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    • Posts Tagged ‘design’

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    Deleting A Background

    Monday, February 13th, 2012

    When using Photoshop, deleting a background can be extremely useful to aid your web design efforts. If you are faced with the task of transferring one image onto another you will need to be able to pick the specific parts of the image that you want.

    Picking The Right Tools

    There are a lot of different ways to delete a background within Photoshop, but the easiest and most obvious would be to use the background eraser tool, you must click and hold on the eraser tool for the background eraser tool to be optional. Once you have selected it, you can hit “E” on your keyboard to quickly pan between tools.

    How It Works

    The Crosshair in the centre of the circle is the colour that will be deleted. If you have a bigger radius selected, then it should be easier to delete the background quicker as it picks up similar shades of the colour you have selected.

    Conclusion

    Getting a background deleted properly can be difficult, but by using the background eraser tool, it can become a very quick, easy and simple task. When using this technique for website design tasks for such companies that handle PPC and even SEO for example, it can make the task much more efficient when deleting a background only takes a few seconds.

    This means you can pull an image from an source and select the specific elements of that image that you want to use in your work.

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    Posted in Web Design Work |

    Selecting Hair, Quick and Easy

    Monday, January 30th, 2012

    Selecting hair can be quite a task, whether you are using the magic wand tool or even a polygonal lasso tool. No matter what your method is, in web design, selecting hair can be a huge task and very time consuming.

    Making It Simple

    If you have the option, it is easy to select hair on a contrasted background, which means a brunette would have to be on a lighter background, whereas a blonde would preferably be on a darker background. Red heads can pretty much be on anything but red.

    The first step would be to use the colour selector tool. This can be found under select and then click colour range. Once the pop up box has come up, click on the hair that you want to select, adjust the fuzziness to select as much hair as you can. What is white on the image will be selected on Photoshop.

    Once you have selected the bulk of the hair, you can use the magic wand tool and hold alt to deselect parts of the image you do not want, e.g. background and face. Not holding the alt key will select more of the image.

    Fine Tuning

    Now if you want to make a quick job, this step won’t be necessary. You can use the polygonal lasso tool to add parts and also deselect sections. It can be quite a taxing effort, but if you are looking for a perfect effect, then this is needed to create the best outcome.

    Conclusion

    Selecting hair can be a huge task and take a lot of time from your other objectives, such as social media and SEO. So by using a quick method to select hair, you can save time and use that time on other tasks that need to be done.

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    Posted in Web Design Work |

    Choose Wisely, You Must, Colour

    Friday, January 27th, 2012

    Colour has a huge impact on many factors, so it is vital to get the right colour for your business. So how do you pick? There are a huge amount of colours available and on top of that you have brightness / contrast to take into consideration.

    What A Colour Means

    I’m not going to bore you with a description of what each colour represents, there is enough articles on the web to describe that efficiently. No, more importantly what a colour means is how it will affect your company.

    Once you have decided upon your colour, and you begin using it on your logo, website and even merchandise. That main colour, or collection of colours, is going to start representing your business. Not in the sense that if you showed your colour (s) to someone, they would respond with the name of our company. It is much more subconscious than that.

    Examples

    If you were asked: what companies are associated with red? The likely answers would be: Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Ferrari, Virgin, Vodafone and probably many more. The point that I am trying to make here is that once your colour is chosen, then you will be established with that colour. So it Is important to make the right choice.

    Conclusion

    Choosing the right colour is important in many things, such as web design. Whether the colour is to represent an SEO or social media agency,  it is important to create an environment in which the visitor or potential customer will feel safe in. It is also just as important to represent your business in the manor which you are also happy with.

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    Posted in Web Design Work |

    Facebook Pages, Default Landing Tab

    Thursday, January 26th, 2012

    For Facebook management whizzes, you would have already known that you can set a default landing tab for anyone who visits your fan page. This is a crucial part of gaining fans in the social media industry, but what is the best choice?

    The Default of Defaults

    The default setting is for your fans to land on your wall, now unless you have added additional custom tabs I would recommend sending your visitors to your wall because it is more resourceful than your photo album and will give the visitor a better understanding of the company.

    Like Us!

