News and Views from White Creative
White Graphics & Marketing Inc., has been providing creative services
since 1996. During those years we have seen many changes in the philosophy, nature and vehicles for marketing our clients' products and services. This page will outline some of our views on the current state of the industry; provide links to information you can use, and highlight client successes.
(Photo on left, Mark Newman in media scrum with soon to be Prime Minister Mulroney back in the ML days.)
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GET YOUR INTERNET ADDRESSES WHILE YOU STILL CAN!
MOSCOW – May 13, 2010, Reuters – The world will soon run out of Internet addresses as the number of devices connected to the Web explodes.
Mr. Rod Beckstrom, CEO of ICANN (the head of the body that allocates IP addresses), said only 8 or 9% of ipv4 addresses were left, opining that companies need to switch to the new standard of ipv6 as quickly as possible.
An ever-increasing array of gadgets including cameras, music players and video-game consoles are joining computers and mobile phones in being connected to the World Wide Web—all requiring individual IP addresses. CEO of Ericsson, Hans Vestberg, predicts that by 2020 there will be 50 billion devices connected to the World Wide Web.
Read the Reuters feed as printed in the National Post.
DIGITAL BOOK PRINTING NEARS TIPPING POINT OVER OFFSET PRINT
PrintCom news declares that digital book printing is emerging as one of the hotspots for growth in the printing industry.
“This is a double-digit growth market,” said Gilles Biscos, president of research firm Interquest, at the 2010 Toronto Digital Printing Forum held at Ryerson University last week. His research suggests digital book printing will grow by more than 20% annually through 2015.
Trends driving this growth include the need for book publishers to reduce inventory and return costs for unsold books, improved digital printing and finishing technology, and the explosion in self-publishing through web-based services such as Lulu.com and Blurb. Biscos cited 169% growth in the number of self-published books in 2009.
Among the North American book printers his company surveyed, 64% said they would be investing in new digital equipment in the next 18 months. It seems the opportunity is enormous: only 4.3% of books printed in North America are produced on a digital press, with the balance produced by offset.
Read the entire article here.
Self-pubishing is becoming more popular as well, with online sources like Lulu.com, owned by Bob Young (of Hamilton TiCats fame), gaining marketshare in the industry.
GET READY TO TAP YOUR TOES AT TATTOO 2010
June 12 and 13, 2010 – The Canadian International Military Tattoo hosts it's 19th annual show at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario.
The shows this year will celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Canadian Navy, as well as the 60th Anniversary of the beginning of the Korean War. White Graphics was tasked with creating an online vehicle for the Tattoo to describe the upcoming shows and to provide a historic overview for the 2010 themes. Please visit the Naval and Korean history pages, as well as the video page, to get a sense of the momentous sacrifices many of our fellow citizens have made for Canada's free society.
In addition to researching and writing the naval history segment of the Web site, this year's theme was driven by the creative efforts our team. Click on the thumbnail to the right to see an example.
Get your tickets and read more about the Tattoo here.
THE GREATEST TYPO OF ALL TIME?
May 6, 2010 – The Dow drops almost 1000 points in 16 minutes plunging the U.S. and global financial communities into a panic.
Is it possible that the mega-point loss was caused by human error? There are reports that a case of "fat fingers" may have been the cause. Seems those fingers typed billions (with a B) instead of millions (with an M) triggering the once-in-a-lifetime sell-off hysteria. If true—this could be one of the BIGGEST typos in modern times. Ooooo-weee—if I was the perpetrator, I'd keep my mouth shut—and buy a bigger keyboard!
The gurus of the financial world are blaming it on a technical glitch with the trading computers. Luckily, for Main Street's investors, the market rebounded once the error was discovered—but word has it that a lot of Wall Street workers had to run out for fresh underwear!
Read more about the fall and recovery of the May 6th almost crash here.
METROLAND WRITING AWARD HITS HOME
An August 28, 2009 editorial written by Mark Newman, with support from editor Gord Bowes, was recently judged BEST EDITORIAL for 2009 by the Metroland Media Group.
Winner of the Best Editorial, Forever Henderson published in the August 28, 2009 edition of the Mountain News, was chosen tops by the Metroland judges. Written by journalist/broadcaster, Mark Newman, it is interesting to note that Mark also suggested Forever Henderson as the slogan for the campaign against renaming the hospital. The judge's comments on the award are below.
"I thought the "Forever Henderson" editorial in Mountain News dealt with a very timely subject. This is the increasingly common practice of renaming buildings or other landmarks after donors or in some cases, people who purchase the naming rights. The editorial's description of Frances Nora Henderson's impressive achievements and contributions to public life gives the reader a concrete example of what a person must achieve in life to have the honour of having a building named after him/her. This raises a real question about whether such an "honour" should simply be given out to a person who donates a sum of money or who purchases naming rights. The editorial also gives a concrete example of what happens when buildings are renamed. By renaming the Henderson General Hospital, the board of directors are not only wiping out recognition of Ms. Henderson but also risk losing the memory of her important historic achievements."
