Web Design Checkmate: Using Chess For Success in Web Design

The business of building websites is one of constant change, adaptation and strategy. The way designers and developers build websites is often informed by the methods of others and their own trial and error. In light of this, we can draw a number of parallels — some philosophical, to a… read more

The World Collabs #4 – with Nik Ainley

Abduzeedo takes pride in being one of the worlds leading design blogs. Having interviewed a bulk of the most infamous creative geniuses, we want to use our potential to introduce a new star on the Abduzeedo stage …YOU.

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This is our fifth contest for The World Collabs. Our new cutting… read more

The World Collabs #5 – with Nik Ainley

Abduzeedo takes pride in being one of the worlds leading design blogs. Having interviewed a bulk of the most infamous creative geniuses, we want to use our potential to introduce a new star on the Abduzeedo stage …YOU.

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This is our fifth contest for The World Collabs. Our new cutting… read more

On the Concept of Process

I’m going to start this discussion of by revealing a secret about my own design work: I don’t have a process. At least, I don’t have a rock solid, time tested step by step formula that I follow for all my projects. That’s not to say that I shoot from… read more

40+ Various High Quality Free Paper Patterns and Textures

Paper will never leave our lives, no matter how digitized we get. Its potential for beauty is celebrated in many designs today, whether in textures, layers, or other additional effects.

These following paper textures and patterns range from the simple to the exquisite, from the crumpled and colored to… read more

20 Useful Free PDF ebooks for Designers and Bloggers

Over the years I have a saved a decent sized library of useful design and blogging related PDF ebooks, I love them. I have voraciously collected them, and all stored on my mobile for whenever the chance of quick read arises. In this post I would like to share my… read more

Creative Bookmarks: Best of August 2010

August was another awesome month with great tutorials and articles oozing from everywhere. Here’s Creative Bookmarks August!

Quick Nav:

Photoshop TutorialsIllustrator TutorialsWeb/Blogging TutorialsFreebies, Inspiration, & ResourcesPhotoshop TutorialsHow To Create The Expendables Winged Skull Poster Art

In this tutorial, by Chris Spooner, you’ll learn how to re-create the sinister and gun-crazy poster for the… read more

The Case For Open-Source Design: Can Design By Committee Work?

In celebrating the merits of free software and the excitement over this radical networked production method, an important truth is left unspoken. Networked collaboration shines in the low levels of network protocols, server software and memory allocation, but user interface has consistently been a point of failure. How come the… read more

Top Articles On The Web Design Billboard In August’10

A perfect layout, A Good Design and Nice Resource can produce a creative output. Layout, textures, typography and patterns are used more often than one may think but the outcome of different combination can result verity of excellent designs. Professionalism is built upon knowledge and experience. However, When it comes… read more

Illustrator Template Toolbox for Web, Mobile and App Developers

For today’s post we have an extensive selection of UI templates, all in Illustrator format, and all perfect if you are a web, mobile or app designer who prefers to use Adobe Illustrator rather than the more commonly used Photoshop.

It was mildly surprising how difficult this post was to put… read more

20 Fresh Must See Illustrator Tutorials

20 Fresh Must See Illustrator Tutorials

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Lensbaby Soft Focus Optic

ADD CREATIVE EFFECTS TO YOUR IMAGES BY SOFTENING THE FOCUS

The creative folks at Lensbaby have been busy coming up with more lenses for their innovative Optic Swap System. According to Lensbaby, the Soft Focus Optic “…creates a velvety soft image perfect for portraits, flowers, landscapes, or any subject that… read more

Best of the Vector Web – August 2010

As you know, each month, we search the web for the best vector-related content and showcase it here for you all to enjoy. This month, we found some really great tutorials on vector character design, creating charts in Illustrator, and vector skulls among others. We’ve also expanded this month’s offering…. read more

Weekly Design News – Resources, Tutorials and Freebies (N.53)

This is our weekly column in which we share our favorites posts, articles and resources with our readers all from the previous week.

If you would like to be kept up to date with loads of fresh design news and resources, you can follow us on Twitter, on Facebook or even… read more

2000 Free Photoshop Patterns

Today I have put together the largest collection of free Photoshop patterns DesignM.ag has ever offered. Enjoy!

Flowers Patters for Photoshop (6)

Photoshop Patterns

Photoshop Patterns (12)

Victorian – PS Patterns (45)

Vintage Patterns (12)

Arabic Patterns for Photoshop

(4)

Grandmas Flowers (4)

Paisley

Seamless Paper Patterns (6)

Grungy Abstract Squares Photoshop Patterns (4)

Tileable Midnight Blue Grunge Patterns (5)

Flat Grungy… read more

One Hundred Project

The ONEHUNDRED Project is an experiment from the German Kid Grandios that started back in 2009 with the idea of creating posters that would include landscape and grunge elements. One Hundred posters later the project is done and it’s amazing, check it out!

