Chelsea Grose

IE7 Bug: Interior element overflows the parent element with overflow:auto (scroll)

2010-12-29T12:39:00.001-08:00

Solution: Give the Parent Element with the property of overflow:auto the property position:relative.

Email Marketing Tip #3 Don’t work hard. Rely on your inheritance.

2010-05-13T09:04:00.001-07:00

Your style inheritance, that is. Place your styles in the table tag and each cell will inherit the properties. This is terribly useful for font properties that you can always override locally in your td or with a span tag. For example, define font-size, font-family, and color in the table style, but when you get to the cell featuring your headline, redefine the font-size property to override the inheritance. You also won’t have to add paragraph tags to your copy, reducing the HTML and there’s no risk that extra margin space will be applied to your copy.

I would like to reiterate the importance of this, especially when you are building templates for other people to use. Most of the time, designers build a template for someone who is a writer and usually has a limited understanding of HTML. Writers restart to the WYSIWYG, expecting it to behave like Microsoft Word, and alter text display. When they do this, it ads font tags, paragraph tags, header tags, spans, and superfluous divs, all that threaten the design and inbox display.

A proactive measure of prevention is to define styles in the table tags. All your Writer has to do is copy/paste plain text and the styles will automatically apply. They will also be relieved to have it be that simple.

KISS Your Design (Keep It Simple, Stupid)

2010-05-03T07:27:00.000-07:00

Sometimes we need to remember to take our own advice. I really liked how some text lined up with an image, even though it complicated the table, and voila… it broke in the inbox. KISS Your Design.

10 Tips for eMail Marketing Designers

2010-04-29T07:57:00.000-07:00

Just a few things I’ve learned and haven’t seen in e-marketing companies’ “Best Practices” guides.

1. KISS Your Design (Keep It Simple, Stupid)
You are not designing an award-winning layout or interface; you are targeting a mass audience with a short attention span. With that in mind, just keep it simple. We’re talking two or three column layout, nothing more. The more complicated you make it, the less direct the message and the easier the layout breaks in the inbox.

2. What the Font?!
Replace those font tags with inline CSS. Inline CSS will allow you to control more of the layout, such as margins, padding, and line height. You’ll also use less HTML, which is better for your SPAM score.

3. Don’t work hard. Rely on your inheritance.
Your style inheritance, that is. Place your styles in the table tag and each cell will inherit the properties. This is terribly useful for font properties that you can always override locally in your td or with a span tag. For example, define font-size, font-family, and color in the table style, but when you get to the cell featuring your headline, redefine the font-size property to override the inheritance. You also won’t have to add paragraph tags to your copy, reducing the HTML and there’s no risk that extra margin space will be applied to your copy.

4. Tell them what to do.
Special offers, events, product features, and alerts should be kept relatively short with a call to action above the fold for people who are immediately interested and at the end of the content for people who committed to reading that far, so they don’t have to scroll back to the top.

Newsletters should have a call to action at the end of each article and key words in your copy should be hyperlinked to relevant content. My preferred newsletter layout is a feature article followed by summaries of other articles (past articles, relative articles, other news) that each redirect the subscriber to your website for more.

5. He’ll never buy the cow if he gets the milk for free.
Don’t give away the content of your email in the subject line, hint to it enough to generate interest so your subscribers click and open your email to learn more. If you don’t get the open, you don’t get the click, and you don’t get the conversion.

6. Inboxes use protection. Prepare yourself.
The best part of your email is probably in a gif or jpg format, but most inboxes protect the user by prompting them to accept the images before they are displayed. This is bad for you because the subscriber essentially has to quasi-opt-in to see your email each time. Prepare for this with alt tags that reflect the content of the images and generate interest. Your alt copy will display when the images don’t and encourage the subscriber to click “display images.”

7. Don’t be a car salesmen.
The reason Carmax has been so successful is because consumers are saturated with over the top gimmicks and shady deals. The success of an email marketing campaign is in quality, relevant content with direct messaging. A cheesy headline might be a successful lead in for your grandma watching the six o’clock news, but your grandma probably isn’t included in the demographic receiving your email. Don’t try to sell your product or event; stick to the basics and let imagery, testimonials, and informational content sell it for you.

8. Subscriber = Customer
If you have a jeans boutique and your customer tried on a pair of jeans but he/she returned them to the rack, would you proceed to have them try on the same pair of jeans again, and again, and again? No. So why would you hit your subscriber list with the same email over and over and over?

9. Get to the point!
You’ve done well if you get that open, but you only have a second to capture attention and maybe a few more to get your message across, so loose the CLUTTER! Less is always more. Delete those superfluous words your marketing director thought were clever or useful.

