Not long ago I did a post here on MyInkBlog called Elements of a Great Band Website which discussed the must-have elements that you should always include when designing a website for a band. The reason behind the post spawned from the fact that as a designer you never know who your next web client is going to be, and what kind of site they are going to require from you. In the theme of that post, I am taking a look at another client type and site request. The artist and their portfolio!

As someone who lives in a small little artist community tucked away in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, I have worked with my fair share of artists, and designed a few portfolio sites on their behalves so I have a bit of personal experience in this area. In working with the various artists I have found some common elements that the sites seemingly need in order to successfully achieve their purpose and intent. Though the artist and their styles may vary, each being unique in their way, their sites still need those common elements that make it work.

So if an artist portfolio project comes up, here are some elements that you should consider including. Also, you will notice that scattered throughout the post are a few “artist highlights” where I showcase some finely crafted artist portfolios that are up on the web.

Artist Gallery

The first element that is a complete must-have, and should basically be a no-brainer, is the gallery of the artist’s work. After all, the site is their official online showcase, and they need a presentation fitting of the style and tone of their artistry. Which means that it is up to you, the designer, to evoke the style and mood of the art to the viewer, through the design and presentation of the artist’s work.

Alexey Chernishov

Given that this is going to be a major element of the site, and that every artist portfolio is going include one, you are going to want the artist gallery to stand out from the rest. You want their voice to speak through the site as poignantly as the work that is being showcased in order to entice the visitors to browse the gallery, so being in touch with the voice of their work is vital for making this effectively transfer. The gallery has to be presented in such a way that it steers people toward their work, without detracting from it.

Keeping the design from taking away from the message of the site you should always be a priority, but in this case, the gallery has to be on par with the work without overshadowing it, so there is a balance that must be sought.

Quick Tips

• Adequately and accurately display the art in thumbnails so that the viewer can get an idea of what is it they will be browsing.
• Using an attractive lightbox highlights the art extremely well, without taking away from the work at all.

Calendar of Artist Shows

Another important element to include is a calendar of shows and events where the artist is going to be featured or showing. You will want to provide every available outlet for the site visitors to connect with the artist, and providing an accessible, up-to-date calendar of places that they can unplug and see the artist’s work live is a fantastic way to improve the reader’s reach.

Fully Illustrated

This can help the artist in a couple of different ways, with regards to their readers. It can provide an easy way for them to keep their site current and relevant to a growing fanbase, which in turn can also help them generate a positive revenue stream from their work. With more fans and followers aware of where the art can be seen and often times purchased from the artist themselves, the more opportunities the artist has to make a living from their work by connecting them to an audience they may otherwise not be reaching.

Any extra avenue that you can create for the online audience and the artist to connect is a positive, so if the client is not talking about the inclusion of this calendar you may want to take an opportunity to impress upon the importance and benefit of adding this element to the mix.

Quick Tip

• Even if the artist has no current showings, they can still use this space to advertise that they have pieces ready to show.

Artist Contact & Social Media Info.

Speaking of extending the reader’s reach to the artist, and making them more visible among the visitors to the site, being sure to include the artist’s various means of contact is another must on the artist portfolio checklist. Including contact information on a website is hardly a revolutionary idea. I know this is not groundbreaking stuff here, but it is certainly a must-have, even though some artists can be very leery of including contact information on the web.

Simply Creative

This is where your expertise and guidance need to attempt to steer them towards taking advantage of this outlet to its fullest extent, and that tends to mean opening up to the idea of at least creating an e-mail address specific to the site for reaching them and nothing more. Though, more would certainly be better. Including dialing the visitors of the site in to the various social media networks that the artist is active on, and perhaps the artist as well so that you have some active network connections to promote.

The more insight the visitors can gain into the artist, is generally the better for the fanbase. Social media offers that unique glance into the person behind the art so working this into the contact page and incorporating it into the site overall, is a win for all.

Quick Tip

• If the client remains leery of putting contact info out on the web, you can always create them a custom contact form for the site so that visitors still can reach the artist.

About the Artist

As long as we are talking about offering insights into the ever-present question that lingers on a lot of the reader’s minds, the who, an about page is another element that is near a necessity in the design. And though most sites do include some sort of behind the scenes peek at who is running things, some might not think it that necessary on a portfolio site that is meant to highlight the art. However, part of showcasing the work, is shining the spotlight on the artist.

Moonbeam Illustrations

From the influences that shaped the artist’s style and form, to their individual path to finding their unique voice, there is a lot of personal information that they could offer the readers via the about page. Once again, you want to make sure that all of the information is presented in an effective and interesting way, and this is not an area to turn a blind eye to that mission. Where the rest of the site should be reflective of their artistic style, the about page should work to incorporate more about the individual and less about the work.

Though most of the sites we design have an about page, the layout and style do not tend to stray much from the overall site style and layout, but in the case of an artist’s portfolio site this page should feel a bit apart from the rest and embody more of the artist.

Quick Tip

• This is naturally an area where you will need a lot of input from the artist to pull it off, but you may want to consider doing a short interview with them to build the about page from.

A Blog

In the interest of giving the site more of a personal touch and insight, not to mention keeping the site current and easy to update, a blog is another element that is a complete must-have when designing an artist’s portfolio. Blogs are extremely popular these days, so selling the client on the idea of attaching a blog to the site might be easier than some other elements that you want to include. But no matter how warm they are to the idea, this is an issue to push for.

Made Like Me

This is another opportunity to break from the normal style of the rest of the site and get a little creative with building the blog into the site. Though you may have some freedom with regards to flexibility in the formatting here, you still want the blog to retain the same tone and feel as the rest of the site. This is not necessarily a separation from the site as much as it is simply an extension of the portfolio itself. So be sure that however you stray from the design of the main site for the blog, be sure that you do not stray too far.

As I previously mentioned, blogging is catching on and so many are tapping into the blogosphere to get their work out there, so this may be something that is already requested, but if not, a blog can be beneficial to an artist in so many ways that I cannot list them all here.

Quick Tip

• Make the main column width sufficient enough for providing a large enough of an image that the detail comes out so the artist can share other works they produce that won’t necessarily end up in the portfolio.

Overall, Don’t Overdo It!

It is important to remember that while breaking some of the usual design rules is completely acceptable, especially in cases such as these, usability still needs to remain a key focus at all times. So don’t go so far that the users are instantly confused by the site and have no intuitive ways to begin navigating it causing them to throw in the towel and leave. So keep the usability in mind and keep the readers around.

Irina Batkova

That is all on this end

That just about wraps up the post, but the discussion is just beginning in the comments section below. Chime in with what elements you think are must-haves for an artist portfolio, or just share your thoughts or experiences on this topic.

