It’s surprising how many people think they are a graphic designers just on a basis of knowing how to use Photoshop.

Knowing Software

Nowadays people have access to any kind of software in a blink of an eye. Even so common software like Microsoft Office provides us with a few options of manipulating a clip arts, colours and so on. Some people believe if they could learn these options they can stick to themselves a ‘designer’ title. This caused that many graphic designers are actually frustrated with decreasing prestige of title ‘graphic designer’.
A great designer Mark Buss from Industrial Brands arguments in his article “I’m not a graphic designer” that he deserves better title than graphic designer which will differentiate him from other “graphic designers”.
He says:

Many feel that the word “graphic” refers primarily to pictures and images — not the strategies, concepts, words, sound, animation or any other immersive experiences we may choose to include in the design solutions we produce.

That’s right, you all aspiring to be designers. Creating any kind of design demands a lot more than mix & match of colours and fonts. It includes hours of creative thinking, formulating strategies, analysing concepts, brainstorming, analysing client’s company target market and its competiton and a lot more.
Cheap design can be spoted immediately – good work will always stand out.

It’s being said that there is some creative part in all of us. Parents keep assuring their children of their great creative talent. Sometimes it makes more harm to the design industry than benefit.

So what actually helps noticing a ‘real’ graphic designer from the ones who just call themselves like that?

Training & Courses

Whether you finished University course or you are self-taught designer, you are aware of importance of professional training and courses. If it’s any finished online course or the college one – doesn’t really matter. What matters is constant investing in your skills and talent.

Awards

Surely, the best way to rate how good are you is to participate in creative comptetitions. Whenever you decide to become a professional graphic designer – look around for opportunities to show yourself and your talent. If you are still in a school, participate in any competitions, because you never know where small local competition can lead your future business.
People prefer dealing with experienced designers who prove their outstanding track of work.
Award-winning designers are always better choice.

Experience

You don’t become designer overnight. Like in any business, designers learn from their mistakes and try to eliminate them. Your projects should be build on your wide knowledge of the market and rights ruling it.
If you are starting designer you may look for internships organised by local graphic design studios or advertising agencies. You may find them through job search sites like Monster.com or creative job vacancies search engines on Creativepool.co.uk.
When applying for a internship. remember to prepare your portfolio and speach for the interview. You can also check my article “How to get your first graphic design job” for some tips.
As a beginner you have less chances to be in position of clients actually contacting you for work. To get some work you should ask your friends and family if any of their friends could benefit from working with you.

Creative Thinking

Being a graphic designer and doing a graphic design are two completely different matters. Some people call themselves a graphic designers but they do not actually live designing, they treat this profession as an source of income or something they enjoy doing but do not treat it as a serious matter.
To become a designer you need to show constant creativity, doing things better than your competition and provide unique services. There is no place for from-time-to-time designers.
A true designer live their business, constantly reading, learning and experimenting new ways of design.
To stand still is to move back.

Marketing Solutions

Anyone can create a ‘logo’ or ‘poster’ but will their concept be right for a client’s target market? Or will it only reflect ‘designer’s’ favourite style and concept? Graphic designers produce design concepts and solutions to communicate their clients’ messages with high visual impact.
The main thing you have to know about designers is that:

• Designer is NOT an artist.
• Designers provide strategic solutions to communicate their clients messages
• Designers create strategic plan of action
• Designers are consultants who choose the best available options for their clients (NO unlimited choices for the client because often clients do not know what is good for them)

However big are your aspirations to become a professional designer, always make sure you provide high quality services to your customers. Do not stop on learning how to use basic Adobe software, but constantly learn and expand your knowledge in the creative fields.

How do you value your skills and talent in the creative industry? Do you constantly learn and experiment or stay with secure solutions? What are your feeling about ‘graphic designer’ title? How do people react when you present yourself as a graphic designer?

The Worst Logos Of 2009

Yale University

Design: Matthew Carter (Yale Typeface)
Release Date: September, 2009
As underconsideration.com aptly noticed, there is nothing formally wrong with the new logo, it’s a little bit sad that one of the most famous logos is to be forgotten. Personally, I believe new logo is far too simple and far too usual to represent that prestigious university like Yale.

