Here are a few rules to follow:

1. Understanding the value of a well designed brand identity.

“Make it a priority and find money to invest in it right away.” So many people have a business idea, ask their cousin or a colleague’s wife, who dables in photoshop, to design a logo and say, ‘That’s my brand.’ That’s a mistake. Your brand often is the most important thing beyond the product itself.”

2. Know yourself.

“Start with your company’s identity. What is a singular expression of your brand distilled down to its simplest form? You must define the essence of your philosophy.”

3. Consider branding from the outset.

“Wellness Pro came to us before they started product development. They had an idea to create wellness products with high-quality design. Because they understood the spirit of the company and its value to potential customers, we were able to help them build the brand first, and the messaging and strategy were in place before the first product came off the production line. The brand is now a big success.”

4. Choose your design partner carefully.

“Chemistry is important,” Lana says. “Sometimes entrepreneurs don’t get the attention they need, so make sure you work with someone who cares about you and your business, and who really gets you.”

5. Stay true to yourself.

“Brand evolve. Apple has changed quite a bit, but those changes are always planned and have been very well-nurtured over the decades. You must make sure that your company’s fundamental tenets and beliefs are intact, and only fine-tuned by changes in culture, society and customer taste. Authenticity is the keystone of any successful brand.”

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Whether you’re a seasoned graphic designer or you’re new to the graphic design scene, having access to the right computers for graphic design can make a difference. The following are the best computers for graphic design according to graphic design experts.

Dell Studio XPS Computer

This computer is perfect for 3D and video editing. It is also good for creating raster or vector designs and editing photos. For designers who work with large video editing projects, it is recommended that they invest in the 16GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM. This computer also features a high-definition ATI graphics card that allows the designer to create impeccable graphic designs.

HP Pavilion Elite Computer

This computer is powered by an Intel Core processor or AMD Athlon that ranges from an i7-980X six-core Extreme Edition (Intel) to an X4 630 quad-core (Athlon). This is a great option for anyone who wants a more affordable computer.

HP’s memory ranges up to 9GB. This provides the user with a smooth experience and it enables one to create high-quality graphic designs in a flash. It also comes with 64-bit Windows 7 for the most innovative technology.

MacBook Pro Laptop Computer

This laptop is available in a variety of sizes (13, 15 and 17 inches). This is the perfect computer to use when editing graphics. It features an LED backlit display and high performance NVDIA graphics which makes it easier for editing. On the 17-inch MacBook Pro, the battery power lasts around eight hours.

Mac Pro Computer

Mac computers are still considered a favorite among many graphic designers. Mac Pro has a quad-core Intel Xeon “Nehalen” processor. This makes a graphic designer’s job a breeze. The latest version of Mac Pro is more efficient than the other versions. It has a memory controller that lets the graphic designer have access to data in the computer’s memory a lot faster. This is a God sent feature for graphic designers.

There are several other computers that are excellent for graphic design. The computers above are the top rated computers used in the graphic design industry.

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Many cool E-Commerce WordPress plugins are available out there but not all of them are up to the mark. In order to help you find some of the best plugins for this purpose, today we are going to present a list of Top 6 Free Ecommerce WordPress Plugins. So check them out and pick the ones that suit your needs the best.

We hope you will find this list useful, as all the plugins in this list are quite good. Here goes the list..

WP E-Commerce Plugin

It is one of the most loved, popular and widely used plugin for e-commerce. It is easy to use and can be applied on any WordPress theme. It offers various payment options such as Manual (cheques), PayPal etc. It offers high customizability, thus changing its look and modifying the templates is also possible.

Jigoshop WordPress E-Commerce Plugin

This feature-rich plugin allows creating a full-fledged online shop easily and quickly with various products and services. Grouping products and setting different attributes them is also possible, for instance S, M, L sizes for clothing etc.

Cart66 Lite

This awesome plugin is quite lightweight but very sophisticated; and can help you a lot in selling digital and physical products. It offers various shipping and currency options, so selling your products on an international scale is possible. Putting ads on a page and affiliate marketing is also possible.

Quick Shop Plugin

This plugin allows adding a sidebar on the page that shows the visitor’s shopping cart. It boasts inbuilt Paypal and Email functionality. You can also add products to your pages with a TinyMCE button.

