Graphics / 9 Aug 2011
Tips for Designing With Multiple Photos
Photography is one of your most powerful resources as a designer. Here we’ll take a look at some clever and unique ways to create photo-centric designs using multiple images.
Search Results For: textures
Software / 31 Mar 2011
Apply Graphics to Textured Surfaces With Displacement Maps
Do you ever wonder how Photoshop masters create such realistic compositions? Seemingly simple tasks such as throwing some text onto a brick wall can easily lead to lackluster results if you don’t know what you’re doing.
So what sets you apart from the pros? Why are their final results so believable while yours reek of Photoshop? The simple answer is that they know more tricks than you! Let’s fix that.
Graphics / 30 Mar 2011
UI Design: Should We Really Be Afraid of the Uncanny Valley?
Realism in UI design is a hot topic right now. Every design blog worth anything is openly telling Apple that they are way off in their suggestion that iPad apps should mimic reality.
Join us as we add some life to the debate by tackling some of these notions head on. We’ll go over when realism is effective and when it is destructive and how you can wield it in your own designs without ruining your interface.
Graphics / 19 Jan 2011
Photoshop Reflections 101
Today we’re going to learn all about how to make convincing reflections in Photoshop. Text reflections, 3D reflections, product shot reflections, all kinds of crazy reflections. We’ll discuss everything from custom transforms to blending modes and beyond. Whether you’re a beginner or a pro, you’ll probably learn a thing or two.
You might be thinking that reflections were all the rage a few years ago, but are currently losing a bit of steam, and you’d be right. However, you can still see plenty of them in practice on Apple.com and other sites. You should definitely beware of over-using them and adding to bad web 2.0 trends, but also know that once in a while they can add class to a boring item.
Graphics / 27 Aug 2010
Design101: Utilizing Strong Alignments
Today we’re going to examine one of the most basic principles in design: alignment. This deceptively simple topic is actually quite complex and is among the most notably lacking proficiencies in designers today.
A strong grasp of how and when to use certain alignments will instantly make you a better designer and will remain a foundational building block for everything you create throughout the rest of your career.
Inspiration / 13 Aug 2010
Designing in the Dark: 10 Dark Sites and Their Color Schemes
What goes well with a black website? Today we’ll find out but taking a look at some excellent examples of dark web design along with their primary color palettes.
Each website will have a screenshot along with a brief description, a visual representation of the color scheme, and a link to download the Photoshop color swatches from Pictaculous.
CSS / 8 Jun 2010
Create a Moveable Sticky Note With MooTools and CSS3
I recently came across a neat tutorial at Woorkup pointing out a MooTools feature that allows you to turn any item on a web page into a positionable element.
Today we’re going to use this technique to create a simple and fun sticky note that a user can play with and move anywhere on the page. Along the way will be using lots of CSS3 so make sure you’ve got a decent browser!
CSS / 11 May 2010
30 Free Video Tutorials for Learning Web Design
Getting started in web design can be quite difficult. For readers, there are tons of great free tutorials online. However, some people find visual instruction to be more effective for their learning style.
Instructional videos are an incredibly rich learning tool and could be just what you need to finally learn web development properly. We’ve compiled a list of over 30 excellent screencasts for beginners across a number of web technologies and disciplines.
Graphics / 17 Mar 2010
30 Websites With Photographic Backgrounds
In design, the simplest of options are often among the best. Using a photographic background is an easy way to make your site beautifully eye-catching. Below you’ll find 30 examples of sites from all over the world using strong photographic elements as background pieces. Some use pure photography while others mix in illustrations, Photoshop effects, and text. Use these as a leaping point for your own ideas the next time you need a fresh design.
Graphics / 4 Feb 2010
15 Design Tips to Learn From Apple
There is no shortage of companies that follow popular design trends to appeal to a mass market. Much more rare is the breed of company that actually sets design trends. Today we’ll examine the techniques of a company that occupies the top of the design food chain: Apple.
Below you’ll find 15 practical ways to follow Apple’s example in creating beautiful interfaces.
Tumblr Themes / 24 Nov 2009
30 Beautifully Designed Tumblr Themes
Tumblr is an easy to use, fast-growing blogging platform with a strong emphasis on simple, no hassle content sharing. I would describe Tumblr as much more attractive and streamlined than Blogger and a lot simpler than WordPress (though not as powerful).
Like other blogging platforms, Tumblr makes it really easy to change themes on the fly without messing up previously posted content, and with over 275 themes to choose from, you get a lot of variety. However, sorting through hundreds of mediocre themes to find those few golden nuggets of design goodness can be quite the mundane task. That’s why we’ve done the work for you and created this collection of 30 beautifully designed Tumblr themes.