Blue Penguin Design

The Blue Penguin's 10 Commandments of Good Logo Design.

2011-11-17T22:09:00.000-08:00

A good logo shall communicate the correct message
You wouldn't get Bert Newton to model your stylish, new swimwear collection, and in (kind of) the same way, we won't design a logo that will confuse the message you want it to communicate.

A good logo shall be memorable
We design logos that make people go, “Hey, I've seen this somewhere before, and I like it!”

A good logo shall be unique
We don't copy or steal, because that's very naughty and lazy. We illustrate everything from scratch to ensure that your logo is 100% unique and doesn't upset anyone with a law degree and a briefcase.

A good logo shall be usable anywhere
Maybe your logo looks great on your website, but what if you want to embroid it onto a hat, etch it into a window, shave it into the back of your head, or paint your logo design on the ceiling of the South Morang pub? We'll make sure it works everywhere.

A good logo shall work in black and white
Yep, there will be times when you'll need your logo to work in just one colour. If we designed it, it will.

A good logo shall still be identifiable at teeny, weeny sizes
A highly detailed logo design featuring 48 different elements probably won't seem so clever when you want to print it on a pen, or produce an annual report for a hive of bees in Greensborough. (Their hands are too small to hold A4)

A good logo shall not rely on the latest design trends
That drop shadow or reflection may seem cool this month, but not so much next month. Follow the lead of brands like Nike, Coke and McDonald’s, and go for a timeless look. You can add trendiness once it's designed, but you'll always have classic base to work from.

A good logo shall make it's owner proud
It's no use having the World's most clever logo, if it makes you cringe. We care about your feelings too. We'll make something you'll be happy to show off.

A good logo shall not contain anything unnecessary
If any element in the design won't be missed, we'll throw it away. Clutter is evil and stops good logos from being great logos.

A good logo shall be created in vector format
Vector files can be stretch to any size without losing quality. So can Mr. Fantastic.

Considering a cheap and nasty logo? Don't do it!

Smashing magazine has a really good article here with a little info on why you should reconsider.

Face of an African Crisis

2011-07-28T18:12:00.000-07:00

Darrell, a good friend of the Blue Penguin is currently raising awareness of the horrible drought that is ravaging Somalia. The fact that children in Somalia are starving to death, while Aussie children are facing an obesity crisis (see Herald Sun article here) is a disturbing contrast and really puts things into perspective for us. We are happy to support this very worthy cause.

Please read Darrell's letter below.

_______________________________________________________

We need to do something for the Somalian refugees. The picture of the baby boy, who weighed just 3.4kg when he arrived at the camp, now has only a 50/50 chance of surviving.

We are privileged people who have running water at a turn of the tap. Our supermarkets are stocked up with various kinds of food and we are spoilt for choices. Let's take our mind off ourselves for a second! The ipad 2 and the latest LCD or plasma TV can wait. Let's do something for these people.

Jason, Raymond and I want to do something for the people of Somalia. We suggest that you donate a week's worth of coffee money to this urgent need. If you don't drink coffee. Please come up with an amount to help these people.

There is a list of organisations mentioned in the article: Unicef Australia East Africa Emergency Appeal, Oxfam East Africa Food Crisis Appeal, Red Cross East Africa Drought Appeal, World Vision and more. Let's do our part in this relief effort.

In an effort to spread this message, please click 'Like' or share this link with your friends. If you are donating, please comment on this message...etc prayer points, organisation you will be donating to, your thoughts on this famine or any words of encouragement for the people of Somalia.

I hope that we can do something about this. The people of Somalia need our utmost support. Thank you for reading this message.

Face of an African Crisis

_______________________________________________________

Can you spare a week's worth of coffee money or more for a very worthy cause?

Time for a penguin related joke, Everyone loves penguin jokes.

2011-07-19T21:29:00.000-07:00

A young lady pulls up at a petrol station with 3 big penguins in the back seat of her car.

The attendant (who’s name tag says Brenton) spots the penguins and asks,
“Why on earth do you have 3 big penguins in the back seat of your car?”
The lady explains that she had been woken that morning by the sound of them squawking in her front yard.
“I’m not sure where they came from or what i should do with them.”
Brenton ponders for a bit and then advises,
“You should take them to the zoo.”

“Hey, that’s a great idea!” says the lady before paying for her fuel, cashing in on the great two for one Mars Bar deal Brenton had so enthusiastically sold to her and driving off to the zoo.

