Social Media provides all companies with a new marketing channel for reaching their customers. The cost of executing Social Media Marketing tactics is almost $0 for companies. An almost zero cost of entry for companies and an almost unlimited geographic reach, small companies around the world can now compete with their large competitors for market share within their industry.

Social Media is a Tool for Business Owners to Market Your Products & Services

Social Media is a great tool for business owners who want to reach and engage more customers. That said, Social Media is just that, a tool. Just like any other tool, simply using the tool does not mean you’re going to be successful. It’s how you use the tool that separates those who succeed in the trade and those who fail. Social Media Marketing is no different.

Think about hammering a nail. The hammer and nail are the tools for which you’re using to build something. Someone takes time to set goals for what he wants to build, plan out how to use his hammer and nails to achieve his goal, and then goes about using his hammer and nails in the best, most effective way possible, will ultimately build a better “something” than someone has the same goal, but simply picks up the hammer and nail and starts pounding away.

4 Steps to a Successful Social Media Marketing Campaign

Social Media Marketing can be an amazing tool for all businesses, but especially for small companies looking to compete with larger organizations for market share within an industry. That said, as we’ve discussed above, just because you use Social Media doesn’t mean you’re going to be successful. The companies, both large and small, who are successful in their Social Media Marketing efforts all follow a very similar philosophy when it comes to using Social Media to reach and engage their customers. This approach can be broken down into 4 main steps:

1. Setting Goals – Success is determined long before a single tweet is sent, Facebook post is made, etc. Success comes to those businesses who take time to set goals for any Social Media Marketing Campaigns that they want to run.
2. Planning – In order to give yourself the best opportunity to achieve your goals you must spend time planning your strategy. I always say with anything you do, spend two-thirds of the time planning and one-third executing and you will usually have more success than those who don’t abide to these guidelines.
3. Using Social Media Effectively – Once you’ve taken time to set goals, and develop your strategy, it’s time to actually start using Social Media to achieve your goals. Too many times companies use Social Media as just another advertising channel. I assure you, this is not what Social Media is. Success comes to those who understand that Social Media is about engaging your customers and prospects in conversations about your brand, industry, products and services, and anything else that might pertain to the goals that you’re trying to achieve.
4. Learning & Evolving – Social Media is new and always evolving. Businesses must do the same if they want to continue to be successful in using Social Media Marketing to reach and engage their customers.

The companies that follow these four steps will have a much higher chance at success than those who simply use Social Media as just another shout box.

The Biggest Mistake Businesses Make When Using Social Media

The biggest mistake that I see business owners making when it comes to using Social Media Marketing to reach and engage their customers is using the tools as just another channel for shouting their message as loudly and most obtrusively as possible. It used to be that you could simply plaster your commercials or ads in front of customers and products would move off of the shelves. The age is long gone. Customers want to feel like you can meet their needs on a personal level. They want to know that you care about them. They want to talk with you. Social Media Marketing is the ultimate tool to give customers and prospects what they want. Unfortunately, most businesses are still stuck in the old paradigm.

When was the last time you were on Facebook or Twitter and you saw the same company come up in your news feed the “biggest sale of the year” message, send out a tweet about their new products, or send you yet another email coupon? I’m guessing you can probably remember because it most likely happened to most of you very recently. The biggest mistake companies make when it comes to using Social Media Marketing is that they want to use old advertising strategies in these new marketing channels. What they are learning the hard way is that it just doesn’t work.

Use Social Media Marketing to Engage Customers in Your Brand

In order to be successful using Social Media Marketing for your business you must understand that a paradigm shift in how customers want to interact with companies has occurred. It used to be that we put our favorite classic American companies on a pedestal. Whatever they said in their TV ad, Radio Spots, and Magazine Spreads we believed. It’s all that we needed to know about the company that makes the products that we use. Today, that’s not enough. We want to have input on the products that our favorite companies make, we want to learn more about the materials that were used to make the products that we purchase, and we want to know that you know we exist. Knowing that this new paradigm is fully in play will help companies understand how to use Social Media Marketing as a tool to grow your business.

Five to ten years ago this new paradigm couldn’t have existed. It couldn’t have existed because there wouldn’t have been the technology to support it. With the advent of the internet and tools like Social Media, businesses are now more connected to their customers than ever before. This increased closeness between company and consumer has changed what consumers demand from the companies that they purchase products and services from. Consumers EXPECT that your company has a presence on Social Media. Not only do they expect that, but they expect that they can actually use those tools to communicate with you or a representative of your company. They want to use those tools to consumer information about your company, industry, products and services. If you want to be successful with Social Media Marketing, it’s your job to use the tools to provide those things to your customers and prospects. Not only must you provide them with the information, but you must do it in a way that’s not perceived to be too sales-focused.

Sell to Customers through Social Media with Education

In my experience, companies who have been most successful using social media to increase sales are the ones who stick to a few guiding principles:

1. Be educational with your message – Consumers who are interested in your products or services will naturally want to learn more about your company, industry, products and services. It’s your job to provide them with the information they want, when they want it, and to serve it up in a way that’s not too promotional, but looked at as educational. This provides educational value to consumers and when they are ready to make a purchase, they will buy products and services from companies that took the time to educate them.
2. Make it fun – If you’re going to use education as your way of providing company, industry, product, and service information to your customers, then you must make learning fun. Did you just produce a new product video that you want to get out? Come up with a contest that requires consumers to watch it and weigh in with their thoughts. Then get the community to start talking about everyone’s comments. Using fun ways to get your information out will do wonders for your sales.
3. Be available – Customers want to talk with you. Consumers expect to be able to talk to companies. Many times these conversations lead to sales. If you’re not using Social Media to talk with your customers, you’re not using Social Media effectively.
4. Mix Selling Messaging In – Don’t confuse the information above with me saying “don’t use Social Media to sell”. You have to use Social Media to sell or you won’t be able to achieve your goals. I’m simply saying, don’t use Social Media to sell the same way a used car salesmen would do so. Mix your selling messages in with your educational messages. Become an expert in the soft sell. These are the strategies that work with Social Media Marketing.

Use Social Media Marketing to Grow Your Business

Social Media Marketing can be an extremely effective way to reach your target audience, educate them about your company, industry, products and services, and sell more stuff. The trick is knowing that Social Media is merely a tool and that consumers expect more from you than they’ve ever done in the past. Knowing this will allow you to use Social Media for engaging your customers, not shouting at them. Knowing this will help you take a step back before jumping into Social Media so that you have time to set goals and plan for how you will achieve those goals. Knowing this will allow you to finally compete with some of those large companies that can’t evolve their business as quickly as you can to adapt to this new paradigm. Knowing this will allow you to use Social Media Marketing to grow your business.

Image Credits

• Portrait of a angry group
• Woman at the hairdresser
• Hand write growth chart

Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil. Traditional oil painting techniques often begin with the artist sketching the subject onto the canvas with charcoal or thinned paint.

Main reason why oil paint is considered more valuable is the surface, watercolor is usually done on paper, not so valuable and easily bent/crumpled. oil is done on canvas, linen, panel, and surfaces that are usually long lasting and expensive and rather sometimes very large.

In this showcase, let’s take a look at the works of some of the world’s greatest photorealism masters like Roberto Bernardi, Pedro Campos, Tjalf Sparnaay, Erich Christensen, Steve Mills, and many more.

Indian Holy Man

– Painting Link

Jim Lentall is the owner for the original photograph of this smudge painted version. The Original Photograph has won the best of the show in a contest sponsored by the digital photography review website.

I Love My Shoes

– Painting Link

Jill Beale is a photographer, folk singer, song writer and artist who lives in Canada. Her Original photograph of this smudge painted image was one of the best of show in a photography challenge contest on the digital photography review site.

Almost There

– Painting Link

‘Almost There’ was funded by the Arts Council and received corporate sponsorship from Audio Technica. it took a few attempts for application to be successful and something that I had to figure out how to do by trying.

Sculpture

– Painting Link

Hyper-Realistic Nude Paintings by Omar Ortiz. The human body is the main element of his paintings and minimalism is one of the strongest features in his compositions.

Peppers and Beans-Oil on Canvas

– Painting Link

Glennray Tutor is an American painter who is known for his photorealistic paintings. He is considered to be part of the Photorealism art movement. His paintings are immersed with bright colors, nostalgic items, metaphor, and with a complete focus on detail.

The Deal

– Painting Link

Brooklyn-based artist Alex Roulette creates oil based paintings that look incredibly real. In his most recent series titled Fabricated Realism, all the landscapes and subjects that Alex paints are actually invented. They appear to be painted versions of existing photographs, but Roulette is creating events and places and people that never were.

Fried Eggs

– Painting Link

Dutch photo-realistic painter Tjalf Sparnaay creates delicious portraits of food that are so detailed and sumptuous you might catch yourself reaching out for a bite. Sparnaay is by his own admission strongly influenced by the Dutch masters Vermeer and Rembrandt.

Realistic Wall Drawings

– Painting Link

Passing by these amazing 3D paintings will make you almost believe that there are real people standing by the wall. The paintings are made in such a way that you would probably try to touch the girl that’s leaning on the wall or maybe the old lady that’s resting, because they seem so realistic.

Oriental Lady

– Painting Link

This is the digitally Painted Version of another terrific photograph by Rosita S.

Girls Of Iran

– Painting Link

Iman Maleki is an Iranian realist painter. His fascination began with the painting when he was a child. He has done his graduation in Graphic Design in 1999. He has presented several paintings in exhibitions and got The William Bouguereau Award. Here we would like to share some of his paintings with you. Cheers!

Changing Us

– Painting Link

Robert Lange has spent five weeks in Nepal on a 150-mile hike through the Himalayas. Inspired by the idea of surrendering as an artist, he created
a series of paintings that portray people in possible but not plausible situations.

Fighter Pilot

– Painting Link

Michael Peck’s artistic practice is concerned with the sensation of disorientation and dislocation that is often felt within the post modern world. The scenes in Michael’s paintings are quiet, the participants are paused as they stand withdrawn, juxtaposed against a dynamic population; they are overwhelmed by mass-culture.

Floating

– Painting Link

Ericzener work reflects our collective desire for transformation into something ideal. His exploration seek to create a sense of sanctuary, often using figure in water, sleep, journeys and nature as a metaphor for renewal and reprise.

Young man

Thanks to Eric Bergin of the Digital photography review website for allowing me to create a digital oil painting from his source photograph of this young man. – Pat Thompson – Painting Link

Praying Girl

– Painting Link

Another Photorealistic painting done using the referral image photographed by Anita pepper.

Lilies on the Rocks

– Painting Link

Will Faught College grad

Thanks for Bill gracey for the permission to paint and display the painted version of his photograph of his Godson. – Pat Thompson – Painting Link

Emigrant

– Painting Link

Iman Maleki is an Iranian realist painter. His fascination began with the painting when he was a child. He has done his graduation in Graphic Design in 1999. He has presented several paintings in exhibitions and got the The William Bouguereau Award. Here we would like to share some of his paintings with you. Cheers!

Old Asian Man

– Painting Link

Whole Milk

– Painting Link

Q Beach

– Painting Link

Brooklyn bridge

– Painting Link

Joe Simpson is a figurative painter currently living and working in London. His paintings have been shown both nationally and internationally, including prestigious venues such as Urbis, Manchester City Art Gallery, Cornerhouse and The House of Commons.

Royal Ground

– Painting Link

From the forests of Northern Maine, where he was raised, to the streets of San Francisco, Steven Albert’s paintings have always been informed by patterns of clear, bright sunlight and shadows.

