Tip #3 – How to submit Photography for your Website

July 30 2010 by Summer Taylor in Website Design/Development |No Comments

So you’ve done your homework for your site and written some great content but your site visually is rather boring. Time to get creative and pick out some photos to enhance the visual appeal of your website!

When selecting photography for your website you have a couple of options:

  1. You can use exisiting photos you may have taken of your product, employees, in action, or relevant location shoots; or
  2. You can purchase photography through your business and pass along that photography to your designer.

Using your Own Photos

Using photos you may have taken on your own is a great way to save some money when designing your website. Good Dog/Bad Dog Creative Design has a client, Flavors of Rome, who specializes in educating others about the beauty of Roman cusine. As a part of her business, Carol Malzone, president of Flavors of Rome, travels to Rome frequently and has the opportunity to take beautiful photos of the local markets and cusine during her stay. When she returns to the States we will then take those photos and incorporate them into her website and blog. The nature of her business, and her excellent eye for photography, allows her to add a personal and unique touch to her online marketing efforts.

Purchasing Stock Photography or Hiring a Photographer

If your business doesn’t allow the opportunity for you to take custom photography, there are other resources you might want to explore.

  1. Online Stock Photography Companies
    There are numerous online stock photograph companies that allow you to search their database of photographs for purchase. Some popular companies include iStockPhoto, Getty Images, and Corbis. These companies offer royality free (which means you can use the photo however you’d like and for as long as you’d like to use it), or rights-managed (which means you have certain restrictions for using the photo) at different price levels. Most of the time purchasing a web-based photo is the best option for your website but if you’re unsure what size you need, you may want to first discuss all available size options with your designer.

  2. Hiring a Photographer
    If you have the time and the budget, hiring a photographer to take custom photographs for your company is recommended. The reason being that photographers can create stunning professional photos that are only available to your company for use on your website and marketing materials. With stock photography there’s always a possibility that the photo you choose to be the face of your company could be the face of someone else’s company as well. However, your designer certainly understands budget constraints and can help you either find photographers in your area or help you decide the best, most cost efficient, option for your company.

For either option above, it’s best to consult your designer for all your photography needs so they can help you choose the most attractive photography for your site and the appropriate amount of photos that would look best without causing clutter.

Once You Have Your Photos How Should You Submit Them to Your Designer?

If you’ve decided how you’re going to obtain the photography for your website, here are a few things to keep in mind before sending your photos to your designer:

  1. Check on photography permissions. If you’re photographing a business, cusine, or people yourself – you will need to ask their permission and sign a release saying you’re able to use that photograph on your website. Any photography given to the web designer is under the impression that all photos are legal to use and the designer will not be held responsible for any violations.If you’re purchasing photography from a stock photography website, pay close attention to the terms “Rights-Managed” versus “Royality Free” and fully understand what they mean, so the photo will be used appropriately on your website.

    If you’ve hired a photographer to shoot custom photos, get the terms of use for those photos in writing. Agree to the ways your company will use the photos, how often, and the number of photos you have rights to up-front so no issues arise once the photos are placed within your website.

  2. All photography should medium or high-res format (150-300dpi and at least 4×6” or larger in size). By saving them in this format, your designer can always take larger photos and size them to the appropriate dimensions and file size they will need for the web. Larger photos can always be sized down to the appropriate file size or dimension without compromising the quality of the photo. However, trying to size a photo from small to large has unfavorable results. Please note: If shooting photos yourself, your digital camera should have different settings that will allow you to choose small, medium or large format photos. Consult your manual for how to change your camera settings.
  3. Photography should be saved as JPGs and zipped (or compressed) all together before sending. Your computer should have a “compression” feature for folders you create. If not, the program Zip It is available online for a nominal fee. It’s important to note that most email programs will only allow up to 5MB to be transferred from one email account to another. If your files are larger than 5MB, you can look into a free online program called You Send It to send files up to 100MB. If your files are larger than 100MB, you will need to save your photos to CD, flash drive or DVD and send them to your designer.
  4. How many photos should you send? It’s best to discuss how many photos your site will contain and where the photos will be placed with your designer since each site design varies.
  5. How will your photos be displayed on your website? It’s also important to discuss how your photos will be displayed within your site. Will you have a flash rotation on the homepage? Will you need a photo gallery? There are many photo viewing options that might require special dimensions or file formats so it’s best to know that information up-front.

