web design

article of the week

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10 reasons why investing in branding makes you money in e-commerce by Stuart Silverstein

while this article is focused on building a brand to improve an e-commerce site, i silverstein is a friend and colleague who sees without a doubt that a smart brand strategy will improve sales for any business. he takes 10 solid points and explains how branding affects each in detail, in a way both partners and clients can understand. for me, this is a great article, because while i already love the power of branding, it’s really helpful to see how it applies to e-commerce.

creative inspiration

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design industry

http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf
an inspiring ted talk by simon sinek centered around the premise that people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it, with examples.

how’s round-up of the top 10 web sites for designers, june 2010

if you’ve written an ebook or you have a client who has, and they want to get in on the ipad audience, inc magazine has outlined how to self-publish books for ipad to make it easy for you.

branding

transportation alternatives rebrand
[image: underconsideration.com]
i am loving this rebrand of transportation alternatives, as profiled on <a href="underconsideration’s brand new: walk this way. while the previous logo was classy, it was a bit too reserved and removed from the subject matter, and as armin says, too hard to read at smaller sizes. using road sign and subway memes, this new redesign speaks directly to transportation in an established visual language. they’ve rolled out the brand in an exciting way on their site as well.

mc craw's confections
[image: craig skinner]
big thanks to designworklife.com for showcasing this cool rebrand of mc craw’s confections by craig skinner. i love the retro-styled block letters & 2-color overprint techniques reminiscent of a snack stand at a carnival, circus or fair. great work!

america speaking out
[image: mule design / americaspeakingout.com]
<a href="taking the lol out of the gop is a fascinating and hilarious must-read by erika hall of mule design about the gop’s misguided attempt to create a hip social networking community to engage their base.

business cards

unusual business cards
[image: freelanceswitch.com]
if you’re looking for interesting die-cuts, folds, and non-paper substrates, 37 unusual examples of business card design from freelanceswitch.com has an interesting collection of recent work to peruse.

design life

design couples
[image: print magazine]
another item in the pros column for going to design school: all these successful design couples met in college. that and more, print magazine profiles 6 successful design couples, asks them how they work and how they balance working and living together.

creative inspiration

| heather parlato

infographic mailer

travel & leisure food issue 2010
[photo: underconsideration.com]
this 2010 food issue mailer from travel & leisure, profiled on underconsideration.com combines a few areas of interests in an awesome piece! i love infographics, i love food, and i love knowing what regions specialize in different foods locally, so this map of the states by food really caught my eye. beyond that, 2-color printing is close to my heart, french paper is a drool-worthy paper source, and hand lettering gives a really fun personality to the piece. follow the link to read more!

snowboarding apparel

smith snow goggles by nubby twiglet
[photo: smith optics]
i’ve been snowboarding for 10 years now, and as much as i love it, i have to say that the fashion options for anyone over 17, especially women, are consistenly sorely lacking. this week, nubby twiglet posted examples of goggles and helmets she designed for smith optics which will be available next year. i have always wanted something classy and stylish to wear instead of opting for solid colors as the only alternative to a decidedly male adolescent fashion demographic. great work!

design industry

principles of minimalist web design with examples is a great showcase of sites that eliminate the clutter and allow visitors to focus on desired information. take a spin and let it help you re-imagine the possibilities for your own site.

ever wonder what goes on behind the scenes in type design? why did i start a type foundry is an interesting look at starting a foundry and getting fonts published and sold. cool!

something i’ve been writing about lately is what goes into a logo development, and it’s really outlined how you can’t really design a logo without a complete brand strategy in place. help your clients talk about their logo as part of a bigger plan with how to convince your clients they need a brand and not just a logo.

when applications crash and we get those report windows, sometimes we report bugs, sometimes we shut them in disgust. possibly, though, we’re missing some awesome opportunities for expressive prose!

