The Great Debate

Almost every time somebody comes into the studio for the first time, I get a comment along the lines of:

“You use a Mac?”

I generally don’t comment much beyond affirming that the studio is, in fact, entirely Mac-based. I am a very happy Mac user. I drank the Macintosh Kool-Aid a VERY long time ago (1988), but I don’t talk about it much. It seems like most people who bring it up (author’s note: the folks who comment on the Macs in the studio are not trying to spark debate, it’s just that an iMac is one of the first things you see when you walk in the front door) only bring it up to debate the merits of Mac vs. PC.

The question has come up a few times in the past couple of weeks, so I’m going to give you a little bit on my history as a Mac guy. I don’t care if you agree with me, I don’t care what kind of computer you use, I don’t care if you convert to Mac or not. If you have a PC and you love it, that’s great. Don’t change a thing! If you are thinking about buying a Mac, this is not meant to sway you. I don’t get a dime from Apple no matter if you buy one Mac or one hundred.

The first time I ever touched a Mac was in 1988, working on a few-year-old model in student media at Central Michigan University. It was a self-contained beige box with a keyboard and mouse. No hard drive, swapping 3.5″ floppy disks back and forth to use applications. It was completely different than any computer I had used to that point. The mouse alone was enough to distinguish it, but you also had the white screen with black type (as opposed to the black screen with green type). It allowed you to change type size and style and it showed you EXACTLY what you would see when you printed (WYSIWG was pretty novel in the mid- to late-eighties).

Over the next few years as I began dipping my toes into the world of design (by way of publication design) I used our Mac more and more frequently. When I got my first job at Kinko’s, my familiarity with the system allowed me to work as a typesetter in addition to my other job responsibilities. I kept working on Macs and kept loving it more and more.

Apple made a conscious decision to focus on the niche market of computer graphics very early on. They knew that they couldn’t compete with PCs, whose market share was pretty close to 100% when Apple first came on the scene. With their focus on design—both physical design of the Mac as well as the completely innovative user interface (the mouse and desktop)—they were catering to a very specific user set.

The strategy worked very well. Macs are the go-to computers of graphic designers around the world. In the early going, it was your only real option. As the hardware of both Macs and PCs have changed over the years, the software manufacturers have worked hard to make design an option on both platforms.

In the early going, design and publishing software on the PC was pretty dismal. Early PC versions of PageMaker (a blast from the past!) and Illustrator couldn’t hold a candle to their Macintosh counterparts. Over time, though, I have to admit that other than little things like key commands and the way certain menus are organized, the software packages are pretty much the same thing. You can accomplish the same thing on either platform, so now it does come down to personal preference of platform.

I’ve worked on both platforms, although my exposure to PC is very limited compared to my Mac experience. In my experience, though, I prefer the way the Mac works. The operating system (I can’t remember if we’re on Leopard or what other cat-name we’re on now) works very well. One of the things that I love about Apple is that they spend a lot of time and money on the actual design of the software—being innovative is a part of the culture at Apple and I appreciate that. And not just in the computer division, either. Sure you can get an MP3 player for less than an iPod, but I like the way the iPod works.

You can see Apple innovations turn up in non-Apple products all of the time. For me, it’s not about being cool or cutting edge or anything like that (when I bought my first iPod, it was the only game in town and I’ve stuck with it), it’s about supporting a company that actively works toward innovation. That being said, I have thus far steered clear of the iPod, although with my cell phone contract coming up soon, I may end up making that switch. Once again, though, not for the cool factor. I rarely take my cell phone with me when I go out, but it would be nice to have a phone that integrates all of my vital information with my computer so easily. I digress.

I think I have purchased about 10 Macs over the years (including the five I currently use for my home and the studio) and I’ve never had a significant problem with any of them. Sure, I’ve lost a hard drive or two over the years, but that is something that happens in the normal course of a computer’s life. The machines themselves are reliable. Very, very few random crashes (I think my two laptops have crashed a total of 8 times or so in the past three years), reliable performance, etc.

