Yet again, I've uploaded the new JustinSchuck.com to the site, Version 6.3. What's appearing there now is just a holding page. I'm still working on the sub-pages and additional features, but I thought it made sense to get this out there. What had been up there since January contained no photos above the fold which is just silly and goes against my own advice. Also, once the new site is online, the blog you are reading now will be 100% integrated into the design of the main site.

I think you'll like the new design direction. I want the site to be clean, colorful, and easy to navigate. I really want to thank all my friends for the valuable free market research they've provided the last couple of weeks.

Labels: Blog, design, Identity, JSDS, Justin Schuck, Justin Schuck + Company

In 2005 I hosted a series of forums for energy providers discussing ways they could use energy conservation as part of a broader marketing campaign. The benefits of this new "greenvertising" strategy seemed obvious to me on several fronts. Energy providers, especially those in competitive energy markets, would be able to reduce consumption using a myriad of innovative power management devices like the EleSaver. Not only would they reduce the strain on the current electrical grid, but they would slow the need for increased capacity and the capital costs associated with infrastructure creation. In addition to these obvious benefits, line operator labor shrinkage would be offset by the creation of new jobs focused on installing power management devices at sub stations, industrial complexes and at an infinite number of other installations.

In my meetings with energy executives I stressed the need to appear ahead of the curve on energy policy. The market has always awarded the innovative thinkers and those who leap forward. As you might imagine, my predictions of a looming energy crisis were viewed with marked skepticism and brushed off as the rants of a young liberal. How prescient I now seem. These same executives are now frantically working to transform the image of the energy industry as one that is forward thinking and invested in responsible ways to reduce consumption.

And how are they achieving this? One word: Greenvertising. I started using this term when I was the Director of Marketing and Operations for SaveTech Ltd./Electric Energy Savings Systems. In 2005 gas prices hovered near $2.15 per gallon until hurricanes Katrina and Rita led to a surge in energy prices across the country. Oil was near $50 per barrel. Now we have seen a 200% increase in fuel costs. The bad news about our current energy crisis is that it's accelerating inflation and weakening the U.S. dollar. However, a side benefit of the changing market is that companies from every industry see value in reducing overall energy consumption and implementing green advertising campaigns.

I've just finished some ad designs for The Inn at Andrews-Green. Take a peek:




Greenvertising isn't an entirely new concept, but it is another effective way for companies to differentiate themselves from their competitors in any market. The smart thing about Andrews-Green is that their capital investments in energy infrastructure will save them thousands and potentially millions of dollars during the life of the inn. Now that's some green everyone can appreciate.

Labels: Advertising, business, Case Study, design, Gulf Coast, Hurricane Katrina, Identity, JSDS, Marketing, Maryland, washington dc

Often in design there's a tendency to go overboard, to over design, and I am guilty of this on every single design project I have ever worked from the original Foster Industries logo¹ that I designed when I was 16 to the current Justin Schuck Photography logo². The problem often lies in the drive for perfection clouded by wanting a project to be "everything," when design merely needs to be "something."

I know how easy it is to be carried away with a project. You've put together 3-4 different design directions, and once you've narrowed things down to your final choice you find yourself drunk with ideas and concentrate too heavily on unimportant details. You go over every individual pixel, but it is in this focus that you lose sight of the greater balance of a project.

When I think I have completed a design, I take a step back and ask myself what can I delete? What can I remove from the design? This is usually my saving grace and it is always my advice to other designers. The ability to self-edit in design, in production, in sculpture, in politics is the ability to understand your audience. Nothing was every made better by being made more complicated³.

Too often I see over-thought, over-wrought designs and logos. I see printed annual reports designed in PowerPoint using the same clip-art that Microsoft has included in its programs when Windows 3.1 was king. This disgusts me. Good designers know to remove elements that distract and emphasize elements that enhance the overall objective. If you're designing a report that covers dry subject matter, adding cheesy graphical elements isn't going to make the material any more interesting. In this case, smart font choices balanced with appropriate white space can create a document that is both a pleasure to read, but serves its function well.

I have seen great website designs using complex static and motion graphical elements, but the sites that get it right are the ones where the design is not overboard. (The only exception to the rule of self editing is if your product or client is over-the-top. Paris Hilton as a brand comes to mind, but I still urge caution.)

