Craft Creative

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Essential Elements for your Business’s Website

This is the digital age. People no longer find businesses in the yellow pages. They rely on the internet.  Your webpage is the front door to your business. There are several elements to consider integral to a successful business webpage.

You need clear navigational tools. People are bombarded by online content and will not spend time trying to find info on your site. It’s important that the usability of your page is second nature to any visitor.  Typically located at the top of the page, they should provide passage to About Us, Contact Info, and Previous Work pages as well as a return to the Homepage. Another element that should live on the navigation bar are links to your social media platforms. Those are small and effective icons representing any and all social media platforms your company is active on.  Placing them on the navigation bar allows for the viewer to revert to your social media sites at any time during their tour of your site.

Your About Us section is very important. It needs to include the company’s mission statement as well as an overview of the key players. Include pictures or bios of your employees. Don’t worry if you only have one or two employees. Trying to look larger than you are is never the right answer. People are far more likely to do business with you if you have personal touches like photos and biographies.  The modern buyer values company transparency tremendously.

A Contact Us section is imperative. Your address, phone number and link to a map should be clearly visible. There should also be an option to send an email from the site directly.  Even if the About Us section has your email listed, you want the opportunity to contact to be right in front of anyone on your site, especially if the header reads “contact us.”

Bolster your site with pieces of your resume. Add career hi lights from your company in small viewable pieces to provide credibility to what you offer. Your website will want to waste no time educating your potential buyers on what the company can provide. With clear navigational tools your site visitors will get a wonderful first impression of your company.  Well placed and easily accessible contact information paired with relevant past work will help secure the decisions made by prospective clients.

[craftcreative-blog]

Up Your Portrait Photography Game

We live in a world filtered. Enlarged eyes, computer generated glasses or ears populate the various platforms on which we post photos of ourselves and our lives.  Professional headshots are becoming less common due to improvements made to cellphone cameras. Polished portraits are important to the professional world in almost every industry.  LinkedIn has created a need for a professional online visibility. Without a workable portrait, the profile suffers. The following components will create a professional and polished photograph.

The first thing to pay attention to when shooing is the lens you’re using. Take into consideration the shot itself and how far away from the subject you’re planning to be. Your lens choice is one of the most direct ways to alter the look of the image.  A close up portrait is a fantastic choice for the professional world.  For that, the depth of field won’t need to be too big. Consider using a 50mm lens or something similar.  That will create a blur of the background and soften the focus around the back of your subject’s head. It will place their face, eyes, nose or whatever you see fit in the small area that is perfectly focused.  This will allow you to command the correct focus of the image.

Pay close attention to the eye lines as well. If your subject is looking directly into the camera, that creates a connection to the viewer.  That can be positive or negative depending on the use for the photo. Be conscious of the angle they are looking as that commands much of the tone of the image and changes the way their face will be interpreted. Be sure to give your subject the direction they need where their eyes are concerned. A downcast view simply because they glanced down as you fired the camera is not reason enough to create a strong image. If a picture is truly worth one thousand words, it had better tell quite a story and as the photographer, directing and managing eye lines will put you in control of that story.

Experiment with looking room.  Looking room is how much room is between the subject’s eyes and the edge of the shot. Looking room in front of their eyes allows for a comfortable image. Viewers can see what they see and feel at home in the image, a sense of knowing what is going on.  Take your next photo with their eyes gazing out but pressed against the edge of the frame. This will result in a trapped feeling, a stifled format for your subject. These are all technical tools to assist in the storytelling process.

Composition, or the formatting of the image itself includes subject, background and everything in between. It should be carefully examined before shooting anything. Be careful to avoid long lines that draw the eye out of the image, experiment with lines that move the viewer's eye towards your subject.  

Horizon lines are a common detriment to amateur photography. Placing the horizon directly in the middle of your image will half it and give it the look of an old school tourist photo.  Decide if you want more ground or more sky. Experiment with what you prefer, what tells the story of your subject better.

These technical tips can help photographers better capture portraits.  If all else fails, work to distill the person you’re shooting within one frame. Capturing the complexity of a human being in one image is the ultimate task and why photography is as popular and impactful as it is. Portrait photography is a hard job but an important one. Let their thousand word story play across their face over a moment in time frozen as an image.

[craftcreative-blog]

What Does A Logo Do For My Company?

Company branding is a pinnacle of the world of marketing. This is more important than just running specific colors and someone’s cousin’s photoshop creation as your logo.  Logos are often an afterthought of the company, something usually not considered in budget discussions.  A logo is the helm of your ship, a visual representation of your brand. It functions as a shorthand to the public immediately helping them understand what they can expect from you.  Logos provide security in purchasing decisions and are translated into many different forms over the branding life of a company.

The logo for your brand should be carefully constructed by a graphic designer.  So much design work lives within the details, shape, color, and typography choices that make a successful brand image. Nothing is ever done solely because it “looks cool.” It’s done to evoke a response from the viewer and nudge them in the direction of your business. Subconscious reactions to images are one of the things that make us deeply human. Designers understand the intricacies of this practice and utilize them through a successful logo design.

The logo is the face of your brand and the most important step towards branding the business and the operators. You’ll fly under the flag of your logo so it better be one of the best aspects of the company. A logo is an investment, aside from the time and effort of your graphic designers.  Everything purchased for your company such as merchandise, office supplies, equipment, even vehicles become branded with this image. That makes changing it nearly impossible.

Successful rebranding of a company begins with a logo change. Business loss is inevitable. Many food companies attempt it. “New look, same great taste.” That text, splattered across a new design on the packaging is basically a plea to the buyer to look past the change of logo and continue business. Buyers are inherently put off.  They feel betrayed. The logo gave them comfort. The image on the shelf is what they scanned for, not the name. Not finding it is a let down. Finding it changed is worse. The change asks them all over again if they are interested in continuing a consumer/provider relationship. It presents an opportunity to switch that would otherwise have not existed. Proper care and design in the logo from the get go will avoid these issues. Logos collect and retain power. Changing them places them back to square one. The public eye is very trainable with the proper visual representation. Failure to access that will be a major downfall of the company.