Do you own a restaurant or any type of food-related business? If you do, you’ve probably wondered why your photos of food don’t look as appealing on Instagram or Facebook (or anywhere online or offline) than the photos appearing in advertising?

Here are the answers: You aren’t using the right ingredients in your recipes. This video from Top Trending (via: DIYPhotography.net) reveals ten secrets that professional food stylists and photographers use to make their photos so appetizing. (As long as you don’t eat any of them.)

If you don’t have time to watch the video, here are the ingredients…

1 | Water-soaked cotton balls for steam

For steamy food that looks freshly cooked, photographers use heated water-soaked cotton balls to create steam.

2 | Mashed potatoes for sweets and stuffing birds

That delicious-looking ice cream you see in photos is most likely made of mashed potatoes.

3 | Glue for milk

Real milk makes cereal soggy, so photographers use glue instead.

4 | Shoe polish for grill marks

Photographers use shoe polish to draw perfect grill marks on steaks. The meat is baked in the oven or on a flat grill.

5 | Shaving cream for whipped cream

Whipped cream melts in seconds so photographers use shaving cream instead.

6 | Spray deodorant for fruit

Fresh fruit sellers use a coating of wax to make the fruit look more appealing in person. That’s not enough for photographers, so they add a generous layer of spray deodorant to make the fruit shiny and delicious.

7 | Wax for sauces

When photographing sauces, it’s not easy to get the right consistency and color. Blending wax into the sauce solves both problems.

8 | Cardboard for cakes and hamburgers

Cardboard makes lots of foods look appealing in photos by helping them hold their place. It can evenly distribute frosting on a layered cake. It can hold layers of burger in place. All you need to add are pins to hold the cardboard in place.

9 | Paint and paper towels for roasted birds

Roasted turkeys you see in photos have been stuffed with paper towels to look plump and then painted with golden brown stain.

10 | Motor oil for maple syrup

Syrup runs so photographers use motor oil for a thicker, more tasty stack of pancakes.

VIA | TopTrending / HT | DIYPhotography.net

In the SmallBusiness.com Guide to Marketing with Photograph, we feature several sources of free, open-source or Creative Commons licensed photos that are helping small businesses improve the quality of their design without violating the intellectual property rights of the creators. There are several business reasons why creators share their work freely, but an easy one to understand is a marketing practice we’re all familiar with: Sampling. Giving away a few examples of ones creative work is perhaps the most common way to reach a larger audience that can lead to custom work or paid usage. (If you want to learn more about the topic of “free” pricing, here’s where to download a free copy of the book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price.)

Our friend and publisher of Subtraction.com, Khoi Vinh, is seeing a similar trend with free typographical fonts. One obvious source of free-to-use fonts is Google Fonts, the directory of over 800 fonts hosted by Google. But don’t stop there. Vinh says that designer Jeremiah Shoaf’s monthly mailing called Typewolf’s Definitive Guide to Free Fonts surfaces the best of recent free font releases. “Some are quite well executed (while others are merely passable),” notes Khoi.

“We are seeing more-and-more free font releases that are suitable for professional design,” Shoaf says. Here are several of the best free fonts Shoaf has identified during the past couple of years.

Infini

A calligraphic sans-serif that was selected as one of Typographica’s favorite typefaces of last year.

Space Mono

A monospaced typeface designed by Colophon Foundry.

Work Sans

A sans from Wei Huang inspired by early grotesques.

Cormorant

A refined Garamond created for display use rather than text like traditional Garamonds.

What does this mean for the market of paid typefaces?

When this question was asked to Shoaf by Khoi, he responded, “I think free fonts and commercial fonts can co-exist peacefully.” He believes free fonts are raising the bar for typography in general and stoking demand for more distinctive, paid fonts.

VIA | Subtraction.com

istock

We’ve never hidden our envy of admiration for people who can draw quickly — and actually get their message across. We’ve even devoted an entire SmallBusiness.com guide to helping people get over their belief that they can’t draw (on a whiteboard). Perhaps that’s why we are impressed to see that some folks at Google have come up with a drawing program called AutoDraw, a web-based tool lets you doodle your version of a drawing, but then provides you the option of substitute a real drawing created by talented artists for your doodle.

