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Don’t Miss local Summer Festivals
June 24th, 2010We can’t help but invite you… after all, we did the promoting!!
Canada Day will be held at John Peake Park at 7:30 pm
- Cake
- Magic Show
- Guitar Hero
- Bouncing-Tent
- Movie-In-The-Park
The 2010 Chestermere Water Festival will be held on July 24th ALL DAY at Anniversary Park and John Peake Park
- Wakeboard Competition
- Fishing Derby
- Boat Parade
- Children’s Entertainer Captain Jack
- Rubber Duck Race
- Open Mic – Live Music Stage
- One Foot Party Band
- Beer Gardens
- 9th Annual AMCA Car Show
- Vendor Artisan Marketplace
- Fireworks
- SO VERY MUCH MORE!
For all the info and the low-down, check out the site WE designed at www.chestermerefestivals.ca
Your Website Needs
October 18th, 2009When planning the layout of your site, I consider the needs thoroughly. Are you expecting high traffic volume? If so, you may consider a content management system to allow yourself access to the site for regular updates that encourage search engine rankings. We have a snazzy system called iCanManage that allows client access through a simple login process.
Are you just needing a simple “brochure” style website? If that is the case, something simple and static done in XHTML/CSS is the way to go. And with our Hands Free Hosting package, you get one hour per month of free site updates. No matter what your needs are, I can work with you to build an appropriate site.
For larger, commercial type projects a formal content management system may be what’s best. My favourites are WordPress and Joomla- both are free, thus saving you money. They require more hours to build and need a bigger budget than the above two methods. The Chestermere Rec Centre and Chestermere Library sites use Joomla, while this site here uses WordPress. I’m always available to answer questions about these programs; they have a lot to offer.
iCanManage – Client Access
July 29th, 2009
Jump on board with an exciting new product from iCandyDZine. The iCanManage client access system allows our web customers to log into a special area on our website that gives direct editing access to their own sites. Now even the simplest of sites can be edited online with an easy-to-use series of forms- no bulky CMS software required! Annual subscription fee of $196.00 applies. Contact us today for more details.
Summer Specials
July 24th, 2009iCandyDZine is looking to build up our Business Card portfolio and we’d like to offer you special discounted rates on a custom Business Card for your company!
Now until August 31st, save 10% on all business cards (up to 1000 qty each).
Contact me for a quote! Offering full colour, single or two-sided, glossy or matte finish. Cost includes printing and design.
Come see us at the Business Expo!
April 8th, 2009It’s become a bit of a tradition and iCandyDZine is always excited to attend the Chesterermere Business Expo at the Rec Centre. This year it will be held on May 2nd and why not come out and meet me! I’ll be displaying my portfolio and offering a free draw as well: sign up for our mailing list and you could win a George Foreman Grill.
iCandyDZine proudly supports Earth Hour!
March 26th, 2009
Join Earth Hour
Really, it’s the least I can do. Turning off my lights for an hour to show mother earth that I care! Join in with tens of millions of people, schools and businesses as we celebrate earth and speak out against global climate change with the simple act of shutting off our lights. Click the logo to learn more!
In addition to our participation in the act of turning out the lights, I am pleased to announce that iCandyDZine will be donating 10% of our profits for the month of march to the World Wildlife Foundation.
Need to advertise? Try the Mail!
March 24th, 2009Great deals on Custom Postcard Designs avilable for your business!
Canada Post has made mail outs easy and affordable. You can send out 1,000 unadressed admails through Canada Post for only $128! That’s a great deal. The postal service will put your custom iCandyDZine Postcards (Request a quote today!) into the hands of local residents giving you a fantastic oppertunity to get your business/product out there.
Go big! With this kind of pricing you can easily do larger mail outs. Spend your advertising dollars wisely- customers prefer something eye catching and tangible that they can see and feel in their own hands. Great for special offers, coupon features (ie. Bring this card for 5% off!) and introducing your company to a new town/market.
For more information on Canada Post’s services, click here.
Cost of design and printing of postcards through iCandyDZine can vary- request a quote!
