Presenting the first round of logo designs to a client is one my favorite parts of my job. It’s very exciting to show how loose ideas, general likes and dislikes, and sometimes even conflicting input gets translated into a tangible logo design.

I’m happy to say we’ve been very successful at being able to translate these abstract thoughts into concrete designs, and generally our clients are pretty wowed by the effect. Whether they are a local client from Portland, Maine or someone we are working with entirely through phone calls and emails, we manage to figure out what they are looking for.

The next step then becomes evaluating the options.

How to choose a good logo design?

Good logos have appeal both at first glance and when you’ve had some time to sit with them. Great logos have immediate appeal and then grow even more appealing as someone has time to take in the detail.

A fun example of this is the FedEx logo. At first glance, it is bold and clean. At second glance, you see the arrow embedded in the logo, which sums up the speed and accuracy which is at the core of their business.

First impressions

When you are working with a logo designer, and seeing your logo designs for the first time, try to remember that feeling. Some of those same first impressions that hit you, will hit your customers and prospects.

Probably you will have a strong reaction (either positive or negative) to some of the logo designs you see. Some of these impressions are gut reactions or from the subconscious. You just like it or didn’t like it for reasons you may not even be able to easily articulate. Even if you can’t say why, it’s still a worthwhile feeling to acknowledge.

Another important part of first impressions is that they cannot be easily overcome. A great logo needs no explanation, it just works.

There are many times when your prospective customer will only see your logo very quickly. Whether it’s briefly when exchanging business cards, or quickly as your logo’d van drives by, many first impressions of logos happen quickly without much time for analysis. It needs to be recognizable and memorable in a flash.

Lasting feelings

Just as important as first impressions, you need to have a logo that you love the more you look at it. As a business owner, you will be promoting your brand identity for years, and you don’t want to easily get tired of it. In fact, the stronger a concept behind a logo design, the more you’ll tend to like it as time goes on.

It’s especially great if your logo tells a story. This story or concept helps you connect with your audience. Just like first impressions, sometimes these impressions are hard to articulate, but still resonate with viewers.

A logo that has no substance or concept behind it will tend to look out of date more quickly because the only thing holding it together is “style.” As trends change, your logo (and therefore your brand) may appear out of touch. A more classic design, backed by a strong concept will serve you better in the long run.

Should I get other people’s opinions?

Many designers cringe at the idea of “design by committee.” Group decisions often weaken a design and the result is a watered down concept with a muddied result.

However, I do recommend that you show preliminary logo designs to other people that you trust.

Each person has their own life experiences that they bring with them when viewing and evaluating something like a logo. They may see similarities with other logos or brands that you are not familiar with. It’s good to hear about these possible conflicts before you become too invested in one logo design.

Do not expect to please everyone, and do not look for your advisers to give you answers (just opinions). In other words, listen when they say: “This reminds me of brand X” but don’t put much weight into statements like: “I’d like it better if this were red.”

Rather, listen to their gut reactions and follow up with research on any correlations they see that you are unfamiliar with. For example, if they say: “This reminds me of the logo for that Financial Advisor who embezzled millions of cash.” it would be a good idea to see if there are similarities between your new logo design and brand identity (especially if it has a tainted history).

The final analysis

I really like to hear the process my client went through to select a logo design. So don’t feel that all you have to do is choose an option. When your logo designer has the full understanding of your decision making process, it can help them as they continue to refine the logo design.

Which brings me to my final point. It is unlikely that whatever design was shown in an initial design presentation is completely ready. Most logo designers are prepared to then refine a logo design, once an initial concept has been selected. This is why having a complete understanding of your thought process is useful. It will help your designer avoid going down paths you’ve already dismissed in your mind; and push a design more in the direction of your liking.

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If you want to see some example of our logo design process, I suggest you read about the logo design process for the New England Breeze logo, The Greater Freeport Chamber of Commerce logo, or the Perfect Peanut Brittle logo.

