these of all really creative new year wallpapers can share to all of your loved ones because these of all latest collection from different beautiful resource, they also have celebration mood with graphical desktop wallpapers. Hope you all will like these and share comments on it.

Happy new year 2011

New Year Coming

2011 New year

Happy New Year 2011

Christmas and New Year Card

NBA Stars 2011 Happy New Year

Wallpaper 2011

Happy New Year 2011 and Happy Christmas

2011 Wallpaper collection

Art Wallpaper Year 2011

Merry X-mas, happy new year 2011

Twenty-Eleven 2011 Wallpack

Happy New Year 2011

Let’s Celebrate New Year 2011

New Year 2011 with Christmas Celebrations

Welcome New Year 2011

Worldwide New Year Celebration

New Year 2011 Tea Party

Happy New Year 2011

Happy New Year 2011

Happy New Year 2011

Happy New Year 2011

Happy New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR

To The New Year

Happy New Year 2011

Happy New Year 2011

Happy New Year 2011

Happy new year 2011

Happy new year 2011

Happy new year 2011

Happy new year 2011

Happy new year 2011

Happy new year 2011 Wallpaper

Happy new year 2011 Wallpaper

Happy new year 2011 Wallpaper

Happy new year 2011 Wallpaper

It is very important to keep your website updated and by personalizing websites on various occasions, you are making the visitor feel special. As a business person, you should pay special attention to your website at the time of Christmas. During holiday season, when you go out for shopping, you can see all the shops decorated with Christmas goods so why treat your website any differently? Remember, this is the best way to attract audience towards your website. If you have a holiday promotion, you can even create marketing brochures which match your festive website appearance.

There are hundreds and thousands of ways to design your website or blog for Christmas. If you are a designer, it should not be that hard for you. Designers are naturally very creative and they can come up with millions of ways to re-design their website for the festive season.

Even minor changes in your website can generate some festive spirits. So, how about giving your blog a Christmassy face-lift and welcome your visitors with festive smile. Following are a few simple tips which can be followed by all web and graphic designers in order to wish merry Christmas to their visitors online:

Christmas Backgrounds

The first and the most important thing in any website is its background. Since it is a festive season, the first thing that you need to change on your website is “The Background”. Once you change the background, it will automatically give a complete new look to the entire website or blog of yours. Finding Christmas backgrounds is never that hard. When Christmas is just around the corner, you can find millions of beautiful Christmas backgrounds to select from.

From simple backgrounds to Christmas trees, from Santa clause to gifts, you can find anything and almost everything related to festive season. Select the one that you think will look the best on your website. It should be cute, friendly and welcoming. Always keep in mind that your background and layout for Christmas season should bring a smile on your visitors face.

Christmas Graphics

Sometimes, small gestures can show a lot. Even tiny, cute animated graphics can bring in a lot of festive mood to your website. The good thing about these graphics is that they will not even take much of your space. Plus, they look way too cute to visitors. You can go for a reindeer, a bell, Christmas tree, red and white socks or any other thing that you relate to Christmas.

As a designer, implementing these ideas would not be a problem for you. People would love to visit your website when they will see all Christmas activities going on. Also, this shows users that your website is running and is being updated every now and then. This way they will trust your website more for any sort of latest information.

Christmas Cursors

One of the smallest and easiest changes to bring a Christmas touch to your website is to change the cursor. Make sure it matches your background and other decors on the website. Your cursor should compliment the whole Christmassy theme. These little changes can do a lot to your website. Christmas is an occasion we all love celebrating and putting an effort to make it special for your visitors by redesigning your website will impress your visitors a lot.

Christmas Song or Stories

In order to make things more special, you can even choose to play your favorite  Christmas song but make sure it goes with the theme of your website. If not song, you can play an instrumental which is related to Christmas. Do not play anything too loud or noisy as this might annoy your visitor. Try to keep things calm and soothing. Apart from songs, you can also create a special tab for Christmas stories. This will give visitors another reason to stay and read interesting stories related to the festive season.

Changing Website Icons

Change all the icons on your website. There is a possibility that most of the icons are plain and simple. You might want to change them into something which is associated with Christmas. For instance, you can go for a snowy RSS icon. This will help you attract more visitors in subscribing to your website or blog. These elegant icons will add Christmas mood to your website. Also, so many cute Christmas icons instead of boring tabs will be loved by visitors.

Website logo – Christmas Logo

Logos are obviously the most important thing in any website. They represent the website and no one would like to change logos at any cost. No, we do not want you to change your website’s logo. The best you can do with the logo is to bring a Christmas feel to it.

For instance, if you have a guy or face as your logo, you can simply make him into a Santa clause. If not that, you can put a Christmas cap on your logo and there you go, a perfect Christmas logo is ready for your website. Remember, you do not have to come up with major changes in order to bring the Christmas feel to your website. Minor changes can be of a lot of help

Snowy Effect

Christmas is always associated with snow and what can be better than a snowy plug in for your website. Snow flakes all over your website will bring the perfect mood of Christmas. Plus, they look absolutely beautiful so, do not forget to give the snowy effect to your website. Your visitors will absolutely love it.

Christmas Gift for your Visitors

As a designer, giving a Christmas gift to your visitors should not be that difficult. The best you can do is, create a web layout and publish it on your website. The visitors should be able to download it for free. This will not only prove to be a great gift, but it will also be a good marketing of your impressive, designing skills.

Christmas Clock/Calendar

What can be better than a festive Christmas countdown clock or a cute calendar? It can guide your visitors for Christmas and New Year too. This addition can be a worthwhile as such clocks and calendars attract a lot of attention.

Added Attractions

Following are a few things which can be added to your website or blog to make it more Christmassy.