We hope you found these tips useful! Have any questions about the information supplied above? Throw us a bone!

Tip #2: Gather Content Ahead of Time and Write it Right the First Time Around

July 30 2010 by Summer Taylor in Website Design/Development |No Comments

In my previous article I gave some tips on doing your homework before interviewing potential Web designers for your project. This week I’m going to touch on how to prepare content ahead of time for your website.

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “Content is King” and it’s even more important to keep this theory in mind when writing for your website. The Web is great and a curse at the same time. While you can find an answer to just about anything you Google these days, there’s SO much information out there, how do you decide what to choose to read?

For most of us, we choose to read sites that are fast loading, clean, easy to navigate and more importantly search engine friendly (since they’re the first ones to pop up after our search right?). Besides using good grammar and spelling, here are some tips to consider when creating effective web content:

1)   Make it exciting. Think about the last five websites you visited. Why did you stop by their website? Did you decide you were up for a five-hour reading session one day? Were you looking for something to cure your insomnia? Probably not. I’m sure there was an exciting header that grabbed your attention, a humorous statement that made you laugh, or a particular site that contained that exact keyword you were searching for. So how are you going to convince people to stop by your website? By engaging the reader with a mix of humor, short descriptive paragraphs, and keyword-rich content, you can create the same type of environment that draws your attention to sites when surfing the Web. Stuck trying to think of interesting words to use within your own content? Check out Thesaurus.com! It’s a great resource.

2)   Put yourself if your client’s shoes. What would make you want to buy your own product or service? Why are you different than your competitors? Do you have any customer feedback that gives you insight on what makes your product more superior than someone else’s? Brainstorm ideas and use customer feedback to help develop your competitive advantage – instead of guessing.

3)   Keep your content short, sweet, and engaging. We live in a world where everyone seems to be in a hurry and reading websites is no exception. The average person spends about two minutes reading website content before moving onto something else. Which means, your website needs to get to the point, fast. Creating snippets of engaging content will increase the chance a user will stay longer on your site and the possibility they will return. Have a lot to say? Supply critical information on the main pages of your website then start a blog to dive into your discussions further.

4)   Organize your information. Use bold headings, bullets, short paragraphs, white space, lists and tables to organize information that can be read quickly and easily.

5)   Write content that’s SEO friendly before your website is designed – not after. Google spyders will start searching your website as soon as it’s launched so why not have everything prepared at the start? Writing content that’s SEO friendly can be a blog topic of it’s own (and may be in the future!), however, here are a few tips to keep in mind:

  1. Your content should be relevant to your business and should sound natural.
  2. Use important keywords in your titles and in your first sentence.
  3. Make your links part of the copy – especially if your links include keyword phrases.
  4. Don’t overuse keywords. Once again, make everything sound natural.

6)   If you’re not much of a writer, hire someone to help. Save time, and money in the long run, by hiring someone to write strong, SEO-friendly content the first time around. That way you can continue to focus on your business instead of trying to figure out how to write relevant copy on your own. It might cost a little more up front, but in the end it will allow you to reach your website goals faster.

So you’ve taken all or our tips above and have developed some awesome SEO-friendly content for your website. Now what?

Bundle up all that great content and pass it along to your web designer. Try and submit all of your content at one time and in Word documents. That way the designer can extract the information from Word and paste it directly into your site.

