Colour Inspiration

A wonderful, inspiring source of colour palettes. Design Seeds is the creation of Jessica who has a passion for colour and thankfully, a willingness to share. A beautiful website that we challenge anyone working with colour not to find inspiring.

http://design-seeds.com/

Squarespace Version 6.

A taste of things to come - posted on Vimeo by Squarespace themselves in October 2011. We can't comment. but if the public beta is anything to go by.... WOW! Watch this full screen if you can.

Squarespace 6 from Squarespace on Vimeo.

Squarespace Update to Version 5

Version 5 Face Lift

It seems the Squarespace team have breathed new life into V5 of the Squarespace world.  A host of updated templates makes life easier (and better looking) for newbies and folk looking to have great looking blogs harnessing the world class Sqaurespace Platform.

For us though, working 'under the hood',  one of the useful improvements is that made to the CSS editor.  

The editor now 'undocks', so you can see what you're doing, and you can alter the proportions of the editing window to better suit text editing.  I know you can cut and paste into a proper text editor, but I'm not always at the same machine so I never know what tools I've got - so the bundled tool is the one I tend to use by default.

 In the new Custom CSS Editor.

• Search and replace 
• Comments 
• Colour coding  
• Line Numbering 
• Indenting and Outdenting 
• Colour schemes 

I think overall the way the style editor works is a big improvement and will make life just a bit nicer!

• Collapseable Style editor to enable a better review of the impact of the changes you are making.
• Detachable
• Resizable

There is one slight negative (Isn't there always?): An old friend has gone from the CSS editor: There was a line of tine white text on the black background,  that told the user which module, ID or class of an element on mouse over any page element.  It's a small thing but if you make a lot of per page style edits, you need to use a browser plugin to identify the module and class of page components. 

Other Changes include a myriad of new fonts - 

Autosave in the Blog Editor 

Along with word count, character count and the nature of the CSS Class you are using echoed in the editing window.

Here's what Squarespace have to say:

DEVELOPER-FRIENDLY CSS EDITOR 

As web designers and developers, we know how limiting it could be to write and edit CSS within a small window. Now you can do it all within our beautiful new editor; pop out the entire window and see everything at once. The new editing toolbar allows you to find & replace, undo & redo (even post-save), insert style variables, and format your code like a pro. 3 new color themes are also available for easy-on-the-eyes editing. 

AND MUCH MORE...

• Add style to your blog post elements with 8 new icon sets, available in both black and white and 4 different sizes. 
• Keep the background image but change the color thanks to alpha-transparent PNGs available in many of the redesigned templates.
• Customize buttons, like “search” and “submit”, right within Fonts, Colors & Sizes.

Designing the Brief

A brief guide

In order to buy effective design, the designer needs to have a brief. This is not as obscure as it sounds, but because it's not something we did in school, it's not an instinctive skill. As a result, there can be  a gap between what the designer needs and what they get.  

So we sat down and came up with this 'brief guide' to help you give your designers a fighting chance....

Who is your Customer?

• Consumer 
• Small Business
• International Corportation
• Government
• Private Consumer
• Charity / Not For Profit
• Public Sector
• Professional

If your idea customer is an 'individual consumer' - who is the idea customer ?

• Gender 
• Age group
• Life stage
• Income (Low/Medium/High)
• Avant Garde or Laggard
• Local / Regional / National

What is your product or service?

• Outline description
• Differentiators
• Unique selling points

Where does your product or service fit into the market?    

• Commodity (ie lots of competitors and mainly price/service competition) 
• Premium products (ie few suppliers of high value differentiated product)
• Mature
• Innovative 

Are there significant fixed points that are not changeable because of historical/cost reasons?

• Colour
• Logo 
• Typeface
• Language
• Legislative restrictions on content (eg Financial services)

Have you done any marketing before?

• Supply samples if possible

Have you had an identity designed?

• If you can supply artwork if will help reduce time and therefore costs
• Most designers will ask for EPS (Encapsulated Postcript) / Adobe Illustrator (AI) file types
• JPEG and PNG or PDF are of some use but they lose quality when the size is changed for different uses.

Have you got high quality original relevant photography?

• Images are vital and the better the photograph, the better the results of your site.
• If you need stock imagery there are inexpensive stock libraries most designers use.

Who are your biggest competitors?  
This helps the designer to see the context of your product and will help to either make the what you buy 'fit in' or 'stand out' 

• Locally
• Nationally
• Internationally

What do you like?  (please supply examples, and if possible what it is you like about them)
This helps the designer to understand what you value and guides the thought process.

• Websites
• Emails
• Adverts
• Packaging
• Cars
• Products

What you DON'T like? (please supply examples, and if possible what it is you don't like about them)

• Websites
• Emails
• Adverts
• Packaging
• Cars
• Products

Finally and MOST IMPORTANTLY

What is the objective of the work?

• Sell more
• Change perception
• Reinforce position
• Update image
• Adapt to seasonal factors
• Manage your own content
• Open new markets
• Launch new products to existing clients
• Reposition existing products to new customers
• Complete Diversification 
• Liberate yourself from a metaphorical 'hostage situation'

Social networks are increasingly important in directing traffice to websites.... which ones do you engage with?

Search engines are highly effective at reading your content and placing your site in context.  

150 Words

It is helpful to supply 150 words (The number is important) that summarise your website.  This information can be used by your designer to create invisible but vital 'tags' or lables that help the search engines do their thing!

This information is normally elicited by account managers or designers during the initial interview but it all adds up to create a holistic view of the design requirements and helps to make the work done fit the requirement right from the outset:  This means best value for the client and minimum wasted time for everyone. 

Flattr Example

We think Flattr and Squarepsace is a GREAT combination.  You create wonderful content and if others agree and enjoy your work, they can reward you in lots of very small ways.  but lots of raindrops make mighty rivers....

 

Chris took this picture in Paris (obviously!) this Summer. Let's say this inspires you and brightens up your day... well share the love and click the button.  The link might be very specific or it might be more general -a Whole blog or individual items.  

We hope it flies.

It deserves to.