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New Collections and Trends for the Coming Season

Posted: Tuesday, December 28, 2010

This time of year all high street and designer stores are launching new ranges and ‘collections’ of all sorts of products and goods available to everyone on the high street. But what womens boots to choose? With so much choice on the high street a little help is needed!

With the hot new look at the moment being jeans tucked into mid high boots, this creates a fashionable and sassy look with the comfort of being warm in the harsh weather conditions of the UK. When wearing smock tops and t-shirt dresses, add shape to the outfit by co-ordinating a wide belt around the waist to add curves and to make the waistline evident, also add a patent black oversized bag will create the perfect feminine look for any occasion. Wear this look with patent black shoes-boots and block colour tights to give your outfit the perfect dose of wow for the chilly season ahead!

Fringes, straps, buckles and embroidery are all fashion must haves for this season. Fringed suede boots, jackets and bags, embroidered shoe-boots and court shoes can all make the look complete. The detail on shoes, boots and accessories and will make you look and feel visually stunning!

A. Fashion Designs and Womens Styles
Fashion Designs and Women’s Styles
See through clothing, shorter hem lines and contrasting colours. The latest fashion trends and women’s seasonal styles are often defined by celebrities. And the fact of the matter is, celebrities are often dressed by renowned fashion designers. It’s all about taking ideas from the fashion designers and being unique and comfortable in your personal fashion sense.

Chanel is one of the best known and renowned fashion brands in the fashion and haute couture world. The brand started off with a no-nonsense approach to fashion. The evening wear and formal collection of Chanel tends to have an understated sex appeal, not blatantly revealing, yet exudes luxury, feminism and delicateness. The Escada fashion collection, spearheaded by Margarethe Ley, is known for innovative fabric and colour combinations. Escada is all about creativity in fashion, and their use of the most updated technology in creating fashion is testament to that fact.

Prada wraps old-world Italian luxury into a new world fashion design. It is innovative yet classic, understated yet unique. Its upside down triangle symbol is now famous in the fashion circles and fashionistas sporting Prada accessories are indeed in a league of their own. d’Italia is a designer fabric store in Melbourne, Australia. d’Italia boasts a range of material and fabric that are often used for the creation of uniquely tailored evening wear, bridal wear and professional wear.

B. Dolce Gabbana Fashions are About Luxury and Style
Dolce and Gabbana Fashion is a recognized entity in the fashion world and is famous for their creative and coy Italian aesthetics. The latest luxury to embrace the fashion world from Dolce and Gabbana fashion house is the custom-made crocodile bags that feature a host of black crocodile products. If people require knowing the popularity of Dolce and Gabbana Fashion, pay a visit to Milan Fashion Week.

The collection of Dolce and Gabbana includes of sunglasses, light fragrances, shoulder bags, weekend bags, and total wardrobes for everyone. The stylish collection of Dolce and Gabanna Fashion has a design that is inspired of the culture and color of the Mediterranean Region. Every Dolce and Gabbana Fashion collection has amazingly sexy and fetish approach that gives a vision of Fellini movies.

The products of Dolce and Gabbana Fashion are showered with unique vision of Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana. Their theme that centers on common individuals rather than models makes the products of Dolce and Gabbana Fashion fascinating. Dolce and Gabbana Fashions have made Milan Fashion Week their own.


How to become a Professional fashion photographer

Posted: Friday, December 24, 2010

How to become a fashion photographer and Professional photographer
A career in fashion photography doesn't have to be an impossible dream. With its huge audience, high pay-checks and glamorous international lifestyle, fashion photography may seem like one of the world's most sought-after professions. But for every fashion photographer who makes it through the door of a top magazine, a thousand others find their niche fashion advertising, art photography, celebrity portraiture or even paparazzi work to make a living.

Sydney photographer Eva Mueller agree that breaking into the industry can be hard. But they have some tips for beginners on setting up a portfolio, submitting work to magazine picture editors, choosing the right photo agency and even getting shown in a gallery.

Setting up a portfolio
"Having been around, I know how hard it is to get in the door," says Allure magazine photo editor Clio McNicholl, who receives around 50 unsolicited portfolios a month. Many photographers find that websites offer an inexpensive way to showcase a relatively large quantity of images. Eva Mueller a Munich-born fashion and beauty photographer who has been living and working in Manhattan for ten years, points out that computer editing is also a method of keeping down retouching and printing costs.

Many fashion photographers find the sharp, bright imaging of 4 x 5" transparencies show off their work to best effect. Tear-sheets (literally, pages ripped from a magazine) are great if you've been published, but good quality, 8 x 10" prints are also OK.

Picking your picture editor
"Most people who cold call me haven't done their research, which is the world's biggest mistake," says Clio McNicholl. When you submit work to photo editors, remember that you're "showing" rather than "selling". Editors almost never buy the specific image they see before them; they're looking for a photographer who can execute future commissions. The best way to grab an editor's attention is to show previously published work. "Because there's such an over-supply of photographers, a lot of magazines really take advantage of that fact," says Eva Mueller. McNicholl says Allure's rates start at $350 a day for unknown photographers, up to $130,000 for a fashion spread.

If your work speaks clearly, you'll stand a much better chance with picture editors than with vague or ambiguous images. When you're submitting your work, remember: Call the magazine ahead and get the name of the person to whose attention the submission should be marked. Label everything with your name and telephone number. Send working prints or transparencies, not originals. Include a stamped, self-addressed envelope if you want the work back. Some clients really take advantage of the fact that there are so many photographers out there: they make you pay for the whole shoot, they alter your pictures and don't tell you when they drop the story. Sometimes they're just really disrespectful toward the photographer." There is a way to avoid having to deal with photo editors, however: and that's to have a photo agency do the selling on your behalf.

Finding a photo agent
Photo agencies exist to liaise with clients and sell photographers' work on their behalf. They benefit everyone from start-out photographers, who may not have many industry contacts, to seasoned professionals, who are too busy to take care of business dealings themselves. Usually the photographer doesn't have enough time to take care of everything."

Agencies can also re-sell your work in several different markets, acting as a mini publicist and giving career advice. "The young photographer has to understand their target, in terms of their personal goals the direction the photographer wants to take," she says. Agents recommend treating your first contact with them as seriously as if it were a job interview. A photo agency is not the only place that can sell your work. If you're more interested in concentrating on your personal vision than taking commercial work, you can also considering exhibiting in a fine art photography gallery.

Getting a gallery
While gelatin silver prints are the staple of fine art photography, you'll find a healthy interest both in contemporary photos using antique methods (such as Chuck Close's daguerreotypes), as well as modern printing methods, including Cibachromes and C-prints.

Like any artistic undertaking, art photography is unlikely to pay you a living wage for many years. Although many artists sell their work directly from the Internet, critical attention and the strongest sales come from a relationship with a Gallery. While there is now at least one photo gallery in most major cities, the center of the world art photo market is Sydney. Sydney boasts around 100 galleries dealing in photographic prints, and prices there tend to be strongest. A comprehensive list of Sydney and international galleries is available at the websites of the bimonthly listings guide Photography in Sydney , as well as the Association of International Art Photography Dealers.

Before approaching any gallery with your work, you should telephone and request details of their submissions policy. Many galleries review new work only at set times of the year, and even to get in the door of some places you will need the recommendation of somebody known to the gallery directors. If a gallery is interested in taking you on as an artist, they'll probably want to see a representative sampling of your work. Even if you have one or two knock-out images in your portfolio, a gallery will want to know that you have a mature body of work with a consistent standard throughout.

The most important thing to remember about working with a gallery is to maintain a proper business relationship. You should also discuss whether you are free to have relationships with other galleries, or if your gallery expects exclusivity. If you have a New York gallery, for example, but then arrange to have a show in Los Angeles, sometimes the New York gallery will expect a cut (typically 10%).

