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My "Online" Anniversary..

Alex Hamilton — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 05:00:58 +0000

Anniversary Dinner c/o Top Table

Anniversaries in relationships are not my forte. Frankly.

In fact, the singular thing that usually saves me to any degree is my sense of panic about 3 months out as the date approaches (thankfully being a geek, I do remember dates)

Last night was my ‘official’ (come on, most of us have had one of those) one year anniversary with my partner. Thank you.

Sure enough the panic did kick in a good while ago and I rummaged around in my brain of greying grey cells for something that would let my partner know that I not only remembered but also cared.
Herein the internet became this incredible resource that at least allowed for some degree of success in my endeavors.

Firstly, I searched for a gift.
The TakTik Team have long been fans of Moo.com for their business cards and I recalled seeing a wonderful mosaic frame they did.. Phew. Twenty something individually uploaded photo’s later, a quick credit card number entry and voilà that was the gift sorted.

Anniversary Gift c/o Moo.com

The process of choosing the appropriate photo’s taking about 10 times longer than sorting them all out on the website. Moo typically delivered everything in double quick time and sent reassuring emails about each step of the process. If I were reviewing them on the main site they’d have scored 10/10.

My next panic was dinner.
My partner was taking me out to a lovely French restaurant on our anniversary evening but I was taking us out for dinner on the first evening of the new year for the two of us (yeah, yeah, each relationship has its quirks ;-P )
Frankly, in the World of Credit Crunch (I don’t give a flying monkeys what the government try to mislead us with – we’re all still suffering like pickled onions in sea water. Yeah, precisely. Ugh.) I didn’t exactly have massive resources to draw on. However I did have Top Table, God bless them. A quick search revealed Apsleys at the Lanesborough with an AMAZING £30pp, 3 course meal & glass of Prosecco offer. Now admittedly I have no wish to look like a complete skinflint but this extraordinary venue at this price was just too good an offer to pass up. I had eaten at Apsleys not quite a month earlier and been more than delighted with the evening. In double quick time I booked us a table and again, received reassuring email updates and notifications about my reservation.

Looking back, I think I pulled off my side of the anniversary really well, for a geek or otherwise but I dare not wonder quite how I would have coped pre-internet!

NB. If you ever want to see exceptional service in action, pop in to the Laneborough. Even 2nd time around I remain wowed. Exemplary!

Friday Wraps

David Vernon — Fri, 01 May 2009 22:12:45 +0000

Happy May Day everyone. So far May looks no different then April – but I have faith. I took a little walk around our property down here in rural Delavan-land today – it’s definitely a beautiful time of year as evidenced by the mad-flowering going on. Onto some Friday wrapiness…

¶ The fine and lovely British folks at Moo have finally gone and done it. If you’ve not heard of Moo before (and really how is that possible?) they are makers of unique cards and the like. They started with a pleasantly odd-sized business card – and have branched out from there. I’m still entirely enamoured of the business card however but here’s the think. They’re British. They live in like the United Kingdom. So while they can get my order in like seconds it seems to take two weeks for the British Postal Service to walk the cards over here to Illinois. But now – NOW! – they have an American operation – in Rhode Island – and BAM! shipping prices are reduced and shipping time is reduced! I love it.

¶ For those of you – like me – that harbor the fantasy of someday doing the mega huge, mega-awesome, mega-slick photoshoot – well envy Mr. Ben Baker and check out this interview and behind-the-scenes look at a shoot he did for Fortune Magazine. I’m not sitting by the phone waiting for the call – but I am sitting by the phone and debating what kind of pizza to eat – right after Fortune Magazine calls me next year.

¶ The Peoria Art Guild has a show right now featuring the photography of Peorian Elijah Sansom. Called “Community Connections”, it’s a look at something a little unique for the PAG and Peoria – specifically it’s a documentarian’s peek into life in the African-American community. Sansom has been photographing daily life and special events now for a long time – and (as the joke went at the opening) he did have film in the camera. The show – in the main gallery – runs through June 13. He’s joined by the wonderful sculptor Sandra McKenzie Schmitt.

¶ Hey – if you’re an Art Guild member, the “Members” show is coming up in about seven weeks. This means its time to start thinking about what work you want to submit. Any Guild member is eligible to put a piece in the show. Check out the details right on the Art Guild’s main page. You can also get information about this year’s 8×8 show. Last year’s exhibition was very successful and this year’s should be every bit as good. There’s links to prospectus’ for both shows at the link above.

¶ I look for the hidden message almost everyday now. Here’s today decoded iteration from gifted American photographer Sally Mann. If I keep hearing this – I might get the message eventually.

In fact here’s a little quote I came across earlier this week – from another Peoria photographer about to embark on a photographic mission. Good luck to Ron Orman who’s head to the wondrous Rocky Mountain School of Photography for the eleven-week Summer Intensive Workshop. The quote:

“I think you really should make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future.” - Christopher McCandless – Into The Wild

So many reminders. Such a big jump sometimes.

