posted by Anna Fleet on May 18th, 2010
Hailed as the “Internet’s highest honor” by the folks at the New York post, the winners of the 14th Annual Webby Awards have been announced. The Webby Awards pay tribute to excellence online—websites, interactive design and advertising, usability, web functionality and online video from around the globe.
Teenage Cancer Trust, a charity with a mission to improve the lives of teens and young adults living with cancer was named the winner in the Charitable Organization/Non-Profit category; while the Make It Right organization, an American charity founded by actor Brad Pitt to help rebuild New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward with affordable, green homes after Hurricane Katrina, took the esteemed honor in the Activism website category.
Check out all of the Webby Awards winners, recognized in almost 70 categories.
Tags: activism, graphic design awards, non-profit website, web design for charities
Posted in Design Principles | No Comments »
posted by Anna Fleet on May 17th, 2010
You’re a small not-for-profit doing fantastic things for the local community. Or maybe you run a small business that sells a fantastic, earth-friendly product or service. Regardless of what you’re marketing, if you have a website, I’m sure you’re hoping that it will help expand your customer base and get word out about your life-changing venture.
No matter if you’ve already got yourself a clever product name, a shiny new logo, an amusing tagline—does your website look outdated? Are you too busy to write a new blog post every week?
Well then, bottom line, your website is saying all that needs to be said about that inspiring service or green product of yours:
If your website is sadly dated = your product and company are old and lame.
If your navigation buttons don’t work = people assume your products don’t work either.
If your blog was last updated 4 months back = your portraying a lazy image to customers.
Shoppers can’t find your products page, cart button, shipping info = you don’t sell online.
Your landing pages aren’t optimized = you don’t offer the info visitors are looking for.
You don’t have an “About” page = your company isn’t trustworthy.
As business owners, we often forget that our websites make a powerful impression on our online visitors. Your site should be thought of as your first impression to the public (and that includes potential customers, distributors, partners, or stakeholders online). Your website is your first handshake, initial impression and business card…it’s your first shot and it communicates everything about the credibility of your product, service, brand, and company.
If you’re a small business or not-for-profit in the Waterloo Region, find out how a sleek, user-friendly web design can fit into your tight budgets, and add to your success and potential growth.
Tags: not-for-profit, SEO, small business, web design, web marketing, website optimization
Posted in Design Principles | No Comments »
posted by admin on November 16th, 2009
White space is devoid of text or graphics, but it doesn’t mean the space serves no purpose. White space is the canvas to the content, the background to your message—whether the space appears in a publication or website. If you try to incorporate too much text and graphics onto the page, the page becomes difficult to read. White space provides room for your design to communicate. As a designer, the practice of using white space is one of the hardest design principle to master—it is the art of using “nothingness” to visually direct the flow of content.
Tags: content, design, white space
Posted in Design Principles | No Comments »
posted by admin on November 16th, 2009
What makes a logo successful? What makes it hard to forget? Browsing through the Internet there are literally hundreds of answers from different designers, and all of them are valid. We all have our preferences but I think in general there are four categories (or a combination of them) that a logo design belongs to—simplicity, icon (shape), colour, and slogan. For example, Google is both simple and colourful where as the Apple logo epitomizes simplicity and is iconic. I (heart) NY is a great example of a logo that uses a slogan as its core concept, but is also simple at the same time.
So, my bias might be showing for simplicity.
Tags: design, logos, NY, simplicity
Posted in Design Principles | 1 Comment »
One Calendar with Social Networking Powers
