Anyone who has been involved in a job or profession that requires some level of servicing a client will know that customers can be hard to work with sometimes. In this infographic from the online publication Top Web Design Schools, the “difficult customer” is dissected and explained. It’s a handy little infographic that will prove useful to any web designer who is preparing himself for the eventuality of meeting a difficult client. With the information contained in the infographic, it will hopefully give web designers an idea of what to expect and thus better prepare for such clients.

From: Top Web Design Schools

In creating a corporate website design, novice and experienced alike make mistakes. Listed below are few of the dos and don’ts for corporate website design.

Website Page Structure

In structuring your corporate website, do not just place boxes everywhere. Boxes of different sizes that are not lined up properly will actually grab the attention of your visitors because it simply creates a whirlwind of craziness. What you need to do is to keep your page properly structured. You can follow the structure and balance of a great magazine or newspaper as they have the grid systems in a structure and format that are easy to follow.

Color Scheme

The right color scheme alone will help your website look more professional representing the company behind the elegant design. Consider your prospected visitors and the niche that you are going to compete in, and choose colors accordingly. Brighter color schemes, e.g. CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and key/black) color model would work with entertainment sites, while financial or medical sites look better with lighter and more open color schemes. Palettes for sites with e-commerce platforms will also differ from those offering services rather than products.

A good idea might be to study the effects that colors are known to produce and select the ones fitting your theme accordingly.

With all that in mind, avoid overdoing your website with more than 20 different colors. It will not only make your website look unprofessional but is likely to annoy your readers, too. Make sure to have chosen colors that blend and do not clash.

Company Logo

Branding requires a good corporate logo that you can incorporate to your website. Designing a logo is crucial. If you already have chosen a company name, you can search for your competitors’ company logos to get an idea of what is already in the market and make use of their good (and bad) ideas.

Keep your logo simple and straight. Make sure that it communicates and clearly states your company’s message and identity. You can get some idea from known brands like FedEx, Disney, Starbucks, Virgin, Toyota, ABC, Coca Cola, and more.

Fonts and Sizes

If you have observed, every company or brand has its own unique font for their logo, slogan as well as content on their websites. Make sure you have selected a font that will affect the reading experience of your visitors. You can use a different font and size for your title and another for your content. You can even make a step further and have your own custom font designed for you to make sure that it corresponds perfectly to your needs.

Avoid using over five different fonts in 10 different sizes. It will not only make your site look ugly, but it will also ruin your visitor’s reading experience.

Website Content and Copywriting

Though not exactly in the realm of web design, this is another crucial component of any website that wants to be successful. Make sure that you focus on your website content and place only what is important. For example, if you are designing a website for a company that sells a certain product then make sure that the product is the focus on the website’s homepage. There must be a space on the page that calls to action for the specific product you want to outline. Avoid placing irrelevant ads across your page. Having nice pictures on your website is great, but too many of them comblined with excessive advertisements can make your visitors stay away and never come back.

Make sure you fill your page with copy using words that are short, simple and straight to the point. You can hire an expert if you are not good at writing copy. Choose the right words for your sign-up buttons, page headings, navigation items, and see that they not only look good, but also call to action.

Avoid keyword stuffing in your website. You cannot outsmart Google and your readers are not dumb at all to have it unnoticed. Your site will not only look and read worse than it could but you will definitely be penalized. Keep your website content writing flow naturally and mention keywords in areas needed and in places where they fit.

Conclusion

Designing a website is not only all about SEO and keywords. Make sure you have made excellent choices of color combination, font, and content as these will represent your company. Learn from your competitors’ mistakes and use the limitless Internet resources to your advantage.

Olivia blogs for PsPrint, an online printing company specializing in custom sticker printing among other popular services. Follow PsPrint on Twitter and Facebook

That is why you see more websites dedicated to information and exportation of rare and common teas popping up all over the place.

If you are thinking of creating your own – or you are just an enormous tea fanatic – you will love these examples of gorgeous sites dedicated to the beverage.

1. Yogi Products

Rather well known for its aromatic tea blends, Yogi Products has a unique and simple site that comes off as quite elegant. The background is similar to a parchment design, with a rich and bright color that brings to mind the tea itself. The graphic of a steaming cup of tea gives something more to look at, and the simple links keep it user friendly.

2. Celestial Seasonings

Another popular tea company, Celestial Seasonings uses an interesting grid design along with a slideshow to introduce the user to its new and most-bought products. Most of their pictures have a cartoon background, along with images of plants and flowers. You can find the company’s different tea lines up top, such as Sleepy Time and Energy Shots.

