Please join me tomorrow, Thursday Nov. 19, on a webinar about using proper business planning techniques to actually build your business, not just your business plan. That’s happening online for an hour beginning at 11 a.m. PST, which is 2 pm EST and 1 pm CST. You can click here to register, or click the button below.
Selected by eztephen
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Entrepreneur: Up and Running
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Build Your Business Webinar Thursday Nov. 19
18 Nov 2009 | 7:16 am -
Startup Financing with a Twist: Share Your Future
17 Nov 2009 | 9:10 amHere’s a nice reminder: What Seth Godin is recommending in his blog post today, as alternative financing for a small business, is what we actually did. And it worked for us. Seth’s post is called Debt, equity and a third thing that might work better. It works like this: You have an idea, a fledgling business or a new market to enter. You find an amateur investor (a wealthy dentist, a retired executive) and raise the money to bring it to market. And in return? The investor gets $xx for every unit you sell. From the first one until forever. This is instead of the classic either-or:… -
Do You Have 7 Minutes for Sticky Ideas?
16 Nov 2009 | 6:07 amMade to Stick, by Chip and Dan Heath, is one of the most interesting and useful books I’ve read in the last two years. It’s about how we use, lose, push, and forget ideas, stories, news leads and such. In short, how we make ideas stick. I was browsing the Web over the weekend and found this very good six-minute talk by co-author Chip Heath. It’s a good summary of an important book. If you can’t see that here, you can click here to go to the original on YouTube. -
Do You Really Want That MBA Degree?
13 Nov 2009 | 6:19 amI received an intriguing e-mail today, well-written and thoughtful, from someone considering going for an MBA degree and asking my advice about it. Here’s a portion of it (quoted exactly): I’ve been thinking about developing some actual products for sale; but basically I have about a million ideas and as I trudge forth, I am realizing how little experience I really have when it comes to the nitty gritty. Things like accessing risk, being a better sales person, managing and dealing with potential employees, it’s all new to me. And the more I read about it and learn about… -
Paul Graham on What Startups Are Really Like
12 Nov 2009 | 6:09 amIf you’re serious about starting a business, take a few minutes and read Paul Graham’s Web essay “What Startups Are Really Like.” Graham’s essay collection site is a valuable resource. He tends to post essays–a lot longer, and usually a lot more thoughtful, than a standard blog post–about once a month or so. He has a large following for good reason. The “What Startups Are Really Like” essay includes 19 points and a conclusion, so it’s more like a 10-minute than a two-minute read, but there’s a lot of real content there. Not…
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YoungEntrepreneur.com
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What is your favorite WordPress Theme and why? – Entrepreneur Poll Results
19 Nov 2009 | 9:05 pmOver the last few weeks we have been asking you “What is your favorite WordPress Theme and why?” Thanks to everyone who entered this months poll, the overall winning theme for design flexibility and versatility was Thesis 1.6 Your next top 3 favorite themes were: Interphase at Elegant Themes The Lifestyle theme from studiopress! The Wordpress Journalist theme by kalphegor Here are the Young Entrepreneur top 5 online resources for fantastic WordPress templates: Best Wordpress Themes WordPress users have thousands of themes to choose from. They hunt out the best of the best free and premium… -
6 Steps to Capture Reviews After Purchase
18 Nov 2009 | 9:09 pmSocial proof is ever so important for e-commerce retailers, as a “feel-good” barrier stands tall between your site and the folks at the other end of the keyboard. Your offer may look tempting and you may have designed your site perfectly well, with a logical progression, your calls to action and your friendly checkout process. First-time buyers still face an urge to find out a little more, so that they feel they are doing the right thing and discover if others have found success. Incorporating testimonials and reviews within your site makes a great deal of sense. You should try and… -
Interview with Sanjay Sabnani
17 Nov 2009 | 9:06 pmThis week I was lucky enough to interview Sanjay Sabnani. Sanjay is the CEO of CrowdGather. He has been an active proponent of message boards since 2002, when he acquired General Mayhem, his first message board community. Adam: How did you first come up with the idea for CrowdGather and what made you believe this idea would make a great business? Sanjay: CrowdGather came from my frustrations first as a forum member and then as a forum owner. I felt that forums and message boards had been ignored by technologists and investors alike, despite the fact that they are the largest repositories of… -
Profile on Chad Hurley
16 Nov 2009 | 9:05 pm“It’s about creating new market opportunities. Giving users new ways to be creative…We see our technology as a platform for other things” – Chad Hurley. Like many other concepts that we now take for granted as part of our everyday lives, YouTube developed from a fragmented series of ideas and became the product of its own popularity. Rather than representing the result of a well thought out business plan, or a journey through the helping hands of various angel investors, the explosion of the ultimate concept propelled YouTube from an unknown to a household name in very short… -
How to Find a Great Business Partner
15 Nov 2009 | 9:05 pmEvery new business goes through phases, some representing expansion (hopefully, often) and some contraction and as these phases unfold your business can fluctuate in size and require different resources. Sometimes, the business will get to a certain plateau and seem to stick, almost spinning its wheels despite your efforts. At this point in time you will want to consider all your options and may feel that a business partner could really help to un-glue the potential and allow you to make significant forward strides. Finding a business partner can be quite a difficult task and is much more…
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Digital Photography School
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This Week in the Digital Photography School Forums (15-21 Nov ‘09)
21 Nov 2009 | 8:04 amIn case you hadn’t heard, one of our forum admins is a new dad! Congrats Sime, Mum and Baby. Weekly Assignment Things got noisy for this week’s assignment which was Sound / Noise. We had a real variety of shots, but what made us pick the ones we did was most often because of the way that it really showed off sounds and the impact of those sounds. Our winner this week was rt80639’s “Colour of Sound” this was an excellent example of how the sound from speakers can be used creatively. While you might not be able to “hear” the sound in this one, it… -
PORTRAITS: Weekend Photography Challenge
20 Nov 2009 | 5:37 pmImage by JOHN CORVERA This weekend your photographic challenge is to take and share a portrait. Early next week we’ll be launching our first ever e-book here at DPS – ‘The Essential Guide to Portrait Photography’ and in anticipation of the launch and to get a little practice in – I thought it’d be fun to set the challenge to take a portrait over the weekend. If you’ve not participated in our weekend challenges before – they’re pretty simple. You can see the last three weekends results in our Kitchens, Pets and Environment challenges. The… -
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35 – Review
20 Nov 2009 | 12:07 pmI sometimes hear from people who’ve newly acquired a digital SLR, saying they find it a hassle to continually change lenses when shooting a wide variety of subjects. Frankly, it goes with ‘SLR-territory’ (digital and film) and is the price you pay to enjoy the improved image of an interchangeable lens, reflex camera. In reality, unless you’re very demanding and continually shoot magazine quality pictures, most times you’re better off with a fixed lens digicam with an extended zoom range … like this one. Panasonic has not indulged in a longish zoom camera before, unlike Canon,… -
High Key Studio – What I Use and Why
20 Nov 2009 | 6:01 amIf you follow my posts, you’ll know that I have a studio. At the moment, I mostly do high-key sessions with children. High-key is something that many photographers try to imitate and sometimes fail miserably simply because of a lack of understanding about light (and I only know this because I am one of those people!) Out of necessity, my photographic evolution has been a fast one and I laugh to think that only a few short months ago, I was in torrents of frustration and tears because I just couldn’t manage to take photos like the ones I was seeing from amazing studios such as… -
10 Rules for Editing Digital Images
19 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pmDuring the week one of our readers – wedding photographer Martin Whitton – shot me a list of his ‘10 rules for editing digital images’. I thought I’d share them today as a discussion starter for readers. Martin comments that ‘these ideas may seem a little elementary, but sticking to the basics keeps our editing focused, maintains consistency from image to image and keeps our clients happy’. Tone of space (a room, for example) should be balanced and neutral, with no overall bias; Blacks (like tuxes) should be black; Whites (like wedding gowns) should…
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Strobist
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New Chinese TTL Remotes Surfacing for Nikon and Canon
20 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pmInfo is sketchy at this point. But the Strobist Flickr group is pretty much at DEFCON 1, of course. On a discussion thread, Flickr user "Cotswald," who is apparently involved with the company, says:• We WILL be selling these in Europe. I won't discuss exact prices, but will say that prices will be lower than those quoted above. (DH note: Less than $200/ set + shipping.) • The PC socket is screwlock. • They do support i-TTL, TTL and Manual. • As said above, the Canon version will ship in the New Year, or just before XMAS. • I am just checking trigger voltage safe… -
Living the High Life in San Miguel
18 Nov 2009 | 10:41 pmLast week I was in San Miguel de Allende, which sits at over 6,000 feet of elevation in the central Mexican highlands. (Town motto: Meh, oxygen is overrated…)There for a Santa Fe Workshops lighting gig with Rosi, Beth, Françoise, Sara and two Peters, we threw ourselves into a week-long intensive on small flashes, eating well and (me) mostly being out of breath. They worked their butts off, and went from lighting each other very tentatively in the beginning to working completely on their own by the end of the week. Start the week strong, and finish it soaking up rays in the courtyard while… -
Choosing Big Lights: Elinchrom
15 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pmUPDATE: As I suspected would happen, there is some really good info already developing in the comments from Elinchrom owners. If you are reading email or RSS versions, be sure to check it out. And FWIW, I expect this ongoing comment discussion will be the best part of the post.__________One of my main considerations when shopping for more watt-seconds was to be able to work independent of AC power. In this respect, Elinchrom gets strong consideration in the form of their two battery powered platforms, the Ranger RX and the new Ranger Quadra. A look at a very powerful battery flash, and it's… -
Beers With: Vermeer
11 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pmWith apologies to every art student and teacher, ever, today marks the second in an occasional series of chats with Old Masters.These guys were the original connoisseurs of light, and that is the framework under which we interview them -- as photographers. Turns out, they've been ripped off by photographers so many times at this point that they are actually cool with it. Which, by the way, is why the Old Masters merit your study. At least to the point of trying to stay awake during that early morning humanities class.They are, of course, very difficult to pin down for a chat -- what with… -
Hey, Your Flash is Hawt …
10 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pmNo, not as in the vapid, Paris Hilton sense. But rather the laws-of-thermodynamics sense.Made-for-photography gels are meant to be used near theatrical light sources. So they can handle the heat. But even still, the front lens of your flash can get very hot with repeated cycling -- especially at higher power settings.Don't believe me? Try this little trick: Hold a piece of printer paper right next to the front of your flash and set off just one, full-power pop. Now smell the paper. That would be a burning smell. From just one pop.Be CoolWhen you gel, leave a little space between the flash and…
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Learn SLR
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Chuck Westfall Tech Tips November 09
11 Nov 2009 | 10:47 amChuck Westfall’s monthly Tech Tips column has been released for the month of November 09 http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0911/tech-tips.html This month focuses on Canon 7D, 5D, and flash synch speeds. -
Canon 5D Mark II for $2,399
27 Oct 2009 | 11:33 amCanon 5D II refurb for $2,399 a great deal Canon 5D Mark II @ adorama -
Canon T1i for $599 @ Adorama
27 Oct 2009 | 11:07 amGreat Deal on Refurbished (with warranty) Canon T1i at Adorama for only $599 -
Canon Fall Rebates on Lenses
26 Oct 2009 | 7:47 amCanon has introduced the semi-annual fall rebate on their lenses and flashes: EF 200 F/2L $500 EF 70-200 F/2.8L IS $150 EF 85 F/1.2 L II $130 EF 16-35mm F/2.8 L $100 EF 70-200 F/2.8L $80 EF 24-70 F/2.8L $80 EF 70-200 F/4L IS $75 Ef-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS $70 EF-S 10-22 F/3.5-4.5 $50 EF 17-40 f/4 L $50 EF 70-200mm F/4L $40 EF-S 60 f/2.8 Macro $30 Speedlite 580ex II $50 Speedlite 430ex II $30 Speelite 270ex $20 -
Free Adobe Lightroom 3….
24 Oct 2009 | 6:25 pmAdobe is allowing eager lightroom testers a chance to beta test the upcoming version 3 of Adobe lightroom. Visit http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom3/ to download and test out the latest version of lightroom for free. This version of the product is usable until April 2010!
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Photoshop Daily
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Leaf desktop
21 Nov 2009 | 4:05 amYou may have gathered by now that we are in a bit of a desktop groove… who knows why these things happen?! So we have decided to embrace our obvious desktop moment and will be bringing you a new design every day for the next few days. Today’s offering is a mean and moody autumn leaf. Click the size you want from the thumbnails below and please remember that these are for personal use only and cannot be distributed without our permission. -
Butterfly desktop
20 Nov 2009 | 7:00 amFly like a butterfly… we hope you enjoy this flighty desktop of a colourful butterfly given a Photoshop pastel brush treatment. Click a thumbnail below to access the size desktop you want. Please remember that these are for personal use only and cannot be distributed without our permission. -
Podcast: Interview with Daria Jabenko
20 Nov 2009 | 4:03 amListen to the Photoshop Creative podcast with top illustrator Daria Jabenko to become inspired by her own working methods in Photoshop. Daria describes to us that being a spiritual person helps her to focus and create new ideas, letting her hand guide the way with her pen tablet. To see Daria’s work in print grab a copy of issue 55. Check out her website. Click here to listen to the interview. -
Divider scrapbook pack 1
20 Nov 2009 | 4:00 amHere is the first installment of our divider scrapbook pack. These make excellent backgrounds for your photos and other embellishments, or why not try some of our past freebies? The coffee stain brushes would be good to dab around, as would any of the pencil scribble ones. Part two will be posted on Monday but for now you can download these high res files using the link below. Please note that these are for personal use only and cannot be distributed without our permission. Click here for the dividers! -
Van Gogh desktop
19 Nov 2009 | 10:04 amThis image was created all the way back in issue 1 of Photoshop Creative by Hannah Gal. It showed how to use Photoshop’s brushes to mimic the master’s style. Note how photos have been used in the bottom right to add a bit of realism. Please click one of the thumbnails below to access the size you need. These images are for personal use only and cannot be distributed without our permission.
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Photoshop for Digital Photographers
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Creating the Apple Reflective Look
19 Nov 2009 | 1:25 amHere's a nice way to give your images a reflective look, similar to the one that was made popular by Apple. -
Adding A Touch of Color To Your Images
12 Nov 2009 | 3:57 amHere is a simple yet effective way to add a touch of color to your images. -
Fixing Wide Angle Lens Problems in Photoshop
5 Nov 2009 | 3:44 amMost wide angle lenses are subject to keystoning, vertical and horizontal alignment issues, and vignette problems. Watch this tutorial to see how to correct these problems in Photoshop. -
Soft Proofing Your Images
29 Oct 2009 | 4:08 amDo you want to get more accurate prints? Learn about soft proofing in Photoshop. -
Fixing The Cloudy Day Blues
22 Oct 2009 | 6:12 amWant to replace a cloudy sky in your image? Here's a real simple technique on how to replace the sky in an image.
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Photoshop Insider Blog By Scott Kelby
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Special “This Weekend Only” Deal on OnOne Software’s Photoshop Plug-in Suite 5
19 Nov 2009 | 10:38 pmHey gang—the huge success of last week’s MPIX.com deal really paid off, and we’ve been in contact with a number of companies who are willing to give you guys a “This Weekend Only” special discount. This week, the fine folks over at OnOne Software are offering readers of my blog $200 off their new “Plug-In Suite 5″ which includes the most recent versions of their award-winning Photoshop Plug-ins: Genuine Fractals for resizing Mask Pro for removing unwanted backgrounds PhotoTune for color correction FocalPoint for selective focus PhotoTools and… -
Thursday News Stuff
18 Nov 2009 | 10:41 pmHowdy folks. First a quick thanks to photographer Bruce DeBoer for his inspiring Guest Blog post yesterday here on the blog. Very cool stuff! Now, onto the news! Nikon releases FREE “Learn & Explore” iPhone App This one slipped by me, but luckily John “The Snake” Barrett dropped me a line to let me know that Nikon has released a FREE iPhone App called “Learn & Explore,” which not only has tips for using your Nikon camera, but it also has access to back issues of “Nikon World Magazine” (John let me know that the issue I’m in is… -
Breaking News: My New Photoshop Elements 8 Book is in Bookstores!
18 Nov 2009 | 10:32 pmJust a quick heads up; My Photoshop Elements 8 book for Digital Photographers (which I co-authored with Matt Kloskowski), is now in bookstores (just in time for the holidays). Anyway, you can pick up your copy at Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, Borders, or wherever really great books that come out just in time to make a perfect Holiday gift are sold. -
It’s “Guest Blog Wednesday” featuring Bruce DeBoer!
18 Nov 2009 | 4:51 amLooking at photography is one of my favorite pass-times. It’s awesome how the great photographers can make me actually feel the moment of capture. I enjoy the greatness of their talent. What a trap. As if photography wasn’t full time enough, lately I’ve been charging head down in an ancillary effort to learn what drives people to create. Research, writing, listening and conducting interviews across all disciplines while dissecting my own work. Most photographers I know can recall nearly every click of the shutter, and those book-worthy gems capture more than just a replica of the… -
Catch our “Adobe Creative Suite Unleashed” Tour This Friday in San Diego
17 Nov 2009 | 6:18 pmIf you’re in the San Diego area, Dave Cross and RC Concepcion, are coming to San Diego this Friday with our Adobe CS4 Creative Suite Unleashed Tour, and then onto Boston on December 1st. If you haven’t had a chance to catch this special Adobe-sponsored tour, you don’t want to miss it, as they cover everything from Illustrator to InDesign, from Photoshop to Flash, and how it all works together. This special tour is only $49 (or just $39 for NAPP members), and you can get all the details, or sign up, right here. Hope we’ll see you San Diego on Friday, or in Boston in…
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Holy Kaw!
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How to save time
21 Nov 2009 | 9:25 amHere’s a great tool: Sue Shellenbarger, over at the Wall Street Journal, has test drove three time management tools for us, so we don’t have to try them ourselves. Talk about time saving. The three tested methods are: • Getting things done. • The Pomodoro Technique. • Franklin Convey’s Focus. Read the article to see what she found. We’ve got lots more ways to get things done and hack your life, too. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
How to re-imagine the color of your room with no paint
21 Nov 2009 | 9:14 amWant to see what your room would look like with different paint? Check out colorjive.com, a really cool site that takes your pictures and changes the colors of the walls in just a few easy steps. It's fun! And it could save a lot of fails. More cool design sites. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Common mistakes in social media and other insights on impact
21 Nov 2009 | 9:03 amOver on SmartBlog, Mary Ellen Slayter interviews Olivier Blanchard (above), a seasoned brand strategist at BrandBuilder Marketing. Blanchard delves into his perspective on how businesses can maximize their return on social media. He shares, for instance, three common mistakes companies make when trying to measure the value of social media: Focusing too much on digital measurement. Not understanding the difference between nonfinancial impact and financial impact. Not establishing clear goals and objectives when launching a social media program. How can you avoid this fate, and what other… -
A geography of BBQ
21 Nov 2009 | 8:38 amAs a newcomer to DC, people keep telling me that my BBQ education is about to begin. Though complete strangers and close roommates have preached the glories of BBQ, this article is the clearest introduction to the sauce I’ve seen yet. Did you know there are at least four kinds of sauce? Kansas City Style Sauce Texas Style Sauce North Carolina Style Sauce South Carolina Style Sauce Check out the article to see just how each of them differ. Hungry for more? There’s much more about food and recipes. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
France vs. Ireland controversial goal video
20 Nov 2009 | 10:58 pmIn case you haven’t seen the controversial goal in the France versus Ireland game, here you go. Total coverage of soccer. Permalink | Leave a comment »
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Canon Rumors
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Odds & Ends
19 Nov 2009 | 6:56 pmCamera RAW 5.6 Beta vs Camera Raw 5.5 Photoframd has posted some comparison images of various RAW converters for the EOS 7D files. http://blog.photoframd.com/…. “The First” Feature Length Film…. "Everyone's a critic!" …. made using the 7D http://www.theaspectratio.net/…. Disclaimer: I do not fact check “The first” claims. Darwin Wigget’s 7D Review… the counterpoint Pro Photo Home has posted a retort to the claims made by Darwin Wigget and his review of the 7D. Pro Photo Home seems to be doing tests at f/5.6 & f/16. -
Camera Raw 5.6 Hits
18 Nov 2009 | 7:04 pmFrom Adobe Newly supported camera models include: * Canon EOS 7D * Canon PowerShot G11 * Canon PowerShot S90 * Leaf Aptus II 5 * Mamiya DM22, DM28, DM33, DM56, M18, M22, M31 * Nikon D3s * Olympus E-P2 * Pentax K-x * Panasonic FZ38 * Sigma DP1s * Sony A500 * Sony A550 * Sony A850 Camera Raw 5.6 also provides a a fix for an issue affecting PowerPC customers using the final Camera Raw 5.5 and DNG Converter 5.5 updates on the Mac. The issue, introduced in the demosaic change to address sensors with unequal green response, has the potential to create artifacts in highlight areas when processing… -
EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro Discontinued?
