Friday 28 December 2018

How to Collaborate Effectively if Your Team is Remote

There are many great benefits to working in a remote team. As long as everyone is on the same page, it seems like all the team members are working in the same office, one right next to the other. Ideally, this is how you want your team to function. Everyone’s workflow should be synchronized, even if they all work a little differently.

 

However, if you work in a remote team, you’ve probably had your fair share of hiccups along the way, too. Let’s be real, there are tons of obstacles that get in our way, and they’re not always easy to overcome. Perhaps the most overwhelming issue is the lack of effective collaboration. In a remote team, you can’t simply walk down the hall and hold a quick meeting. You have to schedule these things in advance and they usually take place online. With that in mind, here are a few tips and tools to make your life a little bit easier.

File Sharing

File sharing is an important part of working in a remote team. Emails just aren’t cutting it anymore. Sure, you can send an email with an attachment, but if you’re working with multiple people or need to send lots of files, then it gets complicated. In order to tackle this file sharing obstacle properly, you’ll need a tool capable of doing the job.

 

Dropbox is the perfect tool for this, as it’s speeds and service are unmatched. They offer plenty of features to help you get through your day without any hiccups.

Communication

Communication is the single most important aspect of remote collaboration. It is vital that you and your team are communicating regularly whether it be email, video chat, phone calls, or messaging.

 

It’s equally as important to know what channels to communicate with. No matter what size your team is, you should all have a go-to method of communicating with one another. If someone needs to communicate with another person, they should have a guaranteed way of getting into contact with that person.

 

Using your communication methods, take the time to get to know everyone on the team. Understandably, this can be hard in the larger teams, but it’s still really important to have that connection outside of work. Find out common interests and birthdays. The more you’re all familiar with each other, the more smooth collaboration will be. We do, however, have to keep in mind that we’re after effective collaboration. As important as it is to know your team, you don’t want to be standing around chatting all day. Find the appropriate time to have friendly talks.

Manage your time correctly

It goes without saying that if you’re in a remote team, it’s up to you to manage your time yourself. Undoubtedly, this can be a little hairy. For this, Toggl is a great tool. Toggl is an online time tracker that makes keeping up with work hours easy. This is especially important for anyone working hourly.

 

The best benefit to using a time tracker in a remote team is that everyone feels like they manage their own schedule, and for the most part, they are. As they’re able to keep track of their own time, they’ll be able to pinpoint weaknesses in their performance and fix them as needed.

Remote team building

Team building exercises can help your team function much more effectively. Although it can be harder to accomplish in a remote team, there are definitely some options out there:

 

  • Facts about yourself

This is probably the most basic game anyone can play, but it does involve getting to know one another a little more. It doesn’t have to be extensive, or even all at once, but get everyone on the team to give a few words about themselves.

 

  • Common things

Divide your team into small groups and have them write down and submit some things that they have in common. The team with the most in common wins.

 

  • Office tour

An office tour can both tell you a lot about a fellow team member and give them the opportunity to express themselves.

 

  • Create a chat channel for funny images

Create a Slack channel dedicated to funny GIFs and images. This is another great way for people to express themselves.

 

  • Virtual coffee break

If you’re remote, you don’t have the opportunity to get coffee like normal colleagues do. In this case, you can always have a video chat coffee break. Start up a general conversation, and treat it like you’re all in the same coffee shop.

 

There are lots, I repeat lots of ways you can get your team involved in activities together. You can go as wild as you want, all that really matters is that everyone is getting to know each other better. Once you learn about how people function outside of the workplace, you can better understand how they function within a work environment.

Summary

Remote work is difficult, there’s no getting around it. There are obstacles and challenges that come along with the job that most average office employees would never have to face. However, there are plenty of tools out there that allow remote teams to collaborate effectively, even though they don’t see each other every day.

 

This is a sponsored post for Dropbox. All opinions are my own. Dropbox is not affiliated with nor endorses any other products or services mentioned.

