I thought it was worth a post, since there are still business owners out there who don’t understand the vitally important role a website plays in the success of any given business. I can’t say it any plainer than this: if you own a business, and do not have a well designed website leveraging all the web has to offer, then you are hurting your business!

I think most savvy business owners understand this, but it won’t hurt to list a few very good reasons why you need a web-site, yesterday! So, without further ado, and owing greatly to common sense and many other great articles available online, here are my top 5 reasons for having a website for your business:

1. Money: Business is being done online. Believe it or not, people go online and buy stuff. A LOT of people. And they buy a LOT of stuff. If you are not online, they will find your products and services from another company.

2. Search: The internet is the go-to place for information. Your potential customers are looking for more information online about products and services that you offer. They may even be looking for you specifically (and instead they find your competitors when doing local searches). Wikipedia says Google was doing 400 million queries a day… in 2006! Without a website you are not attracting these internet savvy customers.

3. Convienance. The internet is a great way to find what you want, and find it NOW. You can make it easier for both potential customers (that you didn’t even know existed, or would never otherwise attract), and your existing customers, to find what they are looking for from you, without having to call you, run down to your store front, and without having to wait. This can save you time, and it’s a great way to build loyalty with existing customers as well.

4. 24/7 Salesperson. A well designed website that is attracting search engine traffic will produce more bang for your buck than any other marketing tool, attract global traffic, and make things happen for your business every hour of every day. A website is the best return on investment you will ever make.

5. Credibility. The internet is the great equalizer. A start-up can look like one of the big boys. A great website doesn’t have to be expensive, and it makes your business legitimate.

So, there’s a few good reasons - and there are plenty more. Don’t miss out on the myriad of ways a website can help grow your business. You can’t afford NOT to have a great online presence. Need a site, or need to improve your existing one? Shoot me an email - I’m here to help.

My son, Dillon, recently started playing soccer. In fact, yesterday was his second practice and he is playing in his first game on Saturday. He is a little late to the game, because of his surgery a year and a half ago, but he is catching on quickly and puts every ounce of effort he can into practice. It’s a kick watching him run around, all smiles and determination.

One particular moment he found himself in the middle of the action, at his own goal, during a scrimmage game against his own teammates. They were about to score and he found himself in the right position at the right time. He managed to block the ball and it immediately went rolling the other way. The crowd of kids rushed after it, sending it toward the other goal and leaving him and his coach in the dust. He was smiling ear to ear  and after a moment turned to his coach.

“I blocked it with my knee!” he said, and he pointed at his knee for good measure.

His coach enouraged him and Dillon turned back to the game. It was a perfect moment, and it reminded me of our basic needs and desires - of working hard and wanting to share in our success with someone else. Of our wonder, surprise and contentment when we succeed. As a father, there’s few things better than watching your son run around, trying his best, improving, and most importantly, enjoying every minute of it.

Sometimes, as artists, photographers, designers, we’re so concerned with producing something great, that will stand tall against our peers, that we’re missing some of the best work we could ever do. Sometimes the best images are the ones no one else will ever see or care about. Sometimes those are the ones that mean the most.

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Every now and again I like to give something away. You may find these brushes useful this summer - feel free to use them both in personal and commercial projects.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Author Anthony Muchina contacted me regarding several creative projects he needed for the launch of his new business, appropriately called ‘Muchina’. The company will be selling various luxury items, and the client was looking for something stylish, that would work no matter what type of product he was selling. Initially, the leaning was toward a script style lettermark, and I kept that in mind as I sketched. However, after brainstorming and sketching, we ended up going a different direction. Here is a scan of a few of the sketches:

I typically come up with as many ideas as I can and try not to limit myself in any way through the sketching process. Then, after I’ve exhausted that and have a few ideas that stand out, I like to quickly mock-up a couple of them. At this point I send everything to the client, with an explanation of various stand-out ideas and the thought process, if it needs explanation. I’m not shy about showing them both the good and the bad - you never know what will spark some inspiration. There’s some debate about this, as some designers fear the client will pick out something that really should not be used, but when that happens I find that you can explain why it would not be a good choice, and also find out what attracts the client to that particular design and try to take that aspect of it and carry it into a something that will make more sense.

