Blog entries from Melissa Burnham

The Fateful Destiny of the Home Page

Melissa Burnham — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 02:57:01 +0100

Even though the home page on any well designed website is
usually the highlight of the site, its purpose is actually somewhat
martyr-istic.

Think of it like a handshake. You can really get a good idea
of a person based solely on their handshake. The 3 to 5 seconds your hands are
clasped is all that is required to instill an impression of them, whether good
or badRead More...

The Modern Designer

Melissa Burnham — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 21:09:38 +0100

With today’s technological proliferation in many aspects of
our daily lives, we can see a degeneration of our work ethic, creativity, and
plain motivation. Now that we have computers and phones doing every nuance of
our bidding, we’ve become, in a word, lazy.

As a day-to-day schmoe, this didn’t come to me as much of a
shock, but as Read More...

Good Design Through Positive Thinking, part three: Unlimited Design

Melissa Burnham — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 05:00:19 +0100

I know I’ve written about all these ideals, but I am still implementing them myself. My head buzzes with “Do this” and “Don’t do that” and “Try it this way”. I must keep in mind the client's needs, make sure the website looks amazing and functions well, rephrase this sentencRead More...

Good Design Through Positive Thinking, part two: Designing Around Clients

Melissa Burnham — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:55:15 +0100

Being a graphic/web designer for a small, cozy firm is miraculous, awesome and sometimes a little bit daunting. When we get a new client and the contracts are approved, everything comes down to me and the following obstacles: What is the new site going to look like? How will the content be organized for maximum clarity and usability?Read More...

Good Design Through Positive Thinking, part one: Positive Business Thinking

Melissa Burnham — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:36:48 +0100

Like all growing businesses, improvement and efficiency is absolutely necessary for a company to succeed into the future. And it is especially important with today’s economic trends.

As part of a growing web development business, I have recently been bombarded with advice, recommendations and solutions tRead More...

Drawing Realistically Simple Clouds in Photoshop

Melissa Burnham — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:41:39 +0100

I didn’t realize how difficult it would be to draw realistic-looking clouds in Photoshop. I didn’t want to just slap on a picture of some heavenly fluffiness and have to mess with cutting, pasting and arranging layer upon layer of duplicated images. Neither did I want to make Mickey Mouse cartoon clouds that any preschooler could sRead More...

Designing Custom Reflections

Melissa Burnham — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 05:00:00 +0100

There has been an enormously popular trend going around throughout websites, and design in general, but it’s mostly hoarded by Apple. The effect is the reflection, as if the object or image undergoing the effect is sitting upon a sheet of glass or any shiny surface. As I said, this is extremely popular so my little tutorial on how to reproduce it may seem (un)fasRead More...

Web Design that Breaks Borders

Melissa Burnham — Fri, 22 May 2009 05:00:00 +0100

I had an art project once to make a sculpture out a rectangular block of plaster molded from a milk carton. I had to be somewhat delicate with it to make sure it didn’t break into a million pieces, which is mostly the reason why the sculpture retained some of its blockiness. In the end, it had a good, interesting design, but you could still follow the lines around it and decipher its original form.

Now, my forte is not sculpting obviously, but the same principle can be appRead More...

Spacing: Leaving Room for White

Melissa Burnham — Fri, 08 May 2009 05:00:00 +0100

One of an artist’s greatest fears is a white canvas. It’s the ubiquitous blank page for a writer, and the stark empty template for a web designer. The whiteness glares at you, forcing you to cover it all up with images, text, links, buttons, menus, miscellaneous boxes and whatever else. Before you know it, the canvas has become cluttered, the page now beyond usable functioRead More...

Creating the Magic Touch

Melissa Burnham — Mon, 04 May 2009 05:00:00 +0100

So far, I’ve been blabbing about very general and hopefully commonsensical aspects of web design. This time I’m going to get a little more specific, talking about some finer details.

I mentioned before that a couple major rules to follow are to keep things consistent and to focus on busting out some quality details. This is the founRead More...

Designing with Type in Mind

Melissa Burnham — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 05:00:00 +0100

One of the geeky aspects of being a graphic designer is memorizing fonts. It’s not easy, but after years of designing, all the fonts just seep into your head like osmosis. Then you’ll be criticizing every website you visit, saying, “Why did they use Copperplate as a header title?!” or “Is that the font from Star Wars?”

There are a few rules and regulatiRead More...

Color Vision

Melissa Burnham — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 05:00:00 +0100

Color deserves some serious respect. We first learn about color as a game when we are kids. It's fun to mix each one to see what kind of mess you'll get next. For designers, color is a fascination that started from that innocent beginning. Little did we know that color would rule our designer lives from then on.

The use of color can be a very delicate art. ItRead More...

Textures: Must Haves for Sweet Sites

Melissa Burnham — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 05:00:00 +0100

I am not a tech, so don't read this looking for programming advice. This is purely for all of the amateur web designers out there, in Houston, Texas and everyone all over the world.

First off, if you are a true designer, you should be using Photoshop to begin building your site ideas for the web. You need to know what your site will look like, how it will be laid out first and foremost. A sketchbook and pencil works wonders for that. And don't be afraid to go all out.

SRead More...

Successfully Converting Online Leads

Melissa Burnham — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 05:00:00 +0100

I would like to share some strategies for working online leads.

My experience is working with online requests that we receive from Houston-area Real Estate professionals that order newcomer guides on www.HoustonNewcomerGuides.com and also from working with my advertisers as they are responding to people moving to Houston and requesting information directly from our advertisers.

The common denominator for success working online leads is follow-up, follow-up and follow-up. Read More...