We are a creative graphic and web design agency based in a beautiful rural setting right on the edge of Epping Forest in Essex.
We are looking for a fresh thinking designer to join the team. You will need a proven track record in delivering creative solutions for front-end web design, corporate identities and print based projects.
You will also have relevant industry experience and possess an ability to laugh at yourself! An excellent knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite is essential and you must show a keen interest in the digital marketing arena.
A full driving licence and your own transport will be essential due to the location of our offices.
We regret that only successful candidates will be contacted.
Salary: £18 - £20k+
(dependent on experience)
Please email a copy of your CV and samples of your work to:
We will not consider CVs that are not accompanied by relevant work examples.
NO AGENCIES PLEASE
1. Approach
If you see someone standing at a networking event on their own, they will probably be very grateful if you were to approach them and introduce yourself. After all, wouldn’t you?
The chances are that they have not come to a networking event for solitude!
2. Help Others
Always look first to see how you can help others rather than how they can help you. Becoming known as a centre of influence, someone who is worth knowing, can be an invaluable asset.
3. Build Relationships
Pursue the relationship and not the sale. If you can find one or two people at each event you attend who will eventually become an integral part of your network and champion your business, it will have been well worth the time and effort.
4. Make Notes
Don’t worry if you haven’t got your business cards ready; go to the event anyway. When you have a good, positive conversation and you want to follow up, make sure that you get the other person’s card. You are then in control of the conversation.
Write notes on the back; where you met, what you said, how you agreed to move forward, so that you can refresh your mind when you are back in your office.
5. Bring People Together
When listening for others, always have your network in the back of your mind and be proactively thinking about how you can bring people together
6. Be Interested
Always remember, people are interested in people who are interested in them (Dale Carnegie)
7. Conversation
“What do you do?” is the networking equivalent of “Do you come here often?”! Most people aren’t interested in the answer when they first meet you.
Talk about something of interest to both of you and save the work conversation for when you are interested in the response, because you want to help that person.
8. Be Confident to Show Your Ability
If you have tangible achievements to share, don’t be afraid to tell people. We sometimes feel nervous about appearing boastful but, if you can demonstrate you excellence in your field, you should be telling people.
If we want people to help us get to where we want to be we need them to feel confident in our ability to deliver.
9. Look for Body Language
You can look at the body language of people and groups when deciding who to join in conversation. Are they looking relaxed or intense? Do they look like they are discussing general topics or business? Is there room for you to join the conversation naturally, or is the group closed to you, denying you natural eye contact?
10. Research the Network
Don’t join a business network without understanding what is required from you to ensure achieve your goals from membership, and knowing that you can, and will, meet those commitments.
11. Stay in touch
Unless you have agreed otherwise, in the first instance follow up by email. Drop a one or two line email confirming where you met and, if appropriate, the agreed follow up. Most people don’t want to receive unsolicited email attachments or be subscribed to e-zines without their permission, so keep it simple and don’t try to sell.
You can always ask for subsequent permission to add people to your regular mailing list.
12. Set Targets
Don’t expect immediate results. Set targets for success, continually monitor where new introductions and new business comes from and review the results on a regular basis.
]]>Andy Lopata
Labeled ‘Mr Network’ by The Sun, Andy Lopata has been described by the Financial Times as one of Europe’s leading business networking strategists.
The co-author of two books on networking, Andy is a featured columnist for the US magazine ‘The National Networker’ and writes for a number of UK publications, as well as being quoted in national press, including The Sunday Times and The Guardian.
You can read more of Andy’s thoughts, and subscribe to his fortnightly networking tips e-zine, at www.lopata.co.uk
Like the existing (and continuing) LogoLounge book series, the new Master Library books will bring you exemplary logo design work from creatives from around the world. Each book in the Master Library series will focus on a very specific logo design category:
Initials and Crests
Animals and Mythology
Typography
People
Shapes and Symbols
Nature and Food
Arts and Culture
As with Rockport’s other books on logos, this series has the same inspirational draw, featuring over 3,000 logos. Constantly looking for fresh inspiration, designers can use this new series to take a more focused look at core logo applications.
The Animals and Mythology book will be published in the next year. It will be an honor to be part of it!
]]>So if you don’t know your Front-End from your Plug-In, then this list is ideal.
Here are some of the web design terms in more explaination:
Breadcrumbs are the bit of navigation elements that generally appear near the top of a give web page that show you the pages and subpages the appear before the page you’re on. For examples, on a blog, the breadcrumbs might look something like: Home > Category > Year > Month > Post (or they might be a lot simpler that that). The breadcrumbs term comes from the fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel.”
Also referred to simply as CSS, Cascading Style Sheets are used to define the look and feel of a web site outside of the actual HTML file(s) of the site. In recent years, CSS has replaced tables and other HTML-based methods for formatting and laying out websites. The benefits to using CSS are many, but some of the most important are the simplification of a site’s HTML files (which can actually increase search engine rankings) and the ability to completely change the style of a site by changing just one file, without having to make changes to content.