A new year with iCandyDZine
January 10th, 2009After a rough patch my health is getting back on track and I am looking to bring on new projects. At this time my focus will be on print and graphic design though I will consider new website requests on a case by case basis. Let me first recap what I have been working on:
2008:
- Designed a Music Album cover and website for a local up and coming singer/songwriter duo called Laws of Attraction
- Revamped the Chestermere Rec Centre logo and created a website using a content management system.
- Designed a new logo for the Chestermere Public Library and created a website using a content management system.
- Designed a logo for the Chestermere Public Library Board
- Created the posters and banners for the Chestermere Water Festival for the Town of Chestermere
- Worked on several business card and small promotional items.
2009:
- Begun work on the Chestermere Winterfest Banners for the Town of Chestermere
- Begun drafting some computer workshops to be open to all members of the community. Topics will include MS Office for Beginners, Internet and Emailing for Beginners, iParents- a Crash Course for Parents of Internet-aged Kids, Digital Scrapbooking, Choosing a PC, and some courses for Seniors. Stay tuned for dates, cost and location.
If you have a project you would like to work with me on, please email me using the contact information to your right or use our handy quote request form.
Take care and have a great new year!
Not accepting new projects at this time
September 11th, 2008Unfortunately my health is not doing well and I am waiting for relief from a new medication that has not yet begun to kick-in so to speak. For the next couple of weeks I will be hard to reach. Thank you for your understanding and patience.
Candy
Health Update
August 31st, 2008Thanks everyone for your patience and well-wishes. I did end up spending a few weeks in the hospital and am on leave from my full time job until October first. I’m still not feeling the greatest but trying to keep up with a few of my projects.
I am accepting new quote requests and new projects on a case-by-case basis. Mostly interested in print media right now as it is faster and less complicated than websites. Trying to keep stress levels low to keep out of the hospital. I have Crohn’s disease and that has been what is bothering me lately, but new my treatment is promising and I’m hoping for good results and to be in tip-top shape soon.
Thank you all again for your understanding and support.
Health Issues
August 3rd, 2008Hello Everyone,
Due to some recent health concerns possibly requiring hospital attention I may be difficult to reach. Please contact my cell if it is urgent, otherwise I will return any calls within several days. I am doing my best not to allow these issues to affect deadlines, however your patience and understanding is greatly appreciated.
Thank you very much,
Candy
The Benefits of Standards Based Design
June 28th, 2008When I first opened my eyes to tableless design, I was scared. I had spent my whole design life (age 13-24) using tables, or using WYSIWYG editors like FrontPage and Dreamweaver. How was I going to reboot my brain into using DIV layers and Sytlesheets? It was tough. But I did it because it was the best way to go.
By seperating content from style you free up a lot of clutter in your html pages. This allows the search engine robots to find exactly what they are looking for quickly, without getting lost in table row after row. The text flows consistently, regardless of where it appears on your page. How? Because you put little clues in your html telling the browser where to look in the CSS (Cascading Style Sheet, which is located in a seperate file that only the browser cares about) and that stylesheet tells the browser how to display your content. Font, layout, pictures, backgrounds, they are all ‘controlled’ by the stylesheet but ‘exist’ in the html.
New Address & Phone Number
June 9th, 2008I’m happy to announce that I have moved into my own little place (still in Chestermere). Our new phone number is 453-0219 and street address is 321 East Chestermere Drive.
Due to the move I was offline for a week and will be working hard to catch up. Your patience is appreciated.
Music Album Design
May 26th, 2008I have had the oppertunity to create two CD Albums so far and hope to work on more in the future. I find this particular media very exciting and rewarding. I have gathered some tips for how to design these.
- Decide early on whether you’ll be listing Lyrics or just credit information. This determines the type of booklet or insert you’ll use and how many pages you’ll need.
- Provide information to your designer about document dimensions, accepted formats, bleed marks and other requirments that the printing or production company requires of your artwork.
- Prepare a list of all the credits and lyrics in the order you’d like them to appear. Proof these carefully as they are often cut-and-pasted.
- Double check all spelling for names of people to be credited. There’s nothing worse than the guilt of spelling the drummer’s name wrong.
- Take high resolution photographs for the album artwork and supply them in .jpg format. These photos can be manipulated to include colour filters, effects and added graphics.