    Many Facebook fan pages now have custom tabs and specific applications that the admin has added to optimise the Facebook page. Web design experts can use their design skills to create a “like us” page, now this page can be set as the default landing tab and it will be the first thing a visitor sees. This use of a “like us” tab can really help to increase the amount of fans a page receives because content can actually be hidden by using this, so it gives the visitor an incentive to like the page.

    Conclusion

    There are many choices in which tab to send your visitors to, but if you are using your web design skills to aid your social media efforts, then you will definitely see a greatened response from your fans and followers.

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    Posted in Web Design Work |

    Facebook Page Optimisation, Using A Profile Picture

    Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

    FacebookFacebook Management of a social media campaign can include many separate factors. One of the most important things on a fan page is your display picture. A lot of businesses are simply using a 180px by 180px display picture, but there is so much more room to play around with. This box only really allows companies to display their logo, but there is much more to a company than there logo.

    What Is Allowed?

    Facebook are fairly restricted in terms of width, but height can be completely up to you. Facebook allows a height of 550px to be used, so instead of the 180px box, we as web design experts now have an extra 370px in height to play around with.

    The Possibilities

    You should easily be able to find things to fill this huge gap, but don’t feel to pressure as your image can have any height in between the boundaries. It is best practice to keep your logo on the top of the page, this helps with brand recognition and also tells the user that the logo is the most important thing to remember and this will help establish your business as a brand.

    Some of the things that you could enter into the profile picture are: the most obvious contact information, e.g. telephone number, website and email address. If your company is hot on social media and are active on more than one network, e.g. Twitter and Google Plus, then you should definitely make that public, for example including @username with the Twitter logo next to it.

    Conclusion

    There are a lot of possibilities with Facebook, especially with the profile picture because it is one of the least restricted and there is a lot to work with. Remember that this is one of the first things your visitor will see, so make sure you make a good impression.

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    Posted in Web Design Work |

    Using Banners In Social Media

    Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

    Social Media is becoming used more and more by businesses, the use of Facebook and Google Plus pages is become even more vital by the day and we can see a clear increase in the amount of companies that are flocking over to social media services to help increase their client base.

    Facebook pages and also Google Plus pages have a banner section available. This is a section that we as marketers and web design experts must make the most of. In Facebook, the images are randomised in terms of order, so you cannot use this to create a huge banner. It is more useful to see them as individual advertising spaces. A great idea for Facebook is to have individual products or examples within these areas, as the order is not vital but creates a vibrant feel to you whole page and helps the fan get to know your company a little more.

    Google Plus do not randomise the images, this means that they can be used as one banner or separately, it is completely up to you in this case as you are not at all restricted. Many businesses are braking up their logo and putting it back together over this banner space, which looks quite impressive and helps immensely with branding. Displaying products could be more beneficial however, it is completely up to the designer or business in this case because it is what the viewer will first see so it is best to make a good first impression.

    Conclusion

    There are a lot of opportunities to utilise on social networks and should really be made the most of to set your company ahead of the social media game and create a great relationship between your business and your customers.

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    Posted in Web Design Work |

    The Internet Is A Blue World

    Monday, January 23rd, 2012

    Facebook, Blue. Twitter, Blue. Linkedin… still blue, Myspace, Blue ? Clearly there is, and has always been, a trend of using blue as the heart of your colour scheme.

    It is clear that when using web design to create the best opportunity for your business or website, blue is usually taken into consideration. This is because blue is quite a neutral colour, it isn’t necessarily associated with a specific gender. It also gives off a very corporate and calm feel to the site and business.

    Why?

    Well if we think of all other colours that could be used. The options drop somewhat, for example, try imagining Facebook in Red, Green or even Yellow. No other colour works quite as well because we associate these colours that the big cheeses in the internet land do not want to be associated with.

    Exceptions

    The only other exceptions are where a site does not want to follow the standard “corporate” approach, it all depends on your target audience. The bottom line is that we need to appeal to them to enable a web site the best possibility to convert.

    Getting The Balance

    Your site needs to appeal to your visitor for usability and to create a trusted appearance which will make your visitor feel safe in your online environment. At the same time, you need to make sure that your website reflects on your business in the exact way you want it too. It is important to capture your business’s essence within your site for your benefit and your customers. Whether you’re an SEO company, our a social media agency, it is essential to portray the correct image of your business and website.

