Articles - Page 176 | Design Shack

This Week in Design / 11 Jul 2014

This Week in Design: July 11, 2014

One of my favorite design gurus relaunched his site this week and it’s got me thinking about good design practices. This week, we’ll look at that site “reboot” and other things that make good design.

Every week, we plan to a look at major product releases and upgrades, tools and tricks and even some of the most popular things you are talking about on social media. And we’d love to hear what’s going on in your world as well. Have we missed anything? Drop me a line at [email protected].

Graphics / 9 Jul 2014

How to Create an Emotional Connection With Design

Every project you complete connects with users in some way. The design communicates a message and a tone. The emotional tone is what we are going to take a deeper look at and try to better understand.

Emotional connections fall into four basic category pairs – joy and sadness, trust and disgust, fear and anger, and surprise and anticipation. Understanding this range of emotion and how it relates to a visual message is important so that your design projects are received as they are intended. As you read through this post, take a look at the featured websites and think about how each one makes you feel and what parts of the visual aesthetic contributes to that emotion.

Competitions / 8 Jul 2014

Giveaway: $700 of PSD to HTML Services Up for Grabs

We’re excited to bring you another great competition today, from Markup-Service.com, who are giving away $700 worth of their services. It’s a great chance to save your time and energy on coding and get clean, valid and fast-loading markup developed.

Read on to find out a little more about how to enter — it just takes a couple of seconds!

Graphics / 7 Jul 2014

Using Lines and Curves in Design Projects

Some of the most subtle parts of a design can be the most important. Think about some of the details in design projects such as lines and curves. These simple shapes can be used in the foreground, background lettering or as a dominant art element.

Not every line is created the same. From thickness to orientation to amount of curvature, these simple shapes can have quite a bit of meaning. So before you draw that first line, here’s a primer and tips for using lines and curves in design projects.

This Week in Design / 4 Jul 2014

This Week in Design: July 4, 2014

Beauty, browsers and design clichés. We’re talking about all three this week. And, of course, the World Cup. (We’ve got a little design goodie for that too.) The underlying theme that connects these elements this week is web and digital design. It’s an increasingly important part of the life of every designer, with very few people just working on print anymore.

Every week, we plan to a look at major product releases and upgrades, tools and tricks and even some of the most popular things you are talking about on social media. And we’d love to hear what’s going on in your world as well. Have we missed anything? Drop me a line at [email protected].

Competitions / 2 Jul 2014

Giveaway: Win Any Template From TemplateMonster

It has been a year since we hosted a giveaway together with TemplateMonster. We noticed that you like getting premium WordPress themes for free, so today we’re back with another giveaway!

Moreover, the new giveaway is even more attractive than the previous one because there will be more winners and this time you can win any template from TemplateMonster! Read on to find out more.

Graphics / 30 Jun 2014

The Science Behind Color and Emotion

Color resonates with people in different ways. We all have a favorite color or color that we use more during specific periods of life. But the color you use in a design project can say a lot about the work itself. That’s a scientific fact.

The science behind our emotional connections to color is a complicated one. But it is becoming more clear through anecdotal knowledge and scientific experimentation. Here are five hypotheses and a fifth-grade level experiment you can try to help us better design with color and understand its emotional impact.

This Week in Design / 27 Jun 2014

This Week in Design: June 27, 2014

This week in design an unofficial theme came together by chance – illustration. From hand lettering to an illustration design winner to drawing versus taking photos, creating something with your hands is an important part of the design process. At some point almost every one of us draws something by hand. (Although if you are like me, many of those sketches never leave the safe-haven of your notebook.)

Every week, we plan to a look at major product releases and upgrades, tools and tricks and even some of the most popular things you are talking about on social media. And we’d love to hear what’s going on in your world as well. Have we missed anything? Drop me a line at [email protected].

Design Dilemma / 25 Jun 2014

Design Dilemma: Screwed by Art School

Oh, my! Another complaint that an art school didn’t truly prepare a student to succeed in the outside world. For the serious student, too young and inexperienced to know what courses will strengthen their career chances and choices, a bad art school is a huge mistake. Today’s dilemma involves one of those people. What can you do when you wake up years after graduating and realize your degree isn’t offering the value you hoped it would?

Join us as we delve into another graduation party Design Dilemma, helping to answer your questions, queries and concerns about the murky world of design.

This Week in Design / 20 Jun 2014

This Week in Design: June 20, 2014

This was a big week for users of Adobe software, with a new major release. It’s packed with goodies that may take weeks to fully figure out. The only question is how will you use the new tools? (And we have a few bits of inspiration to get you started there, too.)

Every week, we plan to a look at major product releases and upgrades, tools and tricks and even some of the most popular things you are talking about on social media. And we’d love to hear what’s going on in your world as well. Have we missed anything? Drop me a line at [email protected].

Accessibility / 19 Jun 2014

Design for Everyone: Considering Accessibility in Visual Projects

Because design is such a visual concept, we don’t always stop to think about how design can impact users with certain disabilities. From vision to hearing or even touch impairments, how you design a website, brochure or even package can look or work a different way to different people.

And while you can’t design so that every element is perfect in every condition for every user, there are some things you can do and think about to make your design projects more accessible to a larger number of people. Simple techniques such as color choice, texture, shading and sound effects can make a difference to users.

Inspiration / 18 Jun 2014

Design Science: What Is Gestalt Theory?

If you are like me, it’s been a while since you finished you last formal design class. (And some of us never had any formal design classes.) So a refresher in some of the science behind design seems important. What is gestalt theory and do I really need to understand it?

Today, we’ll focus on one of the guiding principles of design. Gestalt theory is something you likely encounter and use almost every day. But do you understand the theory behind your actions? And how can you make even better use of this concept in your design work?