Eagle Imagery Logo Design Blog

Very pleased to announce today that a selection of my animal logo designs has been published in Logolounge: Master Library, Volume 2: 3000 Animal and Mythology Logos. Available on 1st July 2010, the book can be previewed at Amazon UK (not an affiliate link).

Logolounge is large, international community of designers who are vitally interested in logo design, its history and its future.

After an agonising wait during the approvals process (nine months or so), I finally secured UK Registered Trade Mark status for my core brands; 'Eagle' and 'Eagle Imagery'. I'm reasonably well-known on forums and business networking circles - and on some, I go by the username of 'Eagle' - so it was important to recognise the brand value of both marks which I had built-up over the years.

Getting your trade marks formally registered with the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) will afford you enhanced legal protection in the event that someone choses to trade with your mark. If you're looking for an expert Trade Mark Attorney then simply drop me an email and I can put you in touch.

Social Media Evangelism - Doing more Harm than Good?

I'm a member of what must be well over 180 business networks worldwide. I enjoy using them; after all it's what helps gets my business 'out there' and the food on the table. However, I've noticed a distinctly worrying trend in the last year or two of various networks trying to be too flashy. A myriad gadgets, widgets and whizz-bangs all vying for your attention (and your precious time ); it's all too complex.

It's especially so for B2B business start-ups run by those also new to the net who are clamouring to raise their profile, fuelled, in part, by the claims of the 'social media evangelists' (many of whom own 'social media' sites) who proclaim that this (or rather their site) is... 'the way forward'.

Let me tell you something. Social media / social networking, even business networking has been around online for well over 15 years. It is not new! I'd even go as far to say that the net itself is social media.

So, take your time to look around at what's out there and don't rush towards the light. Social media has been around for quite some time and will be for some time yet. Only the way people engage changes. A networking platform, particularly for a B2B operation doesn't have to be complex to be effective; a simple business forum will do the job quite nicely. Spread yourself around (not too thinly, mind) and don't get blinkered or starry-eyed by a single network. Some people's blind devotion to a single network, from what I've seen, is quite staggering! What if that network goes down? It can happen. Where will they be then?

Eagle Imagery appoints MulitLayer Design to carry out a CSS conversion and SEO update of the site.

Originally constructed in the late 17th Century, the Eagle Imagery website had served me well up until a few months ago. I realised however that the site was so far out of date, coding-wise, and that its 'Tag Soup' HTML was affecting search engine results (SERPs).

The site badly needed re-coding in CSS and to current W3C Standards, having put it off for many months, I decided to put the task out to tender on UK Business Labs Forum.

In the end, it was a personal recommendation from a long-time online acquaintance who put me in touch with Kev Jaques.

I had asked several companies to pitch their proposals to me but Kev's proposal stood out a mile, double my budget, mind - but Kev's proposal knocked all the others into a cocked hat.

Kev covered a vast amount of info and had a whole raft of suggestions for not only how he would re-code and streamline the site but what he could do SEO-wise (something not in my original tender).

Suffice to say, Kev's proactive and thoroughly professional approach won him the job!

Now that 'Eagle Imagery MkII' is live, we're currently in a testing phase. We'll be looking at ways to tweak and improve the already impressive new coding.

UK Business Labs recently soared past the 900 member mark. What's significant about this figure is that it's made up of nearly 98% UK-based businesses.

In these current 'dark' economic times, it's great to come home to a network that's looking after its own.

UK Business Labs has become the UK's finest business network.

Free logo design when you order Stationery? I'm sorry, what? Yes, some graphic designers are actually offering this as a package. Evidently, they place such a low value on your company logo that they're prepared to offer it as a 'freebie'.

The mind boggles.

Cheap logos. They're $25 for a reason!

Here's a great online printing company that I've been working with for a while now.
Stationery Direct offer some fantastic prices without compromising on quality or service (unlike other printing companies I've used).

They specialise in business stationery printing, such as business cards, letterheads , compliment slips and ncr pads to name but a few. They also print many other items such as flyers , leaflets, posters, postcards, mousemats and much more.

In this day and age the environment and your carbon footprint is an important part of running a business, as a result the majority of their products are FSC Certified, they also offer a truly eco friendly 100% recycled range.

For any graphic/website designers out there that resell print or are looking to do so, they offer a fantastic print reseller scheme with great prices, but more importantly, quality products and fantastic customer service, which are key to growing your business.

If Eagle Imagery designs your business stationery or marketing material ready for print then give them a try, you won't be disappointed.

The new iPod Nano 4G is a great piece of hardware but its user interface is fundamentally flawed.

Self-proclaimed masters of the 'user-friendly' interface, Apple and their team of product testers have this time got it horribly wrong - much to the annoyance of the users on Apple's product forums.

The new Nano features an album art interface called 'Coverflow' which shows you the albums you have on the device in pictorial format. It activates by turning the iPod towards horizontal and it's very sensitive.
However, what users have found (myself included) is that when activated, you can't operate it easily and, most annoying of all, you can't adjust the sound until you've oriented it correctly again.

Lucky I don't go jogging very often!

Eagle Imagery® chooses Dell and a Precision™ M2400 for it's mobile IT requirement.

The magnesium alloy M2400 is Dell's latest offering in the performance vs portability arena and will address a capability gap identified in the third quarter of 2008.