Connectivity
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WELCOME SPRING! March tip is on digital and analog resolution..or…why grabbing a photo off your Web site for use on your printed brochure doesn’t work. This is requested often and the tip explains it clearly. It’s a bit technical but worth learning…
CONNECTIONS: Watch your mailbox for your quarterly
desktop calendar within the week. If you are not on
the list, the full year 2008 poster versions are still
available. Let us know if you would like a poster and
want to be added to the calendar list for 2009.
DOWNLOADS: WIth St. Patrick’s Day, First Day of Spring
and Easter, March e-cards are well covered! We have
new cards in other categories also. The March
desktop pattern is posted for download too!
“Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you
want, but the realization of how much you
already have.” – Anonymous
HAPPY HEART MONTH! In tips this month learn how announcing a free item available on your website could cost you! We had an experience with a client who offered a free item on their website to viewers of their television show. . . click to read more
CONNECTIONS: This month we’re sharing a recently completed client web site design. All you knitters out there will welcome this great resource of beautiful yarns and patterns. Mango Moon also donates a portion of their sales to Nepali Women Empowerment Group. Visit Mango Moon Yarns www.mangomoonyarns.com
DOWNLOADS: Spread the love! Send a valentine greeting! Whether you’re flirting with your love bunny or sending a virtual hug to a good friend, the joy comes back to you. Do it today and set the date to send it on Thursday! While you’re there, update your virtual look with our Valentine’s wallpaper and February 2008 calendar.
“At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.” – MLK
In this month of love I want to pass along a link to an article in the January, 2008 issue of Healing Garden Journal. Visit the link below to enjoy Martin Luther King Jr
HAPPY 2008! Here is a quick explanation to the new newsletter format. Tips: Our first topic is why you connect with us – to benefit from our expertise. Here we share our wisdom of design, business insights and new trends and strategies to look for or avoid. We will also feature recent client work. This issue learn why Free Domain Names are not necessarily free…CONNECTIONS: Is a collective of interests from client projects, events, social causes, cool websites and products, anything we think will make your life more rewarding or entertaining. This issue learn about Grand Haven, MI entrepreneur Kim Lavine, Founder of Green Daisy and inventor of the Wuvit®. Learn more at the 2008 AWE Pathways to Success Conference
| In 2002, Green Daisy President and Founder, Kim Lavine, took her kitchen table idea, the Wuvit-–a designer spa therapy pillow you heat in the microwave–to $225,000 in sales in just 8 weeks. From the introduction at one local gift store in December of 2001, to over 200 fine department stores and over 500 specialty retailers across the country, her story keeps developing.Lavine has accomplished numerous design, sales, manufacturing and distribution feats with little more than determination, the equity in her home and personal savings. Her insistence on using top-quality designer fabrics in the hottest home decorator trends, is what sets her products apart. Kim is especially proud of the Green Daisy Faith Hope & Love line. She designed the fabric after seeing first-hand through family members the horrific demands of breast cancer. She knew she needed to raise awareness about early detection, and raise money for breast cancer research. In 2007, Kim posted another bestseller with the release of her book Mommy Millionaire: How I Turned My Kitchen Table Idea Into a Million Dollars and How You Can Too (St. Martins Press-Feb -07). Visit MommyMillionaire.com to purchase. You can also hear more from this remarkable Michigan woman entrepreneur, Jan. 24, 2008, at the AWE Pathways to Success Conference. http://www.greendaisy.com http://www.awe-westmichigan.org |
DOWNLOAD: Each month we will include a free desktop calendar and other images we design to share. Just click, specify monitor resoultion and
download will begin. Please refer to the download section of the website for further instructions. We will also include links to other art on our site.
This time of year is always so inspiring for me. I relish it as a completion and as a catalyst for what the future can be. 2007 was a year of planning and building, clearing vision and space. Some of you may recall the old school building maintenance was draining on so many levels! The results are gratifying and once again comfort and creativity flow.
