Articles - Page 178

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

Typography / 10 Feb 2014

Why I Love Ampersands & You Should Too

Without a doubt, the most beautiful character in the English language is the ampersand. The single character comes in so many fashions – from the simple & to the casual E- to t-style representations.

But where did this character come from? What does it mean? And most importantly how can you take advantage of using it in your design projects? Here we will take a look at my favorite character from its history to uses and a gallery of great ampersands to inspire you.

Inspiration / 6 Feb 2014

30+ Free & Premium Ghost Themes & Templates

The Ghost platform is growing quickly, and shaping up to be a fantastic blogging platform for designers and developers alike. It’s built on a powerful framework, and we’re starting to see a wonderful array of Ghost themes and templates cropping up from dozens of designers.

Today we’ve rounded up a collection of over 30 of our favourite Ghost themes, designs, and templates for you to browse through. Some of these are free, and some are commercial (but all under $25, which is something of a steal!). We hope you find something that fits what you’re looking for!

CSS / 5 Feb 2014

Coding a Responsive Mini vCard Webpage

The use of online portfolios has become a popular choice by many digital artists. The goal would be showcasing yourself and your skills to anyone curious, maybe hiring companies or potential clients. Another simpler way to accomplish this task is to create your own digital vCard page. It’s usually a single page containing a brief resume, your work experience, and some interesting tidbits about yourself.

In this tutorial I want to demonstrate how to build a simple tabbed webpage layout in the style of a simplistic portfolio. We can incorporate jQuery fade effects to switch between the tabs, sticking to a formal responsive design. Take a peek at my live sample demo to see what the final product looks like.

Business / 27 Jan 2014

Understanding Design Copyrights and Trademarks

Not that long ago we entertained a discussion about design plagiarism here on Design Shack, but what does it mean if your work is stolen? How do you even know if your work is protected? And moreover, what can you do about it?

That’s where the protection of copyrights and trademarks come in. But what are they? And how do they apply to your designed work? Let’s take a look.

CSS / 22 Jan 2014

Customize Your Own MailChimp E-Mail Newsletter Signup Form

If you’ve ever signed up for an email subscription you should know about MailChimp. It’s a company which helps webmasters and marketers deliver newsletters and other similar campaigns. They provide some HTML templates to use for signup forms and confirmation pages, but these are so generic that most subscribers are bored of this same interface.

I’d like to demonstrate how to customize the MailChimp signup form into something more unique. Everything is based off the original MailChimp HTML/CSS code and the form submission will use Ajax. It sounds complicated but the whole process is simpler than you might expect. Take a look at my sample demo to get an idea of the full tutorial.

JavaScript / 15 Jan 2014

Build a Sliding Client Testimonials Carousel With jQuery

Many portfolio websites include a list of previous clients to build trust from other potential customers. Reading what other people have said about a service or product is one way to garner support from visitors who have never heard about your company before. (Of course, this design technique only works if you have previous clients to draw from!)

In this tutorial I want to demonstrate two distinct styles of rotating carousels. The first is a testimonial box which includes a small quote talking about the services. Then I’ve constructed a long horizontal carousel that rotates through a list of company logos. These would normally be companies you have done business with – but may also include corporate partners or resources.

Inspiration / 13 Jan 2014

Why You Should Be Sketching (Even if You Can’t Draw)

The first part of any project, print or digital, should start on paper. Sketching can be an integral part of any design process — even if you can’t draw.

But who needs to sketch? Just artists and illustrators are required to put pen to paper, right? Wrong! Today we’ll take a look at why sketching can be an integral part of everyone’s design and brainstorming process.

Graphics / 7 Jan 2014

The Startup Framework: Simple Web Mockups

Today we’re going to be taking a look at the Startup Framework from Designmodo — one of the most polished and professional component frameworks we’ve seen for a while.

It’s a set of graphics, blocks, and components that are designed to help you plan and conceptualise your design, without spending weeks on starting from scratch. We’ll take a look at what’s on offer in the framework, and share a few examples!

CSS / 2 Jan 2014

Animating Personal Skill Bars With CSS3 Keyframes

This design technique is commonly found on personal portfolios or design studio websites. Skill bars represent a level of knowledge related to certain tasks – web design, illustration, branding, character design, you name it! Adding some fancy animations to these skill bars will provide a quicker connection to the viewer.

In this tutorial I want to demonstrate how you can build CSS3 skill bars using keyframe animation. This is also completely possible to run using JavaScript, which would hold up stronger in older legacy web browsers. However CSS3 keyframes are growing in popularity with much wider support these days. Take a peek at my live demo to see the final product.

Articles / 30 Dec 2013

Why Does User Experience Matter?

User experience – notably poor user experience – has been a hot topic in recent months with the much-publicized launch of HealthCare.gov and its subsequent issues. User experience is a part of the design process that you don’t hear about unless something goes wrong. But it is something that should be an integral part of the design process, from early concepts to the final product.

So with this renewed – and very public – discussion about user experience, why does it matter to designers?

Graphics / 29 Dec 2013

6 Famous Logos That Leverage Inconsistent Design

One of the most powerful tools that you can use to improve any design is repetition. Repeating colors, shapes and other visual elements throughout a design increases consistency and familiarity so that the design feels more attractive.

But what about the flip side of this idea? Is it possible to wield inconsistency in such a way that it improves the quality of a design? It turns out that lots of well known logos use this very tactic. Read on to see what they are.

Inspiration / 19 Dec 2013

Radiant Orchid Named Pantone Color of the Year: Now What?

Unless you have been hiding from the design community for the last few weeks, you know that Pantone released its annual color of the year: Radiant Orchid.

The reviews are mixed. But there really are a lot of ways to incorporate this color into design projects if you want to be on-trend, and enjoy the challenge of crafting a design around a specific color!