President Obama Threatens to Veto CISPA Cybersecurity Bill

If the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, better known as CISPA, reached President Obama’s desk in its current form, he would veto the bill, according to a statement from the White House.

CISPA, says the White House, would allow the government and the intelligence community unfettered access to Americans’ personal… read more

‘The Muppets’ Lands Sequel After Box Office, Social Media Successes

Walt Disney Studios announced it will developing a sequel to its wildly successful film The Muppets, during the CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas on Tuesday.

Thanks to a strong digital campaign that not only revived its brand but also led to huge box office sales, you will be seeing more… read more

Apple’s Q2 Earnings in a Nutshell [INFOGRAPHIC]

Apple announced on Tuesday another blockbuster quarter due largely to strong iPhone sales. Our friends at Statista put together an infographic that makes it easy to see how well the company fared.

Apple raked in 35.06 million iPhone sales in the second quarter of 2012, which marks an 88% jump in… read more

Google Photo Tours Take You to 15,000 Destinations [VIDEO]

Upload your travel photos to Picasa or Panaromio? Those images might now be used in Google photo tours — a new feature that turns dozens of still pics into a photo gallery for more than 15,000 destinations.

Similar images are shown one after the other to give the viewer… read more

Daily Dot, Editor-in-Chief Part Ways

The Daily Dot, an online news startup launched in August that bills itself as “the hometown newspaper of the World Wide Web,” is no longer being edited by Owen Thomas, the publication confirmed in a blog post Wednesday.

“It is a bittersweet parting,” writes Dot CEO Nicholas White. “Bitter, because… read more

5 Things You Didn’t Know About Mark Cuban [VIDEO]

Jesse Draper is creator and host of “The Valley Girl Show” through which she’s become a spokesperson for startups and helped pioneer the way of new media content distribution. Formerly a Nickelodeon star, Draper is now CEO of Valley Girl™ where she oversees the show and runs technology… read more

Creating an Image of Impact.

I love Digital Photography School, because I love learning. I love understanding. I love pushing through the doubt and insecurity inherent to lack of understanding, to a place of KNOWLEDGE, confidence and the competence that comes from the marriage of the two. It’s a thrilling process for me. That said,… read more

Meet Grunt: The Build Tool for JavaScript

If you’re working on a large project, you’ll no doubt have a build script or a bunch of task scripts to help with some of the repetitive parts of the process. You might use Ant or Rake, depending on the language the project is written in. But what do you… read more

Stunning 3D-Printed Guitars Will Blow You Away [PICS]

1. Spider 3D Printed Guitar

This intricate and beautifully crafted guitar is a 3D-printed design that is completely playable…. read more

Social Networks: Are They Eroding Our Social Lives? [STUDY]

Is the Connected Generation actually the Alienated Generation?

Nearly 40% of Americans spend more time socializing via the Internet than in real life. Almost a quarter say they have missed out on important moments because they were, ironically, distracted by trying to share those moments on social networks. Nearly 20%… read more

Recycle Your Facebook Status to Save the Planet, Says Honest Tea

Love that Facebook status update from last Monday or summer and want to use it again?

Honest Tea wants you to recycle your Facebook status — supposedly, to raise awareness of recycling everyday products.

Organic tea and drink company Honest Tea has launched The Great Recycle — a call-to-action to… read more

Pebble Watch Seamlessly Connects Your Whole Smartphone Life

The Summer Gadget Series is presented by the Galaxy Nexus from Sprint. Android 4.0, Google Wallet and Google Play make it pure Google. Truly Unlimited data from Sprint makes it unstoppable. Check it out.

Product: Pebble

Price: From $150 (check the product website for pricing)

What It’s Good For: Accessing your smartphone… read more

Why Great Design Is the Future of Content Marketing

Chuck Longanecker is the founder of Digital-Telepathy, a user-experience design company passionate about creating products, like SlideDeck and Impress. Follow him at @dtelepathy.

Although it’s still early in 2012, the importance of visual storytelling is clearly one of the year’s breakout trends. Facebook Timeline, Pinterest, and Instagram are forcing brands to… read more

Klout for iPhone Arrives, Shows Your Score Without Opening App

Nearly four months after confirming plans to build a mobile app, Klout has just released an iPhone version and assured Android users that an app for them will eventually arrive.