More time was well spent in research and expanding Connection Graphic’s reach to new markets. I have met and worked with some very dynamic and passionate people this year and I plan to keep them in my travels. I am also pleased about the development of our new website. The updated format allows us to connect virtually through this blog, the Connectivity newsletter, our downloads and new designs. The plan is, Connectivity will be a monthly greeting in your email box and also archived. I plan for it to be a fun and informative read. We’ll share “many things design” usually reserved for client consultations and project development. Be sure to sign up for it!
FYI, a schedule for these blog entries is not on the horizon! Check in for words of wisdom, resources, web, marketing, design tips and an occasional funny or call to action though. I will be expending most of my extra energy designing the graphics for our free download products. Design is the passion after all. I am loving combining wisdom, quotes, and affirmations with my original illustrations and photos of people, places, things, and nature I have collected along the way. I hope these designs make a connection with you and encourage connections with others. Share the love, choose peace.
Over the holiday I donated a couple of ecards designs for a wonderful cause dedicated to expanding love across the world. Learn more by visiting TheGlobalHeart.org, part of the awesome Debbie Ford Integrative Coaching community. You can choose to sign up or not, scroll to Resources Images and find my Love ecards.
Stay connected,
Connie
Have you had a chance to take a look at the website overhaul?
I can’t tell you what a relief and a reward this change has been! So many ideas I have been building on are finally in place and the new client samples have increased interest in our print and web design services. Many kudos to webmaster Kalyn for her patience, knowledge and resourcefulness. Also, honoring my true nature, Connection Group is now offering wind powered website hosting! We’re always looking for more ways to support the environment and practice green living and working. I’ll add more resources to the blog and newsletter as more are known.
As to further connections, did you know Connection Group is a member of the Graphic Communications Conference of the Brotherhood of Teamsters? We are united in support of fair wage and labor practices worldwide. We are also reaching out to association and union shops as targets for our services. Why? We pledge to get rid of the many ugly and poorly functioning member websites that currently proliferate the web. Whoops, did I just fall into my snobby designer dialect? Seriously, Connection Group is desperately needed to design fully functioning member based websites for these groups! Organization members surf professionally designed websites everyday – and when they visit their own union’s website they can’t find the information they need! Any of you association or union members who are confused or horrified upon entering into your company, local, or national union and association website, contact us. We’ll create a a custom site that can be updated in house and look and function professionally. We can also tackle your print publications and community outreach communications to update to your website and create a complete professional brand package.
Another element of the site design is the ease in adding to our links listing. We’re fortunate to work with many companies who share the same core values Connection Group is built on. Because of this, people often ask me who I know who can help with a service or product they are seeking. To help bring the connections together we have posted client case studies on some of our favorites and have added references throughout the site. We will continue to brainstorm ways to share friends, client, and vendor information. If you need any services from people we feature, check them out or contact us for more information, you will be pleased with the connections. Full circle. Love it.
Stay connected,
Connie
Welcome to our designers blog! For those of you who have been to our site before you will see a lot of new fun stuff. I am so excited about creating the new desktop patterns and ecards. And we’re sharing them with everyone… For free!
Really – free ecard greetings. No, I’m not going to slam you with tons of email offers begging you to buy stuff. No voodoo if you don’t send it to five people within five minutes. No selling your email to a list serve. Really-free.
So help me out. Think of someone you care about. Look through the ecard categories and choose one you know will make a connection or bring a smile to that person. On your journey be sure to connect with the messages and art that speaks to you too. Check out the desktop patterns link and see if we have the card design you like in a desktop pattern form. Totally free desktop patterns too – promise! We will continue to add Seasonal Greeting ecards, Christmas ecards, New Years ecards, and increase the variety available.
I have been having so much fun making these, I have 10 or so desktop patterns cycle through on my own laptop. Amazing how sometimes the message or affirmation I need at that moment just pops on screen. I’m diggin it.
Let us know which ones you like best or if there are particular designs or categories you would like to see. Keep coming back as we add more! Sign up for the newsletter and we will let you know when new sets are posted too.
Enjoy, enjoy.
I’ll hit on the rest of the site overhaul in the next few entries. Pieces, parts are still in progress..bare with us and check back as we add more.
Click along and stay connected.
Welcome to the new Connection Group web Blog, you can expect to find updates on clients, new features to the site and much much more as we continue to build our website to better serve you.
