IZZIART comments

New Blog Launch for EmailBlastFlyer.com

Isabel — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 03:21:31 +0000

Check out http://emailblastflyer.wordpress.com/about/

We have finally launched the blog for www.emailblastflyer.com , a service of Isabel Smith Art and Design that manages bulk email lists and designs custom direct email.

The blog is an informational companion regarding questions about email address list, content and the extended services we offer with the direct email blast.

We think it will be helpful and welcome comments.

Isabel

Isabel Smith Art and Design – www.isabelsmith.com

eMail Blasts and Other Stuff

Isabel — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 20:14:30 +0000

What I really love about my country is our sense of humor. Gas is up — way up and going higher; food has nearly doubled; the real estate market seems to be ”kinda slow” and generally speaking, I can’t remember a time in my lifetime more things could be on our plate: the war, the world of terrorism, our economy. And its at times like these the American sense of humor rises. After all smiles still aren’t taxed and are free.

One of my clients, Jana Baldwin – Marlin Design and Construction (www.marlindesignandconstruction.com) – sent this photo with this subject line “Real Estate Bargain” with this copy for the content “Don’t you hurt yourselves getting in line to be the first to own these large, affordable, second homes. They may even qualify for fractional ownership to ease the financial strain of vacationing in style.”

Isabel Smith Art and Design – Custom Flyer Design/Bulk Email Management – www.emailblastflyer.com

We design custom flyers and blast to them to the email addresses you provide. We consult with our clients providing individual solutions to their needs. Its not just a flyer. Email us or call for more information: questions@emailblastflyer.com – (850) 244-7353

Our studio is located in Fort Walton Beach, Florida – The beautiful northwest panhandle of the Emerald Coast — yes! It’s the upper west side — crazy white sugar soft sand and incredibly clear emerald green water — Sweet!

Isabel — Mon, 21 May 2007 13:59:33 +0000

Are you at Template?

What makes you different than the MLS listing every agent uses to help their clients find a home?

What makes you different than every real estate template that allows you to update your listings in the same size photo/same amount of text format?

What makes you different is the reason you sell more than your other agents….

IT’S YOU….

It’s how you approach your clients, how you present a home, and all the other many details that go into the sale and listing of your clients.

You and your style is what makes you stand out.

HOW MUCH MORE DOES A CUSTOM DESIGN COST?

1. You will have to give up learning curves….and just learn how to email your MLS links to us

2. You will have to put more of your time into selling and networking…because we are just a phone call away

3. you will have to get use to wanting to improve your image more because you can!

4. While you are getting use to your image, so is everyone else — so get ready to be recognized

AND ITS NOT JUST Real Estate….

It’s small business owners that offer what the big companies can never offer: INDIVIDUALIZED SERVICE.

For Example:

The boxes are here, true; and we all go there for things…. but when I want to paint my house, I go to the local paint store. Why?

Because he has a knowledge of paint: color, materials, etc. He can match a color from a tiny chip, not only because he has the machine to do it, but also because he has that experience of being a house painter for 20 years behind him. He knows what the machine says, and he tips the scales with his experience…. in my favor. And he knows color — so when I go in there with an ”idea” he can tell me from experience if I will get the results I’m hoping to get. And I trust his judgement because I do get the results I wanted… He guides me right!

Will a template explain that?

Each business with a dedication and a passion for what they do needs to hire a professional to listen to their needs, their goals, and the uniqueness of their business to not only hear what is being said, but to also read between the lines.

SO WHAT GOOD ARE TEMPLATES?

They are good idea starts. for $30 or so you can buy a template, show it to your professional designer and ask them to follow the good points you like in the template.

Some template companies have built in expensive programming that may be absolutely necessary for your business needs online — database programming saves tons of time and using a template is just common sense. This type of programming is too expensive for an individual to buy in a small business, but a company that sells a template with all the bells and whistles is worth it — IF you can have control over the masthead — that’s the part that is your individual stamp!

MAKE SURE THERE ARE PLENTY OF SPACES LEFT in addition to the masthead, that you will be allowed to have your designer submit something to your template company, that will distinguish you from your competiton. A custom flash masthead is sometimes the best fit in such a website because it offers a nice contrast to the conformity of the rest of the web site. But what about the ability to insert your photograph several times throughout the website — and customize your contact.

