Budding entrepreneur Scott Sussman and Graphic Designer Ron Bercume are delighted to announce the BETA launch of ILiveWithADisability.com (ILWAD.com).

Together they have taken on the fundamental development of the first social networking platform for people with disabilities and their families in 2010. ILWAD.com offers a safe and friendly atmosphere, which provides for a dynamic online support community with the best that both Facebook and Twitter have to offer.

ILWAD.com is the first social networking platform of its kind, empowering the people with disabilities and their loved ones with the tools and resources they need to live a happy and fulfilling life. Unlike mainstream society, at ILWAD.com you are not defined by the limitations of your disability, rather you are defined by what you continue to overcome.

The first RonBercume.com Short Film

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZUmX_yGMDM)

Sussman was diagnosed with Spastic Diplegia, which is a subset of Cerebral Palsy that only affects his lower extremities. As the unveiling of ILWAD.com shows, Sussman does not let his disability hold him back. Growing up Sussman did the best he could to live a normal life, attending the prestigious Hun School of Princeton, where he played three sports: weightlifting, swimming, and rowing. Sussman continued on to the University of Miami where he studied Marketing and Sports Administration.

ILWAD.com offers all of the benefits of larger social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, but in a controlled, monitored, and honest setting. Sussman’s platform offers a place for people with disabilities and their loved ones to discuss sensitive issues that only other members with similar issues could relate with. The online community provides an avenue for self-expression, in which members can share success stories, brainstorm solutions to problems that they face, and share their battle for everlasting happiness.

Registration and membership is open to the general public; however, the community targets people with disabilities, their families, and supporters.

ILWAD.com is the culmination of Sussman’s willingness to fight and overcome the many obstacles society has thrown his way. ILWAD.com serves as a support group, social community, and exchange of free ideas. Sussman believes every American, despite their physical appearance or mental capacity, should have the respect and dignity they deserve.

Media interested in setting up an interview with Scott Sussman or Ron Bercume should contact the RonBercume.com studio at  (518) 524-8719 or ronbercume{at}ronbercume.com.

During an interview for Relix magazine, guitarist Al Schnier was asked to describe moe.

“For those who have never heard their music: “It’s an amalgamation of a wide variety of the history of rock, all regurgitated and recycled through the eyes, ears, hands, whatever of the guys in our band and all of that with a sense of adventure, a sense of humor, also a constant desire to push the envelope. All in this arena of taking chances, improvising live, and making things up on the spot.”

Their musical journey started during the 80′s in Buffalo, New York, and they have now accumulated a rather large following of fans (often referred to as “moe.rons”). The band has changed up band members throughout the years, but in 1999, moe. officially became Al Schnier, Chuck Garvey, Rob Derhak, Vinnie Amico, and Jim Loughlin. They have created about 14 studio albums, a few self releases. Al Schnier also formed a side project band called Al and the Transamericans, which happens to be another band Ron has created a poster design for.

On Tuesday, June 29th, moe. appeared live at The Waterhole in Saranac Lake, New York.

The poster design for the Waterhole show features a photograph of the band containing warm colors and an almost sepia tone. These browns and tans were repeated through the rest of the design in the form of illustrations and textures which give the poster an almost-grungy yet natural feeling. At the top of the poster is the largest element, the band name “moe.”, in stark white. This treatment drives home the fact that moe. as a band is popular enough to need no introduction… Merely seeing the name will pack any venue with legions of devote fans instantly.

With a name as unusual as “moe.” with it’s always lowercase first letter “m” and a period at the end, the band has had some fun creating festival names. The 1999 New Year’s festival was dubbed “moe.lennium”, the band hosts an annual festival at Snow Ridge Ski Area in Turin, NY called “moe.down”, and to kick off the Adirondack Almost Springfest celebration in Lake Placid, NY, the band hosted “snoe.down”.

Aside from playing music for sheer enjoyment, the band also takes part in a variety of fund-raising efforts, including performing shows for tsunami relief, autism, and world hunger. These shows, in conjunction with other participating artists, have raised thousands of dollars.

Google in another life was a search engine project called “BackRub”, created by Larry and Sergey in 1996.

On May 6, 2010, and for the first time since 1999, Google redesigned their corporate logo – some people may not have even noticed. While the logo was due for a makeover, the new design reaks of a reluctant conformity to web 2.0 stylistic movements in design that are being fueled by mobile media and the blogosphere. Love it or hate it, Google’s logo transformation is a classic example of how companies can subtly refresh their brand without sacrificing their corporate identity.

The revitalized logo takes advantage of a cleaner and crisper logotype. By removing the drop shadow, a bastardized gestalt variable is defunct – resulting in more vibrant colors with the help of a couple tiny tweaks to a modern palette. Among the changes, Google removed the Trademark™ symbol from the logo and substantially reduced the outer and inner shadow stereotypical of the over-used and abused Photoshop dropshadows of the 90’s. The new logo reduces distractions within the primary viewing area and improves readability by using defined edges and vivid colors that are burned into our subconscious and have been for years now.

A Logo For Every Occasion

Over the years, Google’s logo celebrates and mourns national and International events. The special logos are referred to as “Doodles” and honor victims of tragedy, celebrate our heritage, and recognize current events. Google celebrates lesser-known holidays as well, such as Lego’s 50th Anniversary, when the company constructed the word “Google” out of Lego blocks. Most recently, Google created an interactive logo that served as a PacMan game, in remembrance of its 30th birthday.

According to analysts, users spent 4.8 million hours playing the arcade classic on the Google homepage, which cost the economy over $120 million in lost revenue.

Google emerged as the search engine authority in the late 1990s; however, its popularity exploded during the dot com boom, becoming an international icon for Internet search. According to InterBrand, an international brand consultancy firm, Google is the tenth most popular global brand, trailing Disney, McDonalds, and Intel. Analysts predict Google’s brand is valued at over $150 billion, which is expected to increase as the company expands its operations. Google’s net worth shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, as the search engine executed a majority of all search queries on the Internet in May 2010.

The Face Behind the Original Google Logo

Ruth Kedar designed the current Google Pop logo, which is based off of the Catull typeface. In addition to designing the Google logo, Kedar was one of the original founders of Art.net and was instrumental in the development of Adobe System’s Analog Deck and Duolog Deck logos.

Ron announces obeyyourlogo.com.

Logo design exists at the intersection of pure creativity and hard-nosed business. Identity is used to communicate brand integrity and to unify a message, taking advantage of both print and web systems. Your logo and core stationery are the foundation of your print system, used to tie together identity and to create marketable collaterals for everyday use.

10 Years, Hundreds of Projects

Ronald pursues a specialized agenda within the creative services sector, collaborating with his clients to maintain aggressive branding efforts. With the resources to execute full-blown corporate campaigns to imaginative logo design, he is personally involved in all stages of the process. Ron has officially announced ObeyYourLogo.com to make our specialized services available to a wider audience for the first time.

Obey Your Designer?

ObeyYourLogo.com is the second “Obey” special project ( ObeyYourPoster.com being the first ) published in anticipation of Ron’s biography “Obey Your Designer“. The biography is due for publishing later this year, and will be available in bookstores, Amazon and RonBercume.com. You can reserve a publisher’s pre-release copy once available by visiting ObeyYourDesigner.com.

Even the best graphic designer can’t clean up an oil spill, or save a negligent corporation.

Almost 2 months since BP’s riser pipe decided to spew millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the busted pipe continues to gush like a stuck pig.

Scientists, government officials, and various other types of experts have yet to find a solution, just as BP has failed to find a band-aid big enough to cover up this environmental (and PR) disaster. How will they fix the pipe? Who’s going to clean up the oil? Is my seafood safe to eat? With exception to special interests and lobbying groups, has anyone asked the dolphins about their feelings on this catastrophe? And how exactly does this relate to graphic design?

As graphic designers, we sometimes have clients come to us with “oil spills” in hopes that we can wave our magic wand and make the problems go away with the clone tool (that’s a photoshop pun for those who are not designers). Well, no matter how much of a rock star graphic designer you think you are, there are some messes that you can’t clean up. There are also some messes you shouldn’t even think about touching, or just like the oil clinging to our feathered Gulf victims, you’ll have a greasy mess that follows you around and drags down your career with the potential to hurt millions or billions of people.

If you haven’t followed me through the multiple oil slick metaphors, I’m talking about ethics in design. The subject is a big deal in a consumer societies, rivaling that of war time propaganda and it’s cultural effects on the lives of ordinary people.

Sometimes, we starving graphic designers have to make a decision between a paycheck and keeping our morals intact.

No one wants to have the millions of deaths caused by cigarettes on their conscience, so why would you use your graphic design skills to create ads for a cigarette company? Sure, you’re not handing that 17 year old kid a lighter, but you would be creating the ad that may entice them to pick up their first pack (which leads 50 years of puffing on those addictive tobacco products, then one day there is nasty cough followed by bad news and a hospital bed. Feeling guilty yet?). I’m sure you can think of at least a dozen industries within 60 seconds that have a major global impact on people, in a not-so-good fashion.

BP currently has its site redirecting at the time of this commentary to a “Gulf of Mexico Response” page that shows updates on how they are dealing with the already out-of-control situation. There are even detailed illustrations of their various efforts to plug the hole that have magically changed week to week, deadline to deadline ( I am assuming modified by a very frustrated graphic designer ).

But you know what?

When this is finally over, and the leak has stopped, and the sea animals are no longer being poisoned after 200 years… people are not going to say, “Remember when BP put up that nice website page that showed us how they were fixing the worst oil leak ever? That was wonderful!” Oh no, it’s much too late for that. If BP even survives the mess they’ve made, people will forever remember them as the jerks who put a smile on while protecting their own special interests ( to put that nicely ) with the monstrous oil leak that hurt the cute dolphins and messed up their precious beaches. You can’t fix that. So if you’re a graphic designer, consider carefully the next client you take on and the consequences of the part you play. Graphic design in modern culture is the front-line catalyst providing for access to the visual and emotional human experience.