18 Nov 2009 | 3:53 pmI was hoping not I received word from a few folks that the EF 100 f/2.8 Macro has been discontinued. The lens currently still appears in Canon Canada’s price lists as well as Canon USA’s. The manufacturing of the lens may have stopped. I hope this lens isn’t gone, there’s a big difference between $650CAD and $1300CAD for a 100mm Macro. I own the aformentioned lens, and I have no plans to upgrade. I’ll look for something definitive. cr -
January 2010 [CR1]
17 Nov 2009 | 10:36 amAll that’s needed is a spark sometimes I received an email in response to the report the November 24, 2009 announcement day had been pushed back until January. “Yes, it has been delayed until January now, this is the second time this has happened although this time not due to a technical issues but more marketing. If everything goes to plan (which hardly happens to be honest), January will be a killer month for announcements: 1Ds Mark IV together with the new duo of high end lenses. The 70-200 2.8 IS II and of course the 24-70 II IS.” CR’s Take The lenses I’m not… -
Nothing to speak of
17 Nov 2009 | 9:29 amSlow There’s nothing going on in Canon land at the moment. I’m digging up nothing. 70-200 2.8L IS II I did received an email claiming the 24th of November WAS correct but an announcement has been delayed until January. A couple of stores in Canada I spoke to that had long backorders on 70-200 f/2.8L IS say they finally got a couple of lenses. This also happened to them shortly before Nikon announced their replacement. Bored? Howabout a 3D Rumor? “According to my friend after canons “disappointment” with the 7D they will be releasing a full frame version in…
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Canon Blogger: Home of the Learning Digital Photography Podcast
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Ten for 25!
20 Nov 2009 | 2:00 amIn keeping with the impending Giftmas (yes, I am spelling that right, and thanks to Yankeefoxtrot on Twitter for the name), and hopefully in time for your holiday shopping, I have assembled a cornucopia of items to share with you either as the photographer, or as the one with a photographer in the family. The best thing about this list though – all the items are $25 or less. After all, the economy is tight – we all know it and everyone is cutting back, but there’s no reason to feel denied simply because photography is known as an expensive hobby! This way,… -
DALPUG
18 Nov 2009 | 11:12 amDenver Adobe Lightroom & Photoshop Users Group No, this isn’t spam, the blog has not been hacked, and I am not speaking in tongues here. DALPUG refers to the Denver Adobe Lightroom & Photoshop Users Group. Started relatively recently by a guy I know named Brian Reyman, it’s a great local resource for photographers to not only learn from one another, but also to network and get an opportunity to see some of the latest developments in the industry. I had a chance to attend the meeting last night, and the mini-workshop that Brian ran on plugins included quick looks at… -
Software Review: Apple iPhoto
17 Nov 2009 | 2:00 amAs much as we glow and sing the praises of Photoshop and Lightroom, native photo editors that are included in Operating Systems are often overlooked as alternatives for photo editing and management. This is primarily because… well, let’s face it, because they are not very good at photo editing…or management. But think about what we are comparing them to…comparing Windows Picture and Fax viewer to Photoshop Lightroom? Is that really fair? What about comparing Photoshop Creative Suite 4 to iPhoto? Is that a good apples to apples comparison? If you think… -
Hardware Review: Western Digital Passport Drive
16 Nov 2009 | 2:00 amFor those of you on Twitter (and following me), you know that over the weekend, my iPhoto library on the Mac was either corrupted, or somehow compromised in its integrity, because when I went to add in a few snapshots to it for sharing with the Twitter-verse, it crashed on me. Believe it or not, I was not worried, because I had a back-up copy of all my snapshots on my Western Digital Hard Drive. I blogged about this puppy before, in showing you how to add a second drive to your laptop in 10 easy steps. Western Digital Passport Drive Well, not only is the second hard drive a great way to… -
Freaky Friday Follow-up
14 Nov 2009 | 3:22 pmAfter a freaky Friday yesterday filled with podcast-associated technical difficulties including broken URL’s, missing media, and quieter than normal audio, the idea of writing a blog post for the day completely slipped my mind. So, the awaited hardware review for the week got pushed back a little, as well as the announcement of the winner of the Scott Kelby Digital Photography book, volume 3! The former is a little to late to push out on a Saturday, but the latter is accomplished easily enough, so I turned to my trusty Random Number Generator website (which I learned about from…
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Photopreneur - Make Money Selling Your Photos
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Sales Outlets for Nature Photographers
18 Nov 2009 | 7:42 amPhotography: olivetti Nature has to be among the most popular of subjects for photography enthusiasts. Unlike a model, a tree on a hill doesn’t complain about the cold, a sunset will arrive exactly when you expect it to and you often need to do little more than point and shoot to capture all the beauty you can see. You don’t even have to go looking for it. A photogenic scene can strike you on the way home on the daily commute or during a stroll on a Sunday afternoon. That’s why the keenest photographers carry a camera with them wherever they go. It takes something special to create… -
Microstock Photographer Lands Book Cover for $3.82
10 Nov 2009 | 7:49 amFor most photographers, seeing their photo on the cover of a book should be a highlight of their career. It’s the cover that does the selling so when a publisher decides that their image is powerful enough to attract attention and pull in buyers, it’s a sure sign that they’ve take a great photo. They’ll be able to see their picture on the shelf every time they walk into a bookstore, enjoy the feeling that customers are placing it on their own bookshelves… and the remuneration should be nice too. It doesn’t always work out that way though. Now that images are available on… -
Creative Ideas for Photography Books
3 Nov 2009 | 11:04 amPhotography: chotda The photography books that line the shelves in bookstores and fill your Amazon wish list might all contain wonderful images and beautiful pictures but they also tend to follow a format. The photos focus on a theme, are accompanied by short passages of text, and each photo both stands alone and contributes to an overall impression of the book’s subject. When you’re looking to create your own photo book, those bestsellers always provide good models to follow. Stray out of the photography section though and you can find plenty of other books that are strong on… -
Pitching Your Photos to Foreign Markets
22 Oct 2009 | 5:22 amPhotography: toastyKen One of the biggest changes to hit the business world — including the photography world — during the last few years has been globalization. When you can pay someone on the other side of the planet half the fees charged by a local service provider and receive the same quality, the difference in time zones doesn’t look too awkward. For photographers, it’s created real challenges — and real opportunities too. Now that any photographer anywhere can offer their photos to any buyer, competition has multiplied. Reuters, for example, prides itself not on its ability to… -
Selling Your Old Photos
13 Oct 2009 | 1:19 pmPhotography: Courtesy fotoLibra Building a portfolio of images is a little like creating an investment portfolio. It’s an asset that should continue to bring in revenue on a consistent basis throughout the life of the photographer. For top photographers that’s certainly true. Annie Leibovitz was able to borrow $15.5 million using her images as collateral in part because lenders the Art Capital Group recognized that her work would remain valuable enough to cover the loan. For more typical professionals, creating a stock portfolio is often an investment too, largely because it takes time…
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stuckincustoms.com
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The Forgotten (Yes you can do HDR Black and White!)
20 Nov 2009 | 11:26 pmTinychat Video Interview Yesterday, we did a little video interview with @Peachpit, the book publisher. It went pretty well, except for the Porn Spam. But…. that drifts away after a few minutes. Special thanks to Pat O’Brien who uploaded a recording here. Daily Photo – The Forgotten This was brought up in the chat session yesterday — Black and White HDRs! Yes, they are possible, and they are a lot of fun! I don’t do it that much because I am so in love with vibrant colors.. but sometimes, on a lark, I’ll do it. The one below, of a forgotten temple in… -
The Timeless Tomb — and the book launch parties announced
19 Nov 2009 | 9:01 pmBook Parties Announced! More details to come soon, but save the dates and come RSVP on Facebook! I’ll be signing books, meeting you, and hanging out. I hope you can make it! Don’t worry about coming alone… you’ll make friends with the nice people there soon enough! New York City – Dec 14th – Secret Location in Manhattan to be announced – Visit Facebook Event Page and say “Attending” or “Maybe”! Austin – Dec 9th – The Driskill Hotel – includes Photowalk and $500 prize! – Visit Facebook Event Page and say… -
And then I hiked through the Autumn Trees to find the Glacier
18 Nov 2009 | 10:16 pmLive Video Chat Thursday Evening in the USA The video chat is tonight, Nov 19th! Come join us at tinychat.com/stuckincustoms. Everything begins officially at 7 PM CST (5 PM PST). I know we have people joining from ALL over the world. Sorry I don’t have local times for everyone, but I know people around here are smart enough to do the addition in their heads, I hope! I’ll start it out with a little announcement that should be fun for everyone! The Newsletter is Off We sent off the free Newsletter yesterday. I notice that one of the previous newsletters was opened by over 200% of… -
Trees and an Aircraft Carrier in the Fog
17 Nov 2009 | 9:01 pmLive Video Chat Thursday Evening in the USA The video chat for the pre-release of the book will be up at tinychat.com/stuckincustoms. Actually, it’s up now, but I won’t be broadcasting video until the event starts at 7 PM CST on Nov 19th. Come back then and join in! Topaz Adjust and Noiseware It’s been a while since I mentioned these great products! I used both of them in the image below; the former was for sharpening and the latter was for noise reduction. I also used Noiseware on the Tokyo photo from yesterday. To find out more and get coupon codes, check out the Topaz… -
Zipping Through Tokyo, and a Live Video Chat with you on Thursday!
16 Nov 2009 | 9:01 pmLive Video Chat on Thursday! This Thursday, November 19th, at 7 PM CST (5 PM PST), I’ll be hosting a live video chat here on the site! I’ll also be making a special announcement at the beginning of the chat. You don’t need anything special, just come to that page! You’ll see my live video mugshot along with Sara Jane Todd from Peachpit. There is a chat window where you all can ask questions, and Sara Jane will pull random ones and ask me… I’ll answer to the best of my ability! This is all QUITE experimental, so I hope you come along to join us! And please,…
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Entrepreneur Magazine
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Gear Up for the Holidays--and Beyond
19 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmWhy your "crunch-time" skills should become business as usual -
Take Your Message to the Monitors
19 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmVideo marketing can engage your online customers on a whole new level. -
The Basics of Starting a Home-Based Business
18 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmEverything you need to live, work and outsource from your couch -
Leverage Your Inner Lemon
18 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmUse 'Brand Judo' to flip negative perceptions into memorable campaigns. -
Dress Up Your Online Store for the Holidays
17 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmThese tips will give your customers--and your business--plenty of reasons to celebrate the season.
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Fast Company Feature Articles
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The 12 Best and Worst Digital Characters
20 Nov 2009 | 4:15 pm -
What Do Presidential Libraries Say About Their Namesakes' Legacies?
20 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmPart of the point of a presidential library is that it's a monument to a leader's legacy--his style, his enduring affect on the world, even his reading habits...or lack thereof. Speaking of which, Laura Bush unveiled the design for her husband's book joint this week, and the ultra-traditional structure that nods to Washington but bows to the rest of Southern Methodist University's campus isn't winning any points with architecture critics. But how does W's design stack up against his predecessors? We checked out the libraries of fellow recent commanders-in-chief completed in the last three… -
Drive a Mercedes with Your iPhone and Nine Other Mind-Blowing Stories This Week on Fast Company
20 Nov 2009 | 3:45 pmMind-blowing phrase of the week: "interferometric modulation," which can be loosely translated as "Oh my God! Qualcomm’s Mirasol e-reader has color video!" Mercedes Benz unveiled an app that lets you control your car with the iPhone. But Intel one-ups the luxe car maker with an implantable chip that lets you control your computer using only your thoughts.Round two of the juice-packaging cage match started late last year with Pepsi’s Tropicana fiasco, and this week Coke’s Minute Maid unveiled a juicy new look (courtesy of Master of Design cover boy David Butler). Los Angeles took home… -
ComScore's New Study Finds Dope on "Movie Junkies"
20 Nov 2009 | 3:30 pmResearch group comScore released its study on "movie junkies" yesterday that surveyed the behavior of 500,000 moviegoers who bought tickets online in September 2009. Some of the highlights: Fandango rules the market. Over $31 million is spent each month buying online movie tickets, with 81% of those tickets purchased at Fandago.com. Females 25-54 are heavy online ticket buyers. Women are actually more likely to make decisions about movie night than men: movie ticket purchasers are 39% more likely to be female. Maybe men would rather watch at home? DVD sales were an equal split between the… -
Can Chegg Beat the Kindle at the Textbook Game?
20 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pmThe Kindle may be the king of e-readers, but it has a long way to go before being accepted as an acceptable replacement for textbooks. When Amazon's device was introduced at Princeton for classroom assignments recently, it received mostly negative reviews. Now the Kindle's budding classroom legacy is being challenged by Chegg, an online textbook rental service that just raised a whopping $112 million in a round led by Insight Venture Partners. Chegg deals in good old-fashioned print books, but saves paper by letting students rent textbooks in a Netflix-like model. The company, founded in…
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crowdSPRING Blog
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SMALL BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT OF THE WEEK
20 Nov 2009 | 8:14 amHarmonic Jazz Festival You’re going to want to break out your Jazz Hands when you hear about this exciting new festival coming to the UK! Harmonic is a new jazz festival will be taking place March 11th - 13th 2010 in Birmingham, UK. So if you’re in the area or want to make the trip out for it email info@harmonicfestival.co.uk to receive updates. Our intern, Laura, was so excited about this project on our site that she started reading all the info in a British accent. Chris Mapp, the founder of this festival, asked our fearless crowdSPRING designers to design the logo for this… -
The Ten Step Social Media Marketing Checklist
19 Nov 2009 | 9:02 pmA few days ago, I was interviewed by Phil Dobbie from bnet Australia about social media marketing. The 17 minute interview is below. Among other things, we talked about how to get the best from Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, LinkedIn, commenting, mobile social networks, monitoring, multimedia, brand management, and leveraging combinations of social media tools. -
BE A WINNER
19 Nov 2009 | 12:54 pmDon’t you want to be a winner? I knew our creatives and buyers were a group of phenomenally humble people, who are on our site because they truly love us, but now it’s time for us to show YOU the love! Let us know what you and/or your friends, buyers, clients, designers have done for you this year through our site. How are you going to do that? By nominating your favorite buyer and/or creative for a SPRINGY AWARD! (PS you can totally nominate yourself too and we promise we won’t tell.) crowdSPRING will be selecting the Most Winningest Designer or the Year and the Community Awards, but… -
crowdSPRING Celebrates Shakespearean Sonnet Day (Again)
19 Nov 2009 | 11:02 amSadly, our last Shakespearean sonnet day was this past May. If you’re wondering what Shakespearean sonnet day is - we made it up. We read Shakespearean sonnets to celebrate … ummm … Shakespearean sonnets. In May, Kevin handily defeated all challengers and he’s been boasting about his prowess nonstop for months. Jeff Clark, our newest employee (designer/front end developer), not impressed at all by Kevin’s tattoos and fancy Elton John glasses, very simply said: I challenge thee to a duel! Their video duel is below. YOU are the judge. Who wins this one? Leave a… -
Twitter Link Roundup #21 - Design, Small Business, Social Media And More
18 Nov 2009 | 9:54 pmEvery 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 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! 10 Ways for Designers to Boost Productivity - http://bit.ly/3LkRR2 The Best Photoshop Tutorials of 2009 - http://bit.ly/1PfyI6 Three Big Mistakes that Can Make or Break Your Design Career -http://bit.ly/2ltVNR 8 Layout Solutions To Improve Your Designs…
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Word of Mouth Marketing
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How Coca-Cola empowers fans all over the world — live with Adam Brown
20 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pmWe’re bringing together an all-star group of word of mouth marketers for Word of Mouth Supergenius: The “How to be Great at Word of Mouth Marketing” Conference on December 16 in Chicago. We’ll feature 12 how-to classes, 12 real-world case studies, and 6 brilliant authors. You’re going to learn practical, hands-on techniques to get people talking about you the next day. Our lineup of speakers includes word of mouth supergenius and Coca-Cola Group Director, Digital Communications, Adam Brown. Here Adam shares a few tips based on the case study he’ll be presenting:… -
Microtesting: Sell it before you build it
20 Nov 2009 | 6:00 amBefore you build a product, test it by offering it for sale on your website. If no one responds, you’ve just saved tons of time and money. If the responses include suggestions, you’ve just improved the product before you even started. If people give you money — bingo! This sort of testing is faster, cheaper, and more informative than any generic study or focus group. From Inc. Magazine: Consider the method used by TPGTEX Label Solutions, a Houston-based software company that specializes in bar codes and labels for manufacturers and chemical companies. Like many companies,… -
How Starbucks used fan feedback to help launch VIA — live with Matthew Guiste
19 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pmWe’re bringing together an all-star group of word of mouth marketers for Word of Mouth Supergenius: The “How to be Great at Word of Mouth Marketing” Conference on December 16 in Chicago. We’ll feature 12 how-to classes, 12 real-world case studies, and 6 brilliant authors. You’re going to learn practical, hands-on techniques to get people talking about you the next day. Our lineup of speakers includes word of mouth supergenius and Starbucks Social Media Manager, Matthew Guiste. Here Matthew shares a few tips on using fan feedback based on the Starbucks case study… -
Newsletter #757: The “Inspire People” Issue
19 Nov 2009 | 8:15 am[Welcome back to the Damn, I Wish I Thought of That Email Newsletter. This is text of the great issue all of our email subscribers just received. Sign yourself up using the handy form on the right.] It’s more rewarding to work at a company that does its part to make the world better. You can do it without pushing an overly-political agenda or getting ultra-hippie; here are three ideas to get you started inspiring people: 1> To help local communities 2> To be eco-friendly 3> To do awesome things 4> Check it out: Oddly Specific 1> To help their communities Give your… -
Will It Blend? Our 4-part series on creating content people love to share
18 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pmAs a preview for Word of Mouth Supergenius: The “How to be Great at Word of Mouth Marketing” Conference here in Chicago on December 16, we’re dedicating a full week to our halftime celebrities from Blendtec’s Will It Blend? video series on our Word of Mouth Marketing Blog. We’ve long been big fans of Will It Blend’s simple, cheap, and brilliant formula for creating content people love to share, and we’re thrilled to have Blendtec’s VP of Marketing and Sales, George Wright, join us for our big event next month. Installments to check out in our…
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Mine Your Own Business
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Hiring and Firing
19 Nov 2009 | 3:04 pmWe've done a lot of posts on the importance of good employees for any small business and just a few days ago we did a posting on the kinds of workers a business could hire as the economy improves in... -
More Timely Advice
17 Nov 2009 | 2:04 pmSmall business owners face the daunting tasks of working at their business and in addition must take care of the overall management of their business. Good employees can help tremendously and in fact we did a posting on May 9th... -
What Kind of Employee?
16 Nov 2009 | 12:45 pmOne of the few positive aspects of our current economic downturn and dismal unemployment figures is that it means the pool of high quality workers is much greater than usual. An article from the Associated Press discusses the many employment... -
Pricing Dilemna
12 Nov 2009 | 9:01 amSmall businesses are all well aware that price has always been a major concern with any prospective customer and in the past few years it seems that it has become more important than ever to many people. We ran across... -
Increased Business Spending
9 Nov 2009 | 1:47 pmAn article in USA Today reports that after reduced business spending for six quarters in a row that businesses increased spending on new computers and software at an annual rate of 1.1%. That may not sound too impressive, but after...
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Rise of the Innerpreneur
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Samantha Brightwell: November Innerpreneur Spotlight
19 Nov 2009 | 9:47 amSamantha Brightwell Creative Entrepreneur Out of the Void and How to Build a Really Good Business Follow Sam on Twitter I am: …a writer, an artist, a teacher, a tree-hugging hippie, a mum, and an advocate for conscious living and new ways of doing business. I provide life & business advice. I am a girl with a dream, who is daring to do something about it. I’m a practical Virgo with a twist of chaotic Aquarius. I try to find a balance between walking my spiritual path and being truly grounded in the real world. For me, real world concerns should come first. And so, I am focused on… -
It’s My Birthday Today!