Vitamin Water

– Painting Link

Ketchup

– Painting Link

Ariana Debose

Thanks to Joseph gray who kindly granted permission to paint his photograph of Ariana. – Pat Thompson – Painting Link

Lee Lee Sobieski

Many thanks to David Shankbone for allowing me to paint and display the painted versions of these celebrity photographs. – Pat Thompson – Painting Link

Heavy Crowd

– Painting Link

Scrabble

– Painting Link

Day dreamer

– Painting Link

Wayne is a photographer and artist. His work ethic comes from 21 years of Service in the Canadian Military. No messing around and getting the job done. He uses Adobe Illustrator to create his drawings which also known as vector graphics.

Up for Discussion

– Painting Link

Angelina Jolie

– Painting Link

Wayne is a photographer and artist. His work ethic comes from 21 years of Service in the Canadian Military. No messing around and getting the job done. He uses Adobe Illustrator to create his drawings which also known as vector graphics.

Diet Coke

– Painting Link

On a clear Day

– Painting Link

Duffy Sheridan has been painting since he was a child. His father, also an artist, encouraged him to learn to paint anything and everything. Although he and his family spent many years in relative seclusion in the far corners of the world, Sheridan’s work has attracted the attention of collectors on five continents.

The Silver Bangle

– Painting Link

Nigel was born in Newry Co. Down Ireland and grew up on the edge of Dundalk, a small market town in County Louth, just below the border and was educated at Dundalk Grammar School. After graduating from Riversdale College in Liverpool he joined the Transglobe Expedition, led by Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

Head Study with,White Scarf

– Painting Link

Duffy Sheridan has been painting since he was a child. His father, also an artist, encouraged him to learn to paint anything and everything. Although he and his family spent many years in relative seclusion in the far corners of the world, Sheridan’s work has attracted the attention of collectors on five continents.

Portrait of a Young Man

– Painting Link

Isabel

– Painting Link

Grateful to brian masson for allowing me to paint one of the girls in his chorus class. also much gratitude to dario acosta, An internationally acclaimed portrait photographer, for allowing me to paint and publish his photograph isabel_Pat thompson…

Summer

– Painting Link

“Sometimes I paint pictures that remind me of where I would like to be. I am a summertime boy and long to be on a warm island again” – Duffysheridan

Broken Wing

– Painting Link

Boy Fishing in Rowboat

– Painting Link

This smudge painting is a composite of two photographs. The boy and the boat were separated images and combined them in Photoshop, and then painted in composite..

Send Off

– Painting Link

Mystery Women

– Painting Link

A working artist from the UK, my hopes are for Australia to provide a new cultural influence to my work and a maturity only developed through experience.

Draadjesvlees

– Painting Link

Slam Dunk

– Painting Link

Here is the Digitally painted portrait versions of an original photograph. kiran metha of Leeds metropolitan university England..

En Francais

– Painting Link

Albert’s work is represented by galleries in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York and has been exhibited in various museums and venues around America. From the forests of Northern Maine, where he was raised, to the streets of San Francisco, Steven Albert’s paintings have always been informed by patterns of clear, bright sunlight and shadows.

2 Wish

– Painting Link

The Miserable Rich

– Painting Link

‘Almost There’ was funded by the Arts Council and received corporate sponsorship from Audio Technica. it took a few attempts for application to be successful and something that I had to figure out how to do by trying.

Easy Money

– Painting Link

In Thought

– Painting Link

Super-realistic vector illustrations that should break that misconception if you still hold it. While it takes considerable work, it is possible to create complicated images that, to the untrained eye, are indistinguishable from life.

Leaning Right

– Painting Link

Colori e Sentieri

– Painting Link

Street Boating

– Painting Link

Art work by Linnea Strid

– Painting Link

Outside or Inside

– Painting Link

Shooter

– Painting Link

Alone in the Forest

– Painting Link

Duffy Sheridan has been painting since he was a child. His father, also an artist, encouraged him to learn to paint anything and everything. Although he and his family spent many years in relative seclusion in the far corners of the world, Sheridan’s work has attracted the attention of collectors on five continents.

Playing with danger

– Painting Link

Brooklyn-based artist Alex Roulette creates oil based paintings that look incredibly real. In his most recent series titled Fabricated Realism, all the landscapes and subjects that Alex paints are actually invented. They appear to be painted versions of existing photographs, but Roulette is creating events and places and people that never were.

Key Lime

– Painting Link

Dutch photo-realistic painter Tjalf Sparnaay makes tasty paintings portrait of eatable things that are so cleared and spectacular you might hold by hand getting out for a bite. Here you can see 20 best realistic food paintings so I should say please control your mouth water…

Bite me

– Painting Link

Oil on plywood. Commission.

Girl Painting

– Painting Link

This is a great pieces of art made by Odwin Rensen. His work is really amazing and realistic.

Hamburger friet

– Painting Link

These are some examples of the photorealistic paintings of the artist which look natural like a photograph. The evolution of technology has brought forth photorealistic paintings that exceed what was thought possible with paintings. These newer paintings by the photo-realists are sometimes referred to as Hyperrealism.

Hope you enjoyed and inspired a lot!

This bundle includes 5 themes which are fully compatible with latest version of WordPress and powered with a “full of features” framework.

About WordPressThemeShock

Guys behind wordpressthemeshock have released a new and interesting project: wp theme generator, that allows you to create custom wp themes in no time, by playing with more than 1000 pre-designed elements (including menus, boxes, buttons, fonts, colors, textures, backgrounds, shines, divisors, sliders, etc.. ) and tons of layout options you can create a fully working theme with a nice design, and download it in both WP version or HTML/CSS version.

You can also save your themes for later edition and download them whenever you need, and the framework behind is always being updated so that your theme will always work with the latest wp version.

Free WordPress Theme Bundle

Editing Options

Framework Options

Items Gallery

Theme Front Preview

Finally: Pleas take a look to the wp theme generator and try it yourself.

Agreements

By downloading this theme, under the terms of the GNU General Public License, it is vital that you understood the following terms and conditions :

• You can use them on as many domain names as you wish.
• You may use them for your clients’ projects / websites. Number of projects is not limited.
• You may not claim intellectual and exclusive ownership to any of the themes.
• You may not sub-license the original themes and their individual files to and with anyone else, unless a specific license within the theme states otherwise.
• You may modify them. However, you may not modify and then resell, unless the modified versions are drastically different from the originals.
• We reserve the right to refuse, cancel, or suspend service at our sole discretion and the right to change or modify these terms with no prior notice.
• No support will be provided for any free theme by instantShift.
• Do not provide the direct download link nor upload this “WP Theme Bundle” onto other servers for your own share (Please link to this article instead!). If you want to spread the words, just link to this article.

Download The Themes Bundle for Free!

The theme bundle is released under GPL. You can use it for all your projects for free and without any restrictions. Please link to this article and also to this article if you would like to spread the word. You may modify the theme as you wish, but if you are planning to release your modification, please ask for permission first.

• Live Demo
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• Download WP Theme Bundle (.zip, 21.4 Mb)
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The good news is that you don’t have to waste your efforts on marketing if you jump into it with the right activities. Often, the most important choice is knowing what NOT to do and knowing that handing off some tasks to professionals may be your best bet. For those ready to go to the next level, consider these marketing materials and how to use them the most effectively.

Professionally designed logo

While not a physical piece of marketing material, your logo is an invaluable marketing asset. Hire a professional design agency, if possible, to create a logo for you. The benefit of a professional design includes the ability for your logo to work well regardless of its placement or size in web or in print. A professional corporate identity takes a great deal of thought and planning but is definitely worth it in the long run. No company should be without a logo before beginning a marketing campaign. A logo is what will help your target audience recognize and remember you no matter where or how they encounter your company’s marketing materials or products.

Trends in logo design have varied wildly over the last few years, but a few key concepts are timeless. Look at what your industry is doing first and foremost. This does not mean you should copy competitors, but you do want to be in the same general vein of design within your industry. For example, if crest logos are common, consider getting yourself a crest logo as well.

Also, make sure your logo is legible from a distance. Complicated logos can get hard to see if they are small or far away. Test to make sure your logo is clear at any size and from a reasonable distance before committing. A simple logo is also easier to remember.

Business cards

Utilize all the space on your business cards. Include a short description (tag line) of your company’s services as well as contact information. Graphics and design are important, but be sure to avoid sacrificing any descriptive qualities, potentially confusing prospective clients. Keep in mind that on your business card is where your logo can really shine.

Use both sides of your business card keeping the front of the design simple and using the back for any details. The front of your business card should be limited to very basic contact information. The back of your card can have all the details you can fit into that space. You can squeeze around 300 words in 10pt font into that area if needed. You could consider including a QR code on the back of your card to give customers quick and easy access to your website. Or you could reserve the back of the card for all of you social media information. Get creative but do keep in mind that too much information will look cluttered and unprofessional.

A common mistake is to use non-traditional sizes for your business cards. While it is accepted to use rounded corners, avoid odd shapes. Many people still store business cards in holders created for business cards to fit into. If yours won’t fit, it will likely be discarded. The only exception to this rule is if your odd-shaped card will easily slide into and out of a traditional holder.

Create and manage a comprehensive website

Make sure you have a functioning website immediately upon starting your business, or before you open your doors for business if at all possible. On your site, include helpful information about your company’s services. You will also need to include links to other, relevant, non-competitive sites, videos, pictures, and blogs if possible to create discussion with your clients and increase brand recognition with your client base.

Even if you cannot afford to go with a full-featured website, a basic site that has a professional design is absolutely critical. Companies with no websites are quickly considered to be too small to be of concern. Consumers almost always research a company’s website before making a purchase, so having even a basic site is important.

If you can’t afford a complex site, you can use a site like Blogspot.com or Wix.com and purchase a domain name of your own. From here, you can design a professional site fairly easily using the provided templates. Make sure to keep your blog up-to-date and take advantage of the blogging features as a way to create relevant commentary. Even if you have a professional website, creating a separate blog on which you post news, how-to articles, inspirational roundups, and anything else of relevance to your target audience is a great way to guide new customers to your site as well as create brand recognition.

Create company uniforms

Adding company t-shirts, uniforms, or simply dress codes will increase brand recognition. Your company will also appear more professional and competent. Once again, this is where your logo can come in very handy.

Uniforms are not necessarily a complete wardrobe. You may just stick with a ball cap or a logo on a polo shirt. The key is to get your brand in front of customers on a regular basis. The more they see it, the more likely they will remember you when they need your services.

Establish a formal brand definition

Make sure your marketing designs adhere to basic design principles and you stick with consistent use of colors and logos. A brand definition does not have to be complicated; in fact, some can be defined on a single page. The key is to include your color swatches you want to use and re-use, your logo, and the fonts you plan to stick with throughout your marketing campaign. You can go so far as to define the voice or tone of your marketing campaign and other stylized details.

Some brand definitions are incredibly exhaustive, pushing several hundred pages. As a freelancer, you probably don’t have the time to create such a formal policy. But you should take the time to put your color swatches and logo files in a single location so you can find them quickly when needed. You can also save a short list of fonts you want to stick with if you end up taking the time to look through some sites like DaFont.com and finding some fonts you want to use for marketing purposes.

Create brochures

Brochures are capable of being used for multiple purposes. Hand them out at networking events, mail them to potential customers, or use them to elaborate on the range of services you provide when talking to clients. A brochure is an indispensable tool that you should keep on hand at all times.

Some simple points to remember with brochure design are to use professional photographs, be consistent with your brand, make sure to include contact information, and don’t be afraid to go over-the-top. Including your website, social media sites, and even a QR code are great ways to help prospects more easily connect with your business.

