There are many aspects to consider when it comes to logo design. Because the logo sees many forms of usage you need to make sure that it will behave great in all situations. It’s very possible that your logo will end on some of all these mediums: website, business cards, stationery, t-shirts, large banners, car decals etc. Not all mediums are created equal so the logo design should be as flexible as possible.
Here are some simple rules for a successful logo design:
1. Less is more. This usually applies to all graphic design areas but I think it’s paramount to keep this in mind when it comes to logo design. Don’t crowd the design. The logo is your interface to the world so try to create a powerful image with as little pieces as possible.
2. The logo should work well in all sizes. From business cards to billboards, your logo should be easy to recognize.
3.Should be appropriate for your business. I know that there is a lot of temptation to go to a $50 logo website and get one from there. I can’t stress enough what a bad move this would be. Let’s imagine that you have an important business meeting. Would you go to that wearing clothes from the 99 cents store? Your logo is the first impression you make so don’t make the mistake of underestimating the importance of a custom logo design.
4.Your logo should stand out from the crowd. If you really want to be successful as a business you should do your best to project a professional appearance. A beautiful font or a trendy mark don’t make an efficient logo.
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What makes a design great? I believe that the answer is not as obvious as it appears. A successful and lasting design piece should be the outcome of in depth research and experimentation rather than the sum of the latest trends. I will try to expand more on this idea referring in particular to logo design.
It’s becoming obvious to me that a potential client in search of a logo designer is not aware of the process of creating a logo. This is not about firing up Illustrator and playing with some shapes for an hour. It’s not about incorporating a swirl just because it’s trendy to have a swirl in the logo. It may be trendy now but will you still be satisfied in 2 years?
The first step in the design process should be the research. As a designer you have to do your homework! Learn about the client. Who is the competition? What is the intended audience? What are the particularities of his industry? Try to understand the problem that needs to be solved.
The second step should be to define and to get decision making criteria approved.
Now that there is a good understanding of the problem we can proceed to the next step: Creative Exploration. This is the time to explore every idea. A paper and a pen should be enough at this stage. Resist the temptation of going digitally from the beginning. Also try not to refine the ideas too much. Explore as much as you can then select the ideas that should be further developed.
A logo should be representative for the client, not something to be changed every year.
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I’ve recently been involved in the redesign of tobaccostories.org website and I thought it would be nice to make a small tutorial out of some of this work.
I’ll explain how to create a rounded box sidebar navigation. Here is what you’ll learn to create:
sidebar navigation.
There are 3 images used here:
1.
The main background image2.
3.
The html markup:
<ul class="menu">
<li class="leaf"><a href="index.html" class="active">Real Stories</a></li>
<li class="leaf"><a href="page1.html">First page</a></li>
<li class="leaf"><a href="page2.html">Second Page</a></li>
<span></span>
</ul>
And the css markup:
ul.menu {list-style-type:none;
background:transparent url(images/sidenav_bg.gif);
background-repeat:no-repeat;
padding:0;
margin:0;
padding-top:15px;
width:245px;
z-index:0;
}
ul.menu li.leaf {
padding:0;
margin:0;}
ul.menu li.leaf a{text-decoration:none;
color:#3393c6;
font-size:11px;
font-weight:bold;
display:block;
width:205px;
height:16px;
border-top:1px #dddccf solid;
margin-left:10px;
padding-top:8px;
padding-left:20px;
}
ul.menu li.leaf a.active {background:url(images/sidenav_selected.gif);
background-repeat:no-repeat;}
ul.menu span{display:block;
width:245px;
height:23px;
background:#fff url(images/sidenav_bg_bottom.gif);
background-repeat:no-repeat;
z-index:100;}
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I attended Jesse James Garett’s speech tonight held at CSCA. I was looking forward to hearing him and I must say it was really a great learning experience.
For those who don’t know Jesse you can learn more about him here
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You reached a point on your life when you realize that your business would really benefit from a professional web presence. Or you just want a redesign or additional features added to your website.
You can either hire a web studio to do the work or go with a freelancer. I think you would benefit more if you choose the second option. Why?
1. You will end paying less for the same work quality
2. You will be in direct contact with the designer. This means you will be able to e have the product tweaked to your needs faster and easier.
3. Your needs will get more attention.
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I built this website from scratch using Ruby on Rails so there is still room for improvement.
Today I decided to add a rss feed to the blog. This can be done pretty simple and I will show you what I did.
First I added a new action to my blog controller.
def rss
@posts=Post.find(:all, :order=> "id DESC")
render_without_layout
@headers["Content-Type"] = "application/xml; charset=utf-8"
end
Then I created a new view for the xml file. Here is how the rss.rxml file looks like:
xml.instruct!
xml.rss "version" => "2.0", "xmlns:dc" => "http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" do
xml.channel do
xml.title "kolor-designs articles"
xml.link url_for :only_path => false, :controller => 'blog'
xml.description "kolor-designs.com: Mostly web related stuff"
@posts.each do |article|
xml.item do
xml.title article.title
xml.link url_for :only_path => false, :controller => 'blog',
:action => 'show', :id => article.id
xml.description truncate(article.body,100)
xml.guid url_for :only_path => false, :controller => 'blog',
:action => 'show', :id => article.id
end
end
end
end
That’s it.
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I’ve moved to Columbus,OH in september last year but so far I haven’t got one local client. I’ve worked with clients all across the country but not a single one here in Columbus.
So here’s the deal. If you live here and you’re looking for a web designer look no more. I’ll help you with your project. Actually I will get a 20% discount for the first local client.
Get your web project up and running along with a nice price.
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Encouraged by some little experiments with a MacBook I decided to try to install Leopard on my PC. I followed the steps described here
and though it seemed easy at the beginning it ended not so good.
After trying several times without success I decided to reinstall Vista on my machine using the recovery DVD that came with the computer.
Easier to say than do. It seems that the disk is corrupted and I had no luck using it.
I contacted hp support (I bought my laptop from HP) in order to see how I can solve this problem. They said I have to pay for another copy of the recovery DVD if I want to get it fast. If I wanted it for free I have to wait 10 days!!!
My conclusion: HP sucks! It doesn’t matter that I already paid for a recovery disk, it doesn’t matter that they sent a broken disk, I should pay for it again. Morons.
And here is a screenshot of the recovery application.
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I just joined this group that started raising funds for a browsercam complete account.
BrowserCam is a web application that allows you to view screen captures of your web pages from multiple browsers and on multiple platforms; check cross browser compatibility; see how your pages look on different browsers on Mac and PC.
The service includes “12 months of Unlimited access to the Capture service and unlimited access to 30-minute Remote Access sessions on Windows, Mac and Linux machines.”
BrowserCam is costly on annual basis for an individual ($499.95 for a One-Year Plan or $24.95 for a One-Day Plan), but they are offering a special plan for a group purchase via Fundable.com.
Whoever is interested in joining us may do so here BrowserCam Complete Group Account Purchase
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Those who use Thunderbird as an email client noticed that annoying disadvantage
that it can’t be minimized to tray. Actually this can be done using a nice add-on.
MinimizeToTray always allows you to send Firefox or Thunderbird to the tray. With the extension options, you can force the application to always minimize to the tray instead of the taskbar by selecting the checkbox inside the extension’s options, restore using a single or double click, or minimize the application on close.
The add-on can be downloaded and installed at MinimizeToTray
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