Top 5(ish) tips for creative designers

Often as developers we have to solve problems and often without the luxury of time to try out a solution before we dive headlong into implementing it into a project.

Here at GeekyCreative we have come to realise that we can rely on a core set of skills to produce the framework for a development which then gives us more time to look at the bespoke functionality of a project.

Our recent post covered our must have tools for web developers... little applications, libraries and plugins that make a big difference in terms of our development workflow.

Now we turn our attention to creative thinking, just how do our designers produce something unique when time is short and the pressure on. Here are there top tools and tips for increasing your creative design output.

Sketch pad and pencil
Probably the most obvious thing to say, but we still see designers go straight for the Mac when designing for a client. A pencil and paper helps us 'play' with our ideas, park them until later when we can review them before committing too much time and deciding they just don't work. Plus you never know when inspiration will strike - you might not have the trusty laptop handy and then you should be able to trust your drawing skills to capture what's in your head.

Adobe CS
Simply the most awesome image manipulation and design suite going. If you can afford this then it is a must. Every designer on Earth will know of and probably used one of the packages in this collection.

Desktop scanner
For scanning in your sketches and importing into Photoshop or Illustrator so that you can really bring your ideas to life. If your studio doesn't boast a scanner then you should seriously think about investing.

A good stock photo website
As creative people we often look for 'that' image first and then let the colour scheme, fonts and layout follow on from that one picture that says it all. You can't always find what you want on stock sites but you'll get a mood and style pretty close. You can then hang a design around this and if the client doesn't like the picture - show them a million more they can chose from.

Magazine subscriptions
We think it's important to stay current. Subscribe to industry magazines like Create Review or the brilliant Computer Arts. Online magazines such as Blanket are also a great source of inspiration and trend analysis. Your clients will see the stuff in these pages too, so should try and get their first in order to make a good impression.

Music
Anything and everything... turn it up. Turn it down. In the car, on headphones, the studio stereo - everywhere. Somehow music helps our designers tick. If it's the radio we flick between ClassicFM and 6music depending on our mood. From CD and iTunes it can be anything from the ABBA to Zeppelin.

Unfortunately you cannot be taught how to be a good designer, there is a little bit of natural talent needed that you cannot learn... but you can organise your time better and learn where and how you get your inspiration. Each designer is different so you should spend time learning what works for you. For us, the tips above are essential to keeping the ideas flowing.

Top 5(ish) Geeky tools for a web developer

Lists of useful items seems to be a long running trend on blog posts and here at GeekyCreative we thought it was about time that we threw our two penneth in.

So, we compiled a list of out top 5(ish) FREE tools for all you Geeky web developers out there. Hopefully our next blog will we the top 5(ish) Creative tools for budding designers.

Without an further to do and in no particular order:

jQuery (http://jquery.com/)

They say - jQuery is a fast and concise JavaScript Library that simplifies HTML document traversing, event handling, animating, and Ajax interactions for rapid web development. jQuery is designed to change the way that you write JavaScript.

We say - Wow. There isn't much that you can't do with jQuery... animation, AJAX, client side validation, advanced CSS... the list goes on. Quite simply we love it.

Web Developer Toolbar (http://chrispederick.com/work/web-developer/)

They say - The Web Developer extension adds a menu and a toolbar to the browser with various web developer tools. It is designed for Firefox, Flock and Seamonkey, and will run on any platform that these browsers support including Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

We say - Here at GeekyCreative we run this extension in Firefox and find it simply unbelievable! Nothing comes close to matching the functionality here. Highlight image paths, outline CSS elements, advanced source view, window resizing and much much more. An old tool but one of our most valuable.

Firebug (http://getfirebug.com/)

They say -

• Inspect HTML and modify style and layout in real-time
• Use the most advanced JavaScript debugger available for any browser
• Accurately analyze network usage and performance
• Extend Firebug and add features to make Firebug even more powerful
• Get the information you need to get it done with Firebug.

We say - If you aren't already using this then why not? We couldn't get by without this little gem. Just for it's AJAX debugging function alone it should be a mainstay of every developers toolkit.

Keepass (http://keepass.info/)

They say - KeePass is a free open source password manager, which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key file. So you only have to remember one single master password or select the key file to unlock the whole database.

We say - If you have half as many usernames and passwords as us then you need Keepass. We would be in a right mess without it.

Visual Studio Express (http://www.microsoft.com/express/)

They say - Microsoft Visual Studio Express and SQL Server Express are free tools that empower you to quickly get started learning and building Web, Windows, and Database applications.

We say - This one might be a touch controversial, but here at GeekyCreative we are C# .net developers and too date we have found nothing better than Visual Studio for putting together .net websites.

Google Analytics (http://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/analytics/index.html)

They say - Google Analytics is the enterprise-class web analytics solution that gives you rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness. Powerful, flexible and easy-to-use features now let you see and analyze your traffic data in an entirely new way. With Google Analytics, you're more prepared to write better-targeted ads, strengthen your marketing initiatives and create higher converting websites.

We say - Web site tracking doesn't get better than this. Stunning functionality that, if you combine with AdWords, keeps track of ALL the activity to and from your website. This tool has so much functionality we are still getting to grips with some of the features despite having it installed in over 100 developments.

And there you have it... our top 5(ish) tools for Geeky website developers. We could of added more and I am sure you people out there will disagree with some of our choices, but, it's only our opinion. We use these tools every day and simply could not see ourselves doing this job without them.