I don’t want to mention any names here or tell you what to use.

Instead, I’m going give you some important points to consider, so that you can make an educated decision on your own.

And hopefully, not invest a huge amount of time and energy into a CMS you will have to abandon a year or two down the road.

The learning curve

Sadly, many designers pick a CMS on this point alone. Don’t get me wrong, choosing a CMS you can actually figure out is important, but you are investing a lot of time and energy into this piece of software. Potentially, years of your life will be spent working with this CMS. Don’t just go with the easiest one to configure without taking in some other considerations. A one-click install is nice, but should not be a deciding factor.

With that said, how fast you can get up-and-running, and building simple sites is important. Every CMS has a learning curve but some are much steeper than other. Consider how much time you have before making a choice. If you are a student, you might consider taking the plunge and digging into a more difficult to learn but feature-rich CMS, because you have the time available to do it. If you are working and need a CMS solution yesterday, you may be forced to go with something you can get up in running in a few days.

Theming

If you are not familiar with the term, by theming I mean creating the skin, the visible part of the front-end of the website. How this is done should be a huge consideration. Remember developers are the people building CMSes and they like to make development easier, sometimes before considering you the designer, and unfortunately, the end user, too. Which means, the way the front-end is put together might have been neglected or made unnecessarily complicated. Some CMSes are much easier to theme than others. Also, how the control panel is set up and how easy it is to use should greatly influence your decision, because you will be spending huge amounts of time working with it.

You need to consider how flexible theming for the CMS is. Are you able to create or import static HTML and CSS or are there a ton of hoops to jump through first? How is the file structure set up and are you required to save separate pieces of your design all over the back-end? A good CMS, once you are proficient with it, will save you time. But there are definitely some CMSes out there where development takes extra time.

How much freedom are you given to build the website you want? Every CMS has some design hurdles you have to jump over. Are you forced to begin with a starter or default template? That can be a big cramp in your design style and it can eat up extra time. Although, some people prefer having templates to start with. Which do you prefer? Do you have to write markup right in the browser or can you use a text editor? Think about how you prefer building static webpages and check to see if you can use the same process or will you be forced to do things differently.

Documentation and resources

A CMS is only as good as its documentation. I’ve played around with a few amazing CMSes that I ended up having to abandon because I got stuck, and realized there wasn’t enough proper documentation to get me out of the jam I was in. So right after looking at the basic specs for a CMS, dig into the documentation. You should be able to start with zero knowledge and build a complete website just from reading the documentation. If it doesn’t look like that is the case, you might want to look into another CMS.

Most CMSes list their features but the documentation is really where you can see exactly what is offered. For example, a CMS will probably offer some sort of shopping cart solution, but what that is exactly, can vary greatly from CMS to CMS. If there are one or two things your CMS must have, be sure to read the documentation about them specifically, and see if they will work for you.

Community

Even the best documentation cannot answer every question you will have. Is there a place to go where people will answer your questions? If there is, how helpful is the community to designers and novices? Some communities can actually be quite hostile or simply ignore beginner’s questions.

If you would like to ask some questions, don’t be that person who gets on the forums or Twitter asking “Is this CMS any good?” Browse around a little bit. Someone has probably already asked the question you have. A good way to gauge the quality of the community is to see what kinds of responses people are getting to their questions, and how many hours/days it takes to get them. Nothing is worse than having a question you cannot answer and not having a resource to turn to.

Another consideration not often thought of is paid support. Do the CMS developers provide support and how much does it cost? If they don’t, are there people in the community that you can trust to get timely support from? Inevitably, there will come a time when you need a custom add-on built or something else comes up that is over your knowledge level. Someone needs to be there to do it for you or walk you through it.

Community also includes the third-party developers. Who and how many people are building add-ons for the CMS? Most CMSes have a central add-on community. Have a look around and see what is available.

Usability

Not every website you build will be for yourself. How easy a client can add and edit their own content is very important. Complicated back-ends and lack of features means more development time and more time training clients. One of the most basic and most important features of any CMS is the text editor. Editing site content should be a primary concern for you and the people you will be building websites for. How easy is the WYSIWYG editor to use and goes it write clean markup? Will clients who are not computer savvy be able to use it?

Also, along the same lines is the file upload system. How easy is it to upload images, video, PDFs, et cetera? Many clients don’t have the software or knowledge to edit and resize images, yet need this functionality on their website. Is there built-in image resizing your clients can take advantage of?

The usability of the control panel should be considered as well. You may have to train people to use the system, which can be many hours of work over the years. Is it simple enough your grandmother could use it? Also, how configurable is the control panel? Can you turn off or hide areas the client doesn’t need access to? It is nice to be able to only let clients edit the areas of the site they need to without having to deal with other parts of the control panel that might confuse them, or worse, allow them to break the website.

Clients need to be able to do these basic things:

• Edit existing page content
• Add new pages easily and have the navigation updated automatically
• Add photos, documents and video content
• Give access to the control panel to other employees

They all sound pretty easy but there can actually be a number of problems. Tabular data or heavily styled areas that require HTML and CSS knowledge can be difficult for a client to edit, and some WYSIWYG editors don’t do a very good job here. Some CMSes don’t provide an intuitive way of adding additional pages or easily up-datable navigation. You don’t want to leave these things up to the client if you don’t have to. I like to follow the rule that if a client could break something, they will break it. Some CMSes don’t allow certain file types to be uploaded or have an upload file size limit, which can cause headaches for clients trying to upload large PDFs or PowerPoint presentations.

All things to consider.

Programing knowledge requirements

You chose to be a designer for a reason, right? Some of us might be proficient in a language like PHP but that doesn’t mean we want to spend all of our time doing it. Take a look at the language the CMS is written in and see if it is something you are familiar with and could work in if you had to. Also, see how much scripting is done in the templates. Some CMSes do a really good job of keeping the PHP or whatever language out of the templates, so you can focus just on the HTML and CSS. Other CMSes can have their own templating language to use.

