Announcing: Redesign of www.BeavertonArts.org

City of Beaverton Press Release, September, 2010

Beaverton Arts Commission Unveils New Website with Tools for Beaverton Arts Community 

New tools have been developed for artists, sponsors, and organizations to more effectively bring arts to the community.

Beaverton; September 1, 2010 – The Beaverton Arts Commission rolls out their new website and new brand identity this month. The inspiration for the design of the identity and website were multi-faceted, but mainly anchored in the BAC mission to connect the community through the arts. The flow of the site was designed to facilitate and organize the presentation of activities and resources of the arts community—which is highly dynamic and diverse.

Features of the new website include: at-a-glance and in-depth looks at what's happening in Beaverton's art scene, calendar of activities, featured artists, Blog, Public Art Tour, and a visual archive of artist and commission images, video and audio. The site offers resources, information and opportunities to young and emerging artists, local artists, business owners and the general public. Plus, recognition of sponsors and partners provides higher visibility for their outstanding contributions to the arts community.

www.beavertonarts.org

The City of Beaverton serves a population that speaks 90 different languages. Art is the vehicle for community expression, cohesiveness, and relationships. “The Arts Commission set out to design a website that would provide space for our artists to show their work and connect with their friends and family. The site provides everyone an opportunity to connect with and experience that cultural diversity which we so value here in Beaverton,” said Carol Cartier, Principal of CATATILLA Design, LLC.

About the BAC

The Beaverton Arts Commission (BAC) strives to make the arts accessible to the residents of Beaverton. In 2009 they created a public art plan to create a more colorful and vibrant downtown. In 2009 the BAC funded two, outdoor murals and a new performing arts event called “10 Tiny Dances.” The Commission’s two, signature events are Visual Arts Showcase held in February and Beaverton Last Tuesday series held June, July and August. For more information, contact the Beaverton Arts Commission at www.beavertonarts.org or call (503) 526-2288.

Professor Designer: Image Resolution

By Tracey Ullom, Designer, CATATILLA Design LLC

Have you ever wondered why an image that you downloaded from a web site looked poor and pixilated when you printed on paper? The reason is rooted in the resolution of the image. 

Resolution refers to the amount of information present in a particular raster image. The information is expressed in pixels—those tiny dots or squares that make up a photographic image. Each pixel is comprised of one color. The amount of pixel information is commonly defined as the number of pixels per square unit of dimension, such as pixels per inch, or ppi. The more pixels present in the inch, the more information the photo has; therefore yielding a higher resolution image.

Tips for Applying This to Everyday Use…

Back to the original question: why are images from the web not appropriate for printing on paper? We illustrate this by looking at two photos from common sources:


Photo #1, an image I photographed using an everyday digital camera on the highest quality setting. (vertical photo)
Photo #2, an image I found online. (horizontal photo)

Caution! Be aware of the owner’s Content License Agreement—unauthorized use may result in fines and penalties.


Original pixel dimensions for each:

Photo #1—Camera Photo: 2304 pixels wide x 3072 pixels tall
Photo #2—Online Photo: 1280 pixels wide x 800 pixels tall

Question: How large can I print these images without sacrificing quality?
Answer: Pixel Width ÷ 300 by Pixel Height ÷ 300 = Your Largest Quality Print Size in inches.

We apply this rule to the two photos:

Camera Photo: 2304 ÷ 300 = 7.68 by 3072 ÷ 300 = 10.24
I can print this photo at 7.68 inches by 10.24 inches—an 8x10 inch print.

Web Photo: 1280 ÷ 300 = 4.27 by 800 ÷ 300 = 2.67
This can be printed as 4 inches by 2.5 inches, roughly. Notice—this is not even a 3x5 inch print!

How to find an image’s pixel dimensions…
Windows – Right Click on image and select “Properties”. The image’s resolution should appear.
Mac – Right click on image and select “Get Info” and the image dimensions should be listed under the “More Info” portion.

How does all this affect design?
The industry standards are:

• WEB = 72 ppi
• PRINT = 300 ppi

The most important thing to understand is that a printed photographic image has very different requirements than an image meant for online viewing. Each requires different color modes, file types, and different levels of image resolution. The best rule of thumb you can follow with images related to your marketing material is to set your camera to the highest possible quality setting and save a copy of the original un-edited image. 

Announcing: Launch of BusinessBeaverton.com

By Tracey Ullom, Designer, CATATILLA Design LLC

CATATILA has been working with the City of Beaverton’s Economic Development to develop a variety of marketing tools. The most dynamic change to their visual identity is through the design and launch of their new website in July of 2010.

www.BusinessBeaverton.com

Purpose
The purpose of the site was to promote unique business development programs and resources available by the City of Beaverton. Online viewers can learn about the business environment, programs, and information about free services to the business community in and around Beaverton. One of its newest programs is Economic Gardening—implemented by Rob Pochert, Economic Development Program Manager. “Our focus is to provide tools and resources to existing businesses so they can grow, while promoting the vibrant community for those looking to relocate and develop right here in Beaverton.”

