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Not everyone can hit a 90 mile per hour fast ball 400 feet.Thats why there are so few major league baseball players.Most everyone enjoyed art class while in school, but we alsorealized there was probably only one in each classroom whoactually had a talent for drawing. So too with web design.We cant all be like the brilliant Willie Otto(http://reticulum.net/wso/), but that shouldnt limit ourability to present a credible web offering that serves ourpurposes, and attracts attention. If your graphic art talentis limited to stick figures and cartoon landscapes, thisarticle may just be for you. Know Your LimitationsHonestly judge your own abilities. No one knows better thanyou the level of artistic talent you possess. Operate withinthe limits. If you cant draw two straight lines, stick tocomputer generated graphics. If you dont know thedifference between a pixel and a palette, perhaps yourebetter off with text effects. If art is important to yourweb sites business, consider hiring a professional, orborrowing from the free graphics sites, but always givecredit where due. Never Try to Baptize a Cat. . . or develop your web graphics with Adobe Photoshop ifyou have but two hours of training. The result will be thesame; lots of fur and blood. If youve never used any kindof graphics editor before, I recommend Adobes ImageStyleror Jascs Paint Shop Pro. They each have a very shortlearning curve, a number of creative built-in specialeffects, and make your first-time images look better thanaverage. Neither are very expensive, and ImageStyleroperates on both the Windows and Macintosh platforms. Familiarize yourself with dingbats, and no, Im not talkingabout Edith Bunker. Dont know what those are? They arelittle pieces of iconized art that a talented illustratorhas developed and turned into a font. There are thousands ofthem available for download on the Internet for free, or asmall shareware fee. Type the letter A, and right beforeyour eyes you have a beautiful coat of arms or smiley face.They come in all shapes and sizes; look like buttons orarrows or caricatures; and make your job so much easier. Plan AheadThis is equally important to the most gifted professional orrank amateur. Even if you cant draw or render, you canvisualize. Spend a lot of pre-computer time conjuring imagesin your head. Make feeble attempts to transform those imagesto paper so youll remember what you had in mind. You maynot be able to draw, but at least you have an imagination.If you arent a whiz with HTML, consider a WYSIWYG layouteditor. The editor will allow you to move your creation fromyour mind to the screen. If you do know something about programming and the modernconstructs of web page design, consider building your sitewith external, included files. One of the most importanttenets of good web design is a consistent look and feel,especially the navigation. The navigation should look andoperate the same on every page within your site. It givesyour guests a feeling of comfort. If you construct your navigation within an external filethat is included at page load, you can save yourself tons ofrepetitive effort. If you want to add a new section, insteadof having to change hundreds of pages, you merely change theincluded file and youve added more functionality. There areprobably other pieces of your site that will appear on everypage. If so, put them in external files. Youll be glad youdid. Read up on server side includes and ASP (Active ServerPages) too. Photographs Are Our FriendsFor the no-talent artists like me, photography becomes theultimate substitute for computer generated art. Buy yourselfa digital camera, or a scanner. If you need a graphic thatlooks like a pumpkin patch, take a picture of one. Want tocreate that perfect background scene to set the mood? Nobetter realization than the actual thing. Props inphotography can serve an equally compelling purpose as thatomni-filtered vector you spent days developing. If you donthave the money or inclination to do digital photographyyourself, there are plenty of stock catalogs available for areasonable fee.In summary, why make it harder on yourself than it needs tobe? If you get scared off by the marvelous professionalartists out there, youll never give yourself a chance. Manyof the most enjoyable sites on the web were created by theother twenty people who sat in that art class admiring thework of Willie.

About the Author

Jeff Clark is webmaster of Internet Brothers: Helpware forthe Cybercommunity (http://internetbrothers.com), a web sitedevoted to helping newcomers compete on the Internet.Offering free tips, tutorials, and interviews about HTML andDHTML, graphics editing, page layout and design, digitalphotography, desktop publishing, and site promotion.