$25,000 of free creative software and stuff

I won’t make any jokes about a $ being worth tuppence because, even so, $25k of tuppences is worth a whole heap.

X-Ray magazine is running a free-to-enter giveaway for oodles of creative goodies. Well, free apart from surrendering your precious email address and the usual marketing grab for personal information but that’s because there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Not least, you can win a copy of our software LinkUP Pricing. This is our company blog! Impressively also up for grabs; a copy of QuarkXPress 7, the Canadian edition of QXP 7 (eh?!), the Latin American edition, QXP Passport and some upstart called Adobe Creative Suite.

With all this, you could start your own Design Company. If you happen to be a trained Designer.

Quark Labs – not the dog type

In case you missed it, Quark has launched a new microsite: Quark Labs.

Interesting that the homepage is mostly made up of a huge set of legal terms and conditions. I suppose they have to cover themselves but, hey, there’s no need to ram it down our throats.

You can also download a free version of Shadowcaster, previously owned by A Lowly Apprentice (ALAP), recently bought out by Quark.

They seem to be after some free market research and QA testing but that is all to the general good. There is a forum for you to comment on their latest new bells and whistles. And I shall certainly be downloading all the freebies and see what they do.

It also mentions “you can also gain access to limited editions of earlier software releases”, which would be mega-useful, I just can’t find where…

I’m not a Mac-addict but…

That Macbook Air is pretty isn’t it? Almost makes me want a Mac. Almost, until the price tag made me make the usual ‘I could buy a car for that’ argument.

What I don’t understand is why any of the PC manufacturers can’t employ some young, cool, idea-full designer to create something that can compete. It’s not like other brands don’t make thin, expensive laptops. They just don’t go all the way and do it properly. It’s not like us uncool, suit-wearing PC guys don’t like a bit of sexy gadgetry.

Come on Dell, HP, whoever, give us some Windows based laptop to blog about. And make it cheaper. Or greener. Greener is good too.

I’d feel as smug as Mac Guy if I could sit in Starbucks with a beautiful but green-credentialed laptop knowing I wasn’t rolling with the ‘in crowd’.

Nice joke 21 Jan: PC Weenies

Groking Horrible

I love Future Now. They have a great newsletter full of actionable news. They have great books, full of actionable ideas. But, oh my god, do they need a Designer at that company. Or they need to hire one. And a logo designer wouldn’t go amiss either. I’m not sure why, but their website reminds me of the 90s.

Now, our website isn’t a thing of astounding beauty but at least I got a Designer to design it for me. I’m currently reading ‘Call to Action’ – original version with perhaps the worst dust jacket known to man – and note that at least they got it redesigned for the new version.

So I’m wondering. Why exactly do businesses scrimp on design, when there are so many Designers ready to turn you into the next Apple for a reasonable fee. Yes, I know that it takes more than great design to be the next Apple; packaging is important too .

Perhaps there is a better way to find a Designer than I know about. Style is certainly as important as substance online these days, but where do you buy style?

Cut URLs down to size

There are some helpful sites that I am at a lost to see how they ‘monetise’ their work. TinyURL.com being one of them. Or rather, I’m amazed that people are sensible enough not to be too greedy.
This is such a useful site that I use all the time, and have seen being used by countless others, I’m amazed it hasn’t been bought by Google. That said, I suppose they get a pretty penny from the Adsense ads. I really wonder who gives money by those donation buttons. I have once, so with billion’s of hits I suppose a tiny fraction giving a tiny amount makes it a good business.

I’m intrigued how it ‘never expires’ either. Gosh, people are clever.

Got milk?

A beautiful bit of marketing-led-design-programming-triumph: gettheglass.com

Thanks to creativepro for the link.

(We don’t have the marketing term ‘got milk?’ in the UK but it’s such a great tag line that my Husband and I use it all the time. See wikipedia for the history of the Got Milk campaign.)

Ideabook is…full of ideas

A fellow called Chuck Green writes the site www.ideabook.com. Basically it’s an ‘expert in his field’ type of site with design tutorials and full of great tips. I’ve followed it for years and it’s been a real fountain of knowledge (I’ve checked; it is fountain, not font or fount). He has the most elegant ideas about design and is a great teacher – concise, fun, useful.

I’ve just noticed Chuck has a blog at www.pageplane.com. It has a link to Jeff Bridges website; www.jeffbridges.com. Worth a visit. A refreshing and friendly site, full of his drawings. It is this fantastic randomness of links that I love about the internet!

Hello t’internet

Hooray and welcome.

This is the first post of MC Research’s blog. It is written by me, Jill Barringer, the Marketing Manager at MC Research. Disclosure: We write and sell software for database publishing. Advert over.

I wanted to have a place where I could summarise all the information I find when I trawl the internet. Links to design, QuarkXPress, software, marketing, fonts, databases, Macs vs PCs, cartoons, English language/semantics, photography, creativity; everything that touches what we do here at MC Research and some things that don’t.

Let the good times roll.