Helping You Rock Out Your Site Like A Rockstar!

Have a love for words put together with an eye-popping design, or just fonts that are clean cut or smooth? Typography is fun, but there are people out there who have a passion for fonts. The art behind making fonts as well as designing words in a unique manner is done with careful and creative thought. Where one person may think a particular font is great, it may not be suitable for use in everyday design. Well, below are a five websites that I gathered that either may or may not be on your favorite sites to visit in regards to typography. Some are for entertainment, and others contain plenty of articles that will enhance your knowledge on typography.

I Love Typography is more of a journal, but a lot can be learned behind the scenes. Like in web design, this is a great little niche for typography lovers to get more for their fix.

Typographica contains reviews on typeface, book reviews, and more. If it is about typography, this site has it.

We Love Typography is a site that allows you to take pictures, or make graphics, and then share it with others.

Use Typography is a site that showcases websites that use good typography practices. Anyone can submit, but not all are featured.

Of course, I had to give something for those still who are newbies in typography – WebTypography or as it is titled The Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web.. However, I think for those who are die hard fans and practicians of typography, this is a great reference manual.

Are you a fan of typography? What sites do you visit and enjoy that are strictly about typeface, fonts, or designing with words?

Sometimes simple is the way to go, especially when you are a person not into all the frilly graphics that could bog down your site’s load time. Below I am listing 10 layouts that I found in the WordPress Theme Directory that are simple and sleek, worthy for those who are trying to find the perfect layout for their simple preferences.

The iNove theme is very sleek and contains a nicely designed navigation reminiscent of Mac. The layout has a very Web 2.0 feel too.

Carrington Blog theme is by Alex King has a great code. The layout is very clean, and set up with a great navigation that goes by hierarchy and works almost like a drop-down.

The simpleX theme is an extremely basic two-column layout with tabbed navigation. This layout has a lot of potential for those who like to work with a basic theme and adapt it with their own design. This layout also has a drop-down hierarchy like the Carringtion Blog.

The Titan theme has a lot of clean lines and whitespace to balance out a site. Even attention to the image boards leave this layout as something anyone might want to use.

The StudioPress theme is a simple three-column layout that has a tabbed navigation. The rounded corners throughout the layout making this layout very charming.

The Tropicala theme is a very lightweight blog that contains a parent and a subparent navigation. The lines are crisp and you can either keep or interchange the main graphic for your own.

The Red Time theme has a few interesting elements like a place to either put an introductory paragraph or put a featured topic and even has the courtesy of including a cute Twitter bird so people can click to follow you.

The Stardust theme boasts that it is handcoded for accessibility. Its simple gradient graphics make it very clean and sleek.

Librio theme definitely does remind me a bit of the Mac OS X Leopard.

TweetMeBlue theme is made by the same creator of Red Times. It contains a clean navigation and even makes room for those wanting to use the WP-PageNavi plugin. This layout offers a small place at the top of the site for featuring posts.

Are there other layouts you think that should be on this list that you think are simple and sleek…and of course… free?

I was feeling in the mood to do something outside-the-box with a roundup article. Some web and graphic designers have an odd, but interesting style… or as the title of this article says – otherworldly. Each of the sites featured below contain something pertaining to the world or environment and are done in a unique way. Some of the sites are featured because of their layout, some for the work they have done, and some – a little bit of both.

DesignSpasm is a portfolio by Sean Geng. If you roll your mouse over some of the graphics, they move, literally giving the page a unique and spacey feel.
One of his designs I liked from his portfolio was his water color effect.

Smriyaz is home to Mohamed Riyaz, a freelance designer from the United Kingdom. His layout features several well done and inspiring photographs. His main page has a photo of a foggy day that it just about looks mystical.

Kinetic Shadows is literally a jungle! From top to bottom, this is every wild person’s dream. If you check it out, be sure to check out the detail of the Seymour look-a-like (Little Shop of Horrors.)

Visual Elixir really is an elixir of design eyecandy! This portfolio by Jim Gunardson contains a lot of illustrations that rock!

Design Disease has a simple but eypopping under-the-sea look. By the way, Design Disease gives out a few of WordPress themes that are well done too!

Studio7Designs is a diverse portfolio that encompasses everything about the natural environment. What I liked first thing was stepping in and seeing their
vector graphics. They are quite unique!

Joolz is the portfolio of Julien Morel. Julien’s site may be simple, but his portfolio packs a punch with abstract graphics that are really bizarre and inspirational at the same time.

Are there any portfolios that you have seen that you believe should be on this list?

Some designers go that extra mile when they do not have to. Some designers are just freelancers. For some, it is not always a glamorous position, but those who give back are usually worlds above. Below are some designers and web developers who have given back with tutorials, graphics, resources, programs, plugins, and more. Please visit their sites, subscribe to their feeds (if you have not already), and drop a comment to tell them how much you appreciate their work.

