Website Design
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Welcome to Cubed Cherry - Gatekeeper to the Exclusive Suite of Website Design
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We design websites! And website design is different than other graphic design. Yes, web designer uses a same set of techniques as any other graphic designer, pencil and paper, drawing board, scanner, software to test the ideas, but in a long run it’s a whole new way of thinking that separates succesfull web design from other sorts of graphic designs. A good web designer keeps in mind that a visual appeal of a website has to be incorporated with the great user experience and search engine friendly parameters. At the end of a day, what is the point in having a great looking, user friendly website if none of the major search engines don’t list your website.
Here at Cubed Cherry - we strive to build the kind of websites that comunicates to visitors as soon as we make it, the kind of website that, even though brand new and full of possibilities, in a way feels as pleasant as an old friend. We feel that websites that show this kind of intimate bond come from gifted, talented designers and craftspeople that love the long, systematic and painstaking process of inventions as much as the deriving websites. At Cubed Cherry, WE LOVE WEBSITES! Most of us design every day. We look, we think and listen, we compare, we examine and analyze and we debate. We believe Cubed Cherry will soon be a landmark website design company for South Africa and hope that after having and running these websites you'll feel the same.
If you're looking for a professional, quality, high-performance website, we strive to build that website for you.
Web Development
The concept of web development generally includes all aspects of designing a website for both the internet and intranet. These aspects are content, design, server and network security, client relations, configuration, scripting and the business side of things as well. To professionals though, it is more specific to the actual building of the website than design and would cover coding, writing and markup. Depending on the complexity of the website, it can take one or maybe hundreds of web developers working as a team to create it.
As the amount of sites on the World Wide Web grows, naturally so does the number of web development companies. In the span of ten years between 1995 and 2005, the count went from a mere 1000 to over 30 000 in just the United States. The reason for this being is that large businesses are going online to sell their products and services. The trend is also growing as the cost charged for website development and hosting has dropped during those ten years now that the option to create a simple site for free with builders – for example, Google Sites, Wix, Yola, Moonfruit just to name a few. In turn, smaller companies are better able to afford the services and the growth continues. To further aid development, there are many free systems and tools available to the public in addition to simple software such as Adobe Dreamweaver and Microsoft Expression Studio.
Of course, paying a web developer with experience certainly has its advantages. For a more professional looking, functional site it is normally necessary to know HTML, a programming language. No matter how helpful site builders are, certain things will be taken into consideration if you use a professional:
- The look of your website/ graphic design. Your website will look more appealing and streamlined, and customers will be able to tell that it was professionally made, making you look better
- Experience with copy-writing the material on your site so your competition can't get their hands on it!
- Search engine optimization so you will get more traffic to your site.
A really good website developer will be able to provide you with all of these on top of the general functionality of the website. Some may even be able to provide audio/video/animation coding and flash capabilities.
Meanwhile the use of Java Platform and similar technologies is becoming more widespread as a way of taking applications that were only available on the desktop and running them online. All of this has led to a change in how sites like Amazon.com and eBay.com sell their goods, advances in online advertisement and traffic, and how the traditional blog and social networking sites function.
Security is an important thing to consider. Data entry error and encryption can do a lot of damage and hackers can send viruses to gain access to passwords, credit card numbers, e-mails and other personal and “protected” information of the users of the site. Although it is not up to the web developer to maintain the security of the website, they can test the applications to make sure everything is in proper working order and hopefully these attacks can be avoided. Keeping intruders out is known as Server Port Hardening. SSL Certificates can be issued to certify safe “pockets” where sensitive and important information can be stored and transmitted safely. Even so, there are unsecure holes to be found sometimes and therefore security patches are frequently released to solve the errors – until the next one anyway.
No matter how big or small the website, the techniques and skills that a web developer possesses will always outweigh the cost of hiring them.
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When you love the process, the result takes care of itself
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Let’s just say that all Cube Cherry concepts passed the long process of carefull planning.
The amount of creativity in this company has to be increased so we can develop and execute ideas towards satisfaction of other professionals that require our services.
We figured out that creativity helps to shape perspective and execution in the final idea within the field of web art and design.
Some of the factors that we take into account in our profession as designers are to enrich this discipline, either professionally, personally,
and to benefit from our knowledge and transfer our experiences to customers who will be looking for creativity and meaning in our design.
Like gemstones, cubed cherry ideas are molded and shaped by the web enviroment over time.
Even if we are happy with the current design we stay plugged into the creative flow to keep abreast of opportunities.