The Klout app lets people monitor their online influence on the go. The app icon, for example, displays a user’s… read more

Kickstarter Project Wants to Socialize Tabletop Games [VIDEO]

Tabletop gamers from Wichita, Kan., are hoping to change the world of online tabletop games with their Kickstarter-backed project called “Roll20.” Other online gamers clearly believe in the cause — with five more fundraising days to go, 902 backers have raised 439% of the team’s $5,000 goal.

Roll20 will… read more

Big Changes in Store for Facebook on Windows Phone [PICS]

If you recently picked up one of the new Windows Phones like the Nokia Lumia 900 or HTC Titan II, get ready for some good news. A new version of the Facebook Windows Phone app is almost ready, and it adds many new features.

A post on the Facebook for Windows… read more

Get To Know Your Utilities Folder: 7 Great Apps You Should Be Using

We’ve all done it. We bring home our shiny new Mac and we fire up all of the standard apps. We get our iChat account set up, link Mail.app with our mail accounts, and start putting dates into iCal. We import our music into iTunes and sync it up with… read more

Unlock the Secrets of Using Natural Light with Our New eBook

Today on dPS we’re launching an eBook that I’ve been looking forward to for over a year now – one on the topic of Natural Light.

I’m excited about the eBook for a number of reasons:

I get emailed by readers all the time asking for a lighting eBook – now we… read more

We have 20 Pro Licenses for EasyRotator to Give Away

Today, we want to introduce you to a new WordPress plugin for creating sliders, EasyRotator for WordPress. The standard version of the plugin is free, but we’re giving you a chance to win the Pro version that includes additional templates and features. We have twenty prizes to give… read more

A Pure CSS3 Cycling Slideshow

Thanks to CSS3, we can create effects and animations without using JavaScript, which will facilitate the work of many designers.

But we must be careful to avoid abusing CSS3, not only because old browsers do not support all of its properties. In any case, we all see the potential of CSS3,… read more

Quick Tip: Creating a French Fold Template in InDesign

In this Quick Tip you will learn how to make a French Fold template using Indesign version CS3 through to CS5. This tut will explain how to set your InDesign document up for printing, including guidance on safe areas/bleed, orientation of the panels and using guides. Let’s begin!

Introduction

A French Fold… read more

Build a Better Freelance Business with Strategic Branding

When I first started freelance writing, I thought branding for businesses merely referred to having a consistent “look and voice”. With my partner, we put together a website, designed a logo, added social media accounts– and called it our branding strategy. But I learned that these are just functional… read more

Learn How to Create a Garbage Bin Illustration in Illustrator

In the following tutorial you will learn how to create a garbage bin illustration. Use a complete Illustrator CS5 workflow, vector shape building techniques, gradient and opacity shading, as well as various vector effects. Let’s get started.

Step 1

Hit Command + N to create a new document. Enter 700 in the… read more

Typography Mania #129

Typography Mania is a weekly post series that comes around every Wednesday with the best of Typography design works on the web, from type videos to images everything is full of great design and typography inspiration. Users can submit their typography designs.

Click here to check out all the previous Typography… read more

Use iTeleport: VNC To Remote Control Your Mac

With a stable Internet connection, we need not be physically present in order to control a computer, access its files and run applications. By making use of VNC (or Virtual Network Computing) technology, it’s possible to remote control not just other OS X machines with your Mac but other platforms… read more

Planboard: Letting Teachers Organize Their Days On the Web

Although I love writing for the AppStorm network, I do have another full time job as a teacher. One of the biggest things that I have learned over my 7 years as a teacher is to be organized and to always plan ahead. Not only do you want to plan… read more

10 Simply Amazing Logos

Branding a business can be quite the difficult task, regardless of if it’s your own or a clients.  One of the most difficult things to do in this process is come up with a logo.  A sole image, or tag of some sort, that will effectively portray what that business… read more

Developing Case Studies for Creative Professionals

I have written case studies for clients, but haven’t implemented this in my own business yet. It is definitely something I’m going to be working on in the coming months.

