By Travis Van Vechten

My name is Travis Van Vechten and I am interning here at Jacob Tyler because of my high-school’s month long academic internship. Every eleventh grader has to do one, and mine is here. When first coming to this internship I didn’t know what to expect. All I knew was that we were going to have a meeting first thing when I arrived. I got here early on the first day and my Uncle Charlie showed me around and introduced me to a bunch of people, or ‘creatives’ as they call themselves. Then, we went into the meeting with some of the people that would be working with me throughout the month. We talked about what I would be working on through out my internship. They decided that in addition to developing my own brand identity, it would be great for me to work on their VOTE by Design campaign to show me every aspect of what they do at Jacob Tyler.

I had no idea what this VOTE Campaign was when we first started but I learned much more when I went to the kickoff meeting for the project. This project, as all projects here, requires a huge team effort. Because of this, they have involved me in all of the meetings for this project, and they then inform me on the next steps that we will take. After the kickoff, the Project Manager scheduled assets, like a splash page and logo to be created. Now we’re in the first phases of design while we also work on finding sponsors and judges. Stay tuned for more next steps.

I am also doing a side project that focuses on learning the steps of branding. I am doing this by making my own “brand”. I have designed logos, written a creative brief, and created a profile picture for my future “fan page.” Also later in this project I will be designing and creating facebook applications so keep an eye out.

High Tech High is not much different from Jacob Tyler in the way that High Tech High is all project based learning. They are similar because both of their work flows are almost exactly the same. For example, here at Jacob Tyler a client would walk in and request a project. They team would break into “groups” and begin working. At school, the teachers would create a project and then present it to the kids. Similarly, we would then break up into groups and kick off the project. Whenever we work on a project at school there is a lot of collaboration that happens between students. Here at JT, everyone works together in some different aspect of the project so that they make sure to have clear communication throughout the process. They accomplish this mainly by having meetings and emailing each other.

So far, this has been a great experience at Jacob Tyler and I look forward to getting more involved in the projects to come.

By Michelle Peck

It’s that time of year, when we all spend our free time thinking about what gifts to buy, decorating the house with festive lights, planning parties, and singing along to a favorite Christmas carol. The holidays bring love, joy, and excitement year after year and sparks the inner designer in all of us. Design and art direction are all about providing a strategic look and feel to tell a story which is much like the well-planned gift giving and ornate ambiance of the holidays. So follow Santa’s lead to designing the perfect holiday this season with a few simple guidelines.

Think About Your Audience

Before hitting the shopping malls to purchase all the gifts on your list, you need to sit and spend time thinking about your audience and developing a strategy. Think about what each person wants, what their interests are, and how they like to spend their time. It’s important to understand how to speak to your audience, whether it’s finding the perfect gift, or promoting your brand.

Spark Emotion

By relating to your audience, you’ll be able to create a personal connection through your gift giving. You give gifts to people you care about and the right choice will evoke an emotional response in your recipient. Good art direction is all about finding this emotion and tapping into it. Good gifts should do the same thing.

Tell a Story

Christmas carols don’t only provide a festive tune, they tell a story and invite everyone to sing along. They make you feel joyous and bring out the holiday spirit. Creating a voice to convey a story is crucial in marketing a product or service. Conceptual writing makes you feel something beyond learning the facts. A catchy tune doesn’t only tell you what the Christmas story is all about, but you also feel the love and giving the season captures.

Choose a Color Scheme

Yes, it’s true everyone thinks about red and green as the traditional holiday color palette, but bringing true design into your holiday requires so much more. It’s about creating the ideal look for bringing holiday cheer into your home. Define what colors fit your personality and give the vibe your going for. Do you want your home to feel fun, formal, unique or traditional when the family arrives? A color scheme can make a huge impact on the tone of your design and create the appropriate mood.

Establish Your Brand

Ever wonder why the holidays are filled with snowflakes, santa hats, presents, and decorated trees? Visuals are a key element to good design. They are used to support the branding and concept by providing a consistent look throughout all components of a campaign. Visual cues create a culture that is quick to understand in any language. Ornaments and candy canes represent the holidays even without any mention of Christmas. They are ownable elements that can only be used when speaking about your brand.

