Concept Dezain

Week Favs #18 – Best of the week

Franco Averta — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 21:11:30 +0000

Hi Guys, once again I have compiled my favs for this week!! I always recommend to check this great articles from others Design blogs that I find very usefull. Hope you enjoy!

20+ Demos Showing Advanced jQuery Effects

Some awesome jQuery effects compiled in one post, a good resource library to bookmark by Web Designer Depot.

20 Free Web UI Element Kits and Stencils

Another great round up of free stuff, very usefull for designers by Speeky Boy.

A Beginner’s Guide To Website Copywriting

An interesting post about writing for the web, a must read for web designers, to enlighten our writing skillz. By Web Design Ledger.

Exploring Graphic User Interface Styles

Great showcase through different styles of user interfaces. Awesome source of inspiration. By Psd Tuts +.

Designing Style Guidelines For Brands And Websites

What is a Style Guide?, Why is it good to make one?, What To Include? All this q are answered in this great post by Smashing Magazine.

Exploring Graphic User Interface StylesExploring Graphic User Interface Styles

Inkd Subscription Winner Announced

Franco Averta — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 13:27:09 +0000

Inkd is a marketplace with thousands of print design templates. They kindly offer us to host a giveaway and award one lucky reader with a free Inkd account. Thanks so much to them!!!!!, and now the winner.

The Prize:

1 Three Month Subscription to Inkd.

With this subscription you get:

Access new content added during subscription period.
Access all industries and design types.
Free file format conversion for up to 5 designs.
Create unlimited derivations of downloaded templates.
10 Downloads per Month.
5% Discount on Customization.

The Winner is:

Congrats Steve Robillard, you¨ll be contacted by mail. Thanks so much for participating everyone, don´t forget to subscribe to our RSS Feed to know aobut our giveaways!!

Champions Websites

Franco Averta — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:20:11 +0000

It`s been almost ten days since the world cup has ended, and I`m still thinking of it. I can`t believe that we have to wait 4 more years to the most beatifull and important sports event of the world. And I started thinking what could I talk about on the blog about the Fifa World Cup other, than logos and mascots so I got this idea, why not showcase the websites of the football federations that were once world champions? So I started the reaserach of the champions and their websites.

Argentina: 1978 – 1986 World Champion

The Argentinean Football Federation has the site I liked the most. I think it has a nice color palette, very well used. Also it has a nice use of a background image and I like the fact that it uses the homepage to display a lot of information. But it may have too much information on this section, in my opinion it should have less articles so we don’t have to scroll as far down to get to the bottom.

England: 1966 World Champion

A very clean site with a great use of colors and great structure.

France: 1998 World Champion

Another site I really liked, the only thing I find wrong is the fact that there is not an English version button (or it’s too hard to find, because I couldn’t).

Italy: 1934 – 1938 – 1982 – 2006 World Champion

The only thing to check is that the background image doesn’t match the entire background if u use a high resolution (a very common thing these days with widescreen LCD). Everything else is great, the structure of the site separating “hottest” news. And in the main menu u can find a nice mouse over preview effect.

Brazil: 1958 – 1962 – 1970 – 1994 – 2002 World Champion

I found that this site has some display problems on chrome. The details should be taken more serious. I feel the color palette is very poor and badly used. And the links are very commonly styled to the point that no link draws my attention, and not making me wanna check out the info. And also I wasn`t able to find an english language button.

Uruguay: 1930 – 1950 World Champion

This site needs to go through the transition to a modern website, it could have a better use of the color scheme the designer selected. The site is completely done with tables, and u can see the results for yourself.

Germany: 1954 – 1974 – 1990 World Champion

I like the huge news thicker telling the most important things, also it has a nice two colummon layout, another site with a very limited color palette but very well used. Some of the headlines could be bigger and with a more distinguishable color to make them more readable.

Spain: 2010 World Champion

Again this is another site that doesn’t displays correctly in Google Chrome, something very annoying; remember that this browser is gaining a lot of user these days. Another thing is that the content area with white background is not centered in the red background image, something that is very annoying the eye.

What do you think?