Vanja Ivkovic - co Founder of Cubed Cherry
As designers, we have learned to develop this creative set of actions with instinct to meet clients needs.
This often impacts and enables us to observe problems with an all-pervading influence of knowledge, and just like in any great ambitious project,
it gets neccessary for these designs to be executed not only with the highest aesthetic criteria but with the allied personal appraisal.
To be able to interpret ideas in this manner, for us is something that a conceptual artist should be aware of and always be ready to exploit.
Our customers describe Cubed Cherry designs as a next-generation website design, re-engineered for the new century. And more often than not,
subconsciously, they are drawn to the design that has the same mix of qualities that has always added up to success in on-line business.
They want the job to be done by someone who is willing to work hard, make sacrifices, communicate a powerful sense of mission,
and stay focused on the issues and challenges that will determine the website's long term success.
Dusko Kovacevic - co Founder of Cubed Cherry
If you would like to read more about graphic design below are sets of articles to get you familiar with the process.
The holiday season is over. It's time to open the work boxes, set up the equipment,
and take a close look at our new graphic work station.
At the end of 2010 we rewarded ourselves with a new design studio for the new year.
First, there are some familiar items - an old desk and what appears to be a
new drawing board and a infra red pen. But there is also a wacom tablet and a monitor.
And there's also a pad of paper in sight - that's not so strange.
What we have is a combination of the old and the new,
deliberately designed into computer paint systems so that traditionally
trained artists can feel at home while they use the help from the new technology.
Actually, if you think about the traditional design process, you'll
begin to understand how a computer graphics workstation operates.
Most often, before the hands-on designing gets underway, there is an
"analysis," or brainstorming, session between the client and designer.
Then the challenge shifts to the designer, who must turn the ideas
discussed into concrete visual images. In the first step, using anything
from thumbnail sketches to full-color roughs, the designer experiments
with as many options as possible. The next step is to identify and
develop the most promising options. Finally, in the third stage, the
designer brings two or three of the best designs to the degree of
completion usually referred to as the "finished comp"-something the
dient can actually hold, examine, and take back to the office.
These three steps in the creation of a finished design-analysis,
design realization, and finished comp-are mirrored in the computer
graphics workstation by devices that input, process, and then output
information. With this in mind, let's hack a job as it goes through the computer.
This image combines the old with the new: an illustration done in traditional
media scanned into a computer, and reworked into something totally diferent.
The designer begins by sketching the ideas that have emerged from
analysis of the project. In place of a pad of visualizing paper and felt tip markers,
there is the monitor, the digitizer pad, and the wacom tablet.
The wacom, through a depress-able point, makes contact with electronic
sensors in the pad. These messages or commands, are routed through the microprocessor,
or central processing unit (CPU), and translated into an image on the monitor screen.
The stylus and pad combo is an input, or locator, device. Because it responds
to and reflects the actions of the artist's hand so immediately, it is also called an interactive device.
The important point here is the similarity of sensation between working on a computer and traditional drawing.
After each sketch is completed it is put away, not in a drawer, but in the computer's storage device - a hard disk.
Using the computer's keyboard, the designer names each sketch and stores it in the paint
program's "picture file." From there it can easily be recalled to the monitor screen.
The initial sketches are just to get the idea down. But as the idea
becomes more focused, the designer may feel a need to use some
existing images: photos, artwork, or perhaps typographic elements.
Traditionally, one might use stats, photocopies, invoicies, or the like.
At a computer graphics workstation the job is done with an input device,
usually a video camera or scanner (this process is sometimes called "an image grab").
The device is capable of transforming pre-existing two-dimensional images and three-dimensional
objects into digital information so that they can be "read" and stored by the computer.
And once these images exist on the computer disk, they can be changed, enhanced,
and recombined in ways that surpass traditional methods.
All of this sketching and scanning is processed through the central
processing unit, which contains the electronic circuitry
necessary to basic computing along with add-on electronic
boards that provide color and connections to various input and output
devices, among other things.
The central processing unit also houses the storage devices (disks),
which contain the software programs or computer graphics toolkit.
Through the software, the designer can manipulate the image
in new and exciting ways.
This brings us to the final step of the design process: the actual
piece of work. Just as in a traditional design project, thumbnails
may become full-size roughs, which are transformed into finished
sketches, which then become finished comps. With a
computer graphics workstation, examples from all of these stages
can be viewed on the monitor. "But," you may ask, "what does
the designer hand the client?" True, a client can view the design
on the monitor, but what can he or she take away?
