Simplicity – simple logos are easily recognisable (as above with the Nike swoosh) and show identity through one basic image. The Nike swoosh doesn’t even need the word Nike before it for people to recognise the design.

Versatility – a logo should be designed in vector format, so when it is edited, it can be resized without looking untidy and pixelated. A logo should look clean and crisp whether it is on a billboard or a postage stamp.

Functionality – a logo should accurately represent and capture the nature of the business. A logo needs a strong identity to stand out on the shelves and among advertisments. Many designers say if a logo works in black and white, it’ll work anywhere.

A successful logo will be timeless, inevitably it will undergo iterations but usually only small adjustments. There are brands that have been successful in completely changing their logo, Pepsi for one, but other brands haven’t been as triumphant – think back to the Gap logo. An example of, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’

If you’d like a logo designed with all of these principles in mind, take a look our logo design page.

Gimp

Gimp is a free design programme that runs across a multitude of platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux etc) and it’s layout is very similar to Photoshop. On the left hand side you have the tools and on the right, you have the brushes and layers. Gimp is a realistic and free alternative to Photoshop and we highly recommend this piece of software for beginners wanting to get a feel for Photoshop but without splashing the cash.

Picnik

Picnik is an online photo editing tool, similar to the likes of Google’s Picasa but a lot better in functionality and performance. Picnik has a partnership with Flickr so you can transport your Flickr photos to edit or you can upload them from your computer. Picnik includes all of the most common photo editing tools – change exposure, sharpen, crop, rotate, resize and add special effects. This online photo editor is free and extremely easy to use, would recommend for someone who hasn’t used photo editing software before.

Pixelmator

Unlike the above Photoshop alternatives, Pixelmator isn’t free, but it’s still cheap (just under £30). This programme has all of the basic image editing tools you could need and can handle up to 100 different image types. Pixelmator was originally built for Mac and can be integrated with iPhoto and Photobooth. This editing tools are a little bit difficult to get used to but once you’ve had a little bit of practise, you will find this a very useful programme.

Artweaver

Artweaver is the perfect creativity tool, you can design your own masterpieces with its different brush strokes and standard image editing tools. If you upgrade to Artweaver Standard (around £18), you can add plug-ins to expand on your designs. For those you wanting to create images for fun, this is perfect piece of freeware for you – for more advanced users this won’t cut it.

Firstly, download Plug-in Switch, this will allow you to easily organise all of your existing plug-ins by enabling or disenabling them with a single click. This handy tool will help keep your desktop organised and tidy.

Photomatic includes eight different plug-ins in one. The G-Force plug-in creates traditional monochromatic grain effects, and Nightscope adds a basic night-vision effect to your images. Skygrad is for tinting the sky areas in your photographs; you can brighten up a dull-day or create an intense overcast effect.

Virtual Photographer is a free plug-in that can be used for creating a number of photograph styles. It’s easy to use and has a filter to suit every purpose.

Dreamy Photo is a simple little plug-in that gives your photo a soft-focus, dreamy feel.

Left: Dreamy Photo

A plug-in that will save you oodles of time trying to fix a photo in Photoshop is Image Doctor. Unfortunately this handy plug-in is a little pricey but extremely useful, allowing you to remove blemishes and scratches and soften skin.

If you’re a a dab hand at photography, you’ll know how important natural lighting is when taking a photo. If you didn’t quite get the light you were hoping for (or don’t know anything about natural lighting), Light is your plug-in. The plug-in’s advanced settings allow you to create the effect of light wrapping around objects.

If you are working with PNG files, SuperPNG is a godsend – it will process and save PNG files quickly and efficiently. It can also save PNG files in a smaller size.

The Wireworm plug-in is free and simply removes unwanted objects from your photographs, for example, a telephone wire (hence Wire Worm). It’s handy, clever and most importantly, free!

Right: Wire Worm in action

Stay tuned for more Photoshop plug-ins, hopefully these will keep you occupied for the time being.

