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The Newsletter of S.W.A.N. (njcreatives.org)
October 2001
IN THIS ISSUE
* Upcoming
Meeting: October
The Dangerous Art of Procrastination
Topic
Feature
Location!
Directions
* Announcements:
FLASH!
2001-2002 SWAN Sourcebook Available
* What You Missed:
September 2001
Meeting
* Member
Contributions:
* More Members get on
the Web
* From
the Editor's Desk
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UPCOMING
MEETINGS
October Meeting.
The
Topic:
The Dangerous Art of Procrastination
The one we've all been waiting for...
C'mon, admit it, you do it too. We all do it. It's part of our genetic makeup. Call it what you will: Hemming, hawing, delaying, dawdling, diddling, fiddling, twiddling. The medical term for it:
Procrastinating.
Like all bad habits, this one has some real downsides. For self-employed creative types, putting things off is just plain deadly. The stalling syndrome is marked by inefficiency, self-induced stress, missed opportunities, a lot less cash in the stash.
But there's hope. There's help. At the October SWAN meeting, member Marcia Ringel will describe the symptoms of that ominous itch that drives us to do
anything—anything—to avoid work. She'll illustrate the symptoms using choice anecdotes from her vast personal and professional experience.
Best of all, she'll reveal her special formula for the lifesaving antidote: The TTC Factor.*
*patent pending
>>>> Contrary to the meeting reminder you received via postcard, there will be no
prize given for telling the best anecdote. Procrastination is its own reward.
<<<<
Also at the meeting will be portfolio displays by SWAN members in several of the disciplines. Drop by the side tables to see examples of writing, photography, design, and other work by your creative colleagues.
So what the heck, put off that project, come to the meeting, and bring your own tales of personal
procrastination—how you do it, how you've seen others do, how it affects you when you do it, how it affects you when others do it unto you, how you cope with it.
Meantime, if you need immediate assistance... there's an online resource: The Procrastinator's Support Center:
http://all.successcenter.ohio-state.edu/dontdelay/index.htm
The details:
Wednesday, October 10, 2001
7:15 pm-Networking
7:45 pm-Meeting
Silas Condict County Park
Kinnelon Road, Kinnelon, NJ
For more information or directions, keep reading, or visit the SWAN website www.Njcreatives.com
Non-Members: $8.00 at the door
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New Meeting Location!
Those of you who attended last month's meeting discovered our great new location at
Silas Condict County Park, Kinnelon, N.J. On a balmy September night, we spent the schmoozing hour strolling along the patio that borders a serene lake. Inside, the room-which is pretty roomy-has the charm and ambience of a chummy, laid-back neighborhood community center that hasn't changed in 40 years.
Come to the October meeting and check the place out. Thanks to the relocation committee for identifying a site so conducive to SWAN's wants and needs.
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Directions
to Silas Condict State Park, Kinnelon, N.J.:
- From Interstates 80 or 287, take Route 23 North.
Notes:
* From I-80, Rte. 23 overlaps Rte. 202 for a while, then splits again--Rte. 23 becomes the left fork.
* Rte. 208 North becomes Rte. 287 South; no need to exit anywhere.
- From 287 North or South, take Exit 52B (Route 23).
Go through four traffic lights. Get in the right lane. Just before the fifth light, turn right onto a jughandle that will cross over Rte. 23. The sign says "Kiel Ave./Kinnelon Rd."
Turn left at the light onto Kinnelon Rd. You are now perpendicular to Rte. 23. Cross the highway at the traffic light on 23.
Continue for approximately 1.2 miles through two traffic lights, passing several businesses on the left.
Before the third light, look for the entrance to the access road (William Lewis Arthur Drive) to Silas Condict Park on your right. (If you pass the high school, you've gone too far.)
Proceed up the hill, around the bend, and through the park. Parking area is on right side, just after the lake on the left. Building is on left side, down the path.
For specific driving instructions, try MapBlast: http://www.mapblast.com
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
FLASH! SWAN
2001-2002 Sourcebook is Online!
It's New and Improved, and best of all, it's FREE!
You can download the latest version at http://njcreatives.com/sourcebook/the-book.htm.
Let your clients know the book is available-it's a great way to reintroduce yourself, give them something of value, and possibly open doors of opportunity to your SWAN colleagues in other disciplines.
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WHAT
YOU MISSED
Hire
Aspirations
At the September session, Hire
Aspirations, a couple of veteran entrepreneurs pulled back the veil of secrecy to reveal a rare glimpse of their process of choosing freelancers for their creative teams.
Neil Nathanson works at Mercedes-Benz in Montvale, New Jersey, where he's responsible for much of the car company's electronic training programs. His assignments include a corporate Web site, dubbed the "Infobahn"; distance learning; CD-ROMs; Palm Pilot applications, and more. Given the scope and complexity of his projects, he often needs to recruit tech-savvy, multifaceted creatives to produce complex, accurate, and easy-to-grasp programs on tight deadlines.
