By Zo Nicholas
| Author: Zo Nicholas, Media, Marketing, Publishing.Co-Founder of YORGOO, Ycademy,YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader or Subscribe by Email. |
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By Zo Nicholas
Best Small Business Product Shop is the latest development, and still very much in the construction stage. The Product Shop is the next step that follows up on the IT Consulting site created in 2009.
The Small Business Product Shop is a based on the WP Best eShop, a WordPress based Semiomantics Script, installed and configured during this weekends Ycademy Business Building Seminar.
Based on years of experience, the Small Business Product Shop will offer everything that is needed to build a top ranking online presence.
We offer the very best up to date web solutions whatever your need: complete hosting solutions ~ custom website development ~ web applications ~ e-commerce ~ business development ~ system management and maintenance services. All services are based on top performing Semiomantics scripts.
Check back for more to come from the Best Small Business Product Shop.
| Author: Zo Nicholas, Media, Marketing, Publishing.Co-Founder of YORGOO, Ycademy,YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader or Subscribe by Email. |
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My by now famous Astir Beach Image which can also be found on Google Top 10 was the sample for last night’s Ycademy session where we were experimenting with frames and borders. Here some more results after yesterdays Session Preview:
astir16Move your mouse over image or click to enlargeVouliagmeni Astir Beach, Glass Frame
astir5-backlightMove your mouse over image or click to enlargeVouliagmeni Astir Beach, Backlight
astir5-blackglassMove your mouse over image or click to enlargeVouliagmeni Astir Beach, Smokedglass
astir5-whiteglow2Move your mouse over image or click to enlargeVouliagmeni Astir Beach, Whiteglow
astir5-whiteglowMove your mouse over image or click to enlargeVouliagmeni Astir Beach, Whiteglow 2
astir5-steelripplesMove your mouse over image or click to enlargeVouliagmeni Astir Beach, Steel ripples
astir5-steelframeMove your mouse over image or click to enlargeVouliagmeni Astir Beach, Steel frame
astir5-pitsMove your mouse over image or click to enlargeVouliagmeni Astir Beach, Pits
astir5-orangejuiceMove your mouse over image or click to enlargeVouliagmeni Astir Beach, Yellow
astir5-goldbevelMove your mouse over image or click to enlargeVouliagmeni Astir Beach, Gold
astir5-dalimeltdripMove your mouse over image or click to enlargeVouliagmeni Astir Beach, Dali Melt and Drip
astir5-chromeMove your mouse over image or click to enlargeVouliagmeni Astir Beach, Chrome
astir5-blackglassMove your mouse over image or click to enlargeVouliagmeni Astir Beach, Black Glass
| Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics.If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription. |
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By Zo Nicholas
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Part of the learning experience when learning a new skill is the playing, having fun and testing out possiblilities. Its all part of the creative process that we often miss out on when working at a daily job. When learning about Photoshop there’s a lot of fun to be had testing out the Photoshop Action Scripts.
Once you have mastered a few basics, then its more fun to be able to see some final products. Here are a few examples of some very easy to use Action Scripts that produce good looking results with a few simple clicks.
Angel Glass Action Script
Very easy to use Angel Glass to produce some great looking pictures.
Membership Card
Another Action Script that creates a professional looking membership card.
Babyshop CD
A fun way to wrap up and sell products online. Very easy to use with a few simple mouse clicks and just adding your own text and colours etc.
For more Photoshop Live trainings and tutorials you can join the next session at Ycademy. For more information about trainings feel free to contact me here.
| Author: Zo Nicholas, Media, Marketing, Publishing.Co-Founder of YORGOO, Ycademy,YORGOO Press and Semiomantics.If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader or Subscribe by Email. |
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Elegance in Web Design – and Graphic Design in particular – is another important attribute we really want to pay attention to, meaning to not only consider elegance as a sort of decoration but rather integrate it as an essential part of our online communication. We need websites and blogs that ‘talk’ , that ‘attract’ and ‘captivate’ – especially when it comes to images, ads and web graphics. So let’s look into how we can achieve exactly this.
