By Adam Garcia
September 11th, 2009
Everyone who has a business seems to be jumping on the Twitter train lately, including myself. It’s a great way to easily get word out to a large group of people about who you are and what you do. Another great thing about Twitter is that it is customizable. But as a designer and a very visual person, I notice a lot of people use the “default” backgrounds that are available and miss the opportunity to really convey their brand identity effectively.
I’m of the belief that B2B companies should use Twitter as an extension of their web identity and carry over the same visual themes and imagery so their current and prospective customers recognize them and associate them with their brand. Here are a couple examples that I thought did this very well.
http://twitter.com/sickdesigner
http://twitter.com/espn
http://twitter.com/yahoo
http://twitter.com/canvascubed
http://twitter.com/kocovega
Have you come across any really creative Twitter pages lately? What are some other ways we can customize social media to help our businesses?
By Adam Garcia
August 24th, 2009
Most graphic designers love to doodle and it becomes a very important part of the creative process. I believe that sketching is vitally important to the success of any logo/design project that I work on.
Sketching ideas helps me to generate a large number of possible directions or variations. Most of them will eventually be thrown out, but the point is to think laterally and not rule anything out in order to achieve the most effective design.
Sketching maximizes your creativity without sacrificing time. In a lot of cases, we show our clients a sketch to give them an idea of where we want a project to go and the final piece ends up looking a lot like that original sketch. This is a lot more efficient than creating finished art and having to go back to the “drawing board” if they want something else.
I recommend not running to the computer right away to start your design process. Sketch a few concepts out. Show them to other people and get their feedback and then sketch some more. Once the idea is fully baked, then fire up the Mac and turn your idea into reality.
What other techniques help get your creative juices flowing? Do you sketch first or go right to the computer during your design process? Do you have any sketching tips and techniques you can share?
