This is a guest post by Alan Martin – a copywriter at Cooper Murphy Webb, the business writing and copywriting company.

All business writing has one goal and that’s to persuade someone to do something. Whether you’re writing a blog post or sales copy, you want your audience to act. Persuasive writing can often be the most difficult type of writing, especially when the average person is barraged daily by a never-ending flow of information.  Follow these tips to become a more successful business copywriter, one whose readers not only read your entire email but also follow-through with the requested action.

1. What do you want your reader to do?

Before you even start writing it’s important for you to know exactly what you want your reader to do. If you have a clear goal in mind, you will be better able to express this goal in written form. If you find that after you begin writing you become bogged down, it can be helpful to re-read while asking this question and weeding out those sentences that don’t help explain what you want your readers to do.

2. Know your audience

Before writing, think about your audience. Do your readers fit into a certain group? Do they know you? Are they familiar with your company? What types of information will catch their eye and keep them reading? Knowing the answers to these questions will help you select the most appropriate tone and avoid phrases that your audience may not be familiar with.

3. Catch your readers’ attention

Though all your content should be interesting enough to keep the reader moving along, the first sentence and paragraph are the most important because most readers decide within the first few lines whether to keep reading. This is why you should begin with a piece of information that is most compelling to readers. Make sure what you lead with is not too complicated or detailed; otherwise you may chase readers away.

4. Why should I care?

Your reader should understand within the first paragraph why he or she should care about what you are writing. Be specific about what your company is asking and how that person can and should want to help. Be careful not to bog them down in too many details, but don’t be afraid to be too clear. Ambiguity kills.

5. Action is your goal

Almost all business writing is persuasive, which means it has one common goal: to get your reader to do something. You must tell your readers what to do, and don’t forget to tell them how to do it.

6. Use the 5 W’s

“Who,” “what,” “where,” “when,” “why” aren’t just for journalists. In order to persuade your reader to do anything, they must understand the basics. The “how” can also be useful to include.

7. Be Concise

Drawing your readers in, answering the five W’s, giving them an action plan and telling them how to do it may seem like a lot of information to provide, and it certainly can be. But always keep in mind that most readers don’t want to be wasting their time. They don’t want to read an elaborate description of the inner workings of your company in order to understand what they should do. Conciseness is the key. After writing your original copy, always trim. You should be able to cut off about half from the original.

8. Concise yet complete

Though you want to be concise, you shouldn’t leave any questions unanswered. Editing plays an important role in your ability to successfully balance these two seemingly-contradictory terms. You will at some point be stumped as to whether or not to include a certain detail. You must exercise your own judgment in each specific case.

9. Write in active voice

A sentence written in active voice leads with the subject that is committing the action of the verb. With passive voice the object that receives the action of the verb leads. Here’s a simple example of active voice: “Tomorrow I will send you my report.” Now, the same sentence written passively: “Tomorrow you will receive my report from me.”

As you can see, writing in active voice is clearer, more concise and demonstrates action better than passive voice, which is important when trying to persuade someone to do something.

10. Avoid choices

Another way to be concise in your writing is to avoid giving your reader specific choices. Or, if you have to, give only two. For example, if you are setting up a meeting via e-mail instead of asking what times that person is available, give him a time and ask if he is available then. Or give her a specific time but tell her to pick one other time if she is not available when you suggested.

11. Break up your copy

If you feel that your audience may have a particularly short attention span, breaking up your text to highlight important information is a good idea. Well-organized bulleted lists and short subheads allow readers to find the most important information quickly.

12. Email templates are great

Creating templates for any document you will use again in the future is a great way to save time and avoid errors from other staff members. When creating a template, triple-check that everything is correct. There is nothing worse than sending an email with spelling and grammatical errors to all of your possible clients.

13. Personalize your email templates

Once you are sure your template is correct, you should still make small changes to personalize it for each person. This means changing something more than just the receiver’s name and address. Add in one sentence explaining why that person’s particular business should care. Or change the first sentence to something specific that will better catch their attention.

14. Avoid jargon

Use the plain language you use in conversation rather than fancy jargon that doesn’t have much meaning to most people. Sometimes in technical writing, such as user guides, jargon can be unavoidable, but for most business copy you should use words like “now” and “team work” rather than “at this juncture” and “synergy,” respectively.