One way he finds folks to help is by checking the SWAN Web site. He'll also use the top Internet search engines. But his main resource, he says, is the people he's worked with before. "Work gets work," he says. "If you do quality stuff, you'll be asked back."
Neil passed along some tips to help members nail that assignment:
Know the product. "Do your homework before showing up," he urged. Show interest in and excitement about the client's business.
Be a good listener. Use "active listening," a technique in which you show you've been paying attention by recapping and rephrasing what your client is saying. "The guys who get the job,"
Neil said, "are the ones who quickly show they can make connections between the different levels of a project."
And take notes. Your first interview may be the only time you'll get to hear the specs of the assignment. If you've got the main points in writing in front of you, and you and your client agree on what's listed, you'll save lots of hassle and aggravation down the road.
Keep your portfolio fresh. Because so much of his work is Web-based, he likes seeing online examples of people's creativity. It piques his interest when prospective vendors send him an email notifying him that they've added something new to their personal Web sites. With just a click of the mouse, he can check it out for himself.
Discuss the delicate subject of price by asking if there's a budget. If you know what a client expects a project will cost, it makes it easier to submit a realistic bid. That doesn't mean there's no room for negotiation. If you're good, you're worth a premium price, because you'll deliver a premium product. "I don't mind paying more for professional work,"
Neil said, "since it means I'll spend less time holding the vendor's hand."
He spoke with grudging admiration of a ploy some enterprising types use when nosing for work. They'll make a cold call and speak with someone in the company, who'll blow them off by saying, "You don't want to talk to me, you want to talk to
Neil Nathanson." So then they call Neil,
and—having now gotten their metaphoric foot through the door—claim, "So-and-so told me to call you."
Michael Haviland, of Sonnenberg, Haviland, and Partners, told about his experiences developing marketing campaigns for products ranging from hit movies to toys to computer cables. The Ridgewood-based ad agency has 10 people on staff, "supported," said Michael, "by a network of freelancers."
He emphasized the importance of showing your creativity when seeking gigs from creative companies. "Nowadays a flat paper resume doesn't cut it," he said. "Give me something that reveals something about your personality."
The sample also has to indicate genuine marketing insight for it to merit a second glance. He's looking for work that demonstrates the writer understands the marketing objective, is organized, gets the message-and communicates it in a fresh and lively way.
He likes PDF attachments, since he can see the person's work quickly and conveniently. (Be aware, however, that fat files squeezing through slow dial-up connections can be murder on a modem. Best to check with clients before sending files of 1 megabyte or more.)
One of his favorite applications was from an art director named Pat. On one side was a picture of a gorgeous babe with the caption, "If you're a guy, I look like this." On the flip side was a hunky stud with the caption, "If you're a gal, I look like this." That was
it—no samples, no testimonials, just a good gag that made its point.
For Michael, proximity is important. He likes working with SWANsters near his business, because he knows it's possible to meet with them on short notice.
But, he cautions, don't claim you do too much. He's not too thrilled when someone introduces himself as a "slash" - as in, writer-slash-art director-slash-designer. "Focus on one thing," Michael recommends. "Get your foot in the door, and then after you're established, show your client some of the other things you're good at."
One question he poses to would-be workers is, What do you love to do? "The answer reveals where the quality in a person's work will shine through," Michael said.
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MEMBER
CONTRIBUTIONS
You Never Know Where the Next
Job Might Come From
By Stan Cohen
Liz Kassler (Illustrator) and I were at Pearl Paint on Route 17 in Paramus picking up supplies for a painting/illustration project of hers. While we waited in the check-out line, I noticed there was a "message or business card board" by the exit. Liz and I both happened to have our cards with us, so we found some push-pins and added our cards to the display.
Some weeks later I get a call from the president of a rubber flooring distributor/manufacturer in Carlstadt. He was at the Pearl store, cooling his heels in the check-out line. Using his time wisely, he looked over the cards posted on the board. He said my card stood out, so he was calling to discuss creating a Web site for his company.
At our first meeting I gave him a price quote; in our follow-up meeting we discussed my proposal in person. He had solicited a few other bids and had compared prices. At this second meeting, he
said he liked the fact that I was prepared with answers to his technical questions, that I had produced foreign language sites before (one in Chinese and one in Korean), that I preferred simple, straightforward Web sites that were easy to navigate, and so on.
To cut to the chase: I walked away with the assignment and a signed contract. When I complete the initial work, I will have done Web sites for his Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan subsidiaries as well as for a
specialty electrostatic protection product. The client is still puzzling over what to do about
implementing a US site.
You just never know where that next job comes from. This one resulted the cheapest form of advertising I have done since going freelance. (I didn't even have to pay for the push-pin.) I'm planning to go back to Pearl to try it again.
