My design won in the publications category, for the 2011 print edition of Contact, the University of North Carolina School of Social Work’s news magazine. I am the School’s director of communications and Contact’s editor and graphic designer.

Graphic Design USA is a monthly news magazine for creative professionals. The American Inhouse Design Awards competition is the original and largest showcase for outstanding work by inhouse designers. According to Awards Director Rachel Goldberg, more than 4,000 total entries were received this year for consideration among 24 categories. A highly selective 15 percent were recognized with an Awards Certificate of Excellence.

This is my fourth American Inhouse Design Award, having also garnered one in 2007, 2008 and 2011.

Here I’ll share two of my favorite apps, and one of my favorite quick tricks, that can help you take your photos from good to great. The apps are Photoshop Express and Camera+, and the trick involves adjusting the intensity of color in your photos.

Note: In this brief article I’m not listing all the features, or providing tutorials, on these apps. The websites I’ve linked provide an overview of the app’s features. Here I’m focusing on a quick adjustment to make a photo pop.

Photoshop Express for iPhone and Android, free

My favorite tool in PS Express is “saturation,” found within the brightness menu (sun icon). Choose saturation, and drag your finger across the screen from left to right to increase the intensity of color in your photo. I find that a setting of +20 max usually gets me where I want to be. Be conservative with this one; less is more.

As with all photo editing, what you need to do depends on the quality of your original. Some photos might look best with just a +5; others look best without any adjustments. Generally, I find that scenic landscape photos are improved by increasing saturation; but not so much with people portraits, where over-saturation can look distorted and unflattering.

See the difference that an increase in saturation makes on these photos taken with my iPhone:

Camera+ for iPhone, 99 cents

Camera+ is much more robust in features than PS Express. My favorite part of this app is the “Scenes” menu, where you can select from a number of automated adjustments that deliver variations in saturation, hue and other color levels with just one tap of your finger. The scenes have names such as “portrait,” “beach,” “scenery,” “concert” and “sunset.” However, I prefer to ignore that labeling and try each of the settings on a photo to see which result I like best. I also like the “Borders” menu, where you can give rounded corners or a vignette effect to your photo.

If you like the vintage instamatic or color-distorted look that’s so hot right now, the “FX Effects” menu offers a number of filters that are fun to play with. But mostly, I just use scenes. The following examples were edited using scenes.

• More iPhone camera apps (PC Magazine)

1. Too much selling. Are you providing a nonstop stream of boring sales messages? Or — are you providing interesting and informative content people want to read, such as helpful tips and news related to your product or service?

2. Not keeping up with site changes. Facebook in particular is notorious for changing features on their site, sometimes with little notice. Page layout, administrative features and analytics are but three of the major areas Facebook has recently changed for brand pages. Are you putting in the research time it takes to keep up with current and future changes, and are you taking advantage of new features as they become available?

3. Forgetting that social media is a visual medium. Are you posting enough photos, graphics and videos? Are your page’s profile image and cover photo inviting, attractive, memorable and appropriate to your brand?

4. Not interacting with your readers. Do you respond — and in a timely manner — to page posts and inquiries by your readers? Do you thank people for their comments? Facebook and other social media have become major vehicles for customer service.

5. Not promoting your page. If you’re not getting the number of followers you’d like, perhaps you’re not effectively promoting your page. Be sure to include links to your page on your email signature, website, ads, business cards, brochures and newsletters. You might also consider purchasing Facebook ads and its related product, paid promotional stories — all of which can be highly targeted to the demographic of customers you seek.

While I’m using Facebook as the example in this article, these principles also apply to Twitter, Google+ and other social networks in general. Also, I should point out this list is simplified and far from exhaustive.

The overarching theme here, essentially, is time. Facebook and other social media may be free to use, but for this medium to truly be effective for your organization you do need to make an ongoing investment in time — learning, interacting, promoting.

If you don’t have the available time or expertise to do this, it may make sense for your organization to hire or outsource social media to a professional.

Yesterday the Carolina Panthers caught fans by surprise by unveiling their new logo on Facebook.

