Web Design

• 
  Mayhem Studios

• How To Network On-line For Your Next Big Project

  8 Nov 2009 | 10:48 pm

  These days I do a lot of my networking and marketing on-line. The web reaches more people than any brochure or media kit, with less time and money. The two that really helped me are: On-line networking/directory web sites and posting in forums.Having a profile/account/portfolio on any free networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, or Creative Hotlist will get your name out there. Posting on forums will also help to build relations and trust that may bring you new clients and projects.That's how Create Magazine contacted me to design their 5 page featured article. I have a portfolio…

• Winner of the UPrinting Give Away: 500 Free Tri-fold Brochure Printing & Shipping

  7 Oct 2009 | 8:05 pm

  Mayhem Studios and UPrinting are proud to announce the Winner of the UPrinting Give Away: 500 Free Tri-fold Brochure Printing & Shipping. Thank You @UPrinting and @Youthedesigner for sponsoring this giveaway in support of the creative community.Congrats to Andrew Moon, @amoon66 | WINNER of 500 Free Tri-fold Brochure Printing & ShippingWinners in the United States and Canada qualify for free shipping. Shipping fees will apply to winners outside these areas.

• UPrinting Give Away: 500 Free Tri-fold Brochure Printing & Shipping

  10 Sep 2009 | 7:49 pm

  Mayhem Studios and UPrinting are teaming up again for another awesome give away. This time around, an even sweeter deal! 500 Free 8.5 x 11 Trifold Brochures on 100lb gloss or matte printing + free ground shipping within the United States. ONE LUCKY WINNER will be chosen at random from all the entries. I would like to thank @UPrinting and @youthedesigner for sponsoring this give away in support of the creative community.ABOUT UPRINTINGUPrinting is a leading online printing company that provides high quality printing at the most affordable prices including; Canvas Prints, Business Card…

• Winners of the UPrinting Give Away: 1000 Free Business Cards and Canvas Print

  9 Sep 2009 | 9:47 pm

  Mayhem Studios and UPrinting are proud to announce the Winners of the 1000 Free Business Cards and One 18x24 Canvas Print Giveaway. Thank You @UPrinting and @Youthedesigner for sponsoring this giveaway in support of the creative community.Tru Shots, @thetrudz | WINNER of 1000 Free standard size business cardsJustin Woods, @jsw0984 | WINNER of one Free 18x24 rolled canvas print Winners in the United States and Canada qualify for free shipping. Shipping fees will apply to winners outside these areas.

• UPrinting Give Away: 1000 Free Business Cards And One 18x24 Canvas Print

  15 Jul 2009 | 1:37 am

  Mayhem Studios and UPrinting is teaming up to give away: 1000 Free Business Cards and One 18x24 Canvas Print to two lucky winners. I would like to thank UPrinting for sponsoring this give away in support of the creative community.ABOUT UPRINTINGUPrinting is a leading online printing company that provides high quality printing at the most affordable prices including; Canvas Prints, Business Card Printing, Brochures, Postcards and more.For over 25 years, UPrinting has been a trusted leader in online printing, featuring its signature easy-to-use website and the famous Free File Review, a…

• 
  Bokardo

• The Most Important Feature of a Multi-Device Web: Syncing

  Josh

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:24 am

  As the ecosystem of devices proliferates, with the iPhone and Android platforms coming into their own (along with the ever-impending iTablet), we’re seeing a single feature become the most important and critical piece of new technology: syncing. If you sync seamlessly across devices, people will love you for it. It’s why I love the Apple ecosystem. I add a calendar event to my desktop, iPhone, or web app, and it automagically appears on the others. All of my mail is synced in all of these places so I never have to worry about missing email or knowing whether I replied or having to…

• Looking for examples of microcopy

  Josh

  12 Nov 2009 | 5:53 am

  I’ve set up a new Flickr group with the express intent of aggregating examples of microcopy, that tiny copy (often shorter than a sentence) that helps clarify, explain, reduce commitment, or otherwise assuage someone performing (or considering) a task. You can find the group here: Flickr: Microcopy Creating the group was prompted by Relly Annett-Baker, a web copy-writer from England who is putting together some materials on the subject and asked if I had some good examples. I had a few, but most of the good ones have come from other folks who are working on cool things. It occurred to…

• Is Twitter Successful?

  Josh

  21 Oct 2009 | 3:52 am

  The big question everyone has with Twitter is, and the very first one that John Battelle asked Twitter CEO Ev Williams when he interviewed him yesterday, is “What’s the revenue model?” And the answer Ev gave is exactly the same one they’ve been giving for a year now, which essentially is: “We’re not focused on revenue. We’re focused on growth”. When you hear a CEO say something like that, you know a lot of people’s reaction will be “They’re doomed. They’re a flash in the pan. They’re not successful yet, etc”.

• Communicating Value through Cause & Effect on Fanfeedr

  Josh

  17 Sep 2009 | 5:36 am

  A few months ago we held an event called Testcase at Betahouse in Cambridge, MA where we asked four startups to come and user test their web sites with local folks who showed up. Despite the super informal user testing method we used, we clearly saw that each startup struggled with communicating the value of their service. This is a common problem…founders have a really awesome idea but it just isn’t communicated to people clearly. One of the startups, Fanfeedr, was in super-early alpha at the time. The primary finding from testing their site was that people didn’t…

• Feature Development in Action: Broadcast Stream Messages in Socialcast

  Josh

  21 Aug 2009 | 6:20 am

  In which I describe how we discovered the broadcast stream message feature in Socialcast. One of the guiding principles of interaction design is to support existing behavior. This means to figure out what is already happening, what activities, tasks, and interactions people are already doing, and build support for them into software. This may not seem like a glamorous way to approach design, but from my experience it’s the fastest way to make people happy. Let them do what they already do faster/better/easier, and then you’ll have their attention in order to push the envelope…

• 
  Smashing Magazine

• Zen Coding: A Speedy Way To Write HTML/CSS Code

  Smashing Editorial

  21 Nov 2009 | 10:58 am

    In this post we present a new speedy way of writing HTML code using CSS-like selector syntax — a handy set of tools for high-speed HTML and CSS coding. It was developed by our author Sergey Chikuyonok and released for Smashing Magazine and its readers.How much time do you spend writing HTML code: all of those tags, attributes, quotes, braces, etc. You have it easier if your editor of choice has code-completion capabilities, but you still do a lot of typing.We had the same problem in JavaScript world when we wanted to access a specific element on a Web page. We had to write a…

• The Big Showcase Of Online T-Shirt Stores

  Callum Chapman

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:22 am

    T-shirts, as you’ll surely agree, play a big part in the design world. Sometimes, we designers don’t get the kinds of projects we want, and so we are left to apply our creativity in some other way, many of us opting to submit graphics in t-shirt competitions or printing them ourselves and selling them through shopping cart systems such as BigCartel. In this post, we bring you a showcase of online t-shirt store Web designs, all of which serves as a great source of inspiration for Web designers, graphic designers and even illustrators.You may be interested in the…

• The Death of The Boring Blog Post?

  Paddy Donnelly

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:34 am

    Let’s face it: the classic blog post is boring. Barring the text and images, each one generally has the exact same layout. We see little originality from one post to the next. Of course, consistency and branding are extremely important to consider when designing a website or blog, but what about individuality? Does a blog post about kittens deserve the same layout as one about CSS hacks?Too Easy?Because installing a WordPress theme is so easy, anyone can have a blog up and running in minutes. While this is great, and we now have a wealth of blogs on countless topics, perhaps…

• Designing CSS Buttons: Techniques and Resources

  Janko Jovanovic

  18 Nov 2009 | 7:23 am

     Buttons, whatever their purpose, are important design elements. They could be the end point of a Web form or a call to action. Designers have many reasons to style buttons, including to make them more attractive and to enhance usability. One of the most important reasons, though, is that standard buttons can easily be missed by users because they often look similar to elements in their operating system. Here, we present you several techniques and tutorials to help you learn how to style buttons using CSS. We’ll also address usability.Links vs. buttonsBefore we explain how…

• Designing Social Interfaces: Overview and Practical Techniques

  Dmitry Fadeyev

  17 Nov 2009 | 8:20 am

    The standard approach to interface design is to craft a channel that allows you to easily and efficiently control hardware or software; it’s all about the interaction between people and computers. But today, the two entities on each side of the user interface are changing: it’s no longer about people interacting with computers, but rather about people interacting with people through computers.This is the nature of the social Web. Social news websites, message boards, social networks, online stores and blogs all have some sort of user interaction going on, whether…

• 
  A List Apart

• On Web Typography

  17 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am

  Until now, chances are that if we dropped text onto a web page in a system font at a reasonable size, it was legible. But with many typefaces about to be freed for use on websites, choosing the right ones to complement a site's design will be far more challenging. Many faces to which we’ll soon have access were never meant for screen use, either because they’re aesthetically unsuitable or because they’re just plain illegible. Jason Santa Maria, a force behind improved type on the web, presents qualities and methods to keep in mind as we venture into the widening world of web type.

• Real Web Type in Real Web Context

  17 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am

  Web fonts are here. Now that browsers support real fonts in web pages and we can license complete typefaces for such use, it's time to think pragmatically about how to use real fonts in our web projects. Above all, we need to know how our type renders in screens, in web browsers. To that end, Tim Brown has created Web Font Specimen, a handy, free resource web designers and type designers can use to see how typefaces will look on the web.

• Can You Say That in English? Explaining UX Research to Clients

  3 Nov 2009 | 1:00 am

  It's hard for clients to understand the true value of user experience research. As much as you'd like to tell your clients to go read The Elements of User Experience and call you back when they’re done, that won’t cut it in a professional services environment. David Sherwin creates a cheat sheet to help you pitch UX research using plain, client-friendly language that focuses on the business value of each exercise.

• You Can Get There From Here: Websites for Learners

  3 Nov 2009 | 1:00 am

  "Content-rich" is not enough. Most websites are not learner-friendly. As an industry, we haven’t done our best to make our content-rich websites suitable for learning and exploration. Learners require more from us than keywords and killer headlines. They need an environment that is narrative, interactive, and discoverable. Amber Simmons tells how to begin creating rich content sites that invite and repay exploration and discovery.

• Getting to No

  20 Oct 2009 | 3:00 am

  A bad client relationship is like a bad marriage without the benefits. To avoid such relationships, or to fix the one you’re in, learn the five classic signs of trouble. Recognizing the never-ending contract revisionist, the giant project team, the vanishing boss and other warning signs can help you run successful, angst-free projects.

• 
  Tutorial Blog

• Target Your Marketing Campaign with Facebook Ads

  Barbara Holbrook

  4 Nov 2009 | 10:00 am

  Facebook ads are quickly becoming the top choice for targeted online ad campaigns. Whether your goal is lead generation, sales, or improving brand recognition, a targeted campaign will always have better results. Google Adwords used to be the king of online ad campaigns because they can target users based on their current search priorities. Facebook ads are the next generation of targeted text ads. Learn how to get started and why you should create a Facebook ad. (...)Read the rest of Target Your Marketing Campaign with Facebook Ads © Tutorial Blog, 2009. | Permalink

• 5 Photo Gallery Plugins for WordPress

  Spencer Spellman

  2 Nov 2009 | 12:28 pm

  They say a picture is worth a thousand words. If so, then these photo gallery plugins for WordPress must be worth volumes. Each plugin creates the photo gallery a bit differently — jquery slideshows, flash slideshows, automatically from  your flickr set — which you choose is purely a matter of preference. Image galleries are one of those features that can help your website or blog rise above the rest. Quality photos can draw in your visitors and keep them on your site longer. Sure, you can still add eye candy to your blog using the default installation of WordPress. But if you really…

• Free Photoshop Shapes: Download Custom Shapes Sets

  Barbara Holbrook

  22 Oct 2009 | 10:00 am

  Photoshop shapes are different than Photoshop brushes, although some people use the terms interchangeably, they refer to completely different tools. Both tools will allow you to easily add custom elements that be stamped out over and over again, used to create patterns, transferred from one design to another, and stored in your Photoshop library for use on your next project. The big difference between custom brushes and custom shapes is that brushes create a bitmapped element that is permanently painted onto a layer. Custom Photoshop shapes will add an editable vector shape on it’s own…

• 5 WordPress Comment Plugins to Engage Users and Promote Discussion

  Spencer Spellman

  21 Oct 2009 | 2:16 pm

  If you’re a new user to WordPress, then you’re probably perfectly content with the comment features you already have. You may not yet realize the positive effect that adding a comment plugin (or three) can have on your site. Better comment functions are a great way to encourage discussion and build community on your blog or website. Whether your goal is to encourage people to leave comments, reward them for doing so or even just make your comments look better, there is a WordPress plugin that will do the trick. Try these 5 WordPress comment plugins to enhance your blog.(...)Read…

• Choosing the Best RSS Feed Plugin for Wordpress

  Barbara Holbrook

  9 Oct 2009 | 3:59 pm

  Using RSS feeds with Wordpress for fun and for profit. At one point or another most bloggers will want to display articles from another website. You may be sharing articles with a syndicated author, setting up a news ticker, or simply listing the current headlines from news sources in your niche. Whatever your reason, RSS feeds are usually the best way to pull in content from another source. Today we’ll discuss how to import an RSS feed and display the feed items in a WordPress blog. There are plenty of methods to fetch and display the RSS feeds: plugins, third-party feed websites (such…

• 
  Psdtuts+

• Matteus Faria Interview

  Emil

  21 Nov 2009 | 7:15 am

  After one look at Matteus’s portfolio anyone would think this is the work of a veteran with a lot of skill, but most of you would be surprised to find out that he is only 17. With an amazing style of that integrates 2D and 3D graphic, age isn’t a factor for him. Matteus gives some great advice in this interview. He also talks about going to design school next year, how he creates his 3D work, and much much more. There is a lot to be learned in this interview, so lets get into it! 1. Welcome to Psdtuts+, please introduce yourself. Could you tell us where you’re from and how…

• How to Create a Magician’s Hat in Photoshop

  Asher Abbasi

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:03 am

  In this tutorial, you’ll learn how a magician’s hat can be designed in Photoshop. The tutorial involves a simple use of the Pen Tool and other Shape Tools. It shows a distinct use of different blending modes and focuses on other lighting techniques. Shadows are also explained in the tutorial and we’ll reveal some great beginner techniques. Let’s get started! Final Image Preview Take a look at the image we’ll be creating. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view…

• Dirty Design: Create a Grungy Thriller Book Cover

  Callum Chapman

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:39 am

  We’re often told to not judge a book by its cover, but in most cases we do. If a book doesn’t have a nice cover, it probably wouldn’t catch our attention in the first place. In this tutorial, I’ll be teaching you how to create a dirty grunge book cover design complete with bleeds! Final Image Preview Take a look at the image we’ll be creating. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below. Tutorial Details Program: Adobe Photoshop CS4…

• Create an Awesome 3D Anaglyph Poster – Psd Plus Tutorial

  Mark Mayers

  18 Nov 2009 | 8:01 am

  We have another Psd Plus tutorial exclusively available to Plus members today. If you want to take your 3D poster skills to the next level, then we have an awesome retro tutorial for you. Learn how to make and put to use Stereoscopic 3D images in Photoshop. Learn more at the jump! This Plus Tutorial is Filled with Creative Tips Before the advent of computers, the movie industry relied on stop-frame or stop-motion animation to bring their monsters to life; special effect artists such as Ray Harryhausen used this technique on classics such as “One Million Years BC” and “The…

• Learn How to Draw Hand-crafted Pixel Art in Photoshop

  Russell Tate

  17 Nov 2009 | 7:58 am

  In this tutorial, legendary Aussie illustrator Russel Tate teaches you how to draw with pixels. You’ll learn how to create awesome artwork in the style of eBoy and Army of Trolls. This article was kindly shared with Psdtuts+ by iStockphoto as part of a knowledge exchange between the two sites. Read on and enjoy! To celebrate this knowledge exchange, iStockphoto have created a special 15% discount for Psdtuts+ readers. Introduction Pixel illustrations are great for making computer icons, isometric images and even whole scenes. They can be made quickly and easily using Photoshop with a…

• 
  Customized Marketing

• Massive Collection of Over 1,300 Free Icon Sets

  admin

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:20 pm

  Okay, I admit it.  I am a compulsive collector of free icons (and some paid ones).  Just always have to have one more set for the arsenal, and I have been known to stockpile.  What you have here is a list of some beautiful icon sets and many posts that have collections of icons for social media, web functions and applications.  All told there are over 1300 sets of free icons for you to bookmark or download.  Some of the compilations repeat sets, but I didn’t eliminate them if they had some unique sets that were worth noting. Think of these sets as a good excuse to download a few…

• Recommendation

  admin

  12 Nov 2009 | 9:10 pm

  “I have worked personally with Customized Marketing on two separate websites now (Joggers Life & Letters to My Body) and she has also helped me with side projects along the way.  We’ve been working together for about a year at this point. I have been nothing but amazed by her dedication, timeliness, and genuine care for my needs and goals.  She always has great input for me that goes well beyond just the site design.  She is very helpful with ways to improve my sites, and has always been able to provide me with  resources outside of my own knowledge base.  She even…

• Deals and Steals (Coupons and Sales)

  admin

  24 Oct 2009 | 1:46 pm

  Today appears to be a good day for great savings on some of our favorite things. Great deal on Woo Themes. As usual, get 2 wordpress themes for the price of 1.  Now you can also get 25% off using coupon code “ROCKSTAR” FREE Shoemoneyx course! The best way to learn about blogging, monetizing, etc.  Only available until 10/30/09, then access is discontinued.  Be sure to sign up now. Brand New iMacs at $100 off.  They sure are beautiful and the new specs are awesome! Enjoy!

• Obsessed With Circa

  admin

  11 Oct 2009 | 7:50 pm

  I am so addicted to Circa notebooks.  Levenger’s Circa series lets you totally customize your notebook in letter, junior and compact sizes. You can order a $40 sampler set which gives you a letter size setup and more plus a $40 gift card to pick the products you like (so the sampler is free).  A suggestion is to use the card to get the compact grid 300 page refill for $9.95 (regularly $38) and starter kits in all sizes.  Try these coupons. If you are fortunate enough to live near a Levenger Store, they have workshops that show you how to assemble and they give you a free sample.  I…

• 50% Off WordPress Videos – Limited Time Offer

  admin

  22 Sep 2009 | 6:04 am

  LIMITED TIME OFFER!!!!  50% OFF The Wordpress Video Series with 46 videos is now available here only for 50% off using the orange button.   This is a limited time offer. Nearly 5 HOURS of step-by-step video training! And don’t worry, no geeky tech talk! Just simple guided videos. 46 WordPress training videos, including: - Registering a domain name, getting web hosting and changing nameservers. - Using FileZilla FTP. - Installing WordPress manually and automatically. - How to create new content, add images etc. - How to install and manage plugins and themes. - How to Use WordPress Widgets…

• 
  Carsonified » Blog

• Future of Web Design Vimeo Competition Winner

  Keir Whitaker

  14 Nov 2009 | 1:10 am

  Thanks to everyone who took time to enter our Vimeo competition. We had a lot of fun watching the videos and seeing what you thought the Future of Web Design holds. After much deliberation, it was close, we all agreed that Tim Lum is the worthy winner of the free conference pass to next weeks Future of Web Design New York. We would also like to give a special mention to Adam Soffer for his cool guitar and vocal entry. Tim – please email keir[at]carsonified.com and I’ll let you know how you can collect your free conference pass. I hope you can make it. The Video – The Future…

• Future of Web Design Interview Roundup

  Keir Whitaker

  12 Nov 2009 | 8:03 am

  Over the last couple of weeks we asked a number of speakers and workshop presenters from the upcoming Future of Web Design New York conference a few questions about their particular area of web design. We covered everything from WordPress, typography, jQuery, content strategy, HTML5, CSS3, Dribble and inspiration. If you missed one or need a recap here are the links: Elliot Jay Stocks on WordPress for Designers Dan Rubin on Web Typography Karl Swedberg on jQuery Steve Smith on HTML5 and CSS3 Dan Cederholm on Bulletproof Web Design, CSS3 and Dribbble Mike Kus on 3 Dimensional Web Design…

• Kristina Halvorson on Content Strategy for the Web

  Keir Whitaker

  11 Nov 2009 | 7:37 am

  Kristina Halvorson is the founder and president of Brain Traffic, a nationally-renowned agency specializing in content strategy and writing for websites. She regularly speaks to audiences around the world about how to deliver useful and usable content online. In this interview Kristina discusses her new book “Content Strategy for the Web“, the prevalence of short form content and the three biggest online content mistakes and how to avoid them. Editor’s Note: Kristina will be taking part in a panel discussion “The Long and Short of It” chaired by Liz Danzico at The…

• “Humanity: Epic FAIL” – Jon Skeet at Stack Overflow Dev Days London

  Keir Whitaker

  10 Nov 2009 | 7:31 am

  In this video from Stack Overflow Dev Days London, Jon Skeet (Stack Overflow’s most reputed user and Google engineer) and his sidekick “Tony the Pony” deliver a fun and entertaining session titled “Humanity: Epic FAIL”. In this 30 minute talk Jon looks at how humanity hasn’t made life easy for developers and questions the rationale (or lack of) behind timezones, string manipulation, dates and more. A full transcript is available complete with slides on Jon’s personal site. Note: The sound quality at the beginning of the video is not the best but does…

• Future of Web Design New York Vimeo Competition

  Keir Whitaker

  10 Nov 2009 | 6:25 am

  Carsonified has teamed up with Vimeo to offer one lucky web designer a FREE conference pass to next weeks Future of Web Design conference in New York. To enter all you have to do is record a maximum of 30 seconds worth of video explaining what you think “the future of web design” is and then add it to the competition group. Our favourite entry will win a free conference pass to conference on November 17th in New York City. Check out the Vimeo blog post for full details.

• 
  Web Designer Wall

• Coding Clean and Semantic Templates

  Nick La

  18 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am

  If you are the guy who uses <div> tag for everything, this post is for you. It focuses on how you can write clean HTML code by using semantic markups and minimize the use of <div> tag. Have you ever edited someone’s templates, don’t those messy tags drive you crazy? Not only writing clean templates can benefit yourself, but your team as well. It will save you time when you have to debug and edit (particularly the large projects). (more…)

• 5 Simple, But Useful CSS Properties

  Nick La

  9 Nov 2009 | 9:10 am

  This post is about 5 useful CSS properties that you should be very familiar with, but will most likely rarely use. I’m not talking about the new fancy CSS3 properties. I’m referring to the old CSS2 properties such as: clip, min-height, white-space, cursor, and display that are widely supported by all browsers. So, don’t miss this post because you might be surprised how useful they are. (more…)

• Fireworks vs Photoshop Compression

  Nick La

  30 Oct 2009 | 1:32 am

  Surprisingly enough, based on the findings from my recent survey there are quite a bit of Fireworks users. Personally, I never used Fireworks. Photoshop is alway my first choice for designing—from image editing to designing mock-ups. But, did you know that Fireworks is way better than Photoshop in term of image compression? I’m not a software engineer, I can’t explain why Fireworks can compress better. But I can prove it to you by showing a series of experiments I did. (more…)

• iPhone App Site Design Trends

  Nick La

  20 Oct 2009 | 1:47 am

  To compete with thousands of iPhone apps in the App Store, having a good app icon is not enough. A nicely designed website for the app is very important. A beautiful website helps to drive traffic in and also makes your app stand out from the crowd. This post showcases a gallery of appealing iPhone app sites and common design trends that I see. (more…)

• FOWD NYC 2009 Ticket Giveaway

  Nick La

  17 Oct 2009 | 11:49 pm

  The Future of Web Design (FOWD) is returning to New York City on 16th & 17th of November! If you haven’t heard of FOWD, it’s a conference which brings together the web industry’s leading designers and delivers two days of workshops and talks from the likes of Dan Cederholm, Jason Santa Maria, Molly Holzschlag, Joshua Davis, Vimeo and lots more. I have one conference pass to giveaway. Enter a comment in this post before November 3rd, 2009 for your chance to win a ticket. Update: The winner is: #178. (more…)

• 
  Vandelay Design Blog

• Showcase of Excerpts in Blog Design

  Vandelay Website Design

  18 Nov 2009 | 6:56 pm

  Many blogs are using excerpts to display content on the front page. The use of excerpts gives designers a little bit more freedom and some opportunity to create an attractive and unique front page. In this post we’ll showcase for blog front pages that are using excerpts. Work Awesome Design Critique Strip Turnhout Kaligram Development Seed Blog The Swish Life Jord & Chan Line25 UX Booth Spyre Studios Design Feedr The Visual Click Mark Forrester Brad Ruggles Twirk Ethic West Coast Poppin The Photo Argus Krftd Officeal Freelance Switch Powerful CMS Dale Anthony Devot:ee Vectips…

• Free Business Icon Set from IconShock

  Vandelay Website Design

  17 Nov 2009 | 12:35 pm

  Our friends at IconShock have designed another set of icons especially for the readers of Vandelay Design. This pack includes five icons with a business theme. As you will see from the preview, it includes a briefcase icon, a calculator icon, a phone icon, a coins icon, and a pie chart icon. These icons can be used for personal or commercial projects, no attribution required. You may use them in any way that you like, but they cannot be re-distributed or sold. The source files (Illustrator) are included, as well as two sizes of PNGs (512 px and 256 px). Download the Business Icon Set Also see…

• 35 Excellent Ecommerce User Interface Designs

  Vandelay Website Design

  16 Nov 2009 | 1:44 pm

  While user experience is important on all types of websites, it is especially critical for ecommerce websites where visitors will be making purchases. A poor user experience will result in visitors having difficulty finding what they want, frustration during shopping, and many lost sales. In this post we will showcase the design of 35 e-commerce websites for your own UI design inspiration. The sites that are showcased in this post have also been featured at CartFrenzy, our gallery of the best ecommerce web design. Free People Rapha Mouse to Minx eties Ralph Lauren White + Warren Itself REI…

• 40 Beautifully-Designed Navigation Menus

  Vandelay Website Design

  11 Nov 2009 | 6:18 pm

  Navigation menus are, of course, important for usability purposes and creating a user-friendly website, but they also provide opportunities to add some visual appeal to the design. In this post we’ll showcase 40 examples of attractive navigation menus, including a variety of different types and styles. For more on navigation menus please see: 50+ Gorgeous Navigation Menus 50 Gorgeous Navigation Menus – Part II Utah Travel Lift Interactive MailChimp Idea Foundry The Creative Dot Michael Dick Mission Community Church Sushi & Robots Wonderbra Ultimate Strapless Light CMS Two24…

• Vandelay Design Partners with Fanurio Time Tracking and Invoicing – Plus a Limited-Time Discount!

  Vandelay Website Design

  11 Nov 2009 | 5:10 am

  We’re happy to announce that Vandelay Design is now partnering with Fanurio to make its time tracking and invoicing software accessible to more designers. We worked with Fanurio a few months ago to give away some free licenses to readers and the response was tremendous, so we decided to work together on a more permanent basis. We wanted to offer something special to all of you to kick off this partnership. Starting today (November 11, 2009), for the next 35 days you will be able to try and buy Fanurio for $49, a $10 discount from the regular price. Fanurio always comes with a 30 day…

• 
  digg.com: Stories / Design / Popular

• How LED Tattoos Could Change The Face of Humanity

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:42 pm

  New LED tattoos from the University of Pennsylvania could make the Illustrated Man real (minus the creepy stories, of course). Researchers there are developing silk and silicon implantable devices which sit under the skin like a tattoo. Already implanted into mice, these tattoos could carry LEDs, turning the wearer’s skin into a screen.

• Tech-Support slash Designer (COMIC)

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:10 pm

  I have hired you to design my website and as part of your services I expect...

• 'Space Chair' ad redefines armchair viewing (video)

  17 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am

  The ad follows the journey of "an ordinary living room chair" to the edge of space before falling back to Earth where the ground crew relied upon a GPS beacon to locate the craft.

• How the World's Cities are Changing (Animation)

  16 Nov 2009 | 6:30 pm

  Most of the world's population now lives in cities. How can we make sure these urban centers are good homes for humanity?

• Fake nike Sneakers made from Paper [Pics]

  16 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pm

  *****

• 
  FreelanceSwitch

• Rules for Successful Client-Freelancer Working Relationships

  FreelanceSwitch.com

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:30 am

  So you’ve hired a freelancer to help you achieve your business goals. Now what? It’s vitally important that you, as the client, do your part in fostering a positive working relationship with your contractor. Embarking on a new project can be overwhelming, especially if it involves technical aspects (such as web design). That’s why you’ve hired an expert! But in order to make your project a success, you need to develop a solid working relationship, and be aware of some basic “rules” when working with a freelancer. Rule #1: Respect the Freelancer’s…

• 7 Tips For Good Record Keeping

  FreelanceSwitch.com

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:30 am

  For many freelancers, records are the last things we think about. There’s a design to finish for a client or an accounting department to call about an invoice — there’s always something more important than handling records. But the fact remains that those records are important at some point. Whether you need to go back to an old version of a project for your client or you need to pull your copy of an invoice, having an organized system is crucial. The biggest problem we face in getting our records into order (and keeping them that way) is that most of us work on our own.

• FreelancerPro Interview: The Foundations of Freelancing

  FreelanceSwitch.com

  18 Nov 2009 | 4:30 am

  Looking to get big-name clients? Hear what Briant Grant, the creative director at Anisometric, has to say. Brian took his time to get experience and leveraged that agency experience into a thriving design firm based in London. Tell us how you got started in the design industry. I remember being particularly inspired by a new art teacher at my school when I was around 14 years old. His name is Guy Harring and he really was a towering influence on me and showed that there was no limits on what I could achieve in my life. I knew that I wanted to do something related in some way to art when I…

• Linkswitch #14

  FreelanceSwitch.com

  17 Nov 2009 | 4:30 am

  Freelancing From The Road: The Tools to Take With You “One of the great things about being a freelancer, is the freedom that comes with having chosen this career path. As a freelancer you can take to the road when you need, and the best part is, that you can also take your job with you! Now this is conditional on being able to put together the proper toolkit to take with you on your journey.” How to Work ON Your Business, Not IN it “We get so caught up in the daily life of running a business, it’s easy to miss the forest for the trees. Not that you have a choice! You’re…

• Freelance Freedom #131

  FreelanceSwitch.com

  16 Nov 2009 | 4:30 am

• 
  Noupe

• 50 Interactive Silverlight Applications

  vitaly

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:14 am

  Microsoft Silverlight enables development of the next generation of Microsoft .NET-based media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIAs) for the Web. Silverlight is delivered as a cross-platform and cross-browser plug-in that exposes a programming framework and features that are a subset of the .NET Framework and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). Silverlight offers rapid creation and delivery of sophisticated internet applications through a Web browser. Forged from technology used in over 100,000 companies and understood by over 4 million developers worldwide, Silverlight has…

• 50 Fresh Interactive Studio and Social Media Agency Websites

  vitaly

  18 Nov 2009 | 6:39 pm

  By Catalin Zorzini As you might observe, social marketing is the new black. Tons of studies predict huge budgets for social media strategies from the top shots, so the agencies need to sharpen their interactive skills in order to separate clients from their money. Lots of big advertising and PR networks created digital marketing divisions but given the fact that this is such a fresh trend, the independent studios have almost the same chances to land a big contract if they’re creative enough. Long story short, here is a showcase of 50 outstanding websites of digital marketing agencies,…

• Calligraphy and Handwriting Showcase

  vitaly

  17 Nov 2009 | 1:57 am

  By Steven Snell High-quality calligraphy can be an excellent source of inspiration for graphic designers. Those who are skilled with creativity are able to create beautiful and impressive results, such as the ones you will see below. In this post we will feature more than 40 excellent examples of calligraphy. This showcase includes pieces that have been created by hand as well as some that have been created digitally to replicate the look of calligraphy. Many of these examples also make use of colors and textures to create the end result. If you like this post you may also be interested in:…

• Web Design Trends: Testimonials Design

  vitaly

  15 Nov 2009 | 6:16 pm

  Testimonials from happy clients are an important part of any service business’s website, lending trustworthiness and experience to a business. Showing those testimonials in their best light is important, as you want visitors to see them without allowing them to dominate your site’s design. One great way to figure out how to design the testimonials on your own projects is to look at how others are doing it. There are five predominant trends in testimonial design: speech bubbles, quotation marks, images or icons, minimalism, and video. Read on for information about and examples of…

• The Ultimate Ugly Showcase of Current Government Websites

  vitaly

  13 Nov 2009 | 7:58 am

  By Callum Chapman Something a little different today: a showcase of government websites. The biggest difference between this showcase and others you see here at Noupe is obvious; the majority of the web ‘designs’ (if you can call them that) in this showcase are tremendously awful and poorly coded. And, well, let’s be honest here: butt ugly! So, what is it all of these governments don’t quite understand? Someone is going to have to help me out here! Some of them say they are ‘Optimized for Internet Explorer 6 and Firefox 1.0′. Firefox 1.0?! How many years…

• 
  SimpleBits

• Things I Saw Today

  Dan Cederholm

  18 Nov 2009 | 12:56 pm

  A nice tutorial on creating your own textured backgrounds from two stock images by Ali Felski (who’s site is beautifully textured in its own right). Ligature, Loop & Stem, “creators and curators of fine typography-related products”, has launched. Ingenious site layout and presentation, and some wonderful ampersand-related products are already for sale. Microsoft announced an early look at IE9 for developers. Notable stuff includes support for the border-radius property. No vendor-specific extension. Good reason to include actual CSS3 properties along with…

• Hooray Coffee

  Dan Cederholm

  13 Nov 2009 | 7:02 am

  A gocco print by Nate Duval that I just purchased for our kitchen. Found via the excellent Print Society.

• 15 Things Worth Knowing About Coffee

  Dan Cederholm

  13 Nov 2009 | 6:59 am

  An educational, illustrated guide. (via)

• Things I Saw Today

  Dan Cederholm

  10 Nov 2009 | 1:28 pm

  Typekit, “… a subscription-based service for linking to high-quality Open Type fonts”, is now live and available to all. A superb desktop wallpaper by Alex Cornell. Loving the subtle text and texture of this one. Looks nice on the iPhone as well. (via ISO50) Birdhouse for Your Soul is a touching post by Greg Knauss on why he loves the internet. Absolutely worth a read. (via) Craig Robinson of Flip Flop Flyin’ has a new iPhone app out that boasts, “… 1,000 Minipops on your iPhone/iPod touch which you can look at whenever and wherever you want.”…

• Think Vitamin interview

  Dan Cederholm

  6 Nov 2009 | 8:18 am

  A quick interview with Carsonified’s Keir Whitaker, on bulletproof design, CSS3 and a little leak on what Dribbble is.

