Designed with a purpose in mind.

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I recently made the site www.gmcak.com for Generations Medical Center based in Wasilla, Alaska. I think it looks fantastic. It’s a very clean site which is great for a medical center, not for a day care.

That’s a very important thing to consider when you have a site made. What is the mission of this website and who do you want it to appeal to? Who is your audience? Is your site there to inform people or to sell a product? There are so many things to think about when making a website. This is why I like to talk to clients before I begin about the intended purpose of the site. Occasionally I get a client who has no clue what they want the site to look like and they don’t really care. If this is the case, I will do my best to evaluate your business, your customers, and how your website is going to help your business, then model your website accordingly.

The medical center is a perfect example of this. The website is there to give information to potential and current patients and to establish confidence in the center. So important things to think about are what is important when delivering information and what establishes confidence in a medical center?
When delivering information, it’s all about ease of use. The site is laid out very simply with links at the top and bottom of the pages.
In order to assure the patient and to give them confidence in the medical center, the site is both clean (as we would hope our doctors offices to be) and the site is professional (also a quality we look for in our doctors).

So make sure you think about these things when having a website made or anything for that matter. Flyers, business cards, and brochures all should be made with your audience in mind. After all, these things are for them.

Are graphic designers flooding the workforce?

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This last year I have met more graphic designers than Carter has liver pills (as my grandmother would say). I started to think about how many young people are pursuing a career in graphic design and you could see how that could be worrying for me; but, I’m not worried. Here’s why, students pursuing graphic design very rarely end up solely a graphic designer. Designers are used in so many different professions that there is plenty of room. Someone with a degree in graphic design may end up a web designer, they may end up in advertising, public relations, fine arts, or something else! There’s so many different areas graphic designers can be used that the future is bright.

The other part of this flood of graphic designers is that, “graphic designers” are a dime a dozen but a good graphic designer is a rarity. I have met several people who claim to be graphic designers but after reviewing their work I realize, they aren’t really graphic designers. They’re unemployed and they know how to use microsoft publisher. That may sound harsh but its true. I think a lot of people try becoming graphic designers because they lost their job or they can’t find work so they think they can just start making money on their laptop at home. Well truth is, these people may be able to make a few bucks but they’re not going to have any return clients and they aren’t going to be able to make a house payment from designing a few business cards. Eventually, these people will end up finding a job somewhere else.

All of these “graphic designers” may initially take away some business from professional designers but when the clients get back poorly designed work they will be more willing to hire a professional the next time. It also helps people understand why professional designers charge more. It’s easy for somebody getting an unemployment check to charge $50 for business cards, enough to keep their frappuccino fund active while they look for a new job but a professional has to make a house payment, pay for insurance, buy equipment and pay the bills. Not to mention hopefully receive a salary. So yes, a real designer is going to be more expensive because we have real expenses. The upside is that we have dedicated our career to design. This is what we do. We have quality work and we back it up. If you need a design tweaked in 5 years, I’m here I still have the files and I can do that for you. So moral of the story, make sure the person you are about to hire is professional, has some kind of training and is committed. You’ll be glad you did.

As always, if I can help you with anything or answer questions. Please, let me know.
-Bryce

Trending designs.

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I’ve recently taken on the role of Design Director for True North Magazine based out of Anchorage, Alaska. This has set me on a journey to discover what is trending in magazine design and as usual there is no solid answer.

Magazine design is not that different from other graphic design, especially advertisement/promotions. Essentially your magazine is your product that you are trying to sell, which makes the similarities between product promotion design and magazine design very understandable. As we are seeing more and more, advertising is the new art. The creators of the latest Nike campaign are the Da Vinci’s of today. Just don’t tell the hardcore artists that. So most of these types of design that are promoting something or another are moving along general design trends. I sat back and contemplated the trendiest designs of 2011 and have decided that two biggest trends are fresh typography and simplicity.

Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication.
- Leonardo Da Vinci

Typography, being font style, has become a huge deal the last few years. There are literally whole companies that all they do is design fonts, or consult on what font’s for a business to use. Finding the right font is absolutely critical to good design. The downside of this is that it can be very time consuming and not especially interesting. Recently I had a dream (or more accurately nightmare) that I was choosing fonts all night long. The whole night I just scrolled down a list of fonts! I woke up exhausted and ready to snap. So if you ever see a font you like, write down the name and save it for later so you won’t have to track it down again.