We are currently in the midst of a large branding project. It started with an analysis of the client’s competitors and target audience and is now in the final stages of logo development and refinement and the beginning phases of the web site design.

As we are refining the logo design, we’ve had some interesting conversations about “What is the best shape for a logo?” And “Is it OK to have multiple versions of your logo?” such as one that is predominantly horizontal and another that is grouped more compactly.

I’m not ready to share the client’s in-progress work, so I will use other examples to illustrate my point.

The wide rectangle

When I was in design school, we were taught that the ideal shape for a logo is a horizontal rectangle. That doesn’t mean that the actual shape of the logo needs to be a rectangle, but the live area should be like a wide rectangle.

An example of a logo we created that fits the wide proportion, but is not actually a rectangle shape.

This is the normal viewing area for the human eyes, which is why they use it in movie theaters. This format is now becoming more mainstream as TVs and computer monitors are also more commonly created with this widescreen format. That shape can quickly and easily be seen, whereas a more tall & skinny or overly wide format may take longer for the human eye to see and recognize the information.

The square

Nowadays, there are many applications that require a square version of your logo. Favicons, and avatars are two common places where you may need to represent your company or brand with a small, square version of your logo. Some designers are trying to create logos that are specifically square to start with. Other shapes that fit within a square would be a close second choice, such as circles or triangles. They should have the same height and width dimension.

A logo with a square shape as the live area (although it's actually a circle)

Working with your business name

A critical problem (and one for this client project we’re in the middle of) is businesses with long names. In that case, it can be difficult to make a version of the logo that is grouped tightly. If you’re starting from scratch, you may want to consider a short name. There are many benefits to a short and snappy name and one of them is that you’re able to create a very compact logo design.

With a name like Visible Logic I understand the issues!

One company that overcame this issue was FedEx. For years, they fought to be called their full name: Federal Express. But eventually they decided to change to the nickname that everyone was using: FedEx. This opened up a world of opportunity when they rebranded. What started as a weak logo, was redesigned and is now praised as one of the best.

You can see with the FedEx example, that choosing a short brand name can be beneficial. But, it is not the only consideration. The name needs to make sense to people, it needs to have an available domain name, etc. You also may have a company that has successfully been in business for a long time and it doesn’t make sense to shorten your name! (You probably don’t have FedEx’s budget for marketing, nor their promotional opportunities on the sides of trucks and planes across the globe).

Should you have more than one version of your logo?

Harkening back to design school days again, I remember being told that while a wide rectangle is the ideal shape for a logo, you should always have a version that can fit on the side of a pen. Pens are frequent giveaway items at trade shows and some businesses do rely on this type of promotional item. Nowadays, it’s more common to need a horizontal version within a web site banner or header.

It is reasonable to have more than one version of your logo. You probably already have more than one version— such as a full color version and a black and white or one color version. With careful planning, you should be able to create several, tightly related versions of your logo so that you always have the best fit for the application at hand. Here is an example of both a wide and stacked version of British Airways logo (note there is also no highlight on one version, which might be necessary depending on the application).

Looking around on the web I was also able to find a picture of the British Airways headquarters that had the stacked version, but with white type.

On this page you can see a complete run down of all their planes with the logo applied. It is always the horizontal logo, but the actual placement of the ribbon graphic and the size and relationship between the graphic and type changes based on the physical structure of the plane.

Click here to see British Airway's fleet and how the logo changes slightly on each plane.

