Here are seven ways to help you get your homepage off the ground and looking great:

1. Quality Content

Spice up your homepage up by featuring quality articles, product reviews or pictures. This has the two fold effect of keeping your loyal users engaged as well as attracting new users to your site. This will also improve your SEO by making search engines like Google happy.

InkEfx's homepage displays an array of high quality content such as products, photography and graphic design elements

2. Be Creative

Always experiment with new ways of engaging people with your homepage. Try music or animation, or even a short video. Never be bland or generic, new websites need to make a big splash on the crowded online marketplace.

Pro Blog Design is a perfect example of a creative homepage

3. Keep Your Links Focused

Your homepage will need several links in order for people to be able to navigate your site. However, make sure the links you include are relevant to your website. Keep the links focused and easy to understand. A link titled ‘About’ is easy to understand because it’s clean and simple. A link containing more than seven words is too loaded and unfocused.

Popularise demonstrates good focused links in their homepage

4. Keep it Clean

The best way to create a great looking homepage is to avoid clutter. Big websites, like Amazon, have a massive client base. People will keep going to the site no matter how busy the homepage is. You don’t have that luxury. Keep the homepage clean and simple for now.

Harvest is prime example of clean and clutter-free web design

5. Limit the Scrollbars

It might be tempting to stuff your homepage full of information so people have everything at their fingertips. However, it can be pretty off putting for people when they are faced with a dozen scrollbars full of content. It can be so daunting that they quickly lose interest and leave your site, so save the content for the inner pages.

Rhythm Church kept the homepage short so no scrollbars appear on the right

6. Keep it Up to Date

Don’t let your homepage lag behind the times. Make sure your homepage receives regular updates to keep people interested. Of all pages that need to be refreshed periodically, your homepage takes precedent because it’s the first thing people will see.

Toronto Suns homepage is filled with breaking new content

7. Make the Homepage Relevant

You want your website, and especially your homepage, to aesthetically match what you’re trying to sell. If you have a site that features classical music, make sure your homepage isn’t covered with barbed wire graphics. Make sure you register with a robust web hosting service, as they usually provide you with the tools to easily customize your site.

Compass sells software for web design - so their homepage has to look awesome

Your homepage is the first thing that people see when they click on your site, and with these seven tips you can make a great looking homepage that is sure to gain a lot of traffic.

Visit Las Vegas

Visit Delaware

Travel Alaska

Colorado

Visit Florida

Go Hawaii

Visit Idaho

Tourism Thamel

Visit Jordan

Summer Tennessee

Tennessee Vacation

Discover Tennessee Trails and Byways

Discover Los Angeles

Downtown LA

Visit York

Visit Birmingham

Discover Hong Kong

New Zealand

Discover America

Enjoy England

Hiroshima Navigator

Visit Indiana

Portal Arkansas

Utah.gov

Ca.gov

City of Santa Clarita

City of Signal Hill

Ajuntament de Barcelona

Pamplona I Like It!

NYCGo.com – The Official Guide

Visit Catalina Island

San Francisco Travel

VermontVacation.com

My Switzerland

Many people opt to hire a professional graphic designer to create their logo, but it is also possible to create one yourself. In fact, in some ways, you may be the best person in the world to design your logo – because you’re the one who know most about your company; and you’re the one who knows most on how to represent it.

If you decide to take on the task of creating your own logo, read on. The following strategies will definitely help you to create the best logo possible.

1. Your logo needs to be unique

While this may seem obvious, it is not always easy to pull off. It requires a lot of research to ensure that your logo is not the same as any other. Yet it is also possible to use basic colors, shapes and free logo creators to do something distinctive. Moreover, you just need to stay creative and note that simple little tweaks can drastically change the overall effect of your work.

2. Your logo must be legible

When thinking of legibility, remember that it will be viewed from different sources. It can be computer screen, a stationary, a side of a building and a whole array of printed materials. It can be on flash banners, newsletters, landing pages; it can be on billboards as well as television – where it requires animation. Logos should be as clear and as easy to understand as much as possible.

3. It has to have Balance

It is also important to have a well balanced design that works especially when using graphic imagery and text. This is very important. You should always note that images and text should work well together, as supposed to overwhelm each other. The text should not be too strong versus the logo and vice-versa. Balance is a must.

4. Proper Color and Tone

When you create a great logo, it should look good in both color and black and white. This should stand true even if you never intended for your logo to be colorless. Your clients may or may not have printing resources that may force to use your logo in a monochromatic version. You can “test” this out by switching it to black and white to be sure it is still as attractive and readable. Think carefully about your color choice, read up on color psychology and make sure you choose a palette that sends the right message for your business.

