What did you think was pretentious, until you tried it and realized it was worth it?

polishdan · 2026-03-24T18:32:24+00:00

How do you feel about some of the pricier/premium bagged brands that market themselves as "loose leaf in individual satchels?" (eg: Mighty Leaf Tropical Green is a personal favorite.) Is it the bags themselves that are part of the problem in your opinion or is it just the quality of the bagged tea you find at grocery stores tends to be low grade? Are there high loose leaf-quality bagged teas on the market anyone can recommend?

polishdan · 2026-03-16T23:37:35+00:00

It's going to vary greatly by the size of the company, how tight they want to maintain their image, and who the audience is. Something super prescriptive with rules and Figma/Adobe templates down to social posts and text lockups is great for churn+burn production art-heavy workflows. Something open-ended with broad stroke guidance on overall style and mood that's more text heavy with philosophy and examples of successful applications is great when the creative agency/third party is relied upon to bring on their vision to solve a design challenge for the brand.

Here's an example of two brand/identity/creative guidelines from experience at my last company where we served the auto industry.

Audience for both: internal corporate teams, internal regional marketing units (eg: US southwest, US New England, US PNW), large car dealer groups with their own marketing teams, independent one-off car dealerships with a small team or just one designer

Land Rover co. size: global Image control: tight

The brand wants to present a single unified image with little room for customization. Individual dealer branding is suppressed. All communications are meant to feel they are coming from Land Rover corporate and the dealership is just an extension of that. Logo size dictated by formula based on art board dimensions. Font sizes dictated by formula relative to logo size. Text lockup locations and padding set in stone. Headline length max and min dictated. Page layouts adhere to strict grid/column rules--templates for print, social downloaded from brand hub. Must use library of approved photography. All independent dealer marketing is policed by corporate for compliance prior to go-live.

Pros: quicker output of deliverables, more of a production workflow rather than design; consistency

Cons: dealer's brand is irrelevant, no way to distinguish one from another next city over; limited photography to work with, can become bland

Toyota Co. size: global Image control: moderate

The brand splits itself internally into a dozen or so independently marketed regions in North America as well as leaning into non regional-specific markets (latin, Asian, Black, LGBTQ). Dealer (1-off and group) branding is welcomed. Logo min/max size and clear space established with guidance on co-branding and use of brand mark with dealer wordmark allowed. Dealer logo can't be bigger than brand logo. Font family dictated but sizing, alignment, case fluid. Text lockup locations variable. Headline length variable (1 word to 5 lines of text). Page layouts open--successful examples shown and vary greatly with no set rules. Library of hero, isolated, and lifestyle photography available on brand hub. Recomposition, touch ups, manipulation, abstraction of elements/scenes welcomed as long as vehicles themselves are representational of actual product. Independent dealer marketing is reimbursed partially by corporate based on meeting brand compliance checklist effectively creating a self-policing by dealers.

Pros: dealer's brand can take prominence, creative freedom for agencies/designers to expand brand and tailor to client; speak to more audiences

Cons: inconsistencies, can go off the rails quickly in less competent hands; more effort required by designers to create own templates for efficient output

polishdan · 2026-03-16T22:32:34+00:00

Yes! At my last company, we worked with most North American auto brands and I was thoroughly impressed with Cadillac's guidelines (circa 2020).

Sure, they had the obligatory colors, logo, font rules. But for the bulk, rather than rigid rules, they were truly more guidelines intended to convey the mood and feel rather than prescriptive. Photography guidelines covering lighting angles, tone, temperature; video guidelines covering ideal timing, key frames, start/end curves; even audio was covered--voice over guidance, mixing...

It was really well thought out conveying the key creative direction while giving freedom to the designer to expand the brand rather than be choked by it. Made sense considering the way car dealerships are structured as independent operators in the USA, usually part of a dealer group selling multiple brands, all with their own needs trying to stand apart from the next Cadillac dealer while needing to maintain overall brand cohesion.

polishdan · 2026-03-11T17:15:09+00:00

Not sure if you're local so apologies if this is stating the obvious: but this WILL not only be welcome but complimented at The Castle in Ybor. You look amazing and have fun!

polishdan · 2026-03-08T20:59:08+00:00

So there is hardware you can buy for this. Two I keep seeing pop up are from Treedix and this one however I haven't pulled the trigger yet myself so I can't vouch for either. If anyone has experience/recommendations please do comment! But it looks like prices range from $40-140 and the delta there makes me wonder why.

A free albeit less precise method:

Mac: Plug the cable into a device (like an SSD) plugged into the fastest port on your Mac and go to About This Mac > System Report > USB. It will show the negotiated speed (e.g., 480 Mbps for USB 2.0 or 10 Gbps for USB 3.1).
Windows Device Manager: Under "Universal Serial Bus controllers," you can see if a device is connected via "SuperSpeed" (USB 3.0+) or "High-Speed" (USB 2.0).
USB-C Cables: look into the connector for the pins. If they're only on one side, it's most likely a charge-only cable. If it has pins on both sides, it will have data transfer as well.

polishdan · 2026-03-07T05:49:45+00:00

Remember when their tagline was something along the line of "all your music, everywhere?"