NOBODY'S SAFE WHEN THERE'S A NEW CAMERA IN DA HOUSE
When the dog starts running away and the cat just stares back with disdain when the camera is pointed at them, one knows that it's time to find some new subjects.
Just before the Christmas break, our small camera bit the dust, giving us the perfect excuse to buy a Canon DSLR 18 megapixel digital camera. The idea was to use the camera for shooting stock images and footage that could be used in the Web design side of our business—offering a more customized and personal touch to client Web sites and marketing materials.
Having studied photography in college, with many hours in the darkroom, I thought it would be a piece-of-cake to get back in the swing of picture-taking. Oh, how naive. Once I believed that programming the DVR was more complicated than writing code for a Web site—that was until I got a gander at the profuse options available on today's digital cameras—plus the Canon also takes video footage, thus upping the learning curve quotient even further.
So, after a brush-up course at a local camera school I'm getting back into the shooting habit. Most recently, a visit to the local Gage Park greenhouse resulted in some macro shots that were perfect for a gardening design project (click thumnail image on the right to see a larger image).
A new Web site for White Creative is planned for launch in July and will feature a portfolio of photographs and, watch your back, you never know when you'll be in our camera's crosshairs!
WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM?
August 10, 2009 – Today I ran across a very handy utility that can help clients provide support service personnel complete information about their computer systems.
Ever wonder what operating system you are using? The version of the O/S or other information about your computer? Are you trying to get support for a computer problem and need to have information to provide to the support services representatives?
Well, just head over to supportdetails.com and you will find a list of your computer's operating system, browser, IP address, screen resolution, browser size, color depth, Flash Player version and your browser's Javascript and Cookies settings.
The page can be exported as a PDF or CSV (delimitered text that can be imported into spreadsheets and word processing programs). You can also e-mail the information.
NO RESPECT FOR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY?
July 31, 2009 – a Boston University student was ordered to pay $675,000 for illegally downloading and sharing music online. How might this decision affect Canada's copyright legislation that is currently under review?
Jonathan Saltzman, writer for the Boston Globe, reported that a U.S. Federal court found that Joel Tenenbaum, a 25-year-old doctoral student "wilfully infringed on the copyrights of 30 songs", awarding the record companies $22,500 per infringement, or $675,000 in total. (It is not clear that the actual artists will see any of this money.) The unrepentant defendant copped to having downloaded hundreds of songs in a period from 1999 to 2007, but expressed relief that the fine was not even more (it could have been as much as $150,000 per infringement or a whopping $4.5 million smackeroos). The Recording Industry Association of America, that has recognized the impact of illegal downloading on the music industry as a whole, applauded the jury's decision. Read the Boston Globe article. Be sure to look at the comments section. Pretty enlightening as to how many posters seem to feel that such behaviour is not only okay but is justified. Why does society feel that it is acceptable to steal—yes the word IS steal—the creative work of writers, artists and musicians from online sources when they wouldn't think of walking into a gallery, music store or book shop and pocketing a CD, art print or novel? Reform to Canada's copyright laws is currently under review (LINK) with a series of town hall meetings, initiated by The Canadian Intellectual Property Office, designed to consult Canadians about their views on our national IP rights policies. One such town hall is taking place in Toronto on August 27th (reservations are full but you can sign up for the Web cast HERE). Reading up on the public input and listening to the audio from some of the town hall discussions, we feel that there appears to be a strong lobby for more public access to digital media and less protection for artists. Has Atlas Shrugged? What do YOU think? Send us a message. LINKS: Copyright Reform Vital to Artists – Opinion piece in the Toronto Star by Ferne Downey, National President of ACTRA. Graphic Artists Guild Handbook – Section that highlights Canadian and American copyright law as it applies to visual arts. The Canadian Intellectual Property Office Writers Guild of Canada - FAQs on registering Intellectual Property. |
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WILL APPLE EVER ALLOW FLASH CONTENT VIEWING ON THE iPHONE?