5. Keep it Simple

Resist the urge to show off your fancy design skills. Your logo should be simple and send its message easily. It should not be complicated or appear cluttered. Sleek, streamlined and simple will actually carry the most impact.

6. Your logo should be flexible

Make sure your logo works when placed on top of different backgrounds and different color palettes. It might go on top of textured areas such as a concrete wall of a building, clear glass, or even on plain white envelope. Make sure that your logo is still recognized even on the busiest of surfaces and the calmest of exteriors. This also brings us to #5 – to keep it simple. Simple logos tend to work better on complicated and non complicated areas – thus making it flexible.

7. It has to be effective

A logo really must capture the soul of your business. Once you’ve come up with a few design ideas, have as many people look at them as possible. Get feedback; ask people what the logo makes them “think of” or “feel”. Does it evoke the right emotions and connotations? This sort of information can help you make sure the logo you love sends the right message to others.

When you implement these strategies into your logo design, it will be a huge benefit to the overall effectiveness of your logo. Many say that a logo represents the heart of the company and its overall individuality. The creative process is so important because the logo you design will serve as the iconic representation of the life of your business in years to come.

Juliet is a writer for Print Express a UK Printing Company, offering brochures, business cards and other marketing materials. Juliet has worked as a marketer in different areas for a number of years. Currently, her primary areas of are online marketing and blogging

Stop motion (frame-by-frame action) is an animation technique that makes a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object creates an illusion of movement when the series of frames are played continuously. Here are 24 Stop Motion reels that I have found that are so creative – that will spark your creativity in your future projects.

Reel 2010

Dave Legion

Ace 5 Studios

Just the Basics

Vincent Boudier // Showreel 2010

Dark Wood

A dona de pedaco

Lesso 2011

The World of Design Animation

Tui Space

Bald Gorilla

Oliver Koch Reel //2009

SevenEdge // Show Reel 2010

Dyn Styrlund Design Reel

th3 Unknown // Showreel 2010

The Fruit Box

The Magical Classroom

Carnet

Young Creative Chevrolet

Emmanuel Cruellas // Reel 2009

Johny Likens // Reel 2010

Showreel DutchMotionWorks

4 Fourths

Demo Reel

It’s your Turn

Aren’t they one of a kind? Which one did you like the most? Do you have video reels that you think should belong in this list? I, for one thought they were all brilliant. I would love to hear your thoughts. Please leave your comments and join the discussion in the form below.

This has been a guest post by Stelian Subotin. Stelian is a enthusiast and design fan from Republic of Moldova. Right now he is working on his new design-related blog called Rocket Graphics. Visit RocketGraphs or follow his twitter account @rocketgraphs.

Flash preloaders are those “growing horizontal bars” that let you know how much (usually percentage-wise) time is left for your software to run. It is for users to know how much longer they have to wait – until their website is loaded. Hence, “preloader”. Flash preloaders are almost always – used in Flash-based websites.

Now, instead of the boring horizontal bar, developers have become creative and made their preloaders a bit more entertaining and visually appealling. Check out these 27 Artistic and Innovative Flash Preloaders:

Snickers

Silver Pistol

BornWithDesign

Kode Hurt’s My Brain

Gorilla Coffee

Did’s

Byd

Graphic Volcano

Planet VW

NavaRasa

3M Summit

KaiserInteractive

True Eropejeans

Summer Festival

SevenEdge

BeeProMarketing

LacelEbracion Devilla

Misayonara

GirlsTour

Take6

This is Electric

Salt Films

Chuan Film

Kiluka

TinyTeam s

World of TeleWare

Sugar Plum

Your Turn!

So what do you think? Any of these preloaders bore you? Didn’t most of them capture your attention in some way? What about you? Do you know of any Flash preloaders that are good? Please leave your comments below. I would like to hear your thoughts.

This has been a guest post by Stelian Subotin. Stelian is a enthusiast and design fan from Republic of Moldova. Right now he is working on his new design-related blog called Rocket Graphics. Visit RocketGraphs or follow his twitter account @rocketgraphs.

