When I first started Ribbons of Red, it was my mission (and goal) to give a percentage of all my profits to charity. In fact, I wanted everyone who did business with Ribbons of Red (specifically my clients) to have the ability to choose which charity a percentage of their web design or graphic design dollars went to.

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Ribbons of Red was entered in the monthly American Design Awards contest for the month of December. After nearly 60 days, the winners were chosen earlier this month. Out of the 546 applicants that applied, Ribbons of Red placed in the Top 10! The highest awarded score for the month of December was an 87. Ribbons of Red placed with an 83, and won a gold accolade! Read the rest of this entry »

Most small businesses go under within their first two years and only 1 in 10 make it ten years. Moral of the story: being successful is hard, not to mention scary.

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According to The United States Department of Labor, photographers hold over 122,000 jobs and nearly half are self-employed—a much higher proportion than most occupations. Photographers work in all areas of the country, but the majority are stationed in metropolitan areas. The employment of photographers is expected to grow rapidly through 2016 as it is a very desirable industry for many people. Read the rest of this entry »

When I left my corporate job to pursue life as a full-time freelance web designer, it became very apparent that while word-of-mouth and referrals were great for my business, I didn’t want to “hurry up and wait” for new projects to trickle in. I wanted (and needed) to be more in control of my company’s opportunities.

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The Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon is the third-largest, first-time marathon in the country. With 8 different races to chose from, the Flying Pig has something for every athletic level. Whichever race you choose will send you on a beautiful journey through downtown Cincinnati’s streets and even over a bridge or two—and the view is amazing.

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Park and Recreation websites are some of the most beautiful sites I’ve seen on the web. Unfortunately, there are countless park websites on a city, county, state, and even national level that are very out-of-date. One of the most important goals for any Park and Recreation department is getting visitors and supporters to the park. It comes at no surprise that having an out-of-date website can work against this overall goal.

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Gone are the days where Dreamweaver (or FrontPage) was required to keep a company website up-to-date. WordPress is all the rage these days and allows my clients, small- to medium-sized business owners, the ability to maintain their company website with ease.

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This week, Ribbons of Red was featured on Smashing Magazine for releasing an iPhone Vector Pack Freebie. The vector pack comes with several buttons, six different iPhone interfaces, and three keyboards. You can download the iPhone Vector Set for free at Smashing Magazine. This is a great way to present mobile websites or applications to clients, and I hope other mobile designers will get great use out of it! Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier this week, I posted a review on the new project management system, FreelanceSuite. I purchased it for $69.00, after loving the demo, but since the purchase have been very dissatisfied with the lack of support and the product’s bad functionality/usability. I requested a refund from FreelanceSuite, and it’s very important you read this (if you are in any way, shape, or form interested in this product or just curious as to how this whole thing played out). This post is what the nightly news usually dubs as a CONSUMER ALERT or BUYER BEWARE.

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