I’ve run across a few situations that deserve comment, and that might help professional people who are looking for a new website, a better website, or a new relationship with a web design or web development resource.

I deal mainly with professional artists and business owners – usually I deal directly with the owner or artist, or occasionally an agency.  I also get a lot of work currently from two or three other companies that out-source to me – my comments here also reflect issues that each of these companies has experienced.

First,  let me “set the stage” here.  The world of “Internet Technology” or “Information Technology” as well as the adjacent area “digital presentation design and creation” are actually similar to “rocket science.”  They are NOT intuitive or simple.  So when you are hiring someone to build a website, you are looking for an actual PROFESSIONAL, not anything less.

Now, here’s a key point for why I decided to write this post:  A Dentist, an Actor, a Business Owner all have specific skills, financial resources or other qualifications that allow them to be in the position they are in.  This does NOT mean they know how to evaluate or hire Internet designers/developers, or what they should pay for professional services in this area.  

Back in the days before computer technology became the “wave of the future” that it has become in today’s world, if you wanted to have some promotional materials created, you simply went to a design firm or ad agency, paid them money and got the work done.  In TODAY’s world, this simple method has become VERY complex by the fact that you can purchase a LOT of “do it yourself” software, install it on your computer and BANG, you’re a web designer, a graphic designer AND a database programmer!!!!  WOW!

But guess what?  It’s all someone else’s MARKETING.  It’s not reality. Companies want you to buy their stuff and THINK it’s easy to get a “web site in ten minutes.”  It does a great disservice to all concerned.  Unless you are wiling to settle for a really cheap and crummy looking web site, this is not going to be a solution.

Graphic design is a PROFESSION.  Web design is a PROFESSION.  Programming is a PROFESSION.  Each of these areas requires training and experience to get things done so that they present your message in a professional way, with good use of aesthetics and appropriately worded copy, navigation, color scheme, layout, etc.

Also, technology changes constantly.  Websites built 5 or more years ago are outdated in terms of the actual technology used to make them.  People in this profession are constantly updating their skills and knowledge to keep up with what works best.  Do you have the time to do this, as well as keep up with your own profession?  Probably not.

The do-it-yourself-in-ten-minutes model just doesn’t work.

Here’s another aspect to this situation:  When I have a toothache, I go to a DENTIST.  The dental profession is highly regulated.  You cannot be a dentist without a license and passing the Board Exams to get that license is REALLY HARD.

There is NO license required to become a web designer, graphic designer or programmer.  So ANYONE can put up a shingle and claim to be a professional.

So what’s the solution?

Unfortunately, what I’m going to express here is not likely to be popular, but I think it pans out as a set of “workable truths” with regard to this area.

1. “Know before you go.”

Research enough to know what you actually need to get done.  This WILL require that you find and clear the meaning of basic terms relating to the creation of the materials you need created. This can mean even hiring a consultant who has extensive (documented) experience managing the creation of similar projects to what you need done. Someone who has worked as an art director for a major web-based promotion firm would be a good example.  Beware people who are NOT actually expert, such as programmers (who are NOT graphic designers) or graphic designers (who are NOT programmers or web designers and don’t actually know how to build websites).

This step is important.  The reason for this is that the area is actually NOT simple.  A business owner who knows nothing about what it takes to build a professional web site will have no idea how much actual work it takes to get things done correctly, and thus have no way of evaluating the cost.  As an example, a well-designed, professionally done website with good graphic design, use of photos and other visual enhancements is going to cost anywhere from $2,000.00 -$5,000.00 in today’s market.  Yes, you’ll find people who will do it for much less, but you will end up with poor design, badly written code that contains errors and doesn’t work on all the different types of web browsers, Mac and PC, service headaches, things that have to be done over, people who never complete the work, and a host of other problems. Professionals need to be paid correctly.  You need to have enough basic knowledge to have a realistic view of what needs to be done and how much it should cost.

2. Look at examples of  the work of anyone you are looking at hiring.

Any competent web presentation professional will have portfolio you can view online.  IMPORTANT: Do NOT judge the design firm based on the “style” of the portfolio UNLESS the company states that they specialize in certain types of work.  The reason for this is that designers make what the CLIENT needs, which will generally NOT be what you need.  You are looking for evidence that the QUALITY of work is up to the standard of professionalism needed by your project.

