Indigo Thoughts

Eye of the St Louis web designer (in Chicago)

2010-03-18T12:34:00.000-05:00

I tweeted about this Squirrel I spotted on a visit to Chicago this week and here is the proof. Even squirrels in Chicago eat pizza, and not just a scrap, this one has a whole slice!

2010 © St Louis Web Designer

Web Design Trends.

2010-03-11T18:12:00.000-06:00

While doing a little inspirational surfing today for a new web site I am creating for a St Louis medical practice, I stumbled across a number of web sites that specialize in just this sort of thing, huge collections of inspiring web design. These type of sites can be useful for spotting the latest design trends and it got me thinking about the pros and cons of going with a particular prevalent design trend I noticed.

Here is an example of that trend, one many web designers are using on their personal sites.

A simple statement which acts as a strong introduction to their web site.

Pros:
A nice bold "don't make me think" approach to getting your message across.

Cons:
This element was a "think outside the box" for the first designer who used it but now it is so over used, it's effect is completely devalued. It is no longer novel and any one using it is "going with the crowd" and not differentiating themselves.

Design trends are a natural evolution in web design, aren't we all glad that "framed" websites and flashing banners are a thing of the past!

2010 © St Louis Web Designer

New website for St Louis Hardscapestl.com

2010-03-10T10:57:00.000-06:00

Launched today is a brand new website designed for HardscapeSTL

St Louis, if you are looking for a new patio, retaining wall, paver driveway this is your one stop shop.The site offers loads of information from design ideas, how to hire a contractor, installation tips for those DIYers out there and even offers a money saving coupon. It also includes tools to help you plan out and estimate your project and even a visualizer so you can check out a product in situ before you buy.

I have a lot more to say about this site and will talk about some of the design elements next time, just wanted to get it out there!

2010 © St Louis Web Designer

New logo and business card for Lava Smith

2010-03-09T14:16:00.000-06:00

It's been pretty hard to have time to post to this blog over the last couple of weeks with a very healthy workload of projects.
Here is one of our recent logo and business card creations for Lava Smith.

2010 © St Louis Web Designer

Keeping your website fresh

2010-02-25T09:05:00.000-06:00

I have been working as a web and graphic designer for 10 wonderful years now (wow!) and in that time I have noticed a few trends in clients requests.

The start of any year always brings in an abundance of requests for web site overhauls, it must be that "New Year lets get things in order" kind of thing.The revamps can be anything from simply adding a few pages or swapping out photographs, to a completely new look and feel. It's all about keeping the web sites fresh

2010 has been no exception to the trend.

This week we re-launched Stroco.com having given it a new look and feel and updated much of the copy.The site is built around a new color palette which is more in keeping with the products they manufacture and features a section of "product placement" photographs.

Here is what the client had to say

"We are so pleased with the website…it looks really sharp! Thanks again for all your help with getting this project complete!"

There is nothing better than hearing these sorts of words from my clients!

2010 © St Louis Web Designer

A ROI Website Success Story

2010-02-24T11:13:00.000-06:00

Anyone starting a new business venture understands the importance of having a website, it can be tool to showcase their products or services, streamline their business operations or act as a lead generation platform.

Depending upon the complexity of the site it can be a sizable investment and the return on investment (ROI) is high on the agenda for any savvy business owner.

Last year we launched for a website for Ruth Hasser, a St Louis wedding Officiant and she has seen a huge increase in her business as a result.
Here is what she has to say

"Last year at this time, pre-website, I had one wedding scheduled for 2009. By the end of the year I had done 25. Right now, I already have 17 weddings scheduled, and I have been receiving an average of one lead per day since the beginning of January- outstanding!"

You gotta love those leads!

The site ranks very well in the search engines thanks to excellent search engine optimization (SEO), a successful link building campaign and Ruth's regular blog posts.

2010 © St Louis Web Designer

Can you see bluish yellow or reddish green?