 

Read More at How to Collaborate Effectively if Your Team is Remote



from Web Design Ledger https://webdesignledger.com/collaborate-effectively-team-remote/

How to Develop an Influencer Marketing Platform from Scratch

Thursday 27 December 2018

7 Tips for Building a Highly Effective Agency Content Collaboration & Productivity

 

Whether you’re new to your industry, or a hardened veteran, you’ll probably admit that your job isn’t always a walk in the park. There might be ways that you wish you can improve your workflow, even if it’s just a little. For that reason, we’ve put together a simple list of 7 tips for building a highly effective agency. Some of them might seem a little obvious, but there’s always room for improvement. Without further ado, let’s get this party started:

1. File Share And Access Permissions

Sharing information regarding a project is essential for progression. Fortunately, we don’t have to rely on emails and face-to-face interactions anymore. Now, we have helpful tools like Dropbox for file permissions and shared links which are available to Dropbox Professional and Business customers.

Dropbox allows everyone on your team to share and receive information faster than you can blink. The tool offers tons of online features to make sure your information is safe, and that it gets to where it needs to go quickly. Dropbox destroys the competition with their speed and service.

2. Track your time

If you aren’t already time tracking, you should stop what you’re doing now and look into it. There are a few reasons why time tracking is so important for everyone on your team:

  • For team members paid hourly, it ensures an accurate paycheck
  • It helps you better calculate time estimates for future clients
  • It helps you organize your day by keeping track of how long daily tasks take to complete

Keeping track of your time ensures that you’re not wasting time, therefore being as productive as possible.

3. Communicate

You know what they say, communication is the key to any relationship. The same can be said for team collaboration and productivity. You and your team should be communicating regularly and keeping each other in the loop. It can be so easy to lose track of a project if everyone isn’t caught up to speed.

From the start, your team should know exactly how to get into contact with each other. You should establish what channels everyone should use, and give them a specific purpose. You might have one line of communication open for quick comments, and another for emergencies only.

4. Know your team

Whether you’re remote or in a physical office, it’s important that you know exactly who you’re working with. You should take the time to get to know each and every one of your colleagues as best as you can. Learn their preferences, how they organize their desk, what their favorite sports teams are, and their birthdays. Being familiar with each other helps productivity levels simply because you’re not just working with a stranger anymore.

Because the methods for knowing your team vary wildly depending on whether you’re remote or on-site, we’ll split them up accordingly. Let’s start with remote team building ideas:

  • Video chat coffee break You don’t have to meet in person to enjoy a nice coffee and a friendly chat. Pull up a chair, and pretend that you’re both in the same coffee shop.
  • Virtual office tour A virtual office tour helps people understand how you organize your work day. It may not seem like much, and you may feel obliged to clean a little before the grand tour, but recording a quick little 5 minute walk around of your office is a very easy way for your colleagues to feel connected.

Now, let’s name off a few ideas that can help on-site teams get to know each other a little more:

  • Organize office birthday parties Throwing a simple birthday party for a colleague is an easy way to get everyone chatting. It’s a great excuse to order pizza, too.
  • Facts about yourself Listing some facts about yourself, interesting or not, is a great way for both remote teams and on-site teams to connect and learn a lot about each other.

The great thing about team building is that you can be as simple or creative as you want. There are tons of great team building exercises out there to try. The real idea is to get your colleagues familiar with the way they all function.

5. Make sure you hire the right people for the job

Let’s be honest, the market can be flooded with candidates for a job you’re trying to fill. The best tip anyone can give you as far as this topic goes is to take your time. It may seem like it’s taking forever to find the right fit, but I can assure you that the time spent finding the perfect employee will be more than made up for if they do their job correctly.

6. Encourage feedback

Nobody will learn anything if problems are ignored. You and your team should be open to giving and receiving feedback on everything. You have to remember that you have a specifically assembled team of experts in front of you, their opinions should matter just as much as yours.

7. Be ready for change

Ask anyone in any industry and they’ll tell you that plans change… a lot. You should welcome change by embracing it, not running from it. As much as you’d like to be perfect, the reality is that there will be some times where you aren’t, and that’s okay. The best thing to do is to prepare yourself in advance. Take some time to look for faults in your plan and adjust it accordingly.

Change should never be avoided. If a project is going in a certain direction, you should be capable enough to handle it. Just take a breather, and charge full steam ahead.

The end, or is it?