3. Avoid anyone claiming to have the “lowest price…..”  

This is because in today’s world, MANY companies are out-sourcing their work over-seas to programmers and designers who will work for extremely low wages.  While there is nothing wrong with this in principle, the actual day-to-day reality is that people in other countries do not understand english well, they do not understand the culture you are in, they definitely do not understand domestic marketing and PR, and you’ll end up with lots and lots of headaches and wonder why your project isn’t getting done correctly.

Professionals charge professional rates.  Don’t think you are “saving money” by trying to get the “low priced leader.”  Get the work done right by a valid professional, pay the money and get a REAL result that gives back a valuable asset you can use to promote effectively.

4. If possible, get a referral or testimonial.

 This would mean someone who has already dealt with whomever you are looking at hiring.  Was the company easy to work with?  Was the relationship a good one?  Was the timeline met?  Most designers can offer you someone who would vouch for them as a current or former client.  Sometimes this data is hard to get, but doing what you can to establish the actual working pattern of the designer can pay major dividend to you.

Lastly, there is one suggestion I have to anyone needing to get Internet presentation work done.  Unless you personally have extensive experience with design, marketing and PR, choose a good resource and let them do their work – in other words, don’t try to “micro-manage” the work too much.  Designers generally “try things” and will do “mockups” that you can “sign off on” before they go online as a final work.  Usually, a design contract will provide with two or three “revisions” before you are required to pay extra “revision fees” to ask for additional changes.  I’ve worked with all kinds of clients over the years.  The best work I’ve done (and if you look at my own portfolio you’ll pick these examples as your favorites) was where the client trusted me to be the artist and come up with good ideas, requested a few changes, and let me do those changes, which were then accepted and got a great result. The chemistry between the client and the designer has a great deal to do with the speed and quality of the result.  

I hope this is helpful.
I’m happy to discuss any potential project and also help you walk through all the above steps.  I enjoy great relationships with my clients and am happy to work out new relationships as they come my way! 

Rex Perry
www.perrymultimedia.com

A couple of definitions:

1. Presentation – as a noun, “presentation” is defined as “a show or display; the act of presenting something to sight or view (“The presentation of new data”).”  It comes from a Latin word – præsentationem, meaning “a placing before.” 

This gives us a simple view of what we are dealing with when creating a presentation of any message, artwork or subject, whether it be verbal or visual in nature.

2. Multimedia – also a noun, “multimedia” is defined as “transmission that combine media of communication (text and graphics and sound etc.).”

In today’s world, one can go right into apathy trying to work out how to get the attention of the right people with the right message and in enough volume to get any kind of useful response. So anyone who manages to keep a promotional budget in place and keeps “getting the word out” is to be commended.  But when you get your word out to people, how do they receive your message?  Do they even care to read or look at what you are showing them? 

Well, this is of course, all about the subjects of PR & marketing.  But the focus of this blog post is “presentation and multimedia.”  The reason why these things are important to you is that the world we live in is constantly shifting in the direction of more and more high-quality presentation materials that use combinations of audio and visual presentation methods to get attention and get the message accross.

VIDEO – is more and more accessible to practically anyone.  Animated presentations that allow a complex stream of information to get accross with images and audio have become common to the point where everywhere you look, you see animations, slideshows, videos, people talking right at you, etc., etc.

Now, my point in writing all this is not to tell you something you already know – most people are aware of these things. But here’s something that may surprise you:  JUST because you use lots of audio, video, bells & whistles, loud noises, sexy images, and fancy slogans does NOT mean you are reaching anyone!

The RIGHT image, the RIGHT text, a correctly shot and edited video with aesthetically pleasing and effective composition are KEY aspects of making what you present really LAND and CONNECT with the audience viewing it.

This is NOT voodoo.  But it is ART.  It also includes knowing fundamentals of public relations, ethnic and cultural values, emotional “triggers” and other factors that are not “intutitive.”

I intend to keep writing down ideas, methods and bits of “hard won know-how” that have resulted in the good responses I get on the presentation materials I create for clients using this blog.  For now, I’ll end with this one very basic concept:

Having a well worked out presentation that uses a good balance of multimedia elements along with vebal information,  and that keeps good focus on the actual communication getting accross to the right audience is worth its weight in gold.  Sometimes this can mean VERY simple materials.  In my next post I’m going to get into different approaches that can make or break presentations.  Stay tuned for that and have a great week!

Rex Perry
Perry Multimedia Inc.
www.perrymultimedia.com

I intalled a special “plugin” to my blog that searched the Internet for articles relating to my type of business and then placed those articles on my blog with direct links back to their source.  This was a “guaranteed” way to get lots of traffic to my blog and thus to my company web site.

