What is Vector Art?
What is Four Color process?
What is Pantone Color (PMS)?
What is Basic Animation?
What is Flash?
What is Trade marking vs. Copyright?
What is "Brand"?

Vector Art - Vector art is art calculated and drawn using vectors (quantities having both magnitude and direction) and curves in your computer and printer, instead of by bitmapping (pixels or dots). Illustrator and FreeHand are popular vector art programs. We use Illustrator at IDentity Designs. Vector art is great for type since the lines stay crisp at any scale; there are no resolution problems and the image will not become "grainy" with resizing. What does that mean? If you need a tiny logo or a large billboard, the same file can be resized to fit your needs without losing clarity.(back to top)

Four Color process - To reproduce full-color images, typical printing presses use 4 colors of ink. The four inks are placed on the paper in layers of dots that combine to create the illusion of many more colors. CMYK refers to the 4 ink colors used by the printing press. C is cyan (blue), M is magenta (red), Y is yellow, and K is black.(back to top)

Pantone Color (PMS) - You can't trust your monitor or your desktop printer when it comes to accurate color-matching. Pantone, or spot color, is a library of specific ink colors pre-mixed for specific needs. For example, is your logo a specific color of blue? Choosing and using a Pantone match for the blue guarantees you will get the exact shade of blue you want; the 4-color equivalent will be off and not match exactly.(back to top)

Basic Animation - Basic animation includes actions in HTML or JaveScript such as an image changing when the user rolls the mouse over it, then changing back when the mouse leaves that spot or when they click on the image. Another example is for a description to appear in another area when the mouse is rolled over an image. There are many options to basic animation within HTML and JavaScript. (back to top)

Flash - Flash is an application published by the Macromedia Company. Think of Flash as a 'movie' that is displayed within the HTML environment. You have complete control of the movie. You can display animations. You can make text move and change. Flash gives you much more creative room than HTML, but it requires a 'plug-in', a piece of code on your computer that runs Flash. The newer browsers automatically come with Flash. If your user has an older browser, and they don't already have Flash, they will be asked to download it. If they agree to download Flash, they will be sent to the Macromedia site where they will need to follow a few steps to receive Flash. If they haven't already downloaded Flash, you might lose them at this point. It is a tradeoff.(back to top)

Trade marking vs. Copyright - A copyright is right granted by statute to the author or originator of certain literary, artistic, and musical productions whereby for a limited period of time he or she controls the use of the product. A trademark is a distinctive mark placed on or attached to goods by a manufacturer or dealer to identify them as made or sold by that particular firm or person.(back to top)

Brand - It's the way a company makes you feel simply by recognizing the logo, hearing its music, or seeing its employees. Think about Starbucks: You think of coffee, you smell coffee, you think of a green circle, you tend to think of high quality, a more affluent crowd, etc. In reality is Starbucks coffee better than other coffee? Maybe, maybe not. More importantly, did it get you in the door by making you feel that it is better coffee, better service, atmosphere, decor, etc.? It's all part of the brand.

Is Target really better than Wal-Mart? It's definitely not cheaper. They don't have to be - they aren't marketing to that crowd. They are marketing to demographic that wants fashionable, but lower cost products. So, what did Target do to strengthen their brand? In the super stores they began to partner with Starbucks; just the kind of crowd they're looking for. Now think of Wal-Mart...who did they partner with? McDonald's. Two totally different brand strategies for two totally different crowds.

So, what's your brand? What is your DNA? (back to top)