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I’ve written before about how marketing isn’t hard. But I’ll admit, this is a bit of an over simplification. But what I mean is, the act of marketing is simple. It’s simply the pragmatic implementation of a defined strategy. But that’s the tricky part, developing the strategy - and yes, strategy is hard.

You will see tons of advice on what type of clients to avoid and if you are in this business you will probably say Amen at the end of hearing the advice. But is that reality?

Look at your marketing right now. Does your website or ad or brochure use wretched phrases like top quality, unique, or best-in-class? Do you spew about your stellar customer service or your customer driven focus? Or is it littered with inane marketing gibberish like innovative cutting-edge market leading processes?

I doubt anyone would argue that hand lettering is an art all on its own. Recently there seems to be a resurgence of hand lettering art. Old hand painted signs are now considered art pieces instead of advertising. Why? Because they are simply unique and beautiful and with age the patina only enhances their appeal.

We work with a lot of small to medium sized businesses. You know, family businesses that may be first, second, or third generation companies. Some have a few employees, some of dozens or hundreds. But oddly, even though they span different industries lots of them have one thing in common... they lack a written marketing plan.

Last night for the season premier of Mad Men, which my wife and I eagerly awaited, we wanted to celebrate by enjoying a cocktail while watching. So we put our daughter to bed and scurried downstairs. And then it happened.

Fonts have always been important to a design, but that’s not what this is about. In the past the idea was a foundry would create a font and like any other thing you would license that font for use. In today’s world its not just the major foundries which are creating beautiful fonts for use in our design pieces. Individual artists have created a world of fonts that is rich and plentiful. Here are my favorite places to get fonts and why.

It wasn’t that long ago that video capture and editing was the purview of a select group. The camera equipment was expensive and bulky while editing took special software (and sometimes equipment) and lots and lots of training. And of course you also had to bring talent to the video party too.