Blog About Town

From the curious to the fantastical, the poignant to the comical, we cover a gamut of topics in a chitty-chatty kind of way. Stimulating conversation is always welcome at Marketing by Design!

Transitions are Hell. Change is Good.

Phil’s Song — Time to Fly We’ve been lucky at Marketing By Design. In nearly 25 years of Joel’s and my partnership, we’ve had incredibly small employee turnover. Usually a move or a life change caused our parting, and we’ve always remained friends. Life is...

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5 Things I’ve Learned as a New Designer

It’s been a couple months since I heard those beautiful words “you’re employed,” and amid the moments of air-punching delight, I find myself still checking over my shoulder to be sure no one is heading my way to say “oops sorry, we made a mistake, see ya.”...

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Tree sculpture grows donations

As a board member, volunteer and vendor of the Sacramento Tree Foundation, I had a blast helping to invent this tree. At 3 feet tall (and wide), it holds 'pledge leaves', paper cutouts of leaves with contact and commitment information from donors. The Tree Foundation...

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Our Green English Alien

MbD would like to announce that it is the proud owner of a little green alien. A very green, very English alien, named Isla Waite. Isla has been an intern for the last few months and has been working on improving her production skills under our wing. Isla met Della...

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Personas

Hats off to CalSTRS, for hiring Cooper Design in San Francisco to do qualitative research on its members. We are excited to phase into a new relationship with CalSTRS as a design resource, in addition to several good in-house and contracted designers. As...

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How to Think Inside the Box

I think of our client’s projects in the same way I think of boxes. I love interesting boxes: different shapes, different textures, different mechanisms to open, different purposes. You wouldn’t give an engagement ring in a packing box, and you wouldn’t pack computer...

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You Get What You Pay For

I recently watched a friend of mine go through a process to have a shower door custom made and installed. I had custom glass shelves installed in a kitchen remodel a year before and I was impressed by the precision of the glass company [Dick’s Rancho...

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Prepping for Sandia

Lucky us. After several rounds of submitting resumes, cost sheets, and forms, were invited to make a presentation of our work to Sandia National Labs in Livermore. I love science as much as I love design, and this could be a great opportunity to work on...

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