#community copies strike a nice balance between that...

[pine-niidles]

part 2 of effort to compile my art outside of social media: 2023 sketch compilation is up on itch!

It's $5 but I also have free community copies enabled if you can't or don't want to pay that for whatever reason but are still interested in getting a copy <3

[thezodiaczone]

August Forecast for Scorpio

You’re not here to make friends this month, Scorpio—not when you’re on a mission like this. The Sun is making its annual climb through Leo and your ambitious tenth house until August 23, putting you in full #boss mode. While others scamper off on carefree holidays, your steely gaze is trained on a rather specific set of goals, if not one singular target.

Your tunnel vision may be interrupted though because Mercury—the planet of communication, technology and travel—will be retrograde in Leo and this career-driven zone of your chart. Professional plans could get waylaid or delayed since Mercury retrograde can bring red tape and unanticipated curveballs that distract you from your well-crafted agenda. A client could go MIA, or a decision maker might not get you the needed materials in time for you to meet a deadline.

Relax, Scorpio, and go with the flow as best you can, even if you want to scream. Believe it or not, there’s a method to this madness. The crucial plot twist could be revealed around August 11, when a potent Leo solar (new moon) eclipse sweeps through your tenth house and brings an unexpected job offer, a leadership opportunity or a changing of the guard. The tenth house rules men and fathers, so an important guy in your life, possibly your dad, may play a role in this eclipse’s surprising events.

Solar and lunar eclipses occur four to six times a year and shake up business as usual. This is the second-to-last in a series that’s been striking the Leo/Aquarius axis since February 2017, bringing waves of change to your home and career. By now, your living situation, family structure or work life might look wildly different than they did a couple years ago. The grand finale, a total lunar (full moon) eclipse, will land in Leo and your career zone on January 21, 2019. Seeds planted today will reach their peak early next year, then you won’t experience eclipses here again until 2026. That means you might FINALLY settle into a steady career path or put down stable roots soon. Whew!

This year has certainly been one of transformation in all the major areas of your life. Expansive Jupiter has been in Scorpio all year (and will be until November 8), altering everything from your appearance to your self-esteem to your personal passions. And on May 15, changemaker Uranus began a wild eight-year ride through your opposite sign of Taurus, throwing curveballs at your closest relationships. Dynamics have changed with colleagues, romantic partners and your tightest friendships—sometimes without much notice!

On August 7, Uranus will begin its annual five-month retrograde, which could slow down some of the modifications in your partnerships. This may come as a relief, but it’s also possible that an old issue could flare up, creating unsettling energy. Counting on others for consistency will be challenging, and there may be some on-again-off-again activity with certain people.

Domestic drama may also have colored your summer, but that will start to ease off in the second half of the month. Stressful Mars has been retrograde in Aquarius since June 26, ratcheting up the tension in your domestic sector and intensifying your living situation. While Mars will remain retrograde until August 27, it will back out of Aquarius on August 12, lessening the pressure in your personal life. If you’ve been on pins and needles waiting to hear about a move, a home sale or a sticky family situation, you could finally get the answers you need. On August 12, Mars will reverse into Capricorn and your communication sector for the remainder of its pivot, so watch those caustic comments, especially since Mercury is also retrograde. You don’t need to spend the rest of your summer repairing a rift because of one snarky remark that was taken the wrong way!

Lightness prevails once again during the last week of the month, when the Sun starts a monthlong visit to Virgo on August 23 and heats up your eleventh house of group activity, teamwork and technology. Step away from all that work stress and let your hair down. A brilliant moment to do that arrives on August 25, when a rare and harmonizing grand trine forms between the Virgo Sun, structured Saturn in your communication house and unconventional Uranus in your relationship sector. This is a golden moment for collaborations and meeting kindred spirits.

Now that Mercury retrograde is in the rearview, you could move powerfully ahead with a partnership, whether business or romantic. And you’ll do it on YOUR terms, as trailblazer Uranus and the bold Sun prompt you to follow your own authentic script rather than copy someone else’s. Solidifying Saturn helps you make things official and ensures that anything you embark on has integrity and the potential for longevity. Since Saturn and Uranus are both retrograde and oriented toward the past, this grand trine goodness could involve someone you’ve known for a long time or a surprisingly rich reunion with an old friend, colleague or even an ex. Maybe the second (or third) time around will be the charm!

The month ends with some well-deserved pleasure as the year’s only Pisces full moon heats up your fifth house of romance, passion and play on August 26. A budding romance could consummate, or you might find the spotlight shining directly on you. A pregnancy, or news of one, is possible with la luna in your fertility sector. You might just be ripe with inspiration: If you’ve been hiding your talents or working behind the scenes on a creative project, this full moon could mark your big debut. Lights, camera, Scorpio!

Love & Romance

Dream lover or just an illusion? On August 6, idealistic Venus enters Libra and your fantasy-laced twelfth house for the first of two trips this year. You may not be dealing with hard-boiled reality with the amorous planet here—not that this is a bad thing. Sometimes, it’s nice to put someone on a pedestal, as long as you can promise not to demonize them if they veer to the other extreme or fail to live up to any idealized standards you’ve set.

For some Scorpios, if you do take an unblinking look at life, you might be forced to acknowledge that a certain relationship is not the fairy tale you’d like it to be, and that to move forward, you will need to deal with a few key issues. If things slow down—or stop altogether—take time to assess the situation clearly, bearing in mind that it might take a while for the truth to come out. While you might not enjoy cleaning the smudges off those rose-colored Ray-Bans, the longevity of a relationship depends on striking the right balance between magic and matter-of-factness.

A good day to hash things out is August 7, the date of a rare, harmonizing Venus-Mars trine in some of the most sensitive parts of your chart. Forget about trying to control things; just keep an open mind and receptive heart. Let your love interest do most of the talking while you practice the art of active listening. Or, just reconnect through touch and allow the loving feelings to flow before you dive into a diatribe. Compassion is the magic ingredient now.

Mars has been retrograde since June 26 in Aquarius and your sentimental fourth house, churning up some strong emotions. You may have experienced intense mood swings or family drama, whether from meddling relatives or a needy and demanding child. Settling into your skin or feeling at home under your own roof has been hard during this stressful phase. On August 1, the red planet will back into Capricorn and your communication corner for the duration of the retrograde (through August 27). While things may simmer down at home, you could still have a short fuse and be argument-prone.

If you’ve been biting your tongue, you won’t be able to hold back from speaking your truth—but stay mindful because you could be extra combative and not the most benevolent person now. Single Scorpios might reconnect with an old friend and feel sexy sparks, but don’t rush into anything. A night or two of passion isn’t worth destroying a longtime bond over.

Key Dates

August 2: Mars-Uranus Square The second of three squares between these volatile planets (the first was May 16; the next is September 18) could send your temper through the roof. Watch for knee-jerk emotional reactions because they can destabilize a relationship and send people running for the hills. If you’re angry or hurt, find a healthy way to express it. Is it time to get serious about commitment…or starting a family? Maybe—but you certainly won’t take well to being backed into any corners today.

Money & Career

It’s a big month for your career, Scorpio, so don’t drift into that summer haze just yet. Opportunity could come knocking, and you don’t want to be asleep in a hammock when it does! The Sun is in Leo and your ambitious tenth house until August 23, and August 11 brings a catalyzing Leo solar eclipse. You might receive an offer out of the blue or have an epiphany about a key area of your career that you want to change. Whether you embark on a new project, scout other options or completely change your line of work, August could recalibrate your professional path.

One thing’s for sure: “Business as usual” won’t cut it anymore. With expansive Jupiter in Scorpio from October 10, 2017, until November 8, 2018, the stars have sent you on a radical reinvention tour this year, and you’ve been discovering new passions and interests. You may find that you simply can’t force yourself to soldier through some part of your job anymore—you’re just D-O-N-E, and there’s no more faking it! But summoning the courage to let go and try something new isn’t easy for most Scorpios, who like a baseline amount of control. You’ve been learning to leap without a parachute or safety net.

All that practice could pay off now as the Leo eclipse delivers an exciting chance to flaunt your expertise or leave a lasting mark on your industry. Rumors are swirling that iconic Scorpio fashion editor Anna Wintour will leave her hallowed post at Vogue after the September issue. The mere suggestion of that possibility has Jupiter and the eclipses’ fingerprints all over it!

But take any big career moves slowly, Scorpio, since mindful Mercury is retrograde in Leo from July 26 to August 19, which could delay decisions and scramble signals, especially at work. Since Mercury retrograde is notorious for foiling technology, back up your data and hold off on any major electronics upgrades until after this cycle. Most astrologers caution against signing contracts during Mercury retrograde because key details can slip past your attention. Even your eagle eye can miss ’em now, Scorpio, so have any binding documents reviewed by an attorney instead of rushing to sign on the dotted line.

Key Dates

August 10: Mercury-Jupiter Square Flattery will get ’em…everywhere? Someone could butter you up today, but watch out! They may have an ulterior motive. With retrograde Mercury butting heads with overconfident Jupiter in your sign, you might be a little too quick on the draw. Ask people to present you with a plan to back up their lofty visions. Check references—and if you’re the one pitching or applying for a job, make sure your social profiles and testimonials reflect your best work!