Favicons are tiny (generally 16×16 pixels, though some are 32×32 pixels), customizable icons displayed in the web address bar in most browsers next to the web address. They’re either 8-bit or 24-bit in color depth and are saved in either .ico, .gif or .png file formats.
Stands for Hypertext Markup Language. It’s the primary language used to write web pages. HTML is primarily intended as a way to provide content on websites (with CSS handling the layout and stylistic options), though it can also be used to determine how that content is displayed.
Usability refers to how easy it is for a visitor to your site to use your site in its intended manner. In other words, are navigation, content, images, and any interactive elements easy to use, functioning the way they were intended, and that your intended target visitor will not need any special training in order to use your site.
To see the full list: A-Z list of Web Design Industry Jargon click here
If you have any other web design terms that your not sure about, please let us know and we’ll try our best to give you a non technical explanation.
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R - Recall
How easy is it to recall the name?
A - Aesthetics
How does the name look? How will it look on business cards and company literature?
I - Impressions
First impressions are crucial, so choose your name carefully
L - Length
Web addresses are limited to the 26 letters of the English alphabet, ten numerals and a hyphen - 37 characters in all. When picking a name, less is more. A short name is preferable to a long one.
“The purpose of the ‘Cheese Futures’ project was to challenge the next generation of designers to think about cheese packaging in a new way, and the concepts delivered did not disappoint,” said British Cheese Board secretary Nigel White.
He added that the commercial viability of the winning and runner-up designs was now being considered by a number of packaging firms and cheese producers.
The competition was judged by PFM Packaging, Pemberton & Whitefoord Design, North Downs Dairy and the British Cheese Board.
We think this design is just cheese-tastic!
]]>The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet. Established in 1996 during the Web’s infancy, the Webbys are presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a 550-member body of leading Web experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries and creative celebrities.
Some of the winners from this years awards include:
BEST COPY/WRITING
NYTimes.com
http://NYTimes.com
BEST HOME/WELCOME PAGE
adidas.com homepage
http://www.adidas.com
BEST USE OF ANIMATION OR MOTION GRAPHICS
Coraline Website
http://coraline.com/
BEST USE OF PHOTOGRAPHY
The Big Picture
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture
BEST USE OF TYPOGRAPHY
Wordle
http://www.wordle.net/
BEST VISUAL DESIGN - AESTHETIC
The Turbo Gene Test
http://www.saab.com/turbogenetest
BEST VISUAL DESIGN - FUNCTION
NIKEiD
http://www.rga.com/award/nikeid.html
BLOG - BUSINESS
5 Blogs Before Lunch
http://www.5blogsbeforelunch.com
BLOG - CULTURE/PERSONAL
1000 Awesome Things
http://www.1000awesomethings.com
CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS
Seymourpowell
http://www.seymourpowell.com
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
cake-factory
http://www.cake-factory.com
SELF-PROMOTION/PORTFOLIO
Thank You begins with a T.
http://www.thisisgrow.com/awards/thankyou/
BANNER CAMPAIGNS
Volkswagen Innovations
http://www.achtung.nl/awards/2008/volkswageninnovations/
EMAIL MARKETING
Be Aware
http://216.31.180.181/entries/beAware/woman.htm
ONLINE CAMPAIGNS
IN AN ABSOLUT WORLD
http://kungsgrillen.se/iaawcampaign/
ONLINE GUERILLA MARKETING
Wario Land Shake it!
http://www.awards.goodbysilverstein.com/2009/wario_youtube/
RICH MEDIA ADVERTISING: BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS
TheLadders.com $100K Experiment
http://100k.theladders.com/
RICH MEDIA ADVERTISING: BUSINESS-TO-CONSUMER
Nike SPARQ
http://www.rga.com/award/sparq.html
VIRAL MARKETING
Diesel XXX SFW
http://www.break.com/index/sfw-porn-clips.html
Click here to see the full list of Winners and Nominees for the Webby Awards 2009
To hear more of the Wrongstars visit their myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/the_wrongstars
]]>A good looking website may help with making your brand stronger, but good looks alone aren’t enough to sell the products or services that you offer. For that, you need to introduce the element of marketing.
The 15 points covered include:
1. Subliminal Suggestion
2. Prevent Choice Paralysis
3. Show The Product
4. Let People Try It
5. AIDA
6. Guide attention
7. Always Provide Next Actions
8. The Gutenberg rule
9. A/B Testing
10. Footnotes: The Good and the Bad Ones
11. Testimonials
12. Scannable Feature Lists
13. Streamline The Sign-Up Process
14. White Space Is Not Lost Space
15. Set your type properly
To read these very helpful articles in full detail:
Click here for the first article
Click here for second article
I hope you enjoy!
