Website Redesign
When I’ve started to work for SolidCAM one of the first thing I’ve noticed needed a change was the website.
This is a big challenge, because the website contain a big amount of content.
The website is multi language and also have a user area, it is based on typo3 OpenSource CMS. Transferring the data from the old the to the new one wasn’t going to be any easy, especially because the website meed to be more organized and accessible to the customers.
Take a look at the current website
First this to do was to learn what users are looking for in general and where are they usually going. This information is important in order for us to make navigation easier. Read more
SolidCAM AU Website
Recently I’ve been asked to create a website for SolidCAM Australia, As a rule we are a using an existing Open Source CMS.
Our experience wasn’t so good with Joomla, We had some stability issues, Drupal proved to be an outstanding CMS wit one draw back – Slow and agonizing to develop.
WordPress, A more limited system came out for a simple website the strongest, with no need for a user area pr other advanced figures building this website in WordPress took 3 hours.
SolidCAM Australia Screen Shot
You can log it to the site by clicking here
The advantages of using WordPress as as a CMS are explained here
Product Rebranding – Software Box and inlays design
One of the challenges I’ve got as I started to to work at SolidCAM was to Redesign / Rebrand the company’s main product.
I had to start with an original box that had an unorganized overly clustered design.
My first goal before even starting to work on the concept was to try negotiation to reduce the amount of data on the BOX. I’ve managed to loss about 20% of the content which was good to start with, and I did have a big amount of content left.
Second goal was to investigate the market and start something which is recognizable with the field and the company, it also had to stand out of the competition.
I was lucky, apparently this market didn’t develop much when it comes to marketing and branding, It looked like a big soup of unrecognizable companies. also, I’ve noticed that the main design line for all the competitors and SolidCAM was a simplified, unorganized and sometimes even cluttered.
Flash Banner for a Flue medicine
As I was looking for a job I was requested to animate a Flash banners for a medicine company
I’ve received a brief with a story board and I had to animate it, I loved doing it because I loved the story board.
The request was to have a banners with 4 frames, The first frame should pause until a mouse rollover, after the rollover it continues and stops on the last frame. Try it for yourself.
Translation:
1 You will not believe what influenza vaccine I received – Roll Over with your mouse and find out
2 Friendly spray vaccine
3 Flu vaccine inhaled without a shot
4 Service for children from the soul – click for more information
Refresh the page to restart the banner
WordPress As a full featured corporate website
WordPress
Millions of people around the world use WordPress as a blog managment system. as a result this how most people know WordPress.
WordPress is also used by web developers, corporations and small companies as a full featured web site CMS. It appears to handle it well.
WordPress actually become quite popular and compete with other CMS like Drupal and Jumla .
The reasons for WordPress rising popularity are that it is a stable and secure CMS, fully customizable with thousands of add-ons, plugins and themes that make it a cost efficient CMS. A company do not need a full team of web developers and designers to create a custom website for the company needs.
An important part of this CMS is the backend system, it is very easy to use, editing a page is as easy as working with a word file. the system have different levels of accessibility so each user can access it own part making the system “Stupid Proof”.
With some ready made plugins a company can create a modern website that support multi-language, user area, mobile access, video streaming even for mobiles, SEO support and much much more without the hassel and costs of a development team making all this possible.
Monitor Calibration – I can see clearly now
Images on screen look different from the same image in print.
Calibrating your monitor provides a screen display that simulates what you would see on paper.
Most monitors have flaws, they may be too dark, too bright, or they may have a color tint like green or blue. some of these problems can be easily fixed through Monitor Calibration.
The simplest calibration methods involve adjustments to the Contrast and Brightness settings of your monitor. An intermediate method uses special software to calibrate your monitor as well as calibrate your printer, scanner, and other devices so that what you see on-screen, what you scan, and what you print all look the same – as much as is possible. For high-end use, even more precise hardware-based calibration methods exist.
Got a mac? unless you use a third party monitor, you have nothing to worry about 
Web-app design for Check Point – GUI design.
Latly I’ve finshed working on a GUI design for Check Point.
The Idea was to create a fast and easy to use web application that will help tracking costumers and information.
The GUI had to be as simple as possible.
This are the screenshots:
Roll Over
PSD resources – Best 14 Sites & Blogs for free PSD files
Sometimes, we all got some extreme pressure to deliver a project
under a non-realistic timeframe.
What most of us do, is looking for shortcuts, it’s not fun, sometime we have no other choice.
Here is a collections of free PSD files for your next urgent project:
Sites:
ps galaxy – Mostly interface related PSDs, iPhone, Android and more..
free psd files – Medium quality files, with a good advantage
365psd – A wonderful PSD source
PSDfreebies – A nice PSD collection
deviantart.com – more then PSD – grate design & art website
dezignus – Design freebies Heaven – PSD page
downloadpsd – Lots of PSDs
PSD vibe – You’ll love this site
Blogs:
1stwebdesigner – 50 free high quality PSD files
freepsdfiles.net – free PSD files, Updated regularly
webdesignish.com – Creative website templets
visionwidget.com – Free PSD buttons
hongkiat – 60 high quality PSD file, clean elements
devisefunction.com – PSD + tutorials
Free fonts search engines – free fonts for commercial use
For a while I’ve been collecting font’s resources, search engines and more.
Here is a collection of links to help you get free fonts for your next project:
Da font is a search engine with a huge database, in this search engine you can type any text and preview it before downloading the font, in order to know if that is in fact the desired font.
urban font is a site that organizes fonts by easy to get categories, keywords and more. this site will make it easy for you to find exactly the font you are looking for.
High Fonts is a smaller site with some exclusive fonts, lots of free fonts and some really good fonts you’ll have to pay for.
Ffonts is a font blog. new fonts are submitted all the time, categorized in a logical way. I found some really good fonts there.
Acid Fonts is a good database of fonts. You’ll find that the help pages for Mac and PC are quite useful.
Font Yukle Is a great site with some really good fonts. You can change the default font preview to your own name.
Font Freak Here you can download free fonts – well over 5000 of them – as well as purchasing over 25,000 commercial fonts. If you need font software, be sure to visit the software section for the latest updates. Font editors and font managers are available for download.
1001 free fonts is a huge, easy to use, fonts database.
Font Squirrel is a great site to find fonts that are free for commercial use.
For commercial work, please make sure to use only fonts that are freeware and licensed for commercial work.
Enjoy
Typographic web design – Dawid Bednarczyk
In Dawid Bednarczyk portfolio I’ve found a beautiful typographic web design, his sites are organized in “boxes-style” with a “golden cut” grid.
These designs are easy on the eyes and fun to look at. Although the sites were built in flash, the animation is settled and not overused like most flash sites should be.
I recommend all to take a look at his site and also take example.