Pelican Design Group

Branding, Identity & Logo Design Explained

2011-08-29T11:56:00.000-05:00

Branding, Identity & Logo Design Explained

www.pelicandesigngroup.com

A logo is not your brand, nor is it your identity. Logo design, identity design and branding all have different roles, that together, form a perceived image for a business or product.

There has been some recent discussion on the web about this topic, about your logo not being your brand. Although this may be true, I haven’t seen any clarification of the differences between ‘brand’, ‘identity’ and ‘logo’. I wish to rectify this.

What is brand? – The perceived emotional corporate image as a whole.
What is identity? – The visual aspects that form part of the overall brand.
What is a logo? – A logo identifies a business in its simplest form via the use of amark or icon.

To explain this in more detail, let’s start at the top – the brand.

What is branding?

Branding is certainly not a light topic – whole publications & hundreds of books have been written on the topic, however to put it in a nutshell you could describe a ‘brand’ as an organisation, service or product with a ‘personality’ that is shaped by the perceptions of the audience. On that note, it should also be stated that a designer cannot “make” a brand – only the audience can do this. A designer forms the foundation of the brand.

Many people believe a brand only consists of a few elements – some colours, some fonts, a logo, a slogan and maybe some music added in too. In reality, it is much more complicated than that. You might say that a brand is a ‘corporate image’.

The fundamental idea and core concept behind having a ‘corporate image’ is that everything a company does, everything it owns and everything it produces should reflect the values and aims of the business as a whole.

It is the consistency of this core idea that makes up the company, driving it, showing what it stands for, what it believes in and why they exist. It is not purely some colours, some typefaces, a logo and a slogan.

As an example, let’s look at the well known IT company, Apple. Apple as a company, projects a humanistic corporate culture and a strong corporate ethic, one which is characterised by volunteerism, support of good causes & involvement in the community. These values of the business are evident throughout everything they do, from their innovative products and advertising, right through to their customer service. Apple is an emotionally humanist brand that really connects with people – when people buy or use their products or services; they feel part of the brand, like a tribe even. It is this emotional connection that creates their brand – not purely their products and a bite sized logo.

For a more thorough understanding of branding, in simple terms, I recommend Wally Olin’s: The Brand Handbook which I quote is “an essential, easy-reference guide to brilliant branding”.

What is identity design?

One major role in the ‘brand’ or ‘corporate image’ of a company is its identity.

In most cases, identity design is based around the visual devices used within a company, usually assembled within a set of guidelines. These guidelines that make up an identity usually administer how the identity is applied throughout a variety of mediums, using approved colour palettes, fonts, layouts, measurements and so forth. These guidelines ensure that the identity of the company is kept coherent, which in turn, allows the brand as a whole, to be recognisable.

The identity or ‘image’ of a company is made up of many visual devices:

A Logo (The symbol of the entire identity & brand)
Stationery (Letterhead + business card + envelopes, etc.)
Marketing Collateral (Flyers, brochures, books, websites, etc.)
Products & Packaging (Products sold and the packaging in which they come in)
Apparel Design (Tangible clothing items that are worn by employees)
Signage (Interior & exterior design)
Messages & Actions (Messages conveyed via indirect or direct modes of communication)
Other Communication (Audio, smell, touch, etc.)
Anything visual that represents the business.

All of these things make up an identity and should support the brand as a whole. The logo however, is the corporate identity and brand all wrapped up into one identifiable mark. This mark is the avatar and symbol of the business as a whole.

What is a logo?

To understand what a logo is, we must first understand what it is for.

A logo is for… identification.

A logo identifies a company or product via the use of a mark, flag, symbol or signature. A logo does not sell the company directly nor rarely does it describe a business. Logo’s derive their meaning from the quality of the thing it symbolises, not the other way around – logos are there to identity, not to explain. In a nutshell, what a logomeans is more important than what it looks like.

To illustrate this concept, think of logos like people. We prefer to be called by our names – James, Dorothy, John – rather than by the confusing and forgettable description of ourselves such as “the guy who always wears pink and has blonde hair”. In this same way, a logo should not literally describe what the business does but rather, identify the business in a way that is recognisable and memorable.

It is also important to note that only after a logo becomes familiar, does it function the way it is intended to do much alike how we much must learn people’s names to identify them.

The logo identifies a business or product in its simplest form.

Summary:

Brand –The perceived emotional corporate image as a whole.
Identity – The visual aspects that form part of the overall brand.
Logo – Identifies a business in its simplest form via the use of a mark or icon.

How would you summarise brand, identity and logo design? Comments and thoughts are welcome, as always.

2011-08-24T12:21:00.000-05:00

CREATIVE CORNER

Latest on creative marketing with display ads

Display ads perform better. But not just because of charts and graphs that say so. It’s because of the fact that anything you can do on the web, you can do with display ads. So we could sit here and talk about the better ways to engage, more places to connect, and results that will impact the whole web.

But all of those things will take care of themselves if we make display ads more awesome for the millions who view them, by opening the minds of the few who make them. What we’re talking about here is creativity on the web, implemented at an unprecedented scale.

www.pelicandesigngroup.com

2011-08-23T21:03:00.000-05:00

THE RIGHT CUSTOMER

How do I reach my target consumers at scale?

Finding that “right consumer” is a challenge that data and technology have worked hard to address over the years. The more accurate the targeting, the better the campaign is likely to perform.

Right connection happens effectively at two levels:
1. Reaching users in places, and at times, when they are consuming content relevant to a particular topic or brand, i.e. contextual advertising.
2. Reaching the people who have already shown an interest in a particular topic or brand relevant to your business, anywhere on the web, i.e. targeting an audience

We believe combining these 2 technologies, audience and context, can achieve better results than either on their own.

Let’s talk about contextual targeting first. Knowing what someone is reading about right this moment is a strong indicator of their intent, similar to how a search query can tell us a lot about what a person may be interested in. Contextual targeting is powerful because it gives you an opportunity to speak to your audience during this highly valuable window in time, and do it at scale.

Similarly, a user’s prior web browsing history gives valuable insights about their interests, and thus allowing you to reach them on many sites across the web. Audience based advertising is proving effective for marketers. Already, 85% of agencies and advertisers use it in their display buys. Spend-wise, it’s expected to comprise 20% of online display advertising spend by 2014.
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So why should you use both contextual and audience targeting? Think about it, even if the audience is the same across different sites in a campaign, are consumers on all those sites equally receptive to the same message? Similarly, is your message relevant to everyone reading about a certain topic? The correct answer is a healthy balance between the two, that delivers the desired performance for the campaign.

For example, an auto advertiser could show a hybrid SUV ad to women interested in the outdoors, or lease offers to someone reading about hybrid cars, thus reaching a varied audience, while still being targeted. www.pelicandesigngroup.com

WHY DO YOU NEED A PROFESSIONAL WEBSITE?

2011-08-16T09:58:00.000-05:00

The Internet is a great source of information and a great place to bring people together.
A very important point to remember is that cyberspace is extremely volatile and that the
rules are always changing.

But do you really need a professional Website? The answer may not be a positive one because people can handle their work without one; but a Web site is rapidly evolving into a business necessity. Here I am giving you some reasons you should have a professional website.

First of all an online presence will cost you little. Get this: having a Website will cost you less than maintaining a fax or a phone line. Website designers and hosting services are able to develop and maintain a Web presence for you, prices for these services has dropped considerably in recent years due to fierce competition.