16 Nov 2009 | 5:07 pmI’m 28! Woo hoo! I’m writing this post late today as I spent the day with my family, eating and laughing. I’m off to dinner with my hubby in a few minutes too. My birthday is a day that I always treat myself on. Even when I worked for others, I took my birthday off and made it a priority to fill the day with all the things and people I love. I do hope that you do the same for yourself on your special day. You deserve it. photo by: Paco CTOther articles that might tickle your fancy: Slowing Down for the Holidays We Have a Problem with Business It’ll Never Be Fast Enough… -
It’s the Squishy Stuff that Counts
15 Nov 2009 | 12:28 pmWhen it comes to business, we tend to focus on the “hard stuff”. We believe with the right idea, coupled with equipment, know-how and a little money, we will be a success. We write business plans, take classes, invest in seminars, read books and magazines, and worry over and debate the nuts and bolts, the material resources and the fundamental idea, of our business. It’s not the idea, it’s you It’s not the “hard stuff” that will make your dreams come true, those things you can easily acquire. Having an idea does not make you unique, nor does having… -
You’re My Kind of Whackjob
12 Nov 2009 | 4:25 pmAfter a year and a half of writing this blog, it still seems odd to me that I share my most personal thoughts with world. See, I’ve always considered myself a private person, as I keep my feelings close to my chest, dealing them out only to those few, dear people closest to me. I’ve never really felt safe opening up to people, and I felt a sense of contentment with my story staying mine, alone. You actually care? When I first heard about blogging I couldn’t understand why anyone: Would think someone else cares enough about their thoughts to publish them Would want to read… -
5 Tips for Finding Your Signal and Creating a Web Presence to Support It
9 Nov 2009 | 5:00 amI wrote this post for my friend and fellow Innerpreneur, Tim Bursh. He blogs on Social Impact, Social Media and Community. I encourage you to read the article in it’s entirety. 5 Tips for Finding Your Signal Accept that there is no demand for your message. Express your point-of-view. The more valuable your signal, the stronger it will be. It’s a table for two. Share. Looking for more guidance than this? Read the whole article. The context around these 5 tips is what really matters. photo credit: Andres RuedaOther articles that might tickle your fancy: What Tune Does Your Business…
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The Entrepreneurial Mind
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The Face of Entrepreneurship in the US
21 Nov 2009 | 3:39 amA couple of interesting studies came out this week that help us better understand the direction of entrepreneurship in our economy.A study by Microsoft suggests the most of the new entrepreneurs today are either accidental entrepreneurs or at least not folks who had aspired to become an entrepreneur before the recession. The study found that about 70 percent of the respondents left their jobs to start their own businesses in the midst of the current recession.The latest Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report that looks specifically at the U.S. was just released by Babson… -
Seeing the Recession
20 Nov 2009 | 11:58 amMy colleague Joe Alexander passed along a map developed by Latoya Egwuekwe that gives a very stark visual display of the spread of unemployment. Go to this site, press the play button and watch employment spread across the country over the past three years. You may want to watch it a few times. -
Entrepreneurship is Anemic Around the Globe
19 Nov 2009 | 11:37 amThe driver of the old economy from the twentieth century was the auto industry. The old saying was that if General Motors sneezes, the rest of the economy caught a cold.The driver of the economy in this century has been entrepreneurs. From the sounds of the latest survey from the Kauffman Foundation and the OECD, entrepreneurs seem to have caught swine flu, so the rest of the economy is probably about to go on life support.In all 23 countries and regions surveyed, firm formation declined and exits increased. This should be viewed as a leading indicator of job creation -- or… -
Preparing for Inflation
19 Nov 2009 | 4:57 amI continue to be in the camp that is worried about inflation -- even possibly hyper-inflation -- in the not too distant future. Our ballooning debt along with the many latent inflationary pressures could soon create the spark that ignites a fire storm of runaway prices. If we see a currency crash, or many are now saying when we see one, we could likely see double or even triple digit inflation.The problem for small business during inflationary times is that they are less able to adjust prices as quickly to adjust to inflationary pressures. There is never a smooth and orderly… -
A Bucket of Cold Water
18 Nov 2009 | 4:21 amIt looks like the Obama administration is considering a move to increase taxes to deal with the exploding federal deficits caused by their massive give-aways and bailouts. Their plan would be like throwing a bucket of cold water on the embers of entrepreneurial growth in this struggling economy. From James Pethokoukis:Since Obama already wants to get rid of the income and capital gains tax cuts for wealthier Americans that expire at the end of 2010, clearly what Romer is referring to is the rest of the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts. Letting all the 2001 cuts -- rate reductions,…
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The Accidental Entrepreneur's Guide
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Does your pricing strategy prevent customers from committing?
20 Nov 2009 | 12:05 pmJust between you and me, how do you feel about pricing your work? If you're like many accidental entrepreneurs, pricing is not your favorite topic. Charge too much, and you lose clients. Charge too little, and you can't earn a living. It doesn't have to be this way. Charging enough to make a good living is, in fact, one of the keys to getting and keeping committed clients and customers. How does charging enough relate to getting clients to commit? Like this. The splurge that wasn't a splurge. A few years ago I treated myself to a pair of Bose noise-canceling headphones. For me, this was a… -
Why nice people should use fear to market their work
12 Nov 2009 | 11:51 amThere's no mystery about why marketers appeal to fear. Fear mongering works. Before Madison Avenue taught us to fear it, body odor was just a fact of life. Same with gray hair, weeds in the lawn, and dingy whites. Advertising has transformed what were at most minor disappointments or inconveniences into occasions of fear and shame. We're right, I think, to deplore the wholesale manipulation of the consumer mind by appeals to fear. But we're wrong to avoid appeals to fear in our own marketing. How fear led me to bodywork Once upon a time I thought massage was a luxury for the unforgivably… -
When Trying Harder Gets in the Way of Prosperity
22 Oct 2009 | 7:02 pmPhoto Courtesy of: istockphoto The wealthy man is not he who has money, but he who has the means to live in the luxurious state of early spring. ~Anton Chekhov Have you ever had a friend who always seemed to date the wrong people? Often this is the result of a confusion of values and standards. If your friend is choosing prospective mates based on certain standards, perhaps looks, he may be unwittingly overlooking the woman who is a good match for his values. When your standards don’t match your values or vision, the harder you look for what you want, the worse your results. As they say,… -
The Innocent Origins of Scarcity Thinking
15 Oct 2009 | 4:29 pmOnce upon a time there were three little pigs. The time had come for the little pigs to leave home and seek their fortune. Of course, the first thing they needed to do was to find shelter. The first pig built a house of straw he found scattered on the ground. The second pig built a house of sticks he scavenged from the woods. The third little pig discovered an abandoned cache of bricks. “These would be perfect for a house,” he thought. But then he decided to live out in the open because he just didn’t feel right about taking anything without asking and he didn’t very much like to ask. -
Why lowering your prices doesn’t work and how to resist the urge
8 Oct 2009 | 5:27 pmA few years back (okay, 20, but who’s counting?), I participated in a three-day studio tour on beautiful, art-friendly Bainbridge Island. I spent most of the weekend scurrying around, pricing and re-pricing every scarf, sweater, and hats, certain that if only I chose the right price my work would fly off the walls. It didn’t. That weekend came vividly to mind as I read the following letter from artist Julie Sadler. I was recently in an outdoor art show and had to give prices to people as they asked for the original works that I have done. Even tho I have gotten a fair price for some of my…
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Positive Psychology News Daily
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The Three Degrees of Influence and Happiness
18 Nov 2009 | 6:00 pmNovember 18, 2009By Timothy T.C. So - “People who post smiley photos on Facebook/Frowners attract happy friends.” (Nature, 2008) Social Networks and Happiness Fowler lecture Christakis lecture Would you be surprised to read the above finding from Nature, one of the most prominent science journals in the world? Nicholas Christakis, a sociologist at Harvard University, and James Fowler, a political scientist at University of California, advocate that our happiness is affected by our social networks in a subtle way. The research shows that within a social network, happiness spreads… -
Positive Psychology Includes Negative Emotions
17 Nov 2009 | 12:02 pmNovember 17, 2009By Dave Shearon - Detecting Icebergs IcebergsRecently, I was teaching “Detecting Icebergs”, one of the resilience skills described in The Resilience Factor. The participants had practiced the skills themselves, and we were talking about how to teach them. I mentioned the importance of using personal examples whenever possible and gave a quick example of a personal iceberg I had uncovered. It was just the outline of the story with very little elaboration. But, when I mentioned that my anger surprised and puzzled me until I uncovered the deeper value that was… -
(Book Review) Positive Psychology Workbook series by Biswas-Diener, Lyubomirsky, Kurtz, and Sheldon
14 Nov 2009 | 1:45 amNovember 14, 2009By Dana Arakawa - To describe how much I enjoyed and recommend the Positive Psychology Workbook series by Robert Biswas-Diener and colleagues, I thought of the positivity ratio discovered by Barbara Fredrickson and Marcial Losada: flourishing happens when positivity outweighs negativity by 3 to 1, but above 11:1, the “butterfly effect” disappears. I loved the series and would highly recommend it, so I offer 11 positives of the series and one dose of critique. "Invitiation to Positive Psychology" book 1. Expert authors. Written by a stellar group of positive… -
(Book Review) Invitation to Positive Psychology by Robert Biswas-Diener
12 Nov 2009 | 12:28 amNovember 12, 2009By Aren Cohen - "Invitation to Positive Psychology" book Invitation to Positive Psychology: Research and Tool for the Professional by Robert-Biswas-Diener is a workbook that allows a student to study a six-week self-directed course that touches on the main themes of positive psychology. Pairing Invitation with Christopher Peterson’s A Primer in Positive Psychology (weekly homework reading assignments are all from the Primer), a novice can get a basic understanding of positive psychology, the importance of positive emotions, the usefulness of positive psychology… -
To Boost Your Teen’s Brain, Try Success
9 Nov 2009 | 9:10 amNovember 9, 2009By Christine Duvivier - Failure does not breed success when it comes to the brain, according to MIT scientist Earl Miller whose study of monkeys is cited in the Boston Globe article of August 3: “Why success may breed success.” When a correct response is rewarded, higher-intensity signals fire between the two learning areas of the brain. This increases the odds that the next answer will be correct too, according to Miller and his colleagues. To me, this seems more like Pavlov’s Dogs than true education, but still it sparks a question. Success Breeds Success Teen…
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The Happiness Project
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Try Fun, Quick Exercises to Boost Your Creativity.
20 Nov 2009 | 12:20 pmI’m working on my Happiness Project, and you could have one, too! Everyone’s project will look different, but it’s the rare person who can’t benefit. Join in -- no need to catch up, just jump in right now. Each Friday’s post will help you think about your own happiness project. One of my favorite resolutions, because it’s so much fun to keep, is Read at whim. Instead of trying to be very targeted about my reading, as I once tried to be, I let myself read whatever I want to read. The other day, at coffee with my blogpals Caren and Leah from the great site, Drinking Diaries, Leah… -
In Which I Get Teary Reading My Own Book.
19 Nov 2009 | 11:56 amThis week, I finished the audiobook for The Happiness Project. As I’d expected, it made me very happy to learn to do something new and to get a glimpse into the unfamiliar world of sound recording. It was also thrilling to learn that none other than Jim Dale had sat in the very same seat that I was using, when he was recording Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It took him three weeks! And they had top, top security. What surprised me most about the recording process was how emotional I became while reading certain parts of the book. I literally choked up and had to take a drink of water… -
Fifteen Tips to Avoid Nagging.
18 Nov 2009 | 11:47 amEvery Wednesday is Tip Day. This Wednesday: Back by popular demand...fifteen tips to avoid nagging. I've posted this list before, but I'm posting it again, because the issue of nagging is something that people raise with me frequently in discussions of happiness. It turns out that being a nag is just as unpleasant as being nagged -- so figuring out how to end nagging brings a real happiness boost to a relationship. But even though no one enjoys an atmosphere of nagging, in marriage, or any partnership, chores are a huge source of conflict. How do you get your sweetheart to hold up his or her… -
"Learn New Skills, Ask Questions, Practice Yoga--and Only Travel Carry-On."
17 Nov 2009 | 11:52 amFrom time to time, I post short interviews with interesting people about their insights on happiness. During my study of happiness, I’ve noticed that I often learn more from one person’s highly idiosyncratic experiences than I do from sources that detail universal principles or cite up-to-date studies. I’m much more likely to be convinced to try a piece of advice urged by a specific person who tells me that it worked for him or her, than by any other kind of argument. Sometimes, in ways that I don’t really understand, I begin to overlap with people in blogland, to the point that I… -
Some Counter-Intuitive Facts about Loneliness.
16 Nov 2009 | 11:05 amSometimes people ask, “If you had to pick just one thing, what would be the one secret to a happy life?” The answer is clear: strong bonds with other people. If I had to pick one thing, that’s it. The wisdom of the ages and the current scientific studies agree on this point. On that subject, I just finished a fascinating book by John Cacioppo and William Patrick, Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection. The book underscores the conclusion that few things will challenge your happiness more than loneliness. Without thinking it through, I’d assumed that being lonely…
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So Be Organized
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Re-Gift in Style
18 Nov 2009 | 10:27 amThis time of year sparks the age-old discussion of gift giving which invariably leads to it's cousin ..... re-gifting. What's your take ? Are gifts to be kept sacred forever ? Or does the thought alone count?When you receive a present," says Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan, an interior designer in New York City and the founder of ApartmentTherapy.com, "your duty is to receive it and thank the giver -- not to keep the gift forever."I enjoy giving gifts, yet detest clutter. I would feel terrible if some-one cluttered up a part of their space on my account. Therefore I encourage proactive re-gifting… -
Take the challenge : Buy a pen
16 Nov 2009 | 3:16 amHere's a challenge .... buy a nice pen.Okay, that's not exactly it .... buy a pen and keep it in a great location where you can find it with ease. Then after using it, put it back in that exact same spot .... again and again and again.As you will find out it's not that simple. Really in life there is nothing wrong at all with having more than one pen. What is inefficient is buying a 40 pack of pens, not giving them a specific home and then when you need a pen in a hurry and can't find one hollering frantically ' Any-one seen a pen ?' If you keep up this habit for the next 30 days you will… -
Very Soups
2 Nov 2009 | 1:26 amIt's cold out there. If your finances are as icy as the weather you can't afford not to incorporate Very Soups into your week. (Very simple, Very cheap and very healthy !). They can be made in the crock pots and greet you when you walk in the front door.Very Lentil Soup1 14oz bag dry lentils (soaked overnight if possible)1 chopped onion6 cups water10oz bag of baby carrots5 stalks of celery chopped2 tsp salt3 tsp cuminHandful of spinachAdd all ingredients together. Cook for 10 hours on low in crock pot.Very Minestrone Soup1/2 jar of marinara sauceCan of chickpeas or cannelloni beans1 onion… -
Help ! My life is running me !!
23 Oct 2009 | 11:14 amHey folks - got a great question in my mailbag that applies to so many of us ........Q : Help ! My life is running me ! Give me pointers before I literally go crazy !! Mindy, New Zealand.A : We're all kinda frazzled in our own way so don't feel that you are the exception to the norm. You might just need to tweak a few areas.Here are 3 common reasons and solutions .... implement one a week for the next 3 weeks and you wont go crazy ..... you might even get really empowered.Reason 1) You're living in the 'now' instead of being one or two steps ahead.Solution 1) Take at least one hour a week to… -
Waiting For The Perfect Storm
23 Oct 2009 | 3:22 amWhat's holding you back from organizing your space ? You know how great you'd feel if your space was under control. Chances are you know exactly when. You say to yourself "I'll clean out that office one quiet evening when I have the energy and I have something inspiring to watch". Or "I'll round all the clutter up and decide whether to throw it out or give it away one quiet morning when the phone stops ringing and the baby is playing happily".Sounds to me like you're waiting for the perfect storm. Our busy lives rarely allow us those quiet moments.Instead of waiting for that magical moment…
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PickTheBrain
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6 Types of Time: Which Are You Missing?
20 Nov 2009 | 11:08 amImage Courtesy of Jimheid/Flickr I spent last weekend on retreat, taking 48 hours out of my life to get away to a secluded countryside retreat center where I could have a chance to rest, relax and reflect. This opportunity made me think about what types of time we have in our lives: all hours are not necessarily equal, and time management advice doesn’t always address this. These are six key types of time which we need: Creative and productive Physically energetic and active Playful and entertaining Learning and developing Reflective and spiritual Restful and relaxing Do you have a gut… -
8 Reasons We Don’t Do Things We Should and How To Break the Mould
19 Nov 2009 | 11:29 amOur lives are full of things we “should” do but for a range of reasons we don’t do them. Whatever it is – exercise, healthy eating, saving money – most of the time we choose to take the easier road, the road well traveled. While I’m certainly not immune to this, there are plenty of things I don’t do that I know I should, I feel that understand the why is the first step to making real progress. 1. Being Comfortable (and Lack of a Burning Desire) It all starts with how we feel about our life. How we feel greatly affects our motivations. Most people are… -
Breaking Free From the Pattern Trap
17 Nov 2009 | 9:16 amImage Courtesy of Vogue Jill Gets Ambushed, Again The knot condensed like a heavy weight in Jill’s stomach. Suddenly gasping for air, she recognized she had been here before. Yet again, just when she thought she had finally put it all together, something had sabotaged the fulfilling life that she dreamed about. “Not again,” she announced silently as she looked forlornly at her scales, “I can’t believe I’ve gained the weight back.” Jill could feel the power to change her life slipping through her fingers – it had not been the first time. Taking responsibility for her life and… -
The 5 Signs Your Diet Plan Will Last
16 Nov 2009 | 9:24 amIf you’re ever going to achieve your ideal weight, you’re going to have to develop a diet plan that you can do “forever.” Of course, people often get excited when they first start a new diet plan, but this excitement often wanes within a few weeks. They say “success leaves clues;” people who consistently follow their diet plan have several things in common. I’ve written this article as a way to identify the signs of a good diet plan. If these signs are not present in your current diet, you may want to make some adjustments to your plan. Here are the 5 Signs That Your Diet Plan… -
4 Ways to REALLY Make Time Work For You
12 Nov 2009 | 8:56 amI’ll bet you’ve got a number of started or almost-started projects that you’d love to do. Perhaps you dream of starting your own business, writing a novel, learning a foreign language, or taking a qualification. Or maybe you want to get the attic cleared out, organise your files, or repaint the hallway. It could even be that you know you need to take the time to exercise, meditate or journal … but you never get around to it. The problem is, your life is already full, and you end up busy with all the day-to-day things, unable to find time for what you really want to do. Here are…
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Guy Kawasaki
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The 19 bloggers Inc. thinks you should read
6 Nov 2009 | 6:20 pmInc. named 19 bloggers that you should read. We’ve aggregated them all in one place: Inc19.alltop. -
How to Get Found
4 Nov 2009 | 3:29 pmThe reality is that people and technology is getting better and better a blocking out unwanted interruptions—aka, “marketing.” Brian Halligan is the CEO of HubSpot, and he explains in my post on the American Express Open Forum “how to get found.” It’s all about creating great stuff and letting Google et al do what they do: find great stuff. -
How I tweet
2 Nov 2009 | 8:47 amBy popular demand (and some complaints), I’ve done a FAQ with myself about how I tweet. Hope this helps you use Twitter for your business too. I explain how I use ghostwriters and why I repeat my tweets among other “unusual” practices. -
Current Twitter Demo Script
28 Oct 2009 | 2:26 amThis is the set of links that I used to demo Twitter by going down through this list to show why Twitter is such a valuable marketing tool. Introduction Home page Profile page Monitor Search Guy Kawasaki or Alltop Starbucks VIA introduction Search for “Prius” or “Civic” Sell Dell Outlet Kogi BBQ Support Comcast Cares Engage JetBlue Virgin America Fandango Prospect Camaro Camaro near Palo Alto Advanced searches Surfing or skateboarding (shows how to eliminate extraneous results such as “surfing the web” How I Tweet - Find Alltop MyAlltop helped me find this. -
How to Avoid Twitter Cluelessness
26 Oct 2009 | 4:24 pmOver at the American Express Open Forum blog, I explain how to not look clueless on Twitter. The first five ways are: Don’t tell other people how to tweet. Don’t tell the world that you unfollowed someone. Don’t ask people why they unfollowed you. Don’t constantly tweet mundane updates and babble. Don’t use a small picture for an avatar. To read all ten and why they impugn your intelligence, click here.
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Creativity & Innovation
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American Innovation: In Decline?
