Our Orange County Web Design team took her vision to design and develop a website that had a sleek, sophisticated look with a large dose of feminine attitude. Features included custom illustrated silhouettes, a soothing color scheme, user driven forum discussion board and daily video blog entitled Liz’s Daily Rant.

As her popularity grew online as well as in magazines and radio talk shows so did her expertise on giving advice. This is when our now client and friend decided to enter Good Morning America’s ‘Dear GMA’ Advice Guru contest. She coolly delivered advice to viewers all across the nation for an intensive four month process that consisted of over 15,000 applicants. Round by round she outwitted the competition by sharing her knowledge on everything from unprofessionally dressed co-workers to ’stalkerish’ play date moms.

Watch this morning’s broadcast of Liz on Good Morning America as she is revealed as the new GMA Advice Guru!

Our website design firm would again like to congratulate Liz Pryor on her new role on network television! Good luck Liz– you can be sure that we’ll be tuning in every morning!

The Kindle is Amazon’s best selling product of all time– well, at least it is for now. With the huge influx of holiday gift orders for the e-reader this winter season, the online retailer giant reported that the third generation Kindle is the best selling product in the company’s existence. Now, our Orange County graphic design firm wants you to take a second to grasp what it means to be the best selling product in the history of the world’s largest multinational electronic commerce company. This means that in the 16 years the company has been in place, the Kindle has managed to beat out items such as J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the three-disc extended collector’s edition Avatar Blu Ray DVD, Call of Duty: Black Ops as well as million of other products sold all over the world. (You can tell that our graphic design company uses the site pretty much everyday.)

Presumably, the exclusive market Amazon has over the Kindle is the reason for its success while its other products are sold on competitor’s shelves both in stores physically and virtually.

This holiday season I was lucky enough to receive the e-reader as a present myself. The brown card stock splattered with a wonderful typographic disarray of letters made reading about the product a simple and unique experience. In my opinion, nothing can beat the sleek black design and lightweight portability of the Kindle. The 3G and wireless features make it so that I can even read in the middle of Newport Beach in broad daylight. I was also fortunate enough to received a beautiful leather case that not only protects the product, but provides a reading light powered by the e-reader itself.

While the Kindle remains on top of Amazon’s best seller list for now, we look forward to see what other new inventions they come up with in the future.

The online coupon start-up Groupon allows users and their friends enjoy great deals on things like sushi.

At Urban Geko, our entire Los Angles graphic design team are sushi enthusiasts! As a member of this fantastic team, I decided last night to have dinner at my favorite sushi restaurant with a couple of friends. We inhaled a spicy tuna roll, crunch roll, rainbow roll, bottle of sake and plate of spicy chicken all for 30% of the cost. How did we do this? All thanks to a rapidly growing, Chicago based company called Groupon. In its third year the company already employs over 3,000 employees, pulls in an avenue revenue of more than $500 million and has gone viral on the internet through the ubiquitous forces of social media.

Groupon's ability to reach consumers on a local level is extremely attractive to search engine giant Google.

Groupon’s success and extensive reach to consumers on a local level has become a highly lucrative business venture to the one and only Google. The search engine giant is expected to close a deal as soon as this week that would include a $5.3 billion offer in addition to $700 million in performance bonuses for management. While this could be Google’s highest valued acquisition since Double Click which was purchased for just about half the price, spectators argue that even if their investment were to fail it would make a nearly invisible setback in their total revenue.

Andrew Mason, 30-year-old CEO of Groupon

This purchase would not only be terrific news for Groupon’s CEO Andrew Mason, but for their investors which include Accel Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Battery Ventures and Digital Sky Technologies. Mason has been able to drive the revenue of the company at a rapid rate despite competition from rival companies such as Living Social, TownHog and Gilt City.

If Google’s investment proves successful it would ease their frustrations towards getting a piece of the social networking pie, engaging consumers on a local-level and obtaining extremely useful information about consumers’ spending habits. Moreover, they’ll be able to sleep at night not having to wonder what would happen if someone else were to purchase the online coupon start-up.

As you can see several elements are utilized in the creation and use of typography: kearning, leading, serifs, san-serifs etc. (A good way to remember the difference between serif and san-serif is to know that “sans” means without.) To expand your typographic knowledge here are few rules to live by when you sit down to design:

Don’t leave widows and orphans bereft on a page

Widow: When a paragraph leaves fewer than seven characters on the last line.
Orphan: When the last line of a paragraph won’t fit at the bottom of a column and must end itself at the top of the next column.
-These elements are not only visually unappealing, it also makes it more difficult in the readers’ mind to process. Like
this.

