Every once in a while, a company comes along that just gets it. They don't just entice you with a flashy website--they actually deliver a quality product at a competitive price, and enhance the customer experience with outstanding support. Recently, I discovered a company called Inkd, which fits that exact description. I was looking for some last-minute graphic design work for a flyer, and Inkd gave me some of the most personalized care I've ever received from an online merchant.

Inkd provides original graphic design templates for flyers, brochures, business cards, and much more. Due to a last-minute change in the scope of a project, one of my clients needed a two-sided flyer designed as soon as possible. Not to worry, Inkd had me covered. They took on the project and turned it around in no time, thanks to super-designer Chelsea and her team. A proof was ready for me in a few hours. Brilliant!

Their site is remarkably easy to use: browse the available templates, pick a great design for your flyer/business card/brochure/etc., and tweak it as necessary (if at all) to make it your own. The whole experience was easy, and whenever I had questions, Chelsea and the Inkd staff where there for me.

Inkd makes it easier for the producers and consumers of design work to connect. Even if you regularly work with a graphic designer, it's possible that they may not accept last-minute projects. Inkd took on my project at a good price and allowed me to finish other work simultaneously. Added bonus? Inkd doesn't use cheesy templates that make you think about dot matrix printers and Betamax machines--all of their designs are fresh, modern, and look 100% custom.

As a business owner, it's a relief to know there are companies like Inkd out there. Their personalized and efficient service has made me a fan!

The benefits of using Inkd:

- Stylish templates for a wide array of projects

- Designs that reflect a more modern aesthetic

- Excellent, personalized customer care

- Quick turnaround

- Fair pricing

I posted this on Twitter earlier, but had to share here on my blog, too. Richard Darrell (@minervity on Twitter) has a great post on Bit Rebels with awesome videos that provide some insight into the process of designing a website from scratch. I posted one of the videos below. Thanks, Richard!

They're "just words," right? Wrong. Your website provides a unique opportunity for you to tell your readers exactly why they should buy your product or sign up for your service. If your copy is boring, wordy, or sounds amateur, it's highly unlikely that anyone reading your site will stick around for very long.

So, how do you make your copy work for you? Here are five tips for making sure your content makes the grade.

Treat your homepage like valuable real estate. If it's cluttered with text, or if the text that's there has no discernible value to the reader, you're devaluing your homepage and your product, brand or service as soon as people get to your site. Bottom line: if it's not a major component of your business or service, take it off the homepage.

Don't make the reader work. It's a simple concept, but one that some people fail to grasp: the reader doesn't want to work to find the information they need. Find out what it is that people come to your website for, and then make sure it's easy to find it when they get there.

Invest in good copy. No, I'm not just saying this because I'm the Founder of The Cultivated Word. Good copy--and a good copywriter--will both draw readers to your site by optimizing your content for search engines, and keep them there by making that content easy to read and understand. If you don't have the resources to invest in a copywriter and intend to write the copy yourself, refrain from falling victim to what I call "My Top 5 Copywriting Pet Peeves."

Think about the big picture. When you look at your website copy, check your immediate response. How do you react? If a quick glance produces a response like, "Make it go away!" or if you can't be bothered reading through what you currently have on your site, other people will be just as bored with the copy as you are.

Good copy and design go hand in hand. User interaction research tells us that you've only got a few seconds to convince a visitor to stay on your website. If you've got good copy and a crisp website design, chances are you'll make a positive impression on visitors, and you'll find it's easier to navigate your site, too. Not sure what "decent design" means? Check out Andrew Houle's blog post, "4 Principles of Good Design for Websites."

Growing up just a few minutes outside of New York City, I spent a lot of time venturing into the urban playground just across the Hudson River. Over the years, I navigated between the East and West sides, uptown and downtown, and in college, discovered which diners stayed open late enough to serve French fries at 4 AM. Whenever someone visited and went to "the city" with me, I was the unofficial tour guide of the group, trying to explain the lay of the land to wide-eyed travelers.

Over the years, I became a fan of sketching simple pocket visual aids to help inform visitors about the neighborhoods that comprised the borough of Manhattan (geek alert). They certainly weren't detailed maps--those would've been too overwhelming and were, of course, ubiquitous--but they helped visitors understand the geography of the city at a glance. They were perfect for getting "lost in the city" without really doing so. It made visiting much more manageable.

As a lover of maps, you can imagine my delight when I found Here & There: A Horizonless Projection. They're offering a limited run of gigantic (three feet by two feet), high resolution projections of Manhattan. If you're a geek who enjoys a good map, or if you just want to get a visual sense of Manhattan, this is a truly wonderful thing.

