15
May
2012
More Marin Headlands Photos
With the arrival of spring I’ve once again been shooting a lot in the Marin Headlands.
New photos can be found in my Golden Gate Bridge lightbox on istockphoto.com.
11
Jan
2012
Vector People Illustrations
Here are a couple examples of how my stock collection of vector people can be modified and incorporated in to custom illustrations.
05
Jan
2012
Sharing Your Email Campaign Via Social Media
How to add the power of social media sharing to your email campaigns.
An email newsletter is a great way to simultaneously accomplish two important marketing goals. On the one hand it’s a way to keep your current clients or customer base informed of your services and products. If the content in your newsletter is informative and of value it’s also a great way to attract the interest of new contacts. If you can get an existing subscriber to share your newsletter with friends you now have the attention of potential new customers or clients. So how do you get someone to share your newsletter?
Make sharing easy for your recipients
The best way to encourage sharing is to make it easy. We need to give recipients the ability to share your email with just a couple of clicks. You’ve probably already noticed that in most email campaigns there is usually a link somewhere on the page that allows you to forward to a friend. This is a good method for encouraging people to share your newsletter. It’s a standard feature available from most email campaign services. However, what if there was a much easier way to let your recipients share your newsletter with dozens or perhaps hundreds of friends? This is where we can put the power of social media to work.
Campaign Monitor is my favorite email service and the one I use with my clients. Campaign Monitor makes it very easy for me to create links that allows a recipient to share an online version of your email with friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter. I especially like the fact that Campaign Monitor gives me complete creative control over what these links might look like. The links can be text or they can be custom graphics that I’ve created for you.
Here’s an email that I recently created for Capital Management Associates. It features a side bar near the top of the email in which I’ve added prominently placed sharing links.
Track the results
Once your campaign has been sent you can now log in to an account I’ve set up for you on Campaign Monitor and track the results. You can watch in real time as recipients click the Facebook Like button or tweet about your email.
It’s important to note that Campaign Monitor can’t disclose the names or contact info of people who have shared your email unless they are already current subscribers. This is why it’s important that we also incorporate a subscribe button in your your email. Ideally, this approach can evolve in to a sort of self sustaining loop in which a certain percentage of your new audience becomes subscribers who in turn share your next campaign with additional contacts and so forth. Hopefully, a percentage of this new audience becomes future clients and customers.
29
Aug
2011
RealMarin Team Kit
Logo and uniform kit for a local cycling club
This one is going to get filed in the “Just for Fun” category but I’m still proud of the logo and uniforms I designed for a local cycling club. Having never designed a uniform of any sort in my entire life, I was a bit skeptical that I could actually produce something that could be worn in public. I’m perfectly comfortable designing for 2 dimensions but trying to visualize how something will look when wrapped around a human body is a different challenge. I surprised myself and I think they came out looking pretty nice!
Fitting in to this thing? That’s a different story. Sheesh…can I exhale now. Time to hit the treadmill.
12
Jul
2011
Langtech’s new website is live!
I recently completed design development of new site for San Francisco based Langtech.
Langtech is an IT consulting agency. They provide clients with a wide range of services including software development, mobile application development, CRM, hosting and website design. They’re so busy doing fabulous work for their clients that when it came time to redesign their own site they requested my help.
The top portion of the home page consists of standard navigation elements and a large banner promoting featured products and services with a call to action. Prominently located on the home page as well on pages through out the entire site is a highlighted client testimonial. Below this area are call outs describing specific areas of expertise as well as a column devoted to recent news.
Second level pages are streamlined, text focused designs that provide product and service descriptions. A unique header graphic is used to distinguish each primary section and also provides a splash of color. A sidebar column is reserved for contact information, client testimonials and supporting visuals.
12
Jul
2011
Logo for Outdoor Gear Lab
OutdoorGearLab is an exciting new company that recently hired me to develop their logo. I was very happy with the result. Below is the final design and a short case study that describes the process.
Outdoor Gear Lab is a brand new company founded by Chris McNamara, the creator of SuperTopo. The OutdoorGearLab mission is to create world’s best outdoor gear reviews. Each product is put through a set of real world field tests. The result is side-by-side comparative reviews designed to aid a potential buyer faced with overwhelming choices.