Chose your clients carefully. Are they BP, Hugh Hefner or even the Marlborough Man? Don’t be a dolphin killer….

Are they someone you can truly create a message for that inspires positive change in the world, or are they asking you to clean up their oil spill? Self sacrifice does pay off when you can sleep at night and live your life with compassion and thoughtfulness!

Entertain this: The problem is not that the government did not have enough regulation in place. Any government east or west cannot do everything and should not be expected to in my opinion – specifically a government run by the people, as flawed as we all are. The problem is not that good people do not exist within the BP corporation that did not fight for what is right ( maybe just not enough of them ).

Perhaps the problem is that there are too many people within a global bureaucracy basing decisions on what may NOT be ethical or righteous, but because of the status quo and their own “bubble” of special interest. The consequences have been for decades denied, but can no longer be obviously ignored!

Long story short, we are now 40+ days out on any significant resolution. BP is not a new company, trillions have invested into drilling and discovery technology for decades industry wide. Compare the R&D funding for safety and response vs. discovery and production – it does not appear very ethical.

This commentary is dedicated to the lives lost in the explosion, their family and friends ( we have chosen to NOT talk about them within this conversation out of respect until now ). This commentary is dedicated to the lives that will be lost in the coming years due to this catastrophic event, both physically, indirectly and economically.

Contrary to statements you may occasionally find in the technology press, the brick and mortar business isn’t dead – it is simply evolving.

The model that supported its marketing for centuries, however, may be living on borrowed time. The Internet has transformed business, as the Industrial Revolution once changed the world.

An ever-increasing number of people are gaining Internet access and their using the revolutionary technology to make purchases. More importantly, perhaps, they are using it to make decisions about purchasing. Today, an effective Internet presence is virtually essential to the successful functioning of most businesses. With technology becoming more readily available and the web’s reach growing exponentially, the need for an effective website will become even more pronounced for small businesses and large corporations alike.

Websites are now a point of contact.

When a consumer needs something, he or she will often begin the search for information on the Internet. A readily discoverable website that explains the nature of a business and that provides essential contact information is rapidly becoming a necessity for that reason alone. The web is the phone book, the business listings, and the shopping mall store directory rolled into one. If you’re not there, you’re becoming invisible.

Many otherwise brilliant business owners openly mocked the idea that someone would willingly input credit card information into a computer to buy something from a stranger who might be located thousands of miles away. Now, it’s common. Resistance to online purchasing is dropping, too.

Websites are an opportunity for marketing and brand building. A smart business will provide visitors with a quality experience that emphasizes the business’ core message and that showcases its products and services. While other forms of advertising and promotion still have a great deal of value, a holistic approach to brand science and foundational marketing efforts must be top of mind with a web presence centric to any effort.

The old methods of marketing are slowly but surely losing their effectiveness.

Those who take advantage of the opportunity afforded by the Internet can thrive during this period of change instead of suffering through it. When you consider realities like those, it becomes quite apparent that the modern business, regardless of size, must maintain a high-quality website if it wants to retain its competitiveness. The Internet is not a fad. It’s not going away. It’s constantly growing and its popularity increases along with its rapidly expanding user base.

Graphic design has been a part of humanity since its earliest days.

Ancient art from all around the globe features what can be termed early graphic design. The period from the mid-20th century through today, however, is particularly interesting. We have seen significant changes in approaches and interesting innovations since the beginning of World War II.

World War II spurred a massive surge in poster art and design.

In an effort to propagandize and to recruit support for the war, both Axis and Allied nations communicated their messages via poster. While the United States tended to feature drab, straightforward design in these efforts, the British and French took more creative approaches. During the war years, France’s Jean Carlu combined newer artistic traditions (particularly Cubism) with a strong sense of composition to create bold and interesting poster art. Many argue that Carlu’s work presaged and may have significantly influenced corporate graphic design and logo creation.

The post-war economic boom in the United States and elsewhere created an increased demand for graphic design. While much of the work was rather straightforward commercial design exhibiting few innovations, there were exceptions to that rule.

The commercial nature of graphic design, embodied in the power and influence of New York’s Madison Avenue advertising firms, was briefly challenged on the economic outskirts by the growing counter-culture movement. Psychedelic art, for instance, gained a strong foothold in graphic design. Any threat to the power structure was averted, however, as the ad firms co-opted the unique graphical presentations. Psychedelia was tamed and retrained to serve its commercial master, becoming part of mainstream advertising and corporate identity structures.

While the bulk of graphic design in the 1970s and 1980s followed the relatively tame and structured approach of the European “international typography”, there was also room for pop art and a new wave aesthetic to leave a mark on the field. Designers like Neville Brody and David Carson laid the groundwork for a 90s look that celebrated experimentation and that played with structural expectations.

Today, graphic design is in an interesting state of flux.

Designers are drawing from a variety of approaches, creating hybrids and exploring new space with technologically-drive innovations. Both legitimate nostalgia and ironic sampling from the past function side by side in many spaces. It is as if the world of design is a simmering volcano, waiting for the eruption of the next big movement.

PANTONE: Getting Color Right.

Without having a way to define true color, you would not be able to determine if the blue logo on your company’s letterhead was exactly the same color blue logo on that is on your company’s envelopes. As you can see, PMS is extremely important in the world of both print and web media.

PMS colors

There are currently 1114 PMS base colors available. Many of these PMS colors are spot colors, otherwise known as solid colors. These PMS colors were created without screens or dots from a palette of 14 basic colors. Basic colors are then mixed in different ways to create a rainbow of variety.

Who uses PMS colors?

Most print and graphic designers use PMS solid colors, which are described by a three or four digit number that is followed by the letter C, M, or U. The C, M, or U is used to determine what type of paper stock the color is best printed on. C stands for coated paper, while U stands for uncoated paper. M stands for matte paper. An example of this type of PMS color is PANTONE 185C.

PMS also has colors that are specifically used for the fashion, architecture, and home industries. These colors are represented by a number consisting of two digits followed by a dash (-), and then four more digits. A TPX or TC suffix follows the last four digits. TPX determines that the color is best printed on paper, while TC means that it should be printed on dyed cotton. An example of this type of PMS color is PANTONE 14-4510 TPX, which is the color Aquatic.

The plastics industry also has its own set of PMS colors. These colors are distinguished by a Q or T followed by a three-digit number, a dash, and two singles digits that are separated by a dash. The Q stands for opaque color, while T stands for transparent color. An example of one of these PMS colors is PANTONE Q270–2–4.

What type of PMS guide should you get?

PMS has a variety of swatch books and chips that serve as guides for determining colors. PMS swatch books are composed of strips showing a few related colors, with their names and formulas printed alongside them. These PMS strips are typically secured together at one end so that you can fan them out. They can be purchased in color sets or as separate pieces.

PMS strips are printed on coated, uncoated, or matte-finished stock. What type of stock you prefer depends upon what your company is going to be printing. The type of stock used will directly affect the way the ink appears. There are some specialty guides made by Pantone that will show ink colors on foil, film, or other surfaces.

Another way PMS displays colors is on chips. These chips are tear-off samples of Pantone colors that come on pages in a three-ring binder. This type of display is beneficial to companies that want to provide color samples to their customers. For example, if you are working on artwork for your customer’s brochure, you can simply rip off a color chip and attach it to the brochure’s outline. This way, the customer can approve exactly what he or she will be getting from you.

PMS for first-time designers

Graphic Design and page layout software such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, and QuarkXPress to duplicate the appearance of PANTONE colors. In order for the program user to see the colors accurately, his or her computer monitor must be properly adjusted according to the program’s specifications.

If you are a designer who is using PMS colors for the first time, there are several things you need to take into consideration when preparing your design for printing. If you are using a desktop publishing program such as the four mentioned above, and depending on the current softare version release you must:

Open the Color window and observe the default color that is currently being used. Typically, the default color is not a PANTONE color, and is a CMYK color instead. You can find the color window in any of these programs by choosing Window, and then Color.

To make your default color a PANTONE color in QuarkXPress, right-click your mouse on the Color window and select New. A box will pop up, asking you what model of colors you wish to add. Different types of PANTONE colors are listed beneath this option. Simply choose the type that you wish to add. If, on the other hand, you are using an Adobe program such as Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign, you must get rid of the default CMYK colors first. Under Window, select Swatches. Then click Select All Unused. Choose which swatches you want to delete, and then click Delete Swatch. If some swatches do not delete automatically, then you must click on each one to delete it manually. To add PANTONE colors, select Window, and then Swatch Libraries. Then click on the PANTONE color that you wish to add. You will then be ready to use PANTONE colors in your document.

Design firms and print shops like ours depend on PMS colors to get jobs done accurately and flawlessly. Don’t underestimate their importance, for these colors have the ability to bring life to an otherwise black-and-white world.

Grammy-winner Taj Mahal is touring the Hawaiian Islands again in 2010.

Ron has been given the opportunity to head up the print promotional effort. This is the second time Ron has had the opportunity to design posters for Taj Mahal’s Hawaiian Tour shows, the first time being the 2008 Hawaiian Tour.

This particular piece makes its biggest change in the color palette. Instead of the warm gold and red from the 2008 poster, the 2010 design features varying shades of a bright blue. Gone are the angled photos, as the new layout features the band and musicians up front and straight. This new design gives a sense of being bright, straightforward, and cool; which works to significantly contrast it with the old design without too many major changes.

In a matter of just a few short years…

Is WordPress right for you? Unless you have very specific needs, it will probably do the job. Before you dive headfirst into publication via WordPress, however, there are few things you’ll need to do. Here are your first steps toward getting started with WordPress.

First, get a grip on what WordPress is and how you can use it.

This basic “background research” will allow you to start developing a plan for your eventual site and can spare you a few headaches, as well. Luckily, there’s no shortage of information available on the web and you should be able to develop a solid understanding of the platform quickly and easily.

Second, if you’re planning on having a site that isn’t hosted by WordPress (and remember, the free blogs at WordPress are much more limited in terms of flexibility and purpose than self-hosted options), confirm that you’ll be able to use it in the first place on your host. While most hosts will handle a WordPress installation easily, there are some exceptions.

