Creative Blog.

Todd Mitchell 6/20/19 Todd Mitchell 6/20/19

Marketing ones creative Self

In addition to having talent and abilities, or drive and passion in the creative space, is marketing ones creative Self. If you do it for fun, sharing it to inspire others or letting your creative Self shine outward is a good idea. The flower expresses its “Self” by nature— and so should you. And it’s not bragging or boasting—it’s being, expressing, and sharing. You know how you are drawn to others, impressed by works of art, or enamored by all the things in the world? By allowing your expression of creativity you align with and play and important part of that as well.

So how? Connect with or create a network. Social media is a great place to start. But friends, colleagues, associates, clubs, art shows, and other ways to get your “stuff” put there… Start with creating or sharing on social media though.

Professionally—you MUST market your Self. Your level of success, outcome and results are directly related to how much effort you put in to your marketing. And there are many, MANY ways of doing that today.

Start with social media. Create or work hard at using it regularly. Expand a useful, strategic, and meaningful list of contacts. People that will either help, support, help grow, or contribute to your growth, sales, and success. Create raving, exciting fans that want to be a part of your network. Create awesome, useful, meaningful content that they MUST have. Show your stuff, advertise and market your wares—regularly and consistently.

For beginners only…

Other ways to market your creative Self might be using social media advertising campaigns—connecting to qualified leads. People that need your services. You can also leverage modern day online clubs, such as Fivr (https://www.fiverr.com/start_selling), or InDeed (http://www.indeed.com)— two popular freelance sites that you can grow and expand your design business. There are downfalls there however, you share your money with their fees— and become reliant on their platforms instead of your own— which I personally think is best. But, starting out, sure— grab some freelance work on those sites. Work it, expand it, grow it. At least try these things and see what works… And there are others. Etsy is a great DIY site for master crafters and designers alike. Amazon, Google, and other big players have stores and sites that allow you to sell your wares as well. Even Craigs List (http://www.craigslist.org) has leads if you search or advertise your stuff on their help wanted section.

The bottom line?

You need to get your name out there. Advertise your stuff. Talk about it, develop strategic, aggressive, and meaningful game plans to get your name out there, advertise your business, services, or abilities. And remember you get out what you put in. BIG (well thought out, meaningful, and truly passionate) effort means big results. LITTLE and meaningless effort will equate to absolutely nothing. It’s that simple.

If you want more advice, or help developing a game plan, or how to get massive results in your business, get a hold of me. Email todd@mitchellcreativegroup.com, or call me at (508) 494-8182.

Simple, practical, and inspired creative. Free creative coaching. Free first project for qualifiers. The best creative solution.

Get creative. http://www.mitchellcreativegroup.com, todd@mitchellcreativegroup.com, (508)494-8182.

Todd Mitchell 4/22/19 Todd Mitchell 4/22/19

eDocuments. The chameleon of design.

There’s no creative law that says “thou shall only create content the way it’s always been.” In the creative space, tapping into imagination and creativity means allowing exciting, fresh, and invigorating ideas to flow through and out. And that goes for everything— and in this case, ebooks and infographics.

I wanted to re-post a prior blog here by popular demand! To show you how one bit of content—one document can be conformed into MANY different types of eDocuments…

An ebook (electronic book) is an on-screen document that can be as creatively intense— full of great content, awesome artwork, and exciting interactivity— or as simple as plain old text. An infographic is a ‘graphical representation’ of data or content, and can also be exciting, well-designed and fun, or as simple as can be. The goal should be to make the content easy to digest, fun to engage, and ultimately help throw your customers down the beautiful funnel directly to you!

The best part of imagination, at least for me, is that you can create anything. That is, after all, what creation is— right? And when it comes to ANY deliverable or creative project, there’s no reason to stick to the ‘norm.’ Imagine—create.

