21 Awesome Bright and Colorful Websites Finding the right color scheme for a website design can often be a real challenge. Bright colors are sometimes not favored by designers, but in the right situation they can be very effective. In this post we’ll showcase examples of 21 different bright and colorful websites. Looking for hosting? New University of the Arts London Logo, or Why I Hate Helvetica Established in 1986 and originally named the London Institute, University of the Arts London (UAL), as it was renamed in 2004, is a network of six colleges — Camberwell College of Arts, Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design, Chelsea College of Art and Design, London College of Communication, London College of Fashion, and Wimbledon College of Art — devoted to art, design, fashion, and media offering courses at all levels from foundation and undergraduate to postgraduate and research. Spread throughout London, the six campuses serve over 20,000 students through approximately 1,200 staff. Last week, Creative Review was first to show a new identity for UAL designed by Pentagram partner Domenic Lippa, that led to a zesty range of mostly negative reader comments. Stating that UAL did not like its identity, specifically, its visual performance, Pentagram instituted an all-Helvetica approach. The main argument of using Helvetica is that it’s “neutral.” Am I wrong?
30 Sites with Great (and Not So Great) Mascots All professional websites include a logo, and sometimes that logo is also a character. Yet, this logo character is not necessarily what we would label a "mascot." With a graphic logo, you will find that graphic everywhere, including in designs for brochure and business card printing. However, a website mascot may only land online, especially if the character is too detailed or large-scale to fit onto smaller print materials. More and more we are seeing a trend in web design to include both a logo and a character or mascot. Sometimes, this mascot is used to help guide visitors through the website. In this collection, we found 30 sites with mascots – and couldn’t help but notice the monkey theme. Which of the mascots below work to build and which distract? Inspire Monkey Source Cheeky Monkey Media Source Photoshop Lady Source Mail Chip Source N. Source Silverback Source Adaptic Source Mix Turtle Source PSDgator Source Bee Finance Source Elune Art Source Designzillas Source Ellis Lab Source Nybble Tech Source Source
Michelberger Booze 21 Inspiring Examples of Texture Use in Web Design Using texture is a great way of adding personality and depth to a webdesign. It doesn’t matter if you choose to use texture only in the navigation menu, the header or if you go with a totally textured background, as long as you pick the right texture and don’t over use it, the result, most of time, will be elegant and beautiful, as the examples we’re showing you in this post. Alxandr Grain & Mortar Brown’s Court Bakery The After Bedtime Sessions Hum Creative Co Welikesmall Chai Studios Code by Monkey Osmosis Aim & Arrow The Quintessential Magazine Production Locations Anonymous Sanissimo Stall & Dean Ernest et Celestine Upperquad Five Tailors insomnia coffee co. Steve Vorass Kinderfotografie Evi Hermans About the Author Gisele Muller loves communication, technology, web, design, movies, gastronomy and creativity. Related Posts 638 shares 11 Inspiring Typography Focused Web Designs We all know that typography is a very important element of a good design. Read More 688 shares Examples of Well Designed Contact Pages
15 Amazing Websites With Illustrations The latest, not necessarily newest, trend coming to a website near you is the use of illustrations. This trick adds a bit of whimsy or identity to the overall design. Let’s draw on this inspiration with a collection of the best illustration website designs. Adventure World Hugs For Monsters Diego Latorre Patent Care Domino’s Pizza Presents チーズ大統領選挙 Big Noise Forefathers Group | The New Design Frontier The Lost Thing James Garner Simon Foster Theory | UI/UX | Expertly Crafted Interface Design Lyudmil Shoshorov Edmonton Digital & Brand Strategy | ONST Creative Michelberger Booze NOMOON – Studio de création graphique Comment aborder le flat design en 2013 ? 23 exemples à suivre Le flat design est un style graphique ayant pour objectif d’écarter tout élément graphique n’apportant aucune valeur significative à la structuration d’un template. Ce type de design visuel fait donc abstraction des éléments purement « décoratifs ». Les dégradés, les reliefs, les volumes, les formes réalistes sont gommés pour laisser la place à de simples aplats. Il s’agit d’une approche visuelle minimaliste où le design est lissé. En voici quelques exemples réussis. Les exemples de flat design présentés ci-dessous font suite à l’article concernant le débat Skeuomorphisme vs. Imavex 2012 Year on Twitter Harvest rdio Squarespace Grooveshark Combadi Finely Layer Vault Kera Microsoft Circles Conferences The Noun Project So World Wide Women and Tech SpellTower Manos Skype Artsy Build Conf 2012 One Pager New MySpace Nest
The Art of FLIGHT Good Design Taste Test: Three Fast Casual Restaurant Websites Compared Fast food restaurants are notoriously bad with web design, but the emerging market of “fast casual” eateries thus far is proving to be much better in this area. Today we’re going to look around the web at the websites for some of the most popular fast casual restaurants to see who is doing the best work and what we can learn from them. Warning: this post will make you hungry! Qdoba The first site we’re going to hit up is Qdoba.com, the homepage for a restaurant that serves up some delicious burritos and other southwest offerings. So far so good! Strong Branding Their current branding strategy is that Qdoba is “food for people who love food.” This is a great psychological trick. “They’re subtly forcing me to form connections with the brand by associating it with things that I love.” Menu Another thing that I really like about Qdoba.com is the menu presentation, which is absolutely one of the most important facets for any restaurant website. Home Page Content Responsive to Boot Pei Wei Color
The Verge Food-Based Web Design Tips to Make Visitors Hungry It’s the same routine every date night: “where are we heading for dinner?” To the web we go, looking for restaurants around us that whet our appetites. And the places we always seem to hit after this dinner search are the locations with websites that just make us hungry. Certain techniques, from color to photos to imagery, are common among the best food-based websites. Photography It all starts with a great photo. Rather than trying to showcase every item on the menu, pick one or two superstar items to photograph. “Not all food imagery is of the edible item itself.” Be aware of lighting. Consider different angles. Think of imagery that is associated with specific food items. Finally – and most importantly – make sure food looks yummy. Color Color is often one of the most debated topics in food-based design. Reds, greens and yellows are common colors for fruits and vegetables. Opt for colors that are more vivid and lively. Look at it this way, I love a nice breakfast with eggs. Shapes