Make only one space between sentences

Use only one space after periods, colons, exclamation points, question marks etc. Forget what they taught you about double spacing in school.

Dashes

Don’t substitute a hyphen for a dash. Hyphens are fine for word continuation (which should be avoided if possible as well), dashes should denote a break in the sentence – just like that.
Hypen: -
Dash: –

Avoid Underlining

Use italics instead of underlining, it appears more professional for noting the names books, movies, magazines and newspapers. It’s also best to italicize the space before an italicized word.

Kerning

Adjust the spacing between letters according to your visual perception– optical kerning.
A great trick for perfect kerning: turn the letters upside down so that your brain is not distracted by your ability to read the word. By turning the letters upside down you will be able to identify the negative space between each letter to make sure it is perfectly kerned.

Tabs and Indents

Use tabs and first-line indents properly. The space bar should never be used to align text.

Paragraph Distinction

If you chose to indent the first line of a paragraph don’t add a space between paragraphs too. It needs to be one or the other.

Leading

Keep your linespacing consistent. It’s best to tighten up the leading for text that has all caps or few ascenders and descenders.

Serif & Sans Serif

Serif type is more readable for body text while sans–serif type is more legible and is best used for headlines.

Now that you know the basics of typography we encourage you to further your knowledge. Ellen Lupton’s Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers is an excellent start. Enjoy!

As you can see several elements are utilized in the creation and use of typography: kearning, leading, serifs, san-serifs etc. (A good way to remember the difference between serif and san-serif is to know that “sans” means without.) To expand your typographic knowledge here are few rules to live by when you sit down to design:

Don’t leave widows and orphans bereft on a page

Widow: When a paragraph leaves fewer than seven characters on the last line.
Orphan: When the last line of a paragraph won’t fit at the bottom of a column and must end itself at the top of the next column.
-These elements are not only visually unappealing, it also makes it more difficult in the readers’ mind to process. Like
this.

Make only one space between sentences

Use only one space after periods, colons, exclamation points, question marks etc. Forget what they taught you about double spacing in school.

Dashes

Don’t substitute a hyphen for a dash. Hyphens are fine for word continuation (which should be avoided if possible as well), dashes should denote a break in the sentence – just like that.
Hypen: -
Dash: –

Avoid Underlining

Use italics instead of underlining, it appears more professional for noting the names books, movies, magazines and newspapers. It’s also best to italicize the space before an italicized word.

Kerning

Adjust the spacing between letters according to your visual perception– optical kerning.
A great trick for perfect kerning: turn the letters upside down so that your brain is not distracted by your ability to read the word. By turning the letters upside down you will be able to identify the negative space between each letter to make sure it is perfectly kerned.

Tabs and Indents

Use tabs and first-line indents properly. The space bar should never be used to align text.

Paragraph Distinction

If you chose to indent the first line of a paragraph don’t add a space between paragraphs too. It needs to be one or the other.

Leading

Keep your linespacing consistent. It’s best to tighten up the leading for text that has all caps or few ascenders and descenders.

Serif & Sans Serif

Serif type is more readable for body text while sans–serif type is more legible and is best used for headlines.

Now that you know the basics of typography we encourage you to further your knowledge. Ellen Lupton’s Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers is an excellent start. Enjoy!

Gap's Facebook Discussion Encouraged Design Entries from Fans

Gap attempted to deal with the criticism that labeled the new mark everything from  a “cosmetic band-aid” to “monstrosity” to just plain “YUK!” by engaging in the conversation via Facebook. Now, the main question is, how and why would such an iconic clothing brand change their logo after 41 years? Several commentators have speculated as to why the brand change came now:

Abe Sauer at Brandchannel: “It demonstrates a prototypical brand panic move. With things not going in its favor, the brand decides to change the one valuable element it has going for it.”

David Brier at Fast Company: “It’s all a cosmetic band-aid which is so unbelievable for a brand as big and ‘mature’ as Gap. I’ll be surprised if a few people won’t lose their jobs as this is basic Branding 101.”