1. Christmas tree – There is no way that your website can do without a beautiful Christmas tree. So, make sure you have it on your website and it should be all sparkling.
2. Santa Clause – The presence of Santa clause has to be there.
3. Christmas Balls – Christmas balls are considered to be one of the best gifts during winter season and they look beautiful too. If you can do add a few logos in the shape of Christmas balls.
4. Candles – Candles, Christmas and winters have always been interlinked with each other. Bring some of their association in your web layout as well.
5. Last but not the least; sweets are an importance part of Christmas. Logos related to sweets or cursors, anything will do.

Christmas is a very special occasion and when a visitor visits your website he should feel that it is the holiday season. Make sure you bring in all your creativity to come up with something mesmerizing for your users for this special occasion. Obviously do not make your website or blog too crowded. As a designer, you do know how to use things in a correct way. Best of Luck and Merry Christmas!

Christmas is central to the Christmas and holiday season, and in Christianity marks the beginning of the larger season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days, that’s why we share some really Inspiring wallpapers for your latest gadgets like iPhone, iPhone 4G and iPod, there are unified themes and motivate that remark there celebrations. We all as Team wishing you marry Christmas from all resources which you really like smashingbuzz.com, multyshades.com and dzinepress.com. The day marks the beginning of the larger season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days.

Modern customs of the holiday include gift-giving, Church celebration, and the display of various decoration including the Christmas tree, lights, mistletoe, nativity scenes, and holly. Santa Claus is a popular mythological figure often associated with bringing gifts at Christmas for Children.

Inside The Icicle

The Merry Snowman (Plain)

Christmas Iphone wallpaper

A Cheshire Kitten (Christmas)

The Traveling Christmas Tree

The Fox And The Moon

Who Stole The Moon? Promo

A Christmas Song

Christmas Tree

Where Christmas Gifts Are Born

Where Snowflakes Are Born

Star Trails

Christmas Ice Skating

Christmas Train

Christmas Lights

Christmas – The Beetle in the sky

Santa Flying 2

Santa Flying 1

A Small Gift For Christmas

Siberian Winter

Christmas Volcano

Christmas Wallpapers (iPhone / iPhone 4G / iPod ) by imediacreator

Mix Collection of Beautiful iPhone, iPhone 4G, iPod Wallpapers

A calendar is one of the most important promotional materials that helps deliver business communication all year long. In fact, calendars are more than just a promotional item. Calendar offers as a useful free gift to current and prospective clients and friends alike and also keeps your company at the top of their mind for the whole year. However, the challenge for calendar designers is to conceptualize and design their calendar in such a way that it retains the onlooker’s interest in each page for a longer time and to develop the viewer’s interest in your business. Such is called a call-to-action calendar.

So if you have got an assignment of calendar designing, or planning to design your own company’s calendar to promote your business; keep the following tips in mind in order to design a better calendar for the year 2011.

The Tips

Number of Months per Page

Calendars are of different types, depending upon the number of months per page. Mostly, businesses and organizations prefer 1-month-a-page type of calendar. This enables them to put their message across properly and the message, along with the visual keeps changing every month.

Although, this type of calendar may get expensive, however, it is better to opt for this one and suggest your client on the same. There are other options for calendars too including, 2 months a page, 4 months a page, 6 months a page and even 12 month (the whole year a page). Whichever calendar type you want to adopt, your aim should be to make it as appealing as possible.

Conceptualize a Theme

Every winning communication material requires a rationale, concept or theme behind it. Same goes for the calendar designing. You need to think about certain themes or concepts for the calendar and get one approved from the client (or yourself – in case of your own calendar).

This theme may be in accordance with the general corporate theme of the client company or any other interesting concept that may appeal the target audience of the calendar. I, for instance, gave some concepts for a bank’s calendar that included environment, culture, and music (as indirect themes) and history of money and the bank’s corporate history (as direct themes).

Decide Upon a Message

The concept of theme, about which I have mentioned above, needs to be accompanied, rather strengthened with the help of a message. Once the theme is decided, brainstorm the overall message you want to communicate in your calendar about your client’s product, service, industry or cause.

For example, the theme on environment should have statistical messages on extinct animals and plants or about every conservation etc. Likewise, for cultural theme, the message can be more poetic and for the bank’s history theme, the message can be regarding the different attribute or achievements of the bank.

Images with Quality and Quantity

When designing a calendar, images are of second-most important aspect to be considered (the first most important aspect is the theme). After the concept and message of the calendar is decided, you start searching the right images that blend with the theme and the message. Although it is quite a hectic activity to go step by step and look for best suited images for the messages, however, this hard work reaps you good at the end.

Some design houses or advertising agencies have their own images banks from where they find good images for the design. However, in most cases, either you undergo customized photography or rely on the images available from the internet. Whatever the medium is, you need to make sure that there are enough design, photography or illustration resources for all the pages of calendar and these images should be high-quality and printable according to the size of the calendar.

Make Best Use of the Page Space

As I have mentioned quite a lot of time earlier in this post, that a calendar is not just a page with dates and images, it is more of an opportunity to spread your message out throughout the year. So either you are designing a wall calendar or a table calendar (or even a pocket-size calendar), the message you want to convey should be proper and perfect. Also, there are times when designers find very little space for everything they want to put in a calendar and other times, it happens that designers get a large page space to display all the elements of the calendar.

Here, only the wisest of all designers would know how to compose everything in a way that it makes the best use of the page space, without losing viewer’s interest. Also, put an introductory page at the beginning or end of the calendar describing the business, its attributes and achievements. Take the page space as calendar’s real estate and make best use of it all.

Make the Calendar Your Portfolio

Either you are making your own business’s calendar or designing one for one of your clients, as a designer it is an opportunity for you to make it a call-to-action portfolio. Want to know how? Let me tell you the secret.

If you are making a calendar for your own business or your own brand, turn it into an opportunity to display some of the best works you did in the previous year and display the work one-by-one on each page. Write details about the work (date, company, design rational and its outcome etc.) in the body copy and get it printed well. Then send it to your friends, clients and acquaintances and see the boost in your work gain.

