I haven’t had a post in a while. I’ve been busy. Life has been happening. Not to worry though, I’ve been learning and growing in my absence.
November is benefit enrollment time at our company and we had our mandatory meetings. I totally intended to take normal notes. Really. I mean it.
They actually remained quite helpful, despite the playfulness.
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!
We recently had a webinar training event through work. It dealt with the topic of designing an effective ad, specifically for newspaper advertising.
There was some good info presented. According to their statistics, newspapers are not a dying media, as TV would have you believe. They are still completely relevant when it comes to informing consumers about their options in local, small scale markets. Good news for someone in my profession to be sure!
There were also some great ideas present about how to build an effective ad, but it was all stuff I learned in school while earning my BFA. I’ve heard it all before, they just presented examples of good design technique. The webinar was not really intended for a designer’s ear. I think it would have been better suited to sales staff and advertisers, to see what’s possible and what can be done to grab a consumers attention when it comes to advertising design.
Why ramble on about all this without any true details? Because the essence of this post is the notes I took during the webinar.
Instead of the obligatory doodles I used to do, I find myself designing my notes more and more. I think this will be the first in a series of posts I make on my designed notes.
I know they aren’t ground breaking, nor are they earth shattering in terms of design. One must admit, though, that they aren’t your usual seminar notes. I find it helps fuel my creative mind to think about layout as I make notes. I’m excited to see where this sort of thing takes me.