A big mistake made all too often in brochure printing is using a cheap design and print quality. A black image on yellow paper in a tri-fold shape doesn’t cut it these days. It’s better to not even have a brochure if you don’t make a polished finished product. Consider hiring a designer if you have no experience with marketing design.

Develop posters

Even as a freelancer you can take advantage of posters. If you can find out where your typical customer may spend some time as a group – a convention, for example – you can put posters up to grab attention. Use a QR code so they can quickly get to your website by scanning the poster with their smartphones.

A poster is one of those marketing materials that has to grab attention fast, so get the help of a designer to put together an eye-catching design that drives clients to your website or to call you. Keep in mind that the less information you include on the poster, the better. A large, catchy headline along with an irresistable image, possibly a line or two for extra explanation, and one or two contact methods (and your logo, of course) is about all that is needed on most advertising posters.

Send postcards

One of the least expensive ways to get your logo and brand in front of future customers and current clients is through a postcard campaign. Once again, you have to grab attention fast, so make sure your design is rock-solid and that you include an incentive, such as a coupon.

A postcard is another great place to include a QR code so that clients can scan it with a smartphone and go straight to your website or other campaign specific page. Posters can be a friendly reminder to stop by a special event, a "thank you" for being a client, or a call-to-action for a special sale. But never miss out on the opportunity to get your logo and brand integrated into the design and in front of customers.

Use professional cameras or hire professionals

Professionally rendered photographs and videos are a strong indication to potential clients that your business is serious and will deliver. Your website will stand out from the pack and promote the growth of your business. This is where hiring professionals may be better than investing in equipment, but the end product should be high-end.

Cheap looking graphics are design killers. Your marketing materials need to look professional and images that are low-quality can absolutely ruin a brochure or website, for example. You can also purchase professional photos from websites as well, but this is only for stock photos. If you have product-specific photos, your own bio image, or other unique photos needed, it’s worth getting professional gear or hiring a photographer to get these taken the right way.

Create an email signature

Each individual email you send out is an opportunity to include a marketing message. Include contact information, a web address, and a logo. Keep the signature simple. Avoid trying to cram too much information into this space as it’s annoying to get an email from someone whose email signature is far longer than the message.

Skip the long quotes or company mission statements. People don’t want to see these over and over. Your logo, on the other hand, is always appropriate, but keep the graphic small. You don’t want your graphics to be too large from a file size or image size standpoint.

Also, always left-align your content. Do not center or right-align your signature. Keep the design simple and standardized – the email signature is not where you want to try to stand out.

Create a company mission and vision statement

A company mission and vision statement can range from a single sentence to a paragraph. Create a statement that can be a reminder for employees and a guarantee to clients of your commitment to maintain a high level of performance and service. Use this statement where appropriate, such as on the company "About" page, in brochures, on business cards, and the like.

The mission and vision statements set the tone for what your company intends to do. You can keep this short and simple. Even statements to the effect of "to provide the highest level of customer service and professional service in the {your industry here}" are fine and let your clients know you are serious about serving their needs.

This also helps potential customers understand what it is you do best. When new clients are researching you, they may not be familiar with your industry, and a concise statement of your vision can help them focus on your strengths. Just be sure that you write in a language that clients will understand. Leave the techie speak for your employee manuals and give prospects a clear picture of what it is you do.

Elevator pitch

Create a 30 second description for your company that details the service you provide. Practice the statement until you are capable of reciting it word for word. You don’t want to sound unsure about the service you provide, and any prospective clients will gravitate towards a confident presentation. You may never know when you might need to be able to quickly give someone a high-level pitch, so be ready!

While you may not go to the lengths of actually formalizing your elevator pitch, the key is to practice hitting the high points very quickly and concisely and then handing off your business card or brochure so you can continue the conversation later.

Resources

For more information, here are a few more resources for finding out how to make marketing work for your freelance business:

• 5 Tips for Professional Marketing Materials
• 8 Image-Building Tips
• Marketing Materials Checklist for Small Business

Because I had come to the company with design and type experience, I was privileged to be able to design my own type treatments. It wasn’t until the company started offering type training to designers that I realized how little I truly knew. The four-week intensive training was… intensive and run by people who had over twenty years experience with solely designing type for cards. I went into the training feeling I wasn’t going to learn anything I didn’t already know but I was wrong.

Even with type classes under my belt from art school and work experience with top publications, I knew very little about the possibilities of type as an art. Many of my peers considered me to be “good with type.” That pronouncement just serves to show me how little most designers knew about type. When I left the card company, I found myself hired by design studios to do type treatment logos because they said I was a “great” type designer. At that point I felt I had earned the title but was embarrassed by my past type work, much like a seasoned professional would blush when coming upon their student portfolio, stashed somewhere in the back of a closet.

If only there was a death penalty for typography such as this! Perpetrators would have their own graveyard with really badly kerned tombstones that no one could read.

The understanding I learned was not with kerning and leading, although those are basics too many designers miss. There is a personality, emotion and readability to type that most people ignore… or just don’t see.

We all love type and a common complaint about designers from non-designers is that we tend to go through life picking apart type in every day usage. Chances are, when you are in a restaurant and when your wife, husband or boyfriend/girlfriend asks what you’d like, you reply, “a better designed menu!”

You echo the hatred for Comic Sans and Papyrus but do you know why? Naturally you would choke if you saw a logo using Brush Script, all uppercase. It’s an abomination against design and civilization. Again, do you really know why?

Some Basics To Start

Let’s start with the basic form of a letter. Knowing the parts of a letter, terminology such as baseline or x-height is important. Start with the basics before you start to experiment. Here’s a fun little tutorial on some basics you should know.

Link

Let’s not waste time with serif and san serif, uppercase and lowercase. We all know those basics. The basic fundamentals of kerning and leading, unfortunately, seem to have escaped most art students and their teachers.

These two simple practices have been eluding designers for quite some time. We all trust that font houses build kerning (the spacing between the side-by-side letters) into their fonts. The better font houses (or foundries, as some are known due to the old practice of making metal type) do make fonts that kern well but there are always exceptions. Why? With a billion or so words in the English language (or any language for that matter), the combination of letters that will sit next to each other are too many for a typographer to adjust when creating type sets.

If there’s a T-shirt, then it must mean something! – Link

I take that back. A bad homage to the “I (Heart) New York” Logo, obviously the hate for comic sans extends to hatred for kerning between the two words. – Link

Here’s an unfortunate example a graphic designer put on his web site. What did he do that was so wrong?

Look at this example. What do you see that’s wrong?

Here’s the same example with proper kerning. The spaces between the W, A and T has been closed up in the word Water, as has the R and U in Running. Several other letters were closed up a bit to match the kerning elsewhere in the two words. You’ll also notice that the fixed version isn’t as wide as the first version.

A consideration to note is the choice of the font and the kerning. When a heavy (black) font is used, it’s better to leave more space when kerning to help readability. The reader will see the word better when the black of the font is more balanced with the white space. Emotionally, the bunched up letters make you feel anxious and claustrophobic.

Another much hated font, this example from an article on popular fonts also shows incredibly bad kerning. The problem is the tail on the R. Next to the serif foot of the A, it leave a bad kerning situation and a huge hole in the title. This is the problem with swoop and swash type (look at the swoop of the Q that runs under the R – it’s the only redeeming value in this font). They can be incredibly difficult when not designed letter by letter, almost in the same fashion as a logo. With swoop and swash fonts, you’d better know your Illustrator skills because there will be major manipulation needed to make these fit into a headline properly.

Even with the proper, by-the-book kerning, this font is just difficult to stomach. Just because it exists, don’t feel you have to use it. Many typographers are in love with each letterform and don’t necessarily see the whole picture. Better to skip it if you can and choose one of the bajillion fonts out on the market.

The favorite font of the 1970s, Cooper Black is fun and playful and the serifs are murder on kerning. Those little love bulges just ram into each other all over the place. Kern it wide or just don’t use it!

Leading

The same principles apply to leading (the space between lines of copy). Ascenders and descenders will overlap each other if there’s not enough space given to the leading. With some thoughtful design, overlap can work well.

This is a great example of how overlap is used with an eye towards how the brain fills in the missing parts (designed by Emiliano Suárez). Melding letterforms in this manner takes practice, trial and error and the knowledge of what the brain will complete even though parts of the form are missing.

Font Choices

I fully admit to being font crazy. However, along with that delightful insanity, I temper my enthusiasm with common sense that although a font may be fun and beautiful, it will not work for many designs. Some people wait all year to use certain fonts for Christmas designs. Others wait all there lives to use a funky old English font.

When I first started my design career, I loved Milton Glaser’s Baby Teeth. No, not the thousands of tiny teeth he shows when he smiles but his popular and funky font. I used it for my first business card and stationery. Every now and then I run across a card while going through my files, shake my head and smile and wonder what I was thinking. I was funky!

We all suffer from the same font love. This designer wanted WOW! Effect and obviously wanted to use a favorite funky font but what does it say to the viewer? What message does it put forth?

Grunge fonts were the fascinating bane of design. So cool yet so unreadable. Most came from individual designers and were not only kerned horribly but also the sets often didn’t include those pesky little add-ons like apostrophes and exclamation marks.

Oh, the call for free grunge fonts! VTKS is one of my favorite sites for free fonts that are an absolute mess.

When choosing fonts, remember that they might not actually be free. Look at the copyright information. Some independent foundries will allow you to “play” with them but using them on professional printed pieces and web sites are another. Likewise, font “sharing” is a breach of the copyright law. Many foundries and font creators are tracking where their fonts are appearing and if they are licensed for such usage. There was a recent case where a large broadcasting company used a font it didn’t own. The company was, to make a long story short, sued for the purchase price of the font, which wasn’t a huge deal but the damages and fine for copyright infringement had to have stung quite a bit, aside from the public embarrassment.

There are several top, reliable font houses/sources out there and if you would never consider pirating design software for your computer, then you should extend the same respect for the legalities and penalties of font ownership. Letraset and House Industries are two of my favorite font makers. Ownership is not cheap but it’s also not impossible. Stay legal!

Mixing Fonts

There are those who believe that there are only a few fonts worth using in design. Massimo and Lella Vignelli, of Vignelli Design (New York, Milan), believes twelve fonts are all he needs for his designing. He is not alone in this belief (watch this video).

His favorites are extended font families and that gives you a better range of the one font. Italics, condensed, bold, black, thin, and even expert certainly provides interest in a layout by offering different weights and emotions.

Personally, I like to mix fonts upon occasion. This is not to say it should be done to the point of having your design look like a ransom note but sometimes adding a swash character with another typeface lends charm and interest, for example.

You can achieve a look of fun, drama, playfulness and sophistication with the right combination. As with any departure from the norm, it takes practice and a good eye. When mixing fonts, you must work each letter individually to make the whole match in a coherent mass. It takes Illustrator manipulation, adding strokes, removing parts or adding some. Balance is important.

It may be as simple as setting one word in one font and another word in another font. That’s the most common mixing and isn’t as hard as mixing two or more fonts within the same word.

Certainly fun and interesting but WATCH THAT LEADING!

Neat Tricks With Type

One of the hardest things to do with type is to create an image using words and letterforms. As with the example of the snake shown before, these examples show some planning and an incredible eye.

A play on the old ASCII art of a couple decades ago. The designer touched up the ASCII with a few fonts to add to the freshness of an old technique. There’s actually a couple of words in there!

Link

Fun and colorful, this piece uses a lot of manipulation but it’s extremely well done and the color balances beautifully.

