Design Post Update

1. Simplicity Is the Key

Clever design can allow a very simple logo to be effective

Good logo design means that your logo should be kept simple. Too many distractions for the eye and too many things for the eye to focus on will serve to not recognize the logo, not remember it and not let it represent your brand as easily as possible. Try and represent your brand as best you can with a punchy and simple logo. Why is design so difficult when it should be so simple? Your logo should be able to thrive in a variety of different contexts, just like Nike’s logo, through pure simplicity.

If you’re coming up with a logo from scratch or redesigning an outdated but effective one, you should keep it simple and in tune with your brand. Keep things appealing visually, whilst also retaining a clean and simple design. A good design tip is to make sure your logo appears strong in black on a plain white background, or with a duo-tone. As an example, consider the Windows logo - what is it about this logo that retains the brand image over time, even as the logo has undergone several design changes? 

The simple and digital feel of two windows shows that the brand is at the forefront of the digital age, and will continue to be through the rest of time. It’s a statement that is easily read from the logo in its simplicity. A simple logo will also fit harmoniously with other materials that your company produces.

2. Where Will the Logo Go?

Your logo will appear is a wide variety of locations, it's important to have it right

Deliveroo recently took major design steps to simplify and more accurately represent their brand story given that most of their users work with smartphones. This is a good example of thinking about where your logo will go - failing to grasp this, as your brand is growing, can lead to difficulties further down the line. Deliveroo may have been thinking about the fact that their logo would have looked good on a delivery motorbike bag; however, most people are seeing it online via their phone and app. 

The result of their change was to take a complex drawing of a kangaroo carrying food to a much more minimalist abstract shape depicting the kangaroo’s face – this can work well and be placed in all sorts of places now that it is a whole lot simpler. Something may look good on a motorbike bag that might not necessarily be appealing on an app - redesigning for a smartphone use was the clever solution. If you fail to grasp this at first, this could result in a lot of future failure for your brand further down the line.

3. A Design that Lasts Through Time

A logo should not be designed to be trendy, it needs to be timeless

The best thing one can do is try and stick to a design that lasts through time - something iconic and timeless that people can remember forever. A common mistake is that brand's design logos are trendy, but these trends won’t last forever. The best approach is not to go down a trendy feel and look because it won’t work over a long period of time, and we can expect that you’re in it for the long haul. However, you’ll want to pay close attention to the fact that if you choose something too classic and timely, there is a good chance that a lot of other brands have also used a similar design and also it may not fit in with your brand value. Think about your brand and its message more than what the trends of the year are. You will want your logo to shine and engage through every year.

4. But... Update the Design When it Needs to Be

The ford logo has evolved over time, most noticeably twice in 1912 as the initial redesign was not well received.

Your company may change over time and even though you want your logo to be timeless, it won’t last forever. To stay as up to date as possible, whilst also keeping your theme current, one needs to occasionally change their logo to keep up with the times. If your logo has been rather successful in the past, it’s not ideal to significantly change from the design you’ve already been using for a whole, so sometimes just a simple change of type or a slicker icon will make your logo more appropriate for the current times.

A good example of this is with Marriott hotel’s recent shift from an old to a newer look, whilst also refraining from giving into current trends. The logo was redesigned, keeping their giant “M” but also making the other text within colored black as opposed to red. This logo is now a whole lot more modern and wasn’t a great shift from the original, but it certainly packs more of a punch. 

5. Don’t Copy Clichés

All these company logos are too similar for any of them to stand out from the crowd

When designing a logo, one should make a serious effort not to use clip art or copy other people’s work. The final approach to any logo design should be that you don’t copy cliché work and come up with something unique; otherwise, your logo will look like someone else’s and won’t help cement the brand image. You’ll need something that’s instantly recognizable and not confused with someone else’s brand.

Your logo should have some form of original art that tells the audience what the company is and how their ethos shines through. Sure, you can draw inspiration from other logos, but make sure your work is unique and not just a copy of something else.

Definitely, don’t try and emulate commonplace forms of art in your logo such as clipart. This will cause your logo to have an amateur and childish appearance, without being special in any way at all. If you want something that’s memorable, it needs to be special. Your logo will want to make an instant click with whoever is looking at it. Make it stand out from your competitors in an instant – don’t make your audience have to think about how your logo is similar to something else. 

Conclusion

Approaching a logo designing process isn’t a walk in the park, it’s a walk along several different paths in one’s mind, exploring different possibilities whilst always trying to channel the audience into the direction you want them to go in. Take note of the five tips above to help you do well on your way, ensuring that you have a cutting edge and unique design that will engage your audience in an instant.

Remember that your design should aim to depict your brand and ethos in a way that is instantly recognizable without any thought. You should have a logo that packs a punch but is also simple and visible, wherever you decide that you want to use it.

We hope that you have fun in your creative process and create a logo that your company can look back on with pride through the ages.

