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Image Manipulation Websites

1) Aviary.com

Aviary.com is a powerful online resource offering image editing, vector editing and a variety of other tools. The website is well designed and is known for its user friendly format. While, as a graphic designer, you may not use certain portions of the website such as the music creator, most sections are very valuable for the design process.

2) GIMP.org

Another top online image manipulation program is GIMP.org. This website deserves a spot among the top online design tools because it features, among other things, image perspective manipulation, channel mixing, and cloning.

3) Pixlr.com

The Pixlr.com image editor is the last image manipulation program making the top 10 online design tools list. This program features an interface similar to top graphic design software applications and is very user friendly – making it a great resource for all experience levels.
Stock Photo Websites

4) iStockphoto.com

iStockphoto.com is widely used in the graphic design community and features an extensive stock graphic library. The cost per image on iStockphoto.com is higher than other stock photo websites but the image quality is worth the higher cost.

5) Bigstockphoto.com

Lower cost photos and illustrations are available on Bigstockphoto.com if you can’t afford more expensive stock image websites. The quality of images is still high and you can browse extensive image galleries. As with most stock photo websites, you must purchase a credit bundle before downloading your first graphic.

6) Shutterstock.com

Shutterstock.com is comparable in price and quality to iStockphoto.com and contains, among other resources, photos and illustrations. Browse graphics by category or keyword to quickly locate a particular subject.

7) Stock.xchng

If you are working on a tight design budget, Stock.xchng is a great option because it offers free stock images for download. While the image qualities are lower than fee based websites, it’s still a wonderful free resource.

Graphic Design Training






Lynda.com

As a graphic designer, you must always be acquiring new skills. The Lynda.com tutorial library offers top notch free and fee-based training videos on a variety of design software programs to aid in the learning process.

9) Kelbytraining.com

Another top training website is Kelbytraining.com which offers a variety of graphic design tutorials, DVDs, and books. This resource is constantly updated with the latest software tutorials and can be a great resource to stay on top of the graphic design field.

10) Tuts+

The Tuts+ network is the final online design tool earning a spot on the top 10 list. From vector tutorials to creative sessions, this resource offers a variety of learning materials to improve your graphic design skills.

To be successful designer, you must always learn new skills and try new things. Hopefully these top 10 online design tools will be helpful outlets for improving your graphic design skills.

Sonia Mansfield is the content editor for PsPrint and editor for the PsPrint Blog. She likes to write, do yoga and make nerdy “Star Wars” and “Simpsons” references. PsPrint is an online printing solutions company, which you can follow on Twitter and Facebook.

Top 10 Online Design Tools is a post from: Giant Balloons

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5 Low Cost Methods to Drive Traffic to Your Door!

1. Use a Giant Advertising Balloon.

A large 7 ft. in diameter helium advertising balloon can be purchased for as little as $269.00. It costs approximately $70 to fill the balloon with 180 cubic feet of helium and you are now on the map. Tether the helium balloon so it floats 120 ft. – 150 ft. above your business or event. People who may have passed by your location a thousand times and had never noticed you will now see you.

Drive Traffic with a big helium balloon.

2. Catch the Beat (and traffic) with an Inflatable Advertising Man.

You chose your location for the traffic count and visibility. Make that location work for you with an inexpensive inflatable advertising man. Sometimes called dancing balloons, dancing man balloons, dancing man inflatables, tube dancers and other names these floppy inflatables attract attention and customers. These can be purchased for as little as $399.00

Dancing Tube Balloon

Inflatable Dancing man

3. Take a Tip from Goodyear©

Look up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane – - – - It’s the Blimp. Most of us can not afford the $200K a month for a giant full size manned blimp but we can afford $461.00 for an advertising blimp. These helium filled advertising blimps are from 11 feet in length to 30 feet in length and can cost less than $500.00. Add you $35.00 of helium to the blimp and the crowds are seeing your blimp and your business! Fly your blimp between 100 feet and 150 feet above your location and you will get results!

Advertising Blimps Bring Business!

4. Blow Up Your Product or Mascot!

If you have a product or mascot that lends itself to being made into a giant sealed air inflatable replica – go for it!

These giant sealed air inflatables take advantage of the same technology as your air mattress but that is where the similarity ends. Prices range greatly in sealed air products depending on size and complexity. However, many 6ft. – 10ft. custom sealed air inflatables can be purchased in the $750 – $1500 price range. When you get your inflatable, inflate it with a small air inflator and tether in front of your location. If possible you can place it on the roof of your building. No helium, no electricity and put it just about anywhere!

