PicMonkey and the art director in all of us

I love PicMonkey.

For years, I watched graphic designers play in the magical sandbox of Illustrator, doing precisely what they wanted to images, picking exactly the right CMYK color and making art. Now, I dabbled in Illustrator, and I can do some basic things, but the cost of the program made it prohibitive to bring home and experiment with to go beyond the basics.

Enter PicMonkey.

Now, I can illustrate text or basic images to my heart's content. But, there's a problem. I am not an art director. Even with PicMonkey, I am not an art director.

So, what's a content writer to do?

When I was working at agencies, there were the inevitable art director who was forbidden from speaking with clients (and even sending emails) because client interaction was not his or her forte. But, the art directors who rose above, who led the creative element of the company, always managed to find a voice. How? It was hard, but they realized that what they had to say, their ideas and their vision of the concept in art, was so necessary to the clients that they built the skill set to come into the room. True, they always had a unique style, and it was always clear who the art director was, but he was the one person who stopped the noise when he spoke.

So, what does this leave me with? Maybe art direction isn't my perfect match, but the content writer and the marketer in me gets the message. I see what the client needs to feel and experience when he or she is interacting with the piece. So, in that way, I am leaning in the right direction.

While PicMonkey doesn't make everyone an art director, in the same way that Word didn't make everyone a writer, it is a great tool as long as you don't get lost in the pretty and remember what you have to say.

Comments

The Social Media Starting Kit (Part 1): Establishing Your Brand

Businesses, the best businesses, are the response to a problem. And, the entrepreneur's encounter with this problem and creative response is the story. Problem: Children without shoes Response: Tom's Problem: Unhealthy hair Response: Monat Problem: Children with a lacking education after public school term Response: Classical Conversations Your business tells a story. Its formation, website, branding, and sales style are all a part of that story. But, in a world of billions, how do you ensure that story is being heard? The answer is social media. And, when a story is spread on social media, you have magnified your audience and increased the likelihood of your business' success. But, how do you engage in social media? A business owner does not have time for rabbit holes, education in social media best practices (which are constantly changing), or endless likes, follows and unfollows, tweets and moments. Entrepreneur's Social Media St...

Storytelling is an Essential Component of Social Media

In 60 seconds, there are 3.3 million Facebook posts, 448,800 tweets, 65,972 Instagram photos uploaded. In 60 seconds. Every hour. Every day. Amid all the noise, how do you ensure your blogposts, your Facebook videos and your Instagram Stories are read and shared by the right audiences? Two elements are essential: list building and storytelling. Article Highlights · AI makes list building easier · Storytelling is a trend in 2018 · Business leaders must participate in their stories Software makes list building easier As social media continues to climb in popularity and profitability, more tools emerge to manage and accelerate it. These tools make list building easier. You can find influencers, join in at-the-minute conversations, and follow new users daily to become part of their conversations. How many users varies with the network, but it’...

The Space between Social Media and Business Acumen

There was a space for an entrepreneur to offer quality and business acumen in social media to other entrepreneurs and small businesses. SDS took it. A Passion for the Written Word There are thousands out there. We're the people who notice a Q without a U, a misplaced apostrophe, and a false word ("conversate"). We strive for meticulosity. We are logophiles and linguaphiles, and we often suffer from infobesity . In the modern business world, we find our niche in the conversation of the day--social media. This passion for the written word is the beginning of the SDS story, but the inception was forced by a frustration with dishonesty and a love of the hustle. A Frustration with the Status Quo Too many are paying too much for too little. This truth is apparent to every business owner who has hired a social media agency and received a smattering of disconnected posts that amount to nothing. However, this is not the way it should be. A social media professional, at h...

Instagram: Thank you for scheduled posts...and reposts!

After extensive changes that make marketing through Facebook even more difficul t , Instagram marketing and posting (which is also owned by Facebook) is becoming easier. If you use Buffer , Hootsuite , Soci , or any other social media management tool, you #instalife just got easier. Now, instead of posting from your phone to Instagram, you simply schedule and the post becomes live at the preset time, like all other social networks. How does this help you tell your story? We all, as business owners and entrepreneurs, have a story to tell. Instagram allows us to tell it visually, and to reach audiences unavailable on other social networks. With every post, we create a visual storyboard that reaches an increasingly attention-starved world. When you can project your message, your story in seconds, you magnify your reach. How do you tell your story on Instagram? Clarity in your profile, an Instagram aesthetic, tagging and distilled images are the key. My favorite Instagram examp...

Susan Does Social

Search This Blog