Design Articles

Around the Studio Melissa Balkon Around the Studio Melissa Balkon

We've been makin' t-shirts!

We recently decided to take a little foray into designing and printing a few t-shirts and wanted to share the process and the results.

We recently decided to take a little foray into designing and printing a few t-shirts and wanted to share the process and the results.

Before going gung-ho with t-shirt printing, we used a stencil and Lumi light-sensitive dye to print a few prototypes (see this handy tutorial for how to create a stencil using freezer paper), and the process really couldn't be easier. Once we knew we liked the results, we ordered negatives from Lumi using their mobile app in order to make printing the shirts a bit easier. We ended up dying close to 50 shirts to send to a few clients and colleagues as a new year's gift, and although creating this many shirts using this process wasn't quick, it sure was fun!

Our t-shirt prototyping process

The final product ready to send out

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Client Questions Melissa Balkon Client Questions Melissa Balkon

How to select a WordPress theme

A web presence has become a critical asset to any business, so it is good that you're dedicated to trying to put your best foot forward, despite your limited resources. If you've started searching for themes, you probably already know that there are thousands of WordPress themes available to you. We recently attended a WordPress Grand Rapids meet-up where they addressed this topic, so we'll recap a couple of guidelines they had mentioned below.

I just started my business and can't afford a professional design yet. I've been told that there are a lot of great WordPress themes out there that I could use to get started. Could you help me understand how to select a WordPress theme?

A web presence has become a critical asset to any business, so it is good that you're dedicated to trying to put your best foot forward, despite your limited resources. If you've started searching for themes, you probably already know that there are thousands and thousands of WordPress themes available to you. However, not all themes are created equal. We recently attended a WordPress Grand Rapids meet-up where they addressed this topic, so we'll recap a couple of guidelines they had mentioned below.

Stay away from free themes

If you Google "free WordPress themes" you'll get thousands of results. Ignore all of them. While I'm sure not every free theme is bad, many many of them may contain malicious code that will become part of your site if you install the theme. These themes often embed their malware with something called Base64 encryption, which to an untrained user (and maybe even a somewhat-trained one) is undetectable. For more information on this, you can read this highly intimidating post on wpmu.org.

Purchase themes from a reputable source

After reading that, you should be starting to understand that you get what you pay for. So if you are going to use a pre-designed WordPress theme for your site, you should make sure you are selecting one from a reputable source. A quality theme tends to cost about $75 or more, so keep that in mind as you shop. Once you've located a theme you're interested in purchasing, you can go ahead and check the comments on that theme and do a little Googling before you buy to see what people are saying about it. Here are a few theme sources that are known to be quite reputable:

Themes provide aesthetics, plugins provide functionality

When you start searching for themes, you're going to notice a lot of themes that tout all kinds of functionality they offer. This can be dangerous because if you choose a theme with built-in functionality, any data that you would integrate with that functionality will be useless if you choose to change to a different theme in the future. This is why it is recommended to choose a theme that offers a bare-bones, aesthetics-only approach, and doesn't try to provide a lot of additional functionality. Functionality is best added through the implementation of plugins in addition to your theme.There you have it, a basic list of dos and don't for selecting your first theme. Hopefully this little post will help you avoid the pitfalls of a sub-par theme, and make a great decision on a theme that can get your new business up-and-running online.

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Design Defined Melissa Balkon Design Defined Melissa Balkon

What is design?

A few months ago, there was been an incredible website, Start-Ups, This Is How Design Works, circling through social media. The mission of the site is clear: teach start-ups why they should value design. This got me thinking that maybe we should address that topic in our own way here on the blog.

A few months ago, there was been an incredible website, Start-Ups, This Is How Design Works, circling through social media. The mission of the site is clear: teach start-ups why they should value design. This got me thinking that maybe we should address that topic in our own way here on the blog.

Throughout the years, design has gotten a reputation as the profession of making things "look pretty." But what is design, really? While it is always a designer's mission to make a piece as aesthetically appealing as possible—and don't get me wrong, this is a very important quality for your brand to have as well—design is much deeper than that.

At its core, design is about solving problems

The real function of a designer is to help solve communication problems and make things usable for your audience. A designer's mission is not simply to make a piece look pleasant, but to help make it communicate the proper message to the intended audience. This means that a great designer won't simply take design orders, but will push back when things don't make sense and will try to realign the project when necessary in order to help it work as well as possible.

Aesthetic appeal + usability = win

Please don't take this message to mean that aesthetics are not important. They are incredibly important to creating a rich experience for your customer, and typically that is heavily influenced by the aesthetics of your brand. However, it is important to remember that no amount of aesthetic design will make a bad experience a good one, so it is critical to allow design to permeate the appearance of your project and into the way it actually works so that you can to provide the best experience for your audience.

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