I had the pleasure of returning to the Critical Thinking in the Real World show, hosted by Janet Hinz. We discussed "Not Leaving Leads At The Door" and under/over doing your website. Other highlights include Social Media and Blog importance. Check it out!

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE SHOW, FEATURING SAVOIR FAIRE MEDIA OWNER NATALIE LAMBERT.

In case you missed it, Savoir Faire Media recently partnered with EmailDirect to offer the best in email marketing and management, including the use of third party lists, fantastic filtering for targeted recipients and my personal favorite...the ability to automatically purge emails on certain parameters such as an event date, etc. 

Watch and listen to the webinar in case you missed it and if you are interested in setting up an account with EmailDirect, for virtually the same as the "other guys" but with third party email capability and 10 times the features - contact us to begin the process.

Did I mention you would have a personal account rep assigned to your account who reviews your account weekly and offers suggestions for improvement.

Set up costs?  A fully designed stunning email template, and full account set up for only $100!

Let's get going!

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN/WATCH THE WEBINAR!

Below are some examples of templates, please contact us to see additional templates or to inquire about a customized and fully developed unique design.

Creativity sometimes strikes when you combine a couple of ideas. For example, you may decide on creating a logo for a security company. For this business category you probably would want to convey trust, strength and reliability. This can be accomplished by choosing appropriate subject matter and using style, colors, weight, balance and shapes. The idea could be a bear with strong angular or masculine shapes and bold, dark colors combined with a sturdy font to finish it off.

Reproducibility.  It's extremely important that Logos are created with versatility in mind. As the main component of a company's corporate identity, the logo acts as the cornerstone of your visual brand. Logos may be printed on anything like small business cards and pens to extremely large billboards and signage. They need to work well using traditional print methods like offset lithography and screen printing for T-Shirts, as well as other things like rubber stamps, stickers and embroidered golf shirts. Of course, it must also look good on screen for use on websites and other media. The white spaces between shapes should be consistent and not too close together or they may fill in causing a loss in the definition of objects.

Gradients should be used selectively, creatively, and only when they enhance the design. (Define gradient) At one end, if tints are too light, they can disappear when printed and only show up as white. Conversely, dark tints can fill in to solids causing the logo to look muddy and unclear which can happen easily when printed in a newspaper. Also, gradients may not work with some reproduction processes.

It's easy to get carried away with design by adding tons of fun and interesting things but the bottom line is it has to reproduce really, really well. In the end, ask yourself, "Does this help or hinder my design?" If the logo communicates the intended message just as well (or better) without it, take it out.

Over the next few weeks, we will be doing a series on starting a business, developing your brand, and launching succesfully. We hope you enjoy our first entry!

Part I - What’s in a name? 5 important rules for choosing a business name.

• A winning business name has to be memorable – but easy to spell. Unique is good but difficult spellings or pronunciations are a bad idea. A quick reminder here to remember to research any name you would like to use to help avoid any potential copyright or trademark issues. A quick search on the internet should help you along the way.

• A winning business name needs a visual element. Generally we are hard-wired to “see” images when we read or hear language, and incorporating a visual element into your business name can be a powerful aid to customers’ memory (and a powerful advertising tool). So you want your business name to have a strong visual element to it. The catch is that...

• A winning business name has to have positive connotation. Many words have both denotation (literal meaning) and connotation (emotional meaning). A word’s connotation can be positive, neutral or negative, depending on the emotional associations that people generally make. The classic example is the difference between “Mom” (which has a very positive connotation) and “Mother” (which has a neutral connotation). So a winning name would be “Mom’s” cookies, rather than “Mother’s”!  When you create a business name, you need to choose words that have the positive, suitable connotations that you want people to associate with your business. If you are starting a trucking business, for instance, you don’t want it to have a weak sounding or negative name, such as “Willow Twig Trucking” or “Kitten Transport”. You want a business name that conveys strength and reliability. A choice such as “Stone Creek Trucking” would be much better. All these names have a strong visual element.

• A winning business name needs to include information about what your business does.

You need to be sure that your new business name at least gives your potential customers or clients some clues about what you actually do. That’s why you see so many landscaping businesses that have the word “landscaping” in their name, and hair styling businesses that include words such as “salon” or even “hair designs” in their names.

Including information about what your business does in your name also makes it easier for potential customers and/or clients to find your business in phone books and directories (both off and online).

And a last tip about names: think about colors when you’re choosing a business name. Colors will be an important component of your business logo and other business promotion materials and your business web site. But colors have strong emotional associations, too. Red, for instance, is an aggressive color; its fiery elements are associated with speed, excitement and passion while green is a calming color associated with growth, renewal and nature.

References: Istockphoto, About.com

Boy, last week was a rough week! Natalie L. lost her external hard drive that had at least 3 months worth of files on it which means a lot of recreation in our future!  Even the best laid plans fail, and since we have gone to a virtual backup and restoral solution for files.  We wanted to share our research and PC Magazine's picks for the best of the best!

