Our Industry

Why Failing Matters

Amy Peveto — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 14:35:41 +0000

Why Failing Matters

Amy Peveto Tue, 03/31/2015 - 9:35am

Failure terrifies me, especially when it means disappointing a client. These failures are brutal, and damaging to client relationships. But they are also absolutely critical to our success.

My most embarrassing failure

Awhile back I was put in charge of writing the website content for a professional services client. Our team put together market research and buyer personas, and I used this information as well as a list of competitor websites provided by the client to do my writing.

I found it challenging to write about an industry unfamiliar to me; I agonized over how much detail to include and whether or not I was copying our client’s competitors.

The client’s response to the first drafts was severe: I got it wrong, and it would all need to be re-done before we could continue. Content development was assigned to another team member.

The client lost faith in me, and in Digett. We’ve all worked together to get the relationship running smoothly again, but it makes me heartsick to think about how easily I upset the balance.

Why I’m telling you this

I’ve read so many blog posts about how it’s okay to fail, that it promotes out-of-the-box thinking and encourages people to take chances. But where are the articles explaining what to do when you fall flat on your ass?

It’s fine to “dream big and fail hard,” but you have to have a plan for recovering from that failure and avoiding a future repeat.

Learn from failure

Henry Ford once said, “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” Failing once is embarrassing — failing again the same way because you didn’t learn the first time can be a nightmare.

Fortunately there’s a simple process for avoiding this scenario.

Acknowledge your failure - Confess your failure to yourself (and others).
Write it down - Create a plan for avoiding future similar mistakes. Revisit these notes often.
Move on - Stop beating yourself up. Your next project needs your full attention.

The lesson I learned from my most embarrassing failure was to speak up. I was tentative, afraid to dive deep, ask questions, and be assertive. I didn’t have what I needed to succeed, and lacked the nerve to demand it. So I failed.

Failure sucks

The occasional mistake or failure is inevitable, and painful. But without those failures humanity would never have taken to the skies, visited the darkest depths, or mapped our globe.

Try new things. Fail. Learn. Try again.

Submitted by Julia on Wed, 04/22/2015 - 1:00pm

Thank you for sharing, Amy! I think your point about having a plan for when you fail is so true, and I like the suggestion to write it down and revisit your notes.

Submitted by Amy Peveto on Wed, 04/22/2015 - 1:06pm

Thanks, Julia! Writing something down makes it easier to remember. Hope you're having a great day.

Relationships that Last: Transforming the Relationship with Your Agency into a Lasting, Rewarding Partnership

JD Collier — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 15:05:51 +0000

Relationships that Last: Transforming the Relationship with Your Agency into a Lasting, Rewarding Partnership

JD Collier Tue, 02/10/2015 - 9:05am

In the spirit of the month of February and Valentine's Day...

Can we be sappy?

Will you be our Valentine?

We want you to love us and we want to love you. More importantly though, as an agency, we want a lasting and rewarding relationship for your business and for our business.

In our lives, we’ve all had some good relationships and some not so good relationships. You may have had some bad experiences with a digital marketing agency partner. You need someone who can be there for you in the good times and in the challenging times. It’s time for a good relationship!

First, are you ok alone?

Most of us jump into relationships, and choosing an agency partner is no exception — we need a website, we need to increase sales, we need someone to fix our website — the list goes on and on. This is normal. We all need someone.

But wait … are you ready for a relationship with a Digital Marketing Agency?

Do you have a goal for your new website?
Do you have an internal approval process for this type of project?
Do you have a healthy communication process inside your organization?
Do you have a budget set aside to accomplish your goals?

It is ok if you don’t have everything worked out. It is acceptable to work out internal issues with your new partner as long as you have the motivation to improve and the humility to know we are all a work in progress.

So, take a good look in the mirror. Are you ready for an agency partner?

Ensure you have the right partner

Success needs consistency as a foundation. You need a partner who is compatible with you. If you only need a website and don’t plan to maintain the relationship after it is complete, consider that you will find it challenging to find long-term success.

