They can be especially useful if you’re looking at multiple web pages at once.

If you’re browsing your bookmarks (favourite sites) or picking out a tab when you have 10 or more open, then favicons are the only unique graphic or image that can be utilised by the website’s designer. For this reason, great consideration is often given to designing them.

Google have changed their favicon twice is recent times, the most recent is the result of design competition that saw a student from Brazil submitting the favourite.

Different Uses

Different websites use the favicon in different ways, for example they can be;

• Company logos
• Functional icons
• Playful brand extensions

Technical Importance

Favicons are also important technically. According to YSlow, a web development browser plugin by Yahoo, not having a favicon can waste resources;

Since the browser requests this file, it needs to be present; if it is missing, the browser returns an error.

Further Reading on Favicons

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favicon

Fable © Lionhead Studios

There’s another great looking amperSAND event this month.

This time Andrew Lindsay, Animation Director at Lionhead Studios talks about ‘Game Animation, Art and Technology’, covering the following questions;

• How do artists and animators work within the parameters set by the tech., do those parameters restrict or inspire us?
• What implications does ‘playability’ have for the things we create?
• Can the balance between the two (tech and art) be managed in favour of the art?

The event takes place at Swansea Metropolitan University’s School of Digital Media on Wednesday 22nd April.

Hopefully see you there!

Find out more about amperSAND events here.

Wipeout HD © Sony Computer Entertainment Europe

amperSAND is a series of lectures run by Swansea Metropolitan University’s School of Digital Media.

Open to students, professionals and hobbyists. The events are a spin off from the successful SAND international conference that is held annually in the autumn.

“amperSAND is a forum and meeting place for professionals and enthusiasts working in all aspects of digital media, which welcomes businesses, students, independent artists and people with an interest in animation, computer games, digital art, and other production areas in these sectors.”

SAND and amperSAND are a real asset to Swansea’s digital media scene, and I’ve been a fan since the start. I attended a talk last night by Neil Thompson (Art Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe) who covered the topic of creating a launch title video game for the PlayStation3;

“…developing a game for console launch is a unique challenge: working with moving parameters and unfinished hardware is not for the faint hearted.”

I’m sure that most of us can imagine how has ‘exciting’ these kinds of projects might be to work on.

If you’re interested in digital media and creative technologies, the next amperSAND event will be held on Wednesday 18th March 2009 by Henry Lutman, Computer Animator and Research Fellow.

Visit the AmperSAND website for more information.

Google Mail – The best online email application. Plus once you have a Google account you get access to a whole host of features such as Google Docs (Office Suite), Google Analytics (Website Statistics) and Google Calendar (er, a Calendar).

Digsby – Digsby combines your Instant Messaging, Email and Social Networking accounts into one little desktop app. It’s discreet and you can hide it when you don’t want to be disturbed or when the boss walks past. It works with MSN, Yahoo, Google, Facebook & Twitter to name just a few.

Dropbox – Lets you synchronise and share your files online. Dropbox gives you 2GB for free to fill with your photos, documents and other files. Just drop them in the folder on your desktop and they’ll seamlessly upload to your account, log in from a different computer they’ll be there too.

Firefox – Safer and generally less ‘clunky’ than Internet Explorer, Firefox still gets my vote as the best internet browser around despite there being more alternatives around these days. It’s constantly being updated and you can add extra features so it works the way you want it to.

Skype – Make calls via the internet with Skype. Its free for pc-to-pc and you can get cheap rates for in/outgoing calls to UK and international numbers. You can even buy an online number, so people can reach you wherever you and your PC/laptop/device happen to be.

“create a personal and meaningful relationship with your customers”

Basically a blog is a website. They are meant to be updated regularly, so the most recent info appears at the top of the page, and older less-relevant content is pushed down (but rarely deleted). Over time you’ll develop a large and valuable resource of information.

Blogs can be used as;

• news pages
• diaries
• magazines sites
• or even entire websites (like this one!)

They can be part of your existing site or can stand alone as a separate one. Many allow visitors to leave comments on your articles, this gives you a chance to create a personal and meaningful relationship with your customers.

All you need to do is spend a few minutes a week updating it; you can write articles about your business expertise, upload music and audio files (called a podcast), link to your videos on YouTube and much more. Plus search engines love blogs, and since every article you write will create a new web page, you’ll soon have hundreds of links back to your website pushing you nearer the top of Google.

Get your free blog from Wordpress or Blogger.

Read more about Blogs.

You’ll see the logo on many products made from wood, from toilet roll to flat pack furniture.

Its important to graphic designers because we use a lot of paper, and buying from FSC approved suppliers makes sure that that paper is coming from sustainable, well managed forests.

Read more about FSC

CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow & Black.

When designing for print, artwork should be created and saved in CMYK.

If you are working with files (such as digital photos) that were created in RGB (Red, Green & Blue) you should make a copy of these and convert them to CMYK ready for printing.

Read more about CMYK.