Secondly, a Website works for you 24/7. Remember that your potential clients often use evening and weekend hours to surf the Internet for business purposes.

Also, a Website saves time and trouble, both for you and your customers. You do not have to be pestered with many calls asking for basic information about the company you run, now people can find the information online. As for customers it is a great advantage because you are making yourself available to them all the time.

By not having a professional website you put yourself into a sad position and you have no idea how many jobs, clients you lose by not providing basic company information. In other words you are excluding yourself from this latest form of marketing. Marketing is not just advertising, but is a whole approach to providing a positive image for a product or service. To deal with marketing, you must understand some of the basic reasons for marketing. The most important reason is that you want to attract people to a particular place. Once they’re at the place, you want to entice them to purchase a product or service.

Pelican Design Group has been in business for over 25 years and looks forward to hearing from you !
www.pelicandesigngroup.com

Websites for Restaurants

2011-08-02T16:03:00.000-05:00

Restaurants that use their websites effectively are able to have a significant impact on their business. Whether it is allowing customers to view menus and specials, find a location, make reservations, sign up for a mailing list, or place an order online, there are lots of ways that restaurants can benefit from a website.

National chains and small, local restaurants both have the potential for impact with their website. Using vibrant colors, creativity, photos of their tempting food pulls it all together. We think the key to a successful restaurant site is to reflect the personality of the restaurant while at the same time making it as user friendly as possible. On Budget... Professional Service.... Pelican Design Group Destin, FL www.pelicandesigngroup.com

What Is Graphic Design?

2011-07-20T15:00:00.000-05:00

Good design makes a difference in our world. Whether it’s communicating a social ideal, helping a business attract clients, motivating people to join an organization, enabling citizens to vote for the candidate of their choice, or simply helping travelers find their way through a busy airport, good design means connection.

Graphic design combines the creativity and formal characteristics of fine art with the audience-centered approach of marketing to create effective visual communications. Unlike fine art, it is always in the service of the client’s needs.

Much more than simply “making things look pretty,” graphic design uses color, type, and composition to communicate with the chosen audience.

To do this, designers analyze data about the intended audience, such as the audience’s class, gender, education, buying habits, personality traits, favorite magazines and television shows, and so on.

Designers take that demographic and psychographic information and look at what that audience sees. For instance, if the intended audience loves Martha Stewart, designers look at Martha Stewart magazines, ads, and products to analyze their visual vocabulary (color, theme, shape, typeface, composition). Using those fundamental elements, designers create new pieces which connect and communicate with the intended audience.

Design based in this understanding of the intended audience is highly successful. Trying to design without it is like trying to communicate without knowing the language of the listener.

In addition to a broad grounding in fine art, marketing, and creativity, graphic designers also build an extensive body of technical knowledge regarding paper stocks, printing inks, special processes such as foil-stamping or embossing, printing processes and limitations, digital file preparation, quality control, and troubleshooting. Graphic design encompasses any product that’s “ink-on-paper” (brochures, logos, book jackets, billboards, packaging, etc). Each medium has its own technical considerations that designers must master in order to achieve their intended effect.

Design combines all these creative, technical, and research skills. When you hire a designer, you hire a professional with sophisticated skills for enhancing your ability to connect with your audience and reach your business goals. Our experience and body of work speaks for itself. Pelican Design is your 'one stop' graphic and print design studio! www.pelicandesigngroup.com

Why You Need a Website

2011-07-19T10:18:00.000-05:00

Q: My business is very small, just me and two employees, and our product really can't be sold online. Do I really need a website?

A: That's a good question. In fact, it's one of the most important and most frequently asked questions of the digital business age. So should your business have a website, even if your business is small and sells products or services you don't think can be sold online? My answer in 1998 is the same as my answer today: Yes, if you have a business, you should have a website. Period. No question. Without a doubt.

Also, don't be so quick to dismiss your product as one that can't be sold online. Nowadays, there's very little that can't be sold over the internet. More than 20 million shoppers are now online, purchasing everything from books to computers to cars to real estate to jet airplanes to natural gas to you name it. If you can imagine it, someone will figure out how to sell it online.

Let me clarify one point: I'm not saying you should put all your efforts into selling your wares over the internet, though if your product lends itself to easy online sales, you should certainly be considering it. The point to be made here is that you should at the very least have a presence on the web so that customers, potential employees, business partners and perhaps even investors can quickly and easily find out more about your business and the products or services you have to offer.

That said, it's not enough that you just have a website. You must have a professional-looking site if you want to be taken seriously. Since many consumers now search for information online prior to making a purchase at a brick-and-mortar store, your site may be the first chance you have at making a good impression on a potential buyer. If your site looks like it was designed by a barrel of colorblind monkeys, your chance at making a good first impression will be lost.

One of the great things about the internet is that it has leveled the playing field when it comes to competing with the big boys. As mentioned, you have one shot at making a good first impression. With a well-designed site, your little operation can project the image and professionalism of a much larger company. The inverse is also true. I've seen many big company websites that were so badly designed and hard to navigate that they completely lacked professionalism and credibility. Good for you, too bad for them.

You also mention that yours is a small operation, but when it comes to benefiting from a website, size does not matter. I don't care if you're a one-man show or a 10,000-employee corporate giant; if you don't have a website, you're losing business to other companies that do.

Here's the exception to my rule: It's actually better to have no website at all than to have one that makes your business look bad. Your site speaks volumes about your business. It either says, "Hey, look, we take our business so seriously that we have created this wonderful site for our customers!" or it screams, "Hey, look, I let my 10-year-old nephew design my site. Good luck finding anything!"

Your website is an important part of your business. Make sure you treat it as such.

Give Pelican Design Group a call 850.502.4330 or visit our site at www.pelicandesigngroup.com

Basics To Understanding Your Graphic Design Needs

2011-05-02T12:07:00.000-05:00

Graphic design can be done by anybody with a little Photoshop experience, but professionalizing your business image requires a professional graphic design service. Graphic design is the creative process which involves creating a visual presentation of material. Great design companies should be able to take a simple thought and turn it in to something that conveys all of the necessary messages without sacrificing professionalism. Whether you are looking for touching up an already created logo, or you want to create a comprehensive web layout, knowing the basics of graphic design allows you to speak designer language.

Graphic designers come in all shapes and sizes; some are SEO text geniuses where others are great at taking creative ideas and turning them in to intense graphics.

Typeface

Typeface is the process of looking at the arrangement, font, and layout of your text. Typeface graphic design is important if you are creating a branded white paper download or any other context oriented designs. Designing the look of your typeface is laid out can really change the overall “feel” of your graphic design.

Page ArrangementA layout is the arrangement of text on your web page or print material. The positioning of relevant images and content should be carefully planned if it is content that will be distributed to clients.

GUI
A good deal of graphic designers are learning the tricks of trade with graphic user interface design. GUI is the link between all aspects of your website’s design. They look at your web design, and determine how a user would browse it, the basic emotions it conveys and if anything can be improved in your current design.

Fortunately, at Pelican Design Group we understand old and new school. Computer generated imaging is still very new. We started out the traditional way and have upgraded our skills to include modern methods. Our designers can integrate your real world and internet designs to make sure that your projects turn out well in every medium you plan to use. They know about printing presses and computer monitors, and can explain why some things that look great on a monitor won't work on a printing press. We can do a computer generated illustration or draw it, we can guide you through the printing process.

