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Friday, November 30, 2012

Using Graphic Design To Achieve The Perfect Business Card (Part 2)

In part one of this article, we looked at the first three graphic design approaches that one can take in terms of putting their business cards together - the 'professional', the 'playful' and the 'reliable'. In part two, we look at the final two approaches and the elements that every business card needs to include.

The "Wise"

By showing clients and customers that you are wise and know exactly what you're talking about, you will instill in them a sense of trust. Use graphic design to convey this sense of wisdom and you are likely to have a much more rewarding relationship.

What to include?

The elements that you can use to convey a sense of wisdom include a muted, minimalist approach. Use abstract imagery or images that you have surrounded with white space, letter pressing and embossing, and sans-serif fonts.

Colours to use:

Purple and gold are considered the classic symbols of wisdom. You could also use black, which is seen as authoritative or grey which is seen as being timeless. Orange, which stands for endurance, could also work.

The "Jack of All Trades"

This sort of image is one that many freelancers would like to present. Did you know that you can use graphic design to show clients that you can do a bit of everything without including a full list of credentials? Your business card needs to display your passion for expanding your knowledge.

What to include?

The elements that you need to include for this approach include a much busier design than the others. Use a variety of fonts (or a variety of font styles), combine styles and elements, but don't go too far.

Colours to use:

Purple and gold can be used to weave the theme of wisdom throughout the business card. Yellow and blue, which represent idealism, could also be used to convey your 'jack of all trades' approach.

Business Card Elements

To ensure that the graphic design for your business cards is 110% successful, you need to include some basic information. This includes your name and your title within the company (such as John Doe, CEO or Jane Doe, Marketing Manager). You also need to include current contact information, including your company's contact number (and perhaps your direct line), your address, your mobile number, your fax number and your email address.

At the end of the day, it is important to keep in mind that it is the quality of your business cards that is more relevant than the quantity. Remember that contact details change, so ordering 100 business cards and then having to change your phone number when you've only given away half is going to be a complete waste of money. By following a graphic design approach that is relevant to your brand, you can ensure that your business cards are top notch.

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Know What Every Web Design Should Achieve

An internet presence is one of the most important tools that any business or organization has to effectively relay a message, hopefully translating it into sales, sign-ups and other types of conversions. Having a website that does not perform for whatever reason is detrimental to optimization efforts as well as the ability to gain and maintain followers. To create an efficiently functioning website, designers need to balance a number of important aspects to best represent each and every company or client.

Visual

Naturally, the first thing any visitor to a website notices is how it looks. Without doing too much with fancy fonts, images and other visual extras, a website needs to look appealing. Color palette is extremely important and should be chosen to fit the company, the mood to be projected, and the message. Design style should present the client as they wish to be seen, whether that is serious and business-like, fun-loving, or classic.

Use of images, type, and white space should be carefully balanced to create a presence that is pleasing to the eye without being too busy or conversely, too empty; neither case is better than the other and both will impede the visual usability of a site. The design of a site that is beautiful, attractive and easy on the eyes for navigating - and doing so without becoming overly obtrusive - is the key to a visually pleasing design.

Functional

While look is important on one front, site function is just as important on another; finding a way to make function and form work well together is always the trick. Navigation should be easy to find and easy to use, resisting the desire to go high-tech with all kinds of complex and fancy menu effects. Site content should be clearly organized so users do not have to go hunting, so that desired information can be quickly found.

Consistency throughout an entire website - using the same colors, fonts, link positions, etc. - adds greatly to function since users do not have face different aspects on every new page. Links that all work seem like an obvious part of any functional website; however, missing one can happen and ruin a user-website experience. Forms that are user-friendly and easy to compete as well as shopping carts that properly function is just another way to deliver a functional website that works right the first time.

Interesting and Informative

Once a design and all other elements have been determined, what remains is to provide concise, correct and interesting reader content. In order to become a highly regarded website, it is important to concentrate on quality content presented in an appealing fashion. Keeping information current with frequent updates will keep readers coming back, especially if that content does more than just state facts.

Engaging readers with interesting tidbits, interactive elements, and high-quality information must be a prime concern once look and layout has been designed. Keep viewers interested to return and recommend the site to others. Be sure to consider the targeted audience when adding content and design or user elements; it will be easier to keep people interested and informed when content is presented if an appealing and useable format.

Creating a well rounded, efficient website definitely takes effort; however, keeping these goals in mind during the building process can smooth out any potential problems. Designing a visually appealing, functional, interesting, and informative website takes time, a little trial and error, and a lot of forethought; however, such honest efforts will prove to be valuable. The end result will be a website that any business or organization can be proud to call their own, reaching the right people and encouraging viewers to become purchasing customers. It is indeed important to thoroughly know what every web design should achieve!

