Card One Concepts BlogSpot

Call for Help - Basic Illustrator Techniques

2008-04-15T11:16:00.001-05:00

Drawing a simple waving flag using Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Bridge 101

2008-04-08T20:33:00.002-05:00

How to Define a SIte In Dreamweaver CS3

2008-03-01T21:51:00.002-05:00

Helvetica . . . The Documentry!

2008-03-01T21:24:00.003-05:00

In the little free time I have these days between projects I like to catch up on a few movies from my netflix account. I especially love documentaries and had put an interesting title into my queue a few days ago called Helvetica.

I really enjoyed this movie and recommend any one who has an interest in graphic design and typography to make it a point to watch it. I am sure you will certainly enjoy this flick as much as I did.

Click here for more information about Helvetica.

Put Your Best Foot Forward for Success

2008-02-12T23:11:00.009-05:00

When clients hire Card One Concepts to design and develop a website we provide them with questions designed to help them determine what their web site needs and goals are. The feedback helps map out the foundation of the project and allows the client to really focus on the important details and helps them put into perspective the amount of work involved on their part.

If you are thinking of working with Card One Concepts on a website project you may find the following questions helpful to you before you request a free quote.

Background:

What is the nature of your business?
Who is your target audience?

Message:

What goals does your company intend to reach with a new web site?
What is the primary message you wish to convey to your audience with this site?

Perception:

Use adjectives to describe how you want your site to be perceived by the user. (Examples: conservative, progressive, friendly, formal, casual, serious, experts, humorous, service-oriented, professional, etc)
How is your company currently perceived? Do you wish to carry through the same kind of message through your web site?
What web sites do you find compelling? What do you find the most interesting about these sites?What do you find the least interesting or annoying about these sites?Please provide at least 3 website addresses for reference.
Are there other web sites you've seen that have functionality that you would like to have on your site? Due to differences in server operating systems, not all functionality you see on the web may be available on your site.

Style:

Do you have company colors or a color scheme you want us to use?
Describe any visual elements or styles that can be utilized from existing marketing materials or collateral.
If we are providing graphics, what style would you like them to be in: photography, illustration, cartoon, etc?

Content:

Will this site use existing content? If not, will you be creating content in-house or using an outside provider?
What is the basic structure of the content, and how is it organized?
Will you need to request any sensitive information on your site (social security numbers, credit card numbers)? If so, you will need to acquire a security certificate.

Commerce Sites:

How many products do you plan to sell on your web site? Will the products change often?
Do your products have any variations? If so, do they apply to all the products? Does each product have different variations? List variations.
What is your shipping model (flat rate, by total dollar amount, by piece)?
Will you be charging Sales Tax? If so, which state(s) will be charged? What percentage?
Are there any special pricing rules we need to know about (Ex: purchase 12 of our product and receive a 10% discount.)?
Which credit cards do you accept?
Do you need online credit card authorization (Paypal or Google Checkout)?
Do you want to accept checks or purchase orders?
Review the commerce options we have and see if one fits your needs best. Our sales representatives will be able to help you with this.

Marketing / Updating:

What are your short-term marketing goals (in the next two years)?
How will this web site help to meet your goals?
Do you have an existing or planned marketing strategy in mind to promote this site? If so, please describe.
What do you feel is your number one business problem? (Examples: change image, increase customers, promote company, etc.)
What methods of distributing the URL already exist within the company?
Do you intend on keeping the site updated? If so, how often? Who is responsible for updating and providing content?
What are your budget limitations? Can this project be broken in a phased manner to help you meet your goals?

Have a Safe & Happy New Year

2007-12-31T09:25:00.000-05:00

Card One Concepts wants to wish everyone an very safe and Happy New Year!

We hope this year was as good to you as it has been to us. We look forward to the year ahead, the continued relationships we have with our clients and we can't wait to meet the new ones!

Card One Concepts Unveils a New and Improved vDeck 3.0 Web Hosting Control Panel

2007-11-08T08:22:00.000-05:00

Great news to all Card One Concept clients and future clients -- we'll soon be unveiling vDeck 3.0! This new version of our control panel will give you access to additional tools and services and make it easier than ever to manage your web hosting account.

MORE TOOLS AND SERVICES
To give you an idea of the scope of this new control panel, the current version of vDeck incorporates 75 different tools and services--vDeck 3.0 will raise that number to more than 200!