Jim Edwards at BNet: “There’s a clue to what might have triggered the misstep in the fact that same-store sales at Gap are down 4 percent…”

Lastly, Hansen herself chimed into the conversation, “The natural step for us on this journey is to see how our logo- on that we’ve had for more than 20 years – should evolve. Our brand and our clothes are changing and rethinking our logo is part of aligning with that.”

The problem is, however, that logos don’t always necessarily have to evolve as the same way a company’s product’s do. With this logo re-design it is clear that there was no substantial, concrete reason for the change to be brought about- and it shows. A logo, which is the cornerstone of a company’s entire brand identity should be engineered as an all-encompassing representation of what that company stands for; a timeless idea that should be matched with a timeless mark.

From old to new, the Gap logo suffered a painful, short-lived redesign.

Now let’s evaluate what exactly went wrong with the design of the logo. The new logo changed its typeface to Helvetica- a look that is already strongly tied to brands such as American Apparel and thus makes the brand lose its uniqueness. Secondly, the redesign seems to have taken the iconic blue box and shifted it over to the right-hand corner of the “p” and added a gradient. Straying away from the solid navy blue of the original logo weakened the mark as a whole. Ad Age sums up the redesign, “Across the internet detractors have been picking apart the new look, with the most common sentiment being that it looks like something a child created using a clip art gallery.”

The lesson learned from this logo mishap exemplifies the expression, “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.” Well, now that the fiasco is finished, I’m going to buy myself a matching pair of gloves and a scarf- and maybe a plaid button up shirt just because I think they got the commercials right.

Ev Williams steps down as CEO of Twitter.

Before I begin this post I must highlight my twitteriffic title above that is exactly 140 characters. Twitter’s latest news, written by the CEO, however far exceeds the popular micro-blogging site’s limit.

In a Twitter blog posted today by CEO, Ev Williams, he announced his decision to ask Twitter’s Chief Operating Officer, Dick Costolo to succeed him. This announcement comes after two years in which the company has seen an exponential amount of growth: the number of employees has grown from 20 to 300; the number of tweets has grown from 1.25 million to 90 million per day; and the cultural impact it has made on society is nearly immeasurable.

Williams’ decision to focus primarily on product strategy, comes after his push for Twitter’s latest user interface design (something our Orange County Web Design studio has not yet experienced on our own Twitter page yet!) The new layout features a stronger hierarchical structure through the use of typography, a golden rule proportional layout (that has been adopted previously by famous products such as the ipod) and better use of white space and the grid. All of these elements culminate into a more satisfying user experience which is exactly what effective design is all about.

This news comes ironically in the midst of a movie release about Twitter’s social media counterpart, Facebook. In The Social Network, it portrays the perilous journey Facebook’s CEO took to expand the social media empire- a storyline that starkly contrasts Twitter’s CEO real life admirable, quiet resignation. Despite each sites history, both continue play a integral role in shaping the way  human interaction takes place in the 21st century.

If you’re an avid blogger or blog reader like many of our Orange County Web Design team members, you probably discover new, exciting information about topics you love everyday. I personally love reading about the tech and design industry as well as delicious baked good recipes. You might like to read fashion, travel, restaurant or even fictional sports news blogs. There are also personal blogs that write just about everything including current events and politics- essentially anyone can have a blog.

Now with all this information circumventing through our minds and the internet the question is: Do we ever stop and question the validity of what we’re reading? Probably not.

We can usually recognize if a blog is opinion-based, but the truth bias is in our human nature. For the sake of efficiency, we automatically assume most everything is true unless there is a bright red flag that pops up that crosses our common sense or our knowledge of an alternate possibility. Think about it: if we were to question everything that people say from how their day is going to their directions to the nearest gas station it would simply take too long. We generally tend to take things at face value, including what we read in blogs.

Since blogs are such a new medium of communication they have not been held accountable to the same guidelines of credibility other widely distributed publications are. Hardly ever do you see posts that have footnotes of their sources or comments stating from where they received their information. All the strict MLA rules for citing sources was thrown out the window when bloggers began taking charge of our cultural discourse. In effect, bloggers have become reporters with no boundaries that have no incentive to validate their articles. The Associated Press has recognized this tremendous threat presented by bloggers who have recently stirred up irrational international debate and released an article this month detailing new restrictions for credit and attribution guidelines for their staff.

