Hello World Design is excited to announce that we've been selected for the 2014 Best of Portland Award in the Website Designer category by the Portland Award Program. This is the second year in a row that Hello World Design has received this honor.

The Portland Award Program is an annual awards program honoring the achievements and accomplishments of local businesses throughout the Portland area. Recognition is given to companies that demonstrate the ability to use best business practices and implemented programs to generate a competitive advantage and long-term value.

If you’ve been putting off making your website responsive or mobile friendly, the time has come to jump on the bandwagon.  As of April 21, Google started taking mobile-friendliness as a factor for search rankings, making it more important than ever to have a mobile-friendly website.

Google has been promoting the need for mobile-friendly websites for a few years, and now the company is giving you even more reasons to go mobile. Google’s latest algorithm update is designed to have a noticeable impact on mobile search results, improving the rankings for websites that are mobile friendly.  There are a few things to note about this recent chan

With 2014 coming to a close, it’s time to look ahead at the coming year.  While we see plenty of trends come and go, a handful of the past year’s web design trends will carry over into the new year ­— such as responsive and flat design. In addition to the maturing of some of the trends we discussed in last year’s design predictions, we think you’ll be seeing a few new trends as well. Here are our top web design trends predicted for 2015:

• Video and Background Images

  More and more companies are now using videos and big, beautiful images to help communicate with their customers instead of   Read more...

In June of 2013, we wrote about Facebook’s release of a new video function in the popular photo-sharing app Instagram to compete with the rising popularity of video-sharing app Vine. With both video-sharing platforms in popular use for over a year, video content in social media has become a true medium for marketing and branding. But which app is winning? When it comes to connecting with customers, is Vine or Instagram a better tool for brand marketing? Let’s compare:

As a small business owner, it’s important to stay on top of your business’s finances. Luckily there are plenty of amazing apps on the market to help even the financially inept business owners manage money. From handling invoices and estimating cost, to tracking billings and creating financial reports, there are apps that make tracking business expenses simple and easy­ – and all from the convenience of your smartphone, too. Here are some of our top apps for managing your finances:

PayPal (Free) Available for iOS, Android, and Windows devices, the PayPal app is a user-friendly, mobile version of the online serv  Read more...

The back button is the most widely used command on the web, so from the moment a visitor lands on your homepage it needs to be working to help keep visitors on your site. If your website can’t fill users’ needs immediately, they are likely to exit your site without taking the time to look around. However, by avoiding these common mistakes on your homepage, you can create a website that grabs your visitors’ attentions and gives them a reason to stay.

• Too Busy of a Homepage Graphics can create a visually interesting website, but too much animation or added graphics can make your homepage feel overwhelmin  Read more...

Hello World Design is proud to announce that we have been selected for CSS Garden awards for our work on the websites of Portland-based law firm, ICS-law.org, and certification and inspection tag manufacture, Certags. As part of the awards, these two websites were featured front and center on the CSS Garden homepage.

Located in Portland, Ore., ICS Law is a non-profit immigration law firm that is dedicated to serving the needs of the Oregon immigrant communities. ICS has more than three decades of experience providing quality, affordable immigration legal services, including anti-human trafficking help, obtaining legal status, family unification

Hello World Design is pleased to announce the launch of the brand new logo for Blazin’ Hydrographics. The redesigned Blazin’ Hydrographics logo better represents the company image and their dedication to providing high-quality water-transfer prints.

Officially unveiled in August, 2014, the new logo will freshen their web presence, including their website and any future social media channels, as well as marketing material and company business cards. We feel the new logo is an exciting step for the future of the business and hope you enjoy the updated look as much as we do. Feel free to give us your thoughts on the new Blazin&rsqu

Hello World Design is happy to announce the launch of a new custom website for Main Street Developers, a Wisconsin-based company dedicated to the construction and development of quality hotel projects throughout the Midwest. Main Street Developers has considerable experience in the hotel franchise industry and works with investors through the planning, development, construction and operational phases of each hotel project.

We designed mainstreethotels.com to reflect the quality of work Main Street Developers pours into their development projects. In addition to giving the website a clean, professional design, the website is fully responsive   Read more...