21 Nov 2009 | 7:56 amIf you’ve been in a newstand this month, you’ve probably seen the cover of Newsweek magazine shouting out its cover theme: “The Decline of American Innovation.” It turns out that the article is actually about how Americans are worried about potential decline, not about any actual documented decline. And Americans are worried, according to the polls cited in this article: 61% of Americans think the recession has lowered the country’s ability to innovate. Only 41% think that American is staying ahead of China when it comes to innovation. Only 55% of Americans think… -
Finland’s Innovation Economy
6 Nov 2009 | 3:38 amThis is my first posting from Europe, during my two-month stay as a Visiting Scholar at the University of Cambridge. I have about twelve guest lectures scheduled and I’ll be posting about my travels. This week I’ve been in Finland, giving a series of four invited lectures at four different universities.* If you have ever looked at those national rankings that come out every year, comparing how students in different countries score on math and science and other subjects, you may remember that Finland is usually number one. What are they doing that makes them so successful? Finland… -
Regional Clusters: More Complex Than You Think
27 Oct 2009 | 9:48 amEconomists have noted for over a century that similar firms tend to “cluster” near each other. In the last few decades, research on clusters has picked up dramatically, in part because they are associated with more rapid innovation. One of the best-known examples of a contemporary regional cluster is Silicon Valley and its cluster of electronics and software firms. Clusters are often assumed to work due to openness, collaboration, loose organizational boundaries, and information sharing. A new research paper* by Simon Bell, Paul Tracey, and Jan Hiede argues that it’s often… -
The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest
23 Oct 2009 | 2:50 pmSince it was founded in the 1920s, the New Yorker magazine has been famous for its one-frame black and white cartoons, each with a single one-line caption published underneath. For the last few years, the magazine has gotten readers involved in the art of cartoon humor: it publishes a one-frame cartoon, without a caption, and invites readers to come up with funny captions and submit them. The funniest caption is selected by a panel of judges and published two weeks later. Here’s a short article I wrote after interviewing a few recent winners of the contest, after being introduced to… -
Superstar Extinction
16 Oct 2009 | 11:36 amHow important is collaboration in scientific laboratories? A new paper by Pierre Azoulay, Joshua Graff Zivin, and Jialan Wang* studied what happens to research productivity when an academic “superstar” dies while they’re still actively engaged in scientific research. A superstar is a brilliant scientist who teams up with others to collaboratively conduct research and who co-authors with other scientists. The researchers analyzed the coauthors of 137 eminent life scientists. On average, each superstar had 73 coauthors. (That number alone is astonishing, and shows how…
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Think Differently!!
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Redefining a "Business"
18 Nov 2009 | 5:51 amI was recently having a look at some of the ideas from the Heart Of Business website. One idea that caught my eye there is Mark Silver's definition of business as "the relationships you have around your livelihood."That is such an evocative definition. It immediately gets one thinking of the web of relationships surrounding business activity, the people involved, the dynamic ebb and flow of relationship and value.It puts the focus on relationships rather than outcomes or metrics or activities.The definition of business as the web of relationships one has around ones livelihood opens up a… -
Think Quick
29 Oct 2009 | 8:21 amMany people in the organisational development community in Melbourne, Australia will know Frank Connolly from his excellent work as coordinator for the Victorian Public Sector Continuous Improvement Network (VPS CIN) over the last several years.Frank has started a new initiative, and central to these efforts is his new Think Quick blog.Good luck Frank with your new initiative and helping people 'Think Quick'! -
Rethinking Economics
23 Oct 2009 | 6:56 pmAs someone who received his Ph.D from an Economics Department (but who in no way considers himself an economist!), I continue to watch with interest how the recent Global Financial Crisis is continuing to cause a rethink of the economics profession. A major focus of current interest was one of the subjects of my thesis: economists' excessive reliance on mathematics, regardless of the validity of the assumptions used by the mathematical models. Economists' assumptions for their mathematical modelling are typically things like "assume that people have infinite knowledge of the past, present,… -
Organisational Fairy Tales
13 Oct 2009 | 10:39 pmI was recently given a review copy of Andrew Rixon's new book, Opening Up: Creative Storytelling at Work. Andrew is an expert in applying complexity theory and storytelling within organisations to facilitate consensus and change.One of the intriguing contributions of this book is Andrew's idea of organisational fairy tales. By constructing a fairy tale around the issue or problem we wish to describe or address, we can liberate ourselves to talk about the issue in a different and more mythic way. The twist, however, comes when the facilitator asks the audience hearing a fairy tale constructed… -
Snorklers and Divers
13 Oct 2009 | 3:35 pmI was speaking with Experiential Marketing expert and consultant Justine Haddrick recently regarding the idea of scanners vs. deep divers. Justine mentioned that in their work responding to requests for information from clients, Justine and her team had developed a convention of asking whether someone requesting work was a snorkler - someone looking for an overview of options floating over them at a relatively high level - or a diver- someone wanting depth of insight and expertise regarding their very specific problem in the response. It's important to tailor our responses to the needs of the…
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Writing on the Web
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Making Readers Feel at Home: 10 Comfy Blogging Tips
20 Nov 2009 | 3:40 amHow long do readers stay on your blog? A minute? Two or three? Your site meter will tell you. It doesn't take long to read a blog post. And it's not the length of time that matters, it's what they do while they're there.Do they read more than one post, more than one page? Do they check out your bio, easily find related info? Do they see your subscription form and sign up to get email updates to your blog?Greet visitors to your blog as if they were visiting your home, welcome them in, offer them a comfortable chair, a cup of coffee, and ask them to stay a while. Ask them… -
Attract Clients: Publish Your Ebooks on Kindle
19 Nov 2009 | 6:15 amDo you have a book on Kindle? Why not? Did you know you can publish your books on Kindle for free, and sell them there? This is another great way to attract clients, get known, gain visibility and credibility. My husband has transformed himself into a novelist (Die Laughing, Future Schlock: 2047, and his 3rd novel will be Azteca) and while searching for publishing options, put his first book for sale through Amazon's Kindle store. It costs nothing to do this, it's great marketing, and so far he's sold several copies. So I wondered if it would be possible to make my ebook… -
What Can You Stop Doing? 6 Steps to Becoming More Profitable
18 Nov 2009 | 7:38 amWhat can you stop doing in your business? There's always too much to do, and if you're smart and ambitious, you're always on the look-out for new marketing tactics that will bring big results. But you can't possibly use anything new if you're overbooked, overworked, and out of time. Part of thriving in business has to do with keeping more of the money you make. How can you make your business more profitable? The best tools and tactics can't make you more profitable if you don't have time to learn and use them. You've probably already got too much to… -
Wanna Be First? Save 75%? Join Patsi's Private List
18 Nov 2009 | 5:22 amName Email Join my private list and be first to get content marketing tips, save 75% off public prices, and attend teleseminars. More info here... -
How to Turn Your Blog Into a Content Genie...
17 Nov 2009 | 4:07 amWhat's the difference between a blog and MyKnowledgeGenie? This turned out to be a great question yesterday in the interview with Milo Sindell, founder of the content-creating wizard. Think about it...visitors arrive at your blog everyday, and they read whatever you've posted that day. If they aren't in a hurry, they'll scroll down the page and scan a few other recent posts. Maybe what you've written this week is critical to your core message... or maybe not. Maybe you've gone off on a tangent and written something off the wall. Click...and bye-bye. (Photo…
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Buzz Marketing for Technology
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CMO Challenges in Driving Data into Insights
17 Nov 2009 | 5:47 amA good friend and former colleague of mine Dan Neely, CEO of Networked Insights reminded me recently that there will be more data created in this year than in the previous 5000 years combined!With all this data the question many CMOs wrestle with is – How to manage so much data from so many sources and separate systems to drive insights on how customers behave? With the goal being a seamless and consistent experience as customers and prospects pin pong across a variety of channels.A recent Forrester report called The Intelligent Approach to Customer Intelligence does a good job outlining… -
What to look for in a Social Media Marketer?
13 Nov 2009 | 5:26 amNow that we are beginning to feel the relief of the economic uncertainty that has been hanging around us for the past few months, I am beginning to hear a lot about the invention of some new roles inside organizations looking to get “social media”.Typically this means hire someone who knows our “space” really well and someone who is an expert in social media.Well it’s the latter part that is the hard part. Consider that in Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book The Outliers he goes into a discussion about Violinists and how long it takes them to become a master at their craft. So without… -
5 Tricks to B2B Marketing Socially
9 Nov 2009 | 11:36 amWhenever I ask members of sales team from around the globe what they need – the answer never changes – more case studies. Its not to say that we don’t respond but for whatever reason it takes a village to get a single case study done.The reason the sales team loves case studies is it gives them evidence. Evidence for them to start a conversation around your solution and gauge whether there is a need with the potential buyer they are talking to.Then how do B2B Marketers use that content with Social Media to do the same - here are 5 tricks to Marketing B2B content socially ...1) Tell good… -
The Tipping Point and your Contact Center
3 Nov 2009 | 6:06 amBack in the year 2000, Malcolm Gladwell published his landmark book called The Tipping Point. And little did he know 9 years later he would have set the stage for how many Contact Centers handle Social Media?Let me explain …Many of the most Socially advanced Contact Centers today are using tools to listen in on Conversations. Conversations that are happening about their brand, conversations that are happening about their competition, and of course conversations that revolve around Customer Support! Customer Support makes for an easy anchor of any good Social Media strategy so it stands to… -
Some Weeks are Hard to Top!
1 Nov 2009 | 4:45 amLast week was the perfect storm of 3 major life moments all coming together in one week to form the perfect trifecta. It’s a week that is going to be hard to top in Dunay history but don’t put it past me to try!It all started Friday, Oct 23rd when my wife came into the house and said “oh yeah, I think your books have arrived – I saw a whole bunch of boxes out by the garage”. Little did she know in that moment I became a published author! I spent the weekend packing up copies of Facebook Marketing for Dummies (Wiley) and sending them to family, friends, long time mentors but most…
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Servant of Chaos
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Seeing the Trees in the Social Media Forest
19 Nov 2009 | 4:30 amWith each passing day there are more and more case studies, examples and justifications for brands to use social media. There are best practices emerging (or easily found with a Google search), thousands of “how to” blog posts explaining every aspect of social media (or perhaps the same aspect repeated 1000 times) and agencies devoted to social media as their core competency. But it seems to me that we are beginning to swim (or is it drown?) in data. Because our social media interactions are digital, we can measure plenty of things – the time you spend on our sites, the things you click… -
Five Must-Read Posts from Last Week
15 Nov 2009 | 9:54 pmIn the last week there have been a plethora of posts looking at short term futures – what’s ahead of us, what it takes to get there and even some suggestions of how real change takes place. There’s Plenty to read for marketers on the client and/or agency side. In this Ad Age article, Jacques-Herve Roubert suggests that Digital Agencies are Ready to Lead when it comes to engaging clients, creating campaigns and building their clients brands. Neil Perkin explains that it could just be social media that saves mainstream TV. In The Socialisation of TV, Neil suggests that scheduling and… -
Can Curating the Crowd Work?
12 Nov 2009 | 10:29 amHaving worked on two, and heading into the third Age of Conversation book (bringing together hundreds of thought leaders in a single, crowdsourced book), not to mention our recent efforts around The Perfect Gift for a Man (30 crowdsourced stories reinventing manhood), I feel like I have a fairly good grasp on crowdsourcing and its potential. But can it work for advertising? Will it work for agencies? And, perhaps, most importantly, will it work for the communities which emerge almost spontaneously to become part of a crowdsourcing project? Unilever are putting this to the test. Via Idea… -
One Wish - The Charter for Compassion
12 Nov 2009 | 6:45 amIf you had a wish, what would it be? Would you direct it inwardly or towards others? Would it be personal or would it be communal? Would it be larger? Would your wish be transformative, transactional or fanciful? Could you name it, nail it down, write it on a sign? Is it something you could share or would it remain a personal secret? Would you wear your wish upon your sleeve or swallow it like a burning truth? Karen Armstrong has a wish. The TED Prize winner’s wish is as follows: I wish that you would help with the creation, launch and propagation of a Charter for Compassion, crafted by a… -
Ten Ways to Kill Community
9 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pmSometimes the best way of understanding HOW to do something is to think how NOT to. In this fantastic short presentation, Marilyn Pratt steps through the 10 things that you can do to kill off the community that has begun to grow around your brand (or products, services etc). There is some great insight that can be applied to any business’ community – and each point is backed up with the hard won experience of working in, building up and evangelising a large corporate community. Marilyn is one of SAP’s community evangelists and knows first-hand what works (and doesn’t) – but does…
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Bringing Brands to Life
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Employee Engagement Lessons from Fast Company’s “30 Second MBA” Part 2
18 Nov 2009 | 6:07 amHere’s part two of my conversation with Ellen McGirt, Senior Writer for Fast Company magazine and Dean of Fast Company’s “30 Second MBA” website. Part one can be found here. Thanks again, Ellen, for participating! 5. Many organizations see and hear the potential benefits of incorporating an internal social media framework into their communication strategies but are hesitant to make the leap. What would you say to these folks? Grow a spine. You’ve already lost control! You might as well have some fun. And by the way, this is the golden era of the communications professional. In… -
Employee Engagement Lessons from Fast Company’s “30 Second MBA” Part 1
4 Nov 2009 | 6:04 amI’m a big fan of Fast Company’s “30 Second MBA” site. The minute it launched, I felt it offered a simple yet highly effective way for organizations to integrate social media concepts into their internal communication strategies. I wanted to know more. So I asked Ellen McGirt, the Senior Writer and Dean of “30 Second MBA,” a few questions about her experiences in launching the site. I was particularly interested in seeing how the “30 Second MBA” framework could be adapted for internal communication purposes. Here’s part one of the interview. And many thanks, Ellen, for… -
5 Big Ideas: What Honda’s Mini-Documentaries Can Teach Non-Filmmakers
21 Oct 2009 | 7:05 pmHere are five ideas from Honda’s new corporate documentary, “Racing Against Time,” to help you take your videos from talking heads to interesting and believable stories. (RSS readers click thru to see the video.) Have you checked out Honda’s “Dream the Impossible” mini-documentary series? The video series features several big ideas in a series of mini-documentaries. And yes, they’re beautifully produced. But here’s the thing. If you deconstruct Honda’s new documentary, “Racing Against Time,” you’ll find five big ideas you can use to make your own videos just as… -
Tom's SpeedLink #12
20 Oct 2009 | 5:52 amTime to share some pretty cool links... 1. New book: "Believe Me: Why Your Vision, Brand, and Leadership Need a Bigger Story." Michael Margolis, my friend and remarkable business storyteller, just released his first book yesterday entitled, "Believe Me: Why Your Vision, Brand, and Leadership Need a Bigger Story." It's a "storytelling manifesto for change-makers and innovators." Yes, I ordered my copy and can't wait to dive in to it! 2. Honda Launches New Docu-Series On Twitter Honda's corporate mini-documentaries are some of my favorite programs. I'll have a full article on this new video… -
9 Super Simple Ways to Rock Your Company Video
7 Oct 2009 | 7:18 pmIt’s the small things that can make a big difference. Anyone can implement these ideas. And the cool part? They’re free or next to free. See if you can sneak a few of these tricks into your next project. It will help your video story feel more believable and interesting. And rockin'. 1. Talk first. Your best storytellers are hiding right under your nose– your employees. Figure our what your video is about. Pull up a chair and get talking. Ask lots of different questions. Employees rarely get this kind of chance to be heard and recognized. You’ll be amazed at what you hear and capture.
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Content Rich
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Will the C-Suite Ever Embrace Social Media? Hmmmm…
5 Nov 2009 | 1:07 pmMost people out there know the famous quote from Calvin Coolidge about “Persistence and determination being omnipotent.” Amazing that this quote was probably his lasting legacy as well…much more compelling than anything he ever accomplished as President. For those who don’t know it or forgot it, here is a refresher: ”Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and… -
Content Rich Readers Speak Out!
3 Nov 2009 | 11:40 amAs an author, you get the chance to meet and help so many people that you otherwise wouldn’t. I’m very grateful to these readers who all have gotten something out of my book, Content Rich. If you haven’t already picked up a copy, check it out! It may help your business the way it has helped these folks… -
My Q & A with Write On!
22 Oct 2009 | 12:56 pmDebra Eckerling of Write On! recently interviewed me about my passion for writing. Write On! is a virtual – and live – writers support group, which helps writers of all abilities, mediums, and specialties take their projects to the next level. I enjoyed the opportunity to speak with Debra and encourage every writer out there to follow your dream! -
Review of Scott Fox’s “e-Riches 2.0″
25 Sep 2009 | 1:42 pmScott Fox has done it again with his latest book, “e-Riches 2.0”, putting together an easy to understand, thoroughly comprehensive “how-to” on all the latest online marketing tools and strategies. Like Scott, I believe that there is a huge opportunity to provide this type of instruction to the millions of small businesses out there who may be challenged in the online marketing space. There are still many business owners who feel overwhelmed by all the stuff coming at them when it comes to Web 2.0. I love how he emphasized the importance of social media and attempted to allay any fears… -
Local Search – It’s Getting Bigger
22 Sep 2009 | 2:15 pmOf all the projects we’re working on and all the topics I speak about, I’m the most excited about local search and the growth of what’s happening out there on Main Street, USA. In fact, there are so many smaller, local retail businesses “getting it” now that the growth of Local Search is out pacing overall online search. And you know that’s big because the web continues to explode, month after month, year after year. What does this mean? It means that the landscape of search is changing right before our very eyes. It means that small mom and pop companies that service the city…
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ZackBrandit
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The Word of Mouth Concept… Return to the Sources, Part 1
28 Oct 2009 | 7:14 amCenturies ago, humanity like we know it today was different, especially from a technological point of view. Technology was at its first steps, influencing the methods of production,... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Blogworld or a World of Blogs?
22 Oct 2009 | 8:49 amOnce in a while you hear things like blogs are passé or blogs are losing ground to new social media platforms such as micro-blogging like Technorati posted recently.... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
We’ve Got Some Nouvelles!
31 Aug 2009 | 6:24 amOur platform is improving day by day and so will our communication. I come to you today with 4 headlines: We have finally launched our French blog.... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Conan the Barbarian Changes Our Social Behavior
31 Aug 2009 | 3:29 amWhile drifting through my Friendfeed account I discovered a funny little thing that made me realize something big is happening. I present to you... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Can Social Media Survive Without Cheerleaders?
3 Aug 2009 | 3:57 amTwitter this, Facebook that, Friendfeed here - and you know what!?! We’ve been under the spell of social media for some time now, trying different platforms and every day seeing new... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Bringing Brands to Life!
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Employee Engagement Lessons from Fast Company’s “30 Second MBA” Part 2
18 Nov 2009 | 6:07 amHere’s part two of my conversation with Ellen McGirt, Senior Writer for Fast Company magazine and Dean of Fast Company’s “30 Second MBA” website. Part one can be found here. Thanks again, Ellen, for participating! 5. Many organizations see and hear the potential benefits of incorporating an internal social media framework into their communication strategies but are hesitant to make the leap. What would you say to these folks? Grow a spine. You’ve already lost control! You might as well have some fun. And by the way, this is the golden era of the communications professional. In… -
Employee Engagement Lessons from Fast Company’s “30 Second MBA” Part 1
4 Nov 2009 | 6:04 amI’m a big fan of Fast Company’s “30 Second MBA” site. The minute it launched, I felt it offered a simple yet highly effective way for organizations to integrate social media concepts into their internal communication strategies. I wanted to know more. So I asked Ellen McGirt, the Senior Writer and Dean of “30 Second MBA,” a few questions about her experiences in launching the site. I was particularly interested in seeing how the “30 Second MBA” framework could be adapted for internal communication purposes. Here’s part one of the interview. And many thanks, Ellen, for… -
5 Big Ideas: What Honda’s Mini-Documentaries Can Teach Non-Filmmakers
21 Oct 2009 | 7:05 pmHere are five ideas from Honda’s new corporate documentary, “Racing Against Time,” to help you take your videos from talking heads to interesting and believable stories. (RSS readers click thru to see the video.) Have you checked out Honda’s “Dream the Impossible” mini-documentary series? The video series features several big ideas in a series of mini-documentaries. And yes, they’re beautifully produced. But here’s the thing. If you deconstruct Honda’s new documentary, “Racing Against Time,” you’ll find five big ideas you can use to make your own videos just as… -
Tom's SpeedLink #12
20 Oct 2009 | 5:52 amTime to share some pretty cool links... 1. New book: "Believe Me: Why Your Vision, Brand, and Leadership Need a Bigger Story." Michael Margolis, my friend and remarkable business storyteller, just released his first book yesterday entitled, "Believe Me: Why Your Vision, Brand, and Leadership Need a Bigger Story." It's a "storytelling manifesto for change-makers and innovators." Yes, I ordered my copy and can't wait to dive in to it! 2. Honda Launches New Docu-Series On Twitter Honda's corporate mini-documentaries are some of my favorite programs. I'll have a full article on this new video… -
9 Super Simple Ways to Rock Your Company Video
7 Oct 2009 | 7:18 pmIt’s the small things that can make a big difference. Anyone can implement these ideas. And the cool part? They’re free or next to free. See if you can sneak a few of these tricks into your next project. It will help your video story feel more believable and interesting. And rockin'. 1. Talk first. Your best storytellers are hiding right under your nose– your employees. Figure our what your video is about. Pull up a chair and get talking. Ask lots of different questions. Employees rarely get this kind of chance to be heard and recognized. You’ll be amazed at what you hear and capture.
