The most important design principle, to me, is balance. As designers, we want the eye to land on a design in a specific way and if balance isn’t present, the eye will wander away, or the message will be missed. Balance needs to be across all elements like color, shape, line, etc. Light should equal dark. Big should equal each other. For example, a dark shape appears heavy, so a larger light one would balance it. A small shape close to a border will balance a large shape in the middle of a page.

Gradation may not be as familiar of a term as some of the other principles I’ve listed. It’s pretty simple to see, though, as it adds a sense of motion to design. For example light to dark gradation forces the eye to move with its changes. So, we can define gradation as size and direction moving together to make linear perspective.

It isn’t hard to figure out what repetition means in design. So, I’ll simply mention that repetition with variation is what’s important. Without it, design will be blas or tedious. It will take some practice to create the appeal that repetition done well will give a design.

Contrast refers to the positioning of opposing elements. For example, using colors opposite one another on the color wheel, like red and green or purple and yellow, provide a great contrast. Contrasting tones would be light vs. dark. Contrasting lines would be horizontal vs. vertical. The most contrast should be at the focal point of your design piece. Too much contrast a bad thing, and can crush unity, so choose carefully.

While contrast is an obvious effect, harmony is much more subtle. I’ll define it here as the visual satisfaction of combining similar design elements. Two colors next to each other on a color wheel will give harmony. Similar shapes will give harmony. When done well, harmony gives design depth without being easily perceptible.

Dominance will give design oomph. Basically, dominance serves to counter any confusion and tedium. It simply adds emphasis. The eye will automatically to the dominant portion of the piece, so this is the reason it’s important to choose the dominating elements carefully.

Unity means the way design elements relate to the idea that’s supposed to be expressed in the design. For example if you want to communicate an aggressive or active subject, you’d better use dominant colors, coarse texture, angular lines, and tonal contrast. Of course the opposite would apply to a quieter subject matter.

Chris Kincaid is a twenty year marketing professional and writes extensively on business including local topics such as graphic design in Michigan and Ann Arbor web design.

Marketing is a practice that is as old as business itself. For every big or small business of today, one thing is consistent, in order to sell products you have to be able to get people interested in your products. For the last several generations marketing has remained unchanged. That is until the explosion of the Internet and the rise of what is being refereed to as the iGeneration. This is where Houston graphic design firm RAXA Design and lead Brian Waraksa can come in to help you make the most of not only your Houston graphic design needs but your Internet marketing needs in general.

The iGeneration refers to those who are between the ages of 17-35, but focuses mainly on the age group of 21-29. With the development of the iGeneration it seems that the old rules of marketing have changed quite a bit. This demographic does not generally adhere to the traditional precepts of “keeping up with the Joneses” and “gotta-have-it” strategies. Houston graphic design and marketing specialist, Brian Waraksa believes. This generation due to their hyper-connectedness is more consumer savvy and value conscious than any other generation before them. They have also built up an immunity to the traditional approaches of mass consumer marketing. All this adds up to create a bit of a dilemma for those who are interested in marketing to these prospective customers, this is where a Houston graphic design firm such as Waraksa’s RAXA Design can help.

However there is good news, the same things that make these prospective customers so difficult to market to, is also the best way to connect with them. Their hyper-connected lifestyle that they live means that you have limitless opportunities to make a connection to them. Allowing a firm such as RAXA Design, a Houston graphic design company, to assist you you can take advantage of the fact that this type of prospective customer is tied into the digital world in all ways at almost all times. This means that if you put together the right strategy, you have an almost constant accessibility to the members of the iGeneration.

So what is the best way to market to these prospective customers? According to Waraksa and his Houston graphic design company, Social media and networking. The members of this demographic are bound together by the Internet, businesses that harness the power of social media are at a particular advantage to interact with these individuals. The use of outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube can be highly effective but you must use caution and thoughtful planning in your strategy as this type of consumer is able to see a slick ad campaign from a mile away and will quickly link away from you and your message. Marketing to this group has to be subtle and you have to appeal to the things that drive them. They are a culture of right now, instant gratification, and “my way or no way”.

