I Guess Logo Design Isn’t That Good in Lexington Either?

• February 7, 2008 ·
• Filed in Logos ·
• 15 Comments

Just a few posts ago I wrote Is Web Design as Bad in Your City as it is Here?, an article that discusses the dire state of web design here in Lexington, KY. Well, it looks like logo design in Lexington, isn’t much better.

Have a look at the image in this article to see what I’m talking about. The top logo is that of LexGo.com, which is portal for entertainment in Lexington and around central Kentucky. While watching television the other day, an ad for their site came on and I immediately noticed what I’m sure everyone else has noticed by now, the strikingly similar concept behind both logos.

It’s a Subliminal Message I Tell Ya!

For anyone not familiar with the concept behind the FedEx logo, which is one of the most popular logos of all time. The concept is that when you take the uppercase “E” and the lowercase “x,” an arrow pointing to the right is formed.

“The arrow could be promoted as a symbol of speed and precision.”

You can read more about the thought process that went into designing the FedEx logo from the creator himself at The Man Behind the FedEx Logo

Lets Get Original

Anyone working professionally as a designer, whether that be web design, or logo design, should know not to rip-off other people’s work. Easy rule, right? For some, I guess it’s no so easy.

Now, I talk about logo design in Lexington simply because LexGo is a Lexington based website. I have no idea who did the logo and for all I know the designer could be living in Florida. I’m simply bringing this up because the concept of the LexGo logo was clearly borrowed from that of the FedEx logo. At any rate, even if the designer doesn’t reside in Lexington, the state of logo design here is till bad! Just do a Google search for “logo design Lexington Kentucky” if you don’t believe me.

I’m sure the people doing the ripping would be the first to complain if their original work was to be ripped by someone else.

You Can Be Inspired, Just Don’t Copy

Sometimes the creative juices just aren’t flowing and I would be lying if I said I didn’t browse other designs looking for inspiration. I even have a folder created on my computer where I save screenshots of logos and websites and keep them packed away for a rainy day when I need some inspiration. The big kicker here is that you can definitely be inspired without ripping the main concept of the logo.

Your Turn to Talk

What does everyone think? Am I the only one that sees this logo ripping off the idea of the FedEx logo? Or am I just overreacting and jumping to conclusions?

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You Have Dozens of Ideas - How Do You Decide Which Ones to Implement?

• January 19, 2008 ·
• Filed in Web Development ·
• 13 Comments

It’s been a while since I posted last. I have about 40 or so article ideas recorded in my Google Notebook, but I just didn’t feel good about writing on any of them right now. Enter Jarkko Laine, the man insanely interested in everything. About a week ago I received an email from Jarkko. He said that he was contacting the most famous (just kidding) bloggers that he knew to ask them one question: How do you decide which ideas to implement?

Continue reading for how I decide what ideas to implement. 

[Continue Reading...]

Look Back at ‘07 and Moving Forward in ‘08

• January 2, 2008 ·
• Filed in Random Jabber ·
• 15 Comments

On May 26, 2007, Random Jabber was born. I guess time really does fly when you’re having fun because it definitely does not feel like I’ve had this blog online for seven months now. Everyone says that once you make it past the magical three month mark, you’re home free. I don’t know what the percentage is exactly, but I know it’s a very small number of blogs actually make it past the third month and I’m elated knowing that I’ve made it this far. In the foreseeable future, I don’t anticipate closing Random Jabber, so hopefully I can continue share my thoughts and someone out there will find them interesting enough to hang around.

A Look Back at ‘07

I don’t really have a list of goals to check off before I can declare something a success, but I definitely would classify ‘07 as a success. Here’s a rundown of some of the highlights of Random Jabber in ‘07.

Random Jabber Numbers For the First Seven Months

• 64 total entries. That works out to be about nine articles per month.
• 654 total comments. That works out to be about 10 per article.
• Google Page Rank of 4.
• Technorati Rank: 144.
• 21,724 total visits and 38,845 page views.
• Sizcons downloads: 16x16: 2,163 12x12: 900.
• 60 RSS subscribers.

I’m very happy about the numbers as small as they may be. It still amazes me that I even have a small following of readers coming back to read what I have to say.

Sizcons in Smashing Magazine
Sizcons was listed one of Smashing Magazine’s Best of September 2007 This was very surprising, but definitely appreciated. I logged into view my site stats one evening and noticed some 2000 visitors in a little over an hour and about fell out of my chair! Thanks Smashing Mag for the listing.

NiceStylesheet Launch
I successfully launched NiceStylesheet, which is my second site. Right now it’s nothing more than a simple CSS gallery, but I’ve got big plans for it in the coming months.

My Writing Skills Improved
If nothing else ever comes out of me running my own blog, one thing I can say for sure is that my writing skills have definitely improved. I’m a long ways off from being qualified to teach writing skills to someone, but coming from despising English class in High School and College to actually enjoying writing and having a desire to improve my writing is a huge step for me.

