January 2006
		Happy New Year! It is officially 2006 and yet another year has zoomed by - all too quickly we might add. This month, we'll be taking a look at getting help with search engine listings, the first in a three part series on balance, and sorting out bits, bytes, and binary (oh my!). As always, if you have any questions or comments, please send them to info@gilmoredesigngroup.com. You can also view past issues of the Design InSight newsletter at www.gilmoredesigngroup.com/company_newsletters.html. Taj Mahal Photographed by: Jacob Halaska Balance (Borrowed from daphne.palomar.edu) Part One: The Basics Balance is a skill that everyone uses almost all of their waking hours. It is balance that allows you to stand up and walk around. You balance your checkbook and hopefully find a balance between your professional and social life. Balance in design is similar to the balance that we understand every day. However, in design it is the element of visual interest that designers must balance. Different colors, shapes sizes, etc. create different degrees of interest. It is the distribution of this interest that needs to be controlled. On the whole, balance is usually a desirable characteristic of commercial design. There are ways to have visual interest in a design and still have balance. When used properly, balance can evoke a specific response from the audience. If you create a piece of art that has balance, the audience will feel more comfortable viewing it. In the world of websites and commercial art that means your audience will feel more comfortable viewing your website and/or marketing materials. However, by creating a piece that is unbalanced the audience will - almost always - feel uncomfortable. This isn't always a bad thing. If the artist is trying to evoke a strong emotional response and the artwork makes the audience uncomfortable by being unbalanced, this can help get that emotion across and it will work to their advantage. Balance, or lack of it, isn't a good thing or a bad thing. It is just something that needs to be understood and controlled by the artist. With that being said, we will continue this topic in the upcoming newsletters when we talk about symmetrical and asymmetrical balance. Stay tuned! Bits, Bytes, Kilobytes and More! With all the information you keep on your computer, did you ever wonder how the computer stores it? Contrary to what some may think, the computer stores every piece of information you save on your computer's hard drive as binary code - 1s and 0s. Every email, every web page, every character, every graphic, every song - everything - is all a string of 1s and 0s. For example, the word "taco" in binary code is: 01110100011000010110001101101111 A bit, short for binary digit, is the smallest unit of information on a computer. A single bit can hold only one of two values: 0 or 1. More meaningful information is obtained by combining consecutive bits into larger units. A byte is composed of 8 consecutive bits. With that in mind, how many bytes are in a kilobyte and how many kilobytes are in a gigabyte? Here's the breakdown: 8 bits = 1 Byte (B) 1024 Bytes = 1 Kilobyte (K or KB) 1024 Kilobytes = 1 Megabyte (MB) 1024 Megabytes = 1 Gigabyte (GB)   1024 Gigabytes = 1 Terrabyte (TB) 1024 Terrabytes = 1 Pettabyte (PB) 1024 Pettabytes = 1 Exabyte (EB) 1024 Exabytes = 1 Zetabyte (ZB) 1024 Zetabytes = 1 Yottabyte (YB)   So that begs the question: How many bits in a Yottabyte? The answer: 9,671,406,556,917,033,397,649,408 or about ten septillion bits. And that, is a lot of 1s and 0s! Old IBM Hard Drive January 2005 - Hitachi's 8GB and 10GB 1-inch MicroDrives. Apple uses Hitachi's 4GB 1-inch MicroDrive in the iPod mini   Let's put this into a little perspective, by showing you a brief timeline of Hard Drives and Capacity (from Wikipedia) to see just how far we've come. 1980s   1980 - First 5.25-inch Winchester drive, the Shugart ST-506, 5 Megabyte 1990s   1991 - 100 Megabyte hard drive 1995 - 2 Gigabyte hard drive 1997 - 10 Gigabyte hard drive 2000s   2005 - 500 Gigabyte hard drive 2006 - Estimated launch of the first 1 Terrabyte hard drive
	Question: I would like my website to be ranked as high as possible on all the search engines. Is there a company I can pay for this type of service? Answer: We applaud your commitment to be listed in the top ranking of the major search engines. This is a task that does take money, time, and, at times, can feel like an uphill battle. Having the right team assisting you in your efforts will make your goals seem more achievable. Over the years we have come across two companies that are focused on successful results and good customer service, both of which are extremely important to us. Those two companies are: Peak Positions LLC. www.peakpositions.com SEO Consulting and Search Engine Site Optimization Firm 3301 Veterans Drive, PO Box 2438 Traverse City , MI 49685-2438 Contact: Jack Roberts jack@peakpositions.com Phone: 231-922-9460 M-F 8AM - 9PM EDT Please let them know that you heard about Peak Positions from Gilmore Design Group. Linkateer.com www.linkateer.com 31 Iroquois Drive   Royersford Pa , 19468 Contact: Brandon Reeser Phone: 619-501-9793 Mobile : 619-208-8142 brandon@linkateer.com Brandon is located in San Diego California and is therefore on Pacific time. Please let them know that you heard about Linkateer.com from Gilmore Design Group. Although we have not personally worked with either of these companies, we have researched them thoroughly and have recommended many clients to them and have heard nothing but good things. However, with any company we would recommend talking with them to make sure they are a good fit for your company and your specific needs. Lastly, if you do hire either Peak Positions or Linkateer.com to help in your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) needs, we would love to hear from you on your experience. It is important to us that we only recommend companies that do SEO in an ethical way, get good results, and treat our clients well. Also, don't forget to read our article on "How to drive traffic to your website and generate more business".