Post pobrano z: The surreal conceptual illustrations of Andrea Ucini

If you are a reader of notorious magazines such as Wired, Entrepreneur Magazine, LeMonde, Die Zeit and New Scientist, you may have already stumbled upon Andrea Ucini’s work. If you are like me, you were probably charmed by the surreal scenes depicted by the artist, as well as the considerable amount of poetry Ucini puts in his work.

Andrea Ucini was born in Italy and started his artistic career with music. He has a classical piano and composition degree from the prestigious Music Academy of Florence. Now the Italian illustrator has become an illustrator specialized in editorial work and he lives in Denmark. You can see more of his work on his website, but also follow him on Instagram or Behance.

Post pobrano z: Impressive pendentive dome created by Yu Momoeda using fractal geometry

This minimalist chapel in Japan may have ugly benches and a boring external shape, its internal wooden structure is pretty amazing. Using tree-like units for the structure of the pendentive dome, Yu Momoeda architects created a stunning effect that will wow any visitor.

Post pobrano z: How to Be Better at Designing Vectors

Vectors are an effective way of creating online illustrations which can be blown up to large sizes without losing quality.  If you’ve ever looked at an image and believed it would look great as a vector, but wondered where to start, these helpful tips are for you.

When working with a vector program, your first job is to get to know your drawing program.  After this, taking a design down to its foundations will enable you to create an effective illustration.

Seek out the basic structure of your drawing

 

Seek out the core areas of your design.  Based on the flat shapes in front of you, you’ll get an idea of the composition of the page.

Next, seek out the essential elements.  How can you create focus by reducing the elements on the page?  This will give your drawing focus.

As you develop base shapes for the elements of your page, such as the laptop, table, coffee cup and glass, you’ll see your rendering begin to take form.  These shapes might feel flat, but you’ll begin to get a sense of your layout.

Add texture and patterns

Now that you have your layout, start to look at where you can add texture or pattern.  You could look at the surface of the table and add just enough texture to show that it is made of wood.

Adding some grain will achieve this effect.  Focus carefully on where you’d like to add texture so that you don’t complicate your page.

Repeat Elements

If you have repeat shapes such as window frames or coffee cups, you can repeat these images, adding some new details such as different blind lengths or patterns in order to create a unique image.

Take creative shortcuts

If you’d like to add interesting details to your drawing, such as shadows of trees framed against a night sky, you can use Image Trace.

This way you do not have to draw every detail, but you’ll still be able to add texture or background to your illustration.

Start with simple shapes

When you’re starting your drawing, begin with basic geometric shapes such as rectangles, triangles, squares or trapeziums.

From here, you can use the warp function to alter your shape.  When you’re working from stock images, sketches or even your own imagination, begin by breaking the image down into basic shapes and work from there.

Consult your client

When you are about to hand over the final image to your client, find out the format they require.  This way you can supply them with the file they want most.

If the client wants an Illustrator file, and you have a great many layers that you don’t want to move over one by one, simply draw a rectangle over your image, control, and right click, and ‘create clipping mask’.

This will give you the shape of your artwork that you are now able to present to your client.

Use Bezier Curves

When you are drawing with a Wacom pad and pen, you could use Bezier Tools to create smooth curves.

Bezier curves might take time to learn but they will give you the smooth lines or shapes you want.  Learning keyboard shortcuts will help you to work quickly and efficiently with this tool.

Consider your medium

Your medium will determine your approach to your design.  If you are designing for a magazine or a billboard, the end result will be different than a design you would like to spray onto a wall.  Choice of shapes, color, texture, and complexity will all depend on the end goal.

If you are designing a T-Shirt artwork, for example, you should look first at how others are creating them. Also, frame your design in a blank T-shirt template, so that you will present it better to your client.

Experiment

Feel free to play and experiment when working on your design.  Create simple shapes, lines or curves, move them about, erase some of the details and then add new elements.

Allowing yourself to play with your design gives you space for spontaneity, and to allow the process to evolve.  Even though you might plan your design carefully, allowing experimentation creates space for new ideas to flow.

Develop your own style

When working with vectors, try to find your own unique style.  This is possible with Adobe Illustrator, which offers unlimited ways of working.  After experimenting with the program, allow your own style to emerge.  Below are some opportunities for experimentation:

When working with a pen, use the least number of anchor points and draw on curves so that your design looks clean and smooth.

