Aryankunal’s Weblog

Flash is a web based multimedia technology by Macromedia. It has been around since the mid-1990’s and has slowly been building in popularity to the point where many bundled programs come with flash players, Macromedia boasts, “Over 516 million Internet users now use Macromedia Flash”.

The strongest benefit of Flash from a viewer’s perspective is the smooth multi-media presentation which can provide a polished and relaxing user experience. Obviously, this impression can positively impact a company’s impression and brand. With Flash you can intertwine animation, video, sound, music, voice-overs, and even connect to a database for personalized interactivity or calculations. Another advantage is that the Flash piece can be designed once for both CD and Web applications allowing the piece to be used in direct mail as well as online. The overwhelming technical advantage is the files are smaller than other multimedia authoring platforms allowing faster download. We have found that a Flash application can double and sometimes triple the number of users viewing information on a web site. To save time sometimes getting flash help from a professional can get things turned around much quicker.

Importance of using Flash

• Make sure your users are not all dial up customers.
• Allow non-Flash users to view the same content on the web site.
• The Flash piece should automatically detect if the viewer has Flash and its version.
• Don’t use Flash in critical branding areas like a logo unless a Flash detector is in place.
• Don’t force the user to view a splash screen each time they go to your site.
• Use streaming when possible.
• Have a link or automatic code to download the latest version of Flash on your site.

On the Internet “content is king”, and the real guts of content is the written word. If you are managing a website you need readable text for your onsite articles, for articles in your promotional newsletter or ezine and for promotional articles to be published on other sites or in other ezines. While these writing tasks can be outsourced to professionals, it is also possible for you to do it yourself if you follow a step-by-step process that is outlined in the following ten tips.

1. In the first paragraph clearly state what the article is about. In standard journalism you would tell who, what, why, when and where an event is happening. In web articles you oftentimes state a problem, such as “how to get good written materials for your website”, and then explain how the article is going to solve the problem “by showing a simple step-by-step approach to writing”.

2. Organize your material in a point-wise fashion. Before you begin writing think of the points that your article is going to cover. You may not necessarily show the points, as I am doing in this article (calling them ten tips), however, for your own outline of the article you should know what you are going to say before you begin writing. Write down these points and then make sure you include them as you begin the writing process.

3. Put the reader at ease. You are not writing for a scientific or literary society, but to your peers on the Internet. Write in a simple style and if you introduce new terms, define them for your readers.

4. Explain your points in short paragraphs. Short paragraphs are easier for the reader to follow. No one likes to look at a long block of solid text. Three, four or five sentences are usually enough for one paragraph.

5. Emphasize the benefits of your product or service. When it comes to selling, it is the benefits that sell, rather than the features. Sure, you are selling garden supplies, home décor, clothing, gifts and jewelry on your website. These are features. But the benefits are that people can get these items in one place without shopping around, that they can save time and money, etc.

6. Give resource information to your readers. Give the addresses of websites where your readers can get more information on the subject that you are talking about. These may be your own websites or they can be other resources. In case you are worrying about losing customers, good outgoing links from your website are also helpful to your site’s page ranking and positioning in search engines.

7. Keep your most important information near the beginning of the article and summarize what you want to say at the end. Editors usually cut things near the end, so keep your most important points and ideas in the beginning of the article. At the very end of the article you can summarize what you set out to accomplish in your opening paragraph.

You may not win a literary prize, but if you follow the steps that I have outlined above you will be able to produce effective written content for your website and for your promotional outreach via your own newsletters and through articles published on other websites. These articles could become the key to success in your Internet endeavors.

Graphic design is the process of creating the appearance of a publication, presentation, or web site in an attractive, logical manner. When done successfully, it attracts attention, adds value to a message, enhances readership and readability, simplifies, organizes, provides selective emphasis, and creates unity. Steps in the Graphic Design Process:

• Analyze the audience.
• Determine the purpose of your message.
• Decide where and how your message will appear (whether it will be a printed publication, presentation, or web site).
• Establish goals.
• Organize text and graphics.
• Choose an appropriate format and layout.
• Select appropriate typefaces, type sizes, type styles, and spacing.
• Add and manipulate graphics.
• Organize text and graphics.
• Proofread
• Refine and fine-tune.