Likewise, if you are designing a calendar for your client, highlight their product or services and the message they want to convey through the calendar in the best way possible. Outsource if you want to, but take it seriously and add the best creative juices into its designing as much as possible. Reason being, when your client will give out this calendar t their contacts and others, it will stay with a number of people all year long and if it will be well designed, people will automatically want the maker of the calendar to work for them as well.

The Date Display

A calendar has its most important part in the date section (basically, that’s what it is for). The pattern and designing of date display should be legible, pleasant and attractive. Although it depends a lot on the size of the calendar, however, you should try to keep the target market in mind and make it as comfortable as possible. I mean seriously, people should not be looking for September the 30th throughout the calendar! Here again, you can make use of the dates to promote your company or business through the dates.

For example, inform the viewers of your company’s scheduled events or promotions in your calendar dates. You can also customize the dates so they specify when events or sales will take place, or print suggestions on your calendars like, ‘visit our website’ or ‘Buy a gift for a loved one’ on holidays like Christmas or Valentine’s Day etc.

Be Keen About the Production Details

After designing the calendar, the most crucial part of the process is the printing and production of the material. Sit with your printer and think about the production techniques that will:

1. Work best with your calendar’s theme or message
2. Make the calendar easy for recipients to use.

Also, research upon how matte paper would go for your calendar design or a glossy one, and different trim sizes will look with your design. Printers also offer different types of binding, such as traditional saddle-stitched or stapled bindings and wire-o or spiral bindings. A spiral binding allows users to hang the calendar on a wall, as does a stapled binding plus a small hole for a thumbtack.

The Crux

When we think of calendar, the usual picture that comes to mind is the traditional paper calendar with squares containing of the days of the month. It’s a gone story, as nowadays calendars are a great marketing tool for yours or your client’s business promotion because once people have them; they serve as a constant reminder inside their homes, offices, shops or wherever they put it.

Focus on these tips and create the best calendar for 2011, and do send me a copy of it!

Working as a freelance graphic designer has its own pros and cons. Some people might think that freelancers do nothing but relax at their homes. This is not the case at all. The problem with being a freelancer is that you do not have to report to anyone, which makes you think that you are responsible for the success or failure of your business.

Since you think the entire responsibility is on your shoulders, you end up working for 12 or more hours. In a case like this, you will end up neglecting your family and yourself and this can result into some serious personal and family issues. Even if you are working on your own, treat your job only as a job. You do not have to work 24/7. You have to take out time for yourself, your family, do something you love. In short you should take out time to re-lax.You can’t spend your entire life designing layouts for flyers and other marketing, rest is essential it will refresh your creative mind.

Following are a few suggestions that will help you keep a work-life balance as a designer.

Your Attitude Towards Job

At times, freelance designers become extreme workaholic. Since they know they have the responsibility, they work 24/7 to finish projects and to meet deadlines. Well, no matter how much you love to design brochures, flyers, post cards and business cards, you should treat it as a ‘job’ and not as the most important thing in your life. You need to realize that there should be a point when you need to turn off the workaholic freelancer and spend some time relaxing with friends and family.

Your attitude towards your job is the most important thing. Appreciating people who work really hard in order to achieve something is great but such an attitude can be really harmful in the long run. Remember a human being eventually needs a break from everything and this everything includes your work as well.

Maintain a Schedule

People who are not working as freelancer have an advantage of following a schedule. They know that they have to sit in office for a few calculated hours, perform their assigned tasks, leave for home and enjoy. As far as a life of freelance graphic designer is concerned, sometimes it can get really disorganized. As a freelance designer, you have to make a schedule and follow it. Make sure you have enough of free time in your hands. Keep your weekends free as you do not have to work on weekends. It is important to give your personal commitments as much importance as you give to your professional commitments.

Learn to say NO

Some people find it really hard to say “No”. The reason could be any but the minute you realize that you have no time for yourself or for your family, you should understand the fact that it’s because you are keeping yourself busier than you should. You have all the rights to refuse any work or even a social commitment if you feel like spending time all by yourself. Remember, in order to survive in this world. It is really important to be selfish.

To-Do List

In order to get organized, a lot of freelancers make a to-do list so they know which tasks need attention. However, sometimes ignoring a to-do list is a relief. Do not make any list for the weekends. You will a lot better if you are just going with the flow. Take things as they come and you will feel a lot better about life. Constant schedules, commitments and work priorities can be really stressful. Keep a weekend for yourself and unwind your thought and enjoy life.

Avoid Unnecessary Activities

In our everyday life, we are performing a lot of tasks and if we evaluate our day, we will realize that some tasks were not even worth the time. So, prioritizing, getting organized and avoiding unnecessary stuff activities is very important. Giving unnecessary favors to clients just because they’ll think you are undependable or you do not want to upset them is very wrong approach. Realize the fact that you cannot keep everyone happy and at times keeping yourself happy is the most important thing.

Revive Your Long Forgotten Hobbies

Don’t you think that after becoming part of this rat race, you have stopped doing what you actually loved? Almost every person who is working comes to a point where he no longer enjoy doing things he used to love doing once. The reason is that he does not have time for all that. If you are going through the same situation, you need to realize that work is not the only important thing. This, in no way means that you should start avoiding your work but try to keep a balance. Take out time for yourself over the weekends and enjoy doing what you used to love doing. For instance, you can do surfing, cooking, painting or anything that will relax you.

Communication Barriers

As a freelancer, I myself have been through such situations where I had no time for family. They had no idea what I was up to and vice versa. Do not indulge yourself so much into work activities that you do not have any time for family. You have to make an effort to tell your family that they will always be your priority. Discuss your new projects and achievements with them. Make them feel a part of your work life too. This way you can remove any sort of communication barriers.

Realize What You Really Want

The reason why most people are opting for freelance graphic designing is that they think it’s convenient. They do not have to report to anyone, they have flexible timing and the best thing is that they do not have to go to office. However, you need to realize that you became a freelancer because you thought it would be less stress. If you are working more then your capacity you are just stressing yourself more.  Organize things in a way so that you can actually live a life that you thought you will have after becoming a freelancer.