6 Tips for logo usage

1. The fewer the variations, the better. It is still ideal to have one version of your logo and be able to apply it in every case. This is the easiest way (especially for a small business owner) to ensure the correct usage and maximum impact.
2. But… make sure you have different versions that present your brand in the best light. Just like you have different color versions, based on ouput, you may need to have different lockups (the groupings of the typography and graphic). For example, if you only have a circular version of your logo, and you have a wide rectangular space to work with, your logo will appear very small. This is probably not ideal in a place where you are trying to maximize exposure. Having a secondary, wider version is good.
3. Consider the applications that are critical to your business. For someone like British Airways, a wide logo is great for placement on their planes. If you give away a lot of pens make sure you also have a good horizontal version of your logo. Think about the applications for your logo: large scale signage, uniforms, business cards, etc.
4. Create masters and then stick with it. Try not to make too many variations of your logo. This will weaken your identity. Ideally, have your designer create a complete logo library that includes things like: color version, black and white version, square avatars and logos with and without the tagline.
5. Prioritize your logo options. It’s best to consider one version of the logo to be the “master” and then the rest are secondary versions. The master has the ideal grouping of type and icon and is in your corporate colors. Always attempt to use the master first.
6. Make sure people understand the importance of consistency. Whether it’s the business owner, the marketing department personnel, or your web site designer, make sure the people who apply your logo have access to the right files and understand which version is the best to use.

Unfortunately, I’ve been hearing the same scenario frequently from some potential clients who are requesting estimates for web design work.

We just had our web site redesigned recently, but we hate it! Can you help us redesign and redevelop it?

With prospects like this, we usually set up a time to talk and walk through their current site. We look at what they like (if anything) and what’s not working. These are some of the typical things we see:

• The design is just not working. These issues usually come back to the basics of good design. Making the most important things most prominent. Good, readable typography. Layouts that show balance. Color palettes that work together. Not using cheesy clipart or poor photography.
• The web site is not user-friendly. Sometimes the navigation is difficult to use (example: roll-overs that are twitchy). Or, the content is not organized well so it is difficult to find. Or, the names used in the navigation are not clear what content they refer to.
• The web site is supposed to have a Content Management System (CMS) but the client can’t figure out how to use it. The problem here can be caused by poor training, or poor expectations about what and how you should be able to update content. Or it may be that the developer chose a CMS that is not very user-friendly.
• They are not seeing the results they expected. Web traffic may not be increasing, or viewers are giving them feedback that they cannot find the information they need.

I have a poorly designed site, what should I do?

As I review the site with the prospective client, the conversation often then goes like this:

“We just spent $5,000 on this site, can you use any of it? Because we can’t afford to re do it.”

Unfortunately, they are often stuck because there are so many problems with their web site that we can’t really salvage much. The design is poor, so we’ll need to start over again. Which means we can’t use the HTML or CSS code as we’ll be redeveloping that in conjunction with the new design. And, they don’t like their CMS so we’ll probably be introducing a new one, which means we’ll need to move all their data to a new system.

Since they’re not getting the results they want, we need to look even deeper. They often need a copywriter to make the text clearer or more compelling. They may be relying on product photography that is unprofessional and needs to be re-shot. They may need to rewrite headlines and page titles to make them more SEO-friendly.

The harsh reality: You just wasted a whole lot of money.

What we are often finding is that they need a $10,000 web site solution. And they already wasted $5,000 on a version that is worthless.

It’s usually a case where they didn’t fully understand their own web site needs. Or, they tried to cut corners by using a web design firm that could not handle all the tasks that go into a comprehensive web site design: good design, content review, user interface creation, content management recommendations and implementation, etc.

What to do?

I wish I had better solutions to offer.

Sticking with the same CMS system, and receiving training on how to use it, will definitely make redesign process more cost effective. Sometimes we take that route (but it has to be a CMS platform we understand).

Other times, we plan a complete web site redesign and redevelopment, but we do it in a phased approach. We streamline and reduce content and functionality for the initial launch and then build it back in as the client can afford it. It is far better to have a smaller but more professional and more effective web site.

Sometimes we have to just put the project on hold until they can afford the whole package.

On nearly every web site, there is the ubiquitous Contact Us button. But what happens when you go that page? What should you include on your contact us page?

