Joshua Johnson

HTML / 27 Jul 2011

Embedding Google Maps Into a Web Page: A Beginner’s Guide

Google Maps is one of the best utilities to ever hit the web. It has become the standard way for people to get directions online, view satellite and terrain imagery and perform any other map-related task.

There are a number of reasons that you would want to embed a Google Map into your web page, whether it be for functional purposes, such as guiding users to your physical location, or aesthetic purposes, such as using map for a background graphic. Today we’re going to look at two ways you can go about this task: the quick and easy way and the powerful, flexible API route.

CSS / 25 Jul 2011

Achieving Multi-Step Animations With CSS Transitions

Multi-step CSS animations are easy with keyframes, but what if we want to use plain old transitions to achieve a similar effect? Further, how do we take a single hover event and translate that into multiple animations on different elements?

The answer lies in using buried hovers, a simple and effective trick you should definitely try out.

Freebies / 25 Jul 2011

Weekly Freebies: 25 Gorgeous Media Player PSDs

Need a quick video or music player mockup? Well you’re in luck because today we have twenty-five awesome, layered PSDs files containing music and video player interfaces.

You’ll be stunned at how beautiful some of these files are given that their creators are distributing them freely. Take a look and download at will!

CSS / 22 Jul 2011

How to Implement Some Slick Icons Using a Font and CSS

Using an image-based font can be a fun and quick way to implement icons across your site. It’s a super easy process that gives you complete freedom to go back and re-size your icons at any time.

Today we’ll use the excellent Pictos font to build a simple web page so you can get a feel for the process.

Layouts / 20 Jul 2011

Ditching the Grid: Alternative Layout Strategies and Tips

Are you tired of creating building websites using the same old grid-based layouts for every project? Have you been itching to break away from the norm and attempt something a little more organic?

Today we’ll take a look at a few sites that have done just that to see what we can learn about alternative layout methods and how they can be successfully implemented.

Business / 18 Jul 2011

Are Print Designers Doomed? an Important Look at the Facts

We constantly hear blanket statements about how print is in decline and the future of design is digital. Meanwhile, many print-only designers wonder if they should be taking steps to begin the overwhelming journey of learning a new career.

Today we’ll put rumors and speculation aside for a moment and take a look at some real data to see the actual projections for the print design industry and what actions, if any, print designers should be taking as a result.

Freebies / 15 Jul 2011

Weekly Freebies: 25 Incredibly Useful Photoshop Custom Shape Sets

Photoshop custom shapes allow for quick and easy vector insertion into your artwork. Countless artists have spent hours building some amazing shape sets and distribute them free! Today we’ll have a look at the best sets we could find from deviantArt and other sites.

Graphics / 14 Jul 2011

Build Awesome Color Palettes Effortlessly in Illustrator

Here at Design Shack we can’t get enough of good color schemes. We recently discussed some Awesome and Unusual Places to Steal Color Palettes From and today we’ll follow up that discussion with some tips on how to build your own awesome color sets in Adobe Illustrator.

We’ll go over the extreme basics of working with color in Illustrator and jump into how to use the excellent built-in Color Guide to get you on the path to lightning-fast generation and manipulation of custom color schemes.

CSS / 13 Jul 2011

CSS Attribute Selectors: How and Why You Should Be Using Them

Today we’re going to learn about Attribute Selectors. What are they? How do I use them? What are the new CSS3 Attribute selectors? We’ll answer these questions and more.

Graphics / 12 Jul 2011

5 Quick & Simple Design Tricks to Liven Up Any Project

Sometimes you have a perfectly good layout, but your design needs a bit something extra to finish it off. Unfortunately, it’s easy to get stuck and become completely void of ideas.

Today we’re going to help you solve this problem by highlighting five random design ideas that you can incorporate into your back of design tricks. Let’s get started!

Business / 11 Jul 2011

How to Teach Someone Graphic Design

Do you have a friend, family member or colleague who is considering design as a profession and looks to you for guidance? Your instruction could mean the difference between a meaningful career and a non-starter.

Today we’ll offer up some basic advice that everyone should consider before attempting to teach someone to be a graphic designer.

Freebies / 8 Jul 2011

Weekly Freebies: Exclusive Wooden Texture Pack Pt. 2

Last week we brought you an exclusive wooden texture pack with three textures built from scratch in Photoshop specifically for our readers. This week we’re following that up with a photographic pack of seven real wooden textures once again created just for you guys.

Keep reading to get a peek at these great free textures, which you can download and use in all of your projects completely attribution free!