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5 Survival Tips For Web Designers

kai — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 12:40:17 +0000

This is a guest post from Kai Gittens – a web designer at Revlon Cosmetics. Kai discusses web design and development on his personal blog.

Cameron Chapman caused a bit of an uproar last fall with her Smashing Magazine article Does The Future Of The Internet Have Room For Web Designers? Her general position was that the current crop of mobile devices and their accompanying applications are robust enough to the point that they may eventually replace the need for desktop and laptop computers. Add that to the fact that it’s much easier to purchase pre-built website templates, and it appears as if web designers are going the way of the dodo bird and headed for extinction.

In all fairness, her point was well argued. It’s also important to note that Chapman was questioning the need for web designers, not the need for design in the digital space.

In case there are issues in the future, here are 5 survival tips:

1. Remember that “design” is not going anywhere

Clients will always want their brand and products represented in a graphically appealing way that stands apart from their competitors. There will always be a need for design.

2. Remember that technology changes rapidly, and that’s in your favor

Mobile device development did not stop with the iPhone or the Android or the Blackberry Curve. Along came the iPad, which allowed for more design space and gave us the digital magazine format. Creating Wired Magazine’s beautiful iPad app required some programming skills, but a significant amount of work was first done in Adobe InDesign.

The point is, technology doesn’t stay stagnant and will always provide new design opportunities.

3. Learn some web development

Web design may or may not disappear but web development is staying right where it is. Chapman ends her article stating that, while the backend for mobile programming and templates will be “pretty standardized, the manner in which [they are] displayed will become a battleground of creativity.” This is a win-win situation for developers.

My suggestion is to study a website-friendly object oriented programming language that you can use right away. Right now, that means either JavaScript or ActionScript 3.0 for Flash.

4. Strive to become a “jack of all trades,” not a “master of one” in the digital space

If you know how to use WordPress, you can learn the basics of Microsoft SharePoint in about a week. If you prefer ActionScript 2.0 to the more difficult ActionScript 3.0, you’re ready to use HTML5′s Canvas function. You’d be amazed at other areas of web development to which you can apply your current skillet. DON’T SELL YOURSELF SHORT!!!!!

5. Search the job boards to see what skillsets are in demand

Regardless of theories by bloggers and pundits (me included), it’s potential employers that will decide whether or not web designers are needed. Regularly review the job sites to see what skillsets they’re looking for. Also, go on a few interviews, even if you already have a job. You’ll get a great feel for the current marketplace.

Do you think that Chapman is right? If so, are you doing any extra work to keep yourself relevant? Let me know!

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5 Survival Tips For Web Designers

2010 World Cup – The Ultimate Graphic and Data Resources Guide

TSSVeloso — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 18:03:50 +0000

This is a special guest post by Tiago Veloso from Visual Loop – a non-stop stream of Infographics, Maps, Charts and many other Visualization Goodies, with lots of new posts everyday. User submissions are always welcome, opened to artists and designers from all over the world.. Be sure to check out Tiago’s first massive hit on Inspired Mag – Info-Visualization Through the Eyes and Talent of 10 Brazilian Designers

The World Cup is coming!! One of the world’s biggest sports events, matched only by the Olympics, promises to deliver a whole month of fun for all soccer fans.

Being so important, it’s pretty natural you’ll find a lot of articles, comments, blog posts and, of course, data-visualization goodies on this matter. Infographics, editorial illustrations, interactive charts and maps, all of them deliver fun and interesting way of understanding and following this great event, so, today I leave you here with a (too long?) round-up of those awesome resources – and may the best team win!

FIFA Soccer World Cup Trophy Tour by Coca Cola

The World Cup is organized by FIFA, the international supreme ruller of the sport – so, nothing more obvious than start this selection with a take on one of the resources from the official World Cup website.

The Trophy Tour Map shows the worldwide trip made by the most wanted object in soccer world, giving the fans a chance to take pictures with it.

Jabulani, the official ball of the FIFA World Cup 2010

There’s no soccer game without the ball. In this nice infographic, found on Ria Novosti website, you can see all the details of this year’s WC official ball.

