Articles - Page 221

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

CSS / 28 Sep 2011

CSS Button Tutorial: How to Code Buttons in 5 Simple Steps

Here at Design Shack we like to feature a full range of tutorials, from expert PHP projects to very simple CSS tips. Today’s tutorial is targeted at those still in the beginner stages of CSS.

One of the most frequent questions I get from CSS beginners is, “How do I create a button?” It’s a simple question with a complicated answer. There are quite a few ways to go about it and unfortunately there are also quite a few ways to go wrong. When I first started out in CSS, figuring out all the button syntax was one of the most persistent troubles I faced, it seemed like I was always doing it wrong. Today we’re going to walk through a very simple and flexible process that you can apply to any button you create. More important than the end result is the in-depth explanation at each point outlining why we do it that way.

Critique / 23 Sep 2011

Web Design Critique #66: Matthew Coughlin

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 the portfolio of photographer Matthew Coughlin.

Freebies / 23 Sep 2011

Weekly Freebies: 50 Wonderful Water and Ice Textures

This week’s set of freebies is a group of textures dedicated to our good friend H20. Water is one of the most fascinating things on the planet and it makes for a fantastic background element in design work, both in liquid and in ice form.

Enjoy these fifty free to use textures and incorporate them into your own work. Each is licensed under a “Creative Commons-licensed content for commercial use, adaptation, modification or building upon” agreement, meaning that you can use them pretty much however you want as long as you toss in some credit for the authors.

Business / 21 Sep 2011

Career Options: 10+ Types of Graphic Design Jobs to Consider

So you want to be a graphic designer? What does that mean exactly? What types of jobs are available? It turns out deciding to be a designer is a pretty vague choice that often requires some more direction and career evolution before you really land yourself in a meaningful career.

Today we’ll explore the underlying structure of the graphic design industry and take a brief look at some different design jobs and career paths that you can and should explore. Whether you’ve been a designer for ten minutes or ten years, this article could help you find your place in the industry.

Graphics / 20 Sep 2011

10 Tips for Designing Better Infographics

Infographics have been around for ages but in recent years they’ve really come into the spotlight as an almost irresistible way to communicate complex scenarios and information. We can’t help it, when we see a link for an infographic, we almost have to check it out!

If you’re at all interested in infographic design, read along as we take a look at some of our favorite examples and discuss some important do’s and don’ts for creating compelling and effective graphics.

CSS / 19 Sep 2011

Build an Animated Mario Block Navigation Menu With CSS3

Today we’re going to have some good clean fun by recreating the animated Mario Bros. question mark box with pure CSS3.

Along the way you’ll learn how to use several cool CSS3 technologies such as rounded corners, box and text shadows, and keyframe animations that work in both Safari and Firefox. Let’s jump in!

Graphics / 15 Sep 2011

Then and Now: The Evolution of Cereal Mascots

Today we’re going to have some good old nostalgic fun and take a walk through cereal box history to look at some beloved characters that have been with most of us since we could chew.

Keep reading to see what your favorite cereal box mascot looked like years ago versus today!

CSS / 15 Sep 2011

20 Awesome Responsive Templates and Themes (Free and Premium)

Responsive web design is all the rage at the moment, but as a full-time designer it’s hard to make time to pick up on new trends no matter how useful and perhaps even necessary they may be.

Pre-built themes and templates provide you with a quick and easy way to get started with responsive web design. Many of them do all the work for you and provide a simple plug and play workflow, others just take care of the heavy lifting by taking care of the media queries and give you complete control over design. This post contains 20 free and premium templates, all of which are fully responsive right out of the box.

Business / 14 Sep 2011

The Best Online Portfolio Service: Three Free Options Compared

Whether you’re a freelance designer, a full-time-employee or an out of work designer actively seeking a position, it’s a good idea to increase your web presence as much as possible. It’s always great to have your own site and domain, but you can easily supplement that with some awesome free online services created specifically to host creative portfolios.

Rather than give you another roundup of twenty of these services and force you to do the research yourself, I’ve gone through and picked three of my favorites for comparison so you can quickly see which is best for you. Let’s get started!

Layouts / 13 Sep 2011

Is Content Always King? Thoughts on Real World Constraints in Design

Content should precede design. It’s a basic and essential piece of advice that you’ll hear from me as well as countless other designers. But what about the situations where this idea breaks down? We’d like to imagine that it’s never the case that design must take place before certainty about content can be reached, but in truth this simply isn’t the case.

What circumstances are there that force designers to proceed with a lack of content? How should you respond to such scenarios? Keep reading as we explore these ideas.

JavaScript / 12 Sep 2011

Design an iPhone App Website Template With E-Mail Signup

If you’ve been on the scene with iOS then you’ve surely seen some of the beautiful app websites cropping up. These have been released over the past couple of years as developers have been looking for ways to attract marketing potential. There are a lot of very standard-looking templates out there for web designers – but my hope is to tackle something new!

Today we’ll be creating a styled iPhone App website template using HTML5/CSS3. This will not be targeted onto a specific app, so we don’t include a download link to the app store. Instead I’ve created a small e-mail signup form through MailChimp so you can hook early adopters into the app for pre-release. This is great for developers who need to get something up and running for their product before it’s on the market.

Critique / 10 Sep 2011

Web Design Critique #65: FlashXML.net

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 FlashXML.net, a Flash components marketplace.