EASIER ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT
In addition, vDeck 3.0 will be even more deeply integrated into our platform than the current version, and it will offer:

* Online access to our support ticketing system.
* Online access to our new improved Knowledgebase.
* Online access to comprehensive tutorials to get you up to speed.
* Customizable user by user web hosting control panel.
* Useful and customizable widgets.
* New and improved Webmail system.
* And much much more!

INCREASED SECURITY AND RELIABILITY
We're revamping our hosting infrastructure, moving from our current distributed, box-by-box deployment to a unified, load-balanced architecture--which will provide greater redundancy for your Web site and e-mail.

UPGRADE PROCESS BEGINS THIS FALL
Card One Concepts is really looking forward to rolling out the new version of vDeck, but we realize that it represents a change. We appreciate your support and patience during this process.

Clients now have the ability to login to their vDeck right from Card One Concepts website by clicking the link labeled "Client Login" at the bottom of any page. We are also working to add vDeck login capabilities to your own website on request for free.

If you have any questions, please ask! As always, you can call us at 607-785-5817 or E-mail us if you have any problems logging in to your vDeck Control Panel.

New Website Redesign Launched"Vestal Central School District"

2007-09-25T11:20:00.000-05:00

Card One Concepts is proud to announce the launch of a new website redesign for the Vestal Central School District

Card One Concepts worked closely in conjunction with Eyedeas Design to redesign a very outdated and poorly functioning website. So we are very proud to announce the launch of the new and improved website for the Vestal Central School District. The new graphic elements, easy to use navigation, and new search capabilities, are just a few of the new features that make the new website a very useful communication tool for parents and faculty alike.

So please visit the website and see what's new!

New Client Website Launched "SonorasGardens.com"

2007-09-25T10:17:00.000-05:00

Card One Concepts is proud to announce the launch of our newest clients website www.sonorasgardens.com

Sonora's Gardens is, as their customers say, "One of the Best Kept Secrets in the Finger Lakes Area." Sonora's Gardens is a full-service garden center in the heart of "The Finger Lakes Area" - Horseheads, New York.

Always a family owned and operated business since its opening in 2001, Sonora's Gardens is the cream of the local garden center crop. They specialize in annuals, perennials, hanging baskets, seeds, fertilizers, soil amendments, mulch, stone, and everything you need to make your garden healthy and beautiful. Grown right in their own greenhouses, their friendly, knowledgeable staff is available to help you choose exactly the right plants.

So please visit the website and see what they can offer you!

Welcome to the World Wide Web Sonora's Gardens!

Volpe & Associates Opens Virtual Office

2007-09-17T15:15:00.000-05:00

In a continued effort to excel in customer service, Volpe & Associates, a printing and promotional packaging company, announces the opening of its virtual store located at www.VolpePackaging.com. With this technology in place, Volpe & Associates expands its ability to provide easy, on-demand accessibility for customers across the U.S. and Canada. Customers not only have access to an expansive range of products and services, they can have fully customized orders fulfilled without leaving their office.

Once entering the virtual store, clients can browse a template library providing an extensive selection of items available for custom print. Custom package design is also available for those clients looking for a specialized product or prototype. A selection of off-the-shelf products has been added to accommodate clients who need orders fulfilled in as little as a day.

This virtual store is designed to enhance Volpe & Associates´ trademark customer service and attention to detail. Steve Volpe, owner and CEO, expresses his enthusiasm for the site´s improved abilities to service customers. “This is a company built on providing customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is everything. Now, with the capabilities of our website combined with our knowledge base I can confidently tell clients they will get exactly what they want, when they want it.”

Geography is no longer a constraint. “We can ship anytime, anywhere in the U.S. and Canada. New York City becomes accessible within the day,” says Volpe. Other clients include: The Toronto Dance Theater of Canada and cd mailers for a mail campaign; Medical Insight of Orange County, CA, and presentation folders; CQE of Columbia, SC, and binders; and a New Jersey television station and hard-to-find video box mailers. When a Clairemont, NH, company called for a leather-bound binder, Volpe & Associates provided everything from the leather samples to facilitating the construction of a prototype for approval before submitting the final order.

