Freelance graphic designers spend a major part of their careers creating designs that make businesses more successful. This is a fine art that takes talent, skill and experience and a quality printer to reproduce their work. This may not be simple to do.

Excellent Graphic Designs Deserve Top Quality Printers
Graphic designs are not merely colors, sizes, dimensions and arrangements of audio/visuals for marketing and sales. The best designs may be reproduced with undesirable results unintended by graphic designers. The significance of quality printers to reproduce in precise design specifications is crucial to the satisfaction of business clients.

Quality Printers And How To Find Them
Reproducing designs is a big part of graphic design's final stages. Look for quality printers who specialize in reproduction, color matching, sizing and dimensioning for best effects. These printers will usually not be the type who mass-reproduce from secondary draft designs. A quality printer will have the skills to reproduce from a master design whether in hard or electronic copy format. These printers specialize in this type of reproduction and usually have a list of graphic design clients they work with on a regular basis.

Reliable Quality Printers
The other factor of significance in how to find a quality printer for freelance graphic designers is reliability of their work. The best quality printers are those who can reproduce graphic designs on a regular basis without flaw or error. For the freelance graphic designer, this means timely, cost-effective reproduction time after time.

Resourcing Quality Printers
One of the best ways to locate reliable, reputable quality printers for freelance graphic designers is to rely on associates in your industry for referrals. This helps to discover which printer is a good match for the specific type of designs created. If your work is the highest quality, the printer must also be of highest quality in order to exact maximum results.

Quality Printers Know The Importance Of Graphic Design Reproduction
One clue to which printer offers the best services is their knowledge of graphic design. Once the fields of choices of printers are narrowed down, make direct contact with them to discover their level of graphic design knowledge from the printer's point of view. They will discuss the needs of freelance graphic designers with ease and offer suggestions that may be overlooked by designers in terms of final reproduction. A quality printer will always place great importance on this type of reproduction.

About the Author

Casey Haslem is a professional writer for SmartPress and enjoys hiking, the outdoors and spending time with her family.

 

The Olympic rings are a perennial (or, more accurately, biennial!) of logo design, one of the most recognizable symbols on the planet. In addition to the rings, though, each host city comes up with its own unique logo for their particular games. The 2012 Summer Olympics just concluded in London, and there was a good deal of controversy about their super-modern logo, so as we look forward to Rio 2016, I want to take a moment to examine some of the design choices made by host cities to give their Olympic moment its own special brand.

From 1896 to 1932, there was a transition from mere poster design to implementation of simple, streamlined, modern, distinctive logos. This tendency was finally solidified in the 1960s. The 1964 Tokyo Olympics logo brought a helpful Japanese simplicity, with a big red rising sun above the rings, and it’s fair to say that this bold design set the pattern thereafter. The 60s and 70s logos are “cool” modernist concepts that can leave one a bit cold...from the op-art spiral of the tragic 1972 Munich games to the U.S.-boycotted 1980 Moscow games, whose symbol resembles a militarized version of the Atari logo.

The 1990s logos of Barcelona, Atlanta, and Sydney added a postmodern playfulness that brings out the fun and energy of the games. Logos since then have tended to be abstract, yet recognizably human-oriented and kinetic.

Beijing’s 2008 logo drew on the anthropomorphism of Barcelona’s (bold dashes of primary-color paint suggesting a gymnast) and Sydney’s (which threw in a boomerang shape for local resonance). It resembled a red traditional stamp with a white figure that resembled both a dancer and the Chinese character for “capital.”

The London logo was a stylized magenta representation of the numerals 2012: jagged but also vaguely humanoid. Indeed, some more irreverent commentators soon noted that the shape suggested a silhouette of Lisa Simpson doing something unspeakable to brother Bart. For this and other reasons, many in the (famously self-flagellating) English press considered it a bit of an atrocity. The designers at Wolff Olins certainly deserve credit for being bold, almost confrontational in their choice of color and shape, reminiscent of Italy’s equally controversial “Memphis” design movement.

