Archive for August, 2011
Skitch: Free & Awesome Screen Capture and Notation
Wednesday, August 31st, 2011
If you are a Mac (or Android) user looking for a great way to take screenshots and mark up notes, comics, or sketches on those screenshots or images, look no further than Skitch. It’s a FREE tool that we use everyday and love.
They were recently acquired by the also very popular EverNote app. It will be interesting to see what kind of integration happens with these two products in the coming months.
You can check it out at http://skitch.com/ You can thank us later (or in the comments).
Editing Your Own Website: Pros & Cons
Tuesday, August 30th, 2011One of the most common questions that we hear from new client is: “Can I edit my own website?” The answer is yes, but there are some important things to consider in this decision.
We live in a do it yourself culture. Most of us like to feel like we have full control over something and that goes for our company websites as well.
When we started building websites (over 12 years ago), it was very difficult to give a customer access to editing their website without them having some advanced coding knowledge and lots of training. Times have changed and there are lots of great systems out there that make it much easier to update a website directly. There are even many great free and open source products like Word Press (our favorite), Joomla, Drupal, Expression Engine (not free), and others. Each of these products have their own advantages and disadvantages.
One of the key questions I often ask new clients is, “how often do you expect to change the majority of the content on your site?” If the answer to that is less than once a month, it usually does not make sense to spend the extra setup costs and go through training on how to manage and update content yourself. If you only plan to update information every few months, it makes more sense to send it to us (or your web development team) to take care of it for you. It’s kind of like me with my car, I COULD change my own oil and rotate my own tires, but it doesn’t make sense for me to do that with the time and cost involved. I’d rather just take it to a professional.
If you plan to make regular updates to your site on a weekly basis, it usually makes more sense to have control over the content of your website.
Another key point to consider is that you may not need control over ALL of the content on your site. Focusing in on the areas that really need regular updates like a news section, calendar of events, or blog, can help keep the setup costs down but give you the control you need to keep information fresh on the site.
Keep in mind too, that whoever does your website maintenance does not need to be in your area. We are located in St. Augustine, Florida and service many clients in Jacksonville, but we also have clients all over the country from Key West to Seattle. We can provide quick updates to any website (even ones we didn’t build) via e-mail, phone, or fax (yes, we still have a fax machine… although it just forwards to our e-mail).
Hopefully this has been helpful in the decision process of installing a content manamgenet system to edit your own website or not.
If you have any questions, we’d love to help. Just give us a call at 877-378-6101 or e-mail [email protected]
Brand Identity
Monday, August 15th, 2011Brand identity should not be rocket science. You want your customer to recognize “you” as quickly as they would recognize Coca Cola, Apple, or any other successfully branded product. This is true whether you are selling a product, service, or a combination of the two. If your logo, or tag line is too complicated to understand at a glance, then it is too complicated. Colors, shapes, and fonts are an important part of many successfully brand logos.
In the design world many fads come and go, but brands that have staying power rely on something more important. They stay relevant. What is popular today, may be old news tomorrow and so while some elements of popular design are great to include is small doses, the best brands stay true to the businesses’ core values, customer base, and roots. Design Extensions will use your feedback and our experience to craft a website as well as logos, business cards, and other print collateral as needed to convey the image you want for your business.
Many businesses fail to realize their potential, simply by not maintaining uniform branding across all sectors of their business. Design Extensions can help, from business cards, letter head and other print collateral, to websites and online advertisements that keep your business’ image consistent. One of the benefits of utilizing all of the features Design Extensions has to offer is that our design team is all in house, and all files/logos/and content is accessible for use across all platforms to reach new customers. For the few aspects of your business that we may not have an in house solution for, (clothing, and novelties) we can recommend a service provider, and will be happy to design, or provide design elements to them.
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