Business cards!

nikireagan — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 23:47:20 +0000

Bakers Anonymous has business cards. It’s strange to stay those words because they’re so

Interview with the Financial Times

richardmoross — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:10:00 +0000

Cult figure plays his cards right

By Tim Bradshaw – Link to article on FT.com

On his 31st birthday recently, Richard Moross arrived at the offices of Moo Print, the company he found-ed, to find all 34 staff dressed in his signature uniform of black jacket and shirt, blue jeans and white shoes.

It was a fitting tribute to a man who has become a bit of a cult fig–ure in London’s technology start-up circles. Moo makes customised business cards, often using photographs pulled in from community sites such as Facebook and Flickr. After a rocky start, they have become the calling card of the web 2.0 generation, and Moo has done its best to encourage their ex-change with a notorious summer party. But Mr Moross has also act-ed as a mentor to many of the young companies that pass around his cards, which cost £10 for 100.

“I get hundreds of e-mails from people who want help or advice,” he says. “I certainly enjoy, and think my colleagues enjoy, being a citizen of the London tech and start-up community. We have tried to be a good friend of any business, whether that’s making a product that suits them, or being a re-source they can call up.”

Not for nothing has Moo’s Old Street location been dubbed “Silicon Roundabout”; it is also a hub for web companies such as Dopplr, a travel community, and Last.fm, the music service.

Yet Moo’s multimillion-pound business, while relying on technology, is more traditional than many other local dotcoms. As Mr Moross points out, the Old Street area was once the heart of London’s printing trade. “The business card is 300 years old,” he says. “It has not been displaced by mobiles, the internet or Bluetooth – it’s here bec–ause it really works. It’s the most successful networking tool ever.”

Moo’s first product was its eyecatching MiniCard – the width of a standard business card, but half as high. “The one word at the heart of our [marketing] strategy was ‘re-markable’,” he says. “It basically means ‘make stuff that is worth talking about, make sure it is noteworthy’. We are making a product that you buy to hand out, so the business is very viral.”

But that must be coupled with a focus on customer need to avoid becoming a mere novelty, he says. Design and attention to detail are crucial to Moo’s appeal.

The unique shape of the MiniCard is also smart from a business perspective. While Moo uses standard HP printers, its innovation is in creating new printing processes and workflow. “When I [first] took them to have them printed, I realised there was an optimum size as far as gross margin was concerned to the area on which we print,” Mr Moross says. “Sticking to this size and knowing that competitors . . . would have to vary their size in order to not infringe copyright and design registrations, it would be very difficult for them to replicate the economics of our business.”

Since then, Moo has diversified into greetings cards and stickers. Last year, it released a business card of more conventional dimensions, but that too had to be “remarkable”, he says. “When we decided to launch business cards, we were aware that it is a commodity product – we had to inject as much fun and design [as possible] to make it less commoditised.”

Mr Moross set out to emulate the design-led ethos of Apple, he says. And when it comes to ambitions and taking on the industry leader, Vistaprint, he hopes Moo could be “Apple to their PC”.

“We are hoping to consolidate our position as number two in the next couple of years,” he says. “It is a very fragmented market.”

Moo declines to give detailed financials, saying only that it has printed more than 10m miniCards, tripling its revenues every year since launch in 2006. It plans to do so again this year.

“I fully believe they will be profitable without raising more money,” says Neil Rimer, a board member and partner at Moo investor Index Ventures. “They don’t have real estate on Bond Street and tonnes of inventory sitting around that they may not sell. They make stuff on demand [and] squeeze as much sellable product out of every square metre of paper that they buy. “

Indeed, while many of its fans in dotcom land have had to retrench as advertising and funding dwindles, Moo is growing. As well as continuing to hire staff in London, it is opening its first overseas office, in Rhode Island, to lower delivery times and costs in the US.

The future did not look so bright at the outset. “This company nearly died in late 2005,” says Mr Moross. Before it became Moo, the company tried to combine business cards with a standalone social networking site. “People loved the cards, they just hated the software part,” he says. “They wanted to stay in their own communities.”

The site for Pleasurecards – “A little part of me dies every time I say that word” – was designed by Mr Moross but coded by contractors, which he says limited his ability to change the business.

By December 2005, the business had less than £25,000 left, having made around £5,000. “I stopped drawing a salary,” says Mr Moross, who had also persuaded Stefan Magdalinski, chief technical of-ficer, to join and work for free.

Encouraged by existing backers Index Ventures and The Accelerator Group, the pair went to the Etech conference in San Diego the next March, financed by “my Visa and my family”. There they met Flickr and shortly afterwards secured the backing of Atlas Ventures, a London-based VC. Moo has now raised a total of £5.5m.

“Every company should go through that at some point,” says Mr Moross. “It’s an incredibly valuable experience. All the intellectual property in the business that was created then – the patents, trademarks, the same box mould and packaging design – we are still using now.”

Moo’s priority in 2009 is to move out of the geek niche and into the mainstream. Its cards are becoming popular with designers and architects. “Our next market is easily 10 times as big” as the dotcom crowd, says Mr Moross. Ap-pealing to them means taking many of the hallmarks of web 2.0 – such as drag and drop interfaces and Flickr integration – and making them easy for non-techies too.

The downturn is bringing new customers too, and not just in the number of cards containing the optimistic job title “consultant”.