Check Your Work

Santa knows the value of making a list and checking it twice. The last step for any designer is to proof, test, and share your work with others. The critiques and feedback you receive will only make you a better designer. So, be sure to check those holiday cards before sending them out and have a family member taste your favorite dish before placing it on the table.

In the spirit of the holidays, everyone can be a designer. Know your audience to find the perfect gift, create bliss with a well-told story, and incorporate the right visual elements into your home. You’ll be sure to have a very happy holiday season.

I am currently a member of the Entrepreneurs Organization and it never ceases to amaze me how much I get out of being a part of their network. One of the small perks is receiving Octane Magazine which is chock full of interesting and informative articles relative to all facets of business. Recently my new LinkedIn friend Angela Randall (from EO Houston) wrote a great article about user experience that I felt obligated to share (with her permission of course). She says some pretty basic and very smart things we sometimes lose sight of and I think it makes for a quick and interesting read. Enjoy!

Want to know what really ruins a web site’s user experience?

Bending over backwards in an attempt to please each customer. Many eager Business owners conclude that the only way to satisfy a customer is to cater to his every whim. The result is ambiguous, be-everything-to-everybody customer experiences. Product teams try to incorporate every feature ever requested, while service teams try to be so flexible in their offerings that it’s no longer clear what the company specializes in. Of course, this ends up being counter-productive.

1. Reduce the amount of choices:
Choices give customers the illusion of being in control, but they’re actually a cognitive burden. having to decide between too many choices becomes work. Here’s an example: A design-it-yourself shades and blinds company couldn’t figure out why so few customers chose their feature-rich product line, when their competitors offered far fewer customization options online. After investigating, we found that the sheer number of available options overwhelmed and intimidated potential customers, making the competitor’s simpler experience more manageable. Removing the least-used options and hidings others under “Advanced Features” on their Web site helped the company streamline its offerings.

2. Tell your customers what to do:
Seriously order them about. When I tell my clients this, they look at me funny. Thing is, most people know what to do in a store, but on the Web, it’s not always obvious how to take the next step. Don’t expect customers to hunt around on your site for a phone number or e-mail. that’s too much work. instead, take the work out of navigating by using clear calls to action like “Learn more,” “Request a free evaluation” and “Buy now.” One of our client, a continuing education provider, didn’t understand why people weren’t signing up for their coursed. We added a prominent “Register now” button to the course-description page. Problem solved.

3. Observe, don’t listen to your customers:
What customers want and what they say they want are two different things. the only way to learn the truth is to watch their behavior. Basic analytics software will tell you you which of your site’s pages people visit most and how long they spend there. there are also more sophisticated tools that track user’ movements to give you an idea of what people are reading on your site, and where they’re getting stuck in forms. ultimately, sitting next to customer performing prescribed tasks on your Web site or application is the best way to discover reasons why users call customer support instead of searching the documentation, or why so many of them quite on the las step of the process.

For example, an African national oil company had built an oil-trading application that was intended to track US$160 billion worth of oil annually…but nobody used it. Since the users had meticulously described their workflow, the developers assumed the problem must be technical– “We need more servers!” User testing revealed, however, that the users’ workflow wasn’t really sequential as they had described. instead, they saved up all their orders for entry in a single batch at the end of the day. After modifying the interface to facilitate batch, adaption skyrocketed.

Of course, we would never advocate treating customers with anything less than dignity and respect. but we realize that an entrepreneur’s primary role is to be a steward, not a butler. We don’t pander…we lead. Customers will follow.

Jacob Tyler designed four different T-shirts for the San Diego Italian Film Festival (we also did the Web site) and we’re wondering if YOU can guess which one they chose to use. Comment via twitter @jtcg or Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/Jacob.Tyler.Creative.Group#! and let us know which shirt they picked. We’ll send one lucky winner a FREE t-shirt! If you feel like it, you can let us know what shirt you would pick too.