The logo of the next Summer Olympics, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2016, is the diametrical opposite of London’s. Rather than sharp edges and fierce colors, it is all gentle curves and a cool blue/green/yellow palate offering slight echoes of the country’s flag and its tropical good-time image. The figure clearly indicates a trio (pun intended?) of people holding hands and dancing. In this blogger’s opinion, the 2016 Rio logo sets a great tone for our next global celebration of human movement and togetherness.

[Note: The IOC is infamously protective (litigious) about their trademarks, so it was tricky to find good public-domain sources for all the logos discussed here. If you’re looking for a survey of graphic design from all modern Olympic games, this site seems to have the most useful and comprehensive rundown.]

About the Author
After obtaining her construction management degree, Kristie Lewis decided she wanted to help others better understand the process and industry by writing about it on www.constructionmanagementdegree.org. Feel free to contact her with your questions, comments or concerns at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Today we have a guest post by: Douglas Klostermann. Doug shares his extensive knowledge and tips on creating ebooks with our readers. Enjoy! ~JP

Publish Your E-Book to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Apple iTunes and iBooks for Free

Using the knowledge, tools, and tips I've gained from my experience as a best-selling e-book writer, I explain every step of the e-book process from formatting through marketing, in order to help you publish and sell your e-book as easily and inexpensively as possible.

Why Now is the Time to Join the E-Book Revolution

Statistics about e-books, e-book publishing, and e-readers are being reported and discussed with increasing frequency and the overall conclusion is clear: e-book sales are rising at a dramatic pace.  E-book sales in the United States currently exceed those of the other formats, including hardback and paperback sales, and grew 200% from 2010 to 2011.  Electronic books are now outselling printed books on Amazon.com - hardcover and paperback combined - and the Kindle e-reader is the best-selling product on Amazon.  Apple's iPads are selling by the tens of millions, Android powered tablet sales are increasing, and numerous other companies are developing and selling tablet devices.  There is no better time to join the e-book revolution.

E-books can be read on a PC or Mac, on an e-reader device like a Kindle, Nook, or Sony Reader, on an iPad, Android or other tablet, or even on an iPhone or other smart phone.  The publishing playing field has never been so level for self-published, independent authors.  Your e-books can be up for sale on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Apple iTunes and iBooks at no cost to you.  They will be available on these sites along with all the printed and digital books, with the potential to be found and purchased by anyone shopping and searching online.

With e-books you can publish your books as soon as you complete them, then make changes and additions to your text or descriptions at any time and have the new versions posted and available in minutes or days.  If you have information, knowledge, or a story that others are interested in reading and the skills to write, format, put on sale, and market an e-book, the process is both straightforward and free or very low cost.

This tutorial will cover each step of the process, and is excerpted from my much more comprehensive e-book about creating, formatting, publishing, marketing, and selling e-books called The E-Book Handbook, which goes into further detail about each of these steps.  Learn more about The E-Book Handbook - A Thoroughly Practical Guide to Formatting, Publishing, Marketing, and Selling Your E-Book:
http://www.dojoklo.com/Full_Stop/The_E-Book_Handbook.htm

 

 

Setting Up a Website or Blog

Before or as you start writing your e-book, it is important to begin putting some other elements of your future e-book empire into place, including a blog and/ or website, which are important for creating awareness of your e-book and marketing and selling it directly to potential readers.  I suggest that you spend some time to build this foundation that will be helpful for selling and marketing the e-books you will be putting so much effort into.  When your e-book is finally ready for publication and you are eager to start selling it, you'll be glad that some of the groundwork has already been established.

WordPress is perhaps the most powerful and versatile free blogging platform currently available, and is also easy to set up and use.  You can start a free blog at WordPress.com, but I highly recommend that you use the (also free) WordPress software available at WordPress.org to create and host your blog on your own website.  There are several reasons for this.  Free WordPress.com blogs hosted by WordPress are intended to be personal blogs and are not intended for people who will be using their blog to sell something or to make money.  Right now your blog may not be intended or designed primarily to sell your e-books or to make money but rather to discuss your subject or your thoughts.  But over time the number of posts you write about your own e-books might grow, and your affiliate links to products on sites like Amazon may increase and it may begin to appear that your blog is intended primarily for selling.  So rather than risking having your blog suspended at some point by WordPress, and to give yourself the ability to explore other ways of advertising or earning income through your blog, it is best to host it on your own website.  Plus hosting it on your own site will allow you the options of customizing your blog and using versatile WordPress PlugIns.

