Blog - Karen A. Chase

The Color of Spring

March 30, 2012 By Karen A. Chase

Although Spring has come early this year, I can’t say I’m disappointed. I tire easily of the somber gray and black that seems to saturate my wardrobe and the skies during winter. So bring on spring and all it’s wonderful bloomin’ color.

For designers, spring means that Pantone®, the world-renowned authority on color, is releasing it’s spring color suggestions. While the colors are focused on fashion, they’re also a marvelous tool to help guide graphic designers, product developers and even consumers in their choices. Rather than simply setting a trend, the color guide is more of a reflection of the mood or psychology of society. We’ve been “occupied” under drab tents all winter in a recessed economy, and what the masses are primed and ready for is optimism. So hello “Solar Power” yellow. Spring in “Tangerine Tango” orange. And when all else fails, drown yourself in “Margarita” green. Here is the Pantone Fashion Spring Color Report.

If that’s not enough fun for designers out there, how about this new online tool from Sherwin-Williams. My friend Jennifer (a First Friday artist previously featured on my blog) sent me this link for “Chip It!” Let’s say you find a photo online that you love? Chip It! and the little program will pull a color palette from from their 1500 paint chips. That’s a handy little tool for picking room paints, but I can think of a multitude of reasons to use it to pick colors for client projects, too.

Spring_ChruchHill — Spring in my neighborhood in Richmond, and the Chip It! color palette made from it. Ironically, it's mostly grey. I'll have to find Pantone 224 pink trees somewhere.

What’s in a tagline?

March 23, 2012 By Karen A. Chase

Taglines. Over the years I’ve written a few and heard all the rules about writing them. Keep them short. Write about the product’s benefit. No, describe its characteristics. No, sell the product. Don’t include the company name. It should be something you’ll keep forever, right? Uh, not quite.

Is shorter better? “Got Milk?” Perhaps. Although I’ve easily recalled BASF’s tagline, “We don’t make a lot of the products you buy; we make a lot of the products you buy better.”

What to write about? Call for sales: Volkswagen’s “Drivers wanted.” Benefit to consumer: Burger King’s “Have it your way.” Description: Carlsberg brewed “probably the best lager in the world.” I’m hard pressed to find one that did all three.

“Always Coca-Cola” included the product name as does Allstate, so I think you’re in good hands using it in the tagline.

Don’t change it? GE did. They first had “We bring good things to life.” The company and product development changed so much, that now their tagline is, “Imagination at work.”

This month a furniture store in the UK, Sofa King, is also changing their tagline. After nine years of ending their commercials with the same line, the Advertising Standards Authority caught on. “Our prices are Sofa King Low,” has been deemed offensive. (But hilarious.)

Regardless of all the supposed rules, my friend Bill Thomasson gave me the best advice. Make sure they’re available, defendable, memorable, and sustainable. Then just do it.

Instead of a photo this week I’m including a link to this “Drivers Wanted” VW commercial: “Cornering.” It still makes me laugh.

Which tagline makes you happy when you hear it?

Prompts for Reluctant Writers

March 16, 2012 By Karen A. Chase

I read a quote by Gene Fowler that said, “Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.”

That’s not writing. It’s writer’s block. That nasty thing is like Beetlejuice: I try not to say it too often or it will show up and it won’t go away. So, how do you get over it? Writing prompts.

I can watch ten minutes of a movie about a writer (Shakespeare In Love) and I too pick up the pen. Sometimes I read back over what I wrote the day before until I have to continue the story I’ve begun. Inspirational quotes help. “I will write my way into another life,” by Ann Patchette is among my favorites.

Christina Reeser, the programmer featured previously here on Compositions, gave me another great idea. She calls herself a “reluctant writer.” Her daughter is encouraging her wordsmithing. Each night she tells Christina to write only one sentence. Who made her happy? What sucked about the day? A quote she heard. Something. Anything. One simple sentence. It doesn’t feel like writing and it’s not overwhelming. It’s a brilliant idea.

To exorcize that writing demon, try writing just one sentence and go from there. One sentence prompts the thinking. One sentence leads to another. Christina may be a reluctant writer, but in a year she’ll have 365 sentences. For novelists, that’s a heck of a great beginning to a full manuscript.

GeorgeClymer — Based upon George Clymer, the man who signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, the photo of this statue in Philadelphia helps inspire me–especially in writing my historical fiction novel about the Declaration.

GreekActor — Although this statue from Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris is of a Greek actor, it still makes me feel like writing. - Photos by Karen A. Chase

Fun with Barbie

March 9, 2012 By Karen A. Chase

This week both Barbie and I had a birthday. The ultimate blond is 53. I’m thankfully, a little younger. Without going too much into her unrealistic proportions, and her on-again, off-again relationships with Ken and GI Joe, I was stunned to discover I actually have a few things in common with miss size-zero.

• Barbie has changed careers as often as I’ve changed jobs and clients
• Her hair has been whacked, curled, primped, fried and dyed about as often as mine
• When she left Ken, he kept the house, she got the car. (Untrusted “news” source)
• We both bought a bad outfit in the mid-80s based on Moonlighting (see images below)
• At our age, we both have nice legs
• Pink (224) is our thing

Things we don’t have in common? Mattel’s marketing budget, blonde hair, boobs, and the ability to change nationalities.