“We are seeing an extraordinary number of customers coming to us who have lost their jobs, turning their hobbies into businesses,” says Mr Moross. “For people trying to manage their costs and stand out in this market, they need to be remembered and make an impact.”

A working day: new ideas, tweets and cake from the Moo Crew

6am: Check sales figures and stats – half our customers are in the US, so plenty of activity overnight. Go for a run. 8am: Americano (two shots) and cereal at Moo Studios. Dip into RSS feeds: tech and business blogs, and news. Then inbox triage and critical quick tasks. 9.30am: Second coffee. Catch up with folks as they arrive. Once a week I send a CEO MoosLetterto the whole company. Noon: Check what customers are saying about Moo on Twitter, Technorati, Friend Feed and our customer services e-mails. 12.30pm: Once a week, all 35 of us have a meeting and team lunch catered by a local restaurant. 2pm: Discuss design of new packaging idea with colleagues. 3pm: iChat video conference call with US office to discuss progress. 3.30pm: Meet our chairman, Robin [Klein, of The Accelerator Group] to discuss upcoming board meeting, strategy, progress. 4.30pm: Eat some cake one of the Moo Crew has baked (this happens every week). Check RSS, Twitter. Then twitter what I’m listening to on Spotify; no replies. 5pm: CEO-led project work, then try to clear e-mail inbox. Check sales figures and stats before heading off – I’m out almost every evening at something work-related. 10pm: Taxi home, calls to friends and family. Check stats on iPhone. 10.30pm: Watch news with laptop open, and go to bed at 11.30pm.

moo.com

lyndsayy — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:51:56 +0000

I have been loving MOO for a while, but haven’t had any money recently to buy any of their cool stuff. MOO is a printing company. They print beautiful products, using images you’ve uploaded directly, or designs from their designer galleries. But I was browsing about today, because they also have their own designers section (some very lovely and cool designs, when they start taking submissions again I might send some stuff in!) and noticed you can get 10 free business cards of your own design! So I quickly knocked up a design and sent off for some! They are a really cheap printer, so in the future when I have a bit more money I’m going to get some cool postcards and things printed there! Anyway thought I’d let you all know, and you can get 10 free business cards too! Here is my new one….

My Moo's

mon@rch — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 10:02:00 +0000

I just love my moo cards! Yesterday I got my new moo cards in the mail. So . . . . . do you moo? Sub

One perfect day - Part IV - The wedding album

tomleuntjensphotography — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:28:18 +0000

For new readers, I grouped all related articles for your re-reading pleasure.

I. The decision to be a (wedding) photographer
II. Preparations, building up to one perfect day: schedule, shot list & gear.
III. The wedding day
IV. Post processing & the wedding album

IV. Post processing & the wedding album

After a long day filled with emotion I came home as a happy photographer. Normally the first thing I do is transfer all images to my computer and check the picture, a way to be at “ease of mind” (are the pictures good enough?) before I go to bed. That evening I had a final drink while sitting in the couch rambling my story to my always listening lovely spouse, I didn’t check the pictures, I knew I did a good enough job and I was worn, I was exhausted, what a roller coaster day it has been, it was time to hit the sac.

Slideshow

In the next days I nearly went through all (3000+) pictures flagging the good ones and rejecting the bad ones (never delete pictures on a first viewing). The next week I presented the couple with this slideshow.

Processing

I kept processing to a minimum, no heavy photoshop, I used lightroom to tweak levels, contrasts, vignettes and I tried out and tweaked a couple of new presets. I’m not a believer of trendy looks in wedding pictures/albums, things that are IN now won’t be in a couple of years. (remember red roses on black & white pictures, I rest my case). A good black&white or sepia will last a lifetime.

The Album

Roosje & Jelle also asked me if I could make a wedding-album. I agreed on my terms: I don’t like books with ALL images, a wedding album should tell the story of that day and shouldn’t necessarily contain images of every guest etc…. Personally, I approached it at as a good photo book, a more elaborate slideshow if you wish…. as fast as I could select images for the slideshow, so painstakingly slow was the progress on designing the album, I think I even made up a new word for it :

“Wedding album designer”-block

“I want everything to be perfect, a fixed set of margins to create white space so my pictures can breathe in the album. No mixture of layout styles on my pages, but an idea throughout the album. I want to stick to that. But after a couple of pages, doubt creeps in…

Will clients even notice my tidy margins? They will probably just flip the pages. Will they appreciate the clean layout or does it become boring after a while? Do I go for white or black background, do I mix? Do I call and show the couple 2 ideas, let them decide (and ruin the surprise) or do I blow them away on presentation day.”

My final layout approach

- Formats with fotobuch.de were A4 and A3. Rather horizontal, so I did the layout accordingly.
- Lots of whitespace around images makes the image speak.
- No collages & different styles on a page, but clean pages.
- Not bringing too much images on one page, brings rest.
- A double truck connects pages and tells a story. (Watch those bleed areas in the folds of the book)
- Couldn’t have each page look the same so sometimes full bleed pictures where inserted.