3. Zen Tara Tea

The look of tea is beautiful in and of itself; the colors, the sorting of the loose leaves, the plants and flowers in the mix. Zen Tara lets this natural beauty speak for itself. It has a thumbnail with each tea type, a slideshow at the top and relevant links at the header of the page. There is also a blog with latest posts in the side margins.

4. Tazo Tea

I love the interactive nature of Tazo’s site. The homepage features an open book. That leads to the rest of the site, which has interesting links, graphics and even a switch that “controls the Internet”. It is lighthearted and fun, as well as informative.

5. Adagio Teas

Adagio has a site that changes with seasons to relate to whatever event might be happening during that time. Recently it has had their Christmas design up. It shows a large candy cane, to represent its peppermint Christmas line. But my favorite part is the consistent presentation of cups of tea at the top sending the user to the product page for each type.

6. PG Tips

Is there anything better than a monkey puppet with a British accent introducing you to a product? I didn’t think so. This site has the latest commercial from the company featuring its mascot, with an otherwise very simple design. Most of it is on a white background, which is uncommon with professional sites these days. It looks very clean and efficient, but the content makes it much warmer, rather than sterile.

7. Joy’s Teaspoon

Another site that uses pictures of loose tea leaves, this one also has a gorgeous slideshow at the top that shows natural photography like rolling green hills, a steaming cup of tea and more. The link system is a little sloppy, but it all just manages to come off as more rugged and down to earth, rather than the polished look you might have come to expect.

8. Russian Tea

The most formal and classy tea website you will find, the Russian Tea Co. has put together a royal design. There is a front page with information on tea drinking in Russia under a banner and coat of arms. From there, you can find its products and more information on drinking, brewing and more. There is a Russian and an English version.

9. Mighty Leaf

Clean grids always make for good sites, but they need a little extra detail to make them interesting. This site uses illustrations in the header that change with the seasons to spice is up a bit. In the center are full color ads on a slideshow that let you know about the latest sales and new products.

10. Samovar

A full background picture rotates as you watch, with all links at the top of the page and nothing to break the photos of tea leaves, cups of the beverage and cafes. You should be sure to check out its Real Ritual Blog and Tea Porn pages, which are interesting and fun.

What are some of your favorite tea websites? Let us know in the comments.

Sonia Tracy is the content editor for PsPrint, an online printing company, which you can follow on Twitter and Facebook.

Maybe it is the traditional touch that reminds me of earlier days, when cell phones were enormous and computers were a novelty in homes. Perhaps it is the decorative nature and the anticipation of moving on to the next month. It could even be that the electronic calendars just lose something in translation and don’t do it for me.

Whatever the reason, I am not alone. In fact, some people even come up with creative – and strange – calendars that are just as handy as they are awesome. If you are interested in traditional methods of keeping track of the days, check out these unique versions.

1. Ink Calendar

This calendar was created by London artist Oscar Diaz, who is well known for making fascinating, functional items that can be used all over the house. It works by taking ink from a prefilled bottle attached to the piece that is slowly released through the month.

Each day, it fills another set of numbers representing the date, moving in a zigzag from side to side, then down all the way to the bottom row. Every month has a different color that was made to coincide with what people often relate to the month in terms of weather – for example, a dark blue in December and a red in August. It was made for the London Design Festival 2007, where it was showcased as a major work of art.

2. Chrono-Shredder

Susanna Hertrich made this amazingly simple but interesting calendar idea. It has been a part of an exhibition since 2007, when the piece was initially released. Every year a new version comes out, which has been adapted and updated from its original design.

It works by continuously shredding a piece of paper that shows the current date, moving second by second until the day is completely done. It leaves it all in a trail of torn paper leading up to the calendar. The message is said to be the irrevocable loss of time, which can never be retrieved. Each moment has been destroyed, as will each following it.

3. Match Calendar

There have been a number of interesting calendars to come from the mind of Ukrainian designer Yurko Gutsulyak. Probably his best known was the set of trash bags that showed off a day of the month to encourage regular trash disposal.

But another excellent example is his date matchbook, which has an entire year of matches, one per day, that can be lit to tell the current date. It was made to be 100 percent safe and functional and has won numerous awards for its ingenuity and interesting concept.

4. Warranty Calendar

This is an amazing idea and a funny one, as well. Schott Solar is a solar panel producer that is one of the biggest names in the game. When it added a 20-year warranty on its products, Schott Solar made a move into a new guarantee system that many companies have yet to follow.

