Digital Sampling

Enthralled in the LeBron James buzz that is “The Decision,” Widen has been part of the “madness” that follows the announcement of the NBA's marquee free agent to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami HEAT.

The Widen digital sampling process and web-based digital asset management technologies allow the adidas Sports Licensed Division (SLD) and retailers of NBA jerseys and apparel to start selling LeBron James hot market products within 12 hours of the decision going public. Sources report that the LeBron James number 6 Miami HEAT jerseys are selling like hotcakes and are expected to produce record numbers within the first week.

The LeBron James jersey samples you see on e-commerce sites like FansEdge.com and ESPNShop.com were digitally created by Widen’s digital sampling premedia production team. This saves the adidas Sports Licensed Division time and costs of photographing the physical product samples and beats the need to mass produce the products before they can be sold. In cases like this where the jerseys and apparel are being marketed and sold within hours of “the decision” going public, Widen’s process and expertise plays a key role in meeting the hot market demands.

Here’s the breakdown of the steps for the LeBron James hot market orders surrounding the special telecast of "The Decision" on ESPN Thursday, July 8 at 9:00 PM Eastern time:

1.  Widen received digital sampling orders from the adidas SLD on Thursday 7/8/2010 for all scenarios to James’ decision.

2.  Widen prepared digital samples of the blank team jerseys (front and back) for each possibility including the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami HEAT, New York Knicks, Chicago Bulls, New Jersey Nets and Los Angeles Clippers.

3. Widen digital sampling technicians added the player name (JAMES) and number (6) to the appropriate team blank (Miami HEAT) at 4:00AM CST on 7/9/2010.

4. The final digital samples were added to the adidas SLD Media Collective web-based digital asset management system and images were sent to the customers by 9:00AM CST on 7/9/2010 to be marketed and sold worldwide.





For more information about Widen apparel marketing technology and premedia services, check out the Widen Digital Sampling blog or download the DAM as SaaS 2.0 white paper  featuring a Reebok case study.

Names are a big deal with marketing and creative groups; especially when it comes to the everyday business systems and applications you depend on to do your job. Choosing a name for your digital asset management system is key to a successful deployment in building user adoption internally and externally. Not all users of your DAM system will understand what “Digital Asset Management” is, so it’s common to choose a different, more identifiable name. This post will help you understand how to go about naming your digital asset management tool and provide some helpful ways of building a short list of possible names.

Best practices in naming your Digital Asset Management System:

• Choose a name that fits the department or functional area leading the project – e.g. marketing communications, creative, public relations, sales, etc.
• Choose a name that fits the primary group(s) of users of the system – internal or external – e.g. marketing partners, sales channels, dealers, etc.
• Choose a name that fits the types of assets that are most common – e.g. images, photos, videos, and marketing materials. If it’s all of the above, use a more general term such as media or brand assets.
• Choose a name that fits your organization, brand(s) or mission. ** The most important best practice because your DAM solution is the single point of management and access to your brand assets.

Quick Tips – Be Creative, Realistic, Memorable and Simple:

• Be Creative – Names that are catchy and fun are easier to remember.
• Be Realistic – Names that fit the purpose of the system set clear expectations.
• Be Memorable – Names that are easy to remember improve frequency of use.
• Be Simple – KISS. (You all know what that means...) Confusion turns users away.

Two and three word combinations work best in achieving the goal of being Creative, Realistic, Memorable and Simple. Typically, you will want to attach your organization or brand name to the front of the two-word or three-word name for your DAM system. For example, “Widen Video Library” or “Widen Brand Asset Portal.”


Chart for Picking a Two-Word Name for your DAM System:

Asset Type Descriptor	System Type Descriptor
Brand	Bank
Creative	Collection
Digital	Database
Image	Resource
Marketing	Tool
Media	Library
Photo	Toolkit
Video	Source
	Gallery
	Portal
	Collective
	System
	Center

Sample Two-word Names (Not including the Customer/Brand name):
Creative Library, Digital Gallery, Digital Toolkit, Image Library, Marketing Library, Marketing Toolbox, Media Database, Media Library, Media Source, Partner Portal

Sample Three-word Names (Not including the Customer/Brand name):
Brand Asset Library, Creative Resource Bank, Digital Image Gallery, Digital Media Library, Image Management System, Marketing Resource Center, Video Asset Library



The Widen Media Collective® Brand Name

Media Collective® is the trademarked name for the Widen digital asset management software suite and serves as the default name for Widen customer DAM systems unless you choose your own. Generally, the name will appear in the title of the web-based DAM system, login screen and header within the application. The standard web address is https://customer.widencollective.com.

What if we want a vanity web address?

There is no cost to select a custom name, however additional charges may apply for maintaining a custom vanity URL. Here’s an explanation of the vanity web address options:

Vanity Web Address Redirect: Organizations not wishing to use the standard web address of https://customer.widencollective.com may opt for a vanity web address that is redirected to the standard address. For example, you can direct users to http://WidenMediaCollective.com and they will be redirected to https://demo.widencollective.com when they arrive on the page.

Vanity Web Address: Organizations not wishing to use the standard web address of https://customer.widencollective.com may opt for a vanity web address that is NOT redirected to the standard address. For example, you can direct users to https://WidenMediaCollective.com and that will remain the core part of the URL string throughout their use of the system.

