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I got frisky and built a new theme for our blog this weekend. It’s now much more “a part of” when it comes to VoltageCreative.com. It also loads faster, is more readable/scannable and incorporates a few new SEO tricks I’ve learned in the last few weeks.

Here’s the oldie for reference:

And, uh, you’re already looking at the new one, so here’s a peel-y sticker…

Remember that kid in the back of the class who would draw anything and usually get sent to detention? Well now he’s all grown up. . . kind of.

Comic Artist D.J. Coffman is gaining quite a following after offering to draw literally anything for $2. Why would he do such a thing, you ask?

Number one, it’s fun. Number two, it’s practice to make me faster and keep me sharp drawing various things I wouldn’t have thought to draw. Number three, it was originally meant to be a cheap way to give something quick back to donors of the Yirmumah comic. It’s not about making money, as you can tell by the cheap price tag, it’s mostly just for fun. I’ve unexpectedly gotten other bigger paying commission work out of people seeing these little drawings pop up, and some people actually pay me more than 2 bucks and I put a little more time into their drawings… so I guess it’s a happy accident for now. I’d probably do it even cheaper….. I upped the price to 2 dollars due to inflation and the price of gas and… well, 2 dollars sounds funnier.

So, what exactly is the ‘correct’ price for a piece of art anyway? Is it only art if it costs a lot of money? To find out, we commissioned a small work of art – a Voltage Creative logo killing the Comic Sans font. Check it out. Clearly it’s worth every penny – it did just create a conversation piece for us here, after all.



The mark Voltage created for dry ice supplier Allied Refrigeration will appear in the 2008 Design Annual from Print Magazine. Woohoo!

Here’s a little background: Allied Refrigeration, an established supplier of dry ice products wished to create a brand for their consumer product. While the brand was new, the product has been available to consumers for decades. The team at Allied wanted to convey the history of the product and catch consumers eyes.

Solution: Focusing on retro typefaces and classic illustrations styles, our team developed a mark that speaks to product use, the longevity of Allied Refrigeration and product quality.

Voltage Founder Ryan Lorei directed the project. Nice job, Ryan!

After staring sadly at the number of reality show competitions on TV these days and longing for a show that would truly touch my soul, I’m frightened glad to hear that designers (in this case digital artists) finally get a show of their own. I know, its hard to believe that MTV would produce a show thats not about music, but believe it or not, thats where you can find this program in September. The show is called Engine Room, probably because it sounds cool. Anyway, it looks to be interesting at the very least, so check out the Engine Room website and keep your eyes open. We’ll try too keep you posted on when this show premieres, so check back every single day like you already do.

I’m also intrigued by the unique partnership with HP as well. HP makes nice laptops, I’ve got one at home, but the majority of digital artists use Macs to do their work, so this is kind of like seeing Snoop Dog selling acoustic guitars. I can understand that HP is trying to sell their brand as design savvy and that’s cool, I just wish I could have seen the look on the designers’ faces (many of whom have probably never used a PC) when they were told they would be doing everything on an Hewlett Packard.

Oh, by the way, that sure is an awesome logo for Engine Room. I enjoy the use of the lightning bolts and the circle with the white ring. Boy, that sure looks familiar. (For those who don’t look at our awesome logo every day, heres an “Engine Roomified” Voltage Creative logo next to the one for Engine Room for you to check out.)

Photo Credit

Scary times ahead for ye old media outlets:

The broadcast networks have grown older than ever — if they were a person, they wouldn’t even be a part of TV’s target demo anymore.

According to a study released by Magna Global’s Steve Sternberg, the five broadcast nets’ average live median age (in other words, not including delayed DVR viewing) was 50 last season. That’s the oldest ever since Sternberg started analyzing median age more than a decade ago — and the first time the nets’ median age was outside of the vaunted 18-49 demo. -Variety

(Emphasis is mine.)

When it comes to cost cutting, many times it’s design or marketing that goes first. This is like an applicant ditching the cover letter on their resume when the job market is down: it’s laughably bad timing. (You’re business is the applicant; your customer is interviewing your product all day every day. See how that works?)

So, why is such a silly mistake so common? It has to do with vocabulary. Even people who don’t care about design, care about it. They just think they don’t care, because they don’t know the language. They don’t take note of poorly thought out ergonomics when they encounter them, but they sure recognize it when they’ve purchased a product the maker clearly never used for it’s intended purpose. When they feel they’ve wasted money, they certainly do take note. And they tell their friends.

People who say design is unimportant are taking it for granted. We’re literally surrounded by products, information, and communication that’s been worked over and focused grouped to death. Example: there are 300 kinds of cereal at the grocery store. All of these companies have 0.1 seconds to pitch to you as you fly down the aisle, hoping your rug-rat doesn’t see the really-sugary-crap, but does see the kind-of-sugary-crap that you want. The cereal companies know this, and 90% of those boxes have been meticulously designed to stop you and/or your kid dead in your tracks.

We are inundated with superbly designed products. A lot of us don’t know it, but it’s more likely that we just don’t know what to call it. When we see an ad with bad kerning, even if you don’t know what’s wrong with it, you still think it looks cheap; an impression you immediately transfer to the product. This doesn’t make you someone who’s into typography, it makes you a seasoned consumer. Which is what most of us are by the age of 6, thanks to McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, and co.

So what about it? Well, if you want to sell somebody something; an idea, an mp3 player, whatever; then you’d better get your design shoes on. Or pay someone else to do the legwork for you.

A 3-year Fortune-500 study conducted by research firm Peer Insight found companies focused on customer-experience design outperformed the S&P 500 by 10-to-1 from 2000-2005. One more time for those in the back: that was 10-1. Your customers care about design; a lot; ten-to-one a lot. Even if they don’t (know it).

[Photo Credit]