All freelancers, WAHMs, SAHMs and well let’s just say *people* in general can benefit from this basic, easy to use template.

Do you know how many people don’t bother to plan their dinners in advance?

I used to be one of them!

Without planning the following will always happen:

• You go grocery shopping and come back with nothing to eat
• You go grocery shopping, spend a fortune, and still don’t know what to cook
• You spend ages in front of an open fridge door wandering what to cook
• You waste even more time on the internet looking for recipes that require 1 egg, three slices of bread, chutney, suspect looking vegetables and half a slice of cheesecake.

Believe me, if you just take a couple of minutes out of your day on Sunday (I do this on Sunday for the week but honestly just do it before you have to go grocery shopping for the week) it will make all the difference in the world to your sanity!

By planning, you will:

• Save all that time formerly wasted on wandering what to cook
• It takes the brainwork out of figuring out if you have all the necessary ingredients
• Kids like to know ahead of time what they’re getting, and it generally changes their attitude to something if they can see okay, brocolli *today* but yummy sweet potato *tomorrow*.
• You save a bundle of money at the check out register, because you haven’t spent a fortune on buying bits and pieces that you may throw out later because it’s gone off before you used it.

If you’re a freelancer, or a work at home mom, you know *just* what a time saving lifesaver a simple menu plan can be, because when it’s just you against the clock, every second counts. Knowing that you can just leap into the kitchen at the right time, know that you’re whipping up spaghetti bolognese, you really can spend every last second finishing that first draft, polishing that website design and actually *focus* on the task at hand rather than worrying about what you’re making for dinner three hours from now.

Take! Download and print off to your hearts content!

Simply click to download the pdf file.

Happy Planning!

Calling all Photographers, this one is for you!

So you’re a new photographer! Congratulations on your new business venture.

You have done your first paid photoshoot, and you feel like a million bucks.

Your clients have ordered a mountain of prints, and along with it, they want a photo slide show DVD to mail to grandma on the other side of the planet.

No problem! You have all the right software (especially you fellow Mac users out there, you know what I mean right?) to produce a beautiful photo slideshow.

There is just one problem…

You need music for that slideshow.

But where do you get music that you can legally put onto that CD before selling it to your clients?

Have you heard about Audio Jungle?

They provide a huge selection of brilliant royalty free music designed to be used exactly for projects like this!

Check out this months free file! Yes that’s right, they offer one file for free every month.

Membership of Audio Jungle is free, and if you want to purchase items, they accept Paypal.

As an added bonus, if  you prepay funds into your account (again, using Paypal) you even get a substantial discount on the files.

Want to know what is even better?

Audio Jungle is not a standalone site, but part of the huge Envato Marketplace, so if you sign up to Audio Jungle, you can easily flip between all their different marketplaces, and only use one login, one source of funds.

Believe me, once you’re in there, prepare to batten down the hatches, because you won’t be resurfacing for awhile!

Why not go sign up and check out that free file ?

Have you spotted the new toolbar at the bottom of your browser?

I’ve just installed the Wibiya Social Media Toolbar to help make my graphic design site more interactive for new and returning visitors.

It’s this great new plugin that I discovered and it was super easy to install.

So Why Install a Social Media Toolbar?

Simple.

It allows me to post a welcome message to any visitors to my site, which can be utilized to either promote my latest post, advertise a special that I’m running on say, Photoshop Actions or just to say hello, and make my readers feel more engaged with my website.

Wibiya offer a whole host of little apps that you can include on your own tool bar including the Facebook ‘Like’ button, a direct link to my facebook fan page (have you created yours yet?) and I’ve also included a feed from my Twitter page as well.

I already have a social media plugin installed on my posts, which enables folks to share the content on popular sites such as Stumbleupon, Digg, Designfloat etc, but the Wibiya bar which is designed to sit at the bottom of your browser regardless of where you scroll or what page of the website you’re on, has proven ability to help your users find more information on your site, and then be able to share it easily from wherever they land on your site – which increases your page views.

To add it to your site you simply visit Wibiya, register, fill in your website details, select your publishing platform (mine is WordPress – and they have support for *many* different platforms) download the plugin, and then upload and activate it via your wordpress admin panel and fill in your code that they give you when you reached the final step of registration on their website and you’re done! They even let you select your favourite colour so you can match it nicely to your site.