Well, guess what?  I just deleted about 800 posts from my blog because it DID NOT WORK.  Sure, I got lots of content on my blog – sure, it was pretty much “automated” and it did create SOME effect.  But it made the blog less personal, it loaded the blog with lots of articles I might or might not even agree with, and over time, I got almost the SAME amount of traffic to my blog and web site as I did without using this method.

The big lesson is the SAME OLD LESSON.  No shortcuts.  The old-fashioned, do-it-as-you-go method of building up a presence on the Internet is the ONLY way to ensure it will actually work out well.

In contrast.  I spend about six weeks working on my social networking (Facebook, Twitter, hand written blog articles, etc) and making sure the quality of my presentation was very high – by the end of that period of time I had more business than ever in the history of my company.

I do professional presentation work.  I am also now partnered with a ground-breaking new Internet PR company that helps clients build a solid and robust Internet presence that gets great results.

I enjoy figuring out this puzzle of how to make technology, art and aesthetic presentation work to get good results.  Sometimes you have to “prove” what doesn’t work before you can fully establish what really does work.

Have a great week….

Rex Perry
Multimedia Artist/Producer
Founder – CEO Perry Multimedia Inc
www.perrymultimedia.com

I hate to see people finding out that someone is looking them up on Google, only to find that they are not represented well on the Internet.  When that happens, it takes a bit of time to change what the search engines report – there’s no way around that.

It is more true now than it ever has been that when people shop for a product, or when they are looking into using an artist, actor, or professional in any area, they nearly ALWAYS look the person or business up on the Internet as part of deciding whether to engage with that person or do business. 

Because I sell my services to people, the dilemma is that my attempts to get this across can be received as a “sales pitch” rather than important information.  But the truth is that what I create really helps people to build a stable, professional and aesthetic presence on the Internet.  Yeah, it costs a bit of money.  It takes some time and effort.  But the end result is your presence on the Internet and after a certain amount of time goes by, the search engines will “index” your web site and your message – your information will show up when people search for you.  And they will find what YOU want them to find.

The message here is DON’T wait until you find out that you are “caught with your pants down” because you chose the “low price leader” to get a cheap web site or anything less than the quality you need to “put your best foot forward.”  Or even worse, don’t put off getting something up on the Internet because it doesn’t seem all that important.  The world has changed and the Internet is the communication medium of the NOW and the FUTURE. 

When someone “Googles” your name or the name of your company or service, make sure that they are going to find what YOU want them to find.

It is NOT enough to have a Facebook Page, MySpace, or other social networking sites – these are VERY important as well because they help you create more ways people will find you.  BUT you need to have a link to your MAIN WEBSITE.  That web site is your “hub” and you have complete control over how it looks and the content. 

DON’T be caught off-guard.  Build your Internet presence.  I’ve been doing this kind of work for about 10 years now and I can help you. 

Rex Perry
Multimedia Artist/Producer, Web Designer, Flash Designer, Graphic Designer
Founder & CEO Perry Multimedia Inc
www.perrymultimedia.com

In my world as a web designer and Internet presentation builder, I’m generally creating what others use to promote themselves or their products & services.  I see how people have held back on spending in these areas. But confidence is on the rise again.  People should use this good indicator as an opportunity or “trigger” to start investing in the facilities that help promotion and expansion to occur.

Because the Internet is well established as the media and communication channel of the future, spending the time, effort and money now to create or enhance one’s presence on the Internet is action that cannot fail to assist in creating more motion and more expansion.

Of course I have “the agenda” of selling my services – this is MY way of promoting!  But what I create is fun and exciting for me because it is helping others create success for their activity.

I specialize in high-quality, aesthetic and professional web sites and related products, such as blogs, shopping carts, specialized multimedia presentations, all with attention to detail and a genuine interest in helping my clients get real impact and great results from their Internet promotions and their over all “web presence.”

I hope that you will contact me and use me as a resource for your Internet promotion needs.

Have a great week!

Sincerely,

Rex Perry
Multimedia Artist/Producer, Web Designer/Developer
Founder & CEO Perry Multimedia Inc
www.perrymultimedia.com

This gets into many areas, including the aesthetic quality of how you present yourself and your products, the exact wordings and layout of the pages, how the site navigates, ability for people to contact you the way you want, etc.  All other things held constant, the one thing one should always have as far as the Internet is concerned is a personally owned web site.

Getting a professional quality web site is similar to having a brochure or newsletter created.  It’s an interactive process between the designer/website builder and the client.  The correct balance of text information, photos, videos, audio, and any graphics and layout decisions must be organized and executed so that the result is easy to view and understand by the desired visitors.

