Quite often DDA graphic designers are called upon to meet with clients during a project’s kick-off meeting. The project might be a brochure design, logo design, or new website design or as was the case this past Thursday, a new package design. DDA (Dynamic Digital Advertising) was called upon to create graphics for a package design very similar to a sample package provided by the client.

While the package design served its purpose and the product sold, we felt it important to improve on the design of the package as well as the graphics. At one point, we suggested to abandon the package altogether and allow the product to stand alone. We are always looking for the best possible solution to any client project request. If that solution benefits DDA, great.

Our client’s are important to us and it is our job to deliver the best possible design whether it comes in the form of an animation, video, logo, package or website. Their satisfaction to a solution that is beneficial and produces results is our ultimate goal.  I believe our client left our meeting knowing that DDA is on their side and confident in the fact that a successful package design will be delivered!

My commute to DDA is approximately 2 hours (1 hour and 50 minutes if traffic is on my side). I believe I can probably drive this commute in my sleep and often times during my drive, I have to stop and think at what stage of my commute I am at. This morning’s commute was an interesting one. While driving, I began to see signs for Dorney Park, which is not normal, and low and behold a roller coaster appeared in the distance. Yep, I drove right by my exit to get onto 476 south from 78 east and went right on through towards New Jersey and Dorney Park. Woohoo! I was tempted to call in sick and spend the day eating snow cones and funnel cake, but decided to turn around and get back on track.

How did this happen? Well, I like to think of it in terms of right brain vs. left brain capabilities. In a previous life, I taught basic drawing and illustration classes to a group of students pursuing their associates degree in graphic design. My book of choice to lead us through this class was “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” by Betty Edwards. This book has proven to me and my students that drawing is indeed a teachable, learnable skill. And for all you skeptics out there I would love to prove you wrong. The basic premise of the book is that by quieting the verbal and analytical side of your brain, the left side, and allowing your non-verbal and intuitive side of your brain, the right side, to essentially take over, you can begin “seeing” things we see everyday in a new non-verbal way that is easily converted from sight to paper.

So, while I was listening to music, focusing on the beautiful day, and basically “zoning” out, as we all have done while driving, I missed my exit. My right side of my brain thought (non-verbally, of course), “It’s such a beautiful day, keep driving and observe the scenery.” My left brain obviously was taking a nap.

I am guilty of wanting many things. Right now my main “want” is a new SLR Digital Camera so I can take more professional looking photographs of my kids. My husband and I also want to put two new windows in our living room to make it brighter. We want to get more topsoil so we can finish planting grass where there are bare spots on our land. I want to lose the last 10 lbs of baby weight and I want a new couch for the living room. I can keep this up all day…  But, there are really only a few things I really need.  

Right now I need to finish 3 website design concepts for a cabinet website we are working on. I do want to work on it but I also really need to finish the designs today. I also need to pick up my kids at noon today and I NEED them to take a nap this afternoon so I can get back to work and cross off other tasks such as revisions to a logo design project and begin work on more website design concepts for another client who was so pleased with our trade show graphic design has asked us to work on their website.  So, as I get back to my design work I will also be thinking of reasons to turn my want for a new Digital SLR Camera into a “need”. 

The other day, I was loading my two kids, stroller, and load of groceries into my ‘98 Beetle after a trip to the grocery store. Cursing (under my breath of course) at the small size of my car, I stopped to remind myself that while an SUV or larger vehicle might be more convenient and make my life easier it would: 1. increase my gas bill and 2. increase my carbon footprint. So, on this Earth Day, I am going to stop and consider other ways I can make small changes in my day to conserve energy and reduce waste.

Cutting-edge website design, Email Marketing, and PDF documents are all advertising mediums to consider that not only save paper, but can be the better choice. DDA has been been providing these services to our clients for years. Brochures can now be available for viewing on your website as flipbooks. Check em out! This week we just delivered an Email Newsletter template to a client that their reps can use to correspond with their customers. And in just a few moments, I will begin design edits on a website that will showcase five different virtual magazines, each one delivering the same information but tailored to a certain age group. It’s quite a clever alternative to creating five complete brochures that would have to be printed, mailed and delivered.

Happy Earth Day to all!

My 6-month-old has figured out how to rollover onto his belly flawlessly. Problem is he doesn’t yet know how to roll onto his back from that position. He’s stuck. So, we’ve all been helping him roll back over. We sometimes let him work it out on his own, but eventually he gives up and bonks his nose on the floor. But, no matter how many bonks to the nose he takes during the day, it doesn’t stop him from rolling and rolling and rolling. He’s so determined. 

It’s that sort of determination you find at Dynamic Digital Advertising (DDA). Not only have I found that our team of graphic designers, web designers, programmers, animators, writers, video and 3D designers are independently determined, but they will help others out in an instant. We all get stuck during the week and it is comforting to know that there is always someone ready to plow through each project with you, such as determining the best color palette to use on a brochure or how to properly test a newsletter template before sending it off to a client. 

