GRAPHIC DESIGNERS FROM OUR DESIGN COMMUNITY
Print Design Templates Take a look at these creative Graphic Design templates for brochures, flyers, newsletters, stationery, postcards, ads, menus and posters for a variety of businesses.
Invoicing 4 Freelancers A complete, secure, online billing application that maintains hourly service billing, flat fee billing and recurring charges. Integration with Authorize.Net and other leading payment gateways provides hands-free recurring billing with a sophisticated CRM system.
Free Design Magazines Browse through our extensive list of free Graphic Design, Web Design, Business, Computer, and Computer Graphics magazines, white papers, downloads and podcasts to find the titles that best match your skills and interests; topics include management, marketing, operations, sales, and technology. Simply complete the application form and submit it. All are absolutely free to freelance professionals who qualify.
Suggested Links Design Community
Photoshop Tutorials
Graphic Design Resources
Vandelay Design Blog
Design Reviver
Web Design & Graphic Design Blog
Logo Designer's Logos
Web Design Tools List
Layouts & Templates Directory
Graphic Designers
Creative Public
The Print Guide
Creative Track
Digital Dreamer
Logomarket
Desktop Publishing
Blue Sfear
Web Design Templates
Design Directory
Web Designers & Developers
Crafts for Kids
Webmaster Tutorials
Web Designers
Web Design Portfolios
All Work at Home Ideas
How to Draw
Work From Home Job Search
More Graphic Design Links
OTHER SITES WE OWN
AllFreelance
All Freelance Work & Portfolios
Graphic Design Community
Best of Graphic Design
Web Design Tools & Resources
 |
by: Richard Lowe
Recently
I received a short, anonymous entry in my guestbook
on
Internet Tips and Secrets. It simply said "Change
your colors".
Short, to the point, and extraordinarily rude. I quickly
deleted
the entry from my guestbook as it was not appropriate
and did
not fit well into the context. I don't mind an occasional
politely negative but helpful comment, but those which
are
stupid (as this one was) or blatantly abusive are not
necessary.
 |
 |
 |
||
 |
|
 |
||
As
I deleted the guestbook entry I thought of the gall
of the
person who left it (besides the cowardice of leaving
a message
with no return email address). This is my creation,
my web site
- who has the right to tell me what colors or navigation
scheme
or for that matter, anything else (unsolicited).
I
believe that many web sites (especially professional
ones)
have become exceptionally boring and uninteresting.
They are
cookie-cut from a common mold based upon "user
testing". Perhaps
you've seen these tests, perhaps not.
What
they say is a person's eye wanders from the upper left
down
to the center of the screen. So the most important thing
needs
to be in the upper left, and the navigation should be
down the
left. Colors need to be bland and uninteresting - black
on white
is best. And blah blah blah. Ho hum, it all looks the
same.
People
are not created the same. Every single one of us is
an
individual, with our own unique desires, needs, likes,
dislikes,
viewpoints, or whatever else you want to call it. Why
should our
web sites all be the same?
Perhaps
it makes sense in the world of business for all web
sites to look like Amazon or Yahoo, but if you widen
your
horizons does it really make sense anywhere else? Is
your home
page describing your personal life and your cat any
better if it
looks like someone else's site? Did that make it better
somehow?
Are
web sites really better if they include the same collection
of links? The same news headlines and the same guestbook
styles?
The same bland colors, the navigation bars in the same
place and
a few select fonts? Is this good? Is this what we really
want
from the web?
Even
with your standard small business sites, do you really
think that someone wants to surf to your site to find
that it
looks just like all other sites? Does this make them
care about
your product any more?
So
what should you do when you create a web site? If you
want to
win most of the awards offered by such places as
"awardsites.com", then you probably want to
create a bland site
with perfect HTML, excellent navigation, pages that
all match
wonderfully and consistently from page to page. You
want to
spend your time making sure your site matches the common
idea of
"good", and if you can do that you can win
the awards. Your site
will look like any other site (bland and uninteresting),
but you
will win awards.
On
the other hand, if you are an individual with your own
brain,
your own artistic sense and your own strength of character
and
will, then perhaps you want to create something that
YOU like,
something that your visitors may also enjoy. Anyone
can create a
site that wins awards (it's actually very easy, just
follow the
instructions in your coloring book and remember to draw
perfectly within the lines) - only a true artist or
simply an
individual can create a site which tells a story using
their own
interesting and unique style.
First
and foremost, keep your end user in mind and make it
work
for them. In other words, make sure it works in their
browsers,
that they can navigate from place to place easily and,
if you
sell something, they can purchase it as easily as possible.
You
are indeed creating something that you would like to
be
understandable to other people, so be sure and make
it
understandable.
On
the other hand, include a bit of individuality in your
site.
Make it stand out from the norm - otherwise, your site
will just
blend in with every other site and will not be remembered
for
anything.