One of the many purposes of a Digital Asset Management system is to provide controlled access to an organization’s library of approved digital assets. Note the key word here is controlled! There are many types of marketing software systems that provide some sort of repository services for centralized storage of documents, images, and other files. However, only a true DAM system should suffice in a sophisticated marketing environment where you want to deliver tiered levels of control for the collaboration, management, and distribution of digital assets. In Widen’s world of DAM, tiered levels of control are managed via Roles and Permissions.

Without Roles and Permissions, you may as well post everything you own to a public-facing website for the whole world to access. In a web-based DAM system, every a user has a secure login which authenticates them into a Role with a predefined set of permissions.

Roles and Permissions determine 'who' has 'what' level of access to 'which' assets and 'how' the user can interact with the assets.

Roles and Permissions allow…

• The marketing team to prepare a campaign that will launch in six months.
• The product team to produce training materials for a product that doesn’t hit the market until next year.
• The regional field reps to only access current collateral and promotions created for them.
• The marketing team to ensure assets for products that have been taken off the market are not accessible by the sales teams and partners.

Although it can be a very complicated aspect of DAM to administrate, Roles & Permissions can be as simple as can be for a four-person workgroup or as complex as a multi-national enterprise with several departments, divisions, brands and channels for access and control. Maintaining the Role & Permissions structure is critical when rolling out updates and a key point in selecting the right partner. More than that, working with Roles & Permissions that allow for adaptability, flexibility and scalability with ease is vital to the ongoing success of your DAM system.

Read the article in E-Commerce Times: Whose Fingers Are in Your DAM?

Contact Us to learn more or to see the Roles & Permissions structure in Widen’s online DAM system.

Saints Win! Saints Win! The 2010 Super Bowl between the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts was watched by more than 106 million viewers, surpassing the 1983 finale of "M-A-S-H" to become the most-watched televised event in American history. This is the fifth consecutive year that the Super Bowl has averaged more than 90 million viewers, according to Nielsen.

That’s a lot of football fans and a lot of consumers that want to be the first to have the apparel the champions wear.

Minutes after the big game, I received this email from DICK’s Sporting Goods announcing the availability of the official Locker Room Merchandise from Reebok, the authentic outfitter of the NFL. No doubt, there are a lot of fans out there who want the Super Bowl XLIV Champion hat and t-shirt worn by their champagne popping locker-room heroes as soon as the outcome of the big game is decided.



How do retailers like DICK’s Sporting Goods get their hands on these images to have their emails and websites ready to go as soon as the champion is declared? More importantly, how does the Sports Licensed Division of The adidas Group make this process efficient, accurate and cost-effective?

With the help of Widen Digital Sampling and Digital Asset Management services, adidas can get official product images in the hands of their retailers who, in turn, get marketing messages in front of the eyes of the consumer as soon as a buying decision is ready to be made.

Widen digital sampling processes and digital asset management tools help ensure the entire digital supply chain is equipped with compelling, consistent and cost-effective content for commerce.

The Widen Digital Sampling process assists in the creation of digital apparel samples and the Widen web-based digital asset management system is used to manage, distribute and provide access to authentic image assets. As the official provider of licensed apparel for the NFL, NBA, and NHL, the adidas Sports Licensed Division (includes adidas and Reebok brands) uses Widen premedia services and DAM technologies to meet hot market demands for the Super Bowl, NBA Finals, and Stanley Cup Finals.  

Widen-powered technology and processes help retailers such as DICK’S Sporting Goods market championship apparel merchandise as soon you see the players wearing the hats and t-shirts after the big game is over.



What’s all included in the Widen Digital Sampling process? This premedia production process generally begins with photography of one neutral grey apparel sample. Next, digital sampling operators digitally create all color swatches according to league approved team colors. Lastly, graphics are applied according to Reebok/NFL technical guidelines and the final approved images are loaded into the image database where they can be centrally managed and available for download in a working file format.

All Reebok / adidas digital samples are loaded into the Widen-powered web-based image library, which holds the all apparel and headwear styles for the current and coming sports season for the NFL, NBA, and NHL. Since many of the physical apparel styles are not yet available in stores or online (or even physically produced en masse), many of the images are on hold and are tightly controlled using Widen’s governance tools. Styles and logos are often determined 6-7 months in advance of the coming season for the major sports leagues.

When it’s time for these assets to go to market, orders are placed in the DAM system and retailers can download the files according to exact specifications for print or web use. All users are required to sign off on a rights release agreement before they have access to the images. For example, DICK’s Sporting Goods was granted permission to access championship apparel images for the Saints and Colts so they could prepare their email marketing templates in advance of the Super Bowl.

As you can guess, the digital apparel sample production and distribution process shaves weeks off the time to market versus the process of physically producing, photographing and shipping physical samples. Plus, it streamlines a very difficult process—particularly when meeting hot market demands such as with championship merchandise. Besides the time savings of digital sample creation, adidas is able to drastically reduce costs of physically producing each item and team combination and the photography and shipping costs to go along with it.
 
Benefits of using hosted Digital Asset Management:

• Accelerated search and retrieval time in accessing official imagery
• Increased real-time collaboration of assets and approvals
• Cost savings through the elimination of physical delivery of samples
• Elimination of the cost of lost or misplaced work
• Reduction in time-to-market through digital delivery

Here’s an inside look at the market preparedness leading up to the Super Bowl:

1 week before the NFL Conference Championships – Conference Championship merchandise was created for the eight teams in the Divisional Round (Baltimore, Indianapolis, N.Y. Jets, San Diego, Arizona, New Orleans, Dallas, and Minnesota)

2 weeks before the Super Bowl – Super Bowl Champion merchandise was created for the four teams in the Conference Championship Round (Indianapolis, N.Y. Jets, New Orleans, and Minnesota)

What happens to the images for the losing teams that didn’t make it, you ask? Quite simply, those are destroyed.