The following is a list of 31 really amazing food related websites. From wineries, food blogs, caterers and restaurants – I hope you will find this as a source of inspiration for your next project. Enjoy:

Hungarian Wine Society

Cellar Thief

Fort Wayne Catering

Restaurace Jadran

Culinaria – Lawrence Kansas’ Catering

Open Source Food

Palm Palace Restaurants

Official Food Inc Movie Site

Orca Bay Seafoods

About Seafood

BBC Good Food

Oregon Food & Drink

Kraft Foods

Marie Catribs

The Coastal Cupboard

Fresh Cookies Online by CJ’s Favorites

McDonald’s

La Masa Mimatta

G2 Geogeske

Market Restaurant

Cottonseed Oil

Mountain City Club

Vendita Prodotti Tipici

Gene’s Sausage Shop & Delicatessen

Bertoldi’s

Caravan Restaurant

Circa, the Prince – St Kilda Restaurant

Vegas Uncork’d

Abel & Cole

Green Onion

Arte e Gusto

Conclusion

Have you had enough yet? Did any of these websites spark your creativity? Which one did you like best? Do you know of any food websites that you feel should be a part of this list? As always, feel free to leave a comment below. If you haven’t already – you can follow my updates via Twitter or Facebook.

OkayBoss

Versions

DConstruct

Alex Buga

Goglam Ping

Dot Peak

Jiffy Mail

Terakeet

Web Contact

Nybble Tech

Pixel Backer

Go Walla

Morphix Blog

Glass House

Corvus Design Studio

Lionite

Juan Diego Velasco

The Fruit Box

Green Woods

Natalitique

Reillys Pub

El Juego Del Mondial

Oxigen 2

A Modern Eden

The Green House

Origen

Rabit Awareness Week

Conclusion

If that’s not enough, the following are other lists of green websites that are published elsewhere. I hope you get that spark going and finish your project on time. Once you’re done – be sure to post your work in the comments section below. Also, if you have a green website that’s not on this list – post that here as well.

• 30 Green Websites
• 40 Fresh and Beautiful Green Websites for your Inspiration
• 50 Best Green Websites, Tutorials and Color Pallets For Your Inspiration

This has been a guest post by Stelian Subotin. Stelian is a enthusiast and design fan from Republic of Moldova. Right now he is working on his new design-related blog called Rocket Graphics. Visit RocketGraphs or follow his twitter account @rocketgraphs.

Library Parking Garage

Kansas City Public Library (Missouri, USA)

Edificio Mirador (EMVS)

Edificio Mirador (Madrid, Spain).

Grand Lisboa

Grand Lisboa (Avenida de Lisboa, Macau)

Biosphere -HDR

Biosphere (St Helen’s Island, Montreal, Quebec Canada, North America)

House of Worship

House of Worship (New Delhi, India)

The Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal (Agra, India)

L’Hotel de Ville

L’Hotel de Ville (Paris, France)

British Columbia Legislature

British Columbia Legislature, (Victoria BC, USA)

Parliament of Hungary

Budapest (Hungary), on the bank of the Danube

House of the Black Heads

House of the black heads (Riga, Latvia)

White Temple

White Temple (Thailand)

Theatinerkirche in Munchen

Theatinerkirche in Munchen (Munchen, Germany)

Opera House

Opera House (Sydney, Australia)

Amazing temple

Amazing Temple (Chiang Mai, Thailand)

Facade of the Hotel Concorde Opera

Facade of the Hotel Concorde Opera (Paris, France)

Street Cafe

Street Cafe (Location Unknown)

University of Science and Technology

The university of science and technology (Lille, France)

Kopenick Rathaus

Kopenick Rathaus (Berlin, Germany)

Dormition Cathedral

Dormition Cathedral (Moscow, Russia)

Alabaster Mosque

Alabaster Mosque (Cairo, Egipt)

Conclusion

Though many think building architecture is not closely related to web design, from viewing these images – one cannot help but think so. Building web pages
take time, skill and inspiration – just like the works of art shown above.

You also might want to see these other articles for building architecture inspiration:

• 80+ Strange and Fantastic Buildings Architecture
• A Showcase of Beautiful Architectural Photography
• From Architecture To Science Fiction – 93 Buildings

This has been a guest post by Stelian Subotin. Stelian is a enthusiast and design fan from Republic of Moldova. Right now he is working on his new design-related blog called Rocket Graphics. Visit RocketGraphs or follow his twitter account @rocketgraphs.

Leeds Universities Catholic Chaplaincy

This one came first for a reason. The beautiful background photography is simply stunning. Combined with awesome typography, transparent menus, and that excellent calendar in the sidebar – Leeds University is a real treat to the eye.

St. Thomas University

A more traditional form, St. Thomas University sports a nice wooden background, rounded corners and excellent containers within.

