The Buzz @ Red Dream Studios

Happy Holidays from Red Dream Studios

2010-12-22T14:30:00.002-05:00

Montreal's CJAD features Tassi and Red Dream Studios

2010-03-25T14:52:00.004-05:00

On February 25th, 2010, the Founder and Executive Creative Director of Red Dream Studios, Neal Evan Caminsky, was interviewed by Dr. Laurie Betito of Montreal's talk-radio station, CJAD 800 AM to discuss his involvement with the teen support forum he co-founded, tassi.ca.

tassi.ca is an online community where teens can share advice, suggestions, support, and information on a variety of topics that are of concern to teenagers. Users of the forum are encouraged to help other teens, share their opinions, ask questions and discuss anything teen-related. tassi is a non-profit initiative created by Agence Ometz, an integrated social service agency located in Montreal, Canada, whose mission is to support and strengthen individuals and families in times of vulnerability, and by Red Dream Studios, a digital marketing company located in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Canada.

Tassi currently has a teen registration database of well over 100 Montreal-area teens, and over a dozen screened and applicant volunteer moderators providing guidance and support.

Dr. Laurie Betito's hourlong call-in show, called "Passions" regularly discusses sexuality and relationship issues while occasionally featuring a "teen hour." Along with Neal Caminsky on the air was Tassi Co-Founder Linda Mestel of Agence Ometz, and Jaclyn Mestel, one of the website's chief administrators. To hear a condensed version of the show, click here.

Tassi Co-Founder Linda Mestel, Administrator Jaclyn Mestel, and
Co-Founder Neal Evan Caminsky in the broadcast booth of CJAD 800 AM.

Tassi Helps Teens Connect and Cope

2009-12-02T14:02:00.004-05:00

(Reprinted from Edition 50 of Tikun Olam, November 2009)

tassi.ca is an online community where teens can share advice, suggestions, support, and information on a variety of topics that are of concern to teenagers. It has been established by Agence Ometz as an on-line safe haven, where teens log on to express themselves and discuss issues they often find difficult to address. These include sexuality and dating, bullying, problems with parents, body image, depression, as well as Jewish life, and practical matters such as help with homework and career planning.

Users of the forum help one another, share opinions, ask questions and discuss anything teen related. It is a place where they are made to feel comfortable and where trust is encouraged.

tassi.ca is the brainchild of Neal Caminsky, who, upon completing the West Island Leadership Development program offered by FEDERATION CJA, was looking to pursue a project that would help young members of the community. He lent the expertise of his Red Dream Studios, a website design, graphic design, and multimedia production company located in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, to get the project up and on the web. The Volunteer Services Department of Agence Ometz provides training and supervision for a group of young adults, between the ages of 19 and 23, who act as volunteer peer moderators on the site. Ometz professional staff offer additional support, stepping in to back-up the moderators or handle diffucult situations. They can also assess when kids are in genuine distress and refer them to professional resources.

Kids are encouraged to log on and take advantage of tassi.ca, using it as a resource, a place to speak freely, and a chance to help one another out.

Things to Ask Before You Redo Your Website

2009-09-19T15:51:00.002-05:00

We here at Red Dream Studios are often charged to not only develop a website from the get-go, but also provide website makeovers. Makeovers are not merely cosmetic. They are efforts by which increased sales and marketing can be achieved. Some makeover can be as simple as updating the website's metatags (or adding some where they previously didn't exist), updating copy that has been stagnant for months or years, or as exhaustive as providing a completely new branding.

On this topic, I thought I would repost a great set of questions provided by Seth Godin:

I don't do any consulting, but that doesn't stop people from asking me questions. The most common question people ask me when they want a new website is, "If you were in charge of this, who are the 2 or 3 people you’d want to be sure to talk to – to help think through the issues, help us figure out who should do the work, etc.?"

The second most common question people ask me, "In addition to Apple’s site, are there 2 or 3 that you think are really appealing and work well for their business?"

I think these are perhaps the tenth and eleventh questions you should ask, not the first two. Here's my list of difficult and important questions you have to answer before you spend a nickel:
What is the goal of the site?
In other words, when it's working great, what specific outcomes will occur?
Who are we trying to please? If it's the boss, what does she want? Is impressing a certain kind of person important? Which kind?
How many people on your team have to be involved? At what level?
Who are we trying to reach? Is it everyone? Our customers? A certain kind of prospect?
What are the sites that this group has demonstrated they enjoy interacting with?
Are we trying to close sales?
Are we telling a story?
Are we earning permission to follow up?
Are we hoping that people will watch or learn?
Do we need people to spread the word using various social media tools?
Are we building a tribe of people who will use the site to connect with each other?
Do people find the site via word of mouth? Are they looking to answer a specific question?
Is there ongoing news and updates that need to be presented to people?
Is the site part of a larger suite of places online where people can find out about us, or is this our one sign post?
Is that information high in bandwidth or just little bits of data?
Do we want people to call us?
How many times a month would we like people to come by? For how long?
Who needs to update this site? How often?
How often can we afford to overhaul this site?
Does showing up in the search engines matter? If so, for what terms?
At what cost? Will we be willing to compromise any of the things above in order to achieve this goal?
Will the site need to be universally accessible? Do issues of disability or language or browser come into it?
How much money do we have to spend? How much time? And finally,
Does the organization understand that 'everything' is not an option?

Need a digital makeover? Contact Red Dream Studios.

Documenting the fight against Cancer

2009-05-22T09:18:00.000-05:00

The McGill Head and Neck Cancer Fund holds an annual fundraiser benefit gala, this year to be held on May 27, 2009 at the Montreal Science Center in the Old Port. For it's 15th year, the Fund has decided to document the event on video, and show portions of the event on plasma screens throughout the Jewish General Hospital.

Red Dream Studios is proud to have been selected to provide its videography and post-production services. For more information, click here.

Photography for Cancer Research

2009-04-27T12:54:00.004-05:00

Every first Friday in May, for the past twenty years, more than one hundred teams of five or more runners, representing various companies throughout the city, have gathered for a wild, fun-filled run through the streets of downtown Montreal, known as the Défi Corporatif Canderel.

Participating companies donate $2,000.00 per team of five runners, which goes towards cancer research at the Goodman Cancer Centre at McGill University and l'Institut du cancer de Montréal at l'Université de Montréal.

Although cancer is cause for serious concern, the event itself is defined by one key word: Fun. Fun, as in starting and finishing the run on a wonderfully animated site featuring activities, food, drinks, music, and much more. Fun, as in seeing thousands of Montrealers line up the streets of downtown to cheer and encourage hundreds of noisy and colorful runners. Fun, as in a wildly optimistic overall feeling that everyone is actually running towards a cure for cancer.

This year, Red Dream Studios is thrilled to have been selected as the official event photographer, donating its services to provide team photographs and retouching services of all participant companies. Stay tuned to this blog for some of the event highlights.

Tassi featured in The Montreal Gazette

2009-04-20T14:22:00.003-05:00

Columnist Susan Schwartz of The Montreal Gazette interviewed Neal Caminsky of Red Dream Studios about his involvement in the online teenager social community he spearheaded as a volunteer with Agence Ometz. The interview appeared in the Applause section of the Montreal Gazette, April 20, 2009. The article is reprinted here as a permalink:

There's a new place online for young people to ask advice of other young people, courtesy of a Montreal social- service agency and one of its volunteers.
Tassi.ca, an acronym for Teen Advice, Suggestion, Support and Information, is an initiative of Agence Ometz's volunteer department. It was developed by Neal Evan Caminsky, one of more than 300 volunteers who enhance the work of the agency's professional staff - social workers, psychologists, family-life educators, immigration counsellors and employment counsellors among them.
In his professional life, the 34-year-old West Island resident runs Red Dream Studios, a website design, graphic design and multimedia production company based in Dollard des Ormeaux. Ometz is providing space on its server for the program, but Caminsky developed the site, put the technology in place and designed the logo - all as a volunteer. "This is something I am passionate about," he said.
In his late teens, Caminsky, a Montreal native, was a volunteer with a U.S-based online teen advice organization run by a mother and son. Through the initiative, which no longer exists, the pair would forward emails that would come in, mainly from teens, to the volunteers to respond. "We would provide advice - an ear to listen," he recalled. As one of the older volunteers, he tended to address health-related questions - questions about such issues as birth control. "We even had questions from parents."
Caminsky had a fortuitous encounter with Linda Mestel, manager of the volunteer department at Ometz, when she addressed a leadership training program in which he participated. As he listened to her speak about volunteers, it dawned on him that a similar online teen advice project could work here. "In talking with Linda, I came up with the idea of an online bulletin board service: It gives you the ability to log on and post a question - publicly." People may sign in anonymously; their questions can be viewed by anyone who signs on. "The beauty is that if you post a question online, anyone can chime in and give their advice and opinion."
Tassi.ca, launched in March, is targeting students in Grades 5 through 9. "We are trying to offer them some kind of safety net, a bit of direction," Caminsky said. "The goal is to have as many teens helping each other as possible." Ometz is a Jewish agency, and outreach is being made mainly to Jewish day schools at this point. That said, tassi.ca is open to all young people. For now, the site's moderators are the ones answering the questions. They are six Ometz volunteers age 19 to 24: Ali Antolin, Cassie Crangle, Daniel Haboucha, Laura Horowitz, Bryan Mestel and Rilla Schneider. Some have already worked as mentors with teens; others are new to the volunteer department. All have had training on how to respond to questions.
Administrators overseeing the moderators include four Ometz staffers - Linda Mestel is one - and Caminsky. As the site develops, it is hoped that the teens themselves will be answering one another's queries, he said - and that professionals will chime in and post articles.Visit the site at www.tassi.ca.

- Courtesy Susan Schwartz, The Montreal Gazette.

A Gift to the Farha Foundation

2009-04-19T10:06:00.004-05:00

This past February 2009, Red Dream Studios was honoured and thrilled to have been awarded Silver Sponsorship status after having donated video production services to the Farha Foundation's annual Maskarade fundraising gala, in which about $250,000 was raised for A.I.D.S research and awareness in the Montreal community.

The event, organized and produced by Atmosphere Communications and Events, Inc, featured a 60-foot video projection screen upon which Red Dream Studios videotaped the stories of several individuals whom are H.I.V.+ (some that have been living with the disease for over 20 years) and assembled the footage into a compelling 3-minute montage, underscored by dramatic music. Throughout the video, we hear the stories of how living with HIV is often compared to living with a mask imposed by society. Some are comfortable living without masks, whereas others cannot bear to take them off.

The video kicked off the evening's gala dinner and dancing, emceed by Mr. Justin Trudeau, MP for the Papineau riding in Montreal, shown in the photo alongside Red Dream Studios Founder and Creative Director Neal Evan Caminsky, and company Partner Jessica Binstock.

Tassi.ca Comes Online

2009-03-02T15:24:00.003-05:00

Today marked the official launching of a new website www.tassi.ca. Tassi, short for Teen Advice Suggestion, Support & Information, is a community-driven project developed by Red Dream Studios in collaboration with Jewish Family Services (now Agence Ometz). The website's sole function is to help teens find an ear to lean on. Questions of all topics can be asked, and generally, someone will be there to answer them, be it a moderator trained and coached by the Jewish Family Services, or ideally, other teens just like them.

The creation of this website and the"selling" of it was a 9-month pre-production process. In my research on the topic of troubled teens, I came across some disturbing facts. The rest of this blog presents some of the information I put together as a proposal to the Jewish Family Services. I encourage you to read it, but more importantly, visit the site and promote it throughout your community.

Some pertinent facts:

Quebec men have the highest suicide rate in Canada.

In a 1998-1999 study, Quebec had the highest suicide rate in Canada - 21.3 per 100,000 people.

Montreal is considered the unhealthiest city in Canada, leading the country the highest mortality rates for men from cancer, stress, suicide and the cumulative incidence of AIDS.

In 2006, the following was compiled by psychiatrists at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, which found links between "suicidality" and age, income levels and where a teen lives in Canada:

Male teens in B.C. had the highest attempted suicide rate, while those in Quebec reported the highest rate of depression.
Nearly a quarter of the female teens from B.C. who took part in the study reported having had suicidal thoughts.
Suicidality rates in Canada differ little from those in the U.S., despite the fact that universal health coverage north of the border gives Canadians better access to health care.
Experts say the study indicates a need for school programs to better educate teachers about depression and suicide, which is the second leading cause of death among teens in Canada.
The youth don't talk about their depressive moods to their physicians: A drop in grades, difficulties with other peers and participating in fewer social activities are signs of depression.
The highest rate in depression is seen in Quebec, followed closely by the Prairies and B.C. More than 50 per cent of adolescents who commit suicide have experienced a form of depression.

