Web Design Inspiration Blog | SpicyWebDesigners.com

Coming to SpicyWebDesigners.com all the way from Spain is Bruno Felicio, a web and graphic designer from Madrid, Spain.  He has been designing for the past 10 years and when he first started he was originally a graphic design who made the move to web and multimedia 6 years ago and since then he has created some very impactful design work online.

Bruno doesn’t choose to design for just one CMS but his favourites are WordPress and Expression Engine to work with.  I hope enjoy reading more about this talented Spanish web designer.

Luc asks: How long have you been designing websites professionally?

Bruno says: I have been designing for about 10 years. I’ve started as a graphic designer and then moved on to the digital world of the web and multimedia content about 6 years ago.

Luc asks: Do you have a specific platform that you prefer to create for like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, etc?

Bruno says: I try not to have a preferred platform. As a CMS choice I prefer WordPress and EE (Expression Engine. I also love the idea of having custom built CMS (Content Management System) when need ’cause it gives you a lot of creativity freedom.

Luc asks: Do you prefer to do the graphic layout aspects on a project or the coding?

Bruno says: I love to design and I also love to create. I always design with the code in mind and the other way around can also be true sometimes. Don’t really have a preference because I love doing both. I love making pixel perfect apps and websites with colors and graphics that capture your attention but I also love the coding part that it is connect to the UX. Bringing great design and user centred coding together makes great user experience, and that’s what I try to achieve at the end of the day: quality user experience.

Luc asks: Your style of design is very creative and playful.  Did you hone this in school and what kinds of things inspire you to create this way?

Bruno says: I try to get the most of me in every project that I work on. I think the inspiration can come from anywhere really. From a book, a song, weather. All that is around me serves as an inspiration. Obviously the biggest inspiration is the web itself. I always try to keep up with some of the global trends.

Luc asks: Do you think it’s important to go to University or College to become a good designer?  Did you have any inclination before you got into web design to do any other type of design work?

Bruno says: A good education is an important ground base for every professional. A designer should know the fundamentals, if someone taught him better, if not than he will have to learn it by himself. All the professions have rules but of course those rules can bend towards the creativity of the professional. I’ve always new I had to do something related to art so design was my first choice when entering into college.

Website Name:  Burciaga (Click on image or here to view website)

Designed by: Unknown

Website Name:  Helms Workshop (Click on image or here to view website)

Designed by: Helms Workshop

Website Name:  Spoon Graphics Blog (Click on image or here to view website)

Designed by: Chris Spooner

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Are you interested in having your website show up in our web design inspiration posts on SpicyWebDesigners.com? Well, look no further it’s as simple as Clicking here and emailing us with the details of your web design or a web design you did for a client recently and we’ll get it on here!

Website Name:  20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web   (Click on image or here to view website)

Designed by: Unknown

Website Name:  Fanticy (Click on image or here to view website)

Designed by: Creative Badger

Website Name:  Granville Island Works (Click on image or here to view website)

Designed by: ZENHOUSE Media

Share your latest web designs with us!

Are you interested in having your website show up in our web design inspiration posts on SpicyWebDesigners.com? Well, look no further it’s as simple as Clicking here and emailing us with the details of your web design or a web design you did for a client recently and we’ll get it on here!

Introduction sentences being used in web designer portfolios have become a way that most web design professionals showcase exactly who they are on their online portfolios.  When people look at a freelance designer’s portfolio for the first time they are trying to get a sense of who the designer is exactly and a introduction sentence can help them figure that out pretty quickly.  This is definitely a strong sales element that when implemented correctly not only provides an introduction but it also provides information about the designer or developer that they are looking at.