Logo development requires many different areas of design focus. Color, typography and illustration all demand attention. However, I think the single most important criteria is an understanding of the business in question. What does the business actually do and how can this be refelected visually? In this case I kept coming back to the concepts of “testing” and “outdoors”. I knew that I wanted to somehow combine these two subjects in an engaging visual symbol. The word “Lab” made me instantly think of a glass beaker. I’m sure there are other companies with “Lab” in their name that also use a beaker as a visual reference. However, I needed to somehow combine this idea with a connection to the outdoors. I wanted to do something a bit different. I wanted to drop a mountain range in to the beaker! My attention shifted to what this might look like.
Once I had a beaker element that I was happy with I began the task of pairing it with typography. I experimented with dozens of different font faces in an effort to find something that felt contemporary and yet friendly and approachable.
None of these initial variations were quite right. Eventually I found a font face on Veer.com called LFT Etica that had the character the client was looking for. Some additional design elements were added in order to pull everything together as a cohesive whole.
30
Jun
2011
Sometimes image is still king!
Developing an HTML Email design for The Cooperative of American Physicians
The Cooperative of American Physicians recently hired me to develop the visual design for a new email promoting their Risk E-Notes newsletter.
In the process of designing an HTML email I frequently incorporate images. However, I’m also very conscientious of what the email will look like if it arrives in an inbox with images turned off or temporarily disabled. I make a concerted effort to make sure that all headers, body text and call to actions are rendered as HTML and typically let images work in a secondary supporting role. This email design was no different. Images were important ingredients but I carefully aligned elements in such a way that all text could be rendered as HTML.
I used Campaign Monitor’s testing service to produce screen shots of the email as it would look in a variety of major email applications. I double and triple checked that the email would look consistent across all applications. Everything worked great until we noticed that tables blew up when the email file was moved from one Outlook folder to another.
We were faced with a decision that occurs frequently in email design. Redesign the email using a simplified layout or convert the entire top portion of the email to a single image in order to maintain design consistency.
Email design best practices tend to embrace developing for the lowest common denominator and we’ve all been told to avoid heavy images and concentrate on legible and consistent text display. This is great advice but there is a reason companies like Apple Computer often still send emails that consist of little more than one large static image. Sometimes image is still king. There’s a chance that a large image at the top of your email will mean a small percentage of recipients delete the email before taking the time to display images. However, perhaps the greater fear should be that a vast majority of recipients receiving a dull and inspired looking email. If you believe your message and/or promotion works best with a large engaging image that just might be the correct design solution.
22
May
2011
Illustrations Found in Taleo Campaign
I recently discovered my business people illustrations in this Taleo Campaign
I’ve managed to sell my business people icon sets many times over but I rarely get to ever see how they’re being used. My wife found an email from Taleo in her inbox this morning that show cases examples of both my vector and 3D illustrations effectively combined in a single campaign.
22
May
2011
Spring Golden Gate Bridge Photos
I’ve uploaded some new springtime photos of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Over the past year the park service has removed a grove on non-native eucalyptus trees which has opened up some brand new un-obstructed views of the Golden Gate Bridge. It became more impressive this spring when wild flowers started to bloom. I decided to capture some new stock images of this view.
Granted there’s nothing terribly innovative about these shots. I think I like the technical challenges involved in scouting a location; figuring out what the best time of day and weather would be as well as determining the ideal vantage points. If you happened to walk by early one morning and see some nerd perched on the very top step of a ladder trying to take hand help photos with out toppling over that was probably me.
07
May
2011
Company Board Meeting
Ok, this is just for fun and doesn’t actually have much of anything to do with business.
Some how my 7 year old daughter has turned in to a pretty good little skateboarder. It’s her favorite thing to do so I spend more time hanging out at skateparks than I would have ever imagined. Occasionally I like to make a complete fool of myself by trying to keep up with her. I decided it was time to have my own board and that I should design it myself. Here it is, my own company branded skateboard. It includes subtle(ha!) instances of my DS logo and a design element that references color swatches.
Here’s Zoe putting the board together for me:
Deck and custom printing from BoardPusher
All components purchased from Skate Warehouse
21
Apr
2011
New Facebook Page for Gavin Historical Bricks
I recently developed a custom Facebook page for Gavin Historical Bricks.
