Category: Chicago Branding

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Banner Ads on your website

If you are a website designer or an owner of a web site that offers advertising this post is for you.

website advertising 4 ideas

Yesterday I revealed a branding project I have been working on which included the creation of a logo, business card, website and banner ads. An important part of the website was that it be able to accommodate banner ads as this was to be a major source of revenue for the site.

To refresh your memory here it is again
website sbradio
Designing a web site with ads  in mind poses a  challenge. You need a site with conflicting call to actions.

Call to action A

Engaging your site visitors with your site’s content – happy surfer and web site owner

Call to action B

Encouraging your site visitor to leave your site by clicking on a banner ad – happy advertiser

So how do you design a website to  please both surfer and advertiser? Successfully accommodating banner ads into a web site is all about balance between space,  size, color and movement.

Space and Size

There are industry standards for the size and shape of Ad units suggested by Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).  This list of acceptable shapes and sizes is growing each year but to create a website to accommodate all  is not wise.  A better approach is to pick a few of the best performing sizes/shape (do a search to see the current hot list) and create your website design around those blocks.

The thoughts of ads on a page can sometime conjure up an image of clutter and disarray but careful spacing and positioning of the  units can optimize the performance (click through) of the ad, while minimizing the invasive effect they have on the surfer.

Color

The banner ads provided by the advertisers are likely to be multi colored and certainly not designed to compliment a web site with a complicated color scheme.  The best approach is to keep the color scheme of your site monochromatic, in the case of the SBradio site we selected tones of gray. This approach helps the ads pop, happy advertiser, but enables the site visitor to easily switch focus to the site content, happy surfer.

Movement

Many banner ads have an element of movement, either a flash animation or a rotating gif.  To overcome the competing effect of an animated element it is best to ensure the host web site has no or little movement itself.

So ads vs content, let the competition begin!

2010 © St Louis Web Designer

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Need a custom blog? A showcase of our blogging Clients

Looking for a custom blog? Already have a web site and want to add a blog but need it to integrate smoothly within your site?

We can help. Take a look at some of our custom blogs.

What’s New with Cynthia Reeg

Goley News

Loomis Brothers:Featured Items and News

Ruth Ellen Hasser: Wedding Officiant

Pharmaceutical Sales Job Spotter

Throttleblog

2009 © St Louis Web Designer

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A brand color palette. Eye of a St Louis web designer

A few weeks ago these beautiful irises were in full bloom in my St Louis garden. Notice anything about the colors in this photograph? They are essentially the palette of colors we use in our brand.

I love using nature as an inspiration during web and graphic design projects and as this image shows a simple photograph is sometimes all you need to build a great color palette from which to work.

St Louis web designer tip of the day

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Are you getting the most of the visual elements of your brand ?

The visual elements of your brand are typically classified as

  • Your Logo
  • Typography – font face, sizes
  • Color Palette – primary and secondary colors
  • Imagery- photographs, illustration and their styles
  • Personality

Here are the visual elements of the Indigo Image brand and examples of how we use them to create a consistent image.

Ideally your brand elements should be present on all forms of communication, your web site, business cards, letterhead, envelopes, email signature even on your social network profiles like LinkedIn and Twitter.
Don’t miss an opportunity to make your brand work for you.