Oh what a case of the Monday’s.

Today was absolutely freezing. Then again, as a native Texan, I find 80 degree weather cold. Barack Obama visited my school today to give his speech before the tomorrow’s primary. I had planned on going, but had a late start because of my classes. By the time I had got there, the line was literally a mile long. It was absolutely ridiculous. And as a kicker, the weather was cold. So, my conclusion: no Barack Obama for me today.

So here I am, with the case of the Monday’s. My creative mojo is dead, and the Starbucks isn’t helping. So I hopefully, for those of you who are going through a Monday, today’s edition of Monday Magic will help get you through.

Most Original:

I’ll be honest. When I first visited Qwert City, I was not impressed. I didn’t like the design at all, nor did I agree with the color scheme or layout. But as I visited it a few more times, it started to grow on me. The small details really made it stand out, and when I began to appreciate the site’s cartoonish theme, I began to appreciate the site even more. Qwert City has taken your average blog layout and applied a really neat theme and style to really separate it from all the rest. What really makes the site are the small details such as the stitchings, peels, and drop shadows that really give the site a 3D paper feel. Kudos.

Tip: Pay attention to details! Small patterns, drop shadows, or accents can really make or break a design. Usually less is more, but I love detail, and I love it when I can tell a designer has put time into their designs. That means a lot to the public as an image. Remember, what we do is art - let’s work as if it is.

Boldest Design:

As designers, we used to be taught not to lay out our main content beneath the fold. The myth was was that people hated to scroll. And that was true. Until everyone began to realize the magic of the scroll wheel. Designers now are beginning to appreciate the scroll wheel and it isn’t thought of as detrimental to a design any more. But how about Omspace? This site practically challenges you to scroll because you can’t even see any bit of the content without scrolling down. Stupid? No. Bold? Yes.

Tip: Break the norm. Repeatedly. Rebel. But don’t do it blindly. That is all grasshoppa.

Most Professional:

I love the Finchley website! It’s clean, simple, and very professional. I love the hands. I’m not sure if that’s completely original or not (it can’t be!), but I love the way it’s applied here. The color scheme really strengthens the corporate identity. It’s got a very fresh feel to it that really sets itself apart from competitors. Kudos to Finchley!

Tip: A web design shouldn’t be seperate from a company’s brand or identity. It’s equally important to use the web to strengthen the identity. Use color schemes, themes, and details to match with your client’s brand. Try adding or imagining another company’s logo or brand in place of your client’s. Does it fit? If so, you’ve most likely failed.

Most Innovative:

I’ve always been a fan of the UPS marketing campaign with the guy drawing on the dry-erase boards. Now Microsoft has created a similar marketing campaign that focuses on hand drawn characters that drive the website. I love the innovation here. You don’t feel like you’re on a website at all, and rather, watching a movie or cartoon. The animations are extremely fluid. The navigation (albeit a bit hard to navigate) were innovative and fun. The layout formed nicely, and the site definitely strengthens the product’s theme.

Tip: Have fun with your designs! Flash isn’t entirely out yet, and this is a great example of a full flash website that really hits home. Great ideas and animations, and awesome drawings really bring out Microsoft’s marketing branch’s right brain.

Site of the Week:

Helldesign is one of the best websites I’ve seen in a long time. It’s innovative. It’s got a great portfolio layout and navigation. I love the way they’ve set up their website because it also makes it bold. It’s clean, professional, and I could’ve easily fit it into any of the categories above. This is hands down the site of the week. Great job Helldesign, I can’t wait to see what else you got up your sleeve.

Tip: Your portfolio is your main weapon in gaining client work. Make sure that it speaks for you. Helldesign’s done a great job displaying their work in an innovative and bold way that’s sure to grab attention. And I bet it’s paying off too.

Artist of the Week:

I can not stop raving about Jack Johnson’s newest CD, Sleep Through Static. It’s one of the best CDs that I’ve heard in a long time and I’ve been recommending it to all of my friends. It’s not necessarily old school Jack apparently, but it’s got great flavor to it. It’s slow, and works best for creative minds. It’s written beautifully and rival’s John Mayer’s Continuum in my opinion. Definitely a buy.

Most Original:

I’ve rewarded some more colorful and busy designs for Most Original, but this one really caught my eye. Study In English has a great website that really breaks away from the norm of professional training or course/class design. Though the landing page is nothing impressive, the most original tid bit that I saw all week were the minor flash effects that really pack a lot of punch. The sub pages are fun to look at, and I love the way the animation displays the pictures that I click. Very original.

Tip: Breaking the norm can be a dangerous thing. After all, it is considered the norm for a reason. Small flash tidbits are slowly becoming popular again, sneaking their way into popular websites. It may be the next trend. Don’t be afraid to use flash when necessary, especially if it’ll give life to an otherwise boring and mediocre design.

