ARK Squared Productions

As a graphic designer AND web designer one thing that I often find frustrating is making a site look really cool and making sure it’s as SEO (Search Engine Optimization) friendly as possible. One of the biggest ways that I’ve felt constrained often is by what fonts that I can use. I mean, sure, I could use whatever font I want really and I’m sure it would look good to my eyes, but what if a potential customer of one of my clients goes to their site and they don’t have that same really cool font on their computer? Then the font gets substituted and likely does not look as cool and perhaps some alignment may also be off. So a no-go generally for cool fonts.

With the big buzz about Social Media now a days everyone is trying to get on board, whether they want to or not! Well there are some great tools out there that can make things easier for you whether the thought of Social Media makes your head spin or if you consider yourself a well seasoned expert. We’ve talked before about linking social media, and in there we briefly talked about social media managing tools, but I wanted to expand on that thought a bit more.

Had a casual meeting with a business associate today and one of the topics of conversation that we spent some time on prompted me to write a blog post. We were talking about how demanding it can be to be a small business person and lead a normal life at the same time and how tempting it can be at times to just be a hermit and spend hours alone in your office with your computer. “But I’m working!” Is often the excuse, but if you spend all your time in your office how do you intend to grow your client base? Keeping yourself stuck at the office or a home office can keep you stuck in a rut – or more likely, stuck in a downhill slide!

Hello everyone! We are happy to announce our new website! We’ve officially joined the WordPress community now with more than just our blog – our whole site is now WordPress. We’ve talked before about the many advantages to using Content Management Systems, and now we’re doing it too.

One of the best times of year to get some easy networking done is Christmas – or any holiday people gather for that matter. Either you’re spending time with the ones that you love and care about or the flipside of the coin, you can end up going to tons of different parties that give you a great opportunity to network with people that you haven’t met before. Both are great situations for growing your business and thinking about networking!

One of the biggest mistakes that I see when networking is the Sales Guy that goes around the room trying to get everyone to buy his product right now, that’s not what it’s about. I’ve talked about Networking Do’s and Don’ts in the past, and one of the points that I’d like to expand on is one of the don’ts “Sell, Sell, Sell”.

With the upcoming BC Municipal Elections this Saturday we thought we’d take a bit of time to highlight something that so many people miss out on. One thing that we’ve always been active in is voting. With so many people in the world not allowed this democratic right it’s the least one can do! And besides, how can voting be the voice of the people if so many people are not voting? All it takes is you, and your id, going to a local polling station and putting your ‘x’ where needed and there you go! The action of voting is not a large time commitment.

While thinking of what to write for a blog this week one of the things that I thought of is “what are some things that really drive me nuts as a designer?” and a few things started running through my head – so here’s a summary of what they are and easy ways for you […]

I’m always trying to think of useful things to share for those designing their websites – be that a do-it-yourself-er small business owner or an experienced web designer, and I thought I would share 7 of the tools that I find useful for web design…

There are many more benefits to a good CMS, the ones mentioned in my previous post about Why Use a CMS are just a few of the ones that I generally highlight to my clients or contacts. A very important thing to keep in mind though is that not all CMS’ were created equal! Some are very easy to use, some are near impossible to use and negate many of the points mentioned above.