A. The Boost of Digital Photography And How It Has Affected The Fashion Industry
The big improvement in shutter speed and photo resolution, make it convenient and easy for both beginners and professional photographers to take good pictures. In addition, photo editing can now be done to create a more creative and artistic photos.

Digital photography has also been a huge plus for many online and offline businesses. A stock or image is used by a photographer to purchase images. Today, digital photography is known to boost the fashion industry. Digital fashion photography far off different from doing television footages and taking photos on films. For digital photographers, it is a more challenging field to work on.

The ultimate purpose of digital fashion photography is to capture every detail in the ramp. Digital fashion photography will capture the various outlooks essential to gratify the acceptance in world wide fashion trends. While digital fashion photography is a meticulous field, a photographer should be creative enough to know the hottest craze each year.

Like fashion designers, digital fashion photographers should also work in high end ease, filed with beauty and glamour. Further show contrast by giving blurry parts and sharp emphasis over your photos, organize your subject, put weight on the shapes and lines of interest as well as create good impact that you are giving information on your audience.

A digital photographer should also be conscious that whatever output he delivers will uncover the care, readiness and awareness of the many vital points to remember in taking pictures. The photographer should use curtains and reflectors. Never expose the entire photograph, try underexposing other parts. Use reflectors, filters, see-thru transparency, and diffusers to neutralize colors.

B. Causeway Mall: Why it is Wise to Shop Fashions With Them
The Internet has become part of people’s everyday lives. People talk through the Net, people work through the Net, people express themselves through the Net, people find other people in the Net, and of course, people source things or shop through the Net. CausewayMall understands what the women want and need especially when it comes to fashion. Online shopping at CausewayMall is a lot more comfortable. Unlike the hassles of going to a regular mall for your wholesale shopping, CausewayMall.com is accessible with a few clicks of your mouse and some taps on your keyboard.

Unlike regular malls, in CausewayMall you don’t tire yourself looking around for all the wholesale dresses and designs that you want to buy for your fashion wholesale business. CausewayMall offers you everything in one whole page—from ladies apparel wholesale to designer clothes wholesale, from cheap ladies wholesale clothing to wholesome women’s apparel—you name it, they have it.

With CausewayMall, one need not daydream and imagine hard what their wholesale women’s apparel looks like. CausewayMall caters not only to the needs of cute trendy clothes wholesaler or sexy tank halter tops supplier, they also provide excellent service even to individual who intend to start out in the wholesale clothing business internationally. And with the great variety of wholesale women clothing from a wide network of clothing suppliers made available by CausewayMall, you are definitely sure to start out with the right stocks to meet the never-ending demand of your prospective clients.

And of course, CausewayMall is the best online wholesale fashion mall that will win your heart as wholesale clothes sale run not only for a couple of days or weeks but forever.




How to Get a Job as a Graphic Designer

Posted: Monday, December 20, 2010

"Hi.. Thanks!"

Which got me thinking about how difficult it was for me and some of the fellow graphic design students I studied with to get a job in the design industry back in 1999 (yes that long ago!) straight out of design college. I snapped up a job with a Central London design agency in Soho within 2 weeks of leaving college but looking back it wasn't really the right job for me then. Though just 13 months later I changed positions and worked for a great design agency based in London Bridge and learned a huge amount as well as working on lots of different types of projects as a designer.

Anyway competition was fierce then BUT the amount of graphic design and other design courses available in art colleges and universities up and down the college has grown hugely since then.

So here are a few tips on (like Adam asked) "how to get into the UK Design industry"

The Portfolio:
Having a great design portfolio is a must. Think about the kind of work the agency your applying to does and try to tailor your portfolio towards that. For example if they specialise in corporate identity and branding work try to include work of this kind.

Be ready to talk about your design work, what inspired you, why you approached the project in the way you did, even choice of typeface, colours, imagery etc. Show them some of your sketchs and development work, some agencies what to see your scribbles more than the finished work as it shows your design process and how you think!

Before taking your portfolio along to job interviews, make sure you show it to a people (tutors, other design students) talk them through it, get them to ask you questions about your design work and respond with suitable answers.

Work Experience:
Offer to do some work experience with a design company who's work you really admire (for free if you have to!), even if its just a week then spend that week wowing them, making the tea, producing great work, take an interest in everything relating to that design company. If the company really like you during your work experience they might offer you a full time job!
This worked very well as they got me a new job within 2 weeks. Remember what you wear can be seen as a reflection of yourself and your design style or preferences.

Behaviour:
Be yourself, be calm and open to discussing your work and the work of the design agency. Remember to ask questions about what work they produce and what your role would be. If you go for an interview and they don't give you a job, don't worry, your work just might not be suitable for that particular design agency.

A. Diversifying and Personalizing Your Modular Set Design
As a pioneer of modular set design and construction, Uni-set Corporation offers our current users not only a variety of total system packages and news settings for every size studio, but also a number of great modular products with which to enhance each modular staging system. By incorporating such enhancements into an individual set design, the ultimate goal of establishing "program identity" is served.

Users Uniset's full-size modular products including geometric shapes that stack for walls, risers,and steps, triangular risers for multi-level sets, talent tables, pre-finished walls that match talent tables, modular cyclorama modules for green/blue walls, corners, ground row, and floors, and more. One product that does just that is Chroma Key. Lighting plays a key role in the look and feel of any set, and lighting professionals know that any tone and/or mood can be established in mere moments through the use of soft color lighting gels.

Limited budgets, studio space, and staff no longer have to be an impediment to producing quality programming. Discover the endless variety of modular set designs available to you. In the process learn how set designing via modular pieces can create video content that draws in viewers by virtue of its unique identity.

B. Modular Set Design Brings an Identity to Programming
Think of the last time you watched the television news, a talk show, or an instructional video. Enter Uni-set Corporation, the solution for entities searching for TV set design and construction of a modular products and total system packages that provide each and every program with its own unique identity.

SettingsUniset incorporates the assemblage of modular pieces to create a large variety of TV set designs including news settings, interview and talk show sets, and sets for instructional videos. From our original four foot modular system to a 30 inch modular system to news settings and beyond, we offer a variety of settings built to meet the individual needs of different clients and industries. Our clients include local networks, cable access stations, public television, college television, school districts, government and military installations, productions house, and corporations including AT&T, Kodak, Sears, J.C. Penney, IBM, and more.

TV set design and construction begins with the use of scale models in the planning stage. This ability allows for more productions, each with its own unique set design. In an era consisting of more and more viewing outlets and shorter attention spans, video content has a finite amount of time consisting of a few short seconds to grab viewers and reel them in. Discover the unlimited possibilities inherent in modular set design, and how they can benefit you.



Career in Fashion Designing

Posted: Thursday, December 16, 2010

Does your creativity work unabated when you look at textiles, fabrics, embroidery? Does your adrenalin run high when you see the coverage of fashion weeks on television? If you experience all this, a career in fashion designing is just right for you.

A fashion
The fashion industry has seen a surge in the recent years in India. In India, especially, a fashion designing job holds vast opportunities. There is a huge garment and textile industry in India which gives ample scope to fashion designers to innovate with fabrics, styles, embroidery, motifs and designs. It is not just garments that it is limited to although garments form the major chunk of our fashion industry.

There are not just garments that one can design but also footwear, bags and other accessories that come under the purview of fashion designing. If you have an eye for detail, a good observation of trends and likings and the penchant to create something new and visualize colors and cuts, you will thrive well in the field of fashion designing.

Those who take up fashion designing jobs get to do what they love and love what they do. It is a glamorous and exciting job that also pumps your adrenalin. There are tight deadlines that fashion designers work under if there is a fashion week going on or if there is demand from the customers. Fashion designers are expected to come up with original concepts and design in fascinating colors and cuts in limited time. Since a fashion designer has to take charge and supervise from conception to execution of a design, it is required to have that managing ability.