The 32 qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup

Before heading to South Africa, the teams had to endure a log qualifying trial in their respective continents. This interesting map from The Guardian lets you to navigate trough that path, worldwide.

FIFA World Cup qualification – 2010

ChartsBin brings another interactive way to visualize all the qualified teams.

All about the World Cup

Portuguese newspaper Expresso puts all the information you’ll nedd to know in one nice interactive infographic.

World Cup Schedule

Arguably one of the most interesting ways to follow the World Cup schedule, well designed and easy to use, come from Spanish sports newspaper Marca.

FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010 Desktop App

If you want more control over the scores and team performances, you might want to install this cool desktop app. With this program you can view the match schedule, save the final score, show both groups and second stage table, build statistics and you can also update the results on-line.

FusionCharts FIFA World Cup 2010 Infographic

Meet the Players

Also from the Marca website comes this awesome resource, allowing us to know all about the 763 players in an interactive way.

The match between the ones who donÂ´t go to the World Cup

To be in a World Cup is the ultimate career goal for every soccer player. Unfortunately, that dream is only available to some, or, even worst, it ends before it begins, caused by an injury, for example. This is the subject of the infographic made by La InformaciÃ³n (Spain), showing a hypothetical match between European and Non-European players in those conditions.

World Cup 2010 – South Africa map and venue guide

A guide-map with videos, photos and tips about the cities where the matches take place, from the BBC website. Great for those lucky ones who managed to visit South Africa during the tournament

Who makes the most from the World Cup

One of the aspects of the World Cup traditionally overlooked by the media is the business side. The Spanish website La Informacion put out this great visualization, with data from the UBS Investment Research, showing which companies will be making the most out of this year’s event.

The World Cup predicted

Published in Wired UK (June 2010 issue), this Infographic showing a mathematical prediction for the World Cup winner was made by Section Design, with data revised by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski. More on the original article here.

The History of the Football World Cup Finals

Dispite all the mathematical predictions, the road to the finals is always filled with surprises. This infographics from The Missing Graph presents the teams that have participated in the World Cup Finals.

A few curious facts about the World Cup

In this infographic, LocateTV has put together some curious facts about the greatest tournament in the world.

How We’ve Watched The World Cup Finals 1930-2010

Another curious look at the World Cup history comes from Vouchers Codes, showing the evolution of the electronics used to keep up with the finals.

From the land of the Favorites

All time Winners

As seen above, five time World Cup winner Brazil is always one of the favorite teams to take it all. So, it’s not really a surprise that the World Cup takes over the media around here. Some of the great works about this year’s World Cup:

The Clubs of the World Cup Players

One of biggest newspapers in Brazil, O Estado de SÃ£o Paulo, created this great visualization tool that allows us to explore the Clubs where the 736 players come from.

The History of the World Cup

Elegantly designed by FÃ¡bio Abreu, this set of infographics shows some of the key moments and players of the tournament throughout history, as well as the path to this year`s edition.

World Cup Schedule

Designer Marco Vergotti made this colorful World Cup schedule to Ã‰poca magazine.

World Cup Stories

Published at the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper, this Timeline by Eduardo Asta, Rodrigo Fortes and Renata Steffen explains in great detail the uniqueness of Brazil’s performance trough the years.

The World Cup Players

Renata Steffen is one of the top emerging designers in Brazil, and this year’s work on the 2010 World Cup for Folha de S. Paulo has been praised as one of the most interesting of all.

World Cup Groups and Schedule

From Fernanda Giulietti, Simon Ducroquet,Tatiana Cunha, Leonardo Cruz, JosÃ© Henrique Mariante and (again!) Renata Steffen comes the 31Âº SND Excellence Award winner design, showing the Groups, schedule and favorites to advance to the 2nd round.

Worldwide Passion

Soccer is far from being popular only in Brazil. There are so many great examples of outstanding editorial designs worldwide, that would be impossible to show them all. I picked up some of the most creative and graphically appealing:

World Cup Stadiuns

From Mexico, comes this great collection made by designer Estefan Cuanalo for the Record newspaper, with all the details about the South African stadiums where the matches will take place. You ca also look at some nice photos of the 10 arenas here.

