5 Kick Ass Blogging Tips

Are you are a blogger with a great blog but have little or no success in capturing steady readership? You must already know that Blogs are great tools that accent your existing business or maybe you write solely as an expert sharing information for those seeking it.

I’ve been around for a couple of years and haven’t focused solely on my blog but with all the recent social networking available I felt it was important to wake up my blog link as much as I could. I began by having a cup of java and simply used these few tips:

5. Get your link out there! You’re on the social network scene right? Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc….. why not provide all of your friends a chance to comment on your blog! Ask and you will receive! http://www.themerrybird.wordpress.com/ or http://www.the-merry-bird.blogspot.com/ comments welcome!

4. Comment on other Blogs: If you want your business or blog to get noticed, notice other blogs that interest you. Sign in, say hello, don’t be afraid to leave a decent opinion or comment along with your name and URL. Always be cordial! No one needs a spammer or negative bite.


3. Write Respectable, Informative Articles for your blog. Make them interesting, happening and relative to your business. I like to write up articles regarding The Merry Bird customer experience, “how to” articles, updates in the industries related to my business etc. Basically I build on being an expert in my field.

2. Submit your Articles to Blog Carnivals. By doing this you expose your blog, your writing skills and your opinions all in one spot. This all informs the mass of people looking for the subject you just wrote about and submitted. It’s a big world out there!

1. Regularly contribute articles to your Blog. We spend an aweful amount of time projecting our businesses, bogs and urls. Don’t forget to have fresh content on your blog. Most expert bloggers say write daily but I’m fine with weekly or bi-weekly content. My RSS feed readers don’t feel bombarded by my blog notices on a daily basis and they look forward to my posts when they happen!


I hope this helps! Good luck! And please feel free to comment or leave a tip you have to share….

Kristine Sheehan
TheMerryBird.com
“Your Stationery in Flight”

Swimming with Logo Design

The vast sea of logo designs found on the web today can be extremely intimidating. Some Logo’s of course are better than others and some just plain Rock!

While researching this ocean of design for inspiration, I realized that comparing logo designs was like comparing sharks to whales. I went surfing the web for logos in which formal training in design could be detected. I hold the logos I found in some galleries in high regard. But, I reminded myself that many logo galleries presented online are “mapped” out to the advantage of the designer. This is a shark pool. Logos are put together for the purpose of learning and displaying expertise. Many logos found in these galleries are made up for a fictitious client, with parameters that fit the designers need and wants. A “real” client logo design would never fit a mold and is often the reason for a design challenge, therefore I see it as the Whale.

Keep swimming.

Coming up for air, I read a great article by Graham Smith, 9 Solid Logo Design Tips for Beginners. Although I’ve been a freelancer for years, his check list for logo design reminded me how to paddle my logo board and catch the next wave with confidence.

The Two Tips that I like best are:

---Be sure the Logo design is flexible and can be printed on big and small mediums. ie. Key chains or a BillBoard.

---Design the logo in Vector format. An Illustrator file makes it easy to increase or reduce the image size with ease. You won’t have to deal with pixellated images later!


Keep pace and follow your instincts. The next wave is rolling in – Catch it! It could be a Whale of a day! :)


Author: Kristine Sheehan
TheMerryBird.com
"Your Stationery in Flight"

10 Habits That Will Open Your Creative Stream of Consciousness

Being creative isn’t just an innate gift. Although some people and designers have the knack for being open to a creative stream of consciousness, others have to work at opening the flood gates of their creativeness. Believe that having a few good habits produces a good flow of ideas and allows the mind to prosper creatively.

Here are 10 Creative Habits will help you open your stream of creativity. Just apply them in your daily routine – go ahead – give it a try! You can only become more creative!

1.) Curiosity is a natural characteristic in human beings. From the time we are born our minds open and grow through being curious. So whether you are 2 or 92 years old, NEVER STOP BEING CURIOUS!
2.) Hold onto your ideas – you never know which one could be “THE IDEA” you need for life creativity or your next project, so jot ‘em down in a journal!
3.) ACCEPT CHALLENGE with enthusiasm – Every creative knows that all of life’s projects are a challenge, big or small, a challenge connects the neurons in your creative stream of consciousness!
4.) Don’t fall in love with your first idea or any! It most likely has been done before or a client may have a different view about it then you do – be open to many ideas as being the best!
5.) READ, VIEW and LEARN from others! This is a great resource for inspiration.
6.) Listen to music and allow natural energies to flow through you.
7.) Laugh often, ENJOY THE FLUBS of life as those are the gifts that propel fun, curiosity and challenge and sometimes a winning IDEA!
8.) Think about your favorite place to be, your backyard, Europe a tropical island or the local beach. Go there! Breathe and listen to your inner creative.
9.) POSITIVE THINKING
10.) Being you is the most different and creative thing that can ever happen to your creativity – think about it! There’s only one you.


