I think my love of color began with my first “big” box of Crayola crayons (the 64 count box with the sharpener in the back). I still remember the excitement of getting this box of color and the wonderful smell of the wax. This love has remained constant throughout my life; painting was my passion in college and I think it was the colors that drew me in. Today, it’s design that allows me to experiment with color—whether it’s a website in RGB or a printed piece in CYMK, the colors are key.

I’m intrigued by the emotions that colors can impart. Color can convey an unlimited range of meanings and the impact of design can be greatly altered by the simple change of color. It is not the colors themselves that have meaning; it’s our culture that provides the meaning and context. Red can mean anger or urgency in the West, while it is a symbol of prosperity in Eastern countries such as China, where red is worn at weddings and doors are often painted red.

Below is a table of meanings typically assigned to colors:

This information can easily be used to influence your audience.

• Red: used to create urgency and impulse purchases
• Green: use to relax and calm
• Blue: use to create trust, as in financial institutions and banks
• Navy Blue: implies lower cost – use when selling to the price-sensitive
• Royal Blue: implies urgency – use when selling to impulse buyers
• Pink: romantic, selling to women and girls
• Yellow: attention grabbing – used in windows and displays
• Orange: energizing – used to elicit action as in impulse buying
• Purple: wealth – use to imply exclusivity
• Black: power – luxury selling and aggressive products

McDonald’s is a perfect example of an effective use of color:

Red=Fast, Yellow=Hunger … Fast Food

Armed with this information, I sample colors from many sources: photos, websites, advertisements… anywhere really. Here are some of the techniques I use to sample colors:

Photoshop’s Eyedropper Tool

The eyedropper tool allows you to sample colors within Photoshop, but it can also be extended to anywhere on your screen. Here’s how: Select the Eyedropper tool. Click and hold down the mouse button inside an open Photoshop document. With the mouse button held down, drag the eyedropper tool outside the Photoshop document to sample color from anywhere on your screen.

Photoshop Eyedropper

Firefox Extension

I often like to grab colors from a website. The Firefox extension called ColorZilla adds a little eyedropper to the bottom left corner of your browser window. Click the eyedropper to activate and mouse around a webpage picking colors. The icon changes to represent the current color. You can then click to “lock” that color. The color values appear in the bottom of the browser window. Click the down arrow to the right of the eyedropper to present options for saving the color values.

Firefox's ColorZilla

ColorZilla Figure 2

ColorZilla Figure 3

Mac Software Utility

In the Utility folder of the Applications folder is an application called the DigitalColor Meter. Simply choose what format you want to see the colors in (hex codes and RGB values are available) and just move your mouse over your screen. You will see a zoomed in section of the area you are sampling, a color swatch, and the color values. [For Windows users there is a free tool called ColorPic.]

Mac Software Utility

In the Utility folder of the Applications folder is an application called the DigitalColor Meter. Simply choose what format you want to see the colors in (hex codes and RGB values are available) and just move your mouse over your screen. You will see a zoomed in section of the area you are sampling, a color swatch, and the color values. [For Windows users there is a free tool called ColorPic.]

Mac Software Utility

I’m sure there are many other utilities and applications out there—I’d love to hear what you’re using. Share your favorite color inspiration sources. Here are a few of mine:

Web-hosted applications for generating color themes:

Color Scheme Designer

Adobe Kuler

Creative community where people create and share colors, palettes and patterns and discuss trends:

ColourLovers

Don’t forget to look to the fashion industry as an important influence on color trends:

Pantone

Fashion TrendSetter

I’m thankful that I, alone, am not an expert at anything, that I’m forever a life traveler, finding the right path to happiness, success and worthiness. I’m especially thankful that I can define the meaning of those words. I’m grateful that as my own mapmaker, I’ve learned how others forge their paths and stay on them. But, just as importantly, I have discovered how often the path we choose has a detour, a change in course—but not always a change in direction. I’m thankful that God has blessed us with the uncertainty and vulnerability that make us human, that not every decision is a snap one, that internal debate is a given.

