Photo from sxc.hu user Spiders

Can’t believe fall arrived on time in the Dallas area after one of the hottest summers ever. Today is the first time I donned my sweater while working in the office. What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think about fall aside from changing leaves? For me, it’s candy corn. I know Halloween is over a month away, but somehow it’s become a bad habit for candy corn (and it must be a specific brand) to find its way into my house along with a few candy pumpkins.

Brain food …

• The Great Big (30+) List of iPhone Apps for Writers. Ooh. Saving this in case my next phone is an iPhone. BlackBerry still fighting … battery flipped out, but found a replacement and it’s still working.
• Blog Book Tour Providers. Blog tours are a great way to spread the word about your book without the cost of travel. You also get a search engine boost.
• What Is the Point of Writing a Book If You Have No Online Presence? Authors need to think platform and presence long before the book deal.
• Attitude Counts. This economy can bring anyone down because it keeps beating on us. It’s OK to be down, but don’t be out for too long. Take action.

For fun because we’re allowed …

• When Parents Text. How about “When kids new to texting text?” I hope I never land on this list. 10 Funniest Parent Texts from Oddee.
• 88 Ways to Make a Stranger Smile. Nothing lifts one’s spirits than making another smile just because …
• X-Men Restroom Sign.
• What It Would Look Like If Facebook Was Honest About Its New Changes.
• The past and the future of famous logos. So future logos will be boring, or turn into generic icons?

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Meryl Evans

Shakespeare A to Z woot tee

Two more weeks until the family’s regularly schedule life resumes. w00t! Got two school registration events in the upcoming week and one the following week. I’m grateful to all schools for taking care of the supplies for family. We buy the supplies at registration and PTA takes care of the rest. No going store to store or wondering if the product is the right one. Plus, this approach also provides discounts because PTA can order them in bulk.

While it’s great to get everything done at registration, it’s hard on the wallet. Spirit wear, yearbooks, photo orders (high school only), PTA membership, supplies — everything in one shot for all kids. One school tries to ease the pain by allowing families to order school supplies at the end of the previous school year. Shame they don’t do that for spirit wear and other things so we can spread out payment. I know that it’d be more administrative work to coordinate all this.

I know… I know… I choose to have kids, now I pay for it.

I wouldn’t want to be a kid again dealing with growing pains and peer pressure. I do envy my daughter’s English reading list. Mostly, I read one Shakespeare (yes, I have that tee you see in the picture) play per year in high school and little else. She gets modern day reading. Her books this year? The Great Gatsby, The Scarlet Letter, Death of a Salesman, Walden, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (I don’t understand why this one is on 11th grade AP English reading list when I read this in 6th grade!?), Beloved and The Things They Carried. Last year, she read Ender’s Game. (How cool is that?)

The required reading varies by English class type. Standard English reads To Kill a Mockingbird (I read that in 10th grade) and The Great Gatsby (never had to read it). Standard 12th grade English has Macbeth (that I read in my senior year) and Brave New World. 12th grade AP has a long list, some of which I read in college including Heart of Darkness (I hated it). I won’t bore you with the complete list.

Brain food…

• 13 Writing Clichés That Will Kick Your Ass: These focus on writing advice not phrases.
• 50 Famously Successful People Who Failed at First: I just read a great Walt Disney story elsewhere that he was turned down by 302 lenders before getting a bank to help.
• 25 logos with hidden messages: Some very familiar and some new. All impressive stuff.
• The Age-Old Question: Can I Pick Your Brain? I’m not famous and yet, I hear from new writers on a regular basis asking about freelancing, writing and business. I don’t want to be mean or anything… I’d love to send them to this article… but I think it’d come across as mean. My current solution is to send them to several of my posts for new writers. And a long list of articles to help get started as a freelance writer.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Comic: Misplaced Apostrophes: I cringe when I see stuff like this even though I remind myself that our fingers sometimes do its own thing. I love Debbie Ohi‘s work. (P.S. Congrats to her winning two awards at SCBWI!) Goodness knows, I’ve tried drawing my own characters, but never liked the work. It’s not a picky thing, but the “I stink at drawing” thing.
• Inside Insides: Wonder cabbage, watermelon, tomato, dragon fruit and other food items look like in an MRI? Stop wondering, and start knowing.
• Space Invaders Counch: Gank the Invaders at Home: This makes a nice match to my Space Invaders shirt. Think it’s a little much to buy a couch to coordinate with my shirt
• 20 Most Inventive Cupcakes Known to Man: The most inventive… don’t know about that. I’ve seen impressive work by the bakers on Cupcake Wars — but a nom nom of a collection!
• 10 Funniest Rejection Letters: Still laughing…
• 30 Simple Family Pleasures: You don’t have to spend a lot or plan something big. The little things do matter.

What was your favorite required school reading? Why?

Ah, I got nothing today — no stories, nada. Just lots and lots of work since I had a few appointments not related to business. At least, it’s been beautiful and sunny all week.

