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Austrians have a big problem: they too often lack self-confidence. THE DILEMMA In the German-speaking area, innovation is sometimes not appreciated unless success is following a long time after the innovation happened. Looking back then, the "typical" Austrian is proud of successful people taking risks. Woe, the innovation does not lead to success (which is the risk you take of course) - then Austrians quickly say "we knew it, what a lot of shit." Too often, Austrians don’t appreciate an Austrian export until it’s appreciated abroad. EXAMPLES FROM REAL LIFE Do you remember Conchita Wurst ? No matter how much you like (or don’t like) the artist Conchita. It is a fact that most Austrians sneered at her before winning the Eurovision Song Contest . Austrians needed the title "ESC winner" to realise that Conchita is a great export made in Austria. Many Austrians completely changed their opinion about Conchita from the moment of winning the ESC. Another example is a colleague and friend who works as a coach and speaker. She told me that she would be hired more in Germany than in her home country Austria. "A prophet has no honor in his own country, it’s really funny." (O-tone over a lunch in spring 2017). DOUBLE STANDARD IN THE MEDIA The Tyrolean business magazine "econova" published an issue titled "Progress needs innovation - pleading for more courage" in November 2017. Such a cover is good for the image and gets more readers. However, practice looks a bit different. A completely new and innovative product (Tirol Box), that was praised by local businesses, national and international clients , Austria Marketing and politicians , got quite an odd quarter page in an "econova" in 2016 with a slightly negative comment at the end á la "Let’s see, if that even works." True to the motto "progress needs innovation - but we still don’t really like that". Part of "econova"’s editorial team is friends with people close to Tirol Werbung, an advertising company which is often faced with negative criticism among Tyrolean businesses for good reason. In Novmeber 2016, Tirol Werbung almost copied a press release by Tirol Box published a month before. Another evidence for the double standard of local media when speaking about innovation. It’s sad to see how people and media claim themselves to be innovative and future-orientated whilst lacking the courage and strength to act this way themselves. HOW SELF-CONFIDENCE MAKES PEOPLE SUCCESSFUL Another example from my business shows how important it is to set the course for one’s future early enough: Many years ago, I started to thoroughly deal with the topics "app magazines" and "infographics". Back then, I was one of the very few graphic designers in the German-speaking area even caring about that. There was no real education for these topics then. So I had to invest many weeks to teach myself a lot, asked many detailed questions and investigated in many areas, until my perfectionism told me "yep, now it’s time to go into live mode with app magazines and infographics." Initially, people around me used to say "why are you investing time here, don’t do that". But I staid confident that all the effort will pay off one day. I didn’t allow others to destroy my vision. Now, many years later, I know how important it was to invest so much time and effort and that it was the right decision. Nowadays, app magazines and infographics make up for about 30 % of my annual income. Another example is my former side-job/hobby that I did for about 7 years: until approx. 2010/2011 I used to DJ because I simply loved being creative with music. Back then, a female DJ was an exception and a bit "strange". In my first years as a DJ, I was touring in Austria, in the last years of my DJ career I toured internationally (Brazil, India, Vietnam, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, UK, Germany, Switzerland, Italy etc.). Ever since I got appreciated on a more global scale, people in Austria took me more serious and changed their opinion about me as a female DJ from "what does she want here" to "wow, her music is really great, respect". The music genre didn’t change, my style didn’t change, only the audience changed from local to global - and all of a sudden I was "hip" in Austria too. WHY IS THAT? It seems that Austrians need mental confirmation from outside (also by Germans by the way) for us to follow and be brave enough to like something that actually comes from our own country. Maybe this lack of self-confidence has something to do with envy too, as we live in quite an envious society in Germany and Austria. Could it even be that envy is based on a lack of self-confidence? CONCLUSION After many trips abroad (for business and private reasons) and getting to know many people from different countries, I have to say that us Austrians really have a big problem with ourselves. Where is the self-confidence? I don’t miss the self-confidence among innovators, they are confident enough to try something new in an environment with