It’s that time of year again — time for our annual open house, that is. This year our theme is “Showdown at 427″ and you’re all invited! If you haven’t been to one of our five previous events, you can catch up on years one, two, three, four and five before you experience no. 6 on April 27th (4/27, GET IT? HUH?). Of course if you’ve been here before that’s no excuse not to attend, and if you’d like to RSVP you can do so by clicking this here link.

We’re already in full-prep mode, screen printing posters, pressing buttons and collecting taxidermy. We even had a custom branding iron made, but you’ll have to wait until 4/27 to see how it gets used.

So put on your boots, saddle your horse and hit the trails (er, Route 8 would be fine too) — we hope to see you there!

So, Andrea Brown — that’s a fairly common name. Maybe too common. Is it fake?

Yes. I’m in the witness protection program. If anyone asks, I have nooooo idea who killed Tupac.

Don’t worry, no one will see this interview.

Are you related to James Brown? Jackie Brown? What’s your favorite color? What is your favorite Cleveland football team?

I am not, but I think that if James Brown and Jackie Brown were to reproduce…I am what you would get. As for football, I prefer to keep my allegiances private…for my safety and that of my family (but there may or may not be a Terrible Towel hanging in my office come football season).

*Editor’s note: Andrea did not provide an answer to “What’s your favorite color?” thereby indicating to us, and the world, that she in fact, has no favorite color.

When is your birthday and what embarrassing thing about you can we ice on a cake?

February 5, whatever year makes me eternally 29. And why on earth would I tell you that?

So, you share a birthday month with Paul, John and Brad — that makes one less cake we need to get. Thank your parents for us.

No problem.

What brought you to 427 — besides the extravagant pay check, two day work weeks and free kittens (we don’t have any of those things here, by the way)?

Time to get serious…that’s easy. There is crazy talent here. CRAZY talent. And I had to be a part of it.

So you think we’re crazy?

My suspicions have been confirmed.

Now that you’re our new Account Executive, can you tell us exactly  what an “account executive” does every day? Because I don’t think anyone here knows.

I have no idea, either, that’s why I changed the title to Client Service + Business Development (Brad said Sr. VP of Awesomeness was a little over the top).

If you were casting “427 Design 2: Lost in New York”, who would play you?

Betty White. Duh.

Were you nervous about occupying an office whose previous occupants have included a web programmer and a Sam Karlo?

No one told me that this was Sam Karlo’s office? That explains all the porn… At least the programmer was smart enough to wipe the system clean.

Do you have any advice for aspiring “account executives” out there, currently coveting your job?

Marry for money. Work for love.

Who is your favorite Golden Girl, and why?

I cannot possibly pick one. Its like asking me which color of M&M tastes better. Each they are all equally awesome!

Did you eat my lunch?

Nope, it was Joe. I saw him do it. And he said he is not afraid of you.

He should be.

Ok, so I liked zombies before they were mainstream.  I think I set a world record with my collection of Thrills & Chills magazines. These days, you don’t have to subscribe to the horror section of the scholastic book club to be a zombie fan. You need only turn on your TV to watch HQ zombie action.

If you’re a fan of The Walking Dead, or any other zombie fiction, I highly recommend the following films:

Zombi 2

A.K.A. Zombie
Director: Lucio Fulci
Notable for: Zombie fights shark / Girl loses an eye

Night of the Living Dead

Director: George Romero
Notable for: Beginning of the zombie movement

Night of the Living Dead (1990)

Director: Tom Savini
Notable for: Excellent Makeup / Horrible Acting

Dawn of the Dead

Director: George Romero
Notable for: Ken Foree

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Director: Zack Snyder
Notable for: First 10 Minutes

Return of the Living Dead

Director: Dan O’Bannon
Notable for: “Braiiins!”

Dead Alive

Director: Peter Jackson
Notable for: Lawnmower scene

28 Days Later

Director: Danny Boyle
Notable for: Haunting beginning

My Boyfriend’s Back

(Honorable Mention)
Director: Bob Balaban
Notable for: being the first zombie movie I ever saw
and to this day the one that haunts my dreams

We had a great time at the 2012 Akron ADDY Awards on Friday night — big thanks to AAF Akron for putting on the event. We are super proud to report that we won multiple awards in various categories, including 5 golds, 2 silvers, a Best Use of Printing award, Judge’s Choice and Best of Show for the following works:

Best of Show and a gold award for the University Park Arts Fair and Food Fest Campaign

Judge’s Choice and a gold award for the 427 Design Open House V Campaign

Best Use of Printing and a gold award for the University Park Arts Fair and Food Fest Poster

Gold award for the 427 Design Open House V Poster

Gold award for the 427 Design Web Site (hint: you’re on it right now)

Silver award for the 427 Design Open House V Animation invite

Silver award for the Fontoween Poster Illustration

Congratulations to all of the other winners including TRIAD/Next Level for their impressive work and resulting haul (8 golds plus a Judge’s Choice). Now that the celebrations have subsided, we’re excited to get back to work on potential entries for next year, including an update of this (award-winning) site you’re currently on and materials for our 6th Annual Open House (on 4/27 this year).

