Articles - Page 190

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

Freebies / 17 Jul 2013

7 Lovely Flat Freebies for Designers

The concept of “flat” design is fairly prevalent at the moment and, although you should never stick with a trend just because it’s the “in thing”, there’s certainly some merit to stripping back unnecessary design flourishes and focusing on the basics.

Today we’re featuring seven freebie packs that can help to give you a useful starting point when designing something with a flat, minimal look and feel. From icons to complete web templates, there’s plenty to get your teeth into!

News / 16 Jul 2013

Introducing Creative VIP: The Exclusive Membership for Creative Professionals

As one of our awesome Design Shack readers, we wanted to let you know about a new project we’ve just launched — Creative VIP. It’s an exclusive membership club for creative professionals, and we’d love to welcome you as one of our first members.

Our members receive special privileges and discounts on world-class products and services, access to hundreds of design resources, and creative goodie bags on their doorstep. Keep reading to find out more about a Creative VIP membership, and to grab an exclusive 25% discount for Design Shack readers!

JavaScript / 15 Jul 2013

Coding an Ajax-Style Paged Document Viewer With jQuery

Recently, I’ve have seen a number of websites using this JavaScript-powered paged document interface. Users are presented a multi-page document set starting on the first page, and they have the ability to switch between pages dynamically. This can be a much better solution than linking directly to a PDF document. Or this may even be an alternative where you have a PDF download link, plus the embedded document images for easy access.

In this tutorial I want to demonstrate how we can build a small script which handles any set number of documents. The JS code is a little bit tricky since we need to adapt for a large number of pages. However it is not very difficult to customize and get the design looking exactly as you would need it! Check out my sample demo below to get an idea of what we will be creating.

Graphics / 11 Jul 2013

Understanding Color: Dominant vs. Recessive Colors

Ever wonder why your colors don’t look quite right in some situations? It could be a simple as the color choice. Certain colors tend to take on the characteristics of other hues, while others always look pure. In addition, the human eye perceives color in different ways based on whether it is in the foreground or background.

This phenomenon can be explained through dominant and recessive colors. Join us as we take a closer look at these two terms today, and delve into deeper understanding of how they can guide your design choices and decisions.

Design Dilemma / 10 Jul 2013

Design Dilemma: Negotiating Logo Copyright Issues

Stayce L. writes: My client, whom I’ve worked with for many years, is doing her own logo design, but wants me to do a sketch of their business ‘mascot’ that will be included in the design. The sketch would be a significant part of the logo. How should I handle the fee/rights in this situation?

I was asked to look into this question posted on the LinkedIn Graphic Artists Guild group and weigh in with other designers. Join us as we delve into another Design Dilemma, helping to answer your questions, queries and concerns about the murky world of design…

Competitions / 9 Jul 2013

Giveaway: $500 Worth 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 $500 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 / 8 Jul 2013

Using Moo.com for Your Wedding Stationery

Weddings can be an expensive business. Photographers, venues, food, drink, entertainment, and all manner of other things to consider. But it’s also a fun opportunity for some design work! Wedding “branding” and stationery has the potential to be another big wedding expense, but by thinking a little creatively, you can not only give your special day a personal touch, but also cut down on the cost.

Today I’ll be sharing a little insight into how you can use your copy of Photoshop, and Moo.com, to create a fantastic array of different wedding stationery. We did it for our wedding a couple of weeks ago, and it went down brilliantly.

CSS / 3 Jul 2013

Create a Hidden Sliding Navigation Bar Using CSS3 Transitions

Typically web developers have been using JavaScript to create dynamic page animations. Hidden menus and subnavigation are just a couple examples for how these techniques would be used on a live website. Thanks to the addition of CSS3 transitions we can now mimic these animations, with no JavaScript in sight.

In this tutorial I want to demonstrate how to build an inner hidden content bar which slides down when hovering. You can place this into your header, footer, or even somewhere inside the page content. It is a very flexible technique which does not require a whole lot of time to get working. Plus all the modern web browsers will support CSS3 transition effects.

Inspiration / 1 Jul 2013

10 Key Features of Popular WordPress Themes

WordPress is the framework behind many of the websites and blogs you visit every day, including this one. Latest numbers from WordPress attribute the framework as the backbone of 17 percent of the web.

The platform is simple to use, and thanks to plenty of theme builders it can be customized in a variety of ways for everything from blogs, to portfolio sites, to e-commerce. Themes are the element that take WordPress to the next level, giving almost anyone of any skill level the ability to create a site that doesn’t look like a basic template. There are a few key components that set the best themes aside from the rest. The most popular WordPress themes – both paid and free – tend to have 10 key features in common. Let’s take a look at them.

CSS / 29 Jun 2013

Create Shaped Avatars With CSS and Webkit

In case you haven’t noticed, square avatars are so 2010. These days circles are all the rage. Every app worth its salt, from Path to Basecamp, is jumping on board this fad and waving goodbye to the squares who are stuck in the past.

Ever the forward thinker, I asked myself, “what’s next?” Let’s look beyond squares and circles and into the future of the avatar! Using CSS and Webkit, we can use pretty much any shape as the mask for an avatar. Let’s see how.

Design Dilemma / 26 Jun 2013

Design Dilemma: Do You Invoice for Everything?

Bill B. writes: A client asked why I was charging for small things that he thinks only took a few minutes. He thought I was being “cheap” and not “valuing the professional relationship (we) have.” I feel it all adds up to more than an hour but I’m a bit afraid of insisting on getting paid for everything I do. Am I wrong?

That’s a good question and one many designers ask. I’m going to use some answers people wrote on a similar question posted on the LinkedIn Graphic Artists Guild group. Join us as we delve into another Design Dilemma, helping to answer your questions, queries and concerns about the murky world of design…

Competitions / 25 Jun 2013

5 Premium WordPress Themes Up for Grabs

We’re excited to let you know that we have 5 premium WordPress themes up for grabs this week from TemplateMonster. Entering is easy, and the lucky winners will be able to choose any theme from a library of over 1,600 WordPress themes (including over 200 responsive templates).

Read on to find out how to enter, and be in a chance with winning your own theme — complete with 24/7 support from TemplateMonster!