They are all a little bit different and, depending on your comfort level with code, you will have to choose one to live with. Generally, I say don’t go with a CMS where you have to learn a whole new language to get started, unless you really would rather be a developer and not a designer.

How active are the developers?

How good the CMS is now is important, but where it is going in the future is just as important. So find out what the developers are up to. Look at the time it takes for each major release and each dot release to come out. If it has been two years since the last dot release, the CMS might be dead or on hold. There is no perfect CMS but the more the developers are working the better a CMS is going to get. And what may be the best CMS now might not be five years from now. Don’t get stuck with a dying CMS.

Find the bug tracker and see just how long bugs go unfixed. If something is broken on a site you build, clients are going to rely on you to fix it. Telling them the CMS developers haven’t fixed the bug yet, isn’t a very good excuse.

Flexibility and reach

What does the CMS come with out of the box? A CMS with little functionality means you have to rely heavily on 3rd party add-ons. On the other hand a CMS with everything built in may be bloated and difficult to get up and running, especially if you are building a simple website. There needs to be a happy medium between the two. An ideal CMS can be set up quickly without a lot of configuration needing to be done, yet has all the tools required for more complex features.

Just because you are only building simple websites now doesn’t mean you might not be building more complex websites in the future. Think about the types of websites you would like to build or may be asked to build and does the CMS allow for it. How hard is it to add a membership area to the website, multi-language support, or to add a store?

Does it make you better?

Learning how to build website with a CMS is a great thing to know but just how much larger your skill set becomes, can vary. Being able to let clients edit their own content is the central feature of a CMS, but they can offer so much more:

• Ecommerce
• Membership functionality
• Multi-language support
• Dynamic media galleries
• Multi-site installations
• Integrating blogs and forums
• Pagination
• Easy syndication

To name a few. You probably would not have been able to create this type of work without some development knowledge but a good CMS can make that possible.

After working with a good CMS for a while, you should find that you are able to work at the same speed or even faster than if you were building a static website. A good CMS saves you development time, but should also help improve the way you develop the front-end as well, by creating reusable snippets of content, embedding templates inside each other, and displaying content from the database that you would have had to markup yourself in a static site.

Where are you going?

Think about where you are in your career now, and where you want to be five and ten years from now. The CMS you choose will be with you at least that long. Are you going to be working for a big design firm or do you want to work for yourself? Will you be doing freelance work on the side?

Not every firm uses the same CMS but there are some that are used more regularly. If you really fall in love with one CMS in particular, you can always find the firms that use it, too. Less popular CMSes have less job opportunities but the firms that do use them would be much more inclined to hire you, being proficient with the CMS, over someone who has never touched it before. Using a less popular CMS makes you more of a specialist. Using a popular CMS means you have a broader range of opportunities.

If you plan on freelancing full or part time, you will want a CMS where you are comfortable doing every aspect of development. Typically, your projects will be smaller in scope as well, so a huge CMS with a long setup time might not be the best option.

Conclusion

Every person is different and what CMS works for me might not be the best option for you. So take these points into consideration. Take a look at what CMSes are available, and pick the one that will work best for you.

Written exclusively for Webdesigner Depot by Tyler Herman, a web designer and blogger at Couchable.co. You can also follow Tyler on Twitter @couchable to find out what he ate for lunch, see photos of his 24 cats, and read rants about sports teams you don’t care about.

What do you look for when choosing your CMS? Share other tips with us!

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While we all use both sides of the brain, each of us has a dominant side, and this dominant side makes up for a huge part of our personalities.

Each individual thinks a certain way, has more interest in certain areas, and above and beyond all — is most effective in certain ways. An accurate understanding of the left and right brain can help one to become more productive, efficient, and creative.

This article will cover a basic understanding of what the left and right brains are, and each of their traits. We’ll also go into how we, as creative people, can harness this understanding of the left and right brain to be more creative, as well as succeed in other work-related tasks.

What They Are, and Their Difference

Some may have heard of this, others may have not. Before we get too into specific examples to aid in our benefit, let’s go over exactly what the left and right brain are, and their associated characteristics.

Our brain is divided into two halves, as most of us know: the left and right side. Each side processes information very differently than the other, and the biggest difference is the visual aspect.

The right side of the brain looks at visual reference as a whole, whether it be a landscape, object, or piece of artwork, and then works its way into noticing finer details.

The left side on the other hand, first sees the details and puts them together to form the bigger picture.

Our brains use both of these sides, mixing and matching each side’s abilities for a fully-functional human brain. However, each of us has a dominant side that leans more towards the behaviors of that respected side.

There are a number of characteristics, many of which could be considered personality traits, that a person with either type of dominate side has:

Right Brain

Those with a right-side dominant brain depend more on visual references for understanding and are often times visual learners.

They are more emotional, swayed by feelings, and are able to better understand and reflect on these feelings. Furthermore, right-brained thinkers are very intuitive and curious about the world.

Finally, as a down side, they tend to be disorganized, lacking in time-management, and unable to prioritize well.

Left Brain

The left brain is the side that handles organization and logic.

Because of this, those that have a dominant left side are also very organized; they prefer schedules and deadlines, and love rules and regulations. They are more auditory learners, and are better at using words to remember things rather than visual aids.

They process ideas in a step-by-step, algorithmic way, and are therefore less prone to error.

Their Relation to Art, Design, and Creativity

As one may have probably already guessed, those with dominance in the right brain may be more naturally creative.

It’s easy to assume this because for one, right-brained thinkers are less common than left, so it seems as though one would be seeing the world differently from everyone else.

Also, the natural heightened visual nature and curiosity tend to make the mind never stop thinking of the alternative — as well as how it can be applied visually.

Those with a dominant left brain are far more common, and far more analytical. They may feel at disadvantage for not having that ‘natural’ creativity. Realistically, though, left-brained people can be just as creative; they just come about it in a different way.