As you will see in the following examples some designers keep it brief telling their audience who they are and that’s all whereas other designers go into a little further explanation.  This is definitely a page element that if you are redesigning your online portfolio you should think about, test and see if it works for what you are trying to accomplish.  So, today let’s look at 10 examples of great introduction sentences that could benefit the development of your online…

Example 1

Visit the Website

Example 2

Visit the Website

Example 3

Visit the Website

Example 4

Visit the Website

Example 5

Visit the Website

Example 6

Visit the Website

Example 7

Visit the Website

Example 8

Visit the Website

Example 9

Visit the Website

Example 10

Visit the Website

One thing that most of you web designers out there have is a resume.  But how successful is it at selling you, your design skills and getting you that next amazing design job?  Whether you started your career a year ago or you are a “seasoned” designer with a decade of experience you probably keep a resume that is current and up to date.  I’ve written about resumes in the past in these articles…

• How LinkedIn can help you on your professional web design path
• Should web designers protect their resumes?
• A few words on writing your web design resume from Ilona Filipenkova

But today I want to talk about and show examples of winning resumes, styles and resources to help you write a resume that can sell your unique skills and abilities as a professional designer.

1. Your Profile

This section of your resume tells employers who you are, what you’re all about, where you want to go and what you bring to the table when they choose to hire you.  In a way it’s like a brief biography of your professional background.  Here are some examples of profiles written for web designer resumes for you to have a look at…

Example 1

I am a freelance web designer that specializes in the development of custom online applications that are beautiful and simple to use.

Example 2

I have been working as a creative web designer in commercial digital and print media for just over 15 years.

In that time I have worked at some of America’s premier digital and advertising agencies before settling in Los Angeles where I now run a creative studio called One Web Media.

Example 3

I’m a graphic and web designer based in the East Coast in Boston, Massachusetts. Having worked in branding, web and software companies for over 12 years I’ve been able to experience the design world from a number of perspectives and in various capacities.

Your profile says volumes about you including your confidence in your skills and abilities as a web designer.  In essence, it’s your brand and it sells you, your design capabilities and highlights why people need to take notice of you.

2. Showcasing Technical Skills on your resume

Listing technical skills on your resume can be difficult to employers to understand when they review you as a candidate.  Most employers have any number of tests that they provide to interested candidates coming in for an interview but when it comes to a resume there are a number of ways to list your experience with applications.  You can showcase your skills by showing the number of years you’ve worked with an application, your skill level with applications or simply listing the applications you know broken into different categories of application.

“Number of years” example

• Photoshop – 5 years
• HTML/XHTML – 8 years
• CSS – 7 years
• Etc…

“Skill Level” example

• Photoshop – Expert
• HTML/XHTML – Intermediate
• CSS – Beginner
• Etc…

“Listing applications broken into different categories” example

• Graphics Applications: Photoshop, Illustrator, AutoCAD
• Development Applications: Dreamweaver, TextPad, CSSEdit
• Etc…

As you can see these ways of highlighting your expert knowledge while they may raise more questions from employers interested in you still gives people enough information about you to bring you in for an interview.

3. Using Soft Skills on your Resume

Soft skills may seem to be not as important however they can also be your greatest asset.  The ability to manage a client or business relationship, your interpersonal skills or your negotiation skills go along way as you may need to rely on them when working for a particular organization or the position may call for it.  So let’s have a look at how you can structure soft skill points and how you can word these soft skills on your resume in a way that makes you sound professional.

Example 1

Lead conferences with clients in a productive manner to gather their requirements and understand their business as it relates to the design work that I completed for the project

Example 2

Developed strong working relationships with co-workers, management and clients that allowed projects I was involve with to progress faster and stay within budget

Example 3

Trained junior members on my team and implemented a lunch and learn curriculum in the workplace to foster knowledge sharing between departments within my company

As you can see when you marry your design skills with soft skills such as the examples mentioned above it really can highlight your other skills and abilities that make you a unique asset in the workplace.

