The ultimate logo

Business owners who are thinking about having their company logo redesigned, or those who are thinking about getting a new one, need to make a quick checklist for quality assurance. Since you are the one spending money here to improve your brand and extend your business, you should be the one to watch for the quality of the service you are getting.

The purpose of a logo design is to establish an image of your business, brand or product in an artistic and visually pleasant. The goal is that, when presented to an audience, your logo design should be able to explain your business. An excellent logo design explains a business, its values, mission statement and promise of higher standards of care and quality.

Your logo design should be easy on the eyes and beautifully executed. There must be some artistic value to it, and people should enjoy looking at it. Your logo should clearly describe your business message without any confusion. This can be achieved by simply adding a relevant illustration or symbol.

Your ultimate logo should be able to stand out from the crowd of other logos in the similar industry. Uniqueness of a logo design ensures that your logo is stored in the memory of your potential customer.

Creativity – a creation of a single mind.

Creativity is a creation of a single mind. Although other people may also stimulate a creative act, one human brain must always produce facts or impressions. A lot of the work done in places like research laboratories requires a group effort, however. But working in a group can also obstruct creativity. Animosities take place, adrenaline starts flowing, and before you know it, the group members are thinking about battle instead of constructive dialogue. When it comes to behaviour, we are often not that much different from animals, and just as dogs jealously guard their turf, humans obsessively protect theirs. Two people with similar capabilities, training, and equipment working on the same problem can become obsessed by rivalry.

Team members work more politely when they bring unique backgrounds, capacities, or attitudes to the group. When the team members recognize the goals as very important and energies are focused on clear objectives, egotism is suppressed. Groups also become more consistent when they have the vision of profiting from success. The team spirit that often develops nourishes imagination and creativity.

Another factor is the size of a research group. Although the best size depends on many things, five or six is often a good number. As the group gets bigger, friction increases, communication becomes tougher, and talkative people tend to dominate conversations, whether they have anything to say or not.

Personal style is another factor in creativity. An enthusiastic team member is a blessing. Many of the most constructive events in this world have been helped by enthusiasts; not only do they achieve on their own, but their warmth also stimulates excitement and positive reactions in others.

A dedicated pessimist is something completely different. Even if their logic is spotless, they should rather be avoided, as their ability usually smothers creativity. Some people are natural-born loners, whose creativity can be suppressed if they are forced into a group.

Although outside stimulation can promote creativity, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Creative people are often better left alone, absorbed in their research. People with potential for significant creativity, in particular, should be sheltered from interruptions.

By Sarene Groenewald

Think More, Design Less

Visual assault comes at the price of distinction. If everyone is screaming, who can be heard? And when we think about the amount of money spent on design (and, in turn, media placement for said work), we can't help but conclude that design in service of commerce is mostly failing. But failure is not necessarily a bad thing.

The past decade has brought many changes in the way design is disseminated. Self-publishing is easy, thanks to blogs and DIY book sites; the tools used to create websites are available at little to no cost; and until the recent demise of Google Print Ads, an individual could place an ad in a major newspaper at rates competitive with businesses that spend million-dollar ad budgets.

The emerging tools to create design artifacts are within reach of nearly everyone. And as design proliferates—good or bad, amateur or professional, large or small-scale—it might be time to think harder about where we put our efforts as designers.

Many people now use content management systems and email campaign management sites to maintain their websites and email communication with customers. Clients who are comfortable using Microsoft Word or Gmail can add, edit and delete content in their electronic media quickly and easily. Mostly gone are the days of requests for designers to make content changes because clients can now do it themselves. And while coding is still very much a part of the work process, a lot of work goes in on the front end. When all is said and done, you empower your clients to do it themselves. And you “design less.”

by Will Taylor

PHP Developer Vacancy

Work 4 the best!

We are looking for a experienced PHP developer that can develop custom solutions for our clients. We make use of popular open source technologies, but require customizations on the system from time to time, either by developing extensions for these popular open source system, or developing a new custom developed solution for the client.

The ideal developer will meet the following requirements:

2-3 years of hands-on PHP and Perl with WEB application development experience. (Object Orientated Development)
2-3 years of experience with MySQL
2-3 years of experience with HTML
2-3 years of experience with CSS
2-3 years of Javascript experience
Minimum 2 Years Joomla Experience (Creating Templates and Extensions)
Web 2.0 methodologies including AJAX

Items listed below are a big advantage and will most likely land you the job:

Experience with Wordpress templates and development

Experience with Magento

Experience with Zend framework

This job will require you to:

Be able to manage projects to meet deadlines

Be able to work without supervision, with good self-discipline

Be able to solve problems quickly and effectively with or without manager’s input

Have the ability to work within a team as well as independently

Be very detailed oriented. Every pixel must be in place and all code must be tested thoroughly

This job offers great growth opportunities. We are a young company and growing by the day! International opportunities will be available in the near future.

email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

EIGHT ESSENTIALS OF A GOOD DESIGN

1. Good Design is Innovative

The possibilities for innovation are endless. The development of technology is always offering new opportunities for innovative design. And because innovative design develops in conjunction with innovative technology, neither of them ever will have an end.

2. Good Design makes a product/service useful

The reason why anyone buys a product/service is to use it. To satisfy a certain need – may it be practical, emotional or visual. Good design emphasises the usefulness of a product/service whilst disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.