Calligraphic brushes used alongside your tablet will give your illustration a hand-drawn feel.

In Illustrator, close off all the shapes you don’t need, and experiment with using the pencil tool.  You can draw basic shapes, expand on them and use color to add life to your work.

If you are using line art, play with the lightness or thickness of your strokes.  This will add texture and depth to your work.

Using layer folders

When you are creating complex artworks, it is often helpful to work in layers, an option provided by Illustrator.  Layers are like clear folders which manage all the different elements of your artwork.

You can place them together, change their stacking order or delete aspects of your work that you no longer like.  Shifting and playing with layers gives you the opportunity to experiment with your design without losing the original concept.

Color opacity and transparent gradients

The gradient palate is a very effective feature on Illustrator.  Transparent gradients give you the opportunity to fade out a color in different areas of your page, providing different levels of opacity.  Using transparent gradients will also give you a watercolor effect.

Store your work

Once you have created shapes or drawing, you can store them, giving you a collection of drawings or ideas to play with while working on a new project.

These shapes will be able to provide you with foundations for new projects which will feel easy and natural to use.

Use your imagination

When using Adobe Photoshop, creating new forms or shapes means imagining how they will look in 3D.

Working with multiple layers which add color, light, and shadow will create a three-dimensional effect.  You can adjust these shapes or layers later on to suit your needs.

Which software is most helpful when drawing vector icons?

When Drawing Shapes

When creating icons, you can achieve incredible results simply by combining basic shapes and sizes.  All drawing apps have tools for basic shapes, but when you’re choosing which product you’d like to work with, it’s worth thinking about how easy each program is to use, and the flexibility offered.

Photoshop is not so easy to use because it isn’t made for vector drawing, and so isn’t as smooth or intuitive as Illustrator or Sketch when it comes to drawing.  You may also struggle with editing shapes such as polygons or stars, and this might limit your flexibility.

Illustrator is great for creating basic shapes, and it has a Live Corners feature which can smooth out corners.  However, Illustrator (like Photoshop) can limit you when it comes to polygons or stars, which can’t be adjusted.  Sketch allows you to edit all shapes, including polygons and stars and will let you round all corners, which gives you a greater degree of flexibility.

When using Pathfinder or Boolean Operations

You can use the Pathfinder panel to create new shape combinations.  This allows you to add complexity to your vector illustrations.  The panel gives you 4 options to create new shapes:

• Unite/Add: combines and merges selected shapes
• Minus/Subtract: Uses a cookie cutter to subtract top shapes from bottom ones.
• Intersect deletes shapes that do not overlap.
• Exclude: deletes everything that does overlap

Photoshop has non-destructive operations on Pathfinder (and so they won’t make permanent changes to your shapes), and these can be flattened if you need this.  However, you will need to merge layers together as Photoshop can only perform pathfinders on single layer vectors.

Illustrator has a far wider range of Pathfinder options.  These extra options increase the flexibility of your vector drawings.  However, they are destructive, so they will make permanent changes to your shapes.

Sketch has non-destructive Pathfinder operations which can be modified within the various layers.  You can also flatten your combined shapes to create permanent changes.  Sketch is a very helpful program when it comes to Pathfinder options.

When exporting to SVG

SVG creates scalable vector graphics and is a standard format used by the World Wide Web Consortium.  SVG is the best way to share vector illustrations as it is supported by browsers, drawing applications, and image viewers.

Photoshop enables you to export multiple SVG files by either using individual artboards or creating a .svg suffix for layers or group files.  There is, therefore, no need to create an artboard for each icon.  This sets Photoshop apart.  It can be helpful when you are working with large numbers of icons or layers.  You can also overlap layers in Photoshop using the same artboard.

Illustrator has a range of SVG export options which enables you to create font preferences, CSS properties, and image embedding.  You can export multiple SVG files simultaneously.  However, there is a limit of 100 artboards per Illustrator document.

Sketch allows you to export SVG files using Slices.  However, this process can be buggier than Photoshop and Illustrator and can be a drawback when using Sketch.