Why, you may ask? Because a case study, at its root, combines the all-powerful client testimonial with step-by-step details on… read more

Maximum Clarity – 3 Essential Ways to Think For Your Users

We’ve all been there: a client really, really wants to make a change to your design that, as a designer, you can immediately tell will result in disaster. It happens to every designer, and, as far as I can tell, there’s no real way to avoid it. However,… read more

You! Be Inspired! #0002

We’ve had quite a lively and green weekend – we’ve got the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival closing out, and on the same day we had Earth Day. Well, if you’re going to count the Friday before the weekend, it’s more a lot more greener than we thought.
 <br… read more

Products and Packages with Fantastic Typography

Sometimes the most appealing products are not those that are priced the most reasonably, but the ones whose packaging goes beyond functionality and crosses over to the artistic. Alberto Alessi said it best when he described his reason for his own aesthetic designs:

“More and more people buy objects for intellectual… read more

‘Portlandia’ Needles Kickstarter With $25,000 Music Video Campaign [VIDEO]

If something’s cutting edge or contains an element of hipster culture, chances are the comedy show Portlandia will incorporate it into its sketches. In season 2, episode 6 of the hit IFC show, actors Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen play a musician and director aiming to raise $25,000 for a… read more

Jay-Z Launches Facebook Game ‘Empire’ for You to Take Over the World [PICS]

Empire Facebook Game

Click here to view this gallery.

Empire, a new Facebook game from Jay-Z, wants your virtual… read more

4 Tips for Keeping Your Gamified Community Motivated

Shannon Duffy is the president of marketing at Data.com, a Salesforce.com company. Follow her @sullytoduffy.

Everyone agrees: Gamification is hot. So hot that the market is expected to hit $2.8 billion in revenue by 2016. Naturally, companies are taking a long look at how to capitalize on this trend.

If you’ve… read more

How One App Uses Digital to Empower Education

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: Three Ring

Quick Pitch: Create and share digital portfolios of students’ work quickly and easily.

Genius Idea: Three… read more

CISPA Authors Confident Bill Will Pass Despite Rising Opposition

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich), author of the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, better known as CISPA, is confident the bill has enough support in the House to pass when it comes up for a vote Friday. Rising opposition from privacy groups and concerned Internet users has not shaken his… read more

20 ‘Edible’ iPhone Covers

1. Campbell’s Soup

Go pop art with a can of Campbell’s “apple” soup.

Cost: $11.99

Click here to view this gallery.

Do… read more

How Digital Journalists Used Data to Report on Murdoch Scandal

Innovative digital journalism played a starring role in the wake of a massive document release during an inquiry into British media ethics.

The Leveson Inquiry, a judicial investigation into the culture, practice and ethics of the press, was originally called to examine the widespread phone hacking that took place at… read more

Self-Publisher Lulu Announces Google Drive Integration

While Google’s Drive’s feature list is making headlines, one feature many may not be aware of is Drive’s integration with self-publisher Lulu.

Lulu announced integration between the Lulu One-Click Publishing app and the newly released Google Drive on Tuesday — a combination that will allow you to create and collaborate on… read more

Are Brain Waves and Heartbeats the Future of Passwords? [VIDEO]

James Bond who? As badass as retinal scanners and fingerprint IDs are in movies, the next generation of password technology is even more advanced — it reads your brain.

Numerous researchers are looking into ways to use brain waves and heartbeats to identify individuals.

“There will come a… read more

The Decline of KONY 2012: Where Did the Online Buzz Go?

KONY 2012, the most viral video of all time, took the web by storm in March. Yet KONY 2012 couldn’t sustain its momentous social buzz until its day of action on April 20, called Cover the Night.

