NiceRobot Digital

Great Examples of Typography

admin — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 19:27:33 +0000

The fonts you use for your website are an important decision, as they will often reflect your site’s tone and affect its visual impact.

When I was just getting started in design, I asked one of my favorite designers what single thing I could do to improve and expand my capabilities as a designer. His answer: “Read. Read everything you can get your hands on, empty your bank account, then read some more”. Looking back on 7 years of designing, I’d have to say that was the single greatest bit of advice I ever received. So, without further ado, here’s my list of recommendations.

Universal Principles of Design: 100 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach Through Design by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, and Jill Butler. Out of every book on my shelf, this is the one I find myself returning to time and again. This is an amazing little hardcover that breaks the entire world of design into 100 distinct, easy to follow concepts that will focus the way you think about anything that’s been designed (and that could be everything, but I’m not here to debate religion). If you’re to buy one book on this list, this is the one. Useful, practical, easy to read.

Soak, Wash, Rinse, Spin by Tolleson Design. This was one of my first design books, and still one of my favorites. Chalk full of useful information about the process behind successful design projects.

Screen: Essays on Graphic Design, New Media, and Visual Culture by Jessica Helfand and John Maeda. For anyone who’s ever complained that there isn’t enough relevant, contemporary, erudite writing about modern design dillemas, I submit exhibit A. As one reviewer on amazon put it: “Things we all were thinking… only worded much better”. This tiny book packs a whallop of mind-bending analysis.

Noise Four by Attik. Often called the “big white book” or “the design bible” (although I would disagree), this 5lb book is a visual feast of experimental design pieces. Great resource if you’re seeking a quick entry into modern experimental graphic design or just some inspiration to break up the monotony of cut and paste projects.

Visual Creativity by Mario Pricken. Great analysis of the mental processes behind “visual imagination”. This book systematically breaks down different types of visual imagination and provides lots of great excercises that one can practice to enhance their own capacity to blow people’s minds. Oh, and it catagloues some of the greatest pieces of advertising in the last couple years on high quality glossy paper. Perfect coffee table fodder for the budding graphic artist.

Typography 27 by the Type Directors Club. Really, any book from this series is worth its weight in gold. If you’re going to follow one series of design annuals, this is it… phenomenal from every aspect.

Grid Systems in Graphic Design by Josef Muller-Brockmann. THE definitive guide on grid systems in graphic design. A fantastic guide for solving just about any design problem with a grid. If you haven’t cracked into grid systems yet, this is the book; if you’ve backslidden in your ways, now’s the time to reaffirm your faith.

I’ll be adding lots more in the future… I pride myself on a library of great design books and magazines. For any budding designer looking for a way to go beyond the standard textbooks, books are a great way to get started (and I would argue that these are perhaps a better, more robust form of education than the textbook variety).YouWorkForThem.com and Amazon are great places to pick them up on the cheap too.

Integrated jQuery Effects Included

admin — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 09:27:15 +0000

Proin adipiscing felis nec arcu tincidunt blandit.

Ready for Action, Right out of the Box

Curabitur arcu est, placerat vitae congue sodales, tempus et urna. Nullam sed leo est. Donec non magna massa, non rhoncus sapien. Fusce feugiat gravida nulla. Suspendisse sit amet sagittis justo. Mauris luctus lectus in dolor eleifend vitae scelerisque libero gravida.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Proin adipiscing felis nec arcu tincidunt blandit. Curabitur arcu est, placerat vitae congue sodales, tempus et urna. Nullam sed leo est. Donec non magna massa, non rhoncus sapien. Fusce feugiat gravida nulla. Suspendisse sit amet sagittis justo. Mauris luctus lectus in dolor eleifend vitae scelerisque libero gravida. Vestibulum vestibulum lobortis porttitor. Praesent facilisis rutrum sapien, nec placerat ante aliquet sed. Nulla sed sem ut magna pharetra iaculis. Nunc ac libero leo. Fusce feugiat gravida nulla. Suspendisse sit amet sagittis justo. Mauris luctus lectus in dolor eleifend vitae scelerisque libero gravida. Vestibulum vestibulum lobortis porttitor. Praesent facilisis rutrum sapien, nec placerat ante aliquet sed. Nulla sed sem ut magna pharetra iaculis. Nunc ac libero

This is a Headline

Cras dictum vestibulum volutpat. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Aenean iaculis urna eu mauris scelerisque sed elementum leo dignissim. Cras vitae felis nec magna consectetur ullamcorper sollicitudin sit amet leo. Donec nec consequat tellus. Aenean nec mi elit. Proin in sagittis nunc. Integer tempor commodo mauris porttitor bibendum. Proin eget neque augue. Pellentesque eu ornare libero. Fusce ornare nisi ut ipsum congue ut pulvinar odio vehicula. Sed at mauris et mi mollis vulputate vitae sit amet nulla. Donec vel nibh in nisi fringilla posuere. Ut id risus augue.