Check us out at www.pelicandesigngroup.com

Unique Ways to Use Your Company Facebook Page to Attract Ideal Clients

2011-04-07T11:21:00.000-05:00

Did you know that 77% of Web 2.0 users are looking to receive free products and coupons from companies? According to an article on Ragan.com a new study from communications agency Cone found that out of the 77% of Web 2.0 users, 48% expect to receive these free items on social media sites. The study also found that “social media users ‘like,’ ‘follow,’ or ‘subscribe’ to an average of just 4.6 companies.”

So how can you grab the attention of these choosy social media users and give them exactly what they want? Your Facebook company landing page on Facebook is a great place to start.

Facebook allows business owners to specify the tab that they want visitors to land on when they click onto the company’s Facebook page. In other words, you may choose to have your company Wall tab, Blog tab, Video tab, Resources tab, or customized tab appear as the landing page for visitors.

Creating a customized tab for your Facebook landing page is the best way to go since you can provide users with everything from video to coupons, and free gifts to promotions. And, you can change this content out every other week or once per month.

Below is an example of lululemon athletica’s Facebook company landing page. Notice how the landing page tab is “Gift of Yoga.”

Below are a few ways you can spice up your Facebook company landing page to attract more ideal customers, capture their interest, and encourage them to “Like” your page.

Post a . . .

Video: What better way to share your brand personality and match a face with your company than through a video? Adding a video to your Facebook landing page is a quick and easy way to connect with Facebook users right off the bat. In terms of the content in the video, there’s a variety of elements you can focus on including a welcome message to new followers, a product spotlight (around a holiday or season), easy-to-implement tips, industry updates, and more.

Coupon or promotion: Here’s where the statistic above comes into play. If statistics show that a large amount of new-media users are looking to social media networks to find coupons and promotions then why not give them what they want? Providing a coupon or promotional offer exactly when they’re looking for it is the perfect way to get in front of your prospects, pique their interest, and encourage them to consistently return to your page or even visit your website or other social media profiles. Give them what they want, when they want it, and they’ll return again for more. It’s that simple. For example, you could post a product update showcasing the newest hottest products just in and offer a promotional code to your Facebook fans that only they can use to receive 25% off their next online purchase. Even better, coupons and promotions are popularly shared among Internet users via email, social media, and mobile devices.

Free gift: Package one of your past webinars or white papers as a free gift for Facebook fans. Who wouldn’t want a free gift?

Spotlight a product or service: The perfect time to spotlight a product or service is during the holidays, around a season, or special events. You don’t have to actually offer a new product, simply package a current product or service differently than before. Let’s use Christmas for example. If you owned a salon and spa you could post a “Perfect Pamper Gift” on your Facebook landing page that pictured some of your products or services with holiday colors, copy, and images. The unique presentation of this year-round product or service might make the customer think that it’s actually a new product—when really, it’s not!

See the example below from David Neagle’s company page. When you first visit his page, you land on a page, which is a teleseminar sign-up page.

Are you getting the most out of your Facebook company landing page?

Give us a call @ 850.502.4330 or email arundo@pelicandesigngroup.com

5 Ways To Create Dynamic Video Emails

2011-03-30T12:14:00.000-05:00

Adding video to your affiliate marketing newsletter is one of the hottest trends in email marketing this year. Think about it. Videos are extremely cost-effective and all you need is a camera, some video editing software (which you can get for free), and a few spare hours.

An entertaining, informative video that puts you and your affiliate products in the spotlight may be all you need to turn prospective clients into repeat customers. Videos grab the audience’s attention in a way that clever copy and fancy photos can’t, so here are a few things to consider when creating your own marketing videos.

Keep It Simple
The most effective marketing emails have one clearly defined call to action – one. If you include too many calls to action, you risk splitting your audience’s attention. When you include a video into your email newsletter, the goal is for your audience to watch the video. So keep it simple. Emails that have a video should focus on the video.

Don’t waste time
Speaking of simple, another way to make your videos stand out is to keep them short. The sweet spot is usually somewhere between 30 seconds and 2 minutes. Again, the idea here is to hold on to your viewers attention long enough to get your point across, but don’t tease them too long or they may lose interest.

Give Them A Choice
There are two ways to add videos to your marketing emails. The first is by embedding the video directly into the email. Your other option is to embed a linked thumbnail of your video into the email that leads to your site (I prefer the second option).

Whichever you choose, it’s always best to let your audience choose to watch the video as opposed to starting the video automatically. Auto-playing a video can come off as irritating, and a loud-playing video can be especially embarrassing, particularly if your subscriber is at work or another quiet venue.

Compare And Contrast
While adding videos is a sure-fire way to make your marketing emails more interesting, it’s important to remember that not all videos will have the same effect. It all depends on your audience.

Test a few different types of videos over a time and see which ones get the best response. With video analytics you can track how many people actually open the video and whether or not they watched the video all the way through.

Plan Ahead
It’s always good to have a backup plan. A lot of people are checking email on their smartphones and other devices, not all of which can play videos. It’s important that your email does its job, regardless of whether the video plays or not. Your call to action should be clearly defined in both the text of your email and in the video.

There are a number of different types of videos that can enhance your marketing emails. Testimonials, reviews and how-to videos are just a few examples. Remember to always keep your audience in mind and your video-showcasing emails are sure to be a success.

www.pelicandesigngroup.com

Marketing - Getting Past Go!

2011-03-28T15:07:00.000-05:00

So many times we feel like our job in marketing is to simply make the phone ring or get a prospect to reply to our email. The reality is that marketing goes way beyond the initial buying signals. In fact, good marketing know that they need to manage the entire purchase and renewal process effectively to show lasting results.

Getting Past Go

Instead of thinking about lead generation, think about the entire customer experience. Not only will you attract users to your product or service, but you will maintain them, communicate with them, and leverage them to continue buying from you long into the future.

Focus on creating happy customers. Many companies simply market on the front end, not after the sale. If you focus on building strong relationships with your existing customers, they will often do the selling for you and become some of your greatest marketing assets. Consider the type of communication you provide to your existing customers. Are you simply contacting them to buy more?

What Annoys Me

I recently bought a product that I was really excited about. It was a video training program that offered daily information. No less than a week went buy until the videos, which were supposed to be delivering value (and something I paid for) started asking me to "upgrade" ad pitch the video to others to start earning affiliate revenue. I don't know about you but it certainly made me unhappy with my initial purchase.

After about a week of this I cancelled the subscription and was glad a I did. As marketers we need to be concerned with our messaging before, during, and after purchase. If you're not, you'll find your job getting more and more difficult each and every year as customers become harder to attract and retain.

Focus on your marketing communications throughout the customer life cycle. By thinking beyond the initial purchase, you'll develop a customer base that sustains and grows your business over time.

Getting Past Go

What Annoys Me

Focus on your marketing communications throughout the customer life cycle. By thinking beyond the initial purchase, you'll develop a customer base that sustains and grows your business over time.

Where to Place Critical Marketing Messages on Folded Print Pieces

2011-03-23T16:11:00.000-05:00

When you design a print project that will be folded, there's more to consider than folding style, paper choice, layout, color palette, and typeface. Each folding style has a different user experience that isn't driven by the layout, but rather by the instinctive opening order of that given folding style.

For example, compare a gatefold with a roll fold. Here's a gatefold:

If you put a critical marketing message on the inside right panel, as it is in the illustration above, it will probably be the first thing the recipient sees. As long as your design of that page is good, chances are that the recipient will continue to open up the two gate panels to reveal the interior spread.