To better understand the artistic nature of both sides, let’s take a look at a few examples of artwork.

Abstraction = Right Brain

Right brained people may lean more towards abstract art, because of its lack of order and disorganization. Abstraction also gives no boundaries, so it can be considered more ‘outside-the-box’, or creative.

Abstract art is also known to portray emotion, even with no hard visual evidence. A right brained person may more easily be able to pick up on an abstract piece’s deeper meaning.

Orderly Art = Left Brain

In contrast to abstraction, left brained people may be more attracted to a more ‘orderly’ form of art — either photo-realistic, or otherwise. As long as it is artwork with guidelines, form, and sense, it works.

Below is a painting, with plenty of creativity — but also with little abstraction.

Find Your Dominant Side

Before discovering how to harness one’s own creativity, one must find which side of the brain is dominant. As we know ourselves best, we may already have a good guess based on the definitions above. However, for more accurate results, there are a number of quizzes one can take online:

• Right Brain/ Left Brain Quiz for Artists
  This quiz is targeted at artists, with the questions concerning painting. Even if you do not paint for your practice, you can relate them to similar practices. For example, if you are a web designer, apply the questions to your digital workspace, and your online tools to your painting supplies, etc.
• Right Brain vs Left Brain Creativity Test
  This is a more generalized test and may be more helpful to a wider audience. Furthermore, upon completion, this test gives you very detailed, highly accurate results, as well as further information.

Take the quizzes above and read through some more information. It may be surprising what you find, and you will probably already begin to brainstorm ways of making your work better based off of the results.

Benefit Your Work

Let’s now look into some further ideas of how we can specifically better our work by understanding our own psychology.

After taking the tests above, you may have found out that we are not either 100% right brained, or 100% left brained. We are a mix of them both, while some traits may lean far to the opposite side, and other may not.

Also, in certain traits, we may only be a certain percentage right/left brained, while the remainder of the percentage leads the opposite way.

We each have such unique characteristics, and an in-depth analysis of each (second test listed above) can help. Let’s now look over a few strategies that can help anyone with any combination of traits:

Understand Your Style

As shown above in this article, right brained people tend more towards abstraction while left-brained people tend more towards realism. If we have mixed characteristics, we may tend towards mixes in these forms of art as well.

Find your style, and your preferred mix of abstraction and realism. Adding more form may be for those with stronger left sides, but with hints of right-brained thinking.

Abstraction with a hint of form may be for those who lean right, but have a bit of left-brained thinking. It’s really a gentle balance, with an associated art/design style to go with that balance.

View a number of different types of art, and make note of which interest you the best. Save them in a collection, and review them later to find out their similarities, to test for their amount of abstraction, and to analyze how they relate to your own way of thinking. Then, reflect on that in your own work.

Abide by Your Brain

If you like organization, then use it in your art. Don’t feel the need to be more creative by being more quirky, different, or strange.

One can be just as original by using measurements, form, pattern, and rules. For left-brained people try this trick: create one rule to abide by for an entire design, and then come up with varying ways of altering that rule throughout the design to bring more variety.

For example, use only one shape and turn it into a large picture, use only one color in different shades, or try isometric artwork (below).

If you don’t like form, and would rather try out extreme abstraction, then go for it.

Don’t hold yourself to limits because you feel that artwork needs organization — it doesn’t. It can, but doesn’t have to. Right brained people should try experimenting with different colors, patterns, textures, and whatever else, all while keeping the big picture in mind.

Because right dominance means seeing the big picture and then the details, imagine the outcome first, and then detail along the way. (For right-brained web designers, this is one more reason as to why wireframing is so important.)

Work Around Your Faults

Because we can now better understand our positive traits, we can also better understand our faults. Identify them, and think of ways to build upon them.

Instead of fighting disorganization everyday (both in artwork and business/life), use tools and resources to make it easier, and try to make certain organization habitual.

If one has trouble finding creativity because they are overly analytical, like above, don’t fight your natural instinct of order. Instead explore new methods for harnessing creativity and practice new techniques.

Remember, nobody’s graphic design or artistic talents are perfect at first — no matter what their natural traits may be. Both sides must work at it, and must be better able to accept their faults and work on them to better themselves.

Wrapping Up

Understanding the right and left sides of the brain is a great way to better your work, and to obtain a better understanding of who you are as an individual. Often times, the path to better creativity lies in science and logic — in this case, psychology.

As we can better understand ourselves at this deeper level, we can better understand what we are naturally good at and what we should put our focus on.

In contrast, we can also better identify where we’re lacking, and think of smarter solutions for combating our faults.

Written exclusively for WDD by Kayla Knight.

Feel free to share your thoughts on this matter, as well as any recommendations to fulfill our natural faults, or strive in our natural talents.

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If your site is too complicated, the user will have to go through too many hoops to find what they are looking for and won’t even bother trying it out.

The Jackson 5 got it right back in the 70′s when they sang “easy as 123″.

A simple and effective approach is to break down your services, signups and checkouts into 3 easy steps. This will improve usability, increase sales, signups and conversion rates.

In this article, we’ll take a look at 20 great examples of the 3 step approach for effective website usability.

1. Banner Snack

2. Big Filebox

3. Stack Magazines

4. Posterous

5. Statement Stacker

6. Wufoo

7. Tender Support

8. Campaign Monitor

9. Simple Spark

10. CSS Rockstars

11. The Choppr

12. Scrap Blog

13. Food Feed

14. Product Planner

15. Crowd Spring

16. Name Birdie

17. The Twitter Tag Project

18. Get Me Fast

19. TwitterFone

20. TwittBot

Written exclusively for WDD by Lee Munroe, a freelance web designer and blogger. You can find more of his writing at his blog or follow Lee on Twitter.

Is the 3 step approach an effective way to simplify your web design? Please share your comments below…

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A corporate website also needs to capture the feel of the company and its purpose, while remaining professional in order to attain a solid and lasting impression to its customers.

