Let me tell ya 'bout MailChimp

I was first exposed to MailChimp in college a few years back. It was for my Digital Output course, and we were studying the dynamics and functionality of email marketing campaigns and software. From what I can recall, MailChimp came out as the "winner" among several comparable free programs for a number of reasons; easy integration of lists, easy to use workflow, and easy step-by-step tutorials, etc. After doing a short 1-2 week project of building a short campaign, reading lists, and compiling data, I never thought I'd see let alone use MailChimp again.

I made an A in that class, by the way.

Flash-forward 3 years. I am currently faced with taking on a new marketing challenge here at Printed Specialties. We need to communicate better with our customers, stay in contact more often, and need more traffic to our website (shameless plug: www.printedspecialties.com). Alas! This simple to use email marketing program quickly came to my mind's forefront.

Going back to the website I've looked at in the past, I notice that grand upgrades and swell updates have been made. When I mocked up a test campaign, MailChimp was easier to use than I could remember. And with it's current integration with various social sites such as Facebook and Twitter, it was easy to see this was the way to go for PSI. Also, forums and easily accessible help FAQ's made this project run a whole lot smoother. Not to mention the iPhone App is pretty sweet to have as well.

Everything is so wonderfully easy to use. I simply cannot stop singing it's praises! Now, Printed Specialties is gearing up to release it's FIRST email marketing campaign this Friday, October 1st.

I would most definitely recommend MailChimp to any business, big or small, who is looking to get into email marketing. This is more designed for the light-hearted and sensibly-humored, what with having a silly chimp for a mascot who tells jokes on every page, and who's simple directions and guidelines are sprinkled with witty puns and goodies.

I give it 4.5 out of 5 bananas.

Be well.

More shameless plugs:
MailChimp's Website
Our Twitter Page
Our Facebook Page
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New iMac: The Glory, The Story, and The Truth

About a month ago, I upgraded to a new iMac system. Got the whole nine yards - 21" screen (no 27" unfortunately), 3.2 GHz Intel i3 processor, 4 GB of RAM and 1 TB hard drive. The thing runs as smooth as silk, and along with my 24" Dell G2410 secondary monitor, I have quite a lot of screen real estate, which is perfect for what I do.

Now, when I unboxed the new computer, I was excited to try the new Magic Mouse. This thing rocks. End of story.

My only, however slight gripe, is this wireless keyboard. My hands feel cramped typing on it; like I'm typing on a laptop (which is probably what Apple was going for)! No number pad on the far right, so when typing in numerics from time to time, I forget and my right hand subconsciously drifts to the right, only to find nothing but emptiness. Everything just feels sort of squished.

Now, don't get me wrong, I still really do dig this keyboard for several reasons. The wireless aspect is great. I like being able to adjust and move and showoff with it as much you could imagine. Plus, being somewhat compulsive, I like a clean workspace. I also like the silent typing. As I sit here and type this lovely little blog, the soft 'tap tap click click' of the keys is rather comforting to hear. And the design is really slick. It's nice to feel and look like a professional.

So in all, I'd give this keyboard about a B+. Considering that I don't do many numerical-type typing, it doesn't bother me so much, and it just comes off as a small inconvenience. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who's thinking of buying a new iMac system. Just hope you don't mind feeling emasculated a little, if you're male that is.

Be well.

Fonts, fonts, fonts

Why must these little fanciful glyphs ruin my perfectly easy-going day at work?

Instead of searching for ridiculous fonts (Family Dog???) and trying to substitute TrueType for OpenType and vise versa, wouldn't it be easier to just convert everything to paths?

It sure would on my side.

Be well.

Welcome...

Greetings fellow tech-heads!

Welcome to the first Printed Specialties Tech Tip & Talk blog post.

Stay tuned for more juicy bits of technology, prepress, design and other various fodder saturated in oodles of specialized and unnecessary jargon as possible for the technologically inclined.

Be well.