Design Musings

Dianne Dumanoski Author

deb@perugi.com (Deb Perugi) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:55:00 +0000

Dianne Dumanoski, author and environmental journalist, has published her new book "The End of the Long Summer". It looks beyond the specific symptoms of planetary distress— climate change, the destruction of the ozone layer, the world wide loss of species, the growing threats to the oceans, pervasive chemical contamination of food webs everywhere on Earth— to ask the larger question: what fundamentally ails us? The End of the Long Summer" received a starred review in Booklist. Dianne hired Deb Perugi to produce the website announcing the book.

PAI new web site design

deb@perugi.com (Deb Perugi) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 04:40:00 +0000

This Spring, PAI published its new site, designed by Deb Perugi. Since 1973, PAI has been finding innovative solutions to problems in health economics for its clients in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, diagnostics, and medical-device industries.

Keane Advisor

deb@perugi.com (Deb Perugi) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 23:58:00 +0000

This month, William Keane is off and running with his new business and website to match. Keane CPA LLC is a greater Boston certified public accounting firm located in Needham, Massachusetts. Keane CPA LLC was founded by William J. Keane III, CPA, who launched the firm with over 12 years of experience in taxation and accounting including 7 years in a management and entrepreneurial role for two of New England's premier CPA firms. Perugi Design worked with Bill to bring his vision of a professional website design to fruition.

Mighty Macrobiotic Girl!

deb@perugi.com (Deb Perugi) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:28:00 +0000

Laura Johnson (aka "Mighty Macrobiotic Girl") welcomes you to her new web site that launches the fun-filled NewTV show about the plant-based, planet saving Macrobiotic Diet!

Inspired by her loss of weight on the diet and using her imagination as an actress and writer, Laura is creating a show that encourages healthy eating and is fun for the whole family!

Filming at NewTV starts in January 2009 and a crew call is listed on her new web site, mightymacrobiotics.com, designed by Perugi Design and Laura, who uses her own illustration for the opening page. The bright pink comic book style site is a real departure for Perugi, who says, "I am so glad that Comic Sans is a cross-browser font!"

Margaret Szerlip Launches Newton-Realtor.com

deb@perugi.com (Deb Perugi) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 15:57:00 +0000

Margaret Szerlip of Coldwell Banker hired Perugi Design for a new web site, Newton-Realtor.com. Margaret teams up with Cynthia Cronin on all listings to better serve her clients. She is the author of several monthly realty blogs, "Szerlip & Cronin Real Estate Update" and "Update on West Newton Hill." Her blogs are regularly shown on Boston.com's new town page http://www.boston.com/yourtown/newton/

NNCC 2009 Membership Directory

deb@perugi.com (Deb Perugi) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:25:00 +0000

Perugi Design's cover illustration for Newton Needham Chamber of Commerce's 2009 Membership Directory just rolled off the press. It was presented by NNCC's president Thomas O'Rourke at the Achievement Breakfast on November 25, receiving positive feedback from members present.

A combination graphic and photo illustration, it features the Charles River incorporated with multiple photographs of both towns by David Fox. Echo Bridge crosses the river in the distance. Deb worked with Director of Membership Development, Joe Halpern, using existing photographs from the Chamber's library.

Printing Green

deb@perugi.com (Deb Perugi) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:26:00 +0000

I recently attended a sustainable paper seminar hosted by Kirkwood Printing of Wilmington, Massachusetts. The event was held at Westin Hotel in Waltham and offered coffee, bagels and pastries, a big draw for me! Many paper companies set up their booths with paper samples and handouts. My favorite memento was a ready to plant spruce seedling. Companies represented were Monadnock, M-real, Cascades, NewPage, National Envelope, Finch, Mohawk, Crane & Co., the Italian company, Cordenons, Neenah and Sappi among others.

What I learned from Tammy Coe, associate of Sustainable Forestry/Smartwood, is that there is a third party certification process that printers and paper manufacturers go through to obtain the sustainable paper seal of approval. Many of these companies have strived to obtain this seal after a three year certification process. Kirkwood Printing is one of them. This assures customers that the wood and paper products they are purchasing come from forests managed to conserve biodiversity and support local communities.

For more information go to the Rainforest Alliance website.

