with valuable input and the ability to hide behind their computer along with the immediacy of the internet when commenting or blogging brings out the ‘inner stupid’ and prejudice in many. The way to identify a social media idiot is that they usually have at least two or three characteristics from the following [and you know you've met them]:

A career in social media promotion in one form or another is all they have ever known
They do not understand the businesses they work with and propose ideas that are short sighted and superficial
They have an over inflated opinion of their self importance and casually mix personal with business without thought
Their contribution is weak or limited in value and lacks mature judgement
They make recommendations that rate ‘rating’s over user experience eg number of followers vs quality of tweets

Conclusion

What much of my argument comes down to is that an understanding of social media technology and real influential value can help business owners weed out the useless people themselves – it is a case that businesses throughout the UK and the world would benefit from workshops telling you how to identify quality social media, SEO and blogging experts in conjunction with a little more education illustrating the genuine financial gains and losses that social media has provided.

ps – here’s the photo from iStockphoto I did want to use for this article [but was too expensive]

To Twit or Not to Twit? Twitter. Is it a useful business tool, an effective example...
A Brief Introduction to Design-Design "You need to tell the client what he wants and...
Your Digital Footprint Having a significant digital footprint of quality content is not...

Design-Design » Peter Simcoe

YouTube Video Editor

Overview

Advantages

Disadvantages

Conclusion

Anaglyph 3D Images

Sample .mpo 3D Images

Your Digital Footprint

Momentary Lapse of Reason: A Quick Warning

An Example: Simcoemedia Design Consultancy

Portfolio or bloging websites

Stock Websites

Social Media and Other sites

Digital Footprint Diagram

Conclusion

Encouraging Keen Readers

Existing Example

Opportunities

Website static content

News items and dynamic content

Short messages and pointers

Other websites recommending your services

Affiliate marketing

Other media types

Measuring Success or Failure

Web Statistics

Voting via Google +1, Digg, Stumble Upon [or other]

Direct feedback via survey email or phone

Increase in sales

Conclusion

Project Meetings

Email

Telephone

Meeting

Net Meeting

Goals

Participants

Location

Management

Negativity

Equipment

Output

Conclusion

Creating A Social Network

Success or Failure

Example – Drawing Research Network

Benefits of WordPress

Spamming Hazards

Real Names and Photos

Conclusion

Design Centre Review 2011

Loughborough Design School Experience

Example Projects at New Designers

Photographs from New Designers

Setting Up A Business

Initial Questions

What skills and experience can I offer a potential client?

What is the market like for my area of expertise?

Are you able to pitch an idea to a potential client?

Organise and Manage

The Business of Business

Wide But Focused Skill-set

Should I Ever Turn Work Down?

Do I Need To Buy The Latest Equipment?

How Much Should I Charge?

Should I Ever Work For Free?

Quoting

The Mac vs PC Thing

Some Practicalities

Conclusion

Social Media Experts?

Constructing An Argument

Characteristics Of These ‘Experts’

Similar Problems in SEO

Conclusion