Inspired by my original “Eye of the St Louis web designer” and now Eye of the Chicago web designer” series I have decided to launch an additional blog dedicated to my “Eye of the Chicago web designer” posts.
Chicago is a rich city full of inspiration for us web designers … my camera has hardly stopped clicking since I arrived here! I didn’t want to swamp this blog with my photos.
So without further ado click iChicagoWebDesigner.com and take a peak.
2010 © Chicago Web Designer
Here is the next installment in my series “The emotions of a typeface”. Today’s set features dreamy fonts.
They all convey a sense of calm, quiet and restfulness, something I could really do with after the upheaval of moving my web design business to Chicago over the last two weeks!
Think “spa, pampering, bubble bath” – any one of these would work for branding elements.
Next time I’ll showcase a set of Techno font, I’d love to hear your requests for future posts in this series
View others in “The emotions of a typeface” series : playful fonts , Energetic Fonts
2010 © Chicago Web Designer
I have been working closely with Chicago based Tempel Steel in the reworking of some of their branding elements.
So far we have simplified the logo and created an new look and feel for the business card.
2010 © Chicago Web Designer
Dear Chicago,
Hello! A week ago today I was packing up my St Louis web design business and today, here I am firmly planted in Chicago. It may be a while before I am fully unpacked but I am really looking forward to getting to know you, all your fabulous businesses and getting down to work as the Chicago web designer.
Here is what I do:
Web Design
Graphic Design
I have been in the web and graphic design business for over 10 years and am truly passionate about what I do.
One question, as a city you have a lot of nick names. Which one do you prefer, Chi town, ChicagoLand or the Windy City?
Yours Sincerely
The Chicago Web Designer
2010 © Chicago Web Designer
More and more medical practices recognize the importance of developing a brand image. I have recently been working with St Louis Surgical Consultants in developing a logo and print collateral pieces as well as a web site. The web site is still in the works put the logo, business cards, letterhead and appointment cards are now complete.
2010 © St Louis Web Designer
There is nothing like kicking off a Monday morning with the launch of a project. Today sees the release of a new web site and brand image for Chicago headhunting company, Peter Meder and Company.
We began working with Peter about a month ago. He wanted a very professional and polished looking web site and was interested in integrating his blog and networking tools such as Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. We created a clean crisp look and feel enhanced by an amazing set of photographs ( taken by Peter himself) with call to actions on the home page to current headhunting searches, social media connections and his blog.
The blog, “Moving up -A conversation with Peter, career advice and stories from 25 years of headhunting” has been live for a few months but just using a standard blogger template. To ensured it flows seamlessly with the rest of the site we created a custom template, with navigation to the main site and branded with the Peter Meder and company brand elements.
Twitter and Facebook accounts were also given the brand image.
We are just finishing up on a stationery set to complete the brand makeover. As I said before full image branding are my favorite design projects and I am looking forward to the opportunity to working with more Chicago based clients!
2010 © St Louis Web Designer
Ask any web or graphic designer how many type faces they have loaded in their font directory and you will be boggled by the number, they are important tools of the trade and we like to have lots!
Selecting the right typeface for a project, title, button, logo, banner, call to action, etc, can be a time consuming task. What sort of emotion will the typeface evoke and will it be the right emotion?
Today I am starting a new series, the emotions of a type face, and to kick it off lets start with a set of playful fonts.
These fonts all convey a relaxed, laid back emotion. They are fun, non confrontational but functional.
Next time I’ll showcase a set of energetic fonts
2010 © St Louis Web Designer
Of all the design work I do my favorite has to be complete branding projects so am very excited to be working with Peter Meder and Company, a Chicago based, executive talent acquisition firm.
More to come soon!
When I first started this blog back in 2005 it was an experiment and educational process. I could see their potential and what better way to learn than start one for my own company. Over the last five years my blog has evolved and grown into an invaluable tool for attracting site visitors and generating leads.
Blogger was a nice easy platform to start on and I used one of their templates, modifying it to reflect some very simple Indigo Image brand elements. As you can see (thanks to the way back machine) it was pretty basic stand alone application.
When I saw the amount of traffic visiting it became imperative to incorporate the main site’s navigation into the template from a usability standpoint . I developed a header which created a seamless transition from blog to the rest of the site and vice versa and had a consistent branded feel. I also introduced subject categories to better organize the ever growing content and give the visitor a different avenue to explore.
The momentum for the 3rd generation came from a complete site redesign. I took advantage of this to better position the blog subscription and offered users a number of ways to subscribe. The 3rd generation was originally powered by blogger but has been recently switched to WordPress ( this was due to blogger withdrawing FTP support). The switch to WordPress has made it easier to introduce additional functionality like a blog search (this is such an easy way for me to look up older posts) and better manage things like blog categories.
So what’s in store for the 4th generation? I will definitely be taking advantage of the functionality offered by WordPress and some ideas are certainly beginning to formulate but not quite there yet. My main objective still remains the same though, but they are secret so I will keep them to myself!
2010 © St Louis Web Designer
If you are a website designer or an owner of a web site that offers advertising this post is for you.
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
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
