Adjectives can take three forms. I'm not talking about liquid, solid or gas; I mean positive, comparative and superlative.

Simply put, the positive form of an adjective describes a single noun or pronoun.

• Rex is smart. John's car is fast.

The comparative form of an adjective compares two nouns or pronouns.

• Laura is smarter than a fifth grader. I am older than dirt.

The superlative form then compares three or more nouns or pronouns.

• Thunder is the biggest of our three dogs. Nashville is the greatest city in the world!

Not sure when to use more/most, double the last consonant or change y to i? Here are a few general rules. But remember, there are always exceptions.

Continue reading "Is "Funner" a Word? Simple Rules for Comparative and Superlative Adjectives" »

As hard as we work to produce flawless magazines for our clients, sometimes unforeseen imperfections arise that are out of our control—especially if a problem happens once the magazine reaches the printer. Take the issue of New York magazine we received this week, for example. If you look closely at the cover, you’ll see a color strip at the top of the page, a white strip of binding on the left side and letters running perilously close to the bottom edge. What happened? Barbara Mathieson, Hammock’s production director, explains.

Continue reading "Quality Control: Binding the Perfect Magazine" »

Funny name, useful application

We spend a lot of time at Hammock trying out different web applications and related software. Some of us are geeks, so we think that's fun. But we also want to stay on top of the latest trends for our clients.

We're long-time wiki fans, but we know that this kind of content management system isn't as popular as it ought to be. A number of prominent wiki sites (like, say, Wikipedia) don't make it as easy to contribute as they could, so we suspect a lot of people dismiss wikis out of hand.

But, wikis don't have to be hard. (And I'll throw in on a personal note, they don't have to be ugly, either.) If you're in one of the situations below, you should be considering a wiki:

Continue reading "When to Use a Wiki" »

It sounds too simple to be worth saying, but if your communication doesn't serve the needs of your audience, they won't be happy and you will lose them. That can present challenges, as Scott Adams demonstrates here. But if it were easy, you'd be Wally. (PS: Encourage audience feedback, and make it simple and easy for them to give you a piece of their minds, especially if yours has run out of ideas).

We’ve found that organizations seek the help of a custom media partner like ours for lots of different reasons. Some have internal communications departments, but don’t have the editorial, design or production expertise to accomplish their goals. Others recognize the cost savings and predictability of working with a partner rather than keeping the resources necessary to produce media in-house; while others have expertise in one type of media, but look to us for help creating and integrating new media. Our relationships with our clients are all unique, but here are some of the more common reasons we have found for organizations to hire a custom media company:

Continue reading "3 Reasons to Hire an Outside Custom Media Company" »