Related posts:

1. Elements of a Great Band Website
2. Traps To Avoid When Designing An Online Photo Portfolio
3. How to Use Job Boards to Land Clients

The callused hands, the dirty brows, and the sweat-drenched boots. I’m talking about the blue-collar worker. The men and women who wake up every morning with a day full of manual labor in front of them. From coal mining to telephone pole repair to high-rise construction workers, the working class makes the world go with their hard work, dedication and sweat equity. Many people choose to look down from their suits and cubicles at this working class with disdain and belittlement. As designers, we may sometimes feel like we’re somewhat above the hammers and nails and lunch pails of our blue-collar brethren.

Now to be sure you’re on track, this isn’t an article on social class or the choice of profession. Rather, I want you to focus in on some lessons every designer (and possibly any other white-collar worker) can learn from those who pack a lunch pail and put in a hard hat’s day. Just because we’re in a service industry, doesn’t mean their aren’t elements of our profession that resemble the situations faced by the working class. And with the Internet becoming more and more essential to our society, those who’s jobs it is to build and layout the web (you and me) can, in a way, be considered the blue-collar class of the information age.

So put down your Wacom tablet and pick up your hard hat as we look at 5 lessons every designer can learn from the Blue-collar worker.

It’s Hard Work

Chopping down trees or putting on a roof in 100 degree weather is no easy task. There’s not much glamor or relaxation when it comes to many blue-collar jobs. Workers are asked to work and work hard. In many circumstances the environment is not pleasant and the job at hand can be strenuous, both physically and mentally. It takes dedication and sometimes a lot of sweat to get the job done right. And you don’t usually find too many complaints from those who’ve made it their careers to put in the hours in such conditions.

As a designer, a lot of what we do is hard. Now we’ve all probably been in that state of flow from time to time where inspiration comes easily and the hours fly by, but often we find ourselves battling the grind of deadlines and client demands. A lot of effort can go unnoticed as we sweat out the last few pixels before we ship off a design. And sometimes even finding the right inspiration can be hard enough.

Expecting ideas to just come to you is the wrong approach. Take time every day to work out some ideas and build up a reservoir of designs. You’ve got to put in the hours even when it’s not the most pleasant of circumstances or even when the dollar signs aren’t stacking up.  It’s these consistent work habits that will turn you into a design machine. Having the ability to crank out work even when you’re not feeling your best will pay off. So pack your lunch pail, put down that Starbucks and get to work.

Focus on Your Craft

Many, if not all manual trade jobs, begin with apprenticeships. The reason being is most of what you learn in a blue-collar workplace happens on the job. There aren’t too many textbooks or blog articles on how to mix cement or chop wood. Understanding the ins and outs of a workplace happens by spending time with those who’ve mastered their craft. Knowing the right way to hold a jackhammer happens while you’re operating a jackhammer for the first time; you don’t get a degree from jackhammer school.

Taking a similar approach with design, you should be spending more time doing and less time reading. While I believe education in design theory is great, most of what you’ll pick up happens when you’re creating or watching others create. Find a mentor. Take on an internship. Develop your specific craft through work and more work. The more time you spend using your tools and practicing your specific crafts, the more of an expert you’ll become. Ask questions from those who’ve come before you. Answer questions for those who are just now learning. And be proud of what you’ve accomplished. Just as with many blue-collar workers, designers can sit back at the end of the day and actually see something they’ve accomplished.

Take Care of Your Tools

Almost every blue-collar worker has his or her hands on a tool for most of the day. That tool could be tiny screwdriver or a massive diesel front-loader. Regardless of size or function, a good worker knows his tools, and more importantly, knows how to take care of his tools. Painters wash off their brushes at the end of a job. Auto mechanics have a home for each one of their hundreds of tools. Every tool should be treated with care.

So what are our tools as a designer? First, we have our physical tools. Pens, paper, computer software, etc. help us get designs out of our mind and into function. Ensure that whatever system you use is well maintained and in proper-working condition. Updates to your computer or keeping your drawing tools in pristine condition will ensure that when an idea comes, you’re ready to jump into action.

An organized work bench will make finding the right tool fast and easy. If you’re a web designer, having a file structure of common elements and templates at hand will make sure your designs start off quickly and consistently. Carrying a notebook with you at all times, means you’re ready for any and all forms of inspiration.

Finally our biggest tool, our mind, should be taken care of the most. Getting enough sleep and staying healthy will keep your mind sharp and ready for the mental strain that many designers face.

Don’t Be Outsourced

With more and more service-based industries popping up in the Western World, many blue-collar jobs have been outsourced to developing countries. This is also, in large part, due to the lower wages offered in many of these developing countries. If you’ve lived your life working in a blue-collar profession, only to find out that your job is being shipped overseas, it can be devastating and sometimes impossible to find similar work.

The same can hold true for many in the design industry, especially those in web design. Finding work done cheaper overseas is especially easy when the Internet is bridging the gap. So how do you avoid being outsourced?

Add value. While there are many blue-collar jobs that are being outsourced, there are still those highly skilled hard workers that will always have jobs locally, primarily because they make it worth it. So how do we add value as designers? This is where we step away from the manufacturing class and into the service class. Offer clients interaction and services that are impossible to get from overseas interactions. Expand your skill set to include complimentary services. Whatever your specific method, make sure your not easily replaceable.

When the Whistle Blows, Call it a Day

Finally, a simple lesson that is sometimes easy to miss is, when the day is over, leave the work alone. There’s a growing trend in the information age to blur the lines between work life and home life. Having a healthy work-life balance should be somewhere high up on everyone’s priority list. There are always going to be more opportunities to get ahead and more work to be done. If you don’t learn anything else from the blue-collar worker, take away the will to put your work aside and spend time with your family and friends. Many times the work can wait until tomorrow. So listen for the whistle and call it a day.

Related posts:

1. 8 Designers Who Never Fail to Inspire
2. Measuring Up: Are You a Good Designer or a Great One?
3. How to Use Job Boards to Land Clients

Things to consider before selling ads

Should you sell advertising space? There is no right or wrong answer to that question, ultimately you have control over what advertisements are shown, but will advertising turn off some of your readers? Before you jump into anything, it’s a good idea to sort through the pros and cons. Here are some things you should consider before you make that jump.

Why advertise?

To monetize your site or blog is often the first answer given, and with good reason. Your time is valuable. But are there other ways you can make money without advertising? Is it really necessary to sell valuable real estate on your site to gain a few extra pounds (or dollars?) Maybe your site is more suited toward monetizing your brand through merchandising, or offering paid services?

Should you use an advertising marketplace or fly solo?

Many of the blogs in the design community use BuySellAds to manage their advertisements. Allowing a company like BSA to handle your ads, saves you time, connects you with a growing marketplace, and improves renewal rates.