World Cup by the Numbers

Also for the Mexican sports newspaper Record, Fernando Montoya Flores made this incredible illustration showing off the size and numbers of the World Cup.

French Team timeline

The French newspaper Le Monde shows the French Team timeline on its website. Simple, yet very easy to understand.

Soccer Worldcup in South Africa

The guys at Golden Section Graphics – one of my favorite places for inspiration – made this infographic for the German magazine Zeit Wissen.

World Cup Dummy

This work by Irish designer Ciaran Hughes will never see the printers, unfortunately. But that’s no reason why we can’t post it here!

All invited to the World Cup

La Prensa Grafica is one of top El Salvador publications, and their designer team made this cool infographic – which was actually just an apetizer for the second one, probably the most complete ever made . They also have a special section on their website worth visiting.

Portuguese League foreigners in the World Cup

Portuguese designer MÃ¡rio Silva takes a well-design look at the Portuguese League players that will be representing their countries in the World Cup. It was made for the DiÃ¡rio EconÃ³mico newspaper.

Remembering…

Something as big and emotional as the World Cup must be filled with great moments, stories, pictures and other content. Of course, you should visit the Wikipedia article for all the facts and history, but we selected just a couple of slideshows to honor the talents involved in the past editions – and I’m not talking about the players.

World Cup Golden Boot Winners

Do you know who won the Golden Boot prize in 1982? Well, if you donÂ´t, this great photo-gallery featured in the Sports Illustraded WC page will give you all the answers, with great pictures from some of the best sport photographers ever!

World Cup Finals Artwork Trough the Years

Finnaly, for a bit of inspiration, we recomend this awesome slideshow, presented by the Telegraph newspaper (UK), with the arts of all the official posters of the past WC finals – starting with this one, from the 1930 Uruguay WC.

I’m sure there will be dozens of other great examples and resources, specially from newspapers and magazines of the countries that will be attending the World Cup. Hope you can share them with us on the comments section! And if you enjoyed the post please bookmark it on Stumble & Delicious!

How We’ve Watched The World Cup Finals 1930-2010

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Ten Amazing Infographic Sources and Two Years of BuySellAds

Catalin Zorzini — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:35:45 +0000

One of the most important (and friendly) resources for the onlinel design community – BuySellAds – is turning two and they released a sleek infographic for the anniversary! We’re also celebrating them by compiling a new roundup with the most important sources for the infographic obsessed. Bon Apetit! And while you’re here check out the rest of our Trend Hunting series.

The BSA Infographic

The Infographic Showcase

Cool Infographics

Social Media Graphics

Infographie

Fast Company

Digital Buzz

Ripetungi

Visual Loop

GDS Digital’s Photostream

Infografia

You know others? Share them in the comments or tell us what’s your favortie source of statistics eye candy!

Disclaimer: I’m a BSA ambassador for the design & mobile verticals.

Web Design Trend Hunting – Big Bold Typography

Chris Thurman — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 09:23:53 +0000

Our guest post today is written by Chris Thurman who runs Visual Swirl, a design blog focused on providing free, high quality resources, tutorials and articles on all things design.

A recent trend in homepage design is the use of big, bold, typography. More and more designers are utilizing a “less is more” mentality and taking a page from billboard layouts to create effective and attractive messages that reach users. And don’t forget to check out the other posts in the Web Design Trend Hunting category.

Billboards placed along interstates display large, simple messages to attract the attention of drivers. With cars whizzing by, billboard designs must be eye catching and succinct to have any chance at persuading passersby to pull off for a burger or to visit a local attraction. Many web users are like drivers, flying through websites with their heads glancing left and right. A user passing by your site may only stop for 3-5 seconds before cruising right along. Using large, bold typography will ensure that users understand your message loud and clear.

Here are several tips to make sure your message gets across in BIG BOLD LETTERS:

What’s Most Important?

The first thing to a great billboard homepage is determining what single message you want to emphasize. By selecting just one message, you can focus your design around delivering that message effectively. Many web designs try to push multiple messages simultaneously which can weaken the overall impact of all messages and lead to user confusion or choice paralysis. If your website has multiple messages/purposes, prioritize what is most important and start there. You could also use jQuery or other technologies to rotate through messages one at a time. The key is to draw the eyes of your user to one spot.