Graphics, layouts and color palettes are all essential in how the customers perceive a company when visiting their website. Dark color designs, for example, can be interpreted as serious, while blue hues give a feeling of trust.

Here are 50 corporate website designs that you can use for inspiration in your own corporate designs. 

Which are your favorites? Please share with us other corporate designs that we may have missed…

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Through the Internet we get to know you through your websites, blogs and even more, your avatars. Avatars appear in most blog comments these days and they truly enhance a comment with each person’s unique personality and design.

A few weeks ago, I was preparing to do a round up of avatar designs around the web to showcase here on WDD, when I had the idea to take this a step further by making a full website for this.

Today I’m happy to bring you the results by introducing Avatar Wall, a brand new website dedicated to showcase avatars from around the world.

How to get your avatar on Avatar Wall

If you don’t already have an avatar registered with Gravatar, you first need to register one on the Gravatar website and then go to Avatar Wall to submit it. Both services are completely free and you decide how much information you wish to display.

Avatar Wall: The Website

The site is free for anyone to display their own avatars. The designs are as varied as any other design: from simple photo portraits, to illustrations, cartoons, logos, you name it, they’re all there and they look great.

Avatar Wall is really simple to use. When you enter the site you’ll see the last 36 avatars added, with all the other avatars sorted from last to first. You can rate avatars, and sort them based on their rating or random.

Search for your own avatar to see if you’re already there. If you posted a comment in WDD, chances are you’re already featured there. If it’s not there, go ahead and submit it.

If your avatar already appears there, you can edit the information and even add a short bio about you (up to 160 characters). This is a great way to let others know a bit about you as well as promoting your own blog, website or Twitter account.

At the time of this writing there are already over 600 avatars, so don’t waste any time and add yours today!

Showcase of avatars

Check out some of the great avatars found at AW. You can get as creative as you want, and really showcase your design skills or personality in any way you want.

Go submit your avatar today, rate and interact with other members and above all have fun with it. Suggestions for improvement? We’d love to hear from you!

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Some websites go even further by basing and designing the entire layout and background on illustrations, usually vector based illustrations.

Many websites today feature complex and visually stunning landscape illustrations, which is what we’ve decided to focus on in this article.

Here are 50 beautiful websites with landscape illustrations in a variety of styles.

Green Globe Ideas

DivVoted

StrawPoll

ten24 Media

Banjax

Visit Cascadia

DrupalCon DC

Studio7Designs

Adit Shukla

Iceberg

Vimeo

Go Glamping

Twither

Sensi Soft

volll

Tomas Pojeta

Jiri Tvrdek

Boagworld

Rawkes

10 Volt Media

Web Design Beach

Stoodeo

Schneeballschl8

Stylized Web

Project Vino

Arbutus Photography

Penang Bloggers

Moshi Monsters

IL FRUTTETO

Meomi Cloud House

Global Zoo

eAnka

Colchester School

Cloudred Multimedia

John Cow

Dean Oakely

Brad Colbow

Nine Lion

RedBrick Health

polargold

Carbonica

Galaicofolia

The Octonauts

Yes Insurance

Viget Inspire

Reservoir34

Biowind

Happy in Greenville

Miki Mottes

Pinjata

Which ones are your favorites? Please share with us other similar websites that you may have visited.

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It is true, the very nature of what we do is based on creativity, however more often than not we tend to be swept away by the latest trends or “what’s hot” rather than seeking out fresh inspiration.

“A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows public opinion.” – Chinese Proverb

There are several reasons for this creativity block in which we are suffering from and in this article I’ll list some of these as well as alternatives for where to find appropriate sources of inspiration.

Direct vs. Indirect Sources of Inspiration

As designers, we are creative– we have to be. Even creative people need inspiration. So the question is, where do we look for inspiration? Herein lies the problem. If you’re like the majority of web designers, you probably depend upon direct sources of inspiration. However, more thought should be given to indirect inspiration; it is the key to developing new and original ideas.

Direct Source: Any source of inspiration that is directly associated with the graphic design field, often showcasing published design work. Examples include CSS Galleries, HOW Magazine, Graphic Design Annuals, any published design work, magazines, books, etc.

Indirect Source: Any source of inspiration that is not directly related to the graphic design field. Typically these sources can be considered “outside the box” ideas. Examples include objects in nature, art, photography, history, etc.

Using direct sources of inspiration often leads to duplication. Aside from copyright violation, attention should be given to the overuse of the so-called “web 2.0” effects (reflections, gradients, glossy interfaces, beveled edges, etc.). These effects are great indeed, but haven’t you noticed that everyone uses them. They’re not original anymore. If you frequent CSS and other design galleries, you’ll notice that many of the websites featured are very similar in concept. This is not good! However, I am not condemning such galleries, because they are useful. They are great inspiration. Wait, what? – didn’t I just say not to use them as inspiration? Well, not exactly.

The key is to let design galleries and other websites inspire you to design, not inspire your design.

Please read the above statement again. Good, now do it again.

When viewing enormous compilations of great websites, it is easy to get excited and inspired to design. You will experience designer euphoria, where your creative juices begin to flow and you feel as if you can design the world. When you reach that point, stop! Do not make the mistake of spending too much time and effort browsing through what has already been done. If so, your inspiration changes to duplication, which should never be desired.

The Nature of Business

Clients can be our best friends or our worst enemies. We have all experienced it; your client wanting to defy all of your knowledge and control the entire creative process. They see their competitors’ websites and want exactly the same thing “but better”. The problem is that they have a uninformed, preconceived notion of their website and neglect to consider the many other factors in building a website.

You must educate your client so that they may understand your design decisions. Then, and only perhaps then, they will understand the value of your design.

No time for creativity on tight deadlines

If you are working in the industry for a large company or even a small business, you will always be pushed by the clock and the pocketbook. Herein lies another problem; creativity takes time and you can’t rush a good idea.