There are essentially a limitless amount of tips anyone can give you to help you build your agency effectively. What works for some might not work for others. Do your research and find the perfect fit for you and your team. It might involve a little trial and error, but you’ll get it in the end, and you’ll be so much better off for it.

This is a sponsored post for Dropbox. All opinions are my own. Dropbox is not affiliated with nor endorses any other products or services mentioned.

Read More at 7 Tips for Building a Highly Effective Agency Content Collaboration & Productivity



from Web Design Ledger https://webdesignledger.com/7-tips-building-highly-effective-agency-content-collaboration-productivity/

Tuesday 18 December 2018

How to Choose the Right Format to Encode Business Videos

When you produce business videos, the format that you choose to encode them in is more important than you might realize. Although it is true that you can transcode the video later on, it is always best to encode it in the format that it is going to be used in right from the get go.

In other words you should first figure out how you intend to use the video, and encode it accordingly.

Uploading to Online Platforms

Each online platform will generally have their own preferred formats and video settings. As a rule you should follow those guidelines when you encode your business videos if you intend to upload them to that platform.

Some platforms accept a wide range of formats in addition to their preferred format – but encoding it in the preferred format is still a good idea. In most cases other formats will be internally transcoded by the online platform to that format anyway, which could affect its quality.

As an example if you’re going to upload your video to YouTube you should follow its guidelines and encode in MP4 with H.264. To be perfectly honest right now most online platforms recommend MP4 with H.264 – but that may change in the future.

Distribution

If you are distributing your video through other means such as file transfers, email, or even manually handing over a USB drive – the most important factor you should consider is compatibility. The format that you choose needs to be one that the recipient will be able to watch without any difficulty.

In short for distribution you should try to encode your video in a widely-supported and popular format. Once again right now the best on that front is MP4 with H.264 – though MP4 with H.265 (HEVC) is starting to be more widely-supported as well, and you may want to consider it.

Burning a Video DVD

Often businesses still prefer to share hardcopies of videos by burning them onto video DVDs. To do that however you will need to specifically encode your videos using MPEG-2 – which is the DVD standard.

While there are some newer DVD players that are able to play video DVDs that are encoded in newer formats (such as H.264) – the majority of them do not. On top of that because DVDs in general are waning in popularity, newer DVD players are not as widespread as older ones.

All in all it is safer to encode videos for a DVD in MPEG-2 – unless you know that you are only going to want to play it on a DVD player that supports other formats.

Compressing the File Size

From time to time you may need to encode your video in a way that compresses its file size. Typically this is done if you are self-hosting the video and want to conserve bandwidth, storing it on a device with limited space, or need to adhere to some file size limitation.

Unfortunately it can be a bit tricky, as your options will be limited. The ‘safe’ option to use is MP4 with H.264 as it is the most compatible. If HEVC (H.265) is supported it will be able to provide better compression and reduce the file size of H.264 videos by 50% or thereabouts.

For now those are the two best options to compress the video file size. In most cases it is best to encode your video in whichever is supported by the device it will be viewed on, and then compress the video further if necessary by reducing the bitrate.

Conclusion

As mentioned it is best to encode your business videos in the right format from the get go – but if for any reason you need to convert them there are lots of ways to do so. In fact nowadays you can even use an online app such as Convertio if you need to change the format that your videos are in.

Try to always store the original video even if you do convert it to a different format however. If you do you can always use it to convert other copies in the future, without the quality being affected to badly.

The post How to Choose the Right Format to Encode Business Videos appeared first on SpyreStudios.



from SpyreStudios https://spyrestudios.com/how-to-choose-the-right-format-to-encode-business-videos/

8 Tools Every Designer Needs in 2019

Tools Every Designer Needs

Online tools are designed to help us with our jobs. Whether you’re an accountant or a designer, there are plenty of tools out there to help you. But, there lies the problem. There are often so many choices, that it can be hard to decide which one suits you. Sure, you could sign up for free trials, but that could still take ages to sort out which one you prefer. It might sound daunting, but rest assured that this article has you covered. It might not be the longest list of helpful tools, but it’s certainly got the best of the best. Let’s jump right into it. Here are 8 tools every designer needs to know about:

1. Teamweek’s budget calculator

As a designer, it’s pretty common to have very busy times and times that, well, aren’t so busy. For that reason, it’s insanely important to keep up with your budgets. The online project management software called Teamweek offers quite a few helpful features, but for this, we’re going to focus on the budget calculator feature.

