AnsteyDesign Canada

The Importance of Internal Communications

2013-03-18T11:35:00.003-07:00

Good internal communication produces engaged employees. Engaged employees are highly motivated and will go the extra mile, making a measurable difference to results and the value perceived by your clients.

Failure to communicate will result in the exact opposite happening. And this could have a serious detrimental effect on, not just the effectiveness of your organisation, but also your customer satisfaction, profits and market share.

In order to achieve employee engagement you have to keep employees informed and engaged through regular and effective internal communications.

At AnsteyDesign we work with both employers and consultants to help them develop great communication strategies that work. Contact us today to find out more: hello@ansteydesign.com

Lenticular Printing

2011-11-24T02:30:00.000-08:00

Lenticular Printing brings flat, static images to life. This is achieved through the creation of an optical illusion.

A plastic sheet, known as a 'lenticular sheet' is covered with thousands of rows of tiny lenses and overlaid on a blended image. Each lens on the lenticular sheet will magnify a small area of the image you see.

For the optical illusion to work multiple images must be interlaced together.These images are then sliced into strips and blended together to form one single image. The size of the strips created depends on the type of lenticular lens and the printing resolution used.

As mentioned above, each lens on the lenticular sheet magnifies just a small area of the image beneath it. As you change the position of the lenticular image (or your head) the viewing angle of the lens changes. This results in a different area of the image being magnified and displayed.

There are several effects which can be achieved through lenticular printing:

a simple merge between two images
a sequence of images with a flip book effect
or a 3D effect (when the lenses are turned vertically).

For more information on lenticular printing, or if you would like your marketing materials created using this fascinating medium contact us at: hello@ansteydesign.co.uk

AnsteyDesign Ltd
www.ansteydesign.co.uk

The Quick Response Code

2011-09-30T08:59:00.000-07:00

Since the birth of the Internet Mankind has entered what is often referred to as ‘The Digital Age’. And with it comes new technologies and opportunities for businesses to exploit for growth and marketing.

One recent piece of technology that has hit our shores is the Quick Response Code (or QR Code for short). New to Europe and the States they’ve actually been around since the 90’s in Japan, where they were invented.

So, what is a QR Code?

Putting it simply they look and function like a barcode, except you use a Smart Phone to read them. By pointing the phone’s camera at the code, and with the help of a special app, all of the data contained within the QR Code is released. This data is then displayed on your phone’s screen.

What data can a QR Code display?

As its name suggests, a QR Code can be used to provide people with quick access to; your website, contact details, instant messages, online advertising campaigns, online galleries, additional information, and well just about any form of digital marketing you can think of.

They’re really that simple and, when used through well thought out, intelligent marketing campaigns, the potential benefits for your business is huge.

And to finish…

Currently just under 50% of the UK population are Smart Phones users. This figure is increasing year on year and it is easy to see how featuring a QR code in your marketing materials could benefit your business. Not only do they provide people with quick access to information that you want them to see, but they are a great way for you to connect with potential customers and show that you are a thought leader.

For help with any aspect of your marketing contact AnsteyDesign Ltd at

hello@ansteydesign.co.uk

01420 542 671

www.ansteydesign.co.uk

Why the Professional Graphic Designer is not dead

2011-08-18T05:53:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time… graphic design was a profession dominated by the dark room, vacuum frames and type setting machines. To be a designer you had to be an artist in your own right. Today, however, the dark room remains, well pretty dark, the vacuum frames lie broken and the type setting machines are lost. All have been replaced by the advent of the computer, Quark Xpress and Adobe Creative Suite.

In today’s world anyone can be a designer, provided they have a computer and the right software. And therein lies a problem. Graphic Design is about creativity, design awareness (what colours work together, how many fonts to use, which fonts not to use, what makes a good page layout, etc, etc, etc), having an eye for detail, spotting things other people don’t, and, increasingly, great computer skills. With more and more people purporting to be designers, simply because they have the right facilities, the value of the professional graphic designer has become diluted. Too often the phrase ‘I got my brother/sister/mother/secretary/cat to put my flyer together as they’re good with computers’ is uttered.

So where does this leave us, the professional graphic designers? Well, in short, just because everyone can do it, doesn’t mean that everyone can do it well… while others are busy using too many fonts or applying multitudes of colours we can use the same technology to highlight our skills and ability. You may find that a client chooses not to pay for your services in favour of designing their own logo, but in truth it is the clients who are willing to pay for your services that you want to attract. After all they are the ones who can clearly understand the different between good design and simple layout and they will appreciate the effort and value you put in far more.

Above all, graphic design is art; and has always been so.

FB – AnsteyDesign’s live in blogger

Hell, it's not Rocket Science you know!

2011-08-09T05:45:00.000-07:00

It’s not Rocket Science!

I’m going to write three words in a second and I want you to try and stay with me. Usually when I say these words the result is a vacant stare or blind panic but it’s just the fear of the unknown, a bit like when you were a kid and you were scared of the dark.

Ok, here goes – search engine optimisation. Still with me? Good, let’s say it again, together this time – search engine optimisation. Now we’ve taken the first step you’ll need to know what it is because the phase, by itself, doesn’t mean much. In it’s 'simplest sense' it means getting your website to the top of a relevant Google search (no point being top of a Google search for Baked Beans if your site is about Hot Air Balloons... Oh hang on!).