Why online?

From 2000-2007, the PEW Internet & American Life research center has been examining teenagers’ use of the internet and has repeatedly shown that teens are one of the most wired segments of the American population. And teenagers, perhaps more than any other age group in the U.S., have been well-positioned to take advantage of new communications technologies and social media applications as they emerge.

Psychologists have long noted that the teenage years are host to a tumultuous period of identity formation and role development. Adolescents are intensely focused on social life during this time, and consequently have been eager and early adopters of internet applications that help them engage with their peers. In the first national survey of teenagers’ internet use in 2000, PEW found that teens had embraced instant messaging and other online tools to play with and manage their online identities. In a second major study of teens in 2004, PEW noted that teenagers had taken to blogging and a wide array of content creation activities at a much higher rate than adults. Teens who adopted these tools were no longer only communicating with text, but they were also developing a fluency in expressing themselves through multiple types of digital media – including photos, music and video.

And along comes MySpace…

MySpace was by no means the first social networking application to come to the fore, but it has been the fastest-growing, and now consistently draws more traffic than almost any other website on the internet. It has also garnered the majority of public attention paid to online social networking, and sparked widespread concern among parents and lawmakers about the safety of teens who post information about themselves on the site.

Social networking sites appeal to teens, in part, because they encompass so many of the online tools and entertainment activities that teens know and love. They provide a centralized control center to access real-time and asynchronous communication features, blogging tools, photo, music and video sharing features, and the ability to post original creative work – all linked to a unique profile that can be customized and updated on a regular basis.

Looking at a general picture of teen internet adoption, American teens are more wired now than ever before. According to PEW’s latest 2007 survey, 93% of all Americans between 12 and 17 years old use the internet. In 2004, 87% were internet users, and in 2000, 73% of teens went online.

While teens go online in greater numbers and more frequently than in the past, usage gaps between teens of different socio-economic status persist. Teens whose parents are less educated and have lower incomes are less likely to be online than teens with more affluent and well-educated parents. Of teens whose parents have college educations, 98% are online while only 82% of teens whose parents have less than a high school education are online. In general, income and parental education levels have a greater impact than race and ethnicity on the frequency of internet use.

Not only are more teens online, but they are also using the internet more intensely now than in the past. 89% of online teens use the internet at least once a week. The percentage of online teens who report using the internet daily has increased from 42% in 2000 and 51% in 2004 to 61% in 2006. Of the 61% of teens who report using the internet daily in 2006, 34% use the internet multiple times a day and 27% use the internet once a day. If teens log onto the internet daily, they are more likely to log on multiple times rather than once per day.

How can we help?

Given the fact that more and more teens are online in greater frequency than ever before, and given the rates of depression, anxiety, and influx of digital information available to teens online, the most natural solution to addressing and catering to teen issues is an online one.

For more than 140 years, Jewish Family Services of the Baron de Hirsch Institute, also known as JFS, has helped families to stay strong and connected. JFS offers intervention and prevention services to children, individuals, families, schools and communities with a view to supporting and enhancing personal and family health and growth. As a recognized leader in the field of social services and mental health, the JFS is in prime position to promote itself as an innovator of online advice and intervention services. With its breadth into the scholastic and community arenas, JFS has the “arms-reach” in order to promote a new venture by which teens and young adults can anonymously either find safe haven or search for advice or counseling through today’s modern and naturalistic communication network, online.

Not all doom and gloom for 2009

2009-01-24T12:25:00.002-05:00

With the constant bombardment of tough economic times ahead and mounting job losses (100K in the first 3 months of 2009 alone), it is of course natural to feel panicked and our purse strings tightening. But losing your job isn't all that traumatic if you take a moment to think about your situation and make the best of it.

Over 10 years ago, I was happily employed by Matrox, a hi-tech graphics display company in Dorval. By 2001, Matrox had reached its pinnacle of success with revenues of close to $1B Canadian, and a workforce globally of about 1700 people. Emotions were high as was morale. However, as the dot-com crash of 2001 settled in, Matrox was not immune to its effects. In addition to a rapid shutdown of all things tech, bad management, product delays, unfavourable reviews, competition, and the strength of the Canadian dollar all contributed to a rapid decline in Matrox's prosperity. The immediate and most notable result of this was the constant threat of being laid off.

Throughout the several years that followed, I ended up surviving through 3 massive rounds of layoffs, the largest of which saw over 100 people being escorted by security out the front door on one Friday morning. The last major layoff while I was still employed at Matrox came in 2004 and was a complete shock to everyone, including those people like me who didn't directly lose their jobs. To this day I distinctly remember driving into work about 15 minutes later than usual, and as I was walking into the building, a colleague from my department was walking the other way, clutching his coffee mug and a small box of personal effects. Jokingly, I said to him, "Executive hours?" to which he replied, "I was just laid off." This colleague has one of the best sense of humours of anyone I know, so it didn't occur to me that he was actually serious. But I kept looking at his face, and knew him well enough to know that he wasn't joking. He then continued walking to his car. I then quickened my pace into the building only to realize that my co-worker wasn't the first to have already "walked the green mile" so to speak. As I sat down at my desk, I kept seeing other colleagues in my department being called to the front of the building, being escorted by the department manager, never to return. I sat there cowering in fear and hunched over, foolishly thinking that if my manager didn't see me, maybe I'd be safe.

After about 2 hours of being completely destroyed emotionally, and bewildered by what was going on (not knowing was the worst aspect of this), another manager in my department came over to me to see if I was ok. I told him no, of course. My face was pretty pale and I was about to throw up. He went to the department manager and told him that he'd better clue me in on what was going on for fear that I'd collapse. By that time, the layoffs had ended and the department manager came up to me and told me that it was going to be ok. I was finally able to breath again, but I was still stunned to see my department shrink from 11 people to 5. This experience made me to learn to position myself strategically within any company that I'd work for -- make yourself indispensable. Do your best, and you'll be too valuable to be let go, regardless of your job title.

Being in my late 20's at the time, newly married, and with a large mortgage to pay, the thought of being laid off was incomprehensible. It would have been the most traumatic experience of my life, so I thought. Feeling like a failure, feeling worthless. And then the thought of going through the effort of finding a new job... The interviews. The waiting. The salary negotitation. I couldn't bare the thought. Fortunately, I never had to really face this threat in practice, but being surrouded by the cloud of layoffs for several years helped shape me into the entrepreneur that I am today.

My prediction is that 2009 and 2010 will see unprecedented growth in sole proprietorships. I've been seeing this already since mid-2008 as more and more new companies have been coming to Red Dream Studios in search of logos, business cards, and a website -- the earmarks of a new company offering. Since our niche has long been small business and entrepreneurs, we've been fortunate enough to cater to quite a few of them.

As people will find themselves in the unfortunate position of having lost their job, questions of course arise -- to find a new job with another company (and obviously face that miserable possibility of being laid off again), or become one's own boss, with merely one's own potential to be held accounted for as a business success or failure. What excites me about all this is that countless of great ideas are floating out there in people's minds -- however the fact that many of these ideas never get off the ground into something tangible because the people that have these ideas are locked into careers (which they may or may not even be passionate about), is something truly devastating.

What if someone knew how to solve the world's energy crisis, but felt compelled to keep their job buying socks for the president of some company for fear of not earning an income. Would they have the possibility of bringing their idea to the rest of the world? Possibly not. This is why I think that entrepreneurs are the most powerful and respected people on the planet. They take the risks that most others would not. They dare to explore the possibility of human potential and dare to dream the ideas that others dare not.

So despite all the doom and gloom predicted for the next 2 years, I am excited to see the human potential that arises from tragedy. When people are pushed to explore options they dared not challange, what a fantastic world this could be.

What do you think?

Happy Holidays from Red Dream Studios

2008-12-12T14:02:00.003-05:00

Maskarade Multimedia

2008-12-04T18:49:00.003-05:00

Based on Truman Capote’s famous 1966 masked ball at the Plaza in New York, MASKARADE 2009 will recreate a night of glamour and mystery following a black and white theme with everyone in masks. This year’s event will take place on Saturday, February 28th, 2009 at the Centre Sheraton Hotel in Montreal.

Sixteen years ago, Ron Farha found the courage to stand up and take off his mask. He was willing to stand up before society and say, “I have AIDS and I am going to do what I can to give back to my community.” With his courage, the Farha Foundation was born.

There are many people that are living with HIV and AIDS today who still live life behind a mask. There are children who must hide it from their classmates, women who must hide it from their families and men who hide it because of the stigma attached to these four little letters: A.I.D.S.

This year, Red Dream Studios was honoured to be asked to participate in the event by donating its expertise in the field of multimedia production. Large video walls will be instrumental in the evening presentations upon which content created by Red Dream Studios will be displayed. More information about the event can be seen by visiting the Farha Foundation's event page here.

My Real Estate Nightmare (Part 6) - The Final Chapter

2008-10-15T06:40:00.006-05:00

With my brother-in-law now in the process of cleaning up the gigantic mess that everyone who was previously involved in my real estate nightmare made, things were finally starting to look brighter. His first plan of action was to sort through all the contracts, the lawsuits, the errors, and establish a time line of exactly who screwed up, and when.

At the root of the problem was a bank (Scotia Bank) that issued an unconditional mortgage, only to retract it 1 1/2 months later. But by that time, we had already purchased our new house and were essentially locked into paying two simultaneous mortgages. From my limited knowledge, once a bank issues an unconditional mortgage, there shouldn't be any financing issues down the road, right? Right?

Second, was a real estate agent (mine) who did very little in tracking down the problems, fighting for my rights, protecting me, calling the bank to find answers, or dealing with the other agent in a pro-active manner.

Third, was a real estate broker (mine) who was untrustworthy, and acted in the best interest of his agent (mine), as opposed to the client (me).

Fourth, was another real estate agent (the buyer's) who kept promising things and failed to deliver.

Finally, was a buyer who kept stressing the fact that he wanted to buy my house, but did nothing concrete to prove his sincerity. Throughout this process, I took it upon myself to believe that this man was acting in relatively good faith. I was the only one who believed in his intentions, and the fact that he got shafted on the sale of his own home, was a situation that was not creating malicious intent on my side.

After the signing date had passed, we solicited the services of a lawyer to draft a "lawyer's letter" that would render the original Promise to Purchase null and void, and essentially claim compensatory damages from my buyer on an on-going basis until the house was sold. Believe it or not, the cost of carrying mortgages was going to amount to about $70/day!

We would only legally be able to resell the house if the buyer had acknowledged receipt of this letter. But tracking the buyer down was another issue. His agent was sketchy in giving us his address (be it at home or at work), and during this time, the buyer wasn't answering his phone so we couldn't contact him directly. So for about a week, we were on a manhunt. We even had the lawyer send the letter by bailiff, but even the bailiff came up empty-handed. Were we going to be locked into selling our house to this buyer for the rest of our lives?!?

Finally, a breakthrough. The buyer acknowledged the receipt of the letter to waive the Promise to Purchase via email, which was apparently enough to stand up in court, should we have resold the property and the buyer contested it was his all along.

With our freedom now restored, we listed the house back on the market (now for a 3rd time) at the beginning of August. Because we were now paying 2 mortgages, the goal was to obviously sell our house as quickly as possible -- and if lucky enough, even sell it for a higher price. Along the way, my brother-in-law's girlfriend had also become a real estate agent becoming the better half of a tag team real estate team. She had great vision when it came to home staging and properly decorated my now empty house. We also did some minor renovations to bring the house into mint condition. We were very encouraged, although, as luck would have it, selling a property in a supposed hot area proved to be a challenge.

It was now September, and our house hadn't had so much as an offer on the table, and of course, we were getting pretty antsy. Oddly enough, the old buyer was still in the picture. Despite being sued, and no longer legally bound to buy my house, his agent (who had gone silent for about 2 weeks) emailed my brother-in-law out of the blue stating that my buyer had received a verbal approval on a new mortgage (by the aforementioned Scotia Bank), and was still intent on buying the house.

Well, we've heard that song and dance before. Frankly, I was getting tired of being strung along. So we took appropriate action -- we demanded that the buyer sign a new Promise to Purchase and within it, he would agree to compensate me for all my damages up front. While a good idea in principle, it would take about another 3 weeks after that suggestion (as well as a personal meeting between my brother-in-law and my buyer's agent) to convince the buyer that this was the most logical (and legal) way to go. The buyer was fearful of being sued again, this time by my old realtor and old real estate agent for her lost commission on the botched sale. (NOTE: as of today, we still do not know if they will in fact sue or not). However, my brother-in-law was pretty convincing in that my old agent would not have a valid case (due to her massive amounts of incompetence), and we finally got a new Promise to Purchase. (At this point, ANY Promise to Purchase was a godsend). At the end of September, we all met at the property to sign all documents in person and to make sure that everything was legit.