Another thing that works for me when creating brand identities is to visualize the logo on everything from a kitchen knife to a race car. When I've narrowed down my design to the final direction, I place the logo on hundreds of things I find around my house. Ovens, fans, phones, irons, printers, cars, bags, envelopes, paper, trash cans, buttons, ties, stickers, soda cans, detergent bottles... I could go on forever. This is important for one main reason: you never know what industry a company or organization may go next, or on what product they might want their logo for company-branded gifts. You'll know right away whether the design you chose will accurately represent the company. Even if you're not including more complex items appearing on the website, you'll know if the brand is reinforced.

Applying a logo across a broad range of relevant and irrelevant products also serves another purpose. By experiencing your design this way, you will be better able to argue the merits of the design in any meeting with a client because you have already thought your way down every path the company might grow in the future. And you might be surprised that the client is encouraged to think in a new way about corporate gifts. (It's the design equivalent to adding on to a sale.)

When I reach the end of a given project, I love putting design elements into a digital compost pile to be reincarnated in a future project. I'll keep elements in a complex Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign file for safe keeping. I save everything, even ideas. I recently (about 6 months ago) returned to keeping a "Musebook." I use this to chart thoughts and ideas on designs, political marketing strategies, notes on meetings, you name it. For me and my oft-scattered mind, it's important to have not only all of my ideas in one place, but to have them on good old fashioned paper. It's surge-proof.

Bottom line: remove elements to simplify your design; use clean, easy-to-read fonts with balanced whitespace; lose the gimmicks and focus on how the brand can be represented across a multitude of platforms. Follow these rules and you'll find yourself doing better work.

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¹ The original Foster Industries logo does not exist in digital form, nor does the original font (Traffic) for the "FI" so the representation appearing above is not 100% accurate, but you get the idea. Yes, I know it's bad. I was sixteen!


² I think I'm happy with the current iteration. It conforms to my desire for symmetry in design and architecture. The current logo came out of a design study to determine what would fit best on our branded products like proof boxes, bags, polos, etc.

³ Stay tuned for a future blog on the logo of "TSG Holdings." I put the name in quotes because I'm not convinced it's a real company. Have you seen their visually offensive logo on M Street NW mocking designers everywhere? It's the worst company logo I have ever seen. Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad if it weren't new!

Labels: Advertising, business, design, Identity, JSDS, Justin Schuck, Marketing

I just want to let you in on a well-known secret. I have, along with others, gone over and over on the various design directions for my main photography website, JustinSchuck.com — where this blog is hosted. I'm a consummate perfectionist with a revisionist streak. Here now are some screen shots (in chronological order) of my design evolutions.

The design below was originally designed as a placeholder. Theoretically there was going to be a flash version of the site where the boxes moved around on mouseover and the images would change up and have lots of funky transitions. After about 6 months or more of the placeholder, I started making updates and expansions which leads us to the next design.



So this was the last real evolution of the design still visible on the vintage (legacy) site still hosted on the main server. I eventually reached the point of frustration and admitted that the site wasn't going to change much and I made some adjustments to typeface and the structure of the site.



Before I settled on the semi-permanent design direction above I started working on several new design directions at once. The next four designs were worked on simultaneously. You can clearly tell which design directions received the most attention. You may also note the temporary name change. At the time we were starting this project we were also taking on financial partners to build what could have been "The Justin Schuck Gallery & Studio." There were several designs in this direction, including full identity and letterhead designs.



Again, playing with typeface and trying to think how I wanted my brand represented, I worked towards the following design, but I was really unhappy with it. The "logo" appearing below was also used for marketing materials and display items, some of which I still use today, although not often. We were still going back and forth as to what the new company should be called, ultimately Justin Schuck Photography was the most appropriate.



I was going back and forth on a daily basis as to whether or not I should use my "tag" signature, which I still really like to this day and hope to find some way to use it. But who knows, it's the alt-rocker in me. The following design is a better example of logical navigation occurring "above the fold" as it were. This design was also the first time all four cities appeared in a design. The four cities were later incorporated into the "vintage" design and still appear there today.



This is a progression of the above design. The navigation would animate and "light up" the tab color. This also recalls design elements of my acclaimed original JustinSchuck.com which functioned solely as a personal website. That design is buried somewhere on a CD in storage. Anyhow, back to the design below... I really liked this design, but there was something holding me back from implementing the design. I think the biggest barrier to it's implementation was navigation partially obscured below the fold on a 640x480 template. I honestly can't remember.



