As you have gathered by now...

By profession I’m a freelance graphic and web designer

I'm constantly evolving creative ideas in my head. These ideas eventually find themselves onto my Mac screen or onto a piece of paper. I have a penchant for colours and shapes which ultimately manifests itself into creative & innovative designs. However, that is easier said than done, and designing a client’s vision and bringing it fruition involves a whole host of peripheral factors. Years of experimentation and learning have brought with it the skills to bring a client’s dream to fruition, whether it be a brand logo, brochure, a poster, magazine, newspaper ad or a website. My vibrant spark, love of shapes and colours, with a subtle underlying powerfulness, have brought with it a loyal following.



I currently work for a big company as their DTP designer. This has afforded me the unique opportunity of exposing my work to a diverse cross section of demanding clients, as well as broadening my knowledge in marketing, corporate designing, and at the same time building up an extremely proficient data base of printers and printing houses.

As you have gathered by now, by profession I’m a freelance graphic and web designer, constantly evolving creative ideas in my head. These ideas eventually find themselves onto my Mac screen or onto a piece of paper. I have a penchant for colours and shapes which ultimately manifests itself into creative & innovative designs. However, that is easier said than done, and designing a client’s vision and bringing it fruition involves a whole host of peripheral factors. Years of experimentation and learning have brought with it the skills to bring a client’s dream to fruition, whether it be a brand logo, brochure, a poster, magazine, newspaper ad or a website. My vibrant spark, love of shapes and colours, with a subtle underlying powerfulness, have brought with it a loyal following.

I currently work for a big company as their DTP designer. This has afforded me the unique opportunity of exposing my work to a diverse cross section of demanding clients, as well as broadening my knowledge in marketing, corporate designing, and at the same time building up an extremely proficient data base of printers and printing houses.

Most of my design work is done in Adobe Creative Suite Applications, I’m however just as comfortable in Corel Draw. I have been actively involved in design work for the past eight years with friends and clients. My main area of focus has been in the genre of graphic designing, before venturing into the exciting world of web design.

When I entered this market, the request for my work rapidly increased and that openend a different ball game for me. The combination of my illustrative and web based designing has exposed my way of thinking to many clients in the past years, and I must say, this has been an exciting and adventuring experience for me as a designer. I stepped into the coding world with a deeper interest when I met up with a renowned .net developer Jonathan Crossland, who taught me the basics of CSS, Java, Jquery and PHP developement.

Feel free to find out more about me"

My knowledge has facilitated the close interaction between myself and my clients. I’m extremely open to any ideas or suggestion my clients might have, my job, essentially at the end of the day, is to guide and suggest, ultimately bringing your dream to realization. I describe my design format as being powerful, modern and clean, as well as an obsession for consummate layout work. I have had the privilege of working for extremely talented and creative clients from all walks of the corporate world, viz a vis Franchises, Shopping Mall conglomerates, University departments, artists, bands and photographers-the list is endless. The spinoff here was a deep learning experience which no money could buy. So, if you have a mo, take off your shoes, grab a cup of Java and peruse my portfolio..
A good design begins with a good design concept. You’re trying to solve a problem and your concept will lead the way and give you direction for your design decisions. How do you form a concept? What questions do you need to ask in order to develop one? How does your concept become the roadmap for your design?

A design concept is the idea behind a design. It’s how I plan on solving the design problem in front of me. It’s the underlying logic, thinking, and reasoning for how I’ll design a anything. Your concept will lead to my choices in color and type. I’ll choose the aesthetic and determine your grid. Every design decision I make will fall back on your concept for direction.

Most of my design work is done in Adobe Creative Suite Applications, I’m however just as comfortable in Corel Draw. I have been actively involved in design work for the past eight years with friends and clients. My main area of focus has been in the genre of graphic designing, before venturing into the exciting world of web design.

The best designs start with a great concept. It’s my idea for how I’ll solve the problem of communicating my client’s message. While there is no one way to develop a concept the first necessary step is gathering information.

I'll gather information by asking my client as many questions as I can and listening to the answers on and in between the lines. I'll also gather information through my own research of my client’s industry, products, services, and market. The more information I have the better I’ll be able to create different concepts for the design.

I’ll develop concepts verbally and visually. The former helps determine the message I’ll convey and the latter helps determine how I'll convey that message. Both are important roadmaps for my design decisions. Often I’ll find that getting away from actively developing a concept and letting my subconscious work on the problem leads to the best results.

How do I come up with concepts for a new design? Do I have a specific process I go through or do I wait for inspiration to find me?
Answer:
There is no specific process, it comes to me during my day to day living!
Internet marketing comes of age - Internet marketing is now a major, multi-billion dollar industry. Despite some concerns, many consumers now have the skills and the confidence to transact purchases using the web.The spending on search engine marketing (the fees advertisers pay to have their adverts shown on search results and websites) is now measured in the billions rather than millions.

An Internet "presence" has now become essential - A modern, well presented website is now expected for most businesses and organisations. A website should explain the products and services offered. It should also provide background and general contact information. A website can also allow online transactions, from simple enquiry requests, through change of detail processing (e.g. address changes) to advanced functions such as supply change management.

Local business is affected as well - Many small business operators have been disappointed with the results achieved by their websites. Sites have been created but few if any business has resulted. There are a number of reasons: unrealistic expectations; poor website construction (not search engine friendly); poor targeting. Local search is growing in importance. Local search is the ability to search for and find businesses and organisations in the local area, that is, in close proximity geographically.

This will vary from business to business. The local pizza shop needs to be quite close i.e. the same suburb. For my consulting business, metropolitan Melbourne is the main target, although I do service the State of Victoria and Australia as well. But the focus is Melbourne, not my immediate neighbourhood. Search engines like Google, Yahoo! and MSN are attempting to offer local search facilities. Webmasters can help by ensuring that their pages have "local" information that helps the search engines. This ability to cater for local search provides real opportunities for small business, provided that they take the necessary steps to maximise their website performance. Local search emerged as a major internet issue. No organisation can afford to ignore its importance.

The need to keep updating - Improvements occur constantly. Website development has been made easier, but the marketing challenge has become greater as more organisations have recognised the importance of web marketing. Consequently, business and organisations, whether large or small, need to monitor their website performance to ensure that the opportunities that become available are utilised. In summary, no business or organisation, large or small, can ignore the importance of maintaining a web presence.
If you are ready to get the word out about your business, one of the steps that you need to do is to select the right media where you will advertise and promote your business.

For a small business, every dollar is precious. Small businesses do not advertise for the sake of advertising. Instead, they want to get the most return for their investment. Your advertising campaign should translate to greater sales, more profits and healthier bottom line. While there are a number of venues where you can promote your business, you need to ask three important questions:

• Where are my target buyers?
• What is the best medium to reach them?
• Can I afford to launch an effective campaign using this medium?

An important step to developing your sales and marketing plan is to select the right media to send out your message. There are no hard-and-fast rules as to which media is better. The right media for one business may be wrong for another.

Importance of Social Media Advertising:

New communication channel can significantly increase viewership and users activities. As an example, when Sporting News website integrated with Facebook the visits increased by over 500%. You could say that every company should enter the world of social media and a simple website is no longer enough. Using social media can not only increase reliability and build the image, but also effectively increase revenues and increase the number of customers. Various Marketing Mediums:

• Newspaper Advertising
• Magazine Advertising
• Print/Distribution Advertising
• Television Advertising
• Internet (Web) Advertising
• Social Media Advertising
• Mobile and SMS Advertising
• Email / Newsletter Advertising