For the Muchina logo, right away the client saw one he liked and we went to work perfecting it. There were many experimental changes using slightly different shapes and fonts. We went back and forth a few times, and all told there were 26 variations of the chosen logo sent to the client. The final logo was shown at the beginning of this post, in black and white. You can see some of the spacing relationships here:

The type face used was Gill Sans. The shifting of the ‘Muchina’ name to the left helps to offset the weight in the symbol above - even though it is technically not truly centered, moving it left looks right to the eye. The amount of spacing between each letter (tracking) equals the amount of space from the right edge of the circle to the right edge of the sliver, and the space from the symbol to the type is 75% of that space.

Next we will be designing the packaging for the initial product, with the client indicating the box will be purple with 1 color printing (an undetermined golden hue). After that, I will be working on the website design. We’ll highlight those projects in a future post and also include a testimony from the client.

Our next post will cover the creation of the Muchina logo, and possibly a preview of the package design for their initial product launch. Stay tuned…

According to VeriSign’s December 2008 Domain Name Industry Brief, there were 174 million domain registrations in the third quarter of 2008 alone. Hopefully your exact company name is available in the all important .com classification, but with so many domains being purchased every day, finding the right domain name can sometimes be difficult. Here are a few things to keep in mind when choosing yours:

1. Don’t miss an opportunity. Domain names can be inexpensive (some are not, more on that later). Sometimes you will find more than one domain that is relevant to your business name. Buy them all. Do not assume that you will only need your exact name - buy misspelled versions, buy abbreviations, by longer versions or similar domains ( for example I own both www.jasonmilburn.com and www.jasonmilburndesign.com ). You should be paying around $10 to ‘own’ that domain for one year, and less than this if you purchase multiple years up-front. This is a small expense for your business, and it is very important that you have as many of the relevant domains as you can think of, and now, because you never know when someone else will buy it.

2. Keep it Short. Say you own several versions of your company’s name: www.unknowncompany.com, www.unknownco.com, www.unknown.com. Now you need to decide which one to promote.

Always keep your users in mind - what is easiest for them to remember and also to type in. Which would they most likely assume your company domain would be? No one wants to work harder than they have to, so in almost all cases it is best to promote the shortest domain you have, but also make sure the other ones point to your website as well. One additional note on this: be careful using abbreviations. While shorter is typically better, a bunch of unrelated letters that are hard to remember is not a good idea.

3. Buy the other classifications. For many businesses it will also be smart to purchase the .net classification for your .com domain name. Going further than that and purchasing .org, .biz etc. will largely depend on your type of business, your budget and whether you are concerned with competitors (or others) buying and using that domain in the future.

If you were unable to find an appropriate .com name for your business, and the .net is available, then definitely purchase it. Just be aware that the perception of .net is that it plays second fiddle to .com. For smaller businesses this may not be an issue, but for larger companies, owning the .com is a high priority. Imagine if Nike only owned the .net domain name and someone else owned nike.com. What would your perception be of Nike? They own both, and use them for seperate purposes. Which brings us to the next point…

4. Sometimes you have to pay more. Perhaps the perfect domain is out there and you want it with a desperate unrelenting passion. The only problem is that a ‘link farm’ owns it and is offering it to you for the bargain price of $2,000. That’s right, there are businesses whose sole purpose is to buy what it thinks are good domains names in the hopes of holding them ransom for a high price. If you are a small business, I would seriously consider all other options before paying more than the normal price for a domain, especially if you are a one-man show and don’t have a lot of starting capital. That includes possibly changing your business name to something that is available as a .com. However, if you absolutely must own a .com and someone else owns it, but is not using it, get that check book ready.

5. Think Big. Now that you have a handful of great domain names directly related to your business name, it’s time to think larger. Chances are, there are other great domains out there that you may want to use down the road. Possibly you will run a marketing campaign or pormotion that could use it’s own domain and mini-site.

Companies do this all the time to complement a promotion or for specific online content that is designed to attract more search engine traffic. Take the currently running commercials for the Dodge Ram Truck for example. After showing a group of guys gushing about the trucks and driving them through exploding buildings, they list a specific website to visit: www.ramchallenge.com . If you have a similar promotion coming up it’s better to think about an appropriate domain name now, rather than later, and if you don’t end up using it, it’s only $10.