Now, there are a lot and I mean A LOT of companies out there who claim that they can get your website to the top of Google for a fairly modest fee. Sadly if they were doing it in a way which wouldn’t eventually get your website black listed and banned by the search engines then that modest fee wouldn't be modest at all and the person calling you would probably be a fair bit nicer (and less pushy).

So, here's a little recap (and expansion) on a blog I wrote a while back about search engine optimisation.

To start, let’s be blunt - there is no silver bullet when it comes to search engine optimisation. The only way you can get you’re site higher up on Google, Bing or any of the other search engines is through hard work. Still with me? Good because it really isn't rocket science. Ok, so there are elements which require HTML coding but if you have a decent website designer then this is something they can handle for you. The key things you need to be concerned about are:

1. Keeping your website’s copy fresh and up-to-date. This can be done using a simple, low cost, content management system like the one AnsteyDesign offers.

2. Utilising social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Linked-In. If you use a web browser such as Firefox you can run all of your social networking accounts through one application called ‘Yoonoo’ making this aspect of SEO much easier to manage.

3. Writing monthly blogs. If you set up a blogger account (like this one) it’s possible to bespoke the design to make it more relevant to you, it is also possible to make money from your blog account...

4. Visiting online forums and posting comments. The online forums you visit need to be relevant to your industry and you need to have something useful to say. Some sites will require you to ‘login’ before you can comment and others won’t let you post links until you have made a certain number of comments.

5. Issuing online PR statements. There are several useful free websites on the Internet that let you select the industry you are in and then target your PR statement at your preferred individual type. It’s a great way of getting your message across!

6. Creating linking agreements with relevant websites. As with the online forums, the best links are the ones that are relevant to your industry. It’s also good to have lots of internal links throughout your website so that the search engines know that your site is being properly utilised.

7. Asking your clients to rate your business on review sites. The latest belief is that search engines are putting a lot of stock into online business ratings as it shows which are good businesses and which are bad. However, I’m told that they can tell which ratings are ‘fakes’, so there’s no point writing ten 5 star ratings yourself!

8. Getting journalists to write articles about you. Perhaps the trickiest as journalists are not easy to get hold of. Your best bet, perhaps, is to call them up and make advertising deal with them.

Now, this might all sound like a lot of work and I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t (some companies employ people to do it full time!). But it needn’t be a burden, not if you do a little every day. It’s possible for you to focus on just a few key areas such as keeping your website copy up-to-date, social networking and writing monthly blogs although, of course, the results won’t be as good as if you did everything consistently.

Take care,

Great graphic designers

2011-01-27T16:00:00.000-08:00

Walter Gropius

Admit it, how many of you are scratching your heads in bemusement? Walter Gropius? Whose he? What's he got to do with graphic design? Well (and I'm being honest here) he's strictly speaking an architect and therefore shouldn't be included on the list of top ten graphic designers. However his contribution to the world of Graphic Design is so great that it would be a travesty if he were not featured. His position at number six reflects not just own skills but also the power and influence of his movement. For those of you who haven't guessed (or don't know) Walter Gropius founded the German Design School - The Bauhaus in 1919. The legacy this institution left behind is all around us today in the form of Modernisim. Students still learn about it in University and are taught to mimic it's styles and techniques.

Without Walter Gropius The Bauhaus wouldn't have existed and Graphic Design would be a paler shade of honeysuckle (this year's pantone colour). But who was Gropius?

Well, Walter Gropius was born in Berlin on the 18^th May 1883. Like his father and great-uncle before him he became an architect. This was despite the fact that he could not draw... he was therefore reliant on collaborators throughout his working life. When Gropius left school he went to work for Peter Behrens (who later joined him at The Bauhaus). It was while he was working for Behrens that he met Adolf Meyer and in 1910 Gropius and Meyer decided to leave Behrens’ company and set up their own practice. Gropius's career was interrupted in 1914 thanks to the outbreak of World War One. He was called up almost at once and served as a sergeant major on the Western Front.

Once the war was over Gropius was able to continue to progress his career. In 1915, however, his life changed forever. Henry vande Velde (master of the Grand-Ducal Saxon School of Arts and Crafts – Weimar) stepped down because of his Belgian nationality. It was on Velde’s recommendation that Gropius was offered the opportunity to succeed him. Gropius took up the appointment as master of the school in 1919 and began rapidly changing it into the Bauhaus.

Many famous students (and tutors) passed through the doors of the Bauhaus; Paul Klee, Johannes Itten, Josef Albers, Herbert Bayer, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Otto Bartning and Wassily Kandinsky.

The Bauhaus ran until 1933 when Hitler rose to power and objected to how Gropius ran the institute. Gropius sensed that the time was near when he would need to leave Germany. This happened in 1934, when, with the help of the English architect Maxwell Fry, Gropius was able to leave Nazi Germany. He stayed on in Britain until 1937 when he left for America where he formed the Architect’s Collaborative.

Walter Gropius was a truly influential figure and even though he wasn't strictly a graphic designer the movement he led was one of the most powerful design movements this world has wittnessed.

