Like most intelligent, amazing people out there, I was rooting for the Seahawks this year (did I just lose half of you? Good ;). Hey, I’m from Seattle, so I have to root for them. Anyway, I’m sure you all are well aware of that last, horrific, play fail. The Seahawks were four points down, but it was their ball. They were like, 3 millimeters from the line with two whole minutes to go. I,…
Everyone is going digital. There’s nothing earth-shattering about that. This makes being somewhat social media savvy is necessary to attracting new business from these potential clients. I know, I know, it was only a few months ago I was griping about the evils of jumping on the social media bandwagon. While I still think social media is not necessary for everyone, it still has its place in a healthy business’ overall marketing strategy. Through the…
Now that we’ve spent some time talking about why good design matters, let’s talk about how you can implement elements of good design in your business. The first step in thinking about good design is to remember that the big picture feeling is what you’re working towards. Before you begin developing or updating your design, make sure you’re taking the time to identify the core elements of your message. First things first An easy…
Have you ever gone to a website or picked up a business card from a new company only to find yourself dissatisfied or uninterested? Me too. Which got me thinking… there’s a lot of talk about what you need to do to create a killer website, or a great logo. But why does good design even matter? Why do you need it? I’ll tell you why. There’s an intangible value to good graphic design. It’s more than getting…
I get this sort of question a lot. Sometimes, I’ll run into a potential client who understands they might need help with their logo, or brochure…but for some reason, they’d like to be a little more hands-on when it comes to their website. Especially once I mention that I use WordPress for all the websites that I do. “Oh, WordPress? I can do that.” There’s no point arguing, so after I chuckle to myself, I…
Last week we talked about the dangers of design contests for designers, which are usually pretty obvious. But for the clients that actually get work done from them, the dangers can be a little more elusive. If you are the owner of a start-up, or simply don’t know where to turn to find a decent design, I’m sure the allure of design contests sound pretty sweet. Heck, they sure market them enough to push anyone’s…
Whether you’re a designer or a client, I’m sure you’ve heard of these things called design contests. Also called crowdsourcing or spec work, websites like 99designs, CrowdSpring, among dozens of others, dot our graphic design landscape. And they’re here to stay, unfortunately. And I’m sure, either as a designer or a client, that they’ve had a certain pull or power over you. Or at the very least, you’ve been curious about them. If you’re a…
So you’ve just gotten a killer brochure designed. You can’t wait to print it and start using it. But you’re also thinking long term…what if, in a few months, some of the information needs to be changed? So you decide to ask the designer for the native or source files (i.e. the program that the file was originally built in, and is editable). And they happily say…no. Wait, what??
I just did a simple website for a startup massage business. Now, this guy is a great guy, but let’s just say that his tech skills were something to be desired. Which is pretty common among my clients, so he’s in good company 😉 He loved the website, but the first question out of his mouth was, “So how do I show up on Google?” I saw that coming a mile away.
A couple weeks ago, we were talking about how your designer is not an order taker. I made a pretty convincing case as to why, as the client, you should refrain from telling your graphic designer how to do their job. But of course we’re now all wondering, when and how should you offer feedback? If at all? Rest assured, I think it’s perfectly fine and healthy for a client to provide constructive feedback in…