Any place there is repetitive information, the masthead and contact for instance, you should have the ability to individualize.

Then you have the best of both worlds: template with great programming back structure and custom design projecting your individual image.

SO HOW MUCH DOES IT REALLY COST TO GO ”CUSTOM”

It’s not like the diet juice companies that sell their product at such a high price that in order to afford it you do get sick.

It’s not like going to a box office supply company and taking your chances at getting a run of a mill designer or a super designer that won’t be there long.

A custom design is done by a person who loves what they are doing and stays up-to-date with their field — and after that, they love taking their skill and applying it to your need.

You have a look, an idea, a color scheme — a product and service — and all the business factors: contact, price, getting orders, receiving payment, getting seen – a custom designer will orchestrate this into one beautiful song, a beautiful eating experience, a platform where you may proudly stand and be seen by the world as the genuine thing. You talk the talk, you walk the walk.

Find out the price of a custom design – call a design company, from small to large, and get a feel for their pricing. Most of all, find out what they need from you, what kind of time it takes them to accomplish what they need to, and how much time will you need to get them what they need.

And remember Rome was not built in a day. Tell your designer exactly what you want to do now and what your plans are in the future. That way when the discussion gets to the budget, the designer will be able to give you a plan that will grow.

Visit:

www.isabelsmith.com

Graphic to Prints – Lots of Choices Now

Isabel — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 19:00:40 +0000

In the old, the really old days, we would type stuff on some kind of weird paper and run it through a zerox to get cheap prints of stuff. I can remember doing this in high school and some of my very first jobs as a ”receptionist” in an office. Boy, those were the days…. The ”weird paper” was the ”plate” commercial printers use. As I got deep into my graphic design career, knowing your printer was essential. Printing was, and is still done, on offset presses for most affordable commercial stuff. Then the process color presses, which come in all kinds of sizes, use metal plates, and some even use digital plates. Right along with the personal computers came the printers — laser and inkjet. And soon a great little program, Adobe .PDFs — Now, when I design graphically for my clients I ask if they will be using the work on the internet (especially if it is a logo design) and I ask if they want to print on demand from their computers. I see a trend toward businesses equipping themselves with the proper sales tools for each client. It might be a flyer, a brochure, a white paper — and my client will have me design each as an Acrobat .PDF so they can print it out when they need it and even choose the paper each time. For postcards and business cards, process four color printing has become so reasonably priced, especialy for the 2,000 to 5,000 quantity, I just prepare the graphic design to prepress and digitally send the work to the printer. I use a lot of printers now. What I call “The best of the best” for each end use my client needs. For the freelance designer like myself, its never been a better time for printing. And the best part for me is having the ability to print custom pieces from my studio. I’m absolutely amazed at the quality of the printing and the choice of custom papers I have access to on a small quantity level. I have designed custom presentations for large local developers to show to their potential tenants. The presentations gave the developers the ability to look upscale and yet change the content, photos and graphics as needed to satisfy the potential tenants. Custom presentations and invitations are great for open houses, presenting Parade of Homes contestants, announcing new businesses. Along with addressing the envelopes in calligraphy, the completed custom makes a great impression and creates a lot of interest. Just the thing needed to get leads! The printing choices are really great and that’s not even getting into the specialty printing like emboss, varnish and die cuts, to name a few. I’m thankful for my long career in graphic design that gave me the experience to ask my clients now all the questions that are necessary for them to get exactly what they need to advertise to as many people at once in the most economical and effective way. A graphic designer has to be very familiar with the processes involved to make a good printing piece. And just like all the books and teachers and printers will tell you: consult with your printer before designing a project. Of course, after awhile you just know what printers can do what. But if you have a client that wants something very special and off the beaten path — then find the printer first. And every professional will advise you that with a very specialized job, it is a good idea to conference with the printer and client at the same time. Check out http://www.isabelsmith.com/html/presentations.html for examples of graphic design for printing.