The great thing about a website is nothing is set in stone. Unlike printed pieces, there are minimal costs (if any) to making tweaks to your copy once your website is launched. So don’t fret that your copy isn’t perfect or might need a few changes down the road. The more important thing is to have everything ready upfront so the design process moves quicker and smoother.

We hope you have found these content tips useful! Remember, content is king so check and make sure your website is up to par. Need help developing exciting, SEO friendly copy for your site? Throw us a bone!

What is a Joomla site?

June 28 2010 by Summer Taylor in Website Design/Development |No Comments

In a previous blog article I briefly discussed using a content management system (CMS) for your website. In this article I’d like to talk more about one CMS platform in particular, Joomla.

First of all, what is Joomla?

Joomla! Is an open source content management system (CMS) for publishing information on the Internet. Many businesses including corporate businesses, online magazines, e-commerce, non-profits, and community-based portals have used Joomla for their website needs.

What does Joomla do?

Joomla allows your Web developer to quickly build a website for your business and then enables you to manage your own site yourself. Joomla also integrates with numerous extensions (most free) in order to add specialized functionality to your website (i.e. shopping carts, social media aspects, photo galleries, etc.).

Advantages of Joomla:

1)   Free – The cost of the application is free. The only fees associated with setting up a Joomla site is the cost of a base template (usually around $50) and the cost of a developer setting up your initial site.

2)   Extensions – There are many extensions that will boost your sites functionality. They can be installed and configured in minutes. Building a custom programming feature is costly and could take days or weeks to install.

3)   Maintenance – It’s very difficult to maintain a coded website unless you know HTML. Joomla allows you to maintain your site even if you have no prior HTML knowledge. Updating the text within your website is as easy as updating a Word document.

4)   Multi-linguistic – You are able to build sites in many different languages using Joomla.

Disadvantages of Joomla

Joomla has a lot of great features but we want to play devil’s advocate for a second…

1)   Changing a template, or developing a custom template, can be costly – if possible stick to the out of the box templates and customize colors, photos, content, modules, etc. It will save you time and money.

2)   Some plug-in’s do cost money – while there are many that are free, there are some modules that cost money. For example, there’s an excellent Wordpress blog integration module that’s $80. Yes, it’s $80 but the time that it saves you copying over your existing blog entries to your new Joomla website makes it worth the money spent.

3)   You might need a developer for some of the changes you’d like to make to your site – depending on the changes you request, you might need a developer to create custom modules for your site. Be sure to let your designer know, in advance, if you anticipate any custom needs so they can gather a quote before your job starts.

4)   If you have a large site or your site requires a lot of complex programming, Joomla may not be for you - It might be better, and more cost efficient, to build your site in either Drupal or a custom content management system according to the specifics of your site. Your web developer will guide you if a different CMS platform is required.

Want to see some samples of Joomla sites?

Here are a few Joomla sites that Good Dog/Bad Dog Creative Design has created in Joomla:

www.happilyeverafterevents.biz

www.myfranchisehealthplan.com

www.bellapranayoga.com

http://www.bizechicks.com/chick-magnet/index.php

Are you interested in creating a Joomla site for your business? Give us a call! We’d love to discuss how Joomla can enhance your current or upcoming website. We look forward to hearing from you!

Need a Website? Read These Time Saving Tips First.

June 28 2010 by Summer Taylor in Website Design/Development |No Comments

Are you looking to create a website for your company or would you like to update your existing website? In this five-part blog series we’re going to give you tips on how to make your Web site design process run smoother.

Tip #1: Do your homework…

This week is all about homework. Remember that word? We all used to grunt and make faces in school when the teacher told us our homework each day, but today, doing your homework is a good thing and can save time, money, and confusion when you’re interviewing potential Web designers for your project.

Take a look through the tips below and don’t worry, you don’t have to memorize all of them. I’ve taking some of the “work” out of your homework and have developed a survey, based on the information below, for you to use as you start your next website design project.

