10 Do’s and Don’ts of Email Marketing
Do:
- Keep the layout simple. Reserve complex design for landing pages.
- Use tables. Email clients have strict rules on how they display CSS.
- Clean up your HTML. Spammers are sloppy. Don’t be a spammer.
- Use actual size image. Some email clients will not stretch or tile your images like you think.
- Test, test, test. There are a myriad of email clients out there and they all interpret HTML differently. Read more
A website programmer horror story.
This is a random story on Reddit, a social media site. It’s a good note on why, as designers, we are wary to work with clients simply looking for the lowest bidder. Business ethics and morals are as relevant as a handshake and coffee in the digital age.
Sponsoring the Newport Film Festival™
Proudly premiering on April 30th, 2012 – the International Spotlight of the 13th Annual Newport Beach Film Festival is a prestigious event promoting a global outlook on cinema today. Back in December, the Australian segment contacted CreativeMade™ with a proposal – sponsor the marketing materials for the West Coast Premiere of the movie Swerve. We love being a part of this community, and gladly worked with the amazing staff in Denver to design brochures and other promotional materials for the event. We look forward to next year, and helping make the 14th Annual Newport Beach Film Festival a success.
Why do restaurants have horrible websites?
Farhad Manjoo at Slate put together a great article on restaurant websites, and their lack of meeting customer’s needs. Essentially, restaurants want to entertain and entice the customer – but are missing the critical needs of the customer. What’s on the menu, how pricey is it, what’s the atmosphere? This can all be shown without extensive flash animations and over-complicated design. Read More
Creativity, from Calvin & Hobbes
© Bill Watterson
Trending – Create movement in logo designs.
You’ve likely noticed that many fast-food chains have rebranded or recreated their logo. In fact, in Southern California I had no idea many of the antiquated logos were still around – until a trip to visit family on the East Coast where I saw many chains still had the old logos up, and you really notice the difference of the new branding. New, brighter colors, more exciting artwork, and of course the slanted look. They all have a slant, which gives a feeling of movement, which is always the goal of fast-food.