A. The people who have been around me long enough to know my devoted hatred to the letter form. This includes fellow designers who feel the same way, or friends and acquaintances who have grown to hate it along with me.

B. The people who wouldn’t know comic sans if it bit them in the foot and certainly didn’t realize people actually cared about fonts. They look at me funny, label me the “font police” and think I’m meticulous to small detail. Eventually in enough time they become a part of the first group.

People that are fighting the battle with me:
I know I am not alone and with just googling “Papyrus must die” I actually came across a “PapyrusMustDie” on Twitter. http://twitter.com/PapyrusMustDie he often @replies a fellow by the name of “PapyrusFail” http://twitter.com/PapyrusFAIL
He actually dedicates a whole blog to the subject.

Is there a way to officially banish a font?

Some SEO tips and tricks, from the little known - to the common sense :

Titles for links Did you know links can get titles too? Not only do they help the visually impaired understand where you are sending them, some search engines rank by importance as well.
Site Map A big site needs a site map. Period. The site map should link to every page on your site. On small sites, your navigation bar will serve as your sitemap. Search engines use robots to crawl your pages, and with a clear sitemap, your page will be ranked higher.
Make use of that ALT tage Will also help search engines crawling for content, and readers will disabilities.
Submit manually Submit your site to search engines yourself. Do not use programs or automatic software. These practices are frowned upon by the large search engines and can often get you penalized, or banned.
Write your pages for the users As far as your company is concerned, the large search engines have never bought anything of your site, or properly utilized your services. Write the content on your pages that is welcoming to your users. Yes, you can still put in a few keywords, but be aware of keyword-stuffing - and what a big turn-off it is.
Use social media appropriately The rule of thumb here is don’t spam. Use social media sites that are relevant to your company. Use them in a non-advertising way. Sign up for a twitter account, but don’t send out tweet after tweet of ads, this is a good way to get un followed in a heartbeat. If it is relevant, showcase events with your flickr page, a cafepress to sell items or facebook to keep in touch. Just remember not to remove the human element.
Submit to Digg and Digg clones There are lot of Digg Clones on the web, to which you can submit your pages. Make sure you don’t spam any.
Make a video and submit it to youtube Ok, its not that tough as you think it is. Make a nice tutorial or something funny (anything which will make others to link to that video or will make them watch again). Of course you will be putting your sites name at the right lower end of the video.
Use StumbleUpon smartlyInstead of spamming and degrading such a nice website, you will be good to spend some time on it. Believe me, its totally worth it. Add lot of friends in your niche (ok, again, hire someone if you don’t have time) and also stumble good pages other than yours. Also write reviews for your friends. One tip – There is a limit to number of pages from one site you can stumble(is it 15? can someone confirm it), so don’t overdo it. I think it is better if you stumble your best content pages, lists and tools
Build partnerships and make friends Build Partnerships and make friends – When you starts hanging out in forums, you will surely make some friends. So add them on yahoo/msn/skype. You can anytime ask or discuss something and can get immediately help.
Promote your blog Promote your blog – Well, now you can promote your blog and get some good indirect links and traffic to your site. But make sure you don’t spend too much time on it. After all, its your mail site which should be your primary priority.
Create an RSS feed Tell the People to subscribe your RSS feed. More often than not, whether the person subscribes to the feed depends on his first impression. If he likes the blog, he will immediately subscribe to it.
If you are running a wordpress blog than you can use wwsgd plugin. It shows a welcome message to new visitors and ask them to subscribe to RSS feed.
List of SEO tools

I was surprised to learn that there were created using an actual algebraic equation. Much like the rule of thirds

Here’s a post I was working on during the holidays, I decided to combine them:

This one’s all about something us designers tend to forget about often. Self promotion and especially during the holiday season. This is a great time of the year to rekindle some of those client relationships that have potential project power. Whats the norm? Holiday cards. But, why stop there? Below are some creative self promotion ideas, followed by some examples of truly breathtaking pieces.
Idea for self promotion
(from my “idea-box” to yours…)

• a postcard themed package. pick something that relates to you in an way. For instance I am from South Africa, so I might school to do a jungle safari themed postcard set. I might take a trip to the local zoo, photograph some African themed animals, create stunning photographic effects and maybe even consider taking them to a 3d level, with regard to the direct-mail approach.
• play off an industry term. For example, in web-design one of the main things we offer our clients in “clean-semantic code” here we will go off the word “clean”. Contact a soap manufacturer, order 100 bars of plain soap in bulk, get custom printed boxes with your graphic on them - and send your clients something humorous, while asserting your place in the creative community.
• Another idea, think of things people use during the holidays. I know people spend a good part of this season traveling from one place to another. Why not send them custom luggage tags? You want something with staying power in the mind. Not just another holiday card in the pile, but something really original, and something that reminds them how much you appreciate their business.
A great examples of good self-promotional design
AIGA’s maps of Denver
When the AIGA design conference came to Denver last year, 6,000 attendees each received a guide to Denver created by a team of local designers to develop the content, dozens of Colorado designers suggested hundreds of their favorite places in town. Their submissions were placed on a giant map and a team of creatives divided Denver into its ten best intersections, each serving as the heart of a neighborhood covered in the book. The intro to each neighborhood section was designed by a local firm or freelancer.

