I’m a CG artist studying at The Art Institute of Austin and recently transferred here from The Art Institute in Portland, OR. I’m currently studying 3D development and strive to create work that is  applicable to all types of  media. This includes, but isn’t limited to product visualization, game development, animation, and logo design. Since arriving in Austin I have been given the opportunity work with Tony here at  Branded Statement doing various design jobs.  I will be posting 2D and 3D projects here as things progress.

“Jump” is a term that describes a continuation of an article or other text on another page, first used for newspapers. I always liked the jump in newspapers because it generally uses the first word of the article’s second headline, which could make for some funny jumps (i.e., “see INTERCOURSE, page A5″).

Since nobody reads newspapers anymore, “jump” now applies to the link one must click to read the rest of a blog post. When I posit the question “to jump or not to jump?” I mean “should I put the entire body of my blog post on the page, or should you have to click another link to read it all?”

On the one hand, my beautiful content would get cut off. After years of being forced to write in an inverted pyramid format, I’ve developed a more stream-of-consciousness style writing that presents the most important information last. Thus, my posts would not benefit from a jump like some news posts would.

On the other hand, my posts are too wordy. I can’t even get my mother to get to the end of one, much less an uninterested reader. Having a jump-off point will help cut this down to a digestible size. Plus, the fact that nobody is reading my posts at this point in time means nobody is going to notice the change.

So to jump or not to jump? In my case, it’s going to involve a major shift in writing style to switch to the jump. But starting with my next post, I’ll start implementing the jump. There may be some pictures as well; but, alas, my sizable audience of dedicated readers, do not hold high hopes for this promise.

For example, a client may have a detailed product explanation and technical specifications for their Widgetbot 3000, and this information exists in the user manual, in some sales material, and on Amazon.com in the product description. My role is to find these various bits and pieces of similar content, create one detailed product writeup for the Widgetbot 3000, and ensure that this is used across all marketing for that product (currently and in the future).

I’ll be honest here: playing librarian for a company’s writing is incredibly boring. Creating a well-organized library for content, though, is the fastest route to a working content strategy for a business that already has a good amount of content written.

In the case of Branded Statement, though, I’m at the foundational level of content. Whereas my client work right now is unifying various versions of pages and pages of content, the word I need to perform to improve my own business is creating the first versions of the first pages of content.

Maybe I should be a little more defined in the initial writings: our mission statement, our 2010 goals, the type of clients we deal with, our processes. And to be fair, I’ve done some of this on the ‘about us’ and ‘what we do’ pages. It’s one of the things I’ve been working on improving, from a business perspective: create clear and (over)structured communication – you know, business writing.

On the other hand, I don’t think a blog is a place for that. At least, this blog isn’t a place for that. This blog is a place for readers to posit and to ruminate, while better getting to know the people behind Branded Statement.

To us, the brand encompasses – or should encompass – all communication with customers and potential customers. The tone and message of all this communication should be constant and persistent. The sum of these touchpoints is the brand; the brand is a product of what your consumers think and feel about your company.

So when we say branding, we mean everything. Your business name, logo, slogan, business cards, website, traditional advertising – even your product or service itself – affects the way consumers think and feel about you (i.e., your brand). If the message is not consistent, the brand is insincere; if the message doesn’t appeal to the customer, the brand is irrelevant.

We see it every day: local companies that can’t afford to update their marketing to be consistent and/or appealing. Some companies put effort into their presentation, but don’t have a website. Others have a web presence so outdated that it probably dissuades more potential customers than it manages to persuade.

My latte’s running low and it’s probably too late in the day for another, which means I’m leaving my post at the Austin coffee favorite La Tazza Fresca.

Note the lack of a website for LaTazza Fresca. I know I did.