Joshua Johnson

Layouts / 1 Dec 2011

The Evolution of Apple.com

The Apple design team is widely regarded as one of the most talented group of designers in the industry today. The trends that they set are followed by not only every other major tech company, but by web designers in every conceivable product and service niche.

Follow along as we embark on an exciting journey through time and witness the evolution of Apple’s design style. You’ll get several amazing glimpses at Apple.com dating all the way back to 1997 as we witness the rise and fall of several important design trends.

Software / 30 Nov 2011

Designing a Website With IM Creator

In the ever expanding world of online website builders, it’s pretty difficult to find anything that’s worth spending more than ten minutes with. This market is flooded with clunky interfaces, hideous templates and brutal freeform design restrictions.

I recently came across a product called IM Creator that stands out though both in style and functionality. Does it live up to its promises or join the rest of the sites in this market and fall short of a decent DIY website solution? Read on to find out.

CSS / 29 Nov 2011

Create Five Awesome Hover Effects Using CSS Multiple Backgrounds

Today we’re going to have all kinds of fun with the CSS multiple backgrounds feature. You’ll learn how to use multiple backgrounds in a simple way and how to go much further by combining the technique with hover actions and CSS transitions to create some really cool effects.

Follow along as we code five different applications of this idea that you can copy and paste to create your own awesome hovers.

Layouts / 28 Nov 2011

Black Friday Web Design: The Good, Bad and Ugly

Last week our U.S. readers celebrated Thanksgiving and its subsequent shopping madness known as Black Friday, where retailers dramatically reduce their prices for a day of pure shopper mayhem.

Instead of joining the stampede of frantic shoppers, I followed my annual tradition of hiding away in my home office. However, I couldn’t resist a look around to see how various stores were handling the design side of the event. Let’s see which top name retailers pulled out all the stops and which ran with cliché, generic and even ugly designs.

Freebies / 26 Nov 2011

Weekly Freebies: Flourishes and Ornaments

This week’s set of freebies is a fantastic collection of flourishes and ornaments. Together, these nineteen sets contain well over one hundred unique and creative pieces of art that you can use to bring your designs to the next level.

You’ll find some awesome vectors that are perfect for importing into Illustrator as well as some great Photoshop brush sets. Go grab them now and start increasing the awesome factor in your work.

CSS / 23 Nov 2011

How to Build a Responsive Frankenstein Framework With LESS

CSS layout frameworks are super helpful, but they can be a mess. You always have to conform to someone else’s system, whether or not it makes sense to you.

Today we’re going to ditch this notion and build an ultra-lightweight framework that can be implemented wherever and however you want to achieve complex multi-column layouts in seconds flat. You build this Frankenstein Framework as you go so there are zero unused classes and absolutely no code bloat. Did I mention that it’s also easy to make to make it responsive? Read on to see the monster come to life.

Graphics / 22 Nov 2011

Three Quick Design Tricks: Break Out Screenshots, Easy Starbursts and Vector Grunge Textures

Today we have a small collection of completely random but very useful design tricks that you should keep in the back of your mind the next time you need a new idea.

I’ll show you a quick way to make a software screenshot more interesting, how to create awesome vector grunge textures and a super fast way to build a vector starburst.

Software / 21 Nov 2011

5 Simple Steps to Stunning Portraits in Photoshop

Today’s article points out a harsh but true reality: just because you know how to use Photoshop for design work doesn’t mean you know how to edit photos. Fortunately, we’ve got you covered.

Follow along as we show you five simple and lightning fast steps you can take to transform your plain, boring portraits to stunning images that look straight out of a professional photographer’s portfolio. Along the way you’ll learn several important tips such as how to properly sharpen an image and how to draw the viewer’s attention to where you want it to go.

Freebies / 18 Nov 2011

Weekly Freebie: Printable Productivity Mousepad

Today’s freebie is incredibly simple but also incredibly useful. It’s a custom-made calendar, todo and notes sheet that you can print and use as a mousepad. I use it myself every day and thought I’d share it!

Business / 17 Nov 2011

The Ten Commandments of Writing Copy That Wins Clients

Web design companies and freelancers should never underestimate the power of good copy. Likewise, they should never doubt how much bad copy can hurt their chances of winning clients.

Follow along as we discuss then ten commandments of writing simple and effective copy that will convince your potential clients that you can successfully meet their needs and blow away their expectations.

Photoshop Actions / 16 Nov 2011

10 Ways Photoshop Actions Can Improve Your Workflow

Photoshop actions are an extremely easy way to automate all of the mundane daily tasks that have made their way into your design workflow. Whether you’re in web or print design, odds are there are a few repetitive tasks that you could let Photoshop handle for you.

Perhaps the biggest hurdle to automating your workflow is simply coming up with ideas for where Photoshop actions could help you out. Today we’ll help you solve that problem by going over 10 ways Photoshop actions can improve your workflow.

CSS / 15 Nov 2011

6 Things I Learned About Print Stylesheets From HTML5 Boilerplate

Print stylesheets can be a pain if you don’t know what you’re doing. Before you even approach one you need to make sure to do some solid research into how to go about it.

Today we’re going to help you along by first discussing the conceptual considerations that you need to keep in mind when creating a print stylesheet. Then we’ll dive into some code from the famous HTML5 Boilerplate to see some modern solutions for addressing the problems that arise when printing from the web.