Login to access your control panel, keep updated on the status and progress of your projects, and to contact and interact with project leaders.
This area is only for the select clients of GemGfx.com.
If you would like more information about how you can become a preferred client, please feel free to contact us.
About UsWhat and who is behind the name GemGfx.
Mission / VisionWhat GemGfx is striving for and hopes to achieve.
Special OffersWe at GemGfx would like to make a special offer to all non profit orgaizations.
Corporate IdentityOur work in corporate id.
Graphic DesignCommunicating with design.
Web DesignYour presence on the web is very important.
Design PackagesCheck out our design packages designed to suit your pocket.
Logo PortfolioA showcase of some of our logo work.
Print PortfolioOur work done for print medium.
Corporate &Event IdOur work for corporate and event id.
Web PortfolioSome of our work on the web.
IllustrationsHand drawn, and Adobe Illustrations.
Current ProjectsA showcase of our current and most recent projects.
Free QuoteRequesting a quote is easy.
FeedbackTell us what you think of our work and how we can improve.
Secure PaymentMake a secure payment.
Privacy PolicyYour privacy is important to us.
Refund PolicyView our flexible refund policy.
We again are using the powerful tools of the Social Networking Community. This time Facebook.
Even though Facebook has it own advertising program, for those of us who can’t spend that kind of money, we can use their free services to promote our website. Look into it.
Till next time,
GemGfx Blog Admin
Follow GemGfx Now On Twitter.com
Yep, it’s true. We to at GemGfx have latched on to the craze. As small business owners, it’s a good idea to use every available free resource to market your product.
Social networking in recent times has become big business and it’s only natural that you use the markets available to you for free. One such tool that has come about in recent times is the website known as “Twitter“. It started after Facebook, but already it’s a big hit. Even President Obama’s campaign team used Twitter to keep voters up to date about the progress of the campaign for election.
GemGfx may not be as big as a Presidential campaign, but we can still maximize the use of free social networking tools to build up what is a world class brand.
To find us on twitter, http://twitter.com/GemGfx
Till next time,
Gemgfx Blog Admin
In the never ending search to bring new and fresh content to GemGfx, I came across another website that allows users to build a customizable toolbar. To ad to your site so visitors can download and keep up to date with what’s going on on your site. It’s a really powerful tool and I must commend the developers of the site. It’s called Conduit, and it’s a free service.
So I signed up for a free account and created a customized toolbar for GemGfx. I designed a cool ad and placed it on my website as well. You can have a look at it here:
With this GemGfx toolbar, you can keep up to date with the latest developments in the GemGfx community.
The toolbar itself is very handy as it allows for many customizable options. You can check out conduit and enhance your own website.
Till next time,
GemGfx Blog Admin
I’m sure many website owners in their quest to get good page ranking etc, wonder about the value of their website. I came across a very useful online resource a while ago, where you can get a valuation of your website. There are many such websites available to check your site value. The one I am referring to is Website Outlook.
I did a check of GemGfx recently and this is what I got.
My site is worth $3131.7.
How much is yours worth?
Not bad. But I should make a point here. This is just an automated program that checks your site value based on several protocols. It is by no means accurate.
Also, this tool does not take into account what your site means to you, or how much your site is worth in your own eyes. In most webmaster’s cases, as is mine, a site you build from scratch, nurtured, modified etc for years, is worth a great deal more than what an online tool can tell you. Check it out.
Regards,
GemGfx Blog Admin
Following up the proposal for the provision of a new website and brand, the following are submissions, for your consideration, of the future Brand and Website Design of the Fatima Old Boys Association. These submissions constitute the substance of Phase 1 of this project. Which is the process of Brand Development. Constructing the look and feel of the visual communication tools of FOBA. The purpose of these drafts are to give a general idea of what the finished product would look like and should NOT be viewed as the finished product.
From these samples will be chosen one sample that will be modified until the brand is settled upon. After phase 1 is completed then we can move on to Phase 2, which would be the actual development of the website. Your input and comments are welcomed, and there is a place at the end of the presentation for you to leave the comments. Feel free to be open and leave your constructive comments.