To find the right agency partner, remember you will need to work with this partner like they are a coworker. You will talk to this partner a lot over the relationship. When checking out prospective partners, here two things to check out:

Ensure you have compatible communication styles.
This one is difficult to measure, but do you click? Do you like to joke around before getting to business? Do you like a logical thought process? There is no right answer—there is only your answer. Does this partner feel like a good cultural fit?
Do you like their work?
Check if their previous work has a range that includes what you think your audience will like. Expect to be challenged a bit on this one. The agency should push you to try new things, to explore what might work best for your audience … after all, you are hiring them to advise you from their expertise. On this topic, it is just good to make certain you respect their work and don’t find that it has poor quality.

Work at it

Once you are in the relationship, you need to put in the work. No one wants to dread talking to someone, especially not someone you depend on.

Keep the relationship alive. Here are 4 tips to keep the relationship with your agency partner healthy.

Keep money conversations healthy
Establish trust and then allow your partner to feel trusted. If expenses are regularly challenged, it leaves people feeling untrusted or frustrated. Try to maintain a healthy flow of how much is in the budget and expect your partner to maintain a healthy flow of how much work has been performed.
Stay on the same team
An agency partnership is just that—a partnership. Both sides need to keep a “we’re on the same team” mindset. It can be very helpful and create positive results; while the opposite, adversarial thoughts, can slowly corrode the relationship.
Bad things happen, keep lines of communication open
Things happen. Keep your partner informed when problems occur and expect them to do the same. Stay engaged in the partnership, feed it and keep it healthy. The partnership can yield a long-term benefit to both parties.
Discuss hard topics
Keep lines of communication open. When something comes along that is challenging to discuss … the best course of action is to discuss it. Here are two tips to discussing hard topics: 1. Wait a day (sometimes a good night’s sleep can eliminate an issue), 2. Be direct, specific and balanced in your discussion. Open lines of communication keep the relationship productive and successful.

Conclusion

So, there you have it. Ensure you are ready for a relationship, make certain you have the right partner along for the ride and then keep working at the relationship.

A long-term relationship with an agency partner can be rewarding for both your business and your partner.

Digett thoroughly enjoys our long-term clients. We enjoy the ability to forge a deeper relationship and trust with our clients. We enjoy talking to our clients, but we must admit to an extra spring of excitement when one of our long-term partners calls. It just feels good to talk to a trusted partner and work through projects.

"P" is for Product, Above All

Mark Figart — Wed, 19 Nov 2014 15:13:18 +0000

"P" is for Product, Above All

Mark Figart Wed, 11/19/2014 - 9:13am

In classic marketing academia, the so-called "Four P's" comprising the "marketing mix" are product, price, place, and promotion. Since the dawn of the age of mass media, the marketer's job may have centered most around "promotion".

If you've had the pleasure of taking in an episode or two of the AMC series "Mad Men", I suspect that you would agree that brand promotion is the near-absolute focus of Don Draper and his creative team.

Thanks to the web, to social media, and probably mostly to Google, however, promotion seems much less important for a marketer's attention than the product itself. Despite a company's best attempts at promotion, the truth of the word on the street is likely to trump it.

Why, then, are marketers so often focused on advertising and other promotional activities, and so seldom concerned with making the product, the experience, itself better?

Given the continued rise of the service economy, the product is often heavy on "experience" and rather light on a tangible deliverable. In the case of commodity-type services—in which little differentiation exists between the end results of two or more competing firms—the experience may be the only differentiator. How can we improve the experience, if only just incrementally, step by tiny step? How can we build in a continuous and iterative means of ensuring that each successive customer enjoys a better service than the last? Smart marketers know that figuring this out will do more for the brand than any claims the brand itself can make.

Beautiful websites, compelling content, and effective calls-to-action are fantastic, but only to the extent that they represent products and services that are equally beautiful, compelling and effective (or substitute your own remarkable trait).

Submitted by Travis Parigi on Fri, 12/12/2014 - 8:46am

Great post. couldn't agree more. It's the Product!

Submitted by Amy Peveto on Tue, 12/16/2014 - 2:57pm

Thanks, Travis.

The Best Way to be a Better Business

Amy Peveto — Tue, 05 Aug 2014 14:22:54 +0000

The Best Way to be a Better Business

Amy Peveto Tue, 08/05/2014 - 9:22am

Digett’s weekly team lunch is a great opportunity for us to strengthen team bonds by talking about something other than work, as well as the best way we’ve found to keep everyone in the loop on all projects.

