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30 Sites with Great (and Not So Great) Mascots

Tara Hornor — Tue, 08 May 2012 13:45:53 +0000

All professional websites include a logo, and sometimes that logo is also a character. Yet, this logo character is not necessarily what we would label a "mascot." With a graphic logo, you will find that graphic everywhere, including in designs for brochure and business card printing. However, a website mascot may only land online, especially if the character is too detailed or large-scale to fit onto smaller print materials.

More and more we are seeing a trend in web design to include both a logo and a character or mascot. Sometimes, this mascot is used to help guide visitors through the website. Other times, the little guy, gal, or animal remains solely on the home page. No matter how often the mascot is incorporated into the site, it is always clear that this character is more than just a logo. The mascot is there to help get you excited about or endear you to the company, just as a mascot for a sports team does.

In this collection, we found 30 sites with mascots – and couldn’t help but notice the monkey theme. As you check out these pages, ask yourself whether or not the mascot distracts from the brand or builds upon it. In some cases, the character is a useful, personalizing agent that helps you connect with the brand better. In other cases, the mascot seems to be some 3rd entity injecting itself into the design.

Which of the mascots below work to build and which distract? Do you think mascots help improve brand recognition or not? Does it all depend on the brand in the end?

30 Stunning Penthouse Homes from Around the World

Web Design Fan — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 12:45:58 +0000

Traditionally, penthouses are apartments that are on the top floor, or near the top, of an apartment building or other structure. Typically, penthouses are distinguished by their magnificent view and luxury amenities.
Penthouses originated in the 1920s, because in New York City, demand for luxury urban living space was on the rise during the economic boom, so building vertically became much more popular to maximize space utility.

Today, penthouses tend to incorporate modern architecture and design, and although the definition has widened to include more loft-like and setback structures, penthouses are still highly desired by the affluent. Of course, the price of penthouses is quite steep and even using mortgage calculators reveals the average monthly rent to be quite high, but the luxury of these designs is worth it for those who can afford it.

Of course, even if you can’t afford them, for fans of interior and exterior design, penthouses are always great for inspiration. The luxury stylings, combined with magnificent view and layout, lead to the possiblity for elegant and sleek design..

Here’s 30 stunning penthouse homes from around the world.

Dream Home: Luxury Penthouse by Saota and Okha Interiors

Chic or Tacky Vegas Penthouse

Tribeca Penthouse, Estate of the Day By Deidre Woollard

Penthouse in Rio By buysellhomes

Penthouse By DograExposures

Beach Republic – Two Bedroom Penthouse with Sky Pool From BeachRepublic

Beach Republic – One Bedroom Penthouse with Sky Pool From BeachRepublic

The Penthouse – Daylesford, Victoria By bendyclickr

Drift Cronulla Penthouse By Beach & Bay Realty, Cronulla

Drift Cronulla Penthouse from Beach & Bay Realty, Cronulla

Solar Decathlon penthouse Designed by University of Tennessee

Stunning Penthouse in Vancouver by Feenstra Architecture

Alicia Keysí Manhattan Penthouse

beautiful penthouse apartment by stanic harding

Beautiful Penthouse Interior in Soho by Architeam

Kitchen picture of Penthouse at the42 WaterLoo

Fairmont Pacific Rim Penthouse

Thomas Moulton’s Modern Penthouse

Delightful Penthouse in Stockholm

Lovely Penthouse with Expansive Views

Duplex Penthouse with Spectacular Roof-Top Swimming Pool

Lake Shore Tower Penthouse interior by imredubai

Quiet Nights at Las Mananitas Penthouse By demeuretravel

Penthouse in Port Colom By vihrogone

Amazing Blue Light Effect Penthouse by Mark Tracy in Las Vegas Beautiful Living Room

Breathtaking Rooftop Penthouse in London

Charming and Amazing Beautiful Penthouse Design with Best Finishing and Furniture

Beautiful Penthouse Loft in Seattle

Midtown Penthouse

Amazing Living Room for Luxury Penthouse

Cloud Reality Check with Rackspace

Web Design Fan — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:30:56 +0000

Back in 2009, Rackspace did a cool survey to find out what IT professionals were thinking and to test their knowledge on cloud computing. The results were interesting and sometimes shocking, with one-in-five surveyed not even knowing what cloud computing is. This year, they dove back in and, well, things aren’t looking that good. From Rackspace’s summary of the survey:

Though the data does imply that the outsourcing of servers and cloud computing is now more visible and is being entertained by a greater number of organisations, it suggests that there has not been a significant uptake of the technology. However, IT decision-makers tell us that managing their servers in-house is proving more troublesome than ever and the general environment looks poised and ready for an increase in uptake.