But it went a step further: It made a calendar that could count down the days for you – all 7,300 of them. This calendar actually has 20 years of papers, one for each day. It sticks right out of the wall, making it a bit of a waking hazard. Can you image having this in your home? I can – what a conversation piece!

5. Apple Time

Either a brilliant or a really stupid idea, this plastic tube works by inserting 28, 30 or 31 apples, depending on the month. Every day you remove one and eat it, revealing the date on the other side. It was created by German advertising agency ServicePlan.

The problem I see with this is that the tube is not refrigerated. Even if it was, have you ever eaten a monthold apple? When indoors, it tends to get pretty brown and nasty at about two weeks old. What would happen at 30 days? While it is a pretty interesting concept, it seems like maybe the agency didn’t think things through as well as it should have.

None of these are really widely distributed, and most are just exhibition pieces that cannot be purchased. You can find other bizarre calendars that are for sale, however, like Yoga Kittens, which is exactly what it sounds like: a bunch of kittens in what appear to be yoga positions.

Or how about Extraordinary Chickens, which shows you a different buddy from the coop with an odd feather style or doing strange things? Maybe Nuns Having Fun is more your speed, as you take a look into the crazy acts of a group of holy honeys on a rampage.

But perhaps the best thing you can do is come up with your own. Creating a calendar isn’t rocket science, and as you can see there are plenty of ways for you to go about doing it. All it takes is a bit of thought and a little work, and you have your very own calendar gracing your wall.

What are some of your favorite, bizarre date pieces? Or do you have an idea for your own? Let us know in the comments.

Jennifer Moline is a writer for PsPrint Blog. She has been writing about marketing, graphic design, freelancing, small business and printing for numerous years.

Is your existing logo fine?

The person should always beware and think about the image portrayed by the logo of their product. Check if the logo is too old now. If it is, then try getting a new logo for your company. Never make a mistake to design a logo by your own. Hire an experienced and veteran designer for this work. Mind it that this investment will bring you great returns. For example the guys at Modis IT recruitment services have a great logo designed, it is similar to the theme of their site.

Customer’s feedback and competition

Customers feedback is always the best thing to improve. Ask your regular customers to give their feedback and fill up their survey about the current logo and their advice and idea regarding the logo. The customer’s views and tips can help you to redesign your logo to a new one. Carryout the research among the entire competitor’s logo, as this can help you to make your logo more effective and attractive corporate identity. Do not cheat their techniques, rather analyze them with your technique and see whether you are leading or lacking behind them in marketing efforts. The major factor behind the change in logos of the big companies is their mounting ahead and spreading their coverage area in additional fields.

Take an action now

After so much research and efforts, if you feel that your logo should be renewed then take an action in this direction. If you are skilled and expert in this field then do it yourself but if not then it’s wise enough to employ a designer who has high reputed working experience in this field. You can also give change to fresh designer as they come with new ideas and plans. This deed will create a logo perfectly matching to your corporate identity.

Select the logo design vigilantly

Don’t select the design in hurry, first make the desirable and capable designers list and ask them to show your their work and designs. After viewing and evaluating their designs decide on one and hire him for the task.

Determine the budget

The last and most important thing is the amount of money needed for this work. The redesigned logo and corporate identity is responsible for the first impression on probable customers, which can magnetize and catch the attention of new customers and increase your gross sales. Therefore, what are waiting for, go and redesign your identity and boost up your height from your competitors.

As a fan of simple to use “what you see is what you get” (WYSIWYG) applications I was pleasantly surprised over the last few days to be testing Basekit, a website builder that allows for easy and attractive website creation.

The system works by allowing users to pick PSD (Photoshop) templates which are geared towards certain users such as artists, traders, photographers and various other sectors. Users can choose from literally hundreds of available templates.

Once a specific template type is chosen users are then able to drag and drop certain functions into their website. For example, you can choose to drag a navigation menu to the top of your template (or any other location you choose) and then add a Google Maps location to the center portion of your page. By layering elements on top of each template Basekit makes it simple to feature certain functions in a matter of seconds.

Much like WordPress, Tumblr and other content management systems the Basekit program also provides a decent set of widgets, for example users can drag their Flickr account into their website or setup RSS, Twitter and Carousel options with ease.

I personally tested Basekit.com with a sub-domain on their system (subdomain.basekit.com) however the site also allows users to point their own domains to their monthly Basekit account, creating a more personalized experience. Users can even add Google analytics to their site to track visitor numbers.

