A Homecoming Event

The Alabama Department of Tourism is sponsoring The Year of Small Towns and Downtowns in 2010. Each town that participates receives a free historic marker; Rutledge will be participating and we'll center the Homecoming Weekend around the Primitive Baptist Church in Rutledge. It's one of the oldest churches in Crenshaw County, and since Rutledge was once the county seat, the church is even more central to the county.
We've already set dates, and we also decided to have a homecoming weekend in 2009 as well - you might say it will be our practice run.
We've come up with several ideas on how to celebrate our town and it's roots - we'll be making videos of town members telling how it was to grow up in and around Rutledge; an art show is also being planned; we'll have activities for the kids on Saturday; and Sunday we'll wind up the weekend with a community church service in the morning, dinner on the grounds and an afternoon singing with local groups.
I've also come up with an idea to have a poster and postcard design competition among the residents of Rutledge. The winning posters will be used to publicize the weekend, and the winning postcards will be reproduced and sold during the weekend. Each winning designer will get a copy of all the winning designs. It will encourage the local folks to get involved, and any money raised will go towards maintaining the church building.
Check back for more details on how the plans are developing...

Fluid Design

For as long as I've been designing websites, I've almost always designed using a fluid design- one that is set up so that it 'fits' the screen of the viewer, as often as possible. Obviously you can't fit everyone's screen, because some people use a small portion of their monitor to view the internet, saving another portion for their other open apps.
However, I feel this is the best way to go for most sites. If I use tables in the design, I set them so that they only use a percentage of the screen size. I did have a client who had purchased a template online, and we made some adjustments to it to customize for their site - he actually pulled out a ruler and showed me that the lines on each side of the design were not the same width, even though I had them set at the same pixel width. He also wanted the site to be perfect on his monitor, which was a fairly large one...
The problem with making a site 'perfect' on your monitor? You're forgetting that your customer is who you should be building your site for. My goal for website customers is to make a site that visitors can easily navigate, will enjoy viewing, looks good on their monitor, and is easily readable to them. That usually means, among other things, that I don't set exact font sizes in the design, but rather set it at 'large' or 'medium' according to how the font looks.
I do this for one simple reason - if I am on a site with tiny print, I will hold my CTRL button and use the scroll wheel on my mouse to enlarge it - if that doesn't work, I usually don't hang around very long. Life is too short to strain my eyes trying to read something in microscopic print.
Any site needs to look good, but it's most important that viewers can use it easily - and if they can't, what is that saying to them? "If you're not cool enough to use this site, then we don't want your business" is what it says to me. And I don't want to be responsible for a site that's saying that.

Seasonal ideas

If you have a website, do you update it for seasonal changes? Obviously, you don't want to do a total remake several times a year, but it is always a good idea to acknowledge the holidays and seasons of the year.
My favorite search engine is Google; if you've never seen the way they honor different holidays, visit this page - it's their 'museum' of logos.
I know you can't do something on the same scale, but you can support your favorite holidays. As an example, during the Christmas holidays, I make a slight change to my logo, then link it from my main page, to a retelling of the Christmas story from the book of Luke. Starting this next year, I plan to do something similar for the Easter season - after all, the main purpose of Christmas' gift is fulfilled in Easter.
Think about it, and see what ideas you and your designer can come up with to celebrate the holidays and seasons that are important to you.

Dimple's new book at the publishers...

One of my clients has finished work on her second book and we've sent it to the publisher. It's called "Prayers- Breaking Witchcraft Curses" and you can read more about it here. This is an awesome book, especially if you are under attack from the devil, or know someone who is.

Dimple's first book, "Prayers to Cast out Demons, Heal the Sick and Raise the Dead", (if you don't believe God has given us the power to do these things, see John 14:12) is still available through Amazon on this page. We've got a testimonial page set up here. I think you'll truly be blessed by either of these books.

Go Tigers!!!!

Well, it's almost here. School started a couple weeks ago, and our first football game is this Friday night. Our biggest rivals, cross-county Brantley Bulldogs will host the game this week. Luverne has not been able to win in the last 5 years, but I'm hoping and praying we can take a winning team to the doghouse this Friday night, and show them the HAND!!!
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One another note, I'm working towards getting my new website up and ready to go. I've decided, after much thought, to change the basic setup of my business. When I started out 6 years ago, I was geared towards building websites for smaller businesses and churches. At first, I didn't think I even wanted to get involved in the graphics side of the business, but that side has grown more and more, moving into logo and banner ads.
My interest in photography as also grown, and I'm developing a portrait line.
I've also branched out into print design, creating print ads, wedding invitations, book layout, business cards, letterhead and flyer design. I'm also encouraging my younger daughter, Little Red, to join me in designing custom handmade notecards and art pieces. I'm waiting anxiously to see if she'll agree.
I may have more news later today.