Fort Lauderdale Graphic Design Firm Gains New Real Estate Development Client - by Mark Budwig

S.MARK Graphics Florida Inc. has been awarded the graphic design and advertising account of Normandy Shores LLC Privata Town Homes in Miami Beach, Florida. The work includes a property logo identity, brochure, web site and display advertising. Fort Lauderdale, Florida (PRWEB) August 22, 2005 — S.MARK Graphics Florida Inc. has been awarded the graphic design and advertising account of Normandy Shores LLC Privata Town Homes in Miami Beach, Florida. The work includes a property logo identity, brochure, web site and display advertising. Privata is a new exclusive community of waterfront town home residences unique to the quaint village of Normandy Isle in Miami Beach. Privata’s innovative ultra contemporary design offers seven unique spacious floor plans in a four story home boasting rooftop terraces, oversized windows, private balconies, modern living spaces and a private elevator in each unit. Jason Jones, Vice President of Normandy Shores, LLC commented, S.MARK Graphics came highly recommended. They have the experience, creativity and a real understanding of our needs to make these materials effective. S.MARK Graphics operated in Chicago from 1984 until it relocated to South Florida in 2001. The graphic design firm provides the design and production of marketing materials for print, electronic and advertising media, on a project-to-project basis. The firm works with a multitude of industries including law, real estate, finance, public relations, education, retail and not-for-profit. For further information, contact Mark Budwig, president at 954-523-1980.

Falco Design Announces New Graphic Designer - by Joanne Donahue

Falco Design announced the addition of its newest graphic designer. East Brunswick, NJ (PRWEB) April 30, 2006 — Falco Design announced the addition of its newest graphic designer, Production Artist Jason Cope, effective today. Prior to joining the company, Jason was a Freelance Designer providing design and production services to a variety of New Jersey companies. He received his Associates Degree in Fine Art from Ocean County College in 1996. Jason will be assisting Art Directors JoAnne Mastropasqua and Mark Rosal on a variety of projects including, web, print, and direct mail campaigns. Falco Design, established in 1975, is a group of communications and advertising design professionals that provide strategic, tactical, conceptual, creative, production and fulfillment support to Design, Advertising, Corporate Communications and Marketing Communications Executives. Falco designs and develops Annual Reports, Brochures, Newsletters, ID Packages and Logos, Branding Standards, Direct mail Campaigns, Ads, Demos, Presentations, Pocket Folders, Trade Show Booths, Posters, Web Sites, Flash Animation and Banner Ads. Their success lies in their single minded commitment to getting the job done right the first time while maintaining the flexibility to respond to the inevitable and constant changes associated with the creative process.

Express yourself using Graphic Design - by Maricon Williams

Graphic design is the circumference intended for creative, imaginative and resourceful designers all over the globe. This can be one of the most rewarding and fulfilling task that you can do. Not only you can earn a great sum of money but you can actually express your idiosyncrasies into the whole wide web. By this you can influence and inspire millions of people.

Graphic design is a great form of self-expression. It only takes some time and dedication to hone your creative potential. To get there you need the right gears. You need not look too far because Adobe Photoshop is just a mouse click away from you. First you have to master the technical basics then establish to harness the creative specie in you. Photoshop is the number one choice for graphic designers. Try to ask one and you’ll be amazed with Photoshop’s popularity and staying power.

There are other tools available in the market. However, when you have powerful tools but you do not know how to use them to your advantage it is still a piece of crap! You should educate yourself and continue what you have started to unleash your talents and skills. To master these things need techniques and methods that professional designers use to cut down on your learning curve. You can do it by reading Photoshop help menus or go make an investment in your education.

There are vocational courses or graphic design schools that can teach you the proper way of using colors, layout, designs and the industry’s top secrets. They are to be construed as investment because the knowledge never cools off. Who knows you can discover a technique of your own. That can give you a standing in the graphic design world. It is hard for a graphic designer to divulge his secret formula in coming up with a remarkable design. It is priceless and it is hard to give away that easy. Better yet, try to discover yourself.

A way of discovering Photoshop’s secrets is to have tutorials. To discover the basics, try to get The Discover Photoshop: Total Package Training Program. It includes Basic Photoshop.com training and PhotoshopDesigner/graphic design training for $139. You can also order a DVD program, with this, you can save about $1000’s on the cost of going through a traditional educational course. You can also purchase Deke Mc Clelland’s The Photoshop 7 Bible or CorelDraw 9.

Graphic design is the field which knows no limits. Open your eyes. Stretch your abilities and enjoy what you do. Lots of programs are available. Do something to take advantage of your edge!

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Examples of Bad Web Site Graphic Design - by Solomon Rothman

