Client: Bright Bin

Info: Bright Bin is a new business all about helping moms with their kids lunches. Two great products, one a great lunchbox with sealed compartments and another a lunchbag your kids can draw on and change everyday.

Services: Logo Design, Packaging Design

I’ll be busy the rest of the week so if you need help please feel free and email me but if it is not an emergency you may have to wait. Sorry.

The portfolio has been updated, make sure and check it out.

When you are starting the investigation for designing or redesigning of your site you can be faced with a lot of questions. One of the first questions you should ask is how much to invest into the design. You have four main options for choosing your design a free prefab theme, a premium prefab theme, a customized prefab theme, or a customized design. We will be exploring the pros and cons of each of these to help you decide how much your site is worth to you and how your investment will benefit you.

By mccheek

Free Prefab Theme

Just like a mobile home you can find a Free Theme where the colors and style may not match you and your style. Plus hundreds of the exact same home are out there due to it being pre-constructed. But you can live in it for a time until you run out of room and you are tired of that one cupboard that just won’t stay closed. Especially since it was offered to you free from a relative.

Pros:

• Free
• A free theme is better than a default theme
• You can find lots of free themes to choose from
• If you look long and hard enough you can find some free professional themes

Cons:

• Doesn’t really represent you and your brand
• You will not have as many options for customization
• Attempting to customize the theme yourself may make it look cheezy
• Your images and style may end up feeling mismatched and disjointed
• You may see other’s using the same theme
• The theme may not fit your needs exactly (ei. menus don’t fit, colors don’t match, etc)
• You can feel overwhelmed sifting through all the themes out there

Conclusion: A Free Theme doesn’t represent you and your brand but you can live with it.

By Martin Pettitt

Premium Prefab Theme

Just like a manufactured home you can find a Premium Theme that is very inexpensive and you can choose the siding, the carpet and counter tops, but once you get it into the mobile home court you realize your home looks just like some of the neighbors homes. But you at least you have a home that has new appliances and keeps you dry. This may work for a time until you realize that you are tired of your friends getting lost every time they try and find your house and it becomes time to upgrade your fridge.

Pros:

• Very Low Cost
• You will find more features than a free theme
• Premium themes tend to have a more professional look
• You will have more options for customization

Cons:

• Doesn’t represent you and your brand
• You still may have troubles with customizing the theme beyond the basics
• Attempting to customize the theme yourself may make it loose it’s professionalism
• You may still run into other’s using the same theme
• You can still feel limited by the options

Conclusion: A Premium Theme doesn’t represent you and your brand but it functions.

By LancerE

Customized Prefab Theme

Just like a modern stick built home you can have a Customized Theme built for you.  A builder will give you multiple floor plans to choose from to create your new home. Then you get to pick the flooring, the wall color, the counter tops and the appliances. You get to have a home that really showcases your style and gives you some special functions you have been really wanting.

Even though you live in a house that may be the same floor plan as your neighbors your friends will still know which house is your house. Plus now you will not be embarrassed to invite your boss over for dinner.

Pros:

• Low Cost
• No one else will have the exact same design
• Represents you and your brand
• Professional customization makes your brand more recognizable
• A Professional does the customization so the images fit and coordinates
• Brands and readers can see that you have invested in your blog or site
• Professional help cleaning up your layout and making it easier for your readers to navigate
• You will have more options and functions that a professional can install

Cons:

• More of an investment
• You may have to wait on a waiting list for your design
• Still may feel cookie cutter as you see the same layouts at other sites
• May take some time to find a professional that you feel matches you and your style

Conclusion: A Customized Theme starts building brand recognition and makes your site more professional.

By Omaha Homes For Sale

Custom Design

Just like a custom built home you can invest in a Custom Design. Your imagination is the limit. You can have any flooring, walling, appliance, and more that you could possibly want. You can change the floor plan to fit better with your needs and wants. You could even have a swimming pool built into your dinning room for swim-dining!

You can create a place that is all about you and your style. Your friends will know your home instantly even on the first visit and you will be inviting you boss over for monthly dinners just so you can show off your beautiful home and brag.

Pros:

• The Design is all yours, you will not see anyone with the same design or layout
• It is obvious you are invested in your blog or site, so users and brands will invest in you
• You will find you will have unlimited customization and options
• Everything coordinates and functions just as you wish

Cons:

• Large investment
• Have to do some homework to find the right designer that fits your style
• Takes some time to create

Conclusion: A Complete Custom Design represents you with a unique layout and images and functioning.

I hope this gave you some things to consider as you are choosing the level of investment you want to make into your blog.

photo by:clspeace

One trend that I’m seeing a lot of right now is centering your design. Some sites just center the header, some the menu also and some the whole site. The effect can be pretty eye catching when most site you see now are very uniform in placing the logo or site name to the left, menu to the right, content to the left and sidebar to the right. Same basic layouts just different with graphics and colors. Think about going outside the box and becoming centered.

Have you seen this trend yet?

Min Tran

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Barley’s Greenville

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Launchlist

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Catered by Kate

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The Wisdom of Bees

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Rouse

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The Image Boutique

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Earth Goods Natural Foods

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The League of Moveable Type

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Huff and Staples

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World Refuge

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BBQ War

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How do you feel about centered designs? What do you think it is about a centered design that you like? Feel inspired, think you might try this out?

photo by webtreats

Recently on my personal blog, Pepper Scraps, someone asked me where I got the code for my social media icons. I see a lot of blogs that use their icons wonderfully, yet there are a few bloggers struggling with how to set up their social media icons and how to make it look beautiful. Some sites you can’t find the icons because they are hard to read, too small, or too spread out. Worse yet some sites just don’t have any icons so readers are unable to connect to the blog and blogger.