Kony-related topics received 74,000 total Twitter mentions on April 20 — less than half… read more

PinPuzzle Turns Pinterest Into a Mobile Game

Fascinated by their girlfriends’ obsessions with Pinterest, two friends have created a mobile app that turns your Pinterest boards into a mobile game. Called PinPuzzle, the app takes photos from your boards (or anyone else’s on the service) and turns each one into a new level of a sliding puzzle… read more

33 Magnificent Photographs of Horses

Some subjects provide a lot of opportunities for great photography and horses fit comfortably into that category. With a little skill a great subject becomes a great photograph. We think these photographs of horses show what can be done quite nicely. Share your own horse photos in the comments and… read more

Coming Soon: Planet Earth, Live-Streamed from Space [VIDEO]

Wouldn’t it be amazing to sit aboard the International Space Station, watching Earth’s continents and oceans pass by as you orbit the planet?

If a startup called Urthecast has its way, you’ll soon be able to replicate that experience from your computer, thanks to HD cameras mounted on the station… read more

Twitter Is Not Feeling Brian McKnight’s Explicit New Music

Brian McKnight is known for the R&B music he has recorded over the past 20 years. His hits “Anytime” and “Back to One” are considered such romantic standards that his tracks are regularly used as wedding songs.

Because McKnight’s musical reputation is built on love songs, his fans were surprised to… read more

How Does Google Drive Compare to the Competition?

Amazon Cloud Drive

Storage: 5GB free (purchases from the Amazon MP3 Store don’t count towards storage limit)
Mobile Integration: Cloud… read more

Apple’s Q2 iPad Sales Weren’t So Insanely Great

Despite the gloom surrounding its stock price of late, Apple delivered another blowout quarter on Tuesday, thanks in large part to iPhone sales. But if you took the iPhone out of the equation, the overall numbers were just OK as Macs had a so-so quarter and iPad sales fell… read more

How a British Marathoner’s Death Inspired Over $825,000 in Online Donations

The death of a British runner during Sunday’s London Marathon has inspired over $825,000 in online donations for Samaritans, the charity she was was supporting.

Claire Squires, 30, a hairdresser from Leicestershire, England, was just one mile away from the finish line when she collapsed. Squires was pronounced dead on the… read more

3 Reasons the Call Center Is Far From Dead

Jeff Valentine is senior vice president of product at M5 Networks, ShoreTel’s cloud division, and is responsible for bringing new M5 products and services to market.

Zor Gorelov, CEO of Speech Cycle, recently wrote an article in which he suggested that the call center “will cease to be the… read more

July 9: Doomsday for Your PC or Mac If It Has This Malware

There’s a trojan out there that tricks computers — both PCs and Macs — into redirecting all their Internet traffic through malicious servers. Even though the trojan’s creators have been stopped and arrested, millions of PCs could still be infected. For those machines, the Internet will cease to exist on… read more

More Video Comes to Mashable

Over the last few months you may have noticed more video appearing on Mashable. We’re currently producing original content to complement our news coverage, shows like “World at Work” that dive deeper into a given topic (social entrepreneurship in this case), and specials like “Leaders in Digital” that go… read more

Google Drive Goes for a Spin [HANDS-ON]

Getting Access

Sign in here to see if you have access to Drive. If you do, you’ll need to… read more

Ivy Bridge Processors Released, New Mac Range Coming Soon?

Intel has officially launched its new range of Ivy Bridge quad-core processors and some sources have revealed that Apple is busy eyeing up the new chips for use in its new range of iMacs and MacBook Pros, which are expected to be released this summer. Five new processors are due… read more

You’re on the Air! 5 Great Apps for Podcasters

Podcasting is all of rage these days. Podcasts are professional and fun, and have become easier to create with the right apps. The Mac has always been a creative tool and with the apps in this roundup, it can become your own radio headquarters and production studio.

To make the process… read more

A Closer Look At Font Rendering

The Web font revolution that started around two years ago has brought up a topic that many of us had merrily ignored for many years: font rendering. The newfound freedom Web fonts are giving us brings along new challenges. Choosing and using a font is not merely a stylistic issue,… read more

The 15-Step Freelance Writers’ Guide to Writing for Magazines

Do you have this dream? You go down to your nearest big newsstand one day and check out all those big, glossy magazines. You flip one of your favorites open…and there’s your byline.

You’ve cracked the competitive world of writing for national magazines.

