Jun
25
WordPress 3.0 is here, and we’re all a-buzz about it. Should you upgrade? http://ow.ly/239Yh wordpress wordpress3.0
vertical29
stuff i like; stuff that inspires me. design, art, music, architecture, trees, and all things red | an artsy blog by redfrau
Jan
29
what’s your favorite book about social media marketing? any of these?
http://www.amazon.com/reader/0470411554/ref=rdr_sb_li_hist_2&state=01101#reader_0470411554
http://www.amazon.com/Social-Media-Marketing-Book/dp/0596806604/ref=pd_cp_b_3
Oct
20
“There is a difference between interest and commitment. When you’re interested in doing something, you do it only when it’s convenient. When you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.”
Ken Blanchard
Sep
14
“You don’t have to get something for nothing. Rather, you can give everyone more than you take. When you give everyone more in use value than you receive in cash value, you are adding to the life of the world with every business transaction.”
Wallace Wattles
Aug
30
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
Marianne Williamson, from A Return to Love
Jul
10
Internet Marketers: Take a typography lesson.
I’ve become something of a internet/information marketing connoisseur as of late, ever since I started becoming interested in Fabienne Fredrickson’s Client Attraction. And there really is some great stuff out there to learn about marketing as it applies to small businesses. But here’s the thing. Why do so many of these sites have to be so—I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feeling but I just have to say it—why do they have to be so ugly? And why do they have to be so LONG?
I just learned from a colleague, Jeff Marden (Marden Consulting), that there’s a trend of how users scan pages when deciding whether they’re going to read them or if they’re going to bounce right back out of them. The traditional scanning shape is an F: their eyes go across the top of the page, from left to right, then scroll vertically from top to bottom, and then scan the middle of the page: again, from left to right. The newer trend, Marden told me, is to look at the scroll page immediately after scanning the top, header area of the page. If your page has a huge scroll on it, they usually leave right away without reading it all.
And the typography… I’m not even sure where to start. Why all the centering? I find centering annoying and really hard to read. It just screams “amateur.” It doesn’t look good, and it’s not doing anything for your credibility. Get a respectable font. Don’t put everything in the same font, either. Kill Verdana—it just looks so Microsoft. Use two fonts; maybe a serif and a sans-serif. Try Arial or Helvetica for the headers, bump it up nice and big, and try Georgia for the copy. It’s elegant and easy to read.
I’ve long wanted to go on a web-beautifying kick. I love to look at a bad website and take on the mental design challenge of picking out three ways to instantly improve it. I see websites that I know small businesses have paid good money for—probably $3K to $5K—and, quite frankly, they look amateur and dodgy. Do you want credibility? Does your web site scream “professionalism” or “Look what I created last night?” Just because you can do it yourself, can you do it well?
May
18
“Designing is not a profession but an attitude. Design has many connotations. It is the organization of materials and processes in the most productive way, in a harmonious balance of all elements necessary for a certain function. It is the integration of technological, social, and economical requirements, biological necessities, and the psychological effects of materials, shape, color, volume and space. Thinking in relationships.”
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Painter, Photographer, Graphic Designer, Teacher and Founder of the Bauhaus and the Chicago School of Design.
May
12
American Ironwork: An Historical Sketch
I can’t really explain this one, but the other day I was browsing the library (one of all-time my favorite things to do) and this book popped out at me, the way books sometimes will do: American Ironwork: An Historical Sketch. I took it off the shelf and spent 10 minutes looking at it. The ironwork in it was so incredible and inspiring, that I had to make a copy of a couple of the pages to hang on my office wall. I’m not sure where this is taking me, or why, but it’s so geometric and balanced and soothing. I guess that’s what I go for in design: geometry, balance, and–oh, what would the noun be? I don’t know. Let me know if you can think of a noun to make out of the verb “to sooth.” Where is my English PhD candidate husband when I need him? In the meantime, I’m posting an image to give you a rough idea.
Photo by J. Scott Bovitz
May
8
The buzz button
Listening to Loveless on the way to Ohio yesterday, we realized that, even though they only released two albums, My Bloody Valentine was possibly one of the best bands ever. The first track, Only Shallow, is one of those rare songs that have the ability to completely transfix you, to completely change you and take you to another place. It’s almost impossible to listen to it and not feel good, not instantly be in a better mood. Try it. It works especially well while driving in a car on the highway on a sunny day with the volume cranked up especially loud. Whatever that buzz button is, that thing inside you that music can somehow penetrate and instantly make you feel good, MBV knew how to hit it and turn you on.
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