Nowadays, one can also setup a blog or e-commerce system (shopping cart) pretty inexpensively.  Extra work is required for these things, but it can all still be created as part of a dedicated personal or company web site.

I love working with my clients and am happy to discuss any goals regarding promoting or showcasing art forms, businesses or entertainment products on the web using the latest Internet presentation technologies. 

Rex Perry
Multimedia designer/producer
Founder & CEO Perry Multimedia Inc
www.perrymultimedia.com

I really appreciate you helping me with this.  The results of the survey will greatly enhance my ability to offer the types of multimedia presentation services that are most needed and wanted, and at prices that make sense according to the real value of those services.

The survey is anonymous, no personal information is recorded. Your opinions are greatly appreciated!

Have a great day!

Rex Perry
Founder & CEO
Perry Multimedia Inc
www.perrymultimedia.com

Anyone who uses the Internet to promote will be faced with the growing sea of social networking sites, video upload sites, photo gallery sites and other types of sharing and networking web facilities on the Internet.

Social Bookmarking is a way to share the address of a particular web site or web page with your friends, colleagues and other contacts who are part of the social networks you subscribe to, such as MySpace, Facebook, Linkedin, Plaxo Pulse, Twitter, etc….

One way to create a social bookmark is to simply copy the address of the page you want to share out of your web browser’s address bar, sign into your Facebook or other social network account, and post this link in your status, notes, friend comments, etc.  But many web sites have a little widget that you will see labelled “share,” “bookmark,” “add this,” and may include icons of a few of the more popular networking sites. This allows you to quickly share the link to each of these very quickly and easily. 

If you own or control a web site, adding a social bookmarking widget is one of many things you can do to help expand your presence on the Internet and improve your search engine rankings by getting links to your site appearing in more and more places on the web. 

So how do you know if any of this is really helping you?  Look for an upcoming article that will explain a bit about a free service offered by Google, called “Google Analytics.”  Until then, have a great day!

Rex Perry – Founder & CEO
Perry Multimedia Inc
www.perrymultimedia.com

Mashups may work well for marketing purposes, but it all has to tie together in terms of the “look and feel.”  It has to communicate well to actual live visitors.

Design & Aethetics are the backbone of good presentation

We all need to be effective with marketing.  PR, marketing, sales all require getting lots of people to respond and reach with interest toward some product or service.  Aesthetic use of message with impact (vs ugly presentation that’s banal or boring) is a key element of any successful PR, promotional or marketing campaign. 

In today’s world, having a great looking, well organized web site is part of just about any activity. The use of graphics, a well planned and organized navigation system so people don’t get lost on your site, well written copy (not too much or too little) and the use of multimedia, such as audio or video, all add up to a proper “professional” presentation on the Internet.

For myself, I take pride in the work that I do for my clients.  Attention to detail and getting things “just right” mean that my prices are not going to be the lowest on the scale, but people are very happy with the work that I do.  The bottom line for me is that if I contribute to a “better environment on the Internet,” everyone wins, because it helps everyone hold to a higher standard, both on the technical side and also in terms of aesthetics.

Social Networking has, of course, become a major driving force for marketing and Internet PR, but the backbone of any form of web site is still going to fall into the category of presentation.

I will say that even as a professional who works on the Internet every day to make my living, it is a confusing and complicated world with the buzz word “user-friendly” slopped over the top of it to make it seem “easy” to dive in and attain global domination over the web in “ten minutes or less.” 

For my part in all of this, I do whatever I can to learn what’s on the horizon and keep my own awareness up on late-breaking web presentation technologies.  Flash has become a specialty of mine, and each year this multimedia web platform has new and cool things to offer.  (You can see more about this including some of the technical aspects of Flash and the Internet by reading some of my articles in the “Flash” category on this blog.) But other new technologies are emerging all the time, making rich, interactive multimedia presentation even more accessible to more people.

Well, I hope this article is helpful to you.  I like working with all kinds of clients, large and small.  Enjoy your visit on the Internet today!