I’m thankful for smiles, sincerity and courage. I’m grateful for the gift of time we still have to tell those in our lives how thankful we are to include them in our lists. To everyone, a heartfelt thank you.

We’re delighted to announce the launch of the 2012 Workshop @ Macy’s website, which we first launched last year for the 2011 session.  The new site features a refreshed design, incorporation of videos, and a photo gallery featuring shots from the inaugural Workshop, compelling new content, and tighter integration with social media.

This innovative, comprehensive retail vendor development program provides up and coming minority and women-owned retail companies with the tools they need to perform and sustain growth in the competitive retail field.

The 2011 Workshop was a tremendous success, exceeding expectations on all fronts; the first lines from program graduates are expected to hit Macy’s stores in 2012.  Macy’s is accepting applications for the Spring 2012 Workshop through January 22nd, and is expecting even greater results this year.  Take a few minutes and check out the relaunched site!

An article in a 1996 article in Wired, Jobs spoke about creativity and life experiences. In essence, Steve Jobs’ life experiences helped shaped all of ours.

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.

“Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.”

So today, as our team is creating and developing as they do everyday, I pause a minute to celebrate his incredible contribution to our discipline. Today, every keystroke on our Macs, each touch on our iPads and every conversation on our iPhones will have just a little more meaning.

If you weren’t comfortable with comments to begin with, the initial response may be to delete comments–but this is a recipe for social media disaster.  It garners very negative publicity and often spreads to the broader media—a sort of “anti” case study showing what not to do. Companies caught deleting Facebook comments (often called “whitewashing”) are regarded as out of touch with their fans and as misusing or even abusing social media by trying to manipulate the conversation.  The strong negative reaction to this practice actually has the complete opposite of the desired effect, damaging the offending organization’s reputation, as shown in these examples:

• PR firm Burton-Marsteller caught in the middle of “Googlegate” became the focus of the story itself when it began deleting negative comments from its Facebook page.
• When Netflix deleted negative comments about their unpopular price hike, users reposted their complaints and began adding to their comments that apparently Netflix didn’t care about or want to hear from its customers at all, since it also lacked an e-mail address or mailing address to which to send complaints.

On the other hand, companies that keep negative comments up actually enjoy an enhanced reputation.  When criticism is legitimate and the company responds respectfully, it increases credibility and positive reputation.  These companies are perceived as being open to discussion and as engaging with their fans; they “get” social media and understand they’re part of a conversation, and this creates trust—a holy grail of marketing.

If you’re still uncomfortable with comments, you can consider a closed Facebook Group instead of a fan page.  This is a viable option for some, but it’s important to consider your objectives and the focus of your Facebook presence, and we don’t recommend it for the vast majority of businesses.  Groups are best suited for a cause or affinity, where there’s an ongoing need for information and communication.  If your objective is awareness rather than ongoing engagement, a group is probably not the right tactic.

If you choose to have a closed group (one where users must ask to be added), you’re making it harder to connect: the more hurdles you put in front of a user, the less likely they are to complete an action.  Even once a member is approved for a group, you don’t have any better control over what they chose to post than you do on a fan page—they’re still going to say what they like, and it will still be visible. It’s not providing greater control over comments–just reducing reach by making it more difficult to find and connect.

There are a few other challenges with groups—they don’t support apps, and for many companies an app is a key part of their Facebook engagement.  Groups also lack the tracking and engagement statistics available for fan pages, and they’re less visible to search engines.

Facebook is just one element of a social mediasphere that changes every day—not just the technology, which advances at a blinding rate—but the rules, etiquette, and ways communities engage and interact.  Knowing what approach fits your needs and what not to do is half the battle.  Do you have a strategy for how you manage your Facebook page and other social media platforms?

There’s something inherently exciting about attending a Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) Conference with over 3,000 women-owned business leaders, more than 300 exhibitors, and dozens of workshops. And it didn’t hurt that the conference just happened to be in Las Vegas. I was ready to go!