The next day the lady returns to buy a Curly-Wurly and Brenton notices that the penguins are still sitting in her car.
“Hey, i thought you were going to take them to the zoo!”
“Oh, I did,” replies the young lady, “and we had such a great time.
Today I’m taking them to the movies.”

...ZING!!!!!

Stop telling me I should market my business on Twitter.

2011-07-12T23:58:00.001-07:00

While I don't deny that Twitter can be a good marketing tool, I really can't be bothered with it.

I find that there are 2 main types of users on Twitter:

1. People that tweet about where they're going for breakfast. And then what they had to eat for breakfast. And then what they had to drink for breakfast. And then how cute the waiter is. And then how soft the napkins are. And then what colour the ceiling is...

2. Business owners that seem to have too much time on their hands and tweet anything they can in an attempt to get business. It's not usually useful stuff. It's usually links to things like "The 7 steps to frying better bacon for your Grandma", or "The 11 secrets of successful arabian catfish." There's only so much you can take...

With everyone wanting attention, or trying to sell me something while pretending not to, I don't really see what's in it for me, except to jump on board and tell everybody that I'm wearing blue underwear and that they should buy a roll up banner from me because I found a nice article on Artichokes.

I know in amongst the people above, there may be people that tweet interesting and useful information - Just as there might be something good in this week's Aldi catalogue, but I can't be bothered reading it... I've got more exciting things to do with whatever spare time I have.

I do have a Facebook account. It's kind of the same, except it has more pretty pictures which works for me.

Is your e-commerce website a shady guy with a trench coat full of gold watches?

2011-05-31T18:48:00.000-07:00

As my wife and I are expecting our first child in a little under 3 weeks, I thought it would be nice to start preparing for the kid's 21st by purchasing a video camera to capture a few cute (and embarrassing) moments.

I began by checking out a few reviews and prices online, and then I went to my local JB who didn't have anything worth doing a little dance over, so I went back to the trusty, old internet to find a great offer.

After a little searching, I found an amazing deal on the exact camera I wanted. I then went to eBay and purchased that same camera for $80 more.

Why would I throw $80 of my hard earned money away?
Good question buckaroo.
I'm sure the website in question was legitimate, but it reminded me of a shady guy in an dark alley, selling fake, gold watches from inside his trench coat.

In terms of visual design, it missed the mark by a long shot. It made me feel uncomfortable and unsafe. It was cluttered and the branding was inconsistent and didn't remotely match the products being sold. The visual aspects of the site aroused the same concerns as a guy in an alley would. Will I be ripped off? Are the products genuine? Are the products stolen? Why am I even here? Where is that delightful scent of pancakes coming from?

And as far as usability went: To be honest. I didn't stick around to see.

So what's the moral to the story?
The world wide web is chockers with online shopping websites that aren't doing a whole lot. I often hear people complaining that they get plenty of traffic to their sites, yet make very few sales. In most cases, these site are very poorly designed, and do nothing to communicate trust or safety to the buyer.

I'm sure if the owner of the website described above had invested a small amount of money into making his website more visually appealing, he would have got my business - even if it meant he could only sell his products for $20 less than the kids on eBay.

So what should I do?
If you have or are thinking of starting an online shopping website, there are a few things you should consider.

It seems like every one in the world at some stage has decided that they can make a fortune selling something unusual, or baby clothes. So just like in any retail environment, you will most likely have some competition, and need to stand out from the crowd. Your products, pricing and customer service are super important, but useless if potential customers never walk through the front door - So spend some money and effort making your website look safe, interesting and professional.
Don't blow your hard-earned cash on a custom made website before you've tested the waters. Plenty of well-meaning people do this every day. Try selling some products on a site like ebay.com first. You'll soon find out if you have a market and whether you can be bothered making the daily trip to the post office. Once you're up and running, it can also be good to keep selling products through other channels like ebay, and then encouraging repeat business to come directly to you.
Once you're up and running, you will need to invest some time and possibly money into Search Engine Optimisation. (SEO). Websites don't appear on the first page of Google by accident - it takes a lot of effort to get there.
And finally, you need to make buying products from you an enjoyable experience. Repond to questions quickly and politely, package your products nicely and throw in something extra like a promotional item or discount coupon if you can. Make sure you branding is memorable and consistent. Make people want to deal with you again - despite the fact that there are probably 5,000 other websites selling exactly the same products as you.

Cheers,

The Blue Penguin

Need a quote? Remembering your manners probably won't kill you.

2011-04-13T17:21:00.001-07:00

As a small business owner with very little time on my hands, one of the more disapointing daily occurences I experience is the lack of courtesy shown by people asking for quotes.