So you’ve chosen a ‘type’ to suit the style and character of your website, now you need to pick a font widely available across all browsers and operating systems. What many people don’t realise is that you can’t just pick any old font for your web content, the font needs to be available within all web browsers and there are few fonts which are. There are certain CSS codes you can input to ensure your font looks the way you want it to, on any browser. A cascading style sheet can be used to do this, they are used on web pages to control their appearance and allow web designers to have more choice in their design.

For example, if your site is being viewed on a Windows operating system, and your font is Arial, you can programme your next available font as Helvetica, which is the Mac equivalent. That way, whatever operating system your reader is using, the font is going to look the way you want it to.

Arial/Helvetica is one of the most comment fonts used on websites, some people say it’s overused but that’s because it’s such a good font. It’s clear, modern and neat. Verdana is also a very usable font across all browsers and operating systems. Other browser safe fonts include Times New Roman, Georgia, Trebuchet, Courier and Tahoma.

Once you have your font, you should consider line-spacing within your content. Does your content look too squashed making it difficult to read? You can use the CSS line-height property to assign space between your lines of copy. When you have a large block of content, 1.5 line-spacing will break it up and make it easier to read. Try to keep text in short blocks to keep the reader’s attention; rows upon rows of text will lose the reader’s eye.

A lot of our clients want a font that is the right style, colour and size – all of these are important but usability is the most important factor, more important than whether it is stylish or not. Choosing a font that is usable and readable will benefit you and your reader.

Smashing Magazine. It's...erm...smashing!

Here at the Cheap Web Design Company we like to keep on top of what is going on in the web design industry, learn new things and generally know what other people are up to as well. Basically, we’re a nosy bunch and, as with any niche, reading other people’s blogs is a great way to get industry gossip, learn about the latest techniques and find out what our counerparts are up to.

With this in mind, we thought we’d put together out top five blogs, the ones we read daily (or as close to daily as we can manage!) and find most useful and / or entertaining.

These are in no particular order by the way, we just love ‘em all!

1) Smashing Magazine

Smashing covers all areas of web design and includes tutorials, industry news and a cracking section on wallpapers and the like for insipiration. This week we particularly enjoyed this post on the Seven Deadly Sins – a brilliant read and a perfect example of the type of content Smashing publishes on a regular basis.

2) 456 Berea St.

There’s one phrase that describes this site perfectly: “matter of fact”. 456 Berea St is written by a Swedish web professional (which explains the wonderful matter of fact tone) by the name of Roger Johansson and covers tutorials, industry commentary and especially web standrads, accessibility and usability. If that’s your bag, baby, this blog will be right up your street.

3) Pearsonified

A beautiful site from a beautiful person! Ok, a little over the top, but Chris Pearson, as he says himself, is “obsessed with finding better and more efficient ways to do these things”. It’s this attitude we like in Pearsonified. His Wordpress-centric postings are always useful, always informative and always entertaining. Bookmark this one now.

4) TutorialBlog

When we get an idea in our heads about a new design but we’re not quite sure how to get it from imagination to screen, we get a little help from TutorialBlog. It’s not that we don’t know what we’re doing – we sure do – but everyone needs a little bit of inspiration or a nudge in the right direction from time to time and we’re not afraid to admit it. TB is a hugely valuable resource for us web designers.

5) Design Meltdown

Speaking of inspiration, this is the site for that and no mistake. A showcase of web design trands, from headers through navigation to whole sites, Design Meltdown houses the best from the world of web design. To be honest, we just pop along now and then to gawp at the creativity of our own industry. We love it!

To demonstrate further, here are five very different, but highly stunning Wordpress themes that will suit specific websites and present your content in the perfect way.

For Photographers & Graphic Artists

If you’re a professional photographer, graphic or even web designer looking for a way to display your portfolio online then we think this Wordpress theme is the ideal way to go about it. It’s clean, ensures the images are the dominant element and is easy to navigate. There’s plenty of room to promote your services, contact details and the like too

Cost: $30

PhotoBox – More Info & Download

For Video Producers & Enthusiasts

There are quite a few Wordpress themes out there that display video very well, but many of them look very similar. We thought this one stood out from the crowd. With its large, dynamic scrolling display box at the top and neat and tidy layout below PLUS the inclusion of a widget bar on the right, it fits together seamlessly and will display your videos in such a way that visitors will love your site – and your work!