]]>Lend Lease Retail operates a number of prime shopping centres throughout the UK including The Meadows in Chelmsford Essex and Bluewater.
Rubber Cheese won the business following a five-way pitch.
Sarah Blowers, Marketing and Commercialisation Manager at Meadows said:
“The Meadows was looking for someone to work as part of the team who would share and develop the vision for the future of The Meadows. As soon as we met Kelly and Paul we knew we had found what we were looking for. Their insight and ability is astounding and we are really excited about continuing to work together.”
Rubber Cheese will work alongside the in-house Marketing team on its yearly marketing program.
Kelly Molson, managing director at Rubber Cheese commented;
“We’re seeing some tough times ahead in the Retail sector. It’s now that good creative campaigns can really help drive sales and strengthen brands.”
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Welcome to the wonderful world of Joe Bauer. Consumed by martial arts and magic, Joe has been developing his amazing business card for 25 years. Listen to him talk about how crap everyone else’s business card is and admire his own which in his own words, “is the most impressive he has ever seen”. (If he can ever get it out of his pocket!)
In all honesty, it truly is amazing. It even has a pop up! If only his website was as amazing. I don’t think he spent 25 years developing it!
Enjoy!
]]>Operated and created by Telnic, .tel is a service that allows individuals and businesses alike, to store publish and update all your contact information and keywords online under your unique domain name, without the need for a website. It creates a directory style service that anyone can access online, through a website, on a mobile or facebook for instance.
The .tel service cannot be used to display websites and Telnic have control over the information that is shown, every .tel domain is uniform in how it displays the information, and each name is administered through an interface provided by Telnic who also provide the hosting of the domain.
Why should you have a .tel domain name?
1. Communications Hub
Publish all your means of communication in one easy place without the use of a website. For example you can store your phone numbers, mobile, fax, VoIP and email addresses in one place. You can also store web links, location data and keywords describing your business.
2. Join a Real-Time Global Directory
Join a global directory that allows you to own and control all your contact information and update it in real-time whenever you wish.
3. Route Customers to Appropriate Departments
Easily route customers to contact details for various divisions or departments in your company
4. Increase Your Profile Online
By publishing your keywords you will be indexed by leading search engines
5. Connect with Customers from Many Devices
Any device that has internet access will be able to see your contact details. It is especially good for mobile phones because of the simple layout format of the information. Most websites are not mobile friendly!
6. Incorporate Premium Numbers for Voting and Betting Services
Create real time SMS voting on TV shows ( eg: The X Factor) See how this would work: Example
7. E-commerce Options
A website could collect micro-payments for downloads, products or services. For example: a celebrity fan club site can provide news, chats, or downloadable mobile content such as MP3s or ringtones. Click for an example
To read more about .tel domains click here or download the tel guide
If you live in the UK and you would like to buy .tel domains click here
Steve Trister will be participating in the London to Southend bike ride on July 19th of this year. He wants to do something that has never been done before, raise £1M from one bike ride!
The catch, is that he wants 1M people to donate just £1 each, a little crazy you may think, yes, it probably is, but sometimes you just gotta be a little crazy in life.
Steve said “I can’t do this on my own, its not about me, its about people getting the idea that we can all make a huge difference by pledging a tiny amount, i’d love people to get the concept and for it to go global.....without you this challenge is nothing”
We’re pitching in and helping Steve with the logo design and to publicise this fantastic challenge.
JOIN THE FACEBOOK GROUP AND LETS GET CONTRIBUTING !!!!
Follow us on Twitter --> http://twitter.com/1poundchallenge
Join us on Ecademy --> http://www.ecademy.com/module.php?mod=club&c=7349
Join us on Linked In --> http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1875753
British Heart Foundation --> http://www.bhf.org.uk/
Subscribe to the challenge channel and watch the videos --> http://www.youtube.com/user/TristerProductions
Laptops Direct can help with your Funeral Costs
In these difficult credit-crunch times we understand that it’s not easy to give your loved ones the send off they deserve. With funerals costing up to £5000 it makes sense to get help.That’s why we’ve put together this unique sponsorship package, giving you the opportunity to cover all your costs.
We will help you pay for some, or all of the funeral expenses, depending on the package you choose. We have a range of subtle and tasteful sponsorship positions available throughout the service each bringing you a contribution cost. Please note that in order for us to be able to offer this service we do require a minimum of 50 mourners, this ensures we will get the exposure required to cover the cost of the sponsorship.
To see sponsorship opportunities or read more about what is on offer, click here.
The text and content above was taken from the buyitdirect website on April 1st 2009
]]>48.9% (393,373,398 people) of the European population are internet users, and 70.9% of the UK population (43,221,464 people) have internet access.
Germany have the most users for a European country with 55.2 million internet users. Iceland have the highest percentage of users with 90% of the population having internet access.
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