Bitten By Design » News

BittenByDesign in the latest Desktop Magazine!

Nick — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 01:15:24 +0000

Just received the sample spreads of the latest (August) Desktop Magazine. BittenByDesign appears as a source in one of the articles.

Check out the link to the spread here: Desktop magazine spread

It was my opinion of some of the things that should have been in my Graphic Design course that would of helped me when I started work.

If you liked this, maybe you would also like one of these:

Bitten By Design

Nick — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 23:33:50 +0000

Bitten By Design is a freelance graphic design and web design business located in Sydney Australia, supplying quality digital service globally. Founded in late 2006, to meet an increased client demand.

Clients have included large corporations, small businesses right down to individuals. Based in Sydney Australia, but no distance is too far, as tele-commuting has shortened the travel time to the length of time it takes to make a phonecall.

Bitten By Design believes in serving all client needs as promptly as possible. Projects have ranged from Point of Sale, Packaging, Software Icons, Flyers, Corporate Identity, Full website design, Website Administration and updating, HTML emails, Web Banners and Ad tiles to name but a few.

If you liked this, maybe you would also like one of these:

No more IE6

Nick — Sat, 22 May 2010 02:05:26 +0000

The time has come to officially announce that I will not be adding stylesheet support for IE6 into the websites I am designing. Basically it comes down to offering the best user experience for the visitors to a site whilst working within the project budget limitations. I would much rather spend the difference on additional testing and further features over creating an additional stylesheet for a browser that is no longer supported by it’s creator. Most designers and developers have already joined the IE6 is dead movement but after having just generated two complex ecommerce websites to fit within a clients criteria of being fully compliant in all browsers (right back to the one they are still using), I believe any site user is better served with a more considered design that looks to future browsing developments in the HTML standards rather than attempt to force a band-aid solution for older browsers that are no longer compliant or supported by their developers.

Don’t get me wrong I can build sites that appear as close as possible in IE6 to other browsers but it will be an additional cost and an option that I will suggest is not the best expenditure of the project budget when we could be looking at an HTML email template being designed in addition to the website instead, or even the balance of funds going toward a targetted adwords campaign promoting the website itself upon launch.

I am sure it won’t be long before I am announcing the same thing for IE7!

If you liked this, maybe you would also like one of these:

New business plan for the future

Nick — Wed, 12 May 2010 22:11:55 +0000

After several years doing part-time freelancing the time has come to rewrite my business plan as it is coming to the end of its projections. Now a lot of the milestones in the initial business plan have been achieved, but not all. Some of them were so out of range that it felt almost silly putting them in. But, having an impossible goal to strive for has made me aim higher than I would have otherwise and no one should be happy with mediocrity for themselves.

So I can admit some were fanciful in nature (like a Ferrari for me and early retirement) most were more sensible of get registered business name, design stationery and have it printed, build and deploy website for business, generate client leads, attain a steady income stream, build the exposure of the business, revisit website for SEO and SEM, achieve a first page ranking, implement a job tracking and invoicing system. Switching to full time and getting the tax offset for working from home and the tax offset for purchasing business materials.

New projections can be adjusted turnover target, higher profit margins achieved, further business expansion, a detailed goal/reward system, lower running costs, run a carbon offset system to counter the business produced carbon emissions. Build scalability into the business model in case of multiple big clients coming on board at a similar time. Also have flexibility in the business structure to adapt to the changing requirements of a design business (in case every client suddenly needs iPad apps or broadcast graphics for their online video)

In addition to the five year plan a rough ten year plan would be a big help in revising the business plans further down the line.

Forward planning like this will enable me to take advantage of any opportunities as and when they present themselves. Being in a position to act quickly can be the difference in getting a big client on the books or missing lout because you were too slow.

Also it easily let’s you see if you should buy into another business or sell yours to another bigger agency if the option arises.

If you liked this, maybe you would also like one of these:

The design process evolving due to Print On Demand products.