One thing that reassured me was that you could see the look of regret and remorse in the buyer's eyes as I stared at him across the rented dining room staging table. By the end of the signing, he even apologized. While it looked like a pretty safe bet that the house would officially be sold at this point, what irked me was that I'd be incurring a financial loss over this whole mess -- at no fault of my own. With over $8,000 accrued in unnecessary staging costs, renovations, insurance, lost interest, extra Hydro fees, and of course, an extra mortgage, the buyer had offered only $2500 in compensation. With our hands tied, there was really no point in negotiating. I wanted the 100-ton monkey off my back, and I wanted it now.

By the end of September, the buyer officially got his financing. This time, the bank confirmed, reconfirmed, and reconfirmed the financing was in place, and it was just up the notary to request the funds. So we set up a signing date for October 6th, which just happened to be my son, Ethan's 2nd birthday. I took that as a sign of good things to come.

The morning of October 6th, my wife, my agent and I drove to the notary's office. We had a meeting at 10:00am. The obvious trepidation at this point would be whether or not the buyer would show up to the office to give us his signature and cheques. By 10:03am, and the buyer hadn't yet walked through the door. With a tremendous bout of anxiety setting it, I walked out of the office and took to the street. By 10:05am (the longest 2 minutes of my life), I spotted him out of the corner of my eye walking up the street towards my location -- and I quickly bolted back into the notary's office to make sure he hadn't seen me. A massive sigh of relief overcame me and I annouced to my wife and agent "he's coming."

By 11:00am, the deed was done. After several months of stress, anxiety, and harrowing ups-and-downs, my real estate nightmare finally came to an end.

As a final lesson in all this, I can only offer one piece of advice to someone who is buying or selling a home -- to surround yourself with people you trust implicity. Make sure that those working on your behalf know what they are doing, and that they've got nothing but your best interests at heart. And if you think the worst thing can happen, it probably will -- so prepare yourself for it.

PS: We are currently awaiting the results of an internal investigation at Scotia Bank for their negligence that was a catalyst to our situation. We decided that if we couldn't fully claim the damages from the buyer, we could do so from the bank. If the world works the way it should, we will get back all of the money we lost at no fault of our own. Keep your fingers crossed!

My Real Estate Nightmare (Part 5)

2008-09-12T09:40:00.002-05:00

With my brother-in-law now on a mission to destroy all evil-doings in real estate (ok, maybe just all the shenanigans that happened to us), things were finally starting to look positive. Over the course of a few days, we were able to determine very quickly just how negligent our previous agent was, and how with the right agent on your side, how smooth things should typically go when selling your home.

On August 4th, when it was clear that our buyers (who were being sued for damages at this point) were no closer to fulfilling their obligations, we decided to put our home back on the market. We had had the original Promise to Purchase officially declared dead, so my buyers were no longer responsible for the house, but they were responsible to pay any out of pocket expenses I'd have to incur by carrying 2 mortgages.

Lesson 7: Always read brokerage contracts in full. It is also the law that the agent must clearly "walk through" the contract at the time of signing so that you understand everything being written (even if a similar document had been previously drafted).

In order to relist the property online, my wife and I had to sign a new document listing the price and granting the rights to list. When my agent presented me with the paperwork to sign, there was no mention that the document was a new brokerage contract -- which would extend her contract to us until December! At this point, I thought I was only signing permission to list the property online, not to continue working with a negligent broker for 6 more months... It was an error on my part for not thoroughly reading what I was signing (working on her guise that "you've signed this before, it's the same thing"), however, by law, she needed to explain to my wife and I what exactly we were signing. There was no way I was going to be held hostage for another 6 months like that.

Upon the advice of my brother-in-law, we decided to release hell. We called the broker directly and demanded either a shortened (1-month), non-exclusive contract with our agent, or to cancel what we just signed immediately.

Lesson 8: When the agent is a bad seed, the broker is typically the bad apple.

The broker's response was to wait 2 weeks before making up our minds, and then we'd re-evaluate the whole thing. In real estate, you have 3 days from receiving a copy of a signed contract to cancel it without any legal penalty. So what was going on here? The broker was trying to goad us into a lawsuit. Had we cancelled our contract 2 weeks later, we would have been totally lible for any commission our former agent would have lost should we have sold our house under a new agent. We couldn't believe this was happening to us. Not only was our buyer screwing us, but now our own agent was trying give it to us too? This whole situation was completely insane.

Fortunately, my brother-in-law, well versed in the anals of real estate practice, advised us on how to officially cancel the new brokerage contract by submitting a registered letter to the broker himself, as well as one to the Quebec real estate commission.

What would prove to be another error in a list of errors that we're still tabulating, we also found out that the agent indeed had the house relisted, but had left the OLD listing online as well, indicating that the property sold for $298,000. Had anyone decided to make an offer at that point, they would have been fully aware that we settled on that specific price -- so how could we have ever sold the house for more?

With a negligent agent now officially off our backs, we were able to look forward and open a new chapter in the process of selling our home.

My Real Estate Nightmare (Part 4)

2008-09-03T10:03:00.002-05:00

With our home officially sold, and the cherished "Sold" sign now affixed to our realtor's signpost dug into our front lawn, we quickly signed away the condition that required us to sell our home prior to purchasing our much-sought-after new one. I've watched many episodes of the HGTV show "Buy Me" within 30 minutes, everything pretty much seems to go so smoothly. Everything works out. Both the buyers and the sellers (and the agent) are happy campers, the credits roll, and that's the end of the story.

Our story doesn't bode as well.

There was about a month and a half delay from the time all the paperwork was signed, to the time when we were supposed to meet at the notary to pass title to our buyers. This time was spent acquiring boxes, packing materials, and planning for the move.

Lesson 5 (about packing): Pack early. The more organized and clear cut you can be, the quicker the unpacking process will be (NOTE: We eventually settled into our new home within 1 1/2 days).

It was the end of June and there was a fair amount of time that had passed where we were in "radio silence mode." I hadn't heard anything from my agent, nor the notary, nor my buyers. I figured that this was pretty much normal. By the time June 28th had come around, and passed, things were still quiet. If you recall from my previous post, weren't my buyers supposed to have taken possession at this point?

Another week and a half passes by, and we are now into early July. By this time, it had occurred to me that something had gone wrong.

Lesson 6: Make sure your agent is proactive in adhering to deadlines.

When June 28th had passed, and we had not met at the notary, bells, alarms, and fireworks should have immediately gone off. Instead, my agent waited for almost 2 weeks before addressing the situation. At this point, my buyers were officially in breach of contract. It took a few more days to finally uncover the truth behind what was happening -- my buyer's own house hadn't sold, and were therefore unable to obtain their mortgage in order to purchase my home. We would later find out mid-August that my buyers were in fact mired in debt, further compunding the problem in obtaining financing.

So why hadn't my agent gotten to the bottom of this earlier? Why did it take several weeks before uncovering that my buyers were financially crippled? These were just a few of the enormous number of questions that we began to ask ourselves over the course of several weeks. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get any answers, and our own agent began to know less about the situation than I did.

Refusing to sit idly by, I began to make daily phone calls to my buyer's agent. This goes against protocol, however, I felt that my own agent wasn't able to get the information I needed. My buyer's agent, for some reason, also seemed more inclined to talk to me than my own agent -- for what reason I'll never know. Over the course of the weeks that followed, we began to hear confusing stories and melodrama, NONE of which ended up being true:

- My buyers home (a bungalow) is going to be sold in a matter of days. They're just waiting for the paperwork at the bank to finalize.
- The paperwork was final. We'll be getting our financing in a matter of days.
- The buyer's own a 4-plex and have actually sold it as well in order to provide a backup financing path.
- The buyer of the 4-plex is getting his mortgage approved in order to buy the property. It's just a matter of days.
- My buyer is working on paying off his debts. Once the debts are paid off, the bank will issue his mortgage to purchase my home.
- By August 15th, we will be meeting at the notary.
- By August 25th, we will be meeting at the notary.

As I write this, we still haven't met at the notary.

Of course, by now, my buyers had been sued for breach of contract, however, it was only suggested to me several weeks after the breach date that I proceed with a "lawyer's letter" in order to officially terminate the Promise to Purchase by providing a "rigorous date." Had my buyers not purchased my home by that date, we would be entitled to resell the home, and any costs associated with that would be borne by the buyer. This date was July 31st, ironically my wife's birthday. Unfortunately, it would turn out to be one of the worst birthday's for my wife.

On August 2nd, when it was clear that my buyers were in no position to buy my home, we decided to relist the property. By now, we had moved out and were in a delayed state of elation by being in our new home. It was difficult to celebrate with a 500-ton monkey sitting on your shoulders. We were mortified by the prospect of starting from scratch. It was as if the previous 5 months were a complete waste of time and energy.

By this time too, two auspicious events had transpired. One, my agent's broker's contract had expired, and two, my brother in law had just become and agent himself. This would turn out to be a fortuitous set of events that set the tone for the month of August.

My Real Estate Nightmare (Part 3)

2008-08-28T07:00:00.003-05:00

It took only 4 days after the disastrous turn of event on the purchase of my home to see another offer come our way. The selling of our home was truly turning out to be a real roller coaster ride of up and down emotions (which, as of this writing, has yet to end). In what was another "meant to be" moments I'm trying to infuse into this whole situation, we actually signed a new Promise to Purchase with a new buyer that was willing to pay more than our previous offer -- $2,000 more.

Well, that was exciting now, wasn't it?

Lesson 4: Never get excited until the money is in your bank account.

As before, we had to wait again until the home inspection was carried out on our home, however, this time around, we didn't have to wait the arduous 7-day period + 3-day reply to get the confirmation of a sale. By now, the exposed basement wall was completely covered by a fresh new layer of drywall and paint, so there was no longer any evidence of the latent defect that my home suffered with.

The 2nd inspection of our home was a little more thorough (although I've yet to actually see the report). In the end, only one major defect was uncovered: the roof. The shingles on the back half of my roof, which faces the sun most of the day, were beginning to curl. The inspector estimated only a few good years of life left, and would then have to be replaced. As such, the value of my home suddenly dropped. In an instant, I lost the $2,000 extra that I thought I had gained with these new buyers.

We then received word that the buyers wanted to take possession of our home 1 month earlier, and effectively "rent" our house back to us until we moved into our new home at the end of July. So we signed an amendment that on June 28th, our home was no longer ours, and I would be living "mortgage free" for one month.

Ok, so we were back to the $298,000 sale price that we thought we had a few weeks prior. Still not so bad, and we stood to make a $20,000 profit after taxes and commission. At least the house was sold.

Or so we thought...

My Real Estate Nightmare (Part 2)

2008-08-26T06:52:00.003-05:00

After 40 days of our house being on the market, we had an accepted Promise to Purchase on the table. The buyer's had purchased our house for only $11,000 less than our original asking price. We were of course, elated and relieved. Then, anxiously waiting 7 days later (the maximum time permitted) it was time for the inspection.

One thing I should mention is that my house had unfortunately suffered from a latent defect that was revealed to me about a year ago. The original builders of the house had built a window in the wrong location in the basement, but didn't seal up the window properly when discovering their mistake. Thus, the concrete of the foundation and the now filled-up window didn't bond together properly. Over time, water would begin to infiltrate the seam of the window and leaked into the basement. I discovered this when the carpet began to get moist about 3 years after I took possession of the house. Needless to say, I had this repaired (and didn't bother suing), paid for by my insurance company.

Lesson number 1: Have your agent insist that the buyer's entire family NOT partake in the inspection process.

When the inspector showed up along with my buyers, other family member's showed up too -- most annoyingly, an over-protective, over-reactive mother. Before even stepping into the door, the mother began shouting things (within earshot of me) like, "what's with this bush? It's overgrown!" "I don't like that!" "What's with the colour of the paint?" These were obviously silly things, but annoying to hear -- particularly since her daughter had fallen in love enough with the place to want to buy it, and here she was ripping it apart.