Boldest Design:

Red has always been one of my most difficult colors to work with. It’s such a strong color that has strong connotations with it already. When you see read, you automatically assume romantic, or violent. It’s very hard to apply red (in large portions) to websites that fall outside of those themes. However, Move Networks did a great job using the Red as an eye-catching, sleek website that really puts the focus on its product by giving a heavy contrasting white center content.

Tip: How did Move Networks pull off using so much red? Well, when using heavy amounts of red, you need to keep the main page design simple. Red can be a very overwhelming and responsive color, so cluttering the main page or involving a lot of content that requires a lot of reading could push a user away. Less is more when using red.

Most Professional:

Webinale offers one of the more colorful designs I’ve seen all week. Multcolored websites are generally ruled as a no-no, but Webinale is able to pull it off because of its background. I offered a tip last week to take the background into more consideration. It can be the cohesive element that your website needs. By having such a colorful background, Webinale has automatically made their viewers aware of its colorful theme, and even works to their benefit by offering that they are diverse.

Tip: Yor color scheme will make or break your site design. Make sure that your background has a significant part in working with the colors of your content. Colors will set the mood of your site and that must reflect your client’s brand.

Most Innovative:

Beckfield College launched a brand new site design. I think it’s a complete success. A fairly young school (founded in 1984) their site appeals to their demographic. They understand what the college kids are looking for. I’m not saying that they are the only ones with a nice design, but its a trend setting one. College campuses are all starting to revamp their websites to reflect the new age and technology. I can’t wait to see some beautiful sites on the horizon. Beckfield is only the beginning.

Tip: Always be innovative. If you see that the project your working on is starting to look like every other one that you’ve made, it’s time to hit the think tank. Innovation is key to your career as a freelancer and by understanding how to set trends, and how to manipulate an industry to your advantage you will certainly succeed.

Site of the Week:

Puma launched a new social network called Puma Talk. I think it looks like a great success and is definitely appealing to the 18-25 age demographic. I think it’s a great new look for Puma and its wonderful to see the corporations slowly starting to take advantage of the whole “web 2.0″ wave. The design is creative and original and really reflects Puma’s brand and identity.

Tip: Knowing who your site is being shown too is probably one of the most essential bits of information that you could have. It should really dictate your color scheme and site’s theme and feel. Puma’s executed a nicely designed site that feels creative and unique, just like the demographic they are after.

Artist of the Week:

A great new group that I recently got into is OneRepublic. They’ve got an emotional single called, “Apologize” and it was really interesting to me. I ended up buying their CD, and a couple weeks later, I’ve got concert tickets. A couple weeks later, I’ve continued to listen to OneRepublic while I’m working and their catchy sounds and rhythmic voices are very appealing when I’m working. I highly recommend them to you guys.

Most Original:

To be honest, I’m not sure what the name of this site is, but I can tell you two things. It’s from MTV, and it’s beautiful. If you look closely, the most important aspect of the design is the background. It helps keep the site flowing and is the sole reason why the design works. The layout is a bit wild, but the background creates a cohesive, tropical feel, exactly what the site needs to accomplish.

Tip: Never ignore the important of your background choice. Patterns, graphics, gradients, etc. are vital to your site design. Often times, the background is the last thing made, or created as an afterthought. Change that. You should always design your background to compliment your design. During your pre-design stages, it’s important that you dedicate some sort of time to deciding what your background will need to look like.

Boldest Design:

Book Keeping In a Box (Whew, that’s a mouthful) is a wonderful looking site. The designer did a great job getting your eyes to focus on one thing when you first check out the design, and that is the word, “Organize”. The sub pages are equally important, and look great. They are simple, and easy to read. The landing page is split horizontally into two (which sort of conflicts with the site’s horizontal theme), but accomplishes this well. The site really sells the product.

Tip: Take a look at the main focus or aspect of your design. Ask people what is the first thing they notice when they view it. Is it what you want it to be? Or is it that random stock vector that you bought for $5 bucks? If its the latter, you may want to reconsider your design. You need to bring focus to the important aspects, and if you haven’t done that, then your design may be a failure.

Most Professional:

There have been plenty of premium word press themes around, but none with a site as attractive as Quocommunications. This site (though seemingly inspired by Apple’s website) delivers an elegant and sleek design that really sells the product. One of the things that stands out to me about this design is the designer’s choice NOT to use any icons, screen shots, or thumbnails in the features section. I’m not sure if this was done on purpose or not, but it keeps the design simple and clean, and since the features are easy to read and neatly listed, I read through them (usually I like to skim, and pictures help).

Tip: It’s very easy for a designer to get carried away and try to fit in as many norms as they can. I’ll always recommend less graphics in your design because it keeps them easy to read and follow. By putting in too many graphics, you end up getting carried away and the design comes out distracting. If you don’t need it, don’t add it!

