You are just starting a new business and money may be tight… You may be tempted to create your own logo (or ask your cousin) in order to save a few bucks. You may think the fee for a professional logo design and branding is “too expensive”. But hold on a second: you should read this before you decide to “save” that money. There’s a few things you’ll want to consider.
Your business’ image is very important and, as the saying goes “First impressions always count”. The same is true for your logo and business image. People will make assumptions about your business just by looking at your logo, website, brochure, etc. Remember that a logo is more than just a pretty picture. It is a tool to send a message to your prospective clients about how the world is set to see your business. Good branding should make your company’s image memorable and recognizable. An amateur logo/branding may cost you way more than you think.
5 Reasons Professional Logo/Branding is a must.
- Your business may look unstable and unprofessional. As a result, clients may feel insecure and unsure about doing business with you. Would you do business with a company if you were not sure whether they would still be doing business by the end of the week?
- Your amateur logo/branding may confuse people about who you are as a business. Unprofessional and incoherent marketing materials send mixed signals to your prospective clients, and even make them think they are getting marketing materials from different companies. They may also think that you don’t care about the way your business looks and therefore the quality of your work.
- It can make you look as a very small business. What do you think about those free VistaPrint or template-based business cards? If your business cannot afford its own business cards and/or marketing materials and it has to go for the free or cheap ones, it might send the wrong message. The lower quality materials may make it appear that you are not getting business through the door, and that you cannot perform or meet what it is required.
- It may just go completely wrong. We’ve all seen logos that are just completely wrong. Just type “Logos gone wrong” into your favorite internet search engine. If something like this happens to your business reputation, the amount of time and money that you will spend “fixing” your image will be way more than it would have been if you got professional logo design in first place.
These are just a few reasons why you should get professional logo design and branding for your business. Instead of spending hours thinking about what to do and figuring out how to do it, you should spend your time running your business and creating your more important asset: a client base.
If you have never designed a logo, a website, business cards, or other marketing material, and it is not part of the services your business will be offering, please don’t start now. Statistics show that half of new businesses fail in the first five years. Experts say that a common reason is sloppy and ineffective marketing. You will spend an awful amount of time learning how to do it and getting it right, instead of getting more clients and expanding your business.
Not convinced about your current logo? Do you need a new logo and marketing materials? Contact us so we can help you grow your business.
Once an open source system becomes so popular as WordPress very often it becomes vulnerable to attacks. I wonder why the folks at WordPress have not done anything to enhance the security of the admin site, which, by default, you can access by going to /wp-admin.
According to a recent study by Clutch, a business-to-business (B2B) research firm, 46% of small businesses do not have a website. Unfortunately, a big chunk of the other 54% has a website that is hurting them more than it is helping. The problem is that these businesses do not have a professionally developed website, and not only do people see it, but they also judge the business based on it and determine whether they have had a previous interaction with it. Subconsciously, we think, if their website is bad (or even, very bad), then how good can their product or service can be?
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This article will help you setup your email address on your iPhone
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At Phidev, we’re a fast-paced, growing, and a downright cool digital agency. We are looking for a graphic designer. We’re currently looking to hire a part-time/intern Graphic Designer to join our team.
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We were approached by the Hunt Institute to come up with their new web design. After a few years from their inception and of the same website, they were ready to refresh their online home to reflect what they are: A First-Class research institution.
The main idea of the redesign was to bring a clean fresh look to their web design while allowing people to easily find all the great data the institute produces. At Phidev, we loved the challenge of combining multiple audiences and demographics into one responsive website experience. Through research and combining new technologies, we produced a site focused on the user experience as well as providing the interaction to help facilitate finding all the information the Hunt Institute Produces. We also allowed them to easily create events and RSVP forms, turning their website into a more complete business tool.
What we’ve done:
Responsive Web Design / WordPress CMS Integration / Custom Programing
Responsive Web Design
We designed the site to work without a problem over multiple devices and screen sizes and resolutions. Users need the abiliy to look up for information easily, because of this, we made sure all databases from their research are also easily available and that they look great on all screens.
WordPress CMS Integration
We designed the site to work without a problem over multiple devices and screen sizes and resolutions. Users need the abiliy to look up for information easily, because of this, we made sure all databases from their research are also easily available and that they look great on all screens.