Love Days: 26, 4 Money Days: 11, 19 Luck Days: 9, 17 Off Days: 1, 6, 15

[lizseyi]

How Can SEO Professionals And Graphic Designers Work Effectively Together?

It might seem odd in some ways for us to suggest that much friction would necessarily arise between a search engine optimisation (SEO) expert and a graphic designer over the course of a website overhaul they are both working on. After all, they are surely working towards a shared goal of creating a more impactful and successful online presence for their client, and both SEO and graphic design will play crucial roles in the effectiveness of your own brand’s digital marketing online.

Alas, these two types of online marketing professional can sometimes clash. What are some of the issues that can occur between them and is there anything you can do as a brand using both SEO and graphic design services to help these marketing practitioners work more fruitfully together?

They need to understand that they are working towards shared goals

Yes, there are respects in which graphic designers and SEO experts can starkly differ with the emphases they place on certain aspects of the ‘face’ a brand presents to the online world.

Graphic designers, for example, are frequently concerned with achieving a sense of harmony with the visuals they rustle up. This will often include a wish to leave plentiful white space in a given design, which might be the subject of disagreement with an SEO professional, if the latter regards such space as an unrealised opportunity to incorporate some optimised content.

But on the other hand, the best SEO experts and graphic designers have the ability to see the ‘big picture’, including a shared need to make sure the client’s website or other interface is an attractive one for the viewer (read: prospective customer). So, they should be constantly communicating with each other to help ensure this.

They need to realise that not everything needs to be ‘above the fold’

One thing that SEO professionals and graphic designers rarely disagree on, is that the most important content on a given webpage should be placed at, or near the top of the page. This is often called “above the fold”, a term that refers to the part of a webpage that is visible within a browser window without the user needing to scroll down.

After all, when a human being lands on a given page and looks at the content, they need to be given an immediate sense of what the page is about, and information on how the website will help them relieve or resolve whatever concern or problem they have.

Graphic designers and SEO experts need to work together to achieve a design that looks good to this human user, while also catering to the requirement for the site to rank well in the search engines. Thankfully, these priorities do tend to go hand in hand.

They need to strike a balance with the use of copy, too

Continuing on the subject of a given webpage needing to look good, think back to the last time you landed on a webpage that consisted largely of one giant block of text… after another, after another.

Did you stay for long enough on that page to read through the content and get answers to your queries? Or were you overwhelmed or put off enough to simply hit that browser ‘back’ button and look elsewhere? If the latter was the situation for you rather than the former, that’s an understandable reaction.

Yes, it could be perfectly possible to cram content into that space, or this space, on a page. But that doesn’t necessarily make it a wise course of action. The SEO person shouldn’t dictate so much to the graphic designer about exactly where and how text is placed on a page, that it compromises the overall design.

Again, so much of this comes down to communication between the SEO professional and graphic designer. If the content writer can produce content that nicely matches the design template for that page, complete with text being broken up into quotes, bullet points and/or shorter sentences or paragraphs if and where needed, this can greatly help the harmony of the overall effect.

All in all, experts in SEO and graphic design have to work together; there is no room for rampant ego when it comes to formulating the best overall outcomes for a brand’s digital marketing online.

It is a lesson that, here at PENNInk Productions, we strongly heed in the projects we execute for our clients. For more information about how we could help achieve similarly formidable results for your own brand, you are very welcome to contact us.

[thethrilllofitalll]

Make A Project Of It

AKA Closing Thoughts

I set out with the intention to explore creativity and happiness, creating a slice of time whilst I did so. 

As someone who generally works in collectives and big teams, to make a project completely on my own, during lockdown and in a global pandemic, I wanted it to be something gentle. Something I would enjoy doing, that I could use to inform my everyday life, or be informed by it. Basically something to inspire me to look after myself. Reading the previous post made me realise how “classic me” it is that I had to create a project for myself (work) in order to reliably stick to it. 

I’ve not successfully kept a diary since I was a teenager, and with all the talk of “unprecedented” and “strange and uncertain times” I thought this was a nice opportunity to document things.

I’ve always photographed things obsessively, desperately trying to remember the details. I wanted to be more reflected in my presentation of time, and to challenge myself within that. Whether that be the angle (creative, emotional or otherwise), the consistency, the content (if creative) or the writing itself, (I haven’t written anything but marketing copy consistently in years). I wanted to explore a sense of my voice, not putting too much pressure on myself to recreate or mould in a certain way, but also not just flinging things out in the same way I do on social media. A sense of curation and a little bit of tweaking.

I’m normally so busy running round like a headless chicken that I don’t get to explore or develop my practice or creative skill sets at all. I didn’t think it was the correct time to teach myself a whole new skill, but instead wanted to try and combat my fear of trying new things or presenting ideas. I tried to prevent perfectionism creeping in by making the project durational- lots of things and more about consistency out output rather than showstoppers- and creating boundaries. For example I didn’t work on anything for more than a half day. I tried to get comfortable with learning something and accepting that when you’re learning something it’s not going to be incredibly high quality. 

It’s been such a weird time, but also in many ways a golden one. I’m fortunate enough to have been able to embrace the opportunity to live at a much slower pace. To invest time in really looking after myself. I have had the capacity to reflect on what brings me joy and more time to invest in it. To sit with yourself and actually observe how you feel from day to day, how you respond to things without the hecticness of life and the usual distractions, isn’t necessarily always comfortable, but it’s definitely been interesting. 

Strangely, (as a forward planner), after the initial panic and heartbreak of going into lockdown, I found the inability to plan strangely liberating. We were sort of forced into a perpetual present. Which was bewildering, but then sort of nice! I have always struggled with the push and pull between past and present. Trying to strike a balance between reflection and appreciation and melancholy, panic or longing when continually dating your head to looking behind you and ahead of you at the same time. Lockdown enabled me to be truly present in my everyday life for the most sustained periods of my life. Staying in the present and practicing gratitude beyond those moments of joy and wonder, maintaining that sense of stillness and assuredness amongst the more mundane. 

I was lucky to have perhaps the best quaranteam anyone could wish for and I am so grateful. Living with my boyfriend and my two housemates, (two of my best friends) is honestly the most healthy and stable household I have ever been a part of. Individually and collectively, they taught me so much about patience, honesty, vulnerability. Of creativity, consistency and finding the fun. We created a home environment to be proud of and we did so together- a community, a collaboration. We turned everything into an adventure, a concept, an occasion, a routine, a ritual. There is a LOT to be said for organised fun and the creation of new traditions when creating a community and bonding as a new family unit. 

For 15 glorious weeks I am so lucky to have felt happy, relaxed, loved, supported and truly seen. To come completely as you are and be accepted, truly is a rare and beautiful thing. There have been so many wonderful moments and memories that I will treasure forever, but what’s most striking is when I look beyond the zoomed in moments and more as a slice of time. It’s a rollercoaster that we turned into an adventure. Somehow a globally anxious and strange time became a golden time too. We really did find the thrill of it all. And I am so, so grateful. 

[thehallofgame]

Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth

Release: 2006 (Original PSone in 2000)

My Rating: 7.5

The Long Story Short: Valkyrie Profile is at times frustrating and the best ending is obnoxiously difficult to achieve. Despite that it remains a fun, touching and beautiful rpg that withstands the test of time.

Review:

I’m trying to be as impartial as I can and so rated this game a 7.5 based on how I feel its merits stack up against its flaws. However, Valkyrie Profile is rated 10/10 in my heart and if I had to pick a favorite game this would be it. Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth is the 2006 PSP port of the PSone rpg Valkyrie Profile. The PSP port preceded a second entry in the series, and also helped to make the limited run of Valkyrie Profile more accessible. (To this day I have only ever seen one copy of the PSone edition in person and still kick myself for not buying it then. That was six years ago.) Luckily the PSP re-release is much easier to track down. It features re-translated names (Rucian became Lucian, ect.) and new CG cutscenes. Beyond that I’ve not noticed any changes.

The player takes the role of Lenneth Valkyrie, one of three sister goddesses who serve Odin, and sets out on a quest to pick the strongest recently deceased warriors to send to Valhalla to fight in a war between the gods. Over the course of eight chapters Valkyrie flies around the world map, visiting locations where she senses a warrior is about to die and recruiting them. She also has a secondary duty: purifying the world of evil spirits and the undead. This second task is what forms the game’s dungeons. Valkyrie profile is partially a 2D side scrolling platformer in the tradition of the Metroid-vania genre of games (This similarity is enhanced by the fact the game’s art direction and enemies often lean European-Gothic rather than Nordic which is a slightly disconcerting choice). Valkyrie maneuvers around dungeons with the ability to jump, slide and swing along overhead chains and ropes. Valkyrie Profile introduces new flavor to its platforming by use of crystals Valkyrie can shoot onto flat surfaces, including vertical walls. She can stand on them, explode them under her to propel her in the opposite direction or stand on a floating cloud of the resulting particles and even break them and use the pieces. The game uses this gimmick to wonderful effect, making it central to several puzzles. The dungeons in Valkyrie Profile are often fun and a nice exercise in puzzle solving, but sometimes become too esoteric to solve without help or sinking hours into them which can lead to a lot of frustration.