If you change your folding style to a roll fold but keep the layout scheme the same as the gatefold, this is the result:

www.pelicandesigngroup.com

People generally roll out a roll fold immediately to look at the interior spread. Since your critical marketing message is on the interior right panel, it may be completely overlooked. And if you put something important on the face of the most interior roll panel, you're really asking for trouble.

Some design elements -- a bright color or image, huge text, etc. -- can affect the recipient's behavior and possibly change the natural opening pattern. But since that's not always a safe bet, here's a tip:

When you design something folded, mock it up, hand it to several people individually, and watch them experience the piece. Don't tell them why you're handing it to them, and don't ask them to find the marketing message. When they hand it back to you, ask them what they took away from the piece. Did they get your marketing message or your call to action? In what order did they view the content? Did they know what the piece was about and what to do with it?

What is intuitive to you may not be intuitive to your audience, and the results may surprise you. If they didn't get the message and get it quickly, you should rethink your layout and content.

TOP BEST FONTS OF ALL TIME

2011-03-22T11:10:00.000-05:00

Based on a German website, these are the top 100 best fonts of all time.

To say the least, ranking fonts is an obviously hard task… how does one measure aesthetic quality, the benefit of an item, its value to humanity and so fourth?

Well, in this particular German publication, the judges ranked the fonts by their objective and various other weighted measurements:

FontShop Sales Figures: 40%
Historical Value/Meaning: 30%
Aesthetic Qualities: 30%

It is also worth noting that this evaluation consisted exclusively of licensed or commercial fonts only. Free fonts or operating system fonts were not considered, nor were fonts integral to standard software (i.e. Arial, Verdana, etc.). Font variations, which over the centuries have been individually interpreted by various Foundries, were uniquely evaluated as a class and the best variant was entered into the main judging process.

Below is a preview of the top 33 fonts and beneath this image you can find the full list of the 100 best fonts.

Top 100 Best Fonts Of All Time

Below you will find the full list of the best 100 fonts along with the designer & the year in which they were designed.

1. Helvetica [1957 - Max Miedinger]

2. Garamond [1530 - Claude Garamond]

3. Frutiger [1977 - Adrian Frutiger]

4. Bodoni [1790 - Giambattista Bodoni]

5. Futura [1927 - Paul Renner]

6. Times [1931 - Stanley Morison]

7. Akzidenz Grotesk [1966 - G nter Gerhard Lange]

8. Officina [1990 - Erik Spiekermann]

9. Gill Sans [1930 - Eric Gill]

10. Univers [1954 - Adrian Frutiger]

11. Optima [1954 - Hermann Zapf]

12. Franklin Gothic [1903 - Morris Fuller Benton]

13. Bembo [1496 - Francesco Griffo]

14. Interstate [1993 - Tobias Frere-Jones]

15. Thesis [1994 - Lucas de Groot]

16. Rockwell [1934 - Frank H. Pierpont]

17. Walbaum [1800 - Justus Walbaum]

18. Meta [1991 - Erik Spiekermann]

19. Trinit [1982 - Bram De Does]

20. Din [1926 - Ludwig Goller]

21. Matrix [1986 - Zuzana Licko]

22. OCR [1965 - American Type Founders]

23. Avant Garde [1968 - Herb Lubalin]

24. Lucida [1985 - Chris Holmes / Charles Bigelow]

25. Sabon [1964 - Jan Tschichold]

26. Zapfino [1998 - Hermann Zapf]

27. Letter Gothic [1956 - Roger Roberson]

28. Stone [1987 - Summer Stone]

29. Arnhem [1998 - Fred Smeijers]

30. Minion [1990 - Robert Slimbach]

31. Myriad [1992 - Twombly & Slimbach]

32. Rotis [1988 - Olt Aicher]

33. Eurostile [1962 - Aldo Novarese]

34. Scala [1991 - Martin Majoor]

35. Syntax [1968 - Hans Eduard Meier]

36. Joanna [1930 - Eric Gill]

37. Fleishmann [1997 - Erhard Kaiser]

38. Palatino [1950 - Hermann Zapf]

39. Baskerville [1754 - John Baskerville]

40. Fedra [2002 - Peter Bil'ak]

41. Gotham [2000 - Tobias Frere-Jones]

42. Lexicon [1992 - Bram De Does]

43. Hands [1991 - Letterror]

44. Metro [1929 - W. A. Dwiggins]

45. Didot [1799 - Firmin Didot]

46. Formata [1984 - Bernd M llenst dt]

47. Caslon [1725 - William Caslon]

48. Cooper Black [1920 - Oswald B. Cooper]

49. Peignot [1937 - A. M. Cassandre]

50. Bell Gothic [1938 - Chauncey H. Griffith]

51. Antique Olive [1962 - Roger Excoffon]

52. Wilhelm Klngspor Gotisch [1926 - Rudolf Koch]

53. Info [1996 - Erik Spiekermann]

54. Dax [1995 - Hans Reichel]

55. Proforma [1988 - Petr van Blokland]

56. Today Sans [1988 - Volker K ster]

57. Prokyon [2002 - Erhard Kaiser]

58. Trade Gothic [1948 - Jackson Burke]

59. Swift [1987 - Gerald Unger]

60. Copperplate Gothic [1901 - Frederic W. Goudy]

61. Blur [1992 - Neville Brody]

62. Base [1995 - Zuzana Licko]

63. Bell Centennial [1978 - Matthew Carter]

64. News Gothic [1908 - Morris Fuller Benton]

65. Avenir [1988 - Adrian Frutiger]

66. Bernhard Modern [1937 - Lucian Bernhard]

67. Amplitude [2003 - Christian Schwartz]

68. Trixie [1991 - Erik van Blokland]

69. Quadraat [1992 - Fred Smeijers]

70. Neutraface [2002 - Christian Schwartz]

71. Nobel [1929 - Sjoerd de Roos]

72. Industria [1990 - Neville Brody]

73. Bickham Script [1997 - Richard Lipton]

74. Bank Gothic [1930 - Morris Fuller Benton]

75. Corporate ASE [1989 - Kurt Weidemann]

76. Fago [2000 - Ole Schafer]

77. Trajan [1989 - Carol Twombly]

78. Kabel [1927 - Rudolf Koch]

79. House Gothic 23 [1995 - Tal Leming]

80. Kosmik [1993 - Letterror]

81. Caecilia [1990 - Peter Matthias Noordzij]

82. Mrs Eaves [1996 - Zuzana Licko]

83. Corpid [1997 - Lucas de Groot]

84. Miller [1997 - Matthew Carter]

85. Souvenir [1914 - Morris Fuller Benton]

86. Instant Types [1992 - Just van Rossum]

87. Clarendon [1845 - Benjamin Fox]

88. Triplex [1989 - Zuzana Licko]

89. Benguiat [1989 - Ed Benguiat]

90. Zapf Renaissance [1984 - Hermann Zapf]

91. Filosofia [1996 - Zuzana Licko]

92. Chalet [1996 - House Industries]

93. Quay Sans [1990 - David Quay]

94. C zanne [1995 - Michael Want, James Grieshaber]

95. Reporter [1938 - Carlos Winkow]

96. Legacy [1992 - Ronald Arnholm]

97. Agenda [1993 - Greg Thompson]

98. Bello [2004 - Underware]

99. Dalliance [2000 - Frank Heine]

100. Mistral [1953 - Roger Excoffon]

Tips for Saving Significant Energy in Your Business Computing

2011-03-21T15:47:00.000-05:00

By Colleen Welch

The shift from a paper-based existence toward cloud computing might help save trees, but it isn't exactly energy neutral. Computer technology requires gobs of energy, accounting for about 2% of all human-created CO2 output, Green Computing reports. And it's estimated that IT energy usage will double in the next four years.