Ending thoughts

Little tips can be effective to turn your work around, or allow your thoughts or ideas to ‘click’.  Going through the foundations, although this may seem like common knowledge, might give you a simple solution to any problem you might be having.  Good luck with your vector drawings.

Post pobrano z: Some Advice on Using Illustrations When Designing Websites

An illustration is a versatile means of expressing a message.  Used in web design, illustration helps to provide a visual representation or example of what is being shared, making it a message clear.  It also offers an attractive or aesthetic element to a website.

If you’re using illustration to add to your website, using it to its full potential means creating an attractive or decorative message.  This will help you get the most out of illustration.  Let’s explore what it means to use illustration in website design, and what can be done to use illustration to its full potential.

Branding

Branding is used to create an emotional message which transcends the product and gives it a meaning.  When you create a website, you want the design to give visual representation to a business.  A website needs to give a visual feel to a client’s brand.

This means creating a visual impact.  When viewers land on a site, it should be memorable.

Illustration helps to create a memorable site because it gives a site uniqueness.  Whether you use eye-catching graphics or vector designs, your site will stand out from the competition.

Visual Appeal

When a site uses illustration, it will have an instant visual appeal.  Many companies use stock photos to add a graphic element to their sites.  However, stock photos are not unique, and not created in accordance with your brand.  As a result, your site may fade into the background.  Illustration fits in with your brand, adding an element which instantly identifies your company and makes it stand out.

An example of a site which uses fun illustrations to create a unique and exciting brand story is Luhse Tea.  This tea stands out from the competition and identifies itself as a unique but delicious and memorable brand.

Illustrations tell a story

In addition to creating an interesting and unique appeal, illustration helps to tell a story.  Some sites use illustration storyboards or slideshows to put across a message in a way which is appealing to clients or viewers.

When illustration tells a story, it can share how a brand is able to add to people’s lives, offer service or meet a need.  An original and very human story helps to connect with viewers.

An example of this is the WWF Website, which uses colorful images in the form of a slide show.   Instead of using words and statistics, WWF gives customers a clear message using an illustration.

Illustrations add interest

Long and involved messages can be hard to understand, and numbers and charts are often confusing.  Very often, viewers may feel overwhelmed or even bored by stats.

However, you can add zest to your message by using an illustration.  If you don’t have an illustrator to add unique images to your site, you can learn Adobe Illustrator by following a few simple tutorials.

Use different styles

Websites rely on hierarchy in order to communicate important messages.  Using different styles of illustration can enable you to draw attention to navigation buttons or calls to action.  These are the elements of your site that you would like to stand out.

Creating contrast often helps a design element to stand out.  If your illustrations are heavy and rough, you could create a user interface which uses sharp edges.  If illustrations are monochromatic, use design to create brightly colored navigation buttons or calls to action.

Illustrations can be used to create themes

Illustrations can be used to create a theme for a website.  This might mean using images of mountains and lakes for a nature-based company or using architectural blueprints for a building and design company.

An illustration may also be used to identify a company’s location.  In other words, a company can use illustration to identify a company.  Illustration becomes the most prominent feature on a site, and this helps to create a unique image for a company.

Mascots

Mascots provide a friendly and approachable character for a brand.  The Kellogg’s Rice Krispie characters Snap, Crackle, and Pop provide images of friendly mascots who help to define a brand.

Mascots help to identify and give personality to a site.  Using a character provides a face for the company which is able to talk to your customers.  This gives your brand a ‘human’ element and helps to make it memorable.

Illustrative Decoration

This means that illustration is used to decorate a site, offering an underlying framework or style.

However, the goal is not to represent a person, product or place, but simply to offer a sense of style or structure.  This style helps the site to connect with an audience.  Very often simple drawings and well-chosen colors add an aesthetic appeal to the site.

Illustrated Text

Creating text out of hand renderings is an opportunity to create a unique design or style for a site.  This is a great way to put your art school experience to work in order to create a distinctly individual element to your site.

Hand rendered type can be used to demonstrate a purpose.  A creative website can use illustrated text to demonstrate talent in the arts, careful craftsmanship or the uniqueness of a product.

Keep it simple

Simple illustrations help create an attractive image which informs your readers but doesn’t overwhelm them.

Keep illustrations informative

Aesthetic illustrations keep your site looking good, and this is important.  However, using illustration can help your site to share a message with your viewer.

