BlueSpore.com. Melbourne freelance designer.

Online Marketing & SEO Tips & Best Practices

Sean — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 07:02:25 +0000

Your presence on the web and indeed the effectiveness of your presence is powered strongly by your marketing. Internet marketing helps target specific demographics, increase your search engine ranking and based on it’s results; improve your quality of service for your customers.

Advertisement unit guidelines

You see them everywhere. Digital advertisements, pop-ups and flash banners are a pretty standard part of the internet these days. Let’s face it – the web is a marketing tool that attracts millions of users every single day. If you’re going to incorporate advertising into a project, you’re going to need to know how it’s done properly.

IAB. Ad Standards & Creative Guidelines has a complete list of every kind of advertisement you’d be after. Go here to ensure you’re encapsulating advertising standards so as there is little difficulty in companies who wish to advertise with you doing so, as the correct amount of space will already be accounted for in your project design phase.

Implement Google Analytics

If you are even slightly serious about your business or getting the most out your clients business for them, you are kicking yourself if you’re not already implementing Google Analytics. It’s a free service and only requires a short piece of JavaScript to be placed within your website. It allows tracking of absolutely everything you can think of about the page visitors including what browser they’re using, how long their visit was, which pages they visited, how they got to the page, their geographical location, and many other things you probably didn’t know it could do! This information can be used to redefine your marketing strategies in ways that are invaluable to your/your clients business.

The common method is to place the tracking code in your sites header, but this isn’t the best way. It is better to place the tracking code in your websites footer so as it tracks views where the page as fully loaded. This way you’re not tracking information on people who’ve gone to your page and left before it finishes loading as you’re probably not going to get any useful information about this view to begin with.

Optimised Google Analytics Tracking Code

Further more; there is an optimised version of the code which you should use in your footer. I place mine in a my-scripts file that contains all my JavaScript code minified and loaded at the end of the footer file. Simply replace the X’s with your unique UA code that Google gives you once you’ve registered.

var _gaq = [['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXXXXX-X'], ['_trackPageview']];
(function(d, t) {
	var g = d.createElement(t),
	s = d.getElementsByTagName(t)[0];
	g.async = true;
	g.src = ('https:' == location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
	s.parentNode.insertBefore(g, s);
})(document, 'script');

Speed Up Your Web Development

Sean — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 02:49:35 +0000

This collection of standards, resources tools are aimed at helping improve production quality and increase the speed of your work flow. By adhering to common web standards it not only takes away the pain of measuring, ruling, coding and programming tedious tasks that are required as the base and beginning for any project, it also means you’ll be guaranteed cross browser performance. This kit will ensure you can concentrate on what matters, the design, functionality and effectiveness of your website whilst the tedious tasks are streamlined for your project.

Basic HTML5 mark-up

When I initially began compiling this list of tips, resources and tools I also began learning more about HTML5 mark-up and it’s advantages for both SEO and cleaner code. For those wanting a copy-paste kick start for their projects; here is how I normally lay a page out before adding it’s functionality and design.



  
    
    

    XXXXX

Obviously this is just a very basic mark-up and you’d need to add in the bulk of how you code, but I feel it gives a good idea on how the most used new HTML5 elements are used in an everyday sense. It is also strongly recommended you take what you need from the HTML5 reset style sheet and look at using HTML5shiv to enable HTML5 on older browsers. Furthermore – if you’re wanting to take advantage of the and video tags; look into HTML5media. If you’d like to read more I strongly recommend reading this web site: http://diveintohtml5.org/ and purchase a copy of HTML5 for Web Designers to read through. Smashing Magazine also have an article (albeit old, still relevant) on constructing your first HTML5 web site on their blog that’s incredibly helpful, along with the comments that follow.

How to use CSS3 on all browsers

If you’re going to be using HTML5 mark-up along with the brilliant new features that you should be using – You’re probably wanting to use CSS3 selectors and transforms as well. Usually this would be quite an annoyance, especially if a client has most of their audience browsing the web on IE6 – 8 (God forbid). With Selectivizr you can now use CSS3 on Internet Explorer 6 to Internet Explorer 8.

Also be sure to pick up a copy of CSS3 for Web Designers to brush up on your skills! But if you’re looking for a quick fix generator for all your CSS3 needs – head on over to CSS3generator.com to instantly create any code you’re after.

1140 CSS grid

The 960.gs grid system has long been the most common standard CSS framework for fast development of web pages. I’ve recently been using the 1140 grid system to accommodate for the larger monitors but also fluidly scale down to mobile. Take a look at the website and resize the browser to see how it works. This website uses a modified version of it that spans 1014 pixels as I felt 1140 was too big for what I needed it for. Changing the size is as easy as finding the 1140.css file and changing the following code:

.row {
    width: 100%;
    max-width: 1014px; /* Change from 1140 to what ever suits */
    margin: 0 auto;
    overflow: hidden;
}

It means you’re still able to develop your page in the same manner that the framework provides, (which is incredibly fast and efficient) but still maintain your preferred content width.

