Our resident college professor, Jeff Everett, took on a whole new group of students this month at a local elementary school. He’s out to inspire a whole new generation of poster designers.
Archive for November, 2009
El Jefe, the teacher
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009Web design, back to brochureware?
Monday, November 9th, 2009I’ve been bouncing around all afternoon on marketing communication jobs for Graves Fowler, a little blogging, a little tweeting, writing new case studies. Nothing for our web site. It’s sitting there like a beautiful brochure. The action is elsewhere. And the funny thing is, that’s okay.
Web sites for organizational branding are only one small slice of the Internet experience these days. These corporate sites are reverting to a push-info-out kind of communication, while social media takes over the interactive party. Communication is fracturing into dozens of parallel, overlapping solutions, and technology is in control instead of content and strategy.
Yesterday I went to my granddaughter’s birthday party at John’s Incredible Pizza. It was Las Vegas on steroids for kids with a spread of games and noise and food and stimulation so intense I felt my senses shutting down. That’s a little like my experience with the Internet. Too much. Too many options all vying for my attention. And there sits our web site in the midst of the hubbub, speaking simply and clearly.
Brochureware is too patronizing term for this trend. Maybe it’s more accurate to say that our web sites are to print promotions what Kindles are to books. They each use technology to serve a specific, limited purpose, and they do it very well. I like that.


Cindy Fowler is the editor of Smart Thinking / Great Design. Her insights and practical approaches come from over 35 years in marketing design, many miles on a bicycle and life as a fearless babyboomer in the world of social media.