Brain food…

• Bite-Size Edits: “Bite-Size Edits takes a text, chops it into pieces, and serves those pieces randomly to editors. Players get points for editing text, for providing useful comments, for helping to get a text completely edited.”
• Using Web Tools For Creating and Managing Contracts: Important topic. I had one client (I had worked with him before without problems) who failed to live up to his part of agreement and I had no contract for it. (I know. Shame on me.)
• How to Make Better Decisions: “Accepting ownership of consequences and balancing responsibility with your own personal goals lets you overcome stress, enabling you to making empowering decisions.”
• I wish I would have known: Answers from 11 top freelancers: Focus on designers, but applies to others including writers. I wish I would have known that my inability to use the phone like everyone else would be a big barrier to getting clients. But reflecting on my life and career — the path that got me here was the best route.
• The Five Best Mispronunciations I’ve Ever Heard: I love malapropisms every since I learned about them reading The Rivals
  . They’re fun. They inject humor in a conversation. Just heard one on NCIS this week: A character from another country said in reference to Kennedy shooting, “…shot from the book suppository.” More discussions over at Nathan Branford’s blog.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Cool and Unusual Business Card Designs: I love these round ups. Such creativity! And 10 free orange business card templates.
• 15 Entertaining Toilet Paper Designs: Notebook paper for writers. That’s productive!
• 15 photos that are real, not Photoshopped: My heart fell into my stomach looking at Dean Potter on tightrope walk in Yosemite.
• Cool Cupcake Creations: Tasty! Glad I haven’t seen these locally… they’d be tough to resist!
• Another 12 Unfortunate Logos: Aw, c’mon. How do you end up with these logos? Logo work isn’t something that’s done in five minutes and usually involves at least two people. Someone HAS to catch these!

This guest post is from Ben Johnson of Logoinn, a custom logo design service provider based in UK.

Your logo is the proverbial “calling card” for your business. The appearance, style and design of your business logo will be responsible for the all-important first impression to a potential customer or client.

Understanding the importance of your business logo, you may wonder what you should have and what you should include within the design of that logo. This article provides tips and pointers on what type of logo you need to have for your business enterprise.

Logo as an Iconic Representation

When you are considering what type of logo will be most suitable for your own business, you can learn a good deal from those very successful logos that have really proven successful over time. Some logos have become so widely recognized that they are iconic.

Examples of iconic logos include the Coca-Cola logo, the Starbucks logo and many other logos that have been around for a long time that have become a part of the consciousness of consumers from all parts of the world.

You can take tips and cues from these logos when it comes to the decision making process associated with your own business logo. For example, these logos have common factors and elements that you can translate into your own logo design efforts.
For example, these iconic logos have clean and clear design concepts, have basic color schemes and convey a sense of what the business is about.

Take Practical Considerations into Account

In addition to taking a look at what other successful businesses have done in the way of logos, you want to clearly take in account practical considerations. For example, want to make sure that your logo appropriately conveys at least an indication of the products or services that you are offering through your business venture. A logo that doesn’t convey a sense of your business type will become ineffective in branding at best and a devastating error in the worst-case scenario.

You also need to ensure that your branding devices appeal and attract the specific market niche that contains the specific consumer group who will be most interested in doing business with your firm or company.

Simple Is Better

When selecting a logo design, keep in mind that a clean and uncluttered look is the best selection and the best choice for your operation.

With a clean, clear and uncluttered logo, consumers will more readily connect with your business. A quicker, sounder connection increases the number of customers or clients that your firm or company will do business with both in the short and the long term.

Know Your Industry

While you definitely do not want to copy another business’s logo design concept, it can help you to analyze what other businesses in your specific industry are doing in the way of logos, branding and related issues. Some themes are commonplace and suitable within a specific industry. Therefore, it likely will behoove your business to incorporate these themes into your own efforts at designing the most effective logo for your venture.

This is a step that a professional design firm will undertake as part of its own effort at developing the most effective and appropriate logo for your own business enterprise.

Final Lines

If you take the time and make the effort to consider the factors in this article, you will be in a better position to understand what type of custom logo will not only be the most suitable, but also most effective for your business venture. You will be laying the groundwork for a successful and profitable business, the groundwork that will serve you well not only today but as your business grows into the future.

Yesterday was my 20th wedding anniversary. Wow. Two decades of marriage. I’m very lucky to have Paul as a partner in life, parenting and silliness. Yes, I’m up for many more! I just hope he can handle me!

• What books do people proselytize about?
• 10 steps to get your e-mail inbox to zero every day [Link: Aliza Sherman]
• How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live: I watched #tonys on Twitter last Sunday and it was quite an experience different than what I am used to on Twitter.
• Social Networking Medial ROI Calculator

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• 40 Fantastic Sand Sculptures
• How to Plan a Vacation Using Social Media: Note to self… remember this when I finally manage to plan one.
• Guess the Logo: Love these games.
• 8 Weird and Wacky Items Sold on Amazon.com

My youngest, a kindergartener, had Mud Pie Day today (they do bubbles, throw footballs, play Frisbee, eat pudding, mess with sand and much more.

• 99 Essential Twitter Tools: Yikes! Sounds to me more like 99 ways to get sucked in twitter some more…
• 72 Stunning Business Cards That Will Blow You Away: Consider me blown.
• Alternative to expensive software: Don’t need to spend $$$ in Photoshop or need all of its power features? You can see a list of alternatives and filter them by license such as free, open source and commercial, by platform and by tag.
• 25 logos with hidden message: Cool stuff.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Amazing photographs from a high point of view
• You Can’t Please Everyone: One star Amazon reviews of movies, music and literature.
• Cards of Change: What people do to their business cards when they no longer work for the company on the card.
• Award winning stop motion: Do it again: Wow! Talk about patience!

What does a Web 2.0-style logo look like? Here’s Part I and Part II of a collection from Flickr.

Yay Hooray has over 200 posts of people having a good time Web 2.0-ifying existing logos. [Links from Web 2.0 blog ]

I was wrong. Gradients and the wet floor effect appear in most of the logos. The list contains almost everything that appears in the 8 Web Design Cliches.