In these dungeons Valkyrie will encounter roaming enemies. She can freeze them with her crystals to avoid them or strike them with her sword to initiate combat. Valkyrie Profile has an interesting combat system in which each of four party members is assigned a button on the controller. Pressing the button for a character causes them to strike with their default attack. This is a simple system to get the hang of and the game slowly increases the complexity as enemies begin to get better at blocking and the player has to balance weapon power versus number of attacks. If the player chains enough attacks on an enemy they unleash a limit break unique to each warrior or a powerful magic attack. Chaining can be vital in late game. Just as important is the ability to perform overkill on enemies so that they drop items, experience multiplying crystals and gems that reduce the cool down time on magic and limit breaks.

All of this is done to train einherjar for Odin’s war. Lenneth is asked to send up at least one einherjar with specific skills every chapter. At the end of each chapter her performance is rated and she is given rewards of items and Materialization Points which are used to materialize items from the party menu in place of going to a store. All this is a very solid foundation but there are several touches that make this game fiddly to play, and makes the ‘good’ ending almost impossible to earn without a game guide to reference.

First of all there are three difficulty settings for the game that are complete misnomers. Easy features reduced difficulty but becomes perhaps the hardest in the long run as the reduced experience and item gain takes its toll on character growth. Additionally the ‘good’ ending isn’t available on easy. Normal is somewhat better balanced. However, hard is the only mode that lets you visit all the dungeons and recruit all of the characters in the game. The difficulty hike from normal to hard isn’t that pronounced but it is exacerbated by every recruited character starting at level one in hard mode. This sounds frustrating but in fact as the player clears dungeons and solves puzzles they will be rewarded with “event experience” that can be doled out to any party member at will. It’s not enough to catch a new character up with the rest of the party, but it is enough to get them in fighting shape or prep them for Valhalla. In some ways this is an advantage because a large part of character growth is determined by Capacity Points that they gain when they level up. These can be spent on improving einherjar’s personality traits and giving them both combat skills and knowledge skills that Freya requests. CP pools stop growing at 999 so if you recruit characters in normal mode they often have capped CP and have lost a lot of potential growth.

When it comes to story Valkyrie Profile believes in show rather than tell. Very little is said outright to the player about the machinations of the gods or the state of the human world, but through conversations the player witnesses in Valhalla and the situations Lenneth sees when she recruits einherjar stories begin to come together. Far more is implied than is ever said so it’s easy to pick up new details with every playthrough, particularly if you also play the sequel. This is good because unless you manage to complete to rather unintuitive steps to reach the good ending the overarching plot of the game is pretty dry. The story is communicated mostly through dialogue, and unfortunately it’s partially acted. Unfortunately because all the text appears on screen anyway and much of the voice acting is wince-inducingly bad. Adding worse to bad, even in the Lenneth port, a great deal of the Japanese to English translation came out somewhat stilted and awkward.

Luckily the music of Valkyrie Profile is well worth listening to. It features several very nice pieces that straddle the line between retro synth and more modern orchestral soundtracks. The original game played most of its major scenes out in the 2D style of its gameplay, with a few CG cutscenes to display large set pieces and events that don’t feature any people in them. The Lenneth port adds a handful of pretty CG cutscenes to add flavor to major events (for the most part. Some choices for the CG were a little odd to me.) I found them very pretty and nice touches.

Valkyrie Profile is one of those games you either love or you hate. It has some fun hooks hampered by esoteric puzzles and a main story you need to jump through hoops to get to. That said, the story is worth tracking down, and with some patience, the dungeon puzzles are worth solving. Valkyrie Profile creates an interesting and complicated world that had amazing potential for more sequels than it’s been given thus far. I have my fingers forever crossed in hopes of more.

[magioftheseas]

Hello! For the Dvd-commentary type meta thing how about "Sunshine and the Calm Sea"? The ask message length is a bit too short to copy paste a snippet ahaha but the bits where mermaid!Komaeda watches how human children act and imitates them to try and communicate with Hinata was really interesting and sweet! Actually I thought the entire fic was beautiful and a really nice read (though heartbreaking at some moments ;;) Anyways I hope you have a nice day!

Part of it is because Komaeda’s really childish at heart and also had his childhood cut short due to his parents dying early on, so he likes watching parents interact with their children because it’s a way of living through them vicariously. There’s also that when it comes to language development, children can be fascinating to observe.

Did you know that a group of children once invented a whole new language because the way they communicated with one another was different than how they communicated with adults? Language development is really interesting stuff! So I figured it’d be neat if Komaeda learned how to communicate “that” way, but due to being past the age where language development stops, his capabilities are still a bit…stunted and he has all the difficulty in learning a language that you’d expect a young adult to have. Writing a story where communication has to be pretty base level and lacking the usual lingual nuance I’m fond of was a challenge I wanted to take on and honestly, had a lot of fun with.

But it was also striking the balance between Komaeda’s childishness and his maturity, which was also interesting and fun. Character studies in general are one of my favorite things, and I always love having new avenues to explore.

Thank you so much for the comment and I’m very much glad you liked the fic~~!

[templified]

Best WordPress Multimedia Themes for Video, Images and Audio Files | Templified

New Post has been published on https://templified.com/best-wordpress-multimedia-themes-for-video-images-and-audio-files/

Best WordPress Multimedia Themes for Video, Images and Audio Files

If you’re searching for a great WordPress theme for your multimedia content, this collection is for you.  We’ve found a wide array of themes that are built for showing off video clips, multimedia presentations, portfolios and all sorts of creative work.

Multimedia covers a really wide range of entertainment styles.  You’ve got video, which is obviously incredibly popular these days and it’s a growing form of communication.  We’ve also got a lot of themes that are great for audio files, perfect for musicians, podcasters and online radio stations.  Of course, everybody knows all about images and their value for communicating with a wide audience.

With WordPress, you get a balanced, user-friendly platform for showcasing all sorts of creative, multimedia content.  Any of the themes in this collection can do a great job of helping make your website memorable and one that people will keep coming back to over and over again.  Many of these themes offer all of the different post types I’ve mentioned above, plus a handful more, making for a blogging experience that fits with what you want to deliver.

If you’re starting up a multimedia based website, this collection of themes is a fantastic place to learn more about what WordPress has to offer.

Divi, Premium, Drag and Drop Multimedia WordPress Theme

Divi is a truly premium quality theme with one of the very best drag and drop page builders around, the Divi builder.  Divi comes with hundreds of pre-made designs to help get you started fast and the community is large and growing, meaning you can get advice and even more pre-made designs by logging on to the Elegant Themes site and searching for any information or tools you might need to create the kind of website you can build a very successful blog or business based on it.  For multimedia sites, this is a one stop solution that can provide everything and anything you could possibly want.

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SOHO, Clean, Simple Multimedia WordPress Theme

Soho is a minimal, elegant and creative way to produce a striking multimedia blog. If you want to present photo, video and audio work, you’ll want a website that implements the latest technologies. That is the Soho theme. It’s an absolutely perfect solution for photography and video websites. With a very striking design, Soho gives you many different image gallery options, a powerful theme options panel for customization, access to simple color and font management and everything is perfectly responsive. This theme has a drag-and-drop of page module system for constructing really beautiful multimedia websites.

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Materialism, Material Design Theme for Multimedia Sites

Materialism is a great-looking landing page for material design websites and with everything this theme has to offer, it’s a really great way to build a multimedia portfolio, creative agency landing page or blog. Materialism has a stunning, responsive look that it is adaptable to all size and shape of screen. If you’re not a programmer, it’s theme still has everything that you need to set up a great-looking website and customize it to your liking. All of that in just minutes without any advanced coding knowledge. There are 40 different content elements with advanced styling options, you can create and manage these from the front end or the back end. That gives you unlimited possibilities to organize your website. As they say, the sky is the limit.

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Monstroid

Run, it’s a Monstroid!  Wait, there’s nothing to fear here.  Monstroid, well Monstroid2 really, is a good looking business theme wearing a green suit.  But that suit (the color scheme) is just one of the things that can be switched up to a different look and feel entirely.

Essential and custom functionality, Monstroid is packed with them.  That’s what the ad copy says anyway.  Let’s take a look, shall we?

There are nine design options, from corporate to highly creative.  Multiple headers and footers are available too.  Tons of blog options from grids, including masonry grid, to listings and everything in between.  WooCommerce support means you can sell your products in a fast, friendly environment that is simple to manage and highly customizable.

Here’s what the developer says about Monstroid2.

Monstroid2 is a truly multipurpose WordPress theme built for real life projects. It’s a perfect solution for corporate websites, hotels, restaurants, creative websites, shop owners, bloggers, online media portals and much more. In this particular theme we’ve made a special accent on functionality and usability. The theme is equipped with all necessary plugins to run real business website successfully. Besides that, the process of skin switching and demo data import has never been so easy. Now you can enable a necessary skin, install plugins and import demo data in just a few clicks with a help of human friendly installation wizard. The theme works out of the box and does not require any coding skills to make it work as expected. Monstroid2 comes with Power Builder plugin that helps to create unique and versatile page layouts in visual mode. It integrates all plugins supplied with the theme and gives you full control over your site content.

