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rsh_feature

09 February 2011

Receiver specific highlighting – A very simple idea to make team update emails smarter.


By Luke Hopkins

1 Comment

Everyone has been in the situation before where they’re sending an email out to numerous people, generally for the purpose of keeping them in the loop about what’s required for a project for example.

Everyone has also probably been on the receiving end of a lengthy project email wondering if there is anything that they need to do or if they were just included to keep them in the loop!

What if there was a way that the sender of the email could specify certain passages of text for each user which would be seen by all, but highlighted conditionally for that specific user. Basically a way of  saying “Hey Jeff, this information needs your attention”.

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helvetica

31 January 2011

Helvetica (2007)


By Luke Hopkins

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A feature length film with possibly the narrowest of audiences,
yet beautifully (perhaps appropriately) simple and informative.

Broadway - Lafayette St displayed in Helvetica

The film – directed by Gary Hustwit – opens in a workshop with a printer setting individual letters in a stick to form the word Helvetica. The introductory scenes then go through the motions of setting the stick of type into a guide, inking the roller to then ink the letters and then producing the beautiful image on a crisp white card which you see above. It’s a brief, yet beautiful insight into the lost art of printing and typesetting by hand. A fitting way to start this film.

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dfeature

Coffee Break Learning – ‹D› dull as dishwater?


By Luke Hopkins

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D,d displayed in DIN 1451

Quick Facts

• In the Vietnamese alphabet ‹d› represents the sound /j/ in the south and /z/ in the north.
• In printed texts of the English Language,  on average ‹d› represents only 3.38% of the total letters used. The most common is ‹e› at 11.16%.
• Based on the lack of information regarding ‹d›, I’ve concluded it is one of the lesser interesting letters in the English Language.

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templatelogo

27 January 2011

The dangers of pre-’designed’ templates


By Luke Hopkins

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All over the Internet for a variety of different mediums you’ll find thousands upon thousands of templates, business card templates, website templates, logo templates. If you can think it, theres a template for it. We live in a world of instant information and instant gratification, people want to achieve things quickly and cheaply.

The problem with quick and cheap is they are very rarely associated with another word: Good. You can have have cheap design, you can have quick design, you can even have cheap quick design, but you will never, ever, have GOOD, cheap, & quick design.

pilcrow

Yes templates are often cheaper than hiring a designer to create a custom solution from scratch, however with templates the ROI (Return On Investment) is almost guaranteed to be depressingly low. Templates look like templates, your customers will notice and form an emotional view of your company as, cheap & lazy. Using a business card template is one of the worst mistakes you could make in forming a relationship with potential customers. As a first point of contact with your business, your business cards need to confidently, but not arrogantly say “we’re the best”, “we’re cutting edge”, “we have the solution to YOUR specific problem”. They need to be memorable, first impressions count! Handing someone a horrid business card is like saying “Hi, we’re bad at what we do”, “we don’t actually care about what we sell”, “our products aren’t as good as other brands”.

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readyfor2011

11 January 2011

7 Steps to get your website ready for 2011 –
Make sure you’re still the clear choice


By Luke Hopkins

0 Comments

You’re back in the office after a couple of weeks holidays. Whilst you might not feel like you’re ready for 2011 just yet it’s vital that your website is. An outdated website can be more detrimental than no website at all. It looks unprofessional, makes your company look outdated and may lead your customers to go elsewhere. It’s not difficult to update your site and with just a little bit of new content such as a product or special offer or a slight alteration to the website design you can be on-top of the game in your industry and be the clear choice for your customers.

1. Change your copyright info to 2011.

This is such a simple yet important task however I see so many websites each year forget to do this. Having the copyright information read 2010 instead of 2011 will immediately cause your site to appear outdated. Make sure this is done on all pages, not just your homepage.

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HI_feature

08 December 2010

High Indulgence – A corporate design case study


By Luke Hopkins

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About the company

High Indulgence is a company started early in 2010 providing High Tea at your home. Don’t know what High Tea is? Don’t worry, I didn’t either before starting on this project. However taking the time to thoroughly research the tradition and understand its background helped me to better understand what High Indulgence is offering. High Tea is traditionally a light meal served in the early afternoon consisting of quality tea’s served in fine china, delicious sweet treats and gourmet savoury appetizers.

This is a service which is generally held at fine establishments in which the customer would visit to enjoy the experience. The market difference High Indulgence has is that they bring this service to your home or office. Arriving early they setup all the tableware and place settings, once the guests arrive the High Indulgence staff serve the attendees the numerous food and drink offerings then leave in order for the host and their guests to enjoy their event. Afterwards the staff return to pickup the tableware and place settings and ensure the host and guests had a great time.

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c feature

Coffee Break Learning – See how ‘C’ came to be


By Luke Hopkins

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You may have noticed a lack of sources in my previous articles on the letters of the alphabet. I have gone back and added these sources and will ensure they’re always there on each article where relevant. Thank you Tim for picking this up.

In this article you will notice some strange markings when referencing letters. To put it simply, where you see ‹ › around a letter, this is to refer to the letter itself as a letter. Where you see / / wrapped around a letter, this is to indicate that I am referencing the pronounced sound of the letter. I trust this will make the articles easier to read and understand.

“Get on with it” I can hear you say…

The Letter C

Quick Facts

• The letter ‹c› is pronounced as a soft ‹c› /s/ when used before ‹e› or ‹i› and a ‘hard’ ‹c› /k/ elsewhere. Naturally there are a few exceptions such as ‘soccer’ and ‘Celt’ where /k/ is used instead of /s/ as expected.
• In the German language it is more common to see the digraph ‹ch›; which is pronounced /k/, than to see ‹c› on it’s own.

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99

01 December 2010

Why fixed-price design services will cost you more in the long run.


By Luke Hopkins

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Searching for a web service that can cater to each and every one of your specific design needs can be a daunting task for the budding entrepreneur. Your corporation is your baby. Having someone else give it a makeover is a risky, yet necessary move. A move that will boost your company’s image.

A company’s website and logo become its identity. It therefore becomes important for businesses to get their brand identity just right in order to avoid monotony in the market. In order to attract customers, a business needs an attractive website and a logo that can reel in even the most finicky of clients. Remember, people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.

It can be very difficult to create a top quality logo that not only reflects your company’s temperament, but which also has enough visual appeal to attract potential customers. Corporate branding is vital to shape the emotional reaction your customers have to your business. Thinking about a logo and website as mere pictures and statistics is one of the biggest mistakes you can make in the business world.

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B Feature

28 November 2010

Coffee Break Learning –
A bit of background about ‘B’


By Luke Hopkins

2 Comments

Excuse the alliteration, It’s too much fun.

B Title

Quick Facts

• ‘B’ is often confused for the German letter ‘ß’ which actually stands for ‘ss’
•  The Finnish language only uses it in loanwords (words borrowed from another language).

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afeature

23 November 2010

Coffee Break Learning – Things you
didn’t learn about the letter ‘A’ in School


By Luke Hopkins

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We use the alphabet every minute of everyday, usually without even noticing. It’s the backbone of communications for the majority of people worldwide. But how many of you out there know anything more about the alphabet than simply which letters its comprised of and how to use them?

This is the first part of a 26 part series of bite sized articles where I aim to inform you of few things about each letter which you probably didn’t learn in school. I find this stuff really interesting and it’s because of this that I’m writing these articles. I hope you get some value from it too. If you have any questions about any letter feel free to comment and I’ll do my best to answer them for you.

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