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Friday Focus 10/17/08: Office Stationery

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Let’s take a look at websites that look like they were built with stuff found in your office stationery. Welcome to this week’s edition of Friday Focus!

Designs of the Week

Cherokee Mills

A good combination of the elegant and the industrial feel. The “paper” aspect does not look overdone (to the point of looking almost like a scrapbook), which fits the content and purpose of the website.

Meagan Fisher

Now here’s a site that leans toward the crafty, scrapbooky look, made for a personal blog. I like that the graphics may look dark, but the doesn’t feel glum.

WallSwaps

A huge site whose content is presented mainly in images. The downside is you need instructions to be able to navigate it; and the clickable squares aren’t even descriptive. The upside is once you figure it out, you’ll enjoy browsing around.

This site makes me feel like I’ve been taken back to the turn of the new millennium. It’s pretty different from the grunge styles we see today. It feels much more genuine.

Future of Web Apps - Miami 2009

How do you organize a site with lots of content to digest? Try horizontal sections that vary in background styles. Keep them fixed and use transparent illustrations for an interesting scrolling effect.

Mihmorandum

This site looks completely different from the other ones above. It’s the classier side of our office stationery suite, mostly because the designer avoided rough textures.

Social Media Weekly

Design – 23 Awesome Examples of Design as a Force For Good
A great inspirational article just in time for Blog Action Day (October 15).

Design/Programming – 10 Easy Steps to Great Website Optimization
Best practices to optimize websites for speedy and efficient loading.

Friday Focus 08/15/08: Eye-Catching Headers

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It’s eye-catching headers this week on Friday Focus. Whether you believe in making the most of the content above the fold or not, it pays to make the top part of your websites extra beautiful because it’s the first thing people see.

Designs of the Week

Andre Augusto

Let’s start off with a blog and portfolio which reflects the owner’s signature look. I personally love that shade of reddish-fuchsia-pink ever since Last.fm popularized it during early Web 2.0. Here, it stands strongly against shades of gray.

Frisk Design

Now aside from a large, chunky logotype that’s hard to miss, you can create a striking header with a bright graphical background. Of course be sure to check if all the text in that area is readable first. In this case, it clearly is as the designers made sure to use light colors where the text was dark blue, and vice versa.

Ping My Map

Now here’s proof you don’t need candy colors to call attention to your site. All you need is good contrast, large title text (be reasonable though!), and a lovable mascot. Preferably a bird. Seriously though, if you want to introduce a new product to the masses via a website, say everything you want to in the quickest way possible. The header of the page is the most convenient place to do that.

Chocolat Media

This is another site that uses more subdued hues compared to our 2 earlier examples, but the callout image is a bit more abstract and at the same time typographical. It also summarizes the services offered by the company. I sure hope they put in some good alt text in there!

Social Media Weekly

Design – Adobe Photoshop: 50+ High Quality .PSD Files and Tutorials
Rev up your Photoshop program and try out all these tutorials and graphics on for size.

Programming – 8 Innovative Design & UI Elements That Make Sites Better
Great ideas for communicating with your audience more easily.

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