15. Substitute short for long

Never use a phrase when one word will say the same. Here are some of the most overly used phrases that can be replaced with one word:

for the purpose of = for

the majority of =  most

in order to = to

provide an introduction = introduce

on a daily basis = daily

on a regular basis  = routinely

Similarly, never use a long word, when a short one will do. Many people think that the longer the word, the smarter they sound, but instead it often sounds like they are trying too hard. Instead of “utilize” write “used.” Instead of “engendered” write “produced.”

16. Write positively

To get readers to respond with action to your request you need to write in a positive tone. Have you ever been distracted while walking down the street by someone giving a speech? It probably wasn’t because they were shouting negatively at you; in fact, if they were you’d probably walk away quicker. People who speak enthusiastically about a topic attract more listeners. It’s the same in copywriting for the web. People react better to someone who takes a positive tone about what he or she is promoting.

17. Vary your sentences

Though concise sentences in active voice are best for persuasive writing, not every sentence should look the same or your reader will become bored. Mix it up with complex and simple sentence structures and a variety of clauses. But do not force your writing to be more diverse; your sentences should still sound natural.

18. Go light on ad-s

One helpful hint that will make your writing more concise is to go easy on adjectives and adverbs. These words end up being unnecessary filler. Too many descriptive words are distracting. You’re not getting paid per word like Charles Dickens so don’t write like you are.

19. Avoid “very”

If you are still inclined to use adjectives and adverbs, at least take “very” out of your vocabulary. The word is so overused and subjective that it has essentially lost its meaning. What does, “It was a very beautiful day” really mean? How more than beautiful is very beautiful? No one knows, so leave it out.

20. Avoid “insecure” words

And while we’re removing words from your vocabulary, you also want to stay away from “insecure” words, such as “seems,” “perhaps,” “apparently,” “usually.” These words are unpersuasive and make you sound like you aren’t really sure what you’re talking about. No one will take action if it only “seems” likely to result in something positive.

21. Do sweat the small stuff

After writing, re-read and make sure grammar, punctuation and spelling are consistent and reflect someone who knows how to write. If you’ve used dates, states or measurements make sure they are all written or abbreviated in the same format. Glaring errors and inconsistencies stop readers immediately and make you look like an idiot.

22. Spelling

And while you are proofreading, triple check that every proper noun is spelled correctly.

23. Know your commas

For those readers who know where a comma should and should not be there’s nothing more aggravating than reading a paragraph drowning in commas. Leaving out commas is just as unsightly. A missed comma usually results in a run-on sentence and reader confusion. You don’t want to make your readers stop and re-read a sentence. Remember, their time is precious in an online environment of information-overload.

24. Know your grammar

Grammar is also like commas. For those of us who know proper grammar, reading improper grammar is downright painful. No one will take you seriously if you don’t write properly. Know the most common mistakes:

· That vs. which

· Who vs. whom

· Affect vs. effect

· Subject verb agreement

For more common mistakes, click here.

25. Say no to exclamations and capital letters

You do want to be enthusiastic and positive in your writing, but there is a limit. Do not emphasize with capital letters or lots of exclamations. Readers will be less inclined to take you seriously.

26. Proofread

Always proofread everything you write before sending it off, including short e-mails. Double-check spelling, grammar and consistency. Make sure everything makes sense and that the action you are requesting your reader to perform is clear. Reading it more than once is best. And never shirk the proofreading process for lack of time; that’s when mistakes happen. Each mistake makes your goal that much harder to achieve.

27. Read it out loud

Reading your copy out loud makes it easier to hear any grammatical mistakes you made, and it will become instantly clear whether your writing makes sense. Reading out loud also helps you hear where you can trim your copy. Things that your eyes scan over, your ears won’t miss.

Craig Baldwin is a graduate graphic designer from the Winchester School of Art with a keen interest in print and publishing as well as blogging and web design.

And I’m back from my holiday, most enjoyable stuff and strangely Fever only said I had 200 points to get through so I’m guessing they expire after awhile because I was expecting thousands. I will have missed some great design I’m sure but I simply don’t have the time to look back over all of it.