1)   How would you like your site designed?
Would you like a site where you can make minor text and photo updates yourself or would you rather have your webmaster make website changes for you? If making your own site changes is more important to you, you might want to initially request a quote for a website with a built-in content management system (or CMS), such as Joomla, or Drupal. The advantage of this is while you might pay a little more upfront, your or someone within your company will have the ability to make minor content changes to your site on the fly instead of having to call up your webmaster. Have never heard of Joomla? Read my blog on “What is a Joomla site?”

2)   How many pages will your site contain?
Drafting a site map and having it available for your initial meetings with website designer prospects will show them how many pages you expect for them to create. Sometimes the total number of pages will factor into the price of your overall site design. So, knowing exactly how many pages your site will start with (if you are developing from scratch) or how many pages will stay, be removed, or added (if you have an existing site) will be helpful to the designer.

3)   What is the image you want your site to project? Professional, funky, unique, retro or classy? What colors would you like to use to portray the look and feel you’d like to get across?

4)   How do you want to organize your information? What is the flow of your site  going to be like and why will your customers want to visit or re-visit your site? What’s your unique selling point? The most important information within your site should be strategically placed on all your pages. Your Web designer can help make placement suggestions and strategies as long as they know what information is most important to you.

5)   Who are your competitors and what are their Web addresses? It’s helpful to know who your competitors are and what they’re doing with their sites so you can structure your site completely different (and more appealing!). Also by giving your designer your competitor sites, they can run a website grader report which can help them make important Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy suggestions during your website design process.

6)   What sites do you like? What sites have you run across where you like their design, colors, layout, the way they organized information, the slideshow they used on their homepage, etc? Knowing your likes and dislikes can help the designer save time during the website design process.

7)   Do you have any special programming needs? Do you need a shopping cart, custom contact form, the ability to make appointments online or do your customers need to log-in to view certain information? Knowing this information in the beginning will help the designer determine if they need to bring a programmer into the project or if designing your site with a CMS will suffice. Even if you do not need any special programming in the beginning of your project, but anticipate needing something down the road, you can save time and money up front.

Now-a-days, we’re all looking to save a little time. Designing a website is no exception. Download this free PDF and keep it handy as you work with your Web designer to design or redesign your website. Need a designer and not sure where to start? Give us a call! We’re happy to help you with your website needs. You can reach us at 727-452-2416 for more information or visit our website to view samples of our work or to find out more about our company.

Creativity Isn’t Just for Designers

February 25 2010 by Summer Taylor in Graphic Design/Print Marketing |No Comments

I’m very fortunate that my job is to be creative – pretty much every day. However, there are times when thinking of a new/fresh design is very challenging. The hectic pace of owning your own business, or life in general, can make an otherwise active mind lazy. So what do you do when you need a burst of creative inspiration? Here are a few suggestions:

1)   Step away from the computer: The internet is an awesome place to find numerous websites, blogs, online magazines, etc. to use as a source of inspiration. However, if you’re someone who works on the computer 8 hours a day/5 days a week – it might be beneficial to step away from the computer to refresh your thinking.

How Magazine published a great article about “Create While You Wait.” In a nutshell, they suggest using our dead time (waiting in traffic, restaurants, airports, checkout lines, etc.) to collect ideas for your next project. I know I’m guilty of immediately pulling out my iPhone to pass time when I’m waiting in line, however, How Magazine suggests using the time in other ways. Notice impulse purchases customers make, examine menus and the overall atmosphere in restaurants, pay attention to billboards, or watch how people eat and drink – making casual observations can help you gain insight about your customers or help you make better design decisions concerning your product or service.

2)   Look at things differently: I went on Facebook the other day and a friend of mine that is a photographer posted a photo that he took of leftover apple pieces. He said he “threw it into the mouth of the garbage disposal before realizing it was a piece of art.” That leftover piece of apple turned out to be an amazing photograph. What this teaches us is to find beauty and inspiration in items we encounter everyday. Train the eye to think differently and discover new shapes, textures, colors or composition of items you would normally not think twice about.

