Author: steve

HERE ARE 53 PHRASES TO AVOID IN YOUR WEB COPYWRITINGBuzzwords, marketing tripe, and meaningless hype. These most notoriously appear in the ABOUT US section of websites. I’ve collected them from many sources.  While appending my latest additions, I realized I’ve been violating a bunch. So it’s a good review. For a long time I’ve called myself a “creative strategist,”…

An adage I like when it comes to hiring a designer is: “Never speculate on a portfolio.” What that means is, if you don’t see something in the designer’s portfolio that looks close or similar to what you want, you’d best not hire them. That advise will seem harsh counsel for the design community. Designer’s frequently like to “earn…

Why are captions important in advertising?A caption writing style guide. The graphic metaphor’s advantage is carried in the captions. Here is where words carry more meaning than pictures as the viewer relies on the caption for proper interpretation of the image’s meaning. Without this caption, you might not interpret a photo properly.   Note: National…

Authenticity indicates whether or not some thing’s “real.” Low-bandwidth websites appear more authentic, and current research shows that “authentic” ads and brand experiences are what consumers crave. People don’t trust most advertising. They trust online advertising less, in particular, online video and online banner ads. We Rely on “Authenticity” to Trust a WebsiteLong ago, we trusted “the media” to give us…

It’s important to understand what a theme is and why it is critical in design.  I present a quote by Johannes Itten (1888 – 1967) and then a quote by Hillman Curtis (1961 – 2012): ITTEN Wrote: “Decorators and designers sometimes tend to be guided by their own subjective color propensities. This may lead to misunderstandings…

The text of this webpage example is excerpted from an INFP writer’s emails to me. The site was built as an experiment of balancing speed and beauty. Her text is worth reading. Almost all links are disconnected for this demo. Once the text snippets were put together and edited it made a nice philosophy about…

LIKE HUMAN BODY LANGUAGE, graphic design expresses similar implied non-verbal business attitudes or values. Graphic design is a method of differentiating business or products in the market. Graphic design is considered of equal value to other intangible assets like special customer offerings or an in-house mailing list or goodwill. Design builds a sense of community or habitat for customers…

Awards from other design committees are usually pretty meaningless to most clients. Designers awarding designers certificates and trophies sounds sort of silly. What matters most to clients is if you have a success story of your own where your design made someone money or helped them achieve a goal. I was once in a designer’s studio and…

I’ve worked for a lot of tech businesses. I insisted on photography and not illustrations of products. Subconsciously, engineers and scientists wonder if the product is “vapor-ware” or a pseudo product if there aren’t photographs. In one case, my client felt intimidated by a new competitor. They asked me to analyze the newcomers strengths and weaknesses. I saw that the…

Clichés actually are very “good” when it come to logos. Why? Because of fast recognition, memorability, and meaning. We know instantly the connection. It isn’t “distinctive” necessarily but human beings succumb to clichés all of the time. It’s a subconscious “mental shortcut.”