witola.com

The recent marriage of Katy Perry and Russell Brand got me thinking... no pre-nup is a wonderful way to start a marriage, but in this day and age of fair weather marriages of people in the limelight, that could be costly! When two high profile and wealthy people do wed, it seems a more practical and smart move to see the business side that it is also a "merger", not just a marriage.

When a marriage goes sour, the process of divorce becomes increasingly more complicated when the couple's net worth is in the stratosphere. The absence of an official prenuptial agreement, differences in international law and the circumstances surrounding of the breakup can result in large sums being paid out in the divorce settlement.

Although most settlements don't get finalized until well after the divorce takes place, there was speculation that the divorce between Tiger Woods and his wife could cost the world's No. 1 golfer up to $300 million , among the costliest in history. Other breakups that could enter the top rankings include Mel Gibson and Robyn Gibson, whose split has the potential to be the most expensive in Hollywood history, with speculation it could hit $500 million.

Read on to hear the movers and shakers who don't even make the headlines...

India’s richest man, and the fourth-richest man in the world, Mukesh Ambani, has built a 27-story Mumbai skyscraper, as Forbes reported this morning. Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani plans to move into 570-foot building, called Antila, this month. But in addition to being an imposing postmodern edifice, it likely sets a record as the world’s most expensive residential home at $1,008,645,533.00!

The last time Forbes ranked the world’s most expensive homes was November 2009, when The Manor, Candy Spelling’s Beverly Hills mansion, won out- it was priced at $150 million. That home is still for sale, and its price hasn’t budged, qualifying it for the number one spot on our recent list of America’s most expensive homes.

Plus, that ranking is a year old – new mansions may have come on the market since. But even given those facts, at $1 billion the Antila outprices any home on the market, anywhere in the world, by an order of magnitude.

Ambani, his wife and three children have moved into the building which is named Antilia, after a mythical Island. It contains a health club with a gym and dance studio, at least one studio, a ballroom, guestrooms and a range of lounges and a 50 seat movie theater. There is even an elevated garden with ceiling space to accommodate small trees.

The roof has three helicopter pads and there is also underground parking for 160 cars, which will come in handy for guests at Ambani's forthcoming housewarming party. From the top floors of the 173m high property are spectacular views of Mumbai and of the Arabian Sea.

The 53 year-old tycoon is not only the richest man in India but the fourth richest man in the world. In total there is reported to be 37,000 square metres of space, which is more than the Palace of Versailles. To keep it running smoothly requires 600 staff.

According to Forbes magazine Ambani, who owns much of Reliance Industries, the oil, retail and biotechnologies conglomerate, is worth £18bn. He used to help run the company before falling out with his brother.

Client: “I take it, since I haven’t heard from you, that you are not interested in building my website.”

Me: “I told you I wasn’t interested when I left your office. I can’t imagine why you expected to hear from me.”

Client: “Well, have you changed your mind about working on it?”

Me: “Have you changed your mind about wanting me to do it for free?”

Client: “You would get stock.”

Me: “You don’t HAVE stock. It doesn’t work that way.”

Client: “Well, I am faxing you a non-disclosure agreement.”

Me: “Okay. Why?”

Client: “So you don’t steal my presentation materials and pass them off as your own.”

Me: “I never received any presentation materials.”

Client: “Yes, you did. I showed you the presentation in my office.”

Me: “Are you under the impression that I memorized and re-created your powerpoint presentation?”

Client: “Well, just don’t.”

"Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short."

"The avalanche of media outlets offering their content for Apple’s mobile devices demonstrates that Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of web content. And the 200,000 apps on Apple’s App Store proves that Flash isn’t necessary for tens of thousands of developers to create graphically rich applications, including games."

"New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind."

Steve Jobs
April, 2010

For the full article read click here.

I have heard of H&M, but never knew it was the craze of fashion for the populace! These women in France went crazy, literally, when a new store opened. How can this even be called shopping? Insane, ridiculous behavior!