Who benefits from this site?
Business Start-Up & Entrepreneurs

• Explore the Business Start-Up Guide.
• Review General Tax Information, City, County and State Business Regulations.
• Meet Business Development’s Partners.

Existing Business Owners

• Learn about opportunities to improve your downtown storefront.
• Make connections and get business leads with Economic Gardening Program.
• Consider financing opportunities available.

Site Selection Consultants or Businesses Interested in Relocating to Beaverton

• Review the community profile data, such as Area Employers and Workforce Education.
• Learn about what makes Beaverton stand out, such as The Arts, the Beaverton School District, and Sports, Tualatin Hills Parks & Recreation District.

Site Features
CATATILLA worked with Rob and his team to redesign and expand the website to include descriptions about the programs available. New and improved functionality is now available through an interactive Site Guide—a decision tree comprised of carefully developed questions and results to guide the user to the information that would be most helpful.

A Blog provides City staff the ability to post the latest information on new programs and events connected to the new Calendar of Events. Subscribers can be kept up to date through the new RSS Feed, announcing site updates. An internal Search box provides viewers with a targeted search tool to quickly find information about the City’s business programs.

Behind the Scenes
What the average user does not see is the custom built CMS—a web content and design management system that was created to facilitate this project. The system, named LEXA™ (Lightweight Extensible XML & AJAX), allows the Economic Development team to update and add content to the site—without worrying about the design.

Each piece of new content is automatically formatted to fit their brand identity. The CMS manages consistency of the look and feel of the site. With a variety of automatic features and built in controls, LEXA™ is suitable for non-developers to administer a site of this size.

Other features included are data upload, large data table management, image/file management, automatic system back-up, and more.

In-depth documentation has been provided to support the administrators of the site. The Standards and Guidelines provide design specifications, hosting environment, LEXA™ instructions, and content creation and management recommendations.

For more information on LEXA™ and/or our web design services contact us.

Professor Designer: Serif VS Sans Serif

By Tracey Ullom, Designer, CATATILLA Design LLC

What they have in common...
They are both styles of typefaces or fonts.

Serif
A typeface with a presence of a small stroke at the end of a main vertical or horizontal stroke. There are many styles of serifs, such as a slab, slur, bracketed or wedge serif. A serif is sometimes considered a decorative element, but it is widely accepted as the preferred typeface option for books because the serifs aid reading by leading the eye across a line of text.
Common serif typefaces: Times Roman, Garamond, Caslon
Sans Serif
"Sans", french for 'without', describes a typeface that has no serifs. Sans serif typefaces often have features that heighten readability such as a larger x-height. The simplicity of a sans serif typeface often lends itself to signage and large scale printing.
Common sans serif typefaces: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana
Rule of Thumb: Most typefaces are created with a great deal of care and visual consideration, and the right typeface can accentuate your marketing materials in a variety of ways.

Effective Email Marketing

By Tracey Ullom, Designer, CATATILLA Design LLC

The first thing to understand in marketing by email is that email marketing is not “spam”. Spam is indiscriminately sending out unsolicited bulk emails. Email marketing is targeted specifically to your existing and potential client base. Here are a few things to think about as you get started:

Benefits

When approached strategically, email marketing can be a very cost effective way to communicate with existing clients while building up your client base. The goal is to offer your subscribers a variety of useful tools that they will be inspired to keep on hand for an extended period of time. Once a system is thoughtfully set up, the long-term costs are minimal—limited to (1) monthly email web service cost and (2) time spent on developing content.

Imagine you own some type of horticulture related company; landscape designer, yard maintenance, nursery, etc. Would your customers enjoy seasonal plant/lawn care information? Information on how and when to trim the roses? When tree maintenance requires professional assistance? Or how to protect their gardens from frost? Of course they would! You are the expert and by strategically sharing your knowledge, plus coupons, promotions, or product notifications, you will build a captive audience. Subscribers will value your information, pass it to friends, trust you with their horticulture needs and bring you repeat business.

Dangers

Email marketing campaigns should not be entered into lightly or on the spur of a moment. It may seem easy to create an account with an online email marketing service and send out a quick email blast, but the repercussions of a poorly created email can greatly affect any future mailings. Typically, the result is a large portion of your email list (potential clients) will immediately block or unsubscribe from your emails. Once a person has unsubscribed it is very difficult to get them back on a list.