Link

With a little Illustrator work and some Photoshop, you too can create a piece like this. There is always the chance of going insane in the difficult process.

Link

Creating objects from type is a difficult but fun project. Give it a try!

Sometimes, you can’t mix fonts effectively, as described in the previous section, so just buckle down and insert a piece of twisty corn spiral crunchies. Using objects as letterforms is one of the most hilarious and memorable ways of giving a logo or headline umph!

Just Your Type!

So, these are just a few of the very basics. Type is not just words to be plunked down on a page or web site and when it is sloppy and unreadable, it reflects poorly on you as a designer. Type is just as important of an element as images, colors and shapes – in fact, type alone contains those elements. It’s not an easy thing to master, so practice, practice, practice!

Over the last 10 years, digital cameras have changed so rapidly and introduced with new features so dramatically that the number of megapixels is no longer an acceptable indication of camera quality. Digital camera buyers will rejoice in the improvements and number of new features that digital cameras now offer.

Unless your first digital camera is an economy model with no adjustable features, the range of control settings on oiler can seem quite daunting. In this section we examine the controls that you are likely come across on your digital camera, and discuss what they can do for you when you are composing and taking your images.

SETTING CONTROLS

If you have used traditional film cameras before, then you will be familiar with most of the setting controls available on digital equipment.

However, if you are completely new to photography, and want to do more than just produce the most standard of images, then read on…

Creative control

If you want to produce something a little different like to experiment and would love to explore your artistic abilities, then getting to grips with the settings controls on your digital camera will not only be vital, but also potentially a lot of fun! There is a great deal more to most digital cameras than the automatic mode that comes as standard.

But what do these various digital camera settings control? Here is a brief explanation of what each of them does.

Exposure: With manual exposure you can control the amount of light that is allowed to reach the image sensor – this will determine how light or dark your photograph will be once it has been taken. The exposure of your image is controlled by a combination of the aperture size and the shutter speed of the camera.

Focus: With manual focus, you can choose which object or area of your subject you would like to be in sharpest focus. Good focus takes a lot of practice to perfect, but will repay the effort involved with more rewarding photographs.

Aperture: The aperture is a small hole behind the lens through which the picture is taken. The size of the hole is varied by manual or automatic adjustment to allow more or less light in, as needed. Its diameter is measured by what is known as an “F-spot”.

Shutter speed: The time that the shutter remains open for is the shutter speed. The longer the shutter is open the more light is allowed in, so for low light conditions, it is left open for longer.

White balance: You can use the white balance setting to control the light that you are using to illuminate your subject and improve the colors in your image.

ISO speed: This feature measures the camera’s light sensitivity. Usually the feature is self-adjusting, so you do not need to worry about correcting what is a very delicate balance in your camera.

COMPOSING IMAGES

There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to composition. There are, however, several general principals which can help take you from being an outright novice to having enough experience to go your own way

Horses for courses

The very first thing to consider is why you are taking your picture. Is it to record an event such as wedding? If so, the odds are that you will be disturbing copies to family members, in which case the recipients will expect to see photographs in the usual format. However, if your images are going to be used in some sort of publication, you may well need to compose your shots to fit in with a “house style”. In this case, care must be taken to learn exactly what this entails before you begin taking photographs, as many publishers often have very different requirements.

When the final use of your images is not dictated by other people, you can clearly do whatever you want in terms of their composition. This is where you can test your creativity, and in doing so, have a lot of fun. The facility to take and delete photos at will makes digital cameras particularly suited to this approach – you can experiment to your heart’s content without having to worry about throwing away lots of expensive film.

Grabbing attention

To make your images stand out from the crowd, you need to catch the viewer’s attention. You can do this in many ways: by using dramatic colors; by choosing an eye catching subject; or by framing the subject itself in an unusual or visually stimulating way.

Background issues

When you are working out your next shot take a close look at the way the major elements are going to appear in the resulting image before going too far. Strong lines can make or ruin a photograph, depending on how they are used. If you are working outdoors on scenery views, vertical lines can extend from things such as trees, lamp posts or buildings, and horizontal lines can come from horizons, roads, bridges, and so on. If, however, you are working on close-up shots, you need to be a little more careful about objects that you might not otherwise notice until you are back at your computer.

Staying on the level

Sooner or later you might want to take some photographs of large expanses of water – rivers, lakes or the ocean. It is one of the unwritten rules of artistry that things that appear level in nature should be portrayed level in pictures and photographs. When you have a subject that you want to highlight without being obvious about it, you can play all sorts of visual tricks. For instance, you can use other parts of the scene to lead the eye to your intended element. Roads, tracks, rivers and hedge have all been used to good effect many, many times, so if you can come up with new and exciting ways of doing this, your pictures will score lots of extra points from onlookers!

Using space

Once you have got your subject in place and decided on the other important features, it is important to check out the empty spaces in your image. Used incorrectly, they can ruin your picture, but used property, blank areas can really enhance the message you are trying to convey. For example, if a racing car is entering a long straight, and you want the viewer to see that there is nothing up ahead, show lots of track.

Similarly, any other attempt to indicate motion over distance-perhaps images of canoeists, cyclists, aero planes, trains and automobiles – can all be improved in this way. If you have no reason to show a large empty area then find some way of filling it – skies can have clouds and fields can be populated by livestock. No-one need know that these things were all added too much foreground in later using your image manipulation software.

Finding an angle

Another way of exploring your creative side is to make your subject more interesting by presenting it from unusual angles. Rather than taking a portrait from straight ahead, for example, use a chair or step ladder to get above your subject or crouch down below it. This will immediately make the picture more intrinsically interesting.

If you are going to take a photograph of a tall narrow subject such as a skyscraper or a pine tree, or a low, wide vista like an open landscape, then it is a good idea to match the aspect ratio of the resulting image to the subject. This is the ratio of the width of a picture to its height. For example, when a picture has an aspect ratio of 1:1, it is square, but at 2:1 it is twice as wide as it is tall in other words, it helps to make the shape of the picture fit the shape of the subject.

Visual checks

Once you have got your layout and angles sorted out, it is important to check how your subject shows up with respect to the background – if their colors are similar, it may well be that you cannot distinguish one from the other. If so, this photograph will be a wasted effort, unless you can rearrange your angle, the lighting or the depth of the field, to make them stand apart.

Balancing acts

Having good visual balance in an image simply means that all the elements in it are well distributed so that it does not look lop-sided, or top – or bottom- heavy. While there are likely to be times when you will want to do this deliberately (such as adding empty space to convey motion), most of the time you will need to be taking balance into account.

Losing your balance

Imbalance can be caused by many things other than object distribution – for instance, a predominance of strong colors on one side of your image can make the other side look dull and empty. Likewise, deep shadows can throw an otherwise well-composed image off balance. If this is the case, you will either need to wait for the light to change naturally, or you will require in-fill from another source, such as a flash gun or electric lamps.

FOCUS

Getting the focus right is one of the most basic, but most difficult operations in photography. Not only do you need the right lens in place, but there are a whole host of other factors to keep in mind.

Staying in focus: There are two kinds of focus: physical and virtual. Physical focus is achieved using adjustments in the lens position, whereas virtual focus is performed by software in the camera’s processor.

Fixed focus budget cameras: Many budget cameras have no facility for focus adjustment – they do a reasonable job so long as the subject is not too close or too far away. Due to their low price and acceptable performance, disposable film cameras have become very popular in recent years.

Auto focus: Once you move up from the budget sector, just about every digital camera has the provision for auto focus. This is a facility where the camera senses how far away the subject is and sets the focus accordingly. Some of the better cameras allow you to see the focus point, whereas cheaper models will only pick up on whatever is in the centre of the image.

Manual focus: If your camera has a manual focus facility, it allows you to disable the camera’s auto focus and take full control of matters. For a start, you can decide for yourself exactly where the focus point is going to be. It is not until you have mastered the art of getting really crisp edges to your subjects that you can start to exploit the depth of field for full dramatic effect.

EXPOSURE

It is clearly viral to make sure that your photographs are not too dark or too light; this is determined by what is known as the image’s “exposure”. When an image receives too much light it is said to be over-exposed, if an image has too much light in it and becomes over¬exposed this results in a loss of color. The end result is normally a photograph that depending on the extent of the over-exposure, may seem to be composed entirely of a series of light greys and whites. Conversely, too little light will produce a dark feel to the image; this is known as under-exposure.

Seeing the light

The actual amount of light that is allowed into the camera and onto the sensor is controlled by two things – the size of the aperture and the amount of time that the shutter is open. When the exposure is being controlled by the camera, all the shutter speed and aperture settings are determined automatically. The camera’s processor calculates the correct settings by measuring the scene’s light levels via a special light-petering sensor. Just how accurately the exposure is determined will depend on many things, but the most important factor is which part of the scene is measured. Most cameras try to account for the fact that the sky is very bright, and so they bias the readings towards the bottom of the picture, but usually give priority to the middle of the scene, on the basis that this is the most likely position for your main subject.

If you are in doubt about how well the automatic exposure setting on your camera is functioning, many models offer an exposure bracketing facility, in which a series of pictures are taken, each with a slightly different exposure. You can then look through them and choose the best image, according to your preferred exposure.

LIGHT

One of the most challenging things to get right in digital photography is the light. Not only it is important to get this right for the overall scone, but also for the shadows and detail features in your images.

Light temperatures

Photographers often talk about light in terms of its temperature. Light that is biased towards the red end of the spectrum is said to be warmer, whereas that which is shifted towards the blue end is said to be cooler. For example, household electric lights are redder than daylight which is said to be cooler due to its blue content.

Exposures and light

When photographs are taken in low light conditions, it is necessary to use longer exposure times to capture the maximum amount of available light. Under these circumstances it is vital that the camera is held steady; or else severe blurring will occur. A tripod is the usual answer, but in the absence of one, you may be able to find a stable surface upon which you can rest the camera. If this is the case, it is a good idea to use the self-timer to trigger the actual shot.

Flash photography

All except the most basic of digital cameras have a built-in flash. Unfortunately, it is only when you get to the more expensive models that there is the facility to directly control an external flash gun. However, some of the in-built units do have several modes. The default setting is the automatic mode, in which the camera adjusts itself to deal with the ambient light conditions. This can usually be turned on and off very easily to suit the occasion. It is important to remember that the flash needs to recharge between depending on the circumstances, this can take more than 10 seconds on a mid-range camera.

PROBLEMS WITH “RED EYE”

Anyone who has ever taken a flash photograph of a friend or relative will be familiar with the dreaded problem of “red eye”. Unfortunately, this common condition occurs just as much in digital photography as with film, but it can be avoided.

Red eye mode

When light strikes the eye, a certain amount of it gets reflected back towards the camera – and in doing so it gets filtered by the internal structures of the machine. In the case of eyes that are adapted for use in daylight, this reflected light shows up as red, whereas in animals whose eyes have adapted to being able to see at night the reflections may be other colors – such as green in dogs, for example.

The red eye mode available on many digital cameras gets around this problem by giving the eye an initial burst of light, before producing a second flash while it actually takes the picture. The first burst of light causes the iris to close partially, which blocks most of the red light from being seen by the camera.

One thing to take into consideration is that this contraction of the eye can make the person being photographed look less attractive in the resultant image, so if this worries you, do not use the red eye flash mode; instead, remove the red color in the eyes of the subject by using your image manipulation software on the finished photograph.

There is a further mode now commonly used to control how the flash on digital cameras operates to reduce red eye. This is the “flash synch”, and it has two settings, which are known as the “1st and 2nd curtains”. In the “1st curtain” mode, the flash is fired at the beginning of the shutter opening, whereas in the “2nd curtains” mode it is fired just before the shutter closes.