Visit www.isabelsmith.com

Calligraphy – Envelope Addressing

Isabel — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 00:21:33 +0000

I have my own styles: straight up & down and slanted — soon I’ll offer ‘flourish’ — I don’t mean to demean the art of calligraphy by simplifying the terms. These are just the terms for my style. I’ve been doing calligraphy since I was 8 or 9 years old. I love print. I think of it as drawing and so when I started my own business 10 years ago, I included it. I wanted to honor the artform by continuing to do it. So most of the work I do in calligraphy is either addressing envelopes for weddings or doing calligraphy projects. I love doing the envelope addressing because it is so relaxing. Since most of my work takes place in my studio, I love seeing all the places in the world I address the envelopes to. The brides supply the list in Microsoft Word or Excel and either mail or deliver if they local, the envelopes to me. I like to have a couple of weeks to do a wedding. I use a dip pen, but when I first started I felt safer with a calligraphy fountain pen. Now I think the dip pen is much nicer and easier to use. Usually the envelope addressing is the last thing on the bride’s list of things to do, or so it seems for me. I don’t charge a fortune….$2.50 for the outer envelope and 50-cents for the inner envelope, so quite a few brides use my service so they have hand-written calligraphic invitations addressed. You can see my work at www.isabelsmith.com/html/calligraphy.html and there is a button for more samples too. Its a nice finishing touch for any occasion.

Visit: www.CountitallJoy.us

Flash Animations as Presentations, Product Directions, Maps, and Banners

Isabel — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 00:07:49 +0000

The minute I saw Flash I jumped on it like a gnat jumps on this darn monitor screen — whazup with that??? I loved Flash, but the love affair wasn’t mutual. I don’t have ‘real’ programmer brain cells. My programming skills are like my granddaughter’s typing — two fingers at a time. I don’t let things like that daunt me. Architectural renderers don’t build the buildings, but they know what they need to know to make a great illustration. So being in the graphics field as long as I have been in, you know there are going to be different levels of programs coming out to fit the various needs. So I jumped ‘down’ to Swish (which decided to bring the lot of us left brainers up to SwishMAX which offers scripting as well) and learned how to express my animation inspirations there. Be that as it may, it did not stop me from searching out and drooling at every high end Flash animator out there…. wah-hoo. Whenever I need a jolt of inspiration, I search those people out. Believe or not, a favorite site for some light-hearted well-done flash is Disney. And there are so many more sophisticated Flash designers out there — its breathtaking and its own career unto itself. Amen to that. Still that does not daunt me. I see uses for my clients. Quick opening presentations to their web sites that add some visual glamor and information to the visitor without taking up to a year and a day to load. Product Directions — I love that. Taking a printed product direction from print to animation — that’s the cat’s meow for me. Check out http://www.isabelsmith.com/html/design_solutions.html this is where I put various examples of how I use Flash for my customers. But the newest idea which I think is super is designing a flash animation banner for clients who have purchased the template and marketing features for their website but look like everyone else. A lot of these companies absolutely love a designer like myself to come in and a build an animation to fill that masthead spot. Now they don’t have to pay someone to do the time consuming design work. My client’s don’t mind paying me to build the animation because their website looks so good. And my client gets to enjoy updating information their own self on the format site, but best of all in my opinion, they get the advantages that only ‘associated group marketing’ can afford. Its a winner all ways around. The site with the banner? Its www.shawnnorrisrealestate.com And the people who host the site and template were absolutely great to work with. Let me know what you think on this one….

Visit: www.isabelsmith.com

Hello world!

Isabel — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 21:53:09 +0000

Welcome to WordPress.com. I am using WordPress as my blog author. Mostly I want to comment about the things my company (Isabel Smith Art and Design – www.isabelsmith.com) does which is web and graphic design, calligraphy and illustration. I also offer an internet marketing tool called www.emailblastflyer.com that is catching on really well with real estate people. I design a flyer and manage bulk email lists. Its a fascinating field, but very challenging to maneuver around spam filters and to create a flyer that people will open. Another thing I would like my blog to do is to gather feedback about what people feel about the designers and artists who do work for them and what their opinion is about receiving email flyers from people and/or companies that want to do business with them. Of course, political and religious comments should stay within good conduct fences, no swear words [of course] and meanies aren’t welcome. Looking forward to interesting blogging!

We just created www.CountitallJoy.us to display our calligraphy projects. Hope to see you there! Contact us with any ideas you would like us do for you. We will gladly email you about it.

Visit:

www.isabelsmith.com – online art and design portfolio

www.emailblastflyer.com – custom designed flyer with bulk email management