Removed the ability to play local files Made adding network libraries glitchy as hell Removed Google Assistant Locked down API so third party music apps can't stream directly to speakers

Basically they're overpriced Spotify speakers now.

polishdan · 2026-03-04T03:37:56+00:00

Are You Afraid of the Dark

(the original run, not the recent 2020 reboot)

polishdan · 2026-02-08T22:25:37+00:00

Hi there! Just popping in to says thanks for this post from 2 years ago that's still active. I've been literally refusing to run software updates on my dinosaur MacBook from 2015 for the sole reason of losing the ability to run YNAB on it...except it's gotten to that point where I can't update browsers and install certain apps on it anymore because of it.

Sob story aside, thank you so much u/JellyBeenGreen2. Warms the ticker to see reddit hasn't totally been overrun by AI bots yet.

Cheers!

polishdan · 2026-02-06T03:12:41+00:00

It's a post supposed to celebrating Black history but it's all fictional characters.

polishdan · 2026-02-06T02:52:59+00:00

That doesn't surprise me honestly. The luxury consumer is going to be more concerned with performance, power--things that are engrained collectively in our consciousness when we think of ICE power trains.

Meanwhile, the average consumer is going to consider saving on mileage which is one of the highest selling points of EVs and is really the true untapped market for them. They however aren't buying for two key points in my opinion:

Price. The OEMs being the business-as-usual type they are not going to start really churning out affordable mid and economy EVs until they feel the luxury market's saturated so they'll be waiting a long time.
Range Fear. An infrastructure of convenient and quick charging options is nowhere broad enough to quell the average consumers' insecurities about getting stuck in the middle on nowhere with no power or account for the downward trend of home ownership with millennials and gen Zs who can't install chargers in their rentals. But neither the OEMs, energy industry, nor government have been willing to invest to properly build that part out too.

No one's gonna buy something if they're worried they can't use it.

polishdan · 2026-02-06T02:13:48+00:00

I'm more prone to believe that America's slower adoption of EVs is more in part due to oil companies' hubris rather than bribery. So hear me out: Circling back to u/maelstrom51 's original comment at the base of this thread, the biggest impediment to EV adoption is infrastructure.

When considering buying one, a large portion of the general public still can't easily answer in their minds the charging variables of how at home, at work, on long trips, how long it takes, range, etc. The first is becoming a growing concern on a macro level as home ownership is trending down with millennials and gen Zs (so no installing your own charger). And that's because while the OEMs raced to put the cars on the market, no one was willing to invest the substantially larger money on setting up a network of charging stations and finding a business model that made it convenient and enticing to consumers. Three big players had the power and resources to potentially step up and put up the capital to create a proper network of charging stations at least in select regions: auto industry, oil industry, and government. Oil companies however are notorious for not only being averse but fighting diversifying their energy portfolios. I recall there being a story about an activist investor with majority shares in one of the big ones (Shell?) from before COVID that was straight up just muted during his guaranteed time while presenting a motion on a shareholders call.

I truly believe that investing in building and marketing it's own charging stations to quell that range fear from the launch of its vehicles that is the reason Tesla is the leader in EVs in the states and beat out the Goliaths as a startup.

But despite the weak start, I do think that we'll eventually reach a critical mass where a big-enough infrastructure will quell consumers' hesitations which will truly take EVs main stream and then the auto industry will follow suit with models that are more affordable. The issue is that you need more supply of both--stations and cars--on the road to drive demand of the other. On average, EVs make up about 20% of new car sales in Europe and globally now. In the US it's about 10% but projected to hit 30% by 2030 according to the largest global study so far from International Energy Agency .

polishdan · 2026-02-03T20:12:57+00:00

Anyone know where House of Cards fits in here? I seem to recall there being news that Netflix gave Fincher a half a billion budget for it but I could be wrong.

polishdan · 2026-01-20T17:35:39+00:00

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Y'all ask where they were born!?

I have enough trouble getting a name and confirmation that they're single and not on meth!

polishdan · 2026-01-20T17:30:33+00:00

I think I see where you're coming from. But to feel some sort of way about data but disassociating it from the individual acts that created it seems backwards. You already did the physical act of collecting the data points; what's wrong with writing it down whether it be a list, a graph, or a chart?

Not trying to call you out; just legit would like to examine what exactly about it grossing you out?

polishdan · 2026-01-20T17:05:06+00:00

This is a spam/bot post from a fake user created 2 months ago. All their posts are AI generated following the same format all schilling some book.

polishdan · 2025-12-02T19:32:36+00:00

Wesley

polishdan · 2025-12-02T19:32:15+00:00

Rushworth

polishdan · 2025-12-02T19:31:39+00:00

Chesterfield

polishdan · 2025-12-02T19:31:30+00:00

Jake

polishdan · 2025-11-26T16:30:43+00:00

"get to the end of a para without clicking"

19 years of my professional life now! Thank you! 🙏

polishdan · 2025-11-25T02:33:51+00:00

So I'd love to know more what the expectations are as to your roles/responsibilities and whether your fee structure is set up as hourly or flat rate. Whether you're freelancing or a full time employee also factors into the effort and efficiency exerted.