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ONEHUNDRED Project

I started the project in… read more

Use These 5 Elements to Compose Great Photographs

Composing a great photograph can be done in so many different ways that it seems more logical to talk about “guides” to composition rather than “rules” of composition. We have covered several compositional elements of photography previously such as the photographer’s rule of thirds and the s-curve,… read more

Free Wireframing Kits, UI Design Kits, PDFs and Resources

To mock-up the user interface of a website, software or any other product, you’ll need some basic UI elements. And this is where wireframing kits and UI design kits come in handy. When you want to create a low-fidelity prototype for your projects, you can use these kits to give… read more

200+ Seamless Patterns Perfect for Website Backgrounds

We’re always on the lookout for great freebies to share with our readers, and today we’ve got some seamless patterns. Seamless patterns are a great way to add a lot of detail to a design and fill up a big area, such as a background. Here are over 200 patterns… read more

45 Free Applications For Designers And Developers

By Callum Chapman

Whether you’re just starting out in the graphic or web design industry, or you’ve been in it for years, the chances are there will occasionally be a time where you want to get a feel for a particular type of application (maybe something similar to Cinema 4D or… read more

Polaroid: A Free Magento Theme For Your eCommerce Website

Today we are glad to release a yet another freebie: Polaroid Magento Theme, a professional design skin for the shops powered by the popular open-source ecommerce web application Magento. The theme was designed by eCommerce-Themes and released for Smashing Magazine and its readers. As usual, the theme is absolutely free… read more

20 Very Best Coupon, Daily Deal and Social Buying Sites

With the birth of online coupon and social buying sites, the retail industry has jumped the shark. Mainstream consumers with a penchant for lifestyle products & services and consumers who belong to the long tail with a slightly obscure taste are pampered alike by these websites. After the financial downturn,… read more

How Limitations Improve Design

We often complain about the multitude of limitations which we’re faced with every day as designers.

From browsers, to screen resolutions, to user interactions, we seem to constantly be struggling to find some way of thinking outside the tiny little box of “best practice” which we’re constrained by.

Limitations are abundant but… read more

40 New And Useful Adobe Illustrator Tutorials

The Internet is bursting with knowledge. Whatever you want is available at your fingertips, and learning new techniques is so easy with the load of useful tutorials that guide you step by step. Adobe Illustrator is powerful indeed, but when used right, it can perform feats that humans will marvel… read more

Balancing Inspiration and Individuality

I love it when a good story is broken down so that even the simplest of minds can understand. I’m not the smartest, fastest or most creative person in the world, so I don’t like using a lot of big words or fancy jargon to try and impress you —… read more

The Classic Portrait: How to Build and Use Your Own Portable Portrait Studio

Ed Verosky is a professional photographer and author based in New York. In this article, Verosky explains how to create classic portraits with minimal lighting equipment. To learn more about achieving great lighting in any situation, check out Verosky’s popular eBook, “100% Reliable Flash Photography.“

In photography, there are… read more

12 Beginner Tutorials for Getting Started with Adobe Illustrator

This series is supported by Ben & Jerry’s Joe, Ben & Jerry’s new line-up of Fair Trade and frozen iced coffee drinks. Learn more about it here.

Adobe Illustrator, the industry-standard vector graphics application, is the tool you use when you need flexible, scalable vector graphics such as logos and artwork… read more

A Sneak Peek at Premium for Non-members

Vector Premium launched in late September 2008. Since then we’ve added over 60 Premium tutorials for Premium members and hundreds of Illustrator and InDesign source files. Over 10,000 members have formed our unique Premium community. Learn more about the material and resources available to Premium members to Join Premium today.

Join… read more

7 Steps to Measuring Your Brand’s Social Media Health

Maria Ogneva is the Director of Social Media at Attensity, a social media engagement and voice-of-customer platform that helps the social enterprise serve and collaborate with the social customer. You can follow her on Twitter at @themaria or @attensity360, or find her musings on her personal blog and her company’s… read more

15 Excellent Corporate Blogs to Learn From

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

Creating and maintaining a corporate blog, or a blog of any sort for that matter, isn’t always the easiest of tasks and doesn’t come naturally to most… read more

Mobile UI: How to Redesign the Spendometer iPhone App (Part 1)

This tutorial series will demonstrate all the steps necessary for redesigning an iPhone application with Photoshop. You will learn many of the unique considerations and design patterns used when creating stand-out app interfaces. This tutorial is presented in two parts in collaboration with Mobiletuts+, where you will be able to… read more

Art Deco Inspiration: 30 Exciting Examples of Architecture and Patterns

Art Deco Inspiration: 30 Exciting Examples of Architecture and Patterns

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12 Beginner Tutorials for Getting Started With Photoshop

This series is supported by Ben & Jerry’s Joe, Ben & Jerry’s new line-up of Fair Trade and frozen iced coffee drinks. Learn more about it here.