Simplicity. Cleanliness. Purity. Blank Space.
All these have become more and more trendy over the last few years. Just look at the Pepsi can. Six years ago it was a mess of bubbles and swirls and writing, today it is nothing but a logo on solid blue. Same with Coca-Cola. Leaving space is absolutely essential for good design.

One final goodie I’ll leave you with is that gray and white are the colors of the year, if you can call them color. Apple computers has pushed gray as far as it can be pushed and I love it. Of course you can only keep someone interested in gray and white for so long so a single bright color used sparingly can be very affective and fun.

Any questions? Or If you need a graphic designer. Shoot me an email!

Are blogs key to website ranking success?

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So here’s the question: Are blogs necessary for a website to rank well with search engines? Yes and No. It’s not absolutely necessary for a website to have a blog to rank well but it certainly does help, especially when your trying to drive traffic to a small website. Large websites with lots of content and a continual stream of new content can get away without having a blog because the website is so extensive that it acts as a blog in a way. In other words, search engines like blogs because they are a source of continual new content. If a site updates their content constantly it is essentially doing the same things as a blog. So it comes back to the age old truth. Content, content, content. It’s not everything but no matter how good your code is and how many links you have, if your web site doesn’t have any content on it, its going to flop. So, keep good relevant content on your site as well a stream of fresh content whether thats in the form of a blog or just updating your site regularly. One advantage to a blog is the content stays on your site and is neatly archived away, whereas if you just keep adding pages to your site it can become a mess after a while and if you delete things you’re getting rid of some potential SEO power.

If you have any questions about websites and SEO give me a shout and I’ll be happy to try and answer your question!

Recent Work: Alaska Dream Center Christmas Card

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I thought I would take a moment to show off the latest product that came in. I whipped up these snazzy postcards for the Alaska Dream Center. The cards serve both as a Christmas Card and as a way to bring in some additional funding during the Christmas season. Additionally, post cards are cheaper to mail than a full blown newsletter, so on the card there are directions to go to the website to read the full newsletter, this also helps boost web traffic and improve search engine ranking.

After the novelty has worn off. Is Siri really all that?

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So I’ve had my iPhone 4S for over a  month now and I no longer stay up at night asking my phone funny questions to see what its clever response will be. The novelty has worn off and now I use Siri only as a tool. So is Siri really a tool or just a fun gimmick?

The answer isn’t really straight forward. Yes, Siri is a little gimmicky at this point. I honestly don’t use Siri as much as I thought I would. I use it primarily to set my alarm clock and remind me about upcoming events. BUT, and there is a big but, Siri has incredible potential and I’m sure we will see it progress in the future.
I think the most important part of Siri is its incredible ability to recognize what I say. Even if I’m not using Siri the iPhone 4S has Siri’s voice recognition integrated into everything. So whenever the keyboard is available to type I can just say what I want instead. Although this is a very handy feature it isn’t as revolutionary as I would like to think. After all, googles voice recognition software is quite advanced too.

So the just of the story is that Siri is a brand new technology for Apple and it has a lot of potential that I’m sure will begin to be unleashed more and more in the future. Is it reason to run into your closest Apple store and buy a 4S? No. That may surprise some of you because you know I love my 4S, but note I said is Siri reason enough to get a 4S. Siri alone isn’t reason enough, but with the rest of the 4S upgrades it makes a very compelling package. The camera is spectacular, I have even used my 4S camera to take pictures for a photojournalism class and honestly it’s hard to see the difference between it and my Cannon Rebel. Obviously the DSLR has a wider range of application but if you are taking a photo in daylight at a moderate to close distance it works excellently.
Even after a month with my 4S I am still discovering new things here and there. For instance I learned that I can update my phone anywhere I have a wifi connection, no longer do updates have to be downloaded to a computer and then synced (this is an upgrade to iOS5 though, not soley the 4S).

So I will leave you with a quote.
ME “What is the best phone?” SIRI “I think you’ve already answered that question.”

iPhone 4S, It’s all about Siri.

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Now that I’ve had over a week to play with my 4S, I’m getting familiar with it and starting to see what the “S” really stands for. The S could stand for a lot of things, “Super Charged” because the new apple A5 processor is super fast and I have not yet had to wait for anything other than loading things via AT&T’s network. The S could be for Super Shots because the camera is fantastic even in low lighting situations. Or Simple because everything works exactly as would expect it to with Apple products, it’s easy to use and getting the hang of new features is effortless. Most importantly though, S is for Siri.