FB - AnsteyDesign's live in blogger

Great graphic designers

2010-12-10T15:36:00.000-08:00

Paul Rand – ‘eye – bee – m’

In a way this statement, by Louis Danziger, best sums up Paul Rand:

“He almost singlehandedly convinced business that design was an effective tool. Anyone designing in the 1950s and 1960s owed much to Rand, who largely made it possible for us to work. He, more than anyone else, made the profession reputable. We went from being commercial artists to being graphic designers largely on his merits.”

That’s some praise indeed for the man who was forbidden, from an early age, to create images that could be worshipped as idols. Taking this into consideration Rand’s career of creating corporate icons for the likes of IBM, ABC and UPS seems highly unlikely. But that is exactly where he ended up – have you ever seen the eye – bee –m logo he created? The identity he created for IBM was, without a doubt, his defining corporate identity. It became not so much a piece of design but a basic design philosophy that permeated corporate consciousness and public awareness. Rand developed the IBM logo over three decades and the latest version is still in use today – as is several of his over corporate designs for ABC, Cummins Engine, and Westinghouse. Even UPS only changed their original Rand identity recently (controversially).

The core ideology that drove Rand’s career, and his lasting influence, was the modernist philosophy he so admired. He celebrated the works of artists from Paul Cézanne to Jan Tschichold, and constantly attempted to draw the connections between their creative output and significant applications in graphic design.

Rand believed so strongly in the modernist ideal that during his later career he became increasingly agitated by the rise of postmodernism. This came to ahead when, in 1992, he resigned from a position he held at Yale in protest at the appointment of postmodern and feminist designer Sheila Levrant de Bretteville. He then encouraged his colleague, Armin Hofmann to do the same.

Paul Rand will always be known for his modernist approach to design and the major impact he had on making the design profession reputable.

FB - AnsteyDesign's live in blogger

Great graphic designers

2010-12-09T13:55:00.000-08:00

Saul Bass - Film Sequence revolutionary

You could be forgiven for asking the question:

“Saul Bass, whose he?”

The chances are, however, that if you’ve ever watched an Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger or Martin Scorsese film then you have already seen some of his work.

Saul Bass is not only one of the greatest graphic designers of the mid 20th Century (therefore securing his eighth position in the AnsteyDesign top ten) but he is also the undisputed master of film title design.

In today’s modern cinematic world we are used to seeing graphical film titles, we expect them. But in 1955 they were unheard of. In fact film titles used to be so dull that cinema projectionists would let the film titles roll whilst the curtains where down – saving the audience the boredom of viewing them.

However, this all changed with Otto Preminger’s controversial film ‘The Man with the Golden Arm’. For his film the director had employed Saul Bass to create a title sequence, which “would be integral to the film”. The film reels where then supplied to cinemas across the world with the instructions: “Projectionists – Pull curtain before titles”. And so a revolution in film titles began and Saul Bass started what would become one of the most influential design careers of the mid 20th Century.

By the end of his life (he died in 1996) Bass had created over 50 film title sequences for Preminger, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, John Frankenheimer and Martin Scorsese. (Although he later claimed that he found the Man with the Golden Arm sequence "a little disappointing because it was so imitated").

But even before he had started on his journey of revolutionising cinema Bass was a celebrated graphic designer.

He’d been born in New York in 1920 and, after a fairly ordinary childhood, went to study at the Art Students League in New York and Brooklyn College under Gyorgy Kepes, an Hungarian graphic designer who had worked with László Moholy-Nagy in 1930s Berlin and fled with him to the US. It was Kepes who introduced Bass to Moholy’s Bauhaus (a modernist movement which originated in Germany prior to the outbreak of the Second World War) style and to Russian Constructivism.

Once he’d completed his study he went on to open his own studio in LA and worked mainly in advertising until Preminger asked him to design the poster for his 1954 movie, Carmen Jones. Impressed by the result, Preminger asked Bass to create the film’s title sequence too.

There are many films that you will have seen that feature Saul Bass’s work:

Vertigo, Pyscho, North by Northwest, Grand Prix, Goodfellas, and Cape Fear to name just a few.

There are few graphic designers who can claim to have sparked an entire genre into life. Saul Bass can make that claim and for that reason he deserves his place in our list of greatest graphic designers of the 20^th Century.

FB - AnsteyDesign's live in blogger

Great graphic designers

2010-12-08T14:37:00.000-08:00

Toulouse Lautrec – Friend to Oscar Wilde, Vincent van Gogh and prostitutes.

Toulouse-Lautrec was part of a select group of artists who began to combine the roles of artist and graphic designer together. True, in Lautrec’s world all he was doing was creating artistic posters that featured his paintings and drawings. But the sole purpose of his posters was to advertise and promote, and if that isn’t design communication then I don’t know what is!

History has not been fair to Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. In many films and books he is often depicted as some kind of aristocratic monster who frequented the Moulin Rogue with a rather unhealthy appetite for the women who worked there (in truth he viewed the prostitutes as his friends). The real man is very different, and his story is quite sad.

Toulouse-Lautrec was born on the 24th November 1864 and grew up enjoying an active childhood. Then at the ages of 14 and 15 he suffered two minor accidents, which changed the direction of his life for good. On both occasions he fell to the floor and fractured his left leg. This led to the discovery of a rare bone disease that would cause him pain and embarrassment for the rest of his life. It also stunted his growth and meant that he didn’t grow taller than 5 foot.

