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	<title>The Personal Blog of Ken Laing &#187; Graphic Design</title>
	<atom:link href="http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/category/graphic-design/feed" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://www.design2work.net/whatisay</link>
	<description>I&#039;m a web designer, developer and internet marketer</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Mon, 25 Jul 2011 15:04:44 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en</language>
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		<title>Why You Need a Website for Your Business?</title>
		<link>http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/why-you-need-a-website-for-your-business</link>
		<comments>http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/why-you-need-a-website-for-your-business#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:08:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ken</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business Related]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Graphic Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Web Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[website design]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/?p=250</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Having a business without a website is like having a bike with no wheels, you will not get very far with your business. Understandably, many offline businesses have enjoyed much success but the potential for growth with a custom designed &#8230; <a href="http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/why-you-need-a-website-for-your-business">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Having a business without a website is like having a bike with no wheels, you will not get very far with your business. Understandably, many offline businesses have enjoyed much success but the potential for growth with a custom designed website will increase your company&#8217;s brand presence.</p>
<p><strong>Promote your business with a website</strong><br />
It will be much easier to promote your business if you have a professional designed website in place. Of course there are many ways to promote your business. One great way is to make business cards and give them out to everyone you meet, even strangers!</p>
<p><span id="more-250"></span></p>
<p><strong>Make more profits</strong><br />
If you sell products you can have your website to take orders for you 24/7. The Internet allows you to reach more people quickly without spending a lot of money. If your products are good and affordable, then your ecommerce website can probably get you more sales than your shop.</p>
<p><strong>You need web site traffic</strong><br />
After you have your website up and running you will need to drive traffic to it. In other words, you will need to promote it. You can either do it online or offline, or both. Many websites failed because their owners could not get traffic to them. People will not come to your website automatically, so don&#8217;t expect that to happen. Use multiple methods to promote your website, this way if one fails you know you still have the others working for you. You may find this <a href="http://blog.kaizenet.com/website-promotion-help-guides" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/blog.kaizenet.com/website-promotion-help-guides?referer=');">website promotion guide</a> helpful. It is always important to be sure your hosting service is reliable, and you may even consider using dedicated server hosting for faster site loading times</p>
<p><strong>Do it yourself if the budget is tight</strong><br />
There is not reason why you should not have a website today. There are many online services out there that allow you to build your own website. Yes, it&#8217;s true that it won&#8217;t be as good as the ones that designed by the professionals, but at least you have a website. If you have never designed a website before you might want to read this &#8220;<a href="http://blog.kaizenet.com/how-to-create-your-own-business-website-for-free" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/blog.kaizenet.com/how-to-create-your-own-business-website-for-free?referer=');">create your own business website</a>&#8221; article.</p>
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		<item>
		<title>Essence of Flash Design</title>
		<link>http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/essence-of-flash-design</link>
		<comments>http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/essence-of-flash-design#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:54:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ken</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Graphic Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Web Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Flash Design]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/?p=223</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Nowadays static websites gradually lose their popularity which is explained by fast development of new powerful web design technologies, the most popular among which is Flash. Possessing vector based graphic presentation, this approach provides high grade of visual impact and &#8230; <a href="http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/essence-of-flash-design">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Nowadays static websites gradually lose their popularity which is explained by fast development of new powerful web design technologies, the most popular among which is Flash. Possessing vector based graphic presentation, this approach provides high grade of visual impact and makes your online project look strikingly, no matter whether you want to build a personal site or promote your business. Besides, there is no need of creating from scratch, as at present special pre-made<a href="http://www.flashmint.com/" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.flashmint.com/?referer=');"> flash templates</a> exist in great variety, designed for those who want to establish a live website spending minimum time and efforts.<br />
<span id="more-223"></span><br />
Why Flash is so called-for nowadays? Because of the many advantages it possesses. Flash-based websites incomparably excell static ones due to their interactivity and live content presentation. They allow you to add sound effects to your web presence, implement live action and animation, create flash banners and other web page elements to make dramatic impression on the viewers. Adding video to flash-based website is much easier than working with common video format as swf format provides smaller size of flash video files, and thus they load faster presenting the necessary information more efficiently.</p>
<p>Flash-based websites will undoubtedly become an excellent solution for e-commerce online projects as they will help you to present and promote your products and services effectively, highlighting their best qualities. You can implement flash introduction within your website to concentrate on the major benefits of your business for your visitors.</p>
<p>Apart from high grade design, flash-based websites are distinguished by cross-browser compatibility which means it will run smoothly in any popular web browser. The only condition is to have Flash player installed on your computer. Also special techniques are being implemented to solve flash sites search engine optimization issues, and you don&#8217;t have to worry about your flash web presence rankings.    </p>
<p>So if you want to start up some stunning live website to embody all of your ideas successfully, Flash is the very solution you need.</p>
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		<title>The Importance of Graphic Design Knowledge in Web Design</title>
		<link>http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/the-importance-of-graphic-design-knowledge-in-web-design</link>
