By Ella Davidson of Coupons.org; Coupons is a site dedicated to giving back to the community while providing informative couponing knowledge. As any marketing strategist will tell you, understanding your target shopper is the best way to achieve success. Many factors can play a role in determining the outcome of your campaign. In a robust economy, simple tricks such as placing desired items at an entrance of a store can lure a potential shopper in. Once the shopper comes into the store, they will begin to look around and thus create sales that otherwise might not have happened. When an…
Selected by eztephen
-
Most Topular Stories
-
Cut it out! (Some of the Best and Worst Coupon Campaign Tactics)
Up and Running9 Feb 2012 | 4:00 am -
4 Keys to Reining in Social Media Overload
Young Entrepreneur - Small Business & Entrepreneur Community » Blog9 Feb 2012 | 3:00 amMost businesses understand that they need at least some kind of social media presence nowadays. But what about those who are too deeply entrenched in Facebook status updates and tweets? Or those that can’t keep up with LinkedIn invites and Tumblr reblogs? What about entrepreneurs who are finding it harder and harder to manage all of their social media profiles and run a business at the same time? It’s easy to get overloaded with social media, but if you feel like you’re drowning, it might be time to start simplifying your routine and finding ways to cut back on your time… -
How to Shoot Through a Wire Fence
Digital Photography School9 Feb 2012 | 5:47 amStuck behind a wire fence when trying to shoot an interesting subject can be a pain. It’s a challenge most often faced at the zoo but you also come across it when shooting at some sporting events (car racing for example) or in other random circumstances (for example I recently was photographing some kids on a trampoline which had a mesh around it). Image by Doug Brown So how do you minimise the impact of the fence in your shots? Here’s a few quick tips: Switch to Manual Focusing – one challenge you may face shooting through any kind of fence is that your camera may not know… -
How the Other Half Lives: George Holz' Beyoncé for Spin
Strobist8 Feb 2012 | 9:00 pmPhoto © George HolzYou know how people on the Strobist Flickr group like to talk about how it is technically possible to shoot blow-away white with just one flash?Yeah, this is not exactly that.Hit the jump for a walk-thru vid for the (ahem, eight-light) shoot, including a key light combo that you're prolly gonna want to rent rather than buy next time you are assigned to shoot Beyoncé. Read more » -
Let Me Sink - Emotional Rainy Scene Photo Manipulation
Photoshop Tutorials9 Feb 2012 | 12:00 amIn this tutorial I'll show you how to create an emotional photo manipulation called "Let me sink". We'll come through techniques of manipulating, retouching, using brush, layer mask, adjusting light and shadow a well as other several techniques to create an emotional rainy scene. Read more... (http://photoshoptutorials.ws/photoshop-tutorials/photo-manipulation/let-me-sink-emotional-rainy-scene-photo-manipulation.html)
-
Up and Running
-
Cut it out! (Some of the Best and Worst Coupon Campaign Tactics)
9 Feb 2012 | 4:00 amBy Ella Davidson of Coupons.org; Coupons is a site dedicated to giving back to the community while providing informative couponing knowledge. As any marketing strategist will tell you, understanding your target shopper is the best way to achieve success. Many factors can play a role in determining the outcome of your campaign. In a robust economy, simple tricks such as placing desired items at an entrance of a store can lure a potential shopper in. Once the shopper comes into the store, they will begin to look around and thus create sales that otherwise might not have happened. When an… -
Are You LinkedIn for the Sake of Your Business?
8 Feb 2012 | 4:00 amIf you and your business have been hesitant to invest the time and effort into a LinkedIn account, what are you waiting for? With some 120 million users, LinkedIn is still by far the choice of business professionals. Yet, many business pros, and their companies for that matter, have been late to the party when it comes to signing up for and maintaining accounts. For the business professional, even if you choose to come and go with a LinkedIn page, it is a wise idea to have a company page in place so that you can draw people to your site and reach out in turn. This holds especially true for… -
7 Overlooked Tax Deductions for Small Business Owners
7 Feb 2012 | 4:00 amTax (Photo credit: 401K) According to the IRS, each year millions of taxpayers overlook deductions and credits resulting in overpaying their taxes. Here are seven tips so you won’t become one of the statistics. Section 179 Deduction. If your business acquired assets in 2011 either through a lease or by purchasing them out right, you may be eligible to deduct up to $500,000. For more information about this deduction, you can read “End of Year Tax Tips” as well as the IRS publication “Bonus Depreciation and Increased Section 179 Deduction under the American Recovery and Reinvestment… -
Meet the #IamBplans Winners: Rebar Business Builders
6 Feb 2012 | 11:15 amRebar Business Builders helps strengthen businesses from the inside out by installing small business marketing systems that systematically attract and retain ideal customers. Their Managed Marketing programs provide everything a business needs to create, implement, and maintain their marketing plan. It’s like getting an entire marketing department in a box. The man behind Rebar Business Builders is Bill Brelsford, a CPA turned marketing coach. According to Bill: Accounting and marketing are seen as opposite ends of a spectrum. Left brain vs. right brain, analytical vs. creative, tie vs. -
Praise Where Praise is Due
3 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amIt all started with a simple email exchange. The final mail was short and to the point ‘ thanks for the great customer service, sadly it is unusual.’ It got me thinking.For me the exchange was pretty straight forward. A customer had emailed in with a query. I was in early, before the customer service team had arrived and I logged in to our email management tool. It was a straight forward request so I jumped in and answered it. The customer came back later than morning with another question and having had the initial correspondence with me I again answered it. No big deal? Then I…
-
Young Entrepreneur - Small Business & Entrepreneur Community » Blog
-
4 Keys to Reining in Social Media Overload
9 Feb 2012 | 3:00 amMost businesses understand that they need at least some kind of social media presence nowadays. But what about those who are too deeply entrenched in Facebook status updates and tweets? Or those that can’t keep up with LinkedIn invites and Tumblr reblogs? What about entrepreneurs who are finding it harder and harder to manage all of their social media profiles and run a business at the same time? It’s easy to get overloaded with social media, but if you feel like you’re drowning, it might be time to start simplifying your routine and finding ways to cut back on your time… -
Making Sense of the Application Landscape
8 Feb 2012 | 3:00 amNew year, new toys. Consumer electronics, that is. I’m just getting back and reflecting on CES (Consumer Electronics Show), the largest tech geek kickoff of the year. This year I got the chance to see the new consumer electronics and tech industry trends from three lenses: that of a journalist, an entrepreneur, and a marketer working with EachScape, an application creation and management platform. This year’s gadgets and exhibits confirmed the expansion of the tech market as a whole. This results in large opportunities in the application space, which is now trending well beyond… -
Your Dream Will Die Without The Startup Essentials
6 Feb 2012 | 7:22 amI’ve noticed a great tendency among startup founders to ignore the essentials of business accounting in the early stages of their startup. Just because you are not profitable yet, doesn’t mean you can skip the record keeping. In fact, just the opposite is true. When you anticipate losses for the first year or two, it is more important to properly document all expenses, including tricky ones like business travel, business meals, and your home office. Sloppy documentation and reporting of these expenses is an open invitation to an IRS audit, which is the last thing you need or can afford… -
Five Mistakes to Avoid in Global Marketing
3 Feb 2012 | 3:00 amTaking the leap and marketing your business overseas could be the best decision you make this year. The economic outlook might be gloomy in the United States and Europe, but that’s far from true in the rest of the world. And for small to medium business owners, the internet is a relatively cheap way to tap into growing markets. That’s not to say it’s foolproof. As with any marketing strategy, it pays to do your homework. We’re sure that Ford wishes it did a little more research before launching its Caliente car in Mexico. The name is slang for “streetwalker” – perhaps not the… -
10 Reasons You’re Not Reaching Your Goals; or, What I Learned from Writing a Really Crappy Novel
1 Feb 2012 | 3:00 amI hit a big goal of mine – finally – just before 2011 ended. I finished writing the novel I began five or so years ago. When I say finished, however, what I mean is that the very first, very rough draft is complete, ringing in at just under 80,000 words. I am now the proud author of one really crappy novel, but it’s a completely written crappy novel. And one day, after much editing and revising, it may move from “complete but crappy” to, simply, “complete.” I learned a few things through this novel-writing process. Like most of you, I don’t have…
-
Digital Photography School
-
How to Shoot Through a Wire Fence
9 Feb 2012 | 5:47 amStuck behind a wire fence when trying to shoot an interesting subject can be a pain. It’s a challenge most often faced at the zoo but you also come across it when shooting at some sporting events (car racing for example) or in other random circumstances (for example I recently was photographing some kids on a trampoline which had a mesh around it). Image by Doug Brown So how do you minimise the impact of the fence in your shots? Here’s a few quick tips: Switch to Manual Focusing – one challenge you may face shooting through any kind of fence is that your camera may not know… -
How to Use Dome Diffuser to Eliminate Shadows and Harsh Light
8 Feb 2012 | 10:40 amA Guest Post by PhotographersOnUTube. One question I frequently get asked is how to get rid of shadows in the picture when the subject is close to a wall? Well, it depends on if the shadow is being created due to a specific angle of the speed light or you’re using some sort of a flash diffuser. A lot of photographers assume that the omni dome diffuser you get with your speed light is essential to making the light softer, which is not always true. In most cases that dome diffuser is used to spread the light in a very challenging lighting situation when you can’t bounce anything off the… -
Beginner’s Tip: Get Closer
8 Feb 2012 | 5:48 amI work with a lot of people just starting out in photography. People who want to move off of Auto mode and on to something more. And they show me their images, asking, “What can I do better?” I’ve started noticing a pattern in many of the images I have seen from new photography enthusiasts. It’s not absolute, but it is common enough that I write here today offering this bit of advice: Get closer. Here’s the pattern I see when I ask new photographers to photograph something of interest. I’ll illustrate the flow with photos most students start out with. First, they find something… -
Canon Update 3 Lenses including EF 24-70 F/2.8L II USM
7 Feb 2012 | 4:35 pmYesterday saw some excitement among our Nikon readers with the launch of the new Nikon D800 DSLR – but also announced yesterday were 3 new lenses from Canon. The main one of interest is the EF 24-70 F/2.8L II USM. Version I of this lens has always been a popular choice with photographers for quite a few years so an update is a logical one. The main updates included: More durable body Smaller Size (only slightly) Redesigned Optics New Zoom Lock lever to prevent damage in transit Unfortunately the update didn’t bring any Image Stabilisation to this lens – something that will… -
View a Short Film Shot on the New Nikon D800 DSLR
7 Feb 2012 | 4:10 pmWith the announcement of Nikon’s new D800 DSLR yesterday came a short film shot on the D800 that shows off some of the D800′s video shooting capabilities. The film is called ‘Joy Ride’ and was created by photographer – Sandro. The film showcases the D800′s ability to shoot in some tricky lighting conditions and situations (fast moving motorbikes, low light etc). Here it is: Also released by Sandro today was a behind the scenes video. It doesn’t contain a heap of technical info by will give you a feel for how it was shot. Post originally from: Digital…
-
Strobist
-
How the Other Half Lives: George Holz' Beyoncé for Spin
8 Feb 2012 | 9:00 pmPhoto © George HolzYou know how people on the Strobist Flickr group like to talk about how it is technically possible to shoot blow-away white with just one flash?Yeah, this is not exactly that.Hit the jump for a walk-thru vid for the (ahem, eight-light) shoot, including a key light combo that you're prolly gonna want to rent rather than buy next time you are assigned to shoot Beyoncé. Read more » -
Lighting Inside the Box
6 Feb 2012 | 6:30 amAfter 15 years of long-term planning (and saving) Susan and I finally took the plunge with a full kitchen remodel. We were really pleased with the results, and at some point I had promised the contractor a nice photo of the final product.In a room like this you are basically illuminating the inside of a box by using hidden lights, which turned out to be an interesting exercise. And it's something I would recommend for just about any photographer. Read more » -
Core Knowledge: Working With Remotes
2 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amThere are two things you should always remember about radio remotes:One, radio can be fickle. This is true whether you are using your time-honored PocketWizards or a brand new Chinese offering.Two, radio waves -- and success with your remotes -- are all about the physics. So a little knowledge can go a long way toward ensuring good range and reliability. Some basics that every lighting photographer should know, inside. Read more » -
Tyler Stableford: Dispatches From the Underground
30 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amAspen, Colorado-based photographer Tyler Stableford generally shoots action and adventure, most of it aboveground. But this shoot for Timberland PRO would send him a half-mile deep into the earth. That far down, before adding light it is absolutely pitch black. As in, you cannot see your hand in front of your face. And the lights the miners use while extracting coal there aren't much friendlier -- low-level, and a mix of tungsten and fluorescents. So Stableford shot the entire campaign working on the edge of the quality envelope, and lighting with only a few speedlights. Read more » -
Q&A: Dealing with Glare from Dark Wood Backgrounds
26 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amReader Jefferson, from California in the US, asked via Twitter:"How do you deal with glare on dark wood in background for portraits? Is this covered in Lighting 101 or 102?"Actually, it is covered in L102, if a little obliquely. And yes, pretty much any time you light into dark wood as a background you are gonna get some blowback.But rather than look at this as a problem, I prefer to think of it as a feature… Read more »
-
Photoshop Tutorials
-
Let Me Sink - Emotional Rainy Scene Photo Manipulation
9 Feb 2012 | 12:00 amIn this tutorial I'll show you how to create an emotional photo manipulation called "Let me sink". We'll come through techniques of manipulating, retouching, using brush, layer mask, adjusting light and shadow a well as other several techniques to create an emotional rainy scene. Read more... (http://photoshoptutorials.ws/photoshop-tutorials/photo-manipulation/let-me-sink-emotional-rainy-scene-photo-manipulation.html) -
How to Create a Chocolaty Valentine’s Day Card for Your Girlfriend
8 Feb 2012 | 4:19 pmThis Valentine’s day, show your true love with a Valentine’s Day card! Whether it’s for your partner or yourself, you’ll have a fun time making it. This tutorial will show you how to create an easy swirling background and how to use layer styles to create a chocolaty text effect. Once you’re done, feel free to customize it with personal photos or just a few cute hearts. Read more... (http://photoshoptutorials.ws/photoshop-tutorials/text-effects/create-a-chocolaty-valentines-day-card-for-you-or-your-girlfriend.html) -
Create a Gigantic Fortress with a Mysterious Glow in Photoshop
6 Feb 2012 | 12:00 amLearn how to create this mysterious image of a gigantic castle in a stormy background. In addition to combining stock photos together, you’ll learn how to create a stormy background and lighting effects. Read more... (http://photoshoptutorials.ws/photoshop-tutorials/photo-manipulation/create-a-gigantic-fortress-with-a-mysterious-glow-in-photoshop.html) -
11 Beautiful Photography Works by Christopher Jonassen
6 Feb 2012 | 12:00 amThis interview features world renowned fine art Photographer Christopher Jonassen. A real visionary, he transforms ordinary, everyday things into visually stimulating works of art. His talent and passion is truly incomparable as can be seen in his work. Read on and be amazed by this talented photographer! Read more... (http://photoshoptutorials.ws/creative-inspirations/photography/11-beautiful-photography-works-by-christopher-jonassen.html) -
Create an Amazing Surreal-Style Treehouse in Photoshop
2 Feb 2012 | 12:00 amCreate this beautiful treehouse artwork using a combination of photo manipulation and painting techniques. Find out how to easily draw a surreal-looking tree easily using the Brush tool, clouds from scratch, and more! You’ll learn all these techniques in this Photoshop tutorial. Read more... (http://photoshoptutorials.ws/photoshop-tutorials/photo-manipulation/create-an-amazing-surreal-style-treehouse-in-photoshop.html)
-
Photoshop For Digital Photographers
-
Protecting Your Metadata
8 Feb 2012 | 4:44 amEvery time you take an image your camera automatically embeds information into the image. There may be times when you don't want to share this data with others and in this tutorial I'll show you how to remove selective metadata from an image. -
How To Naturally Extend A Canvas
2 Feb 2012 | 4:12 amIf you need to naturally extend one or more edges of an image how do you do this without distorting important elements of your image? Watch this tutorial to find out how. -
Painting A Vignette
3 Jan 2012 | 3:12 amGet more control with your vignettes by painting them onto your images. In this tutorial I'll be showing you how easy this technique is to apply. -
A Killer Portrait Adjustment
22 Dec 2011 | 2:45 amWould you like a simple two layer adjustment that will make your image standout from all of the rest? Watch this tutorial to see how it's done. -
High Pass Sharpening
7 Dec 2011 | 3:21 amIn this tutorial we will sharpen an image by using the High Pass Filter. In addition to creating this adjustment we will also show you how to fine tune the adjustment by creating a smart filter.
-
Scott Kelby's Photoshop Insider
-
Cliff Mautner on the Nikon D800
8 Feb 2012 | 9:02 pmWhat a few days. It’s amazing how much interest a little piece of metal can produce. As a proud member of the team at Kelby Training, I wanted to share my experience with the D800. This project has been going on for many months. i was approached by my good friends at K&L in Tokyo- Nikon’s agency for decades- and was blown away that they asked me to participate with this project. My job was well defined: Use the D800 in a way that utilizes and highlights the latest features the D800 offers in real world wedding conditions that I’d face week in and week out. Simple, right? -
It’s Free Stuff Thursday!
8 Feb 2012 | 9:01 pmPhotoshop World DC – 9 Days Left for Early Bird Registration! Photoshop World Washington DC is quickly approaching, and there are only 9 days left to save $100 on registration! Head on over to PhotoshopWorld.com to sign up, get hotel info, see the full schedule of classes from instructors like Jay Maisel, Joel Grimes, Lindsay Adler, Glyn Dewis, and a ton of other incredible people! And, there are only a few spots left in some of the pre-conference workshops like Lightpainting 101 with Dave Black, On Location DSLR Workshop with Rich Harrington, Real World Concert Photography with Alan… -
It’s Guest Blog Wednesday featuring Jake Peterson!
7 Feb 2012 | 9:37 pmMaking History Come to LifeTen months ago I was attending Photoshop World in Orlando, FL. It was the second time I had been to Photoshop World, but after the blast of Vegas the previous September there was no way I was going to miss the one that Spring. One morning in the instructors’ lounge Jay Maisel, someone who I knew of but had never met, was sitting at a table. I introduced myself and we started to talk. Afterward Jay went up to my Dad and said, “You have failed as a parent if you let your kid go into photography as a career.” He smiled and my Dad just laughed;… -
Jumping the gun on the Nikon D800
7 Feb 2012 | 7:46 amSince my post last night here on Google+ (http://www.scottgplus.com), and here on my blog earlier today, I’ve seen a lot of comments flowing in pro and con about this camera, and I just want to say a quick few things about the comments I’ve been reading thus far:(1) The D800 was apparently created for a very specific type of photographer There is no law that every camera introduced by a camera company has to be designed to fit your personal needs. If you read that it has 36.3 megapixels and you’re like “36.3 megapixels is overkill!!!” then obviously this… -
Nikon Announces The D800 And Baby Does It Look Sweet!!!!
6 Feb 2012 | 9:33 pm36.3 megapixels (wow!) with a full frame sensor. Full HD video with stereo sound (yay) built in HDR (sweet) and it looks like its aimed at the commercial, wedding and landscape markets (photographers who shoot medium format digital backs. I mean who used to shoot digital backs). ;-)I haven’t seen one, held one, etc., but it sounds amazing and I want one. Bad!!!! (And yes, sometimes you need 36.3 megapixels). Two words: Whoo Hoo!Read the full scoop at Nikon USA: http://bit.ly/wVaU77
-
Holy Kaw!
