We invite you to take part in this process. If done well, it will have thought us all a lesson... or two.
Let's start by taking a look at this picture:
Take a close look and you will see many reasons why this bike is a pain in the you know what. While looking at the image, right here, right now, list ALL the things that are keeping YOU from moving forward. List all the psychologic or life flat tires that are inhibiting your success, and write them down. It could be anything. Anything that is keeping you from reaching your fullest potential. Keep the list. We will.
By next monday, fix your bike or fix your car or fix your laptop, and post it for your appreciation. By then, we will each take our individual list and learn, by looking at the restored "bicycle", how to rewrite our negative life affirmations into positive ones.
It could be a life changing week! Especially with the new year resolutions!
Go! Go! Go!
List at least three things that are keeping your tires flat... See you next monday.
We live in Haiti, and yes, living in Haiti is much of a roller-coaster, but then again, show us a country where residents live in a straight and calm stream down a steady gondola, and we'll pay you. ;)
At PubliGestion, we like to think that our art is consistently creative and insightful, from the mega marketing campaign to the simple, yet out of this world, flyer. Wondering how we keep our zen while living in a country with lots of instability?
Rather than basking in negativity, and of seeing everything in a critical eye, focus on the positive and help your team members do the same.
It's safe to say that most of us at the agency live a day-to-day life where we don't let anger move in, but rather generosity and friendship reside in our space, and that combination is what fuels great work.
Woahhhh there, we're not preaching that you become a guru of light and sounds, but a positive needle in the haystack. Remember, a smile confuses an approaching frown.
We are passionate about our work, and we like to believe that we're innovators. So, we'll leave you with this:
If your intern is an English major, or a writer with a proven track in writing engaging and consistent content that is search engine optimized…hmmm, maybe? However, rule 101, remember that your blog has to be coherent. By coherent we mean logical and consistent. In a field of infinite blogging possibilities, great blogs revolve around subjects its bloggers know best. The secret is to always theme posts that are part of your field of lexicon. That way readers know what to expect from you, and keep on coming for more of the same good stuff.
If you always blog about hot dogs, don’t diversify and talk about the new breed from the American Kennel Club. You know? Before deciding to have a blog, remember this: good blogging takes time and commitment. If your company is serious about creating an essentially great blog, begin with the end in mind.
Not to toot our horn, but our social media team would like to remind you that a great blog (and we’re starting to think our blog isn’t too bad) must have many brains, but a distinctive pen. With training and practice, your intern may be able to write your company’s blog. So, to Nathalie (our new intern), if you are willing to jump the ink, we’d love to train you! From the way you talk about your weekend escapades, you must be natural born storyteller. :-)
Is this your 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th time reading PubliGestion’s Blogger’s Block? Do you regularly check us out on Mondays? If you answered yes to both, then you’re our loyal niche. We love and adore you, as much as the recent Avicii party with Prestige! Hugs and kisses for you! :-*
For the marketing enthusiast that is “customer loyalty.” But to the none-marketing folks, customer loyalty describes the behavior of repeat customers, (ahem, could we count stalkers here?) as well as those that offer good ratings, reviews, or testimonials. And why are we talking about this today? Because in the advertising/marketing world, good customers turn into brand ambassadors who in turn give companies like PubliGestion good word of mouth, a.k.a. buzz for the marketing savvy. Imagine good gossip where each brand ambassador would tell 10 other people about their good experience and those 10 would tell another 10 and those 10 would… you get the point.
So if you like this angelic gossiping working for you, or groupies shouting "I love you" wherever you go, here are a few pointers to remember about customer loyalty:
1- Your customers have a heart. They’re made of flesh and blood. They are your friends, or in some cases your secret lover. Treat them accordingly.
2- Be relevant in their lives. Offer them quality products and services that address their needs. Give them as much bang for their buck as possible.
3- Be competitive. Make them choose you over the many others, and strive to make them stay with you. Create value for your brand because value is at the heart of customer loyalty.
4- In relation to item#3. Uniqueness makes you competitive. Would you like to order the same plain jambon-fromage sandwich everyday? People want something special, something different from what they’re used to. Add some spice to that smoked ham and gruyère cheese on baguette.
The ultimate goal is happy customers who will return to purchase again, which equals to profitability, as well as happy stakeholders. We all want to be happy. Love, life and profits! ;-)
Designing is like life. No? You brainstorm, you plan then make things happen. Pretty much the same. But designing, like life, has its way of leaving you in a dike, bound with USB cables, gagged with JOs, your arse lit on fire and with deadlines circling overhead like crazy vultures.
Like other designers, I’ve had my fair share of ball-breaking situations, and it feels like your PC just gave you "the blue screen of death, dumping physical memory now... 10.. 9.. 8... 7..." Feels hopeless. But if you ever find yourself in this kind of situation, I discovered that the only way to get out of it is to become a tank. This applies to everything else in designing (and in life). So, here are 4 ways on how to become a tank:
1. Never surrender. Never give up! To some this is translated to: "so long as there is coffee, we can work!" If you’re alive and can still wield a mouse, all awesomeness is on your side. You’ll be able to pull through things, just breathe.
2. You have friends, co-workers and people around you that are willing to help. Never underestimate, or neglect people. Whenever you feel the urge of surrendering, ask for help to accomplish your task.