(I spent 40+ *cough* hours on it *cough*)

A couple of page excerpts from the book

The finished product

I used fotobuch.de (+ their software) to design the book. I really prefer the fotobuch.de software over blurb. I’m a total idiot if it concerns printing so no in depth review, here is my two-cent: image quality was very good, I chose the professional A4 format thinking that non-professional formats would have inferior quality. (anyone with experience?), no weird color casts, blacks were black, no funny patterns, the binding looks decent, the paper thickness feels just right and Pricing was okay.

Only one negative point, the ability to design your own cover , or better .. the lack of it. Now you are stuck with these.

(sorry about the non-calibrated book “snapshots” I made, but to get an idea I did include them)

A simple little marketing trick

Around the time that I ordered the book I also ordered some sample business cards from MOO.com. I added a couple of images from Roosje & Jelle’s wedding to my order and inserted them in the album. Future clients won’t forget where they got the card from.

Why it pays of to read the full article

For everyone brave enough to have fought through 6 articles of my own ramblings. Here is a a little treat, the couple was so kind to allow me to share the online version of the wedding album. (silverlight required) Being a developer has its perks, I didn’t like the fotobuch preview so I exported as a PDF, then to JPEG and adjusted Microsoft’s Silverlight PageTurn example to fit my needs. A much better “book-preview” experience.

Conclusion

Presenting the couple with their book , hearing the “ooohs and aaahs” made it all worth it. (not to mention the relief falling from my shoulders).

I’m well aware that every single thing I jotted down could have backfired in my face. Their wedding day was amazing: from the house they were preparing in, the bright city hall, to the great location and super party tent. And I would almost forget the couple, personality, looks and clothing, oh yes, the sun shined bright that day! It was a privilege to be their wedding photographer.

I also want to thank the readers of my modest little blog, I’ve noticed quite an increase in hits since I started doing this series. Thanks for hitting the comments and I hope I was able to share something of interest.

And for me? I’m as nervous, anxious and excited for my next wedding as I was for this one. But that keeps me on edge. Sleepless nights here I come !

Thinking about Business Cards?

elledeegee — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 05:21:00 +0000

Since someone I know was talking about business cards the other day, I told her of some places I have gotten cards at to help her out.

Zazzle.com
They have the best deal in that you can choose the size of the card (mini, business, chubby.) If you’re a shopkeeper, you get an automatic discount (usually your royalty rate) + shopkeeper / member deals. It’s free to join, you can put whatever you want on your card (front & back) and right now it’s 50% off any size pack if you buy before Feb 28th, 2009. You can choose from either your own designs (being a shopkeeper / member) or choose from the myriad designs myself and other artists have placed in our shops. It’s a win win either way! Each pack of cards comes in a small plastic, opaque case with the zazzle logo on it. The profile cards come in a gum style pack that flips them out manually like a stick of gum. For 20 profile cards it’s around $8 bucks; 100 business-sized cards go for about $19; 100 Chubby cards go for about $22;

Chubby Biz Card images:

Profile Biz Card images

Moo.com
When I first went to Moo, it was a few years ago so their choices weren’t as varied as they are now. I got the mini profile cards but now they have business-sized cards as well as books of mini stickers and even postcards! You can even get a fancy felt, leather or hard cover case for your cards to carry them in style from the same place. With the mini profile cards, I got 100 of them in a little box with the Moo logo. It’s handy and the cards are small enough to fit anywhere. I keep mind in my camera case with the digital camera since I always have it with me. For 100 profile cards it’s about $20 bucks.

Moo Profile Cards:

Vista Print
Great products for a cheap price. I spent around $20 + dollars and received a good sized package of personalized “free” items. Among these were: notepads, sticky notes, stamper (some assembly required), a large box of biz cards (use their template or you pay extra) and 10 magnetic 2008 calendars. Overall the quality was pretty good and the stamper especially works like a charm! It’s a cheap way to get started with your business if you need to get cards, stationary or a stamper with your info on it.

Vista Print Goodies:
Magnetic Calendars:

Self-inking Stamper:

Business Card (250 in box)

Notepad:

Sticky Notes:

~L~

Who do you use for photo printing?

piclondon — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 10:26:46 +0000

Again, this is a real question – I’d love to know who you use and why!

As standard I use Photobox. They aren’t radical but they print on good paper and they are pretty reliable in terms of what you send is what you get. I’ve only had one experience where the colours were really off and I still can’t decide if that was them or the screen of the computer I used to edit them. However, it has made me look around. I had used Snapfish once in the past but I wasn’t impressed and didn’t try again, though I know some people really rate them.

Eleanor told me about moo.com, where she got some really nice postcards. You can order a pack for very reasonable prices and each postcard can have a different picture on it, which I’ve never run acrosss before. I also like their minicards because they’ve also created a frame that is specially designed to take a number of them… check here to see what I’m talking about!

Vista Print is good price wise for bulk buying, and they were very good in that the one time I know they made a mistake with a friends items (what she saw on their screen wasn’t what she got) they apologised and replaced very quickly. They also have lots of offer times where certain items are free excluding p&p. That means I’ve got hundreds of free postcards from watching their offers. But as with all things, do read the small print and make sure there are no catches and you don’t accidentally sign up for anything you don’t want!