Anyway, back to the schedule. I’ll admit I was in a bit of a rush this week so I’ve reverted back to my original idea of using this space to give the work context rather than my opinion.

Mike Giesser: A Broader Perspective

“This book was the result of an internal campaign/photo competition [themed around the notion of A Broader Perspective] for the staff of Elsevier. The content is a mix of amateur photography, quotes about books, facts about ScienceDirect [the product we were promoting] and results from keyword searches performed on ScienceDirect.”

Amy Hoy & Thomas Fuchs: Time Zones

“Never warp your brain with time zone math again.” Always was a bit confusing and my only point of reference became 10am in the US=5pm GMT because that’s when the Apple conferences were.

Porta4 Design Studio: Terrakunza

On first glance this looks like the next edition of Adobe’s Creative Suite packaging but in fact it’s the box for Terrakunza; gourmet cookies to you and me. It’s credited to Porta4 but I couldn’t find it on their website so linked to the place I found it as a back up.

Ben Jennings: CTRL

“CTRL is an investigation into the effects of technology on both a personal and social level, intending to create awareness of our dependence on it. Volunteers were given a ‘cultural probe kit’ containing several tasks to be completed over the course of one week. The results were then analysed and presented in a three-volume research document (exegesis).”

Konrad Sybilski: Projekt Drzewo

Sure it’s a little rough around the edges but I really like the idea behind this animation, and it’s all so peaceful as well.

Messy Design: Self Promotion

This is more than just a self promotional but also an explanation of typography and how (not) to use it but instead of keeping it dry and using just type they explore using their faces to illustrate the main points such as stretching a type (guess which that is). I hope they didn’t scare off potential clients with those odd looking faces.

EepyBird: Sticky Note Experiment

An old one but a great one nonetheless. Fun with sticky notes!

Craig Baldwin is a recently graduated graphic design student at the Winchester School of Art with a keen interest in print and publishing as well as blogging and web design.

This is the eighth edition of Be Inspired and the last one for a fortnight while I’m off on holiday in the Lake District, and there isn’t an Internet connection where I’m staying, I’m sure I’ll cope now I have my shiny iPhone with 3G connection. Anyway, this collection is all nice and full of print, photography, illustration and animation inspiration. Enjoy!

Santos Henarejos: Ling

This is an inflight magazine of Vueling Airlines, all I can say to that is I wish I flew with them (or flew at all really). Very high quality magazine considering most are really cheap and rubbish as far as I remember.

Michael Kenna: Silent World

I don’t feature photography very often, it’s not because I don’t like it, just looking through my feeds it doesn’t feature very often (when you ignore all the half naked ladies that is) but the work of Michael Kenna certainly caught my attention. It reminds me of a personal favourite of mine Bill Schwab who I discovered while studying Photography. So simple and peaceful.

Darragh O’Connell: Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty

The voice acting really sets this animation apart from the rest, and it certainly deserved its shortlisting for the 2010 Oscar for Best Animated Short Film, can’t really say if it should have won as I never saw the competition.

Tanya Holbrook & Noma Bar: IBM

While the title links to the art director behind this project (and all the posters) they were actually illustrated by Noma Bar, you might recognise quite a lot of his work, a master of negative space for sure.

Suren Manvelyan: Your Beautiful Eyes

It’s weird seeing eyes in so much detail, yet strangely fascinating, the first one looks so much like sand, I’d love to see my eyes up close.

Jared Nickerson: In My Pocket

Part of a wallpaper pack no part of it is the same (except for wall plugs apparently) with some close ups to appreciate the amount of detail.

Milk: Lindholmen Science Park

A nice bit of dot matrix for a science park brochure and identity to finish off with. Simple and clean, what’s not to love?

Loose Inspiration

Mmm, brains. Now in a can!

Who doesn’t like bundles and special offers for cool stuff? Who doesn’t LOVE freebies? Well – I’m a sucker for everything discount when it comes to design apps or Mac goodies or iPhone games or God knows what kind of awesome membership for a fraction of the price – I’m in! Here’s my special list of 10 sources of financial orgasms for your consideration. And be sure to subscribe if a bundle is expired – it will go live again soon and you’ll be the first to find out!