1. List a complete physical address. If you do not include a physical address people become very skeptical of you and your business. You may use a PO Box, but definitely provide a mailing address to show that you are legitimate.
2. Include all the details. Your contact page is also a great way to list all of the ways to contact you. As fax numbers become less frequently used, they are not necessarily included in web site footers or business cards. But if you have a fax number, include it here because it’s where people are looking for that type of information. The same goes for Skype or any other communication medium that you use.
3. Include social media links. The contact us page is a great place to list all of your social media channels in one place. You’re probably showing the icons elsewhere on your site, but this can be a place to explain how use use those channels. For example, is Twitter a good place for your clients to get a quick customer service issue resolved, or is it only live during week day hours?
4. Make sure all email addresses are links. It’s a very simple thing to make an email address into a clickable link that will launch someone’s email program. Don’t make the viewer copy and paste. If you are worried about people harvesting your email address, then don’t list it at all, and use forms (see next item).
5. Make sure you include a form. If you only include email links, you are forcing someone to launch an email program to contact you electronically. If someone is using a public computer, or prefers to access their email using a web-based program, they are stuck. Using a form allows an email to come to you without relying on the viewer’s email client.
6. Include interactive maps. If you have a retail operation or other business that has in person traffic make sure you include a map from Google or other source that people can immediately customize to get directions from where they are to your location.
7. Add descriptive directions as well. If there is anything tricky about getting to your store, finding parking, etc. write down some directions that will help. This helps to humanize you and your brand. It also gets the relationship off on a good foot, rather than having potential clients show up frustrated with the trek to your location.
8. Consider adding a photo. Photos of your building or sign are easily remembered and will help someone trying to find you while driving or walking in a new area. They’ll get that “aha” moment as they recognize the same thing they saw on your web site earlier.

Depending on the type of business you have, you may not need all eight of these elements. Adding local information such as your address and phone number may help with search engine rankings and local search.

Most importantly, remember that being helpful can be an important way for your customers and prospects to begin to like and trust you. It’s an easy way to start a relationship making the right first impression.

A critical piece of many web designs is photography. Photographs really can be worth a thousand words because they have the power to immediately convey emotions, give a sense place, describe a feature or product in detail, illustrate a concept or set a tone. All without having to read a word.

Professional photography can help make your whole brand looking more professional, while cheap, poorly shot photos can really make a bad impression.

If you cannot afford custom photography, you are probably going to rely on either royalty-free photos or the non-professional photos taken by you, your staff or your clients. Both of these options can save money, but plan to take some time to select the best images and to present them in a way that will add relevance and visual interest to your web site design.

Ten tips for using photography effectively on your web site.

