Minisite Designers - Help!

[Jason Pereira]

Hey Warriors,

After spending way too much on minisite designs over the last few weeks (worth it, of course given some of the quality produced by designers on here) I've decided to try and look into creating them myself - and would love any help with one main thing.

Generally product minisites have a killer header, made up of the title and various images, which is then superimposed onto the eCover graphics - I can do the title and the template but was wondering where the stock images were purchased from. I want this to be all above board - don't want to be sued ten months down the line for using images that didn't have rights.

I'm presuming designers purchase these from a stock site - I can't imagine they'd be created from scratch for a $97 - $297 template, although I may be wrong.

Did a search on here but couldn't find much so here we go:

At the moment I've got

Stock Photography: Search Royalty Free Images & Photos
stock.xchng - the leading free stock photography site

as resources. Any others? Ones that need payment would be fine, although obviously they shouldn't be too expensive.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[SiteBlaster]

If you can

1. Hand roll your own html. You don't really need software. Just build a basic site. Header, a Left column, Content area and of course your footer.

2. Header can be simple in appearance but make sure your Title and tag can be read well.

3. In the left column add your links to whatever it is you are selling.

4. In the Content area add your content but also allow the others Ads to be able to injected into the top paragraph so it wraps.

5. In the footer is where I place the rest of my site navigation.

Only in the standard Heat Map areas are the links that I want to the user to see.

It works for me.

Good Luck!

[Aljiro]

I can only suggest with full confidence the following sites:

IstockPhoto
BigStockPhoto

Note: A great header is a defining point of a great design though not the only one

Have a blessed day.

[sanjid112]

Outsource it. Try designtourney. You'll meet a lot of great graphics designer there that you can hire to design image for your header.

some site i often use, besides the two you have mentioned above.
shutterstock, jupiterimages, freestockimages, and GettyImages


-Malik

[Akky]

Hi Jason,

First, take a look at psdtuts.com and buy their membership, you'll get a lot of inspiration and stuff which would help you in your designing. Then just start designing and tweak it over and over once you think it's perfect. Do ask me as well, I will help you. I know a bit designing .

G'day,
Akhil