This will never change. Businesses are driven by money and we all know that time is money. However there are a few things we can do to expedite our creativity to meet these tight deadlines without hindering it. At the end of this article I have listed several creative exercises to help inspire some fresh creativity. Many of these are quick, fast-paced exercises that will likely take less time than it does to browse through a design gallery, so try them out and give them a chance. Hopefully, you will now understand that we do in fact have a problem. So, how do we fix it?

Start by getting off your computer

Finish reading this article first, then get off your computer. Your computer is not a creative machine; it does not have a brain and it cannot design for you. It is simply a tool; do not depend on it for creativity.

Please leave your computer, take a short break, tell a small white lie to the boss if you must and get out! Take your sketchbook with you. Oh yes, if you have a camera, take that too. Whether it is something specific or simply just a refreshing look on life that you discover while you’re off your computer, you can use it to inspire your creativity.

Browse Walmart or The Local Hardware Store

Stores are full of unique and interesting objects and machines. There are endless possibilities for inspiration if you know where to look. Innovation in many products can be discovered if you simply take the time to discover them. For example, take a look through the kitchen appliances section of Walmart or any other store. Really take a close and hard look at the design of these appliances, their unique shapes, their easy to use interfaces, even how they are displayed on the shelf.

There are several obvious comparisons that can be made between a website and an appliance. A blender, for example, has a unique design, some with bright colors, others with black and white. They sport elegant curves and shapes. They all have a “dashboard” of controls, cleverly designed for ease of use.

Next, venture into the paint section. It is color inspiration heaven. Paint cards are organized by color and often contain a range of shades of each color (particularly helpful for a monochromatic color scheme). Mix and match different cards, find some interesting color combinations, then stick them in your pocket and use them when you get back to the office.

Now head to the grocery aisle. Pay particular attention at how the products are arranged on the shelf. There really is an art and science to it.

Anyone can find inspiration in a store and you can do your household shopping all at the same time. How’s that for multitasking?

Explore Natural Beauty

Go to a park, take a walk, wander into the woods or just simply take a blanket outside and lay on it. Whatever the method, get away from your routine. Find something that sparks your interest, catches your eye or strikes you in a particular way. Take a picture or sketch of what you see.

Of course I am not telling you to simply find a flower or tree that you like and use it directly in your design. Instead, try to figure out what it is that you find so striking, maybe it is its color or shape, or even texture. Then transfer those elements into your design. Don’t be afraid to take a sample back to the office and scan it into Photoshop.

Art History

Formally trained in graphic design, I had my share of art history classes. I couldn’t begin to count the times that I have used a painting or sculpture as inspiration in my design work.

Starry Night, Vincent Van Gogh, 1889

Modern art movements such as Cubism, Abstract Expressionism, and Impressionism serve as excellent sources of inspiration. Even earlier forms of art such as Roman and Greek will suffice. Painting and sculpture can be applied to web design as well. It really is all the same, it is design, whether on a canvas or on a computer screen. Artist’s make color and layout choices and decide how they want the user to view their masterpiece by controlling the eye path with contrasting elements just the same as a web designer does.

Don’t Forget To Use Your Imagination

I’ve mentioned several ways in which you as a designer can seek out new and fresh inspiration, but the most important thing you should take away from this article is to not forget to be creative and use your own imagination. Be extraordinary, not ordinary.

I challenge you to break the design cycle, explore uncharted territory and be original. Go beyond what has been mentioned in this article, seek out your own unique inspirations. Anything can inspire you if you will just let it.

Creative Exercises: Try these for your next project

Below I have listed and briefly explained some quick exercises to inspire “outside the box” thinking for your next project. Keep in mind that some of these will work for you and others may not. Don’t limit yourself to these. Think of ways to spark an idea that work for you, then share them with us in the comments section of this article.

Quick Capture Photo Session
Pick any place or area inside or out. Your desk will be a great place to start. Grab your camera and a stop watch. Give yourself 30 seconds to snap as many shots as you can of anything in the area that you have chosen. Do not concern yourself with taking a well-composed photograph- just think “rapid-fire.”

Once your 30 seconds are up, upload the photos to your computer and see what you have. This exercise forces you to look at a space or area in ways in which you never have before. Browse through these photos and select a few that are particularly interesting to you; Store the others in a folder for use on another day.

Print the photos that you have selected and paste them in your sketch book. Use them on your current project or save them for another one.

Get OBJECT-ive
This is a simple one. Find an object, large or small, something you can see from all sides. Place this object in sight of your desk, or on it if possible, as you are designing and limit yourself to designing around this object.

Placing limits on a task forces creativity because it doesn’t allow you to choose the expected. It it forces you to think outside the box to arrive at a solution. Freedom restricts creativity.

Webster-Mania

If you’re a strictly visual person, this one may not work for you because it involves a dictionary and words. Open up a dictionary, randomly select a word and then try to formulate ideas incorporating this word. You’d be surprised how well this works. The concept is again is based on the principle of restricting yourself from the obvious. There is nothing like restrictions to get you thinking.

Written exclusively for WDD by Michael Shelton. Michael is a freelancer web designer and runs his own website at Michaeladesigns.com

What other methods of inspiration do you use in your designs? We’d love to hear from you, please share with us in the comments’ section below.

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So how does a charity get the most out of its website? It needs to let users find out information about the charity, but the main objective of the site is to get people involved with the charity, usually resulting in the user donating money.

In this article, we look at 8 principles that you should follow when creating a charity website.

What makes a good charity website?

1. A mission

A quick tagline to sum up what the charity (or charitable event) is about.

2. How sponsors will be helping

Let your users know what you do with their money once they sponsor. They’ll want to know how they’re making a difference to someone’s life.

3. Photos of people the sponsors will be helping

Help users identify and visualize the people they’ll be helping.

4. Donate button

The donate button is most likely the most important asset of a charity website so it should be prominent and obvious. This is the ultimate end goal for users.