Make sure you host meets requirements, that you have access to the newest version of PHP and MySQL and that you know how to upload files to your host via FTP. You can generally resolve these questions by examining the information provided by your host as part of your account. In some cases, it will be even easier. Your host may very well offer easy, “one-click” WordPress installation.

Third, you’ll need to install WordPress. New users will appreciate hosts who make this nothing more than a simple point-and-click proposition. Others will have to work a little harder to effectuate and appropriate installation of the software. Consult the tutorials provided by both your host (if available) and WordPress to get the details of installation. If they don’t help you, a little online research should uncover a set of “do it yourself” instructions that will meet your needs.

Fourth, set up your WordPress blog based on the plan you’ve developed. Tweak settings to get the right “feel” for your blog and experiment with different options and settings. One of the nicest things about WordPress is its ease of use–and the fact that you can “undo” any changes you might make.

By digging in and adjusting the system and its settings, you’ll learn a great deal and will soon be on your way to becoming an expert WordPress user.

After you go through this four-step process, you’ll be able to elevate your efforts to a new level. You’ll be able to access WordPress’ even greater powers by uploading the perfect theme, plug-ins and making other adjustments.

WordPress is remarkably powerful and amazingly easy to use. Get started with the basics right away and position yourself to create a tremendous blog or website.

Ron announces obeyyourposter.com.

A site dedicated to showcasing the poster graphic design of Ronald Bercume, as well as offering his services. Ron is a closet-case musician himself, as well as a graphic designer, and has created posters for notable clients within the music industry such as Taj Mahal, Johnny Winter, Leon Russell, Derek Trucks, Gregg Allman and many others.

Only a few years ago…

If it was done well, it might inspire action away from the site, but the process was anything but interactive. The standard website mimicked the traditional top-down publishing model.

That is no longer the case.  Today, interactivity is an essential element of the successful site and is a key element of design.  Users have an expectation that a site will offer an opportunity for interaction.  The “virtual billboard” is a relic.

Interactivity in website design can take a variety of forms.

Blogs, for instance, generally allow visitors to comment and to interact directly with the author of the published material.  Blogs can also encourage readers to become site subscribers via an RSS feed.

Sales enhancements are another example of how one can code interactivity into their process in a meaningful and valuable way.  Instead of serving as a static catalog of goods, the site owner can opt to highlight sales and special products.

It does not stop there, however.  Much of the interactivity that is expected today stems from the so-called “Web 2.0” movement.  This visitor-centric approach is more interested in building community and in opening the door for sharing than traditional static sites.  Inclusion of “StumbleUpon”, “Digg”, “Technorati” and other social bookmarking site links that allow readers to quickly share your site with others are great examples interactivity encouragement.

The most rapidly growing elements of the Internet appear to be those focused on encouraging social networking.

That is why so many smart designers are making a point of encouraging that kind of social media involvement with potential customers.  While you can (and should) continue to encourage people to sign up for your email or newsletter list, you can also forge potentially valuable connections via sites like Facebook and Myspace.  The massive recent growth of Twitter should remind all of us that interactivity and social contact are becoming key parts of the online experience for many users.

Is your site suitably interactive or are you relying only upon a contact page buried somewhere in the site’s substructure as your only way of forging a connection with others?

If you have not hopped on the interactivity bandwagon, it is not too late.  There is still a great deal of market space for anyone who is committed to success. If you want your site to perform effectively, however, you will need to make a point of encouraging activity within its design.

Why, James Cameron?

Avatar has just made James Cameron public enemy #1 for all graphic designers. With a budget of over $200 million, top of the line visual effects professionals, and marketing collaborations including Coca-Cola and Twentieth Century Fox, how in the name of “Eywa” did this record-breaking movie manage to be released with Papyrus as its title font?

Even with all of Avatar’s beautiful visuals and oddly attractive eight foot tall blue people, graphic designers world-wide squirmed in their theater seats as the title and subtitles appeared on the screen in what is collectively known as their least favorite font. You would think that with all the artists and professionals involved in creating and promoting the movie, someone would have put the kibosh on the usage of this font.

Since no self-respecting graphic designer would have willingly used the eyesore of a font, we can only come to one conclusion:

IT’S JAMES CAMERON’S FAULT!

He may have a knack for creating movies that attract moviegoers like frat boys to cheap beer, but his choice of fonts is obviously attrocious. Why didn’t someone talk him out of it? Even if it involved force, illegal opiates, or simply deleting the font file from all the computers, someone should have put an end to the use of Papyrus in Avatar.

Placed on anything pertaining to Native Americans, Egyptians, other ethnic cultures, and now apparently aliens, Papyrus is sorely overused and abused.

Not only is it overused, but it has readability issues. Did someone really think we wanted to read subtitles in a font that looks like it was created with sticks and mud?

There are millions of other fonts available to choose from (with about half of them residing on my computer), and this movie had a budget that would have allowed for someone to make their own stinkin’ font.

Yeah, it’s that bad.

Instead, there is now a very ashamed graphic designer hiding under their desk from the barage of angry email pouring into their inbox. I mean, the only way it could have been worse is if someone had made Comic Sans the title font.

“Obey Your Designer” will be published later this year.

The inspiring story of creative mobility, plus 10 years of insights and essays on the creative industries, graphic design & marketing.

Get your FREE copy:

Click here for pre-release notification. The first 100 requests will be delivered the PDF version of the text at no charge upon its release later this year.

Ron produced event posters, newspaper ads and radio commercials for the Greg Allman & Friends Hawaii tour, which took place across the Hawaiian Islands in 2007.

Gregg Allman formed the Allman Brothers in Florida in 1969 with his brother, Duane (now ranked the No. 2 greatest rock guitarist by Rolling Stone) and another now-legendary guitarist, Dicky Betts (now ranked No. 61 by Rolling Stone). On their way to creating Southern rock and releasing 16 gold or platinum records, the Allmans also reinvented what twin guitarists could do in a rock band, ignoring the well-worn lead/rhythm template. Gregg Allman was the voice behind these epic jams.

Gregg Allman was inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2006.

He is widely considered one of rock’s great vocalists (not least by the Rolling Stone, which ranks him the No. 70 greatest singer of all time).

Ron listened to more than his fair share of classic rock during his tie-died summer of love in Lake Placid (when he was in high school, in other words), and his habits included liberal doses of the Allmans. He saw the band live when he was in college and was thrilled when he was asked to do promotional artwork for the rock and blues band Gregg Allman and Friends.

Ron’s direct, clear design features Allman relaxed and laid-back against a brick wall. The poster coveys the legendary singer’s down-to-earth and peaceful, yet rugged, persona.

“This is some of my prized work, and that goes for a lot the design work I have provided for artists within the music industry,” said Bercume.

“That project in particular is pretty close to me. I’m proud of it. That’s why I was interested in graphic design in the first place: my love for music.”

Email has become an essential means for conducting business.

Remember that emails containing any commercial or promotional purposes for a product or services fall under the law of spam, established in January 1st, 2004 and named CAN-SPAM. Some types of email messages are not subject to any spam related laws, unless the email receiver asks the sender to stop sending any further emails.

Spam accusations could cost you.

Always make sure before sending out emails that the message is in compliance with CAN-SPAM to protect yourself from any accusations.

You may consider using an email management system.

Email marketing services offer many features such as the creation of email lists, email list management, and advertising tools to help promote your email campaigns. A good email marketing service will also help you to stay in compliance with the CAN-SPAN act.

If you are looking for an email management service, we would humbly recommend Constant Contact- Ron Bercume and SeeMore Media are now partnered with this complete e-mail newsletter and list management solution. Constant Contact provides all the necessary tools to properly send business e-mails to a large or small distribution contact list.

Start your FREE 60 day trial today!

Managed eMarketing Solutions
Ron and his team take things a step further by developing managed marketing solutions for our clients. We can setup your Constant Contact account and show you how to use e-mail marketing to most effectively compliment your existing marketing efforts.

Why Constant Contact?

Constant Contact maintains a skilled customer support team. The Constant Contact team is available 24/7 to assist you and answer your questions.

Features:

- Unlimited email campaigns with personalized follow up messages.
- Customized templates.
- Unlimited personalized broadcast newsletters.
- Addition of op-in forms and pop-ups with Constant Contact web form generator.
- Automated ad tracking & complete account control.
- Full statistics account with an automated email reporting system.
- Automatic undeliverable email handling.

Using an email management solution may drastically cut down on the time you spend on email on a daily basis. It can also help you create and deliver targeted email campaigns which stay in compliance with all applicable laws.

The construction of business identities and logos requires more than just brainstorming some visuals and hoping for the best.

Good logo design exists at an intersection of creativity and hard-nosed business sense. Educated designers generally focus on several essential factors before beginning the production process.

Let’s look at four of those essential factors. These represent part of the process that underlies successful corporate identity construction. Good designers are not just sketchbook talents. They have an understanding of business and marketing that is as well tuned as their artistic skills are.

Brand Strategy: The designer needs to develop a strong understanding of the client company’s strengths. He or she also needs to recognize the client’s weaknesses. Smart designers will go beyond the obvious, developing an idea of why customers in the company’s market make decisions and how those preferences are developed. This information helps to inform the designer’s work and provides a point of reference for testing its effectiveness.

Brand Science: The most highly-sought creators of logos and corporate identities approach their work with a pronounced business sensibility. They treat their work like one of the company’s assets – which it is. They often make and test adjustments and alterations, divining an idea of the financial implications of those changes. This unique ability – a combination of business acumen and artistic insight – allows good designers to realize creative and memorable angles and approaches. It often separates design novices from the top corporate identity teams.

Naming: A logo may be the face of a company, but these days creating a marketable identity often involves giving the business a name as well. If you are faced with the challenge of naming a business, you should take voice of the customer and competitive intelligence data (as well as similar elite-level business strategies) into account. You must also concern yourself with legalities, trademarking, copyrighting and the like.
This is where a designer must combine creative instincts with intelligence, education and research. A company may be able to survive a variety of poor decisions, but a weak name is not one of those manageable errors.