Email can be considered a temporary or disposable message—similar to that of direct mailings or televisions ads. On the other hand, there are eNewsletters that I’ve subscribed to that I file in my email client and refer to again and again.

Powerful Approach

Email is a powerful and widely used tool, and most people have at least one address and check it regularly. Your expertise plus email marketing have enormous potential as a simple piece of marketing that clients can easily forward or share with their friends and colleagues. When you work with CATATILLA Design we will help you navigate through the important questions to construct a system for your email marketing that will carry you and your customers into the future.

Questions we will answer together:

• What is the purpose of the email? What types of email should be sent? How can these emails be meaningful and helpful to clients? How can these emails bring in more and repeat business? Can client information be gathered to better my business?
• How does this email fit into my brand? How does it coordinate with and strengthen web presence? How can the overall design be email friendly and make the content/message shine?
• How can I build a mailing list? How can a website, social networking and/or blog help build readership? How can print marketing and networking build readership? Should there be multiple lists? How does that impact the campaign?
• How do I schedule these emails? When is the target audience likely to be at their computer? Are messages being sent to people across many time zones? Are the emails time-sensitive in some way? How does that impact the schedule?
• How can the campaign be sustained over an extended period of time? Where does the content come from? How can I be cost effective with email marketing?
• How can I build strategic written and visual content? How to structure the messages? How to word the subject line to maximize the number of recipients opening the emails?
• How can I track the emails? How can tracking the email help to evaluate their effectiveness and make smart changes?

Interested in reaching your clients and customers thru email marketing? Contact us to learn how we can help.

Professor Designer: CMYK, RGB, & PMS

By Tracey Ullom, Designer, CATATILLA Design LLC

What they have in common...They are all methods of creating, displaying and/or calculating color.

A brief note about the science…All color is basically about light—and light makes it possible to see color. The science of color and how the human eye perceives color is a very complicated subject of which I am not an expert. I understand all the aspects needed for what I do in the field of design.

CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key Black)
CMYK is a subtractive color model—the mixing of inks, paints, or dyes to create a full range of colors. Subtractive color is the absorbing (or subtracting) of certain wavelengths of light and reflecting the others that creates the colors that we see. In this model when you have 0% of each color you get white and when you have 100% of each color you get black.
Common Uses: CMYK is used in printing and often referred to as “4-Color” printing. In the case of 4-Color, the printer is using all four inks to create a rainbow of colors to be used for imagery and text. Common office printers and large offset printers use CMYK in basically the same way. The inks are added in dots or lines to create the colors needed.

RGB (Red, Green, Blue)
RGB is an additive color model—varying levels of red, green, and blue light being emitted (or added) directly from a source to create a range of colors. In this model when you have 0% of each color you get black and when you have 100% of each color you get white.
Common Uses: RGB is used in computer monitors, televisions, and projectors. This color mode should be used for all imagery being displayed online or in projected presentations.


PMS (Pantone Matching System)
Pantone Matching System is a proprietary color space created by Pantone Inc. used primarily for offset printing, though sometimes PMS is used in the manufacture of colored paint, fabric, and plastics. Pantone Inc. has created a large palette (well over 1,000 colors) of standardized inks that can be used to ensure perfectly matching colors every time. These colors include fluorescent and metallic inks that cannot be reproduced with 4-color process.
Common Uses: PMS is used in offset printing and is often referred to as “Spot Colors”. Where CMYK involves 4 colors, PMS inks can be used for a 1-color print job. This is often seen for business stationery or things of that nature. It is common for specific PMS colors to be chosen as part of a company’s brand identity.


Stay Tuned: In future articles we will explore more design-related color topics such as color matching and web colors.

White Space: Filling the Space with Purpose

By Tracey Ullom, Designer, CATATILLA Design LLC

When I present a piece of work to a client, the most common question I get is, “Can you put something here in this empty space?”. As an educated graphic designer and a lover of type and composition, my wish may be to just say no, but reality and my clients deserve a more complete answer.

What is ‘white space’?

Simply, it is the intentional empty space around images and text in a design composition.

What is the purpose of this open space?

When used correctly, white space has many purposes, such as creating emphasis, depth, and tension, but it also has a unique purpose, allowing space for the eye to rest. White space can also create a high-end feel, just as design critic Keith Robertson expressed when he said, “White space is extravagance. White space is the surface of the paper on which you are printing showing through and on which you are choosing NOT to print.”

Why does my marketing material need some?

Imagine your bedroom closet. What happens when your closet is completely filled with clothing from end-to-end? It is impossible to put items in, pull items out, to find things, or to keep things straight and organized. A graphic composition works in a similar way. When the page is over-full and nothing has room to breathe, it becomes increasing difficult for the viewer, your customer, to pull information out or to find what they’re looking for. If that difficulty makes their experience with your marketing material irritating, they may assume that working with your company will feel the same way.