Top 8 most used jQuery scripts

jQuery works wonders for your website creating beautiful transitions, effects and animations along with even increasing the usability of your site for dynamically validating form data or showing hidden content on rollover. There are obviously scripts that generally work better than others and I believe it is a mostly subjective matter. However, here is a list of the top jQuery scripts that I’ve found to be the most useful in an everyday environment.

I won’t discuss anything about them as viewing the script will speak for itself!

Version control

Version control has been described as “the poor man’s backup” – and in a sense, it is. In my experience version control isn’t necessarily needed with a small individual project but when it comes to team collaboration there are no two ways about it. Version control is a must. There’s a slight learning curve but the beauty of it is being able to store a project in a central location allowing users to contribute to and download from a repository.

Version control tracks all changes that have been made to any file and allows rollbacks to previous versions of the file if anything goes wrong. It also has its own locking functions that stop others accessing files if you’re editing, if you so wish. I’ve personally had experience with Subversion and seen no reason to try any others thus far, but there are other alternatives available. You can read up on Subversion at it’s website.

If you aren’t comfortable with the commands, TortoiseSVN embeds svn commands to the right-click list within Windows OS which I’ve found works a treat.

Of course, using SVN requires a place for it to be centrally stored – preferably on the internet so it can be accessed from anywhere. Assembla and Beanstalk are good websites to look at, I believe Assembla has less data and user limitations than Beanstalk, though.

Web Design Process – Tools & Tips

Sean — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 07:54:37 +0000

Make no mistakes – Project design is one of the most important things in the development process. The development of code and its functionality is just as important, but the design is what the front end user will constantly interact with. It creates the look and feel of a project and encapsulates the ideas and beliefs that it stands for and aims to achieve.

Sometimes the drive to actually begin working on a project is already there but you’re stuck for ideas on how to actually go about doing it. I’ve compiled a list of resources and tools that I find always helps kick start and aid my creative process that are sure to help you too.

Be inspired

Quotes on Design

Inspire yourself with motivational quotations from experience UX designers, web designers and creative minds alike. I’ve personally printed a bunch of these off to put on my wall around my studio. Helps when you enter a daze and begin looking around the room!

Pattern Tap

Can’t figure out how to design a CSS3 search bar? Stuck with how to implement a beautiful sub navigation to match your already awesome design? Worry no more. Pattern tap is bar far one of the best web design resources I have come across. It has galleries filled with snapshots of specific web interfaces to help fuel your creativity and get an idea for what the latest trends are circulating the design of the web.

Dribbble

- A social hub for seasoned designers boasting an invite only sign up, Dribbble can be a great tool to see at a glance what the latest trends in graphic and web design are. Often if I feel a design isn’t working, I’ll scoot on over here and assess what works with designs showcased here compared with my own design and try to make amends.

Speed up your workflow

Printable web browser wireframes

This is a blog post over at Speckyboy.com featuring a compilation of printable web browser wireframes and templates. After discovering these I can honestly say that I wouldn’t ever go back. Not only does it give you a more realistic feel for the size of your designed elements within the browser; it comes pre-measured and adhering to a grid structure so quickly sketching out an idea for a web page be it for yourself or a client, has never been so easy! These are an absolute must for anyone who’s serious about web design!

That said – when you move your design to the computer there’s a way to make your mock up there much easier too. Designer’s toolbox have created a bunch of different operating system and browser elements to use in your digital mock ups to get a more realistic idea on how your design interacts with these items. Grab them here.

Hashgrid

A handy tool to analyse what elements are messing with your design’s layout at a glance. After implementing the JavaScript and CSS files onto the project server it allows you to use hot-keys by pressing G to bring up a grid above your web page and see if everything is in line.

Placehold.it

If you’ve ever been asked to show a semi-live version (test server) of a website to a client so they can assess how it’s working for themselves, you’ll understand the pain of doing so if you haven’t yet received all the deliverables from them. If you haven’t received web copy (words for a website) you’ll generally use Lorem Ipsum in place of absent content. Placehold.it is the Lorem Ipsum for yet to be delivered web images.

You know, based on the design you’ve made, how much space the image should be taking up so why not fill it with something null that isn’t going to detract from the purpose of previewing the web-page without images, rather than putting ugly looking stock photos with water marks in there. Simply place “placehold.it/AAAxBBB” in your img src, where A is the width in pixels and B is the height in pixels – and you have a nice gray box with the measurements inside placed on your test page!

