please dont forget to fill out the survey cc-by lemasney
please dont forget to fill out the survey cc-by lemasney
Very often, at the end of a class, I’m supposed to offer a survey on the behalf of my host. Also very often, at the end of a class, there’s some questions and thoughts from the audience that may take precedence over a ‘proper’ close (“Thank you, good night, drive safe!”) and invitation to fill out the survey. Other times, well, I just forget in the moment of relief that things went well, etc.
There are a few things that always tend to show up in my presentation decks, like a thank you slide, an agenda slide, and social connection reminder slides. I am making this image so that I can create a standard reminder slide for a survey, right before the thank you slide. This also means that I made a survey for times when my host is not asking for one: something I really should have been doing anyway, given the incredible importance of feedback. And here it is, my 3 question customer service feedback survey! You can even use it to give me feedback anonymously on this post, and thanks in advance for the insight.
A presentation without a chance to fill in the survey is like a web site without analytics.
Without it, how do you know how you are doing? I have been incredibly touched by some comments (take a look at my testimonials for some kind words about my work) and others that corrected me, or gave me a different way of thinking. Insights are incredibly valuable, and surveys are loaded with them.
This illustration was made in the open source digital illustration application Inkscape, as are most of the pieces on this site. This work is licensed Creative Commons – By lemasney, which means that you can use it as you wish, even commercially, as long as you credit me.
Maybe you have a phrase that you’d like to see illustrated like this one? It’s easy! Just contact me at lemasney@gmail.com to start the conversation.
A waveform of me saying the word 'open' by lemasney.
calligraphy by lemasney
A waveform of me saying the word ‘open’ by lemasney.
Do not covet your ideas by lemasney
delicate stained glass chandelier, photo by lemasney
When in doubt, visit your library by lemasney
Symphonic logo by lemasney
Tonight, at 7 pm at Princeton Public Library, I’ll be introducing self-designated non-designers about the basics of graphic design for non-designers. It’s free to the public, no registration necessary, in the technology center.
In the talk, I introduce the key ideas of graphic design to those who may never have had the discussion before:
Fonts and typography
Layout and space
Color and palette
Defining and simplifying messages for casual viewers
Getting one’s attention and engagement in an over-engaged world
Visual branding
If you are like me, you went through 12 years of school learning about reading, writing, communication, arithmetic, history, and other important basic skills.
But I did not learn about video production, graphic design, data visualization or other contemporary communication skills while I was in school until I went to college. Not because it was too difficult to learn, as many kids are introduced to these topics in grade school now, but because the emphasis was different. So those of us who are asked to communicate in the new visual ways are often lost, not having even the vocabulary of visual communication. If this describes you, I think you would benefit greatly from the class. I hope to see you there!
Oh, you can’t make it? That’s too bad. Luckily, I have a phone (609 553 9498) and an email address (john@lemasney.com) where we can still talk about it! Talk to you soon.
I had a lot of fun designing this visual brand for Symphonic, an ideological company I’m thinking about that focuses on ways to bring people together. One of the themes that they might use to bring people together ideologically is through sustainability, another through making, another through understanding technology, and so on.
I have served with a few sustainability organizations, and even served on a committee for one. Their purpose is usually transparent: help people to understand that our choices affect the planet, in either positive or negative ways, and that the effects come back to reach us later, in an almost karmic way. Festivals are one effective way to expand outreach, and so they are common event choices for these kinds of groups. The festival usually involves food, awareness games, and other activities to create an impression that reminds you of the organization and its messages. I have seen many t-shirt giveaways at these kinds of festivals as incentive for people to collect a reminder of the event. I have a problem with this, very often. But, maybe you can help me to solve it.
My problem is that I do not see giving t-shirts away as pro-sustainability. If we are buying new shirts, they are still getting bought, new, not reused, not thrift, not gift. It supports the consumerist ideals: more, new, different, need, want. But, done correctly, we might be able to work with t-shirts, differently.