 

It’s really no secret that it’s important to keep up with your budget. After all, we have to make money somehow. The Teamweek budget calculator is a powerful and simple tool that makes it easy to calculate and estimate your budget for your next big project, and it’s a great tool to have in your arsenal.

Tools Every Designer Needs

2. Photoshop

You can’t really talk about tools every designer needs without mentioning Photoshop think everyone, regardless of their career choice, has used or seen Photoshop at some point. Photoshop is one of those tools that everyone just knows about. As a designer, it’s pretty mandatory to have editing software, and Photoshop is definitely one of the best. The only drawback to Photoshop is the amount of time it takes to learn how to use it. Yes, it’s a powerful tool, but it is packed full of every feature and shortcut you can imagine. My advice would be to take a few online courses and set time aside each day to make sure you know every little secret that Photoshop has to offer. It’ll be worth it in the end.

Tools Every Designer Needs

3. Dropbox

As a designer, I’m sure you’ve had your fair share of files to send and receive. It helps to have a tool dedicated to making sure you get those files to where they need to be on time. Dropbox is the perfect solution for you file sharing needs. They offer a few different packages with varying amounts of storage, but what really sells it is the speed and security. Your files are safe, and they’re shared with lightning fast speeds.

Tools Every Designer Needs

4. Keynote

Presentations are powerful visual tools to help you sell your services to clients. Keynote has been praised by its users for years. Although it’s only available for iOS, it’s a very comprehensive tool that takes your presentations to the next level. Whether you customize your own, or use a template provided for you, Keynote is the fastest and most useful tool for creating engaging presentations to bring your work to life.

Tools Every Designer Needs

5. Flipsnack

In the design field, there will always be a need to make brochures, ebooks, online magazines, and things related to them. There’s something about flipping the pages of a book, whether is digital or physical that will always bring a smile to people’s’ face. Flipsnack is a simple and powerful tool that allows you to bring the familiarity of a book to the digital word. You can use it for anything really, but you’ll be able to create interactive brochures and flyers for your customers to enjoy.

Tools Every Designer Needs

6. Skitch

When you’re with someone, standing right next to each other, it’s fairly simple to point something out. All you really have to do is point and speak. However, online, it’s a little more complicated. Skitch allows you to highlight the important parts of any online publication, but it doesn’t stop there. You can use Skitch to markup a PDF file, snap a screenshot, add annotations to a photo, or even draw up something completely new. Skitch is one of those tools that you don’t realize you need until you’ve actually used it.

Tools Every Designer Needs

7. Pexels

If you’re ever in the need for stock photos, then look no further than Pexels. You can shop (for free btw) for literally thousands of photos. Visuals are super important in any project, and Pexels makes it easy to find the image that you’ve been looking for. They’re all completely free, and all it takes is a quick search at the top of the page to browse images based on your keywords.

Tools Every Designer Needs

8. Coolors

Have you ever had a hard time with deciding the color scheme of a project? Not anymore. Coolors was designed specifically with designers in mind. It’s a super quick color scheme generator that has saved tons of time for designers across the world. There are an infinite amount of color schemes that you could get, and it’s all based on your preferences. Once you’ve found the right colors, you can export them and save them to your profile easily.

Tools Every Designer Needs

 

We could go on and on for days about these tools every designer needs, but you’ll never really find out exactly how great they are until you use them for yourself. So, with that said, go and take advantage of those free trials, and let us know what you think!

Read More at 8 Tools Every Designer Needs in 2019



from Web Design Ledger https://webdesignledger.com/8-tools-every-designer-needs-2019/

Mockplus iDoc Is the New Product Collaboration Tool Web Designers and Developers Need [Freebie Alert]

Monday 17 December 2018

20 Free Samsung Galaxy S9 PSDs & Device Mockups For Designers

S9 galaxy mockups

Device PSDs are great for all types of design projects. They’re powerful templates that any designer can work into presentations or landing pages. Showing off your designs, testing templates, pretty much anything. And phones are some of the best to use as templates. Specifically the Galaxy phones are interesting because they have so many different […]

The post 20 Free Samsung Galaxy S9 PSDs & Device Mockups For Designers appeared first on Vandelay Design.



from Vandelay Design https://www.vandelaydesign.com/samsung-galaxy-s9-psds/

Wednesday 12 December 2018

How to Migrate Your HTTP Website to HTTPS Without Affecting SEO

A robust security system is an aspect that further amplifies the performance of your website, regardless of the platform, it is being hosted upon. This security system ensures that all kind of sensitive data such as the usernames and passwords, credit card information exchanged via your website remain secure. This is important because the visitors on your website simply can’t afford an instance where the integrity of their sensitive information is compromised.

