Entries

Photoshop vs Fireworks

Published by pris54 (Admin) |By Nathan Smith (for Digital Web Magazine)| 28 Sep, 2008

Photoshop. Fireworks. If you're a serious web designer (and not using the GIMP) you're going to be using one or the other. But which is best?

I recently had the opportunity to talk to eight talented web designers about the applications that are crucial to their work. Half use Photoshop, while the other four prefer Fireworks. In the past, such questioning might have been akin to debating PC vs Mac but, since the Adobe acquisition of Macromedia, it is now less about brand loyalty and more about efficiency.

Web Design By Designers

Published by pris54 (Admin) |By Kimberly Elam (for Digital Web Magazine)| 05 Jul, 2008

Designers are, as a rule, a fussy bunch, and when it comes to their own business communications they're even more so. Designing a website for an award-winning design firm verges on the impossible.

A design firm's web presence primarily serves as a tool to attract new business from a global community and, secondarily, as a means to show off. Designers are by far their own worst critics, and their websites have to tread a fine line between being cutting-edge so as to attract young new business, and more traditional so as to appeal to established or more conservative businesses.

How Environments, Real And Virtual, Influence Us

Published by pris54 (Admin) |By Kyle Mueller (for Digital Web Magazine)| 04 Jul, 2008

I get anxious in certain environments. The reasons for this can vary from general disorganization to bad lighting or clashing colors, but the biggest culprit is usually clutter.

Clutter is the stuff that has no "place", doesn't belong with its surroundings, and serves little to no purpose. It's not that I'm a clean-freak, it's that I'm a designer, and I have a heightened sensitivity to things that are out of place or irrelevant. When disorder reigns, I get uneasy, anxious, even dizzy. On occasion, it gets bad enough that I feel a sudden urge to flee as quickly as possible.

Sometimes I get the same feeling when I'm surfing the web. Everyone feels this sensation to some degree, and it triggers the "fight or flight" response hard-wired into our brains (stay here and fight through this mess, or get out as fast as you can). It's no wonder most web pages are abandoned within a few seconds of viewing.