media

The 5 Unwritten Rules of Design

Posted on by Mario

The 5 Unwritten Rules of Design

There are many things in design world, but there are more rules that are unwritten but as a designer you should know it since this rules will turn you from a good designer into the great one. So, whatever your major design is whether it is web designer, graphic designer and etc. you should follow some rules below.

  1. Client is a King

Like the old saying, customer is always a king. This proverb should always be remembered by heart whenever you interact with your client. There are two ways to serve your client very well; first you need to know what your client really wants through having a deeper and understandable brief. Second, you also need to remember that the client is always right, even when they are wrong.

Like or hate it, your client is the one who truly knows their business better than anyone else. Moreover, the user is the final judge of whether your design is successful, so accept their suggestion can be the best way to get what your client really wants.

  1. Get Paid Up Front

Even though the client is always right, but getting paid is your right. In fact, it is okay to ask for getting paid up front and taking a percentage as down-payment on larger jobs since it shows that your client is serious about making a commitment.

  1. Pen and Paper First

Today, we live in digital world, where gadget has replaced most of our traditional ways in designing, but nothing is more intuitive rather than a fist full of pens and some paper. Drawing sketch in a paper will avoid you into thinking which typeface to choose and how big your column needs to be. In fact, many designers agree that computers can sometimes be limiting rather than liberating.

  1. Test Your Designs Across Media

Testing pages on multiple platforms is one of the important rituals that every designer should do. According to Adrien Raphoz, senior creative at FCBInferno, “If your logo design does not work in black and white on a 2×2 cm format, it is not a legible design..”.  Therefore, always remember to look at them on paper, web, and also mobile.

  1. It’s OK to Start Again

Sometimes, in the process of designing, we will get stuck in exploring the ideas and the best way to get out of it is to move on the idea. Besides, as it is stated by Chris Clarke, chief creative officer at marketing agency DigitasLBi that there was never enough time to do something, but always enough time to do it again.

The 4 Principles of Link Building

Posted on by Mario

link building

No one will argue about the importance of link building, a good amount of link building will help your SEO. So, have you checked your link building quality? There are 4 guiding principles of link building that can be applied in your SEO service.

  1. Ask Yourself, “Am I Worth Linking to?”

The first principle that makes people come into your shop is that because they sell you something that they want to buy and it works the same with your website, never expect inbound links if your website has nothing of worth to say. Before you obsess about the number of back links, get back to basics and ensure your website is worth linking to. While that means a well-structured, easy-to-navigate site, with sufficient internal linking and good coding, it primarily means quality content. Tell people who you are, what you do, how they can buy from you/sign up to you/ join you; then tell them again! And tell them with well-written, grammatically correct, interesting content.

  1. Don’t Sit Back on Your Laurels

Having a great place to link to you is not enough; you have to regularly update that content to ensure people continue to link to you, and to keep attracting new links. Become an actively participating member of your community or industry by updating product information, posting comments and viewpoints on your industry, publishing press releases or white papers – however you do it, keep doing to.

  1. Be a Link Friendly Site

Be clear about your desire for quality inbound links by considering creating a ‘link to us’ page, explaining the sort of companies /websites who have some interests in liking you, and how they can do it such as which URLs and anchor text they can use. To feature a good spread of anchor text possibilities, you should keep this page updated.

  1. A Good Link Building Should Base on Merit

You can use the old school approach as you start searching for quality links. Remember to always use relevant keywords to your business and search for related websites. Then filter your findings until you get the most relevant and those with the best Google PageRank. Moreover, since nothing can work best in producing link building instead of having merit for your site, so you better have merit for theirs. You have to rely on one part marketing, two parts public relations, and three parts common sense to build a good link building.

7 Elegant Script Fonts you won’t Hate

Posted on by Mario

7 elegant script fonts you won't hate

No one can deny that font plays an important role in graphic design since a right font type will add elegance and personality, while remaining legible. Therefore, we list some script font types to add you more references in doing web design or anything else related with design.

  1. Adelia

This font was firstly invented by Indonesia-based foundry Artimasa which inspired by traditional sign painting and brush lettering. Adelia is particularly well to logo, packaging projects, as well as headlines, posters, and T-shirt graphics, since it represents a bold and playful font.

  1. Baker Street

Baker street is a single-width typeface which makes it perfect for big text blocks or simple headlines thanks to its flowing curves. Designed by Thomas Ramey of Seattle-based studio Ramey Foundry, there are four weights in total – Regular, Light, Regular Title and Light Title.

  1. Everglow

Everglow is kind of retro script font features over 560 glyphs and 322 alternate characters. Besides, it adds a vintage touch to anything from logos to letterheads, then Everglow (designed by another Indonesian outfit, Senior Studio) is your font.

  1. Festival Script Pro

Derived from Argentinian type foundry Sudtipos, Festival Script Pro is a masterpiece pushes the explorations of designers Angel Koziupa and Ale Paul further into the deco script territory. It is a modern, appealing script font with pronounced bilinear contrast and a luxurious ornamental swashing treatment (layered swashing possibilities are included, ranging from minimal to utter exuberance).

  1. Graduate

If you wish to have a contemporary calligraphic script, Graduate by Netherland-based foundry Fontforecast is a perfect choice with over 825 glyphs, it’s a flexible font that you can dress up or down by adding curls to the beginning, middle or end of any lowercase letter.

  1. HT Osteria

Are you looking for an old fashioned type of font? HT Osteria is maybe the right choice for you. Based on 1950s-era wallpaint shopfront advertisement in Italy, HT Osteria is a retro script font that comes as a single weight.

  1. La Paz

La Paz is one of the most unique fonts since it consists of three different alphabets, which are interleaved to provide variations in height, weight and inclination. Moreover, La Paz is a charming script font that will bring a personal touch if it is used in the right context.