A fellow designer emailed me the other day. She had a client who wanted her to design a brochure for him. For payment, he would advertise her business.
Was this a fair trade?
I gave the best advice I could. Mainly, to contact her accountant and lawyer to make sure she arranges the trade properly. Secondly, to make sure the trade was even - dollar for dollar.
This weekend I picked up the September issue of Reader's Digest. In it was an article entitled Swap Nation by Jeff Garigliano. How timely.
It turns out, my advice was pretty sound. The IRS looks at barter agreements as it would a cash transaction.
The article piqued my curiosity. In this economy, is bartering a viable solution for small businesses like mine? What do you think?
Monday, August 24, 2009
Creative Logo Design
I was at the mall with my kids the other day. As we neared the food court, we noticed a new frozen yogurt stand. Yogen Fruz. Of course my kids wanted to try it out. And we did.
The smoothies were great. Mine was all fruit. My youngest daughter had a yogurt and fruit smoothie. My eldest daughter had chocolate frozen yogurt blended with raspberries.
It's what I took away from the visit that shows the true spirit of a designer. My smoothie cup! I brought it home, washed it out and it sits on a shelf in my office.
Why?
Because the logo is so simple and yet so cool. Fruz has an umlat over the u. To call attention to it, the u is pink, rather than the blue of the other letters. Nothing special. But they took the u, with it's umlat, made it bigger and set it apart from the name. And now it's ... a smile!
Yes, Yogen Fruz smoothies make me smile. So does their logo. Very cool, yet very simple design. I love it!
The cup will remain on my shelf as inspiration. Keep it simple - creatively!
The smoothies were great. Mine was all fruit. My youngest daughter had a yogurt and fruit smoothie. My eldest daughter had chocolate frozen yogurt blended with raspberries.
It's what I took away from the visit that shows the true spirit of a designer. My smoothie cup! I brought it home, washed it out and it sits on a shelf in my office.
Why?
Because the logo is so simple and yet so cool. Fruz has an umlat over the u. To call attention to it, the u is pink, rather than the blue of the other letters. Nothing special. But they took the u, with it's umlat, made it bigger and set it apart from the name. And now it's ... a smile!
Yes, Yogen Fruz smoothies make me smile. So does their logo. Very cool, yet very simple design. I love it!
The cup will remain on my shelf as inspiration. Keep it simple - creatively!
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