Daily Web Design Inspiration & Ideas
The CSS way of creating great website backgrounds. Nathaniel from tutvid.com did a nice video tutorial that shows how this is done.
Using a top gradient image with a background color you can acheve unique looking backgrounds for your websites. Just use your imagination to create the one that will work with yours.
Popularity: 12%
Business Week published an article in June that contained their “10 Commandments of Web Design, distilled from what they say was a bevy of “Internet luminaries.” Many of the tenets listed are practical and relevant. Unfortunately though, they managed to break one of their own commandments while publishing the article. Some of the points they listed are marginal in my opinion (#5, #6). If you’d like to read their entire article, click here. Here are their 10 Commandments without all of the “fluff” from the original article.
So, are you wondering which rule Business Week broke on their own site with this article?? Number 3. They took an article that should have taken up one page and spread it over two pages causing the reader to have to click through to a second page primarily filled up with advertisements. Irritating. Content is king. Wisely laying your content out is extremely important too. Creating content that gives the reader a great experience is extremely important. Business Week failed in its implementation of those aspects in regard to their content.
Anyhow, there’s the list. I’m not sure why it took an entire group of uber-Interneters to come up with this list. Most of us could have come up with a list that is equally as impressive while sitting on the couch at home…
Popularity: 31%
Wood look anyone? This website that belongs to Komodomedia has really nice wood theme going. It gives a warm cartoony feel. The navigation bar, the nice wood seal, the heading bars, all in wood. I also like the foliage that they have hanging here and there. Good illustration work.
Popularity: 67%
Have I said before how much I enjoy earth tones? Ha…just kidding, of course I’ve said it once, or twice…maybe three times. Well, it’s true.
The Bright Creative website is wonderful. I look at it and I just say, “ahh…that’s so nice.” Warm color combinations, smooth transitions, classy background textures all make it pleasing to my eyes. There isn’t anything harsh or abrupt about the design anywhere. Everything is subtle and smooth. Thank you Dave Shea for making such a great looking website. I appreciate it!
Popularity: 50%
This collections of images that I found at Toxel.com isn’t completely related to the realm of web design or logo design. However, it is clever and creative, which are two great qualities that all great designers desire to constantly refine in their own right. So, enjoy these funny money pictures!
Popularity: 12%
First, happy 4th of July to all. Hope you are having, or had, a good one.
For the occasion I want to take a look at our presidential candidates’ website designs. Just to compare the design for fun. 
I went and looked at McCain’s (R), Obama’s (D) and Barr’s (L) websites, these seem to be the top 3 candidates at this time. I want to say right away that I am not representing any of the candidates and am not promoting any one of them here. This is simply a look at their website design.
Here is the first impressions, this is John McCain’s website:
And here’s Barack Obama’s:
And this one is Bob Barr’s:
Right away, Barack Obama’s website stands out, the design is beautiful. The first impression is obviously pleasant to look at. If you continue to the main page of Obama’s website you will see that the entire website is done with the same beautiful design and style. Airy, light blues and whites, hints of reds and greens here and there.
The graphics on his website are worth looking at too, here is a few I took screenshots of:
Like I said before, I am not promoting Barack Obama for President here, I am highlighting the skills and talents of the website designers that created his website.
I did some digging around and according to this article, the designed of the logo is SENDER and SimpleScott designed the website.
I really wanted to post some screen shots from McCain’s and Barr’s websites but, honestly, there was really nothing to show. Pretty disapointing.
Anyway, hope you anjoyed this post. I’d love some comments, guys and girls. I’ve been getting loads and loads of SPAM comments but very few real ones. I’d love to hear from the readers. Tell me something.
Popularity: 19%
Graphic designers, web designers, artists, and photographers can all find something cool to enjoy at Scott Hansen’s website, ISO50. Not only are there great visual artistic examples, but the music playing on the site has also been created by Scott as well. I have to say that while I was writing this post, I was definitely “enjoying the groove” of his music. Smooth, mellow and relaxing are the first words that come to mind if I were asked to describe his music. Some of it kind of reminds me of the music from the future in the movie Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (I’m dating myself here…aren’t I?!).
ISO50 is definitely a feast for the eyes and ears. Lots of retro style art, grunge, and other enjoyable genres. Take a few moments to visit his site and check out the pictures, logos, websites and everything else that he’s designed. He’s definitely a busy, yet successful designer!
Popularity: 6%
For some more inspiration, here is a nice layout that is really “refreshing”. When this page opened up I was really impressed to see this. This design is perfectly ballanced out. The flowers illustration in the front is great, the little red hearts and the arrow pop and balance the page out with the red lettering on the right. The grays and the browns work great together. Also the glossy effect that spans across the information boxes. It’s a simple thing to do but what a ifference it makes. Little stripes detail in the heading boxes, the transparent feel of the info boxes is amazing.
Awesomely refreshing design!
See the site: http://www.newconcept.hu
Popularity: 17%
While I was visiting Digg, I came across a submission for cool looking Photoshop images. So, I took the bait and went to check the images out. Several of them were really cool, creative photos. Others were just okay. But, what I did find and was really pleased about was the logo for the site. Just Creative Design is the name of Jacob Cass’ graphic design company and his blog. The logo is a great piece of work. Duality is the first word that comes to my mind. Not only is it the initials of his company, JCD, but it’s a pencil too. Awesome and creative! Of course, these days I’m very partial to logos with pencils in their design, haha!
Anyhow, check out Jacobs site. I’m sure you will find lots of useful information and inspiring tips and photos there. Enjoy!
Popularity: 6%
Back in April, I posted a short blurb about pricing and how to come up with realistic prices for web design and graphic design. While reading another blog last week, I found an article that discusses one designer’s method of establishing prices. His post at Tutorialaday.com is an interesting read. When you have some time, go check it out and let me know your thoughts on his pricing methods. I’d also still like to hear from some of you on how you determine your rates as well.
Thanks!
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