4. Your Education & Professional Development

I am talking about education or professional training as it relates to the position you are applying to on a resume is highly useful and tells the employer about you right from the start.  There are a number of ways to go about listing education on a resume so let’s look at a couple of examples…

Example 1

Ontario College of Art and Design                                                                            2001-2005

School of Design

Bachelor of Fine Arts

GPA 3.75

Example 2

Ontario College of Art and Design                                                                            2001-2005

Bachelor of Fine Arts

Example 3

Ontario College of Art and Design                                                                            Graduated June 2005

Bachelor of Fine Arts

5. Using credits from design-related sites

Using credits earned from gallery websites such as CSSAwards can be useful however because these are industry awards if you are applying for a web design job at a company that does not operate in the web design industry they may not understand why these awards are on your resume.  It’s one thing to link to these awards on your portfolio where people can click and see the award however when applying to a job this may only confuse an interested company so keep this in mind when you are applying to a job posting.

I’ve assembled some other articles worth reading about resumes that are related to the design industry so please read them if you are looking for more information to help you write or revamp your design resume…

• Smashing Magazine – 10 handy tips for web design CVS and resume
• Xemion – 5 steps to the perfect web designer resume
• SoulDeep Designs – What makes a web designer’s resume a success?

Bonus Tip: If I had one last tip for anyone out there who is rewriting a resume its this, “Be Honest”.  Honesty will always win out in the end so don’t lie to get that dream job because lying may get you the job but it certainly won’t help you keep it and at least if you are honest with those around you they will respect you more.  You’ll also be less stressed out about having to keep secrets and honesty is the best policy especially when working on your resume and applying to that dream design job.

Jason Long is a front-end developer and UI designer from Columbus, Ohio from the United States.  He currently runs Black Ant Media, his freelance web development company.  Jason has been freelancing since 2005 on a full-time basis.

He has been working with websites since 1996 and with over 15 years designing and developing for the web Jason has learned a great deal about the web.  During our interview, Jason talked about his use of HTML5 and CSS3 in his work, how he balances his family as he works from home with freelancing and more about his personal experiences in web development so I hope that you enjoy getting to know Jason Long.

Luc asks: In your portfolio you mention that you graduated from Computer Science at Ohio State University.  Would you consider yourself more of a web designer with the emphasis on “design” of a web developer?

Jason says: A few years ago, I would have said that I was a developer with a strong interest in design. Nowadays, I say that I’m a designer and front-end developer. There used to be a sharper line between designers and developers, but now there is a (growing) grey area in between with things like JavaScript, CSS effects, and HTML5 features (canvas, geolocation, local storage, etc.). Much of this is more technical than some designers are comfortable with and at the same time, it’s closer to the front-end than a lot of developers like to be. This grey area is my sweet spot.

Luc asks: How long have you been professionally designing for the web?

Jason says: I think the first time I ever got paid for web work was in 1996 at my first job after college. I started off with a traditional IT consulting company and I worked on our intranet while I was on the bench. I started working for a company called MindLeaders in 1999 and began doing web development in earnest – mostly ASP and JSP. Around the same time, I got involved in a small e-commerce site for hotrod car parts and I cut my teeth on PHP, CSS, and semantic HTML. I’ve been an independent developer/designer since 2005.

Luc asks: Do you do freelance web design on a full-time or a part-time basis currently?  If you are a part-time freelance designer where do you work and what do you do for a “day job”?

Jason says: I went out on my own in 2005 and this has been my full-time gig ever since.

Luc asks: I noticed that your portfolio is coded using HTML5 and CSS3, both of which are fairly new to the world of the web.  How have you found working with these technologies and what technical tips do you have for designers who are using these standards for the first time?

Jason says: in truth, I’m not utilizing much from the HTML5 spec on my site. I have tried to incorporate some of the newer semantic elements like header, footer, nav, and section. I have used quite a bit of CSS3 though. Most designers know about border-radius, text-shadow, and box-shadow, but subtle uses of -webkit-transitions (for gradual color changes on hover) and -webkit-transforms (for slight photo rotations) are a nice way to add a little something to your designs while not being a big deal if some people miss out on them.

There are a lot of nifty things that can be done with the new CSS effects, but since they are limited to specific browsers (mostly those based on WebKit) for now, it’s important to have contingencies for your designs so that they don’t rely on those browsers. On my contact form, for example, I’m using Modernizr to detect whether or not the user’s browser support 3D transforms. If they do, they see the contact form flip around when they submit it and turn into an envelope. Otherwise, I fall back to simpler cross-fade effect via JavaScript.