Illustration can be used purposefully.  When designing your site, ask yourself why you would need to add to add illustrations, and how they will contribute to the goals of your site.  This will help with conceptualizing your illustrations.

Plan your designs before incorporating them into the website.  You can use pen and paper or a whiteboard to map out your designs.  This will help you to create an abundance of ideas before venturing into the digital realm.

You can then draw on similar ideas and find inspirational images.  Explore graphic design galleries and take notes on how the designers have brought their designs to fruition.  How are they similar or different to what you would like to achieve?  How would you like to use color?  How does illustration relate to content?

Ending thoughts

Illustrations add uniqueness to your site, adding personality and a sense of warmth.  Your goal as a web designer is to ensure it is used with purpose, communicating a message to your audience.

This means ensuring that there is a clear distinction between elements which share a message and those which encourage your audience to interact.  This will enable your viewers to navigate your site clearly, and take actions such as signing up for a newsletter.

It also means assisting viewers with understanding a product or service, ensuring that the site is not only beautiful but meaningful for viewers.

Post pobrano z: Frank Kunert creates scenes with a dark sense of humor

Frank Kunert is a German photographer based in Frankfurt. He creates carefully crafted 3D models that he then photographs. In his work, you get to see a sarcastic view of our modern world, often using absurdity to pinpoint the problems we face in education, social life, work, and many other aspects of our lives.

Post pobrano z: How to Make Your Website Stand Out From The Crowd

When you are creating a website, it’s no secret that you want it to stand out. An outstanding site gains points over the competition and is impressive to potential customers.

A unique and attractive website gives designers a competitive edge. Developers add original and successful websites to their portfolios in order to attract new clients.

The following tips will assist you to make your website stand out:

Layout and structure

A unique site structure or impressive layout will make your site memorable. However, this is no easy feat. Creating a unique website provides a visual challenge and the opportunity to stretch your developmental skills.

Remember to keep information well organized and accessible while working on a unique site. When offering a unique site, development time may be increased as you encounter new problems.

When designing a new site, use programs which are easily accessible to users. Many complex sites rely heavily on JavaScript, but this is not always accessible to users.

Branding

If your client has an excellent brand, this will assist your site to stand out. Branding aims to transcend a product, creating an emotional resonance with the user. Stick with your client’s branding guidelines, embrace them, and use the client’s logo on your site.

If your client does not have original branding or logos and only has a choice of font, this makes it harder. Work with the message, color and font you would like your client to create.

Use text effectively

Using text to set your site apart is both complex and very effective. The content of a site reflects the client’s personality or corporate culture. Use text, video, subheadings and easy reading or legibility to set the site apart.

Ask your client for copy that is well written and effective, showing a sense of warmth which connects with the reader. You want any copy which reaches your site to go beyond the obvious sell tactics and to engage the reader. This can sometimes be tricky.

Work with your audience

When you construct your website around user needs, you create a site which is both engaging and easy to navigate.

Many designers don’t do this. Take time to research who your users are, what interests them, and how you can incorporate their needs to create a niche site which is easy to navigate.

Keep it simple

Although branding and logo set the stage, assuring users they have come to the right place, it is the site’s design which will keep the reader engaged. A well laid out site is clear and easy to read, has plenty of white space, and uses color effectively. Navigation is simple and easy to use. Keep content arranged according to hierarchy.

When creating your site, keep it simple. Arrange content so that you don’t overwhelm your audience, but they are easily able to find the information they need.

Use white space effectively

Background space keeps your design clear and simple. Website organization is an important aspect of your design.

Design each area of your page so that it is aesthetic and adds value. Use white space to keep your design looking clean and fresh.

Typography

When you browse the web and come across some of your favourite brands or designs, how often do you recognize the font or typeface immediately? A brand is often immediately recognizable by the font chosen. Using a clearly defined font will link viewers to your brand.

When creating a header font, use a font which will stand out, and tie your viewers back to your brand. Google Fonts has plenty of options which are free to use.

Play with text

Great websites use large font sizes to keep text legible. This helps to create an easy flow. It also assists the designer with narrowing down language so that it is clear and precise. A large text has no space to become superfluous, confusing readers.