Early in 2014 we decided to take things a step further by including discussions on industry topics. Each week a team member prepares a short, relevant presentation and leads a discussion.

I’ve found this addition instrumental in helping Digett do better business.

What we talk about

Pretty much anything from optimizing images for Pinterest to why we love Pantheon to how to better put ourselves in our clients’ shoes.

Team members find inspiration from webinars and meetings, recent reading and conferences, and each other’s questions.

How this makes us better

Even more important than giving us the opportunity to polish our public speaking and presentation skills is the fact that recent presentations have inspired blog posts, upcoming case studies, and an even broader awareness of the digital marketing industry.

It’s amazing how much easier challenging tasks become when you have a team brainstorming solutions with you, and when you take time to listen to another’s presentation or point of view. They might have the solution you need right at their fingertips.

Consistently discovering and discussing new things is the only way to expand our minds; fresh knowledge transfusions means more and better ideas that we can use to do better work for our clients.

I challenge you

If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.

Our industry is constantly evolving, and I bet yours is too. Do you give yourself and your team opportunities to discuss these changes together? How might your business improve if you made a habit of sitting down together and talking?

Here’s my challenge: Schedule time for discussion. It doesn’t have to be every week or even every month, but it needs to be routine and consistent.

Meet. Chat. Brainstorm. Be a better business.

[Image: Do-Hyun Kim]

Need a Great Web Developer? Hire Through Codeup.

Amy Peveto — Thu, 19 Jun 2014 14:51:19 +0000

Need a Great Web Developer? Hire Through Codeup.

Amy Peveto Thu, 06/19/2014 - 9:51am

Whether you’re a startup or well-established San Antonio business, finding developers can be difficult; it can take months — even a year or two — to find a skilled developer. But this year we found and hired a great candidate in less than two months. And we did it through Codeup.

We need more developers

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that software developer employment is projected to grow 30% from 2010 to 2020, much faster than the average for all occupations.

But as we’ve experienced while interviewing job candidates (and even interns midway through Computer Science degrees), there’s an enormous gap between what the San Antonio market needs and the skills applicants have.

Self-teaching is the name of the game for many, but development is such a complex beast that it’s hard to narrow focus and hold oneself accountable.

This leaves many smart people unable to learn skills critical to a growing industry, and businesses unable to fill lucrative job openings.

No need to fear, Codeup is here!

This supply and demand problem was well-known to Codeup founder Michael Girdley, who time and again talked with business owners who believed the lack of programmers and developers was normal and a problem that couldn’t be solved.

Together with Jason Straughan and Chris Turner, Girdley built and launched Codeup, a San Antonio-based intensive 12-week boot camp that turns mere mortals into first-class computer programmers.

Attendees have their butts kicked through three months of all-day classes taught by industry experts and entrepreneurs. They learn the foundations of web development — HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, and Javascript — and at the end of the course present real-world applications they’ve built to employers who are looking for those exact skills.

Codeup gives its graduates the ability to walk into a job with a good employer and be useful from day one. Not only is this beneficial to employers, it gives graduates a set of skills they can use to improve their lives.

We hired through Codeup

Codeup’s first graduating class presented their applications to potential employers at a Demo Day on April 22, 2014. Digett President Mark attended those presentations, and two weeks later hired one of the graduates, Travis Flatt, as a UX Engineer.

“The Codeup Experience has more to offer than rote learning of a programming language,” says Travis. “There's structure and purpose to it, and it’s a great opportunity to make connections within the San Antonio web development community. Codeup is built with the end goal of creating professional developers, which is a broader scope than simply 'learning some code'.”

Not only was Travis’ application, Eat Safe SA, creative and well-architected, he also presented the project well and distinguished himself from others in the program — just what Mark was looking for.

“I had a strategy,” Mark admits. “I figured if I could get the inside scoop on who the really good developers were, I could eliminate a good chunk of the risk that seems to always accompany a new hire. Turns out it wasn’t hard. The students themselves talked openly at Demo Day about who they thought were the rock stars, and Travis’ name was one that kept coming up. I thought he had a great mix of skills to complement our existing team, and so far that’s proven correct.”

