Analyze This.
Posted by Craig in general interest on February 23rd, 2010
I have a problem.
I am addicted to buying books. There, I said it, out loud. Well I typed it anyway.
The problem itself is not new, nor is it news to anyone who knows me. What is new is my quest to determine what it is that compels me to buy books.
Here’s how the quest began:
The other day I was reading an article about Habitat for Humanity and a coffee shop/used book store they have in Charlotte. Really cool idea, sell used books and use the proceeds to benefit Habitat for Humanity. You can learn more here.
I am a big fan of books and a big fan of people owning their own home so I thought I would check it out. Immediately I was stuck with the thought that the last thing I need is more books. Last time I counted I was up over 750 and my best guess is that I haven’t read 20% of them. Maybe 10% in case my smokin’ hot wife (SHW) reads this post. So I thought of the next best thing I could do: donate some books.
That’s when I discovered I have a problem.
As I looked at the stacks, trying to find five or ten I could donate, I became anxious. Not specific anxious like you get when your phone rings and the caller id shows the name of a person you don’t want to talk to or when your car slips on icy patch of road. Rather it was this weird general anxiety I imagine people get when they think the sky is falling. An internal dialog ensued which I will not recount word for word because it’s embarrassing. Suffice it to say as I listened to myself respond to myself I sounded a lot like the people on the A&E show Hoarders.
If you have not seen the show, it is about, well, hoarders, and the people who love and live with hoarders and the people who are trying to help them get better. It’s tragic and depressing and at times hysterically funny in an admittedly schadenfreudey kind of way. Watch one episode and one of the things that you’ll notice is that generally hoarders have reasons for holding on to every little thing and no matter how bizarre those reasons seem to everybody else, they are perfectly reasonable to the hoarder. What really freaked me out was that the reasons I was giving myself for why I could not part with a copy of The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine (that I have not read and probably will never read) sounded a lot like the responses of a hoarder trying to justify why he needed to keep twenty-seven Ziploc bags of rubber bands instead of just twenty-four.
Problem.
So what it is with the books? I read so much, so fast that little really sinks in. Reading cuts into sleep I need in order to keep up with the kids. The clutter is comforting to me but drives my SHW crazy. Dusting is a nightmare. The “furious ardor of my zeal” for solid wood, mismatched, antique book cases is embarrassing. Not to mention the drain on family finances.
I mean don’t get me wrong, I never pay full price but when Borders sends me an exclusive reward offer for 33% off any one item, my palms start to sweat. I have one sitting in my inbox now that expires tomorrow and I know I am going to use it. I am fully aware that they know that 95% of the time they send me a coupon I end up using it, so they just keep sending them and I keep buying.
It’s got to stop.
If anybody as any thoughts with regards to this compulsion of mine, I would love to hear them. I will continue the embarrassing internal dialog and if I discover anything blog worthy, I will endeavor to post.
In the meantime, my favorite historian, Paul Johnson, has a new book out Art: A New History that I am dying to have. Good thing I’ve got a coupon.
HHS1971 Innovation Inspired by Ancient Chinese Wisdom
Posted by Craig in new products on February 17th, 2010
Several years ago I was travelling abroad and had the opportunity to visit the city of Xian, an ancient Chinese city in the Shannxi province. Xian is one of the four great ancient capitals of China because it has served, at different times, as the capital city for some of the most important dynasties in the history of China. It’s filled with museums, monuments, numerous institutions of higher learning and believe it or not has become known lately for a vibrant rock scene. Needless to say if you going to China, it should be on your list of places to visit.
One of the most striking features of Xian is the city wall. It’s one of the most well preserved though not necessarily the most famous of China’s walls and it’s huge. Walking along the top, which is wide enough to hold three or four lanes of traffic, is quite an experience. Families mingle with soldiers and beggars, artists and musicians in a wriggling freeway of humanity. It was while walking along the top of this wall that I met Han.
At least, that’s what he said his name was. He was a sort of beggar, hustler, sage type of guy in ancient looking robes and rocking a long wispy fu manchu. He stopped me as I passed and in remarkably good english, asked me if I would consider a free piece of advice. Not one to turn down free anything, I said “sure.” He motioned with his long, gnarled fingers for me to come closer, which I did. Then he whispered, “in the Spring, when snowfalls blanket the land, it is then you shall offer a complete line of outdoor display products.” And with a another wave of his hand, I was dismissed.
