T&S Web Design

Everyone should be open to new, innovative ideas for their business card design: just because you have one, doesn’t mean it’s working!

I can’t stress the vitality of a memorable design and one that will leave a lasting impression. Your business card is not only an essential business tool, but it can also be used as effective marketing material. People often overlook business cards because it contains your standard contact information, but why not add value to yours? Give your potential clients something worth holding on to.

Here are three ideas to enhance your card (if applicable to your business):

1) Add a list of your services, possibly with prices (you have the option of making a tri-fold card)
2) Make yours a punch card so clients have incentive to return
3) Use your business card as a promotional tool that markets your service rather than just contact information

Still asking yourself if you’re in need for a business card make-over?

See if your card contains any of the following…

1. The color red (always stands out on a card)
2. A picture (connects faces with names)
3. Vertical composition
4. Colored Background
5. Colorful image that stands out
6. Quality paper
7. Double-sided
8. Rounded corners

With at least one of these features, your card is guaranteed to stand out!

If you’re new to the business world and wary of committing to a website, start small with a business card and build your business identity from there. I promise, it’s an entrepreneur’s best friend!

So I’ve obviously been going on about logos for a couple of weeks now. I thought I would do a final post on the topic with some related links. After all, it’s always good to get third-party input.

• How to Design a Successful Logo
• LogoSauce (logo design inspiration)
• LogoPond (logo design inspiration)

As you probably already know, in May and June, we at T&S are donating 10% of all new website design contract income to UR Special. The news is out, and we’ve received mention in several local newspapers. I thought I’d toot our own horn and post the links to a few.

• Edmond Life & Leisure
• Edmond Chamber of Commerce
• NewsOK.com

Being a native Windows user, I really dislike the layout of the keyboard on the MacBooks. In particular, I dislike the lack of delete, home, end, page up, and page down keys. While all of these can still be achieved using key combinations, I would still prefer to hit just one key. Another annoyance is that Mac OS X uses the command key for almost all the same shortcuts that Windows uses the control key. Since I dual boot my MacBook and use both operating systems regularly, my fingers tend to move faster than my brain and hit the wrong key all the time.

Fortunately, there are a couple of tools that have made my life a bit easier. DoubleCommand and SharpKeys are key remapping utilities for Mac OS X and Windows, respectively. They allow you to customize the layout of the keyboard and switch keys around using software. Using them collaboratively, I successfully switched the control and command keys in Windows and mapped the right alt/option/enter key to the delete key. It does not solve all of the annoyances, but now I do have a delete key and do not have to worry about different key combinations for copy and paste in the different operating systems.

Now, if only Apple had two mouse buttons on the MacBook instead of one…

Can you tell I’m a little stuck on logos lately? Our job here at T&S is to help businesses put their best foot forward on the web. Unfortunately, bad logos tend to work against us in that regard. We have to come up with creative ways to use logos we’re not fond of in a design we are fond of. Our designers, Emily Spirek and Dave Roach, do a great job.

However, let’s assume that you’ve decided you want your business to have a new logo, but you have it on so much material that it would be cost prohibitive to create a new one. Here’s a simple solution.

Replace it everywhere you don’t have to spend extra money, then on one thing at a time where you do have to spend money.

At the very beginning, replace it on your website, documents that you print directly from your computer on an as-needed basis, etc. Then you should probably replace it on your business cards as well. If you have a storefront with a sign, that should be your next stop.

If you use professionally printed letterheads, labels, envelopes and other items, consider temporarily printing them yourself on your computer until you can afford to replace all the items.

An alternative is to simply get the logo redesigned, then calculate how much it will cost to switch everything over and start saving up. That way you can wait and just switch everything over at once.

If you like your new logo much more than your old one, you’ll probably find yourself saving the money that much faster.

Along with my web design job at T&S, I’m also the Apple Campus Rep at Oklahoma Christian University. I receive some interesting questions from students regarding their computers, with the most recent problem being an ink catastrophe.

Three weeks ago, a student received her brand-spankin’ new, sparkling white MacBook from the OC program, and just other night I get a call as a result of her nephew scribbling black ink all over the base of the laptop.

Her first attempt to clean it: Clorox Wipes. No luck. Second attempt: rubbing alcohol. Still no luck. Third attempt with little hope: Soap and warm water. Unsuccessful.

Trying to keep in mind the worth of the computer and safe cleaning products, I searched online for some possible rescue tips.

The safest route I stumbled upon was, iKlear, which is a cleaning product sold on the Apple website for $19.99 and up. A cheaper route: Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. I gave her both options with a disclaimer about the risk in using the non-computer compatible cleaning product (quite the alliteration): she chose the cheap route.

In all precautions, we made sure she unplugged her laptop from any power source, turned it off, and took out the battery. She wet the Magic Eraser with warm water and wrung out all water possible. She proceeded to barely scrub the surface of the computer followed by a clean wipe with a dry towel. Wa la: it cleared all remaining traces of the pen marks.

Thanks Mr. Clean!

First, I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has kept me in his or her thoughts and prayers this past week. I am feeling much better and my facial wounds have healed much quicker than the doctors expected. In fact, my doctor removed the all the external stitches yesterday, because I was healing so well.

Using Apple computers at work has both advantages and disadvantages. One of these disadvantages lies in the small number of side utilities for Mac OS X as opposed to Microsoft Windows or Linux. One thing I have been wanting to test for the past few months is how our sites will load on a slow connection (ie. 56K / dialup). There are many utilities and even some Firefox plugins that exist for this purpose, but only for Windows and Linux.

However, I recently came across the post at Mac OS X Hints which shows how to configure the Darwin firewall to acheive the same effect. I extended this by creating an Automator workflow as shown in the picture and saving it as an application. The script must be executed using AppleScript so that the user will be prompted to type in an administrative password. Otherwise, the script will fail because it does not have proper permissions. Once, the workflow has been exported as an application, it can be added to the dock and executed with a single click.

We often run into clients who we think should redo their logo, and they frequently resist the change for one reason or another. More often than not, they created it themselves and put a lot of hard work into it.

Now, I have no doubt that if you made the logo yourself, you put a lot of work into it. And it was probably fine for a period of time. But if you’re serious about building your business, you need a good logo.

So if you made your logo yourself, or if someone else has told you they think it looks unprofessional, email a dozen people or so and see what they think of the logo. Clients and customers would be ideal if you have some whose opinion you trust. Email them something that they can reply to quickly and easily. Here’s a possible message.

I’m thinking about creating a new logo for my company. I’ve attached my existing logo to this email. Do you think I should replace it or keep the existing one?

That’s it. Keep track of the responses. If most of the people think you should redo your logo, then do it! Make sure this time you use a professional or logo creation software.

Nick Little is our senior programmer and was our first official employee. We recently all went out to eat to celebrate his one-year anniversary with T&S.

Last night, Nick had an accident that landed him in the Emergency Room. He will be out of commission for a few days, but should be back up to full speed within a week or so.

I know Nick, his wife and their newborn son would appreciate your thoughts and prayers.

Earlier this year we created HerndonMusic.com, a website for four musically inclined siblings who created a CD (pictured on the right) to help support Oklahoma Christian University. Anyway, two of the siblings, Addi and Jala, are currently on CMT’s “Can You Duet.” You can watch episodes online on the official CMT Can You Duet website, or watch the twins make Naomi Judd cry (in a good way).

And be sure to vote for them on CMT’s website as well!