Richard Darell is the man behind Minervity, a site that has quality tutorials that are extremely useful for web and graphic designers. From a tasteful design from the get go, this site backs it up with plenty of content. For a fairly new site (less than a year old at the time of this post), this site is something to talk about.

Darren Hoyt shares some useful and trendy WordPress tutorials. His site fully harnesses the power of templating and can be seen clicking from one page to the next.

Jean-Baptiste Jung seems to be in many places, and it is a good thing. However, I wanted to feature one of his sites -CatsWhoCode.com. This designer writes tutorials from php, css, and even some WordPress tutorials are very useful. This cat gives back.

Justin Tadlock seems to be a man on a mission. That mission seems to be making WordPress easier for others to customize.

Amélie Husson also known as @Othella on Twitter offers a lot of articles directing designers to inspirational works online with her site Vitali Software.

Joost de Valk’s site, Yoast is wonderfully designed. His knowledge of WordPress and dedication to making it easier for users to optimize their site. Some of his most popular plugins are Sociable, Google Analytics, and Yoast Breadcrumbs.

If you do not know Lisa Sabin-Wilson, you will now. She is the author of WordPress for Dummies. However it goes beyond that, she is a designer too. She runs a web design and webhosting business with a team of talent designers.

Jem runs a site called Jemjabella that offers several web resources like Bella Book, a guestbook script, as well as several others. She strives to spread the knowledge of web accessibility to the masses. She also has a tutorial site and two of her web creations are Rev.iew.me (a community for reviewing web sites), and staffs at CSSBake.

Webmasterish gives back a lot with his sites that feature a lot of resources. TopRoundups.com, SingleFunction.com, and EntityCode.com are just some of the work. Also, I can attest to it myself that Webmasterish, is ready to help on anything design-wise. He has been helping me with one of my projects that I will be opening soon.

Last on my list, and probably to some who regularly visit, is Matt Mulleweg. He took b2 and furthered the project as WordPress. With his team of developers, ideas, and happy to produce an open source product, he has given blogs, forum fanatics, and more new hope… or maybe I am going a bit beyond myself. He deserves it and if you have not, I suggest visiting him. He is a down-to-earth kind of guy. I know, I met him in person.

There are many more designers out there and I could go on forever, but I am against big lists. If you were not listed, do not be offended. How about you comment and fill in your favorite designers who give back?

Sometimes I come upon sites that I just squeal because they are so cute. I know others do too, and sometimes even guys might take note and say ‘hey that site is cute’, even if it is not exactly their type of site they would choose to go to. The list below are sites that I have found to be uniquely cute.

BubblesSOC is a site that has been mentioned before, especially with their unique smilies. However, this site uses WordPress and harnesses its template abilities. This site has a lot of attention to detail in this matter. Just flip through each section and see it for yourself.

DailyCute.net is literally a blog and resource site filled with cute and cuddly things. From pictures to site links, and to even graphics, this site is chock full and oozing with cute.

Sugary Sweet has a pixel layout that is so cute. For anyone who dabbles in pixelling, it is definitely time consuming. Also, the summer fun of this layout is something that anyone should at least look at and appreciate at least once.

Artistique Ilustra has some great vectors as well as some great artwork. I am not a fan of dolls, but I thought the layout was pretty cool and could be considered cute.

PixelFreak.com, even though it is a portfolio, the pixels are amazing! There is even a section on pixelling people’s faces too!

Acyrlicana serves as a type of splash page for the artist Mary Winkler. It directs to her Deviantart account and her Etsy shop which contain loads of cuteness.

Claire Belton is also known as the QueenofDorks on Deviantart. Her site has a gallery of cute art, a shop, and some fun stuff for visitors to do like dress up one of her characters.

Kao-ani is a site that has many different graphics available for visitors to download and use like emoticons, kao ani (also known as bouncies), and more. Their pixel goodies are adorable!

Cute Plush is a boutique filled with items that are cute and remind me of some of the Japanese cartoon characters. Funny enough, I stumbled upon this and found it to be another site by Claire Belton (aka QueenofDorks). Definitely if you are a person who likes to have cute accessories, this is definitely a great place to start looking.

Pixilate is a site that contains cute pixel fonts, some wallpapers, icons, and more. It also contains a very intriguing navigation. When you click on the pots, the flowers grow taller and reveal the subpages that you can click on in order to go to.

Are there sites that you find are cute design-wise?

I have been seeing a disturbing number of blogs with some creepy tagclouds. Some have no CSS spacing implemented and others, well, they really are a ‘drag’ on the layout’s load time. I am not going to draw this article out, as I would like feedback from you all on your tagcloud practices.