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    Posted in Web Design Work |

    Mobile App or Mobile Website?

    Friday, January 20th, 2012

    If you were to make a choice between having an app, or a mobile website (along with your original site), which would you choose? Well the choice is quite difficult because the two options are quite close and not much comes between them, but the little differences can make a huge change in how well your goals are achieved.

    Mobile usage is on the increase, and loads of businesses are making the most of this. Some businesses have not only had a mobile web design ed for them, but also an app too. If you visit apple.com on a mobile device, you will notice that they do not have a dedicated mobile site. Even though they create and sell tonnes of mobile devices, they do however, have an app called the Apple Store, this app shows all the latest products, prices and offers sold by Apple. There is even a checkout feature where you can order products and be charged through your Apple ID, which is really convenient, especially when you have to enter all of your card details to order anything which is a very taxing task.

    Amazon also have a great app with all of the features and products as the main website too, however they have both a mobile website and an app. Both are easy to use and look great on a mobile device.

    Conclusion

    Mobile websites are growing in importance and are becoming a must in all industries, even for SEO. Apps are for industries where return customers are expected, basically any form of retail will benefit from an app,.

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    Posted in Web Design Work |

    Doodle 4 Google

    Thursday, January 19th, 2012

    For those visiting Google’s homepage, the .com anyway, you would have noticed that they have shifted recruitment to SOPA protesters to this year’s Google Doodle competition. last year we saw some beautiful doodles by young artists and maybe we will see some more great designs this years.

    Below you can find a collage of some of last year’s doodles, these submissions are from all over the world, the US, Ghana, Japan and many more countries and even more artists entered in their artwork to be chosen by Google.

    Whats Up For Grabs

    There are some huge prizes up for grabs this year, top prize will receive a huge goodie bag of Google treats: a $30,000 scholarship, a trip to New York, a chromebook, a tablet, a shirt with their doodle printed on it and a $50,000 grant to their current school.

    This year’s winner will be well tended to, there is no doubt that the prizes up for grabs are quite epic. Even the runners up prizes are great too, if you want specifics about the contest, then go to Google.com and follow the link.

    Every Day I’m Designing

    I’m sure every student is already busy doodling for their future now, but could this be the start of a new age of web design ? For the winning school, a technology grant of $50,000 will be donated and many teenagers will be drawing away and may stumble upon web designing as a career through social media. We can only wait and see how the industry will evolve but it will be interesting to watch, and so will the doodle contest.

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    Posted in Web Design Work |

    Using Web Design To Protest SOPA

    Wednesday, January 18th, 2012

    SOPA is the new bill that is kicking up a huge storm online, most of anger and protest, but very few online users are siding with the bill. For those of you that have been living in a cave with no internet access, SOPA is a bill that’s main purpose is to target online piracy and put a stop to it.

    Stopping online piracy is something that most internet users and companies want. The methods and laws illustrated in the SOPA act will not only do more harm than good, but it won’t actually put a stop to online piracy, and if that is the case, then what is the point in trying to pass a bill through congress if the sole purpose of it won’t actually work.

    Fight The Power

    A huge number of websites and online companies, such as Google, Wikipedia and even Mozilla, have used their sites to help raise awareness and protest. Many sites have simply “blacked out” their web site, and this is to simulate what the SOPA act will do to the internet because a vast majority of the information and media we use will not be available. Google has used their site to display a short message below their search bar which reads, “tell congress: please don’t censor the internet” and this text will send you to an internal page where you can add your name to the petition and find out more information about SOPA and the what it will cause.

    The blackout protest is a great idea because it simulates what will happen if SOPA becomes successful. However I believe Google’s protest is much more creative and does not “force” users to one side of the argument, it simply raises awareness which is great.

    One of the most creative protests I have seen is from oatmeal.com , They have created a GIF which describes SOPA and the effects of the bill in a somewhat colourful manor. It is definitely worth a watch. This is an example of how web design skills can be used to for the greater good.

    Conclusion

    SOPA is a huge threat to the internet as we know it and will affect all areas, which includes the SEO industry and even social media. We must all do our part in protesting against SOPA if we want the internet to not be censored and this can be on a severity of blacking out your site or something as simple as signing a petition.

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    Posted in Web Design Work |

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