Waxcreative Design Blog » Miscellaneous

We wish you a Waxtastic holiday season…

Emily Cotler — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 19:53:35 +0000

…and a lot of online traffic in the coming year.

‘Tis the season to be thankful, and this year we feel great about supporting Writers in the Schools, an organization that matches professional writers with students at low-income public schools in order to help children develop their writing skills. Literacy is a gift that keeps on giving; thank you to our many clients and colleagues who give this gift all year round.

All the best from your Waxcreative Design team.

Photo by Ros Edmonds of WaxDad Steve Cotler speaking about writing fiction to fourth and fifth graders.

Color of the Year

Maxamaris Hoppe — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 05:14:00 +0000

Pantone has released their color of the year! 2012 is Tangerine Tango.

We love it!

And I especially love all the ways Pantone has marketed their color swatches. Even if you’re not in the business of printing with Pantone swatches, you can enjoy Tangerine Tango as a mug (a Pantone mug in my friend’s favorite color is a go-to present for me), or a messenger bag. Pantone makes cool iPhone cases, and even makes eyewear and Visa cards. Such clean style and vibrant colors… I’m addicted, frankly. Even Emily, who never makes impulse purchases (I’m not even kidding!–that is enviable will power) picked up a box of Pantone note cards after less than five seconds of seeing it on the store shelf.

This might have come off like a press release, but Pantone is awesome and ’tis the season to buy awesome things.

Diet Coke redesigns

Emily Cotler — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 16:44:43 +0000

It is no secret I have a Diet Coke problem. I will drive blocks out of my way to procure a small bucket with a straw from a fast-food drive-thru fountain despite repeated protestations from eat-healthfully-for-your-body gurus Lana Farson and Elizabeth Yarnell (who each rightfully point out the evils of the chemicals involved in Diet Coke and the like). So this post extols only the virtues of Diet Coke’s new beautiful and, IMO, instantly successful graphic design update… Because redesign should happen (and is actually happening all the time in the Wax studio — just not on the scale of Coca-Cola product development, heh).

Notice how the whole logo doesn’t need to be seen — we should all be that visually successful one day.

Art is everywhere

Emily Cotler — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 03:46:33 +0000

We think this is amazing. Check out more Netflix envelope art here!

Happy Memorial Day!

Emily Cotler — Mon, 30 May 2011 20:58:53 +0000

Here’s hoping everyone is having a wonderful long holiday weekend and no one is getting their BBQs rained upon!

The thoughts of the whole Wax staff go out to our brave men and women in uniform, those currently serving, and those who’ve completed tours (with a special shout out to our own USMC Capt. Matt Pottinger — you rock!)… and of course to all the military families who hold the home front together, and finally (and solemnly) to those who’ve made the ultimate sacrifice.

To all of you over the last 200+ years, thank you. Here’s to the home of the free and the land of the brave. It’s an honor to live here.

Don’t Get Caught With Your Site Down

Emily Cotler — Tue, 24 May 2011 19:15:25 +0000

Earlier today two style icons met on the world stage. Flash bulbs went ballistic as the Duchess of Cambridge was photographed wearing a lovely new dress to meet the First Lady, also wearing a stunning ensemble. Within moments designers at Reiss knew they were in for a day — OMG, Kate was wearing their dress. But within a very short period of time their site — gasp — went down. The Kate Middleton Effect brought down their servers. Tsk, tsk.

When Reiss finally did cough itself back online, the CSS was wonky and the load time excessive with time outs beating out successful loads. You can be sure that a lot of money is flying from all over High Street to high tech this week on new servers and better tech support — no one wants to be the next Reiss.

Someone over at Reiss is sweating hard right now. On the day that a new iPhone is released you can bet your bottom dollar that a small army of techs are babysitting Apple’s servers. So on a day that the entire British fashion world knows that Kate Middleton would be trotting out something spectacular (”Maybe ours” was clearly the wish of every High Street house), why techs aren’t bolstering resources and literally cuddling servers is beyond me. Reminds me of when our server went down on Valentine’s Day (never again).

Do not get caught with your site down.

CONGRATULATIONS!

Emily Cotler — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 20:29:54 +0000

All of us here at Waxcreative are bursting with pride to say CONGRATS to our four RITA® finalists: Maya Banks, CJ Carmichael, Nicola Cornick, and Eloisa James. For a full list of the finalists please see the RWA web page dedicated to RITAs. Congratulations everyone!!

Read an excerpt from Eloisa’s RITA finaling book. Or, check out Eloisa’s Inside Take on the book.

Read an excerpt from Nicola’s RITA finaling book. Or, take a tour behind the book.

Read an excerpt from Maya’s RITA finaling book. Or, find out more about this exciting new series.

Read an excerpt from CJ’s RITA finaling book. Or, read her letter to readers.

Four fabulous books, four fabulous authors. We feel privileged to work with you on a regular basis.

“This is Waxcreative Actual.”

Emily Cotler — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 21:08:39 +0000

Yes, it’s true. I really did once answer the phone that way. To be fair, first I said, Hello, but there must have been a weird connection or perhaps I was sick or something because Abi clearly wasn’t sure it was me since she said with questioning uncertainty: Emily?

Now, full disclosure: Abi is my sister, and she really should recognize my voice, don’t you think? So when she didn’t, I felt completely okay about getting playful.

This is Waxcreative Actual, I deadpanned.

Unfortunately Abi is not a Battlestar Galactica devotee, and thus this flew right over her head. But Estella loved it.

Just a little geeky fun for your Friday.

Cloud or Hardware? Internet realities.

Emily Cotler — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 19:59:03 +0000

When we came into the office yesterday morning, Wax’s local ISP was down. We couldn’t make updates (and on a Tuesday!), our VoIP was down, we couldn’t check our email (except on my iPhone), or use the web as the resource we have so thoroughly come to depend on it to be. All shipping, banking, etc — all delayed. Plans started to be formed in case the crisis lasted into the next day.

It was a reality check reminding us that while the internet feels like a cloud, constantly flowing to our laptops wirelessly, it’s really all hardware that is hardwired somewhere… out there. The vast and powerful internet is surprisingly fragile. We were reminded of a day almost three years ago exactly when the Wax server went down — on Valentine’s Day no less — for EIGHT HOURS and created chaos here in Wax-land. Chaos we were helpless to affect. Yesterday didn’t affect nearly as many people, but created a significant scramble.

We came back online yesterday mid-afternoon to cheers and much relief. Onward!

Now THAT’S creative vision

Emily Cotler — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 20:44:02 +0000

From the Huffington Post:

This extraordinary cathedral made from salvaged materials has steadily risen over the past 50 years in a quiet Madrid neighborhood. Justo Martinez (who goes by Don Justo) has been working on the massive undertaking nearly single-handedly ever since he had to leave an order of monks due to illness. After recovering, he dedicated his life to building a church using his own money, on his own land. The massive undertaking is built almost entirely from local materials that he is able to salvage, and now topped out at 131 feet the cathedral just needs a few finishing touches — like a roof, some windows and permits.

Just: wow.