About the Author:

Richard Nolan is a professional educator and team building coach, sharing his experience in spheres of writing, blogging, entrepreneurship, web design and psychology. Currently, Richard works as an editor-in-chief for essaywritersite.com. Follow him on Facebook

Keywords are important i.e. you need to know what keywords and terms your audience will be searching for. It is important that you are aware of target keywords and how to link them with relevant pages on your site. Make sure that these keywords are relevant to the page that they’re on, because relevance scores in Google and other search engines will affect your page ranking. Overuse of certain keywords will have your readers lost and Google will penalize you in their ranking system. Google Analytics and Keyword Discovery websites are amongst some of the useful tools that will help with keyword phrases for your website.

Posting content that is relevant to your target audience is also vital. You can use blog posts, articles, videos and eBooks material for this. However, don’t let Google notice that your writing is purely geared for search engines. Google have developed algorithms that can spot automated and inorganic content from a mile away, so it’s important to keep your content organic.

Link building is one of the most important aspects of SEO. You can link to your own content but you can also have external websites that link to you (inbound links) or links on your webpage that direct users to external sites (outbound links). The correct use of internal and external linking tells Google and other search engines which pages on the internet are more important and relevant. Try to get other websites to link to your own content and try to provide links on your website to other domains to boost your SEO. 

The theme color, font size, and content setup should look like the work of a professional. A reader will not take your site seriously if they think that no time, money or effort went into creating it.

It describes itself as "the programmers Solid 3D CAD modeller". This is great if your a programmer but if you aren't then best stay clear of this option.

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Tinkercad

Tinkercad can be used as a 3D design platform, or as a 3D printing service. Itis a free web-based app which runs on Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems. Tinkercad’s 3D design tools are accessible to beginners and experienced designers alike. Shapes that you place on a design field are stretched, contorted and combined to make your 3D model. You can group shapes to together to make more detailed designs, or import 2D or 3D vector shapes that can be extruded into 3D models.

If you’re new to 3D design, Tinkercad provides a number of tools and tutorials that enable you to explore and learn about the process. Tinkercad offers step-by-step lessons on the design process to help newcomers get acclimated. It also allows you to browse its library of more than 4 million pre-created designs to get ideas and learn tricks from other designers in the community. The platform also provides 3D printing services, so your models can be printed and shipped straight to your door.

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Pixologic Sculptris

SketchUp Free

SketchUp Free is great for planning out a 3D space quickly, ideal for student or freelance architects.Maneuvering around this program is pretty easy thanks to the highly customizable palettes. The program gives you the freedom to add, remove, or rearrange the palettes to appear the way you want. Its large icon replaces the feature list of most CAD software thereby allowing the user to easily find the commands. 

Most the features provided by Sketchup are fundamentally focused on 3D designing. However, the program has features and tools that support 2D designing. This makes it an ideal application for beginners looking to plan, visualize, and communicate future construction projects. The SketchUp warehouse is also an amazing extension that allows you to use pre-built assets from other users, speeding up the design process even more.

Blender is easily the most versatile and entry on this list, and in many regards, it compares favorably to premium digital content creation tools like Cinema 4D, Maya, and 3ds Max. It is a free and open source 3D creation suite which supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline, offering a complete range of modeling, surfacing, sculpting, painting, animation, and rendering tools.

This is a guest post by Jennifer Scott, read more about Jennifer at the end of the article.

Let’s face it; there are a seemingly infinite number of websites currently hosted on the internet. At a current count, there’s actually around 1.3 billion, meaning that it’s safe to say that competition is fierce when it comes to making your website stand out from the crowd. So, when was the last time you consider the effectiveness of the design of your website?

Are users coming to your website able to tell exactly what your website is all about as soon as they land? Are users able to find the content or products they are looking for quickly and easily? Are you profiting or succeeding in the purpose that your website sets out to achieve?

If not, the chances are that you’re going to need to make some adjustments to your website’s design. Nowadays, there’s more and more emphasis on the User Experience of a website, a term that that is becoming increasingly common.

This is mainly because Google, the biggest search engine giant, has the sole purpose of giving their users the best online experience they possibly can, hence contributing to their success. However, if you’re not giving your users the best user experience possible, not only will Google lower your SEO ranking, your users will also take their business and online activity to one of your competitors.

Today, I’m going to talk you through everything you need to know about website design and share with you some of the best tips and tricks of the trade that I’ve discovered throughout my many years in the website design industry. This will help you address any design problems you may be facing, assisting in getting your website off the ground and helping you to boost your user experience and, therefore, your overall success.

#1 - Get Organised

Despite the creative nature of web design, organisation is still one of the most key skills

Perhaps the most important point to kickstart my list is telling you to get yourself organised. Design a website plan and research your target market. Instead of jumping straight into designing your website, take the time to check out your existing competition to see what they are doing and how their buyer journey works.

With that in mind, how is your buyer journey going to compete? All this takes is getting several bits of paper and literally mapping the journey of a user from your homepage to the final page where they’ll make their purchase or find the content that they want to read.

Planning your steps and web pages in this way can help you streamline and enhance your customer’s journey and your user experience.

