appleEYEdesign: G R A P H I C S
Appealing "tailor-made" Graphics
Graphics get to the point. Graphics communicate in a visual way, in a way words don't. Graphics set the tone, convey a feeling. Of course image isn't everything. There has to be substance behind it. But if you do have something worth saying, the right image will leave a lasting impression.
Whether it's for interactive web design or traditional print media, appleEYE's appealing "tailor-made" graphics deliver on-target with the appropriate impact.
For the Web
A compelling website communicates your business vision. Appealing graphics can play an impressive role in internet marketing, such as banner ads and e-newsletters. Strategically placed banner ads give customers what they are looking for, when and where they need it. Opt-in prospects will take the time to give a more indepth read to your message, if it's delivered in an eye-pleasing HTML email or e-newsletter layout.
If you've spent any time surfing the internet, you've seen plenty of banner ads. Their presence on the web and their importance in internet-based business is immense. Because of its graphic element, a banner ad is somewhat similar to a traditional display ad you would see in a printed publication, such as a newspaper or magazine, but it can have the moving allure of animation and has the added ability to bring a potential customer directly to a specific page on your website.
Coordinated promotional campaigns work
to match print material, banner ads and e-newletters with your product or
service. Visitors take action when dedicated pages match marketing campaigns. The result of your innovative, attention-getting graphics is a motivated customer, focused on your specific offer.
For Print
The printing revolution is going strong. With the advent of the personal computer and expansion of the internet, some proclaim "the printed word is dead." AppleEYE finds the rumors of the death of print have been greatly exaggerated.
The printing and graphic arts industry has been transformed, not replaced, by new technologies. Think about how many times a day you come across printed materials such as books, magazines, newspapers, billboards, brochures and direct mail. Now add to the list: T-shirts, buttons, posters, signs, banners, and product packaging. A quick review reveals that even in the computer age, we are still surrounded by printed products in our schools, offices and homes. Virtually everywhere we go print is pressing on.
AppleEYE sees a place for it’s appealing graphics in print, as well as on the web.
Branding
Business identities are held together with concept and visual acumen, not by hard and fast rules. Branding is about selling the sizzle, not the steak. You want to smell the aroma, not chew the fat. In promoting your business, you want graphics that communicate, not merely decorate.
AppleEYE graphics have a wide variety of applications for forming business identity beginning with a distinctive logo, stationary & business cards. Next, build momentum by attracting business through targeted promotional flyers, brochures, posters, signs, display ads, direct mail letters or postcards. And finally, blaze your brand on the world through online banner ads and eye-appealing email newsletter layouts.
appleEYEdesign: W E B S I T E
Custom "hand-made" Websites
A website offers a window to the world. Visitors look in to see a full, rich environment with clear, juicy content. But first, you have to get them to yours. How a website is designed and coded makes all the difference. Clean, web standard coding offers the morsels search engine spiders find so tasty, helping to get your pages ranked higher. Engaging words and pictures laid out in an attractive, easy to navigate architecture invites visitors "to stick" long enough to get the value of your message, product or services.
AppleEYE's "just right" website designs specialize in creating content-rich, search engine optimized, multimedia websites for the unique spirit of "mom & pop" businesses.
A website is your calling card to the world. It's design can carve a local niche in the global internet marketplace. It's personal. Whether it's to be an informational or promotional site, the first step in web site design is clarifying your vision. Why do you want a site? What is the purpose of the site? Who is your target audience?
With the bare bones purpose clearly understood, the next step is generating the content, including:
- the look & feel of the site
- the architecture: how the content is organized site-wide
- a user friendly navigational flow
- the colors and layout of each page
- custom images, text copy, animation, audio and video as needed
Whatever you can conceive of, whatever you can imagine, can be created. The creative process is the same whether you want to sell, service, inform or entertain. Working with you, appleEYE will create a custom website that reflects your unique spirit.