Volpe & Associates has over twenty years experience in commercial printing and package development. Learning how to spot trends and stay on the cutting edge of their field has allowed them to grow into a wide range of markets. Their expertise in the field is derived from their willingness to customize each project for their client. Portfolios, clipboards, binders, briefcases, cd/diskette/audio/video holders and menus covers are just a sample of the media they have created to meet clients´ specifications. Volpe & Associates places tremendous value on client relationships and helps each client fulfill their vision. Whether it´s providing step-by-step guidance through an entire project, supplying a client with everything they need to develop a prototype product, or accommodating a short-run print, Volpe & Associates delivers.

New Client Website Launched "MeadowlandsConstruction.com"

2007-07-12T20:31:00.000-05:00

Card One Concepts is proud to announce the launch of our newest clients website www.meadowlandsconstruction.com

Meadowlands Construction LLC is family owned and operated by Peter Grill, a Broome County resident since 1978 and Chamber of Commerce member since 1988. They are committed to providing superior craftsmanship on every job. Don’t put off renewing the beauty and maintenance of your home.

So please visit the website and see what they can do for you!

Welcome to the World Wide Web Meadowlands Construction!

Quicktips 08 - Website Navigation in Tables

2007-07-12T20:23:00.000-05:00

Navigation setup in tables using Adobe Dreamweaver and GoLive

Graphic Tips with Eric Saar - Photoshop Actions

2007-06-18T10:35:00.000-05:00

Tutorial on how to use Actions in Adobe Photoshop
By: Eric Saar

Graphic Tips with Eric Saar - Live Trace

2007-06-01T12:46:00.000-05:00

Tutorial video on Adobe Illustrator Live Trace feature. Learn how to change a Raster image into a Vector image.
By: Eric Saar

Webmaster Strategy : Cross-Linking your web sites

2007-05-30T07:41:00.000-05:00

Webmaster Strategy : Cross-Linking your web sites

Quicktips 05 - Adobe Photoshop Layer Comps.

2007-05-24T11:37:00.000-05:00

Adobe Photoshop Layer Comps.

Double the speed of your firefox browser!

2007-05-18T08:01:00.000-05:00

In this video, I tell you how to configure Firefox for Broadband. This makes you internet 2x faster. It works with both Macs' and PCs'. In this video, I say to type "about:config" in the URL box.

Quicktips 04 - Script Events Manager

2007-05-17T07:46:00.000-05:00

Adobe Photoshop Script Events Manager.

Graphic Tips with Eric Saar : Healing Brush Tool

2007-05-16T07:09:00.000-05:00

This tutorial shows how you an make quick work of blemishes, imperfections and small unwanted details.
By: Eric Saar

Quicktips 03 - Photoshop Actions

2007-05-09T10:48:00.000-05:00

How to create Adobe Photoshop Actions.

Graphic Tips with Eric Saar

2007-05-08T09:43:00.000-05:00

Adobe Photoshop tutorial on how to take a photo and make it into sketch.
By: Eric Saar

Quicktips 02 - Illustrator Clipping Masks

2007-05-08T09:38:00.000-05:00

How to create a clipping mask in Adobe Illustrator

Understanding Google Adwords and Why You Should Use It

2007-05-03T06:59:00.000-05:00

If you are new to online advertising and you are looking for the most cost effective way to get a good head start with your online business venture or even to improve your existing sales. Pay Per Click Advertising is the best option available to target your product or service to a specific audience, quickly and with the profitable results you are looking for.

In Card One Concepts opinion, no other online advertising solution can compare to the results you can achieve with Google Adwords PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising. Traditional advertising methods seem a waist of time and money in comparison to Google Adwords once you understand how it works. The vast amount of control and power you have at your fingertips to present your product or service to the world is amazing.

In order to understand the benefits of using Google Adwords you must grasp the idea behind PPC advertising. Some of you reading this may already know about Google Adwords or what pay per click advertising is all about. But for the sake of those who don't this article will assume you are new to the idea.

PPC Advertising is just that you pay per click on your advertisement. Now you may wonder what are the pros and cons of paying per click. Well think of more traditional advertising methods if you will for a moment. Lets say you are in the business of Web Hosting for example, naturally you are going to want to develop a print ad to go into an industry specific magazine like "Wired" or "Information Weekly." So you pay a small fortune for your ad and it goes into print and maybe that magazine has a shelf life of 6 months. And maybe you decided to go with a full page color ad with your website address in big bold letters so nobody will over look it. So you sit and wait and check your traffic statistics and maybe your traffic does go up, and maybe you even start selling some Web Hosting. But how do you know those sales were a direct result of your magazine ad? Simply put you don't and so you are stuck aimlessly reaching in the dark for your target audience to find your website.