-
Can dessert for breakfast help you lose weight?
9 Feb 2012 | 1:39 pmNew research suggests that, in the early morning, you can have your cake and shed pounds too A new study from Tel Aviv University finds that eating a small dessert as part of a balanced breakfast can actually help you shed unwanted pounds. Staying skinny and eating chocolate? Here, a brief guide to what sounds, frankly, impossible: Full story at The Week. Photo: CC by ::paqman:: All the top stories from The Week. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Romance survey [infographic]
9 Feb 2012 | 12:02 pmVia Hotels.com. Infographics to put you in the mood. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Do aliens go invisible by 'going green'?
9 Feb 2012 | 11:24 amAs we discover more and more planets around other stars, the Fermi Paradox is becoming, well, more paradoxical. The Fermi Paradox simply asks the question "where are they?" Our Milky Way galaxy is so big and so old -- and we are estimated to be accompanied by at least 100 billion planets -- that aliens should have visited us by now. Instead, when we peruse the heavens, we are faced with the Great Silence, which is one of the biggest challenges to modern astronomy. Full story at Discovery News. More news from Discovery Communications. Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink | Leave a… -
Mysterious sounds reported around the world
9 Feb 2012 | 11:23 amPeople around the world have reported hearing strange sounds from the skies over the past month. Sometimes they describe it as a hum or low rumble; other times it’s a whine, thump, or even a melody. Often the sounds have been recorded and posted online, fueling rumors and conspiracy theories. One blogger wrote, "either the world is ending, aliens are landing or everyone is getting hoaxed. Or, possibly, there’s an actual scientific explanation for the mass amount of YouTube videos capturing bizarre sounds that are being heard around the globe. Are we witnessing the beginning of a… -
Costa Concordia: an ecological time bomb
9 Feb 2012 | 11:21 amAs workers begin to extract the half-million gallons of fuel in the shipwrecked cruise liner, locals are worried that their pristine waters are in danger. Reporting by Rossella Lorenzi. Written and produced by Rossella Lorenzi and Martin Berman. Full story at Discovery News. More news from Discovery Communications. Permalink | Leave a comment »
-
Canon Rumors
-
What’s Next? Lenses & Cameras
8 Feb 2012 | 3:58 amLenses I’ve heard that Canon will be introducing a lot of new lenses this year. Quite possibly a record amount of new lenses announced in a single calendar year. For the moment, it’s unknown whether the lens count will include any mirrorless camera lenses, or if we’re talking EF lenses. I will say, Canon may be updating lenses to help resolve a coming huge megapixel camera. We’ve heard previously a lot of short focal length lenses are on the update schedule, and we just saw 2 primes and a zoom announced. Keep watching patents for clues. The EF 24 f/2.8 seemed like an… -
New Lens Preorders at Adorama
8 Feb 2012 | 3:36 amThe New Lenses Adorama is accepting preorders on the new Canon lenses. Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L II for $2299 Canon EF 24 f/2.8 IS for $849 Canon EF 28 f/2.8 IS for $799 cr -
Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L II Available for Preorder
7 Feb 2012 | 8:48 amFrom B&H B&H Photo has posted the new Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L II. It is available for preorder and is expected to ship on April 17, 2012. There is no 2 for 1 deal if you buy a Canon EOS-1D X as well. Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L II at B&H for $2299 cr -
New Canon PowerShot Cameras Available for Preorder
7 Feb 2012 | 8:45 amPreorder Madness The new Canon PowerShot cameras are now available for preorder from B&H. Including the new waterproof & shockproof Canon PowerShot D20. View all the new PowerShots at B&H | Canon PowerShot D20 at B&H cr -
Canon EOS-1D X High Resolution Samples
7 Feb 2012 | 8:39 amFinally! …..again Canon has finally posted full resolution samples from the Canon EOS-1D X. The new flagship in the EOS lineup. View the samples Thanks Evil cr
-
Canon Blogger: Learning Digital Photography
-
Radio Station Steals Photos
9 Feb 2012 | 6:38 amWe have two competing country music stations here in Denver: KYGO and the Wolf. A photographer has had exclusive arrangements with the former for a number of years. Apparently, he took some photos at a recent Jason Aldean concert, and KYGO posted them to their website. These photos eventually made it over to the Facebook page for The Wolf. Now the photographer is trying to pursue some measure of justice, and is being met with stiff resistance. The sad thing is that he will unlikely get any justice because even though The Wolf is in the wrong, the cost of hiring a lawyer and delay… -
Wordless Wednesday # 002 – A Dog Lives Here
7 Feb 2012 | 10:30 pm -
The Benefit of Company
5 Feb 2012 | 10:30 pmTracy works with some nice people – we get together every year for a “Super Bowl” gathering. It’s not so much about the Super Bowl (because this year, we frankly had no interest in either participant) as it is about getting together. It’s a set of three couples (two with kids), so six of us gather in the living room and socialize, talk, consume various beverages, and the like.Socializing is a good thing – we are social creatures, and this is even more true with photographers. You need to be able to communicate and engage with others. Even if you are… -
Wordless Wednesday #001
31 Jan 2012 | 10:30 pmWhile the title should be self-explanatory, it unfortunately isn’t for the first ever Wordless Wednesday. Here’s the deal…I am going to start posting an image every Wednesday. The purpose is for you to enjoy the image! I’ve so many images in my library of work thus far that have never made it into sets, portfolio reviews, juried shows, and the like, that it’s simply time to start culling some of them here. What do I want in return? Nothing! Just enjoy the image. If one speaks to you in particular, feel free to share your own emotions, thoughts,… -
My Conversation with Joe Farace…
30 Jan 2012 | 10:30 pmThe first podcast of 2012 is now ready for your listening pleasure! I had the distinct honor of talking with long time photographer and author Joe Farace! A contributing writer for Shutterbug Magazine, and author of several blogs, it was a great way to kick off the new year! We had a great chat for about 45 minutes (on the record anyway)…and talked about everything from posing models, to lighting them, as well as some travel photography…heck, we even talked cars for a bit too!Thanks to Joe for taking the time to talk too – here’s his info and the show notes: Joe…
-
Photopreneur - Make Money Selling Your Photos
-
Become a Photographer Without Giving up the Day Job
8 Feb 2012 | 5:59 amPhotography: Renata Ramsini Renata Ramsini’s website describes her in four different ways. She’s an “efficiency-lover,” a “photographer,” a “policy wonk” and a “law student.” That’s not the order in which her life has played out however. Like many photography enthusiasts, when it came time to pick a profession it never occurred to Ramsini to pick up her camera and push for a career in picture-taking. Although she says she’s always loved photography, she didn’t think it was something that could give her a living. For that she turned to a night class at law school and… -
Microstock Turns to Quality, Not Quantity
2 Feb 2012 | 5:05 amAs top microstock figures complain about growing competition, rising saturation and declining returns per image, microstock companies are starting to push back. Warnings from figures as big as Yuri Arcurs, even as he rolls out a three-year study program, are leading sites to think about how they can best serve both their contributors, whom they need to continue supplying content, and their buyers who always want to pay less for that content and already have plenty of other places and pictures to choose from. Dreamstime, one of the biggest microstock firms, is both typical of the problem and… -
The Secret to Shooting for $1,000 an Hour
26 Jan 2012 | 7:36 amIs it really possible to earn $1,000 an hour as a photographer? A regular photographer. Not the kind of high-end fashion photographer or Vogue cover-shooter that requires a lifetime of career achievement and first-name terms with media moguls. The kind of photography for which there’s constant demand, whose buyers are average Joes and which can still deliver the kinds of rates that even lawyers would be frightened to demand. When we first asked this question back in 2007, the post became one of our most controversial. But what surprised us most about the dozens of comments we’ve received… -
Top Editorial Contributors Get a Share of Demotix’s Ad Revenues
17 Jan 2012 | 5:22 amImage: Demotix Demotix might just have created a new revenue model for editorial photographers and aspiring photojournalists. The crowd-sourced news agency, which has licensed images to publications and outlets including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine and the BBC, is to begin paying contributors a share of its advertising revenue. The company has partnered with Guardian Select, MessageSpace and Google to place ads on all the site’s story pages and news hubs. Demotix will work with the advertising agencies to make sure that the ads are relevant and ethical,… -
Crowdsourcing Photojournalism
16 Jan 2012 | 7:39 amPhotography: Joao Pina Documentary photographers are struggling to pitch their stories. Newspapers and magazines are now rarely willing to cover the expenses that photographers run up when they travel to distant parts of the world, and few outlets want to provide space for a photo documentary on Southeast Asian villagers when a thirteen-page spread of a celebrity on the beach would sell so much better. Some dedicated photographers though have managed to find a solution. They’re not just selling the image; they’re selling the photojournalist experience. And they’re selling it directly to…
-
The Digital Dazzle Blog
-
As an agency, we will skip iBooks Author
20 Jan 2012 | 11:16 amApart from the big EULA hubbub that broke out yesterday over Apple's restrictive End-User License Agreement terms for their newly released iBooks Author software, there's another reason why we cannot use it in our creative process.From Darrell Etherington's post on GigaOm:iBooks Author won’t be as appealing to those users since it creates a file that is not quite epub2, not quite epub3, and not quite XHTML5, according to Vook’s blog which makes it “one channel only,” or essentially proprietary.Our customers always want our work in standard formats (PDF or epub), since they never know… -
Which Tool To Use?
19 Jan 2012 | 3:13 pmDo you need to create something on your computer? Write a paper? Or do you want to edit gantt chart, but you don't know what software to use?Why don't use ask your fellow computer users?BestVendor.com keeps a list of the most popular software tools. Once you go there, simply name your top three software tools, then access their database to find out what others are using. While their results might reflect certain biases, they will at least give you some starting point when picking a good tool for the job. -
13 Technical Challenges for Enterprise Video
16 Jan 2012 | 9:31 amThe following 13 technical issues related to the implementation of video were identified by enterprise-class corporations in a 2011 study conducted by Interactive Media Strategies. Below are their rankings in order of importance:Network securityContent securityAbility to embed videoSearch and discoveryLDAP IntegrationContent workflow managementTranscoding to multiple devicesAbility to track viewershipAbility to edit contentEnable upload of self-produced videosAbility to distribute to mobile devicesAutomate search engine submissionsSocial media integrationWhile the responsibility of… -
2011 Enterprise Video Statistics
13 Jan 2012 | 2:25 pmA few quick statistics on Enterprise video: According to the 2011 Enterprise Web Communications Survey conducted by Interactive Media Strategies:One-third of all corporations polled said they produce at least one video per week.Two-thirds of the firms surveyed plan to increase their video production in the coming year.The number of companies with online video budgets of $500,000 or more increased by 20 percent since their 2010 survey. -
Add Video Power to Your PowerPoint Presentations
10 Jan 2012 | 9:26 amA truly great presentation keeps viewers engaged by showing them your ideas. A fantastic way to do this is to embed video in your Microsoft PowerPoint presentations. Using video can serve a wealth of purposes — if it’s done right.Action speaks louder than picturesHow does your organization use PowerPoint? Many organizations design presentations for multiple situations:Just So You Know ...According to Microsoft, Adobe Flash has some limitations in PowerPoint 2010 and cannot be played in PowerPoint 2011 on a Mac at all. You can’t use certain special effects (such as shadows or 3-D…
-
Stuck in Customs
-
Patrick Rothfuss
8 Feb 2012 | 10:02 pmTrey’s Variety Hour #22: Patrick Rothfuss – The Name of the Hangout Don’t forget you can subscribe for free in iTunes: http://goo.gl/ZAKd8 (or other options at http://twit.tv/tvh) if you want to get these first, or have them available later on your computer, iPhone, or iPad. This show was a very special one for me (sounds like a very special episode of Blossom, when she gets a visit from Aunt Flo), but you’ll probably detect this while watching. During the first bit, we talked about art, sharing, the human condition, and unexpected benefits of creating art in a… -
Old London From Above
7 Feb 2012 | 9:01 pmNew Show – Subscribe Now The podcast of the latest show should come out today. You’ll get it first if you are subscribed at http://twit.tv/tvh or iTunes Link: goo.gl/ZAKd8. And tell your friends! This most recent show was a little bit different… a conversation with another artist outside of the realm of photography that is very influential to me. Daily Photo - Old London From Above It’s a long walk to the top of St. Paul’s. And by long walk, I should throw in that there are a lot of stairs. But, after you finally arrive, you’re greeted… -
Featured in Android Market and Google TV
6 Feb 2012 | 9:53 pmFeatured on Google TV and Android Market! Our Android App (Photo Voyages of Trey Ratcliff) is now featured — very exciting. And, even better if you don’t want to pay, there is a Free version that with a nice collection of about 50 photos or so. It works great on your Android and your Google TV! And yes, it even works on the new color Kindle, once you enable it to run other apps. Daily Photo – Home in the Hillside Is it okay if I do two Iceland photos in a row? I hope so, because I’m very excited about this one too. Some of these places you… -
The Beginning of Time
5 Feb 2012 | 9:01 pmPatrick Rothfuss Tonight! Are you a fan of Pat? Join us tonight for the live hangout at 7 PM PT on Live.TWIT.tv. EG Video – I’ll Save you $4000 So, instead of buying that ticket, I promised you could watch my video for free, and here you go. I took a risk with this one, and I hope there are bits in here that are of interest. Enjoy! (and yes, I’ll be returning to Monterey this year…maybe I will see some of you there!) Daily Photo – The Beginning of Time I spent most of this weekend working on this photo. One common question is, “How long do… -
The Old Temple of Lore
4 Feb 2012 | 9:18 pm1 Million Downloads! 100 Cameras in 1 for the iPad (iTunes Link) and for the iPhone have passed 1 million downloads! That’s awesome – thanks so much and thanks for telling your friends! We just put up another update that fixed a few problems with rotation and memory issues. Also, thanks for all the great ratings… I appreciate you taking the time to do those. Daily Photo – The Old Temple of Lore The shapes of many SE Asian temples mimic the closed lotus flower. Once I found this out, it was incredibly obvious and I saw them everywhere. I did try to…
-
Entrepreneur Update
-
Main Street Merchants Say They're Not Handcuffed by Regulations
9 Feb 2012 | 12:01 pmAs politicians vilify regulations on the campaign trail, consider the results from a recent survey of small-business owners. It seems regulations aren't as onerous as some think. -
Eight Creative Marketing Ideas to Make Your Business Stand Out
9 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amIf your marketing could use a new twist, consider these new ideas to reach today's customers. -
Four Questions to Ask Before Setting a Price
9 Feb 2012 | 5:03 amBefore you figure out your pricing, figure out your business. -
Three Ways to Extend the Battery Life of Smartphones and Tablets
9 Feb 2012 | 4:00 amConsider these options for extending the battery life of your mobile devices. -
Fashion Mogul Christopher Burch Talks Business
9 Feb 2012 | 2:00 amAs Fashion Week kicks off, we sat down with the man behind brands like Tory Burch and Monika Chiang to find out what it takes to make it in the business.
-
Fast Company
-
"Words With Friends" Board Game Coming From The Makers Of Scrabble?
9 Feb 2012 | 1:14 pmHasbro and Zynga announced today that they have entered into a global partnership. With this license, Hasbro will be making a variety of toys and board games using Zynga's brands, with the first products expected to be released in the coming Fall. There will also be co-branded merchandise. "It's exciting to partner with Hasbro as we share a common vision for play and a mission to connect the world through games," said Zynga CEO Mark Pincus in a statement--funny, since much of Zynga's success has come from Words With Friends, a game that incorporated changes to scoring, a heavy social aspect… -
The Google Wallet Hack Is Not The End Of The World (Or Even NFC) As We Know It [Update: Google Reacts]
9 Feb 2012 | 11:30 amStay calm and carry on, people: It's way too soon to say that NFC should stand for Now Fatally Corrupted. Yes, Google's breakthrough NFC payments app Wallet is being mentioned all over the news thanks to a flaw--it's vulnerable to a hack that gives nefarious types access to your secure PIN number. But don't believe any doomsayers or fearmongering that you may encounter on this matter; it's not as evil as it seems and, believe it or not, it's actually a sign that the future of wireless mobile payments is probably more secure than your current credit card. As reported over at the blog of… -
Ford's Nancy Lee Gioia On Leading Where The Rubber Meets The Road
9 Feb 2012 | 8:05 amIn her 30 years with Ford Motor Company, Nancy Lee Gioia’s learned a thing or two about teamwork, sparking innovation, and being a driving force in what was once considered a man's industry. Nancy Lee Gioia’s been with Ford Motor Company since 1982, when she was hired as a graduate trainee in the electronics division. In the 30 years that followed, she’s held a variety of positions in electronics architecture, manufacturing, and engineering in different divisions.Now, as the company’s director of Global Electrification, Gioia drives strategy and planning for the next generation of… -
Fast Talk: How This Bartender Is Rebooting The Condom
9 Feb 2012 | 7:41 amMeet Richard Pessall, a 20-year-old British entrepreneur who wants to take the condom where no man has gone before (no, not space).Richard Pessall, 20, lives and works as bartender in Shropshire, England. He spent nine years living in the United States, but when he ran out of money to pay for college in North Carolina, he was unable to renew his visa and was forced to return to the U.K. He’s decided to make his fortune before attempting to return stateside. His big idea? Reboot the condom. Forplay, the condom company he's been bootstrapping with his barman’s earnings, has grown to a staff… -
Inside INTERPOL's New Cybercrime Innovation Center
9 Feb 2012 | 7:09 amINTERPOL, the international policing agency, is opening a massive innovation center in Singapore in 2014. At the center, law enforcement will learn all about the latest cybercrimes... and have access to cutting-edge forensics laboratories and research stations.INTERPOL, the international policing organization, is building a law enforcement tech geek heaven in Singapore. The INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation will function as a R&D lab, training facility, and forensics lab for all things cybercrime. Slated to open in 2014, the Global Complex for Innovation (IGCI) will be part of the…
-
crowdSPRING Blog
-
Small Biz and Startup Tips: 5 Ideas to Prepare for an Economic Recovery
5 Feb 2012 | 10:04 pmWhile economists (as usual) refuse to agree on the specifics, there is a general consensus that the recovery may (finally) be underway. Last week the Labor Department announced that in January over 240,000 new jobs were created and that the unemployment rate was at its lowest level in three years. In addition, tax revenues are increasing as is consumer spending, and exports have grown across many industries. For small business this is great news. Not just because it means that other companies are hiring, but it means that other companies are spending. One of the most corrosive effects of the… -
Twitter Link Roundup #118 – Small Business, Social Media, Design, Copywriting, Marketing And More
3 Feb 2012 | 7:05 amEvery day on the crowdSPRING Twitter account and on my own Twitter account, I post links to posts or videos I enjoyed reading or viewing. These posts and videos are about logo design, web design, startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Here are some of the links that I’ve liked and shared this past week! The video above is a new Super Bowl commercial from Honda, featuring Matthew Broderick and reminding us how much we loved Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. What Zappos Can Teach You About Becoming Irresistible to Customers –… -
The February cS Award and The January cS Award Winner
2 Feb 2012 | 12:34 pmLast summer, we announced that we would issue a monthly cS Award to honor quality work by designers and writers in the crowdSPRING community. February cS Award The cS awards are designed to celebrate the incredibly talented designers and writers in the crowdSPRING community and to encourage high quality work as well as community-oriented behavior. For the February cS Award, we will award $1,000 to the Creative who participates in the most projects and receives the highest average score on their entries. All crowdSPRING writers and designers will be eligible for this award, but you must… -
Small Business Spotlight of the Week: Geben Communication
31 Jan 2012 | 9:05 pmSometimes it seems like the world of entrepreneurs is approximately 5,000% male. Don’t worry, this isn’t going to turn into a lecture about institutionalized sexism (though, largely male tech community: don’t tempt me!). Instead, I want this to be a celebration of women who go out, start their own businesses, and get exactly what they want. Today’s spotlight is Geben Communication, a PR and communications firm located in Columbus, Ohio. Don’t let their “fly-over” status fool you: these guys are pros and handle clients from across the globe. -
DIY Branding, Self-published Fame, and Romantic Trolls
29 Jan 2012 | 9:05 pmAmanda Hocking is a star of the publishing world. Last year she signed a 4-book, $2 million dollar deal with St. Martin’s Press, one of the largest publishing houses in the world. While in itself, this is not unusual – authors become best-sellers every day, and publishing houses announce contracts with authors just as often, what is unusual is the road Hocking chose for her journey from high school-loner and Star Wars geek to group home worker to self-publishing royalty. Less than a year after she uploaded her first novel to Amazon, Hocking had uploaded 8 more of her novels and…
-
Andy Sernovitz | Damn, I Wish I\'d Thought of That!
