Posts Tagged ‘networking’
How To Design A Business Card Using GIMP
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How to design a business card for commercial printing using GIMP.
Written By: Steven Milanese for Full Sail University: English Composition
Assignment: How To Instructions
(note: original assignment did not include screenshots. Screenshots were included for the purpose of this online publication and can be found in the articles footer, just below the article itself.)
Software Requirements:
• GIMP: is a GNU image manipulation tool available for download at http://www.gimp.org/downloads/.
An attractive business card can be a valuable tool when developing a network of business contacts.
For the purpose of these instructions, we will assume that you have successfully installed GIMP and have it open on your Mac or PC.
Begin by clicking on the “File” menu and then select “New”. This will open the “Create a New Image” dialog window. Here is where you will define the size of your business card. Begin by changing the measurement method from “pixels” to “millimeters” by clicking where it says “pixels/in” and selecting “millimeters” from the drop down menu. A standard business card has a width of 90mm and a height of 55mm. However, this does not account for printing bleed. Printing bleed is a term that is used by commercial printers to describe the excess area of ink surrounding the project. This area will be trimmed off during the trimming process in order to ensure that ink reaches every edge of the business card. For this reason, you will need to increase the size of your image by a margin of 6mm increasing your final measurements to a width of 96mm and a height of 61mm. Once you have set your size, click on “Advanced Options”. This will drop down an expanded menu presenting you with several additional configuration settings including the ability to set the resolution of your image. To ensure that the ink fills in completely, you will need to set your X and Y resolutions to a minimum of 300 pixels. Printing lower resolution images can result in the finished print looking pixilated. The remaining configuration settings should be fine by default. Next click “Ok” to create your new blank image.
Now that you’ve successfully formatted the project area you will need to define the trim lines for the printer. In order to do this, click in the ruler area at the top of the blank image and while holding down the mouse button, drag the ruler downward. You will see a dashed line appear where your mouse is. We want to set this dashed line three millimeters in from the top. Simply release your mouse button once you have it in position to place the line at that location. Repeat this step a second time placing the line three millimeters from the bottom. Once you have the top and bottom trim marks in place, you’ll need to do the same for the left and right sides. You accomplish this in a similar fashion as you did the top and bottom trim marks. Only this time, you will need to click on the ruler to the left of the blank image. Once again you are going to set the trim mark three millimeters in from the edge on both the left and right sides of the image.
The final step of the setup process is for you to define your safety margins. This step is important to ensure that none of your important content is cut into or cut off during the trimming process. For that reason we want to repeat the steps we took in order to define the trim lines. Only this time, you will need to set your margins five millimeters inside of each of the trim lines.
Now that you have properly laid out your project area, you can begin to design your card. Remember to keep any important content within the safety margin to ensure that it will make the final cut without running into any of the edges of the finished business card. Once you have finished laying out your design and are happy with the finished product, simply click on the “File” menu at the top and then select “Save As…” from the resulting drop down menu. This will open the “Save As…” dialog window that will allow you to choose both a name and location for your file. It is good practice to save the file using the name of the individual for whom the business cards are being made. Finally, add the extension “.xcf” to the file’s name. This will ensure that the final product remains in a layered format. This is helpful in the event that any last minute changes become necessary at the time of print. Your final filename should resemble “lastname_firstname.xcf”. Simply select save at the bottom of the dialog window to save your file. Your business cards are now ready to be sent to the printer.
Overcoming Economic Trends: Marketing
In our last article “Overcoming Economic Trends” we began the process of identifying some of the new obstacles facing Graphic Designers as a result of today’s unstable markets. We focused primarily on the seemingly endless influx of “Self Proclaimed Graphic Designers” (aka. the unemployed plumber who once used Microsoft Frontpage to publish a picture of the family dog wearing a Santa hat). However, perhaps even more dangerous to the consumer than even these individuals, are the ones that are somewhat capable with Adobe Photoshop. Because of their ability to produce somewhat attractive/creative designs, this is often enough to mislead consumers into believing that a great design spells success on the internet. When in fact an attractive website alone does not make for a successful website. The reality is design is only a portion of the process.