Bundle Hunt

Bundle Hunt is a premium resource pack aimed at empowering the creative community, offering more than $1,400 worth of outstanding apps, templates, icons, eBooks, hosting plans and premium memberships, all for less than $50!! This is insane – an absolutely must have for every design head!

App Sumo

VoteBundle

Mac Friendly

Design Kindle

MacUpdate Promo

PopUp Games – Mac Complete Pack

Great App a Day

Free App Calendar

App Shopper – Free

Free Game of the Day

OK, your turn now – what’s your favorite discount finder? Do you know more? Leave some details in the comments and we’ll update the list! Cheerio!

We’re really happy to announce a new edition of our Inspired Giveaway series, this time in collaboration with Collis Ta’eed – the mastermind behind Envato, Tuts+ & Rockable Press. Collis was kind enough to offer his latest book – How to Build a Successful Blog Business – to three Inspired readers.

Collis Ta’eed

Collis is the creator and cofounder of the Tuts+ network, the Envato Marketplaces, FreelanceSwitch and AppStorm which combined serve up over 50 million pageviews a month! He has authored three books, written dozens of the most popular tutorials on the web and is an accomplished entrepreneur, designer and blogger. Follow Collis for fresh and insightful design & development related tweets.

How to Build a Successful Blog Business

How to Build a Successful Blog Business is a straight forward guide to building a publishing business online that covers everything from choosing a niche to hiring staff, registering a business to selling it, finding traffic to monetizing it. Whether you are interested in creating an additional income stream or building a fully-fledged business, this is an essential read for web entrepreneurs and online publishers. Hands down the most useful book for bloggers I ever had the chance to read in the last few years!

Case Studies

I definitely agree with Daniel Scocco of DailyBlogTips – “The case studies alone are worth the cover price!” In How to Build a Successful Blog Business you will learn how the network grew from the original Psdtuts blog into a multi-million dollar blog business, the process of turning FreelanceSwitch from a fast growing blog into a profitable enterprise and how the Appstorm sites started, how search traffic has been consolidated and how the sites are growing.

Giveaway

To participate, simply:

• leave a comment about How to Build a Successful Blog Business and why you’d like to get the book
• tweet this Win “How to Build a Successful Blog Business” – the new book by @Collis Ta’eed http://inspiredm.com/vv0I RT to enter!

The contest will end next Friday and we’ll select 3 random winners.

Craig Baldwin is a recently graduated graphic design student at the Winchester School of Art with a keen interest in print and publishing as well as blogging and web design. The post is sponsored by Hosting.com - Dedicated Server Hosting

This it the seventh edition of Be Inspired and it’s certainly a mixture this week, we’ve got posters, adverts, typography, stop motion, print, illustration, packaging and plenty more. Hope you enjoy this week’s collection.

Noa Emberson: The Visual Mixtape

In a similar vein as A Lyric A Day, Noa Emberson’s self-initiated poster project details his favourite 25 albums of all time using a consistent layout but varying colour scheme and imagery I think it’s pretty beautiful, that A Lyric A Day thing is worth checking out as well while you’re at it.

Guy Walks Across America

A guy called Mike walked across America from New York to San Francisco, what makes it all the more impressive is the stop motion video they made along the way.

AlmapBBDO: Greenpeace Faces

This is rather similar to the work featuring trees last week but this takes the idea and goes further with it so I thought it was worth showing as well.

Andrew Kupresanin: Nadia Camera

“A camera that thinks, so you don’t have to”. Hmm, it’s rather interesting that this camera actually seems to be real and uses “the first publicly available aesthetics inference engine”, be interesting to see it used for more than just a pot of flowers.

Simon Page: Musically Inspired Album Covers

A series of album cover designs based on how the music featured on the CD made Simon Page feel. I quite like the direct connection between the music and art and it’s nice to see some people still put effort into album cover design when it seems to be a dying trade.

Reza Ilyasa

I do like robots, I’ve always loved games like Zone of the Enders or Front Mission and the designs of robots in things like Gundam or Armoured Core. So it’s not surprising that when I saw these illustrations by Reza Ilyasa I loved them for all the robotic detail.