What was most likely the death knell for the site above is the design below. It's one of those epiphany designs that occur between the hours of first darkness and first light. I remember working on the design for at least three days straight before making additional changes as evidenced in the following design.



I love the picture of the kids below and seeing this again reminds me that I need to put together a serious gallery of all my work for the last 12 years. There's some really good stuff in there if I do say so myself. Back to designs...

I changed the background to gray, put telephone numbers and email at the top which would allow for navigation going down the side. This is also when our company tag line became "Photography for the way you live.™" which is still pending. We also developed a working click-through for the Online Previews service. It was great to see the design come so far. This really was my favorite, but after some server-side testing, some focus groups and a changing design team, this too was abandoned.



This little piece was for our other-branded sites as part of a broader internet ranking strategy for our Dubai sites. It was an extremely effective campaign – perhaps too effective – but was eventually taken down due to the closing of our full-time Dubai operations earlier this year.



After no real progress had been made, and with the current design at the time reaching five years of age, I finally threw the following design up on the site. The "vintage" site is such a mess, especially with so many revisions and so many hands touching it. The code is all kinds of fouled up, and I consider myself as one of the most organized and obsessive-compulsive HTML coders on the planet. The only reason the vintage site is still live is so I don't have to create another temporary site that would likely become semi-permanent.




I really like where the most current site design is going, and it serves as the inspiration of the next site. Hopefully some time soon we will have the new site design templates posted. Because seriously, I've had way too much JustinSchuck.com. (That's why I've transfered "the power" over the new design direction over to my lovely Andrea.)

Labels: Advertising, Art, Case Study, design, Dubai, Identity, Justin Schuck, Photo, photography

CLIENT DATA UPDATE

We are still in the process of an active investigation with our bank, PNC Financial Services, our former merchant account providers Paypal.com and Charge.com to learn who may be responsible for fraudulent and/or duplicate charges to client credit and/or bank accounts.

Clients that may have been affected have been notified. If you think you may be a victim, please call our office immediately at (301) 760-7476. We will keep you informed as the investigation progresses.



FRADULENT/FAKE E-MAILS FROM "BILLING@JUSTINSCHUCK.COM"

Justin Schuck and Company LLC, the parent company of Justin Schuck Photography & Video, has recently been informed that an unknown server has been sending E-mails to clients and non-clients from the address "billing@justinschuck.com." This is a valid Justin Schuck & Company E-mail address, but we have never and will never send E-mails from this address. Justin Schuck & Company will never solicit personally identifiable information through the web.

As always, we prefer to speak with our clients over the phone rather than via E-mail. If you have received an E-mail you believe to be suspicious, please forward that E-mail to info@justinschuck.com. Please include a name and telephone number where we may contact you in order to clarify this matter.

We are reminded again of the nature of the internet and that there are individuals who posses the skills the desire to steal and harm others. Please be extremely cautious when submitting personally identifiable information through the web, i.e. social security numbers, bank account numbers and credit card numbers and security codes.

From this day forward, any and all charges appearing on credit card statements should appear as follows: "JSchuckCo 3017607476" or "JSPhoto 3017607476" -- If you find charges you believe to have been erroneously charged or do not appear as listed above, please contact our office immediately at (301) 760-7476.

STAY UP-TO-DATE: Visit JustinSchuck.com/security_notices.html to read the most current security updates.

Labels: Identity, Security

I am pleased to announce the formation of the new Justin Schuck & Company, LLC. I would like to thank my attorney, Jason W. Shoemaker, of the Law Offices of Bennett & Shoemaker, for helping me put everything together and to organize my various companies under one name. (Fitting title don't you think?)

This is a very exciting move and it is going to make it easier for the various divisions to work together and streamline operations.

The companies coming under the umbrella of Justin Schuck & Company, LLC are:
Justin Schuck Photography
Schuck Interactive Group (owns JSDS)
Justin Schuck Design Studio
Innovative Brand Concepts
L'Agence de Schuck (Formerly JS&Co. Media)
The Church of Helveticology/HelveticaSaves.org
Politics Aside (a consulting firm)

We're really entering into an exciting time, and just in time for the holidays and the new year.

Labels: bethesda, business, design, Identity, photography, washington dc