Also, when thinking big, is your company international? If so, you will need to purchase your domain in a variety or worldwide clasifications (such as .cn and .br).

Hopefully this helps point you in the right direction when choosing a domain name for your business. Jason Milburn Design can help guide you and also handle the registration process as part of our website design package.

“You may delay, but time will not.”  -Benjamin Franklin

I’ve never heard of it before, but apparently it’s catching on, and Nicholas, along with a partner, is launching a website designed to make tracking this information easier. I think this is really fascinating - as a designer who is interested in numbers and tracking things (ok, a little obsessive) this is a brilliant idea. Give yourself a yearly report to really see what your life looks like, what you spend your time and money on. Sure, it’s time consuming, but I’m sure it’s also rewarding.

A new year is bearing down on us. It’s the perfect time to follow in Nicholas’s footsteps and maybe gain some insight into your own life.

Here is the original photo:

My wife took this shot in the front yard, and it was my job to jazz it up and throw some text on it. I mean, apply my years of design knowledge to produce an elegant and informative invitation.

So, I imported the photo into Lightroom and worked up a couple of options for the picture. Now, my experience with Lightroom is limited. However, I have taken the Lynda.com training on the program, so I know my way around it pretty well. Having said that, I have to admit I wasn’t initially liking the program. That probably has more to do with changing my workflow and getting used to something new than the software itself.

Right now, the thing I love most about Lightroom is the virtual copies feature. Creating several versions of a photo, while still only having one actual file (and easily comparing and going between versions) is fantastic.

After processing the photo in Lightroom 2, I added some snow and made some further edits in Photoshop. Here is the final version:

You can see there are some color changes, adjustments to the skin, hat, coat, eyes and teeth. I may have overdone the snow, especially the big fuzzy flake over the hair, but I was limited on time. There is a vignette as well, and the photo has been cropped to allow room on the left for text and also create more visual interest. All in all, I would say Lightroom is growing on me. I think if you use Bridge, Camera Raw and Photoshop, you are perfectly fine and don’t necessarily need Lightroom, but it can make some things easier, and has a few really nice features. I’m not wild about the cost, but for full time photographers, it’s probably worth it.

At one point in the video, 2 cartoon drawings are used to show the dangers of swinging heavy sledgehammers around. These were created over 12 years ago. They look dated, unprofessional, and were probably colored using crayons:

I eagerly put pencil to paper in an effort to bring my own little cartoon workers to life.

My goal was to make the drawing look more refined, have better color, and look crisp and professional. The basic scene was to remain the same and communicate the same message. Here is an initial sketch:

I then scanned the sketches that I liked and began outlining them in Adobe Illustrator. I wanted nice, crisp vector outlines for our scene. Here is an example of this completed process:

After that I had to decide if I was going to color the scene in Illustrator, with finishing touches in Photoshop, or just take the whole thing into Photoshop. I decided on the latter since my coloring skills in Illustrator are a little rough, and I feel much more comfortable in Photoshop. Also, I hope to do some digital painting soon and this was an opportunity to try a few techniques.

I laid down basic color, put the background in, and then went back to do shadow and highlights. This is supposed to be a cartoon and I kept the coloring simple and straightforward, while trying to clearly separate all the elements and characters.

After the two scenes were finished and approved, I flattened all the layers, sized them appropriately to be imported into the Premier Pro video project, and that’s all she wrote. The images are a vast improvement over what was, everyone here is happy with them, and considering this is something that is not my area of expertise, I am happy with the results. What do you think?

I’ve seen greater degrees of fear causing iffy decisions to be made, that ultimately resulted in customer frustration. Catalogs with information removed, contact information removed from a web-site - you get the idea. It’s key to keep what’s important at the forefront when designing a website so that fears about how a small percentage of your users might use your content does not negatively affect what the vast majority of your visitors want to accomplish. They want your content, information, your message and they want it immediately available to them. Information needs to be easy to find, and it needs to be made available in a variety of ways, so that your of users can navigate, search and gather information in whatever ways they are used to.

Don’t let fear negatively affect the vast majority of your visitors when it comes to content decisions. Look for solutions that will keep your visitors happy, but hopefully also address whatever possible concerns you have over misuse of your content.

“So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” -Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933