Free Fonts stacks give you freedom

You want to use Gill Sans? Go right ahead. Nothing should stop you. Font stacks are prioritized lists of fonts, defined in the CSS font-family attribute, that the browser will cycle through until it finds a font that is installed on the user’s system. This means that you can use Gill Sans, and if your users don’t have it, you can give them an adequate substitute that will not diminish their experience. As Illustrations Unlimited, there are quite arrays of typefaces that may be sitting on your user’s machine ready to serve your design needs.

Unfortunately, common web practices and/or technologies are not fully utilizing this functionality. There seems to be a lack of consideration for the process of creating these stacks. For example, Dreamweaver’s defaults look like so:

• Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif
• Courier New, Courier, moonscapes
• Times New Roman, Times, serif
• Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif
• Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif
• Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif

As you can see, there are not a whole lot of options, and the substitutes are often not appropriate. This is an example of how lax typographic standards on the web are leading to poor design decision making. I am not going to speculate, here, as to whose fault it is that typography on the web leaves much to be desired… there are probably as many culprits as there are offenses. I will say, though, that font stack are ultimately design factors, and should be scrutinized as such.

Free Fonts family: Ideal, Alternative, Common, Generic;

1. Ideal - Your selection need not be bound by what is considered universally “web safe”. There are many more fonts that have a fairly high market penetration that you can choose from. Just don’t pick anything too obscure, or you will be the only one seeing it.
2. Alternative - When selecting headline and title fonts, remember that the nuances will be more noticeable, and therefore you need to select an alternative that is closer in spirit than size or relative value. To find a spiritual cousin, you may want to look within the same type classification, or look for something created by the same type designer. Mainly, look for similarities in the letter forms.
3. Common - At this point, you just need something similar that is not going to break your layout.
4. Generic - Cap it off with the generic classification, for those zealots that don’t believe in installing fonts.
5. I did deliberately leave out some fonts, cough Comic Sans cough, because I do not particularly see the use in them, and I don’t believe that these examples will solve every typographic purpose, but hopefully it’s a start. Feel free to apply the above rules and create some stacks of your own.
6. If you’re interested in a more comprehensive comparison, download the pdf [13.1 mb]. In it, you will find examples of titles and copy, set in the different font stacks.
7. Now, font stacks help us open up a few more typographic options to create a more engaging online communication, but how do we choose which specific face to use? And which of these web safe fonts will work as a good compliment? More on that in my next post.

Animated Effects in Joss Whedon's Serenity

After a long and grueling weekend of moving, I decided to treat myself to a film last night; namely, Joss Whedon's Serenity, the film to cap the series Firefly that has gathered a fan base large enough that it can almost be labeled a cult following (perhaps I only avoid that label so I don't, as a fan, have to call myself a cultist). First and foremost I have to say that I immensely enjoyed it; it was a fast-paced, adrenaline-pumping tale rich with both visual effects and storyline twists that held my interest through both somber plot intricacies and the quirky turns of off-the-wall humor that began with Firefly.

While I would love to indulge my inner fanboy and write a novel's worth of enthusiastic commentary that would probably only make sense to other Firefly geeks, the real purpose for this article is to discuss the movie's visual effects and how they're used. Some time ago I wrote about Robots as a perfect example of the wrong way to use computer Flash Animations to tell a story; while Robots and Serenity can't truly be compared fairly considering that one is a children's full-length animated film and the other is a young-adult-and-older oriented live-action film, one can still place them upon a spectrum denoting the effectiveness of visual effects in the storyline--and they stand at entirely opposing ends of that spectrum.

There are many parts of Serenity that are, in fact, entirely virtual. Outer space scenes; scenes involving large futuristic cities, space stations, and colossal galaxy-spanning ships. Zoic Studios used Light Wave 3D for these scenes and many other effects in the Firefly series, and brought the same look and feel from the series to the movie. The graphics themselves are stunning--realistic without losing a cinematic science-fiction feel, that touch of fantasy that makes suspension of disbelief so much easier. But what makes them truly wondrous is how easily the computer animation integrates with the live action; for example, in several instances in the film, the crew of Serenity could be seen through the ship's windows/viewports from the outside, framed at times by outer space or other virtual fields in a composite layering live actors with rendered environments. There was nothing to act as a "dead giveaway", no mismatched lighting, no displacement effect that separated the actors from the digital environment in a "magazine cutout" effect that happens to too many such scenes.

Another remarkable use of animation Design Tutorials and effects was the camera work. Firefly itself often used clever camera tricks, such as focus shifts, to heighten the immersion in the scene, but the virtual cameras used in Serenity's animated scenes went far beyond that. The scene that stands out most in my mind (warning: spoilers) was the escape from Reaver territory near the dead planet Miranda, and Wash's jaw-dropping, gut-clenching aerial stunts to avoid both Alliance and Reaver ships. Rather than set a single point camera to observe the entire field of action from a distance, or even set a single perspective camera to follow a set path and observe in "tunnel vision", the camera whipped about wildly--jolting, jostling, whirling around the action in wild jerks and swooshes that brought the sense of frantic, whizzing motion from the screen right to your seat. It's a clever use of visual vertigo, and one that takes you beyond suspension of disbelief to the point where you're gripping the arms of your chair to brace for impact.

Explosions? Laser fire? Crashes? No problem. Rather than occur just for the sake of a little fun mayhem, destruction, and showing off Flash Animations skills in a "look what I can do!" fashion, the combatant aspects of the film blended perfectly in a seamless, continuous flow of motion that never seemed to jump or jar from one action to the next and that never went to the excessive extremes often labeled as "gratuitous violence". No matter how extreme the animated effect, it was done well, and it was done tastefully rather than to excess. In addition, the soundtrack was timed well; the audio effects, the music, and the dialogue synched so well with the action that it was entirely too easy to lose awareness of any one as a separate entity rather than a perfectly orchestrated whole.

The point that I'm making here is that Serenity by no means skimped on the animated visual effects; it's every bit as shiny (no pun intended, for those acquainted with Firefly's slang) as Robots, but with so much more depth and substance that it wasn't just a quick flash in the pan. The animated effects weren't there just to be pretty; they were there to enhance the story, and they did it in a stellar fashion. Rather than overwhelm, the talents of Zoic Studios' animation team brought the crew of Firefly from life to larger than life in Serenity's big-screen debut, and provided a positive example of how to use animation as an asset to complement and complete a film's storyline.

HTML Present: Scaffolding for CSS

No matter what content your process of Denver web design page holds-the fishing season calendar, driving direction to the nearest IKEA, or pictures from your kid’s last birthday party it’s the page’s design that makes it look like either a professional enterprise or a part-timer’s hobby. Good Design Tutorials enhances the message of your site, helps visitors find what they’re looking for and determines how the rest of the world sees your web site. That’s why web designers went through the contortion described in the previous section to force HTML to look good. By taking on those design duties, css lets HTML go back to doing what it does best-structure content.

Using HTML to control the look of text and other web page elements is obsolete. Don’t worry if html’s tag is too big for your taste or bulleted lists aren’t spaced just right. you can take care of take care of that later using css.instead,think of html as a method of adding structure to the content you want up on web .use html to organize your content, and css to make that content look great.