Flash Templates

deb@perugi.com (Deb Perugi) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:20:00 +0000

On a recent trip to Virginia, I was talking to a young man who proudly showed me his video company's web site. It was a spiffy site made by a very high-in-demand web designer he knew. "Tom" said this designer often used Flash templates in creating web sites. I'm not sure Tom knew it, but I'm fairly certain his site was made from a template as well. As long as Tom was happy with his site, there was no reason for me to point it out. When I got back to my office I looked up "flash templates" on Google. There were quite a few companies offering these templates, most of them offshore, from India or Singapore. I finally settled on a company recommended by Adobe: Oh My Flash. (ohmyflash.com), which prices Flash components inexpensively at around $30-$35 each.

Since then, I've used Flash navigation components for several websites. If you know a bit of Flash, but not up to creating it from scratch, then this is a good way to go. You can provide some spiffiness at good value for your clients. Other template sites I've bookmarked for future reference are: Flash Components, Template Tuning, Templates 247 and Templates Factory.

Design With the latest Colors

deb@perugi.com (Deb Perugi) — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 19:28:00 +0000

Type "color" on Google and you will find color wheels, web color palettes, color theory and even a link to the International Color Consortium, which promotes vendor-neutral, cross-platform color management systems for computers. It's getting complicated.

How many of us remember learning the color wheel in art class? Well, it is still a valuable tool for graphic designers, interior designers, architects and other visual professionals. When sitting in font of a blank canvas (by this I mean my computer screen), I often pick a starting color based on client research. The next color I pick is going to be its complement. Why? Because it looks good!

Even if you aren't a visual artist, you probably go to the paint store and draw on the color wheel information you learned in art class so long ago. It is as valuable as the algebra you still use to calculate size variables.

Now here is an organization that I would love to join, but can't yet afford. The Color Marketing Group. CMG's "mission is to create color forecast information for professionals who design and market color." They state loudly that "color sells and the right colors sell better." At annual design workshops, members track trends and their influences on design and color. The site says these "influences run the gamut from social issues to politics, the environment, the economy and cultural diversity. It is an understanding of the influences that provides the most useful information, and it is the input of so many color designers, that gives each forecast its tremendous validity."

So, what are the colors for next year? CMG has determined that next year's key color's are coming down to earth based on concern for the environment. Look for softer, more botanical greens on "everything form Cadillacs to Kleenex boxes", says Jaime Stevens, executive director of CMG. Also, blues; the color of sky, water and natural neutrals; medium to dark browns and beiges that reflect the colors of rock, stone and soil. It's accented with rich, ethnic hues; deep, rich reds and warm oranges.

Do I pay attention to what's hip in 2007? Yes, I do. I'm in the process of painting my bedroom dark coffee brown and complementing that with sky blue curtains. Not to mention, keeping it in the front of my mind when I stare at that blank screen.

PS: Just returned from the Adobe Conference on CS3 in Boston. Sebastian, one of the presenters, told us about a cool Adobe site for color, http://kuler.adobe.com. Create a new color theme using a color wheel or download them from the community. Add them to CS2 or 3's Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign. Try it out!

Website as Marketing Tool

deb@perugi.com (Deb Perugi) — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 21:13:00 +0000

More than anything else, business owner's want to use their website as a marketing tool to draw in potential customers. I have to tell them that there is no magic bullet. Hundreds of new sites go online every day, and the competition for the keywords you identify is getting more difficult, if not practically impossible.

But, there is a way to optimize your site to give you a better chance. It's all about content. It can't be stressed enough that compelling content will draw traffic to your site. The more relative key words in your copy, and titles, the more the spiders will come crawling to it. For an interesting short video "The Secret of Search" on this subject, go to this page at Newfangled.com. For more in-depth information on this topic, go to a report from the search engine marketing conference in New York City (March, 2005), "Why Quality Content is Key For Search Engines."

You will need to consider what content you want to publish before building or renovating your company's web site. Perhaps you want to provide information on your company similar to a printed brochure. The advantage of the web is its flexibility and quick turn-around time. So, update your content and provide changing material so that visitors will return to see the newest related product or report. This is a good way to build a customer relationship.

Finally, No web strategy is complete without a marketing plan that defines the intended audience and outlines a way to draw them to your new site. Site marketing plans can include promotion through broadcast media or direct mail. Don't forget to include your url address on all print materials you distribute, including business cards, letterhead and e-mail signatures.