3)   Take in the local art scene: Sometimes we forget to visit places in the community that are perfect to get the creative juices flowing. In Tampa, the Tampa Museum of Art just opened featuring exhibits from Henri Matisse; MOSI (Museum of Science and Industry)  is showcasing the work of Leonardo DiVinci through May 31st, and don’t forget about unexpected places to find stimulating design such as at the Tampa Bay History Center, the Dali Museum, and the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts.

Deep down whether we’re left brain or right brain, we’re all creative. Take the time to explore your creativity using the resources around you. Dan Goodwin from HowtoDoThings.com states it best when he says, “Creativity is a way of being, seeing, acting and doing, not just making art. Think of the many ways you’re creative in every moment of your life, and accept that your creativity is far greater and more diverse than you’ve been giving yourself credit for.”

Call to Action – What’s Next for Your Customers?

February 15 2010 by Summer Taylor in GDBD Creative Design In the News |No Comments

So you finally have your website designed and it’s up and running. Congratulations! Mission complete and now the customers will start flooding in right? Not so fast.

Your website was created for a specific reason – to sell your service or product, to engage others, or create awareness about yourself or your company. But how to do you make sure your website visitor performs what you wish for them to do? You need to create an effective “Call to Action.”

An example of a call to action button from Twitter (red arrow)

What’s in it for you?

Depending on the purpose of your website, your call to action might be asking for the sale, filling out your contact form, or signing up for your e-newsletter. However, before you decide what your call to action will be, you will need to come up with an idea of how you will measure the success of your call to action. Do you want 20 people to sign up for your e-newsletter each month? Do you want to increase your sales by 10% in 6 months? Whatever you want your end result to be, make sure your goals are S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely) so you can accurately gauge how well your call to action is working.

What’s in it for the customer?

Once your goals are defined, decide what specific action you want your customer to take and what they will get out of the call to action. Keep your message short and use language that your visitors will understand. Also keep in mind that the use of action verbs such as “buy now,” “contact us,” “free estimate,” “join the conversation” or “get a free quote,” ask your visitor to take action while passive verbs are much less persuasive and provide less desirable results.

Success Factors

Your goals are set, your call to action is clear – what next?

  • Location is key. Ideally your call to action should be placed high and in the middle of your page (above the fold). However, sometimes this wouldn’t make sense so consider your site goals and place the call to action in the most appropriate location within the structure of your page.
  • Keep and eye on design. Which would you notice right away – a sentence of text that’s underlined or a large colorful button? More than likely the button. Take advantage of white space, use an alternative color palette, and don’t be afraid to make your call to action button big!
  • Don’t overwhelm the customer. Some websites might want you to view a demo and buy a product along with signing up for their newsletter and following them on Twitter. It’s great to give a user options, but you don’t want to confuse or frustrate them. If you want your customer to take specific-action steps, make sure they know it. Define a process or place different actions on a few popular pages throughout your site.
  • Make it easy. Would you want to take 10 steps to get a free white paper, or three steps? Would you want to fill out 20 form fields, or two fields? Make sure your call to action is straightforward and effective (for both you and the customer). Engage the customer – don’t scare them away.

Measure and review your goals

Finally, it’s important to make sure Google Analytics (or something similar) is installed on your site and you’re measuring the success of your call to action in relation to your goals. Pay attention to conversion rates, unique visitors (as opposed to returning visitors) and what pages your customer’s visit. If your call to action isn’t producing the results you were hoping for – make some adjustments. Nothing is set in stone and you might have to try a few options before you find the combination that works best.

Need help defining a call to action or analyzing its results? Throw us a bone! At Good Dog/Bad Dog Creative Design, we’d be happy to chat with you about online strategies that can help your company generate new business and exposure.  Take a look at our Web site for more information on how to give us a shout.

As Business Owners, What Can We Learn From Lady GaGa?

