David Appleyard

Reviews / 21 Feb 2020

Design Your Own Logo With LogoMyWay’s Logo Maker

Creating a professional-looking logo design that effectively markets your company and its services is an essential part of creating a new startup – and thanks to the wide array of tools and platforms available online you now have a range of options to choose from when it comes to how you will go about procuring a great logo for your company.

One such option that offers several considerable benefits is designing your logo using the new online logo maker by LogoMyWay. To help you take full advantage of this promising new logo design tool, we’ll take a look at the top benefits of using the LogoMyWay Online Logo Maker as well as the four-step process you can follow to ensure the best possible results.

Mobile / 10 Oct 2018

What’s a Progressive Web App (And Why Should You Care)?

In 2016, mobile users first surpassed those accessing the web from desktop devices. Since then, mobile hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down.

As everyone looks for how to make websites, and web apps, more mobile-friendly, you’ll increasingly start to come across the phrase “Progressive Web App”. Today we’re looking at what this is, how it differs from other technologies like AMP, and how you can get started.

Business / 20 Jun 2016

The Benefits of Paid vs. Free Stock Images

Are you ready to take your design projects to the next level? A great visual presence is the best way to make a first impression and grab hold of a user.

From web-based projects, to posters, or even packaging or billboard design, a great photograph is your best entry point. But where do you find high-quality images if you aren’t a great photographer? And how can you get them fast? What are the pros and cons of finding a commercial stock images vs. a free one? Let’s take a look…

Reviews / 20 Aug 2015

How to Perform Real-Time User Testing With FullStory

Ever visited a website that was confusing, broken, or just plain hard to use? That site probably isn’t using FullStory.

There’s no doubt that user testing is incredibly important to create a website that’s easy to use, and performs well. But watching users in a testing environment can never compare to watching actual customer interactions, and looking at the stumbling blocks they face. Today we’re taking a look at how FullStory can help with just this, and give you a powerful insight into how your customers use your website.

Reviews / 13 Aug 2015

Get 7 Free Days of Downloads With GraphicStock

GraphicStock have a big collection of stock resources for designers — backgrounds, concepts, icons, patterns, textures, templates, photos and more.

Today we’re featuring a great deal, which gives you seven days of completely unrestricted access to the GraphicStock library. Read on to find out more about the site, how to redeem the deal, and see a collection of different assets and resources from the site!

Tumblr Themes / 5 May 2015

How to Make a Budget Wedding Website With Tumblr

Having a wedding website or blog is all the rage, and it can be a great way to keep your friends and family up-to-date with your wedding planning for the special day.

There are lots of services out there to help, but many are quite expensive or complicated. Today we’re taking a look at how you can build your own wedding website in a few simple steps, using the Wedding Tumblr theme.

You’ll have a wedding website to be proud of, in no time at all (here’s an example). All for the price of a couple of wedding magazines!

Tumblr Themes / 29 Apr 2015

30 Premium Tumblr Themes With Beautiful, Minimal Design

There are thousands of Tumblr themes all over the web. To be perfectly frank, most of them aren’t great, and won’t do your creative work justice. Today we’ve collected thirty of our favourite premium Tumblr themes from across the web.

All of these cost a few dollars, but all of them will take your Tumblr blog to another level. From stylish, minimal Tumblr themes, through to those featuring big colours and bold images — we have a full selection. All of them are available to buy straight from Tumblr directly, and can be set up on your blog in a few minutes!

Business / 13 Apr 2015

Introducing Media Temple’s WordPress Hosting

We’ve hosted Design Shack with Media Temple for years. So we were very pleased when they came to us, and asked us to take a look at their new managed WordPress hosting solution.

Media Temple’s new full-featured WordPress hosting solution features four new, customizable and scalable plans. Whether you’re a photographer, web designer or creative agency, there’s a plan that should work for you. Today we’re taking a look at this new hosting product, to see how it stacks up!

Minimalist Graphic Design / 2 Oct 2013

5 Traits of Successful Minimalism

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.

Graphics / 30 Jul 2013

Current Color Trends: Muted Pastels

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.

Graphics / 8 Jul 2013

Using Moo.com for Your Wedding Stationery

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.

Business / 19 Jun 2013

Understanding Agile Design and Why It’s Important

It’s no secret that the agile development process has been hurtling through the development world for several years now, swatting aside the older, clunkier waterfall development method. To be fair, whether it was agile or something else, waterfall really had it coming, as its risk-averse, top down approach just can’t keep pace with the demands of today’s marketplace.

While similar changes are occurring in the design world, the agile design process should necessarily look and feel a little different than agile development; they are, after all, different disciplines. Let’s take a deeper look first at what agile development is, and then at a few great ways to adapt the process to the design world.