SEO 101
Everyone involved in creating a website should understand the basics of search engine optimization, including the designer. That being said, SEO is not some secret sauce you pour on your website that will make you rich. All it does is help people find you. I like to work with organizations that are honest and truthful […]
White Space is Good
White space—or more accurately, negative space—is an important part of any design.
The Law of Focus
I am revisiting a book I read called The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing. The law that I think is most important, and the one I keep emphasizing to my students, is the law of focus. The more narrowly you can define your audience, the more effective your marketing will be. If you can give […]
The Psychology of Color in Marketing and Branding
A friend sent me this link to the FastCo article about choosing color for logos. I am including the infographics here. The original article has an introduction and additional links.
Creative Advertising Gets Results
Creative advertising gets more attention from consumers and fosters positive attitudes about the marketed product. Ask any marketing professional, and they’ll tell you that creative ads are more memorable, more cost-effective, and build your product’s fan base faster.
Why Design on a Grid?
Think of the grid as the design’s skeleton; you can’t see it, but it gives structure to what you do see. The majority of publication and web designers arrange type and images on a grid. The viewer doesn’t see the grid lines, but can see evidence of them in the rows and columns throughout.
Growing Opportunities for Design Consulting
John Rousseau of Creative Review makes the case for expanding opportunities for design consultancy—as long as a few challenges can be overcome. Introducing design into existing companies is complex and expensive. For the best results, design thinking cannot be treated as a fad to be discarded for the next business fad that comes along.
Color Selection
We know the importance of precision when selecting a color scheme for a brand or project. (See the earlier post Introduction to Color.) But how do we decide on the colors themselves? Each color has a number of qualities that evoke cultural and personal associations in the mind, and elicit hormonal responses in the body. In […]
Design Strategy: Case Studies
Designers don’t just make web pages and publications look nice. Good design is all about effective communication. While aesthetics is one side of that coin, strategy is the other. Design strategy is designing with a purpose: targeting an audience, understanding how they think, and creating work they find attractive and engaging. It makes communication focussed, […]
Anyone Can Be Creative
Creativity is not a trait limited to artists and authors. Anyone with a goal or a problem to solve utilizes creativity to find novel solutions, whether in business or in their personal life.