In looking at their site I came across some interesting facts:

• H&M was established in Västerås, Sweden in 1947 by Erling Persson. We now sell clothes and cosmetics in around 2,000 stores around the world.
• H&M offers fashion and quality at the best price.
• H&M’s first store was opened in Sweden in 1947.
• H&M offers fashion for women, men, teenagers and children.
• The collections are created centrally by around 100 in-house designers together with buyers and pattern makers.
• H&M also sells own-brand cosmetics, accessories and footwear.
• The stores are refreshed daily with new fashion items.
• In Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Germany and Austria H&M offers fashion by Internet and catalogue sales.
• H&M does not own any factories, but instead buys its goods from around 700 independent suppliers, primarily in Asia and Europe.
• H&M has about 20 production offices around the world, mainly in Asia and Europe.
• H&M employs about 74,000 people.
• The turnover in 2009 was SEK 118,697 million.

View the madness here:

A very exciting press release at my new job today!

H.I.G. Ventures, LLC today announced that one of its affiliates has completed a significant growth capital investment in Triad Digital Media, LLC, a Tampa, FL-based online advertising services company.

Founded in 2004, Triad Digital Media is the market leader in creating, managing and operating online media programs for leading retailer and e-commerce websites. Triad partners with large e-commerce websites such as Walmart.com, CVS.com, Dell.com and SamsClub.com and others to help them monetize their online traffic via targeted advertising placements and content. Triad creates, hosts and manages focused sections of each partner’s websites and uses contextual and behavioral targeting to bring a highly relevant demographic to advertisers. Triad’s approach, which in addition to custom content includes banner ads and sponsorship programs, reaches customers who are in a highly sought after ‘shopping’ mindset. This offering provides great value to advertisers and is unique in the digital media advertising market today.
Continue reading

OK, this is some crazy shit. What happens when a rich Mexican drug lord gets busted? Massive confiscation of golden pistols, machine guns, mansions and even wild animals of their private home zoo. That's exactly what happened to these people, and this time...everything was taken away. I want that Ganesh wood carved door!

Here are some pretty insightful things to look for when looking for a "deal" in asking for a designer to create a custom logo for your business.

I am posting this because recently I was approached by someone who wanted a logo and possible website created for his new business. When he finally got to the bottom line and asked my rates, he paused and said he would get back to me. I never heard from him again, and I recently saw the new company logo and "coming soon" website online. You do get what you pay for!

This article I came across on Smashing Magazine and thought I would share... the author can be reached below:

Gareth Hardy is a professional graphic designer and illustrator based in the United Kingdom. You can find Gareth at Down With Design or on a snowy mountain near you.

With the power of the Web, and more eyes watching than ever, it’s important for a business to communicate its unique message clearly. The easiest way to recognize a company and distinguish it from others is by its logo. Below, we go through 10 common logo design mistakes that you should avoid if you want to create a successful and professional logo.

1. Designed By An Amateur

Avoid websites that promote ridiculously cheap logo packages. You get what you pay for.

A professional business should look professional. New business owners often invest a lot of time and money in property and equipment, but do not often match it by investing suitably in their logo.

Here are the most common reasons why many logos look amateurish:

• The business owner wanted to save money by designing the logo quickly themselves.
• A friend or relative who claims to know a little about graphic design does it as a favor.
• The wrong people are commissioned. (Local printers are not likely proficient in logo design.)
• The business outsourced the job via one of several design competition websites, which are mostly populated by amateur designers.
• The job was given to an online company that offers really cheap logos.

All of the above can result in disastrous outcomes. If your logo looks amateurish, then so will your business. A business should know where to look when it wants a new logo. David Airey offers great insight on how to choose the right logo designer for your requirements.

Here are the advantages of hiring an established and professional logo designer:

• Your logo will be unique and memorable.
• You won’t run into any problems down the line with reproducing it.
• Your logo will have a longer lifespan and won’t need to be redesigned in a couple of years.
• Your logo will look professional.