Use
whatever color scheme you want, as long as the text
can be
easily distinguished from the background. And guess
what, your
pages don't need to match each other - in fact, you
can make
every single page different if you want. This is especially
true
for personal web sites - don't worry about conforming.
Sites
don't need to be symmetrical, they don't need to balance
and they don't need to match anyone else's criteria
of "good".
All they need to do is communicate something. Most of
the time
(since by far most web sites are personal home pages
of some
kind) they are communicating something about an individual
or
group.
Black
text on white backgrounds are for sissies; Try dozens
of
different colors until your site looks exactly like
you want.
Having a perfectly proportioned navigation system exactly
the
same on every page is boring. Come up with something
that gets
your users from place to place without being the same
as
everyone else's system.
Use
image maps all over the place - these are great ways
to
visually show your user how to get around without the
same old
boring links. Use graphics as you see fit to make your
pages
shine. Yes, you should worry about image size, but don't
worry
that much. A few extra seconds of load time is fine
(just don't
go overboard); people will wait if they feel excited
about a
site. They will not wait if the site is bland and boring.
Don't
even try and add all of those extra doo-dads that so
many
sites seem to be using these days. Believe me, your
site does
not need a news feed - every one else already has one
and you
will not attract any new visitors with them. You don't
need to
include the cute little quote-of-the-day buttons or
the ticker
or the weather map. These just tend to make your site
look cheap.
Spend
your time writing your content, designing your site
and
working on your graphics. If you do include plug-ins,
concentrate on those that build a community such as
forms,
guestbooks, message boards and even online games. These
are the
things that attract people - being able to communicate
with
other people.
And
a note to those who judge awards - please take off the
blinders. There are many wonderful sites which communicate
exceptionally well which deserve gold 5.0+ awards, even
though
they do not have perfect HTML, even though every page
does not
match every other page and in spite of a glaring color
scheme. I
have seen site after site loose major awards simply
because some
robot is sitting in the judges booth, matching the site
against
a fixed set of criteria (a way of turning off a judge's
brain)
instead of really looking at what's important - is the
site
communicating effectively?
My
advice is simple: create a web site which YOU like and
don't
worry about the awards. If your site communicates something
of
value to your visitors, then you have succeeded. If
not, then
regardless of how many awards you've won, you've failed.
About
the author:
Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And
Secrets
at http://www.internet-tips.net - Visit our website any time to
read over 1,000 complete FREE articles about how to
improve your
internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge.
RECENT ARTICLES from Graphic Design BloG
Graphic Design, Book Covers, and You - Part II
Reading a Book by Its Cover
The chance to produce art for a book cover is rare, bug the essential thought processes and creative steps are very similar, if not identical, in the inventive process. In this series we actually try to read a book by its cover--to see if the design concept is successful or [...]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Graphic Design, Book Covers, and You - Part I
Inspiration from the Covers of Books
In the next few posts, we'll look at some book covers and learn a few things about design. We'll find that design sometimes has to follow form. And in these examples, they follow the form of the content.
The creative processes used to design a book cover are relatively the same [...]
Freelancing 101: The Typical Life
Freelancing 101: The typical life.
Plus tips and advise from a professional.
By Elle Phillips
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, about twenty-five percent of all Graphic Designers (or Graphic Artists) do freelance work, full-time or part-time. Many more have aspirations of doing freelance because of the money, creativity, and the appeal of working from home. [...]
When Design Becomes Literal
As a graphic artist, you face the challenge of creating designs that are unique, and interesting. Some designers, as you will see, have taken the idea of design to a very literal form.
The following examples are fun to look at and admire, but also serve as inspiration to think "inside the box" by approaching design [...]
Logos: What Makes a Good Design? - Part III
And Now the Good Stuff
In our last few articles about logo design we've seen some logos that didn't quite work because of design flaws, problems with concept or lack of visual appeal.
This time we'll look at some of the most famous logos in the world, and some that aren't so famous to see why they [...]
Logos: What Makes a Good Design? - Part II
The Logo Journey Continues
In our last article, we examined several logo designs that were, by most conventional standards, unsuccessful. Your art education is a continuing process and understanding the basics of graphic design can help you to be more effective in creativity and to avoid mistakes.
In Part 2 of this series, we'll take a look [...]
Logos: What Makes a Good Design? - Part I
Logo Design Isn't Always Easy
Designing a logo can sometimes be mystifying, but that doesn't mean it can't be done. At times a logo design just works, even though it may seem rather unremarkable. Other designs should work but they don't.
When Things Go Terribly Wrong
The examples in this article demonstrate what can happen when attention to [...]
All Graphic Design Resources is a Directory Full of Tools for Graphic Designers
All Graphic Design Portal is a Graphic Design education directory with resources & articles for Graphic Designers & Web Designers including a Design forum, blog, graphics software tips, graphic design jobs, advice for new designers about design schools and education as well as tips for freelance graphic design business owners, and much more.