February 4 2010 by Summer Taylor in Graphic Design/Print Marketing |No Comments

Flipping through the channels this past weekend I came across the Grammy’s Red Carpet special on E! Being more interested in what the stars are wearing rather than seeing who wins the awards, I decide to watch. Most of it was the typical “Who are you wearing,” and “you look gorgeous,” yadda yadda yadda, until Lady GaGa stepped out of her limo. Never one to disappoint, Lady GaGa was wearing another crazy concoction – this time a solar-system type of outfit, complete with a metallic star illuminating her fingertip.

After my typical “This girl is wacko!” mumble, I continued to watch the red carpet show where immediately every other question was “Did you see what Lady GaGa was wearing?” And every few minutes she was shown posing in front of cameras. Even the day after the Grammy’s, radio and TV hosts, newspapers, and the Internet was buzzing with opinions about what she was wearing. She caused a whirlwind of chatter in an instant and it got me thinking: “What can Lady GaGa teach me about marketing and design?”

1) Never wear the same thing twice. How boring would Lady GaGa be if she wore the same outfit twice? Boring? Unoriginal? Maybe. Same goes with design. I’m not saying go out and spend money on a new campaign design every time you want to promote your product. However, take a look at your materials, how long have you been using the same concept? The same design? The same color scheme? Just as Lady GaGa wears new outfits in order to keep her image “fresh” you should think about changing things up every so often in order to keep your customers on their toes.

2) Mix colors and shapes. Lady GaGa’s outfit at the Grammy’s mixed silver, white, purple, and yellow. There were textures, and metallics. Not to mention pieces of her outfit popping out everywhere. Sure that deep-blue color might scream “corporate” but why not add an interesting texture to the background? Or maybe add a bold accent color to help make important parts of your materials stand out a bit? Even better, take your normal 8.5”x11” printed piece and change the overall shape. Maybe a square, maybe one side is longer than the other, or maybe the brochure folds into a triangle? The possibilities are endless!

3) Be bold. Large fonts, vibrant colors, unique photography. All things that can help make a statement. If you have a little extra money to spend, why not hire a professional photographer to create a unique set of images for your website or brochure. That way the “people” working at your company don’t look like the same people working for one of your competitors. Just because you’re a “professional company” doesn’t mean you can’t experiment a little and take a bit of a design risk. Combining artistic and classy can be achieved without being as eccentric as Lady GaGa.

4) Push the envelope. Controversy draws more attention than playing it safe. The moment Lady GaGa stepped out of her limo, the press was all over her. If I saw an image of her posing in front of a camera once, I saw it five times before the show was over. If I heard the announcer ask one person if they saw her outfit, they asked every other celebrity they interviewed. By pushing the envelope, Lady GaGa created a swarm of controversy thus drawing more attention to herself and ultimately her work. Why not take this approach with your business? Don’t create such a controversy that you land yourself into hot water, but maybe pose a question that might get people talking on your blog, or come up with a campaign message that might make people slightly uncomfortable. Odds are you’ll create a greater awareness about your company and the product or service you’re selling, than if you played it safe.

5) Think outside of the box. Yes, there have been wacky musicians before. Most of them have probably dressed a little “out there” but when was the last time you saw someone wearing a solar system? By thinking outside of the box, Lady GaGa created a unique style that is unmatched by any of her Top 40 counterparts. What can you do differently that might set you apart from others? Maybe it’s an innovative design or maybe it’s a unique process that your competitors don’t offer and you do. Dare to be different and take some time to think about what can make you unique. Be the Lady GaGa in your industry.

Need help standing out from the crowd or creating an instant buzz? Throw us a bone! At Good Dog/Bad Dog Creative Design, we’d be happy to chat with you about print and online strategies that can help your company develop an exclusive identity. Take a look at our Web site for more information on how to give us a shout.