It works like this:

1. Go to AutoDraw.com
2. Doodle the item you’d like to draw
3. Keep your eye on the bar of sketches above the drawing panel
4. Whey you see a suggestion that matches what you were doodling, click on it

We doubt that made much sense. So, let’s do a “picture is worth a thousand words”: Watch in the GIF below how a user’s doodle generates a bar of suggested objects. Click on one and bang, you have a drawing.

How do they do that?

AutoDraw Promotional Video from Google

Google’s AutoDraw is coming at a time when traditional stock art services are using more tech-driven approaches to help users find the photos and illustrations they want. For example, istock.com has recently introduced a “search by image” feature that works like  Google’s image search feature. Upload an image and the service will suggest images in its database that are similar to the image uploaded.

iStock’s new image search feature.

I confess: I’m a whiteboard nerd. I’ve even written a five-part SmallBusiness.com how-to dedicated to stick-drawing on whiteboards. Despite my whiteboard dependence, I’ve never been a fan of the boring, standard rectangular board that can be found throughout most business offices. That’s one of the reasons I’ve grown fond using wet markers to draw on windows for most of the past three decades.

Recently, the Japanese design firm Nendo tackled the challenge of boring rectangular whiteboards with a concept product called, “Rolling Workspaces.” A team from Nendo noticed that no matter how weird an office got with its furniture, the whiteboards remained the same, according to the Co.Design website from FastCompany.

“That struck Nendo as odd. The primary purpose of a whiteboard, after all, is to spark creativity, but there was nothing creative about the whiteboard. Everywhere you went, they were white, rectangular, flimsy, and decidedly immobile: the most boring and uninspiring way to be creative imaginable.”

There’s nothing boring about Nendo’s concept whiteboards. They are big and round and can roll from room to room. To set these circular whiteboards up, you just tilt them against the wall. But the circular pattern isn’t just for transport. Nendo also envisions an associated desk with a large slit in it, which can be used to “park” a whiteboard (or, for that matter, a bicycle) when it’s not in use, says Co.Design.

VIA | Co.Design

Despite having popular “brand stores” in Amsterdam, Brooklyn, Taipei and Berlin (along with a distribution network in select bike stores), the company has the goal of selling 90 percent of its bikes online by the year 2020. “Anyone in the e-commerce world will tell you, ‘you’re only as good as your shipping partner,'” wrote Bex.

Even with great products and an awesome website,
nothing matters if the bike you order arrives crushed.

Earlier this year, the company’s co-founder had a “flash of genius,” writes Bex. “Our boxes are about the same size as a (really really reeeaaaaly massive) flatscreen television. Flatscreen televisions always arrive in perfect condition. What if we just printed a flatscreen television on the side of our boxes?”

And just like that, the shipping damage to the company’s bikes dropped by 70–80%.

The company was hoping to keep their shipping trick secret, but the idea was too clever to stay secret for long. People who received the flatscreen TV bicycle boxes couldn’t help but post photos on Instagram and Twitter.

So the secret is out. “Just don’t tell FedEx,” begs Bex.

VIA | Subtraction.com | “How Graphic Design Reduced Damages to VanMoof’s Shipments” and QZ.com

Photos: VanMoof.com

A chair becomes ergonomic only when it specifically suits a worker’s size (body dimensions), his or her particular workstation, and the tasks that must be performed there. From the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, here are the basics of ergonomic chairs.

Why is having the right chair so important?

Today, in industrialized countries, many people sit for most of the time that they are awake. Although sitting requires less physical effort than standing or walking it puts a lot of stress on lumbar area. Combined effects of a sedentary lifestyle and a job that requires sitting can lead to many health problems.

Key things to consider when purchasing an ergonomic chair

One chair does not fit everyone | The users’ body dimensions must be used when selecting a chair so that it does not strain one part of the body while fitting another.

