The Heasman

Why Copywriting is Awesome

By The Heasman | Published: August 8, 2012

This is for those who want to be an entrepreneur someday. Or those who would love to learn how to read minds.

Okay… not like how Professor Xavier could, but in the most humanely possible way.

I mean think about it. If you owned a business, or provided a product or service to people. To customers. To clients. Or even to Toddlers. Wouldn’t it be just downright more-cool-than-moving-the-sun-with-the-power-of-your-mind if you could fully understand them. To know their wants? Their needs? Their habits? Armed with this information, wouldn’t it be just more possible you could be of better service to them (read: make more money)?

Alright I lied. It wouldn’t be cooler than moving the sun with the power of your mind…. But it would be pretty cool, when your customers go “It’s like you read my mind! This guy completely knows me”.

I mean a few percent of them may be creeped out by your new found super powers. However the rest of them will probably think what is reasonable to think. You get them. You probably are a bit like them. You know what this leads to…

They eventually start to trust you

Trust builds relationships…. Relationships build trade… [Read More].

Posted in Copywriting | Tagged Copywriting, customers, entrepreneur, sales | Leave a comment

I became a Design Guru after reading this book…. I think

By The Heasman | Published: July 26, 2012

Can the principles of design simply be taught? Surely the skills and ‘talent’ for design is something that one is born with, and is gained through a lifetime of experience?

Well that’s what I thought. Until BOOM! I came across this book which claimed that it could teach me – a logical, right-brained, rigid Physics student – the principles that are used behind good design.

You can imagine my intrigue. You can also imagine my eyes flew out of my head faster than a speeding bullet, and I hammered my mouse on the buy button when it described it would teach design in the context of web-design and also App design.

Well 6 weeks later, after a bunch of Physics exams (I am still a student after all), some video-games, many nights of drinking, and also reading this book, I can safely say that I have finished Principles of Beautiful Web Design by Jason Beaird

Here are some thoughts on it:

Who is it for?

Anything of true value that is produced in this world isn’t made for everyone. Firstly this book would be of benefit for people who are interested in web design. However [Read More].

Posted in Web Design | Leave a comment

How to draw Wireframes in Photoshop

By The Heasman | Published: June 8, 2012

Amazing Blog Author’s note: This tutorial was supposed to have helpful images along with the instructions, however my uh, hard-drive blew up, and those images weren’t backed up. I’ll update this post soon with the aforementioned images. Moral of the story, always always work in dropbox.

As I so elaborately wrote about in my previous post, I’ve been teaching myself how to use the adobe creative suite. And by use I mean for something other than creating crappy posters. I have been learning how to use Photoshop and Dreamweaver to build websites.

I’ve been using an infiniteskills video course to guide me, but as I haven’t finished it yet I’m unable to write a review. Instead I’ll give a quick tutorial on how to draw a website wireframe in photoshop.

Uh… What’s a wireframe?

Before I completely dive in, I’m sure it would be useful to actually know what a wireframe is. Many people out there on the internet do know this, and if you’re one of those…. just skip this paragraph. Otherwise these words will just be a waste of your time.

If you don’t know what a wireframe is, worry not. A wireframe [Read More].

Posted in Web Design | Tagged photoshop, web design, wireframes | Leave a comment

I’m Going to become a Web Designer

By The Heasman | Published: May 28, 2012

It is July 2012. A masters graduate looks outside the window to see a brief blessing of a hot summer’s day in London. Yet he can’t enjoy it. For he is a temporary waiter at a catering event staff. Smiling as he walks around holding a tray of salmon canapés, he tries to forget the underlying resentment he feels. The resentment of the interview he had the day before. By all accounts it was a success. He was working today, but there had been one caveat. One painful caveat

‘Awesome, David you can start right away. However… there is one thing,’ the smile of the interviewer seemed to genuinely reach her eyes.

‘Yeah?’ the graduate replied. Deep in an unspoken part of his mind he was thinking how he would do almost anything for a girl with those eyes.

‘While I’m a genuine fan of your hair – gosh I wish I could grow an Afro myself! However I’m afraid you’ll need to tidy it up to work with us. Would it be too much to ask for you to trim a lot of it off?’

The smile on the graduate’s face froze. Anything but THAT!!! His mind silently screamed. [Read More].

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Responses

To be a Freelance Copywriter or not to be?

By The Heasman | Published: March 25, 2012

So out of all the hair brained money making schemes my mind has come up with (I’ll tell you later how I wanted to teach people how to write sci-fi novels….when I hadn’t done it myself) I think I’ve found one that’s a bit realistic and doable.

I want to become a freelance copywriter. It’s the perfect job for a money making obsessed student like me. Plus freelance means I can have as much time as a Time Traveller….Okay maybe not.

But for people to hire my super talented self, I first need to have a portfolio of work. Seeing as its going to be hard work convincing people to pay a Physics student money to write some words, I’m going to have to initially make some stuff up. Then I can offer my services for free. And finally actually start getting paid for my work.

But what to make up?

Well there is a candidate.

I got this thing through the mail the other day.

Being the curious geek who’s had digital priting experience, I was naturally intrigued. I also love Netflix, my only criticism being that for now, they don’t have the range of choice a Film buff [Read More].

Posted in Copywriting | Tagged Copywriting, Netflix | Leave a comment

Why I’m writing this blog

By The Heasman | Published: March 7, 2012

My apologies if this post lacks the super clarity that future ones will. I went around my room pretending to kick things like Jean Claude Van Damn as opposed to actually writing a plan on what I want to say.

Oh well: Here goes.

So why am I actually writing this blog?

I’ve already mentioned the fact that personal branding is gonna be everything in the future. The CV or resumé is dying. In its place people are asking for examples of previous work, or Press Releases of projects you’ve worked on. In 15 years time, I can’t see a personal blog being evaded from assessing a person’s prospects. I’m not talking about working for corporations, I’m talking about working for companies that actually have souls and that you want to work in.

The personal blog is going to be the new business card. That is my prediction. And I don’t want to miss out.

However a super duper more pressing reason I’m writing in this thing is that of accountability. I want to hold myself accountable for the crazy path I’m going to take down. You see saying I’m going to start a business is probably going to keep [Read More].

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

My Manifest Destiny to rule the world…or Hello World

By The Heasman | Published: March 3, 2012

Hello there!

This shall be my blog of THE HEASMAN dot com. I used to write on tumblr but I decided I needed a real blawg (you can find my tumblr here.)

I hadn’t yet started this because I used to wonder “Why should I bother? The people who have the best blogs are the ones who started around 2005.” Unfortunately I couldn’t start blogging in 2005 because I was 15 years old. And my biggest worries at that age were….whatever 15 year olds worry about. Y’know…. TV, girls, video games… that sorta stuff.

SO, there I was thinking:

“Shit. I need to get on this…But there’s no point”.

sad summy is sad

But AHA! There is a point. I need a personal brand. In the age of the internet I do not want to be the dinosaur who is watching the impending asteroid of a forgotten identity crash into the world. And I’m going to rule this world. Surely the Earth needs a chronicle of how this is done?

So what is this blog actually going to be about?

I intend to chronicle my [Read More].