Tag: Chicago Web Designer

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The Future of typefaces in webdesign

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OK here is a little pop quiz today.  Spot the difference between the follow two blocks.

Block A

Logo design, web design, website designer, graphic designer, St Louis website designer, Chicago website designer, SEO, internet marketing, corporate branding, email template design, brochure design.

Block B

font image

Did you spot anything? No? Correct! That’s because visually there is no difference at all.

Now try and select the type in each block. It’s easy in Block A but impossible in Block B. That is because block B is an image but block A is pure HTML with a little CSS styling. Just like your cursor, a search engine is blind to the words in block B but has 20/20 vision to the words in Block A.

The typeface used to generate these blocks is not one we would usually see on a web site. We web designers have had to stick to a small family of web safe fonts to ensure that the copy of a site can be read no matter what computer or platform you are using. Any use of a font outside this small family means that we have to use a “blind to search engines ” image.

However thanks to Google Font Directory the world of web safe fonts is coming to an end. The directory currently contains just a small number of more usual typeface that can be easily integrated into a web site, like Reenie Beanie above. It is not widely used yet but I predict the number of typeface added to the directory will rapidly grow.

Advantages

  • Smaller files sizes
  • Easier and faster to update than pure images.
  • More search engine friendly
  • Much bigger family of “web safe fonts”

2010 © St Louis Web Designer

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Great words from a client.

I thought I’d share a great testimonial I received recently:

“We selected Zoe and her company Indigo Image after meeting with several website design companies. Our choice was fully validated by the Big River Associates logo and website that she created, and by our experience working with her through this process. Zoe is the consummate professional, clearly laying out the project stages and the timeline from the beginning, while at the same time patiently accommodating changes along the way. In particular Zoe interpreted our intentions, and designed a very clean, quick website that is easy to navigate, while at the same time incorporating a slide show of nature pictures to highlight in a more interesting and pleasing way some key service offers. We look forward to continuing to work with Zoe from time to time, to ensure that our site is current and relevant, and we are very pleased to recommend her work.”

Eric Sigurdson

www.bigriverassociates.com

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Selecting a web designer.

Selecting a web designer to work on your project can be a daunting task. Where to start?

A Google search? The phrase “St Louis web designer” yields a whopping 2,270,000 returns. Clicking through and visiting the sites on just the first pages can be overwhelming (as a result of excellent SEO we do feature on that page!) Once on the sites you can check out the portfolio, evaluate the skill set of the company but often the most telling way to get a feel if they are a company you’d feel comfortable working with is to see if there are any client testimonials.

Here is glowing testimonial from St Louis celebrant, Ruth Hasser, www.ruthellenhasser.com which really speaks volumes about how we can help clients with their projects.

“Zoe Feast worked with me every step of the way to design and optimize my first website. She listened to me, understood what I was going for, was wonderfully patient with my inexperience, and delivered what I needed in a professional and timely manner. As a result I get regular compliments on my website and, more importantly, customers are finding me! I will continue to rely on her expertise and thoughtful support. Thanks so much, Zoe.”

Thanks Ruth for taking the time to write this!

Interested in more client testimonials ?

© St Louis web designer