Design Details – April 2007

April 2nd, 2007

Volume 01 // Number 03

April 2007

In this issue

• End of Quarter
• White Space and Contrast
• Launch, Launch, Launch
• Find of the Month

Hi,

This email newsletter comes to you in our never-ending pursuit of helping our friends and clients succeed because your success is our success.

End of Quarter

The first quarter of 2007 is over. Can you believe it? Did you meet the goals you had set out for the end of the first quarter of 2007? We’re not talking about financial goals (x amount profit margin, blah, blah). No, we are talking about business goals. For example, one of our business goals for the first quarter was to find and use more automated tasks with our computers. One of the automated tasks we now use is an email plug-in that sorts and files our emails-by client- automatically. We had to enter the logic/rules that the plug-in uses and it then it applies those to any incoming e-mail. We can more effectively focus on your messages when we are in the midst of a priority project.

One of our business goals for the second quarter of 2007 is better, more effective, project management. One can never be in contact too much with their clients. An informed client is a happy client in our mind-think no ’surprises.’ To that end we have been working with Sydni for the past two months and will be involving her into more of our projects in a management role. So, if you hear from Sydni, you know why.

So, what are your second quarter business goals?

White Space and Contrast

When I started out in design one of the biggest challenges was getting clients to understand and appreciate the use of white space. I worked in the advertising department at a newspaper designing ads. These ads always had 10-pounds of content for a 2-pound space. I developed great skill in fitting large amounts of information into a small space-think automotive ads in the Sunday paper. I would always provide an alternate layout to the sales reps to show to clients. This alternate layout would have 25% of the content and inevitably be so much more effective visually. The ad actually stood out in the morass of information contained in the paper. It was my dream to have a client buy a full-page ad and typeset a sentence with their logo. It would have been the most effective ad in the history of the newspaper.

There is great power in the use of white space in design. It creates contrast for the elements of content you have in your communications. It creates pause. It allows viewers to catch their breath. It captures attention.

Next time you are designing something consider not only how effective your message is, but how you are using white space.

Launch, Launch, Launch

We are pleased to announce the launch of the following websites that we were involved with:

Launch One: NWB Design
We provided navigation and visual design for this project working in concert with BitVision Technology Group to launch this website in early March. NWB Design provides construction project management and architectural design services.

Launch Two: Monica Ros School
We designed and developed this website working with a team from Monica Ros. The previous website was online since 1998 so a redesign was long overdue. Aside from providing basic background information about the school’s history, philosophies, and curriculum, the new website provides current information for the school’s constituents with a robust calendar tool. The calendar tool allows parents and friends of the school to subscribe via RSS to receive calendar updates automatically without having to revisit the website.

Launch Three: Jonathan’s Thoughts
We designed the new look and feel for our good friend and business partner Jonathan Brown and his blog, Jonathan’s Thoughts. Jonathan is a programmer of the highest quality and has great business acumen. We’ve worked with Jonathan on a variety of projects over the past two years. He recently approached us to help put a “face” on the completely customized blogging solution that he has programmed.

Finally, Find of the Month

Do you know who is visiting your website? Where in the world they are from? What time of day they visit? What pages they are looking at? This type of information is available to you for no cost and is known in the web industry as web site analytics. There is an entire industry built around collecting, analyzing, and developing new strategies based on this information. There are a wide variety of no cost solutions that are easy to install and use. One of our favorites is Google Analytics.

That’s it for this month of DesignDetails. We’ll talk to you again in May.

Bert Mahoney
Publisher, DesignDetails
Principal and Creative Director, HamiltonBerchman Design Group, Inc.
details@hamiltonberchman.com