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There’s Still Time to Visit ‘Catalyst,’ the ACC Graphic Design Portfolio Show

Artists. They pour their hearts and souls into their craft, spending hours perfecting details most wouldn’t even notice. They use their medium to translate and personify complex emotions and concepts, so that average-joes like us simply have to examine and interpret. But in many ways, designers have it even harder. Steve Jobs once said, “design is not just how it looks and feels, but how it works.”

Last week was the opening reception for Multimedia, Graphic Design & Illustration Student Showcase in the  graphic design portfolio  at ACC. During the evening of April 27th, these talented student-designers presented their final portfolios and reflected on their experiences.

Students in Capstone, or MGD 289  –the final class prospective graphic designers take–rushed to get their final portfolios ready. They each had a small collection posted on the walls and a computer-display cycling through more pieces; many displayed their personally designed resumes or business cards. A sense of relief and satisfaction could be felt in each of them, despite the stress of getting ready for such an important showcase.

After everyone got settled and had a chance to peruse the artwork, Multimedia, Graphic Design & Illustration department faculty members John Hall and Tom DeMoulin took the podium and praised the students for their hard work. Awards were given to various artists, then each Capstone student had a chance to talk about their experiences and share their favorite pieces.

First up was Alyssa Quispe, who won the ‘Best of Show’ award. Quispe created a beautiful design for Harvest House, emphasizing fresh colors and grains to match the restaurant’s products: food and beer. Dean Sanders, a South-Africa native, discussed his growth as a designer. Following them was Tatiana Barela, who produced the fliers for ‘Catalyst’; she found her creative drive when she began working on designs that would appeal to women.

Natalia Lebsack was admired for the illustration of her dog. She experimented with a design style called low-poly to create it, but added detail to make it her own. Next up was Linda Wheeler, who was beaming with professionalism; she created a book cover for an eager client. Amy Roy chose to review her work on some unique Bob Dylan tee-shirts; she was happy she had the freedom to pick the idea. Darren Kirsche followed, a designer proud of his emphasis on brand identity and work with a company’s icons.

Kirsche commended his fellow artists: graphics and design, “See[ing] the progression that all of us have had is really cool.”

Marcelo Cazon gave an inspiring speech, discussing his two-year-old daughter and his inspiration for his poster design for the Denver Zoo. Kathryn Powers also completed designs for the Zoo, working to elevate their logo and much more. Last to speak was Alyssa Carter, who started in fine arts. Through design she was able to build a brand—logos, business cards, etc.—for a new business just starting out.

After each designer spoke, everyone was once again free to roam the gallery and examine the breathtaking designs.

The work of these ten students is the focus of the show, but believe it or not, there’s even more to see. Opposite the Capstone displays, a portion of the gallery is devoted to the work of both concurrent enrollment and traditional students. These artists had to enter their work for a chance to be displayed, so some quality pieces really stood out.

One student, Megan Anderson, created a beautiful portrait that looks more like a photograph than an illustration professional graphic designer. At first glance, it would appear that the hyper-realistic piece was an edited photo. But surprisingly, only Adobe Illustrator, a program for building compositions from scratch, was used to produce it.

There’s still time to come and see all the artwork for yourself. The Colorado Gallery of the Arts is open Monday through Friday from 8am to 7pm and is located on the first floor of the annex building, room A1300. ‘Catalyst’ will be on display through May 8th.

In these last few days of school, come to the gallery and support these talented designers. It might be just the kind of study-break you need. http://www.futureweblinks.com

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Future Web links - Web Design and Development Company

With our years of web development and design experience, we are able to offer the excellent web design, development and web app developing solutions to you

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How a great web design is important for e-commerce

For e-commerce businesses, a website is the equivalent of a physical shop. And an effective site is one that drives profit by inducing sales. Designing one is no easy feat, as it requires a lot of technical knowledge and research. Some small businesses opt to do it themselves, by downloading e-commerce themes and setting up their own domains. But for some, it may be easier to hire web design firms like http://www.futureweblinks.com/ to get professional and personalized insights about their site.

Investing in a website is critical to ensuring success. Here are 4 reasons to help you understand why a great web design is of primal importance to e-commerce:

·         It makes a good first impression

First impressions count. Every user who lands on your website is a potential customer. It’s important to have a website that’s clean, professional, and direct to the point. Think of it as going to the mall and looking at the shops from the hallway. web design and development company Would you go inside a store that looks messy and disorganized? Definitely not. But a shop that has attractive banners, welcoming staff, and a clear product display is more likely to attract a customer.

