We have deemed November “Free Lunch for Pi Month.” In order to score as many free lunches as possible I am willing to offer up all of my design and marketing expertise in exchange for a meal at the restaurant of your choice. You can pick my brain for the entire lunch. We can talk about how to integrate Social Media into your marketing, brainstorm about email campaigns, and figure out new target markets for you to explore.

There’s only one caveat – It must be a sit down and order restaurant because we will need a table large enough to spread out papers and work (the little paper place mat they give you at In-N-Out just won’t suffice). Also, I am trying to stay away from fast food joints at this juncture in life.

WHAT’S ON THE MENU:

1. An assessment of your existing marketing materials – I will look them over and we will discuss them. I will let you know, in my humble opinion based on 20 years in the industry, what I think works, what doesn’t work, and what could be improved.
2. Brainstorming session – Together we will throw around ideas on how to generate new leads, better communicate with your target market, and drive more traffic to your website.
3. Development of your target persona – I have a quick and fun way to help us understand your customers better and figure out what influences their interactions with you. By analyzing demographic and psychographic information we will create a fictional representation of your targeted buyer. This persona will allow you to create more tailored marketing strategies.

At the end of lunch you will have a better focus on where and how to direct your marketing attention. I will email you a “wrap up” document to remind you of all that we discussed along with a list of recommendations. This information will inspire you and allow you to keep your marketing fresh and relevant. I guarantee that you will be amazed how one lunch can increase your marketing ROI.

So call me (805.383.0054) or email me and let’s make a lunch date!

Please join Pi Design as we launch our new venture, Pi Studio Printing. We are opening our doors on March 12th to artists, photographers, friends, family, clients, and design professionals! To showcase the capabilities of our latest addition to the Pi family—the giant Epson Stylus Pro 11880 printer, we will be showing the breathtaking work of David Pu’u, editorial photographer and cinematographer. David will be in attendance and to share his experiences traveling the world photographing and filming surfers, sea life and other wondrous phenomena.

Please join us for refreshments and great company as you tour the Pi Studio Printing facility. This grand event takes place two days prior to our favorite holiday, Pi Day! In honor of this glorious day we will, of course, have much pie on hand as well as other roundish treats.

Pi Studio Printing will be raffling off all kinds of great prizes like gift certificates to Vie, the Spa upstairs, David Pu’u prints and more!

Leave work a bit early on Friday and come have some pie with Pu’u. (Sorry, I just couldn’t resist.)

When: March 12th 2010 from 3:30pm to 6:30pm
Where: 760 Las Posas Road, Suite A1 and A2, Camarillo, CA

To RSVP click here

Read more about David Pu’u here: http://www.davidpuu.com/bio.php

1. I already have an idea for my logo, on this bar napkin, and I shouldn’t have to pay someone just to stick it on a 3.5″ x 2″ piece of paper along with my name and phone number. Can’t you just make copies of it? Oh, but I want to make the letters nice and clean and maybe spruce up my drawing a bit.
2. I can download free fonts and a paint program to create an effective brochure for my upcoming trade show… Can’t I?
3. 4 Colors?! WTF?! There are billions of colors in the world and that !@$#@ designer only wanted to print with 4 of them?!?!?
4. That web designer had the nerve to suggest that I didn’t need the cool splash page with our famous spinning globe for our e-commerce site. How will people ever know that we are a “global” company?!?!
5. PANTONES?!?!? I don’t need no stinkin’ Pantones! I can print the red I want on my inkjet at home! Why can’t the expensive print shop just do it?
6. I already did this awesome layout in MS Word. It’s ready to go straight to press. What does the printer mean by resolution anyway? The photos look just fine on my monitor. Besides I want to be able to manipulate the document after the first print run of 75.
7. I used a graphic designer once and she made the logo so small on the letterhead that you couldn’t read it from 15 feet away. No way! Never again!
8. “We’ve got to cut money somewhere, so my uncle’s brother will print it, in his garage, for free. He wants the files in publisher since he doesn’t have those fancy programs.  He has a lot of lime green paper and a bottle of orange ink left over from a soccer team job, so can you change that photograph to something orange? Oh yeah, and he said to let you know that his Apple IIe doesn’t have a lot of RAM, so he couldn’t open the last file you sent!”
9. Those designers will charge me three hours of work for something that shouldn’t take more than half an hour. It’s a simple photo and a logo large enough to cover a 40’ wall. Screw that. I’ll do it myself. I just need to learn the programs.
10. I don’t need no expensive, artsy-fartsy, overly-trained freak with their fancy computer mumbo jumbo. I have the 128 color box of Crayolas… with a built-in sharpener! …“A Sharpie?!” . “No… a Shar-pen-er”. Why would I want a “Shar Pei”  Why does a dog need a marker anyways? Weirdo.

