Posts by Susan Sullivan
A few elements of a great website
Presence The design of your site is the first thing potential clients will see. It is always good advice to avoid the cheap, self-building websites and hire a professional web designer. It is better to not have a website than to have one that is unprofessional and hard to navigate. And remember, just like with…
Read MoreCreate Great Blog Titles
The headlines of your blog posts and pages are key to gaining reader interest and lead to click throughs. It’s the first thing readers will see when your post shows up linked to social media outlets like Facebook or Twitter – so it’s important to put in a little extra effort to make sure the…
Read MoreMust-have design elements for your website
If you want your website to stand out then your online presence must be outstanding. There are far to many dull and boring websites in the world – you don’t have too be one of them. Building a great site is easy – all you have to do is follow a few creative rules. A…
Read MoreHow to prepare for your website’s redesign
We get a lot of clients who just want their sites redesigned. Often, a client knows their site needs updated, they just don’t know where to begin. Here are a few things you can do to help avoid a redesign that will drag on. Research and Take Notes Check out your competition to see what they…
Read MoreHow to know if your website needs a redesign
Just like with all technology, websites need to be updated on a regular basis. If you aren’t sure if your site needs a redesign or not, take a look at the questions below. If you answer YES to any of these questions then take two deep breaths and call Dr. Sumy first thing in the morning.…
Read MoreColors for the web and colors for print
Working together with web and print designs can be tricky and learning how color works can be the key to getting a successful color calibration for both your website and your printed designs such as business cards and brochures. An easy way to remember is anything dealing with the web should be in RGB (red, green,…
Read MoreA few websites I love
COLOR: I find color inspiration all over, but a couple websites I find myself heading back to over and over are Plenty of Colour, which is a daily design blog devoted to showcasing and celebrating colour, and COLOURlovers, which is a creative community where people create and share colors, palettes and patterns and discuss the latest color trends. TEXTURE: For background patterns and…
Read MoreTypography trends in web design
Typography trends in web design used to be boring, but that is not longer the case. Fabulous creations such as Adobe Typekit and Google fonts allow for websites to fun and creative. Below are some of the typography trends in web design for 2014: Handwritten Fonts Fonts for Flat Web Design Scripted Fonts Does your website need some fancy…
Read MoreDesigning websites for the first five seconds
Recently, Amy and I attended WordCamp in Chicago. It was a fantastic experience and we got to sit in on some pretty amazing conferences. One of the conference sessions, presented by Ross Johnson, was about the importance of the immediate subconscious response a person gets when looking at a website. In this session we learned how important…
Read MoreWhat are Icon Fonts?
Icon Fonts use the @font-face rule in CSS to embed TTF, EOT and similar font formats into a web page. Basically, they are fonts that look and function like social media icons. The entire purpose of using icon fonts as opposed to a jpg or png is to replace rendered icons on a web page…
Read MoreBreak Through the Blog Block
We blog a lot here at Sumy Designs because websites that blog generate more traffic. Writer’s block, or blog block, happens to all of us bloggers every now and then – and we understand how frustrating it can be when your brain is stuck in la la land and you have business to conduct. So I’ve taken…
Read MorePrint Design vs. Web Design
The transition from web design to print design can be tricky but if you keep a few things in mind, the process can be a smooth transition. DPI or dots per inch resolution. Monitors only need a resolution of 72 DPI whereas print items need at least 300 DPI. Make sure you download images for…
Read MoreWhat should I put in my sidebar?
The WordPress sidebar is made of widgets that you can add or edit in the Appearance section of your Dashboard … and the number of sidebar plug-ins available is limitless. It is easy to get carried away with the ease and flexibility but there are a few items that should be included in your sidebar that…
Read MoreWhen and why to hire a professional photographer for your website
Many small businesses don’t figure a photo shoot into the expense of their website and often it shows when profits are not there. A great website is your best marketing tool and with so many websites out there it is important that your website stand out. One of the best ways to accomplish this is with…
Read MoreWhat NOT to put on your website
When people ask me what to include on their website to make it work, I always start with telling them what NOT to put on their site: Just say no to the flash intro. Sure it was cool in the 90s, but today it is annoying to get to a site and have to wait…
Read MoreHow I became a web designer
Hi, I’m Susan Sullivan. I’m co-owner and web designer at Sumy Designs. I represent the creative side of the Sumy team. This fact will impress you even more when you know I have degrees in English and Anthropology. I graduated from Ball State University many years ago, but not many, many years ago, a distinction that…
Read MoreTips for working from home successfully
Working from home is fabulous on many levels – it also has its challenges, but today’s technological tools make it easier than ever. Sumy Designs has successfully operated from home offices for over eight years so I thought I’d share some of the benefits and challenges and a few of our tips to do it…
Read MoreWhat is Lorem Ipsum?
Do you scratch your head when you see this? Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus aliquam dolor diam, ac tincidunt purus sodales in. Proin quis metus eu risus varius aliquam vel eu erat. Fusce fermentum rutrum dui, ut sollicitudin neque varius a. Proin fringilla turpis purus, vel pulvinar tortor viverra sed. Praesent…
Read MoreKeyword Stuffing and Why you Shouldn’t Do it
Ever hear of SEO? That stands for Search Engine Optimization. This term basically refers to the process of getting traffic to a site through organic (or natural) listings in search engines. It’s getting your site found. Often individuals and business are fooled by SEO marketers who claim they can make their websites #1 on Google…
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