Alighty then, I’m going to take a deep breath and try to list all the plugins this theme is compatible with.

There’s bbPress, Events Calendar, PowerBuilder, Cherry Search, WooCommerce, Cherry Projects, MotoPress Hotel Booking, MotoPress Menu, BuddyPress, TM WooCommerce Pack and a ton more.  I’m going to come clean, I didn’t hold my breath.  Still, that’s a lot of features.

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Wrap, Multimedia Video Blog and Portfolio Theme

Wrap is a very simple, we’ll organized video blog and multimedia blog theme. You can showcase popular videos, the latest visual news and more. It’s a really nice balance between traditional blog style and newer video magazines. No matter what type of site you are attempting to set up, you won’t need to learn how to code to make it happen. This team is full of features that keep your visitors reading and watching what you have created. You got three different unique homepage layout, four different hairstyles that are creative and make navigation very clean-cut and straightforward. The code is fresh and bug-free, you get access to social media icons, multiple widgets for keeping in touch with your visitors and quite a number of other options to make this a fantastic multimedia WordPress theme.

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Vignette, Full Screen Multimedia Theme with Video Home Page

Vignette is a stunning WordPress theme for photographers, multimedia artist, creative folks and creative companies. with this flexible theme, you can choose between a video or featured image for your homepage, add to any of the Wichita sized areas on the front page to add new functionality, she’s one of the four different layouts for each of your image galleries and it all works to help showcase content in a creative and unique way. This theme has several custom widgets that make building your multimedia website straightforward and easy to do, even if you are a beginner.

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The Motion, Premium WordPress Multimedia Template

The Motion is the theme that is focused on multimedia and video content. This is a great theme for podcasters, video bloggers, multimedia producers and anyone who wants a clean, flat presentation for their content. this template is perfectly compatible with woocommerce, that means you can set up stylish shop to sell products. The motion is among the number one multimedia WordPress themes for video blogs, tutorials and online lessons. This theme has continued to be updated since its original release and still provides a very clean, well-organized platform for any type of blog. The theme options panel allows you to customize your website just the way you want to, adjusting design details, colors, fonts and a whole lot more. You get to see all of these changes in real time, a really nice touch for those of you who are visual processors.

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VLog, WordPress Video Blog and Multimedia Blog Theme

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Reel Story, WordPress Multimedia Portfolio Theme

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Ananke, Full Screen Portfolio for Multimedia Creatives

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Joker, Production Company and Multimedia WP Theme

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VideoTube, YouTube Style Theme for Multimedia

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[ucalgarywelcomecentre-blog]

Experiencing Calgary:  Layla’s First Year as an International Student

Although she didn’t have any close relatives who resides in Canada, Layla desired to earn a degree from a Canadian university. She fondly remembers spending her leisure time reading about the history of the diverse people who reside in Calgary. She was also awed by the beautiful and serene images of the snow-capped mountains of Alberta. Her only fear: - the terrifying tales of the chilly Canadian winter. For someone who resided in the tropical climate of West Africa, she had heard and read about the cold and gloomy winter days in Calgary. However, Layla’s excitement grew as she thought of the new friends she would make and how she would also engage in various winter sports such a skiing and snowboarding. Although awaiting her student visa reignited her worries, she still recollects with fond memories the day her visa was approved. The fears of her new climate quickly disappeared and as her travelling date drew closer, Layla could not contain her excitement. Although happy, she dreaded saying goodbye to family and friends. She knew that she was going to miss home.

Layla arrived in Calgary five days before the end of August hoping to enjoy the final days of summer.  However, this summer was not hot! hot! In fact, it felt just like the chilly haramata (harmattan) season that swept through West Africa from late December to February. She did survive the night wrapped up in a warm blanket provided to her by her elderly land lady who also gave her a couple of bus tickets. On her way to university the next morning, she missed her bus and had to wait for almost twenty minutes before the arrival of the second bus. Exhausted and shivering, she informed the driver that she was new in town and was going to the University of Calgary. His warm reassuring smile was comforting. He also advised her to always request for a ‘transfer’ anytime she made use of a new ticket. The nice smiling driver also told her to get a sim card as soon as possible, and to always remember to check for two things each morning: - first, the weather, and second, the exact time the bus ought to arrive. Layla was yet to buy a sim card but that soon became her top priority for the day.

Upon arriving at the university, Layla was lost in the tall buildings surrounding her. As she walked through unfamiliar terrains, she found it difficult to locate her faculty. However, she quickly learned to ask for directions because everyone seemed to be genuinely cheerful and willing to offer their assistance. Finally, Layla made her way to her departmental office where she was able to put a face to the graduate administrator who had been the most reliable contact during her application and admission process. This nice and cheerful lady advised her to stop by the Information Communication and Technology (ICT) office (to get connected to UCalgary Wi-Fi) and urged her to pick up her unicard from the unicard office in the Dinning Center (DC 18). Layla was so used to getting lost and asking for directions that it took her longer than usual to arrive at the ICT office. She was soon able to access the internet and immediately made a call home. She was also able to get in touch with a fellow graduate student who had arrived three weeks earlier. He took her to the Welcome Center where she was given a checklist of things to do such as getting a SIN number, opening a bank account and registering for her Alberta Health Care. She was also given a Welcome Center tote bag filled with useful information and was invited to attend some events. That same day, Layla went to Market Mall, where she was able to purchase a sim card.

During the next few days, Layla decided to stay at home and take a rest while also awaiting the first day of September when she could make use of her UPass freely around town.  On September 2 (Labor Day), Layla visited Canada Olympic Park and went go-karting at Skyline Luge. She also enjoyed taking bus and train trips around town as she took time to explore the nooks and crannies of Calgary. More importantly, Layla remembers how attending the international students and graduate orientation (GradO) proved to be very informative. Layla also met her new best friend during the orientation.  

It’s been a year since Layla arrived in Calgary and Calgary has been good to Layla. The first few weeks of classes were a bit tough and Layla had to quickly adjust to the Canadian educational system. However, Layla promised herself to never miss a class, and she never did. She read all her required texts, submitted each assignment when due and asked questions to her professors when she found it difficult to understand. Layla did survive the winter- it wasn’t as bad as she had imagined. However, Layla must be truthful. There were moments when she was lonely and had thoughts of returning home. This period slowly creeped up during the cold snowy winter nights. However, Layla survived these moments, because although she kept in contact with friends at home, she also made new friends in Calgary. While she interacted with familiar faces in class, she also attended some events organized by International Student Services (ISS) to meet fellow international students.

From Layla’s personal experience, here are some important points to remember as a new-to-Calgary student (international/domestic):

-  Stop by at the Welcome Center and speak to an advisor. Here, you’ll receive all the information you need about settling and living in Calgary.

-  Get connected to the university wi-fi and get a sim card (Market Mall is the closest to campus).

- Always remember to call home as soon as soon possible and through out the school year, do keep in touch with loved ones. (You can use WhatsApp and Skype).

-  Download a weather and a transit app - always check these apps before leaving home so you can prepare for the day.  

-  Keep an electronic copy of all your important documents (passport, license, school admission letter, etc.).

-  Register for orientation and be sure to attend. You might just find a new best friend.

-  Before the start of classes, try to explore the city.

-  Buy sweaters, good winter jackets and boots to prepare for Canadian winters.

-  Strike a balance between school, volunteering and having fun. You don’t have to read at the main library, search out cool spots around school.  Layla enjoys reading at the Gallagher library in Earth Sciences.

-  Always read the ISS newsletter!

-  Don’t be a hermit! Make new friends.

-  Stop by at the Women Resource Centre, Writing Symbols Lodge, International Student Services, Student Wellness Services, and Active Living etc.

-  Most importantly, always feel free to ask questions! Remember, there are always people who are willing to help.

[mariasolemarionqi]

The Secret to Powerful Visual Content

Do you remember the last time you felt the warm grip of a good book that makes you want to read on, page after page? How great writers craft their masterpieces with seemingly simple words—or even using a few uncommon ones to describe an object, like using “vast” for “big” or “numerous” for “many”—is a skill that isn’t innate; it’s studied, practiced, polished, and continuously improved upon. It’s how masters of the craft make literature memorable.

What about the shorter pieces found online? No, not fanfiction (but if you find such pieces interesting, then good for you). Think about blogs that focus on travel, business, gaming, food, what have you. What makes you read those posts time and time again? Is it the topic or how it is written? Is it the wit, the humor, the seriousness, or the passion? Whatever the reason, you keep coming back to them.

The same is true for visual content marketing. When people like how you write your pieces or how you present your data, they will be anticipating your next post. Why? Because you pique and satisfy their interest and/or because you’ve mastered how to use your posts to their fullest potential. The bottom line is that visual content is not just about the pretty pictures; it’s also about the witty words, the terrific texts, and the crafty copy.

