Where in the world did Namaro go for $55 a month?

No, your GPS isn’t broken. Namaro’s still here. We’ve spent the last year exploring ways to use the internet to help our business grow and decided to go virtual. Technology is at the point where this is not only possible, but can actually help you make your professional & personal lives more efficient.

If you’re considering going virtual, here are a few things to consider for just about $55 a month.

How do you handle business calls with more than one office location?
We settled on Skype.com.We opened a business account for about $20 a month for international calls and set up phone numbers for each virtual office location ($30 a year per phone number). We purchased a Skype phone an option for Nadine (who’s on the phone all the time) to talk to clients when the computers are off.

So what do you get for this mere pittance?
- Free unlimited calls to other Skype numbers (skype-in)
- Unlimited international calls to non-Skypers (skype-out)
- Video calls or conferences
- Private and public chat
- Phone conference
- File and call transfers
- Voice-mail
- Call forwarding

It’s all a breeze. The sound quality is great. The savings are unbelievable. Give us a call at our new number 845 228 8858 (replaces 845-876-3009). Or, if your already on Skype, try us at namaroskype.

What if I need to send or receive a fax?
Set up an account with trustfax.com. We use the $29.95 a year package and you get 150 received pages and 50 Send pages. You can set up an account and receive a fax number in minutes. They notify you by email when a fax comes in, then you can download the file as you would any other email attachment. When you need to send a fax, log in to their site, enter the number, upload a file, and you’re done. Our new virtual fax number is 914 652-2470.

How do I share files with my colleagues?
Since we use Time Warner Cable for our internet access, we set up a dedicated IP address on one main computer for $10 a year. All job files are located on that main computer. He set us all up with Timbuktu software that allows us to access the main computer. It’s highly secure. No one else can access the computer without the precise IP address and password information.

How can we keep track of projects so that everyone knows what everyone else is doing?
There are several sites dedicated to online project tracking. We use BaseCamp.com. It costs about $20 a month. You can map out project milestones, assign tasks, create to do lists, send and store files, chat, create online presentations and post messages to all parties involved with the project. You get emails to keep you up-to-date on changes and check on the status of all ongoing projects anywhere you have an internet connection. And the best part about it is that your clients don’t have to pay for it.

Namaro's new contact info

Phone number is 845 228 8858
Fax number is 914 652-2470
Skype-in name is namaroskype
Twitter is NadineRobbins
www.namaro.com
Namaro.blogspot.com
nrobbins@namaro.com
mahearn@namaro.com

NEF 2008 Year-To-Date Brochure

Our motto this year is to keep it simple. Clean, smart and clever design has more power in this noisy marketing environment. For this brochure, we took the iconic part of NEF’s logo, a house, and blew it up until you couldn’t recognize it on the cover. However, once you open the brochure the house is revealed. (Not giving all the answers to your reader on your brochure cover will entice them to open it up). NEF is offering new services that will secure their future in this business climate. They are getting back down to the core basics, a clean slate. A clean design, a fresh piece of paper and their logo creates a perfect metaphor.

Portfolio: Check out our new website!

So for the past year, we have gone on and on about search engine optimization (SEO) and keywords. So why did we design our site in flash which doesn’t work so well with SEO or keywords? Simple. After analyzing the usage of our site over the past year we established that SEO and keywords didn’t work for our service-oriented business and 90% of people who visit our site go to the portfolio page.

We decided to make our site match the look and feel of the type of design we offer and match what our visitors want to see: just our work. But never fear, we still can use SEO techniques on our blog. It’s a perfect combo for our business.

Visit the new site and your comments are most welcome!

Namaro's holiday card

Here's Namaro's greeting card. We NEVER have fun in our office ;) Click photo and turn up the sound.

Drinks To Kiss 2008 Goodbye

Mistletoe (Nadine's favorite)
Mix 1 oz. tequila, ½ oz. triple sec, ½ oz. pomegranate juice together. Fill glass with champagne. Kissing will begin shortly.

Pointsettia (Holiday party favorite)
Mix ½ oz. cointreau and 3 oz. cranberry juice together. Fill glass with champagne. Absolutely delicious. Plan for people to drink pitchers of this stuff.

