Designing logos are the ultimate challenge for the graphic designer and there is nothing simple about doing them. The logo is the first and most important visual cue of a company or brand. Logos (usually) should be simple, compact and of one or two colors. Because you have less to play with, it's … [Read more...]
Archives for 2009
Free 2010 Calendar in PDF and Adobe Illustrator file format
Every year I send Christmas cards to all my wonderful clients with a calendar of the next year on the back. You never know, somebody may pick one up and think of putting some design business my way, that's the idea anyway! I'm a bit late this year but I'll be artworking it up this weekend and … [Read more...]
First thoughts on the 4 Hour Workweek
The book I am reading at the moment is The 4 Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. I had heard about it from Matt Mullenweg, the founding developer of WordPress the popular blogging software that powers this site. I'm only halfway through the book but already I've been introduced to some interesting … [Read more...]
How to make an on-screen PDF
I regularly make PDFs for clients that are designed primarily to be viewed on-screen. Of course, the person viewing the PDF may choose to print it out on a desktop printer or other device and this should be taken into account. And with everything there is a right way and a wrong way, so here are … [Read more...]
Create a photo gallery on your WordPress blog with NextGEN Gallery
I wanted to add a photo gallery to this website quickly the other day and to do this I used the NextGEN Gallery plugin. It seemed to be generally well-received by the WordPress community and I wasn't disappointed. I literally had my gallery up and running in five minutes! The plugin was created … [Read more...]
Free stock photography for a graphic designer
All graphic designers and people trying to create eye-catching imagery for print or web with have at some point used stock photography. Stock photography negates the need for hiring expensive photographers can license individual photos for specific uses. The two largest traditional stock … [Read more...]
How to market yourself #9: How to get people to contact you from your website
You've got a beautiful website and blog and you want people to contact you, either by phone or email. What do you do? Everyone has a contact page on their website. OK, maybe not everyone, but you should have one, really. Here are some really important points to think about when you're doing your … [Read more...]
Cloud commuting and graphic designers
Cloud computing is a term usually used to describe the proliferation of resources and services accessed through the internet. These resources (for example, Google maps; Google docs; Google Analytics; Wordpress.com; online Adobe applications; your website host) in fact, any online service that … [Read more...]
How to market yourself #8: How to offer RSS feed and email subscriptions
So you've got your self-hosted WordPress blog set up, optimized and have already published a few great posts and you want to offer an RSS feed and email subscription to your posts. What is RSS? RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication and is a format used to publish frequently updated content from … [Read more...]
What to do if you are on an email blacklist
A hugely significant part of your web presence and company brand is email. It is just as important as your website. It needs to be professional looking and, most importantly, when sent to a particular place, it needs to get there. What are email blacklists? Email blacklists are databases used by … [Read more...]
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