I saw this excerpt from an article by John Torrey, published on the AWAI website, and thought it was worth sharing. The article was on getting facts from clients. You can read the rest of it here: http://www.awaionline.com/2009/08/ask-clients-to-provide-you-with-the-facts/
“There’s a little known Santa Monica, CA based non-profit group known as ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) that oversees the domain name system that routes web traffic. Read the rest of this entry »
I found this killer article a few minutes ago. It dovetails nicely with the articles I’ve done against speculative design. You can read the whole article here.
I picked out a few highlights. Here are a few unwise tactics employed by businesses who think they have no budget for professional design:
The old wisdom applies, you get what you pay for. In the next installment, I will list the qualities of great logos.
In the last article, I outlined how spec work hurts both service providers and customers. The good news: There are alternatives to such practices that will benefit all parties. They include:
Communication Audit
This is a thorough analysis of existing company communications, which can include logos, brochures, stationery, presentations, web site analysis and testing, etc. in any combination. The purpose of this exercise to find out what works and what does not and how it could be made better. Recommendations can then be given as to a number of directions. This can be done on a flat-fee basis or by the hour. It is a way of tip-toeing into the process with no commitment. It is also a great way to test the competency of a service provider, while limiting financial liability. If the ideas are accepted, any monies paid apply toward the total cost of the job should the firm be retained. Read the rest of this entry »
If you are a photographer or illustrator creating or updating your own web site, I had a happy accident that might interest you. It is a way of protecting your online images so that they are not easily downloaded.
While finishing my online portfolio, I wanted to see if I could get my samples to load faster by placing them into the background of the CSS DIV and placing an invisible GIF in the foreground. It actually did work. Then I discovered that once the page rendered that I could only “grab” the foreground image, but not the background image.
It’s not totally foolproof, but it’s certainly worth employing.
A few weeks ago, I got a call from a woman that claimed to be a CEO of a hotel chain. She said she was impressed with my web site and portfolio. She gave me some brief info on her business and said that the company was shopping for a firm to design their marketing materials. Fair enough.
Then she asked if I would send her some logo concepts. Her company would look over the concepts and contact the firm whose submissions they liked the most. I said I would be happy to, but I needed more information about her company and that I would need a check for my minimum fee and a non-disclosure agreement before any work commenced. This did not sit well with her and she insisted that she needed to see concepts first. Guess what my answer was, click! Read the rest of this entry »