Hot Chocolate with Brandy (Terri's favorite)
Heat 1 cup whole milk and ¼ cup cream. Whisk in either 3 oz. melted dark chocolate or 2T liquid chocolate into milk. Add 2T brandy when heated to desired temp. Kahlua also works nicely!

Killer Egg Nog (Molly's Favorite?)
Add pinch of nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice and clove to 1 cup eggnog base (Stewart’s brand is excellent). Mix in 1 oz. bourbon, 1 oz. rum and ½ oz. cognac. You will start to feel very warm and fuzzy halfway through your second mug.

Snowball (Your favorite?)
Mix 1-1/2 oz. good gin (bad gin is worse than rotgut), ½ oz. anise liqueur and ½ oz. cream in a shaker with ice. Strain out ice and serve in chilled glass. Watch out, these hit with a snowball-like intensity.

Spicy Martini (Justin's favorite?)
Mix 2 oz. good gin, 2 oz. apple cider, 3/4 oz. fresh orange
and a splash of maple syrup in a shaker with ice. Strain out ice and serve in chilled glass. Martini, martooni, martinni…

Namaro website

Yup. The Namaro web site is down. On purpose!

The day Obama is sworn in, we are revamping our site to reflect our "Get ready, Get set and GO" campaign that celebrates our 20th anniversary. 20 in 09 on 1/20/09.

Logos that didn't make it. Rate it. Buy it.

With over 20 awards for logo development under our belt, Namaro has established itself as the place to go to get a logo designed. It's one of our favorite projects to work on.

So what happens to the logos that didn't make it? The ones the client didn't pick. They sit on our server hoping one day to be brought back out into the world. Inspired by these orphans' plight, we developed this new section to show creative logos to the world. You can rate them, adopt them, or just comment on them.

If you do want to adopt one, they are available for a very reasonable fee and are adaptable to suit your business. Give us a call and give them a home ;)

Graphic Traffic: Why a new blog name?

Graphic Traffic better represents what our blog is and what it will be. The new name conveys the concept of information coming together at an intersection and the reader can read (go) wherever they want to.

At this moment in time, business is at a crossroads and stuck in traffic. Graphic Traffic intends on “green lighting” or “red lighting” roads (new information), get you around the jam (solutions) and on to your destination (results).

The next issue of our blog will further develop the concept. If you have an opinion about this, feel free to comment below. We would love to hear from you.

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)

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.

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.

Save the date: 2008 Art Studio Views

It's official. The maps are printed and everything is ready to go for the 2008 Inaugural Art Studio views of the Rhinebeck and Red Hook areas. Saturday 10-18 and Sunday 10-19 from 11-5 each day. Visit artsnortherndutchess.org for more information or download the map. Come and see our table across from the bandstand at Hardscrabble Day in Red Hook this Saturday 9/20. Send the link to your friends, art lovers and especially collectors ;)

Special thanks to our Art Studio View sponsors:
Rhinebeck Savings Bank
Rhinecliff Hotel
Keller Williams, Suzanne Stevens
Namaro Graphic Designs
Cross River Fine Art
Rising Tide Communications

Special thanks to everyone else. Now the hard work begins!!!

Diana Ayton-Shenker
Doris Cultraro
Nadine Robbins
Elizabeth Watt
Joel Weisbrod
Joanne Klein
Clive Jacobson
France Menk
All the Artists
Susie Linn
Dutchess County Arts Council
Rhinebeck Area Chamber of Commerce

Creating a brand helps create a plan: Suzanne Stevens, Keller Williams Realty

Suzanne Stevens, a real estate broker with Keller Williams Realty in Rhinebeck, NY was inspired by our June blog: Don’t slash the budget. Market smarter!

Smart she is! Suzanne decided to use her time constructively during the economic downturn. She hired Namaro to upgrade her corporate brand and create a master plan. Not only is she going to be more visible than the competition that is down scaling, but she’ll be ready when the market picks up with a plan that will save her money and time.

First, we developed a tagline that was simple, direct and friendly by using a phrase that is common and expanding on it. “Just Listed, Just Sold, Just Suzanne”.

Second, we reviewed all her advertising and developed a plan.