The discovery of his bone disease led to his parents taking him out of school and moving him to Paris where he devoted himself to his passion – art. Despite his obvious talent and passion, it wasn’t until he was 17 that he first received his proper education in drawing.

During his, relatively short, lifetime Lautrec met many different iconic figures from that period. Victor Hugo, Oscar Wilde and Vincent van Gogh to name a few.

It was in February 1886, that Toulouse Lautrec met and became friends with van Gogh. For two years they painted and exhibited works together, influencing each other. Then, in February 1888 (and on Lautrec’s advice) van Gogh moved to the south of France where, ultimately, van Gogh committed suicide.

As his artwork became better know, so too did the demand for his posters which appeared, almost daily, on the street corners, outside the brothels he frequented and various theatres. The creativity and effortless pose of his subjects within each of his drawings and paintings captured the sense of activity, and caught the imagination of the bohemian spirit that was rife in France at the time.

Like his friend, van Gogh, Lautrec died before his time. At the age of 36 his health rapidly deteriorated and after two disabiling attacks he died on the 9^th of September 1901.

Lautrec was amazingly talented and could copy a scene from a playhouse without lifting his pencil from the paper. His posters have become iconic pieces of artwork and design.

FB - AnsteyDesign's live in blogger

Great graphic designers

2010-12-07T14:45:00.000-08:00

Abram Games – Maximum Meaning, minimum means

In the days long before Photoshop and Power Macs, even before Letraset, a popular artist technique used was the airbrush*.

During the Second World War the airbrush was put to great affect by a little known graphic designer, at that time, called Abram Games. Games had been appointed as the ‘Official War Poster Designer’ and for the 6 years that he held this position he created over 100 posters.

You would be forgiven for thinking that the messages Games was required to communicate in his posters would result in a fairly morbid crop of posters. Far from it however, as Games took each brief from the War Office and injected his own personality into it. The results are plain to see in any Abram Games poster, many of which are now considered to be museum pieces.

Once the war had finished Games went on to produce design work for the Festival of Britain, the BBC, the Financial Times, and Shell. All of his design work featured his signature wit and he continued to work right up until his death in 1996.

As any designer will tell you, we all strive to inject our own personality into our work. We don’t become graphic designers to copy what other people have done. But it takes something special to be able to produce, time and time again, designs that not only capture a message but communicate it in a strong witty fashion.

* I once owned such a device – it sat in my student digs connected to a car tyre (it ran off compressed air). I’d cut out shapes from a piece of paper then spray ink from the air gun onto another sheet of paper, sealing areas I wanted to leave white with the shape I’d already cut out. It was messy, time consuming and fun!

Thanks,

AnsteyDesign's live in blogger

Girl with Hair Ribbon - Roy Lichtenstein

2010-11-02T17:19:00.000-07:00

There is something about this picture that has always captivated me. It's almost as if Roy Lichtenstein is talking to you through the dots, asking for pity. Why? Goodness knows because he has got to be one of the finest modern artists the 20th century produced.

As a student I had the opportunity to buy a litho print on canvas of this in Germany. Sadly, that day, my head ruled my heart and I've regretted it ever since...

Roy Lichtenstein created many works of art over the course of his life. Classed as an 'American Pop Artist', similar to Andy Warhol, he favoured a modern approach to pointillism in his work.

He died on September 29 1997.

How to save your IPhone 4's battery life

2010-10-25T12:02:00.000-07:00

Gone are the days when you'd charge your mobile phone and it would last a week (even with heavy usage) - oh how I miss my Alcatel One...

These days, with the latest 'Smart' phones you're lucky to get a days charge, let alone two. How Smart is that? The IPhone 4 was meant to be a step towards fixing this with 20% more battery power than the 3G, 3GS etc but sadly it too (on first impressions) is lacking in the battery life department.

Ok so this blog is all about giving you tips on how to lengthen your IPhone 4's battery life. Some of the tips will apply to earlier models as well as the IPhone 4, but sadly none will apply to androids and definitely not to the Alcatel One.

When I received my IPhone 4 I expected the battery to last significantly longer than my old 3G. It didn't. Happily, after a few hours research I was able to come across enough tips which have enabled me to stretch my battery life from 8 hours standby to almost 72 hours standby. Sounds incredible right? Well here's what I did.

1. Spotlight. First of all I switched off the spotlight search facility. Unless you actually use this function it is pointless and drains your battery like nobodies business! You can find it under settings > general > spotlight search. The literally just unselect each option.

2. Turn off Wi-Fi! Wi-Fi is great if you are at home and want to save on your download usage (and phone bill) but if you are out and about and relying on 3G make sure you've turned off Wi-Fi. If you don't your IPhone will automatically search for connections where ever you go draining your phones life (and causing havoc with your work's internet connection!). To turn off Wi-Fi go to settings again > Wi-Fi then slide the button to the 'off' position.

3. Turn off notifications. Like Wi-Fi notifications will automatically search for updates every now and then, helping to drain your faithful gadget's life, sniff, sniff! Turn it off by going to settings > Notifications > then slide the button to the 'off' position.

4. Turn Off Fetch New Data. So you've got your email's downloading to your iPhone? Very clever! One thing every 15 mins, hour it is checking for your mail and not finding anything (opps) is a further drain on your battery life. Why not change the setting to check manually? Then you can check whenever you feel like it! Setting > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data > Select Manually (bottom of the screen). Turn off the Push option while you are on this page - this also helps your battery life!