Codeup makes our team stronger

Digett’s strongest selling point is that every one of our team members is an expert in his or her field — it’s the combination of these strengths that allows us to provide the best possible results with our projects.

Hiring through Codeup is the easiest way we’ve found to bring on a developer whose skills complement our team and lead to a more successful business.

“It is awesome to partner with an amazing company like Digett,” says Codeup co-founder Chris Turner. “They truly understand that great team members are what makes their business so successful. We’re proud to be a part of that.”

Register for Codeup and save

We believe in the power of Codeup, and want to help you take advantage of this opportunity to change your life in three short months.

Simply register for Codeup at this link and enter Digett in the referral field to receive $100 off the cost of the Codeup program.

You will be challenged, but you will succeed. And your life will never be the same. Code on!

Are You Keeping Your Email Opt-Ins Above-Board?

Amy Peveto — Wed, 14 May 2014 17:00:50 +0000

Are You Keeping Your Email Opt-Ins Above-Board?

Amy Peveto Wed, 05/14/2014 - 12:00pm

If you’re like many of our clients, you’ve got a list of people to whom you are sending content (routinely or not). You may have been emailing this list for years, adding email addresses of prospects, customers, and referral sources. It’s great that you’re making use of one of the most effective marketing tactics, but it’s important you’re doing so according to the law.

Pop quiz!

Which of these scenarios constitutes a legitimate email opt-in?

Individuals register for a drawing by dropping their business cards in a bowl. You add all contestants to your email list.
Someone signs the guest book at your tourist information center and includes their email address. You add them to your email list.
Someone downloads a whitepaper you’ve written. You add them to your email list.

According to Federal law, none of them.

Permission, permission, permission

The only way to legally add a person to your mailing address is by first getting their explicit permission.

Notice the emphasis on “explicit.” Having an “Email” field on a website form or a place on a contest signup for someone to write their email address does not cut the mustard.

You must make it crystal, absurdly clear any time a person’s action will sign him or her up to receive ongoing email from you.

How to get explicit permission

It’s actually pretty simple: provide a checkbox on every website form, print form, and sign-up book that individuals must check in order to be subscribed to your email list.

Next to the checkbox include a statement that makes it impossible for people to misinterpret, such as:

By checking this box I give my permission to Widgets, Inc. to send me email newsletters with information on products, sales, and events.

Then add only the people who checked the box to your email list.

3 benefits of a clean email list

You’re following the law - You’re not spamming people, and you’re protected from someone taking legal action against you for spammy email practices.
You’re saving time - You’re not expending energy and time emailing people who aren’t interested in your products/services.
You’re seeing more engagement - Clean up your list and watch open rates, clicks, social shares, and ROI increase.

Need help with email marketing?

Whether you need to design and build email templates, craft content, or refresh your email opt-in processes, we’re your one-stop shop.

Get in touch today to talk with our team about your email marketing needs.

[Image: Arnold Gatilao]

Do Less, Do Better, Get More

Mark Figart — Tue, 13 May 2014 21:51:31 +0000

Do Less, Do Better, Get More

Mark Figart Tue, 05/13/2014 - 4:51pm

If, as Joel Gascoigne writes from Javea, Spain in a recent post, “The key to startup productivity is managing energy, not time,” then a similar concept applies in marketing.

The idea that “in content marketing it’s not quantity, but quality, that matters” is not a new one, and only mildly tangential to an arguably angry post I published recently on the Digett blog.

Since that rant, however, I’ve climbed down from my high horse and am now engaging in a more productive internal dialogue aimed at improving the quality of Digett’s work product.

How, I ask myself, does one lead an organization to deliver ever greater work for our clients? Joel got me thinking about the importance of renewal, which leads directly to the first of three ideas I am pursuing both in personal and work life in order to find more meaning.

Great work originates from creative minds

You can’t light a fire with a wet match. I believe, though, we all are blessed with an eternal pilot light which — when sheltered from the storm of (mostly useless) thoughts that invade and occupy our brains — can spark a masterpiece. Creativity is enabled from within, and only by the aspiring creator.

