Suit Buying: how to look good

When buying a suit there are a lot of choices to consider but the desired result is usually the same, "I want to look good in this suit." Unfortunately, there is no one size, or style that fits all, so let's break suit buying down by two basic body types.

If you are tall and don't want to appear taller avoid vertical stripes and stick to a three button jacket. Also try to choose a suit with pleated pants. The idea is to break up all the long vertical lines to create an illusion of width and substance. You may even want to get your pants hemmed with a cuff to create another visual break in the long lines of your legs.

Conversely, if you are wider than you'd like to be try a suit that has vertical stripes. Choose a two button jacket and avoid pleats and cuffs at all costs. Here the idea is the opposite, we are trying to extend all the vertical lines in your suit to give the illusion of height and reduce the width of your torso. Get your pants hemmed with a "full break" meaning that they fall all the way to your shoes with a slight wrinkle about 4-6 inches above the tops of your feet. It is important to get your suit fitted while wearing the style of shoe you will be wearing with the suit so that the break is appropriate for those shoes.

These two strategies cover the most basic suit choices, more details and other options including altering and ordering custom clothing will be showing up in later posts.

Drawing 101: avoid these beginner mistakes

Every artist has to start somewhere and if you are new to drawing it can seem pretty intimidating. This post covers a few mistakes that new artists often make. Avoiding these in your illustrations should help get you started off on the right foot.

One of the most common mistakes is using the wrong pencil. "Make your marks heavy and dark," is great advice for taking a standardized test but not so much for illustrating. You want a range of tonal values to choose from and a number 2 pencil is pretty hard and creates light shading. For average shading and medium toned areas try a B or 2B. When drawing highlights and light detail use a 4H. Dark areas and heavy shading might call for a 6B or even 8B which are softer and allow for easy coverage. 

Another common mistake happens when we try to take what we think we see and draw it. Does your favorite pet have an outline? Then why do you draw one? Outlining shaded drawings kills the effect of the tonal change between shaded areas. It destroys the illusion of depth and dimension. Sure, you can start your illustration by drawing the outlines of simple shapes and build it up from there, but these outlines should be very light and not visible in the finished work. 

Drawing every hair or blade of grass is yet another bad plan. You should create the illusion of hair or grass by using good shading technique and by adding details only to the few lightest and darkest individual components. When drawing leaves and foliage avoid using the tiny circles or scribbly ovals technique. Instead draw more crescent shaped marks and add shading in front and behind your marks to indicate the overall shape of the tree or bush.

Shadows are black, not dark gray. Do not limit your tonal range to a small spectrum of grays. Carry your illustrations from the lightest gray you can accomplish to the deepest black. This more closely resembles how we see the world and will make your drawings more interesting.

Remember these mistakes the next time you get ready to start a new drawing and make a plan to avoid them. This will help you become a better artist and boost your confidence.

Illustrator Tip: assign your own keyboard shortcuts

One feature Adobe added to Illustrator in version nine is the ability to create your own keyboard shortcuts. This can speed up the design process by allowing the user to create custom "quick key" combinations that make sense for their individual design sense. 

This feature can be found under the Edit menu (usually the last item in this menu). The user can apply custom shortcuts to either the Tools themselves or to the Menu Commands. Also, Adobe made this feature 'smart' in that it will alert the designer if a selected key command is already in use by Illustrator to perform another operation. 

Using shortcuts, either the default set or custom ones you create, will help reduce the overall time it takes to produce a design. Using this tip to save a few minutes here and there on every project will make you a faster and more profitable designer.

Voicemail: get your call returned

Voicemail is a convenience that almost all of us both love and hate. We love it when we use it but we hate it when someone we're calling does. We often do not get calls returned when we leave messages, and overcoming that problem is the focus of today's post. Let's assume that you are cold calling a new client, you get their voicemail, and your short term goal is to get a return call.

First the basics: don't leave any information that will predispose the client to making a decision one way or the other about your product or service. For example don't tell them you want to sell them advertising space in your company's magazine. Instead simply say that you are calling from (insert name here) magazine and would like to speak with them about "some ideas." Always leave your complete phone number twice so that they have time to write it down without replaying your message. 

Never ask for a call back at a specific time or within a specific time frame. This only serves to give the other party a reason for not calling. For the same reason never state in the message that you will call them back, even if you plan on doing so. 

Do not make cold calls on Mondays or Fridays. Mondays are spent "catching up" from the weekend and can be very busy. Fridays are often wasted days spent planning weekend activities and finishing up small "house cleaning" tasks from earlier in the week. Statistically, messages left Friday afternoons are the least likely to be returned.* 

Make your message an introduction and link it to something of interest to the client: an event or up coming function, a mutual friend or business associate, or even an interesting and applicable news item. The stronger this personal tie is, the more likely you will get your call returned.

Lastly, voicemail is like a small sticky note, not a full sheet of college ruled composition paper. Keep it short and to the point. If you tend to ramble, you should rehearse or even jot down a "script" before you call. If this "script" takes up two pages tear it up and try again.

*Hunter, Mark. Voicemail Survival for the Sales Professional  

Cell Phone Etiquette: together we can make a difference

Cell phones have nearly become a required tool in modern business. However as with any other tool there are best practices and social norms to consider. However, many otherwise civilized individuals are breaking these unwritten rules in some sort of twisted homage to the almighty mobile phone. Let us begin with the strangely uncommon common sense guidelines. 

Do not interrupt a meeting, lecture, performance, or other group activity by having your cell ring or even worse by answering a call. It is the height of rudeness to state through words or actions that "you people are not as important as this other person who might be calling me." If you expect such a critical call you have no business engaging in other activities, in fact you should probably call the other party to attend to your ultra important issue post haste. The only exception to this rule is if you are required by law to provide life-saving aid in case of an emergency. 

Do not set your ring tone to anything other than a ring or tone. Tinny sounding music, no matter how great the song, is never a welcome surprise in any setting. We do not need to know that you love disco or that at heart you think hip-hop is "da bomb."

Do not carry multiple electronic devices on your belt. This does not make you look more professional... it makes you look like a geek. The only exception to this rule is if you are Batman.

Avoid wearing a bluetooth or other headset when you are not on the phone. If possible avoid this even when you are on the phone. The 'Judy from Time Life' look has never caught on and it is unlikely that you are the individual to "set it off." Plus, it is often hard for us to determine if you are talking to us, yourself, or someone on your phone.

Finally, a word on pagers... no. 

I hope these few tips have helped, and rest assured more electronic device guidelines are headed your way in a later post.