We are excited to announce the launch of the new custom website for Blazin Hydrographics, a local family-owned company specializing in high-quality, custom printing services. Located in Oregon City, Blazin Hydrographics uses a water transfer printing process, also known as hydrographics or hydro dipping, that is able to apply a custom graphic or pattern to nearly any waterproof material, including wood, plastic, metal, glass and more. The hydrographic process of printing is so aptly named for it involves physically dipping the material in water in order to apply the graphic or design. This makes it ideal for printing on three-dimen

At Hello World Design, we're stepping up our efforts to lower our carbon footprint and offer greener, environmentally friendly Web hosting services to our clients. Designing and hosting websites, just like any other business, can generate an outstanding amount of carbon dioxide. That is why we decided to do our part to neutralize our emissions. Through recent efforts, Hello World Design has earned the official status of a Green Certified Web Site by greencertifiedweb.org, an international advocate for green business standards. We started by conserving the resources we use, which is considered to be one of the most effective ways to low  Read more...

Hello World Design is excited to announce that we've been selected for the 2014 Best of Portland Award in the Website Designer category by the Portland Award Program. This is the second year in a row that Hello World Design has received this honor.

The Portland Award Program is an annual awards program honoring the achievements and accomplishments of local businesses throughout the Portland area. Recognition is given to companies that demonstrate the ability to use best business practices and implemented programs to generate a competitive advantage and long-term value.

Color is a powerful design tool.

It can be used for branding your business, to evoke a mood or feeling, and to emphasize aspects of your website. Color is also the first thing most people notice, according to a study on color and branding by colormatters.com, making it valuable for creating brand recognition. But to anyone suffering from a color deficiency (often referred to as colorblindness), your website could be more difficult to access than you think.

We're pleased to announce the launch of the new custom website for the Inn at the Convention Center. Located in Portland, Ore., the Inn at the Convention Center is convenient walking distance to such attractions as the Oregon Convention Center, the Rose Quarter, including the Moda Center and Veterans Memorial Coliseum, and the Lloyd Center mall, among other Portland attractions. The hotel is also situated by both the MAX light rail system and the Eastside Street Car, making it incredible easy to travel around the city of Portland.

With the new generation of Apple Retina displays in popular use, Web images look better than ever on Apple laptops, desktops and mobile devices, such as the iPhone and iPad. While this seems most relevant for Apple users, non-Apple users should be careful to not dismiss the wide use of Retina technology. If you haven’t updated the imagery on your website, this high pixel density technology can make your logo look pixelated on a Retina display.

If Retina displays are designed to improve image quality, you might be wondering why your current images will appear a little fuzzy. Retina displays, or liquid crystal displays with a pixel density hig

Hello World Design is excited to announce the launch of the redesigned, custom website for Collection Connection. Collection Connection is a Portland-local, full service framing shop providing high-end custom framing and memorabilia sourcing since 1993. Specializing in sports framing and memorabilia, Collection Connection services the needs of individuals, franchises and major universities and colleges, among other clients.

Wanting to create a website that better mirrors the quality of work Collection Connection offers, we redesigned collconn.com to give it a more professional feel. We revamped the site’s look with new graphics, a  Read more...

A good logo is one of the most important elements in the branding of your company. Would Nike be as iconic without the swoosh? Or McDonalds without the golden arches? Whether you are a large corporation or a small business, your company logo acts like your company’s face to the world. Your logo is the first thing people notice on your product, your packaging, your business cards or your company website. It’s a magical symbol that instantly identifies your business and visually communicates with your customer-base what your company is all about.

Last year we saw some splashy trends in web design, from more creative use of typography and white space to an increase use of fixed navigation. Now, with 2014 in full motion, we’d like to take a moment to look at few trends we think the new year has in store for us.

Responsive Design

Responsive design will quickly become the standard. Why? With the rise of smartphones and tablets, there is an increased demand for sites with full functionality on mobile devices. Here are a couple of sites we think are killing it on the responsive design front:

Hello World Design has officially launched a newly redesigned, custom website for Immigration Counseling Service (ICS), a Portland-based non-profit immigration law firm. Since 1978, ICS has been serving the Oregon immigrant communities by providing legal services to persons of low income seeking to flee persecution, families separated by borders applying for reunification and individuals who are striving to become United States citizens.