Clear, legible text which is easy to read will make your message easier for viewers. Along with headings and subheadings, large fonts will also enable you to scan articles or web pages to find the information they need.

Dramatic Headlines

Headlines make a statement, showing users what your site is about. They are often the most important aspect of a site and grab user attention because of their information content.

As a result, large, attractive headlines are used amongst many modern designers.

Color

The goal of a website is not just to create site visitors, but to encourage those visitors to buy a product, commit to a service or access new knowledge. In other words, the success of a website is determined by its ability to convert viewers into clients or customers.

In order for a website to have a high conversion rate, there is a need to make it accessible, efficient, and to use prompts which encourage users to take action. Color is often used as a means of highlighting aspects such as ‘sign up’ or ‘get started’ buttons.

Instead of looking at which single color is most effective, focus on how color stands out against the background of your website. This way, you can use color to create a hierarchy, drawing user attention to the most important buttons on a site.

Use contrast

Web designers rely on color to give an emotional or intuitive message to viewers. This helps to portray the atmosphere or culture of a company.

Color does not only create a mood, however. By contrasting colors, a designer is able to highlight different areas of a page. This assists viewers with establishing a hierarchy.

Be willing to experiment

Have you ever thought about designing using a watercolor theme? There are many approaches to watercolor.

It was a popular trend not too long ago, and it’s making a comeback. You can use various watercolor elements in your header, sidebar or footer, depending on the site you’re designing.

Even if you don’t already have watercolor illustrations, you can create them yourself with watercolor brushes for Photoshop.

Whatever you do when using watercolor, have fun!

Using a grid

Using a grid is a popular website design method for modern websites. This effective way of designing enables you to add effective imagery to your site while presenting options to site visitors.

When using a grid, keep it simple. Too many options can be overwhelming for visitors. Keep your imagery simple and your navigation panel concise and easy to use.

Minimalism

Minimalism sounds simple, with its use of white space, attractive imagery, and sleek typography, and believes that less is more. However, there is a lot going on beneath the clean surface.

In minimalism, negative space is used to draw attention to specific elements, so that the viewer does not get overwhelmed by too much information. The focus is on content, and the bare background is a means of achieving this goal.

When creating minimalist designs, focus on large images which give a sense of drama to your page, providing an emotional connection for viewers. Image quality is vital, as it will provide the emotional or atmospheric element to your page.

Social proof

When you have an expert review a product, make a statement on a service or carry out research, you create a sense of trust or reliability for your readers. Likewise, customer reviews or testimonials show how clients have experienced a product or service.

When using reviews, do so after you’ve made an argument for how your product will fit, providing a similar service or content. This will enable the review to offer a persuasive element to your site.

Go fast

Users are quick to abandon slow websites. Therefore, if you want to ensure that viewers turn into clients, it is important that your site downloads quickly.

Online viewers are impatient, and if your site takes more than a few seconds to download, they will often abandon the page.

Search engines give a higher ranking to pages which load quickly. In order to ensure rapid download, use only essential elements in your design, and go for premium hosting to ensure your downloading speed gives you what you need.

Summary

Developing a stellar website is all about embracing customer need, thinking through your design so that it works intuitively while being aesthetically appealing.

If you are able to work with client needs, your site will set you apart from the competition. Follow these tips and get started, and remember, never settle for second best!

Post pobrano z: Design Deals for the Week

Every week, we’ll give you an overview of the best deals for designers, make sure you don’t miss any by subscribing to our deals feed. You can also follow the recently launched website Type Deals if you are looking for free fonts or font deals.

5 Fabulous Handmade Script Fonts

Fonts make all the difference in your designs. Sure, what you say is important, but how you say it is just as powerful! Be sure to hurry and grab this Mini-Font collection sporting 5 fantastic handmade script fonts! Whether you’re working on invitations or mugs, these professional typefaces can be molded to suit your style thanks to the many OpenType Features they include.

$9 instead of $75 – Get it now!

The Two Font Ladies Bundle

Missy Meyer and On The Spot Studio have teamed up for a brand new font bundle with 93% off!

$15 instead of $203 – Get it now!

