Designer Toolbox # 1 | Smashing Darling Blog

Community News and New Darlings Welcome to the first Darling Toolbox newsletter especially typed for YOU – our fabulous community of designers! We want us all to get to know each other better, and to let you know we are here for you! Once a month we will send you an update with How To directions for site features and marketing tools. We will also send you Tips on how to make sure your products look rockin’ in your store, and in front of those shopper eyes with their credit card in hand…oh, and not to mention magazine editors on the hunt for indie products galore! If you have questions, do not hesitate to track us down – we love to hear from you! While you are reading feast your eyes on some of our new designers around this page from: New Jersey, Illinois, Kansas City, Arizona, San Francisco…welcome cross-country Darlings!

how to – SHOUT IT OUT

Play your part in the Smashing Darling community by loving your indie and shouting it out! It helps you and everyone in our community. Our first how to is about widgets, they are fun.

“WHAT is a widget?“ you ask…

A widget is a little mini-application that you can put into your blog or web page to show off your goods! Your widget will automatically load daily beautiful photos of featured Smashing Darling designers, or of just your designs.

“Where can I PUT a widget?“

You can put it on any blog or web page that you own, and allows you to enter HTML code.

“Where do I FIND my widgets?“

1. Log into your account.

2. Click to open your store.

3. Click the ‘Shout It Out!’ tab.

4. Click View all Badges & Widgets

5. Then you can configure your widget however you like: choose color, choose which items from your store or SmashingDarling.

6. Then simply cut and paste the HTML code wherever you want! Your website, blog, Myspace, Stylehive…it goes on and on!

When creating a photo of your products, it is often a good idea to set your camera at its highest quality setting (ie: the one that produces the largest file size.) This file will give you highest resolution your camera is capable of producing as well as the most flexibility in how you can use the image. The file can then be opened in any digital imaging software (such as Photoshop or your camera’s own editing software) and then adjusted as necessary.

For the purposes of SmashingDarling images, here’s a step-by-step of the best way to prepare quality images:

Set your camera to it’s highest quality setting
Create your photos.
Open your photos in a digital imaging program and crop as desired.
Adjust the output size to a minimum of 700 x 700 pixels, and the resolution to 72 ppi.
Make sure the file size is under 250k, and save as a JPEG, GIF, or PNG.
Upload your photos!

Photo Tips – FotoFinesse

If your photos don’t look good,

YOU don’t look good!

Lesson #1 is resolution, which in the context of digital photos is simply a measure of the output quality of an image (usually measured in pixels per inch – PPI.)

The key here is that it’s very easy to resize an image downward from a large, high-quality file. Images with large file size and higher resolution (usually 300ppi or greater) are best suited for print, while images with lower resolution (usually 72ppi) are suitable for web use. On the flip side, trying to create a larger image from a low quality file (which is usually referred to as “interpolating ” or “res-ing up”) almost always results in files that appear fuzzy, jagged, or “pixelated” looking. Definitely not what you want for capturing the beauty and detail of your products!

Okay, school is out for today!

Get out there and

Shout it Out:

INDIE ROCKS!

cheers ~ the Darlings