5. Donations to date

If the website is for a specific charitable event, show how much the charity’s raised to date. Current sponsors get to see how useful they’ve been while possible sponsors can see that there are other people already helping and the campaign is active.

6. A funding goal

If applicable, share your goal. Having a target gives people something to aim for.

7. Keep in touch

Sponsors will want you to keep in touch as they now have a vested interested, so make sure they can. Let people sign up and send them an occasional newsletter about what the charity is up to. This will also be helpful when it comes to looking for future donations.

8. How can people help

Donating money is the obvious way people can help, but make it clear they can help in other ways. Suggest fundraising ideas and advise how users can help promote the website and charity via other social networking sites.

Showcase of excellent charity websites

The Worldwide Blogger Bake Off

Action for Children

Save the Children

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

World Concern

Fifty Thousand Shirts

Cards from Africa

Change

Stop Child Labour

Sahayata

Miracles in Africa

Take the Walk

Wiser

Here’s Life Mission Africa

Operation Warm

Manna Food Bank

Global Oneness Project

Red Nose Day

Children’s Rights

Sponsor Lee

Written exclusively for WDD by Lee Munroe, a freelance web designer and blogger. You can find more of his writing at his blog or follow Lee on Twitter.

What do you feel makes up a good charity website and can you recommend any? Please share your comments below…

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For many freelancers language like that is reason enough to never work for another person again.

We aren’t very social animals and most of us aren’t normal workers either. Some of us do our best work at 2:00 in the morning after a feverish round of Halo 3.

Perhaps this T-shirt from ThinkGeek says it best:

Unfortunately there comes a time in the life of every freelancer when they must deal with that most dreaded of all creatures – other people. In order to prepare for this inevitable event, you have to look at your workday as a series of planned events. Sort of like a Warcraft raid, but only in real life. While we usually don’t have time to do anything but work, we have to make that time in order to keep our sanity.

WTF This is Too RL. Noob.

Most of us aren’t large enough yet to have an office, or we simply don’t want the added overhead of having an office. If you have enough clients and you’re making money, why have one unless you are working towards an agency business model? There’s nothing wrong with working from home if you work on the internet and in our case clients expect that we do just that. While we all work from home for a reason, there are some downfalls to working from home that we need to overcome in order to be successful.

Socialization

When I first started working from home, my mother-in-law asked me if I would miss socializing at the office. I thought it was a crazy question. Of course I wouldn’t miss the office. While I hardly hated my co-workers, I’ve always been the type that considered office socializing to be a massive time suck and useless in the bargain.

Any Closer and I Stuff Live Ferrets In Your Pants

Since I started I can’t say I miss socializing at the office, but I definitely need to get out and do something every day. Whether it is a quick coffee with a friend, a stolen half hour at the gym, or a quick drive, I make an attempt to reconnect with society for at least a few minutes per day. This process is apparently called “socialization” and it is defined as the process of learning our own culture and how to live within it.

It can be argued that we function in our online culture just fine, thank you very much, but I think you’ll agree that getting out to see people once in a while isn’t a bad idea. Apparently Plato, Montaigne and Rousseau all thought that socialization was necessary. We’re going to accept that one of those guys knew what they were talking about.

Srsly Go OUTSIDE!!!

What happens when we aren’t properly “socialized”? I think you all could come up with at least one example. I have always had an amazing capacity for saying the wrong thing. Before someone told me that it wasn’t quite appropriate, I told two children that whenever Hannah Montana sings, God kills a kitten. I did this because I thought, and rightly so, that it was hilarious. But think of the kid – I made the poor buggers think for a few seconds that God had a rifle range set up and was poling a kitten whenever Hannah warbled an unholy note. That just wasn’t cool. What’s worse – I came up with the idea from a piece of FaceBook flair. There’s nerd, and then there is anti-social nerd.

Please Hannah Noooos....

I Socialize Online. What’s The Difference?

When we socialize online, we tend to aggregate in groups and forums that represent our own interests. The negative aspects to socializing online are that we can create identities and roles for ourselves that are actually a far cry from our real characters. Most of us don’t even do this intentionally – we just have a different character online than off. In “The Social Net” by Yair Amichai-Hamburger, he writes about this role playing and alternate self as both a negative and a positive.

We are free to explore areas that we may not explore offline, but that can also lead to some anti-social behaviour as well. While Amichai-Hamburger is not trying to demonize online culture in his book, he turns the cold third-party eye of a team of psychologists on the whole affair with some interesting results. You can read excerpts over at Google Books.

Since we tend to form groups with those of similar interests, we are often not challenged with opposing viewpoints as we may be offline. This can lead to a fundamentalism in belief structures, political ideals and just about anything else that we communicate about on the internet. While online socializing has its place, it should always be supplemented with real life socializing to keep yourself balanced.

Socializing online with something like Twitter is another issue entirely. This tool gives you up to the second insights into the lives of those of your tribe, such as other web designers and other freelancers. You may actually find yourself making some real life friends over Twitter if you aren’t careful.

Getting Resocialized

For those of you who are seeing themselves in my Hannah Montana debacle, you may want to do something a little more drastic than getting out to the gym everyday. You may want to join a group of some kind that encourages you to do public speaking such as Toastmasters or a similar organization. You may want to join a local volunteer organization, such as Rotary or the Kinsmen. Basically if you have absolutely nothing going on in your life except work, you need to give yourself some time away. This process is called resocialization. The term is usually applied to a major life change, such as going away to University or joining the military. If you’ve been at home working with nobody around for years, you may just find it to be extremely useful.

They Won't Look Like This. Promise.

