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One of my First laser projects sits on my desk... Always.

8/29/2015

The Smile of Peter Lenz

Five years ago, I was just getting my laser set up and testing out how it worked. I had originally purchased it to make scale model parts. I was trying out different materials and image files.

I made this etching with a photo I had manipulated into a pure black and white image of my friend Peter Lenz.

I met Peter in 2008 when we were racing motorcycles in the WERA road race series. He and his father joined us for our Taco Tuesdays when they were in town a few times.

Today marks five years since he was taken from us by the sport we both love.

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Highlight Artist: Misha Lenn

8/9/2015

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I was first exposed to Misha Lenn a few years ago when I had a client discussing a sign project. They were interested in using one of his minimalist water color pieces as the basis for a large illuminated lobby sign. I really liked the idea. I did some research into who created the artwork.

Misha is a Russian-born watercolor painter whose works are in private collections of Mikhail Gorbachev, Diana Krall, conductor Yuri Temirkanov, actor John Malkovich, composer John Williams and many others. Misha has been the official artist of Boston Marathon,Kentucky Derby and other prominent venues.

Interesting fact: in order to feel the movement better, artist took tango lessons.

Born in Saint Petersburg, Misha at a very early age, while studying music, found that he had an inclination to draw. He has given up the piano to painting. In 1984 he graduated with a masters degree from Saint Petersburg Academy of Art and Design. In 1990, Misha immigrated to United States. He continues to work in his studio in Boston, while his works are exhibited in museums and private collections in the US, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, Sweden, Russia and Israel.

He has created watercolors commissioned by DKNY, Calvin Klein, Harvard University, Boston, Chicago and Colorado Symphony orchestras, and several international jazz venues, including Tanglewood Jazz Festival.[1]

I was very impressed with his work as well as the following that he had put together. Please check out his website if you are interested in finding out more about him.

I picked up the phone and gave him a call. When he answered, he was literally running out the door for a three month European tour. I explained who we were, how I was introduced to his work and what our plan of action would be if he would be interested in allowing us to work with him and his images. Misha was very pleased that we reached out to him in the first place. He explain that many times he comes across his work after the fact like this:

The image on the left is a logo of a small business in Boston, right around the corner from Misha's Studio. The image on the left is one of his original works. Although the icon in the logo has been manipulated slightly, and possibly enough for a court of law, it is clearly drawn from his work. He has gone so far as to publish unauthorized use of his works on the web.

Misha liked the ideas we had. We worked out a plan of action to insure he would feel protected and give us some creative ability to work with our client.

We also discussed the opportunity for him to use us as a production studio. He felt our respect to the craft and location gave him a good feeling to have us manufacture for him.

The taxi that was taking to the airport for the trip to Saint Petersburg arrived at his door and we ended our call.

Ultimately, our client decided to move in another direction. I sure would have liked to create what we designed. However, we have stayed connected on social media through Facebook ever since. Every so often he will pop up in our news feed with another fantastic project or event he is working on. This morning, a the latest images to cross my path are a collection of dishes adorned with his work posted on Facbook from Nelly Geifman:

Sounds like these lovely cups, saucers, and service will be available some time soon.

If you are interested in having some of his art for your very own, Misha has a boutique section on his website. Or, if you are interested in commissioning a piece of original work, contact him directly. He can be reached quite easily from the contact page.

And if you would like to create a sign or logo using his work, well, we can do that too.

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Thanks for the Yelp help!

8/4/2015

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Yelp has been an amazing source for customers as well as a wonderful place for clients to place testimonials. So, when we had a fire in our building that forced us to relocate the studio, we wanted to bring our Yelp page along.

The blaze started a few doors down from us. It spread through the building, taking out several companies along the way. The flames were just coming through the wall into our space when the Sunnyvale Fire Department arrived. We were so lucky; no one was injured in the incident, we really did not loose any of our equipment, and we were pretty well covered. I was the best of a bad situation as far as we were concerned.

That was 2 1/2 years ago. Although it took us the better part of the 2d and 3rd quarters of 2013, we were continuing to serve our clients where and when we could. A huge source of new clients was coming in from Yelp. We really appreciated how it kept us in operations through out the transition. In fact we never really have gotten completely un-packed from the move to our new location.

We have really been busy...

Things slowed down just enough for us to start some internal house keeping items that have been on the radar for some time. A main issue was our website.

As a primarily B2B (Business to Business) company, we needed to work on our search rankings to be place as far up on the first page as possible. In B2B, 57.4% of leads come from search engine results according to a 2011 State of Digital Marketing Report. 1

By using social media, blogs and your website to drive traffic from one site to another, your search rankings will go up.

Every time I post a blog (like this one), it goes up on my website. Once there, it get cross posted to Facebook and Twitter as a link in a short post. If it is of interest to other viewer, they click on it to read the story and do so from my website. The hope is also that while the reader is on the site, they will choose to check out some of the other things we have going on with the company.

