Sometimes, just like writers, we visual designers get creative blocks and we need a wee bit of inspiration to get our sparks flying. No matter how much you try it just doesn’t come to you. In this blog I plan to give you three locations to get logo design inspiration from.

The first website I have stumbled across is : –

Logopond

Logopond is a place for designers of logos to show a little bit of what they can do and their particular style amongst others. I am not on this yet but you bet, I’ll be on here shortly!

Visit Logpond for logo design inspiration

 Salford Challenge

Salford Challenge is a website where two designers go head to head design a new brand then other designers vote for the one they think has the x factor. These guys have some really great design skills that are worth a viewing every now and then.

Visit Salford Challenge Site

The Great Outdoors

Sometimes we are over thinking things and a simple break and stroll in a park will put the sparks back in your mind. Relaxing and having fun is all a part of being creative. Don’t stress man! Reeeelaaaax.

As i find more locations to find inspiration for logos I will add more posts regarding this. Best of luck in finding that genuis idea.

Related articles across the web

• 15 Beautiful Logo Design Services
• 10 Mistakes Logo Designers Should Avoid
• High End Jewelry Logo Design
• Design Inspiration Sites

As a regular blogger of all things creative and design related I know how difficult it can be to get your work out there and noticed, especially if your marketing budget doesn’t stretch so far, i.e. a start up company or someone hoping to break into an industry. If you design business cards and are particularly proud of what you have created the design industry love to see your work. I know how much I love admiring the works of others, sometimes I get completely wow’d and think how did they do that!? Other times I get hugely inspired and it leads me onto a trail of creative thoughts of my own. Like the more money you spread around, the more creativity you share with the world the more than that comes to you.

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I recently uploaded my business card design for MigSolv Data Centre Consultancy & Data Centre Designers to a fantastic little website, cardobserver.com .

If you are either : –

• a) Looking for business card inspiration
• b) Looking for a clever business card designer

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Then this is the site for you. Don’t delay, visit today!

[button url=”http://www.cardobserver.com/” style=”” size=”small” target=”_blank” type=”primary”] Visit Site [/button]

UI or user interface is getting a much larger attention than ever before. Getting your webpages just right for your users is really important but quite a difficult task when you are designing something in the way you think looks best.Google Analytics offers a way for you to test different layouts for particular pages and then find out which pages are most likely to complete conversions than others. I want to show you in this post how you can also do this to improve your websites UI.

Step 1: Create a Google Analytics Account

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If you haven’t already the first thing you need to do is create a google analytics account. This is a totally free thing to do and it will allow you to study your website, what is working, how users navigate your site, what pages are most used and which pages aren’t so successful amongst many other things. It is well worth your time and I am sure many of you already have this great feature on your site. If you don’t then what are you waiting for? Simply follow the instructions that google provides and sign up right away! ( If you need any help or guidance please leave a comment below).

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Setting Goals

Goals are a versatile way to measure how well your site or app fulfills your objectives. You can set up individual Goals to track discrete actions, such as transactions with a minimum purchase amount or the amount of time spent on a screen.

1.Firstly on the main dashboard of analytics press conversions and a drop down list will appear like in the image above. Once about press goals > overview.

2. You will then be given a page like that below. Put in the url of the page you are wanting to set up an experiment in the blank box.

3.You can set up a goal for many things. How about making sure take the action of arriving on a particular page that will lead to a purchase? Use the url destination radio button. Or what if you just want people to stay longer on a page to make sure they read the information you are providing? Then choose Visit duration. It is pretty self explanatory. Once you have made your selection of which goal radio you will be given another form to fill in. For this example i am seeing how many people will arrive at my blog from the home page so using URL destination (See image below).

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4. Once you are happy with everything press save.

5. Your Goal is now active.

Step 3:  Access the Experiments Feature

With our goal set up, we can now start to create experiments in google analytics to determine which of our pages will perform the best in terms of visiting the blog from the homepage.
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1.Under the ‘Content’ section of the main left menu, select ‘Experiments’.

2. You will need to make several variations of your webpage that you want to improve conversions on ( i recommend at least 3 ) in order to have a more meaningful test. Whatever CMS you are using you just need to create more pages and publish them in order for google analytics to be able to find those pages you want to test the original to.

3. Watch this video from google and it will guide you through the rest of the setup.

4. Once you have completed this stage it just a matter of time waiting for visitors to come and try out your new page.
5. Google Analytics will give you a tone of results and a percentage of what the likely hood is that your new designs will outperform the other or not.