So after the quickest inspection I'd ever heard of (about 45 minutes), the entire clan came downstairs and began to rip me apart. Well, to be more accurate, the shmuck of an inspector began to grill me in front of his clients about the fact that there was no GFI outlet in the bathroom. There was a concern about the basement, of course, but at that point, there were no tell-tale signs of any water-penetration. The bare wall in the basement was still exposed where the water was entering the house, but with the foundation having been properly repaired, injected with polyurethane, and no more water actually coming in, the wall looked like crap, but was fixed. A home inspection is a VISUAL inspection only, so the inspector could not comment on what had happened previously, but did nonetheless. I tried to defend myself by stating exactly what the insurance company had told me -- there was no significant damage to the basement, and nothing that should be cause of concern. There was also a healthy 10-year guarantee should the problem resurface.

Feeling attacked by an inspector and prospective buyers is not fun. I felt humiliated as well. And where was my agent in this whole debacle? Standing off to the side without saying so much of a word. Now I don't know if it was her job to step in an defend me, but it was obvious that the sale was now in jeopardy as was her beloved commission.

After waiting another anxious 3 days (the maximum time permitted), my agent received a text message saying that the buyer's have walked away.

Lesson number 2: Choose an agent who's sympathetic to her clients.

My agent relayed the tragic news to us in such a non-chalant manner, almost with a humourous tone in her voice, and even worse, around 9:00pm in the evening, that the phone call was almost worse than the news itself. Needless to say, we didn't sleep well that night. And the casual way in which she broke the bad news was even more disturbing.

The next day, the anger set in. I demanded to see the inspection report. What probable cause did the buyer's use to get out of their Promise to Purchase? By the end of the day, my buyer's agent's wife dropped off the inspection report. She was quite sympathetic to our situation, and sadly, much more so than my own agent.

The report was a complete joke. I was 2 1/2 pages long. It was filled with silly (albeit practical, I admit) recommendations, like "don't forget to lower your thermostats at night to save energy". However, this isn't the stuff that inspection reports are made of. Even I know this. And 2 1/2 pages?!? Not a single picture? Needless to say there was no valid reason for the buyer's to have broken their contract.

Lesson number 3: Go with your OWN instincts when selling real estate, not your agent's.

I wanted to sue, and I'm convinced that I would have won (I was later able to confirm this when speaking with the ACAIQ). This whole mess would have been over back in March. However, my agent persuaded me not to go down that road. Even scolded me a bit for even thinking along those lines. "If they don't want the house, there's no sense in trying to force them into it," I was told. So without so much as hearing the real reason for the buyer's to renege, they were forgotten. Apparently, these buyers were sadistic people who'd previously made 3 other offers on other properties, and ultimately backed away. We found out that day too that their agent had fired them. I guess we weren't the only ones who thought these people were insane.

What was even more comical was that there was no mention of the basement issues in the report. So it seems as though the buyer's listen to the mother as opposed to the inspector.

So we were back to square one, and were on the hunt for a new buyer, hopefully for one final time. This house HAS to sell. The next buyer WILL buy this house.

Or so we thought...

My Real Estate Nightmare (Part 1)

2008-08-23T12:52:00.002-05:00

So I've been pretty distracted for the past couple of months. For those of you who tune into my blog now and again, you may have noticed that I've been on hiatus. The real issue is that my family and I have been living in hell.

It all started back in February when on a whim, my wife and I decided to start cruising around Dollard-des-Ormeaux to look for what might potentially be our new house. We had decided that our previous home in the Bois Franc area, was getting to be a little tight, especially with my son Ethan being so vivacious. We were also fully aware that this was going to be a starter home for us, and had planned to stay in it for only 3-4 years. So that time had arrived.

It turns out that after only visiting 3 or 4 houses, we landed upon a true gem. The house ended up being exactly what we were looking for. Central air, double-garage, beautiful backyard, the works. And immaculate. The owners had also invested roughly $30-$40,000 in new windows, double insulation, and what not, in order to improve the house's energy rating. Long story short, we made an offer on the place about 3 days later, and after a bit of haggling, settled on a reasonable price.

Being the cautious guy that I am, we instated a clause specifying that we needed to sell our house first prior to finalizing the Promise to Purchase. We had 30 days to do so. And the race was on.

The first week we listed our property saw roughly 30 people dissect our home. The first open house we had saw roughly 75 more. The house had TONS of traffic, but no offers. 30 days was just around the corner and we were stressed. We were terrified at the prospect of losing our new home. "There'll be others" we were being told, but not to us. We wanted our house, and we just kept visualizing ourselves in there.

Then the 30 days passed. In the only good piece of news in this whole ordeal, the sellers had agreed to give us an extension, particularly since they hadn't yet found their new home. So this extension was granted for another 30 days.

It turns out that 10 days after we were granted the extension, we received our first offer! We were ecstatic, and mostly relieved, in that we were beginning to believe that our house just wouldn't sell. So the bargaining began, and we finally settled on a reasonable price. At that point, we were more relieved to have sold our old home, and that we were ready to receive our new one.

Or so we thought...

Red Dream Studios is Moving!

2008-07-24T11:17:00.002-05:00

Turning your Vision into Reality

2008-06-30T12:59:00.002-05:00

I recently attended the last session of the inaugural West Island Leadership Development program, an initiative of the West Island Federation CJA that aims to foster future community leaders by training us about fundraising, entrepreneuring, and community activism. Guested by Dr. Ken Robertson, Director General of Champlain Regional College, the focus of the session concerned establishing a vision, and learning how to set goals, prioritize, and meet objectives.

I found this session particularly interesting because the issues covered not only applied to your career path (i.e. where do you see yourself in your job, or how do you envision your company's growth 5 years from now), but also to your everyday life.

There are 2 fundamental conclusions that Dr. Robertson conveyed, which I found particularly poignant:

Achieving future success is dependent on 2 things: the successful relationship building with others, such as your colleagues and friends; never forgetting to look back to see how you arrived to your current situation in the first place.

Personally, I'm completely turned off by arrogance. I distate people who are so arrogant, they feel it necessary to belittle you in order to maintain their level of arrogance. This applies to people who do not feel it necessary to even speak to you if they feel you have nothing to contribute to their lives in any way. This also applied to people who have success dumped into their laps by either being born into a successful family, or marrying into one. People like that often develop a hoity-toity attitude which just completely sours my grapes. Thus, the true measure of success, in my opinion, is summarized by the first point.
The "finite" vs. the "infinite"

Invariably, when trying to build yourself up, someone along the way will try to keep you down, either literally, or by verbal criticism. It's therefore important to never allow the finite to influence the possibilities of what you can do.

For example, a violin has 4 strings and is 12" long. This is finite. However, for several hundreds of years, composers have been using the violin to create an infinite number of combinations of music, and are still doing so today.

Just think what you can do when your vision isn't hampered by the bounds of reality...

Creating a Personal Brand

2008-06-23T19:42:00.001-05:00

One question I'm often asked by entrepreneurs is how to create a "personal brand" to better market oneself to others.

What you're basically asking is how to "productize" yourself. Meaning, if I went to a supermarket, and found a picture of you on a bottle, would I buy it? And furthermore, would I drink from the bottle?

Find out what makes you, you. What makes you unique. Mitch Joel, a marketing guru I've had the pleasure of listening speak, would dare you to find your "it" factor. What makes you stand out in a crowded room of billions of people asking the same question, all trying to make a buck.

Why is that only a handful of people in the world have procured the most wealth the world has to offer? It's because they've found out what it takes to unlock that something magical and get people to believe in what they're all about.

Being Unique as a Graphic Designer

2008-06-20T08:41:00.002-05:00

I was recently asked the question about being a graphic designer, "Other than serving a niche market, how do you differentiate yourself from other designers or small design shops?"

Graphic design is a saturated field. But the bigger problem lies in getting recognized and hired in a flooded field of talent.

I find that graphic design is very much like acting -- you're only as good as your last performance. However, in addition to raw talent in what you do, what will set you apart from other designers is customer service.

Graphic design unfortunately suffers from a bit of a "bottom-feeder" syndrome in that everyone believes they can be a designer, but few actually can. With that said, the dollar figure attributed to graphic design tends to be quite low.

So to distinguish yourself from the pack, you must cater to your clients uniquely from the rest. Be good to your clients, treat them with the utmost respect, and they will respect you.

With respect comes repeat business.

Free Ways for Entrepreneurs to Network

2008-06-18T19:48:00.005-05:00

In browsing through the internet today, I stumbled across a great resource for discovering groups of people with common interest who meet, yes, in the real world. While social networking is becoming more and more popular, meeting with someone face-to-face still ranks extremely high, if not appearing on the highest rung on the successful business ladder.

I've complied a short list of best resources for entrepreneurs to network (in no particular order):

MEETUP.COM: Meetup Groups meet face-to-face to pursue hobbies, network, get support, make friends, find playgroups or even change the world. What's interesting here is that while you can still meet and chat in a virtual world, the true power here lies with the ability to meet with the people you connect with in a real-world setting. So chances are while you've plugged your services online, you're way ahead of the game when meeting with potential clients at a later date. There's already that sense of familiarity... And yes, very often these group meetings are free.
LINKEDIN.COM: LinkedIn has been around for several years and has begun porting several features from the more common social community websites. The advantage of LinkedIn is that it's geared to drive more "professional" connections as opposed to social or friendship liaisons. LinkedIn also has a Q&A feature which lets you position yourself as an "expert" in your field depending on the number of questions you answer from the public and of course the quality of your answer. The trick is to always leave a link to your website as part of your signature. The disadvantage of LinkedIn is its lack of a portfolio feature, so if you're in a creative field, it difficult to directly expose your work.
FACEBOOK.COM: The most popular kid in school, Facebook provides a means of uploading and displaying our portfolio within a dedicated company group to which many of our contacts have willingly joined. As a result of our continued perserverance and belief in social marketing (and quite frankly, one of the best "free" forms of networking available to us), we've managed to connect with people that helped us secure projects with clients we would not have normally had the opportunity to work for -- case in point, SoftImage and Bell Canada.
BLOGGING: Red Dream Studios has a company blog, yes. It's used to expose what's going on at our company and showcase new designs as they are released, but to also educate about design and web practices, and how to use social media marketing to expose your company digitally throughout cyberspace. I think the real power of blogging isn't in the blog per se, but connecting it through various portals that index and scour blogs for relevant content such as Digg, Technorati, and StumbleUpon. By building communities who are "fans" of what you blog about, you inherently increase your relevance in the online world, and therefore that of your company's offerings.
BEHANCE.NET: Behance is portfolio/networking site for creatives. While there are others out there, this is one of the more ingenious ones. Not only can you expose your creative portfolio here, but it's also a warehouse of tips, tricks, links, and lets you collaborate on projects with other creative gurus around the world.
YOUR OWN WEBSITE: I hesitated about putting this one in because you typically have to pay a little for the server space to run a website, but it's of course a primary way to get your business known to the public. In short, if you're not on the web in this respect, there's very little hope that your business will succeed.
CLASSIFIED ADS: I find this a last resort to soliciting business because it's a little altruistic in my opinion. The most obvious choice here is to post a free ad on Craigslist in trying to promote your service offering even though it's a more ommon practice to ask for something on Craigslist.

While this is by no means an exhaustive list, it's a few good ones to get you started. If you have any success stories you'd like to share, please feel free to comment.

Visit my Meetup Profile here.
Visit my LinkedIn Profile here.
Visit my Facebook Group here.
Visit my Behance.net Profile here.

Flaming Hot Rod Text for Rez Rides

2008-05-20T15:55:00.009-05:00

Ever since my fascination with Star Trek as a wee lad, I've wanted to be on TV. I was just discussing this with my lifelong friend turned Hollywood director, Michael Greenspan. When we were in elementary school, we did a lot of role-playing together and we're convinced it set things in motion for him to end up in film school and me doing my shtick in video production and editing.

While I knew my path would never lead me to appear physically on TV as an actor, I had the pleasure of witnessing a logo I designed appear as part of the title sequence for the second season of Rez Rides, a Quebec production that airs weekly on the APTN network. It was quite a thrill!

For the second season, the original logo (also designed at Red Dream Studios) was revamped to give it a classic hot rod treatment -- flaming tracer stipes painted over a hard, red glossy body. In fact, two versions of the logo were created -- the first was a pitted, mottled and rusted steel gray version, complete with spot welds, which after a digital painting, sanding, and buffing, transitions into the final version of the logo, the premise being, "bring your rusted crappy car into Mad Mohawk's autobody shop and walk away with a killer set of wheels." The transition effects were created by our partner, Rev13 Films.

The first pass of the logo showing Rez Rides in a "before" condition.

Creating the logo was actually straightforward. The basis of the logo is the word "Rez Rides" written in the font "NiseHotRod" upon which various textures of flame decals were applied and masked around the letters. The flames themselves are also font-based, letting us easily scale up our design to conform to an HD resolution, the format in which the show is produced. The rest of the look is achieved simply by using Photoshop's own built-in style effects, although to get the proper highlighting and texturing, mutiple copies of the logo layers were assembled and composited using different transfer modes to get the final result.

