Tag Archive for: Onextrapixel

Keeping Your Site Working When Changing WordPress Themes

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Source: Adriano Gasparri

Source: Adriano Gasparri

One of the greatest design benefits of using WordPress is how easy it can be to change themes completely. If you don’t know what I mean by that, consider a time when you’ve gone to a WordPress blog you frequent and noticed a significant change in the appearance or way the site works. A theme is basically the design and layout of the site or blog you’ve been following.

There are thousands of free customizable themes for WordPress available, and even more if you are willing to pay for a professional looking skin, and WP is built for these to be almost interchangeable – almost being the operative word.

When you’ve been running a blog through WP for a while, you accumulate a number of widgets and scripts that are used to improve the performance of your site as a whole. They can run from widgets used for tracking and ads to RSS feeds and an assortment of other additions you’ve made to your blog after you chose the theme you are working to replace or change.

When you change themes, it isn’t uncommon for the new themes to run into problems displaying or running these widgets you’ve built int your site. The standard WP widgets like Archives and Pages are almost always safe, but any special scripts for fighting spam, editing sidebars, and anything else that doesn’t come standard can become break down, bogging down or derailing your site.

OnextraPixel writer Jay Adrianna created a list of 15 things designers or site owners need to do when undertaking a change of themes. If you follow every step, all of your widgets, scripts, and plug-ins will remain safe and sound, and you’re new look will be flawless.

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The Most Frequent Mistakes New Photoshop Users Make

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Adobe_Photoshop_CS4_icon.svg

After all these years and new Adobe programs, Photoshop is still the tool for designers. It is the tool of the trade no matter what style you like, whether you do digital painting, sign style design, or photo manipulation. But, Photoshop is to us like the scalpel is to surgeons; in skilled hands it is a great tool, but it can be dangerous if misused.

Unlike when a surgeon makes a mistake, it can sometimes be hard to tell when you are misusing Photoshop or creating a design others aren’t going to respond to. When you’re learning the program, there is so much at your fingertips it can be tempting to use everything, even when you don’t quite know what it does. It also offers many different solutions to problems – some better than others – so it is easy for the uninitiated to complete the task they wanted without getting the right results.

Jay Adrianna, writer for Onextrapixel, recently wrote about thirteen incredibly common Photoshop mistakes designers and photo editors make, as well as easy ways to fix them. Whether you are a beginner, or someone more used to the program looking to refine your techniques and improve your finished products, it is almost guaranteed there is something you can learn from the tips offered. As always, the key is moderation.

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The Alphabetical Guide To Great Banner Design

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Image courtesy of Alex Ford

Image courtesy of Alex Ford

We see banners everywhere, especially in advertising. Whether they’re online, printed on cloth and draped across an entrance, or splashed across a billboard, banner ads all have the same core principles.

You wouldn’t think there is an entire art to making visually exciting and engaging banner ads, but if we can devote more than one article to the skill of making simple and attractive logos, Onextrapixel can devote each letter of the alphabet to effective banner advertisements.

Some of the entries are a little obvious like “grab attention” but they go the extra mile (or pixel if you enjoy the same type of lame humor I do) by explaining shock or surprise isn’t the real way to grab attention. Making viewers want to interact is the real trick to getting someone’s full attention.

Some of the other seemingly obvious suggestions shouldn’t need to be said, but so clearly are needed in the current marketing environment. There are only so words you can fit on a banner before it becomes illegible, and complex fonts make that word limit somewhere between one and five words. If someone can’t tell you what your ad said with just a one to two second glance, you’re trying to squeeze too much in.

Seriously, clarity is so important their list includes it three times with the entries “Message Clarity” and “Succinctness” and I don’t fault them for it. Keep your banner short. I’ve seen far too many ads at the top of my screen and running along the tops of subway cars absolute packed with words in a variety of fonts and all they ever do is hurt my eyes. Viewers remember the short and sweet.

There is obviously more to banner design than keeping it simple, but it opens up the big question addressed by many more of Onextrapixel’s list; “how do I convey a memorable message with so little?” If you can find an answer to that question, you are already well on your way to a great banner.

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