Free Website, Printing and Graphic Design Tips

When designing a logo bear in mind that it should look just as great in black, or any single color, as the version which contains more that one color. Why? Somewhere down the road you’re going to want to use that logo but not want to pay to print 2, 3, or more colors. Give-a-ways are a perfect example. It’s a pen you’re giving it away and you want your logo to look great but you don’t want to spend a fortune. Maybe you’re creating a company newsletter and you don’t want to pay for 3-4 ink colors. Whatever the reason, it just makes sense that your logo can stand alone. When you want to print or use it it in color that should be your choice not your only option. And remember, one color can look like two or even three colors if you use tints of the original color. For example, gray is a tint of black. Therefore, using black ink allows you to use all the shades of gray, Red ink allows for the shades of red and so on and so forth.

When you surf the web your computer collects temporary files, cookies and various other ”internet clutter”. Because this clutter can contrinute to slow performance, you should periodically clean out these items. Perform the following task at least once a week (daily if you surf all day) to clear up your clutter.

Open Internet Explorer. At the top of your screen find and click on the triangle next to the word “Tools”. When the drop down list displays select the last item “Internet Options”. The Internet Options box will come up. Locate the second listing “Browsing History” and click on “Delete”.  Next the “Delete Browsing History” box will appear. I always Select “Delete All” located at the bottom of the box next to the “Close” button. (You can choose to delete only some of the items by selecting them individually.) Click “Yes” When the “Are you sure” box appears, wait for the process to complete and click “okay” on the box remaining. You’re done. If you do this frequently enough you won’t have to wait very long for the process to complete.

If I had a penny for every time I saw a word on a sign, in a menu, on a brochure (you get the idea) in script and all capitals I could sit around and write in this blog all day. Please, do not use a script lettering or any lettering that is close to a script in all capitals! Besides breaking a founding rule of good design, people can’t read it! If they can’t read it what good is it doing you or your business? You can capitalize the first letter of each word but just not every letter.

Well, I’ve finally gotten around to setting up a blog and, in most cases, that isn’t a very difficult thing to do. You can search “setting up a blog” on Google or your favorite search engine and presto you can get started with a free service. Did I do this? Of course not. I had to have my blog on my website and I had to have access to all the layout and design code. Well, that’s what designers do, right?
In any event, here it is and I hope to keep the good ideas coming. I’d like to use this blog to give free design advice and tips to people who are looking to build websites, design a logo, design art for a promotional item or simply for a business card. As the opportunities arise I’ll check in and log my thoughts and suggestions here. Use the following link to download free website design articles from my website.