RoseGraphics

Before you hire a designer, you should be prepared with your content and ideas so that you ‘hit the ground running’.
Give your designer a clear picture of what you would like to accomplish. Have all your written content, product descriptions, any images of your products, color preferences and clearly express your goals. Your designer will work with you to organize and optimize your information to achieve your vision.

If you are looking for website design, have all the content ready for each page, with product descriptions, page titles, any form fields, images, logos, etc.
Have examples of websites that you like as this will help your designer better understand your tastes. If you have a domain name already, be sure to provide the hosting account information. If you don’t have a domain yet, talk to your designer about hosting to see what will work best for you. Including a detailed list of your requirements and preferences will get you a more accurate estimate.

If you aren’t sure how to begin, the following tips will help:

• Focus on your specialty. There should be no confusion about what you do and what product/service you offer.

• Do research on the internet and see what your competitors are doing. You will get new ideas and you will see what works and what doesn’t.

• Do you need only a presentation (brochure) site or do you need a shopping cart, a blog, space for advertisers, etc.

• Make sure to have all your information and images ready in a digital format

• Consider having your content written by a professional and your photography done by a professional also. Your designer can suggest the professionals to help you with both content and photography. Poorly written content and badly done photography will seriously detract from your finished site.

• Designing a website can take up to a month or more. Plan accordingly.

• Decide if you want to manage/update the site yourself or have a webmaster take care of those things.

• Basic sites start at around $1,500-$1,800. If you require a team of people (designer, programmer, content editor, photographer, SEO marketing) you will need to budget in the neighborhood of $5,000-$10,000, depending on how complicated a site you require.

• Talk with your designer to decide what you will need to get started and go over all your requirements and your budget.

Organization and a little planning go a long way to getting your professional design accomplished on time and on budget.

For a no-obligation consultation and quote, please contact RoseGraphics

Digital cameras are ubiquitous today! Unfortunately, the quality of the photography isn’t.

If you follow the simple tips below you will improve the quality of your photos.

Framing your subject

When you look through your lens, notice the composition of your subject matter.
Does your subject look natural instead of ‘arranged’ or ‘posed’?
A natural or relaxed looking photo is more appealing. Whether you are shooting people or scenery, be aware of the way the elements within the frame fit together as a composition.

Lighting

For outdoor photography, the best time of day to take photographs is before 10 am and after 3 pm. The light is bright but not glaring and your subjects look warmer, richer and have more depth than if the sun was directly overhead. Overcast days are great for outdoor photography as the colors will be more saturated. If you are photographing people, make sure neither you or your subject are looking directly into the sun.

If you need to use a flash to fill in shadows on your subject’s face, here is a trick I’ve used. To soften the effect of a bright flash. take a white coffee filter, cut a piece off and wrap it around your popup flash. Tape it , so that once it is fitted correctly, you can reuse it.

The flash provides plenty of light but you won’t get the red eye or burnout spots from a bright reflecting flash.

Frame of Reference

Don’t be afraid to move around, change position and see how the view looks through your lens. Don’t center your subject in the middle of the picture. Try an angle, a view from above or below, a side shot. Experiment and take lots of pictures. The more images the better. You can always delete what you don’t like.
Be aware of your surroundings and be creative!

You’ve built a website, had your business collateral designed and printed, and placed your ads in newspapers, magazines and on TV. Now you can sit back and wait for customers to flock to your business! Or can you?

While print media and TV coverage are important elements to get your business noticed, you may be overlooking the importance of using the internet to network with others and bring more traffic to your website.

Create a blog and share your expertise with others.

Blogging software is free (Wordpress is one of my favorites) and it is simple to use. As you add information to your blog, your readers begin to rely on your expertise. Make sure you post relevant information, be concise, and blog regularly.

Blogging isn’t, as some may think, an exercise in self-absorption. Blogging as an adjunct to your business website can be a valuable source of credible information for your readers/customers.

The benefits to your business are higher SEO (search engine optimization) leading to more sales. The more information you have ‘out there’ connected to your business, the more the search engines will find. As a result, your website will come up higher in the rankings. This is why blogging regularly is important.

But, just having a higher ranking isn’t enough. Keeping those new visitors to your site interested and engaged is a necessity.
Content is king when it comes to blogging.

Your information may be accurate and valuable, but is it presented in a fresh and engaging way? Not everyone has good writing skills, so if writing isn’t one of your strengths, find a Content Master ( I know an excellent one!) to make your information compelling to your readers. It is worth the cost to have your content communicate with your customers, draw them into your site and encourage their trust.

Put yourself in your customer’s place. Are you giving them all the information they are looking for? Even though it feels as if you are communicating from your keyboard out into the ‘ether’, you need to remember that you are still contacting individuals. See yourself as a small business owner making contact with a customer. Don’t lose that personal touch. Business should be about relationships, not the sale. Building trust and having a good product will ensure your success.

Of course, there are quite a number of options to get better optimization for your website: using strong keywords and key phrases, adding links, creating a lens on Squidoo (a social networking site), submitting your business info to local searches (Google Local Business, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Merchant Circle, etc). Much of what you can do to optimize your placement is free and while it can be time-consuming, it can really help you market your business.

And, if it all seems like too much to handle, don’t worry, we can help you out!

Teri

Color influences our response to the world around us.

Marketing research shows that over 80% of our visual information is related to color, making color a powerful element in design.

Communicating a message though the use of color is complicated, as color preferences and meanings associated with particular colors can be different cross-culturally. For example, the color purple conveys mourning in Thailand, and royalty in Europe. Europeans and Americans associate the color white to marriage, angels and peace. However, in Japan it relates to mourning; in China, to death and in India, to unhappiness.

In advertising, knowing your target market and/or using combinations of different colors can help overcome these cultural differences.

In addition to having an emotional influence, colors can influence a physical reaction. For example, warm colors (reds, yellows, oranges) will attract and hold attention opposed to the cooler colors (blues, greens).

Here are a few of the associations we have with colors (there are many more):

• Red
Passion, Energy, Love, Violence, Leadership
• Pink
Romance, Calming, Peace, Sweetness

• Blue
Wisdom, Formality, Trust, Loyalty

• Green
Success, Hope, Freshness, Healing, Harmony

• Yellow
Intelligence, Joy, Warmth, Caution, Optimism

• Purple
Spiritual power, Mystery, Extravagance, Magic

• Black
Protection, Sophistication, Elegance, Wealth, Power

Pay attention to the colors around you. Notice your own reaction to specific colors that you see. Are you attracted to a specific combination of colors? Which ones make you feel positive? Which ones attract your attention?

Technorati Profile

If you are a new business owner, don’t make the mistake of thinking you can design your own logo, identity, and business collateral by yourself. We each have our own specialties and strengths, and while entrepreneurs are tempted to save money by doing their own design, in the long run it can be a huge mistake.

Your logo identity and business collateral (cards, stationery, advertising promotion) make your first impression to new clients, and first impressions are everything in business. Clients judge you not only by your appearance, but by your business image. A professional logo and business card design can make or break a potential deal with a prospective client.

Graphic Designers have the education and experience to create the look you wish to achieve. The use of color, fonts, style, contrast, balance, etc., along with an artistic eye will give your business branding the professional look you need to compete with your competition.