After a few months of discussion, my husband Ryan and I have decided to move from our hometowns here in Orange County up to Seattle, Washington for our next big adventure together. We will have everything packed and be on our way in just a few days, with plans to be back on our regular schedule of work at the beginning of May. So although I’ll be living and working in Washington, I definitely plan on maintaining GREAT 8 CREATIVE and all my working relationships with each of you – just from a different state. :)

The primary phone number here at GREAT 8 CREATIVE, 714.840.8632, will no longer be available as of this Tuesday, the 24th.

So until our new office location is configured, PLEASE email me directly with any web design/development needs in the meantime.

Thank you for being such GREAT clients and friends. And feel free to come visit anytime!! :)

Sincerely,
Sarah Weeger
Founder

This past week, a few of our clients’ sites were hacked during an outbreak of attacks on WordPress-powered websites. Some of them were even blacklisted by a couple browsers and antivirus programs. And although we make every effort to keep our websites secure, the reality is, it happens. Every website is vulnerable to an extent. Even our own. Sometimes a visitor gets warned of suspected malware on a site, sometimes they get blocked from viewing it completely, depending on how much damage was done…

In any case, it helps to have a service like Sucuri in your corner, like we now do. We researched a ton of options before signing up for their services last week, and we’re so glad we did.

In simple terms, we clean up the mess. If your site gets hacked, blacklisted or infected with malware, we fix it for you. If your site is clean, we monitor it to let you know if a problem ever happens. We work fast, we’re affordable, and we get things done.

- Sucuri.com

Just ask any of the 18,000+ clients worldwide that have used Sucuri’s web monitoring solution – ourselves included; within a couple hours of submitting a ticket, each of our infected clients’ sites were cleaned up completely and are more protected than ever against future attacks.

So if you own a website, PLEASE do yourself a favor and sign up with Sucuri today (you can click their logo below to get started). Trust us, it’s worth every penny of saving yourself the headache and stress of having to save your website from its next major hack!!

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!

If you would like to learn more about design and what goes into creating websites, you can always Google topics like Web Design for Beginners, or How to Build a Website.

Or, if you would like to get started on creating your own website right away, you can do that too! There are lots of great resources online that are also FREE, like my personal favorite, WordPress.com. Be sure to ask an adult to help you!

To learn more about building your own website with WordPress, visit http://en.support.wordpress.com/

If you have any other questions, feel free to leave me a comment below. Thanks again for having me!

So, what is Graphic Design?

Would you rather…

• Read all of this?

• Or just LOOK at this?

Nike is a major sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. It is the world’s leading supplier of athletic shoes and apparel and a major manufacturer of sports equipment. Nike sponsors many high profile athletes and sports teams around the world, with the highly recognized trademarks of “Just do it” and the Swoosh logo.

Where is graphic design?

It’s everywhere!!!

• Logos
• Street Signs
• CD Covers
• Movie Posters
• Music Posters
• Brochures
• Business Cards
• Flyers
• Stickers
• ALL OVER Television!
• Websites
• Advertisements
• Billboards
• Book Covers
• Magazine Covers
• Clothing!
• Video Games

Why is it important?

Would you rather…

Which game would you rather play?

Which character would you rather go into battle with?

Which website would you rather browse?

Tawnee is a triathlon coach, personal trainer, and freelance writer (sports publications) based in Laguna Beach, California. She is also an avid triathlete, which plays largely into her business: Her coaching clientele includes local age-group athletes of all ages and skill levels, as well as non-local clients that she coaches on an online basis only. She also does personal training at a local gym for the everyday fitness seeker.

What we love especially about Tawnee is her approach to training and the support she gives her clients:

I take an “everyone is an athlete” approach to all my clients whether they choose to compete in a race or not.

And you’ll often see her racing alongside her clients, hanging out at race expos and having fun with swimbikerun. Who wouldn’t want that kind of support from a coach? We love it, totally agree with it, and can’t wait to help her coaching business grow through a website redesign.

We think there are tons of people out there that could benefit from her coaching and training abilities, so her website should (and will be!) a great help in introducing those people to “Coach Tawnee” herself. All GREAT stuff ahead!!

Up ahead

We’ll be reworking Tawnee’s site using WordPress and a really awesome theme from PressCoders. Be sure to check back soon for the official launch of www.coachtawnee.com, V.2!