As leaders we must start with an honest look in the mirror. We practice and strengthen our self-awareness, and as we do our presence yields positive energy associated with, for example, joy and gratitude. Then we help others achieve the same awareness through teaching, mentoring, and encouraging. And voilá, those from whom we expect greatness often rise to the challenge, be they programmers, designers, editors, analysits, or bad-ass project managers. In this state of being, renewal comes continuously.

I’m not saying it’s a bad idea to “get away” from time to time. For some it’s downright important. But I suggest that we should be separating ourselves from our vocational passion in order to seek balance in our lives (think Tao Te Ching) rather than to “refuel.”

We may envision an outcome, but we experience only the journey

My most meaningful achievements have never correlated with my so-called “goals.”

When I was a young boy I took on the enormous challenge of running a trap line in the swamps and rice fields of southeast Texas where the intersection of the Piney Woods and Gulf Coast form an outdoorsman’s paradise. While I was a power user of checklists to help ensure I always had the vast assortment of tools, baits, all-terrain vehicle repair items, ammunition, and warm weather clothing I might need at any moment, I did not have a list of goals back in my desk drawer at home that led me to become an expert trapper.

I simply lived every day as if it were my last, experiencing every moment — every breath of ice-cold fresh air, every painfully cold extremity, every thrill of success, every disappointment — as if I may not have another full day of moments in my future. I followed my passion, and I have never been happier than I was then. Goals were never a part of that picture.

I don’t have anything against goals, per se, and some people apparently find great benefit in setting and pursuing them. But for me, my goals have generally ended up reprenting an ideal in the form of a “destination” of some sort.

As it turns out, I’m a lot less effective at finding fulfillment in destinations than I am at discovering wonder, intrigue, and amazement along the path I’m on now; whatever path that may be.

Given my own experience, I see no choice but to serve up this perspective to my team at Digett. It’s not “happy clients” we are striving for, for example. It’s not a profit margin of 25%.

I ask only that my teammates give themselves to the present; that they experience every moment without lamenting the mistakes of yesterday or anticipating the possible rewards of tomorrow. Let this moment, this task, this challenge, serve to awaken our hearts and minds.

We cannot more effectively serve our clients anywhere else but in the present, and why would we want to try to dwell elsewhere, anyway?

In this process we gain access to a joy, passion, and a previously-unknown creative capacity. Along this journey great work takes form.

Be prepared for “inefficiency” in pursuit of creativity

Great works take time. Nobody says “Ol’ Abe Lincoln took way too long to write the Gettysburg address.” I wasn’t there, but I bet the President took his precious time distilling his thoughts on the war down to ten sentences. Yes, ten.

If we are experiencing the journey fully, then what do we care how long it takes? Sure, we have client budgets to consider. Sufficient budget or not, though, are we better off staying in business if we are living in the hell of mediocrity? Count me out and sign me up to walk the plank as long as I can be free to truly live those last few steps.

If great work takes time, then one may ask, “How on earth will we get our quota of articles published this month?" Well, maybe it’s time to reconsider the overly-ambitious editorial calendar as the perfect place to begin our new adventure. How about chopping eight monthly articles down to two? Or one? Or one every two months?

I guarantee you that if you’re producing mediocre content now — and if you’ll shift the same time you have invested in the eight articles into producing one high quality piece of content — you’ll be better off. We are all practically drowning in a sea of mediocre content, so what makes you think yours is somehow going to rise above the noise? Stop doing mediocre.

To conclude, I beseech thee, dear reader, to abandon thy commitments to engage in activity that doesn’t matter. Save your energy for the stuff that does. It will likely mean you do less, but in so doing you will do better.

[Image: chris]

Making Blister Packages Reusable

Gabrielle Kinderknecht — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 15:27:05 +0000

Making Blister Packages Reusable

Gabrielle Kind… Wed, 04/09/2014 - 10:27am

When creating packages we aim to sell the product, but did we think about how the package gets used after the product is opened? For manufacturers and designers this is something we consider when building a plastic package such as blister or clamshell. We have the opportunity to make sure the plastic we are using is recyclable and if possible reusable.

