02 Nov
mad

10 Greatest ‘MAD’ Covers

MAD magazine has been around a long time, in fact since 1952. Below is the very first cover published for the October/November edition. Above is a portion of the October 2012 cover. (Notice the caricatures of Romney and Obama?)

See a compendium of MAD covers at Doug Gilford’s MAD cover site.

I’m not a comic magazine or MAD humor lover at all, but I can’t deny that I do appreciate the consistency and longevity of a magazine that can remain relevant throughout the years. Very, very impressed with that! The simplicity of many of the covers does nothing to diminish the impact of the covers. The talented and fortunate artist’s who illustrated the covers were simply amazing in their concept, composition, and style while maintaining the MAD brand. Speaking of brand, it’s interesting to note that MAD modified their logo many times throughout the years without interrupting their brand at all. With a strong brand – translate this as feeling your marketing imagery can be less rigid in terms of always having your logo appear in the same color or even typeface.

[Original content below from Flavorwire's ...

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17 Oct
Cyn Macgregor, Creative Director

About our Creative Director

Cyn Macgregor

Cyn has over 15 years art direction and design experience in diverse industries to include: publishing, healthcare, medical research, SaaS software, technology, music, art and photography.

As a “creative entrepreneur”, (that’s the term Cyn uses to describe herself) she provides beautifully designed and cost-effective marketing solutions to business owners.  As Creative Director at Cynergie Studio, Cyn works hard to align business messaging with appropriate business graphics, sales materials, websites, marketing strategies, content management, blogs, videos, and social media channels to help build business and earn revenue.

Stuff you might not know about Cyn

An artist. She paints, draws, and creates.  Cyn focuses her energy, experience and affinity for creating on making colorful, feisty and abstract art. Her artwork is best suited to personal or commercial interiors whereby art collectors can fully enjoy seeing the art everyday. She’s a charismatic and passionate visual artist who feels fortunate to have her artwork in homes and businesses in the USA, Europe and South America.

Aka Ms. Cynthia. Many years ago Cyn had young art students who studied with her at Sun&Moon Studio, a business she founded to …

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10 Oct
ss1-dashboard

#1 Secure your Website

WordPress 3.4.2 is the newest software release. If you have not upgraded yet, you should.

#1 Best way to secure your website against possible hacker threat is by keeping your software and plugins updated. Wordpress 3.4.2 was recently released. If you have not upgraded your website yet, you really should consider doing this. Why? Well the  most compelling reason is for security against possible hacker threats. Although WordPress is built on a solid platform, there are folks in the geek world who have other agendas and may try to compromise your website without your knowledge. One great way to secure your website is to keep the architecture software updated and keep your plugins updated as well. You can do this fairly easily via your WP dashboard.

Here are the basic steps:

Login with your admin password Check to be sure you have a recent backup, and if not make one now Look for the button to upgrade Click the button, and when it asks if you are sure you want to upgrade, click yes Test your website to be sure it is functioning properly …

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10 Oct
Anatomy of a Book

Anatomy of a Book Interior

Ever wonder what the bits and pieces of a well organized book are called? The following elements make up the anatomy of a published book though they may not always be in the order presented here.

End Papers

These are the blank pages (perhaps with images) you find at the beginning and end of a book. They function to fill out the Signatures.  Paperbacks may not have End Papers. Sometimes End Papers are referred to as Leaves.

Half Title Page

The book title appears on this page.

Other Books by the Author Page

This list may appear on the opposite side of the Half Title page, or on its own page following the Half Title page.

Title Page

The book title and the names of the author(s) and the publisher are found here. On the back side of this page you’ll find the copyright notice, the ISBN (the International Standard Book Number) and printing numbers, the publisher’s address, the year the book was published, the Library of Congress Catalogue information, and more.

Dedication Page

This element allows the author(s) to dedicate the …

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