I’ve been a creative professional for a lot of years now and I can also say that no serious graphic designer I have ever worked with uses a PC. I’m sure there are some, but in every agency/company I have worked with/for it was all-Mac, all the time (web guys and other animators often use PCs, I know, but they are a different type of creative pro from pure graphic design).
Honestly, I’m not sure what got me on this tangent today. I guess I just wanted to wave my Apple flag.

Seasons Change in the Neighborhood

I'm out of the studio while I'm writing this entry so I don't have access to most of my photos. Instead, I pulled a photo from last February.

We're still about a month away from the official start of winter, but we've already had a few light snowfalls. I've not had to shovel yet (the broom has handled these early season snows), but it won't be long before the real snow begins to fall.

With the change in weather, the Midland Street neighborhood takes on a whole different feel. In the summer you have a constant stream of traffic walking past the studio windows. In the winter there are still a few passers-by, but they're all bundled up and rushing to get to the tanning salon or the bar or wherever they are headed.

I really love this neighborhood. I was driving to work in the half-light of the morning a couple of days ago and they already have the Christmas lights up. I'm not a fan of Christmas lights before Thanksgiving, but I know the city has to get them up while the gettin's good, so I don't mind. I'll be hanging the lights in the windows of the studio either this weekend or next week, so stay tuned for more photos.

Sorry for the really vanilla entry, I'm just in a reflective mood. I am looking forward to our second winter in our studio. If you are one of the few who brave the winter, please feel free to stop by and say hello. Maybe we can play ping-pong or something.

My Small Role in the History of Qdoba

One of the happiest days of my life was when Qdoba opened a location in Saginaw. Prior to that, I would make the drive to the Miller Road exit in Flint to get my Qdoba fix. Over the past few years, Qdoba has really grown a lot. I think there are close to 500 locations in the US and most people are familiar with the chain.

What most people don't realize is that Qdoba started out in Denver in 1995 and my first apartment in Denver was only a few blocks from their second location (and just about one mile from the first location). When I first visited Denver to search for an apartment, it was the first restaurant my friends took me to. At the time it was called Zuma, but it was pretty much the same as the Qdoba restaurants of today (minus some of the newer chainwide decor).

For my ten years in Denver, Qdoba was a staple of my diet. In total candor, I did also eat at Qdoba rival Chipotle (chip-ot-lay, not chip-ol-tee) which was founded two years earlier in--you guessed it--Denver. Even with my occasional trip to Chipotle, I was mostly very loyal to Qdoba.

In the late 90's, they had changed the name from Zuma to Z-Teca. I have to be honest, as far as branding goes, I've never loved their naming decisions. It just seemed like they were trying to confound people (and based on the comments from friends/acquaintences, they were doing just that).

Anyway, around the time of the name change (1998, maybe?) I was lucky enough to actually have a small (very small) role in the early growth of the chain. I was hired by the Z-Teca corporate offices as a freelance designer. I can remember the chain growing from a handful of stores (at the time, I think they had around 10 locations). They had done some work with an ad agency who provided some guidelines, but brought me in to work on a variety of things—mailings, coupons, menus, postcards, and so forth. We kept tweaking the pieces until we finally came upon a look we were happy with. For a while it seemed like I was doing a few grand opening postcards and menus every single week. Locations throughout Colorado and then into Texas, I think. Z-Teca was strictly a franchise operation then (I think that Qdoba now has some corporate money from Jack in the Box) so you would had individual locations springing up here and there throughout the country.

It was a really exciting time to be involved with the chain because you knew that it was going to blow up. I like the feeling of getting involved on the ground floor of something. That's one of the best aspects of this gig—you get to meet a lot of people and work with them to help bring their dreams to life. In the case of Qdoba, they were going to be huge no matter what I did. I am proud of the work I did with them, but their success had nothing to do with my work (I could have put swastikas on their menu and I don't think it would have made a bit of difference). I think what I love about it is the energy that a new product/restaurant/etc. has surrounding it. It's all about hope and promise and possibility—that's the sort of environment when I feel like I do my best work.