Old Blackwater – New Xe

Well… if you haven’t heard about Blackwater company, you most probably wouldn’t recognise their new logo – which is ‘Xe’. Company in the very short time made two terrible marketing mistakes:
Mistake 1: It renamed corporation without leaving any name connection to help people recognise it
Mistake 2: It redesigned logo completely. Personally, I thought it was some kind of daughter company of Xerox..
Lesson to learn: You can’t completely deprive the company its old corporate identity’s look without prevousely notifying your customers about planned changes.

Wisconsin Department of Tourism

Design: Red Brown Klé
Release Date: March, 2009
Even least experienced designer can see and tell the difference between good combination of colours and bad one. Colours used in Wiskonsin logo are boring, not noticeable (unless in designer nightmares), lack of balance in composition, poor typeface and this human shape… This logo is my favourite for the winner of the worst logo of 2009.

Windows Messenger MSN

Release Date: November, 2009
Who doesn’t know MSN logo on the left? Strong, colourful, simple. Everything seemed fine with it, however Microsoft decided to follow their Bing’s logo trend and changed typeface for thinner and shorter. New butterfly looks quite ok, no shadows, same colours, fine gradients. Just this font ruins the effect of typographic decency. Such a shame Microsoft..

Kraft Foods, Redux

Release Date:
Phase 1: February, 2009
Phase 2: July, 2009
Company decided that however well known ‘race track’ Kraft logo wil remain on the consumer’s packaging, the new logo is to be adopted in other marketing tools such as Kraft’s website. This doesn’t seem to make sense, since the most important rule is to be consequent with company’s corporate identity.. Regarding new logo, well, it looks like company’s having all year carnival: random shapes, many colours, kind of childish. I don’t buy it. And you?

The Hilton Family

Design: Landor
Release Date: September, 2009
This concept COULD work if not these unnecessary, corny, ruining-everything, old-fashioned bevels. Whoever approved this concept, I would like to think he/she has sophisticated sense of humour..

Microsoft Browser: Bing

Design: Razorfish
Release Date: June, 2009

Microsoft maybe is the biggest and strongest professional corporation in the world but when it comes to releasing that kind of identity it seems a little bit confusing. As underconsideration.com informed: “All the letter forms were made from scratch.” Well, wrong wasted tons of money on design.

The Best Logos Of 2009

Avid

Very appropriate use of symbols as type. Without even reading the synopsis I could identify the industry.
Chris Austin

Design: The Brand Union
This logo is the beauty of itself. New logo has been composed of simple geometric shapes that every consumer and professional recognises as fundamental to the digital audio and video equipment/services. Definitely one of my favourite ever.

Euro 2012 Poland-Ukraine Logo

One of my favourite ‘blossom’ logo. In a smart way captures and represents colours of nations and it’s completely different from what we’ve seen presented before by UEFA. Nice playing with font shapes, good adjustment. Now just the question is if Poland and Ukraine will build stadiums on time so they people could actually see this logo.

Commerzbank

Design: Meta Design
Release Date: November, 2009

Very nice and clever combining the shapes and colours of two corporate identities into one – Commerzbank. Logo has been carefully planned and designed with attention to details. Look at the angle of the “K” which matches the angle of the icon.. pretty clever, huh?

Pfizer

Design: Siegel+Gale
Release Date: November, 2009

The changes in logo are small yet very visible. Blue gradient and different angle of the ellipse brings this logo back to life.

Below you can see how new logo works out on different backgrounds.

New York Public Library

Design: NYPL In-house Staff
Release Date: November, 2009

Who would think that NYPL in-house staff can be so creative? New design works well either in big or in small scale, is simplified yet distinctive. New logo definitely fits into perfect logo design: it’s memorable, scalable, works well on different surfaces and black/white colours.

City Of Melbourne

Design: Landor (Sydney)
Release Date: July, 2009

Old version…

… and completely redesigned new version

This logo surely can be called genius of the design. Geometrical form of M recalls strong image of the city.
As one of the readers of Brand New aptly summarised:

Even the parking tickets are exciting.
— Scott

And you? Have you seen any inspiring logos which you would classify as best of the last year? Share it wiph me!

