Good Afternoon friends! Welcome to The Creative Cabana's first look into digital communication and web design. I've labeled this topic under "Graphic Design" because there's a lot of graphic material that goes into creating a website: photos, multimedia pieces, logos, illustrations, etc. The good news is the web design is a process, so don't expect to get everything done in one day, but that's also a draw of web design. Because it is a process it does take time to really develop a good attention grabbing site. When I first created my online portfolio back in Spring of 2012, it took me a whole week to get it the way I wanted (and that was on an accelerated schedule). When you can go at your own pace, creating a website can be a lot of fun, but does take tons of effort and creativity to really make it effective. Before I get too far into this project with you, I want to make it clear right now that I am not by any means a Professional Web Designer. I'm a self-learner, who takes the opportunity to use the internet and reading materials to advance my own skills at my own pace. The website I created is by no means "award-winning", but it has the basic foundation and tools needed to display the content I wanted to share. If you can read this post, then you'll be able to learn the skills to begin starting your own site.So let's begin with the basics first: what is the purpose of your website? Is this a personal site, a professional portfolio, business promotion, etc? Finding out exactly what you want to show on your website is essential to maintain accurate content and drive the most traffic to your site. Once you have figured out a good purpose to your website, the next thing you should consider is a concept known as "branding". Branding is often associated with businesses and organizations, but I think it's a good ideal for individuals too. The illustration below shows the many factors that go into branding and I think these are excellent ideas to consider when developing your online presence.
If you're a business then stick to the terms they've used in this image; if you're creating a personal page then you have some translating to do. Instead of products, YOU are the product- think about what you are trying to market to online visitors: skills, services, special talents, etc. Then when you get to the stage where you actually design your page you can create your template around those ideas. While at the branding stage you should also consider giving yourself a good logo. This is a small symbol or illustration that really describe your specialty. It's also an excellent way to show off those creative and artistic skills that you have. I'll talk about simple logo design a little later on, but at least start brainstorming on something you think would help your name stand out.
It's also not a bad idea to start brainstorming about what content you display on your site. Knowing ahead of time what you want others to see gives you extra time to prepare those special features and make any adjustments to the media format such as photos, video, slideshows, etc. Multimedia content plays a big role on websites whether they're for business or personal use, so be sure to do a lot of careful planning when choosing your items for digital display. We'll come back to content preparation in an upcoming post, but again keep these things in mind to save yourself a lot of time and hassle. Starting in the beginning of the Web Design process can be daunting, so take a break here to get your thoughts organized and start brainstorming for your branding, content, and logo creations. It takes time, but going a good smooth pace will ensure that you've put a lot of planning and effort into your website. In the next part of our Web Design adventure, we'll take a look at options for your domain for the website (that is, where do you want to host your site?) and I'll walk you through some basic template designs for your pages as well. I'll do my best to have that post all set for you as soon as possible, but in the meantime here are some good websites that can help you with your path to Web Design heaven:
Web Design for Dummies: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/web-design-for-dummies-cheat-sheet.html
About.com Web Design: http://webdesign.about.com/
Stay tuned for more great tips on building the perfect website and unleashing your wild creative side! Enjoy the rest of your day and as always stay creative!
*Images used in this post were collected from results on Google Images. I do not own these pictures and I hereby give full credit to their respective artists. No Copyright Infringement Intended.
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