10. Bottom Line
Know your CAN SPAM Laws, follow them, and don’t send any marketing emails if you don’t.

5 DO’s For Design & Fine Art Freelancers

2010-04-04T08:34:00.000-07:00

Just some rules I’ve learned to follow after several years of the alternative.

ALWAYS get a signed contract that defines scope and fees for scope-creep BEFORE starting work.

Write a schedule of deadlines for yourself and your client to keep you both on schedule and accountable. Include it in the contract and even incorporate fees/discounts for lateness/timeliness. Have it signed (or included in the contract) and constantly send reminders (“Don’t forget…”) followed by warnings (“..will hold up the project and cost an extra…”).

Have an up-font fee for proposals or reviews of projects that will take more than an hour of your time. I generally skip this step for referrals from wonderful clients.

Trust your gut. If a potential client goes on tangents, changes his/her mind, or calls at inappropriate times of the day, and you don’t even have a contract yet… you will lose money or not get paid at all. Run. Don’t learn this the hard way. Run. Run! Run!!

Bill for meetings and phone calls. They take up your time too and the time adds up fast. It also prevents clients from wasting your time. Lawyers do it and so should you.

...

2010-02-03T07:49:00.000-08:00

My 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Lessard, brought our class out into the Maine fall to draw orange and yellow trees. She showed us how to draw two lines and top them off with the letter “v” to make branches. I didn’t know it at the time, but that was the moment I learned to see and draw negative space.

Super Art Fight Results!

2010-01-24T09:05:00.000-08:00

Photo by: Brian Slaski
I competed in the 4-Way Battle Royale and WON!!!

All results, photos, interviews, video and more at SuperArtFight.com!

Be a part of the GREATEST DRAWING CONTEST IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE!

2010-01-21T11:52:00.000-08:00

This Saturday, I'll be competing in the 4-Way Battle Royale in Match #4 of Super Art Fight 6! This unknown cat is competing with famous Graphic Artists, Chris “Impact” Impink, Bryan Prindiville, and Joe Dunn. If you like art, music, beer and awesome commentary, this is an event you can't miss!

"Pairing cutting-edge artists in the art of creative combat before a blank wall of canvas, the audience is drawn in as a new masterpiece is created before their eyes. But no sooner than the audience and artists relax than the WHEEL OF DEATH comes into play..." Read More...

CPE Event

2009-11-18T20:25:00.000-08:00

Howard Home & Hardscape

2009-11-05T11:58:00.000-08:00

This is a postcard marketing piece for a company that makes custom concrete counters/patios.

Pets Warehouse Affiliate Marketing

2009-10-23T11:54:00.001-07:00

Loyalty and Passion

2009-10-16T18:50:00.000-07:00

My sister works for a really great company called US Cellular. They treat their employees with respect, expect excellence and reward it. In return, they have loyal, happy employees that make loyal, happy customers. In my sister's free time, she carved their logo into this pumpkin. That's loyalty. That's passion.

Image how much would be accomplished if everyone implemented US Cellular's business model? U.S. Cellular's "Dynamic Organization" is a business model based on a simple concept: effective leaders create satisfied associates, who in turn deliver outstanding customer service that produces profitable business results.

Just treat people with respect. Be a decent human being. Why is that such a difficult concept in Baltimore?

DEWmocracy Challenge

2009-09-29T19:44:00.000-07:00

Mountain Dew has this brilliant social marketing piece called "DewMocracy" and they put out a challenge for designers to submit a new Mtn Dew can design. I came across the contest this morning, it's due tonight, so my car died and I'm stranded... so I found the time to put something together. Now I'm trying to log into the site to upload it by midnight and the site isn't working... ??? ???? ugh????
???
??not much in this day is working...

So here it is. The concept would include other awesome sports like snowboarding. You might be the only people who get to see it.

SQL Update

2009-09-23T08:28:00.000-07:00

SQL is so easy! I mean, conceptually once you get into large databases and complicated queries it is way more challenging, of course, but the syntax is surprisingly simple and not at all what I expected! For the fun of it, I've already gone ahead and set up my very own database to manipulate outside of the class and I'm going to start learning more complicated PHP so I can write to it from one of my website forms. This is very exciting. I didn't expect to take to SQL and PHP so easily.

Buzzz

2009-08-20T03:34:00.000-07:00

I've been very busy lately, but nothing too post-worthy for a blog. Some powerpoint templates, CSS cleanup, some SEO, standard updates, marketing consulting... typical busy work. Sometimes I think I spend more time on emails and calls than I do on the actual physical action of creating or building.