Markup.io

We’ve all been there. Had to submit a screenshot, or a link to a client for assessment and critique only to end up confused about which part of the website they’re actually talking about. Markup lets you link to a website an draw directly on it to leave comments and markup. Problem solved.

Colour scheme tools

Adobe Kuler

Without a doubt, my favourite colour scheme generator on the web that can even plug straight into your copy of Photoshop. Hundreds of user-created colour schemes to choose from and some very neat tools to create your own with a few clicks that incorporate all the colour theory you can think of without having to remember it yourself.

Color.aurlien.net

This is the fastest colour picker web app that I have found. It’s much easier than having to fire up Photoshop to find a colour quickly in the midst of coding a design. I also often use it when speed painting to quickly pick out a range of colours to add to my pallet in Photoshop rather than the programs built in colour picker!

Four Lessons Brought On By Disaster

Sean — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 02:32:38 +0000

First and foremost – What has happened in the last two months is absolutely horrible and left many people and indeed entire communities without elements of their lives that they’ve worked so hard for so many years for. What thousands was once called home soon became the desolate, toxic water damaged expanse that was witnessed all over the national Australian and even international news world wide. With over 67 communities affected, even the most strenuous efforts were reduced to simply sitting and watching as life, as they knew it, drifted away.

Fortunately

As a nation we managed to pull through together and things to this day are already beginning to look up. There are some business that are beginning to return to normal, with a few even offering flood sales in circumstances where they cannot afford to simply give the stock away. This post isn’t here to re-highlight the gloom that has already been seen but more to take a prospective look at what has happened and decipher what we as both, Australians and as human beings, can take from this experience.

If you would like to help

There are many hotlines set up and numerous ways in which you can donate. I’ve listed the primary concerns here.

RSPCA QLD
For any information regarding lost or found animals and the safety of whom may be of immediate concern.
T: (07) 3426 9999
W: lostfound.rspcaqld.org.au
UPDATE: This Facebook page has been set up for people looking for lost and found pets.

Donations
By credit card.
T: 1800 219 028

General info line
For friends and relatives.
T: 1300 993 191

What we can learn

Importance of communityI am still shocked and amazed at how quickly people came together in such circumstances. No guards were left up, no grudges were left standing, differences were put aside. Queensland’s richest man Clive Palmer saved 60 stranded people with his own helicopter, when he realised that emergency crews were failing to show.
This morning Darren Curtis from the Channel 9 chopper commented that in the town of Graceville there was a “mud army” that consisted of two buses of volunteers that pushed in to help with the clean up. He commented that within the time he had been waiting for the news to cross over to him, the group had shifted a pile of toxic rubbish that stood taller than the group to the other side of the road clearing the space and began sweeping the street. Apparently the community was urged to stay away unless they were registered as volunteers as congestion in the streets due to site see-ers was only making things harder for the clean up. Curtis closed by saying “Congratulations Brisbane, you’ve actually listened and you’ve responded in a great way.” Before he finished his report, more buses began arriving.

It’s unfortunate that it will often take circumstance such as this for a community to come together and help one another out. Why we all too often do not feel the need to help our fellow man out in a regular setting? I, for one, am hoping that we can truly learn from this experience that we are all one in the same and no matter what social status, attitudes or beliefs we hold, we’re all in this life together, experiencing the same plight and a little help will go a long way.

Words could not describe the efforts of those involved with the clean up and salvage of these towns and my heart goes out to them all, especially the people that took it upon themselves to help the injured, stranded and lost animals along the way who came together as a community and served as foster owners for these poor animals. It is unfortunate that there was only so much we could do with regard to our wildlife.
The importance of idealism and minimalismEvents of this scale prove that there is almost nothing that can be done in these situations. The floods tore through cities and took almost everything from everyone. There is no question that this wreaked a devastating impact on people’s lives. Radio host and Brisbane identity Robin Bailey tells of how she saw a baby grand piano “probably worth about 50 grand” that was pretty much ruined and set aside with the rest of the trash. When we invest our happiness into material possessions, that happiness can be easily be taken away. I believe that at a time like this it is important for us to re-assess what we value the most in our lives and give it the love and care it requires.

But, with that said…
The value of insuranceWhilst, as the previous point suggests, we could all do well to appreciate idealism and minimalism over materialism, that doesn’t mean that we have nothing. Everyone invests money into areas of their enjoyment and things that will make them happier, it’s more about limiting the amount of these things and prioritising your valuables. But more importantly, these most recent circumstances can teach us the sheer importance of insuring your valuables. Anything can happen!
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh talks of the poor quality of insurance with regard to specifications on what is actually considered a ‘flood’ and how it will affect what you’ve insured.