YouTube is particularly effective as online video has long been acknowledged as a principle media outlet for the iGeneration. Houston graphic design specialist, Waraksa point out the power of YouTube’s immense popularity can be seen with the phenomenon of “david goes to the dentist”. This silly video from an amateur videographer and a Flip camera went viral. [Note: A viral video is one that achieves widespread popularity through a process of Internet sharing, such as through email, IM (Instant Messaging), blogs and other media sharing websites.] Not only did the video go viral, but the dad made $25,000 from advertisers with a video of his son, “David, after a visit to the dentist”. The video had became such a sensation that people started creating re-mixes of the video in an effort to cash in on the phenomenon. This is good example of the power of social media and how a company such as Houston graphic design firm RAXA Design can help get your message out to the masses.

Think of the effect that this type of mass movement could have on your businesses earning potential if you could tap into it with your marketing message. Firms such as Houston bases graphic design company RAXA Design can help you to do that. The use of an Internet marketing company, may be an excellent way for you to take advantage of the power of YouTube as a marketing medium for your business. Firms such as the Houston graphic design company Raxa Design, which specialize in search engine optimization, can help build a strategy that will let you take full advantage of the power of social media to tap into the marketing potential of the iGeneration.

One of the latest and hottest trends to ever hit the Internet is Facebook. This site which centers on playing of games, giving of virtual gifts and sharing of life events as they happen, has become one of the most popular sites ever online. Many companies have already seen the power of Facebook as a marketing tool, by sponsoring games, groups and exchanges you can get fans to sign up to your companies “fan page” that means that every time you place an announcement of your “wall” your fans, i.e. perspective customers, will see it when they log into their home page on the site. Users of the Facebook social network have one of the highest traffic rates of any site on the web. Most users log in daily and sometimes players of many of the popular “extended play” games such as MafiaWars and FarmVille log into the site multiple times a day to check the status of their games. This gives you a chance to actively expose yourself to them many times over the course of a week. “The power of sites like Facebook and twitter is limitless as a marketing tool”, says Brian Waraksa, founder and Marketing Consultant for Raxa Design a Houston graphic design firm.

Once you learn how to tap into the power of social media and learn to take advantage of the hyper-connected nature of the iGeneration you will see your market exposure and subsequently your potential earnings increase dramatically. According to Waraksa at his Houston graphic design offices, it is only expected that the power of the iGeneration will grow as they come into their own in the coming years. The Houston marketing specialist believes that those who learn to adapt to the changes in the marketing landscape will be the businesses that reach the top of their markets. Firms like his Raxa Design and other digital marketing agency firms can be your guides on this journey into tomorrows marketing landscape.

To contact Brian at the Houston Graphic Design Company click here now.

People love video online. Video is one of the most and interesting parts of the Internet. You can find a video online for just about anything that you find interesting, moving, funny or gross. The best part about online video on YouTube is the fact that there is pretty much no restriction as to what you can produce and how often you can produce it. There are of course some community guidelines that you are expected to follow but they are for the most part common sense things, such as no nudity or sexual oriented material and of course nothing that is considered inflammatory or racist is allowed, but other than these items you are pretty much without restriction other than good common sense and taste. A Houston website design company such as RAXA Design can help you to produce high quality and effective video presentations optimized for YouTube.

Using the power of YouTube to market your business is easy and can make a huge impact to your earning potential. “YouTube is a great tool that a smart business owner will take advantage of,” states Brian Waraksa, owner and Marketing Consultant for Raxa Design, a Houston website design company. His statement has a ring of validity to it. It has been shown that a single YouTube video has the potential to be viewed thousand of times in as little as a couple of weeks. Just think about it, thousands of potential new customers watching what is for all effects and purposes a commercial for your business and they don’t even realize that it is a commercial.