However for many people, 25% commission is a tough pill to swallow, and perhaps you’d like a little more control. Could you just handle everything by yourself? Of course you could. You can simply use a PayPal account and solicite advertisers. This way you are on a more personal level with your advertisers. You will have plenty of control over who is advertising, and you will be able to build up long term relationships with your advertisers.

Advertising needs to be targeted to the correct audience, selling your own ad space will allow you to control the kinds of products and services sold on your site. For example, on my site I have turned down offers from online betting sites and other questionable services because they aren’t targeted towards my users.

Your stats matter

Improving your statistics is important. Advertisers will be concerned with your page views, Google ranking, Alexa rank and more.

A little about your Alexa rank

If you don’t know what Alexa is, you should definitely check them out. They are a web information company that allows you to monitor all sorts of user stats, page views, and interactions made on your site.

Alexa allows you to size up your competitors on the web. You can see your traffic, search analytics, audience data and click stream data. Showing how other popular sites are in comparison to yours, what terms people are using to find your competitor’s sites, what kind of visitors your site is attracting, and where affiliate partners and programs are helping garner traffic for your competition.

A good way to keep track of all these stats is to download the Alex Plugin. Not only does this widget allow you to monitor the ‘Alex rank’ from the site but you can also customize it to show several other stats. This widget can be placed wherever you wish on your site to quickly show others your Alexa ranking.

Sizing up your competition with Alexa

• The Alexa Traffic Rank will show how popular a site is compared to yours, including Reach, Page views and more.
• Search Analytics will show you which terms your competition is using to get traffic.
• The Audience Data will show you what kind of visitors your competition is attracting.
• The Click Stream Data will show you where your competition is getting traffic from affiliate programs and partners.

A few tips to improve your advertising appeal

Here are a couple of ways you can improve your rankings, and your appeal to advertisers.

Write content daily

Writing on a daily basis not only will improve you as a writer, but also bring in a constant stream of page views and hits. You will soon be building up large floods of people who flock to your site on a daily basis to check out the content you are writing. With high numbers of impressions you are much more likely to attract the bigger and better advertisers.

Put yourself in the advertiser’s shoes

Produce content that is interesting and relavant to your potential advertiser’s target audience. If you are going to provide a series of articles on WordPress tips, hints and tricks you are likely to attract WordPress companies online. They will be attracted to advertise on your site because your content is bringing in the type of reader who they want to sell their product/service to.

How to get accepted on an advertising marketplace

Try, try again. If at first you are not accepted there is nothing against, applying again once you have taken the necessary steps to try and boost your ranking and chances. You may have only been a few steps away from being accepted the first time around, so there is no harm in improving yourself to be accepted the second time around.

What to do once your site is accepted

Be precise about where your ads are available in your advertising description. If you provide the wrong description and your ads are placed further down your site they are less likely to get the impressions and clicks the advertiser is hoping for. Give it a place on your blog where advertisers are going to want to advertise, not hidden away where visitors aren’t going to see the ads. Promote your ad space and link to where potential advertisers can purchase it from.

BuySellAds lists your advertisements for buyers to discover your site, but you will have a better chance of selling space if you promote where people can purchase your ads. You should try to have at least one empty advertising block in the advertising area that links directly to the place where people can contact/purchase that same spot. This will help advertisers visualize where his/her ad will be placed, and quickly make that purchase. Another good practice is to have a spot in your navigation which links to an advertising specific page. On this page you can showcase opportunities available on your site and link to a purchase page.

Keep your price consistent for a few months, otherwise it may put off advertisers from being a loyal supporter and advertiser on your site. Yes you will (hopefully) be improving as you go along and so you should re-evaluate your prices in line with the kind of traffic and hits your site is generating, but be realistic to both the competition and content of your site. Be sensible in offering prices based upon, the size, page views, and prominence of the advert.

Be patient and consistent and your advertising revenue will grow. What experiences have you had with display advertising? What considerations and advice would you share?

Related posts:

1. MyInkBlog Now Using BuySellAds
2. Top 10 Places to Submit Photoshop Tutorials
3. 7 Benefits of Having a Professional Website Design

Let’s start with an obvious statement: Photoshop is an incredibly popular application. I don’t think that really comes as a surprise to anyone. Many people would probably even point to it as the single most popular image editing application on the planet. There are dozens of sites dedicated strictly to teaching the various intricacies of how to use Photoshop, and thousands more that publish Photoshop tutorials on a regular basis.

As popular as it is though, Photoshop is not free from significant criticisms. It can certainly be a real drain on your system resources, and is famous for crashing suddenly – invariably when you’re right in the middle of something really important. This recent installment of Brad Colbow’s The Brads captures this perfectly:

I also posted the question “what drives you nuts about Photoshop?” to Twitter and got some interesting answers from my followers:

• when my cursor gets stuck on the hand symbol, for no apparent reason (via @wjwinoz)
• re: Photoshop – the price. (via @ptamaro)
• no right click for cutting and pasting (via @biotwist)
• Hate that despite its bloat, Photoshop is still the best thing out there. I wish there was something leaner and meaner. (via @keysthatclick)
• Nothing. I use FW! =P (via @iamhenrym)
• that it crashes all the time #PSsucks (via @amberweinberg)
• the track pad gestures being automatically on in cs4 once your canvas is askew its really hard to line it back up (shortcut?) (via @willistyling)
• The price. I’ve purchased at least 12 times over the years (via @ptamaro)
• The price! (via @gregmcmillan)

The Unexplored Reason

Clearly, people have some issues with Adobe’s premier product. Still, it remains at the top in terms of popularity – far, far ahead of applications like GIMP, Pixelmator or Corel’s Photo-Paint (which I personally started learning on). In discussing why this might be, we could talk about development and innovation, and how Photoshop always seems to be introducing new features (the new content aware fill looks incredible). We could talk about the integration with the rest of the extensive Creative Suite, which while not perfect, is still pretty good. We could even talk about marketing and the way Adobe builds the hype around each new offering.

These are all very valid points and worthy of discussion, but there is one interesting fact that I think often gets overlooked in this whole discussion, and it has to do with language itself. The name Photoshop has literally evolved beyond itself.

It has become a verb.

I don’t think you will find it in any official dictionaries (yet), but there is an entry in the Wiktionary. The fact remains, however, that the once proper noun “Photoshop” has been absorbed into the vernacular and transformed (in spite of Adobe’s apparent protest) into a verb having to do with the digital modification of an image, seemingly regardless of what actual software may have been used. To quote that vast body of knowledge that is Wikipedia:

photoshop is widely used as a verb, both colloquially and academically, to refer to retouching, compositing (or splicing), and color balancing carried out in the course of graphic design, commercial publishing, and image editing

How many people remember the Dove Evolution video, which uses some simple time lapse technology to demonstrate the evolution of an attractive though somewhat ordinary woman into a full blown glamour model? Much of the process is achieved through makeup, but some significant changes are also achieved by means of digital manipulation. The final product is, admittedly, quite stunning but that’s hardly the point.