Not long ago I wrote a brief article regarding some of the visual enhancements that can make for a more interesting and informative Facebook profile page. Historical Bricks contacted me with a request to put these concepts to work on their company Facebook page.
Gavin Historical Bricks is a supplier of gorgeous antique specialty bricks, pavers and cobblestones. My goal was to build an engaging custom Facebook page that offers visitors an overview of Historical Brick’s services and products. I incorporated a series of tabs that allow one to navigate between sections. Content for these sections included condensed variations of the same categories that exist on their primary web site. You can view their Facebook page in action here.
18
Apr
2011
Email Design Examples and Strategy
I’ve created numerous email designs over the years but I didn’t have any examples on my web site… until now.
Here’s a gallery of past work as well as a summary of some of the challenges that are unique to email design.
HTML emails are strange little beasts both in terms of visual design standards and HTML requirements.
Email Design Standards
Email design often tends to parallel direct mail campaigns both in terms of visual design and strategy. An email design needs to be concise and informative while promoting a clear call to action. Because we want to avoid any horizontal scrolling, a restricted width of 600 pixels is usually advisable. In addition to this challenges of limited visual real-estate we must recognize that people don’t read an email in the same manner that they might browse the web. An unrequested email is going to be scanned and moved to the trash unless you can instantly engage your audience. Information needs to organized with in a relatively small space with thought given to visual hierarchy. Decide ahead of time what is the most important element that should be seen first and what is secondary.
Copy is King
One could argue that message should always drive visual design in any form of marketing collateral but I think this is especially true of emails. I don’t believe in simply creating a design that looks nice and then dropping in copy. I frequently work directly with a copy writer when developing an email and believe it’s my job to visually articulate their message. One of the best email copy writers around is Ivan Levison. he wrote the copy in most of the samples you see above. You can find Ivan’s website at www.levison.com.
Email Production Requirements
Design consistency is what I strive for when producing an HTML email. I want the email to look exactly as I intended when someone opens it on the other end. Although one would think that producing an HTML email is similar to creating a web page, a scaled down approach is required. Your recipient could be using one of dozens of email applications or online services to view your email. They could be viewing it on a computer, mobile phone or tablet device. In order to keep an email design consistent across all of these different applications and platforms we have to abandon most of the more sophisticated CSS layout techniques used to develop current web sites and pretend that we are writing HTML back in the early 1990s. For example, we use table cells instead of div tags and all styles need to be defined inline. Rather than thinking of email production as an after thought to the design process it’s crucial to keep these limitations in mind when developing a design.
An excellent overview of email design guidelines can be found on the CampaignMonitor website here.
12
Apr
2011
New SpendVu site is live
I recently completed work on a vibrant design for SpendVu’s new website.
SpendVu’s is a company that provides technology to healthcare companies. SpendVu’s Value Management System (VMS) is a platform designed specifically to reduce cost across the entire healthcare supply chain.
15
Mar
2011
Facebook Page Design
How to enhance the visual clarity and effectiveness of your company profile page.
Facebook recently announced that they will be gradually phasing out the “Share” button. The “Like” button will takeover as the primary call to action for all content sharing on Facebook. Sure enough you’re starting to see it everywhere. You’ll notice that it’s even at the top and bottom of this very blog post.
Love it or hate it, Facebook is here to stay. If it hasn’t happened already, there is certainly a good chance that sometime soon a prospective client or customer will get their very first impression of your company by arriving at your company Facebook page rather than your primary website. If you’re like many businesses this might be a scary thought. It doesn’t have to be. With some fairly simple graphic design work I can extend your established visual identity to your Facebook page.
I’ve recently made some modifications to my Facebook page that will serve as examples of some changes that can enhance the visual clarity and effectiveness of your own company profile page.
Let’s take a closer look.