What if I still want to fill that space with something?

Usually when a client feels this strongly about filling a space, it isn’t because they are opposed to some appropriate breathing room, but because they feel there is a message that isn’t being sufficiently conveyed. This is some of the most valuable feedback a designer can get from their client. The message is the most important thing and usually when this problem is isolated, it can be fixed with some purposeful white space to spare.

Professor Designer: Raster VS Vector Images

By Tracey Ullom, Designer, CATATILLA Design LLC

What they have in common...
They are both image formats and they both support different color modes.

Raster: commonly used for photographic images
Also called "bitmap", raster is an image format where information is stored in a grid of pixels(see image below) and the color of each pixel is individually defined. The more frequent the pixels/dots are the sharper and more detailed the image will appear. These images are not easily scalable because they have a fixed resolution.Common file types that support raster images: JPG, TIFF, BMP, GIF

Vector: commonly used for line/shape artAn image format that contains individual and scalable objects(see image below) that are defined by mathematical formulas. They can be displayed at any size and are easily scaled because they are resolution independent.Common file types that support vector images: EPS, PDF

Rule of Thumb: Raster images are much more common than vector images.

What is your brand worth?

By Carol Cartier, Principal, CATATILLA Design, LLC

I was having lunch at Bugatti's with a friend when I raised the topic of branding. I am curious if business owners in my community have the same philosophy that I do about the value of their brand-and if they were well-branded, they could sell their business rather than close up shop, for much more than a business that isn't well-branded. My friend was not even aware that you can put a price tag on a brand. What exactly does that mean? How does one put a value on their brand?

The concept of a brand seems so intangible—actually, it is intangible. News reports show Google's brand supersedes Coca Cola's brand--it is valued at $86.1 billion, according to BrandZ Ranking. They use a very complex formula for calculating a brand and that involves "primary research that reflects the perceptions of those who are actually brand users and consumers" among other things. This pretty much aligns with my perception that the definition of a brand is "the world view of who you are."

What does this mean to our local business owner, who wants only to build a business, or grow a little--or a lot? So I set out to find some tangible evidence that one can place a dollar value on a brand. A week ago I had coffee at Ava's Roasteria with Tom Reese of Pacific Continental Bank. I asked him, "do you take brand into consideration when funding a loan to a customer?" The answer is, yes--through their financials. His bank is more likely to provide loans to businesses who have taken the time to write a business plan, understand who they are, and want to be recognized for their high level of service and quality by their employees, customers, and community. This would logically be reflected in the financial statement as a wider profit margin. Their image could hold as much importance as fifty percent of the bank's decision whether or not to fund to the business. In other words, a business who has good financials is more likely to have an established brand, and therefore, is perceived to become more successful and go much further in business than its competitor who doesn't focus on its brand or image.

If you do intend to sell your business, you may want to consider where best to put your dollars when investing in your business. To help you get started, here are some questions you can ask yourself in assessing your existing brand:

1. What does my organization look like, and how is it run?
2. Does my business' brand identity reveal my core values, mission and vision--what my business stands for?
3. What does my business stand for in my community, and does everyone who works for me understand that?
4. Do all aspects of my advertising and marketing collateral project those qualities and standards that I wish to exude?
5. Does the demeanor of my staff, employees, managers, and company representatives project that level of service and quality in their relationships with each other and the outside?

What I am recommending here is a foundation upon which to build your business, which fully depends on relationships--personally and virtually. Once these things have been well-grounded within your organization, it is much easier for your customers to seek you out amongst the competition by recognizing that level of quality and service you know you can provide for your customers and your community. You will be well-recognized for that, and the referrals will roll in.

This is the perfect time, during the slow period, to assess where you are in the direction of your brand. When things pick up again, you will be better positioned in your market, more confident, and more visible as you advertise to your target audience.

We welcome you to the CATATILLA Design Blog or "CATAlog"!

Through the CATAlog, we are very excited to offer insights on our process as well as clients and projects we stand behind, through our design, marketing, and branding concepts. It is our hope that you find the articles and information to be instrumental in positioning your business through innovative marketing and design. On top of what you learn, there will be opportunities to share your feedback; feel free to comment on articles and respond to our Question Of The Month. We look forward to a productive conversation with you!

Keep an eye out for...

• Project Brainstorm: exploring a project or service that would benefit your business.
• Professor Designer: explaining the details behind design techniques, terminology, history and tricks.
• Featured Client: introducing you to our clients and giving you a glimpse of the passion they have for their industry.
• Plus: various feature articles, community involvement projects, guest speakers, and more...