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The girls over at Eat Pittsburgh just got some new business cards created with the logo I designed for them. I think they turned out great!

If you’re looking for some great Pittsburgh restaurant reviews, check out their blog. They do a great job.

The Holmes on Homes Meet Mike in New York City Sweepstakes sponsored by Olympic Stains officially launched on Friday thanks to the PPG Architectural Coatings Web department. We are featuring a sweepstakes on the homepage of Olympic.com to win a trip to New York City to meet HGTV home improvement superstar and tv personality Mike Holmes as he goes on tour promoting his new magazine. In addition to a homepage takeover and registration page, we also put together a Facebook tab and social media campaign on Twitter and Facebook, are running Facebook and Google ads and are sending out email blasts promoting the sweepstakes. Since Friday, we have already seen our Facebook likes double since launching and anticipate receiving a lot more traffic to Facebook and Olympic.com.

Olympic Stain is sold in Lowe’s as well as other home improvement stores.

I recently attended a Photoshop seminar, and oddly enough, there was a portion dedicated to the correct use of dashes. Most of the following content is from the material that was provided, with my own two cents.

In professional typography there are three different dashes, although the average person generally uses one for everything—the hyphen.

HYPHEN: There is basically only one time you ever use a hyphen, and that’s to hyphenate words like step-by-step or when a word is too long to fit on a line.

EN DASH: This is a longer dash, and you get this dash in Adobe products by pressing Option-Dash (Mac) or Alt-Dash (PC), or with HTML –. You use this dash to primarily to indicate a length of time, like “12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.” or “for 7 – 10 year olds only.” Notice that longer dash?

Below are two examples, the first being the incorrect hyphen and the second, the proper En dash.

12:00 P.M. – 1:00 P.M.

12:00 P.M – 1:00 P.M.

See how much longer the “en” dash is than a hyphen? Although the proper use technically doesn’t have a space on either side of the en dash, the most common use is with a single space on either side. Yes, using the En dash is subtle, but these things add up, and when you have enough “right” things on the page, it changes the page in a not so subtle way.

EM DASH: This is primarily used within a sentence to separate a thought or indicate a change in thought without using a comma, colon or a period. Something like this: The new backpacks are now in stock—they’re gorgeous! The most proper use of the em dash is right up against the word on either side of it, with no space between. However this is something you’ll hear me and some type-heads argue, and many large newspapers use it with a space on either side.

January — February

I love free things! Who doesn’t? And I really love taking advantage of discounts and specials when they become available, whether it be from Groupon, an Email Marketing special or something from Twitter. Below is a list of some deals I have come across in the Pittsburgh area that I want to share with you. Yes, you.

Free Bagel at Bruegger’s

Subscribe to Brueger’s mailing list and they’ll instantly email you a coupon for a free bagel with cream cheese! While you are there, try their Pumpkin Spice Coffee. It’s delicious!

Subscribe on their website here!

Three Free Breakfasts from IHOP

Subscribe to IHOP’s mailing list and they’ll give you three free breakfasts – one immediately, one on your birthday and one on the one year anniversary of signing up!