Oranges Aren’t Apples: Design “Synonyms” Debunked
Occasionally, web design professionals will use terms interchangeably that don’t have the same definition. We made a compilation of eight words that are not synonyms but are often used interchangeably. Typeface v. Font Typeface- letters, numbers and symbols that share common design features, but house a family of variations in weight, style condensation, width or slant. Example: Helvetica is a typeface. Fonts- are printed or digital representations of typeface. They are physical representations of a typeface, but are one size and face. Font is the narrower form of typeface. Example: Helvetica... Read The Rest →
Top 5 Reasons Why Social Networks Benefit Your Start-up Business
It’s 2012, and social media is on every one’s smart phone, laptop, and tablet. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, social media is EVERYWHERE and is not only used for personal accounts. Social media has a list of benefits to help your start-up grow! Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest make it easy for your business to connect with your audience and expose your brand! Here are just a few benefits that social media can help launch for your start-up business:
5 Reasons Why You Should Care About Your Brand’s Colors
Have you ever wondered why certain colors can make your hungrier? Or, why certain colors tend to entice certain feelings? Color is the first thing anyone notices while visiting your website, glancing at your business card or looking at your company logo. This is a large part of the initial impression for your company’s identity. Here are 5 reasons why color is important to your brand:
The Green Sixteen
It’s college basketball season. And whether you’re an extreme fan or could care less about basketball, we all can agree that green is good. While it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of filling out brackets and rooting for your alma mater, we cannot ignore the great carbon footprint that March Madness inevitably carries with it. From the transportation of athletes to tournament matchups to the great amount of food and paper products utilized during the month’s events, March Madness is indeed harsh on the environment. But all... Read The Rest →
Making Sense of Social Media
It seems as though every day we are introduced to new set of sites and apps that are keen on making a portion of our lives increasingly “social”. There are apps like Foursquare that let you check-in at varying locations, cluing your followers and friends in on your whereabouts. Sites like YouTube have fostered a personal “vloging” revolution, allowing members to record and broadcast the most trivial aspects of their lives. Like it or not, social media is here to stay. Its presence is expected to increase exponentially in the... Read The Rest →
How Do You KNOW If Your Website Is Doing Its Job? (PART 2 IN A SERIES ON WEB USABILITY)
This post continues a series informed by Don’t Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, by web guru Steve Krug. I can’t say enough wonderful things about this book, so I won’t try. You’ll just have to read it yourself (and you’ll thank me for suggesting it). This week, I’d like to talk about testing. “Wait, you mean, we’re going to be TESTED on this??” Not on our blog, of course. I’m referring to user testing. Of your website. To see if people understand what you want... Read The Rest →
The Top 5 SEO Tips You’ve Never Thought Of
Search Engine Optimization. These three words have single-handedly changed the way we navigate the online world. Gone are the days of head-scratching Internet browsing. Besides proving to be a big opportunity for business-minded individuals, the Internet medium has built a successful market around a carefully developed virtual experience. Users expect seamless web searching and easy access to the sites they regularly visit. While a well thought out website engorged with meaningful content is highly respectable, it is often the features of web browsing that we don’t see that are most... Read The Rest →
Is Your Website Doing Its Job? (part 1 in a series on web usability)
This post begins a series informed by Don’t Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, by web guru Steve Krug. This book is not just for web designers and developers. Anyone who has a website, anyone who wants a website, anyone who visits websites, and certainly anyone who builds websites should consider this comparatively thin tome to be a kind of holy book of style. Just like the other holy book of style by Strunk and White, Steve’s book can be read in a few hours, yet... Read The Rest →
#1 Best Design Tip for 2012
The end of the last year and the beginning of the new one always ushers in that time that I like to call The Great Sum-up. Especially in the web design world, where standards, conventions and “hey, look at what I can do!” change faster than penny amounts in a day on the stock exchange, we designers have grown accustomed to hitting the blogs in December and January for articles like, “15 Best Design Trends for 2012,” or “100 Web Design Blunders in 2011,” or “2011′s Coolest CSS,” or “HTML5:... Read The Rest →
Creative Facebook Campaigns That Work
In an ever more crowded social media arena, creativity is king. From catchy graphics pages to award winning design layouts, your social media identity can make or break your brand. While we have come to expect ingenious Facebook campaigns, it’s not all as easy and seamless as it may appear. Some creative social media endeavors deserve more accolades and attention for their Internet ingenuity. A dedication to producing carefully planned web campaigns inspires us, and is an integral part of Parisleaf’s web experience. Here at Parisleaf we engage our Facebook... Read The Rest →