Mohammed Amine Nasseri, Magda Klukowski and Natalie Borger: Showcase

I wish my degree show had such a consistent and cohesive visual identity as this visual concept for FH Wiesbaden Diploma and Bachelor Exhibition. Taking a simple type and shape they’ve expertly applied it across all media.

Hunt Studio: Process Journal

This is the second edition of the quarterly Process Journal which aims to feature the best in Australian and International design, it’s neither a magazine nor a book but they hope it’s the best of both worlds. I have to say the first was made to a very high quality and I look forward to receiving my copy.

LoSiento: EMPO

EMPO is a school of psycho-osteopathy which uses therapeutic manipulation of bone and muscle to promote structural integrity that can help restore or preserve health. Taking this as a starting point LoSiento decided to represent the volume and structure of bones using card. Pretty effective I think.

Project Projects: Rufino

Rufino is a biannual journal published by the Museo Tamayo in Mexico City. Designed to be portable as a small-format publication it presents a range of essays and artworks connected to the museum’s new contemporary art program. I’m a fan of the line patterns, which you might not be able to see in these preview images.

Szymon Kabala: Reset

A ten minute epic of stop motion animation, I found doing three minutes of stop motion hard enough, this must have required an insane amount of patience and perseverance.

Oussama Mezher: L’enfer des CD

I couldn’t find the designer’s website, or at least not the right one from what I could see. Simple and sustainable CD and DVD packaging made from Kraft chipboard and printed in one colour, perfect in its execution.

Your turn now – found any inspirational links lately that you’d like to share with the rest of the readers? What’s you fave from the above artists / projects?

Because some of the most popular articles on Inspired Mag are iPhone related we continue to keep you informed on all things iPhone & iPad. This time we had the honor to sit down for a talk with our favorite iPhone and iPad app maker – Mills of ustwo™ – regarding their highly appreciated iPad app – Granimator™.

How come you mainly craft apps aimed for the design community?

We are truly passionate about creating original design experiences, initially for ourselves and then putting them out to the public to taste. So far we’ve focused on creating experiences we as designers would want to see out there.  We’re not trying to sell to the mass market, but instead appeal and become appreciated by the industry people in the know. Showing we care about the industry we are in, our design is the vehicle we choose to spread the brand flavour. The app creation side of the studio has given us a platform to open doors to a diverse range of exceptional designers and we therefore invest in projects that allow us to work with nothing other than quality acts. We like to tell stories that support every project we do and by mixing and matching our work with the different creative image-makers we decide to work with, the story constantly evolves. Too many studios release a continuous stream of similar looking ‘house styled’ work, our house style is to make sure each project is different and unrecognizable in style.

What is the Granimator™

The concept behind the Granimator™ has been bubbling around the studio in various forms for the last couple of years. It started a while ago as an abstract flash experiment where you could draw shapes and so on. When the iPad was announced, we knew we wanted to be there for the launch and therefore the Granimator™ seemed like the perfect one to go for. It started out as 1 ‘pack’, which would let the user draw in 1 style only, and then we thought why not add some other ‘packs’ with different styles. We approached some designers and illustrators who we really respect and love, and they all started saying YES and it snowballed from there. Users can select and drag different graphical elements onscreen to create interesting looking wallpapers. Each element in the composition represents a different sound that can be played by tapping it. Once you’re happy with your creation, you’ll be able to save it as iPad or iPhone wallpaper and share it with your friends via http://www.granimator.com . It’s here that anybody in the world can download iPhone or iPad wallpapers for free, even if they don’t own the app. We choose the best wallpapers each day and highlight them here. In essence – Granimator™ puts you in the shoes of your favourite designers and allows you to create unlimited compositions with their designs.

How did you find all those cool collaborators?

The choice of artists has happened quite organically. We have gone for artists and designers that we feel will work well on the Granimator™ platform. Initially we chose designers that we grew up admiring, as we wanted to work with people we respected. Working with other creatives has helped us develop the app even further, layering more levels of new functionality and features that we would probably not have thought of. The Granimator™ interface is reasonably minimal, so when the menu is populated with the collaborator’s assets, it really allows the icons, assets and the individuality to stand out.

Which are your favourite artists featured in the app, and why?