For ebooks, and infographics I make it a must that I always think creatively—making it sing, energize, and behave in a way that makes it super compelling and easy to understand. Fonts, color, graphics, layout, design, and then the myriad of options that allow us to add interactivity. We can create ePubs, embed video, other content, add pop-ups of data, sound, and much more!

So another great way to be creative is to pioneer and explore multiple options, which include ‘blending deliverables.’ In this case, introducing ebooks to infographics. And in many ways they really are the same. With an ebook, it’s content—usually longer text… but usually has some graphics throughout. With an infographic, its content—but more artistic, visually and graphically represented, and not so text heavy. So why not merge the two?

Check out the samples below. And remember, the options are almost infinite with creativity. And with the variety of unlimited design potential, art, and imagination—matched with technology… Anything is possible.

In the following examples, I started with an ebook— actually, an “InfoBrief” which is a variety of ebook—some text, some graphics. I created this InfoBrief for IDC originally with only that project in mind, and then using that as a model— converted it into several options to show you what “can” be done with any content. And illustrate the hybrid merging of ebook documents and infographics. How they can really work very nicely together.

InfoBrief

This example here below is of the original InfoBrief (ebook).

CLICK HERE TO VIEW AS A PDF

View InfoBrief, online as an “ePub” (electronic online view):

This ePub option allows more interactivity, embedding, social sharing, analytics, pdf download option, animation, and more… Same original InfoBrief, just in ePub format.

https://indd.adobe.com/view/18874d9b-7c72-4c19-8516-32e81d9abd40

Mobile Doc

The same InfoBrief, converted and created as a “mobile document.” A version that can be downloaded and viewed nicely on a mobile device.

View Mobile Doc as a pdf on browser (ideal to view on a mobile device):

Direct download Mobile Doc as an “ePub”— viewed on device ePub viewer (ideal to view on a mobile device):

InfoDoc (or eDoc)—

A much more graphical representation of an ebook or InfoBrief. Treating pages with more graphical “oomph”—color, art, layout. AND blending in the infographic components. I took pages of content and created “infographics” on a page, rather than flowing all the text.

The InfoDoc (or eDoc) is a hybrid ebook/infographic. Filling the gap between the two. As shown particularly on page 7— it combines prior ebook pages of content and merges that content into an info-graphical page…

Download and view “pdf” on your device:

Filling the eBook - InfoGraphic “gap”

Download and view “ePub” on your device:

Filling the eBook - InfoGraphic “gap”

Simple, practical, and inspired creative. Free creative coaching. Free first project for qualifiers. The best creative solution. 3.2.1. Get creative. http://www.mitchellcreativegroup.com, todd@mitchellcreativegroup.com, (508)494-8182.

Todd Mitchell 4/18/19 Todd Mitchell 4/18/19

eBook vs. InfoGraphics— filling the “gap”

InfoBrief

This example here below is of the original InfoBrief (ebook).

CLICK HERE TO VIEW AS A PDF

View InfoBrief, online as an “ePub” (electronic online view):

This ePub option allows more interactivity, embedding, social sharing, analytics, pdf download option, animation, and more… Same original InfoBrief, just in ePub format.

https://indd.adobe.com/view/18874d9b-7c72-4c19-8516-32e81d9abd40

Mobile Doc

The same InfoBrief, converted and created as a “mobile document.” A version that can be downloaded and viewed nicely on a mobile device.

View Mobile Doc as a pdf on browser (ideal to view on a mobile device):

Direct download Mobile Doc as an “ePub”— viewed on device ePub viewer (ideal to view on a mobile device):

InfoDoc (or eDoc)—

Download and view “pdf” on your device:

Filling the eBook - InfoGraphic “gap”

Download and view “ePub” on your device:

Filling the eBook - InfoGraphic “gap”

Todd Mitchell 4/2/19 Todd Mitchell 4/2/19

Infographic Content Checklist

The most important part of an infographic is the content. It’s a good idea to work with someone that understands writing, editing, or publishing. Infographic content is a unique style and if done incorrectly can be costly, and very confusing to the reader.