Brand Identity: After a designer knows what he or she is working with and has determined who that client is, it is time to put all of the pieces together. This is the construction of an overall brand identity wholly consistent with the research and business understanding developed earlier in the process.

Only after these steps are completed should a design team actually begin production. Thinking of corporate identity creation as a fast or purely visual endeavor is inaccurate. The graphic designers who create effective and memorable brands realize that an effective final product must be built upon an informed foundation.

Have you considered Search Engine Optimization?

Congratulations: Your small business should significantly benefit from an online presence. To make the best use of the Internet, you should strongly consider learning about and investing in search engine optimization, which is the process of making your site attractive to search engines (Google, Yahoo, etc.) so that they reward it with a high profile when people search for information related to your business.

Do you really need to worry about search engine optimization (SEO)?

Many website owners have a feeling that SEO is complicated, time-consuming and beyond their capabilities.

They assume that having a site in place and letting people know about its URL will be enough to make the whole project worthwhile.  They don’t see the need to learn about SEO and implement advanced SEO principles.

That perspective is misguided, though.  If you are running a for-profit website, a site designed to support your business, or are simply publishing something that you’d like people to read, you need to have a basic understanding of some core SEO principles.

You don’t need to be a professional computer nerd.  You don’t need to understand the role of latent semantic indexing in Google’s algorithm.  You don’t need to concern yourself with the fine details of Page Rank hoarding via the utilization of the “nofollow” attribute and whether it’s really a good idea.  You just need the basics.

Search engines are the way people find information on the Internet.  Search engines exist to build a bridge between people searching for the service you provide and your website. Don’t you want to be certain that when people are looking for the kind of information you’re providing that their preferred search engines will let them know about you?

Search engines are the primary means by which websites get traffic.

The number of visitors who directly type in an address or who visit from a referring site pales in comparison to the number of people who can be delivered to your site by search engines.

If you want people to see your messages, you need to leverage the power of search engines and that’s what SEO is about.

You’ll want to develop basic SEO skills even if you don’t plan to lift a finger to promote your site because you’re planning to hire a firm to do the job. You want to have enough information to understand what the firm is doing and why they’re doing it.  Otherwise, you’ll be in the uncomfortable position of giving a third-party significant influence over one of your assets while you sit by, unsure of what they’re doing, its value, and why you’re paying for the service.

Don’t worry, getting a grip on SEO basics isn’t that tough.  With the right tutelage, you’ll soon develop the knowledge you need.

Ron and his team are thrilled to announce that Bloodhound Identification has been released to the public.

We strongly believe that the ideas behind Bloodhound ID are both unusually farsighted and fundamentally strong. This is a concept that can’t miss.

Bloodhound will provide businesses with an in-depth array of relevant information about their current, former and future customers. This concept could revolutionize the way you track your customers. Now you may think of many of your customers as nearly random, nameless, or faceless figures. Bloodhound ID will show you all about them.

Bloodhound ID analyzes proprietary data to accurately identify up to 60 percent of your unknown customers, then provides direct marketing and e-mail list management services to take action based on this information.

Bloodhound ID works with your existing payment processor and checkout technology. You do not need to change the way you conduct business: Bloodhound ID integrates with most systems without extensive modification. Depending on the business model and individual customer, Bloodhound ID will analyze proprietary data elements, radius logic, and double-verified demographic correlations to provide you with identifying information about up to 60 percent of your unknown customers.

Your company has almost everything it needs to be successful.

Sometimes, image is important. In most cases, image is everything in a competitive market. The quality design of logos, business cards, stationary, marketing materials and similar graphic elements are basic, and are vitally important to your business’s ultimate success.

A logo graphically represents your company’s identity. Often a logo is the first thing a potential customer will notice.

After seeing your logo a few times, people will immediately think of your company’s name. A company logo should visually display what your company is about.

If your company manufactures boats, you may be well-served by a logo with a visual representation of a boat, but the more unique, artistic, striking and memorable your logo is, the better. It is a mistake for the owners of fairly new companies to attempt to design their own graphic elements and marketing materials, especially if they do not have experience in art or marketing. Marketing materials which are unprofessional, shoddy or even laughable will cause your business to look small and unstable. Why would someone want to do business with a company that is not even confident (or knowledgeable) enough to invest a few dollars in a professional logo and some good business cards? They probably wouldn’t.

To be successful, you should offer an appearance of organization, quality and professionalism to your clients and potential clients.

Your stationary, envelopes, and business cards should generally match each other in both color and style. With these considerations in mind, make the smart choice and have your company’s marketing materials professionally designed. Simple things such as marketing materials can make or break a company.

themeophilia: a premium WordPress community driven to populate the digital landscape with one-of-a-kind themes.

Themeophilia was born in March of 2009 to Ron Bercume. He raised themeophilia from a little bit of CSS code to the fully coded WordPress site it is today, and loves it for the strange, sly, wise child it is. Ron is a graphic design ninja who spends his day making things look good while blasting his brain with punk rock. Then he goes off to play with his children (the human ones) and his dog. Sharing the office with Papa Punk is Rachel Bruen, a graphic designer who also tackles some creative writing and task management (it’s tough keeping Ron on the ball). Rachel contributed to the wicked writing in themeophilia’s ad banners and theme overviews, as well as some other random snippets around the site.

If you’ve ever felt insulted or as if you’ve just become a satiric joke, you can thank our writer Tim Follos who has also contributed to the site.

Themeophilia developers and editors that work together to make the site and themes more tastefully titillating.

Themeophilia is a site dedicated to obsessing over and loving everything WordPress. The goal is to give you (our best friends!) fantastic WordPress Themes that go straight to your brain with a kick of wit and an injection of soul, bringing a smile to your heart and a tear to your eye as you slowly decay and die while engaged solely with a computer screen (just kidding, or are we?). We, the victims of modern life, love WordPress for its power, simplicity, and open source opportunities. We love what we do, and we will continue doing it as long as possible for the love of WordPress.

Graphic design does not emerge without assistance.

M.F. Agha: Agha took the helm as art director at Vogue in 1929.  He pushed to make visuals a primary, rather than a secondary, component of magazines.  Agha advanced sans serif fonts in typography and pushed forward the development of fashion photography.

Steven Heller: Heller works professionally in design, but he’s best known for writing over 100 different books on the topic.  He is widely considered one of the most knowledgeable sources of design information and one of the field’s top critics.

Saul Bass: Bass was a relatively successful commercial artist who became something of a celebrity in 1955, after designing the title sequence for the film The Man with the Golden Arm.  Bass revolutionized the appearance of screen credits and went on to work on scores of films.  Later, he did corporate identity work for the likes of AT&T and Minolta.

Paul Rand: What do Westinghouse, the United Parcel Service and the American Broadcasting Company have in common?  Paul Rand, a designer inspired by European avant-garde movements, created logos for all of them.

Lester Beall: Beall is known for his use of harsh angles, photographic silhouettes and iconic imagery.  He produced countless magazine covers, was a prolific designer in the commercial world.  He has usually remembered for his innovative and arresting Depression era government posters.

Alexy Brodovitch: His years as art director at Harper’s provided him with a platform to increase the significance of photography in magazines and to introduce mainstream publications to design inspired by expressionism and other art movements.  One of the first design gurus to fully make use of the power of white space.

April Greiman: Greiman, who is still actively challenging the way people interpret two- and three-dimensional space, she is often credited for encouraging the popularity of the New Wave aesthetic.  Constantly bucking convention, Greiman makes extensive use of computer graphics in her design work.

This collection of modern graphic design pioneers represents only a small fraction of the group that one could properly name to a design all-star team.

Seymour Chwast, Milton Glaser, Ivan Chermayeff, Tom Geisnar, Bradbury Thompson, Neville Brody and others warrant recognition, too.  These innovators and talents have been the driving force behind the development of modern graphic design, and my own personal development, education and professional career.

Businesses spend a small fortune on print advertising.

Amazingly, advertisers often fail to produce truly effective ads.  They spend their money on second-rate ads designed by the publisher’s in-house staff after little more than a quick conversation with a sales representative.

When advertisers do take their investment seriously, that usually consists of trying to negotiate better deals on ad space. In some cases, it involves improving the quality of the ad’s copy. Rarely, however, do those who are placing ads spend enough time or thought on the visual aspect of their promotions.  Larger companies with advertising staffs and expertise may bring the issues to the attention of the publisher.  In most cases, however, consideration of graphics and design do not receive much scrutiny.

That is a real problem, too.

Research clearly indicates that appropriately handled insertion of graphical elements will boost conversions over traditional sales copy.

Likewise, a visually appealing design will attract attention in ways that “the usual” cannot.

If you are part of the great majority who do not spend much time or effort on the actual appearance of your ads, you are spending a great deal of money while settling for second-rate results. Even those who don’t have a good eye for design or who have no idea how to effectively integrate graphics and images into their ads can benefit from improving print publication advertising design in accordance with these recommendations.

That may entail additional discussion with the publisher.  In some cases, it is possible to “get more” out of their in-house teams.  It is more likely, however, that improving the quality of the print advertising will require proactive efforts on the part of the advertiser.  Whether this requires professional assistance or simply an increased effort will depend on the individuals involved.

The bottom line is that advertisers are operating in an incredibly competitive environment.

The old ways of constructing print ads are dying.  Readers expect more and are not attentive to flat work.  Competitors may be aware of this and might be improving their work already.  If you do not put forth the effort necessary to create memorable, attractive advertisements featuring top-notch design and professional graphical elements, you are wasting they money in your print advertising budget.

Make the decision to do better.  You can improve the quality of your print advertising.  Doing so will result in a much better return on your advertising investment.

Direct mail marketing continues to be a favorite promotional method.

Direct mail marketing works only when the targeted recipient looks at the materials.  Research has demonstrated that a direct mail piece needs to entice the reader from the beginning.  If it falls flat and fails to draw the recipient’s attention, it won’t produce results.