Writing XHTML & CSS
If you’re Colorado web Design Tutorials, you may need some helpful to guide your for ays into HTML .and if you’ve been building web pages for a while, then you may have picked up a few bad html –writing habits that you’re better off forgetting .the rest of this introduces you to some html writing habits that will make your mother proud-and help you get the most out of css.

Think structure

HTML adds meaning to text by logically dividing it and identifying the role that text plays on the page: the tag’s the most important introduction to a page’s content. Other headers let you divide upon the content into other, less important, but related sections. Just like the book you’re holding, a web page should have a logical structure.

HTML provides many other tags besides headers for marking up content to identify its role on the page. Among the most popular are the tag for paragraphs of text, and the tag for creating bulleted lists. Lesser-known tags can indicate very specific types of content, like for abbreviations and for computer code.

When writing HTML for css, use a tag that comes close top matching the role the content plays in the page, not the way it looks bunch of links in a navigation bar isn’t really a headline and it isn’t a regular paragraph of text. It’s most like a bulleted list of options, so the tag is a good choice. If you’re saying “but items in a bulleted list are stacked vertically one on top of the other, and I want a horizontal navigation bar where each link sits next to the pervious link,” don’t woory.with css magic you can convert a vertical list of links into a stylish horizontal navigation bar as described.

Exit Music for Films

Films without music are almost like a circus without a joker. One of the primary cores of films all around the world is music. But what is perhaps neglected yet virtually one of the most important aspects of film music is the exit music. This music, with all due respect to the nuances of a film, plays a major role in deciding whether the film has been successful or not.

How you may ask? This is because while the audience is leaving the hall after watching the complete film, this music plays on. The psychological effect of this music on the audience is very emphatic. This is because during this small window of time, the audience is on the verge of deciding whether the film they watched was to their liking or not. And the music will help or harm this cause.

Now you understand the importance of exit music for films. But the real problem arises when you have to provide an exit music track for your own film or presentation. Virtually nobody would like to spend oodles of their precious time or bags of money behind an issue that prima facie has no huge value.

But overlooking this aspect of film music or presentation will cost you very dearly in the long run or might have an immediate negative effect on the success of your presentation or film. So what will you do now? Visit Audio Micro for your ready solution. Our professional Stock Photography and sound engineers are experienced enough to provide production music as well as exit music for films that summarize and present the whole idea of the film in its resigning musical notes!

And all of it is available at a minimal charge. You will get quality royalty free music for your films end. Our diverse collection of Free Sounds effects and free music tracks lets you choose and let your persona be a stamp on the exit music so framed.

Mind you, stock music and royalty free music is available on every other site online, but cannot match the quality or quantity of free stock music we provide. This is an advantage as even if you have made a film that is uncanny or is not what conventional music would actually act as a complement to, we have solutions for you as well.

You can go through our almost unending stock music libraries and select any free audio clips or stock audio tracks that you feel would best describe the character of your film in its musical notes.

Also, at www.yourdesingneeds.com, you can find music for films, Free Sound and Free Download for your presentations and slideshows or other projects as well. Thus, you would not have to extend your search beyond Audio Micro to compensate for your music requirements, which is actually a great advantage as it saves you time for other important aspects of your duty to the film such as promotion and marketing the film to the masses.

The Layers of Your Brand

Branding is a hot topic in marketing these days, but it's defined in different ways and looked at from different angles. There are many components that make up a brand, and we call each component a Brand Layer.

Here are our definitions of some of the most important Brand Layers:

Logo Design Foundation

The base from which all brand elements will be created and measured against for accuracy. This layer consists of the following elements:

• Brand Vision is your company's plan for itself—how your company wants to appear to the world, and how your company wants to grow and change in coming years.
• Brand Mission is what your company wants to create in the world, through its products or services.
• Brand Values are those ideas that your company brand stands for and that you believe in—and also what you don't want to and won't do. These values help your potential clients to decide whether you can help them, and they also help you decide who you will help and what you can't offer or deliver. Brand Values are largely an internal measure against which you can process incoming jobs, but they will also be communicated through all of your marketing materials.

Logo Design Basics

These components of your brand form your business's "face" to the public. Brand Basics shape and direct your customers' views of your business. Telling your customers how you want to be perceived is an essential piece of a Brand Strategy for any small business, and the easiest way for you to do this as a small business owner is through your:

• Brand Identity, the suite of visual elements that are used consistently in your marketing, including:

o Brand Names of your company and product or service lines

o Logo

o Visual Vocabulary

o Collateral system/stationery set (business card, letterhead, envelope, and so on)

o Marketing materials (brochure, postcard, flyer, and so on)

o Website

• Brand Content, the way you write and talk about your brand, including your:

o Marketing Copy

o Tagline

o 30-second Pitch or Elevator Speech

• Brand Marketing that integrates both visuals and text about your brand, and that gets your message out to your audience. This is made up of your:

o Advertising

o Trade shows

o Public Relations

o All other outreach/marketing programs

• Brand Offerings, the products or services that you present, along with the quality, warranties, and value that you include with your products and services.

• Brand Experience, the process of working with you as seen from the clients' perspective. But in order to create a positive experience, you have to have a strong foundation of systems, procedures, and processes built in to your business—this is a basic level of professionalism that's expected of every business. Things that factor in here include:

o Returning calls

o Availability

o Turnaround time

o Professional interaction and communication

o Process

These Brand Basics can also help to shape your Brand Personality, which is the persona that your business projects to the world. This is defined through the way that your brand expresses itself—the characteristics that give your business a life of its own, outside of your own personality.

Competitor Comparison

These components of your brand speak about your business's relation to the competition:

• Design Training Positioning is basically how your brand compares with that of the competition. There are probably many businesses that provide the services or products that you provide: Brand Positioning determines where your business falls in the continuum of businesses in your field.
• Brand Differentiation is another, more specific piece of your Brand Positioning. Your Differentiators are those things that make your business stand out from your competition—the things that you do or offer that are unlike anything your competition offers.

You can control these Competitor Comparison factors through careful market research, market monitoring, and your definition of both your Brand Positioning and Brand Differentiation.

Internal Measures

These components of your brand are defined largely through your business's actions:

• Brand Environment is the atmosphere at and within your company.
• Brand Promise is the underlying guarantee or benefits that you offer as part of all of your services. These promises can be of quality, service, greatness, affordability, or speed of delivery; regardless, every business presents a Brand Promise to the public, promising what the experience of doing business with them will be like or what benefits the consumer/client will get from doing business with that company. While your Brand Promise is often initially shaped by promises made in your external communications, it must be fully realized through the internal execution of your services.
• Brand Values, which are an important part of your Brand Foundation, are also helpful in deciding

External Measures

These components of your brand are defined by the public's perception:

• Brand Awareness is the level of public awareness of your brand—who knows who you are and what you do. This is influenced by the strength and effective distribution of your Brand Basics, as well as by word-of-mouth.
• Brand Gap is the difference between your Brand Positioning and Differentiation and how your consumers and clients actually view these things.

So, what is a Brand?

Your brand is really the combination of all of the above Brand Layers. A brand is both your presentation and public's perception of your business. It's the way that people think about your business, and it is shaped through all of the layers described above.

