Personally, I think that people use too frequently terms as branding and rebranding, redesign, or brand identity. In this context, each one has an opinion; the multitude of viewpoints is welcomed but these must be based on a solid background which is not the case for the majority of individuals. My idea has at its foundation the huge numbers of clients that misuse the branding and logo design vocabulary. Yep, we should be tolerant and forgive the incorrect use of some terms but we can’t ignore when wrong ideas are strongly advocated. More concrete, a very good friend of mine told me about a client that asked for a logo redesign because it’s more than a year since it wasn’t modified. Well, just because time passes, it isn’t a valid reason to redesign a logo!
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Friday, April 26, 2013
How Mobile Web Time Is Divvied Up
The bite mobile is taking out of desktop Web use keeps getting bigger. In terms of what activities Web users are engaging in, in the first quarter 2013 Experian Marketing Services found that U.S. mobile Internet users spent the greatest percentage of their mobile Web time using email, at a 23% share of time spent. Social networking came in second, garnering 15% of time spent on the mobile Internet. Interestingly, travel occupied a greater share of time on the mobile Internet (9%) versus the desktop (1%).
Thursday, April 25, 2013
How Software Developers Really Spend Their Time
And you thought being a software engineer was all about dreaming up clever algorithms or amazing graphics routines and then instantiating them in elegant, tightly written code. Shows what you know.
It turns out, at least according to a survey conducted by software delivery service Electric Cloud, that developers spend almost 20% of their time... waiting. Waiting for their code to compile (that is, for it to be translated from a programming language like Python or C into a binary machine language computers can execute). Waiting for test routines to finish running. Waiting for that junior developer to get back with the Diet Coke and Funyons...
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
How to create a great ‘about’ page
Here’s one thing that never made sense to me: people make websites so others can find out more about them, but most “About Us” pages absolutely suck. They’re either really long and boring or really short and mysterious. Not many people understand the best way to go about these pages.
Saturday, April 20, 2013
How Apple Is Taking Over Your Car
It's no secret that late Apple CEO Steve Jobs was keen on bringing the company's technology to the automotive world. In fact, according to longtime Apple board member Mickey Drexler, "Steve's dream before he died was to design an iCar." Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Phil Shiller, echoed those sentiments during the company's copyright infringement trial against Samsung, saying there had been discussion of Apple making a vehicle.
Immediately following Jobs' death, it seemed like his dream might never come true. But since then, Apple has made a big push to integrate its Siri technology into vehicles. Meanwhile, automakers are finding ways to get iOS apps to work on the dashboard. These and other moves have set Apple on a collision course with Microsoft and Google in a market that's still very much up for grabs...
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
How Google Glass Works [Infographic]
During the writing of this post, Google Glass is being shipped out to Glass Explorers. But alas it is only to early adapters and developers who had forked out the hefty price tag and only a portion of those who signed for it is actually getting a unit.
For the rest of us, we will just have to wait until Glass is more commercially available but if you’re like me, you probably wondered how this wearable gadget actually works. Well this simple inforgraphic by Martin Missfeldt explains the technology behind Google Glass. How images are projected onto the ‘visual layer’, what does a view behind Glass look like and how bespectacled enthusiasts can also join in on the fun.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
How to Get Prospects Hooked on Your Freelance Blog
If you’re a freelancer and you have a blog, you’re probably hoping your posts will impress clients and get them to hire you.
Unfortunately, most freelancer blogs don’t get so much as a nibble, much less a steady stream of clients.
If your blog has a nice clean design and you know how to write an interesting blog post, it’s time to look deeper at why your blog isn’t getting the results you want.
Here's How Google Glass Actually Works
We all know Google Glass doesn't need sorcery for you to comfortably see a digital image projected over reality. But just how does it work? This infographic by Martin Missfeldt lays out the way the magic happens in simple terms.
Saturday, April 6, 2013
How to Choose a Typeface
Something I hear from a lot of people is that, when choosing typefaces, they go straight to the popular ones because it’s a lot simpler for them. It’s possible that the process of choosing typefaces is complicated and frustrating for a lot of people, so I figure it might be helpful to write up a guide on the best way to do it without exploding. Let us start.
Thursday, March 28, 2013
How to Get Your Freelance Business News Successfully Published
Your freelance business is doing something great—no, colossal—and you want to share the news with the world! Before you start emailing your press release and calling every newspaper, magazine, blogger, radio and TV station in the tri-state area, take a deep breath and make a plan.
As the editor of two glossy magazines, I know a thing or two about how to pitch someone like me. There is a right way to do it, and a wrong way to do it. You don’t want to alienate the people who have the power to give you press, so here are some suggestions on how to make a great first impression...
How 3D Printing Actually Works
Now that 3D printing — the process of making three-dimensional solid objects from digital designs — is available and affordable to individual consumers, it's piqued a lot of interest across the tech space in the past few years.
From scale models, gifts and clothing to prosthetic limbs, hearing aids and the prospect of 3D-printed homes, the possibilities seem endless.