Services offered include:
- website design & coding
- image & text content development
- online multimedia - animation, audio/video
- SEO - search engine optimization
- e-commerce
- domain registration & technical contact
- web site hosting, web site statistics and analytics
- internet marketing - ethical email campaigns, banner ads, keyword ads
- promotion in other media, - print, direct mail, guerrilla marketing
- project management - art direction, collaborating with other talent
TOOLS used include:
Adobe's Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Flash, Acrobat, as well as Microsoft's Word and Excel. Custom web standard, internet optimized coding in HTML, CSS, Javascript and Actionscript.
Search Engine Optimization - a hot topic.
Wikipedia offers a good, brief introduction: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_Engine_Optimizers
Beyond all the "best practices" of writing standard search engine optimized code, the single most crucial factor is offering juicy, relevant, rich content. That's the buzz word, "rich content" and plenty of it. But the operative word is "relevant". That's what the search engines are looking for in ranking web pages: relevance.
That's pretty much the nut of it as far as what's needed to rank highly in unpaid random keyword searches. Sounds simple enough, doesn't it? But it's not easy. If you're really earnest about doing what it takes to get noticeable returns on competitive search terms, you'll want to work with someone who knows what they are doing. For more debunking of the prevailing SEO myths, see my friend, Gail Parker's "SEO Tough Love:" http://roi-seo.com/seo-tough-love.html
AppleEYE will design your website with relevance built-in through proper web standards, site structure and content that can be easily read and understood by the search engine's software programs. That's a given. Bumping it up a notch, we can design proactive internet marketing strategies, such as paid inclusion, AdWords sponsored link advertisement or other pay-per-click campaigns.
Contact me today to learn how we can make your business more SEO successful.
Collaborating - "working with"
If you have read this far, chances are you are interested in something a bit different. If you are not looking to build your own unique, custom web domain, it's likely you are either a designer or internet professional yourself, perhaps looking to collaborate with other creative talent. Either way, appleEYEdesign would love to explore the possibilities with you.
Again, the key is having a well articulated, focused understanding of the purpose of what we would be creating. What do you have in mind? Together, with a clearly conceived goal, we can shape the web development strategy that best suits the need. No dream is too big, no project too small. Email me and let's see. Who knows, if nothing else, you may make a friend.
Guerilla-style Marketing
Promoting your business both online and off can take a circuitous route. Especially if you're flexible enough to zig when they zag. But you have to zig in a smart way.
Certainly it's worthwhile considering such typical internet marketing strategies as pay-per-click, affiliate website campaigns and ethical, spam-free demographically targeted e-mail blasts using opt-in mailing lists built from legitimate co-registration services. These can definitely offer a measurable return on investment. But all too often you'll be going head-to-head with the big guys. The competition is fierce.
Big bloated bureaucracies are sluggish and impersonal. This leaves an opening for the little guy to slip under the radar, to connect with prospects in a more humanly satisfying way. The internet has leveled the playing field.
Enter guerilla marketing.
The brain-child of maverick marketing genius Jay Conrad Levinson, guerilla marketing uses unconventional means to get maximum results from minimal resources. It's where creativity meets the mother of invention, necessity. That's what appleEYE's about, innovation and creativity, born of necessity to help small businesses make big waves.
appleEYEdesign: D E S I G N
Design is on Purpose
Design is about invention and innovation. Design is applied thoughtfulness. It takes purposeful idea and gives it clarity of focus. There's a direct relationship between the quality of the design and the thought that goes into it.
However, it's not just the thought that counts. Design is idea plus craft. It is the skills employed in the process that leads to the effectiveness of the final product. Design requires the ability to both discern what's called for and the means to communicate it effectively.
That's what appleEYE does . by design.
Easy Does It Design
"Computers are useless -- all they can give you are answers." -- Pablo Picasso
Design is all about relationships. On the technical side, a short list of relating design elements would include: line, shape, texture, color (hue & value) and space. A short list of design principles would include: movement, proximity, balance, emphasis and unity. But the single most important design technique is: CONTRAST. What is going to set the design apart in the most distinctive way? What is the most direct and clear way to make the point? What makes for exceptional design is not something you can easily put your finger on. But you know it when you see it.
