On June 20, 2008, we performed a Google search using the phrase “Seattle graphic design.”

Out of about 722,000 total results, we carefully studied the top 10 websites Google identified as the best match for our search keywords.

Then we compared Google’s results to a list of the top 10 Seattle design firms drawn from the 2008 edition of Media Inc’s annual Northwest Graphic Design list.

It’s instructive to consider the differences between these lists. Large prominent design firms such as Hornall Anderson, HL2, Fitch, and Methodolgie are largely absent from Google’s results. While smaller (some relatively unknown) studios managed to grab Google’s top slots.

How do they do it? How do smaller studios like Page 3 Design, Eben Deisgn, and Design Hovie Studios beat out the big Seattle design firms in Google’s search results?

More importantly, can you learn how to accomplish the same results for your own studio?

At Creativetechs, we pride ourselves on providing great Mac support for Seattle-area creative teams. But with our increased success over the last year, our schedule has become too tight to respond to long-term clients as quickly as we’d like.

To address that, the Mac support side of Creativetechs is becoming a members-only support service. We no longer provide tech support for non-member clients. Our time is now dedicated exclusively for taking care of member clients with an ongoing support relationship.

This is a big step for us. If you are a Seattle creative pro who has relied on Creativetechs for sporadic Mac support over the years, we can be your support team. But we are no longer available for one-time troubleshooting projects.

Note: The training side of Creativetechs remains open to EVERYONE.

Here we are on New Year’s Eve. In honor of this annual time of introspection and planning, we’ve collected links to a few clever calendar templates to help start your new year off right.

David Seah’s Compact Calendar

“The problem with traditional calendar design,” says designer David Seah, “is that they chunk time in months, not continuous days.” In answer to that problem Seah created a long, thin calendar (at right) that is perfect for project planning. Download as PDF or choose an editable Excel document.

Compact Calendar

Adam Sporka’s Thumb Calendar

Here’s an ingenious 2008 calendar shrunk to the size of a standard business card. Focus on the dates directly below each month’s header.

Thumb Calendar

Juliana Halvorson’s InDesign Template

Finally, a bit more traditional calendar. Here is a clean InDesign template for you to create and customize your own 2008 calendar. The template uses style sheets for dates, holiday, and other details. So swapping out your own font choices is easy.

Juliana Halvorson’s InDesign Template 2008

Juliana Halvorson’s InDesign Template 2009

In April 2007, A List Apart conducted a survey of people who make websites. Close to 33,000 web professionals answered the survey’s 37 questions, providing a treasure trove of data on the business of web design and development as practiced in the U.S. and worldwide. The Web Design Survey 2007 If you are a web […]

Curious how your website traffic compares to your competition? Alexa.com offers a fascinating ranking measurement that lets you pull up the traffic history for any website you wish.

https://www.alexa.com/

Think of Alexa.com as a form of Nielsen Ratings for websites. Alexa collects traffic data from users who have the Alexa toolbar installed on their web browser. The resulting traffic data is flawed — yet while not completely accurate, this information does provide a useful tool for designers tasked with improving their client’s competitive web positioning.

Lately I’ve noticed more studios placing self promoting displays in their client reception areas. This is a fun, simple way of exposing visiting clients to your studio’s changing portfolio of projects. These portfolio theaters can be cheaper and easier to create than you might have guessed. Examples range from using a new Apple TV, to […]

We’ve been getting a lot of calls and questions this last week about Creativetechs’ “official” recommendation to wait until June 2007 before upgrading to Adobe CS3. This recommendation was part of our presentation on March 28, 2007: Getting Ready for Leopard, CS3 and New Macs!

Now that Adobe CS3 has actually started arriving at many design studios, we’ve begun relaxing our initial cautious recommendations. As with all major new software releases, we’ve seen a number of odd bugs and issues that need to be addressed. However we underestimated the pressure in many studios to upgrade to CS3. Especially in studios struggling with the stability of InDesign CS2 or Illustrator CS2 on new Intel Macs.

If you manage a creative team with even a few designers, we strongly recommend that you take advantage of Adobe’s Transactional Licensing Program (TLP) when you purchase Adobe software and upgrades.

Link: Adobe volume licensing made easy.

You’ll probably save money. Far more importantly you’ll prevent a future of serial-number headaches.

Around this time of year, many freelancers and other small creative businesses in the United States start receiving requests for a lot of W-9’s and other tax-related forms from their clients. Tax advice is well beyond the scope of this tips newsletter. However if you are getting a lot of requests for W-9’s this month, […]