Fortunately, there are several easy ways to reduce energy usage in the office:

Minimizing Energy Use

A PC Pro Labs study found that 25 percewww.pelicandesigngroup.comnt of U.S. employees leave their work computers on all weekend. One of the simplest ways to reduce your company's energy usage is to turn them off. Contrary to popular myth, shutting down your computer at the end of the day will always save energy, as the energy conserved more than offsets the energy required to restart a computer.

Get the rest of the office on board by calling a company meeting to review energy use policies and actively encouraging employees to power down computers when they are not in use.

It also helps to optimize each machine's power settings. According to PC Pro Labs, 67% of workers run a screensaver, which causes the monitor to consume energy. It's much more efficient to set your computer to sleep or hibernate mode, which can cut output by as much as a half a ton of CO2 a year and translate into about $60 in energy savings per computer per year.

To access power options in Windows XP, go to Start > Control Panel > Power options. On a Mac, go to System Preferences > Energy Saver. You should be able to adjust how long your machine will remain idle before the going into monitor sleep mode, hard disk sleep mode and system standby.

Making Better Purchases

Energy conservation begins with the purchasing decisions you make. You can reduce your company's power usage by seeking out energy-efficient products.

Choose laptops. Laptops use up to 90% less energy than desktop computers, so consider buying a laptop for that next computer upgrade.
Look for ENERGY STAR. The government awards the ENERGY STAR label to products, homes and manufacturing plants that are energy efficient.
Consider monitor type and size. Flat-screen LCD monitors are more efficient than traditional cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors, and smaller monitors require less energy than larger ones. Even something as simple as lowering the brightness on your screen can significantly reduce your energy usage.
Consider adding a remote-access device. IT service professionals can tell you how virtualization, smart strips and other forward-thinking approaches can help you save energy and money.

Conducting Energy Audits

An energy audit is the ultimate tool for reducing energy usage in any organization. You may be able to obtain one through an IT provider, independent contractor or local power company. Such audits examine not only computer usage but light bulb efficiency, building insulation and more. You can also find information about do-it-yourself energy audits online.

Once you make energy efficiency a priority, you'll find all sorts of ways to save energy and money. Plus, you'll ensure that your company is on the upside of the green computing wave sweeping through the IT world.

www.pelicandesigngroup.com

What to look for in a graphic design company.

2011-03-21T15:10:00.000-05:00

The Graphic design company should employ educated and professional staff: Having a formal education in graphic design gives the professional designer an edge over others, because he or she has learned the foundational principles of design and how those principles translate into an attractive, effective printed or web-based design. In addition, the graphic design firm you select should have the appropriate skilled staff and relevant experience with projects like yours.

A good graphic design company should have a strong portfolio that resonates with the viewer: Most graphic design studios offer an online portfolio of their work, so prospective clients can get a sense of their style. When viewing graphic designers’ portfolios, consider the work of graphic design companies whose style is similar to what you want. Are you looking for a clean, crisp professional design, something light-hearted and whimsical or a design that’s a little on the kitschy side? Do you want a bright, bold design that draws you to it or something a little softer and more understated?

The graphic design studio should exhibit exceptional business skills: Excellent business skills separate a good graphic design house from a great one. Of course, you want someone who listens to your ideas and has the ability to translate them into a tangible design, but just as importantly, you need a graphic designer who understands basic business necessities including deadlines, budget restrictions and return on investment.

A graphic design company needs to respect set timeliness and be actively responsive to your needs: You have key deadlines to meet. To ensure that your work flow doesn’t get interrupted, you need a graphic design studio that completes projects on time and that is responsive to your needs. Ask for time estimates for the major stages of your project, as well as regular status updates. Find out anticipated response times for quote requests, phone calls and e-mails. In other words, can you depend on your designer to keep your project on track?

A good graphic design company should have solid references: Anyone can give you the answers you want to hear. To be sure that you choose the right graphic design studio, check their references. Talk to past clients to see if projects were completed on time, within budget and to the client’s satisfaction. Ask if they’d use the graphic designer again and make sure to ask why or why not.

Professionalism is key in choosing a graphic design company: A professional graphic designer will explain his or her process to you (what to expect, steps in the process, etc.), answer any questions you have up front and will provide you with a written agreement that specifies what services have been included in the quote. During this stage, the graphic designer should tell you what rights they are selling to you regarding the design as well as how many revisions are included in the originally quoted price.

Personable demeanor: Whether your project is a one-time deal or a long-term one, you want to work with a graphic design house that is personable. It’s staff should be listeners who are easy to talk to. They should try to fully understand what you’re saying and what you want. You should be able to talk directly to a designer, if need be.

Considering these seven “must have” traits when selecting a graphic design company for your next print, illustration or online project, will ensure a positive experience for everyone involved and, ideally, you’ll find a graphic design studio with whom you want to partner on future projects.

Is Direct Mail Dead?

2011-03-18T10:45:00.000-05:00

Is this the age of the Internet, e-mail marketing, social networking, blogs. So why would you do printed, direct mail marketing? No one reads that stuff...do they?

You might be surprised. According to the USPS, advertising mail represented 63% of all mail received by households in 2008. Of that, 79% of households either read or scan advertising mail sent to their household and 11% respond and take action. Compare this to e-mail marketing: Mail Chimp’s researchindicates the average open-rate for marketing e-mail is about 25% and the click-through/take-action rate is only 4.28%. I’m not a numbers person (is there a graphic designer who is?), but it’s pretty clear that direct mail is far from finished.

There are some things to keep in mind when designing direct mail to increase the chances of your potential customer following through:

Take advantage of variable data printing. When I started out, there was one main option for printing in color: offset printing. How times have changed. Not only is it affordable to digitally print short-runs of your printing projects, it’s possible to customize your projects using variable data printing (VDP). For example, say you’re designing for an organization’s annual fundraiser. If the organization has a database of past donors, including their names, and the years and amounts they’ve previously donated, it’s easy to print that information right in the body of your piece. It personalizes the experience and can make a call for cash less of an intrusion and more of an appeal.

Have a clear call to action. Once upon a time, I got a letter asking me to support a local charity in my town. I attended that event every year and was ready, pen in hand, to write a check. I scoured the letter only to find that there was no return address, no phone number and no way to easily send the money. Sure, I could have looked up the number and contacted them, but expecting your recipients to do that is expecting too much. I never sent the check.

Make sure you provide a clear way to respond to your direct mail. Is there a number to call? A Web site to visit? Make it obvious.

Speaking of Web sites, use yours to track the results of your direct mail campaign. Personalized URLs or Web addresses that incorporate the recipient’s name are becoming more and more widely used. At the very least, each direct mail piece that goes out should have a dedicated phone extension or Web landing page, so that you can track your results
Design something different. I often save a few weeks worth of direct mail I receive, so that I can have a base of real-world samples. I’ll spread them out on my desk to look at them. Then, I’ll design something that looks different. If I’m seeing a lot of close crops of faces, I’ll pick and image with a person far away, or, even more likely, avoid a picture of a face at all. Lots of primary colors? I’ll go for an off-shade of green. Not many large fields of color? Maybe, that would work for my design. You can’t steer clear of all existing designs, but you want to make your direct mailing stand out. The best way to get a feel for what’s out there is to look at some of it with a critical eye.