Meomi is dedicated to the creation of compelling visual experiences and narratives. We create work for numerous mediums and strongly believe in design that delights, entices, and inspires.
MEOMI is Vicki Wong (Vancouver) and Michael Murphy (LA). Meomi’s artwork has been featured in numerous illustration and design books, while their characters have appeared on clothing, toys, merchandise, and magazines worldwide. Meomi has created art for such clients as Google, Electronic Arts, Girls Inc., Time Out Magazine, Cyworld, Nick Jr., Bang-on Clothing, and CBC4Kids.

Besides client work, Meomi also moonlights as the authors and illustrators behind the Octonauts children book series. Meomi spends much of their spare time, sitting around in the attic, making up silly stories, drinking tea and drawing strange creatures. (Many of which are available for licensing.)

The site is just plain awesomeness. First of all : “Cloud house”! How fantastical, how promising, you know a mysterious twinkle lay in the eyes of the creator when that name appeared. Second of all; way to be original with the Japanese inspired characters by making them original in a sea of imitators. The cute little touches all around the site:
The piano, enclosed in its own cubby:

The bottom:

And my personal favorite, the little dog in the pink sweater

Its the little things, the personalities that come out with the pages especially since they dedicate their “brand” (/”movement”?) to the creation of compelling visual experiences and narratives in all different mediums. To me, this shows a willingness to be versatile, even though they established their brand, at the current time with a “look and feel” - they come off as having the creative energy and talent to rock-the-pencil (if you will…) at any style a client could ask for.

So, as tangents often do in writing - this one has led me to branding…the idea of creating a personal aurora to your business, or to you (as freelancers often do). A consistent look, something clients can come to expect from you; therefore drawing out reliability. Absolutely necessary for the survival of any law or business firm. I still strive for the same dependability as they do, but how can I define my own style, and still want to stick with it as trends die?

“Real life”
The site was created with no purpose other than to display my work. Everything else was just fluff. A year ago - school wasn’t even in my possibilities - and i needed a self-hosted website to post my work to Aquent and other job boards for show. There was no pressure on how to present myself. I officially decided to give HTML one final shot at this time, after battling it for a while. Once I got started, I wanted to keep going. Try out all the things I loved in design collectively. I had no official experience with usability at this time, and it was all about showing off what I could do design wise. I fumbled around with the code, as i went - but not my main concern. The result was quiet humerous, as you would imagine someone not having used HTML and CSS for over two years, I was impressed that i could translate things i loved about the print world I was so familiar with, into (slightly obtrusive) code. Each page had a completely different look and feel ( a big no-no for personal websites, and web know-how). I still looked at the site as a fancy way to display my work, and in essence it really is. I decided to narrow all my choices down, until I came up with one cohesive mis-match heaven of all the styles I’ve taken influence from…ever. It changes, sure. All the time. Five times a day. Every time something makes me look twice, analyze and decide its to my liking. How I present myself to the world in this fantasy, fairy-tale like, light effects, slightly girly way isn’t how I choose to always be seen, but in coming to terms with who I am as a designer, its something i don’t mind being known for, as long as its clear I can create any style on demand - essentially the very core of being a designer.

So, that gives you an idea of the design in Tokyo, and the influences the people over there gather inspiration from.
Now, hop over the pond for a moment with me; Portland, Oregon. The home of Wieden+Kennedy, an independtly owned American advertising agency best known for its work with Nike. (”Just do it”)I

n 2002, the Gunn Report named W+K as the most-awarded agency in the world, and the agency was AdWeek’s “Global Agency of the Year” in 2007.

In 2003, Wieden+Kennedy created W+K TokyoLab, a record label and creative workshop based out of the agency’s Tokyo office. Since 2003, W+K TokyoLab has released CD/DVD titles that combine music, graphics, and film. TokyoLab’s current roster features local hip-hop and electronic artists including Hifana, DJ Uppercut, Afra, and Takagi Masakatsu.

The designers embraced the concept of Hybrid Design. They have the mission of bringing new experiences, that can only be created with the backdrop of tokyo, through a global mix of music and visual effects. “The whole idea is the essence of Tokyo, using the power of the city to attract the most innovative creative collaborators from around the world. We are passionate about the development of new ideas with our creators and connecting them to a new audience. Simply it is about good music, fresh visuals and new concepts of creative expression”.

Here are two of the videos that have come out of this project:

I discovered this project shortly after I returned home, so I never got the chance to experience the creative power first hand. It stuck with me, and if nothing else it taught me the greatest inspiration can be pulled from whats around you. The architecture of your local library, the supermarket parking lot, the parks and nature landscapes can all point you in the right direction.