In March 2009 Apple unveiled what it termed a major update to the iPhone and iPod Touch operating systems. Many of the one hundred new features essentially updated what was already being offered by other smart phones—including cut-and-paste capabilities, picture messaging and on-phone searching.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs created a mini-controversy last year, when he opined that Flash was too slow for the iPhone, and that Flash Lite (Adobe's version for mobile phones) was not advanced enough. There is also speculation that the main barrier might be that Flash violates iPhone's terms of service. For more information, read Ian Paul's article in PC World here. The move to mobile content generation prompted Apple to launch a SDK (software developer kit) aimed at helping Web developers create applications for their devices. The overwhelming success of the Apple App Store, where users can download free and paid applications, has exceeded Apple's expectations with its more than 800 million downloads to date. Visit the Apple iPhone store here. If you'd like to discuss the iPhone Flash question, send us a message. |
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OBAMA TEAM WINS MARKETER OF THE YEAR
Mr. Obama won the vote of hundreds of marketers, agency heads and marketing-services vendors at the Association of National Advertisers' annual conference edging out runners-up Apple and Zappos.com. The rest of the shortlist, selected by Ad Age's editorial staff, was rounded out by megabrand Nike, turnaround story Coors and Mr. Obama's rival, Sen. John McCain.
SENDSPACE—USEFUL TOOL FOR SENDING LARGE FILES
SendSpace allows you unlimited uploads, unlimited fownloads per file; let's you share files safely and privately; provides completely free file hosting; allows you to send a file to anyone, anywhere, up to 300MB! As a registered user, you can also track and edit the files you upload. Go here to sign up: http://www.sendspace.com/download_wizard.html |
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GOVERNMENT PROPOSES CHANGE TO CANADA'S COPYRIGHT LAWS
The reforms update the existing law by taking into account new technologies developed over the last decade and setting tough new penalties for uploading and downloading copyrighted material and breaking "locks" on protected devices like cell phones and DVDs. Prentice described Bill C-61in a speech on Thursday.
We, as artists and writers, believe in artists' ownership of their creations. This has been of special concern since the rise of online viewership and relative ease with which internet users can "borrow" others' work. Although the G of C's newly suggested reforms largely address the digital music and film industry, we feel it is important to take a look at any changes that will affect our country's copyright laws. Read more at the links below:
GOVERNMENT OF CANADA – Government Proposes Update to Copyright Law
NATIONAL POST – New Copyright Act targets online piracy
JURIST – Canada government introduces tough copyright reform bill
NATIONAL POST – Canadian artists stump for tougher copyright laws
MEDIACASTER – Copyright Reform Bill Doesn't Help Canadian Artists: CMCC
CANADIAN BUSINESS ONLINE – Applauding Copyright Bill's Introduction
CBC – Copyright law could result in police state say critics
INTERACTIVE PDF PORTFOLIO ADDED TO OUR DESIGN SAMPLE SECTION
A few clients have asked for a larger format portfolio so we have uploaded a PDF that includes examples of print design, Web design as well as a smattering of Pat's fine art and illustration. The PDF features clickable links throughout the 38 page document from the jump menu on the opening page to links to live Web site projects. (The Flash portfolio and a HTML portfolio are still in place to view even more work examples.) Hope you enjoy! PDF Portfolio (5MB).
CONGRATS TO THE TATTOO ON SUCCESSFUL 2008 SHOWS
Next year the shows will be held on June 13 and 14. Check the Tattoo's Web site for information on the 2009 show as it becomes available. Read our article, Music and the Military—A Call to Arms, used in the Tattoo show programme. (Check out some of our other military-related copy while you're there!) Click photo to the right to see the Tattoo's 2008 poster. (PDF - 3.15MB) |
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SHOUT OUT TO DONNA LEIGH WHITE
Some of you may remember Donna for the superb customer service that she provided for White Graphics & Marketing in years past. We are also sure you will agree that Donna Leigh shows an amazing talent for the written word. Read a selection of her op ed pieces published recently in The Guelph Mercury. |
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2008 U.S. CANDIDATE SITE PROVIDES STUDY IN ON-LINE FUNDING
Companies and organizations are increasingly turning to the internet to focus marketing efforts that have traditionally been directed to media such as print, broadcast and telesales. U.S. politicians, by using grassroots-level internet organizing and contribution collection vehicles, are effectively changing the face of political fundraising and information disbursement. Kudos to the Democratic Party candidate, Senator Barack Obama, for the cutting-edge juggernaut that his team has put together. Want to move your business online? Get your product, service or not-for-profit organization brand known? Sell products or secure donations? The Obama site is, in our opinion, an excellent model. |
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APRIL 2008 TOURISM HAMILTON AWARD WINNER
| Long-time client, the Canadian International Military Tattoo, won Best Marketing Award for a Brochure or Promotional Piece at the 10th Annual Tourism Awards Gala held on April 3rd, 2008. | ||
On Thursday, April 3rd, 2008, over 500 people celebrated the 10th Annual Tourism Awards at Carmen's Banquet Centre. The gala's theme was It's Show Time and was an event to remember! Read all about it and see artwork here. To see photos of the event click here. Photo by Banko Photographic. |
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John Terence, producer of the Tattoo accepts the award. |
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