For me it’s not about having a favourite, it’s about seeing all these great designers under one roof – so to speak. Seeing them all so passionate about being part of the project is the very reason we are in this industry. Saying this – the Houxo Que pack was a special pack cos we got to travel to Japan to document and film the making of the assets, being part of the creation phase was truly special.

How many artists do you have on board for Granimator?

The list is growing daily and we are now selecting specific designers that we feel can bring something unique to the table. The plan is to have over 50 premium packs on the Granimator™ platform by the end of the year. To name a few: James Joyce, Buro Destruct, Airside, Pete Fowler, RexBox, Jon Burgerman, Moving Brands, GASBOOK (Japan) Questa (Japan), Groovisions (Japan), Devil Robot (Japan), Sense (Japan), Power Graphixx (Japan), Non Format, Research Studios / Neville Brody, Tom Hingston, Creative Review, Neasden Control Centre, McBess, Chris Gray, David Henckel, Matthew Hodson, Ian Stevenson,  David Carson, Joshua Davis, Yker Moreno, Hush, Manhattan Born, Frankenstyles, Timba Smits, One and Done Studio and Kate Moross.

Why do you keep the app free?

The Granimator™ is our first Freemium release. Freemium means we give the app away for free, reaching a far bigger audience than we would if we had a price point barrier. 90% percent of the downloaders will probably never buy a pack. But at least they taste it. The user gets 6 packs for FREE (5 ustwo™ house designers as well as a special Inkstrumental™ Jon Burgerman pack)  when they download it from the App Store. Users are then actively encouraged to download new packs from the PACK STORE for a small fee of £1.19.

To celebrate the latest release of Granimator™ and the brand new Mini Menu we’re doing a very special promotion: The Büro Destruct pack, which usually costs £1.19, is now FREE! The pack will return to the regular price of £1.19 on Friday 6th of August, so grab it while it’s free!

What was the Tokyo trip all about?

We recently released a capsule collection of six GASBOOK artists from Tokyo including: ten_do_ten, Hidehito Shinno,Yuko Kanatani, shinpei ONISHI,SONPUB, Hiroshi Iguchi……alongside a very special Houxo Que ‘Day and Night’ Granimator iPad app artist pack. The assets is this pack change depending on the time of day you use it. We spoke about the Granimator™ project at the Apple Ginza store and will be doing another talk at the Regent Street store on Thursday 26th August at 7pm. Granimator™ as a creative platform, allows us to meet interesting designers from far afield all over the world. For example we will be launching a set of New York and Melbourne based designer packs later in the year.

You’ve been featured in Creative Review as “The Chaps for Apps” – what’s next on your bucket list?

We want to win a D&AD for the Granimator™ project. That’s the ultimate goal and the dream. We’ve invested a lot into the project and it’s only getting bigger and better each day. Seeing it receive such an honour would be the icing on the sweet cake.

Please unveil us a future app you’re working on!

We’ve just this week started on a special project with a very talented 16 yearold GCSE student who is currently doing work experience with us. Most interns have to sit in the corner and make tea, but seeing as he is a very talented child genius, we have set him a 2 week project to create an iPhone app game called Terry Touch™. It’s all part of our strategy of trying absolutely everything in the app selling game. Also exclusively – we will also be releasing our first game with our new partners at [Adult Swim] within the next month. Named MeatStroke™ .  Look out for it!

Extra Goodies from the Granimator

Click on the links for the full retina size wallpapers :-]

Airside

Bobby Bobson

Buro Destruct

Hidehito Shinno

Houxo Que

James Joyce

Moving Brands

Pete Fowler

Rex Box

Shipei Onishi

Ten Do Ten

Yuko Kanatani

Craig Baldwin is a recently graduated graphic design student at the Winchester School of Art with a keen interest in print and publishing as well as blogging and web design.

Welcome to the sixth edition of Be Inspired! So this week I’m guessing I’m feeling in a bit of an illustrative mood because it seems to have added up many illustration but maybe that’s just what was presented to me in my RSS reader, which is Fever by the way.

I get through about 200 items each day from FFFFound, Design You Trust, Graphic Exchange and many more. If you feel you have some great work to share then feel free to email me; craigsbaldwin [at] gmail [dot] com.

