About Writing

Excellent answers to burning questions about who, what, where and why of writing ... even if you're not a writer to begin with.

Green, Chuck. Creative Latitude (2005). Articles>Writing

Booklet Publishing

Write a book this afternoon. Sound preposterous? To the contrary--you can create an information-packed, 16-page booklet using a single sheet of paper in little more time than it takes to type the text. Use it to market your product or service, to tell the story of your organization or to offer tips and how-to information to prospects and clients. Print five or ten copies directly from your laser printer or take your master artwork to a commercial printer and have it reproduced by the thousands. No matter how you cut, fold and staple it, this book is proof-positive that big things do come in small packages.

Chuck Green. Ideabook.com (1999). Design>Document Design>Prepress>Printing

The Design Constitution

What is your understanding of the dynamics of the Client/Creative relationship? I've heard lots of opinions and countless complaints, but in all my wanderings, I have yet to find a good, non-legalese consensus of what we should expect of each other.

Chuck Green. Ideabook.com (2005). Design>Collaboration

Every Picture Tells a Story

A woman stands up in a crowded city council meeting and reads the research. 'We recently asked a random sampling of 250 citizens how often they use the new toll road. Five percent say they use it four or more times a week, eight percent say they use it one to three times a week, 12 percent say...' and continues on. The point she would eventually get to, could have been stated in a simple declarative sentence, in half the time, with twice the effect: 'We completed some eye-opening research this week--over one third of the people in the city don't use the new toll road because they can't afford it!' The same is true on paper. Instead of getting mired in statistical detail, you can make your point with a simple, declarative image--an information graphic.

Chuck Green. ideabook.com. Design>Graphic Design

The Form and Function of Folds

Folds are as important to your brochure design as illustrations, typefaces, and color. A smart layout heightens the drama with which your message is revealed to the reader.

Chuck Green. Ideabook.com (2003). Design>Document Design>Prepress

A Graceful Palette

The challenge? To resist the temptation to make everything look new. If you work with computers every day and regularly surf the Net, it is easy to lose perspective--though we regularly see some of the best, most exciting design being done today, it is often uncharacteristically modern or ultra-modern. The challenge is to match the presentation to the subject, not to the medium.

Chuck Green. Ideabook.com (2002). Design>Graphic Design>Contracts

How to Design a Pocket Folder Brochure

Want to customize your brochure for a specific market or an individual customer? Ever wish you could magically add new products or services without reprinting? Searching for a big-dollar look on a shoestring budget? This design does it all and anyone can create it. It comes in the form of a mini-pocket folder and a series of inexpensive inserts--I call it a mix-and-match brochure. How do you use it? Picture this: a lawyer offers services for individuals and corporations--two completely different audiences. Instead of creating one generic brochure for both, she assembles a specific package for each type of prospect. Individuals get an insert that discusses the benefits of using the firm followed by one insert each for home closings, estate planning, and tax litigation. The corporate prospects get the same benefits page followed by a series of business-oriented inserts.

Chuck Green. Ideabook.com (2002). Design>Graphic Design

Integrated Branding

“Branding” is one of those issues we picture the marketing VPs of Intel or Kraft Foods worrying about--hardly something for us to concern ourselves with. It’s easy, after all, to appreciate the value of a brand like Coca-Cola, but near impossible to see how the same principles apply to an organization with an advertising budget something less than 30 million dollars. Or is it? Like it or not, your organization and the products or services it sells, have a brand. It is the sum of all the impressions your prospects and customers collect from the first time they hear your voice, see your brochure, or link to your Web site. And if you don’t take branding seriously, you’re leaving a critical piece of the marketing puzzle to little more than chance.

Chuck Green. Ideabook.com (2001). Design>Graphic Design>Branding

Printer Versus Press: How and Where to Print Your Projects

How, you ask yourself, would someone who is unfamiliar with printing navigate their way through the mine field of contemporary offset printing?

Green, Chuck. Ideabook.com (2005). Articles>Publishing>Prepress>Printing

Publish or Perish: Create an Out-of-the-Ordinary Booklet

Though form and function does not necessarily improve the content of your message it can improve the ease with which it is accessed--and design can effect how well it is understood.

Chuck Green. Ideabook.com (2005). Design>Publishing>Usability

Rethinking Postcards

If you think post cards are for nothing more than 'wish you were here' messages, think again. Post cards are serious tools for building relationships with customers--tiny billboards with big missions. They are one of those often-used but little analyzed marketing mediums--a perfect platform for some 'jolt thinking.' Jolt thinking questions the basic premise--the what, why, and how of doing something. How? By answering three questions. What is the purpose? Why is it done the way it's done? And how can I do it most effectively?

Green, Chuck. Ideabook.com (2002). Design>Graphic Design>Marketing

A Visual Signals Palette

Half of knowing where you're going is knowing where you are. So a fundamental part of creating a great web is to let your readers know where they are at all times. One way, of course, is to use tabs and menus that literally tell them where they are. Here at ideabook.com, for example, you know where you are by looking at the top of the page–-the tab tells you you're in the 'DESIGN PALETTES' section and the headline tells you the article title.

Chuck Green. Ideabook.com (2003). Design>Graphic Design>Branding