We have been working on Styleapple.com - The Branded Designers Social Network  [A place  for designers to create or submit their portfolios website URL, Promote their work, find new creative jobs, build their fan base and become fans of other designers]  for the past few months and we are now ready to show our readers the (Private) beta version. 

We are not ready to go into full beta until we've ironed out all the kinks.  You guys get the first stab at it.  I've included the email below that we sent to close friends and investors(family) which includes the username and password to enter the site, you guys made the list for the first rollout.  Please give us your feedback on the site.  Thanks.

Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. WOO-HOO, Styleapple.com Private Beta Is Here! Dear Creative Pros You have been selected or have expressed interest in the past to be a part of our private beta testing.  We are still very actively in development but wanted to give our designers a chance to start testing the site.  Since this is private beta, we expect more than normal hiccups and bugs in the software.  Please be candid and give us all your feedback... Go ahead we promise not to take it personally.   To login visit www.styleapple.com, Username: beta   Password: tester    Once you've scaled our beta wall. You can create or submit your design portfolio to be viewed and envied by your peers while positioning yourself to be seen by future employers or freelance and project work opportunities.  Our goal is to find creative ways to help promote and grow your design business. Thank you for being a part of our private beta test squad. Sincerely Calvin --  Calvin Cox Director of Talent Resource calvin@styleapple.com Styleapple, Inc www.styleapple.com Build & Promote Your Own Design Portfolio Website In Minutes. | Our goal is simple; to provide an invaluable resource for clients looking to discover and hire the brightest talent in the design industry. | *|LIST:DESCRIPTION|* Unsubscribe *|EMAIL|* from this list | Forward to a friend | Update your profile Our mailing address is: *|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|* Copyright (C) 2008 *|LIST:COMPANY|* All rights reserved.

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In some circles green design is an oxymoron. In other circles it's simply something that should be left up to the gurus of the world! The other day I was getting ready to pickup my wife from the train station, when she insisted that I walked instead of drive. To save myself from possibly being cursed out AGAIN, I conceded. She said that we needed to start ‘green living' and that walking was the first step (I knew the National Geographic channel in HD was a bad idea :)) Anyway - needless to say I walked to pick her up; and have been walking ever since. Now I'm only one guy that decided to start walking; my impact is negligible (except for the few pounds I've lost :)) But if we all walked and decided to ‘go green' we might be able to accomplish something other than weight loss.

LET'S GO GREEN PEOPLE

Making the decision to become a green designer or a green design company can be intimating, after all you'll have to change the way you think, work and behave. I know it's a lot to ask but it's really necessary. Besides, there are some really great benefits to be had from saving the earth; (I MEAN OTHER THAN LIVING!) I spoke about becoming a branded designer in a recent post and can't help but think that going green can be a real opportunity for setting yourself apart from your competition. I recently started a group on LinkedIN called the GREEN DESIGN PROS who's focus is on networking and the exchanging of green design ideas, projects and career opportunities. There are lots of great green resources out there for you to take advantage of, I've started a list of Green articles and Projects that will get you started on your way to using your talents to making a ‘green' living and saving the earth ;) Please let me know if you know of any additional resources I can place on my Green Design Wall; CHEERS.

WHAT IS GREEN DESIGN?

GREEN DESIGN JOBS WEBSITES

1. Treehugger Green Design Jobs 
2. Juju Green Design Jobs (From multiple job boards)
3. Simply Hired Green Design Job Listings

GREEN DESIGN BLOGS

• Great List of Green Design Blogs Here
  

GREEN SEARCH ENGINE

• You can find all things green from green companies to green design jobs at Greenmaven.com

GREEN FASHION DESIGN RESOURCES

• March 5, 2009 - Green Tips for Aspiring Fashion Designers
  
• The 2009 Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation is having their annual fashion design competition and is for the first time introducing a sustainable design category; This is a great opportunity to focus your talents on design as well as finding new ways of helping to solve our green earth crisis; of course the $25000 prize to put on your own fashion show during New York Fashion Week does hurt either. They have started accepting applications; more information go to: Green Design

GREEN GRAPHIC DESIGN RESOURCES

• There is a Green Earth International Graphic Design Competition going on right now. This could be a great exposure opportunity; and at the same time possibly get you the 1^st , 2^nd or 3rd place prize. Not a bad deal for going green. For more information go to: Going Green

• Creating a Green Business: Megan Prusynski has written a few great articles on the subject.