The last several years have seen a dramatic shift from traditional media to digital media such as online marketing and social media. The move to digital media has led to an exponential growth in digital marketing content, which has in turn created bottlenecks and inefficiencies in managing this content and difficulties in measuring the performance of campaigns and in maintaining a consistent brand image.

Digital Asset Management (DAM) technology can overcome these problems by automating the process of ingesting, archiving, searching, managing, repurposing, sharing and publishing content in a seamless and collaborative environment. DAM adopters achieve substantial return on investment including reducing time to market, improving the performance of marketing campaigns, reducing marketing costs and improving brand consistency. This article will examine in detail how DAM can rapidly generate ROI by improving the performance of digital marketing efforts.

In order to give power to your marketing programs in 2010 and be more efficient in doing so, Digital Asset Management should be your first technology investment.

Widen has released a new whitepaper that addresses 5 key benefits that DAM provides to marketing operations, including:

1. Generate additional revenues by reducing time to market
2. Reduce costs of finding assets
3. Reduce costs of distributing assets
4. Save money on physical samples
5. Improve brand consistency

This whitepaper is an interactive PDF containing videos of customer interview segments from InSinkErator, Brady Worldwide, Knaack and Sub-Zero and Wolf.

Download: Why Digital Asset Management Should Be Your First Technology Investment for 2010.

With the season of “lists” upon us, here are the top ten Widen Premedia blog posts of 2009 in the Widen prepress services world of digital photography, color retouching, digital sampling, catalog production, color management, and wide format printing.


1. RAW Presets for Photoshop CS4 & Lightroom: Canon 5D Mark II Nikon D3 Nikon D300 Nikon D700 Nikon D3X, posted on Tuesday, April 14, 2009 by Matt Anderson (Industrial Retouch and Color)

2. Call Me Mr. Biv, posted on Friday, October 24, 2008 by Mark Pajari (The Color Space)

3. Digital Asset Solutions: Adding Micro Contrast and Detail to Digital Images by Matt Anderson, posted on Wednesday, July 22, 2009 by Matt Anderson  (Industrial Retouch and Color)

4. Smart Objects Part Déux, posted on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 by Matt Anderson (Industrial Retouch and Color)

5. A technical observation of post processing styles, posted on Wednesday, May 27, 2009 by Matt Anderson (Industrial Retouch and Color)

6. Edward Cullen Sparkle... For All You Twilight Fans, posted on Monday, July 27, 2009 by Joy Hamel (Premedia Arts)

7. Assigning, tagging, converting, and embedding ICC profiles in Photoshop, posted on Tuesday, March 24, 2009 by Mark Pajari (The Color Space)

8. Hair Mask Quick Tip for Color Retouching, posted on Wednesday, April 8, 2009 by Joy Hamel  (Premedia Arts)

9. Into the Light, posted on Tuesday, April 7, 2009 by Joy Hamel (Premedia Arts)

10. Wide Format Digital Printing at Widen, posted on Monday, May 11, 2009 by Joy Hamel (Premedia Arts)

Watch the interview with Brian Becker, VP of Client Development for Widen Enterprises, as he talks about the prepress production processes performed for a large apparel marketer. Part II focuses on Widen's digital sampling and color retouching services in the life cycle of a digital asset.
 

Intro

Widen recently helped a large apparel company improve quality and streamline creative production processes by utilizing a blend of Widen premedia services and digital asset management technologies. Widen helped the client make the move from showcasing garments currently shot on mannequins to garments shot on live models for a new women's sports licensed apparel campaign. In meeting the goal of going live inside 30 days, Widen created over 500 images with 20-25% of their shots featuring garments on live models versus mannequins.

To get up to speed with the photo shoot and Widen photography workflow management capabilities, check out Widen Premedia Workflow Study Part I - Photography Workflow Management.


Color Production
The image work for the project was done by the Widen Color Production department, which consists of six master graphic artists. They are the ones that go in and clean-up the files… They take the camera raw data and optimize it for the best environment for lighting of the flesh tones, hair color, garment color, detail and sharpness, etc. Widen’s color retouching experts have a knack for understanding the customer expectations, which was very simple and natural for them given the jobs they work on every day.


Digital Sampling
The Digital Sampling department is the group that applies the graphics to the garments shot on the models and mannequins. The color operators take artwork from Illustrator and merge them onto the actual photograph in Photoshop. There challenge and expertise is to make sure the graphics follow the contours, shapes, highlights, shadows and wrinkles in the garments as they apply logos, team names, numbers and names, etc. supplied in the client's technical specs.

Many people don't realize what a huge production process there is that goes on behind the scenes to get garments sent to Widen, put on models, styled, shot correctly, color-optimized, digital-sampled, posted to a database and eventually marketed on a website or print catalog, signage, etc.


Color Management
Consumers only spend a few seconds shopping for garments online, so it’s critical that what they see on the screen is what they’ll get in real life.  We don’t use our eyes to confirm what we “think” we like on a screen, we use technical data that comes from a strong color management umbrella over the top of everything we do in production. From our cameras to our proofing devices, everything is color managed for the desired output – website or printed material.

