Artist Vs Artiste

Gzign in collaboration with Bedmate Furniture is bringing to you ARTISTE VS ARTIST. This is an exhibition that includes Music, Dance, ArtWorks and Sales.
Are you an Artiste or Artist and you are confident in your works then feel free to contact us today.
For enquires/participation call: 08063525577 or 08059806633

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Having a Business idea is the first step. Getting start is next.
This is where Gzign Concepts comes in. Get you Business idea started with the most creative way you can ever imagine.

Collaboration is all you need today.

Contact us

Contact us today: No, 10 Justice Mary Odili Street, off stadium road Port Harcourt.  08063535577,08059806633  
gzignconcepts@gmail.com

Do Your Marketing

Are you worried or confused on to carry out your Businees marketing task??
Have you lost you creativity on marketing?

Our Creative Desk is now open for you to call in and get Creative ideas on how to market your business. Feel very free to contact us now.

No, 10 Justice Mary Odili Street, off stadium road Port Harcourt. 08063535577,08059806633  

gzignconcepts@gmail.com

Design Concepts

Thoughts on Developing A Design Concept

by Steven Bradley

A good design begins with a good design concept. You’re trying to solve a problem and your concept will lead the way and give you direction for your design decisions. How do you form a concept? What questions do you need to ask in order to develop one? How does your concept become the roadmap for your design?

I want to attempt to answer the questions above as well as share how I go about forming a concept for a new design or redesign.

What is a Design Concept?

concept (n) – a general idea used to formulate a plan

A design concept is the idea behind a design. It’s how you plan on solving the design problem in front of you. It’s the underlying logic, thinking, and reasoning for how you’ll design a website.
Your concept will lead to your choices in color and type. It’ll choose your aesthetic and determine your grid. Every design decision you make will fall back on your concept for direction.
Your design concept becomes the framework for all your design decisions.
We can think of design concepts in two ways.

• Verbal – the verbal parts of your concept might be words you use to describe the site. For example your design concept might be one of sophisticated elegance. Verbal concepts tend toward the abstract. They’re focused on the message your design is to communicate.
• Visual – the visual parts of your concept might be a specific image or color scheme. It might be an idea to use circles prominently. Visual concepts tend to be a little more concrete. They should come from the verbal part of your concept. Visual concepts are focused more on the how of conveying your message.

Typically I begin forming a concept verbally (a process I’ll describe below). At times, though, a concept comes to me visually. I may see an image in my mind for part of the site or the colors I want to use come in a flash. This usually happens after I have done some verbal conceptualizing, though before writing it down.
Generally verbal concepts come before visual concepts as the visual is really about how you’ll communicate the verbal, though it likely depends on the individual and how you think best.

What to do Before Creating a Design Concept

Developing a design concept is something of an individual process. There’s no one right way to generate an idea and what works for one won’t necessarily work for another. However there are parts to the process that everyone should go through.

• Defining the problem – You can’t solve a problem without knowing what that problem is. Before developing a concept for a site you need to talk to your client and ask questions about the client’s brand, their customers, their general market, and their goals for the site.
• Research – Your client won’t be able to tell you everything you want to know. You’ll have to do your own research into their industry looking at competing sites and trying to understand more about their market.

Both of the above should get you thinking and begin the idea generation process. The next part is up to you. I mentioned a few ways you can gather inspiration and generate ideas last week, so I won’t list them again here.
Instead I’ll offer some of the questions you should be asking yourself and your client.

• What is your client’s brand?
• Who are your client’s customers?
• What are the requirements for the site?
• What is the objective of the site?
• What’s the budget for the project?

The answers to each of the above should give you ideas for your design concept.

For example Rolls Royce and Volkswagen have two different brands with different types of customers. The goals of their respective sites might be the same in some places (to sell cars) and different in others (history of the car vs technical specs). Knowing these things should start to point you toward a concept for either site.
The list of questions above is hardly an exhaustive list. You should be asking as many questions as you can in order to understand as much as possible about your client, your client’s business, their customers, and what they want from the site.
When researching the client’s industry you should be asking yourself some questions as well.

• What is consistent across sites in the industry?
• What part of the market is being underserved?
• What are your client’s unique selling points?
• What kind of imagery, copy, etc. resonates with the market?
• What other interests does the market have in common?