In 2012, less than half say that they always get their server planning right, meaning that the majority either overspend on servers or else they don’t provide their organisation with the capacity that it needs. As a result, the gripes and concerns they report about managing their in-house servers are more widely expressed than in 2009 – more people are reporting that multiple issues concern them regarding their server estates.

If this was not bad enough, IT teams in 2012 are spending more time than ever in managing the day-to-day maintenance and troubleshooting issues that having servers in-house brings. This is to the detriment of their ability to spend time on strategic, value added activities.

(source: http://blog.rackspace.co.uk/rackspace-news/cloud-computing-cloud-reality-check/ )

Check out the infographic below for some of the other stats discovered:

Infographic by Rackspace Cloud Storage

ShopHTML.com PSD to HTML Giveaway

Web Design Fan — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 17:01:22 +0000

We have a great contest for you this week! ShopHTML.com is giving away free PSD to HTML to 2 lucky winners. Read on to see how you can enter!

About ShopHTML

ShopHTML provides fast and quality PSD to HTML coding services and professional CMS implementations. All their markup is hand-coded W3C valid XHTML/CSS, which is properly displayed in all popular browsers: Internet Explorer 7+, Firefox 3.6+, Chrome, Opera 11, Safari 5. They can also test your project on mobile devices of your choice.

ShopHTML provides clients with high quality product and meets deadlines at the same time.

What they offer

- Quality PSD to HTML conversion and WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal implementation.

- Wide range of advanced layout and markup options, such as Javascript effects, load speed optimization, commented HTML/CSS etc.

- Unmatched customer support.

- Quick turnaround time.

- Non-disclosure policy.

- Unbeatable pricing.

- Free 3 week technical support after your project completion.

Check out some examples of their work and see for yourself the quality XHTML / CSS code they deliver.

How to Win

For your chance to win:

Leave a comment below.
Tweet about this giveaway and post a link to your tweet in the comments section below (optional).

There will be 2 winners, each will receive 3 free pages of markup for one of their PSD to HTML conversion projects. The winners will be contacted via email, so make sure you leave a valid email address. The prize cannot be sold or payed out.
Good luck to all! The contest ends on Wednesday, April 11, 2012.

30 Water-Based Website Designs

Tara Hornor — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:20:36 +0000

Both web and print designs built around a water theme have become a popular trend in recent years, and such a theme can be found in everything from websites to business cards to designs for postcard printing. Generally speaking, the color blue is associated with depth and stability and has a calming effect, which may be why blue is a popular color for design. Many businesses incorporate some shade of blue into their brand colors, and water is a popular image for companies in many industries, not just the obvious ones. For example, some graphic designers, fashion companies, and even technology companies incorporate water into their websites.

In this collection, we focused on finding websites that were built around a water theme. These examples span the simple to complex references to water themes from splashing rivers to calm bodies of water. As you check these samples out, see how each affect you. Do they create a calming or exciting response? Which are your favorites?

Web Design Blog | Web Design Fan | Resources for Web Designers and Graphic Designers

30 Sites with Great (and Not So Great) Mascots

Inspire Monkey

Cheeky Monkey Media

Photoshop Lady

Mail Chip

N. Design Studio

Silverback

Adaptic

Mix Turtle

PSDgator

Bee Finance

Elune Art

Designzillas

Ellis Lab

Nybble Tech

KroliKov

FoxTie

Pizza By The Slice

SR28

Robot Media

Kars4Kids

Gecko Tracker

Think Orange

Wishlistr

DateJS

Firebug

Fork: the Open Source CMS

Justin Bird

DharmaFrog

Jason Reed Web Design