Once you've established your brand and started putting your Brand Basics before the public eye, there are some other branding issues you should consider:

• Brand Alignment is the biggest challenge in building a brand comes from creating alignment across all of the Brand Layers described above, and in creating that same alignment between your audience and your message: making sure that the message that you're presenting is the same message that your customers and contacts are walking away with.
• Brand Management is the process of managing all of the Brand Layers and achieving or maintaining Brand Alignment. It is a constant process; you should check up on your Brand Layers and Brand Alignment from time to time.

When all of your Brand Layers are working together, you'll have a strong Brand that will help your business to grow and prosper.

Free Fonts Helvetica: Old and Neue

The Helvetica Design Tutorials can be seen virtually everywhere: in print, on the web, in the news and even in the movies (Helvetica, the film, is a must see!). Since its release in 1957, Helvetica has steadily been one of the most popular typefaces.

The history of Helvetica includes a number of twists and turns. There are, in fact, two versions of Helvetica. The first one is the original Logo Design, which was created by Max Miedinger and released by Linotype in 1957. And secondly, in 1983, D. Stempel AG, Linotype’s daughter company, released the Neue Helvetica design, which was a re-working of the 1957 original. In addition, Linotype released the Neue Helvetica Pro design in 2004, which is an Open Type version with expanded foreign language support.

So why was this classic redesigned in 1983? Since its original launch, Free Fonts Helvetica had been worked on by a variety of designers to adapt it for successive methods of composition, from hot metal to photocomposition to digital. In addition, given the technical limitations of some methods, the character weights, widths and spacing were inconsistent and compromised. As technologies improved, these limitations were removed, allowing total design freedom.

It was these changes that led to the reworking of this very popular workhorse in 1983, when the complete Helvetica family was carefully redrawn and expanded. The outcome was the Neue Helvetica design, a synthesis of aesthetic and technical refinements and modifications that resulted in improved appearance, legibility and usefulness.

Producing a Professional Printed Portfolio

While much of your education in Flash Animations will revolve around producing a final demo reel of your work, the demo reel is by no means the only important presentation piece in your repertoire. A printed portfolio of artwork and stills is also important, and can display talents that may not be so apparent in the digital medium. Here are a few guidelines to producing a professional portfolio that will reflect positively on you as an artist, animator, and potential employee.

Never, Ever Use Originals.

When compiling your portfolio, each piece should be a copy of the original artwork, not the artwork itself. Copies can be resized to fit your portfolio; copies are also replicable, while the originals are not. If you lose your portfolio, that can be recreated. If you lose your original artwork, you've lost something much more valuable that you've put a lot of time, effort, and thought into.

Always Use High-Quality Prints.

Original artwork should be scanned at at least 300 DPI, though 600 DPI is preferable for color. After being resized to fit the portfolio size that you've chosen (I usually prefer an 11" x 14"; it's large enough to display pieces well, but easily carried), you should take them to a professional printing service (most would recommend Kinko's, though I've had various bad experiences at the local installments of that particular chain) and print them out on clean, smooth, high-quality paper. You can go with paper as thick as cardstock, if you'd like, to keep the pieces from bending and creasing and to attain better paper quality; however, I wouldn't recommend glossy paper, because they'll already be behind a gloss of clear, protective sheeting and that will just double the glare.

Running your portfolio off on your home printer from shabby, low-resolution scans is never a good idea; you end up with grainy pictures on low-quality paper, and most home printers can't handle larger-size paper to fit in standard portfolios.

Don't Settle for Shoddy Binding to Save Money.

The portfolio itself is as much a part of the presentation as the pieces inside it; if you want to look professional, spend a few extra dollars to buy a nicer case in leather, vinyl, or even pleather, as long as it looks well-made and neat. Skimping and buying the plastic, velcro-tabbed portfolios will add an amateurish feel to your portfolio, and will detract from the quality of your work; what that says to potential employers is that you're not willing to invest in presenting yourself nicely, and people viewing your portfolio will probably spend more time eyeing the scratched and bent edges of the plastic box than your artwork.

Plastic was fine for quick high-school presentations. It's not acceptable when you're preparing the results of your educational labor in order to enter the work force. Unless you absolutely can't spare another penny, spend the extra money. It'll be worth it.

Don't Ever Leave Your Portfolio With Anyone.

By the time that you finish, you may have poured hundreds of dollars into the creation of this presentation piece. While it is replaceable, do you really want to? Your portfolio should enter with you, and leave with you; however, there's no harm in having smaller samples ready to leave for further perusal.

Signs It's Time To Redesign Your Company’s Logo Design

When you first start a small business, you create your brand based on your hopes and plans for the future of the company. Sometimes this is based on experience, but more often than not it's based on a guess.

Then once you actually start doing business, you may find that your business isn't following the same path you set out on.

And now for something completely different

Just like in Monty Python, everything can shift and change in your business. It may even take a whole new direction.

But changing everything in your brand isn't a matter to be taken lightly. Redesigning a brand requires a solid business reason.

What "solid business reason" can cause a Logo Design change?

Even though I believe that it's important for a small business to design their logo for life, there are occasionally big reasons for a business to redesign their logo—and even rename—their businesses.

What kinds of change are big enough?

Company name. This seems obvious, but if you change your company name, it's important to redesign your logo and marketing materials to signal the change. Don't just put the new name with the old logo and hope that no one notices. If you don't redesign the logo, it can seem a bit "fishy" to attentive customers—why did the name suddenly change? Changing your brand Design Tutorials will also make the change more noticeable. You'll be less likely to receive checks made out to the old company name (and that you can't deposit in your new bank account).

The structure or way you work. If you've gone from personally serving each and every one of your clients to having more staff members that work on accounts, a brand change can ease the transition. The new brand can help reset service expectations. For example, a move from being Jennifer Perkins Consulting where Jennifer herself works solely on all accounts to being the Rocket Process Consulting Group where a team of consultants who all report to Jennifer work on the account makes perfect sense.

Drastically changing services. If you were an interior designer and now you're going into staging, you might be able to keep your logo and just rewrite the copy on your marketing pieces to reflect the change. But if you're growing your company into an architectural redesign and interior remodeling company, a redesign of your brand may make more sense. It will show the change in your business. This can also make your existing clients more open-minded about hiring you for projects in your new area of expertise.

New target audience. If you're going from consulting with hospital staff members to consulting with government agencies, it may be appropriate to change your Logo Design to better appeal to your new clients.

You offer different benefits to your clients. If you've refocused your business to create different results for your clients or to solve a different problem then a brand change may help.

If your business has changed in any of these major ways, it's time for you to re-examine and redesign your brand. The new brand will perfectly fit in with your "now completely different" business.

Ps Deluxe – An Emerging Online Hub For Photoshop Lovers

PS Deluxe is an ultimate delight for all Photoshop Brushes enthusiasts. Armed with a huge pool of information regarding the tools and tactics of Photoshop, it aims to become a one-stop hub in the near future for everyone who loves Photoshop.

Once you visit this site, you would not only be glad to have found a lot of useful information but are sure to harp here to discover several tools that enhance your experience of Photoshop and that too without paying a single penny. Yes, you got it right! Textures, PSD files and brushes, you can find it all here in the freebies section.