2009 GDBD Creative Design – In the News

February 1 2010 by Summer Taylor in GDBD Creative Design In the News |No Comments

Good Dog/Bad Dog Creative Design - Summer TaylorGood Dog/Bad Dog Creative Design (GDBD Creative Design) was proud to be featured in two fabulous online publications in 2009. Since our new website/blog wasn’t launched at the time, we didn’t get a chance to include them as an entry. So, incase you missed reading them – or would like to read them again- here’s your opportunity!

In October 2009, Summer Taylor of Good Dog/Bad Dog Creative Design (GDBD Creative Design) was asked to be featured on Examiner.com – Tampa Bay Marketing Spotlight. The article written by the fabulous Ginger Reichl where she asked Summer questions about how she started her business and encouraged her to pass along business advice to fellow entrepreneurs. Click here to read the Examiner.com Marketing Spotlight article.

In November 2009, Summer Taylor of Good Dog/Bad Dog Creative Design (GDBD Creative Design) was thrilled to be featured in Skirt! Tampa Bay in their article “24/7 with…” The article was written by the talented Chris Kuhn where she asked a variety of entertaining and thought provoking questions! To see how these questions were answered, please click here.

Thank you again to both Ginger and Chris for asking Good Dog/Bad Dog Creative Design to be a part of your articles. We hope 2010 will bring more exciting media opportunities – stay tuned…

Two Great Web Applications to Help you Choose your Color Palette

January 28 2010 by Summer Taylor in Graphic Design/Print Marketing |No Comments

Color Swatch BookLooking for a new color to spice up your website, logo or brochure? Tired of using primary colors for every project? If so, I’ve recently I’ve discovered two products that might be of interest. Without having access to Adobe products, you might be missing out on the numerous colors available for both print and the Web. Or maybe you have access to Adobe products, but you are looking for a new way to make better color selections. Either way, check out the following items bound to make choosing colors much easier.

Color Schemer
Color Schemer is a professional color-matching application for your Mac or PC. For a nominal fee of $49.99, you can download this application directly to your desktop in order to identify color harmonies for Web or print. Would you rather test drive the product before you buy? No problem! There’s a free 15-day trial available for download.

There are so many features that makes this product appealing. Not only do you have access to pre-made color schemes, but you can also pull colors from photos you have stored on your computer, or start from scratch and build custom color schemes. Even better, once you pick a color palette that you want to try out, Color Schemer gives you the opportunity to preview the palette in various settings including website, blog, print and pattern layouts. Love the color, but worried about readability? There’s a contrast analyzer that will check your text and background color combinations to make sure they’re readable and provide enough contrast.

And if you need to learn even MORE before signing up for a trial, play around with Color Schemer Online (version 2). It’s a free online service that allows you to set an RGB or HEX color and then provides a sample complimentary color palette that you can make lighter or darker based on your tastes. What a fantastic way add a new color to your next online marketing piece – all in a matter of minutes! With all these options, the hard part now is just deciding which palette is the “perfect” color palette…

myPANTONE iPhone Application
I recently purchased an iPhone and I’ve been obsessed with finding new applications to make my life easier. I read about the myPANTONE iPhone (and iTouch) application in Mac Life magazine and decided to try it out. It’s a little more expensive than other iPhone apps, but in my opinion, it’s worth the $9.99 price tag. The myPANTONE application gives you access to the full Pantone Matching System®, including the FASHION & HOME cotton and paper swatch books. The cool thing about this application is you can take it anywhere you go! The Pantone website describes it best when they call it “Portable Color Memory™”

Similar to the Color Schemer application, myPANTONE allows you to capture and extract colors from photos – either by taking a photo with your iPhone camera, or from images previously loaded on your phone. From there you can automatically generate color combinations, or create color palettes that you can share through e-mail, Twitter or Facebook, or through the myPANTONE.com sharing website. See a flower color you’d love to have a dress made out of? Is the sky that “perfect” blue you wanted for that new logo you’re creating? Or maybe you have some time to kill at the DMV and want to decide on a new scheme for your website. With this application you can do this and more – making life on the go more vibrant than ever.

