See What Happens When You Give Readers a Gift.

Pencilbox Studios’ Roxann Pope, working with Kia Motors, developed a publication survey program to track Kia associates’ reading habits and informational needs for Momentum magazine. To entice survey entries PBX commissioned a custom painted toolbox by hot rod artist Manuel Reyes as an incentive. A lucky survey entrant won the one-of-a-kind toolbox. The survey results? 96.7% of readers responded to the survey (not sure who that .7 person was) and overall responses were favorable. The ability to prove that good design works is always rewarding.

Survey Results: 89.5% responded that the design, imagery and layout of Momentum magazine is attractive; 94.2% agree the articles are written and presented clearly; 98.4% believe the information provided in Momentum is timely and relevant; 97.7% say Momentum is effective in fostering a sense of pride in being a member of the Kia family; 96.6% agree the publication inspired them to perform at a higher level of customer service and/or parts sales. All good.

Mobile Multi-Service Center Clinic

On Wednesday, February 17, iHOPE hosted the Illumination Foundation’s Mobile Multi-Service Center clinic at the San Juan Capistrano Community Center/ Boys and Girls Club from 5:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. The Illumination Foundation and iHOPE are non-profits addressing the homeless crisis in Orange County by providing services and resources. Over 250 homeless and low-income individuals received free medical and vision care, and were connected to medical and social resources such as housing and job referrals, insurance information, and legal advice. Vision care, including access to free prescription eye-glasses, was recently added to the van services in response to data that shows Orange County has one of the highest proportions of overweight children and teens compared to the national average. The high-risk of diabetes and eye disease for these children increases the need for vision care. The addition of vision services was also in response to last summer’s State Government cut of glasses benefits to most of the adult MediCal population. The mobile medical van will be in the South Orange County area again Wednesday, March 17 at St. Timothy's Catholic Church in Laguna Niguel. For more information please contact ifhomeless.org or ihopeoc.org or (949) 212-4420

What We Learn from our Kids

My daughter's science project and fellow artist/environmentalist, Amy Lee, lead us to Chris Jordan's Photographic Art website this morning (chrisjordan.com). His images are beautiful, motivational and guilt-ridden. Of course, we viewed his website right after returning from the grocery store - where I forgot my reusable bag and had a Starbucks in a paper cup with a plastic lid. Images such as Jordan's remind us to be more diligent and to keep trying to whittle away at the environmental issues we face in our daily lives.

Image depicts one million plastic cups, the number used on airline flights in the US every six hours. And then a close up.

The Influence of Good Design.

For the last year Pencilbox Studios has worked closely with Kia Motors to relaunch their national Parts and Service Publication —Momentum magazine.  Reader surveys were conducted prior to and after Momentum's redesign to ensure the publication was on mark regarding content and style.  Pencilbox’s Roxann Pope collaborated with Kia to set baseline reader expectations and to gain further insight into the reader's needs. The feedback obtained provided Kia direction for future publications, showed a desire for more issues, and confirmed that good design works— readership was up 54% following the redesign.

Does your blog ping?

Pings are a quick way to spread your blogs posts around the internet. A ping is a notification that is sent to a website. You have probably gotten them before when someone links your blog. There is a long list of Ping services that aggregate lists of new blog posts or website content.

There are several ways to get you URL on these lists. Spending an hour to sign your blog on to some update services will give you an edge on search engine page rank.

In your WordPress blog :  to Settings > Writing >; and scroll down to Update Services. You will see "rpc.pingomatic.com/" in the box. Take a minute and add the below list into the box to bulk up your update notifications.

rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
ping.feedburner.com/
api.moreover.com/RPC2
rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
bulkfeeds.net/rpc
pinger.blogflux.com/rpc/
services.newsgator.com/ngws/xmlrpcping.aspx'
blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
blogupdate.org/ping/
feedsky.com/api/RPC2

For Blogger users, you're SOL for the automatic notifications. It all has to be done manually or through an external service. I hear there is a script in the works to add in.