Hello World Design redesigned ics-law.org to give the site a professional, warm look that better reflects the work the firm does. A new top navigation bar makes it quick and easy to find more information  Read more...

Hello World Design has launched a customized WordPress website for Mr. Mike Inspires, a business providing professional life coaching and consulting services. Mikelange Olbel, better known as Mr. Mike, has traveled the United States for over a decade speaking at seminars and workshops, giving keynotes, and providing coaching and consulting for both businesses and individuals looking to maximize their potential. In addition to his professional life coaching, Mr. Mike founded Team Saving Our Youth Inc. (TeamSOY), an organization dedicated to fostering relationships between parents, youth and the community to conquer challenges facing today&rsquo

Hello World Design has been selected for the 2013 Best of Portland Award in the Website Designer category by the Portland Award Program.

The Portland Award Program is an annual awards program honoring the achievements and accomplishments of local businesses throughout the Portland area. Recognition is given to those companies that have shown the ability to use their best practices and implemented programs to generate competitive advantages and long-term value.

The Portland Award Program was established to recognize the best of local businesses in our community. Our organization works exclusively with local business owners, trade group

Hello World Design officially launches certags.com, a custom website for Certags: specialized manufacturer of industrial, hard wearing inspection and certification tags that are designed for use in a range of applications, from tags for lifting and rigging equipment to inspection labels for the fall protection and height safety industries. A family owned company with offices based in Portland, Ore., Certags has been dedicated to providing quality products and exceptional service for more than 40 years.

For businesses of all sizes, having a social media presence on major networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+, is important for promoting your business and creating connections with current and future customers. However, with multiple accounts to manage, it can be easy to fall behind on postings. Luckily there are management tools out there to help. Here are five such tools that can help you manage your social media presence more effectively and efficiently:

Hello World Design has officially launched intellectualnigerians.com, an exclusive online community for single, professional Nigerians who live in the US or around the world. As an invite-only community, Intellectual Nigerians aims to foster a courteous and civil environment where single young professionals from Nigeria come to meet. Some online dating sites have gained a reputation for coarse or offensive language. Other sites are great for networking among young professionals, but not so good for meeting singles. Intellectual Nigerians hopes to bridge that gap.

Collaboration confusion getting your office down?

Evernote wants to help. You may be more familiar with the application for personal use, but Evernote also has a few tricks up its sleeve for businesses. Last December, the digital note taking application released a version of its services designed specifically for business, and ever since businesses across industries have been finding creative ways to use Evernote to get organized.

On June 1st, 2013, Google shuttered its popular RSS reader, Google Reader, for good.

RSS is a standardized, XML-based, format that allows content publishers to post content for viewing in multiple applications. RSS stands for RDF site summary but its more common interpretation is Really Simple Syndication, because at it's core, that's what RSS is. It's the easiest way to syndicate your content (text, images, audio, video, etc.) across the web for use in various websites, apps, and even some alarm clocks.

Pinterest isn’t just all fun and games. Businesses both big and small are currently turning to the social media site as a new way to connect with customers, and for good reason, too. Jeweler Rachel Ball used Pinterest to increase traffic to her online shop by 22 percent and in turn has seen an increase of sales by 20 percent. The site, which allows users to “pin” photos, videos and links to digital “pinboards,” reached some 70 million users this month and averages 2.5 billion monthly page views. In addition, an average of 80 percent of pins get “repined” or shared by users, making the website an excellen

If you have been keeping up with social media trends, you’re undoubtedly aware of Instagram’s new video function. Introduced just over a week ago, the video function has already become a popular way for businesses to connect with potential customers. According to a report by Simply Measured, nearly twice as many brands are already using Intagram than the similar and also popular video application Vine. But what does all this mean for small businesses? Research shows that people have a tendency to respond better to images than they do to text and with some 130 million monthly users, Instagram can be a fun, interactive way to engage w

Hello World Design is proud to announce that we have won a CSS Garden award for our work on a Portland small business website, WeeMindings.com.