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The Picture of Sorrow
Photographer Jook Leung, erstwhile SWAN member, has assembled a page of images and spherical virtual reality shots (VRs) as a place to see and reflect upon the events of September 11 - events, Jook says, "that have so upset all of our lives." Visit
http://360vr.com/wtc/.
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Union Blues
Forwarded by Lynn Atkinson, Writer and dedicated member of the National Writers Union:
Dear NWU Member:
AOL/Time Warner has a new, work-for-hire contract they're pushing on writers. This contract demands complete copyright to the work without any additional pay or compensation for the creator. The NWU is currently forming a coalition to resist these contracts and we need your help.
If you or someone you know writes for a Time Warner publication (see list and link below), please do NOT sign the all rights/work for hire contract. This contract hurts you and all other writers in the union.
If you are under pressure to get a signed contract back to the publisher immediately, we suggest that you cross out the "work for hire" language and insert "First North American Serial Rights" in its place. In the Section (4)of the contract we have reviewed, we suggest you complete the first sentence as follows: "You hereby acknowledge that the Articles shall be sold on a First North American Serial Rights basis." The remainder of the section should be crossed out completely.
Regardless, please let journalism division organizer Dian Killian know 1) which Time Warner publication you write for and 2) if you have already received the new contract 3) if you have modified it as suggested above. We need these details to further organize. Please email Dian at
dian@nwu.org.
A partial list of Time Warner publications is below; for a complete list, go to
http://www.timewarner.com/corp/businesses/detail/time_inc/index.html
It is crucial that we have solidarity and that everyone in the Union stand firm!
AOL Time Warner Publications: (Selected list of better known titles)
Cooking Light
Entertainment Weekly
Family Life
Field and Stream
Fortune
Gold
Health
Money
Outdoor Life
Parenting
Popular Science
Ski
Skiing
Southern Living
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated for Kids People
Sports Illustrated for Women
Teen People
This Old House
Time Magazine
Yachting
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Future Shock
From Illustrator Deb Hoeffner: "Members may like to check out my illustration of a college student in the year 2052. The website
(http://www.uu.edu) is from Union University in Tennessee. Illustration is the cover for the school magazine. It's rather ironic that I, the original anti-techie, had the opportunity to do this subject."
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Wandering
A Reminiscence
By Wally Littman (Illustrator)
How would you like it if after you've made a couple of friends at a new school your parents decide to pack up and move?
That happened too many times while I was trying to grow up. Some of those experiences are so deeply etched they helped form my personality. What you have one day disappears the next. Trying to be positive, I got to meet a lot of people and I saw a lot of new places.
The reason for our vagabond existence was that my father was a man of high principles. He also had a temper with a hair trigger.
He was forced to change careers. Once a dry goods merchant with a store that suddenly took a nose-dive, he was now a kosher butcher. How that transition took place will remain a mystery forever. Pop's work ethic was "Work hard, work fast, and the rest will take care of itself." He figured that the boss would see how good a worker he was and reward him with a raise in salary. Unfortunately, that wasn't always the case. In the depth of the Depression, nobody voluntarily gave money away.
My mother kept after him to ask for a raise, but he just couldn't steel himself to do it. Father felt that such a reward should come automatically. If the boss didn't respect his hard work and dedication, well, he couldn't work for
him anymore. So...we moved.
I started to draw at a very young age. I found that I didn't need any friends to do that. I could express myself all by myself.
I would spend hours recreating the Nazi air attacks on paper then fold the paper into an airplane and toss it out of the window. That's how I met Tommy Byrne.
Tommy and his family lived in the basement apartment on Montgomery Street in Jersey City, which was right across from Van Vorst Park. We were about the same age and seemed to have the same interests. We would get together and create comic strips of allied airplanes shooting down Nazi planes. We didn't write much dialogue because neither of us could spell. Tommy's sister, Marie, would look over our shoulders and try to get involved. But she was a girl and so she had no place in our busy lives.
Tommy and I had almost eliminated the Nazi war machine when it was, once again, time for the Littmans to move. We settled in another part of town-Jewett Avenue, a higher-quality neighborhood than Montgomery Street. It was a mixed neighborhood--some Irish, some Polish and an occasional Italian. Melvin Marmorstein's family and mine were the token Jews. I was known to all as "Jewboy." Even Junior Fallon's 4-year old sister took devilish pleasure in greeting me "Hello, Jewboy."
Regularly, every Friday afternoons, I was chased and "pantsed." A gang would chase me, catch me, pull off my trousers, and hang them on a streetlamp. I was terrified and embarrassed. Eventually the harassment stopped. I guess it wasn't any fun for the gang anymore. Gradually others in the group accepted me--except for Anthony Calendrillo, who was built like a little bull and who loved to push me around.