How to be More Creative and Inspired
You shouldn’t be a philosopher to understand that we are living in the world of “more”. Everyone wants more money, more new gadgets, more intelligent computers and more and more. Well, this mentality isn’t quite necessarily wrong, in fact it’s the base of human evolution, but when it reaches a certain level, the further progress is unbelievably hard to achieve.
The idea of “more” is welcomed in industry or in other specific domains, but in other fields, as art or design, it’s unfair to impose such a rule; for usually the effects are destructive. Willing or not, the scientific term for “more” is efficiency and in subjective matters “more” is associated with inspiration and creativity.
It’s a personal opinion, therefore don’t take it as a fixed rule, but when it’s about subjectivity, no one may say something about efficiency. A logo designer can’t be efficient…period, nothing more. Instead, he/she should be inspired or/and creative. It’s impossible to impose to someone “hey, until next Friday I want you to finish these two logos and maybe you can make some fine tuning to other three”. The respective individual might or might not be inspired; it may happen to finish all the tasks in just few days or he may need some additional time.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
How to Write a Freelance Pitch That Gets Clients
At some point in every freelancer’s career there comes a time when you’re going to write a freelance pitch for a client’s project. If the thought of being a salesman isn’t intimidating enough,this at least doubles after realizing how many other freelancers pitching and hoping for the project. All those different screaming freelancers saying, “Pick me!” makes it almost impossible to feel like your voice is getting through. Let’s get you that voice!
In this article we’ll be going over the ins and outs of crafting a freelance pitch that I gained through my years in the industry to help let your voice stand out in a crowd. This includes:
best practices
mistakes to never make
how to track results of your pitch
how to use these tracked results to adjust your approach
Learn How to Create Custom Photoshop Brushes - 30 Brush Tutorials
Photoshop is one of most well-liked application software to design anything you want as it support both vector-base design and raster-base designs. However it doesn’t pack everything you need to use in your design and this is the reason a lot of people love to invent third-party elements to use in various designs, the summer season is just around the corner where people love to celebrate so many events with different posters, cards, tee shirts, etc. Even most of us prefer Tee Shirts than casual shirts, in order to design a T-Shirt, website header, website footer, facebook timeline, twitter background, wordpress theme designs or anything else you want to more realistic and catchy, you need third party elements for your designs such as pattern, brushes, gradients and more. How to create a third party custom Photoshop element?
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
How to Launch a Successful Website
Sufficient knowledge in the field of computers and information technology is needed in launching a successful website. What most people don’t know is the fact that websites are not created by a single individual. It takes a lot of different set of skills to come up with a magnificent creation. In other words, a successful website is the result of coordination and team work. It’s very existence is made possible by the collective efforts of skilled computer experts.
If your computer knowledge and skills are limited, you can’t expect to launch a successful and life-changing website. Well, it may be possible but it would require you to seek professional help from computer and internet experts. They’re the ones who know exactly how to do it.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
How To Improve Your Website Load Time
According to a recent research and statistics, it has been learnt that an average user will not have the patience to wait for your website to load. He will not wait for anymore than 3-4 seconds and will move to another website. Also, the website loading time plays a major role in improving any website’s ranking for a search engine. It has also been learnt through a survey that 75% people agreed with the fact that they will not like to revisit any website that takes time to load and for them, 3-4 seconds is too late. If you are a website owner, you must understand that having a fast website is very important for you otherwise your competitors will leave you in the dumps. If your website is slow, do not expect it to have visitors and huge traffic.
Saturday, March 9, 2013
How To Craft A Mobile Strategy For Your Business [Infographic]
It’s go time. Your business has finally decided to jump into the world of mobile apps. But, where do you start? There are so many decisions to make. Do you develop “native” apps for iOS and Android? What is this mobile Web thing that people keep talking about? What the heck is an API anyway?
Creating a mobile strategy is a matter of both knowing your business and knowing your app options...
Thursday, March 7, 2013
How to Watch Facebook's Big Announcement Online
It's finally the big day: Facebook will make a major announcement Thursday regarding the news feed for the first time since the feature launched in 2006.
Early rumblings indicate we could see multiple news feeds based on categories, such as Instagram photos, friends' music listening habits and artist updates. Also in the rumor mill are larger photos and image-based ads.
Friday, February 22, 2013
How to speed up your website load times
Do you want your website to load blazing fast? This article will teach you how to make your website load faster than you ever thought possible.
In order to understand why having a fast website is important, check out these statistics: the average smartphone user will leave a website if it does not load within 3 seconds; Google now considers page speed a major consideration for search engine rankings; 75% of internet users agreed that they would not return to a website if it did not load within 4 seconds.
Having a fast website is extremely crucial for staying alive in the modern era of web design. There is simply no room for slow websites anymore.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
How to Keep Your Creative Agency Growing in the Long Run
Building a creative agency is not a short-term effort. You may be able to get up and running fairly quickly, especially if you’ve got some great connections among other freelancers already. But getting enough work to keep all of you busy is only a first step.
Exactly how far you want to grow your agency is a question of your own goals. You may have modest ambitions, like building up enough business to be able to afford some great health insurance. You may have bigger plans, like being able to bring home six figures a year, beyond what you need to pay everyone working for you. No matter your goals, however, you’ll need to keep growing your business to meet them.