• 
  The Daily Report

• A Design Apart Q&A

  Jeffrey Zeldman

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:11 pm

  “Content informs design; design without content is decoration. Content has the same relationship to design that product has to advertising. Good ads are based on the product; good designs come from and facilitate the content. This is one reason we bring content strategy to every design assignment, and one reason we insist on working with real content, not lorem ipsum (placeholder) content. Nothing is sadder than a beautiful design that works great with lorem ipsum but doesn’t actually support the real content.” A Design Apart: Q&A with Jeffrey Zeldman | Sparksheet

• As we were

  Jeffrey Zeldman

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:11 pm

  Title images from the early years of A List Apart “for people who make websites” are now available for your viewing pleasure. Were we really ever that young? NAME THAT FONT! Here’s a nice rainy-day activity for ya. Visit the ALA historical header images collection on Flickr and name the fonts used in individual images. Short URL: zeldman.com/?p=3035

• FontShop Fonts on the Web

  Jeffrey Zeldman

  18 Nov 2009 | 1:08 pm

  FontShop announces that they are ready to deliver their font library as web type: [S]tarting today, Typekit users can pick from dozens of FontFonts, including FF Meta, FF Dax, and FF Netto. Plus, the Typekit service lets you test any of those FontFonts on your page before you publish. And tomorrow? Typekit is just one piece of a holistic strategy for FontFonts on the web. The library should be licensable in a more traditional way too. That’s where WOFF fits in. … Soon anyone will be able to license and download for their website the same professional quality FontFont they use in desktop…

• More Web Fonts

  Jeffrey Zeldman

  18 Nov 2009 | 4:46 am

  Ellen Lupton and Jeffrey Zeldman talk about web fonts, part 2. That is all. This has been a belated part of Web Type Day.

• Web Type: Lupton on Zeldman

  Jeffrey Zeldman

  17 Nov 2009 | 8:01 am

  Today in Print, Ellen Lupton interviews Jeffrey Zeldman (that’s me) on web typography, web standards, and more. Part one of a two-part interview. Ellen Lupton is curator of contemporary design at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City and director of the Graphic Design MFA program at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore. She is the author of numerous books and articles on design, a frequent lecturer, and an AIGA Gold Medalist. This has been a nutritious part of Web Type Day. Short URL: zeldman.com/?p=2932

• 
  Subtraction.com

• Font Hunt

  desk@subtraction.com

  18 Nov 2009 | 3:26 pm

  Giving back to Twitter department: earlier in the month I asked people who follow me on Twitter for recommendations for new typefaces. What I was looking for was an alternative to the typeface Klavika, which I quite like; it’s among the very best fonts that have been released in the recent past, in my opinion. Inconveniently for me, I somewhat subjectively regard Klavika as having been ‘claimed’ by a friend of mine who uses it more consistently and more effectively than I do. So I wanted something of my own, something similarly contemporary and similarly strong in…

• The Pencil Factory Has ”Fifteen Uses for Newsprint”

  desk@subtraction.com

  18 Nov 2009 | 2:07 pm

  Fifteen Brooklyn illustrators reminds us of various other useful applications for newsprint. On sale for US$10.

• Introducing Basic Maths, a Theme for WordPress

  desk@subtraction.com

  14 Nov 2009 | 7:58 am

  Things that have been keeping me from blogging: raising a brand new baby, having grown-up time with my girlfriend, walking my dog, holding down a day job and, now finally revealed: working on Basic Maths, a brand new theme for WordPress that I designed with my friend Allan Cole. After months of plugging away at in during whatever free time we’ve been able to find, we’re finally releasing it into the wild today, to coincide with WordCampNYC 2009. (In fact, I’m heading over to that conference later today, and Allan will be speaking there early this afternoon, so if…

• Watching Yankees Spending

  desk@subtraction.com

  8 Nov 2009 | 8:21 pm

  Last Wednesday The New York Yankees beat the Philadelphia Phillies to win their twenty-seventh World Series. After a nine year title drought, the victory predictably thrilled Yankees fans like myself while also re-igniting the old complaint that the franchise is a bully in the baseball market, that the team uses an obscenely resourceful payroll to effectively and unfairly buy championships. Actually, the pilot light for that particular criticism never goes out, whether the team has won or lost its most recent bid for the World Series (or even when they make no post-season appearance at…

• Hey Oscar Wilde, It’s Clobberin’ Time!

  desk@subtraction.com

  6 Nov 2009 | 1:44 pm

  Various comics artists interpret their favorite literary figure/author/character. Pretty entertaining.

• 
  Stuff and Nonsense

• An Early Look At IE9 for Developers

  Andy Clarke

  19 Nov 2009 | 5:47 am

  Includes border-radius in Internet Explorer. I would love Microsoft to offer a full roadmap of their planned CSS development for IE9. Published in External links.

• ★ Fireball

  Andy Clarke

  17 Nov 2009 | 5:24 am

  Some things are best expressed without words. A-Bomb Dome in Hiroshima Published in Loose talk.

• Microcopy

  Andy Clarke

  12 Nov 2009 | 3:25 pm

  A collection of screenshots displaying examples of microcopy in web application design. Microcopy is tiny copy (often shorter than a sentence) that helps clarify, explain, reduce commitment, or otherwise assuage someone when performing (or considering) a task. Curated by Annett-Baker and Joshua Porter. Published in External links.

• ★ The Book of Taliesyn

  Andy Clarke

  10 Nov 2009 | 12:38 am

  Ambling around a five storey bookstore in the Jinbocho area of Tokyo today, in the computer section I stumbled across a Japanese translation of my Transcending CSS and CSS Best Practice by Miki Ofuji. CSS Best Practice made me smile because it features (on page 54) a tutorial about how I made text wrap around both sides of an image on my Stuff an Nonsense site home page, as well as work by Dan Cederholm, Cameron Moll, Veerle Pieters and my design for the Web Standards Project. I still use the same technique on Stuff and Nonsense (although I have never written my own tutorial) but the…

• Westciv CSS Transforms creator

  Andy Clarke

  9 Nov 2009 | 12:06 am

  A first look at John Allsopp’s Westciv CSS Transforms creator and demonstration (remember, you read it here first folks). I hate that how clever this guy is, but I love him anyway. Published in External links.

• 
  You the Designer

• Mozilla Creative Design Contest

  Sam Nam

  18 Nov 2009 | 6:37 am

  In celebration of Mozilla’s Firefox web browser turning 5 years old, the Mozilla Creative Collective are hosting a poster design competition. The contest description states “The winning design will be featured on Mozilla websites and merchandise, and the winning artist will be highlighted on the Creative Collective homepage and the Mozilla Blog.” This is an amazing contest to showcase your talent! Five Years of Firefox Poster Design Contest To learn more about this competition, check out the contest page where you can also submit a design when you are ready to enter. The…

• 38 Randomly Awesome Movie Posters

  Jennifer

  16 Nov 2009 | 7:21 am

  Movie poster designs have always intrigued me. Although the studios often spend millions in dollars for advertising a movie, for some odd reason we have a hard time seeing good poster designs. We figured it would be necessary to highlight the movie posters that actually turned out great. We’ve collected 38 awesome poster designs from random films and movies, regardless of year, genre, popularity or language. Move Poster Design Inspiration To print and design your own movie poster designs, try custom poster printing at UPrinting.com

• 30 Clever Coaster Designs

  Jennifer

  5 Nov 2009 | 10:36 am

  Ever come across a really cool coaster and wonder, “Am I drunk or is this coaster really cool?” Well here is your sober chance to take a look at some clever and creative coaster inspiration. We’ve rounded up 30 coasters that would definitely liven up any bar top or table. Bottoms Up! Let’s See Those Coaster Designs. Mehmet Gozetlik Kent and Jim Dave Hall Kaleb Coleman Niyati Mehta Tiina Ilmavirta Yvonne Schüttler Kamal Patel Jennifer Stetson Kelsy VonderHaar Thapanon Khongraksa Joshua M. Smith Devika Khowala Elizabeth Crowther David Garcia SLAMS Chris Trivizas Emily…

• 20 Magnificent Magazine Covers in Recent Years

  Sam Nam

  2 Nov 2009 | 9:39 am

  The art of graphic design is continually evolving with society, fashion, technology and politics. Our styles and colors are inspired by everything around us and in turn, we can see snapshots of our evolving culture in the designs of the recent past. Taking a look at 2 years of magazine covers from major publications, I collected 20 contemporary magazine covers that I appreciated. Twenty Magazine Covers from 2007 – 2009 Bon Apetit Magazine – August 2008 Departures Magazine – October 2008 GQ Magazine – March 2008 Harpers Bazaar – March 2009 (Subscribers Edition)…

• Stencil Graffiti Custom Sticker Design Contest

  Sam Nam

  29 Oct 2009 | 12:39 pm

  While shuffling some papers on my desk, I discovered a sample for a clear roll label product. Coincidentally, I had just finished perusing some artwork by the famous Stencil Graffiti Artist Banksy. The two ideas came together to create awesomeness I don’t usually experience so early in the day! Stencil graffiti designs being put on clear stickers. Brilliant!  Submit Your Custom Stickers Designs! We’re excited to see the sticker designs that our readers submit and to sweeten the deal we will be giving the winner $100 and 250 stickers of their design. Please submit your entries…

• 
  Graphic Design News

• Excellence by Design: Georgian Court showcases student art

  21 Nov 2009 | 1:40 am

  Lakewood, N.J., Nov. 20, 2009 - Georgian Court University will present the work of three seniors studying graphic design during their senior portfolio show, which kicks off with a reception from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, December 1, in the lobby of the GCU Wellness Center in Lakewood.

• More Members Of Middle Class File For Bankruptcy

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:38 am

  Staci Schubert's career has taken her from New York to California, from graphic designer to website designer to sales executive.

• Super7 to Host Art Show Featuring Famous Female Graphic Designers

  19 Nov 2009 | 1:21 am

  SAINT PETERSBURG, FL November 19, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Super7 is proud to present the follow up to 2007's blockbuster show "Birds of a Feather" with the new, aptly titled show "Birds of a Feather 2," featuring artwork by Dora Drimalas, Heather Amuny-Dey, and Shay Ashley-Ometz. This show features three original new prints from each artist as ...

• Take your design qualification to another level - enrol for an honours degree at The Open Window

  18 Nov 2009 | 7:59 am

  The Open Window School of Visual Communication will be presenting a BA Honours degree in Visual Communication at its new campus in Southdowns, Centurion in 2010.

• WESTWEEK + Art & Design Walk = BOFFO

  17 Nov 2009 | 11:52 pm

  Charles S. Cohen, president/founder of Pacific Design Center and Darren Gold, Chair of the Avenues of Art & Design announced last week that WESTWEEK 2010 will take place at Pacific Design Center, Wednesday, March 24 and Thursday, March 25; and the Art & Design Walk is scheduled to follow in the weekend afterward - Friday, March 26 and Saturday, ...

• 
  Warpspire

• Optimizing asset bundling and serving with Rails

  Kyle

  19 Nov 2009 | 1:08 pm

  I wrote up a pretty lengthy post over at the GitHub blog explaining how we do asset bundling and serving. Well worth the read for anyone who’s interested in front end performance and works on ruby apps. Go check it out

• It’s just not about how many hours you work

  Kyle

  11 Oct 2009 | 2:07 pm

  My favorite discussion amongst web professionals is when people start talking about work/life balance and how many hours they’re working. There’s been no end of interesting ideas to pop out from this — everything from 4 hour work weeks to 100 hour work weeks. And everyone thinks that they’ve got the answer. But I think everyone’s just arguing about an irrelevant metric: the hour. Let’s talk about that work/life balance thing Most of this discussion always seem to revolve around the idea of a work/life balance. The basic idea is to keep yourself sane.

• Joining GitHub

  Kyle

  1 Oct 2009 | 7:31 pm

  I still feel like it was last week I decided to give up my “safe” job at Web Associates Level Studios to play around with the ENTP crew. Well, it’s time for another move. Last week I was given an offer I just couldn’t refuse–to join the amazing GitHub team (my GitHub profile. For those of you who don’t know who GitHub is: shame on you. GitHub has taken something as boring as source control and made it something that brings people together. Social coding, indeed. A brief look at the past couple years The past couple of years have been a crazy blur of…

• Why aren’t there any journalistic startups?

  Kyle

  23 Jul 2009 | 12:31 pm

  I think it’s time that we can all agree that the news industry is failing. Hundreds of newspapers have declared bankruptcy and gone under in the past couple years — and thousands of Journalists are out of work. But I’m curious: what are all these journalists doing? Laying down and giving up? I’m wondering why I don’t see a flurry of journalistic startups. The state of startups Call it “Valley Culture” or however the hipsters wants to spin it — there is a definite attitude of Entrepreneurship in California. I’ve lived around it my whole…

• Quick & Dirty Referral Tracking

  Kyle

  10 Jul 2009 | 11:11 pm

  Ever wondered where people came from to sign up for your web app? Recently I wanted to track referrals for Tender and wanted something quick and dirty. The only problem? Our setup page is on a different domain than our marketing site. This meant I couldn’t use Google Analytics since it thought every “goal” came from exactly one place: the marketing site. So instead, what I did was hack together a quick referral script using Javascript to track where people came from and add that to a field on the Site model (each install of Tender is considered a ‘Site’). The…

• 
  AIGA Home

• Marking in L.A.: An Interview with François Chastanet

  Steven Heller

  18 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am

  Gangs use graffiti to leave their mark, but does the writing on the wall tell another story? Heller examines the calligraphic style called Cholo.

• The Employee/Employer Relationship at Design Firms

  Jessica Eve Goldfarb

  16 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am

  A design firm’s greatest assets are its human resources, but how do you attract and keep creative talent?

• Case Study: National Park Foundation micro site

  Tracy Brady/Modernista! and Matt FaJohn/FL2

  16 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am

  Recently, FL2 and Modernista! partnered to create a site to bring visitors into the nearly 400 protected parks in the United States.

• Chapter Spotlight: AIGA Austin

  AIGA

  11 Nov 2009 | 5:39 pm

  What has AIGA Austin accomplished recently? What is “Design Ranch”? And (most importantly) what playlist best represents their chapter? Find out in the first of AIGA Charlotte’s new Chapter Spotlight series!

• 21 Writing Prompts for Design Students

  David Barringer

  10 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am

  Students don’t like to write, you say? Maybe it’s the assignments that are the problem. Barringer proposes 21 ways to inspire student writing.

• 
  The Everyday Web Expert!

• New Product/Service Launch – TEWE Membership Pro!

  Webmaster

  16 Nov 2009 | 7:46 pm

  Managing an association is a like a juggling act. You have to keep several balls in the air at one time and do it in front of a demanding audience – your members. Too often you spend too much time juggling administrative tasks that deliver little value but have to get done. They eat away at time you could be spending interacting with members and increasing your association’s profile. What if we told you that it’s possible to automate routine administrative tasks, increase member interaction, promote your association and do much more with one, easy-to-use web-based…

• Time for Another Contest!

  Webmaster

  2 Nov 2009 | 6:58 pm

  It is time again for another contest! We at The Everyday Web Expert are looking for a new slogan. Since we love our fans and clients so much, we thought we should give them the choice of picking the next company slogan. How the Contest Works In the comments section of this post, write what you think our next slogan should be. (Remember, we are a web design company and all around media source) - ONE SLOGAN SUBMISSION PER PERSON When you submit your slogan, please also submit your name and contact information. (Whether is be a phone number or email address – preferably both though) The…

• Things are back to Normal

  Kyle Reddoch - Owner

  28 Oct 2009 | 2:51 pm

   I just want to give my personal apology to my company’s blog’s faithful readers. I know that I haven’t been writing articles in such a long time.  There has been such a lot going on that has needed my attention. First, I had a death in my family. My grandfather died back in September and things have been crazy with that. Then last week my family came down with the flu and that went around to each member and that was FUN…NOT!! Things are just now getting back to normal and there will be much excitement in the days to come. I have alot of articles to start writing…

• Read Homecare

  Webmaster

  24 Oct 2009 | 7:00 am

  Providing home health care to the elderly in need, Read Homecare is there for you! Thanks to the Everyday Web Expert, Read Homecare has a new, functional website to make their web presence seen.

• Total Dog Care Network

  Webmaster

  5 Oct 2009 | 6:49 pm

  Thanks to the experts at The Everyday Web Expert, the Total Dog Care Network has a fresh new look! Take a peek for yourselves and let us know what you think.

• 
  PhotoshopNews

• Adobe Releases RC’s of Camera Raw 5.6 and Lightroom 2.6

  PSN Editorial Staff

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:56 am

  Adobe has announced that Photoshop Camera Raw 5.6, Lightroom 2.6 and DNG Converter 5.6 Release Candidates are available for immediate download on Adobe Labs. The term ‘release candidate’ means this update is well tested but would benefit from additional community testing to provide the highest quality experience for customers working on a variety of hardware and software configurations. The updates add raw file support for 19 new popular camera models, including the Canon EOS 7D and Nikon D3s, with additional DNG support added for the Leica M9 camera model. A full list of the…

• Adobe Releases Lightroom 3 Beta

  PSN Editorial Staff

  22 Oct 2009 | 11:13 am

  New Lightroom beta delivers faster performance, refined image processing and streamlined publishing SAN JOSE, Calif. – Oct. 22, 2009 – Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today introduced Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 beta software for Macintosh and Windows, a public preview of new and improved functionality to be delivered in the next major release. Lightroom is the essential digital photography workflow solution, helping serious amateur and professional photographers quickly import, manage, enhance and showcase all their images from one application. Available as a free…

• Adobe Brings Photoshop to the iPhone

  PSN Editorial Staff

  16 Oct 2009 | 12:23 pm

  Well, sorta. It’s actually limited to some basic editing features such as cropping, rotating, changing color and a few processing effects such as soft focus, vignette and others. But it is sorta like having Photoshop on your iPhone. Here’s Adobe’s press release: Adobe Unveils Photoshop.com Mobile for iPhone New Adobe application brings must-have photo tools and eye-catching effects to iPhone users SAN JOSE, Calif. – Oct. 9, 2009 – Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today introduced Photoshop.com Mobile for iPhone application, delivering Adobe…

• He’s Back. Mark Hamburg Returns to Adobe

  Jeff Schewe

  24 Jul 2009 | 12:04 am

  After over a year spent working at Microsoft’s Redmond, Washington offices, Mark Hamburg has resigned from Microsoft to rejoin Adobe Systems, Inc. where he will again be working in the Digital Imaging department. Mark, a former Photoshop Architect and the founding engineer on Lightroom had gone to Microsoft to work on new usability for Windows. His decision to return to Adobe is more a statement of desire to again work on products in the digital imaging realm rather than a more research driven project. News of his return is official as of Friday, July 24th, 2009. Check out Mark’s…

• Adobe Updates Camera Raw, Lightroom and DNG

  PSN Editorial Staff

  23 Jun 2009 | 10:17 pm

  Adobe today released the final Photoshop Lightroom 2.4 and Camera Raw 5.4 updates, available for immediate download at www.adobe.com/downloads/updates/. Both updates bring additional raw file support to 31 camera and camera back models including the Canon EOS 500D, Nikon D5000 and 18 Hasselblad models. A full list of the newly supported camera and camera back models is below. In addition, Adobe released an update to its Digital Negative specification (DNG), the public archival format for digital camera raw data. DNG addresses the lack of an open standard for raw files created by individual…

• 
  Experience Matters

• How Can A Mustache Help Cure Cancer?

  DJ Francis

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:42 am

  It’s a beer foam blocker. A soup strainer. The manliest of face fungi. Now, the mustache is something else – it’s a potent fundraising tool. CMers in Chicago, London and Toronto are participating in Movember – a month-long celebration of the mustache, which also serves to highlight and raise money for men’s health issues. We’re showing our commitment by growing mustaches during Movember, the month formerly known as November. It’s a commitment to men’s health, solidarity, and, frankly, awesomeness. It seems silly, but the cause is serious. 1 in 6 men…

• Facebook Is Not the Milk Carton of the Internet

  Scott Shamberg

  18 Nov 2009 | 11:20 am

  People go to high school reunions to evaluate other people. I pick evaluate because ‘judge me’ seems a little harsh but lets face it, we are a fickle society. I tend to play amateur psychiatrist so the thought of walking around a room of people I used to know and of whom I have 20-year-old opinions of was appealing. I looked forward to forming new, cynical & unbiased opinions. Enter Facebook. I didn’t receive an invitation to the reunion. I was friended by HEHS Class of 1989. Within two weeks I went from having zero high school friends to about 50. That’s a good thing, right? Not…

• You could save the world at IdeaAid(TM)

  Margo Gremmler

  10 Nov 2009 | 11:09 am

  As a Copywriter in the advertising and marketing industry, having good ideas is the foundation of my day-to-day. But for many organizations, good ideas save lives. Starting Saturday, 11/14 and for one week, I’m going to donate ideas to Idea Aid – the world’s first online global brainstorming benefit. In addition, Critical Mass will harness its creativity for the cause through flash-brainstorms. For Idea Aid’s inaugural year, participants around the globe will identify solutions to help Heifer International raise $1 billion annually to eradicate global poverty. From the latest press…

• CT3: Twitter Goes Multilingual

  William Bertolo

  3 Nov 2009 | 10:01 am

  Twitter announced last week that it would be using CT3 (community, crowdsourced and collaborative translation) to make its content available in the FIGS (French, Italian, German and Spanish) group of languages. They’re stepping on ground that brought some trouble to LinkedIn some time ago. Despite specific website approaches, the CT3 matter will be sure to generate a lot of debate in the times to come. So it would be nice to start understanding the factors that surround it. The first factor is resistance. Professional translators may feel their market is at risk. To be honest, as a web…

• #350ppm: The Little Hashtag That Could

  Margo Gremmler

  30 Oct 2009 | 12:59 pm

  This weekend, the world gathered around one iconic idea: 350ppm. 350 parts per million is the level of CO2 many climate scientists agree is the safe upper limit of carbon in our air (we’re at about 390, by the way). But that’s not all 350ppm is. It’s also one of the strongest examples of social media optimization the world has ever seen. To help promote its International Day of Climate Action (last Saturday, 10/24), 350.org simply asked supporters to use a special hashtag in related tweets: #350ppm. According to search.twitter.com, it was used 1,500 times over the weekend…

• 
  Graphic Design Links

• Quick Tips -- A series of quick web development tips from CSS Wizardry

  Harry

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:52 am

  A more succinct guide to web development best practices on the web.6 Vote(s)

• 21 Sites Where To Find Free Wordpress Themes Daily

  dainix

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:52 am

  This showcase includes several great sites regularly updating and reviewing new themes daily. This showcase will be useful if you like to dig deeper yourself instead of searching premade list articles.3 Vote(s)

• Glowing Green Neon Icons Social Media Logos Icons Etc.

  webtreatsetc

  18 Nov 2009 | 3:56 am

  This glowing green neon icons social media logos set includes the most popular social bookmarking and networking icons (Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Technorati, Diggo, Mixx, Reddit, Yahoo Buzz, Design Bump, Design Float, Facebook, Flickr, MySpace,Twitter… Etc) as well as the RSS feed, Google, MSN, and Yahoo logos.4 Vote(s)

• 12 Job Boards for Designers where Quality is Praised Above all

  manishwebmaster

  18 Nov 2009 | 1:59 am

  We designers- the community of creativity, how often have thought about a forum or marketplace where quality of work is placed on top, where people do not compare the bids, but take credibility as a measure of comparison to assign the projects.4 Vote(s)

• 10 Delightful Door Hanger Designs

  pervezmzn

  17 Nov 2009 | 12:38 am

  Awesome door hanger designs below for some inspiration! We have put together a bunch of cool designs for inspiration purposes in order to help you create the best door hanger designs possible.8 Vote(s)

• 
  Just Creative Design

• Taking Time Off & Other News

  Jacob Cass

  14 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm

  After two strong years of blogging, I’ve decided to take two months off to go traveling. I will be monitoring my three sites while I am gone but there will be very limited posts throughout this time. I am off for a road trip across 22 states of USA for 6 weeks then back to Australia for a 2 week family holiday / Christmas. I then fly back to New York to start full time work at Carrot Creative of which, I hope to continue to blog on a fortnightly basis. I also plan to keep running Logo Of The Day and to a lesser extent, Logo Designer Blog. Birthday, Graduation & Moving Out I’ll…

• Recently Completed Work

  Jacob Cass

  10 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pm

  I’ve been pretty busy of late so I thought I should show you what I have been up to. Here a small showcase of my most recent freelance design work along with a brief description of each. Sikh Youth Australia Website Design This is my largest and most recent website to date. It has been built from scratch and is currently in coding, using Expression Engine as the CMS. It will feature a rotating article slide show, an article accordion (similar to the left side bar of this site) and a nice drop down CSS Menu along with loads of other user interactivity. The right side bar & footer…

• 10 Twitter Design Lists You Must Follow

  Jacob Cass

  8 Nov 2009 | 6:00 pm

  Twitter just recently introduced Twitter lists, a helpful way to better organise the tweets of those you follow. Twitter lists also allow you to find interesting groups of people to keep track of via the use of others recommendations. After much research looking into other Twitterer’s lists and via the use of Listorious, I’ve compiled these ten design twitter lists that are definitely worth following. No Blab, Just Design Links A list of Twitter profiles that only post high quality design links and have very little to no other ‘daily life’ tweets. An alternative to…

• A quick copywriting tip to get more subscribers

  Jacob Cass

  4 Nov 2009 | 2:00 pm

  I recently wrote an article for Freelance Folder about how to get more subscribers by adding an email subscription box and within the comments, Troy Peterson left a great tip on how to optimise the copywriting to maximize subscription signups and I thought it was worth sharing… One thing that will improve your signups as well, is to replace “Subscribe” with “Get Updates”. Many people tend to associate “Subscribe” with some type of commitment. This is typically carried over from the old days of Magazine subscriptions, where people had to commit for a year and pay a price.

• Tutorial: How To Create An Iconic Logo Design

  Jacob Cass

  1 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm

  Logo design is arguably one of the hardest parts of graphic design though with a little insider knowledge, you may find it’s not so difficult after all. By understanding what makes a “good” logo and the principles behind effective logo design you will be on the right track in no time. In this tutorial you will be guided through the logo design process, from initial brief right through to delivery while being given vital logo design tips along the way. For the sake of this tutorial we will be creating a fictional logo - for now I’ve gone with a logo that reflects the…

• 
  Logo Design Love

• Logo design from The Chase

  David Airey

  14 Nov 2009 | 3:01 pm

  The Chase, a UK graphic design and branding consultancy in Manchester, London, and Preston, was founded in 1986 by Ben Casey and Lionel Hatch. With a staff of 46 it recently became part of the Hasgrove Group. Here is a small selection of its identity design projects. Leaf Street “An environmentally friendly housing association in northern England with a name that can prove its credentials. A leaf becomes a row of houses, becomes a logo.” Keycutters “An identity for… go on have a guess.” 3CV “Ethical marketing company with three core values.” Layezee…

• Ask Tom Geismar

  David Airey

  11 Nov 2009 | 3:14 am

  Tom Geismar is a founding partner of Chermayeff & Geismar and widely considered a pioneer of American graphic design. During the past four decades he has designed more than 100 corporate identity programs. Mobil Oil Corporation logo, 1964 His designs for Xerox, Chase Manhattan Bank, PBS, National Geographic, Gemini Consulting, Univision, Rockefeller Center and, most notably, Mobil Oil have received worldwide acclaim. Chase Bank logo, 1961 He has received all the major awards in the field, including one of the first Presidential Design Awards for helping to establish a national system of…

• The logo design untrend manifesto

  David Airey

  9 Nov 2009 | 2:11 am

  Image credit: Anand Duncan You won’t search for the latest fads. You will produce logos that don’t rely on what every one else is doing. The focus will be solely on your client, and what is most suitable for her. If the client needs a swoosh, deliver a swoosh. But you must first determine that need through comprehensive research and brainstorming. You will not feel compelled to “fit in” with your peers. If someone else is doing it, that’s one more reason to set yourself apart. Your competition will be your portfolio, with the aim of delivering the client with…

• Seven brand identity by B&W Studio

  David Airey

  2 Nov 2009 | 4:28 am

  Design consultancy B&W Studio, based in Leeds, UK, created this brand identity design for Seven back in 2007. I saw it today for the first time. Liked it. Thought you would, too. As with many brand identities, the logo in isolation isn’t what makes it work, and what I enjoy most is consistency of implementation across both print and web, giving a strong and professional unity. View more work on the brand spanking B&W Studio website. Or visit the Seven website to view the identity in context. Photography by Matt Wright. Via Grafikcache. Published on Logo Design Love Related…

• McCadden Design brandmarks

  David Airey

  26 Oct 2009 | 6:04 am

  Given that I’ve been back in Northern Ireland for a little over a year now, I thought it appropriate to put some focus on local design studios. Belfast-based McCadden Design has been working with organisations in the UK and Ireland for more than 25 years. Here’s a small selection of its brandmarks. Titanic Quarter “Currently the largest waterfront development in Europe, Titanic Quarter is a massive yet dynamic undertaking which takes its name from the part of the site where the Titanic was built. The four funnels of the iconic ship play a key role in our identity – a…

• 
  Dexigner Design Portal

• The Cooper Union Signage by Abbott Miller

  21 Nov 2009 | 9:44 am

  This fall the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art opened its new academic building on its Cooper Square campus in New York's East Village.

• ABC Dimensional: Call for Entries

  21 Nov 2009 | 9:33 am

  Agathe Jacquillat and Tomi Vollauschek from London-based design studio FL@33 are currently compiling and designing an exciting new book entitled ABC Dimensional (working title) to be published worldwide by Laurence King Publishing in spring 2011.

• Sonic Union Gives Water a Voice for Poland Spring

  21 Nov 2009 | 8:19 am

  NY-based Sonic Union mixer Steve Rosen takes water on a melodic journey back to its source in the new CGI-rich :30 "Born Better" for Nestle Waters' Poland Spring, out of McCann Erickson, NY, NY.

• Troika Design Group Shines a Spotlight on Polsky Films

  21 Nov 2009 | 7:55 am

  Troika Design Group, a strategic branding and design agency for media and entertainment companies, has been tapped by Polsky Films, an independent feature film production company, to produce its signature logo animation.

• USA by Designers: Call for Entries

  21 Nov 2009 | 7:54 am

  USA by Designers is an international artistic project whose aim is to unveil a multitude of images of USA from the inside and from the outside.

• 
  Graphic Design Blog & Web Design Blog

• Jan Andersen Logo Design

  Toon

  13 Nov 2009 | 5:28 am

  PD Optometrist on the Behance NetworkTechnorati Tags: Jan Andersen, Logo Design, Branding, BehanceSubscribe to this feed

• Matt W. Moore - Design and Illustrations

  Toon

  20 Oct 2009 | 5:24 am

  PERSONAL ILLUSTRATIONS 2009 on the Behance NetworkTechnorati Tags: Matt W. Moore , Design, Illustrations, Behance, ForumSubscribe to this feed

• Nicolas Alexander Typography

  Toon

  19 Oct 2009 | 6:13 am

  Typography II on the Behance NetworkTechnorati Tags: Nicolas Alexander, Typography, Design, BehanceSubscribe to this feed

• Phil McDarby is a Digital Artist, Photographer & Composer

  Toon

  19 Oct 2009 | 6:00 am

  Phil McDarby / Profile Technorati Tags: Phil McDarby, Digital Artist, Photographer, Composer Subscribe to this feed

• A comprehensive re-brand of the internationally renowned architectural practice Hames Sharley

  Toon

  15 Oct 2009 | 3:00 am

  A comprehensive re-brand of the internationally renowned architectural practice Hames Sharley. Brand Identity :: Hames Sharley on the Behance NetworkTechnorati Tags: Logo Design, Behance, Business CardsSubscribe to this feed

• 
  CSS-Tricks

• New Screencast: A Tour of jQuery on a Live Site

  Chris Coyier

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:06 am

  I’m busy, you’re busy, we’re all busy trying to meet deadlines and get things done in this crazy web world. I love learning new technologies when I can, but I’m the first to admit that I reach for tools that I already know well because I can be instantly productive that way. jQuery is one of those tools for me. In this screencast I walk through a website where I used jQuery all over the place in different capacities to get things done. Hey ya’ll, quick reminder here: I wrote a book! It’s called Digging Into WordPress and you can get it here.

• Quotes on Design API v3.0 (+ Widgets!)