Robin Bailey reports that Suncorp and APIA are amongst the main insurance companies that are saying anyone who was affected by the horrific turn of events is fully covered but was not prepared to name any other insurance companies that weren’t as giving. These companies were supposedly raising issues with the wording of the statements as in; was the damage caused by the rain coming down or was it the flood itself? If it was the flood water, apparently people weren’t covered.
The simplicity of every day affectionLastly, with the tragic deaths that have occurred and the amount of people missing it is a stark reminder of just how mortal we are on this planet. Our loved ones could vanish any day, at any time, for any reason. It is a waste of time to hold grudges, anger or to hold despise or distaste for another member of your community or within the circle of people whom you love. We must remind ourselves every day of whom we are grateful for, of what we are grateful for and whom we love; and tell them. Life is too short to live with negativity. Embrace those you love, because unspoken words can often be the words that need to be heard the most.

Additional lessons learned

Spiders can run across waterNaturally, the floods and rain have pushed not only us and the animals out of their homes but also arachnids, roaches and all kinds of creepy crawlies that people had not seen before. There’ve been reports that people chose to ignore what they felt crawling and clinging to their legs and even seen running across the water as they waded through the, at some points, 4.45 metre deep, water.
FloodZombieEven in these troubled times, Australian’s are still showing their iconic sense of humour with a topic trend on Twitter where jokes are being made about zombies infesting the flooded areas of Australia. @annettatas tweets this:

#floodzombie is the pinnacle of Aussie humour in a crisis situation!!! – But srsly, if ur cleaning up, cover up & stay safe!

It’s good to see the Australian sense of humour can still hold strong and help bring each other together in these dreadful times.

Image from news.com.au

In closing

Everyone’s continued support and effort is timeless and it’s amazing to see how much people are dropping everything to flock to and help those in need. A huge thank you to the Australian Army who’ve gone far beyond anyone’s expectations in helping aid those requiring support, shelter, food, water and general sustenance. All your efforts will be remembered and go down in history with this tragic event. I leave you now by asking everyone to please be safe, look out for everyone and be sure to keep communications open to all those around you. My heart goes out to you all.

Why You Should Delete Your Facebook Now

Sean — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 05:56:20 +0000

Errr… maybe?

Social networking has a filthy habit of creeping into our lives and stealing away the time we would have once spent actually seeing friends or generally being more productive. We’re all guilty of it.

I began using MySpace in 2004 when a friend had introduced me to it wherein I saw the potential of using a website to network in such a way. To be honest, it was more a glorified email service that also allowed you to view what your friends had been doing based on what they’ve posted on their own profiles. Mind you, it’s not changed dramatically since then. Maybe the facade in which it takes is better disguised than before.

Later, in 2007, I moved onto Facebook both due to growing tired of using MySpace and the appeal Facebook brought with its minimal display and collection of dynamic requests reducing page re-loads. Satisfied with it’s service, regardless of the infinite number of changes to the web site the developers seemed to impose on it’s users every week, I stuck with it for a while and soon enough almost everyone had one. In fact it’s grown so much that what was once an option for some has now become a necessity for most.

Realisation

Mid 2010 I took a hard look at what I was actually doing on Facebook and how often I’d check it. Turns out I’d check Facebook at least 4 – 10 times a day and within that time I’d be reading mind-numbingly-boring posts about the mundane lives that people were living and get stuck reeling through photo album after photo album mindlessly. I couldn’t have even told you how I got there in the first place! Facebook has a way of sucking you in. Just ask the 63 million people that play Farmville.

So with my last semester of Uni becoming exceedingly tough, I decided to delete my Facebook. I made sure those whom I still wished to be in contact with were aware of my non-Facebook contact details and was gone within a week.

Positives of deleting Facebook

Increase your productivity by 100%
I went from approximately 3 – 4 hours study a day to approximately 12 – 15 hours study in one day. Having completely no distractions meant when I got bored rather than sitting on Facebook and becoming distracted I’d simply move onto a different area of study for a while so my brain could take a rest from what I had previously been studying.