Thus, summing it all up, to succeed in fashion designing jobs, one has to be artistic and creative with good sketching and drawing skills, original and innovative with design and ideas, a good aesthetic sense, ability to synchronize well in a team, good management skills and an acute awareness of market trends and events in fashion.

As a fashion designer, at the job, you would be required to design and create stylish outfits and accessories to match. It is always better to work with a senior designer to get a feel of ho things work in the industry. If you are good at your work and hard-working, you would surely be noticed. Each designer has different work ethics. There are ample job opportunities with professional designers, manufacturing units, export houses, boutiques and fancy stores and in TV and films as costume designers.

A. You Better Work: the Grueling Glamour of Fashion Design
If you answered yes to these questions, you may want to consider a career in fashion design.

Beyond the glamour lies an intensely competitive work environment that demands not only great creativity, but also knowledge of current trends, proficiency in sewing and patternmaking, and a flair for self-promotion.

Fashion Design Job Overview
Every year, fashion designers create billions of clothes, shoes, and accessories for a discerning and fickle body of consumers. They stay up-to-date with fashion trends by conducting research and attending trade and fashion shows. Many others create mass market deigns, open their own stores, or sell their designs to other retailers. Some even work for the entertainment industry, researching period pieces and creating costumes for films and television shows. Whether self-employed or part of a large design team, all fashion designers must be prepared for frequent travel and the occasional all-nighter.

Fashion Design Education and Other Qualifications
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) notes that most employers seek designers with 2- or 4-year degrees. Basic coursework for a bachelor's degree typically includes textiles, sewing, CAD training, and fashion history. Fashion design students may also want to supplement their core curriculum with classes in business, human anatomy, and psychology. Aspiring designers can also gain valuable experience from internships or retail jobs, and should always maintain an impressive portfolio.

Job Outlook & Salary Information
Predictably, many are attracted to the glamour and artiness of fashion design, and this makes for a competitive job market. The BLS notes that the best job prospects will be found in firms that create mass-market designs. The average annual salary for fashion designers hovered around $62,810 in 2007.

B. Become a Fashion Designer
You know you're destined to be a fashion designer if you: a) spent most of your childhood making clothes for your Barbie dolls instead of playing with your friends; b) read fashion magazines instead of your school books; c) ran a boutique out of your basement at age 10. In other words: if you want to be the next Yves Saint Laurent, it helps to be completely and utterly obsessed with fashion.

Working as a fashion designer can just as well mean supervising a design team at a sportswear company as producing a label under your own name.

Choosing a strategy
There are as many different ways to embark upon a fashion career as there are styles of design. Ralph Lauren's Polo empire was founded on a small tie collection that he sold to Bloomingdales. Michael Kors built up a network of customers by selling clothes in a trendy NYC boutique. However, most people find that the best foundation for a design career is to get a fine arts degree in fashion at a prestigious school. "We live in a brandname society, and having the name of a good school behind you really does help," says Carol Mongo, Director of the Fashion Department at Parsons School of Design in Paris. It's hard to enter these schools as competition is high, and they tend to be very selective. You apply by sending a portfolio of drawings of your designs. Drawing is also an important skill for a designer – it is the way you communicate your ideas. In order to build an impressive portfolio it's a good idea to have some experience in sketching; taking art classes will help you understand form and proportion.

What school will do for you
Most fashion programs are three to four years long. During that time you will take fine arts classes and study drawing, color composition and form. One of the most important advantages of design schools is that they work really closely with the industry. Parsons, for example, have "designer critic projects" where successful designers like Donna Karan and Michael Kors work directly with the graduating students. One very important event is the fashion show at the end of the last semester, when graduating students show their collections. A lot of important people from the fashion industry attend these shows to scout new talent.

Alternative routes
"Let's be realistic," says Carol Mongo at Parsons, "School's not for everyone. If you're just looking to get a job in the fashion industry Рnot a career as a designer Рyou probably don't need to go school." If you want to work as a seamstress or a patternmaker, the best thing is probably to apply for an internship at a fashion house and work your way up. For example, Dior's brightest new star, men's wear designer Hedi Slimane, had a degree in journalism when he started working with men's wear designer Jos̩ Levy. Balenciaga's Nicolas Ghesqui̬re is another example of a brilliantly successful designer who learned the jobs hands-on, as an assistant at Jean-Paul Gaultier. Usually, you apply for an internship by sending a portfolio to a fashion house you're interested in.

Understanding the business
Unfortunately, it's not enough for a designer to be creative; you also have to have some business sense. A lot of fashion schools are currently increasing business classes in their curriculum. "Our students have to be smart enough to know how to negotiate a contract, or to pick a business partner," says Carol Mongo.


Are Celebrities the New Fashion Designers?

Posted: Sunday, December 12, 2010

The style of Americans is constantly transitioning. capital of the country, and perhaps even the world, Southern California is gaining more prominence due to Hollywood celebrity influence, completely changing the way Americans gain exposure to the newest trends and fashion.

This has even changed the way designers do business, where once, advertisements and commercials was the most significant way to showcase their threads, a paparazzi photo of Paris Hilton in a certain designer's clothes can make headlines in the tabloids, and accidentally promote the designer. The whim of Hollywood celebrities now has precedence over choosing the trends of Americans across the nation.

Several Hollywood celebrities including Nicole Richie, Paris Hilton and Gwyneth Paltrow have gone even a step further from showcasing other designer's lines, into actually starting their own lines. Nicole Richie has already started her own jewelry line named House of Harlow, with aspirations of branching out to clothing, shoes and handbags. Currently, the price of this jewelry line ranges from around $55 to over $400 and is sold exclusively at Kitson, a popular boutique in LA known for its celebrity customers. (http://www.shopkitson.com/index.php?pageId=2&manufacturer_name=HOUSE+OF+HARLOW+1960&show=all).

Take Paris Hilton's shoe and handbag line for instance. (http://www.theinsider.com/news/642268_Paris_Hilton_Launches_New_Footwear_Line_At_Macys)
Furthermore, one of Hollywood's biggest stars, Gwyneth Paltrow, has decided to launch her own fashion line for next fall and winter. The line will be named ZOEtee's Loves Gwyneth and will be a capsule collection for ZOEtee's, a French fashion house. Paltrow claims that the proceeds of this line will go towards London's Kids Company, drawing attention towards this charity in assisting children over the UK area.

Where it is common for celebrities to use the attention that they attract to promote their movies, events and clothing lines, it is also an upcoming trend for them to use the attention that they attract to draw awareness to other charities and good causes.

A. Top Fashion Design Colleges: Top Fashion Colleges Take You To The Top Of The Fashion Industry
Uniqueness in Common
A common characteristic among fashion designers and those employed within the fashion industry is their uniqueness. Whether you want to study fashion design from a location close to your home or in a large fashion design metropolis, like New York or San Francisco, top fashion design colleges that will meet your educational needs are located throughout the United States.

Even the world's leading designers had to learn and develop their skills before realizing success within the fashion industry. Fashion designers are artistic people who hold within a desire to create new and exciting designs. Combining knowledge and artistic ability, fashion designers turn their ideas into real fashions for merchandising, publications, and the interiors of the homes we inhabit. Many fashion designers are self-employed and provide fashion services for individual clients, while others provide similar services to department and specialty stores.

The curricula of the top fashion design colleges are structured to provide a well-rounded and contemporary educational experience to the fashion design student. Students can learn the most current innovations taking place in fashion design. They are exposed to computer generated fashion design, pattern development and drafting, fashion merchandising, and much more. If you are interested in a career of fashion design, then you should investigate the courses of study from some of the top fashion design colleges in the nation.

