Design Shack — Web Design Gallery, Articles & Community

Inspiration / 27 Sep 2016

15+ Gorgeous Save the Date Templates

Hiring someone to design your wedding invitations to look exactly the way you want is not an easy task. In most cases, the designers don’t share your vision for the design and you end up letting them design the card the way they want it to be.

But, what if you could pick a design of your own, customize it to look perfect, and print it out yourself while avoiding expensive designers altogether?

Yes, it’s possible. All you need is a little bit of Photoshop knowledge and a great looking save the date card template and you’re good to go. To help with your search, we hand-picked some of the most beautiful and affordable save the date templates you can find online. Have a look.

Business / 26 Sep 2016

Project vs. Hourly Rates: What Should You Choose?

One of the things people always ask me when they realize I’m a freelancer is “how do you know what to charge?” Honestly, I don’t always have the right answer. As any seasoned freelancer knows, estimated rates can sometimes be a game of chance with some jobs bringing in handsome sums while others end up as a loss. (You hope it all evens out in the end.)

So how do you actually charge clients? How do you know what a job is worth so that you are priced competitively and adequately for the work? That’s where the discussion of hourly versus project rates comes in. Here’s a guide to help you make the choice that is best for your business.

UX Design / 21 Sep 2016

7 Tips for Delighting Users With Great UX

A great user experience starts with the designer. You have to imagine and create something that people will want to touch and engage with, time and time again.

Sounds easy, right? The key to delighting users is to think like one. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel with every new design project; use tools and techniques that users like and understand to make the process a little easier and give you more time to focus on other visual elements. Today we’re sharing a few tips to get you focused on this line of thinking!

Inspiration / 20 Sep 2016

20+ Stunning Hero Images for a Creative Website

What do Salesforce, TaskRabbit, Tesla, and Pocket websites have in common? They all rock hero images.

Make no mistake, the hero image web design trend is still very much alive. What is a hero image? Well, it’s basically a giant banner-style image that takes over the top half of the page. The main goal of this design strategy is to quickly grab the user’s attention while showcasing some of the features of a product or a service at the same time.

According to research, colored visuals increase people’s willingness to read a piece of content by 80%. It’s one of the reasons why placing a hero image above the fold has been found to be quite effective in increasing website engagement.

Graphics / 19 Sep 2016

Design Trend: What’s Up With All Those Tiny Corner Logos?

Have you noticed how small logos seem to be increasingly popular on websites? For a while, it seemed the focus in design was to “make it bigger.” That has shifted — in terms of logo size and placement anyway.

The biggest trend in website design right now is the use of the tiny corner logo. We’re going to break down the trend and look at a few great examples. Maybe you’ll find the inspiration to shrink the logo in your next project. Or maybe you’ll decide to keep it big and bold!

Graphics / 14 Sep 2016

Experiential Design 101: Designing for VR

We may live in a world where many of our design and communication interactions happen via a screen, but information from screens is jumping into the live realm more and more often.

While it might almost sound like something out of a science fiction movie, you will create design elements that live in the space between screens and reality in this lifetime. It’s already starting to happen. Experiential design is the force that will shape how those projects come together and how you create and develop dynamic real-life design elements.

Business / 13 Sep 2016

7 Essential Video Classes for Freelancers

Have you ever wondered how most freelancers charge $250 for a logo design, while some others charge $2,500 for the same job? What’s their secret, really? Well, it’s all about the quality and experience. The better you know about the subject, the more you bring to the table, and the more you can charge.

So, the question is: Do you feel comfortable in the $250 bunch? Or would you be interested in doubling, tripling, or maybe even increasing your income by 10X? Then it’s time you start filling your brain with valuable knowledge.

Most people (especially our grandparents) used to say that you can’t buy knowledge and experience. Of course, that was the case a long time ago. But we live in the digital world. Today you can buy knowledge for a price as low as $0.99 cents. Don’t believe it? Just have a look at the courses below from Skillshare. And for a limited time, you can get three months of access to all these courses for just $0.99

Graphics / 12 Sep 2016

How to Create a Timeless Design: 7 Tips

The best designs never really go out of style. These classics are often rooted deep in design theory and have that certain something that helps them withstand the test of time. You know some of them – brands such as Nike and Coca-Cola have logos, colors and overall design personalities that have stood for decades.

Thankfully, that timeless concept is something you can apply to almost any project. You might not have the same visual recognition as the Swoosh, but you can create an aesthetic that can work for you for years to come. Here’s how to do it.

Business / 7 Sep 2016

14 Useful Tools & Websites for Designers

We thought we’d do something a bit different today, and feature a collection of some useful online tools and websites that we’ve recently found ourselves using more and more.

We’ll be looking at a design marketplace, a wire-framing tool, a HTML conversion service, and even a few lighter pieces, including a geeky comic. A broad range of different tools and services, but something for everyone. Hopefully you’ll stumble across something that you find useful in your next week at work!

Business / 5 Sep 2016

10 Skills Every Designer Needs on Their Resume

Even if you aren’t actively looking for a job, your resume is an important piece of your digital portfolio. From sites such as LinkedIn to personal portfolio pages such as Behance that showcase your work, glimpses into your design career are everywhere.

You want to control that message to ensure that you are putting the right vibe out there about who you are, the work you do and why (quite frankly) you are a rock star designer. And while a stellar portfolio is a great way to start that conversation, your resume is equally important. It should highlight some of the skills that aren’t as apparent from looking at a few marquee pieces.

(As a bonus the images in this post are of great designer resumes, and templates, from Behance. Make sure to click the links and visit the designer sites to learn more.)

Layouts / 31 Aug 2016

7 Tips for Better Responsive Photo Galleries

We all know and understand the importance of designing websites on a responsive platform, right? That applies to images and photo galleries as well.

There’s nothing worse than navigating to a beautiful website and seeing images that just don’t “lock” into place or size properly. It almost leaves you thinking that the designer forgot something, or missed a step.

Today, we’re going to look at seven things you can do in the design process to create better responsive photo galleries. (We’re not talking code here; these are design processes that can help you and the developer, whether they are one and the same or not.)

Inspiration / 30 Aug 2016

15+ Best Wedding HTML Templates

Still haven’t found the perfect template for your wedding website? Of course not. Why else would you be here on this page, right? Well, don’t worry. We’ve got you covered. Hopefully, you’ll be able to conclude your search here.

We all know how much work you have to put into planning a wedding. So, to save you hours of time that go into coding a website or browsing the web to find the perfect HTML template, we handpicked the best and most beautiful wedding website templates just for you. These templates are not only beautiful but are also quite affordable, and easy to customize. Which means, you can save some more money from your wedding budget!