Cost: $39 / year membership

eVid – More Info & Download

For News Sites & Magazines

Finding the right template or theme for your news or magazine type website is usually a very time consuming and frustrating business. There’s always something not quite right with the one you find. But we think we’ve found one with no flaws, one that looks great, is easy to customise and has more than enough scope for any type of news you want to deliver. Honestly, if it’s a magazine style theme you’re after, check this one out.

Cost: $39 / year membership

TheStyle – More Info & Download

For the Small Business & Corporate Requirement

Worpress isn’t all about displaying different types of content in beautiful ways. It’s a serious platform for small businesses and corporate websites too. If you want to portray a professional, sober, business-like image then there are themes for that too. This one is one of our favourites simply because of its simplicity. It’s a no nonsense, down to earth professional looking theme that will suit any business, from an accountant to a zoologist.

Cost: $59.95

CorporateTheme – More Info & Download

And Finally…For The Blogger In All Of Us!

Wordpress was originally intended as a blogging platform but it has grown and grown into a platform capable of everything described so far and more. Nevertheless, it remains one of the most popular blogging platforms in the world and there are thousands, if not millions of themes for the blogger available. You can’t pick a favourite – it’s impossible to do so with so many out there. However, during the search for the themes for this blog post, this one caught our eye, so for today – and today only – it’s our favourite!

It is ideal for people with hectic social lives – and by social, we mean online and social media! Check it out, you’ll see what we mean…

Cost: $75

Social Life – More Info & Download

Of course, the danger of using a template, even a paid for premium template like these is that someone, somewhere, will have the same one and your websites, content aside, will look very similar. To be absolutely unique you need to get a design done just for you. It really doesn’t have to be expensive either, so don’t think it is.

Get in touch with us today to discuss your cheap web design requirements – no matter what site you want or have, we can create a unique design just for you.

So we were excited to come across this post on toxel.com, listing 20 unique and creative logo designs. We picked our favourite seven – one for every day of the week! Click the individual images to view in full.

Pretty cool stuff. Which one is your favourite?

If you’re after a new logo or website, give us a call, we’re dying to put this new inspiration to work!

Does anyone remember Friends reuinited?  We don’t, but for the sake of argument lets pretend we do.  It was one of the early social networking sites that for a small fee allowed old school friends to track each other down and catch up.  It was immensley possible and as it’s membership grew, the newspapers started to report instances of marriages being broken up and lovers being jilted because of connections that were renewed on Friends Reunited.  And of course no one cheated on their partner before the internet came along did they?

The reason we have forgotten about Friends Reunited is due to the overwhelming market dominance.  In fact it is so omnipresent that we completely forgot to mention MySpace – and that was a pretty big deal back in it’s day.  Facebook has a thousands more users than Friends Reunited ever did yet we hardly ever read any stories about relationships being wrecked because of this, despite the odds dictating that it must be a much more likely occurance now.  No, Facebook is much worse – so bad in fact that it can increase your odds of getting cancer.  Even if it doesn’t it will certainly turn your children into social recluses, unable to interact with the outside world.

We never hear about the benefits of interacting with people on social networks.  The friendships, relationships and connections that will have been forged because of these sites must be innumerable.  Facebook actively encourage the organisation of events where people can meet up face to face so if anything we are much more social creature than we used to be before social networking sites became popular.  The term ‘flashmob’ never existed before there were sites that enabled such social events to be easily organised.

At the end of the day, the job of the newspaper journalist is to manipulate words in order to encourage people to read them.  It’s up to you to filter out the noise and make your own decisions about how you use these sites.  We here at the cheap web design company love Facebook and Twitter and would never use the internet to manipulate content in order to fit our agenda.  Although we may have just done that…did we mention we’re good at SEO too?

Great shapes and cut outs.

Different materials.

The cards that are other things too.

The downright brilliant!

If you want to see some more great designs check out toxel.com, creativebits.org and inspiredology.com.