Typography is everyone’s favorite toy in web design. One particularly fun tool that CSS gives you to play with your type is text-shadow, which seems simple enough at first but can be used to create some remarkable effects with a little ingenuity and creativity.
Today we’re going to run through several text-shadow examples that you can copy and paste for your own work.
Need a little extra design inspiration? Start with your Mac or Windows desktop background. A stunning desktop wallpaper can provide an extra little spark every time you fire up your computer, and browsing through great photos is a sure fire way to get the creative juices flowing.
Unsplash, a free stock photography website, is packed with amazing images that you can use in any way you want… including as a desktop wallpaper! Here’s a list of our favourites that we’ve put together to help you feel a little more inspired. Whether you like a minimal, patterned, or stunning photographic wallpaper, we’ll have something for you!
The average man considers which flavor of Doritos will taste good with his Heineken. The sophisticated man considers which cheese will pair well with his choice of wine. The designer of course considers which two fonts will look great on the same page.
Today we’re going to use the Google Font API as a playground for mixing fonts and finding ideal pairings. You’ll be able to skim through and instantly grab out selections that you think are appropriate for your projects.
The best part? You need only to copy and paste our code to implement these fonts on your site. It’s completely free and there are no downloads required.
So what in the heck is a color font? It’s a term that keeps popping up and is starting to gain traction, although use in large design projects is still in its infancy.
Vendors such as Adobe’s Typekit have started to release some color font options with browser support, so there’s some movement toward wider use. Some have even called color fonts “the next big thing in web design.”
Here, we’ll look at the trend and let you decide how big – or not – this concept will be.
When you think of white space in web design, examples such as Apple or Google are probably the first ones that come to mind. While these companies do a great job of using white space in their designs, there are plenty of other ways to make the most of space.. even if it isn’t always white.!
White space is an important part of your design plan. Here, we’re going to look at the importance of space as a design tool and five examples of websites that are making great use of white space (that isn’t white at all).
It’s crunch time, and a client wants to see their design as it would look on an iPhone or iPad. Don’t fret; there are a number of ready-to-use mockups on the market waiting for your customization.
Customizing a mockup is an easy way to show off a design project in a realistic environment that’s sure to impress clients. Using a mockup can help others better visualize how the design will actually look with some idea of scale. (Sometimes it’s easy to forget not everyone sees and imagines a project in the same way you do.)
If you’ve never customized a mockup, it can be a little intimidating at first, but we’ll walk through the process.
Good design is readable design. Without a clear message, displayed in an easy-to-digest way, it’s easy to lose the meaning of any piece of design work. That’s why it’s so crucial that any design must be easy to read.
Designing for readability is a lesson in typography, but also in contrast. Contrast is the key to enhancing readability, and helping create a flow through the text in a logical manner so that users understand exactly what you want to say.
A grid is the foundation of almost any website design. These invisible lines help create rhythmic space and visual flow, so each project carries a sense of organization and harmony.
But you don’t have to stick to the grid 100 percent of the time. You can even break the grid from time to time without making a total mess. Here’s how you do it, while still keeping a website that’s a pleasure to use!
We talk about designing something that connects to a user emotionally. That connection can be a key component in establishing trust and relatability. It’s a lot harder than it sounds. There are so many things to consider. Emotions are broad, complicated, and often very difficult to influence or change.
That’s what we will think about today. What is emotive (or emotional) UI? How can you create a user interface that actually evokes that emotional connection? And is that something that you should consider more carefully in your next design project?
You’ve got a bad client. Make that a really bad client. They weren’t always that way, but things changed. You grew apart. You need to break up. But how do you do it?
You can gracefully end a client relationship. It might not be easy, but if you have thought about cutting ties with someone who contributes to your income, it is likely time to part ways.
The next big web design image trend is here, and it’s vibrant, colourful, and beautiful!
Thanks to Spotify, duotone is growing in popularity almost daily. The effect, which uses a pair of colors over a photo is striking, fun and vibrant. It’s also quite trendy, with new sites changing to a duotone format almost daily. Here are a few ways to make the most of this hot design technique.
What do Salesforce, TaskRabbit, Tesla, and Pocket websites have in common? They all rock hero images.
Make no mistake, the hero image web design trend is still very much alive. What is a hero image? Well, it’s basically a giant banner-style image that takes over the top half of the page. The main goal of this design strategy is to quickly grab the user’s attention while showcasing some of the features of a product or a service at the same time.
According to research, colored visuals increase people’s willingness to read a piece of content by 80%. It’s one of the reasons why placing a hero image above the fold has been found to be quite effective in increasing website engagement.