In 2007, Novocent received a Silver Davey Award for the Robert Edward Auctions catalog from 2007. We did not receive any accolades in the 2008 Davey Awards.

This year, we’re proud to say that we received a Gold Davey Award for the 2008 Robert Edward Auctions catalog. As anyone who follows Novocent is aware, we put a year’s worth of effort into the REA catalog, and it truly is a labor of love for us. We are extremely proud to be recognized by the International Academy of the Visual Arts for our efforts on this amazing project, and we’re even more proud of our friends at Robert Edward Auctions for holding an incredible, record-breaking sale and for putting in so much effort in writing catalog copy and providing us with amazing material to fill up the catalog.

Also this year, we’re honored to have received a Silver Davey Award for the Spring, 2009 issue of SGC Collector magazine. Affectionately referred to as the “Swimsuit Issue” around the Novocent offices, the award-winning issue of Collector contains an outstanding article on the history of pinup art on trading cards, written by our friend Mark Hellman. We have already received a number of MarCom Awards for this issue, as it was a beautifully-designed, well-written example of one of the premier publications in the sports collectibles hobby.

Congrats to our clients Robert Edward Auctions and Sportscard Guaranty!

Recently, we began working with Cerebellum Corporation, a producer of high-quality programming for the family, educational, and fitness markets that does business under a number of different leading brand names. Cerebellum needed new, user-friendly designs for their SDLearn and SDTeach e-commerce websites. Novocent was able to overhaul the front end of both sites in a very short time frame, and we and the client are both very pleased with the results.

Each of the two sites are a Volusion template that are built to work with the Volusion e-commerce software platform. The Volusion templates integrate seamlessly with Volusion, so that the client has a custom-built website that still takes advantage of the back-end e-commerce technology from Volusion.

It’s always fun to work in the education industry, as we’ve developed quite a portfolio in that realm. As parents, Dan and I are always interested in developments in education, and Cerebellum offers an outstanding line of high-quality education tools in the form of instructional books and CDs for teachers and students alike. We’re proud to have been chosen to work with such an outstanding, growing company.

We look forward to continuing to expand our presence in the field of education, and welcome Cerebellum to the Novocent family!

Congrats to Robert Edward Auctions on another great sale!

Our company produces the annual printed catalog for this sale, a work of art that topped out at nearly 700 pages this year, with several thousand images and more copy than you can imagine. We also help the company by designing their website and helping them keep their home page content fresh.

If you’re a sports fan, this auction is a great experience - bidding is already brisk, with several items already approaching record prices with nearly three weeks left of bidding.

It’s one of our favorite projects, and the catalog is a great idea-starter. If your company produces a catalog of any kind, and you’re interested in learning more about how we can help streamline your processes and give you a dynamite result, drop us a note. We’d be happy to talk with you about how we can help design your catalog!

I’m currently in the lead, with 90 points and a possible 154. Dan is behind me, with 89 points and a possible 137.

I’ve got two teams in the Final Four - UConn and UNC. Dan has only UNC. Both of us have UNC winning the whole enchilada.

Which means I cannot lose.

I am The Man.

Jessica can get a few more points if UNC makes it to the championship game, but since she had Wake Forest winning the whole thing, the most possible points she can score is 64. This means that the only way she can win the Novocent Tourney is if the NCAA decides to start the whole thing over.

Lots of crazy upsets in the later rounds this year, which busted a lot of brackets early. The Novocent tourney is the only one of 6 or 7 that I’m in that I have any chance of winning, thanks to Pittsburgh, Louisville and Memphis all bowing out early.

That’s okay, though; baseball season is about to start!

Dan dropped back, with 73 points and a possible 137 for the pool. Dan lost two of his Final Four picks in Pitt and Memphis, and actually had Memphis making it to the championship game, so he kind of took a beating with that one.

Jessica has lost all but one of her Final Four picks, and has already locked up the “fewest correct picks” title.

Dan is still ahead, having chosen 39 correct out of 48, for 53 total points. He’s got 177 possible points that he can score. Out of the Sweet Sixteen, he’s lost two picks - Wake Forest (who didn’t?) and Florida State. If Louisville manages to beat Arizona, and then moves to the Final Four, that would be Dan’s Achilles heel, as he’s got Michigan State heading all the way to the Final Four.