At the moment, there is more than 350 million users on Facebook, which means that most of your clients (those current and potential ones) can connect with you via this social network.
To draw the line between personal and business use you have to separate information you want to reveal to your friends from the one you want to show to your business friends.
This article will show you how.

Please note: Managing multiple accounts is a serious violation of Facebook’s Terms of Use, therefore it’s wise to adjust your account to be suitable for your personal and business use.

1. Create List For Your Business Friends

The very first step is to create new list for your business friends. I called it “business:graphic design” list. Go to the menu list FRIENDS -> ALL FRIENDS -> CREATE NEW LIST. Choose all people you want to include and then CREATE LIST.

2. Privacy Settings

Now, when you have done that, go to SETTINGS -> PRIVACY SETTINGS and start with PROFILE INFORMATION. It’s up to you what data you want to reveal, all sections of your profile are customisable.

To hide certain sections from your business friends, simply choose CUSTOMISE -> and then enter in HIDE FROM THESE PEOPLE your list

3. Hide Unpleasant

Sure, everybody loves social life but sometimes certain photos or information can be too much for your business image. Night out with your friends and a little bit too much alcohol? You have great photos with you cought with your pants down? Sure, the party was great, but that kind of pictures can be harmful for your business. You want to be seen as professional, responsible and trustworthy. Right?

Hide all albums you want to be seen by your friends only but leave few neutral ones. Maybe you from some travel trip? Or you winning some medal in the sport game? People are interested about other peoples’ lives. Reveal some adequate bits. You want to be seen as active, social, yet professional.

4. Contact Info

You can’t forget about marketing. Reveal to EVERYBODY your website, blog, Twitter name and everything which is relevant to your business. As I’ve already said: You never know who is watching…

Contact With Provoque

You can add me on Facebook or become fan of Provoque. It will be pleasure to hear from you
Good luck with building your empire.

• Recognise Any Font With MyFont.com

How many times you wondered what font was used in your favourite brands? How many times you lost a vector file and couldn’t remember which font you used for a certain project? MyFont.com offers free option of font recognition. All you have to do is uploading >2Mb file and MyFont will do the rest by suggesting the best matches.

• Browser Shot

Want to know how does your website look like in different browsers than yours? Enter the website address in the engine, choose interesting you browsers (you can even see your website in Linux browsers!) and wait

• Colour Combinations And Schemes

Sometimes everybody wants a little bit of hint when it comes to juxtaposing colours. Colorcombos.com gives you many different colour combinations and schemes that work together great on the screen. You can also grab colours of any website by entering its address. Very, very useful.

• Backlink Watch

Backlink is are incoming links to a website or web page. Google Search Engine uses backlinks in deciding which sites are more popular and qualitative. Want to know the number of backlinks to your design website? This free website list you all websites your address appears.

• Icon Finder

Need to find an icon of popular brand? Search through more than 125000 icons.
Do you know other useful websites? Which ones do you use often and why? Comment this post. Thanks

This article will give you an overview on recruitment process and what things you have to avoid in order to succeed (or at least have a chance for a job).

Preparation

Before you start looking around for job, you need to clarify 3 key points. Write the answers on the piece of paper – it will help you understand your goals.

YOU:

• What is your motivation & ambition?
• Where do you see yourself in the career path?
• What are your strengths and weaknesses?

YOUR WORK STYLE:

• What environment would you like to work in?
• Are you individual or team worker? (Or maybe both?)
• What style does your artwork represent?
• What do you like doing most and what the least?

THE JOB MARKET:

• What are the most prestigoues companies/agencies/design offices in your are?
• Would you like to work as in-house or studio designer?
• What type of candidates do these companies look for?

After doing the market research, you are ready for the next step: preparing your portfolio.

Creating A Portfolio

Design jobs are specific market. Contrary to other kind of jobs, in the interview you not only speak about your skills and experience but also show them – presenting your portfolio.

To create a job-winning portfolio select only your best piece of work. If you don’t have large collection of artwork, show your best pieces in the beginning and the end of your portfolio. This is because people tend to remember best beginning and the ends of a process – like your portfolio presentation.

It’s also a good idea to show some sketches to demonstrate your process of brainstorming and choosing concepts.