As you go through the Photoshop tutorials listed here, you can hone your skills in the software with easy to read instructions provided under several categories such as Photo Retouch, Drawing, Web Layouts, Text Effects and Web layouts. However, in case you wish to grasp some advanced skills in the above mentioned categories, Video Tuts section of the website would prove to be of great help to you. View the amazing videos that brief free tutorials that relate to Photoshop and add onto to your knowledge and skills.

Not to forget, you can join PS Deluxe anytime and become a part of the community with like-minded people who are all interested in sharing information and clearing their doubts about Photoshop Tutorials. The forums section can be a good platform for Photoshop professionals who might buy and sell their services here, thereby making a good deal of profit.

Last but not least, browse through its articles category and you would come across several informative random write-ups that pertain to website reviews, tutorial reviews, graphic and web design. So, the site is definitely a complete package for any Photoshop enthusiast, no matter if it’s a novice in the field or an expert.

Demo Reel Faux Paus

Let’s start off with the tame ones first, before we get into the real cardinal sins of professional demo reels. Believe it or not, typos can kill you on your demo reel just as badly as they can kill you on your resume—especially since there should be so little text on your reel to start with. With only perhaps an introductory screen and a credits/signoff screen and a few captions, any written text is going to stand out…and a typo there could ruin you.

We’re human. We’re going to make mistakes. Lord knows I’m still finding random typos in articles that I wrote a year ago, even after running them through a spellchecker, and I fix them as soon as I find them as I’m well aware of the impression that they can leave. You should be aware of the impression that your typos can leave as well; they say that you don’t care enough to check your work before finalizing it, and may even imply worse things about your grasp of language.

Of course, if you want to give the impression that you didn’t pass third grade, go right ahead. Maybe you’ll be the one person who gets lucky enough to find an employer that doesn’t care if you’re attentive or in any way competent.

Still Images Set to Free Sounds

Another minor offense, and rating pretty high on the yawn factor isn’t as bad as disgusting or offending your audience, but it’s still a great way to get your demo reel filed right into the trash.

Your demo reel isn’t the place to show your still artwork, no matter how nice it is, and not a soul is going to be impressed by your “madd skillz” (yes, I said it, go on and groan) at applying the dozen-odd different preset transitions that come with Adobe Premiere. The kind of employer that requires a demo reel generally isn’t looking for someone with only fine art to demonstrate; if they want to see your fine art, they’ll ask for your portfolio. The entire purpose of video is to capture things that move, so show them something that moves—Flash Animations, film shorts, whatever you’ve got that works. Otherwise the only thing that you’re telling a potential employer is that you don’t know how to read the instructions/requirements, and you might as well be the typo guy who didn’t bother paying attention in elementary school.

Inappropriate Music

You want to know a little secret of mine? I love Marilyn Manson. I think his antics are abhorrent and the public displays that he makes are well beneath him considering that he’s actually far more intelligent than his behavior would lead you to believe, but I love the rhythm and dark, gritty feel of his music even if I can’t say I always agree with the message of his lyrics.

Just because I love listening to him, though, doesn’t mean that I’d put his music as the audio track on my demo reel.

It’s a good idea to set your demo reel to music. It’s a bad idea to choose music that will most likely alienate a good 95% of your audience. If you’re going to use music by a controversial musician, pick some milder tracks; for example, Manson has done songs for various film Free Sounds tracks and while they’re heavy on the depressive sentiment, they’re tame compared to some of his album tracks. “Long, Hard Road Out of Hell” comes to mind, from the Spawn film; it’s dark, but not too dark.

Dealing with many animation studios, you’re going to have a bit of leeway to get liberal with your music choice. A lot of times they’re more relaxed than…say…more corporate entities with a shined-and-polished image to present that they need you to help represent. You could take the chance that whoever is going to view your demo reel will love the vulgarities and suggestiveness strewn through whatever track you’ve chosen; it’s slim, but it’s there. Considering my wide musical tastes, I doubt you could send me a demo reel that would bother me regardless of the music that you chose (…look, I went through my blue-haired, spiked-collar goth-punk phase, too).

But if I were a potential employer, it would still make me ask questions that would cast doubts on your character. I’d be seeing your demo reel before I even met you, and I’d be forced to ask myself, “Did he/she choose this music because he/she actually likes it or thinks it suits his/her reel, or just for the shock value and vulgarity?” If it were the former, it would make me curious as to what kind of imagery you might produce to such music, leaning more towards dark, grungy beauty rather than classic standards of the sleek and shiny. If it were the latter, however, I doubt I’d even waste paper on a rejection letter. Your demo reel might make it back to you if you sent a self-addressed stamped envelope; otherwise, it would end up in the bin.

Tips on Graphic Design Training

understanding Graphic Design: Graphic design is the art or profession of visual communication that combines images, words, and ideas to convey information to an audience.

A graphic designer is responsible for arranging and using elements on different types of media (such as a poster, a package or a website), most likely with the use of a graphics software program such as Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop or In Design Training. These elements include:

• Photos
• Illustrations
• Type
• Shapes
• Color
• Texture

Forms of Graphic Design.

The most common forms include:

• Logos
• Websites
• Business Cards
• Advertisements
• Brochures
• Billboards
• Product Packaging
• Posters
• Book Design Tutorials
• Magazine Layout
• Newspaper Layout
• Greeting Cards

Tool Kits for Graphic Design

There are several tools that are essential to graphic design.

A Computer

In today's design world, a computer and graphics software are essential as your design tool and your business tool.

Graphic Software:

Graphics software programs are key to your success. The Adobe Creative Suite is extremely popular among designers. The Corel Graphics Suite and Quark are also popular for design work. Software includes:

• Photoshop Tutorials, for photo retouching and creating graphic elements
• Illustrator, for creating illustrations such as logos
• In Design, for page and book layouts
• Flash, for creating animated, interactive website
• Dreamweaver, for website development

Design Books

It's very helpful to build up your own small library of graphic design books. For creative inspiration pick up some books featuring top work in different categories such as brochure, logo or album cover design that cover the business and technical side of design.

A Sketchpad

It's also important to always keep a small sketchpad or notepad handy, as you can forget a great idea as fast as you thought of it. You can sketch out ideas on sketchpad whenever you have new ideas.

Steps for Design Project:

I) Research: It is always necessary to know what your client needs first. You should have a meeting to discuss the scope of the work. It is important to research sufficiently the tropic

2) Create an Outline:

You should develop an outline of the content and goal of the project, which you can present to your client for approval before proceeding. You should take into consideration, factors such as audience, message, and number of pages, dimensions, budget, deadline, existing corporate brand, and logo before finalizing your content. You also need to draw simple sketches and getting several rounds of approval on designs. For Logo Design, wireframes are a great way to start with your page layouts.

3) Revisions

You should encourage "mixing and matching" the designs you provide. Clients may like the background color on one design and the font choices on another. Feel free to give your opinion on what looks best. It is not uncommon to have a couple more rounds of changes before reaching a final design.

4) Final Design :

You should discuss the design with group or team about all ideas. You can visit Museum for inspiration and read relevant books. You can put down ideas on page and decide structured layout. You should use all your creativity to come up with something new and different.

