Linc is a genius. I came up with a rough idea for this year’s holiday card about a month ago. This year, a number of clients had been telling me that, which our creativity and skills generally outshine competition, our customer service is unrivaled. They love our committment to customer satisfaction. So I thought, why not show our clients and friends what it would be like if customer service in the North Pole wasn’t that hot (so to speak).

The idea was to create a fictional company called “PolarExpress Shipping” (or PolEx). Sorta a Chris Van Allsburg - FedEx rip-off…If you just groaned, then I did my job well. The customer service elf, Winky, is supposed to help you find your lost package or gift or whatever. Instead, you just get frustrated asking him questions when he has absolutely no desire to help you.

I’ve personally been in this position with a number of companies lately (Sprint, Home Depot, Best Buy, Verizon, T-Mobile, HIP Prime, A Security Depot, etc.) and thought people might like the idea that we’re recognizing that customer service has gone down the tubes. A neat tie-in to this idea is that era//404 offers a number of applications geared toward improving end-user customer service (Lyrek, Timebank, MediaPASS, era//404 CMS, etc.), yes, that’s a shameless plug.

Anyway, Linc illustrated our card last year (which was listed in Communication Arts/Design Interact’s 2nd Annual, Unofficial Holiday Card Contest) and he volunteered to do it this year as well. I love the guy. He has a way of drawing and thinking that’s so perfect, I feel somewhat upset that I know I’ll never ever be as good as him. I take comfort in the fact that all my friends that illustrate, draw or doodle, certainly won’t either.

era//404 2006 Holiday Card
Interact with a customer service elf
Meet Winky

I just got back from Florida for Thanksgiving and I’d have to say that I’m not happy. It’s 31º outside right now. Twelve hours ago, I was in a jucuzzi sipping a Heineken with Iggie and now I’ve got my (electric = costly) heat running at full blast and my poor cat is burying himself under the covers of my bed (which is a good thing because otherwise, he’d be mangling my Christmas Tree).

While I was in Florida on holiday, or Floriday as I like to call it (don’t bother looking it up, it doesn’t exist), I got the opportunity to spend sometime with Sari’s family. I traditionally say that “Friends are God’s way of making up for Family,” but this wasn’t the case with the Altschuler clan. They’re actually so very inviting and friendly, it scares me to think that Sari will have to someday deal with my family in New York (especially if she’s used to that type of warmth)…both literally and figuratively.

On the flip-side of things, I also got to see Grandmere and Grandpere and spend some QT with my Mom’s side of the family, whom I absolutely adore.

Either way, things have been going extremely well, lately, on both the personal side of things and with my business. I just sent a 40-page designer booklet to bed for The Australian Trade Commission, as they’re having their first annual Australian Designers Collections here in New York. The event features 16 designers from down-under, parading the hottest new trends from the exact opposite side of the globe as me. And while it was frustrating to work with people who don’t understand the time difference (read: 2am phone calls on Sunday evening), it really got me excited to learn more about their culture and eventually tour the perimeters of their island/continent/country. You know their money is actually plastic, since they do so much swimming and water sports? That should tell you something about their culture.

We’ve got a number of other projects in the works and about a dozen agreements/proposals in the air for the first quarter of 2006. I actually am turning away more work now than I did when I begged Mike to come aboard a few years back. And the cool thing is that a lot of it is print work; which I somehow find more gratifying than web design. Either way, I certainly feel blessed.

By the way, if you haven’t yet tattoo’d the pickel barrel, you really should.