My best advice for designers would be to not shy away from the technical side of web design (and to me, design is how something works, not just how it looks). If you’ve never done any JavaScript work, roll your sleeves up and play with jQuery. If you’re already familiar with jQuery, try out another framework (like MooTools) or take a step back and learn about pure JavaScript. If you haven’t looked at Sass or Less, check them out. Having some technical chops to go along with your Photoshop-fu will make you dramatically more attractive to people looking to staff exciting new projects.

Luc asks: What are some of your favourite features of working with HTML5 and CSS3 and how have you applied them to your work?

Jason asks: I’m about to dig in deeper into HTML5 canvases on a current project and I’m very excited about that. Geolocation and local storage also open up huge new opportunities, especially in the mobile space. I’m using HTML5 for all of my new projects, even if that means just using the new doctype. Like most designers, I’ve been quietly injecting CSS3 bits into projects for a while now – a rounded corner here, a drop shadow there.

I’ve been playing with Sass recently and it has really made writing CSS more enjoyable. It allows you to take advantage of some traditional programming concepts like functions (mixins in Sass) and variables (so you don’t have to repeat that hex code for that blue 37 times). It also provides some nice mathematical HSL methods for color manipulation. This means you can do things like create great-looking buttons (including hover and active states) with a single base color. Sass methods like lighten, darken, desaturate, hue, complement, etc. allow you to compute colors for gradients, border colors, and shadows from that base color. If you have a few different buttons on your site, you can wrap that recipe in a mixin and use it over and over with any base color.

As a simple example, you can look at the Sass code for the green button on my contact form by clicking here!

Luc asks: What was the most recent book, magazine article or blog article that you read and loved?

Jason says: Overall, “Born to Run” is probably the most interesting book I’ve read over the last year or so. For something web-related, Andy Clarke’s “Hardboiled Web Design” is outstanding.

I just subscribed to .net magazine (which is called Practical Web Design in the U.S.). I remember this magazine being chock full of awful Dreamweaver tutorials and the like, but they now have great coverage of HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. The most recent issue has a great article by Ryan Florence on creating a MooTools slideshow class.

Luc asks: How do you manage a career in freelance design, a family and yourself on a daily basis?

Jason says: I work out of my home, but I’m very strict about balancing my work and family life. I run before work a few times a week and almost always stop working at 5:00. After that, its family time and I rarely answer work phone calls or emails. I want to kick ass at work and be a great husband and dad and that can’t happen unless you compartmentalize those roles.

Website Name:  Mr B & Friends Digital (Click on image or here to view website)

Designed by: Mr B & Friends Digital

Website Name:  Giovanni Rana  (Click on image or here to view website)

Designed by: Unknown

Website Name:  Pebblehill Designs (Click on image or here to view website)

Designed by: Surgeworks

Let us enjoy your latest web designs!

Are you interested in having your website show up in our web design inspiration posts on SpicyWebDesigners.com? Well, look no further it’s as simple as Clicking here and emailing us with the details of your web design or a web design you did for a client recently and we’ll get it on here!

Jone Eide is a web developer and the Chief Technology Officer of OneStepCheckout, a product that allows you to optimize the checkout process of Magento ecommerce websites.  He currently lives in Norway in the Oslo area and he has become a big collaborator, working with SilverThemes, a Magento theme company on some projects for Magento.  He has over a decade of web development experience which started by learning HTML and he has since gone into working with SEO, web frameworks and his current focus is ecommerce.

You’ve heard me talk about the benefits of the OneStepCheckout product before in a product review I did on the OneStepCheckout solution however I had a chance to ask Jone about his experiences developing so that you could get to know a little more about the man behind the product.  I hope that you enjoy this interview with Jone.

Luc asks: When did you first start developing for the web?

