404 Error - Noooooooooo! Looks like this page doesn't exist!
404 Error
Noooooooooo! Looks like this page doesn't exist!

Month: April 2022

What is Lorem Ipsum?

Posted on by Kara Berger

When you check out your new website design, digital marketing materials, or other items from your graphic design team, you might see totally unreadable text. If you see a sentence that starts Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, no worries! Your designer didn’t fill your site with copywriting in an unknown language.

This strange-looking jumble of words is simply a placeholder called Lorem ipsum with no actual meaning. But what is it? Why are you seeing it? Where did it come from? Let’s dig in.

What Are Placeholder Texts and Why Are They Used?

Lorem ipsum is used as a placeholder text by graphic designers, web designers, and digital marketing gurus to fill a space where your content will eventually live. Many creative and marketing professionals use Lorem ipsum to display font choices and how the project will eventually look without the text being a distraction. Design professionals in many fields use Lorem ipsum, but here are three of the most common:

  • Graphic designers use placeholder text to help them create your project’s visual look and layout before your copywriting is available. Graphic designers also use Lorem ipsum to present recommended font pairings, so you can select the fonts you love that reflect your brand. Plus, since font spacing varies, there’s no point in adding the actual copywriting until a font is chosen.
  • Digital marketing experts use Lorem ipsum to create social media or email templates. That way, you can see how it will look when your fresh content and copywriting replace it. Templates make it a breeze to create on-brand social media posts and emails that you can use over and over.

Why Do Designers Use Lorem Ipsum?

Placeholder texts are super handy as they show you how your design will look during the initial phases of your website design, digital marketing, or other graphic design projects. Placeholder texts can also be used in a process called greeking to obscure distracting text when making changes to the design.

Lorem ipsum has become the most popular placeholder text simply because it doesn’t make sense! It’s a short but sweet paragraph (or more) that contains all the letters of the alphabet with the characters spread out evenly. This allows you to focus on the design and layout rather than reading actual text and getting distracted.

When examining and choosing fonts, placeholder texts like lorem ipsum can also be used by graphic designers. Thousands of fonts are available, so this is where lorem ipsum comes to the rescue. Your designer can find your perfect combination of fonts and style them, so they look amazing before adding your copywriting or other content. 

Where Did Lorem Ipsum Come From?

Despite appearances, Lorem ipsum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of Latin literature with the catchy title De finibus bonorum et malorum (The Extremes of Good and Evil), written way back in 45 B.C. by everyone’s favorite Roman philosopher, Cicero. 

Like many of us, Lorem ipsum took its time gaining popularity. Despite being over 2000 years old, researchers think it wasn’t actually used as a placeholder until some point in the 1500s, when a printer, who we can only assume loved Roman philosophy, was desperate to show off his printing prowess. So, he took the original text and scrambled its order to show off its range of fonts in a specimen book. However, Lorem Ipsum really started to hit the big time in the swinging 60s. Letraset, a supplier of dry-transfer sheets, used Lorem Ipsum in all its advertising.  

Lorem Ipsum then had another surge in popularity in the late 1980s, when it was included in popular desktop publishing software. Since then, it has been included with most software used by web designers, graphic designers, and digital marketing experts, helping cement it as the de facto dummy text. 

What Does Lorem Ipsum Mean in English?

Despite its Latin roots, many words in Lorem ipsum as it’s used today have been modified over the centuries. Sadly, this means Lorem ipsum is no longer considered Latin, even though it looks like it — unless you’re a Latin expert. The word lorem, for example, is a shortened form of the word dolorem, which means pain. However, we can get close to a translation by returning to the original source, part of which translates as:

“Nor is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure.”

Fancy that — your design may be filled with placeholder text that philosophizes about pain!

Alternatives to Lorem Ipsum

Not everyone is a fan of Lorem ipsum. Luckily, the internet has come to the rescue with alternatives if you don’t want to use a piece of 2000-year-old text. For example, you could use quotes from classic TV shows using Fillerarma, classic novels with Lit Ipsum, pirate speak with Pirate Ipsum, or fill your design with cat speak using Cat Ipsum.  

Now you know all about Lorem ipsum and how your designers use placeholder text to create the best graphic design, web design, and digital marketing assets before they insert the final copywriting.  

If you’re in need of digital marketing, copywriting, and website design contact the branding experts here at Rock Paper Simple. We’d love to empower you to achieve your goals and stand out in your marketplace.

Featured Non-Profit: Children’s Hunger Project

Posted on by jennifer@rockpapersimple.com

A charitable organization devoted to providing Brevard County Public School children with food packets for the weekends, The Children’s Hunger Project prevents local students from going hungry. Filling the gap between school-provided breakfasts and lunches Monday through Friday, children in need receive nutritious items to take home in their backpacks which they enjoy and can eat without the need for cooking or preparation from an adult. 