  Chris Coyier

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:12 am

  Back in the sad ol’ days of the v1.0 API, everytime any site using it loaded the script, a database call was made to pull a fresh quote from the Quotes on Design archives. It worked, but it was slow and clearly not going to scale well. Version 2.0 was put together to solve those problems. A CRON job was used to run one DB query every 10 minutes and write the quote and markup to a .TXT file. Then when the script was called, it just read the content of that file and used that to work the magic. It actually worked great. I learned that this technique is referred to as “Ghetto…

• Five Questions with David Walsh

  Chris Coyier

  18 Nov 2009 | 6:09 am

  There is probably a good chance if you read this blog that you also know David Walsh. David and I hail from the same hometown (Madison, Wisconsin) and have been friends for years. We’ve worked on a few projects together and have written a bunch of double-posts together. Mostly I just bug him with questions I have about PHP and JavaScript and he always is there to help me out. I’m finally getting around to grilling him on a few questions. Read on to hear about client work, pet peeves, and the classic jQuery vs MooTools debate. Chris: Let’s have your take on this jQuery…

• Fix Padded Image Links with Negative Margins

  Chris Coyier

  16 Nov 2009 | 5:35 am

  This is a pretty basic trick that will be obvious to many of you. But for whatever reason, the solution to it always kind of eluded me so I’m sharing it here. I like padded links. Where you give links in body content a little padding, background, and rounded corners. a { padding: 2px 6px; background: #eee; -moz-border-radius: 4px; -webkit-border-radius: 4px; } A “padded” link The problem is that when you make images into links, this padding shows up in ungainly ways. Wrong Ways to Fix How I used to fix it was to use a sledgehammer instead of a chisel. That is, I wrote some…

• Print Design to Web Design: Comparative Analogies

  Chris Coyier

  12 Nov 2009 | 5:50 am

  I used to work in Pre-Press for a long time. Longer even now than I’ve been working on the web. I was in and out of InDesign documents all day every day. I’m not an uber-pro, but I know my way around pretty well. Recently I’ve been finishing up laying out my new book Digging Into WordPress (which you can buy now!) and during that time I was thinking about some of the ways working in InDesign is similar to CSS, and some of the ways it’s not. Let’s have a look. Print documents are of a fixed size. Web browsers are fluid. In print, you declare the width and height…

• 
  ScribeMedia.Org: The Business, Technology and Culture of Digital Media

• From Wikis to Ruby on Rails; How to Produce Content the Open Source Way

  Peter Cervieri

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:29 pm

  Open Source Video The Open Source software revolution, long the province of computer scientists and software developers (e.g., LINUX, Mozilla), now offers a wide spectrum of free, open source tools ranging from wiki builders to video and audio packages. Companies ranging from Ning and KickApps have benefited from the move to flexible, modular applications. New media producers are now the beneficiaries of an innovative movement that offers continuously improved software – thanks to the open source community – that can deliver lower costs and high-quality features for web and mobile apps;…

• How to Create the Death Star

  Michael Cervieri

  18 Nov 2009 | 12:23 pm

  How did Larry Cuba create the original Star Wars computer graphics? With a bunch of knobs, buttons, photographs and 1976 computer tech savvy. Related PostKevin Kelley on the Semantic WebMirror, Mirror on the TubeAd Week VideoA Conversation With NY Times Carpetbagger David CarrFree, Paid, Rights and Rivalries: Betsy Morgan and Avner Ronen

• Dear Rupert

  Michael Cervieri

  10 Nov 2009 | 12:24 pm

  Dear Rupert, I hear you want to prevent search engines from indexing News Corp sites such as the the Wall Street Journal, NY Post, Fox News and various Sky affiliates. This is easy. Create a .txt document with the following: # go away User-agent: * Disallow: / Then upload the file to the root directory of any site you want to block search engines from. Easy, isn’t it? Let’s do it for Fox News now. Just create the document and place it here: foxnews.com/robots.txt With those simple lines, you protect your valuable content, and the rest of us are granted a slight reprieve from the…

• Entrepreneurial Funding for Cleantech: New Opportunities

  Peter Cervieri

  9 Nov 2009 | 8:57 am

  When it comes to Cleantech funding, the rules are changing. Clean Technology Venture Funds have continued their recovery spurred by economic stimulus investment. Investors, multinationals, and governments are all seizing the multi-billion dollar clean-tech opportunity - setting up new and innovative technologies that compete on price and performance while reducing pollution, waste, and resource use. How will the next wave of financing options impact development? Attend this timely seminar to learn who is investing, what is the role of government funding for cleantech, what is NY State…

• Textures and Backgrounds

  Peter Cervieri

  6 Nov 2009 | 10:35 am

  Here’s a cool site that has good high resolution textures and backgrounds you can download to use in apple motion / adobe after effects projects. psdGraphics Related PostBeijing’s Digital Fireworks

• 
  Design Shack

• Quick Tip: Creating Swirly Vectors Using Illustrator

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:11 pm

  An illustrator video quick tip tutorial on how to create swirly vectors in illustrator. View Post

• 10 Must Have Hacks for WordPress Development

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:07 pm

  Ten wordpress code hacks that you can add to your arsenal that will not only save you a lot of time, but they will also set your themes apart from others who don’t come pre built with these types of features. View Post

• Zen Coding: A Speedy Way to Write HTML/CSS Code

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:05 pm

  In this post we present a new speedy way of writing HTML code using CSS-like selector syntax — a handy set of tools for high-speed HTML and CSS coding View Post

• CSS Design: Boco

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am

  View boco.me/ at Design Shack

• CSS Design: Actvise

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am

  View actvise.ro/ at Design Shack

• 
  CSS Beauty News Feed

• On Web Typography

  Alex

  17 Nov 2009 | 7:41 am

  On Web Typography. A good read on selecting and pairing typefaces for web design.

• Web Font Specimen

  Alex

  17 Nov 2009 | 7:33 am

  Web Font Specimen. See how typefaces look on the web with this free handy resource for web designers and typographers. Learn more about it at ALA.

• Dive Into HTML5

  Alex

  9 Nov 2009 | 7:37 am

  Dive Into HTML5. A free illustrated e-book that explains some of the features of HTML 5. Pretty Handy.

• Browser support for CSS3 and HTML5

  Alex

  21 Oct 2009 | 1:52 pm

  Browser support for CSS3 and HTML5. A nice recap of the current state of support for CSS3 and HTML5 features in the current browser market.

• Chrome Experiments

  Alex

  19 Oct 2009 | 9:54 am

  Chrome Experiments. A showcase of JavaScript experiments created using open standards like HTML5, Canvas, SVG, and more.

• 
  CSS Drive News

• Free “Site Under Construction” Template

  webmaster@REMOVETHIScssdrive.com

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:17 am

  A free "under construction" template page with a live count down clock.

• 12 Accessibility Pitfalls to Avoid

  webmaster@REMOVETHIScssdrive.com

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:54 am

  Here’s our list of twelve accessibility pitfalls to avoid along with some examples showcasing sites that either excel or fail miserably in these areas.

• An Early Look At IE9 for Developers

  webmaster@REMOVETHIScssdrive.com

  18 Nov 2009 | 7:52 pm

  A peak into what we can expect from IE9, including speedier web page rendering and better CSS3 support such as rounded corners and CSS selectors.

• flShow Free Flash slideshows

  webmaster@REMOVETHIScssdrive.com

  18 Nov 2009 | 5:33 pm

  Features two robust, 3D Flash slideshows- Carousel and Flip.

• Another 25 Photoshop mistakes

  webmaster@REMOVETHIScssdrive.com

  17 Nov 2009 | 5:26 pm

  Another 25 Photoshop mistakes in web and print. Look carefully or you'll miss it.

• 
  Cssleak.com

• XHTMLiT

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:46 pm

• Guerra Creativa

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:44 pm

• Synch Media

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:29 pm

• Skipvine Interactive

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:52 pm

• Go Media

  18 Nov 2009 | 5:45 pm

• 
  All Graphic Design & Graphics News

• Graphic Design, Book Covers, and You - Part II

  admin

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:30 pm

  Reading a Book by Its Cover The chance to produce art for a book cover is rare, bug the essential thought processes and creative steps are very similar, if not identical, in the inventive process. In this series we actually try to read a book by its cover--to see if the design concept is successful or [...]

• Graphic Design, Book Covers, and You - Part I

  admin

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:43 pm

  Inspiration from the Covers of Books In the next few posts, we'll look at some book covers and learn a few things about design. We'll find that design sometimes has to follow form. And in these examples, they follow the form of the content. The creative processes used to design a book cover are relatively the same [...]

• Freelancing 101: The Typical Life

  admin

  12 Nov 2009 | 3:33 am

  Freelancing 101: The typical life. Plus tips and advise from a professional. By Elle Phillips According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, about twenty-five percent of all Graphic Designers (or Graphic Artists) do freelance work, full-time or part-time. Many more have aspirations of doing freelance because of the money, creativity, and the appeal of working from home. [...]

• When Design Becomes Literal

  admin

  11 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

  As a graphic artist, you face the challenge of creating designs that are unique, and interesting. Some designers, as you will see, have taken the idea of design to a very literal form. The following examples are fun to look at and admire, but also serve as inspiration to think "inside the box" by approaching design [...]

• Logos: What Makes a Good Design? - Part III

  admin

  10 Nov 2009 | 4:56 pm

  And Now the Good Stuff In our last few articles about logo design we've seen some logos that didn't quite work because of design flaws, problems with concept or lack of visual appeal. This time we'll look at some of the most famous logos in the world, and some that aren't so famous to see why they [...]

• 
  Vandelay Design Blog

• Showcase of Excerpts in Blog Design

  Vandelay Website Design

  18 Nov 2009 | 6:56 pm

  Many blogs are using excerpts to display content on the front page. The use of excerpts gives designers a little bit more freedom and some opportunity to create an attractive and unique front page. In this post we’ll showcase for blog front pages that are using excerpts. Work Awesome Design Critique Strip Turnhout Kaligram Development Seed Blog The Swish Life Jord & Chan Line25 UX Booth Spyre Studios Design Feedr The Visual Click Mark Forrester Brad Ruggles Twirk Ethic West Coast Poppin The Photo Argus Krftd Officeal Freelance Switch Powerful CMS Dale Anthony Devot:ee Vectips…

• Free Business Icon Set from IconShock

  Vandelay Website Design

  17 Nov 2009 | 12:35 pm

  Our friends at IconShock have designed another set of icons especially for the readers of Vandelay Design. This pack includes five icons with a business theme. As you will see from the preview, it includes a briefcase icon, a calculator icon, a phone icon, a coins icon, and a pie chart icon. These icons can be used for personal or commercial projects, no attribution required. You may use them in any way that you like, but they cannot be re-distributed or sold. The source files (Illustrator) are included, as well as two sizes of PNGs (512 px and 256 px). Download the Business Icon Set Also see…

• 35 Excellent Ecommerce User Interface Designs

  Vandelay Website Design

  16 Nov 2009 | 1:44 pm

  While user experience is important on all types of websites, it is especially critical for ecommerce websites where visitors will be making purchases. A poor user experience will result in visitors having difficulty finding what they want, frustration during shopping, and many lost sales. In this post we will showcase the design of 35 e-commerce websites for your own UI design inspiration. The sites that are showcased in this post have also been featured at CartFrenzy, our gallery of the best ecommerce web design. Free People Rapha Mouse to Minx eties Ralph Lauren White + Warren Itself REI…

• 40 Beautifully-Designed Navigation Menus

  Vandelay Website Design

  11 Nov 2009 | 6:18 pm

  Navigation menus are, of course, important for usability purposes and creating a user-friendly website, but they also provide opportunities to add some visual appeal to the design. In this post we’ll showcase 40 examples of attractive navigation menus, including a variety of different types and styles. For more on navigation menus please see: 50+ Gorgeous Navigation Menus 50 Gorgeous Navigation Menus – Part II Utah Travel Lift Interactive MailChimp Idea Foundry The Creative Dot Michael Dick Mission Community Church Sushi & Robots Wonderbra Ultimate Strapless Light CMS Two24…

• Vandelay Design Partners with Fanurio Time Tracking and Invoicing – Plus a Limited-Time Discount!

  Vandelay Website Design

  11 Nov 2009 | 5:10 am

  We’re happy to announce that Vandelay Design is now partnering with Fanurio to make its time tracking and invoicing software accessible to more designers. We worked with Fanurio a few months ago to give away some free licenses to readers and the response was tremendous, so we decided to work together on a more permanent basis. We wanted to offer something special to all of you to kick off this partnership. Starting today (November 11, 2009), for the next 35 days you will be able to try and buy Fanurio for $49, a $10 discount from the regular price. Fanurio always comes with a 30 day…

• 
  Fuel Your Creativity

• Inspiration in Neutral: The FYC Edition

  Angie Bowen

  19 Nov 2009 | 1:43 am

  We are nearing the end of our colorful inspirational inquisitions here on FYC and as the series draws to a close we end with two unique takes on the series beginning with this week’s installment. All along we have been attempting to test the waters to determine if the source that feeds our inspiration, if it tends towards a singular color, can tend to aim our creative output in the same direction as elements associated with that color. Last week we rolled out Inspiration in Purple: The FYC Edition, and so the color wheel keeps turning as the series’ curtains begin to close.

• Designfruit Launches

  Angie Bowen

  16 Nov 2009 | 1:30 am

  We are pleased to report that there is a new addition to the online design community…and they brought free brushes! Yay! Designfruit announces the launch of a new e-commerce site packed with royalty-free, high-quality Photoshop brushes and vectors. The site is a showcase of artwork created by Jason Gaylor and Dan Spencer focused on providing great designs to the design community, for both novice and advanced designers, photographers and aspiring graphic professionals. Every design on the site, previously requiring purchase of an additional commercial license for use, is now available…

• A Look at Those Creatively Working Outside the Box

  Rob Bowen

  15 Nov 2009 | 4:29 pm

  Everyday in this field, we see so many creative minds finding new ways to express themselves inside the design arena. It is always an inspiring thing to see when designers look at the world around them, and think of creative ways to apply their craft to it. Often times there are those designers whose work we may have missed had not it been for the watchful eyes of our loyal readers. So in that tone we wanted to showcase another group of creative designs where the designers have taken the leap to think outside the box and come up with practical applications for their inspired endeavors. And…

• Inspiration in Purple: The FYC Edition

  Rob Bowen

  10 Nov 2009 | 11:33 pm

  Another week has worked its way to Wednesday and we have compiled another installment of our series of colorful inspirational inquisitions here on FYC. As our testing of the waters winds down where we attempt to determine if the source that feeds our inspiration, if it tends towards a singular color, can tend to aim our creative output in the same direction as elements associated with that color. Last week we rolled out Inspiration in Blue: The FYC Edition, and so the color wheel keeps turning as the series nears its end. Welcome back once again to the FYC edition of the popular Inspiration…

• Think Wallpaper

  Tim Smith

  10 Nov 2009 | 1:29 am

  File Type: JPG Number in Set: 8 Sizes: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 320×480 (iPhone) License Type: Creative Commons 3.0 Author: Tim Smith Tim Smith (or @timothybsmith, if you know him on Twitter) is a creative graphic designer and blogging dynamo who was hand picked to head up the Fuel Your Blogging site as editor. Taking his love of community and graphic design and merging the two together, Tim devised and designed the Think wallpaper for the FYC readers. We know Tim shares our sentiments in hoping…

• 
  Boagworld

• 192. Next Generation

  Paul Boag

  18 Nov 2009 | 2:57 am

  Download this show. Launch our podcast player Housekeeping The Website Owners Manual is finally out this friday! To celebrate its launch, I will be running free public Consultancy Clinics on the 20th November starting at 3PM (UK time). If you would like free advice about your website or would just like to hear the advice given to others, then join the conversation via the Boagworld blog. Back to top News Mockingbird A big part of most webs projects is wireframing. A wireframe is a communication tool, a design tool and a specification tool. Without it, there can be misunderstanding and…

• Are you always looking for a new challenge?

  Paul Boag

  18 Nov 2009 | 1:21 am

  For nearly eight years Headscape has been producing outstanding websites for our clients. However, although we enjoy delivering sites for our clients, that is not the end of our ambition. For some time now we have been actively developing our own projects both online and off. We have developed Boagworld.com, a prominent source of web design information. The award winning Boagworld Podcast is the longest running and most popular web design podcast catering for all those who design, develop and run websites on a daily basis. It has a vibrant community and is beginning to generate significant…

• Website Owners Manual is out on friday! Free Consultancy Clinic to celebrate

  Paul Boag

  16 Nov 2009 | 10:33 am

  I could pretend to be all cool and matter of fact about the launch of the Website Owners Manual. However, that would be a lie. I am stupidly excited and I want to run down the street shouting about the fact that I have written a book. Of course, were I to do so I think I would probably get strange looks so I have decided on a more reserved approach. To celebrate the launch of the Website Owners Manual this Friday, I will be holding an open consultancy clinic from 3PM-5.30PM (UK time). The format will be as follows: I will post a link here to the chat room on Friday You login to the chat room…

• 4 ways to bring new life to old Wordpress blog posts

  Paul Boag

  12 Nov 2009 | 10:52 am

  Who came up with the format for blogging? Whoever it was, they are an idiot! To be fair, they probably never envisioned blogs being used in the way they are today, but that is not the point :-) The problem with blogs is that they are time based. You write a post, it appears on the homepage and then overtime it is replaced by more recent posts and is sentenced to the black hole of your archive. Admittedly somebody might stumble across the post via a search engine. However, generally speaking it has vanished. This is a shame for a couple of reasons. First, it maybe a great post. The world…

• 191. Ecommerce Lies

  Paul Boag

  9 Nov 2009 | 2:58 am

  Download this show. Launch our podcast player Housekeeping If you are considering going to Future of Web Design New York on the 17th November then you will be pleased to hear that we have managed to get you a 15% discount. I went last year and can honestly say it was the best conference I have ever intended (although the hype around the election might have helped!). To claim your discount just enter the code ‘boag15′ at checkout. Back to top News Does aesthetics need to be compromised for the sake of usability? As you will know if you have followed me for any length of time, I…

• 
  Dzine Blog

• 18 Impressive Web Form Validation Scripts to Enhance User Experience

  yugu

  17 Nov 2009 | 8:06 am

  Forms are such a common element on the Internet we tend to blunder through them without too much thought. However, if the web site has added a few nice touches that make the process easier, it tends to speed up the process and reduce any frustration, hence i’ve collected these 18 Impressive Web Form Validation Scripts that will help you to enhance the user experience in your site 1.) Valid8 - An input field validation plugin for Jquery 2.) Easy Form Validation Requires No Javascript Library 3.) Really Easy Field validation with Prototype 4.) Mootools Form Validation + 5.) A jQuery…

• 54 Cool Examples of Custom Error 404 Pages

  yugu

  8 Nov 2009 | 8:11 pm

  If you have a broken link on your site or the pages, which don’t exist any longer, have moved to a new server or have never existed at all, visitors will get an internal error message from the server. However, by default these messages aren’t that helpful Whilst a well designed page can provide a means to find what they are looking for, wouldn’t it be great to display related information visitor might be interested or even redirecting them back to main page in a custom 404 page, here we have collected some 50 cool custom 404 pages just to inspire you, well not all are very informative…

• 27 Brilliant Photoshop Photo Manipulation Design Tutorials

  yugu

  4 Nov 2009 | 6:51 am

  Photo Manipulation is one of the most complex, highly detailed and creative art forms to come out of the digital age. mixing a bunch of photos together isn’t quite as easy as it might look, Blending different elements to form a single convincing image requires a very diverse skill set. Composition, color theory, the need for a solid concept and the technical skill Here i’ve listed 27 Best Photoshop Photo Manipulation Tutorials by various great Writers, These tutorials have detailed instructions which will help you to create your perfect photo manipulation art, Please let me know what you…

• Beautiful Graphic Design Works of Radim Malinic - [ brand nu ]

  yugu

  30 Oct 2009 | 12:45 am

  Radim Malinic has firmly established himself over the last few years as one of the most successful and prolific commercial illustrators working today. His sought after work has earned him reputation of one of the hardest working person in the creative industly with a who’s-who’s client list in the advertising world of household brand names. Based on his award winning work he has become renowned worldwide for the passion and intricate detail. Under the name of Brand Nu, he tells stories in vibrantly colourful images throught mixtures of shapes, handrawn elements and photo…

• 30 Nature Inspired Website Designs For your inspiration

  yugu

  26 Oct 2009 | 7:18 am

  Now a days you can see a increasing trend of using nature elements in web-design. incorporating nature elements like trees , landscape, sea, sky etc in to the design gives a more realistic and pleasant look to the website Here i’ve collected 30+ website designs base on nature theme, its quite interesting and inspiring to see how designers take colors and elements for nature and bring them in to web design, hope you all will like this collection 1.) 84Colors 2.) Hrasi 3.) Reklambyrå stockholm 4.) Dara’s Garden 5.) Springtime in Tennessee 6.) Adventure Travel 7.) Morphix Design Studio…

• 
  Elite By Design

• Web Design Tuts Is For Sale

  Brian

  4 Nov 2009 | 7:03 pm

  That’s right, I’m selling Web Design Tuts. After being unable to successfully manage the site, I have created an auction over at Flippa. Click here to view auction. I want to pass WDT onto a new owner who will be able to take advantage of this amazing site, with superb content, wonderful followers, and limitless potential. Please check out the auction if you are interested. If you have more questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to comment below or email me at brian[at]webdesigntuts.com. Thank you everyone for your support thus far and I know that Web Design Tuts will…

• The Ultimate WordPress Guide For The Absolute Beginner Part 1

  Brian

  18 Jan 2009 | 10:01 pm

  I personally recommend WordPress to every client I work with or any person who asks me how to get started in the online world. Why? Because I trust WordPress. Wordpress is easy to use, easy to learn, and easy to maintain. The problem comes when people simply haven’t been immersed into the online world long enough to learn how to use this powerful tool to their advantage. I am bombarded with questions about ‘how to do this’ and ‘how to do that.’ Unfortunately, there has never been a resource I could point to that would be the ultimate learning center for an…

• And THIS Is Why You Don’t Steal Online Content

  Brian

  16 Jan 2009 | 3:39 pm

  Update: The site that was stealing content has removed their post, although I did not get any sort of reply email. And to the people that were emailing me from Web Design Tuts with those dirty messages – it was other people stealing WDT content, not the other way around Second Update: The site owner has kindly emailed me and apologized for what happened. The article was removed and no harm was done. I will keep this post up as a way to help deter future content thieves. Look everyone, if you’re going to take content, at least don’t steal someone’s bandwidth, and it…

• Launching Web Design Tuts

  Brian

  5 Jan 2009 | 3:00 pm

  Well I knew it couldn’t stay a secret forever. Today, after writing a 6 hour, 2,000 word Photoshop tutorial, I went ahead and did an early-open for Web Design Tuts. I rolled out a couple of Twitter updates to get a few people’s reactions to the site. Some loved it. Some hated it. @BuildInternet was the first to actually look up Web Design Tuts on Who Is and noticed that the nameservers were pointed to Elite By Design. And the secret was out! So yes, I am launching Web Design Tuts as a companion site to Elite By Design. I’ve written some posts in the past here on EBD about…

• Artist Allure: A Vitaly S Alexius Showcase

  Angie Bowen

  12 Dec 2008 | 4:00 am

  Vitaly S Alexius is an innovative graphic artist with a style all of his own, and of his own making. Born in Novokuznetsk, located on the Tom River in south central Siberian Russia in the year of our Big Brother (1984, for all those not acquainted with the reference). With a fascination in all things celestial and a wide range of artistic backgrounds, add a dash of Photoshop enthusiasm, and Vitaly has created a unique artistic voice that shines like the stars from the heavens above. Early in his life, Vitaly grew up in the European architecture and factories that surrounded him,and he…

• 
  Nettuts+

• 5 More Helpful Video Quick Tips

  Jeffrey Way

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:56 am

  As many of you might know, I post a sporadic video quick tip on Twitter once a week or so. For those of you who don’t follow us, here are the latest five. You’ll learn how to select anything and everything with jQuery, how to log PHP errors to a text file, how to change your website’s background with each WordPress post, and more. Each video does not exceed five minutes. How to Change your Website’s Background with Each WordPress Blog Post Watch on your iPhone Download the Mp4 Further Reading on this Subject How to Rename the jQuery “$” Symbol Watch on your…

• Sorting Values with JavaScript

  Andrew Burgess

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:29 am

  Lists and tables are often the best way to display data on the web; but you shouldn’t have to worry about sorting that information manually. In today’s tutorial, you’re going to make a jQuery plugin that will put all your ducks in a row with JavaScript ease! Preface So, how exactly does sorting work in JavaScript? It’s not too complicated: any array object has a sort method. If you don’t pass it any parameters, it will convert the objects in the array to strings, sort them pseudo-alphabetically, and return them. Usually, this is terrible; consider sorting the…

• How to Build a Custom jQuery Tabs Plugin: New Plus Tutorial

  Jeffrey Way

  18 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm

  In this week’s 45 minute Plus video tutorial, I’ll personally teach you how to build a flexible jQuery tabs plugin. This plugin will automatically create the individual tabs, allow for auto-switching, fading, and plenty more – without being bloated. Why create a tabs plugin when there are plenty of them already available? Because too much abstraction is never a good thing. Become a Plus member. Join Tuts Plus For those unfamiliar, the family of TUTS sites runs a premium membership service called “TUTSPLUS”. For $9 per month, you gain access to exclusive premium…

• Build an RSS 2.0 Feed with CodeIgniter

  Drazen Mokic

  18 Nov 2009 | 11:19 am

  In this tutorial, we will build a RSS 2.0 Feed with the PHP framework CodeIgniter. After this tutorial, you will be able to build a feed for any custom website in no time at all. Tutorial Details Program: CodeIgniter PHP Framework Version: 1.7.1 Difficulty: Easy Estimated Completion Time: 30 minutes Step 1: What we Need First, we’ll take a look at the tools needed to get started. Besides an installation of CodeIgniter, we need a running MySQL database with some content from which we can build our feed. For this purpose, here are some dummy entries you can import. Create a database…

• 20 Email Design Best Practices and Resources for Beginners

  Matthew Kirk

  17 Nov 2009 | 11:39 am

  Even for experience designers, building email newsletters isn’t easy. You receive a lovely looking design, and you crack on with the development. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t work as it should in every email clients. Styles don’t display, images aren’t visible, etc. This is where these twenty best practices come in handy. 1: Keep the Design Simple Emails are not like complex website designs; they should be nicely designed, but somewhat basic. Try basing your designs on a main header image followed by the main content. The cleaner the design, the easier it will be to…

• 
  Woork Up

• jQuery Lesson Series: How to Implement Your First Plugin

  Bilal Çınarlı

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:38 pm

  Building a jQuery plugin is relatively easy if you know the basics. In this article we are going to build a simple plugin which highlights (actually blinks) the link, paragraph, span or any text element on the page. For a printable reference guide to the jQuery API I suggest you to download this interesting jQuery Visual Cheat Sheet designed by Antonio Lupetti or take a look at the official jQuery documentation. How to start implementing a plug-in First start with an empty jQuery plugin template. (function($){     $.fn.woorkBlink = function(){…

• Typographic Inspiration from TypeGoodness

  Graham Smith

  18 Nov 2009 | 1:15 pm

  Type and Font Inspiration from TypeGoodness – I only discovered TypeGoodness a few weeks ago, yet it is now become one of my most visited websites. Frequent updates, with articles covering many aspects of font and typography. An excellent variety of topics with the occasional free font for good measure. Just when you thought you had an adequate selection of typographic and font related RSS feeds, new sites pop up without mercy. The incredible thing with the Internet is that there are so many doors still waiting to be unopened, by new unsuspecting people. Visit one new website, check out…

• Four reasons why new websites flop

  Marc Hindley

  18 Nov 2009 | 12:49 pm

  Websites are bringing in more and more businesses to companies which are feeling the pinch of the global recession. And new companies are realising that a website is as important, if not more so, than every other aspect of their business. But it pays to get it right. Following these four principles will help you generate a more successful website. Bad marketing Websites can fail in the same way as real-world businesses, but established businesses sometimes don’t have enough understanding of how websites work. Websites don’t sell themselves. Open a new bricks-and-mortar shop in the…

• Exploring PHP Frameworks: CodeIgniter

  Stu Green

  17 Nov 2009 | 11:51 am

  I thought I would share with you my experience of PHP frameworks, and in particular a framework called CodeIgniter which I have been using a lot recently. A PHP framework is a platform which enables developers to quickly build web applications without having to re-invent the wheel every time they want to, for example, insert data securely in to a database. This article looks at CodeIgniter (http://codeigniter.com), an open-source PHP framework which in my opinion is fantastic. The need for a framework I am an English web developer who has been in the business for over 10 years. I started my…

• No Hope for the Verizon iPhone

  Lawrence Altaffer

  16 Nov 2009 | 3:08 pm

  Though there have been many rumors floating around for the past few years about Apple moving from the decidedly unstable and lethargic AT&T network to the generally satisfying network of Verizon, I’m here to tell you it ain’t gonna happen. As recently as two weeks ago rumors sprang up again this time with photos of  parts of what looks to be a smaller version of the iphone.  At the same time Verizon was in the middle of its advertising campaign slamming both AT&T and the Apple iPhone. It immediately surprised me that these two things would be happening at the same time.

• 
  Graphic Rating | Web Design, Graphic Design, Sites Rating

• 10 Impressive Game Trailers

  Andy Gongea

  1 Nov 2009 | 5:11 pm

  Do you remember the first game trailer that made you WOW. And I don’t mean WOW like Windows Vista … but a real WOW. Well this is a post that tries to give thanks to those creative game trailers designers and also remember some of the best trailers. 1. Warcraft 3 You can’t say game trailers without mentioning Blizzard Entertainment. It is the company that practically made the transition from simple announcements to cinematic experiences. And the first trailer that I will always remember is Warcraft 3. 2. Starcraft 2 The second title in is the next Starcraft installment from…

• My Top 10 Daily Web Stops

  Andy Gongea

  22 Oct 2009 | 3:40 pm

  I am curious about your first daily web stops. So in order to find yours I will share mine. Here are my first 10 web stops that usually are on my list every day. Let’s check them and see whether you have the same habits or not. 1. Gmail By far this is the first thing that I go to when I open my browser. I think I’m not the only person since checking your mail in our days is crucial to any professional. 2. Google Analytics Yes, my name is Andy Gongea and I have a stats addiction. So, the next thing that I usually do is to verify Graphic Rating’s stats. 3. Blog Comments This…

• Thanks to our Sponsors

  Andy Gongea

  19 Oct 2009 | 11:13 am

  With the help of this mini-post I want to thank our sponsors for their support. With their help I can continue sustaining this blog and delivering from time to time some interesting posts. Cheers! Sponsors: - WPBest – The Best Premium Wordpress Themes, Pugins and More - Wordpress Themes – WPStyles.org Cheers!

• 6 Icon Packs You Will Actually Use

  Andy Gongea

  11 Oct 2009 | 2:41 pm

  These days you can find icon packs posts on many blogs. There is nothing wrong with that, just that you should get value from those icon packs. In this post I want to showcase 6 icon packs that I think are worth mentioning and saving as a bookmark for future projects. There is no particular order – every pack has the same importance. 1. Social Network Icon Pack Designed by Rogie King from Komodo Media, the Social Network Icon Pack contains 80 refined, amazing social networking icons for the top networks around: Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, StumbleUpon etc. I’ve used this pack to…

• Creating Wireframes with Pencil (Firefox Addon)

  Andy Gongea

  5 Oct 2009 | 3:59 pm

  As a request from the previous article, I’ve decided to create a tutorial on how to create wireframes using Firefox. OK, we wont be using just Firefox but an additional addon – Pencil -, which makes creating graphic user interfaces and various types of sketches an easy task. Tutorial Requirements Tutorial Theme: Creating Twitter User Interface Wireframe Software Requirements: Mozilla Firefox Browser, Pencil Firefox Addon Skill: Beginner Tutorial completion time: 15 minutes 1. Launching Pencil In order to start Pencil Addon, you must start first Mozilla Firefox. After that, you…

• 
  Pro Blog Design

• 60 Great AIR Apps For Web & Graphic Designers

  Tehseen

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am

  Adobe AIR is a great platform to build efficient and cutting edge desktop applications, that work on any operating system. In the last few years, hundreds of very useful applications have been built on AIR for all sorts of purposes. Here we focus our attention on apps built for web and graphic designers. This list only contains applications that have proven to be dependable and useful for designers. We’ve split it up into these sections: Creating Graphics Design-Specific Tools Editing Images Taking Screenshots Productivity Tools Image Sharing Tools Multimedia Apps Creating Graphics 1.

• Hiring Writers For Up To $125

  Michael Martin

  16 Nov 2009 | 5:00 pm

  This is just a quick post to let you know that we’re once again looking for writers, and this time, at a substantially higher rate. The new rate is based on the feedback you all left a few weeks back. Big thanks to everyone who took part! From now on, post authors will be paid somewhere between $70 and $125 for their work, based on the quality of the post. We’ll be drifting away from the list posts that some of you are getting a little tired of, and start focusing on more in-depth tutorials and discussions (And when you do see list posts in future, you’ll find a lot more value in them.

• Design Review: Liam J Moore

  Michael Martin

  12 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am

  As part of our feedback post, we promised to review one commenter’s site here on Pro Blog Design. Well, our winner was Liam J Moore, so we’ll be reviewing his site today. A quick note to everyone who took part in the feedback post though, thank you for all of your suggestions! We’ve gone through every single one of them, more on that to come on Monday! Now, to the review. Liam is a student completing his Masters project in Multidisciplinary Design this year. The blog currently serves a joint purpose; as a portfolio for his design work, but also as a progress log for the project. The…

• 35+ Funky Cartoon Fonts for Logos and Headers

  Lee Ka Hoong

  9 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am

  There are a lot of free fonts available online. Sites like Dafont and 1001Fonts are invaluable repositories for designers, because they give us such a wide range of font options. Cartoon fonts are one type of font that rarely get much praise. The problem with them is that by definition, they’re gimmicks. They are never the most legible fonts, I’d never recommend using one for content, and quite often, they just look foolish. But when it comes to creating a memorable logo easily, a good cartoon font can be a great first step. They’re distinctive, look great in large sizes,…

• Why and How to Use Dropbox for Client & Blog Files

  Michael Martin

  5 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am

  We all know that our computers will crash someday, and we all know that we need to make backups of our files to keep our work safe. The hassle is that a lot of backup methods are tedious and time wasting to keep going. We want to have a backup system that we can set up, and then forget about it. We’ve already shown you how to keep a WordPress database safe, but in this post we are going to look at the rest of your blog and theme files, as well as client files or any other important documents you keep. Here’s what we’ll be talking about: What is Dropbox? Securing your blog folder. Why…

• 
  About.com Web Design / HTML

• Poll: Do you use includes on your website?

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:30 am

  An include is a script or tool that helps you include one HTML file in another. The most common reason to use includes is because you have content that is repeated across your website - such as navigation. When you use an include, you write the navigation as one file and then call it with an include reference in the pages where you want it to appear. The thing is, includes are not something you can do with plain HTML. You have to use a script or tool of some sort to handle it. The original include was the SSI or server side includes. But now you can create includes with languages like PHP and…

• Wordless Wednesday - Readers' Favorite Web Page Designs: Ali Felski

  18 Nov 2009 | 12:24 am

  See More Favorite Web Page Designs or submit a page that you love. Wordless Wednesday - Readers' Favorite Web Page Designs: Ali Felski originally appeared on About.com Web Design / HTML on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 08:24:48.Permalink | Comment | Email this

• Editors - So Many To Choose From

  16 Nov 2009 | 8:52 am

  This week, I finalized two "best of" lists: Top 20 Best Editors for Windows Top 20 Best Editors for Macintosh If your favorite editor is not on those lists, the best way to bring it to my attention is to write a review of it. Editor Round Up These are the editor reviews I finished this week: Adobe Creative Suite Adobe Dreamweaver EditPlus Espresso Microsoft Expression Web Microsoft Expression Studio NetBeans NetOjbects Fusion PageSpinner phpDesignerPHPEdit Rapid PHP Editor Web Designer WordPad XMLFox XMLFox Advance For the rest of the month, I'll be focusing on the lists of best editors in…

• Poll: Do you indent your HTML?

