Reviews and More

It would seem to be pure folly to base an entire movie on a cliché, especially one as constricting and limiting as “always a bridesmaid, never a bride”; but somehow 27 Dresses manages to rise above its banal basic premise to become a rather entertaining romantic comedy.

Yes, it is riddled with predictability, and yes, anyone who has ever seen a romantic comedy in the past will be able to foresee every single plot “twist” well before it comes up. However, thanks to strong performances by Katherine Heigl and James Marsden, the end result is not as bad as you might expect.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Heigl stars as Jane Nichols,a 20-something who has been looking forward to her wedding day since she was a little girl. Jane has plenty of experience with planning weddings, as she’s been a bridesmaid 27 times. However, she’s never been close to walking down the aisle as the bride — especially since her boss George (played by Edward Burns), the man she’s in love with, hasn’t noticed her years of pining for him.

One night, Jane juggles two simultaneous bridesmaid commitments by hiring a cab for the evening and shuttling back and forth between the two ceremonies, changing dresses on the ride. After being trampled during the bouquet-tossing portion of one ceremony, Jane catches the attention of Kevin Doyle (Marsden), a guest at the wedding. Doyle is a writer for the Commitments column of a major New York City Newspaper, one that carries a different byline (to ward off stalkers) and that Jane reads religiously. Kevin helps a woozy Jane back home, and then notices that she left her planner in the cab they shared. He picks it up and reads it.

When Kevin sees all of the weddings Jane must attend, he forms an idea for a story that will help get him off the Commitments page and covering real news. He’s going to write a feature about Jane, taking the angle that she must be a pretty pathetic person to be a bridesmaid 27 times. But as he’s researching the story, Kevin finds himself falling for Jane. Jane, too, feels a connection with Kevin, particularly since her sister Tess (Malin Akerman) came into town and “stole” George away.

The rest of the film then deals with Jane and Kevin’s blossoming relationship, the betrayal Jane feels after reading Kevin’s story about her, their ultimate reconciliation, and of course, their wedding when Jane finally gets to walk down the aisle as bride.

My Reaction: I know this wasn’t classic cinema or anything like that, but 27 Dresses was definitely entertaining enough to excuse the predictability factor that I mentioned above. All of the credit for this goes to Heigl and Marsden, who were not only good on their own, but also had tremendous onscreen chemistry as a couple — a crucial element that seems to be missing from a lot of rom-coms these days. After all, if viewers don’t believe the two main characters belong together, what’s the point?

I’ve been watching Heigl for four years as Izzie Stevens on Grey’s Anatomy, and have long felt that she’s one of the better actors on the show. Sure, her character is annoying as hell sometimes, but Heigl sells just about every scene she’s in, so she’s enjoyable to watch. I think she does a great job in romantic comedies as well (like this one and Knocked Up), and predict that she won’t last on GA for much longer, as she’ll likely make a full-time jump to the silver screen soon.

Anyway, Heigl was a terrific choice to play Jane Nichols, bringing a perfect balance of sincerity and romanticism to the part. She wasn’t cloying or overly sweet in her many onscreen defenses of love, marriage, and weddings, which is something that would have doomed the film for me.

I thought Marsden was excellent as Kevin Doyle, and feel that being a rom-com lead is right up his alley. I recently saw his work in 10th & Wolf, but had a hard time buying his portrayal of a Philly tough guy. He was much more genuine as the cynical writer with a romantic streak of his own in 27 Dresses. Plus, he’s funny and easy on the eyes, which is a great combination for these types of films.

Overall, 27 Dresses doesn’t have much of a plot going for it, but it definitely provides a fun time thanks to Heigl and Marsden’s work. I give the film 6.0 stars out of 10 and recommend that you check it out the next time you’re in the mood for some light entertainment.

These days, there are so many different credit cards to choose from that it can be a nearly impossible task trying to sort through them all to find the best one for your needs. Between the various rewards programs, balance transfer opportunities, and other specialty cards, there’s quite an overwhelming amount of information to sort through. That’s where a website like CreditCardSpecialist.com comes in handy.

CreditCardSpecialist.com is a site that offers free financial information and advice, as well as comprehensive credit card comparisons. The site is extremely well organized and easy to navigate, making it a simple matter to search for and compare available credit cards.

Are you looking for 0% Credit Card Deals or instant approval cards? CreditCardSpecialist.com can help point you in the right direction. Perhaps you’d rather have a rewards card or a low-interest rate card? Or maybe a card for people with bad credit is in order? No problem! The best deals are presented in a table form, thus allowing you to make comparisons very quickly. (Click for larger.)