Jone says: I started with simple web development using PHP and MySQL around 10 years ago (I was 16 at the time). I knew some basic HTML when starting and developed my skills pretty much off online resources. After a few years I started doing freelance gigs, and after several years with that I got interested in SEO and web frameworks. Now only in the recent couple of years I’ve been interested in ecommerce.

Luc asks: I see that you are also involved with SilverThemes as their lead developer.  How has that experience made you a more “well rounded” web developer?

Jone says:  For SilverThemes I have created a few modules, which helped me get into the habit of writing Magento modules, so I am very happy for the experience I’ve had here. I have in the recent time not been able to spend too much time with Silverthemes.

Luc asks: What spurred you on to create OneStepCheckout?  Where did the idea come from and where do you see OneStepCheckout going?

Jone says: A few years ago I started an online store with my wife, selling female clothing. We got into Magento and decided to use it. After several months of being online with the store and monitoring analytics, we noticed that too many people dropped off in the checkout process. We also received multiple phone calls from customers that were having issues with completing the purchase, because of different errors (weird IE issues with the JavaScript behind the default Magento checkout).

As a simple alternative I hacked together a (somewhat) working alternative checkout that I placed directly in the cart page. We noticed our conversions increased, and were happy about the result. As the months passed I paid attention to the Magento Connect ecosystem and thought other store owners also might be interested in such a solution. After giving it some thought, I went looking for partners to do this project with, and found a great co-founder that could handle the marketing and sales side of things. We spent a couple of months building our website and polishing the product before releasing it, and the feedback from our customers has been fantastic! We are now at around 3000 installations, and the number keeps growing every day.

Our goal for OneStepCheckout is to become the provider of checkout related products for Magento. Some would say we already are, but we have big plans for the future. Of course this includes continually improving our product, but also releasing new products that is related to the checkout process. The first product we are about to launch is called CheckoutLookup, and is a solution for doing automatic address lookups based on country and postcode, to help customers enter their address details both faster and more reliable.

Luc asks: Why did you decide to develop OneStepCheckout for Magento and not other ecommerce platforms?  Are there any plans to develop OSC for other platforms?

Jone says: In the ecommerce space, Magento is the only hot topic these days. The growth has been explosive, and all other ecommerce solutions we know of don’t even come close.  OSCommerce might come close with regards to installations, but the platform is really hard to work with, and the structure of it can’t even compare to Magento. Some say Magento is overly complicated, and in some cases that is true, but it gives an extreme flexibility regarding both custom development and design.

We are continually discussing implementing it for other platforms, but we have no specific plans to this date.

Luc asks: Why should someone buy OSC to optimize their ecommerce website over another ecommerce solution?

Jone says: Well first we don’t like to down-talk our competitors, so I will not say a negative word about them. But our customers get the guarantee that comes with a product that has over 3000 installations. Our module is proven and rock-solid, and has been tested in all possible combinations of payment / shipping methods and everything else. We have long experience with supporting our product, and have dedicated staff that work full time with OneStepCheckout only. Our business is only around the checkout, so we don’t spend any time working on anything else. Most of our competitors have a lot of other products to support as well, so they probably can’t dedicate as much as we can.

Luc asks: What don’t we know about you that people might interest people?

Jone says: Now this is a tough one! – Technically I have been very interested in the SEO space and have had great results with search engines in the past. For the clothing store I mentioned earlier, we were the #1 result in Google for the best keywords related to the business. Also, I live for standards-compliant code, and think all mark-up should be written by hand I am also a big fan of open standards, open source and HTML5.

On the non-technical side, I am a former Norwegian champion in the sport of table tennis, and currently I also play a lot of Disk Golf

Cristian Antohe is a web developer from Romania and the guy behind CozmosLabs, a blog about WordPress Theme development. His has developed a number of Child themes for the Thematic Theme framework in WordPress and has also recently released his first Genesis Theme Framework child theme called “Charisma”.  Cristian has been developing for and using WordPress for the past 2 and a half years and loves working with the platform.