ADJUSTING WHITE BALANCE

The “White balance” facility on digital cameras is designed to counter color “temperatures” and to standardize colors, through several different modes.

Auto: In auto mode, the camera deals with any color balance changes itself

Daylight or sunny: This mode is the best choice when photographing in sunny outdoor locations.

Incandescent or tungsten: This mode is the best under incandescent lighting.

Fluorescent & fluorescent H: These modes are for use under fluorescent lighting.

Cloudy: The best choice when photographing in cloudy conditions.

Flash: The best choice for flash photography.

REVIEWING & DELETING IMAGES

Being able to review and delete pictures on the LCD screen of your camera is one of the greatest advantages of digital photography. Depending on how your camera is configured, you can either get quick review lasting a few seconds each time you take a shot, or you can set it so that you can take as long as you like.

Choosing which images to keep

I review my images firstly to check that the subjects are all in frame. Then I look for any other objects that might have unintentionally ended up in the shot – either in front of, or behind, my main targets. If I am satisfied at this point, I then use the review zoom button to dose in on the main parts of die image Next. I examine the edges of my subject for sharpness. If all is still satisfactory, I then look at the shadows, and check to see if I can make out sufficient detail. The other things I check for depend on the situation; for example, if I am photographing 3 butterflies, I might have managed to get all the technical details right, but the butterfly might have closed sits wings or shifted position as the shutter closed. In this case I will try to re-shoot the linage following the same procedure. The golden rule is: NEVER be too hasty with the delete button!

CAMERA MODES

Digital cameras offer several different modes to facilitate many different kinds of photography. As A rule, the more you are able to spend on your camera, the more modes you will enjoy.

Close-up or macro photography

Macro photography is the technical name given to what is more widely known as close-tip photography. The subject matter for close-ups is irrelevant – the choice is entirely your own! Many people like to take pictures of natural items in the countryside.

The right camera

If you have a fixed focus camera, forget it – macro photography will be out of your reach until you obtain more suitable equipment. If you have a mid-range digital camera, you may well have a macro mode, in which case you can make a start in this fascinating field of photography. If you are lucky enough to have a high-end camera, while you may not already own a specialist macro lens, there will be several available to suit your model.

Unless you have one of these, you will soon find that there are real limitations to what you can and cannot achieve. Macro mode on a mid-range digital camera will allow you to capture images from distances of around 10cm (4in) up to about 50cm (20in).

Macro and compacts

Personally, I find that when I use a compact camera, I get the best results when I use the highest resolution setting at distances of around 50cm (20in) than I do when I try to shoot closer up. One of the best things about macro photography is that you can experiment endlessly the more things you try, the more you will learn, and this on its own may make the exercise worthwhile for you.

Portrait mode

Portrait mode sets the camera up to take images where the subject is in focus, and the background is blurred.

Self-timer mode

The self-timer allows you to take the picture and be in it at the same time. Most digital cameras have this facility. When set to this mode, you simply line the camera up, press the shutter release button, and get into position. The camera will usually beep quietly until it takes the shot.

Auto mode

In the Auto mode, as you would expect, most of the settings are controlled automatically by the digital camera, so if all you want to do is point the camera and take pictures, this is the mode for you. There are, however, several things that you can still do to enhance your images in this mode.

Firstly, you usually have the option to zoom in to the subject Just how much you choose to zoom will depend on how close you are to the subject and how much of the background you think you should include. If you like the background, leave it on a high resolution – if not, you can crop it away later in your image manipulation software until you are happy with the results.

Manual mode

Once you have learnt the basics of how your digital camera works, you may well want to experiment with the photographic special effects that it offers. This is where setting the camera to manual comes in; essentially, this mode hands you control of both the shutter speed and the aperture size.

Shutter speed priority mode

When the camera is set to shutter speed priority mode, the aperture size is still automatically controlled for the best exposure, but you get full control over the shutter speed. You may choose to do this so that you can set it to a very high speed for capturing moving objects, or alternatively you may want to go for a very slow shutter speed for subjects such as waterfalls.

Aperture priority mode

When you set the camera to aperture priority mode, it still calculates the best shutter speed to give you the optimal image exposure, but also allows you to adjust the aperture size to suit a particular effect. This can be very useful if you want to play around with depths of field – that is, the relative crispness of objects in the foreground and background of your image.

Stitch mode

You may well have seen images produced by panoramic film cameras before – such as school photographs, in which several hundred pupils line up in wide, massed ranks so that they can all be photographed together. How many of you remember the weird and wonderful cameras that slowly spun around on rotary mounts as they recorded your unhappy visages? Well, these days most of the better digital cameras can take similar pictures by using what is known as “stitch” mode. This is where a series of overlapping images are re-processed by the camera into one extra-wide panoramic view.

Landscape mode

Landscape mode sets the camera up to shoot expansive scenes. It generally does not have quite the same range flexibility as stitch mode, but it is an ideal medium for taking photographs of countryside scenes and so on.

Low light mode

Low light or night scene mode allows you to capture an image where a close-up subject gets lit by the flash, but the rest of the scene is given a low shutter speed. This lightens the background to make it appear to match the foreground subject.

Auto-rotate mode

If your camera has an auto-rotate mode, it means that an orientation sensor is used to detect which way up the camera was held when a shot was taken. If the mode is in operation, it turns all the images through the appropriate number of degrees so that they are all the same way up when you review them. If you are displaying your images on a television set or computer monitor, this facility can be very useful indeed.

Photo effects mode

If your camera offers this mode you can shoot images with all sorts of interesting and exciting effects.

Vivid: This effect enhances the colors and overall contrast to make the image seem brighter and sharper overall.

Neutral: This feature does exactly the opposite of the Vivid setting – it tones down the colors and contrast in the image.

Low sharpening: This feature reduces the strength of the outlines of the subjects in the image to give them a softer look.

Sepia: As you would imagine, sepia mode records the scene in sepia tones instead of full color, enabling atmospheric image effects.

Black and white: When this effect is applied, images are recorded in monochrome. Many people think that this is the best way to convey artistic images, feeling that the effects achieved are more subtle than color.

Custom effects: With the custom setting, you get full control over color, contrast and image sharpness.

Fast action mode

The fast action mode is used for taking photographs of fast moving subjects such as cars and trains.

Slow action mode

The slow action mode is generally used for creating artistic shots with blurred images of moving objects. It is Ideal for photographing running water, especially waterfalls or waves.

Continuous shooting modes

Many digital cameras have their own version of the film camera’s motor drive. There are two commonly available versions – low and high speed. Typically, the low speed continuous mode will allow you to see each image on the LCD screen as it is captured, whereas the high speed version does not. These modes are excellent if you want to take a series of shots of some kind of action event – a bowler at a cricket match, an overtaking maneuver in a car, a motorcycle or horse race, or simply your kids playing a with the family pet!

Image Credits

• Mode wheel on digital camera
• ‘What’s that little wheel for, grandpa?’ – Mike Goldberg

Do you attend trade shows or industry conferences? Perhaps you even shell out the big bucks to rent booth space at these events? If so, then you know that most of the time the reason for spending the big bucks on booth space at these events is to capture attention for your products and services, as well as, to generate leads. What better way to capture attention than to set up an iPad Kiosk at your trade shoot booth.

What is an iPad Kiosk?

An iPad Kiosk is simply an iPad contained within some sort of iPad enclosure or iPad stand. iPad Kiosks are designed to allow people to secure an iPad in a public location so that consumers can interact with the iPad as they are passing by. When using an iPad in a public location, your store, a trade show booth, etc. it is important to know that your iPad is not at any risk of theft. The three types of iPad Kiosks that you see most often used at Trade Shows are:

• iPad Kiosk Floor Stands
• iPad Kiosk Tabletop Stands
• iPad Wall Mounts

Floor stands allow for the most flexibility as they can be placed anywhere, while still offering security for the iPad owner and easy access for consumers. iPad Kiosk floor stands usually range in price from $300 – $600 depending on the type of stand you want to use. Floor Stands are usually the most expensive iPad Kiosk option, but they are also the most versatile. When using an iPad at a trade show, it’s important that you don’t take up your table space with an tabletop iPad Kiosk. Having a floor stand positioned next to your table will be much more convenient for both you and your booth visitors.

Tabletop iPad Kiosks are another great option. They can usually be purchased for a little less than the floor stands. The price range for a quality Tabletop iPad Kiosk is between $200 – $400. Although a tabletop iPad kiosk will take up some table space at your booth, it’s still a much better alternative than using an unsecured iPad at your trade show booth.

iPad Wall Mounts are your best option in terms of not needing a lot of space. That said, not all trade shows offer wall space for you to use. Except for your high-end trade shows, you normally only see an iPad mounted to a wall in a store, sports arena, college and university, or really any permanent location. We don’t recommend using an iPad Wall Mount for most trade shows. That said, if you’re in the market for a quality iPad Wall Mount you should budget around $200 – $400.

Benefits of Using an iPad at My Trade Show Booth

There are so many benefits of using an iPad at your trade show booth. Here are some of the top benefits that most people receive when using an iPad to engage trade show visitors at their booth:

• Increased interest and traffic at your booth – Everyone is drawn to iPads. People that see an iPad in a place where they are not used to seeing one will usually take the time to check it out. That’s exactly what you want when you attend a trade show, people to take a minute to stop by your trade show booth. This is what iPad delivers over and over again.
• More time spent at your trade show booth – Once the iPad has lured people to your trade show booth, usually those folks stick around your booth a little longer than they would a booth without an iPad. This provides you with an opportunity to share information with those folks about your products, services, company, and industry.
• Increased engagement in your company – People who take time to stop by your booth, and then spend some extra time while there, are also more engaged in what you have to say then those folks who simply pass by, say hello to be polite, grab your free tchotchke and leave. Having an iPad at your booth provides you with an opportunity to talk to someone who is actually listening to you and wants to learn more about such an innovative company.
• Ability to convert booth traffic into online connections – As we will discuss a little later in this article, there are apps out there that allow you to collect email addresses right on you iPad. Say goodbye to that pad of paper that you used to use to collect email addresses. Now you can collect email addresses on your iPad right there at your booth. You don’t even need an internet connection to do it!
• Opportunity to show educational content about your products, services, company, and industry – Do you have YouTube videos detailing your products or services? How about a website? Maybe you have product specs saved as PDF files. Any of these pieces of content can be served up on the iPad for your trade show booth visitors to read or watch.

The list above provides a snapshot of just a few of the top benefits that using an iPad at your trade show booth provides. Depending on how you use the iPad, which apps you run, and how many people show up, there are a lot more benefits that you’ll enjoy.

How to Set Up an iPad at My Trade Show Booth

So now that you’ve read through all of the benefits of using an iPad at your trade show booth, let’s take some time to explain how you can actually put this theory into practice. It’s actually a lot easier than you might think. Follow the steps below and you will have an iPad up and running at your next trade show.