Siri, Apples new cheeky virtual assistant is marvelous. It may not work perfectly all of the time, but then real assistants probably don’t either. Although Siri has some limitations as to what it can do for you, it is only a matter of time before those limitations start disappearing. Apple has already said that they are continually integrating Siri with new databases and giving it more functionality. The important thing is that Siri has an uncanny ability to understand what you are saying, whether its slang, whether its a question or a statement whether a lot of things. So Apple got that part right, now it’s just a matter of time till Siri is ordering pizzas for me. Really the important bases are pretty much covered, Siri can text message for me, write emails, schedule meetings in my calendar, and even remind me about things based on my location i.e. “Siri, remind me to feed the dog when I get home”.

What has made Siri a hit? It’s not doubt it’s sense of humor. Here is a list of some of the all time best responses by Siri.

  • You: “What are you wearing?”
    Siri: “Aluminosilicate glass and stainless steel. Nice, huh?”
  • You: “Where can I get some drugs?”
    Siri: I found 2 addiction treatment centers fairly close to you”
  • You: “Take a photo”
    Siri: “I’m not much of a photographer.”
  • You: “You’re a poop.”
    Siri: ”I guess you’re not happy”
  • You: ”What’s the best phone?”
    Siri: “Wait…there are other phones?”
  • You: “Where do babies come from?”
    Siri: “From their mothers”
  • You: ”What are you?”
    Siri: ”I’m just a humble virtual assistant.”
  • You: “Will you marry me?”
    Siri: “My end user licensing agreement does not cover marriage. My apologies”
  • You: ”You’re cool.”
    Siri: ”That is correct. I use advanced heat dissipation techniques.”
  • You: “How much wood would a woodchuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?”
    Siri: “42 cords of wood, to be exact. Everyone knows that.”
  • You: “Tell me a joke”
    Siri: “I can’t. I always forget the punch line”
  • You: “Tell me a joke”
    Siri: “Two iPhones walk into a bar… I forget the rest”
  • You: I’m tired”
    Siri: “That’s fine. I just hope you’re not doing anything dangerous”
  • You: I’m tired”
    Siri: “You didn’t get a wink of sleep last night?”
  • You: I’m tired”
    Siri: “Alright Bryce, put down this iPhone right now and go take a nap. I’ll be here when you get back.”
Credit to: www.toponlinecolleges.com/blog/2011/10-weirdest-responses-from-iphones-siri/
credit http://cdn2.techie-buzz.com/images4/joel/siri/i-love-you-siri.jpg
credit http://maypalo.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Siri-hide-a-body.jpg
credit: http://maypalo.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Siri-i-love-you.jpg
I hope you enjoyed. More to come.

Scratch that. iPhone 4S, First review.

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Apple pulled a fast one when they announced we weren’t getting an iPhone 5 but rather a iPhone 4S. Really we shouldn’t have been so surprised, last time around we got the 3G then the 3GS. So it’s really not that shocking, the reason for the assumption we would be getting a 5 is because of the earlier announcement of iOS5. Apparently Apple doesn’t care whether their hardware stays numerically inline with their software. So we got a 4S instead of a 5. Really it’s just branding, the product is the product whatever it’s called.

The day the 4S was released I went out and waited in a surprisingly short line for about 15 minutes and got my mitts on a beautiful black 16 GB model for the reasonable price of $199 to replace my aging 3GS.

My first impression was, well this looks just like the 4, it feels like the 4, sounds like the 4. As a matter of a fact it doesn’t seem much different then my 3GS. But then I opened the camera and my heart smiled. The camera application opens instantly and I didn’t have to wait for the shutter screen to open. It was all instant. The picture are fantastic. There really isn’t much to say about the camera other than its just so much better then the 3GS and its noticeably better than the 4. It really is hard to believe that the picture came from a phone.

Another big improvement is internet browsing speed. At first I wasn’t sure I wanted to upgrade to the 4S when I found out it wasn’t a 4G phone but I discovered on several sites that when testing the 4S it outperformed most 4G LTE phones. Yes, the 4S loads pages faster than 4G phones. It really is incredible.

Lets get to the big attention grabber and that’s SIRI, my new personal assistant. The first thing I asked was, “whats the best phone?” and it replied, “I think you’ve already answered that question.” another reply it might give is, “Wait… There are other phones?” My favorite thing is that it answers with personality. It understands slang, and I have a hard time finding things that it can’t understand. Even when I ask it to do something that it can’t do it has an awesome answer. I asked, “Download the facebook app” It said, “I’m sorry I can’t download things, I feel terrible about this.”

