Ever feel like you are surrounded by people who just don’t get it? The reason you’re struggling to get your message across may be that you are just too smart. It’s a tough pill to swallow, I know, but it’s not your fault. It’s a phenomenon many suffer from; we sit down at a keyboard and suddenly feel the need to flex our vocabulary muscle…how do we even function in life without a thesaurus at our side? But have you ever sat down to write and asked yourself, “What is the reading level of my audience?” The answer may surprise you. Talking to a general audience? The national adult average is about 8.2 (that’s 8th grade…yikes). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_in_the_United_States   This helps explain why authors like Ernest Hemingway, Ayn Rand, Stephen King, and JK Rowling - some of the most successful of all time - write between a 4th and 6th grade level! http://contently.com/strategist/2015/01/28/this-surprising-reading-level-analysis-will-change-the-way-you-write

We wanted to share a screen-grab of an info-graphic from Entrepreneur.com. The image largely speaks for itself.  The video marketing trend is here to stay– Are you using them in your marketing strategy yet?

Sure, maybe it’s a little more than a week before the 4th of July, but we wanted to give you a bit more than a week to get in the spirit! Wish America a happy birthday with a free screensaver whiteboard animation we drew just for you! Download – Windows Version Download – Mac Version

Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, model, and singer, who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s and early 1960s.  But she was much more than just famous in the theater.   She was the girl who sang to the president, the blonde bombshell that men wanted and who women wanted to be.    She had many quotes that were full of power, love, and a sense of taking life in your hands and running with it.  We chose a quote for her that really speaks to this and we hope you enjoy it too. Imperfection is beauty, Madness is genius, and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.    -Marilyn Monroe Download – Windows Version Download – Mac Version                321 Fast Draw Blog -  www.321fastdraw.com

1.8 Million Words. What’s so special about 1.8 Million Words? It’s definitely not that it’s the equivalent of 3,600 web pages full of text. It’s also not that it would take an average person 150 days of writing to write that much. According to Dr. James McQuivey of Forrester Research , 1.8 million words is the amount of pure consumable content that you get from creating a one minute marketing video. Print definitely still has it’s place-it’s what I’m using to blog with after all—but it’s hard to doubt the effectiveness of a well placed, strategic, and targeted marketing video campaign. Today I wanted to share a few amazing stats that can help maximize your company’s marketing budget this year: Double your Click-Through Rate In 2010, an Implix email marketing survey showed that a putting a video in an email campaign boosted click through rates by 96%! Simply including a video in the email doubled the visitors who chose to check out the site after checking out the email. Pretty

Happy Friday! Before “King James…” there was The King. Elvis Presley endured rapid fame in the mid-1950s—on the radio, TV and the silver screen (That’s the movies for all you young’uns). He’s known as the King for a reason, and his confidence and charisma led the way to a whole new era of rock and roll. We jumped at the opportunity to draw up Elvis in a whiteboard animation, and love the quote we drew him with. When things go wrong… Don’t go with them! Download the screensaver – Windows Version Download the screensaver  – Mac Version                321 Fast Draw, Inc. -  www.321fastdraw.com

Sure, sure — everyone knows what “Whiteboard Animation” is, but did you know there are many more names for it in the industry? In the interest of keeping you on your terminology toes, here are 5 different names and great examples of videos you can whip out at the next trivia night! This is a pretty well known one, mainly because it comes from the Do-It-Yourself software, VideoScribe . Practically anyone interested in making explainer videos has heard of this, and it is a good tool for smaller operations or those who don’t have the means to hire an actual studio to hand draw videos. Most VideoScribe’d animations can be done as a solo-operation and turn out anywhere from mediocre to pretty professional looking. One notable downside is the pretty steep learning curve of the software, which can be off-putting to some. A telltale sign of something made with VideoScribe is the artist’s hand will stay in the same anatomic position throughout the video. Check out the differences between th

  Mahatma Gandhi began his activism as an Indian immigrant in South Africa and in the years following World War I became the leading figure in India’s struggle to gain independence from Great Britain. His Hunger strikes, unbelievably determined spirit, and a burning will the change the world around him, made us choose Mahatma Gandhi for our Free Screensaver Friday whiteboard animation installment this week. We’ve all likely heard the quote before too, but it doesn’t make it any less powerful: Be the change you want to see in the world. - Mahatma Gandhi Download the animated screensaver  – Windows Version Download the animated screensaver  – Mac Version

The team here at 321 Fastdraw has always had a soft spot for the great Maya Angelou.   She is a poet and award-winning author who wrote, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and her pretty fantastic and numerous poetry and essay collections. Maya Angelou’s creativity, strong spirit, and unbelievable talent to write words that touch others are what made us choose her to create a screensaver for.  She wrote a ton of great stuff, but we really like her quote, Do the best you can until you know better, then when you know better, do better. We hope you like it too. Download the screensaver – Windows Version Download the screensaver  – Mac Version

You’d have to be living under a rock for the past decade... or so not to have seen the popular hand drawing technique commonly referred to as whiteboard animation, fast draw, video scribing or video telestration. Call it what you wish, but this technique is by no means new. Believe it or not, Walt Disney was the first person to experiment with this type of style. Early in his career, around 1919, he actually filmed himself doing hand-drawn cel-animation. Nearly 100 years later and Walt’s early experimentation is being used as a vehicle for message dissemination by corporations, agencies,  broadcast outlets , public advocacy organizations, Montessori School , and everything in-between. Here at 321 Fast Draw, we are honored to continue the whiteboard legacy that fellow Chicagoan, Walt Disney, started as a fluke so many years ago.  While technology has helped us streamline the process since the days Walt doodled around under the lens of his second-hand Bell & Howell

Bruce Lee, the master of all things Martial Arts and amazingness, is pretty cool. He was an amazing speaker, artist, actor, and mentor to millions of people around the world. For these reasons, we wanted to give everyone a couple things to help remember him by. First, we want to drop a few famous tidbits of Bruce Lee wisdom on you: “Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own. ~ Bruce Lee” All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns. ~ Bruce Lee I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine. ~ Bruce Lee Another one of the coolest things Bruce Lee said was, If you Love Life, Don’t Waste Time for Time is what Life is Made Up of. This quote has a special meaning for the team here, and we wanted to do a bit more with it. Download – Windows Version Download – Mac Version Share it, use it, enjoy it.  Free Screensaver