Top Fashion Colleges and World Travel
Most top fashion design colleges provide programs that combine traditional skills - like sewing, pattern production and use of fabric - with the standards and trends of today's fashions. Some top fashion design colleges even provide study tours of the world's leading fashion producers located in cities like New York and Paris.

B. Career Haute Couture: When You Absolutely Must Become a Fashion Designer
Becoming a fashion designer means so much more than understanding clothes. Learn that, and your career potential may very well be unlimited.

The Fashion Design 411
The fashion design industry is comprised of a wide variety of professional positions that range from the creative to the systematic.

The median annual wage of fashion designers in May 2007 was $62,810, with the top 10 percent earning $121,640 and the bottom 10 percent earning $31,340. Potential salary and employment opportunities should be best with design firms that create mass market clothing. Also, because about 25 percent of professional in this field work temporary or contract positions, the environment can be right for entrepreneurs and business self-starters.

Becoming a Fashion Designer:
What It Takes to Get There
The road to become a fashion designer is similar to most trade or artisan fields. Two paths exist: a traditional academic route and a career training alternative. Approximately 250 postsecondary institutions accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design offer 2- or 4-year degrees in fine arts.

Program and Course Requirements
The changing landscape of the fashion design industry is taking students through an unusually contemporary readiness strategy. The emergence of Auto CAD as a design tool is placing a premium on candidates with advanced technical skills. Also, communications remains an integral part of the job and encourages students to consider the academic development option.

Common courses may include textiles, color, pattern making, sewing, tailoring, fashion history, and more.
• Make Contacts. Use your preparation period to cultivate valuable industry and career contacts that you can leverage when job-hunting.
• Continue Learning. Your fashion design career should be what you make it.


Designing an Annual Report for Charities and Corporate Customers

Posted: Wednesday, December 8, 2010

As a legal need, the submission of an annual report to shareholders, investors and trustees is something that can re-inforce the organisations core branding and values.

Choosing the right annual report designers
Many charities and some corporate firms are tied to strictly budgeted guidelines and often use amateur designers or recommended friends to produce these complex reports. It obviously makes sense then to choose an annual report design company that have a proven track history in this field and can show off some impressive design portfolio of past annual reports they have designed to back up their quality.

Don't make a mess of the figures
More often than not an annual report graphic designer will be handed over a bunch of excel documents including balance sheet reports and financial statement reports and be expected to turn a page of numbers into something approaching creative design.

Make full use of white space - the designers default trick
White space, to fill or not to fill that is the question. On balance and especially if you are able to maintain a straight face while convincing a head of accounting that leaving the page design as a minimal exercise in preserving a blank canvas is the way to best portray annual report designs, you should always try to move in the white space design direction. Another good design trick to use on annual financial statements is to have a photoshoot and have the normally camera shy accounting division staged to look like they mean business. It will provide an amusing counter balance to the dry waffle contained in the report wording.

A financial report design should make you want to rub the page with glee not send you to the land of nod.

A. Annual Rapport – Today's Annual Reports Need to be More Than Mere Numbers
Blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah. Exciting initiatives. Blah, blah, blah. Proactive approach. Blah, blah, blah. Poised for the future.

Financial Reports:
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah = Blah.
Your annual report shouldn't be “blah”.

Your annual report is the single most important document your company produces – and it’s most powerful public relations and marketing tool. A thoughtfully designed annual communicates corporate culture and values, recruits new talent, builds brand recognition, boosts corporate image and offers people a glimpse at the organization behind the numbers.

Dollars and Sense
In studies conducted by the Ernst & Young Center for Business Innovation diverse investors consistently placed a premium on non-financial criteria. Attributes such as branding, strategy execution, management credibility, innovation, ability to attract and retain talented people, and R&D ranked high among those polled.

Maximize the Message
Your annual report will leave a lasting impression. Navigating production obstacles and emerging with a compelling annual requires finesse.

1. Communicate excellence through design. The quality of concept, layout, printing and bindery, paper, graphics, photography, illustration and copywriting are all reflections of your organization.
2. Eschew pedantry and esoteric vocational patois. Straightforward, engaging copy will get the message across and create momentum that carries readers from page to page.
3. Flaunt your assets. Non-financial performance information lets them know if you’re poised for growth and capable of weathering financial storms. Emphasizing advantages such as comprehensive branding, or skilled management and labor retention rates reassures investors you have what it takes to keep moving forward.
4. Go digital. Making your annual report available via the company web site is cost- effective and eco-friendly. A digital version of your report is an excellent supplement to the printed book, but not a replacement – printed reports are still a must.

B. Graphic Design Tips for Digital Printing
Graphic designing calls for a lot of patience, perseverance, imagination and creativity. May be some useful graphic design tips may help you improve on your designing skills. Spend time experimenting with color, textures and your favorite software - be it Photoshop, Illustrator, Corel. Every tutorial in graphic designing can be a valuable source of inspiration; but avoid picking the too hard or the too easy ones. Most experienced graphic designers recommend watching science fiction and fantasy movies as a potential source for new ideas. Some persons new to graphic designing visit exhibitions to collect calendars, booklets and other promotion materials. It is a good practice to continually browse Google images, Flicker, stock photos sites.

Very often you will find eye-catchy design works either accidentally or by searching using different keywords. It is true that a lot of designers find inspiration in reading and writing blogs and planning posts for graphic design. If you are able to conceive a perfect design first in your head, then it will be easier to implement it in real design work.

Many people are under the impression that it is easy to convert a print brochure to a website and vice versa little realizing the difficulties involved. You have to bear in mind that the print resolution is generally higher than web resolution which is 72dpi. Therefore images are bound to appear much larger in 72dpi screen resolution. Many nice design fonts will not work on your website except if you keep them as images. When using general HTML fonts, you are restricted to only a limited number of fonts. A simple brochure will invariably be not designed to the same scale requirements to suit a website. Keep in mind that converting a print design to a website might require some advanced skills!

There are quite a few other sustainable design tips when it comes to graphic design. The present trend is to avoid superfluous white space.


How to Make Web Pages Using Professional Design Templates

Posted: Saturday, December 4, 2010

You would be surprised at how numerous people are establishing their own Web pages to express opinions, promote causes or simply be present online. You may be tempted to have your own Web site as well. Creating your own Web site is a tedious task to do. Time is gold, as they say. One setback about putting up your own Web site would be the availability of time. With your very limited time, you would find that professional design templates are really usable and highly recommendable.

Ways on how to use professional design templates
When using professional design templates for creating your own Web pages, you have to observe the following procedures.

1. Ready made Web pages are pre-made.
2. Initially choose the Web design that would best suit the type of the content you would put into the page. Consider the nature of the Web site. Would it be a personal or informal site or a formal business Web page? Professional design templates have specific designs for all purposes.
3. Download the package or the professional design templates you have chosen. You would be surprised that there are also ready-made Web templates that are offered for free across the Internet. Unzip the designs and start inputting the specific content.
4. Open the Web design or professional design templates in an HTML editor or even in a Notepad. You could easily incorporate any logo, video or image you aim to include on the page. You could preview the initial Web page. Once the Web page is done satisfactory, you can easily roll out the site. Doing so would require you to coordinate with certain Web coordinators, who would do the rolling out job so the Web site can be legally and appropriately put up. A good catchy Web name would also be imperative if you aim to lure readers to get into the online page.

Creating a Brand Identity With Professional Design
The design process is crucial to any business, whether it is creating a simple company logo, or the design of an entire corporate campaign. Many companies never change their logo design dramatically but only make the smallest of changes to keep the design looking fresh. It is worth taking time and not rushing a company logo or corporate identity design as your design will represent your company and be around for a very long time.

Logo design is creating a unique symbol / graphic to reflect your companies image and vision. If you own a small company, with a well-designed logo your business will look big. A striking logo is paramount for the image of any business, small or large. The design creates a starting block for a companies corporate identity, the right colours, fonts and is of great importance when starting to design business cards, compliment slips, letterheads and a website, keeping all styles consistent throughout creating your brand identity.