1. Avoid cliched, overused images and ideas. Because royalty-free photos, by their nature, are not created specifically for your project or concept they tend to have very general concepts behind them: business, teamwork, global network, etc. Therefore low cost royalty free photo sites are filled with photos that are too cliched. Adding an image like that does nothing to distinguish your company, product or service from your competitors. And in many cases it really makes you look worse.
2. Make sure the people look real. Photographing your own team is always a great idea if it’s possible. However, you may not have the budget for a custom shoot, or you may not have the set-up to make it ideal. But if you turn to stock and royalty free photographs to represent either your own business or your clients, make sure you are realistic. Do all or your clients look like models? Do all or your employees dress like fashionistas? Probably not. There are plenty of more “everyday” looking models that are featured in photographs.
3. Beware of subjects smiling at the camera. Another way to help make things look a little more “real” is to avoid photos where the people are looking at, and smiling at, the camera. Once they start mugging for the camera, it takes away from the idea that you’ve caught them acting natural.
4. Crop images to focus on what’s important. As a graphic designer and web designer, I nearly always end up cropping a photo rather than using at exactly the size and shape that it is provided. Trimming the edges (cropping) allows you to focus on the part of the photo that’s most relevant. It cuts out any distracting background images or other parts to an image. It can also create a more unique look at the subject.
5. Try different shapes. Most photos come in a format that’s around 3:5. They are basically a pretty balanced rectangle. By cropping them into something different, they become more unique. You may want to try photos that are wide and panoramic, or tall and skinny, or square. You’ll need access to a photo software tool to do this.
6. Make sure the photos are crisp and not fuzzy or out of focus. Many small business owners use photographs that they take with their own camera or photos supplied by clients. This is a great way to have photos that are truly unique and feature your own products, people, locations, etc. However, if the photo is blurry and not in focus to begin with, it’s just not going to work. Immediately disregard photos that are out of focus because it’s nearly impossible to fix.
7. Do basic photo editing to clean up red eye and brighten if necessary. Poorly lit (dark) photos are also a problem when using non-professional images. Also, people can have red eyes. Both of these sometimes can be fixed with an editing program. Either fix them, or do not use them.
8. Make sure images are scaled correctly. There is nothing sillier than looking at photo on a web site and having it look like the people are standing in front of a fun house mirror. Sometimes, when adding a photo to a design layout there may be a predetermined size and ratio that the photo must be. If it does not fit that size and shape it is either cropped or scaled to fit. If you are working within specific sizes like this, make sure you size and crop outside of your web site’s CMS for the best results.
9. Keep the resolution low for faster loading. The content management system for your web site may allow you to upload a very large image file and it will scale it for you. However, the data behind that image is probably still stored with the image making it act like a very large file, even if you are seeing it small with in the web site’s design. If you are working with large images (and it can be a good practice to start with high resolution images) make sure you crop and bring the resolution down to avoid slow loading graphics.
10. Realize you can’t fix all photos; start with high-quality images. Many people have the mistaken notion that with digital photography and Photoshop you can just fix any image and make it look good. Unfortunately, it’s just not possible. For example, an image that is too dark and too out-of-focus to begin with probably cannot be salvaged because there is just not enough data there. Other times people want to photoshop out or photoshop in something in an image. While this is not impossible, you need to realize that you’re basically turning a photo editing job into an illustration job: you need to recreate whatever is missing in the photo. While something like some clouds and sky can be done easily, something complex like a hand would take some serious work.

Great photography can help tell the story of your brand, but poor photography just detracts from your professional image. If you decide to use photographs on your web site, make sure they are well-lit, in focus, and cropped appropriately. Also make sure they are adding to your message, not just using cliches that add nothing to your brand’s unique story.

Frequently, we get requests for logos, photos or other artwork to be used in ads, web sites, reviews, magazines, etc. Often we don’t know the application, we just hear: “Can you send that photo?” Usually our next question is about how the image will be used. The reason we ask is that the correct type of file, including color type, is dependent on the application. Below is a basic explanation of the different color systems.

PMS = Pantone Matching System

The Pantone Matching System is a system of thousands of numbered swatches. Most corporate colors, in a logo for example, are identified with a number from this system. You’ll often hear it referred to as a PMS number. Pantone colors are also called “spot” colors.

This is similar to picking paint at the hardware store to paint your walls: You refer to swatches, choose by number and then the color is pre-mixed before application. This is good for applications that are predominantly one color (or two) such as a business card.

Printing a 1 or 2 color job can be less expensive than a 4-color job because there are fewer printing plates made. This system also creates the most accurate color match and the sharpest details.

CMYK = Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black. Also called 4-color, or process

CMYK refers to full color printing. Note: because of the potential confusion with the words and abbreviations for blue and black, blue is called cyan and abbreviated C, and black is abbreviated K.

The dots of a 4-color process printed photo, enlarged.

While using PMS colors is best for something that prints in limited colors, imagine if you had to pre-mix each color used within a photograph. It would be nearly impossible. Instead, the CMYK or Four-Color process is used. For every possible shade and color, this process determines the percentages of each of the four colors (CMYK) needed to make that color.  This is then translated into very small dots. The human eye blends these colors together to see the full spectrum of color.

CMYK is used whenever there are full color images, or when the number of colors makes it more practical than using just PMS colors. CMYK is also the primary system for digital printing, as specific pantone colors can not be put into a inkjet or laser printer.