		<comments>http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/the-importance-of-graphic-design-knowledge-in-web-design#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 30 Mar 2009 23:13:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ken</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Graphic Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ideas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Inspirational Stuff]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Internet/Blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Web Design]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/?p=200</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Web design is basically a process of coding and graphic design is a much different process. We have logic (coding) on one side and creation (creativity) on the other side. They both play an important role in the creation of &#8230; <a href="http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/the-importance-of-graphic-design-knowledge-in-web-design">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Web design</strong> is basically a process of coding and graphic design is a much different process. We have logic (coding) on one side and creation (creativity) on the other side. They both play an important role in the creation of a great looking website. Many web designers underestimated the importance of graphic design knowledge in designing websites as a result, they struggle to create &#8220;attractive&#8221; websites. The visual part of a website can really make a basic brochure type website look more valuable. </p>
<p>Here are some key points that why graphic design does play an important role in web designing.<br />
<span id="more-200"></span><br />
<strong>Professionalism</strong> â€“ It&#8217;s the main reason why web designers need to have the knowledge of graphic design. I have seen a lot of great sites that are coded properly, with fancy javascript functions, but yet failed to grasp the visual side of the website. When it comes to selling a product, business or yourself, using the right graphics can provide an added touch of professionalism.<br />
<strong><br />
Visual Connection</strong> â€“ Everyone has heard the saying â€˜a picture is worth a thousand wordsâ€™, well the same can be said about the visual aspects of your site. You can usually connect with a person viewing the site much better with simple graphical designs. Iâ€™ve been to pages where I can feel an emotional state created by seeing this <a href="http://www.design2work.net">amazing design</a>. People like to see nice things and they typically return again to see it some more. Graphic design will help you make an extra connection, which is vital in this business.<br />
<strong><br />
Usability</strong> â€“ A lot of web designers miss out on the most important aspect of a website &#8211; usability. The person viewing the site needs to be able to use it in the way it was intended to be used. That means they have to be able to navigate and find the contents they are looking for. Having good visual communication knowledge will make this a lot simpler than what regular coding will do. Itâ€™s important to note that you can sometimes go overboard with graphics, but if you keep it within a specific range, graphics can enhance the usability of a website. </p>
<p>As you can see there are many benefits of having good graphic design knowledge if you are a web designer, or planning to become one.  </p>
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		<item>
		<title>Found A Inspirational Group On Flicker</title>
		<link>http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/found-a-inspirational-group-on-flicker</link>
		<comments>http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/found-a-inspirational-group-on-flicker#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:34:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ken</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Graphic Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Inspirational Stuff]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Internet/Blogs]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/?p=136</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Link]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src='http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/2162998039_5d0e9ea3de.jpg' alt='2162998039_5d0e9ea3de.jpg' width="450" /></p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/webdesign-inspiration/pool/" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.flickr.com/groups/webdesign-inspiration/pool/?referer=');">Link</a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Cool WordPress Theme</title>
		<link>http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/cool-wordpress-theme</link>
		<comments>http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/cool-wordpress-theme#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 13 Jan 2008 16:32:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ken</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Graphic Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Inspirational Stuff]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Internet/Blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Web Design]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/?p=130</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A very interesting WordPress theme design, the girl image weights the most in the overall design layout. The way it&#8217;s positioned blends in very well with other elements, from a designer point of view it&#8217;s definitely above the good level, &#8230; <a href="http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/cool-wordpress-theme">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src='http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/wp-theme.jpg' alt='wp-theme.jpg' /></p>
<p>A very interesting WordPress theme design, the girl image weights the most in the overall design layout. The way it&#8217;s positioned blends in very well with other elements, from a designer point of view it&#8217;s definitely above the good level, however, from the business point of view I can see that there&#8217;s a number of issues. The obvious one would be the use of colours, the difference between foreground and background isn&#8217;t great enough and this can be tiring reader&#8217;s eyes. And to make the matter worst the designer has used a very small font size. </p>
<p>Overall I think it&#8217;s very good piece of &#8220;art&#8221;, perfect for personal use, but it certainly not something that I would consider for business use. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.coffeecupstain.com/oilspill/" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.coffeecupstain.com/oilspill/?referer=');">Here&#8217;s the live version</a> </p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>More Inspiration Materials</title>
		<link>http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/more-inspiration-materials</link>
		<comments>http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/more-inspiration-materials#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 29 Nov 2007 00:18:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ken</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Graphic Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Web Design]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/?p=110</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Link]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src='http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/title.gif' alt='title.gif' /></p>
<p><a href="http://www.splench.com/" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.splench.com/?referer=');">Link</a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Great Blog Design Ideas</title>
		<link>http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/great-blog-design-ideas</link>