Like all businesses, Sanger & Eby is continually looking for new opportunities to grow and develop. The company has long been a certified WBE, but we rarely, if ever, use that as our calling card. But when a major client told us about this highly-regarded conference, we decided to check it out.

Viva Las Vegas!

Enter the world of glitz and glamour, desert air and slot machines. I had never been to the “Entertainment Capital” before, so I caught myself several times feeling like a small child in a huge toy store. But I slapped myself back to reality and got back to business.

At the conference we were greeted by an enthusiastic group of women and men who loved their businesses, were interested in yours, and were all looking for ways to grow their companies.  We were in good company.

Through seminars and meetings, we gathered new ideas and success stories on risk management, strategic alliances, purchasing trends, and marketing. We were inspired by various speakers, including World Series of Poker winner Annie Duke, Zappo’s CEO Tony Hsieh, and News Correspondent Soledad O’Brien. And throughout the conference we felt the sense of commitment that major corporations have about using WBEs.

In the world of sales, networking has become an essential ingredient of the process. Picking up the phone and cold calling to find the right person at any major corporation who might be interested in hearing your spiel enters you into a maze in which you might constantly hit dead ends. Here, we could sit next to someone, walk up to them at a booth, or meet them in a buffet line and strike up a conversation. It was worth the trip.

The end result is that I have become a WBENC devotee, ready to carry the banner for the cause. But more importantly, I have a greater appreciation for all small business owners working energetically, enthusiastically and passionately to grow their businesses. I am in good company indeed.

Well, pay about $78 for a B share of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, travel (in my case) many miles to Omaha, Nebraska, wait in more long lines than you can imagine, and get up at 5 AM for admission to the Berkshire Annual Meeting (yes. 5 AM), and this opportunity could be yours.   This was something I’ve always wanted to do, and this year I did.

Coming into Omaha, you’ll see hundreds of private jets and limos; for those who come without their own high-end transportation, however, Berkshire provides a free shuttle to all activities from everywhere (even the Budget Inn).   The Berkshire Annual Meeting is a huge event, beginning with a Friday evening cocktail party at Borsheim’s Jewelry (another Berkshire’s company).   In addition to the opportunity to buy items at a generous shareholders’ discount, you may find yourself standing in a long line next to the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company, or a childhood friend of Warren’s (Buffett still calls Omaha home). This odd combination of Buffett junkies, Wall Street Executives, local farmers, and everything in between makes for a unique energy.

The annual meeting begins at 8:30 AM, but if you want an audience with Mr. Buffett (that is, to see him in person along with 18,499 other people), then you’d better be in line at 5AM.  When the doors opened at 7AM sharp, the main arena was completely filled in less than 6 minutes.  The next 40,000 people watch on-screen from other rooms in the Quest Center.

The meeting opens with an exclusive hour-long shareholder video, and then the real show begins:  Warren Buffett answers questions from 9:30 AM to 3:30 PM.  This session is the main event—you can ask virtually any question and he’ll answer it, adding on anything else he wants to talk about as he munches on See’s Candy (a company he’s extremely proud of).  Buffett is pretty direct with his answers, shortcomings and successes, and the range of questions and comments is amazing.  A woman who lives down the street from Buffett took him to task for taking too long to respond to an internal scandal (and she was applauded by many in the audience).  A Boston stockbroker was shaking with awe when asking a question of the Great One, and another woman raved about her successes with energy stock. Buffett told her she had done a better job than he had with energy, so he just talked about his thoughts on the economy for 20 minutes.   After the Q&A, there’s a very short annual meeting, and then it’s off to the next event.

Why did I feel compelled to go to Omaha? I have owned Berkshire since 1998, love listening to Warren Buffett and admire his business. I would see the annual meeting weekend on TV, and it just fascinated me. Buffett plays the banjo and puts on a bridge tournament, Wall Street veterans are on their best behavior, and his neighbors ask him very difficult questions about “their” investment.  The quirkiness of the whole thing intrigued me, and I wanted to experience it.  To anyone who asked, I answered “Neither Warren nor I am getting any younger; if I’m going to do it, now’s the time.”