Full color, offset (professional) printing is always CMYK. However, a large press can accommodate the four colors of cyan, magenta, yellow and black plus additional Pantone colors if necessary. Sometimes that is done if there are photos that require CMYK, but a logo that prints best used the actual Pantone ink. In that case, it would be called a five color print job.

RGB = Red, Green, Blue

RGB is the color system for computer monitors, video, etc. Without going into the science, it is critical to understand that PMS and CMYK are for printed pieces and RGB is for computer applications such as web sites.

Web Safe colors are a sub-set of 216 RGB colors that accurately display even on monitors with a very limited spectrum of colors. These days, most computer monitors have better video cards and higher resolution and can view more than this limited palette. However there are still some web-based design code that prefers these colors.

Finally, it’s important to note that while these are called “safe”, that does NOT mean a color will look the same from one monitor to the next. Variability with screen brightness, lighting conditions, and hue & contrast settings will render the exact same color differently from one computer monitor to the next.

For reference, Visible Logic’s green is: r140 / g198 / b63. This is also given a hexadecimal number of: 8cc63f You can see that green in the logo at the top of this web site.

Always provide the right file

Always try to provide the correct file type and color profile for the intended application. This will ensure the most accurate color and avoid problems.

While Visible Logic, and many of your vendors, can switch a file from one color format to another, some systems cannot handle an incorrect format and files may render incorrectly or not at all.

When developing a new logo or branding identity it is best to define your color in all three colors systems. For example, Visible Logic’s logo is: PMS376  green; or 50%cyan/0magenta/100%yellow/0black; or r140 / g198 / b63. If required to use a web safe color, I use #669900.

Keep in mind that some colors translate more easily across systems, than others.

This topic of color systems was covered in my Graphic Design 101 presentation. If you found this helpful, you may want to read and download that entire presentation which also covers, typography, file types, layout, hierarchy, etc.

Last week I went to New York to attend Behance’s 99% conference. The conference gets it’s name from a quotation from Thomas Edison:

Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration.

The conference is focused on getting creative people, those who generally don’t have problems generating ideas, to be able to bring the ideas to reality.

I truly enjoyed the variety of people I met and spoke with at the event. There were definitely a large number of graphic designers in the audience but there were also web and software developers, educators, film makers, industrial designers, business coaches and more. The line-up of speakers was unconventional, but well curated and motivating.

Whenever I take time away from work and family to attend a conference or networking event I find myself evaluating whether it was worth my time. It’s usually my time that I miss more than money when I feel that an event was not worth it. The 99% Conference was definitely time well spent. I came away both inspired (which is motivating, but can be fleeting) and armed with some new ideas to be more creative and more productive.

11 Takeaways

Here are my takeaways from the conference. Some of these are directly from a speaker’s presentation. Others are my interpretations and thoughts after hearing different threads that went throughout the conference.