A few years ago, websites were used the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) as a means to transfer the information over their Internet. However, in the present time, HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) has found its way into this regimen and is a more secure way of data exchange.

Difference between HTTP and HTTPS

HTTP: It is an application protocol that runs on top of the TCP/IP suite of protocols that happen to be the foundation protocols for the Internet. Basically a stateless and connectionless protocol, HTTP works on a client-server model.  The web browser is the client here and it communicates with the web server on which the website is hosted. The browser uses HTTP, which is carried over TCP/IP to communicate to the server and retrieve Web content for the user.

HTTPS: The protection offered by HTTPS encrypts the transferred data with the help of an SSL Certificate. This means that the data exchanged between the sender and the receiver is available in the form of code if somebody tries to decipher it. These two employ the code on a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), sometimes called Transport Layer Security (TLS) to send the information back and forth, keeping the information encrypted and secure.

Since there is an increased emphasis on the adoption of the HTTPS protocol for data encryption, it is recommended that all websites rely on it. However, getting this migration isn’t something that should worry website owners who work under a budget. In fact, establishing this migration will add to the security factor of websites that are wished upon by people who are looking to successfully develop and run cheap websites or websites in a budget.

An SSL (Secure Socket Layer) Certificate, on the other hand, enforces encrypted communication between the web browser and the web server. It is an enabler for the HTTPS protocol.

Hence, if a website has an SSL certificate, it will be accessed using HTTPS://www.example.com instead HTTP://www.example.com. So, now you know the code for cracking the curiosity if a website is secure or not.

If you are now concerned about the security of your own website that isn’t yet configured with HTTPS, read further to know more about migrating your HTTP website to HTTPS.

Migrating your site from HTTP to HTTPS

HTTPS is gaining popularity even if it has not been entirely termed as a ranking factor for the search engines. However, it does have an impact on the SEO performance of your website, making the migration much important. Also, migrating your website to HTTPS can affect your site’s SEO.

So, migrating your WordPress website from HTTP to HTTPS without affecting the site’s SEO can be a task. Let’s read about how you can get that done.

Get an SSL Certificate

The very first step towards securing your site with HTTPS is to get an SSL certificate. You can get your SSL certificate from GoGetSSL, SSLs.com, or even GoDaddy. If your web host is efficient, you can as well ask them to get an SSL certificate for your website connection. You can also use Let’s Encrypt to obtain a free SSL certificate.

If a Content Delivery Network (CDN) is in place for your website, ensure that your CDN supports SSL as well. MaxCDN is recommended.

Once the SSL certificate is installed, the URL of your website will start displaying it.

Change the default site URL

Now is the turn to enter your site’s Dashboard and change the default URL of your website. Once you do that, don’t forget to save the changes.

Take care of the 301 Redirects to Redirect HTTP requests to HTTPS

The change in your site’s URL will obviously lead to the need for Redirects. Since the default URL of your website used to start with HTTP, now that there is an SSL certificate in place,  all the pages will have to run the default URL with HTTPS and not HTTP.

Go to your site’s .htaccess file and edit it using FTP.

# HTTPS redirect

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off

RewriteRule (.*) HTTPS://%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [R=301,L]

</IfModule>

If you are using FeedBurner, add the following code.

# HTTPS redirect

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off

RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} !FeedBurner    [NC]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} !FeedValidator [NC]

RewriteRule (.*) HTTPS://%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [R=301,L]

</IfModule>

The above code will simply use the permanent redirect – 301 to redirect all HTTP requests to an equivalent HTTPS page. Save this file once you are done adding the code. Make sure to check if the changes have been applied.

