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The New Top Level Domains

For this week’s online class, students are required to review the information about the new top level domains which have become available. This is a significant change to how website addresses are named.

For homework: As a branding exercise, please proposed 3 new domain names, and write a short explanation (1-3 sentences) what product, service, business, etc. your proposed domains is for.

As usual, you are also required to be write 2 blog posts for your project site, and be sure that your spreadsheet is up to date, listing all the posts you have written. If there are any questions, please email me directly.

Don’t forget to focus on driving traffic to your sites!

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Logo Designs From Recent Students

It is always a good idea to look at other good design when starting a new project. It’s a great way to get the creative juices flowing, and get inspired. I like to look at designs far afield, and see how new trends might be integrated into current projects.
Below are some very excellent logo designs done by recent students of ADV3650.

  • David Alvarez
    a lifestyle site
  • Carol Arango
    a spa site
  • Denzil Rowe
    a design site
  • Fareeza Ali
    a fan site
  • Hyun Hahn
    a character site
  • Intan Saimona
    a dog breed site
  • Natasha Marcano
    a music site
  • Kaman Leung
    a food site
  • Magdalena Kacicka
    a design site
  • Erika Soto
    a dessert site
  • Juan Campos
    a photography site
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Logo Development and Branding

Truly successful logos should work in black-and-white or grayscale. You should be able to run the logo through a crappy fax machine, and the logo design should hold up, that is, it should be recognizable and readable.

Good logos should also be able to be scaled down to a thumbnail size, and should still be recognizable. When working on your logo designs, scale them down, or zoom out, and see if you can still read them.

When submitting the logo assignment, you must also include black-and-white or grayscale versions of the logo options. If you have background art that conflicts with it, submit the B/W versions without the background art.

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Online Branding Strategy 101

SEOmoz – SEO Software

How to get your brand out there? Check out this video.

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Branding and Design Assignment

Good design takes work, and it takes time. When the effort has not been put into the work, it shows. Even the best designers in the world put effort into their work. It doesn’t get easier, the quality gets better, and the designs become more interesting.

Here are some of the things that I will be considering when grading the Branding and Design assignment for this week.

Use of typography. Good branding starts with good type.

I can easily spend hours pouring through my font library, looking for fonts that have the appropriate qualities and associations for the product/service. The same font can look very different depending on the color, background, elements near it spatially, and if your combining fonts, what font it is paired with will make each look different. I don’t expect students to create their own typeface, but I do expect them to choose the right font, and make the necessary changes so that the brand is unique. Icons are good, but not necessary.

Look and feel. Look and feel best describes best what I’m asking for with this assignment. I’m NOT looking for wireframes.  The goal is to create 3 different homepage designs. It’s about color, aesthetics, style, artwork (whether it’s photos you take yourself, illustrations, effects, manipulated (photoshopped) images, etc.) The feelings associated with the style and design you create has to be appropriate for the topic.

Search the web. Look at magazines and books. Get inspired.

The class will give you feedback, but you determine who your audience is.

Enjoy what you are doing. It’s a creative process.