Plan a Vacation

Going on a vacation will help you in unwinding and at times it becomes really important. If you were spending really less time with your family, plan a small vacation with them where no work is allowed. At times, work can wait but family should be the utmost priority. Most importantly, a vacation is something that you need in order to freshen up, come back and start working.

Final Thoughts

You really have to be honest yourself while carrying out your freelance design carrier. For some people there is nothing more important than achieving their goals. However, by the time they realize that there were other important things as well, it would be too late. Falling health, a creative block and lost of interest in work are the symptoms of work-life imbalance and require an immediate call-to-action.

Ask yourself if you are really happy as a freelance graphic designer or if you have ignored all the reason due to which you become a freelancer? This is your life, be honest and open to yourself. If you are not happy, you need to follow above mentioned points in order to keep a balance between your professional and personal life.

The main objective of the newsletter is to attract readers and only a well-designed newsletter will draw readers to itself. Your newsletter design is important like the cover design of a book. No matter how perfect the elements of your newsletter are, if your newsletter design is not good enough, almost no one will be attracted to read it. Marketing with newsletters and print postcards is a great way to keep in touch with current customers.

There are different design elements in a newsletter and all work together to give it a distinctive, unified look and help make the newsletter easy to read and full of useful information. Following are some basic essentials of a newsletter that will help first-time newsletter designing as well as a refresher or the veterans.

The Essentials

A newsletter is comprised of different complex segments of text and design. These different segments are called the essentials of newsletter and without theses essentials, the newsletter is termed as incomplete and in comprehensive.

The Title

Everything in the world of communication has a name. This name is the identity and defining factor of that object. As the name says, the title (or nameplate) is the fore-most part of the newsletter design. The title is a compound element that contains not only the name of the newsletter document but also other things directly associated to it. The title is usually found on the front page of the document which is the most significant place in the whole newsletter.

The title doesn’t necessarily have to be at the top of the front page, rather it can also be placed along the side, in the middle or at the bottom of the page. The title is often confused with the masthead which is a total misconception. Being a compound element, the title comprises of the name, the subtitle, the origin of the newsletter and the date. Lets discuss each one of this separately.

Name

the name, as mentioned earlier is the most important part of any document. It basically showcases the whole content of the newsletter and also plays a part in influencing the onlooker to pick it up and read it. One has to be very shrewd while naming the newsletter. I would advise you to have a professional copywriter by your side for the part related to text. ‘Newsletter’ or ‘Update’ is a tired title to go for the name of the newsletter. As your copywriter or do it yourself but think of something else… something intriguing.

Subtitle

The subtitle is there to explain more about the title or the name. It is more like a rationale for the intriguing name of the newsletter. Unlike the title the subtitle is more explanatory rather than creative. For instance, the newsletter Caring Connections has the subtitle ‘News for Child Care Providers’.  Subtitles also help clarify who the target audience of this newsletter is.

Source

It should be perfectly clear where the newsletter is coming from. Who is putting it out and what is the address? Address and subscription information can be saved for the masthead. But always include who is responsible for the newsletter in the nameplate.

Date

Date is another important element of the newsletter design. The date should show as what is the periodical of the document as some authors also like to keep track of volume numbers for ease in binding later. The nameplate should be very carefully done and designed. Also keep the client in the loop throughout the designing process in general and title designing process in particular, to avoid any misunderstanding or mistakes.

The Source

Third most important thing is the origin or source where the newsletter is coming from. The origin says about the company, institute or organization who is putting out the newsletter. It is advised to always include who is responsible for the newsletter in the nameplate.

Masthead

The practice of putting a masthead in your newsletter varied from organization to organization. Some companies do not prefer to place this element in their newsletter, reason being usually the size or content of the newsletter or if newsletter is written and put together by one person. However, ask your client if they want a masthead in their newsletter or not.

If there are several contributors of the content or if the newsletter can only be obtained through subscription, masthead is a ‘must’. It is important to be consistent about the placement of the masthead. Either you put it at the bottom of page two or on the back of a four-page newsletter, always put it in the same place for each issue of your newsletter. A typical masthead includes content like: authors and contributors, address, phone numbers and place of origin of the newsletter, date and volume number, subscription information and information about postal regulations, if needed.

Text

Text is an essential component of newsletter so it is imperative to design it appropriately. With the advent of computer technology, typography has been made easiest in today’s world. However, in case of newsletter designing, it is better to stick with a font similar to what you see in newspapers or magazines. There is a simple advice to those who have word processing capabilities with their computer that by all means use a letter quality printer. Because of its poor readability, it is not suggestive to go for an obvious dot pattern.

Another aspect associated with typography is the division of columns. Make a decision about how many columns there should be in a newsletter page and how wide these columns should be. Designers always have the liberty to choose the column number and width as per their expertise; however, one choice is to have one column go clearly across the page. This kind of style is being used by some well-designed and expensive multi-national newsletters of the world.

Also, remember that the wider the line or sentence, the bigger the typeface has to be, in order to have a clear reading. Also, when it comes to margins, be sure to leave ample margins on both sides as the readers’ eyes do not like to travel far from the margin.

Headlines

The most important element of a newsletter is its headlines. The key to attract your readers in the body copy is the headline. Designers need to keep the headlines larger and bolder in type. In the case of newsletter design you should take example from newspaper headlines. In a newspaper, the most important stories have the biggest headlines so you just need to follow the same style with your newsletter as well.

Departments

Most newsletters have departments. It makes them easier to produce and read. To be effective, the departments need to appear in the same place and have the same format from issue to issue. A department can be as simple as a table of contents boxed to lure readers to turn your pages or a calendar of upcoming dates. An employee newsletter for an oil company has a question-and-answer department appropriately called “The Pipeline.”

Charts and graphs

Charts and graphs can be a way to boil down complicated information, so they are naturals for the quick read format of a newsletter. The secret to doing charts and graphs well is to make them readily understandable. Have all the information right there and not buried in the text so the reader will not have to move back and forth. This can be so confusing that the reader will give up.

