This month’s Dayton Defense Association featured the Wright Image Group. They are promoting the adoption of the Wright Flyer as a single, easily identified symbol … an icon.
They are proposing to place a monument at the intersection of I-70 and I- 75 to give the Dayton area an instantly- and internationally-recognizable symbol. The structure will have 120′ wingspan and sit atop a pedestal 220′ high.
To see an architect’s replica of the airplane check out the Wright Image Group’s site.
It’s hard to believe, but it’s 2009. Per New Year’s tradition, many of us have made personal resolutions. It is also a good time to make resolutions in our professional lives.
Here are a few ideas to help you get started.
E-mail
Clean out in your inbox and set up folders
Action Folder – instead of leaving all your “to do” e-mails in your inbox, put them in an action folder
Reading Folder – put your newsletters and non urgent e-mails in a separate folder; set up a filter to automatically place newsletters in the reading folder
Change your send receive e-mail schedule so you have less interruptions
Meetings
Decide if you need to attend
Try to attend meetings only if there is an agenda (This is one of my professional resolutions – I will have an agenda for any meeting I set up)
Recently I came across a 3-minute video from BNET called “Why Email Starts Fights.”
Did you know that only 7% of what we say is conveyed through words – tone and visual cues make up the other 93%. This is why emails are so often misunderstood.
Take a few minutes to watch the video … and the next time you send an email, remember what is conveyed.
Selby and I recently attended “Printing 101 training – a “Magical Mystery Tour” into the world of printing. The session was presented by Kathy Goodman at 3G-Graphic Solutions in Springfield, Ohio.
Kathy helped unveil the ‘Smoke and Mirrors” behind the magic that is printing. Even though I was never trained in design or print, I work closely with designers and this training helped me to understand their processes (and frustrations).
For example, here are a few lessons that I took home and some of the topics that we covered:
How to measure paper – an 8 ½ ” x 11″ is not 8 ½ ” x 11″
What upright and oblong means (landscape is not a correct answer)
How to count pages (this is more complicated than you think)
What is a bleed and why you want it
Printers spreads vs. reader spreads (it matters)
At 70#, linen paper does not have any linen in it
Printing is actually tiny dots on the paper – the dots are so close they fool your eye
CMYK does not mean – Color My Yak Khaki. It stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black. (What you see on your monitor right now is not CMYK though; it is RGB – Red, Green, Blue)
There are over 16 ways you can fold piece and over 16 ways you can bind a piece
Who knew there were so many shades of white?
This may be novice information to seasoned designers or collateral creators out there, but it was a great learning experience for me. I have more of the know-how needed to keep projects moving forward and I learned some important questions to ask.
(And when Selby and I showed up at Bing dressed alike, we knew the training would be a true team event.)
Coming from the corporate world, I was deeply entrenched in the PC – and I was forced to learn the way of the Mac. I was often told how much I would love my Mac … Apple is great … Yadda. Yadda. Yadda.
Well, thanks to my phone contract expiring, I’ve come full circle. After some research, I purchased the new iPhone.
It’s quite a contraption … People often ask me if it’s difficult to set up and use. The quick answer is no – it’s super easy.
But let me illustrate that point:
Before the OSU vs. Penn State match-up I went to a pre-game party at Riverwatch. Knowing how crowded it could be, I left the iPhone in the care of my niece and nephews – the under age 10 crowd. My four-year-old niece wouldn’t let the thing go.
The next day I checked my phone for messages and – to my surprise and amazement – I found three new games (air hockey, duck splash, and Venger lite). All of the apps had been rearranged (if you’re four, you must have different priorities?). Calls made. Emails created. And I had a photo documentary of the evening’s events.
What’s the lesson? Yes, the iPhone is easy-to-use. Just ask my niece and nephews. Or, see for yourself. The photos are a little blurry, but you have to give the girl credit for trying.
Or maybe the real takeaway is her eagerness – and fearlessness – to learn new technology … That’s something we could all benefit from in this “agency life.”
It’s quite a contraption … People often ask me if it’s difficult to set up and use. The quick answer is no – it’s super easy.