5) Proposal: After carefully following all steps, you can move to create actual Design and submit the proposal to your client with logo, estimation of cost.

Music for all kinds of YouTube videos

In today’s age, YouTube has been a revelation as far as music video sites go. And with the fact that it is actually a completely free and visually rewarding video-sharing site on which users can view, share and upload different video clips, it has become a very lucrative opportunity for amateur as well as experienced users.

Many users have been very busy (literally!) to upload and share videos that range from home videos to concert clips, slide shows and other such user-shot video clips. But the first hitch that the user encounters is from where is he going to get quality royalty free music ? And this is where we, Audio Micro step in.

We provide free music to all those who are interested in enhancing their YouTube videos with a touch of authenticity and quality through free stock music. Most of the users do not have a fair idea of where to find or implement music into the videos they have hand-made for uploading onto YouTube or other similar sites. And here we specifically try and meet your requirements with our huge store of Free Sounds fx and royalty free music online. Nowhere else will you find a superior quantity of free music tracks, leave alone matching the quality of our reserves of free stock audio.

No matter what your music requirement is, our quality royalty free music stores are an asset, that will take care of all your demands in a flash. Audio Micro provides free sounds for films and music cues to whatever still Stock Photography slide show or video the user wants to complement the latter with. We have separate sections of free sound effects for different segments of video clips that the user may come up with.

Thus, when you visit our site for a potential music search, no matter how uncanny or how out-of-the-box your video is, we at Audio Micro are ready with the royalty free music track tailor-made right for your purpose! Then why do you have the need to go for some other site that might be offering royalty fr ee music and stock sound effects , but cannot configure the right combination of free sounds or music loops for your video?

Many users upload videos of their school farewell or their first wedding night with a Free Backgrounds score attached. Our royalty free music, composed with the help of experienced professionals from the field, will be of great help to them. With us, epic music for gala wedding video, suppressed tunes for mourning or light, carefree sound effects for a school re-union video is an easy find.

And unlike other similar sites, the quality of these free music tracks is such that it enhances the visual impact of the concerned video. And unlike our rivals, we do not try to market our stock music or stock musicians through your video, as it diverts attention and spoils the purpose with which you had made the video.

With so many advantages, are you still thinking of trying to find a better site that offers royalty free music of better quality? If you are, your wait might be a real long one!

Type Design Today

When Jean-Frrançois Porchez handed me a copy of a Japanese graphic- Design Tutorials magazine, "Idea," while I was visiting him in Paris last month, my first impression was that it featured a very nice article about Jean-François's work as a type designer, and a cover that used one of his more unusual typefaces. The cover, it turned out, was designed by Jean-François himself, and he was the subject of an extensive, well-illustrated article, but the 200-page issue is essentially the equivalent of a short book on its topic: "Type Design Today." There are many books that don't give as thorough a snapshot of the state of modern type design as this issue of a magazine does.

What Jean-François was most delighted with was the way "Idea's" designers had reproduced some of his type-specimen sheets, and tipped them into the issue, despite the fact that he had never sent them digital files to work from. "It's all a fake!" he cried, with a smile, as he pointed this out to me. They must have scanned the specimens (at very high resolution) and then chosen equivalent paper stock and printed them on that paper, carefully, to re-create the original specimens in faithful copies. It was almost like the loving reproductions of 17th or 18th century type specimens done for books about printing and typography in the 20th century. Why the "Idea" designers didn't ask Jean-François for the digital files and use them, I don't know, but the result certainly surprised and amused the type designer.

And the effect for the reader is spectacular. Foldout specimens of Le Monde, the family of typefaces that Jean-François created for the famous Paris newspaper, and of Anisette, a sans serif face with both wide and narrow widths inspired by Maxim lien Vox's typeface Banjo, punctuate the magazine; along with another foldout inside the front cover, a demonstration by Jean-François of various typographic terms and distinctions. None of the other articles include foldouts, but they are all generously and stylishly illustrated. There is also a large foldout poster at the back of the issue, which is not obviously related to the type Design Training.

Elevator Free Sounds

In the US, as well as in many European countries, traversing the vertical distance up to your office or back to the ground floor while on your way home, was a very tedious experience. Most multi-storied buildings had elevators, (known as lifts in the UK and the Commonwealth states) and were a long way up or down for the people who took their help daily. So what was a corporate organization to do to make the time spent by its hard-working employees more soothing or inviting? Elevator music was the answer!

Today, elevator music has come to represent all kinds of simpler arrangements of popular musical instruments to keep the elevator users more relaxed and jovial. In public toilets, shopping malls, telephone systems (as the hold music for callers), grocery and department stores, airports and lounges, and various offices along with the age-old elevators.

But even though elevator music is only a simple arrangement of Free Sounds from soothing musical instruments, the right mixes and the right quality is vital. Elevator music or sound effects many a times retain a user or consumer to the source, thus, helping in the chances of sales to increase. However, where do you get quality royalty free music for this purpose? After all, not many can afford to employ professional sound engineers or stock musicians for this minimal task. Audio Micro comes to the rescue, again!

We provide the perfect quality of royalty free music for your elevator music needs. We also have a heady mix of the right Free Sounds fx and stock music tracks that you can choose and download from our site. Audio Micro believes that no matter how small your requirement might be, quality has to be supreme. Therefore, even if you are skeptical about the royalty free music, you can first download and listen to the free samples available. You will understand that our sound effects and music cues are developed by professional stock musicians and experienced instrumentalists, designed to suit your every requirement.

From our huge library of production music tracks and other such diverse streams of free music we possess, we can provide you with any free Stock Photography or free audio clips for your elevator music requirements. From garage bands to soothing country music, you will find every constituent core of elevator music in our stock audio and stock music libraries.

We specialize in delivering quality professional free music to users who need it, at a price that is both affordable and justified. The most popular ones, as far as elevator music is concerned, are music cues and free loops. These are available in plenty at audio micro libraries of royalty free music. You just have to visit to know!

Nowhere else will you find free music tracks that have kept the quality component intact, all the while providing you with a vast quantity of free music tracks and Free Sounds to cater to your needs. Don’t you think you should check out our site once, before this golden opportunity passes you by?

Why Entrepreneurs Divorce Their Logo Design

Remember how excited you were when you first designed your Logo? How beautiful you thought it was, and how you couldn't wait to get your first batch of business cards printed so you could show it off? How you excitedly described its meaning and subtleties to your mom (and your clients?) And the rush to the trademark office to get your new love "made official"—what excitement when the papers finally arrived!

Where did that magical feeling go?

The problem is that you keep seeing your logo. Over and over again.

You spend time working on your marketing: creating flyers, updating your website, putting together your email newsletter, etc... And of course, each of those pieces includes your Logo Design (right?). Then you do your business development and billing: writing up proposals, processing client intake questionnaires, writing up invoices—again, all with your logo. Then there are the pieces that you see on a day to day basis: the business cards in your purse or wallet, your office signage, the promotional graphics on your car. Just in the process of running your business, you'll see your logo constantly. Did I mention constantly?