The most important part of an infographic is the content. It’s a good idea to work with someone that understands writing, editing, or publishing. Infographic content is a unique style and if done incorrectly can be costly, and very confusing to the reader.

Here is a checklist to help you create the ideal infographic content...

1. Create an interesting, meaningful, and compelling theme and title, making sure it makes sense with your message and story you want to tell.

2. Decide on the right type of graphic deliverable. It depends on whether you have more text, or want more simplicity. Create content FOR that type of graphic. For example, tall, wide, full page, interactive, etc…

3. Create an ordered story line so the information you tell has an interesting story flow to it. Section by section, or page by page. You want the info to flow nicely and your audience to actually read it and understand it!

4. Be sure you have an introduction if it needs explaining. Many people don’t understand your complex tech stuff. Make it easy to understand.

5. Have a methodology page or section if it requires it so the audience knows where the content came from.

6. Have a closing section with a call to action. Where to go now? Where can I learn more?

7. Have a skilled and experienced writer help you create content.

8. Have ALL internal team people review the content BEFORE going into graphic creation. Also be sure the client signs off on the concept theme and content first.

9. Keep data simple, clean, minimal, direct, to the point, interesting, and engaging.

10. Simplify any complex Powerpoint charts and extract the key message of that graphic? What’s most important to call out here?

11. Keep length of graphic project as short and direct as possible. Cut out anything remotely unnecessary.

When it comes to infographics, the best ones get results. I’ll create one for free if that’s what’s needed to get started! Let’s get moving! please go to http://www.mitchellcreativegroup.com, or call Todd@ (508)494-8182

Todd Mitchell 2/27/19 Todd Mitchell 2/27/19

Creating interest in a mailings SHOULD be fun!

We turned this number one ranking in exposure to oncologists and hematologists into a fun, large, colorful “game show” themed mailer.

When a client like the New England Journal of Medicine is rightly proud of their new number one ranking, we need to let people know! Especially key marketers with budgets—they need to place ads in the BEST advertising stage possible for maximum exposure!

We turned this number one ranking in exposure to oncologists and hematologists into a fun, large, colorful “game show” themed mailer.

Partnering with the expert and highly-valued long time partner at Shawmut Printing we leveraged soft-touch aqueous coated special paper, super bright inks, custom die cut window doors, and a clear envelope for safe travel in the mail!

Todd Mitchell 1/16/19 Todd Mitchell 1/16/19

Event websites made easy.

It doesn’t take much to get people to your event. Email your list, promote it on your own business website, and let people know on your social media channels. You can even mail out simple promo cards to build awareness. And all of that can and should be real simple to do.

Event websites made easy.

But you can also create a simple custom web page for your event where you can track traffic, get analytic data, promote speakers, sponsors or venue information. It’s a “hub” you can now share that folks go to FROM all your other communication channels. Promote it and lead them to a custom event site.

You can then make all updated on the site, and have it become the goto site for the agenda, events, and more. It can also hyperlink to your own registration pages, or we can help you create that.

VIEW SAMPLE

Cost and time are minimal here. We can get you a custom url, and set it up in under a week, and within a very reasonable budget (average $2K-$5K). Depends on size and budget.

Let’s get creative.

todd@mitchellcreativegroup.com

Todd Mitchell 1/14/19 Todd Mitchell 1/14/19

Branding and Identity—Some key questions.

Branding and Identity

Key questions to get started.

A brand, is an experience. It’s a meaningful, and passionately created existence. It can be a product, a service, or business. It can even be a person, a team, or a volunteer organization. And while some of the strongest brands are organically grown and naturally attractive, powerful and compelling some may take more work to craft. But in the end, the strongest brands in the world are effective and draw in a tremendous following. They get results and in some cases create a very powerful ever lasting “institution” with profound effects on the whole world. Think of a company like Nike that can turn $2 of fabric into a $35 t-shirt. THAT is what branding can do. Here are a few key takeaways to consider in developing your brand:

The name

If you have one—Name of your product, service, company, or business:

What does your name mean— where does it come from?