If you are not sure if your portfolio looks professional, find advisory sessions for reviewing and analysing your portfolio. Most of art schools and universities organise these sessions for students free of charge.
Think about your preferred design and work style, prepare yourself to discuss about your strengths and weaknesses in the interview.
Discuss about projects you are proud of with passion, show the interviewer that design is something you love. (However, it’s unlikely people choose this profession for money.)

You want to let your employer know that learning process will continue throughout your career.

Resume/CV & Motivating Letters

Professional CV is a must for everyone actively looking for job. Designers, however, should give extra attention to their CV look. Your resume should reflect your skills and abilities not only in words but also in the look of itself. You can’t afford to be wishy-washy.
[Soon article about: 15 Beautiful ideas for Designer's CV]

First, you have to follow certain standards of CV, giving the facts from your life an employer may be interested in. Remember to tailor your CV content to each job position you apply for. The biggest and most common mistake is to send the same CV to many different employers/ for same/similar positions.
No doubt, you save time but your CV is seen by employer to be made without effort.
Carefully read about requirements and ideal candidate description for a job and highlight these traits in your CV (if you have them!) Don’t lie, it will transpire during the interview.

Many designers prepare business cards & print stationery for themselves. Originally made, business cards give you opportunity to make an individual impression on your potential employer.

Tell Me Who You Are

Many employers ask for motivating letters: a short explanation why you think would be the best candidate for a job position. Again, as a designer you MUST represent yourself as willing to learn, enthusiastic & passionate for design. Many job search websites e.g. monster.com or totaljobs.com offer templates of motivating letters. It can be a good kick off for your final version.

Applying For A Job

There are many places your prospective employers list their jobs offers. However, if your dream company doesn’t have any job vacancies at the moment, it’s still a good idea to arrange an interview with them. In your motivation letter try to establish your interest relative to the company’s mission. Give a reason to interview you. Getting this ‘demo’ interview will be an excellent practice and preparation for your future dream job offer.

In The Interview

We always fear the unknown that’s why the first is always the most stressful. Before your real interview try to practice with your friends or in front of the mirror. Analyse your body language, point what may seem annoying for an interviewer. Remember, that people like people who are like them, so try to copy body language of the other person. If he/she speaks quiet, adjust your voice tone to his, if he leans in your direction, imitate it too.
[Soon article about: Contracts Winning Body Language Tips]

At the real interview try to relax. Remember to breathe. If you didn’t understand a question, ask to repeat it. The interviewer understands your position and he won’t knock off the points for your interview.
Interview should be a dialogue, as you have done your homework, ask questions about organisation and its current/best projects. Show your genuine interest. Suggest your help.
Remember the famous J.F. Kennedy’s quote:

‘Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.’ ?

it applies to your situation too. It’s not about what that company has to offer but how can YOU help with their needs.

Once I applied to London Advertising agency and got an ‘demo’ interview. However, I didn’t get the job. I made a reprehensible mistake not specifying what kind of job I would like to do. Because I have business management studies but graphic design is my passion I suggested that I could do either managerial or design job.
People like people who know exactly what they are good at and what they want. My advice for you is to be persuasive, show your future employer that you are an ideal candidate for this job.
After an interview, a follow-up note of thanks will be appreciated by interviewer.

If You Got The Job

When you are offered a job, you may be shocked/surprised and hard to negotiate. You want to get over it and relax. However, these last negotiations are the most important part for you. Don’t come out with quick ‘yes’ for an offer. Take time to consider all conditions of your employment.
Make research and establish your market value as a designer. Use salary checkers in your market and location and check top 5 salary tips.
Remember about perks your company can offer you: health insurance, paid holiday, flexible hours, car, etc. Discuss what would you get in a offer package. Be clear about your needs, avoid understatements, ask questions, and take time to consider the offer. Don’t made decision in a rush.

To Conclude

Applying for your first graphic design job doesn’t always mean your dream job. However, getting into design industry gives you valuable experience. Invest in your skills and experience, your next job search will be easier. You will have a clear image of the industry, its ups and downsides. Eventually you will find yourself in position you always wanted to be.
Remember, proper preparation to interview is a half- success. Communicate, ask questions, be courteous. Try to relax and believe in yourself!

