I recently had the pleasure of meeting Dean Rieck.

You might have run across Dean from articles in DM News, Inside Direct Mail or any number of other publications he’s been in.

As a copywriter, Dean, and people like him, are partners with us as we work to create successful marketing material for our clients.

So I read with interest his Open Letter to Direct Mail Designers.

One thing that stood out to me was this comment:

I’m not trying to win awards. I don’t care whether people are impressed. My only concern is helping the client increase profits. I sincerely hope that is your concern as well.

And hopefully that’s your goal. The best award you can “win” is a happy client who keeps coming back to you because you’re helping him make money.

I’ve told this story before, but if you’re new here… One of my first clients years ago needed a cover for his special report. I got way too fancy with Photoshop. In an e-mail back to me, the client said, “My wife hates it.”

His wife was right. It wasn’t good. The second version was a winner, but I was still embarrassed.

To this day, I cringe when I think about it. But that’s part of the rookie learning experience.

However, there’s no harm in learning from what other more experienced people have learned. So read what Dean has to say and take it to heart.

Your clients don’t really care that you’re a whiz with Photoshop or that you’re Adobe Certified in InDesign. That’s great if you are. But if you can’t apply that to successful direct mail pieces, your client isn’t going to be impressed.

Unimpressed clients hire someone else.

Slowly but surely, I’m working Adobe CS4 into my workflow. I think I’ve mentioned before that for CS3 users, I don’t necessarily view CS4 as a “must have” upgrade. Certainly there are lots of useful new features, but if your finances are tight, I wouldn’t break the bank to get it.

That said, there are some new things in CS4 that designers will find valuable. One such feature is Share My Screen. This works in conjunction with Adobe’s ConnectNow feature which you can read all about here.

In a nutshell, you can go into a CS4 application, such as InDesign, and choose File | Share My Screen. This connects you to the ConnectNow site and provides you with a URL to give to other people so, via their browser, they can see what’s on your screen.

I did a quick test on my own, sharing my main monitor while watching what was happening in a browser window on my second monitor. (And I was happily surprised to see the ConnectNow app was aware I had two monitors and asked me which one I wanted to share.)

The whole thing was pretty slick. Whatever I was doing on my main monitor was showing up in the browser window.

There are actually a number of services for screen sharing, so it’s not like Adobe has come up with an original idea. But for us designers who spend most of our time in Adobe products, being able to launch this feature straight from the CS4 apps is convenient (and free, at least at this moment).

And while I didn’t confirm this myself, from what I read on one of Adobe’s blogs, the URL that ConnectNow provides to you to give to other people is always the same based on your Adobe account name. (And Adobe accounts are free.)

I probably don’t need to tell you how you could use this feature, but what the heck… you’re here now, right?

There have been times where I’ve been creating a simple website for a client and it gets to be a mild pain making changes, then uploading them for the client to see in a browser. Or zipping the files to e-mail so they could see the complete site offline. Far easier to share out your screen and collaborate with client live if time is tight.

Or maybe you’re wanting input from a number of people at once. There’s nothing worse than getting conflicting feedback from everyone involved and having to somehow incorporate everyone’s vision into the design. Perhaps it would be easier to get everyone together online and let them agree on changes while you incorporate them right there on the spot as they’re watching. If everyone thinks blue would be a better color than green, you could change it and they could all decide for themselves right on the spot.

Heck, even sharing out your screen with another designer can be useful if you’re trying to show them something that would take far too long to explain in an e-mail.

Again, it’s not that there’s anything new going on here with screen sharing. It’s just nice that the feature is so easy to use within the programs I’m already using every day.

A couple of months ago, I was reading a note by InDesign guru David Blatner. He was raving about a portable, dual-sided sheetfed scanner he was using.

While I have a single-sided flatbed scanner, it’s a pain to have to manually put things down one page at a time. Thus, I wasn’t using it that often.

So I’ve always been on the lookout for a good sheetfed option. There are tons of multi-function devices that do scanning, copying and faxing, but I didn’t care to go that route. I don’t need another bulky item for my work space.

So after the glowing review by David and the supporting glowing reviews by the folks at Amazon.com, I took a chance and bought the scanner David was talking about.

Wow! Really… Wow!

