In light of my design studio’s new branding initiative, and based on some positive feedback about the lettering, I decided to expand the logo into a whole typeface. The font, which contains 256 glyphs and ligatures, is called era404 Regular and can be downloaded from MyFonts.com (along with my previous font, [d]online). Please only use it for personal use. Contact me (or post a comment) if you’re interested in commercial licensing of either typeface. And as always, I’d love your feedback.
This January marks the quinquennial anniversary of [d]online. That means that for the past five years, I’ve been boring you with news, product reviews, sketches, design critiques, photologs, prose, poetry and whatever mental drivel I could conjure at 2am when I should be sleeping.
It’s a milestone year for me. My studio turned 10 (and the recipient of a shiny new identity), I’ve lived in NYC for over a decade and looking back at the early posts of [d]online certainly illustrates how much I’ve changed in the past five years. Thanks to my subscribers and commenters for keeping this blog relevant and for sharing your viewpoints by email and in person. I’d love to hear what you’d like to see in the next five years of the site. Also, five years is the “Wood Anniversary,” so send me something wooden.
You may’ve noticed a new logo up there in the right corner of [d]online. To celebrate 10 years since I created my studio, era404 Creative Group, and because my stationery was finally running out, we felt it was time to update our brand.
Over the last decade, era404 has truly transformed from a design and development shop to one that provides comprehensive, strategic campaigns. Our best projects—the most rewarding and enjoyable ones—have spawned from relationships with clients that have fully embraced our nature as an ideas company. This is to say that when clients approach us with ideas, they hire us for more than just implementation. Rather, we’ve been privileged to be involved from Day One concepting through the complete process of strategy, design, development and continued maintenance of their campaigns. With these projects, we’ve had the pleasure of not only participating in the growth of their ideas and bringing them to life, but helping shape them with our knowledge and experience in the industry. Read more
A few days ago, an ad came on Hulu where Tom’s of Maine talked about their company’s philosophy. I’ve always loved this company, find their products to be top notch, and admired their philosophy. Though I’ve become increasingly irritated with companies lately making open promises about becoming green, caring about the environment and helping communities. Read more
I’ve ranted verbosely in the past about the customer service industry going down the tubes (Adventures in Small Business Banking, One Voice, A Representative Will Be With You Shortly, Network Solutions is Utter Garbage, and recently, Guaranteed Value vs. Value Assessments) where much was stemming from experiences with online orders, so the following short tirade will certainly not seem out of character.
In an industry where 90% of the transaction is automated and inexpensive, unlike that of real estate, used car sales or even graphic design, it would seem pretty obvious that the best way to retain ecommerce customers is through a gratifying and easy online experience. If I collected money from a client under the agreement that I would deliver a design work on-time, I could assume the client would be dissatisfied when I followed up with a form letter informing them of upcoming truancy.
Their anger might even be compounded if the letter was cold, impersonal and offered no explanation for the reason of this delay—other than the fact that the issue was on my end and I’m working on it. To further add insult to the client, I might also include that I couldn’t tell them how long the delay was, except that it could be as short as 12 hours. Not communicating the reason for an issue, but sending a templated response informing the client of the second best possible scenario (other than the product being delivered on-time) is an empty method to pacify the disgruntled. I certainly understand that not all industries can quantify this equally, so providing graphic design services and mailing a widget from a colossal warehouse do not perfectly correlate. However I do think that expectations correlate, customers—particularly in a competitive market—correlate, and the services-for-cash system correlates.
