Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Craigslist is one of the ugliest websites on the Internet. The home page is an indistinct wall of links and text, the site is tough to navigate, the postings are cluttered, and the design has barely changed in the past 15 years. At a time when websites are competing to offer the best digital experiences, Craigslist is the pinnacle of user unfriendliness. And that's exactly what makes it brilliant, says Pascal Deville.

Deville is founder of Brutalist Websites, a site dedicated to the most frustrating design on the web. The site takes its name from the controversial architectural movement Brutalism. To some, Brutalist buildings are poetry in concrete; to others, they're chilly monoliths. Web design, Deville argues, has a similar dichotomy. Here's how he describes a Brutalist website:

In its ruggedness and lack of concern to look comfortable or easy, Brutalism can be seen as a reaction by a younger generation to the lightness, optimism, and frivolity of today's web design.

Appropriately, Deville's website has some of the hallmarks of the content it espouses—a rudimentary layout, one of the most basic typefaces (Courier), an infinite scroll, and no tabs or ways to sort the dozens of blog posts....

Canva just introduced a simple-as-pie new online Design School that empowers everyone to learn AMAZING graphic design skills.

Yes, it’s for people just like us — businesses & brands communicating through social media!

The school includes a series of quick & easy tutorials that cover everything beginners need to know about design.

So if you want to become a better visual communicator, here’s a taste of the powerful graphic design hacks you’ll learn at the Canva Design School....

...when used wisely, color has the ability to affect the mood of your visitors. Makes people feel welcome, comfortable and relaxed with blue hues or sell your sales pitch with an aggressive shade of red.

Whatever color scheme you choose, a great deal of creativity goes into designing a bold and colorful theme.To get you inspired, I’ve gathered a collection of stunning WordPress themes that make great use of strong color. Many of the designs feature flat design and responsive layouts – both hot trends right now.---

The crystal clear message: Creating good content results in good residual traffic, sometimes known as the long tail. When traffic is purchased (think adwords) or pushed via social networks and social bookmarking sites (think referral traffic from other sites) traffic will come as long as it is pushed, driven. But when the buying and pushing stops, so does the traffic. Not so with good content that is on topic and created at the home site. It’s the content that keeps on giving, um, pulling. Content marketing is inbound marketing. And it can’t be beat long term....