If you have your own website this question has probably crossed your mind at some time. If you do not have a website, but plan to in the future, this is a question that you will face. So, How much bandwidth or disk space do you need? Well it all depends. It depends on how much traffic you will be getting. It depends on how many files you will be hosting. It depends on the size of the files you will be hosting. Before you can figure out how much bandwidth and disk space you will require, it is a good start to fully understand exactly how band width and disk space works.

• Disk Space

disk space refers to the amount of hard disk space the hosting company offers for your web pages. All your documents, graphics, animations, etc. all must fit into this space storage space.

• Bandwidth

Bandwidth refers to the amount of data that website visitors can download from a website
Now How much do I need?

• We will start with a simple formula

Average Web Page Size + Total size of graphics/images within the page, Multiplied by the number of visitors you expect each day, Multiplied by the number of pages you expect they will view, Multiplied by 30 (days in a month) = Total Monthly Data Transfer Usage

For example: if we had a site with 20 pages averaging 10 KB each, 50 KB worth of images in each page, and 50 visitors each day who viewed an average of 4 pages, you would have the following formula:[10 KB + 50 KB] * [50 visitors * 4 pages] * [30] = 360,000 KB So we would be using 360,000 KB, or approximately 360 MB, of bandwidth each month.

Now of course this requires a bit of guessing because you may not know how many visitors to expect, buts its a good place to start. You would also need to take into consideration any media such as videos or mp3's that you may have stored on your site locally. 

If you are in search for the perfect designer to create a logo for your business, you will need to look at portfolios for different designers. I would suggest to never hire a designer that cannot present a portfolio of some kind. From their portfolio you can determine if the designer can produce the end result that you desire.

The key to most logo designs is simplicity. A good logo needs to be pretty simple so that the viewer can easily remember the logo and associate it with your service. Now in the designers defense, we do not always have full control over the design, sometimes the client is pulling the strings. A professional logo designer will make it a key rule to always provide feedback to the client if they are asking for results that might actually push the logo into an amateurish state. For example, if a client of Skilled Graphics is requesting changes to their logo that might make the logo busy, or overly complicated, I will point this out to the client, and give them my opinion, but leave the final decision up to them. Your logo is a key element in your business branding, and it is very important to get it right before its too late.

There are several things to look for when trying to spot amateur work. The majority of these things fall under what I like to call, "The Over Effect". The Over Effect is what you get when a designer is new to software like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. A new designer will find all of the neat effects such as shadows, glows, patterns, bevels, etc.. and will use these effects in access on their designs. I know this because at one point I did the same thing. Its like "oh look I can add a shadow" and now shadows get added to all designs. Now, don't get me wrong, a shadow used correctly can be a good thing, just keep in mind simplicity is key, so any shadows need to be subtle at best.

Another aspect of The Over Effect is pattern overlay. Many rookie designers will find the really cool pattern overlay tool, and will think that this must be used on the design in some way. Now the pattern overlay is a nice tool, and if used correctly, it can be used on logos. Again, keeping simplicity in mind, these effects need to be subtle. If the first thing you notice is an obvious amount of patterns or textures in a logo, you can bet its been done incorrectly. The first thing in a logo that you should notice is the shape of the icon/mark or the wording of the text.

Moving on to the next Over Effect.... Strokes, or Outlines, if used incorrectly, can drastically effect the professionalism of a logo. Strokes and outlines can be a big help if you are trying to make the logo stand out from the background, or just to add some character to the logo, however it must be done correctly. For example, in most case you wouldn't put your tagline or slogan text with an outline. This text is usually smaller than the rest of the logo, and adding a stroke or outline could cause a strange outcome.

Bevels are another effect that sometimes gets over used. Its a nice tool because it gives the element it is applied to a neat 3-D type look by adding little bevels to the edges. 3-D effects are nice, but for logos, it just doesn't work in most cases. Stay away form those that over bevel their work.

The key to spotting an amateur designer is noticing the effects he or she is using. If these effects are prominent and become the focus of what you are looking at when viewing the logo, something is not right. The main idea behind a logo design is not to attract attention (though that does play a small part), the main idea is to create a brand that can be easily remembered, easily read, and easily associated with your service. Simplicity is always key in a logo design




Now I probably shouldn't show this, it may cost me some work :), but here is one of the first logos I ever did. This was something I came up with for a logo design contest when I first started designing logos several years ago. The first thing you will notice is that it is terrible. Next you will see that is is somewhat busy, then you will notice the rounded effect on the word CRAM. This is my first attempt at the bevel effect. You will also notice the shadow being used behind the word CRAM, you can see the reflection under the subtext. All and all you will notice that this logo is completely awful.