If you do NOT have one, what are some ideas you have? Name 5-10 ideas for a business name:

What business are you in?

List a series of “keywords” people might use to find you online (as many as you can):

The brand

If you have a logo— what does it represent?

If you do NOT have a logo, what symbols, icons, or graphics come to mind with your business?

Name three brands you are impressed with:

Do you have any websites you are impressed with?

When someone sees your brand (logo) what should it represent? What should it mean?

What bothers you most about your brand identity right now?

Do you own any copyrights, patents or trademarks currently?

Do you see your brand as a single company brand, or possibly a group of brands under one name (divisions)?

The mission

Your primary mission or purpose—your “elevator pitch”— a sentence that summarizes your business:

What values are important to you?

Why should people call you? What makes you the best?

What technologies or capital will you need to invest in to complete in the future?

What’s your top money-maker now?

What value do you bring to the marketplace?

The customer

Who is your typical, current customers— who will engage with you, and conduct business?

(Be specific here, age, location, business types, etc…)

Who SHOULD be your customers? (target customers)

What are your customers needs?

What different needs will they have in the future?

Who is NOT your ideal customer? Who we steer away from:

What social media platform might your audience be on?

The reach

How you GET business customers— how do they find you currently?

How do you connect with or communicate with your customers?

Do you use, or engage with social media? Which ones?

What events might you consider going to or having a presence at?

Where do most people find out about your type of business?

Do you own or have access to a web domain name currently?

Do you own or have access to a web hosting account currently?

The competition

Who is your top competition?

How are you different than your main competition?

The future

Where do you see your business in a year?

Where do your see your business in 5 years?

Where do you see your business in 10 years?

Get creative. todd@mitchellcreativegroup.com

Todd Mitchell 1/8/19 Todd Mitchell 1/8/19

Announce your event presence and get people excited!

Get people excited about who you are and what you do! Stand out from the boring “regulars” and get your audience juiced up and ready to come see you at an event! One great way of building “hype” about your business, product, or services— is announcing your presence at an upcoming event. And even better— compelling reasons to go to your booth, at the event.

Creating a fun, fresh and exciting “superhero” theme brought MANY more visitors to the event booth.

Key questions:

What’s great about this event and why should they go? Get them excited! (This once-a-year event is packed with awesome vendors that, etc…)
What’s super-special about YOUR business, product or service that ties into the event— why you are there!? (We have amazing new technologies that will help shape your future, etc…)
What reason would someone have to come visit you specifically? Give them an awesome reason! (Come see us at booth XYZ— get free gifts, and enter to win a TV)

Key promotors:

Email your list about this event. Email blast.
Mail simple promo cards out to your list exciting them to come and visit your booth. Promo printed mailer.
Social media and website promotion. Let people that follow you see what you are up to and where you will be! Social media and web campaign.
Consider a cool giveaway to compel them even more! Free gifts (bag with info, white papers, bookmarks, frisbees, buckets, things they might find cool— with your logo on them)
Enter to win… ipad giveaway-around $325, flat-screen TV, maybe $400— is it worth drawing people in? Getting names, seeing your stuff?

The more people you reach in all your “channels” (print cards, mailers, email, website, social) the more chances you have for visitors. That translates to customers, builds awareness of your brand, and eventually converts— to dollars and repeat business,

So take action! And see results from that action. Or do nothing— and get nothing.

Get started— get creative. todd@mitchellcreativegroup.com

Create some fun, colorful print mailers, email, social media, and web campaigns to get RESULTS.

Todd Mitchell 1/3/19 Todd Mitchell 1/3/19

Start your website with this simple questionnaire

Since there are a number of factors in creating the ideal website, the following key questions helps both you determine the ideal website— and helps me understand your needs better to recommend the perfect creative solution.