Words hold a power different from that of images, and vice versa. The best use of both is a balance of those abilities that can provide a multitude of effects on readers. But before you strike that middle ground, focus on your text first because it will give you many ideas on what to do after writing it. When crafted from the heart, great copy can accomplish many things, including those listed below.

Communicate with Readers

If images lack one thing, it’s words. An oft-cited cliché is that pictures are worth a thousand words, but what—and where—are the actual words? If anything, pictures bypass the text and appeal directly to a viewer, but there’s no substitute for the feeling of excitement as you go word by word, building up the tension and suspense and having that cathartic feeling when the piece is done.

The same goes for pieces that don’t fall within the categories of literature or journalism: With every bit of information you put out that readers take in, you give off the feeling that you’re talking to and with them. You’re presenting what you have in what could arguably be the clearest way possible. In essence, you’re directly communicating with them.

Think of it this way: Without text, it’s like you’re playing a combination of charades and Pictionary; without images, it’s like Wheel of Fortune. Mix those three together, and you’ve got something more complete and effective.

Mix visual and written content together, and you’ve got something more complete and effective. Click To Tweet Give Context

Clever image use has been the crux of photojournalism. It’s storytelling using a picture: In one shot, you highlight different elements of prose, like a protagonist, an antagonist, the setting, a struggle, the climax, or any combination thereof. But those kinds of pictures are far and few between, and getting that perfect shot is a one-time opportunity. If you’re creating an image, sure, you can manipulate the details, but the best you can do is something akin to what a good photojournalist captures.

This is where words come in: to fill the logical gaps and missing details. They can help provide what you think the image lacks—the bigger picture, so to speak—or at least give enough information for you to come up with your own conclusion, especially when the topic is open-ended.

It can even change how you look at an image, depending on how you use your copy to frame the portrayal. Words can affect how visualized data is seen. And it also works the other way around.

Provide Deeper Meaning

Aside from context, texts can also enhance the emotions a picture solicits. They can give the moral in a picture of triumph and success; they can depict the suffering in an image of despair. They can provide hope or take it away. They can spark ideas and waken a passion deep within the reader.

Words have the power to make your piece more than it appears to be. A picture doesn’t speak for itself more than when you pair it with words, but words can express themselves in ways deeper than anyone can ever imagine. It’s beautiful how the right words can push the right buttons and make a piece describe itself in flawless dignity.

When done well, your post can reach farther through shares, especially with how much attention people put on social media platforms. That’s when you reach a new audience, eager to take in the information you provide. By then, your posts are also having the same effect on your new audience, and the cycle begins again: affect, share, repeat.

There’s more to writing than just stringing words together to tell a story, to persuade, to converse, or to express. The art goes deeper than that. For anyone who studied writing and is always working to improve their craft, relying solely on imagery can make your content sound—and look—nice, but there’s no substance to it if there’s no synchronization and harmony between the topic and the elements.

The same goes for visual content marketing. If your visual elements don’t work together, or don’t match well, then the least you risk is not being taken seriously; the worst is you turn away people who could have been potential leads.

Your copy isn’t just a bunch of words meant to fill a page with nonsensical gibberish. You crafted it because it’s meant to be read. You want it to be read. When you plan your visualization methods and processes around your text, you will see that those words are not just there; they are part of your content. They are an element of your design and your post. It’s not an either-or scenario where image and text are concerned; rather, strike the balance. Getting the best of both worlds is beneficial for you and your post. You just need to be smart on how to use both.

Get a weekly dose of the trends and insights you need to keep you ON top, from the strategy team at Convince & Convert. Sign up for the Convince & Convert ON email newsletter.

http://ift.tt/2pr6jhD

[mercedessharonwo1]

The Secret to Powerful Visual Content

Do you remember the last time you felt the warm grip of a good book that makes you want to read on, page after page? How great writers craft their masterpieces with seemingly simple words—or even using a few uncommon ones to describe an object, like using “vast” for “big” or “numerous” for “many”—is a skill that isn’t innate; it’s studied, practiced, polished, and continuously improved upon. It’s how masters of the craft make literature memorable.

What about the shorter pieces found online? No, not fanfiction (but if you find such pieces interesting, then good for you). Think about blogs that focus on travel, business, gaming, food, what have you. What makes you read those posts time and time again? Is it the topic or how it is written? Is it the wit, the humor, the seriousness, or the passion? Whatever the reason, you keep coming back to them.

The same is true for visual content marketing. When people like how you write your pieces or how you present your data, they will be anticipating your next post. Why? Because you pique and satisfy their interest and/or because you’ve mastered how to use your posts to their fullest potential. The bottom line is that visual content is not just about the pretty pictures; it’s also about the witty words, the terrific texts, and the crafty copy.

Words hold a power different from that of images, and vice versa. The best use of both is a balance of those abilities that can provide a multitude of effects on readers. But before you strike that middle ground, focus on your text first because it will give you many ideas on what to do after writing it. When crafted from the heart, great copy can accomplish many things, including those listed below.

Communicate with Readers

If images lack one thing, it’s words. An oft-cited cliché is that pictures are worth a thousand words, but what—and where—are the actual words? If anything, pictures bypass the text and appeal directly to a viewer, but there’s no substitute for the feeling of excitement as you go word by word, building up the tension and suspense and having that cathartic feeling when the piece is done.

The same goes for pieces that don’t fall within the categories of literature or journalism: With every bit of information you put out that readers take in, you give off the feeling that you’re talking to and with them. You’re presenting what you have in what could arguably be the clearest way possible. In essence, you’re directly communicating with them.

Think of it this way: Without text, it’s like you’re playing a combination of charades and Pictionary; without images, it’s like Wheel of Fortune. Mix those three together, and you’ve got something more complete and effective.

Mix visual and written content together, and you’ve got something more complete and effective. Click To Tweet Give Context

Clever image use has been the crux of photojournalism. It’s storytelling using a picture: In one shot, you highlight different elements of prose, like a protagonist, an antagonist, the setting, a struggle, the climax, or any combination thereof. But those kinds of pictures are far and few between, and getting that perfect shot is a one-time opportunity. If you’re creating an image, sure, you can manipulate the details, but the best you can do is something akin to what a good photojournalist captures.

This is where words come in: to fill the logical gaps and missing details. They can help provide what you think the image lacks—the bigger picture, so to speak—or at least give enough information for you to come up with your own conclusion, especially when the topic is open-ended.

It can even change how you look at an image, depending on how you use your copy to frame the portrayal. Words can affect how visualized data is seen. And it also works the other way around.

Provide Deeper Meaning

Aside from context, texts can also enhance the emotions a picture solicits. They can give the moral in a picture of triumph and success; they can depict the suffering in an image of despair. They can provide hope or take it away. They can spark ideas and waken a passion deep within the reader.

Words have the power to make your piece more than it appears to be. A picture doesn’t speak for itself more than when you pair it with words, but words can express themselves in ways deeper than anyone can ever imagine. It’s beautiful how the right words can push the right buttons and make a piece describe itself in flawless dignity.

When done well, your post can reach farther through shares, especially with how much attention people put on social media platforms. That’s when you reach a new audience, eager to take in the information you provide. By then, your posts are also having the same effect on your new audience, and the cycle begins again: affect, share, repeat.

There’s more to writing than just stringing words together to tell a story, to persuade, to converse, or to express. The art goes deeper than that. For anyone who studied writing and is always working to improve their craft, relying solely on imagery can make your content sound—and look—nice, but there’s no substance to it if there’s no synchronization and harmony between the topic and the elements.

The same goes for visual content marketing. If your visual elements don’t work together, or don’t match well, then the least you risk is not being taken seriously; the worst is you turn away people who could have been potential leads.

Your copy isn’t just a bunch of words meant to fill a page with nonsensical gibberish. You crafted it because it’s meant to be read. You want it to be read. When you plan your visualization methods and processes around your text, you will see that those words are not just there; they are part of your content. They are an element of your design and your post. It’s not an either-or scenario where image and text are concerned; rather, strike the balance. Getting the best of both worlds is beneficial for you and your post. You just need to be smart on how to use both.

Get a weekly dose of the trends and insights you need to keep you ON top, from the strategy team at Convince & Convert. Sign up for the Convince & Convert ON email newsletter.

http://ift.tt/2pr6jhD

[kraussoutene]

The Secret to Powerful Visual Content

Do you remember the last time you felt the warm grip of a good book that makes you want to read on, page after page? How great writers craft their masterpieces with seemingly simple words—or even using a few uncommon ones to describe an object, like using “vast” for “big” or “numerous” for “many”—is a skill that isn’t innate; it’s studied, practiced, polished, and continuously improved upon. It’s how masters of the craft make literature memorable.

What about the shorter pieces found online? No, not fanfiction (but if you find such pieces interesting, then good for you). Think about blogs that focus on travel, business, gaming, food, what have you. What makes you read those posts time and time again? Is it the topic or how it is written? Is it the wit, the humor, the seriousness, or the passion? Whatever the reason, you keep coming back to them.