In terms of ’special’ prints, I’ve already blogged on the conference where the individual labs showed off their wares, and they are worth considering, especially for a rush job. However, I tend to use little old Snappy Snaps in Knightsbridge, mainly because they are always lovely to me and take a lot of care over the colours, even when I’m not there. In fact in my film days, when I worked around the corner from that shop, it’s fair to say they actually made a lot of my photos look better than what I presented, especially noticing when I’d set the camera to the wrong ISO for the film etc and correcting without me even pointing it out.

So… over to you – what services do you use and why? Recommendations gleefully gathered!

Die neuen Moo Business-Cards sind da *freu

JuneB — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 09:56:22 +0000

Eine gescheite SLurl gibt es ja in RL nicht… und Landmarks übergibt man sich hier in Form von Visitenkarten. Nachdem Jutta mit dem Jelly-Office Anfang Februar umgezogen ist, müssen natürlich neue Karten her (schön, dass sie sich gerade 500 Stück mit der alten Adresse hat drucken lassen *grummel). Nur gut, dass es beim DesignCamp Cologne für alle Beteiligten einen Rabatt-Code für moo-Business-Cards gab. Also – nicht lange gefackelt und bei Flickr ein paar schöne Motive rausgesucht (hihi – habe heimlich auch ein paar von mir reingeschmuggelt. Irgendwie muss man die Leute ja daran erinnern, dass es auch noch was anderes als RL gibt *g). Es ist eine richtig schöne, kunterbunte Mischung von Motiven zusammen gekommen – die jetzt auf den Visitenkarten von Jelly-Consult neue Besitzer suchen. Und jaaaa – ein paar konservative Karten nur mit dem Firmenlogo lässt sich Jutta auch noch drucken .

Die neuen Jelly Consult MooBusinessCards

A funky Spanish illustrator found via ffffound

GillMPhoto — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 10:16:49 +0000

Sure as butter-side toast just loves a fluffy carpet, I seem incapable of ignoring a good bit of illustration. Having a flick through ffffound the other day I discovered a Spanish illustrator called Blanca Gomez, her website is cosasminimas.com which is Spanish for “tiny things” and her own work matches up to such a beautiful name.

She runs her own blog and is part of a talented worldwide group of creative artists called the Goodfellas Network http://www.goodfellasnetwork.com. She has a healthy and varied amount of commissions already under her belt, both for commercial and editorial clients and has caught the eye of funky online printing outfit moo.com who feature her on their site as a designer to watch. Blanca uses etsy, flickr, moo.com, her own site which has a shop, and the Goodfellas Network. A great example of someone who really knows their market and illustrates how different tools can work in combination to bring prospective buyers to discover your work.

Lists, Top 10s and a Pocket Full of the Best Of

dogearedpages1 — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:32:36 +0000

So it’s that time of year. Yes the lists are rolling out and the top 10s are all the talk. And, as the Waterfold Crystal ball begins to drop in Times Square this year, we will all witness a sea of lists.

Now I’m not poking fun at list makers, I am one myself. My lists have lists. So since everyone else seems to be making their lists, I didn’t want to disappoint my readers and not have one myself. Maestro … drum roll please … Sarah’s Top 5 favorite website experiences … yes even a writer needs some down time!

1) Have you Hulued?

If you haven’t traveled to www.Hulu.com, you have been missing the boat. No it’s not a Hawaiian vacation planning site, it a site jam-packed with full-length TV episodes, movies, movie trailors and anything you can think of that might be entertaining to watch while the boss is still out on vacation.

2) Moooooooo Mania

“Moo”ve over traditional business cards, this site is a great place to create and print unique business cards that will stand out in the crowd. Select from pre-designed templates, or create your own card with photography or graphic creations of your own. It’s a fantastic way to create one-of-a-kind cards that turn heads. Check out www.moo.com .

3) Are you feeling Wiki?

Check out www.wikitravel.com! I love to travel and this is the place to go to locate the most up-to-date travel guides around. And if you’re like me and a trip is not in the future (whimper) then you’ve got a great place to dream!

4) Got a Question? Search me!

I love www.searchme.com. If you have a question, they have an answer. Just type it in and wal’ la … a solution is at your finger tips. The best part about this website is that it presents all the searches in one, easy to use search format that is very similar to the iTunes Album flip through feature.

5) Just a cool website ….

Now I have to say www.tracychapman.com might be one of the coolest web designs I have seen this year. Music, visual intrigue and an unique presentation give this site a lot of sparkle. Even if you aren’t a fan of her music, Ms. Chapman’s website is a fun interactive experience.

Take a look for yourself. It’s a great way to see what the market is doing in the internet design/experience realm. What’s more, it helps pass the time while your boss is away. Enjoy!

Happy Web surfing!

Sarah @dogearedpages

Moo-jate: diseñar e imprimir tus propios trabajos es sencillo

msantaella — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 17:37:12 +0000

Ahora que vienen estas fechas típicas para tarjetas, postales, sms reenviados y toda la mandanga marimorena, no me gustaría desaprovechar para recomendar una web en la que puedes imprimir tus propios diseños o emplear algunos de los que tienen en la página. La dirección es www.moo.com (www.es.moo.com, que viene a ser lo mismo).