For my next project in my Senior Advanced Projects Practicum class, we are actually molding our own blister or clamshell packing with an apparatus my professor assembled. My objective is to design a reusable package. I hope to create awareness of how we can help advance our environment.

What is Blister/Clamshell packaging?

Blister or Clamshell packaging is made out of PVC (polyvinyl chloride) or PS (polystyrene) plastic which is heated (known as thermoforming) and then pressed over an object to mold a shape. You mostly see these packages is in toys, cosmetics, kitchen utensils, gum and pharmaceuticals.

Blister? Clamshell? There’s a difference between the two.

Clamshell packaging is shaped to have a fold or hinge in the middle to create a double sided package, so that the consumer can view the product from all angles.
Blister packaging is when the plastic is molded into pockets that hold the object. It usually has a backing of cardboard or foil.

You have probably seen these different products in...

Blister packaging	Clamshell packaging
Gum packaging	Cosmetics (such as eyelashes)
Medications (pill form)	Children's toys
Cosmetics (such as mascara)	Industrial products
Electronics	Electronics

The perks

Although blister and clamshell packaging is not the prettiest it’s really popular because it deters people from removing the product before it’s paid for. It also protects the product especially when it has to deal with medications.

Another plus is being able to see a product from all angles. A consumer can interact with the product — see it from all angles, get an idea of its size, weight, function, and visual appeal — without damaging it.

The downsides

Plastic is recyclable, but most blister packages are not. I only mentioned two types of plastic used to create the mold. There are actually more types of plastics used depending on which country you live in.

In this article on recycling blister packages, they show different labels that are required on Blister and Clamshell packages. There are seven different labels that show what type of plastic it is.

For example, PVC plastic should have a label that looks like the image to the right, called a resin code. This means that PVC is only recycled into decks, paneling, mudflaps, roadway gutters, flooring, cables, speed bumps, and mats.

Most companies don’t produce the resin code or label on the product and thus cannot be recycled, so they are trashed. Here are the different types of plastic symbols that say what can be recycled and what cannot be recycled.

Besides not being recyclable there is also “wrap rage.” Clamshell packaging is well known for injuring consumers trying to open the product.

You’ve gotten those packages that are completely sealed in and you need hefty duty scissors or any sharp object you can find to get the darn thing open. Yeah, it’s wrap rage when you get pissed off trying to open something so difficult and then end up hurting yourself.

(Need a laugh? I really enjoyed reading these testimonials of wrap ragers.)

Create something reusable

Today, many companies designing these packages are taking into consideration the idea of reusable packaging. Blister packs aren’t recyclable, so designing them needs to include more thought on how they can be made reusable.

My goal for my blister packaging project is to create a mold that is reusable. My approach is to create a brand that is a canine dental company that sells treats that are used to clean pets’ teeth.

I will create a package that contains 3 items and use a clamshell to seal it. This way the consumer is able to store the unused treats in the package while still maintaining the taste.

Another classmate plans to package toy skateboards inside a mold that will act as a skate ramp, so that after the package is open the child can reuse the plastic by interacting with the plastic mold.

Green packaging

It’s great to see companies who use blister or clamshell packaging make those packages reusable, if not recyclable. Even if you’re not a manufacturer or designer you can still help make sure that blister and clamshell packages are being recycled.

Do your part to help our environment and make sure that you see the resin code or label on the packages you’ve purchased. You can improve your local community and the environment by letting manufacturer companies know that the resin code is important when making these packages.

Building A Portfolio The "Right" Way

Gabrielle Kinderknecht — Wed, 12 Feb 2014 17:24:46 +0000

Building A Portfolio The "Right" Way

Gabrielle Kind… Wed, 02/12/2014 - 11:24am

In my last blog, I mentioned the steps in creating a personal identity. Branding yourself is an important step in building a portfolio. Your portfolio will be branded with your personal identity and help leave a memorable impression on the employer who you may be showing your portfolio to. Here are some subtle points that are often mentioned when building a portfolio but are not right or wrong.

What size should a portfolio be?

