Is Your Search For Inspiration Getting in the Way?

Many of us creative types spend a lot of time seeking out “inspiration”.  In fact, if you’re like me it’s your job to find and write about art or other things that might spark artistic inspiration in the minds of readers.  I’m not here to make light of that either, it’s what I do and I love it.  However, the reason I put quotations around the word inspiration above is because many times in the blogging world we say things like, “we are your source for inspiration” or “check out this inspiring post” etc. as if further consumption of this or that will be the deciding factor in whatever you’re working on. (more…)

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Designing an SEO Friendly Website

Nearly every business from local plumbers, large blue-chip organizations and even churches have websites, and each and every one wants to spread the message about their products, services and profiles, and what they can offer you as a consumer. That is where SEO comes in. SEO has become a valuable online marketing tool for businesses of all shapes and sizes, but for an SEO campaign to be successful, solid foundations need to be in place. Doing things right from the offset can really reap the benefits, save time and money.

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Freelance Personal Finances: Your Guide

Managing your finances as a freelance designer can lead to a multitude of cluster headaches and obscure nosebleeds. Luckily there are many tools, tips and software designed to ease the money burden, allowing you to spend more time on your work than time on the figures. (more…)

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The Process of Planning a Perfect Website

As web designers it is very easy to get lost in our own heads. The process of a web design can be broken into many flavors and styles across the globe. Graphics artists and digital animators are just some of the people getting into building applications for the web.

Although it’s bold to pop open Adobe Photoshop and get right into designing, there are many steps which can enhance a website when taken into consideration. The planning process, although not seemingly too long, is an almost essential aspect of what it lends to the creative process. I hope to outline a few ideas here which can be applied towards designing fresh web interfaces.

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Growing as a Designer and Leader

As a professional designer, it’s important to push ourselves daily to be the best that we can in order to create outstanding work. To be successful in our industry, we must continually grow and try new things that will enhance our design skills, and just as important, our leadership abilities. There are tons of ideas on the internet on how to become a better designer through Photoshop tutorials, HTML best practices, and new jQuery techniques. There aren’t as many about becoming a better leader in the design community, although it’s an important trait to have as a professional and a necessary skill to possess in our competitive industry. (more…)

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Focus on Effective Coming Soon Pages

When first launching your own website, it can be troubling deciding how to handle the first few weeks. This is generally a time when your website may not be ready to go live online but you own the domain name and branding rights.

In these scenarios a properly designed coming soon page can affect the culture of your site tenfold. Visitors to your website have the option of reading a bit about your company and possibly opting into an e-mail newsletter. I’ll be sharing a few techniques below to consider when first building your website’s home page.

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5 Tips for SEO & User-Friendly Copy

You hear it time and time again: content is king. It’s king because it’s what users want, and it’s king because of SEO – i.e. if you don’t have good content, you’re not going to rank.

Of course, not all content is created equal. While over-optimizing content for search will make it less than user-friendly, focusing too much on usability can compromise its searchability.

So how can your content walk the line between SEO and usability? Well, there are 5 easy tips you can follow when trying to walk your content down that fine line between SEO and usability. (more…)

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How to Design a Proper Banner – One That Actually Works

Let’s address the big pink elephant in the room first. Banners are not dead. They’re not on life support either. They’re doing fine and they’re going to be around for a while.

They’re doing fine mostly because of their new home – Google AdWords. Google Display/Content Network to be precise. If you are (or your client is) advertising on the Content Network and not using banner ads then you’re missing out on a really big and tasty piece of the pie. (more…)

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Legal Guidelines for Freelance Web Designers

Handling the legal side of freelancing could possibly be one of the more annoying tasks required for the job. Having worked as a full-time freelancer I can attest the amount of legal paperwork and information can become overwhelming, especially for newbies entering the field.

No matter what your practice, be it web design to freelance writing, there is generally some form of legal contract you’ll need to create with your clients. Networking comes with the freelance territory, and within that is contracts and due dates for project completion. Below we’ll be considering some great tips for legal actions and pursuing your own career further in freelancing.

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HTML5 & CSS3: Take Your Design to Another Level

While both languages for HTML5 and CSS3 aren’t fully complete yet, taking the time time to familiarize yourself with some of the pointers in this post can really help you achieve that clean look and feel for your site. Let’s take a deeper look at them. (more…)

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