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My Creative design Portfolio of the moment is from designer Dave Werner. His design portfolio does an amazing job outlining his work, his thought process and creative perspective. The layout while creative still lends an easy navigation and thorough overview of his work. He provided a taste of his dynamic talent and included examples of his vast creative reach. Great Job Dave; you are my creative Pro of the moment.

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Many of you are probably thinking the same thing. I'm a designer... not a blogger. The reason I know this is because I'm also guilty of saying the same thing until I became aware of the overwhelming benfits of blogging.

I recently did a post on the reasons designers fail and one of the points I talked about was the misconception of a saturated market. A market only becomes saturated when clients see no difference between you and your competition. Blogging is great way to set you apart by simply allowing your clients to get to know you, first as a person and then as a designer. Trust me the pros in your industry have no trouble finding work.

This is why I recommend that designer start a blog first; then work on your website. Another option is to create a design portfolio on styleapple.com, where you can use your personalized URL they provide to link to your blog or website. I've outlined 5 compelling reasons to support my position on designers blogging:

SIDENOTES & UPDATES:

I recently came across a well done interview of Jacob Cass, a talented and respected Graphic and Web Designer done by Andrew Houle of MyInkBlog where Jacob explains his blogging impact on his freelance business. Here's an excerpt:

 Andrew: How has running a successful design community blog helped you land more freelance work?

Jacob: By having the blog that I mentioned above, it has brought me higher search engine rankings and it has put my name out there in the design community which in turn means more visibility... My work is 40% local, 10% national and 50% international which shows just how varied the work is.

To read the complete interview check out Andrew's Blog Post "Interview With  Jacob Cass"

Ok... here are my top 5 reasons:

1 NO EXPOSURE NO CLIENTS

I think one of the most difficult things to get as a designer is exposure. We are talented and broke, usually due to the lack of exposure . When you're blogging about what you love, people will visit and read your point of view; some will like it and tell others about it, giving you the necessary exposure you'll need to grow your business.

2 TRUST IS THE ANSWER TO THE 'WHY SHOULD I HIRE YOU?' QUESTION

Trust is the answer to the ‘ why should I hire you ?‘ question your clients will ask themselves. By blogging about creative design topics that you are an expert, allows your potential clients to get to know you personally before they consider working with you. When they are ready to hire someone for a project; chances are, you'll be on their short list.

3 DRIVE MORE WEB TRAFFIC TO YOUR SITE

Most of your business as a designer will probably come from the internet. If your website is not changing constantly, chances are your traffic will decrease over time. Blogging allows for new content every time you post a new article, the search engines are happy because they have new content to index, your potential clients are happy because you're talking about a topic of interest, and you're happy because your traffic continues to increase from all the fresh content you are posting.

4 BRANDING COMES FROM FAMILIARITY, TRUST AND QUALITY OF PRODUCT.

Branding as you know is a long term endeavor. Branding comes from familiarity, trust and quality of product. It is very important that your content is true and valuable to your visitors. Your goal should be to provide useful information even if it isn't directly related to your creative design services. When you stick to providing quality content you start to build a following, once you've gained the trust of your readers it will translate to them patronizing your services, hence growing your brand.

5 HERE IS THE REASON LOGO DESIGN DOES NOT COST $5 DOLLARS

Blogging about what interest you is great; Ideally you'll want to blog about the services or industry that you're in. For example, If you're a trusted graphic designer and you're talking about the reasons logo design does not cost $5.00, and you do a great job explaining why; your potential clients will consider you an expert and may look at you favorably when seeking to hire for their next design job or freelance project, hence allow you to indirectly market your product.

Continuing to build relationships through blogging is an excellent marketing resource all designers should be using.

What are your thoughts on creating your freelance design business around a blog?

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