2. Relies On Trends

Focusing on current logo trends is like putting a sell-by date on a logo.

Trends (whether swooshes, glows or bevels) come and go and ultimately turn into cliches. A well-designed logo should be timeless, and this can be achieved by ignoring the latest design tricks and gimmicks. The biggest cliche in logo design is the dreaded “corporate swoosh,” which is the ultimate way to play it safe. As a logo designer, your job is to create a unique identity for your client, so completely ignoring logo design trends is best.

Logolounge has a great section on its website in which it updates current logo design trends every year. Being aware as a designer of the latest crazes is important, mainly so that you can avoid them at all costs.

3. Uses Raster Images

An example of how raster graphics can limit reproduction.

Standard practice when designing a logo is to use vector graphics software, such as Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw. A vector graphic is made up of mathematically precise points, which ensures visual consistency across multiple sizes. The alternative, of course, is use to raster graphics software, such as Adobe Photoshop. A raster graphic — or bitmap, as it’s commonly called — consists of pixels.

Using raster images for logos is not advisable because it can cause problems with reproduction. While Photoshop is capable of creating very large logos, you never know for sure how large you will have to reproduce your logo at some point. If you zoom in enough on a raster graphic, it will appear pixelated, making it unusable. Maintaining visual consistency by making sure the logo looks the same in all sizes is essential.

The main advantages of vector graphics for logo design are:

• The logo can be scaled to any size without losing quality.
• Editing the logo later on is much easier.
• It can be adapted to other media more easily than a raster image.

4. Contains Stock Art

Using stock vector graphics in a logo puts your client at risk.

This mistake is often made by business owners who design their own logo or by amateur designers who are not clued in to the laws on copyright. Downloading stock vector imagery from websites such as VectorStock is not a crime, but it could possibly get you in trouble if you incorporate it in a logo.

A logo should be unique and original, and the licensing agreement should be exclusive to the client: using stock art breaks both of these rules. Chances are, if you are using a stock vector image, it is also being used by someone somewhere else in the world, so yours is no longer unique. You can pretty easily spot stock vectors in logos because they are usually familiar shapes, such as globes and silhouettes.

5. Designing For Yourself Rather Than The Client

Never impose your own personality onto a client’s work.

You can often spot this logo design sin a mile away; the cause is usually a designer’s enormous ego. If you have found a cool new font that you can’t wait to use in a design, well… don’t. Ask yourself if that font is truly appropriate for the business you’re designing for? For example, a great modern typographic font that you just love is not likely suited to a serious business such as a lawyer’s office.

Some designers also make the mistake of including a “trademark” in their work. While you should be proud of your work, imposing your personality onto a logo is wrong. Stay focused on the client’s requirements by sticking to the brief.

6. Overly Complex

Highly detailed designs don’t scale well when printed or viewed in smaller sizes.

What better analogy for thumbnail images than fingerprints? You’ll notice the intricacies of your fingerprints only when looking at them really close up. As soon as you move away, those details are lost. The same holds true for highly detailed logo designs.

When printed in small sizes, a complex design will lose detail and in some cases will look like a smudge or, worse, a mistake. The more detail a logo has, the more information the viewer has to process. A logo should be memorable, and one of the best ways to make it memorable is to keep things simple. Look at the corporate identities of Nike, McDonald’s and Apple. Each company has a very simple icon that can easily be reproduced at any size.

7. Relies On Color For Its Effect

Without color, your great design may lose its identity.

This is a very common mistake. Some designers cannot wait to add color to a design, and some rely on it completely. Choosing color should be your last decision, so starting your work in black and white is best.

Every business owner will need to display their logo in only one color at one time or another, so the designer should test to see whether this would affect the logo’s identity. If you use color to help distinguish certain elements in the design, then the logo will look completely different in one tone.

8. Poor Choice Of Font

Font choice can make or break a logo.