SQL

2009-07-22T13:49:00.000-07:00

I'm very excited to announce that this fall I'm taking a class at CCBC called Intro to SQL using Oracle. I also wanted to take a JSP class, but the two classes were scheduled at the same time. I decided to go with SQL because, as a visual person, basic JSP is pretty easy for me to understand since it has spacial associations, but SQL is requires a completely different thought process (I think) and I expect to need some guidance.

I'm very excited!

Van Decal

2009-07-16T18:33:00.000-07:00

Business Cards

2009-07-12T21:05:00.000-07:00

New Website

2009-07-10T09:04:00.000-07:00

We just launched a new website for a blueberry picking farm in Maine. For now, it's only one page focusing on the blueberry season. The site will be expanded at a later date to include a photo slideshow and other products of the farm.

New Logo

2009-07-06T05:43:00.001-07:00

New Logo

2009-07-03T12:47:00.000-07:00

This new logo is for an auto glass repair company in Maryland. We're currently going through design reviews for business cards, marketing materials and a website so there will be more to come soon.

New-ish Logo

2009-06-09T07:55:00.000-07:00

This was done about a year ago, but I’ve been hesitant to publish it for a variety of reasons. At the end of a long story and hundreds of opinions, this design was the result and touched on two branding messages important for the organization. 1. It wasn’t a complete departure from a brand that had sustained the organization for a decade 2. It tied together a concept specific to Baltimore and the mission of the organization: having a homey neighborhood inside the benefits of a city. The skyline is a silhouette that includes an iconic East and a West building with a foreground of neighborhood rooftops derived from the original logo.

New Website!

2009-05-28T07:08:00.001-07:00

Warner-Robinson.com

FYI

2009-05-28T06:45:00.000-07:00

Linux is case sensitive.

New Investment

2009-05-15T08:06:00.001-07:00

In light of the increasing number of logos and print materials I've been doing in the past few months, I committed to investing in my very own Pantone Color Book set. I'd like to thank Margie at Curry Print for letting me borrow their Pantone Color Books, even when they weren't my client's printer. Thanks Margie!

New Logo

2009-05-13T12:37:00.000-07:00

This is a clever logo I just finished for a ticket sales company in Maine, USA. The concept is intended to be anything but a generic ticket company with a typical typographic logo or "ticket" graphic. Part of the company's mission is that its service should provoke excitement in their customers. Customers should walk away with an excellent customer experience and be excited about the event they just got tickets to. The owner felt that the image of a customer jumping in the air in excitement was something that strongly resonated with the Maine Event Tickets vision. As part of Maine, the company colors are based on two icons familiar in the Maine landscape. It references the bright blue sky of a summer afternoon as it peeks through the swaying dark green needles of Maine's pine forests.

New Logo

2009-05-07T10:17:00.000-07:00

I just finished this new logo for a Corporate Tax Consulting company in Virginia. I’m currently working on their website design and I’m really excited to share it with them and hopefully soon share with you too!

New Affiliate Marketing Campaign

2009-04-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

I just finished a series of 17 online ads of this "Disgustingly Adorable" campaign for PetsWarehouse.com. The campaign is intended to be general enough to publish on any website and hit three selling points: 1. everything you need 2. for all kinds of pets 3. with the lowest price around.

New Website

2009-04-13T07:24:00.000-07:00

www.RichardCleaverArtist.com

I just launched this website for a talented Baltimore City artist, Richard Cleaver. Richard Cleaver's sculpture is quite fascinating, the photos don't quite do the artwork justice. Please take a look at some of the detail shots; you'll be able to see the texture, patterns, colors, and all of the precious metals and jewels he incorporates.

I had a hard time with CSS element positioning and spacing across browsers. In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have developed a design that required a fixed width because it's taken a long time to get the layout to work in all browsers, specifically IE versus Firefox. There is more content coming, including more artwork for the portfolio section and downloadable PDFs, so check back later this week for more.

Blast From the Past

2009-04-02T23:53:00.000-07:00

It's amazing what pops up in search results...

This was my first time painting in Acrylic and my first official mural: History and art in the vegetable aisle, The Takoma Voice. That was back when I painted with a small brush, from my wrist as if paint behaved like graphite.

Two and a half years of painting as fast as possible in acrylic completely changed how I paint and quelled my affinity for oil.

Sub-Contracting

2009-03-31T21:11:00.000-07:00

Sub-Contracting has always led to some of my most interesting experiences. It's a confusing dichotomy for a freelancer. On one hand, you as the creator have been relieved of the responsibility of selling the job, dealing with any difficulties with the client, or having to chase the client to fulfill their end of the contract. On the other hand, when you get to work directly with the client, you get the chance to understand exactly what they are looking for without the intent being convoluted by the project manager. Most importantly, you know what you need and you get the chance to ask for what you need up front. A designer always needs a style guide up front, if the client has one.