Moreover, if you come across a credit card offer that you like at CreditCardSpecialist.com, you can immediately apply online. This convenient feature helps ensure that you don’t lose track of all the good deals that you find.

Overall, I found the website to be a terrific resource for finding the best current credit card offers on the market. If you’re looking for a new card, I’m sure you’ll discover the perfect one at CreditCardSpecialist.com!

I’ve been a huge fan of the hit TV series 24 ever since the very first season. I love the action-packed episodes, as well as all the twists and turns that the writers throw at us along the way. So obviously, I was extremely disappointed to learn that Season 7 would be delayed until January 2009 due to the WGA strike. Considering the fact that the S6 finale aired on May 21, 2007, that’s a long time to wait between fresh 24 episodes!

But I recently learned that there’s a way I can get my 24 fix without having to pull out my DVDs. Apparently, FOX and Degree Men® have teamed up to bring viewers a series of “websiodes” called The Rookie that more or less follow the 24 structure: same graphics, same ticking clock, same split screen, same CTU set, etc.

I thought this sounded pretty cool, so I decided to go to watch The Rookie over at the official FOX website. I checked out the current series called “The Extraction”, which is actually Day 3 (meaning there have been two previous series).

“The Extraction” stars Jeremy Ray Valdez as Jason Blaine, a rookie CTU agent who’s learning the ropes from veteran Alton Maxwell (played by Eric Beck). The two are in Mexico on a mission when Maxwell gets captured by Esteban Salazar (Jonathan P. Nichols), brother of Ramon and Hector Salazar, the drug smugglers from Day 3 of 24. Esteban wants to bring the family’s drug business back to the top — and he also wants revenge on CTU agents for killing both of his brothers.

When Blaine learns that Maxwell has been captured, he goes to work on an extraction plan. He utilizes the help of Kate Wyman (Katrina Law) back at CTU, and two tech agents, Ocho (Chad Johnson) and Dos (Jason Steward) out in the field to get the support he needs to rescue Maxwell.

There are six separate webisodes in Day 3, each ranging from about 4 to 8 minutes long. Because of the compressed time structure, things in The Rookie happen very quickly. It’s more or less nonstop action, which is pretty cool!

I think The Rookie Day 3: Extraction presented by Degree Men® is definitely worth watching. Sure, it’s not a total replacement for Jack, Chloe, and Bill Buchanan, but it’s entertaining and doesn’t require a huge time investment.

Check out the first episode right here, and then go to the FOX site I linked above to catch the rest. Be sure to view Chapters 3 and 4 to see Chad Johnson, mister “Ocho Cinco” of the Cincinnati Bengals, make his acting debut. He was pretty good, so I hope to see him make more appearances in the future!

Last night’s episode of How I Met Your Mother was called “The Goat”, and mostly dealt with fallout from the Robin/Barney coupling of the previous week. While I liked how freaked and nervous Barney was about the whole thing (such a drastic change for that character), I was disappointed that Robin and Barney had very little screen time together and barely discussed their actions after the teaser. The secondary story, that of Ted’s 30th birthday party and the goat was pretty boring, IMO, but that’s probably just because I wanted to see more Robin/Barney stuff!

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): The show opens with a “morning after” scene where Barney and Robin are going through some awkward conversation after sleeping with each other for the first time. They both agree that it would be best to pretend that the whole thing never happened, and above all, they agree that Ted should never find out.

Robin seems perfectly fine with this plan, and does a great job of acting normal later at the bar with the rest of the gang. Barney is the one who acts very nervous and guilty, taking references about “hitting it” and “Xbox” to somehow relate to what happened to Robin. Later, though, Robin ends up telling Ted, who says he’s not mad at all because they’ve been broken up for a whole year already, etc.

Barney can’t feel good about what he did because he knows he broke the Bro Code. He hires Marshall as his lawyer and tells Marshall to comb through the code and find out if there’s a loophole whereby Barney’s actions wouldn’t be considered sleazy. But Marshall can’t find anything of the sort. In fact, he just goes and points out all the ways Ted has adhered to the Bro Code over the years, making Barney feel even more miserable.