  11 Nov 2009 | 11:56 pm

  Indenting HTML code makes it easier to read and thus easier to maintain later. But some people feel that adding indents can increase the size of pages by adding in white space that isn't used on the page. Personally, I feel that it's important to have some indenting, so that the HTML is easier to read, but putting in a 4-space indent for every nested tag is a bit of overkill as well.Poll: Do you indent your HTML? originally appeared on About.com Web Design / HTML on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 07:56:28.Permalink | Comment | Email this

• Wordless Wednesday - Readers' Favorite Web Designs: Gourmet Traveler

  10 Nov 2009 | 11:33 pm

  Read more...Wordless Wednesday - Readers' Favorite Web Designs: Gourmet Traveler originally appeared on About.com Web Design / HTML on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 07:33:36.Permalink | Comment | Email this

• 
  lewro's blog

• Recent Projects at Thrusites

  lewro

  15 Nov 2009 | 5:30 am

  It has been quite a busy month in Thrusites. I got my hands dirty with lots of Photoshop mockups, amazing amount of CSS, HTML code and also made couple of wordpress/jquery plugins, even handcoded some back-end with php and sql. We have successfully kicked off our first big Twitter application HSBC Reviews which had lots of positive feedback. Only couple of weeks after we used the same model for one of the biggest online stores ASOS with great results. As you can see on the live application, customers just love their store. We can’t really say the same about HSBC but at least they can…

• Eye Design

  lewro

  7 Nov 2009 | 11:15 am

  I have mentioned in my last post that there are going to be new projects on my side. One of them has been lunched recently and you can enjoy it on the following address http://eye.lewro.com Designers are creative sponges and need constant feeds of inspiration. The inspiration could come from anywhere. Architecture, photography, traffic signs,paintings and so on and so on. I have been thinking for a long time that I should start collecting pictures of interesting products. I was looking for the right software which could handle multiple categories then I realized I could just use wordpress…

• Amazon S3 services – bulletproof solution for your data.

  lewro

  26 Oct 2009 | 6:52 am

  I have already mentioned my backup system for my local data using time machine and git but today I want to talk how to make bulletproof backup solution using S3 amazon servers. You might wander why would someone need external server when there is time machine. The answer is simple, not everyone has a time machine, your external HD could fail or someone could even break into your house and take your laptop/pc and external HD as well. Yeah I know, this is highly unlikely. But wait a second you will like this one. How would you like if all your databases would be backup, zipped and send to…

• Simplify your workflow using bash scripting

  lewro

  5 Oct 2009 | 2:13 pm

  It has been only couple of months when John introduced me to bash scripting, specially creating aliases in bash_profile. For those of you who do not know how the aliases in bash profile work I will explain it very simple way. It is like giving a set of commands and name in one place and be able to type the name in terminal and all these commands will be executed. As I have mentioned before I set up alias for every new project. There is a simple reason. When you are using git for pulling and pushing code into git repository you always need to be in the root folder of that project. So instead…

• Pretty tooltips using jquery

  lewro

  17 Sep 2009 | 1:07 pm

  Last week I received question – how do I create tooltip, the one which you can see on my portfolio page. I have to say, at the time I was creating that tooltip I was not using jquery so the code in my js file will look different. If you are not fully sold on jquery I will try to show you how this can be done very quickly and easy way. First of all you need the jquery library. The best way is to link it from google repository so you always get the last version and it could be already cashed if the user comes from the site which uses the same technique. <script…

• 
  Bridgeline Software Blog

• MITX Interactive Awards 2009 | Bridgeline and Hooked on Phonics Win

  Marcel Moreau

  19 Nov 2009 | 7:46 am

  A view of the stage at the MITX Awards Last night, MITX (Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange) hosted their 14th Annual Interactive Awards at the Boston Copley Marriott Hotel. The MITX Awards is the largest awards show of its kind and showcases the most creative and innovative web projects from throughout the country. It was a sell-out event with over 1,100 attendees. If you’ve never been to the MITX Awards before, it’s a little like the Academy Awards for websites. The production is super slick and the networking is in high gear. Professional comedian Jeff Caldwell…

• 5 Tips to Moodboard & Design Kickoff Success

  Matt Moore

  17 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

  It is difficult to gauge the success of a website design. Unlike a development process, which either meets the provided requirements or doesn’t, design’s only guidance is often to “create a modern, clean look and feel.” That’s why it’s important to have a design kickoff session with your client to make sure everyone is on the same page. When working with a bigger group of stakeholders, we find the moodboard process invaluable. Here are 5 tips to make your moodboard the best it can be: 1. Gather existing materials. Style guides, logos, colors, typefaces,…

• Avoid These Common Mistakes When Implementing WCM

  Tony Pietrocola

  5 Nov 2009 | 4:46 am

  It seems like just about every company both large and small, b2c, b2b and the like are evaluating a new content management system or in the beginning stages of implementing one. CMS success, which way will you go... Either way it is not too late to ensure success. I continue to see many organizations make a lot of the same mistakes during a CMS implementation. If you are in the throes of evaluating a new CMS, avoid these common missteps to ensure your content management implementation is successful. 1. Make certain the software provides intrinsic value. Don’t purchase CMS on cost alone. Not…

• The Importance of the Style Guide in a Web Project

  Matt Glaze

  27 Oct 2009 | 1:50 pm

  The project is done, delivered and launched. Timelines were met, UI work was superb, designs look great, quality assurance and testing went smoothly. Happy client. Model project. Then you get that dreaded call two weeks later from someone on the other side who is wondering where their style guide document is. “It was in the proposal” they say. And yes, they are right, there it is, plain as day. No one realized it was missing and now you have to get it done! A style guide serves many purposes. On one hand, it can be used in the early phases of a project to ensure common use of…

• The state of browser/screen resolutions – how wide should your website be?

  Tracey Greene

  23 Oct 2009 | 1:20 pm

  When your start creating the visual design of a website there are a lot of considerations to think about such as: What is the company brand? What colors, fonts, and imagery should be used? What are the main communication objectives that need to be answered? Although these are all important, the first questions that should come to mind are: Who are your target audiences and What are their computer capabilities (i.e. Browser level, connection speed, computer literacy, monitor/screen dimensions, etc.). By answering these, this helps inform the overall canvas dimensions to support the various…

• 
  AndySowards.com

• links for 2009-11-20

  Andy Sowards

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:01 pm

  Creative Interview w/ The Obox Team aka @obox @marcperel & @natperel | AndySowards.com :: Professional Web Design, Development, Programming Freelancer, Hacks, Downloads, Math and being a Web 2.0 Hipster? 1. Tell us about yourself! The name is David Perel, 24 years old, born and live in South Africa. I’m the designer at Obox Design which is a family (tags: ping.fm) Speed Up Theme Development With Blank Frameworks This really is the best way to do it links for 2009-11-19 | AndySowards.com :: Professional Web Design, Development, Programming Freelancer, Hacks, Downloads, Math and being a…

• Creative Interview w/ The Obox Team aka @obox @marcperel & @natperel

  Andy Sowards

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:34 am

  1. Tell us about yourself! The name is David Perel, 24 years old, born and live in South Africa. I’m the designer at Obox Design which is a family business which my brother (Marc) and I founded. My sister, Natalie Perel, also works with us full time. I started working in the web would the second I left school, initially my aim in life was to become a full time racing driver. I got very close and achieved many cool things but unfortunately my career peaked when the ‘recession’ hit. So since the middle of 2008 we have focused entirely on Obox. David Perel Marc Perel, 23 live in SA. I’m…

• #WDNDL For 11/20/2009 – More JavaScript and CSS! Tech News – PLUS Inspiration!

  Andy Sowards

  19 Nov 2009 | 5:03 pm

  YUI Theater Some truly fantastic Development/Programming Speaker Videos (tags: javascript video yahoo yui tutorial programming ajax webdesign) YUI 2: Profiler Great way to test specific parts of your Javascript Applications YUI 2: YUI Test Great Unit Test framework for Javascript (tags: javascript testing yui yahoo ajax programming test web unittest) On having layout — the concept of hasLayout in IE/Win Great read on hasLayout – The IE/Windows browser proprietary mode (tags: css layout ie webdesign hacks html design web haslayout) Google Closure Compiler vs. YUI Compressor –…

• #WDNDL For 11/19/2009 – Nerd News, Design & Dev Tutorials PLUS Inspiration!

  Andy Sowards

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:08 am

  Walmart Black Friday Ad Leaks With $78 Blu-ray Player – Walmart – Gizmodo Wow – Im going to Walmart. Maybe. Michael Jackson's 3D Body Scans on eBay for $1.5 Million – Michael Jackson 3D Body Scans ebay – Gizmodo This is crazyness! – can you imagine a robot MJ? Hands-On Gifts for Hackers, Makers and the DIY Obsessed Awesome Hacker Gadgets for Gifts! (tags: gadgets) Top Internet Trends of 2000-2009: Democratization of News Media More awesome internet history! (tags: internet media news trends 2009 blogging communication future) WDD Launches Mobile…

• #WDNDL For 11/18/2009 – TONS of Advanced Javascript Tutorials & Tools!

  Andy Sowards

  17 Nov 2009 | 5:01 pm

  Dynamic function names in JavaScript « Derek Gathright Nice tutorial – this can come in handy often actually The Best Illustrator Tutorials For Creating 3d Effects | Creative Nerds Cool Illustrator Tutorials – Slick 3D Effects (tags: illustrator tutorial effects effect collection howto) Google Sites Just Got a Whole Lot Prettier Interesting developments (tags: google mashable sites templates webdesign creation design webservice) $3 Million of iPhones Stolen in Belgium Heist – Iphone heist – Gizmodo Dang – Pwnt What Happens When You Bring a 22-Year-Old Mac to the…

• 
  webtoolkit4me

• collectivesunited.com | collecting creative roundups

  Gerasimos

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:36 am

  This is my new pet project called collectivesunited.com and the idea behind it is very simple. I am trying to collect all these really interesting roundups about design, development, photography etc. I decided to give the authors or people who’d like to share something interesting, the option to publish their own roundups (moderated of course). So have a look and if you are an author feel free to submit your roundup! Related posts:Blog Contest: PSD to XHTML from XHTMLME.comThe Gift of Knowledge GIVEaway: Donate your mindState of the Web – Survey results

• Inspiration: web design trends in 2009 (and 2010): Where are we heading? Volume 2

  Gerasimos

  2 Nov 2009 | 10:39 am

  Here’s the second part of posts about web design trends that we will see in the end of 2009 and 2010. If you missed the first post have a look there as well. In this post we will check a few examples using text replacement techniques (image based or through javascript), a touch of flash and/or complicated (but non intrusive) backgrounds. Visit Visit Visit Visit Visit Visit Visit Visit Visit Related posts:Inspiration: web design trends in 2009 (and probably 2010): Where are we heading?Logo of the Day – Logo Design InspirationKontain – a blogging platform from FI.com

• Build iPhone apps with Flash Pro CS5 and Actionscript 3

  Gerasimos

  6 Oct 2009 | 12:35 am

  Some great news can be found at Adobe Labs. At MAX 2009, Adobe announced the next version of Flash (CS5) that will enable us to build applications for iPhone using Actionscript 3.0. A public beta is not available yet but Adobe says it will be available before the end of the year.  If you want to learn more about it, keep an eye on Adobe Labs page for Flash CS5. Related posts:Decision Maker – Easily build decision guides and trouble shooters with this jQuery script.Aptana PHP – Version 1.0 is outKontain – a blogging platform from FI.com

• Stylizer and Pixelmator competition results

  Gerasimos

  16 Sep 2009 | 2:35 am

  Hello everyone, Actually i am bit late, but there we go, the winners for the 2 prizes i promised a while ago. So, after picking some random comment numbers the winners are: Stylizer: Paolo Valzania Pixelmator: The Voyager I ll get in touch with you in order to give you your serial numbers. Congratulation guys! And from tomorrow we’ll get back in track with more resources. Related posts:Vacation time for me, free stuff for you: Win a copy of Stylizer for windows and Pixelmator for Mac OS XThe Gift of Knowledge GIVEaway: Donate your mindlet’s move on

• Vacation time for me, free stuff for you: Win a copy of Stylizer for windows and Pixelmator for Mac OS X

  Gerasimos

  16 Aug 2009 | 11:57 am

  Hi everyone, it’s this time of the year again where i have to take a break and recharge my batteries. So before leaving my RSS feed alone for about 15 days i decided to give away 2 small but powerful apps to 2 lucky readers. So here they are then: Stylizer for Windows users For our windows friends it’s Stylizer. If you don’t know what this is, well you should give it a try. It’s a CSS editor but not like every other editor. It approaches things in a visual way but with 100% control over your stylesheet. If you manage to spend the first 15 “uncomfortable”…

• 
  Web Design Ledger

• 10 Blogs to Help You Become a Photography Expert

  Henry

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:49 pm

  Photography often plays a major role in web design. So It’s no surprise that many web designers have an interest in it. However, there are so many aspects to photography such as lighting, composition, and equipment features that can make it difficult to master. In this article I’ve rounded up 10 of the best blogs that consistently produce valuable tips and resources to help you with your photography. Digital Photography School Digital Photography School is a website with simple tips to help digital camera owners get the most out of their cameras. It is maintained by Darren Rowse…

• 14 Free Mac Apps for Web Designers on a Budget

  Henry

  18 Nov 2009 | 11:05 pm

  We all know that Macs aren’t the most affordable computers on the market. Purchasing one can take a big chunk out of a web designer’s budget and leave little to purchase software. Thankfully, there are alternatives to the expensive software that we need to do our job. Here are 14 Mac applications that will have you doing everything from editing images to writing code, and they won’t cost you a dime. MAMP The abbreviation “MAMP” stands for: Macintosh, Apache, Mysql and PHP. With just a few mouse clicks, you can install Apache, PHP and MySQL for Mac OS X. It is a…

• The Best Photoshop Tutorials of 2009

  Henry

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:37 am

  In our “Best of 2009″ series, we’ve already shown you the best free fonts and the best free icon sets. So as this year is getting closer to it’s end, we’re going to continue in this article and present to you our picks for the best Photoshop tutorials of 2009. There were so many amazing Photoshop tutorials written this year, but unfortunately we couldn’t pick all of them. Below you will find the tutorials that we felt stood out from the rest within several different categories. Photo Manipulation Creative Photoshop Animal King Photo Manipulation Tutorial…

• WDL Premium: Sketchbook Vector Pack from Go Media

  Henry

  17 Nov 2009 | 9:05 pm

  Here’s another high quality vector pack for our WDL Premium Members. Sketchbook, from the amazing designers at Go Media, has 40 really useful deign elements like sketchy halftones, cross-hatching, gradients, sketch line brushes – everything you need to soften the digital side of your designs. There are 40 vectors in all. Here is a preview of some of them. Download Sketchbook Vector Pack Premium MemberYou must be a WDL Premium member to download this file. Sign Up Login About the Artist Go Media is a well known design studio with a lot of passion for what they do. This passion…

• 12 Excellent jQuery Plugins for Enhancing Forms

  Henry

  17 Nov 2009 | 9:35 am

  Forms are part of almost every website. Whether it’s a simple contact form or a complex sign-up form, filling one out is usually a mundane task. When possible, you should try to make form completion for the user easier and more enjoyable. Here are 12 jQuery plugins that can help you enhance your forms. Password Strength Password Strength shows the strength of you passwords by telling you how long time it would take to brute force them. It tries to calculate how many possibilities the hacker needs to try to guess your password. Dropdown Check List The Dropdown Check List jQuery widget…

• 
  Unmatched Style

• paravelinc.com

  Gene Crawford

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:30 am

  This is simply a great website, one that’s a pleasure to click through. They’ve expertly mixed great illustration with nice clean grid based design. A design like this will hold up over time. Spend some time on this one and enjoy!

• Singapore Int. Foundation

  Gene Crawford

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:32 am

  Submitted by Emil Purugganan, @emilgp. XHTML/CSS guy. Website revamp for Singapore International Foundation done by comwerks.com. I really like the four column layout in the top portion of this site design, it gives it a really unique feel. From there the site is pretty predictable except for little corners here and there like in the “latest photos” block, I love how those are arranged. It’s little things like that that just get me going in the morning.

• Bureau347

  Gene Crawford

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:35 am

  Submitted by Frédéric della Faille, @fred_dela. Designer. Clean grid based HTML5/jQuery website. Really visually interesting site design, I love the typography. The interactions, specifically the portfolio pieces are not what you expect, I like the effect of making me click through a few pieces like that. I like the way they are presented in the photos too.

• i-love-photos.co.uk

  Gene Crawford

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:38 am

  Really nice, playful website design. I really get a sense for this photographer’s personality in the design of the website. The copy/text and particularly the visual tone of the site really set the stage to make me like this person. I think that’s really interesting to study too, made me go and take another look at the past few site’s i’ve designed with that thought in mind.

• TwigKit

  Gene Crawford

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:45 am

  Submitted by Tyler Tate, @twigkit. Designer. TwigKit is an easy-to-use toolkit that enables any web designer to quickly build full-featured search applications that look and feel great. Fast simple visually appealing single site design. I love that logo too. While this is a great single page product site, I really want more, I guess that’s a good thing. The icons, colors and clean typography all work very well together to make up a great little page.

• 
  Design Snack

• Guerra Creativa

  12 Nov 2009 | 12:02 am

  Guerra Creativa (http://en.guerra-creativa.com)

• CSS Illustrated

  10 Nov 2009 | 9:56 am

  CSS Illustrated (http://cssillustrated.com)

• Gib Living

  8 Nov 2009 | 12:56 pm

  Gib Living (http://www.gibliving.co.nz)

• ViewPoint

  7 Nov 2009 | 8:55 pm

  ViewPoint (http://viewpointapp.com)

• Christie Pediatric Group

  5 Nov 2009 | 7:46 am

  Christie Pediatric Group (http://www.christiepediatricgroup.com)

• 
  Desizntech

• Designing Print Based Flyer in Photoshop

  Kawsar Ali

  14 Nov 2009 | 6:18 pm

  Flyers are great way to promote events, shows, ceremonies and many more occasions. Designing and printing them is really a fun process. In this post we are showing you how to create flyer in Photoshop for printing. First, lets see the result: Before we start anything, know what size your printed flyer is going to be, it [...]

• 25 Interesting Glass Art and Sculpture Design

  Kawsar Ali

  8 Nov 2009 | 7:50 pm

  Once in a while  here at Desizn Tech we step out of our usual posting habit, and take a stab at different area of Design. This time it is Glass Art. It is also refereed as Studio Glass or Glass Sculpture, a form of art that uses glass to create beautiful sculptures, artworks, products and [...]

• 35 Adorable Monster and Creature Digital Arts and Wallpapers

  Kawsar Ali

  1 Nov 2009 | 5:55 pm

  Cuteness on overdose! That’s all this post is about. You have been warned. If you are monster junkie and creature illustration enthusiast you will certainly enjoy these digital arts and wallpapers. We have gathered some of the best digital arts and wallpapers on monster, animals, creatures  on the web. I do not know whats you favorite [...]

• Wordpress Custom Fields and Hacks for Bloggers

  Kawsar Ali

  27 Oct 2009 | 4:22 pm

  You can use wordpress to create a custom and professional looking website. In this post we are sharing some wordpress custom field tricks and hacks that will allow you to have a better wordpress powered site. Sometimes there could be guest bloggers who only writes one post  on your site and that’s all. You can [...]

• Free Twitter and RSS Icon Set with Bonus Icons

  Kawsar Ali

  24 Oct 2009 | 6:20 pm

  Here is a sweet treat for Desizn Tech readers. In a recent, article we showed you how to easily create twitter icons . Following up that post, here are the twitter icons and also some rss icons. The icons come in different sizes such as 24×24, 32×32, 48×48, 64×64. There is also two bonus rss icons. [...]

• 
  Web Design

• Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines at http://www.usability.gov/pdfs/guidelines.html

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:48 pm

  Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines at http://www.usability.gov/pdfs/guidelines.html[Filtrs in article: "web design" ][FiltrRank: 4][Source: twitter.com/denizkilinc]

• RT @kristofcreative: #Q4 From web design aspect, I see more focus on usability over creating .. http://bit.ly/17oJrM Web-design.alltop

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:13 am

  RT @kristofcreative: #Q4 From web design aspect, I see more focus on usability over creating .. http://bit.ly/17oJrM Web-design.alltop[Filtrs in article: "web design" ][FiltrRank: 4][Source: twitter.com/Alltop_webdes]

• #Q4 From web design aspect, I see more focus on usability over creating wall paper. #dcth http://bit.ly/hCMGF Web-design.alltop

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:13 am

  #Q4 From web design aspect, I see more focus on usability over creating wall paper. #dcth http://bit.ly/hCMGF Web-design.alltop[Filtrs in article: "web design" ][FiltrRank: 4][Source: twitter.com/Alltop_webdes]

• Best practices for web design --Usability.gov - Guidelines http://bit.ly/kD0Xh via www.diigo.com/~glennhoyle

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:19 am

  Best practices for web design --Usability.gov - Guidelines http://bit.ly/kD0Xh via www.diigo.com/~glennhoyle[Filtrs in article: "web design" ][FiltrRank: 4][Source: twitter.com/glennhoyle]

• #Q4 From web design aspect, I see more focus on usability over creating wall paper. #dcth

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:31 pm

  #Q4 From web design aspect, I see more focus on usability over creating wall paper. #dcth[Filtrs in article: "web design" ][FiltrRank: 4][Source: twitter.com/kristofcreative]

• 
  milo

• stedavies.com - A blog by Stephen Davies [Flickr]

  milo3oneseven

  7 Nov 2009 | 1:02 pm

  milo3oneseven posted a photo:

• stedavies.com [Flickr]

  milo3oneseven

  7 Nov 2009 | 1:02 pm

  milo3oneseven posted a photo:

• stedavies.com logo [Flickr]

  milo3oneseven

  7 Nov 2009 | 1:02 pm

  milo3oneseven posted a photo:

• stedavies.com first mock [Flickr]

  milo3oneseven

  7 Nov 2009 | 1:02 pm

  milo3oneseven posted a photo:

• eyg4 [Flickr]

  milo3oneseven

  7 Nov 2009 | 12:47 pm

  milo3oneseven posted a photo: custom buddypress theme

• 
  Top of Mind

• Integrate Email and Social Networking to Pack a Powerful One-Two Punch

  15 Nov 2009 | 10:14 pm

  When it comes to integrated marketing, email and social networking are complementary channels that you can easily pair up to deliver a knockout marketing punch for your business. The reasons to do so now couldn’t be stronger:Email is universal, and email use is on the rise among social media users (Nielsen)Email is efficient, producing almost twice the revenue share relative to share of budget (Direct Marketing Association)Social media is particularly effective at extending your email reach, improving the quality of your email communications and cultivating active advocates for your…

• Attention Advertisers: Have You Added Brand Names to Your PPC Ads?

  7 Nov 2009 | 12:10 pm

  In mid-May 2009, Google relaxed its U.S. trademark policy and began letting resellers, review sites and sellers of compatible, complementary or replacement products include trademarked terms in ad text even if they don't own the trademark or have the owner’s approval to use it. Now, six months later, ACS Creative wants to know whether you’ve taken advantage of this policy change and, if so, how is it working for you?What Was ThenPrior to the policy change, Google let companies other than the trademark-holder bid on trademarked terms (e.g., VAIO), but only the trademark owner…

• Take the 21-Day LinkedIn Challenge

  31 Oct 2009 | 3:06 pm

  If you’re serious about your business, it’s time to get serious about LinkedIn! Maybe you don’t know what LinkedIn is or perhaps you’ve started a profile—personal or business—but you haven’t invested the time to build out your network or make working LinkedIn a habit. Now’s your chance! Commit to taking just 15–30 minutes on each of the next 21 days to explore LinkedIn and get first-hand experience with the features and benefits it has to offer you and your business. You’ll be glad you did.What Is LinkedIn?LinkedIn is a…

• It’s Time to Tame Your Unwieldy Web Site

  23 Oct 2009 | 7:04 am

  Unwieldy, disorderly, unrestrained, unruly, out of hand … beyond control. Are these the words that you—or worse yet, your customers—use to describe your Web site?Never fear! Help is on the way in the form of a Web site redesign. With some careful planning and execution, you can reclaim control of your Web site—in particular, your content—to ensure that you provide meaningful user experiences whenever your customers visit you online.Web Site Content StrategyA content strategy is a plan for creating, publishing and governing useful, accessible content for your…

• Show and Tell by Adding Video to Your Blog

  15 Oct 2009 | 10:58 pm

  More than two-thirds (67%) of Americans online have streamed or downloaded digital video content from the Internet, reports Ipsos MediaCT in its recent MOTION study. Furthermore, Nielsen reports a 25% year-over-year increase in total online video streams viewed and a matching increase in online video time per viewer. With this high-level—and growing—interest in online video, chances are good that adding video content to your blog will help you reach a wider audience and raise awareness of your company and brand. Are you ready to give video a try? Sample business how-to video from…

• 
  BlueWave Media

• Links for 2009-11-19 [del.icio.us]

  Kimberly Beaven

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am

  960 Gridder - Lay out websites with ease. 960 Gridder is an excellent tool for any web developer/ designer that wants to easily align, match and/or lay out websites. The idea came when designing a website for a student organization where I worked with several designers that handed their lay outs and designs in Photoshop format with a similar grid built-in to me. After a while I noticed how hard it became to make sure everything looked exactly how they intended it, especially in the different browsers. 960 Gridder is cross-browser compliant and works well in Internet Explorer 6/7/8, Firefox…

• Links for 2009-11-18 [del.icio.us]

  Kimberly Beaven

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am

  cubeon - Project Hosting on Google Code Cube°n makes tasks a first class part of NetBeans by integrating with issue tracking systems. It then monitors your work activity to identify what's relevant and improves productivity by reducing searching, scrolling, navigation and sharing expertise. Dr. Dobb's | Programmer Productivity | September 26, 2009 Multitasking is good when it comes to computer programs, letting them do more with less. But when computer programmers start multitasking, productivity flies out the door. Interview With Designer Kathleen Grebe | The Sport Designers recent…

• Links for 2009-11-17 [del.icio.us]

  Kimberly Beaven

  18 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am

  Panic - Desktastic 3 - Draw Directly on your Mac OS X Desktop! *Love it Use your desktop for more than just a mess of icons? Sure! Desktastic 3.0 lets you take notes, visually demonstrate, draw stupid pictures, and much more!

• Links for 2009-11-16 [del.icio.us]

  Kimberly Beaven

  17 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am

  Pogoplug Share Everything The Pogoplug connects your USB drive to the Internet so you can easily share and access your files from anywhere. The Pogoplug is the perfect accessory to your connected life. Imagine accessing all your files and media at home from any laptop or desktop computer, anywhere in the world, or sharing this content with friends and family without having to upload. There's even an iPhone application so you can always "phone home" to get your files!

• Links for 2009-11-13 [del.icio.us]

  Kimberly Beaven

  14 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am

  Freeverse: Mac: Games & Apps: Think Look around your screen right now. It’s okay, we’ll wait. At this very moment, applications are fighting for your attention. Between chat windows, Finder windows, Web browser windows, and everything else, it’s amazing any of us can concentrate at all. As it has become easier to multitask, we’ve become more likely to have two dozen windows on the screen at any given moment. Innovations like Expose makes finding what you want in the sea of visual stimuli easier, but they’ve done little to remove those distractions. Focusing takes concentration,…

• 
  WhatwasIthinking.co.uk

• Go Skimming iPhone app is live!

  Alexander Rehm

  30 Oct 2009 | 4:48 am

  GoSkimming, the new iPhone app by Cumbria Tourism has been released on the iTunes App Store last week. This the first iPhone app I have worked on with New Vision Group and Buzz Interactive. And best of all – its free! About the app: Stone skimming is a worldwide pastime, although depending on where you come from it could be called skipping rocks, baking pancakes, letting the frogs out, letting the ducks out or making white-caps. Whatever you might call it, the rules and fun factor are the same wherever you’re playing… and now that could be anywhere with the Golakes Go Skimming app.

• Wordpress 2.8.5 – a hardening security release

  Alexander Rehm

  22 Oct 2009 | 5:08 am

  The brilliant minds behind Wordpress have released version 2.8.5 last night, dealing mostly with security issues. The main fixes of Wordpress 2.8.5 are: Trackback Denial-of-Service attack fix Removal of areas within the code where php code in variables was evaluated Switched the file upload functionality to be whitelisted for all users including Admins Retiring of the two importers of Tag data from old plugins It is strongly recommended to upgrade as soon as you can, either via your WP admin panel or download Wordpress 2.8.5 directly from here.

• Adobe releases Coldfusion 9 betas

  Alexander Rehm

  24 Sep 2009 | 12:21 am

  A couple of weeks ago, the brilliant minds behing Adobe released beta versions of ColdFusion and ColdFusion Builder to its Adobe Labs members. This latest version of ColdFusion features a greater integration with the popular Flash platform, including AIR, Flex (and Flex Builder) and Flash Media Server, making it easier for developers to create rich user interfaces for (web) applications. Not only that, ColdFusion 9 accelerates the development cycle by reducing complex code and the ability to access data from existing infrastructures based on enterprise solutions such as MS Office, Sharepoint…

• FireFox 3.6 Alpha – visual tab previews and faster start-up times

  Alexander Rehm

  12 Aug 2009 | 1:42 am

  Mozilla Labs has just released the first alpha of Firefox 3.6, code-named Namoroka, built on top of Mozilla’s Gecko 1.9.2 layout engine. With it, Mozilla promises JavaScript improvements, startup time speed-ups, visual tab previews and behavior tweaks, capability for additional CSS3 properties, among the most notable changes. The startup time and JS speed improvements are noticeable and welcome, and the visual tab previews are finally here and worth the wait. By default, the new visual tabs are currently hidden in the FF3.6 alpha build, you can easily access them via an about:config…

• Wordpress 2.8.4 – another security release

  Alexander Rehm

  12 Aug 2009 | 1:05 am

  The great minds behind Wordpress discovered another vulnerability yesterday: a specially crafted URL could be requested that would allow an attacker to bypass a security check to verify a user requested a password reset. That would mean that the first account without a key in the database (usually the admin account) would have its password reset and a new password would be emailed to the account owner. While this doesn’t mean the attacker could access your account it is still an annoying thing to happen. As such, please update your Wordpress installation as soon as you can and download…

• 
  Cheese and Beans

• Squeak!

  Jonathan

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:58 pm

  Just got this one in before midnight (NaBloWriMo lives for another day)

• Home

  Jonathan

  19 Nov 2009 | 1:36 pm

  I’m home from my first stint working away from home. Arriving home, the house was empty, and I ended up doing what I had joked with a colleague about – washing up. A little while later there was a knock at the door, and two very sleepy little girls greeted me at the door. No cheers, no jumping up and down. I read their stories, and then I gave their Mum a huge hug. A little while later their elder sister arrived home from brownies – this time there were excited cheers, hugs, and kisses. It’s great to be home.

• Getting into the swing of it

  Jonathan

  18 Nov 2009 | 2:33 pm

  It’s Wednesday evening – the third night in the hotel – and I’m slowly getting used to it. If the old saying about not missing what you never had is true, I’m starting to forget what I once had. Perhaps that explains my acquiescence ? After the trials of the first night, the 3G dongle on the netbook has performed like a champion – giving steady connectivity from the hotel room. It’s not fast enough to handle video on Skype, but it’s enough to read the news and reply to emails. While sat in the hotel restaurant this evening with my colleagues,…

• Hilton wins me over with her mediocrity

  Jonathan

  17 Nov 2009 | 1:25 pm

  Hotel breakfasts rule. You don’t have to make them, and you don’t have to wash up after yourself either. What’s this? I’m not annoyed this evening? Perhaps the mediocrity of this hotel has bludgeoned me so much that I can no longer differentiate between “good” and “woeful”. In the interests of balancing things out somewhat, the vindaloo I chose at dinner this evening bore about as much resemblance to it’s label as a tin of mince and big soup mixed together with a spoon or two of crushed chillies. So there you go – I’ve covered…

• Paris Hilton can go stuff her family hotel chain up her …

  Jonathan

  16 Nov 2009 | 3:20 pm

  While away with work over the coming weeks, I am staying at a rather big, rather expensive hotel on the outskirts of a big city in the UK. Any novelty that might have been had through “living in the hotel” has been destroyed before the end of the first night. It all comes down to one thing – no internet. No internet means no Skype video call with my children. At (their) dinner time this evening I sat down in the hotel room, and looked around for an internet cable, or a leaflet explaining about WiFi. I even looked in the wardrobe. Nothing. A sinking feeling came over me as I…

• 
  CSS Globe | Web Standards Magazine

• The Ultimate Toolbox for iPhone Development

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:17 am

  70 tools, tutorials, and resources to help you get started developing your own iPhone apps.

• 10 Must Have Hacks For WordPress Development

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:15 am

  In this post I am going to show you 10 WP hacks that you can add to your arsenal that will not only save you a lot of time, but they will also set your themes apart from the rest.

• Making an Interactive Picture with jQuery

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:06 pm

  How to piece together an interactive picture that contains tooltips and popup boxes.

• jQuery Lesson Series: How to Implement Your First Plugin

  19 Nov 2009 | 1:33 pm

  Building a jQuery plugin is relatively easy if you know the basics. In this article we are going to learn how to implement your first jQuery plug-in.