Step 8: Arriving at a Winner

As mentioned in the previous step it is just waiting for enough visitors to use the page to arrive at a winner. Whether it takes three days or three weeks to arrive at a conclusion, you can be confident beyond reasonable doubt that the winner of the experiment will indeed be the best performer in terms of the goal that is being measured.

Step 9: We Have a Winner, What Now?

Depending how confident you are that one of your new design will outperform your original design in terms of the conversion set then you can replace that page or not.

Also, you need to consider all variables that may have effected the experiment. How many people visited the original design compared to the other design samples. Do the visitors have the same tastes in design or not? As you can see it is important to analysis the data and not just take it at face value.
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If you need any help with your experiment don’t hesitate to contact me and I will see what I can do to help you, best of luck in improving your UI.

Drawing someone you have never met

At the age of 20, as many creatives do, I undertook an art foundation BTEC which gave a taste into a fair few of the arts. Graphic design, illustration, 3d design, textile design & fine art where the main subject matters we got a taste of but regardless of the subject a student decided to undertake we were compulsory made to do some life drawing. When I first heard I would be drawing a life model ( or a nude ) whom I had never met it was quite a bizarre thought. Would it be a man, would it be a woman? Would they be old, would they be young? Would they be attractive or not?

ample buzzoms

The very first life drawing I did was a woman roughly around 30 with ample sized breasts. The first time I saw the woman unrobe I thought this was a bonus of becoming an artist..but then..the more I got into the drawing of her the less it was a naked woman and the more it became just another object to convey artistically on paper.

high praise

My first life drawing I did actually got high praise from my tutors. I had a very difficult angle to draw ( not shown here ) as I was at the head of her so had to draw the perspective in so she didn’t look like she was floating. I was quite happy with what I had achieved with the charcoal and chalk on A0 paper. It was actually a really fun experience.

people have character

The next time I did a life drawing it was a large woman around 70 years old …o_0. Not good! Just as well I started imagining the person as an object rather than a naked person. It wasn’t quite the enjoyable expereince as before but she did have character which is why i suppose they choose an older person for us to draw, plus it doesn’t have any connection to anything else we might be interested in at the age the most of us where.

various media experimentations

I tried testing different medias and different tools for each time I did a life drawing and the more I did it the more I enhanced my drawing skills and creativity. I do miss life drawing and it has been nearly a full decade since I last did any sort of life drawing which means it is long overdue. These are just a few of the life drawing examples I have done.

If you would like to know any more about these pieces of work then please do not hesitate to contact me.

Not so long ago I wrote a blog post about how to use twitter more effectively to promote your business and create a bit more awareness amongst your industry. This is the second installation of more tricks and tips that I have discovered along the tweeting path. If I repeat myself from a previous post, please forgive as I am only human 🙂

5 tips to become a twitter super power

Reply to tweets that catch you eye.

I know I have already mentioned to retweet tweets that you find really interesting as your following will more than likely also find it of particular interest to them but try commenting on a tweet too. Talking to your fellow tweeters can start a good relationship with like minded souls and promote positivity between you and others. As BT say, its good to talk. Just be careful not to spam as 10 comments in a row may be too many on someones twitter feed…just 2 in the morning, 2 for lunch and 2 for dinner will be plenty :-).

To be or not to be
Asking questions to your followers can be an effective way of starting communication if it is thought provoking enough or your followers feel they have something to add. I know some tweeters are a bit afraid of talking to other tweeters, its almost like a code…don’t talk to me I’m tweeting! But come on people, this IS social media!! The key word being social. Causing debate is a great tool for increasing your following.

Don’t follow people who are invisible or talk an awful lot.

Following people who are too lazy to even upload a photo on their profile picture are more than likely spammers or not using twitter correctly. If you  follow someone who tweets about 10 tweets every 20 minutes you are going to miss a lot of tweets from your other followers and some of them tweets may be gold dust! So don’t follow people who are tweeting more than they retweet..no one likes a self centered tweeter.

Spread the word for your followers

Admiring the work of your fellow tweeters, promoting competitions or special offers of one of your tweeters it won’t go unnoticed by your followers and will give you a stronger bond ( if only electronically ) with that particular follower as they know you are co-operating with them not only to boost your own place in the industry but you also want to help others.

Afterwards mention it to them on Twitter and they’ll be very grateful, they most likely tweet about it too.