But it was more than that. I don’t like the term “Bucket List;” it bores me. It sounds like checking a box instead of experiencing something wonderful and owning that experience. For me, this was a quest. I didn’t meet Warren Buffett in person but I did get a great seat in the main arena (thanks to my boot camp workouts).   I saw and heard some really interesting things—most of them not from Warren Buffett. I laughed a lot and shook my head a lot. I probably won’t go again, but I’m very glad I went this year.

I didn’t used to do this kind of thing, but last November I saw the final table of the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas and got a chance to tour behind the scenes. It happened by accident; I didn’t plan it but it woke up something inside me, and now I am bursting with things I want to experience.  What’s next? Maybe going to the NFL draft in New York and cheering on my Bengals’ pick (hope springs eternal) and booing the Steelers (no explanation needed).  Maybe going to the Kentucky Derby but only if I can somehow get real seats. Maybe going to the Indianapolis 500 (with earplugs of course).  I want to sit in the Grandstand at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.  I want to see a Super Bowl in person. I want to walk the Appalachian Trail.

OK, those are my ideas.  What do you want to do, and how are you going to make sure it happens?  Or do you just let life happen?   What would you call your list besides the “bucket list?”

The Washington Post conducted a similar experiment in Washington, D.C. They asked Joshua Bell, one of the finest violinists in the world, to stand in a commuter train station during morning rush hour and play.  People travel hundreds of miles and pay hundreds of dollars to hear him, and yet when he stood there playing in public, virtually no one stopped to listen.  Yes, really—check it out for yourself!

So why did the two experiments have such different results?  I think the biggest difference is that the piano staircase didn’t require the participants to stop and watch or listen to something–they were able to do it in the normal course of what they were doing anyway, whereas they had to stop to listen to Joshua Bell. (Personally, I would stop in the path of an oncoming train to hear Joshua Bell, but…that’s just me.)

The point is that making an experience easy for a user isn’t enough. It needs to be engaging, but that engagement can’t slow them down in the completion of a task—so please, don’t interrupt me when I’m ordering shoes online (from macys.com of course) to ask me to take a poll, or play a game, or whatever.  You can do those things, and you probably should—but like everything else, they have their time and place.  One more reason why user experience planning is so important.

One thing that intrigues me is how useful I’ve found my iPad. As much as I (or maybe I mean my kids) enjoy Angry Birds, I’m getting real work done with my iPad the majority of the time I’m using it.  I drafted this blog post with PlainText (free ad-supported version; $4.99 to remove ads). It’s a simple, stripped-down text editor built to interface with your Dropbox online file storage account. Drafting my post with PlainText means I can write in the iPad, and the work is being automatically saved to my Dropbox, making it available to me wherever I have Internet access – my desktop at home, the office, or my iPhone, or wherever I had some time to write and review and edit.

Here's a screen shot from PlainText, which I used to draft this blog post.

For a quicker and slightly more traditional method of capturing ideas and jotting down notes, Penultimate ($1.99) for the iPad is my go-to. This note-taking app that presents a paper notebook look and feel for writing with your finger or stylus (stylus all the way, for me). Other than letting you erase, it’s exactly like using a pen on paper. I’ve tried other notes apps that add a lot more functionality like copy/paste and vector shape editing, but I’ve come back to Penultimate every time for its directness and “realness.” You might ask “what’s wrong with using a real notebook?” I resisted this urge at first because I’ve always kept notebooks and sketchbooks, but it’s just too easy with the iPad. It’s almost always with me, I can convert the pages I write and doodle on to images or PDFs that I can send to colleagues, and if I’ve taken 23 pages of notes in a two hour meeting, I can email it to myself as a digital backup.

My go-to app for taking notes on the iPad. Plus, I like the name.