There are two major problems inherent in most graphic design for the Internet. One of is ‘too much’ and the other is ‘no connection’. Designers tend to put ‘too much’ emphasis on the graphic elements which can take away from the actual site content, and they tend to have images and graphics which don’t really connect to their website’s purpose or theme. Remember that there is no magic formula for a successful website or even for good graphic design. This article is designed to clarify and answer the questions a potential audience will ask themselves when looking at your graphic design.
There are VERY successful websites that use the “bad” techniques labeled here, but generally and for a large number of websites it will be to their great benefit to at least consider the following critique of graphic design for the Internet. Too many designers put the visual elements above the actual content of site. For most purposes this is a bad design trait. Although it’s repeated over and over again, it can result in frustrated customers and more important a lot lower percentage of people who actually read your site. Although graphics and visual elements are important, the core to any website is its content or information it wishes to extend to its audience. On most websites this comes in the form of text with hyperlinks to other areas of interest. This is slowly changing as more dynamic content becomes more popular online as broad band and high speed internet access change the way we surf.
There are two major problems inherent in most graphic design for the Internet. One of is ‘too much’ and the other is ‘no connection’. Designers tend to put ‘too much’ emphasis on the graphic elements which can take away from the actual site content, and they tend to have images and graphics which don’t really connect to their website’s purpose or theme. Remember that there is no magic formula for a successful website or even for good graphic design. This article is designed to clarify and answer the questions a potential audience will ask themselves when looking at your graphic design.
There are VERY successful websites that use the “bad” techniques labeled here, but generally and for a large number of websites it will be to their great benefit to at least consider the following critique of graphic design for the Internet. Too many designers put the visual elements above the actual content of site. For most purposes this is a bad design trait. Although it’s repeated over and over again, it can result in frustrated customers and more important a lot lower percentage of people who actually read your site. Although graphics and visual elements are important, the core to any website is its content or information it wishes to extend to its audience. On most websites this comes in the form of text with hyperlinks to other areas of interest. This is slowly changing as more dynamic content becomes more popular online as broad band and high speed internet access change the way we surf.

In the future the main content might come from a mix of audio, video, and slideshow formats, but for now it’s mainly simple text. So your audience has to read those tiny black characters. Overly complex or continued animation, harsh contrasting edges and color combinations can give too much to the graphic elements and make actually reading your pages difficult. If you’re over using the graphics, your audience will read a lot less and that means they’ll take away a lot less of the information.
Some major signs that a graphic designer is of the “too much” camp include:
Little text boxes with scroll bars: Don’t you hate that? Nobody likes text all scrunched up in a little box like that. It’s hard to read and involves lots of scrolling, so why do it?
Overly busy backgrounds: keep it simple or at least a lower contrast so you spare you audiences’ eyes and allow them to focus on the content of your site.
LONG animated intros or animation sequences: Remember attention span, attention span attention span. Online surfers do not have the attention span to wait for a long overly done intro or animation.
The second major shortcoming that most graphic design for the Internet is the lack of cohesion or a clear connection of the graphic elements to the purpose of the website. The web is absolutely stuffed with sites that you can’t even tell what they do or are about by their first page. The images, logos, and visual design does not connect to the company’s theme or purpose. Your online audience has a VERY limited attention span. They may have stumbled onto your site on accident. This isn’t TV, on most sites there is no audio directing your visitors as to what they’re seeing.
People aren’t necessarily going to read the text of your website just because a girl in a bikini is on it. You also see this concept in sites that are too simple. Simplicity is good, but when taken to the extreme, it can make it very difficult to figure out the sites purpose and extract the basic information that your audience needs, before they commit to reading through large areas of text.

Some major signs that a graphic designer is of the “lack of cohesion” camp include:
Lots of different style graphics: If a website seems to jump time periods, color schemes, and image themes that is not a good sign.
LARGE text areas without any graphics: The web is about a mixing of graphic, text, and other elements. Too much text and it becomes difficult to gather meaning quickly.
Hard to see connection to product/service: Logo, tagline, and text on beginning pages do not describe what the website is actually about. The graphic design should key people in both emotionally and intellectually to the purpose of the website.

Solomon Rothman is a web designer, filmmaker, and writer. See blog for latest news and watch the free movie Boy Who Never Slept written & directed by Solomon

Elements of a Good Design - by Carla Ballatan

So you’re aspiring to create designs for companies advertising their crafts online? Hold on! Before chasing after your dream of being a ‘great’ and ‘well-known’ graphic designer¦Let’s go over the many names and title that associates with graphic designer and resolve finally who a designer is and what are the elements of design you need to learn.

According to an article, Chuck’s views on design, writing and marketing at www.ideabook.com/viewa.htm the author narrates that he’s already into his twenty something years in the graphic design business. Considering his long experience, Chuck’s been called art director, commercial artist, graphic designer, desktop publisher and graphic artist.

Impressed with the wide selection of titles? Let’s get on with the definitions, though. Graphic designer is defined by the Graphic Artist’s Guild as “visual problem solver”, the graphic artist is a “visual artist working in a commercial area”, and the art director is someone responsible for supervising the “quality and character if visual work.” Don’t be led to believe that the definitions tell what the work is all about.

Among the various definitions, that of the creative director’s, “whose responsibilities may include overall supervision of all aspects of the character and quality of the (advertising) agency’s work for its client” came close to what Chuck thinks a designer should really be¦

Now, if you are undaunted by the close-definition and is really keen on being a graphic designer, you should know that design is a communication art. There are basic elements for creating good designs in order to perfect this art.

The following are the elements of design that serve as standards in achieving high quality and successful designs:

1.”Design is more than meets the eye.” Always keep in mind that design is also communicating an idea as well as giving visual delight and entertainment. It is actually a blend of both so that it becomes a well-designed message. Anything less and you will not have a design.

2.”Design is about communicating benefits” - your design must incorporate marketing messages that focus on what benefits your prospective customers might get in responding to your handiwork.

3.”Design is not about designers” - Design will never be effective if it’s made to stir up the designer’s ego. You must create designs that your clients need and not design that’ll make you look good in your portfolio

4.”Design is not an ocean, it’s a fishbowl” - Be very particular and appropriate about your designs and that would depend on the client needing them. Be careful about the principles you apply on either designing techniques or marketing ideas. Be aware that these two may not always be interchangeable.

5.”Design is creating something you believe in” - Don’t let a poor product be killed immediately because of great advertisement designs. Stick to your values and principles in accepting projects from clients, in order to manipulate your ad design to the best of your client’s advantage, you, must first know and have faith on your client and their products.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.ucreative.com

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