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We completely understand. Not everyone knows about graphic design. But that's ok because if they did, there would be no need for us and that would make us super sad. We're quite glad people need us because we like what we do very much. In fact, we like it so much that our designers got together and created a list of things they want the world to know about graphic design.

Display fonts don't belong in body copy

So you've created a brilliant blog post and you're ready to share it with the world, but it's missing something. It's missing that thing that will grab a viewer's attention and make them want to read. What you need is a great image to go with your post, but you can't just go out into the interwebs and use whatever you find. You have to have good Internet etiquette and that means knowing where to find images that you can use either for free, or that are royalty-free or under Creative Commons license terms. If you don't follow the rules, you might find yourself in a big steaming bowl of trouble soup.

Free images

We talk a lot about how to use fonts to help you present information in a way that makes sense for your particular project. You may hear us explain the difference between serif and sans serif. We may talk about script and how it should be used sparingly instead of in the body copy. Fonts have different functions and levels of clarity and readability but they also have personalities. All of these things come together to make the role of a font a very crucial one in the success of any design project. Just for fun, we went around the studio and asked the team: If your favorite celebrity were a font, what font would they be?

While we were deciding what to write about this week, Adam said he was in the mood for something light and fluffy which made Juli think of pancakes which made Emily think of food and packaging design, and so here we are. The creative process at work AND a blog post about pretty boxes of marvelous things that make us want to buy them. BAM!

Have you ever found yourself food shopping (or wine shopping!) and buying a product just because the package was cool or unique in some way? This happens to us on the GLAD WORKS team for sure since a cleverly designed package seriously pushes our design nerd buttons.

It's almost the end of the year, so we're starting to shift our focus on what's coming up in 2015. Based on some trends we saw from 2014, we can make a few educated decisions about what design trends we'll all be following in the coming year. If you have a website that needs a refresh or a redesign, you can be sure that many if not all of these elements will be present in your new web design.

1) Go mobile or go nowhere

Here at GLAD WORKS we are quite proud of the way we approach our projects.  We have developed a process that we use in just about everything we do, and at this point, it's so finely tuned that it's every bit as sexy and streamlined as a hot red racecar. Here's a little peek at some of the major points of our process.

Planning

In the weeks and days ramping up to Election Day yesterday, many people have been feeling inundated with postcards from every politician imaginable. Lots of those postcards never even got a glance and went straight into the recycling bin. Sadly, this is the fate of so many postcards. After all the expense and design time and planning that goes into them, it's really a shame. Postcards are very cost effective and they do work very well, but they have to be done right or it's into the bin they go.

Here's how you can make postcard marketing work for you!

You may not know this, but there is a rather heated debate going on between writers and designers over how many spaces should follow a period. In fact, a long time ago a designer confronted our very own copywriter. She was informed that it was not correct to use two spaces after a period. Who. Knew. Apparently, to a designer, seeing two spaces makes them die a little bit inside.

So, in an effort to save the souls of designers (and the lives of writers) everywhere, let's tackle this subject. To double space or not to double space, that is the question!

Two spaces after a period, everyone does that right?

Last week we defined mobile optimization for you and talked about what’s involved in creating a mobile optimized website. Today, we’re going to finish up that discussion by giving you all the reasons why you should care if your site is mobile friendly or not. We grabbed a couple of screenshots for you to illustrate what we mean, and we gathered a few statistics to put some real numbers out there.  By the end of this post, you’ll be calling us. Operators are standing by!

Prettyful pictures (and some not so prettyful pictures…)

Having a mobile friendly website is one of the most important things you can do for your business. An increasing number of your customers are accessing your website from a mobile device. If you don’t provide a satisfying user experience, your business could dry up. It’s a harsh reality many businesses are facing right now, but trust us when we tell you, there’s no way out of this one!  So, let us school you on the ways of the mobile optimized website. You can’t afford to miss this post.

What is a mobile optimized website?