5. Brightness. You know you don't need your IPhone's screen to be set the highest most battery draining setting... set it to 50%. You might notice to being with but I can guarantee you soon won't! Also make sure you turn on the auto-brightness setting for those really dark days ;o). Settings > Brightness > Move the button to the centre of the two suns.

6. Vibrate... If you don't need it (it drains you battery ALOT). turn it off and you'll notice a difference. Settings > Sounds > Slide the vibrate button under silent to off. Do the same for the ring section.

7. Bluetooth. Apple's bluetooth facility is a lot to be desired at the best of times... if you're like me this will be off anyway. But if you're lucky enough to have an IPhone 4 with bluetooth that actually works (! - no bitterness from me) then make sure you turn it off when you are not using it. Settings > General > Bluetooth > Slide the button to the off position

8. 3G. This is great for browsing the net but if you don't need to browse the net turn it off and you battery will last ever longer! Settings > General > Network > Enable 3G Slide the button to off

9. Close Down Your Apps Fully! When you close a program make sure you've shut it down completely. Confused? Try double clicking the iphone button twice. See the bar that appears at the bottom of the screen that's full of every single program you have ever run? All of those are draining your IPhone battery! To shut them down completely hold your finger over one until it starts to wiggle and the red minus sign has appeared. Touch the minus sign and that app will shut down. Do this for every single app you don't want open. I tend to go through this process once or twice a day and it really helps to lengthen my battery life.

10. Battery Charge. Finally go through a full battery charge cycle once a month. What does this mean? Simply run down you IPhone 4's battery completely then recharge to 100%! Easy as 3, 3G, 3Gs and 4!

Hope this helps and enjoy those apps!,

FB - AnsteyDesign's live in blogger

The art of Sorry

2010-09-25T15:10:00.000-07:00

Here at AnsteyDesign the guys in the studio are a little nervous. You see they have finally succumbed to my hassling and given me complete control of the AnsteyDesign blog.

At first they wanted me to tell them exactly what it was I would be 'blogging' about each month but for me this defeats the purpose of a blog. A blog should be organic. It should be influenced by your mood, what project you are working on, what has been happening on the news, and whether you featured. You shouldn't be restricted by a list of topics carefully presented to you on a piece of paper.

So from a reasonably rigid approach where we knew what we would be saying each month to my approach of just seeing how I feel... it's probably understandable why the guys in the studio are a little nervous.

For this months blog I’ve decided to take a quick look at the word ‘Sorry’. Why? Well, simply because I'm sorry that this is the first AnsteyDesign blog for several months!

Here is a little trivia about the word ‘Sorry’. Did you know that sorry can mean:
"Sorry," an expression of regret (emotion)
Sorry! (game), a board game
Sorry! (video game), the board game remade electronically
Sorry! (TV series), a 1980s British sitcom
Sorry, a 2002 Japanese Film
Sorry, a 2002 skateboarding video by Flip Skateboards
National Sorry Day an annual Australian event, dedicated to awareness of recent aboriginal history
Sorry (novel), 2007 novel by Gail Jones.

Some countries have even taken to developing ‘Sorry’ greetings cards. This reminds me of something I did for my mum when I was seven. It was her birthday and I remember being fairly naughty and she ended up sending me to bed without any supper. I felt so guilty that I’d ruined her birthday by being naughty I created her a ‘Sorry’ card. If only I’d know what a franchise it would turn in to… But still, if you ever find yourself stuck and need a personal ‘Sorry’ card at least you know where you can turn!

Be good until next time,

FB – http://www.ansteydesign.co.uk

Adobe PDF Reader and Flash security issue

2010-06-07T10:30:00.000-07:00

Adobe PDF Reader and Flash security issue
You may have already heard that there is a critical security issue with the following Adobe software:

Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.3.2 and earlier 9.X versions for Windows, Mac, UNIX,
Adobe Flash Player, 10.0.45.2 and earlier 10.0.X versions for Windows, Mac, Linux and Solaris,
Adobe Flash Player, 9.0.262 and earlier 9.0.X versions for Windows, Mac, Linux and Solaris.
(list supplied by Adobe)

Adobe have confirmed that:
Adobe Flash Player, 10.1 Release Candidate does not appear to be vulnerable,
Adobe Reader and Acrobat 8.X are confirmed not vulnerable.

Why does this matter to you?
Because Adobe software is installed on 95% of computers worldwide, there is a high chance you will have it on your computer.

What is the security issue?
There is a vulnerability in Adobe’s Flash and PDF software which allows computer hackers to ‘take’ control of a computer through an infected Flash or PDF file. You could quite innocently come across one of these files simply by browsing the internet. Hackers could then use the infected computer to send out ‘spam’ emails or to search for personal details.

What should you do?
There are several steps you can take to protect yourself (either at home or in the office)

Make sure you have a full and proper anti-virus installed on your system. With so many threats to your computer ‘out there’ it really is worth investing in a full anti-virus and not just relying on a freebie or trial.

