Tue
17
For a small business or organization, getting your name out there can be the hardest part. Having a well-designed web page can help. Web design doesn’t have to be a scary thought, especially with the variety of companies out there offering affordable web hosting. Once you find a server and have a basic design in mind, these tools can help you bring your vision into reality.
- Firebug: This Firefox tool gives users the ability to look at the code behind any website, whether it is CSS, HTML, or Javascript. This is great for seeing how a good-looking site operates. Alternatively, you can also change the code in real-time if, for example, you were interested in seeing how your own logo might look on the site.
- Colorzilla: Another Firefox add-on, this tool is a style designer’s dream, with the ability to see the Hex or RGB code of any color on the screen. That means no more time wasted trying to come up with the perfect color for your company’s name. Other nitpicky but incredibly useful features include finding the distance between any two points, and analyzing DOM elements.
- The Design Inspiration: An online consortium of different designers, this site offers a huge library of logos, illustrations, and fonts for personalizing your site. In addition, the site spotlights articles on different artists and designers, such as “dirty-car-window artist” Scott Wade and Michel Rajkovic’s black and white nature photos. You can always borrow images as long as you cite them, but hopefully it will “inspire” you to come up with your own ideas.
- Fontstruct: You might find yourself spending hours playing around with this fun tool, which lets you develop your own font by arranging tiles on a grid. It’s fast and easy, and you can even post your favorites up online for others to download.