Meanwhile, the gang is planning a surprise 30th birthday party for Ted, even though he already knows about it. One unexpected guest is a goat that Lily’s class of kindergarten students begged her to save from the slaughterhouse. She brought it home where it hast to stay for a few days until an Animal Rescue place can pick it up. FutureTed makes a big deal out of this goat, and keeps trying to tell his kids what the goat did, but backtracks and puts it off until finally revealing that he had the birthdays mixed up and the goat wasn’t there until his 31st — at which point Robin was also living in the apartment.

Later, as Barney is driving Ted to his party in a limo, Ted reveals that he knows that Barney slept with Robin. At first, Ted said he wasn’t mad, which of course made Barney feel relieved. But then Ted’s true feelings show, and he tells Barney exactly what he thinks of him. Barney has always done some horrible things to other people, but Ted thought that there was a line, that Ted was a line Barney wouldn’t cross. Since Barney did cross that line, Ted doesn’t have any use for him anymore and doesn’t think they should be friends. Not even a free punch to the groin can fix this situation.

My Reaction: This episode failed to live up to my expectations of what the post-Barney/Robin coupling would be like. Actually, that’s not fair on my part, since I’m not even sure what I wanted — I just know that this wasn’t it.

First of all, while I can understand Ted being angry and hurt by what Barney did, the least he could have done was listen to what Barney had to say. He asked how it happened, but then didn’t give Barney a chance to explain. Had he done so, he might have realized that Barney did NOT take advantage of Robin (as Ted seems to think) and that since Robin and Barney are ok with what they did, then Ted should be too. After all, it has been a year. I know there’s that whole bro code thing, but… there’s got to be a point in time after which it shouldn’t matter who’s sleeping with whom.

I didn’t get the goat stuff at all. I read on some message forums that it was a callback to Season 1 when the goat was mentioned in a previous episode, but honestly, I don’t watch this show as closely as that, so the goat meant nothing to me. And since they didn’t explain its purpose in this ep, it felt like even more of a waste of time.

I know that Barney and Ted eventually reconcile; there’s no question about that. I’m just wondering when and how this comes about. Hopefully Robin will play an instrumental role in that, since she was the reason they broke up in the first place. I also hope that this isn’t the end of Robin and Barney because I still think they are awesome together!

There are just a few more eps left in the season. I’m praying that they’re good ones!

With Mother’s Day just around the corner, I’ve been spending a lot of time browsing through potential gifts — both for myself and for my mom. When I was growing up, my mom always said this was the most significant holiday for her, and that she valued it even more than her birthday. As a result, my brother and I always put extra effort into our gifts and cards, and I know Mom appreciated this.

Now that I’m a mother myself, I feel the same way about Mother’s Day and have not been shy in communicating this to my husband and son. As long as they acknowledge the day in some meaningful way, I’ll be happy.

Of course, a nice gift would be welcome too, which is why I’ve been looking for the last week or so. One interesting website I came across was LifetimeMothers.com, an online store that specializes in jewelry for mothers. They have a terrific assortment of rings, pendants, bracelets, earrings, and watches that can be personalized with kids’ names and birthstones, making them a perfect choice for Mother’s Day.

I particularly liked the Family Fun Ring, pictured above. This is a mother’s ring that can display up to four children’s names and birthstones, which I think is a very neat idea. The rings are made from 14k yellow or white gold with 3.0mm genuine birthstones. Moreover, the names are laser-etched into the surface, so they’ll always be readable no matter how long you have the ring. This is truly a beautiful piece that I have my heart set on for this year!

Moms do so much for their children on a daily basis that they surely deserve some recognition and appreciation on Mother’s Day. Show your mom or grandma how much they mean by choosing a beautiful personalized gift from LifetimeMothers.com. There’s still time to order before May 11, so visit the site today!

Last night’s episode of Desperate Housewives was called “Hello, Little Girl”, and was one of the more uneven hours of television I’ve seen in a while. The writers tried to address so many different storylines in the ep that almost everything felt rushed. Moreover, for a show that usually likes to take its sweet time in revealing info and plot twists, a lot of secrets were spilled last night (relatively speaking). So let’s get right to the recap of what happened in 4×13.

Mike/Susan/Orson/Bree: Julie wasted no time in telling Mike that Orson “confessed” to running him over. Mike in turn told Susan, who immediately went over to confront Orson and Bree. This led to an offscreen fight where Bree apparently decided to kick Orson out, so he goes to stay at a hotel (perhaps the same one Adam Mayfair is at?). Meanwhile, Susan agrees to work on forgiving Orson, but can’t guarantee that it will happen soon — or at all.

