Poor receptionist

[Manoj]

Hi all

Just thought I'd post a bit of work I did recently in xxp. This is for a marketing mailer announcing training sessions in Front Office Etiquette. As you can see the poor receptionist really needs it

Ok I hope attaching the image works...

Best wishes
Manoj

[raynerj1]

Very Nice Manoj. Look forward to seeing more examples of your work.

[jclements]

Hi Manoy, welcome.

Very nice work!

I would be interested in knowing the grahic applications you used before Xara.

And what lead you to Xara and WHY you decided to take the plunge to learn/use it.

Also, can you compare what you like and dislike about Xara in comparison to your other applications.

Regards, John

[Soquili]

I think I have spoken to that receptionist

Well done Manoj. Thanks for sharing.

[pauland]

Nice work! reminds me of a job interview I once had. The poor receptionist was left in a corridoor and there was a huge blast of cold air whenever the outside door opened, meanwhile the managers were in a nice warm office well away from that corridor..

[Ross Macintosh]

Hi Manoj -- The graphic is great! I'm less sure about the marketing approach. In my neck of the woods, in all but the largest offices it is the front office people who open the mail. I'd suggest your approach is a little insulting to them and might just get tossed in the garbage with the junk mail. Instead, if it were marketed in a way that made front office people actually want to take the course then they might request the training.

Since front office staff are important, your marketing materials could acknowledge that in a way that is respectful of the jobs they do. In my experience most people want to do their jobs better, do them with less stress, more fun, and more professionalism. These are 'buttons' that could be pushed. -- Something to think about.

Regards, Ross

[Manoj]

Thanks all for your kind comments!

Ross--I agree with you and this point did occur to me in hindsight. I think in the heat of discussions we lost sight of how it's just good sense to be a bit careful about pointing out people's failings if you're trying to get their business. Yes my client was rather appalled at the generally poor level of front desk response she encounters here, and I'm sure she wanted to highlight that, but still, more flies with honey and all that!

Here's the next cartoon in that series (not in Xara but drawn by hand, scanned and coloured in Photoshop--hope that's okay). As you can see, this time around I kept it non-hurtful!! This mailer was to announce the arrival/availability of a business trainer (he specializes on Outbound Training--hence the Tarzan gag tying into the Business is a Jungle theme).

Best wishes
Manoj

[Manoj]

John--before Xara I learnt Photoshop and Corel Draw (at the time I had never heard about Xara). Corel Draw was adequate but not really fun to use for drawing...especially being the bloated memory hog it was back then.

Then somehow told me that Illustrator was the industry standard and I started trying to learn that...getting quite confused and frustrated with it I must say...around about that time I found Xara on the net and downloaded and installed it out of curiousity...wow!!! It was amazing...fast, nimble and so intuitive...in no time I was churning out better work than I did in Corel Draw (primarily because I LIKED working--or should I say playing--with Xara). I hardly noticed any learning curve!

As far as other applications go I don't use anything other than Xara these days in addition to Photoshop for bitmap and photo editing so I can't really say...just that for me Xara rocks!!

Best wishes
Manoj

[gwpriester]

Hey Manoj - Good to see you here.

That is my former secretary, I'm sure.

Gary

[a4hire]

Nice work Manoj