Logo Design Files Part 2

Ask your designer which Free Fonts have been used in the logo, so you could purchase it for use in other materials. This will avoid the lengthy and time-consuming process of font matching, should you work with other designers.

You should receive several different versions of the software's native file formats from the designer, in case a future designer or printer ever uses an older version of the software. For example, I provide Illustrator files in Illustrator CS along with Illustrator 9.

EPS format — I recommend that your logo be in EPS 9 format. EPS can be opened and processed by many different programs. This is also the file format most commonly accepted/requested by printers.

PDF format — you will not be able to view many of the file formats of your design that you receive unless you have graphics software applications. I suggest that you receive the PDF files of each Color Version of your Logo Design. You will be able to view the PDF files using Adobe Acrobat Reader, available for free on Adobe's web site at www.yourdesignneeds.com.

"Outlined" original format — The difference between this graphic and the original would be found in the Illustrator files. The fonts in the outlined original format would be outlined, which means that the letters are converted into shapes. In Photoshop, the type should be rasterized and the layers should be flattened. This outlined file should be provided in all of the formats listed above—original program format, EPS, and PDF.

These outlined file versions should be provided to any printers or service bureaus to lessen the chance that the elements in your logo could inadvertently be shifted around. This will make sure that your logo will print with the right font should the printer not have the font used in your Logo Design Training.

JPEG and GIF formats — For web or email use. The GIF graphic should be created with a transparent background.

TIF format at 300 dots per inch (DPI) resolution, in RGB color format — For use in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint files.

TIF format at 300 DPI — Some printers, ad vendors (i.e., the Yellow Pages), or other designers may require this file format in order to create additional designed materials.

Having your logo in these formats will ensure that you won't ever need to have your logo redrawn or re-created for use in future projects. After all, you own your Logo Design—shouldn't you be able to use it as well?

Logo Design Files Part 1

Your Logo Design is the most important graphic element in which you will invest for your business. You should own the logo in many file formats. Having a library of logo files will enable you to send vendors the types of files they need (for example, other designers, printers, or other service providers).

There are two major categories that I will cover in this article—color variations and file-type variations.

Color Variations

You should receive your logo graphic from your designer in all of the file types listed below in the "File Formats" section (unless otherwise noted) in the following color variations:

Pantone color or CMYK color

Pantone color (if applicable) — If you intend to have your business cards or other materials printed professionally, choosing Pantone colors makes the process less expensive than printing in full four- (or CMYK-) color, unless you choose to use the new printers available today. See my article on inexpensive printing options, coming soon!. Full CMYK color — This is for four-color printing, full color ads, and for use on any materials that you intend to print from your own desktop color printer, i.e, invoices, statements, receipts, letters, etc.

RGB color

RGB color—For use on your website or in your email. You should get JPEG and GIF formats in this color scheme.

Grayscale and/or black and white versions

Grayscale — If your logo contains more than one color, or if it has tones or shades of one color, you should receive a grayscale version. You would use this when your logo is included in the newspaper or in the Yellow Pages, or on any black and white laser-printed materials you may create.

Black and white — This version would be used to produce the best-quality Logo Design on faxes or any materials you reproduce using a copier.

Depending on the design of the logo, sometimes only either a black and white or grayscale version of the logo will be applicable. For example, for a logo with just one color in it, only a black and white version would apply. And, if elements of different colors overlap, a grayscale version will ensure that the different graphic elements do not bleed together, as they would if they were all converted to black. So you may not receive both grayscale and black and white versions, but having one or the other should suffice. File Formats:

Original graphic — The original Illustrator, Photoshop, or other program-native document. This comes in handy if you make a minor change to your company (i.e., if you add LLC or Inc.), or if you decide to change your color scheme.

To make these types of changes easiest, you need a file of the logo in the original program in which it was created. If the logo was created in Illustrator (which is preferable, because creating vector graphics in Illustrator will allow your logo to be scaled up and down as needed), the type should not be outlined, unless your designer has done so in order to modify the typeface.

If the logo was created with Photoshop Brushes, the layers of the document should not be flattened, and the type should not be rasterized (converted from editable type into pixels)—this will ensure that it will still be editable.

Photoshop Tutorials - Pen Tooling

Adobe Photoshop, or simply Photoshop Brushes, is a graphics editing program developed and published by Adobe Systems.

It is the current and primary market leader for commercial bitmap and image manipulation, and is the flagship product of Adobe Systems. It has been described as "an industry standard for graphics professionals"[1] and was one of the early "killer applications" on the Macintosh'.

This was the first tutorial I ever did!

I created it originally for another site, so sorry for any irregular references.

Hey guys, this is a tutorial for pen tooling, present on my current signature. I hope you enjoy this and would love to see some results :) Pen tooling is a great tool in any graphic artist's arsenal.

This should be done on a new layer, for every line you do ;)

Generally you should use relevant colours to the piece, if you can add a white or black with it. I will use blue just so you can see clearly what I’m doing.

Step 1 for Photoshop Tutorials

Set your brush tool to a hard brush, 3-12 pixels depending on the thickness of the line you are aiming for. Image cannot be shown in this article.

Step 2 for Photoshop Tutorials

Make sure you're using the 'paths' version of the pen tool. (Top left corner)

Select the pen tool and click twice, forming a ‘straight line’, as shown.

Image cannot be shown in this article.

Step 3 for Photoshop Tutorials

Click and hold the line anywhere you like, you’ll see you can now bend the line around. Do this until you have something you like ;) (not on the same click and hold)

Slide Show Music

Slide shows are the core of various ceremonies and presentations conducted around the world. Often developed by amateurs and non-professionals to lucidly explain or depict the subject or event, slide shows are a good audio-visual tool to retain attention of the people converged at a particular place. And Free Sounds are as important as visuals in these slide shows.

In a wedding ceremony, the visuals of the groom kissing the bride and the celebrations thereafter would be very boring of it did not have the music or sound effects. Imagine the slide show of a boy’s birthday party without the sound fx!

As obvious it may sound, adding the appropriate and perfect sound according to the ambience created by the visuals is a big challenge for those not used to slide shows. This is because the price rate of composing your own music with the help of professional composers or to buy Stock Photography from original owners is sky-high. The time to take out a license for using an authentic piece of music track also takes a lot of time and red tape to overcome. Since both these options are expensive and time-consuming, they are bad for your slideshow budget.

So what do you do? Bingo! You have Audio Micro at your service!

At www.yourdesignneeds.com we provide you with the choicest of royalty free music that is fit to be played along side or as a background score of slide show visuals. The stock music and sound effects reserve at our library has the potential to overcome any challenge posed by the music requirements of your scheduled slide show.

We understand that even still pictures can be instilled with life with the help of sounds. Our skilled audio engineers employ their creativity and experience to produce some of the best royalty free music tracks and stock audio for our consumers to avail of. And the quality that we provide with production music and stock music supplies is unmatched by any in the business, be it online or in the virtual world.

Our varied cheap stock audio and Free Sounds have the capacity to cater to all kinds of slide shows. Our consumer catalogue includes a teacher making a slideshow for her nursery students to a wildlife photographer presenting his latest collection of still photos to the critics! Few sites offer stock music and stock audio online as royalty free music stuff, and fewer profess the quality desired buy the consumers.

