Is it possible to better the overall well being of humanity, and make a positive impact in this problem saturated world through the use of our creative and technical talents and skills? I argue that, yes, on an individual level each of us can play their role in helping someone that can’t help themselves. How would we use our knowledge about Web 2.0, Photoshop and Maya to do this though?
On February 27, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck Chile. Join recovery efforts mobilizing around the world to assist earthquake victims. Your donations will help disaster victims rebuild their lives and their communities.
“The 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck off coastal Chile in the early hours of the morning is one of the biggest temblors anywhere in more than a century. Data from the U.S. Geological Survey suggests that this morning’s Chile quake tied in fifth place with an 8.8 quake that hit Ecaduor and Bolivia in 1906. Only four quakes have been bigger since 1900. ” -The Wall Street Journal
Trident Design is a financial supporter of UNICEF. Donate to the disaster reliefs of UNICEF and the Red Cross today to help those affected by this catastrophe.
Microsoft provides a super easy to use image resizer that will make resizing your images a breeze. Download it for Windows XP here, for Vista/7 download here then
You’ll want to begin by making sure your pictures are well organized. Because your digital camera probably gives pictures an arbitrary and confusing name, such as dscn0809.jpg, be sure to rename your photos to something easily identifiable at a glance, such as flowers.jpg. Ordinarily, it’s recommended that you make a backup of your original digital photo before resizing it. However, Image Resizer creates a duplicate file in the same folder as your original and resizes the duplicate; your original picture file is not altered in any way during the process.
That’s right- Google is not your enemy when your optimizing your website for search engines! If you’d like to get your SEO skills up, or just improve the SEO of your own site, Google’s Webmaster section has a wealth of information to help you get your websites rank up.
They’ve even put together a full blown Search Engine Optimization ebook on good SEO practices, which I highly recommend taking a look at. Once you give that a look over, if you’d like to dive deeper into SEO, I’d recommend learning about creating Sitemaps, It’s a great way to get your ranking up faster as they give Google a guideline as to how to index your website.
The full and correct launch of a website consists of multiple parts, with each part being a phase in the design process. If any phase of this process is skipped, you lose the benefit of that item either immediately or in the long run. I’ll briefly go over my design process, but ultimately as a designer (or business owner trying to launch your own website) it is important for you to create your own process as you see fit. I’ll be using my good client Trucking Express to illustrate the process as we push forward uncovering the design process.
The overarching goal of commissioning Search Engine Optimization is to increase website traffic, not simply get your ad to show up on a Google search. Website owners need to always remember this, as your website ranking doesn’t do much good if you have no idea as to whether or not people are actually visiting your website!
On all website installations, I currently install Google Analytics. Presuming you’ve had your website optimized for Search Engines already, it’s paramount that you keep track of what is going on with your targeted consumers. Analytics software like Google Analytics, Going Up, Yahoo Analytics and Clicky provide comprehensive reporting of how much traffic your website is receiving, where it’s coming from and how it’s navigating. Even an hour a week will give you much better insight as to how your social networking, content and offline advertising efforts are affecting your website traffic.
This has actually been my wallpaper for a while, I just wanted something clean and simple. I haven’t posted in awhile, so why not post a freebie eh.
A logo is an often overlooked, but critical part of a business or organization’s correspondence, advertisement and overall presence. Your logo is a snapshot of what your business is, and leaves a strong first impression on a customer. So what differentiates a good logo from a bad logo? Can a logo be too complicated? What colors should you use? Here are a couple rules of thumb to hold to as we design a quick mock-up for a fictional aerospace component manufacturer, we’ll call this fictional company Koeing.
I’ll be the first to admit, when I first delved into the pool of social networking websites many years back, I was more than a little overwhelmed. I remember 6 years ago when a hip hop artist referred to his Myspace page during an interview, I thought the concept of people posting information about themselves online was a little strange at the least. Funny thing is now I find myself using at least 5 social networking websites regularly and still have to work at keeping up with how fast the online communities move! Below I’ve put together a quick write up on what certain popular social networking websites are beneficial for. I’m aware that there are at least a dozen other social networking “super powers”, but I felt these would make for a quick read for beginners.
One of the first things I commonly see in an entry-level designer is enthusiasm for crazy fonts, color combinations, and overly busy backgrounds. If a 20/20 vision reader has to slowly scan or squint to read your work, how accessible must that page be for those with poorer vision, or partial color-blindness?
With that said stick to your san-serif fonts for web materials. Times types (anything with “tails” in their typeface) were originally derived from print, and they are best used for just that. Studies show that fonts like Helvetica, Arial, Verdena etc. communicate a professional and credible tone to a reader. With that said, unless you’re trying to pull off the newspaper/magazine feel on the web, stick to san-serif fonts.
Comments