La gama de productos es limitada, pero son todos muy atractivos: tarjetas de visita, minitarjetas, postales, tarjetas de felicitación o pegatinas son sus principales objetos de venta. A diferencia de la impresión tradicional, que o te cuesta un ojo de la cara o, si consigues un buen precio, es a costa de tener una calidad que bordea lo ínfimo, en Moo, pese a ser impresión digital, los resultados son muy notables, con unos acabados que suelen ser más que decentes.

Por ejemplo, 50 tarjetas de visitas te saldrían por unos 15 euros, con un laminado mate y una finalización que yo no he visto en ninguna imprenta rápida anteriormente. El tema es que te tienes que adaptar a la medida estándar (55×85 mm), qué se le va a hacer, siempre tiene que haber pegas, aunque siempre compensa saber que puedes subir el jpg con tu diseño propio o, si lo prefieres, una fotografía (tan poco recomendable en las tarjetas de visita, por otro lado).

Para los amantes de las pegatinas, te puedes hacer tu propio librito, con hasta 90 fotos a tamaño reducido (22×22 mm). Los que somos unos frikies y nos gustan este tipo de chorradas, básicamente, alucinamos con las stickers (ahora me ha dado la vena esnobista). El precio es de algo menos de 7 euros.

20 postales personalizadas saldrían por unos 14 euros y, algo que a mí particularmente me hace mucha gracia, las minitarjetas (28×70 mm) te saldrían las 100 unidades por el mismo precio, con la posibilidad de adquir tarjeteros brutales.

Si no tienes mucha idea de diseño, no importa, ellos te simplifican el proceso y te dejan las opciones justas para que tus imagen queda, como poco, aceptable, que en los tiempos que corren no es poco pedir. Si controlas, guardas tu archivo como jpg y los subes a calidad de impresión para que sea todo tal y como tú quieres.

Como están en Londres, lógicamente los gastos de envío siempre van aparte. Estos dependerán de la cantidad que pidas, pero en ocasiones si llegas a cierta cantidad te realizan el envío gratis.

Por el momento, esta es la mejor opción que he encontrado para imprimir pequeñas cantidades a una buena relación calidad/precio… Ya puedes personalizar tus felicitaciones, tarjetas o postales a un precio asequible. Ya todo dependerá de tu imaginación.

Aquí está el enlace, que puede que lo conozcáis de vista de Flickr: http://es.moo.com/

MOO in Printing News

richardmoross — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 03:37:08 +0000

MOO Makes Print Fun Again

By Toni McQuilken
December 17, 2008
http://www.printingnews.com/print/Printing-News/MOO-Makes-Print-Fun-Again/3$8152

We love to print.” That’s the sentiment emblazoned on MOO’s Web site, on its packaging, and it is a tangible element in every one of the products it produces.

MOO is the brainchild of Richard Moross, CEO and founder. It is based in London, but the firm hopes to open a branch in the United States in the coming year, as half of its current customers are in North America, although MOO serves as many as 180 different countries, with localized versions of their Web site in five languages.

What makes MOO stand out from the crowd of printers is the business model it has adopted. It revolves completely around variable data, and is a poster child for how the concept, when taken outside of the traditional box, can be a huge success.

A Little Background

MOO started out as an idea in 2003, when Moross wanted to launch what he calls a “business card for your social life.” The idea was to sell a printed product with free access to an online service. However, in 2004 when the company was ready to go to market, there was a boom of services like MySpace and Facebook in the online social life space. So Moross changed it up, and decided it was better to partner with these services than try to be a competitor.

At that point, the company, “really focused on building a fantastic, high-quality printed product,” said Moross. And that’s exactly what they’ve done.

Paper stock is the first place where MOO sets itself apart. The company positions itself as an “affordable premium product,” so it seeks out the best stocks for both look and feel. “[We are] very particular and anal about this,” noted Moross. “The entire company gets involved in the paper selection.” Right now, MOO offers two main stock choices, a luxurious bright white, 140/150-pound stock, and a 100-percent recycled option that is seeing a huge response. Almost all of the firm’s products are laminated using a thick matte substrate.

“It’s not enough to be a Web company that’s just about price,” Moross noted. “It has to be very high quality, and very easy to use at the same time. This is a key part of our vision.”

The company outsources all of the actual print work to a company running HP Indigo machines. However, MOO gets the uncut sheets delivered back to them, where it handles the finishing and packing in-house, by hand.

According to Moross, they’ve thought about bringing the print in-house, and have even done some research on it. But in the end, for now, they decided to focus their efforts and resources on customer service and quality, as well as their software, instead. And that investment is paying off, since a large percentage of MOO’s sales are from repeat customers.

“We just want to be a great provider of print to our customers,” said Moross. “We want to give them options, package tracking, good shipping rates, etc. And we want to be closer to them for shorter turnarounds, etc.”

Setting Themselves Apart

If MOO was just printing high-end business cards, it probably wouldn’t be as successful as it has been. Instead, the firm offers customers the option to make every single card, sticker, or note card in a pack different. Customers can choose from templates MOO’s designers have created, or they can upload and use their own images. There’s no price difference if someone chooses to print all of the same cards from a template, or 100 different images they’ve uploaded themselves.

