February 2nd, 2010 §
Orma Design’s PR client, Domestic Concierge has a full-page feature in the February 2010 issue of Gentry Magazine! Domestic Concierge is a San Francisco-based life-style consultancy: think of them as your on-call personal assistant, organizational guru, and event planner all rolled into one. Two weeks late picking up dry cleaning? Totally forgot to mail your good friend’s b-day present last week? In desperate need of a vacation but can’t find the time to plan it? How awesome would it be if there was someone to take care of all the dirty little details in your life (and then some)…Domestic Concierge rocks!
January 13th, 2010 §
Because of the PR buzz Orma Design created for the Tiburon Chamber of Commerce’s 2009 “A Storybook Holiday Festival,” (as seen in: 7×7 SF,Bay Area on the Cheap, NBC Bay Area, InsideBayArea.com, Marin Magazine, SF Gate,SF City Dish, The Squid List, Fun Cheap SF, SF Station, Marin Mommies, Pacific Sun, MoreMarin,San Jose Mercury News, and more!) it has caught national attention – NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC that is.
Interested in capturing the colour and life of San Francisco Bay Area’s holiday festivities, a smallAustralian Film Crew from National Geographic is tentatively set to record highlights from tonight’s celebration: classic holiday caroling by Oakland’sYoung Performers International Chorus, christmas tree lighting, costumed characters strolling along magical Main Street, yummy gingerbread house making, tasty treats and more!
As typical of most small town holiday celebrations, past PR for Tiburon’s local events included banner’s placed around town and mentions in the local newspaper, the Tiburon Ark.Although, hesitant at first to spend the marketing dollars on PR in an economy struggling to gain momentum, the Chamber is definitely seeing the benefits.
With breathtaking views of the city skyline, Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay, and Angel Island, Tiburon CA is by far one the most under-rated, must-see small town’s in the Bay Area. So come join in the festivites this evening from 5:30pm to a “twinkling hour” and experience the town’s eclectic shops and tasty restaurants (who will be offering budget-worthy discounts, btw!)
OR make a weekend trip of it! This Saturday the Belvedere-Tiburon Landmarks Society’s will be holding it’s annual Holiday Crafts Fair on Dec 5th from 10am-4pm at The Cottage at the Art and Garden Center, 841 Tiburon Blvd., Tiburon, CA 94920. The Holiday Crafts Fair will feature fabulous indie goodies from Bay Area artisans. You don’t want to miss this!
(originally appeared in SF Examiner 12/04/09)
January 13th, 2010 §
If your house were on fire and you could only save a few items, what would they be? For me (assuming my husband, cat, and laptop were out of harms way) it would have to be my favorite collection of graphic design books. And what if by chance, you happen to come into a whole bunch of money? How would you spend it? For me, (assuming my husband, cat, and laptop were all in good health) it would have to be – more graphic design books, please!
For the newbie designer and seasoned professional alike, graphic design books offer a wealth of knowledge, fantastic inspiration, and oodles of amazing eye candy (not to mention awesome PR for the designer whose work is featured). In fact, I don’t know a single graphic designer who hasn’t at one point in their career fantasized about having their ownwork reproduced in one of those publications.
So how exactly does one go about getting into some of the best darn graphic design books on the market today, like the wildly successful Big Book of Logos series or The American Corporate Identityannuals? Nancy Heinonen, Publications Director of Crescent Hill Books (and the team responsible for producing those aforementioned titles and a ton more goodies) helps shed some light on the subject, and even offers some juicy tips on how to bring your own design book ideas to fruition. Read on! READ FULL ARTICLE: SF EXAMINER
January 13th, 2010 §
In promoting my San Francisco graphic design and copywriting firm, Orma Design and my clever greeting card company, She’s SO Creative, I’ve learned a few things about SEO (Search Engine Optimization). I’ve learned that just about anyone can do it.
