http://www.natashakong.com creative direction and design Thu, 11 Oct 2007 18:57:42 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I've had a few clients ask the question can a content management system (CMS) accommodate the dynamic elements of my brand? When we get around to talking about design templates most clients think that they will have to straightjacket their brand into a rigid pre-defined structure. Not so. Even ... http://www.natashakong.com/2006/12/02/are-templates-the-branding-straightjacket/ It's bound to happen at one time or another "designer" block. One solution? Ping pong design. This summer while working on the website design for Hollyhock I had the great opportunity to bounce around my ideas with fellow designers Brandon Johnson and Jordan Lewin from Communicopia. I started the ... http://www.natashakong.com/2006/11/27/ping-pong-design-%e2%80%93-overcoming-designer%e2%80%99s-block/ Next time you're window dressing your homepage you might want to check to see who's coming in through the backdoor. While I was working as a web producer at the Canadian Broadcast Corporation I noticed that we were getting significant traffic flow from a number of big blog sites such ... http://www.natashakong.com/2006/11/20/dressing-up-your-website%e2%80%99s-back-door/ Hiring a designer to design you a website is like buying a house before you know what the finished product is going to look like. That makes it tough for a lot of clients to make the right selection. Here are just a handful of typical selection methods: Scenario 1 Client finds ... http://www.natashakong.com/2006/11/10/making-a-purchase-site-unseen/ Just because some organizations are well served by their site’s blog doesn’t mean that you will be. Clients are buzzed by the blog trend but don’t realize the time, energy and upkeep involved. After much deliberation I finally decided to hang a shingle out and set up my own blog ... http://www.natashakong.com/2006/11/01/high-on-the-blog/