(I’ve put both the Mac and PC versions of the scanner in my Amazon Store in the Hardware category.

For someone using a huge flatbed all these years, moving to a simple sheetfed that only measures about 11 inches wide by 5 inches deep completely changed how I manage my swipe file.

First, a word on swipe files. Quoting Clayton Makepeace’s Direct Response Glossary (which you should bookmark), a swipe file is, “A collection of successful promotions, ads and sales letters you use to get ideas from.”

Every successful copywriter and designer I’ve met has a swipe file. So naturally, I started building mine long ago. (One of the shortcuts to success is to see what the successful people in your field are doing and do it, too.)

But what you find with a swipe file is that all those promotions take up space. It’s not long before you can have a file cabinet overflowing with this stuff. And if you’re a little sloppy about how you categorize the material, things get hard to find to the point where your swipe file is useless to you. You’re simply not going to use it often if you have trouble finding what you’re looking for.

Digitizing your swipe file helps to solve that. Mind you, I still keep some hard-copy material. And some of the larger size promotions are almost impossible to scan with a sheetfed.

But the majority of my swipe file is now digitized and can fit on a single DVD for backup purposes.

Now I want to go beyond telling you that I have a digital swipe file. I want to tell you exactly how I manage all the information.

1. On my hard drive, I created categories for various types of marketing material. I currently have 40 categories including obvious ones like sales letters, magalogs and envelopes to less obvious categories like tables of content, lift notes and subscription cards. I’m pretty much scanning anything that a designer might need to design because you never know what a client might need you to do.

2. With the scanner I’m using (and most scanners for that matter), the result is automatically created as a PDF, color or B/W depending on the setting you choose.

3. If there is some personal information on the material I’m scanning, like my name and address, I’ll open the PDF in Acrobat and use the Redaction function to remove it. If you don’t own Acrobat, no problem… you can use a marker to cover up the information before you scan. (Or, maybe you don’t care if the info is there.)

4. The PDF is given a file name starting with a code (like SL for sales letter) and the name of the product or company that the material is talking about. From there, it’s placed into the appropriate folder on my hard drive.

5. When I want to do a quick scan of my swipe file, I use Adobe Bridge. You can use something else but the key is that you want to use something that will show you an actual thumbnail of the material, not just the generic Adobe PDF icon. For example, if you were looking at a folder full of photographs, you’d want to see thumbnails of the actual photos, not some generic JPEG icon. By using something like Bridge, it makes it very easy for me to zero in on what I’m looking for.

And that’s basically it. By making it so easy to see categories of my swipe file at a glance, I’m much more likely to use my swipe file. And more importantly, I’m much more likely to find what I need quickly.

A side benefit to having a scanner so easy to use (it doesn’t have to “warm up” like my flatbed, so it’s ready when I’m ready) is that I digitized important articles and tutorials in all the magazines that were piling up on my shelves.

Here’s a perfect example…

I’ve been a subscriber to Photoshop User Magazine for a number of years. Each issue has great tutorials and tips. But after a few years, there’s no way you’re going to remember where a specific tutorial is if you can even remember about a tutorial you saw a couple of years ago anyway.

And, frankly, do you really need to save all the content in each magazine you get? Do you think you’ll want to re-read product reviews for things that aren’t even available any more? Unlikely.

So what I did was go through each magazine and pull out only the things worth keeping, mainly the tutorials and tips. Then, I can scan them and put them in folders on my hard-drive with descriptive file names that make it clear what the article/tutorial is about.

When you tear out only the articles worth saving long-term and compare it to what parts of the magazine you don’t really need to save, you’ll be amazed at the space you free up in your studio. I was awestruck by the pile “to be scanned” versus the pile “to be recycled.”

So that’s how I manage that aspect of my business. That scanner is one of the best purchases I’ve ever made for my business. If it broke down, I’d immediately buy a new one without giving it a second thought. If you have a swipe file that isn’t digitized, you might want to consider finding a scanner that works best for your needs, and then start scanning.

This week Adobe gave a preview of the new Creative Suite 4 (CS4) which is due in October. One question I often get is whether a direct market designer should upgrade. They want to know whether the new features are worth the expense.