The point is that if we saw that in a magazine or on a billboard and turned to someone – even someone who is in no way involved in design – and said “that is so photoshopped,” we would be under the assumption that the other person will understand that what we actually mean is that we think that the image has been digitally modified to remove any “imperfections”. By simply looking at the finished image, we have no real way of knowing if the touch ups were done in Photoshop or one of its competitors, yet we use the word without so much as a second thought.

The Genericized Trademark

Of course, this is hardly an isolated phenomenon, and some other contemporary technologies have also seen similar occurrences with their own names. Google is probably the best example. Today, only the absolutely most isolated or technologically unsavy people fail to understand when you say you’re going to “Google” something.

I am also finding that the same thing is happening with Facebook, though to a lesser extend. Instead of saying “I’ll send you a message through Facebook” or “I’ll write on your wall” (which has always struck me as a strangely vandalistic terminology), people are beginning to adapt the phrase “I’ll Facebook you,” simply meaning that they will engage in some form of communication through that particular social network.

This process is can ultimately lead to something called the genericized trademark, and is a really interesting linguistic development. Again, Wikipedia has a short list of “trademarks that have lost their legal protection in the US”. Some of these brand names that have become so synonymous with a particular product or commodity that you might not even know that they are a brand name.

Thermos? Zipper? Escalator? Before researching this, I seriously had no idea that these were originally brand names.

I also found a blog post entitled “brand names that have become everyday nouns”, which lists some similar products that, while likely still protected, do still tend to be used in a very generalized way.

How Photoshop Benefits

So how can this help Photoshop maintain its market share? I think it’s simply a matter or prevalence. The applications’ name has developed into a verb because it is so widely used and known. Designers use it. Artists use it. Photographers us it. Its fame has become so widespread that it has actually trickled out of these circles and into the public discourse in a way that none of Adobe’s other offerings have.

How many of your non designer friends would know what Illustrator is? InDesign? Flash might be a bit more well known, but probably more as a product that is experienced on the internet rather than an application for building rich, dynamic and interactive content.

Given all this, I would argue that Photoshop has found itself in a rather interesting position. One of the key elements of successful branding is always mindshare. When people think about a particular type of product, what brand do they think of first? Everyone wants to be right at the top of that list, and companies go to great lengths to compete with each other in order to grab that spot, which is probably coveted as much – if not more – than the number one spot on a particular Google search.

What better way to achieve this level of mindshare than to have your product name actively being used to represent an entire field of work? After years of hearing people talk about Photoshopping this or Photoshopping that, when a budding designer, artist or photographer is looking to get into the industry, what software do you think they’re going to turn to first?

Probably Photoshop.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re going to actually purchase Photoshop and use it as their application of choice. There are many other factors involved in this decesion – not the least of which has to be price. Still, I would maintain that Photoshop is probably the first place that many beginners will turn to, simply because it is a name that has gained so much mindshare, through everything we have already talked about.

A Fine Balance

Now, I’m certainly not suggesting that this genericized trademark stuff is the sole reason that Photoshop sits tall and proud as the king of the digital imaging arena. There are certainly many other reasons, many of which have probably contributed directly to Photoshop becoming so popular in the first place. It’s an interesting concept, though, and one that I have not seen discussed all that much in the design community.

I am also not suggesting that Adobe’s premier offering will never be toppled from its place of prominence. The whole process of genericized trademarks can actually be very dangerous for companies. If a particular trademark becomes too generic, the ability to maintain legal protection can be lost and the name becomes a part of the public domain. The moment that happens, it is available for anyone to use, and you would see dozens of different “photoshops” popping up all over the place.

Obviously, Adobe doesn’t want that to happen, and I’m sure that they are monitoring the situation very closely. If it ever appears the use of Photoshop as a verb ever starts to move into dangerous territory, you can be sure that Adobe will take steps to stop it and protect itself.

In the meantime, however, Adobe continues to offer minor protests against the use of Photoshop as a verb. Personally, however, I have a sneaking (and completely unsubstantiated) suspicion that they are actually secretly enjoying this phenomenon, and the mindshare it helps them maintain.

Related posts:

1. Freebie, Cool MediaSlap Photoshop Brushes
2. How to use Adobe Photoshop Actions
3. Create A Photoshop Action For Screenshots

CEO’s don’t dress like they’re homeless and wine tasting events are generally never held in the back of a liquor store. There’s a good reason behind this. People generally do not follow the “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” motto, so the very first thing they do is, you guessed it, judge your book by it’s cover. The same is true for website designs -people visit your site and immediately make a decision on if it’s a place they’re going to spend time (and money) at, or if they’re going to lump you in with the millions of other sites that look just like yours and move on to something else.

As you can see, the benefits of having a professional design can be great, especially if your website is geared towards building your business. Outlined in this post are 7 different reasons why it’s beneficial to have a professional web design.

1. Added exposure through CSS galleries

One of the benefits of having a professional design created is that you’re able to submit the website to galleries around the web and have it showcased to audiences that you would have otherwise never been in front of. This brings in added traffic, potential clients and also adds to your authority by being talked about across the web and showcased as a professional website.

2. Your first impressions do count

Like I discussed in the beginning of this article, your first impression made is an important one – and a professional website design is definitely going to leave a better first impression that one that looks as if it was put together by your cousins neighbor who is 12 and just got his first PC.

3. Highlight your expertise with ease

With a professional website design, you’re able to showcase the things you do best – if you’re a designer, the design itself showcases your skills and if you’re a writer, you’re able to utilize a great design to highlight areas you excel at – maybe setting up a call to action box integrated into the design that lets people know what you do and how they can hire you. This would be much better than just having a site slopped together with no real direction.

4. Better design + more eyes = More sales

With your killer design, you’re attracting visitors from all over the web – they want to sit & stare at the beautiful website design you’ve got on display and then, out of nowhere, they’re going to get the urge to pull their credit card out of their pockets and buy tons of products from you. Well, it might not happen exactly like that, but a good design that brings in more visitors is definitely going to have some of that trickle into your sales.

5. Less bugs and cross browser compatibility

If you hire someone who is great with IE6 but has yet to hear about the fact that IE7 and IE8 are out, Firefox, Opera, Safari and Chrome are all web browsers and they’re severely behind the times, how do you expect them to make sure that your website is accessible to the visitors of your site? A professional web designer will ensure that your website is clearly viewable on all major browsers, thus giving you the ability to keep your professional appearance up in front of everyone viewing your site, even those who are viewing in the less-than-popular browsers (IE6).