The holiday buying season of 2009 is a prime example of the power that YouTube has on the market. The number one selling toy of the Christmas rush was a small robotic hamster (Zhu Zhu Pets). The distributors of the hamster harnessed the power of YouTube and social video media to build a “gotta-have-it” momentum around the toy for the three months before the shopping season. This was done by using videos of kids that were playing with the hamsters, the videos were made in a way that they resemble regular home movie type videos that are the basis of the YouTube site. This was a highly effective campaign that was produced by a firm similar to Houston website design company RAXA Designs

Marketing took place via the parents or the kids themselves saying the name of the toy over and over throughout the video in a very casual and natural way. Waraksa at the Houston website design company RAXA Designs “The power to utilize everyday, man on the street connections is the very core of why YouTube can be so highly effective in getting you message out, people can connect with your product or service and not even know they are being sold to,” Waraska stated in a conversation at the offices of his Houston website design company.

Raxa Design, a Houston website design company, specializes in graphic design, website design, and search engine optimization. So him and his team know a little about how to develop interactive and informative Internet marketing campaigns.

Some tips to keep in mind when using YouTube to market with video, according to Waraksa are:

1)Don’t make the marketing the central premise of the video, think of it like a dish, make the content the meat and the marketing the subtle seasoning

2)If you are going to include a link across your video it should be understated and should not be constant, bring it into the frame softly a few seconds into the video and then move it out again, repeat one or two more times during the video. Never show it for more then a few seconds.

3)Keep the point of your marketing message simple, if you have a very complex message don’t be afraid to produce more than one video and break the message up into smaller pieces that are easier to digest for the viewer. The same is true for a large product line, you can incorporate your products into the video easily using “product placement” techniques. Just make sure that you aren’t overloading the video with products, one per video is great. Remember they are watching for the content of the video the marketing is soft, they should not even realize its there.

Of course if you are a little skittish about producing your own videos, to aid in your marketing efforts, or perhaps you just don’t have the time, resources or creativity, you can always hire a professional firm to handle it for you. A Houston website design company RAXA Design, which specialize in search engine marketing, can produce full on campaigns, which utilize social media sites such as YouTube and many others to market your brand and message effectively online to a extensively broad and constantly growing market.

The cost of this type of marketing is not as much as you would think and, considering the potential return on investment you can see from video marketing, hiring a firm such as the Houston website design company Raxa Design makes good economic sense. If you were told if you spend $1 and were guaranteed potentially to make $50 would you consider the investment good? YouTube is a goldmine of potential customers who are ready to hear your message. Start making your videos today!

To contact Brian at the Houston Website Design Company click here now.

One way that the Internet has changed the way that we interact with one another is through social media. Social media is best described as content created by the public using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies. Social media is a shift in how an audience discovers, reads, and shares news, information and content; transforming people from content readers into publishers. Social media has changed the way people connect and form relationships for personal and business. If you are wanting to take advantage of what social media has to offer your business then you need to have a chat with Houston website designer Brian Waraksa.

Social media is primarily centered around the sharing of information with those who are part of your social group. These Social groups can span across different sites with many sites co-oping with one another to form social networks. One good example of this is if you listen to a song on PANDORA, share your views of the song via a TWITTER message, where you include a link to your FLICKR account so that others can see you at a concert for the band, this leads one of your friends to buy you an autographed T-Shirt from the band via EBAY for your upcoming birthday. All this has taken place while you are chatting on MSN Instant Messenger, the name of the song automatically goes out to all your IM contacts, one of whom also loves the song and decides to download it from iTunes, he then posts a FACEBOOK message about his purchase, which leads one of his friends to download a ring tone of the song to his mobile phone. As you can see social media is a very powerful thing, one person can have a strong influence on other people very quickly.

