Noodle Design

WE'VE MOVED

2008-11-02T12:14:00.000-08:00

The blog has moved. Please visit at http://designblog.noodledesign.com and bookmark the new blog!

Business Card and Letterhead Design

2008-10-18T08:34:00.001-07:00

Problem: “I’ve got a logo, but no business card or letterhead!”

Solution: It’s important to not just slap your logo on a business card with your name on it. The look of your company doesn’t stop with a logo, but should be carried out in a package of items. You start with the design of your logo and then carry that theme to a business card and letterhead designed just for you. From your business card, to your letterhead, to your website, if your stuff looks put together, so will you.

Click here to learn more about graphic and web design services offered by Seattle designer Noodle Design >>

Logo Design

2008-10-16T11:31:00.000-07:00

Problem: “I’ve got a brand new business that needs it’s own mark!”

Solution: You’ll need a mark that stands out, but is easy to read, easy to read in LARGE print or small print, in color or in black and white. One that looks good on a website, as well as in print. Your logo will be all of these things, and visually represent what you’re all about.

To learn more about logo design and other graphic and web design services by Seattle's Noodle Design click here >>

Web Design

2008-10-15T10:01:00.000-07:00

Problem: “I'm pretty sure I know I want, I just need to get it put together!”

Solution: You’ve got your domain name figured out, you know what the content needs to be in your site, and you may even have a rough drawing of what you think your site might look like. Now you just need some one to put it all together for you. I can work from scratch or work off of your ideas. I can also do a redesign of an existing site. You should expect to receive 3 unique drafts of your site. Once you selected one of these drafts there will be unlimited revisions until we arrive at your dream site. From there your site gets put together and put on the web for the world to see!

To learn about other graphic and web site design services offered by Seattle designer Noodle Design, click here >>

Web Site Consulting

2008-10-14T07:20:00.000-07:00

Problem: “I'm just getting started and not sure what to do.”

Solution: You’ve got a new small business, venture, idea, and you want to share it with the world but don’t know where to start. I can help you determine the best domain name, and get you set up with the right kind of web hosting. I’ll help you determine the goals of your website. What exactly do you want it to do for you and for your visitors? Together we’ll determine how your site should be organized (known as information architecture) and arrive at a navigation scheme that’ll lead your visitors on an enjoyable ride through your site.

Learn about the services Noodle Design can offer you >>

Simple Rules to an Effective Logo Design

2008-10-12T09:04:00.000-07:00

Quality #1 – Simplicity
Look at any effective logo and what you'll find is simplicity. Easily recognizable at a glance, simple logos draw people in. Busy and cluttered logos overwhelm people and can confuse them, leaving them to wonder what the busines is about.

Quality #2 – Proportionality
Generally logos work best when they fit in to a neat square space. They have to work on a multitude of mediums from web sites to t-shirts to possibly even billboards.

Quality #3 – Small Color Palette
More than 1-3 colors on a logo will make your logo look muddy. Again, look at some of the most famous logos and what you'll see is just 1-2 colors.

Quality #4 – Easily Legible Fonts
What's more important than being able to read the logo? Fancy fonts when reduced in size become illegible and inevitably your logo will end up small somewhere. Pick clean easy-to-read fonts for your logo.

Quality #5 – Practical, Usable and Adaptable
Again, with the idea that your logo will end up in a variety of mediums it's important that it be flexible. Design your logo first in black and white before adding in color. Avoid gradients as when reproduced in some mediums the gradients don't turn out well.

Quality #6 – Originality
A logo should be as unique as the owners of the company. You need your logo to tell people why you're different from the competition. You also need your logo to be something you can trademark.

Quality #7 – Works Within Industry Conventions
Within an industry you may discover similarities among logos that help prospective customers recognize a business as being within the same industry. It is important to know about these similarities and to incorporate them without sacrificing originality.

Quality #8 – Captures the Personality of the Company
Finally, your logo needs to convey who you are, what you do, and what makes you unique.

To learn more about how Noodle Design can help you with your logo needs visit www.noodledesign.com.

What Your Small Business Needs

2006-06-28T21:24:00.000-07:00

Graphic design , web site design and consulting, logo design, marketing materials. They're what you're small business needs to stay afloat. And nothing makes you look more professional than when all of the pieces you present to the world look like they belong together. When you're stuff looks put together, so do you. Noodle Design is based out of Seattle, WA (Washington) and serves the world wide.

Learn more about web and graphic design from Noodle Design

2006-06-26T21:31:00.000-07:00

Simple Rules of Web Design

Never design for wider than 800 pixels. There are still people who view their monitors at a low resolution of 800x600.
Never create a design that requires scrolling from side to side. While people are okay with scrolling vertically now, they find side scrolling to be annoying
Stick with variations on one color or 2 colors. We don’t want to distract people from the information with rainbow colors
Avoid busy backgrounds. They make things EXTREMELY hard to read.
Stay away from splash pages (also known as “intro page” with a “skip intro” button). People want their information now and asking them to do any extra clicks is simply annoying.
Use frames sparingly. Visit http://www.noodledesign.com to find out more.
Keep animation to a minimum. I’m of the opinion that there should never be animation unless you’re in the electronic card or entertainment business. It’s almost never necessary. Spend your energies on features that enhance your web site.
Keep the number of fonts to one or 2. One for the graphics on the site, and the other for the plain text on your site. Any more makes your site look too thrown together
Speaking of plain text, never put your entire site together in graphics. Search engines NEED content but they can’t read graphics so you’ll want plain text (and lots of it) on your site.

Visit Noodle Design for more web design tips

About Noodle Design

2006-06-25T20:18:00.000-07:00

Noodle Design is me, Carrielyn Louie (formerly Carrielyn Sperry). I have a degree in Visual Communications and have done graphic design for both large corporations as well as small business. Many people see print design and web design as being two separate things, but when you’re talking small business this is a big mistake. I use my knowledge of print design and marketing and mix it with my real-world knowledge of web design to help small business go from a simple idea to a marketed business.

I was born and raised in the Seattle, Washington area where I still reside.

Visit Noodle Design for more information on graphic + web design in Seattle, WA -->