The second pass of the logo showing Rez Rides in an "after" condition.

Getting Noticed in a Crowded Room

2008-05-19T12:14:00.003-05:00

Red Dream Studios recently completed the design for a full-page advertisement spread that will appear in the upcoming edition of the popular bridal magazine, "Let's Get Married," which features a plethora of ads and editorials covering all the components of a wedding. With this catalog getting bigger and bigger every year, designing an eye-catching ad that distinguishes you instantly from the rest of the competition is the greatest challenge.

Our loyal client, Arrt, the company name for the make-up duo comprised of Anna Montesi and Rina Patel, retured to Red Dream Studios to create the most compelling story of their service offering with the least amount of rhetoric possible. We chose to push a minimalistic approach with very little verbiage, focusing more on the allure of the photo, the vibrant company logo, and of course, the make-up.

The end result, a fresh advertorial that distinguishes itself from among its competitors who typically rely on straight-forward boxiness and designs that are anything but en vouge.

The Spa Treatment for SpaCushion

2008-05-15T09:53:00.002-05:00

It's been a hectic month at Red Dream Studios, but we're finally back on the Blog scene. One of the more recent website deployments we've completed was for Kami Gallaher at SpaCushion. The award winning innovative SpaCushion is the most stylish and comfortable cushion available on the market.

What's also remarkable for us is that this makes the 4th client we've catered to from the New York area who belongs to a group of female entrepreneurs known as Ladies Who Launch. We're extremely proud of the fact that we cater mainly to entrepreneurs, and in fact, at least 3/4 of our clientele is composed of women entrepreneurs. I believe Ladies Who Launch has a good few thousand members across the US and Canada, so lots of potential business to come our way :)

Kid Tested. Mother approved: GymMini gets a makeover.

2008-04-02T11:23:00.004-05:00

With apologies to Kix cereal, it's sort of the way we feel today with the launching of the new website for GymMini, a playground/gymnasium/party depot establishment in the Bois Franc area of Montreal. GymMini was established in 2007 by a Cindi and Daniel Becker, who decided that all the other gyms in the area just didn't make the grade.

Building and designing a 2-floor toddler housing is a daunting task, to say the least, which is then compounded by trying to staff it and populate the day with fun and engaging activities, such as music, dance, and creative arts programs. So far, the gym has been a resounding success, but GymMini's online presence was unfortunately put on the backburner.

Red Dream Studios was brought in to finally give GymMini a website that matched the playful, vivid decorations and mural paintings of the building's interior. Not only did the site have to look good, but of course, it had to be functional as well. In an effort to reduce incoming phone calls, several online forms were added which would enable parents to register their children in various classes, to discover specials and promotions, to learn about party offerings, and even have an opportunity to submit photos of their children having fun at GymMini.

Branding Ink Blot Design

2008-03-28T11:36:00.003-05:00

I've blogged before about customer loyalty and how one of the most important factors in a prosperous business is to maintain excellent service and safeguarding your integrity among existing clients. No truer is the case with one of our clients, Arrt.ca, a pair of extraordinary make-up artists who typically apply blush to blushing brides and bridesmaids.

One of the founders of Arrt.ca, Anna Montesi, decided to launch another venture, pursuing a longtime passion of hers -- creating and design custom event and party invitations. Anna returned to Red Dream Studios to help her develop a corporate identity for her new company, Ink Blot Design (and yes, we will be producing the website as well). With the company name alluding to all sort of inherent designs, Red Dream Studios produced the following corporate identity and developed a series of business cards in a mere couple of days. Talk about drive-thru entrepreneuring...

With this logo, we obviously played upon the ink blot connection and modified a typeface that we found on the font website DaFont, called The Great Thunder. The background splatter is a composite of several paint splatter brushes that we obtained courtesy the Photoshop resource website Brusheezy.

Marketing your Business on Zero Dollars per Day

2008-03-23T11:22:00.004-05:00

This week, Red Dream Studios was in the fortunate position to be featured in 2 blogs talking about the benefits of using online social media networks to promote your company and its services. Because we spend little to no money on mainstream, traditional advertising programs, free services such as Facebook and LinkedIn have become popular means for us to promote ourselves.

The way in which we utilize these services were promoted and spoken about by Doug Williams, a Blogger, Business Consultant and President of the Web Marketing Company Doug Williams and Associates. Doug is also the author of Biz Blog Marketing, and is currently writing a follow up book in which Red Dream Studios will be featured as a case study of marketing on zero dollars.

Andrea J. Stenberg has over fifteen years of experience as a journalist and marketing professional and this week published a blog about how Baby Boomers use Facebook for marketing their small business. Although I'm in theory part of Generation X and not a Baby Boomer, Andrea wrote about how we have had success using Facebook to reach clients they wouldn’t have normally been successful at approaching using traditional means, such as SoftImage and Bell Canada.

We're very humbled by this recent attention but of course, we're always available to chat by the digital fireplace.

Virtual Networking, Working Virtually

2008-03-21T15:21:00.003-05:00

Happy Easter, everyone. Since it's technically a holiday, we shouldn't be working, right? But that's the beauty of virtual networking. It works for you even when you're not.

Today I received an email from a potential client in New York who stumbled into an existing client, Christi Smith from PFF Entertainment, makers of the board games Pervartistry and Sexy Slang, at a networking function. This potential client mentioned to Christi that she was looking to produce a website and was soliciting referrals. Christi graciously recommended Red Dream Studios, afterwhich, the client emailed us for a quote immediately.

I find this fascinating:

Most small companies would not be in a position to take a day trip across the contient just to meet with a potential client who has a modest budget to dedicate to their website.

Most small companies would not be in a position to attend a well-todo networking function unless they were directly invited, particularly if their industry of work is already represented within the networking group.

Because of our previous relationship, and ultimately, Christi's customer satisfaction, she acted as a virtual salesperson (or champion) on the behalf of Red Dream Studios.

Christi "sold" our services at absolutely no cost to Red Dream Studios.

Christi was able to meet dozens of people, and in an unsolicited manner, act as spokesperson for Red Dream Studios, in a situation where we would never have been able to directly interact with all these potential clients.

So all this to say is that virtual networking works for you virtually all the time, when you least expect it to do so. And this proves that customer satisfaction is among the highest priorities in the entrepreneurial handbook.

Gabbing 'bout Social Media Marketing

2008-03-18T08:25:00.004-05:00

Yesterday morning, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Ernesta Rossi, partner with Advantis Communications Inc., a marketing and PR company based in Markham, Ontario. We connected because I had answered a question of hers on the social networking site, LinkedIn, of which I've been a member for several years now -- and have only recently discovered a hidden networking power behind it, the Answers feature.

LinkedIn has typically been a resource for executives and business people to connect and network. For example, I recently have been connecting to former colleagues in order to keep them updated on my goings-on, particularly the fact that I'm now running my company, Red Dream Studios as a full-time venture.

Ernesta, and her company, are conducting a presentation this week on whether or not companies were using social media marketing tools to advance their businesses. She spotted the answer to a question that was posed to over 1 million LinkedIn professionals, to which I answered the following:

"As a small company, with a limited/non-existant budget for traditional, mainstream advertising, my company, Red Dream Studios, is using social media marketing as one of its primary ways of presenting its services, portfolio, messaging, and securing new clients. We've been relying principaly on LinkedIn and Facebook (and of course our own blog).

While LinkedIn provides us with exposure to the executives, Facebook provides a means of uploading and displaying our portfolio within a dedicated company group to which many of our contacts have willingly joined. As a result of our continued perserverance and belief in social marketing (and quite frankly, one of the best "free" forms of networking available to us), we've managed to connect with people that helped us secure projects with clients we would not have normally had the opportunity to work for -- case in point, SoftImage and Bell Canada.

Moreover, we've encouraged many of our clients (who are they themselves entrepreneurs) to use social marketing for their businesses. Since many of the media they expose on these sites has been created by us, we've been able to begin a sort of viral networking, exposing our works to way beyond traffic that visits our portfolio website, or to our clients directly. So in effect, our clients become virtual sales champions for our company and has resulted in propogated business."

Ernesta decided to contact me directly and we had a wonderful chat. During her presentation, she will be repeating much of what I've told her and will of course be referencing Red Dream Studios by name (another example of virtual networking). And what's even more exciting is that while we were talking, she happened to be perusing the Red Dream Studios website and based on our services, considered using us as one of her suppliers.

A very odd coincidence, but once again, a prime example of how social media marketing can result in connections with new clients and projects without direct solicitation or mainstream advertising.

Promoting your Business with Google Maps

2008-03-13T12:19:00.004-05:00

Google has a great (free!) feature that I just recently learned about and have exploited to gain rank within Google searching. Within the Google Local Business Center, you can enter the name, coordinates, hours of operation, and other interesting tidbits about your business to help customers find you on Google Maps.

Here's how it works:

Use the Local Business Center to create your free listing. When potential customers search Maps for local information, they'll find your business: your address, hours of operation, even coupons to print out and bring to your shop.

When all the information is filled out, you will get a confirmation postcard from Google in the mail (how cool is that?!?) with a PIN number to confirm that you are who you say you are. Finally, searching for your company on Google Maps will present a wonderful listing about you and your company. There's an an option to post reviews of your work, which will hopefully help to solicity even more clients to your door.

For more information, visit Red Dream Studios.

Executive Class for Place Versailles Apartments

2008-03-10T10:40:00.006-05:00

Red Dream Studios recently completed one of its nicest site deployments to date (or at least we think so) for Appartement Place Versailles, a large apartment complex in the heart of Montreal, right next to the best shopping center in all of Quebec (Place Versailles).

For this website, we used an executive approach for the design to accentuate the prestige of the building and the units available for rent inside, with a burgandy red, beigy gold, and light gray colour palette. To give the website an unfettered look, the content is relatively sparse, to the point, and clean overall - after all, the main point is to showcase the photos of the building and to drive visitors to apply for a lease online.

The site features bright photos and enlargeable floor plans of all the unit types available for rent.

Having had ownership of the building for over 30 years, we convinced the proprietor that it was certainly about time to showcase the property online in order to start branding it as a successful business.

For more information, visit Red Dream Studios.

Rolling out the White Carpet for michaelgreenspanfilms.com

2008-03-07T11:06:00.004-05:00

Daring to be bold and different, Red Dream Studios opted for a complete whitewash of the website for award-winning Hollywood director, Michael J. Greenspan. The website, a great departure from most websites that are cluttered, full of information (that may or may not be read), is purely simple and to the point -- to drive the viewer to see Michael's films.

Michael expressed his desire to be different from other showreel websites out there, because let's face it, if you conform, you're hardly going to get noticed. We therefore went with the KiSS method (Keep it Simple Stupid) in order to deliver the goods without clouding the message. Michaels films are also displayed using Adobe Flash's .FLV technology, providing, in my opinion, one of the best balances of file size vs. image quality. After all, some of Michael's short films are available for viewing in their entirety from the website.

For more information, visit Red Dream Studios.

Red Dream Studios featured on LogoDesignLove.com

2008-03-06T09:09:00.002-05:00

Red Dream Studios received some surprising news today as its blog banner was featured and short-listed in the award category for "Best Design and Photography Blog Logo Designs." I'm not exactly sure what the overall prize is, but it's sure flattering to be nomiated with 19 other designs from among hundreds of original entries.

Sensational Branding

2008-03-04T10:36:00.002-05:00

Another company got its image courtesy of us at Red Dream Studios today, with Sensational Bites benefiting from sensational branding. Shant Kancachian is the proprietor of a gourmet baked goods emporium who wanted to convey freshness and pure goodness in his image rather than blatant baked goods icons such as cookies, brownies, and so forth.

With a sleek and clean interpretation (and with a great colour to boot), the cherry was chosen as the icon of choice which spoke most to Shant's inner self. We chose a handwritten font as the main script for the company name to highlight its whimsical nature, alluding to the fact that Shant's work appeals to your every "sense." The tagline was then written in a bolder, more classical script with a bright orange colour such that it pops from the rest of the logo.

The business card design is shown below:

For more information, visit Red Dream Studios.

Web designers learn to stand their ground

2008-02-25T16:12:00.002-05:00

The following story from the Financial Post caught the attention of one of my colleagues at Avigdor Technologies. It's been reposted here since the content hits very close to home for Red Dream Studios, a company that typically gives back, or provides work to start-ups at costs much lower than your average multimedia development company...