Again not an exhaustive list, but hopefully enough to get you thinking of your own questions to ask. Your goal, as with the questions you ask your client, is to learn as much as you can about your client’s business, this time in comparison to the competition.

My Process For Creating a Concept

My process always begins with the 2 items mentioned above, asking questions of the client and researching the industry.
When talking with clients I’m always listening for the words they use to describe their business and their customers. They won’t always give you these words by directly asking for them, but there are other ways to get the information from them.

• Ask indirect questions – Your clients will often reveal things about themselves and their businesses when talking about other things.
• Listen actively – Sometimes the information you want is between the lines and you’ll have to listen actively for it.
• Get to know your clients as people – The more you know them outside their business the better you’ll know their business
• Speak their language – Stay away from industry jargon and use the words your clients use.

I’m always looking for descriptive words like elegant, affordable, friendly, dynamic. Abstract words that convey meaning about the client’s brand. I’ll jot these words down while we’re talking and think more about them later. These words help form the verbal concept for the site’s design.
Again you have to be prepared to listen. The words you’re looking for are often not going to come in response to a direct question.
When researching the industry I’ll keep the same words in mind and look for others. I’ll look at how the industry as a whole describes itself and in what way(s) my client stands apart from the competition. Both lead to more words that will possibly serve as part of the abstract concept for the design.
Usually after talking to the client and researching the industry I’m filled with ideas. I’m not sure which concept will work best, but the ideas are there. Once they are I prefer to then stay away from consciously thinking about the design for a time. The design will pop into my mind here or there and when it does I’ll let it, but at this stage I’m not sitting down to design. I’m letting the concept form in my subconscious.

During this time visual concepts come to mind. I’ll see an idea for what the layout might be or maybe something more specific like a color or an image.
For example years ago I was designing a site for a virtual assistant and an image of a file cabinet serving as a list of menu choices popped into my mind. It eventually became part of the visual concept for the site and led the way in the rest of the design.
After a few days I know I’m ready and I’ll sit down and start sketching different visual concepts for the design always keeping the few words that serve as the abstract concept in mind.
Visually I’m trying to come up with ideas for things like:

• Style/motiff
• Color Schemes
• Textures
• Shapes
• Layout

Again each of these is led by the abstract words that have become part of the verbal concept. One design might call for sharp angular shapes while another might call for soft rounded shapes for example.
One thing I haven’t tried, but you may find helpful is to create a mood board. The link will lead you to a video explaining how to create one. If you’re unfamiliar with them they’re basically a collection of thoughts, possible layouts, and sources of inspiration you’ll use to design the site. They serve as a document for yourself or the client detailing the concept you have for the site.

How Concept Leads Design

I’ve said it a few times throughout this post that my concept often comes from a few descriptive words. Those words are what I want people to think and feel when visiting the site. It’s part of the experience I want them to have.
In order to do that every design element needs to be working in harmony with the concept. Every element needs to be communicating the same message. They all need to be in harmony with your concept.
It’s in the trying to create unity and harmony that your concept leads the design. If your concept is one of luxury and formal elegance you know right away they you need to use more whitespace to suggest luxury. It suggests certain color schemes, like black and red and perhaps more symmetry to convey formality.
You might have a great new grunge brush you want to explore, but it wouldn’t belong on this site since it wouldn’t fit the concept.
Your concept will show you where to go with specific design decisions. It’s the roadmap you come back to again and again through the design process. If something isn’t working it’s probably because it doesn’t fit the concept. If nothing is working you might want to explore a different concept.

Summary

The best designs start with a great concept. It’s your idea for how you’ll solve the problem of communicating your client’s message. While there is no one way to develop a concept the first necessary step is gathering information.
You gather information by asking your client as many questions as you can and listening to the answers on and in between the lines. You also gather information through your own research of your client’s industry, products, services, and market. The more information you have the better you’ll be able to create different concepts for the design.
You’ll develop concepts verbally and visually. The former helps determine the message you’ll convey and the latter helps determine how you’ll convey that message. Both are important roadmaps for your design decisions.
Often you’ll find that getting away from actively developing a concept and letting your subconscious work on the problem leads to the best results.
How do you come up with concepts for a new design? Do you have a specific process you go through or do you wait for inspiration to find you?

Advantages & Disadvantages of Information & Communication Technology

by Andy Walton, Demand Media

ICT encompasses phone and mobile technology as well as computers.