creative inspiration

| heather parlato

fab
[image: siggi sggertsson]
something truly awesome to start your day: fab by siggi eggertsson

posters

826 novel poster
[image: underconsideration.com]
from underconsideration.com: Providers of witty products and encouragers of creative writing, 826 National has put together that asks a very simple, yet horribly daunting question: Are You Absolutely, Positively, and Wholeheartedly Ready to Publish Your Novel?

typography

darjeeling font sample
[image: designworklife.com]
thanks to designworklife.com for this lovely sample of darjeeling, a font release from facetype. this typeface comes with a library of ornaments as seen here that can really dress it up with cute flourishes.

las chicas locas
[image: james patrick gibson, newtypeyork.com]
i love this script treatment for this restaurant sign, found by photographer james patrick gibson outside the 4 points sheraton in chelsea.

design industry

creative inc
[photo: oh joy]
sneak peek of the new book creative inc. by meg mateo ilasco and joy deangdeelert cho, due out in september. from the oh joy blog: the book gives focuses on your creative skills in the freelance world and gives the 411 about becoming a successful freelance creative talent. excellent!

save the date for the brand new conference! after much talk, surveys and feedback, under consideration’s brand new division is having a full-day conference. i’ll see if i can work a trip to new york around that time, maybe i can go!

design tools

fudge graphics free hi-res clouds photoshop brush set is a good collection for those times when there are never enough clouds in the sky.

designers toolbox is a site that provides all kinds of tools, templates and resources for designers, everything from standard size envelopes to a lorem ipsum generator.

smashing magazine’s current state of web design: trends 2010 has some interesting & fun web design layouts on display.

how design’s top 10 web sites for designers, may 2010 is a great list of design resources online.

biznik article of the week

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How To Create Relevant SEO Content by Alexander Valencia

since more and more of my clients are adding wordpress web sites to their identity packages and writing a lot of their own content, here’s another great article on how to make sure everything you post is SEO-effective. you already have a highly search-friendly site with wordpress, so keep these things in mind when uploading new copy: provide well written, engaging and relevant information about your business, and use industry-specific keywords that anyone searching for someone like you might put into their search engines. valencia outlines the basics on how to collect clues from your target audience and how to best write to their specific interests & needs.

biznik article of the week

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well, it’s a triple-header this week with a spotlight on helpful web advice.

Flash Is For Famous People — Not New Businesses by Lucy Beer

this isn’t exactly cutting-edge advice, but there are still a great many people out there who either want flash because it’s flash, or because of the design control and multimedia advantage flash can have over traditional web design. the main problem with this is that flash has such limited searchability that, unless you’re already famous, you’re literally hiding from the people who might want to find something just like you based on criteria searches. using flash sparingly, embedded in a site using a more search-friendly framework is the way to go. beer breaks down the pros & cons for you!

Organic S-E-O Spelled Out by Erin Wiles

i get this question often, “what exactly is SEO and how does it work?” it’s simple really, despite what we’ve made it into, the web was invented as a simple wide-area-network indexing system, and it’s still based on searching for relevant text under hierarchical tags. SEO = search engine optimization, and what that means for you is, gearing the page titles and text on your web site to be as relevant as possible to people who might be searching for you. and organic SEO is just that–when the organic text you put on your web site is so geared to what you’re doing and what people might search on, the search engine can organically find it on your site and deliver your results to those searching for it. get a more in-depth explanation from wiles by clicking the link.

What’s Stopping Your Website Visitors from Buying?: FAQ Page Lessons from the Encyclopedia Man by Judy Dunn

after reading enough of her engaging articles, i’ll say it–i love judy dunn! she weaves in a good amount of prose with great advice. in the vein of building out your site with lots of information about you & how you work, she sets out 5 steps to improving your FAQ section to better target the people you’re trying to work with. getting inside their heads and gearing your questions toward solutions they’re looking for helps them really know you’re thinking of them. set aside some time to review your site and see if you can implement some of these suggestions.