Artist Has an Eye for Imaginative Work Environments
BY BRAD GRAVES
Staff Writer
She has met the foe, and it is 70 feet long.
It’s a blank wall with a door in the middle. Nothing dangerous, only dull. Painter Linda Luisi’s job is to transform it into something that will interest and delight the employees of BioQ.com in Carlsbad.
Luisi, the principal of Carlsbad-based Luisi & Associates, creates murals and paintings for what she calls “internal marketing.”
Her client, BioQ, is developing an Internet-based service to help life science companies get their products over regulatory hurdles and to market. The company has a large room that houses its employees.
Luisi is dividing the surface of one 9-foot-by-70-foot wall with pewter strips, running at diagonals. Five paintings will go inside those strips. Her subjects run from high-tech to timeless: They include fiber-optics, molecules, a double helix and a globe.
Luisi markets her paintings as a tool for employee recruitment and retention. They are comforting and invigorating, she said.
The BioQ mural is in “a transition space,” she noted. “After hours of concentration at computers, people will walk along this wall in a more relaxing environment where they will interact with others.”
Paula Baxter Atkins, principal of Construction and Design Consultants in Encinitas, brought Luisi into BioQ’s building project. The company “needs a distinctive and fun work environment that attracts new employees and keeps turnover low,” Atkins said.
Luisi said she markets herself by attending organizational development and human resource meetings, adding that she approaches CEOs and facilities managers. Many companies are expanding, relocating and renovating, she said. And many have blank walls.
The painter has also created murals for the Union Bank of California data center Downtown and Catalina Offshore Products near Morena Boulevard. The seafood product wholesaler chose portholes depicting undersea scenes.
As a first step in creating artwork, she said, company officials talk over concepts with her. That, Luisi added, has one more benefit. It offers “an outlet for creative ideas not commonly expressed at work.”
Fast Delivery In Store for Comic Fans
BY GIG PATTA Research Director
There’s a way to deliver comics straight to readers’ hands faster than a speeding bullet.
San Diego-based Toonscape, an online artist provider, will soon be offering digital comic books downloaded straight to wireless handheld devices from the Internet.
Toonscape signed with Burlington, N.J.-based Franklin Electronic Publishers and Bloomington, Ill.-based Cybiko Wireless Entertainment System to provide digital comic strips and comic books to Franklin’s eBookman and Cybiko handheld devices.
Comic content will be available in the fall on Cybiko’s handheld device. Franklin will launch its eBookman device this fall.
Toonscape is also in negotiations with several other handheld device companies to provide comic books and strips content.
“Selling digital comic books and strips is the way of the future,” said Anne-Marie Linas, content manager for Toonscape.
Toonscape will provide free initial downloads from 10 independent artists for the eBookman handheld device. After the initial six-month download period lapses, consumers can download additional content from the company’s Web site for a nominal charge.
Linas said Toonscape helps artists distribute their work by cyberspace and offers revenue sharing of their digital comics with the artists. There are more than 1,000 independent artists on Toonscape’s Web site.
Toonscape’s Web site, which provides free personal Web portfolios and galleries to comic artists, launched in April this year.
Macy’s to Introduce Greendog Kids Clothes
BY LEE ZION
Staff Writer
A new line of children’s clothing is about to take a bow-wow in San Diego with a fashion show to benefit local animal shelters.
Greendog clothes will be available at San Diego Macy’s department stores starting Aug. 1. To mark the occasion, the Fashion Valley store is holding a children’s fashion show Aug. 26.
Admission to the fashion show “Greendog on the Catwalk” is $5, and includes giveaways, prizes, refreshments and pet presentations. Fully 100 percent of the money raised will go to the San Diego Humane Society, said Jennie Van Meter, special events manager for Macy’s.
Greendog is an in-house brand of Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores, which owns Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, The Bon Marche and several other stores. The clothing line is available in all sizes from toddler to young adult, Van Meter said.
The clothing line has a number of innovative features, such as oversized, color-coded price tags to distinguish “size zones” for infant, toddler, child and young adult sizes. Clothes are being marketed as fashionable, reasonably priced, and “food-fight proof,” she said.
Part of the marketing strategy for the clothing is Greendog himself, the company mascot who can be seen at the Web site, (www.gogreendog.com). The dog, although not designed to resemble a specific breed, is “terrier-like.” Greendog is actually white, with green markings and a green collar, said Jim Sluzewski, spokesman for Greendog.
Greendog is also available as a plush toy, in 9-inch and 12-inch sizes. Profits from sales of the Greendog toy will be donated to local pet adoption programs and animal shelters across the country, he said.
The Greendog is the first toy to be unveiled. Other toys currently being developed will be “character-related” pets with storylines attached to them, Sluzewski said.
USD Grads Plan to Keep Celebrating
BY TANYA RODRIGUES Staff Writer
Seven courses. A final. Developing portfolios. Fifty hours of practical experience.
After all of that, a group of USD graduates is ready to do some celebrating.
Planning the celebrating, that is.
The class of 17 students was the first to complete USD’s event management certificate program.
The University’s Office of Continuing Education began the certificate program two years ago.
The program was developed in conjunction with George Washington University.
The meetings and events industry is becoming a big business , it generates $83 billion annually, according to USD.
The events can range from conventions and trade shows to corporate galas and Super Bowls.
Those in the industry say that professional practices and standards are becoming increasingly important.
They say that the event-planning professionals need to be trained in finance, marketing, promotions and even risk management, according to USD.
One graduate, Belita Butler, has already announced that she’s starting her own event management firm.
Another, Paige Tyler, who works for a law firm, is simply going to ask for a raise.