When a request for a quote arrives in my inbox, I will usually drop everything I'm doing and focus on quickly responding with a friendly, personalised quote.

I know what it's like waiting hours or days just to receive an ugly, generic PDF quote which tells me very little about the product or the business selling it. So if I have the time, I will try to personally address the potential customer and breifly explain the benefits of using us for their design or print, plus I'll try to convey the fun, friendly personality of our business in the email if it seems appropriate.

The dissapointing part is that the majority of the time, I never hear back from the recipient - even when I politely follow them up a few days later.

Because we take great pride in the quality of our products and services, our prices are not usually the cheapest, and so I don't expect to win every job, but:

It would just be really nice to get a "Thanks for taking the time to quote for us, but we've decided to go with someone else..." email once in a while - even if that's the last I hear from the person.

So please, next time you go to delete a quote that someone has put a bit of effort into - just because you asked them to - click reply first and thank them.

Featured Business: Nittaya - Closet for a Cause.

2011-01-13T16:14:00.000-08:00

Nittaya is all about helping those less fortunate through their love of fashion.

They sell gorgeous vintage, pre-loved and new clothing and accessories through their online boutique and give 100% of the profits to charities in Australia and around the world.

It all started with one young woman's desire to help underprivileged orphans in Thailand, and now you can look stunning, feel a million bucks and change the world at the same time.

Check out www.nittaya.com.au to find our more or to pick up a bargain and help someone in need.

Blue Penguin Design is responsible for all of Nittaya's branding including their logo, website, flyers, posters, business cards, and swing tags.

From time to time, we like to feature one of our wonderful and valued customers. Just because we love them all.

If you're chosen, your business or product will be advertised to a few hundred like-minded people in our newsletter, and if you have a website, we'll place a link on this blog which will be nice for your SEO. (Don't have a website or know what SEO is? Contact us today!)
All you have to do is use us for Graphic Design, Web Design or Printing in the time between newsletters, and you'll go into the draw to be our next featured customer. Oh, and it's 100% FREE.

2011-01-13T16:03:00.000-08:00

How to Choose a Good Web Designer.

2011-01-13T16:02:00.002-08:00

If you've decided it's time to catch up to the world and give your business it's own online presence, or you're ready to upgrade your old, clunky website to something a bit more exciting, you're gonna have one heck of an adventure trying to choose who gets the honour of building your site for you.

To be honest, web design is a pretty nasty, cut-throat industry. Because there are no real official standards or requirements and it doesn't cost anything to get into the gig, pretty much anyone can call themselves a web designer and make some cash. This makes it very hard to work out who's good at what they do, and who's get a pirated copy of Dreamweaver and no conscience.

When Blue Penguin Design advertised for our first web designer, we found that for the exact same job, some people charged $250, and some $15,000. No exaggeration.

You will find there are 3 types of designers out there, all ready to kill for your business.

1. Salesmen:
Salesmen may or may not be good at what they do, but they'll charge you about 10 times the average price anyway, and then keep you locked into a ridiculous monthly contract until the end of time.

They may try and sell you the fact that they have developed their own amazing back-end which you can't live without but, the fact is that the best CMS systems with the best back ends (Joomla, Word Press, Drupal) are all open source and available for free to anybody. By this stage, I'd suggest making a humorous pun about what they can do with their back-end. Bazinga!

As a general rule: The quote with the extra zero on the end will make a lovely addition to your bin.

2. Students:
Students possess little experience and knowledge, but can make things look shiny. They'll happily spend 80 hours on your website and charge you $150. You can almost guarantee that the software they use (and the hideous music they listen to for inspiration) is pirated. They won't lock you in to any contracts, because they don't want to see you ever again.

If you're lucky, you may come across a child prodigy who's talent will pay off your 300 foot yacht, but you'll most likely end up with something worth about $150 about 6 months after you needed it.

3. The Good Guys:
Finally, we come to the good guys of web design; They keep up to date with the latest trends and technology and they take great pride in what they do. They don't lock you into any ongoing contracts, because they are confident that you and your mates will come back.

Their prices are reasonable, but still will reflect the significant investment they make in software, computers and education – and the fact that they are excellent at what they do.

(As the director of Blue Penguin Design, I could be biased, but I would say we are Good Guys.)

Google has money to do cool stuff.

2010-12-14T14:22:00.000-08:00

This is very nicely done.
http://www.youtube.com/adwords10?hl=en-gb&forcelang=false&x=eaa80ad00b2e4cb3bb1d10f8260c45fe

I'm sure you'll find a similar video on about a bazzillion blogs in the next few minutes.

