Dreambox Design is offering budget graphic design specials to establish a new client base in Melbourne.

Offer valid only until 31st January 2012

Conditions apply. Contact us to find out if you are eligible for our budget graphic design  here

October 2011, fall for some and spring for others, and although the much-hyped Facebook Timeline has not been launched officially, a beta version is available for testing to Facebook app developers. At the end of this article we’ll give you the link to go get it yourself. Although our solid advice is, think long and think hard about your personal information and your future.

I’ve given some serious thought in the past to extricating myself from the personal info blast lane, but alas, I am hooked as a puppy to his masters voice. I really can’t stand the thought of not being able to contact all my old friends when I want to (even though I don’t), I am addicted to knowing who is having babies and careers, and I’m egotistical enough to want to share the latest photo of my fad-diet butt.

To the younger, more sharey demographic of Facebook, timeline gives users a fresh new look on their profile pages, allowing them to build a Facebook profile “timeline” from birth to present. Users can share all they facebook data they’ve ever posted – on one page, in a two column mega-scroll. Just a warning though, if you’re the type who loves to drink-and-post, this little trip down memory lane is going to get hairy.

In case you were getting worried there wasn’t enough of your personal information posted on facebook, there’s plenty more space on Timeline for you to post those awesome thinner college photos for when that old-flame comes sniffing around after your divorce.  And he’ll find you (no-worries) with the geo-tags detailing the last placed you tagged yourself, smackdab at the top of the page.

On a positive note, Facebook timeline is more user-friendly. Allowing users to “feature” content at the top of the timeline. But if I had to guess, most friends wouldn’t pursue your timeline past two scrolls…unless they were stalking you. It finally get’s a little more personal with the extra-large header image at the top of the page also, which should appeal to us creative types.

Anyway, here’s what you’ve been waiting for: How to try out  the new facebook timeline beta preview which comes with a verified golden pass from me. I tried the method on my profile today! It’s not a hoax, it’s a lee-git way of activating the Facebook Timeline on your profile right now.

Take my advice though…and don’t say I didn’t warn you!

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ADOBE BROWSER LAB – THE JURY IS STILL OUT

External links

DESIGNING A FACEBOOK FAN PAGE

Design

Inez Baranay is a long-time, much- loved client of Dreambox Design.

First published in the 1980′s, Inez recently wrote an erotic vampire novel and needed a sexy new web design to go with her new book.

Since Inez loves to publish novels, short stories, audio, and now e-books, she needed a flexible and easy to navigate website for her vast readership. As well as a website management system that would allow her to update the website herself.

Features

-News feed sidebar
-Book of the month
-E-book sales links
-Custom interaction buttons

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Alternate Concept

Design

Asha approached Dreambox Design with an ambitious plan to open a Toronto-based makeup school, which teaches real world experience and creative networking to new makeup artists entering the field.

She needed to hit the ground running inside of a month with a new downtown location. We created a website with an array of custom features designed to pave a smooth path to online course registration and an light-weight management system for Asha and her staff.

Features

- Integrated Flickr & YouTube plugin updates the site in real-time

- Lightweight Course Registration Management System and A.S.H.A. can add their own dates as needed

There was a time when, while walking down the streets of downtown Toronto, I would see store signs and take them at face value.  But, every so often, I would wonder; what is it that makes me notice some signs over others?  I, like so many other people, had no idea why.  I was completely ignorant of the factors that go into what makes a sign (or a commercial, or a website, or an ad for that matter) work and grab my attention or, if it does not work, cause me to ignore its message.

Then I started dating a graphic designer and my perceptions changed.  I now have a veritable source library about all things design-related walking there beside me down those same Toronto streets.  Looking at those same store signs I’m looking at.  It means I get to hear the educated opinion of someone with inside knowledge.  Awesome.  It also means I hear about what designers go through, with respect to clients, and what they are expected to bring to the table when they are hired.

Designers and clients/bosses:  Whether a web & graphic designer is an employee within a company, or if they are hired as a freelancer web & graphic designer, they are – ultimately – having to work with someone else’s input.  Communication is the key.  The web & graphic designer must be able to elicit what it is the client/boss wants from the project.  This is where it can get tricky.  Not everyone can express their inner-most expectations, forget about eloquence, and many (I’m sure) have only a vague notion of what it is they want the sign/website/commercial to look like.  A key skill to have – for any web & graphic designer – is the ability to engage their boss/client in such a way as to get the most details out of them regarding what they want out of their project.

What web & graphic designers bring to the table:  Even if we assume that the company name, slogan, and general message they wish to convey has already been decided there are still a number of things that a designer must employ to create a successful sign:
•    An overall look, or design motif, for the sign must be chosen
(The choice of overall look impacts on all other design elements within the sign – so get it right)
•    The creation of a logo (if applicable)
•    The font or style of text for the words
•    Colour schemes, for the text, logo, background
•    The use of various visual accents/graphics
•    The size of all of the above elements and their ratio with respect to each other within the sign – including the physical size of the sign itself
(This will impact on the ability of people to see and thus process the visual message)
Just ask yourself:  Did you like the sign/website/commercial or not?  Did it catch your eye?  What were the elements that you liked?  Start paying attention to these things.  Or, if it’s easier for you…you don’t always have to know what you like, but you certainly know what you don’t like (so start noting what you do not like instead).  Remember that a lot of this goes on at an unconscious level anyway so don’t get too caught up in it.  Over time, you too will be able to see the great, and not so great, in design.  It’s all around you.

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