Trends in Professionalism: Modern Business Website Designs
The Internet has always been a great means of communication for businesses worldwide. It allows us to connect like never before and create amazing applications for easy usability. As design trends have evolved over the years we’ve seen a huge transition between many differing styles of design. Modern corporate websites are no exception and have seen massive growth over the past decade.
More business owners small and large are looking to own a powerful web presence. This helps to retain new business leads and spread the word about company’s products. The bonus here is the massive marketing and branding potential afforded to such a large audience.
I’ve outlined a few common trends for corporate site designs below. Not all corporations require cookie-cutter solutions and these are just some design concepts to include in the creative process. Keep the juices flowing by checking out some of the hundreds of thousands of professional layouts already available today.
November 9th, 2010 Posted in GraphicsWeb Design Critique #26: iPhone Toolbox
Every week we take a look at a new website and analyze the design. We’ll point out both the areas that are done well in addition to those that could use some work. Finally, we’ll finish by asking you to provide your own feedback.
Today’s site is iPhone Toolbox.
November 7th, 2010 Posted in CritiqueEffortless Full Screen Background Images With jQuery
Today we’re going to build a simple and fun webpage for the sole purpose of showing off Fullscreenr, a great little jQuery plugin that makes it easy to add a background image to your site that automatically adjusts to the window size.
We’ll also throw in some @font-face and rgba action to keep things modern and educational on the rest of the build. Let’s get started!
November 5th, 2010 Posted in JavaScript10 Design Lessons From HTML Email Templates That Actually Sell
In the past we and several other blogs have outlined some useful technical information for how to code and structure your HTML emails from a developer point of view. But much less discussion has been given to how to actually undertake the design component of email newsletters.
Today we’ll take a look at some of the top-selling email templates from Themeforest and see if we can decipher what their designers did right so you can mimic these basic principles in your own designs.
November 4th, 2010 Posted in GraphicsFeedback From a Theory X and Theory Y Perspective
This article is for both designers and clients/employers. I have been on both sides of this equation so I know how it feels to give feedback as well as receive it and I firmly believe that there is a right and wrong way to go about each task.
Today we’ll look at both sides of the coin and discuss how employers can motivate the people working for them to meet necessary goals and how designers should react in the face of both constructive and destructive criticism.
As we’ll see, designers and managers are often equally guilty of approaching the problem of feedback in a poor manner. While abusive managers do exist, designers tend to unnecessarily wear their feelings on their sleeves and take offense too quickly.
November 3rd, 2010 Posted in BusinessWeb Design Critique #25: Highwire
Welcome to our 25th design critique! Every week we take a look at a new website and analyze the design. We’ll point out both the areas that are done well in addition as those that could use some work. Finally, we’ll finish by asking you to pitch in and provide your own feedback. Vote in the poll at the bottom of this page and/or leave a comment with your thoughts!
Today’s site is Highwire.com, a personalized online store platform.
October 31st, 2010 Posted in CritiqueDesign an Edgy Flyer Using Your Own Photography
Today we’re going to take on a design project from start to finish using primarily resources that we create ourselves. We’ll walk through taking the photo, editing it in Adobe Lightroom, and using it as the main element of a flyer design that we’ll take on in Photoshop.
Along the way you’ll learn some great and practical techniques that you can apply immediately to your own work. Let’s get started!
October 29th, 2010 Posted in Graphics60+ Awesome UI Dribbbles
It’s been quite a while since we’ve done a “Shots of the Week” post so we thought we’d make up for it by bringing you a massive collection of user interface designs from Dribbble.
Use these shots as inspiration for color, textures, layouts and anything else you spot for your next application or website. Looking through such a great collection of inspiration can serve as a springboard for your own completely original work.
October 28th, 2010 Posted in Shots of the WeekPhotoshop Blending Modes: Beginner’s Tips and Tricks
Photoshop’s blending modes are a source of constant confusion for many designers. There aren’t really any sort of built-in examples for you to see and the blending mode names are no where near intuitive suggestions of what the effect actually does to the appearance of your document.
Today we’ll help remove a little of the mystery by discussing how a few key blending modes work in addition to some hints for how to use them effectively.
October 27th, 2010 Posted in GraphicsWeb Design Critique #24: Adminizio
Every week we take a look at a new website and analyze the design. We’ll point out both the areas that are done well in addition to those that could use some work. Finally, we’ll finish by asking you to provide your own feedback.
Today’s site is Adminizio.
October 24th, 2010 Posted in Critique