·         It’s easier to tell what products you sell

Having a clean layout helps your visitors identify what you’re trying to sell. In fact, visitors should be able to tell what you offer just by your website address. A good web design showcases your products in a clear manner web design company. Here are a couple of helpful elements that should make it easier for your visitors to identify your products:

1.      Descriptive product names

2.      Detailed product information

3.      Quality product images

4.      Product videos

·         It offers an engaging user experience

Designing for success is all about user experience. It’s important for a website to be user-friendly and idiot-proof. An effective website should guide your visitors on a hassle-free journey from start to finish. You don’t want your customers to get lost on your site because they can’t find what they’re looking for. Make sure that everything is easy to find and the pages aren’t cluttered. Here are a few important things to consider when promoting a fluid user experience:

1.      User-friendly navigation

2.      Easy checkout process

3.      Detailed product pages

Great content is also essential in keeping your visitors and encouraging them to come back. Blogs generate traffic for your site and are a great feature to your ecommerce website. It also builds your audience and improves SEO. And for some reason, it helps to know that your website is active and is being updated regularly at least.

·         It converts visitors to customers

Which is why you setup up shop in the first place, right? All the elements you put on your site should eventually turn your visitor into a customer, driving sales. Visitors should be guided properly to your goal, whether it’s a shopping cart, a contact form, or a download page. Consider the following features that help convert visitors into leads:

1.      Clear value proposition. Visitors should be able to tell immediately what you’re trying to sell them.

2.      Quality Images. Visuals are incredibly important to visitors before deciding to buy something

3.      Clear and bold call to action. Buttons and links like “Add to cart”, “Download now” web development company,, or “Call us” must be placed properly.

Competition is always tight on the world wide web. It helps to have a competitive design that helps you stand out from the crowd and improve sales.

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The Tricky Art of Podcast Ads Is About to Get Even Trickier

ALEXIS MADRIGAL HAS never shipped a freight container. But that doesn’t stop him from reading ads for freight startup Flexport on  his new podcast about the Port of Oakland. The company, which web development and design itself as “a freight forwarder for the Internet age”, is an unlikely podcast sponsor. “It’s an unexpected thing for a freight-forwarding company to do,” says Madrigal. It’s also an unexpected thing for a podcast to do.Not the ad part—that’s old hat. In any given podcast, you might hear hosts reading copy about razors, mattresses, fresh-ingredient delivery services, small-business HR solutions, super-comfortable underwear, printable stamps, mobile payment apps, web-design services, or any of the few dozen other goods and services that have staked out the sponsorships that are standard for the medium. It’s more that, in Flexport’s case, a company is sponsoring a podcast about the very industry it exists within.Madrigal maintains that the ads aren’t endorsements. “They’ve had no role in the creation of the work,” he says of Flexport. “They provided financial support, and that seemed standard for our industry.” Still, the arrangement shows that the still-young podcast medium is at a very new crossroads. After years using podcasts as a cost-effective way to target an audience, advertisers are looking for ways to integrate more deeply into the fabric of an episode. And for some shows—especially ones like Containers—that requires some careful navigation.Credibility and Commerce, Sittin’ in a TreeHost-read ads became the financial backbone of the podcast medium early on, and now constitute the overwhelming bulk of podcast advertising: in September 2016, 95% of Midroll Media’s ads were  by hosts. Many of the early-adopting companies, in fact, have become part of the web application development between hosts and listeners. And that rapport appeals not just to listeners, but to advertisers as well. “When hosts do the ads, advertisers are assuming there’s a parasocial relationship between the host and the listener,” says Cynthia Meyers, associate professor of communication at the College of Mount Saint Vincent.The more successful podcasts become, the more companies want a piece of the action. “When it was only nerds who were listening to podcasts, [advertising] was all app developers and web-hosting companies,” says Lex Friedman, chief revenue officer at Midroll, which started selling podcast ads in 2011. “As nerd culture has gone from niche to increasingly mainstream, that’s benefited us too.” Now, companies like Toyota and Papa John’s are recognizing podcasts as a way to target a notoriously difficult-to-reach 18-34 demographic.But with that growth comes issues. Hearing a host explaining how they used Squarespace to build the podcast’s website makes sense. Hearing that same host read ads for five different household products each week, though? Maybe less so. “There’s a tension about the sincerity of an endorsement,” Meyers says. “The danger of integrating ads is that the audience gets cynical, and stops believing it.” That danger is even more immediate for a journalistic enterprise like Containers, which explores the global economy through the lens of Oakland’s shipping industry; when reporting hinges on neutrality, even the appearance of being beholden to the industry you’re covering can be trouble.When reporting hinges on neutrality, even the appearance of being beholden to the industry you’re covering can be trouble.This isn’t the first time that a young medium has struggled with credibility in the face of commerce. In the late 1920s, radio offered a new kind of relationship between hosts and listeners, one more personal than in newspaper articles or at the movies. Advertisers capitalized on that with host-read ads, but as listeners grew cynical of host-read spots and advertisers wanted a harder sell, radio’s advertising model changed. business website designSome companies sponsored shows, like General Electric Theater or The Bell Telephone Hour. (You can see something similar today, with podcasts like GE-sponsored The Message, or Open for Business, sponsored by eBay.) Other shows simply inserted what we now think of as traditional ads. That was back when you had to wait out commercials until the program returned, though; now, in a digital age when you can skip ahead 45 seconds with the tap of an app, there’s no guarantee that listeners will even hear the ad.If that’s a concern to podcast advertisers, it’s not to to Madrigal, who thinks the Flexport sponsorship might be the perfect skip-proof marriage of advertiser and audience. “The project is a radio documentary,” he says. “You want the ads to make sense within the context.” If people are interested in hearing about the global shipping industry, he reasons, odds are they’re interested to hear about the role a company plays within the industry. After all, his listeners are choosing to learn about how to ship thousands of pounds of cargo across the ocean—whether or not they need to ship a container themselves. http://www.futureweblinks.com/ The Tricky Art of Podcast Ads Is About to Get Even Trickier