20+ Fineliner Brushes & Patterns

Looking for a quick and easy way to draw up some basic doodles on your computer? Then this Mighty Deal from The Artifex Forge shapes up perfectly for you. You’ll get a real authentic hand-drawn feel on your projects with this collection of Fineliner Brushes and Patterns. You’ll get 17 anti-stretch brushes in a variety of styles from dots to hatches to dashes, as well as a set of patterns to fill up large areas in one fell swoop.

$8 instead of $16 – Get it now!

Fantastic Font Bundle of 30 Unique Typefaces

It’s time for another font-astic deal! This one from the mighty Polem, you’ll get yourself a collection of 30 unique hand-drawn, script and serif fonts. Gorgeous, elegant and flowing, these fonts are packed with oodles of OpenType features, and are just the thing you’re looking for in terms of your next project whether it’s greeting cards, invitations or even T-shirts.

$12 instead of $312 – Get it now!

Post pobrano z: How fitness wear designs are incorporating style and functionality

Many folks who tell you they want to get fit also say they don’t like going to the gym. Often you’ll hear the opinion that it’s because they can’t stand to be around all those Lycra-clad people who appear to be in fabulous shape and have no need to work out at all.

Well, times have moved on and designs for fitness wear nowadays go well beyond the basic elastane fabric, also known as Lycra or Spandex, which originated in the 1950s. Fashion designers have taken fitness wear to their hearts, while manufacturers have worked hard to develop new synthetic products; so much so that the range and variety of clothing and shoes as well as support garments is more extensive and more stylish than ever before. Here are a few of the ideas that are trending among the connoisseurs of fitness fashion.

Style or functionality?

You will already know that architects often debate whether, when designing a building, form follows function or the other way round. So it is that designers have just the same argument about the importance of style versus functionality. In truth, it has to be said that the best garment designs are those that combine both, and as a result create clothing that performs well for the people, including athletes, who wear it for utility as well as looking great in the process.

The rise of athleisure

The designs that are gaining most attention and applause have been categorized as ‘athleisure’ – a hybrid style deriving from business casual clothing and sportswear. Deirdre Clemente, professor of history at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, believes this new form of styling is attractive to consumers because business casual clothing is very versatile, and sportswear is very durable.

She has examined trends in fashion over more than a century and feels the introduction of synthetic fibers to sportswear has resulted in these comfortable clothes edging towards the mainstream of the casual clothing market. An increased interest in health and fitness has helped swing opinion on the acceptability of sportswear-led designs in business and casual settings, all of which adds up to increased sales in the athleisure sector.

More than a trend?

Athleisure may be a fashion buzzword, however, designers and retailers currently are obsessed with clothes that fit this broad category of being appropriate for leisure pursuits, sports activities or both.

Think designer leggings, yoga pants, cashmere sweats and layers of various pricey and fancy gym clothes. Underneath the hype, however, there are some seriously good products emerging from the top designers. The interesting thing is that just as many of these quality items are hidden beneath outer clothes as are showing off their designer labels.

Functionality that’s stylish

If you like support garments to wear next to your skin, you really need these to perform for you, particularly if you’re recovering from injury or aiming to prevent pain, for example, from repetitive strain injury (RSI).

An advanced fabric using copper technology is used in the manufacture of copper socks, which provide additional support and relief to your legs and feet. This innovative material allows your skin to stay cool and dry while eliminating odors, and is just as comfortable in an overheated office building as it is on the sports field.

Other attractive options include lightweight undershirts and boxer briefs, both ideal for a long-haul business flight as well as a hockey game or a session at the gym. Women’s wear includes elegant compression tops with great wicking qualities and stylish designs. These can be worn under other clothing or alone.

Ethical footwear

Besides clothing, sports and casual footwear is undergoing something of a revolution. We are hearing more and more about plastic waste choking the oceans of the world, and scientists have been actively seeking solutions for decades. It’s only a couple of years since manufacturers adidas announced a partnership with Parley to create trainers printed in 3D from waste plastic. Parley for the Oceans is continuing its innovative work and the shoes are now a powerful symbol of the exciting collaborative relationship between the eminent sports shoe manufacturer and the environmentalists working to rebalance the eco-system.

The first product collaboration with adidas Originals introduced the EQT Support ADV sneaker, made using materials created from upcycled plastic waste, and more have followed. The shoes are available in at least two color ways and are becoming increasingly popular, especially with young people, among worldwide concerns about the damage being caused by climate change.