Capture Attention with a giant sealed air replica.

5. Go Big, Really Big or Go Home!

Advertising inflatables can be rented almost anywhere. Advertising inflatables are giant, usually 25ft. tall or larger, figures, characters, animals, mascots or other forms. You can see everything from giant Aliens to Santa to Uncle Sam. These giant advertising inflatables are staked to the ground in front of your business or attached to your building’s roof. Some advertising inflatables can be rented for as little as $150/day or purchased for $4000 and up. An advertising inflatable can last for years if reasonable care is used in protecting it. The hundreds or thousands of vehicles passing your location each day will be certain to see you.

BIG BULL ATTRACTS ATTENTION

Great for Holiday Promotions!

If you want to drive traffic through the door give these giant balloons, blimps and inflatables a try. Combine two or more to see Giant Results!

5 Low Cost Methods to Drive Traffic to Your Door is a post from: Advertising Balloons

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If you are the owner or manager of a business, you understand how hard it can be to find great new ways to attract customers. Sure, there are a lot of ways out there, but how many can your company afford? There is one way of advertising that will not hurt your company budget and is a very effective way to attract much needed attention. Balloon advertising is a wonderful way to advertise. There are a wide variety of companies out there that will sell you these balloons at a very good price. Some companies even rent the balloons to companies for temporary use. If you are looking for something unusual, you can even find companies that will custom make your balloons for you.

Balloon advertising increase sales.

These giant balloons are a great way to attract attention to a sale, special event, or just to the business in general. They come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes and can be imprinted with whatever message it is that you would like to convey. When it comes to promoting your company, there are few ways that you can do so that will not cost you a fortune. This is one great way that companies have been utilizing more and more over the last few years. It seem to be very effective as well. Customers cannot seem to ignore a giant balloon, whereas they would most likely drive by a sign and never read it. Anyone with a business should try this practice at least once.

Giant advertising balloon with vertical banner

Advertising blimps work well also!

Advertising blimps increase sales.

Call 1-800-791-1445 for more information.

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From design, to writing and funding, there are crowdsourcing solutions for every need. The benefits are obvious for small biz, although not so obvious for those service providers who compete for the job. Instead of spending time on outsourcing a creative agency to do the job, small businesses can now call for entries by submitting a creative brief to any of the crowdsourcing sites reviewed below. The advantages for small biz can be easily summarized:

• no fear of going “over budget” since the price is set up by the customer at the beginning of the contest
• no fear that the designer will get the money and then leave the job undone. The payment only follows if a winner is selected
• clients can provide feedback, request revisions and send messages to designers
• guaranteed satisfaction – the client doesn’t have to select a winner, if none of the designs don’t meet his/her expectations
• all rights which subsist in copyright, patent rights, trademark rights, designs and etc, are transferred to the customer
• if done right, crowdsourcing can also facilitate the incorporation of consumers tastes and preferences into the development of brands

Despite a number of detractors, crowdsourcing is a practice that is here to stay. Even world renowned brands use the resourceto motivate and engage consumers. An example is Pepsis 2007 Design Our Pepsi Can (http://www.designourpepsican.com/) promotion, which put the winning design on 500 million Pepsi cans, and also offered a $10,000 prize for the winner.

The competition got over 100.000 entries. For a company like Pepsi, the price paid for this promotion was extremely low. In addition to getting over 100.000 creative ideas (that can eventually inspire other designs), they also got massive media coverage.

The situation for small business is somewhat different, unless they decide to pay more for a design and announce the contest with a press release to call for customer feedback as well. Many businesses, however, prefer to run such contests behind closed doors, and all the following sites allow and encourage private contests:

99designs.com is a Webby Awards winner (based on popularity) and the site with the most numerous community of designers. Customers can submit design briefs calling for any type of design in the following categories: identity design (logo and stationery); web design (web page design, WordPress themes, Twitter backgrounds, banner ads); print design; graphic design (button designs and others); and finally, merchandise designs (like t-shirts, and clothing). The site is the most visually appealing, and extremely easy to use. A 100% money back warranty is also in place (including listing fees).

crowdSPRING is playing with the big dogs. Among their customers, you will find names like LG, SmugMug and others. The company received broad recognition, and a few awards like a Stevie Award in 2009, and the ITA CityLIGHTS Award for a newcomer business in 2009. There are over 65.000 users, a mix of designers and writers, that compete in the following categories graphic design (logo, stationery, illustration, clothing design, print design, and package graphics); web design (widget design, email template design, landing page design, banner ads, icon and button design, header design); industrial design (packaging design, product design); and writing projects (company naming, product name, tagline, web content). A money back guarantee in place as well.