Gabby/Carlos: Gabby and Carlos had a good amount of screen time in this ep. Carlos got a seeing-eye dog named Roxie to help him move around a little better. Gabby was under the impression that these dogs were miracle workers who would be able to fetch the remote and actually do chores. When the trainer set her straight, she immediately lost enthusiasm in the project.

To make matters worse (for Gabby), Roxie becomes far too protective of Carlos for Gabby’s liking. The dog barks and growls whenever Gabby hits or yells at Carlos, and even ends up hogging Gabby’s side of the bed (after Carlos essentially chooses the dog over Gabby). So Gabby decides to try to return Roxie to the training center, but the dog follows her back home. Carlos becomes livid when he realizes what she tried to do.

Then Edie stops by with dog treats that Carlos asked her to buy, and tells Gabby that she needs to reevaluate the way she treats Carlos. Their constant bickering and hitting might have been fine when Carlos could see, but things are different now — though Carlos is too proud to admit that he can’t go “toe to toe” with Gabby anymore. Gabby needs to tone things down, otherwise Carlos will end up leaving again, adding that there are plenty of other women who would be happy to have him.

Tom/Lynette/Rick: Rick comes over to the Scavo pizza place to confront Tom about the fire. He found a book of matches from the Scavo restaurant near the back of his place and thinks that proves that Tom was involved. The two get into a brawl and won’t stop, so Andrew ends up calling the police.

While at the station, Tom is questioned about his whereabouts on the night of the fire. Lynette supplies an alibi, lying to say that she saw him sitting in the car shouting at the radio when he slipped out of the Founder’s Ball.

Later, the Scavo twins confess that they set the fire because they overheard Tom saying that Rick was trying to take Lynette away from her family.

Dylan /Wayne: Dylan gets pulled over by a police officer for speeding, even though she insists that she didn’t do anything wrong. The officer looks at her license for a long time before letting her go with a warning. As he gets back into his squad car, we see that he’s the faceless guy from last week who circled Dylan’s picture in the newspaper.

His name is Wayne, and he goes to visit Dylan when she’s sitting on a park bench reading a book. Instead of being completely freaked out by this creepy guy who seems to be stalking her, Dylan starts talking to him. He then reveals that he’s her father. Dylan doesn’t know how to react at first, but after Wayne admits that he wasn’t a perfect husband and that he hit Katherine, Dylan relents and decides she wants to get to know him — without telling Katherine about it.

My Reaction: As I said, there was really a lot going on in this ep. I was very surprised at how many things were revealed here: The Scavo twins as the arsonists; Julie telling Mike Orson’s secret, and Mike immediately telling Susan; Wayne coming forward as Dylan’s father… these are the sorts of things that the Desperate Housewives writers like to drag out forever, so it was strange to see everything develop so quickly.

I have a bad feeling about this Wayne character. After seeing his filthy hands and disgusting apartment last week, it doesn’t seem like he’s the same guy. It’s hard to believe he works as a police officer by day, and then goes home to that dingy place by night. I think there are
two different mystery men involved here, and the guy from the apartment hasn’t come forward yet.

Another clue is the actual newspaper. The guy in the apartment circled only Dylan’s face in the picture, but Wayne’s copy of the paper had both Dylan and Katherine circled. Sure, this could be a continuity error that slipped by the editors, but I prefer to think it’s a clue.

I wasn’t at all impressed by the Scavo storyline or the drama between Susan and the Hodges. Where are the writers going with Lynette and Tom? Is a divorce imminent? It sure seems like it.

I liked the Gabby and Carlos nonsense, as I prefer the lighthearted stuff to the “darker” storylines. I continue to love Gabby, even though she proves week after week that she is truly one of the most selfish and shallow characters ever. I thought it was sweet that she relented a bit about the dog, but I’m sure she’ll be back to her demanding ways in no time!

Overall, this was an ok ep. Lots of boring parts, but some good ones as well. I’m sure the Dylan/Wayne mystery isn’t what it appears to be on the surface, so it’ll be interesting to see how that one develops!

Comedies ruled the box office once again this week, with new entry Baby Mama starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler taking the top spot with a healthy haul of $18.3 million. The film, about a single woman’s experiences with a polar opposite surrogate, received mixed reviews from critics, but scored an aggregate positive rating of 60% over at RottenTomatoes.com.

Second place went to another comedy in its first week of nationwide release. Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, a sequel to the surprise 2004 hit about two stoner friends trying to find White Castle, grossed $14.6 million. I didn’t like the first movie all that much, so will probably stay away from this one — at least until it comes out on DVD.