Social media, according to Houston website designer, Waraksa, is a tool that all small businesses should utilize in their marketing campaigns. Due to the fluid and expansive nature of social networks, social media marketing gets a message out to the masses very quickly, easily, and effectively. IF you are able to generate a significant interest in the right market for your message then you can count that your message will soon be spreading across the net in waves. Some Internet marketing companies have started to cash in on the seemingly unstoppable nature of social media as a potential marketing tool. One such Houston website designer leads his company, RAXA Design, in specializing in helping businesses take advantage of social media. The company, founded and operated by Houston website designer Brian Waraksa, takes pride in its personal approach to each client and their individual needs. “Social Media is the next generation of Internet marketing, it will be the driving force of the web for the next 20 years”, Waraksa stated in a recent conversation at his Houston website designer offices.

Using the web and the power of social media is a logical step for any business owner who is interested in maximizing the potential for earnings online, professionals such as Houston website designer Waraksa can help you take the best advantage possible of social media.

One of the most effective tools you can use for promoting your business, according to Houston website designer, Waraksa, is YouTube. The social media powerhouse specializes in user created videos and shorts. By creating your own series of videos or even your own content channel on YouTube you can increase brand awareness by offering tutorials, advice, commentaries and much more to your viewers, they will over a very short period of time start to associate the content that you provide on YouTube with the product or services that you offer. Then when they need those products or services they will turn to you, a expert on this type of marketing such as Houston website designer Waraksa can be very helpful with these tasks.

Another highly effective method of using social media is one that takes less than a minute to implement each time you are ready to use it. Twitter. Twitter is a type of social media system known as a micro-blog site, the whole idea behind twitter is that you routinely answer the question: What are you doing right now? You answer that question with either a simple statement of less than 140 characters or you can answer it with links, pictures or emoticons. You can send your message out to either just your friends, everyone in your contact list (also known as followers) to a single person or to the entire world. “You do have to be careful,” warns Houston website designer Waraksa, “you do not want to overuse twitter for obvious marketing, if you do someone will quickly label your account as a spammer, and that is a tag you do not want. It will immediately kill your marketing efforts using social media.”

Social networks are so powerful that they are changing the way that we work as well. Some people have begun to utilize the power of the web and social sites to implement a new way to do their jobs, allowing them to work anywhere and work with others who are anywhere, just as Houston website designer Brian Waraksa does on a daily basis, “As a Houston based website designer, being able to use the Internet to work anywhere is a big advantage to me, millions more do it everyday, and that makes all of us ‘net based workers a captive audience for online marketing

A good example of how the Internet is changing how we live and work and how you can easily market to the always-on society that we live in today is this, as I sit here writing this article, I am talking to a few friends on FACEBOOK, listening to a new song by Chevelle on PANDORA & doing a little shopping for some new underwear, in my underwear. But now I have to go, the door bell just rang and I’m sure it’s a high schooler carrying a super jumbo triple cheese with extra pepperoni and it has my name all over it.

If you would like to see what a Houston website designer can do for you, click here now.

In the old days such concerns could easily have been handled by placing a contract with a public relations firm and letting them do all the “dirty work” of putting you in the best light, but in today’s Internet driven world traditional PR firms are starting to see that they are at a disadvantage, but a Houston graphic design firm can help you with all that and more. Today businesses that are interested in marketing themselves in the most effective ways possible are looking to organization such as Internet marketing companies, website design companies and graphic design firms, such as Houston graphic design firm, RAXA design. These organizations in turn have started making it a point to have in house public relations and brand building specialists on staff. “Where ten years ago, you would have separate firms handling your image and marketing concerns, now you can get everything you need in one place,” says Brian Waraksa, founder and Marketing Consultant for Raxa Design, a Houston graphic design firm, “regular public relations firms have been too slow to “get it”, the industry has changed, firms like mine are now the best equipped to handle a clients branding. We can handle everything from the design of their logo, to the look of their signs, vehicle graphics, websites, brochures, and sales materials in our Houston graphic design firm. They can get everything that they need in one place, the product is better for them and the process is more efficient since you have one team handling it all.”