The “direct market” part is important since we traditionally don’t need lots of fancy features. It’s kind of like Word. For many years Word has been more than capable of handling your word processing needs. So the task for Microsoft is convincing you with each new version that there’s some new feature worth upgrading for.

To a degree, that’s Adobe’s dilemma as well. To their credit, each new CS4 product has at least one really neat new feature. But whether it’s enough to drop some serious money on is another matter.

It wasn’t very long ago at all that CS3 came out. And it suffered a bit from not initially playing nice in some areas with both Leopard and Vista operating systems.

This time, that shouldn’t be an issue… CS4 should work great with both operating systems right out of the box. But you really need to look at the list of new features for your favorite applications to see if an upgrade is worthwhile on release day.

This year, more than any other, I’ve been struck by how much I need to retain my ability to work with older versions of the Adobe titles. For example, I have one client who needs my files to be available in CS2 format. I create them in CS3, but I then have to save them as an INX file, reopen them in CS2 and save them as CS2 files. (Yes, I know… the client should be able to open the INX files in CS2, but it hasn’t worked like it’s supposed to.)

Thankfully, when I upgraded from CS2 to CS3, I was allowed to keep CS2 on my computer. And I expect that when I upgrade to CS4, I’m going to want to retain CS3. Also, you never know when some smaller print shops will get around to upgrading. So giving them files that include features their version of the software can’t handle is going to be a pain.

I say all this just as a caution not to jump into the CS4 pool immediately. It’s always tempting to get these new applications and start playing with the new features. But these days I tend to think it’s better to sit back and see what the “early adopters” have to say and decide objectively whether the new features are ones you’ll actually use as a direct market designer.

Personally, I see lots of great new features in Photoshop and InDesign (my two main tools), but I’m not seeing a lot that is going to significantly change the way I work. I’ll eventually upgrade, but I highly doubt I’ll be a “Day One” user.

Not unlike the views I shared about rush fees, today’s topic is likely to tick some people off.

A question came up in a discussion forum about whether designers should give clients their source files. For example, you do the layout of a magalog. The client approves it and you send it to the printer for printing. Then, the client asks for the files used to create the magalog. That might be your InDesign or Quark files, and any Photoshop or Illustrator files.

What do you say to that request?

Surprisingly, to me at least, some designers say no. I’ve tried to figure out why they say no, but I have yet to come up with anything other than fear.

Even worse, they use this “logic” as justification: Does a restaurant give you their recipes just because you bought the meals?

This has got to be one of the most baffling reasonings I’ve ever heard. Here’s a little secret for designers… you’re not a restaurant. You’re not a mechanic either. Or a bank teller. You’re a designer. So don’t buy into this notion that what is done in some other occupation is what you’re required to do.

If you’re going to compare yourself with another occupation, you’re obligated to take it all the way. Do you only offer some design services at certain times of the day like restaurants that have different menus for lunch and dinner? Do you offer Happy Hour pricing for your services if people hire you between at certain hours of the day?

Honestly, I think any excuse for not handing over your source files to a client is, bottom line, fear. Fear that the client will take those files and use them to do future jobs without you based on your work. Fear that they’ll take those files and mess something up.

One of the joys of freelancing is not having to work with people again if they do things you don’t like. So if they take your source files and mess things up before it gets to the printer, don’t work with them again or have a clear understanding that source files are just for their archiving purposes, not to make changes.

Even worse than the “no source file” policy is when designers actually hand over the files if the client pays more to get them. So much for standing by your beliefs that source files are sacred.

Let me give you some reasons that I think you should be willing to hand over your source files.

1. With some jobs, you’ll have to give the source files to the printer. You can’t always just provide a PDF. At that point, if you’ve given the files to the printer, what is your justification for not giving them to the person who paid you to create them? Plus, your client could just get the source files directly from the printer if you’re not going to provide them.

2. There are times when the client wants you to do about 98% of the work with the rest being handled internally. Are you going to turn down jobs like that? I’ve worked on a number of projects, totaling thousands of dollars, where I’m doing the majority of work with some details handled later by an in-house design team. Wouldn’t it be silly of me to refuse to hand over the files? And it’s not a valid argument to say that it’s a different situation if you’re hired to only do part of the work.

3. I’ve worked on many projects where the original designer is no longer available or has lost the files, yet the project needs to be updated. If I don’t have the source files, I have to start from scratch. If you were in that position, wouldn’t you hope that the original designer had made the files available to the client?

