I was watching tv and flipped to the Judge Alex Show with a case already in progress. The case seem to be was between some kind of print company and a designer. The designer owed the company money but had a separate deal to create some logos for a group school sports teams. The designer point was that he didn't owe them money because he hadn't been paid for the 30 logos at $140 each. The company said they would never pay that much for logos especially when they could get the logos for FREE by searching for the artwork online. And that the logo banner only sell for $75 each. They then admitted to using around 8 of the logos.

The judge sided with the company since the designer  admitted to owing them money but didn't have a written contract about the logos. This really upset me because the judge totally ignored copyright law. If the designer didn't have written contract on the price of each logo, the company also didn't have written waver of the designers copyrights. They admitted to using several of the logos and to have the others that they could use at any time.

I say to the designer get proof of the logos they used sue their buts for copyright infringement. Taking a percentage of their profits from said sales.  Am I wrong to be angry? We designers have to look out for each other.

I believe this was, Season 7 Episode 48

Volusion Changes

If you haven't already noticed, Volusion is making some changes. Exciting I know. One of these changes was to the product page. A page that is long over due for some upgrading if you ask me. The recent history section has had some changes, some good some not so good. One change is including product thumbnails, this was a great upgrade. But the another change was the placement of history off/on buttons. The new position next to the heading graphic can potentially cause some alignment issues for existing stores. If your heading graphic is too long then it will push content out of the frame. Causing your backhround graphic to repeat. When this issue was brought to "V's" attention. They decided that they were not going switch the buttons position back to the bottom. So check your product pages for anymore changes and for wonky alignment. There might be a new heading graphic in your future.

Blah Banners

Is your storefronts homepage looking a little hohum? And your wanting to livin it up with some new banners? Consider using icons to add some interest. Icons can come in large formats of 254x254 pixels, and be quality mini illustrstions. Perfect for the adverage size banner. The best part is many of these icons are FREE! So check out an icon factory the next time you have sale banner to be made.

Keep It Simple Stupid...KISS!

As I sit here working on remodeling a site I did awhile ago, I am reminded of K.I.S.S. Sometimes simple and clean is the best way to go. Leave all the tricks and hype behind and create a clean design. One that speaks for itself and to the viewers. Well back to the drawing board and remember to KISS the designer.

Volusion & Mobil Combatiblity. Most of us are rocking cell phones with internet access. Which for you store owners mean more chances for people to shop. Well if you are worried what your new custom designed store front will look like on those little cell phone screens then worry no more. From my experience if your designer has done good job then your site will look great. It just requires a little more left to right scrolling. If thats an issue, you can also have your designer create a custom mobil version of your store front. Thanks to Volusion now supporting mobil sites. So take a look at your store on your phone and decide for yourself if you want a mobil template.

It been some time since the Studio as posted, we have been extremely busy making the world a prettier place. We have felt its time to give a brief update on what we are doing and what the future is for us.

The Studio has been successful designing Volusion E-Commerce template solutions. Over the years we have done numerous Volusion sites and continue to be prolific in this field. Currently we are working on several such projects, including a custom bicycle parts site and a laptop battery site. We recently finish MKMdesigns.net a retail site for fine art prints for a conceptual artist Marcia K. Moore.

Another project we have created is for a portable generator store, Peak Power Tools


We also recently worked with the largest glass tile retail company, Glass Tile Store. We designed for them a clean modern site that looks like its floating on glass.

Most recently we were asked by a long standing client, Big Time Wireless to refresh the design we did for them a few years ago. We where only to happy to comply, while keeping the over all feel of the original design we feel we brought the site to a new level.

The Studio, has been doing very well, and it is time to expand. I am looking for interns to help with the transition as well as some design work. Since we are a virtual design studio, a regular intern program might not work. Interns will need to work in their home office and have access to high-speed Internet connection as well as the necessary design software. I can promise plenty of real world experiences will be had.

We are also going to updating our image, as design studio we should do this often to show our talent to the consumer. Fortunately for us we have been so busy with clients we haven't had the time to take care of our site.

Hopefully with these additions, we will be able to keep on exploring the ever changing face of aBLANK Studio.

Coming Soon... Updates on recent completed client projects!