The Mobile Office is Not the Answer

A lot of people recommend changing your surroundings by taking your laptop and going to a cafe or a quiet room such as a museum lounge. While it can’t hurt to mix it up a little bit like this, you are still effectively in isolation. I’m sure that the odd freelancer has found work happiness in a cafe or in similar surroundings, but this only works if you have the concentration of a ninja master. Changing your surroundings usually won’t do much except reacquaint you with the negative aspects of human nature such as loud conversations about private medical issues and the need that some people have to talk in order to hear themselves. These types prefer coffee shops of the pricey variety *cough*(Starbucks)*cough*. If you need to go out, just go out. Leave your laptop at home.

That being said sometimes you do need a place to go if the family aggro is driving you to distraction. The best place to go is the library – no loud conversations, no distractions and no impossibly hot baristas.  Wait a minute – maybe that cafe isn’t looking like such a bad idea after all…

Your Spouse is Not Your Socializer

If you are lucky enough to have a spouse, you can’t use them as your socialization mechanism, regardless of how easy it is. Your spouse expects you to bring your own personality and beliefs to the table. As it is unfair for them to come home and complain about work, it is unfair for you to expect them to introduce you to the entire world around you. That’s your responsibility. As a freelancer it is almost more vital that you set up date nights for you and your spouse as it is too easy to just hop on the box after dinner to tighten up some code. You may find yourself tightening up your belt when the divorce papers are served.

Just in case you were wondering, the impossibly hot barista is not your socializer either. Just walk away.

Date Your Friends

Set up an ongoing meeting once a week with at least one of your friends during the day. If you know a mom who is at home with the kids, she’s probably dying to get the heck out of the house too. Change your location and activity from week to week. Go shopping, have lunch, go to a free lecture. Whatever you do, don’t do anything to do with work. Does once a week sound too often to you?  OK – that’s a sign that you need to do it.

Socialization and Sales

Even if it seems like work is coming in faster than you can finish it, there will come a day that you will have to conduct some sales-like activities to bring in new business. One of the first rules of sales is to not talk about sales. While you don’t want to waste your client’s time, if you are at a meeting it is expected that you start off with some small talk about family, current events or friendly banter of another sort.

This is where your socialization comes into play. If you are adequately socialized, you’ll ace all the nuances of a standard business meeting. If you aren’t, your prospective client will probably pick up on this fact with negative results for your business deal.

Sales Techniques

Sales techniques for the freelancer are a little different than the standard ones that you read about in your “Get Rich Quick” type books. It is much easier for a web developer to get clients than it is for an encyclopedia salesman to get clients. All you really need to do is pick up the phone, which is one of the main reasons for this article. Most web developers view the phone as an antiquated device that only troglodytes use. If it makes you feel better, hook yourself up on Skype and call with your computer. Whatever you do, commit yourself to one morning a month of picking up the phone and calling people you don’t know to get business.

This = $$

This method of getting business is so much easier than bidding on contracts on online bid sites and answering ads on Craigslist because you are competing with nobody. You are the first one “past the post” in the eyes of the business owner that you are talking to and therefore the favoured one. You may find that most contacts made through your cold calling don’t even shop around – they just have you do the job. Don’t feel restricted to cold calling in your local area either, although you may want to start there.

Contact people in other states, provinces and even other countries. Check to see how the dollar is doing against the Euro and the British Pound. If it is lower you may find yourself to be the discount option of choice for a UK customer. Make sure that you are respecting the time difference and calling in the equivalent of morning for them.

Don’t think that mass emails can replace cold calls either. Your effectiveness rate will be much better talking to someone on the phone than it would have been if you had sent an email. A phone call is more personal and feels more honest in the eyes of your buyer than e-mail. You’ll be assuring your buyer that you simply aren’t a design mill and you have interpersonal skills. I don’t know about you, but I am sick of unwanted e-mail filling my inbox and I am always happy to get a relevant telephone call.

While many of us are not adequately socialized human beings due to the nature of our work, most of us are remarkable human beings. Think of what you are depriving the world of if you don’t get out there. It’s actually almost criminal that people are not yet aware of the awesomeness of you. Especially that barista. Go get ‘em, tiger.

Written exclusively for WDD by Angela West.

Do you consider yourself an anti-social freelancer? Please share your comments with us!

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I found Radim Malinic and his exceptional work through Webdesigner Magazine. I love the way his designs explode with boldness, color and shapes, truly demonstrating the infinite possibilities of design, being somewhat risky by breaking out of the norm. I wanted WDD to be exactly that, a loose grip on all things related to design.

Here’s an interview that I recently conducted with Radim, in order to gain more insight into his professional work, his personal life and the way that he crafted the memorable design of Webdesigner Depot, which is now featured in countless website galleries.

Hi Radim, thanks for agreeing to have this interview with us. Can you please tell us about about yourself and your background?

Hi Walter, what’s up? I’m a London based freelance illustrator and graphic designer, creative by day and by night too. My career started whilst living in Southampton for many years, but my studio is now based in the capital of creativity, hehe. I’ve started relatively late compared to other people out there, working in the creative industry was almost a happy accident.

Although I’ve been absorbing knowledge as a teenager at my mothers ad agency, I didn’t fire up the computer til a few years later. In the last four years I had the privilege to work with some high end household name clients as well as interesting new music artists and record labels.

Everyday I enjoy exploring the new ways of work and the general buzz of it all. I don’t try to play harder than I work, but I like to go out to see new bands, support my dj friends and have a pint of Guiness, roll sushi at home and trying to catch up with all the movies I’ve not seen yet.

How did you conceive the WDD concept for the website? Please walk us through the design process of the artwork for this website?

I was glad you contacted me on the basis of seeing the 3D Flash cover I did for Webdesigner Magazine a little while ago. When I was approached, I was in the middle of working with O2 Germany on a huge advertising campaign. The ideas sounded great and with a bucket of creative freedom I was looking forward to make start.

I believe in doing things in the opposite way, not the obvious way. So I sat down and thought about all the things that are associated with either webdesign or train depot, hehe. As I work mainly for print, I usually prepare a master illustration which is then adapted into a website compatible format. This blog design was to be very graphic, colourful and vibrant, making it look very distinguishable.