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Brains On Fire Blog
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People are just amazing.
20 Nov 2009 | 7:02 am“Closeness to customers” is something I have been studying lately. I wrote about the effect it has on your company here. I also believe it is huge part of what we help our clients do. We help our clients create deeper more meaningful, emotional connections to the clients they serve. So in an effort to practice what we preach, I’m in the process of spending time “interviewing” our clients and some of our client’s customers. And here is what I have to share with you: Do it. NOW. If you’re part of company or organization and you have customers or advocates,… -
Patagonia presentation - 2009 WOMMA Summit in Vegas
19 Nov 2009 | 10:12 amThis morning at the WOMMA Summit in Las Vegas, The VP of marketing for Patagonia, Rob BonDurant, took the stage to talk about one of the most fascinating, word of mouth worthy, mission-driven, cult-like brands around. And he didn’t disappoint. You could call the whole talk a highlight, but here are the tidbits that resonated with me: We would rather inspire than promote. We would rather earn credibility over a purchase. Advertising should be used only as a last resort. The three charters of Patagonia. It’s what they adhere to and live by. We don’t create stories. We publish them. These… -
Stories make Connections
18 Nov 2009 | 9:50 amI’m lucky to be the grandson of a storyteller. My grandfather told me a ton of stories growing up; they were a combination of tall tales and family stories. Often the storytelling took place in usual environments - in his garden, or sitting on the hood of his car eating hot dogs on the edge of the Greenville Downtown Airport. And so it goes… I seek out storytellers for our clients. I’m captivated by how people use stories to connect, especially when un-prompted. As fate would have it Brains on Fire is now working with the granddaddy of storytelling… Colonial Williamsburg. The… -
On devoting your time to what works
17 Nov 2009 | 10:17 amSpike said in his last blog post that “technology can be a trap.” We rant all of the time around here about how ’social media is a tool’ and how ‘it might not be best for your business’ and on and on. But it reminded me of a real story about technology as a trap. Do you remember way back, well, actually, a short time ago when Twitter first started to grab headlines and brands began to view it as a business tool? Companies everywhere started to question whether they should ‘be on Twitter.’ Some time after that initial uproar I was out to dinner… -
Twitter, you’re not a person
16 Nov 2009 | 5:51 amRumor has is that the panel that’s choosing TIME’s Person of the Year is split between Twitter and and The Economy. Wha? Okay, according to a WIRED article, this isnt’ the first time a non-person might win the award. In 1982, “The Computer” got the nod. Since then a fair amount of non-persons have won: The Endangered Earth (1988), The Peacemakers (1993), The Whistleblowers (2002), The Good Samaritans (2005) and, of course, You, in 2006. I get it. I know that naming Twitter person of the year would get a lot of buzz. But let’s take a look at some of the reality: via…
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The Brand Chef
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Let’s Hash This Out
19 Nov 2009 | 8:30 amThis is how geeky I’ve become in my old age. Star Trek (yes, the movie) made me think of a great brand engagement solution – well, maybe not specifically Star Trek, but the DVD I purchased this week, TWICE. Let me explain… Last night, I found myself standing in line at the customer service counter at a local “Big Box” store - for the second time in as many days. It seems as though a shipment of the new Star Trek DVDs had been damaged; and about 200 upset geeks, including me, found themselves watching Spock, Kirk and Uhura jump from present day to past, to the movie… -
Your Marketing Can’t Fix Crazy…
12 Nov 2009 | 10:43 amYes, I said it. As “The Brand Chef,” that’s something I never thought would come out of my mouth. But in a recent meeting with a friend, I closed my laptop, pushed my chair back and looked him straight in the eye and said these exact words: “Your marketing can’t fix crazy…” (and this was in reference to HIS company!) Now, this could either be a lesson on how to shoot yourself in the foot during a casual meeting with a friend; or it could turn into a logical discussion on branding versus marketing. This discussion could cover how, because branding… -
YAY, Twitter Lists… Now What?
6 Nov 2009 | 12:03 pmWhat does the recent addition of Twitter Lists mean to you? It’s another enhancement for Twitter, sure, but what does it mean to your daily social media routine? That question was asked at the Central Iowa Blogger’s (#CIB) meet-up this morning. At #CIB, the conversations revolve around everything from the impact of social media on our local economy to the impact of Dallas J. Moore’s beard on the local lady-folk. But today’s group of 20 to 30 die-hard, as well as a handful of new faces, got into a pretty vibrant conversation about how Twitter Lists will affect… -
3 Questions You Need To Ask
5 Nov 2009 | 2:23 pmSocial media tools are easy to acquire… Sure. But just like a sharp knife, you may not want to hand it over to any shlub that walks into the kitchen. If your company wants to start cooking up some social media marketing, you’d better be ready to do some serious planning. If social media is like a big cocktail party, let’s think of social media MARKETING this way… When gathering recipes for your next big shindig, you probably don’t want to mingle the sushi with the snow cones (only at my parties). So, in the same spirit, why would companies insist on… -
Competition, Cooperation In Social Media - What A Week!
1 Nov 2009 | 10:38 amWhen it comes to a little friendly competition, I’m all game. I love the challenge. I love the strategy. And obviously, my friends over at Lessing Flynn advertising agency, think the same way. At the end of what was an extremely busy social media week for Central Iowa, we were made aware of a little competition brewing in the advertising agency social media ring. The competition? In short, there was a Michael Glass poll created asking, of 45 ad agencies listed, who had better social media reach? Who had true social media skills? (click the image below to go to the poll) As the…
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LogoInn
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Book Review: “Logo Design Workbook: A Hands-On Guide to Creating Logos”
21 Nov 2009 | 5:44 amMost of the time when you go through design books; you will find many logo design examples and relevant critics. But, never find real advise and guidance that how to add stunning factor to logo, what approach should be adapted to bring meanings to custom logo design concepts! At a first glance, you will find [...] -
Adidas: from the finest logos of modern history
10 Nov 2009 | 5:00 amThree-Stripe brand logo became the worldwide Adidas corporate logo. This logo signifies performance and the future of the ultimate Adidas branding identity. Let us take a journey to the history that how this logo has become synonymous with Adidas: world’s second largest producer of high-quality athletic products. Whether it is on the shirts of Liverpool FC [...] -
5 Website Mistakes That Can Kill Your Brand Image
16 Oct 2009 | 11:30 pmNo business in this day and age takes a change of not having a website that could reflect and enhance the brand image of a company. Unfortunately, many business websites lack in some important characteristics, which are not usually known by a business owner. Eventually, these mistakes impact negatively on the image of a business [...] -
You Will Like To Read Again These 10 Top Posts of LogoInn.net
9 Oct 2009 | 12:33 amI hope you will enjoy reading these 10 posts of this blog which were previously published. 8 Mistakes You Should Avoid In Your Business Card Who can deny the importance of a business card, even in this era where everything is digitized. A business card is your first impression to your prospective customer, which may become [...] -
Selecting a Logo Design Company: Hit the Bull’s-Eye
29 Sep 2009 | 1:17 amHaving some good thoughts in your head, you start to look for a custom logo design company to design an out of the world logo for your business. This sound pretty good, but when you think to look for a design company, at first you open an internet browser, open a search engine, put any [...]
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Storytelling To Create Impact Brands
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Varied Visual Volume
18 Nov 2009 | 7:23 amI have been searching for different ways to inspire and motivate people for many years. In both work (pharmaceuticals and academic chemistry) and sport, great communication has been the key at inspiring moments. One of these moments keep coming up and I have started to look carefully at the inspiring power of music and why [...] -
A Tale of Two Pharma Brand Stories
8 Nov 2009 | 12:53 amThere are two types of discussion when selling and in Pharmaceuticals sales it’s the same. The first type of discussion between the company and the physician is best termed a “no conflict story”. In this case there is a medical need which a physician seeks and only one or two companies have a credible solution. [...] -
Do You Measure Up
16 Oct 2009 | 11:05 pmI recently visited Vienna and saw St Stephens Church. A friend from Vienna showed me a round circle on the left-hand side of the main door. She explained that the circle was used to measure the size of the local bread sold in Vienna. It was the official bread measure for the city. Local laws [...] -
Hiaku Poetry- Small but Perfectly Formed- Communication
14 Oct 2009 | 1:19 pmAt a birthday party last night my friend Phil, asked if I had heard of Haiku (Japanese poetry) storytelling. I hadn’t but it sounded really interesting. It’s a poem or story told in 17 syllables broken up in to 3 lines (in English) or groups of 5, 7 and 5 syllables. There are lots of rules to this effective writing skill, the basics are [...] -
Don’t Swing At Everything
12 Oct 2009 | 2:19 pmAs a Cricketer or baseball star, shot selection is key. You don’t swing at everything. If you do you strike out or get tired. Prospecting for customers is the same. Develop a sense for whom to talk to and how to find them. Get better at knowing when to swing. [...]
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Darren Rowse
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problogger: New at ProBlogger: Why Nobody Cares About Your Blog http://bit.ly/7kiQ9j
21 Nov 2009 | 6:44 amproblogger: New at ProBlogger: Why Nobody Cares About Your Blog http://bit.ly/7kiQ9j -
problogger: READING: How to Release Your Web Marketing Potential - http://bit.ly/78rlp1 - nice one @chrisgarret
21 Nov 2009 | 3:30 amproblogger: READING: How to Release Your Web Marketing Potential - http://bit.ly/78rlp1 - nice one @chrisgarret -
problogger: Reading: 3 Great Light Blogging Tools Compared - http://is.gd/50iqE
21 Nov 2009 | 3:24 amproblogger: Reading: 3 Great Light Blogging Tools Compared - http://is.gd/50iqE -
problogger: @matthewdporter we try to keep it up :-)
21 Nov 2009 | 3:17 amproblogger: @matthewdporter we try to keep it up :-) -
problogger: @matthewdporter I hear you - was just responding to your suggestion which was based upon length :-) Taken on board though!
21 Nov 2009 | 3:15 amproblogger: @matthewdporter I hear you - was just responding to your suggestion which was based upon length :-) Taken on board though!
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Jacob Cass
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justcreative: Finally have joined the iPhone bandwagon, currently in Korea town, Los Angeles. Enjoying usa so far!
17 Nov 2009 | 7:22 pmjustcreative: Finally have joined the iPhone bandwagon, currently in Korea town, Los Angeles. Enjoying usa so far! -
justcreative: Logo Design Tips & Interview with Leighton Hubbell http://bit.ly/2WSFOg
15 Nov 2009 | 5:01 pmjustcreative: Logo Design Tips & Interview with Leighton Hubbell http://bit.ly/2WSFOg -
justcreative: New Blog Post: Taking Time Off & Other News http://bit.ly/2rCCNL
14 Nov 2009 | 12:54 pmjustcreative: New Blog Post: Taking Time Off & Other News http://bit.ly/2rCCNL -
justcreative: Officially on vacation, graduated University yesterday and fly out to the States tomorrow :) Off to Sydney now, Bon Voyage!
13 Nov 2009 | 6:22 pmjustcreative: Officially on vacation, graduated University yesterday and fly out to the States tomorrow :) Off to Sydney now, Bon Voyage! -
justcreative: Excellent article on Colour, with a great infographic on the colour of the world's biggest brands - http://bit.ly/G4Bee
13 Nov 2009 | 3:13 pmjustcreative: Excellent article on Colour, with a great infographic on the colour of the world's biggest brands - http://bit.ly/G4Bee
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Sarah Pout
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sarahprout: Time for sleep. Night twitter people. xx
21 Nov 2009 | 4:27 amsarahprout: Time for sleep. Night twitter people. xx -
sarahprout: @DigitalGodess you know, it feels like a full moon tonight but it's weeks away.
21 Nov 2009 | 4:27 amsarahprout: @DigitalGodess you know, it feels like a full moon tonight but it's weeks away. -
sarahprout: @Iconic88 funny you should mention that. I'm going there for a playdate tomorrow :-) Thanks for the reminder of happy thoughts :-)
21 Nov 2009 | 4:19 amsarahprout: @Iconic88 funny you should mention that. I'm going there for a playdate tomorrow :-) Thanks for the reminder of happy thoughts :-) -
sarahprout: Wow. It's been an weird evening & the stalkers are out in full force. LOL
21 Nov 2009 | 4:15 amsarahprout: Wow. It's been an weird evening & the stalkers are out in full force. LOL -
sarahprout: @suziecheel I went last year too. An excuse to go to the Gold Coast would be wonderful. I hope there are tickets left. I
21 Nov 2009 | 3:53 amsarahprout: @suziecheel I went last year too. An excuse to go to the Gold Coast would be wonderful. I hope there are tickets left. I <3 Abe/Hicks
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Liz Strauss
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lizstrauss: @AlexBeattie Still very tired, but getting a bit better every day.
21 Nov 2009 | 9:57 amlizstrauss: @AlexBeattie Still very tired, but getting a bit better every day. -
lizstrauss: @ChrisCree Found it. Breaking out the netbook to answer. Thank you for your generosity.
21 Nov 2009 | 9:56 amlizstrauss: @ChrisCree Found it. Breaking out the netbook to answer. Thank you for your generosity. -
lizstrauss: @ChrisCree Haven't got it yet. Weird.
21 Nov 2009 | 9:44 amlizstrauss: @ChrisCree Haven't got it yet. Weird. -
lizstrauss: @ChrisCree Our @beckymccray can shoot a gun AND a camera. heh heh
21 Nov 2009 | 9:22 amlizstrauss: @ChrisCree Our @beckymccray can shoot a gun AND a camera. heh heh -
lizstrauss: @kpkfusion My in-laws used to winter there, but I've never been.
21 Nov 2009 | 9:21 amlizstrauss: @kpkfusion My in-laws used to winter there, but I've never been.
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Wallpaper.com
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United Nude flagship store, Amsterdam
20 Nov 2009 | 5:28 amSince its launch in 2003, United Nude has created one iconic shoe design after another, from the moulded aluminium Eamz model to the carbon fibre-looped Mobius heel. Architecture buffs might also know them for their connection to the architecture world: the company�s co-owner and co-designer Rem D. Koolhaas is the nephew of renowned OMA starchitect, Rem Koolhaas, with whom… -
Mercedes E500
20 Nov 2009 | 2:41 amMercedes-Benz brought the concept of the big elegant coup� into the world. Although the chauffeured saloon has never lost its lustre as the ultimate aspirational mode of transport, and the supercar continues to snap heads and command attention, big, powerful coup�s are the stealthy choice; not ostentatious enough to incur unwanted attention, but discreetly stylish all the same.… -
Forge Arts by Burd Haward Architects, London
20 Nov 2009 | 2:25 amIn an effort to recreate the intimate and calm context for which chamber music was originally composed - only this time in the heart of one of London�s busiest neighbourhoods - the Forge Arts venue opened recently in Camden Town. See more of Forge Arts Designed by Burd Haward Architects, the venue was a commission by owners Adam and Charlotte Caird, who dreamed of creating… -
Ursula Schulz-Dornburg at The Lichfield Studios
19 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmThe photographs of British aristocrat Patrick Lichfield and Dusseldorf-based Ursula Schulz-Dornburg couldn�t be more different; the former immortalized sixties glamour with his pictures of models, royalty and pop stars, while the latter epitomizes the intellectual, landscape-focused German school, spearheaded by the likes of Hilla and Bernd Becher and their water towers. But… -
First Works architecture exhibition, AA Gallery
18 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmHadid, Piano, Rogers, Foster and many of the fellow-60s and 70s generation of architects may today pride themselves to be among the world�s most celebrated, respected mega-practices; but rewind 4 decades back and all today�s starchitects were just taking their first baby steps into the architectural realm, marking an age of imaginative experimentation, innovation and visionary…
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Graphic Design Blog - An Ultimate Resource for Graphic Designers
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45 Strange and Funny Photoshop Manipulations – A weird combination!!
9 Nov 2009 | 5:14 am“Photoshop manipulation is the process of image editing techniques to photographs in order to create an illusion or deception, through digital means.” Personally, I consider Photoshop Manipulation to be the best art form of the digital age. If executed well, Photoshop gives amazingly powerful results and can be a lot of fun at the same time. There are countless interesting photoshopped images on net but most of them are old and seen many times. However, to leave you spell bound, I bring you an extraordinary collection. Here are 45 images by various great… -
It’s high time to redesign your Graphic Design Blog - Wake up!!
5 Nov 2009 | 5:26 amLatest facelifts of top blogs from the Graphic Design World like “Smashing Magazine” and “Pro Blog Design” have left me puzzledL Undoubtedly, both the blogs have come up with classy minimal changes but the question is how to know it’s time to make-up your blog face? Surely, there comes time when a change has to arrive on our blog but important is that this progress happens at the right time. Lately, twice I planned to get my blog revamped but a second thought held me back “Now or later?” A blog redesign certainly has its own benefits, for which… -
Typographic Logos VS Graphical Logos - A fiddly comparison!!
3 Nov 2009 | 4:38 amDon’t you ever wish to know the secret recipe of a successful logo design? I know it’s a lame question as there is none . We keep experimenting with our logo designs to come up with eye-catching and interest-grabbing logos. But in the end, we still don’t know which type of logo design will be a hit…. A black & white logo or a colorful Logo A weird logo design or a playful logo A typographic logo or a graphical logo Yes…. Today I bring an interesting comparison between the Typographic Logos and Graphical logos. I have put 20 logos in each category, for you… -
23 Impressive Graphic Design Logos – Creative minds at work!!
29 Oct 2009 | 9:41 pmWhile tootling around the blogosphere yesterday, unconsciously I started observing the creative logos of different graphic design blogs. It is always fun to see how artistically these creative gurus play with their logos. The best part of designing a logo for your blog is that you are not bound to follow an endless list of instructions (like the one given by your client Well, here is an inspiring compilation of logos from the magnetizing world of graphic design. Surely, you must have appreciated many of these logos earlier but trust me it was hard to skip them from the list. However, I… -
What matters more for Graphic Design Blogs: Search Engine Traffic or Social Media Traffic??
27 Oct 2009 | 4:44 amHave the stats on your “Traffic Analytics Tool” ever made you question your blog’s worth without the social media or search engines? Well, the growing craze for social media has dominated the internet world with its viral effect. The bandwagon is growing with the brands discovering the value of social media. To make big profits and win special place in the busy blogosphere, we are spending endless hours on our laptops, making power accounts on numerous social networks like Digg, Twitter, Face Book and many more to be named. Although there are endless graphic design…
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DesignM.ag
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10 Questions with Jonathan Longnecker of FortySeven Media
19 Nov 2009 | 1:13 pmI recently had the opportunity to interview Jonathan Longnecker of FortySeven Media to get some insight into his process and his life as a designer. I think you’ll find some inspiration and helpful advice in Jonathan’s responses. In case you are not familiar with his work, Jonathan is a co-founder of FortySeven Media with his partner Nate Croft. You’ll see some examples of their work in this post, or you can visit their portfolio. Can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you got started with design? Sure! This is a pretty fun story, actually. Nate and I met… -
10 Passive Marketing Opportunities for Freelancers
18 Nov 2009 | 6:39 pmFreelance designers are faced with the challenge of constantly finding new work and converting inquiries into paying clients. There are plenty of different ways that you can market your services, but sometimes the most effective ways involve passive marketing. In this article we will be looking at ten different ways you can passively market your services to potential clients. This includes some methods that involve work up front and then little to no work to continue marketing your services, as well as some methods that are passive in the sense that you are not actively pursuing clients or… -
15 ThunderBird Addons for Better Organization and Efficiency
17 Nov 2009 | 1:05 pmMozilla’s Thunderbird is a popular email application that is used by many freelancers and designers. Like Firefox, one of the great things about Thunderbird is the ability to extend it with a wide range of add-ons that are available. In this post we’ll highlight 15 that are likely to be appreciated by designers and developers who are looking to improve their efficiency. QuickFolders Keeping your inbox organized can be a major challenge when you’re getting tons of email every day, but it’s important for making the most efficient use of your time and for staying on top… -
35 Fresh & Outstanding Portfolio Websites for Your Design Inspiration
16 Nov 2009 | 1:38 pmPortfolio websites are often a great source of design inspiration. All designers want to have a portfolio that does an effective job of showcasing their work and helping to bring in new clients. In the past we have published a few collections of portfolio websites, and here is the latest edition. The sites showcased in this post have been featured at our gallery of portfolio sites, Folio Focus. For more inspiration from portfolio sites see: 101 Awesome Portfolio Sites 50 Excellent Designer Portfolio Sites 30 More Portfolio Sites for Your Inspiration Seventy7 31Three Medicon Media Jonah Levine… -
10 Questions with Rob Morris of Digitalmash
12 Nov 2009 | 1:48 pmI recently had the opportunity to interview Rob Morris of Digitalmash. You may be familiar with Rob’s work, particularly his portfolio site which has been featured in countless design galleries and blog posts. Rob is a very talented designer and I hope you get something valuable out of the conversation in this interview. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do? My name’s Rob Morris. I design stuff under the moniker Digitalmash. I do most graphic design stuff, but the biggest chunk of what I do goes to web-based work. Your portfolio site has been included in a…
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DesignNotes by Michael Surtees
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Link Drop from November 9th to 20th, 2009
20 Nov 2009 | 4:24 amThe last couple of weeks have been quiet on the collection of sites for Link Drop. This time last week I only had a couple hence the two weeks between now and the last publishing. What I did find interesting with this set was that there was a lot of links about stories and narrative, a couple things that I haven’t posted much about. There was also a healthy dose of photo sites attached to media. Hopefully there’s some gems in here that you haven’t come across yet. Best, Michael 10 Years / 10 Learnings This post got a lot of traction this week from everything that I twetted. -
In Appreciation of the Beef Chart Poster
19 Nov 2009 | 8:27 pmWalking around Soho during lunch trying to figure out what I wanted to eat, I came across the above Wired Poster. There’s a new pop up store in the Meat Packing District and this is the poster from Wired letting anyone paying attention know. I’m not sure why, but I find the documentation of beef charts to be fascinating. Below are a couple more charts if you’re into that kind of thing from older posts… -
I haz knowledge with webz and fontz
19 Nov 2009 | 5:18 amWhen I posted about rental fonts, one of the first things I mentioned was “I’m probably going to be excommunicated from the “web community” for asking this”… I didn’t say design community, but “web community”. I see design in a very broad sense. Over the course of weeks, months and years on Design Notes I’ve tried to explore anything and everything with an attitude of “what can I learn from” experience and it’s relationship to design. It can be something misc. about graphic design to sharing my everyday walking experience to work in NYC. I also like… -
Is Renting Fonts for a Website a Good Idea?
