Twitter Addiction

I’ve also been using Twitter a lot lately and that probably takes up the most time. Is it an addiction? Only if learning can be considered an addiction. If you follow the right people, it’s like hardwiring your brain to an Encyclopedia. The relevancy and timeliness of the knowledge is extremely valuable as social media becomes more mainstream. Also since Twitter limits each tweet to 140 characters, the information will be summarized into a nice 1 second read.

I’ve been anticipating the social media global brain idea for a long time, and from my observations in Twitter, it seems to be much closer now. The value of creativity is brought back into the spotlight, where one person’s idea can be amplified a million fold through social media. I will continue to stay with Twitter, because it has become an essential tool to staying ahead of the game.

How I learned about the Interweb

I have a background in Advertising and Marketing. Worked in studios and Ad agencies but really hate having to deal with clients. They aren’t out to improve anything, and most just want a safe bet. I am someone who needs to learn constantly, who needs to create something new. I knew it would be pointless if I continued to be a salary slave, and so I began by learning about internet marketing.

I suppose my training would be similar to many people. Reading articles on SEO, online business, monetization, writing, forums, Videos, E-Books etc etc. Every new project that I start, I try to incorporate more and more into it as a test bed for a future big project.

I’ve been using the Internet for a long time but I haven’t really given much thought to how it actually worked behind the scenes. I don’t mean the software running the sites, but the interactions that naturally occur between groups of interests. Then I had an opportunity to change all that.

My first big web project

Earlier this year, I created a series of WordpressMU networks with a partner. For months I went through mountains of learning material and testing for User interface design, social media design, adwords, SEO, online communities, blogging, PHP, CSS, SQL etc etc. One moment I would be photoshopping a fantasy landscape, the next I would be sweating with a PHP help file.

There was a steep learning curve for working with a partner too. It taught me all the things that could go wrong in a business relationship and I’m thankful for it. Definitely better to learn all of that early on.

I’m a Pisces so I’m all about using the creative side of my brain. All of this was an uphill battle for me and made me lose a lot of sleep. I wanted to outsource everything but I’m glad I stayed the course and learned everything myself. Without all that knowledge, I would not have been able to create all the opportunities open to me today. I believe jack-of-all-trades  are going to thrive nicely on the internet.

Plans for this Blog

I’ve been experimenting with different types of design themes, blog post topics and plugins. While I’m getting closer to understanding the optimal goals of blog design, I fear that I’m going in the wrong direction with Creativeherb.com.

This blog was originally meant as a home base for me to write down my thoughts, and perhaps share a tidbit of wisdom or two. But like many things that I do, I tend to be a perfectionist. I started to become traffic greedy. Why share words with 50 people when you can potentially share it with tens of thousands?

I changed my blog topics twice in a month and site tagline 3 times in a week. I just couldn’t decide which subject I should focus on, I just have so much I wanted to say across many categories. Then I realized that the name “creativeherb” was just difficult to brand. Is it a creative site? Or is it a herbal site? I didn’t want to give up my personal site though.

Summary

My master plan for 2009, is to refocus Creativeherb around my business projects and design experience. I will talk about my projects and the business thinking processes I go through. It will not be a continuous stream of business tips or photoshop tutorials, but something more personable.

I will also showcase my professional design portfolio and talk about my design processes. I  hope this will increase exposure and authority for me as a Brand. I will also aim to increase reader participation because I would like to converse with like-minded people through my designs as well.

I will also start my new primary blog, involving case studies of brands and branding. I love branding, I can talk about it all day. And the domain name is much easier to remember than Creativeherb.

I have several other projects in the planning stages and one big project in the works. They are in completely different markets, so it will be interesting to see the success level of each.

That’s the bite sized summary of me, I hope you enjoyed learning a bit more about me and will come back to visit soon. Feel free to leave a comment to say hello!

While it is good to absorb as much creative output as you can, there comes a time when you must venture within yourself for the answer. Forget the technology, forget your habitual styles, forget the conditioning.

Sometimes you may feel stressful at trying to find the design solution. Please picture this: The designs we try to create are merely solutions to problems that we created in the first place. Without us first creating the problems, there would have been no need to find a solution now. So look back to before the problem occured and see what was working naturally already. There’s the solution.

Try to feel what would be most natural in the design, try to feel your own hints of discomfort. We have become so desensitized to media and sensory bombardment that we don’t even realize the stress on ourselves. Look around and see what makes you happy, and study it. Why does it give you pleasure or peace of mind? Then try to replicate that harmony, strength and comfort into your designs.

