I recently dropped my BlackBerry service to save some money. That means I’m back to a “regular” cell phone. In this case, that means an LG Venus. The phone itself, works. The photo quality? Not so much. But there are rare occurrences that it works to my advantage and produces a “happy” result.
Case in point.
Fog.
It was a pretty cool morning. Having my real camera would have certainly been nice, but in this case, the camera phone did okay on it’s own.
![UW_Logo_Color_Local[1]](http://www.lettertgraphics.com/ltgp/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/UW_Logo_Color_Local1.jpg){kind=logo}
Disclaimer First: I am by no way a Flash expert. I know just enough to be dangerous, and the requirements of my job and “expanded” responsibility dictates that I at least have the basics down.
With that said, however, I am pleased with house this series of ads for the local United Way turned out. They were good enough that they would like to add two more to the series.
If they are done playing, just refresh your page. These are not designed to loop, in order to encourage people to click the donate button. The other cool thing, is that I learned how to embed them in a WordPress post!
The following is a poster I designed for the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2007-2008 season. The background image was provided, of which I was very thankful for, on the short time schedule.
Fairytales and Legends
As a designer, I was thankful I didn’t have to think about the background image; it left me time to just focus on text placement and a few additional effects to bring the poster to life.
This year is the 100th Anniversary of the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra.
Of my beautiful wife.
Nadine Carter
Was playing with posts. I had one saved as a draft that I created on Friday. I wanted it to post today, but it showed up in the blog list as being posted Friday. When I played with the schedule thingy, it wouldn’t let me cancel it. I probably just don’t know how.
Anyway, a few older posts should show up in the next few minutes.
A quick edit. Figured out how to “unschedule” a post and make it publish immediately. Pretty silly. Lesson learned!
Today, we had a quick departmental meeting. Thing are changing in the Newspaper Industry and I think, for the better. Our advertising department is making a concerted effort to work together as a whole unit, instead of individual partitions. That means a close relationship between the account executives (fancy speak for sales people) and the designers (not so fancy speak for ad builders).
The sales staff has been in training for over 6 weeks on this material. We got a crash course today. Essentially, it all boils down to providing more for the customer. Being a total marketing solution, instead of a simple entity that just sells advertising into the paper.
I think it’s a step in the right direction, that’s for sure. It makes sense in the current total marketing world we live in. If we can establish a good business relationship in all areas, the business will be more likely to advertise when they need to.
Enough of the meeting overview. I did get a lot out of it, and part of that was some interesting notes. Another addition to my series.
Designed Notes. 10.12.10
It’s a good thing I was in the meeting and they are my notes. Makes it easier to understand!
Some of you are thinking, “how sad. It’s just a Hot Wheels car.” I’m actually pretty excited. I have a bad habit of getting them too often for my son, and if he gets one, why shouldn’t I? Of course, I’ve gotten better at not getting him one every time we go to the store.
Recently, we were in Wal-Mart and our 9 month old picked out his very own car. My wife had the cart stopped next to a bin full of Hot Wheels. He picked a 1971(72? can’t remember) Ford Gran Torino Sport. If he could get one, then our 2 year old needed one and Daddy needed one too, right?
I came home with a 2010 Cadillac CTS-V. I would love to have one in real life, but it probably won’t ever happen and I’m content with owning the pint-sized version. It doesn’t need gas, tires, repairs, insurance, etc.
I did have to rearrange my “desk garage” though, to fit it in along with the new family photos I brought to work.
Behold:
Desktop Garage.
From left to right: GMC Typhoon. GMC Syclone. New Caddy CTS-V. Corvette ZR-1. Ferrari 365 GTB/4
Yup. Multiple Note Post.
It was a crazy weekend, full of puking boys, errands galore, baking up a storm (Nadine only. I can’t bake. And you should taste her chocolate peanut butter cake…Amazing!), trip to Denver for some multiple birthday celebration, little sleep, lots of cleaning… And then BAM! Hellooo Monday!
So yeah, I had some catch-up to do. Not to be confused with Ketchup, which I can only eat on burgers or with fries.
