Fan To Pro - The Blog of Professional Geekery

Know Your Rights

With the exception of my last installment of “Beyond the Loading Screen,” this is my last post for 2011.  If there's one big thing I learned this year, it's this: Know your rights.  Know your rights and defend them.

When you get a job, especially if you’re a young person working at entry level, your employers may try to take advantage of you.  Don’t let them.  Do a web search of what workers in your country/state/province are entitled to - the government’s official site should be the first hit on most search engines - and read.  There are rules set up to protect you.  Learn them. 

This applies to anyone at any job, but it is especially important for geeks.  There’s this sense that since you’re working towards your dream job that you’re asking too much for your rights to be upheld too.  We get the idea that there are sacrifices that must be made.

Tales from the Ashcan: Proof Identity Design is Important

Merry Christmas!  Right now, you're probably drinking egg nog, cozying around the TV station playing the picture of the fireplace and beating that cousin you don't like and haven't seen in a while at Call of Duty, so you can ignore this.  For the rest of you who aren't, however (read: me), I've got a new Tales from the Ashcan for you.  This month, we're talking about identity design.

As a graphic designer and typographer, one thing that I've really noticed since my great wide entry into the world of comic publishing is exactly how horrifically bad some of the identity design (aka logos) some people have.  Seriously.  Granted, horrific logo design is something you see on a regular basis - it's everywhere.  But I've noticed that it's exceptionally bad in the realm of comic logos.  Without pointing fingers (because that's bad), I can find you within ten minutes some of the most afterthought (if even that much) series logos out there.  Likewise, aside from our own, I can point out what I think are some of the most incredible ones.  While the former are afterthoughts, the latter have clearly been thought out in terms with the scheme of the story, or are intentionally aping a particular style.  The difference between a monstrosity (you can find one within five minutes by looking at any webcomics aggregator) and something as beautiful as the logos for Woody After Hours or Powernap or Delve into Fantasy are immense.

But as a professional, it's even more important to have the proper identity for your business, regardless of whether or not your business is a comic artist, bookseller, travel agenty or coffee shop.  Why?  Well, it can really hit you hard, and I'll give two examples; the first one now, the second after the jump.

Take, for example, a conversation I had one day with an individual who handed me his business card. It was a simple affair, with black and blue ink and looked very sleek and stylish for a technology company. There was just one problem: the gentleman was in the food services industry, something that the average person would not have known by looking at the card. While his logo and branding needed work, the colors and fonts chosen did even more to confuse potential customers, thus making a simple food producer look like a great tech company (which was not even close to his intent.)  I ended up doing a much warmer and more accessible logo for their business, and their business is doing swimmingly.

But I had another customer who had an even bigger issue, and his I'd like to share with you.

Promoting Professional Geekery #17: Evangelize To A Professional Association

If you've read this blog for any length of time, or any of my books, you know I'm big on people joining professional associations.  They're great for networking, for keeping your skills up, and more.  They're de rigeur for any professional.

So I'm going to assume that you're joining one, have joined one, or are so seized with guilt after the above paragraph you're going to join one.

Now, when you are/if you are part of a professional association, you want to make sure they know about things from the geeky side of things.  They might not always know about the people who have a passion for the same subjects they do - but are coming at it from the fan/geek/otaku side.

Promoting Professional Geekery #5: Join A Professional Association

Want to promote professional geekiness, shameless fan-to-pro enthusiasm?  Why not hook up with people that are kind of doing that very thing?

Go join a Professional Association.  We put together a huge list for you awhile ago.

Launch or Be Lunch, Day 1 - AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!!: Last Minute Doublechecking

Give me just a second.  I need to get something off my chest.

Launch or Be Lunch, Day 3 - Oh My Stars and Garters: Networking

Okay, for those of you who are currently dodging hurricanes (and for those of you who aren't), you might want to spend a little time pressing the flesh.  That's right - it's time to network.

Launch or Be Lunch, Day 4 - OMGWTFBBQ!: Identity Design

Okay, show of hands!  Who hasn't started working on their webcomic/videogame/book/whatever yet?

Okay, those of you with your hands up, keep them up.  Okay, out of all of you, who already has their logo and stuff ready to go?

Okay, everyone whose hands have dropped, we'll meet you on the other side of the jump.  For the ones who haven't....

....what are you thinking?

Launch or Be Lunch, Day 11 - Lrn 2 Advermatize and Market (At Least Better than HP. Ouch, Lawsuit in 3...2...1....)

Aside from merchandising, one thing that you may want to look into is A&M (that's Advertising and Marketing, for those who didn't stay awake during Business Ed.)  If you want your endeavor to be successful, you have to get the word out there; it's rare when they come looking for you from the very start.  So you have to make the effort.

I'll get this right out of the way: advertising and marketing sucks.  It's a specialized skill, and not many have the knack to do it.  There are a very few who are a natural when it comes to it and they usually find new and unique ways of approaching it (my favorite is Scott Stratten's UnMarketing methodology).  Chances are, you're like me and abhor it.  Well, it sucks but it has to be done, and with that in mind, let's get cracking.

(Oh, and forewarning: due to the examples of just sheer wrongness people do, this post is slightly NSFW.  No naughty bits, just lots of language.)

Launch or Be Lunch, Day 12 - Consistency, What's That?

So.  I'm supposed to say something witty and charming about today's topic.

Hrm.

You know, I'm just making this stuff up on the fly, right?  None of you actually have to bother reading it.  To paraphrase from my Navy days, "It's all just bulls--t and Ouija boards anyway."

So, you can just skip this entry.  I'll see you all tomorrow, 'kay?  Might have something by then.

Launch or Be Lunch, Day 14 - Research, Research, Research!

Ever read something that felt like it was cribbed from the Onion?  No, seriously.  I had the "pleasure" (if you can call it that) of reading a cheap 99-cent Kindle book that was theoretically a sci-fi book.  And I mean "theoretical" in the same way I mean that D&D LARPs are authentic period depictions.  The book was about a crack team of scientists trying to save the Earth from overheating, similar to the film The Core.  The difference was, it regarding the sun.  And the author had all these great ways about how the Earth was in danger...yet couldn't quite tie it to the sun.  At one point, he even tied it to "iceberg shifting" though I don't think that was intentional.

About halfway through reading it, this Onion article seemed more plausible than the author's plot.

Clearly, he didn't do his research.