Well, in the very, very early hours of this morning, we launched our new website’s design. It had been a traditional “shoemaker’s children” type problem, where our quality of websites and design in generally has continuously improved over the past year, but our site stayed the same because we were busy work on other people’s websites and print design.
After putting it off for much too long, we all pitched in and worked really hard these last couple of weeks to get our site done. And it’s really paid off.
Take a look above at our old site on the right compared to our new site on the left, and you’ll see what I mean about our drastic increase in skill over the last several months. Although the website we designed for ourselves at the beginning of last year was solid, it was no longer reflective of our collective capabilities.
Major kudos goes to Dave, who spent hours and hours working on the site, getting it done phenomonally fast while still doing an outstanding job. And to Eric, who still plans to redo much of the coding his boss threw together to get the site online quicker. Eric, please don’t cry when you start looking at my code.
Please, take a look around. We would love any feedback on the new design.
Here at T&S we recently started creating favicons for all our clients’ websites. What is a favicon? Well, visit any popular website and take a look at your browser’s tab, or up at the address bar. You’ll see a small 16×16 icon. Each browser has a default icon (Internet Explorer 7 has the IE logo), but if the site has specified their own favicon, it will appear instead. The favicon is also shown in the bookmark list in most browsers.
If you create a favicon for your site, a visitor will associate it with your site. It will create additional branding reinforcement.
There are several ways to go about creating a favicon. Just use your favorite graphics editing program to create a 16×16 icon. Make sure you view it a 100% to ensure that it’s easily identifiable. Then you can use one of the following methods for converting it into a favicon.ico file.
Once your file is ready, just put it in the main (a.k.a. root) directory of your site. There you go! Your favicon should now automatically appear when anyone views or bookmarks your website.
For more info on favicons, check out Wikipedia’s page on the favicons.
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…
- The color red (always stands out on a card)
- A picture (connects faces with names)
- Vertical composition
- Colored Background
- Colorful image that stands out
- Quality paper
- Double-sided
- 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!
