Rick Howard

In sad news, it has been reported that Steve and Barry’s has filed for bankruptcy. Apparently the $8 price for everything didn’t go over as well as they had hoped. The good news is they may not have to close all the stores and could rebound with a better plan, but it is more likely that they will liquidate.

Pay attention aspiring T-shirt designers, cheap might help you start but it won’t help you sustain.

For more helpful advice on apparel design, read gomediazine.com’s article on mistakes made by designers in the apparel and music industry.

The ARC team just returned from the unveiling of the Fayetteville Cumberland County Chamber of Commerce new identity. Excitement is around the corner as the Chamber helps the local community by bringing in new businesses and aiding existing businesses.

ARC Design was proud to be a part of the event by building their website and doing some other identity work.

You can view their new website at http://www.fayettevillencchamber.org/

It’s a simple fact that everyone can have a web site, but not everyone can do web design.

Using Kim Komando, Leo Laporte, Lockergnome and HTMLGoodies will help you but there are other elements involved in web design outside of knowledge of code and how to use frontpage.

This is why it is important for your business to select a web design agency that knows what they are doing.

Here are three tips on how to make the best choice:
1. Does the business have a website?
It sounds like a stupid question, but I have heard commercials for web design services that only list the phone number. You can also find plenty of online ads where the only thing listed is a yahoo, hotmail or gmail address. Hiring one of these is like hiring an amish electrician, if they haven’t experienced your wants, how can they serve your needs.

2. How does the portfolio compare to the site?
You should never choose a design company based on their website. You need to delve deeper and few the design sin their portfolio. Some companies invest more time into their own site than the sites of their clients.

3. How easy are they to find in the phone book?
This really shouldn’t matter. If you wanted a car mechanic, you wouldn’t look in for a personal injury attorney. You should be looking online for a web design company. The whole point of having a website is having people view it. If you can’t find a full service design agency through a search engine then how long do you think it will be before anyone finds you.

To some these may seem like common sense, but amazingly some companies are still in business because unsuspecting business owners don’t know what they are looking for.

If anyone is interested in donating to help fight cancer, I will be participating in the Relay for Life, you can donate at http://main.acsevents.org/goto/Rick_Howard

I will never hold this money in my hands, it goes directly to the American Cancer Society

So please chip in, you never know who you will be helping.

In his political memoir, What Happened, Scott McClellan claims that “he stood at the podium and said he had unknowingly passed along false information.”

Didn’t the president claim this was the reasoning for the war, he received bad information, the same information McClellan wants us to forgive him for. Yet the president got no sympathy and neither should McClellan.

The reason I don’t think he deserves any kind of commendation for his new book is simple. This book is his chance to say the things he couldn’t say while he was working in the oval office. He allegedly was forced to lie to cover up for the White House .

In my mind, he didn’t have to. He could have quit, but instead he put his ambition in the political spectrum  before his conscience. He is no different that the other politicians that we hold accountable. In fact, he might be worse, because now he wants to share what his thoughts were while the country is in a small turmoil. While gas prices are going up, home prices going down and foreclosures going up, War still raging on, an overall bleak view of the future, and the presidents approval rate stuck in lower limbo, Mclellan wants to show us even more negativity. He wants to bring everyones spirits down even more.

Sadly, it’s all to line his pockets with cash and exact revenge on an office that forced him to resign.

Thanks for doing nothing Scott McClellan, I think I liked the old you better.

Cd covers, we look at them all the time, but do we realize that some of them have beautiful design aspects. Some may not start good trends, like 90s rap cds, more specifically anything from Master P’s No limit label, so bad they were mocked in a photoshop friday on something awful(Not for kids). Other are showing how the graphic design world is everchanging. Most notable are “Emo” bands who use simple typography and minimal imagery to show their proverbial hearts on their (CD) sleeves. You don’t have to take my word for it, look at the links below and see for yourself where the design trends may be going.

Stumbled across 15 Inspirational Album Covers on Alyssa Anduiza’s blog. Just days after seeing The Beautiful Unknown: Inspirational Drum & Bass Vinyl Covers.

Both were found through Design Float who have a searchable site where there are several other “Cd Cover” posts.

Go Kids!

In honor of tax day, I am gonna steal todays entry in my Freakonomics calendar.

In 1987 the IRS change one simple rule: Instead of merely listing the name of each dependent child in order to get a deduction, tax filers were now required to provide a Social Security number for each child. On April 15 of that year, seven million American children suddenly vanished from the tax rolls.

It’s amazing how many people break the law if they think they wont be caught. If you think that is interesting, you should read the Freakonomics book.

If you are looking to waste some time, try out the Magic Pen game.

Addictive and fun!

Link courtesy of Komando.com

Billy Madison is one of my favorite movies. Sure it juvenile humor, but it is a heartwarming story of one man’s journey to educate himself in order to save the name of his family.

Ok maybe not that honorable, but funny nonetheless.

Turns out it is really happening as a 70yr old man has re-enrolled in first grade.

Yay for him, I hope it all works out but remember O’doyle Rules!

I realized its been awhile, i actually had plans of grandeur. A redesign was imminent on the horizon, then like all other redesigns before it, I decided I didn’t like it when it was almost done. So back to the drawing board.

Today I present a few good links. I need to figure out how Cameron does his linkage so that I can just put some useful links up when I find them so that these link posts don’t fill up my blog with ways to leave.

No matter, these links are solid.

Blogdesignblog.com offers up the 25 Must books for Web Designers, Amazingly I have read 3 of these and they were great. I guess I need to get to reading the rest. Unfortunately, the library doesn’t carry a lot of them and I am not paying $40 for a 10 minute read book.

Visual-blast.com has 124+ Free Photoshop Actions, even more amazing, I don’t have any of these out of the 40 I already have. I never realized pre-made actions existed but some of these are beyond basic Photoshop usage.

Noupe.com gives us 101 CSS techniques that other designers are using, why aren’t you? It could be you don’t need them, but more than likely you are using some derivative.