Tebe Interesno

Ah good old Tebe (or whatever his real name is), he’s been illustrating for many years as you can probably tell from the fact he still uses LiveJournal; I guess he’s too settled in to bother moving. Either way his work is worth checking out and there’s plenty of it.

Pascal Monaco: 35mm

35 films in 2 minutes apparently, I can’t honestly spot many of them but I guess I’m just not a big enough film buff but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy the brilliant animation and illustration that just flows so well.

Irina Vinnik: Sketchbook

I would love to see this sketchbook in person to really enjoy the intricate detail in all her drawings, I think it really comes together in the typography; I can imagine them as really beautiful drop caps.

Jonathan Hoffman: Down For The Count

Not that I have anything against Twilight (all right I do, I loathe it)  but the Count was here first and it’s quite satisfying to see this, also the title is quite the clever pun, get it?

Plaid: The Perfect Pour

Can’t really vouch for the information as I’m not a fan of hot drinks so I don’t particularly like Coffee but I hear it’s all the rage with designers so I’d thought you might enjoy this handy guide.

Tweed Tom: Brian

Apologies for how long this image is but I feel it’s important to be able to see it in its full size and not just close up shots that would be more friendly towards your scroll bars. ‘Brian’ is a five colour screen print and measures in at 1000mm x 353mm and costs £120 which for what it is, is pretty good value in my mind. Doesn’t mean I can afford it mind.

Leon Ryan: Arc-de-Trouser

A little bit of humour.

Patrick Branigan: 322

“A portfolio illustrating the influences and outcomes of five smaller projects. Each page is designated to a specific project. Each page is also a slip folder which would hold the original project described.” It’s the boldness of the yellow contrasted with the black, and the type, that I love. So just the normal things that attract me then.

Steven Burke: Poor Little Trees

I imagine the logging company was a bit miffed to find paint on ‘their’ trees but I don’t particularly care about that. A great way to personify the felling of trees and maybe make us a little bit guilty about it.

Ugur Derinogullu: GRA08

Does this look nice? Yes. What’s it for? Who knows.

The year is 2010, and Vimeo.com has planted the first annual seed of the Vimeo Festival and Awards, which provides filmmakers with the opportunity to win $25,000, and more importantly, an opening to expand the audience of their film, beyond just family and friends. Cinema demands an audience; the artist creates film, video, and animation for other’s viewing.

The festival features an eclectic mix of genres in competition, including: narrative, documentary, animation, motion graphics, music video, experimental, remix, captured, and original series. Those judging submissions include David Lynch, Morgan Spurlock, Roman Coppola, DJ Spooky, Nick Campbell (aka greyscalegorilla dude), José Luis de Vicente, and many other notables. The Festival and Awards will take place in New York City on 8-9 October, 2010, and will include a preview event in Amsterdam in early September. Submissions for the Awards are open from June 3 – July 31, 2010.

Below is a five question interview with Blake Whitman, a vimeo founder. Blake shares his thoughts on the upcoming festival.

(1) The seed has been planted for the 1st annual Vimeo Film Festival and Awards. Why have you planted this seed, what will this seed grow into, and how will it help filmmakers and artists?

The Vimeo Festival and Awards was born from the unparalleled creativity and innovation in video work being shared on sites like Vimeo. We really feel that it is important to highlight and recognize the independent creators choosing the internet to premiere and share their work with audiences all over the world. What we have started with the Vimeo Festival and Awards is an opportunity for these filmmakers and artists to get the recognition and support they deserve that they may not get anywhere else as well as come together in a physical setting to meet and learn from each other. It’s going to be a very unique event and we hope to see it continue to grow and expand beyond the boundaries of New York City in the coming years.

(2) What’s striking is the category for experimental film — an often overlooked genre — Vimeo seemingly embraces this genre. Care to elaborate?

Experimental video is really the backbone of a lot of what we see on the web today. As people gain more access to video and the ability to share on the web, they look to experiment with different filming and editing techniques and often create experimental films in the process of learning how to become better filmmakers. Those people, combined with artists who are breaking ground with new forms of storytelling or non-linear filmmaking are pioneering the newer experimental genres we see emerging from video online. We embrace all forms of video creation and watching the experimental genre expand over these last few years has been fascinating and is something we are very interested in discussing at the Festival.

