During an employees’ general meeting, the country director of a global company related the story of a swan. The swan, he said, can be emulated when doing project management. As it glides calmly through the water, the swan’s feet are busy propelling underwater.

Without proper project management, companies’ projects can become directionless. These in turn will cause employees to be discouraged and can lose the company millions of money. Project management is important as it puts to action the disciplines of planning, organizing, and managing valuable resources to make sure that a company’s project ventures.

Successful project management is not complicated. Here are six simple elements to ascertain a project’s success.

Identify a competent project manager. This person works among the members of the project team and ensures necessary steps happen. This person also has the confidence of the investors and can confidently communicate with them. A seasoned project manager also knows how to work with the team.

Set up the project plan. Using project planning software such as the MS Project, create that will display the complete project plan, delivery dates, employees responsible for an action, project milestones, and other important elements of the project. A chart is the visual representation of the project. It keeps everyone on the same plate with regards to the status of the project.  Read more...

Many people hear the term “web design” and get scared. You have to be an artist with years of good programming skill to make your own web site and have it come out nicely, don’t you? Well, this is not the case! In fact, making a good web site is not that hard at all once you know what to do.

The first thing a good site has is good content. People visit web pages for what is on the page, not how the page looks. Ger out some paper and start listing things you would like on your web site. Things like “links”, “About me” and “Home” are always good starting points.

Once you know what you want on your web site, it is time to start organizing! People like it when it’s easy to tell what is where but do not like a flood of links to click. If several similar things go together, it usually is OK to put them on the same page. For example, “About me” could also tell your hobbies and favorite music instead of having separate pages for your music, your hobbies and you.  Read more...

If you need a logo and know what you want you do not have to pay someone else to do it. You will have to fork out a lot of money to someone else to design your logo. It can be a breeze to do yourself when it comes to design using logo design software that is made for anyone to learn how to design logos easily and effectively that make an impact.

A great program will have many options for you. If you like designing logos for others you can do this as well for a fraction of the price. If you have your own blog you may also want to create designs for specific articles or subject. This is possible with the logo design software as well. Here are the features to look for when it comes to choosing one of the many programs out there.

Templates: Several road blocks to designing are where to begin. With a template it can give you a base for your idea you have that is pre-made. You can also gain ideas from templates as well. A logo design software program should have several choices for you.  Read more...

If you are trying to build a website, it is important for you to know about the difference between web design and web development. Once you understand how the two processes work hand in hand, you can learn how to utilize both of these effectively to give you a solid and highly functional website which will help you promote your business.

There are many times that people will use the two terms when they are discussing the progress of their website. They may talk about design when they mean development. It will probably not hurt the overall site building process if you use design when you mean development but it is always good if you understand the difference so that you can speak about the process properly. It can also help you to outline where any issues or problems have occurred since the issues surrounding design can be very different than those surrounding development.

Web design has more to do with the way a site looks rather than how it works. All of the things that people look at from the style of type that is used to the color of the type itself is related to web design. As well, the placement of navigational buttons, the textures and colors of page backgrounds and even banners and logo positioning fall into this area of website creation.  Read more...

Thodoris Tibilis is a Lifestyle, Children’s and Cartoon Illustrator, who is based in Athens, Greece. He holds an online portfolio with attractive designs, created with impressive techniques.

He is been awarded many times for his freelancer Illustration work, mostly worldwide for advertising agencies. Thodoris specialises in commercial stylised illustration and character and mascot design for children and teenagers.He has been awarded, both as an individual illustrator as well as a participant in commercial advertising projects including Astrid, Ermis, EVGE awards.

He has designed illustrations for advertising agencies such as BBDO, Ogilvy & Mather, Magnet, FCB, DDB, McCann Erickson, Saatchi & Saatchi, and Leo Burnett. His illustrations have been used for a wide variety of clients such as Fiat, Unilever, Heinz, WRC, The Coca Cola company, Procter & Gamble, Algida, Carrefour, New York Lottery and many others.

His working techniques include mainly computer generated art, with the use of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. He will also use sculpture, oils, pastels, photography, watercolours, pencils and acrylics, in his pieces of artwork. Thodoris has worked in the animation field and has also created illustrations for CD covers, T-shirts, merchandising for toys, greeting cards, multimedia applications, posters, fairytale and educational books, stickers and magazines.  Read more...

I often hear questions about whether one can take a training course and be able to make realistic custom 3d models right away? I often get similar questions from newbies that are looking to cut down time and keep their 3d costs low. In reality, there is no quick way to get these specialized skills. As with any skill, the more time you spend learning the skill, the more effective you will be in getting high quality results. Additionally, it is very difficult to start building a new 3d model or customizing one if you are a newbie in the 3d industry. You are far better of using 3d modeling services.

To make any changes or customize an existing 3d model effectively, you need to know what you are doing and have done it before at least a couple of times. Therefore, you need to have experience using the tools and plugins for 3d modeling and rendering.

Also, another skill that is required is the rendering of the 3d model. The 3d model by itself will not achieve much. It needs further manipulation and depending on the kind of display or presentation needed, the software or 3d interface can be adjusted to different viewpoints, including appropriate camera angles. Then these settings are exported into stills or renders or used in video.  Read more...