When it comes to executing a logo, choosing the right font is the most important decision a designer can make. More often than not, a logo fails because of a poor font choice (our example shows the infamous Comic Sans).

Finding the perfect font for your design is all about matching the font to the style of the icon. But this can be tricky. If the match is too close, the icon and font will compete with each other for attention; if the complete opposite, then the viewer won’t know where to focus. The key is finding the right balance, somewhere in the middle. Every typeface has a personality. If the font you have chosen does not reflect the icon’s characteristics, then the whole message of the brand will misfire.

Bad fonts are often chosen simply because the decision isn’t taken seriously enough. Some designers simply throw in type as an afterthought. Professional font foundries, such as MyFonts and FontFont, offer much better typeface options than those over-used websites that offer free downloads.

9. Has Too Many Fonts

A logo works best with a maximum of two fonts.

Using too many fonts is like trying to show someone a whole photo album at once. Each typeface is different, and the viewer needs time to recognize it. Seeing too many at once causes confusion.

Using a maximum of two fonts of different weights is standard practice. Restricting the number of fonts to this number greatly improves the legibility of a logo design and improves brand recognition.

10. Copies Others

This is the biggest logo design mistake of all and, unfortunately, is becoming more and more common. As mentioned, the purpose of a logo is to represent a business. If it looks the same as someone else’s, it has failed in that regard. Copying others does no one any favors, neither the client nor the designer.

I've come to believe it’s not just about the time spent on a project. Sometimes it’s about the value of the service rendered.
Here are some points I came across on buildinternet.com and freelanceswitch.com

• A service with a higher price tag doesn’t automatically mean it’s a scam. Expensive without justification might fall into this category, but pricing based on expertise and experience is another story entirely.

• A website is a digital real estate plot with a potential audience of millions. For most clients, the web will be a way of extending their business — a self-promoting salesman. This is an important thing to keep in mind when figuring out your pricing.

• Think of the other ways that a client might reach new customers. How much would they expect to pay for a magazine spot? A TV ad? A billboard on a highway? If you’re charging less for a website than it costs to run a newspaper ad for a week, it may be time to re-evaluate your strategy.

• Price services aggressively, and you may end up surprising yourself with the outcome. As you’ve probably heard many times before, it’s far easier to negotiate a price down than up. Stop worrying about scaring the client away and start giving quotes that are a reasonable reflection of your work.

• Don’t get discouraged and second guess yourself when you encounter a competitor with lower rates. There will always be people charging less than you, but there will also always be those charging more. Keep that in mind the next time a client brings up the lower price of a competitor.

Even if your hourly rate is $50, someone will challenge it. The key to responding convincingly, in this case, is to be confident and act surprised:

• “Really? I’ve found my pricing to be quite competitive in this area.”
• Or, “Really? For (designers, writers, programmers, etc.) with my experience and skill-set, my hourly rate is very reasonable.”

Most of the time, your surprised demeanor and casual confidence will simultaneously disarm prospects and let them know that you’re worth your rate.

A diplomatic approach works best for me:

• “It’s great that you found a freelancer within your budget. If they meet your needs and fit your style, I highly recommend working with them.”

You can get more specific if your prospect is asking for a service that is outside your specialty zone. For instance,

• “I’m glad you’ve found an affordable designer who specializes in brochures. Please let me know if you need help with website design in the future. I specialize in websites and I’m sure I could provide you a competitive estimate.”

In order to meet the demand for their leather bags, Hermes has succumbed to breeding crocodiles on Australian farms for the sole purpose of becoming accessories!!!

Yikes! Customers have been known to wait for years for Hermes bags which can cost up to $50,000!!!

"It can take three to four crocodiles to make one of our bags so we are now breeding our own crocodiles on our own farms, mainly in Australia," says Patrick Thomas, chief executive of the luxury line. "Hermes already faces a major challenge producing 3,000 crocodile bags a year. The world is not full of crocodiles, except the stock exchange!"