I bring up Barbie, because More magazine–a publication for aging women–put together a fabulous birthday photo montage of “Barbie’s Careers Through the Years.” Hilarious, right? More magazine featuring Barbie who never ages! Despite that, the photos are a lovely time-waster for a Friday, and while looking at them I did indeed learn a few things:

• Our children are playing with dolls based upon what women are currently “known for.” (’59 she was a fashion model, ’85 a business executive and ’04 a presidential candidate)
• My Barbie’s legs wouldn’t bend like they do in the article, so even Barbie gets “Photoshopped” these days
• Barbie clearly likes being a ballerina, as she’s done it more than once
• Maybe Barbie is fit because she works out so much (ballerina, gymnast, Olympic skier)
• Barbie doesn’t stick to doing just one thing, and perhaps that’s what keeps her young

I’ll apply a few of those thoughts to my own life. Enjoy the photos of Barbie’s Career changes and have a great weekend.

MaddieBarbie — Maddie and Barbie dress similarly in the mid-80s. Moonlighting image: mptvimages.com

MaddieMe — My peach outfit based on Maddie's shiny one. Yea, those bangs were a good idea, too (insert eye-roll here). Image: © Lions Gate Home Entertainment

The Publishing House on the Hill

March 2, 2012 By Karen A. Chase

A fellow blogger, Nathan Bransford, asked a question this week: are publishing houses in the midst of a public perception problem? My response is an analogy of a lovely mansion overlooking a bustling town.

At first the mansion is built to encompass the view and give townsfolk something beautiful to see. It’s so appealing, the townsfolk want to visit. So many people come that the mansion puts up a fence to help manage crowds. But townsfolk keep coming because the fence added mystique.

Soon the mansion hires a gatekeeper or two, or three. Instead of a haven, the mansion slowly becomes a fortress. Eventually no one new gets in without a scheduled appointment and pre-approval.

Tired of the bureaucracy, the townsfolk stop visiting altogether. The fortress seems sinister. The angry townsfolk below make the inhabitants of the mansion feel trapped, too. One-by-one the inhabitants leave to find a place that is smaller. More open.

After a time, the soulless mansion begins to crumble. Soon, no once can remember why it was built in the first place.

Publishers were built in the first place to help writers get their words to readers. That seems to have been forgotten by so many inhabitants–to the point that publishers are rejecting authors based on past sales, rather than the merits of new writing (the Patricia O’Brien story).

As a writer in author-town, the fortress of the publishers seems impenetrable, and I’m hoping someone comes along and remodels it soon before it crumbles completely.

Shakespeare&Co — Finding a way to work around publishing houses isn't new. When a little-known writer named James Joyce wrote a little book called "Ulysses" no one would take it. A little bookshop owner, Sylvia Beach of Shakespeare and Company, stepped in and published it for him. Above is the store in Paris where writers and readers still come together. (Can it be a year ago I first launched Bonjour40 and my plan to visit there?)

It’s elementary flattery.

February 24, 2012 By Karen A. Chase

Ah, Sherlock Holmes. I love it. The books, the old movies. I especially love the two new steampunk films. For me, the very sweet eye-candy of both pictures (aside from Downey and Law) includes the care and detail with which the film credits have been developed.

The sequences built by creative director Danny Yount and his team were purely brilliant. They are a cross-pollination of illustration, photography, cinematography, prepress, old type and paper. They all fade in and out from one another like a dream diminishing as you wake into reality.

This week, I saw a Vicks commercial that used exactly the same method. Are you kidding me? Those beautiful techniques are now used to kill my cough with honey? I choked. But then I pondered….

Isn’t examining a bit of code or a type treatment, and then adjusting it into your own design the same thing? It’s not plagiarism if you can figure out how a photo treatment was applied and then apply it, is it? That’s imitation. Isn’t imitation the purest form of flattery?

The Merriam-Webster’s definition of flattery is “insincere or excessive praise.” While I don’t think the Vicks spot plagiarized the film’s credits, it was flattery. It was insincere because it swiped a technique instead of creating a commercial that felt like the Vicks brand. It was excessive, because it feels over-the-top for cough syrup. After all, Vicks is not a legend like Holmes, my dear Watson.

Watch the Sherlock Holmes end credits then the Vicks spot and decide for yourself. To see how Danny’s team did it, if you want to flatter them, too, visit Art of the Title.

Malaise, Mayle and Malaysia

February 21, 2012 By Karen A. Chase

I first blogged about Peter Mayle in December. Today I received a comment from a Malaysian reader. They found my blog while searching for information on the author because the Malaysian government is considering banning his book “Where Did I Come From.”

I had to add in a mid-week blog about our human regression. In 2012 men are determining women’s reproductive rights, we’re facing legislation about “personhood,” and now Peter Mayle might be considered obscene in some countries.

It’s on the hit list (not because the title ends with a preposition, which always bothered me), but because of it’s explicit content. It’s an illustrated children’s book! Not illustrated like Playboy is illustrated. Illustrated with child-like cartoons of little round naked white people.