6. Reduce your maintenance time greatly

With a professional website design, the time you actually have to spend cleaning things up and making sure everything is up to day drops drastically, giving you more time to focus on the things that matter most – traffic, sales and increased visibility. The majority of the time, your design will not even have to be touched for a year or two – until you’re ready for an updated look, at which time you can contact your original designer to give you a face lift, keeping your hands free to, again, make more sales and run your business.

7. Increased search engine visibility

Some people may not believe it, but the benefits of a professional web design also trickle into your search engine rankings and visibility. For starters, a professional web designer will ensure the code markup is clean and easy to read – great for spiders who crawl your page. The other increase of search visibility comes from all of those links and the added exposure your website design gets across the web – design blogs regularly feature the awesome designs they find across the web and the new clients you bring in will feature a link back to your site at the bottom of their site, increasing your back links (this is something you’d have to make sure your clients are OK with – I know from my business that 9 times out of 10 they’re fine with it).

What benefits do you see?

Take a second and leave us a comment letting everyone know what benefits you reap from having a professional website design. After all, MyInkBlog readers are some of the most creative people out there, so I know there are some gems of wisdom you can share ;)

Related posts:

1. Elements of a Great Band Website
2. Looking For Some Inspiration For Your Website?
3. 3 Powerful Ways To Make Typography Talk On Your Website

I’ve been working with CSS for quite a while now, and even though it’s relatively easy to learn, there are always new tips and tricks to be found. I’m learning new stuff all the time. I wanted to take a moment to put together this helpful list of CSS tips I wish I knew when I first started. Although many of these tips are common knowledge, I think you’ll find them helpful. At the very least I hope you’ll be nodding your head in agreement.

Use Overflow: Hidden; to Clear Floats

It wasn’t until recently that my style sheets were littered with unnecessary clearing floats that looked like the following.

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.clear { clear: both; }
<div id="columns">
<div id="column1"></div>
<div id="column2"></div>
<div class="clear"></div>
</div>

These clearing floats will work perfectly fine, but they are unnecessary. Instead you can just use overflow: hidden; on the parent div to clear the children elements, like in the following example.

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#columns { overflow: hidden; }
<div id="columns">
<div id="column1"></div>
<div id="column2"></div>
</div>

Group Elements Together

One of the mantras of good coding 101 is to keep your code as simple and concise as possible. This helps its readability and performance. If you have a couple of elements that are doing the same thing, it’s wise to string them together. So instead of…

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h1 { color: #333; font-weight: bold; }
h2 { color: #333; font-weight: bold; }

You can group these elements like so…

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h1, h2 { color: #333; font-weight: bold; }

Comments Are Important

Many of the sites that I create are 1-man projects. The last thing I want to do when I get into the flow of coding a design is to stop my progress to add some comments. However, when I go back to that code a year later I often have no idea what I was trying to accomplish. By adding logical comments throughout I can give myself very readable reminders about my code. And if, someone else gets the pleasure of looking through it they’ll have a better chance of understanding what I was trying to do.

Add Some Base Styles to the Body

This goes back to the code-less principle I discussed earlier. I like to get a nice base of font styles setup right on the body tag rather than redefining font-styles for every element. Here is an example of what I mean…

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body { color: #555; font: normal .8em/1.5em helvetica, arial, sans-serif; }
<!-- Then I can just set weight, and size by percentage -->
h2 { font-size: 150%; font-weight: bold; }

Use Some Kind of CSS Reset

One of the first difficult lessons that CSS noobs run into is the differences between browsers, especially when it comes to padding and margin styles. The best way to combat these inconsistencies is to start with some kind of CSS reset. There are a ton out there. Perhaps the most popular and the one I start with the most is Eric Meyer’s CSS Reset. Sometimes I just put together my own. At the very least you should use a simple global reset like this…

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* { margin: 0; padding: 0; }

Use CSS Shorthand

This is me preaching about writing as little code as possible again! Why write this much code?

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p { font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: .8em;
line-height: 1.5em;
margin-bottom: 10px;
margin-top: 10px; }

When you can shorten it to this

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p { font: normal .8em/1.5em verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 10px 0; }

IE Sucks

This well know fact has been covered more than enough, but I must admit that when I first started I wasn’t sure what all the fuss was about. After spending hours trying to make things look ‘ok’ in IE, you quickly come to realize just how much you loathe this piece. The best advice I can give on this subject is to fight through it, eventually you can tame the beast. Use hacks as little as possible, and in really tough situations target IE specific styles with a conditional statement like this.

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<!--[if IE]>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="ie.css" type="text/css" />
<![endif]-->

Take Advantage of Progressive Enhancements

Just because IE sucks doesn’t mean you can’t use technologies like CSS 3 and HTML 5 to add progressive enhancements to your site. So go ahead and add rounded corners in CSS, and box shadows (in moderation please!). And if you really want to get things looking pretty similar in IE here are 10 Ways to Make Internet Explorer Act Like a Modern Browser. Even so, it’s good to keep in mind that your site doesn’t need to look identical (not that it ever will) across every browser.

Writing Clean Code Makes Me Sleep Better

This tip goes along the same lines as commenting throughout your code. Writing cleaner code helps with readability for yourself, and for those poor folks who may have to read your code down the road. How exactly to clean up your code however, can get a little nit picky. There is plenty of debate about which way is best, for instance should you use hyphens, underscores or camelCase, others debate over whether to alphabetize or prioritize your properties, still others wrestle over whether to put css on one line or multiple lines. For the record, I use hyphens, alphabetize, and single line, and that’s definitely the right way to do it :)

Till I Learn Some New Stuff

That’s it for now, but like I said I’m always learning new things. What sort of tips have you learned that you’d like to share. And feel free to add to the debate about what is the best way to write clean code (I’m sure the opinions are limitless).

Related posts:

1. 10 Tips for Writing Better jQuery Code
2. The Crafty Coder’s CSS Toolbox
3. Sizzle – A Look at jQuery’s New CSS Selector Engine

You hear all the time if you are a freelancer, that you are essentially the business. Not only are you all aspects of it, but you are also the face behind it. But how much of that face is actually yours, and how much of it is a sort of compromised professional persona that may not be a fully representative of you? And if you are in fact, partaking in this sort of professional facade, just what are the implications of this behavior? Does it speak more about you and your professionalism, or does it speak to the market that you are operating in?

In the interest of full disclosure I am going to out myself and announce for the first time, that I am one of these freelancers who dons this public persona that is a watered down version of myself, and I do it, because of the possible client blowback. This often doesn’t amount to much more than biting my proverbial tongue when it comes to social media environs, but it is a compromise that I recognized being made, and one that got me thinking. Are we all, to a degree, playing a role in the interest of appearance for potential clients? And how much of ourselves are people actually wanting or expecting us to reveal about who we are through our business?

