Here’s one series that caught my attention: Tok&Stok Furniture, created by DDB Brazil.

Bookcase

Chair

Table

Perhaps part of the fun of these ads is that I remember playing with similar toys when I was little. Of course, they were mostly people and animals that you could make dance, but still. I think these ads do a great job of driving the easy-to-assemble point home with fun and whimsy. In this day of IKEA flat-packed furniture assembly nightmares, it’s a great selling point. Now if only there were a Tok&Stok near me.

I think this is a fun idea that I would consider doing on a semi-regular basis if people enjoy it. Would you like to see more creative advertising? Have you seen a great ad campaign recently? Leave a comment and let me know!

Post from: Madyson Designs Post content and images © Madyson Designs unless otherwise noted, all rights reserved.

New Idea: Ad Review

Client: Dancing Thru Pregnancy
Software: Adobe Photoshop/ WordPress
Project: Website Design and Blog Theme

Another fun new site that I’ve just recently finished. Working on this site was great both from a design standpoint, in which the client was ready to move in a new direction and gave considerable freedom to me; and from a collaboration standpoint, where the client was ready and eager to learn about WordPress and how it could make managing her site easier. This was a full custom WordPress theme, and you can view the final site at http://www.dancingthrupregnancy.com.

Post from: Madyson Designs Post content and images © Madyson Designs unless otherwise noted, all rights reserved.

Dancing Thru Pregnancy

Web in Review is a post of links that I collect from RSS feeds, links provided by my lovely Twitter friends, and sometimes links I happen upon by accident. Here are a few I found interesting recently. Check them out!

• Creative Latitude: Design by the Books — A monster list of recommended reading by Jeff Fisher.
• Top 10 WordPress plugins to monetize your blog — When you decide to add advertising to your blog, here are some tools to help.
• Function Web Design & Development Blog — » Revisited: Creating Custom Write Panels in WordPress — A wonderful way to add many types of custom information to your WordPress blog.
• The Best PSD to HTML to WordPress Video Series Available – New Plus Tutorial — Nettuts+ — This seems to be an incredibly comprehensive tutorial to creating your own WordPress themes.
• The Printliminator — Makes it easy to print only what you want from any page on the web.
• How Design Sample Proposal — An example of a winning project proposal for your reference.
• 77 Inspirational Example of Pricing Page Designs | Inspiration | instantShift — Pricing and spec comparisons are so hard to design. Here is some inspiration.
• Inspirational Showcase of Business Card Websites — Some great online versions of business cards.
• Fullscreen Photo and Multimedia Wordpress theme | Graph Paper Press — Gorgeous free theme that would make a great portfolio.
• S.P.E.E.D. Writing: 5 Tips to Double Your Writing Productivity | Copyblogger — Some great tips on writing efficiently.
• ColoRotate: Home — An interesting new take on a color picker and scheme generator.
• After the Deadline — Check Spelling, Style, and Grammar in WordPress and TinyMCE — Finally, a spelling and grammar plugin for WordPress!
• How to Write a Logo Rationale — Free Logo Critiques — An excellent article about how to pitch your logo concepts.
• Footer Fetish | We Love Sexy Footers — An entire site dedicated to gorgeous footer design.
• PNG Icons & Icon Packs Download | IconsPedia — Free Icons — Tons of free icons.
• 500 Internal Server Error — 500 Internal Server Error
• SpriteMe — An automated tool to combine your images into CSS sprites. Generates images and CSS in one step!
• Fresh Free High-Quality Icon Sets « Smashing Magazine — HUGE collection of new icons.
• Practical Tips for Taking Design Inspiration without Copying | Vandelay Design Blog — There is a lot of controversy regarding taking inspiration vs. copying. Here are some great ways to stay on the honorable side.
• Beneficial Tips On Designing a Non-Profit Website — Web Design — letscounthedays — A great way to make sure your non-profit site design works efficiently.
• 160+ Original & Awesome Mac Desktop Wallpapers – Mac.AppStorm — Some gorgeous desktop backgrounds here!
• 60 High Quality Photoshop PSD Files For Designers | Graphics — A great collection of Photoshop source files for many uses.
• Styling Different Posts in Different Ways With Post_Class | Pro Blog Design — Great way to differentiate posts in addition to the usual standards of category, tag, etc.
• TechPosters: Technical Posters and Cheats for IT Guys — Cheat sheets for almost anything you can think of for software, programming, and more.
• Horizontal Navigation Menus: Trends, Patterns, and Best Practices | Design Showcase | Smashing Magazine — Best practices and some great design examples.

See anything interesting I missed? Leave a comment so I can make sure to get it in tomorrow! To see all my Web In Review posts, click here!

Post from: Madyson Designs Post content and images © Madyson Designs unless otherwise noted, all rights reserved.