Fast food corporation + public works project = KFC's new marketing campaign.

Got potholes? KFC's got a solution: they'll fill the potholes in your city if, after they've been filled, you let them spray-paint their logo on the finished product. Sound like a good deal? Then you might want to give Colonel Sanders a call and let him know to come to town (or go to town--on your potholes, that is).

KFC's pothole-filling project is all part of their new "street marketing campaign" to spread the word about the freshness of KFC's chicken. According to the company's press release, "While most people know the signature taste of the Colonel's Original Recipe, not everyone knows that KFC restaurants receive shipments of fresh chicken on the bone throughout each week." But make no mistake, this isn't about just letting consumers know they sell fresh chicken at KFC.

As soon as I heard about KFC's new promotion, I remembered what I'd read in Martin Lindstrom's book, Buyology. In the book, he describes KFC's subliminal ad for the Buffalo Snacker chicken sandwich, which "if the viewer replayed... in slow motion, revealed a code that consumers could enter on the KFC Web site to receive a coupon for a free Snacker" (Lindstrom 2008: 73). The point is that KFC doesn't slap logos on potholes without a good reason--it's all part of the great KFC master marketing plan. The question is, will consumers find it authentic and believable?

The "Re-Freshed by KFC" pothole campaign is an interesting one--doing something good for the community and also spreading the word about the KFC brand, but some people don't like the idea of public works and business mixing. Others just don't like KFC's practices, and find the idea of promoting the brand on potholes rather repellent, regardless of the fact cities are getting help improving the roads.

PETA has accused KFC of cruelty to animals for years. They're so inflamed over the company's new "Re-Freshed" campaign that they've offered Louisville's mayor $6,000 (twice what KFC "donated") to fill potholes and then spray-paint them with anti-KFC messages. The mayor declined PETA's offer. It would appear PETA's money isn't good enough for Louisville.

No doubt the conflict has brought attention to KFC's campaign, but it also sparks discussion about the limits of advertising campaigns. Should public streets be branded with the logos of companies? Some say that has essentially already happened at bus stops, on park benches, and on city buses--so what's the difference? In this case, it seems like the difference is the close partnership between KFC and the City of Louisville. But can this be helped? After all, as Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson points out, KFC employs a lot of people in the city.

Does KFC's advertising campaign cross the line or is it just smart marketing? What do you think?

Those of you who follow me on Twitter know that last weekend I went to check out Shepard Fairey's "Supply and Demand" exhibit at the Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston, which opened on February 6th and runs through August 16th, 2009. Fairey's show was really interesting not only because I'd seen "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" and "Obey" graphics stenciled onto lampposts around the New York City area growing up, but because his work really makes you think about what we call "art," and why. His work also raises questions about the process of making art, and how to give credit to the people/work/movements that inspire you (although in the case of Fairey, the issue might be whether or not to give credit at all).

Fairey uses everything from newspaper clippings to stylized graphics to other people's work(!) to address potentially incendiary subjects like war, violence, and consumer culture. He's been creating street art for more than twenty years, but resurfaced again in the media recently for creating the Obama Hope image seen on t-shirts, posters, and even on Spike Lee. According to Fairey, in the video below, his work is based on the concept of "cross-pollination." While Fairey describes this as "getting people to think about things from a perspective that they hadn't before," I think it would be best defined as the idea that what you produce is informed by other cultural movements--social, artistic, or otherwise--as well as other people's ideas, and perspectives.

However, sometimes the fruits of cross-pollination can get you in trouble, which is what happened to Fairey last week, when the Associated Press threatened to sue him because the Obama Hope image he created is based on a photograph taken by an AP photographer. However, just yesterday, it was announced that Fairey will actually be beating the AP to the punch, and suing them first. What's happening with Fairey and the AP gives credence to the artist's detractors. It also bolsters claims from those who say that while Fairey draws liberally from other artists, he doesn't like it when they draw on his work. Case in point? When Austin graphic designer Baxter Orr borrowed from Fairey's work, he received a strange expression of gratitude: a cease and desist letter from a Fairey representative. So much for cross-pollination!

All in all, Fairey's exhibit was really thought-provoking. It made me think about the kind of art he creates, and about his beliefs and actions as an artist. But it left me with more questions than answers. While I'm still so curious why someone who believes in cross-pollination reacts so negatively to artists pursuing that very same goal, I know the show succeeded in some way by making me question everything.