This group of floral frames was scanned from a book published in the 1920's. The center content was originally hand scripted advertisements for merchants and services. Jpg's on white - 5 mb - Download

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Here is a selection of our team's past and current clients:

Here are organizations we actively support:

• Big Brothers Big Sisters of America
• International Academy of Visual Arts (Judging Members)
• Multimedia & Entertainment Initiative Region 10 (San Diego)

Additionally, Saxony Creative Group is an approved Federal contractor, and on the approved list of contractors for the State of California.

Hi all. Here are a few quick rules of thumb for a successful small business portfolio site.

These rules never fail.

LOGO AND BRANDING

Respect the logo. Love the logo. Value the logo. It is the cornerpiece of your brand and visual identity, and it should convey everything your company is and will be. Do you want people to see your company as sleek and high-end? Playful and innovative? All of the above? The logo will make or break every first impression.

There are no shortcuts to proper logo design, which in the right hands is a fast, fun, and collaborative process. An idea or cool font is a start, but it’s not enough. Having a skilled designer who can research, develop, and execute the logo properly is fundamental. Let a professional designer (AKA us) guide you through, and you’ll come out looking better than you ever thought possible.

Did you know? The following fonts are universally overused – use them at your own risk: Zapfino, Skia, Comic Sans, Papyrus, Copperplate, Eurostile, Bradley Hand ITC, Curlz NT, Vivaldi, Kristen ITC, Viner Hand ITC, Brush Script…

LAYOUT

Conciseness. It’s an art form. The golden rule is to say as little as you have to, in order to get your point across. And that’s it. Nothing more is needed. Seriously. We mean it. Concise, clean, well-written web copy looks great in design, reads convincingly, and inspires action.

Did you know? You don’t necessarily gain momentum in the search engines by having a lot of content. Search engines are smarter than they used to be. The key is to have relevant content that is specific, easy to read, and contains all of your keywords and main points.

IMAGERY

People don’t read much these days. We’re pleasantly surprised that you have read this far! Compare your images to others in your field, and how they display their work. Chances are, there’s an opportunity to gain a competitive edge. It’s not about the number of images, but how well the images represent your work. Are they shot professionally? Current? These things matter. If you know your images are outdated, chances are that everyone else does too.

Did you know? There are tricks to saving your images properly for web usage. You can avoid issues like image degradation, pixelization, and dithering that are common across poorly designed sites. For best results, check out Photoshop’s Save-For-Web feature.

CONSISTENCY

There is something intensely satisfying, (to us designers, at least), in coming across a site that is consistent in its usage of hierarchy, text treatments, and compositions. When sites look unintentionally different from page to page, or the content is scattered all over, this indicates a lack of control. Clean, organized layouts that are properly executed allow the site user to focus on the message, instead of problems with the delivery.

Did you know? CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) are instrumental in creating text styles and colors that are consistent across a website.

IMPACT

The best approach to websites is to think of them as hotel rooms. You open the door, and right away you know if you’re in a classy establishment, or an economy motel. You make a split second judgement about whether you’ll be comfortable spending time lounging around, or whether you want to check out as soon as possible. The most memorable hotel rooms are the best ones where you’re treated like royalty – you’re extremely likely tell all of your friends about your amazing experience. You also remember the worst ones, and tell all your friends…but for different reasons. The ones in the middle don’t even register. Let’s take this opportunity to create one of the best.

Did you know? Sites are all about value and potential, not bottom-line cost. Some of the most expensive sites ever created are some of the most profitable. That doesn’t mean you always have to spend four times more than everyone else, but it’s worth the extra effort to invest in a site that creates the best impression possible. After all, it is the face of your company.

Until next time…

Like a smoke cloud from my 74 Gremlin, web geeks’ visual and technical opportunities are endlessly expanding. We look to Adobe Flash Player 10 to put the shine on the bumpers while making sure the horn works too. It is a key component to advancing the visual capacities of design on the web. Considering the benefits of better typographic control, new AfterEffects-like special effects, and easy 3D effects, what should we look for on the horizon?

One major concern for designers and developers is; getting your hands on and into the new Adobe Creative Suite 4. Cost may have some web geeks sitting idle for a while. Flash alone costs $699, Creative Suite Web Premium $1699, and Creative Suite 4 Master Collection $2499. Some investment is necessary – and with a release date of Sept 17, 2008 it comes only a year and a half after CS3, the last major upgrade in design programming. Oil & Software: they are always a messy job to maintain.

Another matter is; When will our audience will be ready to roll with us? According to Adobe, AFP9 was adopted by 90% of Internet-enabled desktops in less than nine months from it’s release date. If we expect the same of AFP10, than we should consider now to be a good time to get out the tools and start gearing up for a visual road rage in July 09. This is of course considering the needs of our clients, audiences, etc… We don’t want to be the lead foot who forces users off the road to the detour to the AFP10 download page. And we don’t want to want to wait by the side of the road until AFP11 is released.

Either way, I feel that, like Internet Explorer 6, if the older AFP6-8 sites aren’t redone soon with the newer & better technology that’s available, they will haunt the web like a bad burrito.