If you are reading this and even slightly serious about either your education or your work and have a lot to learn in a short period of time then I strongly encourage leaving your social networking sites for a while. It isn’t something that will work for everyone but I can guarantee you’ll become more knowledgeable and more confident with your skills when you begin using your time more productively.
Socialise better with your peers
Ever find that you don’t feel any need to talk to someone when you see them out and about because you already know everything about them from all the updates they’ve posted on Facebook? Yeah, exactly. That doesn’t happen when you’re not connected. I found that I was genuinely more attentive and interested in what people had to say when I’d meet up with them in person and had no struggle in discovering points of conversation.
Your life becomes more relaxing
You’ll never feel as though you have to keep checking your Facebook in the chance someone’s been trying to get in contact with you. Better yet, your head won’t be bogged down with a tonne of useless information for the day. You might not actively try to remember what you’ve read on Facebook, but everything you do, especially reading adds its own weight to your mind – think of it as a sponge where information plays the role of water to the sponge. So scanning through the News Feed 5 or 6 times can, surprisingly, drain your energy, because your brain will still have a lot of it in memory! There’s a lot of truth behind the term “Ignorance is bliss.”
You’ll value your time with othersFacebook is the devil of human to human interaction. In fact, the internet is. Though, Facebook more-so. Why? Because you become so reliant on instant updates, instant responses and instant everything. You become used to knowing everything straight away.
Who cares if you forgot to ask Bob about what his plans for the weekend were, or tell Jennifer there was an important date for the following month that you needed to remind her about. Because you could just handle those things online later on, right? Yeah, it’s a pitfall I’m positive we’ve ALL fallen into before. A pitfall that is non-existent when your social networking account is taken out of the picture! Guaranteed, you’ll actually be more engaged with the people you spend time with and make more of an effort to take on board everything they’ve said whilst doing so.
Improve your memoryI understand this point is slightly ludicrous (No. This is Ludacris.), but in all honesty I believe it works. Too often I found that I’d dip onto a mobile version of Facebook or find the nearest computer to double check a date, address or even what someone said.
Stop relying on this! It’s plain annoying when people do it too often. You’ll find that remembering these things when you’ve read a mailed invitation with a date and address or listened to something that someone has said, will gradually become easier and easier the longer you stay away from Facebook.
Receive more phone calls. Get more text messages.This is, at least, what happened in my case. I found that once my Facebook was gone, more and more people began contacting me by phone that never used to. Amongst these people, some that I’d never talk to on Facebook anyway. It’s interesting to see how your peers have a genuine curiosity about what you’re up to when they can’t readily access the answer from any device. It’s nice to speak to an actual person, y’know.

Second realisation

Last semester of Uni finished and whilst I was more than happy with how much I managed to learn in less than four months, I was absolutely drained. Having time to relax again was more than needed, but I began wanting to know more about what my friends had been up to and indeed, catch up with them.

I came to the realisation based on general observation how many people are constantly connected to Facebook through their mobile devices that’ll notify them of activity without having to check it. It’s too convenient for anyone to put down. Let’s face it – the Facebook team have done well. So six months later, I was back online with my account after experiencing the negative side-effects of a non-Facebook’d lifestyle.

Negatives of deleting Facebook

Sitting out of the loop
Whilst one of the positives may be gradually becoming more confident with socialising more frequently and engaging in better quality conversations, one of the immediate downsides, as most would expect, is being out of the loop with your friends. There are some things that just can’t be explained in conversation.

In-jokes, lengthy Facebook debates you’ve witnessed on someone’s wall and had a laugh at (let’s face it, arguing on the internet is pretty funny), humorous fan pages that have emerged or even friends making reference to a horrible photo of someone in the midst of conversation. Sure, these can be explained to those that aren’t informed. But how often do you feel it necessary or even find the effort to explain something like this to someone who’s out of the loop? It generally doesn’t happen. Plus, people love to know what everyone’s up to. You won’t, at least not until you see the parties involved in person.
Missing out on events
This is incredibly unfortunate but a bitter reality of our lives in this day and age – If you are not on Facebook, chances are you won’t be invited to a party, event, or space ship launch. All too often have I seen something along the lines of: “If I’ve forgotten anyone, let them know just ask me first.” or “If you know someone that doesn’t have Facebook let them know! (And then laugh at them.)” It’s true.

We have come to accept convenience as the norm and simply will not go out of our way to let people know about an event. This may not be true to everyone and is based on my own experience (much like this entire post) but I’ve got a good feeling it’d be the case all over the world.
Inability to view event photographs
So you managed to hear about an event because someone actually decided to make human contact with you (Yay! Spaceship launch!). Good for you! Too bad if you want to view the photos that were taken on the night/day though (those astronaut suits were a lol), because you don’t have Facebook. That’s where photos go. Facebook. God forbid someone would email you them or even print them off. It’s rare for someone’s profile to be public in order to view them, too. This is the digital age, people. TANGIBILITY IS EXTINCT.
Networking becomes costly
You begin to remember (quite quickly) what it costs to get in contact with people. Phone calls, text messages, petrol, train/bus/cab fares, carrier pigeon. There’s a reason Facebook has so many active users. It’s fast. It’s convenient. It’s effortless. It’s FREE. When you can send a mass message to all users in a specific group in less than 30 seconds, why would people bother individually calling everyone?
Some people disappear
Truth be known that, unfortunately, when you delete your Facebook – some people will disappear. I don’t mean in the way Cris Angel would go about doing it (He wouldn’t. Because he can’t.) but more in the sense that those you might normally talk to, no longer seem to make the effort. This is both positive and negative because I feel it sets apart your real friends from those who simply talk to you because you’re something/someone else they can interactive with on Facebook.

