Web Design Trends and How-To’s July 8, 2009
A while back, Smashing Magazine did an awesome round up of 2009 Web Design Trends. The post was a great round up of trends for 2009 and websites that showcased these trends. I would like to take that post a step further and add a list of tutorials to show you how to recreate these popular trends.
Letterpress
“One of the most unexpected trends we’ve observed over the last months was the emergence of letterpress (actually pressed letters) in Web design. Probably the most important reason for this trend is the simple fact that this technique has been rarely used until now. Letterpress is used in various styles and on various websites and for various topics; in particular, it is often used in product designs and on websites for online services.”
Photoshop Tutorial: The Letterpress Effect
Easily achieve the trendy LetterPress effect with Photoshop
Ps Letterpress emboss text effect
Create Your Own Letterpress, Inset, Debossed Text
Photoshop CS3+ Letterpress Tutorial
Create a Sleek Pressed Letter Design
Rich User Interfaces
“Happily, user interfaces in modern websites and Web applications are becoming more beautiful and more usable. Over the last year, the user experience for these applications has dramatically improved, resulting in rich and responsive user interface that have tremendous similarities with classic desktop applications. AJAX and Flash are widely used to offer users the dynamic interaction that they have come to expect from advanced, sophisticated, professional solutions.”
jQuery Plugin: Tokenizing Autocomplete Text Entry
Ajax Tooltip with JQuery
A fancy Apple.com-style search suggestion
Interactive Map with jQuery
jQuery checkbox and Radio button
Colorful Infographics July 8, 2009
Here’s a selection of great infographics found over at Infographics News and Francesco Mugnai. Some may look familiar, as many have been very popular and made their way around the web in last year, but they’re all examples of good color use. The color palettes are consistent throughout the graphics without making things unnecessarily complicated with palettes that strain the eyes or make use of too many colors.
50 Years of Space Exploration
Link
How Do You Want Your Coffee?
Link
A classic infographic.
7 Essential Social Media Sites for Web Designers July 8, 2009
If you’ve been in the web design field for a while, you’ve no doubt noticed that many of the social media sites that once had the best online communities have become so flooded with users that their personality has all but disappeared. However, there are still sites out there that provide plenty of information to keep web designers on the cutting edge, while still offering a great sense of online community. For some of the best bets in social media sites catering to web designers, check out the following.
Best Social Media Hangouts For Web Designers
1. Design-newz
This is a fairly new site geared toward offering web designers information and tutorials. On Design-newz, you’ll find plenty of information regarding the latest and greatest programs, including the best advice on how to use them. Many designers soon find that Design-newz is one of their favorite “go to” sites for help.
2. Hacker News
Hacker News is an extremely simple, but useful site. They focus solely on providing web designers quick access to the most useful web design articles being published. Their main page simply contains a list of the top articles floating around on web design. In just a few minutes a week you can sort through the articles that pique your interest, and easily ignore those that don’t pertain to your work.
3. Good Tutorials
This site is an absolute must for any designer using a wide variety of programs and design tools. Good-tutorials has managed to combine the tutorials from the most important and often used design and web programs. This site is one of the largest online tutorial sites and is extremely easy to use. You’ll find some very interesting blogs here, too.
Inspirational Web Design Blogs June 28, 2009
As a web designer you must stay up-to-date with trends and techniques. A good way to do so is to subscribe to web design blogs and get updates regularly. In the following list, you will find some great web design blogs that publish showcases, techniques, tutorials, resources and in-depth articles. If it is your first visit on Design Reviver, I suggest that you also subscribe to the blog’s RSS feed.
1. A List Apart
2. Smashing Magazine
3. ColourLovers blog
4. SitePoint web design blog
5. DevLounge
6. Noupe
7. We Function
8. Six Revisions
9. NetTuts
10. Woork
(more…)
How to Blog Design Style Guide June 28, 2009
Ultimate guide to designing blogs
Introduction
When designing blogs I noticed there are a few different design elements that I have to take into account every time. I have broken these different design elements into nine different parts. The more attention you give to each part, the better your overall blog design will be.
- Header
- Content Area
- Primary Navigation
- Secondary Navigation
- Headlines
- Comments
- Post’s Footer
- Footer
- Advertisements
1. Header
The header is the first thing most visitors see when they come to your blog and it is also one of the most important. It is important for branding and making your blog stand out apart from the millions of other blogs. It is important that the header be unique so that is is memorable. This is why headers are usually given the most attention to in blog design, even by people who don’t do anything else with their blog design.
Lots of different types of headers work, but no matter what style you design your header in it is important to make your header design POP.
Examples of great blog headers:
1. Octwelve
Most Useful Blogs for Web Design & Development June 28, 2009
I would like to share Most Useful Blogs for Web Design and Development. Almost all of them are daily updated, and cover a wide range of topics including inspiration, design trends, tutorials, interviews, website showcase, programming techniques and resources. Add them all to your RSS reader and receive these useful information every day.
Subscribe to all of them by importing this OPML file (Right-click and Save as)
GoMediaZine is a group of guys and girls who are passionate about art and graphic design. The blog filled with lots of helpful tutorials and advice about business and design. (RSS)
WebDesignerWall serves as Nick La’s public blog where he posts his design ideas, tutorials, and talk about modern web design trends. (RSS)
Veerle Pieters is a graphic/web designer living in Belgium. Veerle’s Blog is an online source for topics ranging from XHTML/CSS to graphic design tips. (RSS)
Fubiz site is focused on the subjects of the graphic world. You can get some really inspiring and creative pictures from Fubiz. (RSS)
AdGoodness showcase only the best advertising and design around the globe. This site is there to start a conversation, to inspire, to enjoy great work, or to just talk about what your views are. (RSS)
A List Apart Magazine explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices. (RSS)
BittBox gives away only the best quality stuff to help designers everywhere. You can find some of the best photoshop patterns, brushes and textures there. (RSS)
Abduzeedo is primarily to be a channel for ideas, experiments and news of design. It is an archive of the adventures online as a designer on the daily basis. You can find lots of exceptional design inspiration and tutorials in this site. (RSS)
COLOURlovers is a resource that monitors and influences color trends. COLOURlovers gives the people who use color a place to check out a world of color, compare color palettes, submit news and comments, and read color related articles and interviews. (RSS)
Beautiful WordPress Themes You (Probably) Haven’t Seen June 27, 2009
Sometimes it’s just like searching for a needle in a haystack: if you’ve ever googled for free and quality WordPress Themes, you know exactly what we’re talking about. Most designers love to create WordPress themes, so they can demonstrate the quality of their work and add some fresh works to their portfolios.
However, most WordPress themes are either used too often (Kubrick theme, now K2, is definitely overused) or just have nothing to offer – particularly, if you are looking for a free, impressive and professional design. However, sometimes search is worth it. In the gallery below you’ll find 83 free WordPress Themes you probably haven’t seen yet. All themes offer quality, elegance and a user-friendly interface. … and please take a look at Dr. Web’s free WordPress Theme ModernOak. Links checked: July/3rd 2008.
1. Redoable 1.0
2. Iceburgg
3. Soxnest link
4. Gridlock
5. Fresh Theme
7. Time Manager
8. Fluid Solution
