Beautiful, inspiring examples of graphic design, mockups, presentation templates, websites, fonts, icons, and more.
Happy holidays! It almost seems too early to think about holiday shopping, but the season is already upon us. It pays to plan ahead with your holiday gifts, and make sure you’re not part of that last-minute rush! Have you made your list yet?
We’ve gathered some of our favorite new tools and toys to give – and get. So grab a pen and starting making your list, and checking it off with items from our 2015 Designer Gift Guide.
As a designer, you likely have a closet of finished projects and another equally massive digital file. What do you keep? And what do you do with all that stuff?
The answer is not easy but there are plenty of available tools that can help you manage your design files. Good work practices, multiple filing options and a little bit of keep and toss mentality can go a long way. Here, we are looking at a handful of tools that can help you collect, manage and store your design files.
Great photography can be the visual that makes a good design project a great one. And it is up to you to ensure that your images are practical, usable and captivating.
As a designer, it is your job to provide art direction before, during and after the photo taking and editing process so that you get a collection of images that work for your brand and your projects. Today, we’ll look at 12 ways to help you make the most of those images for any project type. (You might want to bookmark this guide so you can refer to it next time you are ready to think about getting new images.)
Stripes are a fun addition that can add visual interest and depth to design projects in a variety of ways. But stripes are more than just the blue and white nautical patterns that you might be envisioning.
Stripes can take on a number of forms. Vertical or horizontal and from classic patterns to grid-based lined to backgrounds and image components, stripes are a great design option. Here are some ways to use them that you might not have thought about.
If you are anything like me, you are always looking for a shortcut or two to make your design life easier. Sometimes the tricks to getting through a project are the little things. While there are some obvious workflow solutions, such as using shortcut keys within software, today’s design tricks require a little more long term thought and planning. (But they are well worth it!)
From sketching to working with software to learning a new concept, here are five design shortcuts that you should learn right now. (You’ll thank us later.)
If you’ve ever found yourself in a design rut, wondering how to come up with some fresh ideas, then you’ve no doubt experienced how refreshing it can be to experiment with a new design style that’s completely outside of what you typically produce.
Today we’re going to do exactly that. I’ve been fascinated with a particular style lately and just itching to give it a test drive. We’ll start by analyzing this style’s characteristics through the work of others and then proceed to building something on our own using what we learn. Read on to see the step by step process.
By now the term “hamburger menu” is something we are all familiar with. Love it or hate it, this little element has been one of the bigger trends in website navigation design this year.
But it is not the only big change that’s been happening when it comes to how we design navigation patterns and elements. From super small navigation – such as the hamburger – to oversized navigation options, providing users with a clear and easy path to information should be a top concern for designers.
While you may not be exchanging actual paper business cards as much these days, chances are your digital business card, or vCard, can see a lot of traffic. A vCard-style website typically contains very little content other than a few professional details.
vCard websites are not the same as a portfolio. They tend to be more streamlined with a focus on point of contact, not showcase of professional accomplishment. This style of website can be useful to help users or potential customers find you online and help you promote your professional presence online. When it comes to designing a vCard website, think beyond the paper business card format, or email attachment style cards that have been around for years and make yours stand out.
While the thought of completing a design project with only one color might be intimidating, it can actually result in a pretty awesome aesthetic. Monochromatic color options are also a hot concept and can work for a lot of project types.
Monochromatic color is rooted in color theory and takes more than just picking a color and designing everything with it. You’ll want to consider the meaning and associations of the color you choose and how to make that hue work with other components in the page. Here, we’ll explore ways to help you better understand and effectively use monochromatic color in any of your design projects.
It’s an undeniable fact: using blurred images is a trending web design technique in 2015. It seems like everywhere you look there’s some element of blur.
But this is not a solution to some of your photo problems. It’s a distinct technique that takes practice to perfect and attention to detail to get it right. So before you jump on the trend, think about the options for using blurred images to decide if it is right for you and how you can make the best use of this technique in your projects.
Negative space is an inspiring field in the design world, where designers use the alternative color in a graphic to make a dual imagery and representation of a product. When it comes to negative space logo designs, agencies can incorporate multiple meanings in to their logo designs.
It’s a great way to capture a customers attention, and make them think twice. We’ve conducted a thorough search for some of the most interesting negative space logos, and collected 80 inspiring designs to give you an idea of what’s possible. Enjoy!
From patterns, to videos, to images, there are a lot of things to choose from when it comes to selecting the perfect backdrop to any design project. While the texture or image you choose is not necessarily intended to be a main part of the overall message, it can have quite an impact.
Backgrounds can be subtle, bold, static, dynamic or non-existent. And backgrounds in today’s projects are often more than just a beige canvas, and are an integral – and integrated – part of the overall design scheme. The trend in background design may even lead some to ask where the background ends and the foreground begins. Today we’re sharing a few tips and tricks for how to choose an effective background.