Living that close to Nature and considering it my most graceful teacher, I am often stunned by the aesthetic beauty of apparently simple things. Actually, I have come to the conclusion that Elegance has a lot to do with Balance and Harmony.
I thought of this today when watching these beautiful, extremely long-tailed sunbirds – considering their tiny size – hovering in perfect balance over sumptuous red flowering gums in my garden – high up in the wind! What a perfect example – and luckily I had my Coolpix P90 for some great digital photos. These pictures inspired me to write an article on “Elegance” which I had foreseen for my Web Design Consulting Publication.
When thinking of Elegance in Web Design, we want to first define what it actually means – so we get a clear understanding.
Wiki describes it as “… the attribute of being unusually effective and simple. It is frequently used as a standard of tastefulness, particularly in the areas of visual design and decoration. Elegant things exhibit refined grace and dignified propriety.
Some westerners associate elegance with simplicity and consistency of design, focusing on the main or basic features of an object, its dignified gracefulness, or restrained beauty of style.
Others understand the word in an opulent light as in tasteful richness of design or ornamentation “the sumptuous elegance of the furnishings.”
The proof of a mathematical theorem is considered to have mathematical elegance if it is surprisingly simple yet effective and constructive; similarly, a computer program or algorithm is elegant if it uses a small amount of intuitive code to great effect.
In engineering, a solution may be considered elegant if it uses a non-obvious method to produce a solution which is highly effective and simple. An elegant solution may solve multiple problems at once, especially problems not thought to be inter-related.
In chemistry, chemists always look for elegance in formulations as well as effectiveness in dosage form design.
Visual stimuli are frequently considered elegant if a small number of colors and stimuli are used, emphasizing the remainder.”
Now here we have some significant keywords pertaining to Elegance that all point us into a clearly defined direction when approaching our Web Design or Graphic Design:
And coming back to our little feathery friend – it’s all there… and this is where Nature surprises and astonishes us all the time, it’s what makes it serene and what resonates with us as deep inside where we know that all is ONE.
If we manage to express these feelings with our Artwork, we touch, we communicate and we captivate; then our goal as graphic designers is attained.
If you wish to learn Adobe Photoshop join our weekly Ycademy Trainings where we teach basic principles and techniques and where we also show you how to integrate important elements into your Web Design – like Elegance.
Ycademy Trainings are hands-on with step-by-step guidance to allow all participants to advance and produce web graphics they can be proud of. The results after just a few sessions were astonishing! There’s nothing like getting a grip on something that seemed so far away – if not impossible – and then producing one’s “own stuff”! Yes! You can!
The next Ycademy Training is on Thursday at 7 pm London time.
| Author: Bianca Gubalke, Art, Media, Publishing.Co-Founder of YORGOO, YCADEMY and Semiomantics.If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription. |
Tonight’s Ycademy call will deal with creating Borders in Photoshop. After the session about round corners, we will today look at some other types of borders which can be created with just a click of the mouse or two.
We will create elliptic borders, ripples, sunken and raised borders, capsules, buttons and so on. Be there at 7 pm London.
astir2Move your mouse over image or click to enlargeAstir Beach 1
astir2aMove your mouse over image or click to enlargeAstir Beach 2
astir2bMove your mouse over image or click to enlargeAstir Beach 3
astir2cMove your mouse over image or click to enlargeAstir Beach 4
astir2dMove your mouse over image or click to enlargeAstir Beach 5
astir2eMove your mouse over image or click to enlargeAstir Beach 6
astir2fMove your mouse over image or click to enlargeAstir Beach 7
astir2gMove your mouse over image or click to enlargeAstir Beach 8
astir2hMove your mouse over image or click to enlargeAstir Beach 9
… and of course you can mix the border filters :-).
| Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics.If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription. |
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Creating your own Web Graphics is great fun if you have:
Nothing is more elating and satisfying than seeing results one never thought being capable of producing!
“Improvisation Dali” by Bianca Gubalke
One of our eminent Ycademy Members, Laetitia Paris from Auvergne in France, is eagerly following our Adobe Photoshop Tutorials on her CS4 and delighted by her attractive result following the step-by-step instructions and screenshots on “How to Combine Color and Black and White in an Image” just a few days ago:
CONGRATULATIONS Laetitia Paris!