Site of the Week:

Those who know me, understand that I like simple designs. Heck, I just got done talking about it in the previous site. However, Eurovision’s site delivers one of the busiest, and most colorful designs I’ve seen - but it works. How? First of all, it fits the site’s theme. The chaos is controlled and well placed. Though I could do without a majority of the smaller design graphics within the content areas, I think the site delivers a solid theme and reinforces it’s brand. The background is also one of the most key contributing aspects to the success of the design. Your eyes are constantly moving on such a busy site, and the background acts as a barrier. Because of it’s starburst, it forces your eyes back into the site.

Tip: Though I will usually recommend less, sometimes if you need to go over board to strengthen a brand, go for it. But don’t fit too many “new” graphics. If you look at Eurovision, many of their graphics are slightly altered for each content space which makes it “normal” looking. If there’s to many new aspects in every content area, it can sometimes get a little overwhelming and you’ll lose some readers.

Artist:

Coldplay has always been my favorite band. They deliver such a smooth mood and it really helps me get through my work day. If you haven’t given them a chance yet, you should. They are calm, and the contents of their songs are easy to relate to, and it gives you that “feel good” feeling (though some of their songs are down right depressing).

Well, this is the first Monday Magic of the New Year!

At one point, I had considered dropping this feature all together because it wasn’t garnering any responses (comments) and wasn’t doing as well as I had originally thought it would. However, after I ran the feedback survey, I was surprised to see that pretty much everyone wanted me to continue running this feature and that everyone approved and enjoyed it. So here I am again after missing last week’s entry.

This was a lot of fun to do this week because there were so many new sites out with great designs. It was extremely difficult being able to narrow it down to the categories that I’m working with, but I some how managed to do so and I think that the winners this week are definitely worthy. So take a look, and let me know what you think!

Most Original:

Paul J. Noble has one of the most original and refreshing sites I’ve had the pleasure of seeing in a while. Sure the whole “side-scrolling” thing isn’t entirely too original, but this is a great twist to an old gimmick. Navigation is handled either by clicking the arrow buttons on the bottom left, clicking the thumbnail boxes that you want to see, or by using your arrow keys (which is what I used). It was very fun and felt a lot more interactive then simply scrolling around and clicking on someone’s work.

Tip: It’s definitely difficult to come up with original ideas. So, do what you’re best at doing. Think creatively. How would you twist an old idea into something that’s new and refreshing? Think innovation. Some of the greatest inventions are simply improvements on existing technology.

Boldest Design:

I’ve seen some creative portfolios that were hand drawn in the past, but none for a larger agency. BootB delivers a new site almost entirely hand drawn and it looks good while doing it! In my opinion, only some of the best designers in the world can pull off this kind of look, and while BootB’s site struggles a little with its content and navigation design because of this, I think the initial impressions are strong enough for you to disregard that fact. This is a very bold design, countering all of their competitors while delivering a refreshing experience to its clients. BootB is pretty much an international design agency that caters to world class corporations (or at least, that’s what I understood from it).

Tip: Sometimes going against the norm will help you out. It’s also equally important to understand that while some fads have come and gone, seeing them again every now and then when the mediums have completely changed, may have a refreshing “retro” feel to it. Great job BootB.

Most Professional:

Flash Loaded is one of the best flash resources that designers have available to them. With that being said, it’s great to see that they’ve launched a new interface for themselves, and it really spotlights their products and services. With this redesign however, it seems that their target demographic has changed as well, and instead of selling smaller flash nifties (which FlashDen has really dominated) they are instead focusing on larger flash tools and interfaces. This is a great move in my book and their website really reflects their intentions and the rebirth of a new image.

Tip: It’s important to communicate with a website design. The best ones are the ones that speak for itself. FlashLoaded’s site talks to professional flash developers and designers with high profile clients, instead of FlashDen’s community ran site for smaller designers (and most likely freelancers).

Site of the Week:

Now before you complain or question my political stance, please understand that my decision for picking this site is simple: It’s beautiful. Politics played no roll whatsoever, but I can tell you that Obama is definitely not my #1 choice this year (who is? well, that’s for another story). But there’s no denying the fact that the Barack Obama website is beautiful. The colors are smooth, the graphics are nice, and it really brands the client himself. All of his competitors really have lame websites (Ron Paul is the closest one to above average status) and separating himself with such a site really improves his reputation in my book.

Tip: Your client’s brand and identity is probably the most important thing to them. They want it to be repeated throughout the website. Don’t think of a project as completely separate from your client, but rather an extension of their personality and reflections on the industry. This will help strengthen their identity. The best designers in the world are the ones that can carry on their client’s brand recognition through site design (this is also probably the hardest thing for a designer to accomplish).

Artist of the Week:

Colbie Caillat is one of my favorite new discoveries. She’s got a very pure and smooth voice that really touches you. It’s very soothing and allows me to work very well. It definitely gets my creative juices flowing. She’s got this great bluesy voice that’s really deep and intimate. I’d really recommend you get this one if you like female vocalists singing calm music while you work.