This is no longer available
Phidev, a Digital Ad Agency in El Paso, is looking for a passionate Account Manager who will partner with and ensure the long-term success of our customers. In other words, you will be our client’s ambassador within our office.
As our Account Manager, you will be responsible for developing long-term relationships with your portfolio of assigned customers, connecting with key business executives and stakeholders. You will liaise between customers and our cross-functional internal team to ensure the timely and successful delivery of our solutions according to customer needs. We need someone who understands and lives by under-promise and over-deliver and believes that high-quality customer service is not a nice to have but an expectation.
Responsibilities
- Proactively look after our customers
- Operate as the lead point of contact for any and all matters specific to your customers
- Build and maintain strong, long-lasting customer relationships
- Develop a trusted advisor relationship with key accounts, customer stakeholders and executive sponsors
- Ensure the timely and successful delivery of our solutions according to customer needs and objectives
- Communicate clearly the progress of monthly/quarterly initiatives to internal and external stakeholders
- Forecast and track key account metrics
- Identify and grow opportunities within territory and collaborate with sales teams to ensure growth attainment
- Assist with high severity requests or issue escalations as needed
- Support our team with misc office administration tasks
- Resolve/Fulfill customer service requests
- Support different marketing related tasks
- Other duties as needed/assigned
Requirements
- Proven ability to manage multiple projects at a time while paying strict attention to detail
- Demonstrated teamwork skills.
- Proven account management or other relevant experience
- Demonstrated ability to communicate, present and influence credibly and effectively at all levels of the organization, including executive and C-level
- Experience in delivering client-focused solutions based on customer needs
- Excellent listening, negotiation and presentation skills
- Excellent verbal and written communications skills
- Ability to lead and coordinate client solutions
- Ability to fulfill customer service requests in a timely manner
- Be comfortable working in a startup, relaxed and flexible environment
Adding Text to a Slider: Tutorial Steps
- Navigate to your website’s back-end.
- From there, navigate to the “Revolution Slider” plugin. Normally, it will be located on the left menu of the admin pane.
- Near the top of the page, you’ll see a list of your sliders. Select the blue “Edit Slides” button on the slider group that you want to edit.
- This will display a list of the slides in the slider group. Select the green “Edit Slide” Button underneath the thumbnail of the slide that you want to add your text to.
- From this page, you can make any necessary edits to your slide. You’ll want to scroll down, almost to the bottom of the page. From there, you can select the “Add Layer” Button.
- Rewrite the “Caption Text1” to your desired text from the “Layer General Parameters” panel.
- Ensure that the “Style” dropdown is set to “banner-tag”.
- After you ensure that all settings are correct, scroll to the bottom of the page and select the green “Update Slide” button. Don’t worry if the preview on this page looks incorrect, because further styling will be added after you update the slide. A popup tag will briefly appear on the right of your screen, ensuring that your changes have been saved.
- Navigate to the page that contains the slider to ensure that everything looks correct.
- Pump your fists in victory.
This position is no longer available, but send us your portfolio if you think you will be a good fit for Phidev
Phidev is on the hunt for a Web & UX Designer. We’re looking for someone who has a strong understanding of how design translates to web and digital experiences. As an integral member of our team, you will work on a broad range of projects – from designing layouts, navigation, and functionality to designing innovative app experiences and maintaining brand consistency across various digital channels. This is an incredible opportunity to get down into the trenches of a growing digital agency, work with cutting-edge technologies, and solve challenging problems daily. As a Web & UX Designer, you will work on projects and communication pieces that engage our customer’s audiences, including, but not limited to, interactive websites, digital advertising, magazine, and smart-phone apps. Although you will be primarily designing the projects you’re working on, every one of our projects is a team effort and you’ll need to work well with directors, project managers, developers, and designers.
If you love experimenting with technology, have some serious design skills, and are obsessed with creating lasting user and brand experiences, then keep reading!
- 1+ years of professional experience designing and executing in the digital space
- Experience in interactive design of large scale website projects through to edgier campaigns, promotional materials and brand experiences
- Experience designing and testing web and mobile marketing collateral
- Experience in and knowledge of HTML/CSS, responsive design principles, and standard UX web practices
- Photoshop and Sketch App are our lifeblood – you must know and love them!
