Green: Design

30 Brilliant Examples of Texture in Web Design

Textures are being used in every sort of design. Nowadays you can see beautiful textures used in business cards, mobile apps and definitely in website designs. There are lots of high quality textures available in the market as well as free ones that can help you to achieve brilliant results. Appropriate use of texture helps to create realistic and detailed feel to a design. In this showcase you will find 30 fresh examples of textured websites featuring minimalistic, clean, subtle and grunge textures. Hope you’ll find this collection useful and inspiring.

Quantum – Business WordPress Theme

Cake Sweet Cake

The Impressto Web Design Bundle

Unﬁnished Business School

Unlayered

ResumeBaking

BigEye Creative

Zoltan Hosszu

Mad About Makeup

Matt Bond

iPhone Icon Design

Leitmotiv

rShahin

STAYA STAYA

Label my Coffee

Balencic

La Web Shop

El Passion

Arjan Jonker

Phillip Caudell

Cultural Solutions

Catcher’s Performance Summary

Intrinsic Studio

Jon Wallace Design

Delicham

Railroad Revival Tour

Malak.be

Definitio

Jarad Johnson

Pixel Stadium

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The Forgotten Design

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Think about the last time you were in an airport and had to find your way to baggage claim, or in a restaurant and wanted to locate the restroom, or in an office building and needed to find your way to the parking garage. How’d you get there? More than likely, a basic sign – be it a picture of a stick man or a glowing exit marker – led the way. But in addition to getting us all pointed to the right place, those dressed-down directionals pack a powerful lesson in communication: a simple design gets the message across quickly and clearly.

No matter what you’re trying to tell a customer, the best way to convey the information is by getting back to the basics, in everything from fonts and wording to thoughts and color. In short, simple sells. So whether your company is creating a website, designing business cards, or penning a blog, here are four things to keep in mind:

More isn’t always better.

Bombarding customers with a huge array of extras may seem like a good strategy for mass appeal, but that’s not necessarily the case. When offered options at every corner, customers become less likely to make a decision. “We’re all stressed-out on media, product, and ‘choice’ overload,” writes BNet.com contributor Steve Tobak. “Too much choice can be a bad thing. Frankly, we’re all overloaded with media and product choices. Moreover, technology adds complexity that takes time to learn. It’s nice to have one less thing to analyze and worry about. ‘Simple’ is calming, relaxing … for a change.” In the midst of the current world of customer service chaos, the least complicated and most straightforward approach is often the most attractive.

Don’t make your customer grab a dictionary.

While your word choice should be smart, employing overly sophisticated language or industry-specific jargon could confuse, isolate, and frustrate clients. Eric Corl, founder and CEO of IdeaBuyer.com, suggests discussing products with people outside your company to gain a better understanding of the layman’s perspective, and then translating their feedback into simple product packaging that appeals to the common person. Corl also points to a quote from Meaningful Marketing author Doug Hall: “Whether it’s the lack of reading done by most adults after high school, the immense information overload people experience, or a little of both, consumers simply shut down when confronted with lengthy tomes. The solution? Read your marketing material to a child in late elementary or middle school. Do they understand your product? If not, what did you need to tell them before they did? Incorporate what you learn into your marketing and you will be astounded at the results.” The takeaway? Speak your customer’s language using easy-to-understand words and phrases.

It’s not just what you say, but how you say it.

Studies have shown that font selection can have a profound impact on a person’s actions, and it seems the simpler the typeface, the easier it is to convince someone to perform a task (like signing up or shelling out for whatever service or product you’re offering). In one test, University of Michigan researchers Hyunjin Song and Norbert Schwarz presented two groups of participants with instructions for an activity; the first set was printed in a plain font (Arial) and the second in a script font (Brush). The results? Despite having read the exact same words, those given the directions in the cleaner typeface were more likely commit to completing the task. So while you may lean towards a flowery font, opting for something a bit more basic could help get customers to lean towards your company. (On his Neuromarketing blog, marketing consultant Roger Dooley also reminds us to “make the type size easy to read and use simple words and sentence structure” to increase success rate.)

Be easy on the eyes.

Whether it’s a web page, advertisement, product package, or business card, the most user-friendly design is often the one that’s the least fussy. Including carefully placed white space makes your content easy to absorb with a quick glance and makes your message more accessible to viewers. On the same token, crisp layouts, cohesive colors, and well thought-out design elements give off a sense of know-how and experience. While loading up on bells and whistles (such as a bevy of photographs or text, overwhelming flash animation, or too many navigation buttons) may seem like a great way to garner attention from clients, they’re likely to lose sight of the big picture. So edit your materials accordingly.

Still not convinced that simple works? Let me leave you with this final thought. The standard stop sign is one of the most effective communication tools around, and its success is rooted in four basic elements: an uncomplicated message conveyed through carefully chosen wording in a clear type on a bold and bright display. And doesn’t a stop sign cause you to stop and take notice?

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25 Inspiring Design Related Websites

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A while back we showcased here a list with 30 Inspiring Design Agency Websites and another one showing 45 Inspiring Design Agency Websites. Today we decided to gather a new list to show how some design agencies and studios are presenting themselves to the audience. The layout adopted by a design related website is important not only to get the users attention but also to showcase the identity of the place, the style of it. Here you will see different examples, from clean and minimal sites to colorful and illustrated ones, there are a lot of ways to go to present your agency/studio.

OwlConcept

The guys from OwlConcept are using HTML5, a big background image and interesting shapes and typo to represent their studio.

Sajak&Farki

Sajak&Farki are using a super clean design where you use the menu to navigate the website.

Twofold Creative

Twofold Creative is also using HTML5, using big background sliding images to present their work.

Tapp3 Media

Tapp3 Media website is strongly based in shapes and typography, also uses HTML5 and have a nice textured background.

Legwork Studio

These guys decided to take a more fun and personal style and are using hand drawn elements in a single page website to present their studio.

Image Mechanics

Image Mechanics is a studio devoted to iPhone and iPad apps development. The layout they are using to present their studio is pretty clean and minimal, also uses HTML5 and has a beautiful usage of colors and typography.