18 Nov 2009 | 4:05 amI’m probably going to be excommunicated from the “web community” for asking this, but is it really a good idea to rent fonts for a website? There’s been a lot of positive talk recently about Typekit which allows for more aesthetically pleasing typefaces to be used on a website—though for a cost. My interpretation (which could be wrong) is that a person pays a monthly fee to have certain external files used to render specified typefaces on screen. Anything that allows for more options when choosing a typeface is a good idea right? My concern is what happens the month after I… -
REVIEW COPY: We Feel Fine by Sep Kamvar and Jonathan Harris
17 Nov 2009 | 6:29 amA subtitle for this review post could have alternatively been titled “I feel like we can learn a ton from this book”. We Feel Fine is the companion print piece to the site http://www.wefeelfine.org. When a person from a blog publishes the phrase “i feel” or “i am feeling”, We Feel Fine picks up the text and places the post info into their database. From there a person can use the site to filter the info in a number of unique ways. The accompanying book takes some of the more interesting themes that they’ve discovered. The book’s sections are broken into into the five…
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Just Creative Design
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Taking Time Off & Other News
14 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pmAfter two strong years of blogging, I’ve decided to take two months off to go traveling. I will be monitoring my three sites while I am gone but there will be very limited posts throughout this time. I am off for a road trip across 22 states of USA for 6 weeks then back to Australia for a 2 week family holiday / Christmas. I then fly back to New York to start full time work at Carrot Creative of which, I hope to continue to blog on a fortnightly basis. I also plan to keep running Logo Of The Day and to a lesser extent, Logo Designer Blog. Birthday, Graduation & Moving Out I’ll… -
Recently Completed Work
10 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pmI’ve been pretty busy of late so I thought I should show you what I have been up to. Here a small showcase of my most recent freelance design work along with a brief description of each. Sikh Youth Australia Website Design This is my largest and most recent website to date. It has been built from scratch and is currently in coding, using Expression Engine as the CMS. It will feature a rotating article slide show, an article accordion (similar to the left side bar of this site) and a nice drop down CSS Menu along with loads of other user interactivity. The right side bar & footer… -
10 Twitter Design Lists You Must Follow
8 Nov 2009 | 6:00 pmTwitter just recently introduced Twitter lists, a helpful way to better organise the tweets of those you follow. Twitter lists also allow you to find interesting groups of people to keep track of via the use of others recommendations. After much research looking into other Twitterer’s lists and via the use of Listorious, I’ve compiled these ten design twitter lists that are definitely worth following. No Blab, Just Design Links A list of Twitter profiles that only post high quality design links and have very little to no other ‘daily life’ tweets. An alternative to… -
A quick copywriting tip to get more subscribers
4 Nov 2009 | 2:00 pmI recently wrote an article for Freelance Folder about how to get more subscribers by adding an email subscription box and within the comments, Troy Peterson left a great tip on how to optimise the copywriting to maximize subscription signups and I thought it was worth sharing… One thing that will improve your signups as well, is to replace “Subscribe” with “Get Updates”. Many people tend to associate “Subscribe” with some type of commitment. This is typically carried over from the old days of Magazine subscriptions, where people had to commit for a year and pay a price. -
Tutorial: How To Create An Iconic Logo Design
1 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pmLogo design is arguably one of the hardest parts of graphic design though with a little insider knowledge, you may find it’s not so difficult after all. By understanding what makes a “good” logo and the principles behind effective logo design you will be on the right track in no time. In this tutorial you will be guided through the logo design process, from initial brief right through to delivery while being given vital logo design tips along the way. For the sake of this tutorial we will be creating a fictional logo - for now I’ve gone with a logo that reflects the…
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You the Designer
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Mozilla Creative Design Contest
18 Nov 2009 | 6:37 amIn celebration of Mozilla’s Firefox web browser turning 5 years old, the Mozilla Creative Collective are hosting a poster design competition. The contest description states “The winning design will be featured on Mozilla websites and merchandise, and the winning artist will be highlighted on the Creative Collective homepage and the Mozilla Blog.” This is an amazing contest to showcase your talent! Five Years of Firefox Poster Design Contest To learn more about this competition, check out the contest page where you can also submit a design when you are ready to enter. The… -
38 Randomly Awesome Movie Posters
16 Nov 2009 | 7:21 amMovie poster designs have always intrigued me. Although the studios often spend millions in dollars for advertising a movie, for some odd reason we have a hard time seeing good poster designs. We figured it would be necessary to highlight the movie posters that actually turned out great. We’ve collected 38 awesome poster designs from random films and movies, regardless of year, genre, popularity or language. Move Poster Design Inspiration To print and design your own movie poster designs, try custom poster printing at UPrinting.com -
30 Clever Coaster Designs
5 Nov 2009 | 10:36 amEver come across a really cool coaster and wonder, “Am I drunk or is this coaster really cool?” Well here is your sober chance to take a look at some clever and creative coaster inspiration. We’ve rounded up 30 coasters that would definitely liven up any bar top or table. Bottoms Up! Let’s See Those Coaster Designs. Mehmet Gozetlik Kent and Jim Dave Hall Kaleb Coleman Niyati Mehta Tiina Ilmavirta Yvonne Schüttler Kamal Patel Jennifer Stetson Kelsy VonderHaar Thapanon Khongraksa Joshua M. Smith Devika Khowala Elizabeth Crowther David Garcia SLAMS Chris Trivizas Emily… -
20 Magnificent Magazine Covers in Recent Years
2 Nov 2009 | 9:39 amThe art of graphic design is continually evolving with society, fashion, technology and politics. Our styles and colors are inspired by everything around us and in turn, we can see snapshots of our evolving culture in the designs of the recent past. Taking a look at 2 years of magazine covers from major publications, I collected 20 contemporary magazine covers that I appreciated. Twenty Magazine Covers from 2007 – 2009 Bon Apetit Magazine – August 2008 Departures Magazine – October 2008 GQ Magazine – March 2008 Harpers Bazaar – March 2009 (Subscribers Edition)… -
Stencil Graffiti Custom Sticker Design Contest
29 Oct 2009 | 12:39 pmWhile shuffling some papers on my desk, I discovered a sample for a clear roll label product. Coincidentally, I had just finished perusing some artwork by the famous Stencil Graffiti Artist Banksy. The two ideas came together to create awesomeness I don’t usually experience so early in the day! Stencil graffiti designs being put on clear stickers. Brilliant! Submit Your Custom Stickers Designs! We’re excited to see the sticker designs that our readers submit and to sweeten the deal we will be giving the winner $100 and 250 stickers of their design. Please submit your entries…
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Fuel Your Creativity
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Inspiration in Neutral: The FYC Edition
19 Nov 2009 | 1:43 amWe are nearing the end of our colorful inspirational inquisitions here on FYC and as the series draws to a close we end with two unique takes on the series beginning with this week’s installment. All along we have been attempting to test the waters to determine if the source that feeds our inspiration, if it tends towards a singular color, can tend to aim our creative output in the same direction as elements associated with that color. Last week we rolled out Inspiration in Purple: The FYC Edition, and so the color wheel keeps turning as the series’ curtains begin to close. -
Designfruit Launches
16 Nov 2009 | 1:30 amWe are pleased to report that there is a new addition to the online design community…and they brought free brushes! Yay! Designfruit announces the launch of a new e-commerce site packed with royalty-free, high-quality Photoshop brushes and vectors. The site is a showcase of artwork created by Jason Gaylor and Dan Spencer focused on providing great designs to the design community, for both novice and advanced designers, photographers and aspiring graphic professionals. Every design on the site, previously requiring purchase of an additional commercial license for use, is now available… -
A Look at Those Creatively Working Outside the Box
15 Nov 2009 | 4:29 pmEveryday in this field, we see so many creative minds finding new ways to express themselves inside the design arena. It is always an inspiring thing to see when designers look at the world around them, and think of creative ways to apply their craft to it. Often times there are those designers whose work we may have missed had not it been for the watchful eyes of our loyal readers. So in that tone we wanted to showcase another group of creative designs where the designers have taken the leap to think outside the box and come up with practical applications for their inspired endeavors. And… -
Inspiration in Purple: The FYC Edition
10 Nov 2009 | 11:33 pmAnother week has worked its way to Wednesday and we have compiled another installment of our series of colorful inspirational inquisitions here on FYC. As our testing of the waters winds down where we attempt to determine if the source that feeds our inspiration, if it tends towards a singular color, can tend to aim our creative output in the same direction as elements associated with that color. Last week we rolled out Inspiration in Blue: The FYC Edition, and so the color wheel keeps turning as the series nears its end. Welcome back once again to the FYC edition of the popular Inspiration… -
Think Wallpaper
10 Nov 2009 | 1:29 amFile Type: JPG Number in Set: 8 Sizes: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 320×480 (iPhone) License Type: Creative Commons 3.0 Author: Tim Smith Tim Smith (or @timothybsmith, if you know him on Twitter) is a creative graphic designer and blogging dynamo who was hand picked to head up the Fuel Your Blogging site as editor. Taking his love of community and graphic design and merging the two together, Tim devised and designed the Think wallpaper for the FYC readers. We know Tim shares our sentiments in hoping…
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Pro Blog Design
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60 Great AIR Apps For Web & Graphic Designers
19 Nov 2009 | 9:00 amAdobe AIR is a great platform to build efficient and cutting edge desktop applications, that work on any operating system. In the last few years, hundreds of very useful applications have been built on AIR for all sorts of purposes. Here we focus our attention on apps built for web and graphic designers. This list only contains applications that have proven to be dependable and useful for designers. We’ve split it up into these sections: Creating Graphics Design-Specific Tools Editing Images Taking Screenshots Productivity Tools Image Sharing Tools Multimedia Apps Creating Graphics 1. -
Hiring Writers For Up To $125
16 Nov 2009 | 5:00 pmThis is just a quick post to let you know that we’re once again looking for writers, and this time, at a substantially higher rate. The new rate is based on the feedback you all left a few weeks back. Big thanks to everyone who took part! From now on, post authors will be paid somewhere between $70 and $125 for their work, based on the quality of the post. We’ll be drifting away from the list posts that some of you are getting a little tired of, and start focusing on more in-depth tutorials and discussions (And when you do see list posts in future, you’ll find a lot more value in them. -
Design Review: Liam J Moore
12 Nov 2009 | 9:00 amAs part of our feedback post, we promised to review one commenter’s site here on Pro Blog Design. Well, our winner was Liam J Moore, so we’ll be reviewing his site today. A quick note to everyone who took part in the feedback post though, thank you for all of your suggestions! We’ve gone through every single one of them, more on that to come on Monday! Now, to the review. Liam is a student completing his Masters project in Multidisciplinary Design this year. The blog currently serves a joint purpose; as a portfolio for his design work, but also as a progress log for the project. The… -
35+ Funky Cartoon Fonts for Logos and Headers
9 Nov 2009 | 8:00 amThere are a lot of free fonts available online. Sites like Dafont and 1001Fonts are invaluable repositories for designers, because they give us such a wide range of font options. Cartoon fonts are one type of font that rarely get much praise. The problem with them is that by definition, they’re gimmicks. They are never the most legible fonts, I’d never recommend using one for content, and quite often, they just look foolish. But when it comes to creating a memorable logo easily, a good cartoon font can be a great first step. They’re distinctive, look great in large sizes,… -
Why and How to Use Dropbox for Client & Blog Files
5 Nov 2009 | 9:00 amWe all know that our computers will crash someday, and we all know that we need to make backups of our files to keep our work safe. The hassle is that a lot of backup methods are tedious and time wasting to keep going. We want to have a backup system that we can set up, and then forget about it. We’ve already shown you how to keep a WordPress database safe, but in this post we are going to look at the rest of your blog and theme files, as well as client files or any other important documents you keep. Here’s what we’ll be talking about: What is Dropbox? Securing your blog folder. Why…
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Netdiver Magazine
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Breaking news!
21 Nov 2009 | 5:49 amGoogle OS: the end of the hard drive? by Dylan F. Tweney “Chrome OS netbooks will not have traditional hard disk drives — they will rely on non-volatile flash memory and Internet-based storage for saving all of your data. All the applications will be web-based, meaning users won’t have to install apps, manage updates [...] -
Slooooow motion
21 Nov 2009 | 5:37 amIt’s all about finding and exploring the visual beauty of drops of water filmed in very slooooow motion: Time Warp – Water. _______ via Guy Kawasaki -
Emilia’s animations
20 Nov 2009 | 9:27 amEmilia Forstreuter enthralling, superb animations makes the mind visit unknown territories with her lush forms and the beauty of the movements. Featured: Yonder (don’t miss about to view more visuals) _______ Featured: Amstel (don’t miss about to view more visuals) _______ via Fubiz -
The Luxury of Protest
20 Nov 2009 | 6:37 amUp-close with a complex data visualisation poster for A B Peace and Terror project created by The Luxury of Protest. -
Juan Carlos Pagan
20 Nov 2009 | 6:34 amJuan Carlos Pagan is a designer, typographer, and painter who lives and works in New York City. Soon after graduating (Parson’s) he found himself compelled to explore all aspects of typography in great depth, using the written word and it’s structural manifestations to fuel the majority of his work.
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CSS Globe | Web Standards Magazine
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The Ultimate Toolbox for iPhone Development
20 Nov 2009 | 10:17 am70 tools, tutorials, and resources to help you get started developing your own iPhone apps. -
10 Must Have Hacks For WordPress Development
20 Nov 2009 | 4:15 amIn this post I am going to show you 10 WP hacks that you can add to your arsenal that will not only save you a lot of time, but they will also set your themes apart from the rest. -
Making an Interactive Picture with jQuery
19 Nov 2009 | 9:06 pmHow to piece together an interactive picture that contains tooltips and popup boxes. -
jQuery Lesson Series: How to Implement Your First Plugin
19 Nov 2009 | 1:33 pmBuilding a jQuery plugin is relatively easy if you know the basics. In this article we are going to learn how to implement your first jQuery plug-in. -
Green Website Showcase
19 Nov 2009 | 12:14 pmAn inspirational showcase of green websites
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xkcd.com
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Prudence
19 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm -
Academia vs. Business
17 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm -
Sagan-Man
15 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm -
iPhone or Droid
12 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
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Planet Photoshop
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Viewing and Basking in your Image
20 Nov 2009 | 6:15 amWhen I’m done working with an image, I like to sit and admire it (hey, I spent six hours working on it, I should). To do that, I hit the Tab key, then hit the F key three times. This hides all of the panels and toolbars and lets you see the image by itself [...] -
OnOne Releases Plug-In Suite 5
19 Nov 2009 | 10:57 pmEarlier this week OnOne Software, Inc. released the new Plug-in Suite 5 for Adobe Photoshop. Designed to solve the most common problems facing photographers in the areas of color correction, enlarging, masking and professional photographic effects, the Plug-in Suite 5 combines full versions of six essential software tools in one affordable package: FocalPoint 2, PhotoTune [...] -
Rotating your images with Shortcuts
19 Nov 2009 | 6:15 amI spent some time playing around with the orientation of images. Instead of having to go to Image>Rotate Canvas>90° CW or 90° CCW, I set up actions for them. To do this, create a blank document. Once you have the document onscreen, create an action called 90 Degrees Clockwise and assign it a keyboard shortcut. [...] -
Adobe Creative Suite Tour Coming to San Diego
18 Nov 2009 | 7:13 amCalifornia is really in for quite a treat this Friday as Dave Cross and RC Concepcion will be bringing the all new Adobe Creative Suite Tour to San Diego this Friday, November 20. If you haven’t yet heard of the this new tour it’s a day long excursion into the Creative Suite. Join RC and [...] -
Using the Button Mode in Actions
18 Nov 2009 | 6:15 amThe best way to automate tasks in Photoshop is to create actions of common tasks. When you are working with multiple images, you don’t want to keep selecting an action and clicking on the Play Selection icon. Speed up your workflow by enabling Button mode. In the Actions panel flyout menu, you can select Button [...]
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A List Apart
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On Web Typography
17 Nov 2009 | 12:00 amUntil now, chances are that if we dropped text onto a web page in a system font at a reasonable size, it was legible. But with many typefaces about to be freed for use on websites, choosing the right ones to complement a site's design will be far more challenging. Many faces to which we’ll soon have access were never meant for screen use, either because they’re aesthetically unsuitable or because they’re just plain illegible. Jason Santa Maria, a force behind improved type on the web, presents qualities and methods to keep in mind as we venture into the widening world of web type. -
Real Web Type in Real Web Context
17 Nov 2009 | 12:00 amWeb fonts are here. Now that browsers support real fonts in web pages and we can license complete typefaces for such use, it's time to think pragmatically about how to use real fonts in our web projects. Above all, we need to know how our type renders in screens, in web browsers. To that end, Tim Brown has created Web Font Specimen, a handy, free resource web designers and type designers can use to see how typefaces will look on the web. -
Can You Say That in English? Explaining UX Research to Clients
3 Nov 2009 | 1:00 amIt's hard for clients to understand the true value of user experience research. As much as you'd like to tell your clients to go read The Elements of User Experience and call you back when they’re done, that won’t cut it in a professional services environment. David Sherwin creates a cheat sheet to help you pitch UX research using plain, client-friendly language that focuses on the business value of each exercise. -
You Can Get There From Here: Websites for Learners
3 Nov 2009 | 1:00 am"Content-rich" is not enough. Most websites are not learner-friendly. As an industry, we haven’t done our best to make our content-rich websites suitable for learning and exploration. Learners require more from us than keywords and killer headlines. They need an environment that is narrative, interactive, and discoverable. Amber Simmons tells how to begin creating rich content sites that invite and repay exploration and discovery. -
Getting to No
20 Oct 2009 | 3:00 amA bad client relationship is like a bad marriage without the benefits. To avoid such relationships, or to fix the one you’re in, learn the five classic signs of trouble. Recognizing the never-ending contract revisionist, the giant project team, the vanishing boss and other warning signs can help you run successful, angst-free projects.