Correct internal & external links

Next up, you need to change all your internal links. The manual work can be overwhelming for non-technical WordPress website owners. Hence, they can simply use a ‘Search and Replace’ plugin to get the work done. This plugin will look for URLs starting with HTTP and replace them with HTTPS, as directed by you.

Before you get this plugin running, make sure that you backup your site’s data.

For the external links, recheck your site’s browser bar. If it still tells you that the site is not secure, it is pointing to the presence of link(s) on the website that start with HTTP.

You can find such links using Chrome’s developer tools. Just Right click anywhere on the page and select INSPECT > CONSOLE. It will show the URL that is causing the trouble.

*The content in blue ink is the website address.

At this point, if your website is still displaying mixed content warnings, you must check for any broken links using the tool.

The next steps in the process are simply about informing Google that your website is now HTTPS and get the variant registered.

  • You will have to add your HTTPS website to Google Search Console.
  • Re-generate your XML sitemap and submit to Google.
  • Login to your site’s Google Search Console and navigate to CRAWL > ROBOTS.TXT TESTER. Click the TEST button and if you get a green bar with the word ALLOWED, that means that your website is accessible without any blockings.

Conclusion:

The process of migrating your site from HTTP to HTTPS is fairly simple. However, if you would face any hiccups, there are a lot of self-help resources available over the Internet regarding the same. After all, ensuring your site’s security and the security of your visitors’ data is crucial. So, make the move today to a more secure and encrypted site.

The post How to Migrate Your HTTP Website to HTTPS Without Affecting SEO appeared first on SpyreStudios.



from SpyreStudios https://spyrestudios.com/how-to-migrate-your-http-website-to-https-without-affecting-seo/

Monday 10 December 2018

How to Compress Video For Online Streaming

10 Typography Trends for 2019

Typography Trends

Can you hear that? That’s the sweet sound of jingle bells followed by the explosion of fireworks. The combination of these two sounds can only mean one thing: 2019 is right around the corner. That might sound a little scary, but I can assure you that this article contains nothing but good vibes and happy thoughts.

 

As a designer, you’re probably pretty aware that you should be keeping up with trends, right? I certainly hope so. But, that doesn’t mean that you can’t put a little personal flare on those trends. For the purpose of this article, and because the title already says typography trends for 2019, we’re going to discuss… you guessed it: typography trends for 2019. This list is in no particular order. It will contain new trends and a few classics that you totally need to stick with. Fasten your seatbelts, explorers, we’re diving straight in.

Handwritten fonts

We’re going to start this list off with a style of font that will most likely be a trend for many years to come. Handwritten fonts are great because they allow you to put your own touch on your brand, and they bring with them a sense of detail that other fonts can’t. Granted, a handwritten font may not look so great on the side of a corporate office building, but they certainly are a great way to reach out to your audience on a more personal level.

Typography Trends

Vintage fonts

Vintage fonts are also a timeless classic that deserves a spot of any typography trends lists ever. The reason people are so drawn to vintage fonts is very similar to the reason they’re so drawn to handwritten fonts. The difference here is that the audience is most likely already familiar with the font, as it is vintage. Instead of making new connections using a handwritten touch, you renew old connections by going vintage.

Typography Trends

Watercolor fonts

Watercolor fonts have risen in popularity almost side-by-side with handwritten fonts because they go so well together. Watercolors have recently existed mainly in the background of a few web pages. But now, people are starting to use them in the spotlight. Watercolor fonts are a great way to portray calm, cool, and collected vibes. They take away from the seriousness of business and add to the homely feel.

Typography Trends

Serif fonts

Serifs again are nothing new. In fact, they’re probably one of the oldest typography trends we can dig up. They are, however, a trend that’s making a comeback. Serifs can vary depending on how extra you want to be, but they’re another great way to put a little more flare on your work.

Typography Trends

Big and small font types… together?

Yes, it’s true. A lot of people are instantly attracted to things that match or at least are the same size. The idea behind using both big and small fonts together isn’t exactly a new thing, but it has made great headway over the years. Because the letters in the font don’t match up, it can grab someone’s attention quicker than a buy-one-get-one sale at Old Navy. plus, it’s a creative way to put emphasis on a particular part of your brand or logo.

