I was reading an article this morning about what London’s Underground map can teach us about design. It tells the story of Henry Beck, an engineering draftsman, who transformed an accurate visual representation of the Underground’s map into a simple depiction that focused solely on users’ needs: ‘Where do I get on and off’. When...
The Coastal Virginia area (Hampton Roads) is ground zero with regard to sea level rise and climate change. Businesses, individuals and our government need to act now in developing a plan that will help mitigate the tremendous risk we face. Without proper planning and action, our area faces an uncertain future. Soon, businesses will fail...
I was flipping through our morning newspaper and came across a common advertiser that I’m sure many of you are familiar with: Ollie’s Bargain Outlet. It’s a cringe-worthy abomination in the eyes of most designers. Crass typography. Cheesy illustrations of Ollie sprinkled throughout the flyer. Each page packed with hyperbolic descriptions of all kinds of...
I just completed a course at UCDavis on Optimizing a Website for (Organic) Search. There was a ton of valuable information conveyed in the course, but an area that I found particularly helpful was the section on Local Search. This is valuable for many of my clients that are local businesses that target almost exclusively...
First, I’ll start with a definition: SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or web page in organic search results. The organic results are all the unpaid links that show up when you type in a request in a search engine like Google. Why is it important? If...
I was reading a very engaging story on infographics in the current issue of Smithsonian and thought it might be relevant to share my perspective on this subject. The story begins with a summary of how infographics and data visualization have influenced events throughout history. Incredibly, it’s a very old, dating back 8,000 years. However,...
I was reading a post on mashable.com this morning and saw a list of design rules for nonprofits that I thought would be appropriate to share in this post. These tips were gathered from designers and creatives who work with nonprofits. The original post included 10 rules, but I think these eight are the most important:...
Last year, digital marketing accounted for 25% of all marketing dollars spent. And according to a Gartner survey, that will rise to 33% this year. As a nonprofit, it’s essential to plan and implement your digital marketing strategies in areas considered most important in 2015. Based on an article in the Huffington Post, here are some predicted areas for...
Third in a series of posts highlighting the importance of strategic design in today’s economy. It is inspired by the book “the Strategic Designer” by David Holston. Charles Eames, one of the most influential designers of the 20th century, stated that effective design cannot depend solely on a designer’s preferences. Instead, it should be strongly...
Second in a series of posts highlighting the importance of strategic design in today’s economy. It is inspired by the book “the Strategic Designer” by David Holston. The title says it all. It’s all about the client and the problem he/she wants to solve. As a designer, this can be challenging. We put our years...