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…
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#51 Photography versus illustration
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…
#50 Cliché logos
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.”
#49 Have their best interest at heart.
This is going to sound completely crazy but I have done it and won more work and client loyalty. When I can’t stand a site I built because it has aged. I either redo part of the site (on my test site –sandbox) or work up wireframes and demonstrate them to the client. This I do for free…
#48 Good naming attributes
1. Good names have few syllables. 2. If you have two English words. Those are probably not very legally defensible. A fusion noun like “ValuedExpert” is better. 3. Good names grow out of positioning statements. 4. Good fusion noun names need two parts. One part denotative (dictionary meaning) and one part connotative (implied intangibles.) Potentially two connotative…
#47 Experimenting with mezzotint overlays
Mezzotints are a method of converting black and white continuous tone images without using hatching, cross-hatching, or stipple. To reduce file size, but add coarseness, a mezzotint can be converted to a bitmap image (in Photoshop or GIMP and probably other image processors.) A bitmap image consists of only black and clear pixels. This makes it possible to do some…
#46 Free Upsize PS action comparison
This Proportion200 Photoshop action will enlarge your images by 200%. I’ve tested it against all of the PAID competitors and found it to give equal or superior results. The method uses Staircase Interpolation. We do a small amount of sharpening between each 10 percent incremental step to keep things crisp. If you are using an old version (legacy)…
#45 Demystifying the Logo
I’ve been anti-logo for – well, a long time – I used to pay for them regularly. Usually $200 to $1,800 range. I thought they had some kind of magic. Like Dumbo’s magic feather. They were a flag for the company troops to rally around. I called them “morale builders.” It took time but eventually I woke up and realized…
#44 Great logo. Bad name.
The above logo is by my designer friend Karen. I said to her, “The final art is beautiful. Thanks for showing it to us. You’re a great designer. Now with that compliment said, I will now insult you. The clients business name is a marketing positioning statement – not a name at all. “Customized Wellness and Nutrition.” That is…
#43 Portfolio website tips 2
Robert, a designer friend, asked me some entertaining web questions that are near-and-dear to my designer heart. You’ll find varying opinions, of course, from others. So realize what I’m sharing is based on my experience, experiments, and reading. Whenever possible, I use old, vintage, legacy stuff that I repurpose in some strange way. This is low-tech.…