many negative people that often diss you when you don’t follow set paths. I miss the self-confidence among the mainstream. The mainstream of people that should value and praise good business people trying out new things. Without courage and innovation we would still live in caves. In this scenario us Austrians would moan and say "Damn, it’s so f*cking uncomfortable in this cave! It’s time for somebody to invent something more cosy." This blog article does not only portray my own opinion and experiences, by the way. When I speak with people - may it be in a business or private aspect - I often hear the same things and I realise that many Austrians are annoyed by the lacking self-confidence among us. In addition to that, our tax and social insurance politics are sometimes too short-sighted, which makes some good people want to move abroad. Understandably. This is a shame. For the self-confidence of our nation. And it is sad. For the economic output resulting from that. We need a new entrepreneurial culture. Absolutely. #entrepreneurship

Every year entrepreneurs ask themselves what kind of Christmas card they shall send their business partners and clients. So do I. Well, working in the creative industry, I have to admit that I really care about outstanding Christmas cards for my contacts. Tasty goodies alongside the cards have proven to be very well received in the past. A few years ago, I designed a Christmas card with an infographic style cookie recipe and self-baked cookies inside. People simply loved it. This year, I wanted to work with an infographic element again and bring some attention to my new online shop which was launched earlier this year. (As per mid December 2018, the online shop is only available in German language. However, in 2019 the shop will also be made available in English language.) The idea was to split down my working hours into different categories and to visualise them in an easy-to-understand way. (The data source for this graphic was an excel spreadsheet I use every day to track my working hours per client project.) You can see the result here: The design was inspired by „Infografik light“ no. 3 in my online shop. A Lindt chocolate heart can be found inside the card, similar to a piece of Christmas tree decoration. You would like to receive an amazing Christmas card too next year? Let’s talk about your next project and drop me a message . ;-) I’m looking forward to you! #infographic #xmas

As a passionate editorial designer for print and digital, I could collect important experiences in terms of advertisements in digital app magazines in the last years. If you want your advertisements, that you pay a lot of money for, to achieve higher conversion rates, read on. ADAPTIONS FOR MOBILE DEVICES Generally speaking, I recommend to take print advertisements out of your app altogether, unless your advertising clients pay extra for them. Otherwise, your advertising clients won’t have a feeling for the value of your app and will, most likely, never develop one. If you do place digital advertisements, please adapt them in terms of size, mobile device and make them interactive! Don’t hesitate to actively approach your advertising clients and offer them different options and pricing models. This is how a classic print advert looks like on the iPhone - not adapted in size and not interactive (apart from the web link). You can hardly read it and visiting the website doesn’t look very appealing: The advert in the next example was adapted for the sizes of different mobile devices, the text was improved for app readers, it can be perfectly read and there is a clear call to action telling the reader to tap on the red button which automatically opens up the device’s email program. This advert was placed in issue 5/2018 of "Blickpunkt LKW & BUS" and reached a 24 % higher reading rate than all other "static" print adverts in the same issue. You can see more amazing examples for interactions and animations in app advertisements in this video: ARTICLE-BASED APPROACH I’ve already written about the article-based approach in my blog article "The Future of Digital Magazines" . In article-based magazine apps, advertising banners on the starting page are a great thing - you can imagine this to look similar to a blog on a website. Of course, the banner should not look like a classic promo banner, but rather smoothly integrate into the entire page, designed in card design style. This makes the advertisement look more like a piece of actual content. (You can read up more on card design here , by the way.) LARGE OR SMALL ADVERTISEMENT? It’s worth contemplating to skip the classic print advertisement format altogether (1 advertisement = 1 full page between 2 articles). It can definitely make sense to cut down paid content into smaller, more appealing bits of paid content and include them in relevant articles here and there (i.e. with a banner or animated/interactive image). This makes the reader less "blind" for the advertisement. Twixl Media’s Laurent Gerniers from Belgium wrote an excellent