As web designers, we are regularly engaged in one of the most challenging practices: transforming ideas into pixels. The process starts with a conversation and ends up with a website but, how do we get there? Is it always via the same route? How can we avoid some of the pitfalls? The initial … [Read more...]
Make a Copy “Dev” WordPress Site for Redesign
If you need to do a major redesign job on a WordPress site – either for a client or for yourself – it's best to copy the whole darn site and work on it in private. Once the site is copied and invisible to the rest of the world, you are free to go crazy on it. You can play around on the "dev" … [Read more...]
How To Be A Great Web Designer With Paul Jarvis
Download this podcast. I was absolutely sure that this Design and Marketing Podcast interview with Paul Jarvis was going to be excellent. And, I was right – don't you just love it when a plan comes together? http://youtu.be/B1EqcGHbFkU I knew that Paul was great in interviews because I'd heard … [Read more...]
DMP009: From 10 Visits-a-Day to 2000 Visits-a-Day in One Year with Louise Myers
Download this podcast I have been pestering my latest victim interviewee for the Design and Marketing Podcast (subscribe or leave a review, folks) for weeks and weeks before she gave in! Louise Myers is a fantastic example of a designer who has never stopped learning. You have … [Read more...]
DMP008: Travelling Graphic Designer Karen Mares
Download this podcast This is my 8th podcast and interview with an independent graphic designer. In this episode I talk to Karen Mares, Karen McDade, about travelling, Photoshop, design, clients, websites and life! Click here to subscribe to my "Design and Marketing Podcast" on … [Read more...]
How Web Designers Can Offer Print Design Services
From the outside they seem as two completely different worlds: One is static, traditional, tangible. The other is mercurial, modern, temporary. And there's a certain amount of envy from both sides. Print designers, although despairing at times with the baffling technology, are in awe of … [Read more...]
Designing Websites for the iPad
The iPad is implanted in our conscious as the high end tablet of choice for professionals. Remember: CEOs love their iPads. Who buys iPads? The majority of people who buy iPads already have desktop computers, laptop computers and smart phones. The iPad is a luxury purchase. And, with the cheapest … [Read more...]
Why I Love Running My Own Web Design Business
I didn't know it at the time, but setting up WordPress on RobCubbon.com in 2005 was a life changing moment. I know people are going to think that: 'This guy's lying. "Life changing" – what is this guy on about?' I'm not lying. It was life changing! 'This guy did it in 2005 – it's 2012 … [Read more...]
Make Your Website Responsive to Mobiles and Tablets
More and more of our online experience is being accessed by handheld devices. Many of us have been stuck with a website of maybe 900 to 1000 pixels wide which smaller devices would reduce in size. The mobile users would have to constantly zoom in and out to access various parts of the site … [Read more...]
How To Teach Yourself Web Design
Yes, it is perfectly possible to teach yourself web design. I asked around this week to see how people managed to acquire the skills and I tried to remember what worked for me. There are three main ways you can teach yourself web design. By doing. People learn by actually creating websites. … [Read more...]