This is a listing of my profession-related activities and actions. It should let you know why I think of myself as a professional.
Hi, everyone! Tonight at 7pm at Princeton Public Library, I’ll be explaining the who, what, when, why, where, and how of food blogging. I’ll be talking about best practices, tools, reasoning, methods, and more. Please join us in the chilly technology center at PPL!
Two recent projects have been keeping me busy, and now that they are complete I wanted to share some of the effort, thought, and outcomes of the projects.
First, I was lucky enough to do some work for AirTight (a popular retail wifi management and security solutions company) on an infographic explaining some reasons to consider products like theirs if you are a retail wifi outlet like JCPenney or Panera. This was a great project with a few twists and turns, lots of collaboration, and joy in the design of the visual iconography. Here’s a portion of the work as it was in progress, before we readjusted for layout, lead-in, and other tweaks:
Another project was a branding project for a long-time friend and colleague, Adnan Shamsi, who was looking to define the look, feel, and ideology behind his new capital advising firm, K2. We made a design that used the palette, emotional reinforcement, and spirit of the amazing K2 range, a lovely story telling analogy for financial awareness and guidance.
What’s next for LeMasney Consulting? I’m going to be continuing the technology classes at Princeton Public Library in July, August and next semester. I’m excited to be talking about food blogging, Scratch, Android, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and lots of other interesting topics. Also, I will be teaching at Rider University and Princeton Adult School in the Fall! More info as I have it to give. Thanks as always for your support.
Saturday, June 15, 2013
7:30pm until 8:15pm
In this session, local graphic designer and technology consultant John LeMasney will demonstrate how to get started with digital graphic design using free (open source) software, and will introduce the concepts of color choice, font choice, visual inspiration, best practices, and resources. If you ever find yourself tasked with putting words and images on a page in an interesting way, but have never had any training in how to do that effectively, this class is for you!
May 14, 2013 – 7:00pm -8:30pm
Interested in creating your own blog? In this two-part course, social media and technology expert, John LeMasney will teach how to start and manage a blog for free through WordPress. Prior web design experience is not needed. Session 2 will be held on Tuesday, May 21.
Skill Level: Basic
No registration necessary
Today, I did one of my favorite consulting tasks: library technology assessment. I sat down as part of a team with the administrative and technology staff of a New Jersey library system to help them to find out where they’ve been, where they are, and where they want to go with technology in the next two years. It’s a fun discussion, especially after we get past the point of discovery and move to solutions.
We begin by asking about what it is that they hear is missing or insufficient from patrons. In this particular case, we learned that the public use computer systems needed updates and renewal, the printing and copying system was less than ideal, and that the web site needed to move from one engine to another. Noting those, we moved on to a structured list of discovery items, such as asking about the speed, price, and coverage of wireless access. We learned that the phone systems were sufficient and reliable, but that better methods of communication, such as those found in unified messaging systems and intranets might be a great addition to supplement phones.
We talked a lot about social networking and communication and how to use them more effectively to support and inform stakeholders of new systems, updates, and programming. We talked about internal development and training to support external development and training. We discussed a lot of things, discovered a lot of truths, and began to develop new plans for forward movement. We discovered a lot of points for discussion aligning with 20 points of technology assessment, with many short-term, intermediate, and long-term solutions. I often get a little charge out of explaining how easily the issues at the top of the list of patron feedback and needs are going to be met, how the awareness is the toughest part.
Many libraries have not had this discussion, and some have never had the discussion. Those who have are taking part in the conversation about the ways that libraries are changing, moving from being media distribution points to development centers, community life and work spaces, and collaborative, making, and incubator spaces.
Libraries that are thriving are meeting new and different needs than they were 5 years ago. They are creating comfortable, enabling, rich work spaces for people to grow in the ways that they wish to. People want to meet, develop themselves, organize, and extend themselves, and the best libraries today are helping them. Books and movies are a part of it, but just a part. Decreases in physical media circulation is being countered by an increase in foot traffic, participation in programming, increases in digital circulation, and increases in specialized meeting services, co-working, and knowledge sharing. I wonder what the conversation would be like with your library?
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I was very happy to be asked for the fourth time by Janie Hermann to create what has become a tradition: the visual branding for ALA Battledecks, a fun contest in which presenters present interesting, funny, and sometimes shocking slides that they’ve never seen until they present. This year, in Chicago, Janie asked me to design something that called up the ideas of gangsters, flappers, the 1920’s and the glitz of Chicago, and so I focused on a fedora, Art deco, and marquee lights for the design. Thanks for the opportunity!
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