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Our thoughts

Okay, real talk, blogging often is hard shit. We care so much about you and your time. We don’t write posts for the sake of writing posts. If we have a passionate topic, you’ll see it here. Otherwise trust we are probably just busy making something great for the citizens of the interwebs.

So what is a wireframe in the web design process?

In every industry there is a sub language. Words, phrases, shorthand that really only speaks to those that already get it. So here we are, designers, talking about a bunch of stuff that makes no sense to you. I want to change that. Today, let’s unpack “wireframes”. So in a nut shell, a wireframe is…

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Our take on site speed metrics

So there is a large focus on sites being fast. Google rewards sites that load quickly and meet their speed criteria. Go ahead, run your site through googles page insight tool. https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/ What grade did you get? Was it under 50/100 on desktop? You won’t be alone. That’s actually pretty normal. We have had this…

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The History of Typography

We spend a lot of time working on the right font pairings in our projects. We try not to get super geeky on you, but sometimes we do want to share the process, get your feedback, or just communicate why we did something. This is a great short animation on the history of type, showing great key…

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Good Design is…

I love reading about designers and what their personal mantras are. Dieter Rams is one of the most influential industrial / product designers in our time. He made Braun a household name in the 50s and 60s by creating simple products that worked well. Design trends that are still being followed and copied today. When asked if he thinks…

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Crate Coffee branding preview

Just a quick preview of a new brand we recently developed for Crate Coffee. Featuring locally roasted beans with unique blends specific to their markets. We designed the logo to have a rough, painted look, so to finish the brand implementation we used a rubber stamp on the business cards and coffee bags. It is…

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Inspiration from everything

As designers, we like to say inspiration can come from anything. The following video showcases just this. Mine Kafon is a project from Massoud Hassani, a designer who grew up in Kabul. Using childhood toys, he modeled a land mine detonation device. It’s fascinating to see how much like his toy the final result is.…

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letting creative flow

Just a great example of a big, giant, corporate site, having some fun. Lowes.com has a promotional banner highlighting their new paint calculator. The focus is partially on wasting less. So what better way to highlight that message than show some wasted paint. Dripping down the entire home page.   I applaud their creativity and…

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Site Launch: Ace Hardware

This was a really exciting project to work on here at factor1. Ace Hardware Phoenix is a regional site to represent the collective marketing efforts of all Phoenix metro valley stores. A total of just over 50 stores. The new website features a Do-it-yourself video archive, news, sales & promotions, seasonal tips, and a Google…

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Clean, minimal, and beautiful

I love how a good clean site can be so simplistic and yet so aesthetically pleasing. Minimalism is hard to accomplish without seeming boring, but when done properly, the outcome is amazing. Check out these great sites that have nice color and typography choices, and a stunning minimalist layout.

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websites on the cheap

Often we are contacted by potential clients that have little to no money. Just yesterday we had an up and coming actress inquire about a site, and only had $300 to spend. This is hard on me. I love to help people, and I really love the web and marketing. In fact its why I…

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