The idea here is for you to check out the sites and tell me what do u think of them and maybe had ourselves a nice design chat. And please if the designers that worked on these projects read this post take it as constructive criticism, the intension is not to offend anyone but to learn all together.

Week Favs #17 – Best of the week

Franco Averta — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 21:27:26 +0000

Hi Guys, once again I have compiled my favs for this week!! I always recommend to check this great articles from others Design blogs that I find very usefull. Hope you enjoy!

Adding Post Thumbnails To WordPress 3.0

A great short tutorial by Nenuno, the wp 3.0 code has some changes and in this short tut we exactly how we can achieve this.

WordPress: How to Create the Theme Header? Part 1

There are lots and lots of wordpress tutorials, I found this one very useful and easy to follow, so start building your theme. By Your Inspiration Web.

Design a Professional Portfolio Web Layout

Is good to improve your design and software skills, and PSD Fan came up with this great tutorial for us.

35 Fresh And Creative Photoshop Tutorials

An awesome collection of tuts from the web by Web Expedition 18.

Free All-Purpose Icons for Designers and Developers

A great resource for designers, lots and lots of icons for u to use for free on your next design. Put togheter by Smashing Magazine.

Win a Three Month Subscription to Inkd

Franco Averta — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 14:01:55 +0000

Inkd is a marketplace with thousands of print design templates. This is ideal for you if you are just starting your business and you can’t afford a designer or if you don’t have the time. In this “buy & sell” community you’ll get professional and accessible templates from logos, business cards, flyers to full stationary kits.

I had spent some time browsing their templates and I’m amazed with the quality of the designers work, you can even get some of them totally free here!!!

And now you’ll get the chance to win a 3 Month Subscription worth u$s 200 Totally Free!

The Prize:

1 Three Month Subscription to Inkd.

With this subscription you get:

Access new content added during subscription period.
Access all industries and design types.
Free file format conversion for up to 5 designs.
Create unlimited derivations of downloaded templates.
10 Downloads per Month.
5% Discount on Customization.

How to Enter:

Follow @ConceptDezain on twitter.
Tweet the Following: “Win a Three Month Subscription to Inkd the print design marketplace – http://bit.ly/a4rcH5 (via @Conceptdezain)” or use the tweet button at the bottom of the post
If you don’t have a Twitter account become a Facebook Fan here and Share the Giveaway to your wall (you can do this with the Facebook share button at the bottom of the post).
Subscribe to our RSS (optional)
Leave a comment in this post with your tweet or your Facebook Id so I can check it and make sure to leave a valid email cose the winner will be contacted by mail.

Restrictions:

There are no Restrictions to this giveaway, anyone can participate.

The giveaway will end on Tuesday 20th 2010 24:00 UTC/GMT – 3 h. and the winner will be selected using the random.org service and will be announced on Wednesday 21st. Good Luck!!!!

Week Favs #16 – Best of the week

Franco Averta — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 16:58:12 +0000

Hi Guys, once again I have compiled my favs for this week!! I always recommend to check this great articles from others Design blogs that I find very usefull. Hope you enjoy!

Effective Search Engine Optimization for Web Designers

A very important article on SEO for Designers, what to do and what not to do. By Vandalay Design.

Analyzing and Comparing Popular Blog Designs

If you`re about to start your own blog, or redesign it, this is definitely for you. By Design Shack.

Breaking The Design Cycle: Get Creative To Be Creative

Just Be Creative, by Web Design Depot.

54 Awesome Tutorials To Satisfy The Appetite Of Any Web Developer

A nice compilation of web developing tuts by Pelfusion.

How To Stop Ruining Your Designs

Very interesting article by Designm.ag full with tips and advices to improve your designs.

Winner of 500 Business Cards announced

Franco Averta — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 02:12:26 +0000

and the winner of:

The Prize:

500 Premium Business Cards for One (1) Winner.
2 x 3.5”, 2 x 2” (square card) or 1.75 x 3.5” (slim card) (your choice).
14 pt gloss cardstock, 14 pt matte cardstock or 13 pt recycled uncoated cardstock.
Full Color Both Sides.

Brought to you by Uprinting.com and Concept dezain, is:

The Winner:

Holly

The winner was selected using Random.org. Congrats Holly!!!!