Nick — Sat, 01 May 2010 22:49:19 +0000

Sometimes the simplest thing can change your entire thinking and design process. A while back I started building designs for cafepress and after discovering their payments to people external to the US leaves a lot to be desired I switched over to zazzle who at least makes payments via paypal (amongst a long list of other reasons including ease of setting up a product and being able to make template designs). What this has meant is that I am thinking more and more about the sorts of things I want on a badge or t-shirt along with how to market them online and offline. So how has this really changed my thinking process and how I work?

As a web designer and print designer a large amount of my work is done through Photoshop touching up photos recolouring and adjusting files to work on the web or for printing. Now I am working on designs for apparel I am spending a lot more time with illustrator than ever before and discovering quite a few things about it which is changing my thoughts for different designs. Having the option to include a different treatment to my designs has visibly changed how they look.

That would always be the case of vector over pixel design, but switching from a truly grunge dirty textured treatment for my designs to something much cleaner has changed the way I market my products.

Using vector programs like illustrator has allowed for greater scalability with my designs, meaning a pin badge concept can easily be scaled to fit on a large format poster. So I am now freed from the constraints of the product I initially designed the piece for.

Developing my skills in illustrator (or at least getting significantly faster with it) has the flow on to my normal design job, making me more employable. Funny to think that doing work to build a passive income for myself increases my employability and in turn my pay.

There are many alternate vector programs out there, and I have even taken to carrying a USB memory stick with me which has a free vector program designed for that particular use, so I can hop on any computer and be able to put designs together when inspiration strikes. Not being tied to a particular computer has allowed me to get designs built when I would have otherwise forgotten about them by the time I had made it home to put it together.

Do you have any examples of this sort of thing yourself? I would love to hear them.

It would be cool to one day be interviewed by someone wearing one of my designs. Regardless of wether they knew of the connection between myself and the design.

If you liked this, maybe you would also like one of these:

Have you ever wondered…

Nick — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 22:47:51 +0000

Now I am loving the change that the iPhone has wrought on communication. But seeing as a decent percentage of the population now has a phone which is capable of photograph and video tasks to a reasonable degree, why haven’t we seen a marked increase in UFO evidence? I know, I probably watched all too much x-files when it first came out and I am the biggest devils advocate when it comes to these things, but are we seeing the death of the blurry camera shot of UFOs due to the fact we can’t fake a timestamp and GPS location of photographs? Have the aliens finally given up on us as a viable race capable of peaceful existence with other creatures? Or is it in fact the military is no longer testing various stealth technologies so we don’t see the strange lights in the sky anymore. I just felt I would be seeing more and more captured evidence rather than less and less.

Even if it was of hurled hubcaps past a window at night… Well, it’s something for you to think about now!

If you liked this, maybe you would also like one of these:

May 1 Reboot 2010

Nick — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 22:50:18 +0000

The next reboot is just around the corner and I am considering what needs doing to refresh my site to give it a fresh and functional look
for the coming year.

In fact building a mobile device option into my websites theme seems to be the first step. Now that I have my iPhone, all the usability issues for websites on the iPhone are easily tested. Just look around at any graphic or web designer and invariably they will have or plan to get an iPhone. This is my primary mobile viewer, so putting something nicer than the default interface together may just be the ticket to stand out a bit more.

The next thing is to make the site design wordpress 3 ready, there is plenty of write ups to the changes and how to implement them.

So, making everything stable and ready for mobile devices it comes down to updating the look of the site and I am tempted to switch to a fluid layout and look at building the layout so it functions well at any width. With computer monitor sizes getting ever wider the fixed format of my site is going to be something I feel will hold it back later on. It could be that I know it will be a full year till the next overhaul and who knows what will happen in six to eight months. Not that I am suggesting you will be viewing the Internet on your 3D TV from the comfort of your lounge in six months, but I do want to have adaptibility built in sooner rather than later.

This site has had a bit of progression in design and functionality since it was launched. Invariably the changes have been invisible to
users, but has helped clean up a lot of unnecessary information and options within the site making it easier to navigate.