I recently did a bit of internet research with her to discover some new shapes she could fold and found the following design inspirations. These people have taken their fetish for paper to a new level. Please enjoy these amazing sites and videos.

Peter Callesen is a Danish designer who magically transforms flat sheets of paper into figures that expand into the space surrounding them. Please enjoy all the wonderful creations pictured on his website at http://www.petercallesen.com/index/index2.html

My Paper Mind: An experimental animation in a technique being called “stratastencil” devised by Javan Ivey. Each frame is one piece of 4×6 card stock

High Heel Paper Lanterns: Carlos N. Molina, Paper Genius, has been working with paper since his early childhood in Puerto Rico. His miniature origami shoes have long amazed me. He was recently featured on HGTV’s That’s Clever with his mermaid paper doll. Check out his website for more colorful paper designs: www.carlosnmolina.com

This video reveals the progress on their latest gadget, a flapping robo-sentinel. It is the first-ever hovering air vehicle to use flapping wings while carrying its own power source. The hope is that the hummingbird will be useful for indoor and outdoor surveillance, as well as dropping off listening devices and other super-spy cargo.

Check out their website for more info on their other products:

http://avinc.com/

The dough needs to be refrigerated for at least an hour before rolling.
INGREDIENTS:
• 12 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 Tablespoon dried lavender buds
• 1 Tablespoon grated lemon zest
• 1 egg
• 1/2 Tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2-1/4 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour         
PREPARATION:
1. With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until it is light and fluffy.

2. Stir in the lavender and lemon zest.

3. Add the egg, vanilla and salt and using the mixer again, mix briefly to combine.

4. With mixture on low speed, gradually add the flour until it is all combined.

5. Gather the dough together and pat it into a disk. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.

Preheat oven ot 350°F.
6. Roll the dough out to a thickness of about 1/4-inch. Cut out shapes with biscuit or cookie cutters.

7. Bake the cookies until they begin to brown around the edges, about 10-15 minues.
Storage:
May be stored in an airtight container for up to one week.

Today people expect a strong online presence. If you don’t have one you are losing potential customers daily. Everyone between the ages of 20-40 is online for at least part of the day, everyday. They are more likely to search for something on Google than in a phone book. Come on, when was the last time you actually picked up that huge yellow book and thumbed through pages? I used to heft it out to find the phone number for the pizza place. Now I even order my pizza online! Below are some things you should be doing to promote your company (and yourself) if you’re not already:

BLOGGING

Your website should have a blog for search engine purposes but it should also provide useful information that your clients and potential clients will find interesting. Give advice on topics that you know about. Write about news in your industry. Provide quick tips to something you’re an expert on. Like an architect could provide hints on choosing a great contractor. People love these types of quick tips. They can read them fast and get back to work.

TWITTER

I, myself, am new to the Twitter thing (just got on in Feb 09) but it is basically taking over the world. You may be hesitant about getting involved in yet another time-sucking device but I believe that Twitter may be the future of communication. It is one of the best ways to connect with people out there these days. People are using it more and more as a business communication tool and less of a “what are you doing right now” thing.

VP of Marketing at Hubspot, Mike Volpe describes social media as being similar to a business cocktail reception. I like this analogy because I personally don’t have time to attend many functions but I am online all day. With Twitter I can listen in on conversations to find out what people are talking about and I can join in by just typing quick notes. I don’t have to leave my desk. Don’t get me wrong, I love to go to those happy hour networking things but I just can’t most of the time because I spend my early evenings running around town picking my daughter up at the dance studio, taking my son to his guitar lesson and trying to squeeze in a trip to the market.

Another great feature of Twitter is that you get to try out and improve new ideas, expand your communication skills and enrich your knowledge of popular culture. It is important to understand your customers so you can spend your marketing dollars more effectively. Hang out where they are hanging out. Find out what they’re talking about and make yourself available. On Twitter you can ask questions and people will answer. They love when you give advice or point them to a useful website. If you are an entrepreneur then please read this article Why CEO’s Should Use Twitter.