Graphics and photographs

Filling up the newsletter with text only makes it boring and dull. However, graphics and photographs can add interest to your newsletter and help draw in the reader. However, that does not mean you should put every photograph you find. The picture you use should communicate and blend in with your message otherwise there is no point in using them.

If you have enough resources and budget than hire a professional photographer to take pictures for you. It is not necessary to go after big photographer you can do it for relatively little money. The impact of good, crisp photographs should not be underestimated as they can do wonders for your newsletter.

Color

Consider two things with color in a newsletter. One is the color of paper in combination with the color of ink. The other is: Should you introduce a second color of ink, also known as spot color? The most readable combination of colors is black ink on white paper. So if you vary from that, stay as close to white with your paper as you can and as close to black with your ink as you can. The darker the paper and the less black the ink, the more you compromise the readability of your newsletter.

Black and white are the best colors to use if you have photographs in your newsletter, too. Looking at blue or green people in photographs can be quite disconcerting. Spot color can add distinction to your newsletter. One other color in addition to black can brighten up its pages. Two colors beyond black can add even more excitement. However, the cost goes up with each additional color.

And unless you are a trained artist, using two colors can be an overwhelming challenge. The ideal combination for most newsletters is black on white with one spot color. The main rule to guide you in using spot color is restraint. The price is the same whether you use a lot of it or a little of it. But it’s best to use only a little.

Some suggested places to use spot color:

• In the nameplate
  Some people have their nameplates printed in quantity using a color. Then they duplicate their newsletter onto those pre-printed sheets with the equipment in their offices. They find this saves money.

• In large initial letters
  One common design technique, popular now, is to make the first letter of an article extra large.

• In pull quotes
  These are short provocative quotes pulled out from the article and set in a slightly larger type. They help break up a long article.

• In bars across the tops of pages.

• In charts and graphs

Don’t use the spot color in your headlines. This would be an example of overuse that takes away from the newsletter’s effectiveness. Putting together a newsletter can be a gratifying experience. Readers like newsletters. They appreciate getting timely information in an easy-to-read manner. Once a routine is established, putting together a newsletter can be done in a relatively short period of time. But like anything, to be done well, a newsletter takes dedication to excellence. With commitment and these tips, you are on your way to making a difference in people’s lives with your newsletter.

The Right Format

The most common newsletter formats are HTML, plain text, and PDF. Depending on the topic of your newsletter and the group of your targeted readers, you should choose the right format. When you want to design a newsletter, it’s essential that you decide on the right format for it. Here’s a complete and very helpful article about how you can discover the perfect newsletter format.

Learn from Your Favorite Newsletters Designs

Why reinvent the wheel from zero when you can learn from others and save yourself a lot of time? There are many great professional looking newsletters out there that have already found the perfect newsletter design templates, and now YOU can learn from them. Simply check out some popular and famous newsletters in your field and pay attention to their layout. When you find a one that looks professional and reader-friendly, simply save it to use it later as a design idea.

Don’t Use Too Much Graphic

The most important part of your newsletter is the valuable content that you provide in it, not your newsletter graphic design. Your content is THE only reason people read your newsletter, right? So even though it’s good to create a nice design by using professional graphics, it’s still important that they don’t distract your readers’ attention from the content.

The first lesson of good newsletter design is to practice the 3Cs:

• Consistency

• Conservation (Clutter-busting)

• Contrast

As with any design, these are not hard and fast rules. There is rarely only one way to do something. But follow these guidelines and you can turn a bad or so-so newsletter design into a more eye-pleasing publication. No newsletter can survive without good content but our aim in the Newsletter Design Clinic is to present your content in an attractive, effective package.

A newsletter doesn’t have to be boring. It can have little surprises pop up. But consistency aids the reader by organizing your words and eliminating distracting clutter. Consistency unifies the many different elements — headlines, text, clip art, photos, captions, short stories, long stories, fillers, etc. — and doesn’t distract the reader from the message.

So what would be inconsistent newsletter design?

• Different margins on each page.

• A different typestyle for every headline.

• Not using the same basic layout on each page or changing the ‘look’ every issue.

• Clip art and graphics that don’t relate to the newsletter contents.

How do you maintain consistency in newsletter design?

• Design around a grid. Grids help keep elements in the same place from page to page.

• Use templates and styles. Templates, like grids, help keep elements in the same place from one newsletter issue to the next.

• Use repeating elements (examples. the same header on each inside page; the same end sign on all articles; the same standing header for all recurring columns).

• Once you’ve found consistency and eliminated clutter, it is contrast that provides the visual interest for your newsletter. The key is to create true contrast not conflict.

• A headline set in the same typeface as the body text has no contrast. Make the headline 2 points larger and it just looks timid – not sure if it’s a headline or not. Make it bold, make it double the point size of the body text, change the type style, and you have contrast. Now it looks like a headline. Now it grabs your attention, says read me, and entices you to read the rest of the story.

The Final Words…

Coming with a professional newsletter is indeed a gratifying experience. Readers not only like to read newsletters but they also give feedback from time to time. Information packed in a professional and easily readable manner always scores well among masses.
However, the only rule which applies here is the dedication to excel. I am pretty sure that with the help of these tips and your commitment, you can carve your way to make a difference in people’s lives with your newsletter design.

There are few things which can either make or break your website. The utmost importance is obviously given to the designing of the website or the content of the website. The thing that most of the designers tend to ignore is the color scheme of their website or the one they are producing for their client. Color scheme is one of the most important things in a website. The color scheme is sure to reflect your brand’s identity and not only that a perfect color scheme will make your visitor stay and a mismatch color will make your visitor leave.

It happens all the time that you visit a website and it consists of a perfect content and design but still there is something which is not quite right. That something is the color scheme of the website. A designer should always be very careful while selecting colors for the website because if you get a vibe that color scheme is a bit off, you should change it as soon as you can. If you can get it, your visitor too can get it. Remember, your color scheme will make or break the impression of your website.