When creating graphics for print and web you must consider a few little basic rules. I know most graphic designers know this but incase you are trying to make the leap from web to print or print to web or you are still learning the ropes and self teaching yourself because you enjoy being creative here are some of the fundemental rules to follow.

Dpi is different

Dpi means dots per inch…if you are creating an image for web then 72dpi is sufficient, alternatively if you are designing for print you should set up your image at at least 250dpi. To do this in Photoshop you can either create a new file with the correct dimensions and then select resolution and enter either 72 if creating an image for web or 250 for print. The benefit of doing this is if you are creating for web you want your image file size to be small… im not talking about the dimensions here, I am talking about the bytes that make up that beautiful Mona Lisa you are going to create. Likewise if you are creating a file for print then you want more dots so that when it prints it looks like a very crisp and sharp image.

CMYK or RGB

CMYK or RGB. These are the two colour modes. CMYK is selected for print as these are the colours you find in a print cartridge where as RGB stands for Red Green & Blue ( how  a monitor displays colour through light). So yes you guessed it, select the appropriate colour for your file and it will be more accurately represented for the media you are designing for.

Bleeds

Any time you are creating an image for print whether it is a poster, banner or magazine advert it is more than likely your printers will ask you to add a bleed to your design which is usually a border that is around 3mm to 5mm with lines in the corners that represent the corners and are guides for the cutting of the design. Its pretty easy to do but if you require a guide please leave a comment and I will create one for you.

Saving your image correctly for its purpose

Once you have your masterpiece completed to perfection it is important to save your image in the correct way depending what it is you are trying to do.
Before you do anything, whether using GIMP or Photoshop make sure to save your file with a unique file name in way that you can easily change any layer of your design (psd file). These are the 3 most common file formats used.

.png

.jpg

.gif

GIFs are for webs that are usually animations ( you can find some usually to the right here in the adverts ). If you want to create a gif in photoshop use this tutorial of how to create a bouncing ball and it will give you the basics.

.jpg

jpgs are lossy files but can be used for both print and web. Usually used for photographs and images that don’t need to be altered due to the  fact if you enlarge it it will look granuallar due to the fact that when you enlarge the image you are actually enlarging each and every dot that makes up the image.

.png

png files can have a transparent background and are really useful for good quality clear images for web. Especially logos and such like..the last thing you want is a white background with a website that is mainly green…man! That’d just look plain uuuuuuuuuuugly!

Saving for web

If you are creating the image for a website or device then make sure to select File > Save for web… and then follow the instructions to try and reduce your file size to a small a size as possible without loosing  the quality of the image.

I realise this is pretty straightforward for most graphic/web designers that most of you may know but we are all at different stages of learning so for some this information will be very useful so that is why I decided to include it today as a blog post. If you need any more help regarding designing for print or web please feel free to contact me and I will do what I can to help you.

Related articles across the web

• How to Reduce the File Size of Your Photoshop PSD Files
• 29 Free Photoshop Designs for Mobile App User Interface
• Fantastic Adobe video spotlights 25 years of Photoshop artistry
• MotoCMS Design Digest: 31 Best Articles for February 2015
• The morning newspaper by Caras Ionut

I remember when i first set up my twitter account and put my first couple of tweets together, I was thinking…”what the hell is this?!” and “how is this going to benefit me?”. What I have realized 520 tweets and 537  followers later, the amount of useful information that people share is undeniably brilliant! Not only this but it allows your website content to reach a wider “relevant” audience that are interested in what you have to say!

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In this post I plan to give you a few little tips to make sure you are using twitter as effectively as you possibly can to generate brand awareness, develop your own standing in the profession of your choice  & start generating a buzz around your business.

What to tweet

That first step, your twitter account has no tweets. What do you tweet? What you eat for you dinner? What time you finished work? The hot girl you saw across the street? Of course not!

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Consider your audience, do you really think they want to read about that? If like me you are a designer/artist then I am more likely to find something interesting such as artworks, how to do things on Photoshop or illustrator. Alternatively if you are selling a product like cream that benefits people with eczema I would probably be interested in reading about eczema suffering groups and other relevant content such as that.

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Basically the message here is always keep your audience in mind when tweeting and make it relevant. ( Check my twitter account out for some general ideas ), just be genuinely interested in your industry.

Following people you are truly interested in

So you’ve started tweeting some really relevant industry tweets, best get following others that you are interested in. Don’t just follow people for the sake of it, i mean…when do you need a funeral director? Unless you are part of the Italian mafia with a regular need to dispose of bodies this twitter user is not necessarily going to benefit from your tweets and you certainly won’t benefit from theirs.