The blogosphere is loaded with posts warning about business faux-pas that occur via the various social media outlets, which prove that some people give no consideration to the effects of their online interactions. But as a freelancer, these interactions can be crucial for the ability of your business to thrive, so paying special attention to them comes highly recommended with this territory. Hence the facade of professionalism to help act as a sort of safeguard. For me, I established a personal blog years ago, complete with a podcast and a twitter account that I pretty much keep separate from my freelance business life. This affords me an outlet free from possible clients that may be turned off by my personal views and politics shared through these outlets.

But what does it all mean?

For those of us who work with a professional alter ego, we have to learn where to draw the lines, and when we take on branding our business, those lines can become blurred. Again, for effectively building a personal brand, it has to be just that, personal. But how much of you should be included in the mix? Because just like the blogosphere being loaded with posts telling you to be aware of the weight your online conversations, there are a number of posts highlighting the importance of freelancers building themselves into the brand.

However, just like a talkative stranger we meet who will unload a decades worth of baggage and poignantly personal experiences on us in the span of ten minutes in response to the kindest and most rhetorical of acknowledgments or greetings, we do not want to put too much out there. Let us be honest for a moment, though most who populate the web may agree with the notion that we want to know who is behind the scenes of our favorite brands, we only want to know so much. Not that we are shallow, but I think that most of us want to know them to a degree, but we want also want to some aspects of them to remain a bit of a mystery.

Now I cannot speak for everyone in this case, but from others I have spoken with in the community, we do like some of our favorite branded freelancers to leave a bit of who they are to the imagination, so that we may fill in the gaps ourselves or leave them blank if we so choose. But why is this? Is it so that we may continue to paint them in a certain light, that we may find a bit more favorable? For whatever reason, because we want them to remain somewhat more approachable or higher on the pedastal we have them placed, we want some of who they are but not all of it. Perhaps it is simply a T.M.I. situation and we would rather remain somewhat in the dark.

Any way you slice it, the pie comes up portioned to serve in doses not as a whole in order to be more palatable to some (in my case, potential clients who do not care to, nor need to hear my political opinions and stances because they are not relevant to the task at hand.). Now this is not to say that our personal politics and morals, even if they are kept to ourselves, cannot guide or steer us in our choices as to which clients to take on and which to pass by. That is one of the great things about being a freelancer, you have the right to refuse your services to anyone for any reason without compromising your stances or your professionalism.

As a vegan I would never do design work for any company that uses animals or animal products as part of their business model, but that does not mean that I would openly be disrespectful when declining the work and risk damaging the reputation of my business. I would kindly thank them for their consideration but tell them that I cannot work with them at this time, perhaps even recommending other freelancers that I know who may not have these same hangups as I do. So even if we keep part of ourself buried behind a mask of professionalism, it does not mean that this part of us becomes compromised. It is still there. It still guides us.

So as you set out to brand your freelance business, it is relevant to keep these kinds of considerations in mind. It may be necessary for you to draw these kinds of lines so that you know just where your brand stops and you start. In the interest of business preservation you might not want to take full advantage of the ‘be yourself’ freedom that so many turn to freelancing thinking it offers. You have to remember that there are still expectations that others will have that could potentially impact your brand construction, so even in this case, it is not all about you.

So what are the expectations?

There is no way to overstate the importance of your brand, so making sure that you give it every thoughtful consideration is vital, and part of that is taking on other perspectives for a sort of informal Q&A. So it becomes necessary that you explore the expectations that will be placed on your brand to help you effectively decide how much of who you truly are should play just how much of a role in your brand. Essentially helping you to gauge how much of a personal injection to put in your brand and how much of a professional face to paint over the issue.

Now expectations will naturally vary with the freelance arena in which you hang your hat, and the individual experiencing your brand, but there are a few that are universally applied.

Originality

One major expectation that people will put upon your brand, is one of originality. They expect you to craft an individual and unique brand, and this idea would certainly lend itself to and lead towards putting some of yourself in the mix. But there are other ways of garnering an original label for your brand, beyond making it all about you, so there is still a line here to consider.

Some Level of Professionalism

This is another major expectation that is often placed upon your brand from various directions, so maintaining some level of professionalism is usually a good idea. This can definitely help your business be taken seriously, and may also impart to some a sense of reliability. This is a consideration that tends to point towards scaling back a bit on the personal, even if it is just a little bit.

Clear Communication

Given that you can build your brand in whatever direction you wish, one expectation to keep in mind is certainly its ability to clearly communicate everything your business represents. So however much of yourself you incorporate into the brand, make sure that it does not muddle up the message that is communicated to your audience and potential clients. The more professional you make your brand the clearer the messages taken away from interactions with it may be.

Consistency

Whichever mix you end up with in your brand, know that another common expectation that most of the populous it’s positioned to impact will place on it is consistency. So no matter how much you and how much professionalism is added in to fill out your brand, make sure that you continue to keep up that mix and not veer too far from its established path once you have gotten going. This shift can really mix up the reception you get from the following and the reputation you have built for your business.

In Conclusion

Perhaps it is the hippie in me that always tends to push for balance, but I honestly believe that in this instance striking for that balance of personal and professional backing for your freelance brand is the best area to aim. But I am sure that others will draw different conclusions and wherever you land in this discussion, I would love to hear your thoughts below in the comment section.

Related posts:

1. Don’t Freelance If…
2. 5 Ways To Impress Your Clients
3. How to Start a WordPress Blog

Facebook, your parents are now on it, and maybe even your grandparents too! Proving to have staying power, Facebook towers over the demise, and eroding of previous contender Myspace. Facebook has many interactive features, and various functions we can all take advantage of. As design sites, we have all slowly migrated over to having our own Facebook fan pages, and this can prove to be very successful in driving Facebook ‘friends’ over to your site.

My Favorite Design Blog Fan Pages

These great design sites can be found on Facebook, head over and become a fan today!

MyInkBlog on Facebook (350 Fans)

AdmixWeb (80 Fans)

AdmixWeb is an amazing web design, and development blog, owned and operated, by Teylor Feliz and Holly Lamarche.

AREA1 (33 Fans)

AREA 1 is a blog related to graphic/web design, blogging tutorials, & articles.

Colorburned (2,869 Fans)

Colorburned is a design blog featuring the best in design news, resources, and tutorials from around the web.

Coroflot (7,028 Fans)

Coroflot is a creative network for designers of all stripes. Upload your portfolio of work, and allow great employers, and observers to be able to see your skills!

Design Juices 36 Fans

Design Juices has its own facebook page. I encourage you to pass on the page to all of your friends, so we can grow in our presence online. The Facebook page is the place to go for all the updates regarding Design Juices, and is an open forum for any thoughts, and feelings you have regarding the blog.

Design Your Way (37 Fans)

Design Your Way is a great place to submit links relating to design, and offers great design articles on a range of topics.