Need help with picking out a fresh color palette for your marketing materials? Throw us a bone! At Good Dog/Bad Dog Creative Design, we’d be happy to chat with you about turning a “flat” color scheme into “fabulous.” Take a look at our Web site for more information on how to give us a shout.

Want a Fresh Look? Change Your Typeface!

January 19 2010 by Summer Taylor in Graphic Design/Print Marketing |No Comments
Example of use of typography within a website design. Website by Sean Baker

Example of use of typography within a website design. Website by Sean Baker.

Don’t Call It a Comeback….
No, I’m not quoting the awesome LL Cool J song I KNOW all of you have on your iPods. I’m instead talking about the reference to a “typography comeback” in 2010. Whether or not this is actually a “comeback” isn’t the theme for this article but instead I’d like to encourage all of you to spice up your marketing pieces or Web site pages this year with… ready for it… typography! Designing materials full of corporate stock photos are SO 2009. Instead, let’s live on the edge and add some interesting type to your designs. Don’t worry, it’s not as hard as you think. Heck, you can even put some of these suggestions in place with your favorite office products. So go ahead, read on…

Step Out of That Comfort Zone…
So you have a little bit of a marketing budget to play with and you want to do something new for that conference flyer this year. Why not buy a new typeface?

Your questions on type answered:
Q: There are other typefaces available besides Arial, Times New Roman and Comic Sans?
A: But of course! Unless you’re in the design field, maybe you don’t know about the numerous resources available to expand your typographic library. That’s why we’re here to help. Earlier this year, MyFonts.com came up with a list of the top 10 2009 fonts. Showcasing various scripts, squarish sans-serifs, contemporary serifs, and calligraphic display fonts, this list is a good place to start when attempting to expand your typographic palette.

Q: Cool – but aren’t fonts expensive?
A: Well, yes and no. It really depends on what you’re looking for. If you have some time to explore, you can find some fonts as cheap as $20 (individual font) or as expensive as $300 (for a collection). It depends on the font, and of course your budget.

Here are a couple of typography Web sites I encourage you to check out:
www.myfonts.com
www.fonts.com
www.fonthaus.com
www.fontdiner.com

Most fonts, if not all, are available for both PC and Mac computers, and the majority of the typography sites will let you choose your operating system platform when you check out – so ordering is easy!

Q: I saw this font the other day and I have no idea what it is. Where can I find out?
A: Good question! My Fonts has a great service called “What the font” where you can upload an image or submit a URL, and they’ll find the most similar font available within their database. Pretty cool huh?

Get Those Creative Juices Flowing…
Q: Ok, so I’ve got my cool new fonts but now what?
A: Well that’s only the beginning! Open up your favorite program, and let’s start exploring! The best illustration of all the ways you can use your fancy new fonts can be found in this excellent article from Smashing Magazine on 50 Useful Design Tools for Beautiful Web Typography. The article actually references the different ways you can use typography to enhance your Web pages, but I thought it was a good place to start. Since the Web is much more limiting with what you can do creatively, imagine how you can enhance your print campaigns starting with the suggestions they make for the Web! However, if you need a little visual inspiration, Smashing Magazine also has some examples of creative print typography layouts.

So, there are a few ideas in a nutshell – but it’s only the beginning. Take a couple of seconds to notice how typography is used in magazines, direct mail pieces, Web sites, and billboards around you. Then try something different the next time you sit down to draft an online or printed piece. It’s amazing how something so simple as type can make an enormous impact.

Love the ideas but just can’t wrap your head around how to implement them? Want to create something new, but you don’t have the time to create anything yourself? Throw us a bone! At Good Dog/Bad Dog Creative Design, we’d be happy to chat with you about your marketing initiatives and how to give them a fresh look for the new year. Take a look at our Web site for more information on how to give us a shout.

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