1. Show more of the process that goes into a design solution, rather than just revealing the final designs. Showing the process can take many forms: sketches, trials, explanations, failed attempts, etc. While I currently try to walk a client through some of the thoughts that are behind the design choices I present, I often am too brief in my explanations. Also, I rarely spend time presenting ideas that didn’t work, or rough forms such as sketches. However, I need to remember that while I’m a designer and can rapidly go through talking points that make the basis for a design decision, my clients are not designers and I need to take them step-by-step through the process in more detail. But the point is not just to showcase all the time spent on a project, the reason is to have them understand that there were many considerations and options examined, even if they all do not appear in the final design. This builds trust. I’ve found that with email and PDFs it’s very tempting to just send off a final design with little explanation and then cross your fingers that the client understands what they’re seeing and knows how to give constructive feedback. I need to break that habit, especially for initial design presentations.
2. When tackling a large design project, work on different iterations each day (or week) and share them with team members. Feedback from other designers (and non designers) before getting too far is critical to generating more and better ideas. Also, forcing oneself to pace and make daily progress on a creative project is a great way to overcome procrastination.
3. Evaluate how I can stop the gerbil wheel of email/twitter/social media/phone interruptions. One of the things that shocked me while being away at the conference was just how hard it was to avoid the avalanche of email. During the conference we had a break every couple of hours or so, and during that time I’d use my iPhone to check my email. Every time I had no less than 30 emails waiting for me. Seeing all the crap that got quickly deleted makes me realize how I need to manage my spam, my e-newsletter signups, and my social media notifications better. I don’t have a complete solution for this problem, and I need to devote some time and come up with some fixes. I will unsubscribe from some e-newsletters, and I will create some additional email addresses to accept some other notifications and feeds. I am considering setting up a new, clean email address to only give to partners and clients. Anyone tried this, and does it work long term?
4. Plan for uninterrupted time for focused creative work. This is something I’ve done in the past, but then I let it slide. I used to look at my week and figure out when the large blocks were going to be. Then, I looked at my to do list and figured out what to work on during those blocks. Lately, I’ve just been too short-sighted and too reactionary with my schedule. I need to return to the practice of focused work blocks.
5. Find a way to visual goals and progress. This is for both personal items and company/team goals. I heard about, and really liked, the idea of posting goals and progress so that everyone can understand priorities and timelines and encourage others to focus on what’s important. I like all my online tools such as Google calendar and Remember the Milk but they stuck in my computer and not very visually inspiring.
6. Bring my junior designer to more client meetings. This, in some ways, is the counter part to point #1. Clients need to get a fuller picture of the design process, and young designers need to get a better understanding of the client perspective: what goes into a presentation; how to listen and ask questions; how to speak, look and act professionally; how to read a client’s understanding of the design process; etc.
7. Give more specific, appreciative feedback that emphasizes the positive. I know this is general terms and I try to always lead with a positive statement before giving critical comments, but I know the balance is still off. I learned about how emphasizing the positive can reinforce and grow the ideas, or elements that we want to foster to the point of squelching the less desirable traits without ever mentioning the negatives.
8. As a leader, I’ll talk last. At Visible Logic, I’m the owner, the president and most experienced designer. That means that I’m usually the one who should know best. But I need to give all my employees and partners better opportunities to express their ideas so we can all benefit. When the leader gives their opinion first it can often stifle other ideas, so when we’re brainstorming I need to wait for others to go first.
9. Remember the humanity. Don’t make people bored, wow them. Be nice. Don’t talk about user experience, just talk about how it works and how it makes you/me/us feel.
10. Find other entrepreneurs or business owners to connect with on a regular basis. I’ve been part of a small group of business owners who try to help each other, but I need to take this commitment to my business more seriously and find a more focused venue for this type of learning. I’m ready to put more effort, time and money into a group that does this.
11. Create an action plan for my two orphaned ideas. They are not quite orphans, but I have two projects that are basically complete, but no one knows about them. The first is Mail On The Mark, our custom-branded e-newsletter service; everything is ready to go for this new service, but I need to market it. The second is my report on the importance of having domain-based email addresses. Some of you were kind enough to make my survey many months ago; now I need to release my findings.

I hope some of these ideas help you think about how to focus and be more creative and productive. If you are not familiar with Behance and their 99% group, I suggest you look at their articles, tips and tools. I also highly recommend this conference!

Our typical design client at Visible Logic is a small business. This could be a one-person operation (such as Cream & Sugar Bakery) or a regional bank (such as Androscoggin Bank). We don’t have any Fortune 500 clients, and we’re OK with that. We love working closely with the leadership team or owner of a small business and helping them to understand and harness the power of effective web design, branding and print marketing.

Small businesses are the majority of businesses in the U.S. and any service-based business has to learn how to work with small business owners.

Today I was thinking about the fact that there are so many business owners who have a budget-conscious, do-it-themselves mentality. This has led to the fact that we pretty much exclusively use royalty-free photos these days.

When I started in design, the idea of royalty-free photos didn’t exist. If you didn’t hire a photographer for a custom shoot, you used what was called stock photography. [Read this, if you're not sure about the difference between stock and royalty free photos.] But now, the pendulum has fully swung to the royalty-free photo side of things.