Selecting a perfect color scheme can be very frustrating at times. You have to spend hours and hours to come up with the perfect tone of red or blue or hues of green and white. The biggest worry of every designer is whether they have selected the right color combination or not. You have to focus on other elements as well while selecting the colors and later on you have to adjust, correct and balance the colors to bring out the best of your color scheme. This procedure requires a lot of attention and in the end if you do no get it right it gets more frustrating.

Following are a few points that might help you with understanding colors and coming up with right color schemes:

Harmony

The most important thing about colors is that they should be pleasing to the eye. You should not close your eyes right after opening a website because the brightness was too much for your eyes. Just like the musical chords, everything needs to be in sync when it comes to color schemes.

A color symbolizes various things and everyone related something to some color. For instance, white colors is symbolized as peace, blue color is for sad, green is for envy and obviously red represents anger. Understanding the color psychology is very important. While designing a website you need to keep in mind the color of your product and the color scheme should represent your product.

• Non-harmonious colors:

There are many colors which will never compliment each other. For instance if you make a combination of blue, green and red, you have created a disastrous color scheme.

• Harmonious Colors

If you combine blue, pink and green you can come up with a very good color scheme. Make sure you try to come up with a new color scheme every time. Do not use that typical red, yellow and blue color scheme. People have seen too much of it.

What Color Schemes To Choose?

Well, no one can ever actually explain what sort of color schemes should be selected for all websites. Obviously, every website is representing a different thing. In such cases, designers need to use their common sense. For instance, if you are designing a children’s website, you need to use bright colors so that it looks fresh and welcoming.

Understanding Color and Their Connotations

Before coming up with any color scheme, you need to understand colors and their connotations so that you can actually use the right color. You need to understand which color represents what and this help you in getting the right color combination for sure.

Do Not Get Frustrated

Choosing a color scheme is a time taking procedure and we all have our good days and bad days. People with excellent color combination skills are unable to come up with perfect combination’s so it’s okay if you are unable to come up with something even after trying for a very long time. You need to take a break, clear your mind and then start working on the color scheme with a fresh mind. You can also visit different websites in such cases. There are various websites which implements great color schemes so you can always get a hint.

Website Color Scheme Tools

Internet and software have made our lives quite easier haven’t they? If you are having a bad day and you are simply unable to come up with a harmonious color scheme, you can download various softwares which are specially meant for this purpose. These softwares have features for increasing and decreasing light and saturation values and you can eventually come up with a perfect color combination with the help of these softwares.

Designer’s Intuition

As a designer, we all have our intuitions. While designing a website, a designer can think of colors to use a website without making a special effort. It is quite natural fro designers to come up with color schemes which will work perfect for a website. You can use dull colors for a pre school website and you cannot use extreme bright colors for a website designed for NGO. So, sometimes choose a color scheme by trusting your intuition and you will come up with something excellent for sure.

Emphasizing Important Sections of a Website

As a designer, it is your duty to select colors in a way so that you can direct visitor’s attention towards the important aspects of a website. So, while selecting a color scheme, use eye catching colors for the important parts of the website and subtle colors for the rest of the website. For instance, use the exciting red color for any call-to-action you use in the web. If the color scheme is not pleasing to your eye, it’s probably not pleasing to the visitor’s eye too. Never compromise on color schemes until you think they look perfect.

Background Color and Text Color

The color of the background of the website and the text color are very important. Make sure that the text color is good enough to have a good combination with the color in the background. It should be easy for the readers to read it and if they have to put in a little effort to read it, you have probably not come up with a good color scheme.

Consistency of Colors on Entire Website

Consistency of colors is very important. Using different color schemes on every page of a website is a Big NO. A user needs to realize that he is on the same website and with constant changing colors; you will confuse your visitor which is not a very good sign. A consistency and harmonized look will keep the visitor stay.

Understand the Basics of the Color Theory

Color theory is a set of principles and if followed you can never go wrong with color combination’s. If you take a look at the color wheel, always remember that two colors opposite of each other are perfectly harmonious. You need to be aware of other basic principle in order to come up with good color combination’s.

Selecting color scheme is always fun and pretty difficult at the same time. As we are surrounded by colors all the time and as a designer and creative person, you can find great color combination’s in the natures around you and get inspired!

I am a design explorer, i.e. I am a designer as well as an explorer. Exploring the world of designs, the new technologies and especially exploring the Internet for newer design websites is my hobby. This hobby helps me a lot in my career and makes designing easier for me day by day. One fine day while I was on a design exploration on the Internet, I came across this magnificent website that excited me to the core.

The website I am talking about is Icons Land – a whole new island of wonderful icons. The much I kept exploring this web, the more it proved to me that this is ‘the one’ I had always been looking for. It was like I discovered a new island with bundles of icon treasure in it. Let me tell you all about it so that my designer fellows who are reading this blog may be able to add value to their web designs with these icons.

About Icons Land

Icons Land is an ‘icon design studio’ maintained by a group of professional designers, specialized in icon designing. The icons being provided by Icons Land are a mouth-piece of the quality, variety, finesse and defined perfection maintained by the website for all its icons. The management of Icons Land not only produces trendy icons for your disposal but also keep innovation and creativity alongside.

All the icons you will find at Icons Land are in 3D format with luscious shine and glossy finish, so that they catch the eye of the viewer instantly. Also, the icons are royalty free, which makes them even more favorable to be used more frequently by the web designers.
There are different types of icons being offered by Icons Land. All these icons are Vista-style and are made to dazzle from the viewer’s as well as your client’s point of view. Following are some common types of icons available on Icons Land:

Stock Icons

There are a good number of defined and interesting icons in the Stock Icons category of Icons Land. All these icons are perfect in terms of color and style and are well-researched.

Vector Icons

Icons Land seeks the convenience of all types of designers and every kind of design medium, and so there is a huge collection of vector icons. The most beneficial feature of theses vector icons is that apart from being fine in color and composition, you can make them as large or as small as you can. This allows you to put these icons in any available space with no fear of getting blur by maximizing or less defined at minimizing.