2010-02-22T10:18:00.005-06:00

While at the airport on my way to Chicago last weekend I picked up the Feb issue of Scientific America. It's always a good read and I was particularly intrigued by an article on impossible colors, colors that we are not supposed to see. Can you imagine a reddish green (greenish red) or yellowish blue (bluish yellow).

You can read about the theory here but cut to the chase and do these simple tests below to see the colors for yourself.
Instructions

Click on each of the graphics below, this will bring up a much larger image in a new browser.
Hold a finger in front of your nose and focus intently on it. This will cross your eyes.
Slowly remove your finger from view
On your screen you will see three boxes. The middle box will show the impossible color, a bluish yellow or a reddish green. Make sure the crosses line up.

Can you see yellowish blue?

Can you see reddish green ?

It took me a while to master the visualization technique but it is a bit like doing the magic eye pictures. The key to seeing the colors is to hold the cross steady. They are pretty unstable and seem to flick in and out but they are definitely colors I have never seen before.

How about you, can you see them?

2010 © St Louis Web Designer

Eye of the St Louis web designer in Chicago

2010-02-19T14:39:00.001-06:00

I have had an incredibly busy week, working on web and logo projects and meeting with five new prospective clients. All is good but only now on Friday afternoon have I found a few minutes to write a blog post.

I spent a fabulous few days in Chicago last weekend and the view from the place I stayed was definitely eye candy for the St Louis web designer (or should that be "the Chicago web designer")
You can see lake Michigan in the distance which was encrusted with "icebergs"

2010 © St Louis Web Designer

How to work with your web designer during the design phase of a project

2010-02-11T10:43:00.001-06:00

Last week I talked about How to Hire a Web Designer , today lets tackle what to expect and how to work with your web site designer during the design phase of a project.

What to expect

Your designer will create a look and feel of key pages of the site and you will be presented with jpegs of these pages. Nothing will be "clickable" at this stage.
The site will most likely be populated with Lorem Ipsum. This is because the designer needs you to concentrate on the graphical elements and layout of the site and not get bogged down in copy.

The design phase is a very collaborative phase, expect a few rendition of a design based on feedback you give.

You will be given a time frame in which to critique. Imperative to keep your project delivery date on target.

How to Evaluate

How do you feel about the overall look and feel?
Does the color palette work for you?
How about the white space?
Are there intuitive navigational elements
Are there obvious call to actions?
To what element of the design is your eye drawn?

Giving Feedback

Don't be afraid to be brutally honest in your feedback. If the design is not working for you on any level it is much better to be upfront. However a simple "I don't like it" is no help. Your designer needs to understand what it is about the design that is "not floating your boat" and will help guide your evaluation process to fix on the elements that need to be addressed. For example, imagine you have a real aversion to the color purple and the inclusion of a purple element is causing "tunnel vision" Sometime just tweaking the color palette of a design can have the effect of " I don't like it" to "I love it".

In short being able to articulate your likes and dislikes will ensure you end up with a design you absolutely love.

Signing Off

Once your designer produces the "winning" design" you will be asked to sign off on the design. Making drastic design changes after this point can effect the coding efforts during the next stage of the project and typically incur additional costs.

2010 © St Louis Web Designer

How to hire a website designer

2010-02-05T17:20:00.000-06:00

Hiring a web design company can be a daunting task. Here are three steps to make it a little easier.

The Planning

What are your internet goals. Setting your objectives is the foundation of any project and creating a web site is no exception.
Create a "must have" list. For example it may be really important that your site include a blog or that it is configured so you can maintain it yourself.
Got some ideas on the architecture of your site? Get out a pad of paper and pencil and create a rough sketch
Don't be intimidated to do a little research, e.g Check Godaddy to see if can you get the domain name you want.
Get online and start browsing, bookmark sites you like, they don't have to be in the same sector as your business or organization but this exercise will help determine what appeals to you and also enable to articulate your design preferences.
Check out your competition

The Search

Try a simple Google search for your area. Here are the results for St Louis web design.
Word of mouth, ask members of your business network if there is anyone they can recommend.
Found a web site you really like? Very often a web design company will have a simple link at the bottom of the site directing visitors to their web site.
Draw up a shortlist of design companies you would be interested in meeting.