Information and communication technology is a vast field encompassing virtually all technologies that can store, receive or transmit signals electronically. With electronic devices so tightly wound into the fabric of modern society, the advantages and disadvantages of ICT use may not be immediately apparent. Taking a fresh look at these pros and cons helps to give perspective on the ways ICT affects you and your business.

New Communication Methods

ICT has opened up a wide range of new communication methods, allowing you to contact others for less money and over greater distances than ever before. Technologies such as texting, instant messaging and video conferencing allow users to communicate instantaneously with people across the world for a nominal fee, a concept which may have seemed ludicrous before the advent of computers. In addition, text-based computer communication can give those with speech or social problems a level playing field to communicate with their peers.

New Industries

As well as providing a boost to existing industries such as manufacturing and shipping, heavy adoption of ICT has spawned new industries all of its own. Programmers, systems analysts and Web designers all owe their jobs to ICT, as do the people involved in secondary industries such as technology training and recruitment. However, the increased efficiency and automation brought about by ICT can also cause job losses, especially in manual roles and the manufacturing sector.

Body Language

Communication through voice chat or instant messaging does not take body language into account. Non-verbal cues are a vital part of the way humans communicate, with researcher Albert Mehrabian calculating that 55 percent of the message pertaining to feelings and attitudes portrayed by people is in facial expression alone. As such, there is an increased chance that your message will be misunderstood if you are not engaged in face-to-face dialog with the person you are talking to.

Security Issues

ICT provides a range of ways for fraudsters to gain access to your personal details, which could result in you or your business losing money and reputation. Technologies such as online banking mean that with the right security information a third party could impersonate you and gain access to your finances remotely. This is in stark contrast to the pre-ICT era, when frauds would have needed to convince another person (for example, a bank teller or phone operator) that they were you in order to access your money.

Advantages of Information Technology in Business

What Are the Advantages of Information Technology in Business?

by Kyra Sheahan, Demand Media

Thanks to information technology, you can plug into your company's internal network and work remotely.

Information technology (IT) benefits the business world by allowing organizations to work more efficiently and to maximize productivity. Faster communication, electronic storage and the protection of records are advantages that IT can have on your enterprise. Information technology has to do with computer applications, on which nearly every work environment is dependent. Since computerized systems are so widely used, it is advantageous to incorporate information technology into your organization.

Storing and Protecting Information

Information technology creates electronic storage systems to protect your company's valuable records. According to the Graziadio Business Report, published by Pepperdine University, secure maintenance of customer and patient files is vital to business integrity. Storage systems, such as virtual vaults, keep information safe by only allowing certain users within your company to access, withdraw, add or change the documents. According to an article in Science Daily, IT security engineering systems protect your electronic information from being hacked, or wiped out during a technological disaster. Electronic security engineering means your valuable records will remain untouchable.

Automated Processes

In business, people look for ways to do more work in a shorter amount of time. A November 2000 newsletter published by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco explains that information technology improves your company's efficiency by developing automated processes to take burden off your staff. In turn, your employees are free to work on other things while the computer runs their reports, creates queries, tracks projects and monitors financials.

Work Remotely

IT systems give you remote access to your company’s electronic network, so that you can work from home or on the road. This accessibility allows you to increase your productivity because you can still get work done, even when you aren’t physically in the office.

Communication

Communication is essential to the business world, and information technology gives your company the resources it needs to communicate quickly and effectively. Your IT department can hook your employees up with email, video conferencing equipment and internal chat rooms, so that they always have an efficient way to conduct business and communicate.

60+ Creative Marketing Ideas for Small Business

If you’re a small business or new startup, you don’t have money to waste on expensive advertising like your bigger competitors can. To compete on the same level but with a smaller budget, you have to market smarter.
Start by brainstorming with your business partners and connections to come up with several cheap outside-the-box marketing tricks.
This method produces ideas that are tailor-made for your business and already incorporate your key values and message.