Until Adobe have released an update, try and use a different PDF reader other than Adobe’s Acrobat Reader. For Mac users this is ‘Preview’. If you use Windows, visit this Wikipedia page which lists different software that you can use: http://tiny.cc/r51ys Alternatively Windows users can delete/rename the Adobe Reader file: “authplay.dll” from their system. This is located here: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Reader\authplay.dll

For the Flash Player, Adobe have suggested that you upgrade to Flash Player 10.1 Release Candidate which does not appear to be vulnerable.

Make sure that when you are browsing the internet you only visit trusted websites (it can’t guarantee your protection but will help).

Try not to download PDFs or Flash movies from the internet until Adobe have fixed this security issue.

Stay vigilant and keep your anti-virus up-to-date.

Don’t open odd attachments (especially PDFs from people you don’t know).

The contents of this blog have been put together by AnsteyDesign. AnsteyDesign is a creative graphic design and communication company based in Alton, Hampshire. Our interest (and expertise) in Adobe software stems from significant everyday use. Information and advice supplied in this email has been taken from: http://bit.ly/cKPjhf and http://bit.ly/9fQhhY and our own personal experience.

The Dark Art of website SEO - exposed...!

2010-05-24T07:09:00.000-07:00

SEO… Search engine optimisation. Lets face it, most people view this as something of a dark art – black magic even. But is it really as complicated as SEO companies try to make out?

We don’t think so.

To get your site high on Google there really ten important things you need to consider:

Sign up to as many listing sites as possible. This takes time and is boring but it’s worth it for two reasons; the first, Google looks to see how many sites are linking into your website and secondly people use these sites to source anything from garden designers through to cake suppliers.
Make sure that your site is hosted through a reputable company. Find out through your hosting company what country your site is hosted in. This often plays a large role in search rankings. If your company is based in the UK then you should really use a hosting company that is also UK based. Never use the cheapest hosting! The problem is, if your designer hosts your website for you, you may feel that what you pay is a lot of money already. In reality the vast majority of what your paying is probably going straight into your designer’s pockets and only a small proportion is actually paying for the hosting service. At AnsteyDesign we don’t believe in ‘mark ups’. The only fee you pay for hosting is the cost from our provider. We feel it’s fairer that way.
Content. Ok this might seem obvious but it’s really important. To begin with, you need to make sure that you have text on all the key pages of your website. Then, you need to write your web text as briefly and concisely as possible. It’s proven that people don’t spend long on a website and the one thing they really don’t do is trawl through reams of text. So, if in doubt, cut it out! This in turn helps your keyword density. That’s the other important thing for content – keywords. These are the phrases that people type when they are searching for your products or services. Google has some brilliants free tools to help you determine what your keywords should be. To use them search Google for ‘Keyword generator’.
Internal links are something that Google (and other search engines) look for. All they are, are links to other pages inside your website. Simple!
While we are on the subject of links, outbound links are another great way to boost your Google rating. It’s important, though, to make sure that the site you link to are relevant to your business in someway. It’s no good selling pet food and linking to mobile phones!
Keep your www address clean and simple. Don’t add in random characters (even to try and make yourself look individual). Google and other search engines won’t recognise them and you’ll end up falling off of the SEO list!
We touched on keywords earlier but there is more to them than website content. You need to make sure that any images you use have been correctly labelled with alt tags, meta page info is supplied, robot.txt and a site map is included.
Make sure you build your website correctly! Google is not a fan of frames these days, it much prefers DIV tags which provide greater readability and access for all browsers…
Get on to Twitter, Facebook – start a blog! The way Google picks up a website is changing. It no longer looks at the website structure it also looks at how often your company’s name appears on the internet. It’s important, therefore, to start using social network to your advantage. Twitter and Facebook can really make a difference to the effectiveness of your website.
Keep your site up-to-date. It’s really important that you don’t let your website grow stale. Google can tell if you don’t keep your site regularly updated and it really can have an impact on where it appears on Google and other search engines.

To speak to someone about your website needs call 01420 542 671

AnsteyDesign gets political about fresh ideas and client relationships

2010-04-19T01:32:00.000-07:00

So, election fever has swept the media once again. I say the media and not the country quite deliberately. You only have to talk to a group of individuals to see the despondency that people are feeling towards politics. But what has graphic design got to do with politics I hear you cry?! Well, on the highest level not a great deal, and in truth I did, at first, consider ignoring the whole issue of the election for this blog. But something of an old spark flared up in resistance to that idea, so here I am blogging away.

You see, when I was a student I was quite into my politics. Not in a geeky sort of way but I genuinely couldn’t understand why people didn’t vote. After all our grandparents died in two World Wars to preserve our freedom (not to mention the suffragettes) so we had the right to choose our own democracy. It didn’t clock with me until much later that it wasn’t the democratic process that people abhorred but the people who fought to represent us.

As a student everyone believes they are out to set the world aflame and I had the fancy that I’d enter political graphic design and reshape the landscape with a few clever, well thought out campaigns. My chance came when the Scottish Green Party asked me to act as a design consultant for them in my second year at University. I’d just come back to England from studying in Germany and decided to try and use some of the techniques I’d learnt there to refresh their look and give them real impact and power – totally off brief and not what they wanted. A thought that still causes me intense shame, and something I’ve taken into my adult life as a lesson well learnt. Ok I’m being a little harsh to my 20-year-old self as the designs did need a refresh but at that point in my life I really had no idea how to manage a client. Suffice to say my tenure, as a design consultant for the Scottish Green Party, didn’t last long.