Back when Macromedia owned the web designer/developer tools (Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks, etc) I got the whole suite and started creating web sites for people.  Soon it became my business.  Flash was always a pretty advanced software package and was essentially a frame-based animation program (which it still is) that created cool intros for web sited, banner ads, etc.  The file sizes were quite large if you really did anything major, and this was also a time when broadband web access was relatively new and a great many people were still using dial-up.  Between the two, Flash was kind of an innovation that hadn’t landed as a really useful tool.  You ran the risk of having people have to wait a long time for your Flash movie to load – I remember that back then, the rule was that your ENTIRE web page was supposed to be no more than about 50kbytes, includingimages!  For me at that time, Flash just wasn’t anything I felt like I should work at learning.  Dreamweaver and a good dictionary were what I used to learn the ropes of HTML, which led to CSS, which led to PHP/MYSWL and dynamic web design (a mainstay of everything I do today for clients) and years went by.

Well, now, several versions of Flash later, (now ADOBE Flash CS3) and with the vast majority of web users having some form of broadband access, Flash is everywhere just like cell phones.  The Flash of today allows VERY powerful animated presentation content with small file sizes and, due to the advances of Actionscript, the programming language “under the hood” of Flash, we can now enjoy complete web sites and web applications that are fully animated and interactive.  AMAZING!! Presentations that were only possible through major production studios at six figure budgets can now be created for any individual or business, and are VERY cost effective. 

YouTube of course, as well as MySpace and a host of other online networking and distribution communities depend on Flash for deployment of music and video.  The video player technology of YouTube is simply a nicely designed video player created with Flash using Actionscript to interface with a highly sophisticated database system.  Really cool.

For what I do, the full range of aesthetically driven design materials can be integrated into a Flash web site, or a “hybrid” site that is created using HTML along with Flash elements.

One key point I’ve found really vital in building online presentations for people is that whatever type of web site it is, it HAS to navigate well.  The visitor has to be able to experience whatever the owner wants to present, with an aesthetic package that is “transparent” to the visitor and helps show exactly how to find whatever the owner of the site wants to get accross. Navigation of a web site is probably the single most important area in creating any kind of web site.  With Flash, I’ve often found that designers make these really esoteric and “hip” design schemes that actually confuse (read piss off) the viewer because he has to play some kind of “mystery game” with whatever the designer thought was a “cool” idea. It’s sort of like super virtuoso music – it may sound cool for a little while, but after a fashion the listener just wants to feel or experience something from the music and the virtuoso aspect starts to become a distraction.  Flash definitely has that danger – there are SOOOOO many things you can do with Flash!!!!  The foolish designer with “pure art” in his veins does things “because he can” and he may fail to embody the actual presentation “message” that the design is suppost to get across.

One area I’ve noticed where Flash gets utilized really well is advertising banners.  Barring the really annoying “popup” style adverts or “strobe” effects that assume the only way to get someone’s attention is to assault them with complete visual noise, Flash gets used to create really nicely presented advertisements.  Skillful commercial Flash artists are routinely utilizing the advantages of Actionscript to keep things animated and interesting without creating a huge file size.

But I digress a bit.  The earlier point had to do with this idea of “transparent” presentation of something using the medium of Flash.  An entire web site can now be created in Flash, with excellent and engaging animated navigation, transitions between pages, moving pictures, slide shows, video, music, etc.  It’s quite similar to what one sees on network television, only the “flow” is actually better to the eye.

One thing I always look for in creating Flash artwork or web sites for my clients is that the actual “vision” or “message” the client wants to present actually makes it across.  Another really important aspect of this is the idea of “creating reach.”  Flash seems to really help by putting “aliveness” into presentation as well as interactivity.  You don’t have to rely on just images along with text, or static graphics either. You can animate your text, put in graphics that accent the communication of the text, and utilize a much smaller visual “footprint” to get a lot of presentation done.

I suppose it won’t be long before I’ll be doing a lot of content for smart phones  – it’s certainly coming up more and more, and the issue with smart phones is that it’s really a pain to sit there scrolling down a long page of text – but with Flash, you can animate transitions between sections of text, show animated examples of things, or just at that “glitz” factor to whatever you’re presenting.

As a sort of “tag end” to this post, I always liked the idea of learning video, videography, edigin and post-production, but I never really thought it would be any part of my career until I got into building a lot of Flash stuff.  Video has become such a part of Flash, that they are almost the same thing now.  Flash kind of mirrors what someone might do with video and Adobe After Effects.  The video contains animated graphics, titles, etc.  With Flash, the video is part of a presentation that contains animated graphics, titles, text. etc.  So one kind of mimics the other. Flash really shines as a medium of presentation for the web, and now for smart phones and other types of “micro-computer” based electronic communication devices.

Flash is, in my opinion, one of the most innovative and powerful software inventions ever created.  Adobe was VERY smart for buying out Macromedia.  I hope that Adobe continues to add to and develop what already is one of my most powerful deisgn/development tools.