The likes and shares help too. Especially the shares. Another company that I was working with still has new followers, like and shares coming from posts on their Facebook page even though it has been shut down for more than a year.

Every click and view drive the search ranking up. Organically... which is the absolute best way to get higher on the search page.

On the flip side, inconsistent NAP( Name, Address, and Phone number) can yield nearly a 54% difference in search engine rankings versus a site that is consistent. 2

We started reconstructing our NAP to make sure it was correct on any site we could find. We start with the biggest impactor: Google Place and Google Plus. 19.6% affect comes from Google alone. Go figure that... Google looks to its own resources to drive searches.

Near the top of the list are external sites such as Yelp and Zagat at 16%.

Our Yelp page got some attention right after we moved. We placed in fresh content, updated the hours and sent in an address request...

and another...

AND ANOTHER!

Yelp just would not seem to accept our updates. I had even logged in as the business owner. Yet we still kept getting business from the site. I was torn between getting it corrected and leaving well enough alone.

I was really at a loss. I finally turned to social media and asked for help.

All of my friends started putting in change of address requests to Yelp.

Well... less than a week later, we are now listed correctly!

Thanks so much for your help in getting us on track for our SEO.

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Redefine what is possible.

8/2/2015

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I was just finishing up on a social media post when I saw this image of Robbie Madison flash by me on my screen. He is suited up in traditional dirt riding gear and mounted atop an off road motorcycle. Behind him is a curling wave from some rolling surf about to crash onto a beach. My mind said 'Nice composite graphic. I like the...wait a second! He is really in the water!'.

I opened up the DC Shoes sponsor video from their Facebook page. The film was spectacular. He really rode into the ocean on a motorcycle and ripped up a heck-ova-wave.

This made me think about how we are reacting to our customers needs and wants. I get calls from clients that tell me the competitor down the street would not even touch the job that we just said we would make happen. We truly will take on most projects with an attitude of 'How are we going to do this' rather than refusing to believe it is possible. We figure out how to make a customers dreams into reality.

Think about how you're doing this in your life. Are you letting a preconceived notion prevent you from achieving you goal?

Up until May 6th, 1954, it was widely believe that it was impossible to run a mile in under 4 minutes. Roger Bannister proved that to be incorrect. Since then, 445 other men in the US alone have eclipsed that mark (I could not find the world list) to include 2 High-school aged men just this year.

No woman has yet run a four-minute mile. As of 2015, the women's world record is held by retired Russian Svetlana Masterkova, with a time of 4:12.56 in 1996.

In1997,Daniel Komen of Kenya ran two miles in less than eight minutes, doubling up on Bannister's accomplishment, the only individual to accomplish the feat.

How many times have you seen people succeed simple because they do have yet to prejudge the situation as 'impossible'? When are you going to shrug off that attitude and successfully prove that wrong?

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We just turned a car into a moving logo.

8/2/2015

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Deep Reflections is a premium auto detailer in Los Gatos. They specialize in black cars. I met the when we needed to have a special customer taken care of. Joseph had his crew clean the car and degrease it before we did the color change wrap. Once done, we brought it back , and they made it absolutely sparkle.

They hand wash the cars the work on with a nearly water-less process using a product called ECO-Green Auto Clean.It does an incredible job of cleaning the car. An average sized automobile need less than a cup of water. Very drought conscious!

Joseph called us up after he saw what we can do with graphics. He decided to turn his personal car into a rolling advertisement for the business. We took the company logo and superimposed it onto a photo of his car.

We used Photoshop and their original art to make the concept image. We did not spend a whole lot of time to get the lines just right. We just wanted to get a rough idea of how it would look. He really like the idea and gave us the go ahead.

We used DesignLine knife-less tape to lay out the contour lines of the of the logo on the sides of the car. We added in a section for the rear spoiler and some contours on the hood. We used 3m 1080 Burnt Orange for the graphics in these areas.

Here is a quick video of how the knife-less tape works and how to apply it on your own project. One thing we learned while using this product; leave a lengthy tail to start the filament. Although the tape is expensive, it really gets tough to start unless you have about 6 inches or more of excess on the end to work with.

Joeseph also wanted to have a very subtle text portion of the logo added to the door panel. We used a textured laminate with a luster finish to accomplish this look.

The text disappears when you are looking at it straight on and leaps of the glossy paint when your eye his it at an angle. Super cool effect, don't you agree?

We finished off the project with 3m 50 cut vinyl text on the rear of the car. This is our gold standard for general graphics. The vinyl was cut on a plotter, masked with transfer tape, and applied in one piece to the bumper. The curve in the phone number was achieved by making relief cuts in the white space of the graphic during the installation.

Next time you're in Los Gatos, stop by Deep Reflections and check out their work. I am certain Joseph will be happy to show off what we did as well.

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sharing our little corner of the world with you

One of my First laser projects sits on my desk... Always.

The Smile of Peter Lenz

Highlight Artist: Misha Lenn

Thanks for the Yelp help!

Redefine what is possible.

We just turned a car into a moving logo.

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