Hang a shingle and open a business and what do you get? Clients, hopefully, but no matter how few or how many there are at the beginning, there will inevitably be some who will be problematic for a young business startup. Trent Haus and Jason Orban learned that lesson first hand.

Eager to please clients who retained their service when they opened their multimedia design company, they found themselves putting in many hours for free. "You don't want to disappoint your new clients, but you get to a point where you're getting mad because they're asking for more and more and they don't want to pay," says Mr. Orban, who, with Mr. Haus launched OH! Media three years ago. "We had to learn to be able to say, 'No, we can't do that.' "

Mr. Haus agrees: "It really hurts the bottom line. You don't even realize that until you step back and talk to someone else about it."

While opening a business is a challenge in itself, Mr. Orban and Mr. Haus had already been through the metaphorical ringer: As Web designers for a Saskatchewan film company, they had witnessed five rounds of layoffs before they were let go.

Through their work at the film company, they won a national award last year for their Web site design commissioned by Verite Films for the popular teen show, Renegadepress.com. Verite Films also produces the popular sitcom Corner Gas. It has transferred its business to OH! Media, and is the duo's flagship client.

Still, when Messrs. Haus and Orban started out on their own, they needed to diversify and build their client base.

After being laid off, Mr. Haus enlisted in a course through Canada's Employment Insurance program that offers training to start a business. There he learned about CYBF. OH! Media applied, was quickly accepted and was assigned a local accountant, Sandra Jackson, as mentor.
In their first year of business, Mr. Haus says they gleaned advice from Ms. Jackson as they became encumbered by a few really difficult clients.

"They were larger clients and they wanted things yesterday and were asking for things and we would keep on giving and giving," he says. "In the first year we were eager to please everybody. We thought that if we made one client angry, they would tell everybody."

Ms. Jackson helped the designers stand their ground. "She told us just from her own experience how to deal with clients who aren't paying."

Early on in her own business, she had to learn how to draw the line. "Realizing you can't be everything to everyone all the time is perhaps a difficult thing to accept," she says. "However, to succeed at your business and be able to provide excellence to your customers, you have to be able to accept that you may not always be the right person for the client, even if you know you can do the job.

"It's not a failure to decline a client. I look at it as a success because you know more about yourself and don't waste the client's time or yours by trying to be something to them that you cannot. It is also easier to be more particular about whom you accept as a client as you get busier and know that there is work out there and you will be able to attract it and keep it," Ms. Jackson admits.

The advice she gave OH! Media came from her own "school of hard knocks."

She advised Messrs. Haus and Orban on how to teach clients to understand the value of the services, which in most cases, they "really do come to appreciate.

"Others can be fired," she says, "Once that is done, it's amazing the relief you feel. It makes you stronger and more confident in yourself ... to say no if that is what is required."

Daryl-Lynn Carlson, Financial Post Published: Monday, February 11, 2008

Toys and the Internet

2008-02-20T11:23:00.004-05:00

As the annual American International Toy Fair in New York comes to a close, one of the largest internationl toy fairs, I'm sure concerns over product safety will have loomed large considering how 2007 was the year of high-profile recalls of China-made products that hurt U.S. toy sales.

As an estimated 15,000 buyers from 7,000 retailers will have converged at the Jacob Javits Center this week, and you'd think with a weakened American economy, more and more people are moving to games and toys in order to brighten spirits.

Toy makers also are confronting the impact on costs of the rising price of labour and commodities, the appreciation of the Chinese currency.

So one thing that springs to mind is how does a toy maker captilize on profits, good press, and create a buzz factor?

It's now more commonplace that toys have their own website tie-ins, if not about the manufacturer, but the specific toy itself. An example is with one of our clients, PFF Entertainment, who will be exhibiting their brand new board game, Sexy Slang, at the fair. PFF Entertainment is the innovator of the board game Pervartistry, which in short, is "Win, Lose, or Draw" for adults -- however the game is so much fun that hardly anyone ever loses. Sexy Slang is a spin-off of Pervartistry in that all terms are guessed through charades rather than through someone's attempt at raunchy stick figures.

Both these board games have their own dedicated websites (which Red Dream Studios has contributed to) that promote the game, let you order the game online, but also tout a line of clothing that contains some of the terms within the games. PFF has done a wonderful job at creating a buzz surrounding the game though online portals. And yes, there are YouTube clips of people talking about the game, playing the game, and having fun, and there's a MySpace page as well.

The interesting thing here is that PFF Entertainment, as a company, does not have a website. Rather, they've decided to dedicate their websites to the games themselves. It's the game that sells, after all, not the company.

All this to say that the internet is now a more powerful tool than ever in a marketing department's arsenal. If you're not using it effectively, it's game over.

For more information, visit Red Dream Studios.

Branding Sara Kurtz Photography

2008-02-15T18:47:00.005-05:00

Sara Kurtz is an up-and-coming event photographer who met with me because she loved the work Red Dream Studios did on another event photography, Dominic Fuizzotto. Not only did she want a complete redressing of her portfolio website, but after some talk, it was agreed that a new corporate branding would bring a measure of prestige, professionalism, and freshness to her image.

In talking with Sara, we determined that while it was important to convey that her company provided photographic services, we didn't want to overkill the point with a photograhic icon. We therefore made the logo "her own" by incorporating a dragonfly -- an insect that for her represented grace, beauty, and wonder. I naturally agreed to this because for me, injecting personal flavours into a brand is what makes the company adhere to the imagery the most.

In order to get the classical, professional look, we used a very scripted font, and in the end, placed the dragonfly along the path of one of the letter's loops to give the illusion that the dragonfly had traced the path of the lettering. In this manner, we were able to tie together the script with the icon -- one of the hallmarks of good logo design.

Sara's new logo is shown below:

For more information, visit Red Dream Studios.

About Branding: "Be you because others are already taken"

2008-02-14T12:30:00.004-05:00

Although he doesn't quite realize it, Mitch Joel, President of TwistImage, a digital marketing agency (and somewhat of a minor competitor to Red Dream Studios, although not really, but I digress) has been somewhat of a mentor to me. Mitch left the corporate 9-to-5 world several years ago to become a digital marketing guru, reknowned blogger and podcaster, and sought-after speaker who has shared the stage with former President Bill Clinton, Dr. Phil, and Anthony Robbins.

Several years ago, I sat in a very small room at YES Montreal to listen to one of his presentations about personal branding. His insights were compelling to say the least. It transformed me, and essentially helped propel my own desire to leave the workforce and become my own company brand. I too was then eager to start spreading the gospel of personal and corporate branding and have had the pleasure of being a guest speaker about the "art of entrepreneuring" last Fall at the very same YES Montreal.

So on this Valentine's Day, I will pay hommage to one Mitch Joel, by pilfering a transcript of an interview he conducted with the amazing Susan Bratton. Susan is the co-founder and CEO of Personal Life Media, Inc. a podcast publishing company producing 15 weekly audio shows and companion blogs on personal growth, relationships, longevity and spirituality for people on the leading edge of culture. I recently have had the honour of linking together with her on LinkedIn.

Here are some excerpts of Mitch's wisdom:

Susan Bratton: So I want to go back to personal branding. That’s a subject about which you speak. I would really love your advice for our listens who, in today’s world, “Who in business doesn’t need to have their own personal brand?” With things like the vanity experience of things like our Facebook pages or our blogs or our Pod Casts or whatever we might be doing. Tell us how to marry personal branding in today’s world with some of the technology applications.

Mitch Joel: I think a lot of the things to just clarify; a lot of people think I need a personal brand or need to develop a personal brand but that’s actually not really the case scenarios where the toothpaste is already out of the tube. It’s got a personal brand, it already is. What I tell people is, “If you’re not working on your personal brand, other people are for you.” And that’s really what it’s about. It’s about understanding who you are.

I know what happens. When I say personal branding I know people are going to thinks, “Oh he’s going to give me a bunch of tips and tricks to connect and it’s totally the opposite. And I think that’s why my personal branding message seems to be resonating with bigger and bigger groups.” Because what I’m trying to say to people is, “Find out who you truly are and what you’re really about; your values, your goals, beliefs.” That’s actually part one of what I talk about.

I have three conversations when I tell people what personal branding is about. The first one is your internal conversation. What are your values, goals, and beliefs? What do you stand for? Two is your one to one conversation. How do you connect that to people? And this is where it gets tricky because people think about networking and their elevator pitch. Those things are really important but they’re not good if they are not based off of your internal conversation or based off of authenticity. What I tell people is, if you’re really introverted and shy that’s fine. You’re goal is to actually connect with people who are like you. You’re goal isn’t to try and get you out of there because it doesn’t really work long-term. It’s not a good long-term strategy.

The third conversation, which is the one you are actually asking me about; is what I call the one to many conversation. Traditionally, marketers were the only people that could have a one too many conversations by advertising campaigns or they would do PR. So they would be able to connect their message onto millions upon millions of people. Now through the web and all these individual channels, people like you and I can express our personal brand or get our message out there to millions of people for practically nothing. It is things like blogging, and Pod Casting or social networking. You are absolutely right. They are amazing tools to connect.

But what you need to actually figure out is, “Where are the right communities of people I am trying to connect with?” Is it Facebook? Is it Linked In? Is it both? Is it one or the other? Or it’s a My Space page or maybe it’s not online social networking. It’s having your own domain and creating a blog on it on the kind of thing you are interested in creating. And that is really what it’s about. It’s about understanding that these three conversations are about marketing yourself. People say things like, “I’m not here to sell myself.” But we all are. All of us want to be better family people, better in our community, better at work so we can make more money and connect more. All these things are all about your personal brand and how it’s perceived out there in the quote unquote marketplace that I like to call the world.

I leverage these channels because they exist. They are very very powerful. Never before could I have met people who are interested in hard rock music, public speaking and digital marketing. But now I am connected to 1000s of people who like the exact same stuff that I do and we are intrinsically connected. It’s an amazing experience.

I would say, “Shame on the person who thinks they are too old for the internet or they don’t get it.” It’s so simple and it’s so easy to use that there really isn’t a barrier to entry at this point.

Susan Bratton: One of the things you have done a really good job with, a continuity around who you are with your “Six Pixels” moniker, and creating your Facebook groups. Let’s talk about Facebook groups and let’s talk about how you’ve built audiences for various things; blogs, Pod Casts, Facebook, etc.

Mitch Joel: Yes. I have a really different perspective on it. When people come and see I have over 1,000 friends or over 1,000 people in my “Six Pixels of Separation” Pod Cast as a society group they ask, ”Why? Why would you want to be connected to that many people?” It goes back to having a very early in the internet game, very early on. And what I learned, very early on, being a journalist and having content published all the time was that; I pretty much resigned my privacy. [laughs] It’s just out there. It is.

What I learned from that, in terms of the blog and Pod Cast about Facebook is, “I am actually a media channel. All of us have become media channel. Every time you post a picture in Facebook, every time you post a link, an event, a group, you are broad casting that to your entire network. That is your personal brand and that is your media. It’s who you are.”

So I actually use Facebook as a media channel. Like a TV station is looking to get audience members, I looking to get people that want to be part of my community. I am looking for people who are interested in digital marketing, digital branding, public speaking and those sorts of things. It is actually pretty easy. Part of the reason why it is working for me is because I’m a very community centric person. It’s not actually about me. It’s about the community. So what I actually do is act as a connector.
I think that’s probably one of my best gifts. I presume my parents gave that to me as a value or belief system. But my goal isn’t to get the benefit for me. My goal is to help two other people get the benefit from that. I think the dividends I’ll receive from serendipity and other things that will happen and what I call, “Givers gain” make it that much more powerful for me. So, I look at it really differently. My job and role in all of these online social networks is to help more people connect. And if they are doing it through me, then that’s just amazing.

I guess what I learned in this 15 years of interviewing literally everybody in the music industry and entertainment industry is that creative people aren’t necessarily marketers and marketers aren’t necessarily creative people but in and of themselves they had a real uniqueness to them. Whether it was rap or rock or heavy metal or whatever it was, each person had a really, really, unique character. So you see if you tie that into something a nugget of truth or something. It’s a very obvious to me. It’s Oscar Wilde line. Oscar Wilde said, “Be you, because others have already been taken.”

It’s so true, when I teach digital marketing or I teach digital branding for clients all I’m asking is, “Others are already taken, let’s do something unique. Let’s try to stand out or not stand out. Maybe being unique is not standing out. And so I would say be you because others are already taken.”

To read the full transcript, click here.

For more information, visit Red Dream Studios.