• Green Website Showcase

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:14 pm

  An inspirational showcase of green websites

• 
  Six Revisions

• 10 Free and High-Res Grungy Wood Textures

  Jacob Gube

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:58 pm

  Here are 10 high quality wooden textures that you can use in your design projects free of charge. Each texture file is extremely large-scale at 3,872px x 2,592px so that you can use them in many types of projects, large or small. Preview Here is a preview of them. Click on their title or image to go to their Flickr pages where you can download various sizes. Alternatively, you may wish to browse the Six Revisions Grungy Wood texture set on Flickr. Grungy Wood 01 Grungy Wood 02 Grungy Wood 03 Grungy Wood 04 Grungy Wood 05 Grungy Wood 06 Grungy Wood 07 Grungy Wood 08 Grungy Wood 09 Grungy Wood…

• How to Design a Band Website Layout in Photoshop

  Jacob Gube

  19 Nov 2009 | 5:54 am

  In this tutorial, you’ll learn step-by-step how to design an awesome band website that any rock and roller would be proud to call their own. The theme is grungy and worn-and-torn and we’ll use a handful of freebies along the way. Final Result Clicking on the image below to see a full-scale version of the band website we’ll be creating. Create the Photoshop document 1 Start out by opening a new document in Photoshop, 1200 pixels wide by 1000 pixels tall. 2 Then drag your guides from the Ruler (press Ctrl/Cmd + R if you don’t see your rulers) so that the middle content…

• 10 Definitive Tips for Writing Captivating Emails

  Jacob Gube

  17 Nov 2009 | 2:00 pm

  Emails are a great way to reach people, to keep reminding them that your site still exists and that they really should keep checking you out. After all, the people who receive your emails should already be familiar with you, they will have opted to receive emails from you, but now you have to make sure they pay attention to what you’re sending them. But, you should keep in mind that every email list is different. You should see what works for your readers and avoid what I call the Amazon effect: just because it works for someone else doesn’t mean it’s right for you and your…

• How to Use Retro Colors in Your Designs

  Jacob Gube

  16 Nov 2009 | 2:00 pm

  Retro colors are a great way to give your website an older/vintage feel; it can give your design a little something different from the regular fully saturated colors that you see often in modern-themed designs. This article is both a showcase of retro-colored themes in existing web designs, as well as a tutorial on how to achieve retro colors using Adobe Photoshop (you’ll learn about five different techniques). Retro colors in web design Before we delve into using retro colors, first let’s peek at some existing web designs that use retro/vintage colors really well. Kitschen Sink…

• The History of the Internet in a Nutshell

  Jacob Gube

  15 Nov 2009 | 10:25 am

  If you’re reading this article, it’s likely that you spend a fair amount of time online. However, considering how much of an influence the Internet has in our daily lives, how many of us actually know the story of how it got its start? Here’s a brief history of the Internet, including important dates, people, projects, sites, and other information that should give you at least a partial picture of what this thing we call the Internet really is, and where it came from. While the complete history of the Internet could easily fill a few books, this article should familiarize…

• 
  Chris Wallace // Designer&Developer

• This One’s for Dad

  Chris

  3 Nov 2009 | 8:16 am

  With the launch of my latest theme, Aperturious, I knew this one was going to be difficult. This is the first theme I’ve released since my dad passed away suddenly one week ago today. When he died, I quickly began to realize dealing with it involves a lot of difficult firsts. First time going to church without him there. First time having Christmas without him. First time for everything. For my first theme released without him, I am dedicating it to my dad. He was a great man. I know he’s being taken care of where he went and I can’t wait to meet him there. I love…

• Aperturious

  Chris

  3 Nov 2009 | 7:22 am

  Aperturious is a flexible, highly-configurable, gorgeous WordPress theme with the ability to choose between 3 unique designs and 3 different layouts! Learn More and Purchase Buy theme at ThemeForest ($25) View Demo View Screenshots Three Awesomely Designed Color Schemes It may be tough to choose, but this theme comes with three color schemes to choose from, two light and one dark themes. Three Layout Options Choose between a left sidebar, right sidebar or no sidebar for a Tumblr-style blog. Video-Ready with Simple Video Embedder Simply install the amazing Simple Video Embedder…

• Tuesday Freebie: Aperture Desktop Wallpaper

  Chris

  19 Oct 2009 | 8:54 pm

  To promote the release of the highly-anticipated Aperture WordPress theme, one of the most flexible and beautiful themes in the known world,  I went ahead and put together a desktop background for your downloading pleasure. Go ahead, tell your friends. Download Pick your resolution and enjoy. Make sure to right-click and save as… otherwise it will open up in a nice lightbox window. 2560×1600 2048×1152 1920×1200 1650×1050 1600×1200 1440×900 1400×1050 1280×960 1280×800 1024×768

• Monday Freebie: Vector Scale Icon

  Chris

  18 Oct 2009 | 6:28 pm

  Because it’s Monday and because I like you, I am releasing a vector scale icon that comes with 4 PNG icons in 512×512, 256×256, 128×128, and 64×64 and a PSD that has a smart object Illustrator file that can be edited for your needs (CS4 compatible). Click on the image above to see the sizes of the PNG versions. If you do happen to use the icon for anything, please do let me know, I’d love to see where you use it. Download the Scale Icon (.zip) Scale Icon by Chris Wallace is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License. Based…

• Dealing with a Design Ripoff: 5 Simple Steps

  Chris

  14 Oct 2009 | 8:53 pm

  One of the cardinal sins in the design community is stealing someone’s work and calling it your own. About a month ago, a good friend notified me that his site and portfolio were completely ripped off by a guy he found on ThemeForest. The guy basically took his entire portfolio, slapped a new logo on it, and uploaded it to his domain. My friend was distraught about the whole situation and had no idea what to do. As a Christian, he wanted to help the person, and wasn’t sure what the best approach would be. Obviously, he wanted to get the stolen portfolio taken down. At the same…

• 
  Function Web Design & Development

• A close look at the Creativity of Illustrator Pasquale D’Silva

  liam

  13 Nov 2009 | 1:59 am

  Every now and then we all come across a designer who takes us by surprise, and reminds us what it means to truly be a creative person. This is exactly how I felt when nearly 2 years ago I came across the work of Pasquale D’Silva. Although illustration and animation aren’t really things I do, the vibe that comes from Pasquale, and the level of creativity he keeps up is something we can all related to and respect. When you stumble across somebody so creative in this industry it’s always a good idea to talk to them, and if their skills can work for you, work with them. I…

• Revisited: Creating Custom Write Panels in WordPress

  Spencer

  15 Oct 2009 | 6:50 am

  Almost a year ago (wow, time flies!) I wrote a little tutorial explaining the nuances of add_meta_box in WordPress, and how it can be used to create some nifty Custom Write Panels. It was a nice little script, and still functioned great. I use it on almost all of the projects Liam and I have, and up to this point, it has been great. However, for an upcoming project, I foresaw some problems. The current way things are set up in the script, it created a new row in the postmeta table for each custom input you included. Because of this, when you wanted to display the results on your theme, you…

• Beautiful Post Thumbnails: Top Examples & Best Practices

  liam

  29 Sep 2009 | 5:32 pm

  Your blog post thumbnail will play a big part in how your users see your website, and how they navigate it. A well designed post thumbnail can really engage your visitors and help encourage them to explore your website. Examples of Post Thumbnails A very Unique Solution on Tutorial9 Introducing, a true master at making an interesting post thumbnails, Mr David Leggett. In this case a very bold & unique use of the content (icons) to create a memorable thumbnail. Clean and crisp thumbnail on AppStorm A very clean lighting effect in the background with a modern font & great colors to…

• The Envato Marketplaces Re-Design: Our Involvement

  liam

  27 Sep 2009 | 8:34 pm

  We’ve recently had the pleasure once again of working with Collis Ta’eed and the team at Envato, a company we admire - and one full of creative & down to earth guys - running a very successful network of sites. Having them use your icons on their site(s) is one thing, but working with them is a true honor. Here’s our write up of our involvement in the recent re-design, our thoughts on it - and our early design drafts for Collis. A look at the new Envato Marketplaces There’s a lot of people to please when you’re re-designing such a huge network of sites, and a…

• 178 Free Icons: WooFunction Free Icon Set goes Live

  liam

  25 Sep 2009 | 8:26 am

  A really great set of icons for free. Something that you’ve seen before on this blog, but I think this most recent free set shows just how far I’ve come since the first set, just over a year ago now. This new set of icons was made exclusively for WooThemes & with their help we’ve proud to offer you this fantastic set of icons for absolutely nothing! With this set we’ve gone for a more refined, Mac OSX style Icons (almost) - which seem to be really popular with web designers recently. We’ve also gone for a (smaller than usual) 32 x 32px size, with a few of…

• 
  Line25

• Line25 Sites of the Week for November 20th 2009

  Chris Spooner

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm

  Line25 Sites of the Week is a weekly roundup of the most outstanding website designs. In this week’s collection, we have design from Bush Theatre, Jack Bloom, Jason Reynolds, SrBurns and Adrian Pelletier. Bush Theatre View the website Jack Bloom View the website Jason Reynolds View the website SrBurns View the website Adrian Pelletier View the website Similar Posts Line25 Sites of the Week for November 13th 2009 Line25 Sites of the Week for November 6th 2009 Line25 Sites of the Week for October 30th 2009 Line25 Sites of the Week for October 23rd 2009

• How to Create an Author Info Section in Wordpress

  Chris Spooner

  15 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm

  It’s common to find an author’s credit and bio at the end of a blog post, especially on blogs that post content from multiple writers. Using a cocktail of Wordpress template tags, an info section can be easily put together to showcase the author’s Gravatar profile image, their name, link to their website and short bio. A typical author info section sits at the bottom of a post, so we’ll add our code in the single.php Wordpress file. The aim is to display their name, linked to their personal homepage; automatically pull in their gravatar profile picture; and display a…

• Line25 Sites of the Week for November 13th 2009

  Chris Spooner

  12 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm

  Line25 Sites of the Week is a weekly roundup of the most outstanding website designs. In this week’s collection, we have design from Hello Kavita, TweetCC, Tracer Media, Koodoz Design and Arc90. Hello Kavita View the website TweetCC View the website Tracer Media View the website Koodoz Design View the website Arc90 View the website Similar Posts Line25 Sites of the Week for November 20th 2009 Line25 Sites of the Week for November 6th 2009 Line25 Sites of the Week for October 30th 2009 Line25 Sites of the Week for October 23rd 2009

• Horizontally Scrolling Websites Showcase & Tutorials

  Chris Spooner

  8 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm

  Love them or hate them, horizontally scrolling websites are scattered around the net, and there’s some fantastic examples. Unlike the traditional layout of a website that scrolls up and down, horizontal websites flip things around and scroll from left to right. Sometimes they’re enhanced with Javascript to offer an even richer user experience, such as auto-scrolling effects. Check out this collection of 30 inspiring examples, and follow on to a hand full of brilliant tutorials that give an insight into the theory and practice of creating a horizontal site of your own. The…

• Line25 Sites of the Week for November 6th 2009

  Chris Spooner

  5 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm

  Line25 Sites of the Week is a weekly roundup of the most outstanding website designs. In this week’s collection, we have design from Adii Rockstar, Denise Chandler, Adlucent, Glue and Andreas Hinkel. Adii Rockstar View the website Denise Chandler View the website Adlucent View the website Glue View the website Andreas Hinkel View the website Similar Posts Line25 Sites of the Week for November 20th 2009 Line25 Sites of the Week for November 13th 2009 Line25 Sites of the Week for October 30th 2009 Line25 Sites of the Week for October 23rd 2009

• 
  Nettuts+

• 5 More Helpful Video Quick Tips

  Jeffrey Way

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:56 am

  As many of you might know, I post a sporadic video quick tip on Twitter once a week or so. For those of you who don’t follow us, here are the latest five. You’ll learn how to select anything and everything with jQuery, how to log PHP errors to a text file, how to change your website’s background with each WordPress post, and more. Each video does not exceed five minutes. How to Change your Website’s Background with Each WordPress Blog Post Watch on your iPhone Download the Mp4 Further Reading on this Subject How to Rename the jQuery “$” Symbol Watch on your…

• Sorting Values with JavaScript

  Andrew Burgess

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:29 am

  Lists and tables are often the best way to display data on the web; but you shouldn’t have to worry about sorting that information manually. In today’s tutorial, you’re going to make a jQuery plugin that will put all your ducks in a row with JavaScript ease! Preface So, how exactly does sorting work in JavaScript? It’s not too complicated: any array object has a sort method. If you don’t pass it any parameters, it will convert the objects in the array to strings, sort them pseudo-alphabetically, and return them. Usually, this is terrible; consider sorting the…

• How to Build a Custom jQuery Tabs Plugin: New Plus Tutorial

  Jeffrey Way

  18 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm

  In this week’s 45 minute Plus video tutorial, I’ll personally teach you how to build a flexible jQuery tabs plugin. This plugin will automatically create the individual tabs, allow for auto-switching, fading, and plenty more – without being bloated. Why create a tabs plugin when there are plenty of them already available? Because too much abstraction is never a good thing. Become a Plus member. Join Tuts Plus For those unfamiliar, the family of TUTS sites runs a premium membership service called “TUTSPLUS”. For $9 per month, you gain access to exclusive premium…

• Build an RSS 2.0 Feed with CodeIgniter

  Drazen Mokic

  18 Nov 2009 | 11:19 am

  In this tutorial, we will build a RSS 2.0 Feed with the PHP framework CodeIgniter. After this tutorial, you will be able to build a feed for any custom website in no time at all. Tutorial Details Program: CodeIgniter PHP Framework Version: 1.7.1 Difficulty: Easy Estimated Completion Time: 30 minutes Step 1: What we Need First, we’ll take a look at the tools needed to get started. Besides an installation of CodeIgniter, we need a running MySQL database with some content from which we can build our feed. For this purpose, here are some dummy entries you can import. Create a database…

• 20 Email Design Best Practices and Resources for Beginners

  Matthew Kirk

  17 Nov 2009 | 11:39 am

  Even for experience designers, building email newsletters isn’t easy. You receive a lovely looking design, and you crack on with the development. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t work as it should in every email clients. Styles don’t display, images aren’t visible, etc. This is where these twenty best practices come in handy. 1: Keep the Design Simple Emails are not like complex website designs; they should be nicely designed, but somewhat basic. Try basing your designs on a main header image followed by the main content. The cleaner the design, the easier it will be to…

• 
  Marcofolio.net

• jQuery DJ Hero - CSS3 and jQuery fun

  16 Nov 2009 | 10:32 am

  Remember jTypingHero? This was a fun little game to test your typing skills based on the ever popular Guitar Hero. Lately, I came across some news about a new "Hero" game: DJ Hero. Since I really love Proof of Concepts/experimenting, I wanted to bring the vinyl to the browser. That's why I present to you: jQuery DJ Hero. By combining CSS3 and jQuery, I created two records that you can start spinning (faster and slower) and even scratching is enabled. In a future version, this could be used together with some real sound (this version has no sound). To achieve the desired effect, I…

• Identity inspiration from Dutch Company Logos

  8 Nov 2009 | 11:46 pm

  As you might already know, I'm Dutch. This simply means that I was born and live in a country called The Netherlands (a.k.a. Holland). When looking at prejudices: The country of cheese, wooden shoes, windmills and (legal) drugs. But I'm not the only one having roots in this part of the world. A couple of (big) companies started their business here. Some of them became really big and grew to international sizes. Today, I present you a list with business logos from companies that have their roots in the Netherlands. One this really noticed me when making this list: Loads of logos use the colour…

• Complete list with sweet UI improvements on Windows 7

  1 Nov 2009 | 10:34 pm

  First things first here: I'm a Mac guy. But I must say: Windows 7 has made quite a lot improvements compared to it's predecessor (Vista). The first time I booted the OS and saw flying orbs create the Windows logo, I was impressed. I was even more impressed by the amazing user interface improvements made by Microsoft. For those that aren't familiar with these, here's a complete list with sweet UI improvements on Windows 7. Below is the startup screen created by the flying orbs. A small little diclaimer here: I've fully skipped the "Windows Vista Era", since I moved to Mac OSX right…

• Planet Collision: Free November 2009 Calendar Wallpaper

  1 Nov 2009 | 5:52 am

  Planet Collision: Free November 2009 Calendar Wallpaper was originally my entry for the Desktop Wallpaper collection on SmashingMagazine. Sadly, my wallpapers weren't selected to be included in the list, but I still wanted to share them with the rest of the world. I hope you enjoy them and use them as your wallpaper. These wallpapers are totally free for all kinds of use. Next to the versions that has a calender on them, the non-calender version has been included (in case you want to use it in other months too). These wallpapers come in a 4:3 (normal) and 16:9 (widescreen) aspect ratio. Also,…

• Browser size aware content scaling

  26 Oct 2009 | 1:04 am

  Just recently, I noticed something pretty cool at Google Images: When you resize your browser, search results are hidden/shown, depending if it makes a full row. It does really have a big advantage: you'll never have any "empty spots" on your website. The grid is always fully filled and results that don't fit in the grid, are simply hidden. I wanted to recreate this technique using jQuery. Just like Google Images, it check how many images fit in each row and hides the one that fall off (depending on the browser size). The difference between my HTML and the one Google, is that Google…

• 
  Plaveb.com

• Mobile Website Development Is A Boon For Marketers

  Mark Spenser

  31 Dec 1969 | 4:00 pm

  The advent of iPhone, BlackBerry and other SmartPhones has brought a revolutionary change in the market trends. A significant usage of the mobile phone has increased due to the enhanced features such as text messaging and emails. Also in the recent past a noteworthy increase in the usage of internet browsing through the Smartphones is remarkable, since there are plenty of compatible websites for mobile.  Their popularity has lead into the increase in local se...

• Better Watch Out If You Are Involved in Social Media Marketing

  Mark Spenser

  31 Dec 1969 | 4:00 pm

  Gone are the days of relying on the traditional media for availing any happening news or updates on event. Though traditional media has made a lot of contribution till now, but the social media networks have over taken this responsibility of exposing the latest news. With social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc, all sorts of information gets spread up like a wild fire. Social media work is astounding as it has crossed the barriers of time and sp...

• Is Website Marketing Necessary

  Mark Spenser

  31 Dec 1969 | 4:00 pm

  The virtual world has assumed even more importance in today’s times than the real world. Internet is like oxygen for all the people in the virtual world as you socialize, do business, or just get information through it. Since, online business is now acclaimed worldwide, it has become essential to have a virtual identity for your business. A website serves you with the representation of your business on net but so what! There are millions of websites there ha...

• Why to Choose Information Technology Consultants That Are Jack of All

  Mark Spenser

  31 Dec 1969 | 4:00 pm

  Technology is a highly dynamic field especially when concerned with building web applications. There a numerous technologies available these days that serves as a development platform which can deliver web solutions. Primarily, businessmen choose to build web solutions on the Open Source technologies which include

• What Is Business Application and Why Is It Essential for Online Business

  Mark Spenser

  31 Dec 1969 | 4:00 pm

  Business applications are the applications used by any company or a firm for running the business successfully. It is defined as “Business applications can range from large line-of-business systems to specialized tools. Consider all the applications that run on either client computers or servers, including commercial off-the-shelf products, customized third-party systems, and internal...

• 
  Webdesigner Depot

• The Ultimate Toolbox for iPhone Development

  Walter

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:58 am

  iPhone development can be intimidating, especially to someone who’s unfamiliar with Macs, or the way iPhone apps work.But with currently more than 100,000 apps officially available from the App Store, it’s kind of hard for a developer to ignore the potential market the iPhone provides.And there are apps for virtually anything you could think of, from games to productivity apps to horoscopes to news and more.Below are 70 tools, tutorials, and resources to help you get started developing your own iPhone apps. There’s everything from basic tutorials to templates to resource…

• Mind Blowing Hyperrealistic Sculptures

  Walter

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:21 am

  Artists that produce photorealistic sculptures, for the most part, aim to show us our bodies and life as it really is.Technically, artists who strive for a high resolution level of detail in painting or sculpture are called “hyperrealists”, although all hyperrealists are also considered to be photorealists.Every detail is slavishly recreated as close to the real life model as possible, even if the sculpture is larger than the original scale.Photorealistic sculptors create truly amazing sculptures that will make you feel wonder, revulsion and the sense of looking in someone…

• The wait is over! And the prizes go to…

  Walter

  18 Nov 2009 | 1:22 pm

  Thanks to everyone that participated in our massive first birthday giveaway.Your response of over 1,200 comments was absolutely unbelievable and made me realize how influential the blog has been to so many people out there.The comments were great! Funny, artistic, original and charged with positive vibes.A very heartfelt thank you to all of you for your support, and for the great feedback in your comments.I’m now truly charged to propel WDD further into its second year! Feel free to always send me your feedback, ideas and suggestions. I read all emails and will definetely take your…

• WDD Launches Mobile Version with Mobify

  Walter

  17 Nov 2009 | 9:18 am

  Today we’re pleased to announce the official launch of the mobile version of Webdesigner Depot.Thanks to the awesome team and service of Mobify, we were able to easily deploy a mobile version for WDD, which loads extremely quickly and makes it easy to browse our content when you’re on the go on your mobile phone.Why did we create a mobile version? Mobile access is growing 30% every year. While WDD was optimized to load quickly on your desktop, the same format is not best suited to a mobile device. A more streamlined version was needed, and that’s when Mobify came to our…

• Understanding Your Brain for Better Design: Left vs. Right

  Walter

  16 Nov 2009 | 9:25 am

  The concept of the left and right brain only lately popped up in the late 1960’s, but since has become a well-known part of human psychology.While we all use both sides of the brain, each of us has a dominant side, and this dominant side makes up for a huge part of our personalities.Each individual thinks a certain way, has more interest in certain areas, and above and beyond all — is most effective in certain ways. An accurate understanding of the left and right brain can help one to become more productive, efficient, and creative.This article will cover a basic understanding of what…

• 
  Redswish - a web design blog

• What is a brand?

  nathan

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:21 am

  Your logo is your brand! Yep, that just about sums it up. Everyone knows that your company logo encompasses everything you stand for, your past, present and future, your ethos and vision. That’s why it’s so essential that your logo commands as much real estate as possible on your website and every facet of print advertising [...]

• Choose your own adventure

  nathan

  13 Nov 2009 | 7:49 am

  Flame's very own Dom Rodwell spoke at the North event - Rule of Thirds (I'm not sure why it was called that). Not to seem biased, or to be sucking up to my boss, but it's a bloody good presentation looking at how the communication of narrative has fundamentally changed in the age of digital media; how you can no longer talk at consumers but instead craft compelling and engaging experiences worth talking about. This isn't another waffling rant about clients getting board with social media - it looks at the entire process of how creative digital agencies work with clients and their clients'…

• New site design critique

  nathan

  9 Nov 2009 | 2:44 am

  Hello all, Aside from persuing the standard activities of any sociable teenager in my evenings and weekends; I've been squeezing in a bit of time to work on the concept and designs for the new Redswish blog. I'll be looking to scale back the irrelevant nonsense (to some extent) and ensure a steady stream of personally crafted, but objective and hopefully inspirational posts on the subjects of web design, digital marketing and life experience etc. Although this isn't a drastic change from where I've slowly been taking the website, it will become clearer, the tone of voice and theme of the new…

• Letting the computer influence design

  nathan

  4 Nov 2009 | 6:38 am

  In this month's Computer Arts, a particular quote from an inspiring interview with legendary designer Milton Glaser stood out to me: "I find a lot of students beginning to resent the computer as too powerful to use without thinking. They now describe it the same way; they say, "Before I start to do anything, I make notes and sketches and draw because otherwise the computer dominates everything I do"." Although I believe he's more likely referring to graphic design as opposed to web interfaces, it's an important point to consider. Personally I never open Photoshop before scrawling away, pencil…

• Long time no speak

  nathan

  26 Oct 2009 | 9:35 am

  Apologies to everyone, I have indeed returned from my travels and am back immersed in the world of real life and work, although this site has yet to kickstart. The new Redswish website is in development and will be relaunching soon, packed with a fresh selection of (hopefully) great articles on web design, marketing, branding and everything in between. So I've decided to hold off publishing any new posts until the new Redswish launches in a few weeks. If you can hold out till then that'll be great - I promise it will be worth the wait! Until that momentous occaision feel free to follow me on…

• 
  Inspired Magazine

• The Coolest iPhone Games You Should Own No Matter What

  Catalin Zorzini

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:32 am

  A new week, a new iPhone goodies roundup – this time we’re listing only games. Please share your favorite in the comments area and suggest other titles. BTW, if you like this post you’ll sure love these as well: 12 Fresh & Creative Branded Apps, Top 10 “Not Your Average” iPhone Apps & 10 (More) Fresh & Funny iPhone Apps. iBlast Moki | $1.99 | Review | Download The goal in iBlast Moki is to detonate bombs that you’ve placed within the scene to force the Mokis into contact with a red swirly space.  It’s is a well honed, gorgeous platformer that will…

• 10 Absolutely New & Stunning Portfolio Wordpress Themes for Non-Designers

  Catalin Zorzini

  17 Nov 2009 | 2:27 pm

  Nevermind you’re not a designer. These days just about any kind of freelancer needs a porftolio as much as he needs a blog. And why would you use another platform than Wordpress, our beloved free & incredibly popular weapon of choice? Here are some of the newest and most eye catching themes released in the last few days. And be sure to check 10 Cool Photo Portfolio and Gallery Themes and 15 FreshThemes To Get The Coolest Portfolio For You Or Your Studio. London Creative | $30 | Details | Demo London Creative comes with fully working contact form, awesome slider for your featured…

• What Everybody Ought to Know About Digital Photo Retouching

  Catalin Zorzini

  17 Nov 2009 | 4:09 am

  Today we take a look deeper into the hidden art of digital retouching where skies can always be blue and imperfections simply disappear.  Whether you like it or hate it, think it’s necessary or not, retouching is here to stay. The majority of images you see online, in print, on television and certainly on sky-high billboards have all played victim to hours of enhancement, manipulation and tweaking that makes up the retouching process.  Before you set your eyes on that magazine fashion spread, celebrity portrait, or even fast food burger advertisement, chances are it has been given the…

• Embedding Social Media Channels in Modern Web Design

  Catalin Zorzini

  13 Nov 2009 | 5:10 am

  Well the Twitter stream integration is almost a standard these days when designing a portfolio website, but there are some brands with a more complex view when it comes to social media integration. Here are four brands with entire websites built over Wikipedia, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.  Enjoy and leave your suggestion in the comments. Skittles Campbell Ewald Krispin Porter Almost At Modernista

• How To: Create a Sleek Single Page Portfolio in 10 Minutes

  Catalin Zorzini

  11 Nov 2009 | 12:57 am

  You don’t have to be a web designer to create an amazing portfolio – maybe you’re a photographer or illustrator or God knows what other type creative soul. And you don’t have to spend two months waiting for some friend to help you with a microsite. Noo sir! – there are very easy ways of doing this by yourself in just a few simple steps and this is one of them! First you’ll need to sort out your projects and make sure you’ve selected your best pieces that you’re going to showcase. Once you’ve done this you should be ready to cut out some images…

• 
  Mindsmack

• Facebook vanity web address directory launches. FacebookVanity.com

  admin

  18 Nov 2009 | 2:04 pm

  This is an interesting idea for a site that we had that has not been done before that we know of. Basically everyone has a Facebook page. Most businesses do not have any 1 niche specific site to advertise their Facebook page except through Facebook search and their own site. This is a pay only [...]

• MindSmack has been rated the #1 Web Design Agency in the USA for the 7th month in a rowSmack.

  admin

  2 Nov 2009 | 6:43 am

  MindSmack.com and MindSmack.TV specialize in the highest level of interactive web design, flash, animation, 3d, ad design, video, iphone applications, facebook applications, facebook games, twitter applications, post production and web development in the world. In business since 1996, we have won 100’s of recognized awards including: Inc. 500 #6 Overall in the Category of Media 1st Annual [...]

• Top Web Design Company In The USA - MindSmack Rated #1 By TopSeos.com For October 2009

  admin

  1 Oct 2009 | 7:20 am

  Here is a snippet of their posting. MindSmack.com and MindSmack.TV specialize in the highest level of interactive web design, flash, animation, 3d, ad design, video, iphone applications, facebook applications, facebook games, twitter applications, post production and web development in the world. In business since 1996, we have won 100’s of recognized awards including: 1st Annual DesignFirms.org [...]

• Polaner interactive flash website for BG Foods has launched.

  admin

  25 Sep 2009 | 7:14 am

  We are contracted to redesign and develop he new site for the Polaner line of products. MindSmack was given full creative reign so we came up with the home page that showcases very high resolution photos of the main jelly jars moving in the wind, hanging from a huge tree branch with completely interactive rollovers [...]

• Linda McMahon For Senate Website Has Launched.

  admin

  16 Sep 2009 | 10:35 am

  MindSmack has just completed the design and development for http://www.Linda2010.com – Linda E. McMahon recently stepped down as the Chief Executive Officer of the WWE, a publicly traded company in Stamford, Connecticut that is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Linda helped grow a company from a modest 13-person operation to a publicly traded, global enterprise with [...]

• 
  Inspect Element

• Links of the Week 24

  Tom Kenny

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:22 am

  Cross-browser @font-face, latest internet stats, interactive picture with jQuery, user experience, review of usertesting.com Links of Interest How to Achieve Cross-Browser @font-face Support Latest Internet Stats Roundup: Technology Making an Interactive Picture with jQuery User experience: the future of web design Review of UserTesting.com Design of the Week Engadget This Week on Inspect Element The Unwritten Rules of Web Design Wallpapers of the Week 24: Simplicity 10 Useful Bookmarklets for Web Designers and Developers

• 10 Useful Bookmarklets for Web Designers and Developers

  Tom Kenny

  18 Nov 2009 | 5:30 pm

  You may not be aware of bookmarklets which are an underused tool in web designer or developer’s toolbox. A bookmarklet is a a term that merges bookmark and applet to add functionality to a web browser. They can be stored in the bookmark bar of any browser and used from there to perform useful tasks and consist primarily of Javascript code. As Javascript is synonymous with web development, some clever developers have created some extremely helpful bookmarklets that can improve your day to day work. Here are ten of the best available. 1. Firebug Lite All web designers and developers…

• Wallpapers of the Week 24: Simplicity

  Tom Kenny

  18 Nov 2009 | 12:39 am

• The Unwritten Rules of Web Design

  Tom Kenny

  16 Nov 2009 | 7:15 am

  In the relative short time that websites have been around, compared to other media, much has been learnt about web design. There aren’t any ‘rules’ beyond web standards and even then, they’re only guidelines. There are a number of other guidelines or rules that you should be adhering to when designing for the web. There isn’t a manual or paper or anything to refer to except people’s findings and common sense, mainly because the web is constantly changing and also because there is often more than one way of doing something, suiting different contexts. Here…

• Links of the Week 23

  Tom Kenny

  13 Nov 2009 | 1:19 am

  5 easy ways to improve user experience, how to use Modernizr, bring new life to old posts, 10 things about WordPress 2.9 and 5 simple CSS properties. Links of Interest 5 Damn Easy Ways To Improve User Experience How to use Modernizr 4 Ways To Bring New Life To Old Wordpress Blog Posts 10 Things You Need to Know About WordPress 2.9 5 Simple, But Useful CSS Properties This Week on Inspect Element 10 Fantastic and Creative Web Design Styles Wallpapers of the Week 23: More Stunning HDR Photography The Use of Logos in Web Design

• 
  Posh CSS

• Designing CSS Buttons: Techniques and Resources

  Ross Chapman

  18 Nov 2009 | 8:00 pm

  Buttons, whatever their purpose, are important design elements. They could be the end point of a Web form or a call to action. Designers have many reasons to style buttons, including to make them more attractive and to enhance usability. One of the most important reasons, though, is that standard buttons can easily be missed by users because they often look similar to elements in their operating system. Here, we present you several techniques and tutorials to help you learn how to style buttons using CSS. We’ll also address usability. Read more at www.smashingmagazine.com →

• 50 Awesome Submissions From The CSS Awards

  Ross Chapman

  18 Nov 2009 | 10:17 am

  Today we’re going to feature 50 of the best submissions from the css awards website – don’t forget to check out the CSS Awards to view more sites and submit your own. Read more at spyrestudios.com →

• How to bring CSS3 features into your design

  Sam Brown

  13 Nov 2009 | 12:23 pm

  Top web browser (such as Firefox 3.5 and Safari 4) have introduced some cool features you can already use. Now, with just a few lines of css you can do things you used to do with images and javascript. Read more at welcome2thesky.com →

• 5 Simple, But Useful CSS Properties

  Sam Brown

  9 Nov 2009 | 8:47 pm

  This post is about 5 useful CSS properties that you should be very familiar with, but will most likely rarely use. I’m not talking about the new fancy CSS3 properties. I’m referring to the old CSS2 properties such as: clip, min-height, white-space, cursor, and display that are widely supported by all browsers. Read more at www.webdesignerwall.com →

• 20 Useful CSS Tips For Beginners

  Ross Chapman

  9 Nov 2009 | 12:24 pm

  Whether you are interested in picking up CSS to create your own website, or merely to tweak your blog’s look and feel a little – it’s always good to start with the fundamentals to gain a stronger foundation. Let’s take a look at some CSS Tips we thought might be useful for beginners. Read more at www.hongkiat.com →

• 
  Onextrapixel

• Checking in Hotel Web Design: 50 Cosy Hotel Websites and Trends

  Aidan

  21 Nov 2009 | 1:50 am

  Hotels often take great extend in trying to provide the perfect ambiance and atmosphere for their customer. However, most of the hotels overlook the importance of providing a great website which will eventually be the gateway for their business. Hotels are mostly catered to international and overseas customers. Most of these customers have not stayed in those hotels before. What make the customers click on the booking button could very much depend on how well the website has captured their attention. Image from: Ayla87 Here, we study the traits of these beautiful hotels' websites and…

• Six Strategies: The Civil Strategy for Your Own Web Company Success

  Aidan

  18 Nov 2009 | 12:02 am

  Stepping into the self employed fraction or what most would address as the entrepreneur zone is not an easy feat. The prospect of becoming your own boss, finding and recruiting invaluable talents, creating your own project, and constantly making a lefty income working in the comfort of your own home has led to many jumping impatiently onto the entrepreneurship bandwagon. Image from: Guillaume However, the other side of the pasture is not always greener. Inexperience, lack of talent or poor management has slowly drained your passion and dragged you into turmoil. Creative juices are not flowing…

