Design Shack — Web Design Gallery, Articles & Community

Inspiration / 29 Aug 2017

20+ Minimal Bootstrap Templates

Clean, minimal layouts are all the rage in web design these days. Whether it’s to have your work stand out in your portfolio, send a clear business message, or showcase your blog content — a minimal theme or template might be the answer.

Today, we’ve collected a selection of minimal Bootstrap templates that fit the trend. Most simply use HTML and CSS with Bootstrap as the foundation, but some are also integrated with WordPress as well. All of these templates are fully responsive, flexible, clean, search engine optimized and come with an advanced framework with plenty of powerful and flexible options.

Business / 28 Aug 2017

How Much Should You Charge for Design Services?

It might be one of the most asked questions among freelance designers: what do you charge clients?

There can be so many variables in setting rates that you can stick to, and you have to make a choice between hourly and fixed options. Either way, a good pricing strategy can help you get the clients you want and earn a solid income from freelance work.

After you figure out pricing. Which is a challenge for almost anyone!

Business / 23 Aug 2017

How to Upsell Freelance Design Services

Every freelance designer wants to hang on to their best clients, and maintain a meaningful business relationship. Working with the same team for a long period of time has some direct benefits — particularly that you and the client know each other and have a good feel for how the partnership will work.

But how do you keep those clients? After the initial website is built or the logo is completed, what comes next? The answer is simple – an upsell. You want to provide additional value for clients so that they continue to work with you after the initial project. Here’s how you do it.

Inspiration / 23 Aug 2017

10 Free Color Palettes From 10 Famous Paintings

If you want to learn a thing or two about color, why not look to the true masters whose artistic work has stood the test of time? Great painters almost always possess a keen understanding of color that is truly impressive when you stop to appreciate it.

Follow along as we pull color palettes from ten of my favorite artists and paintings and learn a thing or two about art history in the process. You’ll be able to see each palette as an Adobe Color CC swatch, and drop it right into Photoshop!

Inspiration / 22 Aug 2017

40+ iMac Mockups: PSDs, Photos & Vectors

The Apple iMac display can provide a beautiful surround in which to display your work. And the web is filled with some amazing iMac mockups, which make it easy to edit and drop in your own work showcase.

Whether your project relates to design or business, a high quality mockup is always useful to quickly present your work in an efficient manner. Today, we have tracked down 40+ brilliant iMac mockups, all of which provide easy manipulation and editing. These mockups are mixture of Photoshop templates, Illustrator vector files and even stock photos. Just pick the type of file that you need, and you’ll be all set!

Typography / 21 Aug 2017

20 Must-Know Typography Terms for Beginners

No designer wants to look like a rookie. Crafting projects with beautiful typography is one way to look like a pro every time.

Today, we’re going to delve into the language of typography. It’s a great guide for beginners and a refresher crash course for more seasoned designers. Either way, understanding the language of beautiful typography – from pairing fonts to communicating with the team – is a vital design concept.

And rather than packing this article with descriptions of every term … we’ve included beautiful examples of typography to inspire you.

Reviews / 17 Aug 2017

What Is IconShock? (& Get a Free Icon Set!)

IconShock has provided a great collection of unique virtual and augmented reality icons. Perfect for use in projects that relate to this new and growing industry, so we’re excited to bring you this exclusive, free icon set for you to download today, courtesy of their design team.

Join us as we take a look at some of our favourite icon sets from their collection, and grab your exclusive download of a virtual and augmented reality icon pack!

Graphics / 16 Aug 2017

Design Trend: Using Authentic Imagery and Photos

The virtual world has to be authentic to captivate users. Childish imagery or clip-art just won’t cut it. But there are still so many websites out there that use over-the-top stock photos, or images that don’t resonate with readers. It’s a problem.

To connect, you have to feel realistic and use authentic imagery and photos, so that users feel something when they interact with the website. It has to feel real. Join us as explore this trend, and share how you can use it to best effect!

Inspiration / 15 Aug 2017

20+ Best Facebook Cover & Post Mockups

If you’re a social media manager or a small business owner looking to supercharge your Facebook content strategy, then you’ve come to the right place.

Developing high-quality content for Facebook can be tough when you’re managing everything by yourself. It’s easy for big corporations with big budgets to design unique and beautiful content to grow their Facebook pages, but how can you afford the time to craft each post?

You don’t need to spend hours creating awesome content for your Facebook page. Try these Facebook mockup templates and you’ll be able to easily create a proper content strategy for your Facebook promotions without even having to hire a graphic designer.

Graphics / 14 Aug 2017

8 Rules for Creating Effective Typography

Today we’re going to discuss something that is both a hot trend and timeless art: typography. The basic rules outlined below will help you become more aware of how you structure and use typography in your designs.

Being conscious of these rules can improve nearly everything you create that contains a headline or major typographic element. Let’s get started!

Inspiration / 10 Aug 2017

100+ MacBook PSD & Vector Mockups

Whether you’re looking for a mockup of the MacBook, MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro, we have you covered today. We’re featuring a mix of photo mockups, realistic illustrations, and flat/stylised versions of these Apple notebooks.

Totalling over a hundred different MacBook mockups, in all shapes and sizes, these are great for dropping in your own work, applications, wallpapers or examples to give them a unique look-and-feel. Some are free, some cost a few dollars, but we really like them all!

Reviews / 9 Aug 2017

What’s Your Website’s Rage Grade? (Find Out Right Now)

Do you ever find yourself frustratedly clicking around a website, unable to find what you’re looking for? It happens to all of us sometimes.

User frustration from website errors, dead clicks, abandoned forms and mouse-thrashing movement all contribute to your “Rage Grade” — a new metric available from FullStory’s platform.

Today, we’re going to help you figure out your FullStory Rage Grade, and provide a little insight on how to improve your website with this nifty service from FullStory.