A Free Lesson in PR.

There was an article in the Bay City Times this week about the Bay City paying a consultant $30,000 to “find ways to get a positive message out to residents regarding the city’s water and wastewater systems.”

I sat at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast a few months ago where city officials were pleading poverty as to why we can’t repair the streets of Bay City. We can’t afford to fix our roads but we have money to invest in making us feel better about our sewers?

This isn’t the first time that Bay City has used outside experts who came with a high price tag. I don’t have anything against using outside experts when the situation calls for it, but $30,000 to get a positive message out about the sewer?? Really? Really? Sometimes I am not sure if the people running the day-to-day operations of our city are capable of making good decisions. I wouldn’t let them run a bake sale and they’re in charge of the city budget.

Our city is falling apart and I am not speaking figuratively–the streets are actually crumbling. Is this really the best use of $30,000 out of an already overtaxed city budget? I don’t care if the money wasn’t earmarked for street repairs, we don’t need a PR campaign to make the sewer warm and fuzzy. It’s the sewer! If you have thirty grand to throw at a consultant, that’s thirty grand that could go to street repair. Or whatever…just not a PR campaign for the sewer.

Want a free lesson in public relations? A lot of PR comes at little or no cost–newspapers, tv, town hall meetings, etc. I have nothing against using consultants/experts when it makes sense, but Bay City is too quick to turn to consultants because there is a very low level of expertise when it comes to dealing with PR/advertising. Just look at the city logo that came out a couple of years ago–that monstrosity cost the city nearly $50,000. There are at least ten designers in Bay City who could have done a better job at a fraction of the cost. Hell, there are probably ten fifth graders who could have done a better job.

Sometimes, Bay City government seems more concerned with looking good than doing good. And that’s a problem. Good public relations come from sound decisions. Spending $30,000 for a consultant's ideas is not a sound decision in the current economic environment. Quit trying to look good and just fix the city.

The Skinny End of the Pareto Principle

I want to be careful here to avoid equating the business of graphic design to, say, selling vacuum cleaners. Obviously, there is a world of difference, but when you distill it down to the essentials, graphic design is like a lot of other businesses in that it's all about the numbers.

Between the cost of operating a studio (rent, utilities, insurance), staffing the studio, marketing and so forth, there is a number we have to hit every month just to keep the doors open. So, in effect, I know that every month I need to move X units of graphic design. The units vary in shape and size (logo design, brochure design, photo shoot, etc.), but I need to move enough units to pay everybody else and then hopefully have enough left over to pay myself.

I'm a big believer in the Pareto Principle, also known as the 80-20 rule among other names. Basically, the Pareto Principle says that 80% of your business comes from 20% of your clients. (Note: the Pareto Principle does not apply to just business, but to many other things such as baseball teams--80% of your run production comes from 20% of your players, for example.)

I first learned about this notion while I was a general manager with Kinko's and it proved itself valid time and time again. The way we applied the Principle at Kinko's was that we focused the lion's share of our marketing efforts on the clients who were already loyal (and often major) customers. This is a valid approach and it worked--in about three years I grew my store from about $30K per month to over $100K per month.

The Pareto Principle applies design studios and ad agencies, too, bit that runs straight into one of my worst business fears--having all of my eggs in one basket. I know of several studios and agencies that have gone out of business because one or two big clients moved their business and the revenue loss killed the studio. And I know of many more who lived in mortal fear of it happening to them. Nobody wants to have too much business from any single client, but it just sort of happens over time. You keep doing a good job, they keep bringing you more and more business. Then one day something goes wrong or the client is purchased by someone who mandates that their agency be used and it is all over.

There is one company in the region who, if they were to go out of business or pull all of their business out of the region, would kill a BUNCH of agencies/studios. Maybe not right away, but over the course of a year it would be a bloodbath. The principles would get out okay, but for the studio rank-and-file it would be all over. The Tri-Cities would find itself flooded with designers and copywriters, many of whom would take to freelancing, which would hurt freelancers and other small studios. The trickle-down effect would be devastating on the local design and advertising industry.

To avoid the all-eggs-in-one-basket trap, I have tried to take a different approach by focusing my attention on the 20% side of the Pareto Principle. Not so much the 20% of clients who are occasional clients, but the 100% of potential clients who don't work with us. Yet.

I make a conscious effort to reach out to a wide variety of clients in a variety of industries. The effect of making phone calls and meeting with potential clients leaves me feeling a little bit like a door-to-door salesman. I'm not trying to sell anyone a logo design they don't need (although, believe me, there are plenty of people in need of a new logo design--I'm talking to you Sherwin Williams), but there is a degree of discomfort in asking people for new business.

Discomfort or not, I need to keep making the phone calls and setting the meetings. The more people who see the work 989 Design has done, the more people want to work with 989 Design. A pretty high percentage of our meetings turn into actual work, which is something I am very proud of.