Usually, it’s a painting. But, our apartment is only so big, and I’ve already painted over all our huge canvases. So this time, it was a bench. :) And I gave myself a day to make it (this past Sunday).

The Thought Process

It was a bench becaaaaauuuuse:

• My husband Ryan was out of town and it was the perfect opportunity to make something for him… and surprise him with it when he came home on Monday!

• I’m a big fan of functional design. Paint a painting that you KNOW will look good in a certain room of your home; Build a piece of furniture you’re actually going to sit on or use… It needs a purpose.
• We needed something for our bare little balcony – specifically for us to sit on and drink our pre-dinner beers together. :)
• I don’t really know what I’m doing when it comes to woodworking. I just enjoy the basics of it, took a few classes growing up, knew my retired-aerospace-engineer dad could help me if I got stuck… So a bench was doable. For me.

The Example

I found this guy’s project, saw he had no idea what he was doing but still made something, printed it, took it to my parents’ house where my huge family was already having Sunday brunch together, and showed my dad. I told him I wanted to “re-create that but do a wayyyy better version. And I need to finish it today so it dries before Ryan gets home.” He laughed and said ok, that I could maybe pull it off…

The Goods

Then I saw a bunch of tree stumps he had piled up in the backyard and changed the design; I definitely wanted to use the stumps for a more natural and raw look over the standard 4 legs. I thought Ryan would like the same thing… which, turns out he did! My dad also had a really nice burgundy-colored stain that I liked for the finish, so luckily I didn’t have to buy that either.

So, I went to Home Depot to buy the only items I would have to buy for this project: one 4″ x 12″ x 8′ piece of Douglas Fir lumber ($26) and four 6″ Galvanized Hex head lag screws ($4). We would cut the wood to 5′ long (too bad Lowe’s NOR Home Depot will cut wood this thick for you.. sucky!). I like the look of industrial/metal textures mixed with natural/wood materials. So since I wanted the screws to show through, the galvanized texture mattered… and I liked it better than shiny. All in all, this bench ended up costing us only $30. Not bad at all.

The End!

Anyway I’ll leave the technical stuff out.. I’m sure you can see how the rest of it went through the pictures. It took me the entire day, mainly because of all the sanding I had to do to make it somewhat level and smooth enough to sit on, but I’m proud of it. Best of all: Ryan was totally surprised, and he loves it too. :)

Definitely worth the 90 seconds it takes to read. Thanks for the great insight, Brian!!

Further Reading

Check out the Process of Building a Custom Website, our overview on the steps we take to build our own clients’ websites, and how we determine the final cost of each one.

Enter: Typography Design

Since I started learning about graphic design, I’ve always had an appreciation for typography. Simply put, typography is designing with type. Look around you…. typography is literally everywhere. Street signs, movie posters, book covers, t-shirts, all kinds of advertisements, commercials… just everywhere.

There are typographics all around us, too – typography designs with a graphical element. Check out these typographic ads or these typographic portraits. Infographics are another great example.

“Graphic Design, meet Interior Design.”

So, this particular form of graphic design – typography – has had a big impact on the interior design world in the last few years, with the still-growing trend of typographic wall art. I’m sure some of you have seen the trend of these growing over the past couple years especially with wall decals like these, and poster designs like these. The most popular example probably being the “KEEP CALM” series.

Well, I’m definitely a fan. And luckily for me, so is my husband. :)

Below is a photo recap of my personal experiment – Designing our own typographic wall art for our new living room deco! Woot!

Home is Wherever I’m With You

Ryan and I easily agreed on the words we would use for the design: “Home is wherever I’m with you” from Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

Our favorite lyric from one of our favorite songs… and definitely something that would help with the whole, brightening-up of things.

One of the primary concepts

Fun with decorative fonts

Playing with textures and graphics… but too busy for our taste

Getting there! But not quite right…

And we have a winner!

The final design, printed and hanging up in our living room

Want to Have Your Own Custom Typographic?

GREAT 8 CREATIVE is all about custom design and development, whether for your website or for your home. Or a friend’s home. ;)

So if you’re interested in hanging a new piece of wall art, or have something else in mind and could use a designer’s help… we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch.