Dear Nick,

I read about your Yahoo – Taco Hiring Event on TechCrunch and was impressed.  The paper TokBox logo you taped to the truck, however, grabbed my attention.  I thought I would use this opportunity to introduce you to my company, LTLprints – Larger Than Life, and show you a better way to put your logo on taco trucks and walls in the future.

A few months ago TechCrunch asked us to print some wall decals for their August Capital meetup.  We had your logo on file from that event and thought, in the holiday spirit, we would send you some LTLprints love.

For your next event feel free to use our TokBox prints. Or if you’re really pumped we could print one that’s up to 7 feet wide and 4.5 feet tall.  Don’t worry, our prints won’t damage your walls and the prints can be pulled down and moved over and over again.

Please contact me directly or visit LTLprints.com for any custom print needs TokBox might have.

I wish you Happy Holidays and continued success with TokBox in 2009

Carsten Petzold
Founder, LTLprints.com
Twitter: @cpeLTLprints

Tags: August Capital, Jobs, LTL, LTLprints, LTLprints.com, Print, Prints, Tacos, TechCrunch, TokBox, twitter, Yahoo

I’ve had this blog post for a while in my ‘to be finished and to be published blog post’. Last week I read on TechCrunch this post about a TokBox recruiting stunt. At first my attention was grabbed by the headline. ‘Just got fired’ somehow grabs everyone’s attention during an economic crisis, right? Then I learned that TokBox gave Tacos to ex Yahoo folks in order to interest them in the company and to maybe recruit some of them. [You can debate if this is a tasteful or distasteful idea – but this is not the point of this post] Looking at the picture i realized that TokBox taped their logo to their taco truck. (see the red circle)

I thought to myself: “A LTLprint would have done a much better job here.” Instead of taping a paper-print to the truck next time just get an LTLprint. It will look much better, the logo would be contour cut, the logo could be much bigger (up to 7ft), and when you give the truck back you simply could re-stick your logo to a wall in the office.

I am not sure how successful the recruiting stunt was. TokBox has still a variety of open positions posted. But the stunt grabbed my attention and I learned about a new cool company. TokBox allows you to talk with your friends over live video for free. You simply post a link to your facebook profile, blog or website. When someone wants to talk to you they click the link and you guys video-chat. Learn more here and on the TokBox blog.

I am sending them a LTLprint with their logo – next time their truck will be decorated a lot better…

Tags: Carsten Petzold, Hiring, Jobs, Logo, LTLprint, LTLprints, Tacos, TechCrunch, TokBox, Yahoo

As a Philadelphia based company, LTLprints is thrilled when other startups in our area have success. This past Friday, DuckDuckGo.com, a new company focused on making it easier to find the stuff you are searching for online, was featured on TechCrunch. TechCrunch, for those of you who don’t live in our startup tech world, is a technology behemoth blog with millions of readers and companies mentioned there usually get a massive spike in traffic, affectionately known as “being TechCrunched.”

I first met Gabriel Weinberg, the founder of DuckDuckGo, at BarCampPhilly a few weeks ago (we made LTLprints for bcp08). I was also able to catch his fishbowl presentation at Philadelphia’s FounderFactory (we printed the name badges and signs for FF08).

Kudos also to Gabriel for diving into the mob over at TechCrunch. I’ve found that the people who sit on the sidelines love to throw darts and they have little understanding of the difficulty that goes into bringing a company from the whiteboard to fruition. You can tell that he’s passionate about his project and that goes very far with us. I’d love to see more founders take such a transparent role in building their company.

So take a moment to watch this video, then follow Gabriel’s twitter stream @yegg and @duckduckgo. Then come back and leave us a comment on what you think about DuckDuckGo and on Gabriel’s Philly startup passion.

Rock on Philly - something good is brewing here.