- You pride yourself on impeccable visual design, relentless attention to detail, and always push yourself to make things ever-simpler
- You have excellent communication skills that enable you to present concepts and designs to internal teams and non-creatives
- You successfully manage multiple projects simultaneously and can handle a fast-paced work environment with deadlines, new challenges, and changing priorities
- You are self-motivated, innovative, possess strong organizational and time-management skills, and have a problem-crushing attitude!
- You have experience with print design and know how to setup files for larger printing press runs
- We award bonus points for working experience with JavaScript/jQuery
- Knowledge of Spanish is also a huge plus!
We were invited to attend “Apple TV Tech Talk” last week in Austin. It was a great experience. It was a day packed with a lot of information about the new Apple TV and advice from Apple experts on how to develop better apps for the Apple TV. This article gives you a summary of what happened.
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Computers are everywhere, but fewer schools teach computer science than 10 years ago. Girls and minorities are severely underrepresented. Good news is, we’re on our way to change this.
With the Hour of Code, computer science has been on homepages of Google, MSN, Yahoo! and Disney. Over 100 partners joined together to support this movement. Last year, every Apple Store in the world hosted an Hour of Code and even President Obama wrote his first line of code as part of the campaign.
Adding a Signature to Gmail: Tutorial Steps
- Navigate to the url containing your custom email signature. This url should have been emailed to you from your Phidev Representative.
- From your browser’s top menu bar, navigate to “Edit” and then choose “Select All”.
- Navigate to your Gmail account.
- From your Gmail account, select your Gmail Settings (located on the right side of your page and shown as a little “gear”).
- From your General settings, scroll down, until you see the “Signature” settings.
- Paste the copy of your signature into the text area by right clicking your mouse and selecting “paste” (you can also use cmd+v for Mac or ctrl+v for Windows)
- Check the box that says, “Insert this signature before quoted text in replies and remove the “–” line that precedes it”.
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and select “Save Changes”.
- Return to your inbox and select “Compose”. You will see your shiny new email signature already in place in your new email.
- Smile knowingly to yourself, knowing that you’ve done a good work.
We were happy to work with Twenty20 Payments to bring their vision to life. There were looking for a clear and subtle improvement in their branding and they came to our digital marketing agency to do so.
They wanted Twnety20 payments to be perceived as a contemporary brand and give a sense to people of how easy it is for them to start accepting credit card payments, along with the other services they provice. They also wanted to give some minor tweaks to their logo and a brand new website that would work well in all screen sizes. We worked hard to give them what they needed: A contemporary brand and consistent offline and online presence.
What We’ve Done
Branding / Graphic Design / Marketing Collaterals / Web Design
It all started with getting some new business cards and updating their logo just a bit to give them the branding image they wanted: clean and contemporary.
Branding
We helped T20 payments from updating the logo to have a more contemporary look to responsive web design. This also included new business card design, email signatures, an agent welcome packet, and iconography. Everything needed to convey their message: Credit Card Payments Made Simple.
Custom Web Design
We designed their website with web conversions in mind. The idea is to get people interested in getting merchant services to contact T20 Pay. Web Usability and easy-to-find contact information were key to do this.
Mobile internet usage is projected to overtake desktop internet usage by 2014— two short years away. If your website is not currently optimized to load fast and look good on a mobile device then you may be missing a part of the action. With people constantly researching businesses and options from their mobile devices to make purchase decisions, having a mobile friendly website is a must!
What is a Mobile-Friendly Website?
It’s a website that has been optimized for mobile devices. This optimization makes sure that your website fits on a mobile device screen, it loads fast, its text is legible, and most importantly, that it is usable from a mobile device.
Why is a Mobile-Friendly Website Important?
As mobile traffic continues to increase, your website will be visited by more mobile devices. There have been several studies showing that people will only wait 5 seconds for a website to load on their mobile device before they try a different option. There have also been studies showing that 73% of mobile searches turn into a purchase decision the same day. Do you really want potential customers to go away because your website did not load fast enough?
Most people will also look for another website when they have trouble navigating the site from their smartphone or when the content of your website does not show correctly. This is highly frustrating and it can be easily fixed with a mobile-friendly website.
Mobile is changing the way we do things; make sure your website is doing the same!