thought's from big max
the place for reviews, tips and tricks
Inspiration; where do you find it when designing a logo?
Inspiration; where do you find it when a client comes to you for a new logo design is a question I’m often asked. When I first speak with a client regarding a new logo design, I ask them two questions: What are your favorite colors? Do you have an icon idea that you...
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LayerSlider to SmartSlider; why I switched and never looked back
LayerSlider, by Kreature Media, was my go-to plugin for years. One the costs was, $26.00 for a lifetime license per website, and for me, it was very intuitive. Over the last couple of years, any website I designed that had a slider, which was almost all of...
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A case of don’t do as I did; rather do as I recommend.
Most logo designs come from a personal story. Some of those stories bring problems for the design. Here are the problems caused by my logo story. Recently, I decided to get polo shirts with my company logo embroidered on them. There are several places on...
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What does niche mean to you?
I was originally going to title this post “Why would you box yourself into a niche?” For the life of me, I can’t understand why anyone would do that. Let me clarify, I’m talking about graphic and website designers. If you are a cardiovascular surgeon, yes,...
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In a blink of an eye, everything goes black
Two weeks ago I sat down to my trusty 10-year-old 15” MacBook Pro to work on a project I had just received. The computer was running slow and seemed to be doing some funky things, so I restarted it. It starts up fine. Then in a blink of an eye, everything...
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Word is not typewriter; nor is it a design program!
Recently, I went round and round with a client on why she shouldn't use Word to layout a book she was independently publishing. A member of her family had worked on it with her using Word for the layout and design. When he finished, he prepared a PDF...
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Skype Account Stolen! Microsoft No Help!
The nightmare with my Skype account and Microsoft. Last Saturday, I received a text from 723-873 stating that my phone number had been "deleted from ng*****@send22u.info. Not you?" I had no idea who either 723-873 or ng*****@send22u.info were so I didn't...
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All for the love of beautiful fonts
I've always wanted to design a font set. Today I read about a challenge on Instagram called "My Beautiful Alphabet (#mybeautifulalphabet)." The goal is to design a font for each letter of the alphabet for the next 26 weeks. The font can be drawn by hand,...
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WordPress Care Plans – A Must!
Just like any software, Wordpress websites require maintenance to keeping the website working properly. Avoiding website maintenance is like not having the tires rotated on your vehicle. If you don't rotate them regularly, before long they'll be bald and a...
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No, You Don’t Look Cool Smoking!
Of all the important dates in my life that I can’t remember, this is one I’ve never forgotten, May 24, 1982, the day I quit smoking. I had taken a job where there was an absolute no questions asked no smoking policy. I wasn't even allowed to become one of...
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Is it just me?
My father came from a large family during the Great Depression; he was number nine out of ten brothers and sisters. By the time anything got to him five older brothers had already worn it or had used it. Consequently, he never wanted to get rid of...
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TinyPNG Plugin for Photoshop CC 2017 Well Worth the $50.00
I’m not sure when the TinyPNG plugin for Photoshop CC 2017 came out, but I stumbled upon the other day and it is a very welcomed addition to Photoshop. I was never a big fan of the TinyPNG plugin for WordPress for a couple of reasons: I always went over...
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Four Questions to Ask When Someone Is Designing a Logo for You
Will the logo be unique - Copycat logos will only fail and be confusing to your clients and or customers. A unique logo design will stand the test of time. A logo that is designed with today's latest trends will quickly look dated and need to be replaced....
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Is Using a Theme in WordPress Fraud? I Thought it was Required!
The other day, I accidentally stumbled across a blog post titled “5 Reasons Your Business Should NOT Use WordPress” at platypi.io. I’ve met the author once maybe twice and one of the principals of the company is my girlfriend’s son. A few days after reading the article, I was at my girlfriend’s house and so was her son. Instead of saying hi, I blurted out,
Patricia Meyer
WordPress
To Tab or Not to Tab
A couple of weeks ago when I debuted Shari Steinbach, LLC’s website to a user group on Facebook, one comment stuck out:
“Don’t forget to have all of your links open in different windows so the user can get back to your site.”
Patricia Meyer
Website Design
An age old question “Do we still need a home button?”
There are numerous articles on the web on whether we still need the “home button” in our navigation menus or not. In reading some of the articles, I noticed that if the article was from a design firm, there was no home button.
Patricia Meyer
Website Design
Integrating Airbnb’s calendar into a booking plugin.
As I mentioned in my last post, client Terralsole has been renting their Villa Terralsole and Studio Fonte Lattaia on Airbnb for the last few years with great success.
Patricia Meyer
WordPress
Terralsole Winery Website Redesign
Client Terralsole is a vineyard in Montalcino, Italy. It is owned by Mario and Athena Bollag. For several years they tried to put a website together to sell their wines and to start a wine club only to become extremely frustrated with the process.
Patricia Meyer
WordPress
Why your designs should not come from a contest
Let me just get this out in the open, I am adamantly opposed to any kind of “design contest.” This will not be a rant, but examples of what I’ve seen and experienced and a warning to both buyers and designers.
Patricia Meyer
General
Why I switched from Gravity Forms to Caldera Forms
I had been a Gravity Forms developer user since 2010. That was until this past November when I decided not to renew my license. I didn’t and still don’t have any complaints with Gravity Forms.
Patricia Meyer
Forms