creativepro.com has a great article by Eric J. Adams in the The Art of Business series titled ‘Tis the Season to Give Gifts… Thoughtfully. The article goes over some great gift ideas, outlines the process you should probably follow to make your life much easier, and provides some links to sites that specialize in corporate gifts. Eric’s advice sounds spot on, “take the time or spend extra to have the gift wrapped nicely. Include a handwritten note with a personal sentiment. And, if possible, hand deliver the package.”

Veerle compares the proposal and estimation process of interior design to web design and points out that id’s charge for their time to measure a space, suggest a solution, and provide color advice whereas web designers send out proposal’s with no compensation in return. Interesting way of looking at things and a true testament to the reason that No-Spec is here!

Marilyn Swantkowski is surveying graphic design professionals working in the United States concerning their exercise of creative rights under current copyright laws, last revised in 1998. The linked questionnaire consists of merely twelve questions and will only be available for responses until 11pm tonight! And for those of you that may be paraniod about who has your info, rest assured that no identifiable information is requested and the survey company (www.surveymonkey.com) does not track respondents.

Check out a video of Adam Greenfield talking at Keio University about his recently published book “Everyware: The dawning age of ubiquitous computing.”
found via Pete’s Eats

AdVerbatims highlights user submitted quotes heard from the trenches of the advertising industry. My Favorite:
#277 - “I like take 1 and 3″
(Client on hearing same v/o played 4 times)

Thanks to my friend Mike Buzzard for linking up the blog over here on K10K- I’ve just noticed a significant spike in my traffic and realized I should probably say hello to those coming here from the designer’s lunchbox. “Hello!” And for my regular readers who are not familiar with k10k - I highly recommend making their site a daily destination for web design news and inspiration! Cheers all around!

JJeffryes shares his Design Contract that he uses. It seems to be an adaptation from the book Business and Legal Forms for Graphic Designers. Definitely a good started for anyone who has been slacking at preparing their own contract. *Wink, wink, nudge, nudge*

A great follow-up from my previous post on Neil Tortella’s article, Shaun Crowley has shared his email and telephone contact strategy for his new business efforts. Shaun does a great job of defining the different types of leads and how you should approach each type.

JJ has a beautifully designed blog called Graphicology. I must say that his use of typography and photography has really impressed me. I especially like some of the PDF work he has done for a post on The Bottom Rung..

I am sure that you’ve read this multiple times now on other design blogs, but in case you haven’t: Design Matters Season Four Launches January 5th and the line-up is absolutely amazing! Spearheaded by writer, designer, and radio personality Debbie Millman will interview such legends as Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin, Ze Frank, Joyce Rutter Kaye, Jakob Trollback, and more.