Tools for Web Site Design on Windows

Some people make fun of me around here, and it’s not just because of my hair, my hygiene or the myriads of action figures I have on my desk. You see, I’m the only one in the shop with a PC back home. I know, I know; I constantly hang my head in shame. But have no fear, my fiancee and I also have an Ubuntu Linux box and a MacBook, but I do most of my freelance web work on a two year-old XP laptop. So when Jon wrote his article last month on the tools we use to maintain BIG Images’ web site, naturally it was all Mac software, and I thought I’d do a little representing and show the Windows world some love.

As with the previous month's article, I've tried to find solutions within the shareware and the free and open-source community.

Web Development Applications:

• Stylizer
  
• $69.95
• Live preview of sites, view changes to the page as you make them
• Amazingly attractive UI
• CSSVista
• Free
• Extract and edit the CSS from any page on the internet
• See your changes applied live in both IE and Firefox at the same time
• Doesn't save files from within the program, you have to copy and paste it into your editor
• Aptana Studio Community Edition
  
• Free
• Although initially meant to be a Javascript coding program, it has great support for HTML, CSS and PHP
• Syntax hilighting
• Relatively attractive interface
• Their code assist feature shows helpful hints about code as you type it
Read the full article...

Tags: tips, technology, ben lawless, web design, software, design

As in all things, a plan is the only way to minimize disaster. It will save you time, and it's really the only way to ensure you stay within your budget. Although this is the last part of this series, and even though it's a bit of a "no duh!" this is perhaps the most important tip of them all. Read the full article...

Tags: large format, printing, planning, ben lawless, 7 steps

Consider Where Your Large-Format Graphic will be Placed

The environment your graphic is going into is very important. In fact, it’s at least as important as its fellow rivals: subject matter, selling point, imagery and layout. And there is an implicit responsibility given to those who advertise: with every ad, poster, banner, or car wrap you produce, you are contributing to the environment around it. I’m not necessarily talking about whether you use green materials (that’s an entirely separate topic). This is about how your graphic adds or subtracts from the experience of your audience in that area… Read the full article...

Tags: large format, printing, environment, ben lawless, 7 steps

When dealing with large-format graphics, there is always one problem that consistently rears it's ugly head: many people can't visualize what the graphic will look like. Most often, it is just too difficult to wrap your brain around the actual size of the graphic. Most computer monitors are between 17" and 24", whereas almost all large-format graphics are 3' x 5' or larger. Sure you can squint at your monitor from across the room, but that can't possibly give you a decent sense of scale when it comes right down to it.


In previous months, I've discussed the importance of legibility and simplicity in large-format design. Unfortunately, without a decent perception of size, you're taking a crap shoot with your marketing campaign. You see, whether it's a client, a boss, or employees and freelancers, everyone involved in your marketing efforts needs to have the same idea for the impact it will have. Particularly if you're dealing with a large-budget marketing campaign, the entire crew should be able to speak using the same visual vocabulary. Read the full article...

Tags: visualize, team, large format, design, ben lawless, 7 steps

At BIG Images, we’re out to prove you don’t need to shell out hundreds of dollars for fully-featured design software. Producing something worthwhile also doesn’t need to be more difficult than helping a walrus move into a skyscraper. Design is life, and it should be experienced without barrier.

Announcing the delicious:designer 2.0 — powerful design tools for common people.

For the past two years we have been hard at work developing and simplifying complex technology, specifically applications suited for design and print. And this month, we're proud to announce our greatest achievement — the delicious:designer — an easy-to-use cross-platform vector design application. Unlike most design applications, the delicious:designer runs within your web browser, allowing access to your designs from anywhere in the world.
Furthermore, it's platform-independent. That's right; design on your Macintosh, Windows, and Linux computers with equal ease and comfort. It works wherever the internet does… Read the full article...

Tags: delicious, technology, about us, bannerworks, ben lawless, software

Tip 4: Use simple imagery for maximum effectiveness.

You've all seen it: illegible and completely useless large-format ads that do nothing but give eyesores and headaches to everyone around. What is that poster trying to say? Why do I feel mentally and physically assaulted? How can we learn to never, ever make something like this crime against humanity again?