The same is true for visual content marketing. When people like how you write your pieces or how you present your data, they will be anticipating your next post. Why? Because you pique and satisfy their interest and/or because you’ve mastered how to use your posts to their fullest potential. The bottom line is that visual content is not just about the pretty pictures; it’s also about the witty words, the terrific texts, and the crafty copy.

Words hold a power different from that of images, and vice versa. The best use of both is a balance of those abilities that can provide a multitude of effects on readers. But before you strike that middle ground, focus on your text first because it will give you many ideas on what to do after writing it. When crafted from the heart, great copy can accomplish many things, including those listed below.

Communicate with Readers

If images lack one thing, it’s words. An oft-cited cliché is that pictures are worth a thousand words, but what—and where—are the actual words? If anything, pictures bypass the text and appeal directly to a viewer, but there’s no substitute for the feeling of excitement as you go word by word, building up the tension and suspense and having that cathartic feeling when the piece is done.

The same goes for pieces that don’t fall within the categories of literature or journalism: With every bit of information you put out that readers take in, you give off the feeling that you’re talking to and with them. You’re presenting what you have in what could arguably be the clearest way possible. In essence, you’re directly communicating with them.

Think of it this way: Without text, it’s like you’re playing a combination of charades and Pictionary; without images, it’s like Wheel of Fortune. Mix those three together, and you’ve got something more complete and effective.

Mix visual and written content together, and you’ve got something more complete and effective. Click To Tweet Give Context

Clever image use has been the crux of photojournalism. It’s storytelling using a picture: In one shot, you highlight different elements of prose, like a protagonist, an antagonist, the setting, a struggle, the climax, or any combination thereof. But those kinds of pictures are far and few between, and getting that perfect shot is a one-time opportunity. If you’re creating an image, sure, you can manipulate the details, but the best you can do is something akin to what a good photojournalist captures.

This is where words come in: to fill the logical gaps and missing details. They can help provide what you think the image lacks—the bigger picture, so to speak—or at least give enough information for you to come up with your own conclusion, especially when the topic is open-ended.

It can even change how you look at an image, depending on how you use your copy to frame the portrayal. Words can affect how visualized data is seen. And it also works the other way around.

Provide Deeper Meaning

Aside from context, texts can also enhance the emotions a picture solicits. They can give the moral in a picture of triumph and success; they can depict the suffering in an image of despair. They can provide hope or take it away. They can spark ideas and waken a passion deep within the reader.

Words have the power to make your piece more than it appears to be. A picture doesn’t speak for itself more than when you pair it with words, but words can express themselves in ways deeper than anyone can ever imagine. It’s beautiful how the right words can push the right buttons and make a piece describe itself in flawless dignity.

When done well, your post can reach farther through shares, especially with how much attention people put on social media platforms. That’s when you reach a new audience, eager to take in the information you provide. By then, your posts are also having the same effect on your new audience, and the cycle begins again: affect, share, repeat.

There’s more to writing than just stringing words together to tell a story, to persuade, to converse, or to express. The art goes deeper than that. For anyone who studied writing and is always working to improve their craft, relying solely on imagery can make your content sound—and look—nice, but there’s no substance to it if there’s no synchronization and harmony between the topic and the elements.

The same goes for visual content marketing. If your visual elements don’t work together, or don’t match well, then the least you risk is not being taken seriously; the worst is you turn away people who could have been potential leads.

Your copy isn’t just a bunch of words meant to fill a page with nonsensical gibberish. You crafted it because it’s meant to be read. You want it to be read. When you plan your visualization methods and processes around your text, you will see that those words are not just there; they are part of your content. They are an element of your design and your post. It’s not an either-or scenario where image and text are concerned; rather, strike the balance. Getting the best of both worlds is beneficial for you and your post. You just need to be smart on how to use both.

Get a weekly dose of the trends and insights you need to keep you ON top, from the strategy team at Convince & Convert. Sign up for the Convince & Convert ON email newsletter.

http://ift.tt/2pr6jhD

[conniecogeie]

The Secret to Powerful Visual Content

Do you remember the last time you felt the warm grip of a good book that makes you want to read on, page after page? How great writers craft their masterpieces with seemingly simple words—or even using a few uncommon ones to describe an object, like using “vast” for “big” or “numerous” for “many”—is a skill that isn’t innate; it’s studied, practiced, polished, and continuously improved upon. It’s how masters of the craft make literature memorable.

What about the shorter pieces found online? No, not fanfiction (but if you find such pieces interesting, then good for you). Think about blogs that focus on travel, business, gaming, food, what have you. What makes you read those posts time and time again? Is it the topic or how it is written? Is it the wit, the humor, the seriousness, or the passion? Whatever the reason, you keep coming back to them.

The same is true for visual content marketing. When people like how you write your pieces or how you present your data, they will be anticipating your next post. Why? Because you pique and satisfy their interest and/or because you’ve mastered how to use your posts to their fullest potential. The bottom line is that visual content is not just about the pretty pictures; it’s also about the witty words, the terrific texts, and the crafty copy.

Words hold a power different from that of images, and vice versa. The best use of both is a balance of those abilities that can provide a multitude of effects on readers. But before you strike that middle ground, focus on your text first because it will give you many ideas on what to do after writing it. When crafted from the heart, great copy can accomplish many things, including those listed below.

Communicate with Readers

If images lack one thing, it’s words. An oft-cited cliché is that pictures are worth a thousand words, but what—and where—are the actual words? If anything, pictures bypass the text and appeal directly to a viewer, but there’s no substitute for the feeling of excitement as you go word by word, building up the tension and suspense and having that cathartic feeling when the piece is done.

The same goes for pieces that don’t fall within the categories of literature or journalism: With every bit of information you put out that readers take in, you give off the feeling that you’re talking to and with them. You’re presenting what you have in what could arguably be the clearest way possible. In essence, you’re directly communicating with them.

Think of it this way: Without text, it’s like you’re playing a combination of charades and Pictionary; without images, it’s like Wheel of Fortune. Mix those three together, and you’ve got something more complete and effective.

Mix visual and written content together, and you’ve got something more complete and effective. Click To Tweet Give Context

Clever image use has been the crux of photojournalism. It’s storytelling using a picture: In one shot, you highlight different elements of prose, like a protagonist, an antagonist, the setting, a struggle, the climax, or any combination thereof. But those kinds of pictures are far and few between, and getting that perfect shot is a one-time opportunity. If you’re creating an image, sure, you can manipulate the details, but the best you can do is something akin to what a good photojournalist captures.

This is where words come in: to fill the logical gaps and missing details. They can help provide what you think the image lacks—the bigger picture, so to speak—or at least give enough information for you to come up with your own conclusion, especially when the topic is open-ended.

It can even change how you look at an image, depending on how you use your copy to frame the portrayal. Words can affect how visualized data is seen. And it also works the other way around.

Provide Deeper Meaning

Aside from context, texts can also enhance the emotions a picture solicits. They can give the moral in a picture of triumph and success; they can depict the suffering in an image of despair. They can provide hope or take it away. They can spark ideas and waken a passion deep within the reader.

Words have the power to make your piece more than it appears to be. A picture doesn’t speak for itself more than when you pair it with words, but words can express themselves in ways deeper than anyone can ever imagine. It’s beautiful how the right words can push the right buttons and make a piece describe itself in flawless dignity.

When done well, your post can reach farther through shares, especially with how much attention people put on social media platforms. That’s when you reach a new audience, eager to take in the information you provide. By then, your posts are also having the same effect on your new audience, and the cycle begins again: affect, share, repeat.

There’s more to writing than just stringing words together to tell a story, to persuade, to converse, or to express. The art goes deeper than that. For anyone who studied writing and is always working to improve their craft, relying solely on imagery can make your content sound—and look—nice, but there’s no substance to it if there’s no synchronization and harmony between the topic and the elements.

The same goes for visual content marketing. If your visual elements don’t work together, or don’t match well, then the least you risk is not being taken seriously; the worst is you turn away people who could have been potential leads.

Your copy isn’t just a bunch of words meant to fill a page with nonsensical gibberish. You crafted it because it’s meant to be read. You want it to be read. When you plan your visualization methods and processes around your text, you will see that those words are not just there; they are part of your content. They are an element of your design and your post. It’s not an either-or scenario where image and text are concerned; rather, strike the balance. Getting the best of both worlds is beneficial for you and your post. You just need to be smart on how to use both.

Get a weekly dose of the trends and insights you need to keep you ON top, from the strategy team at Convince & Convert. Sign up for the Convince & Convert ON email newsletter.

http://ift.tt/2pr6jhD

[dainiaolivahm]

The Secret to Powerful Visual Content

Do you remember the last time you felt the warm grip of a good book that makes you want to read on, page after page? How great writers craft their masterpieces with seemingly simple words—or even using a few uncommon ones to describe an object, like using “vast” for “big” or “numerous” for “many”—is a skill that isn’t innate; it’s studied, practiced, polished, and continuously improved upon. It’s how masters of the craft make literature memorable.

