Trying to find the right web designer or developer to help you to create and build a strong online presence can be an overwhelming task, especially if you’ve heard the countless stories of people being taken to the cleaners on their web development projects. Today, I’m going to give you a few great tips on how to hire the right web designer for your next project.

This is going to hurt but I’ll say it  … I agree that designers are getting lazy.  I feel that in many ways we have neglected the true creativity that is hidden within us and settled for mediocrity in order to pump out our work.  Things have changed and it reminds me of the first MTV music video I ever saw, Video Killed the Radio Star, at the age of eleven.  Digital killed the the artistic star.  Terrible, I know!  However, on the other hand the advances of technology have been extremely beneficial for graphic and web designers.  Who remembers burnishing Letraset for ads or coding on the Tandy TRS-80?  Some things in the past were just a pain in the butt to do and now we can be more creative in certain areas, more quickly.

How does this relate to WordPress themes for web design?

Simple.  There are those discussions where the purists thumb their noses at the kids who “cheat” and use a template, theme, or stock art.  But is it really cheating?  Can we blame some designers for finding ways to be more productive and for making more money by not creating everything from scratch?  Here are some considerations:

• It takes a lot of energy and time to create something from nothing
• The world has devalued true artists and the worth of creativity to who can do it for less
• The economy really sucks and those ‘cheap bastards’ have gotten cheaper
• Many people wait to the last minute and then need it yesterday
• Business is about being profitable not winning design awards
• Solopreneurs or small shops are limited by time
• There really isn’t too much new or original under the sun

If you just consider these true and valid thoughts, then it absolutely makes sense to streamline the creative process or development.  Time IS money. You either can sell your custom artwork or creativity for a very high and lucrative price because you do less projects and time is limited, or you can sell efficiency and good enough work for less and bang out more projects.  As long as the client who is paying your fee is happy, why does it really matter?

Please know that I value custom artwork and the lost arts and crafts we once knew.  I also value the ability to make quick money and getting on to the projects that I really love that might not pay.  My belief is that using WordPress themes or stock artwork is definitely not cheating or wrong – it’s smart business!

How do you feel about it?

WEB TREATS: WebTreats has some fantastic textures, icons, and Photoshop resources that are second to none.  I’ll also mention they have many ‘treats’ available for free downloads.

COLOUR LOVERS: Why stress out about trying to pick the right color choices when you can get awesome combination’s ready to go?  Colour Lovers offers great palettes for the web, as well as a nifty tool that will help you find complimentary stock photos with some of their palettes.

HOUSE INDUSTRIES: While some fonts won’t work on the web, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t jazz up your graphics or other images.  House sells some of the best fonts on the planet and you can really kick it up a notch by using their fonts where you are able.

GRAPHIC RIVER: Need some sexy website buttons, business card ideas, or backgrounds? Graphic River has a talented community of people who sell their work through this site – most of which are fantastic and will save you design time. Definitely an investment well worth it!

These are just a few places that really help me to be inspired as well as save design time on projects.  As a web design business you should never hesitate to work smarter.  Check out these websites and see what I mean.

How do you define designer?

There are many types of designers — interior designers, graphic designers, website designers, clothing designers, and so on.  Each will have their own set of skills or disciplines that they must learn, as well as possible requirements for credibility.  For the sake of this conversation I will talk specifically about graphic or web design.

Is being a designer a gift or a learnable skill?

I believe that most people can learn the techniques of an artist or designer.  Betty Edwards demonstrated how she discovered a way to teach “non-artists” to draw in her book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.  I also know that we can teach students the mechanics of Photoshop and how to create fantastic design elements such as graphical headers or buttons for the web.  However, having the “designer’s eye” or becoming a top-notch designer is not something that can be learned by most … I think you are either born with this ability or you are not.

Should I just give up?

Absolutely not!  Just because you may never be a top-notch designer doesn’t mean you should quit.  If you can learn some of the design basics and theory, you can do well.  You could also work with designers to improve your idea or help you where you are weak (and you could possibly be a strength and help them where they are weak).

Can YOU be a web designer?

I think many people can be a web designer without being born a natural artist, but you must recognize and understand that you may never be the best at what you do.  I have seen non-designers make a really good income from their web design business (and ironically really great designers struggle).  My encouragement to you is to just try it and see.  Once you’ve knocked out a couple of projects, seek counsel from a reputable and professional designer to get their feedback.  Maybe you have a hidden ability you never knew existed or you might improve dramatically with the right teacher or instruction.  Either way you have to find out for yourself. Happy designing!

Trend Central points out how so many web sites are moving toward a more image-heavy navigation, magazine style. Typical web site navigation and blog design are changing. Larger, higher-definition screens and faster downloads open new doors.

However, be careful not to use this flexibility as an excuse to overdesign. Jonathan Ive, lead designer at Apple, calls for a new approach to design, focused on heightened functionality, rather than visual clutter.

A lot of what we seem to be doing … is getting design out of the way. With that sort of reason, it feels almost inevitable, almost undesigned and it feels almost, like of course it is that way. Why would it be any other way?

Design should always be second to usability and content.

Information Architects say, “Technology often develops from primitive to complicated to simple.” They stress better interaction design and less graphic design.

This reasoning is best represented by the enormous success of sites like Facebook who rely on content sharing rather than clutter. MySpace is the antithesis of this simplified style. A classic example of overdesign, MySpace is falling out of mind to the cleaner, simpler user interface of Facebook.