Last week’s box office winner, The Forbidden Kingdom, slipped two places to No. 3, while the comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall likewise dropped two spots to No. 4. The only other new release to crack the Top 10 was Deception, a thriller starring Hugh Jackman, Ewan McGregor, Michelle Williams, and Maggie Q. The film was panned by critics, and will have a hard time recouping its $25 million budget.

Here’s the complete Top 10 for the weekend ending 4/27/08:

1. Baby Mama, $18.3 million
2. Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, $14.6 million
3. The Forbidden Kingdom, $11.2 million
4. Forgetting Sarah Marshall, $11 million
5. Nim’s Island, $4.53 million
6. Prom Night, $4.4 million
7. 21, $4 million
8. 88 Minutes, $3.6 million
9. Horton Hears a Who!, $2.41 million
10. Deception, $2.23 million

As promised, I’ve used an online randomizer to select a winner for the Alien Nation: Ultimate Movie Collection DVD box set that I’m giving away.

The randomizer put Webster’s name at the top, so he’s the lucky winner! Webster now has 48 hrs in which to email me back with his mailing address or I’ll go through the selection process one more time and come up with a different winner.

Congratulations to Webster for scoring this brand-new Alien Nation: Ultimate Movie Collection box set, and thank you all for participating in the giveaway and reading Reviews and More (or ram, as I always refer to it). I’m sure I’ll be having more contests and giveaways in the near future, so keep checking back!

It’s been a heck of a long wait, but Grey’s Anatomy finally returned with a new episode on Thursday night called “Where the Wild Things Are”! I know I’ve been down on Season 4 for the most part, but there’s no question that I missed this show while it was off the air, so I was very happy to get back into the swing of things. I didn’t watch a single rerun during the writers’ strike and therefore forgot nearly everything that was going on before. Fortunately, it didn’t take very long to get back into the swing of things.

Most of the episode focused on a competition that the Core Four (Meredith, Izzie, Cristina, and Alex) were having whereby they received a certain number of points for performing various tasks. For example, a suture was worth one point, observing a surgery was worth three, and solving a medical mystery was worth 80.

Apparently, the contest had been going on for two weeks already, during which time they all lived at the hospital in order to be on hand the minute something good went down.The winner — Meredith — ended up receiving a sparkly pager giving her first dibs on any surgery that passes through Seattle Grace for the next three months.

Here’s what else happened:

Meredith: She’s currently seeing the hospital psychiatrist because she hasn’t been able to sleep in five weeks. She doesn’t want to believe that the problem is Derek’s new relationship with Rose, but the signs are all there. On the professional front, she lost her mind and joyfully exclaimed, “Tumor!” when one of her patients ended up suffering from more than just a hand wound, and then she made up for it by potentially discovering a way to treat that kind of inoperable brain tumor. Of course, she needs Derek’s help to run the clinical trials, so….

Cristina Cristina is still trying to figure out a way to get Hahn to like her, but hasn’t been able to make any headway. Meanwhile, Hahn is now Callie’s new BFF, and they sit and socialize in Cristina’s apartment — while excluding her from their gossip sessions.

Derek/Rose/Sloan: Derek and Rose are still going strong, much to the amazement of Sloan. He’s especially baffled by the fact that Derek spends so much time with Rose despite not having slept with her yet. Sloan thought that he and Derek would be hitting the bars and picking up women together, so he’s very disappointed with the latest developments. As for Rose, she inadvertently lets it slip that she “loves” Derek at a time when Meredith happened to be within earshot.

Lexie/George: They moved into a roach-infested apartment together, with George complaining about it the whole time. Lexie decided to try to make the most of the situation by stealing stuff from the hospital to decorate and furnish the apartment with. George ends up appreciating the effort, so he vows to stop complaining so much and just enjoy things for a change.

Izzie: Made yet another huge misstep by putting a patient through $120,000 worth of painful, unnecessary tests all in the hopes of uncovering some hidden ailment so she could win the competition. The Chief chastised her a little bit, but not nearly as much as she deserved.

Alex: Didn’t do much of anything this week. He did have one nice scene with the Chief, where he refused to accept the “underdog” label, insisting that all he does is try to make the most out of whatever hand he’s dealt.

My Reaction: This was not a great episode, but it was a lot better than most of the stuff that has gone before it here in Season 4. I loved seeing Meredith, Cristina, Izzie, and Alex competing with each other again. That was such a key element to the success of Season 1 and Season 2, in my opinion, so it was great to see that aspect back again.