Having a top quality brand is something that can make or break a businesses. A good example of this is the recent controversies surrounding of one of Americas most beloved athletes, Michael Phelps. Phelps had such a great branding image going into, and through the Olympics that when he ran into controversy after wards he was able to recover very well. The Houston graphics design firm, RAXA, believes, The public is forgiving to a person or brand that has a good image, just ask Ben Roethlisberger, his controversy lasted just over a week in the minds of many Americans, due primarily to the strength of his carefully constructed and very tightly maintained brand image. However A good brand image is not just handy for recovery. When you have a good brand image the public is more willing to accept what you say as truth and the products and services you offer as being worth their consideration and money. Those businesses that have a good brand image can, for the most part right their own check with the public, a company such as Houston graphic design firm, RAXA Design can help.

Let’s for a few moment consider the case of a man on a subway platform. This man for whatever reason is going to give away one million dollars, it doesn’t matter why he is doing it but the money will be handed to the first person that listens to the simple instructions of how to retrieve it. This is a very important message that the public would be interested in, the only problem is that the guys image is lacking to the public view, see right now he is wearing only his underwear, is carrying a small cage with a squirrel in it and is talking about the money being a gift to the people of the city form the residents of the planet Omicron Persei 8, as a thanks for their help with the recent penguin crises on Pluto. Odds are at the end of the day the guy is still gonna have the million dollars since the public is going to look at him with a less than reputable image, this is an image even a Houston graphic design firm cant help to improve.

Internet marketing companies such as Waraksa’s Houston graphic design firm, Raxa Design, will tell companies that behind image the most important thing is exposure and message. The truth is that these two items are intrinsically linked, If you have great exposure and a weak message, you aren’t going to go anywhere, and when it comes to optimizing exposure and message a company such as RAXA Design, a Houston graphic design firm. Think about our guy on the subway, he is standing their amongst everyone else, able to be seen by hundreds of people, now he is dressed nicely and he is telling them that a million dollars is located under the bench of the station right by the front of the train, but he is saying the information very softly and in another language so even though he is exposed to the public he is not getting the message across in a way that they will care.

Now lets look at the opposite situation, The same guy is yelling the information about the million dollars under the bench at the top of his lungs in English, the only problem is now he is doing it in the subway men’s-room at three in the morning. There is no one around to hear the message, he has chosen a bad method of exposure to get his strong message across and therefore has once again failed to reach his goal of giving away the money. This is a good example of how a business must have good exposure for their message or it is a mute point and how a organization such as Houston graphic design firm RAXA Design can help. The Internet is a great way to get maximum exposure with little effort and only minor investment. As any Internet marketing company will tell you, the hyper-connected nature of American society make the Internet possibly the most effective marketing tool to ever be invented. The power of the web to be able to present all forms of media at the same time means that your image, and message and easily be combined with great exposure opportunities. The ability for Internet marketing companies, such as a Houston graphic design firm to take advantage of this and give your business the best brand that it can have is what makes the investment of working with one such a great idea.

To get a good idea of how image can be vital to the other two components of this equation, and how a company such as the aforementioned RAXA Design, a Houston graphic design firm lets one more time look at our subway patron, the good Samaritan who is desperately trying to give away his million dollars, now he is wearing a three piece suit carrying a briefcase, standing calmly on the platform, speaking English, at a slightly above normal tone, using good grammar and the time is about 3:30pm. Odds are someone is going home with a million dollars. If your image is good, your message is strong and of interest to the public and your exposure is maximized, you just might be walking away form your marketing campaign with a million dollars of your own, using a company such as Houston graphic design firm, RAXA Design can help ensure your success. Its worth the time and effort to see what an Internet marketing company can do for you and your business a good way to get started would be to contact Brian at Houston graphic design firm RAXA Design and have a chat.

To contact Brian at the Houston graphic design firm click here now.

