Google Docs – Hands down the most useful tool I’ve ever added to my arsenal. Google Docs allows you to create, store and manage documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, drawings and more. The ability to collaborate with other Google users is also invaluable for quickly making changes, updates or simply working together on a project.

Open Office – More free tools for handling all your documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Open Office is a free alternative to Microsoft Office that doesn’t require an internet connection or online storage (as is the case with Google Docs). All programs in the suite will allow you to export in Microsoft-friendly formats for easy sharing.

Lemon – A great receipt management tool that allows you to sort and track your expenses as you choose. It also features a virtual wallet app to keep all your cards, accounts and receipts managed right on your smartphone.

Wave Accounting – A lightweight, at-a-glance accounting management system, Wave offers all the functionality necessary to track your income and expenses. It allows you to set up customer profiles, handle invoices, export reports and generally keep your finances in line as effortlessly as possible.

Doodle – Another lightweight tool, Doodle allows you to coordinate meetings without the hassle of phone or e-mail musical chairs. Simply select a few possible dates, add your attendees and send – Doodle will collect their responses and help you easily determine the best time and date for your next meeting.

HootSuite – A great social media management tool, HootSuite (aside from getting bonus points for their owl mascot) allows you to follow and updates multiple social media sites at once. You can set up feeds to and from a wide variety of social networks, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and more.

Google Analytics – The holy grail of website analytics, Google will provide you in-depth data regarding damn near everything about your website visitors. Find out where they’re coming from, how they browse your site, how long they stay, when they leave and so much more. This is an extremely detailed tool that can help you see where your site is best performing and where it could use some improvement (and if you do need improvement, you can always contact Owl for some help. ^.~)

The website itself will be up soon, so I’ll have more from this project then. In the meantime, any favorite critters here? ^^

This was the logo for the Office of Government Commerce (they’ve since changed it, thankfully). Looks pretty innocuous, no? Let’s try looking at it from a different angle.

Says a lot about the state of government, doesn’t it?

This is a great example of how a logo can go dreadfully wrong (and it cost £14,000, or around $21,000) and why you need to take so much care in selecting a logo designer. Your logo represents you, your business, your organization, and you don’t want to send the wrong message.

I have a small collection of these, so I’ll be posting more in the future. ^^;;

New logo design for the Pocono Mountain Business Group. I wanted to create something that referenced the Pocono area and would be versatile enough that elements could easily be changed (colors, mostly) to work seamlessly with future marketing pieces while still providing a recognizable brand.

Character designs are copyrighted to Keiichi Sato, Kazuyoshi Katayama and Sunrise Studios. These posters were designed purely for fun and not for commercial use.

You can take a look at all the designs over at my portfolio!