I came across this section in his book Guerrilla Marketing on the Internet, and wanted to share his insight with you.  He articulated something that I’ve witnessed to be true–but you don’t have to take it from me.

Here goes, on page 23 He list #3 of “The 12 Biggest Internet Marketing Mistakes”:

Developing Poorly Designed Websites that are Difficult to Navigate

Online consumer research studies confirm that when visitors land on a website they experience “stay” or “go” moments within the first ten seconds.  If it looks unprofessional or hard to use, they leave and usually won’t be back.  In other words, your target audience will judge you, your products and services, and company, in a snap–and you’re likely to get only one chance to impress them.

Given this, all website owners would be doing everything they can ensure that their online visitors are blown away by their website’s look, feel, and navigability.  Unfortunately however, this is often not the case at all.  Quite a few shortsighted entrepreneurs underestimate the negative impact of poorly written copy, amateurish design, and convoluted navigation…remember that this is one of those areas where it doesn’t pay to be penny wise and pound foolish–it’s just too important. Don’t annoy, or worse yet alienate, prospective customers because your cousin’s friend’s aunt’s next-door neighbor’s brother volunteers to design your website on the cheap.

Well said, Levinson.

Adrian Collins was a candidate for HISD School Board in Fall 2009.  He has a successful consulting firm that employs the same colors–so we decided to stick with the dark and light blue that were already associated with him through his business.

Here’s my newest edition and some fun I had with her poolside pic:

{{ View full size pics here: Before & After }}

You wouldn’t know it by looking solely at the “after” pic, but I removed a scratch from my baby-girl’s face and changed her neon green summer suit to a pink one. I also lightened up the pic. It’s subtle, very subtle–but in lies the difference between a well-edited photo and one that, well–shows that the designer is just playing with a new toy.

Another example of (subtle) fun with Photoshop I did for fun can be seen here, I’m #16: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/04/results-of-self-portrait-design-challenge/

These soft differences can make a huge impact the impression your flyers/marketing materials have as well. I won’t post it here because well, it would defeat the purpose, but I’ve taken 10 years off photos for clients to use on their promotional products. Background changes, color changes, and a number of other photo fixes make the difference in good print collateral.

-Alysia

DN Commercial - 2008

Grubb & Ellis Property Solutions Worldwide

It’s been a long time coming, but in the vein of new images (i.e. Best Buy, Walmart), it was time to freshen up the GMHG logo.  We wanted to do something clean and conceptual that could stand alone without the words “Greater Houston Media Group” spelled out.  After countless iterations, this is what we came up with:

And of course, a new logo calls for new business cards.  This is what we came up with.

Message-wise, we thought–what better way to introduce ourselves than by sharing our philosophy–why we do what we do.  That’s why on the front of the card, you’ll read: “We help people communicate with the world.  Because of what we do businesses are built, people in need are helped, and dreams come true.”  This is literally my personal mantra that I say first thing in the a.m. to prep me for the day’s work–only in my mantra there’s a paragraph after going into further detail about the standard of excellence and OF MOST IMPORTANCE, an acknowledgment of Christ being the enabler of all things good.  It’s through Him that everything is possible.

Aesthetically, I wanted something that stood out without screaming.  White-space is king.  Also–there’s an awesome effect we’re doing with a method called spot UV, which you can’t see on the illustration above, but I will share with you in a later post via a photo of the physical card.

Functionally, as the popularity of social networks grows exponentially (i.e. Twitter’s March 2009 19 million-member increase) it’s important for those whose business uses the social networks constantly, especially those in related fields (like web design!) to offer this as a method of contact, so you will see my Twitter and Facebook name included on the card.  Luckily I was able to secure the same username for Skype–an incredibly valuable tool, especially when working with clients and staff long distance.

Also, for those who are especially attentive, you’ll notice the card boast a new website name.  The hyphen in our web address www.houston-media.com has been a source of great frustration–as a knew it would be when I first registered it a little over 4 years ago.  For lack of a more desirable name that incorporated our company name–I went with it.  However, we have successfully secured the domain www.houmedia.com, and will be making a seamless transition to the new site domain in July.