Moving Forward in ‘08

I have a lot of things I want to accomplish in ‘08, but I don’t necessarily have a list of goals laid out. I’ve never been a goal person in the general sense of the word. When I think of someone setting goals, I think of them getting out a pen and paper and writing down 10 goals and posting it on the refrigerator for an easy reminder. That’s just not me. I agree with Maki’s views on goals, in that you have to be open to the possibility that events can change you. Sure, I have goals, but I don’t feel like I’m so wrapped up in them that I couldn’t change my mindset. I think to many people get wrapped up in their goals and become oblivious to things happening around them, which prevents them from being able to evolve with the times and think outside of the box.

I think Maki put it best when he said:

The journey can exist without a destination: It’s similar to leisurely walking the streets outside your hotel, in a new city you just visited for the first time. The experience itself is immensely refreshing and pleasurable.

Launching my Third Site
I’ve had a website in the making now for going on two years. It was one of those things that I always wanted to start but never had the means to do so. I now have the means to move forward and I’m hoping to launch the site in the next month or so. It will be work in progress and start off initially as a blog/photo gallery. I’ll continue to add features (I’ve got a bunch in mind) as my schedule allows.

New Design Plans for Random Jabber
Once I find some free time, I plan on developing a new design for Random Jabber. It’s not that I’m tired of the current one, but as a designer, I’m never happy. In all honestly, I’m surprised the current design has lasted as long as it has. For the redesign, I’ll be keeping it minimal and uncluttered (or at least that’s my intention). I feel like my footer area now is not serving much purpose at all, so I’ll be possibly getting rid of such things as the MyBlogLog images and definitely removing the Recommended Books section.

Affiliate Marketing
Lately, I’ve been reading a lot on affiliate marketing. There are a lot of different forms of affiliate marketing, but the area I currently am trying my hand at is PayPerClick (PPC) marketing. PPC Affiliate Marketing is basically the marketing of a product through the use a search engine. If you go to Google right now and do a search for something like “scholarships.” One the results come up and you see the “sponsored links” section on the right hand side, majority of those sponsored links are just affiliate marketers pushing the products. Each time someone clicks one of their links and fills out a form or purchases whatever they’re selling, they make money. Sounds easy, but don’t let me fool you. I’ve yet to make a dime doing it, but the simple fact that I know there is money in it (a lot of money I might add) keeps me going.

If there are any affiliate marketers out there reading who’d maybe want to give me some inside on the reason I’ve not been remotely successful thus far, please get in touch with me and we’ll chat.

Stay Focused
The last thing I wanted to touch on for moving forward in ‘08 is staying focused. I do a lot of work online, but I’ll admit, I do a lot of unnecessary stuff too. I read a lot of blogs (I subscribe to around 100), and I spend a lot of time reading forums. It’s not totally a bad thing as you can gather a lot of great ideas and network with a lot of like minded people when you visit blogs and post at forums, but the time I spend reading and posting could definitely be put to better use by writing articles for Random Jabber or developing a new site. This is definitely one thing that I will need to improve upon this year.

What About You?

How was your ‘07? What plans do you have for ‘08?

[That's the End of the Article, so Why Not Leave a Comment?]

Sizcons Additions and David Airey

• December 26, 2007 ·
• Filed in Logos ·
• 10 Comments

A while back I received a few emails from readers (Stefan Moeller and Style Ignite) requesting the addition of some icons into the Sizcons set. I had been pretty busy working on other projects and never had the time to design these icons in a prompt manner for these individuals as I said I would when I replied back to them. I apologize for that, but better late than never, right?

Here’s what was added:

• Updated flags with different colors and more detail.
• Printer icon.
• Upload and download icons.
• Pictures icon.
• Three security shield icons.
• Created a new green refresh icon.

Along with these additions, I also touched up some of the existing icons. I noticed a few blemishes on some of them. Hope everyone likes the updates. If you can think of anymore you would like added, let me know.

David Airey Was Hacked

My good friend David Airey had his site hacked recently. The hacker gained access to David’s Gmail account and was able to successfully transfer David’s domain (daividairey.com) right out from under his nose. Now, the hacker is holding David’s domain hostage and asking for ransom. Luckily for David, he also owned http://www.davidairey.co.uk as well, so he’s using it as a backup until the whole situation is cleared up. So, update your bookmarks.

Good luck David. If there is anything I can do, let me know.

[That's the End of the Article, so Why Not Leave a Comment?]

Is Web Development as Bad in Your City as it is Here?

• December 19, 2007 ·
• Filed in Web Development ·
• 22 Comments

I’ve been pondering the idea of starting my own company offering web design and development solutions (more on this in a later article). With this in mind, I got curious about the quality of work companies are doing here in Lexington, KY. I decided to Google “Web design in Lexington, KY” to see what I could find. Although Lexington is the second largest city in Kentucky, it’s still very small with close to 300,000 people. There are actually more companies offering web design/development services than I expected.

To my surprise, after looking at quite a few company websites and their portfolios, an astonishing number of them (all that I looked at) should not be referring to themselves as professionals.

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