In a policy document by AP Senior Managing Editor Michael Oreskes, the Associated Press has outlined the situations these guidelines are addressing, “Attributing to other organizations information that we haven’t independently reported…[and]…Giving credit to another organization that broke a story first, even when we match it — or advance it — through our own reporting.” He goes on to further state that this is a guideline that transcends all mediums of communication, “We should provide attribution whether the other organization is a newspaper, website, broadcaster or blog; whether or not it’s U.S. based; and whether or not it’s an AP member or subscriber.”

Our Los Angeles website design company understands that being held accountable for what one writes is of the utmost importance for a blogger because the information he or she distributes and makes available can greatly influence the way people interpret news, events and the world around us. With their guidelines in place, hopefully the AP will take the necessary steps needed to enforce it not only their own staff, but the blogging community as a whole.

If you’ve ever dealt with an architect or interior designer in recent years, chances are you’ve heard the term LEED floating around. Now, just what exactly is LEED? It stands for Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design and is internationally recognized as an eco-friendly building certification system. The third-party verification confirms that a building or community was designed to improve metrics such as: energy saving, water efficiency, CO2 emission reduction and indoor environmental quality.

Since it’s development in 1998 by the U.S. Green Building Council, LEED has grown to comprise of over 14,000 projects in the United States and 30 countries around the world covering 1.062 billion square feet of development area. Furthermore, the Green Building Certification Institute was created by the U.S. Green Building Council to make a series of exams that allows architects to be accredited for their knowledge of the LEED rating system.

With such a brilliant certification system in place for architects, people wonder why the same standards aren’t applied to the field of graphic design which in many cases can use tremendous amounts of paper. AIGA Center for Sustainable Design offers some solutions:

1. Choose a sustainable, LEED-certified office to work in a sign a long-term lease
Try to lease an office that is close to a bus line or subway. This will help the environment by providing employees more convenient routes public transportation in oppose to driving individually in their own automobiles. Also, it will save them from dealing with the headache of traffic in the morning! Having a long term lease will also reduce the number of times you have to move and therefore replace building materials and furnishings. Just make sure you choose an office you love that is LEED-certified and has energy efficient systems.

2. Utilize energy efficient computers and digital technology
Reduce your carbon footprint by using energy efficient systems. This can be done by purchasing Energy Star approved appliances. Most newer appliances are Energy Star rated so if you’re someone who constantly keeps up-to-date with the latest software this shouldn’t be hard to achieve.

3. Work with vendors and material produced in a 500 mile radius
You can use this guideline to not only help the environment by reducing the distance your materials need to travel, but also supporting local business who employ sustainable LEED friendly practices at their office just like you!

4. Minimize or eliminate Volatile Organic Compounds
Never heard of Volatile Organic Compounds? Think of spray mount. If you must use it (which is sometimes a necessity when it comes to creating comps and mockups), try to only use it in an area that has proper ventilation. Or a great alternative is using double-sided adhesive paper.

5. Incorporate sustainable materials into your design
This last point is extremely simple: recycle or reuse existing material. Incorporating sustainability into your design will do wonders for the environment in such a paper intensive industry.

As an Orange County Web Design firm we will do our best to conduct environmentally-friendly practices and hope you will too!

With recent backlash for the site’s complete redesign, Digg has taken action to secure the sites future by hiring former Amazon General Manager of Payments, Matt Williams. His resume includes over a decade of experience at Amazon from GM Webstore to Director Tech Alliances, Director Commujnity & Cross-Merchandising to Director Auctions and Marketplace. Additionally, he has also served as the CEO of LiveBid.

Williams will take over the San Francisco based company by replacing Kevin Rose, the co-founder of the site. Rose served as CEO for only 6 month after Jay Adelson’s departure in April. Williams’ objective will be how to keep one of the largest technology news aggregators relevant with so many other resources available on the web. Readers can choose from a myriad of informational resources to get their news from: niche blogs, news publications, friends’ advice. What makes Digg unique however it that it provides a streaming list of articles all on one page that readers can sift through; hopefully Williams can either exemplify that quality or give it a new spin that will keep users coming back.

Kevin Rose recently posted page detailing the sites latest changes which include an updated algorithm to prevent a single user from dominating the homepage; time stamps for ‘My News’ stories; and thumb icons to improve usability. The Digg site will also be reinstalling the Upcoming Stories tab on the main navigation for users to view.

Our California website design firm loves browsing through Digg to find interesting, entertaining stories. We hope the popular site does not meet its demise any time soon!