Steven Van Praagh
Steve Van Praagh has been professionally involved in the graphic and marketing communications industry for 14 years.
Starting with early High School courses in Photography and Drafting, most kids were taking Calculus and Advanced Algebra. I then studied Communication Arts while completing my undergraduate studies at Adelphi University. Lucky to have visiting professors from NYU and other great communications programs, and still not sure why they were visiting, but they did, and they really made a huge difference in my life, I got the education that I needed.
What my professors taught me was to make a difference in the world. Find a problem, define and see if solving it is even a possibility. I think the ones that are not really possible become great films, and the ones that are possible eventually get solved. My life’s mission became problem identifier and determined solver of those problems. I was the kid that questioned everything, “why this” and “what if” that. And I do that to this very day. Towards the end of my formal education I took courses like Graphic Skills Advertising, not really sure what that meant, but came highly recommended from the other people hanging around the registrar, I finally figured out what a Commercial Artist was. And I am that now. It is part production engineer, part artist, part designer, part critic, part technician, and mainly one that questions how things work in the imaging and graphics world and figures out how to efficiently produce various forms of communications tools, whether they come in printed or electronic form.
My prior work experience had been with some of the best global and local companies in the graphics and imaging world, 4 years with Canon, 4 years with The CoLAD Group as Sales and Product Development (Promotional and Informational Packaging Printer and Manufacturer), 4 years in Sales and Marketing for L.P. Thebault Co. (Commercial and Digital Printer), Business consultant to Unimac Graphics, and since 2001, working full-time for myself and with my clients.
Problems Identitifed: I found two major problems in the communications world; One was that there were undefined processes to getting things done efficiently and Two that people would flounder and work ten times harder to reinvent a wheel and readily available, probably in a way that needs some alteration, but available for review nonetheless and most likely in this day and age, anything or any way you can think of to communicate has been done and the results of that method are available for review without making the same mistakes twice.
Problems Solved: The solution to number one is that with just a little extra planning, you can define a process and track its progress and effectiveness very easily. The solution to number two is even simpler, take the time to quickly find out if anyone else has ever had the same problem as you, and find out what they did to fix it. In marketing and communications, one of the biggest mistakes people make is trying to differentiate by doing things procedurally in a completely different way. I feel that instead the more successful method is to take a similar road that other have taken and alter the route so that it suits your advantages and those of your product or service. You may be faster at making a product or getting it to market, and therefore speeding up the route with a shortcut or two will help your specific product/service sell more by being available more quickly. If your product is simply superior in construction, simply point it out graphically and/or quantitatively so that it is clear what your advantages are and why you are probably more expensive. Then in your communications or proposals point out the long term savings, don’t assume they will figure it out, because they won’t. Not ever. Your product will sit in your warehouse or loading dock while they buy the inferior product and suffer with it.