Gilmore Design Group :: Design InSight November 2005

	*November 2005*

Happy Thanksgiving!
We here at Gilmore Design Group would like to take a moment to wish you and your families a happy and safe Thanksgiving.

We would also like to congratulate Robin Cunningham from Hewlett Packard, the winner of our $50 Target Gift Card giveaway! We thank all of you for participating in our survey; your input has been invaluable to us!

For those of you who didn't get the chance to complete the survey, you can still do so by visiting: www.gilmoredesigngroup.com/newsletter/survey_oct05.html.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please send them to info@gilmoredesigngroup.com.

You can also view past issues of the Design InSight newsletter at www.gilmoredesigngroup.com/company_newsletters.html.


www.healingautism.com

Client:	Krista Vance

Project:	Healing Autism Website Design

Services

	Project Management
	Website Design
	Website Development
	Flash Design & Development

Objective: To help bring Krista's vision to life by getting her story online for other mothers and doctors to read and understand that there is hope for children with autism.

She wanted a soft and comfortable feeling with a "Shabby-Chic" flavor, which would make the website feel very comfortable for other mom's to view and read.

Solution: By using soft colors and some distressed visual elements, we were able to capture that soft, quiet and cozy feeling for the site. Also, knowing that Jamie's story was the cornerstone of the site, we utilized "Flipping Book" technology to make the story easy to read online, while also offering a PDF option for viewers to download and read at home. Overall, we are very proud of this site for it's ease of use and beautiful design.

Testimonial
"I couldn't of asked for a more professional group. Christine always met her target time, and usually faster than I could keep up. Working with Christine has been a pleasure. She captured everything I visually wanted to see on the website. It tured out exactly how I wanted. I am more than satisfied with gilmore Design Group.

Actually, I will miss all of Christine's emails everyday.
Thank you ! "

- Krista Vance, HealingAutism.com

Alignment
Closely related to unity and continuation, the principle of alignment tells us that everything on a page should be visually connected (i.e. aligned) to something else on the page. The alignment of elements creates cohesion and order. Let it be known that the lack of order is one of the quickest and easiest ways to ruin a design.

Keep in mind that alignment doesn't always refer only to text alignment. It also refers to placement of all elements on a page (i.e. graphics, images, text, etc).

Center alignment is one way to align elements on a page. When utilized properly, it can add an important visual element to a design. However, we find that this is one of the weaker alignment options, mainly due to its lack of visual structure. It has been our experience that it is often better to align to the left or the right, because the hard vertical edge makes a stronger statement.

No matter which alignment or combination of alignments you choose, decisions about alignment need to be made consciously. Nothing should be placed on the page arbitrarily. Every item should have a visual connection with something else on the page, so always find something else on the page to align with, even if the two objects are physically far away from each other.

IP (Internet Protocol) Address
All computers across the internet are assigned a unique identifier called an IP address. IP addresses are used like street addresses, so other computers can locate them. The addresses are a series of numbers between 0 and 255, separated by periods. For example, an IP Address may look something like: 208.53.128.229. You may not know your IP address, because it's hidden behind your domain name, but it is your website's true address.

For more information on IP Addresses, visit www.webopedia.com.

Question:
Why do I need to purchase / license photos or other imagery for my design?

Answer:
The design and layout of your project can be designed in one of two ways. First, it can be designed from scratch, which would make your project an original work. The second method is by utilizing and incorporating into your design other outside design elements (illustrations, clipart, photography, etc.) which have been created by someone else. By doing this and essentially "using" their property, it would need to be purchased or licensed.

There are a variety of purchase/licensing options for design elements today:

Rights-Managed (RM)
Rights-managed products are licensed on a use-by-use basis. The fee for using the product is calculated from several factors including size, placement, duration of use and geographic distribution.

This option is one of the more expensive licensing options as it has a limited time of use (i.e. 6 months, 1 year, etc.) and pricing is set based on your use. For example if you wanted to use an image on the homepage of your website it would be more expensive than a small secondary page. However, many of the best images are Rights-Managed and that is way they can be so selective. Some companies that offer RM images include Getty Images and Picture Quest.

Royalty-Free (RF)
Royalty-free products may be used by you multiple times for multiple projects without incurring additional fees. Royalty-free pricing is based solely on the file size of the product you need and the number of people entitled to use it, and not the specific use. You don't have to pay any additional royalties on a use-by-use basis. However, the rights granted are non-transferable and are personal to you.

This is the more common and inexpensive option for purchasing photography, it gives you the most freedom and allows you to purchase images on a image by image basis.
Some companies that offer RF images include Getty Images, Corbis, and Jupiter Images.

Subscription Service
Many image houses have subscriptions services that allow you to download a set number of images a day during your subscription period. Subscription periods can run from 1 day to 1 year.

This is a good option if the monthly cost of the subscription is equal or less to the amount you would pay for the images you need without the subscription. This type of service is also good if you use photos or other elements on a continual basis. Some companies that offer subscription services include Clipart.com, Photos.com, and Shutter Stock.