With nearly EVERYTHING being transformed to a digital or online medium, there’s a lot of discussion about whether the physical novel will be phased out along with other art forms. We already see newspapers and magazines converting, and music did a long time ago. I don’t think it’s absurd to believe novels are next, but I’m going to hold on to the hope that they remain sacred enough to keep around as physical objects.

But honestly, what is the argument for books being preserved over music or newspapers? They cost more, they are just as difficult to steal (kidding. I mean I’m sure they are, but..), carrying many of them at once is difficult, the actual content is not compromised when transferred to digital—sounds like it might be a lost cause.

Think about the tangible qualities of a novel: You can write notes in the margins, underline parts, dog-ear pages, use memorabilia as bookmarks. And what about the wear and tear a favorite book displays as a badge of honor after years of reading and rereading? Or there’s the pungent scent of the breeze created from flipping pages—differing with a book’s age and the materials it was made from, conveying an unknown history of where the words may have been.

Do these compare to characteristics of other endangered artifacts of artistic expression? I think vinyl’s come close to possessing the novel’s venerable status, but then again I also still covet a large collection of those. I’m 22 and I’ve had many options for playing music throughout my life, but I don’t think CDs and cassette tapes have the palpable aesthetic qualities of an old (or new) record. Something about the process—removing a large fragile vinyl disc from a sleeve, with music delicately etched into its surface, all encased in a cardboard canvas of sorts. Then, having to carefully place a needle on it to receive the auditory pleasure and remain present and attentive to flip it—the ritual aspect of listening to a record is inherently more special than the action of opening a plastic case and shoving more plastic into still more plastic. And listening to vinyl is certainly more satisfying than pressing a button on a hunk of metal smaller than your hand, not to mention the differences in sonic quality, the warm analog hiss versus the compressed mp3s streaming from an iPod.

Anyway, back to books. There’s also the fact that novels have endured for so long. The earliest work that’s been called the first novel is from 1470, while the earliest known modern sound recording is from 1859. And the novel has arguably gone through more technological stages than music when considering all the different printing, paper type, and distribution advancements. Perhaps it’s here to stay?

All that said, I’m more than willing to imagine the exciting possibilities of fully digitized storytelling. I’m not too well read on the subject (har har), but I see a lot of design options coming into play with e-books. Each page could have a unique background or margin design. Different fonts could be used throughout, or for different speakers. Colors could be abundant and illustrative, pictures could become more commonplace, or there could even be interactive elements. Maybe you could combine the words and pictures and sounds and have the words spoken out loud or with the pictures moving or … oh wait, that’s called a movie.

Not to be too cynical—I do think there are some serious opportunities for innovative design work within digital books. I also think that what makes it so plausible (and perhaps why none of these design ideas are commonly implemented in printed versions) is the money saved when you get rid of all printing costs.

But I ask you, Future, please leave the printed novel be, like you’ve done with … I don’t know… walking? Or not.

It’s baseball season, and for Detroit Tigers fans, we hope, the Year of the Tiger (yes, after a seven-game losing streak, there is still hope). In honor of the Great American Pastime, I want to talk about some of the words and phrases in (American) English that have come to us courtesy of baseball:

• Out in / out of left field – Out in left field is used to refer to someone whose ideas or actions are, according to Answers.com, “a little crazy.” There are various theories for the origin of this phrase, two of which have to do with the New York Yankees, so I will not discuss them here. (The Yankees get enough attention, most of it undeserved.) One of the other theories is interesting: Before the Chicago Cubs moved to Wrigley Field, they played at Chicago’s second West Side Park, which was later bought by the University of Illinois College of Medicine. Eventually, U of I built its Neuropsychiatric unit on what had been West Park’s left field. You can connect the dots from there. A related phrase means something unexpected happening, as in, “Wow, that came out of left field.” When a runner is traveling from third base trying to score, he may be thrown out at home plate by a ball delivered by the left fielder, whom the runner has his back to and therefore can’t see.
• Drop the ball – OK, so this expression could refer to multiple sports—basketball, football, even dodgeball. Now I’m curious about whether the phrase truly did originate in baseball. Excuse me just a moment while I check … I’m back. There’s no real agreement on the origin of the phrase, probably because it’s so generic. In any case, if you do drop the ball while you’re attempting to catch a fly one, throw a baserunner out, or catch a wild pitch, chances are good it’ll come back to haunt you later. Big-time.
• Three strikes and you’re out – This one is pretty self-explanatory, but let’s give it a positive spin, shall we? If you watch any great match-up between a pitcher and a hitter, you’ll see that the hitter actually gets an unlimited number of chances to hit the ball (not only three), as long as he can “stay alive” by getting a piece of it, or hitting the ball foul. Foul balls only count as strikes up to the second one—strike three must be a swinging strike. So, you’ll hear sports announcers say a hitter has a “great at-bat” if he can extend the number of pitches the pitcher throws him to eight, ten or even a dozen. There’s a life lesson here, so excuse me if I sound like a self-help expert for a moment: In real life, as in baseball, you get more than three chances. Just keep trying to get a piece of the ball. And don’t swing at the really bad pitches.
• Threw me a curveball – We’ve all had the  experience of someone hitting us with an unpleasant surprise, whether it takes the shape of a last-minute meeting at work, a late-night phone call or a breakup announcement delivered by that most sensitive of social media, Facebook. Yup, someone just threw us a curveball, and our first response is often to throw the darn thing back, only harder. The trajectory of the curveball is north-to-south (like a rainbow’s arc), so it has the effect of dropping suddenly as it crosses home plate, leaving hitters swinging at the place they thought the ball was going to be. Here’s the thing to remember about curveballs: pitchers don’t throw them to hit batters, but to unbalance them. Maybe that’s true of life’s curveballs, too, even though they do sometimes hurt. (See a video about Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander’s curveball.)
• Hit a home run or Hit it out of the park – People use this as a compliment: “Wow, Joe, you really hit it out of the park with that idea.” If you’re a frequent home run hitter, chances are you’ll be welcome on any team. All home runs aren’t alike in importance, though all are exciting. The more runners there are on base, the more meaningful a home run is; a grand slam garners the hitter’s team four runs. So, while “hitting it out of the park” (that is, hitting the ball over the stands) is a display of a hitter’s power, it’s more significant to hit a home run with runners on base. Another thing about home runs: the more of them a hitter produces, the more strikeouts he is likely to have—case in point, Babe Ruth. He had 714 career home runs and nearly twice as many strikeouts at 1330. The moral of the story has been repeated multiple times, but I’ll restate it here: You have to take a lot of big swings in order to hit home runs. Sometimes you’ll miss, but sometimes you’ll hit it out of the park.
• For you Tigers fans, here’s your very own list of baseball names and words that, taken as a group, are probably only meaningful to you: Mags, Miggy, Cabby, Gibby, Sparky, Ernie, Pudge, JV, DD, Game 163, Jim Joyce, Paws, 1968, Rod & Mario, Jim & Dan, and finally, “near-perfect game.”

I could write about the marketing aspect of baseball, but that gets into unknown (foul?) territory. I just love the game itself, and don’t want to bother myself with all the moneymaking and shaking going on. Now I’m off to see if the Tigers can break their losing streak and head toward first place again!

As a long-time partner of Hile Design’s, Chris Hippler develops powerful, strategically-driven copy for every writing project we send his way. After a 20-year career in the creative departments of ad agencies that included J. Walter Thompson and BBDO Detroit, Chris has refined his expertise in the B2B arena. He was the Midwest Office Manager of Pratt & Buehl, an Atlanta, Georgia B2B ad agency, where he managed the Yazaki North America account as well as the Yanmar America account in Chicago.

The difference between B2C (business-to-consumer) and B2B (business-to-business) language is night and day. And not knowing the difference can make your nights awfully long. Glad-handing and cajoling may be a part of the relationship between a salesman and a client. But in B2B copy, it’s all business. Here are five keys to make sure your B2B copy gets read—and acted upon.

Be an Expert. In B2B copy, you must position yourself as a credible expert. People don’t want to be sold; they want information that is relevant to their business. If you talk with authority about the subject you’re writing about, people will read with interest.

Be Real. Don’t be cheesy. If the copy gets an employee excited but he’s afraid to show it to his boss, you’re never going to get the order.

Be Believable. If you’re selling to engineers, accountants or lawyers and you over-promise, you’re dead meat. As soon as you say something that’s not believable, they stop reading. Consumers will put up with hype; business people won’t.

Be Rational. Business people will buy on emotion, but not on pure emotion. They need to justify their purchases to each other, so your marketing materials must give them sound reasons for it.

Be Factual. In B2B, you have to back up everything you say with hard facts. Otherwise you will be perceived as a blowhard.

Jesse Den Herder is the owner of DenHerder Design, an award winning “working class” design studio located in Northern Michigan. By striving to bring an unpretentious approach to design and a strong work ethic to every type of project, he has been able to work remotely for clients from coast to coast.

When Dave first asked me to write about my approach to logo design, I thought it would also be an opportunity to discuss my thoughts on the current state of such a valuable craft. With the rise of crowdsourcing, websites that claim $99 logos and everyone with a Mac trying to be a designer, creative logo design has the possibility of becoming compromised. This has however created an opportunity for good designers to re-affirm the value of their expertise to clients.