- Include important information such as Catalog Number, Producer, “Made in” Country, and copyright information for the back of the CD Tray as this is the most recognized place for it. Logos for Compact Disc and other industry markings are essential as well.
Let the album booklet become a treasured part of your CD! It can relay to your listeners the style and soul of your music and pull them in before they even hit play. The themes or styles should reflect your sound and the band’s individual personalities. Put effort into it and let your designer unlock their imaginations and you could come up with a design that rocks the industry!
A Busy Bee am I!
May 18th, 2008With an overwhelming response to my services, iCandyDZine is currently at full capacity for projects. We are working on 4 new websites, 2 print media and 3 maintenance sites at the moment. Please feel free to request a quote for future projects that are not time sensitive or are still in the early planning stages. I’d love to work with you in the Summer/Fall.
Host with Confidence
April 23rd, 2008iCandyDzine can host your site for you and bill you annually. Unfortunately, control panel access to your hosting account is not available. FTP access can be provided. If you don’t know what any of that means, it’s probably a good choice for you as we handle everything for you. If you prefer a method with more control, we recommend signing up with a hosting company that we know and trust. This enables us easy access to your site for publishing and maintenance and it also means you are benefitting from our years of experience in dealing with the internet and web hosting.
My host of choice is Dream Host as they provide the most bang for your buck. For a mere $10.95US/month (or less when prepaid annually or several years in advance) you get access to enough disk space (Storage) and bandwidth (visitor allowance) to power an army.
I have a number of other recommendations including SiteGround and Netfirms. The hosting you need depends on the requirements of your site. I’m happy to consult with you to provide a personalized recommendation of provider and plan. I know the techno-babble can be overwhelming sometimes.
Branding Basics
April 23rd, 2008Branding isn’t just for cattle- your business needs an image too. A consitent look that catches your customers eye and provides a sense of familiarity each time they see it. This starts with a Logo but also encompasses fonts, colours and slogans. As your customers learn more about your product and service through your marketing campaigns they keep your brand in their minds eye. Once you have the opperuntity to establish a relationship with the first transaction, your customer can keep coming back to you through recognition of your branding which they have now associated with quality and trust.
iCandy can establish a logo and a brand for you- and even provide you with a stock of printed business cards, brochures, letterhead and promotional items to get you started with launching your brand. Using my experience in design and graphics I can build a logo and associated colour scheme that will best represent your business. I’ll pull from that logo and bring the fonts, colours and general look and feel into your letterhead, business cards and website. The more your customer sees your brand, the stronger the memory. Repeat business should be your ultimate goal and the key to that is in memory and trust.
Logo design is easy with iCandy. Intuition and experience brings an enjoyable process where you can see your busines come to life on paper. I’ll work with you and urge feedback at each stage so that your logo is truly yours- just the way you and I have both imagined it to be.
Cross-Media Advertising
April 22nd, 2008Paper or Pixel? How about both! Planning out your marketing strategies involves thinking about two major mediums: print and digital. Print involves the old-faithful realm of Yellow Pages, Billboards, Magazines and Newspapers- things that get your customers on the phone or in your shop and will likely never go out of style. But, as time goes on, people turn to the internet more and more which means you need to consider things like websites, blogs, podcasts and directories and all they entail.
iCandy can help you climb both sides of this marketing pyramid, whenever you are ready. We recommend starting with a website and then building print advertising to direct people to your site for more information. Lets face it, that’s your ultimate goal- providing your potential customers with all the information they need to realize your product or service can benefit them. You’ll want to put your website address on every piece of print you do. Driving traffic to your website improves your search engine rankings and ultimately increases your traffic. The more people who are at your site, learning about your product, the more your business grows.
For people who haven’t fully embraced the world wide web, you’ll still reach them in print. Many would argue there is no replacement for holding a newspaper in their hands and magazine subscriptions are still commonplace. Plus there is the realm of signs and billboards. But the technologically intrigued people such as myself will always remember to visit a website of something that I find interesting in print.
Hello world!
April 20th, 2008Welcome to iCandyDZine.
Please bare with me as I update this site, which will be powered by WordPress from now on. This enables me to bring rich, relevant content to you on a regular basis regarding web design, my services and tips and tricks for you, my potential customers, and your marketing endeavours.
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