Before I embarked on the master Photoshop composition, I sat down and thought of the elements I wanted to implement. I wanted to fuse the unexpected together and started by drawing elements in Adobe Illustrator. I considered various options before I settled on the the set which served as the basis for the final piece.

It was discussed in the brief to use earthy colours, giving the whole concept quite a deep and sophisticated feel. Purely for the sake of versatility I worked in A3+ size at 300dpi so the work could be used for posters as well as the final website blog design.

One by one, my elements were transferred from Illustrator into Photoshop. All the gradual colours were achieved by brushing in different blending modes using a single colour. My idea was to tell a story of a webdesigner whose life is made up of different vital components that merge into his work.

At this stage I added the extra photography of the beloved computers, giving the whole piece extra dimension. From laptops to big screens and mobile phones, websites are viewed everywhere these days. The swooshes were done by using AI brushes and then pasted directly in.

At this stage, I was getting very happy with the overall richness of the image. Further AI 3D elements found their way in as well as colourful balloons which are used for comments in the final design. The connection is in resemblance of the speech bubble, well, at least I saw it that way, hehe. From my bank of custom brushes I added new textures for the vibrant result.

This is the first test to turn the theme into a working webdesign. The page width is rather large, therefore it brought an opportunity to expand a little. Also, at this stage the logo was starting to take shape.

After the initial feedback, the second round of amends produced the final design that now graces WDD. Visitors with larger screens will enjoy the large top section with many extra elements. I believe the page has got an excellent fun side to it, projecting a good message to people who love their webdesign jobs.

What are some of your proudest works and why?

Every new piece of work in my portfolio has to be the best work to date. Well, it should be and has been at many times. I spent most of 2008 on client commissions and it was only toward the end of the year, when I started work on my second book, when I finally knocked out a few personal pieces.

Nipponesse, Colours & Nuances are my proudest moments of this past year, with the rest of the work trailing closely behind. Also, the ‘Book of Colours’ was a nice finish to a hectic year. During the year I couldn’t materialize a number of ideas on projects and I saved them for my book.

Can you tell us more about your latest publication ‘Book of Colours’?

I had a dry run in self-publication in 2007 when I put out ‘Splatters, Shapes & Colours’. It served to be the first so-called-oversized-business-card. Fans of my work could get their hands on a printed version of my work and I could have a concise portfolio with me wherever I went.

The art directors, clients and agents loved it and it was no surprise I sold out the limited edition copies. I believe in self-promotion being one of the skills a modern artist should posses, unless they give all their hope to the hands of agents.

After receiving many pre-orders before I even started thinking about the second book, I knew I wanted to put out the book in time for Xmas delivery. I’ve sacrificed a lot of time this year for my work and the body of it is more than satisfying. ‘Book of Colours’ is a true representation of where I am as a contemporary illustrator and designer.

The response to the new 68 page coffee table sized book of inspiration has been immense. Almost 500 copies flew out within the 4 week lead up to the holidays to all different corners of the globe. In times when everyone has a website, it’s easy to overlook the details due to the volume of everyone’s presence. The book is an excellent oversized business card and since my work is primarily for print, the quality of the publication makes a really good first impression.

What are you currently working on?

Where to start? I wanted to use the festive period to unwind and leave all the creative thoughts behind. The beauty of what I do is that I can take time off when I feel like it, not when the calendar tells me to. I like to work when other people have time off and vice versa. It doesn’t always happen, but I have spent many Sundays working and many Mondays chilling out.

Right now, as usual, I’ve been working on a number of projects simultaneously, I just like it that way. There’s an ongoing collaboration with a music management agency, creating identities for their artists. The creative freedom is immense, I couldn’t ask for more as I can use quite a few bows in my arrow.

Then I’m writing a tutorial for PSD magazine, a couple of advertising projects in Canada and USA, a magazine cover for the Advocate magazine and a tiny personal project I’ve been trying to squeeze in for ages, and bags more …. the list could go on. The hoo-ha about economy doesn’t seem to work with me, things couldn’t be better.

What equipment do you use to create your work?

I started on a Powerbook G4 some years ago, but slowly I’ve built up a nice little set up which I absolutely adore. Now my Quad Mac Pro 2.66, 30″ & 20″ Cinema Screens, A3 Wacom tablet, a semi broken scanner and a pack of charcoals, are all parts of my creative arsenal.

I’ve just set up at the new studio in Chelsea, quite an inspirational part of London, actually not too far from the Saatchi Gallery. Although most of the ‘creative’ industry is based in trendy Shoreditch, I feel South West London has the right vibe for me right now.

Where do you get inspiration from?

The inspiration finds you, not you finding inspiration. Is there a way to go and look for inspiration? I like working to a brief, a problem solving work. Having a brief gives me a direction, idea and inspiration for that new project. I find inspiration in other people’s problem solving, and in the way they worked out ideas.

People like Hvass&Hannibal make me really happy with their creations; Sonar Kollektiv records make the right music to suit my working process; a stroll down the busy road, or a few chilled out hours in a bookstore, does the trick. I’m not sure if I get too many blocks, I just don’t have time to sit on them as deadlines are always pressing.

What are your plans for the future?

The new year of 2009 sees me actively looking for challenging new projects in fields unexplored by me. I simply love working with new clients and the beginnings of the project life, moulding their thoughts into colourful and working results. If you work for a household name, everyone expects you to get into a race and get better results then your predecessors. A new client with new business gives you all the freedom in the world to blow the people’s socks off, hehe.

Also, I’m thinking of doing the NuVisualLanguage exhibition project again and I’m planning to work with motion designers on a range of experimental projects. In the world of Brand Nu it’s always sunshine, although a busy one!

Interview by WDD’s Editor: Walter Apai

You can read more about Radim Malinic at his website Brand Nu. The excellent “Book Of Colours” is also available through his website and can be purchased there.

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