The other day we received a note from someone who had recently taken a workshop at SVC. Her point we simply to say thanks for what she thought was a great, valuable experience. What senders of notes may never realize is how much some real words put on an actual sheet of paper with a U.S. Postage stamp on the envelope mean to us — and to most people, we suspect.

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It’s not especially easy to get a design or web job in the best of times, and these days, it’s even more of a challenge. But it’s not impossible to land a good spot. It simply requires a little extra planning and effort.

Here are some thoughts from SVC on how you can move to the front of the hiring line whether you’re a freelancer, an experienced designer, or someone just getting out of school. [Read more →]

While he doesn’t write specifically for the marketing communications and design world, we’re struck by how often Seth Godin’s fine blog hits home with the issues of our industry. Thus, we couldn’t pass on passing along his words of wisdom to those of us who don’t have a full plate right now. And here they are:

Slack

A lot of corporations have seen dramatic decreases in revenue and have cut back projects as well. In many cases, this is accompanied by layoffs, and so everyone is working far harder.

But in other organizations, and for a lot of freelancers, there’s more time than work. In other words, slack time.

Assume for a moment you don’t have money to develop and launch something new. So, what are you going to do with the slack? [Read more →]

While most of the posts here are about business practices, we don’t often stop to examine the most important practice of all: being decent human beings.

The other day, we came across these wonderful words from Curtis Clarkson, the editor of CMYK, the magazine for aspiring design and advertising professionals. We couldn’t have put it any better, so we didn’t even try:

“Success is far more than talent and luck and how much you pull down every two weeks or how many awards you have in a glass case, or the size of your office… [Read more →]