There was a time not too long ago when a business that wanted to improve its image online and increase the amount of traffic to their website that all they had to do was simply hire a content generation company or a Houston website design company to write topic based articles that were optimized to get a really good search engine ranking and if they did this enough they would see and increase in visitors to their site. There is a Houston based website design company that understands and can help. The truth is that the rules have changed in recent years and the writing of articles for search engine purposes is just not enough anymore to get the most highly effective results from your marketing campaign efforts. An executive, who wished to not be named, works at a major content generation and Internet marketing firm in West Virginia & recently noted, “Articles are now only part of the overall package, to market effectively to today’s hyper-connected consumer you have to tap into many different mediums. Using a Houston website design company is a great way to do this. The public is very savvy to traditional marketing strategy and to get the attention of this new generation of potential customers you have to approach them in an entirely new way.”

The simple fact is that if you want to connect with the consumer of today you have to do so in a way that is not direct, one way to do this is hire a Houston based website design company you have to integrate yourself into their daily routine so that you gradually become a part of their life. The best way to connect to this generation is through the outlets that they have claimed as their own, social networking sites. Many Houston website design company like Raxa Design can help to cater to this need. Social networking has taken the idea of the global village to a whole new level. In the old days when a consumer wanted to buy a product, say a component for their camera, they were limited to the stores and outlets that were immediately around them. Today they can use the Internet to connect with a company that sells the component for half the price and can provide it in half the time, the only catch is that the company is half way around the world in Japan. This site was built by a company such as Raxa Design a Houston website design company can build this type of site for you. The consumer purchasing the component found out about the company from their friend who is also a camera buff, who bought the same component several months earlier, and lives 2,300 miles away in Canada, this is due in part to a Houston website design company. They met via the photo sharing site Flickr. Do you see how Flickr was helpful in making the sale for the Japanese company to the man in Florida who wanted the camera component, the people at Raxa Design a Houston website design company does and can help you with your needs.

At this stage it doesn’t matter how the original man in Canada heard about the Japanese company, but the important thing is that through social networking he shared the knowledge with the man in Florida. If the Florida man places a message on his Facebook wall and then tweets on Twitter about the experience then he has completed a cycle of social networking exposure for the Japanese company. You can use a Houston website design company to This now means that the Japenese company has gained exposure for all the people that are “friends”of the man in Florida on Facebook as well as everyone who “follows” him on Twitter. All from the one connection that was made with the Canadian man via Flickr.

“Social marketing is the wave of the future,” says Brian Waraksa, founder and Marketing Consultant at Raxa Design in Houston, TX, a marketing firm and Houston website design company that specializes in Internet marketing, website & graphic design and search engine optimization, “Those who are going to be the industry leaders in the next few years are the companies that take full advantage of the always plugged in nature of the so called iGeneration, they are the toughest consumers we have ever had to deal with, but they also offer the biggest potential rewards that we have ever seen from a single group.” Waraksa and his Houston website design company. speaks the truth, studies show that while it is harder than ever to build a strong connection to the consumer base that is identified as part of generation (i), when you are able to make the connection they spend more money and do so more frequently than previous generations in the same age demographic. Its should also be noted that due to the sexual, cultural, and racial boundary crossing that is seen very uniquely with this consumer group the iGeneration is the single largest marketing audience to ever emerge in North America. The people with Houston website design company Raxa Design know this fact and can design your website to reflect these trends. “The amount of marketing potential that generation (i) has is bigger than any other cultural market group we have ever seen,” Ray Hurly, Director of market research for the Panda Group in TN said in a recent conversation, “They have more market potential than African-Americans and suburban women combined, have ever had, its amazing to see that kind of buying power develop amongst a group that on the surface seems to have no obvious bindings. But, nonetheless, it cant be argued, generation (i) is the generation of consumerism, smart businesses will harness social networking to connect with them, and they will do it today.”

So how is the best way to take advantage of social networking? You need to partner yourself with an Internet marketing company that is experienced in dealing with the complexities of using social media outlets as part of an effective marketing campaign. Firms as well as a Houston website design company such as RAXA Design in Houston, TX can guide you through the process and help you to maximize your potential with the most powerful consumer base to ever develop. The only question is, are you ready to take the ride?

To contact Brian at the Houston Website Design Company click here now.