-
The Home Depot’s case study: How to bring your culture to life through an online community
8 Feb 2012 | 1:00 pmCome to our upcoming BlogWell: How Big Brands Use Social Media conference in Dallas to hear brands like Farmers Insurance, Rogers Communications, Target, Yahoo!, NVIDIA, Hitachi Data Systems, Verizon, and Autodesk share 8 great case studies on corporate social media. You’ll get practical, how-to advice on developing your social strategy, scaling your program, driving sales, engaging internal and external audiences, and measuring it all — and you’ll see some brilliant presentations like this one from BlogWell Atlanta: One of Tia Robinson’s big ideas: Don’t be afraid to let your… -
Why would a music industry visionary be writing passionately about a turtleneck?
8 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amBob Lefsetz is a well-know music industry guru who covers critical issues for industry insiders. So why did he write 625 words about a turtleneck from Uniqlo? And then email it to his thousands of email subscribers? And why did my friend Josh Dorf email it to me? Not because he was paid. Not because he was part of some cheesy word of mouth advocacy program. Not because the company asked him to. He did it because true word of mouth, driven by authentic enthusiasm for amazing products, is an unstoppable force. Read this classic example of word of mouth in action: Uniqlo Andy couldn’t stop… -
Save the Date: Word of Mouth Crash Course, May 10, Austin
7 Feb 2012 | 1:00 pmBig news: We’re bringing back the world’s greatest word of mouth marketing conference: The Word of Mouth Crash Course in Austin on May 10. It’s the original “How to be great at word of mouth marketing” conference: 12 Real-world case studies 12 How-to classes 6 Amazing authors 1 Fast day (Yes, this is the event formerly called Word of Mouth Supergenius. We changed the name to better reflect that you’re going to learn a ton, really fast, while having fantastic fun.) Learn more here: http://wordofmouth.org/crashcourse Important: The first 100 registrants will get 50 copies of new… -
It’s not over when you turn in your homework
7 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amSome advice for recent college graduates entering the corporate world: In college, you finish a paper, you take the test, you get to the end of the semester — and you’re done. You can walk away and move on to the next project. No looking back. At work, it’s the opposite. You win when you take and keep responsibility. You own a project, you see it through, you take responsibility, and you make sure it works great for the long term. When it’s time for you to move on, you are responsible for handing off your knowledge and work to the next owner, and you’re not done… -
Pull up a chair around the fire
3 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amThe purpose of a trade show booth or tabletop is to get prospective customers to come in an talk to you. You want to have a conversation. But most exhibits do a lot to block that conversation: big TV screens, laptops between the exhibitor and the prospects, or having conversations standing in front of the table so your back is to people walking past. That’s why I like this simple tabletop by Sprinklr. The fireplace catches your attention. The furniture encourages you sit down and have a deep conversation, and the whole arrangement visually draws people in.
-
Rise of the Innerpreneur
-
The Game of Money?
7 Feb 2012 | 9:17 amI like to think about money as an idea in the form of ‘credit’. To get in the money game, I need to build up my ‘credit’. I build ‘credit’ with others, but more importantly, I build ‘credit’ with myself. I receive ‘credit’ for how I hold myself up mentally. When I hold myself as limited in any way, it restricts my availability to ‘credit’. I end up not sharing my gifts, and being undervalued in my relationships. When I practice confidence in my Self, and not put limits on my wealth, I free the ‘credit’ to… -
Michelle Currie: Janaury 2012 Innerpreneur Spotlight
27 Jan 2012 | 4:31 amMichelle Currie Meditative Drumming Teacher Meditative Arts Follow Michelle on Twitter | Become Meditiative Art’s Fan on Facebook I am: a Science nerd perfectionist turned meditative drum chick! My passion is for: Coming up with innovative ways to play big, lead from the heart, live fearlessly, and weave mind-body-spirit together. My business helps you: to think less and breathe more through African drumming and mindfulness. My biggest challenge is: Negotiating with the workaholic part of my personality! I make a difference by: Aligning you with your inner rhythm(s) in order to live a… -
Talking About… Pricing From Personal Conviction
25 Jan 2012 | 10:42 amMonths ago, my dear friend Adam King and I sat down to talk. We’ve been having these skype talks for years now, sharing candidly with each other our expansion in life and business. The last time we sat down to chat however, Adam had an agenda. He wanted to interview me and talk more in-depth about Pay-What-It’s-Worth (Value) pricing for a project of his. It’s a topic that we have explored together many times over the years and I was excited for the conversation. Adam has recently published a book called The Year of Zen, through which he shares his learnings and expansion,… -
Asking My Mentor About… Nourishing My Body
23 Jan 2012 | 9:49 amThis is the fifth installment of Christine and my Peer-to-Peer Mentoring series. On her blog, I answered her question: “Currently I keep an updated CV on file. While I’m proud of my profile and professional history, I’d like to put together a jazzed up version. I’m thinking of doing a website resume- what are your thoughts on the effectiveness of this plan and how would you proceed creatively?“ My Question to My Mentor: “While I love how focused I am on my work, I often find that my focus is so focused that I forget to eat. I am healthy and well-nourished… -
What Was/What Is/Looking Forward
2 Jan 2012 | 2:50 pmAs the new year unfolds before me, I’ve spent time reflecting on the year that passed, and how I will grow in 2012. What was in 2011… What were some of your favourite moments? Being with Daniel (my husband) looking out over the lights of downtown Toronto from 50 stories up while a snow storm blew outside Meeting Jack (my dog) for the first time Taking Jack to the park for the first time Signing my first car lease Landing on Big Island (Hawaii) What challenged you? My confidence Being a true partner Not caretaking My performance anxiety Being a loving and supportive to myself Breaking…
-
The Entrepreneurial Mind
-
A Time for Plan C
6 Feb 2012 | 5:41 amOne of the bootstrapping techniques I like folks to consider is keeping your day job while your venture to getting up to speed. This has become a more common financing strategy now that the weak economy has put a hit on the ability of friends and family to provide start-up financing. Erin Albert, who teaches at Butler University, has released a book that offers insights on keeping one's day job while pursuing a start up from a number of entrepreneurs who have used this approach to bootstrap financing. She calls this strategy "Plan C".Here is part of what she learned from… -
Finding Balance Between Family and Business
30 Jan 2012 | 2:12 pmI have written often about the challenges for entrepreneurs of finding balance between the strong, often conflicting pulls from family and from their business. Toddi Gutner offers three case studies on entrepreneurs who have worked at finding this balance in a recent piece at Business on Main.One entrepreneur uses mobile technology, one has built a team, and one has become a master at the art of time management. You can read more here. -
Avoid the Backward Start-up
30 Jan 2012 | 3:42 am"I've developed this really cool product and I have applied for a patent.""I want to show you this awesome app that I helped design.""We've got a great idea for a website."Those of us who work with entrepreneurs hear these types of introductions all the time when people come to meet with us. Whether it is a result of years of development and research, or a sudden inspiration that leads to a "eureka moment," these aspiring entrepreneurs have come up with what they hope to be the next big thing.The problem is that many of these entrepreneurs have gotten the design of their business models… -
Some Trends for 2012
25 Jan 2012 | 7:43 amSo what can small businesses expect for 2012? My general advise continues to be cautious! While we are seeing some of the small business surveys showing optimism increasing and more importantly employment improving slightly, I worry that we have been lulled into a mode of thinking that the worst is over.I believe that we are simply in the eye of the storm. I hope that the storm is dissipating, but I fear that the back wall of the eye will hit us sometime later this year. It may come as a result of the European debt crisis or it may come as a result of the looming Chinese… -
Luck and Serendipity
16 Jan 2012 | 3:36 amWhile entrepreneurial success is tied to careful feasibility assessment, business modeling and planning, never underestimate the role that luck plays in an entrepreneurial journey.I am not suggesting that aspiring entrepreneurs just sit and wait for an opportunity to come to them like a bolt of lightning out of the blue. As the Roman philosopher Seneca pointed out long ago, luck is the crossroad of preparation and opportunity.Preparation comes from the development of what I call the process skills.Entrepreneurs have a better chance of success if they learn fundamental business skills, such as…
-
The Way of the Accidental Entrepreneur Blog
-
Could self-doubt be the grace note in your business song?
5 Feb 2012 | 4:22 pmSelf-doubt is especially frustrating--and embarrassing--when you have a high degree of self-awareness. It seems to fly in the face of all the work you've done on yourself. But self-doubt can actually be a grace note, an ornament to your business identity. Self-doubt doesn't negate your emotional intelligence The first thing to realize is that self-doubt doesn't negate your emotional intelligence. You're a complex being. The fact that you can reflect on the experience of self-doubt is proof of emotional intelligence, not a contradiction. That doesn't make it fun, but it does offer some… -
The deep practicality of radical self-knowledge
29 Jan 2012 | 7:35 pmWisdom begins with a radical self-knowledge before it becomes wise enough to be helpful and useful to others. Michael Meade in Fate and Destiny, The Two Agreements of the Soul The most practical thing you can do when you work for yourself is to know your soul purpose or what I call your life project. Until you know this, all talk of finding your niche or your unique offer in the marketplace is futile. When you do know your life project, it infuses the shaping of a profitable business with meaning, which transforms otherwise daunting and tedious work into creative action. So lets look at how… -
The Incredible Lightness of an Empty Basket
22 Jan 2012 | 7:46 pmThere's a basket in my office where I put things I'm not quite ready to deal with or that I plan to use in the near future. I toss in notes from a teleclass, like the one Susan Harrow did for us last fall, intending to enter them into Evernote. I store bank statements until I get around to reconciling them. I stash outlines for Profit Alchemy. You get the picture. Most of the time, I'm satisfied to let things collect in the basket. But eventually, usually when the basket is about three-quarters full, it becomes a psychic irritant. When I see it, I feel heavy. Almost guilty. Definitely out of… -
Healing the Heart Ache of Screwing Up
15 Jan 2012 | 5:23 pmIt happens. You forget to show up for a class you're supposed to teach. (Yes, I have done this.) You lose track of a bill and get socked with a late fee. (Guilty.) You send an email that you think is merely succinct, and it comes across as hurtful. (Yup. Done that, too. And notice how I couldn't resist a bit of justification.) In a thousand ways large and small, we hurt ourselves or others in the course of work, and it feels awful. (Well, sometimes you're resilient and highly evolved, which is great. This post is about the times you aren't.) Screw ups in work can feel especially crummy It… -
Artists: Creativity and Business Take Courage
12 Jan 2012 | 10:12 amSeth Godin writes that artists do their work, not in safe places, but out on a limb. I agree. And artists need to bring that same courage--and creativity--to promoting and selling their work. Because business is not alien to art, it's essential.
-
Positive Psychology News Daily
-
Hugs Matter
9 Feb 2012 | 9:52 amFebruary 9, 2012By Aren Cohen - Free Hugs One of my favorite YouTube videos is called “Free Hugs.” The clip was filmed in Australia, where one day a young man, then a group of people decided to stand in a mall and offer free hugs. The video is amazing. People’s responses, including the police trying to shut them down, are quite profound and moving. Each time I see it, it brings tears to my eyes. Warning: A Notorious Hugger Why did I wake up this morning thinking about “Free Hugs?” I suspect I was considered a notorious hugger in my MAPP class. I love hugs, and… -
Positive Design for Corporate LeadershipTraining
7 Feb 2012 | 7:43 amFebruary 7, 2012By Lisa Sansom - I recently gave a series of workshops to a number of supervisors and managers who all work together within the same organization. This was an interesting study for me, as I’d never before delivered the exact same material four days in a row to different audiences. The Design The overall topic of the session was leadership, though I had constructed the entire day so it was built on a framework of positive psychology. The morning started off with an appreciative interview, inviting participants to share moments of excellent leadership. We then moved into a… -
Going to the Extreme with Strengths and Happiness
3 Feb 2012 | 6:58 amFebruary 3, 2012By Sherri Fisher - Going to Extremes? Imagine that you had an application that would guarantee your happiness. How happy would you want to be? Would you go for “Can’t complain,” or maybe “Delighted,” is more your style? Perhaps you’d want to be “Jubilant” or even “Ecstatic!” If some happiness is good, is more even better? For thousands of years philosophers have debated this, and now positive psychology researchers have conducted a meta-study to explore the costs of extremes. Researchers Barry Schwartz (Swarthmore… -
Goal Commitment
1 Feb 2012 | 8:07 amFebruary 1, 2012By Bridget Grenville-Cleave - Yesterday I wrote about secrets of goal setting. Today I’m following up with a few factors that affect maintaining goal commitment. Did you make any New Year’s Resolutions on 31 Dec 2011 and if so, are you still sticking with them or have you already given up? A survey conducted a few years ago by consultancy FranklinCovey found that 35% of respondents break their resolutions by the end of January. Actually, I was surprised the figure wasn’t higher. So goal commitment is also an important area to examine more closely in positive… -
Goal-Setting Secrets
31 Jan 2012 | 8:51 amJanuary 31, 2012By Bridget Grenville-Cleave - Editor’s note: Bridget’s article about goals comes in two pieces: Today’s piece is about setting goals, and tomorrow’s piece is about goal commitment. It’s the end of January already! “Where has the time gone?” my elderly neighbor Stella asked this morning as we chatted about the weather, our families, and which birds we had spotted in our gardens (the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is doing a nationwide Bird Watch this weekend). Stella is a real inspiration – she‘s in her late 70s, happily…
-
The Happiness Project
-
Quiz: How Fun Is Your Workplace? Your Home?
8 Feb 2012 | 11:31 amIn The Levity Effect: Why it Pays to Lighten Up, Adrian Gostick and Scott Christopher make an interesting argument that “levity” is an extremely effective tool for helping people to work better. An atmosphere of light-heartedness, it turns out, helps people pay attention, eases tensions, and enhances a feeling of connection. When I read this, I thought, “Well, levity would be tough for me, I’m not particularly funny, and I’m not particularly outgoing.” But what the authors mean by “levity” is really a sense of lightness. It's less about being funny and more about being able to… -
Do You Have The "Quality Of Keeping People Together"?
6 Feb 2012 | 8:11 amAssay: Recently, when I was rereading Gertrude Stein's The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, I was very struck by this observation about the French poet Guillaume Apollinaire: The death of Guillaume Apollinaire at this time made a very serious difference to all his friends apart from their sorrow at his death. It was the moment just after the war when many things had changed and people naturally fell apart. Guillaume would have been a bond of union, he always had a quality of keeping people together, and now that he was gone everybody ceased to be friends. The "quality of keeping people… -
"Quiet Minds Cannot Be Perplexed Or Frightened."
5 Feb 2012 | 6:40 am“Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened, but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.” --Robert Louis Stevenson I love the simile of a "clock in a thunderstorm." It makes me feel calmer, just to imagine that image. * Check out the Happiness Project Toolbox: eight free tools to help you track your own happiness project. -
A Secret To More Happiness And Energy? Give Yourself A Bedtime.
3 Feb 2012 | 11:28 amAs a result of my happiness project, I've become a sleep zealot. It's just so obvious to me—from reading the research and from personal experience—that getting enough sleep is a key to a happier life. I've noticed something, however. I noticed this in myself, before I became such a sleep nut, and I see it in the people around me: most adults don't give themselves a bedtime. Children have a fixed bedtime; we know they need their allotment of sleep, and we pack them off to bed when it's time. But many adults just go to bed whenever they feel like it. The problem with this approach is that… -
"There's Nothing Like The Comfort Of My Bed To Restore Me To My Happiness."