The Meeting

Arrange to meet three design companies.
The research you have already done will put you in a great position to talk about the specifics of your project.
Do they seek to understand your business?
Are they goal/objective driven?
Do they listen?
Ask to see a portfolio of their work. Does it show a diversity of style or does everything look the same?
Do they know their limits or will they try and sell you "everything"
Discuss the creative process they follow. Is it flexible?
Do they seem like a good fit for your project, do you feel a connection?
Will you enjoy working with them?
Ask them to put together a comprehensive web design proposal which outlines all the specifics of your project, pricing and terms and conditions.

You're Hired!

The contract is signed, the deposit paid and the project is well underway. Is it time to site back and relax? Next time I will talk about how to work with your web designer.

2010 © St Louis Web Designer

Color palettes and web design

2010-02-04T09:52:00.000-06:00

Last week I talked about how color can be used in website design.

Quick pop quiz. What do the follow three web sites have in common?

The answer is ORANGE

Does the use of orange in these designs conjure up the same emotions or associations? Lets take a look at a breakdown of their color palettes.

The color palette used in this site results in a cozy and friendly feeling. The use of orange here really adds warmth.

Teaming orange with cool blues produces an invigorating pop which not only helps guide the eye but also adds an element of energy.

Here again orange has been teamed with blue but in this case the use of yellow and orange adds a sense of friendliness and approachability.

So three designs and three different emotions, warm and friendly, invigorating and approachable.

2010 © St Louis Web Designer

The uses of color in web design

2010-01-28T07:27:00.006-06:00

Color is one of the most important tools in a web designers tool box. It happens to be one of my favorite.

The uses of Color: Define: Engage : Differentiate

Color can can be used to define, think of brands like T Mobile (they have a trademark for Magenta) , UPS ( What can brown do for you) and our very own Indigo Image.

It can be used to engage - look at these example of call to action elements.

And can be used to differentiate, look how the use of color on this web site is tied into the navigation.

Colors are also associated with different emotions and meanings but interestingly these emotions can change depending on the palette in which they are used.

Stay tuned for more about color palettes next time.

2010 © St Louis Web Designer

A couple of time saving Google Tools

2010-01-21T14:31:00.004-06:00

Here are two time saving tools recently launched by Google.

Firstly if you are a blogger and use Twitter to promote your blog posts (it was one of my best uses of Twitter - Can Twitter Help My Business), Google's Feedburner now incorporates a "socialize function". This allows Feedburner to automatically tweet any new blog post directly to Twitter. It can be customized in a variety of ways including

Post content: Title, Title and body or body only

Inclusion of a link

Automatic creation of hash tags

The ability to add custom text

A nice little time saver, you can read more about it here: AdSense for Feeds: Socializing your feed with Twitter.

Secondly is the Share button built into the latest Google Toolbar, download it here.
The share button enables you to send any page you visit to a huge variety of social networks, blogging accounts, email address anything from Facebook to Yahoo Bookmarks. It provides a shortened version of the URL - particularly useful for Twitter accounts where you are limited to 140 characters.

As usual both of these tools are offered for free. What tools are you using to save time?

Click for more tips and tricks

2010 © St Louis Web Designer

The anatomy of a repeating pattern: Free vector download

2010-01-20T08:10:00.005-06:00

Looking to design a unique repeating pattern? It is easier than you think.

Start with a simple shape like an oval

Duplicate and rotate to form a flower shape

Duplicate horizontally

then vertically

Voila!

Printed out these are a great coloring project for kids.
Download repeating pattern here

2010 © St Louis Web Designer

Eye of the St Louis Web Designer

2010-01-18T10:27:00.002-06:00

Fabulous spirals in an ice sculpture down in The Loop this past weekend.

2010 © St Louis Web Designer

Zoe Feast Web and Graphic Designer

2010-01-15T09:08:00.005-06:00

I have an usual name, Zoe Feast. That's Zoe with a long "eeee" sound at the end and Feast pronounced Feast... as in Thanksgiving Feast. It really is that easy!

