Toot! Toot!*: Jeff Fisher LogoMotives business card featured in new Japanese design book

The business card of Jeff Fisher, the Engineer of Creative Identity for the Portland-based firm Jeff Fisher LogoMotives, is featured in the new Japanese design volume MEISHI: Little Graphic Art Gallery of the World. Produced by the International Creators' Organization, the 272-page book displays business cards from designers in 28 countries.

This past year Fisher updated his business card, from a similar design, to reflect the growing aspects of his business. The previous card, a letter press effort, is featured in the book The Big Book of Business Cards. The latest version of the Jeff Fisher LogoMotives card also appears in the German volume Letterhead and Business Cards from publisher zeixs.

Designer Jeff Fisher is the author of Identity Crisis: 50 Redesigns That Transformed Stale Identities into Successful Brands (HOW Books, 2007). He has received over 600 regional, national and international graphic design awards for his logo and corporate identity efforts and his work is featured in more than over 100 books on the design of logos, the business of graphic design, and small business marketing. His first HOW Books offering, The Savvy Designer’s Guide to Success, appeared on bookstore shelves in late 2004, and has been re-released in PDF format on CD. Fisher is currently writing a book about typography in identity design.

In January, Fisher was named one of design industry publication Graphic Design USA’s “People to Watch in 2009.” In 2008, Jeff Fisher LogoMotives was recognized as one of the top 100 U.S. home-based businesses by the web presence StartupNation.

More information about Jeff Fisher, and his design and writing efforts, may be found on the Jeff Fisher LogoMotives blogfolio.

(* If I don’t "toot!" my own horn, no one else will.)

© 2009 Jeff Fisher LogoMotives

Toot! Toot!*: Jeff Fisher LogoMotives business card featured in new German design book

The business card of Jeff Fisher, the Engineer of Creative Identity for the Portland-based firm Jeff Fisher LogoMotives, is featured in the new design volume Letterhead and Business Cards. The book, available in the United States later this year, is produced by the German design entity zeixs, which was founded by the publishing house Feierabend Unique Books and the design agency 12ender.

This past year Fisher updated his business card, from a similar design, to reflect the growing aspects of his business. The previous card, a letter press effort, is featured in the book The Big Book of Business Cards.

Designer Jeff Fisher is the author of Identity Crisis: 50 Redesigns That Transformed Stale Identities into Successful Brands (HOW Books, 2007). He has received over 600 regional, national and international graphic design awards for his logo and corporate identity efforts and his work is featured in more than over 100 books on the design of logos, the business of graphic design, and small business marketing. His first HOW Books offering, The Savvy Designer’s Guide to Success, appeared on bookstore shelves in late 2004, and has been re-released in PDF format on CD. Fisher is currently writing a book about typography in identity design.

Fisher was recently named one of design industry publication Graphic Design USA’s “People to Watch in 2009.” In 2008, Jeff Fisher LogoMotives was recognized as one of the top 100 U.S. home-based businesses by the web presence StartupNation

More information about Jeff Fisher, and his design and writing efforts, may be found on the Jeff Fisher LogoMotives blogfolio.

(* If I don’t "toot!" my own horn, no one else will.)

© 2009 Jeff Fisher LogoMotives

Clickety-clacks along the LogoMotives tracks

In the past month there have been quite a few mentions and sightings of Jeff Fisher LogoMotives out there in the cyber and real worlds:

• Inside Digital Design: Brands, Logos and Identity Crisis
Scott Sheppard, CEO, Executive Producer and Founder of Inside Media Networks and co-host Gene Gable interviewed me about my book Identity Crisis: 50 Redesigns That Transformed Stale Identities into Successful Brands, The podcast program is also available for download from iTunes.

• Online Marketing Tips (Use These Today!)
In offering authors book marketing advice, The Writer's Handbook Blog suggested that readers take a look at the list of social networking/media sites I have used to promote my book, Identity Crisis: 50 Redesigns That Transformed Stale Identities into Successful Brands.