There are still times you need custom photography (you need to shoot your own location, your own product, your own people, or need something very unique). But the reality is that my clients are demanding royalty-free photos, for the following reasons:

Two reasons small business owners demand royalty-free photos

1. Known product. With a custom shoot you can minimize risk by working with talent you trust, art directing and showing similar photo styles, layouts, etc. but the truth is that you do not know 100% what you’ll get from any shoot. With a royalty-free photo, you can see the image in place, in the layout, before buying the photo.
2. Fixed costs. With royalty-free photos you buy the photo rights once and you can use it for anything. With both stock and custom work, usage rights are negotiated on a case-by-case basis.

It’s hard to argue with the two benefit listed above. However, there is a vast range of photographic talent and quality to be purchased using the royalty-free model.

Today, there are thousands of new businesses who want marketing materials, web sites and blogs, but don’t have an understanding or the money for anything but royalty-free photography. In the old days, the only people buying photos were businesses with a marketing department and budget. They were staffed by professionals who understood the risks of a custom shoot, but understood the benefits, too. Or, they were prepared for the costs of purchasing stock photo rights. These days every business needs a web site to compete and adding photos to a web site is a desirable thing to add meaning, graphic interest, etc.

Royalty-free, OK. But, let’s find some quality images

What bothers me is that there is such little value placed on purchasing the photography. Not only have business owners accepted that they’ll only purchase royalty-free photos, they only seem to accept the most cheaply purchased photos.

The stock agencies have tried to respond by moving more stock photos into the royalty-free category. This allows flexibility with usage. But business owners need to accept that photos are one of those things that you get what you pay for. It’s a good idea to look beyond the cheapest-of-the-cheap if you want to create a professional and unique brand image for your company.

If you are a business owner, what do you expect to pay for photography?

I was walking home, through Portland, Maine, the other day when I saw a truck parked on the street with this slogan painted on the side.

When I think of the word integrity I think about: honesty, adhering to ethical principles, being whole, etc. It’s not too far fetched to say that the entire slogan suggests the person in the truck cares and is going to take the time and effort to do the job right. He or she (or the company) is going to pay attention to details that matter.

Unfortunately they don’t know proper punctuation. Seeing that incorrect closing quotation mark (it’s an opening rather than closing mark) just made me squirm and smirk. Read this post if you want more information on how to properly typeset dashes and quotation marks.

It’s easy to write something off like this by saying, “you’re a designer and no one else cares.” But that is not true. This is an extremely visible representation of this company’s brand and it shows that they either don’t know or don’t care about looking their best. Whether they did the typesetting and detailing themselves or hired someone to do it, it looks amateur.

This is comparable to other details that can be easy to overlook, but should demand your attention:

• Typos and spelling errors on your web site
• Grammar mistakes in your printed marketing materials
• Poorly fitted clothing or spinach in your teeth at a networking event

Not everyone will catch every small oversight like these. But many people do and it ruins your first impression.

My hunch was right when I wrote two recent blog posts about the importance of good design to an effective web site. In previous blog posts, I wrote that more and more business owners and people from the general population are learning about design and the expectation of a well-designed web site is increasing. I also predicted that the most important web design trend of 2011 will be trust, which is often directly related to the quality of the web site design.

Now, my instinct has been backed up by a recent study that shows:

70% of consumers don’t trust websites with bad designs

Bad design can include many things. When people think about the look of a web site or the design of the web site they may initially think about the colors, the type size, the layout, graphics, etc. But the design also means how easy it is to use. Is the content well-organized and is the navigation intuitive?

Chris Winstanley, Head of Marketing at BaseKit, who created the study said:

A well considered website can dramatically add value to the business, especially if it provides customers with all the information they need to make a purchase. The research demonstrates that an unattractive site can detract from the effectiveness of a company and this lack of trust can seriously hit the business’ bottom line.

If your organization’s web site is making you cringe, you can bet that it’s affecting your business’ success.