2 Feb 2012 | 7:06 pmHappiness interview: Agapi Stassinopoulos. Through a mutual friend, I e-met Agapi Stassinopoulos. She has a new book that's just hitting the bookstores, Unbinding the Heart. She grapples with the question of how we can "unbind our hearts" better to experience playfulness, connection, self-expression, and joy. Clearly happiness is at the heart of this challenge. Gretchen: What’s a simple activity that consistently makes you happier? Agapi: Getting together with the people I care for and having an intimate time, where we lovingly share and listen to each other in a safe haven, recharges me…
-
PickTheBrain | Motivation and Self Improvement| PickTheBrain | Motivation and Self Improvement
-
How to be Intentionally Happy
8 Feb 2012 | 9:27 pmWhat makes you happy? Money? The newest iPhone? The good health of your family? A promotion at work? Some interesting work by University of California, Riverside researcher Sonja Lyubomirsky not only suggests where our happiness comes from, but shows how to get more of it. Pieces of the happiness pie Dr. Lyubomirsky proposes that there are three components to happiness: A genetically-based “happiness set point” Life circumstances Intentional activities and practices. She has broken these three areas into percentages regarding how much they are responsible for your happiness. Although the… -
How to Use Diet and Exercise to Naturally Treat Your Depression
7 Feb 2012 | 9:58 pmLet’s face it. Depression is daunting, but so are some of its treatments. SSRIs, MAOIs, TCAs, SNRIs, nerve or magnetic stimulation, seizure therapy, and even neurosurgery are available to battle depression. For the most part, drugs and intensive medical therapies are only necessary for severe or persistent cases of depression that cannot be resolved in talk therapy or by means of other alternate therapies. If you have recently been diagnosed with depression, if you suffer from a mild form of depression, or if you would like to consider reducing your dependency on depression medications,… -
5 Self Help Books That Might Just Change Your Life
6 Feb 2012 | 10:56 pmSelf-Help: the act of helping or improving yourself without relying on anyone else. Luckily for us, there is a large selection of self-help literature written by truly remarkable authors. These authors share personal experiences from their own successful careers or interview others who have unlocked secrets of happiness and achievement. Stopping by your local bookstore or Amazon for a self-help title can be a bit intimidating! So we’ve handpicked five great reads to jump start your journey to the richer life: The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Practical Guide to the Fulfillment of… -
It’s Never Too Late To Learn Anything
5 Feb 2012 | 9:47 pmI have a group of ladies who are beginner to intermediate level snow skiers that I teach each week for eight weeks during the winter. When we were sitting on the chairlift, we saw some of the little kids below who were fearlessly zipping down the slopes. These kids must have been anywhere from four to six years of age. Some of the ladies remarked how they wished they had started snow skiing at the same age of these little kids. They claimed that the kids seem to have no fear unlike them, struggling adults. When the kids fall on the snow, they just get up again and laugh it off. This is in… -
The Secret to Waking Up Early
4 Feb 2012 | 1:26 amHaving troubles waking up early in the morning? Always snoozing until the last minute? Often late to work? Well, then you should learn the secret of waking up early. It’s all about the motivation. It is always easier to make an effort when you are really motivated. So, if you want to become an early riser after years of being a night owl, all that you need is to find a good reason to get up early in the morning. Think of the things you always wanted to do but never had time for. Imagine you can find the time needed every day. Just be smart and use your mornings for that. Do something…
-
How to Change the World
-
Raising Money: What Not to Say and What Not to Believe #OfficeandGuyK
20 Jan 2012 | 10:46 amOver the past two weeks via my partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps, I’ve provided templates of models for you to create enchanting PowerPoint pitches, Word business plans, and Excel financial models. They are all available for you to download from my SkyDrive account. I hope these documents and blog posts help you save a boatload of time and increase the quality of your efforts.I leave you with two sets of top ten lies: one of entrepreneurs and one of investors so that you know what not to say and what not to believe. Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs “Our projections are… -
Design a Sam Adams beer
20 Jan 2012 | 8:24 amNow this is a fun project. I’m helping Sam Adams “tap” the knowledge of beer drinkers and crowd source its next brew. Join the party by getting the app and designing your beer: The final brew will be released in Austin in the first week of March. #sponsored -
How to Create an Enchanting Financial Forecast #OfficeandGuyK
17 Jan 2012 | 1:52 pmThis is the third post in my Microsoft partnership, and it’s all about numbers. The topic is crafting your financial forecast to include in your pitch. Bill Reichert, my partner at Garage Technology Ventures, created an Excel model and wrote this blog post. There’s a lesson in this too: Get the best person for the job. His grasp of financial models and how to present them exceeds mine by two orders of magnitude. The Purpose of Financial Projections When it comes to financial projections, there are two types of entrepreneurs: first, the “visionary entrepreneur” who… -
How to Create an Enchanting Business Plan #OfficeandGuyK
12 Jan 2012 | 8:16 amHere is the second post in my series about planning, pitching, and launching a new business venture. In partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps, I’ve created a Word document that outlines a good business plan. It’s saved to my SkyDrive folder here. Feel free to download it and use it as inspiration. And if you’re working with a partner, you can use the free Word Web App to stay in sync. I provided the PowerPoint document before the Word document because a good business plan is an elaboration of a good pitch as opposed to a good pitch being a distillation of good business plan. -
How to Create an Enchanting Pitch #OfficeandGuyK
9 Jan 2012 | 8:01 amWelcome to the first in a series of blog posts I’ll be doing as part of a partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps. Over the next two weeks, I’ll cover everything a budding entrepreneur needs to turn an idea into an enchanting investment opportunity—from the perfect pitch to a killer business plan to financial forecasts. I’m going to start with a little dissertation on creating effective PowerPoint pitches for your company. I embedded the sample deck for you to click through by using the PowerPoint Web App. When you’re ready to get started, you can download the…
-
Creativity & Innovation
-
Computing Education for the 21st Century
2 Feb 2012 | 12:54 pmToday and tomorrow (Feb 2-3, 2012) I’m in Washington DC at a meeting hosted by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The meeting brings together researchers from around the country who’ve received funding from an NSF program to improve computing education. What’s exciting is the broad range of research going on here: from middle school, to high school, to college, educators are working hard to figure out how to better teach computer science concepts. One important goal is to encourage more of our talented youth to choose computer degrees and careers, as a valued national… -
Mel Brooks and Group Flow
27 Jan 2012 | 11:59 amWhat can comedian Mel Brooks teach us about “group flow”? Group flow is a state of peak performance, when a group is in sync and creative ideas are flowing. I’ve just published an article in a magazine edited at the University of California, Berkeley, called Greater Good. The article summarizes the ten keys to group flow (as originally presented in my 2007 book Group Genius). Visit the full article or take a quick look at the ten here: 1. A compelling, shared goal 2. Close listening 3. Use “yes, and…” to keep it moving forward 4. Complete concentration and… -
Defense of Collaboration Published in New York Times
19 Jan 2012 | 7:37 amThe same day as my post below, I emailed a letter to the editor at the New York Times, and it was published today along with several other letters critical of Susan Cain’s article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/19/opinion/the-key-to-creativity-solitude-or-teams.html -
Does Solitude Enhance Creativity? A Critique of Susan Cain’s Attack on Collaboration
16 Jan 2012 | 8:48 amI’ve just read a New York Times article by Susan Cain, author of the forthcoming book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. It’s the frustrated cry of a true introvert. Cain is clearly tired of everyone touting the benefits of collaboration; some people, herself included, just want to be left alone. And, she argues, those are the people who really come up with all of the great ideas. There’s a grain of truth to Cain’s claim: Psychologists who study creativity know that it requires both solitude and collaboration. Exceptional… -
Online “Badges”: Do They Threaten Colleges?
12 Jan 2012 | 3:28 pmThe Chronicle of Higher Education has just published an article (Jan 8, 2012) wondering whether online “badges” pose a challenge to colleges and universities. Here’s the phenomenon: The spread of a seemingly playful alternative to traditional diplomas, inspired by Boy Scout achievement patches and video-game power-ups, suggests that the standard certification system no longer works in today’s fast-changing job market. Educational upstarts across the Web are adopting systems of “badges” to certify skills and abilities. At the free online-education provider…
-
Writing On The Web by Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad
-
The Naked Blog: Dress Up Your Words
8 Feb 2012 | 4:13 amWhat can you learn about blog writing and content marketing from the theater? As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve attended local theater productions, including performances on The Naked Stage. (Photos courtesy Stuart Miles) If you’re not familiar with this kind of theater format, the actors read their lines, sitting on stools, dressed in black, without benefit of costumes, scenery, makeup, or movement. Hence the name, Naked Stage: the presentation is devoid of any of the usual visual aids. There’s a narrator to explain the scenes and movements, including sounds, which… -
5 Ways to Get Readers to Respond
1 Feb 2012 | 4:43 amYou spend a lot of time writing content on your blog but if the only comments you get are from people looking for free marketing, maybe it’s time to revise your content strategies. Here’s a guest post from Chris Peterson at Straight North integrated marketing services in Chicago. 1. Your Blog as an Interactive Tool When it comes to effective Web content, it’s no longer enough to post simple text with a graphic. Online newspapers learned that the hard way, but bloggers are discovering ways to use the Web as a means for two-way interaction – increasing the relevance of a blog… -
4 Content Marketing Goals for a Coach Website
26 Jan 2012 | 5:21 amHow should content marketing be used on the home page of your website? What makes good website copy? More specifically, if you’re a professional service provider, like an executive coach, a consultant, a lawyer, health care or financial adviser… how do you create a website that attracts clients and gets potential new leads? No matter what business you’re in, your content must achieve four things. Here are four goals for your online content: Connect immediately (by speaking to your readers’ challenges or problems) Answer questions and educate (by suggesting… -
A Checklist for 2012 Content Marketing Plans
19 Jan 2012 | 3:23 am2012 Content Marketing – how did we get here so fast? I’ve been reviewing my 2011 blog posts, email broadcasts, videos, and taking stock. I hope you’re doing the same, so you’ll get an idea of what’s needed for your own business in 2012. (Photo courtesy Rawich/FreeDigitalPhotos.net) Here’s a checklist for reviewing your 2011 content marketing results so you can know where to spend your time and energy in 2012: What were your most effective blog posts in terms of numbers of page views? Which posts generated the most comments? What email promotional… -
Content Marketing Tasks: Practice Makes Progress
4 Jan 2012 | 4:15 amIf you’ve spent your career avoiding certain marketing tasks because you don’t think you’re any good at them, you struggle each time you try, and you end up with weak results, take heart. Persistence has been touted by poets for a reason. Your brain learns a lot each time you try something, even if you fail. If you stop trying, you’ll walk away with nothing. If you persist, however, the rewards are huge. Example: public speaking. Many small business owners and entrepreneurs including many of my clients love the chance to get up and speak. The larger the group, the…
-
Social Media Darwinism
-
Gut Feeling or Analytics – which is better?
8 Feb 2012 | 10:00 amSo I was talking with a CMO buddy of mine the other day over dinner and this topic came up. Of course you know as a CMO of a leading Social Media analytics firm – I think you can guess which side of this argument I was on. But seriously, my buddy honestly wanted to know – so what can you do with all this good social media analytics that you talk about? He really didn’t know. So here is what I told him that marketers should be doing with analytics but haven’t truly adopted. I think part of the problem is that some of these tactics haven’t become a standard operating procedure but… -
What Social Data can Teach You about Audiences
1 Feb 2012 | 10:00 amMy son is a senior in high school and I am beginning to help him with his search for the right school. One of the aspects of college life that he is looking forward to is belonging to a university with strong school spirit. So to help with this, I suggested that we use football teams as a proxy to find the right environment. With this in mind, we set out to find a simple list of “2011 NCAA Football Rankings” – an easy Google search is there ever was one. I assumed that the top result, ESPN’s 2011 NCAA Football Rankings, would be the perfect match for our search, until I looked at… -
Trust is hard to come by these days
25 Jan 2012 | 10:00 amFor years I have kept tabs on the Edelman Trust barometer report, which comes out every January in Davos. And this year was no exception. After last year I figured this years report could make an excellent gauge of the economy worldwide! Simply put the report states: Trust is down in every industry and every country across the board by an average of 6%. So what does this mean for marketers and for major brands in an era of social media? Well 2 things … Hidden in the data is the fact that CEOs and Government officials are at the very bottom of the totem pole when it comes to delivering a… -
Brands: It’s not enough to be liked
15 Dec 2011 | 10:00 amImagine a company that has upscale retail locations around the United States receiving tens of thousands of customer visits. Now imagine not having anyone there to greet and interact with those customers. What’s the point of the storefront? Facebook fan pages are much the same thing. But only 0.2 to 2 percent of fans go back to a page. Why? Because there is nothing going on that interests them. Fan pages are a unique marketing canvas to connect with avid consumers. Yet some brands are terribly underutilizing these pages, making them basically brochureware repositories — essentially… -
How important is real-time data? It’s all relative
7 Dec 2011 | 6:35 amThe speed with which social media spreads ideas and information has led many marketers to place a premium on capturing data in real time. But should real-time data be such a priority? Real time means different things to different people when the term is used as a proxy for recency. To an evolutionary biologist, real time could mean thousands of years of species development data. To a 911 dispatcher, real time is a few seconds worth of critical information from a telephone call. What about marketing and advertising? This notion of “relative real time” extends there, too. To a marketing…
-
Servant of Chaos
-
Five Must-Read Posts from Last Week
6 Feb 2012 | 6:09 pmSometimes the week takes off without us holding tightly. So that makes it already Tuesday where I live – and I’m yet to catch up with my long list of Monday to-do items. And I am sure I am not alone, right? I hope that these five great posts from last week help you catch up with your busy life! I’ve often thought that blogs (and all the other social media sites, content and interactions that we produce) – when taken collectively – say more about our lives and reputations than we’d like to admit. Jen Stumbles calls this out explaining just how recruitment is changing right beneath… -
Presentation Trends 2011
5 Feb 2012 | 9:19 pmTake a look back at your presentations from last January/February. Think about how you might do them differently. What would it be – more images? Longer? Shorter? More words? Less video? Personally, my file sizes seem to be getting larger – with higher resolution photos and images blowing out the sizing. I’m using PPTX files – and about 80% of my slides have pictures. This deck on trends from popular web presentation sharing site, Slideshare, provides the details on just what has changed in the last 12 months. Take a look. How do you compare? SlideShare Zeitgeist 2011 View more… -
How Average Is An Average Day on Facebook?
2 Feb 2012 | 8:29 pmWith all the hoopla about Facebook’s IPO, I thought it would be interesting to dig a little below the surface. Brian Solis points out that with 845 million monthly active users and 100 billion friend connections as at December 31, 2011, we’re looking at a valuation of about $5.90 per active user and about 5c per friend. So, for the average Dunbar bound individual, it values your network at around $7.50 (there’s a premium calculation there on your individual active user value). But what does “average” look like in the Facebook world? This infographic from JESS3 provides a nice… -
Who is your Most Valuable Follower?
2 Feb 2012 | 7:31 pmHere is a nice web app for Twitter built by Alexander Taub and Michael Schonfeld. It’s very simple and straight forward, asking “who’s your MVF” – most valuable follower. You login via Twitter and authorise the app to dig around in your follower list, and after a few moments it tells you which of your followers has the largest following. OK, so it’s not necessarily your most valuable, but your most popular – even still, it’s an interesting question to ask of any audience. Mine is @ONECampaign. Who is yours? Find out here. -
Social Media Week and The Social Enterprise Hub at SAP
1 Feb 2012 | 5:18 pmSocial branding, online communities, social business and product integration are big and popular topics at the moment. Every day you will see blog posts, articles, whitepapers, videos and conferences devoted to these topics – yet there is a vast gap between those who can “talk” about social media and those who “do” social media within a business context. During the week February 13-17, 2012, Social Media Week seeks to remedy this with a focus on the business impact of social media. For those near San Francisco, you will be able to attend the “content hubs” hosted by Cisco…
-
Content is Currency
-
Keyword Profitability: Making The Most Of Keyword Research
30 Jan 2012 | 10:57 amWe look for profitability in all walks of life: from investments to entertainment, we are always trying to gain something. Similarly, a hot property on the internet are the searches by millions of users. When our prospects are seeking to find something; we should be ready to offer it to them. But, with thousands of companies offering similar products, how can one gain an advantage? Besides, how does Google decide that your website should be featured on its first or second page of results? We already know that the pages that appear on Google are analyzed and presented based on… -
My Interview on Business Owners Toolkit
30 Jan 2012 | 10:40 amI was recently a guest on the Business Owners Toolkit, talking about my new book and the importance of content marketing. check it out: http://bit.ly/wbdHEF -
Lessons to Learn from Social Media Mistakes
30 Dec 2011 | 12:14 amIt’s hard to imagine that just a couple of years ago we didn’t have the option to mobile upload a photo while on the go, check in at our favorite restaurant, “poke” that first crush from way back in middle school, or update a status about the latest happenings in our lives. Well, thanks to the phenomenon of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, the world has been forever changed in the ways that we communicate and share information…and it has also changed the way that we do business. If you are trying to build a brand, drive traffic to your website, gain new… -
The Off-Center Approach to Choosing a Niche
19 Dec 2011 | 12:24 pmBy now, most SEO professionals understand the basic guidelines for choosing a niche for their website: Assess your experience with the topic. Assess the popularity of the topic. Assess the existing competition. Assess the profitability of the topic. If you’re not passionate about it, don’t cover it. But in order to make a strong impression (or even survive!) in today’s highly competitive online content environment, you’ll need to get a little more creative and specific. Specificity is one of the most important keys to building a highly useful and accessible blog or… -
Does Your Content Suffer from an Identity Crisis?
27 Nov 2011 | 2:16 pmIt’s human nature to want to fit in. In our day-to-day lives, we’re constantly trying to fit our ideals and personalities into the little sub-groups that society has built for us. We want to be comfortable among our fellow humans, to be regarded as “one of the guys or gals.” But this attitude also pervades the Internet content world. It’s easy to go with the flow when it comes to creating web content. You can simply pick a title that makes sense for your needs, check what other people have done, and make your ideas just different enough to pass a Copyscape…
-
Brains On Fire Blog
-
I Watched, I Purchased, My Problem was Solved
9 Feb 2012 | 6:42 amI recently remembered a story about advertising that worked wonders in introducing me to a product that I purchased and loved. Being somewhat of a music and technology nerd, I follow several blogs that keep pace with what’s happening in the industry. I can’t remember exactly where, but in browsing one of those sites a few years ago I ran across this marketing video from a company called Tune Up Media (1): They happened to be running a discount promotion at the time, so in an extremely rare instance for me, I acted on their message, went to the website, and purchased their product. -
Get Your WOM Notebook Ready… Chapter One: Believe
8 Feb 2012 | 6:30 amSo, here you are… a friend of WOM or maybe you are just starting to explore. Word of Mouth Marketing is a passion for me, and I’m lucky enough to have a career in it. But this didn’t happen by accident. My career took root organically, as a result of my belief in the power of WOM, not because I set out to do it. Back in 2001, Brains on Fire partnered with the Department of Health and Environmental Control of South Carolina. We were tasked with the challenge of tackling teen smoking in our state. If you are at all familiar with South Carolina, you probably know tobacco plays a… -
Airport Conversations and The Secret Sauce of Success
7 Feb 2012 | 6:59 amEvery once in awhile someone will ask me what I do for a living. These conversations usually occur in the kinds of places where strangers feel compelled to carry on polite chitchat. In line at the grocery store. Doctor’s office waiting rooms. Airplanes waiting to be cleared for take-off. When I tell people I am a writer, they often respond in the same way I imagine I would respond if someone told me they traveled with the circus or roadied for Def Leppard in the 80s. An incredulous mix of shock and awe, with undertones of questioning my sanity. “That’s…brave,” they… -
Inspiration.
6 Feb 2012 | 7:28 amThe Erics, looking for inspiration. Hello! Hope you’re excited about the week ahead of you. I am. About a year or so ago, I posted a blog asking YOU a simple question. And since I LOVED the answers and they all inspired me, I am asking again… I really need you guys today. I love writing. Think I have shared this before, but I believe writing inspires thinking and exploring and sharing. And thinking and exploring and sharing are good things. If you are reading this and hanging out with us, I have to believe you think we add value in your life. So, I have a question for you: If you… -
The Power of Kindness.
2 Feb 2012 | 8:30 amFresh flowers from Libby William’s Photoblog. The other day I got a note in the mail. The old fashion “ink on paper” kind. It started like this: Dearest Darling Robbin, Hmmmm. I have to tell you in the middle of my crazy, busy, over stimulated workday, those words stopped me dead in my tracks. I took a deep breath and smiled at the “over the top-ness” of this salutation. What came after that was nothing short of the kindest words anyone’s written to me in a long time. Just a couple of heartfelt observations mixed in with some wit and honesty. It was a nice gentle break from…
-
The Brand Chef
-
OPEN INVITATION: Business Growth Summit Jan 31, 2012!