Regards,
Everard
First Step:
The first thing I did was make a small modification to the logo. It is good practice when developing a logo to ensure that it will work well when reproduced across several media. In this case the logo needs to be applied to business cards, letterheads, and web pages. This means the logo need to be reduced. When reduced, the words of the current FOBA logo are not visible. The simple solution is to create a version of the logo with the words off to the side. I put forward two options of this. One with the word “Fatima” prominent and the words “Old Boys Association” in a small font beneath (Fig.1) and the second option the initials “F.O.B.A” prominently displayed and the words “Fatima Old Boys Association” beneath that (Fig.2). I used the latter for the samples.
Logo Option 1: (Fig.1)
Logo Option 2: (Fig.2)
First Step:
The first thing I did was make a small modification to the logo. It is good practice when developing a logo to ensure that it will work well when reproduced across several media. In this case the logo needs to be applied to business cards, letterheads, and web pages. This means the logo need to be reduced. When reduced, the words of the current FOBA logo are not visible. The simple solution is to create a version of the logo with the words off to the side. I put forward two options of this. One with the word “Fatima” prominent and the words “Old Boys Association” in a small font beneath (Fig.1) and the second option the initials “F.O.B.A” prominently displayed and the words “Fatima Old Boys Association” beneath that (Fig.2). I used the latter for the samples.
Second Step:
The next thing I needed to do was decide upon which colors I was going to use. This was a fairly easy task as Fatima’s colors have always been the Blue and Yellow. The task now would be how to best translate those colors into a brand. What follows are my humble attempts to do this.
Third Step:
The third thing I needed to do, was zero in on a. What it is the Brand needed to communicate, and b. Who the brand needed to communicate to. I envisioned the Brand communicating to corporations as well as communities. Current as well as past Fatima students. Communicating Tradition, Excellence, Professionalism, Achievement, Family. To do this a delicate balance would have to be achieved a true task indeed.
Now to the submissions
For the first submission as with all, I used the blue and yellow with yellow as the dominant color. I dealt with the business cards and letterheads first, and then translated the design onto the website. The stationery of necessity could not be to flamboyant. However, the website allows for the use of images etc, so I could do a bit more. I used an image of the school in the header and placed the links next to it. The Logo is also highly visible as it should be. This would be the first thing visitors see when they log on to the website. Let me know your thoughts on this one.
For the second submission, I reversed the colors, and made the blue the more dominant color. While gold is a rich color, it does not work well on the net and is actually hurtful to the eyes if it is too prominent. So for that reason I switched the colors in the second option. Also for the website I made it more information based. As you can see there is a lot more text than images. This might be the rout to go if it is an information type site. Most of the information visitors are looking for would be on the first page. Or if not, there would be a snippet of it and a link to where they can find the rest.
This option works well both for the stationery as well as the website.
For the third submission, I struck sort of a balance between the two colors. Neither color overpowers the other. For both the stationery and the website, the balance creates a complementary environment for both colors. For the website, It gives it a very professional look. This option is actually the one that I would strongly put my recommendation behind. I really like the balance.
Basically what needs to be done now, is to say which one or which elements of either of the three most catches your attention. Or which one most gives you the feeling or communicates to you Fatima College as you would like it to be known. You do not have to choose only one, you can Identify your likes and dislikes of all three and by putting the likes together we can come up with a final working brand.
As I said, once this phase is completed, we can begin the construction of the website and take it from there.
Ok gentlemen, I know most of you are saying “Everard give we a book to read”, and for this I apologize, just take comfort in the knowledge that the presentation was longer and I trimmed it down a bit.
I look forward to your comments.
GemGfx recently made a bid to deliver a branding and website package for a prominent prestige school in Trinidad and Tobago. During the process we were asked to deliver some Search Engine Optimization. The following is an excerpt from a post concerning same. Hope it’s beneficial.
Good morning gentlemen,
The following is a detailed outline, as detailed as I can get, of what needs to be done for a basic search engine optimization of your current site. It is an expansion of what was said in an earlier email.
Search engine optimization can be done for the entire site, but it is only completely necessary for the first or index page. Some of the stuff you guys heard already, so forgive me if I sound redundant.