As a self marketing project I have made use of my name and launched ZoeFeast.com today. It follows the lines of a " business card website", inspired by this great blog post. A simple, one page portal to my networks and company.

I broke away from my Indigo Image corporate brand image for this project and enjoyed the creative freedom.

What unique aspect do you have with which to market your business?

2010 © St Louis Web Designer

St Louis Web Designer's question of the day: Do you provide web hosting?

2010-01-12T07:43:00.003-06:00

Do you provide web hosting? This is one of my popular "Frequently Asked Questions".

The short answer is no, but the long answer is yes.

We are a web design company not a web hosting company and are happy to leave the intricacies of web hosting to the experts. However we can work with any web host of our clients choosing (or recommend a hosting company). This is a seamless process for our clients and all the nuts and bolts of getting a site live are taken care of. Once their site is ready we will open a hosting account suitable for their needs, upload all the files, configure email addresses and make sure their domain names are pointing to the right place.

This one stop shop type service is what most clients are wondering when they ask "Do you provide web hosting"

2010 © St Louis Web Designer

Free Vector Graphic: Winter Theme Pattern

2010-01-06T13:47:00.004-06:00

In honor of the "great snowfall" we are due over the next 36 hours, here in St Louis, here is a free vector graphic of a repeating pattern with a winter theme. The great land of Twitter is busy speculating inches. Snow anyone?

2010 © St Louis Web Designer

A decade in Business for the St Louis Web Designer

2010-01-04T13:42:00.005-06:00

Happy New Year! 2010 will see Indigo Image, home of the St Louis web designer, celebrate 10 years in business! It is a milestone we are extremely proud of, showing that we can not only survive but thrive in this highly competitive market.

We have had lots of really great clients over the last decade but have a particular soft spot for our very first client "Jacqueline's Journeys". The web site is no longer active but I will always be grateful to Jacqueline for putting her trust in us to build her online presence.

So we are looking forward to what the next 10 years will bring, the clients we will meet and the new technological tools in our "tool box".

2010 © St Louis Web Designer

12 days of Christmas from your St Louis Web Designer

2009-12-23T07:18:00.007-06:00

On the first day of Christmas my designer gave to me a
Hosting account for free

On the second day of Christmas my designer gave to me
Two Domain names
and a hosting account for free

On the third day of Christmas my designer gave to me
Three banner ads
Two domain names
and a hosting account for free

On the forth day of Christmas my designer gave to me
Four design revisions
Three banner ads
Two domain names
and a hosting account for free

On the fifth day of Christmas my designer gave to me
Five logo concepts
Four design revisions
Three banner ads
Two domain names
and a hosting account for free

On the sixth day of Christmas my designer gave to me
Six Twitter tips
Five logo concepts
Four design revisions
Three banner ads
Two domain names
and a hosting account for free

On the seventh day of Christmas my designer gave to me
Seven search engine listings
Six Twitter tips
Five logo concepts
Four design revisions
Three banner ads
Two domain names
and a hosting account for free

On the eighth day of Christmas my designer gave to me
Eight email addresses
Seven search engine listings
Six Twitter tips
Five logo concepts
Four design revisions
Three banner ads
Two domain names
and a hosting account for free

On the ninth day of Christmas my designer gave to me
Nine Google Ads
Eight email addresses
Seven search engine listings
Six Twitter tips
Five logo concepts
Four design revisions
Three banner ads
Two domain names
and a hosting account for free

On the tenth day of Christmas my designer gave to me
Ten fine tuned JPEGS
Nine Google Ads
Eight email addresses
Seven search engine listings
Six Twitter tips
Five logo concepts
Four design revisions
Three banner ads
Two domain names
and a hosting account for free

On the eleventh day of Christmas my designer gave to me
Eleven copy changes
Ten fine tuned JPEG
Nine Google Ads
Eight email addresses
Seven search engine listings
Six Twitter tips
Five logo concepts
Four design revisions
Three banner ads
Two domain names
and a hosting account for free

On the twelfth day of Christmas my designer gave to me
Twelve keyword phrases
Eleven copy changes
Ten fine tuned JPEG
Nine Google Ads
Eight email addresses
Seven search engine listings
Six Twitter tips
Five logo concepts
Four design revisions
Three banner ads
Two domain names
and a hosting account for free

Now if I could sing I would have sung you this but alas no!

