Who knew???

We are signed up for Google alerts so that anytime Namaro, or other subjects, comes up online it alerts us. So we just got an alert about Namaro. I eagerly open it up only to find out that there is a town in Mozambique named, your guessed it, Namaro. Who knew?

http://www.maplandia.com/mozambique/cabo-delgado/meluco/namaro/

And we thought we were original. What a small world.

Fascinating Article about Nation Branding

Molly found this fascinating article about National Branding and how Columbia is improving its image. Thinking we should do this for America or at least the Hudson Valley. What do you think? Let us know. Enjoy.

Colombia Wants the World to Recognize Its Passion
Latin American Nation Trots Out a New Slogan, Seeking to Rehabilitate Its Brand After Years of Violence and Corruption

SHOP SHOP SHOP

So the Dow is at 8,500! Should have spent the money not saved it. Oh well. I have my health, a great husband, a wonderful son, a great company, good friends, great clients, and enthusiasm.

So what does this mean to your company? It's not going to be business as usual in 2009 but this downward spiral is a sign of change and change can be good. Clever ideas and innovative solutions will come out of this slower, belt tightening economy. You watch. It will be a renaissance that takes everything we have learned over the past 25 years of building an economy on a house of cards and reversing it for the better. Much better.

I started my business in 1989 after I had been laid off from a great job at Citibank due to the economy. Even though I knew it was going to be hard to get a business up and running, I did it anyway. I had $20,ooo and no clients. Through a friend, I got my first client who paid me $500 for a logo and I was grateful. The first year, I made no profit but I had no losses. The year after a little better. The 3rd year even better. It took time. I've seen good times and bad ones. If anything I have learned is that enthusiasm, commitment and perseverance wins out.

In 2009, Namaro Graphic Designs will turn 20. As part of our celebration, for the next year Namaro will commit to blogging on subjects that will inspire and help our readers during this uncertain time. So come back often to see what tips and info we gather for you that will help you do your job better, start a new business and get inspired.

For now, Molly, our design and production manager, said it well: If you still can, shop local, shop often, help a friend and let's get the economy going.

Personally, I'm going shopping for some some Vodka.

Dutchess Arts Council Book Launch/Fundraiser/Funny Event

From the drawing my mother framed when I was four to 38 years years later, my personal and professional lives have creatively overlapped. I am a graphic designer and portrait painter. My design career has taught me how to promote my paintings and my paintings have given inspiration for my designs. My design has taught me how to solve problems and be a leader and my paintings give my mind the ability to rest to deliver creative solutions. My design has taught me to work with the best people in order to soar and my paintings help me soar and give me the confidence to be my best.

Maybe this doesn't make sense to you, but what it boils down to is that my creative accomplishments, whether commercial or fine-art, would never happen with out creative people around me.

For the past 4 months several of my colleagues and I have been working on the inaugural Art Studio Views (artsnortherndutchess.org). It's going to happen on the 18-19 of this month and it would never have been possible without the help of amazing creative people, one of whom is Benjamin Krevolin from the Dutchess County Arts Council.

There are so many to thank and in the coming months, I will get to each of them. But today I want to thank Ben for his wealth of knowledge, guidance, help and humor in all my creative ventures. His dedication to the arts is invaluable to our area and Dutchess County just wouldn't be as great without his undying efforts. Supporting the Dutchess County Arts Council is essential for our kids, our economy, our sanity, and our community. So I encourage you to go to their really cool fundraiser happening Friday October 17th. Below you will find all the delightful details:

Some Delights of the Hudson Valley; An Anthology of Hudson Valley Humor
Compiled & Edited by Danny Shanahan

Friday, October 17th
6:30 Reception / 7:30 Show
Olin Hall
Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson

Tickets are:
$35 for individual (includes 1 book)
$50 for a couple (includes 1 book)
PLEASE call the Arts Council to reserve tickets – 845-454-3222
Or go to website: http://www.artsmidhudson.org/

Readings (of their own work) by contributors – Denny Dillon from SNL, Mary-Louise Wilson from Grey Gardens, Robert Kelly, Mikhail Horowitz, Lou Trapani and many more; music by contributor and legend, Graham Parker; cartoon panel Q&A with New Yorker team Shanahan, Donnelly, Maslin, Crawford and more; reception, signings, food, door prize for tkts to The Daily Show, raffle for original cartoon art, hob-nobbing and MUCH, MUCH MORE!!

PLEASE PASS THIS INVITE ON!

(Epigraph Publishing ~ An Alternative Publishing Imprint of Monkfish Book Publishing Company)

"THE LIGHTER SIDE": Top ten reasons you need bailing out too

1. Who can balance a checkbook, anyway?
2. Your house is in a perpetual state of construction.
3. You’ll never get to retire, otherwise.
4. Because you can’t swim.
5. You don’t have a senator’s health care plan.
6. You have 3 college-age children.
7. You live in a flood zone.
8. Social Security sure won’t be around to help.
9. You’ve been spending your money on stuff like food and electricity instead of investing it in the market. Maybe you don’t need bailing out ;)
10. Your teenager has already crashed both of the family cars.