Why do you want a new website?
(It sucks, needs to be modernized, I don’t have one…)

What is the purpose/goal of the website?
(create brand awareness, sell products, compete, etc…)

What cool websites inspire you?
(Sites you visit that you might want something similar to…)

What type of people will use this site? (Demographics)
(corporate clients, teenagers, small medium business, enterprise, local, women, kids, etc…)

Do you plan on updating the site regularly, or “set it and forget it.”

Once the site is done, who will work on your website/implement changes, etc…
(We can do them for you, but you may have someone on staff…)

Will we be working one-on-one with you, or with a team, group, or other?

Do you plan to actively market your website?
(Social media, email—you may need social media artwork banners, etc…)

Would you like to add SEO (Search Engine Optimization) support?
(Keep your site up in rankings, and a competitive edge…)

Will you need branding support?
(Help creating your logo, branding improvements, making your brand image stronger— or do you have what you need)

Will you need help creating the content?
(Starting from scratch, getting it from existing material, etc…)

Do you own your own domain name and hosting account?
(If you have a current site, where is it hosted, and who maintains it…)

Will you want e-commerce?
(Will you be selling anything on your site…)

How many pages do you envision on your website?
(Provide a list of the pages you envision initially— Home, about, services, contact, etc…)

If you were to estimate an ideal cost— what do you have in mind
(Your ideal budget range)

What is your ideal turnaround?
(Ideal hard launch date?)

Last question— How literate are you on the above questions?
(Regarding the questions above— do you get it? Or scratching your head? This helps me understand where you are…)

Find out more. Call (508) 494-8182, or email todd@mitchellcreativegroup.com.

Todd Mitchell 12/28/18 Todd Mitchell 12/28/18

PDF vs. ePub

There are two popular forms of media today. Printed media, and on-screen media. And when it comes to documents, you can create them to print, and you can create them for online or on-screen viewing— or both.

A Portable Document Format (PDF) is a common and highly used file format that provides an electronic image of text or text and graphics that looks like a designed, printed document and can be viewed, printed, electronically transmitted, and interacted with on screen. They are a reflected output of the designed piece so rely on the quality of design. PDFs are also very common as the print file format used for printed material as well as the file format used for viewing on all screens, devices, etc… Many interactive elements can be added to PDFs, making them engaging on screen, and still printable.

An ePub (Electronic Publication) is a file format that provides a responsive on-screen ‘electronic-publication,’ that’s viewable on most any device or web browser. It’s wide range of interactive features, basic animation, and on screen functionality fit well with the more modern “ePub” formats on all modern devices. It is seen as a true “online” or “on-screen” only document.

What’s the difference?

When it comes to (on-screen) documents you ultimately have three primary options: A PDF document, an ePub document, and a Website. The Website option essentially is your document as either a Web page, or a Web site dedicated to your content. That’s really all a Web site is anyway— content. Text and graphics. Let’s focus here on the PDF and ePub.

Both PDFs and ePubs are “documents.” Both can be considered many things: ebooks, info-documents, infobriefs, white papers, booklets, digital books, etc… but they’re all basically still just documents at the end of the day. And both rely heavily on the expertise of the creator. Highly creative and skilled designers, managers, and writers can create outstanding documents no matter what kind they are. But it also helps to know which one or which type to create as they each have similarities, but slightly varied pro’s and con’s. I’ll try and provide some of the differences here.

