Entermotion feed

Out for Turkey Day.

2009-11-24T18:00:40Z

As you might expect, we won’t be here Thursday or Friday because of Thanksgiving. But if you really need help with something or find yourself in a hopeless website fiasco, please e-mail us at info@entermotion.com and we’ll do our best to take care of your needs!

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Word on Client Service.

2009-11-17T15:54:34Z

“Great work entails risk. Most clients do not want to take risks; they prefer a safe retreat into the world of the merely good, or worse, the dismissively average. Still, if they are going to take that risk, they are much more likely to do so with agency people they trust. And trust is the very foundation of a great relationship. And that’s why I say a great relationship leads to great work … Some of what follows (in this book) is about working with agencies, but most of it is about building client trust.

“And this, in the end, is why client service matters. It matters because the work matters. And creating great work is what drives and inspires all of us every day.”

- Robert Solomon, The Art of Client Service

The Short Version of How to be a Great AE

2009-11-16T15:51:06Z

Well, perhaps this isn’t the short version, but the only version:

“It’s become apparent that you are excellent at making the clients feel their needs are being met, but Mr. Cosgrove has the rare gift of making them feel as if they haven’t any needs.” - Lane Pryce, to Pete Campbell.

Where’s this from? You guessed it, Mad Men.

Write About What You Do.

2009-11-12T16:01:11Z

We know our industry pretty well. We also know that we learn every day. So we write about what we do. We’ve found lots of clarity in writing about our business. It’s had a lot of subtle effects that are becoming more apparent as time goes on.

Writing helps you crystalize your ideas.

It helps you take a stand on topics. Forcing yourself to put your thoughts into words makes you decide how you want to be seen by your clients, and by your employees. It’s a cathartic process. Coming up with the perfect word to describe what you’re writing about can be salubrious. You’re defining your business and pinning down the adjectives that make it what it is. You can think all day long, but when it comes to actually formulating those thoughts, it can be tough sometimes. Writing helps.

Story Time!

2009-11-11T19:09:35Z

What’s the story of Coca-cola, or Hewlett Packard? What’s the story of BMW? We’re not asking about the history of the company, or the founders. What we mean is, what story have you told yourself about those brands and what they mean? Is the management at BMW rigorous about quality? Cutting edge design? Are they a bunch of obsessive Bavarians that get a buzz out of driving fast on the Autobahn, making their engines growl?

What on earth gave you that idea? It was advertising actually…

We don’t know of anyone who doesn’t like to be told a good story. One that’s engaging, and interesting. One that’s believable. It’s entertaining, and because of this, most people will repeat it or at least act on it. That’s where marketing comes in.

The 5 Things All Studios are Afraid of, and How We Remedy Them.

2009-11-10T21:00:00Z

Giving out pricing

We’ve toyed for a very long time with opening up our pricing system. To be quite honest, we can nail down the exact cost of many jobs through a fairly formulaic process. It would take a day or two to apply programming to this http://entermotion.com/estimates to make it give you exact numbers. We could even assign a percentage multiplier to account for how busy we are at any given time adjusting rates accordingly.

We haven’t done it for one reason. To assign direct pricing to our services commoditizes them. We sell our creativity by the hour; nothing less, nothing more. We empathize quite directly with our potential clients who desire a starting place in regards to pricing, but it just can’t be done while staying true to the original intent of our business.

Getting Inside Don Draper's Head

2009-11-09T18:47:35Z

We recently had a conversation in the office about the show Mad Men, particularly about Don Draper. We noted that while Don certainly seems to have his professional life together (most of the time), his personal life is a completely different story. He is authoritative and sure of himself at work, but as soon as he steps through the front door of his home, he’s thinking of leaving again. He seems to have it all- the beautiful wife, the well-behaved children, the big house, a liquor cabinet in every room. But man, he just can’t get it together.

Then we talked about how it’s interesting that people can focus so intensely on something and become good at it. Then sometimes their brains sort of give up on thinking so hard, and the easiest tasks become difficult when they’re away from the office.

Productivity Away From the Office Desk.

2009-11-05T19:48:27Z

Monday thru Friday, for about eight hours each day, you’ll find some of us in the office. But that’s not the case for others of us. As we’ve mentioned in previous posts, we’re stationed all over the place, including overseas. It’s not just us. More and more people are embracing the flexibility their jobs offer, and doing their best work at home. There are elements of being at home that are drastically different than being in the office, some of which have taken us a bit to figure out. We thought we’d share a few tips we’ve found helpful along the way.

Office hours.
Establish them. Even at home- especially at home- this is an important thing to do. While perks of working from home include being able to stand up and chat with family members for a few minutes in the middle of the day, or access the coffee machine any time you want, or even pet the dog while doing something that doesn’t require a lot of brain power, there are times when you need to remain uninterrupted.

Are You Tracking Your Workflow or is it Tracking You?

2009-10-26T16:19:03Z

A design studio or agency does a perpetual exercise in organization. Every day, there are jobs that need to get done. Some are very small jobs. Some are larger. Others are in between. There are also the parts of whole jobs… they all need to get done. They’re all a priority. Is it even possible to manage them? How do you keep track of client issues that need to be followed up with? How do you juggle the project you’re working on with all the other projects you’re overseeing? There’s got to be a way.

Every studio has to come up with their own method of tracking jobs through its workflow. And the system in place probably varies depending on how many employees there are within the company, whether or not there’s an account manager in place, and the number of clients the studio has at any given point during the year.

The Happy Studio- Make Your Studio Like a Home.

2009-10-20T21:17:59Z

As creative people, we often find that our creativity translates into lots of aspects of our life beside design. While Gestalt, “variety within unity” and color theory apply to all the great design arts, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re good at everything design related just because you know the basics. It’s true that you could probably have a great conversation with a fashion designer or an architect about how similar graphic design is to their professions- but it doesn’t mean you can sit down and design an award winning skirt, or esplanade.

Still, we for one, would like to believe we at least have the skills to make our space comfortable with a little thinking, and study.

Our studio
A creative space is what you make of it. Some people are inspired by the blankness of white space, others are claustrophobic about it. Some people love loud busy areas with lots of activity, some are irritated and/or terrified by it.

Our studio is wide open. Bigger than we need. If one person is on the phone, everyone hears it.