I get a lot of times questions if people should use tagclouds on their site. I usually ask them if they tried one on their site and made an opinion of its look and whether it fit with their site. Then, I would ask them if they had categories and if it was necessary that they have the tags when they also offer a search form. These are just a few factors I have always considered.

However, I want to focus on the aesthetics of the tagcloud. Out of respect, I have pulled one example of a ‘do’ and one of a dont’. Then I will give you my best advice. Our of respect of the webmasters the screenshots of these tagclouds belong to, I am not naming them.

Tagcloud Don’t
This tagcloud was actually rotating the tag words. This slowed the load time of the site down and it was annoying as I tried to play catch to click on the tag word. It looked like the big bang theory happened in the sidebar of this person’s page. It was definitely a do not. The tagcloud had no real value except to look like a nifty tool. In fact, the webmaster used it on a Compositio WordPress layout by Design Disease and it severely detracted from the original layout. Also, as a note, the small screenshot was cut down in length from the actual size.

What can be learned from this Don’t:
There is no reason to make a tagcloud look like it is a blog all on its own or something you tossed cookies on. Keep your tagclouds simple and relevant to your site.

Tagcloud Do

This tagcloud is much better than the previous. The tags are spaced well and they are in alphabetical order. Another great example, although the webmaster does not have the tagcloud up anymore. It is a shame as I thought it was one of the best yet. What they did was instead of alphabetical order, they specified the parameter of their tagcloud as largest count to smallest and from their adjusted the CSS to have a pleasant rainbow type color effect.

The WordPress Codex talks about customizing your tagcloud template by changing the parameters like excluding certain tags, specifying how many should be listed and even the tag order. I recommend taking a look at it and finding out what is best for your blog if you do like to use tagclouds. You may just want to create a tagcloud archive page instead of listing your tags in your sidebar. In fact, it might be a nice addition to your 404 page.

Do you use a tagcloud? Why and what are your suggestions on improving how a tagcloud should be displayed? Any tricks to share?

I am a beta tester at DeviantArt. I thought since I have been there almost 5 years (username – pixvex), that it was time I jumped in and tried to give back. Although some of the policies that DeviantArt I do not agree with, I do like that people can share their artwork. Recently, DeviantArt posted a message in my inbox about Portfolios. Of course, right now they are in the beta stage, but I tried it out.

The portfolios allow you to load images outside your DeviantArt account or add from your account. You can also insert your resume and any information for potential clients to know like live links to previous work. One thing I found and I actually posted about it, was that you can only load certain sizes. This means you will have to enlarge your logos, if you are a person that creates logos.

Other things you get to do is register your own domain and point your domain to the servers that DeviantArt lists. Otherwise, you can use a custom subdomain URL. Mine is http://blondishnet.daportfolio.com/. As you can see it is very plain as you can only choose black or white. Also, the images in the screenshots area do not appear, and of course, I could not load my logos.

Needs a lot of work, and I think that since people pay already, they should get to customize their portfolio further with css. I really am not impressed. I am just going to continue on my plan to revamp my own portfolio. However, it did not hurt to at least check it out. At least I can give some credit for DeviantArt for trying, but I think something better can be done. I believe DeviantArt forgot what a portfolio was in the first place. A portfolio is a way to allow a person to put their work up for display with their best effort. These will not suffice as they are as plain as paper (sorry for the cliché.)

Would you like to be a beta for this project? If you would like to be a beta, you have to have a premium membership with DeviantArt. If you are already a beta there, have you tried portfolios out?

Please welcome my guest blogger, Brian Swichkow (@swichi293 on Twitter.) Brian is a graduate of Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont, and has with a degree in Multimedia and Graphic Design. He always tweets wonderful, inspirational, and resourceful links to sites containing design and technology. I asked him to define good web design in his own words.

Web design to me is such a simple thing to produce – it involves images and text that are established to communicate information over the Internet. Now, the idea of good web design, and by association – effective web design, is intricate and thoughtful to an almost theoretical level. The question isn’t what makes web design “good”, but rather “what is effective?”

What is the web design that will push you to make a purchase? What is the look of a website that will call the consumer to action? The answer lies in the personality of your target market and what interests them as individuals and as a whole. Effective web design is fast loading, easily navigated, and informative. Effective web design uses colors, shapes, and visual motion to create a mood to be subliminally felt by the viewer. Effective web design not only displays a cohesive message, it portrays an attitude, a vibe, and a lifestyle. Effective web design makes the customer take out their wallet, type in their credit card, and purchase the item. Effective web design makes those who can’t afford your product talk to their friends about how much they want the item and why, it creates word of mouth marketing and builds a brand following that will further market the product.

Good design is effective web design and when you find effective web design you won’t recognize it until the delivery person is already at your door.