The good news is, this is not a… read more

Cubemen: A Real Time Strategy/Tower Defense Hybrid

I’ve been a gamer for a long time. I’v always been interested in heavy duty PC gaming and console gaming. However, the more time I spend on my Mac and various iOS devices, the more I find that my gaming focus is shifting to lighter weight games that require less… read more

Create a Website Planning Spec Before You Build

Successful website design requires both skill and creativity. Another BIG piece that I think separates successful website developers from unsuccessful website developers is the ability to Plan. Website Planning is one of the most critical pieces of website development, yet it’s the piece that I see Website Developers skipping over… read more

10 Core Financial Tips for Freelancers

As a freelancer, you are on your own when it comes to keeping track of your finances. And let’s face it, the financial side of things are generally the last thing we want to mess with at the end of a day. As painful as it might be to… read more

200+ Free Vector Grunge Graphics for Designers and Illustrators

If you’re looking for free vector grunge graphics, such as distressed backgrounds, worn textures, dirty paint splatter, and more, then you’ve found a compilation worth downloading. We’ve collected an assortment of vector grunge illustrations, free vector grunge textures, and wickedly worn graphics available for free download. Jump in and grab… read more

Migrating Side Projects into your Work Schedule

Advertise here with BSA

To work as a freelance web designer requires a lot of patience and perseverance. You need to wake up every day and tackle problems one after another until you can successfully complete your projects. There is a lot of stress and turmoil which goes into this… read more

An Eye for Detail: Exceptional Makeup Artists

As we search for inspiration, looking beyond our own fields and into other artistic arenas is quite commonplace, no matter how far from common the expressive works we find in these places may be. Which is the case today. Today we take a look at some work of an exceptional… read more

Gigzilla: An Interview with JP Cuison on the Art of the Gig Poster

You can tell by the number of music-related articles on our blog that it’s one of our favorite topics. It’s not unusual for graphic designers to have a few gig posters included in their portfolios. We scoured the internet for designers with awesome work, and found one whose posters we… read more

Weekly Design News – Resources, Tutorials and Freebies (N.129)

This is our weekly column were we share our favorite design related articles, resources and cool tidbits from the past week. Enjoy :)
If you would like to receive our daily updates and keep up to date with the latest and greatest articles and resources from the… read more

MatchPuppy: OKCupid for Doggy Play Dates

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: MatchPuppy

Quick Pitch: MatchPuppy is a social networking site for canines.

Genius Idea: The website matches… read more

Three Men Steal Penguin, Brag on Facebook [VIDEO]

In what Internet users are labeling The Hangover come to life, three allegedly inebriated friends broke into Sea World Australia on Saturday evening. Once inside, they swam with dolphins and stole a penguin named Dirk. They also uploaded photos and videos of the caper to Facebook.

The friends panicked after they… read more

The More You Sit, the Sooner You’ll Die [VIDEO]

Yet another reason to push for stand-up desks: A recent study by Australia’s Sax Institute says sitting down for several hours a day could bring you to an early grave, even if you already exercise.

The study followed more than 200,000 Australian adults aged 45 and older from 2006 to… read more

CISPA Won’t Die — It’s More Like the Patriot Act than SOPA

The Cyber Intelligence Security and Protection Act, better known as CISPA, is headed to the House floor this week amid a flurry of amendments and controversy.

When the bill first gained notoriety, it was compared to the much-hated Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA.

But there’s a key difference. While… read more

How to Bond with Strangers and Make them Relax Around a Photographer

As any photographer will know, getting a person to relax enough around you to get a few decent shots of them is no easy task. It seems like no matter how laid back someone is, the minute they see a camera they snap into posing mode – making it difficult… read more

Are Hipster Playing Cards Cool Enough for Kickstarter Funding? [PICS]

Hipster Playing Cards

Click here to view this gallery.

Images of the stoic kings, queens and jacks on playing… read more

Watch Out, Dropbox! Microsoft Updates SkyDrive, Offers Up To 100GB Storage

Microsoft announced an update to its SkyDrive service Monday. Among other features, Microsoft integrated the drive into Windows Explorer and Apple’s Finder so the drive works as an extension of your desktop, and added the ability to access files stored on your drive from the iPad as well as the… read more

7 Tips for Women in the Tech Industry

Being a female entrepreneur in the male-dominated tech industry is challenging, and comes with a distinct set of barriers. Thankfully, there are several female-led organizations that are working to bring more women into the tech fold.