If you’re still hesitating joining the Twitter world download this Beginner’s Guide to Using Twitter for Business.

Once you’re there though be sure to tweet me and say hi.

FACEBOOK

Endless opportunities here if you have the right market and a good idea. Look at what TripAdvisor.com did with their App “Cities I’ve Visited.” They now get somewhere around 10,000 hits a day to their website because of this cool application on Facebook. The dance studio that my daughter attends, Camarillo Academy of Performing Arts, has created its own Facebook page and is adding fans by the day. And since we built their website (shameless plug) Camarillo Academy.com we are tracking the increase in hits they are receiving to their regular website. This is cheap advertising and spreads virally through the largest growing website around these days. If you’re not on Facebook already, do it now.

IN GENERAL

Have fun with your social media marketing. Humanize your company. People want to interact with people they like. If you make your social media marketing fun and interactive it will draw in more and more potential business. This type of marketing, as all others, requires time and thought. You will have to participate by providing valuable and interesting information that people will want to check out. Flaunt your knowledge about your industry and people will flock to you. Also remember to direct your efforts towards your target market. Don’t waste your time trying to reach everyone on Facebook. Join communities where you will meet people who will use your product or service. Just experiment a bit. These sites are all great for finding out what will and won’t work.

Your home page content should do these three things:

1. FOCUS on your differentiation – Choose one and only one differentiation because that is all people can remember. Do not list and describe all of your services on your home page. Make the decision to choose your company easy because your difference is obvious. The less information we are given, the more likely we are to remember it later. This FOCUS is fundamental to branding and should be maintained throughout all marketing materials.

2. FOCUS on your buyer -  Make sure your differentiating factor is relevant to the client/customer. Get to know your audience. Talk to your customers and listen to their problems. Then provide solutions to these problems. Build a relationship with your website visitors explaining how you make their life easier. And do it in plain English. Do not use fancy jargon that only your CEO and CFO will understand. do it simply without a lot of words. People are turned off by obvious selling techniques.

3. FOCUS on your offerings – Create content that is interesting and valuable to your customers/clients and then offer it for free. Remember to keep it current and authentic. This will keep them coming back. It will also give them a reason to send their colleagues and friends to your site. Be informative, clever, and entertaining if at all possible in your presentation.

We can help you develop ideas for relevant, focused web content to draw your visitors in and keep them coming back. Feel free to call us (805.383.0054) or email me (sharene@pidesign.com) to discuss the opportunities you may be missing. For more information on this subject and branding in general, check out two of my favorite books these days:

Killer Brands by Frank Lane

World Wide Rave by David Meerman Scott

With FREE PIE and other goodies!

In honor of the mathematical value that is represented by the 16th letter in the Greek alphabet, Pi Design will be hosting an OPEN HOUSE to celebrate Pi Day in our own way with a PRE-PI DAY event. We will be serving up FREE PIE and other circular treats to all attendees. The first piece of pie will be served at 3:14 pm (in honor of the value of pi) here, at the Pi Design studio on Friday, March 13th. We will continue celebrating until 6:00pm.

In attendance will be Essential Wine Company’s, Jim Casey as a special guest pourer of dessert wine tastes to pair with the pie. Other sponsors of the Pre-Pi Day event include In the Know Resources and Vie, the spa in suite A3 who will be serving cheese, providing tours and handing out samples of their custom formulated lavender bath salts.

Pi Day openly promotes the celebration of mathematics education, the collective enjoyment of mathematics, and the ageless, multicultural interest in pi. Pi Design wishes to join together with the community to express in an imaginative way, their passion for the longstanding creative nature of mathematics. Pi Day is observed on March 14, due to pi being roughly equal to 3.14. Pi Day also celebrates Albert Einstein’s birthday. Pi is one of the most common constants in all of mathematics. Nobody knows its exact value, because no matter how many digits you calculate it to, the number never ends. In honor of this incredible number, we will be taking donations to get middle school students excited about math. We will provide a select middle school child with a scholarship for a math tutor.

Pi Design is always looking to share our passion for design. This event is a way of connecting with our clients and the community. We are excited to open our office and invite everyone to celebrate the irrational and transcendental mathematical constant that is Pi. Pi represents to us, the science of design. Every design problem has infinite solutions. It is our job to find the one that works best for each individual client. And we have a great time doing just that.

For additional information on the FREE PIE on PRE-PI DAY EVENT, contact Sharene Lewis at 805.383.0054