18 Jan 2012 | 4:02 pmThis is an OPEN INVITATION to ALL of my friends, colleagues and extended network! (please read all of this post… kinda long, but VERY important.) I wanted to make sure I invited all of you to this amazing event, the 2012 Business Growth Summit coming up on the 31st of January! It’s put on by a group started by some associates and myself about 2 months ago called Above The Line America. We’re a networking group like no other – (no fees, no forced referrals, no stupid clapping – unless you feel like clapping… ). Above The Line America is focused on… -
Create A Personal Annual Report
12 Jan 2012 | 9:05 amJonathan Fields is an author… That’s where it all started for me. I read his book, Uncertainty, Turning Fear and Doubt Into Fuel for Brilliance. And for those that know me, I NEEDED it. I can’t say it changed my life. I’ve personally understood what he wrote in the book for 20 years, but it revealed a path on which I could take the first step. Read it today, I highly encourage it… So, this morning, as I traveled on that path with meetings for a new venture, creating an outline for new campaigns, dreaming of the future and my plans for personal growth and… -
The Intrinsic Value Of Pants
23 Nov 2011 | 8:43 amI joined Kosama Downtown (check out their program here) a few weeks ago, and with my busy schedule, I “wisely” set the time for my workouts for 5 AM. Needless to say, 5 am comes pretty early these days, so forgetfulness is usually forgiven. For those that have done these kinds of wacko workout schedules, you know that forgetting something is a common occurrence. Sure, some times it’s shampoo or a razor – that you can most likely get on with your day and recover from. But today, I had the unique pleasure of FORGETTING MY PANTS! I packed them in my bag. I remember it. -
When Telemarketing Attacks
26 Oct 2011 | 12:38 pmTelemarketing is not dead. I have proof. Well, I have proof people are still trying it at least. Of course there are still common sense uses for telemarketing, but with the onset of digital messaging, I see its use and utility becoming a little like that of the FAX machine. I still have a FAX number on my business card, but really couldn’t pinpoint the last time it was used. So, that brings me to today’s little post. While I was at lunch with some close friends, I saw a call come in on my cell phone that I didn’t recognize. Generally, and I’m sorry to those… -
Giving The Smack Down To Defeat
16 Sep 2011 | 11:20 am“When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.” — Alexander Graham Bell This is for those of you out there that dwell just a little too long on the word “No.” (And this includes yours truly) Yeah, it sucks, BAD, but after the initial sting of the response, there are two simple decisions you can make: 1) Stand there with your heart in your hand and stare longingly, wishing you could bury your head in a bucket of cement, OR 2) Brush the dirt from the poor…
-
Logo Design Blog
-
6 Reasons Why Your Business Should Not use Google Analytics Alone
7 Feb 2012 | 2:35 amA website without analytics and a website owner unaware of the intricacies involved in the traceability of websites using Google analytics are sure to lag behind in the competitive business world. Although, the God-Like image of Google has made organizations completely dependent on its tools for rankings, analytics and reputation management. But here are six beefy reasons to why you should not use Google Analytics alone. -
Why is it Necessary for the Domain Name and the Website Name to be Similar?
23 Jan 2012 | 2:05 amMost people make the mistake of naming their websites and their domains differently. It is good to be creative with names but sometimes this creativity may cost a lot. Most effective website names are usually the ones where the domain name is either identical or at least similar to the website. This will do one good thing, something which every website businessman wants for their websites; it will make the name search engine friendly. -
How to Find a Reliable Web Design Service?
17 Jan 2012 | 2:44 amThe foremost thing to understand is: what do we mean when we say that we are looking for a reliable web design service? In simple words, it means that we need to acquire the expertise of a company that will create a design to perfectly represent our business model. Plus, a reliable service also offers revisions to ensure your complete satisfaction. If for some reason you are not satisfied with the design, they will happily make modifications according to your needs and business requirements. -
Make Your Facebook Timeline a Social Resume
11 Jan 2012 | 10:20 pmAs most of you probably know, Facebook is in the middle of updating everyone’s profile to the new Timeline format. Not only does this new layout and design enhance your Facebook browsing experience, but it can also be used as a tool to affirm what you’ve stated on your curriculum vitae and cover letter. -
Logo Evolutions in 2011
1 Jan 2012 | 10:03 pmIn 2011, some big organizations thought of bringing change to their corporate identities and accomplished it brilliantly through small amendments in their logo. They needed the change for better positioning, an enhanced brand image and for a stronger market presence.
-
Storytelling To Create Impact Brands
-
Controlling A Brand Story
4 Feb 2012 | 11:50 pmWhat is that makes a brand great. Why do we have likes and loyalty to objects and do marketeers really have influence over our minds? We certainly know our minds most of the time. We make choices of one product … Continue reading → -
Stories That Create Trust
2 Jan 2012 | 1:54 pmStories help us understand the world around us. They have a sticky quality to them when they work and are told well. Somehow we are made to create and retell stories and these sticky stories are often part of culture … Continue reading → -
2011 in review
2 Jan 2012 | 12:50 pmThe WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 11,000 times in 2011. If it were a … Continue reading → -
Brand Happiness
26 Dec 2011 | 1:57 pmSuccessful brands create states of happiness which may last for seconds or become a permeant for the user. Happiness is a much better gauge of brand success than equity measures we often use today. It seems that happiness, at least … Continue reading → -
Storytelling Superbrands B2B Marketing
24 Dec 2011 | 6:16 amStorytelling to create Superbrands Here is the article I wrote for Superbrands Swedish Edition 2011. One of the most recent trends in business communications is storytelling. It’s an ancient art that has been suppressed in the modern world in favour … Continue reading →
-
Twitter / problogger
-
problogger: His first experience of Vegemite on Toast.... And loving it! http://t.co/kfkYtLhq
9 Feb 2012 | 1:22 pmproblogger: His first experience of Vegemite on Toast.... And loving it! http://t.co/kfkYtLhq -
problogger: New at ProBlogger: Is Perfectionism Stalling Your Productivity? http://t.co/874kp8oF #miscellaneousblogtips
9 Feb 2012 | 12:09 pmproblogger: New at ProBlogger: Is Perfectionism Stalling Your Productivity? http://t.co/874kp8oF #miscellaneousblogtips -
problogger: New Blogger Job: Need bloggers to make short posts - Blog Network http://t.co/0xSGvf1D
9 Feb 2012 | 7:10 amproblogger: New Blogger Job: Need bloggers to make short posts - Blog Network http://t.co/0xSGvf1D -
problogger: New at ProBlogger: 6 Powerful Guest Post Tactics that No One’s Talking About http://t.co/9rdbhHfX #writingcontent
9 Feb 2012 | 6:39 amproblogger: New at ProBlogger: 6 Powerful Guest Post Tactics that No One’s Talking About http://t.co/9rdbhHfX #writingcontent -
problogger: New Blogger Job: Blogging Partner - seotiras http://t.co/5OMrptgb
9 Feb 2012 | 3:38 amproblogger: New Blogger Job: Blogging Partner - seotiras http://t.co/5OMrptgb
-
Twitter / justcreative
-
justcreative: Logo Of The Day: 2011-02-08 | Barber Shop http://t.co/o4qqhJIJ
9 Feb 2012 | 2:15 pmjustcreative: Logo Of The Day: 2011-02-08 | Barber Shop http://t.co/o4qqhJIJ -
justcreative: @egdelwonk No worries, thank you!
9 Feb 2012 | 12:19 pmjustcreative: @egdelwonk No worries, thank you! -
justcreative: Resizer // A responsive design bookmarklet http://t.co/XqQ4lfw4
9 Feb 2012 | 12:11 pmjustcreative: Resizer // A responsive design bookmarklet http://t.co/XqQ4lfw4 -
justcreative: @1stwebdesigner It's in a good place now, but I know what you mean! We will see!
9 Feb 2012 | 12:10 pmjustcreative: @1stwebdesigner It's in a good place now, but I know what you mean! We will see! -
justcreative: @1stwebdesigner Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication :) Site should be up in March, well that's the aim!
9 Feb 2012 | 11:40 amjustcreative: @1stwebdesigner Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication :) Site should be up in March, well that's the aim!
-
Twitter / sarahprout
-
sarahprout: @julianillman she's an American Cocker Spaniel! I love the name Dude!
9 Feb 2012 | 2:14 pmsarahprout: @julianillman she's an American Cocker Spaniel! I love the name Dude! -
sarahprout: Cookie Simpson http://t.co/VcuEyhzf
9 Feb 2012 | 12:30 amsarahprout: Cookie Simpson http://t.co/VcuEyhzf -
sarahprout: Freshly baked Vegan blueberry muffins! http://t.co/68WZlcxy
9 Feb 2012 | 12:02 amsarahprout: Freshly baked Vegan blueberry muffins! http://t.co/68WZlcxy -
sarahprout: The Power of Influence by Sarah Prout http://t.co/9iJsT13E
8 Feb 2012 | 11:16 pmsarahprout: The Power of Influence by Sarah Prout http://t.co/9iJsT13E -
sarahprout: Pinterest for Business? Only If You Love Pinning. - Sarah Prout - http://t.co/Fwonov6I http://t.co/R830i76P
8 Feb 2012 | 10:56 pmsarahprout: Pinterest for Business? Only If You Love Pinning. - Sarah Prout - http://t.co/Fwonov6I http://t.co/R830i76P
-
Twitter / lizstrauss
-
lizstrauss: Coaching vs. Mentoring – The Finite vs. the Infinite http://t.co/WFuZMigL @level343
9 Feb 2012 | 2:01 pmlizstrauss: Coaching vs. Mentoring – The Finite vs. the Infinite http://t.co/WFuZMigL @level343 -
lizstrauss: RT @jwnajarian: My audio interview w one of the most interesting women you will ever meet @LizStrauss founder of SOBCon http://t.co/eC1XK4Iw
9 Feb 2012 | 11:42 amlizstrauss: RT @jwnajarian: My audio interview w one of the most interesting women you will ever meet @LizStrauss founder of SOBCon http://t.co/eC1XK4Iw -
lizstrauss: RT @remarkablogger: From the archives:: Is Your Blog Niche Stifling Your Creativity? Try Blog Projects http://t.co/4dmqt7hY
9 Feb 2012 | 11:12 amlizstrauss: RT @remarkablogger: From the archives:: Is Your Blog Niche Stifling Your Creativity? Try Blog Projects http://t.co/4dmqt7hY -
lizstrauss: NEW! 5 Social Media Marketing Lessons Learned from People’s Chatting Nicknames http://t.co/mRkrVWJ8
9 Feb 2012 | 11:09 amlizstrauss: NEW! 5 Social Media Marketing Lessons Learned from People’s Chatting Nicknames http://t.co/mRkrVWJ8 -
lizstrauss: RT @EmpireAve: Socialize LIKE A BOSS! @LizStrauss @Dups & others -cool Toronto Tweetup for SM Week #EmpireAve #SMW12 - http://t.co/sSWbkS03
9 Feb 2012 | 10:50 amlizstrauss: RT @EmpireAve: Socialize LIKE A BOSS! @LizStrauss @Dups & others -cool Toronto Tweetup for SM Week #EmpireAve #SMW12 - http://t.co/sSWbkS03
-
Wallpaper* News Feed
-
Artist's palate: Donatella Versace
9 Feb 2012 | 12:57 pmMuse, critic, designer, entrepreneur, company saviour and first lady of fashion, Donatella Versace may have tempered the sex and theatricality of the family brand a little, but there's still glamour galore in her output and appearance. Her favourite dish of pasta and caviar -
A timeline of Prada and OMA / AMO catwalk collaborations
9 Feb 2012 | 11:05 amPrada and Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas have been collaborating for a decade, and whilst the best-known fruits of the partnership are probably their innovative architectural endeavours – think Seoul’s Transformer project and the Prada Epicenter in New York – those on the inside track have, for the past eight years or so, been exposed to another side of the creative partnership. Koolhaas, his Rotterdam-based design studio OMA and the AMO think tank, have, since January 2004, collaborated with the Italian house on Prada's catwalk shows. Adapting the expansive interior space… -
Nicolas Le Moigne exhibition at Gallery Libby Sellers, London
8 Feb 2012 | 1:14 pmIf there were a visual equivalent of a double entendre, the work of Nicolas Le Moigne would define it. The Swiss designer goes to incredible lengths to make his designs seem at once greater and less than the sum of their parts. His meticulously crafted cast-off concrete stools for Eternit, for example, have the lowbrow appearance of compacted rubbish. His simple spool table is elevated like art on a podium. Most compelling, perhaps, is his 'Reflecting Ring', the diamond in which faces a mirror that makes it look twice its size and value. Le Moigne's talent for trompe l'oeil… -
Book: The Table of Power 2, by Jacqueline Hassink
6 Feb 2012 | 12:41 pmIn 1996 when Jacqueline Hassink first published 'The Table of Power', her photo-essays of the boardrooms of Europe's largest industrial multinationals, she was just 27 and the world was a very different place. It was a landmark project, the first time most of these rooms had ever been seen by the general public. In the spring of 2009, with the world already in the grip of financial crisis, the Dutch-born, New York-based artist decided to take another look at Europe's economic landscape through its boardrooms, and to see how boardroom design, revenue and employee numbers in… -
'The nature of things' at Artists' House, UK
3 Feb 2012 | 11:56 amIt's been just over ten years since London architect Stephen Marshall built Artists' House, the contemporary cottage on the grounds of the New Art Centre in Wiltshire and a modern foil for the grand 1804 mansion and Orangery at Roche Court. Originally conceived as a residence for artists putting in long days in the sculpture park, it was repurposed a few years ago by curator Sarah Griffin for the centre's first design exhibition. This weekend Griffin will launch a second design show, which features work by three Britain-based artists - a juxtapostion of domestic household items with…
-
Graphic Design Blog - An Ultimate Resource for Graphic Designers
-
SocialDon – FREE Comparison of Facebook Analytics!
7 Feb 2012 | 9:33 pmEach day, more and more companies are registering themselves on Facebook to increase their online market presence. This is because Facebook is the most used social media site in the world (Ranked 2nd by Alexa in their global website rankings). Did You Know? –› 43% of the Facebook users Like, or are fans of, at least one brand on Facebook. –› The average U.S. Facebook user “Likes” an average of 14 companies/brands. –› 40% users Like a company’s page to receive discounts and promotions. –› 33% users Like a company’s page to… -
25 Amazing Not-Photoshopped Pictures – See it to believe it!
6 Feb 2012 | 2:42 amPhotoshop manipulation is an art practiced by a lot of artists and designers. It is even used in creating print advertisements for major brands and for designing other promotional props. Every now and then, we witness several pictures on the internet that are altered or manipulated using Adobe Photoshop. But there are some pictures that baffle us into thinking they must be manipulated, even though they are not photoshopped at all. Do you know the real secret involved in these pictures that claim not to be photoshopped? Well the answer is really simple…forced perspective. In the field… -
GDB Comment Contest Results Announced – Congratulations Winners!
3 Feb 2012 | 3:13 amHey guys…the much anticipated results of the comment contest on GDB are finally out. I’m sure you all must be ecstatic to know who the winners are. But before I reveal the name of the 3 lucky winners, let us take a brief recap of the entire event. We started this contest on 24th January 2012 with an aim to increase useful discussions and gain healthy feedback about our blog. The contest ends today on 3rd February 2012. In this short span of time, we received over 200 valuable comments from our loyal readers. The 3 Lucky Winners: It was a close competition as several participants… -
Meeting Graphic Design Clients for the First Time – Prepare Yourself!
31 Jan 2012 | 2:54 amI remember my first client meeting…even though it was quite long time back, but the whole episode is still a distinct memory. Not because it was my very first client meeting, but the anxiety and nervousness that besieged me was unforgettable. Trembling hands, shaky knees and sweaty forehead…altogether it was a nerve-racking experience. I am sure most of the newbie graphic designers face the same situation in their first meet-up with clients. However, this was just a onetime incident for me because with time I grew stronger in confidence after each client meeting. -
25 Tricky Optical Illusion Pictures – Find the Hidden Figures!
27 Jan 2012 | 3:56 amWe all have heard the proverbial phrase “A picture is worth a thousand words”. But what I am about to showcase today needs a new expression…“A picture in worth a thousand pictures.” Yes folks, I’m talking about visual images that show pictures within a picture. Also known as optical illusions, this technique tests the human mind to figure out odd and bizarre things that differ from objective reality. This concept is greatly employed by graphic designers in creating hidden logos and other graphic artworks with hidden concepts. Recall the Apple logo…
-
DesignM.ag
-
30 Beautiful Multi-Colored Websites
6 Feb 2012 | 8:52 amAdvertise here with BSAIn this post we’ve compiled some well designed colorful websites. Enjoy!! If you like these designs you might also want to check out our previous posts below. Examples of Solid Colors in Web Design Examples of Orange in Web Design Examples of Purple in Web Design thisistommy image-festival brosmind mailbakery bellstrike typemedia2011 rays-lab apbaxter learnlakenona dangersoffracking gimmedelivery formfett besser-leben-mit-lehm baucargo art4web werbeagentur-kopfnuss killingsworthstation mywinebox teamtreehouse mommy blog intercolours festivalmundo isee tinytwig kikk… -
28 Cute Children’s Book Illustrations from Digital Artists
1 Feb 2012 | 2:36 pmAdvertise here with BSAIllustrators have found a nurturing community on the web where they can share awesome work. Artists drawing for children’s books were almost always done by hand. But with the popularity of Adobe software and the many tablet devices it’s easier than ever to move your work digital! In this design showcase I’ve put together 28 heartwarming illustrations from Dribbble artists. These are all featured from many different children’s books and relate to individual projects. If you enjoy any parts of our collection of have example illustrations of your… -
40 Negative Space Logo Designs
27 Jan 2012 | 6:51 amAdvertise here with BSAIn this post we have collected 40 well design negative space logo designs. Enjoy!! If you like these logo designs you might also want to check out our previous posts below. 40 Creative Logo Designs 28 Clean and Creative Logo Designs 24 Clever and Unique Logo Designs Australian wine Ignite biobuddha Two knives VIP1 Net Credit WINEPIRE woman quotes Oak Bros. Happy Catfish Gecko SpadeDealer v2 Alchemic Motion Come home cafe explorations Jurassic Wine French Wine Iconik Patron Agri Systems Outdoor Living Today 247 b/w ConnectedHome Three Nuts General Contractors v.2… -
Logo Design: 36 Emblems & Badges
24 Jan 2012 | 8:48 amAdvertise here with BSAIn this post we have 36 well design and emblems & badges. Enjoy!! If you like these logo designs you might also want to check out our previous post below. 28 Clean and Creative Logo Designs 40 Creative Logo Designs Tokyo Bicycles Personal Logo V.1 Growcase Simplexity Service Assembly 36 River Jam Soccer Tournament Logo Lavender Fastener Company Ann’s BBQ sauce_2 Monkey Business Emanuel GO GREEN Pocket Tales Slice of life Temple Beth Torah Northeast Longhorns Paessagio Toscano Smithy of sounds SDFRA Liquid Propaganda Artisan Builder Van De Laar Automaten Nails… -
10 Essential Guidelines for Freelance Collaboration
19 Jan 2012 | 7:22 amAdvertise here with BSAFreelance collaboration is on the rise. Increasingly, teams of freelancers are now doing the work that in-house departments used to do. Graphic designers are now working on teams with writers and programmers. But many freelancers are used to working alone. Collaboration definitely requires freelancers to make a few adjustments. In this post, I’ll provide ten essential guidelines to help you put the pieces together for freelance collaboration. If you enjoy this post, you may also enjoy reading 15 Questions to Ask Before Collaborating. Guideline #1: Do Your Homework…
-
Just Creative Design
-
6 Creative Ways to Use Delicious Bookmarks
6 Feb 2012 | 10:57 amThis is a guest article contributed by Rebecca*. – Delicious is a popular social bookmarking site which you can use for saving your favorite website links. The process is termed as bookmarking. This will enable you to share your bookmarks among others as well as allow you to browse bookmarks of other users’. Tagging and search tools help you in browsing as well as organizing topics of interest. It enables you to both create multiple tags and tag sites with manifold keywords. Every tag produces a page with all website links associated to it. You can share each of these pages with… -
The 2011 Logo Of The Year
1 Feb 2012 | 8:40 pmAfter a month of voting on the Top Logo Designs of 2011 the voting has now closed and I am pleased to announce the 2011 Logo Of The Year. The 2011 Logo Of The Year Fork & Knife Restaurant by Nick Sickelton. The Runner Up Bread & Breakfast is a coffee shop / bakery that serves breakfast all day and sells bread and baked goods. The aim was to create a logo that will combine the two elements of business (bakery and coffee shop) without creating an overload of visuals. The positive/negative design of the coffee cup and the bread image that is created by the coffee itself, along with the… -
Flywheel Takes Off
31 Jan 2012 | 2:39 pmFlywheel started with a simple idea… make indoor cycling epic. To make that happen Flywheel partnered with Ammirati (the agency where I currently work) who re-imagined the Flywheel brand experience. A bold, new look enforced by striking photography & solid copywriting was implemented across all facets of the Flywheel brand, including the Flywheel website which I had the pleasure to work on. Ammirati and I had to restructure, rewrite and redesign all pages of the Flywheel website, for both the front and logged in sections of the site. We’re happy to announce the site successfully… -
Accessibility & Integrity
25 Jan 2012 | 7:34 amI was recently humbled and amazed at an email I received through my brand identity questionnaire and I just had to share the story, not only because it opened my eyes to something amazing, but something I would never have thought of and I’m sure not many others would have either. To cut to the chase, the lady who was inquiring about my brand identity / design services was blind. Although accessibility should be built into in all websites, I still find this fact extremely fascinating. I simply can’t fathom the process of trying to find the right designer without being able to see… -
How to Keep Start-up Costs Low
20 Jan 2012 | 11:17 amThis is a guest article contributed by Daniela Baker*. – The success or failure of a business depends on how wisely you allocate start-up funding. As a solo-preneur you can monitor every expense and decide where your money will best be spent to get your business off to a good start. Here are four suggestions for controlling start-up costs. Be Flexible & Smart With How You Get Funds The cost of borrowing, along with the terms attached to most loans, can make them quite prohibitive to the small business owners. However, there are several other options new business owners may consider…
-
You The Designer
-
The Rise and Fall of Famous Brands – Why Do They Fail?