Look around you again, caress the textures with your eyes, feel the flow of the air circulating around the room. Go back to the basics, don’t add complication to an uncomplicated matter. Nurturing the pureness of your creativity will unlock many new insights and approaches to design.

Computers are a tool through which our creativity can express all the colors of our imagination. Avoid the pitfall of letting the computer tell us what we can make, but instead, look inside to see what you want to create. It is a fast-paced world we live in, don’t forget to slow down sometimes to enjoy it.

How do you get your design inspirations?

1. Keep it really, really Simple.

Find your business message, and distill the idea into a symbol over and over till there’s nothing left but the single message. Try to stick with one central meaning. You have 2 seconds of someone’s attention. By the end of that 2 seconds, they either understood the meaning of your logo, or they got confused and shut you out forever.

2. Use symbols, Not Pictures.

Firstly, a symbol is easy to identify at different sizes, from giant billboard signs to tiny business cards. Secondly, symbols are more universally understood, especially if you managed to distill the brand idea into a proper symbol.

3. Make your symbol look Rock Solid.

Use font and symbols that look strong. Even feminine logos can have gracefully strong lines. But if it looks too fragile or undecided, your logo will get lost in the sea of crappy logos.

4. Use Less Colors.

Colors are part of your brand image, associate your brand with a color that will appeal to your target market. And the less colors you use, the less it cost for printing. Designing first in black and white will help with this.

5. Test it Hardcore.

Move the symbol around to different sides of your business name. Place it over textured graphics, place it over different colors. Zoom way out. Zoom in big. Rotate it. Put it in the middle of other logos. Is your logo still looking awesome? Great. If not, work on it some more.

There you have it, the quick and dirty on determining if a logo is good or bad. Got any other essential tips for good logo design?

That’s where I come in. Over a series of posts, I will be discussing how to improve your brand image through intelligent marketing and design. In a way that anyone can easily understand of course. So please check back often and you can also subscribe to my RSS feed here.

What Makes a Bad Logo?

There are many ways to make your logo irritating, unmemorable or downright wrong. I’ll save the details for another time, but here’s everything summed up into one piece of advice. Don’t over-complicate things. That’s right, it’s that simple. Many people tend to add a billion little meanings into their logo or company name. Or they think they are smart by basing their company name on an inside joke that should be kept at the dinner table. And I’m using logo and company name interchangeably because they are similar enough in their function.

Many people don’t realize that there are other companies out there trying to dig into the same piece of pie. When your company logo or company name is on a big list of choices,  you want something simple and direct. Because people do not have time to research every single one of the options available, so any logos that give a vague sense of purpose will be skipped entirely.

Does your Logo tell the story within 0.5 Seconds?

Pretend you are a stranger to the market and to your business. If you, as a stranger, were to see your logo and business name, would you instantly know what the business is about? The consumer’s mind can be sorted into several piles. The “Seems Interesting and Relevant” pile, the “Completely not relevant to me” pile, and the “It is too vague and I’m getting confused” pile. The first 2 piles are straightforward, but if you end up in the Confused pile, it will automatically be sorted into the “Not relevant” pile as well. Simplify, communicate your business function, and do it within 0.5 seconds.

Sounds like I’m screwed, what can I do?

Don’t worry, rebranding can be done to fix it, and it starts with the logo. If you’re stuck with a vague business name, then you will have to fully utilize the power of the logo. Make the logo stand out. Simplify it. Simplifying it some more. Use a symbolic representation that can strongly communicate your business function. And it better be good because it will have to cover for the weakness of the business name. You might want to consider hiring a identity designer at this point, preferably one with typography and branding skills as well.

I will get into far more detailed solutions later on, so please check back often for those. How do you feel about your current business name and logo? Do you feel that there can be room for improvement?

1. Adobe Kuler AIR

We’re not talking about the website, but the Adobe AIR version which sits nicely on your desktop. And just in case you didn’t know, Adobe Kuler is a software which connects to a community server to share and rate color sets. It comes in both a website version, and a standalone Adobe AIR version which you can grab here.

You can either copy individual hex values from the swatches, or send entire swatch themes to Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and Indesign. Note: to grab entire swatch themes, you’ll have to create an Adobe account then click on Download in Kuler AIR. Oh and you also need Adobe Switchboard, which creates the connection between Kuler and other apps.

CS4 already has Kuler fully integrated within its software suite, but just in case you haven’t got CS4 yet, this will work just as well for your color cravings.