		<comments>http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/great-blog-design-ideas#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 28 Nov 2007 23:39:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ken</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Graphic Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ideas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Internet/Blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Web Design]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/?p=108</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Designing a blog is easy. Whatever engine you are using and whatever style you prefer, youâ€™ll always find a number of templates you can apply to your weblog in seconds. No styling is necessary, no playing with colors is needed &#8230; <a href="http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/great-blog-design-ideas">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src='http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/agenturblog.png' alt='agenturblog.png' width="400"/></p>
<p>Designing a blog is easy. Whatever engine you are using and whatever style you prefer, youâ€™ll always find a number of templates you can apply to your weblog in seconds. No styling is necessary, no playing with colors is needed and no mind jogging about content presentation is required. However, not every weblog should look like a typical blog. After all, not every blogger wants his or her site to look exactly like hundreds of other ones. In fact, there is a small bunch of creative, outstanding and individually designed from scratch blogs. <a href="http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/08/28/45-excellent-blog-designs/" rel="nofollow" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/08/28/45-excellent-blog-designs/?referer=');">Read more</a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>Design to Sell by Roger C. Parker Book</title>
		<link>http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/design-to-sell-by-roger-c-parker-book</link>
		<comments>http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/design-to-sell-by-roger-c-parker-book#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 17 Nov 2007 15:12:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ken</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Graphic Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ideas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Internet/Blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Web Design]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.design2work.net/blog/?p=91</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Ebook: Design to Sell by Roger C. Parker Description: Not a designer? Don&#8217;t have a big marketing budget? Now you can design effective marketing materials yourself with this guide written by best-selling author and design expert Roger C. Parker. This &#8230; <a href="http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/design-to-sell-by-roger-c-parker-book">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div style="text-align: justify"><span style="font-weight: bold">Ebook:</span> Design to Sell by Roger C. Parker</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: bold">Description: </span></div>
<p style="text-align: justify">Not a designer? Don&rsquo;t have a big marketing budget? Now you can design effective marketing materials yourself with this guide written by best-selling author and design expert Roger C. Parker. </p>
<div style="text-align: justify">  </div>
<p style="text-align: justify">This one-stop guide to marketing gives you the basics for creating effective messages and step-by-step instruction for using Publisher 2003 to design compelling, easy-to-read marketing materials that deliver your message successfully.</p>
<div style="text-align: justify"> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify">Even if you&rsquo;re not a designer or you have no marketing experience, you&rsquo;ll get expert advice and learn how to: &bull; Develop a market empathy, think like your market, and solve their problems using their language &bull; Format your message so it&rsquo;s attractive and easy to read&mdash;by taking a crash course in graphic design &bull; Save time and money by using Publisher to create several different types of effective marketing pieces&mdash;including postcards to promote your business and newsletters that keep you in touch with your customers &bull; Use techniques for quickly harnessing powerful Publisher capabilities &bull; Do it right from the start and avoid common pitfalls and design mistakes </p>
<div style="text-align: justify"> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify">Each chapter includes an interactive exercise as well as review questions with answers on the author&rsquo;s companion Web site. Also on the Web site are downloadable worksheets and templates, more illustrations of the projects in the book, additional before-and-after project makeovers, and other resources.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: bold">Links:</span> <a href="http://www.onepagenewsletters.com/PDF/ProfitFromDesignKit.zip" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.onepagenewsletters.com/PDF/ProfitFromDesignKit.zip?referer=');">2 Free Chapters Download</a> | <a href="http://www.designtosellonline.com/" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.designtosellonline.com/?referer=');">Official Website</a></p>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The new look of design2work.net!</title>
		<link>http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/the-new-look-of-design2worknet</link>
		<comments>http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/the-new-look-of-design2worknet#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 20 Oct 2007 19:25:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ken</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business Related]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Graphic Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ideas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Internet/Blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Web Design]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.design2work.net/blog/?p=88</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I have decided to redesign/rebrand my design portfolio site &#8211; design2work.net. Here&#39;s a screenshot of the holding page&#8230;. &#160; &#160;]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I have decided to redesign/rebrand my <a href="http://www.design2work.net" target="_blank" title="Ken Liang&#39;s website">design portfolio site</a> &#8211; design2work.net. Here&#39;s a screenshot of the holding page&#8230;. &nbsp;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/wp-content/uploads/design2work.jpg"><img src="http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/wp-content/uploads/thumb-design2work.jpg" border="0" width="400" height="256" /></a> </p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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		<item>
		<title>YCN</title>
		<link>http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/ycn</link>
		<comments>http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/ycn#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 05 Sep 2006 00:07:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ken</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Graphic Design]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.think-art.co.uk/design2work//blog/?p=10</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[? ycn is a member based organisation existing to inspire, support and give visibility to new creative ideas and thinking. This website has been developed to promote our projects and to facilitate the interaction between the best new talent in &#8230; <a href="http://www.design2work.net/whatisay/ycn">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img id="image9" alt="rotator.jpg" src="http://www.design2work.net//blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/rotator.jpg" width="300" />?</p>
<p>ycn is a member based organisation existing to inspire, support and give visibility to new creative ideas and thinking. This website has been developed to promote our projects and to facilitate the interaction between the best new talent in design and communication and industry recruiters internationlly.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ycnonline.com/" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.ycnonline.com/?referer=');">http://www.ycnonline.com/</a></p>
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