8 Feb 2012 | 12:00 amWe are living in a world where water is sold with a name, clothes are being marketed with signature signs and food items are being promoted with trademarks. The concept of branding has completely shaped the way people consume commodities. Customers in this day and age prefer status symbols over necessity. This shows the importance of branding and its influence on businesses. It takes years to erect a successful brand identity, but only an instant to destroy it. All the famous brands and corporations have risen to their current status after a lot of painstaking effort. Failure is common… -
We’ve Started Using PunchTab!
6 Feb 2012 | 12:00 amHere’s another one of our attempts to reward you loyal readers for sticking with You The Designer all this time, and this one is a pretty big deal! PunchTab is a loyalty program that lets us reward you for engaging with the blog, whether you visit, browse, comment on, and vote up our posts and more – with points you can use to redeem a reward from us! As some of you may have already seen by clicking on the Rewards ribbon tab hovering on the left side of our pages, we have a 30-day leaderboard tracking the most active readers on the blog. Right… -
Behance Launches Student Show, an Initiative to Support Emerging Designers
1 Feb 2012 | 12:00 amIf you’re a student, here’s an exclusive design community where you can get your work exposure, get feedback from peers as well as world-renowned creative professionals, and even get hired! Behance has launched a new student initiative called the Student Show Gallery, which aims to showcase the world’s next generation of creative talent. Membership is free! As a member, your work may be featured, “appreciated”, followed by fellow creatives, and noticed by recruiters. You’ll also receive updates on student competitions and exclusive discounts from some of… -
30 Examples of Impressive Concept Art
30 Jan 2012 | 12:00 amFor both video games and comic books, concept artists are necessary to create the aesthetically-pleasing visuals that enhance the storyline’s action and drama. From simple pencil sketches to 3D models, detailed character turnarounds to costumes, fantastic vehicles to intricate weapon design, the possibilities are endless. These are some examples of impressive video game and comic book concept art. BATMAN (DC/Rocksteady Studios) View Source View Source View Source ASSASSIN’S CREED (Ubisoft) View Source View Source View Source … -
The Best Looking Beer Cans – a Beer Can Appreciation Day Special
24 Jan 2012 | 7:54 amJanuary 24, 2012 marks the 77th anniversary of the day Gottfried Krueger Brewing Co. first brought canned beers into the market. Though it hasn’t been (and probably never will be) declared an official holiday, more and more people are celebrating Beer Can Appreciation Day to pay tribute to the creation that has changed the experience of buying, keeping and drinking beer, forever. YTD takes part in the Beer Can Appreciation Day celebration with this collection of 35 tasteful beer can designs. Check them out and don’t forget to leave a comment after. Cheers! Hurlimann…
-
Fuel Your Creativity
-
10 Designs Inspired by Microsoft’s Metro UI
25 Jan 2012 | 5:09 pmAdvertise here via BSA Since Microsoft first unveiled the Metro UI on Windows Phone 7, the rollout has been gradually taking place across every Microsoft product and website. It is the cornerstone of the Windows 8 interface and one of the most notable official uses of Metro UI available now is the excellent implementation on the Xbox 360 dashboard. The new design language has been a refreshing sign that Redmond cares about fixing its messy, bloated and ageing image, and the company is following through and executing. In the process, Metro has picked up a lot of fans in the design… -
Timeless Design, Ferrari
25 Jan 2012 | 10:10 amAdvertise here via BSA To begin with what I hope will end up being a mindful, thought-provoking article on the essence of timelessness in design, I felt it only fitting to start with what gave birth to this idea. As a designer and all around technology consultant, it’s my job to stay up-to-date with current trends and product offerings, which by its very nature is contradictory to the idea of timelessness. I’ve been grappling with this concept for over two years now. A lot of you that follow me on Twitter know that I’m an absolute nut about cars. Up until about 24 months ago my passion… -
Free Web UI Wireframe Kit
24 Jan 2012 | 3:00 amAdvertise here via BSA Sometimes you don’t need to build interactive wireframes, or may not feel all that comfortable in Visio or OmniGraffle. I know there are times I just want to open up Photoshop and start laying things out. This web UI template kit is made completely with shape objects and in some cases converted into SmartObjects. So they’re totally scalable. There are no usage restrictions but if you find them helpful give us a shout. We love hearing from you! CLICK TO DOWNLOAD via -
Shape, Color, Content – The Language of Logos
9 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amAdvertise here via BSA Before you approve that new logo you’re considering, stop for a moment to consider how people perceive visual information. The content of your logo is third in the sequence of recognition, behind shape and color, because the brain takes more time to process language. Letterforms can be very powerful in creating content and meaning. The use of initials as an identifying mark has been around for centuries, since medieval kingdoms became economic enterprises. Letterforms are often abstracted to create clever symbols which act as metaphor for the core brand positioning. -
Starting a T-Shirt Line with No Money
5 Jan 2012 | 8:25 amAdvertise here via BSA I have to admit right up front that the title of this article is a bit of hyperbole. You might be quick to think that a t-shirt line that can be started without any money cannot possibly be a good one. It’s true that we could easily end this post in a few sentences by suggesting one of the many turnkey websites that sell one-off digital printing on every product imaginable. However, I am actually referring to starting a high quality screen printed t-shirt line without any money. Thanks to the internet…this is very possible. Tell Your Story One of the main…
-
Featured / by
-
K.Y.D. atypical nav
9 Feb 2012 | 12:29 pmKidnap Your Designer is the name of a Belgian graphic design agency created in 2006 by Caroline Dath. Damien Safie, a classmate from ERG, joined her in 2008. This studio, based in Brussels, produces creative works with the use of typography and printing techniques for clients from the music, theatre, cinema, design or architecture fields. Atypical alright. A search box awaits you. You can pick from: random search – most popular – yours and lastly – last search. -
Explore w/ joy
9 Feb 2012 | 11:32 amDelicious Days has been for years now – one of my fav foodie blog. Exquisitely designed interface – jaw dropping beautiful photography – and as exquisite recipes. Lots of them. Love both logo and tagline: I eat to merely put food out of my mind – N.F. Simpson. _______ Explore w/ joy. -
Font swapper
8 Feb 2012 | 2:00 pmBetter fonts for better websites. Preview how websites will look with fonts from Webtype. On the fly tryout and swapper interface for <h1> and <text>. Tried it w/ Featured by. Go try it now. _______ via: Ben Stott
-
xkcd.com
-
Car Problems
7 Feb 2012 | 9:00 pm -
Wake Up Sheeple
5 Feb 2012 | 9:00 pm -
Wrong Superhero
2 Feb 2012 | 9:00 pm -
Baby Names
31 Jan 2012 | 9:00 pm
-
Planet Photoshop
-
My 3D Feature in Photoshop User
31 Jan 2012 | 7:11 amSo if you are a NAPP member should have just recently received your latest issue of Photoshop User magazine! The official publication of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. If not a member click here to learn more and see what NAPP members get in addition to a year’s subscription to Photoshop User. You can also pick it up at most bookstore newsstands. Anyway in this month’s issue I had the honor of writing the feature article on 3D in Photoshop. I discuss how you can use 3D in Photoshop in not so obvious ways by combining the power of 3D and the compositing power… -
Photoshop World, it will get here fast!
27 Jan 2012 | 11:16 amAre you planning on joining us for Photoshop World in Washington D.C. this March? If so, you better make sure you get registered soon! The early bird registration, which will save you $100 off the full-conference price, will be available through February 17, 2012. I know that seems like a ways off but we all know that will get here a lot quicker than we think. Not to mention you will want to get registered for other events you may be interested in that have a very high likelihood of filling up fast like the pre-cons and the after hours party! Always a blast! This event boasts the biggest… -
Flare Effects
20 Jan 2012 | 12:36 pmCorey has a cool trick for creating a flare brush and see how one effect can lead to another. Corey Barker is Executive Producer of PlanetPhotoshop.com and is an Education and Curriculum Developer for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. Corey has also made numerous appearances on the highly rated podcast, PhotoshopUser TV, and is co-host of Layers TV. -
Create A Composite Layer
13 Jan 2012 | 8:47 amIf you have a multilayer composition and you want to apply an effect to all the layers at once, don’t flatten the layers–use a composite layer instead. Hide the layers you want excluded, and press Shift-Command-Option-E (PC: Shift-Ctrl-Alt-E). A new layer will be created at the top containing a merged copy of all the visible layers. Another option is to create a new layer at the top of the stack and make it active. Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) each layer you want to include to make those layers active, as well. Press Option-Command-E (PC: Alt-Ctrl-E). by Colin Smith -
Creating Glossy Lips
10 Jan 2012 | 8:43 amIf you see a shiny highlight on your subject’s lips, and you want to make it look glossier, duplicate the Background layer then change your layer blend mode to Screen to brighten the entire image. Option-click (PC: Alt-click) the Add Layer Mask icon to hide this brighter layer behind a black mask. Press D to set your Foreground color to white; choose a small, soft-edged Brush (B); and paint over those white highlight areas on the lips and they’ll get even glossier. by Scott Kelby
-
A List Apart
-
Responsive Images: How they Almost Worked and What We Need
31 Jan 2012 | 4:00 amWith a mobile-first responsive design approach, if any part of the process breaks down, your user can still receive a representative image and avoid an unnecessarily large request on a device that may have limited bandwidth. But with several newer browsers implementing an “image prefetching” feature that allows images to be fetched before parsing the document’s body, some of the web's brightest developers are abandoning responsive images in favor of user agent detection, at least as a temporary solution. For us standardistas, UA detection leaves a bad taste in the mouth. More… -
Pricing Strategy for Creatives
31 Jan 2012 | 4:00 amStrategic pricing helps your brand and helps you to make more money. Issuing a price is like handing out a business card—it’s a great branding tool, but be careful about what it says to your market. Beginning relationships with customers at a high price makes the statement: “we’re good at what we do and we know it.” Fighting with a competitor over a low price says “I’m uncertain about my abilities, so I’ll take what I can get.” Failing to use a considered pricing policy will leave you treading water in a sea of design mediocrity, allowing you to just stay afloat while you… -
Building Twitter Bootstrap
17 Jan 2012 | 1:00 amBootstrap is an open-source front-end toolkit created to help designers and developers quickly and efficiently build great stuff online. Its goal is to provide a refined, well-documented, and extensive library of flexible design components created with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for others to build and innovate on. Today, it has grown to include dozens of components and has become the most popular project on GitHub, with more than 13,000 watchers and 2,000 forks. Mark Otto, the co-creator of Bootstrap, sheds light on how and why Bootstrap was made, the processes used to create it, and how it… -
An Important Time for Design
17 Jan 2012 | 1:00 amDesign is on a roll. Client services are experiencing a major uptick in demand, seasoned design professionals are abandoning client work in favor of entrepreneurship, and designer-co-founded startups such as Kickstarter and Airbnb are taking center stage. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the fact that design has a massive role to play in the evolution of the web and the next generation of web products. The result, says Cameron Koczon, is that designers have now been given a blank check—one that lets web designers band together as a community to change the way design is… -
A Pixel Identity Crisis
17 Jan 2012 | 1:00 amThe pixel has long been the atomic particle of screen based design: a knowable, concrete unit of measurement. But layouts based on the hardware pixel are fast becoming an endangered species. Even the introduction of a new, W3C standard reference pixel, although it promises stability in the long-term, can't help us navigate the current chaos. Consider the two "standard" pixel definitions and 500 "standard" viewports your user's Android device may support. To create designs that transcend platform differences—the promise of the web and standards—you must normalize pixels across devices.
-
FreelanceSwitch
-
Tackling Freelance Projects Like a Software Developer
9 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amHave you heard about the trend of standing room only meetings? Instead of having a team sit around a conference table, they’re made to stand up for short meetings instead. The trend is becoming prevalent in tech companies, and is meant to eliminate long, boring meetings where no one pays attention. Some companies have even instituted a penalty for being late to a meeting—either through sheer humiliation or a small fee. If someone is rambling on for too long, an employee may hold up a rubber rat indicating it is time to move on. Companies make exceptions to their no-sitting rules if a… -
A 10-Step Process to a Successful Freelance Career
9 Feb 2012 | 5:00 amAs many freelancers eventually realize, going into business for yourself means you actually take on two separate (very different) full time businesses. How’s that for a surprise when you originally thought that you could blissfully code away and somehow the money would start rolling in? This is actually what happens on your path to freelance success: You dream. It starts with the fantasy of going freelance. First, you dream of the time that you can shed your cubicle life and work from home in your fuzzy slippers, and think that somehow, eventually, the money will start coming in. You dive… -
How To Deal With Criticism
8 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amWorking in the creative field means you are an open target for criticism. Someone doesn’t like your photography work, they think you’re a bad writer, or your prices are unfair. And as freelancers, it can be hard not to take criticism—no matter how well meaning—personally. I read this blog post on Forbes.com on how to deal with really tough criticism, written for people who are business leaders. While I’m not necessarily the target audience for this article, I did take away some good lessons that I’d like to share for the freelance set. The first thing we need to consider is that… -
5 Ways to Spread the Freelance Love
8 Feb 2012 | 5:00 amValentine’s Day is probably not a holiday that brings your fellow freelancers to mind. You may have made a point to recognize your clients during the December holiday season, so why not make February the time to applaud your fellow independents? Spreading good karma always pays off in some manner, whether it be a new contact, lead, or networking opportunity. Here are some ways to get started. Hire someone. You might not think of yourself as a potential client to other freelancers, but face it, you can’t be good at everything. You could tap into fellow freelancers for several aspects of… -
Build a Better Tweet
7 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amA new study from Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science called “Who Gives a Tweet: Evaluating Microblogging Content Value” has unveiled what we like to read, and what we don’t like to read, on Twitter. I have to say, the results aren’t all that surprising. A team of researchers from Carnegie Mellon, MIT, and Georgia Tech launched a site asking for anonymous feedback from people like you and me in exchange for rating their tweets. Users had to sign in to their website and rate 10 tweets before getting any feedback on their own tweets. Luckily for these researchers, their…
-
SimpleBits
-
Pears
7 Feb 2012 | 2:40 pmYesterday, on stage at An Event Apart Atlanta, I announced Pears: an open source WordPress theme for creating your own markup & style pattern library. I wanted to create my own database repository of commonly used patterns and figured the tool might be useful for others as well. Breaking interfaces down into patterns has been immensely helpful in learning and re-evaluating the best possible code to implement them. I’ve just gotten started and will be adding more as I create them. But Pears isn’t about how I code these patterns—it’s a tool for creating your own. The… -
Bulletproof Web Design, Third Edition
20 Dec 2011 | 8:07 amYesterday, a copy of my latest book arrived in the mail, the Third Edition of Bulletproof Web Design. The first edition came out back in 2005, and I’ve been revising it every few years. This latest edit was a bit larger than the 2nd because so much has changed. HTML5, CSS3, Responsive Web Design—all of these things dovetail nicely into the core bulletproof concepts from the original book. If you have the 2nd edition, the new version is likely not a necessary upgrade (New Riders probably loves me for saying that). Meaning, the guidelines for building flexible websites are still there,… -
My New Ride
25 Oct 2011 | 5:57 pmA month ago I made one of the best purchases I’ve made in a long time. I bought a kick scooter. Not one of those aluminum things with rollerblade wheels where the handle is so short you have to hunch over—but a scooter built for adults. Check out this video that shows how the KickPed operates—particularly how it folds up. After a fair amount of research I found the KickPed, which is a custom model designed by NYCEWheels. It’s not cheap, but it’s built for the streets of New York and is supposedly maintenance free. The wheels are wide, solid rubber, the birch footboard is… -
New Work: Instapaper 4 Icon
17 Oct 2011 | 10:08 amI had the honor of creating the new Instapaper icon thanks to Jason Santa Maria and his art direction. The new app is superb, and it’s out today! Read all about it from creator Marco Arment and Jason. -
Adapted
19 Aug 2011 | 11:09 amThere’s no doubt that employing a mobile first, responsive design approach to a new project is a wonderful way forward for many sites. I think the most exciting thing about seeing these best practices develop over the last few years is that it finally feels like web design. Finally. That we’re not designing sheets of paper that happen to be on screen. So yes, for new projects under the right circumstances a responsive plan is often the ideal. But what about existing sites? The ones that were designed before browsers supported media queries and before smart people started stitching…
-
Jeffrey Zeldman Presents The Daily Report
-
A better Photoshop grid for responsive web design
8 Feb 2012 | 7:58 amIN MAKING the move to responsive web design, one of the potential hurdles is the rather awkward maths for calculating the percentage-based widths necessary for fluid layouts. If, for example, you’re designing with a 960px grid in Photoshop and you have six columns, each 140px wide, you divide 140 by 960 to get your percentage-based width: 14.583333%. Now, I don’t know about you, but numbers like that look a little scary. It doesn’t matter that there are great calculation tools built into TextMate to do the maths for you; the point is that the final figure looks like an arbitrary number… -
Mobile Web Resources
8 Feb 2012 | 5:03 amONE of the most frequent questions we get asked about the mobile web is ‘Where do I go to learn about all this stuff?’ So here’s an extensive list of helpful tools and resources that can help you create great mobile web experiences.” Mobile Web Resources | Mobile Web Best Practices. -
Notes from An Event Apart Atlanta 2012
7 Feb 2012 | 2:03 pmLUKE WROBLEWSKI’S notes on most of the sessions from An Event Apart Atlanta, 2012, Feb. 6–8, 2012. Thanks, buddy! Properties of Intuitive Web Pages — February 7, 2012 An Event Apart: The Future of CSS — February 7, 2012 An Event Apart: CSS Best Practices — February 7, 2012 An Event Apart: Buttons are a Hack — February 7, 2012 An Event Apart: Content First — February 6, 2012 An Event Apart: Inclusive Design — February 6, 2012 An Event Apart: Handcrafted Patterns — February 6, 2012 An Event Apart: Hacking Users Brains — February 6, 2012 An Event Apart: Adaptive Web… -
Fluid grids, orientation & resolution independence
7 Feb 2012 | 5:12 amIF YOU’VE spent any time building responsive websites with fluid grids, you will have encountered the shock of seeing your beautiful portrait layout distort when viewed in landscape mode (or vice-versa.) This happens because whilst the layout and embedded content (images, video etc) are sized in relation to the pixel width of the viewport, the typography is not. And whilst it isn’t too difficult to design with enough affordance for the variation caused by the iPad’s 4:3 aspect ratio – most (if not all) Android tablets have 16:9 displays. These screens make the orientation… -
My Glamorous Life: Lucy Ricardo, C’est Moi
1 Feb 2012 | 6:07 amTRYING A NEW breakfast place. I tell the cashier, “Extra crispy bacon.” “Extra bacon,” she says. “No, not extra bacon. Extra crispy bacon,” I say. A fast-paced volley of shouted Spanish follows, between the cook, the cashier, and the server. A customer in line behind me chimes in. He is either describing my order to the cashier or telling her about a dream he had involving velvet chickens. I’ve got to learn Spanish. The cashier turns her green gaze back to me. “Extra bacon,” she says. “Um, no,” I say. “No bacon,”…
-
Graphic Design News
-
Adobe pushes mandataory Beta 6 update for 'Muse' design tool
9 Feb 2012 | 11:53 amAdobe "Muse" is a piece of desktop software from the InDesign team that lets graphic designers create websites in a purely graphical format without the need to manually enter any HTML, CSS, or JavaScript. -
Slidevana provides pro design templates for Keynote
9 Feb 2012 | 7:44 amSlidevana is a curious thing. This US$69 bundle offers a set of professionally designed slides. -
Entrepreneurs bloom at Mars Area High
9 Feb 2012 | 3:34 amT.J. Pieffer, 15, of Mars, is the star of a weekly show, "Teej Tuesday," which he broadcasts on YouTube. -
League of Striving Artists' first showcase in the PML
8 Feb 2012 | 11:30 pmThe League of Striving Artists has an art exhibit currently on display on the second floor of the Paul Meek Library. -
Domtar Teams with Hatch Show Print to Boost AIGA's Design for Good
8 Feb 2012 | 7:15 pmDomtar Corporation has collaborated with Hatch Show Print to create a limited edition poster that supports AIGA's "Design for Good" initiative - an effort to recognize and support pro bono social engagement design projects.