In the end, Widen created approximately 500 images, which are upload to their digital asset library also hosted by Widen. From there, the images are ordered for placement on any number of websites. Posting images via embed links will help to ensure the most current images are used across all web domains.

The Widen Advantage caters to the life cycle of a digital asset by offering all of the production, management and distribution services under one roof. The blend of Widen premedia services and digital asset management solutions working together help clients in a number of ways, including:

Cost Savings - Increases efficiency in creative/production cycles plus centralization of re-usable assets minimizes efforts re-inventing every process of the creation-production-distribution value chain.

Faster Time to Revenue - Shortens time to market and increases effectiveness of marketing execution by empowering sales channels with on-demand access to use brand-approved digital assets.

Competitive Advantage - Improves brand consistency with quality representation of products and ensures compliance across targeted, multi-channel marketing campaigns.

Better Planning and Strategy - Tracking of usage patterns including reuse and repurposing of assets allows for more effective budgeting, resource allocation and planning of future marketing campaigns.

Check out the Widen Premedia Workflow Study Part I - Photography Workflow Management.

Watch the interview with Brian Becker, VP of Client Development for Widen Enterprises, as he talks about the prepress production processes performed for a large apparel marketer. Part I focuses on Widen's digital photography and photography workflow management capabilities in the life cycle of a digital asset.

Intro
Widen recently helped a large apparel company improve quality and streamline creative production processes by utilizing a blend of Widen premedia services and digital asset management technologies. Widen helped the client make the move from showcasing garments currently shot on mannequins to garments shot on live models for a new women's sports licensed apparel campaign. In meeting the goal of going live inside 30 days, Widen created over 500 images with 20-25% of their shots featuring garments on live models versus mannequins.

This is a case of having a DAM customer, in which Widen provides the technology and service to manage thousands of images, take advantage of Widen’s expertise in premedia services to create their digital assets for this particular campaign.


Models and Apparel – Connecting one DAM Customer with another DAM Customer
Since this apparel customer wanted to use live models for the photo shoot at Widen, we were able to help because we have another DAM software customer that is a model and talent agency. In essence, we were able to connect one DAM client with another DAM client to complete the photo shoot. To get started, the apparel company was able to browse model shots by viewing assets from the Rock Agency online image management system and select the talent for the shoot.


Digital Photography, Review and Approval
When it came time for the shoot in Widen's photo studio, we brought in the models, photographer, and did all the make-up and styling so that we could capture a single garment before it was off to our digital sampling and color retouching departments to create all of the products and get them ready for the customer’s campaign.  (Learn more about Widen digital sampling and color retouching services in Part II.)

Leveraging Widen's online photo approval application, Widen could post the best shots for client approval before the models had even left the studio. Widen’s photo approval system allowed for same-day sign-off by the client who was over a thousand miles away.


Color Retouching, Image Management and Distribution
Once the preferred shots were selected, Widen’s Digital Sampling department created the other variations of the garments by applying logos, team names, numbers and names, etc. supplied in the client’s technical specs with Illustrator files. Widen's Color Retouching department also created the one-of-a-kind pieces by taking a photo of the garment on the mannequin and applying color retouching techniques to create quality digital apparel samples optimized for e-commerce websites. All of the final images were organized and managed in Widen’s online photo asset management system where the client could select the best shots for executing the campaign.


The end result helped the client achieve superior image quality and color consistency for the product images on the web to best represent the real-life garment.


Check out the Widen Premedia Workflow Study Part II - Digital Sampling and Color Retouching.

Do you want all the latest and greatest news and updates about Widen digital asset management programs and premedia services?  Become a Fan of Widen on Facebook.

The Widen Facebook fan page provides a central location for everything “Widen” with links to all of the latest articles, news, blogs, videos, photos and more.

Become a fan of Widen on Facebook and join in on the conversations.



Introduction to the main features of the Widen Facebook Fan Page:

The Wall – View a log of the latest article placements, mentions in trade publications, press releases, blogs and member commentary.  Some of the more notable recent postings include links to Widen articles in Adotas, ebizQ, DM News, Corporate Media News, Multichannel Merchant and the American Marketing Association’s Marketing Power.com. You can also find Widen quotes and client successes in recent trade publications including KMWorld, Processor.com and Big Picture Magazine. 

Info – Catch a glimpse of Widen with a short company overview, mission and product snapshot.

A sample of the Widen Product snapshot:

Widen Media Collective - A web-based digital asset management software application for creating, managing and distributing photos, videos, marketing materials and other digital media.

Premedia Services - photography, color retouching, digital sampling, catalog production, color management and wide format printing.

Photos – Check out Widen photo albums including Widen magazine covers from the premedia open house, Widen company kickball, black and white historical images of Widen Engraving Co., and portfolios of Widen Digital Sampling, Color Markups and Color Retouching.

Videos – Watch Widen’s latest photoshop magic premedia viral videos and get 1-on-1 with Widen’s CEO and other subject matter experts.

Other areas of interest on the Widen Facebook page include RSS feeds of all the latest blogs covering  Widen’s areas of expertise, links to other industry resources, and favorite pages linking to the fan pages of Widen Customers.

To learn more, become a Fan of Widen on Facebook.

From Way Up On Top of the Carpet Padding...

Just like the opportunity for voters to find new users of the official White House stemware, the mammoth Print 09 trade show blows into the windy city every four years. Chicago's cavernous McCormick Place was once again the site for the six day event that showcases press, converting and finishing equipment manufacturers along with premedia and prepress service providers.