The Power of Social Networking (Part 2)

2008-02-05T10:46:00.000-05:00

Another fantastic example of the power of social networking came yesterday when a former colleague of mine from at Matrox Graphics Inc. requested that he and I be LinkedIn. I've been using LinkedIn for many years now and am approaching 200 business contacts, most of whom are clients, or those who represent potential clients.

After seeing his list of connections, I noticed another former colleague from Matrox that I wasn't yet connected to and decided to link with her. When she was working at Matrox, she was the one of the heads of the Marketing department, and sure enough, she was still in a pretty prestigious position at a different company.

She accepted my LinkedIn request pretty quickly, but the amazing thing was that she sent me a message asking me whether or not Red Dream Studios could fulfill a bunch of graphic design requests... Her company was looking to outsource to a new company. Could the timing have been any more right?

So I was once again blown away by the power of social networking and its ability to connect to new business opportunities. It's no wonder why convential advertisers are scrambling... At least in my company's case, I haven't been resorting to it (yet...).

View my profile on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/nealcaminsky

For more information, visit Red Dream Studios.

The Power of Social Networking (Part 1)

2008-02-04T16:49:00.000-05:00

Today was a remarkable day for Red Dream Studios. Our company doesn't advertise in the conventional sense, at least, we spend no money to do so. Instead, we rely on networking, sales champions (word-of-mouth), and more recently, social networking to get our message across.

Face-to-face networking is paramount for the success of any company. Nothing is more powerful than a handshake.

However, when this is not possible, such as when catering to a potential client hundreds of miles away, you typically need to rely on a referral. Such was the case with the company, Balance Integration. Through a word-of-mouth referral by an extended family member, Tali Gillette (who's husband is a client), Balance Integration, a New York-based company dedicated to improving the company-employee relationship, chose Red Dream Studios to provide an overhaul to its corporate website. Coming to it in a semi-state of flux, we worked with existing content and design, added some of our own touches, programming, and Flash content to bring the site to its final, launchable state. Succeeding and a relatively short period of time, the Founder of Balance Integration, Tevis Gale (Trower), had this to say about us:

"It's always a relief when you find someone who seems to GET a project without ever having met or spent time with you. Neal really GOT our project from the very start - even though we brought him in after several headaches/turned nightmares with other providers. He and his team delivered on time, within budget, and with no static in the tweaking of our site to perfection. Having never even spoken to him on the telephone, I have to say that they have mastered understanding product specs and communicating clearly pixel to pixel. We love our new site!"

Wow... What a compliment. This is truly a fantastic testimonial to our efforts, and once again why client relations is key to a successful partnership. We'd like to think that from this moment on, Balance Integration will be one of our newest sales champions...

For more information, visit Red Dream Studios.

About 30 & Counting...

2008-01-30T18:34:00.000-05:00

Wow... In just a few short years, Red Dream Studios has either launched from scratch, or participated in over 30 websites -- which actually means, we've succeeded in placing 30 new companies online (the majority of which are still active today). We're very proud of this and hope that in the near future, we can continue to cater to entrepreneurs who need to either place themselves on the internet, or revamp their existing online brand.

Today marked the launching of a new company, Pinstripe Coaching. Pinstripe offers coaching and training to executives and is based out of the Toronto area. In addition to the website, Red Dream Studios also developed all of Pinstripe's brand and collateral, which includes the company's logo, business cards, and stationary.

To view the Pinstripe Coaching website, visit: http://www.pinstripecoaching.com/.

For more information, visit Red Dream Studios.

Evolution of a Website

2008-01-29T13:12:00.000-05:00

Designing, producing, and developing websites is a large part of our business at Red Dream Studios. Customer service, reliability and dependability is an even larger part. It is our advice to all entrepreneurs that relationships are built on 2 fundamental factors: Trust & Respect.

By adopting these principles, Red Dream Studios builds relationships with our clients, thereby adhereing to these famous quotes by T. Whitaker:

"It's not what you do, it's how you do it."
"They don't care how much you know, they want to know how much you care."

A case example of this happens to be with a client that has been with us since 2003. Aquatica manufactures underwater housings for digital cameras, as well as a host of other underwater photography gear. We approached them through a word-of-mouth referral and quickly landed the task of redesigning their online presence.

The original website, shown above, is a classic example of many design accidents:

Inconsistent design throughout the page as well as the site
Poorly flowing information
Broken links
Too much information below the browser's line of sight
Bad navigation

So in 2003, we submitted the following redesign:

The 2003 Aquatica website made use of the latest web technologies and features: an ASP-driven dynamic catalog (for easy catalog maintenance), Flash-driven header animation of an underwater vista, a more appropriate colour palette that matched the company's offerings, and an overall cleaner, more sophisticated navigation system.

Having lasted 4 solid years, Aquatica returned to Red Dream Studios (there's that client relationship thing again) to provide a more contemporary web design for its company, in line with a slight shift in their product offerings and company's marketing direction.

In late 2007, the new Aquatica website was launched with the following design:

This design, which proves yet again that the clean, simple method usually works best, further refines the way Aquatica presented its products and services. The design focused more on the photographic results one could achieve by using Aquatica products, and sorted the Aquatica catalog into a more efficient manner. It still features a dynamic database and an interactive dealer locator map. The colour palette shifted away from the mostly blue/ocean theme to a more technical gray feel, in line with Aquatica's focus of being a more technically-oriented company, but we preserved elements of blue to still portray the company as offering products for an underwater experience.

For more information, visit Red Dream Studios.

Anatomy of a Corporate Identity

2008-01-22T11:57:00.000-05:00

As a graphic and website design company, Red Dream Studios is often charged with creating most, if not all components of a Coporate Identity. This begins with finding the most effective way to brand one's company. Designing a corporate logo is one of the most challenging aspects of our work, as it involves creating an image for someone who you've most likely just met, or have spoken to only briefly over the telephone.

How does one convey the essence of the company or person when that person has had years of experience being who they are?

This time around, Red Dream Studios was fortunate enough to work with Michael Greenspan Films, the film company spearheaded by the award-winning Los Angeles-based director, Michael Greenspan. Michael is a one of my first friends, so having known him for about 30 years, the task of creating a new image for him wasn't necessarily as daunting as with some other clients. But the pressure was there to knock his socks off...

Michael, much like the films he creates, is bold, classical, yet simple. He knows what he wants. So the idea behind designing his identity was to convey a prestigious film company, harkening to the glory days of the silver screen. And of course, it had to be simple.

From a pure graphic design sense, the logo comprises all the elements: contrast in both colour and font, and simpicity. The contrast is used to draw attention to Michael's name and what he does. "greenspan" is brighter and bolder than either the "michael" or "films". We also chose to use an all lowercase style that is more stylistic and contemporary.

The business card is all black, which in itself makes a statement. With minial text, you can't help but read what's written there. We also opted for a double-sided card in order to minimize the amount of copy you'd see when looking at any given side. In order to immediately distinguish Michael's venture as a film company, we subtly added a stock photo of some film on the front side.

For more information, visit us at Red Dream Studios.

Hiding the Blog bar from Blogger

2007-12-26T11:53:00.000-05:00

Thanks again for all of those code gurus who manage to hack just about everything and anything there is out there in code-land...

I was looking for a way to remove the Blogger bar from a Blogger blog, and came across this little snippet of code that seems to do the trick:

#navbar-iframe { display: none !important;}

In doing so, this allowed me to embed Blogger's blog into an existing website so that the exterior framing, navigation bars and footer could remain exactly consistent with the rest of the website.

Great tip courtesy of the following website: http://blogger-templates.blogspot.com/2005/01/remove-navbar.html

Neal.
Red Dream Studios

Gee, you really CAN find anything on the Internet

2007-11-28T16:14:00.001-05:00

It takes a lot to impress me, but a few days ago, I was throughly impressed -- enough to take time to blog about it.

Red Dream Studios recently secured a video production project with SoftImage. We're very proud of this, as it places them as being one of the largest and most prestigious clients we've ever served. Our mandate is to produce an interactive training DVD based on video material that was previously captured -- a whole 45 hours worth!

Since the project is not going to end up on television, or being played on set-top players, we chose to author the navigtional interface in Adobe Flash. All video was converted into FLV files that were loaded by clicking on various menu options or chapter points.

So what had impressed me?

I was looking for a quick way to convert time into seconds. Specifically, the time had to be formatted as an expression of 00:00:00 (hours, minutes, seconds -- the time indicated to me on the original video clip timeline), and when input, I needed to have the result in seconds. This would allow me to seek to a specific point in the FLV file that would represent a chapter point. The seek function in Flash requires seconds as its parameter.

So for example, 0:03:08:39 would equal 11319 seconds.

I couldn't figure out immediately how to do this, and various searches for "time calculator", "time conversion", "minute to second conversion", left me with the wrong results. In the end, I searched for something explicit like, "format 00:00:00 in seconds", and I came across a post on a developper site for Microsoft Excel. And believe it or not, Excel has some great functions that allow me to do exactly what I was looking for.

Thus the power in the internet. You really can find the answers to imponderables. Now, if it could only tell me the meaning of life...

PS: The formula in Excel is: =RIGHT(A1,LEN(A1)-FIND(":",A1))*24*60*60. Put your time, expressed as 0:00:00:00 in cell A1, and there you go.

The Web predicts the End of the World

2007-11-22T12:09:00.000-05:00

It seems we only have 4 years left to exist. And although the End of Days has been predicated and chanted throughout history many times over, this one may possible have some merit.

Another example of the power that resides within the internet. We've always argued to potential customers who are not online that their businesses will undoubtedly (and eventually) suffer from not having a website to promote themselves. This is probably even more true in the Web 2.0 era.

The following content has been pilfered from another blog (Mirror of Aphrodite), but I'm repeating it on my blog because I watched a Discovery channel documentary this past weekend eliciting this very same content.

Maybe some of you have heard of The Web Bot Project, but for those of you who have not, it's quite intriguing. The Web Bot Project, developed in the late 1990's, was created to assist in making stock market predictions.

The technology uses a system of spiders to crawl the Internet and search for keywords, much like a search engine does. When a keyword is located, the bot program takes a snapshot of the text preceding and following the keyword. This snapshot of text is sent to a central location where it is then filtered to define meaning.

The projects concept is aimed at tapping into the "collective unconscious" of the universe and it's inhabitants. As well, there is an interesting time concept involved and an unusual concept of a "tipping point" regarding the past, current, and future times. It goes a bit deeper than viewing what those of us on the Internet are saying.

But in 2001, bot operators began to notice that stock market predictions were not the only matters being accurately predicted by the program. They began to take notice of coincidence with occurrences and explored it further.

One of the first accurate predictions from the bot program took place in June of 2001. The program predicted that a life altering event would take place within the next 60-90 days. An occurrence of such proportion that it's effects would be felt worldwide. The program based it's prediction on "web chatter" which ultimately represents the collective unconscious of society.

Regrettably, the bot program's prediction proved accurate and the Twin Towers fell on 9/11/2001.

Here's where it starts to become very interesting. The bot program also predicts a worldwide calamity taking place in the year 2012. For those of you who study astrology, prophecies, and the like, you may already be familiar with this date.

The Mayans were considered by many as great "seers" and built a society that focused it's studies on time, synchronicity, and consciousness. The Mayan calendar predicts that mankind will end in the year 2012. A period which also signifies the end of the current era in the Mayan calendar. But this end may represent a symbolic end - more so than a literal end. An end that refers to a shift in consciousness, such as a societal shift into a spiritual age from a scientific one.

Many have derived similar predictions from the I Ching or China's "Book of Changes." The I Ching was written in 2800 B.C. and is revered to this day in China. A gentlemen by the name of Terrence McKenna studied the I Ching intensely and began to see a pattern emerging. From that pattern he produced a time line graph and called it the "Time Wave Zero" theory.

Terrence's time line derived from the I Ching ended in the year 2012 - December 21, 2012 to be exact. The winter solstice.

Even more intriguing is the fact that many suggest that there is scientific evidence that points to a very rare astrological occurrence taking place the year of 2012. For millenia, the Mayans believed in the existence of a dark rift in the center of the Milky Way and considered it fact. Only recently did modern scientists discover that it actually does exist.

Many exist, however, in the center of our galaxy is a black hole. And in the year 2012, it is suggested that the sun and the earth will be in direct alignment with this black hole. Scientist speculate that magnetic shifts could take place as a result. In essence, it is theorized that the poles could reverse. The poles have shifted before and Einstein, himself, had suggested this pole shifting theory in 1955.

And I'm sure many of you have heard of Merlin the magician. Merlin was believed to be a Celtic shaman that many of his day considered a "crazed man of the forest." As a result, during those times he was referred to as "Merlin the Wild." But what many don't realize is that Merlin was considered Europe's greatest oracle or "seer."