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Follow your industry professionals and start linking to tweeters that are going to help build a strong influential twitter following. Remember…not everyone will follow you back but a lot will, particularly if they are industry relevant.

Retweeting

Do you often see something interesting written by someone you follow? It’s more than likely the people following you will also find it interesting. After all they have the same interests as you.

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Sharing is caring, show what is interesting you and it will benefit your little fan base too…plus if you want to look it up again just check your twitter feed out for reference. Double bonus!

Conversation

Twitter is a “social” media platform and to be social is to talk. Try commenting on some of your followings feeds, you might start a conversation and create a stronger bond with them as well as generate business.

#Hashtags

A hash tag makes it easier for people to find your tweets with the “discover” tool. So for instance “hey check out my latest #art piece. here – http://www.url.com” okay so you notice that i put a hash tag next to art? so if anyone types art into the discover tool they may just discover your tweet and wallah! New followers.

Tweet every day

The last tip and one of the most important, tweet regularly or your followers may think you are inactive are unfollow you. Even try and tweet 3 to 5 times a day, throughout the day, juts make sure to keep it relevant.

Useful Twitter Apps

Lastly 2 useful Twitter apps that every Twitter user should be using : –

wefollow

Gather more followers using this great app, see how much influence you have in your particular industry keyword too!

 Justunfollow

Are you noticing your twitter account keeps loosing followers even though you are twittering often ( how rude! :O ) ? Find out who is unfollowing you and return the favor ( unless of course they are highly influential with lots of great tweets that will benefit you! ).

Artist : JA Wilson

Location: United Kingdom

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Social Media

• Pinterest – http://pinterest.com/jawilsondesign/
• Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/jawilsondesign
• Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/jawilsondesign

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So what is your background?

Education :

As a young person I was always drawing, painting and creating cartoons, designing games and playing video games, a typical 1980s kid! Creative lesson were always my favorite at school ( as well as sport ) and I even won a creative writing trophy when i was 10 for my ability at using my imagination. Pursuing the art foundation and then studying an architectural degree, I dreamed of creating large artistically designed buildings but unfortunately graduated in may 2008 when the recession started.

Exhibiting

I have exhibited my work in Knowsley Open Art Exhibition, Liverpool One Shopping District & other areas of Liverpool. This was me starting to take my art work seriously. I also entered paintings into the John Moores Painting Prize, probably one of the most highly sought after prizes by any artist.

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What is your favourite medium?

I enjoy working and experimenting with any medium but my favourites are currently acrylic paint, ink,charcoal and chalk as well as Photoshop.

Do you have a common theme to your work?

Recession:

Architecture & Banking took the biggest hits at first (as usually happens in any economic recession) and so few job opportunities in the industry were available. This was the start of a very difficult and dark time for me in my life. Things went from bad to worse as I attempted tutoring but was unfortunate enough to meet some very nasty people in the industry that were basically bullies, plus the influence of government also made it a very restrictive profession creatively, it was hell on earth to me, another profession i felt i was failing at.

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Not only this but my partner at the time was not very supportive towards me and was pressuring me all the time about bringing money into the house. Eventually, 3 years later when i was the lowest i had ever been in my entire life, she left me… on boxing day.

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Deep depression & finding path again

As stated earlier combined with the feeling of uselessness, being so far in debt. the pressure of my past partner to find work and the relationship failing, I became very low and didn’t know how to get out of feeling in this very dark abyss.

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My paintings depict my experiences of this difficult time, the challenges i still face, dreams i have had, coming out of the depression/suicidal thinking and how being close to death can help you rethink life and to value certain things differently.

What inspires you?

My art work is based on my experiences of life through the ups and downs, the dreams i had and the battle to regain my sanity.
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Do any other artists or designers influence how you work, if so who and how?

I like the work of Jackson Pollock due to the emotional connection he seems to have with his work and I am also inspired by Salvador Dali for his surrealist type of painting and the theme of dreams.

Is your work available to purchase?

At the moment it isn’t available to purchase but I hope in the near future to make it available. If you are interested in any of my work, please feel free to contact me.

Business Card designs are a really important part of your brand. Its not only to say who you are but it can give your potential clients a more positive image of your company if done right. I feel that bespoke business cards are a great asset for your company salesmen to have in their arsenal and the best ones can usually tell a story about what your company sells. I have compiled excellent examples for you to feast your eyes on to help you gather some inspiration for your next design.