Sometimes when you have a client whose branding is a bit out of date it is difficult, as a creative professional, not to want to update it. Not for your own pleasure but because you know it isn’t doing your client any favours. Usually a simple conversation with them is enough to overcome any issues. However, if they really love their look then that’s when issues start to creep in. How can you tell a client that their branding is from the 70’s when it is a brand they adore? The simple answer is you can’t! There are, however, a few things you can do to tackle this problem:

Work with your client and suggest amendments to the branding until it has been brought into the 20th century, without them realising.
Create a ‘this is what the design looks like in your branding’ and ‘this is what the design could look like if we had our way’ mock up. This way your client will see exactly what they are missing out on.
The long haul – build a proper relationship with your client and educate them. This is by far the best route as it is built on respect for your client.

At AnsteyDesign we believe the relationship route is best for all our clients – no matter what their brief – simply because it allows us to get to know them properly. How are we supposed to design an amazing campaign for our clients if we don’t feel the passion they feel for their product? Without getting to know them we stand no chance of ever feeling their passion in the first place! But it’s not enough to simply have a good professional relationship with a client, you have to deliver the right results as well.

This is the issue that has turned voters off from politics. We have built a relationship with Labour and the Conservatives for the past six decades and, because we only remember the negatives, we feel they have both consistently let us down and we are fed up with them. This has led to the decrease in numbers at the polling booths and the general apathy and anger we feel towards our politicians.

What we really want, and need, to spark our interest is a fresh approach - a complete change. This is more than just a rebrand – it’s about the fundamental way our political system works. The reaction that the Liberal Democrats have received from just one leaders debate shows just how desperate voters are for something fresh and different.

Whatever the result of May 6th, lets hope the New Government looks at the voter’s reaction to the emergence of the Liberal Democrats and realise that they need to build a fresh relationship with Britain.

Inspired by AnsteyDesign

2010-03-15T12:42:00.000-07:00

As the creative graphic designer at AnsteyDesign people often ask me:

“How do you find your inspiration?”

I wish there was a simple answer to this. I’d happily settle with something like:

“Ideas just come to me in my sleep…”

Unfortunately, the truth is a little less rose tinted (although I do sometimes wake in the middle of the night with an idea, and then scramble for a pen and paper before it drifts out of my head forever).

My search for inspiration is never ending and comes from the world around me. Everything I see, read and hear is potentially inspirational.

I have often thought that as a graphic designer I was born with an almost unhealthy appetite for inspiration. It effects every part of my waking life to the point where, given half the chance, I will not throw any magazine or newspaper article away in case it should spark some creative flare in years to come. This has resulted in my wife periodically clearing out my study and I have taken to scanning interesting designs and articles onto my Mac’s hard drive.

Sad to say I have always been like this. When I lived in Germany I spent six months collecting leaflets and flyers from wherever I went. The result was two boxes full of paper, which, to this day, are stored somewhere in my parent’s attic.

It is my appetite for inspiration which causes me to pay attention to television adverts, newspaper adverts, billboards, posters, flyers and leaflets. I actively search the web for cleverly built websites and then study the coding to see how it was written. When I visit the supermarket I notice if a brand has been rebranded and I form an opinion. Even a walk through the woods and fields will produce something to capture and inspire me; a fallen tree in winter, a blue egg shell in spring. It really is never ending.

But then, when I stop looking and I open Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Quark, Illustrator or Blender it hits me that now it’s my turn to do, rather than be, inspired.

HomeGrown - short story

2010-02-23T13:59:00.001-08:00

Brainstorming techniques

2010-02-10T12:11:00.000-08:00

Brainstorming is probably the most widely used creative thinking technique in business. For over 60 years, brainstorming has been a key part of the business culture. But what is it?

Basically a brainstorm is a ‘brain jam’ in which a group of individuals discuss ideas, as they come to them, in a non-judgmental environment.

After 60 years of brainstorming the concept has not change very much. However, here are some useful techniques which you could try out to push your idea generation to a whole new level:

The Art of Looking Sideways
So, you have your problem and you are itching to get started on coming up with the answers. But before you do, take a leaf out of Alan Fletcher’s book ‘The Art of Looking Sideways’ and try and see the question in a different way.

When you are meeting a creative challenge the question you ask has a massive impact on the answer you get. If you ask a slightly different question, you will end up with a slightly different answer. By exhausting the different ways you could actually ask the question before you try to answer it, you will give yourself a really good foundation on which to build on.

Bite sized brainstorms
Imagine your manager has given you a creative project to work on. Once the initial gratitude has worn off, and you settle down for the brainstorm, take five minutes before diving in. At this stage it is easy to be keen to get stuck in. However, it is important to remember that all projects are made up of many parts, its just we typically brainstorm about them from the big picture. In order to deal with this, try turning the project into small ‘bite sized’ chunks instead. This will allow brainstorming to go ahead on a smaller more streamlined and focused basis.

This in-depth brainstorming will allow you to systematically cover every part of the project and will also provide deeper answers to questions – giving you a more in-depth understanding of what you are dealing with.