After about a year or so, the growth was so great that they brought in a professional restaurant marketing guru who had her own team of designers. I was disappointed that I wouldn't be working with them anymore, but I was grateful for having had the opportunity.

Thanks for everything, Qdoba.

In which Shawn breaks out a popular cliché...

You have heard this one before...be the change you want to see in the world. As overused as the expression may be, I still like it. It's not just a platitude, it is also a call to action. One of my biggest pet peeves are people who complain about what they want/what they would do/what should be, but they never actually do anything about it.

There was a post I was going to write about a month ago about people who sit on every board and committee in town. Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for these people. My only beef was the fact that so many of the same people sit on all of these boards that there doesn't seem to be a seat at the table for anyone who is not in with the in crowd. This is a bit of a theme in Bay City, where ideas and people are recycled and reused for years and years.

What does a guy have to do to be asked to join a board of directors? Apparently, he just has to wait his turn. Since I made the first "soft" announcement of the Good Works Group, no fewer than two groups have asked me to join. (For the record, no more than two groups have asked me to join.)

The first is the Literacy Council of Bay County. After reading the profile of me in the Tri-City Business Review—where I commented that two of my pet projects are literacy and education—they contacted me and asked me to join their board of directors. I can't tell you how excited I am to join this group. I genuinely believe that literacy is one of the keys to improving many of society's ills, so I am looking forward to the opportunity to help bring more attention to the problem.

The second group is an advisory committee for the Bay Area School District's career center. The career center offers a wide variety of classes in areas such as graphic arts, culinary arts, health careers and more. For some of the kids involved, they use the classes to earn college credits in the field they plan on majoring in. For others who may not be planning on attending college, they get hands-on work experience that will help them find a job after graduation. I have seen some of the work that both the culinary and graphic program students do and it's really impressive. A chance to be involved with this group is really exciting.

I like to think that I'm a money-where-his-mouth-is guy so I am genuinely grateful for these opportunities to contribute to my community. As things get busier with the Good Works Group, I know that I will need to be wary of spreading myself too thin, but for now I look forward to the challenges ahead.

If you've made it this far, thank you for allowing me to indulge in the up-with-people entry.

A Brand is Born, A Brand Dies

I know that I'm a little late in writing about this, but I wanted to write about the FedEx decision to kill the FedEx Kinko's name in favor of FedEx Office. I'm sure that a move like this was planned from the time FedEx initially acquired Kinko's, but I think they kept Kinko's in the name to help transition consumers from one brand to the other. From a branding standpoint, it makes perfect sense. FedEx Kinko's was a terrible name—it was made up of two corporate giants whose names had become nearly synonymous with the product. This can instill in consumers a certain amount of confusion—is FedEx Kinko's a print shop who ships or a shipper who prints?

So, as I said, the decision to change the name makes sense. FedEx Office eliminates the two-brand name confusion and better communicates the full range of services offered. The name says business, which is the market that they want to appeal to. I worked for Kinko's as a general manager and regional trainer for a number of years, so I can speak from experience when I tell you that the small- to medium-size office is the bread-and-butter for Kinko's. They'll still be happy to do color copies of your grandkids and copy the minutes of your PTA meeting, but serving business is where they make their dough.

Kinko's is a great example of grass-roots growth of a brand. The name itself was founder Paul Orfalea's nickname which he applied to his first copy shop, located on a college campus. The brand grew by opening additional locations on campuses across the country. As this first generation of Kinko's customers graduated from college and moved into the professional world, they created a demand for the same services in the commercial market. That demand further grew the brand. With this growth in the number of locations, Kinko's began utilizing more regional and national marketing. Their success was so great that there are some who feel that the name Kinko's was in danger of becoming a genericized trademark—in effect, they were nearly so successful that they nearly killed their own brand (examples of lost brand names include zipper, thermos, and pilates—each of which was a trademarked brand at one time).

