Small Business Design Resources

Free Business Cards Design & Printing Giveaway

Congratulations to the following winners: Read more »

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Summer Giveaway: CRAVE Los Angeles Guidebook

I’m excited to announce that I, Yiana Palacios am being featured in the Intelligentsia section of the CRAVE Los Angeles 2010 Guidebook and I’m giving one away.

To Enter: Simply fill in the form CRAVEla Guidebook Giveaway

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Quick Tip: Measure Anything on a Website with MeasureIt Firefox add-on

Do you ever need to know the size of a window, a banner, or a column on a website, but have no idea how to measure it? Well, if you’re using the Firefox browser, now you can download the MeasureIt add-on.

Once you download the MeasureIt add-on, you’ll notice a ruler icon on the lower left-hand corner of your browser window. To measure anything on your screen follow these simple steps: Read more »

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Brand Recognition: Creating a Custom Twitter Background

When you have a business, you want your brand to be recognized in everything that you do. Having your business on Twitter is no different. By creating a custom Twitter background you will instantly stand out, bring credibility to your brand and leave a lasting impression to your visitors.

There are no set rules on how your background needs to look or what size it needs to be, but here are some pointers on what to do to keep that professional image. Read more »

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Twitter Tuesday: Free Custom Twitter Background Design

On random Tuesdays I send out a Tweet that I offer to design a free custom twitter background for one small business owner or start-up company. Follow Design Leap so you won’t miss your opportunity.

To enter: leave a comment on this post and include the following: Read more »

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Free Alternatives to Photoshop

I use Photoshop on a daily basis, but not everyone is a designer nor can everyone afford it. Here’s a list of few free web based alternatives to Photoshop where you can either use them to create a new graphic from scratch or just do basic photo editing from your existing photos. I haven’t really used them to test all the features and tools, but I came up with the pros and cons based on my quick evaluation. First three are similar to Photoshop in a sense that you can create a graphic from scratch or open your own photo to work with. The last three are basically photo editing, meaning you will need to upload a photo to work with it.

http://www.pixlr.com/editor/ – The interface looks almost identical to Photoshop. Has all the features that you would need to do basic photo editing. Recently released, so it’s still in its growing phase. Read more »

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Adding Images to Your Website

Pictures and images make a web page pop and add color and visual interest to your web page. They illustrate your products so that customers can see what they are buying, they attract and entice people to stay on your website and they provide helpful clues if you are describing a “how to” process.

Finding good graphics for your site can be time consuming and costly. It is not as simple as searching on Google Images and downloading whatever you find. Most pictures, images and in fact any content that is visible on the internet, is protected either explicitly or implicitly by copyright. We do not recommend downloading pictures that you find on the internet unless you have either paid for them or the site explicitly tells you that they are available for public use. Just because you don’t actually see a copyright notice on a web page or image does not mean that anyone can use it. There is a wealth of information available about copyright laws, but for the best information, go straight to the source at www.copyright.gov

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Free Business Listing

As a small business owner it’s your responsibility to get the word out about your business. I’ve compiled a few links that will take you to some popular sites that let you submit your physical (brick and mortar) store location information, hours, time and other things that people usually search for online.

All of these are free, but have an option if you want to upgrade to a paying account.

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