“Shit, I thought you had gone to Saudi Arabia or something!”

Albeit jokingly, someone actually said this to me after I reconnected to the Facebook world. You disconnect from the internet and all of a sudden you no longer exist. The funniest part about this whole thing is that within 15 minutes of reconnecting my account, I had heard from more people than I had heard from in the entirety of the 6 months I was offline. Welcome to the 21st century.

In conclusion

My advise is, if you believe you’re honestly spending too much time on Facebook then work on limiting yourself. Self control is one of the hardest skills for people to achieve, especially these days. Only check your Facebook for 30 minutes every night, or one hour every week. It all depends on how you set your limits. Whilst there are huge benefits to complete deletion of your account, I’d recommend still having it in place. Even if you do not log in for 2 weeks, at least when you get there you can be filled in on anyone attempting to contact you and catch up on anything you might’ve missed out on, in the time you’ve chosen to spend logged in.

However for those interested…

How to delete your Facebook account

Facebook makes it stupidly hard to figure this one out. You may have tried before and only ever been successful in ‘account deactivation’ in which case your information is still retained on the servers so if any activity is logged to your account whilst it’s deactivated, it’ll actually reactivate again. Luckily it’s been made easy with this site: http://deletefacebook.com/. As the website says

Your account will be ‘deactivated’ for two weeks. After this period it will be permanently deleted.
Do not login to your account during this time, it will cancel the deletion request.

Good luck!

Your Packaging Design Is Flawed

Sean — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 01:25:28 +0000

Lately I’ve been noticing a spurt in creativity and finesse with promotional design and product packaging. The way in which a company’s product is perceived to their consumers is more vital than I’m sure some would like to think. There are a huge number of products that don’t actually advertise and rely solely on store positioning and attractive packaging to draw people in. The thing is, it actually works. There’s an entire psychology behind the way in which consumer navigates a shop, scans an aisle and picks up and looks at a product before deciding whether to purchase it or leave it on the shelf.

Let’s be honest – some designs out there are just plain bad. That’s why I’ve decided to create a series of blog posts to praise those designs that have been done well or at the very least, are nice to look at!

Dilmah Tea – The ‘Exceptional‘ range

Dilmah’s range of exotic flavoured teas including flavours such as:

Arabian Mint Tea – With Honey
Berry Sensation
Elegant Early Grey
Peppermint And English Toffee
Gentle Minty Green Tea
Ceylon Green Tea
Italian Almond Tea
Fragrant Jasmine Green Tea
Lively Lime And Orange Fusion
Maharajah Reserve Assam
Perfect Ceylon Tea
Rose With French Vanilla
Valley Of Kings Ceylon Pekoe

The website

The brand extension’s website can be viewed here: http://www.dilmahexceptional.com/ – Unfortunately, the website does not live up to the impressive nature of the product’s packaging. The design is horrible. The transitions and roll over animations are just plain annoying.

Flash is often seen as this amazing final destination for web design agencies when they’re commissioned to create a website for a promotional product or brand extension. It’s fair enough, generally these types of websites are created in order to “wow” the user and provide more of an experience than provide a user-friendly, information-ready environment. They’re also built with no intention of ever being updated again, because if the product is updated it’s generally created as a new product or extension of the brand. Just look at Coca-cola or the never ending number of tooth-paste renditions.

I hate seeing Flash websites that simply abuse the fact that they can dump animations on objects to make them seem more interactive when there’s entirely no point to doing it. There is no positive merit to the experience of the user by doing so, it will not make things easier, in fact – On slower machines, Flash will actually make it harder for someone to view a website – and even still, nothing is capable of being hot linked because the page URL never changes

Images take too long to load.
I’m not sure whether it’s just plain bad ActionScript coding, or there’s no optimisation on the images or a combination of both, but an image as small as the problematic box art that loads in the centre of the page should NOT take nearly 7 seconds to load. Worse part is, it’ll re-download it every time you click back to that section. Nothing is cached.

Bottom navigation repeats for no reason.
It could have been more effective if all the flavours were scaled up slightly and padded out with the actual names of the tea next to them, or at least have the names appear on rollover to the side of the square.

Further more – The blurred lines accompanying the arrows (which simply do not work with red on the gray, the arrows should be white) do nothing but confuse the design, it gives the impression the lines are sinking back into the gray as if the gray is some kind of murky smoke and the arrow navigation is on a U-shaped track that dips below the smoke in the centre.

