We recently had the chance to create a fun ad design for a fellow creative, Cliff Marks Jr. Photography. Cliff is the exclusive photographer for the Treasure Valley Children’s Theater and this fun shot of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ that we used for the ad is perfect to show the fun side of photography. Cliff Marks Jr. Photography provides individual and family portraits, fashion, senior portraits, personal and professional headshots (Cliff got to photo the Romney campaign when they were in Idaho). Cliff also takes some wonderful natural and action/sports images, which you can check out by visiting his Facebook page at facebook.com/cliffmarksjrphotography. Thanks for allowing us to create this ad for you Cliff!
Graphic Zen business
Social Media Integration
How do you share your blog posts with your audience? We are currently testing a service called dlvr.it (Deliver It) to see how well the service handles blog posts and places them into our social media accounts automatically. We were using Twitterfeed, though lately their service has been pulling old blog posts and not updating as it should. Both Twitterfeed and dlvr.it offer free services to start, and dlvr.it has a nice graphic interface that show clicks and network updates for your social media accounts. I’m going to give dlvr.it a try for a week and see if it handles posts like Twitterfeed. If it works well, I’ll stick with it because of the information in the graphic interface. Update to follow.
Looking forward to 2012!
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!
Graphic Zen Facebook Contest
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!
Graphic Zen t-shirt designs.
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.
Creating a professional logo.
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.
I Lost Google’s Algorithm Formula!
Oh wait, I never had it in the first place. So can I just call Google and ask them to send it over to me? That seems to be the impression one client had of us recently. Yeah, Graphic Zen and Google, we’re like this. Seriously….and all sarcastic snarkiness aside, that was an actual request of a client recently after we’d done some web design for them. They wanted a higher search engine ranking and suggested we “Just call Google and ask them.” I had to explain that just as they would not give out their company secrets, Google is not about to reveal theirs to anyone, let alone a great Boise web design company like us. Maybe someday Google’s formula will get out, just as the secret formula of Coca Cola is now out, but probably not before we catch Bigfoot and discover life on another planet. Now back to your regularly scheduled logo design channel.