I asked a panel of successful young female entrepreneurs from the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only nonprofit… read more

Open Atrium: Collaboration, Free and Flexible

When it comes to general group and project management apps, there are plenty out there to choose from. In that sense, it really comes down to what each organisation or group wants to achieve from the use of the app and this can really help to cement that decision. Another… read more

Tutorials & Resources For Creating A WordPress Options Panel

Tutorials & Resources For Creating A WordPress Options Panel

read more

Caregiver Site Helps Families Sync Schedules

One quarter of Americans act as a caregiver to a family member — and that number will only increase as the baby boomer population ages.

So how does one balance the emotionally demanding job of caring for your loved one? Hopefully, you can have others help with tasks such as… read more

Win a set of Business Cards from UPrinting.com!

Here’s a great giveaway for all of you Bittbox readers! Our friends from UPrinting.com are back and they are offering a set of 250 pieces die-cut business cards. UPrinting is an online printing company that serves thousands of on-demand printing. They’ve been online since 2000 and have been established as… read more

New Gmail Comes to All: Do You Approve? [POLL]

The new Gmail is officially here. We’ve known about this new design for months now, but much like Facebook Timeline, the rollout to all users has been a slow process.

Google officially announced the redesign in November. Until recently, however, users still had the option of reverting back to the… read more

4 Tips for Picking the Right Crowdfunding Platform

Ryan Caldbeck is the founder and CEO of CircleUp, an equity-based crowdfunding platform. Prior to CircleUp, Caldbeck was a private equity investor at Encore Consumer Capital and TSG Consumer Partners.

Raising capital is one of the most important, and intimidating, decisions in the life of a young company. Founders have long… read more

Yelp Spam Begone: Software Weeds Out Fake Reviews [VIDEO]

Software engineers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have developed a spam-detecting algorithm that uncovers bogus reviews on popular review sites such as Yelp or Amazon.

The program called GSRank — Group Spam Rank — targets groups who work collaboratively to write fake reviews.

“People try to game… read more

Startups Make Their Pitch to Get Into TechStars [VIDEO]

One of the biggest moments in an entrepreneur’s life can be their pitch to a potential investor. In order to get into TechStars, one of the leading startup accelerator programs, companies must first stand out from hundred of applicants and be chosen to present their idea in-person to the program’s… read more

Startup Improves Google Social Search

A startup called Wajam has created a more useful social search experience for Google than Google could.

Google’s own three-month-old social search product is called “Search Plus Your World.” But given the absence of Twitter and Facebook updates in the product’s results, it would be more appropriate to call it “Search… read more

Is Apple Killing the 17-Inch MacBook Pro? [VIDEO]

Apple may be dropping the 17-inch MacBook Pro from its products lineup this year, according to an industry analyst.

KGI Securities research analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicts Apple is cutting the largest laptop it sells because of weak sales.

The 13-inch (starting at $1,199) and 15-inch (starting at $1,799) MacBooks… read more

How Google Searches the Entire Web in Half a Second [VIDEO]

It only takes half a second for Google to return a search based on keywords you type in, but there’s a whole lot more happening behind the scenes to give you the results you need. Google on Monday launched a video that explains the science behind how the massive search… read more

Adobe Launches $50-a-Month ‘Creative Cloud’ With CS 6

Adobe has announced a significant switch to a cloud-based version of Creative Suite alongside the launch of the latest version of its popular line of design software.

Unveiled at an event in San Francisco on Monday, Creative Cloud represents a shift for Adobe after years of simply selling packaged software…. read more

Get Rid of Negative Facebook Ads With Dove’s ‘Ad Makeover’ [VIDEO]

Breast enlargement creams. Cellulite removers. Weight loss supplements. If you’re a woman who has ever used Google, Facebook or any website with targeted advertising, you’ve likely come across these kinds of ads.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could remove them?

That’s the aim of a new marketing campaign from Dove…. read more

Why You Should Get an Ivy Bridge PC

Why Ivy Bridge?

