Content Creation, Curation, Management

I first took notice of flat color web design when Google started to redesign their sites. This was during a time when gradients and drop shadows were all the rage. In using what was then Google Docs and my Google Calendar, I always realized there was something better and more user friendly about these sites but I never could put my finger on what it was. I just continued to enjoy and use the services as needed.

Eventually, I think I was just messing around with the apps when I finally noticed the buttons had no gradients and the icons didn’t either. There were no drop shadows and really nothing but flat colors and lines to separate the content. I loved it and I took to Twitter to share my findings.

Quickly, I was met with a few people who just didn’t like it. They didn’t understand it, said it was completely boring and said it would never catch on. Thank goodness they were wrong.

Of course Google isn’t the first brand to use flat color in their designs. But of major importance is how they used it, not just why they used it. It created a fresh user interface. There were little to no distractions and the aesthetics were still there. It felt like common sense when it was done, but beforehand, we loved our buttons and color schemes with gradients and shadows and textures and so much more.

This flat color web design is a trend right now not just because it looks good but because it makes sense. It promotes a clean user interface that’s easy to use and understand. Today, we’ll be looking at a couple of web sites that utilize this principle of flat color design. Let’s jump right in.

15+ innovative flat design websites

Content is what brings us together today. In all seriousness, there are few things more in-style than a content strategy that involves branded content creation, curation, and maybe even a little bit of outsourcing. Inspired by some of the latest major studies on how marketers use blog articles and offers to connect with prospects, we’ve curated a major list of stats and facts that will blow your mind.

55 Shareable Stats on Content Marketing Trends and Tactics

Saving the best stats for last- 90% of consumers find custom content useful; 78% believe that the organizations behind the content are interested in building good relationships. 

Trends at the end is worth the price of admission on this "History of Websites" infographic. 

Blimey - Consumers become the marketers

Pas d'accord avec tout, mais des points intéressants (notamment sur l'évolution de Twitter)

Internet Advertising has grown from under 1 billion dollars in 1999 to over 7 billion dollars in 2011. The internet is essentially a global system of interconnected networks which reach millions of people and businesses across the world. As noted by Mulhern (2009), the networking of information transforms marketing communications into different sets of practices for connecting consumers and brands.

Just like every other element of web design, color palettes follow fads that are constantly evolving. This year’s color trends are as diverse as they are compelling; brights and neons combine with greyscale to add some zing to clean, modern styles, while pastel palettes lend a softness to playful, cartoony designs. And from one end of the line to the other, color blocking in any hue has been enthusiastically employed.

What’s great about this new crop of color trends is that they all combine seamlessly with UI considerations, helping to distinguish important elements and break up sections as well as conveying a style or mood.

Here are Four Color Trends for 2013.

greyscale with bright accents, muted pastels, neons and brights and color blocking

2013 is going to be a year that will witness worldwide acceptance of HTML 5 for websites along with CSS 3 brand new features. There were a lot of instances where websites followed complete redesigning during 2012’s last quarter. Here are the five web design latest trends for 2013 that will make websites much more flexible and user friendly.

The Top 5 Web Design Trends in 2013

Three related, clustered events constitute a trend. So, what have we here?

• February 25: Mindshare appoints a content chief
• February 27: Edelman names (a new, digital-focused) chief content officer
• February 27: Facebook announces a content strategy fellowship
• March 25: Sequoia Capital appoints a head of content
• March 26: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt names its first chief content officer
• March 27: Weber Shandwick launches a content marketing unit with 100 staffers
• April 1: Havas signs a global chief content officer

Chief content officers have been de rigeur in media companies for years. Editorial web sites, magazines, newspapers, and broadcasters have them. Even Netflix boasts a chief content officer.

What's staggering now is the alacrity with which agencies are now piling into the white-hot content marketing space. Not all of this is new, of course. Content divisions and/or practices have existed for some time at major players such as Leo Burnett, Ogilvy, and OMD. Digital shops, too, have content heads, as do (of course) the small cohort of content-only agencies.

The appointments above reveal these interesting takeaways:

Agencies that don't have content practices are scrambling to get into the game

From the appointment of an executive with "content" in his/her title to blowing out an entire new division, both ad and PR agencies realize content can no longer be ignored. Clients expect content-related services and advisory. While mileage on the revenue models varies radically, there's also heated competition on the PR and ad sides for a piece of the content pie. "We're in a dogfight with the ad agencies," is how one PR executive put it to me in a private meeting.

Content's meaning is increasingly (if not almost exclusively) digital

It's not as if Edelman didn't have a content officer before appointing Steve Rubel to the role. His predecessor, Richard Sambrook, a former BBC editor, focused on editorial development. Rubel's purview will be much broader, focusing on relationships both with digital media properties and technology vendors.

PR shops are in the media buying business

Historically, PR firms never, ever bought media. They earned it. In announcing their new content initiatives, both Weber Shandwick and Edelman have stressed that media buying and other forms of brokering will be very much part of what they do going forward. Media convergence and native advertising models make this evolution imperative.

Content is essential for startups

When one of the leading venture capital firms appoints a content head to help its portfolio companies develop and improve their blogs, social media, and video, it underscores just how essential a well-executed content strategy is to success -- or failure -- in business.

Hire-a-journalist: Will it suffice?

For the past several years, "hire a reporter" has been the mantra of companies eager to get a leg up in blogging or on social media channels. Now that content strategies are more technologically complex and digitally convoluted (converged media, native advertising, video, mobile) than "just writing," it will be interesting to see what skillsets the next crop of content hires possess.

"Global" appended to content titles

This trend will become increasingly important with holding companies and larger agencies. Brands, too, are beginning to make content hires and shuffle the org chart to accommodate content strategy and execution. One of the biggest content challenges is the one facing large, multinational enterprises that must create content for a wide range of countries, languages, territories, audiences, and products. If any single cohort relies on outside content support, it's multinationals. Holding companies possess on-the-ground global support and know that coordinated efforts can be a boon to this important new line of business.

Logo design is one of many areas of design that looks easy but is damned difficult to pull off successfully. Last year's aborted University of California rebrand shows just how difficult it is to please all of the people, all of the time - especially when remaking an existing much-loved identity. But even when you're designing a logo for a new company or brand, it's a huge challenge to create something that will grab attention - in the right way - in a crowded marketplace.

Part of the challenge is looking current and contemporary without shortening your logo's shelf-life. In other words, you don't want it to look old-fashioned, but neither do you want it to look so 'of the moment' that it will quickly date.

To help guide you through, we've rounded up 20 of the biggest logo trends at time of writing.

Don't blindly follow them, but being aware of them can help you strike that perfect balance that will lead to a logo that's memorable and impactful without needing a redesign come 2014...

Tendencias e influencias

Les dernières tendances dans la création de logo