As we examined the original site we began to redesign some of the elements that were not the strongest. We chose to keep the original colors of Local Mojo while enhancing different design elements like buttons, icons, navigation bar, and logo.

As a design agency, it is important for us to stay up-to-date with the latest design trends and techniques. We at AgencyWeb know that once we work on a site and take it live, that it will never be fully completed. We will go back and revisit sites and make tweaks here and there to keep the site fresh and up to date.

As we look back over the year, we can reflect on the numerous changes that Local Mojo has gone through. The original design elements that were used to create the very first layout have changed greatly. The current site is now easier to read with larger type and a layout with more whitespace.  Such changes become more appealing to the eye with a web 2.0 style applied to the buttons and navigation bar. The vision that AgencyWeb originally had a year ago for Local Mojo, has changed into something that we could never had imagined. In the design field, trial and error will take one in a direction that could never have been imagined, yet it may evolve into the best direction.

The workshop consisted of 200 different professionals ranging from graphic designers to photographers to website developers. Dave Cross and RC Concepcion, the hosts of the workshop, demonstrated the new capabilities and functions of CS4. The workshop was extremely informative with tips and tricks that can be used in my daily work-flow. Not only did they educate me on the new system, but provided helpful links for inspiration, tutorials, and resources.

CS4 Training Tutorials

As Dave Cross and RC Concepcion said, it is extremely important to stay up-to-date with the technology because if we dont, a twelve-year-old will end up taking our jobs. So, take any opportunity and attend workshops and/or conferences to better your skills as an artist.

If you are ever looking to spice up the office or need a functional/custom mouse pad this is a great place to go. The customer service rep was extremely helpful and quick on emails.

As I distributed the mouse pads around the office, everyone was very pleased with the color and quality. The price was just right for our budget!

Thank you – Custom Mouse Pads!

Follow AgencyWeb on Twitter.

Local Mojo Mouse Pads

The goal of Local Mojo is to allow small businesses to get more customers! Through the brainstorming, the creative process and the implementation of Local Mojo, this was our focus. Local Mojo allows small businesses to create an online presence without breaking the bank. Local Mojo allows small business owners to provide valuable information to its clients such as location with maps, hours of operation, services, payment options, background history and so much more. Small businesses can quickly and easily create a web page that is pushed to over 70 search engines so they will appear when their clients are searching for them. None of these elements just came together over night. It took many months of team meetings, brainstorming sessions, creative-wire-frames, site-maps, and research from different areas to master the needs, wants, and how to implement these elements that would be beneficial to both small business owners and their prospective clients. 

Looking back and examining the process of Local Mojo, the most beneficial tasks as a team that we could have done was the brainstorming sessions, the creative-wire-frames and the usability testing. Although the brainstorming sessions may have lasted hours or even days, the outcome of the sessions were worth it. Sitting in a room and creating the flow of the site, deciding what elements would be most valuable, and how the site can be most beneficial to the user began the outline/skeleton of the site. Then came, the transformation of the outlined information from the brainstorming session into visual creative-wire-frames. The visual wire-frames hung on our office walls allowed AgencyWeb, to examine the flow and the design of the entire site before any programming/coding began. Once the wire-frames went through many revisions, and then approved, the programming/coding began. Once the site reached a certain point, we had usability testing with third-party users. We were happy to see that the users were able to easily and quickly build their site within 20 minutes with no major issues. These users ended the test surprisingly happy with a hassle free web site which was now going to get them more customers. 

As Local Mojo is now live and ready for small business owners to create their Local Mojo Local Website for FREE! Local Mojo also has offers for those small business owners who wish to go beyond the basics. 

So, start getting more customers by visiting LocalMojo.com to sign up for your FREE local web site. 

My favorite part of my Google experience was the Google Cafe. Not only does the Google Cafe face the Bay Bridge with a beautiful view that over looks the water but has a large and healthy selection of foods for its employees. Google Cafe has a wide range of foods from pizza, to Sushi, to sandwiches, to salad bar, to a large variety of hot plates and lets not forget their desserts and home made ice cream. Lunch time is important to re-fuel the brain and body but allows time for interaction between co-workers. The Google Café even goes that step further in helping the environment. Rather than having bottles of water for their employees and using plastic bottles to destroy the environment, they have a reusable glass bottle of water with cups for your drinking pleasure to help make Google green.

-Thank you to Janelle and to AgencyWeb for giving this opportunity to visit Google!

