Articles - Page 148

Browse hundreds of articles, tips, and inspiring design collections. Find helpful design advice, or the perfect resource for your next project.

UX Design / 4 May 2015

How to Design Content for User Experiences

Content is a major part of the user experience. Content is more than search engine optimization; it’s more than blogging. It is part of your site, brand identity and why users interact with your design.

Every day it becomes even more important to design for content as part of the overall function and user experience in website and app design. But how can you do it? (We can help you with some case studies and examples, such as The Hen House, which uses a variety of design and user engagement techniques to keep you scrolling.)

Inspiration / 1 May 2015

Stay Up-to-Date With Webdesigner News

There are plenty of ways to stay across what’s happening in the design industry. Twitter, Facebook, your collection of RSS feeds, and a growing collection of newsletters and news aggregation sites.

Today we’re taking a look at the new Webdesigner News, to see how it fares, and explore how it can be a useful place to stay up-to-date with the latest news, announcements, releases, and sensations in the web design industry.

Tumblr Themes / 29 Apr 2015

30 Premium Tumblr Themes With Beautiful, Minimal Design

There are thousands of Tumblr themes all over the web. To be perfectly frank, most of them aren’t great, and won’t do your creative work justice. Today we’ve collected thirty of our favourite premium Tumblr themes from across the web.

All of these cost a few dollars, but all of them will take your Tumblr blog to another level. From stylish, minimal Tumblr themes, through to those featuring big colours and bold images — we have a full selection. All of them are available to buy straight from Tumblr directly, and can be set up on your blog in a few minutes!

Inspiration / 28 Apr 2015

How to Design the Perfect Award or Certificate

Do you ever catch one of those oddball assignments in your design career? Creating a great award or certificate design is one of them. The piece seems like a small task, but has a long shelf life, and is of high value to the recipient, making it important to design well.

But how do you even design a good award? Where do you start? Here’s a primer that takes a look at a few of the most important things to consider with award and certificate design.

Typography / 27 Apr 2015

8 Ways to Kern Any Typeface Like a Professional Typographer

Kerning is a subjective art. Every designer may feel differently about how combinations of letters look together. Most though can agree that almost every bit of type needs a little kerning.

Kerning – the adjustment of space between two letters – is something the untrained eye can rarely see. Good, or poor, kerning is more of a feeling as to whether type works or not. Here we have eight tips to keep you from falling into the auto-kerning trap so that you can kern type like a pro. (This post is filled with letter combinations; use them as a springboard to thinking about kerning. Do you like the way the letters or numbers work together? How would you kern them differently?)

Graphics / 21 Apr 2015

4 Simple Tips for Writing Copy That Matches Your Design

When it comes to design projects, sometimes we (designers) get caught in a trap: creating a design without understanding the content. The first step to creating an outstanding project – before you ever open a piece of software – is to read over the content. Then think about the design and how the copy goes with it.

Does the copy actually need to match the design? Should designers help write the copy? Yes, most definitely. (As a bonus, all images in this post are examples of great copy and design pairings from the Design Shack gallery.)

Graphics / 20 Apr 2015

8 Image Mistakes to Avoid on Your Website

Big images, galleries and photo-heavy designs are a big trend in web design. To make the most of this aesthetic, you want to make sure every image on your website fits the display and represents your brand well.

There are a lot of mistakes that designers make along the way, from technical issues to image quality. But you don’t have to fall into one of these traps when working with website images. Here, we will take a look at image mistakes and how to correct or avoid them altogether. (As a bonus in this post, we are featuring a collection of fun and great images from Death to the Stock Photo’s recent objects collection.)

Business / 14 Apr 2015

How to Find a Great Freelancer (And Keep Them)

There’s a lot of conversation among freelancers about how to find clients and create business momentum. But what if you are one of those businesses looking for a freelancer? How can you find someone qualified to work on your projects? And how can you keep them working for you?

That can be a tough question to answer. There are plenty of freelancers in the marketplace, looking to work for you. Today, we’ll help you find them.

Business / 13 Apr 2015

Introducing Media Temple’s WordPress Hosting

We’ve hosted Design Shack with Media Temple for years. So we were very pleased when they came to us, and asked us to take a look at their new managed WordPress hosting solution.

Media Temple’s new full-featured WordPress hosting solution features four new, customizable and scalable plans. Whether you’re a photographer, web designer or creative agency, there’s a plan that should work for you. Today we’re taking a look at this new hosting product, to see how it stacks up!

Competitions / 9 Apr 2015

Win a New MacBook With Design Shack Deals

Apple’s new MacBook is the thinnest and lightest Mac ever, with every component meticulously redesigned to create a Mac that is just two pounds and 13.1 mm thin. It’s a gorgeous piece of industrial design, and a machine that’s very capable to use for graphic, or web design.

This month, we’re giving one of these brand new MacBooks away to one lucky winner through Design Shack Deals. It’s a great chance to get your hands on a beautiful new machine for your design work, packed with technological innovation. Read on to find out how to enter!

Business / 8 Apr 2015

15 Things Every Young Designer Needs to Know

Let’s welcome the class of 2015 to the design marketplace. It’s a bright, big, new and scary world out there for the thousands of design grads grasping their diplomas wondering what to do next. (Get a job!)

As we look forward to the new talent entering the marketplace, we also have a few bits of advice for every young designer looking to make his or her mark. It’s a tough and wonderful world out there; welcome to the adventure.

Freebies / 6 Apr 2015

Handy Graphic & Vector Freebies From 1001FreeDownloads

Today we’re featuring a collection of vector and design resources from 1001FreeDownloads. It’s a really handy place for finding new goodies to use in your projects — completely free of charge!

They have thousands of good quality, free images of various types available (which you can use for commercial purposes). No registrations, no fees — you can just pick what you’re after, and download it. Simple! Read on to see a few of the different items we’re featuring today, and find out more about how the site works.