YAK Shopping Cart Plugin

This unique plugin simply associates the products with weblog entries, thus posting ID becomes the product code. It offers easy categorization of products and configuring settings for the shopping cart. It allows custom payment options such as cheques, credit cards and Paypal etc; and configuring shipping options is also possible.

EShop Plugin

This plugin has easy accessibility and is quite easy to use. It offers multiple ways of listing products, merchant payment gateways, stats for buying and shipping options etc. The settings of this plugin are quite customizable.

Written by Ali.

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01. Hierarchy of content

A more descriptive name for this trend could be called “show me what I care about about when I care about it”. It represents the end of the obsessive focus on “related articles” and the unnecessary “you might be interested in this…” clutter around the content that you actually care about at that moment. That doesn’t mean that curated content is a bad thing in itself of course; it still has room in your layout as long as it doesn’t get in front of what you are reading. Here are three great examples of this trend.

We’ve come a long way in web design when it comes to news sites. Remember the small screen resolutions, the requests to fit as many call to actions as you could above the fold, and don’t forget about the 300×250. The layout of Quartz, “a digitally native news outlet for the new global economy”, is a million miles away from all of that. It succeeds in providing a large amount of information without the site ever seeming cluttered or overwhelming.

02. Full screen imagery

More and more websites are taking advantage of the increasing popularity of widescreen monitors to show gorgeous imagery to full effect.

03. Focus on touchscreens

More and more sites, in terms of layout and interactivity, feels like they were made solely for touchscreen devices. As tablets become cheaper and adoption becomes more widespread, this trend can only intensify.

04. Back to the grid

Using the grid as a layout structure goes back to the beginning of the web, but the rise of responsive web design has seen a new emphasis on the use of grids.

05. Minimal content

The trend to show minimal content on a page is not about the aesthetic value of minimalism (although that may play a part). It’s more about an approach that’s focused around the user and enables them to take things one step at a time.

06. Parallax scrolling craziness

The parallax scrolling trend has been around for a while now. As a designer I started loving it and eventually I was fed up with all the misuse of it. However there’ve been a few examples where this effect has been successfully used, really adding some value to the content featured on it.

07. Parallax animation

Parallax animation is a subset of parallax scrolling, although where one begins and another ends can be argued over endlessly… However you define it, though, parallax animation has obvious usefulness for movie sites.

08. Fullscreen marquees

A good picture can speak a thousand words, and so full screen marquees have come as a breath of fresh air on many news and blog sites.

09. Focus on storytelling

If you want to convey a brand message, one of the best ways is to tell a story, and web designers are coming up with more and more ways to create inventive and engaging narratives. Here are two great examples of the trend.

10. Editorial influence

Web design and editorial design are constantly looking at each other and getting closer in terms of aesthetics and layout.

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It was also interesting to note, that not one person had the same favorite quote.

“An artist cannot fail. It is a success to be one.”

“Unless you move, the place where you are is the place where you will always be.”

“The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.”

“Do what you love to do, but don’t do it to the point where you don’t love it anymore.”

“Tough times never last, but tough people do!”

“I don’t want to be one of those who say ‘I wish I had’. I want to be one of those who say ‘I’m glad I did’.”

“With time, and saliva, the ant will devour the elephant.”

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. ~ John Quincy Adams

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” ~ Thomas Edison

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

“To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.” ~ Joseph Chilton Pearce

“Art disturbs, science reassures.” ~ Georges Braque

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” ~Chinese Proverb

“Be a fountain, not a drain.” ~Rex Hudler

“Graphic design is the spit and polish but not the shoe.” ~Ellen Lupton

“Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” ~Thomas Edison

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” ~Mark Twain

“I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.” ~Thomas Edison

“Any designer can do SOMETHING. A great designer does the RIGHT thing.”

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

“Imagination is more important that knowledge.” ~Albert Einstein

“Don’t get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water.”

“…use what talent you possess…the woods would be very silent if no birds sang, but those that sang best…” ~Henry Van Dyke

“Don’t take life too seriously, you’ll never get out alive.” ~Elbert Hubbard

“…a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention…”

“Success is falling down 7 times but getting up 8.”