60+ Creative Marketing Ideas For Small Businesses.Then, if you’re really feeling stumped for ideas, consider these

1. Create relevant content on your website. Blog categories or an on-site article directory are excellent for this.  Fresh and helpful content helps engage readers, build valuable links, attract leads and convert them to new sales.
2. Publish articles in trade or local magazines. Most people think published work is more valuable than a simple blog post, and articles cost less than advertising in the same magazine.
3. Reuse content. If you have great content but no one is consuming it, repurpose it. Blog posts can be collated into an ebook, a webinar recording could become a subscriber-only video, a magazine article could be reprinted and distributed as a booklet...the possibilities are endless.
4. Try article marketing. Publishing articles online creates good backlinks to your website, shows expertise, builds credibility, and more. It’s also relatively affordable and easy to outsource.
5. Write a book or ebook. Books have more value than most other types of content and establish your expertise. You can sell them or offer them for free in exchange for email addresses.
6. Sponsor a local sports team. Send out a press release or feature article and get your logo on the team uniforms. This makes you a valuable community member and builds awareness.
7. Speak at seminars and teach workshops. You’ll get publicity from marketing the event and from the event itself. Besides, you’ll look more professional in your customers’ eyes.
8. Enter business award competitions. If you win, you get a badge on your website and a lot more sales. Even if you don’t win, you can still get lots of publicity if you place high enough and broadcast your participation.
9. Create your own business award competition. If there isn’t a competition in your industry or there’s no way you can compete in one, hosting your own unique competition creates buzz as other businesses scramble to win your award.
10. Host free events. Reporters are always looking for a good story. Give them what they want and get some free publicity by hosting a free event. You’ll get more response if there’s food or freebies involved. Use this list of 109 ways to get media attention to make the most of any event.
11. Network at your local Chamber of Commerce. This is a classic marketing idea for small businesses because it can yield big dividends. Association with the Chamber will make your events more credible, and you can find new partners or clients, or discover opportunities to teach or speak.
12. Join associations and use the provided resources, including local networking events, online forums, and job boards. The more people you know, the more customers you will have.
13. Build a referral network. Referrals and word of mouth are the most powerful advertising, so build relationships with professionals and other businesses you would happily refer your customers to--and who can send referrals your way, as well.

14. Make partnerships for co-promotion. Several related but non-competing businesses working together on a promotion can afford bigger ad space, better prizes, and other advertising expenses.
15. Be a people person. Never stop networking, follow all leads, and participate in conversations wherever you find them. Don’t be afraid of the phone, internet, email, or face-to-face meetings.
16. Send handwritten holiday, birthday, or thank you cards to past and current clients, valued partners, vendors in your referral network, connections who have helped you--everyone you can think of. This is a low-cost and unique marketing idea for small business, but many entrepreneurs have reported its effectiveness.
17. Open as many communication channels as appropriate, including but not limited to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, a toll-free phone number, live chat on your website, email, and related forums and blog comments.
18. Donate to charities. Send out press releases for each organization and/or time you donate. Alternatively, you can donate a specific percentage of all sales to a certain organization or cause and make customers feel like they’re doing a good turn by purchasing from you.
19. Survey your customers for great ideas. Listen to what they’re saying on Twitter and Facebook for honest market research.
20. Be where your competition is not. Get more leads as the only major player.
21. Be everywhere. Having a blog, YouTube channel, and podcast on iTunes in addition to social media makes you more well known and credible. Expand beyond your website to get more traffic and leads.
22. Setup an affiliate program. You get more sales and brand ambassadors for less.
23. Create a customer loyalty program to encourage future purchases and referrals.
24. Use bumper stickers and window decals. In addition to putting on them company vehicles and owners’ cars, give them for free to employees, partners, stakeholders and investors, charities you donate to, and other contacts to display.
25. Ask for testimonials and reviews. This includes online reviews on websites like Yelp, recommendations on LinkedIn, and rave comments through any channel. Create a testimonials page on your website and use the best reviews in as many promotions as makes sense.
26. Answer questions on forums and answer sites. Help out people with free advice on topics related to your products and services.  You'll gain their trust and will look more professional.
27. Create customer case studies. Ask your happy customers to share their experience of using your product or service. These stories add credibility to your company and help you get more customers.
28. Ask your customers for referrals. Beat your shyness. Simply ask - and you'll receive.
29. Post your company offers on coupon and deal sites. People love special offers and discounts. Getting a great product at an excellent price is what everybody wants.
30. Offer free consultations. Free consultations are a great way to showcase your expertise and get more clients.
31. Optimize your website for mobile. With 60% of global mobile consumers - your website simply must be mobile friendly.
32. List your business in local business directories. Google My Business from Google and Bing Places for Google from Bing are absolutely free for local businesses, while Yahoo Localworks from Yahoo is a paid service allowing to list your business in 50 directories (Yahoo Local, Yelp, WhitePages, Bing, Mapquest, etc.). Once you’re listed, start taking advantage of local search results, and don’t forget to ask you customers to leave reviews on your page.
33. Imprint company logo on hats and T-shirts. Your loyal customers will be happy to wear them, and will become free brand promoters.
34. Exceed your customer expectations. Reputation is everything these days. By exceeding your customer expectations and walking that extra mile - you’ll drive more business.
35. Translate your website to multiple languages. The Western world is a multi-national community. Having a website in customer's local language will help you build better relations with your clients.
36. Celebrate your company birthday with customers and the media. Use the opportunity to deliver a special message to your clients.

