Seconds out, round three

We didn't get it. Bugger.

Sentiments along similar lines are to be found floating around George Street, Cambridge and Praha 4 this afternoon. And the reason for the blues rather than the usual jollification normally found at these locations on a Friday afternoon?

Separated by a ciggy paper*
Well, to cut-to-the-chase, OptaDesign (and three other 'design oufits') were asked to pitch (in a paid pitch you will be pleased to hear – we don't do owt for nowt) for the redesign of the Fitzwilliam Museum website.

As you've guessed by now dear reader, we were pipped to the main prize – yep, we came an honourable second. (Wonders – maybe I should loose some weight and look more hungry? My trousers were a little tight.)¶

De-brief via Skype
Malcolm and I are none-the-less pleased as punch to have been asked in the first place to pitch for the contract. We did a great presentation (well not quite great enough Rob!) which was complimented with a lively discussion of the issues involved involved in bringing disparate parts of the site[s] together into a coherent whole. Many thanks again for being asked ;o)

Word of mouth is king
To be asked in the first place to pitch based only on previous work and recommendations from happy clients (rather than as a result of a cold-call) is just how we like to get new work (or otherwise ;o) Shame it didn't come-off this time.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Etymological bites
Talking of pitching, northern advertising agency cravens have a new website (with drawings by the irrepressible Hugh Macleod of gapingvoid fame, who, I suspect had a good deal to do with the words too). At number 4 from craven's '10 things that interest us', are a couple of words you will hear in the design/ad world. The first is 'pitch'. They riff thus:

'Goldman says that to understand the pain of the pitch you have to consider its origin. Back to a time of medieval religious persecution and the actions of one of its chief inquisitors.

This originated during the Spanish Inquisition. Torquemada, one of its leaders would tell imprisoned playwrights that if they could interest him in an idea, he would let them live long enough to write it. If not, they were dropped into a large vat (or pitch) of boiling tar, hence the term pitch.'

From pitch to deadline
Something we won't have to deal with with regard to the Fitz is the second word under the spotlight, deadline:

'Originating during the American Civil War: prisoners in that war were seldom held in purpose-built jails. More often, they were herded at gunpoint inside a makeshift boundary. The boundary had two lines, and a prisoner who stepped outside the inner boundary was ordered back, but one who over-stepped the outer boundary was shot. Thus it was called the deadline. Tough job this agency gig.'

Touché.

¶ Need to eat less pies – as does this man. Chapeau to web-meister and cyclist Jeff Veen for the link.

* A compositor tweaks letterspacing in metal type with cigarette papers to get that just 'just so' setting beloved of all fanatical typographers everywhere.

Comments

[Kyle Crocco]

The origin of the word pitch comes from it's slang use, meaning to utter or tell.

The following is from the Oxford Engligh Dictionary.

d. slang. To utter, tell. Cf. PITCH n.2 5b. to pitch (the) woo (orig. and chiefly U.S.): to court, to make love to; transf., to flatter lavishly.

1867 London Herald 23 Mar. 222/2 (Farmer), If he had had the sense to..pitch them a tale, he might have got off.