Earth Day 2010, Time To Reconnect With Nature

Posted on January 10, 2010 by itees

I have always tried to show, by design or blogging, that people need to reuse, recycle, plant, not tear down, and just plain care more about this place Earth, we all call home. I love the outdoors, gardens, beaches, forests, and have plants, nice green living things in every room, and every Spring into Summer, I have a small outdoor space which is full of flowers. In warmer weather, I ride my bicycle, so I can see and photograph the beautiful gardens around New York and New Jersey. When I travel, I see what I can of the landscape and enjoy it.

However, I’m really beginning to worry about the state of our planet (more than usual). This Winter has been quite frigid, and the snow in some parts of the world, has been at record proportions. The weather in general has been from one extreme to another, and if anyone still doesn’t believe we have global warming, just look around.

People generally live selfishly and don’t think “green,” so I think with Earth Day coming on April 22, and it being the 40th anniversary, it’s a great opportunity to spread the message, that every single person needs to reconnect and realize they are part of nature and do more to help save the planet.

Yesterday, I went to see Avatar, like millions of others, and I was blown away by the story, and the 3D effects. It was so visually stunning and 3d glasses enhanced the natural beauty and made you feel like you were really there. It made me feel so good and I wished everyone felt about our planet, the way the “Na’vi” people felt about Pandora.

I have been thinking about ways to help spread the message of Earth Day and will be designing posters and t-shirts for both i-Tees and the FROGS ARE GREEN sites. Look for more of them in the next week or two. I’m also looking for anyone who’d like to collaborate with me, by donating an illustration or photograph, for this purpose.

Let’s all do our part and show we care and want to save this planet. To learn more about Earth Day, visit this website: Earth Day Network.

Below is my first poster design idea collaborating with photographer, John Crittenden. This poster is 24″ w x 18″ h and we’re offering it at $12.00, along with FREE Shipping.

Poster design © 2010 Susan Newman Design Inc.
Photograph by John Crittenden.

Two Logos, Two Different Companies, Identical

Posted on January 8, 2010 by itees

A client whose website I am redesigning and updating, wrote to me recently and asked me to compare his website against another he’d come across. It seemed that his logo (icon) was 100% identical to the one on the other site and he wondered in my opinion if it was done by the same designer, or if perhaps, one designer copied the other.

These two companies couldn’t be farther apart in the industries they’re in, so perhaps whichever logo designer did them thought the two different clients would never see each other.

Now I must say that we’re all influenced by other designs, we cannot help it with the media we have before us. Between the internet, magazines and newspapers, TV, books, and all the existing companies with logos already trademarked, it’s a challenge to come up with an original logo design. But when I see two logos and they look like one was traced from the other, I know somebody copied the other, or was produced by the same designer.

What makes matters worse is the other website is an embarrassing health related type of site, and their icon is trademarked, so my client was horrified and now needs a new logo! When he approached the logo designer, the person just said, “Oh, really? Okay, would you like us to design a new logo for you?” I think that designer will not be surprised when he has to appear in court.

I felt I had to write about this because it made me wonder how an “artist,” a true “designer” would copy or use the same exact logo for two different clients. It makes me think that perhaps the company that produced the logos was more of a business and not a real artist, proud of their original designs, because a true artist would never copy their own work or someone else’s.

I know what you’re thinking, in web design we see templates for websites and blogs which are using this system and it works somewhat. You know, I’ll always try to convince my clients to go for an original design, even when it’s a blog. But branding a company, creating a logo/icon is very different and must always be original. This client not only had to remove it from their site, but will need to redesign their business cards, stationery and whatever marketing materials they’d created.

Here’s a link to another blog which talks more about this and shows a few examples similar to this case:
http://www.mikeindustries.com/blog/archive/2005/09/logo-originality

Working For Friends, Family and Keeping That Website Current

Posted on December 16, 2009 by itees

In my last post, I wanted to highlight that in many cases I’ve seen websites and print marketing done by individuals and small companies without hiring a professional designer. In various group discussions on LinkedIn, artists from all over are commenting with their experiences. In these comments, some artists have brought up a few very important points, which I’m going to pass on now.

As designers, many times, friends and family ask us to “help them out” with a project. Depending on who this is and the scope of the project, we may decide to help. One artist reported that after creating various materials for a friend and gratis of course, the friend didn’t use any of them and instead got a family member who just happened to have a computer and “Word” & “Photoshop” to create something.

Now, I suppose the big question here is, why wouldn’t you use the materials created by the professional designer, and instead use the amateurish piece by the family member. Instead of using a professional printing company, it was printed out on their home printer. The end result did not look professional. Secondly, wouldn’t the friend realize how rude that was, after asking the professional to invest time and effort in the project.

In addition, they have said that it always seems to be the non-paying, non-profit clients who they’re “helping out” who send the most changes or edits. It’s interesting how when someone has to pay, they understand the rules a bit better.

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Clients change their look and their logos. As artists we understand this, we do as well. I had changed my company logo a few times over the years, until I settled on the (sndi) I have now and the current color palette. I also previously wrote about how I changed this (i-tees) site into a blog, and I’m sure at some point, I’ll change the look again.

One thing an artist just reminded me of, is when you’ve created a wonderful website for someone and they seemed to be very happy with it… then a short time later it has been replaced with a totally different design. The most important part to remember, is not to be too disappointed. With the web, this is bound to happen, hopefully not often, but face it, it will. I suppose what bothers us most, is that it happened and the client didn’t tell us or come back to us for the new design. We wonder about whether they really liked the original or just said they did, so they’d have the site up, (urgency again, content over design and style) who knows? I always wonder about this. I remember a magazine site I did a few years ago, and about one year later there was a new site up. It didn’t really have any new features, or e-commerce, it just had a different look.

It’s also important to realize that if they do create a new website with new features, they may not realize you can do what they want. Always be sure that your clients know about all your capabilities. I have a current client who’s website I update and he never knew I designed books, good thing I mentioned this, and was able to design his book cover.

What you need to do, is check all the links you’re featuring on your portfolio website, perhaps once a month. I sometimes forget to do this, but will this week. You don’t want to have an image or link up and a potential client goes to see it, and it’s a different site. I’ve also had sites disappear or go down for one reason or another. So be sure to update your portfolio and site often.