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Tips On The Planning Phase Of a Website Design And Selecting The Designer

Almost all of us are conversant with the three P's, planning, preparation and precision. The simple idea behind them is getting one to first think and put down an action plan aimed at arriving at some specific objectives. To get the very best from your website designer, there are some things that you need to know about the product you want. This article brings to light some tips that will help you be crystal clear as you embark on the planning part of the 3p's. The tips are as below:

Website designing and creation has two stages, namely designing and coding stage. Do you want them done by the same person or different people? To make your website easy to find, will you want it designed to enable search engine optimization? Again, these can be done by either the designer or an SEO professional. Do you want a website or a blogging site? If a website is your desire, then the designer has to include content management systems to help you manage the website yourself. Without this, you will always pay your designer to manage the site for you. Before getting the design done, always have the content ready and clear as the content will determine the design in a big way. Will you need web hosting services to be provided by the designer or you have your own host? Many web designing companies have hosting services as well. Have you come up with your domain name? You have the option of having the designer come up with the name. If you decide on this option, always make sure that the name gets registered on your name and not his. Coming up with the name yourself is the best option.

Once you have answered the above questions and implemented the results, the next big thing is hiring a designer. There are three ways of doing this.

Getting A Freelancer - This is the cheapest way to get a designer as freelancers are easy to find. Additionally, they are versatile meaning you get to negotiate how much you pay for the design. Design Contests - You can put out design contests on the web and have the best designer picked to do your website. All you have to do is find a site that offers these contests, post your instructions and requirements and then wait for the response. Hiring A Web Design Firm - This is the more conventional way and it is so far the most secure. A firm will give you all services, including hosting, and you get the feel of a professionally done website. Why Learn WordPress and Some Tips on Getting Started How to Make Free Websites Communication Is Key: Be Honest With Your Website Designer PSD to OsCommerce: Fuelling Better Ecommerce Websites Professional Web Design - Strategies for Building an Online Business Web Designing Companies Can Help You Get The Perfect Business Website

Too Many Choices Can Spoil a Client When It Comes to Logo Designing

It is the mark of a creative logo designer to come up with a gamut of innovative ideas for designing a logo when they are entrusted with a signage project. A business sign with its ability to build a brand image or break it, needs to be crafted with rapt attention by the professionals. Research is the key where the designers get to know about the various aspects of the industry he is working for. It is important to spell out the good ideas that hit a professional after making the thematic analysis of a client's business. Presenting too many ideas to the clients is not always a great idea as there is a potential risk of the natural flow of the signage project getting stunted.

Don't make your Client to stand in a Candy Store

The whole range of ideas that you, as a professional logo designer, represent to a client with cool, effective or appropriate logo designing potential, undoubtedly impresses him to the core. It is not always a wise idea to put your client in a kid's position, making him to scratch his head while choosing the best pick and mix sweets. It can be very confusing for him. It is definitely a commendable thing that you are working for a client by totally getting immersed in a single signage project. However, unlocking your full wardrobe of designing ideas can make your client to feel giddy. The impact is often adverse as a client might come up with suggestions where he would want you to mash up sections of one design with the other. Your favored concept might not gel with the investor's vision. The aces in the field pronounce that, in most cases, the client and the designer often fail to walk on the same track and differ in opinion.

The Successful Briefing Session

A good logo design brief is absolutely crucial to let the creative juice of a designer to flow. A professional in the field is able to offer a good interpretation of the brief, satiate a client with his innovative thinking power. However, too many good ideas can delay the process of scripting a logo. You put in all your effort and hard work so that you are able to appease your client and nurture a successful customer relationship. In a bid to impress, it can be a frustrating experience when you get your ego stroked. A client gets convinced with your creative flair, but when he gets a bit of time to ponder over the on-going signage work, he always has his own inputs to offer. The suggestions which a client cling to might add an edge to a project or do the undesired damage. A client's plan of scrutinizing and analyzing your creative ideas can put to a halt the natural flow of a signage project. It is the commitment of the client and the professional designer which paves the way for a true collaboration.

Subjective Perceptions

The notion of subjective perception can land you in a soup when you find that the decision-making body of choosing the logo of a brand is a board of five people or more. It pays off if you are able to read the personality, the attitude of your clients. When you have a number of heads to instill in your creative thoughts, play safe. As a designer you should indulge in a serious filtering process of your logo designing concepts and present only the top three or top five ideas that feature on your priority list. This will help in retaining the spontaneity of drafting the business sign,by keeping too much of confusions and interferences at bay.

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Template Based Website - Pros and Cons

For instance, if you see a website made on WordPress or Joomla, you can infer it to be a template-based website. In short, templates are predefined layouts, those which are not designed from scratch and are not unique.

