When a Decision Doesn’t Fly

July 3, 2015July 19, 2015 / terrinakamura / 29 Comments

Everyone has, at some point, made a regretful decision. Graphic designers love it when they can hit “Command-Z” — Undo! Unfortunately, that doesn’t always fly in real life.

Which leads me to a “tail” of woe about a switch I recently came to regret. It has to do with kites. That’s right — kites.

My husband and I have a beach store in West Seattle, right on Alki Beach and when we opened last summer, we had a great kite supplier. There was a concern, though — they were all the way in North Carolina!

Logistically, shipping merchandise from across the country means the cost of transportation must factor into the selling price. The kites were of great quality, and in spite of the freight charge, they sold well.

But it left us wondering if there was a closer supplier.

We learned one of our local vendors offered kites and they were less expensive. ALSO, they gave us free shipping, which is, in the world of retail, is AWESOME! So we thought we’d give them a shot.

But their kites turned out to be cheaply made and the lack of quality reflected poorly on us, so it was back to the launch pad.

Last month when we were in Yorktown, VA, we discovered a store very similar to ours. They carried kites from our original supplier as well as a variety of kites from an Oregon company — just one state away! The Oregon kites were more expensive, but they were well made and we thought it would be cool to support another Northwest business. So we ordered some!

The problem is, the Oregon kites aren’t selling. They are too expensive.

Ultimately, it was like a Goldilocks déva vu — One vendor was too cheap; one was too expensive, and our first vendor was “just right.”

We had to try the others before we realized just how good we had it. Which meant a happy ending to this tale of #SwitchersRemorse.

PS. As a member of a very cool team of influencers for Verizon Wireless, I received compensation to think of this story in my life, and to write about it 🙂

A tip from my friend, Sara F. Hawkins: If you switched away from Verizon and are regretting it, don’t worry. They’re making it easy for customers to come back. For more information, head over to your local Verizon store and tell them you have #SwitchersRemorse.

A virtual tour of Alki Surf Shop:
http://on.bubb.li/274389aw5ievoklfvbnzzhi/

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Alki Beach photo © Terri Nakamura 2015

Porridge courtesy of Wikipedia/commons:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6e/Denslow’s_three_bears_pg_5.jpg/512px-Denslow’s_three_bears_pg_5.jpg

Alki Surf Shop: http://www.alkisurfshop.com

Terri Nakamura on Twitter: https://twitter.com/terrinakamura

Alki Surf Shop on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AlkiSurfShop

The Horsfall House on AirBNB: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1229224

More from Terri Nakamura: http://seattledesigner.blogspot.com/

Inexpensively Add Photos to Your Web Site

November 13, 2014November 18, 2014 / terrinakamura / 8 Comments

Fall and winter weather has arrived in Seattle, and we’re embracing the change in seasons at Alki Surf Shop. Beach mats, towels and suntan lotion have been replaced by cool weather essentials and great gifts for fun and for the home.

Hand warmers for texting, scarves, hats, umbrellas and gift items that relate to the beach have been added to our inventory.

To showcase new offerings, we needed to create a new Gifts & Accessories section on our web site. But we couldn’t do so until we shot photos and wrote descriptions of our new products.

Light, Focus, Shoot

To expand our web site for next-to-nothing, we have been using the Nokia Lumia Icon, a tripod and device adaptor, plus a shop light and reflectors to shoot photos of our goods.

The product shots are done on the fly. When we have a few moments, we grab an item, set it up and shoot it in our back room. We’re working in a tiny space (about 3’ x 3’), stacking a couple of large cardboard boxes to create a work surface, and using some seamless paper for a background. We bounce light off the walls and ceiling, trying to eliminate glare where we can.

It’s not a sophisticated set up, but the Nokia Lumia Icon has such a good camera, it captures details that read well on the web. The end result: photos that can give our customers a pretty good idea of what we have for sale.

Converting Photos for Web

The Icon’s impressive pixel depth can be overkill for the web. If you upload a 20 megapixel image at 300 dots per inch (DPI) it will really slow down the loading of your web page.

So we take the photos into Photoshop, tweak the colors so they come close to representing the actual products, then down sample before adding to our web site.

We are using the Adobe Creative Suite CS6, which is no longer for sale. Adobe currently offers a $10/month Photoshop subscription on the Creative Cloud, and there are probably free applications out there that will do the same things, but we don’t use them.