What about the shorter pieces found online? No, not fanfiction (but if you find such pieces interesting, then good for you). Think about blogs that focus on travel, business, gaming, food, what have you. What makes you read those posts time and time again? Is it the topic or how it is written? Is it the wit, the humor, the seriousness, or the passion? Whatever the reason, you keep coming back to them.

The same is true for visual content marketing. When people like how you write your pieces or how you present your data, they will be anticipating your next post. Why? Because you pique and satisfy their interest and/or because you’ve mastered how to use your posts to their fullest potential. The bottom line is that visual content is not just about the pretty pictures; it’s also about the witty words, the terrific texts, and the crafty copy.

Words hold a power different from that of images, and vice versa. The best use of both is a balance of those abilities that can provide a multitude of effects on readers. But before you strike that middle ground, focus on your text first because it will give you many ideas on what to do after writing it. When crafted from the heart, great copy can accomplish many things, including those listed below.

Communicate with Readers

If images lack one thing, it’s words. An oft-cited cliché is that pictures are worth a thousand words, but what—and where—are the actual words? If anything, pictures bypass the text and appeal directly to a viewer, but there’s no substitute for the feeling of excitement as you go word by word, building up the tension and suspense and having that cathartic feeling when the piece is done.

The same goes for pieces that don’t fall within the categories of literature or journalism: With every bit of information you put out that readers take in, you give off the feeling that you’re talking to and with them. You’re presenting what you have in what could arguably be the clearest way possible. In essence, you’re directly communicating with them.

Think of it this way: Without text, it’s like you’re playing a combination of charades and Pictionary; without images, it’s like Wheel of Fortune. Mix those three together, and you’ve got something more complete and effective.

Mix visual and written content together, and you’ve got something more complete and effective. Click To Tweet Give Context

Clever image use has been the crux of photojournalism. It’s storytelling using a picture: In one shot, you highlight different elements of prose, like a protagonist, an antagonist, the setting, a struggle, the climax, or any combination thereof. But those kinds of pictures are far and few between, and getting that perfect shot is a one-time opportunity. If you’re creating an image, sure, you can manipulate the details, but the best you can do is something akin to what a good photojournalist captures.

This is where words come in: to fill the logical gaps and missing details. They can help provide what you think the image lacks—the bigger picture, so to speak—or at least give enough information for you to come up with your own conclusion, especially when the topic is open-ended.

It can even change how you look at an image, depending on how you use your copy to frame the portrayal. Words can affect how visualized data is seen. And it also works the other way around.

Provide Deeper Meaning

Aside from context, texts can also enhance the emotions a picture solicits. They can give the moral in a picture of triumph and success; they can depict the suffering in an image of despair. They can provide hope or take it away. They can spark ideas and waken a passion deep within the reader.

Words have the power to make your piece more than it appears to be. A picture doesn’t speak for itself more than when you pair it with words, but words can express themselves in ways deeper than anyone can ever imagine. It’s beautiful how the right words can push the right buttons and make a piece describe itself in flawless dignity.

When done well, your post can reach farther through shares, especially with how much attention people put on social media platforms. That’s when you reach a new audience, eager to take in the information you provide. By then, your posts are also having the same effect on your new audience, and the cycle begins again: affect, share, repeat.

There’s more to writing than just stringing words together to tell a story, to persuade, to converse, or to express. The art goes deeper than that. For anyone who studied writing and is always working to improve their craft, relying solely on imagery can make your content sound—and look—nice, but there’s no substance to it if there’s no synchronization and harmony between the topic and the elements.

The same goes for visual content marketing. If your visual elements don’t work together, or don’t match well, then the least you risk is not being taken seriously; the worst is you turn away people who could have been potential leads.

Your copy isn’t just a bunch of words meant to fill a page with nonsensical gibberish. You crafted it because it’s meant to be read. You want it to be read. When you plan your visualization methods and processes around your text, you will see that those words are not just there; they are part of your content. They are an element of your design and your post. It’s not an either-or scenario where image and text are concerned; rather, strike the balance. Getting the best of both worlds is beneficial for you and your post. You just need to be smart on how to use both.

Get a weekly dose of the trends and insights you need to keep you ON top, from the strategy team at Convince & Convert. Sign up for the Convince & Convert ON email newsletter.

http://ift.tt/2pr6jhD

[christinesumpmg1]

The Secret to Powerful Visual Content

Do you remember the last time you felt the warm grip of a good book that makes you want to read on, page after page? How great writers craft their masterpieces with seemingly simple words—or even using a few uncommon ones to describe an object, like using “vast” for “big” or “numerous” for “many”—is a skill that isn’t innate; it’s studied, practiced, polished, and continuously improved upon. It’s how masters of the craft make literature memorable.

What about the shorter pieces found online? No, not fanfiction (but if you find such pieces interesting, then good for you). Think about blogs that focus on travel, business, gaming, food, what have you. What makes you read those posts time and time again? Is it the topic or how it is written? Is it the wit, the humor, the seriousness, or the passion? Whatever the reason, you keep coming back to them.

The same is true for visual content marketing. When people like how you write your pieces or how you present your data, they will be anticipating your next post. Why? Because you pique and satisfy their interest and/or because you’ve mastered how to use your posts to their fullest potential. The bottom line is that visual content is not just about the pretty pictures; it’s also about the witty words, the terrific texts, and the crafty copy.

Words hold a power different from that of images, and vice versa. The best use of both is a balance of those abilities that can provide a multitude of effects on readers. But before you strike that middle ground, focus on your text first because it will give you many ideas on what to do after writing it. When crafted from the heart, great copy can accomplish many things, including those listed below.

Communicate with Readers

If images lack one thing, it’s words. An oft-cited cliché is that pictures are worth a thousand words, but what—and where—are the actual words? If anything, pictures bypass the text and appeal directly to a viewer, but there’s no substitute for the feeling of excitement as you go word by word, building up the tension and suspense and having that cathartic feeling when the piece is done.

The same goes for pieces that don’t fall within the categories of literature or journalism: With every bit of information you put out that readers take in, you give off the feeling that you’re talking to and with them. You’re presenting what you have in what could arguably be the clearest way possible. In essence, you’re directly communicating with them.

Think of it this way: Without text, it’s like you’re playing a combination of charades and Pictionary; without images, it’s like Wheel of Fortune. Mix those three together, and you’ve got something more complete and effective.

Mix visual and written content together, and you’ve got something more complete and effective. Click To Tweet Give Context

Clever image use has been the crux of photojournalism. It’s storytelling using a picture: In one shot, you highlight different elements of prose, like a protagonist, an antagonist, the setting, a struggle, the climax, or any combination thereof. But those kinds of pictures are far and few between, and getting that perfect shot is a one-time opportunity. If you’re creating an image, sure, you can manipulate the details, but the best you can do is something akin to what a good photojournalist captures.

This is where words come in: to fill the logical gaps and missing details. They can help provide what you think the image lacks—the bigger picture, so to speak—or at least give enough information for you to come up with your own conclusion, especially when the topic is open-ended.

It can even change how you look at an image, depending on how you use your copy to frame the portrayal. Words can affect how visualized data is seen. And it also works the other way around.

Provide Deeper Meaning

Aside from context, texts can also enhance the emotions a picture solicits. They can give the moral in a picture of triumph and success; they can depict the suffering in an image of despair. They can provide hope or take it away. They can spark ideas and waken a passion deep within the reader.

Words have the power to make your piece more than it appears to be. A picture doesn’t speak for itself more than when you pair it with words, but words can express themselves in ways deeper than anyone can ever imagine. It’s beautiful how the right words can push the right buttons and make a piece describe itself in flawless dignity.

When done well, your post can reach farther through shares, especially with how much attention people put on social media platforms. That’s when you reach a new audience, eager to take in the information you provide. By then, your posts are also having the same effect on your new audience, and the cycle begins again: affect, share, repeat.

There’s more to writing than just stringing words together to tell a story, to persuade, to converse, or to express. The art goes deeper than that. For anyone who studied writing and is always working to improve their craft, relying solely on imagery can make your content sound—and look—nice, but there’s no substance to it if there’s no synchronization and harmony between the topic and the elements.

The same goes for visual content marketing. If your visual elements don’t work together, or don’t match well, then the least you risk is not being taken seriously; the worst is you turn away people who could have been potential leads.

Your copy isn’t just a bunch of words meant to fill a page with nonsensical gibberish. You crafted it because it’s meant to be read. You want it to be read. When you plan your visualization methods and processes around your text, you will see that those words are not just there; they are part of your content. They are an element of your design and your post. It’s not an either-or scenario where image and text are concerned; rather, strike the balance. Getting the best of both worlds is beneficial for you and your post. You just need to be smart on how to use both.

Get a weekly dose of the trends and insights you need to keep you ON top, from the strategy team at Convince & Convert. Sign up for the Convince & Convert ON email newsletter.

http://ift.tt/2pr6jhD

[maryhare96]

The Secret to Powerful Visual Content

Do you remember the last time you felt the warm grip of a good book that makes you want to read on, page after page? How great writers craft their masterpieces with seemingly simple words—or even using a few uncommon ones to describe an object, like using “vast” for “big” or “numerous” for “many”—is a skill that isn’t innate; it’s studied, practiced, polished, and continuously improved upon. It’s how masters of the craft make literature memorable.