Below mentioned are some Pros and Cons of a Template Based Website:

Pro - Extremely cost-effective Their prime advantage is cost-effectiveness. Here we are not talking about the free ones that can be picked over from Web Monster or their likes. After all, they can only provide you with so much business. The idea is to use templates but in a way that makes your business grow. So, the next question in your mind must be- how to create such effective templates? If one knows the job at hand then it is actually a delight to make templates work as they are not at all cumbersome to handle.

Pro - Strong Product Management Software First thing to understand about template is the form and structure. If you are looking for an ecommerce setup that sells products nationally or even internationally, you need to have an interwoven Product Management System. This can work just as well over a template as a customized website provided that that the back end coding is done with a lot of accent to the product cabinet. In other words, the product shelf has to be compartmentalized and made very easily searchable.

Con - Search Engine rankings While we are using the word searchable, it is important to talk about the viability of search engine rankings. Truth be told, template-based websites aren't naturally blessed with search engine rankings. A template can very easily be misunderstood by search engines and classified as a mirror page unless you ensure that all the content on your website is unique and developer credit links are removed (with his/her permission). Though you can get a template based website done at a very basic cost but ideally you should spend some money into three-way search engine marketing. As a first, organic SEO should be used to boost the rankings. A PPC or AdWords campaign shall be used alongside to motivate more niche traffic though sponsored listing. Also, Google Place Optimization for local audience should not be ignored either.

Templates do not provide you a lot of ground to play with on the visual meter but today, many dynamic templates styled in modern day aesthetics can be created.

Get The Best Results From Your E-Commerce Website

As more and more businesses create and broaden an internet presence, the number of e-commerce sites is on the rise as well. It only makes sense, considering how many people shop online these days. Putting up an online business website is just common sense for anyone with a product to offer, since most shoppers these days look to the internet first rather than last. Success in an endeavor such as this will only happen if attention is paid to creating a good website and then incorporating a purchasing capability as part of the design and function. This internet user shopping forum can indeed profit a company selling a product or service if customers can navigate through the shopping experience to the checkout page in as few steps as possible.

Navigation - Providing easy ways to shop is essential in order to make sales. Of course, many online retailers attempt to entice shoppers to their internet location and fail because navigation has not been given enough attention in the design process. Menus should be easy to find, easy to use, and lead to a product sales page within two clicks. Product descriptions, specifications and other information should be easy to locate as should other essential links such as a good search function, shipping information, FAQs, contact forms, etc. Users should be able to sign-up and login with ease, find information or products, easily manipulate an account and a shopping cart, and be provided with a means to have questions answered, either through an online search or a contact email. A frustrating shopping experience has a high risk of becoming an abandoned shopping cart.

Filtering and Searching - With so many sophisticated means to search and filter retail websites, customers are used to looking for certain items and then clicking away any unnecessary ones to rapidly narrow down selection lists. Keeping up with the many other business internet locations that now use such detailed search filter functions makes for a better customer shopping experience and lends credibility to a company that has taken the time to provide this modern and trendy feature; it does indeed provide the best service to shoppers. Additionally, this helps keep the number of menu links to a minimum since a category page can be reached and then any further searches narrowed down from that point. Being able to step back with one click is where these types of filters really shine.

Product Presentation - Having a fantastic website that works well and does everything an e-commerce presence should do can end up being worthless if the products are not presented well on each page. Photography in particular needs to be exceptional, with multiple clear, well-lit images of each piece of merchandise to prevent buyers from turning away because the item to be sold cannot be seen well enough to convince a shopper to make a purchase without ever touching it. All product, shipping and return information should be complete as well, leaving very little reason for a potential customer to make a final purchasing decision clearly and without any confusion. Between product information and images, shoppers should be able to feel confident in what is being bought, enough to the checkout and actually make conclude that transaction.

Overall Website Design - While there are a lot of important features on an e-commerce website, the overall design itself should not be ignored. It must fit the image of its company, be well laid out in regard to colors, fonts, white space and image use and be fully functional in all necessary ways as well. Even though it is a retail sales shop, it should still look like any other professionally made website that a company would present without shopping cart functionality.

Shopping Cart Security - Security today is a high priority for anyone wanting to start selling online, as customers have become more and more careful about being willing to provide banking or credit card information. The best way to earn and keep customers' trust in this instance is to stick with the tried, true and trusted financial and security options. This will not only make customers more comfortable with providing private information, it will increase belief that the selling company does indeed care about its customers and wants to conduct good and honest business with all potential buyers.

By creating an e-commerce website that provides services seen in the upper echelon of internet sellers such as Amazon, even companies new to online selling can do well. The less online hassles for customers to deal with typically means better sales and higher return rates. Then after creating a well built, efficient website, a seller's main responsibility is merely to live up to that sales promise with good products and offline service as well.