Downsampling in Photoshop

Open the high-res file.
Adjust color, contrast, balance. Often I’ll start with adjusting levels and curves. Retouching can be at this point, too.
Save with a name so you can find it, in the high-resolution size in case you might want to use it for print later.
Crop the image (In our case, square or rectangles depending on the item)
Check and adjust the resolution and size for the web. Many people post at the exact size at 72 DPI, but we post images that are fairly large (up to 7” square at 72 DPI) so our customers can click on the image for a good sized view.
Save the file.
(NOTE) It’s good to keep copies all of your photos in the same file folder!

They’re ready to upload!

Functionality at a Great Price

Currently we use the Icon only as a camera and sound/music ‘brain” for the store.

I just Googled it, and see it’s currently $99 (with a new Verizon contract) through the Microsoft store. I don’t know the Nokia’s price was when newly released, but I suspect it was much higher. Because of its great camera, it has become my go-to tool for any shot where I need clarity and quality.

Alki Surf Shop has a number of one-of-a-kind items that won’t make it onto the web site, but for products where we have back-up inventory in stock, we are shooting images and trying to add a few day by day. The Icon enables us to be nimble about quickly uploading new offerings.

Below you will see a few of the images we’ve added to www.alkisurfshop.com, and links to the accessories. I hope you’ll browse the site, and if you happen to order something, leave a shout on your order and I’ll be sure to send a personal thank you note with your order.

Mahalo!

The Original Wine Charms “Tropical Paradise” and other styles available

Be Brave, Make Waves! Small Nautical Kinetic Sculpture (4 styles available)

Tiki Mask (alternate Tiki Sculpture also available!)

Weathered, miniature Adirondack chair ornaments, $6.50 each

Elegant Chateau wine box with nautical map; solid wood neck cradle inside

La Mer Seashell Soap Gift Box

Black freshwater pearls bracelet

Journals from Bali

Colonial Lantern

SAVE ON SHIPPING! COME INTO THE STORE AND SHOP! 2622 Alki Avenue SW, Seattle 98116 • 206-403-1901

Alki Surf Shop: The Store Verizon Helped Build

August 25, 2014August 26, 2014 / terrinakamura / 14 Comments

A mini Statue of Liberty near the birthplace of Seattle

Many people think of Verizon simply as a telecommunications company. But it’s much more. Because of its unique lens on its customer’s needs, it enables people to create, build, communicate and connect in ways you might not imagine.

After months of planning and renovation, in July we opened the legendary Alki Surf Shop in Seattle, home of original Alki-branded clothing and accessories.

Alki Surf Shop is a dream come true for both my husband and me. We’ve created a unique, fun and inviting experience in the Alki Beach neighborhood of West Seattle.

Beside the great “Genuine Alki”-branded clothing we’ve designed and produced locally, we identified and filled a need: There wasn’t a resource on the beach that offered essential things like towels, mats, sunscreen and other “oops, we forgot” items. And we realized there isn’t a central source providing information on local businesses and services, so we started a bulletin board featuring business cards, menus and schedules to help support our neighbors, while at the same time helping visitors to the beach..

Tees, tanks and hoodies with the Alki Genuine brand.

Colorful beach towels, sunscreen, sunglasses, beach mats, flip flops and more are available to beach visitors.

Also, there wasn’t a place on the beach that focused on Alki souvenirs, which is crazy since Alki is a “must see” destination in Seattle. People frequently tell us it feels more like southern California or Hawaii than a metropolitan city. In addition to the wonderful people we’ve met in our neighborhood, just this past week we had visitors from France, Germany, Finland, Denmark, Japan, Hong Kong, Canada, Mexico, The Dominican Republic, and states from all across the country.

Our first visitors from Germany and Arkansas

Alki Surf Shop offers a clean, beautiful and inviting shopping experience with a friendly “island vibe.” We receive a lot of great comments in our guest book, and love the suggestions we receive from customers who help guide us as we add new products to our shelves. When a customer makes a purchase, they are treated like “Hawaiian royalty” by David, who blows a conch shell with a shout out to thank them. It makes for lots of laughter and applause.

From early in our journey, the Nokia Lumia Icon smartphone, and Nokia Lumia 2520 tablet played important roles. They allowed us to connect with, and stay on top of, correspondence with suppliers, manage our inventory, and source, as well as coordinate the procurement of important building materials. They were literally lifelines for us!

Verizon’s Nokia Lumia Icon smartphone and the Nokia Lumia 2520 tablet.

By storing important documents in the cloud, everyone with authority to share the files is able to access and update them using the 2520. The tablet is housed in a durable case with a built-in keyboard and touchpad—both beautifully designed for aesthetics and functionality. And it folds compactly for storage. And we often use the Icon to power the music in the store, or to take photos and videos of our visitors.

