February 19, 2009 — In website design, there are an endless amount of possibilities, styles and techniques that can be used to make a beautiful design that flows with the content. One of these styles is an illustration-heavy layout, which can take a website to a whole new level. Illustrations are becoming more and more popular, and some designers are really pushing the limits with some beautiful ones. Read more…

February 19, 2009 — By now, all good designers and developers realize the importance of usability for their work. Usable websites offer great user experiences, and great user experiences lead to happy customers. Delight and satisfy your visitors, rather than frustrate and annoy them, with smart design decisions. Here are 9 usability problems that websites commonly face, and some recommended solutions for each of them. Read more…

February 17, 2009 — A camera does not work like an eye; film does not work like memory. There is a fine line between a photo that is quite nice and one that is quite breathtaking. At some unknown point, a photo can cross the Rubicon and be forever a piece of beautiful art. That hinterland between a regular photo and evocative art is a shifting area from person to person and taste to taste. However, that zone can be narrowed a bit once you start to consider the way the brain stores memories and emotions. Read more…

February 17, 2009 — When it comes to freebie designs, beautiful icons sets are tops. Designers scour for these free treasures more than anything else. You can use icon sets in Web applications, website designs and on your desktop. If well designed, they make a great impression on others. Beautifully designed icons also prove the quality of a designer’s work, so many designers make theirs freely available online, thus giving their work more exposure. In the overview below, we present 50 beautifully designed, free and professional high-quality icons for desktop and Web design. All of them can be freely used for private projects, and some are available for commercial use as well. Regardless, always read the licenses – they may change from time to time. You can also scan through our other icon-related articles: * 40 Professional Icon Sets for Free Download
Download some fresh, professional icon goodies. * 35 (Really) Incredible Free Icon Sets
Spice up your posts with nice illustrations, or enrich your desktop with outstanding dock icons. * Icons for Your Desktop and Icons for Your Web Designs
High-quality free icons that you can use for your desktop and Web designs. * 20 Free and Fresh Icon Sets
Over 20 free beautiful sets and links to other free icon libraries. Read more…

February 15, 2009 — Animal photography is probably one of the most dangerous types of photography. The outcome totally depends on the skills of photographer and the time when the shot is taken. A photographer who uses good exposure, color and blur settings along with appropriate shutter speed and focusing techniques can produce stunning photographs. Read more…

February 14, 2009 — A photoblog is a very specific type of blog. Its focus is photography, and there are typically few words beyond a caption and comments. Photoblogs are easy to set up and maintain, and they make great photo galleries for photographers who are put off by the complexity of HTML coding or installing a CMS such as WordPress. Read more…

February 13, 2009 — With the wide variety and high quality of resources such as brushes, pattern and shapes available for Photoshop users, whatever you need or are looking for is already available somewhere. However, the vast quantity of freebies can make it difficult to track down what you need. The resources featured here will hopefully help, and are all available as downloads in PAT format, which can be placed in Photoshop. As with any type of freebie, always be sure to check the license or requirements set by the creator. Read more…

February 12, 2009 — Over the last few months, we have extensively covered the influence of retro and vintage style on modern Web design. We have looked at recent vintage Web designs, showcased posters and typography and presented vintage tutorials. In fact, we are confident that vintage is still in, and that many designers are experimenting with this style to achieve unusual, creative and (hopefully) effective results. Read more…

February 12, 2009 — Everyone wants to be more productive, make fewer mistakes and write good code. Of course, that all depends on you, but in most cases integrated development environments (IDEs) can help you achieve those goals more easily. Unfortunately, choosing the right IDE is very difficult because a lot needs to be considered. And the website of almost every IDE tells us it is the best one. Read more…

February 11, 2009 — Large organizations like Microsoft and Twitter face unique challenges that can lead to painful mistakes. This article gathers ten of the most common mistakes and misconceptions about their websites. Read more…