One of the best things about direct mail is that even on a smaller budget, you can get great results.

Just A Bit of History for St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-17T16:11:00.000-05:00

www.pelicandesigngroup.com

If you’re like many, you just go through the holidays on autopilot and stick with our culture’s classic ways in which to celebrate them. Take for example St. Patrick’s Day.

On every March 17^th, we wear green to avoid being pinched, we throw on a shamrock and we drink a bunch of beer. But why? What is St. Patrick’s Day all about? Here is a short history of St. Patrick’s Day so you and your kid’s will know why we celebrate it in the first place.

First off, we should all be reminded, because it’s been lost over the years, that St. Patrick’s Day is actually a Christian holiday. St. Paddy’s day was created to honor the most recognized patron saint of Ireland, the one and only Saint Patrick. St. Patrick’s Day has been around for quite a while, becoming an “official feast day” way back in the 17^th century. But in modern day, it has become not just a day to honor St. Patrick but a day to honor Irish culture.

Who was Saint Patrick? Turns out he wasn’t even Irish. He was born way back in the 4^th century and was born to a wealthy Roman-British family. At the age of sixteen, Patrick was kidnapped by Irish criminals and taken to Ireland to work as a slave. He had a dream, where God told him to escape and he did. Patrick returned to Britain, found his calling and became a priest.

In 432 he was asked to come back to Ireland as an evangelist to save the Irish and teach them about Christianity until his death on March 17^th, 461.

And how about the shamrock and the whole green thing?

The Clover: Saint Patrick would use the clover to explain the Holy Trinity. It became a symbol of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Why all the Green: It turns out the color that had been associated with Saint Patrick was actually blue. But around the 17^th century it somehow transformed into a green hue, probably aided by the importance of the green clover in his teachings.

So is St. Patrick’s Day all about beer, funny hats and Kiss Me I’m Irish hats? Not so much...
Have a great day, however you choose to celebrate!

Web Design Tips from A to Z

2011-03-17T10:51:00.000-05:00

This is a guest article from Natalie Schnotz*. Enjoy her web design tips.

Avoid flashy multimedia. Flashy graphics and multimedia may look nice, but they can make it hard for your visitors to get the information they want from your site, especially when viewing from a non Flash compatible device.

Browser compatibility. Make sure you check your page on Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Chrome and Safari & their different versions. These five web browsers make up about 95% of the world’s browsers. So, test your site out on each of them.

Clean layout. Don’t fill your page up with ’stuff’. White space is good – it enhances the look of your site. Try to keep your content as the focus of your site. Use fonts that will be available on all computers so your page doesn’t end up looking messy.

Design for all screen resolutions. If you design stretch layouts that can fit any screen resolution, you can ensure all your visitors see a visually appealing and professional site. A site that is easy to use and appealing to the eye will encourage your visitors to stay longer.

Exclamation points! Typing millions of exclamation points doesn’t make your statement any more important than if you use just one!!!!!!! See, I told you.

Frames. Don’t use frames. While frames make it easy to have the same header or menu appear throughout the site, the address bar doesn’t change when you go from page to page – making it impossible for someone to link to a specific page.

Grammar and spell checker. Sure, people who are not good spellers will never notice you spelled calender (spelled calendar) wrong but literate people will notice. Try your best to fix up your spelling & grammar.

Hotlinking. Any pictures or music that you link to should be hosted on your own server. Don’t hotlink to other site images – it’s typically considered theft of bandwidth and you could be violating a copyright.

Identity. Ensure your site has a brand identity that reflects your brand values. Try to avoid cliche stock imagery.

Just keep swimming. (Yes, that’s a Finding Nemo reference.) Don’t give up. Sometimes your ideas won’t work, but just keep swimming. Today people tend to quit or give up too easily. With a little hard work, you’ll find most of your ideas are actually possible.

Keep learning. Stay up to date with news by reading design blogs or try learning a new web language. There is no reason to stop learning about web design just because you’re page is up and running with decent traffic.

Load time. Make sure that your load time is low. In our fast-paced world, we don’t like to wait. I want to see your web page and I want to see it NOW. Try minimizing graphics, flash and scripts as they increase your file size. Also, make sure to optimize your code and delete any unwanted tags or unused scripts.

Minimize clicking. Put as few clicks between your visitor and your information as possible. The more you force your visitors to click around your site, the more you are telling them to go away.

Navigation. Site navigation plays a huge role in determining how long visitors stay and explore your site. If you have an easy to use navigation system, you’ll keep your visitors around longer.

Organisation. The way you organise your content, is as important as what your page looks like, so spend some time on it. If your readers can’t find what they are looking for, they’ll just go look someplace else.

Page length. While you want to make sure you put a lot of information on each page, don’t go too far by putting too much information. If you are posting really long articles, try chunking them into separate pages with six or seven screenfuls to each page.

Quit stealing content. Don’t copy and paste text from another website without asking the site owner for permission. Search engines know if you are copying content and they don’t like it – they’ll lower your page rank without asking any questions. See SEO tips.

Readable text. Make sure your text is big enough to read. I know, you’re probably thinking ‘thank you captain obvious.’ Well, I hate to state the obvious, but I am amazed at the number of sites I go to that I have to squint to read. Please, don’t punish me for actually wanting to read your content.

Scalability. Make sure that your design and coding are scalable. Technology is changing rapidly, screens are getting larger (and smaller too), making it hard to test your site on all screens and platforms. Making a scalable site is crucial with the way technology is constantly changing.

Text lines. Learn a lesson from the newspapers. The reason why newspapers print articles in columns is because it makes the lines short and easy to read. So, as a general rule of thumb, no line of text should be more than about 600 pixels wide.

Use contrasting colors. It’s hard to read dark text on a dark background and light text on a light background. I know this tip is obvious, but remember that some color combinations just don’t work.

Valuable content. Give your visitors a reason to stick around. Provide them with valuable content. They’ll be happy and keep checking out your site.

Windows. It’s a good idea to pop up brand new windows for external links – that way your reader can continue reading your content and look at the other site. However, if you are directing them to another page on your site, use internal links. Opening links in new windows means that after five clicks within your site, your reader has six windows open cluttering their screen.

Editor’s note: This has has been debated before and I personally prefer having all windows open in the same browser.

eXplain what you’re linking to. Don’t just put a link in the middle of your article for no reason. Take a second to tell your readers why you think they should click the link. By telling them what you are linking to, you are giving them a chance to decide if they really want that extra information.

You don’t need permission to link. There is no reason for you to contact the site owner asking if you can link to their site. The reason their page is online is because they want to share it. So, if you want to link to a site… just do it.

Z - Z is a letter that Americans use in such words as ’specializing’ and ‘criticize’ however you should be aware that other countries spell these words with an ’s’. Brush up on your spelling differences, so you’re not later criticised.

*Natalie Schnotz is a recent graphic design graduate and an avid writer. When she’s not on her computer designing, you can find her reading fantasy books, crafting and cooking with her chef husband.

Photo Credits: Shutterstock

2011-03-16T15:10:00.000-05:00

So, What Is Twittering?

Twitter is one of a new crop of social networks called microblogging. It is exactly what it sounds like: Blogging on a much smaller scale than long winded posts and diatribes. What this means for Twitter is that posts are limited to 140 characters, so users have to get right to the point. There's no room for frills or pretense!