In addition to the Icon and 2520, we have Verizon cell-phone signal booster, and a Belkin HD Net Cam — essentials needed for staying connected.

© Terri Nakamura Belkin Netcam HD for Alki Surf Shop Seattle

The awesome Belkin Netcam HD plus helps us monitor activity in the store, day and night.

The Belkin HD Net Cam offers amazing peace of mind. There are five sensitivity ranges for motion detection from “lowest” to “highest,” and depending on the setting chosen, we are sent alerts of movement in a given area, allowing us to immediately see and hear what is happening. There is also an option to store recorded video on a subscription cloud service. The night vision feature let’s us look in on the store at any time, which is amazing and cool.

Two other great add-on tools from Verizon include the Jawbone Era, a very small, light and comfortable headset, which makes it possible to talk, hands-free, while performing other work.

The second is the Jawbone Up Activity Tracker, which is basically a bracelet that monitors your movement. Since we began the process of building the store, it’s required so much in the way of physical exertion (demolition, stripping surfaces, scraping, speckling, sanding, painting, finishing, etc.), that I’ve lost 12 pounds! It’s been great to have the Jawbone Tracker as a positive reinforcer!

© Terri Nakamura Jawbone ERA and Jawbone UP cropped

Terrific gadgets including the Jawbone UP and Jawbone ERA have enhanced the process.

It may take a village to raise a child, but it took Verizon to help our business get up and running. Thank you to @theonlinemom and #vzwbuzz for helping make our dream come true.

Follow us on Twitter: @alkisurfshop; Friend us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alkisurfshop or visit us at the store in Seattle, located at 2622 Alki Avenue SW, Seattle, WA 98116 near 59th and Alki Avenue SW. (206) 403.1901.

© Terri Nakamura Dashboard hula girl Alki Surf Shop Seattle

One of three dashboard hula girls you can find at Alki Surf Shop in Seattle.

#MoreNorCal with Verizon in San Francisco

June 2, 2014 / terrinakamura / 19 Comments

The inspiring view of the San Francisco Bay Bridge with Cupid’s Bow by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen in the foreground.

Last week I had an amazing opportunity to spend three days in San Francisco as part of a 30-member group invited to attend the Verizon Brand Influencer’s Summit. The weather was beautiful and we all stayed in the Hyatt on Embarcadero, so it was a bit like an adult-geek summer camp!

What is a brand influencer?

Brand influencers are people who engage audiences on behalf of a company, product or service. From my standpoint, my personal reputation is at stake, so whatever I say or do in regard to Verizon can be counted upon to be authentically my personal opinion.

I’ve been a Verizon customer for more than a decade, so I’m a long-time consumer and supporter of the company. People have asked (and assumed) I receive payment for my tweets, posts and tagged content, but Verizon doesn’t pay me anything. I’ve received phones and tech gadgets, and have never been given ultimatums such as, “You must write about this product and endorse it.” Ethically, I won’t say something good unless it is.

What happened at the summit?

So many great things happened during the summit. From the moment my first Uber driver picked me up at the Oakland airport and dropped me off at the Hyatt, I knew I was in store for something very special. Meeting many long-time virtual friends from social media was truly exciting. Having experts from Verizon, Microsoft and Nokia introduce to us new technology was mind bending. And learning about Verizon’s exemplary global citizenship initiatives made me feel proud. In case you aren’t aware, The Verizon Foundation focuses on energy management, education and health care. You can learn more about them by checking out this link: http://www.verizonfoundation.org. I was truly inspired and impressed by their work.

We also were allowed to tour Verizon’s “Solutions Zone,” where new products as well as products still in development were on display. It was a rare opportunity to explore Verizon’s inner sanctum, and especially to access technology that is not yet released to market. Cameras, networking equipment, robots and even a soft-drink refrigerator with an illuminated, transparent, animated glass door. The Verizon Solutions Zone is a tech wonderland.

Five favorite Verizon moments

1.
Meeting Monica Villa, Sara Hawkins and Ann Tran. I’ve been wanting to meet Ann for years, and found her to be a lovely person. She’s pretty, petite, and fun. Monica is VZWBuzz’s fearless leader. She makes everything happen, and is fun, smart and kindsome of my favorite qualities. Sara and I became acquainted through Twitter and Instagram. She’s as warm and genuine as I knew she would be!

There were six #BA75 (www.bitrebels.com/social/twitters-top-75-badass-women/) sisters in attendance. Beside Ann, Sara and me, there was Joyce Cherrier, Misty Belardo and Gina Stark. It rocked!