Not only does Basekit allow users to quickly create website pages, it also gives excellent customization options, for example I was able to easily change content fonts, line height and other information using simple drag bars while coloring is just as easy to implement. The program also allowed me to choose which parts of the website I was attempting to modify, for example I could choose different font and font sizes for the body of pages compared to headings.

The Basekit program also allows users to easily setup the columns on their website, for example a user might want a top column for their header and then a content area followed by a sidebar, all of which can be dropped into place by make a simple setup choice.

For more advanced users the program also allows for manipulation of direct HTML and CSS code. After a page is created users can access tabs which allows them to manipulate the base code of their websites.

Throw in the ability to add videos and images with simple drag and drop functions and it’s easy to see how simple it is to create a website using Basekit.

For users looking for distinct web pages Basekit is a great option which provides a decent set of website building options. Drag and drop functions, the ability to customize your entire website via HTML and CSS functions and a sleek interface makes Basekit worth a closer look, especially for users who only need a smaller website that can be easily customized on the fly.

Give Basekit a try today and let us know what you think.

When developing a new property there are several aspects that I always choose to setup before attempting to dig into the deep design elements of the website.

Choosing Website Colors

The color(s) you choose for your site should fit the industry you are attempting to attract, for example a site about celebrity gossip will likely be served well by purple, pink and other colors that appeal to a mostly female demographic, while sports sites tend to do well with bold colors such as dark blue, dark red and even black. Knowing your demographic can help you determine which colors will work well for your purposes. I personally use Colorschemedesigner.com to find colors in the most efficient way possible.

Once you’ve chosen which colors you want to use on your website it’s important that you blend those colors throughout. For example, let’s assume you chose hex color code #3B5998 (Facebook blue), it’s important to include that color in your logo, navigation bars, highlighted links and even sidebar titles. When your users see your sites color scheme they should immediately associate that color with your product. If you don’t want a very bold color on your navigation bar a simple black bar with text or hover highlighting with your sites color scheme is also a nice solution.

Choosing Website Typography

The font you choose for your website is one of the first ways users will experience the content you provide. Just like choosing a color you want to make sure the typography on your website matches the type of content you provide. For example, looking back at our celebrity website, a “fun” font with slightly more curved lettering would be a great way to show off titles on a page. If you look at popular entertainment site TMZ.com they provide bold curvy titles that attract users with sensationalized headlines. When it comes to the actual content on the site however it’s a good idea to choose familiar fonts that users can associate with, for example Arial or Helvetica are both commonly used in the graphic design of websites and are easy to read since our eyes are trained to read them. You want your unique content to stand out among your sites colors, ads and other features, but not so much so that it distracts from your overall branding design elements. To find generally accepted free fonts I recommend google.com/webfonts. Once you have chosen your font type make sure to stick with that font throughout your sites design to create a unifying element.

Blend Social Media Options Into Your Site

Branding your site from a graphic design point of view doesn’t simply mean placing nice social sharing and follow icons on your site, if you want your product to stand out you need to develop icons that match your sites content. For example, if you use the hex code I highlighted earlier, it wouldn’t hurt to have Facebook, Twitter, Digg and other icons created in those colors or perhaps you can use basic sharing buttons but wrap them in a box border that matches your sites background or logo color. After you’ve blended in your social networking icons make sure to customize your Twitter, Facebook and other pages to match your sites color scheme, for example change your Twitter background color to the same color code as your sites logo. Many users will first view your content on social media sites before they click through to your site, if you make those social profiles feel like part of your final website product you can brand your website even when users are not actually on your property.

Website branding from a graphic design perspective comes down to understanding that all of the elements on your website need to work together and that work needs to be consistent. Before you design a website or higher a design consultancy firm you need to ask yourself what you want your site to say and then figure out how you want to deliver that message graphically both on-site and off-site.

Not everyone has a big budget to develop an iPhone app, let alone have a WordPress theme designed for your apps website. In this case your best options are premium themes, but beware! If you plan to invest in a theme, make sure the website you are buying from offers; documentation, support which mostly comes in form of a users forum and check the money back policy.

The better themes comes with PSD files that make it easier to adjust the theme more to your app style guide. It also help as a visual guide to double check if the theme displays in the browser as it should be compared to the PSD.

I listed the six most notable themes out there, they are all premium, ranging from $175 to $10. My preference goes to Apz, due that it supports certain key plug-ins, has a user forum and WooThemes offers a complete demo with admin login.