That’s why quality graphic design should be a component of any serious direct mail marketing strategy.  The inclusion of appropriate graphics and smart design will beautify the mailing and will attract attention in ways even a great headline can’t.

Recipients are often inundated with incoming direct mail.

In order to stand a chance, your piece must trigger an immediate interest in the materials.  Copywriters have honed their skills and refined their approaches to direct mail in order to produce the best possible results, but the words on the page can only go so far.  In the words of the oft-repeated old saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words”.  Graphics can make a monumental difference in response.

Use of corporate identity graphics and carefully crafted design has other advantages, too.  It inspires a level of comfort and a sense of legitimacy, which can produce a marked hop in conversions.  They use good structure and appearance to attract attention.  They also aid in the effort to build brand awareness.

If you’re sending out a mailing without a graphical component, you’re invariably losing ground to those who know better.  Direct mail experts are growing increasingly aware that the visuals accompanying text can have a profound impact on response rates.  Your competition may already be making use of graphics and design strategies that go beyond the traditional direct mailing “look”.

Carefully evaluate the next piece of copy you plan to use for direct mailing.

Now, consider what that message might look like if you freshened it with a professional design facelift and appropriate graphics.  How do you think performance would compare?

In almost every case, you’ll be able to sense the opportunity for improved results.

The days of sending a “plain Jane” letter on a sheet of white paper are behind us.  Today, you’re best bet of generating optimal results will involve the use of graphics and professional design elements to your direct mail outreach.

If you’re not convinced, run a few tests.  Send a portion of your list a standard mailing.  Offer the visually improved version to another segment.  Compare response rates and return on investment.  You’ll soon be making graphics and superior designconsiderations as you develop future mailings.

Today we see logos everywhere.

That was not always the case, though. For centuries, logos were little used. Only over time have the changed from an interesting rarity into a ubiquitous part of the commercial landscape.

The idea of a logo dates back to the simple identifying ciphers of ancient Greece. These generally consisted of a single letter paired with a symbol or simple design to create a distinctive identifier. They were used by those in positions of great power and were not part of the everyday life of most people.

Those early efforts at logo creation evolved into the marks and signets of kings and queens.

In time, they would become useful and accessible to those who did not possess royal lineage. In fact, they would become critical to almost every business. That shift, however, was still centuries away.

Wider use and adoption of logos began in the thirteenth century. Individual craftsmen would “mark” their products as an identifier of their handiwork. This practice had obvious utility and it soon extended beyond the realm of masons and furniture builders. By the 1700s, traders had developed the habit of marking their goods with simple logos, as well.

As the industrial revolution took hold, the frequency of logo use became even more pronounced. What was once strictly for a few powerful people was now a mainstream part of identification.

An interesting application of the logo appeared in the American west during the 1800s.

Individual ranch logos were seared into livestock as identifiers. The branding irons of the old west were merely means of putting one’s mark on his property.

Over time, the logo became more than a simple identifier. Although logos still served that function, it became clear that they could have a greater value. By the 1950s, the logo was not a mere symbol. It was an asset.

Logos became the faces of business. They were used as part of corporate identities to communicate brand and to unify messaging. What was once a way for a king to seal a letter is now part of how businesses establish their credibility and sell everything from financial services to hamburgers.

Posters have quite a special place in the history of graphic design.

The technology to produce lithographs came into being in the late 1700s. As is so often the case with new technologies, it was costly and lacked ready availability. As such, carving-based printing continued to dominate the scene until the 1870s.

During the 1870s, the poster became a dominant force in Europe.

Cities were plastered with posters featuring both imagery and typography in an attempt to curry favor with consumers, to announce sales opportunities and to introduce new products.

In the 1890s, Toulouse Lautrec became the most celebrated poster artists. Some of his works, including his Moulin Rouge poster, were almost immediately recognized as a legitimate form of fine art, even though they had clearly commercial purposes.

By the 19th century, however, Lautrec abandoned poster art and the genre was in something of a slump. Filled with uninspired imitations of previous decades’ successes, it appeared as if the commercial poster design landscape might be destined to become a commercialized wasteland. Fortunately, a new generation of artists embraced the poster, reviving the relevance of the form.

Leonetto Cappiello’s posters were a marked departure from earlier offerings. He tended to focus on a single, simple image and used wild attention-getting strategies and/or humor to evoke an audience response. His work was a hit and it inspired a new approach to poster art.

Commercial graphic design in posters took a backseat to the global war effort during World War I.

Between the first and second World Wars, however, it became a launching pad for approaches steeped in the modernist perspective and for art deco. World War II, predictably and necessarily, turned poster art back to war-oriented concerns.

As the post-war economy advanced, the era of the poster slowly slipped away. Television, radio and newsprint carried more power and reach than the old poster. It was well past its heyday. That didn’t prevent innovation, however. The psychedelic posters of the 60s, the Warholian pop art of the 80s and the structured, straightforward approach embodied in the International Typographic Style all found homes in the world of commercial posters.

Today, posters are used less often than they have been for well over a century. However, they do still make appearances and they still serve as an exciting opportunity for graphic design specialists to put their techniques and creativity on display.

You want your website to be appealing to visitors.

You need to create a page that the Googlebots and other spiders will love.  You want them to report back on your great content and everything else you have to offer.  You want to impress them so that your site will appear when visitors type in search engine queries relevant to your content.

Making your site attractive to the search engines can be a tricky proposition, but it’s well worth the effort.  The search engines will be happy to send you a great deal of free traffic once you have your ducks in a row.

That requires some knowledge of search engine optimization, or “SEO”.  Although SEO is a deep topic featuring nearly unlimited advice and multiple strategies, there are a few things factors that tend to be more important than the others are.  Let’s examine a few of them.

Content and Keywords.

If you want to rank highly in the results when someone searches for “blue widgets”, your site had better address blue widgets.  You need to have the right content.  It pays to have the right keywords in place and to have original material that doesn’t appear elsewhere.  Good content will impress your readers, encouraging them to link to you, which also helps a great deal in terms of SEO.  There’s a reason they say, “Content is king!”

Note: At one time, websites could rank well for terms by using them repeatedly.  The less-refined search engine algorithms of the past failed to identify that kind of misleading “keyword stuffing”.  Today, they spot it a mile away.  There is no magic number for the proper keyword density, but if you’re targeted terms are showing up more than they would in a natural, authentic discussion of an issue, you could run into problems.

Metatags.

This element of your site’s code helps to advise the search engine of what your website is about.  It can also advise search engines of if and/or when to check your pages and can provide other information.  Quality metatags featuring your keywords and a concise description of your site can have SEO value.

Note: Metatags don’t pack the SEO punch they once did and some people argue that they’re not very significant these days. However, they do have some potential to improve rankings, particularly with non-Google search engines.  Webmasters should know that keyword stuffing and other “tricks” in metatags will NOT help with respect to SEO.

Good Code.

You want the search engines to “read” your pages accurately and completely.  You also want them to notice that you’re providing a user-friendly experience and quick load times.  This means that your site should be free of extraneous code and that you should opt for the most efficient ways to presenting your material.  A sloppily coded site won’t help your SEO efforts.

Note: A perfect example of this is the fact that sites utilizing cascading style sheets (CSS) will consistently outperform equivalent sites relying on older tables in the coding.  The need for a well-built site is one reason why many webmasters opt for content management systems (CMS) that create consistent and smartly coded pages.

Inbound Links.

Search engines notice when other sites are linking to yours.  They perceive these links as evidence of your site’s potential value. In essence, they’re seen as votes of confidence.  If you want the best SEO results, you will need to make the acquisition of inbound links a priority.  Great content will help in this regard, but you can proactively seek out linking opportunities to aid your site.

Note: All links are NOT created equal.  The best links in the eyes of the search engines will come from thematically related sites that have some authority of their own.  It doesn’t pay to waste your time and energy accumulating weak links when a single “power link” can have as much power as hundreds, if not thousands, of low-value links.

Sitemaps.

A sitemap is basically a structured outline of how the pages of your site are organized.  You should generate a site map and then submit that map to Google and Yahoo via a webmaster account.  This will give them an idea of what their search engine robots need to “crawl” and can improve your rankings measurably.

Note: You don’t need to hand-code that site map.  There are tools available that will generate one for you.  Evaluate your site map before submitting it.  Look for flaws, orphaned pages, etc. and use it to “clean up” your site for optimal performance.

These are just a few of the things you’ll need to know about SEO.  Search engine traffic can be one of the most valuable commodities around, so it does pay to understand what you need to do to secure it.

Creative graphic design is incredibly important to your print-based marketing success.

A copywriter will tell you that words sell. He or she will be telling you the truth, too. The right words will produce much better results than weaker ones. A great copywriter can be worth his or her weight in gold because of this.

What the copywriter might not tell you is that those words can sell even better when you present them in the right context. We are referring, of course, to the design and non-textual components of your print advertising.

Utilization of quality design and attractive graphical components will, put simply, make you money.

People respond better and in greater numbers to an attractive created design. Those who limit their print advertising to standard, “old fashioned” promotions, fail to get anywhere close to optimal rates of return and conversions into sales.

The opportunity to improve the bottom line directly is not the only reason to embrace creative design in print. It also creates the chance to use those ads as part of your overall brand-building strategy.

If you are doing things the right way, you’ve already committed to using your logo and other components of your corporate identity across all areas of your business. Your graphics are gracing everything from business cards to media kits to stationery. That is because forging a clear and attractive sense of your business’ identity fuels credibility. It creates an image of expertise and resulting higher level of trust.

Are you relying on the same advertisements that you have been using for years?

If so, it is time for an upgrade. You need to inject those ads with a healthy dose of creativity and design skills. It is time to utilize whatever it takes to create better ads. That means thinking about design in ways that you may not have up to this point.

Extending your corporate identity and your creativity into your other advertising efforts may seem like a great deal of work. It may not be easy and it may require handling some aspects of your advertising approach in a different manner.

That effort, however, may become one of the best bargains you have ever made. The front-end work required to implement a creative approach will not compare to the advantages you will secure. There are so many good reasons to tap into a more creative approach.