Bad side navigation design.
The obnoxious navigation to the side actually dances, popping out then back in when the page loads. This isn’t necessary. Good design shouldn’t have to point out with dancing links that they’re links in the first place. Once more, it doesn’t need to be there. The navigation is already at the bottom clearly marked without having to dance your cursor over it. Side navigation like this would be acceptable if screen real-estate was a problem and the page content dipped well below the view-port. But it doesn’t. What should have been an incredibly simple and elegant site has been killed with annoying animations and things put in places just because seemingly, “they could”.

The gradients do not work.
It looks as though the designer has made an attempt at mimicking the design of the product box where “Dilmah Exceptional” is presented in a black strip in the top regions of each box face. The box does not have gradients so the replication of the box in the form of the website shouldn’t either. The quality of them is horrible considering how neat and simple the actual box’s design is. The gradients have just created ugly looking light gray/white trims above and below the black bar.

Punctuation errors in the copy.
The caption’s for the images aren’t capitalised at the beginning of their sentence. This instantly affects my view on the product making it seem incredibly unprofessional. This is something that irks me every time I visit a website that’s done it. You’re presenting information to the world, you need to be using correct grammar and punctuation. I’m not claiming to be a genius in this department, either – because I’m far from it. But something as simple as incorrect use of “their, there and they’re” or missing a capital letter at the beginning of a sentence dramatically affects a business’s perceived image.

Ok enough already. Get to the packaging.

Originally I intended to look at the packaging in isolation, but after seeing the website I couldn’t help but make comment on it. But the packaging is pretty nice.

As you can see, the packaging design is clean, elegant, vibrant and most importantly, eye-catching. Each flavour boasts it’s own colour and pattern that is consistent with the tea-bag tag and packaging through-out.
The appropriately placed tea-bag to the lower left of the main frame pops nicely with a soft drop shadow below it, also giving the consumer a clue as to what type of bags the tea resides in (triangular).
All the information you need is clearly marked with no obstruction or need to scan around the front of the packaging.

To give you an idea of the size; the box being held up.

To give you an idea of the size of the tea-bag, next to the box.

Here’s something I thought, (whilst almost completely unnecessary giving that it’s just tea), was a nice touch to the overall design. Simple illustrations to dictate how to best serve the tea. Notice the background colour change with each flavour. I’d probably have put this on the top (the lid) of the box, though. It seems a little awkward placed on the underside (bottom).

A view of the back of the box where the barcode sits. Notice the consistency between faces of the cube.

But then there was this…

I’m more than impressed with how effective the simple design is until I notice a major inconsistency in the design. For some reason unbeknown to me, the Arabian Mint Tea with Honey (green) box has a thinner pattern and title span across the lid. Even more curiously, the patterned area is glossy whilst the gray area is matte. Yet on the other boxes the entire box is glossy, there are no matte and gloss distinctions. Furthermore, the font on the front of the green packaging is physically embossed slightly. Yet the others, flat. Was this job passed onto someone else in the midst of production? C’mon guys!

Beyond The Door – Stellarcaster Project Information

Sean — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:08:34 +0000

Stellarcaster are a local pop rock band from the Mornington Peninsula that draw influences from bands like The Beatles, Supergrass and Led Zeppelin. I was approached by Paul Bignell, the singer of the band, to commission work for an album cover and promotional flyers that were required for the bands upcoming (and now released) album “Beyond the Door”.

I was asked to draw inspiration from a painting that Paul’s daughter, Hayley, painted of a rainbow arching the top of a door (this image can be seen on the second page of the inside cover in the images above) and recreate it in a way I saw fit. It was an incredibly interesting project to work on primarily because the one thing that was required most of all, was a view of the front cover from a 45 degree turn. I had actually been looking into Photoshop’s 3D tools the week prior to taking the project on board, so I saw it as a great opportunity to use and develop my skills.

Stellarcaster Feature in Pearl Magazine

The band also required a generic promotional poster made up with space to write any further information regarding gigs they were performing at. I made an A4 sized poster that used the bands EP cover “Letter to the Editor” as a base which was re-arranged slightly and had celestial dust added to the circumference of the post box to help increase the atmosphere.

BlueSpore worked on a significant project for our band, Stellarcaster: the artwork on our debut album. The culmination of years of dreaming, work and music, Sean, our consultant could not have provided more to facilitate this project’s success. His creative insight was as obvious as his professionalism. Throughout each stage of development I felt confident Sean would deliver all that was asked. With hindsight, it is clear he provided more. I believe he possesses the acumen and professional work ethic often associated with many years of experience.

Paul Bignell (Singer of the band)

If you would like to know more about the band, go here.

That Boy And His Cow – Tres Mignon Project Information

Sean — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:00:57 +0000

Tres Mignon is French for “very cute” or “very small” depending on the translation. It’s an interactive project looking at sound proximity variables completed for a class that was taken in first year of University at RMIT. A colleague of mine, Elliot Condon and I worked on this together achieving a mark of HD+.