I puzzled at his words, filed them away to chew on later and rolled on in search of some dumplings. Years went by, the memory faded and for all intents and purposes my encounter with Han was forgotten. It was only recently as Bojan mentioned wanting to add an outdoor section to the website that I remembered his prophetic words.
So its almost Spring, snow is blanketing much of the land and HHS1971 is rolling out a complete line of outdoor display products for your perusal. No matter what sort of message you need to communicate, we can help. Weather resistant? Got it. Wind resistant? Got it. Volcano resistant? Okay maybe we don’t got it, our apologies to Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest.
In all seriousness, if you have an outdoor graphic/signage need, please take a look here. We’d love to help you outside with the same quality and attention to detail we’ve given you inside.
Truth be told, Han may have said “in the Spring, when snowfalls blanket the land, it is then you shall offer three leaves and grain of rice,” but I am pretty sure I remember him saying “a complete line of outdoor display products.”
Crocodile Tears
In an effort to further peel back the curtain and grant a glimpse of my personal life, part of my new years resolution to post more content on this blog, I offer the following:
Last night I sent an email to a friend of mine whining about how each day seems to bring fresh new evidence of how little I really know.
The two examples I gave were the crocodile from Peter Pan and the pen knife. You all probably know this already but the crocodile who swallowed the clock and chases Hook from one end of Neverland to the other, represents time or mortality and its relentless pursuit of man, hunting him down with a tick tick tick until he is finally chomped. The pen knife on the other hand, is called a pen knife because it was originally used to sharpen quills, the original pens.
I’ve seen Peter Pan as well as Hook numerous time and never made the connection. I’ve owned and used pen knives for years and never wondered why it was called a pen knife. How I can be thirty eight years old and this ignorant is beyond me.
So I fired off an email from my phone to a friend, lamenting my retched state. Did he offer a Socratic pronouncement about how the road to wisdom begins with a humble acknowledge of one’s own ignorance? No. Instead he sent this:
Not a lot of hope for you, I’m afraid. You’re telling me that – when considering the story of an ageless, forever-boy, who lives in “Neverland,” the idea that a ticking clock in the bowels of a reptilian monster represents mortality – this idea never occurred to you?
And as far as the etymology of “pen knife” goes, a passing familiarity with Old French should suffice to inform the average observer that the word penne – meaning the feather of a bird, or quill – had simply been contracted in English to ‘pen’ to describe the writing instrument of the past. Sheesh!
I suppose its helpful to know, prior to digitally self immolating via email, which friends throw water and which throw gas.
That being said, I will conclude by offering a movie recommendation for Finding Neverland. A little late to the party, I know, but it really is a wonderful movie and if you have not seen it, rent it. Prepare to cry like a baby, not a croc.
Which reminds me, RIP Steve, life was better with you around.
Buffing Up Some Buff Seasoned Babes.
Posted by Craig in case studies, new projects on January 18th, 2010
Managing client’s artwork files is consistently one of our biggest challenges. The proliferation of different types of files contribute to said challenges. When it comes to understanding file types, we cheekily divide most people into three categories. Those who understand the difference between vector and raster files, those who don’t and those we call The Digitized. They think that anything that has been digitized can be blown up and printed at any size they want. (“Don’t worry, it’s DIGITIZED!”) Throw ad agencies into the mix and things get even more interesting. Multiple parties, from multiple camps, all participating in the process, all insisting they know what can be done and all sure their expectations are reasonable. Phew!
Recently one of our clients came in requesting a 20′ display backdrop from a single image. Expecting the worst we were pleasantly surprised when the original file actually seemed scalable to the size we needed. The display is a fabric backwall, and fabric tends to be a little more forgiving when it comes to resolution, so we were feeling pretty good. “One more thing,” the client added (here it comes, wait for it, wait for it…) “we want you to remove the text on the banner and replace it with different text. “No problem, I’m pretty sure we have a magic eraser around here somewhere…
Buff seasoned babes aside (Shades is my personal favorite), we set to work and the results were, dare I say… Impressive. Following are the images before, during and after the alteration.
Here is the original image with the original text:
The client requested we remove the the text from the banner and insert new text. A bit of a challenge considering the wrinkles and the shading (on the banner, sheesh). It’s one thing to do a little photoshop work on a small image that is going to only be viewed on a screen. Making it look good at 10′ X 20′ is another.
This is what it looked like once we removed the text:
And finally, the finished product with the new text:
Here are some close ups of the before, during and after stages:
We have yet to receive the show shots of the finished display in all its glory. When we do we will follow up with a post to show what the finished product looked like. It turned out really cool and the client was pleased.
