Sweet Boutique Design - Web and Graphic Design Studio » Adobe

Adobe Font Finder

Stephanie — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:39:27 +0000

Adobe now has a way to find a font for your next design project at http://www.adobe.com/type/- There are over 2,500 fonts to choose from in many different categories. You can search for fonts using their keyword search tool or use the Font Finder to locate the perfect font by classification, style, use and more. Another way to find fonts is by categories, collections, by font designers. I’m looking forward to using this nice tool from Adobe in the future. I also have my eye on Adobe Font Folio 11. Ooh, that makes me excited! There are over 2,300 fonts from the Adobe Type Library in OpenType® format. Font Folio 11 is a great selection of typeface for print, web, video, and electronic documents that has true cross-form compatibility.

How to Get the Most Out of Your Designer

Stephanie — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 01:20:00 +0000

Most people don’t realize the time, energy and expertise that go into creating a website, logo, or any graphic element. Small and large design studios face the same challenges with educating current and potential clients to the standard design practices they adhere to. Most people who are looking for a website or logo design need to be educated on some basics before they decide to hire one. This is just a little guide to help you (the client) get the most of your designer.

First, a client needs to do their homework on what type of designer they want and what that designer’s experience or credentials are. Do they only work with certain hosts or systems? There are many solutions for a website design. For example, one CMS or shopping cart isn’t right for all businesses. Next, the client must know their budget, realistic time frame and what their business model and goals are. Without a solid understanding of a client’s own business model and goals for the business, developing a website for that business can be challenging. The next most important thing is for a client to understand that the design firm they decide to hire is a professional business, the same as a law firm or architect. Designers (again firms large and small) have set hours they work by and they need to be respected. Also, these firms and studios have professional design contracts and have to be accepted by a client before they can do any work. Finally, don’t expect that a graphic, illustration, website or logo can be created in one day (or week) unless you are willing to pay a hefty fee.

Another main point to consider when hiring a designer is that most design firms won’t accept the request to do work or develop a design but only be paid if the client “likes it” or “accepts the design”. That scenario is considered speculation. Most design firms are strong NO!SPEC supporters. I’ll save the working on speculation post for another time, but you can read more about what it is at NO!SPEC.

If you’re not familiar with working with professional web or graphic designers, these are the typical steps that are taken by most design firms before you get to the actual design phase of a project.

You submit a request for quote from a design studio.
The designer responds with a proposal, outline of the project as well as a quoted price.
You either accept or don’t accept. Don’t leave the designer hanging; let them know even if you choose not to accept their quote. Designers have schedules to keep and you’re not going to hurt anyone’s feelings for declining their proposal.
Feel free to negotiate the pricing (as long as you’ve read that designer’s terms about pricing).
When you accept a proposal, expect to be given a contract to sign. Read it thoroughly and ask questions.
Know exactly what you want when getting to this step, your designer can’t read your mind. Asking them to create hundreds of drafts in hopes that you might know what you want when you see it is very unrealistic.
Your designer will provide you with a brief about the steps they will take in completing your design project.
You must work with the designer by providing clear direction and decisions for your business website, illustration or graphics project to achieve optimum results.

You can also read a more in depth article from the AIGA to help you with your next design project – A Client’s Guide to Design: How to Get the Most out of the Process. This will help you understand the standard practices that most design firms (like Sweet Boutique Design) follow. You will learn about getting the most out of the process, finding the right designer, the design brief, budgeting and managing the process, AIGA standards of professional practice and more. This is a very informative article for anyone who is searching for a web designer, is currently a web designer or wants to become one.

Stephanie Fredrickson of Sweet Boutique Design, LLC. is a member of the AIGA – the professional association for design and adheres to their standards and practices for professional design and has been in business since 2007.

Illustration Friday “Adapt”

Stephanie — Fri, 29 May 2009 16:24:13 +0000

This is my interpretation of Adapt for Illustration Friday. How do we “adapt”? By making the best out of everything that comes our way,even if it’s stupid lemons. When crappy things happen. I’ve always tried to follow that philosophy. I know it’s the most generic ways to show how we adapt in life, but it’s the most simple and was fun to draw This illustration was drawn in Adobe Illustrator CS3.

Illustration Friday “Cracked”

Stephanie — Sun, 24 May 2009 02:00:41 +0000

Remember how it felt to crack open your piggy bank and take your money out to buy candy or some ridiculous toy? Oh Joy! I used my daughter as inspiration for this illustration. When I thought of “cracked” for Illustration Friday, I could see her breaking her piggy bank to get her money. This vector illustration was done in Illustrator CS3.

Custom Penguin Illustration

Stephanie — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:57:58 +0000

I just finished up a custom illustration for Pink Shopaholic. Jane from Pink Shopaholic, wanted me to draw a penguin that resembled a Beanie Baby she had seen and make her running to a sale. This little penguin was so much fun to create. I used Adobe Illustrator CS3 to create this vector illustration (as I do with all of my illustrations). Eventually, this little penguin will have a groom and look like she will be ready to walk down the isle. But for now “Pink” as the penguin is called will be shopping away until her big day.

Baby Vector Illustration

Stephanie — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 22:52:21 +0000

I guess this is supposed to be a project a week, but I’m cranking out more than that. This is a vector illustration I made in Adobe Illustrator CS3 of my daughter who is 2 1/2. She’s holding her favorite blanky and has her signature piggies in her hair.

Vector Love Birds

Stephanie — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:38:08 +0000

Part of my “Drawing of the Week” series, this is Vector Love Birds. This was done on request by my lovely daughter. There are a lot of hearts, birds and cute animals in her imagination. I might even turn this into a print for her bedroom.

My new Sweet Cupcakes!

Stephanie — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 02:04:42 +0000

One of my new goals for this year is to try to do one simple design per week. I’m re-doing my Sweet Cupcakes premade template and blog theme will follow. Here’s a sneak peak at my vector cupcakes.

So, this new goal of mine is to help me with my creativity and not get stuck in a rut. It’s so easy to do that when you run a business and have a family to take care of. That’s why I’ve decided to give my “Project a Week” idea a whirl.

*Just in case you don’t know, this image is copyright protected and only for display on my blog. Any other use of this graphic other than looking at it is stealing and illegal.

Some of the best online tools

Stephanie — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:03:44 +0000

Here are a few links to some of the best online tools and resources I’ve found on the Web. They’re actually useful!

Google Analytics – http://www.google.com/analytics/

A free tool for web designers. It’s a remotely hosted traffic statistics system that’s easy to install on any page of your website.

htaccess Tools – http://www.htaccesstools.com/

This site has different generators to create .htaccess files for blocking IPs, hotlink protection and more. For those who don’t know what an .htaccess files is, they’re invisible text documents that configure Apache web servers.

Browsershots – http://browsershots.org/

Check browser compatibility, cross platform browser test your site. If you use the free version, don’t count on getting all of your requested screenshots in a short period of time and your limited to how many times you can que the system. It’s worth it to pay $29.95 per month for priority processing if you’re a designer.

COLOURlovers – http://www.colourlovers.com/

This is still one of my favorites. Colour lovers influences and monitors color trends by rating, commenting and sharing palettes, and patterns. One of my favorite features is the ability to download the Adobe Illustrator swatch of the palette I make. The only drawback is it’s only 5 colors. But it’s still easy to add new colors to my swatch once in AI.

WordPress Codex - http://codex.wordpress.org/Main_Page

Everything you need to know about using and installing WordPress. You also find information on working with WordPress, design and layout, advanced techniques, developer documentation and more. It’s the essential bible for anyone developing a WordPress site.