PDF

A PDF is a file format used to present and exchange documents reliably, independent of software, hardware, or operating systems. Invented by Adobe, PDF is now an open standard maintained by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). PDFs can contain links and buttons, form fields, audio, video, interactivity, and business logic. They can also be signed electronically and are easily viewed on most all devices. Far from dead— still growing, highly used, and very popular with several great features available to make an exciting, highly visual piece of content. To learn more: https://acrobat.adobe.com/us/en/acrobat/about-adobe-pdf.html

Pros of PDF:

Simple to create, print, email, download, view online, and distribute
Most widely-used electronic document format worldwide
Entirely independent of the operating system and hardware of the device viewing it
Looks the exact same on every device
Interactive content can be only for on screen, and not print out
Total control over design— it looks how you design it to be, and locked in place
Excellent features allow the “cool factor” can be easily pushed
Embed other pdfs, graphics, audio
Add meta tags, descriptions, and titles
Add pop-ups, hidden files, and moderate interactivity
Implement security, forms, and digital signature options
Can implement social media sharing

Cons of PDF:

More or less static: They do not respond to different device screens, and do not reflow
Hard to see on some readers and smart phones (show up small, cut off, etc…)
Limited animation ability (can’t add animated pieces of content on screen)
Interactive content is ONLY on screen, cannot be printed
From a programmers point of view, the code is very complex and not easy to work with
Interactivity only works locally on device, not online
Quality of piece highly relies on design experience and technical knowledge

ePubs

An ePub (Electronic Publication) is an e-book file format with the extension .epub that can be viewed on or downloaded and read on devices like smartphones, tablets, computers, or e-readers. ePub is the most widely supported vendor-independent XML-based e-book format (as opposed to vendor-specific PDF). It is supported by the largest number of hardware readers today. Most e-Readers such as Apple’s iBooks, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, Adobe Digital Editions, Aldiko on Android among others (nearly 300) support .epub files. It continues to grow as the open standard format for most reading devices.

‘ePubs’ can do a bit more than PDF-style ebooks, although they do integrate well. They allow fully integrated and interactive online experiences with your content and work particularly well with text documents, but can also be used with less text and more graphics. They respond well to varying screen sizes, devices and browsers, allow animated content, hyperlinked material, and interactive content all contained within. They are modern, fun to work with, and can be easily shared on social media, as well as easily added to your own web pages (using iframe code). They can also be downloaded as a zip file and read on all modern devices, with full functionality of an ePub.

Pros of ePub:

Animated content is easier to create (stuff moves and acts out on screen)
More interactive content such as popup graphics, embedded infographics and video
Unlimited hyperlinked additional material
Downloadable pdf version can be also be embedded, included
Share buttons for social media
iFrame code to embed to your own web pages
Zipped ‘ePub’ format that can be used on ePub, iBooks, etc…
ePub file can be downloaded and read locally on any modern device (most all devices have ePub readers)
Unlimited design potential
Add meta tags, descriptions, and titles
Spread or single page options
Fluid, responsive layouts can be created
Can be created as an app, or put on numerous ePub stores (Apple’s iBooks, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, Adobe Digital Editions, Aldiko on Android)

Cons of ePubs:

Not ideal for printing— in fact, primarily an online, or on-screen document
The higher-ended programming, although better for programmers in XML, can be VERY complex
Strict requirements for creating archives and other deeper valid files innate in an ePub
Can be more pricey to create
You need to have experience with ePub creation software to create the ePub (Indesign, etc…)
Adding the more elaborate layers of an ePub can be rather complex
Quality of piece highly relies on design experience and technical knowledge

Overview

Both PDF and ePub can be beautiful, engaging and useful file formats depending on what you want to create and they both have individual advantages and disadvantages. Creating either a PDF or an ePub depends on these factors:

Budget. ePubs will cost a little more to create.
Ideal deliverable type. A single PDF file that can be emailed, printed out, or downloaded/viewed on screen— or an ePub that will be experienced on a screen only.
Interactivity expectations. Knowing the limits of each format and what interactivity options they provide. What kinds of interactivity will you want?
Distribution, sharing, marketing. Do you want to email it, download it it, print it out? Or only have it viewable on screen? Maybe it’s a simple text-only book that you want responding on peoples phones and tablets— vs. a set in stone design that is like a photo album.
Think of the user experience. How do you want the audience to experience your document?