Tres Mignon is an interactive presentation that was used to display an example of how Actionscript was used to alter the levels of sound from loud to soft depending on how close the character was to the source of the sound in the environment.

This project now continues to be presented to first year students at RMIT on Open Day as part of a showcase of work examples presented to the new students.

Please note: Due to the nature in which the project was coded, it may not be optimized for older computers. To help; click the “Quality” button to reduce it to “Low”.

Modernised Boat Launch & Retrieval – Boatcatch Project Information

Sean — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 02:41:20 +0000

Boatcatch is a coupling device that modernizes the launch and retrieval process of trailer boats. It allows you to quickly remove and replace your boat to and from its trailer without setting foot on a boat ramp or beach.

One of my all time favourite jobs to work on, simply due to the huge freedom of creativity allowed both with the approach to the work and also the vast range of particular requirements needed by the client.

The marvelous device had only just been invented by it’s creator and needed a complete design of branding to implement its product image. A colleague of mine, Scott Burgess also aided in the work required for this job helping out with various components such video editing and visual layouts and design flow.

Filming and Editing work

Here is an example of two videos that I created with Scott for Boatcatch. Predominantly, I took on the role of filming the videos and Scott chose to edit the clips together. The first video also contains photographs of the Boatcatch models in the later half which were taken by me.

Branding Boatcatch

As the product had no company image already and required one to be established, this was my ideal working situation where everything about the project can be created from scratch and thus follow a consistent theme to tie in with all related mediums.

These included mainly the construction of the product logo for it’s image, business cards, website, studio photographs of the product for promotion and promotional videos to be filmed and edited together that both helped market the product as well as provide valuable information for potential customers. Note that these videos can also be viewed from the website.

Finally

The designs employed have heeded pleasing results and certainly showed their shine when witnessed on the likes of employee business shirts, advertising banners at various boat shows around Australia and even to this day some magazine advertisements.

Be it fortunately or unfortunately this job is where I truly learned to despise the troubles of cross browser compatibility! Although through it, a huge learning experience that definitely pushed me into the deep end and hone a much stronger understanding of issues involved.

Absolutely stunning product both in its functionality and design. Definitely worth a check out for anyone who is into their boating!

Inventor Greg Staples had this to say:

I have known Sean Bullock for several years after a mutual friend introduced us when I required advice on internet marketing. This resulted in engaging Sean for constructing the website for my new business (see www.boatcatch.com).

Sean is a surprising character. He is good natured, but what particularly stood out to me, was his ability to grasp an understanding of my requirements without having to explain this in detail. His written communication skills are excellent and beyond his experience and age.

Sean was originally commissioned to produce our website. Whilst doing so, he took it upon himself to design our logo, develop slogans and produced picture/video content.
In my opinion, Sean would be a valuable asset in the Graphic Design and/or Information Technology fields for any organisation.

Greg Staples (Inventor/Owner Boatcatch)

Grant Burgess, head of Boatcatch marketing, had this to say:

For a young guy embarking on a career in the tough new field of multimedia I was absolutely delighted with Sean’s commitment and output; and I think a quick examination of the Boatcatch website (www.boatcatch.com) constructed with his colleague Scott Burgess says it all.

Grant Burgess, Marketing at Boatcatch

Firefox Logo Inspired By Firey Fox

Sean — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:50:32 +0000

Something that caught my eye recently whilst bouncing around the net was a post on BuzzFeed by Elmar Burchia informing the world of the origin of the Firefox logo.

For those who are not aware of what Firefox is: it is in my humble oppinion, the best open-source web browser available for the web. In my experience it has just been more pleasant to use versus Internet Explorer and comes with a plethora of plugins available for download all over the internet due to being an open source application. I highly recommend anyone who does not already use Firefox to begin doing so now. It can be downloaded through the website located at http://www.mozilla.com/

The logo was created by Daniel Burka, a web designer currently living in San Francisco, California who used to be the creative director over at Digg up until October 2009. What struck me as interesting was where Daniel actually got his inspiration from for the logo.

The image listed in this post is a photograph of a page from a childhood bible of his depicting a man and a couple of foxes. Notice the correlation between the colour scheme of this image and that of the Firefox logo along with the design of the fox’s tail in the logo.

I found this as a some-what of a wake up call to realise that inspiration really can be found anywhere and there are no limits. I’m usually one to watch some nature documentaries, go for a long walk or spying advertising around the world to gain inspiration when its really needed but who would have thought that a simple illustration in a childhood bible would spark the infamous logo for Mozilla‘s Firefox.

Have any thoughts or know of any other interesting design origins? Feel free to post a comment below!