The way I see it, as long as we continue doing great work and keep working the skinny end of the Pareto Principle, we should be in pretty good shape.

The Flood of Aught-Eight

Among the things I haven't had the time to write about was last week's storm. Last Wednesday (I think), we had a very sudden, very heavy rainfall which dumped about 5 inches of rain in an hour.

The sky went from sunny to overcast in about 30 minutes and you could see the storm front moving in from the west. When the rain started, it was like someone turned on a faucet full blast--no gentle summer rain, this.

It was a busy day and I just kept working (and saving frequently, in case we lost power) and listening to the rain pouring down. I started to hear a dripping sound, but couldn't quite figure out where it was coming from. I walked up toward the front door and couldn't see anything, so I walked back toward the back of the studio. As I walked into the back office the water was coming faster. I looked toward the back door and water was coming in beneath the door.

Mayday! Mayday! We're hit and we're taking water!

I ran to the bathroom and grabbed every hand towel in the studio (3) and a large bucket. I couldn't find anything else to soak up water, so I just started dropping the towels and wringing them out into the bucket. could. AAfter nearly an hour, the rain began to let up and I was able to take a minute to assess the damage. The carpet had a semi-circle of water surrounding the back door--it's radius was about 4 feet and other than a filing cabinet that I had already moved, didn't get close to anything vital. Water came in the front door, too, but it wasn't as serious. I peeked in the basement and that was a big mess. About 6 inches of water. All in all, not too serious.

I decided to run home to grab more towels to work on drying the carpet (and guarding against more flooding). On the way home, I come to a puddle which ran the width of my street. It looked to be about 12 inches or so, which wouldn't be a problem for my GMC Jimmy. And that would have held true if it had only been 12 inches. Even 18 inches wouldn't have been a big deal. Unbeknownst to me (in reality, I guess it was actually knownst to me, but I never really gave it a second thought), there is a big dip in that particular spot on the street. As I drove in, the water got really deep, really fast.

The truck died in the middle of the pond as water splashed over the hood and hit the windshield. I was irked but not really concerned until the water started coming in from beneath the passenger-door (this water-rushing-under-the-door thing is going to be a lifelong phobia, I fear). I needed a second to regroup and decide what to do. The only thing I could think to do was get out of the truck (through the driver-side window) and push. Michelle was in the truck with me so she got to pilot my new GMC U-Boat while I pushed in hip-deep water.

I actually managed to move it 5-6 feet by myself when we got to the other side of the dip and I was pushing uphill. If I didn't find some help quickly, this was not going to end well. Just as I'm about to summon that superhuman strength people get in emergency situations, two teenagers came running out from their house to help push. The two of them together probably weighed about as much as I weight, but the three of us were able to get the truck out of the water and up to high ground. I didn't have my wallet on me, so I couldn't give them anything, but I was more grateful than words could express. The kindness of strangers, man, that's something you can never count on, but it goes a long way toward restoring my faith in mankind.

Anyway, the truck was flooded and would not start. I did my best to use towels and whatever to soak up the water in the truck so that there isn't any standing water in it and leave it there. I tried to start it the next two days and it still wouldn't start.

After a trip to the mechanic (I kept picturing the scene in Risky Business with the Porsche 928), it started again, but the transmission was screwy.

After a trip to the transmission shop, all is well.

It was a whole lot of running around and more than a few dollars to get Jimmy up and running again, but I can't really be upset because it was my own fault. I guess I could be upset with myself, but that seems to be a waste of time. At least I learned a valuable lesson: If you are unsure about making it through safely, maybe it's time to look for an alternate route.

Bird Day.

My day started pretty early today. I had to get up early to put the finishing touches on an article I'm writing for Tri-City Magazine. I got the article done, then I made some coffee and took the dogs for a walk.

We left the house around 6:15 and it was absolutely beautiful out. Blue sky, sunshine, 55 degrees. Couldn't ask for better dog-walking weather. The dogs and I have a route that we usually walk, with slight variations along the way. We almost always, though, walk to the river and follow the river for a little bit, then head home.

This morning, when we got to the spot where we usually turn around, I saw something unusual in the water. There were two ducks swimming side by side and one of them had something in his mouth (they were both males, green heads). I was trying to figure out what was in his mouth. It looked like a fish, but that didn't make any sense. As I'm staring at the ducks I finally see what it is--it's another duck's head. This one duck is holding the other duck's head underwater. And he's got a buddy there to help him hold the duck under. It was one of the craziest things I've ever seen.

I watch this real-life Mutual of Omaha segment unfold for a couple of minutes. The two ducks are really not letting the third duck up. I begin to feel really bad for the third duck. I mean, what the hell did he do to deserve this?

I whistle at them, not too loudly, but loud enough that it draws the two bullies' attention. While they are looking over at me, the third duck manages to slip out from under them and flies off.