Christopher Newport University

If that large slideshow in the homepage doesn’t awe you… Also make sure you notice the crafty navigation menu and beautiful inner pages of Christopher Newport’s website.

Wofford College

Pay attention to the finer details of this website. Check the headings, the logo, borders and background elements – very well done.

Missouri State University

Not to focus so much on visuals, but Missouri State’s website has so much activity going on. That slideshow in the homepage is dynamically updated daily with user submitted photos!

Boston University

Boston University’s website is very simple yet elegant and clean. The site itself is minimalistic, which enhances the content photography all the more. Note that the thumbs in the homepage( beneath the large image) is a javascript slider. Also, Try clicking the “Not Varsity Sports” link and it leads to an even more amazing page.

University of Vermont

University of Vermont’s website is more traditional, yet effective design. Good sharp edges, sufficient spacing and fine typography.

Brown University

Ahh, Big, Bold and Brown. I love the feature area in the homepage especially the chosen fonts – bright yellow blends beautifully with brown. The background may be a bit overkill, but it works I guess.

Montgomery Country Community College

A large rotating image in the homepage spans snuggly across your screen. It’s quite conventional, but works really well. Good tabbed containers, color schema and of course – photography.

Lafayette College

This by far is my favorite from the list, the Lafayette website is filled with CSS 3 and javascript wonders that stuns developers like me. I especially like the switching content in the homepage – which drives the containers in the sidebar as well. Good job Lafayette!

Washington University St. Louis

Another favorite! That large background photo of the school grounds can be viewed with a short story once clicked. A link to the archived background photos can be seen as well (the photos are swapped weekly).  The rounded containers, excellent color schema, and effective font types all contribute to this awesome work of art.

Arizona State University

There is something about Arizona State’s website that is pleasing to the eye – but I can’t quite pinpoint. There may be some misaligned elements, line spacing issues – minor things.  But overall, it is still good work.

Lethbridge College

I like the blue / green combination – especially with the nature background which fades into white. The Lethbridge College is an example of a well crafted web design.

Eastern Kentucky University

Sporting large headings, slogans and photos is always eye candy for me. School colors are well represented, nice fades and textures – EKU has done a good job on their website.

Nazareth College

Simple and serene, sharp and clean – enough said.

Wayne State University – College of Education

Color scheme is well planned, good use of fonts and soft shadows and gradients. Wayne State is a thumbs-up.

University of Southern California

Another favorite:  I say this because if I was to build an esteemed University’s website – it would be along the lines of USC’s fabulous design.  Exceptional use of javascript scrollers, menus, and overall placement of content puts USC on top of my list.

Journalism & Tech Communication – Colorado State University

The Journalism page at Colorado State University gets the fundamentals of modern web design. Nice rotating slideshow in the center, bold headings, text treatment – the works.

Century College

Definitely out of the ordinary, Century College’s design pops out of the crowd. Overalpping containers, shadows, beautiful fonts – very modern, sleek and unorthodoxed. I like it.

Eastern Washington University

Vivid and Loud – Eastern Washington wants to be heard. Good execution of hand painted elements such as the background, welcome message, and icons. What I really liked is the footer of the pages (nice mini scrollers) – be sure to check it out.

West Virginia University

Nice representation of school colors, good thumbnails. Notice the rotating image in the homepage when refreshed.

Rochester Institute of Technology – Brick City Homecoming

Beautiful. You can’t miss the coordination of colors, the nice folded elements, extraordinary font treatment and text shadows. Mad props to the designer of RIT.

Penn Foster Career School

Subtle folds in some of the containers, very sophisticated, well executed. Penn Foster’s website is a symbol of prestige and high reputation. Masterfully designed.

Campbell University

Campbell’s website is quite an eye pleaser – especially to web designers like me. It is a classic left justified page – which you don’t see often enough of, large rotating background images, excellent use of negative space as well as nice overlapping containers. I love it.

Stanford Center for Professional Development

Another sleek display, be sure to hover over the thumbnails in the featured flash image – notice the blurring effect in the background. Nicely done.

Conclusion

There you have it, 25 of the most attractive college websites I can grab. What do you think of them? Do you know of one that is not included in this list? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below:

Be sure to check out the following websites for further college web design inspiration:

• Edustyle.net – an online gallery for campus web design. Users submit and showcase their sites to get reviewed. Note that most of the sites in my list are from this excellent resource
• 25 of the Best Websites for Educational Institutions – Vandelay web design is a very well known website for web round ups such as this
• Top 11 Best Designed University Websites – Another roundup about the same topic. Pretty good websites in this list as well

Keep in mind that these examples are the results of what I’ve gathered through the web as I was looking for inspiration. It does not guarantee the best results, nor yield the highest output. It is simply a starting point of what current band websites are doing.

