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Joshua Johnson

Joshua Johnson

Equal parts editor, writer, designer, and photographer. Hit me up on Twitter, or check out my photos.

Freebies / 3 Jun 2011

Weekly Freebies: 20 Awesome and Free UI PSDs

This week’s myriad of freebies is a superb collection of layered PSDs that you can download and use in your projects. Each PSD contains a button, form, navigation menu slider or some other UI element that will no doubt prove useful as you build your next site.

Typography / 2 Jun 2011

50 Examples of Beautiful Typographic Art

Everyone loves a good typography roundup. Type is the muse of so many extremely talented designers and the web is simply overflowing with beautiful examples just waiting to inspire you to create your own masterpiece.

Today we’ve got a collection of fifty of the most attractive typographic art pieces we could find from artists all over the world. Take a look!

HTML / 1 Jun 2011

Why Web Design Books Suck and How to Fix Them

Do you have a list of things that you know you should learn but just haven’t been able to pick up? Have you tried to read through a book or two with no success?

Today we’re going to discuss why you can’t get through those boring web design books, how they should be different and what to look for to leverage the way you actually learn.

Critique / 28 May 2011

Web Design Critique #52: Goldenboy Media

Every week we take a look at a new website and analyze the design. We’ll point out both the areas that are done well in addition to those that could use some work. Finally, we’ll finish by asking you to provide your own feedback.

Today’s site is Goldenboy Media, a web design agency in South London.

Freebies / 27 May 2011

Weekly Freebies: 18 Simple and Useful Web Apps for Designers and Developers

Lately the web has just been bursting with simple, single-purpose tools that help make make our jobs easier by handling tasks such as generating CSS code or providing placeholder images for comps.

Below is a fairly random collection of such tools that I’ve found indispensable recently. All are completely free, extremely useful and super easy to use. Enjoy!

Inspiration / 26 May 2011

50 Creative and Inspiring Thumbnail Galleries

Thumbnail galleries are one of the most common solutions on the web for showcasing multiple images. The efficiency of this tool can’t be beat, it allows for quick browsing and closer inspection when desired.

Whenever I build a thumbnail gallery, I like to look around the web to see what other designers are doing to make theirs unique. Today we’re collected fifty great galleries for you to check out. Along the way, we’ll also discuss some ideas that you can use in your own galleries.

JavaScript / 25 May 2011

Create an Awesome Zooming Web Page With jQuery

Want to create a really unique and eye-catching effect for your site? How about an animation that zooms into a specific portion of the page when you click on it?

It may sound like a lot of work but with jQuery and Zoomooz.js, it’s a snap! I’ll walk you through the process step by step as we build a stunning zooming thumbnail gallery.

Business / 24 May 2011

Survival Tips: Doing Free Design Work for Friends and Family

As a designer, you’ve no doubt encountered situations where friends, family members, neighbors or even mere acquaintances ask you for a favor in the form of free design work. If you’ve ever given in to one of these requests, you probably know how quickly they can get out of hand.

How should you respond to these requests and what should you prepare for if you take one on? Today we explore the wonderful world of pro bono design.

Critique / 21 May 2011

Web Design Critique #51: Brush Lovers

Every week we take a look at a new website and analyze the design. We’ll point out both the areas that are done well in addition to those that could use some work. Finally, we’ll finish by asking you to provide your own feedback.

Today’s site is BrushLovers, an online store for Photoshop brushes run by Walter Apai from Web Designer Depot.

Graphics / 20 May 2011

Judging Best Sellers by Their Covers: Does Good Design Sell Books?

I adore a good read. In a time where 90% of my life is spent staring at a digital screen, reading a physical book with real pages gives me an ephemeral illusion that life is simple again. To defy the age old adage, I will freely admit that I choose books to read based on their covers. I’m a designer, I simply can’t help it.

The question I’m exploring today is whether or not the rest of the world thinks like we designers do. Does everyone judge books by the quality of the cover design? If we take a look at the bestseller list, what will we find?