David Appleyard

News / 18 Oct 2011

Design Shack Is Evolving!

If you’ve taken a look at our site design in the past few hours, you might have noticed a few changes! We’ve taken the design paintbrush for a spin, streamlining and simplifying the layout and re-focusing on the parts of Design Shack that we particularly love.

All this comes hand-in-hand with a change to the Design Shack brand, and a funky new logo courtesy of Aaron Mahnke. Read on to find out a little more about the design, branding, and the changes we’ve made to the site.

Competitions / 26 Jul 2011

Win a Dell XPS 15z for Designing on the Road!

Update: We’ve chosen a winner, and congratulations are in order to Dawn Costen. We’ll be in touch soon to arrange where to send your prize. Thank you to everyone who took part, and be sure to follow us on Twitter to find out when we launch our next competition!

I’m excited to let you know that we’re launching another great competition today for our UK readers, giving you the chance to get your hands on a brand new laptop from Dell. The XPS 15z is their thinnest ever notebook – perfect for getting on with some design or development work on the road. Read on to find out how to take part – entering only takes a few seconds!

Competitions / 15 Jun 2011

Win an iPad 2 & One Year of Hosting (Worth £730)!

I’m excited to let you know that – in partnership with Heart Internet – we’re kicking off a fantastic competition to win an iPad 2, and one year of free reseller hosting with domain and goMobi!

It takes just five minutes to enter, and we’re asking you to fill out a short survey. We’ll be publishing the statistics from this in a few weeks time, to give you some awesome insight into the web design industry. Read on to find out more…

News / 23 May 2011

Announcing the Design Shack Affiliate Scheme

Design Shack Deals launched back in February, and since then we’ve featured some fantastic discounts on products and services for designers.

Today we’re announcing an affiliate program that all Design Shack members can take advantage of. If you run a blog, have a Twitter account, or want to spread the word about our latest deal via email, we’d love for you to help with promoting our weekly deals!

We pay a 15% commission on every sale you generate, and you can keep track of every click and sale you generate in real-time. Read on to find out more!

Reviews / 7 Mar 2011

Book Review: Smashing Book 2

It’s been over a year since we took a look at Smashing Magazine’s very first publication, and the web industry has come a long way in twelve months. Today, we’re going to offering our thoughts on The Smashing Book #2, hailed as “sharing valuable practical insight into design, usability and coding”.

With a great range of contributors and big steps forward in shipping and physical design, let’s see how Smashing Magazine’s latest release stacks up!

News / 6 Dec 2010

The All-New Design Shack Is Here!

It’s been a little while coming, but I’m pleased to let you know that the all-new Design Shack is now very much live! We’ve tweaked the design to be a little simpler and more streamlined, and added plenty of new features (with lots more to come over the next few weeks!)

Read on for a little explanation about what’s new in the latest iteration of the site, and what you have to look forward to over the coming month!

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!