What's the Point?

A lot of people think Twitter is silly, but it's growing by leaps and bounds. Since it's a social network, you can follow people's "tweets" - the word used for a Twitter post - and see what they're up to during the day. You can follow celebrities and other important folks, and the service creates a connection between you and people with whom you might not otherwise interact.

Twitter has business uses as well. Many companies are setting up Twitter accounts so that their users, fans and customers can keep tabs on what's going on with them. For example, a local restaurant might post what specials are on the menu that day, and a book publisher might let readers know that an author will be speaking at an event. It's a handy tool for keeping in touch with your customers and builds loyalty by encouraging personal interaction.

When it comes to Twitter, the sky's the limit. The only real limitation is your imagination.

Twitter Pioneer Biz Stone Joins AOL as Social Impact Advisor

2011-03-15T14:52:00.000-05:00

AOL is doing ‘Biz’ with the man who co-founded the microblogging juggernaut known as Twitter. Serving as AOL’s new “social impact advisor,” Biz Stone comes to the Internet giant just days after The Huffington Post was acquired by AOL for $315 million.

The partnership with Stone serves as another telling example of AOL’s re-branding efforts and greater emphasis on social media.

Stone says his new role at AOL will not change his role at Twitter.

In a blog post to his website this week, Stone says AOL “is a company undergoing a rebirth and it has an amazing opportunity to align itself with meaning. The concept of doing good is not proprietary. To the extent that I am able, I’d like to help more companies follow this template toward a higher definition of success and more meaningful corporate metrics. When Arianna and Tim first spoke to me about advising in this capacity, I got a strong sense that they were serious about cause based initiatives.”

“My role at Twitter has not changed,” Stone stressed. “I’m keeping my day job in addition to accepting a role as Social Impact Advisor at AOL. There are a handful of organizations I’ve agreed to advise. Last year, two startups I advised were acquired, leaving room to consider helping others. When I take on any advisory role, I’m considerate of time and expectations. My new partnership with AOL promises to be very meaningful and I’m excited about its potential.”

Stone presently serves as creative director at Twitter where he is largely considered to be the face and voice of the 5-year old social networking powerhouse.

www.pelicandesigngroup.com

What's On Your Business Card?

2011-03-15T11:51:00.000-05:00

A professional business card says more about you and your business than any other tool in your marketing arsenal. You need a card that looks good, tells what you do and makes it easy to contact you.

Here's how to use the necessary ingredients to create a great business card.

Your name should be the biggest part of the card. Right there where the eye can pick it out without searching.

Avoid the old trap of name and phone number in 6 point type in the lower right corner.

Your card's purpose is to get people to remember YOU and contact YOU. So put YOU in the middle, big.

A fancy company logo is not you. YOU are the most important element of your business card.

The second most important element of your new business card should be your preferred method of communication. If you are a cell phone junkie, your cell phone number should be the biggest on the card. If email is your thing, your address should be prominent and near your name. No need to post every contact method. An option would be to add your company logo, albeit small, in the corner of your card.

Don't use clip art to create your logo. You can have logos professionally designed for around $400 bucks.

Next, you need a one sentence version of your elevator speech. Condense your elevator speech to one sentence that will fit on your business card, under your name and contact info. Across the bottom is a good spot (An elevator speech is what you say to someone who asks "What do you do?" in an elevator going down from the 25th floor).

Your name, contact information and shortened elevator speech (let's call it a selling sentence) are more important than any other elements of your business card. More important than paper stock (always use a high gloss card stock), colors (0nly in a photo or logo) or fonts (easy to read). Cards DO get passed around. Use BOTH sides of your card to help get the message out and the cost is about the same.

If someone who has never met you is given your card, they must be able to determine who you are and how you can help them. "Joe Jones, Plumber" might work, but it doesn't convey what you can do for them. "Joe Jones, I show up on time, smell good and fix your leak, guaranteed", says a whole lot more. Now your business card is selling YOU.

Hope that helps!

What's In A Color?

2011-03-10T12:57:00.000-06:00

Color is undoubtedly the essential means to touch the emotions of your website visitors. It is a non-verbal communication and creates a physical and emotional reaction of the viewers. Colors are able to set the right tone and carry a necessary message for visitors. Colors can calm or excite, arouse plenty of feelings and stimulate to actions. Color is extremely powerful.

When choosing a color scheme for a website, it is important to do it right, guided by the main principles of the color theory and of course, follow professional advices.

Color theory: the main principles. Learning to combine colors

The people, who are not closely familiar with the web design main principles, choose colors for their websites according to their own taste and end up with the colors that just look good in combination with each other. It is great if you have a good eye and you feel intuitively what color scheme to choose for a website. But of course, all men can’t be good at it. So, for all those who are not sure what colors to combine for the website, I would recommend to learn the basics of color theory – it is very clear and easy to understand.

One of the most useful issues to start with is the Color Wheel.

A little bit of history: The color wheel was invented by Isaak Newton in 1666. He took the bar of colors created by the passage of light through a prism and transformed it into a segmented circle, where the size of each segment differed according to his calculations of its wavelength and of its corresponding width in the spectrum.

Source: sustland.umn.edu

The color wheel is an indispensable attribute of many designers and artists all over the world. This great tool is a perfect proof of the theory that the ingenious is always simple. The color wheel allows you to pick the colors that are harmonious together. The wheel consists of 6 basic colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. In addition to the basic colors, we have extra colors (mixes of the basic).

So, to find a right harmonious color scheme, you need to use any two colors opposite each other on the color wheel, any three colors equally spaced around the color wheel forming a triangle or any of four colors that form a rectangle (two pairs of colors opposite each other). Color schemes remain harmonious regardless of the rotation angle.

Primary Colors

There are three primary colors: Red (#ff0000 in HTML or #f00 in CSS), Yellow (#ffff00 in HTML or #ff0 in CSS) and Blue (#0000ff in HTML or #00f in CSS). We cannot get them by mixing any other color. The other extra colors can be formed by combining of these three colors. If you mix two of the primary colors, you will have a secondary color.

Secondary colors

There are also three of them: Orange (#ff9900 in HTML or #f90 in CSS), Green (#00ff00 in HTML or #0f0 in CSS) and Purple (#ff00ff in HTML or #f0f in CSS). You can get them by mixing red and yellow (orange), yellow and blue (green) and blue and red (purple).

Tertiary colors

To get one of tertiary colors you need to mix one primary color and one secondary color together. The opportunities for tertiary colors are endless.

Complementary colors

Complementary colors are the ones that are located directly across each other on the color wheel: red and green, blue and orange, purple and yellow. In combination with each other they compose a striking contrast. Such color combinations are usually used for standing out some elements on the website. For example, if you have an orange background and some blue elements on it, the blue items will be almost blinding.

Analogous colors

These colors are located next to each other on the color wheel. They usually look extremely good together, but absolutely quiet. Use such color combinations when you need your visitors to feel comfortable while looking at your website pages.

There are plenty of color groups that refer to various aspects of color, i.e. warm colors, cool colors, neutral colors to name a few.

Conclusion: some useful tips

As a conclusion, there are some useful pieces of advice that will help you in choosing a good color scheme for your website. These little tips are widely used by professional web designers.