4. Sometimes, last minute changes need to be made to the layout once you’ve sent them off. This happens frequently in the financial arena. You’ve done the work for some project where the numbers being quoted in the copy are time-sensitive. Right before printing, the numbers need to be changed. These changes may need to be changed by the printer or the client. How often do you think the client is going to want to work with you if you have a “no source file” policy?

5. Your time is valuable. Let’s say you do the layout of a book. A year or so later, the book needs to be reprinted with a different printer. Wouldn’t it be nice if the client could forward those files to the printer instead of contacting you, making you stop whatever projects you’re working on, dig up those files and get them sent off. A surprising amount of time can be spent revisiting past projects. (A topic I hope to tackle here on the blog in the future.)

Now there is at least one area to be aware of when it comes to handing over source files: font copyrights.

It’s generally accepted that you can send the fonts with source files to a printer. It’s not so clear-cut when it comes to sending those fonts to a client. So if you’re going to provide source files, you’ll either need to exclude the fonts, or make sure the client has the fonts you used on their own computers. You might even buy the fonts for the client and add that to the cost of the project. If there are other parts of the project that are copyrighted by a third-party, don’t ignore those copyrights.

If you’re going to have a “no source file” policy, fine. Just do yourself a favor and have a legitimate reason to give the client if they ask for the files. Please don’t embarrass yourself by responding, “Do restaurants give you the recipe just because you bought the meal?” That kind of answer appears to make sense on the surface until you dig a bit deeper and realize that the two situations aren’t the same in any way.

And if you have a reason for not providing source files that don’t translate into fear, e-mail me. I’d be happy to include your thoughts in a future article here.

Right off the bat, the title for today’s thought, Become a Slave to Master Pages, is probably one of the hokiest titles I’ve ever come up with. Apologies for not being more clever (or original considering it’s probably been used a thousand times in the past.)

With that said…

I almost got caught making a layout task much less efficient than it needed to be. Fortunately, a better solution came to me before I wasted my time on the less efficient solution. The incident illustrates what can happen when we forget just how amazing our layout tools can be.

I’m doing the layout for a book and the client wanted to add 36 pages of lines so that the reader could keep a journal in the back. Each page would have the same heading, then about 20 lines for the reader to write whatever he or she wanted. In other words, 36 pages exactly alike.

My very first thought was to create the first page, then copy/paste the text box with the heading and lines into the 35 other pages. Not smart! Why?

If the client wanted any change, like a different heading for the page, or a change in the spacing between the 20 lines, I’d have to change the first one, then do the copy/paste routine over again 35 times. And imagine the fun if the client decided on another change after that!

Instead, I created a new Master Page, something you can do in both InDesign and QuarkXPress. On this Master Page, I created the header and lines once. When I added the new pages to the layout, I indicated that the new pages should use the new Master Page I created.

In an instant, I had 36 pages of lines. But the real beauty is that if the client wants a change, I only need to make it on the Master Page and it will be applied instantly to all 36 pages.

Master Pages are nothing new for me… I use them on just about every project. But I don’t often have a need to use multiple Master Pages and that’s why I almost got tripped up. I had gotten so used to not using multiple Master Pages, I had forgotten just how valuable they can be.

One reason I bring this up is because it’s so easy to forget (or never learn!) everything our design tools can do and how they can make things easier for us. That’s why I always encourage beginners to spend time learning how their design tools work. Take advantage of those slow moments as you’re building your direct market design career and see what’s hiding in all those menus and sub-menus.

Sites You Should Know About:

I’ve been stumbling across some great sites recently… it’s not that they’re new, I had just never seen them before.

All Graphic Design – A lot of great content here. Two recent articles – Designing A Catalog From Conception To Completion and Logo Design Creation Process from Start to Finish – are among many useful tips you’ll find on this site.

LogoBlog.org – Speaking of logos, many long-time readers here will know that logo design is not something I feel I’m good at. But I am fascinated by the process because, to me, it requires a different type of thinking. If logos are your thing, this site is for you. I really liked the article from April 9, Magic of the First Letter. It’s amazing how something so simple in a logo can still be very effective.

