Website 99designs recently polled 1,500 small business owners, start-ups, entrepreneurs and design decision-makers on graphic design and its importance to their business.

The results make for a decent read. We feel a post is warranted since we also saw recent stories in the WSJ that suggest many businesses are now hungry not for MBAs, but people who are saavy in design and product development. (Story at WSJ.com may be behind a paid content wall.)

The survey results that are easiest to digest involve colors and popularity.

Namely, the survey asked for which colors owners associate with success. Answer: Blue most associated with succes. Fifty-seven percent said blue is their idea of success; the second most cited color is green (35%) followed by white (32%), black (29%) and red (21%). Purple was the color males least often associate with success, while women were least likely to select orange.

Then, on which brands are seen as having best logo and best website, the results are predictable:

• Apple topped the lists for best logo and best website; also on the best logo were Nike, Coca-Cola and FedEx.
• Most disliked logos and websites: Wal-Mart, Microsoft, Pepsi, IBM and Google.
• Best websites: Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook and Nike.
• Worst websites: Wal-Mart, Yahoo, Facebook, MySpace and Microsoft.

MySpace, really?  Who looks at MySpace?
  

Don't get Ultraviolet mad.

The women's group called Ultraviolet has come out swinging at Facebook, saying the media and social network company has shown immense gender blindness. The Ultraviolet announcement on Thursday demanded Facebook appoint at least one woman to its board before the company goes public in the coming weeks.

It's also asking Facebook users to sign its online petition at this link.

The announcement made a good point: about 58% of Facebook users are women but the company, based in Northern California, has no women on its board.

Said Nita Chaudhary, a co-founder of Ultraviolet:  “The fact that a company as large as Facebook with a massive global reach does not have a single woman on their board is nothing short of shameful. Facebook owes it success and makes a ton of money off of its women users. 

“Women are responsible for nearly two-thirds of the sharing that happens on the site. In addition, women account for more than 70% of daily fan activity on the site, which is a huge source of revenue for the company.” 

On the surface, who can argue with their claim? 

Spokane's Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery is among the possible winners in a contest started by national retailer Shopko.

Called “Choose the Charity,” the contest will run through March 12 and allows Facebook users to cast votes for a favorite charity. The winning charity will receive a $10,000 donation, organizers said.

Shopko's Facebook page is www.facebook.com/shopko. The winner will be announced on March 13.

In addition to Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery, other eligible charities on the Facebook page ballot are:

• The Children's Center (Salt Lake City, Utah)
• House of Hope (Green Bay, Wisc.)
• One World Community Health Centers (Omaha, Neb.)
• St. Marcus School (Milwaukee, Wisc.)

Those were selected, a Shopko press release said, based on high quality of services that they provide, the strong support that they enjoy in their communities, and  track records of proven results.

The Step 2 tagline on the online version of the Social Media Sobriety Test sums it up:

“Choose your hours of intoxication.”

About a year ago the coders who work at Spokane creative agency 14Four had fun making a “social media sobriety kit” that kept people from posting drunken comments on sites like Facebook or Twitter.

The test was just upgraded by 14Four with a holiday theme.  As the new version gains blog and broadcast notoriety, those at 14Four who've worked on the sobriety test project say it's been a great showcase of their talents and skills.

In the world of advertising and creative marketing, half the battle is winning eyeballs. And that has clearly happened with the sobriety test, said Jeff Oswalt, 14Four’s president.

Last year’s version involved just a web browser tool that set time limits when one could post messages or photos. The tests themselves were simple: follow a moving object onscreen with a mouse or type the alphabet backwards.

The new version comes with holiday-themed warnings, such as: “Before you hand out copies of your backside or tell your in-laws how you really feel, download the Holiday Party Sobriety Test and protect yourself, from yourself.”

It also added mobile versions for Android and iPhone; you can download the free sobriety app from iTunes.

Spokane's fast-growing retailer, GreenCupboards.com, is using Facebook to encourage its followers to help spread some toy cheer this holiday.

UPDATED:  

Part of tomorrow's Facebook Small Business Boost is a summary of how Facebook, starting in January, will award small businesses up to $10 million worth of free Facebook advertising. The goal of these these ad credits is  to give 200,000 businesses across  the country a $50 boost.

Four reps from Facebook will kick off the “boost” at 8:45 a.m. in the hotel. They are: Matt Baker, Bess Siegfried, Carlos Tejuco and Maxine Schlein. All have the title of “small business growth specialist.” I have a feeling you can find their profiles on Facebook.

The event is open to the public.

The goal is to help more businesses find ways to leverage the reach and range of Facebook.

The agenda for the rest of the summit is here.

We are dedicated to collecting and posting interesting, odd or slightly useful graphics and charts, wherever they may be. All we ask for is clean and fun infotainment.

Today's offering is a cool find, a superhero treatment of popular social media sites. We found it at the uber-social site FreestyleInteractive.co.uk. The infographic is from the Freestyle Interactive digital agency.

We dig the cool and clever takes on sites like Flickr. and Google+. 

Hope you all like it…

Social Media Sobriety Test from TDA_Boulder on Vimeo.

Spokane creative agency 14Four has helped put together a social media sobriety test meant to stop Facebook or Twitter users from posting stupid remarks after partying.

The Spokane company developed the free software plug-in for Webroot, a Boulder, Colo.-based web security firm. The project stemmed from past work 14Four has done with Colorado ad agency TDA, the lead agency for Webroot.

The test’s tagline is “Nothing good happens online after 1 a.m.” The test can work on six social sites, including YouTube and MySpace. The tool also allows for adding custom websites.

TDA Account Director Christi Tucay said 14Four was hired to code the sobriety test software and design how it interacts with the user. “14Four took our idea and made it happen; they built all the Flash, HTML and javascript that makes it work,” Tucay said.

The onscreen test can be set manually to force the user to complete a challenge before posting a message at preset times of the day or night. The extension has six challenges, selected at random, that force the person to answer or do something.

One challenge requires a person to keep the mouse cursor inside a moving circle appearing on the screen. If the person can’t do that, the user fails the test.

The challenge might also ask you to type the alphabet backwards, or use your mouse to guess how long 30 seconds is.

Jeff Oswalt, 14Four’s president, said his firm jumped at the idea when they were first asked by TDA to collaborate. “We saw it as an awesome idea. Plus we would be getting paid for work, which is also a great idea.”

More than 45 readers jumped into the discussion on Monday’s story about the active efforts on Facebook to get a Spokane Trader Joe’s store.

The comments are all over the map, from hating all things Californian, to debating what is or isn’t deserving of the name “organic.”

Spokane resident Nova Duft, who started the Facebook page, Trader Joe’s Spokane, stayed out of the fray and reports all the publicity only helped the effort.

By 4 p.m. on Monday, the added attention led to more than 700 (changed from yesteday’s 220) new fans to the Spokane Trader Joe’s Facebook page. The net result is now well more than 6,500 fans for that group, Duft said.