Make sure you’re catching all the Larger Than Life action by following us on twitter! @LTLprints, @schoenrock, @cpeLTLprints

Tags: BarCampPhilly, cpeLTLprints, Duck Duck Go, DuckDuckGo.com, Founder Factory, FounderFactory, Gabriel Weinberg, Kendall Schoenrock, Larger than Life, Larger Than Life Prints, LTL Prints, LTLprints, Philadelphia, Philly, Schoenrock, Tech Crunch, TechCrunch, yegg

A special thanks to Kathy at ParentTalkToday.com for agreeing blogging about us. I will update this post with the link to her article when it’s published!

Leave me a line and let me know how you think I did.

Thanks,

Kendall

Tags: Kendall, LTLprints, parenttalktoday.com, Video

Lately I have been playing around with a cool service called ‘Monetate’. Monetate provides effective, dynamic and ‘ optimized for each consumer’ promotion & communication solutions on e-commerce websites as ’software as a service’. What does that mean? Well, based on who your customer is, where she is located, whether she is familiar with the site and whether she has ordered before (+ a lot more) you can provide dynamic and very specific communication. Doesn’t it feel good to have the site greet you with a warm “welcome back’ and help you find what you are looking for. BIG THANKS from us at LTlprints to the founder and CEO David Brussin for providing this excellent service to LTLprints.com.

Also: With its innovative solution monetate brings the vision of a persona specific persuasion architecture to fruition. Persuasion architecture has been described by the best selling authors Jeffrey and Brian Eisenberg (founders of FutureNowInc) in their books ‘Call to Action‘ and “Waiting for your cat to bark’. I recommend everyone who is an online marketer and who deals with website copy writing, persuasion architecture and website conversion to subscribe to their inspiring blog. Being a regular reader I gained a lot of insights, ideas and a critical view on our website communication at LTLprints.com.                   

Tags: Brian Eisenberg, call to action, Carsten Petzold, David Brussin, Dynamic Website Communication, E-Commerce, Future Now Inc, Jeffrey Eisenberg, Larger Than Life Prints, LTLprints, Monetate, Persuasion Architecture, Waiting for Your Cat to Bark, Website Conversion

A few years ago I recall riding on the subway in New York or Atlanta and seeing a sporty new Lexus speed past the train. As much as I had liked for it to have been a real-life version of James Bond chasing down bad guys in the same tunnel I was commuting in…it wasn’t. The speedy new Lexus turned out to be nothing more than a speedy new Lexus in a advertisement being illuminated off the subway tunnel wall…basically a far superior childrens flip book. The proof of the genuis in this at the time new form of advertising is probably tied to fact that I still remember this Lexus ad 3 years later. And it wasn’t even the Super Bowl.

Being someone that is obsessed with marketing, advertsing, and old propaganda posters I

a) am truly a good hearted person

b) decided to look further into this commuter advertising idea

Turns out the the idea was more innovative than inventive. Many something years ago an American shaving cream brand called Burma Shave would place a series of witty billboard ads with sequeled messages along popular highways.

Jump many something years later and Burma Shave is now defunct but their advertising ingenuity lives on. So the moral of the story is as follows: In a world buzzing with marketing noise, winning advertising is often innovative advertsing.

When I first came across LTLprints I saw a really cool product that could beautify living spaces but when I thought about businesses and their needs, I started to think along lines like this.

Tags: Burma Shave, James Bond, Lexus, LTLprints

This morning on my way into the LTLprints office I walked through a face numbing ice storm…or at least thats what it felt like. Fortunately the office setting at LTLprints was prime for thawing out my frozen limbs. If you could take a break from reading for a second and just imagine walking into a beautiful utopia, lined with large vibrant wall decor and warm crooning from the likes of Miranda Lambert, Brad Paisley, and of course country Entertainer of the Year-Kenny Chesney. I admit though: stickers sometimes make me feel accomplished and I’m not the biggest fan of country music but today instantly became out of the ordinary when I found myself tapping my foot to Brad Paisley’s  geetar licks in the comedic song ‘Ticks’. My time in this office has been short but I can definitely acknowledge that LTLprints has a way of broadening ones perspective. I mean just think about what they can do with a standard photo or print…who would have thought, right. I must add one other observation. This morning when Carsten decided to change things up just a bit and put on some Techno, it stopped snowing and the sun came out.

kennys hat

Tags: Brad Paisely, Carsten, Kenny Chesney, LTLprints, Miranda Lambert

I have a secret that I’m going to share with the LTLprints community. I’ve been with LTLprints for quite some time now, and I finally feel comfortable sharing this personal part of my life. I’d like to thank Kwan (our community evangelist) for helping me get to the point where I can talk about it. Let me take a deep breath first - okay. Here goes nothing.

