Articles - Page 88

Graphics / 24 Jun 2021

An Introduction to Custom Cursors in Web Design: Tips, Ideas + Tutorials

One of the biggest trends in web design these days is custom cursors. At first glance, a custom website cursor may look like just another stylistic element. But there’s much more to this design concept.

When viewing a website from a desktop device, the cursor is the main component that bridges the gap between the user and the website. If you’re creative enough, you can actually use this cursor to your advantage to boost website interaction and engagement rates like never before.

In this guide, we take a closer look at what custom cursors are all about, why you should use them, and offer you a few tutorials for designing your own custom cursors.

Let’s get started.

Reviews / 24 Jun 2021

Looka: An AI-Powered Platform to Design Your Own Logo

Using artificial intelligence, Looka is an online design tool that can help you create anything from a logo to a full branding suite.

It’s designed to use keywords and a little machine-learning magic to help jumpstart your creative process when you are ready to launch a business or brand now, but don’t have the materials to get started.

Here, we’ll look at Looka and the set of tools that make it a pretty robust platform for quick brand building.

Trends / 21 Jun 2021

Design Trend: Abstract Art Compositions

When you don’t know what to use to illustrate a design, the answer might be abstract art.

It’s a growing design trend that – when done well – uses interesting shapes, colors, and combinations to create something that means almost nothing but is visually interesting.

There’s no wonder that designers are using this concept.

For startup websites without photography to designs for companies that aren’t sure how to represent an almost-post-COVID world visually and everything in between, abstract can be a workable choice.

Layouts / 17 Jun 2021

How to Design a Captivating Web Questionnaire

We’ve all run across them – web questionnaires or surveys that were so simple and delightful that they were actually fun to fill out.

Sadly, that’s the exception to the rule. More often than, surveys are clunky and cumbersome.

You can design a captivating web questionnaire with the right thought process. It’s a mix of question planning with visual elements and cues to make the process user-friendly and somewhat seamless.

Here’s how you do it.

Poster Design / 17 Jun 2021

25+ Best Poster & Photo Frame Mockup Templates

Whether it’s showcasing a project in your portfolio or presenting a design to a client, a mockup goes a long way to make your work of art look more professional. And of course, as a designer, you can never have enough mockups.

Today, we’re bringing you a collection of poster frame mockups and photo frame mockups for showing off your work in a more exciting way.

There are many different styles of photo and poster frame mockups in this list with realistic scenes.

You can use them to present your poster designs, flyers, artworks, and much more.

Business / 10 Jun 2021

8 Skills Designers Need to Thrive in Today’s Market

This is not another article about how the pandemic has changed the way we work.

The reality is that plenty of creative professionals – especially freelancers – have been working from home and in remote environments for a long time. It’s probably why so many of us were quick to adapt when so many others hopped on Zoom or Slack for the first time.

But there are some skills you need to stay relevant in today’s job market in addition to that adaptability that you likely already have. If you are thinking of advancing your career (and who isn’t) as a freelancer, at your current job, or by changing jobs, keep reading.

Lightroom Presets / 8 Jun 2021

20+ Realistic Lightroom Presets

Optimizing photos and applying filters without destroying the natural look of the photo is a skill that takes a lot of practice to master. But, with the help of realistic Lightroom presets, you can get better at it much more easily.

In this collection, we bring you some amazing Lightroom presets for creating realistic effects by applying subtle filters and improvements. Unlike most other filters, these Lightroom presets will preserve the natural look of your photos as well.

Even if you’re looking to improve your smartphone photos, you can use these Lightroom presets to add HDR effects, light and airy effects, or even monochrome effects to give them a professional look and feel. Be sure to download them all below.

Trends / 7 Jun 2021

8 Design Trends That Are Fading Fast

Almost every year, we kick off with a list of design trends that we think will dominate projects in the coming year. While we’ve gotten pretty good at identifying hits, there are also some misses.

These trends might fade due to a lot of different factors, but commonly they are just difficult techniques that don’t apply well across different types of projects.

It looks (and works) great in one application but is flat somewhere else.

Here’s a look at some of those trends that are fading fast. (And if you want to see our full list of web design trends for 2021 you can find it here.)

Instagram Templates / 4 Jun 2021

8 Tips for Designing Instagram Stories That Don’t Suck

Instagram stories are one of the hottest social media formats. The vertical format allows creators to share videos, photos, and mixed media content in a streaming medium, and introduces an entirely novel layout to design for.

The tricky part is creating stories that are enjoyable, shareable, and help people engage with your account, brand, or even get clicks to your website.

Here, we’re going to look at eight ways to create Instagram stories that help you meet goals, and stand out from the crowd.

Bonus: You can apply these design tips to Facebook stories as well.

Reviews / 3 Jun 2021

Userwell: Better Understand What Your Users Want Online

Insights into the user journey are a valuable tool for any website designer, developer, or business owner (regardless of industry). The right tool can help you make the right product decisions from real user feedback.

That’s just what you get from Userwell. It is product feedback management software to help you create and build products that users will want and love to use.

Here’s a look at the tool and how you can make it work for you.

Trends / 3 Jun 2021

2021 Mid-Year Design Trend Report: What’s Still Hot

At the beginning of each year, Design Shack does a roundup of trends that will likely influence the design landscape for the coming year.

Now that we are halfway through 2021 (can you believe it?) it’s time to look at which of those trends are thriving and which ones you can pass by.

Here, we’ll look at some fresh examples of the trends that are still hot for inspiration in your projects.

Graphics / 31 May 2021

How to Create a Disruptive Design (So It Will Get Seen)

If you really want to create a design that will make people look, it has to be disruptive.

While “disruptive” can be a bit of a hackneyed catchphrase, it is also at the core of what you do when you create something new. The goal is to get people to stop, look, and interact.

Disruption works because it is different from the norm. This can include anything from being at the forefront of a new trend to designing with an interesting font, color palette, or design pattern.

This description from Layla Acaroglu explains it perfectly: “Design is about creating something that adds to or iterates on the existing, and disruption is about creating a disturbance with the intent of changing a system. When combined, the practice of Disruptive Design is to create intentional interventions into a pre-existing system with the specific objective to leverage a different outcome, and more importantly, an outcome that is likely to create positive social change.”

Now how can you do it? We have a few ideas (and examples) for you.