Good luck with the interviews!!

As someone smart once said: nothing happens in business unless something is sold – first thing you must think about your business is its profitability. Having clients & actual selling your artwork will definitely help you differentiate your dreams about being a designer (also called ‘I-Know-Photoshop-Very-Well-Person) and actually being him.
So..before you become devoted to becoming a professional graphic designer, read this article through and then think again about choosing your career path

Advantages

• Being your own boss
  You don’t like to be told what to do and think that you can do better? By becoming your own boss you will decide which projects to take, negotiating the contracts and of course determining the prices. No more working for minimum wage

• Choosing your working hours
  You want to sleep a little longer? Fine, as a freelancer you are free to choose which hours you prefer working. As most of the designers work directly from their home office, they don’t also waste time for travel.

• You do what you love to do
  If you are well-prospering designer, you can work on a multiple projects and choose whatever suits you best at the certain moment
• You’re always right, the customer is wrong
  You can choose which project you want to take and all design concept usually lays in your hands. You are working as individual and you don’t need to take into consideration your, otherwise, team. The only exception is client, which, of course (even if is wrong) is right. Carefully listen to his suggestions, find some compromise regarding your and his/her vision of the project. In business, it al; goes about to win-win situation.

…and disadvantages

Of course freelance has many pitfalls and responsibilities which paid, secured jobs don’t. There are many issues like advertising, self promotion, marketing, taxing, and invoicing.

• Work space, hardware and equipment
  Becoming a graphic designer may look an easy task to do but you have to invest lots of money before you kick off. Assuming that you will work from home, paid rent will be well spend money on your business.
  You only have to think about investing in professional software (most designers use Adobe products like Illustrator, Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver etc.) and hardware.
• Instability
  That is the worst disadvantage of freelancing, especially for starting designers. One month you may have few big projects, another month you may have none.
  That’s why is so important to constantly promote yourself!
• 25h/7
  Only graphic designer can feel what other designer feels. Many people wrongly believe that graphic design is an easy, not time-consuming profession. In reality there is no much time to relax, as you have to be constantly creative, multitasking between: creating and working on new projects, getting new skills & qualifications, communicating with your clients and of course marketing of your business.
• Less rigour, more distractions
  As no one watches your back you may not find yourself so efficient comparing to working in a traditional company’s environment. It takes time and rigour to become successful. You have to clearly state your goals and work hard to achieve them
• Outsider’s loneliness
  You must deal with not having lunches with colleagues from work. You won’t have stupidly funny e-mails resent to you during workouts or any gossiping.
• Lack of motivation
  When people are their own bosses, they tend to be less demanding and motivated to work. You have to know what you want and go for it. Beginnings can be hard but having happy and returning customers is the greatest reward.

Selling and self promotion

Graphic designers make other businesses more attractive and sells-effective. But when it comes to promoting and selling your brand – there the problems begin. Many starting designers have problems with reaching their target market & making new clients.
While designing a logo or any other firm identity seems pleasurable to deign for client, designing logo for your business is like a mission impossible (still… Tom Cruise managed to accomplish all 3 parts).
The very important issue is assigning time & resources to promoting yourself.
To attract people with similar interests, many desiners write blogs on their websites. It helps increasing traffic on your website, which in turn makes your website more attractive for search engines.

Are you freelancer? What do you find the best and the worse side of being your own boss? How do you deal with any occurring problems in this profession? Please, share your opinion.

Twitter is a particular phenomenon in social-media industry. This 3 years old company already has 46 millions members and recent surveys show that it increases the number of members of more than 1360 % annually.
Want to know what Miley Cirus eats for breakfast? Or how many dogs bought Paris Hilton last week? Go on their Twitter profiles.
Businesses love Twitter because in easy and quick way it allows them to communicate with the clients and update them about new products and services.
As you are aware, graphic design is a VERY competitive market and talent only is not enough to be known if you can’t promote yourself.
How can you make use of this simple but powerful platform and promote your graphic design business?

To tweet or not to tweet: advantages of Twitter

In Web 2.0 dominated by social networks? Definitely to tweet.

• Twitter helps you to drive traffic to your website.