Typography Trends

Variable fonts

In addition to the variation in size, the mix-match of different font types has become a design phenomenon. I mean, why stick to just one font if you’ve found a few that you like? If done correctly, you’ll be able to mix a number of different fonts together and create your own personal masterpiece. Just try not to be too overwhelming.

Typography Trends

Color fonts

For too long black and white fonts have haunted our screens! Okay, maybe that’s a little dramatic, but sometimes we just need a little color. Color fonts have been popular on and off for forever, and they’re starting to make a massive comeback. Color fonts allow us to be that much more creative with our projects. They can say as little or as much as you want them to about the letters that they’re highlighting. They’re the perfect way to snag someone’s attention in a crowd full of black and white.

Typography Trends

Cutouts and overlays

Everyone wants to add layers to their designs, and it’s for good reason. People don’t want to sit and stare at a flat-looking, boring, underwhelming webpage. They want to be wowed and wanting more. Cutouts and overlays are a great way to give that 3-dimensional effect without having to wear the glasses that hurt your eyes after 30 minutes. They give you yet another layer to be creative with, and thus attracting more attention.

Typography Trends

Geometric fonts

While handwritten fonts and different sized lettering are cool, perfectly straight lines and rounded corners will always be one of the typography trends, too. Don’t get me wrong, though, geometric fonts leave plenty of room to be creative. Geometric fonts have grown exponentially over the past year or two, and I don’t see them slowing down anytime soon.

Typography Trends

Customize everything

If you have the extra cash to shell out, customizing your brand is a great way to set your own trends. I’m not talking about just logotypes here, I literally mean customize everything. What better way to give people a new experience than to create one custom for your brand? You’re a designer, challenge yourself!

Bring in the New Year right

Again, these typography trends aren’t in any particular order, but they are all super duper sweet. Trends are made every day. While some of us choose to follow those trends, others create their own path for us to follow in the future. The #1 rule of design is to be yourself and create your best work. Design something that you’re proud of, and show it off to the word.

Read More at 10 Typography Trends for 2019



from Web Design Ledger https://webdesignledger.com/10-typography-trends-2019/

Thursday 6 December 2018

Juicy Web Design Trends For Restaurant Menu Pages

Meltd Webpage Header

We’ve all seen terrible restaurant websites. They really put a damper on the food and make a high-class eatery seem downright cheap. But designing a great restaurant site isn’t all that hard. In the past we’ve covered great restaurant sites including some tips and a small inspiration gallery. Looking over other sites can help you […]

The post Juicy Web Design Trends For Restaurant Menu Pages appeared first on Vandelay Design.



from Vandelay Design https://www.vandelaydesign.com/menu-page-web-design-trends/

Wednesday 5 December 2018

How to Setup the Perfect Website/Portfolio for Designers

For a lot of designers, standing out can be hard to do. In addition to talent, you need a brand that can easily be recognized and distinguished between all the other designers of the world. Possibly the best way to stand out is to have a website/portfolio that is both unique and professional. Here, we’ll discuss some of the tips you’ll want to consider when you’re setting up your website/portfolio, and how you can use them to reel in those new clients.

Get your domain name right

A domain name can say a lot about a brand. It’s the very first detail that clients will associate with your work, so it has to be easy to remember, and reflect what you do in some way, shape, or form.

 

If you’re a designer, then you’re in luck. Right now, you can get a free (yes really) .design domain name that comes with all of the right stuff to get you started. If you’ve been holding out for a while because the .com version of the domain name you wanted was taken, now is your chance. Having a .design domain name as a designer is like a dream come true. Your prospective clients will know what you’re all about before they even click on your name. You honestly can’t lose! Take me to me free .design domain name!

Use the right work samples

The easiest way to attract a new client is to show them your previous work. You’ll want to show them the best you have to offer. Is there a project that you’re not particularly proud of? Don’t worry. It’s not a crime to not include it.

 

In addition to showing off the best of what you’ve got, you should aim for diversity. You never know what kind of client will hit you up, so it’s best that you cover as much ground as possible. Show off multiple different websites you’ve completed for clients in different industries, not just print ad after print ad for the same brewing company. Spice it up a little!

