by

Nicole Maziarz

Being a graphic designer, there are many essential tools that I can’t live without. Outside of a computer, design software (Adobe Creative Suite), books (always filled with valuable literature and great sources of inspiration), pencils sketchpads, printer, and scanner, here are a list of “must have” tools for today’s graphic designer:

Lorem Ipsum
http://www.lipsum.com/
This dummy text is great to use in a design when the final copy hasn’t yet been approved by the client. It can give your internal team and client’s alike a good idea of what the finished product will look like even when the content is still in development. This can help speed up the client approval process.

Smashing Magazine
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/
This site is filled with great articles, design tools and tips,  from today’s most innovative designers. Whether you are looking for a specific CSS3 question or just some inspiration, this site can be super handy. Be sure to favorite this site to stay up-to-date on today’s best design practices.

Psdtuts
http://psd.tutsplus.com/
If you want to practice and improve your Photoshop skills, this site/blog has incredible tutorials that take you step-by-step in creating great graphics. The site is filled with detailed tutorials, free guides and more. Designers should be constantly improving their Photoshop skills and this site can be a fantastic tutor.

Art Directors Tool Kit
http://www.code-line.com/software/artdirectorstoolkit5/
Just recently, my creative director introduced me to this amazing design tool. It was so helpful and saved me a great deal of time when searching Pantone swatches for color palettes I was creating for a new logo design.  It includes swatch libraries, layout tools and many other solutions for all the hurdles designers are expected to leap each day.

These tools can help you grow as a designer, share this with your team  and creative coworkers today and stay tuned for more tips on making the most of your creative projects.

Nicole is a Graphic Designer at Zer0 to 5ive

by Katie Cannon

Creating a website can be a fun and inspiring project, but can also become a headache if the right steps are not taken. Having an online presence is more important than ever. With more individuals beginning the buying cycle online, an easily findable, informative ans functional website can make a world of difference.

At Zer0 to 5ive, we find developing an effective website is a tightrope walk between creativity and delivering up to the standards mandated by your client. Remember you have been hired by your client and the ultimate creative vision is their’s. This does not mean you cannot be creative or engaging. Communicate the client’s key messages in a professional, yet original and innovative way will help set your site apart from the millions of other .coms in the space.

Here are a few tips I have learned from experience that can help you take your website development to a new level:

• Connect with your client. Get into their mind – what are they looking for? What image and message do they want their website to convey about their company? Connecting with the client from the start is crucial – getting on the same creative page as your client will save you countless headaches down the road and make each stage of design, development and implementation a breeze. Ask them for sample art, photos and other sites to draw inspiration from

• Luckily, there are millions of new Web 2.0 features available for free to no cost. Investigate what features and widgets would help you best achieve your client’s goals. Think about what you can provide to your client that will keep visitors engages. What can you present that will make your client standout in the marketplace? How can you help give your client the WOW factor? Consider social media, embedded videos, click to chat, rss feeds blogs… the list goes on and on.

• Your home or landing page is the first page a consumer sees and without engagement, site visitors will quickly abandoned the site. This is why creativity is so important. Being able to engage or interest the visitor immediately will go a long way. Think outside the box and have fun with the design. Yet, keep in mind that the website should still come across professional, clean and innovative.

• Communicate with your client. Make sure you understand what they want and how they want it done. Website development is a long process – not having a set communication method will only make the process longer. A timeline is crucial during the site launch preparation. Have weekly update meetings to ensure you and your clients are on the same page and creating a friendly repartee with clients can help plant the seeds for future working opportunities.

• Keep it search-friendly. Now-a-day’s an overwhelming number of consumers search through today’s major search engines. If you are building your site in an outdated language implementing other elements that impede search engine rankings, your site will be impossible to find, this means you are missing out on some major dollars! Come download our FREE SEO white paper to learn more about how you can garner visibility on search engine result pages.

• Provide ongoing customer service – it’s all about the experience, and working well together. Your job is not done after launch. A good web-development team will continue to be on hand to assist with any potential bugs, upgrades or staff difficulties.

• Double check all of your work! No website should ever be launched without making sure all your i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed! Use all the resources available to you to proofread site content. Provide internal links to appropriate pages and be sure that every page can be found every time.

If you understand the importance of communicating and connecting with your client, then you should have no problem designing and launching a website together successfully!

Katie Cannon is a Marketing Strategist ant Zer0 to 5ive

by Marybeth Sheppard

Congratulations to our client, Airclic, for the recent launch of their new website and corporate strategy.

Airclic develops mobile software products that dramatically improve the performance of an organization’s supply chain, logistics and field services operations. Airclic’s products save time, money and improve customer satisfaction.

Earlier this year, Airclic saw the opportunity to take advantage of SaaS-based solutions to further drive adoption of mobile software. Their recent launch includes the first of several SaaS-based products.

This marks a major milestone for Airclic and will be an instrumental element for building and sustaining considerable growth and success. With Zer0 to 5ive’s help, Airclic was able to create a new and engaging brand image, promote their core technology to multiple markets and tell a more compelling story.

See for yourself at www.airclic.com

Marybeth is a Principal at Zer0 to 5ive

I was recently asked to answer that question as part of an article that ran in the NY Report — and as you might guess, the answer is “it depends.”