#2 - Aim Only for the Highest Quality

I see too many websites on my internet travels that fail to address or meet the standard expectations that typical internet users today expect. There are many elements that either used to be popular on websites and aren’t anymore, or simply shortcuts that designers have taken and now directly affect the quality of the website.

For example, using complicated and slow-loading page transitions or animations only harms the user’s experience on your website. Sometimes you might find that your content is too wordy and therefore boring your user, forcing them to leave your website. Another popular problem I see all the time is websites using poorly implemented stock imagery.

Statistically, an internet user logs onto a website and has an attention span of around 8 seconds. If your website is slow loading or screams poor quality using the factors above, they’ll simply leave, and you’ll have missed out on a potential lead.

#3 - Mastering the Art of Content Writing

Content is king. Design is great but at the end of it all good content is key.

While the graphical and functional side of your websites is extremely important, it’s vital that you never overlook the importance of the content itself. Whether you’re designing a website for yourself or a client, the copywriting on every single page needs to be perfect in order to provide the best user experience.

For example, having poor grammar in your content can lead to your text becoming illegible, a sure-fire way to send users in the opposite direction. In this case, you can use online tools and grammar checkers, much like Via Writing, State of Writing, Academadvisor and Grammarix to check your content to ensure it’s perfect.

As a website designer, it could be safe to say that your writing skills are not your best trait, but it’s important you realise this in order to avoid these problems. If this is the case, never fear. There is a tonne of professional copywriting services out there that can help you write your content while you focus your energy on the design. Some of the leading copywriting you could use include UpWork, Best British Essays and UK Top Writers.

#4 - Using the Right Visuals

As I briefly mentioned above, it’s important that you avoid low-quality ‘stock’ images on your website because it gives a kind-of ‘tacky’ appeal to it. To elaborate on this point, the images are just as important as the functions, features and written content of your website, in some cases, even more so.

When choosing which images to use on your website, you first need to find the right balance between high-quality/resolution images but also that load quickly. While it might be tempting to upload a stunning 4K picture, this will take ages to load on a mobile device, making it pointless.

You also need to make sure that you’re using images that are relevant to the content and page of the website that the user is on. Relevant images help to add a new visual layer of understanding and communication to your web pages, rather than just being an element that tries to look nice.

“If you want to really stand out from the crowd, and the rest of your competition, I found it was a highly effective method to produce your own photos in-house as this has a much more personal feel and you can use the exact style of image that you’re after,”

explains Damian D. Montalto, a web designer for Best Australian Writers.

#5 - Don’t Hide White Space

White Space is key in all forms of design.

As a website designer, it’s easy to fall into the trap of trying to make every single aspect of your website attractive and engaging to your users. However, it’s important that you never underestimate the power of white space, more commonly referred to as ‘negative space’.

Using white space on your website allows you to professionally and cleanly divide up certain sections of your website, making it clear and easy to follow, understand and, of course, navigate. Although it may seem like you’re wasting precious pixels, especially when it comes to your homepage and the first things that your user sees, but a cleaner and easier to digest web page provides a far better user experience.

#6 - MOBILE OPTIMISATION

This is one tip I simply cannot stress enough, and it still shocks me how today there are so many active websites only that haven’t been optimised for mobile devices. It’s actually shocking. Here are the facts;

• 80% of all internet users own a smartphone 
• 61% of all users say they would never return to a website that wasn’t mobile optimised 
• Over 50% of all internet traffic comes from a mobile device 
• The average time spend on a mobile device per day is 7 hours 

These statistics speak for themselves. If you’ve ever been on a website from your own mobile device where you’ve had to pinch and zoom to access different features while trying to find the perfect balance so you can read the text clearly, you’ll know what a poor experience this is and why you’d never go back.

What’s more, failing to optimise your website for mobile devices is a no-no in Google’s SEO rulebook, and it will damage your SEO ranking, pushing you down the search engine results page.

#7 - Test, Optimise, Repeat

Just because you’ve finished designing your website, that unfortunately doesn’t mean that your job as a web designer is complete. After you’ve finished your website and before you launch, it’s important that you rigorously test your website to ensure all the features and pages are working perfectly. Of course, you don’t want people to come to your site only to find that it isn’t working properly.

After you’ve launched, however, it’s important that you keep checking back to your website to see what people like and don’t like. Are people reacting to your features in the way that you wanted them too or are they getting stuck and lost on some of the pages, potentially costing your business?

“About a year after we launched, we implemented heatmap software that showed each page and how long a user was spending on each page and where they were looking on the page. This allowed us to see exactly where users were stopping on a page and how we could tweak things to provide a better user experience,”

shares Ben Taylor, a web designer for Top Canadian Writers.

Keep refining and researching you make sure everything is in order and make small tweaks to make sure everything runs perfectly. Even years after your website has launched, it’s important to keep checking back regularly and to keep everything updated.

About The Author:

Jennifer works as online editor at UK Service Reviews. Also, she is a business developer that works in different areas of education, technology, security and various types of online marketing. Prior to business developing Jennifer was consultant at Deloitte, and managed security services provider and developer of a wide range of security solutions.