Logo design types

High / Low resolution

If you are looking at starting a new business, you will need a logo. All logo designs should be unique to your business, no templates, no free graphics or clipart, just bespoke designs for your company.

Logo designs for print
High resolution CYMK 300dpi
High Resolution Logo Design

Must be use for printing high quality material e.g. letterheads, business cards, compliment slips, banners, posters etc.

Logo design - redraw and enhancement
Alternatively, if you do not require full logo design service, you could re-design, redraw or enhance your existing logo for print or website use.

Finding A Professional Designer Yor Your Home
As with anything else there are different ranges when it comes to hiring a professional designer and there is an affordable price range for everyone.

A professional designer can take any room in your home and transform it to your tastes and their professional tastes as well. It is incredibly important to find a professional designer you can communicate easily with and one who understands your needs and ideas for the project being worked on. It will not be a successful experience if you find yourself working with a professional designer who does not take your input or ideas.

What many people are finding to be the most successful way to find their professional designers and companies is to do a simple Google search. Enter a search phrase such as "professional interior designer yourcity state." Such a simple search will find designers in your area.

You will find many companies and websites which offer free online quotes and a great deal of detailed information right from their site including:

- Hourly Rates
- Free Quotes
- List of designers in your area
- Indoor and outdoor designers

This is a very detailed and practical list of features that each and every client can utilize in order to find the best professional designer for you and your home needs. Choose the professional designer in your price range and reap the benefits.


Ideas for Web Design

Posted: Friday, November 26, 2010

Whenever a web designer gets a web design project, he or she will require to take a step back and go through the research process in order to complete the job. The research process is a tedious process, it determines how well, and successful will the result of your web design. Ideas for web design will share with you how to go through that research process smoothly and obtain results.

One fine day, you received a call from some client and he requests you to design a website for his company.

RETREIVING THE DETAILS:
After meeting up with the client, you get a lot of details that will assist you in your design process. This details applies even when you are designing a personal website.
1. Nature of the Company
2. Client Preferences (Example websites?)
3. Target Audiences (kids? Young adults?)
4. Platform (Flash? Html? Php? Asp? )

1. What are you going to design?
2. What style of design are you approaching?
3. Whom you should design for?
4. How will your design work?

DETERMINING THE STYLE:
For a start, you should base on the client’s description of his company, his nature of the company to give a rough gauge on the design style.
Web Hosting business >> High tech web design, sleek and professional design
Example 2:
Dolls and Toys business >> Kiddy, Girly, Colorful, Fun design

COLOR THEMES:
Having a good and suitable color theme on your web design will give users a pleasing experience while surfing through the web site you designed. One of the important techniques is to get a color chart from your local art store or use some color chooser tools to aid in your color selection. Your color theme will affect the mood and feel you want to create.

Colors also have their own meanings. For example, white is clean, blue is cool and corporate, having a white and blue color theme gives you a clean and corporate web design. Orange and yellow are warm and friendly colors, Grey is cool, combining a Orange-Grey theme will give you a friendly and fun mood. Dark colors are also popular among many, because they easily matched other bright colors. Whether your color theme turns out successful depends heavily on the first step “Determining the style” of your website.

PHOTOS & GRAPHICS:
After getting the colors done, its time to think about the graphics and images. Searching in Google for “stock photos” will give you plenty of results on this. Having a mid-range camera should do the trick as images for website are all on low resolution. 3. Creating Graphics Images – A web design will always need custom-made graphics images. You will need some skills in creating the graphics of your needs, or you will feel stuck while designing. Learn about vector graphics tool like Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Fireworks.

INSPIRATION AND REFERENCES:
Reference sites will give you ideas on usability, color theme, ideas on relevant images, navigation, features and many more guides to work on your web design project. Always consider them as useful references to help you whenever you need inspiration and ideas for your web design.

A. What YOU Should Know Before Getting A Web Site!
Everyday thousands of new businesses make the leap and take their business on line, what about yours?
1. What do I expect my web site to do? There are many types of web sites out there from purely selling products, to purely informational and everything in between. Do you need a one page online resume, portfolio, bio, or online brochure to really get your company’s information in front of the public? No two sites are exactly alike, and because of that, the prices for your web design can fluctuate. This question is one you must ask yourself before you hire a web designer!

2. How much will a web site cost me? What is your budget for your web site? Remember, this is your virtual store front. Honestly, you can find web site design from $35 (if you get this for a quote, and you have any hopes of ending up with a professional site…WALK AWAY!) to $10,000 (good for huge companies that can afford it, but not the best bet for a new business). Realistically, expect to spend from $85-$200 for a one page resume, bio or brochure site and from $300-$1,800 for larger full featured sites, and expect to pay either half or all of it upfront depending on your designer.

Aside from that there are monthly hosting fees that range from $10-$40 per month for a descent sized site. Ask your designer if they offer hosting in addition to designing your site? You will usually get a much better deal, and you already trust them to design your site (I’ll go more into hosting plans and options another time). (example: www.thebestmoms.com) If not, ask your designer if they can get you one? A lot the time, if you are buying a decent sized design job and hosting from them, they will throw in your domain name for free-although, you will have to pay the renewal fee each year which can range from $19-$35 (ask your designer).

3. What’s my web address going to be? People easily forget the hyphens when they remember the address, and you don’t want to be sending business somewhere else. D-using correct spelling; it is fun to play with the spelling of a word, but take in to consideration your audience’s ability to remember the way YOU spelled it as opposed to their natural urge to spell it correctly. It’s your job to get them to your site, not their job to find you, so make it easy. I suggest .com, or .net for selling (ecommerce) sites, but it’s up to you!

4. How long will it take to design my site? If you take longer to get your information (or your words for each page and pictures) it will of course take longer for your site to be up and running. Also, the more complicated your site, the longer it can take-though I’ve not seen a site construction take longer than 8 weeks. Make lists, and write out your ‘blurbs’ (text) for each page. If your designer does not offer writing as a service (ask), you can hire a creative writer online and sometimes you can even barter (trade your products for their services) with creative writers looking to build their portfolio. A lot of work goes into web site design, and so what seems like a minor change in the design plans to you may actually be a major change in the overall design, and some designers will charge you for this because your initial quote is based on their expected design hours. Like any other store, you have to market your site.

One great tool is search engines. Now, how do you get listed on search engines? You want to give your designer a two sentence description for each category or page, and a list of 20 words you think some one would use to find your site for each category. I suggest you ask your designer if they submit your site to search engines automatically or if there is a small fee for this? Simply submitting will not guarantee you top spot on the search engines; especially if you are in an already crowded field-even if you pay the $300 fees some search engines charge.

You can also market your site by putting the web site address on everything-return address labels, business cards, t-shirts, your car, your email signature; put it in your signature on message boards, etc. Most designers have policies about updates, from a monthly update fee only for the months you require updates, to an hourly fee per update. After answering these questions, you are ready to talk to your designer about the fun stuff-the design.

B. Are You Being Scammed By Your Web Design Company?
Does your web design company own you? This may be possible if you've allowed them to host your web site for you and also register your domain name for your company. Web design companies have a lot of control over their clients. This power is usually exercised when a client of a web design company finds a better deal on hosting for their web site and they simply want to switch their hosting provider, or when the "client" wants to upgrade their web site for a better rate than their current web development provider is offering.

- Current web design company sends their client a hefty bill for switching
- The web design company cancels their client’s account
- They may point the domain name to another place

Too much power is given to the web design company. I truly believe there should be a law against web design companies that can be summarized as such: For any domain name registered by the web design company on behalf of their client, the domain name may not be disputed or need to be disputed, the domain name is automatically owned by the client and is automatically bound by their web development contract.