If you want to avoid amateurs, keep your eyes open for work like this ---->
and RUN AWAY if you see it. Call him back in 5 years and he will probably be ready :)

With the republican race for the presidency underway we thought it would be interesting to take a look at the different presidential campaign logos throughout history.

Skilled Graphics is proud to announce our weekly winner Facebook contest. The rules are simple.

• Like our Facebook page, then.....
  

• Comment on our posts
• Like recent wall posts
• Post interesting stuff on our page's wall

The more you interact with our page, the better chances you'll have to get picked!

Best of all, the Weekly Winner will receive a prize of their choice listed below.

15% off all design services listed on our website
15% off 1 year of web hosting
15% off 1 year domain registration
1 FREE logo design with 3 revisions

If you are selected as our Weekly Winner, we will send you a message via Facebook and you can pick your prize!

If you maintain your own website, you may have already discovered what I am about to talk about in this blog. As a webmaster you will acquire multiple different user accounts or identities. These accounts are important and should definitely be stored for safe keeping. Im going to go over a few of these different accounts, and explain exactly what they are for. Many people receive these accounts only to store them in a folder somewhere without ever knowing what these accounts are for. Obviously some of the accounts I will mention, you may use regularly. But it is important that you understand what these accounts are for, in case you ever need to access them for any particular reason.

Billing Login

If you have purchased a hosting account from a web company, chances are you will have a billing login to pay your due invoices. This login will give you access to your invoices, products and order information. In some cases it will also be your access to support, such as a support ticket system. It is important to hang on to this account information. Even if you are billed automatically, you may at some point require this login in order to cancel your services.

Website Back-End Login

If you are using a Content Management System such as Joomla or Wordpress, you will more than likely have a back-end administrator login. With this login, you can access the administration section of your website. In most cases you will be able to modify, remove, or add new content to your website. This is important to keep up with, as it gives you direct access to your website. It is very important to keep this login information out of the wrong hands. If someone gains access to your back-end login credential they can basically hijack your website, and even lock you out.

cPanel/ Hosting Account Login

Many website owners will recognize the image to the right. This is the login to your hosting account. This is often confused with the Billing Login. This account is probably one of the most useful of all of your accounts. With your hosting account you can create email accounts, databases, ftp users, ftp accounts, and more. In most cases you will also have access to many 3rd party systems such as forums, emails list, live support systems, Content Management Systems, guest books, and the list goes on and on.

Domain Registrar Login

If you own your own domain, you will have a domain registrar login, such as Godaddy. Your domain registrar is the website that you used to actually register the domain for your website. In some cases this will be the same as your billing login, but also confused with the hosting account login. With this account you can access your domain settings such as nameservers, forwarding settings, and sometimes email accounts. If you ever need to point your domain to your hosting account, this is the login you will need.

FTP Login

Your FTP login can be created within your hosting account. In some cases your FTP login is the same as your hosting account login. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. This is used to access the files for your website. With FTP you will have 3 items.

1. Host; This is usually something like ftp.domain.com, but you can also use your servers IP number or even the domain name itself such as domain.com.
2. Username
3. Password

MySQL Account

MySQL is a database system. If you are using a CMS, Forum, or other database driven system on your website, you may at some point need this. Any timer a database is created, you need to assign a user to utilize it. MySQL databases and users can be created within you hosting/cPanel account.

Social Media Accounts

If you have a website, I hope you are using the wonderful social network sites that are available to the public. Websites such as Facebook, Twitter Linked-in, etc. offer a great opportunity to webmasters to share the website with others. You will more than likely have a different set of credentials for each different social site you are a member of, however some allow you to connect different accounts.

Well that's it for now, just a quick rundown of all the various accounts that you, as a webmaster, might want to know about. If you are pretty active with maintaining your website you are probable familiar with most of these, however if you do not maintain your website, you should defintely get the credentials for any of these accounts that your webmaster may be using, and save it for your records. I have heard horror stories time and again about website owners not having access to their own websites.

Until Next Time.....