My goal for the site itself is to try and maintain the branding style but bring a fresh look and design in without pushing it too far away from what it currently is and confuse return visitors with a completely different look and format.

We will see how I go! Reboot 2010 here we come!

If you liked this, maybe you would also like one of these:

Search Engine Optimisation

Nick — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 11:24:36 +0000

Several years into promoting my site using search engine optimisation techniques, I have found the amount of time invested is reflected in the rankings weeks and months later. You could spend the equivalent of time to a full time job working just on the SEO of your site, and unless your site converts visitors to sales you can’t afford to do this yourself. So, how do you get to the top? Using a reputable SEO company like the WordApe SEO company to do it for you is the best option (to find out more about them click here… or to find out more about the services they offer here.), but there is a lot you can do for yourself to get started and in that way at least you will be able to hopefully rank well against your competition.

My site ranks fairly well, and my expenditure on SEO is negligible. How do I do it? Well, I make sure I am listed in all the major search engines to begin with. Seems like a silly starting point, but actually being in the search engine database is the first step to being found. Adding relevant keywords to describe your site in the page coding and having a simple yet effective description for your site will help no end. It might not push up your ranking result but the traffic to your site will be much more targeted to the intended audience of your site.

Add your site to niche search engines, nowadays you can find sites that house links to all sorts of topics. Every time I find a graphic designer search engine, I make sure I add in my site. (but not the paid inclusion ones as I would be broke if I paid for every site I found).

Making sure your online social profiles have a link back to your site can help, but the best tip is always to check where your direct competitors are linked from. There are many ways to check these, but the easiest two are to simply search for their website address and see which sites are linked to them. The other way is to use yahoo site explorer and use the results you find from these as a starting point to source links to your site. Just having the sites linking to your competitors also linking to you will improve your chances to get closer to them or even surpass them.

You will never be as good at this as someone who does it professionally, but this will get you started and will teach you a bit of what’s involved in the process. This means you can spot some more of the dodgy operators and not end up wasting your investment in SEO with someone who might just spam the online forums with your link to push up your ranking for a short period.

The other tip is to make sure your website has great content and doesn’t rely on a gimmicky flash animation to make your site look fancy. Better content will improve your site visitor conversions to sales and will help drive referral traffic to you and not your competitor. Any investment in a good copywriter for your site will reap you much greater rewards in sales conversions long term than you would see otherwise.

The only other tip is to start now. Not next week, next quarter or next financial year. Do it now, the sooner the better. During economic tough times you should be investing more in your online presence as this is something that will help push you out to new customers or reassure your current clients that you are investing in one of your best sales tools.

If you liked this, maybe you would also like one of these:

Game Villians

Nick — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 10:51:01 +0000

Where would we be without the arcetypal villian to struggle against in our online games? My generation grew up with the first Star Wars trilogy. Let’s face it, without the Emperor and Darth Vader what would the movie be like? It would certainly not have had the interesting edge that it did without them. I would name Vader as my favourite bad guy of the associated computer games. Especially in Star Wars Battlefront, which has to be one of the best games for quick pick up and play gaming in my opinion.

Another villian of note would have to be the liche king in World of Warcraft. Without having a focus for your game it seems just too disconnected. Consider the Arkham Asylum game, who would Batman fight against without the Joker there? The janitors? No, the game would be terrible without the legendary Joker making his presence felt in the game.

Do you have a favourite villian? Or maybe there is a bad guy in a game that just annoys you more than any other!

If you liked this, maybe you would also like one of these:

Apple products taking over

Nick — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:26:42 +0000

I used to see everyone with iPods and now it seems like at least every second person has an iPhone. Apple has changed the music Market and the phone Market. Will the upcoming islate tablet (which looks like a bigger version of the iPhone) change the portable computing market? The mass uptake of the iPhone would certainly not hurt in getting people to consider the iSlate when they arrive. As a designer I am pretty excited about what possibilities it brings me in regards to remote work and telecommuting.

Travelling to and from work would be certainly more productive, as long as I was designing new tshirts and not just watching happy tree friends episodes on it.