From most of the exhibitors that I talked to, attendance during the event started off slow on Friday, but picked up as the show progressed. Many did think that overall the attendance was down substantially from Print 05. However, when I was there on Monday (day 4), it was at times difficult to talk with some of the vendors, as many booths I visited were packed with attendees. I suspect the same would not have been true on Saturday or Sunday given the beautiful weather in Chicago.

Whether it is Graph Expo or Print, I think the square footage of the floor space that some companies occupy is in direct proportion to the amount of padding that is placed under the carpeting in their booth. Take a few of the larger exhibitors like Heidelberg, Xerox, or HP for example. I actually had to use a rope ladder to climb onto their floor space. Once I was up there, I had to crouch my 6' 4" frame at times to keep my head from coming in contact with the structural support joists for the McCormick Place roof. And then it was like walking on a Tempurpedic mattress. 24 feet of memory foam under foot takes its toll eventually. I heard several people were taken to the hospital for falling off of the carpeting.
 
Okay, on a more semi-serious note, here is some random thoughts from just a few of the 650+ exhibitors that occupied the more than 460,000 square feet of floor space...

                  

A lot of the buzz I heard was based not on what was there, but what was NOT there. Namely any equipment from Kodak. In a bold move, they instead chose to fill their booth with a bunch of interactive information kiosks. They also had a large set, called the K-Zone, where they conducted interviews of various industry leaders in a talk show format. It was exactly like "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien", except a lot less funny. I thought the Kodak booth was well designed and it seemed to be pretty crowded every time I walked through it. Some people where a bit put off that they did not show any equipment. I give them credit for at least trying something different. At the very least, they generated a lot of buzz throughout the show.

                           Kodak also had a pretty cool handout at the show...Their magazine called "One" had a 5 mil clear polyester outer cover printed on a Gallus EM 510 S press. What was unique about it was that it showed an image on the outside printed (from the inside) with 20 micron stochastic screening and another image printed with a 200 line screen on the inside. It was essentially four color process, two hits of white, and another four color process on top of that. A nice flexo project showcasing their Flexcel NX Digital Flexographic System.

FineEye Color Solutions (formerly known as Chromaticity) introduced the ICE (intelligent color engine) technology in the form of the ICEserver. The ICEserver is a Mac based application that processes PDF files before imaging on a CTP, inkjet or color controller RIP. It takes a different approach for converting files from RGB to CMYK. It recalculates color conversions with new algorithms, accounting for paper color values. Programmed Color Reformulation (PCR) is built into the ICEserver which functions in a way like GCR - replacing some CMY with black. They claim ICE yields a 20% increase in gamut with existing CMYK inks; 25% average reduction in ink use; increase in dynamic range and contrast; faster makereadies and it equals gray balance and tonality of GRACoL and SWOP. The before/after color samples they displayed in their booth were impressive. They intend to have another ICE product out early next year - ICEmaker which will be a Photoshop plug in using the same technology for color separation. Hmmm, that makes me think... maybe Widen should OEM their ICE technology and incorporate it into our digital asset management software. We'll call it ICEdam. And we'll call our Widen Appliance server ICEcube. And then there will be ICEberg to sink large ocean liners carrying Leonardo DiCaprio, and... Okay, I'll stop now.

What was the deal with the AT&T coverage in the McCormick Place exhibit halls? Can't a guy get a decent Internet connection on his iPhone so he can tweet? And don't get me started on the $12 burger in the Plate Room food court that tasted like a sweaty shin guard.

                   Just Normlicht, the German manufacturer of light booths and desktop viewers was showing off their new LED Color Viewing Light. The desktop viewer uses new LED technology to replicate almost any standardized light source. The new LED technology also offers the ability to simulate any light source with or without the UV spectrum allowing for easy viewing of the effects of optical brightening agents found in many commercially available substrates. The consistent color in these booths can be maintained for 25,000 hours - 10 times as long as a standard booth containing fluorescent tubes. They had these new LED products on display along with their line of Just colorCommunicator booths which are equipped with a USB interface for calibrating the intensity of the standardized lighting along with the monitor. For more information on the pricey new Just LED booths, see my previous blog post called, Let there be LED.

GMG introduced the ColorServer Plus - A new color management solution specifically designed to allow companies to consistently print to an industry standard (GRACoL) on a digital press to achieve color accuracy. At Print 09, GMG announced the use of GMG ColorServer Plus driving an HP Indigo press. ColorServer Plus uses GMG’s iterative profiling approach to establish a precise calibration state of the digital printer as well as conformance to a specific industry or in-house print standard.

I think I'll skip the $12 burger at Graph Expo 2010.

Here is one of my clients high quality pieces of furniture. My task was to take this digital asset and create a sense of motion for the self closing door feature. Accomplishing this task required digital media management of three separate exposures. The door is strategically placed in various positions. Using photoshop, I digitally sampled the opacities to 55%. Color correction and color retouching had to be performed identically to each layer.

The first layer represents the slightly open door at 100%.
The second layer I have added a slight ghost of the door in it's closed position.
The third layer I have placed the door in it's 2/3 closed position at 55% opacity.
The fourth layer I have placed the door in it's 1/3 closed position at 55% opacity.
The final layer I masked off the door in it's original position, allowing the motion portion to be seen underneath. When done correctly, the color manipulation will yield a natural looking temporal scenario for the auto close feature.