DeviantART (216,917 Fans)

DeviantART aims to provide a place for any artist, both emerging and professional talents, to exhibit, and discuss works of art. With over 12 million registered members, and 100 million submissions, DeviantART is the world’s largest art community.

Fudge Graphics (1000 Fans)

Whether you’re looking for high quality freebies, inspiration, or design related news; Fudge Graphics has it.

Graphic River (616 Fans)

At Graphic River you can buy and sell, royalty free, layered Adobe Photoshop Files, Vector Graphics, Icon Sets, and Add-ons for Adobe Photoshop, and Illustrator.

Inspired Magazine (1,966 Fans)

Inspired Magazine is a daily inspiration source for web designers, illustrators, Twitter addicts, and other creative humans.

Inspiring Pixel (272 Fans)

Inspiring Pixel is an online inspiration repository for designers. The website features creative, and inspiring designs from Web, Graphic, and the UI design industry from professionals. This enables viewers to understand their work, and create similar designs themselves.

Lady Umbrella (3,374 Fans)

Lady Umbrella is a designer ladies t-shirt company based in Ireland. The company was established in 2008, with the dream of creating stunning t-shirts with the heroine, Lady Umbrella, in a variety of scenarios, and with a host of friends. Lady Umbrella has successfully run various giveaways, and competitions, in coorelation with improving their facebook profile. This has rapidly increased their fan base.

MacApp Storm (1,079 Fans)

MacApp Storm is a great site dedicated to Mac application news, reviews, competitions, and tips.

Naldz Graphics (257 Fans)

Naldz Graphics is a Design Blog for designers, and design lovers. They showcase the best tutorials, freebies, inspirations, and other useful, and informative resources to help, and give love to the design community.

Psd Tuts+ (3,331 Fans)

Psd Tutsplus is a blog/Photoshop site, made to house, and showcase some of the best Photoshop tutorials around.

Smashing Magazine (11,797 Fans)

Smashing Magazine delivers useful, and innovative information to Web designers, and developers. Their aim is to inform our readers about the latest trends, and fresh techniques in design, and Web development.

The Web Blend (133 Fans)

The Web Blend is a community for designers, developers, and tech junkies that keeps you current with a summary of the latest in web related news and trends.

Visual Swirl (80 Fans)

Visual Swirl is a creative design blog from the mind of Chris Thurman, dishing out tasty snacks for the creative mind.

Promoting your Facebook Page

Well, now that you have your Facebook page up and running, you want people to visit it?

• Use the great Facebook badge, and place it on your site. This is done with a simple piece of code provided by Facebook themselves, it simply fits inside your sidebar (or wherever you wish to place it.) This allows users to see your latest posted updates, and become a fan right away.
• Run a competition/giveaway through your site/Facebook page, and encourage users to become a fan in order to enter the giveaway. Simple ideas like this (with the right prize) often bring you hundreds of new readers and fans. (you can encourage them to follow your blog in various social network sites.)
• Syncing your twitter feed to your Facebook page is only a click away.
• Post up your new articles on your Facebook page, allowing you to receive additional traffic.
• Promote Facebook button at the bottom of your posts.
• Be interactive on the page, but don’t over-run users with updates, typically a one or two posts per day is necessary.
• Encourage your community of readers to comment on Facebook posts, and respond, encouraging conversation.

Related posts:

1. MyInkBlog Now on Facebook
2. Tutorial Featured on Photoshop Lady
3. Top 10 Places to Submit Photoshop Tutorials

Quick Nav

• Mind Mapping and Cluster Diagrams
• Using Statistics
• Browse Through Related Blogs
• Social Media
• Use Your Own Growth
• More Useful Tips
• Tools

In this post we are going to take a look at the fine art of brainstorming. Analyzing the ways and means that some of us use to get those clouds rolling in, and the storms raging relentlessly inside our heads.

I have talked in the past about the importance of the content on your blog, especially for garnering new readers, and so I decided that I would do a post that could help you achieve this content for your site. In this post we are going to take a look at the fine art of brainstorming. Here we will examine the important role that this plays in the creative process, and how it can be a blogger’s most invaluable content contributor.

The creative process is an involved structure with many pieces, fueled by our imaginations. In order to run wild with the process, we need to have the idea that is steering the wheel. For bloggers, this process is no different. But how do we find those ideas when we are facing this topical drought? Well, below are some ideas that tend to work in our house for this pair of creatives, so I thought it was time to share the style behind our storms, in hopes that they might work for others as well.

Mind Mapping and Cluster Diagrams

Cluster Diagrams, sometimes more commonly referred to as Mind Maps, are often times the visual representation and centerpiece of a brainstorming session. Transferring virtual thought clouds to paper have long been a staple in the productivity arena. By generating ideas that center around a single topic, and allowing for sub-categories to emerge through this mapping of your thoughts, you can help maximize the output of your storm.

Most of us, whether we have used them ourselves or not, are familiar with this type of thought structure, and have seen them in some form or another. They can be used to thoroughly examine a topic by allowing you to group information into clusters, and follow multiple avenues to draw connections to other areas or ideas. This can lead you to all kinds of content ‘clusters’,  allowing you tackle a topic from every possible angle. This also deters areas of your discussion to fall through the cracks, leaving gaps that readers will want filled in.

Using Statistics

A great way to understand your readers is to use your site statistics, such as Google Analytics or Mint. This offers some perspective as to what people are interested in. Find out what your readers are seeking, and then work towards giving it to them. This at least gives you a direction in which to point your creative output.

Now if you find that you have covered the area that is being searched, and are bringing people in to your site to the degree that you really cannot find a fresh approach, or at least an updated approach, then don’t. Have the presence of mind to know when enough is enough, and remember that re-hashing the same content over and over only diminishes the impact and effectiveness of your site’s posts.

Browse Through Related Blogs

Do not mistake what I am saying here. I am not advocating content theft or idea stealing by any stretch of the imagination. Copycatting is not exactly finding your way to your own content, as much as it is, helping yourself to someone elses. But simply browsing through blogs related to your topic can often times spark ideas separate from what you were looking at, yet still would not have come to without this jaunt through the blogosphere.

Another way that this can be especially useful is if you take the time to read through the comments to see if the readers are asking for more information, or have questions that were not addressed. Then you are not stealing their ideas, but you are expanding on them to help supplement the original post (which you should link to and credit so that readers can get the whole pie not just your piece), and fill in any informational gaps on the topic that have gone unbroached.

Social Media

Another great way to find content that is needed by the community, is by of course, going social. Media, that is. Get out on the various social media networks and find out what questions are being asked, and more importantly, which ones are not being answered. (I should qualify that with relevant questions.) This is another way to connect your content with the community, and that always helps it land.