Streaming Audio or Video

This is your product, the merchandise, the "goods". Every band website must have a form of streaming audio somewhere in their pages. It doesn’t have to play right away as soon as someone hits your site, but it’s nice to have a player that is real accessible. You make music right? So let’s hear it!

Shinedown

Shinedown’s website features multiple media players right in the front page.

Civil Twilight

Civil Twilight’s streams their latest tracks as soon as the page loads.

One Republic

One Republic has their video player right with the large header image:

A Blog

Definitely a must have for a band website. This lets the fans know what’s going on with the crew. It can be as simple as their daily ramblings or what goes on behind the scenes. A blog can transform that voice in the radio, into a real human form. It also provides a way for fans to interact through comments and forums.

The Temper Trap

The Temper Trap website is an active blog of the band. You will see a solid following of readers, twitterers as well as facebook fans.

Thirty Seconds to Mars

Thirty Seconds to Mars’ blog features their latest press release and performances. The blog runs a dynamic intense debate commenting system for each post:

The Flaming Lips

The Flaming Lips’ blog is about anything from T-Shirts, interviews and food.

Unconventional Layout

Classic Rock n’ Roll behavior: We don’t want no rules! Borders? Headers? Footers? – We just want a website that’s cool, fun – a website that rocks!

Cage the Elephant

Cage the Elephant’s website has no visible frames, unpredictable patterns, paint splatters as well as hand-drawn elements. Be sure to check the drawing game in the home page – which plays the band’s music simultaneously (quite genius).

The XX

Another unique setup. This website simply show a large “X” overlay of scenes of the band performing. Very original.

Broken Bells

Be sure to check Broken Bells. See the large audio player with a ball-like-thumping thing in the middle. Pretty cool.

Giant Header

Ahhh, the modern giant header is more like my style and arena. It has more of that "awe" factor which viewers of various niches all agree: It’s simply stunning (of course, if its done right).

Three Days Grace

Three Days Grace’s band photo is beautifully placed as the website’s header. Big and bold – nicely done.

The Dirty Heads

A collage of photos acts as this website’s large header.

Jimmy Eat World

The same as The Dirty Heads, Jimmy Eat World’s website also has a large collection of rotating polaroid snapshots for the header.

Good Design

I guess this goes without saying – overall, you need good design. Band websites must be appealing, inviting and of course pleasing to the eye. You need reason to attract viewers – which in turn will browse through your site, listen to your material and convert them to loyal fans.

Below are some more musician websites that I think have inspiring designs:

Mumford and Sons

Also featuring a large photo as a the header. Real nice font treatment.

Muse

Busy and unruly backgrounds laced with transparent containers for the content. Muse’s website is very modern and progressive. *Side note: One of my all time favorite bands of all time.

Neon Trees

I’m loving the color schema of this one. Nice solid Futura Fonts – very cool.

Arctic Monkeys

Artistic logo partnered with a cool swirled navigation. Arctic Monkey’s website is quite traditional and effective.

Rick Monroe

Rick Monroe’s website is a mixture of grunge, country and subtle web 2.0 components. Nice large photo backgrounds and gradients, transparencies…the works.

Star Sailor

Bizarre grid structure, loud neon-like color scheme.

Bad Religion

I’m really feeling Bad Religion’s web blog. Really good grid spacing, and beautiful font (sifr) effect.

Switchfoot

Beautifully done background of the sky with birds. Color schema is amazing as well.

Weezer

Large rotating images as the header / banner featuring band’s photos of their performances.

K’Naan

Large header slideshow, video blog and audio players all over.

Conclusion

So the bottom line of a good band website? All of the above? None of the above? You be the judge. The trend is to always push the boundaries outside the norm. Web designers are always faced with a challenge of how to create the ultimate page – one that no one else has. Band websites are certainly amongst one of those challengers. It will be interesting to see what the future has in store for such sites.

Be sure to check these other articles for band design inspiration:

• 25 of the Best Websites of Bands and Musicians
• Top 30 Indie Band Website Designs
• 10 Well Designed Band Websites

Stay tuned for future articles that may include themes, PSD files and tutorials. Subscribe to my feed or follow me on Twitter.