• Strategies on How To Motivate Users to Sign Up Through Design

  Charlotte

  16 Nov 2009 | 4:22 am

  Be it web-based applications or online services, they are taking the Internet by storm. Many websites introducing these services are created and launched to get users to sign up and use the software (hopefully for a long-term). The question is: How do we get users from the unfamiliar zone into the interested zone and subsequently becoming a first time use? When people start to get interested in your web application product, they : start to research and understand more about the product learn about the application consider an alternative compare with others explore other options Audiences who…

• 48 Cool RSS Feed Icons to Increase your Feed Readers

  Terrance

  12 Nov 2009 | 8:07 am

  RSS syndication is essential in any weblog. They can be used to convert visitors into subscribers, which ultimately become regular readers. However before you can start getting your visitors to subscribe to your RSS Feed, you will need to grab their attention. Using attractive and large RSS Feed icons may be a great way to start but like all top bloggers will tell you, content is still king. If a reader is genuinely interested in your articles, they will subscribe to your feeds no matter how secretive your RSS Feed icon is hidden. Nonetheless, the RSS Feed icon should be positioned above the…

• The Characteristics of a Less Conventional Website with Examples

  Charlotte

  11 Nov 2009 | 8:08 am

  The evolution of web design has changed significantly since the creation of the internet. Back then, a Geocity webpage could be as simple as a brochure, using a multi colored background and gaudy text effects. It is interesting to note with the progress of technology, websites become more complicated; codes come into play and incredible design techniques are produced. People spotted this power, the power of the internet that had advanced so rapidly that there was a boom in this industry. Websites became more visually compelling with effects becoming more eye-popping. Dissection of Web Layout…

• 
  The Designed

• 13 Great Flickr Galleries to Integrate into Your Site

  Greg Dougherty

  13 Nov 2009 | 10:19 am

  Flickr is a great site for uploading and managing all of your images. What happens when you want to integrate those images into your site though? Well that’s where these image galleries come in handy… 1. Open Source Flickr Photo Gallery Using jQuery 2. Flogr – A Flickr powered photoblog 3. Flapi 4. Flickrshow 5. Create a Photo Gallery using the Flickr API 6. MooPix 7. Simple images slider to create Flickr-like slideshows 8. Flickr Photo Wall 9. Satellite 10. Pulling Your Flickr Feed with jQuery 11. Flickr Badge v2 12. Full Screen Image Gallery 13. Imago If you liked this post,…

• Awesome Website Product Tour Design Inspiration

  Greg Dougherty

  3 Nov 2009 | 1:12 pm

  There are so many different way to display your product’s features. Here are a few that I really like. Most of them are clean, minimal ways to get across a lot of information. 1. Virb 2. Campaign Monitor 3. Livestream 4. Dialogix 5. Checkout 6. Mint 7. MailChimp 8. Cobblestone 9. Wufoo 10. Squarespace 11. ConceptShare 12. The Resumator 13. Zcope 14. activeCollab 15. Big Cartel 16. Strutta 17. Pulse 18. Zendesk 19. Get Satisfaction If you liked this post, you’d probably enjoy this one… Can you think of any others? Please share any other product tour design websites that you…

• Win 2 Free Licenses for Fanurio Time Tracking Software

  Greg Dougherty

  28 Oct 2009 | 9:53 pm

  The Designed finally has a contest and I’m pretty excited to announce it. The Designed is giving away 2 free licenses for Fanurio Time Tracking Software. This is a great opportunity for freelancers to try out some new software. What is Fanurio? Fanurio is a time tracking and billing software application, highly appreciated by freelancers for its intuitive interface, flexible timer and ability to produce detailed invoices. Whether you need to round time, use multiple currencies or create invoices with your own layout, Fanurio has the right tools to help you get paid. So what are the…

• 10 Extraordinary Single Page Sites

  Greg Dougherty

  27 Oct 2009 | 8:22 am

  Single page, simplistic websites seem to become more popular everyday. I for one love the simple, one page look. I like them because they just get straight to the point. Here’s a few extraordinary examples of single page sites for your enjoyment. 1. Fortyone 2. Frederik Moes 3. Riley Hamilton 4. Carbon House 5. Alex Edward Fish 6. James Lipscomb 7. Bunton 8. Chris Rowe 9. Ziv Meltzer 10. Creative Joomla Design If you like’d this post, check this one out…

• 12 Hand-Picked Slideshows to Inspire You

  Greg Dougherty

  23 Oct 2009 | 9:30 am

  Slideshows in modern web design are becoming increasingly popular, so for this post I’d like to share a couple that I enjoy. So sit back and take a look at some of these hand-picked slideshows that are meant to inspire creativity. 1. Tracermedia 2. 45 Royale 3. Zcope 4. Violet 5. Notepod 6. Winestore 7. Graphik 8. Kinder Aktuell 9. Wilson Miner 10. Teapot 11. Deluge Studios 12. Mia and Maggie If you liked this post, check out these sweet ones… 10 Examples of Impressive jQuery Accordions 20 Creative Agency Web Sites that Rock Got a Slideshow? If you know of a great slideshow that…

• 
  Inside the Webb

• Interview with a Digg.com Software Engineer Kurt Wilms

  Jake

  2 Nov 2009 | 12:47 pm

  As a web designer myself, I have found that other web designers I talk to always have favorite websites they go to for inspiration. Not saying they want to copy a specific website, but there are just some site’s that “stick” and really inspire you to create web designs. For me, this was Digg.com [...]

• Interview with is.gd URL Shortener

  Jake

  26 Oct 2009 | 10:45 am

  New URL Shortening services hit the web every week it seems. I can remember not too long ago when TinyURL was just starting up, and that hit with a huge bang. Ever since then, there have been countless creations of URL shorteners (where some even provided stats). However, only a select few have really succeeded [...]

• Interview with ThisWebHost – An Impressive new Web Hosting Company

  Jake

  24 Oct 2009 | 12:07 pm

  Finding a decent web hosting company today is difficult. So many companies overprice, can’t keep uptime promises, have horrible support, or offer you barely any space to store your site’s files and content. The few that have shown promise in the past are some of my favorites: Hostgator, Dreamhost, Bluehost, etc. However as I [...]

• Founder of Omegle.com Answers Questions From Redditors

  Jake

  20 Oct 2009 | 11:51 am

  Omegle.com has spread across many social networking hubs, forums, and internet chatrooms rapidly over the past few months. It’s a new site with a very simple concept: you log in anonymously and talk to someone else. Someone random, someone you’ve *probably* never even met before, just talking about whatever. It seems like a breeding [...]

• The Inside Scoop on CoolROM’s.com with Founder Edward Chang

  Jake

  16 Oct 2009 | 5:57 am

  Digging through the internet for your favorite ROM can be a frustrating process. Some sites can’t be trusted, others just throw you around in loops to find exactly what you’re looking for. I have recently gotten a short, sweet, and to the point interview with the founder of CoolRom.com Edward Chang. In it, he [...]

• 
  Useful Tools

• Preview Your Next Paint Job

  Alison K

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am

  Deciding on a paint color can be one of the most difficult parts of remodeling. When my parents remodeled their kitchen a few years back, they went through two, maybe three coats of paint before they found an acceptable color. I have a “one and done” philosophy when it comes to painting a room. Once the paint is on, that’s the color the room is going to be for at least the next year or so. So, better get it right the first time. Fortunately, there are now better ways than trial and error to find the perfect paint color. Like Colorjive, which lets you “preview” a…

• Keep Track of Warranties

  Alison K

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:43 am

  I have no doubt that my father has a special drawer in his file cabinet just for warranty information, with all the necessary documents neatly organized by product and date. Unfortunately, I inherited my organizational skills from my mother. When something breaks around my house, finding the appropriate documents is like digging for treasure, with about the same likelihood of success. That’s why I think Warranty Elephant is a great idea. Warranty Elephant stores all of your warranty information, including scanned copies of the applicable documents, and keeps track of the warranty…

• A Fortress in the Cloud For Your Data

  Alison K

  18 Nov 2009 | 7:03 am

  Everyone knows that backing up your data is important, but how many people actually do it consistently? According to this article by CNN Money, only about 57 percent of us do! Spideroak makes backing up data easier than ever, so there’s really no excuse for not doing it. With Spideroak, you can upload all of the files on your computer and store them safely in the cloud. You can access your files from any computer, and if your system does crash, all you have to do is download your files again once it’s back up. There are a variety of  online backup services available, of course,…

• More Accounting, Less Stress

  Alison K

  17 Nov 2009 | 8:57 am

  As much as I liked Ronin when I reviewed it the other day, it still doesn’t beat my current accounting program.  I was thinking about it, and I decided I really ought to clue you, my dear readers, into what I use, because as many accounting apps as I reviewed, I haven’t found one that would make me want to switch. Less Accounting bills itself as an easier-to-use, web-based substitute for programs like Quickbooks and PeachTree. It’s a full featured accounting app that not only lets you send invoices, but also lets you track payments and tax-deductible business expenses.

• Illustrations Made Easy

  Alison K

  16 Nov 2009 | 7:17 am

  They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but what if you aren’t any good at illustration? Creately is a helpful tool for creating beautiful charts, diagrams, mockups and more. Creately comes with a bunch of different types of templates to create graphics suitable for anything from presenting at a conference to teaching a room full of kindergartners.  There’s also a selection of shapes that would make a bowl of Lucky Charms jealous: hearts, stars, X’s, O’s, and many more.  Web designers will also appreciate being able to select from a variety of standard UI…

• 
  Slodive

• Inspiration Dose – The Designs of Radim Malinic

  SloDive Admin

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:46 am

  Older Related Articles: Life Like 3D Stills Breath Taking Digital Art by Phil McDarby Inspirational Work 01 Digital Arts Inspirational Work 02 Blossom Hill / Wimbledon Inspirational Work 03 QV – Melbourne Inspirational Work 04 BBH New York Inspirational Work 05 Blossom Hill Inspirational Work 06 Acer Computers Inspirational Work 07 Experian Inspirational Work 08 Shack Records Inspirational Work 09 Mr. Motivator Inspirational Work 10 Pkhuset – Stockholm Inspirational Work 11 The Playground Project Portfolio Link Art Direction, Illustration, Design by Radim Malinic Radim Malinic…

• 16 Realistic Character Design Illustrations

  SloDive Admin

  17 Nov 2009 | 4:46 am

  Older Related Articles: Life Like 3D Stills Breath Taking Digital Art by Phil McDarby Artwork 01 Portrait of Nathan Artwork 02 Cheonghoeyi Artwork 03 Eduardo Oliden Artwork 04 Viki Yeo Artwork 05 do you want fries with that? Artwork 06 Nicolas Boyer Artwork 07 Some Like it Cold Artwork 08 Benjamin Linus Artwork 09 Max Wahyudi Artwork 10 Obama Artwork 11 Open Green Artwork 12 Stephen David Molyneaux Artwork 13 Angelina Jolie Artwork 14 Sarah Rose Oliver Artwork 15 Yu Cheng Qu Artwork 16 Young Chimp Related posts:15 Awesome Chalk Illustrations by Julian Beever and Kurt Wenner It doesn't matter…

• 13 Creative and Beautiful Blog Designs

  SloDive Admin

  13 Nov 2009 | 5:10 am

  Older Related Articles: Bold is Beautiful – 10 Websites Where Big & Bold Rule! 8 Hand Drawn Icon Sets For Bloggers 10Words Portfolio 7 Ahhh Design Jason Gray MagneticNorth M1 Tripping Words Sketch Blog Hugs For Monsters Sushi & Robots New To York Music City Unsigned Fritz Quadrata Related posts:Inspiration Dose – The Designs of Radim Malinic Radim Malinic has firmly established himself over the last few...24 Inspiring Graffiti Designs I have to admit I can't read graffiti writing and...Bold is Beautiful – 10 Websites Where Big & Bold Rule! I love sites that use…

• 24 Inspiring Graffiti Designs

  SloDive Admin

  10 Nov 2009 | 11:28 am

  Older Related Articles: Stop Motion Animation Videos & Resources Street Artist Mark Jenkins Creates Hysteria From Randomly Placed Sculptures Inspiration Dose – Issue 2 (Life Like 3D Stills) GRAFFITI DESIGN 01 (Click the image to go to the source page) GRAFFITI DESIGN 02 (Click the image to go to the source page) GRAFFITI DESIGN 03 (Click the image to go to the source page) GRAFFITI DESIGN 04 (Click the image to go to the source page) GRAFFITI DESIGN 05 (Click the image to go to the source page) GRAFFITI DESIGN 06 (Click the image to go to the source page) GRAFFITI DESIGN 07 (Click the…

• Street Artist Mark Jenkins Creates Hysteria From Randomly Placed Sculptures

  SloDive Admin

  6 Nov 2009 | 10:21 am

  Older Related Articles: Inspiration Dose 3 – Body Painting by Guido Daniele Inspiration Dose – Issue 2 (Life Like 3D Stills) 15 Awesome Chalk Illustrations by Julian Beever and Kurt Wenner Outdoor Artwork: NYC (9/05) Winston-Salem, North Carolina (9/09) Washington, DC (6/06) Washington, DC (8/07) Washington, DC (7/06) Winston-Salem, North Carolina (9/09) Moscow (10/09) Malmö, Sweden (4/08) Indoor Artwork: Taubman Museum — Roanoke, VA (2008) National Cathedral School — Washington DC (2007) Manifest Hope — Washington DC (2009) Nature Artwork Winston-Salem, NC (9/09)…

• 
  Creativity Den

• 20 Web applications with excellent user interfaces

  Liam McCabe

  2 Nov 2009 | 8:58 am

  AppMunch Just wrote a design related post over at my new blog AppMunch. A website dedicated to bringing you the latest web application news. Check it out if you have the time!

• #19 Creative Logos of the Week!

  Type08

  30 Oct 2009 | 4:06 am

  MAKE YOUR OWN TOP 3 LIST! Dear readers! You have a chance to vote for your Top3 favorite featured logos on Creativity Den! Please add an short explanation next to your list in the comments section and BEST FEATURED LOGO will be announced in 7 days from today (30th Oct 2009 – 5th Nov 2009)! Here’s the list to pick out from. Thanks for participation, have fun!

• #18 Creative Logos of the Week!

  Type08

  30 Oct 2009 | 3:22 am

  Connect the DOTS If you read a lot of posts on design including the interviews, you’ll notice that the most common question there is usually something like this: “Where do you find your inspiration? What inspires you the most?” Now, every designer has his/hers own approach, someone just needs a bit of nature (like myself), someone grabs 50 books and starts reading them, someone browses through the history of art and design, someone even leaves the Earth in the mind and travels through space and time. But usually it’s right in front of our noses and we don’t have…

• #2 Weekly Site Inspiration

  Liam McCabe

  12 Oct 2009 | 9:00 am

  Yummy This week features two Envato websites, now I would like to post them all but instead I posted their latest two, their redesign of the marketplaces and their company website. As well as this there is the fantastic tutorial9 – I just love the background and two outstanding portfolio sites. Envato Tapbots Orman Clark Tutorial9 ThemeForest

• #1 Weekly Site Inspiration

  Liam McCabe

  4 Oct 2009 | 9:00 am

  Outstanding! For about a month now I have been stumbling upon some truly fantastic websites. Sites that have made me return simply due to the design. Is this just me? Instead of bookmarking and keeping them to myself, I have decided to share them I can honestly say that many of these sites have inspired me to improve my skill with photoshop, improve the way I code and most of all to try new things. I hope at least one of these sites gives you the same feeling! 24 Ways Made by Elephant Fully Illustrated Apple Reviews Spoon Juice

• 
  Inspect Element

• Links of the Week 24

  Tom Kenny

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:22 am

  Cross-browser @font-face, latest internet stats, interactive picture with jQuery, user experience, review of usertesting.com Links of Interest How to Achieve Cross-Browser @font-face Support Latest Internet Stats Roundup: Technology Making an Interactive Picture with jQuery User experience: the future of web design Review of UserTesting.com Design of the Week Engadget This Week on Inspect Element The Unwritten Rules of Web Design Wallpapers of the Week 24: Simplicity 10 Useful Bookmarklets for Web Designers and Developers

• 10 Useful Bookmarklets for Web Designers and Developers

  Tom Kenny

  18 Nov 2009 | 5:30 pm

  You may not be aware of bookmarklets which are an underused tool in web designer or developer’s toolbox. A bookmarklet is a a term that merges bookmark and applet to add functionality to a web browser. They can be stored in the bookmark bar of any browser and used from there to perform useful tasks and consist primarily of Javascript code. As Javascript is synonymous with web development, some clever developers have created some extremely helpful bookmarklets that can improve your day to day work. Here are ten of the best available. 1. Firebug Lite All web designers and developers…

• Wallpapers of the Week 24: Simplicity

  Tom Kenny

  18 Nov 2009 | 12:39 am

• The Unwritten Rules of Web Design

  Tom Kenny

  16 Nov 2009 | 7:15 am

  In the relative short time that websites have been around, compared to other media, much has been learnt about web design. There aren’t any ‘rules’ beyond web standards and even then, they’re only guidelines. There are a number of other guidelines or rules that you should be adhering to when designing for the web. There isn’t a manual or paper or anything to refer to except people’s findings and common sense, mainly because the web is constantly changing and also because there is often more than one way of doing something, suiting different contexts. Here…

• Links of the Week 23

  Tom Kenny

  13 Nov 2009 | 1:19 am

  5 easy ways to improve user experience, how to use Modernizr, bring new life to old posts, 10 things about WordPress 2.9 and 5 simple CSS properties. Links of Interest 5 Damn Easy Ways To Improve User Experience How to use Modernizr 4 Ways To Bring New Life To Old Wordpress Blog Posts 10 Things You Need to Know About WordPress 2.9 5 Simple, But Useful CSS Properties This Week on Inspect Element 10 Fantastic and Creative Web Design Styles Wallpapers of the Week 23: More Stunning HDR Photography The Use of Logos in Web Design

• 
  Ants Magazine

• 52 Beautiful Blogger Templates Free To Use

  nahid

  11 Nov 2009 | 12:01 am

  Blogger is the most popular and cool blogging tool, key factor for a successful blog is its design. In this post we have compiled a list of 52 beautiful blogger templates of various categories, these blogger templates are inspired from the popular wordpress themes and are free to use. Go ahead and find out which one suits you the best! Enjoy 1) Pro Press [Demo] [Download] 2) Fresh Citrus [Demo] [Download] 3) Excellence [Demo][Download] 4) Mobipress [Demo] [Download] 5) Milano [Demo] [Download] 6) Imprezz [Demo] [Download] 7) Movie Times [Demo] [Download] Clean Dark [Demo] [Download] 9)…

• Excellent JQuery Plugins To Enhance Form Validation

  nahid

  3 Nov 2009 | 7:47 am

  Simple jquery plugins can enhance and beautify HTML form elements, these simple jquery scripts turn a simple HTML website to a fantastic look and feel. These plugins can be enabled very easily. In this roundup I have gathered most beautiful Jquery plugins that are related to all kinds of form validation. This list also includes roundups of some blogs. Go ahead and enjoy Auto Complete Forms 1) Editable Select 2) Auto complete dropdown plugin 3) Facebook Style Auto complete 4) jQuery JSON Suggest/Search Box 5) Jquery Simple hint box 6) Jquery Quick Search 7) Json Jquery Autocomplete Multiple…

• Amazing Time Saving Photoshop Actions

  nahid

  14 Oct 2009 | 3:14 am

  Photoshop actions make your photoshop task simple and easy, In this post we present some of the must have photoshop actions and best roundups of other photoshop actions. Be sure to download them all and try and add your own effects to the result. For better creativity get inspired by various photoshop works online. Go ahead and find out some of the best actions for your task download them or bookmark this article for later use. Enjoy Pencil Sketch Photoshop Actions 1) Real Sketch 2) Double Sketch Effect 3) Perfect Pencil Sketch 4) Pencil Shading Photo Manipulation Actions 1) Vintage Photo…

• Abstract Photoshop Brushes Free To Download

  nahid

  5 Oct 2009 | 3:32 am

  Photoshop brushes are easy to use and most popular among all photoshop users, In this post we have presented Abstract photoshop brushes which are free to use. It is a good practice to work on a limited set of brushes and not have a junk of brushes, go ahead and check out these brushes and download. Enjoy Abstract Brushes Set 1) Spiral Brush Set [download] 2)  xplosion brush set [download] 3)  Volcanic Photoshop Brushes – Set 1 [download] 4) Abstract Brushset XV [download] 5) Radial Brushes [download] 6) Fractal Brush Set [download] 7) Midnight City – Vector Brushes [download]…

• Daily Inspiration #5 Photoshop Works From Web

  nahid

  16 Sep 2009 | 5:26 am

  To become a photoshop expert it is necessary that we practice photoshop everyday. Ideas run out of mind when we get down to work and inspiration is all what we need. Here in this post of daily inspiration we present 20 cool photoshop works from regular photoshoppers, check out these awesome works of photoshop and get inspired for your next photoshop work. Go ahead and enjoy!

• 
  Graphic Rating

• 10 Impressive Game Trailers

  Andy Gongea

  1 Nov 2009 | 5:11 pm

  Do you remember the first game trailer that made you WOW. And I don’t mean WOW like Windows Vista … but a real WOW. Well this is a post that tries to give thanks to those creative game trailers designers and also remember some of the best trailers. 1. Warcraft 3 You can’t say game trailers without mentioning Blizzard Entertainment. It is the company that practically made the transition from simple announcements to cinematic experiences. And the first trailer that I will always remember is Warcraft 3. 2. Starcraft 2 The second title in is the next Starcraft installment from…

• My Top 10 Daily Web Stops

  Andy Gongea

  22 Oct 2009 | 3:40 pm

  I am curious about your first daily web stops. So in order to find yours I will share mine. Here are my first 10 web stops that usually are on my list every day. Let’s check them and see whether you have the same habits or not. 1. Gmail By far this is the first thing that I go to when I open my browser. I think I’m not the only person since checking your mail in our days is crucial to any professional. 2. Google Analytics Yes, my name is Andy Gongea and I have a stats addiction. So, the next thing that I usually do is to verify Graphic Rating’s stats. 3. Blog Comments This…

• Thanks to our Sponsors

  Andy Gongea

  19 Oct 2009 | 11:13 am

  With the help of this mini-post I want to thank our sponsors for their support. With their help I can continue sustaining this blog and delivering from time to time some interesting posts. Cheers! Sponsors: - WPBest – The Best Premium Wordpress Themes, Pugins and More - Wordpress Themes – WPStyles.org Cheers!

• 6 Icon Packs You Will Actually Use

  Andy Gongea

  11 Oct 2009 | 2:41 pm

  These days you can find icon packs posts on many blogs. There is nothing wrong with that, just that you should get value from those icon packs. In this post I want to showcase 6 icon packs that I think are worth mentioning and saving as a bookmark for future projects. There is no particular order – every pack has the same importance. 1. Social Network Icon Pack Designed by Rogie King from Komodo Media, the Social Network Icon Pack contains 80 refined, amazing social networking icons for the top networks around: Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, StumbleUpon etc. I’ve used this pack to…

• Creating Wireframes with Pencil (Firefox Addon)

  Andy Gongea

  5 Oct 2009 | 3:59 pm

  As a request from the previous article, I’ve decided to create a tutorial on how to create wireframes using Firefox. OK, we wont be using just Firefox but an additional addon – Pencil -, which makes creating graphic user interfaces and various types of sketches an easy task. Tutorial Requirements Tutorial Theme: Creating Twitter User Interface Wireframe Software Requirements: Mozilla Firefox Browser, Pencil Firefox Addon Skill: Beginner Tutorial completion time: 15 minutes 1. Launching Pencil In order to start Pencil Addon, you must start first Mozilla Firefox. After that, you…

• 
  Inspiredology

• Friday Fix Nov 16 – 20

  Chad

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:46 am

  This week on the Friday Fix… we continue the Twitter Stream, laugh at some classic commercials, get a Showtime app and learn some simple CSS tricks. Followers @taptaptap @basekit @ThreeStyles From the Twitter Stream Last week we introduce the Twitter Stream on our Friday Fix, the feedback has been relatively good, so we wil keep including it, until you decide to hate it. PSDTUTS Three Short Tutorials for Photographers and Photography Lovers http://bit.ly/AjwO1 RT @kylesteed @charleswilliams: @mashable: Magntize Helps You Build a Simple Social Media Business Card –…

• The Ups and Downs of a Blog

  Chad

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:18 am

  This posting is going to be a bit different then our usual inspirational posts. Call this what you want, a news post, personal rant or helpful personal story that might allow you to reflect and inspire you to push forward in similar times. In the beginning First off, when I started Inspiredology I didn’t know what to expect and where this journey would take me. I wanted to start blogging to share my internet finds and inspirations. So late one night in January 2008, I designed the first version of the blog. The next day I launched the site with two articles; “120 Brilliant…

• 24 Electrifying Abstract Photos

  Chad

  17 Nov 2009 | 5:51 am

  Another post to add to our growing Photography category, Abstract photography is an over populated trend, but we still love it. I think the reason why is because, abstract is so unique, it’s hard to find a handful of images that are very similar. I mean, a lot of the images use the same techniques and elements, but abstract has so much impact. Abstract photography can knock you on your ass before you have time to press CTRL+Z.

• Friday Fix Nov 9 – 13

  Chad

  13 Nov 2009 | 7:23 am

  This week on the fix, we introduce a new category, get inspired by the colour purple and have a chance to check out ISO50. Followers @JohnONolan @phototuts @jonhalk From the Twitter Stream This week we are going to try a new feature – I love retweeting and Twitter in general, I am always finding useful links on twitter, so I thought I would transfer them onto the Friday Fix every week…. Let me know if you like this idea, if not – don’t hold back Watching: “YouTube – Twitter Tells Users To Go Fµ©k Themselves – Comedy.com” ( http://bit.ly/358obC…

• iTunes Music on the Web

  Chad

  10 Nov 2009 | 4:28 am

  Music and me go hand in hand, I hate silence, my house always has music playing – and it plays in every room of the house. I am very particular on how my music is organized in iTunes. I always have my iPhone, iPod and iTunes synced… my library is very organized and I have a very organized archive of music. I was browsing my current library the other day and I was like – how would this library look with a library of website screenshots. So I started looking at some of the artists websites. I thought I would compile some of my iTunes music sites here for you. I am going to try…

• 
  Brian Yerkes

• Freelancers – This one’s for you

  brianyerkes

  17 Nov 2009 | 10:34 am

  Some of my most popular articles have been about my career, starting as a freelancer and then starting my own business, from 50 reasons why you won’t make it as a freelancer, to 3 reasons why clients don’t choose you, and 5 things clients say and what they really mean . I am always happy to see this information prove useful to those starting out in a design career, and even those already enjoying success.  Just recently, I found a great site to go along with the topic of providing resources, advice etc to designers, developers, writers etc. “The Freelancer Feed”, is a…

• 10 High Quality Concrete Textures

  brianyerkes

  16 Nov 2009 | 8:12 am

  I’m always excited to be able to offer my readers some excellent free content, whether it is in the form of a post-it note Photoshop tutorial or a list of 50 reasons why you won’t make it as a freelancer. This time, thanks to Mike at GUERRILLA, I am happy to offer “10 High Quality Concrete Textures” for you to download for free. Mike Smith is a full time blog designer at GUERRILLA and also blogs about marketing and freelancing on Guerrilla Freelancing. You can keep in touch with Mike on Twitter and Flickr ——– Download Links: Rapidshare:…

• My First Internet Experience

  brianyerkes

  5 Oct 2009 | 9:21 am

  I was just reminded of this the other day talking to a friend about the Internet, how it has developed, and grown since it first came out. I can’t remember the very first time I used it, but I can remember the first time I was taught how to sign up for an email address using hotmail.com. The picture above pretty much explains it all! There we were, sitting at our old clunky mac computers, and our teacher started talking about what email is, and how you use it. So, our first instruction was to go to “Hotmail.com” and she would walk us through how to sign up for a new email…

• Calling All Designers Under 20

  brianyerkes

  9 Sep 2009 | 11:19 am

  I will be running a new feature here on BrianYerkes.com where I will present some great designers under the age of 20 along with some samples of their work, and a little about them. If you would like to be included and are under 20 years of age, whether you are a graphic designer, web designer etc..  please fill out this form and then subscribe to my rss feed so that you will be notified when you are featured! This is a chance to gain some nice exposure and a little link juice to your portfolio, and I look forward to seeing some great work by those young designers in our online community.

• The Design Community’s First Tweets

  brianyerkes

  9 Sep 2009 | 9:16 am

  I recently found a website that allows you to see the first tweet sent out by typing in the person’s user name. Now that most of us have been using Twitter for at least a year, it seemed like a good time to take a look back at some of your first tweets! Unfortunately, it doesn’t allow you to see the first tweet if that person has over  3,500 updates, so I apologize to the likes of Calvin (@mayhemstudios) and others that I could not list here. I wonder if there are better Twitter tools for finding people’s first tweets? Let me know in the comments. @brianyerkes:…

• 
  hongkiat

• Freebie: Fluzzy Twitter Icon Set

  hongkiat

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:44 am

  Meet Fluzzy, yet another high quality free Twitter icon set released exclusively for Hongkiat readers from our friend at Iconshock. You might also want to check out Blitter Twitter Icon set we previously released no long ago. Fluzzy is free, comes in a set of 6 different icons in two separate sizes – 256×256px and 512×512px. All graphics are in tranparent .PNG 24-bit. We’ve also included the .AI source. For designers who wish to get the most of the icons, you are welcome to do so. This icon set is free for personal or commercial projects, however you are not allow to…

• Masters of Paper Art and Paper Sculptures

  hongkiat

  17 Nov 2009 | 6:43 am

  To most people, making a paper plane could be one of the simplest thing to do. It’s the simplest and easiest form of paper art, for this case a flying art. However, there’s a special minority who takes thing to the next level. They can turn the basic form of origami – which is folding a paper in half – together with a little cutting, folding, bending, shaping, and more paper folding, into an utmost creative artwork you have ever seen. Credit: Sculpture by Simon Schubert In this post, we will attempt to show how these minority, creative minded folks turn a very thin…

• 50 Beautiful and Professionally Looking Joomla Templates

  hongkiat

  12 Nov 2009 | 6:18 am

  Joomla is an award winning open source content management system (CMS) that allows you to build websites of different varieties like blogs, personal portfolio site, photo galleries, e-commerce sites, etc. Joomla is easy to customize and thanks to the Joomla community, there are plenty of beautiful templates to choose from so you can have a great looking Joomla powered website and online application. This following post is dedicated to Joomla users and those who wish to start with Joomla. Here are some beautiful and professionally looking Joomla templates you should know. Free Joomla Templates…

• 80+ Creative Geek T-Shirts You Can Buy Online

  Kay

  10 Nov 2009 | 5:20 am

  We love tees because they have so many rooms for creativity in terms of design. As designers who always strive to maintain originality and uniqueness, we are sucker for creative stuff, that includes what we put on. When was the last time we you walked down the street and people start checking out your attire? It doesn’t have to be something branded, a creative and catchy t-shirt will do, really. Here’s a collection of creative t-shirts you can buy and add to your wardrobe this holiday season. Full list after jump. Interactive Tees Wi-Fi Detector Shirt You can display the current wi-fi…

• Macro Photography II – 70 Beautiful Photos of Insects

  hongkiat

  6 Nov 2009 | 5:40 am

  Insect photography is challenging under the best circumstances. Think about it: you’re taking photos of something that is likely smaller than your little finger (and at largest is still probably smaller than your hand), has no reason to cooperate, and likely views you as a predator or is oblivious to your presence entirely. And even if you’re taking photos of dead insects, it still takes a lot of skill (and a good macro lens) to get the right focus and lighting. The photographers who managed to snap the photos below all deserve some serious respect. They’ve managed to…

• 
  SingleFunction

• TheConversationPrism

  Guest

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:06 pm

  TheConversationPrism is a colorful map of the social web by Brian Solis and Jesse Thomas. The map can be generated online in different sizes or even embedded in your site like so: To learn about what is new from TheConversationPrism, follow the updates of the creators on Twitter @briansolis and @jess3.

• ILovePeopleWho

  Guest

  10 Nov 2009 | 10:04 am

  I ♥ PEOPLE WHO… – Express what you like in other people. I ♥ PEOPLE WHO… is the creation of Patrizio. To learn about what is new from I ♥ PEOPLE WHO…, simply follow the updates on Twitter @ilovepeoplewho.

• HereBeTwitterers

  Editorial Team

  9 Nov 2009 | 9:52 am

  HereBeTwitterers let’s you see all your Twitter friends on a map using Twitter and Google APIs. HereBeTwitterers is the creation of Marand, specifically their R&D division known as MarandLab, who are also known for creating 1kDaysOnTwitter, previously featured in our roundup – 105 Examples of Clean and Minimal Twitter Apps To learn about what is new from HereBeTwitterers, simply follow the updates on Twitter @marandlab.

• OneSimpleGoal

  Guest

  9 Nov 2009 | 8:59 am

  OneSimpleGoal – "Stop setting goals. Start accomplishing them." One Simple Goal is designed to provide a very minimal interface to setting ONE goal per day. This empowers people to Get Things Done by removing the clutter of large goals lists. Twitter integration is present for those who want to tell their friends the goals they are working towards. Features: Set one goal per day Mark your goal as completed or not Auto-Tweet your goal when it’s set Auto-Tweet when you accomplish your goal See other people’s public goals One Simple Goal is the creation of BJ Neilsen…

• SurCentro

  Guest

  4 Nov 2009 | 9:57 am

  SurCentro – Many times you read about a new website in the internet, but you don’t know if you can trust it and you feel that it would be great if you could check it’s background. Surcentro was created for that purpose. Surcentro is a web site statistics and web analytics service. Here you can find the amount of visitors, pagerank, indexed pages, view Alexa and Compete graphs and other additional information about every single page on the web. SurCentro is the creation of Alex Zani. To learn about what is new from SurCentro, simply follow the updates on Twitter @surcentro.