Known as the Brevard County Backpack Program, this non-profit, in conjunction with Teachers and Staff, makes it possible for elementary-aged children to thrive and succeed both inside and outside the classroom. See Rock Paper Simple’s entire non-profit portfolio or read our Children’s Hunger Project website project summary.

 

You Rock Award 2022

Posted on by jennifer@rockpapersimple.com

Each month, a Rock Paper Simple team member gets the honor of getting the You Rock Award. Selected by the last team member who won, a custom-made presentation (of an extremely creative nature) led to transferring the title and the magnificent You Rock trophy. Here’s a recap of this quarter’s really, really awesome You Rock recipients. 

January 2022

The You Rock Award is passed from team member to team member each month and is a fun way for us to recognize each other and our accomplishments. Web Developer Tom Affeld selected Josh Painter, our Lead Videographer for January!

Tom created a custom Youtube video for the award handoff and kept the office guessing the entire time. His sentiments expressed his appreciation for Josh’s new role and responsibilities as the Team Lead of the video and photo department. Congrats, and keep up the great work, Josh!

February 2022

Josh Painter presented February’s award with a fun matching game featuring other famous people named Josh! The game was a fun and engaging way to get our team involved and helped lead up to the big reveal. Congratulations Joshua!

Josh spoke fondly about this month’s You Rock Award recipient, “I chose to give this award to our Head Honcho, Joshua Adams, because of his leadership and hard work. He creates a fun, professional culture here at Rock Paper Simple, and that helps us to achieve the best that we can. Thanks for all you do Joshua and I’m looking forward to where you lead our team!”

March 2022

Joshua then passed along the honor to our newest Marketing Manager, Katie Holm, who has truly embodied the Rock Paper Simple spirit in all she does. Our Head Honcho said, “It’s super hard, in my position, to pass along the You Rock Award, because I see so much good work and great people doing awesome things that it can be a challenge for me to choose. I did finally make my decision because not only has this person contributed so much to the team and reflected our core values of Own It, Continuously Learning, Team First and Do The Right Thing, but she has also done it all in a relatively short period of time. Thank you, Katie Holm for being a team player, for owning what we’ve thrown at you, for adapting along the way and for working with me to do right by our clients. You Rock!”

Featured Client: All Points

Posted on by jennifer@rockpapersimple.com

Launched in mid-September, the All Points, LLC website project from Rock Paper Simple accurately conveys them as a leader in technology and engineering designs for space exploration and national defense who provide customers and partners with proven, forward-thinking, innovative solutions. Working under government contract vehicles, All Points, LLC’s efforts are driven by unique requests and short-notice deadlines. They include capabilities such as engineering, software, IT, cyber security, modeling and simulation, and integrated logistics. Their acquisitions, technology, and business experts in Merritt Island solutionize dynamic technical services in the highest risk environments under mission-critical constraints. Partnering with MARS Suite to revolutionize cyber risk management, our team also built a landing page for the All Points, LLC team to tie the two together.

   

 

Rock Paper Simple Open House 2022

Posted on by jennifer@rockpapersimple.com

To celebrate our new Brevard County-based business location, the team at Rock Paper Simple held a public ribbon-cutting ceremony complete with food, drink, and games on March 22, 2022. The event lasted three and a half hours, and we all had so much fun! Woo hoo!

We’d like to extend a huge thanks to everyone who came out and showed their support. Past, present, and future clients, team members, family, friends, and neighbors were all welcome. They were co-mingling amongst the orange and grey decorations and local organizations, including the Brevard County Chambers of Commerce, The Children’s Hunger Project, Brevard Family Partnership, and New Life Mission.

Before the ceremonial cutting of the ribbon at 6:00 pm, Chaplain Pete from Marketplace Chaplains blessed the ongoings with a prayer, which was followed by an introduction from Michael Ayers, President, and CEO of the Melbourne Regional Chamber. Our Head Honcho Joshua Adams made a heartfelt speech explaining the history of the business and his love for his wife and community. Then he cut the ribbon to our new office in true Rock Paper Simple style, with a pair of oversized scissors and an orange ribbon held by the whole team. 

During the open house event, we officially marked the occasion with team-guided office tours, on-brand cupcakes, sandwiches, hor d’oeuvres, a dress-up photo booth, hula hoops, giant connect four, ax throwing, and live music from Honeycutt LIVE. Many attendees also entered a raffle to win prizes such as a Grogu Chia Pet, with the grand prize being a series of ten professional headshots. 

The relocation to a larger space reflects our commitment to meeting our marketing partners’ needs, including hosting video and photoshoots in-house at our 1,200 square foot studio space. Awesome! Additionally, the more spacious office allows us to house a more extensive Creative and Marketing Team. 

Couldn’t make it out to the event? No worries! Make an appointment with your Marketing Manager to come and see us at our centrally located office in the Gateway Business Center at 1335 Gateway Dr. Suite 2007, Melbourne, FL 32901, or give us a call at (321) 626-2172 to book your Discovery Session.