Go ahead! Get creative!

Logos have Rules and Rules are made to …..

Step back a moment and think about the process of designing a logo. Designers create a logo idea from a business name or a product/service a business sells. From the inception of the logo idea, it is broken down into smaller parts. It is researched, sketched, colored, brought into technological format, glued (or should I say pasted) back together, refined and completed. The final output of the logo may be the Mercedes of all logos but the designer has gone through a series of Rules to create it properly.

For starters, the rule of scalability arises with the initial logo idea. How will the logo appear on business card vs. a Billboard? This is an important question as it will affect the “aura” of the logo. The “aura” as I like to call it must emit the same feeling whether its size is big or small. Another words it must have a consistent message.

This consistent message is the rule of Recognition. Will the logo give instant recognition of the product or business every time it is seen? Logos are designed with this purpose in mind. The logo must create a personality or “aura” to tell the viewer who and what is speaking to them. And next time it is seen, the viewer will remember what it represents.

History may have dictated some rules because of technological limitations. For example, the use of Color has a rule. Usually, no more than 2 -3 colors are used in a logo design. Printing has or had its limitations and cost factors as well. Today we can take leaps because of online viewing and advances in printing techniques. So who says only 2-3 three colors are acceptable now? I say once in a while Break this Rule but only if it works for the design.…

Be sure a logo designed in color also works in Black and White. This allows much more usage of the logo, as well as shows the same integrity the logo in color does. Explore the options of special effects. The options for logo design are really limitless. Maybe, break ALL logo rules and say there are none! Creativity has jumped out of an old box. Logos have rules but rules are made to be broken!

Kristine Sheehan
TheMerryBird.com
"Your Stationery in Flight"

The Future of Stationery

The way the economy is shuffling priorities these days is prompting consumers to step back and re-evaluate what they spend their money on and Stationery has taken a hard hit at the register. Many reports indicate that stationery purchases have gone down and photo cards from shutterfly.com, sendoutcards.com and other online “do it yourself” creators are high on the holiday card list. The downside to these cards is they aren’t seen as “quality” cards and have been referred to as flimsy and poorly printed.

Hallmark stats show that boxed cards are still selling well around the holidays but it’s not your imagination that fewer store bought holiday cards are making it to the mailboxes.
The fact is that cards are priced higher and the increased price for stamps (to be raised to .44 cents this May ’09) is killing any plans for the future of store bought stationery.

I’m not a pessimist in any sense of the word but reality is setting in that a new era for stationery is before our eyes and the internet has taken over! How will designers face this situation? Will print technology cease to exist in the next 10 years? Will the coldness of the web be the only thing the next generation experiences? And will the warmth of humanity as we understand it disappear and leave a robotic foot print on hearts? I’ll be looking up to the “Big” Stationery guys to direct me in how to go with the flow of the down turn of the stationery industry.

A Unique Artist Novel

http://www.lookatbook.com/flash/shell.html

Flying around on the web I came across this site that featured an artist book that traveled many a mile before it's completion. What was so cool about it is that a group of artists created this book in a unique manner. They never met one another and only mailed the book with their completed creative pages to the next artist on the list. Each artist had it in their possession for one week, made creative page contributions that played off the artist before them and then mailed the book to the next artist and so on until it was completed.

The compilation of pages is an amazing work of art. I love the fact that the book traveled from country to country, city to city and artist to artist. Unique styles made an amazing book and exhibition.

Yes, even an exhibition! I'd love to add art work to a book like this! Any artists want to create an artist mailing list and create another amazing artist novel?

"Fair Use"

A recent article in USA Today prompted me to research the copy right laws for "fair use" of a work of art. The USA article referenced Shepard Fairey's "Hope" poster of President Obama, which was widely circulated on posters, stickers and canvases across America.

"The image is the subject of a copyright dispute with The Associated Press. Fairey argues his use of the AP photo is protected by "fair use", which allows exceptions to copyright laws based on how much the original is used, what it is used for and how the original is affected by the new work."

The following points of section 107 was listed in the copyright law here: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html

Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered “fair,” such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair:

1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

2. the nature of the copyrighted work;

3. amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

Keeping all of this information in mind do you think Shepard has a "fair use" case?