I hate stickers.

Phew! That feels SO much better. Now, before everyone goes crazy and asks “don’t you work for a sticker company?” let me put you at ease. I do work for LTLprints - but we create oversized, “larger than life” customizable WALL DECALS - not stickers. The material is cloth, and it’s removable and reusable. Don’t you worry - I totally looked into all this before applying for the position:)

So back to my weird phobia. I can admit that it’s not normal. But I’m not the only one! I hate the apples and fruit that have stickers on them, and refuse to touch the stickers. Ask any of my close friends who have to peel the sticker off for me (thanks guys.) When you behave well at the dentist and they try to give you a big smiley face sticker - I run. Yup, I’m that cool. In my Public Speaking class at Susquehanna University, we were asked to do a 5 minute speech about something you HATE. I of course, chose stickers. After receiving numerous strange looks as I made my way back to my seat after speaking, I was quickly comforted. The next speaker did her entire speech on velcro. At least I’m not the only one with a weird phobia.
Kendall, Carsten, and Kwan are a bit intrigued by my phobia of stickers.  Leave a comment if you know of any other weird phobias, please, as it makes me feel better about myself:)

Tags: Carsten Petzold, Kendall Schoenrock, Kwan Howard, Larger than Life, LTL, LTLprints, LTLprints.com, Sticker Phobia, Susquehanna University, Trish Noel

If you’re like me you have files upon files of photos and attempts at being a graphic artist stored in your computer. Today is the day that all your graphic creations and heart melting photos of your beautiful puppy Maggie can receive the love they deserve.

Starting today LTLprints is releasing a new feature on its website that not only allows you to create unique wall prints with your own images but also lets you place those images in a catalog where others can come and pay you for your creations. So imagine…everytime someone makes a wall print using one of your photos or artwork, you receive a commision. And probably the sweetest thing about all of this, is that you are in control. Unlike most sites, LTLprints does not determine the value of your print. If you believe that a beautiful summer sunset off the shores of Cabo is worth $1 or $100 you will be able to set the price for your work. You have already seen how LTLprints can take a simple image and transform a whole wall here now join in our artist catalog and take your prints to another level!

Tags: Cabo, LTLprints, Maggie

For Philadelphia sports fans, there aren’t many times when you’ll hear the above statement, but for right now, Philly is on cloud nine:) What a month it has been for this city! Philadelphia has cheered the Phils along to a World Series championship, the Eagles have won three straight, and our country has elected the FIRST african american president. October/November have been busy!

Wanted to share a few quick videos with you that have been passed along via email this week. First, a group of extremely talented students who express the importance of voting (if i ever have kids I’m sending them here!), and the second is a phenomenal catch by Ryan Howard during the Phillies parade (check out the video footage of that parade on our blog!

Possibly the coolest part of this month though has been the launch of www.LTLprints.com. It’s both exciting and a relief! It’s great to see the launch and all of the team’s long hours paying off - but it just means that things will get busier! I can’t wait to see our 6-color large format printing churning orders like crazy. Exciting!

Quite a picture above, eh? That awesome picture can be credited to the talented Mr. Matthew Gutberlet, a very close friend of mine and someone who is ridiculously good at everything he does - even photography! Matt grabbed that shot at the Phillies parade last Friday.

Before I sign off, just a reminder that the CMA Awards (COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS) are this Tuesday night. Everyone should definitely sit down to watch my boyfriend, the talented Kenny Chesney, in all his glory. I’d trade the World Series for him:)

Tags: Carsten Petzold, CMA Awards, Election, Kenny Chesney, LTLprints, LTLprints.com, Philadelphia Eagles, Philadelphia Phillies, Phillies Parade, Ryan Howard, Trisha Noel