Designers—just like everybody else in the world—love to work with products we hold close to our hearts. Consider me more than pleased that olive oil, wine, chocolate fudge, and vodka are among the ‘food’ items we’ve had the chance to play with at our San Francisco design studio, 300FeetOut. Many of our food clients are [...]
Archive for May, 2011
The Need for Seed
I chuckled when I read the “June To-Don’t List” in my June 2011 issue of Health magazine. Topping the list: growing your own food. The snippet explains, “We’re all for knowing where your eats come from, but it’s OK to let those who are good at growing things get their hands dirty if you’re better [...]
I Frown on Smileys :(
A few years ago, teaching a class on business writing to young PR professionals, I explained that emoticons or “smileys” had no place in emails to clients. Too cute, too casual, too lazy, I lectured. Now, smileys have crept into my own client emails to a somewhat embarrassing degree. I’m caught between the desire to [...]
Lundberg Rice: From Flooded Fields to the Chip Aisle
How does the most elemental of foods become the stuff of specialty markets? A thriving California family farm has thoughtfully plotted that course for the past 75 years. “Rice has a very long history of supporting humanity,” says Grant Lundberg, third-generation rice farmer in northern California’s Sacramento Valley and CEO of Lundberg Family Farms. [...]
The Hair Poets and Others: Seven Things Not to Do When Reading in Public
I write poetry, and I publish it. Which means that I’ve been witness to a lot of bad poetry readings over the years. Great ones, too—but that’s not what this post is about. The problem with poetry, when read in public, is this. As with any art, there’s a lot of it out there. Some very [...]
Waitin’ on the Levee
Everybody who follows the news knows what a “levee” is nowadays, between Hurricane Katrina and the current flooding on the Mississippi, but it was once a prime example of regional language.
Food for Thought: Snacks We (and our Brains) Love
Writers are notorious noshers, especially those who work within striking distance of the kitchen, as do many of our Content Bureau team. What we eat and drink can profoundly affect our mental capacities—caffeine and chocolate are only the most obvious examples. To research this phenomenon, I asked my Content Bureau colleagues what they reach for [...]
How to Overcome Writer’s Block (Works for Me, At Least)
The deadline approaches, but words won’t dislodge and tumble onto your screen. You’re juiced up on caffeine and your favorite writing music has been playing for hours. The sum total of three hours of “work”: one crappy sentence. Oh dear, what can you do? I can only tell you what works for me…most of the [...]
How to Write a Great Food Blog
In May the Content Bureau blog turns to a subject that we can all enthuse about ad infinitem: food. To kick off the May food raptures, Stacy interviews Amanda Haas, the lovely and talented founder of the acclaimed website and food blog, One Family One Meal. Stacy: Bless you, Amanda, for helping me with this [...]