What about the shorter pieces found online? No, not fanfiction (but if you find such pieces interesting, then good for you). Think about blogs that focus on travel, business, gaming, food, what have you. What makes you read those posts time and time again? Is it the topic or how it is written? Is it the wit, the humor, the seriousness, or the passion? Whatever the reason, you keep coming back to them.

The same is true for visual content marketing. When people like how you write your pieces or how you present your data, they will be anticipating your next post. Why? Because you pique and satisfy their interest and/or because you’ve mastered how to use your posts to their fullest potential. The bottom line is that visual content is not just about the pretty pictures; it’s also about the witty words, the terrific texts, and the crafty copy.

Words hold a power different from that of images, and vice versa. The best use of both is a balance of those abilities that can provide a multitude of effects on readers. But before you strike that middle ground, focus on your text first because it will give you many ideas on what to do after writing it. When crafted from the heart, great copy can accomplish many things, including those listed below.

Communicate with Readers

If images lack one thing, it’s words. An oft-cited cliché is that pictures are worth a thousand words, but what—and where—are the actual words? If anything, pictures bypass the text and appeal directly to a viewer, but there’s no substitute for the feeling of excitement as you go word by word, building up the tension and suspense and having that cathartic feeling when the piece is done.

The same goes for pieces that don’t fall within the categories of literature or journalism: With every bit of information you put out that readers take in, you give off the feeling that you’re talking to and with them. You’re presenting what you have in what could arguably be the clearest way possible. In essence, you’re directly communicating with them.

Think of it this way: Without text, it’s like you’re playing a combination of charades and Pictionary; without images, it’s like Wheel of Fortune. Mix those three together, and you’ve got something more complete and effective.

Mix visual and written content together, and you’ve got something more complete and effective. Click To Tweet Give Context

Clever image use has been the crux of photojournalism. It’s storytelling using a picture: In one shot, you highlight different elements of prose, like a protagonist, an antagonist, the setting, a struggle, the climax, or any combination thereof. But those kinds of pictures are far and few between, and getting that perfect shot is a one-time opportunity. If you’re creating an image, sure, you can manipulate the details, but the best you can do is something akin to what a good photojournalist captures.

This is where words come in: to fill the logical gaps and missing details. They can help provide what you think the image lacks—the bigger picture, so to speak—or at least give enough information for you to come up with your own conclusion, especially when the topic is open-ended.

It can even change how you look at an image, depending on how you use your copy to frame the portrayal. Words can affect how visualized data is seen. And it also works the other way around.

Provide Deeper Meaning

Aside from context, texts can also enhance the emotions a picture solicits. They can give the moral in a picture of triumph and success; they can depict the suffering in an image of despair. They can provide hope or take it away. They can spark ideas and waken a passion deep within the reader.

Words have the power to make your piece more than it appears to be. A picture doesn’t speak for itself more than when you pair it with words, but words can express themselves in ways deeper than anyone can ever imagine. It’s beautiful how the right words can push the right buttons and make a piece describe itself in flawless dignity.

When done well, your post can reach farther through shares, especially with how much attention people put on social media platforms. That’s when you reach a new audience, eager to take in the information you provide. By then, your posts are also having the same effect on your new audience, and the cycle begins again: affect, share, repeat.

There’s more to writing than just stringing words together to tell a story, to persuade, to converse, or to express. The art goes deeper than that. For anyone who studied writing and is always working to improve their craft, relying solely on imagery can make your content sound—and look—nice, but there’s no substance to it if there’s no synchronization and harmony between the topic and the elements.

The same goes for visual content marketing. If your visual elements don’t work together, or don’t match well, then the least you risk is not being taken seriously; the worst is you turn away people who could have been potential leads.

Your copy isn’t just a bunch of words meant to fill a page with nonsensical gibberish. You crafted it because it’s meant to be read. You want it to be read. When you plan your visualization methods and processes around your text, you will see that those words are not just there; they are part of your content. They are an element of your design and your post. It’s not an either-or scenario where image and text are concerned; rather, strike the balance. Getting the best of both worlds is beneficial for you and your post. You just need to be smart on how to use both.

Get a weekly dose of the trends and insights you need to keep you ON top, from the strategy team at Convince & Convert. Sign up for the Convince & Convert ON email newsletter.

http://ift.tt/2pr6jhD

[byronheeutgm]

The Secret to Powerful Visual Content

Do you remember the last time you felt the warm grip of a good book that makes you want to read on, page after page? How great writers craft their masterpieces with seemingly simple words—or even using a few uncommon ones to describe an object, like using “vast” for “big” or “numerous” for “many”—is a skill that isn’t innate; it’s studied, practiced, polished, and continuously improved upon. It’s how masters of the craft make literature memorable.

What about the shorter pieces found online? No, not fanfiction (but if you find such pieces interesting, then good for you). Think about blogs that focus on travel, business, gaming, food, what have you. What makes you read those posts time and time again? Is it the topic or how it is written? Is it the wit, the humor, the seriousness, or the passion? Whatever the reason, you keep coming back to them.

The same is true for visual content marketing. When people like how you write your pieces or how you present your data, they will be anticipating your next post. Why? Because you pique and satisfy their interest and/or because you’ve mastered how to use your posts to their fullest potential. The bottom line is that visual content is not just about the pretty pictures; it’s also about the witty words, the terrific texts, and the crafty copy.

Words hold a power different from that of images, and vice versa. The best use of both is a balance of those abilities that can provide a multitude of effects on readers. But before you strike that middle ground, focus on your text first because it will give you many ideas on what to do after writing it. When crafted from the heart, great copy can accomplish many things, including those listed below.

Communicate with Readers

If images lack one thing, it’s words. An oft-cited cliché is that pictures are worth a thousand words, but what—and where—are the actual words? If anything, pictures bypass the text and appeal directly to a viewer, but there’s no substitute for the feeling of excitement as you go word by word, building up the tension and suspense and having that cathartic feeling when the piece is done.

The same goes for pieces that don’t fall within the categories of literature or journalism: With every bit of information you put out that readers take in, you give off the feeling that you’re talking to and with them. You’re presenting what you have in what could arguably be the clearest way possible. In essence, you’re directly communicating with them.

Think of it this way: Without text, it’s like you’re playing a combination of charades and Pictionary; without images, it’s like Wheel of Fortune. Mix those three together, and you’ve got something more complete and effective.

Mix visual and written content together, and you’ve got something more complete and effective. Click To Tweet Give Context

Clever image use has been the crux of photojournalism. It’s storytelling using a picture: In one shot, you highlight different elements of prose, like a protagonist, an antagonist, the setting, a struggle, the climax, or any combination thereof. But those kinds of pictures are far and few between, and getting that perfect shot is a one-time opportunity. If you’re creating an image, sure, you can manipulate the details, but the best you can do is something akin to what a good photojournalist captures.

This is where words come in: to fill the logical gaps and missing details. They can help provide what you think the image lacks—the bigger picture, so to speak—or at least give enough information for you to come up with your own conclusion, especially when the topic is open-ended.

It can even change how you look at an image, depending on how you use your copy to frame the portrayal. Words can affect how visualized data is seen. And it also works the other way around.

Provide Deeper Meaning

Aside from context, texts can also enhance the emotions a picture solicits. They can give the moral in a picture of triumph and success; they can depict the suffering in an image of despair. They can provide hope or take it away. They can spark ideas and waken a passion deep within the reader.

Words have the power to make your piece more than it appears to be. A picture doesn’t speak for itself more than when you pair it with words, but words can express themselves in ways deeper than anyone can ever imagine. It’s beautiful how the right words can push the right buttons and make a piece describe itself in flawless dignity.

When done well, your post can reach farther through shares, especially with how much attention people put on social media platforms. That’s when you reach a new audience, eager to take in the information you provide. By then, your posts are also having the same effect on your new audience, and the cycle begins again: affect, share, repeat.

There’s more to writing than just stringing words together to tell a story, to persuade, to converse, or to express. The art goes deeper than that. For anyone who studied writing and is always working to improve their craft, relying solely on imagery can make your content sound—and look—nice, but there’s no substance to it if there’s no synchronization and harmony between the topic and the elements.

The same goes for visual content marketing. If your visual elements don’t work together, or don’t match well, then the least you risk is not being taken seriously; the worst is you turn away people who could have been potential leads.

Your copy isn’t just a bunch of words meant to fill a page with nonsensical gibberish. You crafted it because it’s meant to be read. You want it to be read. When you plan your visualization methods and processes around your text, you will see that those words are not just there; they are part of your content. They are an element of your design and your post. It’s not an either-or scenario where image and text are concerned; rather, strike the balance. Getting the best of both worlds is beneficial for you and your post. You just need to be smart on how to use both.

Get a weekly dose of the trends and insights you need to keep you ON top, from the strategy team at Convince & Convert. Sign up for the Convince & Convert ON email newsletter.

http://ift.tt/2pr6jhD