At the end of the day, I still have student loans to pay.

New Logo

2009-03-31T08:26:00.001-07:00

You might recognize part of this design from another logo, AyakoFromJapan.com. AyakoFromJapan.com moved up in Alexa ranking, and in response to requests from numerous fans, Ayako launched an English version, branding100.com.

Whether you're just starting out or have been around for a while, this blog has a lot of helpful advice.

New Logo

2009-03-20T19:57:00.000-07:00

Get ready for a good guffaw! Launching April Fools Day 2009 is ScrewballTees.com where you can get the latest in funny, sarcastic, and weird wear for your upper half.

I have had the wonderful opportunity to work with the designer/developer on this project. With our complimentary skills, this project has been a beneficial symbiotic process. I just completed the design of his vision for the logo and consulting on Search Engine Optimization.

eMarketing

2009-03-18T21:38:00.000-07:00

Email Marketing is an effective and affordable marketing approach that is very successful for retail, small businesses, and business people who work by contract (artists, real estate agents...). There are a variety of services available for mass email marketing, each varying in cost of services comparable to services offered. I've used a few different systems and I have my favorite, but I always try to recommend the one that best suits the client and his/her comfort level with computers and learning new interfaces.

This a screen capture of an email for one of my favorite companies, Model City Models. They went with a publishing system that I had the chance to briefly work with when I set up an email template for BuyAt. Model City Models does really awesome work. Check out their portfolio section for the LED lit models.

Updated Logo

2009-03-02T08:42:00.000-08:00

Large companies with millions of dollars and agencies with hundreds of people spend much more time and money on research before they create, share and launch a design. I don't have either, so when I created the AyakoFromJapan.com logo, my research focused mostly on anime styles, Japanese design and Japanese patterns, but I didn't look deeply into the history of the Kimono.

Some of AyakoFromJapan.com traditional Japanese readers loved the logo, but wanted to let us know that the direction of the character's kimono, with the right side wrapped over the left, is a funereal tradition; it is how the dead are dressed for burial. Ayako didn't favor this association (of course!) so I changed the kimono to show the left side over the right side. Since the header space is so small and you can't really see most of the detail, we also gave it a punch of gold for a waist band so it pops.

Anyanka!

2009-02-28T20:41:00.000-08:00

Meet Anyanka!

A few months ago, I met with a client to go over a design and much to my horror, the color that displayed on his monitor versus the color that displayed on my dinosaur-pc-laptop was so drastically different I found myself apologizing and reassuring the client that that was absolutely not the shade I intended.

Last week, I got feedback to make my designs more dynamic by using more shadows and other styles. I wasn't willing to admit it, but the reason why I used mostly flat color was because my computer couldn't handle more than a drop shadow or two and even that would tie up my computer for a minute even if I just moved the object. I was in Maine, so I also couldn't go to work and quickly apply some filters to the design either. I ended up doing some more styles, but every time I did, I had to sit and wait for it. It took me twice as long to finish the project (I didn't bill for the extra time, of course.) and while I sat and waited for filters to apply, I suddenly realized how limited in design I've been simply because my computer can't handle it.

Alas! I have feared the commitment, but it is done. I went all the way and I love her! Her name is Anyanka, a direct reference to one of my favorite Joss Whedon characters. She has two (two!!!!) NVIDIA graphics processors!!!!!!! Isn't she shiny!?

Commission Completed

2009-02-04T17:30:00.000-08:00

I am always very excited to get the chance to create something really fun! I had the wonderful opportunity to turn the blogger Ayako into a cartoon for a personal brand of AyakoFromJapan.com. If you can read Japanese, check out AyakoFromJapan.com.

eMarketing

2009-02-02T20:55:00.000-08:00

This is a new eMail Marketing Template for a local Baltimore City small business.

New Website

2009-01-31T11:11:00.000-08:00

"Follies, Predicaments, and Other Conundrums: The Works of Laure Drogoul invites visitors to immerse themselves in a paradoxical, absurdist world of darkness, wonder, and beauty. Drogoul's sculptural follies, roving performances, and interactive works draw upon B-movie imagery, science fiction, psychoanalytic theory, and pop culture - particularly roadside Americana. Along the way she explores and exploits the symbiotic relationships and tensions between humanity and nature, creating works that have a uniquely accessible Baltimore aesthetic..."

Website Design & Development:
www.mica.edu/drogoul

Commission Completed

2008-12-10T00:40:00.000-08:00

I am quite excited to be the cause of the smile and warm fuzzy feeling that my client will have when she gets her painting. This piece has great sentimental value to its owner; it was commissioned by her family in remembrance.