13 Ways to Challenge Yourself in Your Career as a Web Designer
Aug 25, 2010 General, Inspiration, Resources, Tutorials
A career in web design or development requires a constant effort to improve and to stay on top of new technologies and changes within the industry. No matter how much you improve or how many new things you learn there is always something else out there that can make you better at your work and improve your career. Fortunately, most designers and developers receive challenges on a daily basis in the normal course of their work, especially those who work for a variety of different clients. However, there are times when a designer should focus on learning and improvement outside of these normal activities.
Tags: article, business, career, Design, Designers, ecommerce, experience, Inspiration, Photoshop, portfolio-sites, projects, Resources, Tutorials, work
15 Creative Book Cover Art
Aug 18, 2010 General, Inspiration, Resources
I’m not a really big fan of reading, but I like to think that a book cover can tell you a lot about what you’ll find in it! Book cover art is a great way for graphic designers to showcase their skills to the world at a mainstream scale. Most of the book covers I picked are made by designers so maybe I’ll start reading a little more. 94 Incredible Patterns for Design and Illustration A Pictorial Archive from Nineteenth Century Sources Classic Graphics Today’s Designs Creating Letters and Designing Typefaces David Choe Fullmetal Alchemist 23 Graphic Artists Guild Handbook Pricing & Ethical Guidelines Hand Job A Catalog of Type Jon Burgerman Pens Are My Friends Latex for Fun Lemon Poppy Seed Multitasking Creativity Linger Milton Glaser Graphic Design The Big Book of Layouts Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far Your turn now – seen any good cover art lately? Shoot some links and we’ll update the post!
Tags: Art, articles, cover, david-choe, designer books, Designers, friends, Inspiration, latex-for-fun, twitter, Web Design
Six Sure Fire Ways to Remain Focused as a Designer
Aug 13, 2010 General, Inspiration, Resources, Tutorials
Sometimes , we all begin to deviate from a project we are working on due to finding something that we may find interesting or the cause of distractions from devices or services. However, such deviation or procrastination may cause delays and possibly lead to lies and angry clientele. Furthermore, deviation or procrastination is a general symptom among designers and freelancers alike that hits us on occasion. Moreover, we discuss six methods or tips that can help you stay focused as a designer to avoid deviation and or procrastination.
Tags: answers, css, design-reviver, designer, Designers, illustration, photography, project, Tutorials, vintage, work
7 Reasons Why I Choose Fireworks Over Photoshop
Aug 12, 2010 General, Tutorials
My name is Russell McGovern and I use Fireworks to design websites. There, I said it. I could be wrong, but it feels like I’m in a small minority; among web designers, the application of choice seems to be Photoshop. Agencies send me PSD files at work and ask for them in return; design blogs are full of Photoshop tips, tutorials and templates; other designers request the Photoshop files that they assume I must have used to build elements.
Tags: conclusion, Design, Designers, fireworks, naldz-graphics, opinion, Photoshop, tools, Tutorials
Beautiful Packages: Bottles
Aug 11, 2010 General, Inspiration, Tutorials
I already mentioned that I simply love package design. I do believe that, depending on the audience, a product can stand out for its package. For example, I’m a person who sometimes choose a product by its package… and lately I’m really digging some bottle designs.
Tags: article, bottle, bottles, clients, daily, Designers, illustration, Inspiration, package, photography, product, Tutorials
20+ New Apps and Websites for Designers
Aug 11, 2010 General, Inspiration
New apps and websites seem to appear on an almost-daily basis. Trying to find the best ones each week or month can be tough, especially considering how many come out that aren’t that great. Here we’ve compiled some of the best apps and websites that have come out in the past few months. Some are apps closely tied to a web designer’s daily work, while others aren’t likely to be used as often, but are still useful.
Tags: advertising, best of, cameron-chapman, Design, Designers, favorite-tweets, launchlist, Web Design
Interviewing Women in Web Design Around the World – Huge List
Aug 10, 2010 General, Inspiration, Resources, Tutorials
It is a well known fact that the Information technology (IT) industry is male dominated. However, saying that, over the years women have ventured out and have slowly been making their mark. With regard to Web Design , there are many female web designers out there, but it seems there is not enough representation or prominence in bringing them into the limelight. So, we decided to prepare a group interview showcasing some of the well known and not so well known female designers that are out there.
Tags: biggest, biggest-challenge, Design, designer, Designers, female, industry, Inspiration, other-female, Resources, think-female, Tutorials, twitter, Web Design, work
Download the Best Icons at Icons-Land
Aug 2, 2010 General, Inspiration, Resources, Tutorials
When you’re working on a web design or development project or if you’re working on a commercial design project, or you just want a customized user interface for your operating system, you’ll need some high quality, matching icon sets to help the design go the extra mile and provide the extra bit of cohesiveness. For a quality set of stock icons , choose Icons-Land for your next design project. Icons-Land has a large selection of stock icons and vector icons for your design projects that can be opened up and modified to your needs, and used in any design situation. Instead of trying to mix and match a bunch of different sets of icons, use Icons-Land to download large sets of icons. A good set of icons can make all the difference. Icons can bring out the subtle details in your designs, as well as provide a cohesion and intuitive feel to any design. They can complement text perfectly and help bring your whole project together. Most designers have encountered a situation where you’ve found a perfect icon set, or so you think, because it has a beautiful icon you’d like to use. Once you download it and use the icon, you realize you need another icon for your design that has the same style, but serves a different purpose. Unfortunately, you look at the icon set and realize there’s only a few icons, and none of them match your needs. You can either spend another few hours searching for a matching free icon, which you might not find, or you can visit Icons-Land and download one of their giant, matching sets of icons.
Tags: cohesion, cohesiveness, Designers, extra mile, free icon, halloween, halloween icons, Inspiration, project icons, subtle details, User Interface, Web Design
Inspiration – The Work of Designer Ross Bruggink
Jul 14, 2010 General, Inspiration, Resources
Today Inspiration is the work of designer Ross Bruggink . He’s got a cool intricate, and super-professional style. You have probably even seen the "Fair Food Fight" logo making the rounds on the blogs. Here’s a little bit more about Ross from his site: Born and raised in the Great Wisconsin Northwoods, Ross now resides in Minneapolis, quite a nice place.
Tags: designer, Designers, Free Fonts, free-brushes, free-vectors, freebies, Graphic Design, illustrators, Inspiration, Resources, ross bruggink, seo, Textures, Vectors
Redesigning Your Website: Are you Making the Right Move?
Jul 12, 2010 General, Inspiration, Resources, Tutorials
“Human beings, by change renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise they harden.” And, there is no doubt to it. They try and find something or the other to refresh themselves. Once someone said, “Art is the river that runs through my life. I drink from it as often as I can do it to refresh myself.” Similar is the case with the redesigning of the website.
Tags: advertising, advice, case-study, content, Design, Designers, Inspiration, psd-to-html, psd-to-xhtml, Resources, Tutorials, twitter, Web Design