There are various sizes that designers may use in showing their portfolio. Whether it is landscape or portrait it does not matter, although you should be conscious when choosing a format because the sole purpose is to display your work. Most portfolios are landscape only to allow an image of your work and a paragraph to explain your thought process, goals, etc…

Even though there are several sizes the most common is no smaller than 11x17in. — some designers have pursued a smaller format and regretted their decision since their work was not large enough to justify the design. The main goal is to display your work in a way that gives credit to all the hard work you put into your pieces.

Number of pieces and order

It is a good idea to include 10 to 12 of your best portfolio pieces. Some interviewers may disagree and say they would rather have you show seven strong projects then to include pieces that do not add any quality to your portfolio. So how do you walk a client through your portfolio? The order you choose to display your work.

Placement is a huge part of keeping the employer interested long enough to keep turning the page. With that in mind, you should definitely show your best piece in the front. Most of the time people are viewing your portfolio it will not be in person. Most employers will have hundreds of portfolios in hand and will start to skim through, you want your best piece to be showcased so that they will be interested in what else you can design.

In showcasing at least 10 pieces you should show variety of work. If you are applying for print then you should display a variety such as brochures, menu design, packaging, branding/identity and other collateral pieces. If you are wanting to apply for a job in web then you should display a variety of websites in HTML/CSS, Wordpress and even showcase your Responsive Web Design skills. Again, it is a good idea to add or take out pieces based on the job you are applying for so that it adheres to what their company does.

Style

Here are a few examples of how a portfolio can be displayed uniquely:

A case with screw-post book: Using a suitcase portfolio can be a nice customization to your brand.

A Box with loose samples: A box portfolio may suit a photographer better, that helps allow them to change the order or images wanted when showing a client.

A Screw-post Book: Using a screwpost book will allow you to make quick changes and help save you money on having to reprint the entire book.

In choosing a style it is wise to consider all of these things before purchasing a portfolio case.

Copywriting

Writing skills in your portfolio is important because it allows people to see your eye for detail and how you can handle a lot or a little bit of text. Copywriting can help guide the interviewer stay absorbed by adding in a introduction, climax, and conclusion similar to how books are written. Some portfolios are formal and some casual. It is always interesting to keep your audience intrigued by the way you word things. Formal or casual, different designers will have different opinions, neither is wrong.

Show your portfolio

Gaining feedback from several designers or companies will help you improve your portfolio overall. Do not get me wrong many will love certain things and absolutely hate other pieces. It is wise to hear back from many different designers with different preferences. Then you can decide whether to leave a piece or take it out.

One designer may hate your best piece, or say “I would have ordered it like this,” again you will always hear different opinions. If you show your portfolio to several designers and they all agree that “this is not your best piece,” than it is a good choice to take it out or rearrange the order.

Sometimes you will get discouraged when getting feedback but it will help you have a strong portfolio and hear what real-world designers are looking for and what they are not. Less worrying, more designing.

The Sad State of Web Content

Mark Figart — Tue, 26 Nov 2013 14:42:11 +0000

The Sad State of Web Content

Mark Figart Tue, 11/26/2013 - 8:42am

You don't have to have listeners to flap your gums on the web. You are in fact, encouraged by a whole pack of gum-flapping marketers, authors, and publishers to join the noisy pack. You might even expect to be rewarded for your efforts. But it's a shame. Unless you have something meaningful to say, your work will likely go entirely unappreciated.

Think how productive our society might be if the segment of the population that focuses on spewing useless dribble onto the web would just shut up, take a moment to ponder where their passions lay or where they might actually add some value, and begin taking steps toward that end. It's no wonder that these marketers — so-called "content marketers", to be more specific — tarnish the industry's image.

I say buck the trend and the advice that tells you to repurpose your content in 15 different ways. Stop the mindless curation that fulfills the need to post something, anything, daily in your LinkedIn status field. Stop. breathe. Take the time you spend trying to stay ahead of this impossible race to publish more than your competitor, and spend just a fraction of it in peaceful meditation. Center yourself frequently, a move toward tapping into the creative force that will guide you toward your passion and your authentic voice. That's the only voice people care about. And care they will. But you have to find it first. That's not always easy, especially if you haven't heard from it in a dozen years.

Be original. Have an opinion. Publish it. That's all good. But if you don't have anything worthwhile to say, that's okay, too. Better to be quiet than add to the cacaphony.

[Image: Loozrboy]

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