Customer Blog

Here is my two customer websites.

My WordPress Site for Revolution Church

My Square Space site for Revolution Church.

My customer blog on Blogger.com for King's Automotive.

For my customer blog I made a blogger blog for King’s Automotive. King’s is an auto shop located in Pittsburg, Kansas. The owner is Bob Romine. Mr. Romine is part of Covenant Harvest Church and in conjunction with his church he puts on Car Care every year, a free oil change service for single moms. When is asked Mr. Romine what things would be important to include on the blog he said that he wanted it to include an area about the shop, a list of the services provided, and information about Car Care.

The target audience for the blog is vehicle owners ages 20-45, most likely male. The target audience would most likely be those who can afford to have their vehicle worked on by a private company rather than a chain.

The King’s Automotive logo features a large portion of serif font in a purple with accents of hot pink. I stuck with this theme throughout the whole blog. When I was looking for a background to use I looked for one that was masculine and fitting for the blog content. After much searching I found the concrete looking background that is now on the blog.

The gadgets that I featured on the blog were all considered with much thought. I chose to use a gadget that visitors could use to share information about the blog on Facebook. I also created a poll of what services visitors would most likely request when they visit the shop. The page features a blog search area as well as a visitor counter.

Blogger vs. Wordpress

Blogger and Wordpress are both very great resource that we can utilize to communicate with others through blogs. Though they are both using the same platform, they are very different creations. Not only are they different but they also have their pros and cons.

Blogger has a pretty wide range of customizable templates. They also lend the ability to have completely unique templates by creating your own. Wordpress has no theme (Wordpress’s version of templates) editing. The ability to customize the CSS is only available through the paid upgrade. Despite this, Wordpress has over 100 themes that have different levels of customization, such as custom header, custom background, and the ability to make your blog, as Wordpress describes it, “Display a mobile theme when this blog is viewed with a mobile browser”.
Blogger only allows 1 Gigabyte of image memory. Wordpress has 3 Gigabytes of image memory, with the ability to get more through paid upgrades. With Wordpress you can also upload many different files such as .ppt, .doc, .odt and .pdf files, with more available through paid upgrades.
Blogger has free domain name mapping whereas Wordpress charges $17 for a custom domain name.
They both now have mobile applications available. Wordpress has apps on both the iTunes market and the Android market, whereas Blogger is only available on the Android market.
There are many reasons why someone would choose one of these services over another, and these are only a couple of those reasons.

Image from Make Money As You Travel.

Microsoft Tags

Snap this box with Microsoft Tag and it will bring you back to this blog.

Inspiration Post

Last semester I was inspired by a alternative resume that I saw on the blog FPO: For Print Only. The resume had a lot of different elements that I like but what I liked the most was the use of icons instead of words. I think that the use of type and imagery together created a beautiful piece that would work great in many situations.

This is an example of how she used icons to illustrate where she is from.

From the inspiration that I got from this piece, I did something similair on a CD case that I made for Layout and Design. The CD case my use of an alternative resume, with a CD inside featuring a disk resume.

Here is my version of the icon use.

Happy (Late) Birthday Starbucks!!!

On March 8th, 2011, Starbucks celebrated its 40th birthday. It also rolled out its new logo. It features the same “siren” that it has for years but it is missing something that some can’t just get around: their name. The new logo is completely graphic not having any type on it at all. It is said to be a design celebrating the Starbucks Siren. In a press release given Thomas P., their interactive content manager, says

“For those of you who aren’t sold on the new mark, all I ask is this: give it time. As you start to see it out in the world, I hope you’ll start to appreciate the simplicity and elegance of the new design. I like the new mark because I feel that we’ve unleashed the Siren, a mythological figure who represents the romance and creativity that inspired the founders of Starbucks 40 years ago. I hope that unleashing that energy – that mojo – will keep us (and you) inspired for the next 40 years.”

The logo has been received very well by the public so far. Though there are always critics to change, it is nothing compared to the fiasco of last years Gap logo redesign. In fact, in the press release the author talks about that.

“The verdict from the design community has generally been more positive, and even the voice behind the hilarious (but fake) Gap Logo Twitter account lent support.”

Overall, I really like the new logo. It is simple and clean while still having a strong enough similarity to its predecessor. I think it does a very good job at showing that Starbucks is a ever changing company, willing to take risks to visually show what they are about.






Images from Brand New.

How to install a Blogger HTML template

There are many different ways to customize a blogger blog. One simple way is to install a Blogger HTML template. The tutorial can be found here.

First you need to choose a HTML template. Mine was found here.

Then you copy the code so you can input the code. From there you go to “Edit HTML” under “Template”.

Here you can paste the code into the template area.

Finally you save the template and you’re done!

Here is my original blog template.
And here is my installed HTML template.

Preflight Semester Project

This semester I am taking Preflight and File Analysis. Our individual semester assignment is a mailing brochure that will fold down to 5"x5.5". The right panel will fold into center while the left panel will fold over center by 1/4". the outside panels will fold in 1/8" short. The brochure is supposed to include seven raster images, of which three will be crossovers and one will be a cut out background (COB). We also are to include two Illustrator vector images. One of the headings on the brochure is supposed to have a vector raster effects drop shadow. There also will be a reverse on each side of the brochure. The subject of the brochure was our choice, with the permission of our professor, Mr. Dave Sours. The subject must be informational about a person, place, or thing reaching an audience of 5,000 or more. I chose to do my brochure on the Big Island of Hawaii, Hawaii because I visited there this past summer with my family. All of the vector images were created by me and all of the photographers were taken by me.

Here is my progress as of midterm.

This is the inside.

This is the outside.

To learn more about the beautiful island of Hawaii, visit GoHawaii.com