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Putting the Street back in Main Street. #buffalo #construction
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Our friend Julian Montague was interviewed in Dwell magazine’s blog by another friend, and Block Club contributor, Mark Byrnes. Super cool conversation about Montague’s fake-book art, states poster series, and his beautiful Stray Shopping Cart Project.
Follow these fellas’ work. They’re doing good stuff.
-Ben
Photo courtesy Julian Montague Projects
Email newsletters come in all shapes and sizes. Here at Block Club our newsletter is a monthly recap of some of the highlights found on our blog. It’s a nice way to find out what we’ve been up to if you’ve missed some of the posts along the way. You can sign up here if you aren’t already subscribed.
What makes an email newsletter worth reading? More importantly, what keeps your mouse away from the unsubscribe link (which should be located in the footer of all newsletters)?
I think that the content, and how it’s displayed is priority number one. Make your content easily digestible so that subscribers can read through everything in a short amount of time.
Educating your audience is also very important. They are subscribing to your newsletter because they look to you and your organization as thought leaders. They expect to learn something new and exciting about your industry so share your knowledge as much as possible.
Timing is a key element that factors into whether or not users end up reading your newsletter at all. Depending on what type of business you have and what your newsletter content contains should factor in heavily as to when your newsletter is sent. For most, sending an email newsletter works best when it’s delivered mid-week right after lunchtime. That way your subscribers aren’t catching up from or looking forward to a weekend and should be nice and full after their lunch.
- Steve
I recently stumbled upon the Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON campus of Niagara College. The campus features Canada’s first and only teaching brewery, a teaching winery, greenhouse nursery and Benchmark restaurant that serves to feature all of these programs.
Photo courtesy of Niagara College Teaching Brewery.
- Marilyn
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Record Store Day is right around the corner, folks.
In honor of the independent music mini-holiday, I wrote a guest post for local music website, buffaBLOG.
Music has always played a major role in my life, and I can trace that back to my pop’s passion for the stuff. A big thanks goes out to that guy.
Anyway, check out my blog post here, and support your local record store and music scene.
- PS
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I just returned from the TYPO conference in San Francisco and I am beyond energized.
Over the course of the two-day conference, I had the pleasure of seeing a super impressive lineup of talks by some extraordinary designers, illustrators, typographers and tech founders.
I’m still digesting everything. I learned a lot and I came home with a ton of energy, but the one thing I took from this conference more than anything else is validation. Here are some highlights:
Jessi Arrington opened up the conference with a talk about being honest with yourself and making the most of your strengths. Her story is very inspiring. You can watch her talk at the link above.
When Jeff Veen, a VP at Adobe and founder of Typekit; and Erik Spiekermann, who needs no introduction, offered advice on company processes and culture, they essentially walked the audience through what we already do at Block Club. It was extremely validating.
I really connected with and learned a lot from Peter Bil’ak, a typographer, publisher, graphic and choreographic designer, and editor (among other things) who made the case that working in a variety of disciplines and exploring the unknown makes for better, stronger work. I couldn’t agree more.
I already know that we have an incredible thing going here at Block Club, but to be validated by some of the biggest people in your business is an absolutely wonderful thing.
I’m so looking forward to sharing what I’ve learned with my team.
You can see some of the talks here.
-Brandon
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