A website is comprised of a variety of components ranging from design to server/platform choice. It is a tool that when deployed properly will exponentially increase the publishers exposure and in turn grow their potential market. When developing a clients web real estate far more than aesthetics need to be considered. CMS, SEO, CRM and GeoTargeting are just a few of the hundreds of factors to be considered when planning the development of a clients web real estate. Let’s discuss that term for just a moment. What exactly do we mean when we refer to “Web Real Estate”. Web real estate is a term used to describe the virtual property / primary domain or URL used to access the website, ie. http://www.Example.com. Much like physical real estate, these virtual properties can increase in monetary value. For example some appraisers have estimated google.com to be worth as much as $2.41 Billion US dollars for the domain alone without the search engine or database associated with it. The value is defined by the amount of traffic, as well as the potential return in terms of daily ad revenue . Which in the case of Google.com accounts for roughly 45 percent of all internet users globally on a daily basis. Now obviously these numbers are well beyond what most publishers could ever aspire to see. However, for the purpose of demonstrating the monetary potential of web real estate, Google.com serves as a perfect example. While 2.41Billion dollars may be a stretch for most, it is not uncommon for virtual property owners to sell their web real estate for tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. This goes back to what we were discussing in our previous article and that is the need to educate the consumer. Web real estate is an investment not just a purchase. A purchase costs money, while an investment has the potential to earn money. The fact remains though, in order to educate the consumer, you must first garner their attention.
There are several methods to increasing traffic to a website. However, these methods typically fall under one of two categories, either Inbound or Outbound Marketing. Inbound marketing focuses on being found by potential customers. Sometimes referred to as Relationship marketing, it is a process where marketers use less than traditional or unconventional means to “publish their message”, ie. via blogs, facebook, youtube, wiki and other social / viral networking methods. This process draws perspective customers into your business as opposed to pushing an outbound message to them. Traditional marketing (outbound marketing) is where marketers deliver their messages via more traditional “paid for” advertising channels. While there is much debate as to which method offers the publisher the greatest value in terms of potential return from either or. It has been our experience that a blend of the two methods when deployed in a strategic manner and supported by SEO hosting solutions provides an extremely effective means of increasing traffic.
The bottom line is successfully launching a website requires a great deal of know how, experience and resources. This reinforces the importance of working with a “Professional Design Firm” vs. a “Self Proclaimed Graphic Designer”. Not to many out of work plumbers own data farms with huge blocks of Class C IPs. In the end, educating the consumer is the only means of establishing these huge differences.
Social Marketing: Share Your MessageSocial media marketing is a term that describes use of social networks, online communities, blogs, wikis or any other online collaborative media for marketing, sales, public relations and customer service. Common social media marketing tools include Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube. Social Level Marketing, is an advertising method that makes use of social network service and to increase their web presence. This ranges from simply advertising directly on social networking sites, viral marketing that spreads throughout the web, email, and word of mouth, or providing niche social networking sites focused around the item being advertised. |
Down By The River Is Mobile
After nearly a month of development releases and beta testing, we are very happy to announce that we have achieved a final release version of our mobile device web interface. Our website is now fully mobile platform capable. Whether your visiting our site via a new Google Android based handset, an iphone, or a more traditional Blackberry, you will be greeted by our highly intuitive mobile interface. This new technology automatically recognizes the end users handheld device and then formats the content of our website in a way that is optimized for that particular devices viewscreen. This is just another example of the unique functionality that one can expect with a Down By The River, LLC. design.
A Global Audience
In today’s economic environment it is important that media publishers present and format their media in a way that exposes them to the largest audience possible and in a technology driven market this is best achieved through a number of cross media offerings. Through the use of the internet, media providers now have the opportunity to reach a global audience through the deployment of an effectively managed internet strategy.
Their are some designers that are very effective at creating masterful examples of artistic representations of peoples ideas. However, if they lack the necessary knowledge and/or experience to publish the media in a way that ensures that it can be seen… Then what good is it? Equally important to the visual statement of a website, is the need for it to be functional.
By implementing these intuitive device measures we ensure an optimal viewing experience regardless of the end users viewing preferences. With the evident market shift toward mobile based web devices, it is essential that this audience is considered when putting together an effective web real estate development strategy. With over 187million smart phone devices sold in the United States and sales expected to top 200 million units in 2010, this potential audience can not be overlooked and these are just the numbers for the United states…. Globally sales for smartphone enabled devices topped 1.2 billion in 2009 alone. One of the biggest mistakes someone can make when publishing a website is creating their media in a format that limits the potential viewership of that content. Recently we had a client tell us that they had been told by another designer that designing mobile interfaces is a waste of time because no one shops from their cellphone…. That’s simply not true. A Compete.com study asked Smartphone users for the maximum amount of money that they were willing to spend for a single item over their handsets. The results may suprise you…
| <$10 | $10-$50 | $50-$100 | $100-$500 | >$500 | |
| Android | 40% | 16% | 12% | 21% | 11% |
| Windows | 50% | 21% | 15% | 11% | 4% |
| iPhone | 28% | 24% | 18% | 20% | 9% |
| Blackberry | 51% | 21% | 14% | 12% | 2% |
| Palm | 55% | 18% | 14% | 8% | 5% |
Regardless of what type of message, service or product you are looking to promote through the web, this multi-billion dollar consumer base should definitely be accounted for during the development process.