article about this interesting topic. CAREFUL WITH "PDF APPS" For the sake of completeness, I have to say that those "fancy" digital adverts are not executable very well in "PDF apps" - due to technical and layout reasons alike. In order to make your adverts really stand out and convert, you definitely need a native, professionally made app magazine. In all those years of creating app magazines, I have seen many examples of unhappy readers of PDF apps which puts a negative light on the magazine and the publishing house. PDF apps cost important download and reading numbers and this is sad to see, as the initial intention was creating additional value for the reader and keeping up with digitization. Poor execution and saving money in the wrong place, makes publishers often pay a high price for it in the end. You can read more about this in my blog article "5 Mistakes that Publishers Stumble Upon with Their App Magazines" . Reader rating of a "PDF app" in the App Store: Reader rating of a native magazine app I created for one of my clients: CONCLUSION Placing advertisements costs a lot of money (in print more than on digital platforms). As the reading flow in print is completely different than on digital, the print layout must be adapted to a digital layout (incl. interactions and subtle animations driving sales). I’m not talking about a website link, but about an advert that actually converts on a digital device. Creating digital adverts is quite cheap, especially when the print design already exists. When spending money for advertisements, don’t save in the wrong place and save the little extra money in creating a stunning digital advert. You don’t buy a Lomborghini and drive around with cheap, adulterated fuel because you don’t have the money for good fuel, right? #app #magazine #advertisement

For me, travelling to different countries is a wonderful source of inspiration and creativity. And everybody who knows me, knows how much I love going abroad to see different countries and cultures. In May/June this year, I went to Colombia - for a three week round trip. Transportation via bus, plane and horse were normal. It was absolutely amazing! Here, I would like to share some lovely holiday moments with you - with a special focus on fonts on Colombian road signs. Looking at it, you might think it's a Starbucks outlet. But it is just a copy... Seen in Medellín/Colombia. Street art in Medellín, Colombia Street art in Comune 13, Medellín, Colombia I love this logo! Great use of negative space. I love the way Colombians write "del" ... D and E are nicely melted together. #typography #font #holiday

If you want to start your own business and thrive for fulfilling your dream becoming your own boss, you might face the fact that you have no or only little budget for a logo, business card and a website in the start-up phase. This is why you maybe put it together yourself somehow. Your little brother, your cousin and your aunty might add their design opinions too. In the end, it’s the business idea that counts, right? That business idea, however, must convince possible clients. The best idea is worth nothing if others don’t understand it or - even worse - are not even interested in taking a look at it thoroughly enough (in case the company looks too unprofessional for instance). This is what happens over and over again in real business life, unfortunately - a big part plays a poor branding. If you are in the position to invest some money into your logo etc. in order to make your business look serious and professional, you will look for an advertising agency or a designer. But there are probably hundreds of thousands of designers out there. Here you can find out what you really have to look at when you are looking for a designer. WHAT DOES A LOGO COST? Sometimes a low price is the winning criteria for a certain designer or agency. But how much does the corporate design from a "cheap designer" cost? Prices vary from 1000 to 2500 Euros net, I would say. But what adds up afterwards, shows a real life example of a real estate agency. This real estate agent hired an advertising agency to create a logo, business card and website for 2500 Euros net. So far, so good. A few weeks after going live, the client received a letter from a lawyer. Copyright infringement! The real estate agent’s logo looked way too similar to another existing real estate agent’s logo. In order to turn away a possible copyright lawsuit threatening the real estate agent’s existence, the lawyer asked for a payment of 800 Euros. Getting a new logo was recommended, too. WHEN THE CLIENT IS THE F*CKED ONE IN THE END Of course, you can now argue about the lawyer’s integrity if a payment of only 800 Euros is sufficient compared to a much higher copyright lawsuit. However, the core of the problem lies in the copying of existing logos or using existing logo snippets, which are then sold on as a "new logo" even though it’s not a new logo. This means betraying the client just in order to offer low prices. The real estate agency’s CEO was very angry, understandably, and asked the advertising agency to pay the 800 Euro fine, as it was the advertising agency’s mistake. They refused to pay the fine. I would not be surprised if there were cooperations between dumping price designers and lawyers like this out there in order to earn easy cash. Similar scenarios are known from other business areas. This is poison for the design industry, bad for its image and most of all terrible for the clients that are the f*cked ones in the end. However, everybody hiring a designer or an advertising agency should think about why some designers are "so cheap" whilst others are "so expensive". As you can see in the example above, low price designers can cost more than expected in the end. #copyright #logo

