Rare combination: Effortless Design and Effective Websites by Empowerinc

It has become common practice for graphic designers to make the leap from offering print design to incorporating website design. However, not all have found it a successful venture as they fail to observe the first rule of website design: user friendliness. A graphic design approach to website design produces visually stunning websites, however they are not the most user friendly websites.
At empowerinc, we seek to combine effortless design with intelligent and user friendly website structures to produce effective websites. Visually stunning and innovative print design are brought to bear on a wealth of knowledge ranging from website technology, coding, setting up servers, creating CMS system and much more.
If your looking for intelligent and tailor made website solutions, empowerinc guarantees you a website that will attract and keep customers attention.

Harry Beck

Graphic Design is everywhere. As I spend much of my time in the London underground, or the tube I have truly studied the design of the tube map, whether I wanted to or not.
Today I am exploring the life of the designer of this map: Harry Beck.
His design is iconic to London, not only seen on the tube and tube maps but also on all kinds of London paraphernalia, such as shot glasses, underwear, mugs, tea towels, and t-shirts. This is perhaps the most famous graphic design of London.


Harry Beck (pictured above with is map) was originally an electrical draughtsman for the London Underground. When he first began making sketches of the map he was out of work and did them on his own time. His first proposal with the map was met with denial, saying that the map was too radial.
However, Beck knew the order of the stations as well as the connections was the information that people needed most, with the distance between stations being unimportant. Harry created an aesthetically pleasing and incredibly efficient map with it's concept still in use today.


The Tube also hosts one of the most recognized logos around the world. The bulls eye tube station logo also represents one of London's most recognized symbols. This design began as a solid red disk with a blue line going across it with the name of the station written in the blue line in white. Edward Johnston perfected this logo, changing the red disk to a bulls eye. Johnston is recognized as the "father of calligraphy" and was a famous typographer (see blog below). He is credited with developing the sans serif font, which was used on the underground logo until its redesign in the 80s.
Both of these tube designs are world famous and great portrayals of graphic design London.

Rules of Typography

Whilst researching typography for graphic design I have come across a few consistent rules that seem to be universal.
1.) Do not use too many fonts
I have broken this very rule in previous posts. Also, while reading about this rule I discovered that graphic designers buy fonts. Really? Purchase a type font, who would have thought!
2.) Do not use all caps or use it sparingly
This is because with many fonts all caps is difficult to read and is often perceived as shouting.
3.) Do not put two spaces after a period.
This rule originally derived from the days of typewriters to mark the end of the sentence. As technology has progressed fonts are now made with different types of spacing to accommodate this.
4.) Do not center large amounts of text
Eyes naturally go from left to right and when a lot of text is centered it makes it difficult to read, thus not getting yor message out as successfully as possible.
5.) Balance line length with type size
Make sure that you do not have too many words on one line.
6.) Use correct grammar
While this does not have to do directly with typography itself it is vital that you get things right to create a meaningful message

Small Businesses

Good news for small business, things are looking optimistic for 2010!
According to 2009 Business Pulse report, a survey of the UK's small and medium sized businesses, they are feeling positive about the things to come in 2010. 75% of small businesses said that they think there will be improvements in the economy in the upcoming year. 35% even thought there would be an improvement by January. Around 60% are confident about business prospects after the new year. 62% even said that they expected to see a significant growth in profit within 18 months.
Overall it looks like businesses are excited for the upcoming year, and are expecting good things. I believe that this optimistic view will provide for a certain upturn in the economy. As businesses believe that they will improve they are more likely to spend. Seeing as so many businesses have this view, the economy cannot help but to improve.
I think that as businesses look ahead it would be in their best interest to consider graphic design one of their top priorities. Due to the recession people are smarter about their purchases, they want to buy from places they can trust and that look professional. This stems from good branding and design, it seems clear to me that it would be a smart investment

MAC vs PC for Graphic Designers

Let me start by pointing out that I am a Mac lover, so this blog may have a certain bias to it. Being a fan of video, picture, and music editing has always made the Mac a clear choice for me when deciding between the two. However, as I delve further into my research of graphic design, I began wondering which was better for the graphic designer. For designers the focus, obviously, has to be which system has better handling of graphics, colour, type, which software is available, and overall use.

Because Mac has been known as a "designer's computer" they have focused on perfecting a Mac's handling of graphics, colour, and type, giving them an edge in those departments which effect print design. However, when it comes to the more common web design, they are on a fairly even playing field. This is because they both have access on all platforms.


When it comes to software, both systems are capable of handling the top software programs. The most common software for graphic designers, Adobe Creative Suite, has a few features that are only for Macs, once again giving the Mac a slight leg up on the PC.

When if comes to usability, I would have to say Mac wins. With features such as iPhoto and iMovie and other exclusive Mac programs are capable of working with each other and promoting easy integration.

In conclusion, through my research Mac wins 3-0 in the three categories. While a graphic designer can easily do great work on either system a Mac has more bells and whistles and should likely be a graphic designer's first choice.

Exploring Graphic Design

After learning more about the business side of graphic design, I decided to take a look at one of the more creative aspects: colour. A fellow blogger gave me a bit of insight into the importance of colour and stuff to think about when using different colors and shapes in your design.
The first paragraph of this blog taught me something I am sure is a very important concept when it comes to graphic design. The right side of your brain processes colour and images, linking it to your emotional side, and the left side processes text, the logical side. This makes text and colour the most important elements in design. If put together in the right way these two elements can make a very powerful statement.
After reading this blog on the "Do's and Don'ts of Colour" this is what I gathered:
It is important to learn and understand the colour wheel and know colours undertones. Understand the way colour changes according to surroundings, know the psychology of colour, and look at other people's work and experiment with your own! Graphic designers have a lot to play with and colour helps to get the creativity flowing!

Putting it on Paper: Print Design

The idea behind print design is getting the audience to stay on a page long enough to get the desired message across. Whether it is a book or brochure cover, magazine add, or billboard the idea is to get the consumer to want to know more about your product. Because it is a physical product more can be done with it; such as textures, and shapes. There are, however, limitations as well. Graphic designers have to work around size at times, especially because there is such a wide range. Designers can be working with something as small as a business card or something as large as a billboard. However, one advantage to print design over web design is that the designer knows the size regulations and it will look the same to everyone who sees it. Web designers have to make things look good on a large and small scale due to monitor sizing and display window size. It is also very important for graphic designers and clients to keep in mind that color sometimes look different on the screen than on paper, it is smart to print out trial pages to ensure the client gets the best product possible. Getting a potential client interested is tough, a great graphic designer for all of your print design needs can be a great help!