About 36 hours before hosting a holiday party for almost 40 people from my business group Million Dollar Ladies, my hot water heater sprang a leak — of course, perfect timing right? When your hot water heater leaks there's no patching it up, you have to do a complete replacement.

Luckily, one of the members of the group is the owner of a plumbing company that does superior work and was someone I trusted. So I called them and they came to my rescue replacing the unit in a just a ... Continue Reading

There are many warning signs when it comes to spotting a rogue design firm.

We've heard of horror story after horror story and stepping back to take it all in there are a few commonalities that seem to come up more often than not.

Below are some key red flag indicators to help you realize if you've been or are in the process of being punk'd by your current design firm.

MIA

Your design firm all of the sudden has gone missing in action right in the middle or within the final stretch ... Continue Reading

Designing "just because" is no way to develop solid design. If you are a designer or someone in the business you already know this.

There are times though when clients are adamant about something that has to be in the design, not necessarily for a good reason, just because they like the "idea" of it, not because it has any real meaning or validity. This will often put a wrench in the creativity process but it's something everyone of us has had to deal with from time to time.

Consultation throughout the project ... Continue Reading

The short answer is no. No they can't. If they want something of yours they can get it or know someone that can.

This comes up quite often actually with our clients and we tell them the same thing. Sure there are deterrents which I'll describe below however that's all they are.

Here's a great story for you:

After a year or so telling our client that you can't lock down your photos so no one steals them, they came to me one day and said: "Rob, I know you said ... Continue Reading

Being choosy in a declining market can be tough, this just doesn't go for the design field but really any market. When you first build your business you take on any work you can to get the ball rolling, to get the clients in the door and do what you can to establish community rapport.

As your business builds, you start to release "C & D" clients so you can focus on your "A & B" clients. In this market however, just getting people to commit to a project can take ... Continue Reading

Twitter is all the rage, everyone is doing it, if you're not why aren't you? From big companies to people living in their basement are inviting you into their lives, their culture and meeting new people that share like interests is what Twitter is about. The down side of Twitter though are some of the people that do follow you.

We've put together a list of reasons we just will never consider following you back:

• You have not, will not or don't know how to change the default avatar (We'll also unfollow ... Continue Reading

It’s fitting that this blog entry comes in December, the month when stores and homes are decorated with extra lights, garlands, and all kinds of shiny decorative objects. It’s a time when we put more glitter into our surroundings. Adding glitter in the form of great design is what Effusion Creative Solutions is all about. We call it making things look pretty with a purpose, and it’s a philosophy that started at an early age for our founder, Robert Pfeifer.

Apparently, when he was young he was in a boys group ... Continue Reading

If you knew me, you would know I’m a Food Network junkie. I also tend to collect cookbooks, which I often read like novels. My latest one is The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, one of Ina Garten’s from the late 1990’s. In it, she repeatedly advises to use the best ingredients you possibly can.

At Effusion we decided that the best way to provide the best services to our clients was to specialize in design (which is all done in-house) and partner with “specialists” in other areas on an as ... Continue Reading

This type of thinking applies not only to graphic design, marketing, and brand strategy but really any profession ranging from landscaping to interior decorating — you name it.

If you search the web there are plenty of companies that will design your logo identity for $100 and your website for under $500, you absolutely don't want to go this route. These types of solutions are typically sweat shop off-shore design companies that turn and burn out work throwing quality to the wind.

We can't tell you how many companies we have estimated projects ... Continue Reading

When creativity and whitespace has become no longer important.