You are invited to learn Adobe Photoshop at today’s Ycademy Workshop at 7 pm London in our private Microsoft Conferencing Center.
Time permitting, we will continue with our Web Design Consulting Blogs and look into the WP Best eShop created at the recent Ycademy Business Building Seminar.
| Author: Bianca Gubalke, Art, Media, Publishing.Co-Founder of YORGOO, YCADEMY and Semiomantics.
If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription. |
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By Zo Nicholas
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Being new to Photoshop, but not entirely new to image editing, I have enjoyed following Biancas Photoshop tutorials and tips.
Bianca is providing some superb Photoshop trainings at the Ycademy training sessions as well as tutorials on her blog that you can follow step by step.
Having attended the live, learning online training session provided by Bianca on ‘how to create rounded corners’ I learnt so much and much more than just that. Photoshop has so many of these little features that one can use to adjust any image and create a completely new effect. It’s fun trying out the features and becoming accustomed to how they work, and the effect that can be achieved.
Here is the result from the training session.
From this:
to this:
There are many live, learning online training sessions provided byYcademy. Throughout the year the training calls provide extremely valuable information and training courses for anyone running or learning to run a home business online.
| Author: Zo Nicholas, Media, Marketing, Publishing.Co-Founder of YORGOO, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader or Subscribe by Email. |
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Style is one of the key elements when it comes to Web Graphics or any form of Design. . . and here I don’t refer to style sheets… although they present a basic element of Website Design today.
Style has to do with your “Secret Garden”. . . it is something you recognize immediately – and as such it’s important for your web presence and especially for your Branding.
Style expresses who you are.
Style – what is it?
We know the expression “style” from musical compositions and linguistics. Yes, it has to do with composition.
We know it from stars… think Michael Jackson, think Tina Turner… Madonna… Queen. Each has or had their particular style – which resonates with us or it doesn’t. It has to do with resonance.
There are distinctive architectural styles over the centuries and epochs that shaped them. We distinguish it easily in Visual Arts, where style refers to either the aesthetic values followed in choosing what to paint and how… or the techniques applied in doing so. It has to do with aesthetic values, definitely.
And of course, style is the determinating factor when it comes to fashion design. A legend like Coco Chanel was – and will always remain – its icon.
According to Wiki, Design it refers to “…the process of creating something”. Hmmm, I’m not too convinced here, but definitely, Style is a creative expression.
An expression of what?
An expression of an individual… creator? Designer? Artist?
An expression of time, an epoch, its people?
Here we have another important element: Time!
But then, style is timeless… and perhaps herein lies its secret: to express timelessness – the essentials of being – within Time and with the right Timing.
At Web Design Consulting we take the time to understand what our clients want to express – and guide them into finding, developing or enhancing – their own Style.
When creating the above color composition from an original picture from my garden, I thought of our German partner Ute Schaedler.
| Author: Bianca Gubalke, Art, Media, Publishing.If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription. |
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Developing a transparent WordPress Based Photo Blog, I got inspired to use some elements in a Grunge environment. It’s creative, it’s fun, it’s the Semiomantics XO Theme for WordPress.
The first step is to create a grunge background:
Grunge Background for WP
This background is 1680 x 1250 pixels big and has a weight of 130 kb only.
Step 2: make your backgrounds transparent and set opacity to 70 %.
Add some fancy fonts for h1 and h2 using the Fontburner plugin.
It is not easy to read content on colored backgrounds, therefore we add a hover function to show white backgrounds on left content and sidebar.
No vertical tiling is needed, also on long blog posts when the content scrolls over the background. We fix the background attachment (background image).
To get the header effect I have loaded a transparent header png with no content and added a top margin to adjust the position of the content.
The blog title is painted on the background with position top left to allow display on any monitor irrespective of resolution and size.
Your creativity is the limit. You could create an overlay look by adding a black background with 80% opacity:
Try and enjoy!
How Small Businesses Become Big Businesses and Big Businesses Become Empires.