(3) How do you define experimental film and why embrace it? What does experimental film bring to the kitchen table?

Traditionally, experimental film often refers to the absence of a linear narrative or those who choose to comment on the actual process of filmmaking itself. We like to look at experimental film as just that: the process of experimenting. Those who try new forms of storytelling and use imaginative and innovative ways to create videos are creating “experimental” films because they do not necessarily fall into traditional filmmaking categories.

(4) It’s exciting that David Lynch is a judge of the experimental genre; also, the greyscalegorilla dude, Nick Campbell, a native of my city, Chicago, is judging the motion graphics sector. Who are the other judges, what categories are they judging, and what was the process in selecting?

We have many other judges, including folks like Roman Coppola, Morgan Spurlock, Nicolas Schmerkin and more. You can find the full list and learn all about the categories here vimeo.com/awards/categories. Some categories of note that are specific to online video art that of ‘Remix’ and Captured’. The remix category focuses on works that are derivatives of other films, pop culture, and other media and was born from the access the web gave to artists and their ability to reorder works into new meanings. Captured is a category that Vimeo created specifically for these awards to celebrate works of art that are shared through the medium of video itself but are not necessarily artistic videos in and of themselves. A good example of Captured videos would be art installation, gallery exhibits and other live performances that are beautiful works of art that wouldn’t necessarily be able to be shared with the masses without the internet and sites like Vimeo.

(5) What is the linchpin of Vimeo and the Vimeo Festival and Awards?

Illuminating creativity and the actual individuals behind these innovative works of art.

Craig Baldwin is a recently graduated graphic design student at the Winchester School of Art with a keen interest in print and publishing as well as blogging and web design.

Welcome to the fifth edition of Be Inspired, last week I thought I achieved a fairly good balance of inspiration so I’ve tried to maintain that this week, hope it works.

I get through about 200 items each day from FFFFound, Design You Trust, Graphic Exchange and many more. If you feel you have some great work to share then feel free to email me; craigsbaldwin [at] gmail [dot] com.

Jude Landry: Jessica Hische Lecture

In case you’re wondering Jessica Hische is a typographer known for her Daily Drop Caps project among other things, so when Jude Landry came to designing a poster for a lecture at the Mississippi State University it made sense for it to be an elaborate J drop cap.

Javier Bernales: Black Book

A delightful book that experiments with typography, illustration and data visualisation I love the simplicity and cleanness of the lines contrasted with the black sections, sometimes it’s good to just design for design’s sake.

Cristóbal Schmal: Nomono

A nice bit of colourful, unusual illustration, I’m sure there’s a name to this sort of style because I’ve seen it before but it’s always good to see it used well, the use of type in the second one is excellent in my opinion.

Give Up Art: Benga

Such simplicity, beautiful black and white photography that is perfectly reflected in the all black design of the album case with the most understated CD type.

Ruben Córdoba Schwaneberg: Melancoloric

Although there are many other poster designs if you click the link I feel this one is the best of the lot, don’t those colours just remind you of a summer sky? Sort of reminds me of this video by Sam Miller.

Yum Yum: Digital Arts & 3D World Magazines

Now I’m not really sure how these were made, whether they’re papercraft or 3D as their about page lists both and the second one does appear on the cover of 3D World Magazine so I guess it’s 3D but I’d really love to believe these were made by hand I guess that’d be too good to be true.

Scholz & Friends: Panasonic

As the Compare the Market Meerkat would say: Simples.

Susanne Dunkel &Daniela Rota: Essence

Well I’m not sure what it says (the green text appears to be in German, the black in French) but I can still appreciate the corrugated board covers contrasting with the off-white paper and vibrant green text. Plus it’s screen printed so bonus points for that.

Damian Ortega

There isn’t a single website I could find that featured his work, the site I bookmarked for this post isn’t responding so I’ve just had to rely on Google Images but you get an idea of why I wanted to show you his work. Intricately detailed suspended sculptures that either use perspective or show a blown-up view of vehicles and the like.

Threadless: Let The Game Continue

Really love the idea behind this.

4th Estate: This Is Where We Live

This is by no means a new discovery, it’s been on Vimeo for a couple of years already but I thought I’d revisit my Vimeo favourites and dig up some past treasure to end with.