I don't know how Melvin Marmorstein escaped this punishment, but he did. Melvin's parents owned a hardware store on Monticello Avenue. Melvin loved to go to the cash register and ring up "No Sale. Little did his parents know that with each "No Sale," Melvin helped himself to money from the drawer. I asked him why he did it. He said "Because I felt like it," and offered to split the loot with me if I kept my mouth shut. Wow! Easy money. Of course I agreed.
Melvin's M.O. was to take twenty dollars and give me ten. I would take the ten and hide it in a drawer in my bedroom. But Mother had a habit of checking the drawers periodically and she discovered the with the hidden treasure. My confession about the source of these ill-gotten gains meant the end of my friendship with Melvin.
It was time to move again. This time to a better apartment on Fairview Avenue, just a few blocks away. As close as it was, it was a totally different atmosphere. There were different kids to play with. It was, in hindsight, a little more upscale. My new friend, Milton Gelzer, was smart, but a little fat. We played stoopball in the street and on occasion would go to the roof with our model airplanes. We attached matches to the tail assembly, lit the matches, and tossed the planes off the roof. It was like the German dive-bombers going down in flames.
Our little historical reenactments irritated the superintendent of the building. One day he confronted my father, claiming I was a rotten kid and demanding something be done about my behavior. In the fistfight that ensued, my father got belted in the mouth and lost a tooth.
He fought for me. I should have been very proud of him. But all I remember is the blood streaming from his mouth and my mother shrieking in Yiddish, "Vas hust de getein, yolt!"(What have you done, fool!) We had lived on Fairview Avenue for about two years. It was now time for another move.
Our new place was to a two-story frame house on Stegman Street, a very nice neighborhood, just a block away from my father's store. Maybe, I hoped, we could stay here for a longer time.
I was able to go to the eighth grade and all four years of high school without a move. The friends that I made during that time are still friends to this day.
I guess that speaks well of staying in one place.
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More Members get on the Web
Some members’ jaws dropped at the last meeting when they learned that Deb Hoeffner (the "original anti-techie") has her own Web site at
http://www.debhoeffner.com. Isn't it time for you?
Wally Littman also got the message and joined the online congregation as well. See Wally's world at
http://wallylittmanillustrator.com.
Eileen Watkins, Writer, is joining those launching with portfolios this month.
Janet McDonough, Writer, and new member Herb Stern, Designer, currently have their domain names registered. Halleluyah.
So if you need to be inspired or otherwise motivated, speak to those who have their own sites or who have posted their portfolios on
http://NJcreatives.org and you, too, may see the light.
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From
the EDITOR
In the last three weeks, billions of words, thousands of images have tried to capture and convey the shock and sadness of the terrorist attacks. I may never grasp the enormity of these events. Still, I believe that without the insightful comments of thoughtful writers and the perceptive eye of unflinching photographers, I would have found it impossible to sift my way through the rubble of my own shattered psychic landscape.
Like most of us, I've succumbed to moments of numbness and tears. I'm behind in my projects because for a few days I couldn't function. I wandered to a park and sat under a tree for a few hours. I sought solace in the graceful, passionate Chopin nocturnes. The power of words and music to heal was underscored by a story that a SWAN member sent to me. The story was written by a musician, a violinist from Julliard who played at the Park Avenue Armory non-stop for more than 10 hours to bring some glimmer of joy to weary rescue workers.
I've noticed ripple effects that the terrorists surely never intended. A couple of freelancers I know have said that assignments seem to be drying up, that the market is "softening." Just today, with sadness, I had to cancel a contract with a freelancer I'd hired for a project. He lost a close cousin in the World Trade Center collapse, and he is psychically and spiritually unable to get on a plane to attend a medical conference. He says he has to "circle the wagons" and hunker down close to home. I don't blame him--but still I have a project to manage and deadlines to meet. I hired a replacement, but even she won't fly--she'll be driving to Chicago.
I was grateful that the SWAN board opted to hold our September meeting, just a day after the attacks. Being together in a community of like-minded colleagues was great tonic, in the beautiful new location, with its lake and patio and eccentric caretaker, was proof that life goes on.
And how about you? How are you doing?
--Ron Schaumburg
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Thanks very much to SWAN members who contributed material and ideas to this
issue.
Although we plan to offer a printed version of CYGNETURE in the future, for
now the electronic format means we're not wrestling with space constraints. So let's consume our fair share of bandwidth! Please pass along items that
would interest your colleagues, including:
* Personal news, updates, and accomplishments
* Tips for working more efficiently and profitably
* Resources you've found valuable
* Possible leads for clients or projects
* Unusual projects or wacky encounters with the "real world"
Let's hear from you!
Send submissions, suggestions, and comments to
rons@attglobal.net, or
call 201 836 2539.
--Ron Schaumburg
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