Just as the computer graphics workstation can transform tangible
material (photos, artwork) into digitalform using input devices, it can
now reverse the process and tum digital information into an actual
picture on paper or film by using output devices.
This simplified diagram ot a computer graphics worksfolion
shows the basic flow of an idea through the system.
The digitizer pad and electronic stylus allow the
artist to draw directly. The images and commands are
sent into the central processing unit (CPU), which sends
out the instructions and then displays the resulting
picture on the monitor. Depending on the system,
there may be both a full color monitor (red-green-blue)
and a black-and-white monitor (monochrome), or just a color monitor.
The keyboard can be used to input text. This diagram shows some more sophisticated input
and output devices. In addition to drawing directly, the
artist can scan in information through a color video
camera or a black-and white scanner. The image on the monitor can then be
changed into hard copy through an output device
such as a film record, or printer, or videotape recorder,
as discussed on the following pages.
Suppose that, after seeing a new Logo design on your monitor, the
client wants to send copies of it to other company members before
making a final decision. You have several options.
One form of output - as one of the best currently available - is jpg file format.
This format gives a full-color image that is very well supported on the major operating systems.
Color fidelity is good, so basically the image you see on your screen is very like the image
will be seen on a client or user's monitor. Everybody uses jpg as a way to communicate with the images now-days.
It's easy to create it and every child or an old person with a poor knowledge of computers will be able to open a jpg.
Another two good file formats for images are GIF and PNG files. GIF files support a transparency and also support animations.
There is wide use of animated GIF file format.
PNG has a set of different settings to play with. If you are a Photoshop user then you might be familiar
with PNG format and it's different options. PNG you can save as 8bit or 24bit with or without
transparency and with a various settings of compressions.
But what if the client wants to present the new logo design to a
wider audience differently? Here the computer graphics workstation offers
two choices: slides or video. To produce a video presentation or an animation
the whole set of other applications is used. The Adobe corporation is a developer of a loved software for this purpose such as:
After Effects, Flash and Premiere.
Of course there are some awesome non-Adobe applications like Cinema 4D and Maya but this is the entrance to a completely different world.
The world of 3D. Here we will not get deeper into 3 dimension image and video manipulations but you can read more about it in our 3D world pages.
Lets get back to the still images.
For sharper, denser, and in some cases higher-resolution images, it
is best to use a RAW image file type, which is hooked up directly to the computer
graphics software from the DSLR camera. Without getting technical, surfice it to
say that the path from the camera image to the software image can be
bumpy. Each software package must have a specific "driver" for
the specific file type you are using. And the high-resolution
digital cameras sometimes behave like high-strung thorough breds
needing constant care and fine-tuning. Nevertheless,
once the kinks are worked out, a digital camera is an invaluable tool.
Another handy format is a AVI video that many DSLR cameras support.
Just in case the client wants a video presentation as a part of the web design.
With this technique, you can make videos in several sizes, up to 1680px x 1200px.
Good piece of equipment for the computer graphics workstation is a professional
video card, allowing you to pull the most out of your video or still picture manipulation.
In this case, you might decide to include some form of
animation to increase the visual impact.
Prints, slides, and video in hand, the client now goes away happy
(for the moment).
Think back through the process. The computer
graphics workstation allows you to do many jobs "in house" that previously
could only have been handled by outside services. It not only
saves a gireat deal of time (and thus money), but, most important, it
provides design flexibility.
Of course, success with computer graphics isn't as simple as
buying the right hardware. There are two other important components.
One, obviously, is the artist- the real creative force. The
other is the paint or design software - the program that enables
the imaginative designer to realize an idea and bring it to completion.
Without good graphics software, the entire computer graphics
workstation-the central processing unit, scanners monitors, and
printers-might just as well be left in the cartons.
Manufacturers of hardware constantly claim compatibility with the most popular computer
company. What is not stated by manufacturers and retail sales people is that hardware compatibility
is not the whole story. A common example concerns peripherals such as printers.
A graphic designer already knowledgeable about computers decided to buy a dot-matrix
printer. He was advised by a technical consultant to buy Brand A's Model X. Brand A was
very popular and its printers were widely used. Model X was a newer improved dot-matrix
printer but not a new technology. The designer expected to use it with paint software that was
also widely used. All the parts were advertised as compatible. When the designer hooked up his
printer to the computer, it worked fine . . . until he tried printing something from the paint software.
He then discovered that although the paint program supported other models from
Brand A, it did not support Model X. A phone call to the paint software developers proved
discouraging, as they had no plans to write a support program for that particular model.
What went wrong? Both the designer and the technical consultant made assumptions based
on the overall compatibility and popularity of the two products.
