Minted

Again me and Kristy found a great site for inspiration for our e-commerce site we are currently working on in web design 2. The site is called Minted. This is a great site and what I like about this site is, like Wedding Paper Divas, they have images fading in and out to showcase their products. I absolutely love this feature. Like other websites I've come across with card products they have a drop down menu in their main navigation. I want to incorporate this feature in our site as well.

They have a section called 'Design Challenge' which is similar to what we want to do, but not quite. We want to allow members only to submit their designs to us in which we will buy them if we feel they are something we want. What they have is like a competition, which is fun, because the winners get money and everybody gets recognition and exposure. We might do something like this later, but for now were sticking with our first idea.

The color scheme goes well with their company name and it's not overpowering. The overall design of the site is professional and easy to navigate. This site is something to aspire towards.

Wedding Paper Divas

So me and Kristy came across another card website that we liked for our project as inspiration. The site is Wedding Paper Divas. What I like most about the site is that on their home page they have an area that highlights their products. Basically they're just pictures, but the images changes every few seconds so that the consumer gets an idea of all the different layouts and designs they have. I like this because a lot of people will look at the overall look of the site and think they know what kind of cards this company designs. This way they can see all the different styles without making assumptions.

I also like the color scheme they use. It's not in your face, but it's not dull either. It's warm and inviting. Also, they have an area to narrow your search, which is something we want to do for our site. It only appears once you have chosen an area in which to look (i.e. wedding invitations). It's not on the home page, which it wouldn't make if it were on the home page. So that's good.

One other thing I like what they did with their site was using 'breadcrumbs'. It's a really good idea to use these in such a complicated site so the consumer doesn't get lost and decide to leave the site altogether. Losing a customer is never good.

Inkd

So we started a new project last week and we are developing an e-commerce site. Me and Kristy are working together on this project for which have decided to do a site for invitations and whatnot. The idea behind it is to have pre-made templates and to allow the customer to personalize the cards. While researching for this project we found some pretty cool sites to give us ideas on how to structure the site and what type of content we want to include.

One great website we came across was Inkd. They don't sell the same stuff as we want to sell, but the look and feel of the site is very professional and I like the way they have it structured. It is very easy to navigate through. We have decided to include a feature that allows designers to submit their own designs/templates to us in which we would buy (if we liked the design or didn't have one like it already) and they would get a certain percent commission for every time someone used their design. Inkd has this feature as well and I like how they have set it up. It is not structured the same as the rest of the pages, which helps distinguish this section from the rest of the site.

Our site will be slightly different, other than the content, with how customers will be able to customize the design. Inkd provides a set look with a template and sells that template. We want to allow our customers to change colors, amount of photos used, style, etc. to what they want and not be restricted to a certain look.

Inkd is a great site for businesses looking to create a look and feel for their company.

Kuler

I have been using a site I was introduced to at the beginning of this semester and it's called Kuler, which is by Adobe. This site provides color themes that can be used for any project. Kuler is a great site because it provides you with a color scheme instead of you going through your color swatches trying to find just the right colors that go together and illustrate the feeling you are trying to achieve. It saves a lot of time, especially for me because I'm the type of person that would go through my entire swatches palette and not be satisfied with the colors I've chosen and end up starting all over. Kuler does that process for you, all you have to do is pick the color theme you like best. Even then, you don't have to go with the exact colors they give you. You can easily adjust the colors to your liking.

Kuler doesn't just give you a list of color schemes, it categorizes them for you, from most popular, newest, highest rated, and random. Also, if you search a color, it will give you a lot of themes to choose from that have that color in it and all variations of that color. ( i.e. if you search red, you will gets results like hot red, vintage red, or spice cabinet). Even cooler is if you search multiple colors at the same time because it will give you those colors in various shades and tints that compliment each other.

So, if you're ever having trouble deciding on colors or can't find just the right match, visit Kuler.

Minimal Exhibit

I was looking on Vandelay Design again looking for inspiration the other day and came across a list of other sites in which they share a network together. One of the sites was Minimal Exhibit and I was really drawn to their site because they have compiled a collection of the best sites that have a minimalist design. I personally love sites that are very minimal and have a lot of white space, so I thought this would be a great site to turn to for even more inspiration for designing websites.

Straight from their website, "Minimalism can bring great elegance, beauty, and usability to a website...". This is very true. White space is just as powerful if not more powerful than space that has been filled. Not many people outside the design world would agree, but that's because they don't know what they are talking about! White space is essential for good design and usually clients want to just fill up every space with something. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT let them do this. It's a bad idea. Minimal Exhibit showcases this idea with all the websites they have compiled.

Another great thing about this site is that designers can submit their own sites to the site and visitors to the site will be able to actually visit that site, so you can get the full gist of the site, rather than just seeing a picture of it. This is great for the designers/owners of the site, because in turn they are getting exposure to their site.

Design Flavr

I found this site when I was searching for some design inspiration and I didn't leave dissatisfied. Designflavr is a good site to get inspiration for any type of work whether it be for a website, typography, digital art, or just random artwork. This site breaks down the artwork for you so you don't have to search forever for something; you can go right to what you are looking for. Or, just browse the entire site, because even if you are looking for something for a website, you might find inspiration from another piece of art that isn't web based. Also, when you click on a piece of art work you like, it gives you the entire piece and who it was created by. AND.... it gives you a list of other artwork you might like based on the piece you clicked on. AWESOME!!! This way you don't have to keep searching for the same look and feel, it just gives it to you. I like this feature because there is nothing worse than finding something you like, but then having to keep searching for another work that's similar; this makes that process much faster.

Also, for you people who like to say something about everything, there is a comment section. I don't post comments myself, but I do like reading what other people have posted and what their thoughts are about the art.

I'm not only inspired by their site and what they provide, but I'm also inspired by their logo. I'm in a Corporate Identity class right now and we are redesigning logos and designflavr's logo really caught my eye. It has a retro feel and its fun and playful. It works well with their overall design of their website.

I hope you visit their site, because I think you will be inspired too!

Vandelay Design

My friend showed me this site called Vandelay Design and I really found it useful and inspiring. They have a lot of photoshop tutorials and links to other sites that can be helpful, such as getting free photoshop brushes or free vector art. I have already gone through some of their photoshop tutorials and used the techniques for a couple of my projects. It's a good site for future reference because they are constantly updating their site and the tutorials, so there is always something new to learn.

They also have links that show the top websites in certain categories, such as best Church websites and best non-profit websites. There is so much to look at. What I like about this site is primarily the tutorials because there are so many and they give you a lot of different looks and feels that you might be trying to create. The tutorials are really easy too, because they go step by step on how to create that particular look. Obviously, as designers, you don't have to use exactly what they are showing you to do in the tutorials, but at least you know how to create that look now and can do variations of it yourself.

So, if I'm ever having a designer's block, I'll go this site to find inspiration.

To get to the tutorials and the cool stuff on their website, you must access their blog page, which can be found at the bottom of the home page.