2009 © St Louis Web Designer

Web design contracts: Are they important?

2009-12-22T07:00:00.003-06:00

Before starting any project we always put together a comprehensive contract - and only proceed when it has been signed by the client. I always explain to my clients that it not only protects my business but their investment as well.

Our contracts cover:-

The scope of the project
This is essentially what will be included in the project and can cover such things as the number of pages, type of functionality, content management systems, internet marketing and even the number of revisions offered in the process.

The scope is established during the discovery process of a project and while it is unlikely that a client will know exactly what they want on every single page of the site during those early stages, it is essential to get a good feel of the requirements. Getting a good definition of the scope helps keep "scope creep" in check (- in its simplest form, "can you add a few more pages here" or more the extreme, "I'd like to add a shopping cart") .

We always build in provision to allow a project to expand to accommodate addition request by our clients and it is vital to have this in writing.

The Creation Process

Communication is key to a successful project and we break our web design projects down into logical phases. Our creation process will outline these phases along with any client expectations such as providing timely feedback to posted design concepts or the delivery of web copy.

Payments

We outline the total cost of the project and the payment schedule. The costs associated with out of scope requests are also covered here

General terms and Conditions

The general terms and conditions provide legal protection for both parties and may seem over the top but are invaluable if things go "pear shaped"

Our general terms and conditions include the following;
Authorization, Nondisclosure, Assignment of Project, Copyrights and Trademarks, Ownership to Web Pages and Graphics, Design Credit, Limited Liability, Indemnification, Search Engine Submission Service, Additional Expenses, Cancellation, Payment, Arbitration, Entire Understanding.

It certainly takes time to put these contracts together but it is time well spent.

2009 © St Louis Web Designer

St Louis web designers video of the day

2009-12-21T09:25:00.006-06:00

Here is a fantastic video from American Museum of Natural History, "The known Universe", a humbling experience to watch, that will make this Monday morning quite insignificant. The video pans out from planet Earth to our cosmic horizon in time and space.

It is a fabulous example of art and science.

2009 © St Louis Web Designer

Holiday Greetings from the St Louis Web Designer.

2009-12-18T09:30:00.000-06:00

I like to produce a digital holiday card for my customers each year and this year have spiced it up with a custom video produced using xtranormal. "If you can type you can make movies". Its a great application and easy use. You can select from a whole bundle of characters, give them different accents set the background, camera angles, make them move and apply ambient sounds... and all for FREE. What's not to love about that.

So sit back and enjoy my little message from this fabulous green robot ( he has an English accent of course). I think I may have to make him my mascot!

400 Blog Posts! A St Louis web designer milestone

2009-12-14T07:00:00.002-06:00

I was pretty impressed to reach the 200 blog post milestone, delighted to reach 300 blog posts and today celebrate our 400th post milestone.

It takes time, effort and dedication to write regularly but is worth the reward! What better way to start a Monday morning in St Louis.

2009 © St Louis Web Designer

Evaluate your web site with our easy website check list.

2009-12-11T12:39:00.004-06:00

Got a website?

Use this quick checklist to evaluate it's performance.

Does the site look appealing and engaging?
Is it consistent with the rest of your branding elements?
Are you archiving your website goals?
Does the site load quickly?
Is it easy to navigate around?
Is the content fresh?
Are there any broken links?
If you have a blog have you written a post within the last week?
If you are using any social media tools such a Twitter or Facebook does your site provide a link to them?
Do you have a custom 404 error page?
Is your site performing well in the search engines for your targeted key phrases?