Intel’s 22-nanometer processor tech promises better performance, with more features (like security) built right into the… read more

The Perfect Office #136

We’ve seen some great gadgets and equipment for designers. So many cool stuff, that we could actually assemble infinite perfect office spaces! Every week we’ll assemble a perfect office, and we’d like you to help us. What equipment would the perfect office have?

Not only gadgets and equipment, but also furniture,… read more

Absolutely Fresh And Useful Adobe Illustrator Tutorials

Adobe Illustrator does not need any introduction. It is the most powerful and basic tool used in the designing industry. With the help of Adobe Illustrator you can create several design elements that are required in a web page design. If you know how to use it properly, you can… read more

Giveaway: Win 70.000 graphic Items with Grafpedia

We are again excited to present you with special, more exciting prizes. InstantShift again came up with cool freebies giveaway as promised. This is our way of saying thanks to our readers for being part of the iShift community and helping us make it to where we are right now.

We… read more

Using Simplenote and Wunderkit to Keep on Task

When it comes to writing, the hardest part for me is getting new ideas for articles. I used to just hope I’d remember them long enough to either start writing about them when I had the chance or write down the idea itself in a list. That’s when I started… read more

Where You Should—and Shouldn’t—Go To Write

I am a lucky freelancer—I have my own home office and no kids (well, at least not yet) to worry about. And my job means I don’t have to sit in my office, day after day, until I can’t stand it anymore. I get to go out and meet… read more

Stop Shouting. Start Teaching.

Imagine you are in a classroom. Let’s say a high school classroom. You’re sitting at your desk, listening to your favorite teacher—the one who inspired you, the one who got you excited about that thing you love for the first time.

You’ve stopped taking notes because your body just can’t quite… read more

That’s a Photoshop!

A Post by George Maciver from the Highlands of Scotland Photography

‘That’s a Photoshop!’ she cried, and left the group.

The photograph in question had been popped, but that was all. Well, I didn’t really know what to say. I mean, every photographer on the planet uses photo editing software, even the… read more

The Art of the Graphic Design Leave Behind

The graphic designer leave behind has, ironically, been left behind in recent years. Its something that is heavily focused on in design school, but rarely is it put into practice in the real world. I think that’s a shame.

If you made a good impression on your potential client… read more

Quick Tip: Create a Simple Audio Player Bar in Adobe Illustrator

In this quick tip you will learn how to create a simple audio player bar. This is mostly about the basics of pixel perfect vector shape building techniques. We’ll start with a simple rectangles and the Rounded Corners effect. Next, we’ll use some Offset and Pathfinder techniques to create the… read more

Scribe – Outlines With A Little Extra

As a writer about Mac, iPhone and iPad applications you sometimes think you’ve seen it all, apps being very similar, especially when they perform basically the same tasks. I should know better – it’s the details that can make all the difference and I tried to highlight that fact in… read more

Create a Cute and Dark Fantasy Illustration in Photoshop – Tuts+ Premium Tutorial

While thinking up a strong concept is often one of the biggest challenges that a designer will face during the creative process, executing that concept can be equally, if not more challenging. In this Tuts+ Premium tutorial, author Liran Szeiman will explain how to create a cute, but dark, fantasy… read more

Vintage Vector Design Workflow: Creating a Retro Flyer Design

This tutorial will cover the process of creating a vintage inspired retro flyer design. There are four main areas of concentration to achieve this look and feel: color, type, character and texture. We’ll review a complete vintage vector design workflow to create this retro flyer design. Let’s get started.

Flyer Design… read more

Adobe officially announces Creative Suite 6

After several sneak previews and a fully-functional beta version, Adobe has today officially announced the latest reincarnation of its popular Creative Suite software package, version 6, which sports among other things a whole wealth of new features, a massive overhaul to the default user interface and integration with Adobe’s new… read more

How to Find and Land Clients For Your Business

Christmas is always a particularly fun time of year for me.  Sure, there are the obvious reasons of family, gifts, music, movies, eggnog and all that good stuff.  But for me it has more to do with the questions I’m asked by family members and I couldn’t help but laugh… read more