Print or digital publications - or both? Future-proof publishers have answered this question for themselves already. Magazine- or article-based digital magazine? This is the crucial question at the moment. THE STATUS QUO Publishing houses still find it hard to believe that print alone is not everything (any more). Some of them have been experiencing big financial losses in terms of subscription payments and advertising income over the past years. I’m speaking of billions of Euros in the entire industry. However, it would be wrong to say that print will not continue to exist. I believe that print magazines will still be successful as long as they are accompanied and thus supported by attractive digital offers that go along with their print counterparts at the same time. Since Adobe shocked publishers and editorial designers worldwide a few years ago by more or less spontaneously introducing their license model for the Digital Publishing Suite and basically blackmailing their clients taking advantage of their leading market position, I switched towards the Belgian software solution Twixl for creating digital app magazines and app brochures for my clients. STRUCTURE OF AN APP Ever since internet blogs have become more and more successful, one question pops up in the media landscape: How shall an app magazine be structured?: I Classic magazine format: several topics and articles in one compact medium or I article-based: many loose articles that stand for themselves, maybe wrapped up in categories (similar to a blog on a website) Thinking of the classic magazine format; when you tap the app icon, you’ll get to a selection of different magazine issues that you can download (either by paying money as an in-app-purchase of free of charge). This is often the simplest way to offer an existing print magazine as a digital app magazine, because the editorial team doesn’t have much more work with it. Opposed to that, there is the article-based approach which requires the editorial team to shift their thinking more towards a blog approach. Imagine the magazine app icon on your mobile device again. You tap it and a bunch of loose articles pops up in front of your eyes - preferably in a card design layout (read more about card designs in this blog post ). This bunch of loose articles is often summed up in categories, so called "collections" in the language of Twixl. This article-based approach widely represents the usability of websites or web blogs. You try to make the app user feel they are consuming an internet blog. This makes sense as the reading flow of print magazine differs a lot from the reading flow of a digital medium. ARTICLE-BASED PUBLISHING As you can see in the example picture above, there are different types of content that can be fed into each box: articles created as HTML or in Indesign, a link to a website, a photo (static or gif-animated) as a promotional banner, a video or a chapter overview page. In addition to that, the grid is very flexible, works both in portrait and landscape format on tablets and smart phones and can be adapted very nicely to the look and feel of your company - in terms of fonts and colours alike. This design freedom and flexibility combined with the big amount of content possibilities, makes article-based publishing very attractive and future-proof for publishers to monetize their magazines beyond any geographic borders. APP VS. WEBSITE You might ask yourself: Why have an app, when you can offer your content on a website too? The big advantage is the customer retention. With a website, the reader has to become active and visit the website. Of course you can remind your readers to do so by e-mailing them newsletters. However, thinking of low open rates that are often way under 20 % and the GDPR in Europe that has been in effect since 25 May 2018, this is not the best form of customer retention any more, I have to say. Having your app icon on your readers’ tablet and smart phone screens, makes them see the publisher’s/magazine’s logo every time they hold their mobile device in their hands. This is simply great. But that’s not all. The very best advantage of an app is the possibility to send out push notifications to the mobile devices the app is installed on; some sort of SMS from the publisher/magazine to the reader saying something like "What’s behind XYZ? Read the full story now in our app". A simple swipe on the device, and the reader is in the story already. There is probably no better promotion for your content. Besides that, the user does not loose himself in the World Wide Web like on a typical website - just take a look at your Google Analytics data to see how little time users stay on a website nowadays. GET YOUR OWN APP You want to save printing and postage costs and offer your magazine, sales brochure or annual report in app stores? Then I’m looking forward to your email . #app #digitalpublishing

