Graphic Zen

Website tip #1.

admin — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:49:47 +0000

This should be a no-brainer, own your domain name! We’ve recently been involved with projects with clients who let other designers or webhost providers register their domain name “as a courtesy to them”. Great – what happens when you want to switch providers or the designer who used to do your work goes out of business, leaves town, or just won’t return your call? You let someone else have control of your intellectual property and now you are going to have a hard time getting it back.

On one of our projects the client had to secure a new domain name – which sucks for them because all of their collateral material, (cards, letterhead, brochures, etc.) were branded with the old domain name. Luckily the site is down because the server is gone but what if it wasn’t? You would have your customers going to your old site, with outdated info and not much you could do about it.

So the key lesson here is register your own domain name – you own it, you control it. If you need to change webhost providers it’s a simple case of updating the nameservers. It doesn’t take a lot of time to register a domain, the expense is relatively small (especially if you register for multiple years) and it might save you a big headache down the road. Any questions feel free to contact us!

Well, it was funny the first 299 times…

admin — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 10:09:06 +0000

My apologies (I’m sorry!) to all Tweeters out there, especially my followers, for my repetitive Nigerian bank scam tweet. I’m sure it was funny the first few hundred times you saw it. :-0 See, I was trying out a tweeting software to schedule tweets and added that one. Instead of selecting “Publish Once”, I somehow selected “Publish Every 15 Minutes”. Yikes! Wasn’t even aware of it until my brother sent me a “Dude, you are SO annoying!” email. Feel like a newb, I suck – I know – but hey, no excuses. I screwed up and I’m fessing up – and asking for your forgiveness.

I’d like to thank those of you (especially tacullum) who had my back and replied that I was going for a scam. Now I know why he kept sending that to me, cause he kept seeing my freakin’ tweet every 15 minutes! Dude is cool though, cause he cared enough to tweet and that’s why I love Twitter – you get to meet nice people.

Oh, and if you don’t know what the Nigerian Bank scam is, check your junk mail or click here. And for heaven’s sake, don’t you dare fall for the scam. Tweep out.

Logo of the Month.

admin — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 20:45:05 +0000

Graphic Zen’s featured logo for September is: EuroSpa. EuroSpa is a day spa and therapeutic massage company located in Meridian, Idaho. The owner of EuroSpa wanted to use colors she liked in the new logo, mainly purples, pinks and some blue. We worked on a couple of variations to this logo until the client said that we had captured the perfect look. They also provide a great massage experience!

Ass-what?

admin — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 01:22:36 +0000

Okay, I must admit that I rarely pay attention to the drugs being marketed on television. The supposed cure for an ailment usually comes with a litany of side effects, many that seem worse than the original “problem”. I would love to design a logo and help craft a name for some of these drugs, as the manufacturers seem to shell out boatloads of money on such projects. I would have loved to have been in the meeting for this product:

See, I was half-watching TV when the ad for this product came on and I heard “..blah, blah, blah, ass effects.” Excuse me? Ass-what?

For the treatment of acid reflux disease, Aciphex (yes, it’s pronounced “ass-effex” but sounds like “ass-effects” to me), brings to mind a whole buffet of side effects. None too pretty either. For those that suffer from this, I sympathize – I really do. It’s still funny though.

Latest website is up.

admin — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:24:06 +0000

Just finished the “Safe At University” site – located at: www.safeatuniversity.com. This is a site dedicated to student safety while attending college or university. The guide is filled with tips for parents and students on dealing with various campus and off campus safety situations. Please visit!

Success in Seattle

admin — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:20:08 +0000

Cross one off the “bucket list”. Finished the Seattle Rock ‘n Roll Marathon on June 27th. To make it even better, proposed to my girlfriend afterwards! Now back to work!

The Food Network

admin — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:57:08 +0000

Or should I say “The Fewd Network”? Appears they are working the staff too hard, or they don’t hold the production staff to the same exacting ‘You’ve got to get this right’ mentality that I see being preached on The Next Food Network Star. Don’t get me wrong – I love the Food Network. It’s the most watched channel in my TV lineup.

However, while watching the show ‘The Best Thing I Ever Ate: BBQ’ last night, I caught this typo.
No, it’s not a photoshop – I even DVR’d the episode to make sure I was seeing what I thought I caught the first time. Sure enough, someone at The Food Network made an oops with the word ‘restaurant’. Now fix it and go grill me up something Bobby Filet.

Oh, coming soon – the Graphic Zen sledge on the Food Network logo. Stay tuned.

Thought for designers (& business owners)

admin — Thu, 28 May 2009 04:52:54 +0000

Attention entrepreneurs/business owners: what business are you in? Attended a great business seminar today and was asked that question by one of the speakers. If you answered, “I’m in _____ business”, chances are that you are not as successful as you should be. The speaker challenged us to think that we were all in the “people business”. We need people (clients/customers) to survive and excel in our business. How we treat (service) those clients determines our success and growth as a business. Basic maybe, but true. What say you?

Marathon..and on…and on.

admin — Tue, 12 May 2009 05:34:07 +0000

Training continues for the Seattle RNR Marathon. Did 14 miles last Saturday and came to the realization that this is eating up a lot of life. Eat, run, sleep. Occasionally get some work in. How you runners do it? Going to try tweaking the diet a bit to gain some energy for the long runs. Now back to Top Gear, a proper show about driving (mostly) proper cars – not running 26.2 bloody miles.

Thank you Arlen Specter.

admin — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:36:59 +0000

For at least showing your true colors. Kind of like Monty Python & The Holy Grail — “Run away!” when the going gets tough. Now will the rest of the phony baloney politicians please come forward and state what you really stand for?

We have a flu epidemic that might kill people nationwide and we’re haggling over the name of it?!? Speaking of hags, our Homeland Seacow, err, Security Director agrees with this PC move and is striving to have everyone call it the “H1N1 virus”. How about “Captain Trips”, Nappy? Read any good books lately? Hello – is this thing on?

In other news, our fearless leader Barry gets flustered by the teleprompter SNAFU and we learn that he can’t speak freely or have an original thought unless it’s on the screen for him to say. I think that’s called the “Ron Burgundy Syndrome”. Stay tuned as next week we declare war on Canada and outlaw Cherry Coke, all because someone hacked the teleprompter and the POTUS just read it straight through.

Let’s just “un-elect” everyone on both sides of the aisle in 2010, supposing there’s enough of us left to vote if we believe the media concerning SWINE flu. Up yours, Nappy.

Keep your chin up America. Drink fluids, get rest if you’re sick, yada, yada, and we’ll get through this. Don’t buy into the political BS “they” keep trying to turn this into. And don’t get me started on that stupid flyby photo op thing in New York that scared the city half to death. What jackhole came up with that idea, hmmm?

The next person in line for the soapbox please step right up, it’s your turn.