In addition to the standard business cards, MOO offers minicards, sticker books, notecards, postcards, and greeting cards. The minicards are by far, according to Moross, the firm’s most popular product. In fact, the firm has designed and now sells holders specifically for the minicards, as well as a customized frame designed to hold 20 different minicards.

How do people use the minicards? Social networks, which were the original target market, are still a major player for MOO. “At the macro level, people are living virtual lives, socially networking online, and that has resulted in this great desire to be tactile again,” noted Moross. “But people still have events, still get together. They have become more alienated in some ways, and print helps them connect and get together.”

And the concept expanded from there. Professional photographers are using the cards as a way to carry their portfolio around in a manageable way. Architects are putting images of their designs on the cards for the same purpose. Designers are creating stunning little works of art they can leave behind and get remembered. Consumers are creating everything from personalized Christmas cards to gift tags, to wedding announcements and everything in between.

And the firm isn’t stopping there. MOO has plans to offer more products and accessories in the future, in addition to expanding its reach. In fact, if the U.S. expansion proves successful, the company is considering opening offices in additional locations as well.

This is most definitely a company to keep a close eye on as it continues to expand and grow. It is proving that variable data isn’t just a fad, and that the Internet and online media don’t have to mean the death of print. Putting those two ideas together has resulted in a business model seeing outstanding growth and success, in an industry struggling to find its footing in the new century.

20/20 pour Moo Design

lacliniquedigitale — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 21:55:45 +0000

Me voici super satisfait avec mes cartes commandées sur Moo.com. Service irréprochable, communication client pleine de connivence et de subtilité, grande qualité des impressions. Moo.com joue à fond la carte de la personnalisation : 200 cartes de visite personnalisées, le verso est réservé à ” La Clinique Digitale ” (logo, coordonnées…), le recto à l’illustrateur que j’ai choisi (10 illustrations fraiches et très colorées choisies dans la bibliothèque de Moo.com). Moo.com propose également d’uploader ses photos ou design pour personnaliser le dos de ses cartes. L’interface de commande est très efficace, mon seul regret est de ne pouvoir disposer que de quelques fonts pour le recto. L’appli de mise en page manque également un peu de souplesse. Moo.com propose le choix entre du papier “classic” ou du papier “éco”. 5 jours plus tard, mes cartes sont là (fabrication et shipping depuis l’Angleterre). Même le packaging est bien foutu. Une petite pochette noire cartonnée pour protéger un jeu de 100 cartes est présente, ainsi que 2 petites intercalaires ” mine ” et ” theirs ” pour organiser les cartes dans la pochette. Le papier et le vernis assurent une super finition. Un mail arrive le lendemain pour mesurer ma satisfaction. Chapeau monsieur Moo !

Badass Business Cards

Andrew - Hunter College — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 22:00:01 +0000

Whether you want to personalize your business dealings or enhance your pick-up game, business cards

MOO in the FT

richardmoross — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 16:32:19 +0000

By Jonathan Moules in the Financial Times

Published: December 12 2008 22:22 | Last updated: December 12 2008 22:22

The opportunity for UK companies to export their goods and services – the one piece of good news from the current weakening of sterling – is being stifled by a lack of government support, according to businesses and employers’ groups.

The decline in the pound to a record low against the euro this week is another blow to many small and medium-sized companies that sell locally but rely on imported raw materials.

It has been welcomed, however, by those selling abroad.

Aircraft Materials UK, a supplier of metal alloys to the aerospace, medical and electronics sector, gains about half of its revenues outside the UK. But Udo Paul, who founded the business in 2001 after being made redundant at the age of 54, claims that his growth is undermined by bureau-cracy and delays by the taxman.

His main gripe is about VAT, which he must pay on raw materials entering the country from the US, but can then claim back when the final manufactured goods are sold.

While Aircraft Materials’ customers usually pay within 10 days, Paul claims that he has to wait weeks for the VAT to be returned, which eats into his cash reserves.

“We are subsidising the government while we get our VAT,” Paul said, adding that the tax owed amounts to about half his margins. He is also angered by the amount of form filling involved.

When the value of goods traded within the EU passes £260,000, the business must complete Intrastat supplementary declarations to help the government compile European trade statistics.

This is difficult for a business with just seven employees, according to Paul. “It all costs time and time costs money,” he said.

A spokesman for HMRC defended the tax office’s procedures. “HMRC has an internal operational target to process all VAT returns within 10 days, which it is meeting fully,” he said.

“Where a VAT repayment claim needs to be verified further, but is not finalised within 30 days without valid reasons, a repayment supplement will normally be paid to the business.”

However, companies selling abroad are enjoying an uplift from the current weakness of sterling.

Moo.com, an online printing business, gets half its revenue from selling personalised business and greeting cards to customers in the US. A 25 per cent decline in the pound’s value against the dollar raises Moo’s revenues by 12.5 per cent, according to Richard Moross, the company’s founder and chief executive. “It has been fantastic for us,” he said.

But too few British companies are taking advantage of the opportunity to export, and a lack of government support abroad is partly to blame, according to Stephen Alambritis of the Federation of Small Businesses.

“Exporting still has a fear factor for a lot of small businesses,” he said. “It is pitiful that we have on average six commercial staff in each of our overseas embassies and the diplomatic side is into the 60s and 70s.”