Thanks again to AAF Akron and everyone who helped make this year’s ceremony such a success!

Nine years ago, I entered college as a journalism major. I quickly learned, however, that a sense of invention and creativity aren’t exactly valued qualities in a respected journalist and switched my major to Visual Communication Design (a fancy way to say ‘graphic design’). At the time, I thought that I had essentially wasted the first two years of my college experience poring over the written word. I received failing grades when I accidentally spelled a source’s name wrong and sifted through seemingly endless bits of information to craft things they referred to as ‘nut grafs’.

I know now, of course, that time spent while learning should never be thought of as a waste — in fact, time spent specifically learning the ins and outs of the English language is especially valuable to those who consider themselves ‘graphic designers’. We are an industry (and by extension, a world) of appearances — we design and redesign our brochures, websites and posters until they appear to be the best they can possibly be (or in some cases, even better than they actually are).

If, within the span of our career, we expect to encounter even just one written word, we should not only be familiar with how they work individually (i.e. how they are spelled, what they mean), but how they function within a group or series of groups (sentence structure, punctuation, paragraphs, pages, etc.).

I don’t claim to be a grammar expert by any means and I love spell-check menus as much as the next person. I do, however, attempt to take a genuine and proactive interest in every bit of copy that I work with — from client projects, to e-mails and even something as trivial as a Facebook status. Using correct English simply makes you, and by extension your client, appear smart and professional.

Below I’ve compiled a handy guide of what I think are the most common grammatical or spelling mistakes made by designers and their respective solutions.

“Your my very favorite client”

If you’re unsure about when to use the contraction “you’re” vs. the possessive “your”, try substituting in the full phrase: if “You are my favorite client” makes sense and retains your original meaning, then the contraction is correct. If it does not, for example: “You are pants are in my front lawn“, than the possessive “your” is the word you need.

“But its not my job to keep track of your pants”

The same substitution trick works when deciding between its and it’s. It’s is a contraction for “it is“, for example: “But it is not my job to keep track of your pants” is what we are trying to say. If you’re trying to indicate possession, for example: “We are never going to that bar again. Its stools are very uncomfortable,” leave out the apostrophe.

If you’re trying to indicate the plural possessive, their (not thier or there) is your word: “Do you remember those guys we met last night? Their Taz tattoos were awesome.”

“I just really “love” adding “extra” punctuation……. doesn’t it make me look “smart”????”

Punctuation is the work horse of grammar; use it sparingly and only when necessary. Why only use one question mark when seven will do??????? Because it looks sloppy and informal, that’s why.

Use exclamation points only when you want to truly convey (not manufacture) excitement.

An ellipses is used to indicate that information has been removed, or to represent a pause in thought. A true ellipses is always three consecutive periods and many typefaces even have one available — use it, instead of making your own.

Quotation marks are used to enclose an actual quotation and when used incorrectly can make your words seem “suspect” or not “genuine” — the placement of question marks with quotes follows logic. If a question is in quotation marks, the question mark should be placed inside the quotation marks, for example “Does anyone remember where I put my baby?” she asked.

Random Bits

• Spell out numbers under 10 (four, two, seven) and use numerals for everything else (427).
• Generally, use “more than” (not then) when referring to numbers (more than 70) and over when referring to distance or measurement (over there).
• Hyphenate compound adjectives, such as four-year-old girl. Unless, of course, you mean to say that you have four, year-old girls or four-year, old girls.
• Effect is a noun, as in “the effect of her new hair was startling.” Affect is a verb, meaning to influence, as in “the new hair color really affected her ability to attract a man.“
• Capitalizing Every Word In Your Sentence Is An Effect To Be Used Sparingly, such as, in a title or subhead. Randomly capitalizing Words that aren’t Proper nouns is Just confusing and wrong.
• Use only ONE space after a period, before beginning a new sentence, unless, of course, you’re still using a typewriter.

Yes, we are designers, not writers, but if we learn about how the Internet works in order to design usable websites, shouldn’t we learn about how the English language works in order to design coherent, readable pieces? As far as I’m concerned, the minute you type a word on your computer or hit send on a e-mail, you’re responsible for the content — image, type or otherwise. The only way to be absolved of responsibility is to never work with a single word and with a degree that so prominently includes the word “communication”, that’s never going to be an option for me.

For more information: Numbers vs. Numerals |  Why Two Spaces? |  Hyphens |  Quotation Marks |  More Than vs. Over |  En/Em Dashes |  Ten Words You Need To Stop Misspelling