Short and Sweet

Messages that are simple, catchy, and easy to understand are generally the most effective. Make sure your primary message is quick and easy to read. One or two word statements can be just as informative as 3 paragraphs of sales copy (and if you create an effective billboard presentation, users will generally be more inclined to read all that wonderful copy). Also, the use of large typography will help keep your message under control by limiting the amount of space you have to sell.

Plenty of Whitespace

Give your message room to breathe by including plenty of whitespace around the text. This will add emphasis and create even more focus on the typography. Many designers feel the need to cram as much information on the homepage. Making it a priority to add whitespace to your design will prevent over saturation and help create a professional, clean presentation.

Match with Imagery

In addition to whitespace, the use of bold images to accompany your message will help increase the power of persuasion. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then an appropriate image will help explain and exclaim your message.

Gallery Time

Now get ready to cruise through some home page billboards and see how effective they are at getting your attention:

Every page of Carsonified’s website has a bold message to get the point across fast.

For a beautiful Web makes it clear that they want a beautiful web.

Friendly Duck get’s their point across with big words and a simple duck.

I love the simplicity of a title and a definition. It’s as simple as that.

A perfect blend of pictures and words on the homepage of The Croquis.

The fish may draw your attention but the bold typography provides a wonderful welcome.

72 Ave. puts it bluntly.

Project 365 is another of many web design agencies utilizing bold typography effectively.

The bold typography here helps balance the powerful imagery.

Boco’s homepage get’s the point across in a hurry.

The Takeaway

Utilizing these tips and taking inspiration from other designs will help you create beautiful bold homepages that grab user’s attention and increase the effectiveness of your site’s message. And if you still need more inspiration, hop in the car and head down the interstate.

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Web Design Trend Hunting – 15 Amazing Infinite Scrolling Websites

Catalin Zorzini — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:58:07 +0000

You don’t have to be a big fan of the scrolling bar, you just have to like an endless stream of cool stuff. And who doesn’t? So we’re ready to unveil 15 amazing examples of infinite blogs and a few tutorials on how you could set up something like that. For more interesting articles you should check the Web Design Trend Hunting series. As usual, feel free to suggest other cool examples in the comments.

idsgn

Tumblr Dashboard

Soup

Visuelle

Suprb

Do it for the fame

Look Book

But does it float

LooksLikeGoodDesign

Reform & Revolution

Paranaiv

Type Neu

FlickRiver

Css Line

Bonus – Good things should never end

Resources

10 Backgrounds that Could Make Your Website Look Like the New Envato

Catalin Zorzini — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:09:40 +0000

While searching the Web for our Webdesign Trend Hunting series, we’ve discovered a new small trend that could go bigger in the next few weeks – the blurry light bubbles background used by the new Envato website. And if the biggest inspirational web network isn’t enough for you, take a look at the new Opera website.

So, if you like ‘em and want to be among the firsts who spot and use the new hype, we’ve made a roundup of 10 backgrounds in the same style. All of them are available in the Graphic River marketplace, also owned by Envato. Sight!

Sparkling Dots | $3 | Buy

A nice layered package with amazing backgrounds, available in 5 colors

Light Effect | $4 | Buy

Hight quality abstract backgrounds contain 2 groups, one with 10 and the other one with 20 color variations

Spring Abstract | $2 | Buy

An abstract background depicting the freshness of spring – and the related nature rejuvenation. 3200 X 2400 at 150 dpi – layered and named for easier editing

Web 2.0 Background Pack | $2 | Buy

8 different backgrounds 8 full layered Photoshop files Very easy add/change colors. You can use this for website background or print big wallpapers

Colourful Abstract Circles | $2 | Buy

This is a massive editable colourful background using circle ‘bubble’ shapes to create a modern dark colourful backdrop to any project

Bubbles | $1 | Buy

A nice background with bubbles. You can easily change the color

Abstract Waves | $2 | Buy

Abstract Waves In Colors #2 is abstract background at hi-res. There is a PSD file included so you can change the color very easy