I assume you have heard the word "podcast" already, right? A podcast is a kind of mini radio show or mini audio book. Instead of reading something, somebody reads it out for you. Podcasts can be free or fee-based and you find them on the internet where you can stream them. Another option is to download podcasts so that you can listen to them on the go. Podcasts are becoming more and more popular worldwide. This trend can also be utilised for app magazines. In this blog article, I show you 5 ideas of using audio files in app magazines: TIP # 1 Almost all magazines come with an editorial letter or a foreword by the editor in chief. In addition to the text as such, this foreword can also be read out by an mp3 file. The editor in chief’s words read out by him-/herself in person gives the magazine a more personal touch and establishes a special connection to the reader. TIP # 2 Interviews can be embedded as an audio file into the app too – in addition to the written text. This comes in handy as interviews are often recorded anyway in order to type them later on. So why not place the mp3 file into the app? TIP # 3 If you publish manuals or tutorials in your app magazine, you could read them out with an audio file too. Here it’s important not to forget a pause function, though. TIP # 4 Screen-filling photo stories look better and, most of all, more authentic when they are accompanied by supporting noises. A photo slideshow with woods and treeds seems more natural when it’s supported by bird tweeting. Or a photo gallery with cars, traffic and traffic jams comes across more authentic with the typical sound of traffic jams at rush hour. Picture and sound in harmony – this makes the reader fully grasp the topic. A good source for such sounds, that I like to use, is freesound.org for example. TIP # 5 When covering event topics, background music can be a nice thing to have. However, consider any copyright infringements and make sure to get all legal right necessary to include the audio file into your app magazine. You might want to send an e-mail to the record label or the artist’s management for permission. Some artists are also happy with you putting an iTunes link into your app for you using their song. By the way: Another advantage of embedding audio files into an app magazine is the small file size of mp3 files, especially compared to video files. Sound files don’t unnecessarily increase your app’s file size on your readers’ mobile devices. THIS IS HOW YOU CAN EASILY PRODUCE YOUR OWN AUDIO FILES You might have the best recording equipment already in your pocket or on your desk: your iPhone. You will be surprised of the iPhone’s audio quality! Even video crews often use iPhones to record sound. For my own podcast , I record audio files with the built-in voice memo app of the iPhone and e-mail the mp3 file to myself afterwards. This audio file is already ready-to-use. If I like, I could also use an audio software (i.e. Audacity ) to edit and cut the mp3 file accordingly. I wish you a lot of fun recording your audio files! For further questions on app magazines, simply send me an e-mail to office@hcg-corporate-designs.com . #podcast #audio #app

A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon an app magazine called "Sister Mag". Besides the app for iOS, Google Play and Amazon, there is a large blog as well as download and multimedia topics on the website, plus an ISSUU-PDF on the website . I feel that sisterMAG is a very beautifully made women’s magazine with a lot of love for detail about lifestyle, fashion and many other things that make life more fun. Normally, I don’t get lost in women’s magazines as I often lack the time and passion for them – or they are simply all the same. However, sisterMAG really felt different and I put my nose into it for quite a while. "What a great magazine", I thought by myself, "and they even have an app!". The ladies behind sisterMAG really fully understood sustainable publishing that is fit for the future – and executed it well. As an app magazine designer myself, my heart was smiling. And this is why I wrote this blog article about sisterMAG. I took a closer look at issues number 34 (February 2018) and number 12 (April 2014). Considering the editorial design, you can without a doubt tell the editor in chief’s design expertise. Technically, the app was implemented by PressMatrix GmbH in Berlin. The starting screen of the app shows the cover pages of all magazine issues (German