Who loves my purple!?

Here is a snapshot of what you’re looking for. Look at the bottom of your browser bar window for something that looks like the snapshot below.

If all of this sounds like greek to you, and you don’t think that you’re technically minded, but still want to make use of the toolbar, this is the kind of service that I offer all of my hosting clients. If you are a hosting client of Vanessa MacLeod Graphic Design, then email me if you’d like me to set up and install the toolbar for you.

Best feature of the Wibiya Toolbar?

It’s absolutely free.

So you’ve started your own business and you have a name, and now you want a nice fancy new logo and business stationery for this new venture..and if you have never dealt with a Graphic Designer before, then the following may be helpful to you.

You may not know where to begin, with your graphic design requirements, and you can save yourself a lot of time – and potentially money if you plan ahead and do something thinking before you go and meet with your designer (whether in person, or using VOIP such as Skype etc).

These principles apply whether you are starting a new business identity or brand, or if you are revamping your existing look.

Ask yourself the following questions, and make some notes that you can pass onto the designer.

Doing this will ensure the best possible results for your project, as it allows the designer to continually focus on the end goals for the project which will lead to a far better outcome than if they simply have to *wing it*.

What does your company do?

A basic explanation of what your company does should follow. e.g. We make and sell homemade jam

What are the goals of your project?

Simply state your intended goals here. e.g. We wish to create a line of labels for a new product.

Who is the target market for this project?

In other words, who are you wanting to appeal to? e.g. Restaurants, guest houses, hotels, supermarket chains

What format is required?

Have you thought of all possible designs you may need? Corporate ID, Labels & Packaging?

What other specs are required with regards to size, colours, information, inclusions etc?

This is fairly self explanatory, and all you need to do is consider any existing jars, boxes etc that you currently use, and how they might influence the design i.e. if your jars are conical as opposed to cylindrical  then this would certainly influence the design. You may want to consider use of color as well. If your biggest competitor uses the color green, then it’s probably best to go with something else.

What Quantity do you require?

Of course this will make a huge difference to the cost of producing your product since many print houses offer bulk discounts, and it is best to factor in the additional cost of a small print run if this is a new untested product for which you are only drawing up limited quantities. Knowing in advance approximately how many you will need will also indicate to the designer that there may be additional methods available to you in terms of how the items are printed, and this could influence the design in terms of use of colour etc.

For example if you are only doing a small run for a home industries market, you could perhaps consider a more varied use of color, given that smaller quantities can be digitally produced, whereas a much larger run of thousands could be produced in a different environment that might be subject to the design constraints (albeit at lower costs) making use of spot colors.

What is the deadline for the design elements?

Failing to mention the date at which you require the work – is potentially catastrophic, although most designers will probably prompt you on this one!

What is your budget?

It never fails to amuse me, how when this question is asked, that many folks naturally assume that as a designer, you want to ‘take them for every penny’.  When in reality, we’re only asking so that we know how much time is available to be spent on the project.

For example if your budget is $1000, you’re likely to get a logo design for example, that has thoroughly been researched, verified that it doesn’t violate copyright infringements with the right authorities, looks great, is perfect for your business requirements and well worth the investment. But if your budget is $200, then you have the option to go to one of those ‘logo contest sites’ so that you have a lot of options, or you can expect your graphic designer to spend 3-4 hours (depending on their hourly rate) to imagineer it for you.

I’m not saying either one is better than the other, I’m just saying that you get what you pay for, and sometimes that’s great regardless.

The following is a template that you can print and fill out with your design project requirements.

• It’s Free!
• Who is it for? People who are planning design projects (i.e. needing business cards/brochures/labels etc)
• Any Graphic Designers who need a basic 8 step brief template to ensure they capture the necessary information from the client before embarking on their design project.
• It’s a simple one page pdf that could save you loads of time on your next project
• Just click the purple box below to download.
• You will need a pdf reader such as Adobe Acrobat Reader (which you can find for free here).

Enjoy! Please share this with anyone who may find it useful.

With the 2010 World Cup in South Africa drawing to a close, and an Octopus being the undisputed unsung hero of this tournament, all eyes are starting to look forward to 2014 in eager anticipation, even though the final of this years tournament has yet to be decided (if you ignore the Octopus in Germany, and apparently a Parakeet in Singapore who is now also making predictions).