Effective design is the art of questioning the answers. It's about "wrong-headed" thinking that snaps you out of mental habits and opens to surprising solutions. Trends start with two groups of people: the young and the creatives. But youth isn't measured in years, it's measured in flexibility.
Have you ever surfed to a web page only to move right along because nothing caught your eye? Was there too much going on to be able to focus on any one thing? Conversely, think of a layout where you've noticed that less is actually more; where a simple, elegant placement of elements sparked your interest to stop and focus. That's what appleEYE means by "plain & simple" design. It offers you a frame in which to rest your mind and direct your attention to a singular emphasis. One thought at a time. Clear and distinct. You might call it the Goldilocks Theory of Design. Not too hot, not too cool, but just right. When the design is right, it's easy on the eye.
Words by Design
It’s the copywriter’s job to create concise website content that people relate to and search for. Well written ads can highlight the unique selling points that differentiates your product in a sea of identical listings and drives qualified click-throughs to the very item on your website they are looking for. Email newsletters can be designed to look as good as your website and filled with audience-specific rich content. A steady diet of informative tidbits can help establish a loyal customer base who are happy, even eager to refer you.
For search engine findability, it is useful to research your essential keywords and phrases and develop a semantics that weaves a rich tapestry around them. But people, not just spiders, will be reading your words, so they will also need to entertain, inform and ultimately convey the differentiating factor that distinguishes your business from all the others. Articulating the right words to paint a compelling and accurate picture within a conversational tone that persuades people with power and conviction, all the while providing spidering software a sumptuous banquet of relevant and meaningful relationships, is fast becoming its own art-form.
No one knows your business better than you. In getting your message across,
it’s best if you say it your way. If you know what you want to say, but
can’t find the words, appleEYE can help. Together on the wordsmithing
forge, we’ll create the writing that most effectively communicates your
business.
Marketing by Design
Both marketing and design are all about relationships, so it makes sense to market by design. The success of a small business depends upon its relationships with people. Technologies like the telephone and the internet can make the pathways to connecting easier, but you still need to make the effort in a discreet and purposeful way. Who should you be connecting with? People who want to receive your message, that’s who.
Begin with a plan and stick to it. Create a theme for your marketing plan that identifies the essence of what you are about and communicates something about the unique quality that you offer. Engage a naming and brainstorming process that includes both the people who are involved and familiar with your business, and interested third parties who can offer an “everyperson” point-of-view. Whether you’re just starting out or rejuvenating your mission, thoughtful consideration of the "what,""how" & "why" of your core values will help clarify your vision and streamline your actions.
Establish as many channels as you can to reach people through things you enjoy doing. Coordinate your marketing materials to reiterate your fundamental message. Develop and keep an ample supply of printed material on hand, including: stationery, business cards, brochures, etc. And online consider: banner ads, email newsletters and listings in appropriate directories. Be persistent and consistent. Be consistent in forging new contacts and persistent in periodically following up with old ones. The aim is to see your customers as your friends. At least that's appleEYE's view. Want to make a friend?
What will ultimately sell your business is you. Your personal touch, face-to-face, pressing the flesh. As a small business, you can’t afford to bring anything less than your authentic self to work. That’s what people respond it, that’s what gives you an edge over big business. Your personal touch, being a real person … by design.
appleEYEdesign: F L A S H
FLASH animation
FLASH MOVIES are a powerful way to introduce animation, special effects, sound and interactivity to web pages. Flash is everywhere, both because of its speed in streaming across modem connections and for the smooth way it renders text and graphics.
appleEYEdesign: A B O U T
AppleEYE is Not a We.AppleEYE is just me and I don't want to "you" you. You know your business, I know mine. AppleEYE doesn't work for clients, I work with people. Big difference. Hmmm, okay ... maybe appleEYE is about "we", what we can do together.
AppleEYE's mission is to bring a human touch to the digital world. Certainly the end result is to deliver top quality graphics and website design, but the going is every bit as important as getting there.
The appleEYE art is in paying attention, listening, communicating clearly, in keeping after the creating-adjusting-creating process. The science is in knowing how. AppleEYE does. If this rings true for you, I'd love to be in touch and explore the possibilities.
