Photoshop actions are HUGE time savers. They enable you to take an action that you preform and automate it so that you literally just need to push Play and Photoshop does the rest. The following tutorial is not only meant for design professionals but also everyday Photoshop users. Enjoy!
In addition to what I do for BobKat Design, I’m also part of the on demand printing industry; it’s my day job that pays the bills. Throughout my day I see many different requests for printing flyers, brochures, business cards, booklets, portfolios and student work. Here are some tips for those of you printing designs for customers and for yourself. I like to think of it as a “How Not To Piss Off The Guy Printing Your Stuff Yet Also Get Exactly What You Want” guide.
Ok, so we’re not scientists or anything but I believe we’ve found conclusive evidence that McDonald’s new filet-o-fish commercial is so funny and quirky that people truly think it’s a Burger King ad. We use Google Analytics to track the stats on our site and lately we’ve had a spike in the amount of traffic coming from Search Engines. The interesting part is that the keywords that people are using not only include “filet o fish” but also Burger King. Some top keywords for our site are “burger king fish commercial”, “burger king filet o fish commercial”, “bk fish commercial” and “burger king fillet of fish commercial”. This also goes to show you why SEO and using a content management system are so important. Since we used Burger King repeatedly in our post, we’re popping up more often in search results. Back to the commercial… this is a double-edged sword for McDonald’s. On one hand, people actually like their fish commercial but on the other hand, people think it’s for Burger King. Pretty interesting if you ask us…
I feel like a broken record saying this but… the economy is tough right now and every penny matters. We all know advertising is a great way to bring in new clients but you may find it hard to part with the dollars it takes to really make an impact. Here are 10 easy and free (or nearly free) ways to market your business and services.
I’ve been thinking about the overuse of many fonts lately. I’m sure you see the offenses daily and you cringe whenever you notice them. Some are used due to laziness while others are used because the offenders just don’t know any better. Read more to see the top five overused fonts and also some suggestions for alternatives.
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McDonald’s finally seems to be taking a hint from the creative forces behind Burger King’s strange ads with their latest tv commercial for the filet-o-fish. If you like the hilariously creepy Burger ‘King’ then you’ll probably love McDonald’s fish commercial.
crowdSPRING, the online creative marketplace for design work, seems to be gaining momentum lately despite gobs of criticism from the design world. Recently crowdSPRING has landed some very high-profile buyers posting projects on their site.
You’ve probably heard of Cracked.com and The Soup but if you’re not from Ohio, you’ve probably never heard of Norton Furniture. Well, that’s all changing thanks to some incredibly creepy/funny ads from this eccentric furniture dealer.
I recently signed on to CrowdSpring.com, which is basically a reverse bidding site where the designers can openly submit their designs to a “buyer” who then awards their favorite design a predetermined award (anywhere from $200-$2000). It does fall under the category of spec work which is unpopular with most freelance designers, though I find that it is good experience for someone with free time.
My second submission on CrowdSpring won an award even though I felt it wasn’t the most aesthetically pleasing submission. I was awarded the top prize and the project had over 100 entries. With this realization, I learned a valuable lesson. Client needs are almost always more important than pretty pictures.
Here at BobKat Design we are an equal opportunity employer. Here you’ll see Buckley, a young Beagle intern hard at work on a secret project. He declined to give further details, but I think I saw an image of the Great Dane from next door on his screen. Hopefully we’ll get a final project from him that’ll make us proud.
We recently switched our entire site over to WordPress and must admit that it is a bit easier to handle than just hand-coding everything. Thumbs up on using WordPress as a Content Management System.
Our buddies at Go Media have created a super sweet new side project and we like it so much, we just have to give them a shout out:
Get your very own fail stickers and start pointing out all your favorite real-life fail moments!
WOOHOO!
We’re pleased to say that the Bizga Dental Inc. website is FINALLY done! It only took a year and then some to finish (both parties to blame) but regardless, it’s up and looks great. We’re fairly proud of it, kind of like the parents of a 37 year old that has finally moved out of our basement.
You can check it out here.
Tweet Tweet
This Tuesday morning finds me a bit grumpy. Aside from the fact that our door knob fell off randomly today, I have also come to realize that I am well on my way to becoming addicted to yet another social networking website: Twitter
I scoffed at this site when first mentioned but now find myself compelled to post an update every hour on the hour for the staggering number of people (9) following me. My followers clearly care about my 140 characters or less take on such riveting topics as: the weather, my sweater, eating soup, John McCain and chai tea.
I am slightly ashamed of my new-found habit but whole heartedly blame Colin. Excuse me, I need to go post an update about this blog.
Turns out we’re not the only ones thinking about typography lately.
According to The Plain Dealer, freeway signs in Northeast Ohio will soon start using a new typeface called Clearview. This new typeface is supposed to improve readability by 20% over the previously-used Highway Gothic.
Check out the full article here and be on the lookout next fall for easier-to-read signs all along our highways.
Typography is definitely something that I enjoy. I have a lot of interest in how it is used and, more importantly, how it should be used. Headers, sub-headers, body copy, readability and all the little ligatures in a typeface are important parts of any design. Because of this, posters, specifically movie posters, are some of my favorite examples of typography. It can be interesting to see well-designed posters as well as the derivative and boring ones. As most people know, bad design can teach you just as much if not more than good design. And darnit, I’m tired of Trajan. Check it out…
The new blog is up and running. We’re using Wordpress and it’s awesome. It makes life sooooo much easier. It also allows for users to sign up and leave comments… so start posting people!
Tiny? Yes. Awesome? Totally. Got the Favicon up and running today. It’s such a tiny part of a website but really seems to pull it all together and make it more professional. We’re working on enabling comments for the blog and possibly other parts of the site. Stay tuned.
Two things to share today: iGoogle and Pandora
iGoogle is the coolest way to customize the perfect homepage. You can add and change skins. You can add as much or as little as you want, like news, entertainment, games, weather, humor, movies, maps, email, etc. It’s everything you want all in one place.
Pandora is like radio without all the crappy ads, annoying DJs and horrible songs that you don’t even like. You type in the name of your favorite artist, say Weezer, and Pandora only plays music similar to the style/feel/genre of Weezer. It hasn’t let us down yet in its selections and has even alerted us of new bands to enjoy.
I made this today while tinkering with the site. I don’t really have a use for it but I still like it… so yeah, I’m just going to show it off here. I know it’s nothing too elaborate or anything (just a simple use of a good photoshop brush) but I still dig it. Kudos to Vbrush for supplying sweet brushes.
Adaptive Solutions for Marketing and Design. We are a group of designers passionate about providing quality work while upholding artistic integrity.
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