If you are reading this and are in the process of searching for a web design company, please ENSURE that you have a contract drafted, outlining everything you are entitled to and that you have sole rights to your domain name.

See what most business owners fail to realize is that their domain name is as important as registering their business name itself. The same applies for your domain name. It is as important as owning your own company name. How to avoid this "Power Stricken" disaster:

The best solution is to go out and register your domain name BEFORE you hire a web design company. This ultimately gives you the power over your domain name. At any given time, you can go back and log into your "domain name registrant" in order to switch your web site to any hosting company you choose.

95% of all web design projects don't need a large hosting package that costs between $150-$500 a year. You only need a large hosting package if:
- Your web site is 1000+ pages in size

Ask questions when shopping for a web design company! - If you register my domain name, will it state in my contract that I own the domain name under all circumstances?
The FTP allows you to hire another web design company to go in and update your website at any time. Without the FTP information, no one can update your website besides the original web development company or hosting company that you hired.

In Conclusion:
Be weary of web design companies that don't provide contracts for all of their projects. Be careful with your domain name; make sure that in the end, you own all rights to your domain name, not someone else.



Architectural Outsourcing

Posted: Monday, November 22, 2010

The outsourcing industry worldwide is booming.
The question arises, that when everybody is jumping on the outsourcing bandwagon for obvious benefits, then why not the construction and real estate industry. One aspect where the real estate industry can immediately benefit is in outsourcing designing of 3d models or renders of their present and future projects. Today, architects and builders recruit in-house designers who design 3d models for them. But then most of these people are not 3d specialists, not at least specialists in designing 3d models for real estate ventures.

To achieve this purpose one needs the help of civil engineers, architects and designers working in tandem. For an architect or builder to outsource such work to these specialist companies, is a proposition of significant benefits. Also, the architectural expertise and the design expertise of 3d modeling companies

can be combined to create life-like models which would be utilized on the project website, brochures and other sale materials. Many architects have already realized this and a significant amount of work is being outsourced.

A. Architectural Rendering Software
A software is a tool that can single handedly perform the tasks of scores of specialists in a short span of time and thereby enable us to save in terms of money and man hours. Imagine you are a proprietor of an architectural design company. To run your business, you need an office building, a number of architects, designers, technicians, and computer specialists to do commuter-aided designing, video grapplers, and a host of technically trained personals to create various architectural designs. It means a great amount of hard work and sleepless nights.

You can use an architectural rendering software program to draw plans with correct graphs and diagrams. This software is a reservoir of huge data needed and you can select any item within seconds. You don’t require multi faculty skills to make use of the tools contained in the software. While software eliminates many hassles and headaches and works great in ordinary situations, it cannot replace the creative genius of a human mind. New innovative techniques are coming up in every field of human knowledge and so also in architectural rendering, which cannot be easily incorporated in the software. More over, handling software of a magnitude that contains thousands of library images requires specialized training.

B. Talking About Architectural Rendering
Architectural rendering basically refers to preparing and presenting a proposed design of a building structure so that the person who is responsible for constructing the building can easily approve the design. With the existence of computer aided design and multimedia related architectural techniques, there has been a vast change in presenting schemes for new developments to planning officers and potential buyers.

A computer generated architectural rendering are specific in their presentations and they even use real life textures, materials, color and finishes. A computer generated architectural rendering also called as photo real rendering are used for purposes relating to still renderings, panoramic renderings, virtual tours etc.

Through various combinations of architectural rendering techniques on the computer screen, now it is possible to give realistic shapes to your visual presentation based on what you require in a building. A computer architectural rendering service are mainly designed to meet the needs of architects, house builders, developers, planning consultants and property marketing agencies.

Though a 3D rendering service, it becomes easy to change the surface materials whenever required. In order to create accuracy, 3D renderings, use topographical surveys and site plans as reference points. With this information, actual slab heights and roof lines can be created for visual representation purpose. The 3D architectural renderings can be certainly considered as a cost effective solution.

The 3D computer architectural rendering service incorporates powerful conceptual tools into the required design process. With 3D architectural rendering service, one show roads, landscaping, neighborhood, required ambience and also multiple design options can be explored and resolved before the actual building begins. So, a computer architectural rendering can easily customized a given construction plan based on specific client requirements, much before the actual construction take place in reality.



How Relevant is your Ecommerce Web Site Design?

Posted: Thursday, November 18, 2010

Ecommerce web site design can spell either success or doom for any business. Your website’s ecommerce design must be relevant to all the different elements needed for designing a good website.

If you want to add a personal touch to your site, you can design your own site. However you can also get professional help from the numerous website designing companies to get your online business site designed. Select a good web design company which has high credibility to design your ecommerce web site.

The purpose of any ecommerce site is to generate business for a product or to promote a service. Ecommerce web site designing is not an easy task and is not done overnight. The purpose of an ecommerce site is to generate business leads, and if online surfers using different browsers and operating systems cannot even view your site properly, you will lose out on a significant number of prospective clients. Pictures have a very strong ability to portray strong emotions. Put up relevant pictures on your site to put forward an idea.

Color combination of a website is very important. Choose the color to be used in your ecommerce web site design only after a very careful consideration. The navigability and the functionality of ecommerce web site design are of big importance. Your site may be the best visually looking site ever made, but if it does not have proper functionality and navigability, no one is even going to give your site a second glance. No visitor is going to wait and search for information in your site if it is not properly navigable and functional.

Take care of the contents in your ecommerce web site design. Good and relevant content is a great means of bringing visitors to your site. Make your best effort in satisfying the visitor to your site. Take care of the user and try to satisfy his or her needs in your ecommerce web site design.

A. Professional Website More Affordable Than Ever
Nothing makes people trust a company more than them having a professional website. A professional website is a necessity for these companies. After all, anyone can build a website anymore, but if the site is anything but a professional website than people may start to lose confidence would could lead to lost sales which can be devastating for any company.

Website designing companies offer a professional website to anyone who is willing to pay their fees. The fees website designing companies charge are based on the amount of work that must go into the professional website, just like any other industry in the world. A professional website can be as simple or complicated as the customer wants. Sometimes, a customer wants just the basic informational site, very basic by design and easy for website designing companies to create thus the fees would be lower.

On the other hand, a professional website that must have functional parts, links and other concepts a website uses may cost much more as the amount of work that will go into it is great.

Website designing companies have professionals on staff that can create a professional website from a bare page. It is important to note that website designing companies hire people who are constantly learning as new concepts, codes and features are invented and released. For a better grasp of what a web site designing company does, check out their web sites.

Most times, these companies have constructed sample sites to help educate new customers on what is possible and what is best for them It helps the designer to know exactly what the customer wants and having a website for comparison makes the task all that much easier. This also aides the professionals in being able to provide an accurate quote on what the website will cost. When searching for a website designing company be sure to check with the BBB.

B. Most Useful Tips To Reduce Your Web Designing Costs
In order to design a website for personal and business use, you need to apply the tools that can not only make your web site attractive but user-friendly as well. One of the best way to make your website unique and attractive is to use flash web design work on your website.

Best deals on flash web design
There are a number of service providers to choose from if you want affordable flash web design for your web site. You can get a professional flash web designer to do the job. As the Internet can provide you with a wealth of information on flash web design services, searching for the best deals will only require a small amount of research and canvassing.

Another option is to outsource your web design work to India. MiracleStudios is a professional web design companyin India, which can help you reduce your costs by providing high quality web designing services at marginal price.

Building an effective web site need not be expensive.


Useful Information on Choosing a Graphic Design Agency

Posted: Sunday, November 14, 2010

Why choose a design agency for your project?
With the wide variety of design houses, ad agencies and printers out there, choosing the right supplier for your creative needs can be a daunting prospect. should you employ an in-house designer? Many types of company offer graphic design. Printers no longer just print, even many photographers are offering graphic design as a service, as are stationery suppliers, IT companies and many other businesses.