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We asked young people what they want from the internet of the future – here’s what they said

When Tim Berners-Lee invented the world wide web, he surely didn’t anticipate that children would end up becoming some of its main users. Most start using the internet at the average age of three – and as recent research shows, children now spend more time playing and socialising online than watching television programmes ecommerce website design, ecommerce website designer.

Given this change in habits, it is not surprising that a recent House of Lords report has raised online safety and behaviour as an important issue. The report said that for children, learning to survive in a world dominated by the internet should be as important as reading and writing.

The House of Lords Communications Committee also warned that children should not be leaving school without “a well-rounded understanding of the digital world”. It also suggested that the government should think about implementing new legal requirements and a code of conduct companies would have to adhere to, which would help to bring the internet up to “child-friendly standards”.

Making the internet safer

Of course, trying to rectify this lack of child-centred design is not an easy task, but one that requires the cooperation and goodwill of many sectors. It will need to involve consultation with technology, education, legal and policy experts. And it would also be a good idea to make children and young people part of the process.

This would involve giving young people a say in the design and development process needed to ensure that the web is a suitable environment for all involved. And from our own research on the issue, it is clear that children and young people have a lot to say on the issue.

Our project, The Internet On Our Own Terms, involved young people aged between 12 and 17 gathered together in the cities of Leeds, London and Nottingham to participate in a series of jury-style focus groups. These were designed to “put the internet on trial”.

1.       The project has been developed by researchers at Leeds and Nottingham universities in collaboration with the web design and development company, to place young people at the centre of this debate – which is typically dominated by “expert” adults and their fears.

In total, nine juries were convened, involving 108 young people and approximately 12 participants per jury. And from these debates, we were able to hear the voice of children and young people, and understand more about their relationship with the internet and digital technologies.

Voices that matter

Alongside many positive stories and personal anecdotes about the value of digital communication technologies, the young people who took part in the project also expressed their frustrations and concerns with the internet.

These concerns included the inconsistency of online and offline behaviours – with young people wanting online platforms to be governed by the same moral standards as the offline world. This would also mean that people would have the same rights and responsibilities online as they have offline.

Along with self-responsibility, graphics and design young people also wanted regulation to introduce reasonable norms to ensure young people’s experiences online are not only safer, but happier.

The young people involved in our project also expressed fears around the way screenshots can be used online, along with how their personal data is shared and tracked.

In light of this, the young people we worked with suggested a limit to the length of time personal data can be stored. And also recommended that there should be a recognisable award or badge system for best practice in personal data sharing and protection of user privacy – that users could then look for online.

Hopes and fears

These are just some of the many recommendations that the young people who took part in our project came up with. These are concrete suggestions, based on their own experiences that could be useful to inform the designing of web services for children and young people.

The implications here are clear: young internet users want to have more control over their digital identity and online footprint. This is why collaborating with young people to help implement changes to the online environment, as well as a broader educational curriculum that helps to both explain and warn children about the online landscape, is so important.

This could take the form of a compulsory “digital citizen programme”, which would look at promoting discussions among peers, conversations, and personal reflections about online experiences and technical issues. And it is educational experiences like this that will help children to gain the knowledge and confidence required to influence and shape the future of their digital world. http://www.futureweblinks.com/services/e-commerce/