Keywords: Color Retouching, Color Manipulation, Color Management, Digital Media Management

Since the Aberdeen Group Report, The Marketers Guide to Justifying Investments in Digital Asset Management, came out, we've been speaking with all sorts of organizations from various vertical industries – manufacturing, retail, healthcare, financial services, insurance and non-profits to name a few – about their marketing operations and digital media management practices.  Organizations of all shapes and sizes are learning more about leveraging Digital Asset Management technologies for enhancing brand management and improving return on marketing investments with greater ability to reuse, repurpose and re-channel existing digital media assets.  Is DAM right for you?  Where do you stand? 

Gauge how you compare with the Aberdeen Study participants and others researching DAM systems...Take the live poll below:

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Check back or subscribe via RSS as sample size & results will be reported weekly.

From capture to distribution, Widen helps marketers save costs, improve efficiency and speed time to market with its array of digital production services. 

Photographic Capture

Specializing in tabletop and lifestyle digital photography, particularly for the apparel industry, Widen is able to reduce photography time and costs by capturing only a neutral color garment of a particular style instead of photographing every color swatch needed to bring that product to market.  This method dramatically reduces photography costs and model time because it greatly reduces the amount of products to shoot.  Products are captured according to the client’s pre-determined product display standards.  For example with these apparel garments, Widen photographers shoot three-quarter front and back views of the item on a mannequin.  Captures are tagged and instantly delivered to Widen’s digital production team who then create the full line of products. 

Digital Production

After the captures are taken, Widen color retouching specialists apply the necessary colors and special markings according to the client’s technical specifications, thus creating all color swatches and product variations.  This process is formally referred to as “digital sampling” for the apparel market.  This process is manual versus automated for the purpose of producing superior quality hi-resolution images that accurately represent the physical product.  Final images are created for both print and web use.  Benefits derived from this process include: reducing physical sample cost by marketing digital samples without physically producing all of the products, improving time to market with a process that previously took weeks or days to one that now takes only a couple of days to a couple of hours.  Intangible results for the client include improving brand consistency by accurately displaying all products available for sale in addition to improving market penetration by marketing the full line of products.

Web-based Collaboration, Management & Distribution

Widen also develops web based digital asset software for collaboration, approval tracking, management and distribution of digital files, an industry defined as digital asset management (DAM).  Widen speeds the approval process by allowing clients to instantly review the digital samples (digital assets) online and make comments, annotations, and order immediate changes.  Once the digitally produced file is approved by the client, they are available in a web-based, password protected, client-branded website where key internal marketing teams and external sales / distribution channels or retailers have access to download official product images.  Based on the level of permissions, users can download hi-resolution CMYK images for print use or lo-resolution RGB images for the web.  All files are instantly converted to the necessary output type from one master file type so that multiple formats of the same file do not need to be stored.  The Widen online DAM system is equipped with a number of features to manage images rights and access levels.  One of the hottest features and trends is publishing digital samples to online sources using digital asset embed links where the master file displayed online is referenced in the Widen DAM, which is the master repository.


 

Making a panoramic photo in Adobe Photoshop has never been easier. For this example I used four supplied digital asset files from one of my clients, the Madison Mallards baseball team. The images were taken from a high point of view. I’m not sure if a tripod was used, my guess was that these images were hand held. A conservative, but consistent, exposure was used.



Step 1: When shooting your panoramic try to keep the horizon level, a tripod is recommended.

Step 2:  “Lobotomize the camera”. Shoot with your camera on manual mode if possible. Assign the focus, exposure and White Balance so each image is consistent with the next.

Step 3: If shooting RAW, process the files with identical settings.

Step 4: Load the files into photoshop. Menu:file:automate:photomerge...

Step 5: For most images the “Auto” setting works with great success. Select “Blend Images Together” for a seamless composition. If your digital image files have dark corners, select “Vignette Removal”. Photoshop CS4 will automatically lighten those dark corners. If your photo has some lens distortions (barrel, pincushion, fish eye) select the “Geometric Distortion Correction” option. Photoshop will manipulate the images automatically.

Step 6: Click “Ok”.

The time it takes to generate the panoramic image is dependent on the number, size, and content of your host files, the options you select, your computer, etc... Most images are processed within minutes, if not faster.

When completed your panoramic image will be in a blended but rough format. From this point you will want to crop your file to a pleasing rectangle. You may also need to clone a bit in the corners to add image for a complete composition. Lastly, the image is now in a perfect state for any final post processing, color correction, digital manipulation, and artistic flare.

Keywords: Photoshop, CS4, Panoramic, Blending, Automation, Digital, Asset, Image, Alignment, Auto, Color Correction, Madison, Mallards, Color Retouching, Photography, Pano, Creative Software, Corporate Image Library, Digital Sampling, Digital Media Management

Since my last post in regard to Widen apparel marketing technology, An Inside Look at How NBA Hot Market Demands Are Met by Widen Digital Sampling & Digital Asset Management, I received emails from DICK’S Sporting Goods when the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup Finals and again when the Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA Finals.  (I’d like to think my previous blogs featuring the Penguins and Lakers had an impact on the outcome of the series, but I’m sure they didn’t!)  These timely marketing emails from DICK’S Sporting Goods announcing the availability of the official locker room championship merchandise use digital samples created by Widen. 