#BA75 women in attendance included L-R: Terri Nakamura, Misty Belardo, Joyce Cherrier, Ann Tran, Gina Stark and Sara Hawkins

2.
Our first dinner together at La Mar was delicious and fun. La Mer is a popular Peruvian seafood restaurant, beautifully situated overlooking San Francisco’s waterfront. Before dinner, we had a chance to mingle and introduce ourselves. Gina Stark and Chris Rauschnot were to my right and left during dinner. Each course was more amazing than the one before it.

3.
The first full day at the Verizon Innovation Center was exciting. The space is modern and inviting and the event was perfectly organized, complete with a full agenda, name placards, microphones, and plenty of great food and drink

Receiving a new Nokia Lumia 2520 tablet along with a KILLER case with built-in keyboard was a mind-blowing. I’m writing this blog post with it, as it comes loaded with the Office suite, including WORD! Beside a full keyboard, the case also has a built-in track pad. Compact and light, it’s a beautifully designed piece of technology, functioning very much the same as a laptop. Another bonus: a Nokia wireless charging plate for our Lumia Icons. It is absolutely fantastic!

4.
The second day, just when we thought it couldn’t get better, Verizon gave us an “Up24” and “ERA” by Jawbone, and the Roadster 2 in-car Bluetooth speaker. I returned to Seattle with a bulging suitcase to a boatload of work, so some of the gadgets haven’t yet been used. But let me say I’ve really looking forward to trying them!

5.
At the end of the second day, the group scattered. But I enjoyed some great hang time with Gina Stark in the Hyatt lobby, where we were later joined by Ann Tran, Chris Fleury and Calvin Lee. A terrific cap to this superb experience was being able to see my college roommate, Barbara Lloyd, who was able to rearrange her schedule so she could visit for an hour. Seeing her was the icing on my favorite red velvet cake!

The Verizon Influencers Summit was a rare opportunity to view Verizon from the inside. I don’t imagine most people know how hard they work to integrate meaningful technology into the lives of their customers, employees, and the world at large. Learning about their public service initiatives painted a picture of how we wish all companies would behave. The gathering gifted us with the opportunity to solidify long-time connections and forge new ones. When the second Uber driver picked me up and we drove across the new Bay Bridge, I looked back at a very special experience. Thank you, Monica, for making it happen.

Visual scrapbook

Checked my flight at Seattle Tacoma International Airport

The plane was packed! I was so lucky because a woman I was chatting with had priority boarding (I was in the last group). She saved me a seat in the third row!

I can’t lie—I love Über. As we crossed the Bay Bridge into San Francisco, the driver pointed out the old bridge (to the left).

Finally arriving at the Hyatt on Embarcadero, I was greeted by a dapper doorman

My room was on the 10th floor. Here is the view looking down into the lobby.

Dinner at La Mar was amazing! You can imagine a huge table of social media aficionados, all taking photos of the food with their Nokia Lumia Icons!

Arriving at the Verizon Innovation Center after a brisk walk from the Hyatt.

Getting settled before the presentations began.

Did we really receive new tablets?

Excitement as we installed apps on our new Nokia Lumia 2520 tablets!

The presenters were knowledgable and helpful, wanting to make sure they answered all of our questions.

We saw a lot of cool new products in the Verizon Solutions Zone.

Heading back across the bay to Oakland

Back to Seattle, greeted by traffic!

Baseball Heaven

March 3, 2012 / terrinakamura / 2 Comments

(Originally posted March 1, 2012)

I’m writing this as I sit in my car in the Seattle Keiro parking lot.

The receptionist just told me David died at 7:40 this morning.

I don’t know how anyone can get used to watching the slow process of the body shutting down. I hope never to have to make that decision, but David could see the road he was on and wanted to get off, so he decided to stop dialysis a week ago.

For decades David, a bibliophile, owned a legendary bookstore in the historic Pioneer Square area of downtown Seattle. It closed 10 years ago, so it’s becoming a hazy memory for some. But in what I describe as the Golden Age of Pioneers Square, his shop was frequented by writers, artists actors, musicians and other creative and interesting people. Where else could anyone find a first edition of James Joyce’s “Ulysses,” but in David’s bookstore.

He was an amazing person who led an extraordinary life, and he was always surrounded by extraordinary people.

David was a devoted Mariners fan. He hasn’t been able to make it the past two years, but I hope he is getting ready spring training. He lived for it, and if he’s there, I know he will truly be in heaven.

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Note: in 2010, David was featured in an advertising campaign for Swedish Medical Center. Thanks to Larry Asher of Worker Bees and the School for Visual Concepts, for allowing me the use of the following ad and television spot.