InSight Graphic Design

Milton Glaser’s poster to get out the vote

Mariella — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 19:46:43 +0000

“If you don’t vote, you’re essentially invisible.”

— Milton Glaser, “the irrepressible dean of American graphic design.”

Google will punish popups to improve mobile browsing

Mariella — Wed, 24 Aug 2016 18:07:42 +0000

Google will start punishing popups soon, making the internet a happier place for mobile users. ? If you insist on using those annoying popups (begging people to subscribe to your newsletter or download your app), Google will drop you like a rock, so fewer people will find you and fewer people will be annoyed. THANK YOU, GOOGLE!! ?

You have until Jan. 10 to remove those popups, or find your site ranking lowered in mobile search results.

Responsive logo design for viewing on different devices, or printing at different sizes

Mariella — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 18:30:18 +0000

When designing a logo it’s important to consider how it will look at different sizes. On the web, it will be seen on screens of all sizes from tiny smart phones to large desktop monitors, and it may be used as a tiny avatar, a small ad, or a larger featured image. In print, it may be used on small business cards, a tiny bug in a credit line, larger brochures and advertisements, maybe T-shirts, and possibly even huge signs or billboards.

Joe Harrison has created a showcase of logos that do more than just resize in response to smaller or larger use-cases. On his site you can see how several big-name logos transform as you resize your browser window—not merely resizing, but actually changing form to suit a larger or smaller space.

Here is just one example. Check out the Responsive Logos project for more.

New website for a political campaign

Mariella — Sat, 17 May 2014 15:41:14 +0000

I recently launched a new web site for a political candidate: Pat Kemp, who is running for Hillsborough County Commissioner. (I hope she wins — she would be an excellent commissioner!)

The website is starting out with a few special features, including:

Animated header
Campaign donation collection
MailChimp integration (for email newsletters)

We’ll be adding more features as the campaign progresses.

An interesting aspect of building a site for a political campaign is the legal requirements to track all donations made through the site, along with specific information for each donor. There are paid services that can do this for you, but I built that functionality into this site, giving the campaign more control and better reporting capability, without the added complexity & cost of a 3rd-party system.

Visit site

It’s not finished, but it’s done

Mariella — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 15:13:53 +0000

I’m delighted to be rolling out this fresh re-design of my business website! Because it’s my own site, I can try the latest techniques & styles that interest me, and I get to do stuff like inserting quirky little rollover Easter eggs just because they tickle me. It’s also freeing to be able to make creative decisions without having to get approvals from anyone else.

Because I put my clients’ work first, I only work on my own web sites and marketing materials in my spare time, so it has been a start-and-stop road to this release, which adds to the feelings of celebration, satisfaction and relief I get from bringing this project to this stage — even though it is not exactly “finished.”

This site will always be a work in progress. I’ll continue bringing new work into my portfolio (I have some new work to swap in already) and I’ll continue polishing the site (I have a list of details to consider), and some day I’ll re-design the whole thing again. But at this point it represents my business well, and I’m happy to be replacing the old version with the new.

I’d love to know what you think of this redesign, compliments as well as constructive criticism. And if you see any bugs I’ve missed, please let me know.