David Appleyard

Interviews / 26 Apr 2010

In Depth With Paul Boag

If you’ve ever considered listening to a design podcast, or stay remotely in touch with the design industry in general, you’ll have come across Paul Boag. He’s the Creative Director of Headscape, the producer of Boagworld, and lives in the heart of rural Dorset.

In this interview we’ll be discussing where Paul started as a designer, which part of the job he enjoys the most, a typical “day in your life”, and how his faith affects the way he runs his business, and deals with employees and clients.

Interviews / 26 Feb 2010

In Depth With Vitaly Friedman: A Smashing Success

We’re continuing our interview series today, spending some time talking to Vitaly Friedman of Smashing Magazine. Vitaly has been one of the leading minds behind the web’s largest design blog, and is a fascinating web designer and entrepreneur.

We’ll be discussing Vitaly’s background, the early days of Smashing Magazine, taking a look at a typical day in his life, and investigating some of the design trends we’re likely to see over the next 12 months!

Reviews / 5 Feb 2010

A Smashing Review of the Smashing Book

When Smashing Magazine first announced the release of their book, I have to confess that I was slightly sceptical. I enjoy their blog regularly, but didn’t really see how the concept would carry across to a book – or what topics it would cover.

I’ve spent a few hours reading through my review copy over the past week, and have been pleasantly surprised. Sven and Vitaly have managed to bring several talented writers on board to help put together a thoroughly interesting read.

This review will walk you through the book’s contents, and outline a few of the chapters I particularly enjoyed!

Interviews / 28 Jan 2010

In Depth With Adii: The Growth of a Rockstar

Today we’re starting a new series of interviews, in which we’ll have an in-depth and fascinating conversion with various industry leading figures. We’re kicking things off with Adii Rockstar, a WordPress guru and the man behind WooThemes.

We’ll be discussing Adii’s early days as a designer, the rise and growth of WooThemes, a standard working day, his favourite hardware and software, and a number of new projects he’s beginning to get involved with this year.

Competitions / 23 Jan 2010

Winner Announced: Win a Copy of Designing With Web Standards (3rd Edition)

Congratulations to our randomly selected winner, Benjamin Alijagić. We hope you enjoy the book and want to thank everyone who entered. We’ll have another competition coming soon!

Today we’re bringing you the chance to win a copy of the fantastic Designing with Web Standards (3rd Edition) by Jeffery Zeldman. It’s a brilliant book for better understanding the importance of web standards, written by a real industry leader.

Read on for more information, and to find out how to enter.

Articles / 29 Dec 2009

5 Realistic Resolutions for Web Designers

It’s that time of year again, where we all have the chance to reflect on the past twelve months and plan ahead for the year to come. It always leaves me feeling fired up, and I’m already excited to what’s in store for 2010.

There’s always a danger of setting resolutions, or goals, that are slightly unrealistic and far fetched. Today I’ll be taking a look at various goals and projects you may want to consider as a web designer – ranging from starting up a personal side project, to spending a little more time out of the office!

News / 26 Dec 2009

Happy Christmas!

I’d like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to everyone who has contributed to the site this year, written an article, or submitted their design. We’re certainly ending this year on a high, and are looking forward to everything we have in store for 2010.

I hope that you have a wonderful rest over Christmas, take the time to recharge your batteries, and start the New Year full of fresh, creative inspiration.

Thanks for reading Design Shack, and Happy Christmas from myself and Josh!

Articles / 20 Dec 2009

Interview With Alen Grakalic of CSS Globe

Today we’re talking with Alen Grakalic, of CSS Globe. He’s a talented designer, an amateur triathlete competitor, and has recently launched an interesting JavaScript framework!

We’ll also take a look at the tools and workspace Alen uses to get the job done, along with a few pointers for places to find inspiration online.

Competitions / 15 Dec 2009

Winner Announced: Win a Copy of CSSEdit

I’m pleased to announce that we’re giving away a copy of CSSEdit to one lucky reader. CSSEdit is a brilliant piece of software for dealing with style sheets on your Mac, with visual editing, live preview, an “X-Ray inspector”, and a thorough selector builder that can save you a headache.

All you need to do to enter is follow @designshack on Twitter, and post your username in the comments. It only takes five minutes, and we’ll be announcing the winners in one week – on the 19th December.

Good luck, and thanks for reading Design Shack!

Articles / 12 Dec 2009

Take Part in the BaseKit Beta

Various services are available for converting PSD files to HTML code, all competing from a different angle. Some offer a very quick turn-around, others a ridiculously low price. Whilst some designers regularly use them as part of their working process, there are various advantages to completing the process yourself.

BaseKit is a new web service that allows you to maintain control over this process, easily moving from a PSD to a fully marked up website. It’s still in Beta, but we have 50 invite codes to give away. Read on for a preview video of the service in action, and information on how to apply for an invite.

News / 22 Nov 2009

We’re Joining the Smashing Network!

I’m pleased to announce that Design Shack has become a member of The Smashing Network, offering us another outlet to get in touch with new designers and network with some other really fantastic websites.

A big thanks to the Smashing Magazine team – we’re really looking forward to growing Design Shack further, and hope that you’re enjoying our new articles. Thanks for reading – you make the site what it is!

Business / 3 Nov 2009

The Ultimate Guide to CSS Gallery Inclusion

Design Shack started out as a simple CSS gallery, featuring well designed websites that caught my eye. Tens of thousands of designs have been submitted over the past few years, and each one has been considered carefully for inclusion. The sad fact is that only around 5% of submissions stand out from the crowd.

This could be due to any number of factors; the site didn’t get the basics right, didn’t have anything remarkable to show, or (occasionally) was let down by content. This guide will walk you through how to make sure you stand a great chance of inclusion, avoiding all the pitfalls so commonly stumbled into by designers. At each stage, we’ll take a look at one great example, and one that’s not so good.