1. Determine how you want to use the iPad at your trade show booth. This is the most important step as once you determine how you want to use the iPad, you can then go about securing the proper components to make your plan work. Take some time, figure out what your goals for the trade show are, and then think about how using an iPad can help you achieve those goals. Do a little research. See what apps are out there. Read some articles to see how other companies are using iPads at trade shows. Once you have your plan in place, then you can move on to executing on that plan.
2. Buy an iPad or figure out which one (or many) you’re going to use.
3. Find out if there will be wireless internet at the trade show and also determine if you will have access to a power supply based on where your trade show booth is located.
4. Purchase your iPad Kiosk. Depending on how your booth is setup up, how much space you have, and where your power supply is located, we recommend that you either purchase a iPad floor stand or a tabletop iPad kiosk. These two types of iPad Kiosks work best for trade shows.
5. Download any apps you need or get any content that you want to display on the iPad ready. Review everything prior to the trade show so that there are no surprises when you get there.
6. Go into your Settings app, tap the General tab, and set “Autolock” to never. This will ensure that your iPad doesn’t go into sleep mode during the trade show. The last thing that you want is for people to pass by your iPad Kiosk and the screen is blank. Whatever content you want to display, be sure that it’s on the screen at all times.

If you follow these steps you should be able to have an iPad Kiosk set up at your trade show booth in no time. Not only that, but you can feel confident that your iPad will function as you envisioned it.

iPad Apps to Use at Trade Shows

Although more and more companies and individuals are using iPads to engage consumers at trade shows, in retail stores, at restaurants, and so on, the list of available apps to use for this purpose is still quite small. That said, I think we are on the verge of an explosion in these types of iPad apps. It’s only a matter of time before iPad app developers realize just how big a market this can be. For now, below is a list of some fo the best iPads to use at your trade show.

OnSpot Social

Collect Facebook Likes, Add Twitter Followers, and Collect Customer Email Addresses from Anywhere.

OnSpot Social is an iPad application that allows business owners to grow their social media community, as well as, collect email addresses for their email marketing list from a physical location. Simply set up an iPad Kiosk at your trade show booth, purchase a 1 week subscription from OnSpot Social, and convert trade show visitors into online connections.

One of the main goals for all trade show exhibitors is to collect leads. Usually this is done by having booth visitors write their email address down on a piece of paper. After the trade show someone then has to decipher each person’s handwriting and input each email address into the computer. With OnSpot Social this is all done for you. Booth visitors put their name and email address into your iPad, after the show you can log into OnSpotSocial.com and download a list of all of the email addresses you’ve collected. No more losing email addresses because you can’t read the person’s handwriting and now more wasting time retyping the information into your system.

KioskPro

Turn Your iPad into a Digital Billboard.

KioskPro allows you to turn your iPad into a Digital Billboard, run a photo slide show, or even display your website easily to your trade show booth visitors. Depending on what content you want to show on our iPad, KioskPro might make a lot of sense for your next Trade Show. If you want to show pictures of your products, show customer testimonials, or even your website, KioskPro allows you to set up a slide show or digital billboard to accomplish this task. Booth traffic can then interact with your iPad Kiosk right there at your booth.

YouTube

Play Product or Service Videos for Trade Show Booth Visitors.

If you don’t want to pay to download an iPad app like OnSpot Social or KioskPro, you can always use YouTube to play videos for booth visitors. Simply open up the YouTube app on your iPad, navigate to your YouTube Channel or even to a specific video, and leave it up for people to play. This allows you to educate your trade show both visitors without you having to say a word. You can then be there to support the video by answering any questions that booth visitors might have after watching your videos on YouTube. One thing to note if you use the YouTube app, be sure to reset the video back to the beginning after each person, or group of people, is finished watching.

These are 3 of a number of iPad apps out there that you can leverage for your next trade show. Again, the list of apps is still small, but give it 6 months to a year and I think there are going to be plenty more hitting the app store.

Use iPad at a Trade Show

Now that you’ve finished reading the article, what do you think? Do you believe using an iPad at your trade show booth can help you better achieve your goals? Have you ever used an iPad at a trade show before? What were your results? Please leave a comment below as we’d love to hear what you think.

Image Credits

• iPad2 at “Invest” exhibition
• Apple employees greet customers on Ipad launch

The main goal of employees is to satisfy clients by offering good service. While good service helps salaried employees gain success in their growth within an enterprise, freelancers build their reputation and gain future projects through good service. Therefore, it is very important to offer good service to your clients. Only quality service can be the strong base of a successful business.

To start with, good quality is simple but maintaining that quality throughout your work is difficult. Sometimes too much work might hamper your quality, and at times less time dedication may lead to bad quality. This article discusses the importance of great service and guides you in delivering great service and maintaining it throughout.

Importance of quality service

Delivering quality service is a necessity for employees to satisfy their employers and keep their jobs. For freelancers, it is more important, as quality work can only get them good work and let them get going with their freelancing. Most freelancers work on a project basis from the cozy comfort of their homes. Therefore, only when they provide quality service to their clients and satisfy them, will they be able to gain future projects; the moment they fail to deliver great service, their chances of gaining future projects decrease. Below are some of the benefits a freelancer gains by delivering great service:

• Trust between clients and employee: As a freelancer, you are solely responsible for your work; therefore your work quality adds value to your independent identity as a freelancer. Great service keeps your clients satisfied, which helps them build trust in you. They will find you reliable and give you more freedom in your work to allow you to add your own ideas. This will help you to work freely and more creatively as your clients will reduce their queries.
• Increased referrals: When you offer quality work you leave a mark on your clients and impress them. And when they find you reliable, they will not hesitate to refer you to their friends and colleagues. Therefore, quality work will increase referrals for you and help you grow further in your work.
• More work projects: Quality work will not only satisfy your clients but also build a good name for you. It will help you to create a reputation in the professional world and make your name a brand in your circle. Your value will be acknowledged and you will be offered more work projects. Your quality work will also help you earn future projects.

Therefore, all the basic needs for you to have control over your job depend on your work quality. It fulfills your client’s needs and helps you to earn future projects. Maintaining good quality is not that difficult unless you intentionally compromise your standards, which can ruin your standing. Once creating great quality becomes a habit, you will be familiar with the flow and move along well with it. You should be very careful in improving your quality; maintain consistency in your work at least so you continue to satisfy your clients’ requirements. While great work will bring you more work, failure to do so might also lose you potential projects. Therefore, delivering great service is not just important for you to gain success but also to maintain your job.

Factors to offer good service

After realizing the importance of delivering good service it is clear that maintaining good service is a necessity for every job. Good service includes more than just good work. It goes beyond just offering good work and comprises maintaining professional etiquette, being conscious of deadlines, and maintaining a good client-employee relationship. For example:
when a restaurant is said to offer good service, this means that along with good food, the restaurant offers a proper environment, hospitable staff, and food that is served with decorum. Similarly, when a freelancer is supposed to offer good service to a client, he or she has to offer good all-round service. Below are the major elements or factors that should be considered to ensure your clients get great service.

• Satisfy clients’ expectations
• Maintain work quality
• Offer high availability
• Maintain professional etiquette
• Communicate well with clients
• Be deadline conscious
• Be honest at all times

The above-mentioned elements are important for offering good service to clients and all should be followed. Even avoiding one factor is not an option as all seven are important. Now let’s discuss these elements in detail so you can understand how to offer great service and satisfy your clients.

Satisfy clients’ expectations

Every employee should aim to satisfy clients. You should first understand your clients’ expectations and then satisfy them. Understanding a client’s expectations is very simple. Along with providing quality work in estimated time, your client will expect you to be honest and fair in business. You will be expected to be responsible towards the work and communicate actively. You will also be expected to offer new ideas and be creative. You should maintain all these and thus satisfy your clients’ expectations. Try to estimate the time you require to finish a particular job, then clearly inform your client about the timelines. Finish the job before the deadline and provide great quality work at the end of the project. In the meantime, be in regular contact with your clients and respond to their feedbacks and comments.

Be upfront about everything, whether it be a job, budget, or time issue. Don’t make fake promises because it will be difficult for you to continue with such promises. Therefore, remain honest in your business and maintain a healthy relationship with your clients. Be consistent with your service from the beginning until the end. Maintaining all these attributes will help you satisfy your clients’ expectations.

Maintain work quality

Maintaining work quality is very important to impress clients. Quality of work is vital to ensure great service; therefore make sure you provide perfect quality work throughout your tenure of a project. Do not compromise with your work because your reputation depends on the quality of work you provide. To maintain work quality, it is important you dedicate enough time and concentration to the work. When you are freelancing, you choose to work from your own comfort zone and therefore, unlike an office environment, you have to be responsible about your timelines. As you will be working from your own space, there can be many distractions. Therefore, make sure you divide your work time accordingly and maintain it strictly so you can concentrate fully on the job at hand. If you fail to manage it from the beginning, you will not be able to satisfy clients’ expectations. This might cause last-minute hurry, which will again hamper your work. Therefore, maintain your time properly and come out with quality work for your client.

Try to finish one job at a time, and then take on another job. This will help you focus on a particular job and not be distracted from producing quality work. However, if you feel you are capable of handling more than one project at a time, make sure you allocate separate working hours for both jobs and apply your dedication to the job you are working on. This will help you to maintain quality on both projects. Too much work and insufficient time are the main reasons why quality is compromised, so it is important to balance your work and time. Also develop the habit of monitoring the entire job after completing it, before you submit it to your clients. You should also keep backups of every job so you do not encounter any job-related problems during the project. Maintaining the quality of your work will build trust among your clients and enhance your future prospects. Ongoing quality is the real mantra for offering great service.

Offer high availability

It is very important to offer high availability to clients in order to stay in the race of the professional world. Offering high availability means being responsive towards your clients’ emails and calls, and providing them service as they need it. To do this, you have to be active with your email check up and phone calls. Make sure you receive your clients’ calls, and if you miss any, make sure you get back to them soon. The same goes for emails. You have to be active with your inbox and be responsive to your clients’ queries and expectations. When you are dealing with a particular client make sure you make the client feel important and that you are solely at his/her service. You will be having more than one client and it is your responsibility to handle them in your ways.

All the above facts may sound that you are becoming a slave to work. But you can make the task easier by establishing an understanding between your clients and yourself. At the beginning of the job, make sure you are clear about your timelines. Check your emails at regular intervals and respond to your clients. Regarding phone calls, from the initial stage of the job divide your time between work and play and make this division clear to your client. Speak upfront about your timelines and do not hesitate to say you will not entertain calls during your play time unless they are urgent. This will help you by making your terms clear to your clients, and they will not hamper you with calls anytime. However, during peak times you might have to work beyond your normal times. Be prepared to compromise with such situations as they are the part of your work. Therefore, maintain high availability for clients without hampering your personal life.

To ensure you respond punctually to emails, set alarms for new emails and unsubscribe unwanted email notifications to avoid distractions from work. Also check your inbox at regular intervals to keep updated on any new developments with your clients’ requirements. Ensure you are not spending too much time on your emails. You should respond to your clients’ mails regularly and not make them feel ignored. Be sure you are at their service whenever they need it. You can adopt one easy way to create a balance between your work time and play time and still maintain availability to your clients. Mention your business time and email address on your voice mail messages. This will help your client know about your times and that you are not avoiding their work. This will help both you and your client. At times there will be real urgent work for clients; during such situations do not your clients down. Make sure you meet their needs ? your extra effort and work will count in building a healthy relationship. Whenever you are going on a planned holiday, make sure you inform your clients about such plans ahead of time. When the plan is an urgent one, try to leave a mail or message for your clients informing them about your unavailability, and mention the seriousness of your situation. Offer quality work and high availability to your clients without hampering your personal life.

Maintain professional etiquette

Maintaining professional etiquette is very important for every person in the professional world. Professional etiquette includes attending to phone calls properly and responding to email queries on time. We mention above the need to respond to emails and calls. Now, let’s look at other etiquette that should be maintained in a profession. Make sure you respect your clients’ needs and their time. Maintain courtesy and respect towards your clients.