Post pobrano z: How to impress by creating a website with great typography

When you are working on a website, you’re aware that great typography helps to create a message, keeps viewers engaged and adds to your design.

There are so many fonts available, that you might wonder how you create the perfect choice for your site.  Here are some tips to help you:

Go back to the basics

Working with website design means looking at the foundations of a font.

Explore the divide:  almost every font choice is based on the decision of serif or sans serif.

Use space:  kerning means working on the space between letters, tracking means pulling blocks of text together by eliminating excessive space, and leading refers to the amount of space between text lines.

Legibility:  ensure that your text is easy to read.  Play with font size to ensure that your viewers will be able to read easily without impacting how sentences run across a page.

Remove hyphens and justification:  this helps to keep your work looking organized and eliminates unnecessary spaces.

Limit choice:  try to use only two or three fonts on a screen.  This keeps your page from becoming chaotic or overwhelming.

Remember to contrast: when you want to make a message pop out onto your screen, remember to use contrast.

Contrast is created by combining light and dark colors, but can also be used by contrasting color intensities such as vivid and muted colors.

Use browser friendly fonts

When you are shifting between browsers, make sure your texts are compatible.  Text should also be compatible with different devices, such as mobile phones and laptop computers.

To do this, you could explore browser friendly fonts from Google Fonts, and ensure that you can read or use them on a smartphone or tablet.

How to create atmosphere or emotion using text

Words or sentences carry a message, but your viewer will take a first glance at your site and absorb meaning from your design, text, background, and color.

Your audience will not be able to relate to your site or text if the following four elements are not present:

• Type
• Color
• Texture
• Image

Adding these to your typography will enable you to create atmosphere, and to pass on a message to your viewers.

Working with color

When working with color, limit your choices.  Many designers use a primary color, secondary color and accent color.

By using too many colours in your design, your website will be chaotic.  If you’d like to create points of emphasis, use contrast instead of additional colour.

Be creative with your graphics

Surely, you want your site to be different than other websites in your niche. You can design a great header, footer or simply create a creative background.

That would be easy for a graphic designer, but if you’re a web designer that usually tackles simple graphics and code, it might be quite the challenge.

My advice is to start reading a few typography tutorials for Photoshop or Illustrator. Then, the sky is the limit when it comes to designing beautiful typography designs.

Working with content

When working with content, add hierarchy by working with paragraphs, headings, and subheadings.

While books are divided into chapters, sections, and paragraphs, websites use individual pages.  The navigation bar represents a table of contents.

Websites have a clear distinction between titles, main paragraphs, and subsections of content.  Subparagraphs often come with subheadings, so that users can take in information quickly.

Web users often want to be able to take in information quickly and get the general idea of a page.  Page design is about making the reading process as quick and efficient as possible.

It is for the designer to lay out content according to importance.  This means getting to know the content of your client’s pages so that you can organize it effectively.

Create mockups

If you’re working with small amounts of content, arrange the text according to headings, subheadings, and short paragraphs or bullet points.

However, if you are working with a great deal of text design a mock-up first.  This will help you to work with chunks of text in a way which is both attractive and easy to read.

This way you can experiment with different combinations or page settings.  Once you are happy with the mockups, you can incorporate other elements of your design.

Align your text

Alignment means placing text so that it can be read from left to right.

Aligning text from left to right prevents creating a chaotic feel to the website and makes it look professional.  Only center large headlines on a website.

Preview the website

Once you have inserted your text into your page, take a look at how it fits within the page.

Look for text errors such as excess spacing, or sentences which fall out of balance.  Examine the white space above and below your text.  Without changing the content, make sure that the text gives an attractive and legible appearance to the page.

Create hierarchy

In the current society, website users are exposed to so much information on a daily basis that, were this not arranged effectively, it would feel chaotic.

As a designer, it is your role to structure this information so that it is easily digestible, arranged into a hierarchy of importance, and attractive to look at.

This relies on typography.  From a design perspective, creating hierarchy is absolutely crucial in order to ensure users engage with a site.

Acknowledge the tone and message

 

When selecting a font, consider the tone and message of your content or site.  Pick a typeface which matches the project you are working on.