But enough about writing, I’m a designer, not an author! I’ll be the first to admit that sketching out ideas on the iPad isn’t always the most intuitive thing to do. There are plenty of times that I grab the pencil and sketchbook and that’s that. But I have found that working out visual ideas on the screen, especially with Adobe Ideas (free; $.99 to add layer functionality), can add a new dimension to my design process that bridges the gap between paper and screen. With the stylus, I can sketch out a page layout, web interface or logo with a similar amount of informality to a sketchbook, but I can work with qualities like transparent layers and photos and varying colors and line widths. It can all come together so quickly, and it adds a new dimension to how I think through a visual solution. I find myself considering things like the most efficient production of a Photoshop mockup of a web page during the sketching phase by interacting with elements that can move and change with a tap. This isn’t always the right approach for me, but sometimes it’s a tremendously powerful way to work through an idea and end up with a direct path to the refined design the client sees.

I use this for working out digital ideas on-screen.

A traditional source for starting an idea and, often, helping to finish it, is stock photography and illustration. Getty Images’ excellent iPad app (free) provides a well-organized interface to search their vast collection. Saving an image comp to begin sketching with in layers in Adobe Ideas has been a great idea-starter for me, just as it can be on the desktop with all the “big” software. Sometimes the immediacy and simplicity of working with these elements with a touch and a stylus makes all the difference in how I approach a new idea. It might just be as simple as the fact that it’s merely different – it’s not a pencil or a mouse or a big monitor – but I’ll take all the options I can get to keep finding fresh, creative solutions.

Stock Photography Search Tool from Getty Images

Two months ago, my list of favorite/most-used apps would have looked a little different. Two months from now, it may be a whole new list. But to me, that’s what’s great about these things. I can make this device useful for just about whatever it is I need to accomplish with all the “digital stuff.” At home, I use the iPad and iPhone to control a Mac Mini connected to the tv for music and movies, my kids grab the iPad as soon as I get home to play games, and it’s essentially an infinite clearing house for ideas that help me do my job. Once you start finding the apps that help you do the things you enjoy doing, and it’s so easy to have that outlet within reach, it’s tough to ignore.

There’re plenty more apps that I enjoy besides what’s listed, and I know everybody has their own favorites for their own situations. I’d love to hear what’s keeping everyone else occupied/productive/distracted on their own devices, so let us know in the comments!

Of course, not all interns can call their experiences beneficial.  Horror stories do exist of interns honing their skills in coffee retrieval, making hundreds of copies and restocking the communal fridge on a daily basis.  Luckily, as a marketing intern at Sanger & Eby, I’ve had all positive and useful experiences.

This made me think about what makes a great internship.  The answer is complex but not complicated and consists of several factors.

First, an internship should expose an intern to real experiences.   As a Sanger & Eby intern for the past year, I’ve sat in on important client meetings, written and edited articles for major clients, met strict deadlines, and conducted real research for projects.   My list doesn’t end there, I’ve assisted in project management, scheduling, writing press releases, and researching and writing daily content for various social media campaigns.

Secondly, a great supervisor is imperative.  I consider a superior supervisor as one that will assign real projects, have faith in your work, and be of guidance when asked.  My supervisor Kat has done a phenomenal job at guiding me through projects, giving me real assignments and trusting my work.  If I mess up on an assignment, she gives me positive critiques on how to improve.

Thirdly, company culture makes a world of difference.  A negatively charged or unstable office environment can put a damper on moods and take the focus off of work.  At Sanger & Eby, the office is full of characters that play off of each other’s energy.   Also, the owners, Donna and Lisa, treat their employees like family.  Each person is valued and the office is a tight-knit group.

When these factors come together, it makes a great internship that helps a student get ready for the “real world” we’ve heard about all our lives.  I’ve been treated more like an employee than an intern.  I can happily and sincerely say I’ve very much benefited from my internship, and know the next intern at Sanger & Eby will have a great experience as well!