...and now for a Blue Penguin update:

We have recently added The Directory of Champions to our site. It's really just a page full of our favourite links, but The Directory of Champions is a much better name for it as I'm sure you'll agree.

It's probably not all that exciting to most, but as link building is one of the most effective ways of increasing your site's Search Engine Optimisation, I'd say that this is very nice of us.

Speaking of SEO, we design very, very search engine friendly websites. They are so search engine friendly, that Google sometimes thinks they want to be more than friends...

Click here to find out more about our web design services.
(Oh, and if you let us design your site, you may just find yourself in the Directory of Champions.)

Tips for Creating Great Marketing Content (by a grumpy designer)

2010-10-25T17:20:00.000-07:00

Whether you are creating marketing content for a brochure, a website or an online article like this, the following will help you to get a better return on your hard-earned investment.

TIP #44. Less is way more.

As it turns out, people are busy.

They don't have the time or the desire to read a 47 page booklet about your amazing new product. For this reason, you need to keep the text in your marketing materials to a minimum or your unread booklet will wind up in the bin in record time.

As graphic and web designers, having customers trying to squeeze loads of unnecessary information into a design is a struggle we face everyday, and it makes us sad. Not only can it be overwhelming to the reader, but it also limits what we can do visually to make it appealing. A big heading and a pretty picture will be more effective than a bazzillion word essay in 3pt type any day.

So when you're deciding what to put into your print or online marketing make sure that every single word you use is absolutely 100% necessary to attracting your target audience. If you can do without it, take it out. If you find that you're making certain words bold and underlined so that they stand out, remove everything else. If you end up with just 5 words instead of 1,000, BINGO! Slap a picture of a puppy or a baby next to that, and you've won.

You don't need to educate people in every tiny detail of your product or service, you just need to highlight 1 or 2 reasons why they can't live without it and give them a desire to know more. Once they're interested, then you can go crazy with everything else.

With websites, having large amounts of relevant content can be a great way to increase your search engine ranking, but the less is more rule still applies. Organise your pages and menus so that users only see what they want to see and are not bombarded with information. We'll touch on this in more detail in a future edition.

To sum it all up: Don't make us sad - keep your content minimal.

If you would like help with your content, or would even like it written for you, click here to talk to us today.

Awesome Summer Recipe.

2010-10-12T22:11:00.001-07:00

BBQ weather is upon us folks, so I thought I'd share this delicious, healthy and incredibly easy meal that I created the other day out of shear laziness. It takes less than 30 mins to prepare and cook, and it looks and tastes amazing. When it comes to selecting the vegetables, I usually just wonder around the supermarket picking up whatever seems nice at pretty at the time, use whatever you feel like.

This recipe requires a rice cooker, so if you don't have one, get one! You'll never look back.

Grilled Chicken & Vegetable Rice. (Serves 4)

Ingredients.
3 cups rice (I recommend basmati because it's low GI and has a great texture.)
2 chicken stock cubes
1 tablespoon curry powder

5 or 6 chicken thigh fillets
About 500g of mixed vegetables. (Suggestions: carrots, zucchinis, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, a red onion, asparagus, broccoli, capsicum, squash, etc)

To serve:
1 lemon
Greek yogurt

How to make it.
1. Place the rice, crumbled stock cubes and curry powder in you rice cooker. Pour in the appropriate amount of water (see your user manual) and switch it on.

2. Turn on your BBQ to it's highest setting and leave it to heat up.

3. Meanwhile, roughly chop the chicken and veggies into small bite-sized pieces.

4. By now, your BBQ should be nice and hot. Drizzle a bit of oil on the plate, and then throw the chicken and veg on. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on top and cook for approx 5 minutes, moving everything around every few minutes. Make sure the chicken is cooked through, and remove from the heat. The veggies are best if they still have a bit of crunch left in them.

5. When the rice is done, combine it with the chicken and veggies in the big bowl and toss together.

6. Serve with a dollop of greek yogurt and a squeeze of lemon juice (and beer!).

Variation (even easier!)
Instead of using the rice, try wrapping the chicken, veggies and a blob of yogurt in a tortilla, delish!

We're not professional chefs, but we are professional web designers, find out more at: www.bluepenguin.com.au/services/our-services/website-design.html

Welcome little buddy!

2010-10-12T21:59:00.001-07:00

Welcome to our blog.

Very soon, this page will come alive with all kinds of useful, funny, wonderful and weird info.
We will also be featuring our customer's businesses from time to time as a way of saying "Thanks dude!".

Stay tuned, little buddy.