Benefits of a great design

Jan28
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So one night you are sitting on your couch with your laptop (or iPad if you’re spoiled) and you happen to stumble across a website that you think looks great. You may not even understand why you think it looks great. It may be something about the color, the spacing, the pictures. Maybe it’s the texture of the website, the background. It could even be the beautifully written copy. It just feels right.

Perfect.

Feng shui.

You may ask yourself “What makes great design? Or better yet, how can it benefit me?”.

I’m glad you asked, imaginary friend, because guess what? That’s the whole reason for this article!

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Copy the Good Copywriting

Jan26
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Copywriting manifests itself in so many ways it’s hard to understand what it is. Journalists talk about making copy. So do business folk. Charities too. But what does copy mean for the web?

The website

Website copy is the bread and butter of many businesses and organizations. When someone wants information, they’re likely to search a website. The yellow pages are no longer a solid place to find information about business. It’s gone the way of the dinosaur; burned up by a meteor. Or something.

Imagine the web is the meteor! It’s coming towards businesses at 160,000 miles per hour! If you’re not prepared with a good defense, say, good copy, you’re finished.

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Javascript: Floating G logo and shadow jQuery effect.

Jan22
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So I bet the only reason why you are currently reading this “Journal” aka blog, is for this article below. I bet you may have been waiting your whole life for this howto on javascipt to come along. Am I right? Right?

No?

Alrighty, well anyway I would still like to share the code behind the floating G up in the header that you see above. I spent many many hours perfecting this. Actually one hour, but still.

So lets get started with this beast!

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Gain the Power of Persuasion

Jan22
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Words on Steroids

Most businesses and organizations know the value of a great website. A rockin’ color scheme, and super shiny web ‘2.0’ buttons, will attract customers to your product or service. A good logo doesn’t hurt either.

But just as good design grabs the attention of a potential customer, bad content has the ability to turn them away.

Does powerful copy really make such a difference?

You bet your socks it does.

What does it do then?

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What to expect from this Solid Giant Journal?

Jan20
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Journal is the new Blog. In case you were wondering. Blog is totally 2010, and “Journal” is 2011 and beyond.

This journal will be a place where Solid Giant in general, and Josh Starr (me) specifically, will be writing:

  • Design advice and pointers
  • Development insights
  • WordPress tricks and tips
  • Photoshop UI tricks and tips
  • Business lessons learned
  • Business lessons not learned
  • Copywriting tips and ways to sound reel smart. ;)
  • HTML / CSS tricks and tips
  • Funny Pictures

If there are any other topics that you would like to see here let a brothah know. Also if you don’t want to see anything than be sure to not let me know. Kidding.

Finally version 3 of Solid Giant is live!

Jan19
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Since it’s 2011, I thought it would be nice to re-design the Solid Giant website to reflect where I’m taking this business this year. So here it is! If you like or don’t like it, sound off in the comments below. As you can see this whole shebang is built upon WordPress, out with Tumblr! Tumblr turned out to be an abomination, and is down probably 10 times a day. So not very useful from a business perspective.

This new site uses League Gothic as it’s main font, being served up by fontsquirrel, and uses Thematic as it’s hardcore foundation. Everything is completely designed by me (Josh Starr). I’ve slaved hours and hours into this new site, so if you have something mean to say, keep it to yourself. Just kidding, go ahead and say it in the comments.

I tried really hard to make this site different than other sites, and wanted to add little things here and there that would surprise and reward the user for finding them. Check out the big G in the header. It floats and the shadow is realistic. Once you click on it, it takes you back home. It’s rocking jQuery. It’s the small things that matter right?

Oh and you can comment with Facebook or Twitter. More options to sound off in the comments. You’re. Welcome.

Anyway, it’s good to be new, and I hope you like this version.

Bonus Visual: Me at Honeydukes inside Hogsmead at Harry Potter World.

Jan18
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As an added bonus to those of you that have wandered onto the new Solid Giant site, you get to see me (Josh Starr) at Honeydukes! Yay!

If you’ve ever wondered what a geek looks like in it’s natural habitat this is your chance. Gaze my friend, gaze.

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If you want to get quality insight into how to make an amazing & beautiful website than you'll want to get these weekly emails. I'll send you offers for Solid Giant services and valuable advise on how to grow your business. All for free! So take advantage of that... :)

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