Widen Digital Sampling Process:

1. Photograph neutral color physical apparel samples
2. Digitally create all color swatches according to league approved team colors
3. Apply team and league graphics according to Adidas supplied technical guidelines
4. Upload final digital samples to web-based digital asset library for retail access

Using the online digital asset management workflow tools, Widen personnel route completed samples to the Adidas Sports Licensed Division marketing teams for approval.  Once approved digital samples are available for download, online retailers and catalogers use the Widen digital media conversion wizard to send and receive the images in the exact file formats and resolutions needed for web or print use.  That’s how digital samples for the championship hats and tees go from design to delivery just in time for you to purchase the merchandise online during the locker room celebration! 

How Apparel Digital Sampling Uses Consumer Buying Preferences

Notice how the Reebok and Adidas apparel styles are displayed with the three-quarter front view of the apparel sample on a mannequin.  Widen assisted a Reebok research study to understand consumer buying preferences for apparel sample images displayed in print and web media.  Widen compared which views were most preferred by sports apparel consumers and the three-quarter view was most preferred over the full frontal view (as displayed above in the DICK'S Sporting Goods email template).  By running reports on image distribution and access through the Widen image tracking system, Adidas is able to measure what styles are most popular.

Official Championship Apparel Samples Created by Widen

Displayed below are Reebok and Adidas hot market digital apparel samples (created by Widen premedia services and color retouching experts) for all three major sports champions declared in 2009: NFL Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers, NHL Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins and NBA Finals Champion Los Angeles Lakers. 



For more information about Widen apparel marketing technology and services, check out the Widen Digital Sampling webpage.

DICK’S Sporting Goods also delivers email marketing messages to subscribers for the NHL Conference Champions and Stanley Cup Champions.  Pittsburgh Penguins fans received an email showcasing the availability of the official locker room tee shortly after the Eastern Conference Champion was declared.


Widen works with the Adidas Sports Licensed Division in creating and distributing digital apparel samples for the NHL, in addition to the NBA and NFL.  Concurrent with the NBA Finals, the NHL’s hot market is the Stanley Cup Playoffs.  The same digital sampling process is applied for the NHL as it is for the NBA and NFL.  One main difference, however, is that the NBA goes with the Adidas brand, whereas the NFL and NHL use the Reebok brand.  Both brands are part of the Adidas Sports Licensed Division.   


     
These images may be too small to notice, but the logos on the inside back behind the neck are even different—Adidas for the NBA and Reebok for the NHL.

All Adidas digital samples regardless of the league are housed in the Widen hosted digital asset library.  Access controls are regulated via roles & permissions and asset groups.  See the full post on the NBA Hot Market to learn more about Widen’s process and benefits of digital sample production and distribution for the apparel market. 

Minutes after the LA Lakers won the Western Conference Finals best-of-7 game series over the Denver Nuggets, I received an email from DICK’S Sporting Goods announcing the availability of the official locker room conference champions short-sleeve tee and Flexfit hat by Adidas.

 
Have you ever wondered how that happens so quickly?  

Widen helps make it happen.  The Widen Digital Sampling process assists in the creation of digital apparel samples and the Widen web-based digital asset management system is used to manage and distribute them.  As the official provider of licensed apparel for the NBA, NFL, and NHL, the Adidas Sports Licensed Division (includes Adidas and Reebok brands) uses Widen premedia services and DAM technologies to meet hot market demands for the NBA Finals, Super Bowl and Stanley Cup Finals. 

The Widen process helps Adidas retailers such as DICK’S Sporting Goods market championship apparel merchandise as soon you see the players wearing the t-shirts and hats after the game is over.

Widen Digital Sampling Process

1. Photograph 1 neutral grey apparel sample
2. Digitally create all color swatches according to league approved team colors
3. Apply graphics according to Adidas supplied technical guidelines

Next, all Adidas digital samples are loaded into the Widen-powered web-based image library so that Adidas can manage them in one central location. The Widen web-based DAM holds all apparel and headwear styles for the current and coming sports season for the NBA, NFL and NHL.  Since many of the physical apparel styles are not yet available in stores or online (or even physically produced), many of the images are on hold and are tightly controlled using Widen’s roles & permissions structure.  Styles and logos are often determined 6-7 months in advance of the coming season for the major sports leagues. 

When it’s time for these assets to go to market, orders are placed in the DAM system and retailers can download the files according to exact specifications for print or web use.  All users are required to sign off on a rights release agreement before they have access to the images.  For example, DICK’S Sporting Goods was granted permission to access images for the Lakers and Nuggets so they could prepare their email marketing templates in advance of the final game of the Western Conference Finals. 


An Inside Look at the Digital Samples Created for the NBA Hot Market

Conference Finals Locker Room Apparel – Caps and Tees prepared for all 8 Semifinals Teams

NBA Finals Apparel – Caps and Tees prepared for Lakers, Nuggets, Magic and Cavaliers

NBA Champion Apparel – Caps and Tees prepared for the Lakers, Magic and Cavaliers* 

(*Interestingly, the Cavaliers were expected to make it to the NBA Finals so Widen prepares digital samples in advance of the final outcome.  Widen staff are responsible for deleting all inaccurate/obsolete assets as soon as the outcome is determined.)

Enough physical samples are produced for the 2 teams in the Western Conference Finals, Eastern Conference Finals and NBA Finals.


The Widen Impact

As you can guess, the digital sample production and distribution process shaves weeks off the time to market versus the process of physically producing, photographing and shipping physical samples.  Besides the time savings of digital sample creation, Adidas is able to drastically reduce costs of physically producing each item and team combination and the photography and shipping costs to go along with it.  

