In my last news article, Does your website need a hero image?, I questioned whether following this layout trend was absolutely necessary. But I also mentioned that most of my new sites utilize photo sliders on the home page. So, if you're going to use a hero image or a big image slider on your home page, think about how it should look and work. Here are some basic rules to consider.

Take a look at almost any newer website design on the Internet today and there's a great chance you'll see a giant photo or a huge photo slider on the home page. Just like fashion, architecture, and other industries, web design follows trends. People see other sites and they want their site to look the same. They go to seminars where "professionals" tell them "your site must have an enormous photo on the home page." 

From Adobe Creative Cloud blog story by  Sheena Lyonnais

Technology is intrusive. It beeps, buzzes and flashes, constantly trying to get our attention. It interrupts us when we’re eating dinner with our loved ones and pushes notifications at us until it succeeds in completely stealing our conversation away. We’re in relationships with our devices and they don’t want us to forget about it. They nag and they nip, shouting about their newest innovations while others flash their latest features at us, tempting us with their flirtation. Our eyes wander to what’s next whether we want them to or not, and before we know it we can barely breathe over the clatter.

WWII propaganda posters really stoked the emotions. The U.S. produced almost 200,000 different poster designs during the war and many of the styles still influence poster design today.

For an interesting twist on the U.S. propaganda poster, check out these Star Wars Propaganda Posters designed by illustrator Russell Walks.

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I recently redesigned an outdoor advertising campaign for the Louisiana Credit Union league. Last year, they gave me strict instructions to adapt a design that was used in California to the Louisiana market.

I was reading a book on architecture with my son last night and he asked, "which of these buildings is your favorite?" I admire lots of buildings--the genius of the Colosseum, the beauty and scale of Angkor Wat, and the well adorned Chrysler Building to name a few. But that night we also read about the Guggenheim Museum in New York and that's the one I chose.

I was designing a logo for a client a while back and the main concern he expressed when viewing the proof was that "my business does more than that." I had to explain to him that one of the main purposes of the logo is to brand his business by creating a consistent image.

Gray Line tours needed new artwork for the outside of their tour buses. The busses were completely wrapped in a photo design featuring some artwork I did along with pictures of some of their tour locations. Unfortunately, new advertising laws were passed soon after they decorated the busses and they had to strip all of the artwork off, leaving the busses bare as a baby in his birthday suit. Needless to say, plain white tour busses were not good for business.

I Design also does photography. Here's Liz (my wife) taking a break from weddings by shooting equpiment and trucks for one of my clients. My only direction, "make 'em look skinny!"

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I just recently worked with Teddy Brennan and Bridget Brennan Tyrell on a new logo for Ted Brennan's Decatur Restaurant. They showed me one of the original menus from Brennan's that featured a French Quarter lightpost on the front (pre rooster days). I worked with them on a few options and we all agreed on the version below. The new logo takes a historic design and gives it some modern touches.