Articles - Page 215

Typography / 7 Dec 2011

Typography 101: Understanding the Anatomy of a Letter

Every designer, whether you’re in print or web, should possess a basic understanding of fonts and type. Using the right typeface and understanding how a font will impact your design can add that extra pop to print and digital projects and will set them apart from all others.

One important area to understand is the anatomy of type. Ascenders, descenders and serifs may sound like words from another language but are the basis for understanding the style of a typeface and how if relates to your project. Today we’ll take a brief run through of some terminology that you should know.

CSS / 6 Dec 2011

3 Things You Never Thought to Do With Media Queries

You already know how to use media queries to create a responsive design, but have you tried to use them for anything else? Is it possible that media queries can be used natively to improve your workflow?

Follow along as we completely break from tradition and hijack media queries to help us test and tweak a design. You’ve never seen media queries like this before!

CSS / 5 Dec 2011

10 LESS CSS Examples You Should Steal for Your Projects

LESS, Sass and other CSS preprocessors represent an awesome way to extend CSS to be everything a programmer ever wanted. Variables, mathematical operations, mixins and a lot more make these tools invaluable to coders who can appreciate the benefits of typing less while accomplishing more.

One of the most major hurdles to getting started with these tools is simply figuring out just what the heck you’re going to do with them. We’ll help you out in a big way today by hooking you up with ten incredibly useful LESS snippets that you can drop into your projects today.

Competitions / 5 Dec 2011

Win a Pack of 100 Free Custom Business Cards From MOO!

Great news! We’ve selected our three winners! If you have been selected, you will be contacted shortly with information on how to claim your prize. So watch that inbox, you just might be one of the lucky few.

News / 5 Dec 2011

The Theft of Design Blog Domain Names

There’s nothing more concerning than receiving an email from someone — completely out of the blue — to let you know that they think your domain name may have been stolen. Particularly when a quick Whois search changes the initial feeling of complete denial to extreme concern…

Last Thursday, I found out that someone had taken it upon themselves to “hijack” our primary domain name — designshack.net — and transfer it away from our registrar. We’re working hard to reverse the process, and I’ll be documenting the current situation here.

Critique / 2 Dec 2011

Web Design Critique #71: Cutest Paw

Every week we take a look at a new website and analyze the design. We’ll point out both the areas that are done well in addition to those that could use some work. Finally, we’ll finish by asking you to provide your own feedback.

Today’s site is Cutest Paw, a worldwide animal photo gallery. Let’s jump in and see what we think!

Layouts / 1 Dec 2011

The Evolution of Apple.com

The Apple design team is widely regarded as one of the most talented group of designers in the industry today. The trends that they set are followed by not only every other major tech company, but by web designers in every conceivable product and service niche.

Follow along as we embark on an exciting journey through time and witness the evolution of Apple’s design style. You’ll get several amazing glimpses at Apple.com dating all the way back to 1997 as we witness the rise and fall of several important design trends.

Software / 30 Nov 2011

Designing a Website With IM Creator

In the ever expanding world of online website builders, it’s pretty difficult to find anything that’s worth spending more than ten minutes with. This market is flooded with clunky interfaces, hideous templates and brutal freeform design restrictions.

I recently came across a product called IM Creator that stands out though both in style and functionality. Does it live up to its promises or join the rest of the sites in this market and fall short of a decent DIY website solution? Read on to find out.

CSS / 29 Nov 2011

Create Five Awesome Hover Effects Using CSS Multiple Backgrounds

Today we’re going to have all kinds of fun with the CSS multiple backgrounds feature. You’ll learn how to use multiple backgrounds in a simple way and how to go much further by combining the technique with hover actions and CSS transitions to create some really cool effects.

Follow along as we code five different applications of this idea that you can copy and paste to create your own awesome hovers.

Layouts / 28 Nov 2011

Black Friday Web Design: The Good, Bad and Ugly

Last week our U.S. readers celebrated Thanksgiving and its subsequent shopping madness known as Black Friday, where retailers dramatically reduce their prices for a day of pure shopper mayhem.

Instead of joining the stampede of frantic shoppers, I followed my annual tradition of hiding away in my home office. However, I couldn’t resist a look around to see how various stores were handling the design side of the event. Let’s see which top name retailers pulled out all the stops and which ran with cliché, generic and even ugly designs.

Freebies / 26 Nov 2011

Weekly Freebies: Flourishes and Ornaments

This week’s set of freebies is a fantastic collection of flourishes and ornaments. Together, these nineteen sets contain well over one hundred unique and creative pieces of art that you can use to bring your designs to the next level.

You’ll find some awesome vectors that are perfect for importing into Illustrator as well as some great Photoshop brush sets. Go grab them now and start increasing the awesome factor in your work.

Critique / 25 Nov 2011

Web Design Critique #70: Lake Gibbs Estate

Every week we take a look at a new website and analyze the design. We’ll point out both the areas that are done well in addition to those that could use some work. Finally, we’ll finish by asking you to provide your own feedback.

Today’s site is Lake Gibbs Estate. Let’s jump in and see what we think! When you’re finished looking over this article, be sure to check out our huge collection of other web design critiques.