I find Meredith and Derek to be infinitely more likable when they’re not a couple. I didn’t roll my eyes at them once during the entire ep, which is a good sign for sure! Hopefully, they’ll stay separated at least for a little while longer. I have a feeling that creator Shonda Rhimes thinks of them as the show’s super couple, so her ultimate plan is probably to have them together, but for now, I’m glad they’re broken up.

Izzie… what is going on with her? She has fallen so far in the past two seasons that I’m really having a hard time believing she’s still a doctor. I don’t follow GA gossip in the tabloids or anything, so tell me: does Katherine Heigl want out of her contract so she can pursue film roles? It seems that the writers don’t know what to do with Izzie at this point, and they’re letting her stagnate just to make it easier to get rid of her later on. Who knows, though.

Anyway, I’m happy that Grey’s is back, and I can’t wait to see what happens next week when Addison returns for a visit!

I first started running my own websites about a year and a half ago. My initial intent was to have a place where I could showcase writing samples for prospective clients and perhaps make enough money to cover hosting and Internet fees. Eighteen months later, things are going better than I ever could have imagined, and I’m making far more than the $250 per year that my sites cost me in fees and service charges!

Because of this initial success, I’ve been thinking about different things I can do to help increase brand awareness and give my sites a more professional look. So when I was presented with an opportunity to test out the do-it-yourself logo design wizard at LogoYes.com, I jumped at the offer. A custom logo is precisely what I need to take my sites — and my business — to the next level, and I was eager to see what I could come up with.

The LogoYes logo creator is extremely easy to use. The process consists of six simple steps that will take you from idea to professional-looking logo in no time at all. Here’s a screen shot of the logo creator so you can see what I’m talking about (you can click all images to enlarge):

In Step 1, I just had to choose the image style that I was interested in. There are currently three choices, High Tech, Bold, or Flair, as well as helpful hints about which style to use given the type of company I represent. I went with Flair, because I like to think I have some!

In Step 2, I selected the industry that I’m in. This narrows down the symbol and image choices to those that are most relevant to my company. For my Reviews and More website, I clicked the Arts & Entertainment option.

In Step 3, I browsed through nearly 100 images ranging from cameras, film strips, and easels, to musical notes, flags, and abstract symbols. I couldn’t decide on any of the ones I saw, so I opted to use the letter “R” instead, and found the perfect image in a cursive “R” being drawn by a fountain pen.

Step 4 asked for my company name. Since I don’t really have a formal company, I used the name of this website, Reviews and More. It helped that I had a basic idea of what I wanted my final logo to look like so I could make some tweaks in this step to help get me there. For instance, I wanted the “R” symbol from Step 3 to be used in the word “Reviews”, and I wanted the “and More” part to be offset on a separate line. Knowing this, I was able to enter the name appropriately in this step. I also picked a handwriting font style that would more or less match with the cursive “R” from above. Take a look:

In Step 5, I got to play around with colors and layouts to get my logo to look just the way I wanted. Here’s a screen shot so you can see all the different tools I was able to work with, including Rotate, Flip, Size, Zoom, and a variety of colors. I have to say that the grid marks were extremely helpful and allowed me to make sure I had everything lined up perfectly.

After testing out a bunch of different colors, I settled on a dark red/maroon shade (I don’t remember the exact color, and I know my monitor is not the best at rendering these things). Here’s how the final logo turned out. I think it’s actually pretty cool, considering the fact that I spent about 10 minutes creating it and that I have zero artistic talent whatsoever!

Step 6 presented me with the option of buying my logo file so I could use it on my website, on letterheads, or on promotional materials. I also had the opportunity to use it on different business card templates right on the LogoYes.com website, which I did. I came up with two cards that I think look good, and would certainly give my business that professional feel that has been missing from the start (I’ve blanked out my last name and address for publication purposes, but they’re actually on the design).

Overall, I was very impressed with how easy the LogoYes.com logo design wizard was to use. The wizard features an incredible number of image, font, and color choices that gave me an amazing amount of flexibility every step of the way, and I was able to generate a professional-looking logo very quickly — even though I had no prior experience with this sort of thing.

If you’re looking for a simple, affordable way to brand your company, I recommend heading on over to LogoYes.com right now. You can test out different logos in the wizard with no obligation to buy, so why not give it a whirl? Hey, if I can come up with a nice logo all on my own, then anyone can!