I’m behind Dan, having chosen 36 correct out of 48, with 50 total points. I’ve got 178 possible points that I can score. I took Wake Forest into the Sweet Sixteen as well, so I’ve got the same issue Dan has in the Midwest. I also got beat with Utah State (a bad pick that’s killing me in all the pools I’m in). Assuming Memphis can beat Missouri, I’ll still be okay heading into the Elite Eight.

Jessica, on the other hand, has 26 correct out of 48, with 32 total points. She’s got only 72 possible points, so she’ll need a real bracket-buster to remain in the competition. Ten of her Sweet Sixteen picks have been eliminated, and only North Carolina remains in the tournament out of her Final Four picks.

More updates to come!

Jessica spent the remaining 20 minutes or so creating her picks. I spent that time copying my picks over from some of the other competitions I’m in (I get a little excited at tourney time).

About five minutes before they were due, Dan logged in and set up his picks.

As of the conclusion of this afternoon’s games, here’s where we stand.

1) Dan, with his infinite basketball knowledge, has gotten 17 out of 20 possible picks correct. This proves that it pays to study the field intently, know the subtleties of each college’s athletic program, understand any nuances that might impact a team’s performance like possible injuries, court advantages, and individual matchups. As of now, the whole left side of Dan’s bracket is perfect. On the right, he missed Oklahoma State, Illinois, and Clemson. He still has 189 possible points.

2) I’m behind Dan with a pitiful 15 out of 20, and 185 possible points. I missed BYU and Utah State on the left side of the bracket. On the right side I missed Butler, Illinois (didn’t we all?), and Clemson. I’m going to take a hit next round because I had Utah State beating Marquette and then beating Missouri in the next round as well. Oh, well.

3) Jessica is bringing up the rear, her “White Knights” nailing 14 of 20, but with 174 possible points. She missed North Dakota State (who she had going all the way to the Elite 8), Chattanooga, BYU, California, and CSU Northridge on the left, and she missed Clemson on the right. She took a big hit with North Dakota State, but she’s still in the running.

More to come.

The passing of February into March is, historically, our busiest time of year. It’s the time when we complete the annual catalog for Robert Edward Auctions. The assembly and layout of the 700-or-so page auction catalog is a year-long endeavor for us, but the three week period at the end of February and beginning of March is when we finalize the catalog layout and send it off to the printer for production.

The catalog itself features more than 1,500 lots of historically important baseball items as well as other sports and non-sports memorabilia. This year’s sale should prove to be a monster for the company; the auction contains virtually every significant baseball card ever produced, from the legendary T206 Honus Wagner to the 1914 Baltimore News Babe Ruth rookie card. It also contains such outstanding items as a game-worn Babe Ruth Yankees cap, a game-used uniform from Tom Seaver’s rookie season, and a huge assortment of unopened candy and gum cards from the 1930s that was recently discovered in the warehouse of an old candy distributor.

Our work on this catalog involves an intense amount of layout (as I mentioned, nearly 700 pages), proofing, editing, and the assembly of a monstrous book. The first copy off the presses is sent to the Baseball Hall of Fame, where it resides in their library as a reference document.

Closing up the catalog also involves formatting the content of the entire auction to be imported into the company website - the auction is internet-based, and so it’s important to make sure that the text and images of each lot match up properly with the printed catalog. There’s also a significant amount of ad development, as the company’s print and online advertising kicks into high gear, to support the auction.

As a baseball fan, I’m astounded at the importance of the auction, and I always enjoy working with the images of such important pieces of history. It’s also fun to help our client promote the sale of so much historical memorabilia, and to see the enthusiasm with which sports fans embrace each year’s sale.

Speaking of which, I would be remiss if I did not mention the passing of Randy Stuckemeyer, one of the sports hobby’s collecting icons and huge supporter of our client, SGC. Mr. Stuckemeyer passed away this week, but not before leaving an indelible imprint on the industry in which we’re fortunate enough to have so many clients. Rest in peace, Mr. Stuckemeyer.

It was a good year for Novocent. We added a few great new clients, and continued working with some great established ones; we won a ton of design awards and produced some more work that makes us proud. We’ve concluded our fourth full calendar year of business and we’re looking forward to what lies ahead.

Despite the economic downturn, there’s a lot to look forward to in 2009. We’re looking forward to yet another fun year - it’s a great feeling to come in to work every Monday morning and know that the week is going to be enjoyable and that the work is going to be gratifying. We’ve got a lot of cool projects lined up for the first quarter of ‘09, and we’re ready to get rolling.

So, Happy New Year to you and your family, and we’re looking forward to a healthy and prosperous 2009!

-The Novocent Team