Inspiration comes from a number of places and things. One of the greatest ways I get inspiration for a web design is to go out side. It may be on the bike a drive or up town to see what in the shop, or it may be back home with a cup of tea browsing the web.
I have a few places that I regularly check for inspiration. I have a few things I do to get the inspiration needed to create a awesome design (like my latest one which you can just make out in the image about).
Here is my list of ways to get inspiration:
Get out a catalogue and see if anything inspires you
Visit your local techy store and see what gadgets could inspire you
Go to your favourite blogs and surf the web by clicking on the sites it links to, see if any of there content or design inspires you
Get out a piece of paper and a pencil and see what come to you
Play some music
A cool room always help me, so open a window or turn on a fan
Move your computer to a window so you have something nice to look at and see what can inspire you outside, this especially works if you have a nice view
So there is a short list of things you can do to go and inspire you, of course I could tell you what I do, or what sites I visit but that would be letting out all my secrets and wouldn’t be very smart on my behalf.
MuxTape is a relatively new web 2.0 service that allows you to digitally make a mix tape and send it to all your friends.
This is a truly great and 100% free service. You can go and listen your friends MuxTapes and you also have the option under each song.
So if you don’t know how it works then it basically is just a very easy and quick process. You sign up it takes 20 seconds depending on your internet connection and typing speed. You are then presented with a page that allows you to upload up to 12 songs into your own playlist. You can change, delete or organise the playlist at any time you wish.
If you want to know what your friends are listening to then get them to sign up. There is also an option on there homepage you can select a random MuxTape from the section below. Its a great way to get into new and different kinds of music. Its also a great way to listen to loads of indie bands, and if you follow the MuxTape blog you can get all the latest and best MuxTapes on the site.
Some days even the most creative people and the greatest designers need inspiration. Here is a list of the top gallery’s to get that very spark you may need.
Maybe you want to expand you knowledge and learn something new, maybe your a bit rusty and need to brush up on some skills or even just to learn new tips and tricks then you need tutorials.
Universal Balance plays a big part in CSS. By universal I mean cross browser and when I say balance I mean for it to be the same in every browser you use.
For example creating a layout in Firefox will not be the exact same in Internet Explorer, unless you know how.
The CSS Ninja is here today to give you some expert advice. This small piece of code I want to share with you is a life saver when it comes to resetting the default values (which vary) amount different browsers.
* {Margin: 0; Padding: 0; Border: 0;}
For many beginners this is vital information, At least it was when I first learned about it.
As many of my readers will know, I design web sites. It’s kinda my thing and I’m pretty good at it. So what I want to do in this post is take you through how I start off designing a web site. This will not only benefit new web designers wanting to know how but also other web designers wanting to compare and clients who just want to know what I would be doing for them as in ways of a service.
Whats What?
So first of all I need to find out whats what. By that I mean what the client wants, there target audience, what they want to achieve through there web site, what kind of work do I need to do, do I need to order hosting and domains and so on.
I usually have an informal discussion with the client be it in person or over email about all the above points including any other things they want to tell me such as i need this photo or this piece of music or i need this colour scheme. I do limit them to a certain extent thou because well who is the web designer. I do not like to take advice from someone who says make this small and this big and make this bright green with an orange background with a yellow bored. It’s just not happening, and I know almost every web designer out there has had a client who said “My nieces boyfriend says Comic Sans MS looks great in yellow on a lime green background, make everything like that”.
Doing It Old School
So once I know what needs to be done every thing is mapped out on paper, and I chop and change things around as I need to and I get a basic idea in my head. I then do a few sketches of how I want things to look, maybe change the layout try think of what will go where and how. Once i have the basic design on paper I like to scan it in to photoshop and start. I design the basic layout over the scan and then take the scan away and start to import other media such as logos, text and images. This is where things start to come together.
The client may want to see a design or it may have to be signed off my a project manager, this is the time for that. So save that design as a Jpeg and send it for approval.
Making It Happen
Next on my list is to make it happen, That means slicing the photoshop design into small code able chunks. I always go with the industry standard of table-less design and tend to code by hand. I start off with the header and go down the page so that means adding the columns and then the footer. Only after everything is perfect and cross browser checked do I add content or import it into WordPress. Now is a good time to double check all your browsers to make sure it works perfectly. I tend to find that when adding content you can through your design off a little.
If you want or need to then go over to the W3C and validate your websites (X)HTML/CSS and RSS.
I logged in to an old YouTube account only to find I had uploaded a few videos a few years back when Web 2.0 was just taking place. I like this video, if not for the way i done it then the content it holds. Enjoy!
So I have had a go of Animoto and I must say what a web app. It truly is web changing, I know I will be using it a lot more as I do have a lot of images that would look good in a nice video. hey, maybe I’ll even invest in a pro account not to sure yet. Below is my first Animoto video. Enjoy!
