Fish
Red doors.
Happy Easter from Team Wertz.
i dont care about my business @gmail.com
This post was originally posted on March 23, 2016 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
All professionals need a personalized email address and a home on the web. And Gmail accounts and Facebook pages don’t count.
I saw a branding consultant recently without a branded email address. Who hires a brand consultant who doesn’t invest in their own brand? I saw a company trying to recruit managers… just email an AOL account. (In case you are wondering, the company wasn’t recruiting for AOL.) I was trying to find out information on a store in town and all they had was a Facebook page that hadn’t been updated in a couple of months. I don’t really care what your business is — from a home-based business to a large corporation — if you don’t have a real email address with your own domain name, I’m less likely to take you seriously. And if your only web presence is a Facebook page, you don’t have a real business.
Look. I get it. It’s easy to get by with the free accounts. A penny saved is a penny earned. Absolutely. But investing in a domain name and a Google apps account? It’s not that expensive. Without your own domain, you send a message to all your clients and potential clients that you can’t or won’t invest in your own company.
It used to take some effort to get on the Web a decade ago, but now, services like Squarespace provide great solutions for small businesses and take care of hosting, e-commerce and more. Like Gmail? That’s fine. You can customize your address with Google Apps. Other services like Hover can help you get your domain and email set up. There are seriously hundreds of services to help you look professional. It’s not that hard and not that expensive.
Having a professional online appearance is every bit as important as dressing appropriately or speaking intelligently. It’s a necessary investment that lets people know that you are serious about your business.
Unless you aren’t serious about your business. And then, I guess, any email address or website will do.
Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
Quick Tip: InDesign out of order
This post was originally posted on March 16, 2016 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
NOTE: While this page may have useful insights, be aware that it was published more than 10 years ago and may not be relevant for current software versions.
I wanted to create a PDF of some pages in an InDesign document, but I needed them in a different order in the exported PDF — page three followed by page two. I know, weird. So I was going to make the PDF and then rearrange the pages in Acrobat.
But as I was exporting the PDF, I wondered what would happen if I typed exactly what I wanted in the page range field. I typed “3,2” and hit the export button expecting an error message…
Magically, my PDF outputted correctly with page three first, followed by page two. Mind. Blown.
To export these in order, type “2-4, 1” in the page range field and the exported PDF will be in the correct reading order.
Turns out the range field has other tricks, too. I tried “3,2,4,3,2” expecting it to give me an error message. Nope. The resulting PDF had all five pages, in that order… including the multiple pages.
The most practical use for this little trick is when you’ve set up a brochure with the back cover and front cover on the same spread and want to export the pages in the order a viewer will see them. Typically page 4 is first, followed by 1-3. So type “2-4, 1” in the page range field and the PDF will export in the correct reading order.
It’s a nice touch. And I had no idea the feature was there.
New j-school patio
Do not block door.
The kitchen sink
This post was originally posted on March 8, 2016 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
My garbage disposal started leaking last week. And considering how old it is, I needed to replace it. Badly.
So I went to the store to pick up a new garbage disposal… and decided that if I was going to take out the disposal, now would be a perfect time to replace a leaky faucet, too. And while I was at it, maybe I should replace the kitchen sink. All of these things needed doing and if I was going to do one of them, it made sense to tackle them all. (Keeping in mind, of course, that I’ve never replaced a faucet or a sink before…)
After many hours and several trips to the store, the kitchen is back together and everything works.
The process was challenging. I wanted to quit repeatedly. More than a few choice words were spoken. My hands are torn up. My shoulder hurts.
But now it’s done. I’m proud of the work. I’m glad I did it. It looks much better than the old sink. The disposal and faucet don’t leak. Even though it took longer than I expected, it was worth the investment of time and energy.
I chose a harder, but more ambitious path. And as I struggled, I questioned my decision. I was frustrated and bruised. My confidence wavered. I wondered if I could turn back the clock and undo the initial decision to tackle a massively challenging project.* And it was only in the end that you see if the effort was truly worth it.
This is true in home improvement. But it’s also completely true with relationships, design, parenting and just about everything. We take on big responsibilities. We struggle. We lose confidence. We want to quit. We question our decisions and assumptions. We lose sight of the big goal. And unlike my kitchen sink, sometimes these big picture challenges take more than just a Sunday afternoon. They require investments of months and years.
I’m often guilty of losing sight of the big goal. It’s easy to get caught up with the challenges and frustrations. To convince myself that I’ll never overcome the barriers in front of me. I personally need to be better about keeping the battle in perspective. And most of all, I need to stay focused on why I started the journey in the first place.
* Seriously, at that point, time travel seemed a more rational path forward. It wasn’t going well.
Pat Conroy, Commencement Speaker
This post was originally posted on March 5, 2016 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
I’ve attended a lot of graduations over the years and heard many bad commencement speeches. Most are forgettable. Some were memorably bad.* But few are great.
I was lucky enough to have Pat Conroy as my commencement speaker when I graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1997. It was a perfect graduation speech. Powerful. Insightful. Heartfelt. Short.
Pat Conroy died yesterday from pancreatic cancer. He was without a doubt a great writer, but to me, he’ll always be the person who put an exclamation point on my college experience.
I searched to find a transcript or video of the speech.** It doesn’t seem to exist anywhere online, but I did find a passage that was shared in a NY Times article on the commencements of 1997:
I send you out into the world now, Class of 1997, with this admonition. You have graduated from a great university. Now make this university, this state, yourself and your family proud, and if you have a little luck — if you have any luck at all — if you do it right, there is a great possibility you can teach the whole world how to dance.
* George Will was my wife’s graduation speaker.
** Looks like the University of South Carolina may have a transcript in Pat Conroy’s papers. It just doesn’t appear to be online, yet.
Three years ago today, I came home to my alma mater to serve as creative director. I feel lucky to work with a great team and for a university I love. #uofsc
Team Wertz is exhausted after a tough Gamecock loss.
Stack of Silver Addys. Proud of my awesome team.
Is someone missing a pet… emu? He’s hanging out beside Koon Road.
A great little pen shop in Asheville.
Biltmore.
Stealing time
This post was originally posted on January 12, 2016 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
2015 was a long year for me. Literally. My 2015 was three hours longer than 2014 because I rang in the new year on the West Coast. For me, 2015 was 365 days and 3 hours long.
But here’s the thing with stealing time. You don’t get extra time, you have to steal it from somewhere. My 2016 will be three hours shorter1 — unless I celebrate the new year in a different time zone again.
I have lots of projects on my plate at any given time. Add to that my family, my job, organizations, teaching and more. (And oh yeah, I start grad school this week.) I’m always stealing time from somewhere.
I’ve been bad about stealing time from sleep. I tend to stay up late and get a lot done after the kids go to bed. But I need to dial that back and get to bed a little earlier each night. I’m aiming for an extra hour of sleep a night, which doesn’t sound like much until you realize that’s 7 hours a week… roughly 15 days over the course of a year. So I’ve got to make some adjustments.
Right now, my plan is to be more efficient and make the most of the time I have. Maybe I’ll be more effective working with more sleep. But efficiency will only get me part of the way.
After that, it’s about prioritizing my projects and commitments. We’ll see what projects make the cut and which ones go on the back burner.
Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. His blogging journey started in 2008 with a Squarespace hosted blog.
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Actually, 2016 will be longer than 2015 because it’s a leap year. ↩︎
Time to put away the Christmas decorations. Ruby NOT happy.
Weary travelers. #home
Working our way across the country.
Torches