Emoticons (or Avatars)

Emoticons are the in-thing when the web designers are making applications like Instant Messaging or Email applications. Catering to it, Icons Land has a vast assembling of emoticons and avatars which are truly unique and equally interesting. Name any emotion or avatar in the world and you can find it Icons Land easily. If you want to make your web designing experience more enjoyable, economical and interesting, then sit back and relax and let Icons Land do the icon job for you!

Whether you spent time designing club flyers or are invoicing for time spent updating a logo, be sure to provide details of how you used your time.

Selection of Invoicing Software

First thing fists, and in this case the first thing is choosing right software for invoicing. There are plenty of online invoicing applications available that have been created for designers and freelancers. It is always advisable to use either an online application or software to handle your invoicing. It will allow you to save time and to have better organization over your invoices, as compared to using a manual system or spreadsheets.

Once you decide to go for invoicing software you should then be able to find an application or software that includes all of the features that you need, and ideally, not a lot of those that you don’t need. The variety of online applications comes with wide range of prices which varies because of number of features. Also, you can avoid monthly or yearly fee of online applications and can purchase invoicing software for a one-time fee and manage an unlimited number of invoices and clients.

Chalk Out Your Rules

As mentioned earlier, the good thing about working is to get paid however the best is to be paid on time. Getting delayed payments is quite usual and every now and then most designers have to deal with late payments, or even no payments. You should be prepared and set some policies for how you will handle your invoicing and payments.
Following things can be helpful in determining your payment policy:

• Determine your advance fee

• Number of days you need to complete the task

• What is going to be the late fee which you will charge for late payments?

• Will you provide completed files or work before or after final payment is received?

• What should be the mode of payment?

Of course, there will be situations when you’ll want to make some adjustments or exceptions to your policies, but it’s a good idea to establish the policies in the first place and then deal with exceptions as needed.

No need for Surprises

It is always better to let your clients make aware of your policies and they should know when they will be invoiced for your services. It is not advisable to surprise your client with invoicing date, amount charged for your task or taking long to complete the task. It can delay your payments as well clients feel reluctant for further business, so it is better to inform about your policies before taking up the task to avoid any distasteful business relationship.

Don’t Forget your Contact Info

It is more professional way to present your invoice having your name (or your company’s name), address, and preferably your email and phone number. It is likely that client you are dealing with works procedurally and there will be number of different people that handle the invoice before it gets paid. If it gets passed to an accounts payable department and they have some question about the invoice, it should be easy for them to get in touch with you. It will help you to avoid unnecessary delay in payment. Moreover, it is possible that your clients need your contact information on invoices for legal or record keeping purposes.

Organize Your Invoices

Designers send out invoices on a frequent basis. It doesn’t take long before it becomes difficult to track them without having a system for numbering. Most online application and software include this option by default or allow you to customize the invoice numbers. Numbering your invoices will allow you to easily record payments accurately as they are received, will help for tracking down late payments, and it will make it easier on your clients’ record keeping as well.

Prepare Detailed Invoice

You should not assume that your client will know this on his own that how did you charge him. Either it was a brochure, flyer, post card or business card, very invoice should state what the charges are for and what services have been performed for the client. It will help both client and designer. It will be helpful for clients to avoid confusion over what has been done, what they are being billed for, and what they have already paid for. If you are doing on-going projects for a specific client then it will really help him to distinguish the completed tasks and amount paid.

Designers can help themselves by preparing detailed invoice because it will benefit them in keeping record of payments and delivered tasks.

Work with Dates

It is common practice to avoid writing important dates on invoices. It leads to confusion and payment delays. Designers should include a due date for when payment is expected. Without a due date it can be difficult to assess any late fees or to establish that a client has not paid on time. Due dates are helpful even for your clients that always pay on time, as it can help them to know what you expect and when they will need to process the payment.

Mode of Payment

One of the most important thing about invoicing your client is not only to inform him how much does he owe you, what services they are being charged for, and when they need to pay, but also that how can they make a payment. Designers tend not to settle this before the task which results inappropriate mode of payment. It causes confusion for client to re-pay and for you to get payment on time. Designers must include the mode of payment on their invoices. Some designers prefer to receive checks, while others accept online credit card payments.

Attach Invoice

Designers send their invoices by email rather than post mail or fax, and this is a good practice as far saving the papers is concerned. The easiest way for clients to receive and view an invoice sent by email is a PDF attachment.

Send it to the Right Person

In order to receive your payment on time you cannot afford to send it to a wrong person. Before sending an invoice to a client, be sure that you know who should be receiving the invoice. This kind of problem arises if your client is not a small business, sending the invoice to the wrong person can slow down the process and increase the chances of the invoice being lost or ignored.

Received Payments Data

Do not forget that sending out invoices is really just the start of the process. You need to make sure that you have all the required record keeping applications in your software. It will help you to recognize who has sent you the payment and who did not. If you fail to record payments accurately you’ll waste time trying to identify unpaid invoices.

Follow Up

It is a difficult task to receive the money at right time. It is possible that your invoices reach their due dates and still no payments received from client then take a moment to follow up with the client, remind them, and see if payment is on the way or if there are any problems. As said earlier, it is a good practice to have some sort of policy for handling collections of late payments, and follow up will probably always be a part of the process. A gentle nudge or the possibility of a late fee will be enough encouragement.

Don’t be Wrong about Figures

In most cases designers do not get the fixed money in advance. Client likes to pay minimum before starting the task. In such circumstance, it is your responsibility to let him know on your invoice by the end of the task that how much he paid you and what has left. Doing so can help to avoid potential confusion and disputes that could lead to difficulty in collecting payments, plus clear communication is always a positive.

The aforementioned tips are beneficial for freelance designers and small business owners who like to work from home but do not like to receive late payments. It is always best practice to keep in touch with your client at the time of any confusion and be at good terms with him that’s the only way for setting a long term business relationship.