A typeface for a thrash metal band would be different to that of a vintage furniture and clothing shop.  Corporate projects would be different to casual ones.

Ask whether your typeface should be formal or casual, sleek or elegant, large or small, bold or light, and how it will pair with the colors you will be using on the site.  How will the mood of the letters match with the words being read?  A focus on zen design, for example, would clash with a very elaborate font.

Ending thoughts

Website designers use text to tell a story using words, but to provoke emotion and atmosphere through design.

When the writer and designer are able to work together to produce quality content which can be effectively and legibly displayed, this creates an attractive and easily absorbable end result.

Post pobrano z: 9 Easy Ways to Keep Your Website Visitors Longer

Your website’s bounce rate, or the rate at which people leave shortly after arriving, is used by search engines as a measure of the fit of the site with the user’s query. If people leave the site quickly, search engines use that as a vote of no confidence in the content and downrank your site. Conversely, “sticky” sites that keep visitors longer are given higher rankings – and they’re more likely to convert visitors to customers. Here are 9 easy ways to keep your website visitors for longer.

Don’t Drive Them Away by Design

If your website takes too long to load, people will bounce away from it. And the patience of the average viewer is falling. You used to lose 10% of your potential visitors every second. You’ll now lose a fair percentage if the page isn’t starting to show results in three seconds.

One way you drive away visitors as soon as they arrive is with pop-ups and interstitials. Think about landing on a webpage, and instead of the content you expect, there’s a pop-up ad. That drives visitors away. Another mistake is putting an interstitial or partial block on the page, whether asking them to sign up for your newsletter or promoting your newest product. Remove all obstacles between your visitors and your content and you’ll retain more of them.

Don’t Accidentally Tease Them

If your website is still using Adobe Flash, your site could play a few seconds of rich multimedia before erroring out. You’ve just guaranteed they’ll leave your site and never return. Don’t show up in search results for informational queries and then take them to a spammy landing page with too many ads. They’ll abandon the site again and avoid it forever.

Be an Open Book

Ensure that your text is readable on every screen size without visitors having to resize the text. Don’t forget to check the readability and usability of buttons and menus. And don’t use weird fonts that visitors have to download.

Adjust Your Search Engine Optimization

One common cause of bounces is the fact that your content isn’t a fit for the search. The solution here is to study the customer segment arriving on the site versus the focus of the content. One solution is to leave your page’s SEO as it is but tailor the content to better answer the question visitors are asking. Another is to alter the key terms on the page so that it ranks higher in the searches that your content answers.

Improve Your Answer

One reason people bounce away from websites is that the page isn’t answering the question. This is where a long introduction before answering the user’s question causes them to quit the page. The solution is to answer at least a partial answer like a yes or no before going into detail further down on the page. This at least keeps the reader on the page and reading a while longer.

Use Smart Formatting

Smart formatting makes it easy to read your content. This takes the form of bulleted lists, FAQ formats, suitable images, short paragraphs and frequent subheadings. The benefit of smart formatting is that it makes it easy for someone to skim the content to find what they want.

Lead Them On to Other Content

Another way to keep visitors on your pages is to embed links to related content on your website. For example, you’re showing the pros and cons of the Model A product. Provide a link on the same page to take them to the specifications for Model A or a comparison of Model A to its main rival. If people follow internal links to other content, search engines see this as an endorsement for your content. If someone is seeking advice on how to fix a problem with your product, give them your link to the repair kit you recommend instead of letting them look for it elsewhere.

Use Intuitive Navigation

Intuitive navigation is a navigation structure that users understand immediately. If you have an ecommerce page, design the product structure so that someone looking at a blue short sleeved sweater by brand B can tell how to see other sweaters by brand B or your other short sleeved sweaters. This keeps them on the site as they browse instead of abandoning your site for someone else’s. A web design company can help you implement this if it isn’t already set up on your website.

Be Mindful of Their Needs

One variation of this is creating targeted pages that are optimized to answer questions the users are asking, so they don’t have to hunt for answers. Another variation is using a few, high quality images that are directly relevant to the query but minimizing bandwidth demands, whether you use content delivery networks or have a lazy load of third party content.

Conclusion

Keeping your visitors on page is all about understanding their needs and improving their user experience. You also have to design your site for maximum readability and make the navigation as seamless as possible.