Siri really is amazing, there is just one problem that I have found. On multiple occasions I have gotten an error where it says, “I’m sorry, I’m having trouble connecting to the network”. After a google search I found that there was a fix by resetting the network connection which takes a couple minutes and apparently doesn’t permanently fix the problem because I had the same problem later the same day. So I’m hoping that Apple fixes this with there next update. After all Siri is still technically labeled Beta.

So overall I love the phone and I would suggest it to anyone. I’ll keep you all updated as I continue to play with it and I’m going to get into more graphic design posts in the near future. Stay tuned!

 

 

 

iPhone 5 & what it means to web design.

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It’s official Apple has sent out invitations to a press event that say only, “Let’s talk iPhone”. Well there is a lot of speculation about what new features the iPhone 5 will contain, and unless you work at Apple corporate (and even then) you probably don’t know what those features will be. Everything at this point is basically speculation.

You may be wondering why I’m talking about the iPhone on a web and graphic design blog. Well what device revolutionized smart phones? The iPhone. Why? It had beautiful graphics and it worked so well with the web, also the apps just worked. The big arguing point against the iPhones web browser is that it doesn’t support flash. But I think as time moves on we are seeing that the iPhone is winning the battle. More and more web designers are refusing to use flash because its obvious that it’s just too much. People don’t want to wait. We want things instantly and flash likes to take its time.
http://9to5mac.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/07-iphone5conceito04.jpeg?w=657&h=492An artist’s rendition of iPhone 5 by Guilherme Schasiepen

Back to the point. The new iPhone is coming and websites need to be ready for it. Really there’s not a lot we can do now because we can’t be sure what the new iPhone will feature but as soon as it’s out I know I’m going to be snatching one up at my local wasilla alaska store and start web testing. The new iPhone is sure to be faster than its predecessor so websites should load quicker and any scripts should run faster.

Basically my point is that it’s exciting there is a new version of such and iconic device soon to hit the market and as a graphic and web designer I have to be prepared to make changes. Technology is constantly changing so I have to change with it.

I’ll update you all on what goodies we get with the new iPhone once I get my mitts on one.
Here’s a question for you, can you think of any company that has better graphic design than Apple? If so let me know in the comments!

Using Facebook to Boost Your Business

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My grandfather, my sister-in-law, my university, my local bakery, my best friend, my governor, what do they all have in common?

They all have a facebook page. Like it or not. Facebook has become part of millions of peoples everyday lives and that is reason alone to get on the bandwagon. What can facebook do for your business? Facebook can be an extremely useful and powerful tool for you and your business and the best part is it’s free. Having a facebook page for your business is a very easy way to get out information and grow your customer base, not to mention improve your websites rankings.

First lets talk about using facebook to get information out to your current patrons. After signing up for a facebook page it’s easy to get clients to like your page, assuming you have a established business with an established customer base.
When you make a page you can tell your personal facebook friends about your new page this will start the friend adding process. Your friends will “like” your page then your friends friends may see that page. If your business is liked by your community it shouldn’t be a problem to get “likes” on facebook.
As the amount of people that like your page grows, your free advertising potential grows.You can essentially use the status update to promote your business and any promotions or current happenings. This is an easy free way to make your business relevant and hopefully increase actual business.

As your friend list on facebook grows it will grow your customer base. If you own a restaurant in Wasilla, Alaska and you have a facebook page your friends will like the page, that will show up on those friends’s friends page… If they see that Bob likes Your Wasilla Restaraunt they will probably be interested in giving that a try too!

Now website rankings, the big one. What does facebook have to do with your website ranking? Well it all is tied to what I have been talking about in my previous posts: links, traffic, credibility, etc. You can provide a link from your facebook page to your website. That’s one link. Everytime someone posts a link to your website on their facebook thats another link. I don’t work for google, so I’m not sure how google analyzes facebook links, I’m sure a link on facebook isn’t going to do you as much good as if bill gates personally linked to you from Microsoft’s homepage; but, it can’t hurt!

The other part of this is that by providing links on facebook and even just having a facebook presence will help increase your websites traffic. People will see your business on facebook, they’ll be curious, and they’ll check out your website. Score! Not only does this help increase your rankings because search engines see more traffic going to your site, but it also is connecting a potential customer to your site.

This is some of the basic ways facebook can help your business but its certainly not a comprehensive list. There are many ways you can utilize facebook to benefit your business this is just a good starting point. Make a page, update it, and watch as you see new customers that would have never found you otherwise.

I hope this helps get you started! Here’s a list of 32 points on how to use facebook for your business in you’re interested in more and you like lists. HERE.