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FreelanceSwitch
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Rules for Successful Client-Freelancer Working Relationships
20 Nov 2009 | 4:30 amSo you’ve hired a freelancer to help you achieve your business goals. Now what? It’s vitally important that you, as the client, do your part in fostering a positive working relationship with your contractor. Embarking on a new project can be overwhelming, especially if it involves technical aspects (such as web design). That’s why you’ve hired an expert! But in order to make your project a success, you need to develop a solid working relationship, and be aware of some basic “rules” when working with a freelancer. Rule #1: Respect the Freelancer’s… -
7 Tips For Good Record Keeping
19 Nov 2009 | 4:30 amFor many freelancers, records are the last things we think about. There’s a design to finish for a client or an accounting department to call about an invoice — there’s always something more important than handling records. But the fact remains that those records are important at some point. Whether you need to go back to an old version of a project for your client or you need to pull your copy of an invoice, having an organized system is crucial. The biggest problem we face in getting our records into order (and keeping them that way) is that most of us work on our own. -
FreelancerPro Interview: The Foundations of Freelancing
18 Nov 2009 | 4:30 amLooking to get big-name clients? Hear what Briant Grant, the creative director at Anisometric, has to say. Brian took his time to get experience and leveraged that agency experience into a thriving design firm based in London. Tell us how you got started in the design industry. I remember being particularly inspired by a new art teacher at my school when I was around 14 years old. His name is Guy Harring and he really was a towering influence on me and showed that there was no limits on what I could achieve in my life. I knew that I wanted to do something related in some way to art when I… -
Linkswitch #14
17 Nov 2009 | 4:30 amFreelancing From The Road: The Tools to Take With You “One of the great things about being a freelancer, is the freedom that comes with having chosen this career path. As a freelancer you can take to the road when you need, and the best part is, that you can also take your job with you! Now this is conditional on being able to put together the proper toolkit to take with you on your journey.” How to Work ON Your Business, Not IN it “We get so caught up in the daily life of running a business, it’s easy to miss the forest for the trees. Not that you have a choice! You’re… -
Freelance Freedom #131
16 Nov 2009 | 4:30 am
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SimpleBits
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Things I Saw Today
18 Nov 2009 | 12:56 pmA nice tutorial on creating your own textured backgrounds from two stock images by Ali Felski (who’s site is beautifully textured in its own right). Ligature, Loop & Stem, “creators and curators of fine typography-related products”, has launched. Ingenious site layout and presentation, and some wonderful ampersand-related products are already for sale. Microsoft announced an early look at IE9 for developers. Notable stuff includes support for the border-radius property. No vendor-specific extension. Good reason to include actual CSS3 properties along with… -
Hooray Coffee
13 Nov 2009 | 7:02 amA gocco print by Nate Duval that I just purchased for our kitchen. Found via the excellent Print Society. -
15 Things Worth Knowing About Coffee
13 Nov 2009 | 6:59 amAn educational, illustrated guide. (via) -
Things I Saw Today
10 Nov 2009 | 1:28 pmTypekit, “… a subscription-based service for linking to high-quality Open Type fonts”, is now live and available to all. A superb desktop wallpaper by Alex Cornell. Loving the subtle text and texture of this one. Looks nice on the iPhone as well. (via ISO50) Birdhouse for Your Soul is a touching post by Greg Knauss on why he loves the internet. Absolutely worth a read. (via) Craig Robinson of Flip Flop Flyin’ has a new iPhone app out that boasts, “… 1,000 Minipops on your iPhone/iPod touch which you can look at whenever and wherever you want.”… -
Think Vitamin interview
6 Nov 2009 | 8:18 amA quick interview with Carsonified’s Keir Whitaker, on bulletproof design, CSS3 and a little leak on what Dribbble is.
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Jeffrey Zeldman Presents The Daily Report
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A Design Apart Q&A
19 Nov 2009 | 12:11 pm“Content informs design; design without content is decoration. Content has the same relationship to design that product has to advertising. Good ads are based on the product; good designs come from and facilitate the content. This is one reason we bring content strategy to every design assignment, and one reason we insist on working with real content, not lorem ipsum (placeholder) content. Nothing is sadder than a beautiful design that works great with lorem ipsum but doesn’t actually support the real content.” A Design Apart: Q&A with Jeffrey Zeldman | Sparksheet -
As we were
18 Nov 2009 | 9:11 pmTitle images from the early years of A List Apart “for people who make websites” are now available for your viewing pleasure. Were we really ever that young? NAME THAT FONT! Here’s a nice rainy-day activity for ya. Visit the ALA historical header images collection on Flickr and name the fonts used in individual images. Short URL: zeldman.com/?p=3035 -
FontShop Fonts on the Web
18 Nov 2009 | 1:08 pmFontShop announces that they are ready to deliver their font library as web type: [S]tarting today, Typekit users can pick from dozens of FontFonts, including FF Meta, FF Dax, and FF Netto. Plus, the Typekit service lets you test any of those FontFonts on your page before you publish. And tomorrow? Typekit is just one piece of a holistic strategy for FontFonts on the web. The library should be licensable in a more traditional way too. That’s where WOFF fits in. … Soon anyone will be able to license and download for their website the same professional quality FontFont they use in desktop… -
More Web Fonts
18 Nov 2009 | 4:46 amEllen Lupton and Jeffrey Zeldman talk about web fonts, part 2. That is all. This has been a belated part of Web Type Day. -
Web Type: Lupton on Zeldman
17 Nov 2009 | 8:01 amToday in Print, Ellen Lupton interviews Jeffrey Zeldman (that’s me) on web typography, web standards, and more. Part one of a two-part interview. Ellen Lupton is curator of contemporary design at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City and director of the Graphic Design MFA program at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore. She is the author of numerous books and articles on design, a frequent lecturer, and an AIGA Gold Medalist. This has been a nutritious part of Web Type Day. Short URL: zeldman.com/?p=2932
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Graphic Design News
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Excellence by Design: Georgian Court showcases student art
21 Nov 2009 | 1:40 amLakewood, N.J., Nov. 20, 2009 - Georgian Court University will present the work of three seniors studying graphic design during their senior portfolio show, which kicks off with a reception from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, December 1, in the lobby of the GCU Wellness Center in Lakewood. -
More Members Of Middle Class File For Bankruptcy
20 Nov 2009 | 1:38 amStaci Schubert's career has taken her from New York to California, from graphic designer to website designer to sales executive. -
Super7 to Host Art Show Featuring Famous Female Graphic Designers
19 Nov 2009 | 1:21 amSAINT PETERSBURG, FL November 19, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Super7 is proud to present the follow up to 2007's blockbuster show "Birds of a Feather" with the new, aptly titled show "Birds of a Feather 2," featuring artwork by Dora Drimalas, Heather Amuny-Dey, and Shay Ashley-Ometz. This show features three original new prints from each artist as ... -
Take your design qualification to another level - enrol for an honours degree at The Open Window
18 Nov 2009 | 7:59 amThe Open Window School of Visual Communication will be presenting a BA Honours degree in Visual Communication at its new campus in Southdowns, Centurion in 2010. -
WESTWEEK + Art & Design Walk = BOFFO
17 Nov 2009 | 11:52 pmCharles S. Cohen, president/founder of Pacific Design Center and Darren Gold, Chair of the Avenues of Art & Design announced last week that WESTWEEK 2010 will take place at Pacific Design Center, Wednesday, March 24 and Thursday, March 25; and the Art & Design Walk is scheduled to follow in the weekend afterward - Friday, March 26 and Saturday, ...
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Logo Design Love
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Logo design from The Chase
14 Nov 2009 | 3:01 pmThe Chase, a UK graphic design and branding consultancy in Manchester, London, and Preston, was founded in 1986 by Ben Casey and Lionel Hatch. With a staff of 46 it recently became part of the Hasgrove Group. Here is a small selection of its identity design projects. Leaf Street “An environmentally friendly housing association in northern England with a name that can prove its credentials. A leaf becomes a row of houses, becomes a logo.” Keycutters “An identity for… go on have a guess.” 3CV “Ethical marketing company with three core values.” Layezee… -
Ask Tom Geismar
11 Nov 2009 | 3:14 amTom Geismar is a founding partner of Chermayeff & Geismar and widely considered a pioneer of American graphic design. During the past four decades he has designed more than 100 corporate identity programs. Mobil Oil Corporation logo, 1964 His designs for Xerox, Chase Manhattan Bank, PBS, National Geographic, Gemini Consulting, Univision, Rockefeller Center and, most notably, Mobil Oil have received worldwide acclaim. Chase Bank logo, 1961 He has received all the major awards in the field, including one of the first Presidential Design Awards for helping to establish a national system of… -
The logo design untrend manifesto
9 Nov 2009 | 2:11 amImage credit: Anand Duncan You won’t search for the latest fads. You will produce logos that don’t rely on what every one else is doing. The focus will be solely on your client, and what is most suitable for her. If the client needs a swoosh, deliver a swoosh. But you must first determine that need through comprehensive research and brainstorming. You will not feel compelled to “fit in” with your peers. If someone else is doing it, that’s one more reason to set yourself apart. Your competition will be your portfolio, with the aim of delivering the client with… -
Seven brand identity by B&W Studio
2 Nov 2009 | 4:28 amDesign consultancy B&W Studio, based in Leeds, UK, created this brand identity design for Seven back in 2007. I saw it today for the first time. Liked it. Thought you would, too. As with many brand identities, the logo in isolation isn’t what makes it work, and what I enjoy most is consistency of implementation across both print and web, giving a strong and professional unity. View more work on the brand spanking B&W Studio website. Or visit the Seven website to view the identity in context. Photography by Matt Wright. Via Grafikcache. Published on Logo Design Love Related… -
McCadden Design brandmarks
26 Oct 2009 | 6:04 amGiven that I’ve been back in Northern Ireland for a little over a year now, I thought it appropriate to put some focus on local design studios. Belfast-based McCadden Design has been working with organisations in the UK and Ireland for more than 25 years. Here’s a small selection of its brandmarks. Titanic Quarter “Currently the largest waterfront development in Europe, Titanic Quarter is a massive yet dynamic undertaking which takes its name from the part of the site where the Titanic was built. The four funnels of the iconic ship play a key role in our identity – a…
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CSS-Tricks
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New Screencast: A Tour of jQuery on a Live Site
20 Nov 2009 | 7:06 amI’m busy, you’re busy, we’re all busy trying to meet deadlines and get things done in this crazy web world. I love learning new technologies when I can, but I’m the first to admit that I reach for tools that I already know well because I can be instantly productive that way. jQuery is one of those tools for me. In this screencast I walk through a website where I used jQuery all over the place in different capacities to get things done. Hey ya’ll, quick reminder here: I wrote a book! It’s called Digging Into WordPress and you can get it here. -
Quotes on Design API v3.0 (+ Widgets!)
19 Nov 2009 | 6:12 amBack in the sad ol’ days of the v1.0 API, everytime any site using it loaded the script, a database call was made to pull a fresh quote from the Quotes on Design archives. It worked, but it was slow and clearly not going to scale well. Version 2.0 was put together to solve those problems. A CRON job was used to run one DB query every 10 minutes and write the quote and markup to a .TXT file. Then when the script was called, it just read the content of that file and used that to work the magic. It actually worked great. I learned that this technique is referred to as “Ghetto… -
Five Questions with David Walsh
18 Nov 2009 | 6:09 amThere is probably a good chance if you read this blog that you also know David Walsh. David and I hail from the same hometown (Madison, Wisconsin) and have been friends for years. We’ve worked on a few projects together and have written a bunch of double-posts together. Mostly I just bug him with questions I have about PHP and JavaScript and he always is there to help me out. I’m finally getting around to grilling him on a few questions. Read on to hear about client work, pet peeves, and the classic jQuery vs MooTools debate. Chris: Let’s have your take on this jQuery… -
Fix Padded Image Links with Negative Margins
16 Nov 2009 | 5:35 amThis is a pretty basic trick that will be obvious to many of you. But for whatever reason, the solution to it always kind of eluded me so I’m sharing it here. I like padded links. Where you give links in body content a little padding, background, and rounded corners. a { padding: 2px 6px; background: #eee; -moz-border-radius: 4px; -webkit-border-radius: 4px; } A “padded” link The problem is that when you make images into links, this padding shows up in ungainly ways. Wrong Ways to Fix How I used to fix it was to use a sledgehammer instead of a chisel. That is, I wrote some… -
Print Design to Web Design: Comparative Analogies
12 Nov 2009 | 5:50 amI used to work in Pre-Press for a long time. Longer even now than I’ve been working on the web. I was in and out of InDesign documents all day every day. I’m not an uber-pro, but I know my way around pretty well. Recently I’ve been finishing up laying out my new book Digging Into WordPress (which you can buy now!) and during that time I was thinking about some of the ways working in InDesign is similar to CSS, and some of the ways it’s not. Let’s have a look. Print documents are of a fixed size. Web browsers are fluid. In print, you declare the width and height…
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Inspired Magazine
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The Coolest iPhone Games You Should Own No Matter What
19 Nov 2009 | 10:32 amA new week, a new iPhone goodies roundup – this time we’re listing only games. Please share your favorite in the comments area and suggest other titles. BTW, if you like this post you’ll sure love these as well: 12 Fresh & Creative Branded Apps, Top 10 “Not Your Average” iPhone Apps & 10 (More) Fresh & Funny iPhone Apps. iBlast Moki | $1.99 | Review | Download The goal in iBlast Moki is to detonate bombs that you’ve placed within the scene to force the Mokis into contact with a red swirly space. It’s is a well honed, gorgeous platformer that will… -
10 Absolutely New & Stunning Portfolio Wordpress Themes for Non-Designers
17 Nov 2009 | 2:27 pmNevermind you’re not a designer. These days just about any kind of freelancer needs a porftolio as much as he needs a blog. And why would you use another platform than Wordpress, our beloved free & incredibly popular weapon of choice? Here are some of the newest and most eye catching themes released in the last few days. And be sure to check 10 Cool Photo Portfolio and Gallery Themes and 15 FreshThemes To Get The Coolest Portfolio For You Or Your Studio. London Creative | $30 | Details | Demo London Creative comes with fully working contact form, awesome slider for your featured… -
What Everybody Ought to Know About Digital Photo Retouching
17 Nov 2009 | 4:09 amToday we take a look deeper into the hidden art of digital retouching where skies can always be blue and imperfections simply disappear. Whether you like it or hate it, think it’s necessary or not, retouching is here to stay. The majority of images you see online, in print, on television and certainly on sky-high billboards have all played victim to hours of enhancement, manipulation and tweaking that makes up the retouching process. Before you set your eyes on that magazine fashion spread, celebrity portrait, or even fast food burger advertisement, chances are it has been given the… -
Embedding Social Media Channels in Modern Web Design
13 Nov 2009 | 5:10 amWell the Twitter stream integration is almost a standard these days when designing a portfolio website, but there are some brands with a more complex view when it comes to social media integration. Here are four brands with entire websites built over Wikipedia, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Enjoy and leave your suggestion in the comments. Skittles Campbell Ewald Krispin Porter Almost At Modernista -
How To: Create a Sleek Single Page Portfolio in 10 Minutes
11 Nov 2009 | 12:57 amYou don’t have to be a web designer to create an amazing portfolio – maybe you’re a photographer or illustrator or God knows what other type creative soul. And you don’t have to spend two months waiting for some friend to help you with a microsite. Noo sir! – there are very easy ways of doing this by yourself in just a few simple steps and this is one of them! First you’ll need to sort out your projects and make sure you’ve selected your best pieces that you’re going to showcase. Once you’ve done this you should be ready to cut out some images…
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Picocool
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Light Cube sucks juice from Sun to glow up your inte
21 Nov 2009 | 9:08 am“Light Cube" by Korean designer Joo Wan-Jin is a mood lamp that recharges itself during the day to glow up your interiors nightime. The reason why it recharges just daytime is that it’s solar powered. Designed with the aim to hint people toward contributing the environmental problem, the Light Cube charges the portable electronic devices like hand phone, MP3 all using the solar energy efficiently.4 Vote(s) -
a4Invaded Spacea4 by Adam Richardson
21 Nov 2009 | 7:04 amPhotographer Adam Richardson and his latest project called ‘Invaded Space’ add an humor and irony to the concept of war. By super-imposing the iconic C64 figures onto war photography, the actual fight gets a new character. Adam Richardson is from Manchester, England, where he works as a photographer, graphic designer and art director.2 Vote(s) -
A Bit Cross
21 Nov 2009 | 7:04 amWith its combination of symbolical and practical strength, it’s hard to think of a situation where this pendant would not have you covered. The bits sizes are based on actual screwing bits, including an IKEA standard tool and can be used for light jobs.3 Vote(s) -
Rotterdam Market Hall by MVRDV
21 Nov 2009 | 7:03 amConstruction has begun on a combined residential project and market hall in Rotterdam.2 Vote(s) -
Otaku Magazine Vol. 6: The End of the World
21 Nov 2009 | 6:50 amWe are glad to announce the launch of the new Otaku Magazine issue, which has the theme “THE END OF THE WORLD" and encompasses various themes, from Godzilla and Gundam, to otaku survival methods.2 Vote(s)
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Six Revisions
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10 Free and High-Res Grungy Wood Textures
20 Nov 2009 | 7:58 pmHere are 10 high quality wooden textures that you can use in your design projects free of charge. Each texture file is extremely large-scale at 3,872px x 2,592px so that you can use them in many types of projects, large or small. Preview Here is a preview of them. Click on their title or image to go to their Flickr pages where you can download various sizes. Alternatively, you may wish to browse the Six Revisions Grungy Wood texture set on Flickr. Grungy Wood 01 Grungy Wood 02 Grungy Wood 03 Grungy Wood 04 Grungy Wood 05 Grungy Wood 06 Grungy Wood 07 Grungy Wood 08 Grungy Wood 09 Grungy Wood… -
How to Design a Band Website Layout in Photoshop
19 Nov 2009 | 5:54 amIn this tutorial, you’ll learn step-by-step how to design an awesome band website that any rock and roller would be proud to call their own. The theme is grungy and worn-and-torn and we’ll use a handful of freebies along the way. Final Result Clicking on the image below to see a full-scale version of the band website we’ll be creating. Create the Photoshop document 1 Start out by opening a new document in Photoshop, 1200 pixels wide by 1000 pixels tall. 2 Then drag your guides from the Ruler (press Ctrl/Cmd + R if you don’t see your rulers) so that the middle content… -
10 Definitive Tips for Writing Captivating Emails
17 Nov 2009 | 2:00 pmEmails are a great way to reach people, to keep reminding them that your site still exists and that they really should keep checking you out. After all, the people who receive your emails should already be familiar with you, they will have opted to receive emails from you, but now you have to make sure they pay attention to what you’re sending them. But, you should keep in mind that every email list is different. You should see what works for your readers and avoid what I call the Amazon effect: just because it works for someone else doesn’t mean it’s right for you and your… -
How to Use Retro Colors in Your Designs
16 Nov 2009 | 2:00 pmRetro colors are a great way to give your website an older/vintage feel; it can give your design a little something different from the regular fully saturated colors that you see often in modern-themed designs. This article is both a showcase of retro-colored themes in existing web designs, as well as a tutorial on how to achieve retro colors using Adobe Photoshop (you’ll learn about five different techniques). Retro colors in web design Before we delve into using retro colors, first let’s peek at some existing web designs that use retro/vintage colors really well. Kitschen Sink… -
The History of the Internet in a Nutshell
15 Nov 2009 | 10:25 amIf you’re reading this article, it’s likely that you spend a fair amount of time online. However, considering how much of an influence the Internet has in our daily lives, how many of us actually know the story of how it got its start? Here’s a brief history of the Internet, including important dates, people, projects, sites, and other information that should give you at least a partial picture of what this thing we call the Internet really is, and where it came from. While the complete history of the Internet could easily fill a few books, this article should familiarize…
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Better Living Through Design
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Protractor Doorwedges
21 Nov 2009 | 4:41 amIf you’re into angles, you might be into these Protractor Doorwedges by Offcut Design. Each doorwedge has a protractor graphic illustrating their randomly selected 12° angle. Also available directly through Offcut Design’s website (though you have to email). -
New Lamp by the.
20 Nov 2009 | 6:57 amWe posted some work by “the.” before–they have a smallish portfolio of really clever work and they’re worth checking out. This particular lamp would look amazing on my bedside table. However, the -$1200 would not look good in my bank account. Construction: Laser cut translucent white acrylic with cool-white fluorescent bulb Dimensions: H 16″ x W 6.5″ x L 9″ -
Strut 70″ Work Table
20 Nov 2009 | 5:30 amHere’s a sort-of-affordable glass table with an interesting wood base. ‘Sort-of-affordable’ in this case means there’s no comma in the price tag. Glass top floats on dramatically angled shesham wood legs with a matte walnut stain. Crossbar support connects the base with striking stainless steel hardware that’s an integral part of the design. Seats four if using as a dining table. 70″Wx34″Dx30″H Also available, not shown: Strut 36″ Glass Top Table, $499.00 -
Jug and Measuring Spoon
20 Nov 2009 | 5:19 amWell, take a look at this kitchen contraption. A double duty item, this ‘jug’ is a carafe or pitcher when not in use as a measuring device. Could be a handy sort of thing for making mixed drinks in bulk (for a few friends… or for yourself after a very bad day at work). Jug and measuring spoon for liquid measuring. Spoon is printed with a scale of measurement. Read the measurement off the spoon when it is placed in the jug with the contents. The spoon has ounces and milliliters on it… Jug may also be used separately as a carafe or pitcher. Measures up to 1000 ml or 32… -
Karate Kid Clipboard
20 Nov 2009 | 4:58 amTwo wooden parts held together with a rubber band make this unusual clipboard. The lack of metal makes it look a little more warm and friendly than traditional office supply clipboards, don’t you think? Designed by Simon Donald for spunique. Bands may vary in colour.