Web in Review Oct. 15th, 2009

Client: ThermoSpas
Software: Adobe Photoshop
Project: Mockup for Fitness Series mini-site

This was a fun site to work on. With the introduction of more exercise-oriented spas, ThermoSpas needed a more in-depth site to direct potential customers to. The site needed to highlight the same features and benefits of every other line, but tailored specifically to customers interested in fitness. The use of vibrant colors and a high-tech look give it a fun and energetic look. In addition, the planned use of tabs, image sliders, and a rollover-driven schematic give potential customers a fun way to learn about the spas while providing a lot of information in a clear way.

Post from: Madyson Designs Post content and images © Madyson Designs unless otherwise noted, all rights reserved.

ThermoSpas Fitness Website

Client: Keys to the Capitol
Software: Adobe Photoshop
Project: Email Template Design

Keys to the Capitol is a congressional lobby group who had recently updated their website. They wanted to be able to contact members of their email database and keep them updated. The basic idea was to create one template with in-depth information on a single subject and a list of bills that are up for vote. The second template would be sent out less frequently, and would have more of a digest function. Both emails needed to include basic contact and forwarding information so creating a standard header and footer that would be used in every email created a consistent look. Both emails also needed to fit in with the current website design, but I was able to give them a more sophisticated and modern feeling that they can build from in the future.

Post from: Madyson Designs Post content and images © Madyson Designs unless otherwise noted, all rights reserved.

Keys to the Capitol

Client: ThermoSpas
Software: Adobe Illustrator
Project: Logo Options for new ThermoSpas Direct mail program

The task here was to come up with some options for a new direct mail program. This logo would be used across several types of print materials for customers out of the normal range of service for ThermoSpas. The challenge here was to come up with something new and fresh that would still fit within the current image. The logo chosen was the top row, second from left among the options, however, I chose to continue to expand and elaborate upon the idea and came up with something I think is even better, shown at the top. The icon/type treatment shown would be usable in any context, and the graphic would give some additional design elements to be used elsewhere in the collateral. For example, a building block such as the wave shape or the arrow would be useful as a background screen in stationary or brochures.

Post from: Madyson Designs Post content and images © Madyson Designs unless otherwise noted, all rights reserved.

ThermoSpas Direct

In case you haven’t noticed, Madyson Designs has gone pink! Now I’m normally not a fan of pink, but it’s a great way to show support for Breast Cancer Awareness Month for October. My family has luckily not been closely affected by breast cancer, but with 2.5 million breast cancer survivors in the US alone, it’s still a cause I believe in.

Pink for October saw 15,000 sites adopt a pink theme in one way or another in 2008, and every site that joins in in 2009 will help spread awareness about the cause. Visit http://pinkforoctober.org/ to see the growing list of participating sites.

Resources

There are many sites where you can learn about breast cancer, statistics, and how to detect and prevent it. Every early detection helps save someone’s life. Many of these sites offer awareness paraphernalia with proceeds going to the cause.

http://www.nbcam.org/

http://boobiethon.com/

http://www.savethetatas.com/

Promotions

Many sites are offering special sales and savings this month to benefit the cause. Most are also donating a portion of proceeds to breast cancer charities.

http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/

http://www.woothemes.com/we-love-boobs/

Supporters

Many other blogs, sites and Twitter pages have adopted ‘Pink for October’ themes to show support for breast cancer awareness. Take a look and perhaps be inspired to create your own pink redesign.

Chris Harrison

Fred LeBlanc

Kyle Fiedler

Mike Conaty (Twitter)

James Bowman (Twitter)

If you’ve dolled up your site for Breast Cancer Awareness leave a comment to let me know, and I will add it to the list. Don’t forget to add your site to the list at Pink for October too!

Post from: Madyson Designs Post content and images © Madyson Designs unless otherwise noted, all rights reserved.

Pink for October

Web in Review is a post of links that I collect from RSS feeds, links provided by my lovely Twitter friends, and sometimes links I happen upon by accident. Here are a few I found interesting recently. Check them out!

• In the Woods – 50 Ways to Get Your Site Noticed — Some great ideas to get your site in front of more eyes.
• 25 Impressive Email Newsletter Designs for Your Inspiration | Dzine Blog — A nice gallery of fun and colorful email newsletters.
• Adobe — Licensing End User License Agreement — If Snow Leopard broke your Adobe software, try this patch.
• Backgrounds In CSS: Everything You Need To Know | CSS | Smashing Magazine — All the basics of using background images in your designs.
• 35 Excellent Wireframing Resources | Developer’s Toolbox | Smashing Magazine — Wireframing is an important step of web design; a ton of great links to help you learn how here.
• 10 Mobile Plugins for WordPress — Several plugins to cater your site to people visiting from mobile devices.
• 20 Most Commonly Used Plugins on Wordpress Blogs — The best of the best to add functionality to your Wordpress site.
• Wordpress Template Cheat Sheet — A PDF file with everything you need for reference when creating a WordPress theme.
• The Golden Hour Calculator / Sunrise and Sunset information for photographers — A great resource for photographers to accurately calculate the magic hour for shooting.
• 32 Trashy And Distorted Fonts For Your Next Grungy Design | Spyre Studios — Some nice deconstructed fonts.
• Save time using WordPress default CSS stylesheet — I had no idea WordPress provided this handy file– a great springboard for customization.