Third, we designed a corporate brand that was first “Suzanne Stevens” and second Keller Williams. The fonts, shapes and colors complimented both “brands” yet differentiated them.

Fourth, we designed and produced templates in Microsoft Publisher, PowerPoint and Word, so Suzanne could work with the templates on her own whenever she needed them. Her corporate communications brand won’t be compromised, and she’ll be able to easily handle the job in-house.

Fifth, we created an Excel file with calendar columns next to each of the templates. Suzanne can create a plan for each piece of her brand and when she needs it.

Things change constantly in the real estate market. New ads are required. A presentation is created for every new listing, open house, and sale. This brand is easy to use, update and will most definitely make “Suzanne Stevens” stand out now and in 2009-2010.

First Annual Arts Studio Views Pro Bono Work

You can see from the logo how much fun we had with this project! Namaro is proud to have donated the design of the logo and promo materials for the 1st Studio Views in Rhinebeck.

The inaugural Art Studio Views will present a self-guided, “not to be missed”, tour of 20 artist studios in the Rhinebeck & Red Hook area. Participating artists will collectively open their working studios to visitors and residents for the first time on October 18th and 19th, 2008. During those visits you will be able to meet and speak with the artist, see works in progress, purchase wonderful artwork or commission that special piece for yourself.

Participating artists feature acclaimed painters, photographers, illustrators, glass sculptors and stained glass artists, sculptors, textile, video and mixed-media artists, all making their home in the mid-Hudson Valley. However, their work and talent is nationwide in recognition - being found in public spaces, museums, and private collections. A user-friendly map and poster, beautifully designed by a local graphic arts firm, will guide visitors to the artist studios according to their own schedule and itinerary. Online links from the Art Studio Views website (currently under construction) will connect visitors with artist websites for a virtual preview of studios and introduction to artists’ work.

Spearheaded by local artists themselves, this initiative promises to put Rhinebeck & Red Hook on the map as a cultural destination in the region and reinforce the wealth of local talent that is in abundance in this area. As the Art Studio Views tour serves to showcase the cultural vibrancy of our creative community, it will also provide a new annual attraction for weekenders, tourists, and other visitors; and it will continue to help build a market of support for working artists and the Arts in Northern Dutchess.

Art Studio Views offers exceptional sponsorship opportunities to local businesses which will be featured prominently in promotional material to be publicized by the media and distributed to thousands of residents, tourists, visitors, customers, and prospective studio viewers. An opening private reception will be held on October 17th at the Rhinecliff Hotel to honor artists, sponsors, and VIP friends of the inaugural Art Studio Views event. Many thanks to James Chapman for sponsoring the reception. His restaurant will officially be opening up Labor day. I suggest you go and check it out. It sounds YUMMY and what a view. Go to www.therhinecliff.com for more info.

For further information, please contact Nadine Robbins, 845.876.3009 nrobbins@namaro.com

Quad: Elegant and Cost-Effective Alumni Magazine

Riverdale Country School in New York has entrusted us with designing their biannual alumni magazine for many years. Providing education to boys and girls through twelfth grade, Riverdale is known for its challenging curriculum as well as its emphasis on developing creativity, independence and moral integrity. The two-acre campus looks like a park and has been featured on many Quad covers. To keep costs manageable, the inside pages are two-color allowing us to show off our talent with black-and-white photographs. Action Graphics in New Jersey does a fine job with the printing.

Cocktail recipes & other results from last Enewsletter

I thought that the results from our last Enewsletter campaign would be of interest:

1. Many of you enjoyed the cocktail recipes. So much so that is was the number one click to get to the blog over everything else. (I can see that your mind is on your work)

2. Most of you clicked the photos to get to the information you were looking for. (Pictures are the best!)

3. The text version of the newsletter is not being clicked by anyone. (This is not bad news.)

4. No one is subscribing to the RSS feed. (I think I'll do an article about this subject very soon)

5. Free lightbulbs are still available, click nrobbins@namaro.com to get yours.

Get a free lightbulb!

Namaro’s corporate communication design campaign “Brighter ideas, more impact, less energy” is under way and we are sending out a free "energy smart" light bulbs to the first 100 to send us a request.

Don't forget to pass the blog along to someone who could use the information we post on the blog.