Social media avatars – photos, logos, or both?

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and blogs all use avatars as personal ‘icons’ for members. Depending on the image you choose, these postage stamp-sized images can portray you as professional, playful, creative, silly or somber. The questions for business and individuals are, “Do I use a photo, logo, or combination of the two?” and “How do I [...]

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John Ellis: Do you have unique title tags?

Every week, John W. Ellis publishes his e-blast on SEO tips. Here is this week’s tip: Do you have unique title tags? It is essential for every single page on your website to have unique title tags. The title tag is, and has always been, the most important factor in achieving higher search rankings. Yes, [...]

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YMCA: Just Call Us ‘the Y’…

On July 12, 2010, the YMCA announced the first update to its identity in in 43 years. The biggest change seems to be the elevation in importance of the ‘Y,’ similar in usage to McDonalds use of the slang, MickeyD. The Young Men’s Christian Association (“YMCA” or in the USA “the Y”) is a worldwide [...]

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John Ellis – SEO Tip

In July, I had the opportunity to hear John W. Ellis speak at the Greenville Social Media Club. His presentation, while brief (only 1 hour), was very informative. Because of his expertise, I decided to subscribe to his e-blast on SEO tips when offered it. Here is this week’s tip: How fresh is your web [...]

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Font Fight: Helvetica vs. Arial

College Humor has posted the epic battle between Helvetica and Arial. The anthropomorphic typefaces are humorous, and a double thumbs up for the portrayal of Comic Sans.

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Romanian logo outed for using stock images

“…it’s a nice leaf, but the fact that’s straight stock is quite frankly insulting to the [design] industry. By cutting corners like this, it cheapens the entire process.” BRAND NEW: Romania’s new tourism logo and slogan — “Explore the Carpathian Garden” after the Carpathian mountains at the center of the country — were created by [...]

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New Business Cards Have Arrived

We have new business cards here at Fingerpaint Design: We liked the design for our previous ones, so this was more of an evolution than a redesign. When updating them we had two objectives: On the previous set, we didn’t say what we did — oops, dumb oversight,  fixed that this time around We wanted [...]

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Why We Don’t Do Spec Work

The asset of our studio is our artistry — the creative solutions to the communications problems and opportunities facing our clients. And innovative originality can be tough to define, or agree upon. One person’s passion is often another’s poison. So it’s no wonder that potential clients often ask us to take a project on speculation. That is, to try out our creative product in much the same way they may try out a car before purchasing. Unfortunately, we must turn down such projects.

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10 Harsh Truths about Websites of Large Organizations

Early this year, Smashing Magazine posted an article detailing the 10 Harsh Truths about Websites of Large Organizations. As a designer who has work in both agencies and marketing communications departments, I can attest to the validity of each one of the 10 truths. Here are the ten with our comments...

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