From a graphic designer’s point of view there isn’t a more enjoyable holiday for graphic designers than Halloween. Halloween is a holiday that many businesses take advantage of for marketing purposes and Graphic Designers can take find many free resources for Halloween projects. When it comes to designing marketing material life brochures, posters, flyers, postcards and even business cards, all the legends, stories, traditions and history of the Halloween season come together to offer endless design possibilities. Halloween themed graphics like these can be used on printed party flyers and even printed tickets to be handed out before an event.

Whether you are looking for graphic ideas for ideas for a client or a freelance designer who seeks self-promotional marketing material for yourself, Halloween provides lots of opportunities of creativity and design variation. Halloween festival offers a lot of traditional fun you can look into and make use of when designing yours or your clients’ marketing material. This popular holiday opens up new avenues of design techniques for reaching your customers and beating out the competition. The following are a few tips to raise your creativity and scare your competitors out this Halloween:

Basic Theme

For any campaign or marketing material, a particular theme or concept is the most basic requirement. Similar is the case with Halloween graphic designing. As a graphic designer, you are responsible to set the tone of your clients’ promotional materials as the first step towards proper designing. Map out some copy and concept and accurately represent them through images that cater to your particular audience and evoke the required emotions.

Halloween offers a bundle of traditional themes that can go you’re your concept. For instance, when promoting a competition, use a tombstone or a wicked werewolf. Similarly, when advertising a special sale, add ‘Trick or treat!’ in it. You can also experiment with more localized themes for your much limited target audience in amplify its impact.

Color Combination

No matter what your theme is, colors are the inevitable important elements of graphic designing. Every traditional element of Halloween festival is accompanied by its particular colors. Black cats, orange jack-o’-lanterns, nutmeg pumpkin pie, green monsters, and white ghosts. The possibilities are numerous when it comes to color schemes in Halloween design.

The most common colors associated with Halloween festival are black and orange – the type of color combination that easily captures onlooker’s attention. So you can easily incorporate these eye-catching colors onto the marketing material you design for your client. There are some other colors you can use to add spice to your designs like White for a ghostly theme; Green skinned monsters lurking in shadows; Brown, Red, and Yellow for a harvest theme; or even Purple for spiders and witches. For a more professional and strictly corporate approach, you can use your client company’s corporate colors in the icons or figures or even in the background.

Fonts and Typography

Another important element of graphic design themes is the font or typography. Like all other marketing communication, Halloween graphic designing calls for special Halloween fonts and typography. Catering to special design needs of Halloween festival, there are a remarkably large number of fonts dedicated to it.

Halloween is a relatively short season but as so many people celebrate it all around the world and because the graphic theme tickles the palette of so many designers out there, there is a whole genre of fonts dedicated to Halloween festival.  Even designing Halloween fonts is great fun.

Don’t get stuck with limited use of fonts in your design ideas. Basically what usually happens as an immediate thought with fonts is that they can only be used in headings and written text. Strong fonts, however, can be used in more graphic ways without needing to represent real words or text. A good example of such a use is to form a background to an image that could include lots of overlapping words of different tones that blend together to give the impression of an interesting texture without the text being legible.

If you are short of time or resources, need not worry because you can easily find great Halloween fonts from almost everywhere on the Internet, and a huge number of these fonts are absolutely free. However, it is up to you and your aesthetic skills that you pick and place the best fonts from the rest.

Consistency in Style

The style of your Halloween-based marketing communication should have a particular style to it. Keep consistency throughout the communication you design for yourself or your client. The tone that you set in your marketing materials needs to be in the spirit of the holiday and should convey the same message at every communication medium i.e. website, printed material, and electronic medium etc.

Symbolism

Halloween festival has special symbolism associated to it. The festival gives you a unique opportunity to be a part of a season being celebrated at a mass level. Make use of the unique symbolism of Halloween tradition and incorporate ghostly legends into your communication materials to encourage customers to flip through the pages. Also, Halloween is celebrated in almost everywhere and different areas of the world have their own myths and legends which are a part of their particular culture.

Graphic designers can localize their Halloween themes by using the particular legends and mythical creatures of their areas as a theme for your Halloween promotional materials and advertisements. This is a wiser approach to connect with the local public and making the most from your Halloween communication.

Figures and Icons

When one thinks about Halloween, one thing that comes in our mind are the great number of figures and icons associated to it. When it comes to Halloween graphic designing, there is no shortage of shapes and icons you can use in yours or your client’s communication material. From witches, pumpkins, monsters, goblin, ghost and vampires under the moon to special Halloween candies, legends and historical traditions, there is always something you can find for designing.

As mentioned earlier, if you are indulged in local-level Halloween designing, then it is better to use the local legends and mythical creatures. Using local Halloween figures will enable you to develop a better understanding of your communication among the masses and your audience will be in a better position to relate to it.

Similarly, the icons that represent Halloween are endless i.e. witches, ghosts, werewolves, scare-crows, jack-o-lanterns, any creepy crawly insect, and harvest vegetables. These icons can also be used for different backgrounds of your design. As a food for thought, try half moons, cats, pointed hats and other shapes in varying shades and hues for a layered effect. No matter what you use, make sure you blend your shapes and icons into the message.

The Crux

All year long, there are many occasions and holidays marked in the calendar that inspire various marketing campaigns for a wide range of businesses. Halloween, however, is a unique occasion. Business and companies all around the world seek many advantages this holiday to give their regular marketing materials a seasonal boost and keep their business out of the graveyard.
For graphic designers, both freelance and working in design houses, Halloween bring many opportunities to showcase their talent and creativity.

However, my fellow designers should keep in mind that when it comes to Halloween graphics, originality is the key. There is an avalanche of competitors out there. So keeping it impressive and original is inevitable for your design’s success. Also, there is a vast opportunity to create innovative designs. So, all you designers out there go out this Halloween with ghastly or autumn graphic designs for your marketing campaign.