Jetzt hab ich auch eigene Moo-Cards

JuneB — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 12:57:11 +0000

Es kann ja nicht angehen, dass nur mein RL-Avatar eigene Visitenkarten hat – darum habe ich mir jetzt auch mal welche bestellt – bei moo.com – sehen echt toll aus, oder? Nicht ganz so schön natürlich wie die von Yoshinoris RL-Avatar – aber immerhin *g

Update: More Good Customer Service

dylan555 — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:07:06 +0000

So there was a happy ending with bad customer service for a change. Last week I wrote about a bad experience with a promotion from online photo printer MOO. In response to their note, I wrote:

Are you serious? Every other web site I’ve ever used has retroactively applied promotions that start within a few days of an order. While I think your products are cool, I basically placed my Christmas order and then got the free shipping e-mail the day my order shipped.

I’d like to say that I’ll remember this the next time I order from you, but considering the state of the economy and this lack of customer service, I’m not sure I’ll order from you again.

This morning I’m happy to report that I opened my e-mail and was told they’d honor the promotion! Good going MOO! I’ve never said this before, but I retract my claim of bad customer service and have removed you from my list of merchants I’ll never use again. Wow.

More Bad Customer Service

dylan555 — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:11:45 +0000

There was a happy ending to this story, check it out here. I’m always happy to see companies follow through for their customers. Good stuff MOO!

So by now if you read this blog with any regularity you know that bad customer service will set me off in a heartbeat. Recently, I placed a sizable order with the photo printing company MOO. While they make cool stuff, I’m not sure I’ll be ordering from them again. Why? Because I missed a promotion by two days.

They recently started a promotion that waived shipping costs for orders over $100. When I wrote to ask for it on my order (and I was very nice), this is the e-mail I received:

Thank you for getting in touch with the MOO Team.
I’m so sorry I;m afraid we can;t retroactively apply promotions. They begin upon receipt and not before. Feel free to place another order to take advantage. Sorry about that

That’s it? Sorry about that, place another order? I just made an order for over $100, given the state of the economy I’m not going to do it again a few days later! Companies have to realize that most customers won’t ask for a refund like I will. But those that do ask should be rewarded. It’s another example of where a company could have a customer for life, but because of their cookie-cutter attitude toward customer service they run the risk of losing a customer.

As for me? While I really like MOO and what it does, I’m going to think twice before I order from them again. As it’s custom printing, it’s not like I can cancel my order and then re-order to take advantage of the promotion. It’s also not like I wrote a month later asking for it (though many companies will honor their promotions for 30 days).

I LOVE Moo! Check out their new innovation!

traveldragon — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 14:10:40 +0000

MOO’s Business Card API And The Mashups Made With It – ReadWriteWeb MOO’s Business

Mailer Madness - updated

darciecondie — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:33:17 +0000

Click image to download pdf of mailer

I wrote this whole blog post, see below, only to walk into my kitchen & realise that I put my OLD initials, in paint, on already stamped envelopes. Yep, I still have it. I am still the reason they invented Sod’s Law. They are all proud and beaming DCT instead of DTC. Go Figure. It’s going to be a long weekend. #?@!

The mailer I’ve been working on for several months has finally come to fruition and started landing on desks today. I’m quite nervous and have been waiting for a phone call from anyone familiar who might be receiving one saying “Stop, somethings wrong! Don’t send out anymore!”

Another fear of mine was that with such goodness inside, the envelope was extremely plain and I am worried that it might get overlooked. I had previously thought I should do something, but had decided against it for a couple reasons: 1. I didn’t have the money to do what I wanted, 2. I was impatient and wanted to get them out there, as the project has seemed to take forever, and 3. whenever I try to do something that takes much artistic talent, i.e. painting/drawing etc, it doesn’t end well.

Ideally, I would have airbrushed or spray-painted DTC on the envelope with a stencil, maybe down the side. To give it some oomph. Or done something similar in Photoshop and printed it on the envelopes, but of course, the names were one them already and I have that kind of luck where they would have printed upside down, uneven or backwards and I’m on a budget.

I would like to say that the envelope doesn’t matter, it’s what’s inside that counts, but in this industry, I know better than that. CD’s get stuff all the time and you need to grab ppls attention from the very begining. It will be FANTASTIC if they don’t bin it and get inside to the goodies of a matching Moo postcard and Moo business card to boot, but I am preparing myself for the first “this wasn’t thought all the way through…I almost didn’t open it… you were so close…” comments.

That being said, I went with my gut and the second batch (sorry first batch people, you are just as important!), I’ve used resources in my home to decorate the outside top of the envelope. Tin foil, a blade and paint. Let’s hope this doesn’t work against me instead of for me, as it will either look like graff art, as it should, or like I asked a 6yr old to play with my work.

Supposed to say DTC. I USED to be DCT, previous to marriage. Bollox.

I’ve managed to come up with a new, less over the top/sloppy and correct envelope design. New envelopes and hopefully some salvage postage later, here we are. Took one of the images and used what was already there. Why try to improve on something you already have? Silly Darcie: K.I.S.S!

DTC Mailer Envelope