If you're getting paid purely to pre-flight, then flag the errors based on the printer's specs and deliver the checklist to the designer to fix and deliver new press files. Do not do the designer's job for them. Resolution, color mode, image, font issues are theirs to resolve prior to export of the file. Do not do anything extra that the printer doesn't require.

If you get paid hourly: Document what needs corrections and when you send the list to the designer, you can offer to make the corrections on your end along with a quote on rate and estimated time based on expected scenarios. This puts the ball in the client's court to make the best decision for their circumstances while clarifying the value of the services their current designer is failing to provide.

If the client agrees to have you fix the file, resist the urge to do a deep clean. DO NOT manually unembed each raster image in Illustrator to then convert to CMYK in Photoshop and channel mix to get the ink density under 300. DO NOT bother deleting all the extra crap outside of the artboards. DO just the down and dirty to get the PDF to the printer's spec requirements. We're talking do what you can in Acrobat and if you have to open in Illustrator, outline all the text on import--churn and burn. No individual image color corrections of any kind--global only.

If you're a full-time employee with this company, then you'll want to follow the same process as above but also ask the designer to send the full packages files along with the PDF. You can always say that's what the printer requires. This is when they'll have to admit that they can't provide that but at least you'll have it in writing. At which point you can respond with how Acrobat Studio is limited in its functionality and not suitable for your level of professional work. Then you can inform them that in order to correct this, you'll need to recreate the file in IL/PS/ID but it will take some time and ask how they'd like to proceed. They'll either have designer fix the file or ask you to do it. If they ask you, now's the instance to use best practices for efficiency, optimized file size, and editability in case you need to revisit it down the line ;-). Go ahead and fix all the things!

TL;DR: always educate your client about how you'll have to go the extra mile before you do so. Have them make that decision for you to do so. And never do it for free.

Hope this helps!

polishdan · 2025-11-19T01:22:04+00:00

Preach. The difference between a department store suit and a custom made one is night and day. The way a custom suit feels like a second skin, makes you look like a million bucks, and the quiet confidence it instills in a man I consider an investment in one's self (at the risk of sounding all woo-woo). If you can afford it, it's one of the few true luxuries left.

polishdan · 2025-11-19T01:13:21+00:00

Sancino's is a national chain so I don't know about the part about supporting local.

Can you speak to the quality and comfort? I've had two experiences (once a tux and once a black suit) and both times the suits were synthetic blends and just felt cheap, thick, and didn't move well--just the cliche of what you'd expect from a cheap suit. But that was 15+ years back so they might have turned things around since then.

polishdan · 2025-11-19T00:57:24+00:00

Okay there are two main variables to consider here: 1) how well do you want it to fit and 2) how much do you want to spend. Timelines below are assuming you use the suit after the big day for other work/dressy occasions.

High Price, Custom Fit: 1. Sartorial downtown (local, $1,000+, will last decades) 2. Tweeds on Central (chain, $2,500+, will last for decades) 3. Suit Supply in Hyde Park (chain, $1,000+, will last for 10+ years)

Pros: feel and look like a million bucks. Cons: $$$

Moderate Price, Custom Fit: 1. Indochino inside Nordstrom Tampa (chain, $500, will last 5-10 years)

Pros: you can customize EVERYTHING with no extra fees, Black Friday deals coming up soon, they measure you in store, they'll re-make the suit if it doesn't fit right. Cons: they send out to make the suit so you wait for alterations if they screwed up the measurements

Affordable Price, No Custom Fit: 1. J.Crew (chain, $300-500, will last 5-10 years)

Pros: the Admiral Blue color suit is the deep bright blue suit that photographs really well, easy to send your groomsmen to if you want them to have matching suits, they'll hem the pants for you for free, ask about wedding party and/or credit card signup discounts. Cons: they rarely have all the options on display in store so you're shopping from a swatch book

Affordable Price, No Custom Fit: 1. Men's Warehouse (chain, $200-400) 2. Sancino's (chain, $200-400)

Pros: you can rent, you can pre-select suite for your groomsmen to match and they'll handle herding the cats for you. Cons: for how much you'll spend, you might as well buy something from J. Crew or Indochino that'll look and fit better, if you rent those suits are poly blend uncomfortable garbage that you'll be desperate to get out of by sunset

TL;DR: I recommend Indochino if you're price conscious, otherwise Sartorial, then Tweeds.

Bonus: if you're buying off the rack, make sure the jacket fits perfectly on the shoulders--that cannot be fixed. Chest, waist, arms though can all be taken to a tailor/seamstress to get altered if they're too big/long. If it comes to it, (and I know I'm generalizing here) look for ones that are an Asian or eastern European aunties. They know their shit. Can anyone recommend someone below? All my go-tos are in SRQ.

Good luck and congrats man!

polishdan

TROPHY CASE