• 
  ziipa.com

• memoov.com

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am

• mozzler.com

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am

• img.ly

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am

• videolobby.com

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am

• moobiz.com

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am

• 
  Brian Cray's Blog

• Online community best practices: Effective signup process

  Brian Cray

  13 Nov 2009 | 6:13 am

  This article focuses on providing new members with an effective join/signup process. Although some of these principles may seem obvious, I’ve gone through plenty of membership signup forms that still suck. So hence the post. 4 elements of an effective online community signup process 1. Easy to use web form design As Luke Wroblewski put it in Web Form Design in the Wild, Part II, “Forms control the gates of membership.” Never take form design with a grain of salt. Filling out web forms requires the highest level of user commitment and are the most complex UI elements of a…

• A focusing of Brian Cray’s blog content

  Brian Cray

  28 Oct 2009 | 7:24 am

  I haven’t posted in a while. In fact it’s been 18 days. That’s a long time in the blogging world. Why has it been so long you ask? The past few weeks I’ve been cranking out Nearby Tweets v2, and today it hit private beta stage. By the way feel free to request private beta access to Nearby Tweets v2. So what’s next? Time to start providing valuable content to readers through my blog again, but with a little shift. Going forward my freelance services will be rebranded and focused on social experience design, which is basically helping businesses design and…

• Disappearing “Scroll to top” link with jQuery and CSS

  Brian Cray

  6 Oct 2009 | 7:30 am

  Seen in many forms, such as “Back to top,” “Top of page,” or “Scroll to top,” these links provide a way for users to jump to the top of the page, back to navigation and other handy stuff. This tutorial will help you build a scroll to top link, or whatever you call it, that appears when the user scrolls down, and disappears when users reach the top of the page using a combination of CSS and jQuery (a free javascript framework). You’ll need to download jQuery if you aren’t using it already. Demo You can either view the demo source if you’re…

• How to remove a specific value from a javascript array

  Brian Cray

  30 Sep 2009 | 1:16 pm

  I couldn’t find a short and sweet answer to this one, so I made an answer and I’m sharing it here if you need it. Enjoy! // from this var arr ['remove' 'specific' 'value' 'from' 'javascript' 'array'] // 6 items   // to this ("specific" value removed) var arr ['remove' 'value' 'from' 'javascript' 'array'] // 5 items   // use this (removes "specific") arr.splice(arr.indexOf('specific') 1)     // full example var arr ['remove' 'specific' 'value' 'from' 'javascript' 'array'] var value_to_remove 'specific'…

• Needs assessment: the most important process in web design

  Brian Cray

  22 Sep 2009 | 10:18 am

  Every client who comes to you for a website knows why they want a website, even if they can’t clearly articulate that “why.” But understanding that why is the most important part of a website design. Why? Strategic design decisions You’ll be in trouble from the very beginning as you sit down in front of your monitor and ask yourself “What should this design look like?” You won’t have an answer, because you know that designs drive behavior, and you don’t know what behavior to design for. Knowing what your clients want from their websites makes…

• 
  WebAppers

• Web Font Specimen Shows Web Type in Real Web Context

  Ray Cheung

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:01 pm

  Because web type renders differently with only subtle CSS adjustments, seeing it exercised in a variety of ways can help web designers typeset – and also help them decide which typefaces to purchase for their projects.Therefore, Tim Brown has designed Web Font Specimen, which presents real web type in real web context, and released it under a Creative Commons license for the betterment of typographic style and practice.Requirements: - Demo: http://webfontspecimen.com/ License: Creative Commons LicenseRelated PostsAnother Nice Looking Multi-Level Context Menu in MootoolsBaseline Grid…

• Create a Twitter Style Login Form with jQuery

  Ray Cheung

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:01 pm

  Twitter is running a new homepage with clean and easy design for a while already. Look at the top right of Twitter’s homepage, you’ll see the sign in button which will drop down the login form. AEXT has written a tutorial to show you how to create a login drop down with Twitter style using jQuery.It is easy to follow, it also helps you save the space of your webpage and make visitors feel comfortable by the awesome toggle login form. The tutorial explains how it works step by step and it’s good for learning how to do the toggle and tooltips with jQuery.Requirements: jQuery Framework…

• 30+ Professionally Designed & Useful Mac Applications

  Ray Cheung

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:06 am

  Macintosh computers are really known to bring out the creative side of people. To harness it, and refine your potential there are some great Mac tools that you can use online and some of them for free.As Microsoft burdens you with tons of softwares that serve the purpose and slow downs the computer at the same time these serve as a better alternative. The best part is that abundant tools are available to do things from simple text editors to image processing tools. Most of these tools provide an easy to use interface and work efficiently. Here is a list of useful Mac applications, which looks…

• How to Turn Long Web Form into a Wizard with jQuery

  Ray Cheung

  17 Nov 2009 | 11:01 pm

  If you would, for whatever reason, have a large webform all fields should be semantically divided into fieldsets. Each fieldset would clearly describe each group of fields.So, we can say that each group of fields represent a sub task of a larger task – filling the entire web form. Thus, each sub task can become a step with a description, input fields and navigation that is common for wizard forms – back and next. The entire process can be done in several simple steps.This detailed tutorial will show you how to turn long webform into a wizard with jQuery. A plugin is also available…

• Web Icon Set Offers Professional & Quality Icon Sets

  Ray Cheung

  16 Nov 2009 | 11:01 pm

  Web Icon Set offers professional and quality icon sets to web developers like us. They have just released their first icon set, Web Application Icon Set for free. You can use these icons on any desktop and web applications.Application Icon Set inclides Register, Settings, Users, Database, Login, Chat, Add, Delete, Edit, invoice. They are in PNG format with 128, 64, 48, 32px sizes. Web Icon Set regularly adding more great web icons, so please stay tuned.Requirements: - Demo: http://www.webiconset.com/ License: License FreeRelated PostsThree Sets of Glossy and Modern Icons from…

• 
  Woork

• jQuery Lesson Series: How to Implement Your First Plugin

  Bilal Çınarlı

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:38 pm

  Building a jQuery plugin is relatively easy if you know the basics. In this article we are going to build a simple plugin which highlights (actually blinks) the link, paragraph, span or any text element on the page. For a printable reference guide to the jQuery API I suggest you to download this interesting jQuery Visual Cheat Sheet designed by Antonio Lupetti or take a look at the official jQuery documentation. How to start implementing a plug-in First start with an empty jQuery plugin template. (function($){     $.fn.woorkBlink = function(){…

• Typographic Inspiration from TypeGoodness

  Graham Smith

  18 Nov 2009 | 1:15 pm

  Type and Font Inspiration from TypeGoodness – I only discovered TypeGoodness a few weeks ago, yet it is now become one of my most visited websites. Frequent updates, with articles covering many aspects of font and typography. An excellent variety of topics with the occasional free font for good measure. Just when you thought you had an adequate selection of typographic and font related RSS feeds, new sites pop up without mercy. The incredible thing with the Internet is that there are so many doors still waiting to be unopened, by new unsuspecting people. Visit one new website, check out…

• Four reasons why new websites flop

  Marc Hindley

  18 Nov 2009 | 12:49 pm

  Websites are bringing in more and more businesses to companies which are feeling the pinch of the global recession. And new companies are realising that a website is as important, if not more so, than every other aspect of their business. But it pays to get it right. Following these four principles will help you generate a more successful website. Bad marketing Websites can fail in the same way as real-world businesses, but established businesses sometimes don’t have enough understanding of how websites work. Websites don’t sell themselves. Open a new bricks-and-mortar shop in the…

• Exploring PHP Frameworks: CodeIgniter

  Stu Green

  17 Nov 2009 | 11:51 am

  I thought I would share with you my experience of PHP frameworks, and in particular a framework called CodeIgniter which I have been using a lot recently. A PHP framework is a platform which enables developers to quickly build web applications without having to re-invent the wheel every time they want to, for example, insert data securely in to a database. This article looks at CodeIgniter (http://codeigniter.com), an open-source PHP framework which in my opinion is fantastic. The need for a framework I am an English web developer who has been in the business for over 10 years. I started my…

• No Hope for the Verizon iPhone

  Lawrence Altaffer

  16 Nov 2009 | 3:08 pm

  Though there have been many rumors floating around for the past few years about Apple moving from the decidedly unstable and lethargic AT&T network to the generally satisfying network of Verizon, I’m here to tell you it ain’t gonna happen. As recently as two weeks ago rumors sprang up again this time with photos of  parts of what looks to be a smaller version of the iphone.  At the same time Verizon was in the middle of its advertising campaign slamming both AT&T and the Apple iPhone. It immediately surprised me that these two things would be happening at the same time.

• 
  User Interface Trends

• Interactive Storytelling iPhone Concept

  Russell Wilson

  19 Nov 2009 | 2:04 pm

  http://www.everydayux.com/2009/11/09/a-peek-at-the-future-of-interactive-storytelling/

• An ode to my Nokia phone

  Kate Vander Ploeg

  18 Nov 2009 | 12:39 pm

  Trend: The Touch Screen The tipping point was when I had my trusty black Nokia 6300 sitting on the desk at a meeting and Jeff laughed hysterically when he saw that there wasn’t even a cover to the back but instead a piece of tape barely holding the battery in. I was way behind the curve in terms of phone technology to the point of embarrassment, so I finally sprung for a savvy sleek iPhone. My ‘06 Nokia (yep it was vintage) had very little going for it. No internet (I guess it technically could have, but why would anyone subject themselves to it), no text threads (so you sometimes…

• Microsoft Develops Bag-Based Computer Interface, For Poking

  Russell Wilson

  18 Nov 2009 | 8:31 am

  “Bag-based? Sack-based? Balloon-based? Balloon-boy-based? There’s no shortage of ways to describe Microsoft Research’s new tactile interface concept, which lets people interact with prods, pokes, massages and squeezes instead of clicks or taps…” http://gizmodo.com/5407454/microsoft-develops-bag+based-computer-interface-for-poking

• Don’t play Tetris with your web layouts!

  Russell Wilson

  16 Nov 2009 | 2:25 pm

  Trend: Geometric Layout vs. Logical Layout All too often I find myself in a room discussing a design layout for a web application or web site when someone suggests moving elements around to “save space”. Unfortunately, because they are focused on screen real estate alone, they forsake usability for geometric efficiency. They attempt to fit elements geometrically, like a game of Tetris, with total disregard for the logical order and relationships of the objects. All that seems to matter is that things are packed as tightly as possible, tossing whitespace, visual hierarchy, and…

• UItrends Web Design Tip #1

  Jeff Noble

  12 Nov 2009 | 7:09 am

  Hello and welcome to the first ever UItrends tip! If you are a web designer and upon viewing the source code (Firefox shortcut: Ctrl + U or Internet Explorer longcut: Alt + V + C) of a recent project of yours, you happen to see anything that resembles any of the following tags: <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN”> <table> (For layout) <td> <tr> <IFRAME> <frame> <frameset> <hr> <br> <font face=”Arial” size=”1″> <bold> <strong> OK, this has been removed. Thanks…

• 
  Noupe

• 50 Interactive Silverlight Applications

  vitaly

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:14 am

  Microsoft Silverlight enables development of the next generation of Microsoft .NET-based media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIAs) for the Web. Silverlight is delivered as a cross-platform and cross-browser plug-in that exposes a programming framework and features that are a subset of the .NET Framework and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). Silverlight offers rapid creation and delivery of sophisticated internet applications through a Web browser. Forged from technology used in over 100,000 companies and understood by over 4 million developers worldwide, Silverlight has…

• 50 Fresh Interactive Studio and Social Media Agency Websites

  vitaly

  18 Nov 2009 | 6:39 pm

  By Catalin Zorzini As you might observe, social marketing is the new black. Tons of studies predict huge budgets for social media strategies from the top shots, so the agencies need to sharpen their interactive skills in order to separate clients from their money. Lots of big advertising and PR networks created digital marketing divisions but given the fact that this is such a fresh trend, the independent studios have almost the same chances to land a big contract if they’re creative enough. Long story short, here is a showcase of 50 outstanding websites of digital marketing agencies,…

• Calligraphy and Handwriting Showcase

  vitaly

  17 Nov 2009 | 1:57 am

  By Steven Snell High-quality calligraphy can be an excellent source of inspiration for graphic designers. Those who are skilled with creativity are able to create beautiful and impressive results, such as the ones you will see below. In this post we will feature more than 40 excellent examples of calligraphy. This showcase includes pieces that have been created by hand as well as some that have been created digitally to replicate the look of calligraphy. Many of these examples also make use of colors and textures to create the end result. If you like this post you may also be interested in:…

• Web Design Trends: Testimonials Design

  vitaly

  15 Nov 2009 | 6:16 pm

  Testimonials from happy clients are an important part of any service business’s website, lending trustworthiness and experience to a business. Showing those testimonials in their best light is important, as you want visitors to see them without allowing them to dominate your site’s design. One great way to figure out how to design the testimonials on your own projects is to look at how others are doing it. There are five predominant trends in testimonial design: speech bubbles, quotation marks, images or icons, minimalism, and video. Read on for information about and examples of…

• The Ultimate Ugly Showcase of Current Government Websites

  vitaly

  13 Nov 2009 | 7:58 am

  By Callum Chapman Something a little different today: a showcase of government websites. The biggest difference between this showcase and others you see here at Noupe is obvious; the majority of the web ‘designs’ (if you can call them that) in this showcase are tremendously awful and poorly coded. And, well, let’s be honest here: butt ugly! So, what is it all of these governments don’t quite understand? Someone is going to have to help me out here! Some of them say they are ‘Optimized for Internet Explorer 6 and Firefox 1.0′. Firefox 1.0?! How many years…

• 
  Build Internet!

• Making an Interactive Picture with jQuery

  Sam Dunn

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm

  In this tutorial I will be showing you how to piece together an interactive picture – aka an image that contains tooltips and popup boxes. This can be useful for showing off a particular aspect of a photo (ie items or people).The original inspiration for this tutorial came from the IKEA website, which uses Flash to accomplish something similar, although admittedly with a few extra features.Tutorial OutlineThis tutorial will show you how to set up the basic structure for your own interactive picture.Create/Position “more info” buttonsAdd captions to buttonsLink buttons to…

• Scaling Servers with the Cloud: Amazon CloudFront

  Zach Dunn

  12 Nov 2009 | 8:57 pm

  This is the second of two articles focused on using Amazon’s cloud services to boost your server’s performance and capabilities. Read the first part. Once you’ve got files hosted on S3, the next step is to speed up delivery time. Even though loading time through S3 is relatively fast, it still isn’t the most efficient way to load files for a global audience. Even if bandwidth isn’t a problem, high quality images and other media files can make pages take longer to load.Wouldn’t it be nice to serve these kinds of files faster without spending hundreds on server…

• Scaling Servers with the Cloud: Amazon S3

  Zach Dunn

  9 Nov 2009 | 10:53 pm

  This is the first of two articles focused on using Amazon’s cloud services to boost your server’s performance and capabilities. Read the second part. Do you live in fear of image size and sudden traffic spikes? With the power of Amazon’s web services, you’ll be able to give your server the added boost it needs to handle heavier loads and reduce load times.The basic idea of S3 is to free up as much of your primary server’s resources as possible by outsourcing the small and frequent jobs to the cloud. More hands, less work.This blog has experienced a change in…

• The Eleventh Month

  Zach Dunn

  8 Nov 2009 | 12:08 pm

  New here and wondering what this is? Welcome to Build Internet’s month in review. Once a month we go through and share some “behind the scenes” numbers and happenings from the previous month’s traffic. Namaste Internet,We’re just one month away from the big one year anniversary. Especially because of recent “smashing” events, we’re extremely optimistic for how the next few months will go as far as the growth of Build Internet’s readership.Numbers took a little dip over the past 30 days. We think this is because of slowed posting schedule from a surge…

• More Fonts Used In Logos of Popular Websites

  Sam Dunn

  4 Nov 2009 | 2:03 pm

  This is a roundup of that identifies the fonts used in the logos of some of the top sites on the internet.This is the second addition to Fonts used in Logos of Popular Websites.With that said, let’s get to know these logos a little better.(Spoiler Alert) There is no Times New Roman.Newgrounds – TekutekuVIRB – Proxima Nova ExtraboldMyspace – Arial Rounded BoldWikipedia – Hoefler TexteBay – Univers (Modified)Pandora – Mrs Eaves Small CapsMicrosoft – Helvetica Black Italicmsnbc – Gotham MediumIMDb – Impact TAdobe – Myriad…

• 
  Bwired Weblogs

• When Do I Release My New Website?

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:32 am

  Now, I must fess' up here before continuing. I was just about to submit my blog, only to find that bwired's MD, Sam Saltis, had written a very similar piece only a few minutes prior (cue theme music to the Twilight Zone). Perhaps great minds do think alike. Judge for yourself with the two blogs; at least the message is very consistent... "When do I release my new website?" An interesting question; and no, I do not have the definitive answer. However, and with a number of sites that we have released recently, it's interesting to be a passenger to the final stages of last minute changes to the…

• Technology review - Amazon EC2 (Part 2/2)

  16 Nov 2009 | 11:41 am

  Last week we saw the introduction of EC2 be established as an alternative for the bold system admin. This week, we are here to give you an understanding of how and where the challenges for change can occur. Note: Amazon EC2 terminology are highlighted in bold Challenges: Now this is where my opinion steps in. I spent a good couple of weeks playing with this service (and, mind you, racking up a decent bill!) and here were the challenges I faced... 1. Persistent Storage I started off using a publically available Instance and as you do with any operating system, you start off with installing the…

• To Launch or not to Launch? That is the Question

  13 Nov 2009 | 6:04 pm

  Your website will never, ever be perfect. You will (and should) always want to change or add something. And so we hear the question time and time again. "To launch or not to launch" A number of our clients reach the point where they view the website as "only 80% complete", and while this "80%" will vary with perspective and understanding of the web, this is almost always the point where we push for launch. In the majority of cases the website will be perfectly acceptable to launch from a user's perspective. This final 20% often includes fine tuning of content, or changes that can be rolled…

• The iPhone craze has now hit the supermarket industry and in a big way - Coles Supermarket

  29 Oct 2009 | 4:26 pm

  Coles has joined many organizations in developing a fully functioning iPhone application for their business. This is an interesting step forward for an industry that has been experiencing rapid growth, showing they are proactively thinking about next steps for gaining brand loyalty and making shopping decisions easier for their consumers. I bet the main competitors won't be far away, if they don't' already have plans in place. Let's look at how Coles are using the application for their business; The application has been developed to work easily and with users in mind with core features like:…

• What if I told you, you could change the lives of your customers?

  29 Oct 2009 | 12:01 pm

  This lucky employee come blog writer has just returned from 3 months leave; destination Europe.Via thorough research of visitor profiling and usability scenarios, certain businesses in the travel and accommodation industry have cornered their markets and are laughing all the way to the bank - helping travellers like me spend their hard earned!A bit on my travels first... Donned "EU '09" before leaving Melbourne on the 1st of July, my luck and fortune took me all over the mostly sunny European Continent including highlights such as a 3 week siesta in Spain (although it was through open eyes…

• 
  UX Crank

• Draw On All Three Brains

  uxcrank

  25 Oct 2009 | 4:30 am

  Why are people so impressed by visual communication? I blame our old and mid brains. The human brain has three distinct sections with three distinct functions: The old brain deals with survival issues, the mid brain deals with our emotions, and the new brain takes care of conscious thought. It turns out that the new brain has a lot less influence over our opinions and actions that we would like to think.

• Design It Like a Petting Zoo

  uxcrank

  18 Oct 2009 | 1:36 pm

  Design is what it does and what design does is solve problems. Online, we concentrate on designing user experiences because the problems that need to be solved always come down to a single individual and the decisions they make. User experience could be pretty dispassionate work with such cold logic at its core, but in [...]

• Make It Semantic from the Start

  uxcrank

  4 Oct 2009 | 5:31 pm

  The publishing industry would be in much better shape if it could just stop concentrating on publishing things. Newspaper companies should be tremendous engines feeding a ridiculous variety of publishing vehicles, but they can’t do that as long as their tools are focused on delivery. If you’re still lucky enough to have a hometown print newspaper, [...]

• Find Love in the Time of Curation

  uxcrank

  20 Sep 2009 | 7:00 am

  When it comes to curation, I think there’s good news and bad news. Curation is “the art of plucking all the good stuff from a superabundance of crap.” (That’s the Cranky definition actor and dilettante media analyst Joseph Gordon-Levitt gave in a recent Esquire magazine interview.) Assuming broadcast and cable news organizations survive the shifting sands of [...]

• Design It Like a Roller Coaster

  uxcrank

  13 Sep 2009 | 5:00 pm

  As a result of explosive growth in the use of self-describing code and the increasingly sophisticated application of metadata, online content is getting smarter every day. As content gets smarter, controlling that content gets not only more difficult, but also less appropriate. At the same time, social aspects of the Web are broadening our definition of [...]

• 
  siteInspire

• Kammeradvokaten

  hello@siteinspire.net

  13 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am

• Sisley

  hello@siteinspire.net

  13 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am

• urbn; interaction

  hello@siteinspire.net

  13 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am

• Viking Cycles

  hello@siteinspire.net

  13 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am

• Rebecca Niazi-Shahabi

  hello@siteinspire.net

  13 Nov 2009 | 12:00 am

• 
  Benzing Technologies

• Tony Sacco’s Coal Oven Pizza

  Rusty

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:23 pm

  Tony Sacco’s was franchising across the nation and needed a solid branded website to complete their presence. They came to us with a previous design and wordpress installation and we created a masterpiece of design and functionality.

• 5 Tips to Enhancing Your Intelligence

  Rusty

  10 Nov 2009 | 6:22 am

  Technology has degraded our intelligence. By this I mean technology is taking away from our learning capabilities. But I am learning so much with technology you say, not exactly. We developed technology to make our life simpler not more difficult which in turn without learning new ways to stimulate our minds is degrading our intelligence. Yes there are ways that technology can improve our mental capabilities but Facebook and Twitter aren’t cutting it. I am the type of person who has always been intrigued with technology and ways to improve myself overall. Your brain is very similar to a…

• Social Media and Reputation Management

  Rusty

  3 Nov 2009 | 2:54 pm

  The boom of social media is here and more and more businesses are jumping on board. But can we manage our reputations? With Facebook gaining over 300 million users and Twitter with about 50 million we know that consumers are looking more towards the net for information and purchases. Social media has added a new bump to the growing numbers with being able to comment and post what they want, when they want, and how they want it. This in turn makes it easy for them to say a product or service sucks and not to use it as well as how great it really is. Reviews aren’t new to the net and with…

• 10 WordPress Install Security Tips

  Rusty

  29 Oct 2009 | 6:22 am

  Now that WordPress has released its harding release 2.8.5 security is on my mind. I did some research to find 10 tips to secure WordPress and make it harder to break in. Below are some of the tips I found most useful. 1. Always change your WordPress database extension. Default is ‘wp_’ so change it to something like ‘gp_’ or ‘wordpress_’ on install. 2. Remove your admin user. By default the admin user is set to ‘admin’ changing this to another username makes it harder for hackers to guess your admin login. 3. Secure your .htaccess file. If you…

• Google Analytics Just Became More Powerful!

  Rusty

  21 Oct 2009 | 1:11 pm

  Yes its true, when you thought the good can’t get any better. Google rolled out some useful enhancements to its already useful and powerful Google Analytics tool. The new features gives the tool more flexibility and intelligence. Here are some highlights on some of the new features. 1. Addition of two new goal types for measuring user engagement and branding success that allows webmasters to set thresholds for Time on Site and Pages per visit. Up to 20 goals can now be defined. 2. Improved tracking of mobile websites and mobile apps on mobile devices even if  the device is running…

• 
  Small Business

• Elements of Small Business Website Solution

  admin

  6 Nov 2009 | 2:17 am

  An effective web presence requires a solutions-based approach with goals such as what you want to accomplish and who is the audience you are targeting. As  the web is constantly evolving and search engine competition is becoming fierce, being successful on the web requires consistent evaluation of the site’s effectiveness based on your objectives, understanding the latest technologies and trends, having a dynamic website marketing plan and constantly fine tuning. The right elements that need to be present for an effective small business web solution are: 1.) Domain Name – Choose  the…

• Checklist for An Effective Small Business Website Design

  admin

  26 Oct 2009 | 5:31 am

  The key purpose of having a web presence for your small business is to develop brand identity that leads to powerful call to action for your products or services and finally sell your products or services online. But before you create your website, you need to be specific about its direction and a solid strategic foundation. You should be certain about the end goal for your website i.e. either you are strictly provide information about your products or services or it is going to be used as a powerful tool to leverage user engagement, call to actions and sales. A thoughtful checklist can…

• How to Achieve Small Business Website Design in Limited Budget?

  admin

  20 Oct 2009 | 4:47 am

  Online presence is not only restricted to the inevitability of large scale businesses but is also must for small or medium scale businesses.  Nevertheless, small businesses usually come up with budget issue and are often refrained from obtaining a multifunctional website for their business. However, by putting little effort and endeavor, it is not impossible to get a fully-functional website design within budget for small businesses. Here are the points highlighting the importance of web presence for small business and how to get it without exceeding your budget; Small Business Needs to…

• Enhance the Readability of Your Small Business Website

  admin

  24 Sep 2009 | 2:43 am

  A well designed website is quite important for the proliferation of your small business over Internet. Since a website is a mirror image of a business, therefore website design should be done after proper thinking and a lot of planning. You need to devote a lot of time and money in designing your small business web site, writing the copy for it and have it all done by a professional designer and copywriter. It may be easy to design a website but it takes a lot of efforts to bring people to read it. According to research, content in and of itself is not enough. No matter how much useful…

• Web Design: A Catalyst in Growth of Small Businesses

  admin

  18 Sep 2009 | 4:57 am

  A good and attractive website design is the fastest marketing technique for any small and medium scale business. Promoting your products and services on the internet ensures the reach of the business to a large number of customers worldwide. An eye-catching web design is essential to promote a small business. Let us find out some facts which reveal the importance and role of website design in the growth and success of a small/medium sized business: World Wide Promotion: A plausibly priced eye catching web site design is the only way to promote your business world wide when your business is…

• 
  Helloewy: A blog from Loewy Design

• Social Brand Continuity

  David Loewy

  18 Nov 2009 | 12:57 pm

  Earlier this month I attended the Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA) conference in New York. The mission of SoDA is to advance the profession of digital marketing through education, discussions of best practices, and advocacy. The conference was billed as an “un”conference, which made the event conversational, collaborative—and at times a little too “un”structured. Still, it was a good experience. We broke up into groups to discuss hot topics: Challenges of the Modern Agency, Metrics for Success, Engaging Social Media. I had hoped to gain insight into how large companies and…

• Movin’ on up

  Marc Acosta

  10 Nov 2009 | 9:53 am

  We may have only moved up one floor but a lot has changed. We tried to document as much of the design and construction process as we could and created a video to share with you. Check it out… When sending us mail, delivering pizzas or just dropping by to say hello, please note our new suite number and update your address book: 555 Broadhollow Road, Suite 300 Melville, NY 11747 So stop by if you’re in the neighborhood. In related news, we also have a new phone system. Our main number is still 631-249-2429 but it now goes to one of those fancy menu systems everybody loves so much.

• Dangerous Curves Ahead

  Matt Kaye

  3 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am

  I’ve worked at Loewy Design for five years, and over time I’ve noticed a growing trend in requests for content management systems (CMS). After building out a handful, I noticed another trend that struck me as odd. Some of the clients wanted me to make edits to their sites post-launch, even though I had just handed them a fully functional, easy-to-use CMS. How could this be? Did I do something wrong? Was the training I gave them on the software not good enough? A lot of thoughts like these ran through my mind. Maybe, or perhaps…there’s more to this trend. I’ve noted that the clients…

• A dark cloud on the horizon

  Marc Acosta

  27 Oct 2009 | 9:58 am

  The relentless commercials for remote backup almost had me convinced to retire my arcane system of external usb drives and cases of DVDs on my bookshelf. Then a couple of weeks ago that little bit of doubt I was feeling became a reality for users of the T-Mobile Sidekick when a server failure at Microsoft’s Danger division left them holding a dataless hunk of plastic. Sidekicks rely on the servers at Danger to store things like contacts, photographs, notes, to-do-lists and other important user data. Sidekick users could do little but wait for Microsoft to restore the data. The interruption…

• Strategy Is king

  Donald May

  16 Oct 2009 | 7:48 am

  In a previous post, I talked about trimming the fat from content. But let’s face it: trimming the fat assumes you had good meat to start with. In a world where people have precious little time, if you’re thinking site redesign, content strategy has to be a main priority. I’ve been working with a client recently on a large site redesign. Like many of my other site-redesign projects, this one was long overdue. Much of the content was outdated. It had been managed by a host of individuals, all from different countries, who each had their own way of doing things. The jargon was so product-…

• 
  Little Box Of Ideas

• How To Design And Print A Christmas Greeting Card In Illustrator

  pixel8

  21 Nov 2009 | 2:15 am

  As a freelance designer, it is always good practice to send your clients and vendors a holiday greeting at the end of the year. This year, instead of purchasing a box of cards made by another designer, why not show off your own design skills by sending out your own unique greeting card. And, to get you inspired, I have written this tutorial which will show you step by step how I created a cute little penguin with a snowflake background that would be perfect for a holiday card. I will be using Adobe Illustrator CS3 to lay out a 5” x 3.5” card and prepare the file for 4 color…

• How To Customize Your Thesis Wordpress Theme

  Oscar Del Ben

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:31 am

  Thesis by DIYthemes is one of the most used wordpress themes out there. The reason people like thesis is because it’s not just a beautiful theme per se, but also a smart framework that let’s you customize just everything on the fly. If you often do wordpress design for your clients or for yourself, you may find thesis to be the perfect choice for your needs. In this article I want to show you how to customize thesis like a pro. We’ll start from the basic customizations and then we’ll go deeper exploring hooks and advanced concepts. THE BASICS When you install the…

• Iconic Designer Leighton Hubbell Shares His Passion For Logos And Branding

  Sneh Roy

  18 Nov 2009 | 1:56 am

  Having met Leighton on Twitter a few months ago, I was at first intimidated by him. How can you not be, when the designer has over 20 years of brilliant experience under his belt, has won numerous awards, is talked about and is well respected in the design community? With increasing correspondence on and off in the online world of social media, I realized that not only was Leighton a great designer, but a lovely person who treated everyone with respect and was helpful and forthcoming when other designers needed an opinion. I have been following his work for a while and that is another reason…

• And The Billings For Mac Winners Are

  Sneh Roy

  16 Nov 2009 | 12:56 pm

  Last week we ran a contest to win 2 licenses for the kick-ass Billings For Mac application for freelancers and good people everywhere. Thank you everyone for participating and leaving a funny quote in the comment. It brightened up my day for sure and maybe some of you who read what funny things others had to say. Without further mumbo jumbo, here are the two winners of that contest. [Winners were chosen by a random number generator and not the funny quotes they left!] OSCAR – FREESTYLE MIND and the funny quote .. "The man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to…

• Weekly iPhone Wallpapers #86 – Disco And Cute Characters

  Sneh Roy

  15 Nov 2009 | 6:51 pm

  The saying goes "When work strikes, iPhone wallpapers suffer!". Well, not really. I just made that up. But it has been more than 3 week that I offered any new iPhone wallpapers and thought it was about time I churned out a few new ones. So I have for you today a disco ball, some pantone love and part of my cute Yokibinks character series. Enjoy! Pantone Love iPhone Wallpaper #80   Disco Ball iPhone Wallpaper #81   Gray Heart iPhone Wallpaper #82   Loki iPhone Wallpaper #83   Nori iPhone Wallpaper #84   Binka iPhone Wallpaper #85   Meeso iPhone Wallpaper…

• 
  WebM.ag

• 15 Tools For The Freelancer On A Budget

  McBonio

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:31 am

  Becoming a freelancer might fill some people full of dread, just the idea of the huge initial spend to get the software you need to work puts so many people of becoming a freelancer. There are many great tools available online or to download for free, and for very little money, So I have listed 15 tools that will allow you to spend very little but get all the tools you need to successfully freelance, whether your a new freelancer of [...]

• 15 Hand Drawn Icon Sets

  McBonio

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:25 pm

  Hand drawn/sketched designs are quite popular of late in web and graphic design, coupled with some cool hand drawn/sketched fonts and some texture it really makes a design that looks professional and is easy on the eye. I have listed 15 icon sets that are all hand drawn by various designers from around the globe, each icon set has a good number in each set, and come in various file types. We have covered hand drawn fonts on WebM.ag ( http://www.webm.ag/2009/09/06/a-collection-of-hand-drawn-fonts) and [...]

• 10 Filler Text Generators & Resources

  McBonio

  18 Nov 2009 | 11:31 pm

  When working with designs that use a strong typography you need something to fill the design out to get a better idea of how things will flow. Lorem Ipsum has served a great purpose over the past few hundred years and is still widely used in many design niches. I have researched 10 text generating resources for you to create filler text for your projects, some use Lorem Ipsum, but some use other alternatives, a few of the tools output within various [...]

• 15 Color Scheming Resources For Designers

  McBonio

  17 Nov 2009 | 11:46 pm

  Using color in design can really help achieve the designs goal, it can set mood, portray emotion and at a basic level just look pleasing to the eye. Sometimes whilst in the design process you may suffer from designers block and be totally stuck for inspiration for the color palette you wish to use. Here are 15 online tools that will help you remedy that issue, they allow you to extract color from photographs, generate palettes in a color family, or just [...]

• 15 Awesome Portfolio Designs For Your Inspiration

  McBonio

  16 Nov 2009 | 11:42 pm

  Your portfolio is key to gaining new clients, it gives you the opportunity to really go wild, explore and create something true to yourself that can reflect your or your companies image. I have listed 15 various portfolios that cover one page design, minimalist design, use of audio and flash and all that falls in between. Hopefully the offering here is enough to give you some inspiration for your own portfolio design. I must just mention the Insidepiet site, its crazy! So [...]