Page Design
Facebook already makes it easy for you to add a logo and basic description of your business. You can also add photos and posts but this means that all of your content is presented as just a collection of image folders and a stream of status updates. That’s fine for dynamic content but it’s not the most elegant way to summarize your business. However, by adding a simple app to your page called Static FBML, we can customize content using standard HTML and CSS. This method gives us the freedom to approach page design much as we would when developing from scratch for your primary web site. Granted we don’t have quite as much real estate to work with but a 520px wide column is sufficient for creating something along the lines of a mini-landing page. I tend to think that on a Facebook page we need to engage your visitor and summarize your services in a more streamlined fashion. I can work with you to develop graphic content that is true to your company identity while also working seamlessly with in the surrounding Facebook page design. If a goal of your Facebook page is to drive traffic to your primary site we can include a prominent call to action or a collection of quick links that will send visitors to target channels.
Navigation Options
The new Facebook company profile design organizes page content in to categories that can be navigated with tabs in the left column of your page. Here you’ll find default Facebook items such as Wall, Info, Photos, etc. We can turn on or off most of these categories. The Static FBML app allows us to go one step further and add additional tabs of your choice.(see fig1 below)
In the case of my own page I’ve opted to add just a single new category to the left column. However, with in this new page I’ve built my own custom navigation tabs using HTML.(see fig2 below).
Extras
Contact Form: We can easily incorporate your email address or phone number as a prominent call to action but we could also go one step further and include a contact form that will direct messages to your Facebook account.
Slideshow: If you’re interested in serving a collection of images we can integrate a slideshow that pulls images from your Flickr account or other popular photo hosts.
RevealTab: I have not implemented this feature myself but if you have some type of applicable promotional content a reveal tab is a great way to entice visitors to learn a bit more about you. We would a tab to your page with content that is initially hidden from first time visitors. This hidden page becomes visible only after one has clicked on the “Like” button and opted to follow your company posts. Imagine language that says something like “Become a fan and get access to our recently published newsletter”.
Conclusion
I don’t think a great looking Facebook page is going to make or break your business. However, it is undeniable that social networking platforms such as Facebook offer a great way for you to connect with existing and prospective customers. If you have already established or are thinking about creating a Facebook page, it only makes sense to approach the visual design of such a page with the same care that you would apply to any other marketing channel.
You can view my Facebook page here. Feel free to poke around and click the “Like” button.
14
Mar
2011
New 3D Business People Illustrations
I’ve started producing a new collection of business people illustrations.
These will be available exclusivley on iStockphoto.com. At this point I’ve only managed to a get few uploaded but I will be steadily building out this collection with additional concepts over the next few months.
17
Nov
2010
Illustrations for ExakTime
The new ExakTime site is live and features my illustration work.
ExakTime is a company in Calabasas, CA that builds a job clock system for tracking labor costs. They recently launched a new website which includes my illustration work in the form of a large and detailed isometric diagram of the various industries they serve. It can be seen in action here. It also includes my “How it Works” illustration which can be found here”.
Full disclosure:
I wish that I could claim that every single pixel in this illustration was created by myself from scratch and with more time that’s what it would be. However, being a professional designer often means modifying your own artistic vision in order to come up a cost effective solution that will meet your clients needs. All though the concept is all mine there are a few elements such as the helicopter and ambulance that were purchased as stock. This approach saved the client hundreds of dollars and added important details to the scene that otherwise would have been impossible given the project timeline.
05
Nov
2010
New Business People Icon Set
A brand new collection of stylish business people icons is now available on iStock
19
Oct
2010
New design for American Society of Primatologists is live
The new site design that I developed for the American Society of Primatologists is launched.
The American Society of Primatologists is an educational & scientific organization that aims to understand, conserve and inform about nonhuman primates. I develop a new visual design that would engage visitors and yet present society information in a clear and concise manner. Visit the site at http://www.asp.org
07
Sep
2010
Skateboard Girl
I thought this recent shot of Zoe chilling after a skate session turned out compelling. View on iStock
20
Aug
2010
Found in Print
My friend Sarah recently noticed my shot of Clark Weber skiing at Heavenly on the cover of Fearn’s 2010 Ski Lake Tahoe Ad Rates Guide.
Recent Projects and Articles
12
Jul
2011
OutdoorGearLab is an exciting new company that recently hired me to develop their logo. Read more…
Recent Stock Art
15
May
2012
With the arrival of spring I’ve once again been shooting a lot in the Marin Headlands. Read more…