Our brand spankin’ new, right off the lot aphiliate partner program has been launched in beta, baby cakes format. We are still working out some bugs, but you can sign-up today, and start posting graphic banners to your site and share in a 50% per sale payout. Check it out, click here.

Promoting Confidence.

Charlotte Aquatics specializes in providing swim lessons for children to promote confidence in and respect for the water.

The redesigned website is used to present the latest news and helpful information for new swimmers, as well as introduce visitors to the staff and other resources. The design of the Charlotte Aquatics website is fresh and clean in design with its turquoise and blue color palette taken from the logo, also designed by Ron.

The navigation is clearly laid out, as is the rest of the information on the site, making for a very user-friendly experience. The pale blue background image is easy on the eyes, as is the sans serif type treatment used for the body text, further promoting a feeling of freshness and comfort within the design.

Friendly and Open.

Charlotte Occupational Therapy is an independent school-based service for children, families, and faculty, which the new website design clearly reflects.

Located in Charlotte, NC, the service is also known as T.O.T.S., or Tringali Occupational Therapy Services. The website allows visitors to learn about the company, their services, and the available resources, as well as providing an easy to use contact form.

The site design is warm and inviting with brown and tan hues, and the photographic slideshow of happy children is friendly and eye-catching. The information is organized and clearly presented in the navigation, and the text is clean and readable with the use of a sans serif typeface. Overall, the design of the website is friendly and open, promoting trust and happiness.

Historically, New Hampshire was the first to declare its independence and adopt its constitution, and then was the ninth and deciding state in accepting the National Constitution as that of a republic. The first American public library was established within the state, and America’s first cog-railroad was made there as well.

Such a rich history certainly played a large role in inspiring the design of the brochure, which features a lot of historical imagery such as stamps, covered bridges, and lighthouses.

The layout also features a range of photography depicting various areas of New Hampshire, showing off the state’s natural beauty. Ron stays true to his style of using clean typography with a friendly script for most of the headlines and a modern typeface for the body copy.

Throughout the brochure, information is offered about the state. Reasons to visit, state benefits, family attractions, and career opportunities are all laid out to share the most important information about New Hampshire. The copy speaks of opportunities, history, and the future for anyone living in or planning to visit the state.

The blue and green color palette of the brochure are taken from the Work New Hampshire state logo, also designed by Ron.

A silhouette of the state containing a cityscape, rolling hills and mountains, and images of several people communicates how much New Hampshire has to offer in a simplified but clear manner. Together, the logo and the brochure represent the state as a place that is fresh and interesting to visit or to become one’s home.

A Homegrown Music Venue.

The Waterhole is a popular venue for the music lovers living in and around Saranac Lake, NY and beyond for decades.

Many bands, large and small, have played there, and they often hold various types of themed parties and celebrations. One such musical event is the “Party on the Patio,” which features a series of bands playing from August 2nd to September 20th of 2008.

Music is the main focus of this poster, as two large speakers make up the majority of the imagery, and an image of the Waterhole building is visible as well. The main color used in the poster is a solid black, which gives the design a large amount of contrast. However, the bird perching on the title text is a dark gray, and is the only element of the poster to be this color. To add visual interest, texture was added to the black sections of the poster by creating a grungy, worn look.

Sometimes we fail to make seemingly obvious connections. Consider these two facts.

The effectiveness of email marketing is best summarized by a saying that’s repeated in the Internet marketing community literally thousands of times every year: The money is in the list.

Second, good landing pages are critical to creating desired responses on the Internet. You want to send your visitors to web pages that have been carefully designed to evoke your desired response. In many cases, those landing pages are the heart of the sales process.

And they work. Pages that are custom-tailored to the demographic make up of those who visit them always out-perform more “generic” landing pages.

Those are two facts of business life online.

Anyone with experience in online marketing knows that these two strategies are powerhouses on an individual level.

However, for some reason, many people fail to make a connection between them. They don’t build the bridge between these two techniques.

How can you dovetail the power of email marketing with the proven performance of a well-designed landing page? Simple. You build unique landing pages for each of your email campaigns.

Instead of sending traffic to a standard landing page regardless of the exact message you’ve been using in your emails, you can create custom pages that offer a higher degree of synergy with your marketing approach.

You consider the message of your email campaign and you apply that message to a landing page built specifically for that campaign. Instead of “dropping off” your visitors at a page that may not be wholly consistent with your email efforts, make the smart move by building a more cohesive sales environment.

The result? Higher conversion levels.

You’ll see a spike in sales as your prospects experience a seamless transition between the content of your email and the offer embodied in your landing page. That allows you to create a more compelling narrative and to deliver a far more effective sales message than you can otherwise. There are no jarring gaps, no minor inconsistencies in tone or content.

The workload isn’t particularly taxing, either. Whether you’re using a good content management system or a template-driven site, you can whip up custom landing pages relatively easily. While some may necessitate “from scratch” copy or significant revisions, others will only need minor tweaking to work.

Building a bridge between two widely recognized marketing strategies is obvious. It’s logical. And it works. It’s shocking more people don’t do it.

Nature, unity, and wholeness.

In Greek, “Aria” means self; solo; a Greek Goddess. This definition is reflected in Aria Day Spa as a business as well as their logo, as they focus on body, mind, and self relaxation.

The colors used within the logo design include a deep, earthy yellow and its various lighter shades. Within the design is an illustration of a tree which gives a strong visual of the “natural” concept of the art. Having the logo contained within a circle again reinforces the “natural” concept because a circle symbolizes nature, unity, and wholeness.

Taj Mahal is one of several genre-defining rock and blues artists who Ron has helped to promote.

In 2008 the promotional management of Taj Mahal and His Hula Blues Band enlisted the creative services of Ron Bercume to design event posters for their Hawaii 4 Island concert series. Taj Mahal delivered a tour of the Hawaiian Islands as part of a series of shows for which major artists were brought to the islands including Gregg Allman and Friends, Leon Russell, Derek Trucks, Hot Tuna, Johnny Winter and others. Ron was responsible for the print design promotional material for the entire series.

Ron created several designs for the Taj Mahal promotional poster to explore the multifaceted artist. The first poster Ron made shows Mahal in a suit, clean-shaven and holding an electric guitar. Here, Taj is the picture of a urban bluesman. This piece emphasizes Mahal’s role as an American blues titan.

Since his musical debut in 1968, Taj has redefined blues music while producing over 40 albums.

Taj Mahal is a major figure in 20th century music, and Ron continues to be amazed that he had the chance to work for him. Taj Mahal is an internationally acclaimed artist with two Grammy Awards for Best Contemporary Blues Album for Shoutin’ in Key (2000) and Senor Blues (1997). In 2006 Taj Mahal won Historical Album of the Year for The Essential Taj Mahal at the Blues Music Awards. Taj’s most recent album, Maestro, was nominated the Best Contemporary Blues Album in 2008 and 2009. The General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts celebrated Taj Mahal’s accomplishments by creating legislature celebrating his music. “An Act Designating Taj Mahal As The Official Blues Artist Of The Commonwealth” was signed into law on February 8, 2006.

Ron’s second Taj Mahal poster shows the singer in a relaxed, sunny setting, holding an acoustic guitar and sporting a large beard and a straw hat, an island feel and for which is representational of the Hula Blues Band. Typographical elements, secondary graphic elements and the color scheme of his second poster shifts it’s emphasis from “blues legend” to “hula blues.”

“It was very humbling working with an artist who has nine Grammy nominations and two awards.”

Most of us almost grasp the value of good graphic design.

A perfect example of this is the opportunity to boost email marketing results with the addition of quality graphic design and corporate identity elements.

If you are still thinking of email marketing in terms of black text on a white background, it is time to recalibrate your thinking. Today’s web user is capable of receiving and viewing graphics in his or her email messages and on subsequently reached landing pages. Companies who continue to ignore that reality are incapable of generating a maximum return on their email marketing efforts.

One of the strongest justifications for creating a consistent visual corporate identity is its ability to create greater brand recognition.

You want people to know and to remember you and what you offer. Including well-designed graphical components, like your logo, to email provides you with another outlet to reinforce that identity.

Visual business identities also serve to increase the credibility and reputation of the company. They send a message of professionalism, organization and trustworthiness. Inclusion of consistent graphical elements in an email marketing campaign provide businesses with a way to secure this advantage instead of “disappearing” into a plain black and white world where all senders would appear to be on equal footing.

Those rationales for the inclusion of graphical elements in email marketing messages may seem almost theoretical to some.

Their effect, however, is nothing of the sort.

The recognition and reputation they help to create has a very real bottom line impact.

Email marketing campaigns, like all other marketing messages, are judged eventually by the return produced on investment. Many have discovered that utilizing logos and other aspects of corporate identity in email marketing can produce a significant and measurable increase in sales and conversions. To put it bluntly, using your graphics increases sales.

Are you still trying to compete for attention and sales with emails that appear no different from those from co-workers, family members, phishers and scammers? If so, reconsider your approach. You can utilize proven design techniques and corporate identity elements to create emails that reinforce your brand and that send a clear message of credibility. Successful companies have long recognized the use of these components in other marketing strategies. Technological innovations now allow you to harness their power in the increasingly competitive world of email marketing.

Ron announces gotheck.com.

A limited selection of his fine-art photography available for immediate download. Both standard user licensing and extended licensing are available for Ron’s royalty-free microstock photography.

The site is published and functional, and will be an ongoing project. We are just starting Gotheck, and expect our selection of stock photography to continue growing in 2010 and beyond.

One of Ron’s many long-term clients is the Waterhole, a live music venue in Saranac Lake, New York.

In addition to the Waterhole, Ron has done design work for dozens of other satisfied clients in the Lake Placid area. Ron was friends with many of his clients before they hired him, and he has made a practice of building lasting relationships with clients who were once complete strangers to him.

As a kid, Ron saw some great shows at the Waterhole (including the Jim/Mojo Nixon gig), and after college the venue became one of his strongest clients, contracting with Ron to design event posters to promote dozens of shows. Ron designed one such piece to promote a funky reggae party featuring the Vermont-based band Twiddle.