Web sites run the gamut from strictly brochure-ware with little interaction to fully interactive, highly complex data gathering entities. At the heart of every web site development, however, are the questions: what are my objectives and who is my audience.

Check out the article written by my friend and former boss and mentor, Paul McKeon. Also, don’t forget to download our SEO white paper, so that you can get maximum “bang” for your online “buck”!

NY Report: The Cost of a Small Business Website

Post by Zer0 to 5ive CEO Michelle Pujadas

The start of every year brims with opportunities for great marketing and results. Here are some key take-aways from 2009 as we move into 2010.

Key Marketing Take-Aways From 2009

1. Your message and brand fundamentals are as critical as ever

2. The addition of a multitude of new channels via social media only means that it is more important than ever to understand who your audience is and where they get their information

3. The press release is not dead – in fact it is more versatile and useful than ever before

4. SEO is critical, but it must be aligned with traditional marketing strategies

5. Customers and prospects still love – and react to – great creative in all its forms

6. Customers will tell you what you want to know if you ask the right questions

7. In an age of electronic communications, a phone call or hand-written note goes a long way. Along those lines, bulky direct mail gets opened

8. Despite the decline of print media, nothing makes a client more excited than seeing their name in print

9. A great customer reference is invaluable

10. Measurement in all its forms continues to be a challenge – but it can be done and with the growth of web analytic, instant metrics are becoming an industry standard.

And, as always, an integrated strategic communications plan that takes into account all facets of marketing and public relations always delivers the best results! Begin 2010 with a resolution to make your marketing count.

Post by Zer0 to 5ive CEO Michelle Pujadas

The New York City Marathon is November 1, 2009. It’s always a big day here in the City but I never know when it is until the very day is upon me and I hear the traffic report citing multiple street closures. I most certainly had no idea who pays for the whole thing. For all I know, the City foots the bill.

But that all changed a few days ago when I walked into the Dunkin Donuts on 14th and 6th undecided about the type of donut I wanted for breakfast. Should I go seasonal with a Pumpkin Donut or traditional with an Old-Fashioned? To my great surprise there was a new donut featured prominently in the center of the bakery rack. It was a traditional, glazed donut with orange icing and blue sprinkles. I knew it most certainly was not in honor of the Mets (and their very disappointing season), so I inquired further. Apparently it was the ING NYC Marathon Donut. I was intrigued and ordered it. Now I know that the marathon is coming up and that ING is a sponsor.

Nice work ING – for using a creative cross-promotion to leverage your sponsorship of the Marathon and generate awareness among a broader consumer audience.

Posted by Zer0 to 5ive’s Marybeth Sheppard. Image via Flickr/Creative Commons courtesy of Salim Virji.

What does it take to become inspired? Where do you go? What do you see? What is it that gets your wheels spinning? To me, inspiration is unique and comes to each of us in different ways. For some, it’s visiting an art gallery, paging through design books, or browsing the internet. For my college design professor, it was showering. He once told our class that his greatest ideas come to him in the shower. But for me, I don’t have one particular source for inspiration – I have many.

Often times I use the internet for inspiration because of it’s convenience. However, I love the design annuals from PRINT Magazine and GD USA. Each year these magazines release issues composed of winning designs in each different design category. Basically, it’s about 300 some pages of inspiring art, from Annual Reports, Invitations, and Collateral to Identity Design, Multimedia, and Package Design. I never leave for the office in the morning without at least one of these magazines in my bag. If my co-workers have ever seen me paging through magazines while at work and wondered what I was doing, now you know – I’m getting inspired!

Sometimes you will see me waiting in the lobby of a doctor’s office flipping through magazines to pass the time. If I see something I like, whether it’s an interesting typography treatment or a simple tiny graphic in a call out box, I will sneakily rip the page out of the magazine, tuck it into my bag and add it to my collection of inspiring art (I do this while at the gym too).

Sometimes you will see me driving with my camera phone in the air trying to snap a photo of an interesting billboard design or advertisement. Now I know this isn’t always the safest option, but I do my best not to cause any accidents.

For me, shopping can be a great source for inspiration too. Last Christmas, I walked the entire mall with my camera, flashing pictures of the different displays and window art. There were a lot of fun color combinations and type treatments that immediately caught my eye. Target and AC Moore are great stores to get inspired in. My camera is always handy and you will see me taking pictures of whatever catches my eye. Whether it’s a Hallmark card with an interesting graphic on the front, a cool pattern on a piece of clothing, or a scrap book page example pasted to the bulletin board in the paper isle, there I am, camera in hand, snapping away.

So, while some people have one particular thing they do or see to get inspired, that is not the case for me. My ideas come from so many different places ¬– magazines, books, nature, clothes, wallpaper, paint books, websites, blogs, wrapping paper, gift bags, greeting cards, stores, outdoor displays, and the list could go on. Henry David Thoreau once said, “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”

Posted by Nicole Maziarz, Zer0 to 5ive

Implementing rounded corners has always been somewhat of a chore. With the current CSS1 and CSS2 specifications, you’re forced to slice up rounded corner images, and add all sorts of bulky, most times un-semantic code, just to achieve a rounded corner effect. With the introduction of CSS3, rounded corners is easy work. This technique won’t work in every single web browser today, but users in older browsers will still have a pleasant experience on your site.
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