MN High Tech Association Spring 2012 Conference

Guest Post by Brent

The MHTA Spring Conference is done, and it was more fun than… well, not a barrel of monkeys. Come on, what does that even mean? Who comes up with these sayings? Poor monkeys. All that needs to be said is we here at Soulo Communications had a good time at booth 507 and, as the design sponsors, we enjoyed creating the catalog, banners, signs, etc.

If you mysteriously happened to find yourself walking around the Minneapolis Convention Center that day, you probably saw our work.

MHTA 2012 CatalogOur creative director Rick rolled out the design for the catalog featuring the various sponsors, speakers and the like. So if you paged through it, you were looking at his work. If you weren’t paging though it, you missed out.

MHTA Main EntranceIf you walked through the doorway into Hall A, and who doesn’t like walking through a good doorway, you probably saw the banner that we designed for the Spring Conference.

MHTA Spring Conference SignsAnd after walking through that very useful doorway, the various signs and tablecloths with the MHTA logo were all designed in our office as well.

So if you like what you see here or saw there, we can do that for you, too.

 

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Awesome Technical Writing

Technical writing is usually seen as dull. Boring. Many days, maybe even most, it is. Necessary and useful, sure, and often legally required. But the work itself is viewed as boring, and I don’t dispute that at all. The notion is widely accepted enough that it was the premise of a TV show, after all (possibly the only time in human history that the technical writer was made the centerpiece of anything supposed to be entertaining).

But sometimes you come across a piece of technical writing that’s simply awesome. And the awesomeness of this tutorial, a step-by-step instruction on the Art of Sabrage, is indubitably awesome. Truth be told, I didn’t know sabrage was a thing until just now. And I will never, ever attempt it. But there are the instructions, right there, ready if anyone ever wants to.

Also, this seems semi-dangerous, and we don’t endorse it, other than as an entertaining piece of technical instruction.

Posted in For Some Reason, Writing 1 Comment

The Lot Did Flow

Soulo’s blood drive was a smash. As a company, we donated 5 pints; friends, colleagues, and clients joined with us to deliver about a dozen in total. (UPDATE: We had 14 participants, 12 of whom were able to donate, so 12 pints total.) As I keep saying, both because it really feels good and has the benefit of being true, this saves lives. For those of us who aren’t doctors or nurses or EMTs or first responders, this is as simple as social responsibility gets, and Soulo is proud to be part of it. According to the red cross, each pint  can save up to three lives, so we might have made a difference to 36 people and countless more family members and friends.

Yeah. That feels good.

The Bloodmobile

As usual, we tracked our time (here are last time’s results). The final standing among our grand prix entrants:
1. Doug — 4:10 (he even walked out under his own power, without collapsing!)
2. Leif  — 4:46
3. Rick  — 4:47
4. Tom  — 4:57
5. Heidi  — 5:32
6. Brent  — 5:40

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Let it Bleed

We have a few more slots open today for our blood drive, primarily around lunch hour – how convenient, right? Sign up information is here.

Tonight when someone asks you how your day was, you can say “I saved lives today.”

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Typesetting Nerds Represent!

Tom and I were having a Skype meeting with Rick yesterday, and I noticed that his t-shirt read BLEED. I figured it was one of those “Give Blood, Play Hockey/Football/Rugby/Whatever”-style t-shirts. No big deal, though definitely something to remember to make fun of later.

Then he moved a bit and I saw that the shirt read GUTTER beneath BLEED.

And below that, RAG.

“Rick,” I asked, “Are you wearing a novelty typesetting shirt?” He stood. And… yup.

Non-Ironic T-Shirt Still Ironic, Somehow

What percentage of people get this? It’s probably even smaller than the Dennis Miller ratio!

(Criminally, UrbanDictionary doesn’t credit The Simpsons for this joke, though perhaps it can be assumed that most of its readership will know who the quoted Lisa is.)

Posted in Design, For Some Reason 1 Comment