Live creative
In today’s busy business environment it is not always easy to make time to hold regular brainstorming sessions. Weeks can go by without a single brainstorming session taking place but creatives are still expected to come up with solutions for projects. For a creative this is like a prisoner who is kept locked in a darkened cell for a month and then led outside and expected to win a marathon. In order for brainstorming sessions to be most successful they have to occur regularly, perhaps only for 15 minutes a day, maybe only an hour every other day but regularly enough to keep all the participants brains ticking over.

Is the iPad all it's cracked up to be? What do you think? Will you be getting one?!

2010-02-01T07:36:00.000-08:00

A lot has been said about the new Ipad. If you listen to Apple it is “the best way to experience the web, email, photos, and video…”

The problem is, without flash support ‘the best way to experience the web’ will surely be a pale imitation?! Ok, so you will be able to check your emails, photos and video (no multitasking so one at a time) but you can also do that on an Ipod touch (which, incidentally, fits neatly into your back pocket!) On the plus side the screen is pretty stunning and from what we’ve heard the CPU is something to be marvelled at.

There are pluses and minuses so we’d love to hear what you think…! Are you tempted to buy the Ipad or are you shamed by Apple’s disappointing attempts to enter the tablet market as much as we are?

Which browser do you prefer?

2010-01-16T15:41:00.000-08:00

Netscape, Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox and now Google Chrome... we've seen a fair few different web browsers over the past 15 years. Once my favourite was the now defunct Netscape - it was probably a hell of a lot more stable than the current Internet Explorer. How many hacker attacks where launched through that?

Now, I've tried all of the different browsers mentioned above and want to give you an honest opinion on all of them (well the ones you can actually get hold of).

Internet Explorer

It's only fair that I tell you I am an Apple Mac user and therefore completely biased against anything Microsoft create. Having said that, here is my view - don't go near this program! It's just buggy, and clunky. On top of that everything Microsoft seem to produce at the moment appears to be a rip off of Apple, right down to their 'gadgets' for Vista. Seriously, if you like this read the google hack article.

Safari

This is the web browser that I default to 9 times out of 10. It's just brilliant, reliable, fast and easy to you. But then what else do you expect from Apple?

Firefox

This is an amazing browser and I'm shamefaced to admit it's one that for a long time I avoided using. In my defence I did try and use it when it first came out but I had such a torrid time I quickly reverted back to safari. Now, however, I have given it a second chance. My faith has not gone unrewarded. This has got to be one of the most user friendly and adaptable browsers out there. Nothing comes close. I just love it!

Google Chrome

This is actually an interesting little programme. I feel that they have not ironed out all the errors, but as it is a fairly new piece of software you can understand this. I'm yet to find out if there are major issues but will report back!

www.ansteydesign.co.uk

2009-12-28T17:53:00.000-08:00

Let me start by doing the honourable thing and blogging a bit about AnsteyDesign...

AnsteyDesign Ltd is a graphic design studio based in Alton, Hampshire. It prides itself on innovative design solutions which combine creative thinking and writing to produce the 'right' results. The creative writing aspect can be demonstrated quite clearly in the article I've included later on!

AnsteyDesign is a small studio with big ambitions, and having specialised skills in the financial services market presents it with a good platform on which to build (following a successful start to the year).

To celebrate Christmas AnsteyDesign wrote a creative article which I have included below. Light hearted and entertaining it also aimed to promote the importance of getting branding and identity right:

Who put the fizz in Santa’s style?

Christmas is always a busy time of year for Santa, but we’re pleased to say that he has taken time out of his busy schedule to talk to us about his latest look and where it originated.

AnsteyDesign: So, Santa, what do you have planned for this year’s style?

Santa: Well much the same as previous years really, my red outfit is so well recognised it would be silly of me to change it! Imagine if I went back to wearing my green robes and you spotted me on your roof – you’d have me arrested before Rudolf could say ‘Mince pies’. But that’s the power of a good brand – it makes sure you’re recognised and gets you noticed.

AnsteyDesign: What do you think makes your brand so strong?

Santa: It’s because it is so recognisable. But this isn’t something that I’ve achieved over night – it’s developed over hundreds of years. Also, I’ve moved with the times, making sure I keep my style modern and up-to-date which is really important.

AnsteyDesign: You know Santa some people say that your current style, your red coat, black boots, white beard and even your round belly – they were all created for you by Coca-Cola… is that true?

Santa: Honestly I don’t know where these stories come from. I can tell you categorically, by Rudolf’s nose – no it is not true! It was my good friend Mr Thomas Nast back in 1881 who created my current look. Before then I used to wear this lovely green fur lined robe, very warm and comfortable but very tricky to keep clean. Coca-Cola saw the original drawings that Thomas had created for me and adapted them for their advertising campaigns in the 1930s to 1960s.

AnsteyDesign: Actually they still feature you in their campaigns today…

Santa: They do? I really must get my television fixed.

AnsteyDesign: Just one more question Santa as I know you are very busy. Are you ready for Christmas?

Santa: Oh I’m getting there. We always seem to make it some how, but it does seem to get a bit tighter every year!

AnsteyDesign: Santa thank you for your time and make sure you enter our Christmas competition on our website!

Santa: Oh yes, I certainly will. Thank you for inviting me into your studio, and Merry Christmas to you and all my blog readers!

Many thanks and I hope you have a very happy New Year!