What is a design agency?
So what is a design agency, as opposed to these other options? A design agency is a specialist in creative design as a core business. At the other end of the scale, there are advertising agencies. Should you use an advertising agency for design work that is not advertising? The reverse situation is equally true, most design agencies will not be appropriate for producing broadcast or press advertising, and especially where media scheduling and buying are a factor. The set-up of a design agency can be very effective for some advertising, but usually for limited campaigns aimed at niche target audiences.

The right design agency?
• Is the agency doing many more web projects than design for print? Are the designers qualified designers for print, or web designers who outsource the print design?
• Is the agency willing to give references of satisfied customers other than pre-printed testimonials?
• Can the agency provide quantitative results for work, what evidence can they provide for return on investment and accountability?

Web site design has now become a standard part of a design agency’s portfolio and it is a natural progression for clients’ to expect their web sites to have the same level of branding as any other marketing communications tool.

The main benefit of using a design agency to design your web site is that a graphic designer can integrate your site’s branding with that of all your other marketing items. It is true that many design agencies have to buy-in technical back-end functionality for their sites, but this is only like using a printer to print a brochure that has been conceived and designed by a design agency.

In-house versus Agency?
Many businesses have taken the decision to employ graphic designers for themselves as in-house creative teams. Using a design agency has certain key benefits over an in-house creative studio. Design agencies work in a competitive environment, their designers must constantly deliver the highest standards of work, as clients have a choice of suppliers who will often compete on a project by project basis.

As in football, to maintain a ‘first team place’ it is in the interests of all design agencies to constantly come up with exceptional creative for clients as there are consequences for not doing.

In house designers very seldom have that competitive pressure to drive up their creative efforts. Unlike in-house studios, where the projects may only involve the products and services of one company, designers within an agency work for many different sectors and business types. This constant variety leads to many fresh ideas and the honing of cutting edge creative talent.

This variety benefits the client as the designer in the agency is far less likely to become stale over the longer term. Experiences with new design challenges and constant use of the imagination for new products and services, means that when the designer comes around to working back on a certain client’s project, he has all the experiences from other client’s work to bring to the table.

Although the trend for in-house design will continue due to pressure on budgets, working with a good design agency may still be the better option, as long as your agency can deliver cost-effective services, and offer you a measurable return on investment.

A. Classic Album Cover Design - 'Dark Side of the Moon' by Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon was initially released on March 24th 1973, and has since gone on to become one of the biggest selling albums of all time, consistently appearing in top ten bestseller lists, regardless of source. Since its release, the cover and its design have become an instantly recognizable icon, with subtle variations upon its theme having being used for re-releases and anniversary additions.

The front cover design itself shows a refracting prism against a black background, onto which a single beam of light is being shone with a spectrum of color emerging from the other side. It is highly minimal and neither the band's name nor the album's title are displayed anywhere.

The design was the idea of Storm Thorgerson, a member of the British art collective and UK graphic design bohemians, Hipgnosis; who'd designed the covers for all the Pink Floyd albums from A Saucerful of Secrets onwards. It came about after band member and keyboard player Richard Wright requested something that was less pictorial and more iconic. As this album saw the completion of Pink Floyd's transition from the Syd Barrett-era psychedelic band into the (perhaps a little too) serious prog-rockers that would go on to fill stadiums worldwide, it is perhaps fitting that the cover should have become ingrained in the record-buying public's consciousness.

The concept of the prism refracting the light was in reference to the light shows that were always a staple part of Pink Floyd concerts. The band was presented with seven conceptual roughs, detailing the Hipgnosis collectives' ideas for the prospective cover.

B. Graphic Design Pricing - Free Pitching and the Public Sector
In my day job I run one of the country's myriad of graphic design companies - I'd like to think that we are 'small but beautifully formed', employing six people including myself and enjoying the patronage of a variety of customers, big and small, across a range of business sectors.

One of the imponderables of running graphic design agencies concerns graphic design pricing - after all, how much is creative talent worth? Of course if you are fortunate enough to be a Saatchi & Saatchi or Ogilvy & Mather of the world you can more or less name your own price, there being an almost inherent snob value of being able to say that "one has Saatchi's as one's agency".

Their challenge is in maintaining their market share, for my company, Brackenhill, we don't begin to register on any market share measurement and so we have a much more mundane challenge; Namely to win enough work to firstly pay the staff, secondly pay the bills, thirdly pay me and finally (and hopefully) make a profit and grow. The benefit that the bigger agencies do have is the availability of resource to prepare pitches on a speculative basis knowing that they're going to be invited to enough pitches that by the law of averages they'll win their fair share and thus give them a return on the investment.

For smaller agencies, free pitching is anathema, in the first place the 'free' bit relates to the prospective client only! Consequently you can have say 60 or more hopefuls completing arduous tender documents and preparing some design ideas as to how they would represent a certain facet of the creative brief.

More significantly though, if you can't evidence previous experience of working with a public sector client then you're 'pushing the boulder up the hill'. As an example of how ludicrous this process can be, before I bought the company, Brackenhill had applied to be a graphic design supplier to a local Metropolitan District Council.


The Right Cleaning Tools Make Your Job Easier

Posted: Wednesday, November 10, 2010

There’s nothing like walking into a house that’s just been cleaned. Ahhhh….that clean, bright smell. In that regard, cleaning is therapeutic. Various cleaning tools offer different advantages – from sheer cleaning and scrubbing power, to sanitary qualities, to their ability to do specific jobs, such as picking up hair and lint. Well, when it comes to surfaces such as ceramic topped stoves, cleaning may be overlooked because they are such a pain to clean. Maybe it’s time to get serious about investing in the right tools to get the job done.

Tools That Make Cleaning Easier
1.Microfiber cleaning cloths.
These cloths are miracle workers. They make cleaning a snap and shine like nothing else. Tired of spraying gallons of window cleaner on your granite surfaces and using two rolls of paper towels to make them shine? Microfiber cleaning cloths shine and brighten granite, glass, chrome or metal, and work WONDERS on ceramic stovetops.

2.Cleaning cloths.
When it comes to dusting or overall cleaning, nothing can compare to a good quality cleaning cloth. No, your husband’s old undershirt is not the tool of choice for dusting. Besides that, who WANTS to clean with an old t-shirt? Old clothes are for the trash, not for cleaning. Purchase a set of 10 white dish or cleaning cloths to be used only for cleaning.

These should be used for three different distinct purposes:

1.General cleaning, such as windows, mirrors, and polishing metal

2.Furniture dusting and polishing

3.Scrubbing, such as counters, walls, floors, etc.
Now, to keep your interest in cleaning, make sure to keep your cloths clean by washing them regularly in HOT water. Having a clean cloth to begin with will keep you interested in cleaning and WON’T spread more dirt and grime around.

4.Electrostatic mopping/dusting cloths.
Do yourself a favor and follow vacuuming with an electrostatic mop! It does an amazing job.

5.Baby wipes.
No, these versatile cleaning cloths are great from removing everything from eye make-up to messy faces.

6.Paper towels.
Cleaning toilets is a nasty job, but one of the most important when it comes to having a clean house. Keep a spray cleaner such as 409 or Pine Sol in a cabinet close to the toilet with a roll of paper towels to clean when needed. Use the paper towels to clean the seat and outside of the bowl. Ick.

7.Toothbrush.
Keep a toothbrush around to clean corners of grout, stained tops of woodwork, or any nook and cranny that needs a scrubbing.

8.Wastebasket liners.
Keeping trash cans lined is another “clean” idea that keeps can nice and clean.

9.Telescoping duster.
Get a telescoping duster to help you reach into high corners, dust chandeliers, or tops of bookcases.

