If you checked out Smashing Mazagine today, and you should because it’s quite possibly one of the best posts EVER, you’ll notice that Frye / Wiles made the list. Yeah that’s right. A little illustrated marvel made the list in the 404 pages gathered from around the globe—nay, the universe. (more…)
January 20th marked an exciting day for many people in this country. The swearing in of a new president who will bring change and hopefully, change the world view of the U.S. President Obama’s message was change. From his cabinet, the political process, the way this current office is making it easier fo the average citizen to be involved with their government and most importantly, the official White House website (okay, I know it was a little over dramatic, but I had to tie it in to web design somehow). When landing on the front page of Whitehouse.gov, I couldn’t help but notice how nice and clean the website looked. You can tell the new presidency is up to date with their standards.
If you’re in the market for some new stock vector art then be sure to check out AllSilhouettes.com. They have a few pages full of free downloads with everything from people, animals, and nature to buildings, weapons, and grunge & geometric designs. It’s a quick and easy way to spruce up a existing design or one that’s in progress. And saving yourself some time isn’t so bad either, right? Rather than spending the time to wacom out or live trace some random photo and edit it, you can just experiment with the placement of these puppies right away.
Dear Frye / Wiles Clients and Associates:
First of all, thanks again for all your business this last year, and happy holidays to all! It’s been another good year for us, and we’re looking forward to working with you on lots of exciting projects in 2009.
We wanted to let you know that Frye / Wiles will be on a skeleton crew from Dec 25 to Jan 5 so that our staff can get some much-needed rest and time with their families, so if you have a slight delay in contact us, please bear with us. All email and phone messages will be checked, but the response time may be a little less than instant.
Thanks, and have a wonderful holiday season!
Finding new sites with a layout & illustrative inspiration is as fun as it is addicting. However, some galleries tend to update their listings once a month (if that), and it can get frustrating when you’re in the mood to get going on something new but find nothing but familiar links. Check out these 5 alternative resources to feed that yearning for some fresh ideas when it comes to your layout. (more…)
While messy desks and torn paper might still seem to be all the rage in the planned-chaos side of design, it’s interesting to take note of how much a little splash of technicolor can add to an otherwise monochromatic layout. It’s just a little patterned background here, and a sugary spectrum there. Here are some of my current favorites when it comes to some sweet sweet web design. Be sure to check out a few more on Blog Design Gallery, one of my new favorite design galleries, for even more inspiration.
Larissa Meek Blog Design
Apple logo evolution
There is great value in updating your logo and/or branding every few years. This is done mainly to convey the idea that your company can and will evolve with the changing marketplace and set your company apart from competitors in a similar industry. Obviously branding and modern design techniques are an extremely important factor within the web design process and you can check out some of the branding examples that we’ve designed on our portfolio page.
This website has a pretty good listing of many fortune 500 companies and their logo evolution over the years and how these changes represent them as a company.
Icons have come along way in the world of web design and they can add that special flare that might be missing from your website. Lucky for all of us Six Revisions has a metric ton of free icons that might be overwhelming at first sight. There are some very cool looking icons from various sites, but make sure you read the terms of use for each of the icon packs first before using them. Have fun.
I like Photoshop brushes–don’t get me wrong, but illustrator’s where my heart’s at. It’s one of the most forgiving programs in the Suite that can save you time when changes are submitted for your designs. Have a tiny icon, and you want to enlarge it into the header? Time flies if you started with vectors. (more…)
If you’ve been on the Internet lately it seems like one of the major trends in today’s web design is the grunge effect. The style definitely has its use and can evoke an overall feel for your design. I’m glad that designers are moving away from the rounded, shiny, gradient Web 2.0 look and going for more of a realism or urban look of today’s world. In Digg language, “I, for one, welcome our new grunge overlords”. The style adds to the palette that designers can choose from and makes the web design fun and creative. The effect can compliment your layout if used correctly, but I believe if the design goes overboard, can hurt your overall goal and then becomes just eye candy or distracting. Remember it’s a trend and by using the effect it automatically puts a time stamp on your website. That being said, if you want to know how to do some of these effects, smashingmagazine has a slew of tutorials for you to get dirty, dirty.
