Productivity Away From the Office Desk.

Monday thru Friday, for about eight hours each day, you’ll find some of us in the office. But that’s not the case for others of us. As we’ve mentioned in previous posts, we’re stationed all over the place, including overseas. It’s not just us. More and more people are embracing the flexibility their jobs offer, and doing their best work at home. There are elements of being at home that are drastically different than being in the office, some of which have taken us a bit to figure out. We thought we’d share a few tips we’ve found helpful along the way.

Office hours.
Establish them. Even at home- especially at home- this is an important thing to do. While perks of working from home include being able to stand up and chat with family members for a few minutes in the middle of the day, or access the coffee machine any time you want, or even pet the dog while doing something that doesn’t require a lot of brain power, there are times when you need to remain uninterrupted.

When 99% Accuracy Isn’t Good Enough.

The design industry is competitive, there’s no doubt about that. There’s always someone else who wants to do it better, quicker, cheaper, or any combination of the three. You’ve got to constantly evaluate your workflow, and adjust it so that you’ve got the best combination. 

You can do things right 28 days out of the month, but when one of those remaining days doesn’t go as planned, there’s a chance you could be fighting so you don’t compromise the quality, effectiveness or bottom line of a  job done on your watch. So, what happens when that inevitable mistake makes its way to the surface of your carefully managed workflow?

Glimpses of Genius, Beauty, and Novelty – Blog Apathy

We’ve been experiencing a somewhat overwhelming amount of work lately as we help get clients ready for trade shows, and get ready to launch several really big websites. So thanks for understanding a little less frequent blogging schedule while we concentrate on doing great work! In the mean time, here are some great links we’ve […]

Why We’re Not Advertising in the Yellow Pages Anymore.

It’s Yellow Pages renewal time again… So the tedious process of reviewing faxes, and repeatedly talking to friendly reps who carefully record your responses is upon us.

One of the first things we did when we started our business was to call the Yellow Pages to see what it took to get listed. We’d never been through the process, and it seemed really important. Even then most of us never touched the phone book if we needed to find a phone number, but surely the rest of the world did, – right? How on earth would we ever get business if nobody knew we existed?

We’re been paying $1200 or so a year since. Know how many jobs we’ve gotten from it? Zero. We religiously ask all of our clients how they found us, and the phone book is never part of the equation…

Glimpses of Genius, Beauty, and Novelty – Coolness.

The west coast is casual – Dynamic Zappos shoe map Can’t read it – But it’s like the Japanese Digg All things modern – Contemporary design Smart promos – 10% discount if it’s raining A new idea? – Probably not, but cool anyway Modern part 2 – Art, design, and architecture A good stamp – […]