What if the Symphonic festival was a free-thrift and recycling/reusing drive?
The idea is simple: People bring clean, used shirts (and other items) to give away, as they might at a thrift store. then, they get to choose from whatever shirts and other items that have been collected, and choose a visual design (in the form of stencils or other materials) to change it if they wish. There might be a t-shirt stencil-printing station using recycled or high sustainability ink or a manual embroidery station where someone’s monogram might be taught and sewn by the new shirt owner. Simple designs with ideas about the best of sustainability and preservation could be screen-printed or stenciled on exchanged shirts by the new shirt owners. The festival would be free, services donated, t-shirts and other items exchanged and up-cycled by them. Donated leftovers that were not exchanged could be donated to thrift stores, or life support groups.
Imagine, we would have people participating in Making (designing, printing, creating), as opposed to consuming (browsing, liking, buying), in the traditional sense. By understanding and participating, not just observing and consuming as we are asked to do in many parts of our society, we understand that tiny bit of the universe in a new way.
This is an amazing possibility for a thread to emerge in the minds of attendees through open source, sustainability, sharing, teaching, reusing, recycling, up-cycling, code awareness, making, understanding, and seeing.
The common thread? These activities all point to truth, as one can know it, as they put their hands on it, modify and understand it, and know it. They get to see, act, and make (design, etc.) choices for themselves, and possibly discover a truth of their own. We are usually limited to buying or only knowing another’s truth.
There’s a free and open to the public class tonight (4/15/2015) at Princeton Public Library at 7 pm on Google Drive. I’m excited for the session because in many of the conversations that I have with clients about how they manage documents and archives, I usually end up discussing Google Drive with them as a solution.
Why Google Drive?
Because of:
Cloud-based storage, about 15 GB for free
Rich creation, collaboration, and editing tools for documents, spreadsheets, drawings, and presentations
The multi-platform nature of drive, in that it opens up anywhere you have a browser or app.
The security that protects my documents, especially when using two-factor authentication.
I hope you can join us for my talk on one of my favorite software services,
Take typed notes – You can use it as a simple note taking application, and many people do only that.
Take image based notes – you can also use it to take images and add them to your research or study notes.
Take voice based notes – You can be your own Don Draper and use it to do voice based dictation, with transcription!
Take webpage based notes – You can collect web pages for reference in Evernote
Annotate your notes – Once you have created your notes, there are lots of ways to add commentary.
Store and organize your notes online – You use Evernote’s cloud service to store your notes, and use notebooks and tags to group them.
Get to your notes from anywhere – Because it’s a cloud based service, you get the benefit of access from all of your devices. That includes most OSes on the desktop, phone, tablet, Raspberry Pi, etc.
Study – Evernote is a student’s friend, allowing you to collect all of your citations, tag them, add them to a notebook, and include lots of different media types.
Do research – Field researchers love the abilities of Evernote, from the multifaceted media input types to the organization and taxonomy tools.
Support your business – Some people use Evernote as a customer relationship Management tool, and so might you.
I have been traveling, and just came home, and walked in, and it’s joyous. I decided to make a record of how I feel and why I feel that way. It’s important to note that I enjoyed my trips away, and it’s also important to note that I was not especially homesick. Nonetheless, there are certain things that I really enjoy inside these four walls (and nearby) that I just can’t get in the places I’ve been recently, namely, Chicago, LA, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C..
High speed Internet connectivity.
When I am at home, I’m enveloped in bits, and it feels amazing to be back in that digital bath. In the ORD airport, you get 20 minutes free if you sit through an advertisement. Some airports do not have free Internet at all. In the hotels, when you get Internet access for free, which is less and less, it’s spotty at best.
I feel like Internet connectivity is to productivity as water is to the body. I feel like we need to seriously consider some level of high-speed Internet connectivity as a basic human right.
When you don’t have it, you crave it. When crave turns to need, you’re in trouble.
My media collection and services.