1. If you wish your text content to be easily readable, choose contrasting colors. It is important to make contrast between the text and background.
2. Use less colors. Don’t make your website to look like a circus. For the best impact you can use one color on headlines and another color (the complementary one) for the text.
3. Use enough colors. Use less, but enough. If you use too little colors, you risk to make your website boring. Or use little colors but just use other means to underline the elements in that case.
4. If you need to attract the visitor’s eye, use intense colors. But be careful, as If the color scheme is too intense, it attracts the eye in too many directions, and the techniques will lose its effectiveness.
5. Derive inspiration from nature: you can find really great complementary color schemes.

Pelican Design Group Offers Green Printing

2011-03-09T09:54:00.001-06:00

Pelican Design Group goes the extra mile to offer paper products that are recycled from certified sustainable production systems.

Recycled paper products contain recovered fibers, which include pre or post consumer sources, or both. As a result, there are significant environmental advantages of producing recycled paper over non-recycled paper. The advantages create an eco-friendly footprint which consists of a reduced impact on forest resources, reduced air and water pollution, reduced water and energy consumption, and the reduction of solid waste.

Pelican Design Group also incorporates the use of eco-friendly inks and solvents based on soy in our production which emit very low traces of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs are the fumes emitted into the air from inks, solvents and cleaners as they are used or while they dry. Our VOC levels are one of the lowest in the world and much lower than the required amounts set by the AQMD. In comparison, petroleum based inks release a much greater amount of VOCs than soy inks. Soy inks are also extremely beneficial during the paper recycling process since removing soy ink stains from paper is much easier than other artificial inks. Soy inks are easily washable and cause less damage to the paper fibers. As a result, the recycled paper is much brighter and fit for reuse. Furthermore, the waste produced by soy inks does not pose any threat to the environment and can be easily treated using modern methods.

In our continued commitment to the environment, Pelican Design Group takes every opportunity to offer customers environmentally conscious and friendly solutions by expanding our recycled paper selection while still retaining a high degree of quality.

The future of our environment depends on the choices we make today. We are thrilled to be able to provide you the choice to use recycled papers and other green products. We encourage you to take advantage of these eco-conscious choices. Together we can make a difference.

Check us out at www.pelicandesigngroup.com.

Restaurant Menu Design

2011-03-08T18:37:00.001-06:00

A good restaurant menu design is key to any restaurant's marketing plan. It expresses your eatery's personality, focuses your overall operations, promotes profitability, establishes your budget and keeps your brand fresh in your customer's mind.
What is the goal of a well-crafted restaurant menu?
Your menu is your primary means of representation: It says exactly who you are and what you hope to convey personality-wise. It also should create enough of an impression so that it stays with your client long after the waiter or waitress walks off with it. In addition, it must convey your restaurant's brand in a manner that makes diners excited to be there, want to come back and recommend it to family and friends.

What steps should I take before designing my restaurant menu?
As with most creative endeavors, proper results can't be achieved without sufficient research. In the case of designing the right menu, that means collecting data from various sources. Examine your own numbers first, such as your restaurant's prospective financial and marketing numbers and its sales mix. Then look at your competitors: Examine their Web sites, menus and marketing efforts and try to see where they went right and how you could compete successfully with those traits. Also, look at vendors and see how they handle similar challenges, and read industry sources (trade publications, published research) to evaluate trends and successes.

After that, consider your location and how it relates to the immediate neighborhood around you. Eighty percent of a typical restaurant's business usually comes from the residents living within a 10-minute drive of that location. Knowing this, ask yourself the following:

What can my restaurant menu offer that others in the area do not?
What menu items do we have in common?
How does our pricing match up?
Does my menu offer more variety than theirs?

Determining these factors will help guide you towards designing the right menu for your restaurant.

DO I NEED A WEBSITE FOR MY BUSINESS OR CAN I JUST DO SOCIAL?

2011-03-08T18:13:00.000-06:00

Here Are The Reasons Why You DO Need A Website:

1) Image is everything. And in today’s world, a company without a website is a company without a face.

2) Building your own database of – users, clients, names. What will you do if tomorrow Facebook closes your page and you are left with no database of your own? You will be lost. You must have a database of your customers.

3) Search – people today still search Google when looking for things – a hotel in Paris, a new coffee-maker, a place to fix their car, etc. You want to be high up in those Google search results when they do their searching.

4) Blogging – creating a company blog enables you to make a name for yourself in your field. Look at Mint for example and what a remarkable job they did with their blog. Their blog got so popular that it was bringing tons of traffic to their site and increasing their brand awareness.

At the end of the day, it’s all about the cross-promotion of your different properties and maximized utilization of each and every one of them. Each of your social channels is supposed to promote your destination channels and vice versa. Your blog should be promoted on your Facebook page. Your Youtube videos should be promoted on your Twitter profile. Your Twitter should be promoted on your blog and your Facebook should be promoted everywhere. Take, for example, Skittles’ amazing website which basically acts as an access point to all of Skittles’ online social activities and acts as a catalyst of virality. Hopefully not only you will be promoting your different properties but others will as well and this will in turn help your SEO and increase the traffic to your site while also helping your social profiles thrive.

We live in a world where word spreads fast. Take advantage of certain technologies and applications which you don’t need to develop on your own while understanding which basic utilities and functions you do need to program on your end so as to not only properly function but even succeed as a business.

How to Create a Lasting Logo

2011-02-03T10:03:00.000-06:00

The most important component of a solid brand is your corporate identity, or logo. It's the cornerstone of your visual communications and brings together your business name and sometimes a graphic element to establish your business identity. Used consistently, logos help customers remember you when they need your product or service.

A common mistake business owners make is it to think that their logo has to include an image of the product or service they offer. A logo is simply a visual representation of your business. While it can be tempting for a financial planner to use a dollar sign, it doesn't make for a very original logo. If every other financial planner in town uses the same imagery then your target market can't tell you apart. The main goal of a logo is to connect with your target market and it can't do that if it doesn't differentiate your business from your competitors.

Entrepreneurs on a budget often decide to design a logo themselves. Although this may seem like a smart option, it can cost you in the long run. Not only can it be time-consuming to develop a logo yourself, it can also make your business look amateur. Even if you have a great idea for a logo, you may not be able to execute it properly.Professional graphic designers have the skills and expertise to create a logo that will last. They understand how to use color, fonts and imagery to create a logo that matches your brand message. A professional designer will also keep into consideration the various uses of your logo and make sure it will look good no matter what the medium, from a business card to a billboard.Hiring a professional designer does not have to break the bank. There are many talented freelance or boutique firms who can create a professional, lasting logo for a lot less than the large design firms.

Whether you decide to design your logo yourself or hire a professional, here are some things to keep in mind as you choose a logo for your business:Design: Choose a design that reflects the style and personality of your business. And, almost more important, your logo should be appealing to the people your target market. For example, the logo design for a children's clothing boutique would be vastly different from that of an accounting firm.Scalability: When choosing a logo, make sure it will look good no matter the size. Your logo needs to be something that can be reproduced on both a business card and billboard. Logos that have too much detail can be difficult to recognize when distilled to a thumbnail.

Less is more: Some of the most recognizable logos, Nike, Mercedes, Coca-Cola and all have very basic, iconic designs. Simple logos are often the most effective as they are easy to digest and can more quickly communicate the essence of your business. They are also easier to reproduce in a variety of mediums like apparel or promotional items.Uniqueness: As mentioned throughout this series, your logo should represent YOUR BUSINESS. Avoid using clip art, templates or other generic images.