Suppose you have an urgent query, and you need to clarify it with your client, which requires you to call your client out of office hours. At such times, practice the courtesy of asking whether the client is free and comfortable to answer your queries at that particular time. If the client says yes, you can continue with your query; if the answer is no, contact the client at a more convenient time and accept the arrangement courteously. Be polite in your communication and make sure you never speak about your clients in a derogatory manner in front of anyone. If you are facing any problem, rather clarify it with your client than gossip about it behind the client’s back. Respect your clients’ demands and attend to their requirements properly. Be a good listener and attach importance to your clients’ talk. Do not make your clients feel you are not paying heed to their talk and are leaving them unattended. Practice humility, courtesy, and respect in order to provide great service.

Communicate well with clients

It is very important to communicate well with your clients. In the above sections, we often refer to the importance of communicating frankly with clients. While communicating properly with your clients, there are certain aspects that should be followed. Below are these aspects:

• Gain control over your communicating language so you do not face any language problems while communicating with your clients.
• Clarify your timelines and working capabilities with your clients.
• Be an active listener to understand your clients’ needs and expectations.
• Maintain frankness and honesty in communicating with your clients.
• Be active with your emails and phone calls and respond to your clients’ requirements on time.

These are aspects of communication you should maintain in dealing with your clients. Communication can never be one-sided and therefore, along with being an active speaker, be an active listener. Whenever you are communicating with your clients, make sure you build a conversation and allow your clients to have their say as well. Remember to be clear and straight in your conversation so there are no hindrances regarding your communication with your clients. Maintain all these aspects and communicate well with your clients.

Be deadline conscious

To offer great service to clients it is important to be deadline conscious. Every project needs to be completed within a particular time. You need to understand the seriousness of deadlines and be particular about the fact that you complete clients’ work on time. Make sure you clarify your required time with your clients before taking on a project. After you commit to a job within a period of time, it becomes your responsibility to complete it within that time. Try to complete one job within a time and even if you are dealing with more than one job make sure you complete both jobs on time.

Make sure you maintain your work time strictly to avoid last-minute rushes. Do not compromise your work quality to complete work before deadline. Be deadline conscious and maintain work quality in order to offer great service to your clients.

Maintain honesty

Honesty is one of the most important things that should be adopted to succeed in business. Try to be honest with your clients to create a healthy relationship with them. If you think the time given to you is not enough speak about it and be honest in expressing that the time is insufficient to complete the job. Avoid making fake promises because such promises will bring problems back to you in future. Therefore, be honest while dealing with your clients.

These are some of the considerations that should be borne in mind to offer great service to your clients. Besides these factors, be proactive in your service, manage your project well, and follow a well-planned schedule to complete your work. Also be sure to keep backups of your work. Do not hesitate to discuss your work plan with your clients and ask them for ideas whenever you feel the need to. Try to understand your clients’ requirements and resolve all their issues properly. Consider your clients’ expectations as the first priority. Always try to learn from your mistakes and try not to repeat them in future. Follow all these elements while dealing with your clients to ensure great service and satisfaction with the final result.

Image Credits

• Deadlines
• Businessman sitting at office

In a nutshell, infographics are visual representations involving data with applied design and style aspects to display written content. In forms of images plus text, some charts and other friendly resources, they extend the content of articles, usually of statistical data, and increase familiarity of readers in a way that elevates their comprehension. In this article, we will tackle how you can design effective infographics for your blog.

Factors to Consider When Designing Infographics

1. Focus of the readers’ eyes

Infographics raise awareness whereby people can relate and understand the subject matter better. As attention span of the average user is increasing, it’s important then to limit the scope of information and draw boundaries to win the focus of their eyes. The display on the graphics should create much more imagination. Ask guide questions when creating an infographic.

Stick to one problem and solution that you want the graphic to address. For instance, if you want to talk about the results of polling in politics, you can the winning and losing percentages, and some relevant images (and captions) of candidates pertinent to the main concern.

2. Information Flow

In parallel to the first item above, there should be a good flow in the information you’re trying to show and process. Nothing goes into effect without a cause; therefore, in any information flow, cause and effect relationships must be present and highlighted significantly. To check whether these relationships in your infographics are accurately done, position yourself as a layperson who does not know anything about the message and facts you’re conveying.

Put together words, icons, charts and images with arrows and lines in a playful style to make something even a child could understand. Engage readers from start to finish by grouping related data by flowcharting to simplify the process and connect thoughts. If the topic is about economic recession, arrange the sequence of events leading to the industry slowdown with the different stakeholders involved (e.g. countries, organizations and other groups) and construct a good visual journey for their comprehension and entertainment as well.

3. Color Motif

Selecting colors is an important aspect of graphic design. Color is the most effective tool to guide authors and influence their readers. It pulls you into continuing to read whatever is presented. When used properly, the color motif may be the yardstick of the success in making the information more readable by giving the readers a variety of impressions, both conceptually and emotionally.

One good pointer is to have excellent contrast: the textual content should blend well with the background, design and other illustrations. Colors can also determine the hierarchy and concept of details. Assign colors and designate each one to its consequential use; do not blandly scatter them all over the place without tying to one thought.

4. Font and proper weight

Design is not just about colors; it is also widely about typography, as infographics consist of both text and images. Choose the right font face and size for your text.

Keep in mind that infographics should not look plainly like an excerpt of some serious news article in a newspaper. Rather, the design should be creative but not so wacky that it looks misleading. Just aim for the proper.

5. Illustrations/Images

If your content is all great but design and images used are just the opposite, it is not worth doing infographics. For infographics to work well, it should have a great appeal toward the audience. Try different combinations of illustrations, images, graphics, diagrams, logos and icons. The effectiveness of the complete graphics will depend entirely on your creativity as a designer.

Also make the sizes just appropriate in proportion to the size of the infographics and consider applying the right scale for emphasis (e.g. bigger pictures may be signs that the items bring more impact and meaning). In any case, make sure that all the images you use are of high resolution.

6. Data Integrity

Be responsible for the information found in your presentation. It should contain accurate and timely data. As infographics may lead readers to the wrong conclusion due to lack of verifiable information and misinterpretation of resources, it’s a good rule of thumb to always cite your sources of data and their relevant links and follow through providing captions. Allow visitors to explore the details if they wish.

Giving credit to sources also gives you an opportunity to contact the authors and webmasters behind and inform them that their work has been acknowledged, used and mentioned. There’s also greater probability that these influential sources link and share your infographic to their work which may later on give your poster an initial boost in sharing and traffic terms.

7. Visual Simplicity

How do we ensure that the graphics effectively deliver complete information and knowledge to the public? Simplicity is the best policy. Ensure that the information transmitted is well arranged, organized and structured. Visual simplicity ensures that the charts, graphs and other representations will be easy for readers to understand.

Percentages can most of the time be represented with creative pie charts; mathematical principles in a set can usually be turned into a unique bar graph; and when numbers don’t fit on a scale, you might be able to place them in a visual diagrams.

Computer graphics should be simple, clean, clear and concise. Also, there should be consistency in the overall design. Every aspect should flow and make sense together.

8. Interesting Information

Research and dig deep to find the most powerful and compelling facts to include in your design. How interesting is “interesting?” It should get viewers exclaim and say “What? I did not know that!” and make a mark that is so unforgettable that it urges a discussion among the members of a forum or some community.

9. Target Market/Demographics

For your infographic to be successful, it should be geared to a specific audience. Only when the shift of focus is known and precise can it be effective in communication. You should create the infographic with a concept that should suit the reader, as infographics can be made with different forms and topics (e.g. sports, food, modern science, financial, political, etc.) and relayed with different emotions and responses (e.g. humor, fear, shock, pity).

10. Catchy Descriptions

Infographics are cool cheat sheets of certain topics. Normally, these topics contain sections that people delve in. If you have an infographic that look like a messy page of a scrapbook, make sure that every section has its respective catchy title or description that can better explain what the following images or facts are about to deliver.

Just like in any book, magazine or web content, readers may feel confused or bored when they are overwhelmed with piles of colors and items put together wholly so define each one with a headline to clearly mark the main idea.

11. Definite Purpose and Conclusion

As much as audience should be exact, there should be a definite purpose in creating and showcasing an infographic. The purpose is the element used to provide direction for all objects to be placed inside the graphics.

Ask why you need to create the infographic in the first place before visualizing how you’re beautifully going to display data. After doing much research to back up your established facts, identify your point of conclusion as well. Condense and decide how you’re presenting it, and have the confidence to deduct to a single-sentence message tackling on what you want to really impart with your poster.

12. Use of Space

An infographic crowded with much images and text would still look presentable and understandable if the use of space is proportioned well. Usually, the more points of data you can clearly show in such small space, the better. Best examples of infographics shown on the net compile large amounts of data into a story that gives the viewer deeper levels of understanding. Maximize the space you have to fill that density of data; large white spaces don’t look good.

Infographic Case Studies

In this part, we give you some examples of infographics and we’d determine if they are effective in sharing their message as they should:

1. The Insanely Great History of Apple

Infographic source

This visual is trying to show the history of Apple and reveal the record of Apple’s computer systems from the beginning of the organization in 1983 to the present. Its intended viewers may not also be specific to technical and smart people but also those who are interested in knowing the records of how Apple came to be such a giant company in the present. The graph used time (devices made from 1983 – 2011), category (how it uses different colors to represent different types of devices) and hierarchy (how some categories take up more space and are larger than others). Generally speaking, the visual reveals that Apple organization has had quite a few different computer systems over the years and is effective in making this statement. Segmentation of facts is done well with the many colors on the background.

2. The Evolution of the Geek

Infographic source

The data present in this visual is associated to the various types of geeks in the world, where they originate and circulate, so to speak. The infographic’s objective, as its name indicates, is to demonstrate the development of how geeks progressed. It used a time flow chart to demonstrate the progression and categorization. Each geek is showed by a different symbol and is characterized by a cute cartoon. This visual definitely attracts interest, however, it does not do much else. On the other hand, aesthetics wise, it’s still eye-catching and effective as it provides details in a concise and clear way without beating around the bush.

3. 2010 FIFA World Cup

Infographic source

This infographic provides interesting information about the 2010 World Cup tournaments mostly through graphs. Its potential target viewers are those people interested in the World Cup. As we view the graphic, we learn the broad statement here that there were 32 countries that competed and that Brazil has won the most World Cups. A lot shown in the infographic are composed of common information and facts, and this is okay. However, design opportunities are lost somehow in the sense that heavier images could have been incorporated (e.g. designs or themes inspired by sports like the field shape, goal netting, crowd ethnicity, soccer ball). Still, it’s an effective infographic with good numbers, giving a quick overview at how big the FIFA World Cup games really are.

4. Why You Should Stop Drinking Bottled Water

Infographic source

This infographic was made by TermLifeInsurance.org, a non-profitable organization, to explain to everyone why we should stop drinking bottled water. It has followed most of the suggestions above. For one, the title is clear and catchy on its message. Secondly, it has listed the sources at the bottom of the graphic. Third, it had a mix of basic colors neat to the eyes: red, black and white, making the text easy to read. Fourth, the font face used matches the design. As for the drawbacks, there are no axis labels on the pie and bar charts. This may leave the viewer wondering how to match the values or percentages to the actual meaning. Moreover, there are lots of spaces not maximized in the infographic, where it should have contained more forms of graphs. Instead, the images that do not present anything of greater meaning (e.g. the water bottle) occupied much space. On other view, this graphic would most likely draw anyone’s attention as it captures our day-to-day living; almost every living person drinks bottled water. With interesting facts sectioned properly, this one is still counted as effective.