and English language). Having several languages within the same app can make things complicated and unfortunately do so in this app, it’s a bit hard to find the issue you want to read. Readers might want to read either the English or the German issue. Two separate apps (one for English and one for German) would have been better here and in the readers’ interest. INTERACTIVE FEATURES What attracted my attention was the fact that sisterMAG doesn’t offer animations, photo slide shows or other "special effect" interactions in the app. The app predominantly works with links to the website. This can make sense here since the website offers a lot of continuative content that links to the relevant topics (an example is dress patterns as PDF downloads on the website as a link from the photos showing the perfectly sewed dresses in the app magazine). Hence: perfect cross-marketing across several channels! In issue number 12 from April 2014, published quite a while ago, I discovered embedded video and audio content. But that was it in terms of multimedia content within the app. Video and audio files seem to be hardly ever used. For sisterMAG, links to the website seem sufficient and financially easily doable. The more complex animations, special effects and other interactions you offer in an app, the more its production costs of course. What I like: All links are visually emphasised so that you instantly see where more content is offered. Very nice! Moreover, the links open in an In-App-Browser. This means that the reader cannot get lost in the world wide web as the browser address line is not displayed. When you want to exit the website, you simply tap on "done" and the In-App-Browser closes, leaving you at the same position in the app where you left it in order to go into the internet. The magazine can be read in both formats on the tablet (portrait and landscape). However, there is a similar problem like shifting print PDFs into a app: It only makes real sense to read the magazine in landscape format, especially when you think of stories that are designed across double pages. TYPOGRAPHY The font size is perfect for a digital reading flow on tablets. When you look at other magazines that shift their print PDF files into the app, you’ll find out that you will be forced to manually zoom in and out on every (!) text column in order to be able to read the app magazine, which is extremely frustrating, as you can imagine. SisterMAG does it well, very good! A source of irritation however are very narrow text columns which can hurt your eye when looking at the text for a little while. Three to five words per line are definitely too little, it should be at least seven to eight words per line for a digital medium, in my opinion. Ordinary book typography demands for an ideal line width of eight to twelve words per line to make it a pleasure for the human eye (see typography expert Wolfgang Beinert). A one column text layout would have been better than a two column text layout here, as a lot of negative space or white space is used anyway. TECHNICAL CHALLENGES The app seems to have limitations in terms of file downloads like PDFs in the In-App-Browser. There was a lovely photo gallery with self-sewed dresses of which patterns were offered as a PDF download. The PDF downloads were linked in the app. The link opened the website in the In-App-Browser and led to the PDF download. However, the PDF was stuck on the first page. It was impossible to scroll further down to see the patterns – this problem occured with all four dress patterns. However, opening the links in the Safari browser on my iPad, there were no problems with PDF downloads, I could scroll down to the end of each PDF file. Also when opening the PDFs on the desktop computer, everything was fine. The app’s In-App-Browser caused the problem. Opening the PDF download outside the app in the Safari browser would have been a good workaround – even though that means readers leave the app. SMARTPHONE COMBATIBILITY You can consume the sisterMAG app also on your smartphone – technically and in theory. However, the readability is not good on the phone. The text size is so small that reading becomes an annoying challenge. The layout of the tablet version is the same as in the smartphone version which of course makes the magazine production easier but the reader has to pay the price for that. A new, smartphone-friendly, layout with bigger font size for smartphones and a one-column layout for the text would have been the better solution. You can find out more information about this specific topic in this video : SisterMAG a very beautiful magazine and fun to read – even though not on your smartphone. But I think, many other special interest magazines can really take a leaf out of sisterMAG’s book. #app #typography #font