Last night in about an hour I put together a quick child theme using the versatile iThemes Builder theme for my sister’s photography blog. She wanted a wider layout to display her photos, so I kept it simple with a wide content area. That is all it needed. Add a few simple pages for bio, contact and pricing and it’s done. Maximum of three hours including the header design and the site is done. (I used the new iThemes rotating images plugin for the header.)

Just clean lines and clean typography. It has been stripped to the essentials. I realize that this project demanded simplicity and some projects will have much more complex requirements. But the principle is the same. Eliminate excess. There are no sidebars with recent post widgets, or space-sucking category lists because they are redundant for this site. When these elements are helpful and necessary, they can add value to the design. But don’t feel like they are essentials to smart web design for every project.

1. Place emphasis on what is important by eliminating what isn’t.
2. Remember, visitors to the site did not organize it themselves. Make it easy, and obvious to navigate.
3. Don’t let design become a distraction to content.

Read what I’ve been reading about web design and usability trends here:

Trend Central: Web Design Makeovers
Information Architects: The Future of Web Design

UPDATE
1-21-10: YouTube introduces simplified user experience.

Google is quietly rolling out a new minimalist design for its YouTube video player pages, which it claims will be more appropriate for a wide range of content from the user-uploaded content that has always been a staple to feature-length films. By muting the “voice” of the old design, YouTube hopes to make videos stand out from everything else on its pages.

Read the rest of this article on Wired’s Epicenter Blog.

On Saturday, Feb. 20, 2010, James Dalman will be doing a LIVE webinar called Design Hacks that will show students the theory and tricks behind basic design and how to implement eye-catching graphics for websites and blogs.

The topics that will be covered include:

• The Importance of Design (Introduction)
• Essential Tools in Photoshop and/or Photoshop Elements
• The Seven Rules of Killer Design (fonts, graphics, general ideas behind design)
• Choosing Powerful and Captivating Images
• Sizing Up Graphics for Success
• Optimizing Images for the Web (JPEGs, GIFs, and Output)
• Implementing Basic Colour Theory
• The Hottest Effects for Maximum Impact

Please Note: This is not a course on learning Photoshop or other design programs, but a crash course in the essentials for professional design that will sell your services to clients!

How much will it cost?

The cost for this LIVE WEBINAR via your computer is $47 per person and will be no charge for any of our WebDesign.com University Annual Members.

What time will it start and how long will it last?

The Design Hacks webinar will start at 9:30 a.m. Central Standard Time (CST) and conclude by 2 p.m. Depending on the attendee questions and interaction, we estimate the course will be 3 to 4 hours in length.

Will there be a recording?

We will record the entire webinar so if you have to leave or can’t catch the entire broadcast, we will make it available to all of our attendees and WebDesign.com University Members.

How to Register:

Signup for the Design Hacks Workshop here by making payment, then you will be sent to the WebDesign.com Member’s Only site where you’ll get details for the online workshop.

A firm grasp of typographic style is essential for any type of design. Even with experience in print design, it can be difficult to reproduce the same look on the web, especially across all browsers. Here are some great resources for learning principles of typography and how to apply them accurately to your designs on the web.

Robert Bringhurst’s The Elements of Typographic Style is a seminal text that has set the professional standards for print typography for decades. Richard Rutter adapts the concepts of the book to web typography and shows you how to apply these rules to your stylesheet.

Another classic typographic treatise is by Massimo Vignelli. His free PDF, The Vignelli Canon was the first work I ever read about typography. It isn’t focused on web design, but like The Elements of Typographic Style, the solid principles can be applied across all disciplines.

Antonio Carusone of AisleOne supplies a great resource for learning about grid systems in graphic design and provides tools for applying them to the web.

A Practical Guide to Designing for the Web is a book by Mark Boulton. But you can read his blog posts and get a lot of the content for free. The book is beautiful though.

Typography Served is a collection of the best type from the Behance Network. The Served e-mail newsletter is probably my most looked-forward-to e-mail of the week. Always inspired work. Never a dull post.

Typesites takes a more analyzed approach to showcase type sites. “Whereas galleries simply post generic designs by the bucketload, [Typesites] strive to showcase only design that can inspire and teach—and then explain it.”

I Love Typography is the best typography news blog out there. If you want to know about new developments in print or web type design, this is the place. Their Week In Type posts provide a fresh look at what’s going on in the world of typography.

From the same crew that runs I Love Typography, plus some very qualified contributors, We Love Typography is a gallery showcase constantly updating with the freshest type from all over the web. It’s a great one to add to your RSS, with small, thumbnail posts to spark your creative interest.

Smashing Magazine has some of the best showcases online. Check out their articles on web typography readability and an even longer list of typography blogs here.

Font For Fun:

I dare you to play this font recognition game just once.

Try it for iPhone too for only 99¢. (I used this next site to find the ¢ symbol.)

Ever need to quickly insert a cent symbol? Or an Apple logo? Use Copy Paste Character.

I came across this photo set a few weeks ago.

• Top 7 Most Cliche Stock Images Used in Web Design
• 11 Images You Might Want to Avoid in Your Designs
• 10 Biggest Stock Photography Cliches
• Stock Photography Sucks

If you want to add some visual pizazz to your site, that’s great. Just be sure you’re not using the same photos everyone else is.