Apz

Fone

iPhone App

AppifyWP

my Application

AppCloud

For the fonts choice this week we are going grunge. Since I have been following web design almost nine years now, grunge has never gone out of style. Especially grunge brushes are always popular.

I don’t know about you, but since all the excitement about HTML5 and CSS3 have died down, it feels kinda slow in the front-end world. When was the last time there was a new awesome jQuery plug-in that does something no one thought about before?

Meanwhile give a look at these icons and fonts while we wait for the next popular “it”.

247 Hand Drawn Web Icons

The Cloud Icon Pack

Native Android Icons

Free credit card Icons

Social Stamps Icon Set

Web Icons Tile-Style

Grunge Fonts

A Lolita Scorned

Aquiline Two

Appendix 3

Calamity Joe

Belisa Plumilla Manual

I decided to list a couple of websites by Dutch web design companies. The purpose is not to list the best designs but to give a feel of what goes on in other countries. I also noted which websites was made by which company, you can check their sites to see their complete portfolios. That’s when Google translate comes in handy.

Snapper

A web application for internal communication in companies.

Rotterdam

The official page of the city Rotterdam.

By Mangrove

Geologie van Nederland

An informative website about Dutch geology.

By Flink

Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

The official website of the world renowned Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. The place to go if you want to see the best Rembrandt paintings.

By Fabrique

Pink Roccade

A Dutch software company.

By Freshheads

PVO Interieur

An interior design company.

By Zite Media

Hartstichting

The Dutch Hart Foundation.

By Rhinocreations

Hema

Hema is to the Netherlands what Target is to the U.S. There are multiple stores in every city and town. They recently opened in France with the same concept, store and website wise.

By Chunk ID

Toonder Company

A website about Marten Toonder, the creator of a very famous Dutch cartoon, Tom Poes & Ollie B. Bommel.

By Kees TM

Universiteit Utrecht

The University of Utrecht.

By Evident

I listed a couple of brands, music stars and other companies who make good use of the Facebook page. My favorite one of the list is Dell. Nice design and pretty interactive. These pages can give you an idea what all is possible with Facebook Pages.

The next list contains a couple of tutorials to help you grasp how to adjust your Facebook page. I was taken aback how few tutorials there are out there considering how popular Facebook Pages are. Not only with big names but they are also used by schools, sport clubs, small bands, etc.

I selected the most recent one, although there aren’t any updated ones since Facebook changed their pages layout. Hopefully though these tutorials will help you along.

Facebook Fan Page Design Inspirations

Cranium

Starbucks

Lenny Kravitz

Dell

NFL

Adobe

CNN

KLM

Nike Football

Facebook Fan Page Creation Tutorials

A Facebook Fan Page Tutorial

Video tutorials

Facebook fanpage static fbml code and tutorial

FBML code example

Facebook Fan Page Photos Tutorial

Also shows how to take full profit of Facebook’s new way to display profile photos.

How to Create Custom Facebook Pages

A ten step tutorial with text and videos.

Video Tutorial on New Facebook Fan Page Layout

Learn what’s new in the Facebook fan page layout. A video and a text summary of the highlights.

Even though Tumblr is still struggling with down time, the service popularity hasn’t decreased a bit. With the enormous offer of themes available, it’s hard to make your Tumblr look like MySpace. But not everyone has a good taste, so I often come across ugly Tumblr sites. To have a site with an ugly theme borders on a crime considering all the high quality free themes.

I listed ten themes of which almost all are minimalist. Some of them use very nice fonts, such as, League Gothic. There are two premium themes listed, with the cheapest being 9 dollars.

Hat tip: Flickr has implemented a share feature which allows you to easily share a photo on Tumblr amongst other services. This is a great move considering Tumblr’s regular down times, they are not really trustworthy yet with data back-up. You can now upload all images on Flickr and share it with Tumblr and other sites.

Digital Moleskine

Uses the fonts, League Gothic & Goudy Bookletter 1911 from the amazing League of Movable Type.

Strict

A minimalist and scalable theme.

52 Weeks of UX

Uses font, Proxima Nova, powered by Typekit.

Matthew Buchanan

A nice retro design with nice icons.

Prologue

Minimalist with lots of jQuery enhancements. Prologue Pro available as premium theme, $9.

Generic HTML5

The title say it all, a generic theme coded with HTML5.

Blank Slate

Premium, $49. A social media friendly theme that also looks very sleek.

Brutal Simplicity

Minimalist theme with lots of gray hues and gradients.

Glacial Simplicity

Minimalist gray theme with slide down header.

Scaffold

A minimalist theme with simple custom settings.