Since I started my business HCG corporate designs back in 2010 and got self-employed as a designer, I had the possibility to speak with a huge number of clients, potential clients, business partners, advertising agencies and other entrepreneurs. There is something that I’ve come across quite frequently: Too many companies are unhappy with their advertising agencies. This finding made me dig deeper in the course of trustful talks with colleagues and clients of advertising agencies alike in order to find out more about this phenomenon. It made me write this blog article. 5 FACTS FROM EVERYDAY BUSINESS THAT SPEAK FOR A DESIGNER AND AGAINST AN ADVERTISING AGENCY: # 1 STAFF CHANGE The website of one of Tyrol’s most renowned companies was supposed to be redone in terms of functionality and design. There was a set budget as well as a set timeframe that the advertising agency (also one of the most renowned ones in Tyrol) had to stick to. Several staff changes in the advertising agency’s IT department led to the website project having to be started from scratch three (!) times. Obviously, there was no documentation of the website concept, or the skills of the changing IT people in the advertising agency varied so much, so that no new web designer could continue the work of the previous web designers. This resulted in a costy overdraft of the budget and a delay of the website going live of over 1.5 years. As if that was not bad enough, the client was unsatisfied with the advertising agency’s delivery, but they didn’t want to cancel the project as it was already "so far" and so much money and time had already been invested. IT experts and creatives now smile at the website and sometimes use it as a "negative example" of how certain functionalities and designs aspects should NOT be executed. Staff change cannot happen with a designer (single entrepreneur) of course. The designer is in the topic from start to finish and knows about every single detail. There can still be time or budget overdrafts, though. However, a professional designer communicates this early enough. The client having to suffer under several staff changes and having to pay the price for that (literally), is a risk you don’t have when working with a designer. # 2 QUALITY VS. QUANTITY Typical advertising agencies offer a variety of services: classic print advertising, copywriting, PR and press related work, strategic marketing consulting in terms of positioning, competition conception and execution, surveys, Facebook marketing, Google AdWords, search engine optimisation, web design, web shop design, programming of apps, corporate designs (logos etc.), point of sale design, offline marketing campaigns, radio spots, TV spots etc. The list is long. Designers have a much smaller variety of services. One person alone can never cover as many things as an advertising agency. This is of course a disadvantage for the client. The advantage, on the other hand, is clear and proves itself in everyday business life: Designers are more specialised and thus offer higher quality in their fields than ordinary advertising agencies. # 3 DEPENDENCY Business partners sometimes tell me that they are "dependent" on their advertising agencies, making them feel uncomfortable and they are not fully satisfied with the quality of the work they get delivered. "We go with it just because we have to, we are dependent on them." I can only shake my head here. Dependency is always bad. I provide my clients with raw files upon request (and for paying a higher fee in certain cases). When creating corporate design concepts for example, I always deliver the vector files of the logos too. This way I make sure that my clients are not dependent on me at any time and have the possibility to (whenever they wish) work with other graphic designers (= my competition). Almost all of my clients come back to me when they need something because they were really happy with me. When you do a great job, you don’t need to be afraid of your competitors – I can without a doubt say that after 8 years of being self-employed. I don’t agree with making my clients dependent on me. Transparency and fairness are core values that I live by every day – and my clients appreciate that. # 4 MOTIVATION Self-employed designers being more self-motivated in their work than employed designers, is obvious. Unfortunately, many advertising agencies tend to not pay good enough salaries to designers. This has an influence on motivation at work, what you ultimately see in the design output’s quality. # 5 COSTS Advertising agencies need of course bigger offices than designers who work in small (or even shared) offices. In addition to that, advertising agencies need a price overhead that serves as a financial buffer in times of bad business in order to pay the high fixed cost (salaries, high taxes and insurance fees on salaries etc.). This is not the case with self-employed designers (sole traders). Here you see an example from real life – the transparent calculation of my hourly rate (based on numbers from my own bookkeeping 2017): By the way: You can buy hour contingents for my design services in my online shop and save up to 550.- Euros. (Currently the shop is only available in German language, but you can still make a purchase.) Not all advertising agencies are the same, neither are all designers. This blog article is not intended to categorize all advertising agencies and all designers. But it is intended to show potential for improvements and to sensitise, in the sense of clients, advertising agencies and designers alike. Also, there is a tremendous quality difference between advertising agencies with employees and "one man / one woman advertising agencies" that work with a network of freelancers on a project basis. The latter I would definitely recommend to clients. #advertisement #freelance #agency