Benefits of Using Widen Hosted Digital Asset Management:

• Accelerated search and retrieval time
• Increased real-time collaboration of assets and approvals
• Cost savings through the elimination of physical delivery
• Elimination of the cost of lost or misplaced work
• Reduction in time-to-market through digital delivery

Widen assists the Adidas Sports Licensed Division in many ways to increase multi-channel marketing efficiency and effectiveness.   With the NBA Finals between the LA Lakers and Orlando Magic underway, Widen already has all of the championship merchandise digital samples ready to go. 

Catch a glimpse of a few Widen creative capabilities with an artistic tour of digital photography, color retouching and digital sampling.

Prior to working at Widen, I applied my expertise to color retouching for fine art reproductions.  Creating exact reproductions of an artist's vision is not an easy task.  Here are some things I have learned over the years to help achieve the best reproductions of your work.

Let's talk RGB

In the ever expanding world of Premedia Arts, digital is now the norm.  Hopefully the fine art of printing will not become a thing of the past.  With so many ways to get your digital creations out there we cannot leave behind the good feeling of holding a printed masterpiece in our hands.

Personally, I work the bulk of my files in RGB... sometimes I do ALL my work in RGB then convert for output.  RGB as a color space has a much wider color gamut, you can change colors more easily and make larger changes to exposure and contrast too.  Have I lost you yet?... boy, this can be pretty dull... lets liven it up with some fun images...
 

An image that is in RGB mode is optimized for display on a computer monitor.  In order to reproduce that very same image using ink on paper, it must be converted to the CMYK.  This is where we might run into trouble... If you have been working on a super vibrant RGB image and then convert your file to CMYK for output you might feel a little let down... Your super sexy colors in RGB are now a little drab and dull in CMYK.

First let's check your color settings... Go to Edit - Color Settings (command + shift + k on a mac) I always work in Adobe RGB 1998.  You'll want to make sure your settings reflect your final output.  If your goal is to display your masterpiece on the web or on a device (monitor, iphone, etc) keep with RGB.  However, when your ready to print your CMYK profile should be the same as the output device you are printing to.

Of course, we are assuming that your monitor is calibrated...

You can use a number of methods to calibrate your monitor.  Two low cost solutions are the X-Rite Colormunki for about $500, or the X-Rite i1 Display for around $200.  Both solutions will allow you to calibrate and profile your monitor.  The Colormunki is a full blown spectrophotometer that will also sample colors and profile a printer.  Read more at Mark Pajari’s blog: Go Bananas with X-Rite's New Colormunki.

As far as settings go, a typical LCD display should be calibrated to a white point of 6500, gamma 2.2, and a luminance of around 120 cd/m2.  You can increase the luminance a bit if you work in a brighter environment.  A new monitor out of the box is usually set way too bright, often over 300 cd/m2.  So calibrating it and bringing down the luminance is a very good start.

If you are still using a CRT display, as soon as you are done reading this blog, get in your car and go buy a new LCD display.  Put it in place today.  Really, if you care about the color of the work you produce from your computer, a good LCD display is a smart and cost effective investment.

Widen Prints

Need a large print for promotional materials?  Maybe something from your corporate image library?  Looking to reproduce your best image as a small edition to sell at galleries or art shows?  Whatever your needs, your files are in good hands with Widen.

We use either the Epson 9880s or the HPZ6100. The Epson uses K3 ink technology, the HP using their own version, called HP Vivera inks. The Epson has a max width of 44", the HP max width is 60".  All of our devices are put to the test on a daily basics, printing everything from beautiful full color landscapes to subtle sepia tones creations.  We are always checking for consistency and accuracy in all of our prints so you are sure to receive the finest quality print Widen can produce.

Substrates

We use HPs Premium Instant Dry Satin Photo Paper and are currently testing various papers with matte finishes.  In the future we will be expanding our substrate list as the demand increases.

Color Space

Nothing traditional here...
Widen will print your  images on both machines in RGB using Adobe'98 color space.  We are still experimenting with 16 bit color and other gamuts that will help your images reach their fullest potential.

What do we need from you?

Simple. You supply us with your RGB file and depending on your level of expertise you can request just a print or have one of our experienced color operators give your file our undivided attention.  We will convert the file, if needed, spot check for any flaws and complete any specific direction you might have for us.

Remember the past, live in the present, and plan for the future.

In the coming weeks I will be diving in deeper to wide format printing at Widen.  For now, you can get more info and a price quote by clicking the link below:

Wide Format Prints at Widen

Psst... I will be interviewing one of the GREATS in the world of fine art reproduction! So stay tuned and follow me on twitter or Behance for all the latest and greatest in the great big world of Premedia Arts!

This new economy forces marketing and creative operations to take a closer look at opportunities to squeeze more value from their digital assets.  Moreover, it is more important to lower the cost of bringing your products to market through digital production.

By helping clients create and manipulate images and streamline creative processes, Widen aims to help clients lower their production costs and shorten time to market while maintaining high quality and consistency of brand assets. 

Widen Premedia Services

Digital Photography - Experienced photographers capture your products at competitive prices in a state of the art digital photography studio.

Color Retouching - From photocomposition to color manipulation and image preparation - no job is too large or complex for us to handle.

Digital Sampling - Dramatically reduce time/cost of bring products to market by creating multiple color specific, detailed versions from one master generic image.

Catalog Production - Leverage automated processes to efficiently manage catalog and multi-channel marketing workflows.