Even if I have no Internet at home, which is seldom the case, I have books, movies, TV shows, and lots of other media sources. In fact, with a good Internet connection, I can get to most of them remotely. Away from home, I have none of it. If I’m lucky I can get YouTube or Netflix over the lousy wi-fi. See also point one above.
Chromecast.
If there’s one flaw to a Chromecast, it’s that it will not work if you try to connect to WiFi that has an agreement screen. I really need to invest in a travel router or run OpenWRT on my Raspberry Pi so that I can start bringing my Chromecast with me and using it. But even if I did, I’m sure the media would stutter because of the low-bandwidth in the hotels. Also, as a cable cutter, I’m happy to not watch TV anymore, and this is the one amenity available in every hotel. I’m rather have the ability to just use my Chromecast. You can keep the 40 channels of nothing.
A ‘comfortable’ bed.
Don’t get me wrong, the hotels I have stayed at have had incredibly fluffy, well maintained, 1200 thread sheeted, super soft, and therefore incredibly uncomfortable (to me) beds. The main reason I have a very soft futon is because I sleep especially well on a very soft futon.
I like my 10-year-old pillow, my comforter that’s beyond repair, and the particular distance from the TV to the pillow.
I can’t wait to crash tonight.
Expectable weather.
Recent travel by John LeMasney in 2015 (Google Dashboard)
I never know exactly how to pack for a trip away. It’s hard at the moment because the country is entering Spring, and as a result, it can be 28 degrees in a Chicago morning, and 57 degrees by dinnertime. But I’m not packing a puffy coat for a chance of snow. On the other hand, I was pretty cold walking to work in my hoodie this week. In this part of the world, it’s easy enough to leave your jacket in the car. When I travel, I seldom have a car. I’m glad I don;t have to worry about it for a while.
Local restaurants.
I really enjoyed some of the restaurants I visited while I was traveling, but I’ll never be a regular there. I like having a ‘Cheers’ moment when I walk into a local restaurant like Michael’s in Lawrenceville. In a place where you are generally alone, like we tend to be when we travel, it makes those ‘Cheers’ moments seem far more distant.
Local groceries, a stove, and a full fridge.
Sunday is grocery day in my house. I go to my local farmer’s market, stock up on fruit, veg, and bread, and eat like a king for a week. In 3 out of the 4 recent trips, I walked to the places I was going, or I did not go, and more often than not, the nearest grocery was miles away. The walk there would have been okay, the walk back would have been much harder. In 2 out of the 4 hotels I was at, there was no fridge, and 3 out of the 4 had no stove. The one with the full kitchen was also the one with the grocery within walking distance, luckily. I love to shop for groceries, and I love to cook, but it’s often impossible to do either when you travel.
Local convenience stores.
We absolutely must talk about the difference between the United States’ Eastern coast convenience store, and the rest of the world as two separate categories.
Wawa only exists in 5 states.
7 Eleven is mostly everywhere, but please, don’t try to tell me that the experiences are similar. No QuickChek or Sheetz in most of these places, though San Francisco had some amazing green corner delis.
The rhythm of home.
If I’m away, these days, it’s for business. That usually means a 9-5 job for a few days or a week. I’m grateful for my employers’ generosity, that they would give me such amazing opportunities. But it’s a lot different when I get back to my normal schedule. Part of the reason I was so excited about making consulting my living is that most days I work until 3 am, wake up around 10 am, and work as I please in between. I always make my 8 am meetings, when they are scheduled, but they’re not scheduled everyday, and most people are just as happy to meet at 1 pm as at 7 am. I’m so happy I can get back to the rhythm of this place.
I’m really happy to be home.
I hope this article does not come off as kvetching. I really do not mean it to. I really enjoyed my recent travels, and as I said, I thank my employers for the opportunities and all that goes with them. I just wanted to sing the praises of home a bit. I hope you see some of what you love about home written here, and that it helps you to look around and notice all the nice stuff you have going on. I was taking it for granted, until some travel reminded me of what I love about this place.
