We all “google” services, products and companies we are interested in. It’s safe to say that everyone uses Google daily to look up something. So, with that in mind, today’s tip is as simple and straightforward as it can get: Google your business!
Use a different browser or just open an incognito window to make sure you see what your potential clients are seeing. Check that you have a Google business listing set up and that all the contact information on it is correct. Add recent photos and look over your reviews—remember to respond to any negative ones because it shows accountability and that you care about your clients’ experience.
Everyone who learns about your company, whether from an online source or a simple referral, will end up googling you. Make sure your business makes the best impression!
Before I start a new logo for a client, I ask them to send me examples of logos they like. They don’t have to be from the same industry or even related to their business in any way. I do this to try to get visual insight for what style, colors or characteristics they’re drawn to. This helps me tap into their vision and get more clear direction than I would from verbal information. However, once in a while, I’ll receive the Apple logo as part of the samples. Don’t get me wrong, that logo is beautiful, but more often than not, clients are actually responding to the brand, more than the logo itself. So today’s tip is on the distinction between a brand and a logo.
Brand
A brand comes down to experience. It’s how people feel about a business. It englobes all their interactions with a company, whether that’s through product use, marketing efforts, customer service, what they’ve heard others say—anything and all that has impacted how they think about a business.
Logo
A logo is an actual graphic that identifies a business. It’s a visual and memorable element that helps people recognize a company. The logo is a part of the brand.
So while we sometimes tend to interchange the word “brand” and “logo,” they are definitely not the same thing. Yet, both are equally important to any company.
Have you ever shared a link on Facebook and battled with it displaying the right image? Sometimes, you don’t get a thumbnail at all… frustrating, right? That’s when the Facebook Debugger can save the day. This tool lets you preview how the link will look when shared, detect if there are any issues, and force it to scrape the latest data from the site. It’s a very handy and FREE tool!
Enter the link you want to test into the field and click DEBUG. After that, I usually like to click on “Scrape Again” which forces it to pull the latest data instead of any cached images.
The preview lets you see if there any things you need to fix. Run a test after making changes to make sure it updates the data again. Once you are happy with how it looks, you can share it on Facebook!
Have you ever opened an Adobe Acrobat document and had a pesky little dialog box appear over it? You know the one… it’s titled “Content Preparation Progress,” and it pops up every time you open a new PDF file, especially if it has multiple pages. And if you’re working with PDF files all day long, closing that window over and over again can inevitably start to get annoying. But today’s tip will help you get rid of it once and for all! The best part, the solution is simple:
1 Open Adobe Acrobat
2 Go to Preferences
3 Click on Reading
4 Under Screen Reader Options, select “Only read the currently visible pages”
I could list a few things that help me stay focused throughout the day, but right now I’d like to talk about just one: ambiance. That’s right! I work best when I have tons of natural light coming through my window, the temperature is more warm than cold, the air smells of sweet cinnamon inspired candles, and… when there is noise. Yup, I am one of those people who cannot work in total silence. Most days, I either have the TV on, music streaming or a record spinning—but all three can eventually become distracting when I switch from designing to writing.
So here’s today’s tip: If you’re like me, and need some background noise while you work, you might want to try this neat little app called Noisli. I discovered it a while ago, and I just love their sound options. My favorite is their Coffee Shop one, but I also like mixing a few different nature sounds together. It has cool features, like the ability to save your mixes, a timer, and even a distraction-free text editor. It’s the perfect solution for when I need something to fill the silence while still letting me think. So if you decide to try it out, let me know which sounds you liked best!
I recently discovered this tool myself and was really impressed! Picular is a primary color generator that uses Google’s image search. Here’s how it works:
You just enter a search term, and it provides you with color tile options based on the top image results that come up on Google for that term. Each tile comes with the Hex color code and the ability to see which image it’s drawing the color from. Cool, right?
This is a handy tool to get color inspiration for your next design project. You can also use it to analyze which colors are getting linked to specific terms… Try it and tell me what you think!
If you are ready to get started, please fill out the handy form on my contact page or email me at [email protected] and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