  If you’re using WordPress, you definitely have to download plugin Twitter Widget Pro, which helps you integrating your posts with your twitter account. Whenever you publish new post, it creates tweet about it on your Twitter account. And because now Google works with Twitter, each tweet you post is seen real-time in Google results (opposed to normal posts which are updated by search engines less often)

• It can help you networking

  Thanks to Twitter, now you can follow your graphic design idols, see what they recommend, what they read and learn. Here you can check Top Twitter User Rankings.

• Be seen

  One of my favourite designers and author of Just Creative Design, Jacob Cass got his dream life job in NY just because of Twitter. Make sure that all links and tweets you post are qualitative, because you never know who is reading it ; )
  You can read this inspiring and motivating story about Jacob on his website here.

• Outsource the crowd

  Twitter is fully searchable platform, so you can easily find interesting you information. Interested in rumors about new marketing moves of your favourite company? Type it in Twitter.
  Twitter is the essence of social intelligence, by asking the intriguing questions on Twitter you can quickly & easily see all brainstorming work done for you.

Ways to improve your social marketing

Some designers may be scared of amount of time they have to spend on promoting their services. Writting the blog, designing the projects, answering (sometimes) several hundreds of e-mails from clients.. all this takes a lot of time.
Below are the ways of improving your Twitter marketing:

1. TweetDeck is your personal browser for staying in touch with what’s happening now, connecting you with your contacts across Twitter, Facebook and more. It definitely saves your time and makes integrating your messages easier.

2. Customising your Twitter background:

   You have to be consistent with the image you present. Your Twiter background should include at least logo of your portfolio website & links to it.

Contact with Darc Vanilla Design

Follow me @darcvanilla on Twitter.
You can also check my profile on Facebook , became fan of Darc Vanilla or connect with me via LinkedIn.

Good luck & happy twitting!

I’ve just watched one of the greatest movies recently made – 500 days of Summer and it made me start thinking about product placement in the movies. To reduce costs of the movie, producers of this surprisingly good movie, agreed for product placement (or rather in this case – brand placement).

Ikea target market was supposed to be identified as young, happy, enjoying their life people. It is highly possible that many also young couples will run into Ikea just to reenact the scene as they saw it in the movie. You can check clip of the movie here: Ikea starring in ‘500 days of Summer’ .

Is it effective?

Product placement. Still hot topic and still hot embedded marketing strategy. Now, in the cinemas we are not only bombarded with ads lasting sometimes up to 45 min before the actual movie, but also some companies try to persuade us about their great products placing them IN the movie.

Its a great business for the product-placing company if the movie will be voted positively. The benefits of that kind of advertising are enormous. Product placement is not only an another way of advertising. It’s a way of integrating the brand with another medium, giving the brand the actual image people associate the movie with.
Sometimes the actual product is sometimes seen in the movie for just a few seconds, but the halo effect of it is huge if the movie becomes popular.

Look at the example of TV series House: popular, the main character is playing an intelligent, an unconventional medical genius,who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional hospital.
How does the Apple company would like to be seen? Exactly like that: for intelligent, motivated people, who know what they want and know how to get it.

Brand/Product placement in TV Series

As Michelle Nichols from Reuters called aptly Sex in the City being a ‘marketing dream’ . The film (and TV Series) about glamorous women: writer Carie, publicist Samantha, lawyer Miranda and curator Charlotte, whose friendships, loves and fashion sense in Manhattan captivated millions of viewers during six seasons on HBO. It is Sex in the City why Manolo Blahnik schoes became so popular.
Not without reason, Chris Carlisle, who is president of marketing at the film’s distributor New Line Cinema has dubbed the movie as “the Super Bowl for women”. It’s just a perfect place to advertise. Don’t you think?

My name is Bond. Sony Vaio Bond..

Another example are James Bond movies, which are famous for their product placement. Casino Royale felt almost like lasting 144 minute Sony commercial, with shiny Sony Vaio laptops used to help save the world, calls were made only on Sony Ericsson phones and the use of Sony’s Blu-Ray technology. Oh, just in case you were wondering, the film was produced by Sony Corporation.

More action-movie example? How about Ray-ban sunglasses in ‘Men in Black?’

Or whole lot of commercials in Minority Report ?