If you have a project requiring digital manipulation of artwork and large format printing, please consider giving us a call.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Seasons Greetings!
Posted by Craig in Uncategorized on December 23rd, 2009
Well, as usual, we have been slow about posting new content on the blog. As much as that seems to be a universal problem, it’s no excuse. One of our first corporate revolutions (we prefer making revolutions as opposed to resolutions) for the new year is going to be something about being faithful to post consistently on the blog in 2010.
2009 has been a good year for us in spite of an overall down economy. We continue to work with some wonderful people who work for some great companies and we are very, very grateful for your patronage this year. We look forward with great anticipation to 2010 and will endeavor to continue to provide you all with the products and services you have become accustomed to.
For now, Bojan and I would like to wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year. May this time be a time of blessing, rest and rejuvenation for you all and may the coming year bring you happiness, joy and peace in every aspect of your lives.
HHS in the Catbird Seat.
Posted by Craig in case studies, new projects on September 23rd, 2009
One of the greatest things about our jobs is the fact that we have no target market. Not saying everybody needs what we sell but in just about every industry, there is somebody who needs portable visual branding of one sort or another. This can also be a major headache when we are trying to figure out who to contact next, but the cool part about it is that we get to work with people who do and make all sorts of interesting things.
Case in point is a project we wrapped up today for a company called VS America. VS America is a US subsidiary of a German company that makes, among other things, chairs for educational institutions. You can learn more about what they do here. I do not know all the technical reasons why their chairs are the bomb, but I like their design and they are actually really comfortable to sit in. Their office, in the South End area of Charlotte, has a very Teutonic aesthetic to it and staffed by interesting people with German accents. It’s like working in an Audi. Very cool.
Portable display and banner stand for VS America
The displays we provided fall into the portable category with two 10′ units that can be used separately for two 10′ spaces or together for a 20′ space. In the picture above you can see one of the displays set up with the second display, collapsed down, on the left. On the right is one of the banner stands behind one of VS’s chairs.
The displays are incredibly lightweight and can be set up in seconds. They have interchangeable graphics which can be swapped out depending on the requirements for the particular show. In this case they were designed primarily as a backdrop for showcasing the furniture. The banner stands, are also lightweight and are retractable for easy assembly, storage and shipping.
Portable display and banner stand for VS America from a slightly different angle.
If you want to spend more time at your next show selling and less time setting up (and crush the competition with your sharp looking display) then call us and we will hook you up. If you need some really cool furniture for your office or school, call VS and they will hook you up.
(For those of you still with me and interested in the etymology of the term catbird seat, click here.)
Rocking it With Bioboard!
Posted by Craig in new projects on August 25th, 2009
We just finished another job for our friends at A3. This one is kind of unique so I am breaking with my tradition of taking forever to get a post up and rushing this one to the presses.
The job was a quick turn, about two days, and consisted of several direct prints on bioboard and some custom sintra brackets to mount them on top of retail merchandising displays. Bioboard is a really cool, new, green substrate that we like, and want to get the word out about. It’s basically a replacement for foamcore, but much much stronger. You can drive a car over three 1″ sheets of the stuff stacked on top of each other! It is made of something like 63% post consumer paper and is 100% recyclable. You can print on both sides.
The only knock on the product, I personally kind of like it, is the edge. It looks pretty raw, but at the same time screams green. Most of the people we have showed it to really like it becuase it is a conversation starter and allows them to wax fantastic on how environmentally conscious they are.
The brackets were router cut out of sintra, assembled and velcroed to the back of the sign. The velcro allows the brackets to be repositioned so that they can sit higher or lower on the display.
It was a tight turn, but we got it done and the client was pleased. If you think you may be interested in doing something with the bioboard, give us a call. As always, we will hook you up.
The Root! The Root! The Root is on Fire!
Posted by Craig in general interest, grab bag on August 25th, 2009
I spent about sixty minutes last night rooting my T-Mobile G1 and it (so far) has been an unqualified success. For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, I’ll explain.
The G1 is the first mobile phone to use the Google Android OS (operating system). The good news is that Android is open source and developers are free to to write whatever kind of apps they want for it. The bad news is that T-Mobile takes the OS and adds a bunch of junk to it and then releases updates for it in their own sweet time. Very similar to what Dell does with Windows. When you buy a computer from Dell, you get a Windows OS but it is a Dell modified version. That way you get all those annoying programs on your desktop when you start it up for the first time.