For Savoir Faire Media - having designers across the country, the ability to retreive files from remote locations was key.  While external drives are still reliable, physical hardware leaves you vulnerable and online storage in data centers with replication and automatic software updates is the way to go. 

READ THE ROUND UP OF BACK UP SOLUTION REVIEWS BY PC MAGAZINE

Click for example ~ OWAH Productions

We care about our clients and when you asked - we listened! (As all good businesses do!) We now offer three visually appealling and affordable FLASH-Lite packages.  FLASH, FLASH+Social Media Redux+Business Marketing and more, and our Flash-e Commerce solution.  Done within 30 days from deposit and receipt of content, what are you waiting for? Give that tired website an entirely new look and feel today! We're the cat's meow, haven't you heard?

Let's Get Started - View Packages!

This is Natalie L's ideal office! I am there with colors, floors and windows - just need to upgrade some furniture stat!

I was inspired to gather this info today for all of you fellow home office peeps! I truly and honestly believe that a good work setting can inspire creativity, relax you, and make you happier overall. But don't forget comfort. My fellow workaholics, a good chair, mouse pad, and other things are vital to long term body health. So, take a quick read from our friends at www.homeofficebuddy.com and get busy in setting up your work haven asap!

Why do you need to evaluate and remediate your home office? Simply because you're going to be spending a lot of your day there and it's really important to plan your working environment and design a home office that works for you and with you. There ain't nothing worse than working in an office that you hate. You probably had to work in a crummy office in your 9 - 5 but why put yourself through it when you can design your own perfect work space? Your home office space should be truly all about YOU. It can be whatever you can imagine.

My guess as to what Shellie's home office dream would be maybe! (But with way more monitors and a view of the ocean!)

Simply putting a desk and a chair in the corner of a room and planting yourself in front of a computer isn't any way to work. If you're going to take your own business seriously then you need to take your home office seriously too - especially if you might have clients visiting your office at any stage.

Most people setting up their first home office take very little time to consider the fact that how they plan and setup their office might affect their business. Setting up a home office is not something to be taken lightly or just taken for granted. It's your business premises and needs to be designed and laid out professionally - regardless of whether or not people will actually visit it. You're going to be working in this environment for several hours each day so make it the best it can be.

My vision for Natalie B's home office. Transitional and comfortable but feminine. :o)

Get information on office chairs, computer desks for a home office, computer systems and peripherals, office ergonomics, office design and decoration, software tips and reviews and lots of other home office design ideas.

Read more articles on setting up your home office published on this site and while you're at it why not read the articles here on the best possible locations for a home office?  Or read Microsoft's vision of home office bliss, and About.com's sage design advice for teleworkers,

Browse on over to HGTV.com's Gallery of Before and After Home Office Make-overs!

We have searched high and low for the best, most feature robust and affordable calendars to embed in our site, and yours!  And low and behold - the perfect world does exist!!!  Introducing www.30boxes.com!   For non-techie users, simply create a free account and copy and paste the embed code into your website as a widget.  It has the best social networking, sharing and connection tools out there - use it for personal and/or business and manage your life even without embedding it!  Add notes to events and more!

For a more customized version, including skins to match your website identity and unleashing the inner feature beast, contact the gals of Savoir Faire Media to pimp your calendar to it's full potential!!

CLICK HERE TO SEE A SAMPLE [FULL SIZE, NON-EMBEDDED] CALENDAR

Welcome to our new retro modern fabulous website! Those that have been long time followers may have seen at least three iterations of our site, from stripes to squares and back again - but what has always been consistent is our love for using Virtuals and Retro.  FINALLY, after 38 draft revisions for style and colors (but hey, whose counting?), we have developed a palette that is warm and not overpowering, with new Virtuals hot off the press to represent the design divas of SFM. The new site is chocked-full of new and interesting content, offerings, and pages.  While we love the Design Gallery, our new favs are Causes and Blogs We Love.

We are going to be posting until our fingers hurt about free widgets and tools to enhance your website ; marketing tips and articles of note; and of course - banter about all things ReTrO!  Subscribe here, it just takes a second!

You may be asking why the beloved Mater is our feature picture for this entry...the first answer is that we LOVE Mater at SFM. I mean, literally we have entire conversations using Mater-eze slang, expressions and accents.  "Ain't no need to watch where I'm goin'; just need to know where I've been."  (Do you see how wise he is?! lol)  Inspired by a 1951 International Harvester tow truck, Mater bears more of a resemblance to a 1955-56 Chevrolet or GMC, and was a staple of our favorite era.  Anyway, back on topic...

In honor of our relaunch, we are giving away a $100 Gift Certificate to Restaurant.com on May 15th!!

To enter is so easy!  You simply have to find the picture of Mater hidden somewhere on our site, and submit his location on our Contact Form!  That's it! Each month we will be doing a giveaway to find Mater, and you can win great prizes and cool swag!

In addition to Mater's coordinates, feel free to post "Love It or Hate It" feedback with any suggestions for improvement using the same form. We want to hear what you think!

XOXO,

'The Natalies' and Shellie  

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