5. Top 5 Most Active Twitter Moments

Infographic source

This infographic seems to be not an infographic at all, as it failed to show information visually. The tweets per second should have been displayed through a bar graph or bar chart. By seeing the heights of the bars, readers would quickly gauge the measure in differences of the tweets per second and event without reading the textual content. With this image above, readers might not grasp the comparisons. To aid as a solution, a suggestion is while creating an infographic, put all the text in one layer and hide this layer to check if all other elements are still making sense. If yes, then you’re successful at that. Otherwise, you’re like doing too much telling and not enough showing. Texts are only to support what is presented and should not be the “main stars” in the scene.

Conclusion

Infographics are graphics used to provoke thoughts, align more understanding to the article base, entertain or market or sell products and ideas, and inspire when done right. But having an interesting and attractive design with good content is only half the battle in creating infographics. The most important is that it jives with the substance of your article and that data you present is dependable and worthy to be shared among peers.

Too many times I’ve heard people complain of a misunderstanding on what was needed on the project and due to a missed milestone, delayed submission of images or copy or just an argument over payments and project scope. While some people think this is all covered in a contract, which many people don’t have, the creative brief is the “Holy Book” of the project. I’m not being flippant about religious texts, mind you. I’m putting an emphasis on the importance of having everything written down and agreed upon by all parties to make sure the project runs smoothly and everyone involved ends up pleased with the results.

Why A Creative Brief Is NOT A Contract… Perhaps!

Ask someone to sign a contract and they will usually have a reason as to why they don’t want to sign. A contract contains hard and fast rules of the business end of a project. The length of execution, change fees, payments and rights of use are some of the elements spelled out in a contract. With careful wording, a creative brief can hold all of that information, too!

When first sitting down in the office or conference room of a client or meeting of the different players in your company, it’s time to start taking notes on what is said, asking certain questions and… setting requirements and boundaries.

At one firm, which was a very large corporation, we would all sit down in the conference room for a project meeting. Each department head would listen to the project scope and desired results. Like a puzzle, or perhaps a tower, each step depended on every department meeting the milestones set so the next department could pick up there and supply the needed elements only they could provide and so on around the company until it fell upon the art department.

If one department took too long with their part, like a tower with a missing part in the middle, the project would start to tumble down. Unfortunately, it would always be the art department that would be crushed under the weight of the steel beams of incompetence supplied by other departments.

The creative brief, written up and sent out by the art department served to hold people responsible. In regular meetings during the project, it made it easier to ask other departments where they stood on their milestones and why, inevitably, they were late. With a sympathetic and strong project leader, responsibility and meeting deadlines will make sure that creative won’t have a week to create the final project when other departments were to take only two weeks out of a two-month project.

It seems that at most companies this is the standard operating procedure. It’s rare that a project manager can or will keep tight reign on milestones. It’s even more rare that there’s a professional project manager at companies. Usually, someone will be assigned as a project manager and they might not have enough experience or the corporate level to demand strict adherence to milestones on a project. In a corporate setting, this usually leads to problems with getting a project done on time. In a freelance situation, your time is your money and when you end up either working an extra week or so on a flat fee, trying to charge for extra hours or working an extreme rush to make a deadline, it’s a losing situation for you and can lead to a project that probably won’t be your best work. In the end you’ll get the blame and although unfair, well… welcome to business!

So, how do you protect your reputation, income potential and show yourself to be a valuable vendor to a client or a competent project manager to your corporate boss? Start with a clear and concise creative brief and an iron fist! If written correctly, the information you include will leave no stone unturned and no question unanswered. It’s not really hard.

Where To Begin

Organization is the key. When I first started my design career, working both freelance and on staff, I would create a job folder for each and every assignment and project. I started by labeling the folder and then having a short creative brief written on the outside of the folder. It listed the following:

• Name of the project.
• Date I received it.
• Date the project was due.
• Who was involved in the project, their names, phone numbers/extensions, email addresses.
• Milestones for materials needed from these people.
• From there, as the project proceeded, I would write down notes of what was happening on a daily basis.
• Were we on time?
• Were there requested changes and by whom?
• What milestones were missed and by whom?
• When files were delivered and to whom.

Within these file folders, I placed all printouts of the design stages, emails from other departments/people and anything else that pertained to the project. Most of my bosses commended me for “knowing where the project was at any time.”

At one employer where incompetence was encouraged through rampant Peter Principle, I was told my file folders, “made people nervous.”

Of course people were nervous; it held people accountable. It’s not that the folders were set up to embarrass people… well, I admit that it was a part of it because the blame-game was big at that firm and I had to protect myself from the lying finger-pointers, which really infuriated them to no end, but it was also the only way to keep a 100% on time delivery record.

The plain fact is that these folders were invaluable to juggle what was sometimes two-dozen projects going on at once. Multitasking is nothing more than being organized and there are tools one can use for that organization. The “Folders of Evidence and Blame,” as my boss referred to them, were invaluable.

While these were somewhat private creative briefs for myself, it’s best, when managing a project, especially on a freelance basis, to have a written brief for everyone to retain for their own folders, if they have one.

A Practical Creative Brief

I’ve looked at other creative briefs available on the web and frankly; I’m not impressed with what I saw. The examples available didn’t cover enough to really let the client know all of the steps nor did it cover the creative’s end of the project. Here’s a brief that you can use as a template for your next project:

Client/Client contact information:

Name, phone number and email address for the person or the team on the client side.

Project:

Web site update incorporating Instagram/Pinterest functions for customer interaction/inbound marketing. Email blast design with links to be used with email service. Web banner for insertion on web sites. Three page, gatefold Print brochure.

Prepared by:

Name, phone number and email address for the person who is responsible for in-house project management.

Background/Overview:

Web site: Design and code new page to include “Instagram/Pinterest” customer insertions of photos and images (company moderation).

Redesign and code homepage to pinpoint and add navigation to new page.

Design and code web banner. Standard size. Consult insertions into web pages booked by client.

Design and production of three-page, gatefold printed brochure for delivery to printer by client. Four color printing. 8.5” H x 11” W. 100 lb. matte stock. Client will handle all printing and delivery to mailing house.

Timeline/Milestones:

Start time: Date goes here.

Client delivers images/logos for brochure, web banner and web site. All copy delivered by client.

1st Milestone:

Sketches for design of all components – (set date).

Client revisions/approval by (set date).

Revised sketches delivered by (set date).

Client revisions/approval by (set date).

*Further revisions will change milestones. Adjusted brief will be resubmitted to client.

2nd Milestone:

Photoshop images of pages, banner and brochure – (set date).

Client revisions/approval by (set date).

Revised images delivered by (set date).

*Further revisions will change milestones. Adjusted brief will be resubmitted to client.

3rd Milestone:

(Set date)

Delivery of completed banner ad to client.

Delivery of production ready brochure files to client.

*Further revisions will change milestones. Adjusted brief will be resubmitted to client.

4th Milestone:

(Set date)

Web page uploaded and debugged. Live publishing for web page and banner ad (set date).

Payments:

Fee: $ (total fee for project)

Deposit: $ (set fee – should be one-third to half of total fee). Deposit due at start time.

1st Milestone: $ (percentage of fee)

2nd Milestone: $ (percentage of fee)

3rd Milestone: $ (percentage of fee)

4th Milestone: $ (*ideally, this should be the final percentage of the entire fee for the project)

* Changes beyond the first round (further changes) will be billed separately at a rate of $ (set hourly rate) per hour.

Rights:

Client purchases all rights to design/copyright for work rendered. Transfer of copyright is contingent upon full payment.

There’s Still More

This, of course, is just the basics as an example. The more you list, going into the smallest details, the more you will protect yourself against “misunderstandings” as the project proceeds. The biggest problem with any project is the “but I said…” or “I thought this would be…” and the ever popular, “I thought we were going to add this?”

While a contract spells out rights, payments and promises kept only through legal wording, a creative brief shows all parties how the project will proceed and, most importantly, how payments will be made. With a contract, people may see it at the beginning of the project but won’t look at it again until you are threatening to sue them for breaking your agreement. The creative brief reminds people every step of the way that you won’t work for free, excessive changes will cost more.

Still, a creative brief may need to include the demographics of the customer/target audience. Although I haven’t experienced it myself, I have heard from other designers about clients who set the design standards of a project but later complain that the work doesn’t reflect their consumer base.

One example I can relate was a company president who kept using the word, “sophisticated” for a design project. With every design sketch, she would say, “no, no, no! I want sophisticated!”

After eleven attempts at “sophisticated,” I finally asked her to show me some examples of what she liked and I would take it as inspiration. After she pointed out a few examples, I realized she was wrong and severely nuts! What she really wanted was something whimsical. This is a great, and painful, example of miscommunication and how much work just one word – one descriptor can cause. I was on staff at the company so it wasn’t as big of a deal as if it was a freelance assignment, which would have been a disaster if it were a flat fee. It was just an extreme waste of time and a tick that showed up on my annual performance review as, “failed to satisfy the president’s wishes in eleven rounds of changes.”

This is yet something else that needs to be included in the creative brief. Words can be misinterpreted or misused. Sometimes people use their hands to describe what they want, moving them up and down and sideways to specify size, layout or “sophistication.” Your job, as the creative lead, is to pull out what it is they really mean and place it into the written brief so there are no extra rounds of design that cut into your fee or take you away from other projects.

Demographics are another important point to clarify for the creative brief. WHO is the intended audience? The answer might be “everybody” and it might be “18-28 year-old men who live in their parent’s basement.”

Remember to ask these questions so when you are ready to write up your brief to present to the client, there will be no holes that might trip up the project down the road. If there are any holes or misunderstandings, the time… and money, will come out of YOUR end and that can add up over a year to thousands of dollars.

The Project Folder

The computer did not, as promised, make us a paperless society. Digital communications added to the lack of memory people have. Computers, in a big way, replaced our ability to remember and store information in our own brains. An example is when a client doesn’t remember you saying something on an email, like asking to be paid or trying to find out why the three-day period for a decision on final designs has taken 17 months.

The project folder is a handy way to draw everything together in one place for future reference. By placing printouts of all emails, the creative brief, notes, inspirational images, invoices from stock houses, vendors you use and finally, a copy of the check(s) you receive, it becomes the record of the project if you ever have to refer back to something later.

Referring Back When Problems Arise

Anyone who tells you they have never had a problem with a design project is either a liar or a psychotic. There are projects that run up against certain questions either during or after a project is complete. Usually it’s getting paid when a client questions how much work has actually been done and why the project costs more then $79.

Seriously, we laugh at that statement but we all know it to be true. In cases where you must sit down with the client and go over all aspects of the project and show proof of requests, changes, costs incurred by you and anything else, the folder will hold all of the answers. Naturally, the client might not agree that the answer they sent in an email, telling you that all designs are approved is really what they meant, but that leads to another avenue – court.

If you are forced to go to court or mediation, the project folder is a lawyer’s dream. Everything in writing, in one place and ready to present as the record of each step. Even if you have no contract (you should have one!), the project folder and the creative brief will show intent, agreement and steps taken to complete the project.

You will also find that creative briefs are handy for repeat clients. In web design, it’s important to retain clients to service their ever-changing web needs. As technology evolves and companies grow, the original creative brief serves to remind you of how the client prefers to work with you. Reviewing past project files and briefs can also remind you when it’s time to contact a client to pitch updates to their site. It’s a wonderful tool that’s invaluable. So, run out to your local office supply store, buy some file folders, design a creative brief sheet with your logo on it and you’ll see how easy a great creative brief and project folder can make your life and business.

Image Credits

• Taking notes on Michael Arndt’s talk
• Just getting started
• The hand stretches a folder