Specialized Blog Feed

admin — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 09:26:38 +0000

Proin adipiscing felis nec arcu tincidunt blandit.

Ready for Action, Right out of the Box

This is a Headline

Professional Wordpress Theme

Brandon — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 07:38:47 +0000

This is from the Blog and it’s a test post. You can edit or delete it, then start blogging!

On-Page and Off-Page SEO Factors

admin — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 01:39:05 +0000

The major factors that influences whether your site will rank highly in Google for your desired keywords can be broken down into two categories, on-page factors and off-page factors.

On-Page Factors
On-page factors consist of keyword optimization of the metadata and the content. After you have determined a good keyword to target, you want to include it in the title of your page, the meta description, in the first sentence of the article, and scattered throughout the article. Google “spiders” will recognize the frequency of the keywords and determine that the page must be about said keywords.

Off-Page Factors
Off-page factors are the links from other relevant and reputable sites. Getting links is difficult but are an extremely valuable factor in your Google rankings because Google considers links as votes for your sites. A page that has lots of incoming links must be good, according to search engine logic, and therefore ranks higher than a equally good web page with fewer quality links.

Which Businesses Can Benefit From Online Marketing

Brandon — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 09:26:07 +0000

If your customers are likely to go on the web to search for information, then your business can benefit from online marketing.

If your customers are likely to go on the web to search for information, then your business can benefit from online marketing that focuses on attracting new leads to your website and nurturing those leads into new customers. Americans are spending more time on the internet and less time on traditional forms of media. Also, Americans are tossing out their Yellow Pages because it is much easier to find what they are looking for on Google.

Because of Americans shift to using the internet, every business should have a website where potential or existing customers can find information about your business. The website can provide basic information like hours of operation, location, and phone number but it should also communicate why your offering is different from other providers and have a clear call to action. The website can also gather potential customer information which can be stored in a customer database of leads so that you can nurture those relationships until they become customers. You can also provide additional resources like a blog that provides useful and valuable information which can help build relationships with customers.

Just putting up a website does not mean people can find you. Search engine optimization and Pay-per-click are online marketing tools that can attract more visitors to your site by improving your rankings on search engines for a specific set of keywords that your customers would likely type in.

So in conclusion, if you want to attract new customers online, you should plan and execute an online marketing strategy. Let us know if we can help.

10+ Reasons Businesses Can Benefit From A Blog

Brandon — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 09:25:39 +0000

1. Having a blog helps you create more content on your site, which often leads to more pages showing up in Google search results.

2. Every new blog post is a potential source for inbound links to your site.

3. Blogs give you a platform to speak directly to your customer.

4. Blogs are a place to publish content that solves problems of your buyer persona (the types of people who are likely to buy your product).

5. Blogs allow you to cover a wide range of topics related to your industry, which takes advantage of the long tail effect in Google searches (About 75% of searches are for unpopular phrases).

6. Blogs encourage direct feedback from your customers via comments.

7. Blogs encourage you to think deeply about your field and continuously learn so you can write insightful articles.

8. Blogs allow you to give free gifts (in the form of valuable content) which can develop a relationship with the potential customer.

9. Each blog post is a potential landing page for potential customers to learn more about your company.

10. By frequently updating your blog, Google will send its search bots to your site more often. Google often favors sites with constantly updated and fresh content.

11. Blog articles, when written in a casual voice, can show customers that there are real people behind the company and it’s not just a soul-less corporation.

12. Business websites that blog tend to get more traffic to their site. See Study Shows Small Businesses That Blog Get 55% More Website Visitors

13. Blogs tend to attract first time visitors. In a Compendium Blogware survey of 266 companies, 2/3rds reported that over 80% of visitors to their blog were new visitors.

Can you share additional reasons why every business should have a blog?

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/mbowlersr/ / CC BY-ND 2.0