37. Educate customers about your products. Print out brochures, set up a blog to get your message across.
38. Use voice mail and autoresponder to let your customers know about your special offers. It's a great way to get your message across during closed hours. It won't cost you a penny!
39. Survey your customers for great ideas. Talking to your customers is the easiest way to understand what they need and what they value the most.
40. Say "Happy Birthday" to your clients. Have a discount or a special offer ready to give as a gift. It works!
41. Share product samples with as many people as you can. You will attract the right customers who are right for your business.
42. Collect customer emails. Offer your customers an eBook or a free report in exchange for their email address. Emails campaigns are a great way to stay in touch with your customers.
43. Update your website regularly. Google loves websites with quality and recent articles. You'll be getting more traffic from search.
44. Respond to customers within minutes. How fast is your competition? You can gain more business by simply responding fast to questions your customers have.
45. Go local. Local search engine optimization works perfectly for location specific business. Are you a cafe or a beauty salon? Make sure your website is optimized for local seo.
46. Add Schema.org markup to your website key data. Google can show much more than your website URL in search results. Reviews, ratings, exact address - all of it can show up in search engine results if your website HTML is marked properly. More data in search results = more clicks and traffic.
47. Offer great customer service. Delight your customers and they will delight you with more business.
48. Set up a PPC campaign. In most cases you can get a free $50 voucher from Bing or Google. If competition is not fierce - you'll be driving more sales soon.
49. Create infographics for your website. They are very powerful for building external links to your website and driving traffic.
50. Join groups on LinkedIn. It's not just another social network. LinkedIn has great groups - whether it's cooking or B2B marketing - your audience is there. Go get them!

51. Answer questions on Quora. Quora is the most popular question and answer based social network. Want to showcase your professional competence? Join Quora and answer questions as often as you can. Quora is great for targeted traffic and interested audience.

52. Host a class. You can host a class for your customers. It's best to organize it with businesses just like yours, who have the same target audience, but do not directly compete with you. You'll get exposure for free.
53. Join Help a Reporter Out. HARO is a free way to get media coverage. Register as an expert source on HARO and whenever a journalist needs a quality source for an article - you'll get an email. Reply if interested - and who know - maybe it's time for your business to be features in New York Times.
54. Do guest blogging. Guest blogging is a great white-hat SEO method that helps you get links and traffic. You give away quality content and get exposure in return. Quality backlinks coming to your website is a free bonus!
55. Comment on other blogs. Meaningful comments on other websites will get you traffic, free links, and new friends. Just remember - be meaningful and relevant. And yes - websites have to be in the same industry/serving the same audience.

56. Claim your online business listings. There are hundreds of websites out there that contain your business information. Claim your business online and enjoy better rankings in Google, greater visibility, and more traffic.
57. Create a giveaway. Please, be creative. You want to give away something cool your customers want and need rather then something you don't need.
58. Support a cause. World is a small place after all. By supporting meaningful projects you can also get free media exposure. Usually there are also taxation benefits for charity and donations as well.
59. Join a forum. There are lots on niche forums out there. Whether it's gardening, fishing or cooking niche - there is a community for it. Participate in relevant discussions - your audience is out there. You'll get free traffic and free links.
60. Be helpful. Strive to help people. The more you give - the more you get. Think win-win, do your best to help people around you.
61. Create value. Invest your time and energy in building a great product that creates value for your customers. If you manage do that - the product will be selling itself.

If you have a great idea for smart, affordable marketing, please share it in the comments below!

Created by Christina Walker


What creative marketing ideas for small business have you tried?If you’re looking for more creative marketing ideas for SMBs and entrepreneurs. Contact us: +2347030135350, +2348063525577