Located in Portland, Oregon, WeeMindings.com sells Celtic-themed gifts. We're pleased to announce that just a few weeks after its launch, WeeMindings was featured by CSS Garden, which is a web gallery that showcases the most fantastic, original web designs from around the world since 2009. The site is frequently used by web designers and developers as a source of inspiration for solutions with an outstanding design or sites that creatively implement advanced CSS or javascript.

Twitter is one of the most used social networks and an important part of any social media strategy. But maximizing your Twitter benefit goes way beyond crafting a 140 character message. Here are a few tips to help you get more out of your Twitter account:

Use favorites to help generate followers

It’s no surprise that most Twitter users are looking to boost their followers and over all reach. Search for tweets that mention things you are interested in or relate to your field and favorite them. People tweeting about similar subjects are more likely to decided to follow your account.

When it launched, many people in the Portland web design community wrote off Google+ as another product soon to end up in Google's graveyard, like Google Wave, Buzz, Gears, Knol, and in a few months, Google Reader, but in just under 2 years, as of January 2013, Google+ has surpassed Twitter to become the second largest social networking site in the world (with Facebook in the #1 slot). Aside from the social features like hangouts, messaging, games, etc., the biggest benefit of Google+ can be to your SEO. Here's why:

By now, most small businesses know that when utilized right Facebook can be a powerful marketing tool, but it is all too easy to fall pray to common Facebook marketing mistakes. What kind of content should you post? How often should you post? Are you engaging with your customers? Luckily, there are a few guidelines to help you avoid being a Facebook worse offender.

Don't be an overposter.

You can't generate user engagement with customers without posting on your Brand Page, but be careful to not over post. Default to the “less is more” mentality with Facebook post. If you’re just starting a Brand Page, Faceb

Social media can be an advantageous marketing channel. It’s an opportunity to expand your awareness and establish connections with your customers/client base. But as a starting business venture, an effective social media plan can be a challenge. Here are a few tips to get you started:

#10 Use Services Within Platforms to Leverage Your Social Media Presence

It’s easy to use certain social networking sites in combination with each other. You can cross-market your social media message by connecting such sites as Twitter and Facebook. You can also use third party sites, such as HootSuite, to help you easily manage your social  Read more...

#5 Tracking results is simple

While it may be difficult to interpret insights from Facebook or Twitter and translate that into real dollar amounts, it's easy to track the results of an email campaign. You can see who opened an email, who clicked a link inside of it, and whether they completed an action, like a sale or other conversion. Being able to measure results quickly means you can adapt your next campaign and maximize your sales.

#4 Email is Required

An email address might as well be a social security number these days. In 2013, the number of worldwide email accounts is predicted to grow to 3.6 billion. That's

Our recently launched custom website created for weemindings.com has been nominated for a CSS Design Award!

Please click here and "thumbs up" our site to vote for Wee Mindings and show your support.

The CSSDA provides website awards and CSS awards in a CSS gallery format showcasing the best websites in the world. The CSSDA (CSS Design Awards) accepts website submissions from web designers, website design studios, design agencies and CSS gallery enthusiasts. The CSSDA performs an important role in the web design community by showcasing brilliant website design work. The CSSDA Website Award takes this initiative

First of all, the various social media network logos are indeed all TRADEMARKED. Twitter and Facebook, for example, have lengthy pages about how to format their logos. They make it sound like it is absolutely illegal to modify these icons for use on your website.

These rules are simply suggested guidelines. We've all seen social media icons in every format and color. The Hello World Design website uses a monochrome color palatte, and to keep a uniform look to the site, all of our social media icons in the footer have been modified. Twitter may not suggest I put their little bird icon inside a circle.. but I see no need to have a blar

Hello World Design is being featured on CSS Garden, a United Kingdom-based Web design gallery showcasing excellence in CSS Web designs. This time, we are being recognized for the work done on oregonpubli

We are really pleased with ourselves this time..  The latest-and-greatest of our client services offerings is quite impressive!

We have just launced version 2.7 of our client admin suite.  Out with the old.. we've started several areas of our admin from scratch!  Recoding everything to be even more streamlined and make your life easier!

You can now take full control of ALL of your website content, images, photo gallery, slideshow, captions, and more.. even from your mobile device!  Content management has never been easier.. and we've never been more proud to offer our very own custom CMS suite!  Take that Wordpress!