Tools and Resource for Designing Banner Ads

Here are the tools and resources you need to design effective banner ads.

Periodicals

BannerTips from Workz.com is the important newsletter on banner ad design I know of. http://www.bannertips.com/ It includes reports on testing various versions of banners to see which pulls best. By studying the archives you learn which colors, fonts, and gimmicks seem to work best. A scientific approach. I recommend you subscribe to this free newsletter.

Microscope from ClickZ.com provides weekly reviews of banner ads from advertising professionals who point out the strengths and weaknesses of a particular ad. http://www.microscope.com/

Articles

Banner Ad Design section of our Web Marketing Info Center provides links to dozens of articles on various aspects of banner ad design. http://www.wilsonweb.com/webmarket/banner-design.htm

CNet Builder.com has a number of practical articles on the subject.
http://home.cnet.com/webbuilding/0-7330.html?tag=st.bl.3883.dir1.7330

WebReference.com also includes a number of articles. http://webreference.com/authoring/graphics/animation.html

Software Tools

When I asked Ken Braun of Lounge Lizard Graphics what tool he recommend for banner ads, without hesitation he pointed to MacroMedia Fireworks, and described it as "Photoshop on steroids." He likes it because it allows you to build the frames and do the animation within a single product, and provides excellent optimization of the final banner to keep the file size small. "A great timesaver." Lounge Lizard also uses Adobe Photoshop for retouching and compositing photos and images. Photoshop also works well with Fireworks, which can easily import "layers" from Photoshop images.

Michael Chung of BannerWorkz.com uses Adobe Photoshop 5.5 with its companion product ImageReady for animation. "It's is a memory hog, gets jealous of other programs running at the same time and temperamental. But if you treat it right, Photoshop is a great design tool."

WebReview.com regularly reviews banner ad design tools. http://webreview.com/wr/pub?x-tb=a&x-searchall=animation

PC Magazine, June 21, 2000 reviewed web graphics tools. http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/stories/reviews/0,6755,2578666,00.html They gave their Editor's Choice recognition to MacroMedia Fireworks 3

CNet Download.com lists dozens shareware animation tools, with it's "picks" near the top. http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0,10151,0-10072-106-0-1-3,00.html?tag=st.dl.10012.dir.10072

Of the shareware products, I've used Ulead GIF Animator with good results, and it's CNet's most popular animation downloads by far. http://www.ulead.com/ga/runme.htm