Today I’m going to share with you how to choose your icons, where to find great icons, and how to add the icons to your blog.

How to choose the right icons for you.

Tip 1 – Keep in mind the style of your site. If you have a really clean and simple layout pick out clean simple icons. Icons that are hand drawn or “messy” will be distracting or look out of place. If you have a dark layout you want to make sure that your icons aren’t too dark and blend into the background and get lost. But you don’t want to pick out icons that are too light and stick out like they don’t belong there.Try to match the feel of your site. Try out a few different sets of icons.

Tip 2 – Find a set that has all the icons you need. Consistency is key here. If you choose all your icons from the same set you are going to make it easier for your readers. The group of icons will catch their eye and they will easily be able to identify this is where they can connect with you and your website! If you have one icon that isn’t from the set it will look like it was an after thought and ruin the feel of the rest of the icons.

Tip 3 - If you make money on your blog make sure that you choose an icon set that is okay for commercial sites. Usually the designer will mention this on their site or have it with the file.

Where to Find Amazing Icon Sets

I use a few different resources to find icons for me and my clients. One of the first places I go is Iconfinder.com, this is a searchable bank of icons where designers can get together and share their artwork! There are other icon search engines, but so far I like this one the best. They have a slide bar so you can select the sizes you want to look at. They also have a drop down menu for showing only commercial friendly icons. Also you can see what the icons would look like on a light background or a dark or if you have a patterned background or bright color you can use the grey button to make sure they have a transparent background.

Another tool I use to find icons is Google’s Image Search. Search terms you can use are “social media icons” or “social icons”.  You will be able to find the sets because most designers use an image of all the icons together.  When you see an image like that of icons that you like. Click on it. You should be then taken to the image in a window. Click out of the box and you will see the designers post about the icons. Or you may be taken to a design site that is talking about that specific set of icons or has a list of great icons. Have fun searching, designers are constantly adding more and better icons so I’m sure you will find something amazing!

How to Add Icons to your Site

Now that you have found a set that you like. Download the set and then pick out the icons you need (twitter, facebook, rss, etc). Upload your icons to your site or where you keep your images for your blog. Grab the URL of each icon.

Are you ready to quickly learn some basic HTML? I’m using twitter as an example but you will use this for each of your icons.

Step 1: Start with the url of your image:

http://www.you.com/yourimage.png

Step 2: Adding the image code:

<img src="http://www.you.com/yourimage.png" alt="Follow Me">

Note the alt tag. This is good html practice and SEO friendly.

Step 3: Adding your link:

<a href="http://www.twitter.com/YOU" title="Follow me"><img src="http://www.you.com/yourimage.png"></a>

Note the title tag. This is also good html practice and SEO friendly.

Step 4: Repeat for each of your social networks. And your code should look similar to this example:

Now that you have your html code how do you add it to your site? If you are on WP you go into your widgets and add a text widget to your sidebar and enter your text. Blogger same idea only you use an html gadget on your sidebar.

I hope this was helpful to you and that you find some great, amazing and beautiful social icons for your site. If you were curious the set I use on my personal blog is from Productive Dreams and is called Page Peel. If you try this out I would love to see it on your site so add your link to a comment! Or if you found an icon set that you really love share it with me, I’d love to see it!

Colors are so important in your website design. Color can make all the difference. Colors can change the tone of your site, emotional effect your readers, and colors can make your site unique and stand out!

Find your colors!

When looking at color for your site you should think about creating a color palette. In design and branding you always want to try to make sure you are using only 3-5 main colors. When you start getting over 5 colors things start to become too busy. You also want to make sure that at least one or two of your colors are neutral.

Now if you want to create your own unique palette but don’t know where to start, look around you. Look at some of your favorite clothes, look through your favorite magazines, or look at some of your favorite websites. You may be surprised where you can find inspiration.

If you hire a designer to create your layout make sure to ask for the hex codes for the colors in your site.

If you do not have the colors that are used on your site you can use some different tools to find the colors. If you have a header that has all your colors or take a screen shot of your site ( fullscreen). You can visit PhotoCopa and find your color palette by uploading these images to this great tool.

Use your colors!

Use your colors in everything you possibly can. Change the colors on your google friends widget,  on your blogfrog community, and if their is an option of editing on an item you are putting on your site use it.

Make sure all your buttons match your palette. Use these colors on your twitter page, facebook page and other external social sites. As an example, when your readers go to  your twitter page if you are using the same colors they are going to instantly know this is you! This is where they want to be!

Examples

My personal favorite tool is Colour Lovers. This is a great community. You can create your own palettes or you can use pre-made palettes. If you have a color that you know you want to use, you can search for a palette with that color. Another great thing is that people can vote for color palettes, so you are able to see what palettes are popular.

Just while writing this post I found these five great color palettes:

Colors by COLOURlovers

More Resources

Are you ready to go find new colors for your site or for your next design? Trying to find the colors on your current site? Just love color? Here are some great resources:

Color Combos
Color Scheme Designer
Color Schemer

I could keep going but you can see a comprehensive list at Aviva Directory.