DesignCrowd is less popular and has only something over 16.000 users ready to compete for a project. There are less contest categories than offered by 99designs and crowdSPRING: logo design, web design, business card design, stationery design, brochure design, flyer design, poster design, graphic design, t-shirt design and vector illustration. The money prizes awarded here are lower than expected, but in the end, it’s the choice of the customer how much he/she is willing to pay for a design. However, a low budget will not motivate more talented designers to participate, and this will be reflected in the quality of the design entries received. A Money back guarantee in place.

Prova – a Beta newcomer, a bit different from the above, although in essence it seems to offer the same services. The general idea is to let the small business owner submit a brief with design specs for anything they can think of. This includes gift certificates, invitations, announcements, key-chains, magnets, lawn signs, billboards and more. In addition, customers can also crowdsource here voiceover narration, audio books, radio advertisements, instructional videos, TV commercials, website videos and YouTube videos. Prova doesn’t look like much at the moment – apparently the site will be redesigned in steps, through contests, by its own community. Interestingly, Prova appears more social than the other sites, and promises to promote the designers that win the contests, and the companies that use their services. A Money back guarantee is expected.

GuerraCreativa – another beta, with less than 10000 designers ready for work. It focuses solely on design, but adds flash and 3D design to the offering. It’s an Argentinian-based startup, with wording that raises a few eyebrows, but the quality of the designs featured on the homepage is at lease more decent than the description of the service: “We provide you the battlefield and weaponry to conquer the creative world.” In the end, the wording is right on target, after all, “guerra” is Spanish for war. Money back guarantee as well.

To conclude, if you run a small business and you need creative work on a budget, you can launch a contest on any of these sites. Each has its own advantages: 99designs and crowdSPRING have large communities, DesignCrowd is very cheap, Prova allows you to promote your contest and to get feedback from your peers and customers, and GuerraCreativa is ideal for flash and 3D designs. No matter where you go, remember that, among the “cons” faced by the crowdsourcing sites, lack of originality (copied designs) ranks supreme. Always ask for feedback from third parties before choosing a winner. To encourage the more talented designers to participate add a few more dollars to the prize, and make the contest challenging and fun. The bottom line is, services like these can take the pinch out of recession woes, and potentially lead to far more creative collaborations.

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I know you’re probably expecting (and hoping) to see hilarious commercials for beer and other products that have proved to be pretty risque. I hate to put a damper on things, but I’ve decided to choose something pretty nonchalant, and show you how clever and well thought out marketing can make all the difference in breathing life into a product.

Vacuums! Here we go-

This YouTube video for Bissell vacuums shows what your vacuum’s personality would be like if it were just a little more human. From the snooty heiress who refuses to pick up dog hair to the heavy and powerful high school coach who keeps screaming “put your back into it,” this Bissell commercial humorously personifies the different drawbacks of other vacuums. The ad begins by asking “Is your vacuum a good match for you?,” then it goes into the advantages of Bissell’s own vacuums, stating that Bissell vacuums are your “perfect match.”

This ad, from good ol’ 1984, reminds you that you have modern appliances all over your house, and that there is no excuse to have an ancient vacuum cleaner that you have to lug around. It then goes on to highlight the advantages of the 1984 Eureka vacuum–the “vacuum cleaner for today, not yesterday.” Eureka has been playing the advertising game for a long time.

Miele produced this humorous commercial about a man vacuuming with a leashed dog nearby. A woman enters the room and removes the dog, leaving the leash behind. The man then accidentally sucks up the leash while looking the other direction. He turns back and assumes that he has accidentally vacuumed up the dog. He bends down and makes whistling noises at the vacuum, trying to get the attention of the dog that he assumes is inside. The brand name and a picture of the vacuum then comes up with the catch phrase “sucking good.”

This Hong Kong commercial for the Electrolux vacuum features a news story about a man who is about to jump off a building, ending his own life. When community efforts and firemen fail to convince him to change his mind, an old woman with a vacuum saves him from plummeting to his death by catching him with the vacuum cleaner’s immense sucking power. It then concludes: “Electrolux – it really sucks.”

As you can see, clever advertising can really make a product interesting. It’s something to consider when you’re working on a campaign for something that you find bland… you can really have a lot of fun with it and get a little crazy. Your viewers will thank you for it.

What are some of your favorite ads?

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