I haven’t been using a cell phone for very long. For a long time I just didn’t need one. My home phone served its purpose and I wasn’t interested in signing a 2-year contract with anyone. However, it was pretty much inevidable as my life became more demanding. So about a year and a half […]

Your most profitable AdSense formatting and color scheme is going to be the one that blends well with your site, while not being camouflaged. The two biggest mistakes I see with AdSense formatting are:

The ad block is too well disguised with the website’s design
The ad block is so distinguished that it screams “advertisement”

The problem with […]

Trying to find a solid color scheme for your website? Let’s take a look at what the big dogs use to brand their sites. For purposes of this article, we will dumb color schemes down to two colors. Keep this in mind — when inventing colors for your site, it’s easier to start with two […]

Ever wonder what font they used for their logo? Here are a few fonts used by major companies.
adidas
Font name: ITC Avant Garde Gothic Medium
Author: Linotype
Yahoo!
Font name: Yahoo!
Author: Daniel Gauthier (GautFonts)
IBM
Font name: Men In Blue
Author: Digital Empires Inc.
Budweiser
Font name: Brewmaster Modern
Author:  Michael Hagemann (FontMesa)

The color you use for an interface can trigger a distinct response from people. Everyone associates colors with different things, but colors can also cause an emotional response. Sometimes colors can even have a physical effect on someone!
Black: Gives feeling self-confidence, power, and strength.
Blue: Calming, lowers blood pressure, decreases respiration.
Green: Soothing, relaxing mentally as well […]

Japanese know how it’s done. Generations of beautiful artwork and culture has created riveting designers that know how to complement colors.
This Japanese advertisement is a perfect example. The cars are a mending of red and blue, leading your eye to the woman’s pink jacket. The off-white head cloth and pants create the perfect pallete for […]

I dugg this yesterday. This MSDN article gives precise steps to replicate their icons… Just don’t actually do it though or you will be sued for copyright infringement.
Nevertheless, the tutorial is very inciteful to how the big dogs do it, starting with conceptualization to illustrating and animation. They even name the programs they use! No […]

How do you juggle ad placement with usability? There are many guides for raking in ad revenue. Horizontal bars, flashy colors, these will get your ads clicked, but are you sacrificing design for placement? Are you losing potential loyal visitors for click probability?
The first thing to keep in mind is product placement. You’ve seen it […]

A common misconception about web design is that people want a bunch of “stuff” on web pages. Take it from the most successful website in internet history – Google. People don’t want clutter. They don’t want web portals with every possible topic of content on one page. They don’t want a bunch of crazy Java […]

How does one come up with the ideal color combination for a site? The first step is to consider the nature of the site. Colors can say a lot about your website and trigger different responses from visitors.
How do you want to present your website? The first choice is between a dark or a light […]