Nice, Simple, Clean Design

It's strange seeing an ad on TV from Philip Morris with advice on how to quit smoking, but anyway, the TV ad showed a snapshot of their website, which I thought was nice and I visited it.

The nice thing about this website is that the design is nice, clean, and simple. The colors blend well together and I like the photo. I would have had the photo end at the second column for nice alignment and I don't think I would have used orange as a link color, but overall, I think the colors are healthy colors and the site is very fresh looking.

Outstanding Print Ad with Natural Colors

This is a beautiful, peaceful, and well layed out ad. I was waiting in a doctor's office yesterday flipping through a magazine and was struck by the beauty of this ad. I will definately be using these colors in a website I design one day. I think the way a website with these colors and layout would work best is to use white and off-white and just small areas of different greens and browns.

I love the juxtaposition of the square box next to the soft curves of the flower. The white space is very dramatic and the two fonts used is very nice, even with the words going over the leaf.

I couldn't improve this ad in any way.

A Snazzy Design with Bold Colors

Out of Eden Soaps

I have a lot of sites bookmarked under my "Nice Designs" folder and whenever I have a site to design, I look at these sites for ideas. Sometimes it's the colors that I like, or the navigation structure, or the layout.

I can't say I've ever designed a site quite as bold as this one, although I designed The Theresa Foundation four years ago and the childish theme is similar.

What I like about this site is how bright and bold and different it is. It jumps out at you. It's happy. It's whimsical. It's very inviting. I'm posting this even though it competes with my own handmade soap site, Basics Body Care, because it's a great site.

I love the animated gif on the bottom left, and the border, and even the loud background works. Check out the rollover links on the left. How cool is that? Did you rollover seasonal?

Now, I'm not saying anything about usability here, which is integral to an overall good web design. I didn't test this site or even check out many pages. When I think a site has a great design, I'm talking about my first impression - the general feeling I get when I visit the site.

The only design issue I have with this site is that the text is centered and it should be aligned left.

A Life of Art and Design

I've always been an artist. In the first grade, my painting was selected to hang in the window of a local bank. When my Dad came home with a new Totes umbrella in an acrylic rectangular box, I thought the package design was so cool, I hung it from my ceiling.

In High School, I was the Arts Editor of New Youth Connections. I wrote articles about making hats and beaded jewelry. I spent hours at my desk at night beading jewelry. I took sculpture and metal jewelry making. I was an Arts & Crafts counselor for a couple of years during High School.

After college, I took painting and illustration classes with Ann Jangigian in Flushing, Queens. I wrote and illustrated a children's book, and painted in oil, acrylic, and watercolors. My watercolors hang all over my house now. I love photography and have taken thousands of pictures.

I took pottery classes at The Potter's Wheel (one of the first websites I designed and volunteered to do) and my house is filled with the cookie jars, mugs, and vases that I threw. My shelves hold the beautiful plates and bowls that I've made that I use every day.

In 2000, I took web design classes, and I began my new career. I quit my job in June of 2000, and became a work-at-home mom to my precious son, Joshua.

Ever since I was a kid, I ripped out of magazines great pictures. Ever since I became a web designer, I started a folder called, "Nice Designs" for pictures from newspapers and magazines, and I bookmark the websites that I like.

This blog will share with you nice designs and why I think they are so nice.