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Tell your story

With each project you complete, you should add a few descriptive details about what brought that project together. Without detail, it’s like ordering food at a nice restaurant just by looking at a picture. Just like people want to know what they’re eating, they want details about how you put your projects together.

 

Another way you can approach this is by describing what the past clients wanted, and then showing what you gave them. Show them step-by-step how you’ve made people’s dreams turn into reality. If people can see how you’ve made other people happy, there’s no reason to think that you couldn’t do the same for them.

Worry about optimization

Looks can be deceiving. A website can look absolutely amazing, but if it performs poorly, then you can scare away clients. Your website should run as smooth as butter and look good while doing so. You want the page to load up quickly, and the transitions between sections of the site to be flawless.

 

If you’re showing off your best work like we discussed a moment ago, then that means you probably have a lot of images. If your portfolio images load slowly, then the rest of your website will suffer. Here’s how you can avoid that:

 

  • Resize your images

Not every image has to be thousands of pixels, especially if only a few hundred can get the job done just as well. Before you upload any image, you should resize them according to the context they’re going into. In most cases, the pixel count shouldn’t exceed 900.

 

  • Compress your images

Most of the time, you can shrink your file size without disturbing the pixel count. There are lots of image compressor tools online to choose from, and they’re usually free, so why not?

 

Now, let’s say that a client sees your work, loves it, and can navigate through your website with ease. How do you land them? Once all of that happens, you simply need to supply them with an easy contact form. Your clients should be able to find your contact form quickly, and be able to fill it out easily. Put the link to contact you in as many reasonable places as you can. Ideally, it should be available on every page.

 

A lot of times, design agencies will display their phone numbers and emails, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But a contact form makes you much more reachable. The client can contact you straight through your own site.

The conclusion

It can be hard sometimes to stand out in a competitive industry. But, by following the tips above, you’ll be taking your first steps in the right direction. You want to make the user’s experience enjoyable and helpful. Remember that they’re searching online for someone to help them with their needs, not an entire photo album of past projects. Stand out, but look professional doing it.

Read More at How to Setup the Perfect Website/Portfolio for Designers



from Web Design Ledger https://webdesignledger.com/setup-perfect-website-portfolio-designers/

Rebranding? Focus on What Really Matters

What does your logo say about your company — and does anyone really notice?

Rebranding can be a hefty task. If you’re looking to rebrand because you think you need a refresh, you’re likely planning to have a team working hard on a number of graphic options that truly embody the kind of company you want to represent. It’s possible you are considering paying a large consultancy to make tweaks and come up with complex reasons for the colors chosen or font treatments. Then you’ll spend countless hours arguing the nuance of one font or color over another.

Before you put in too much time and money into your rebrand, consider this recent brand logo study from Wikibuy and what it says about consumer behavior. They took six logos from top brands in technology and retail and surveyed consumers to see if they really noticed the specifics behind their graphic representations.  The results may surprise you.

A large percentage of consumers (generally around 50 percent) couldn’t identify the correct logo when compared to logos that were slightly altered for aspects like font and color. For the Costco logo, for example, over 20 percent of consumers didn’t notice when the colors of the words were inverted. The survey also looked at demographics to get a good handle on exactly who notices what part of the branding.

What makes a good logo?

The results of the study suggest that it is possible to evolve to new, fresh and modern looks without losing your demographic or having customers revolt. This demonstrates that a company can adjust a logo slightly — even with colors and fonts, and not significantly confuse target demographics.

Pitfalls to avoid

Of course there have been poorly thought out rebrands in the past. Notably, large companies Gap and Pepsi underwent rebranding efforts that were seen as disastrous. The reason for this seems to point to the idea that customers don’t like rebranding that they don’t understand.

For this reason you must be careful not to rebrand simply for the sake of creating something new. There needs to be an underlying need to rebrand, either a shift in cultural or company focus (like the new Dunkin’ rebrand) or simply a need to evolve from a truly outdated design, that drives the change.

Take a look at some of the company logos below and what consumers didn’t properly identify and you’ll have a better idea of what to focus on for your own efforts.

Written by Luke Fernandez

The post Rebranding? Focus on What Really Matters appeared first on SpyreStudios.



from SpyreStudios https://spyrestudios.com/rebranding-focus-on-what-really-matters/