“There’s something to be said for happy accidents and instinct, especially after you’ve done a few hundred posters.”

“There’s an expression of movement and depth as a composition. It’s a complicated piece. Twiddle’s music is fast, bold, funky and exciting, so the poster represents that. Also, some of the architecture in it resembles Saranac Lake. It’s a somewhat intuitive process.”

Ron’s Twiddle poster shows his ability to create a layered piece which rewards contemplation, but also clearly conveys essential information: Progressive/Funk/Reggae hits Saranac Lake on Dec. 6 – get ready to dance.

Ron attended high school with future Olympians such as Lowell Bailey, Shani Davis and Apolo Ohno.

Growing up in Lake Placid in the ’90s, the Miracle on Ice and the 1980 Olympics still loomed large. Ron took his formative art classes just a hundred yards or so from the Olympic arena; the high school where he found the nurturing teachers (shout-outs to Ms. Rickard, Mr. Dodd, et al.) who gave him the self-confidence and basic skills he needed to succeed was a beautiful building bordered by the sprawling Olympic arena complex and the Olympic speedskating oval.

In 2008 the New York State Olympic Regional Development Authority sought the creative services of Ron Bercume

Ron returned to Lake Placid after college, where he ran a small company, SeeMore Media, while also running the business office of a radio station. Ron’s contacts throughout the Lake Placid community were essential to the continuing success of SeeMore Media. Ron was brought into this particular project by Rick Cassidy – a prominent member of the community who knew Ron from the radio station – when the Olympic Regional Development Authority was looking for an agency to handle the web site design and print marketing materials for the Live Your Own Miracle 1980 Hockey Team Fantasy Camp.

“As visual communicators, we communicate a message through two fundamental variables, image and type, so type has a visual vocabulary, even if it’s subliminal,”

Ron said, explaining that he used a typeface for the poster of a sort which is often used in athletics. “It’s a slab-serif typeface – people have been using ones like it for sports for probably 60 years.” A patriotic color palette of red, white, and blue is used throughout the text, with red calling attention to the most important information. Imagery includes a full color photo of a hockey team, as well as a gold medal to reinforce the historical aspect of the event.

Ron has a lot of pride in this project, but still can’t skate.

The Superharp Legend

Superharp legend and Grammy Award winner James Cotton toured on the Hawaii Rhythm and Blues Mele in 2008.

The poster also mentions James Cotton’s connection to Sonny Boy Williamson and Muddy Waters, making the chance to work on this design exciting for any music lover.

The poster directs the eye to the title “James Cotton” in an uppercase bold serif font, and the secondary focus goes to the two photographs in the center of the poster. The color palette sticks to brown and black, with just lighter variations used in the background. Plenty of white is left to give the poster a brighter feeling and contrast nicely with the dark black and brown text.

In addition to moe., Al & the Transamericans features members of Strangefolk, Okemah and the Gordone Stone Trio.

The poster Ron designed for Al & the Transamericans is a milestone in his career and one of the most important pieces in his poster design portfolio. His close friendships with the people in and around the Adirondacks’ greatest band, Jim, were a large part of what initially got Ron started as an artist focused on the music industry. Ron’s friendship with Jim himself, the visual artist Jim Gunardson, has always been a particular source of inspiration to Ron.

Around the same time he was catching dozens of Jim shows, Ron also saw the great American jam band moe. a handful of times. To be asked to work with moe.’s singer, Al Schnier, to design promotional material for his gig in Saranac Lake was an early highlight of Ron’s career. “The people in those bands are also from small towns in upstate New York, too,” Bercume said. “That’s why they would go out of their way to set up a gig in a little town like Saranac Lake.”

Before Cowboys features Al and Diane Schnier and Vinne Amico of moe, plus a few other collaborators – all of whom are connected to upstate New York.

Bercume found Schnier pleasant to work with, but the singer did have his requests. “He wanted me to really highlight the fact that his wife’s band was also on the bill. He wanted equal billing for both the Transamericans and Before Cowboys.” Consequently, Ron’s design places a great deal of emphasis on the artists’ famous projects.

The Transamericans and Before Cowboys are not well known bands, but moe. and Strangefolk are known to millions.

In addition to his poster design work for the Olympic Regional Development Authority, the Robert Louis Stevenson Society, the International Colored Gemstone Association (who used his work in a number of different countries), and a variety of other clients, Ron has carved out a considerable niche within the music industry. Ron has worked on promotional campaigns for many types of musicians, and has done a considerable amount of print design work for rock and blues icons such as Gregg Allmann, Derek Trucks, Taj Mahal, Leon Russell, and Johnny Winter. He has also designed posters to promote indie and metal bands and, of course Jim.

The event management behind the Grammy Award winning Derek Trucks Band sought the creative expertise of Ronald Bercume for the band’s 2007 4 Island Hawaii Tour.

Another artist on the 2007 Hawaii Tour series, the Derek Trucks Band is an award winning blues-rock band with a unique style and various influences. The poster design focuses primarily on the full color photo of the band used for brand consistency and the band name in a large serif typeface. To complement the serif type treatment, a bold sans serif typeface is used to draw attention. With the photo being colorful and interesting, a deep blue-green and a golden orange were used for contrast and attention-getting delivery of important information.

Organic palm tree texture is placed in the background for depth, while the texture is light enough that there is still a comfortable amount of white space and legibility.

Derek Trucks has been hailed as one of the greatest slide guitarists since Duane Allman and was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone.

Trucks first attracted the attention of the music industry as a nine-year old child prodigy on the guitar, and by age 12, he’d worked with some of the biggest names in the music scene. He was sitting in with Buddy Guy and an increasing list of other famous musicians, and was also touring with the Allman Brothers Band for a decade before finally becoming an official band member in 1999.

Imagery from the Mountains.

Jones Outfitters, LTD is a business located in Ron’s hometown of Lake Placid, NY.

The printed materials produced include a full-color three fold brochure with imagery from the surrounding Adirondack Mountains and a color palette pulled from the blue and green hues of the photography and logo.

Rock and Roll’s Living Legend.

Russell has played with artists as varied as Jerry Lee Lewis, Joe Cocker, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Elton John, B.B. King, Eric Clapton, The Beach Boys, Willie Nelson, Frank Sinatra, The Rolling Stones and many more.

Singer-songwriter Leon Russell was another musician to tour in Hawaii and have his promotional print media designed by Ron. This particular poster showcases Leon Russell as Rock and Roll’s Living Legend while on the Hawaii tour of 2007. Using a color photo of Leon Russell as the main focus, the next element in the poster’s visual hierarchy would be the musician’s name at the top in a bold serif font and all caps. The serif font appears a few more times, but most of the poster’s text is in a clean sans serif font. An orange-brown color serves as a background and helps the poster pop by contrasting with the mostly black background of the photo.

Todd Bissonette is a full-time photojournalist and stringer for the Associated Press.

He has captured images from high-profile sporting events such as the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and has captured many beautiful shots in and around his hometown of Lake Placid, NY. He is also a wedding and portrait photographer for which Ron designed a set of printed collateral.

The brochure and other printed materials for RTB Photography focus strongly on the photographic work of the client.

To let the photography take main stage, the typography is simple and the color palette sticks to a solid black background and white text. These pieces allow the photography to sell itself by allowing it to be the main feature of every design. “It’s easy to provide for effective graphic design when your client’s work is so jaw-dropping that it sells itself,” says Ron of Todd’s work.

The logo that appears on the printed pieces was also designed by Ron.

The majority of the focus within the logo is on the bold, handwritten signature, and the clean typeface appearing beneath it acts as a compliment and simple description. This one color logo is easily placed on nearly any background color as the design is solid in color. The logo doubles as a signature from the artist and is a clean, unobtrusive addition to his photography when used as a form of identification on any piece.

A very feminine feel.

Located in San Rafael, California, Leslie Marie Interiors provides a range of services for their clientelle.

The logo created for the business showcases a feminine and upper-class focus through the use of an elegant script typeface combined with a grand-looking serif, and organic design elements such as the swoosh on the left. A deep turquoise and rich purple complete the design and reinforce the elegance and femininity. The imagery used in the logo gives an interesting organic visual with respect to the client’s french heritage.

The Leslie Marie Interiors stationery set includes a two-sided business card and a letterhead. The design uses a two color system, the deep turquoise and rich purple from the logo on a white background with illustrative artwork screened in the background.

Conveying Community, Professionalism and Trust.

The Connie UY logo design was created for a real estate agent located in Seattle, Washington.

The blue-hued logo utilizes identifiable imagery from Seattle, such as the cityscape and Space Needle, as well as various silhouetted people – your friends, family and neighbors. The script and serif typefaces combine to convey professionalism and trust, overlapping typographic characters are reminiscent of the client’s trademark signature.

Another poster design provided for a Grammy Award winner and nominee, the simple black and white Johnny Winter poster was created for the Winter Harvest Concert Series held in Saranac Lake, NY. The show received positive feedback from all attendees and the Texas blues legend made a lasting impression on the community.

Winters performed at the Harrietstown Town Hall in Saranac Lake and did not leave fans disappointed.

“This poster is not exactly well designed, it was one of my earliest posters out of college, the process was very content and client driven, but it is Johnny – I have to share it,” said Bercume.

The design focuses on the Texas blues legend with a large black and white photograph of him playing the guitar, provided by and requested to be used for the design by the event management. The color palette sticks to the black and white theme from the photography, with all text and elements in black. Both a serif and sans serif typeface are used, with the serif type treatment used for the larger and more important information and the sans serif type coming in as a clean complement with the secondary information.

Winters produced two Grammy Award winning albums by Muddy Waters, “Hard Again” and “I’m Ready.” Additionally, two of Winters own albums received Grammy nominations. Awards aside, Winters played a nine song set with Edgar Winter at the Woodstock Music Festival. In 1988 he was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame and was published on the cover of the first issue of Guitar World in 1980. Additionally, the Smashing Pumpkins paid tribute to Winters in their hit “Zero.”