At Audio Micro, we personally develop sounds keeping in mind the purpose of the developer of the slide show. This helps us develop the vast yet accurate array of free sounds and free music for each and every kind of slideshow that may exist! From tunes for a melancholic death anniversary to thrash metal sound tracks for a head bangers ball, we have it all! You just have to visit us to place your hands on this treasure chest of quality royalty free music.

The Free Fonts Character Issue

IT’S one of the most visible choices Sen. Barack Obama has made, and it’s burning up the blogosphere and YouTube, being debated on the radio, even parodied.

It’s a typeface, of all things, one called Gotham that the Illinois Democrat chose for his rally banners and campaign signage, a collection of letter shapes some typographers are calling the hot Free Fonts of 2008.

Though a discussion of fonts may seem obscure, anyone who has agonized over the look of a wedding invitation or spent hours sweating over a Romanovs that letters can say nearly as much about a person as the words they spell out. And now that we are in the computer age, the message conveyed by a font is no longer subliminal, it’s overt.

“We see type as the clothes that words wear,” typographer Tobias Frere-Jones said. “You have more than one outfit in your closet, because you don’t wear the same thing to the office that you’d wear to the beach.”

Typefaces with big round O’s and tails are considered more friendly, whereas linear fonts evoke overtones of “rigidity, technology and coldness,” according to British psychologist Dr. Arc Sigmund who published a 2001 study, “The Psychology of Free Fonts.”

The Free Sounds Effects of Music!

Try watching a silent movie of the early era after watching a war film like Platoon or Saving Private Ryan. Instantly you will understand the importance and impact of Free Sounds, or rather sound effects in our lives! Comedy without sound fx of laughter, wars without the effect of booming guns and horror without its glass-shattering shrieks are nothing. The immense popularity of films, music, and video portals such as YouTube Music and video sites and life in general will cease to exist. This is the importance of sound in media today!

Many producers and directors, therefore, search for production music and Stock Photography effects and miscellaneous sounds to incorporate into their music for film or other productions. A lion’s share of such producers and artists come to www.yourdesignneeds.com to acquire royalty free sound effects and cheap stock music. Why, you may ask? Because we feed the hungry clientele with the best royalty free music, and royalty free sound effects.

But all the while you may argue that with hundreds such sites available who provide royalty free sound effects and free sounds why should you choose us? Well, the answer is simple. Because we don’t balance quality with the monetary value. We understand potential consumer’s quest for value, even when they are searching for free sound effects and music cues. Our huge library of royalty free music gives you an exemplary view of how stock sound effects and free music can be combined to constitute a treasure trove for consumers online. Many of these tracks are available for download at our website itself.

Moreover, at www.yourdesignneeds.com, we do not force you to blindly pine for free sound effects. We offer you a personally selected package of royalty free sound effects to allow your taste to configure whether our stock music is good enough for you. What does it mean? For starters, you cannot only avail of the sound effect royalty free, but you are acquiring it without spending a SINGLE PENNY too! You see at www.yourdesignneeds.com, we do not hesitate to go the extra mile for our consumers who have shown an interest in dealing with us.

For connoisseurs of music who want their share of royalty free music and royalty free sound effects to enhance their individual music production quality, we have devoted a section of our website to them as well. We have employed musicians with a lot of experience to answer your queries and help you whisk through the huge volume of quality royalty free music stashed in our reserve.

Today, when buying mainstream music and effects or having it composed with experienced professionals is no cheap bargain, acquiring royalty free sound effects from us is a pure advantage. With no hidden deals and buys to be cautious of, you can be your own free self while choosing and downloading Free Sounds effects to add character to the construction of your media project.

Better Free Fonts Management

If your font collection is out of hand, it’s time to learn how to manage it.

Whether you are a graphic designer, typographer, or a hobbyist, you’ll benefit from better management of your fonts. Experimenting with fonts, downloading free fonts, and purchasing new Free Fonts all contribute to a growing collection and, before you know it, you have more fonts than you know what to do with. Even without the potential for confusion, all of these fonts can drain your computer’s resources—in short, you need a solution to manage your collection.

Font management can be accomplished in a variety of ways. First, your operating system has some built-in font management capabilities. Next, free font Design Tutorials management programs are available on the internet. And finally, commercial font management programs will offer professional functionality, but come at a cost.

Depending on the type of user you are, the features that you need will vary. Hobbyists will be satisfied with a font manager that allows them to perform basic management steps such as previewing fonts and installing and un-installing them with ease. Graphic designers will want greater control and features, such as detecting and repairing corrupt fonts, missing fonts, duplicate fonts, and PostScript errors. In addition, the ability to deactivate unneeded Free Fonts will help your computer perform better if it has an extensive collection of fonts installed. Also, font managers with server-enabled versions are ideal for a networked environment.

Typography and Web Advertising: Making Every Opportunity Count

We hear it all the time: “Advertising on the web is so different than print. It has to contend with tininess, limited bandwidth, and banner ad shapes; being shoved into sidebars…no one even wants to see our ads!”

Let’s begin with a clear definition of the term advertising. It is from the Latin advertere, meaning to turn toward, thus to bring to someone’s attention, or to notice. So all advertising, whether web Design Training, print, or broadcast, must share this one attribute: It must be noticeable.

So why is so much advertising, including web advertising, so skippable? Partly, I think, because advertisers make the mistake of thinking of the audience as viewers rather than targets. The distinction is real: A viewer is one who views, which implies—but does not necessarily actually deliver—their attention. It is a soft and flabby term that describes a mostly passive audience. On the other hand, a target is one to whom an ad is aimed, and suggests Free Fonts, aiming, accuracy, and a more active, vigorous stance by the advertiser.This is necessary in our age of sales-message bombardment—on the order of about 3,500 per person, per day.

A Parent's Guide to Key Words in Japanese Import Media

If you’ve been paying attention for even a little while, you’ll have noticed that Japanese imports have, in recent years, taken the animation, video game, and comic industries by storm.

If you have children that are following what some call “Japan mania” (a term I’m not particularly fond of myself), you may want to be aware of what you’re giving them before you give in to their requests for the latest in a series of cartoons, comic books, or games. Japanese cartoons and the cartooning industry can differ greatly from those in the Western world; there are many cultural differences that defy assumptions and cause some unpleasant surprises for the uninformed. Japanese cartoons and games aren’t always oriented towards children; they’re sometimes used less for simple entertainment, and more as a sophisticated storytelling medium. Storylines and graphics can range from things suitable to a toddler, to mature and complexly interwoven plots for teens and adults...to a few things that should be best left in the hands of Photoshop Brushes only.

If you buy translated imports from places such as Barnes & Noble and other mainstream stores, you generally don’t have to worry about the latter; most are edited by companies such as Viz and Tokyo Pop, with clearly written markers in English depicting age-appropriateness. However, there are still certain things you should know before buying Japanese import media for your child, especially if you don’t speak a lick of Japanese. You may spare yourself a bit of a shock later.

First, let’s look at your basic terminology.