1. Meta Tags: Meta Tags are hidden code snippets that are placed on a page that tells Google what the site is about. The Meta Tags are placed in between the
tags of the page and can have several titles but the two important ones are the Keywords and the Description. It is important to enter the appropriate and relevant keywords and also an appropriate description. If you need help coming up with the appropriate keywords or you would like to know what people are searching terms people use when searching you can use Google’s Keyword tool found here:https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
You can enter the keywords or key phrases each separated by a comma. You can also limit your keywords or phrases to about 12. This is because Google has begun a crackdown of sorts of people who Spam keywords. That’s those who have too many keywords on their index page. You should make sure also that the keywords that are in your head tags, also appear as content on your index page. It shows the relevance.
This is how the Meta Tags look for GemGfx.com.
Right now if you do a search for “design outsourcing Trinidad”, “graphic design outsourcing Trinidad”, “web design outsourcing Trinidad” GemGfx appears on the first page both in Google and Yahoo.
2. Content: Make the actual content on the first page relevant to the search. Google’s search bots not only search your meta tags, they also crawl your page for text. It the text is not relevant or does not match the keywords, it will reflect in the ranking.
3. Optimize Code: Optimize the html code of the index page. Google’s bots search for links and text on your index page. They are not interested in colors or formats. So it is the practice of many to separate their styles from their pages. CSS or Cascading Style Sheets come in here. All the “styles” that determine the look and feel of your site should be put in a separate file and linked to the index page. This way Google’s bots will crawl the page faster. A file can be created for the CSS and given a name for example: “style.css” then a link is placed within the head tags that links to the file. It would look something like this:
If there is any Javascript on the page it can also be placed in a separate file and linked to the page.
4. Submit URL: Add the URL to Google by submitting it.
Again if it hasn’t been done before, the URL of the website should be submitted to Google. Often because Google does the crawling they will come across your site eventually. Submitting the URL to Google speeds up the process. It’s just a matter of submitting the address of the site to Google using a form found here:
http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl
5. Sitemaps:
It is also a good practice to submit a site map to Google. This is different to just submitting the URL. Sitmaps are small text files that basically map out the layout of the site for Google. This brings into the picture a very handy arena set up by Google called Webmaster Tools.
To access Webmaster Tools, you need a gmail account. It can be found here:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/
With Google Webmaster Tools you can submit a sitemap that Google’s staff will download and check periodically. This will also assist the site’s ranking in Google.
First you generate a Sitemap. This is relatively easy because there are online resources that do it for you. The one I use is XML-Sitemaps found here:
a. Just enter the URL of the FOBA and the site will crawl your site for you and generate a sitemap that you can download. Usually looks like “sitemap.xml”
b.Download it. Check it over make sure all is ok.
c. Upload it to the main directory of the website.
d. Go to Google webmaster tools and Add the site to the dashboard.
e. Submit the location of the sitemap to Google. by entering it’s location to the file. Should look something like “http://www.foba.fatima.edu.tt/sitemap.xml”. Google will periodically visit this file and use it to index your site.
6. Link Exchanges:
This one is from personal experience. It is widely believed that link exchanges help raise the ranking of your site. This is true to a point. The situation is that some unscrupulous individuals have begun selling links. Creating pages on the web with just links so that when Google’s bots do a crawl, many links to a particular site will come up. The links sites have no content other than links and have no relevance. In recent times, Google has begun cracking down on this and drop the ranking of sites involved in spam-like link exchanges.
This does not necessarily mean link exchanges are bad, but it just means you have to be careful who you link to and who links to you. It has to be a relevant link or else Google will frown upon it. So perhaps linking to educational type websites ect and they linking back to your site. This might be an option.
Till next time Ladies and Gentlemen,
Admin,
GemGfx.com
Follow us.
© 2009 GemGfx: Quality Graphic and Web Design Outsourcing Solutions. All Rights Reserved.
Non-GemGfx logos/trademarks are copyright to their respective owners and constitute an endorsement of WordPress and not of any GemGfx Product.
Loading ...