PPC Advertising really is the most cost effective way to advertise especially if your on a shoestring budget. First and foremost as far as Google Adwords goes you have a worldwide network hosted by the most popular and widely used search engine network the world has ever seen. The ability to test and track your advertising campaigns and to tweak them on the fly is priceless to the growth and ever changing market demands. The best part of the PPC advertising concept is that you are only paying for advertising when it is demanded from a potential customer who is specifically looking for what you are selling. You have the ability to target your audience in many ways. Whether it is demographically down to a 300 ft radius anywhere in the world or an entire city, state or country. You have the ability to choose whether your ads show up when some one only does a search through the Google search network or you can have your ads specifically target a website within the Google publishers network. Google even makes it easy for you to set up a budget for your campaign so you don't break the bank. You can even schedule the time of day your ads are displayed. You can create ad variations for the same keyword and gauge which one works the best. You can even ad a tracking code to your pages to find out exactly how much it is costing you before you make a sale, this is known as the cost of conversion, or how many paid clicks it took to make a profit.

I could go on and on about all the features Adwords can do, but by the time you read this there may even be more tools at your fingertips to use. I guess the best part is you really don't need to have a PHD to use the Adwords service because it is very user friendly.

Imagine if your target customer sits down at his computer and goes to Google to search, as millions of people do worldwide every single day. Naturally that potential customer is going to type in "Web Hosting" if they are looking for web hosting companies and click on the first link that he or she deems the most relevant to there search and there needs, and they usually click on the first page. Now the chances of your brand new web hosting website coming up in the top 5 search results is very slim. However with some hard work, patience, research and plenty of time on your hands you may eventually get there. These kinds of search results are also known as organic search results and if you do find your site in these top keyword positions you will almost be guaranteed to have plenty of traffic and profits.

For the rest of us buried in the organic search results, there is little hope of gaining large volumes of targeted traffic without a costly major advertising campaign that most of us cannot afford to pay and you usually have to pay up front and with no guarantee of success. This is where Google Adwords comes into the picture. You know that little area to the right of every page of search results on Google that is labeled "Sponsored Link." Or that text ad you see on your favorite websites with the little corner label "Ads by Google," Well that is Google Adwords at it's very best. You literally can have your website listing up on page one of Google search results in minutes.

So give it a try you have nothing to lose except a potential paying customer.

The Designers Ultimate Resource

2007-04-30T07:52:00.000-05:00

iStockphoto.com has a massive collection of royalty-free images and is the world's fastest growing independent library. They feature Photographs, vector Illustrations, Flash files, and Video clips. Becoming a member is free, and there are never subscription fees or hidden costs.

It's easy to find anything in their library. Simply enter a keyword in the search box at the top, like business, icons or family for example. Use the advanced search options to specify your search results, or browse their categories to see related images. You can zoom in to images to see up-close details and preview video clips before you download them.

When you are ready to download some images, just visit the store and purchase some credits. Credits start as low as $1 each, with a minimum purchase of $12. Buy as many credits as you need; they become less expensive when you buy in bulk. Credits are valid for one full year from the date of purchase.

Then download the image you want for 1, 2, 4, or 6 credits, for xsmall, small, medium, and large files. Even larger resolution images are available, for 10 to 15 credits. Video clips are available for 5 to 50 credits. Every file has been inspected for quality and legal integrity.

Anyone can apply to contribute images to our collection. Click on the "Upload" link in the left hand navigation for a quick tutorial on iStockphoto's expectations and requirements. Then apply to become a photographer, illustrator, or videographer. When you are accepted, start uploading files, and earn royalties when your images are downloaded.

iStockphoto is fun and easy to use. Explore the community to meet new and veteran contributors and designers from all over the world.

New Client Spotlight!

2007-04-25T12:58:00.000-05:00

Card One Concepts is proud to announce the launch of our newest clients website www.moghulcuisine.com

Moghul Cuisine is a fine Indian Cuisine Restaurant & Tapas Bar located in the University Plaza at 4700 Vestal Parkway East, Vestal, NY 13850

Their food is delicious and the atmosphere is very relaxing, which compliments the restaurants excellent service.

So please visit the website and take a look at their menu.

Welcome to the World Wide Web Moghul Cuisine!