“The holy grail is to spend less time making the picture than it takes people to look at it.” ~ Banksy

“Imagination without knowledge may create beautiful things, knowledge without imagination can create only perfect ones.” ~Albert Einstein

“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination.” ~Jim Jarmush

“Simplicity is not the goal. It is the by-product of a good idea and modest expectations.” ~Paul Rand

“Keep her lit”

“Art is creativity, creativity is passion, passion is love.”

“When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.” ~Confucius

“Design that doesn’t take a chance doesn’t stand a chance”

“The perception of beauty is a moral test.” ~Thoreau

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” ~Mark Twain

“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” ~Mark Twain

“In order to know what is right, you’ve got to know what is wrong.”

“Don’t pay any attention to what they write about you. Just measure it in inches.” ~Andy Warhol

“Our job in this lifetime is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find who we already are and become it.” The War of Art – Steven Pressfield

“You can do anything, but you can’t do everything.”

“It’s not how good you are, its how good you want to be.” ~Paul Arden

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If you’ve ever worked in an environment like this, you know how easy it is to get sucked into the negativity.  Attitudes are contagious!

8 Things That a Positive Attitude Can Do:

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Everybody knows the importance of making a first positive impression, but if you assume prospective customers first encounter your website through its homepage, thin again.
Natural search results drive visitors to individual pages that best match each user’s search query, and often that page is not your site’s homepage.

On more than 200 websites we manage, nearly four of every 10 visitors enter the site from somewhere other than the homepage.  Unfortunately, most business owners and marketing managers focus 90% of their creative attention and resources on designing a stunning homepage and treat the other pages as an afterthought. Don’t make that mistake! Give every page the same attention you devote to your site’s homepage.

Recently we have had over 10 companies come to us to spruce up their site’s image, primarily all the other pages, so the whole site is up to par with their fabulous homepage.

Normally when a company comes to us with this specific design request, we start with checking your website’s analytics to identify where visitors most frequently enter your site, and determine whether each page channels visitors to the information/creative you want them to see and to the actions you want them to take.  After our evaluation we come up with our suggestions of how to make it better.  Some sites can be saved and some are best to be re-designed from scratch.

If you’re unsure of your site’s purpose, this is the first issue to tackle.  You should have a clear purpose for your site before you contact a design firm, but if you skipped that step, we can certainly help you formulate a purpose now.  If your site’s conversion rate is quite low, contact us for a free evaluation @ 310-310-2737 or email us at info@webvixxen.com.

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The tabs at the top of your Facebook Fan Page are apps. Some, like your wall and photos are built into Facebook. Others are essentially plug-ins where fans can view external content, like YouTube videos, Flickr photos, etc.

The app you need for your custom page is called “Static FBML,” located here. If you’re logged into Facebook, you can add it to your Page. It is essentially a blank canvas where you can add whatever content you want, including custom graphics and links via standard HTML.

2. Set Up Your Tab

Once you’ve added the Static FBML app, click “Edit Page” below your company’s profile image. This will bring up all your settings and apps. Look for the FBML app and click the “Application Settings” link.

The app can function in two ways: As a set of boxes, or as one dedicated profile tab. If you’re building a splash page, you’ll probably want to use it as a tab, so go ahead and make sure that the “Box” setting is removed, and the “Tab” setting is added. You can always experiment with boxes later if you find them more useful.

3. Add Your Content

Once you’re in tab mode, go back to your settings and click the “Edit” link under the Static FBML app. This opens a standard text field where you can add your content.

“Box Title” will be the name of your tab, so you’ll want to change it to something appropriate, like “This Week’s Deals,” “Special Offers,” or simply “Welcome,” depending on how you plan to use your Page.

The main text field is where your content goes, and you can add standard HTML to the page as you would any website, including images, text, links, and other formatting. No need for HTML, BODY, or HEAD tags.

Note that your images must be hosted elsewhere (on your company’s website, for example) and only referenced in your HTML code.

4. Make It the Default Landing Page

If you want this new tab to be the “face” of your business Fan Page, head back over to your page settings and edit your “Wall Settings.” There is an option for “Default Landing Tab for Everyone Else.” From that menu, select your new tab.

From now on, it will be the first thing visitors see when they arrive.

5. Engage Further With FBML

FBML stands for Facebook Markup Language, and it is the code used in Facebook applications to reference items on the social network, like user profiles, groups, feeds, and other data. If you’re really looking to integrate your landing page and get interactive with visitors, it might be worthwhile to learn this language.

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