David Appleyard helps to build fun things for the design community, including Design Shack, Theme Junkie, Creative VIP, and Themelantic.
Today we’re going to be taking a look at the Startup Framework from Designmodo — one of the most polished and professional component frameworks we’ve seen for a while.
It’s a set of graphics, blocks, and components that are designed to help you plan and conceptualise your design, without spending weeks on starting from scratch. We’ll take a look at what’s on offer in the framework, and share a few examples!
Creative VIP is a membership service we launched for designers and creatives in July. It’s been growing steadily, and I’d love to share some of the progress we made over the latter part of the year.
We’ve added plenty of new partners, a slew of design resources, and sent out dozens of lovely creative goodie bags to our members. So join us as we recap some of what’s now on offer for the lovely creative folk we’re proud to call members.
It doesn’t matter how fancy the iPad, or how realistic the e-ink, there’s something about a good quality pen and a thick, fresh pad of paper that’s impossible to replicate. Whether it’s for sketching, taking notes, or planning your to-do list, often paper is best.
We’re pleased to tell you about a fantastic partnership we have with Creoly for Design Shack readers, giving you the chance to win one of five exclusive notebooks, and save 10% on any order you place (with free international shipping!). Read on to find out more.
At first glance, minimalist websites might look like they’ve just been slapped together as quickly as possible. After all, they’re plain and simple, and most people tend to associate lots of detail with good craftsmanship. But the same rules just don’t apply to the online world.
It only takes a small amount of user interaction to quickly reveal the quality of a minimalist site. This is because the original idea that fueled the rise of minimalism was that functionality is inherently beautiful. A design that clarifies and reveals the structure of a website can be just as appealing as one that obscures its purposes behind fancy decorative additions. Furthermore, it often yields a much better user experience, because those unnecessary distractions are eliminated.
In July, we introduced a new membership club for designers and creatives — Creative VIP. Since the launch, we’ve been working hard to increase the collection of exclusive discounts, benefits, and resources offered to members. MediaTemple, FontDeck, GatherContent, PixelKit — the list of benefits for our members keeps growing every week.
It’s been a pleasure getting to know some of our first members over the past few months, and we’ve been thrilled with the response so far. We’d like to give you a quick update on some of our new benefits and discounts today, as well as a one-off, 48 hour discount, if you’re thinking of joining.
We’re excited to bring you another great competition today, giving you the chance to win one of three awesome packages from Markup-Service.com.
This is going to be a real treat for busy web designers and developers out there who need a little help with their PSD to HTML conversions. We have $600 of packages up for grabs, so read on to find out a little more about how to enter — it just takes a couple of seconds!
Of late, you may have noticed a crop of new site designs have a softer and lighter look. After all the rainbow brights and even neon or fluorescent hues that have been so popular of late, it seems that some designers are taking a more subtle approach by using lighter or muted colors.
Although the same basic treatments are still being utilized — like colorized photography or color blocking — the new hues are making for a more refined and understated variation on these themes. Today we’re going to delve into this trend a little more, and explore various design examples and approaches.
Last week, we let you know about a new project we’ve just launched — Creative VIP! It’s an exclusive membership club for creative professionals, with special privileges and discounts on world-class products and services, hundreds of design resources, and lovely creative goodie bags.
We’re offering all Design Shack readers a 25% discount on their membership, but there’s just 24 hours left to take advantage of the offer! Read on to find out more about why you should become a member…
The concept of “flat” design is fairly prevalent at the moment and, although you should never stick with a trend just because it’s the “in thing”, there’s certainly some merit to stripping back unnecessary design flourishes and focusing on the basics.
Today we’re featuring seven freebie packs that can help to give you a useful starting point when designing something with a flat, minimal look and feel. From icons to complete web templates, there’s plenty to get your teeth into!
As one of our awesome Design Shack readers, we wanted to let you know about a new project we’ve just launched — Creative VIP. It’s an exclusive membership club for creative professionals, and we’d love to welcome you as one of our first members.
Our members receive special privileges and discounts on world-class products and services, access to hundreds of design resources, and creative goodie bags on their doorstep. Keep reading to find out more about a Creative VIP membership, and to grab an exclusive 25% discount for Design Shack readers!
We’re excited to bring you another great competition today, from Markup-Service.com, who are giving away $500 worth of their services. It’s a great chance to save your time and energy on coding and get clean, valid and fast-loading markup developed.
Read on to find out a little more about how to enter — it just takes a couple of seconds!
Weddings can be an expensive business. Photographers, venues, food, drink, entertainment, and all manner of other things to consider. But it’s also a fun opportunity for some design work! Wedding “branding” and stationery has the potential to be another big wedding expense, but by thinking a little creatively, you can not only give your special day a personal touch, but also cut down on the cost.
Today I’ll be sharing a little insight into how you can use your copy of Photoshop, and Moo.com, to create a fantastic array of different wedding stationery. We did it for our wedding a couple of weeks ago, and it went down brilliantly.