“Can I have a copy of your logo?” Normally, there is a pause in the conversation and your response comes back, “What format should that be in?”

If you really want to make a designer happy, you’ll be able to supply the logo in VECTOR EPS format. With a VECTOR EPS file, (which is appropriate for any medium, digital or print), a designer can create any other file format that they require at the highest possible quality.

If your company logo was professionally designed then a VECTOR EPS file should be available from the original designer. If, however, your logo has been around for so long that no original file exists, it is worth every penny to have your logo professionally recreated as a VECTOR EPS file for future use.

So, what is a VECTOR EPS file? First of all, EPS stands for “Encapsulated Postscript”. Postscript is the programming language that most high-end printers use to describe printed pages, and this data, when written to a digital file instead of a physical printer, is said to be “Encapsulated” in the file. The VECTOR refers to the fact that the graphic is composed of a set of instructions that detail how the image is created as a series of lines and points, (vectors) instead of being a bitmap image which is merely a grid of pixels that represent the finished graphic. The vector file may look the same on screen, but it isn’t just an image – it’s a set of instructions for redrawing the image. The benefit to the designer of having the VECTOR EPS is that they can create any artwork they want at any resolution and the image will still look crisp and clean, whereas with a bitmap image there are definite limits on how much the image can be scaled or manipulated without losing the original quality.

For an in-depth discussion of differences between vecotr and bitmap/raster images and why vector graphics are so excellent for logos click here.

Until now the debate has largely been academic with one camp insisting that everything essential be crammed in the limited space above the fold, and the other camp saying it isn’t really an issue. While our opinion is that it is common sense for major information and client branding to be above the fold, recent research has finally brought some well-needed facts to the debate.

Bottom line: People almost always scroll right to the bottom of a webpage – no matter how long it is.

For an excellent in-depth discussion of the latest research click here.

In any design project, there is a discovery process where you need to collect information and generate new ideas. The process of brainstorming is a free-form and often chaotic process. The flexibility that the brainstorming process provides as a collective creative tool can make it hard to capture all of the ideas and organize them into an effective document for review after the session.

Mind maps are an approach to organizing free-form information that places a single concept or word in the center of a diagram. Related ideas and information branch-off from the central point, and in turn these can branch off to other ideas or information. Unlike more traditional linear or hierarchical ways of presenting information, mind maps simulate the associative way that people think about and store ideas.

Freemind has many features, including the ability to easily collapse and expand the branches on the diagram, create hyperlinks to files and URLs, import images into your mind maps, and embed long-form notes that expand the content in each branch of your diagram.