As Malaysian officials review the book for it’s “obscene” content, the government has declared that bookstores must pull it from the shelves. If they sell a copy, they could get up to three years in jail. This BBC article has the overview.

Perhaps if Peter Mayle created a Malaysian version, as he did the African American edition, it wouldn’t be so easily banned.

I’m glad it’s not banned here in America because I’m tempted to buy a copy and send it to a few key congressional representatives. Despite the fact some of them have nearly a dozen children, they really don’t understand Peter Mayle’s “version” about how it all happens. At least I have the freedom to read about it. For now.

MayleBook — Perhaps some could learn from the sub-title: "The facts of life without any nonsense and with illustrations."

Write well. Nap. Carry water.

February 17, 2012 By Karen A. Chase

Over the last four months Ted and I, either separately or together, have been to Texas, Williamsburg, New York, Tampa, Venezuela, St. Thomas, Roanoke, Raleigh, DC and Portland. It’s been an adventurous several months, logging a few air miles, a few days by sea for Ted, and several hours in the car. Somewhere in the middle of all our coming-and-going, we’ve been working, writing, reading, and doing a few projects around the house. Finally, we are staying put for several weeks. It’s time to hunker down and write more.

During all our travel, I tried to apply a list I made just after returning from Paris last year. I thought I would include that list from my book, Bonjour 40, here. It’s a good guide-to-life even as I settle back into writing more at home.

• Naps on the grass are essential to well-being.
• Walk more. Bike more.
• Learn new languages.
• Dress up a bit, even when alone. Why look shabby?
• Buy fresh flowers now and then.
• A scarf can really change an outfit—for men and women.
• Fresh food is better than packaged food. Always.
• Be more polite.
• Laugh like the English.
• Kiss like the French.
• Always carry wet-wipes.
• Sharing a scene is better than stealing it.
• I can write anywhere.

On his trip to Venezuela (which I will detail in another blog), Ted also learned that carrying fresh water is a good idea. Especially when you’ll be at sea for more than four days. Below are a few pictures from Ted’s trip, including a sunset from the middle of the Caribbean Sea.

What have you learned most from your travels?

Writing for Change

February 10, 2012 By Karen A. Chase

What do Gap, Netflix, Verizon, Congress and Komen all have in common? The written word changed the way they do business.

In 2010, Gap launched a new logo design. It was slammed in social media circles for being worse than the original, and Gap dropped it. Last year Netflix and Verizon wanted to change they way they charge customers. Customers revolted and the charges were dropped. Last month, Congress was trying to pass the SOPA legislation, and after what amounted to a 24-hour internet sit-in and letter-writing extravaganza, the bill was withdrawn.

Last week Susan G. Komen for the cure made a decision based on politics instead of women’s health, pulling funding from Planned Parenthood, and enraging women everywhere. So big, so loud, so immediate was the noise and the hit (negative PR to Komen, positively to Planned Parenthood who raised over $650,000 in 48 hours), even Komen executive Karen Handel heard it in the end.

What I loved most about watching all these scenarios wasn’t seeing big organizations and muckety mucks cower under the power of the little people (okay, I did enjoy that a smidge). What I loved most was it showed how much influence the written word still has, and the potential for positive change it could have. All the above instances show how we made a difference reactively. Now, pick any topic, cause or need, and imagine what we could do if we collectively used our words proactively instead.

What will you write for change?

This post is dedicated to a dear friend, Sharon Rapoport–a Komen volunteer, a Planned Parenthood supporter, copywriter, and a breast cancer survivor. Last week's issue made her sad, angry, conflicted, and overwhelmed with messages from friends and family. It also gave me one more reason to say, Sharon, you inspire me. You handled last week flawlessly, communicating with everyone as only a copywriter can. You wrote honestly. (Photo from July 2010 issue of Valley Business FRONT.)

First Fridays: io studio

February 3, 2012 By Karen A. Chase

My First Fridays feature is not about a typical artist. She’s not a designer, yet she creates. She’s not an author, yet she writes. What she produces, people generally never see, but without it the art wouldn’t be functional. She is Christina Reeser, web developer extraordinaire and owner of io studio.

When Christina speaks about programming and development she sounds like an artist. She’s modest, curious and insightful. She explains widgets, CMS, style sheets and scripting with the enthusiasm of a painter describing the sunset. If she has to modify a dimension, move an element or create a chart it always makes the website look and perform better.

She once told me that programmers are like chefs who “each cook a little differently in their own kitchen.” But when I’ve worked with other developers (some of whom Christina has gladly helped out) and they see her code, they often say, “Wow. I want to swipe this!”

Over 350 websites contain her “DNA,” as she calls it. As a designer craving sites that look like print, Christina is the perfect programmer to help prepare my pages. For just as her tagline says, Christina is where functionality meets form. {Beautifully}

When you visit Christina’s io studio website, I urge you to disregard the design. Instead, go under your browser’s pull-down menu “tools” and look for the site source. There, you’ll find <title>Io Studio, Inc</title> and a full site built in just 29 lines of {beautiful} jquery.