Multi Coloured Backgrund Pack | $2 | Buy

8 PSD files – fully editable @ 1920Ã—1440 resolution, suitable for website backgrounds, ads, flyers, brochures, etc.

About the Pixels | $3 | Buy

An abstract background at hi-res that you can use anywhere you like. The pack includes: ( 4000Ã—3000 at 300dpi ) JPG file , and the original ( well named and layered ) PSD file

Great Ball of Fire | $4 | Buy

A hot fiery background featuring an incandescent orb, a flame trail, lens blur effects, and some particles and smoke to add some flavor to the warm orange space

Bonus – Design Studio Business Card | $3 | Buy

Business cards, especially for a design studio or for any other type of business easy to modify. Dimension: 3.5Ã—2 inches, color profile: CMYK , Resolution: 300dpi

Webdesign Trend Hunting – 27 Bright Websites Using Popping Colors

Catalin Zorzini — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:51:10 +0000

After The Messy Desk, The Fluid Grid Layout, and The Circle As A Design Fetish, our Trend Hunting series continues with a big roundup of cool websites designed with bright colors in mind. And in the eye :] Please leave your comments below, suggest other websites, and tell us what do you think about this trend.

Muller

IAAH

50.000 Beds

The Other Design Agency

Carsonified

Change Graham

Greg White

Snog

Home de Caramel

Ryan Keiser

Finely Sliced

Bjango iPhone Apps

Helveticons

Rokkan

Instrument

Sketchen

Ethno Port

Bombay Saphire

I am Lin

Sofamade

Wilson Miner

Organic Grid

Bjorn Frieze

Blue Vertigo

B Cube

Spf Design

Want more? See the excellent selection of colorful websites from siteInspire

Web Design Trend Hunting – The Circle As A Design Fetish & 20 Fresh Examples

Catalin Zorzini — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:08:17 +0000

You can’t browse a decent CSS gallery without spotting a few websites with this sexy round detail, usually on the left, usually with a logo or a name in it, and usually extended as a favicon. We begin our journey with one of our favorite CSS galleries, the clean & creative oriented siteInspire and get to the biggest circle fetishist out there, which seems to be Richad Perez of Skinny Ships. Any comments and suggestions are highly appreciated!

siteInspire

Purple, Rock, Scissors

5pieces

Cooper Lumen

Tink

Uzik

One International

Campbell Hay

Proud Creative

Public School

Beyond the Pixels

Garriock & Associates

Monk

Zara Picken

Future Buro

Rick Banks

Remote Location

Estetically Loyal

Skinny Ships

So, as Banksy said:

thx jorge martins!

Web Design Trend Hunting – Fluid Grid Layout: 10+ Outstanding Examples & 1 Tutorial

Catalin Zorzini — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:33:47 +0000

In our daily web hunting raids we have spotted another interesting & good-looking trend – the fluid grid-based layout, mostly used by galleries and visual inspiration blogs. Here are 12 amazing examples (just one of them in Flash) and a fantastic tutorial. Please use the comment box for suggestions and opinions – Will the future of webdesign be fluid?

Creative Depart

Isolation Unit

Reform & Revolution

Xpaider

Heavy Eyes

De51gn

Positively Melancholy

siXsiXsiX

Type Neu

This Also

dmtr

Space Collective

Tutorial – Building Good Websites with Fluid Layout

PS: Almost all this websites are usng the Grid-A-Licious theme folks!

Web Design Trend Hunting – The Messy Desk: Examples & Best Practices

Catalin Zorzini — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 08:52:52 +0000

I think right after the “wood background” huge – and recently annoying – trend, a new small sub-trend was born and still stays with us: the messy desk with everything thrown on it, from empty coffee cups to crumpled papers, pens, post-its, cookies, stickers, tea-bags, and so on. Apparently the untidier the homepage-desk is, the more cool and trendy is the owner :D

Well let’s see a few examples and then decide if this small trend deserves to get stronger or to quiet down a little.

Digitals By Kobke

Jason Bradbury

Inifinity WordPress Theme

George Marez

Gelattina

Askia

So what do you think?

I’m waiting for your opinions (and other examples) in the comments. Thanks!

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