Boldness and Trust.

LindeMac Real Estate is located in New Hampshire, and the logo reflects the wooded area the business resides in with its main visual of a tree.

The tree is a mostly solid silhouette that includes some falling leaves to add visual interest. The typography is in all uppercase and exudes a sense of boldness and trust, which are good characteristics for a real estate business. A light green and dark green are the only colors used in the design, which again reflects the wooded New Hampshire location.

A letterhead and two-sided business card make up the simple but strong Lindemac Real Estate stationery set design. The green used in the logo is the only color used throughout the rest of the stationery, and the only visual is the tree in the logo. Utilizing white space to its maximum potential, no other elements are used on the pieces besides the logo and contact information.

Celebrating Sportsmanship.

The Sportsmen’s Celebration is a promotional tribute to National Hunting and Fishing Day held by the Sportsmen’s Foundation. The logo is clearly related to the Sportsmen’s Foundation logo with the use of a bold serif typography treatment.

To communicate the “celebration” aspect of the design, the word “CELEBRATION” within the logo is placed on a textured background that conveys a sense of activity and movement. Imagery includes illustrations of wildlife, flora and fauna included, which further communicates the celebratory nature of the logo by showing what appears to almost be a gathering of animals. Finally, the color palette of natural greens drives home the fact that the Sportsmen’s Foundation (and Celebration) is based around nature.

Included in the printed materials for the Sportsmen’s Celebration are a flyer and stationery. All pieces use the same light and dark greens and typographic treatment from the logo. Imagery includes color photography as well as the illustration art from the logo, all referencing some aspect of the Adirondack Mountains and sportsmen’s activities.

Organic and Flowing.

The Equinology business offers classes for Equine Body Worker certification, which is essentially massage therapy for horses to improve their stamina and disposition, as well as provide comfort to muscle injuries.

The logo reflects these ideas through the use of an organic typeface and flowing illustration. The typeface used is unique, bold, and flows into the illustration of the horse. This horse illustration communicates a sense of movement and flow, which is a key part of Equinology. Color usage includes various shades of medium gray and dark slate gray to accent the design.

Representing research
and diagnostics.

Caninology offers veterinarians and specialists who teach various dog courses certification in canine massage therapy.

With this in mind, the logo imagery was designed to represent the research and diagnostic end of identifying a canine’s underlying physical issues. Typography includes a single serif typeface that is bold and classic in appearance, and it gives the design a feeling of strength and trust.

Too much time spent behind Ron’s drawing table.

The Adirondack Photographers logo was created several years ago for an ongoing project devoted to the photography and photographers of the Adirondack Mountains. The green color palette speaks to a more non-traditional usage of greens that is often used when representing the Adirondack Mountains.

The imagery is humorous with the use of the ape-to-photographer evolution illustration, and was a unique concept and thought process derived from too much time spent behind Ron’s drawing table. Typographic treatment combines a Romanesque and modern sans serif combination for a professional but not too corporate of a feel.

Ron attended high school in Lake Placid and discovered his love for fine art there.

After college, Ron returned to the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York and the community there continued to inspire his artistic ambitions. Shortly after moving back to town, Ron create a poster for the 2006 Lake Placid Film Festival, which had publicly released a call for submissions. This is one of Ron’s early posters, and he took a minimalist, direct approach with the work.

Acclaimed author Russell Banks co-founded the fest and the writer, a major cultural figure, has succeeded in bringing major players in the film industry to the Adirondacks for the festival. The fest has focused on the history, evolution, and future of film; actors and directors such as Robert Downey have attended the event. Like the town, the Lake Placid Film Festival fosters a sense of community. Participants are able to discuss their careers, aspirations, and problems with experienced members of the industry.

The festival is meant to inspire the local community and attendees to pursue their independent films while discovering new, rare, and classic films.

Ron believes that events like the Lake Placid Film Festival are a major part of why life in Lake Placid is so appealing. He hopes to contribute to an art scholarship for students from Lake Placid by the end of 2011.

Featuring the Beautiful Adirondack Mountains.

A range of printed materials was produced for Adirondack Multimedia, which is an advertising design and photography business located within the mountainous region – a special project and collaboration between Todd Bissonette of RTB Photography and Ron’s parent agency SeeMore Media.

Included are a full color three-fold brochure that uses Todd’s photography of the beautiful Adirondack regions, media kit folder design, a range of postcard products that all share a unified corporate identity through the use of branded typography, logo design and stunning photography. All pieces are connected through the blue hues seen throughout the photographic images, as well as matching typography.

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Beautiful imagery of the Adirondack Mountains

High Peaks Embroidery is a screen-printing and embroidery business located in the Adirondacks of New York. Ron composed the detailed logo to include an illustration of the beautiful Adirondack Mountains with a palette of various greens and a strong serif type treatment. The logo was used in a variety of printed pieces, including the business’s stationery.

Simple but strong.

Amanda’s Village Motel is located in the Adirondack Mountains, specifically in Ron’s hometown of Saranac Lake, NY.

The logo designed for Amanda’s Village Motel is a simple but strong logotype. Just one font is used within the design, an elegant serif with soft curves. Most of the emphasis within the text is placed on the words “Amanda’s” and “Motel” being that they are the largest pieces of the logo. The word “Village” is smaller, has wide spacing between the letters, and allows the rest of the logo to stand out in contrast. This is a one color design using just a deep green, although the logo’s treatment on the company brochure features it in white with a green outline.

Pulling from the surrounding Adirondack Mountains imagery, the stationery set for Amanda’s Village Motel includes a palette of greens and an illustration of the motel. The brochure includes photographs of the area surrounding Amanda’s Village Motel, as well as the green coloring seen in the stationery. The serif type treatment is used throughout all pieces and conveys a sense of grandness, fitting for anything located in the Adirondacks.

Simply Corporate.

Travel Vortal is a logo design created for the Travel Vortal travel directory search engine website.

The design includes two colors, blue and golden yellow, and it has a corporate sense to it with the sans serif type treatment and simplified travel imagery of a ship, plane, and bus.

Grungy and Urban Appeal.

The black and white printed flyer for True Vision Concepts communicates the urban feel of the apparel store, located in Saranac Lake, NY.

Typography includes a bold san serif typeface with alternating upper and lower case letter forms, and the background imagery is stylized and grungy for an urban appeal. With a one color palette of black, the need to stand out relies on the bold typography and a strong contrast with the mostly white background.

This menacing image may have fascist overtones, but it also functions as a Rorshach test.

Ron often works with his close friends, and an old Adirondack neighbor of his played in the metal band Ten Ton Hammer. “They were awesome,” recalls Bercume. “It was on the level of Tool or Slipknot. It wasn’t like a typical bar band that you may have expected in a small town.”

According to TTH, there is only one relevant genre: pure metal. The band is incluenced by acts like Machine Head, Killswitch Engage, Sevendust, Fear Factory, Slipknot, Soilwork, Ill Nino, Lamb of God, and All That Remains.

This logo is audience-centric and subjective – viewers’ responses to it vary depending on their perspectives and on how close they look.

Ron is particularly proud of the way it plays on typographic elements which come together for what could be interpreted as a acronym, among other things.

Bercume was inspired to design print material and a logo for Ten Ton. The design utilizes a organic approach that is rustic and old-school. The typeface and colors of the design resemble the motifs which define heavy metal. His design has a textured, organic, and hand-drawn feel.

“Tell me that doesn’t look like a hardcore band logo,” remarks Bercume. “It’s scary.” Bercume believes that this subtle, vaguely-menacing image may have fascist overtones, but it also functions as a Rorshach test.

Combining classic and modern styles.

The Gift Basket Fairy is a business located in Austin, Texas that specializes in gift baskets of all kinds. The logo design is a clear source of inspiration for the accompanying stationery set as many elements are used throughout both.

The main focus of the logo is the reverse silhouette image of a fairy enclosed in a round-corner box. The fairy is white while her surroundings are the deep blue used within the rest of the logo. Typography consists of a combination of a classic serif and a clean sans serif for a modern but non-corporate appearance. The lower case “i” within “Gift” is modified so that it uses some of the artwork from the fairy image for added visual interest.

As a one color printed stationery set, the Gift Basket Fairy logo, business card, and letterhead are visually interesting with their use of a detailed illustration and clean typography. The deep blue used throughout the pieces offers contrast with the white background, and the fairy illustration is a strong visual wrapped up in a simple form.

Elegance in Motion.

The logo design for Renoe-Tahoe Equestrian Center is one color with an organic script combined with a classic serif typeface, and a simplified illustration of a moving horse.

The elegant design relates directly to the riding center which is a full-service riding academy and nationally renowned Arabian horse training facility.

To convey the high-end nature of the distributor.

The Summer Grove logo was created by Ron Bercume for a fine foods distributor based in the U.K. that serves northern Europe.

The logo uses a combination of a serifed typeface with a script treatment, iconic illustration to represent the nature of the product, and a soft red and blue color palette.

Clearly Communicating a Natural Concept.

The Natural Vantage logo is part of an entire corporate identity project taken on by Ron. The logo design clearly communicates the “natural” concept through color, imagery, and typography (not to mention the title of the business).

The single color used is a deep green of the type that could be easily found in nature. Imagery includes a bamboo illustration enclosed in a box, and the illustration is repeated on many of the printed pieces designed for the company. With the use of a handwritten script font combined with a clean sans serif, the “natural” concept is driven home with the chosen typography.

Many printed materials were produced for Natural Vantage, including a letterhead, business card, and envelope. The use of the green color palette, the bamboo imagery, and the organic type treatment all clearly communicate the “natural” theme of these pieces. The screened bamboo imagery in the background adds visual interest, and most of the visual focus is on the bamboo illustration taken from the logo.

A feeling of elegance, sophistication and comfort.

Ron designed the Cannon Ridge Therapeutic Riding Center logo with a script typeface and sans serif tag line treatment for a feeling of elegance, sophistication and comfort.

The imagery includes a horse that appears painted for a country feel which is fitting as the center is located in Chesapeak, Virginia.