Internet History in the Making

Regular readers of this blog will remember that my day job involves the production of membership magazine for the London Internet Exchange. The publication in question is called HotLINX and I have been working on it one capacity or another since 2004. It has, in fact, been around a good deal longer with the first edition published as long ago as the Summer of 2000.

The Internet industry at that time was very different to what it is now. Just take a moment to consider your personal circumstances and how much you differently now compared to those early days. For me, I used the Internet for the first time in 1996 at work but I didn’t go online at home until as late as 2002. I had a PC before that but it was used purely as word processor and for games.

One of the reasons I mention early issues of HotLINX today is that for the first time in many years those early editions are back available online. In fact, some have never been available to download or view at all. With LINX celebrating its 15th anniversary in November I wanted to give the people the opportunity to see just how far the Internet has come in the last decade.

20 years in design, marketing and PR and finally getting certified

This Friday represents the 20th anniversary since I became a graphic designer or to be more precise, a Desktop Publishing Operator. Back in those days it was fairly low-level stuff where most of my work was done using drawing boards and camera ready artwork using spray mount and overlays and only sporadic use of a Mac Plus computer. It is still amazes me how we ever got anything done back then. We even needed the printers to send out someone out to collect the artwork – none of this uploading and downloading and the web? That was just a spot in the corner of the office that none of the cleaners could reach.

Just to give you a bit of background, in the summer of 1989 I was in a menial office job counting travellers’ cheques for Thomas Cook. Basically I had to make sure that the cheques returned from branches around the UK matched in value to that listed on the branch remittance. Not exactly challenging unless you were working in Japanese Yen with multiple noughts but an OK job for a while. It wasn’t what I set out to do but that’s where I’d ended up.

Presentation Skills

This presentation is focused on making presentations as a marketing manager but it contains so much good information, you will find something of benefit whoever you make a business presentation to.

Presentation Skills For MARKETING Managers

View more presentations from Yodhia Antariksa.

Developing a brand the BBC way

The BBC identity is used in many ways

The BBC is a British institution and in broadcasting terms has long stood for quality and impartiality. There will be some who would question the latter part of that statement but in terms of its brand, the acronym BBC needs no introduction and is recognisable all over the world. Whether it’s in radio, television or online, it is a trusted purveyor of good and meaningful content.

The BBC logo forms an important part of its identity and it has seen a massive transition over the years as the corporation evolves to meet the needs of an ever-changing media landscape.

Take a look at this article on the development of the BBC logo on their website. The closing paragraph neatly sums the whole ethos of what the Beeb has sought to achieve over more than 80 years.

The story of the BBC brand is – like most brands – one of consistency and reinvention. Over the years of its history, it has become one of the most distinctive brands internationally, now used across a variety of platforms and recognised with immediacy and clarity by millions of people around the world.

Graphical Resumé Gives Michael the Edge

Graphical resumé

I came across a link to a graphical resumé yesterday which I found interesting on so many levels. First of all it appealed to my design sensibilities and also my interest in innovation.

While the graphs don’t feature real data, I still found myself studying the peaks and troughs for hidden messages and noted every little nuance in the timeline. I particularly liked the daily coffee intake, energy expendature and the humour output at 2:00am. Also of interest was the curious gap at the beginning of 2006 – if we ever met that would be the first question I’d ask him.

What do you think of this style of CV? Obviouly it wouldn’t be appropriate for every career but it does tell us that by doing something different will gain you extra recognition. I’ve already sent this stranger’s resumé to two people and now I’m blogging about it. I’d say he’d have a fair chance of getting someone approaching him to offer him work.

Secrets of great exhibition stands

An Image Creative Design (ICD) product story

Graham Forster, Chairman of Image Creative Design (ICD), the specialist 2D event agency, reveals how to attract visitors to an exhibition stand.

I’ve been asked many times to divulge the secrets behind why ICD clients seem to attract more visitors to their client’s stands than say other exhibitors who appear to have spent substantially greater sums on larger stands.

The answers always remain the same: the secret is simple but, all too often difficult to implement.

Factors Influencing Content and Design of Printed Publications

In an earlier post we looked at the basic considerations in designing your own newsletter. The following piece takes the subject a little further by examining other factors that influence the content and design of newsletters, newspapers and magazines.

I will take about issues to consider with online publications another time but for now, we shall look at the traditional printed way of communicating a message.

Newsletter Design

HotLINX magazine

Today I am going to give an overview on newsletters and how to design them.

To demonstrate the finer workings of this form of communication, I am announcing the upcoming launch of the official OC newsletter to show how the layout can be developed stage-by-stage.

The picture to the right is an example of a newsletter / magazine cover design. This particular publication is called HotLINX, which I write, design, sub-edit and distribute to over 40 countries. It is linked to a 12 page PDF which you are free to download. I will be using this style as the basis for the new OC newsletter and I have already begun preparing a layout which you yourselves can follow for your own business or community project.

Advertising and how running ads in a series increases awareness

Leo Burnett, an advertising executive renown for creating icons such as the Jolly Green Giant, the 7up “Spot” and Tony the Tiger amongst others once said:

“If you don’t get noticed, you don’t have anything. You just have to be noticed, but the art is in getting noticed naturally, without screaming or without tricks. It is not the creation of new and tricky words and pictures, but one of putting familiar words and pictures into new relationships.”

Raising awareness of your product service can be achieved with a strong, consistent campaign over an extended period of time. This does not mean repeating the same advert month after month in a publication because, while it can be effective, it is dependent on the proposition being strong in the first place. Just giving an ad time to bed-in does not guarantee success and will certainly not become any more persuasive if it does not produce the desired results early on. Indeed, research has shown that advertising is effective either immediately, or not at all.

How to write an effective article

When writing an article for on-line or print publications, a knowledge of the fundamentals of style and layout will stand you in good stead in making sure your piece stands out from the crowd.

If you look at a newspaper report or press release, you will notice that the whole piece is summed up in its opening paragraph. This gives the reader enough information to know whether the topic is interesting enough to read further. In addition, you can expect to find five key issues explained during the course of an article: Who? What? When? Where? How?