Manga

A manga is a comic book or graphic novel: usually pocket-sized, perfect-bound, and much thicker than your average Western saddle-stitched comic book. While Western comics are generally full-color, manga often have black-and-white pages created in ink and halftones; only the covers or a few inserts are in color. A single manga may contain several “episodes” of a storyline. The key thing to remember about manga is that they’re original works, created by the company or person that owns copyright to a specific story concept. The authors and artists of manga are called manga-ka.

Doujinshi

Doujinshi are like manga, but are generally done by artists other than the original circle, as either a tribute or a way to explore side characters and storylines left to the imagination in the original work. Because doujinshi are rarely monitored or censored by the original artists, they can range anywhere from short stories containing brief moments of character silliness to X-rated situations depicting characters from the story involved in various sexual acts.

Anime

Anime is the Japanese word for animation, but has come to represent the rather distinctive look recognizable as a unifying theme even among the most diverse of Japanese animation styles.

Otaku

A lover of manga, Flash Animations, and video games, to the point of fanatic obsession. Westerners often label themselves otaku and wear the name as a badge of pride, but in Japan the connotations aren’t exactly flattering. At best it can imply that the person refuses to grow up and focus on something more productive than an obsession with cartoons; at worst it brings to mind the serial killer Tsutsomu Miyazaki, who was reputed to be the source of the common slang use of the term after the media described his obsession with pornographic anime and manga. (Bet that’ll make you stop and think twice next time your son or daughter pins an ”otaku” badge to their backpack.)

Flash Animations for lively Designs

Many of you may have come across websites that are dull and do not offer any degree of interactivity at all. Judging a website does not take long and a visitor forms a first impression as soon as he opens the site. Some sites are so engaging and lively that you feel like bookmarking them. Flash animation is one way of creating such a lively and engaging website. When you integrate Flash image, text, video or music Flash Animations elements into your website, an engaging and interactive environment is created for viewers.

A uniquely created website has a better chance of a viewer visiting it for a second time. Flash-based websites are attractive, unique, interactive, and conveys a dynamic image of your company. It can create an everlasting impression on the visitors' minds. After all, a visitor will always prefer some kind of video animation elements to be integrated in your site rather than a motionless display of content. Web design flash animation adds life into your site, which attracts and retains the interest of the visitors.

A Flash animation Design Tutorials can change the fortune of your business. Flash web design India offers customizes service to the clients to have them improve their businesses. You can ask for a rotating logo of your company so as to create a lasting impression. Likewise your products and banners on the web can be brought to life in the form of 3D models and spinning products. You can also ask for exact specification of size and dimensions. Flash is today the most popular technology for creating interactive animations on the web. Development of Flash has an edge over other technologies due to its lower bandwidth requirements. It will not only give your site a new look but will also work wonders for your business.

40 Simple Ways To Build Trust In Your Website Visitors

Here are 40 simple actions you can take to get started.

1. Your website Design Tutorials is the first impression. Make sure it is professional and relevant to the subject matter.
2. Navigation must be intuitive. If visitors can't find what they are looking for easily, they will question your competence in providing what they want.
3. Make the website personal by giving it its own tone and voice. People buy people.
4. Follow the HEART rule of creating online content. (Reminder: HEART stands for Honest, Exclusive, Accurate, Relevant and Timely.)
5. Use language that is appropriate to the audience. It will build empathy.
6. Regularly add new content to your site. It shows that the business is alive and kicking.
7. Review all links. Doubts will quickly form in your visitors' minds if links don't work or, worse still, take them to error pages.
8. Good grammar and spelling matter. Errors give the impression of sloppiness and carelessness.
9. Don't make outrageous and unbelievable claims, like "Read this blog and you'll be a millionaire by the end of the week." People are used to scams, get-rich-quick schemes and rip-offs.
10. Publish REAL testimonials and third-party endorsements. Try to always use real names and link to websites where possible. Some sites show images of letters sent by happy customers.
11. Publish case studies about customers you have helped, who use your product, etc.
12. Don't put down, curse or insult competitors. It's unprofessional. It is better to offer an objective comparison of competitive services or products.
13. Focus on building your long-term reputation, not on making quick sales.
14. Write articles for humans, not search engines.
15. Make your 'About Us' page personal and comprehensive. It plays an important part in making visitors feel comfortable that real people are behind the site.
16. Publish your photo or the photos of the key people involved with the site. Again, this reinforces the fact that there are real people behind the screenshots.
17. Clearly identify who is behind the site. Nothing creates more suspicion than a site that tries to hide the identity of its publishers.
18. On the 'Contact Us' page, provide an email form, telephone number, fax and address of the company. In Europe, it is a legal requirement for sites taking funds, but even sites driven by advertising will benefit from openness.
19. Provide a telephone number that people can call and talk to a person.
20. Provide Web addresses linked to the website domain, not addresses from free webmail services such as Hotmail and Gmail.
21. Think carefully about reciprocal links. If your site is about organic food and you have links to Party Poker, people are going to question your integrity.
22. Think carefully about the adverts you display on your site. Ensure that they are relevant to your subject and audience.
23. Write and publish your privacy policy. Be clear about what you will and will not do with any personal data you collect. State that you adhere to all data protection laws. Make it easy to read and don't use legal gobbledygook.
24. Write and publish a security policy. State what measures you take to ensure that all transactions are secure as well as how well you handle customers data.
25. Ensure that you have a security and privacy policy which is linked from the footer on every page. Make the link more prominent on all the order pages.
26. Clearly publish your guarantee. I would recommend making it a 100% money-back guarantee if possible.
27. Clearly state your refund and returns policy.
28. If you use PayPal, put the PayPal logo on your site. If you have a merchant services account with a major bank like Citibank or HSBC, put its Logo Design on your site.
29. Use Google search on your site for two reasons. First, it is great search solutions which will help your visitors find what they are looking for. Second, having the Google name on your site instills trust.
30. If there are well-known industry associations for your subject, join up and put their logos on your site.
31. Have a forum on your site and respond quickly to questions. Have the attitude that you are happy to help others without receiving immediate reward. As the old saying goes, 'Givers always gain.'
32. Allow people to comment on articles. Interactivity and an exchange of views build community and a sense of involvement.
33. If people provide constructive criticism or comments in the forum, don't delete them, but respond with your point of view.
34. Use the words 'secure website' whenever you try to get any information from visitors, including newsletter sign-ups, forum input and payment.
35. On every page, state, "We take your privacy and security very seriously." Link the statement to the security and privacy policy.
36. If you are selling a subscription, offer a low-cost, entry-level option. This could be a one-day taster, 'a week before billing starts' or a monthly trial.
37. Only ask for information from customers that you really need. For example, for an email newsletter sign-up, the only information you REALLY need is an email address, so that is all you should ask for.
38. If you have pricing on your website, make it transparent. I recently went to buy a book which was advertised for $10. When I checked out, they added tax, post and packaging, and the final bill was $19.50. I didn't buy it as I felt they had deliberately tried to mislead me.
39. Start a small newsletter of your company/services & circulate it among your clients/employees. Also, publish it on your website regularly.
40. Allow people to “unsubscribe” from your mailing list. This may sound very obvious, but I have found that many websites still don’t follow it.

To ensure that you are continually improving your trustworthiness, every time you go to a website, ask yourself whether you trust it or not. Then ask yourself why you have formed the opinion you have.