• 26 Business Cards of Graphic & Web Designers on Twitter
On The Design Cubicle, Brian Hoff presented a collection of 26 business cards from industry peers who are on Twitter - including my own card for Jeff Fisher LogoMotives (above).

• My Freelance Life: Why I Started On The Road To Self- Employment
On the CMD+Shift Design Blog, Liz Andrade includes my input about getting starting as an independent graphic designer - over 30 years ago.

• 25 Must Read Interviews From 2008
The resource site You The Designer has compiled a reference list of 25 design-related interviews from the year - including the interview with me by Just Creative's Jacob Cass.

• Making Time to Market
Linda Whitehead, Vice President of Marketing at ADBASE, gave my marketing methods a mention in her Insight article.

• Links of the day
Marketing through social networks & social media was also a "link of the day" at Matt Lambert's Cardeo.

• Nerdy Daily Links
In the category of "Design Portfolio Exposure" the website AndySowards.com posted the link to my blogfolio entry Marketing logo design efforts with online resources

• Tips To A Greater Logo
The blog AainaA referenced the interview designer Jacob Cass did with me for Just Creative: Logo Design Tips & A Not-So-Ordinary Interview with Famous Celebrity Logo Designer, Jeff Fisher.

• Designers Favorite Fonts In Use
Designer Niki Brown included my favorite font in this Design O'Blog entry. (Thanks to Mayhem Studios for the mention about the piece, too!)

• Graphic Design 101
The October issue of NAILS Magazine includes references to my design efforts for the Portland nail salon Diva, in this article by Ami Neiberger-Miller. The article was the result of my response to a HelpAreporterOut.com (HARO) posting by the writer.

© 2008 Jeff Fisher LogoMotives

Associated Press business card storyincludes Jeff Fisher LogoMotives mention

Last week Jackie Farwell, an independent writer for the Associated Press, interviewed me - and other business professionals - for a news story about the use of the traditional business card as a self-promotion tool in today's non-traditional networking world. With the Jeff Fisher LogoMotives business card being an odd shape and size, she was wondering if I got much negative reaction to its use.

This morning I'm starting to see various formats of the story on international news sites. So far I've seen references on the sites for The Canadian Press, The Columbia Daily Tribune in Columbia, MO, o8sis.com, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, The Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, MA, WRAL.com, and the Chicago-area publication The SouthtownStar. Don't be surprised if the story pops up in a publication, or on a site, in your neighborhood.

My business card has served me very well the past six years. I recently wrote about it in another bLog-oMotives entry.

© 2008 Jeff Fisher LogoMotives

It's in the cards...

Five years ago I was preparing to speak at the HOW Design Conference in New Orleans and realized that I needed to change my ways. Until that time Jeff Fisher LogoMotives did not have a business card. In fact, in the Portland design market I was commonly referred to as "that designer who doesn't have a business card" and had not made use of a card for over a decade. Heading off to my first major design conference, I knew that I needed to have an identifying card to share with others in the profession.

I'd had the concept for my cards (stored away in my tiny little brain) for many years. It was just one of those "the cobbler's kids have no shoes" kind of things - I've always been horrible about getting design projects completed for myself. So, I finally created the business card I wanted; one modeled after the railroad cards in the board game Monopoly. The wonderful folks at Oblation Papers & Press produced my beautiful letterpress cards. I don't remember the quantity produced. I do remember that the final product ended up costing me just over 70 cents per card. Still, it was a very worthy investment in making a great first impression - and it even ended up in The Big Book of Business Cards.

A couple of weeks ago I was looking at my schedule of upcoming speaking engagements, and networking events, and realized I should check my inventory of cards. I was a bit stunned to determine that I only had about 40 of the letterpress cards left in my stationery cabinet. With a Portland biznik networking event less than a week away, I decided I'd better update the mission statement on my card, add needed information and reorganize some content. I uploaded the file to the site of NitroPrint (the company who had done a great job for me on an Identity Crisis! postcard last fall) and in a couple days I had my new card - at less than 3 cents a piece! I'm very happy with the end result and I've been passing the things around like crazy in both Portland and Seattle in the last week.