Rooting is the process of replacing the version of Android on a phone with a different version . There are all sorts of available versions from a number of different people with names like JesusFreke, The Dude’s Cupcake and Haykuro Builds. Some are highly volatile and not good for everyday phone use. Others are quite stable and provide an expanded group of features not available with the stock OS.
It’s a bit risky and if anything goes wrong you can’t go crying to T-mobile, you have to turn to the online community for help. But I am now liberated from the control of T-Mobile, setting up my phone the way I want and there is something to be said for that. It really isn’t any harder than upgrading the OS on a computer. If you are so inclined, I suggest you give it a try.
Interestingly enough, my wife wouldn’t let me near her phone. Chicken.
Getting Our Vinyl Groove On
Posted by Craig in new projects on August 24th, 2009
Woefully behind on posting. I will try to make it up this week. I know I need to get on some sort of regular schedule but the nature of our work makes it oh so difficult.
We recently completed a really cool direct applied vinyl and dimensional lettering project. The project for Bagby, a purveyor of “innovative ideas for lighting” was designed by our friends at A3 Design. The firm is top notch and Alan and Amanda are a pleasure to work with. We enjoyed partnering with them on this project and look forward to doing so again.
The design they came up with used solid colors of direct applied vinyl and painted sintra letters to add some interesting graphical elements to the interior and exterior of the new office/design center. The overall effect is similar to custom paint but at a fraction of the price. It’s durable, low maintenance and can be removed/changed/updated/added to down the road. The use of dark vinyl on light walls and viceversa really makes the graphics pop.
We really like the overall look of the finished project and would love to do some more. If this catches your eye, let us know and we will hook you up.
Notes on Attending the Charlotte Business Professionals’ July Meeting
Posted by Craig in general interest, new projects on July 23rd, 2009
Bojan and I had the pleasure of attending the Charlotte Business Professional’s July Meeting last night at Andrew Blair’s over on Monford Drive. The speaker for the meeting was Democratic Mayoral Candidate Anthony Foxx. The event was well attended, and consisted of an hour or so of meet and greet followed by the candidate’s speech and some Q&A. Hats off to Jason Mckinstry and friends for their hard work in making it all happen. For those of you who don’t know anything about Charlotte Business Professionals, I encourage you to take a look at their website and consider joining up. In these tough economic times, the more people you know, the better, and these are some great people.
At the risk of mixing business and politics, I have a few thoughts to share regarding Mr. Foxx, but before I get to those I want to make a shameless plug for one of our products.
We were fortunate to be able to work with Charlotte Business Professionals to provide a backdrop for the speech which, I believe, really added something to the production. The display used was one of our Xpressions displays, used partially as a media backdrop and partially as a way to display sponsor advertising. These displays set up in seconds, are very light weight because of the tension fabric, and are a great way to frame any sort of public event.
Our sponsor panel, was simple but cool and we received quite a few compliments on the display overall. BTW, the display was designed in such a way as to be able to add sponsor logos in the future so if you are interested in being a sponsor please contact Jason for more information. (My apologies for the quality of the photo, the lighting was terrible.)
On to my comments about Mr. Foxx. Leaning Libertarian as I do, I generally am in favor of candidates who represent the potential for as little government intrusion into my life as possible. Traditionally, fewer Democrats, rather than more, fall into this category. This was essentially my first introduction to Mr. Foxx and where he stands on issues that are important to me, I do not know. I am, however, rather pleased with several things he had to say but most importantly I am impressed by how he said them.
I did not take notes and I do not have an audio recording of the speech so I cannot quote him directly. I can say that one of the things that I found most refreshing was that he actually answered the questions that people asked him rather than deflecting them and tangentially addressing another subject. I found him to be determined, sincere, informed, frank, honest and dare I say, real. Again, it was my first introduction to him and I do not know what his positions are on most issues, but he struck me as somebody I would be willing to listen to and could work with. Given my political cynicism, that is a great start.
Of course my response could just be the effect of being in his physical presence. If he did not have the capacity to convey trust, he wouldn’t be in the running. At any rate, I was pleased to meet him and grateful for the opportunity to hear something about his life, where he has come from, and where he wants to take the city. I look forward to learning more.
The Charlotte Business Professionals’ meeting for August will feature the Republican Mayoral Candidate and I look forward to attending and meeting him as well. Hope to see you there.
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