Mark your calendars! Luminus’ very own Tim Bouchard is scheduled to appear on the Businessology podcast on Wednesday, July 20th.

Businessology is a podcast hosted by CPA Jason Blumer, aimed at helping creatives run their businesses more effectively. Through real examples of agencies “figuring it out”, he helps agencies do better work by working better. On this episode of Businessology, Tim will discuss his recent eBook, Golden Mean Pricing.

Golden Mean Pricing provides guidance on pricing creative projects for freelancers and small business owners. Check it out here.

We won a silver AAF District 2 Addy for our work for Druthers!

We actually found that out a while ago, but we just got the award today.

What we also got was the showbook that features all of the AAF District 2 winners, and they’re awesome.

We’re proud to mentioned in the same breath as a lot of these folks and we’d like to run down the best in show for you.

Read More

Hello!

My name is Christopher D’Amato and I am a Digital Marketing intern.

In addition, I am also an Advertising and Psychology double major at Xavier University, with a minor in Digital Media.

As an aspiring Creative Director, and hopeful owner of my own agency sometime in the future, I crave every opportunity I can to improve my knowledge on both the art and science of interpretation. Simply put, I yearn for an understanding of Advertising and Psychology on all levels.

My first task as an intern was to put these qualities into words and answer the Proust Questionnaire in order for you and a few others to understand the kind of person I am.

Grab that espresso you have been thinking about, sit back, and try to relax. Allow my answers to guide your stream of consciousness for the next few minutes.

Quit shaking! Breathe deeply.

Read More

Hello, I’m Jaime Anna. Yes, my last name is a first name, I know. Oh, and I’m a Digital Marketing intern at LUMINUS.

Once upon a time, I was sitting at my desk on the first day of my internship. Suddenly, I was tasked with answering the Proust Questionnaire. If this guy was answering these types of questions with such eloquence at the mere age of 13, he had great things going for him. If he only lived in 2016 and saw the kinds of answers that I’ve given.

Read More

Bad marketers are like vampires, except they’re also really bad at being vampires.

Good vampires, in the Dracula sense, or even to a degree the Edward Cullen sense, are seductive creatures. They make their victims want to be bitten, even if it’s against their own best interest.

Bad vampires show up where there’s a crowd of people, close their eyes and start swinging their fangs around. They’re lucky to get a drop of blood edgewise, and their would-be prey will high-tail it out of there. The really clever humans, the Buffys of the world, pull stakes out of their shoes and get to work.

Bless the Buffys of the world. They’re out there protecting us against bad marketers.

Read More

“Minimal costs. No skills required. Instant results.”

That’s the value proposition from Tailor Brands, one of many automated logo makers available online. The idea is that busy, cost-averse small business owners can answer a few simple questions and get a brand new logo in about ten minutes.

According to Tailor Brands, someone makes a new logo every two seconds. But are any of those logos actually good?

We asked our award-winning logo designer, John English, to compare his work to the tool. Here’s his review of the Tailor Brands logo maker.

Read More

This article is republished from our email newsletter. If you dig it, you should sign up for our emails!

Algorithms are, basically, processes that automated systems like computers use to make decisions. At least in the beginning, they’re created by humans to serve certain purposes, though (especially as machine learning gets better) they can start to change and refine themselves in a way that is opaque to most if not all flesh-and-blood intelligence.

The dangers of relying on algorithms, then, are obvious. The biases of the creator are encoded in the algorithm, which then acts in a way that is trusted to be unbiased, or at least reality-informed. And then self-refining algorithms have the potential to get away from us.

Read More

Another WordCamp Buffalo conference has come and gone. Congratulations to Ron Brennan, Dominic Licata, Andy Staple, Ben Dunkle, and Michelle Ames for organizing a great event.

This year was special for me for two reasons; First, I spoke at this year’s event, so I had a completely different (and amazing) experience than year’s past. Second, the event was at UB’s Center For the Arts (CFA) where I spent mosts of my time in undergrad as a Media Study major.

I’m going to try and hang onto the inspiration and enthusiasm I felt at this WordCamp in the design/dev track since I’m gradually becoming disconnected from production the more I get into speaking/writing about and handling our own small business and pricing tasks.

Read More

This article is intended not for those who work on the web, but for those who are hiring someone to build a responsive website for them. This article will help explain to business owners *how* there responsive website will work and answer some of the common questions we get on a regular basis on the nature of responsive websites.

Congratulations! Not only were you smart enough to invest in a new website, you were smart enough to hire someone who can build you a responsive web design!

There are a myriad of reasons to make sure your website is responsive, but since you are already convinced, I won’t bother re listing all of the benefits here.

When it is time for you to review the build of your new site, it can be a little overwhelming to know what’s normal and what is something that needs to be addressed. But how are you supposed to know?

Read More

There is a plethora of creative jobs out there in the design and development world. Each possesses a different experience or angle that appeals to various talent and personality types. No matter where you fit into this scenario, there are a few ways to make sure you stand out when you apply for your dream job at any one of these companies.

Read More