CategoryDesign

April 15, 2009 — Designing a beautiful, legible typeface is hard work and takes time and patience. The type family has to convey a message clearly and effectively, regardless of the setting in which it is used. Of course, thousands of freely available fonts are out there, and some free fonts are very impressive. Read more…

April 10, 2009 — Have you ever fainted from the sheer idea of having to find and replace text in millions of files? Have you ever felt helpless because you needed to search and replace different data 50 times at once? Have you ever lost original files while doing normal text processing tasks? If you’ve found yourself in any of these situations, then it is time to feel a bit tougher, at least mentally. Read more…

April 7, 2009 — Your website is designed, the CMS works, content has been added and the client is happy. It’s time to take the website live. Or is it? When launching a website, you can often forget a number of things in your eagerness to make it live, so it’s useful to have a checklist to look through as you make your final touches and before you announce your website to the world. Read more…

April 2, 2009 — Complex design techniques are often time-consuming and, well, complex. Some of these advanced effects can add plenty of depth to designs, but when used in the wrong place, they do little more than distract viewers from the project’s intended focus. These effects may be precisely what a design needs to have the impact it requires, but even in these cases, they should be complemented by simpler effects. Simple effects and techniques are the building blocks of today’s designs. For example, what good is a stellar lighting technique if you can’t decide which colors to use or which text-based effects to use in conjunction with the effect? With a “less is more” mentality, we’ve selected 10 very simple and impressive design techniques that can drastically improve the performance and appearance of your designs. For more techniques, you may want to look at our previous articles: * 12 Useful Techniques For Good User Interface Design * Grid-Based Design: Six Creative Column Techniques Read more…

April 1, 2009 — The economy is bad. No one’s job is really 100% safe, so it’s time we all bucked up and got our recession bags packed (just in case!). Your portfolio is already gorgeous, but have you created a drool-worthy resume? Read more…

March 18, 2009 — Readability is one of the more important aspects of Web design usability. Readable text affects how users process the information in the content. Poor readability scares readers away from the content. On the other hand, done correctly, readability allows users to efficiently read and take in the information in the text. You want users to be able to read your content and absorb it easily. Read more…

March 12, 2009 — Some say that web design without typography is like an orange without its peel, it just isn’t complete. Typography encompasses the reality of effective web design and achieves success in creating web page identity, eye-catching sites, and the enhancement of visual appearance. Typography is much more than the “art of text”, it’s the evolution of creativity within simple to intricate web designs. One can say that a good architecture needs great support, the same concept can be applied to web design in the sense that a good blog could do without the use of typography, but an astounding one could use the creative support. Typography leaves you with the option of bringing together simple creativity with unique and effective communication in order to get your blog or sites main focus across. Now, with all of this information at hand here are 40 fantastic blogs that will allow you to expand your knowledge base of what typography really is. You may want to take a look at the following related posts: * Useful Design Tools For Web Typography * Useful Type Setting Principles * Free Fonts For Professional Design * Brilliant Typefaces For Corporate Design Read more…

February 26, 2009 — You may have a personal portfolio website for a number of reasons. If you’re a freelancer, then you’d need one to showcase your work and allow people to contact you. If you’re a student (or unemployed), then you’d need one to show prospective employers how good you are and what you can do, so that they might hire you. If you’re part of a studio, then you might use one to blog about your design life, show people what you’re doing and build your online presence. 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 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…