See anything interesting I missed? Leave a comment so I can make sure to get it in tomorrow! To see all my Web In Review posts, click here!

Post from: Madyson Designs Post content and images © Madyson Designs unless otherwise noted, all rights reserved.

Web in Review Sept. 4th, 2009

For my cards, I wanted to do something clean and simple, but that would take advantage of Moo’s cool process of putting a different image on the back of every card. I looked at the cards as puzzle pieces, and created one large image big enough for 50 of the cards, and then sliced it into individual images. This way, the cards were slightly different, but still cohesive. Here’s how I did it.

First, I created my canvas. On Moo’s website, the dimensions for each Mini Card are 874x378 pixels. I decided that 50 different images was plenty, and I could live with having two of each in my pack. Therefore, I made my canvas 4370x3780 to give me the size of 5 cards wide by 10 cards high. If you would like more or fewer different designs, feel free to adjust your original image accordingly.

Next, I set up my guides. To make this easy, I set my rulers to Percent by right clicking in the ruler and changing the units. Then, all that was left was to drag my vertical guides to every 20%, and my horizontal guides to every 10%. Hold down the Shift key to make the guides snap more precisely. Now you can see the size of each card and can start designing. One thing to keep in mind is that approximately 20 pixels around the edge will be your bleed, and will be trimmed off.

Download the Template!

To create something that is constant on every card as I did with my logo, you need to use a undocumented feature of the Transform and Transform Again tools. First, place your object where you would like it to appear on the first card. Here’s the secret: Normally, you would invoke Free Transform by hitting Cmd+T (or Ctrl+T on Windows). We’re going to hit Cmd+Alt+T to duplicate our object to transform, leaving the original intact. To line it up with the next card, add 378 to the current Y location, and enter that for the new Y location. For example, my object is located at 239px. This means I need to move it to 617 pixels from the top of my document which places it in exactly the same location on the second card. Now to make this easier, we’re going to invoke the similarly modified version of Transform Again by hitting Cmd+Alt+Shift+T to function like a Step and Repeat. When you have the entire left row of cards filled, use the same process to step and repeat across the X axis. Voilá! Your object now will appear in the same spot on every card.

Once you are done with your design, all that’s left is to create the individual images. Wouldn’t it be handy if we could just make slices out of the guides we already have? Wait, there is just such a tool! Click on the Slice tool, and in your toolbar there will be a button for Slices from Guides. Click this button and you will have 50 nice, neat, evenly sized slices just waiting for you to save out.

Once you have your individual images, you just need to go to Moo’s website and start their order process, and their wizard will walk you through uploading your images and laying out the front of your card. It really is that easy. I hope you’ve been inspired to give Moo a try for a unique, simple, and inexpensive card that can be used for so much more than business.

Giveaway

I have three 15% discounts that came with my cards. Why not give them to you guys? They’re good on your entire first Moo order too, not just mini cards! Leave a comment and make sure to include your email address, and I’ll draw three people randomly in one week– that’s September 1st (already? sheesh.). Please let me know if you’re actually planning on ordering cards, as I’d like to get these to people who will definitely use them. When you do order them, please come back and show them off!

Following me on Twitter or subscribing to the RSS feed is optional, but much appreciated!

Do you have a gorgeous Moo card? Share it in the comments!

Note

This is an unsponsored review, I don’t get anything from Moo for it. I just think they have a great product and want to spread the word!

Post from: Madyson Designs Post content and images © Madyson Designs unless otherwise noted, all rights reserved.

Moo Cards 2.0

Client: ThermoSpas
Software: Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop
Project: Two spread (four page) insert into a distributor catalog.

We were given a unique opportunity to advertise in four pages of a catalog distributed to pool company customers in Spain and France. The basic idea of this layout is to show the features of a new line of spas as well as showing our current lines, all in order to entice new customers for our distributor. The challenge here was a lack of photography for our most compelling new products, so in order to give a basic idea of the features and specifications, line drawings were used in a more schematic style. This then brought about an additional challenge to integrate this vastly different style with the elegant and realistic photographs used everywhere else. I think the design works well despite these limitations and gives the customer a full sense of our product line.

Post from: Madyson Designs Post content and images © Madyson Designs unless otherwise noted, all rights reserved.

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