Collect data about the user’s body height | The optimal seat height is about one quarter of the body height. But this is only a rule of thumb since the torso-to-leg ratio can vary widely.

There is no chair suitable for every activity | For example, dentists require a different chair than industrial workers or computer operators

Consider maintenance and repair costs | Check with the manufacturer for items to inspect and when to inspect them.

Features of a good chair (checklist)

Adjustability | Check to see that seat height is adjustable.
Seat height range | Check whether the seat height can be adjusted to the height recommended for the worker(s) who will use it. Other chairs may have to be selected for very short or tall workers.
Backrest | Check to see that the backrest is adjustable both vertically and in the frontward and backward direction and has a firm lumbar support.
Seat depth | Select the seats that suit the tallest and the shortest users.
Stability | Check for the stability of the chair; a five-point base is recommended.

Additional considerations

• Armrests with adjustable heights are good for computer operators.
• Wider or narrower armrests may also be required depending on the worker’s dimensions and tasks they do.
• If chairs with casters are needed, choose ones that match the type of flooring you have

Who should pick out the chair?

Personal preference is essential to the process of selecting a chair. But after some suitable chairs have been identified, allow the person who will use the chair most to try it out in a real work situation. It is especially useful to obtain several sample chairs for a trial comparison by those who will be using them. Make sure that the chair meets the needs of the workers and their jobs before any final selection is made.

Even a great chair can’t solve all of the ergonomic problems of working in a sitting position

A chair is only one of the components to be considered in workstation design. All the elements such as the chair, footrest (if needed), work surface, document holders, task lighting and so on need to have flexibility and adjustability to be “designed in.”

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Also on SmallBusiness.com

Small Business Office Furniture Glossary for the First Time Buyer

VIA | Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

Photo | H. Michael Karshis via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

At SmallBusiness.com, we’re fans of anything that helps organize and store the wires, cables and blocks of plastic that have taken over our lives. Here’s proof: We even have a Pinterest board devoted to the topic. So yes, we were impressed recently when we learned about the Slyde Charging Solution, a family of products that provide lockable workstation spaces where a worker can charge, store and secure valuables and electronic devices—while hiding the wire-nests that have become a fixture on most open-space desks.

Slyde is the brainchild of Scott Lesizza, one of the owners of the New York-based furniture dealer Workwell Partners. Frustrated with the sameness of open-office designs and workstations with too few plugs, Lesizza began working on a solution that evolved into the products that are now a part of Slyde.

The Slyde Divyde

A great example of the Slyde concept is its Divyde Desktop Charging Station. Like traditional dividers in an open-space office design, Divydes help establish territory for workers and provide accessories like racks for hanging folders and family photos.

But the Divyde also provides the worker a convenient area in which to charge their cell phone and mount and charge their iPad.

It also has a lockable cabinet (key or combination) and two side baskets that provide additional storage for electronic devices and office supplies.

Inside the lockable cabinet, there are electrical outlets and USB 2.0 ports so up to five devices can be charged simultaneously.

Slyde Charging Drawer

The Slyde Charging Drawer takes electronic devices off the desktop and houses them in a lockable charging drawer beneath the work surface. It comes with plugs for charging up to three devices, enough space for iPads and other tablets, notebooks and phones, and two USB ports for syncing multiple devices to your computer. It is also lockable, providing workers a secure place to house devices.

Slyde Charging Drawer Insert

For use with existing drawers, the Slyde Charging Drawer Insert houses devices in an underutilized area of storage pedestals and cabinets.

Slyde Ped

As more and more paper records stored inside hanging folders are being replaced by digital files, workstation pedestals have become less and less “file drawers.” Now, much of their function is for storage.

In addition to having space for filing, electronics, and personal items, the Slyde Ped also has charging receptacles, and docking stations—and even some room for a few remaining hanging folders.