First, note that I said a “little” love in the title. I still feel that for a solo designer, QuarkXPress is inferior to InDesign in just about every way and I only use it when the job demands it.

But that’s just my view of QuarkXpress based on my own experience and my needs in a layout program. There are many people out there happily using QuarkXPress and it does exactly what they need it to do.

But I do sometimes feel guilty (for only a second or two) that I talk more about InDesign (and by extenstion, Adobe) than I do QuarkXPress.

The trouble is, there are not a whole lot of QuarkXPress resources to get excited about in terms of podcasts, third-party magazine tutorials, etc. In fact, I just looked at Amazon to see what QuarkXPress 7 books were available. Not a lot, at least not by the major publishers. I’m not sure if that means anything or not, but it does make me wonder how popular QuarkXPress is with the general public these days.

So, it is nice to see that there’s a new site out there dedicated to QuarkXPress: Planet Quark

If you’re a QuarkXPress, take a look at the site and even send a note of thanks to the folks who put the site together. Since there’s not a lot out there, anyone dedicated to serving the QuarkXPress community deserves a pat on the back.

I continue to be amazed (and thankful) at the quality training podcasts that are available for free.

A new one dedicated to Adobe Illustrator has surfaced called Gradient Mesh. As I write this, the podcast is only two issues old, so time will tell if this is a podcast that direct market designers will get some use out of that they can directly apply to their projects.

But as someone who has been having to spend more time in Illustrator recently, I welcome anything like this that’s going to make me more comfortable moving around in the program. (Side note: I’m seeing a Lynda.com subscription in my future very soon to get some extra training.)

Gradient Mesh is presented very professionally by Justin Seeley. It reminds me a lot of one of my favorite podcasts, The InDesigner which is a similar style in terms of solid information without what my kids call “silly business”. “Silly business” is what you see a lot of in Photoshop User TV, another great podcast, but one that I find myself fast-forwarding through a lot these days to get past the silliness and on to the tips. That type of silliness gets old quickly and, frankly, I don’t have time for it anymore. (Still, it’s free so I hate to complain too much about it.)

Justin also has a Photoshop podcast, but I have yet to check it out.

In my mind, this new Illustrator podcast fills an underserved arena. I just haven’t run across many Illustrator podcasts that are updated consistently. Of course, when people are doing these podcasts and offering them for free, you want to cut them some slack. But I’m hoping Justin steps into this void with lots of great tips and hints.

My very first computer was an Apple 2e (or ][e for those of you old enough to remember they way they wrote it out back then.) But over time, I moved over to a PC and eventually ended up working for what some people humorously refer to as The Evil Empire. (That would be Microsoft.)

As a designer, I work on both a Mac and PC, with the PC being my primary platform. Until now. As the years have gone on, I’ve grown weary of battling Windows for control of my computer. And I have a high tolerance since I’m a bit more familiar with making Windows run smoothly than the aveage user.

But as I’ve had a Mac and PC running side-by-side on my desk, I’ve noticed something: The Mac works better. There are some aspects that I don’t think are as good as a Windows machine, but those reasons are dwindling.

So, this weekend, I started migrating my files over to the Mac, including my mail. I’ve still got some projects I started on my PC that I want to finish there, but I think I’ll be starting all new projects on the Mac.

Now, I’m not telling you this just to share my personal life. There’s a design aspect you should be aware of.

When it comes to software, the main tools of the design trade (InDesign, Quark, Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, etc.) all work on both PC’s and Mac’s. And in most cases, a client doesn’t care if you’re using a PC or Mac.

But…

I’ve never had a client require a project be done on a PC, but I have had the requirement a few times that it be done on a Mac. If you’re a PC user, don’t worry. There’s still plenty of work for if you’re only using a PC. But if you’re at that stage where you can go either way, go Mac.

This is just my own experience, plus a little inside knowledge from my time as a Windows tester at Microsoft, but the Mac operating system is more stable than Windows, and it doesn’t even matter which version of Windows you want to talk about.

I’m not saying OS X (the current Mac operating system) is perfect. I am saying that, by and large, it has fewer problems and will get in your way less often.

There are some downsides to using a Mac, so in fairness I’ll raise those issues.

