Cleaning out some files for the new year, and ran across a handwritten sheet of inspirational thoughts gathered from various friends, sites and seminars. Thought I would share them with you as you plan for 2012. May it be your best year yet!

• Have a mind open to everything and closed to nothing.
• Be free of attachment.
• You’re not able to give away what you don’t have.
• There are no justified resentments.
• Send blame out of your life.
• Take responsibility for your life and situation.
• Don’t die with your best music left in you.
• You are not able to solve a problem with the same mind that created it. Change your point of view.
• Love a person or thing for what they are, not what you want them to be.
• Treat yourself as if you already are what you want to become.
• You are no accident on this planet.
• Wisdom is avoiding all thoughts that weaken you. Shift your thoughts to empowering ones.

Everyone is creative – so let yourself go and express yourself!

Merry Christmas and all the seasonal greetings that come with this time of year. As we look forward to 2012, Graphic Zen will be debuting a revamped website, (work continues on it now), and some new service offerings. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy the “snow” that is gently falling on our website. We thank all the clients, friends and associates for this past year, and wish you the very best for 2012.

Just finished up a website for Independent Scentsy Consultant, Lisa Nelson. This site will be used by Lisa as a marketing and lead generation tool for prospective consultants and customers. This was a great site to work on because it educated us about the fantastic products and the story of the Scentsy company. You can read more about it by visiting Lisa’s site -  check out the site here. Want us to design a site for your Scentsy business? Contact us!

New logo created for Dolan Gadoury, whose Quantum Transformation company is assisting people the world over in the areas of personal and business development. Because of Dolan’s interest in Eastern philosophy we incorporated some of those elements into the logo design, which Dolan commented on:

The logo you have come up with is awe inspiring. The orange you used is a sacred orange in the Hindu and Buddhist religions, worn by yogis and monks,  it very much resonates with me.

We are looking forward to collaborating on some other upcoming projects for Dolan and his clients, which are immensely exciting as they create value and serve to inspire others. Namaste.

Please tell us how to fix our sucky logo. Excuse me? That was how the conversation began with a potential client (who did end up hiring us to “spice up” their logo). The client wanted us to review their current logo and tell them what was wrong with it and wondered if it could be fixed. They had certain elements that they liked and wanted to retain, but were open to suggestions as well. That got us to thinking – are there other people that would like a logo review? If you would like a free logo review, feel free to contact us at info@graphiczen.com and we’ll take a look at your logo, ask you a few questions, and give you our opinion if it could be “improved”, or if it’s better to start over.

Announcing our first ever contest on our Facebook page. Simple to enter and you could win a bundle of Graphic Zen designed t-shirts. Simply click this link to enter and Like us on Facebook!

The latest logo designed by Graphic Zen for PopFury.com. PopFury is a review/opinion site dedicated to art, music, design, film, food & spirits, technology, and video games. We are also working on the website design for this project, which is scheduled to launch August 1. UPDATE: Site is now live at www.popfury.com.

Our goal was to create a logo that conveyed “anger/frustration” in a playful way, and per our usual goal, crossover to a variety of medium (print, web, t-shirts, etc.)

Note: PopFury has already created a basic CafePress store – located at www.cafepress.com/popfury.

Graphic Zen recently completed the website redesign for Cougar Mountain Landscaping. The new design features a “Video” page, where Cougar Mountain will feature videos of client landscape installs and DIY tips. Dave Wells, partner at Cougar Mountain said, “We really love the new design. It’s much cleaner and puts the focus on our projects through the use of many photos.”

The new site also features a comprehensive client survey – for those seeking a custom quote – that goes into great detail to provide Cougar Mountain with your landscaping wishlist. Once submitted, Cougar Mountain can provide a series of landscaping options to fit the clients’ budget.

You can visit Cougar Mountain at www.cougarmtnlandscaping.com

Adding to the design brand by offering Graphic Zen designed items. Shown here is this Graphic Zen designed t-shirt – for “Supergenius Industries”. We draw inspiration from classic Looney Tunes cartoons, cult movies and the silly and strange. We’ve added a few more designs to the collection and you can check them out by clicking here.

Your logo is an extension of your brand – a communication tool to identify your company to clients. So, it should be able to capture and reflect the nature of your business at its most basic level. Identity and reputation (which is defined by your customers) should be taken into consideration also.

As a reflection of your company, the designer’s objective should be to design a logo with a professional touch because it is what creates the initial impression on the mind of the consumers. These first impressions are almost always impossible to undo, so you shouldn’t risk a mediocre design.

As simple as it may sound, designing a logo is an intricate process, which is why you need a professional to help realize and conceptualize a workable logo solution. Among the elements that must be considered and combined effectively are colors, shapes, light, space, and type.

The Design Process

The logo design process involves gathering information about your company that will be utilized by the designer in coming up with the design. Here at Graphic Zen, we use a brainstorm session to sketch ideas as an essential step to take before jumping into the actual design process. It’s a refining process – we create initial drafts of the logo, and utilize design elements that will connect with your business identity.  Once a logo concept is agreed upon and the final design is created, color, usage details, and business templates (calling card, letterhead, etc.) can be created.