Namaro portfolio: FREE "Panda" Logo & web site

The local television station in Northern Dutchess County, Panda TV 23, is a non-profit organization dedicated to facilitating local programming. After a shakeup in government and management, Panda wanted to reinvent their image and renew their dedication to the community. We donated our services to design a new logo and a small web site for them. The logo has distinctive ‘A-s’ and the station number centered in a TV-shaped screen. The Web site’s easy-to-use navigation, appealing colors and TV-shaped images have transformed the online experience for their viewers.

More shameless self-promotion: Logos, logos and more logos

We are known in the industry for our logos. So we would like to brag to you that most of them have won awards and helped our clients reach new heights. As a design firm, if we had a choice for our preferred work, it would be logo design. It’s hard to design a logo that looks like it was easy to develop but when you get it right, the satisfaction is worth the effort.

RAPP ON THIS: The fair use marass

As always, our friendly neighborhood intellectual property lawyer Paul Rapp has something to say in a smart and approachable way. Click here for an article he wrote trying to explain what "fair use" means. Happy reading!

FREE shameless self-promotion

Like everyone else in the country, we’re looking at each other and wondering how our company will weather the growing financial crisis. The best way to handle this, we decided, is to be proactive. So we’re out campaigning for work!

What can we do for you?

• Develop creative ways to get your customers active again.

• Design a brand that people will remember with a logo that will last.

• Cut through the hype of internet marketing.

• Reduce printing costs by using multi-channel strategies.

• Work as an off-site extension of your company.

• Set up an e-mail campaign newsletter template.

• Create a template system for all your marketing needs and you can manage it yourself.

• Create a flash animation to jazz up your Web site or presentation.

• Update the look of your Web site not re-create it.

• Product and location photography.

• Help you review your marketing budget and make it more efficient, effective and last longer.

FREE marketing and business ideas

These days marketing should be more transparent and cross-promotional. In order for everyone to prosper, helping each other do business in new ways is essential. It’s where it’s at baby!

• Cross-promote with businesses that share the same client base.

• Write engaging press releases about your employees (e.g., the personal achievement of an employee like being the first in their family to graduate from college or climb Mt. Everest)

• Start a blog and engage only your clients. What do they want from you? What can you do better? Maybe they could post a picture of your product in use at their house? Answer their questions? Reward your clients when they offer a great idea? Satisfy them when they aren’t happy and let everyone see how you made them happy again?

• Help your clients get business. Be transparent, help them, they will help you.

• Read our blog ;)

• Don’t pay rent. Rent a van. Create a business model that’s on the road. Sell or distribute anything from the trunk. Make-up, clothing, vacations, anything that someone wouldn’t expect.

• The right place at the right time business. Your business moves from one location to another as the market demands and uses vacant storefronts for a month or 2 at a time.

• Put 2 businesses together that you wouldn’t expect. Maybe a bar and a wide screen TV in a department store so your husband can sit-down and have a drink while you're shopping. Think of it, he would be happy to come and you could shop through the Superbowl.

• Create a new business model that caters to the “convenient” factor. Like a ½ hour babysitter service when you have to make that quick run to the store or the bank.

Links to FREE stuff online

Some stuff we endorse and we say so by adding a happy face. Others we don't know enough about. Users always beware when you see the word ‘free.’

☺ Google offers lots of free online software that rivals popular alternatives including word processing, spreadsheets, image management, calendar, drawing, and translation. If you have staff working in more than one location, they can access and edit documents online without having to email or transfer via ftp.

Freeware software top 100: Need we say more?

☺ Thelaw.com: Free legal advice and forms

☺ VerticalResponse.com: If you’re a non-for-profit entity, go to VerticalResponse.com. Give them proof of your non-for-profit status and they’ll let you send up to 10,000 e-mails a month for free.

☺ JustGive: is committed to helping nonprofits by offering them online donation tools to increase awareness and donations to their organizations. Their tools can directly help you increase your fund raising.

Planware.org: free software business plans, marketing plans, strategic plans, online planning tools, excel templates for financial forms

☺ Free-press-release.com: Free Press Releases

Thefreesite-whitepapers.tradepub.com: White papers and trade publications

Free-internet.name: Free Internet access

☺ Dafont.com: Free fonts

Thefreemusicdirectory.com: Free music

☺ Freeonlinegames.com: Just in case you need a little distraction during your day.

Freerice.com: For each answer you get right, we donate 20 grains of rice through the UN World Food Program to help end hunger.

☺ Marketingprofs.com: Free trial offer for a wealth of marketing information and case studies.

☺ Skype.com: Free phone calls.

☺ Yousendit.com: Free ftp service to send your large files or photos via the web.

☺ About.com: Free Graphic Design Basics tutorial

☺ Paul-Rand.com: Free thoughts on design by Paul Rand, one of the best graphic designers ever.

☺ Freestufftimes: A blog with links to more free stuff.