However, just being a good designer isn’t enough to get viable work anymore. As designers we have to constantly plead our case that good design = good ROI, which is easier said than done. One of the ways I’ve been able to separate my skills from low-ball logo designers, is by educating my clients concerning my design process. Much like a math teacher sharing their process for an algebraic equation, so I believe the designer should lay out the route from which the successful logo design is achieved.

Here are some steps I use when creating a new logo/identity:

1. Get a clear objective of what the logo needs to accomplish. Understand who the company/brand is:  past present and future, mission statement, etc.  Whenever possible I like to have the client fill out a “creative strategy” form, to help guide their vision and minimize development time.

2. Market Research: After reviewing the client’s needs and objectives, I study competitors’ logos, and industry trends in general, both past and present.

I’m always surprised by how many clients neglect this step when considering their corporate identity. While as a designer I’m not technically hired to be a business consultant, a good designer owes it to the client to understand the market for which they are designing.

3. Preliminary sketches/brainstorming: I always take a typographical approach to creating a logo, be it a logotype (a logo that includes a graphic) or wordmark (a type-only design). For at least 30 minutes I’ll sketch on paper all the ideas that come to my mind: words, illustration, whatever.

4. Take the best 5 sketches and continue to refine. Then I bring the sketches into digital form. I prefer to start logo projects in Adobe Ilustrator. I try to find a typeface family close to my sketched concepts, or I’ll create a font from scratch.

5. Even when designing a multi-color logo, always make sure the logo will reproduce successfully in black and white.

6. Present 3 good options for first review. It really depends on the client, but I have generally found that showing more than 3 options can be problematic.

7. Testing: Finally I make sure the client’s logo will translate well into all types of media including print, web, corporate identity, etc.

Over the years I’ve refined this approach and applied it to many other types of projects as well as logo design. It can be sometimes be tempting to skip a few of these steps, but I’ve learned the hard way that my end product is a direct result of adhering to my process.  Weak process = weak work.

I’ve often heard excuses from fellow designers that “I’m not getting paid enough to be really creative,” or, “It’s up to the client to do the market research.” From my perspective, if a client isn’t going to compensate me to do my job thoroughly, it’s not a project worth taking. In the long run a designer’s reputation is more valuable than a quick payout. It’s important we always view our work as a valuable business asset for our clients, and it’s equally important that they too see our value as well. I think the famous designer Primo Angeli said it best: “…time and money. Without them, design is mere decoration. Neither good design nor fine art.”

To learn and see more, visit http://www.denherderdesign.com/ or visit Jesse’s blog at http://www.workingclassdesigner.com/

Hile Design LLC has been contracted for a rebranding of University Islamic Financial Corp. UIFC, the first Islamic banking subsidiary run entirely on Shariah (Islamic canonical law) principles, will examine its marketable strengths through Hile’s Key Discovery process. Through brand perception surveys and select interviews, Hile will develop a brand strategy for University Islamic Financial, including marketing and advertising initiatives.

Based in Ann Arbor, University Islamic Financial strives to provide complete Shariah-compliant products to be the financial institution of choice for the Muslim community in the United States.

Lead Illustrator Dave Hile has completed the cover of Mystery of the Temple Court, a new book from Christian publishing company Kregel. The book is the fourth in a series of family-oriented fictional adventure stories that feature interrelated characters and correspond to sections of the Gospel account of Christ’s life. The books include Jotham’s Journey (1997), Bartholomew’s Passage (2002) and Tabitha’s Travels (2003) and are authored by Arnold Ytreeide, but the three previous books had gone out of print and the original publisher had gone out of business. However, Ytreeide’s stories remained sought after on ebay and other used book sources and grew such a dedicated following that Kregel took notice and bought the rights in 2008 to begin reissuing the series.

Kregel, based in Grand Rapids, plans to release the new Mystery of the Temple Court in the Fall of this year.

To see the other books in the series and for more information, go to http://store.kregel.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=2100.

Each year, the American Dialect Society, which is a board of linguists, lexicographers, etymologists, historians, grammarians and other qualified individuals, publishes a list of “Word of the Year” nominations. It can be quite entertaining and it’s generally a good reflection of contemporary American culture. As expected, the trend for the last few years is that the nominations have been increasingly tech-related, especially with regard to social networking. However, at the end of 2009 it was time to decide on the word of the decade.

Here is the list of nominees, who can guess the winner?

9/11

blog

google

green

text

war on terror

And the winner is…

Read the rest of this entry »

Hile Design will be continuing their partnership with Baker Strategy Group as they redesign Baker’s website. Based in Ann Arbor, Baker manages their clients’ strategy for product and service innovation through an outward focus on target customers. Baker recently implemented a brand perception survey and analysis for Hile’s rebranding of design-build and construction management company Barton Malow. Hile and Baker remain engaged in ongoing projects.

The new website will have a more progressive look and feel to reflect Baker’s expertise and corporate growth.