Win 500 Business Cards

Franco Averta — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 03:24:51 +0000

Welcome guys to our second big giveaway, this is posible thanks to the UPrinting.com folks. So a Big Thanks to them!!!

This time we offer an awesome prize of 500 business cards. A business card is a must for a designer or any freelancer, well for everyone actually. It`s a great way to promote your business,so remember to always carry a bunch of them with you and give one to any posible client. So remember to check all of the uprinting family products especially their cheap business cards.

If you need a little inspiration to design your Biz card, take a look at this Showcase.

The Prize:

500 Premium Business Cards for One (1) Winner.
2 x 3.5”, 2 x 2” (square card) or 1.75 x 3.5” (slim card) (your choice).
14 pt gloss cardstock, 14 pt matte cardstock or 13 pt recycled uncoated cardstock.
Full Color Both Sides.

Restrictions:

Limited to US residents only.
You must be 18 years old and above.

How to Enter:

Follow @conceptdezain on Twitter.
Tweet about this Giveaway (Use the RT button at the end of the post).
Leave a comment with a valid email adress. (winner will be contacted via email).
(Optional) Suscribe to our RSS Feed.
(Optional) Become a Facebook Fan.

Deadline:

This Contest ends on Thursday June 17th 2010 24:00 UTC/GMT – 3 h. One lucky Winner be selected at random and announced on Friday 18th. Good Luck!!

Best Viral Marketing Campaigns

MR. D — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 14:14:58 +0000

Hi guys, after a couple of weeks without posting we are back to talk about Viral Marketing.

Viral Marketing refers to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. (definition source: Wikipedia).

These are five essential keys for a marketing viral campaign to be effective:

The Audience Must Feel Something

They must be filled with love or hate.
It must generate happines or sadness.
The action should be seen meaningless or as a genius.

Getting Consequences

The audience has just seen my campaign. They think it was interesting, unexpected and their emotions have reached a high level, we must seize this moment in wich we have their full attention.

A Behind the Scenes (Bloopers).
A Blog about the process.
Extra material, goodies, etc.

Allows Sharing, Download and Make it Their Own

Share is one of the most important things in Viral marketing. Everything that makes the campaign action easier enpowers the campaign. A Viral campaign is succesful as long as it`s extended to the network by the audience action. Allow the audience to easily share the website content with their friends, family and who ever they want. Essentially making use of social networks.

Generate Conversations (comments)

Build some sort of connection with the audience. Give the possibility to comment is an effective way of achieving a conversation.

Lets remember that a good viral campaign create strong emotions, this means that some people will really like it and others won`t. You have to accept both views. But at the same time, you must be prevented.

Never Deny Access

To become “viral”, it needs to be free.

Never add restrictions to the mix. It should not require any registration for membership, download special software or to enter a “unlock” code or do something to get the correct link.

And Now the fun part, Following is a Top 8 of my favorite Viral Campaigns:

Extreme Sheep LED Art (Samsung)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sprite

Click here to view the embedded video.

Koby Bryan Jumps (Nike)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Inspired Bicycles

Click here to view the embedded video.

Feliz 2007 (Doubleyou)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Happy Christmas (AQKA)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Evian

Click here to view the embedded video.

Week Favs #15 – Best of the week

Franco Averta — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 15:51:30 +0000

Hi Guys, once again I have compiled my favs for this week!! I always recommend to check this great articles from others Design blogs that I find very usefull. Hope you enjoy!

Making a Book of Magical Playground Scene

A great photoshop tutorial with very interesting effects by 10 Steps.sg.

Logo & Branding Process for Chorus Magazine

A very interesting article on the Chorus Magazine brand and showcase of some design elements, by Paper Leaf.

Liquid, Fluid and Elastic Layout Templates, Tools and Frameworks

An Excellent collection put together by Speecky Boy, this will surely help you in your next project.

The Importance of Personal Projects

Work! Work! Work! Stop, relax, have a personal project. Great Aticle on Design Shack.

Ten Essential Items Every Freelance Office Needs to Get Started

Some things we should all have in our offices, nice read on Freelance Folder.