3. Keep in mind that even a damaged tank is still armored and fully loaded. Always, use your strengths to your advantage. It is easier to build on strengths than on weaknesses. Weak skills when worked on will just become, at its best, mediocre skills.* For things you can’t do refer to Item#2.
4. If really pushed to the limits and all system shuts down. The only choice is to retreat. Refuel, recharge and live to do it all over again tomorrow. Have a nice meal, get some sleep and you’ll find that tomorrow will be a better day.
So when you’re stuck, do these and you’ll find that there’s always some fight left in you! Otherwise get yourself a nice glass, remove the tank top, distill rain from Venus and quietly weep.
If you like these tips, please leave comment below.
I’ve been reading a lot of Seth Godin lately, and honestly…that guy is nearly as smart as Einstein, but in our world of marketing and selling things. I’m not sure Mr. Godin could come up with the Theory of Relativity, but just like Einstein’s theory enriched the world of astronomy and physics, Mr. Godin’s daily blog has enriched the world of marketing and communications, well my world at least...by its simplicity.
He Keeps It Short and Sweet. His blog entries are never too long. He doesn’t lose the reader, and thus came my inspiration for this blog entry: How Not To Lose Your Reader. Here are some tips, and hopefully, you’re still reading.
Here at PubliGestion, we believe CONTENT is king, or queen… but we believe that the content in your blog should represent your brand, your company lifestyle and each and every employee within your organization. That authenticity makes you the needle that stands out of the haystack.
Tip 1: Design, design, design. Make sure your blog looks professional and trustworthy. Who wants to read a blog that looks like a 90's Frankstein web 1.O?
Tip 2: Entertain, but don’t overdo it. If you own a dentists office, yeah, you could blog about root canals, but don’t get into terminology your reader may not understand.
Tip 3: Educate on what you know. Don’t talk about the land if you're a little mermaid, for example. Or, don’t say you’re a web designer if all you can do is HTML on notepad.
Tip 4: Don’t spam. Who wants to receive 10 emails per day about your blog anyway? Okay, maybe your mom, but that’s about it. Don’t make your readers run for the hills.
Tip 5: Have a goal in mind. Have a strategy. Don’t just wake up one morning and say: “My company needs a blog.” Blogging is like marriage, it's a commitment. Are you ready to post regularly and on time? Be smart about your blog—plan, conquer and love it!
Remember, stand out and be BOLD.
If you have more tips and how-to's, leave them below. ;)
We know we’re in Haiti but, God bless the Swiss!!! The design world probably owes it to Switzerland for giving birth to the Swiss Style Graphic Design which gave the basis for our modern graphic design sense and how we perceive and use whitespace as designers.
But whitespace is more than just a design style that was attacked and defended in Switzerland. As often demonstrated in Whitespacelover, it’s a discipline. It’s everywhere and in everything we do. It’s the lull between melodies, the calm before a storm, the breath before an I love you too, the stillness in prayers and the silence that allows us to communicate. Whitespace is life!
Even if you’re not a designer, you still live in a world of whitespace! Here are 10 evidences, tips and tricks on why you live in whitespace and how you can deliberately see and tap into it.
1. Whitespace is responsible for comprehension. The gap between spoken and written words are whitespaces. Without it this entry would look like a mush of letters on your screen. Or worst Kate Beckinsale’s sexy voice would sound like mosquitoes raping termites in your ears!
2. The more whitespace there is in your apartment the more spacious it will look and the more restful the environment will be. Not to mention that it will look better in photos. Try clearing unnecessary items or grouping them in a corner to create more space.
Ref: http://ow.ly/4VGqN
3. In Taoism The Void is the state of nothingness from which all things become. Incidentally, whitespace is the design element that allows all other design elements to exist. Hmmm, cult of the designers anyone?
4. Your perception is greatly affected by whitespace. People tend to perceive something as elegant, classic or high-end in appearance when whitespace is mindfully applied in a design.
5. Whitespace is the ultimate something. What makes a Prestige bottle useful? It’s not the actual product we see but the empty space we can’t see that gives those brown bottles utility. Okay! A beer is useful too but don’t throw away your beer on Thirsty Thursdays for the sake of whitespace.
6. Essential designing principles such as “less is more” and Pareto’s Law, commonly known as 80-20 rule, are basically the wise use of whitespace.
7. If you want to design using the Swiss legacy, turn on the grid system in Photoshop (view>show>grid) and design like the Swiss Style Masters. Use ample gaps instead of separators to separate the elements in your layout.
8. A caution to designers. Amateur or clumsy use of whitespace could make a design look as if the graphic designer went lazy, resulting to an incomplete-looking work.
9. Apple, whether their designers are conscious or not, uses whitespace a lot in their OS interface, product design and ads. This naturally leads to an upscale image and a good end user result.
Ref: http://ow.ly/4VGuz
10. Design with whitespace in mind. Premeditate the space you’re given before starting to work. Our designers here at PubliGestion do it by roughly sketching a layout on a paper. They use shapes and lines to assign graphic elements their proper position in the layout.
PubliGestion Bloggers’ Block is a team of talented creatives, marketing personnel and UFOs blogging about their views, what’s new and some juicy bits about living in Haiti and in Outer Space!
