I just read a piece that really hit home. I've said this before, but, to quote from this article "It’s astounding to me how many businesses come to us without their data after leaving an agency. In fact, many come to us not even owning their own website." Many designers will register your domain name but put themselves in all the contact fields- Registrant, Admin, and Technical, which means that they technically own your domain, and releasing it from an unwilling (or missing) designer can be a nightmare.

Once your domain name is registered, go to whois.com or similar site, and check your domain name. Make certain at least two of the names are people associated with your company- I recommend two different names- so you have control if the need arises. Do this before your designer is paid in full so you have some recourse if they reuse to change it. The designer should also be willing to give you copies of your web files- you own anything you paid for.

Here is a link to the article:
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/digital-extortion-dont-let-your-data-be-held-hostage/278587/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=feedpress.me&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+searchenginejournal

Put our knowledge and expertise to work for your business— visit our webpage and then contact Canzani Graphics today! All content ©2011-2018 Canzani Graphics

Put our knowledge and expertise to work for your business— visit our webpage and then contact Canzani Graphics today!
All content ©2017 Canzani Graphics

Put our knowledge and expertise to work for your business— visit our webpage and then contact Canzani Graphics today!

All content ©2017 Canzani Graphics

Expanding fonts choices in Google Docs

Online typography is evolving at a rapid pace as more content providers get into the mix. Live type- text that can be copied and pasted, and more importantly, searched by web bots- is crucial to search engine optimization of a website. But designers such as myself are not satisfied with the (very) limited choices available- those fonts that are installed on every machine and device, such as Verdana, Arial and Times.

Enter Adobe, where, if you are a Creative Cloud member, you can use Typekit to choose web fonts you may not have locally (on your device) and Google Fonts which offers a great selection of fonts for free. Adding a line of code (supplied) to the head section of your web page calls up fonts from an online storage database to display text in that font. They don't have every font, but they have quite a selection to expand previously available choices.

I've written about this in the past, and that isn't what prompted today's post. In a busy schedule, I don't always want to open InDesign to type up an invoice, save it out as a pdf, and email it; that's why I made a blank invoice template in Google Docs. Here again, I thought my font choices were limited to the default few, but today I discovered you can use any of the google web fonts in your google docs! At the very bottom of the dropdown fonts menu, you'll see a small "F+ More fonts…" where you can add a selection of other fonts to the font menu in Google docs. Using a cloud based platform no longer means you have to be bland or boring!


Put our knowledge and expertise to work for your business— visit our webpage and then contact Canzani Graphics today!
All content ©2011-2015 Canzani Graphics

The science behind fonts

I was immediately drawn in by the title of the article “The science behind fonts (and how they make you feel) by Mikael Cho on thenextweb.com. As a designer, I am always looking for the perfect font to display the content I am showcasing. Fonts have feeling, and they evoke an emotional response to the content even before the viewer reads the words. In the article, Cho echoes this sentiment and refers viewers to the work of psychologist Dr. Kevin Larson of Microsoft and Dr. Rosalind W. Picard of the MIT Media Laboratory examining the effects of good typography on mood and comprehension. Design is intrinsic in everything we see, though most people are largely unaware of its presence. Bad design is obvious because it makes the viewer feel uncomfortable and strain to understand what’s being presented. Thinking that design is a disposable expense is an enormous mistake many companies make when trying to cut costs, because they don’t see its economic value, but there is no sense in spending any amount of money or resources in producing something with bad or mediocre design, because you miss out on its positive impact and potential to influence buyers. Only the company that makes unique machine parts can afford to skimp on design considerations.

So when considering the information you want to convey, also consider the way you plan to convey it and remember that presentation is an integral component of the message.

Put our knowledge and expertise to work for your business— visit our webpage to learn more about Canzani Graphics.
All content ©2014 Canzani Graphics

Think you have ANY privacy?

I just had a horrifying experience and it's a wake-up call for anyone who still believes we have any privacy. My brother tried to refill his TMobile minutes with their automated phone system, but apparently the system kicks out random charges for "verification." He was unaware of this, but was getting alerts saying he was still running out of minutes, so he knew something must be wrong.

This morning, I spent an hour trying to sort it out with the bank and TMobile, and finally got the information I needed, but he had to call them back to 'verify his credit card.' OF COURSE, his phone ran out of minutes mid-call, so only way to solve the problem was for me to call and use my credit card so they could speak to the card holder (me) since they now had no way to reach him. Here's the scariest part—remember, I don't have an account with TMobile and never have— they asked me a series of questions using information from "publicly available sources." The questions included the last 4 digits of my Social Security number, the town in which a street I lived on (they named the street) was located in (from a list of towns they named), the state I lived in between 19xx and 19xx, AND THE YEAR I WAS BORN. And they knew all this… I feel sick…
#TMobile #publiclyavailableinfo #NOPRIVACY

Put our knowledge and expertise to work for your business— visit our webpage and then contact Canzani Graphics today!
All content ©2011Canzani Graphics

what will a website cost?

Business owners always ask what a website will cost. Anytime a business owner is considering an idea they are not knowledgeable about, they look for parameters and information that will guide them in making a sounds business decision. It’s cost vs. value — will the value of the service outweigh the initial expense?

Answering the cost question is not simple. When I buy a widget, I am purchasing a specific, defined product, but a client rarely knows exactly what their website will encompass. They usually have a general idea and may even have a well-thought-out plan, but revisions and additions often surface and will affect the final price. Outlining the set-up costs, such as domain registration and web hosting, I then give clients a price range for design and coding. When/if I reach the upper limit of that range, I consult with them before proceeding, giving the client the option of moving forward or limiting their expense. (See also http://websitewisdom.blogspot.com/2011/04/websites-what-about.html)

Today I found an online calculator buyers can use as a guideline. According to the calculator, the website I just completed, a 5 page custom e-commerce site, was worth up to $7,500. (They break cost down into providers charging the most to the least—Professional Firm, Freelancer or Offshore Provider. I found it a bit offensive that this implies that freelancers and offshore providers are not professional!) I charged less than half that amount, in part because the design and images were provided by another designer and needed only minor tweaking. Granted, I have lower overhead than a “Professional Firm,” but I am always walking the fine line between providing a service at a cost my clients can afford and under-pricing my services, since that sometimes leads to prospective clients undervaluing them.

Website design can be template-based or customized, and most clients start out just wanting to have a site at the lowest possible price point. Their ideas change once they get involved, as they see the site’s potential and want the site to reflect the same level of care and expertise they take with their product or service. A slapdash site reflects a slapdash attitude towards your business and that’s not going to attract quality clients. As long as there are tv ads for ‘free’ websites and domain names for 99¢, business owners are going to think charging anything more than that is an attempt to rip them off. It’s anything but; our work as designers is to enhance users/customers perception of your product or service, thereby resulting in more business for our clients.

Put our knowledge and expertise to work for your business— visit our webpage and then contact Canzani Graphics today!
All content ©2013Canzani Graphics