by barry edwards, edwards communications

Well, that headline apparently will put everyone to sleep. Why isn’t everyone broadcasting on every blog, Facebook page and phone line to PUT AN END TO LOBBYISTS AND CAMPAIGN FUNDING? This legalized bribery is exactly why us common folk are absolutely screwed today. No one in Washington will address this until there’s complete non-tolerance for it across this country – because they’re getting their pockets lined by them. PLEASE educate people.

Bowser 2/14/97 – 2/22/11

I was asked by Marilyn’s Voice, a dog shelter that I’ve done some pro bono work for, to write a short something about my late, beloved dog, Bowser. I wrote the following:

I got Bowser from the Cleveland APL when he was about 6 weeks old. He was a wolfish mix; his litter found in an abandoned building downtown. I spent the next 8 years trying to domesticate him – to make him heel when we walked, to not hunt squirrels and cats and other such things that undomesticated animals instinctually do. I read books on this and tried to teach him so much. He seemed to understand nearly everything I said, but did his own thing his own way regardless.

Around his eighth birthday, I had the sudden realization that we were on the back end of his life and that I was going to accept him just as he was – I wasn’t going to try to train him anymore and I would enjoy each remaining day that I had with him. That day was the beginning of the most beautiful relationship that I can imagine. We both began to transform. I always had unconditional love from him, but he didn’t from me until that day.

Bowser taught me far more than I ever taught him.

He went peacefully in his sleep Tuesday, February 22, 2011. I’ll always love and miss him.

A few people have inquired – and I certainly should be polite enough to follow up with those who have been kind enough to give me feedback – so the final, approved logo for Aircraft is a variation of #3. I was preferring #1 myself, but they really wanted a version of #3 and after a bit of reworking, I have to say, I’m completely happy with it! Now its onto redesigning their website.

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So we’re a few days into the whole time change scam and, as I do every year, I feel like going to bed at 6 pm. I don’t get it. Never did get it and never will. I’ve asked people for years why the government insists on doing this. I’ve googled the ridiculous subject, and clearly no one has a real answer for it.

Supposedly Ben Franklin introduced the idea to make better use the extra hour of daylight in the summer – moving it from morning to evening. I’m very cool with that. Leave the time there. Why move it back?

I’ve heard the argument, “Because we don’t want our kids to walk to school in the dark”. Well, I don’t know about you, but I still walked to school in the dark with the silly time change.

We’ve all heard, “Its for the farmers, so they get more use of daylight”. Seriously? Did we really add any daylight anywhere? There’s the same amount of daylight in the winter and summer regardless and the farmers will get out of bed and work with that daylight regardless of what our clocks say.

And finally… energy consumption. Right. Now, thanks to the ridiculous time change, we all have to come home from work and turn on all of our lights to see what the heck we’re doing.

Look, if we just have to screw around with the clocks, than I say we do just the opposite – have the clocks spring forward an hour in the fall so we move that extra hour of daylight to the evening, then fall back in the spring to where we currently keep our summer hours. Maybe we’ll see the wintertime suicide rates across the northern half of the country plummet as a result.

I created my first web site in… I don’t know… 1997 or so. I found it hard to believe that someone like me, who started college majoring in fine art, later changing to graphic design, could actually create one.

These days I design/produce more websites than print work – which is a shame as I love doing print work so much.  Nonetheless, I’m also enjoying doing more modern web sites these days. By modern, I mean sites that are very interactive and supply a lot of functionality. DBS Communications recently asked me to re-design their web site (I designed it originally in 2005 or so). They asked for the same thing everyone is asking for these days: “We want to interact with our clients – you know, kind of like Facebook. And we want to be able to make updates as well. We also want to have much better Search Engine Optimization (SEO) than in the past).”

I’m doing all of that and much more for DBS and other clients. Installing blogs and linking them to social media sites, such as Linked In is a real time saver for them as well as increased exposure. I have the ability to add endless functionality to these sites, so its a fairly exciting time to be in this field.

Friday’s are exhausting for me. Typically, I spend the morning trying to get a few productive things done on design projects before heading out for the day. I teach a 3.5 hour Photoshop class at Lakeland Community College on friday afternoons, and usually try to squeeze in an errand or two and/or a workout before.

I love teaching – truly love it. I take pride in breaking down very complex material into digestible information that even the most intimidated can soak up. In fact, I take pride in taking the intimidation out of it – since that’s usually the biggest obstacle. But it’s very tiring. My head needs to go full speed in most classes and I’ve always found that working at several different kinds in one day (mentally switching gears) really wears me out. Not that I’m complaining…

Logo design is one of the hardest, yet most rewarding things that I do. The priorities of a great corporate logo are:

1. Legibility: The text must be able to read at a glance.

2. Simplicity while being aesthetically pleasing. This is where the hard work and refinement come in.

3. Should have a stamp-like weight to it. Meaning, it should be a substantial, stand alone piece of art that doesn’t blend into the surrounding text in communications.

The DBS Communications logo shown here has been one of my favorites over the years. It not only incorporates the above criteria, but it also has a very special quality that I like to experiment with: illusion.

Most people will not see the d, b and S in the icon the first time they look at it, but when they do finally see it…. they feel like they have some inside knowledge and intimacy with the company. I have other examples of this on my Logos portfolio page.

DBS Communications logo designed by Barry Edwards, Edwards Communications

OK, I know that this blog is supposed to be about design and marketing topics, but if our country keeps imploding, I may be creating marketing communications in Mexico.

I’m not going to stress my anti democrat and anti republican views the way that I’d like, but I don’t understand how people think that we’re going to get real change in a political environment that is truly run by LOBBYISTS. Seriously, how is this legalized bribery legal in the 21st century?

I love creating trade show display art. There’s nothing like having your artwork displayed larger than life. Some key elements to keep in mind when designing trade show art:

1. A picture speaks a thousand words. Make sure your imagery is what your specific target audience wants to see.

2. 2 Seconds To Sell: People are overwhelmed with sensory information at trade shows – don’t put too much text on your display. It’s not a brochure.

3. Don’t put too much importance on the bottom 3 feet or so – it won’t be seen by the casual passerby.