Award Winning Websites, or Arbitrary Awards?

There are millions of sites on the Web and plenty of designers as well. How can you help your design talents stand out from the crowd?

Well the Webby Awards, one of the few truly recognizable and sought-after web design awards, recognizes outstanding web sites in over 60 categories. Their final deadline for submission for the 9th Annual Webby Awards is December 17, 2004. Also. for the first time this year, sites that don't make the cut for Webby Nominee or Webby Winner are eligible to receive special recognition from the Academy as Webby Worthy.

Did you design a website within this past year that you feel is worth the $95 - $195 entry fee? If not, then why not? Linda Goin asks herself that same question, as she looks at some of the past Webby Award winners and talks about what makes a Webby Winner, or any other web-design winner for that matter.

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B.F.A. or J.O.B.? Training as a Designer

In this series of articles we've seen lots about design theories and concepts – elements, principles, colour, typography… For some people those articles, and the links contained therein, may have provided the guidance and inspiration they need. Others though, may have felt their creative juices reinvigorated and last week's mention of universities (through the dissection of some of their web site colours, navigation, and design consistency) could have stimulated an interest in how to gain a more thorough training in design … and perhaps even a qualification.

Even if you never want to step foot in a school again, you may want to stay informed about your competition. In both cases, a good look at what schools expect, and the work their students produce, is a great way to stay on top of changes in the industry.

Here Linda Goin gives you her advice about design schools based on her personal experience gained during her quest for higher education, with a focus on identifying schools that may suit your career aspirations.

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Professional Sites, Unprofessional Design Choices: Colour, Direction, and Continuity in Web Design

When a viewer approaches a professional business on the web, he or she usually expects a professional site complete with colour schemes and links that work and pages that seem to belong together.

While most of these design issues, like colour, direction (as in navigation), and website design continuity seem mundane and of little concern for most designers (we CAN use templates to produce design continuity, after all…), it seems that not everyone keeps their eyes on the ball.

In this article Linda Goin takes a quick trip through some academic related web sites and, unlike previous web site analyses (Learn Through Better Deconstruction I and Learn Through Better Deconstruction II: Testing and Training Your "Designer's Eye"), highlights the not so good as well as the not too shoddy. Linda even finds time to deliver a fashion tip, and point out that elements of the images we use can, maybe unconsciously, indicate the ethos of our organisation.

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The Designer's Choice: Navigational Methods

Mention navigation to a web designer and they immediately think of hyperlinks of various shapes, sizes and colours. But of course navigation was needed before the web, even before the advent of printing, people needed to know how to get around hand-written manuscripts. In a wider context, the word navigation brings up mental images of seafarers, charts and compasses.

In this article Linda gives us a quick orientation (pun intended) in the historical ideas underpinning navigation, and briefly reviews the different styles and approaches used on the web (maps, bookmarks, breadcrumbs … footprints).

Who knows – thinking about the past and reviewing the present, may give you inspiration for future projects!

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Typography IV (Part II): Logos, Branding and Copyright

In the second part of this mini-series, that could be termed logo design for non-graphic designers, Linda moves us on from the basic appreciation of the issues involved in this area (discussed last week in Typography IV: Corporate Identity, Logos, and Branding).

Here she'll outline a simple, efficient route to logo design, building on concepts we've seen earlier in this series. A case study is considered to exemplify how the straightforward typographical based approach recommended, still has the flexibility to evolve into a more complex design.

As this brings us further into the world of the graphic designer, Linda then introduces us to some thought provoking copyright (and hence billing) issues associated with logo production and sales.

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