Personally, though, I have to admit that I am a little saddened to see the Kinko's brand go away. I have great memories of my time at Kinko's and of meeting and speaking with Paul (Kinko himself—his inspirational book, Copy This, is one of my favorite motivational/business books). As a matter of fact, I credit my time with Kinko's as one of the major contributing factors to my decision to become a designer. So thanks for everything, Kinko's. You'll always be open 24 hours in my heart, your name displayed in Reflex blue Revue font with a red dot above the i.

989 Good Works Group

I wanted to give a quick update regarding the 989 Good Works Group. I made an informal announcement of the Good Works Group at the Bay Area Chamber of Commerce breakfast in October. I am still working on some of the details, but the immediate response has been fantastic. I’ve heard from potential clients and designers alike. In addition, I’ve spoken with people at several area schools with students interested in participating in the project. I was very pleasantly surprised to hear from a few people who either read about it in the blog or heard about it from someone at the breakfast—they, too, want to donate some of their time and talent to the Good Works Group.

I think the biggest trick of it is going to be keeping up with the logistics of the various projects. There are a lot of moving pieces in a project like this and along with acting as creative director, I’ll be playing the role of traffic cop. We are going to be starting off with just a handful of clients to get a feel for how all of this is going to work. So far we have lined up three Good Works Group clients and I have commitments from a couple of designers and photographers, which is a great start to the project.

I am really excited to get things rolling and hope to wrap up the business plan for the second semester. I think I am going to need to put together a board of advisors for a project like this. I think we’ll want some people who are creative professionals as well as a few who are from outside of the design/photo fields. If anyone thinks they might be interested in participating in something like this, please drop me at e-mail or give me a call at your convenience. Or, as I keep saying, feel free to stop by the studio.

Also, I’d like to take a moment to point out the fact that this is two blog entries in one week. I’m like the Victor Hugo of blogging. This week, anyway.

Long Time, No Blog

Okay…it’s clear that my plan on keeping the blog updated isn’t working very well and it’s driving me nuts because I’ve had some great feedback on the blog. I’ve even had a few people comment on the lack of updating, which is a little embarrassing. I know the reasons that I’m having such a tough time, but the truth is that most of the reasons are just excuses. When I am in the studio there are just too many distractions: the phones (landline and cell) ring, e-mail, internet, ping pong, etc. At home it’s walking the dogs, raking the leaves, hanging this picture or that mirror, doing dishes, etc.

It’s the same problem that everyone has—prioritization. When I’m at work my list starts with income-generating projects and then moves on to whatever is the next highest priority. At home it’s no different. When I’m busy at work, I put off tasks that need to be done around the house until things slow down. So in the time I could be writing a blog entry, I look at my laundry list of things I’ve been putting off and then I try to tackle them. In between episodes of House, that is.

I think I finally figured out the biggest part of the problem, though. I need to treat writing just as I would any other client project in the studio. I have a list of article ideas a mile long, I just need to set specific deadlines and get them written. The truth is that I enjoy sitting down to write, I just need to be more strict about defining the when and where of writing.

Today I said I’d get two entries written and one posted (so that I’d have one in the bank for later this week). I drove to Harvest Coffeehouse & Beanery on Bay City’s east side (a really great coffeehouse, by the way), left my cell phone in the truck, put Okkervil River on my iPod, and just sat down to write.
From now on, I am making a commitment to update the blog at least twice per week—hopefully Monday and Thursday, but let’s not hold my feet to the fire on the exact days. Baby steps, right?

Thanks again for your continued support on the site and the blog. Keep coming back and I promise to deliver on my commitment to blog more often.

Hope your November is starting off well.