Pricing and ordering information available from Slyde:

Slydedrawer.com
info@slydedrawer.com
646.630.3090

Photos via Slyde Charging Solutions

Need inspiration or ideas for new office space? A great place on the web to see the latest in office design for companies, large and small, is the website Office Snapshots. Here are some designs they’ve curated recently from California to New York City; Austin to the Chicago suburbs. One thing they all have in common: lots of space for collaboration and plenty of Wow! factor.

Favor | Austin, Texas

Favor is an on-demand delivery service with headquarters in Austin. Its new headquarters has a 12,000-square-foot office space fore its 120 Austin employees. The new offices were designed by Favor’s creative team, who wanted employees to feel as if they were working “inside” the Favor brand. The new office also features a rooftop deck with views of the Austin Capitol and UT Stadium.

Web | FavorDeliver.com
Design | In-house
via | Office Snapshots

Charles Vincent George Architects | Napierville, Ill.

The completely open office plan encourages collaboration between designers, while the designed millwork and ceiling panels (‘butterflies’) still give each of the four sections of the office a sense of place. Collaboration between designers and clients is encouraged with an open and flexible Materials Library. Clients are able to select finishes off the sliding shelves while architects and designers can post drawings and sketches to the rolling steel doors, using magnets.

Web | cvgarchitects.com
Design | Charles Vincent George Architects
Photography | Tony Soluri|
via | Office Snapshots

Achieve Internet | San Diego

The office was designed to reflect what Office Snapshot calls, “the growing web development company’s ultra-modern, geek-chic vibe.” A gray-toned color scheme is accented with splashes of Achieve’s signature orange. Giant glass walls, a custom mural, local custom-made glass tables, and of course the signature moss wall are all design choices that helped open up the space and make it as modern and stylish as possible.

Web | achieveinternet.com
Design | In-house team from Achieve Internet
via | Office Snapshots

Primary | New York City

Primary is a new coworking space in New York that includes a 600 square-foot fitness studio and 30+ classes per week (yoga, meditation, functional fitness). There are 66 offices and 108 co-working seats with capacity to accommodate 324 people. With a focus on nearby makers and food vendors, the space features original furniture pieces, bespoke light fixtures from Etsy vendors, a Brooklyn millworker and one of Primary’s co-founders. The space also includes a full-service cafe with espresso service, juices and catered lunches — all from nearby vendors.

Web | LivePrimary.com
Design | Danny Orenstein
via | Office Snapshots

Competition is a part of running a small business. It keeps the creative juices flowing. But sometimes when the competitors are folks whose creative juices are always flowing, competition can turn a minor jesture into a duel of Aaron Burr vs. Alexander Hamilton proportions.

Gentlepersons, choose your paper weapons

It all started earlier this year (2016) when an employee of a creative agency in this lower Manhattan building did something simple.

Google Maps

She wrote a “hi” on her window with a few Post-it notes.

Across the street, in this building, filled with other creative agencies, someone responded…

Google Maps

“SUP?”

Image credits: Source

In Creativeland, “SUP?” apparently means, “WAR!”

Image credits: Source

 Soon, windows in both buildings had all sorts of one-upsmanship Post-it note art

Image credits: Mike Segar

Image credits: Mike Segar

The winning agency (as declared by themselves) even created an animated GIF version. Definitely, mic drop.

Image credits: Instagram

And so, the battle was over (because the building managers ordered all participants to take everything down). 

(via: wistedsifter.com and Architecture and Design and lots of contributors to this reddit thread.)

According to the latest Office Depot Small Business Index, most small business owners and managers believe that an organized office or workspace has a direct connection to the success of a business. Here are some of the findings of the research.

The importance of an organized office

(Percentage of respondents)

83% | Believe having an organized office is a vital part of their business.
63% | Believe office organization correlates to their business’ profitability

Most utilized organizational tools

85% | File Folders
69% | Shelves and Drawers
68% | Calendars
64% | Storage Containers
61% | Sticky notes

Disorganized workspace = disorganized workers

74% | Say they could not operate their business without any organizational tools
75% | Believe a disorganized workspace reflects negatively on an employee