Even though I just told Darwin to screw himself and probably ruined the process of natural selection, I still feel pretty good about myself.

When I got back to the studio, I googed something like, "ducks drowning other ducks" and sure enough I got a hit (I love the internet!). Apparently, that is how ducks mate--it's a pretty violent process. The males gang up on a single female. There is one male who is there to get what he wants and the others are just there as muscle.

Kind of like a party in Kobe Bryant's suite, I guess.

As if that wasn't aviary drama enough for the day, when I get to the studio this morning I see two mourning doves sitting outside the back door of the studio. They look like they were fighting, but Laurie noticed right away that it was a mother and baby bird. The mother bird was bringing food and kind of pecking at the baby bird to feed him. It was really cute.

I managed to get outside and snap a few photos. It's not the best photo because I couldn't get too close, but you can see them pretty well here.


They hung out for a little while, but I had to get to work so I lost track of them. It was a nice counterbalance to the waterfowl domestic violence I had witnessed earlier.

I know this had nothing to do with design, but that's just the way it is.

Visit our real-and-official blog at:
http://989Design.com

Studio News

It's been pretty busy at the studio the past couple of weeks, so I've been a little lazy about updating the blog. There is a little break in the action, though, so I can take a few minutes to report on some things at the studio.

First off, the new 989 Design website is up and running. We have had a lot of positive feedback on the site, so a big thanks goes out to Laurie (more about her in a minute) and Mike Weiss of MJ Media—they are the people who actually took Laurie's design and brought it to life. As part of the redesign project, the blog was integrated into the site, so you can read the blog without ever leaving the site. I am going to continue to post here, although from here on out all Blogger entries will be identical to the entires on 989design.com.

The second piece of news is actually the big news I have been promising. I was holding off to try to tie the announcement in with the announcement in the Bay City Times, but I can't wait anymore. Laurie Russell has joined 989 Design as a designer/art director. Laurie is a fine artist with around 20 years of experience in design/advertising and is a real asset to the studio. Having a second set of well-qualified hands in the studio has been a real help.

The third news item isn't as cool as adding a designer to the team, but it's pretty visible. We finally got around to putting up our permanent signage in the studio (as seen in the photo on the left). We chose to work with Klender Design and they did a fantastic job. The work was finished quickly and the guys who installed the graphics were great. I can't recommend them highly enough.

That's all the news I can think of at the moment. Have a great day and we'll see you soon.

Chamber Breakfast

This is a couple of days after the fact, but we went to the Bay Area Chamber of Commerce breakfast on Tuesday. The key speaker that morning was Bay City Mayer, Charles Brunner. The topic of the day was the condition of roads in Bay City and let me tell you, it was not a pretty picture.

Bay City is in a world of hurt when it comes to infrastructure. I can't remember the exact numbers, but something like two-thirds of the streets in Bay City receive a failing grade and the city doesn't have any money to do much more than repair potholes. I think the one figure they gave is that it would take around $100 million dollars to bring all 200 miles of city streets up to passing grades. That's about 30 years worth of budget for street repair. In other words, it isn't going to get done.

My biggest concern is that if we don't have enough money to take care of our streets and bridges (it is up to the city to take care of two of Bay City's four drawbridges, the other two are either state or federally funded), how are we going to have money to take care of anything?

Maybe we just start selling off naming rights to all public places. I know that some people were pissed when Jack and Alice Wirt's name went up on the new library, but their contribution went a long way toward getting the library built. Dow Chemical has been very active in putting their money back into the tri-cities and giving life to a variety of projects--Dow Diamond and the new YMCA, to name a couple. How long will it be before cars driving over the 989 Design Liberty Bridge?

I'm not a doom-and-gloom guy and I really do believe that there could be a bright future for Bay City, otherwise I wouldn't have moved here. I have to be honest, though, it scares me to think that our infrastructure is an economic albatross. Not just in Bay City, but in towns and cities all over the country. How can we, as a country, get out of this downward spiral? We've been spending tomorrow's dollars today, waiting for some economic bubble and that bubble doesn't seem to be coming anytime soon.

What actions can we take today to avoid completely bankrupting our future?

Congratulations, Clayton!

Sunday afternoon, former Loons ace Clayton Kershaw made his Major League debut, starting for the Los Angeles Dodgers. I shot and designed the poster above last year while he was still in Midland. He has been referred to as a "once-in-a-generation talent" and we all knew that he was not long for the minor leagues, but nobody was quite exactly when he would make the jump.
Showing no sign of nerves, Clayton scattered five hits over six innings, giving up two runs, both earned. He would have won the game, but the bullpen couldn't protect the 3-2 lead he spotted them.
I got to work with Clayton a couple of times last year and he was a genuinely nice kid. I am really happy for him and look forward to watching his career develop. Congratulations, Clayton.