Today I noticed a timely post on Designers Who Blog about the business cards of those who blog. Check out "Business Cards of Bloggers" and add yours to the growing collection.

© 2008 Jeff Fisher LogoMotives

Where do you do what you do?

I'm working from the desk of Seattle hotel suite, with an incredible view of Elliott Bay and the Olympic Mountains, at this very moment - and I'm always working from wherever I may be with my PowerBook at the time. It might be from a villa in Italy, in beachfront home in St. Croix, on a picnic table at a campground on the Oregon Coast, from an uncomfortable chair in some noisy airport waiting area, from the kitchen table of a friend's home in another city, in our camping van along Eagle Creek while gold mining in the Wallowa Mountains, or elsewhere. Still, my favorite place to be at work is from my own home garden - with WiFi! Check out the workspaces of others, and add photos of your own, at the new site WHEREWEDOWHATWEDO (that's Where We Do What We Do).

© 2008 Jeff Fisher LogoMotives

Toot! Toot!*:The Big Book of Letterheads featuresdesigns from Jeff Fisher LogoMotives

Two stationery package designs by Jeff Fisher, the Engineer of Creative Identity for the design firm Jeff Fisher Logo- Motives, appear in the recently released book The Big Book of Letterheads. Designs for the VanderVeer Center and Pearl Real Estate are among over 330 examples featured in the volume from author David E. Carter and the publisher Collins Design.

The letterhead design for the VanderVeer Center, a Portland- area provider of anti-aging medicine and cosmetic procedures, is just one element of the total rebranding of Dr. Elizabeth VanderVeer's medical facility. The creation of a new logo led to the design of print ads with an immediate publication deadline, followed by stationery, signage, outdoor advertising, the website format and specialty items. The stationery package will also be featured in Fisher's book, Identity Crisis!, when it is released by HOW Design Books in 2007.

The letterhead, envelope and business card for Pearl Real Estate, another Portland firm, are also presented in the book. Ironically, since submission of the designs for possible inclusion in the book, the residential real estate company has been rebranded by another firm. The company's business card also appears in The Big Book of Business Cards.

Jeff Fisher has received nearly 570 regional, national and international graphic design awards for his logo and corporate identity efforts. His work is featured in nearly 100 books on the design of logos, the business of graphic design, and small business marketing.

Fisher is a member of the HOW Magazine Editorial Advisory Board, the HOW Design Conference Advisory Council and the UCDA Designer Magazine Editorial Advisory Board. His first book, The Savvy Designer’s Guide to Success, was released by HOW Design Books in late 2004. His new volume, Identity Crisis!, will be on bookshelves in late 2007.

(* If I don’t "toot!" my own horn, no one else will.)

© 2007 Jeff Fisher LogoMotives

Toot! Toot!*: Jeff Fisher LogoMotives biz card designs recognized

Three business card designs by the firm Jeff Fisher LogoMotives have been published in new graphic design books. The identifying card for Jeff Fisher LogoMotives is featured in the book The Big Book of Business Cards from David E. Carter. The letterpress card, produced by the Portland company Oblation Papers & Press, features Fisher's train-themed logo which has been honored with many international design awards.

The other design recognized in the The Big Book of Business Cards is the two-sided business card for Pearl Real Estate. Although the logo designed by Jeff Fisher LogoMotives is still in use in the signage on the company's headquarters, a new logo and business card now represents the firm.

Japanese publisher PIE Books has included the calling card for Portland hair salon Slick in their latest book, World Business Cards Today. The card features the a silver foil stamp of the logotype on the front and limited contact info on the back. The rectilinear card, with rounded corners, mimicks the actual logo for the company. The logo is also featured in the books LogoLounge: 2,000 International Identities by Leading Designers, the Japanese book New World Logo and The Big Book of Logos 4.

* If I don't "toot!" my own horn, no one else will

© 2006 Jeff Fisher LogoMotives