First, if you depend on Office like I do, the current Mac version of Office is inferior to any of the recent PC versions, especially when it comes to Entourage (the Mac version of Outlook.) While a new version of Office for the Mac is due later this year, based on a few things I’m reading, I’m not entirely confident of what we’ll get or if it will be vastly improved. I hope I’m proven wrong on that.

Second, I always advocate a back-up system in case your main system dies. PC’s are so low in price I wouldn’t be surprised to see them given away in cereal boxes if they could fit. But Mac’s are another story. They’re pricey and not something you can find easily at Costco or some discount computer store.

If you’re running your business off a Mac and it dies, how easily can you get it replaced and be up and running again? A lot of people who use PC’s actually have more than one in the house, so temporarily moving to another PC if your main one dies isn’t as big a deal.

So those are a couple of potential downsides to be aware of. I’m sure there are more. But for me, I’ve had it. I’ve been battling Windows since version 3.1. I’ve served my time. The main design software I use runs just as easily (if not better) on a Mac than it does a PC, so there’s nothing holding me to Windows except old habits. I’ll still have a PC on hand for projects that require it and for non-business software that is PC only. (And, no, I don’t intend to run Windows on my Intel Mac.)

So the next time you read a post here from me, it will have been written on a Mac and I will have cast aside the daily shackles of Windows!! (Ok, that’s no big deal and it won’t make any difference to you in how you read this blog. I was just trying to end on a dramatic note because this is a really geeky topic to be discussing.)

I’ve added a few more books to my Recommended List.

The first is Thinking Creatively: New Ways to Unlock Your Visual Imagination. I’ve actually read a couple of books related to design creativity, but this was the only one I felt was worth recommending.

This one helps to show how different types of designs come together and is a big help if you’re feeling a little design-challenged.

One thing in particular I like about the book is the exercises at the end. Normally I’m not too keen on exercises at the back of a book (too much like high school, I suppose), but these are actually fun.

For example, in the section about type and images, the instructions state: “Design a word so that its connotative meaning is the same as its denotative meaning…Design the word whisper to sound like a whisper. Take a word like stable and find five typefaces that would convey the appropriate meaning for it.”

You’ll find that book listed in the Business / Motivation section of the Recommended List.

Also in that section you’ll find A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future. This was written by Daniel Pink. His other book, Free-Agent Nation, is also in that section and has been there from day one. To me, Free-Agent Nation is mandatory reading for people who are thinking of freelancing. So when Pink’s A Whole New Mind came out, I put it on my reading list and finally got to it a couple of weeks ago.

I think copywriters and designers will relate to what Pink says and maybe get some confirmation that they’re heading in a strong career choice at a time when as many things as possible get out-sourced overseas. And as the title alludes, the book covers how the hemispheres of our brains work and how we need them to work in order to excel in our careers. (Don’t worry, it’s not a dry read.)

The next book is more of a reference and you might not need it now, but it’s the type of book that you’ll be glad you have handy when you suddenly need it. It’s called Forms, Folds, and Sizes. You’ll find that one in the General Layout Books section.

There’s a little of everything in this book: measurement conversion charts, info on paper types, envelope sizes, postal standards, bar code standards, print bindings and a lot more.

Last but not least, I created a new section called Adobe CS3 Related. With the Creative Suite 3 now out, I was looking to see what, if any, books were available for my library. It’s probably not surprising, but most books aren’t quite out yet, but they are listed as pre-orders. So, since I was looking anyway, I tossed them all into this new section.

While I state it on that section of the Recommended List, I’ll repeat it here: Those books are ones I don’t own, mainly because they’re not out yet. It’s just a convenient list if you’re a CS3 user and want to see what’s coming.

By the way, I am using CS3 now…at least InDesign. I started using that this weekend for a new project. As I mentioned in a prior blog post, it’s the little improvements that I like that will help me be more efficient.

And kudos to Adobe support. I was having trouble installing the software yesterday (Friday) and knew I’d need some tech support. It was ten minutes before 5pm Pacific which was when they shut down for the day.

I called the toll-free number and actually got through to a human. Reaching a human was impressive enough, but getting one ten minutes before quitting time for Friday and the weekend really impressed me.

The guy told me what I needed to do to fix the problem and it worked great. (For the computer geeks among you, it was a folder-level permissions issue with Windows.)