Hello. I'm Dan Landrum. The "I" behind appleEYE.
The love that motivates me is innovating and creating. With deep roots in visual arts, I design both "for print" and "for the web," specializing in creating content-rich, search engine optimized, multimedia graphics & websites for personal and business use.
Having managed a successful small business, I have an excellent grounding in the many technical and interpersonal skills required to communicate effectively with all parties, keep production running smoothly and deliver the goods on time.
SOFT SKILLS: Very happily married, reliable, punctual, tenacious, easy going, mild mannered, thoughtful, caring and light-humored, I love connecting with people. I value and practice mindful listening and clear "full-circle" communication.
Project Management
Project Management defines, measures and achieves targets, while optimizing the use of resources over the course of a project. When collaborating with others to expand the repertoire of applied skills, it generally works best if the overall direction is the responsibility of an individual project manager.
As multiple communication channels crossing over from print to the internet and back again become part of the mix, Project Management also becomes applied to advertising and Marketing. AppleEYE handles the whole package.
Whether it's managing an existing project or starting from scratch, appleEYE will take a fresh look and implement a direction that is authentically you.
Pricing
Pricing graphics & web site design has many variables. It depends on a lot of factors, including: the size & scope of the project and how much original art and text needs to be generated. I can give you an item-specific bid per project. My hourly design rate is $32. The initial consultation is free.
AppleEYEdesign's aesthetics and sensibilities aren't going to be for everyone. No one designer's style is going to fit all. As I'm intimately connected with local, regional and international talent through various networks, no dream is too big, no project too small. I will give you my all to provide affordable, high quality graphics and website designs that satisfy you and makes your business more successful. When that's not enough, I will collaborate with other's until it is. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Testimonials
Dan, the slideshow you created for our website is not only entertaining, but a great marketing tool for our organization.
– Debby Adams, President Yoga Education Society
I get compliments constantly on Dan's innovative yet clear and user friendly web design. The web page he created for me is my brochure on the Internet.
–
Anne Cleveland, Wish Upon a Star Productions
Dan's skill at leading me in the development and design of my website continues to be outstanding. His leadership and knowledge of each step creates a positive working relationship. Dan allows me to be the final decision maker. This adds to the feeling that it is my web site!
– JoAnn Marini, More than Amour
Throughout August 2003, Mr. Landrum offered his graphics expertise free of
charge to our newly formed organization. He first thoroughly researched Sierra
Club logo requirements and created a Web page where we could view all other
ICO program logos. This greatly helped us in understanding our design requirements.He
then created three variations of a logo based on our requests. All three were
excellent designs and it was difficult to choose one. We agreed on the design
shown. Our organization is very grateful for Mr. Landrum's
generous volunteer services, and the extremely prompt and skillful manner
in which he served our needs. We would recommend his services to any organization
requiring graphics work and/or advice. I can be contacted at 714.965.3394
for further information on how Mr. Landrum benefited our group.
– Lisa Hellman, Sierra Club's Orange County Inner City Outings
Okay, let's recap.
appleEYEdesign is about:
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...and who is the apple of MY eye? ... Carol Landrum
I have to give credit where credit is due. With a keen artist's eye of her own, my wife Carol is a marvelous adjunct to my creative ventures. For more of an introduction, please visit: www.sevadeva.com.
There's only one sky.
I live and work in San Diego, California. But aesthetically I'm a child of southern Florida's long, wide, flat, horizontal bands of aquamarine ocean, golden sandy beach and puffy white clouded blue sky; paired with the '50's equally flat, bright, minimal styles. It's that zen-spacious simplicity that most feels like home.
What furnished that home were the dynamics of the ever-changing skyscapes. When I let my imagination run wild I could easily see all kinds of things in the clouds. More intriguing than the things were the possibilies of what was to come. Whatever I was seeing was becoming something else. I'd lay on my back for hours at a time to watch, to see just what that might be.
Similarly, the images of my inner mindscape are an essential expression of endless, fluid becoming. So what's the one true static image that best captures the desired feeling? What does the design call for, if there's only one sky? The sky's the limit.