Business / 1 Jun 2016
What Needs to Be in Your Style Guide? (And How Do You Enforce It?)
Everyone with a website needs a style guide. It’s that simple. If you’re wanting to instil more consistency in your project, and get everyone on the same page, your style guide will become invaluable.
Now that we have that out of the way, what exactly do you put in that guide? And how do you make sure other people on the team follow the rules so that your visual presence maintains consistency? That’s a little more complicated. Let’s dive into the topic today.
Graphics / 16 May 2016
Design Trend: The Modern Retro Touch
You’ve probably heard the saying “everything old is new again.” The same can be said about design and design trends. While the medium might change, many of the old styles can come back into fashion.
One example of this is modern retro design. Today, we’re going to take a look at what modern retro is all about and how you can make this most of it in your design projects. What’s really nice about modern retro is that it works across mediums. While we are seeing a lot of it in website design right now, modern retro adds a fun touch to print projects from business cards to poster design to party invitations.
Typography / 25 Apr 2016
Design Trend: Square-Stacked Typography
Everywhere you look these days, it seems like someone else is using stacked typography. Particularly square stacked typography. It’s a common design trend that we’re seeing more and more.
The trend is hard to ignore, and is worth replicating because this aesthetic is charming and impactful. There are plenty of ways to combine words and lines of lettering to create a design that is attention-grabbing. Today, we’ll look at exactly how to make the most out of the square stacked typography trend with examples from the Design Shack gallery. Read on for some great examples, and helpful tips!
Typography / 6 Apr 2016
What Does That Say? How Typefaces Add Meaning to the Design
Can something as simple as a typeface change the meaning of words and an entire design. Of course! A typeface can add a new level of emphasis or meaning to your message.
It can help you connect with users, establish brand, and set the tone for your entire project. The wrong typeface can leave a design feeling flat, disjointed or even give users the wrong impression about your brand. Now let’s take that knowledge and add a little practical application. (And look at a few examples of beautiful typography from the Design Shack gallery.)
Layouts / 5 Apr 2016
Web Design Best Practices: Minimalism & Typography
When talking about design we need to consider text from a designer’s perspective. Text must be legible and readable while fitting nicely with the website’s style. But it also must relate to a hierarchy of content.
Building hierarchies is the “big picture” of a website’s composition. But as you move into typography, you also must create hierarchies related to specific text on the page. In this piece, we’ll explain creating relationships with your headers and how to use white space to make lengthy paragraphs visually digestible.
Accessibility / 25 Feb 2016
5 Ways to Boost Contrast in Your Web Design
Is your design project lacking that special pop? It’s likely what you are missing is enough contrast. Contrast provides differentiation between elements, making each one look more individual, prominent and special.
Design contrast is created in a number of ways, and using all different types of elements. From typography to color to space, creating contrast can take a design from bleh to wow. Here are five ways to do it.
Typography / 20 Jan 2016
3 Typography Trends for 2016 (With Examples)
Design trends. You can hardly do anything without seeing them, they pop up everywhere, and they can give your design feel “current” when used well.
Today, we’re going to take a look specifically at three typography trends and why we hate to love them. While these three styles – retro, watercolor and all caps – are everywhere, designers just can’t help but love them (even if they don’t want to). Here’s why, paired with some excellent examples of the trends in use.
Layouts / 30 Dec 2015
9 Tips for Better Typographic Hierarchy
Every project requires a system and hierarchy for text elements. Just think about all the small pieces of text that are used throughout a design – headlines, body copy, navigation elements, legal information, captions and so on.
But how do you create that hierarchy so that every text element flows smoothly to the next? Today, we’ll take you step-by-step through building a system of typography hierarchy that can be used for almost any design project. (And we are pairing the tips with beautiful examples of great typography to help you gather a bit of inspiration.)
Typography / 2 Nov 2015
What Comes First? The Copy, or the Typeface?
We have a sort of chicken and egg dilemma today: What comes first? The copy, or the typeface? There is a fine line between designing with or without the words.
Typography and design can alter what you think about when you read words. Think back to the process. Do you pick a typeface first or wait for the copy? (Without giving too much away, the secret is collaboration. If you don’t work together, you’ll only end up with a blank canvas.) Here are a few different scenarios and suggestions.
Typography / 26 Oct 2015
Web Design Debate: Do I Really Need to Use Sans Serif Fonts?
There’s long been a theory that serif typefaces are for printed projects and sans serifs are for website design. But with more high definition screens and great type options available, that rule just isn’t so much a rule anymore.
Whether you prefer serifs or sans serifs (or a combination of the two), the main objectives when choosing typefaces for digital design projects should be readability and legibility. Simple, you need to pick fonts that are sharp and easy to read on the screen. Part of this is related to usage, such as size and placement of text, and then to the style of typeface you choose.
Typography / 5 Oct 2015
How to Design With Handwritten Typefaces: 8 Tips
Plenty of designs – both in print and online — are featuring handwritten typefaces in a big way. From custom options to fonts that you can sync online or buy for print projects, this flair for letting is quite popular. The most trendy use is as a dominant headline element in a hero header-style homepage design.
This style can be tricky to use, though, and is not a fit-all solution. Today, we’ll look at eight ways to make the most of the handwritten typeface trend in your design projects.
Typography / 5 Aug 2015
Kinetic Typography: An Introductory Guide
Kinetic typography seems to be everywhere these days. From television commercials to website landing pages, movable type is a popular visual tool. This popularity could come from a number of reasons but one obvious factor is that it catches your attention. People tend to be drawn to words and want to read them.
Kinetic typography puts this together with some simple animations to create words that move on the screen, grabbing your attention and engaging the senses. So let’s take a look at kinetic typography and how you can integrate it into some of your design projects. (Note: The examples in this article include animation; click the images for links to the original sources to see them in action.)
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