Designing logos is just like any other type of design work, to be professional you’ll need to pay attention to details. Even a great idea can be ruined by not thinking about simple things, the following tips will help you to keep your concepts safe.

1.Work with vectors
This probably sounds obvious to most designers out there, but it isn’t to everybody so I repeat it as often as I can to avoid receiving those damn jpeg logos. Vector formats are the ones that will allow the most variations for your logo.

2.Don’t use more than 2 fonts
There is many nice fonts out there and we would all love to use as many as we can. Unfortunately using too many fonts will most of the time result in a loss of coherence. Using two different fonts can be good to create a contrast, catching the eye.

3.Keep it readable
If people can’t read your logo, it’s useless to have one. This sounds like dumb advice again, but it’s easy to get caught in creating letters or distorting a font until it becomes unreadable. Always stay aware of that when working on your logo.

4.Test sizes
Your logo should resize well at any size, whether it’s huge on a truck or tiny on a badge.

5.Adapt it for dark backgrounds
So you’ve got a wonderful looking dark logo, but now your client want to get it on his black car. It’s usually not too hard to adapt it, but you’ll look more professional if you already got that case figured out.

6.Make sure it works well in black and white
I have a very simple technique for that: I work every logo in black and white before adding any colour. This way choices are made judging by the shapes and you are not distracted by anything else. It makes it much easier to know that your logo will work well in shades of grey afterwards.

7.Don’t include photos in your logo
Well… this one goes along with the first tip. First, photos are not vectors. Photos also don’t scale, have no branding value and are hard to adapt for any use.

8.Look at it upside-down
This is a tip I got from my teachers in graphic design school, looking at your logo (or any printed design really) will get the meaning out of the way and give you a new look at the design’s balance and white spaces. Try it!

9.Don’t follow trends
It’s often hard to escape trends, especially if you’re passionated and love to look at inspiring logos on design sites. Your logo has to work on the long run, so try to avoid the web 1.0 swoosh or the web 2.0 reflection.

10.Get specific feedback
Asking people’s opinion is worthless if you don’t know what informations you want to get, so when getting feedback, try asking specific questions (eg. does your logo expresses the industry of the company?).

Logo design is as much a science as it is art. In fact, it has a host of scientific aspects to it that includes psychology and mathematics. This is because a good logo design is intended to act on the psyche of the onlooker and appeal to it and its retention would depend on the symmetry it catties. Since a logo appears on almost everything related to your business, that include your stationary, products and services, letters and even the press, the importance of a good logo design is critical. A clear, dynamic, symmetric and aesthetic logo design from a professional logo designer would leave a lasting effect on the mind of the consumer and it is imperative to the success of any business. While going through the process of getting a good logo from a logo designer, keep the following in mind.

a. Logo should be unique and portray honesty:

Many businesspersons looking for a logo want it to look like someone else’s, but, this is wrong. You can take ideas from other logos but come up with something highly unique and creative. The logo should portray the strengths of your business, in fact, the strengths themselves are unique otherwise how do you plan to decimate your competition? Be clear and concise.

b. Simple:

Keep your logo simple. A complex graphic used for a logo can have negative effects since its recognition value will take time to be impressed on the customer’s mind. Also, simple logos are better to customize for printing use than the complicated ones. Simple but compelling is the mantra here and follow it for successful branding. Good examples here would be Prudential or Nike.

c. Colors:

Always check the logo in black and white. If the logo does not appeal in monochrome, it will not appeal in any other color.

d. Scalable and flexible:

A simple logo is scalable to any size. Make sure that the logo design that you have is scalable and does not lose its appeal when made smaller or enlarged.

e. Symmetry:

A logo should be well balanced and appeal to the symmetric aesthetics. This will make sure that the logo appears balanced to the human eye. The factors that effect symmetry are many – color, shape, line density etc. Make sure that you instruct your logo designer accordingly.

Once your logo is done and finalized by the logo designer, there is still scope for changes, but, once you begin using the logo, never change or alter it.