No, I’m not a programming geek and my companies have definitely not been around for twenty years. But if you Google “SF graphic designer,” “SF book designer” or even “SF logo designer” you will find either my articles as the SF Graphic Design and Branding Examiner or Orma Design itself, on the first one or two pages of Google. Likewise, if you search for “clever greeting cards,” “creative greeting cards,” or “creative mother’s day cards,” She’s SO Creative appears on the first page of Google.
So how did I do it? I used a combination of several tactics, the most important being key words and phrases in the title of the website and in the first searchable words of the web page itself. There are tons of articles on the internet that make this exact same point, yet all too often I see award-winning graphic design and even PR firms (who are paid to know this stuff!) with nothing but the name of their company in the title. This is the easiest, least time consuming, most effective action you can take to improve your graphic design firm’s (or whatever company you have) ranking on the Internet. For example, I literally have the phrase “San Francisco Book Design” in the title on the page where I feature one of my book design projects. Plus, the first searchable words on that page contain the exact phrasing “book design.” Thus, when someone is in a need of a book designer in San Francisco, they can easily find me because my site has excellent rankings for that specific search.
In addition, we all know that writing graphic design articles or starting a graphic design blog are highly effective promotional tools. However, I’ve seen professional design blogs that discuss anything from the birth of their first-born child to the delicious chocolate mousse they ate the night before. Although these are both joyously momentous occasions that you want to share with the world, maintaining a blog is hard work and requires precious man-hours. So how do you make every post count? Relevant, interesting, informative articles with key phrases in the title as well in the writing itself are optimum for both search rankings and attracting readership. Just review this very article you’re reading right now on “How to Increase Website Visitors and Promote Site: For Graphic Designers, Copywriters, and Creatives.” Both the title and it’s content are laden with key words and phrases that will help me come up on search engine results (could I have used the word “design” any more times???)
So what the heck are you waiting for you? Go make these changes now. By implementing these tactics, with just a little time and effort, you can seriously improve your web presence, attract more visitors, and gain new clients. You’re still reading aren’t you? Seriously, I know I’m a good writer, but stop reading this article and go get some business!
(originally appeared in SF Examiner 4/08/09)
January 13th, 2010 §
When running a one-man show as a self-employed creative (artist, graphic designer, illustrator, photographer, writer, etc.), how we prioritize our time is of the utmost importance to the success of our business. When the economy is good, our days are spent juggling “the creative side” with all the other tasks of keeping the company afloat. But when times are slow, like now, an imbalanced portion of our time is spent on promotion. This, of course, is an absolute necessity. But with a significant portion of time spent marketing via Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, blogs, online discussion groups, sending out direct mailers, emails, and the like, at what point do we take a break from all this promoting and start creating again?
Clever new card created for my greeting card company She's SO Creative. Photo Courtesy Stephanie Orma / She's SO Creative.
For my greeting card business, She’s SO Creative, I certainly find myself struggling to justify time spent on creating new cards when business is slow. Do I create new products when I still have a fair amount of unsold inventory or do I just hold off and wait for the storm to subside? Retailers need fresh inventory in their stores because customers will stop coming if they see the same old products day in and day out. And retailers won’t buy from manufacturers if they having nothing new to offer.
Along the same lines, how do we as commercial artists grow our talents in a sluggish economy, if we’re not gaining new clients? Taking on new projects challenges us, keeps our skills sharp, and feeds our creative souls. And those entities are the bread and butter of our business. Plus, creating new work adds another project to our portfolio; an extremely vital element as it’s the actual tangible item that sells our services.
Whether we create a new project in a graphic design or illustration class, take on a non-for-profit client, or write a magazine article on spec, this is our livelihood and we need to keep moving forward. I absolutely believe we should be spending a large portion of our time promoting our services and drumming up new business. But I think it’s equally important to dedicate a certain portion of our day, our week, our lives to creating. In fact, I’m cutting this article short to start working on some new greeting cards right now!
(originally appeared in SF Examiner 3/30/09)