• 
  Web Design Booth

• 60+ Photoshop Tutorials For Icon Design

  Dicky

  17 Nov 2009 | 6:23 am

  Icon design is an essential skill for every web designer. A website or blog with beautiful icons will definitely attract visitors’ attention. Although we may download free icons or purchase stock icons from the web, but learning the skill of icon design will definitely brings you a lot of benefits. Besides brush up your Photoshop/icon design skills, you will also have custom made icons that suit your website’s design. Some of the free icons are only for non-commercial products or websites. So having your unique icons, you can get rid of these restrictions. If you are looking for…

• 60+ Beautiful And Creative Graffiti Arts

  Dicky

  13 Nov 2009 | 6:25 am

  Graffiti is the name for images and lettering painted in unconventional and unrestricted manner. Graffiti exists since Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. People use graffiti arts or street arts to attract the attention to anybody who walks by. Today, we are going to look into 60+ Beautiful And Creative Graffiti Arts that will probably bring inspiration to you. Related Posts No Related Post

• Desktop Blogging: 20 Best Blogging Softwares To Help You Blog From Your Dekstop

  Dicky

  9 Nov 2009 | 6:29 am

  Blogs are the perfect forum to express your opinions about anything and everything. The best part is that it doesn’t need tons of knowledge on the internet to tart a blog. All you need is to choose a desktop blogging tool. These tools speed up the blogging process. They let you write a blog offline and then publish it later at a more convenient time Many of these blogging softwares have a scheduled post feature which lets you define what time you would like to publish your articles. Some of the other features provided by these tools include a spell checker, drafts saver, remote…

• Wordpress Multi Languages: 5 Plugins To Build A Multilingual Website

  Dicky

  1 Nov 2009 | 5:05 am

  If you are using Wordpress as a CMS, then you probably want to present your content with multiple languages. Recently, I came across a Wordpress blog that presents their content with three different languages, so I decided to investigate the methods and plugins to turn Wordpress into a multilingual website, and share my findings with WDB’s readers. Maintaining a multilingual website is not easy. The best way to present multilingual content to your visitors is to allow them to switch between different languages anytime. So, the plugin needs to take care of this and links different…

• 45 Inspiring Navigation Menus That You Must See

  Dicky

  29 Oct 2009 | 7:45 am

  Navigation menu is the most important element in the web design. It guides users to your content and also shows them your site structure. A well-designed and user friendly navigation menu will definitely attract more users to click and browse your content. Designing a navigation menu is not easy. The designer needs to understand the site structure before start. Furthermore, designer needs to make sure the navigation menu can cope for future needs. One of the example is the number of elements in the menu increase in future. In this article, you will see 45 inspiring, user-friendly and…

• 
  hongkiat.com

• Freebie: Fluzzy Twitter Icon Set

  hongkiat

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:44 am

  Meet Fluzzy, yet another high quality free Twitter icon set released exclusively for Hongkiat readers from our friend at Iconshock. You might also want to check out Blitter Twitter Icon set we previously released no long ago. Fluzzy is free, comes in a set of 6 different icons in two separate sizes – 256×256px and 512×512px. All graphics are in tranparent .PNG 24-bit. We’ve also included the .AI source. For designers who wish to get the most of the icons, you are welcome to do so. This icon set is free for personal or commercial projects, however you are not allow to…

• Masters of Paper Art and Paper Sculptures

  hongkiat

  17 Nov 2009 | 6:43 am

  To most people, making a paper plane could be one of the simplest thing to do. It’s the simplest and easiest form of paper art, for this case a flying art. However, there’s a special minority who takes thing to the next level. They can turn the basic form of origami – which is folding a paper in half – together with a little cutting, folding, bending, shaping, and more paper folding, into an utmost creative artwork you have ever seen. Credit: Sculpture by Simon Schubert In this post, we will attempt to show how these minority, creative minded folks turn a very thin…

• 50 Beautiful and Professionally Looking Joomla Templates

  hongkiat

  12 Nov 2009 | 6:18 am

  Joomla is an award winning open source content management system (CMS) that allows you to build websites of different varieties like blogs, personal portfolio site, photo galleries, e-commerce sites, etc. Joomla is easy to customize and thanks to the Joomla community, there are plenty of beautiful templates to choose from so you can have a great looking Joomla powered website and online application. This following post is dedicated to Joomla users and those who wish to start with Joomla. Here are some beautiful and professionally looking Joomla templates you should know. Free Joomla Templates…

• 80+ Creative Geek T-Shirts You Can Buy Online

  Kay

  10 Nov 2009 | 5:20 am

  We love tees because they have so many rooms for creativity in terms of design. As designers who always strive to maintain originality and uniqueness, we are sucker for creative stuff, that includes what we put on. When was the last time we you walked down the street and people start checking out your attire? It doesn’t have to be something branded, a creative and catchy t-shirt will do, really. Here’s a collection of creative t-shirts you can buy and add to your wardrobe this holiday season. Full list after jump. Interactive Tees Wi-Fi Detector Shirt You can display the current wi-fi…

• Macro Photography II – 70 Beautiful Photos of Insects

  hongkiat

  6 Nov 2009 | 5:40 am

  Insect photography is challenging under the best circumstances. Think about it: you’re taking photos of something that is likely smaller than your little finger (and at largest is still probably smaller than your hand), has no reason to cooperate, and likely views you as a predator or is oblivious to your presence entirely. And even if you’re taking photos of dead insects, it still takes a lot of skill (and a good macro lens) to get the right focus and lighting. The photographers who managed to snap the photos below all deserve some serious respect. They’ve managed to…

• 
  Snappy Sentences

• New Year resolutions for your content

  Snappy Sentences

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:08 am

  It’s only six or so weeks until the end of the year. Which means everyone will start making New Year resolutions. Now I don’t normally make any personal ones, but I think it’s good to make some content ones. Here are some for you to consider. Lose weight If your website is bloated with stale and out-of-date content, then get rid of it. It weighs your site down, reduces the user experience, and clogs up your search engine. Get healthy Make an effort to produce quality content for your site. Sure it takes a little extra time, but you’ll be giving a better first…

• Marketing on a shoestring budget

  Snappy Sentences

  31 Oct 2009 | 5:26 am

  On Wednesday night I attended a Networx event called Marketing on a shoestring budget. It was a great night and I think everyone in the crowd learned some good tips and tricks to make a small marketing budget go further. One idea that wasn’t really expanded on though was the value of good content. I think that if you are going to go to the effort of pulling together a website, some direct mail outs, or even a decent business card (which were all items given the thumbs up), then don’t forget that the right words can really seal the deal. Hiring a professional copywriter –…

• Start planning your content needs for 2010

  Snappy Sentences

  17 Oct 2009 | 5:02 am

  It’s officially the downhill slide to the end of the year. The first Christmas party invites are starting to filter through, the weather is getting hotter and hotter (around here anyway), and there is a last minute push to get things done before everyone goes on holidays. The savvy ones out there are also starting to think about their content needs for 2010. While it may be hard to do (with all the frivolity on the horizon), start having a think about: What blog topics would you like to cover? Do some brainstorming and map out what you are going to cover for at least the first six…

• Technorati tuning

  Snappy Sentences

  9 Oct 2009 | 2:06 am

  I’ve been having some problems with Technorati, basically because I’ve changed my blog URL since joining. The site doesn’t seem to pick up my new blog posts, so after much trial and error I am deleting my claim and re-claiming www.snappysentences.com/blog To get this to work, they need a piece of code. Here it is: fvdq67ky8x Fingers crossed this works

• Courting your customers with content

  Snappy Sentences

  19 Sep 2009 | 4:05 am

  Part of the key to writing successful web content is understanding your customers. The web is a fickle place – you have such a short amount of time to stop and engage visitors before they hit the back button and leave your site. So how do you do this? Here are a few things to consider: It’s easy to get carried away on your sales pitch, but make sure you stop and think why your website visitor is actually seeking out your product or service in the first place. What situation brings them to need what you are offering? Are they celebrating? Mourning? In the midst of an emergency?

• 
  Psdtuts+

• Matteus Faria Interview

  Emil

  21 Nov 2009 | 7:15 am

  After one look at Matteus’s portfolio anyone would think this is the work of a veteran with a lot of skill, but most of you would be surprised to find out that he is only 17. With an amazing style of that integrates 2D and 3D graphic, age isn’t a factor for him. Matteus gives some great advice in this interview. He also talks about going to design school next year, how he creates his 3D work, and much much more. There is a lot to be learned in this interview, so lets get into it! 1. Welcome to Psdtuts+, please introduce yourself. Could you tell us where you’re from and how…

• How to Create a Magician’s Hat in Photoshop

  Asher Abbasi

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:03 am

  In this tutorial, you’ll learn how a magician’s hat can be designed in Photoshop. The tutorial involves a simple use of the Pen Tool and other Shape Tools. It shows a distinct use of different blending modes and focuses on other lighting techniques. Shadows are also explained in the tutorial and we’ll reveal some great beginner techniques. Let’s get started! Final Image Preview Take a look at the image we’ll be creating. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view…

• Dirty Design: Create a Grungy Thriller Book Cover

  Callum Chapman

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:39 am

  We’re often told to not judge a book by its cover, but in most cases we do. If a book doesn’t have a nice cover, it probably wouldn’t catch our attention in the first place. In this tutorial, I’ll be teaching you how to create a dirty grunge book cover design complete with bleeds! Final Image Preview Take a look at the image we’ll be creating. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join Psd Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below. Tutorial Details Program: Adobe Photoshop CS4…

• Create an Awesome 3D Anaglyph Poster – Psd Plus Tutorial

  Mark Mayers

  18 Nov 2009 | 8:01 am

  We have another Psd Plus tutorial exclusively available to Plus members today. If you want to take your 3D poster skills to the next level, then we have an awesome retro tutorial for you. Learn how to make and put to use Stereoscopic 3D images in Photoshop. Learn more at the jump! This Plus Tutorial is Filled with Creative Tips Before the advent of computers, the movie industry relied on stop-frame or stop-motion animation to bring their monsters to life; special effect artists such as Ray Harryhausen used this technique on classics such as “One Million Years BC” and “The…

• Learn How to Draw Hand-crafted Pixel Art in Photoshop

  Russell Tate

  17 Nov 2009 | 7:58 am

  In this tutorial, legendary Aussie illustrator Russel Tate teaches you how to draw with pixels. You’ll learn how to create awesome artwork in the style of eBoy and Army of Trolls. This article was kindly shared with Psdtuts+ by iStockphoto as part of a knowledge exchange between the two sites. Read on and enjoy! To celebrate this knowledge exchange, iStockphoto have created a special 15% discount for Psdtuts+ readers. Introduction Pixel illustrations are great for making computer icons, isometric images and even whole scenes. They can be made quickly and easily using Photoshop with a…

• 
  Inspired Magazine

• The Coolest iPhone Games You Should Own No Matter What

  Catalin Zorzini

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:32 am

  A new week, a new iPhone goodies roundup – this time we’re listing only games. Please share your favorite in the comments area and suggest other titles. BTW, if you like this post you’ll sure love these as well: 12 Fresh & Creative Branded Apps, Top 10 “Not Your Average” iPhone Apps & 10 (More) Fresh & Funny iPhone Apps. iBlast Moki | $1.99 | Review | Download The goal in iBlast Moki is to detonate bombs that you’ve placed within the scene to force the Mokis into contact with a red swirly space.  It’s is a well honed, gorgeous platformer that will…

• 10 Absolutely New & Stunning Portfolio Wordpress Themes for Non-Designers

  Catalin Zorzini

  17 Nov 2009 | 2:27 pm

  Nevermind you’re not a designer. These days just about any kind of freelancer needs a porftolio as much as he needs a blog. And why would you use another platform than Wordpress, our beloved free & incredibly popular weapon of choice? Here are some of the newest and most eye catching themes released in the last few days. And be sure to check 10 Cool Photo Portfolio and Gallery Themes and 15 FreshThemes To Get The Coolest Portfolio For You Or Your Studio. London Creative | $30 | Details | Demo London Creative comes with fully working contact form, awesome slider for your featured…

• What Everybody Ought to Know About Digital Photo Retouching

  Catalin Zorzini

  17 Nov 2009 | 4:09 am

  Today we take a look deeper into the hidden art of digital retouching where skies can always be blue and imperfections simply disappear.  Whether you like it or hate it, think it’s necessary or not, retouching is here to stay. The majority of images you see online, in print, on television and certainly on sky-high billboards have all played victim to hours of enhancement, manipulation and tweaking that makes up the retouching process.  Before you set your eyes on that magazine fashion spread, celebrity portrait, or even fast food burger advertisement, chances are it has been given the…

• Embedding Social Media Channels in Modern Web Design

  Catalin Zorzini

  13 Nov 2009 | 5:10 am

  Well the Twitter stream integration is almost a standard these days when designing a portfolio website, but there are some brands with a more complex view when it comes to social media integration. Here are four brands with entire websites built over Wikipedia, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.  Enjoy and leave your suggestion in the comments. Skittles Campbell Ewald Krispin Porter Almost At Modernista

• How To: Create a Sleek Single Page Portfolio in 10 Minutes

  Catalin Zorzini

  11 Nov 2009 | 12:57 am

  You don’t have to be a web designer to create an amazing portfolio – maybe you’re a photographer or illustrator or God knows what other type creative soul. And you don’t have to spend two months waiting for some friend to help you with a microsite. Noo sir! – there are very easy ways of doing this by yourself in just a few simple steps and this is one of them! First you’ll need to sort out your projects and make sure you’ve selected your best pieces that you’re going to showcase. Once you’ve done this you should be ready to cut out some images…

• 
  Web Designer Wall - Design Trends and Tutorials

• Coding Clean and Semantic Templates

  Nick La

  18 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am

  If you are the guy who uses <div> tag for everything, this post is for you. It focuses on how you can write clean HTML code by using semantic markups and minimize the use of <div> tag. Have you ever edited someone’s templates, don’t those messy tags drive you crazy? Not only writing clean templates can benefit yourself, but your team as well. It will save you time when you have to debug and edit (particularly the large projects). (more…)

• 5 Simple, But Useful CSS Properties

  Nick La

  9 Nov 2009 | 9:10 am

  This post is about 5 useful CSS properties that you should be very familiar with, but will most likely rarely use. I’m not talking about the new fancy CSS3 properties. I’m referring to the old CSS2 properties such as: clip, min-height, white-space, cursor, and display that are widely supported by all browsers. So, don’t miss this post because you might be surprised how useful they are. (more…)

• Fireworks vs Photoshop Compression

  Nick La

  30 Oct 2009 | 1:32 am

  Surprisingly enough, based on the findings from my recent survey there are quite a bit of Fireworks users. Personally, I never used Fireworks. Photoshop is alway my first choice for designing—from image editing to designing mock-ups. But, did you know that Fireworks is way better than Photoshop in term of image compression? I’m not a software engineer, I can’t explain why Fireworks can compress better. But I can prove it to you by showing a series of experiments I did. (more…)

• iPhone App Site Design Trends

  Nick La

  20 Oct 2009 | 1:47 am

  To compete with thousands of iPhone apps in the App Store, having a good app icon is not enough. A nicely designed website for the app is very important. A beautiful website helps to drive traffic in and also makes your app stand out from the crowd. This post showcases a gallery of appealing iPhone app sites and common design trends that I see. (more…)

• FOWD NYC 2009 Ticket Giveaway

  Nick La

  17 Oct 2009 | 11:49 pm

  The Future of Web Design (FOWD) is returning to New York City on 16th & 17th of November! If you haven’t heard of FOWD, it’s a conference which brings together the web industry’s leading designers and delivers two days of workshops and talks from the likes of Dan Cederholm, Jason Santa Maria, Molly Holzschlag, Joshua Davis, Vimeo and lots more. I have one conference pass to giveaway. Enter a comment in this post before November 3rd, 2009 for your chance to win a ticket. Update: The winner is: #178. (more…)

• 
  Nettuts+

• 5 More Helpful Video Quick Tips

  Jeffrey Way

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:56 am

  As many of you might know, I post a sporadic video quick tip on Twitter once a week or so. For those of you who don’t follow us, here are the latest five. You’ll learn how to select anything and everything with jQuery, how to log PHP errors to a text file, how to change your website’s background with each WordPress post, and more. Each video does not exceed five minutes. How to Change your Website’s Background with Each WordPress Blog Post Watch on your iPhone Download the Mp4 Further Reading on this Subject How to Rename the jQuery “$” Symbol Watch on your…

• Sorting Values with JavaScript

  Andrew Burgess

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:29 am

  Lists and tables are often the best way to display data on the web; but you shouldn’t have to worry about sorting that information manually. In today’s tutorial, you’re going to make a jQuery plugin that will put all your ducks in a row with JavaScript ease! Preface So, how exactly does sorting work in JavaScript? It’s not too complicated: any array object has a sort method. If you don’t pass it any parameters, it will convert the objects in the array to strings, sort them pseudo-alphabetically, and return them. Usually, this is terrible; consider sorting the…

• How to Build a Custom jQuery Tabs Plugin: New Plus Tutorial

  Jeffrey Way

  18 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm

  In this week’s 45 minute Plus video tutorial, I’ll personally teach you how to build a flexible jQuery tabs plugin. This plugin will automatically create the individual tabs, allow for auto-switching, fading, and plenty more – without being bloated. Why create a tabs plugin when there are plenty of them already available? Because too much abstraction is never a good thing. Become a Plus member. Join Tuts Plus For those unfamiliar, the family of TUTS sites runs a premium membership service called “TUTSPLUS”. For $9 per month, you gain access to exclusive premium…

• Build an RSS 2.0 Feed with CodeIgniter

  Drazen Mokic

  18 Nov 2009 | 11:19 am

  In this tutorial, we will build a RSS 2.0 Feed with the PHP framework CodeIgniter. After this tutorial, you will be able to build a feed for any custom website in no time at all. Tutorial Details Program: CodeIgniter PHP Framework Version: 1.7.1 Difficulty: Easy Estimated Completion Time: 30 minutes Step 1: What we Need First, we’ll take a look at the tools needed to get started. Besides an installation of CodeIgniter, we need a running MySQL database with some content from which we can build our feed. For this purpose, here are some dummy entries you can import. Create a database…

• 20 Email Design Best Practices and Resources for Beginners

  Matthew Kirk

  17 Nov 2009 | 11:39 am

  Even for experience designers, building email newsletters isn’t easy. You receive a lovely looking design, and you crack on with the development. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t work as it should in every email clients. Styles don’t display, images aren’t visible, etc. This is where these twenty best practices come in handy. 1: Keep the Design Simple Emails are not like complex website designs; they should be nicely designed, but somewhat basic. Try basing your designs on a main header image followed by the main content. The cleaner the design, the easier it will be to…

• 
  CSS-Tricks

• New Screencast: A Tour of jQuery on a Live Site

  Chris Coyier

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:06 am

  I’m busy, you’re busy, we’re all busy trying to meet deadlines and get things done in this crazy web world. I love learning new technologies when I can, but I’m the first to admit that I reach for tools that I already know well because I can be instantly productive that way. jQuery is one of those tools for me. In this screencast I walk through a website where I used jQuery all over the place in different capacities to get things done. Hey ya’ll, quick reminder here: I wrote a book! It’s called Digging Into WordPress and you can get it here.

• Quotes on Design API v3.0 (+ Widgets!)

  Chris Coyier

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:12 am

  Back in the sad ol’ days of the v1.0 API, everytime any site using it loaded the script, a database call was made to pull a fresh quote from the Quotes on Design archives. It worked, but it was slow and clearly not going to scale well. Version 2.0 was put together to solve those problems. A CRON job was used to run one DB query every 10 minutes and write the quote and markup to a .TXT file. Then when the script was called, it just read the content of that file and used that to work the magic. It actually worked great. I learned that this technique is referred to as “Ghetto…

• Five Questions with David Walsh

  Chris Coyier

  18 Nov 2009 | 6:09 am

  There is probably a good chance if you read this blog that you also know David Walsh. David and I hail from the same hometown (Madison, Wisconsin) and have been friends for years. We’ve worked on a few projects together and have written a bunch of double-posts together. Mostly I just bug him with questions I have about PHP and JavaScript and he always is there to help me out. I’m finally getting around to grilling him on a few questions. Read on to hear about client work, pet peeves, and the classic jQuery vs MooTools debate. Chris: Let’s have your take on this jQuery…

• Fix Padded Image Links with Negative Margins

  Chris Coyier

  16 Nov 2009 | 5:35 am

  This is a pretty basic trick that will be obvious to many of you. But for whatever reason, the solution to it always kind of eluded me so I’m sharing it here. I like padded links. Where you give links in body content a little padding, background, and rounded corners. a { padding: 2px 6px; background: #eee; -moz-border-radius: 4px; -webkit-border-radius: 4px; } A “padded” link The problem is that when you make images into links, this padding shows up in ungainly ways. Wrong Ways to Fix How I used to fix it was to use a sledgehammer instead of a chisel. That is, I wrote some…

• Print Design to Web Design: Comparative Analogies

  Chris Coyier

  12 Nov 2009 | 5:50 am

  I used to work in Pre-Press for a long time. Longer even now than I’ve been working on the web. I was in and out of InDesign documents all day every day. I’m not an uber-pro, but I know my way around pretty well. Recently I’ve been finishing up laying out my new book Digging Into WordPress (which you can buy now!) and during that time I was thinking about some of the ways working in InDesign is similar to CSS, and some of the ways it’s not. Let’s have a look. Print documents are of a fixed size. Web browsers are fluid. In print, you declare the width and height…

• 
  Blog.SpoonGraphics

• 20 Photoshop Actions to Add Flair to Your Photos

  Chris Spooner

  15 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm

  The non-professional photographers among us are often left with boring and flat shots from our cameras, the photos lack the flair and energy that is achieved with expert techniques and equipment. Photoshop Actions on the other hand, can help recreate some amazing photo effects, just by pressing a button! This post rounds up 20 of the best Photoshop Actions that allow you to easily spice up your photos with popular effects, including HDR, Soft Focus, Lomo, Velvia and more! The Original To test out each Photoshop Action, and to allow the action to be compared against other actions on the same…

• This Week’s Favourites – November 13th 2009

  Chris Spooner

  12 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm

  In this week’s roundup of creative goodness, we have an article giving tips on working with various types of clients; a cool article showcasing the fonts used in the logos of popular websites; an insight into some handy fonts you can use with SiFR or Cufon, a showcase of awesome print designs; and a roundup of fantastic clean website designs. Freelance Switch Any freelance designers out there will find a direct connection with this oldie from Freelance Switch. Pick up some handy tips on how to work with a range of typical client personas. Build Internet Build Internet posts this second post…

• Create a Rolling Stones Inspired Tongue Illustration

  Chris Spooner

  8 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm

  The bright red Rolling Stones tongue and lips logo is a graphic design icon, and has been a pop culture fav for years! I don’t think you can beat it, so we’ll not create a direct copy of the original in this tut. Instead, let’s take a look at drawing our own Stones inspired tongue graphic, starting with a quick pencil sketch and finishing with a vector based graphic in Adobe Illustrator. Start work with pencil and paper, use the original Rolling Stones logo as inspiration and follow the rough lines and shapes to produce a similar drawing. Warm up your scanner and digitise your sketch.

• Free Hi-Resolution Paint Stroke Photoshop Brushes

  Chris Spooner

  1 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm

  Looking for a new set of super high resolution Photoshop brushes to add to your collection? Well, you’re at the right place! Check out and download this set of free paint strokes brushes, all of which are at the max 2500px size and packed full of detail. Perfect for creating your next roughed up design. Download Free Photoshop Brushes 7.3mb | 1 x ABR (CS4) Similar Posts Free High-Res Watercolour Photoshop Brushes Set 2 Free High-Res Watercolour Photoshop Brushes Set 1 20 Photoshop Actions to Add Flair to Your Photos Free Keep Fit Vectors – Give Your Designs a Workout! 270+…

• This Week’s Favourites – October 30th 2009

  Chris Spooner

  30 Oct 2009 | 12:00 am

  In this week’s roundup of creative goodness, we have a guest tutorial from myself over on a fab design blog; an awesome illustrated skateboard deck design walkthrough; a roundup of cool CMYK designs; a list of influential design blogs; and web development app reviews from a range of pros from the industry. Tutorial9 My guest article is currently live over on the awesome Tutorial9 blog. Check out the Photoshop tutorial on how to create a slick rich user interface. My Ink Blog My Ink Blog hosts this fantastic tutorial on how to illustrate your own skull inspired skateboard deck. Jad Graphics…

• 
  GoMediaZine

• Win “Go Media” Posters and Platinum Imagekind Account

  Jeff Finley

  19 Nov 2009 | 5:39 am

  The kind folks at Imagekind are letting us give away 2 free prints of Go Media artwork. All you need to do to enter the contest is browse our Imagekind store and link us to the print you want and tell us why in the comments. That’s it. We’ll draw 2 winners at random. The first place winner will also receive a free Platinum account from Imagekind. A Platinum account includes up to 250 galleries where you can have an unlimited number of images. You are allowed 100 tags to classify your work, create an unlimited number of groups, and you have 8 categorization options. You can also…

• Ten Ton Dreamweaver DVD offer ends Friday

  Geoff Blake

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am

  Way back on October 5, we held a giveaway where readers could land themselves a copy of Ten Ton’s latest training DVD, Ten Ton Dreamweaver. On October 13th, we announced our randomly drawn winner, and we made a special announcement about a promotional offer where you could land yourself an exclusive Go Media promotional DVD. We’ve received a lot of great comments, and many readers have scooped up the offer — but we wanted to remind readers that this Friday, November 20th is your last chance to order Ten Ton Dreamweaver with the exclusive Go Media promotional DVD included! As…

• Flipping Websites with Designer Henry Jones

  George Coghill

  17 Nov 2009 | 5:30 am

  GoMediaZine: Hello Henry, for those who aren’t familiar, can you tell us about yourself? Do you work alone, or with a team? Henry Jones: I am a web designer, developer, blogger, and an entrepreneur. I have been designing and developing for the web for about 8 years now, but it wasn’t until recently that started blogging and got the entrepreneur bug. I am actually working on finishing up my last client contract within the next few months, at which time I will officially be a full time blogger. This has been my goal since I started blogging in early 2008. Up until this month I have…

• Freelancers, what’s your largest business expense?

  Adam Wagner

  13 Nov 2009 | 7:02 am

  It’s nearing the end of the year. Americans are out hunting turkeys and folks around the world are pinching pennies in preparation for the winter holiday season. So, I’m curious: Where are you spending the most in your freelance business? Where do you think you could afford to save a bit? Should you cut back on a few subscriptions to magazines or web services? Buy year-old computer gear instead of the latest & greatest? Or hey, maybe business is booming and you could care less about expenses right now. Whatever the case, cast your vote in the poll and share your thoughts in…

• Foil Stamping: A Finishing Favorite

  Nick DeTomaso / Jakprints Inc.

  12 Nov 2009 | 11:56 am

  Foil stamping is always a fan favorite, due to the elegance and high visual impact that it can provide. Foil stamping (also called hot stamping, dry stamping, foil imprinting, or leaf stamping) can be used to add flair to products like business cards, book covers, gift cards, office folders, and a whole host of professional or personal items. Instead of using plates or inks to print words and shapes, foil stamping uses dies, or sculpted metal stamps. Foil Stamping: How it’s done The heated dies seal a thin layer of metallic leaf/foil onto a surface. The foil comes in a wide roll, large…

• 
  BittBox

• Free Texture Tuesday: Tire Tracks

  Caleb Kimbrough

  17 Nov 2009 | 12:44 pm

  Yesterday we had our first snow of the season here in Kansas and I was excited to shoot some cool snow textures, but unfortunately it’s still a little to warm out for the snow to stick to the ground for too long. However, the moisture did leave behind another wonderful texture: mud. I’ve had a few requests to do muddy tire track textures in the past, so here you guys go, enjoy! Preview About The Author: Caleb Kimbrough is the man behind LostAndTaken.com, a blog solely focused on giving away free high-res textures. a

• Free Stuff: 15 Vector Pack Coupons from TheVectorLab – Comment to Win

  Jay Hilgert

  13 Nov 2009 | 1:54 pm

  I’ve got a great giveaway for everyone this week! Up for grabs are 15 coupon codes from TheVectorLab.com. There will be 10 winners who will receive a $25 coupon. 3 winners will recieve a $50 coupon, 2 will receive a $75 coupon, and 1 will receive a $100 coupon. No need to choose a vector pack this time, the winners will get a code to use whenever they like. Good luck everyone! Contest Rules: All you have to do to enter is leave a comment. Only comment once. You must leave an email address in order to win. Comments will remain open until Tuesday, November 17th. a

• Free Texture Tuesday: Pattern Grunge

  Caleb Kimbrough

  10 Nov 2009 | 9:52 am

  I tried doing something a little different with today’s texture set by mixing in some basic photoshop patterns with various grunge textures, the results kind of remind me of grungy Christmas wrapping paper of sorts (it is almost that time of the year). I hope you enjoy the textures and find some unique uses for them! Preview About The Author: Caleb Kimbrough is the man behind LostAndTaken.com, a blog solely focused on giving away free high-res textures. a

• Flickr Find: Bad Menus

  Jay Hilgert

  9 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pm

  We’ve all seen them and we have the graphic designers curse to silently critique them. Yes, bad restaurant menu design is alive and well and I found a Flickr Group devoted to sharing some of them with the world. If you have a spare minute to browse this group, I assure you, it will make you feel better about that design you “weren’t quite happy with but had to go with it because of a deadline.” a

• Vector Pack Winners!

  Jay Hilgert

  5 Nov 2009 | 1:16 pm

  Well, yet another good contest went down, and the winners have been chosen. Thanks to the folks at Designious for their generosity, and for making the contest possible. Here are the winners… Giga Pack winners: afterman Mike Lee CaseyJon611 Pamela Dina 6 Month Vectorious.net subscription winners: Igor Vicky Wilson RC JimHere adamXYL Jonne Freyja Heidi Tim barth a

• 
  W3Avenue

• SoundManager 2: JavaScript API Supporting MP3 / MPEG4

  W3Avenue Team

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:15 pm

  SoundManager 2 is a JavaScript library that wraps and extends the Flash Sound API, and exposes it to JavaScript – The flash portion is hidden, transparent to both developers and end users. It allows you to load, stop, play, pause, mute, seek, pan and volume control of sounds from JavaScript. JavaScript to flash communication is done through Flash 8’s ExternalInterface feature, which means SoundManager 2 will work on most web browsers without any issues. Features Load, stop, play, pause, mute, seek, pan and volume control of sounds from JavaScript Events: onload, whileloading,…

• JeegooContext: jQuery Plugin For Multiple Context Menus

  W3Avenue Team

  19 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pm

  JeegooContext is a jQuery plugin that allows for multiple custom context menus (pop-up menus) to exist on a single page. The plugin is able to transform any unordered list appended to the body into a multi-level, intelligently positioned styled context menu via a single call. The plugin contains very little presentation script, so the UI can be fully styled via CSS. You can also customize the behavior of your JeegooContext context menu using one of the following events: onShow, onHover, onSelect and onHide. JeegooContext is a cross browser script and has been tested in the following browsers:…

• Inline Styler: Converts CSS Rules into Inline Style Attributes

  W3Avenue Team

  18 Nov 2009 | 12:30 pm

  Creating HTML email is pretty easy, however updating the look and making sure appearance is same across all email clients can be difficult at times. This is because designers write inline CSS to overcome problem of how external CSS is referenced differently in different email clients. Inline Styler is an online tool that allows that converts your HTML with external CSS into HTML with styles inline. This allows you to develop your CSS HTML email as you would with any other XHTML compliant webpage, using external CSS and without resorting to inline styles, allowing change with a minimum of…

• TableSorter: Flexible Client Side Table Sorting With jQuery

  W3Avenue Team

  17 Nov 2009 | 2:00 pm

  TableSorter is a jQuery plugin for turning a standard HTML table with THEAD and TBODY tags into a sortable table without page refreshes. TableSorter can successfully parse and sort many types of data including linked data in a cell. TableSorter can be easily configured to achieve different effects by passing various options at initialization. You can control look and feel of your tables using CSS.  It has been tested successfully in the following browsers with JavaScript enabled: Firefox 2+, Internet Explorer 6+, Safari 2+, Opera 9+, Konqueror. Features Multi-column sorting Parsers for…

• Krumo: Simple Debugging Tool For PHP Developers

  W3Avenue Team

  16 Nov 2009 | 12:30 pm

  Krumo is a replacement for print_r() and var_dump(). But by definition Krumo is a debugging tool (for PHP5 only), which displays structured information about any PHP variable. It is very easy to use; just include Krumo in your script and krumo($var) function will gives you everything you need to know about your variable – i.e., array, object, etc. Krumo’s output is displayed using CSS and collapsible DHTML tree, which is also customizable by changing CSS skin file. There are several skins pre-installed with this package, but if you wish you can create skins of your own. The skins are…

• 
  Templates Block

• Skulls

  15 Nov 2009 | 7:49 am

  DOWNLOADVIEW DEMO A sweet theme with some awesome skull graphics. Single column, fixed footer. Nice and clean. Designed by jakespurlock.com Created by Me Features: 2 Columns, Adapted from Wordpress, Fixed width, Left sidebar, Dark, Black, Pink.

• Fashion Press

  14 Nov 2009 | 8:19 pm

  DOWNLOADVIEW DEMO Fashion Press is around a 48 hours of work. I made this template for fashion lovers. The template can fit any girl blog. What do you think?? Designed by newwpthemes.com Created by Me. Features: 2 Columns, Adapted from Wordpress, Black, Dark, Fashion, Fixed width, Girly, Magazine, Pink, Right sidebar

• Simple Blog

  11 Nov 2009 | 8:31 pm

  DOWNLOADVIEW DEMO Simple Blog is a blog that is made in simple and decent style. The template loads extremely fast. Designed by styleshout.com Created by Me Features: 2 Columns, Fixed width, Adapted from Wordpress, Right sidebar, Neutral, White, Green, Gray, Rounded corners, Personal pages.

• Organically Green

  11 Nov 2009 | 2:44 am

  DOWNLOADVIEW DEMO Organically Green is nice looking natural template. Designed by cellarandkitchen.adnams.co.uk Created by Me Features: 2 Columns, Adapted from Wordpress, Fixed width, Right sidebar, Green, Brown, Grunge, Nature, Personal pages.

• IntraBlog

  5 Nov 2009 | 7:27 pm

  DOWNLOADVIEW DEMO IntraBlog is nice looking natural template. Designed by Templateworld. Created by Me. Features: 2 Columns, Fixed width, Adapted from Wordpress, Right sidebar, Nature, Green, Gray, White, Blue, Personal pages.