Gifographics are gif-animated infographics, have quite a small file size and perfectly suited for sharing on social media or your own website. They are perfect for your content marketing in the world wide web. Over the course of the previous weeks, I have been creating some gifographics on different topics. Enjoy looking through them! (PS: I would be happy to create a gifographic for you too - simply drop me a message !) #infographic #gifographic

Often, a website either looks fantastic or it has complex technical features built in (i.e. a connected database). Just think of typical public transport websites or online shops like Amazon or ebay. Sometimes, it’s not too difficult to see if a website was done by a designer or a programmer. But it does not have to be like that. WYSIWYG systems ("what you see is what you get") like Squarespace, Jimdo or WIX are based on the HTML5 technology and usually provide a lot of design freedom but do not allow you to access the code for including complex technical functions. However, with some creative „out of the box“ thinking and a few workarounds you can come up with much more than what is usual. An example is the PDF download counter on https://www.blickpunkt-lkw-bus.com/heftarchiv which was implemented with a programmer I trust in summer 2017. In late 2017, WIX introduced WIX Code . The claim "Creation Without Limits - Sophisticated technology. Advanced web applications." made me curious and put expectations high. Before offering additional services to my clients, I of course have to test and approve them for myself. First of all, it was very important for me to know if all fonts that are used in the course of a corporate design and uploaded in the WIX backend, would work seamlessly and displayed correctly in elements created with WIX Code (this is not necessarily the case with other WIX apps). As a corporate designer, a consistent design language across all channels is crucial - fonts are part of that. I tested WIX Code with data bases I created myself, tables, user input forms and tooltip functions and was delighted to find out that fonts I had uploaded into the WIX backend before worked perfectly fine in all elements created with WIX Code. Hurray :-) The second crucial point was WIX’s or WIX Code’s compliance with the new EU data protection GDPR coming into effect on 25 May 2018 in EU countries. Please see WIX’s statement below: Good to know. MY CONCLUSION: After three days of intensive testing, I can say that WIX Code really is a well-executed symbiosis of a classic WYSIWYG modular website system with access to the code to a certain extent - I could not find full website code access - in order to get the maximum out of your website. For a well-executed maximum of design and technology. For quite complex things you still need a programmer or coder if you don’t know how to code. But getting a coder involved in a WIX website project used to be pointless before WIX Code as he would not have had any access to the code, his hands used to be bound. Thanks to WIX Code this has changed. Design and technology don’t compete with each other any more, but support and complement each other for a maximum user experience. Thank you, WIX, you did really well here. Hats off! If you need a new website or a website update, simply drop me a message . #wix #webdesign

After a year of creative work, I pampered myself for 10 days in January in order to recharge my creative batteries. I went to Thailand and discovered a great source of inspiration: a white temple. The Thais call it "What Rong Khun"; Wat is Thai for "temple". The renowned artist Chalermchai Kositpipat built this outstanding temple in the province of Chiang Rai aiming at bringing more tourists to the north of the country. Successfully! Even though an earthquake in spring 2014 left its mark (the snapped off temple roof’s top reminds you of it), many parts of the site could be repaired. For somebody with a creative job like me, this white temple is an incredible source of inspiration. I could discover something new around every corner: the creatures from hell to the left and right of the entrance bridge, silver mirror elements reflecting the sunlight making the temple "glisten", tropical fish ponds, pop culture wall paintings inside the building (which I was not allowed to take photos of, unfortunately) etc. And not to forget: The gold-coloured toilet house! Copyright photos: Ashley Wiggins, Helene Clara Gamper #thailand #temple #inspiration #holiday