The online portfolio of Doug Erickson, graphic designer. Serving clients worldwide from Newburyport, Massachusetts.

Request a quote or consultation via email: doug@plumislandfocus.com
text-enabled iPhone: 603-418-4294

Resume: ericskonresume.pdf

Be Like Microsoft - Hire a Mac

I used to work for a large corporation implementing localized multimedia text. "Localization" is translation that takes cultural idiosyncrasies into account. Their clients had deep pockets, and one of the biggest was Microsoft. In 2006 I was given the job of localizing some of the marketing materials for Office 2007, which promised to let users "create professional marketing in-house!"

As a marketing professional, that struck me as an ill-conceived idea. Marketing is more than layout, color and font choices (with which O07 does a ham-fisted job at best. Their charts manage to break most of Edward Tufte’s rules). Marketing is more than creating graphics. It’s a process, just like surgery or fishing or motorcycle maintenance; you need to know what you are doing and why, or else you’re going to make a mess. Real design work involves audience analysis, target-audience identification, message tailoring to suit the target, and only then carefully crafting those chosen design details which provide the best method for getting the message to target.

Here’s the kicker: the marketing materials Microsoft used to pedal their wishful thinking were done in Flash... on a Mac! So you need to decide: can your business afford to drink the Kool-Aid and "do it yourself," or are you serious enough about what you are doing to know when to call in the help of a professional? Homemade apple pie is great. Homemade marketing materials are bad business. Microsoft knows that. Do you?

What’s Better Than Free?

I've spent two of my four decades on Earth working for some great companies. I’ve had the luxury of learning from corporate mistakes I never could have afforded to make on my own.

If you like what you see in my portfolios and want something similar for your own business, you can certainly meet with me for a free consultation. You’ll understand afterward why marketing design, done correctly, doesn’t cost anything - rather, it generates profit. If I can’t tell you exactly how that will work, I’m not going to waste your time or mine with make-busy.

Ever More Dedicated

I dropped out of college at 19, after two years of getting mediocre grades and learning precious little. I had managed to parlay demonstrable skill in the one course of study I actually cared about - commercial photography - into a cushy job as in-house photographer for a small Boston advertising agency called Fickett & Walsh. My admittedly near-sighted 19 year-old reasoning for being on campus was to learn skills that would help me find a job I enjoyed. Once I began working for Fickett & Walsh, I didn’t see the point of staying (Did I mention I was 19? And near-sighted?).

Twelve years later, after my daughter was born, my ex-wife went back to work. I stayed home with my daughter, toting her in a backpack as a freelance photojournalist by day and going back to school at night. With 12 years of professional experience, there was a whole littany of information I was hungry to own. I graduated from the University of Maryland with a BA in Communications and a minor in Art cum laude - straight A+’s making up for two years of B’s and C’s. Purpose is the supreme motivator.

Step One

Contact me. Pick up the phone, open your email, or send me a text. I'll either explain to you, succinctly and without ambiguity, why I'm the right creative for the job, or direct you to a colleague better suited to your needs. What I will not do is attempt to pressure, hard sell, phone stalk, or subject you to any other form of sales badgering.