Archive for the ‘Creative’ Category
The holiday season is in full swing, and I’m slowly getting into the spirit of things. I listen to my holiday radio station on Pandora, and changed my desktop wallpaper to that of various festive winter scenes. Plus, I just bought a lovely dress to wear to my holiday parties, and I’m almost done with all my shopping.
After all the hard work that goes into preparing for the holidays, it is important to sit back, relax, and enjoy the time-honored tradition of putting up Christmas lights on one’s home.
(This is my absolute favorite YouTube video ever!)
Happy Holidays!
Here at iFuel Interactive, we like to think of ourselves as those who support the arts.
This week, we had some special visitors to our office, and they shared with us some lovely artwork on the dry erase board in our conference room.
“iFuel Interactive” by Em™ 2011©
We are very lucky to have this lovely piece of art to enjoy and share with others.
Andy’s birthday fell on a weekend this year, which was followed by him being out of the office on business for a few days. To show him how much we cared, we got him a little birthday present; an entire office!
Andy's Desk, where no detail was over looked.
We felt that Disney Princess Paper was fitting for the door.
His monitors, key board, mouse and desk mat were all wrapped in complimenting paper patterns.
We wrapped his book shelf and eveything on it. Please note the tissue box...
His white board was wrapped, as well as each dry erase marker
Ring! Ring! Ring!
Items wrapped included glasses, file folders, stapler, desk chair, floor mat, cup holder, post it notes, router, paper clip holder, and much, much more.
Andy's Desk all wrapped up!
The Masterpiece!
A great way to be welcomed back after a birthday weekend!
If you want to be a great designer,One key thing is you should always be on the lookout for great design. Start making a collection for inspiring and educating yourself. Paging though a great design book can even kick start a creative spell and get you in the mood to create something great.
Obviously the Internet is a way cheaper and more direct resource for design. Some nice blogs to follow are, www.smashingmagazine.com, http://designm.ag, and http://spyrestudios.com, This is where inspiration is constantly posted. Also a great way is to join popular online communities like www.behance.net, www.coroflot.com, and www.deviantart.com to view work from fellow artists.
Also in the real world don’t forget to look at great design around you. It could be anything from amazing signage in a store window to a really cool birthday card you just received.
Now that you are always looking at great design, the key is to collect it. A great idea is to start a design scrapbook. Including a digital scrapbook, saving screen shots of all the work you love. www.evernote.com is a great tool for this.
Collecting the great design that’s all around you will help your work stay relevant while inspiring you to get better.
As the summer slowly starts to fade away, and yellow school buses begin to flood the roads, many are enjoying the last few weeks with a much deserved vacation. Many look forward to few days away from the office, and find great joy in setting up their “Out of the Office” auto responder. However, one must ask, why do we pack our phones, iPads and laptops, if we are trying to get away from it all?
As we start to pack our suitcases, we make a mental note to not forget our cell chargers, the cord for the laptop, and put great effort in deciding a tote bag to carry everything to the beach, without getting sand in it. Quite clearly, the best way to not get sand in our precious toys is to not bring them with us. However, we just can’t seem to unplug.
In the NYT from last week, Bruce Feiler writes about how he and his family benefited from staying on the grid, saying that it helped with answering every day questions; What type of leaf is this? What is a home remedy for bug bites? How to I fix a garbage disposal?
All of us has seen them – the website that looks like the sixteen year old down the block created it, with badly placed graphics, horrible fonts, and are impossible to navigate. Companies with poorly designed websites never seem to have a large customer base. Especially when potential users go and research the competition.
To have the best chance at success online, you really need to have a website designed professionally. One that will capture the users attention, and allow your company to climb to the top of the search engine result pages, and increase business.
The goal of any website is to increase conversion rates, and the more attractive your company’s website is, the more likely your users are to stay on your site and give you their business. A website only has a few seconds to get the users attention, and if their website doesn’t look professional, users are more likely to move on to the competition. If your site looks professional, users are going to believe that you are a financially successful business. Poorly/Cheaply designed websites are usually a sign of a poorly funded and unmanaged company (those who are barely making enough each month to get by). Not only can a well-designed web site make you look successful but it can also ensure the user of the business’s trustworthiness.
When you hire an online marketing company to build your website (like iFuel interactive) you not only get professional web design, but also the ability to get social media marketing, per click advertising, search engine optimization services, and potentially even online reputation management.
So what are you waiting for?