The moral: Assume nothing. If you already own software, buy peripherals that it definitely supports.
Don't believe a salesperson or software developer who claims that in the near future x, y, or z
printers will be supported.
Plans and models change; so do schedules. If you have hardware that you really want to use,
buy only software that supports that specific piece of hardware.
Look around a traditional design studio. There are brushes and pens in
varied sizes, markers and pencils in a rainbow of colors, T-squares and
triangles, point and pica measures, knives and blades, pieces of
acetate and tracing paper-the list could go on forever. One thing is
certain: illustrators and designers need lots of tools and materials.
Computer graphics doesn't change the need for a variety of tools; it
just changes the form. Instead of purchasing many different pieces of
equipment, you buy a graphics software package, which encompasses
the different capabilities you need. Essentially the software is a set of
instructions that allows you to "talk" to your computer and tell it what
you want done. You might ask it to draw a line of a certain width in a
certain color from point A to point B, or you might specify different-size
rectangles and circles.
To get an idea of the possibilities, take a look at the menus on the
following article. Although different graphics software packages will
offer slightly different menus, the basic functions will be similar. The
point is not so much how this particular program works, but which the
computer can do. You'll be surprised at how well the computer can
carry out mundane design chores and how it can actually encourage
you to be creative.
Sitting at a computer graphics workstation is a bit like sitting at a
restaurant. The first thing you're presented with is a menu-in this
case, a listing of the various functions available to you on your partictrlar
paint program. To whet your appetite, here are some of the choices usually available:
- Color. In all probability you will have literally millions of colors to
choose from in setting up a palette for a particrular project. Indeed,
there are probably more colors available than you can
even imagine. There's no way you could get all these subtle
hues by mixing traditional media.
Plus you don't have to worry about running out of a color in,
the middle of a job-it's always there.
- Brushes. By selecting different "brushes" you can vary the
weight, the shape, and even the texture of your marks. You can
also create your own brushes, designing a simple symbol like a
bird that you can then "paint" with, In this way the computer
allows you to custom-design your own artistic tools-at no extra cost.
- Automatic drawing. To get rid of some of the drudgery of design,
you can simply instruct the computer to draw circles or boxes of
a certain size. That frees your energy so you can focus on more creative tasks.
Fill function With this handy function, you can fiII in outlined
shapes automatically, without working laboriously, stroke after
stroke. And the computer is neat: it stays within the outline
(as long as there are no gaps).
- Copying tools. If you want to draw a symmetrical image, you
can simply draw one half and then mirror or "flop" it to create
the other half. And there are other, similar "services" available
on a computer that eliminate the need to send things
outside, to a stat house. You can, for example, scale, rotate, copy,
mirror, enlarge, or reduce any image in the pictures files.
- Photographic possibilities. In addition to the copying functions
just mentioned, some software allows you to solarize or posterize
photos that have been scanned in. You can shrink the
photos in one dimension while stretching them in another.
You can also retouch images and silhouette them. If the image
you've scanned in is black and white, you can colorize it (much
as they're doing now with old movies); or you can make a color
image black and white,
- Save function. It's important to remember that any image you
create on the monitor is ephemeral-unless and until
you save it. Not only does saving an image allow you to recall it
whenever you want, but it enables you to experiment more
freely, changing the image in part or in its entirety, without
- Choosing the original. You can thus easily show a client the original
with several variations (each saved separately, under different names).
This capability is one of computer painting's
greatest virtues. It certainly goes a long way toward eliminating
Excedrin Headache #1 for both artist and client. This is desirable for a successful website design
How many jars and flat fiIes would
be needed to store 16.7 million
shades of watercolor and colored
paper? That is the potential range
of a typical computer paint system,
Admittedly, 16.7 million is probably
a bit more than most artists
need, and many systems permit
only 256 colors to be displayed on
the screen at any one time. The
important point is not the final
number but the availability of such
variety and flexibility. Mixing and
matching colors becomes an exciting
adventure. What is really unprecedented
is that now you c.rn
completely change the color
scheme of a picture ofter it has
been painted, and you can do it
quickly, without risk of losing the
original.
DEIERMINING COTOR
How does this magic take place?
In electronic, light-based color red,
green, and blue are the primary
colors. This is in contrast to traditional
paint or pigment color,
where the primaries are red,
yellow, and blue, In computer
painting, then, all the other colors-
yellows, browns, oranlJes,
purples, grays-are combinations
of at least two of the red-greenblue
trio. Another point to remember
is that in computer painting,
total saturation of all colors
produces white, whereas in traditional
painting mixing all the colors
together creates a dark mud.