He considers himself both a web designer working on the creative aspects of website and he considers himself a web developer coding functionality into the websites that he creates but favours the creative UI Design aspects of projects that he works on these days.

Cristian Antohe was nice enough to do with SpicyWebDesigners.com where he talks about how he started learning WordPress, his passion for designing great websites and a sneak peek at what he is working on next!

Luc asks: How did you first get involved in designing and developing for WordPress?

Cristian says: Two and a half years ago I started Cozmoslabs.com as a place to share and communicate with people interested in the wonderful world of web-design and development. Setting up that blog was my first real experience with WordPress. Over a couple of months of playing with WordPress I got hooked. Also in the same period I’ve started a small web-design shop in Romania together with my colleague Adrian Spiac. We needed a CMS for our clients and WordPress seamed the right choice.

Luc asks: Do you consider yourself a developer or designer?

Cristian says: I would say a little bit of both. Web-designer would be a good fit since 90% of the work I do is for the web. In the last year or so I focused more on UI design because I like it and also my colleague Madalin Ungureanu dose the heavy lifting nowadays when it comes to development.

Luc asks:  Running CozmosLabs, I see that you develop for a number of WordPress Theme Frameworks including Thematic and StudioPress‘ Genesis Theme Framework.  Do you have any plans to develop your own theme framework?  Why did you choose to develop child themes for these two Theme Frameworks in particular?

Cristian says: Another theme framework? Definitely not! I came to the conclusion that in order to create a Swish Knife type of framework you simply have to add more and more functionality and that leads to so much complexity that’s just not worth it. Lately I’ve come to agree with Justin Tadlock’s point of view regarding frameworks and I’ve experimented with Hybrid Core.

This doesn’t mean I won’t develop child themes for theme frameworks. Just that I won’t develop child themes where the design requires me to rewrite all the loops, post footers, etc.

As far as Thematic goes, that was my first Theme I played with beside Kubrick. Two years ago Thematic was the only real Theme Framework that encouraged child theme developers. You could say I fell in love with its HTML and CSS that made it so easy to create pretty much any layout without touching the templates. Since then, even if I wouldn’t develop a project for WordPress I would still use the same base HTML and CSS Thematic uses. It’s that good.

Genesis was more or less an experiment. The child theme featured on Cozmoslabs is the only one I’ve made for it. I wanted to test another WordPress theme framework beside Thematic and I was pleasantly surprised about it, however it never caught on with me.

Luc asks:  What are your 5 favourite WordPress plugins to use?

Cristian says: I would say that my favorite WordPress Plugins are Gravity Forms, WordPress.com Stats, Akismet, Widget Logic and Regenerate Thumbnails.

Luc asks:  Is there anything special you are working on these days?  Can we get a sneak peek?

Cristian says: Actually yes. We currently working on an in-house project called “QandaPress“, a question and answer platform built on top of WordPress. This will be self-hosted and subscription based. It’s aimed to larger publishers that want to engage with their users. I don’t have any more details about it now because it’s in the early days of product development and we don’t know exactly how’s going to turn out.

Check out some of the themes that CozmosLabs has developed including the following…

Smarter WordPress Theme

Early Morning WordPress Theme

Byty WordPress Theme

Website Name:  Midwood Lumber & Millwork Inc  (Click on image or here to view website)

Designed by: Sure Elements

Website Name:  Beautiful Type (Click on image or here to view website)

Designed by: Francis Chouquet / Aurélien Foutoyet

Website Name:  BluBolt eCommerce (Click on image or here to view website)

Designed by: BluBolt eCommerce

Website Name:  MadeFreshly (Click on image or here to view website)

Designed by: MadeFreshly

Website Name:  Life Could Be Better (Click on image or here to view website)

Designed by: 36 Creative

Let us enjoy your latest web designs!

Are you interested in having your website show up in our web design inspiration posts on SpicyWebDesigners.com? Well, look no further it’s as simple as Clicking here and emailing us with the details of your web design or a web design you did for a client recently and we’ll get it on here!