2. Mondrianum

For those on a Mac, you can also access Kuler through this program called Mondrianum. It allows you to replace the Mac built-in color picker with a Kuler enhanced version. So this is like Kuler AIR, except it’s system wide integrated. Apps like iWork, iLife, Google Sketchup, Adobe Photoshop, Coda, CSSEdit and many more will all work with Mondrianum.

Instead of just stuck with color slider bars or the Ball of Rainbow Colors, you can see what kind of colors other people are using and get some inspiration that way. You may not need it every single time, but it sure helps on a creatively dry day.

3. ColorZilla for FireFox

This little tool is so useful, it’s one of the first Firefox plugins that I would install on a new computer. Just right click and you can access all its functions. It can grab any color value on a webpage, select and save palettes and even scan a site for all the colors used. It does exactly what I want it to do and it does it quickly.

There is no quicker way of coding up CSS designs than to do it with this tool. You can download Colorzilla here. And while you’re at it, get SEO for Firefox too. That’s another bread and butter tool I install for Firefox right away. It checks for 20+ types of link, NoFollows etc.

Selecting colors for a design isn’t easy, but these tools make it much easier. Use it for inspiration, and use it to know the competition. Once you get the hang of it, you can even share your amazing color combinations with the global community too. Do you have any other color tools you would like to share?

I did freelance web design and flash banners before, but now I’ve gone beyond that with a deeper and more cohesive understanding of user interface design, social media strategy, SEO, trending etc. Like many people, I fell into the trap of over expanding my range of discussion topics, some of it inadvertently, some as a testing platform for bigger projects.

The range of topics here will be refocused to pull more from my experiences, on subjects such as marketing, branding, design, SEO, user interface etc. The unique selling point will be an experience that will be presented in an integrated approach based around the designable aspects. Leveraging my broad range of experience across different sectors.

Design is a broad word, but also can be taken as a problem that can be solved through a creative and intelligent plan of action. That will be the new premise of the Creativeherb.com. You will see changes over the next few weeks as I phase in new categories, completely new theme, new post topics.

Behind the scenes, SEO will have more of a design focus based on the categories mentioned. I will keep everyone updated and post about my methods as well. I’m very excited about the upcoming changes, and I think it will definitely be getting more interesting for everyone too.

EDIT: In case you were wondering, yes I will still keep a sub-section for misc. helpful tools/tips like the Melamine Food List or the Canadian Google Flu Trends I’ve been keeping updated.

Of course, I already have Version 2 fully drafted in my head and hopefully one day soon, I will be able to get to it.

Why NewsGrid?

First of all, what you see now on the main page of WarhammerBlogs.com is called the NewsGrid. Why is it called that? Well, it’s news, and it’s lots of information placed in a grid format. NewsGrid. I wanted to create a place where the most important community information is displayed in a convenient manner. I went through a few versions before it got to what you see now. Kevin also made me remove a bunch of features that would have extended the production time by another 500%, but hey I’m the Creative. It’s my job and my right to think up totally unrealistic yet sometimes brilliant ideas.

The Colour Debate

For the NewsGrid colour scheme I used neutral shades of brown/tan at first, but that caused the headings to be lost in the clutter. So then I fixed it by vastly increasing the contrast of the overall colour scheme to punctuate every heading, also making it much easier to locate each section. That is also one of the reasons why I created icons for some of the headings, for the users to locate and differentiate easier.

The overall styling of the NewsGrid and User Blogs are fairly consistent, with the main theme graphic image up top, merged with the small nav bar. The theme layout is not at a point where I’m completely happy with it, but it will have to do for now. In a future version, I will make it even easier to design for. Because right now the design restrictions that I have imposed on myself is quite difficult sometimes.

Signup 1-2-3

The standard signup page from Wordpress MU (WPMU) was horrid at best, so I PSD designed a custom form, simplifying the process for the users visually. I guess sort of similar to having a “list” in blog posts. 1,2,3, easy as pie.

100+ Layers PSDs

Designing the theme headers was quite a challenge. I had to do it in a relatively short amount of time AND it had to look good. I think my current favourite one would be the Empire Theme, which I did last. I suppose I just adapted to theme designing over time.

I used a crazy amount of images sources and techniques for creating the theme headers. All images were taken from rights-free sources of course, but manipulated so much so that it is probably completely unrecognizable from the original.

To give an idea of the complexity, for example, I might split the Empire Theme into 8 different areas, with each area composed of 5 images, and each image would have their own 2-3 modification layers attached to it. Multiply that together and you have alot of layers for that one header alone.

