From disparate beginnings, Christmas has become largely a cultural celebration for my generation – one meant to bring people together and place our focus on the people we love.

It has also become an uber-brand that represents intangible, un-buy-able values (peace, love, joy, family, selflessness) simultaneously with supreme commercialism.

“I want our site to be number one on Google”

The number of times a client has uttered those words to us (or a close variation on the theme) is somewhat staggering.

Sure, we all want it. And for certain parameters, we can get it for you. But while Search Engine Optimization is a very important component of both web development and your overall marketing platform, it cannot stand alone.

It has been an insane month. We do try to plan our projects and workload in such a way that things are as balanced as possible, but it’s sometimes unavoidable that fate conspires in such a way that your best laid plans are set to ruin.

Maybe not to “ruin”, so much… being busy is good. It’s fantastic, even. I love what I do, and the fact that so many people come to us on their own or through referrals makes me feel great about my work. But in periods like this, I do come to miss things like human contact, sleep, exercise and healthy food.

That’s one of the reasons I was so surprised this weekend to find a notice telling me that we’d been nominated and chosen to receive a CWA Design Award. Nice!

Here’s another designer who’s taken an otherwise mundane everyday piece of equipment, and made it cool through creative re-conceptualization. In my books, ‘cool’ takes more than just making something pretty… it’s got to be smart too. The Donut Powerstrip by Ramei Keum meets these criteria. It is a very simple multi-socket power ‘bar’ that’s not just stylish (yes, a stylish extension cord), but gets big points for usefulness as each socket rotates freely and independently to allow any size adapter or plug assembly.

I have a few power blocks in my office. None of them can accomodate one plug per socket, since a good proportion of my gadgets use big bulky adapters. I hide them from view where possible. One has a fancy blue light, but it’s not really a design feature.

Two years ago, I put out a short article advising on the projected importance of sustainable and environmentally friendly packaging in the coming years. That was December 2006, and now nearing the close of 2008, with oil prices soaring and just about every third ad on TV touting their own green spin, I can smugly say, “called it”.

In my personal life, I would be classified as what’s been somewhat unflatteringly coined SCUMY. That is, Socially Conscious Upward Mobile Youth. Though nearing 30, I’m not so sure about that Y at the end any more. I’m not an extremist, but I do what I feel I can. I’m a vegetarian, buy local produce, reduce and reuse where possible, compost or recycle the rest, work paperless and get around by bicycle, when it’s feasible. I also love hot showers and drive a pickup truck so… well, nobody’s perfect.

Back when I was making the big switch from the safe nine-to-five desk job into the overwhelming world of business ownership, I was eager to take on any task, regardless of the proposed “return on investment”, let’s call it. I don’t think the word ‘no’ was present in my vocabulary.

Naively, I took everyone at their word. The nature of my own well-meaning and fairness-oriented personality made dealing in the often cut-throat world of business somewhat challenging.

I love design. I love graphic design, industrial design, interior design, architectural design… all of it. Push the envelope and bring a big smile to my face. But eventually, everybody has their own point at which they say “Ok, you’ve gone far enough… dial it back a notch”.

This landed in my inbox not too long ago. It’s hilariously lazy in a way, but in another it’s a bit of an oxymoron in practice. Expend a pile of energy to have the luxury of parking your butt anywhere you want – for about five seconds, which is how long it takes for the pavement to reach up and smack your behind through the rapidly deflating marshmallow-like bubble seat.

The new Ecuadorian Rainforest site is FINALLY live!

A catalog is a highly specialized marketing collateral piece that, when designed and produced correctly, will drive customers to complete their purchase with your company over other alternatives. By presenting a tempting display of appealing products in a clear, carefully considered fashion, your catalog can become one of the most powerful calls to action in your sales arsenal – particularly when paired with a niche marketing strategy.

A niche market is a focused, targetable portion of a market… or a narrowly defined group of potential customers. In general, if your business focuses on a niche market, you should be addressing a need for a product or service that is not being addressed by mainstream providers.

Unless you are in the community being targeted, it can be hard to tell upfront whether the design of your creative is going to be effective. But when you’re part of the targeted community, you get the message loud and clear. The trick comes in when you want to target a niche market to which you yourself do not belong. Bridging this gap between business and niche markets thus often requires a thoughtful cultural conversion campaign