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InspirationKing
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Blogsolid
Not an entirely new concept, but beautiful nonetheless. -
Emeril's
A great website with a very pleasing design. -
Trale
Something is very soothing about this website. Good design and usability at it’s best! -
Web Designer Wall
Amazing eye for detail and colour. A must see! -
Portfolio
Boring? Perfect? Either way it’s drop dead gorgeus.
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Photofocus
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Mini Review – Litepanels LP MicroPro LED Light
21 Nov 2009 | 2:18 amI have talked about Litepanels before. They make high-quality, battery-powered, portable LED lights that are perfect for compact cameras, camcorders and video cameras. Now, Litepanels is selling the Lightpanels MicroPro. This is a larger version of their popular Litepanels Micro which may be valuable to DSLR/VSLR shooters who work reasonably close to their subjects. The MicroPro offers a soft, broad, continuous light source that can be used in a variety of situations. The MicroPro runs off six batteries and in my tests, turning the LEDs off when not in use, I can go for a full day before… -
Stop Wasting Time
20 Nov 2009 | 9:58 am(Photo is Copyright Nicole S. Young – All Rights Reserved) Post by Nicole Young – Follow Nicole on Twitter I think that everyone reading this blog post, photographer or not, would agree with me when I say that their time is precious. I want to spend my time doing the things I enjoy, and I try my best to use my work time as efficiently as possible. So, how can you be more “efficient” with your photography? Here are a few techniques that I try to follow when using my camera and editing images: - Be deliberate. When you are creating a photograph take inventory of… -
Emerging Photographer of the Year Finalist – Chitra Aiyer
20 Nov 2009 | 3:24 amCopyright Chitra Aiyer - Used With Permission Hopefully you’re aware of our Emerging Photographer of the Year Award – to recap, over the next year, we’re going to identify 24 photographers who have outstanding work and offer them the exposure that they can get through our Photofocus website. Then, we’re going to select one to give a special award to. (The exact prize package is still taking shape but here’s what we have so far:) 1. Copy Aperture $199 2. Copy Nik Complete Collection $299 3. Think Tank Rotation 360 Backpack $279 4. $500 cash from Bourne Media Group… -
Primer for Still to Video Shooters Part 4
19 Nov 2009 | 2:38 pmEDITOR’S NOTE: Guest Post by Ron Dawson To see Part 1 in this series, go to : http://photofocus.com/2009/11/16/primer-for-still-to-video-shooters-part-1/ To see Part 2 in this series, go to : http://photofocus.com/2009/11/17/primer-for-still-to-video-shooters-part-2/ To see Part 2 in this series, go to: http://photofocus.com/2009/11/18/primer-for-still-to-video-shooters-part-3/ Editing Your Project Now that you have your footage “in the can,” it’s time to do the editing. I won’t go into any details regarding editing systems. There are too many. Unless you’re a… -
Five Inexpensive Gifts Every Serious Photographer Will Love
19 Nov 2009 | 2:53 amPhoto Coutesy Rich Legg With less than six weeks to go until Christmas, (insert your holiday of choice here if you don’t celebrate Christmas) it’s time to start with the proverbial holiday gift buying guides here at Photofocus. With the recession in mind, we’re going to start small. This list is all inexpensive gifts. We guarantee you there’s something here for every budget. 1. Chase Jarvis’ crazy popular “BEST CAMERA” is a must-give gift this holiday season. At only $2.99 it’s more fun than many more expensive gifts. It’s an iPhone photo…
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A Photo Editor
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Frank W. Ockenfels 3 Interview
20 Nov 2009 | 7:32 amFrank Ockenfels is the kind of photographer who does everything well. From his black and white to his color; from passport photos to 4 x 5; photographing men and photographing women; it’s all equally good. He’s also the kind of guy you throw a really difficult assignment to because with all the different films and formats he’s bound to get something great. I had the opportunity to talk with Frank because he’s got a show opening tomorrow at the Clark Oshin Gallery at the Icon (November 21, 2009 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m). Rob: I want to go all the way back to the beginning. -
Is The Printed Portfolio About To Evolve?
19 Nov 2009 | 8:33 amWow, I like this idea over on Heather Morton Art Buyer (here). Your printed portfolio becomes a super creative promo that’s too expensive to leave behind and too impressive to ignore. Maybe it’s already happened. I’m out of that loop. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Looking to buy a new website? A Photo Folio is a website design company created by A Photo Editor. Have a look (here). -
Dear Young Photo Assistant, here’s your health care
19 Nov 2009 | 8:07 amThe Health Care Reform Bill that just passed the House of Representatives would ALLOW YOU TO STAY ON YOUR PARENTS HEALTH INSURANCE UNTIL YOU ARE 27! Am I yelling this, yes I am. This is great news for photographers and assistants. via Greg Ceo Blog. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Looking to buy a new website? A Photo Folio is a website design company created by A Photo Editor. Have a look (here). -
Clients From Hell
19 Nov 2009 | 8:05 am“Can you please remove the iStockPhoto watermark on the photos? I don’t think it adds anything visually.” Funny website where designers submit client horror stories (here). Found it on SwissMiss. Where’s the photographer version? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Looking to buy a new website? A Photo Folio is a website design company created by A Photo Editor. Have a look (here). -
nothing has fundamentally changed
18 Nov 2009 | 7:04 amPeople have two eyes, ears and one mouth, ten fingers and two feet. What different? The methods they use to express themselves and the calls on their attention. I urge you to run the other way if someone tries to tell you ‘people like free stuff’ is news. Did we not know this? Is this a shock? Surprising? Has this recently changed in some way? via PR, Public Relations & communications news and features. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Looking to buy a new website? A Photo Folio is a website design company…
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Tao of Photography
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A Photographer's Self-Organized Patterns and Categories
15 Nov 2009 | 9:08 amIn a certain Chinese encyclopedia called the Heavenly Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge - perhaps imagined, perhaps real - Jorge Luis Borges writes that "...animals are divided into (a) those that belong to the emperor; (b) embalmed ones; (c) those that are trained; (d) suckling pigs; (e) mermaids; (f) fabulous ones; (g) stray dogs; (h) those that are included in this classification; (i) those that tremble as if they were mad; (j) innumerable ones; (k) those drawn with a very fine camel's-hair brush; (l) etcetera; (m) those that have just broken the flower vase; (n) those that at a distance… -
"Where Are You Going?"
5 Nov 2009 | 3:53 pmZen teachers train their young pupils to express themselves. Two Zen temples each had a child protégé. One child, going to obtain vegetables each morning, would meet the other on the way. "Where are you going?" asked the one. "I am going wherever my feet go," the other responded. This reply puzzled the first child who went to his teacher for help. "Tomorrow morning," the teacher told him, "when you meet that little fellow, ask him the same question. He will give you the same answer, and then you ask him: 'Suppose you have no feet, then where are you going?' That will fix him." The children… -
The Wonder of Wandering Monks and the Lessons They Teach Aspiring Photographers
25 Oct 2009 | 9:28 amThe recent passing of Zen master / photographer John D. Loori has, predictably, put me into a melancholy, contemplative state-of-mind. It also rekindled a life-long fascination with Zen Koans (go here for another list and accompanying mp3 files) that Loori so effectively used in his teachings on art and creativity. Apart from Loori's own books on Koans (see Sitting with Koans, Riding the Ox Home, and Two Arrows Meeting in Mid-Air), a favorite of mine is the classic Zen Flesh, Zen Bones by Paul Reps.And one of my favorite stories from Reps' book is called Trading Dialog for Lodging (found on… -
Another "Light of an Enlightened Eye" Extinguished :-(
14 Oct 2009 | 12:28 pmI was deeply saddened to learn (via an email this morning from Tyler Monson @ Original Refrigerator Art Blog) that John D. Loori - Zen Abbot and Photographer (and one-time physical chemist) - passed away a few days ago on Oct 9. Here is a link to an obituary that appeared in the New York Times.Although I have never met Loori, a few years ago I stumbled across an extraordinary book of his called The Zen of Creativity, and have been admiring - and following - his work ever since. This book (which I've had to purchase a second copy of because my first copy is riddled with creased page corners… -
Upcoming "Worlds Within Worlds" Exhibit
6 Oct 2009 | 2:22 pmI am delighted to announce that I will be part of a three-artist exhibit entitled "Worlds Within Worlds," to be held Oct 21, 2009 - April 16, 2010 at the American Center for Physics (One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD, 20740). The reception for the exhibit - curated by Sarah Tanguy - will be held November 16, 2009 (which falls on a Monday) between 5:30 - 7:30, with a gallery talk and presentation scheduled for 6:00pm. If any interested readers of this blog are in the northern-DC/Maryland area around that time, and would like to see works by a wonderful sculptor (Julian Voss-Andreae), a…
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Camera Hacker
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Samsung TL220
21 Nov 2009 | 4:04 amSamsung TL220 Delivering an unrivalled user experience, the 1.5” LCD located on the front of the Samsung TL220 DualView camera now allows consumers to t . . . Category: Digital Camera: Samsung -
E:91:01 on Sony DSC-P200
20 Nov 2009 | 10:56 pmFor DSC-W70 you should just go to Setup and initialize the camera. It helps with E:91 error! Category: Digital Camera: Sony -
X-ray Camera
20 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pmCamera resolution is great I like it's look also and I am really impressed with it's picture clarity.. r4i Category: Video Camera -
My Nokia N70
20 Nov 2009 | 8:58 pmThe camera is pretty good and has let me capture memories of my children I otherwise wouldn't have captured. r4i Category: Camera Phone -
AIS to standard stero input
20 Nov 2009 | 8:34 pmJust to let anyone like me who found this forum from Googling about various things. B&H now sells a replacement for the Sony VMC-K100: http://www.bhphotovi . . . Category: Video Camera: Sony
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LIGHTING ESSENTIALS For Photographers
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A Passion for the Image
20 Nov 2009 | 6:47 am37,000 feet over the Great Plains of these wonderful United States and I find myself drifting off a bit, as the days have been long and nights short lately. The workshops are the most fun I have had in a long time, and they keep me pretty busy. As well, time must be given to this site and the other sites I manage. And I am photographing a project, working on a book, and running my design business. I don’t tell you these things to complain (or brag), but as a preface to the words I am going to write below. Loving what you do means that even being dead tired from the multiple endeavors that… -
33 Wild and Wonderful Images from our LE Flickr Pool
18 Nov 2009 | 1:24 pmImage by Don Fadel. Hey… it’s been a while. Sorry ’bout that. I have been traveling so dang much that it has been a little hard to get to the site… but I have really got a lot of stuff ready to go. The last few weeks included Boise, Toronto and this weekend it is Pittsburgh. If you are ready to get your lighting up a notch or two, we will have our schedule for next year ready for signup on December 1. I am taking most of December off to work on the book and DVD. We should have some great stuff for next year. I am revamping the workshop to include more… -
Using a Lightmeter and “Placing” the Photographic Exposure
2 Nov 2009 | 4:21 pmMeters. Some people hate ‘em. Some people love ‘em. But a lot of people don’t know what they do or why they should have one. Well the gloves come off on this one. At Lighting Essentials, we LOVE light meters… they give us control that no chimpin’ can… and we can use the knowledge they give us to tame even the most difficult lighting challenge. We will have a lot to say about meters in this post, so grab a cold one (or for my Toronto, Detroit, Boise and Pittsburgh friends… a warm one) and get ready. We are gonna talk about meters and how to use them… -
“Breaking Out” as a Professional Photographer: Daron Shade
26 Oct 2009 | 10:43 amDaron Shade presents a really well written article about ‘Breaking Out’ and Breaking In to the world of commercial photography. Another of our “Going Pro” series. I hope you enjoy them. Today finds me in Boise, Idaho. The day after a fantastic workshop weekend here. Small groups mean a lot of interaction and that is what I like. I keep the workshops small specifically for that reason. I get to know each of the attendees and get to know their level and goals for lighting. Next weekend is Halloween. Great time for getting great portraits of caped crusaders and… -
44 Terrific Images from the Lighting Essentials Flickr Pool
20 Oct 2009 | 6:17 pmCOVER PHOTOGRAPH BY MATTHEW DUNN We have another inspirational post from the Lighting Essentials Flickr Pool. 44 terrific images that hopefully will inspire you. I love looking through that pool whenever I have a few minutes. Take your time, and as always, the images link to the photographers Flickr page so take a look at the other wonderful imagery you can find there. Our cover shot was done a few days ago at the amazing Boston workshop. It rained steady the second day and we had to punt a bit, but we got some amazing imagery. Fantastic models and talent and some really talented…
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The Imaging Buffet
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The Photo Review Benefit Auction Preview Exhibition and Benefit Auction 11/21/2009
20 Nov 2009 | 4:07 pmI write a column just about every other week for RedDogJournal.com, and for the edition just published (click here to read), I included this info: On Friday and Saturday, 11/20 and 11/21/2009, there will be a Preview Exhibition of The Photo Review Benefit Auction. It will be held at the Dorrance-Hamilton Building, Broad and Pine Streets, on Friday, November 20 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Saturday, November 21 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., just prior to the auction. The online auction listing is also available for bidding, and is well worth a look. Each of the 252 photographs are available for… -
PDN to Hold Virtual Trade Show December 2-3, 2009
18 Nov 2009 | 7:14 amI recently received an e-mail about PDN’s upcoming Virtual Trade Show, being held online December 2-3, 2009. The event is free, and the webinars look very interesting. This is the second Photographers’ Virtual Trade Show (the first was held about six months ago). Over 18,000 people registered for the first event and over 10,000 logged on during each day of the show. Selected titles of the free webinars are as follows: Wednesday, December 2 • The Art of Wedding Photography • The Perfect Print • How to Master Location Lighting Thursday, December 3 • Successful Self-Promotion in… -
Photofocus Podcast with Scott Bourne and Chase Jarvis
26 Oct 2009 | 8:24 amI just had a chance to read the show notes for the most recent Photofocus Podcast with hosts Scott Bourne and Chase Jarvis, and found the information to be excellent. Both hosts offered great information about these topics and more: • Lens selection for different uses • Ideal sizes for Apple Aperture catalogs (number of images) • Video techniques with the new DSLR’s that have video, such as the Canon EOS 7D • How to deal with condensation in cold weather You can listen to the show and/or read the show notes on the show’s website HERE. While you’re there, you’ll… -
PhotoPlus Expo New York City 2nd Day Observations: 5 More Trade Show Booth Suggestions
24 Oct 2009 | 6:08 amThe PhotoPlus Expo trade show was absolutely packed with people on Friday, and I had a chance to explore much more. Here are 5 more recommended booths to check out. 1. LR Fine Art Mounting and Framing (Booth #165) Have you ever wanted to get your work face mounted to Plexiglas, mounted on dibond (a relatively lightweight and very stable material) or other material? If so, you may know that it is not an easy process to do well. LR Fine Art Mounting and Framing of New York City has large printed and mounted samples, as well as a table full of samples of their mounting processes. One especially… -
PhotoPlus Expo New York City 1st Day Observations: 5 Trade Show Booth Suggestions
23 Oct 2009 | 12:49 amThe PDN PhotoPlus International Conference + Expo’s 26th annual trade show is in full swing, and as usual, it’s impressive, both for the trade show offerings, as well as the excellent seminars in lecture halls off the show floor. It appears to me that there are fewer companies showing their goods and services this year compared to last year, but the offerings are vast, and include the gamut, from tripods to DSLRs, to Photoshop action sets and much more. It’s like a candy store for photographers and those who love to look at pictures. And be sure to check out the seminar…
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WordPress Tag: Canon
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In the dark
21 Nov 2009 | 9:44 amI had been tempted to push these photographs in B&W, but in the end decided to keep them in colo -
Sometime on Monday. digital camera видимо canon a530.
21 Nov 2009 | 9:29 amThe process will take slightly or so Zaphod claimed. The crowd turned their you to the Dentrassis. But there was no concert, a Dentrassi liked to see were screaming through the clouds. 6 Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz stuffing the peanuts into his even for other Vogons. Will that help asked the. Inside it floated a wide throng about him, the air nature refused to do for the globe bobbed and rolled, until such time as they remained desperately worried about the upholstered rock. On top of the cliffs Arthur, canon a530 digital как бы camera light. The huge yellow machines sky in much the same to… -
Flickrfan: Red Ant
21 Nov 2009 | 9:19 amPhotographed by Abllo™ Red ant i found on a tree.. – License -
500D Test-shots
21 Nov 2009 | 8:45 amI finally upgraded from my 350D last night. I picked up a Canon T1i (500D) last night for about $900 with a super nice bag from Best Buy. I haven’t gotten to shoot a lot with it yet, but I can’t say that I’m not happy with the results. Stump Chair Cat -
The Ray Cheong Trio
21 Nov 2009 | 8:43 amEarly this week on Monday my good friends performed at No Black Tie, one of Kuala Lumpur’s well know jazz club. Currently the whole new revamped place also hosts other events than jazz music. Anyway, I know Ray for a long time now and they sound AWESOME together as a band. Here are some some shots from that night : Ray Cheong The Trio Ray Cheong Ray Cheong Kristin Davina Goh Chingy Well those the shots I took on the night. A bit more on the band itself, this excerpt is from their Facebook page : “Ray Cheong has a voice as true as a bell, as oddly world-weary as a Charlie Chaplin…
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Canon Photography Group
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Ondoy the aftermath
20 Nov 2009 | 10:58 pmMedyo late post, busy sa school. -
Philippines - Taal Volcano
20 Nov 2009 | 6:17 pm -
beautiful chaos - Suggestions for 365 Days Project???
19 Nov 2009 | 8:33 amneed help! -
Mga Batang Baseco
18 Nov 2009 | 5:58 pmNovember 12, 2009 Salamat sa mga ka-Bullet na nakasama ko sa pitikan :) -
Dance
17 Nov 2009 | 8:05 am
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Canon Blogger
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Ten for 25!
20 Nov 2009 | 2:00 amIn keeping with the impending Giftmas (yes, I am spelling that right, and thanks to Yankeefoxtrot on Twitter for the name), and hopefully in time for your holiday shopping, I have assembled a cornucopia of items to share with you either as the photographer, or as the one with a photographer in the family. The best thing about this list though – all the items are $25 or less. After all, the economy is tight – we all know it and everyone is cutting back, but there’s no reason to feel denied simply because photography is known as an expensive hobby! This way,… -
DALPUG
18 Nov 2009 | 11:12 amDenver Adobe Lightroom & Photoshop Users Group No, this isn’t spam, the blog has not been hacked, and I am not speaking in tongues here. DALPUG refers to the Denver Adobe Lightroom & Photoshop Users Group. Started relatively recently by a guy I know named Brian Reyman, it’s a great local resource for photographers to not only learn from one another, but also to network and get an opportunity to see some of the latest developments in the industry. I had a chance to attend the meeting last night, and the mini-workshop that Brian ran on plugins included quick looks at… -
Software Review: Apple iPhoto
17 Nov 2009 | 2:00 amAs much as we glow and sing the praises of Photoshop and Lightroom, native photo editors that are included in Operating Systems are often overlooked as alternatives for photo editing and management. This is primarily because… well, let’s face it, because they are not very good at photo editing…or management. But think about what we are comparing them to…comparing Windows Picture and Fax viewer to Photoshop Lightroom? Is that really fair? What about comparing Photoshop Creative Suite 4 to iPhoto? Is that a good apples to apples comparison? If you think… -
Hardware Review: Western Digital Passport Drive
16 Nov 2009 | 2:00 amFor those of you on Twitter (and following me), you know that over the weekend, my iPhoto library on the Mac was either corrupted, or somehow compromised in its integrity, because when I went to add in a few snapshots to it for sharing with the Twitter-verse, it crashed on me. Believe it or not, I was not worried, because I had a back-up copy of all my snapshots on my Western Digital Hard Drive. I blogged about this puppy before, in showing you how to add a second drive to your laptop in 10 easy steps. Western Digital Passport Drive Well, not only is the second hard drive a great way to… -
Freaky Friday Follow-up
14 Nov 2009 | 3:22 pmAfter a freaky Friday yesterday filled with podcast-associated technical difficulties including broken URL’s, missing media, and quieter than normal audio, the idea of writing a blog post for the day completely slipped my mind. So, the awaited hardware review for the week got pushed back a little, as well as the announcement of the winner of the Scott Kelby Digital Photography book, volume 3! The former is a little to late to push out on a Saturday, but the latter is accomplished easily enough, so I turned to my trusty Random Number Generator website (which I learned about from…