Google Visit to San Francisco Office

1. Open Adobe Illustrator

2. Go to File, New

3. The New Document Window open and here is were you can select/change your document size, color mode and raster effects, then press OK

4. Go to File, Save As and save to your specified location/folder, then press OK.

5. Now that your document is at the appropriate size and that you have saved it, select and hold the rectangle tool on the left hand tool bar. From the “Rectangle Tool” will be a drop down menu. Go down and select the “Ellipse Tool.”

6. To draw a circle, hold down the shift key and drag your mouse to the size of the circle desired.

7. To change the color of a circle, select the “selection tool” (top black arrow) on the tool bar

8. Select the circle and the circle will now have a blue outline

9. At the very bottom of the tool bar, there is a “Stroke” and a “Fill” option. To start with, select the “Stroke” option and double click.

10. The “Color Picker Menu Box” will appear. The “Color Picker Menu Box” allows you to select any color.  Once you have selected a color of your choice, press “OK.”

11.To change the stroke of the circle, use the “Selection Tool” and highlight the circle. Go to Window, Stroke. A Stroke box will open and here is were you can change the weight of the stroke, the end point of the stroke (squared or rounded edge), or if you want a dash line and the size of the space.

12. To copy this circle, highlight it with your “Selection Tool” and hold down “Option” and drag the circle.

13. To fill a circle, by using the “Selection Tool,” highlight the circle, and double click the “Fill” palette at the bottom of the tool bar. The “Color Picker Menu Box” will open and select a color of your choice, press “OK.”

14. If at any time you would like to change the size of your circle, select the “Free “Transform Tool,” and a blue box will appear around the circle. Using your arrow, hold down the shift key and grab any corner of the blue box.  This will allow you to shrink or enlarge the circle.

15. To arrange your circles, you have two options, one: is to create a small pattern and bring it into Photoshop and create a seamless background pattern. Second: to create your own pattern by placing the circles in any position you feel looks or works best.

16. If you want to use option one, create a pattern like the one shown. Copy your pattern and then open Photoshop. Once the New document window opens, press Ok.

17. Paste your pattern into Photoshop. A paste menu box will open and “Smart Object” is selected and press Ok.

18. Go to Edit, Define Pattern.

19. Name your pattern. Then press Ok.

20. Go to File, New. The New document window will open. Name your file, change your document size, resolution and color mode.

21 Go to Edit, Fill.

22. Under Contents-Use, select “Pattern.” Pull the “Custom Patter” drop down menu.

23. Select your pattern. And press Ok.

24. Now, you have a seamless background layout in Photoshop. Now, go to File, Save As. And Save to your specified location.

25. For option two: Go back into Illustrator and select the circle you wish to copy. (Hold down option and drag). You can now rearrange the circles as you wish as seen below.

26. Once you are satisfied with you design, go to File, Save As.

27. Now with either your Seamless Background Pattern or your Pattern constructed in Illustrator, you can now use them within your designs as needed.

Hope you have enjoyed the tutorial! Good luck! And have fun!

Last night, I attended the debut/award ceremony for the magazine and had the chance to meet the very talented poets, photographers and other artists and their parents. The magazine that Ms. Horniker published taught students a lot about writing, designing, time management, team building and many other important skills that these students will take with them as they move forward on their path for success.

My thesis topic dealt with “The Relationship Between Typography and Music.” As graphic designers, it is important to find different outlets for inspiration. For me, music is my inspiration. So for my thesis, I wanted to demonstrate and design a typeface, informational charts representing the “Property of Sound” and “Tones of Music” and how they can be translated into glyphs or typographical treatments which could inspire other designers when designing type.

The question I asked throughout my thesis was “is there a cross culture relationship between typography and music?” I demonstrated my answer of the relationship between music and typography through designing a typeface called Requiem that was inspired from a song by the Trans Siberian Orchestra.

*Requiem, the typeface is available for purchase

For me, working at AgencyWeb as a graphic designer is not the only responsibility or tasks that I have to uphold or learn. Since I have been working at AgencyWeb, I have learned basic knowledge of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), how to run reports on sites, basic editing on websites, and how to blog. These are just to name few tasks that I have learned. Coming to AgencyWeb, I did not know what SEO was or how it effected the outcome of sites. But after working with the SEO specialists who are willing to teach and share their knowledge about SEO I know how beneficial SEO is to any site, and how it can improve a sites ranking.

Another tool that I have learned that is beneficial to a website rank is blogging. For me, I was never really a big blogger, but now, knowing how it promotes sites or information on sites, it has become second nature. Blogging is a great way to comment on stories, events or other materials.

For me, it is important to keep widening my horizon wether it is learning how to blog, making edits on sites, learning what SEO is  or learning about new programs. As technology advances, it is important to stay up-to-date on information and programs and to be as diverse as one can be.