I keep all my Adobe Photoshop PSD files extremely organized and labeled of course, with colour/levels as modification layers so that there’s no permanent ‘damage’ to the original image file, allowing me to make tweaks to it even months down the road.

Perhaps in future posts, if is any interest in my design process, perhaps I’ll share some of the design techniques that I’ve learned or discovered along the way. Till next time!

I thought of things like imprinting the website name on an arcade red coin slot, or even making it look like an embossed polished brass/metal stamper. Very cool effects to be sure, but after I did some quick tests to see how they would turn out, they just turned out way too complicated.

With my primary background in Print, I realized that the logos might look really cool and gaming-like in an Ad or blog post images. However, it would be inflexible at best when placed in different media or even different places around the website. And scalability would simply be horrendous.

That is exactly why I like working with Vector for logos. I quickly loaded up Adobe Illustrator and thought about gaming and gamers. I needed to distill all the ideas and perceptions of the topic into a symbol that is instantly recognizable and contextually memorable.

The thing with Vector graphics, is that with less or no texturing, the logo’s colour scheme is easily adaptable to different placement scenarios. Light background, dark background, red, pink, blue, yellow, green, whatever. The way I set it up, all I had to do was change the colour of the symbol that I’ve chosen with one click. I left the wordmark itself in greyscale so I would not have to change that, and it’s nice to have some constant in the logo anyways.

Of course, I also had to make sure that all the text and lines were sufficiently thick so that it could be scaled down to a minuscule size and still be legible. Nothing kills a sponsorship logo placement quicker than a poorly designed logo that becomes unreadable at smaller sizes.

After that, just cross your fingers and hope the client likes the design. If you know the client is picky, may I also suggest doing so over a friendly drink or two.

Got any more good logo tips? Would love to hear about it.

Before anyone jumps the gun and tell me about all the super designy stuff that uses a large number of fonts, those are merely the exception and not commonplace. To use a great number of fonts effectively, there must first be a great understanding of typography and how each font can affect one another. Every font that you add to the mix will increase the complexity and difficulty of the design. So use more fonts at your own risk, you’ve been warned!

While the design may have started out innocently enough with the attempt to separate elements in the design, an overuse of fonts usually make it look more like a flea market flyer more than anything else.

If you must use typography to separate areas in your design, try using fonts in the same font family at least. Fonts such as Helvetica or Utopia have a very large breadth of styles, enabling you to use different weights in your design to separate the elements. Such as using “Medium” for body copy and “Bold” for headlines. But even then, still try to keep the different font style usage to a minimum.

After you have mastered using different font weights within one family for your designs, try adding a font from a vastly different font family to create a distinctive difference through the typography. Why use a vastly different font family rather than something more similar, such as Utopia and Garamond? The reason is because the resulting difference might be mistaken for a poorly designed variation of the same font family, rather than a purposely chosen 2nd font family.

The same applies to font sizes that are really close to one another, but not exactly the same. The viewer’s eyes will wonder whether the font size is the same, not quite sure, and it’ll just end up looking sloppy and unprofessional.

Play with your fonts, learn about them, have fun with them, but please do not abuse them. Got any examples of typography that you hate or love? Share them here!

Many things contribute to stress, such as lack of sleep, overworking, taking on too many responsibilities, thinking too negatively and maybe even from a lack of exercise. With all the things that we have to deal with every day, fixing your mental wellbeing might be the last thing on your TO-DO list.

Hence the Creativity Catch 22. Frustration is felt as you struggle to think clearly, to perform well. When a little simple creativity will free yourself from the stress.

If you’re working on a project or problem that requires a certain degree of creativity to solve, you want to be in your best mental condition. Having a big stress knot in your head will not only make your mind difficult to focus, but any creativity that comes will be slow and tainted by your tense mind. So how do we get around that?

Create an Emergency Creative Box.

What the heck is an Emergency Creative Box? Think of it as a time capsule, from the stress-less you, to the over-stressed you in the future. Think of the last time something made you smile and feel awesome. What was it? Write it down on a piece of paper and put it in the box. And you can use any sorta box for this. Small jewelry box, cigarette box (smoking adds to stress by the way!), snuff box, tin candy box, any box that won’t get thrown away easily.

This way, when you are totally stressed out and unable to think of anything but going on a rampage upon those around you, dig into that box and follow a helpful suggestion. You might be surprised what the past-unstressed-you actually thought of to help lift your current mood!