-
Logo Design Love
-
On the 2012 US election campaign logos
8 Feb 2012 | 2:34 amSteven Heller, Debbie Millman, and Alice Twemlow gave their thoughts on the 2012 US election campaign logos. Here’s a snippet from the post on SVA’s Visual Arts Briefs. “What’s right with this logo, other than his political stance?” — STEVEN HELLER “For a corporation, it would feel established and a bit stuffy. Seems as if there should be an image of the Bible on this page… If you’re going to make a site that looks like Tumblr, why not just create a Tumblr account?” — DEBBIE MILLMAN Nb/ Rick Santorum’s website. “The further right… -
“This is what you need — a magic dot.”
6 Feb 2012 | 1:56 amSaul Bass (1920-1996) described a particularly sticky moment when he presented his Minolta design at the company’s Osaka headquarters in 1980. “Although his son, the President of the company, had initiated the corporate identity program, the Chairman and retired founder, Kazuo Tashima, remained skeptical of such fancy new ways. “During the initial consultation process, he listened to my proposals in stony silence. At one point when I was speaking, Mr. Tashima plucked a miniaturized Minolta camera from its display stand, and said ‘Gentlemen, we have a very small… -
Madrid 2020 logo causes controversy
31 Jan 2012 | 12:52 pmMadrid launched its bid for the 2020 Olympics yesterday with a logo that left many Spaniards confused (as reported in The Telegraph). “The design purportedly consists of the letter M for Madrid and the number 20 in front of the coloured rings of the Olympics stylised into arches inspired by the Madrid landmark, Puerta de Alcalá. “But the lettering appears to show “20020,” an effect that has brought much derision in the Spanish press and on social networking sites.” The design is a result of a national competition, won by 22-year-old Luis Peiret. Here’s the… -
How LO can you GO?
24 Jan 2012 | 8:20 amThe following guest post was written by Tom and Phil of London-based Mat Dolphin. One of the services we offer as a design agency is logo design. No surprises then when we recently stumbled upon another agency offering the same service. So far, so average – the majority of graphic design agencies throughout the world do exactly the same. The difference with this one, however, was the costing of their work. $42. That simple. For $42 you can get a logo designed with two rounds of amends and a number of different files formats sent to you. Sceptical of the quality of the work and a little… -
Green T
23 Jan 2012 | 2:48 amCutting the grass is about as far as my green fingers stretch, but I like this logo-growing project by Judy Kameon for the New York Times. Kameon created a T from 130 plants “Together with her husband, photographer Erik Otsea, Kameon created a T from 130 plants. And in a postscript sure to warm the hearts of environmentalists, no flora were harmed in the making of this artwork. In fact, they’re all bound for a new demonstration garden in Kameon’s office and showroom.” Her husband, the photographer Erik Otsea, captured the T The finished product Click for full-size chart of…
-
CSS-Tricks
-
Musings on Preprocessing
8 Feb 2012 | 9:45 pmI've been using SASS for pretty much everything I do recently. Here's some musings on the journey. From hold-ups, to trip-ups, to turn-offs. From apps and teams to workflows and syntax. You Gotta Work Locally The biggest contributor to me getting on the bandwagon was giving up my going-commando live FTP editing ways. Yeah, Coda is awesome, but it's bad habit forming. It makes it way too easy to work live instead of local1. Working local is full of obvious advantages. Namely, 1) It's fast 2) You can edit stuff to your heart's content without worry you're screwing up a live site and 3) It… -
Speech Bubble Arrows that Inherit Parent Color
6 Feb 2012 | 9:57 amInteresting question: css3 speech bubble question: for the "triangle"'s border color, how can I set it to whatever its parent div's bgcolor is automagically? — Jin Yang (@jzy) February 1, 2012 By "css3 speech bubble", Jin means using a pseudo element on a container to add a little pointer arrow (triangle). Not really CSS3, but that's pedantic. Let's say that pink color isn't practical to set in an external CSS file. Perhaps is a user setting, or perhaps its set dynamically somehow. <div class="speech-bubble" style="background: pink;"> I like bananas, because they have no bones. -
A proposal to drop browser vendor prefixes
3 Feb 2012 | 1:49 pmInteresting idea by Felipe G on using a new at-rule, @-vendor-unlock, to tell the browser to use it's experimental implementation of any particular property, rather than using a vendor prefix on that property. Unfortunately at this point, even if you could get all the browsers on board, you'd need to use this and vendor prefixes to get deep support, which makes the problem worse. What we really need is for all browsers to implement auto-updating so eventually "supporting older browsers" is something we can look back and laugh at. Direct Link to Article — PermalinkA proposal to drop… -
Digging Into WordPress 3.3
3 Feb 2012 | 1:30 pmDigging Into WordPress (the book) is now updated to v3.3. Includes new chapters specially on what's new in 3.2 and 3.3, all the rest of the chapters tightened up and refreshed, better internal hyperlinking (in the PDF), and more. It's a free update (PDF) to all previous buyers. New print copies are on order and will be available soon. Direct Link to Article — PermalinkDigging Into WordPress 3.3 is a post from CSS-Tricks -
ShopTalk Episode 4
2 Feb 2012 | 5:50 pmDave, Jonathan Longnecker, Nate Croft and I talk shop. Topics include website building apps, where to start designing, when not to design for modern browsers, and more. Sponsored by LessAccounting. Direct Link to Article — PermalinkShopTalk Episode 4 is a post from CSS-Tricks
-
Inspired Magazine
-
Crime of Fashion: A Crime Story in Fashion Design Terms
9 Feb 2012 | 6:29 amA follow up to Love Triangle by Alexa Lash – a writer, editor, and on-the-spot poet. Former Floridian and resident Bostonian, she has written for the Seminole Chronicle, Momslikeme, and the Central Florida Future, and is currently working in the Journalism Department of Emerson College. We found the body, dressed in the newest line from Décolleté, spread on the runway, legs flaring away into an upside-down V. A purple wig—each model had her own color—fit snug on the vic’s head as if nailed down. “Ms. Violet is dead!” This, from a small man with a black boa tied around his… -
Spread the Graphic Love with Valentine Design Goodies
8 Feb 2012 | 3:00 pmCheck out the hottest web design goods curated by our pals at WebDesignGoodies - this time with a Valentine twist! Here’s a neat collection of recent freebies, themes, graphic elements and other goodies. Feel free to contribute in the comments as well! All You Need Is Love Vintage Poster/Flyer Template (only $6) 100% original lettering composition (calligramme) made from the name of song, written by John Lennon. Our poster is mix of modern typography and retro 1969`s feel. Don’t you want somebody to love?! It will be useful for St. Valentines day vintage parties, as invitation for… -
6 Ways Google+ Can Win you More Clients
7 Feb 2012 | 4:19 amThis is a guest post by Alex Mathers, founder of Red Lemon Club, a self-taught illustrator and writer who believes that any freelancer passionate about work they are good at deserves to create a successful and thriving career from it. Alex recently released an extremely useful online course titled The Freelancer’s Guide to Winning Incredible Clients through Google+ Mastery Google’s latest addition to the ‘social’ world, in the form of social networking platform Google+, appears to have divided people on how useful and how valuable it actually is. What it has so far shown, is a… -
40 Websites That Look Great in Blue
6 Feb 2012 | 6:49 amIt seems these days that many designers automatically settle on the main color in their website’s palette automatically: white. Every other color is just an accent to that. Today, we look at 40 websites that used a bolder color to base their design on — in this case, blue. It’s harder to pull off a web design that is based on a bold color — the relative safety of a plain old white background is easy to work with. These designers have made it work, though, and this means they can design sites that deliver greater branding benefits using the psychology of color. Check… -
Infographics of the Week #22
4 Feb 2012 | 6:58 amAs you may know by now, Inspired Magazine is a sucker for data visualization. That’s why we invited Tony Shin – a social media ninja and creative design samurai – to curate the weekly dose of infographics. If you like them as much as we do check out some of the older editions and follow Tony on Twitter and Facebook as well! 1. Where is Your Brand in the Social Media Lifecycle? Inspired by the White Paper, Ubervu put together this infographic that highlights a complete package of how to track your social media success. As social media continues to evolve, many businesses are…
-
PicoCool / Popular items
-
Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4 Modified By Prindivill
28 Jan 2012 | 6:43 amLamborghini is one of top ranked sports car, not only because of its performance but also its killer look. When it comes to looks, Prindiville Design is master in catching the ideas and bring them into reality. This time Prindiville Design is offering their service to Lamborghini Aventador owners. Well if you’ve some extra money then you can get your Lamborghini Aventador customized, whether its exterior, interior or any technical modification.2 Vote(s) -
Breathtaking Cityscape Paintings by Evgeny Lushpin
28 Jan 2012 | 6:42 amIf these beautiful paintings by Evgeny Lushpin don't make you want to travel the world, nothing will. His use of color and attention to detail create amazing moods in his paintings. If you like these, check out more great work on his portfolio.2 Vote(s) -
PENTAX Optio VS20 With 2X Shutter Buttons
26 Jan 2012 | 2:34 amPENTAX unveils its new mega zoom digital camera featuring 20X stunning mega optical zoom. The PENTAX Optio VS20 is world’s first pocket-size camera to offer two shutter buttons so that photographers can switch the portrait and landscape easily.2 Vote(s) -
Opel Rak E Concept Car
26 Jan 2012 | 2:34 amThis is the result of collaboration of Opel and KIKSA. the Opel Rak E concept car is designed to facilitate two people comfortably. Not only the size of this concept car is main feature but also designers have considered all aspects that are necessary to make an ultimate machine.2 Vote(s) -
Micro Sonic Grenade
26 Jan 2012 | 2:34 amDing Ding! Look what we’ve found. Well I know office going people are not bad but this thing can enlist you in bad boys’ category :D Just kidding ;) It’s a little fun product called Micro Sonic Grenade. Yes Grenade which you throw to anyone else’s desk. it will blast a massive sound of siren at 110-115 decibel that is enough to make someone jump-off from seat.2 Vote(s)
-
Six Revisions
-
Giveaway: 100 Custom Flyers from Next Day Flyers
23 Jan 2012 | 7:00 amAdvertise here with BSA We’ve partnered up again with our wonderful friends at Next Day Flyers to give away two sets of 1/4-page flyers with free shipping anywhere in the Continental U.S. Each set contains 100 flyers. Flyer printing can be used and customized for a variety of purposes including promoting a club event, marketing a small business and sending out announcements. Read on to see how you can win! ** Update: Giveaway Period Has Ended ** About Next Day Flyers Next Day Flyers is an offset printing company offering an array of printed materials such as flyers, business cards,… -
The Proxority Principle in Web Design
18 Jan 2012 | 5:27 amAdvertise here with BSA In web design, the position of design elements and the layout of web pages is everything. So many cool, exciting techniques are available to help us lay out our designs (especially with CSS3 at our disposal) that we often forget that structure is as important as aesthetics. How do you determine where content should appear, and how can a well-oiled interface increase website readability? This is what we’ll aim to uncover in this article. We’re going to examine a basic technique that could help you improve your general content flow, and, for lack of a better… -
Giveaway: 10 Subscriptions to Mindomo (Mind-Mapping App)
18 Jan 2012 | 5:20 amAdvertise here with BSA Mindomo, a mind mapping application for brainstorming, has teamed up with us to give out 10 Premium Account subscriptions for one year (worth $65 each). Read on to see how you can win this awesome prize. ** Update: Giveaway Period Has Ended ** About Mindomo Mindomo is a simple mind mapping application, which can be used individually or in group for creative idea generation, gathering project requirements, building quick site-maps and simple project management. A designer’s mind map created by Mindomo. Mindomo allows easy development of a design concept or idea. -
Announcement: Winners of PSD2HTML.com PSD to Conversion Services
14 Jan 2012 | 2:00 amAdvertise here with BSA We had a great giveaway from our friends at PSD2HTML.com, a leading provider of PSD to HTML conversion services. In this post, we’d like to announce the two winners who’ve won themselves $400 and $300 worth of PSD2HTML.com services, as well as three free pages of design to mobile template conversion. The Winners The first prize winner receives $400 worth of services and three free pages of design to mobile template conversion, while the second prize winner gets $300 worth of services and three free pages of design to mobile template conversion. Below are… -
Giveaway: 5 Free Deals from Deals2Have
10 Jan 2012 | 7:30 amAdvertise here with BSA Our friends at Deals2Have — a site providing great discounts on digital products for Mac enthusiasts, creative professionals and startups — is giving away five free deals to five lucky Six Revisions winners. Read on to find out how you can win! ** Update: Giveaway Period Has Ended ** About Deals2Have Deals2Have, which started in summer of 2011, is a site where you can find big discounts on useful digital products. For example, Deals2Have is currently running a deal on the Photoshop Styles Mega Pack Collection; normally it costs $59, but they’ve worked…
-
Better Living Through Design
-
Indie Pendant
9 Feb 2012 | 7:53 amLess than a week until February 14th. Do you have something for your Valentine? The Indie Pendant is a hand-made, satin brass pendant which you can customize with a special date, your loved one’s name, or anything else, up to sixteen characters. -
B&B Italia Leather Sectional Sofa by Afra Scarpa
9 Feb 2012 | 7:37 amI’m obsessing over 1970′s vintage leather right now, and mainly this arose out of living with a man who is allergic to my cat. My wool Bottoni sofa is a virtual sponge for cat dander, and my poor boyfriend can’t take it any longer. We looked at new leather–but if you buy a high quality piece it will cost about as much as a car. So, on to Ebay I went. I scored a cool 70′s Italian leather piece from B&B Italia for a song. There are similar listings on auction sites for around $8500, but if you’re not in a hurry, you can wait it out and get a good price… -
Noir Pendant Lamp
9 Feb 2012 | 7:18 amThe Noir Pendant lamp, which is a powdercoated black matte metal shade with a beech wood cap has a weighty, architectural look to it. With its large scale, the fixture would be most suited as an anchor for a dining table or perhaps a kitchen island. -
Rustic Storage Console
8 Feb 2012 | 7:09 amI’ve been looking for a table for my entry for things like mail, keys and other remnants from a long day of work. At the time, I wasn’t able to find anything, so I had something made by a local craftsman for under $300. It’s a nice sturdy piece, but it doesn’t have drawers, and that would definitely keep that area tidier than it is looking now. This piece by WestElm is actually almost exactly the same size, but it has the drawers that I’m now wishing my custom console had. Constructed from solid mango wood, the piece has a nice muted look. -
Review: Ari Marcopoulos Incase Camera Bag
8 Feb 2012 | 6:42 amI’ve finally found the perfect bag for both day-to-day commuting and air travel. Here are a few of the things I love about it: 1. Interior side pocket fits both my MacBook Air & Kindle perfectly. 2. Exterior side pocket allows for easy and secure access to wallet, keys, phone. 3. Comes with a waterproof cover(!) 4. It’s a perfect carry-on sized bag. 5. Side handle makes it easy to pull in and out from under airplane seats 6. Bag interior lined with soft material to keep all your gadgets scratch-free. 7. Configureable interior compartments with velcro dividers–perfect…
-
Photofocus
-
Apple iPhone 4s Camera Review
9 Feb 2012 | 6:58 amShot with iPhone 4s – right out of the camera. Imported into Aperture, converted to black and white, minor edge sharpening added. Copyright Scott Bourne, 2012 – All Rights Reserved. I just finally got an Apple iPhone 4s. The camera included with this phone simply blows me away. I now see why under $200 point and shoot sales are dropping like a rock. The pictures you can make with this phone meet or exceed the quality that you can get out of many of the sub $200 point and shoot cameras. In fact, with proper lighting and technique, this camera can perform up to the level of some of… -
The Nikon D800 – First Thoughts
8 Feb 2012 | 6:01 amUPDATE: Within minutes of posting this – several of you claiming to be video experts say you disagree that the 36MP is good for video. So be it. I was simply reporting what I had been told. I personally don’t have a dog in this hunt. As my post clearly expresses, I personally think 36mp is too many for a 35mm sensor. Your mileage may vary. I’ll start with the usual disclaimer. I am not one of the cool kids so I have never shot with a D800. This is not a review. Until I actually shoot the camera I won’t have a firm opinion, but looking at the specs, I am very confused… -
Don’t Banish the Trashing of the Dress, Elevate It
7 Feb 2012 | 5:20 amGuest Post by Catherine Hall – Follow Catherine on Twitter In wedding photography, the “Trash the Dress” trend has veered increasingly toward shock-and-awe novelty, rather than artistry. The phenomenon all too often leaves me feeling squeamish. You know the drill: A beautiful bride in her lovely white dress gets convinced by a well-meaning photographer to trash her gorgeous gown for art’s sake. She ends up with food dumped on her head or is induced to take part in a mud-wrestling match. Whatever the scenario, her once-pristine gown is not only soiled, but irrevocably besmirched. The… -
What Photographic Tools & Technology Will We Use Today And Lose Tomorrow?