In previous months, I've discussed the importance of legibility in your advertisement designs. This is especially important when it comes to keeping your text short so that your message is straightforward and diluted to it's core. Well, there is a similar golden rule that applies to imagery, and it's this: Simplicity. Read the full article...

Tags: large format, design, ben lawless, imagery, photography, 7 steps

In my last column, I discussed making your text large enough to be legible so you're sure your audience can easily read your large-format marketing materials. Well, that's only one of many aspects to ensuring legibility in your marketing efforts. This month, learn how to maximize your target audience by building adequate contrast into your designs.

Tip 3: Use contrast to ensure maximum legibility.

There is a fragile eco-system at work whenever marketing material is distributed, whether large format or small. Your message, which should be the most important part of your marketing efforts, has to coexist with and more often than not subdue, other elements vying for a potential customer's attention. Depending on the piece, the message could be in the ring with the baddest of the bad, such as other imagery, the format of the piece, surrounding space, and even the typeface the message itself is rendered in. And that war rages on way before anyone important ever actually sees it.

When it is finally glimpsed, your message finds another challenge to contend with. You see, everyone sees color differently. Our perception of color can be affected by anything from our biology to simple things like our mood and diet. Many designers don't even consider the consequences of their color choices on marketing materials, and that leaves your message completely alone, with noone to notice it. After all, if something is difficult to see, people won't bother looking at it.

And so, controlling contrast on your marketing materials turns an ignored design into… Read the full article...

Tags: large format, design, contrast, ben lawless, 7 steps

Last month, I wrote about the virtues of keeping your large-format banners legible by making your message short and sweet. After all, our Three Second Rule states that if you can't visually pique the interest of your audience within three seconds, you lost the sale. Still, even with a power-packed short message on your graphic, it won't do a bit of good if your text is too small to read.

Tip 2: Size your text correctly. Keep fonts large enough to be legible.

Most large-format graphics are glimpsed at from a distance, behind the wheel of a car, or even in the peripheral vision of sidewalk pedestrians. In some cases, the Three Second Rule is stretching it. More often than not, given people’s frantic lives, if text can’t be read easily, your audience won’t even bother trying. So, why would anyone make their graphics more difficult to read? Believe it or not, some people inadvertently do, especially by making their fonts too small. This simple calculation will help you size your fonts correctly:

• Height of text (in inches) = 0.035 x Distance (in feet)
• Point size of text = 72 x Height of text (in inches)

So, if you know your text is going to be seen from 20 feet away, such as across a walkway to a storefront window, then you’d do well to make your smallest text at least 0.7 inch tall, or a point size of 50.4. We've already done some of the thinkwork and rustled up a bunch of standard distances, listed below:

Distance	Text height	Point size
15’	0.525”	37.8pt
15’	0.525"	37.8 pt.
20’	0.7”	50.4 pt.
30’	1.05”	75.6 pt.
50’	1.75”	126 pt.
100’	3.5”	252 pt.
500’	17.5”	1,260 pt.
1,000’	35”	2,520 pt.

Read the full article...

Tags: large format, design, typography, ben lawless, fonts, text, 7 steps

Introduction: Are your big images awesome enough?

Designing for large format digital printing is a much different ball game than small format. Yes, I know; “duh!” is what you’re thinking, but hear me out. People won’t be picking your large-format graphic up, holding it in their hands, turning it over, or scrutinizing its verbage. Instead, it’s going to be glanced at quickly from a distance, and in many cases ignored. From the first moment your work is glimpsed, you have only three seconds of a person’s attention to convey your message. We call it the Three Second Rule, because if they’re not hooked within three seconds, you lost the sale, and wasted time and money producing the graphic. Read the full article...

Tags: large format, delicious, ben lawless, text, 7 steps

Ben Lawless, our intrepid man of miracles (the one who takes all our good stuff and makes it look a whole-heck-of-alot better), has just completed the logo for Banner-Works. What do you think? Like it? Then trust us when we say you will enjoy the experience at Banner-Works even more. Check out all our designs (including a slew from Ben himself). Treat yourself by customizing and personalizing your very own vinyl banner and then have the banner you just designed printed right here at BIG Images.

Tags: ben lawless, bannerworks, technology, software, design