11 Fab examples of clever business card designs that communicate and delight the senses

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Colour cards

This card delights me as a designer because of the clever use of typography and composition of the name on the back. Colour has a strong meaning subconsciously  when designing your brand so be careful which one you decide to choose ( I will discuss colour in a blog post in the future).

graphicriver.net

Photography Card

Some may say this is to literal but deep down even the most sophisticated business man is a big kid deep down and being able to play with your business card and identify what it is you do straight away always brings a smile to your customers faces. No one wants to be bored and if they don’t smile then they aren’t the customer for you! 🙂

youthedesigner.com

DJ Card

Wika! Wika! Wa! Wa! Play that funky card record on the front of this card. Again easy to see what your profession is as well as adding an element of fun.

cardobserver.com

Ninja Card

Again another attempt at being fun…although I am sure there are some Ninjas that may do business i am not quite sure if this card was designed for that purpose but all the same, it did make me go OOoooooo and i would definitely remember receiving this from someone.

webdesigneraid.com

Edible Card

Obviously designed for a baker. I love the concept but unless you store the contact details in your phone before you eat the biscuit then…oh crumbs!

enpundit.com

Character Card

Some people have a really striking visual appearance as well as a distinctive design style. If this is the case your business card can show that in how you design it.

cardstache.com

Breast Card

Obviously to do with the care of women’s baloobies. Would definitely make us chuckle like little children if we received this.

labaq.com

Multiple uses for a card

Having a second use for a business card will more than likely help your client keep hold if the card a bit longer, plus you’re being environmentally friendly too! Bonus.

cardobserver.com

Pop up card

What is the main focus of your business? Is it you? Are you a freelancer? Then why not make yourself stand out and literally pop up out of the  customers hand. Downside of this is that it might be a bit fragile to store.

flavorwire.com

Biodegradable Plastic Card

This card represents that of a security swipe card. Made from biodegradable plastic with a qr code on the back that looks almost like the chip where the information for the security is stored. If I was to receive this card I would know that security is the main purpose of this company.

www.migsolv.com

Metal Card

Looks very expensive and high tech, i’d feel pretty bad to throw this away…great thing to show others not just your clients.

formink.com

Hanger Card

A card in the shape of a hanger…looks good but, would it fit into your wallet? Is it practical? Thats my only criticism..creativity is top level.

behance.net

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what do you think makes a great business card? Please feel free to leave a comment.

Last year Google Feedburner lost their Japanese domain name and it seems Google is not going to be supporting this great tool for much longer…December 2014 to be precise ( as this seems to be when the domain name is registered till. ) You may have built up quite a subscription of followers on  your blog and you really don’t want to loose them but know you need an alternative within the next year…here are a few alternatives to Google Feedburner to feast your eyes on : –

FeedBlitz

FeedBlitz is a service that monitors blogs, RSS feeds and Web URLs to provide greater reach for feed publishers. FeedBlitz takes all the headache out of converting feed and blog updates into email digests, delivered daily to subscribers’ inboxes. FeedBlitz manages subscriptions, circulation tracking, testing, and is compatible with all major blogging platforms and services such as Blogger, WordPress, FeedBurner, Joomla, Drupal and Typepad. Unlike other blogmail services, FeedBlitz is reliable, scalable and fully supported. No betas, wish lists or road map items here. You’re in production, and so is FeedBlitz.

Rapidfeeds

Includes lots of in-demand features, including branded RSS feeds, auto-Twitter update, RSS feed scheduling and subscriber statistics.  Also integrates nicely with podcasts. Price varies on the number of feeds you want to manage and the features you want.  Enterprise-level feed management is $13.95 per month

Nourish

Nourish is an RSS to email service and a reliable Feedburner alternativefor those sites whose visitors don’t really grasp (or don’t use) RSS much.  The free version lets you send up to 1,000 emails per month. Also includes customizable newsletter templates.

Feedcat

FEEDCAT.NET is mainly dedicated to boosting feeds and also serves as a public catalogue of feeds (RSS and ATOM).

Feedity

Feedity creates an RSS feed for any webpage and allows for social media monitoring, the aggregating of multiple feeds, and publishing of feeds on your website.

Has the fire gone out on feedburner?

I don’t think this is the end for google feedburner just yet, whether google totally abandon it and their many users or not is yet to be announced but at least you are prepared if something does happen. Fingers crossed they see how valuable a tool it is to the online community