Many of their Facebook fans did not take kindly to it. The vast majority of the hundreds of comments that I saw were negative — angry even.

Resistance to change? Sure. Some of that is to be expected.

But anger? I wonder if the Panthers organization anticipated the emotional reaction they were about to get.

Here’s my take on the new logo. From a design-professional perspective, I like the new one much better. On the Panther icon itself, the changes are subtle and I don’t think most would notice the slight differences. The major change, and seemingly the cause of the uprising, is with the typestyle. The old Baywatch-style font, trendy in the early 90′s, is now dated. But fans were attached to it. As a group they’ve probably bought millions of dollars worth of merchandise emblazoned with that logo.

For many businesses, a logo update can be a great thing. But there’s your average business and then there are institutions people hold sacred — like sports teams.

When it comes to sacred institutions, fans love them just as they are. They’ve bought into the brand, quite literally. For years they’ve put on their favorite jersey from their well-worn collection, and cheered their team to victory and cursed the losses in it. Dated font and all. And the sudden change left them feeling betrayed.

Will the fans come around? Yes, of course. But not before some clawing and growling.

New design

Old design

1990 called. It wants its logo back.

The why

Internet Explorer and other browsers keep copies of the pages you’ve visited and their graphics, and save them to your computer using a memory called the cache. The purpose of the cache (pronounced cash) is to speed up your browsing experience. The problem with that system is you might be viewing pages that are outdated, without even knowing it.

I run into this with clients and colleagues from time to time. If I update their website and they say, “But I still see the old information (or old graphic),”  it’s a telltale sign that they need to clear their browser’s cache.

The easy fix

If you’re using Internet Explorer (version 8), on the top menu go to: Tools, then Internet Options. Under browsing history, “delete.” And also be sure the box is checked for “delete browsing history on exit.” Click OK to save. Then exit, and restart Internet Explorer.

If using Firefox, on top menu go to: Tools, Options, then Privacy. Under history, choose: Firefox will “never remember history.” Then click the link to “clear all current history.” Click OK to save. Then exit and restart Firefox.

That should clear your cache, and you should then see current web graphics/pages instead of old ones.

I created this one online using a free code generator, and it couldn’t be any easier. Two to try are ZXing or Delivr. You simply select what type of code you want to create, fill in the blanks, and voilà! — a code graphic is instantly created for you. You then save the graphic for your own use.

While I’m not wanting to plaster these things everywhere, I have integrated QR codes into a few recent projects:

• On a business card: A code embedded with my contact information, that when scanned adds me to their phone’s address book.
• On a nonprofit’s donation solicitation: A code labeled “Scan here to give online” takes the user directly to the organization’s “Make a Gift” webpage.
• On the back cover of a magazine: A code placed beside a screen shot of the magazine’s website takes readers to the site.

Cool as it is though, this technology is still new. Many people do not yet know what these codes mean or how to scan them. Be prepared to explain that they’ll first need to install a free QR code reader app on their phone.

If you’re using a QR code on marketing materials, I suggest including a brief text explanation under your code graphic, such as “Scan with a smartphone to see a video of our product in action!”

And be sure to think through the user experience and the location of the code.

As the director of communications at the UNC School of Social Work for the past five years, I launched us into the world of social media and continue to manage and grow our presence there.

In 2008, the School was among the education world’s early adopters of Twitter as a vehicle for promoting the School, distributing our news stories, and connecting with people. Our social media efforts have since expanded dramatically, and our leadership in social media has attracted national attention in the social work community.

Read full article (pdf)

The Dress for Success boutique in Durham, N.C.

I am proud to volunteer with a wonderful organization, Dress for Success.

The mission of Dress for Success is to promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life.

Founded in New York City in 1997, Dress for Success is an international not-for-profit organization offering services designed to help clients find jobs and remain employed. Each Dress for Success client receives one suit when she has a job interview, and can return for a second suit or separates when she finds work. In addition to the suiting program, ongoing support is provided through a career center where clients receive expert advice from career coaches.

Last summer I completed training as an image coach and career coach, and now work regularly with clients at the organization’s Triangle-NC Chapter in Durham.