10. The Right Paint.
Strange as it seems, paint can be your best friend when it comes to cleaning. If you have flat paint on your walls, you will have a very difficult time cleaning your walls of fingerprints and other stains. Your painter may kick and scream, but the next time it comes to paint a room, choose egg shel or other paint finish that can be cleaned.

11.Brush for scrubbing.

12.Squeegees.
These are essential for cleaning windows. Yes, windows. You’ve got to clean them, too. A squeegee will help you clean windows without having to wipe everything completely dry or use up fifty rolls of paper towels. Use a cleaning cloth to wipe any excess liquid.

13.Tall broom & mop.
Mops and brooms are often too short for you to really apply adequate pressure for cleaning. Select brooms and mops from janitorial supply stores or home improvement centers, like Lowe’s, to find brooms that are heavy-duty and industrial-sized.

A. The Ultimate Design For The Single Woman
You don't get to forty years of age without your fair share of disastrous relationships - and I've had more than my fair share. There was the time the cat died and I had to bury her myself. Picking up the cold, stiff body of something I loved so dearly should have been a man's department (or a man!).

Last night's incident involving a cork screw and a corked bottle of wine just tipped me over the edge and I feel the need to act. I believe a new design is called for. One that doesn't scratch, moan, snore, grow a beer belly and demand full power over the remote control.

I have contacted a company that can help with my new product design. At our first consultation, we sit and discuss my idea, formulating a design that my consultants believe we can eventually patent and mass produce with industrial design adaptations.

A 3D image first produced needs a little work, I have to say. A little larger across the chest please, a little leaner in the leg please. The company eventually produce a product design a little closer to what I have in mind. It looks like a man and will be programmable for all the jobs a man can do without the socks to wash and the random toenails left in the carpet.

The company manufacture my new model from metalwork. All he needs is the occasional oil and wipe with a soft cloth, none of this meat and two veg business. Firstly my product design, and I will be calling him Gerald from now on, will be programmed with a few key phrases. What else do I need?

General daily activities are programmed into Gerald, bin days, wash day, ironing etc. Also essential is the necessary inbuilt toolbox for car maintenance. Next is the added extras: the electronic corkscrew on the hand, spare sockets in the chest for extreme ironing anywhere in the house and the extra padding that can be applied to the hands for foot massaging.

B. Career Fields That Use AutoCAD
So you are the master of AutoCAD, you know it front to back, you know it like the palm of your hand, you could use it hung upside-down blind folded and with one hand. I wrote an article about Earning Money with AutoCAD, but what if you want a career? Industrial design is more about improving a product for mass production. Although you might think that you don't need AutoCAD for industrial design, you would be wrong.

(Sorry) Architecture is such a broad term, but CAD is defiantly used for the layout of buildings in architecture, whether it is a house or an office. The designing of houses and house layouts is a field that interests me and I suggest you check it out as well because it is really fun designing a custom house for everyone to see and hopefully buy.

The last field I will look at is Engineering. Engineering is another broad term. There are many types of engineering, such as electrical, architectural, civil. Engineering deals more with the actual forces on different types of materials or structures. This field would probably not use AutoCAD as much, but the other programs run on the same concept so it is a great start.

Just to recap, the three main career field you could look in are Industrial Design, Architecture, and Engineering.I really wanted to address students who do not know what they would like to do as a career yet but have skills in AutoCAD.


How to Design a Search Engine Friendly Web Site

Posted: Saturday, November 6, 2010

Many web site designers don't design their sites for the search engines. Your beautifully designed web site may have cost you thousands of dollars but it still needs to attract visitors tobeprofitable.Here are 12 highly effective strategies for designing a search engine friendly web site: Use the keyword research tool, Wordtracker (wordtracker.com) to research the mostpopular keywords that pertain to the subject matter of your web site.

1. Create a list of approximately 100 keywords or keyword phrases that you can include within your web pages. Aim to please the search engines as well as your web site visitors.
2. Optimize meta tags - the most significant meta tags are the title and description meta tags. Include your keywords within each of these meta tags. The title meta tag should be a shortsentence about the purpose of your site. Your keyword meta tag should include the most frequently used keywords contained within your web page. Within the descriptive text of these header tags you should include the keyword phrases placed in the same order as your keyword phrases that are within your keyword meta tags.
3. Optimize images using the alt tag - write a short description for the alt tag of your image. The alt tag has purposes: search engines only spider text (not images), therefore this could help your site's rankings.
4. Reduce image size - too many images or very large images on your web page will slow down the loading time of your web site.
5. Find incoming links (backward links) - web sites that link to yours raise your link popularity. Search for web sites that are compatible with yours and have a PR 4 or more to do a link exchange. Write optimized articles and include them on your web site. Create absolute links (ie http://www.domainname.com) from all your internal pages to your home page.
6. Use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to implement a clean design throughout your web site. This will reduce the time to implement a consistent text (or layout) style for your web site.
7. Place any script code into external files - when using javascript (ie for swapping images on your navigation bar) it creates a lot of code between the header tags, pushing down the text that search, engines would spider first.
8. Insert the DOC TYPE tag at the top of every web page. A DOCTYPE ( “document type declaration”) informs the validator which version of HTML you’re using for your web pages. [!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"]
9. Write clean html code - web site editors often write extra code. This can increase the loading time of your web pages. You now have built a profitable search engine friendly web
site.

A. 7 Web Design Tips For A Professional Looking Niche Web Site
Web site design is a critical element in niche marketing. If you want to build your reputation as a Professional in your niche, you need to project a professional image from the moment your visitors reach your web site. Your web site is the only way that visitors can judge you and your product. To avoid this happening to you, here are ten web design tips to help ensure that your niche web site projects a professional image.

Avoid distractions like Flash presentations, animated gifs and audio which loads as the page opens.
1 - Visibility - Design for a screen resolution of 800x600 pixels and a maximum page width of 760 pixels so that your web site visitors don't have to scroll from side to side to read your content.
2 - Graphics - Keep your graphics down to one or two smallish ones and optimise them to load quickly (You can optimise your graphics at www.netmechanic.com who offer a free facility to do this).
3 - Load time - Aim to have your pages load in 8-10 seconds on a 56K modem.
4 - Use CSS - CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. CSS enables you to define the look of your web site with various style elements like font type, size and colour, backgrounds, Hyperlinks and a lot more. By linking your HTML pages to a Cascading Style Sheet you can reduce the amount of code on your web pages and speed up load times. "You are here >> Home > Widgets > Redwidgets" In this case Home and Widgets would be linked back to the relevant pages.
5 - Site Map - Include a Site Map on your web site listing the title of each page with a short description and a link back to the relevant page.
6 - Readability - Avoid dark backgrounds and fancy font styles, if you have a lot of stuff to read on your web pages it is better to stick to a white background with black print as that is less fatiguing to read.
7 - Test - Test your design in as many browsers as possible. For example if your site is about golf, don't include links to a dog training site (unless it's about training dogs to find lost golf balls:-).

B. Web Site Design Tips – Templates
This tip is really more for the person designing the web site than for the people who will be visiting that site. Web site design is tough enough without making things harder on ourselves. Templates are a quick and easy way to get multi page web sites done in a flash. For the most part, you can design a template and use it for every page of your site with no problem.

Designing a template is actually very simple. Most standard web pages are composed of a header, a navigation bar, and the main body of the page. For example, let's say you had a simple four page site with a main page, articles page, products page and contact page. The header might read something like "John Doe's Web Site" on each page with the minor modification of including the topic of the page in each header. The template would be the generic header and from that you would create each individual page header.

If you use individual GIF or JPEGS for your links, simply create a blank design and then fill in the page name, articles, products, etc. as you need them. This also is a great time saver. Plus, if you add pages to your site over time, you simply have to take your blank templates and add the additional page names to them. It's efficient, it's easy and it makes web site design very flexible.



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