6 Feb 2012 | 6:10 amI used to make photographs with film that I developed and printed in a wet dark room. When I started photographing art for painters I used polarized lights to provide non-reflective illumination on the art work. When I first switched to digital, I scanned all my photos on a drum scanner, then stored them on floppy disks or magnetic tape drives. These are but a few of the examples I can think of that point to technology and tools that are for me at least, gone by. I know there are people still using all of these tools. But I am not and nobody else I work with is either. With the exception of a… -
Photofocus Podcast Episode #101
5 Feb 2012 | 6:15 amMake sure you don’t miss a single Photofocus post – point your feed reader to the free Photofocus RSS Feed here and subscribe. PLEASE BE PATIENT – OUR SERVERS SEE LARGE LOADS ON PUBLISHING DAYS. THE DOWNLOADS MAY GO SLOWLY BUT THEY WILL FINISH. Download episode… Photofocus Episode 101 Host: Scott Bourne (www.scottbourne.com or www.twitter.com/scottbourne) Show notes by Bruce Clarke (www.momentsindigital.com or www.twitter.com/bruceclarke) Welcome to Episode Number 101 of Photofocus with Scott Bourne. Photofocus is the show devoted to discussing photography and…
-
A Photo Editor
-
Roadtrip to Marfa – Part 2
9 Feb 2012 | 7:30 amby Jonathan Blaustein There’s nothing quite so sad as a bunch of fancy coffee addicts, also hungry, twitching down the highway 80 miles for a fix. But when your alternative is the gas station in Van Horn, Texas, you do what you must. That being said, the drive towards salvation was most definitely precarious. First, it was David complaining that there’s no room for Credence on a Texas road trip. (“Have You Ever Seen the Rain”) Sacrilege. Then, I made the (apparently) equally egregious mistake of calling dibs on some photographic subject matter I found, thereby… -
The Daily Edit – Thursday 2.9.12
9 Feb 2012 | 5:00 am(click images to make bigger) More Creative Director: Debra Bishop Photo Director: Natasha Lunn Associate Art Director: Susanne Bamberger Associate Photo Editor: Jennifer Dessinger Photographer: Dan Winters Note: Content for The Daily Edit is found on the newsstands. Submissions are not accepted --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Looking to buy a new website? A Photo Folio is a website design company created by A Photo Editor. Have a look (here). -
Roadtrip to Marfa – Part 1
8 Feb 2012 | 7:30 amby Jonathan Blaustein Much later in the day, David and I stopped off at a tiny little rest stop off I-25, just South of Socorro. A brown sign, made for tourists, announced we were on the famed Camino Real, also known as the Jornada del Muerto. The journey of death. Finally, it all made sense. I knew it would be a dangerous day hours earlier. Descending out of Taos and into the canyon, where the highway hugs the Rio Grande for twenty miles or so, I pulled out to pass a line of cars. It’s something I do all the time. As I finally got a clear look down the hill, a horse-trailer was backing… -
What is it about being a photographer that you wish you could change?
8 Feb 2012 | 6:10 amI wish I could scale back the amount of time I spend in front of a screen. It’s beginning to define what “being a photographer” is like these days. via » 10 minutes with Wesley Mann this is the what. Buying a new website? APhotoFolio.com builds portfolio websites for photographers. Have a look (here). --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Looking to buy a new website? A Photo Folio is a website design company created by A Photo Editor. Have a look (here). -
The Daily Edit – Wednesday 2.8.12
8 Feb 2012 | 5:00 am(click images to make bigger) Nylon Art Director: Evan Campisi Co Art Director: Chris Segedy Photo Director: Stephen Walker Photo & Bookings Editor: Rhianna Rule Photographer: Marvin Scott Jarrett Note: Content for The Daily Edit is found on the newsstands. Submissions are not accepted --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Looking to buy a new website? A Photo Folio is a website design company created by A Photo Editor. Have a look (here).
-
Tao of Photography
-
Transcendental Mirrors
8 Feb 2012 | 7:11 pm"Bodies of still water arethemselves like minds;transcendental mirrors, Platonic camerasto catch and hold the phenomenological long enough for the onlooker to grasp its reality,the eternal thing behind it."- David Mason GreeneThe Frail Duration"There is, one knows not what sweet mystery about his sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath; like those fabled undulations of the Ephesian sod over the buried Evangelist St. John. And meet it is, that over these sea-pastures, wide rolling watery prairies and Potters’ Fields of all… -
On Seeing
7 Feb 2012 | 5:11 pm"The child has to learn how to separate out the images which assail the newly-opened retina... a whole series of 'senses' are necessary... A sense of spatial immensity, in its greatness and in its smallness, disarticulating and spacing out, within a sphere of indefinite radius, the orbits of objects which press around us; A sense of depth, pushing back laboriously through the endless chain of events and measureless distances of time which a sort of sluggishness of mind tends continually to condense for us in a thin layer of the past; A sense of number, discovering and grasping… -
Music of the Eyes
6 Feb 2012 | 4:30 pm"What prohibits me from treating my perception as an intellectual act is that an intellectual act would grasp the object either as possible or as necessary. But in perception it is 'real'; it is given as the infinite sum of an indefinite series of perspectival views in each of which the object is given but in none of which is it given exhaustively."- Maurice Merleau-Ponty(1908 - 1961)"Perhaps art is just taking outwhat you don't likeand putting in what you do.There is no such thing as Abstraction. It is extraction, gravitation toward a certain direction... It is… -
Celestial Melodies
5 Feb 2012 | 3:35 pm"...above all, I perceive in me with joy, a new tone, sounded by a violin within my innermost being. Its strings are tensed or relaxed through simple differences of temperature and illumination from without. Yet from deep with our being (an instrument that the conformity of habit has condemned to silence), there appears a song - out of those derivations, out of those vibrations - from which all music arises. The weather, on specific days, leads us perchance from one sound to another. We rediscover the lost melody, which - as we might have guessed - appears with mathematical necessity,… -
Illumination and Purification
4 Feb 2012 | 5:38 pm"The outcome is this...the whole conscious being is open to spiritual experiences of every kind. It turns toward spiritual truth in thought, feeling, perception, and action; it is adjusted to respond rightly... The second thing is the free influx of all kinds of spiritual experience, experience of self, experience of God and of the divine creative power, experience of the cosmic consciousness, a direct contact with cosmic forces and with the hidden movements of universal Nature, a psychic sympathy, union, inner communication and various kinds of reciprocal relationship with other beings and…
-
Camera Hacker: Forums
-
Shooting Spectacular Fireworks Video
9 Feb 2012 | 12:38 pmMost digital cameras and camcorders have UV/IR filters built into them. These filters block out ultraviolet and infrared light. Sony camcorders lets you remove . . . Category: Video Camera -
Can't get rid of "turn the power off and on again"
8 Feb 2012 | 2:03 pmThis really did work. I had to really bang it maybe about 10 times. My camera is working great now Category: Digital Camera: Sony -
DCR-TRV350 tape wont eject C:32:11
8 Feb 2012 | 1:04 pmIn the off-chance that somebody knowledgeable still checks this thread, I'm having issues with my Sony HDR-HC5. Back a couple of years ago, the camera quit pul . . . Category: Video Camera: Sony -
Sony HDR-HC3 Tape Door Won't Close with C:32:11 Error Code
8 Feb 2012 | 10:34 amSmack me, Jack me, Whack me, it worked!! Category: Video Camera: Sony -
Micro SD card password in Nokia mobile phone
7 Feb 2012 | 3:17 amkindly help me. my 2gb microsd card is locked. i forget password, plz help how this unlock microsd card,i dont want data erase. only i want safly my data of mi . . . Category: Camera Phone
-
ESSENTIALS For Photographers
-
Hey… Where are you going with all that stuff?
7 Feb 2012 | 12:31 pmDidja ever wonder? You got the gear. You got the lights. You got that shiny new megapixelbeast of a machine. You even have one of those latest doohickeys that everyone is drooling over. You know the one. Yeah… it’s sweet. But where are you going with all that stuff? Are you off to make photographs? Why? Seriously… why? Is there a reason for the images you are making? Is there a strong desire to make those images? Is it something you have been thinking about for a long time? Was it a sudden desire to go out and record something on a bunch of pixels or a roll of chemically… -
CreativeLIVE – Seattle – April 6, 7, 8, – Well, This Will Be Fun!
5 Feb 2012 | 7:22 pmThanks to Charles Tibbs for taking the photo. Yeah… that’s me lookin’ all serious and cold leaning against the back wall of my studio. Fact is, it was a bit chilly that day. Unlike today where it is pushing a bit over 70. But the weather is not the subject here – it is the CreativeLIVE show I am doing in Seattle with the great folks up there in the PNW. Yep – I will be doing a Creative LIVE show April 6, 7, 8, in Seattle and hope all of you will be watching. I will be blogging and tweeting the entire experience as well, but it is nice to know that some loyal fans… -
OT- Sunday, #1: Darkness, Cello Madness and Jazz
5 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amSometimes I have an opportunity to discuss other topics than photography. These times are rare, of course, but they do exist. I thought it may be fun to post some of the other things that are interesting to me on Sunday Mornings. Welcome to Off Topic Sundays, an excursion into the unknown. “… and darkness fell across the land…” First off. I received an email from someone in the business asking me to help create a ‘day of darkness’ by blocking all my content from the people who are stealing us blind. I have no interest in that sort of thing. Not because I… -
A Special “Portfolio Building” Workshop, Feb 11, 12: Only 3 Students
3 Feb 2012 | 2:03 pmThis is a special workshop for only three students. It is on short notice, but there is a reason for that – and it will be explained at a later date. Our focus will be on mastering images across a spectrum of genres. This workshop is for the serious photographer who wants to understand the finesse of light, and how to apply lighting and drama to their portfolio pieces. We will look at the qualities of light, how to understand the medium, and what we can do with photographic tools to enhance and modify our light to make the shots we see in our head. This is an intensive workshop and it… -
Portraits: Four Simple Approaches
1 Feb 2012 | 7:47 pmI had the chance to do some portraits of some of the talent we had at the LE Weekend Meetup. They were Briana’s dance company and all of them were delightful and beautiful dancers. The folks who came had a blast and I was simply stunned that so many people came so far to hang out with us. We had photographers from NY / FL / WA / CA / KS / TX and other far flung areas… we covered North America pretty well. More shots from that weekend coming when I get them all in from the folks… wow, it was fun. The first portrait was of Briana and done as a demonstration for one of the…
-
The Imaging Buffet
-
Upcoming Full-Day Fine-Art Printing with Photoshop Workshop in NYC
25 Jan 2012 | 6:32 amHello! This quick note is to let you know that some spaces are still available for my full day color management and fine-art printing workshop being held this Saturday 1/28/2012 at Calumet Photographic in New York City. In addition to a full day of color management and printing information, I will be showing more than 30 different fine-art paper types, as well as some metal prints. The first 12 people to register will also have a print prepped and printed by me on a fine art paper of your choice. Below are two testimonials from recent attendees of the same workshop at Calumet Photo:… -
Happy New Year from Andrew Darlow and ImagingBuffet.com
31 Dec 2011 | 12:40 pmHappy New Year! About this image: While looking through my collection of photos from 2011, I thought that this one would be appropriate. I was in New York City one day and drove by a few carriages parked on the side of the street. After being very impressed by this one in particular, I decided to park for a moment and capture what I saw through my rain-drenched window. I think the photo represents many of my thoughts on 2011: It was a bright and colorful year, with some tears mixed in. Photo © Andrew Darlow 2011 was quite a year. As I look back at 2011, here are a few things that come to… -
Hands on Look at the Canon Idea Mine Free iOS App
2 Dec 2011 | 2:16 pmAt the PhotoPlus Expo 2011 in New York City, I had an opportunity to sit down with Paul Pierson of the Carbone Smolan Agency (CSA) to learn about a new iOS app on which his company is working. It’s called Canon Idea Mine, and according to the company, “it was developed through CSA’s extensive research and interviews with dozens of notable photographers. By working closely with Canon, CSA built a versatile tool that’s fine-tuned to the way real artists create amazing images. Through this app and its Digital Learning Center, Canon is building on its role as a dedicated partner… -
Full-Day Printing w/ Photoshop Workshop 11/5/2011 in NYC
1 Nov 2011 | 8:53 amThis quick post is to let you know that space is still available for my full day color management and fine-art printing workshop being held this Saturday 11/5/2011 at Calumet Photographic in New York City. It’s on the same floor as the exhibition I recently curated by Ron Wyatt, entitled Ron Wyatt’s China. In addition to a full day of color management and printing information, I will be showing more than 30 different fine-art paper types, as well as some metal prints. The first 12 people to register will also have a print prepped and printed by me on a fine art paper of your… -
PhotoPlus Expo NYC 2011 Returns with a Packed Schedule of Events and Seminars
18 Oct 2011 | 5:41 pmFor more than 20 years I’ve looked forward to late October in New York City. Not only is the weather often fantastic, it’s the time of year that the PhotoPlus Expo is held. And this year, they’ve upped the ante by adding a number of new events, including the inaugural WPPI 2011, which features a full day of educational seminars on Wednesday, October 26, 2011. The WPPI NYC show will be followed by the PhotoPlus International Conference + Expo from October 27-29, 2011. This page has an excellent overview of the events, including information about a Wednesday evening…
-
canon « WordPress.com Tag Feed
-
Reflections
8 Feb 2012 | 12:15 pmTook a few hrs out to do some street photography this evening in Manchester, although my little pinkies almost adopted frostbite I managed to sneakily capture this shot whilst having a coffee to warm up the cockles, if you look carefully you might see my ugly mug in the reflection getting the shot! The other shot was a guy I framed in the middle of a THE AVENUE sign (between the T and the H) in Spinningfields, I got a funny look off the geezer to say the least so I just pretended to frame up for another angle!! -
35mm f/1.4 Lens for Canon
8 Feb 2012 | 12:12 pm>> * Optical Construction: 12 elements in 10 groups * Includes removable lens hood, lens caps, lens pouch, instruction manual, and 1 year Rokinon warranty * Aperture range: F/1.4~22 * Filter Size: 77mm * Minimum Focusing Distance: 1 foot (0.3 meters) … -
What Is The Canon And How Was It Put Together?
8 Feb 2012 | 11:52 amThe word canon was first used as a synonym for orthodoxy to describe the doctrines and practices of the early church. As time passed, the word also came to encompass those Scriptures that Christians claimed as approved and normative for the church.[1] Today the word is commonly used to describe those books recognized as divinely inspired and belong in our Bible. Before discussing this process, it should be noted that the church did not determine the cannon. In reality, God determined the canon because He is the one who inspired the Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16). The people of God had… -
Darkside... I've been there
8 Feb 2012 | 11:47 amCanon 300D, Canon 18-55mm lens -
Canon DSLRs & Lenses: Instant Rebates + Free Shipping = Big Savings
8 Feb 2012 | 11:41 amCanon has extended their Instant Rebates on DSLR & Lenses once again and even added a few more lenses to the rebate lineup. If you’re looking into buying a Canon DSLR or lenses, now is the time. Rebate savings are applied instantly when you add any of the the various Canon cameras, glass, and kit combinations below to your shopping cart at Filmtools.com. What’s more, all Canon DSLR cameras and lenses ship anywhere in the U.S. for FREE. Click on any of the products listed below for details. Canon 5D Mark II: Canon EOS 5D Mark II Camera (Body Only): $100 instant…
-
(New!) Canon Photography Group
-
Lover's Escapade
5 Feb 2012 | 12:39 amTo My Streetlife. 2008 Parks and Wildlife. -
S H O P A H O L I C - RUSH SALE: Pre-loved Canon EOS 450D complete with kit lens and accessories 18K.
4 Feb 2012 | 9:58 pm -
Macau Nights...Wynn Hotel
28 Jan 2012 | 7:50 amCANON 40D EFS 18-200 f/3.5-5.6 IS To My Travelogue. 2010 Macau, -
Link to My favorite photo snaps of 2011
27 Jan 2012 | 7:46 amHere is a link on Multiply for my favorite photos that I snapped in 2011. most were taken with my Canon T2i. However, about 5 were taken in early January with my Canon XSi. Enjoy -
The Performer
26 Jan 2012 | 5:45 pm
-
Canon Blogger: Home of the Learning Digital Photography Podcast
-
Radio Station Steals Photos
9 Feb 2012 | 6:38 amWe have two competing country music stations here in Denver: KYGO and the Wolf. A photographer has had exclusive arrangements with the former for a number of years. Apparently, he took some photos at a recent Jason Aldean concert, and KYGO posted them to their website. These photos eventually made it over to the Facebook page for The Wolf. Now the photographer is trying to pursue some measure of justice, and is being met with stiff resistance. The sad thing is that he will unlikely get any justice because even though The Wolf is in the wrong, the cost of hiring a lawyer and delay… -
Wordless Wednesday # 002 – A Dog Lives Here
7 Feb 2012 | 10:30 pm -
The Benefit of Company
5 Feb 2012 | 10:30 pmTracy works with some nice people – we get together every year for a “Super Bowl” gathering. It’s not so much about the Super Bowl (because this year, we frankly had no interest in either participant) as it is about getting together. It’s a set of three couples (two with kids), so six of us gather in the living room and socialize, talk, consume various beverages, and the like.Socializing is a good thing – we are social creatures, and this is even more true with photographers. You need to be able to communicate and engage with others. Even if you are… -
Wordless Wednesday #001
31 Jan 2012 | 10:30 pmWhile the title should be self-explanatory, it unfortunately isn’t for the first ever Wordless Wednesday. Here’s the deal…I am going to start posting an image every Wednesday. The purpose is for you to enjoy the image! I’ve so many images in my library of work thus far that have never made it into sets, portfolio reviews, juried shows, and the like, that it’s simply time to start culling some of them here. What do I want in return? Nothing! Just enjoy the image. If one speaks to you in particular, feel free to share your own emotions, thoughts,… -
My Conversation with Joe Farace…
30 Jan 2012 | 10:30 pmThe first podcast of 2012 is now ready for your listening pleasure! I had the distinct honor of talking with long time photographer and author Joe Farace! A contributing writer for Shutterbug Magazine, and author of several blogs, it was a great way to kick off the new year! We had a great chat for about 45 minutes (on the record anyway)…and talked about everything from posing models, to lighting them, as well as some travel photography…heck, we even talked cars for a bit too!Thanks to Joe for taking the time to talk too – here’s his info and the show notes: Joe…