Merlin predicted that the planets will "run riot" through the constellations. Completely off their normal paths of rotation. Scientists speculate that if this were to happen, it would be a result of the earth changing it's rotation - or the poles shifting.

Merlin also predicted that the use of "talking stones" would be taking place during this time. For those of you who don't know, stone is the basis of our modern technology. Quartz in particular. Quartz technology is used in cell phones as well as computers. Silicone quartz stores information that can then be retrieved.

Another interesting side note to this, that I will be discussing in an upcoming post, is the use of quartz by the Mayans. The Mayans coveted what were known as the crystal skulls. Skulls carved from natural quartz crystal. They claimed the skulls "talked" to them and gave them information. Could it be that they actually did? Based on our knowledge of the capabilities of quartz crystal and it's uses for technology - it seems quite possible. Hewlett Packard studied the skulls in 1970 and their results were startling.

The oldest tribe in the United States, the Hopi Indian tribe, believed that the world has been created and destroyed four times previously. The Hopi's believe that we are on the brink of the Fifth World. They predicted that this occurrence would be preceded by submersion (rising waters), the sun getting hotter (global warming), and earth occurrences (hurricane's, tornadoes, and mass flooding).

The Hopi's also predicted that the world at this time would be criss-crossed by a spider web, which could be likened to the Internet. They believed that the end of the Fourth World would be followed by the beginning of the Fifth World. The evolution of life requires violence.

Seems that these beliefs are in line with the predictions made from one of the greatest book of prophecies ever written - the Bible. And the Book of Revelations, in particular.

So sinners repent, and all that jazz. But we're likely do to more harm to ourselves by our blatant misuse of natural resources, polluting our planet, and not doing enough to stop an irreversible environmental meltdown.

One of the reasons why Red Dream Studios has adopted a "green" philosophy. We operate in a paper-free environment. And other than the power consumed to run our equipment, we are also carbon-free.

The Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing

2007-06-21T10:27:00.000-05:00

The term "viral marketing" is offensive. Call yourself a Viral Marketer and people will take two steps back. I would. "Do they have a vaccine for that yet?" you wonder. A sinister thing, the simple virus is fraught with doom, not quite dead yet not fully alive, it exists in that nether genre somewhere between disaster movies and horror flicks.

But you have to admire the virus. He has a way of living in secrecy until he is so numerous that he wins by sheer weight of numbers. He piggybacks on other hosts and uses their resources to increase his tribe. And in the right environment, he grows exponentially. A virus don't even have to mate -- he just replicates, again and again with geometrically increasing power, doubling with each iteration:

1111

111111111

11111111111111111111

1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111

In a few short generations, a virus population can explode.

Viral Marketing Defined

What does a virus have to do with marketing? Viral marketing describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message's exposure and influence. Like viruses, such strategies take advantage of rapid multiplication to explode the message to thousands, to millions.

Off the Internet, viral marketing has been referred to as "word-of-mouth," "creating a buzz," "leveraging the media," "network marketing." But on the Internet, for better or worse, it's called "viral marketing." While others smarter than I have attempted to rename it, to somehow domesticate and tame it, I won't try. The term "viral marketing" has stuck.

The Classic Hotmail.com Example

The classic example of viral marketing is Hotmail.com, one of the first free Web-based e-mail services. The strategy is simple:

Give away free e-mail addresses and services
Attach a simple tag at the bottom of every free message sent out: "Get your private, free email at http://www.hotmail.com" and
Then stand back while people e-mail to their own network of friends and associates,
Who see the message
Sign up for their own free e-mail service, and then
Propel the message still wider to their own ever-increasing circles of friends and associates.

Like tiny waves spreading ever farther from a single pebble dropped into a pond, a carefully designed viral marketing strategy ripples outward extremely rapidly.

Elements of a Viral Marketing Strategy

Accept this fact. Some viral marketing strategies work better than others, and few work as well as the simple Hotmail.com strategy. But below are the six basic elements you hope to include in your strategy. A viral marketing strategy need not contain ALL these elements, but the more elements it embraces, the more powerful the results are likely to be. An effective viral marketing strategy:

Gives away products or services
Provides for effortless transfer to others
Scales easily from small to very large
Exploits common motivations and behaviors
Utilizes existing communication networks
Takes advantage of others' resources
Let's examine at each of these elements briefly

1. Gives away valuable products or services

"Free" is the most powerful word in a marketer's vocabulary. Most viral marketing programs give away valuable products or services to attract attention. Free e-mail services, free information, free "cool" buttons, free software programs that perform powerful functions but not as much as you get in the "pro" version. Wilson's Second Law of Web Marketing is "The Law of Giving and Selling". "Cheap" or "inexpensive" may generate a wave of interest, but "free" will usually do it much faster. Viral marketers practice delayed gratification. They may not profit today, or tomorrow, but if they can generate a groundswell of interest from something free, they know they will profit "soon and for the rest of their lives" (with apologies to "Casablanca"). Patience, my friends. Free attracts eyeballs. Eyeballs then see other desirable things that you are selling, and, presto! you earn money. Eyeballs bring valuable e-mail addresses, advertising revenue, and e-commerce sales opportunities. Give away something, sell something.

2. Provides for effortless transfer to others

Public health nurses offer sage advice at flu season: stay away from people who cough, wash your hands often, and don't touch your eyes, nose, or mouth. Viruses only spread when they're easy to transmit. The medium that carries your marketing message must be easy to transfer and replicate: e-mail, website, graphic, software download. Viral marketing works famously on the Internet because instant communication has become so easy and inexpensive. Digital format make copying simple. From a marketing standpoint, you must simplify your marketing message so it can be transmitted easily and without degradation. Short is better. The classic is: "Get your private, free email at http://www.hotmail.com." The message is compelling, compressed, and copied at the bottom of every free e-mail message.

3. Scales easily from small to very large

To spread like wildfire the transmission method must be rapidly scalable from small to very large. The weakness of the Hotmail model is that a free e-mail service requires its own mailservers to transmit the message. If the strategy is wildly successful, mailservers must be added very quickly or the rapid growth will bog down and die. If the virus multiplies only to kill the host before spreading, nothing is accomplished. So long as you have planned ahead of time how you can add mailservers rapidly you're okay. You must build in scalability to your viral model.

4. Exploits common motivations and behaviors

Clever viral marketing plans take advantage of common human motivations. What proliferated "Netscape Now" buttons in the early days of the Web? The desire to be cool. Greed drives people. So does the hunger to be popular, loved, and understood. The resulting urge to communicate produces millions of websites and billions of e-mail messages. Design a marketing strategy that builds on common motivations and behaviors for its transmission, and you have a winner.

5. Utilizes existing communication networks

Most people are social. Nerdy, basement-dwelling computer science grad students are the exception. Social scientists tell us that each person has a network of 8 to 12 people in their close network of friends, family, and associates. A person's broader network may consist of scores, hundreds, or thousands of people, depending upon her position in society. A waitress, for example, may communicate regularly with hundreds of customers in a given week. Network marketers have long understood the power of these human networks, both the strong, close networks as well as the weaker networked relationships. People on the Internet develop networks of relationships, too. They collect e-mail addresses and favorite website URLs. Affiliate programs exploit such networks, as do permission e-mail lists. Learn to place your message into existing communications between people, and you rapidly multiply its dispersion.

6. Takes advantage of others' resources

The most creative viral marketing plans use others' resources to get the word out. Affiliate programs, for example, place text or graphic links on others' websites. Authors who give away free articles, seek to position their articles on others' webpages. A news release can be picked up by hundreds of periodicals and form the basis of articles seen by hundreds of thousands of readers. Now someone else's newsprint or webpage is relaying your marketing message. Someone else's resources are depleted rather than your own.

Copyright © 2000, 2005, Ralph F. Wilson, E-Mail Marketing and Online Marketing editor, Web Marketing Today. All rights reserved.

Face it -- you're addicated to Facebook

2007-04-10T13:08:00.000-05:00

Ok, you've heard the same story many times before:

Your wife or friend tries to convince you to join Facebook.com.
Your wife or friend was convinced to join by one of her friends.
You, your wife, or your friend were all reluctant to join another blog, myspace, or other service dedicated to cluttering up the internet.
You, your wife, or your friend, all reluctantly agree to start your own profile.
You, your wife, or your friend are now highly addicted to Facebook.
You, your wife, or your friend are now all in competition to see who can tally up the most friends possible -- whether or not you've actually spoken to the person face-to-face in over 10 years is irrelevant, it's still a notch on your Friends list.

I have to admit, I was truly uninterested in Facebook. However, once my wife convinced me to join, I was hooked. For me however, there is always an alterior motive.

Blogging is a well known marketing tool to help promote you and your business, or whatever other fiction you want to publish all over the internet. Facebook is another such useful marketing tool, particularly since it involves direct one-to-one conversations with people you wouldn't normally speak with, or haven't spoken to in a long time. The other benefit is that these friends also belong to networks of people who you may have one met, or might be interested in meeting if they are in a position to need your services.

Imagine that... Facebook lets you network with networks of people who you may have never had a chance to chat with. Imagine the potential source of clientele that such a service now exposes you to. Well, as President of Red Dream Studios, I will not shy away from exposing my face on the internet, and hope that the good word spreads...

To see my Facebook profile, visit http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=619347463&hiq=caminsky%2Cneal

State of the Union

2005-02-03T11:44:00.000-05:00

Last night I witnessed a historic and poignant moment. Ironically, it had nothing to do with what President Bush said in his State of the Union address. For about 53 minutes, President Bush spoke about social security (which is pretty good in Canada by the way), and of course, Iraq and freedom.

The elections last Sunday proved a resounding success. Whether it's a sign of things to come is another topic for debate. Will other nations follow in the pursuit of democracy and peace? We can only hope so. Four years ago, when the two towers fell, it appeared as if the apocalypse was about the come. War, fear, and hatred was running rampant. It's perhaps true what they say in that the worst of times must be conquered before you can relish in the best of times.

At about 9:45 pm, something remarkable happened. Sitting next to the First Lady, was an Iraqi woman, barely able to contain her tears when she was introduced by the President. With thunderous applause surrounding her, she stood from her and flashed with her hands several times a "V" for Victory. The Victory was the luxury afforded to her for the first time in several decades of freely voting in an Iraqi election, unimpaired by Saddam Hussein's dictatorial regime. Is this what the united armies of the world have fought and died so bravely for? Not quite.

Moments later, President Bush introduced the parents of a young solider who perished in Iraq, defending freedom and the security of the United States. They were sitting behind the First Lady. What will forever be entrenched in our minds was that the Iraqi women turned around to face the mother of the fallen solider and embraced her with passion and graciousness. The moment was poignant and heart-warming. One woman's son died so that another could live free.

Wars in the 21st century will not be about conquering new empires or for glory. They will be for the preservation and proliferation of peace, freedom, and friendship. Love thy neighbour, and co-exist. It's beginning to happen in Iraq. It's beginning to happen in Israel and Palestine.

What terrorism on Sept 11, 2001 accomplished was to usher in a new era of peace and prosperity. That is the absolute way to defeat terrorism. Not with mortar shells and bullets, but by fostering amity and putting an end to senselss bloodshed.

Neal.

My First Blog

2005-01-28T16:19:00.000-05:00

Ok folks, my name is Neal Caminsky and I'm the founder of Red Dream Studios, a website/graphic design/multimedia/marketing company based in Montreal. We've been around since 2001 and are based in Montreal -- which right now is frigid.

Not sure what possessed me to Blog, but since everyone's doing it, might as well jump on the bandwagon...

Today started off horribly. Makes me want to wish I'd stood in bed. Honestly though, is that the right expression? Why would you want to stand in your bed? Normally, you sleep there. In any case, keep in mind the frigidness of Montreal I mentioned before. Ok, it's like -30 degrees outside, right? And I'm at the Bank, which is about 1.5 km away from my house. When I'm finished my business, I notice that to my dismay, the remote control car starter thingy I have suddenly stops working, and the alarm on my car is activated! I'm frantically trying to disarm the alarm, so I can get into my warm car and drive to work. But no... No matter what I tried, the remote just died! I even tried to get into my car using the key and start her up, but of course, now since the car alarm is blasting all over the place, the car's kill switch has engaged.

Damn.

Now I know I have a backup remote control all the way at home so I can actually disarm my car and drive away. But it's so far away...

So in the freezing cold, I run/walk/run/walk all the way home, snot is dripping from my nose, sweat streaming down my face, and spiddle flying out of my mouth as I pant incessantly. It took me about 15 minutes to get there. Not bad considering it's usually about a 30 minute walk.