Notes-A-Day. 10.9-10.11
You’ll have to forgive not only the poor picture quality (due to a sub-par phone) but poor lighting as well. There are several people out of the office today and as such, we’ve been able to keep the lights over head off. Helps minimize screen glare and tired eyes! Silly fluorescent lights.
Ehrlich Mazda is official. And so is their first major ad.
It’s not every day you get to start with a clean slate in newspaper advertising, especially for an account as big as the Ehrlich Family of Dealerships. This is one of those rare events. As I mentioned with my previous Mazda post, Ehrlich was recently awarded a Mazda Franchise. As such, they are a completely “new” advertiser and I had the express privilege of creating their first ad.
My goal is to create a strong brand identity for Ehrlich Mazda (Mazda itself is already well established, obviously). At the dealer location, they already have Ehrlich Motors (Used Car Sales) and Ehrlich Subaru. Having been able to build their ads for several years now, I have been able to create a consistent identity that is carried across all of their advertising. Their ads are easily recognizable and stand apart from other area dealer advertising.
My goal is to add Mazda to that design style, making it easily recognizable as and Ehrlich Motors/Subaru brand, while maintaining the corporate Mazda Identity. After the transition is made from the “introductory” ads, I will start incorporating some design style from the Subaru ads in order to create that consistency. When that happens, I will add a followup post displaying a Subaru ad next to a Mazda ad and my hope is that the consistency will be readily apparent.
I now present to you the First Ehrlich Mazda ad.
Ehrlich Mazda
First things first. Don’t worry. I didn’t miss Wednesday or Thursday. On Wednesday, I forgot my phone and didn’t feel like using the scanner. There’s something I like about the poor quality of my current camera phone. 
On Thursday, I was just plain busy. Even though I didn’t post the notes, I did give them to my wife.
Now that we have that out of the way, on to today’s note.
Note-A-Day 10.8
Tik Pic 1. Keys.
A local dealership, Ehrlich Subaru/Motors was recently awarded a Mazda franchise, which is a big deal. In 2009, one of the area’s largest auto dealerships closed for a variety of reasons; essentially hit by a perfect economic storm. To know that Mazda feels confident enough to come back is a good sign for the local economy.
For me, it meant a chance to get creative. To announce their new franchise, they chose to use a Toma campaign, which is a series of small 2 column by 5 inch ads. I put together a series of 3 ads with a common theme. Unfortunately, they chose to use the same ad for the “series.”
The good news is, they kept the strongest design.
Ehrlich Mazda Ad: The Greeley Tribune © 2010. All rights reserved.
Congratulations to Ehrlich Motors, Subaru and now Mazda. I look forward to building more ads for them. If you are looking for a New or Used Car in the Northern Colorado/Greeley Area, I highly recommend checking them out. They might just have what you are looking for.
My wife is extremely compassionate. I love that about her. She is also honest. What you see is what you get.
Note-A-Day 10.5.10
My wife is smart. That’s all there is to say about that.
Note-A-Day 10.4.10
Note-A-Day 10.3.10
Nadine and I were able to go out on our first real, true, no kid, no time to be home quickly, actual date in a very long time. It was fantastic. We wandered around Centerra for a bit, ate at Mimi’s Cafe and stopped at Target to do a little early Christmas shopping.
I know, we really know how to live it up on Date Night… and it was awesome!
Note-A-Day 10.2.10
Today, I helped my grandparents and uncle move my other uncle’s stuff into storage. Nadine brought the boys out so they could “be seen.” She didn’t have to, but she dressed cute today! Super Sexy even, if I do say so myself!
Love you Nadine!
Inspired by Kyle Steed’s Post-A-Notes, I have started my own “Sticky Note” project.
In an effort to show my wife just how much she means to me, with simple daily reminders, I have started Nadine’s Note-A-Day.
Clearly, they are not to Kyle’s caliber, but that’s missing the point. The point is, I love my wife and this is a simple, daily way I can show her what she means to me.
I give you Nadine’s Note-A-Day for 10.1.10.
Note 10.1.10
Pardon the crappy, retouched photo. I went back to my LG Venus to save some money and it’s lousy compared to my BB Storm. 