The 8th annual TomatoArtFest was the place to be Saturday August 13th. Over 120 vendors filled Woodland street in downtown Nashville TN-- all themed around a single plant: the tomato. From tomato themed jewelry to tomato shaped stress balls and a variety of attendees dressed like the "often misunderstood fruit" you could find a little of everything at the festival-- as long as you liked tomatoes of course.

For me, the highlight of the trip was the tomato art show, boasting the wonders of the art world as it relates to our red little friends.

The following photos are a few of my favorite pieces from the show in a variety of mediums. I hope you find the same amount of inspiration in these pieces as I did-- a little something to refuel your creative juices!

Today we have a guest post from Australian Journalist, Tom Mallet. You can find out more about him at the end of the article.

Enjoy!  -JP

If you look objectively at everything in your home, you’ll notice that quite literally every single object, including the home itself, is a product of design. There are  multiple types of design methods, but the core process is the innovative, problem solving “mental technology” of design. Every type of design from formatting hardcopy booklet printing to the most esoteric software in its vaguest visualization stage is a design process.

Ancient design principles- Still working, tens of thousands of years later

The oldest known designs are an insight into human design at its most practical and most aesthetic points of origin. Ancient humans came up with a range of designs which are indicative of an interesting set of priorities and types of extended logic:

• Tools- Design creators and implements for managing materials
• Jewellery- Aesthetic design ideas like seashell necklaces, the first truly personalized designs
• Rock art- Spiritual and educational materials

These are still core elements of design logic to this day. The most banal everyday item includes functionality and some sort of aesthetic values. Spiritual and educational materials are dressed up and enhanced with tools and aesthetic designs.

The Mechanics of Design

Also harking back to ancient times are some of the physical processes of design and design logic. As every designer in any discipline will find out whether they like it or not, design tools and methods tend to produce new design ideas. Mistakes, random scratchings of basic ideas and even accidents will often contribute to the logic of any design. Designs build on other designs. This has been going on for the whole of human history.

Pottery is a case in point. The ability to create stylized shapes in clay started in prehistory. From that a clear linear process of design leading up to modern ceramic technology is quite obvious. From the design perspective, however, the sheer number of designs based on these original basic techniques and ideas is staggering.

Interestingly, the mechanics of design follow both necessity and visualization, but not necessarily the logic. Recently some old Moorish surgical tools were discovered in Spain. These were good quality surgical instruments, and they were shown to modern surgeons, who recognized most of them, but had no idea what some of the instruments were for. This means, by extrapolation, that either the Moorish surgeons had developed special tools for processes not used today, or they
designed these tools for unknown surgical procedures. In that sense, design is a true logical process, both obvious and tangential depending on a range of practical design issues and the logic associated with them.

The Future of Design

If the past history of design was a growing fire of ideas, logic, aesthetics and techniques, the future is likely to be a hypernova of extrapolations of these fundamental design methods. Never before has humanity had the tools to create so many different associations of these basic elements of design. Technology and education are creating infinite, Mandelbrot- like possibilities for design evolution. The next millennium may well be the “Age of Design”. Even 19th century hardcopy products like business card printing are likely to combine with new technologies to produce 3D-printed smart business cards with their own communications systems.

Somewhere in the world, a basic design for a future icon of technology or art is in progress, every day. The ancient designers and their tools are still at work, even now.

About the Author

Tom Mallet is an Australian freelance writer and journalist. He writes extensively in Australia, Canada, Europe, and the US. He’s published more than 500 articles about various topics, including booklet printing and business card printing.

Looking for good printing down under?

Check out the folks at Dark Horse Printing.
They specialize in booklet printing and business card printing.