We had such a great response to our previous post on this subject matter that we compiled the comments to craft these new gems added a few more submissions of our own. Thanks (and apologies) go out to Barbara, Kathleen, Jerry Lund, Joe Howard, Ed at CR Print and Josh Brown for their comments, which we so selfishly tweaked to fit our twisted thought process.

1. I already have an idea for my logo, on this bar napkin, and I shouldn’t have to pay someone just to stick it on a 3.5″ x 2″ piece of paper along with my name and phone number. Can’t you just make copies of it? Oh, but I want to make the letters nice and clean and maybe spruce up my drawing a bit.
2. I can download free fonts and a paint program to create an effective brochure for my upcoming trade show… Can’t I?
3. 4 Colors?! WTF?! There are billions of colors in the world and that !@$#@ designer only wanted to print with 4 of them?!?!? (more…)

Alright! I devoured his book like I would a snack sized Butterfinger. LOVED IT! Of course, I did. He’s Gary Vaynerchuk. For those of you who have no idea, Gary Vaynerchuk, is the creator of Wine Library TV and author of Crush It! He is a vivacious (to say the least) and inspiring speaker. Watch and learn how Social Media will make or break your business. It really IS that important.

Here’s another of his keynotes. It’s a bit raunchy and in-your-face, but brilliant all the same.

Now go and get excited about what YOU do and CRUSH IT!

There are so many changes happening in our industry these days that I find myself reading several books at time. Following are my three favorites from the past year.

“Six Pixels of Separation” by Mitch Joel

If you have been putting off taking your business into the world of Social Media, hoping the silly time sucking craze will just go away, then you must read this book. Even if you have gotten your feet wet on Twitter, you still need to read this book. “Social media is not a fad,” says Mitch Joel. He guides you through the world of Wikis, Twitter and blogging and explains the necessity of getting involved in the conversations going on out there. Take control of your company’s messaging and branding through the great internet tools available now. READ THIS BOOK TODAY!

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A Tale of Two Cards

There are a constant barrage of business cards left on my front porch from tree trimmers, cleaning folks, landscapers, gardeners and others insinuating that I am not doing a very good  job of these things myself. I don’t take offense because I am busy and don’t put as much attention into my house as I probably should. Hopefully my friends and family get that and don’t think less of me. But, as I am sort of in the market for a cleaning person, I kept two cards in particular from last week. (more…)

In order to help the designer truly capture the essence of your company when designing or redesigning your corporate identity it is necessary to provide them with some background material. This is often done with a design brief but simply answering these questions should give any designer a great head start in the right direction.

1. What services and/or products do you offer?
2. How would you describe your corporate culture?
3. What makes your company unique? (more…)

I have never been comfortable with networking. It’s not that I don’t like meeting people. I love going new places and chatting up folks. I just hate being forced to socialize in an arena where everyone is trying to sell themselves. I listen politely all the while dreading the moment when they will ask me, “So, what do you do?” (more…)

by Joel Dualan

Before we begin, I feel it only appropriate to preface this article with a public service announcement, brought to you today by Pi Design:

Friends don’t let friends use comic sans.
Together we can overcome.

With that out of the way we can now proceed.

You might be thinking to yourself (at least I hope you are), “Who in their right mind would choose to use that typeface for a wanted poster?” This example is clearly a dramatization to illustrate a point, but I kid you not, the poster was based on a real life example.

Choosing typefaces to use for your project isn’t something that can be determined by answering a few predefined questions. There isn’t a set of rules that are written in stone that designers can refer to, but we instead rely on years of education and experience to lead us to the best choice. When faced with the task of choosing a typeface, many factors must be considered, but among these, content, media, and audience should be considered foremost.

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Another post from the purposely silly “This Looks Awsome” Series (yes, we know it’s spelled wrong. It was done on purpose to be silly, you nit)

1. Create your project in any program with “Microsoft” in the name. You’d be better off finger-painting with mud on an old pizza box, dousing it with gasoline and throwing it briskly into a portal to hell.
2. OPTIMA OPTIMA OPTIMA. Did I forget to mention that use of COMIC SANS will also immediately discredit you as a designer?     (more…)

My daughter has kept herself busy this summer creating origami animals and geometric shapes out of paper, Post-it notes in particular. I, too have always had a fascination with paper. I love the different textures and colors, especially those of the handmade variety. Fashioning something three-dimensional from a flat sheet requires extreme patience while completing a challenging combination of cutting and folding in just the right places. I have been amazed by the tiny things she does like the miniature presents in this photo. She will often cut a Post-it note down to a half inch square and fold microscopic origami cranes that sit on your fingertip

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