If you have an online, e-commerce site or section to your site, there are things you can do to make it really work for you and generate more income than it currently is. Online shopping is all about a great UX (user experience). It must be super-easy, answer questions up front and make the check out experience should be...
Many companies use their logos in very traditional ways (signage, letterhead, business cards, online branding), but new and exciting ways of using your logo are popping up. You may have heard of Jason Sadler and his I Wear Your Shirt endeavour? Companies are paying him to wear their logos on a t-shirt. It is brilliant concept and certainly a...
Part of branding and web design is the text on the page, but it is usually completely overlooked or dismissed as unimportant. Not so! In the world of advertising, it is often said that "content is king". Content are your words in a brochure, sales letter, on a blog or website, advertisement or even a business card. Strong copywriters have...
Advertising on a blog or website is a way to generate additional income, even if it was designed to market your own services or business. You can refer business to other sites and get a potential commission for the sales. This is referred to as "affiliate marketing" and can end up earning you some significant cash! The most well-known affiliate...
The average consumers of graphic design (which means all of us!) don't consider the blank spaces on a site or business card or flyer at all. Designers give this great consideration however. Whitespace (the technical name for blank space, also known as negative space) is as important as your text, colours and images. It is crucial to have the proper...
We are all consumers who are faced with marketing materials every day. From brochures to leaflets, stickers to business cards, we pick these things up and often discard them before they are ever read. If you are a business owner, this can be a challenge if you want your marketing message to be heard. At Ratio7, we know some ways...
Sometimes those creativity batteries need to be recharged and a creativity (or artist) date is a fun way to do just that. Originally coined by Julia Cameron, author of The Artist's Way, many people working in a variety of creative endeavors use these dates to fertilize pending ideas and to generate new ones. Sometimes they are helpful just to get...
In order to make a marketing message memorable, it has to be "sticky". Made to Stick, a great book by Chip and Dan Heath, offers tips and templates on how to get your marketing messages to stick in the public's mind. Not only is the book informative, it is engaging and a fun read filled with urban myths and...
"Design" is a term that has crossed boundaries, from the creative to the practical. You can thank Apple for bringing public awareness to good design and that awareness has now spread to the common consumer. Tim Brown, CEO of branding giant, IDEO has written Change by Design which examines how the creative process and design methods are helpful in all...
Many amateur Web designers (often business owners themselves) don't take a user's experience into account when setting up their site. A good user experience (UX) is crucial in improving a site's bounce rate (how fast your readers leave your site). The longer a viewer is on the site, the more likely they are to become a...