But how is computer color manipulated?
Most computer paint
systems allow for change in the
three basic characteristics of color:
hue, or actual color; scturclion,
degree of grayness; and
ity, a color's light-dark value,
can adjust a color in all three
gories at once or one at a time,
Consider, for example, a
with a bright blue sky. Perhaps
you feel that the bright blue
be changed but are not quite
of the direction: should the
remain blue but become a bit
grayer? Or is the blue simply
light? Or, finally, should the
be replaced completely with
other color? Each of these
can be investigated fully. How
many changes can you go thrc
in making a decision? Well, as
just indicated, many paint
allow for color variations of un
16.7 million.
AQI'ESTION OF NT'MBERS
Though I try to avoid the subject, there are times
when the mathematics involved in computers
must be addressed-even if only in the simplest
form. A perfect example comes up in a discussion
of computer color; Just how many djfferent
colors are available to the artist? Most paint
systems advertise 16.7 million colors. But that
number refers to the potential variety, not necessarily
how many colors the artist will be able to
use on any one picture. Most of the color work in
this book, for example, was done on a system
with 16.7 million potential colors, but only 256
were available at one time. From a practical
point of view, this restiction rules out certain
artistic procedures, such as scanning in and then
retouching a full-color photognaph. For that procedule,
you need the full 16.7 million.
Obviously, an artist interested in full-color
capabilities needs to look beyond the general
claim of 16.7 million colors and ask about the
number of colors available on the screen. A
guick way to find out is to look at the specifications
of the graphics card. Computers that have
an 8-bit card display only 256 colors at one time.
To display all 16.7 million colors on the screen at
once, you need a 24- or 32-bit card.
What are the advantages of this greater color
density, besides the retouching ability just mentioned?
An important plus is that the "jaggre"
look is greatly reduced. This is due, not to higher
resolution, but to a greater colorrange, producing
much more subtle hansitions between one
area of color and the next. These subtleties are
important for three-dimensional modeling and
rendering programs (see Part Three). Print applications
also need z{-bilt graphics to approximate
haditional airbrush effects.
Are there any advantages to the 8-bit cards,
with 256 colors? Surprisingly, yes. With an 8-bit
system, you can do color cycling, which can be
used for limited animation effects...
Actually, if you ftink about the haditional design process, you'll
begnn to understand how a computer graphics workstaton operates.
Most often, before the hands-on designing gets underway, there is an
"analysis," or brainstorming, session between the client and desigrner.
Then the challenge shifts to the designer, who must fum the ideas
discussed into concrete visual images. In the first step, using anyttring
from thumbnail sketches to full-color roughs, the designer experiments
with as many options as possible. The next step is to identify and
develop the most promising options. Finally, in the third stage, the
designer brings two or three of the best designs to the degree of
completion usually referred to as the "finished comp"-something the
dient can achrally hold, examine, and take back to the office.
These ttnee steps in the creation of a finished design-analysis,
design realization, and finished comp-are mirrored in the computer
graphics workstation by devices that input, process, and then output
information. With this in mind, let's hack a job as it goes through the
computer.
When you sit down to paint with
haditional media, you must choose
not only a color but also a brush (or
other painting tool). On a computer
the process is similar. Most
paint systems offer an array of
brushes in diJferent sizes, from
small (one or two pixels in width)
to large, round dots. With these
brushes, you canproduce a singleweight
line in any direction. There
are also different linear brushesvertical,
horizontal, or obliquewhich
vary in weight and length.
Another kind of brush is the texhred
brush, made up of clusters of
SEI,ECTINGA BRUSH
pixels. With this brush, you can
simulate a variety of illustrative
effects, from the painterly lines of
drybrush to the precision of airbrush.
As we will see later, this
brush-or any of the other brushes
just described-can be edited into
a specific shape.
One thing you'll notice on the
computer is that the brushstrokes
have well-defined edges. There
are, however, systems with
brushes that allow you to produce
a relatively soft-edged Line-an
effect referred to as "anti-afiasing."
Essentially what happens is
that the color in the brushstrokeis
automatically blended into the
background color. The result is a
reduction in the jagged, staircase
look so often seen on mediumresolution
computer systems.
website hosting
Some systems are completely antialiassd,
while others have special
functions to accomplish this effect,
Words like "filter," "blend," and
"solid averaging" may be used to
describe the blurring of edges between
one color and another, In
any case, anti-aliasing is very
useful in imitating traditional airbrush
effects.
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