Not only image…

Product placement is used not only as a virtual placing advertised product. Some brands will be highlighted in dialogue while others will be seen on screen. Speaking about the product in the movie gives the producers the power to manipulate the opinion about the product. If some liked-by-millions- character mentions about the product and gives a good recommendation – voilà: generation of higher sales.
How many times did you see some product in the movie you really liked and you decided to give it a try? How many times did you identify yourself with the character (for example one of the girls from Sex in the City) and you had to buy what they had, to look more reliable?

Have you encounter any other blatant product placement? Did you think the brand was identified with the movie formula? How did you feel about that particular brand?

Most of the pluggins mentioned above have their equivalent codes available on the authors’ pages.

• Broken Link Checker

There is nothing worse for your visitor than broken link taking him to beloved 404 page.. To avoid this mistake, download Broken Link Checker plugin, which lists you all the pages/sub-pages with broken links.

• Google XML Sitemaps

This plugin generates special .xml sitemap which help search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo etc. to better index your website. It’s also a MUST.

• NextGEN Gallery: Portfolio gallery

What would be your graphic design blog without showing your artwork to the potential customers?

NextGEN gallery plugin is one of the best pluggins is:

• All in One SEO Pack

I hope you read about importance of SEO for your blog.
All in One SEO pack plugin automatically optimises your WordPress design blog for Search Engines (Search Engine Optimization).

• Google Analytics for WordPress

Why? The Google Analytics for WordPress plugin automatically tracks and segments links from within posts, comment author links, links within comments, blogroll links and downloads. In a simple words: you can see how visitors suft within your page, how much time to they spend and from which page they leave your website.

Another good choice is to register your website in Alexa.com – you can see which rank position your website is. It’s free and allows you to see clickstream, demographics, keywords and much more. See the example of darcva.com

• WordPress Database Backup

It’s a MUST. This plugin backups your wordpress database automatically everyday.

• Contact Form

This plugin allows you to create contact forms. (Mind that your host provider has to have enabled one e-mail sender or SMTP Server)

• WP Follow Me on Twitter

This plugin allows you creating Follow Me badge with colour and location customization.

• GD Star Rating

This plugin is another must-have if you want fully interactive blog, where your visitors can rate your posts accordingly. This plugin also setting up advanced rating and review system for posts, pages and comments in your blog using single, multi and thumbs ratings.

• TweetMeme Retweet Button

Constantly growing popularity of Twitter makes this plugin another MUST-have. This plugin simply adds a button which easily lets your visitors retweet your blog posts on their Twitter accounts.

• WP-Polls

Adds an AJAX poll system to your WordPress blog.

• WP to Twitter

Tired of updating your Twitter account about your recent posts on the blog? It’s high time to install this plugin. It will do it for you automatically.

• Yet Another Related Posts Plugin

This useful plugin list related entries based on a unique algorithm for display on your design blog and RSS feeds.
and last but not least…

• WPtouch iPhone Theme

A plugin which formats your site with a mobile theme for the Apple iPhone / iPod touch, Google Android and other touch-based smartphones. Very VERY useful. Try.

Good luck!

Do you recommend any other pluggins? Why do you use them if you blog?

Everybody knows how important are the photos on your website. They help building the image of your company, creating mood by using certain themes or colours & explaining things without words.

Here are some of the best royalty-free stock photo sites:

Stock.XCHNG

Whether you just want to browse our huge image gallery or want to share your own photos with others, this is the site for you!

Stockvault.net

Stockvault.net is a stock photo sharing website where designers and photographers can meet to share their images.

FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Thousands of royalty free photos for websites, newspapers, magazines, video and TV productions, iPhone applications, PowerPoint presentations, forums, blogs and school work.

PhotoXpress.com

Tired of paying for images? Sick of low-res images? The image you want. Free.

I personally use PhotoXpress because it offers high quality (although not always) pictures. Each user has daily limit of 1 free photo but you can increase it by becoming a fan of PhotoXpress facebook fan page (+4 free photos daily) and by putting your personal data on the website (+5 free photos daily)

For more royalty-free stock photos check this website.

Do you know any other websites? Which of them do you recommend and which ones you avoid? Why?