Last week, the Houston Business Marketing Alliance held the 2025 AIM Conference. This is the second HBMA Conference I’ve attended and both have been fantastic. In a morning session, David Saxe with ELL Creative gave a talk entitled “Storytelling that Converts: Crafting Content that Resonates”. The talk sure resonated with many intriguing thoughts and solid takeaways. I won’t
It has been said that if a business can get to the five years mark, it will probably survive, and maybe even thrive. Ratcliff Creative is crossing that threshold here at the end of May. Sometime right before Memorial Day in 2019 – I cannot remember exactly – I decided
Experts say small businesses should carve out a niche and specialize in one area. This approach to business makes it easier to describe what you do to potential customers and standardizes pricing projects. Makes business more efficient and scalable. There is a counterargument to this thinking: being a generalist. Sure,
The great ad man Lee Clow once famously proclaimed that everything is advertising. He’s not wrong. But is everything design? For clarity, we’re talking about advertising and design as nouns, not verbs. The things, not the process of making things. So, what is the difference between advertising and design? A
Stuff read/watched/studied/absorbed this week… Surface Magazine Why Most Creatives Fail Online: Strategies for Lead Generation, SEO, and Content 8 reasons why design strategy fails How does technology make us lost in digital noise? Reimagine design mindset to shape a mindful digital future Founders, Freelancers & Rebels: New book dispels the
Rebranding identities is a tricky business. Here are my thoughts on a recent LinkedIn post: The Gap: Awful and amateurish. That’s why it died before it could be implemented. Max: Dumb. Max means nothing to anyone except the internal marketing people who probably refer to it as “Max” and decided to go in
Response to the article “Why Every Designer Needs to Master Adaptability“: Great article, Sam. Graphic design, more than almost any profession I can think of, has so radically changed, and continues to change with no normalization in sight. When I was in college, my portfolio was entirely hand-painted. Mostly hand-lettered.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdH8Kuku9tASo, what did we learn this week, kids? Why Great Design and Logos are Essential to Business Success Creative thinking How to design a high-converting landing page — Increase conversions by +33% with this guide Case Study: Practice Better Brand Strategy, Identity, and Design The Devil behind David- When ideal
Full disclosure: I didn’t watch a minute of last night’s game. Not the biggest football fan and generally I’m one of those people who watch the Super Bowl purely for the ads. For many reasons, I opted out of watching any of it this year. I understand the last few
