Who are the people in your neighborhood?

Okay...the photo above doesn't really look anything like Midland Street at the moment, but it's the only Midland Street photo I have on my MacBook (I'm out of the studio at the moment...care to guess where I am?).

I am asked pretty often about how I like having a studio out of my home. After working from home for six or seven years, it was a pretty big adjustment to get used to actually going to work. Getting up early was never an issue as I have always been an early riser, but the whole act of leaving the house to go to work was hard to get used to.

My answer is always an enthusiastic yes—I love my studio. I like that there is a distinct separation between work and home, even though at times it makes for long stretches without much at-home time.

One of my favorite things about the studio—and I may have written about this before—is that I really love being a part of the neighborhood. Working at home, you could go for long stretches where you didn't interact with other people and that could be a drag sometimes. What I love about Midland Street is that I enjoy working in an area where, even in winter, there is a lot of activity.

This morning I had to take my truck to the Smith's Auto Service—a mechanic just a few blocks up the street. When I walked in the door I was greeted by my friend Brian sitting there, also having work done to his car. We chat for a while in the garage and then then I had to get going.

I walked down a block or two to say hi to the guys at Sandlot Sports. We're working on a couple of projects together and haven't had a chance to talk this week. I hung out there and visited with Ryan and Adam for a few minutes before heading back toward the studio.

As I was walking, Randy the UPS driver waved me down from his truck. "I just left you a note on your door; I've got something for you," he said. He went into the back of the truck and pulled out a package of business cards. That was a huge help because I wanted to get the cards to the coffee shop this weekend.

After Randy gave me my package I continued on toward the studio, deciding to stop at Lucky's Pub to see what the lunch specials were. When Wayne told me that they had a meatball sandwich, my decision was made. I placed my order and then headed across the studio to kill 10 minutes until my lunch was ready. After checking e-mail and puttering around the studio for a few minutes, I headed back to Lucky's. When I got there my friend Bruce—one of the owners of Lucky's—was there along with another client of mine. We chatted for a few minutes and then I got my lunch and headed back to the studio.

In about 30 minutes I talked to about nine different people about everything ranging from work to family to playtime. This is the sort of thing you don't get when you work at home. I never got lonely or anything, but I would sometimes get a little desperate for human contact, you know? I'm pretty sure that I was so chatty that there were some telemarketers who put me on their NO CALL list to avoid having to talk to me again.

In summary, thanks for a great day Midland Street Historic District. And just think, when the warm weather gets here (in about eight to ten weeks), it will be even more fun. More people, patio beers, sunshine...I can hardly wait.

Hello, 2009. It's a pleasure to meet you.

2008 was a pretty good year for 989 Design, but I have to tell you that I am really looking forward to 2009. As much as I hate lame, weather-worn clichés, I am really excited to see the seeds we planed last year begin to grow.

Every day when you listen to the news or read the paper, you are hearing so much bad news about the economy that it seems like we shouldn't even bother holding onto hope. There are so many people telling me that the sky is falling that I'm afraid to look up.

They're right about the economy, it's a mess. And it is probably going to get worse before it gets better. But there are still plenty of bright spots to look at, so let's not give up hope. Just today I had a new client come in the office talking about a new project that they are starting up and I am really psyched about working with them. I can't divulge much due to confidentiality issues, but it is a great lemons-to-lemonade story. The owner of the company ran into a huge (and costly) hurdle and rather than just scrap the project or pay the freight, he came up with a plan that ended up creating an entirely new business. And this is a business with legs—he could make a fortune, if he's not careful.

I guess that what I am saying is that even though times are bad, keep your chin up. The new year is not just the turn of a calendar page, but it's a chance for us to (mentally) wipe the slate and start over. Spend some time the next week or so making plans for the rest of the year.

No matter what your business is, there are many low-cost advertising/marketing/PR ideas out there. Look into them and take advantage of them. If business is slow, it's a great time to try out some new ideas to see what ideas may help you attract new customers.

I hope you all had a really wonderful holiday season. Thank you for continuing to come around. Let's all have a happy and prosperous 2009.

Merry Christmas

2008 has been a great year for 989 Design. The studio started the year as a one-man show and grew to include Laurie Russell. Laurie brought a lot of experience and talent to the table as well as a welcome alternate creative voice to our work. Between the two of us, I think we did a lot of interesting and fun projects and I look forward to growing and challenging ourselves more in 2009.

We've had great luck with our clients this year, too. Not only did we get to work with all of our existing clients, but we were able to land a few new clients. I am really happy with the work we did this year with all of our clients and I am grateful to each and every one of them for giving me the opportunity to do what I love to do. Many thanks to all of 989 Design's clients—past, present and future.

I'd also like to send out season's greetings to the vendors we work with throughout the year, especially the Tri-City Printing Holy Trinity of F.P. Horak, McKay Press and QRP. I appreciate your efforts on our behalf. You really do make us look good and I am really happy to have the chance to work with you.

Even with a harsh economy right now, I really am excited for the opportunities that 2009 presents. We have a few big announcements coming up in the first quarter of the year, so be sure to stay tuned.

To everyone reading this blog I wanted to say Merry Christmas. Enjoy the time you spend with your loved ones and I look forward to talking to you very soon.

Be well.

...shawn...

It's Been a Long (and Snowy) Week

Believe it or not, I really did get a second entry up last week, but I ended up taking it down because it was written when I was feeling a little bit cranky. A vendor of mine did something completely unprofessional and I was so bothered by it that it was the only thing I could focus on enough to write about. I read the entry over the next morning and while I didn't name names, I still didn't like the negative vibes so I deleted it.

To make up for the weeklong absence, I will try to get a few entries up this week. The big news around here for the past few days has been snow. And lots of it. I don't have the exact snow totals, but we've probably seen 14–16 inches in the past five days. And they're saying that we could get 4-8 inches more in the next two days. By far the snowiest week we've had since I moved back to Bay City.

The photo above was taken about five hours into the big storm last Friday morning. I was able to run out of the studio and use the camera for about sixty seconds before I rushed back into the studio to keep the camera from getting too wet. The whole city was halfway shut down on Friday. I sat here in the studio and tried to work, but spent a lot of my time just watching it snow. It was a very relaxing day.

One thing I had to do at the end of last week was fax something to a vendor. That's right...I said 'fax.' How very 1980s. Years ago I had a dedicated fax line and a fax machine and so forth, but that technology has very quickly become little more than an annoyance. There are a few good reasons for still using a fax machine versus using e-mail, but only a few (even hand-written documents are more easily scanned and e-mailed).

In his book Microserfs, Douglas Coupland says that receiving a fax is like getting an e-mail from the 1980s—and that was written in 1996. It's been twelve years since the book was written.

If you are a company who still uses fax as a primary mode of communication, you really need to think about what message this conveys to your clientele. Compared to e-mail fax is low tech, time intensive, less efficient, more costly to operate and less flexible. Do you want your clients to think you are low tech, time intensive, less efficient, more costly and less flexible? Fax machines take up space, use electricity and are totally redundant.

Trust me...it's time to ditch the fax machine.