Try to work a little social media into your brainstorming sessions, and you may just find that they tend towards the more fruitful end of the scale. Though, once again, be self aware and know if this media reach is actually helping, or simply distracting you from your search for content. And know that if you cannot find any questions that need tackling, take the initiative and ask some of your own. Find out via the SM outlets if there are any topics or questions your followers would like to see you take on for the blog. The outlets are there at our disposal, so make the most of them.

Use Your Own Growth

Another great place to look for ideas when you are brainstorming, is you. Look at the path that you have been on, and the many ways in which it has grown, and splintered, and what those changes have meant to your development and shaping. What have you learned on this road that you wished you had known before you got started?

What bumps in the road did you encounter, that had you known about them ahead of time, you would have avoided?

Your personal experience in your field can offer a look into that arena that others may not have noticed themselves. And as unique as you feel your tale will be, it can always assist others in their journey, even if their path does not always resemble your own. As you learn and grow in your craft take your readers along with you. You are a cog in the machine that is your industry, add value to your contributions by offering helpful insights to others from your own growth, so as to help them do the same.

More Useful Tips

• Schedule 1 to 2 half hour sessions a week for brainstorming to keep a cache of ideas. Try to make it a time when you can get through the half hour without any interruptions at all.
• Write down everything, even incomplete ideas. Don’t judge or criticize your ideas while brainstorming, just let them come, write them all down and make judgments later. This is the one time you want to go for quantity instead of quality.
• Keep a small notebook with you at all times so that you can jot down ideas as they come to you – it’s really easy to forget an idea if you don’t get it out of your head immediately.
• Set goals for brainstorming sessions. I might spend an entire session focusing on just freelance article ideas.
• Know the limits of an idea, and extend it as far as you reasonably can. Let it lead you to other places and down other avenues.
• Gap Filling. Identify your current spot – Point A – and your end goal – Point B. What is the gap that exists between A and B? What are all the things you need to fill up this gap? Write them down, and find out what it takes to get from point A to point B.
• Have a backup of your ideas. I recently lost aprox 40 article ideas because I only had them stored in one place.
• Free writing, free speaking, word association and the spider web
• If you feel like you’ve completely run out of ideas, free write for 5 minutes. Write anything and everything that comes into your mind.

Tools

Freemind is a premier free mind-mapping software written in Java. The recent development has turned it into a high productivity tool. We are proud that the operation and navigation of FreeMind is faster than that of MindManager because of one-click fold / unfold and follow link operations.

Mindmeister brings the concept of mind mapping to the web, using its facilities for real-time collaboration to allow truly global brainstorming sessions. Users can create, manage, and share mind maps online and access them anytime, from anywhere. In brainstorming mode, fellow MindMeisters from around the world (or just in different rooms) can simultaneously work on the same mind map and see each other’s changes as they happen.

StumbleUpon helps you discover and share great websites. As you click

Stumble!, we deliver high-quality pages matched to your personal preferences. These pages have been explicitly recommended by your friends or one of 8 million+ other websurfers with interests similar to you. By rating the sites you like () it automatically shares them with like-minded people – and helps you discover great sites your friends recommend. Use the search feature to stumble specific topics for ideas.

Cluster diagrams are a type of non-linear graphic organizer that can help to systematize the generation of ideas based upon a central topic. Using this type of diagram, the student can more easily brainstorm a theme, associate about an idea, or explore a new subject. Enchanted Learning offers a collection of printable graphic organizer templates for creating cluster diagrams.

Dabbleboard is an online collaboration application that’s centered around the whiteboard. With a new type of drawing interface that’s actually easy and fun to use, Dabbleboard gets out of your way and just lets you draw. Finally, the whiteboard enters the digital age!

Your Turn

What are some brainstorming techniques you depend on when your mind is on empty. Share your thoughts with a comment below.

Related posts:

1. Building Clout for Your Design Blog The Bard’s Way
2. What Have I Done For My Blog Today?
3. Make a Suggestion for a Tutorial or Article

Designing websites seems to appeal to a certain niche of people. Sure, we get called geeks and nerds (and we somehow find it endearing), but that doesn’t begin to cover the wide array of personalities that make up the design community. In this post the last thing I want to do is to paint all designers with a broad brush, but I do want to get to the bottom of what makes being a web designer so appealing to so many of us.

One common denominator seems to be the design process itself, and how it tends to be the perfect blend of creativity and logic, but that only touches the surface. In this post I’ll uncover my top 5 reasons why I love being a web designer.

The Creative Process

Photo by LookatLao

I love the start of any design. It’s awesomely open and full of potential. It’s our job as designers to tap into the creative potential and to give a project direction.

The importance of sketching has been touted across the design community for a while now. Not only is it extremely helpful, but it’s also a lot of fun. I just purchased my first Moleskine sketchbook to optimize this portion of the design process. The feeling you get when an idea begins to take shape is unparalleled in almost any other profession.

Logical Thinking

Although the creative process is a blast, I sometimes just like to figure out the best way to make things work. Fortunately, in web design the next logical step… is, well logical. Making my designs look as good in a browser as they do in a mock up can be very challenging, however it’s the learning process and the road blocks that inevitably follow that help me learn and develop my skills. These challenges that always ensue definitely strike a cord in my determined personality. There is a lot of satisfaction in the ah-ha moment.

Constantly Changing Technologies

Photo by Guillermo Esteves

Chris Coyier over at CSS Tricks recently put together a fun, tongue in cheek list of of all the things a modern web designer should know. Although it was mostly a joke, it was also pretty true. The list was enormous, but for me that’s part of the intrigue of being a designer. I don’t ever want to get to point of contentment. If I did then I would lose a lot of the drive and desire that made it interesting in the first place.

A Great Community

You’ve probably heard a lot of us design bloggers boast about the so-called “Design Community”. I know I’ve raved about it before, and I’ve created a design news section to share the community with you.

I think the thing that separates this community is it’s willingness to help each other. In what other field do people in direct competition go out of their way to help one another? I also love the helpful advice I get anytime I ask a design question in Twitter or Facebook.

A Much Needed Service

In a poor economy it sure is nice to be in a position of need. I’m not suggesting it’s always easy to get a job or freelance gigs, but the opportunities are out there. We’re at a point in time where almost every business needs a website. That’s great news for those of us that make a living creating them. It’s awesome to play a role in such an important aspect of a business. It’s easy to take pride in your work when you feel you are very much needed.

That’s A Wrap

If you are into web design (and I’m assuming you are if you’re reading this) then I’m quite curious to see if you agree with these reasons, and to find out what other ones you may have. Feel free to join the discussion and drop a comment below.

Related posts:

1. 5 Reasons to Subscribe to Design Blogs
2. 5 Reasons to Use SilverStripe For Your Next CMS
3. Left-Brained vs. Right-Brained – The Developer/Designer Paradox