So the logo for Brazil 2014 has been unveiled.

Here is what it looks like:

When I first saw it on Sky News this morning, my first thoughts were…well at least it is not as bad as the 2012 logo for the Olympics being held in London.

On a positive, I like the use of bright colours, reminiscent of the Brazilian flag, however, I am NOT keen on the use of gradients.

Furthermore:

• It’s clever the way it mirrors the shape of the actual World Cup Trophy
• The use of hands coming together to form the shape of the ‘world’ and a ‘ball’ is rather clever, and I like it. Having experienced a bit of world cup fervor first hand in South Africa during this world cup, there is no denying the power of ‘The Beautiful Game’ in bringing diverging identities together.
• I’m not wild about the use of bubble type text sort of squished in there in contrasting red.
• However, on the whole, it is a lot more visually pleasing than the logo for the current world cup finishing up in South Africa right now.

Here is what that one looks like…

My opinion on the Fifa 2010 South Africa logo is that the initial part of the log (the shape of Africa, the figure in black and the text are really quite fun, but I have NO idea why they chose to latch on the additional blue section to the right?

Why the repeat of the sphere?

What is it’s purpose? With the sharp blue corner, bottom right? Was this something that FIFA insisted on to keep their name front and centre?

The logo has received some flack from more eccentric corners, and has even been called the eye of Horus (if viewed by turning your head 90 degrees to the right) by some religious fundamentalist groups who actually believed that the world cup was the start of the apocalypse. Seriously.

So! Who are you supporting for the final? The Netherlands or Spain?

Do you believe their is any credence to be put in ‘Paul the Octopus’ ‘s predictions?

Here is that London 2012 logo, in case you missed the monstrosity the first time around.  I still can’t get over *that* one.

All logo images courtesy of Wikipedia.

I’m currently re-working my entire site folks, so please email me if you want to get onto my mailing list for latest updates!

Free for the taking, just a quick download (right click/save-as) if you forgot to send your dad a card in the mail, and want to send him more than a text message or bland email.

I hope all Fathers out there today have a loved one making them feel appreciated today.
Please note that this image is not suitable for printing out larger than A5.

I love books!

It doesn’t matter whether they are in hard copy format, or available on Amazon Kindle, either way, I love ‘em.

Reading them, paging through them, smelling them (okay maybe not on the kindle so much).

I always have a veritable deluge of books on my Wish list, and even though I often point this out to family and friends on a regular basis (hello, I’m making it easy here) they are often overlooked as gifts for me.

Since I love and promote freelancing as a work life option, I’m well aware of the fact that there is always something new to learn from other successful freelancers, and that is exactly why I can’t wait to get my hands on this book shown here.

Creative, Inc.: The Ultimate Guide to Running a Successful Freelance Business

This book retails on Amazon.com in the region of $10-12 (US) so it’s definitely on the low cost side.

Hot on this books heels is this one…

Entrepreneurism is the way that business is headed.

We’re heading back to the days of home made, of crafts, of skills, of being skilled with our hands, of locally produced goods etc, and I find the subject fascinating.

Particularly interesting is the fact that many of my clients are entrepreneurs who are starting their own home based businesses promoting their own products and crafts.

Reading this book would help me to understand the obstacles that they face and to also get more exposure to the cottage industries in general. Besides who knows? Perhaps I have a hidden talent in baking cookies or crocheting business card holders and can expand my repetoire of design services accordingly.

Craft, Inc.: Turn Your Creative Hobby into a Business

This book would be a great addition to any household interested in starting a business based on their crafting abilities.

Show YOUR Colours!

With these 32 awesome glossy downloadable image (.png) files, perfect for uploading as your Facebook Profile picture, or using on any website or blog!

Also Included are 32 .psd files for the more creatively minded amongst you who would like to edit them yourselves.

All competing countries are represented in this exclusive image collection!

Just USD $9.99

(Secure Payment Gateway)

Show your support for the beautiful game!

So often as designers, we think to ourselves, “If only I had the latest version of the Creative Suite, or if only I had a newer, bigger monitor, drawing tablet, mouse, hard drive, you name it.”

Turns out, a good workman can use just about any tools!

Even something as *boring* as Microsoft Excel!