So, if you bonk your nose this week, never fear, there is always someone ready to flip you back over!

Photoshop’s automated features are just great. Right now as I’m typing I’m saving digital photography images that DDA photographed in-house about a year ago in three different image formats: high-res TIFF files, and high-resolution and low-resolution JPEG files. There are about 100 images and without Photoshop’s stellar capabilities, this might take me all morning to open each file and save it out three different ways.

Simply create your action that you wish Photoshop to apply to each image. Then, ask Photoshop (politely, of course) to replay that action on all images in a specified folder. Then, sit back and enjoy your Venti Latte. Or, if you’re like me and enjoy multi-tasking, sit back, enjoy your Venti Latte, write your daily blog, burn a CD and mentally plan out your day’s graphic design projects.

Everyday I am choosing and using fonts from our library of fonts. I’m always on the prowl for exciting, new fonts to use for our website designs, direct mail pieces, trade show graphics, logo designs, and more. From sans serif to serif fonts, text fonts to distressed fonts, and screen fonts (optimized for web viewing) to heavy fonts, I have used them all and enjoy each of their unique qualities.

Choosing the right font for a project is probably one of the most important steps during the graphic design process. Choose the wrong font and your design can be difficult to read, set the wrong mood, or fail to communicate the correct message. Imagine the chaos if all the traffic signs were set in a script font or handwritten font.

Here are a few general rules to follow when choosing the correct font:
1. Use serif fonts for a large amount of text. The serifs will help the eye move through the text quickly. Also, keep your line length reasonable and your leading (space between the lines of text) comfortable so the descenders and ascenders of the letters don’t connect. 
2. When setting type for a billboard or large graphic, tighten up the kerning (space between the letters of a word). The tighter the kerning the easier it will be to read from a distance.
3. Don’t mess with the horizontal or vertical height of a font. If you need to keep your font large in a small width, choose a condensed font or if you need to fit a small word or words in a large width, choose an extended font. 

There really is a font for every graphic design application and by following a few simple rules the font almost chooses itself!  

While I was studying illustration at RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) in Rochester, NY from 93-97, I was introduced to a fun little program called Adobe Photoshop. Our professor from my 3D Design class asked us to find a photo of a landscape that we were instructed to scan, add to a new Photoshop document, and then carefully place our 3D rendered toys we were designing onto this landscape. Looking back I can’t remember the steps I took to complete the project and I remember spending hours in the computer lab saving the file onto numerous Syquest drives that held about 20mb of information, 40mb if you had some good money! Oh, and don’t shake those suckers they’ll self-destruct.

Anyway, Photoshop, along with the fleet of Adobe software programs have all come a long way… as have my skills. During my college days, Photoshop didn’t support layers, text had to be prepared in a separate window and then was immediately flattened onto your document. There was no such thing as masks, adjustment layers… oh, I could go on. Now Photoshop supports vector art from Adobe Illustrator called Smart Objects that can be resized as many times as you wish while still maintaining the clarity of the original. Another great Photoshop feature is Layer Comps. I can now, within the same document, create numerous comps of website designs, brochures and trade show graphic designs within the same document! What a time saver. I can even take these layer comps and export a multi-page PDF. Did I mention Photoshop is quite friendly with all of the other Adobe projects like InDesign and Dreamweaver. I can edit a web image from Dreamweaver or update a graphic right in InDesign!

I love you Photoshop! 

My tulips bloomed over the weekend. Five big, bright yellow ones. My son was just as thrilled and amazed with this little miracle as he was last year when they bloomed right around the same time. It’s just a lovely time of year and we found new discoveries in our yard all weekend. The Snow on the Mountain is coming back to life after being covered with piles of leaves and there is a dove that decided the best place to keep her eggs warm is in my father’s flower box.  I’m sure I will find many graphic design-related discoveries today as I start another full week of projects. We are updating a folder design for a client and I am also looking forward to working on a website design for one of our DDA Medical clients. And, as the day unfolds I’m sure new projects will also begin blooming!

My home office is equipped with a MAC G5, Cinema display, printer, fax, PC laptop, a 3-year-old, and a 6-month-old. Did I mention there is a iSight camera on my computer that connects me to DDA’s main office so that fellow colleagues can know that while I’m not here in body for three days out of the week, I am here with them virtually. They can see me, talk to me, and have meetings in my office with me even though I am at home juggling with work, kids (when they’re not napping or spending time with Grandma or Dad) and getting dinner on the table by 5:30pm.

One of the oddest things is watching yourself work. While the camera is on, I can not only see my DDA office, but I can see myself in the corner of the iChat window all day. It’s like having a mirror in front of your computer that reflects all the faces you make while you write emails, design, think and talk on the phone. It can make one quite self-conscious. But, I have adapted, and while I am working away on a logo design, website design, or any of the other various graphic design projects on my task list I sometimes stop and take a moment to see just what type of expression is being broadcasted. If you don’t laugh at it, you’d cry!