Adobe Photoshop, the ubiquitous and industry standard graphics software for photographers, designers, digital artists, as well as casual enthusiasts, can be a baffling application… read more

The Real Secret to Freelance Success

Why do so many freelancers fail while others who face even greater obstacles succeed? Is it natural talent? Is it hard work? Is it sheer persistence?

I find these questions absolutely fascinating. That’s why I’ve spent a great part of my adult life studying freelance success.

But it wasn’t until I recently… read more

A Guide On How To Launch A New Design Blog

A Guide On How To Launch A New Design Blog

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The Future of the Internet

“In only a few short years, electronic computing systems have been invented and improved at a tremendous rate. But computers did not ‘just grow.’ They have evolved… They were born and they are being improved as a consequence of man’s ingenuity, his imagination… and his mathematics.” — 1958 IBM brochure

The… read more

Showcase Of Delicious Coffee Websites

For designers approaching a deadline, coffee is a delicious necessity. Lucky for us, having a coffee break is not really difficult. But it’s more than just a 3am fix. With every late-night run to the local coffee house, we contribute to a populous network of coffee trading, sales and experience.

And… read more

35 Fresh and Wanted Photoshop Tutorials

Photoshop needs no introduction; everyone knows it — even those who do not have any design background. Knowing your tools inside out really counts. If you really know Photoshop, you can do almost everything with it — be it photo retouching, photo manipulation, creating fantasy scenes or creating wild… read more

How Online Retailers Can Leverage Facebook’s Open Graph

Formerly a Principal Engineer at Amazon, Darren Vengroff is Chief Scientist at RichRelevance where he helps retailers like Overstock and Sears create a more personal shopping experience for consumers. You can read more from Darren on the RichRelevance blog.

Amazon and Facebook are making headlines with the launch of a new… read more

The World Collabs #4 – with Joao Oliveira

Abduzeedo takes pride in being one of the worlds leading design blogs. Having interviewed a bulk of the most infamous creative geniuses, we want to use our potential to introduce a new star on the Abduzeedo stage …YOU.

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This is our fourth contest for The World Collabs. Our new cutting… read more

Creativity Reloaded: Why You Should Try New Creative Activities

How do you build new creative muscles? I’m not talking about flexing the ones you already have, be they writing, graphic design, web development, or illustration. I’m talking instead of completely new creative activities. Why? They’ll help you be a stronger creative person. And that’s good for you and your day… read more

A Useful Selection of Android Developer Tools and Resources

With its intuitive and open-source platform and support from the huge mobile phone manufacturers HTC, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, Androids year-on-year smart-phone marketshare has shown a massive growth of 886%! Just to put this into perspective, the iPhone has shown only 61% growth. These figures may give you an insight… read more

Showcase of Fresh Texture-Based Web Designs

Over the past few months, the use of extreme textured images in web design is starting to die down. It was used so excessively that is was almost everywhere we looked when browsing the web. Other developments, such as the use of minimalism in web design and various other styles… read more

Trek-Tech TrekPod GO! Pro Tripod [REVIEW]

I was first approached by the folks at Trek-Tech, a local Pacific Northwest company, when I started my People, Places & Patterns Project. I was interested in sponsors but I’m very picky about who and what I endorse. I’m not going to tout product X as being great if… read more

Quick Tip: Create a Damask Pattern Using the MadPattern Illustrator Template

Damask is a style of pattern that is easy to recognize, but not so easy to replicate. In this tutorial you will learn that with the right tools, anybody can make their own damask pattern that looks just as good as the ones you see on fancy hotel wallpaper, with… read more

50 Tileable and Seamless Pattern Sets (500+ Patterns)

There are no individual patterns in this post, only complete sets, with each set containing anything from 3 patterns all the way up to 100, and are available in a variety of popular formats: .eps, .ai, .png, .pat, .psd and .jpg.
You will find all kinds of varied patterns, such… read more

Using Patterns And Textures In Your Design

Using Patterns And Textures In Your Design

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Vitrue Publisher 2.0 Makes Posting and Managing the Open Graph a Snap

Social media management company Vitrue has announced the latest update to its enhanced and revamped Vitrue SRM (social relationship management) platform, Vitrue Publisher 2.0.

What makes Vitrue Publisher 2.0 unique is not only its ability to publish and manage multiple Facebook Pages, but that it fully supports the social network’s Open… read more

Weekly Design News – Resources, Tutorials and Freebies (N.47)

This is our weekly column in which we share our favorites posts, articles and resources with our readers all from the previous week.

If you would like to be kept up to date with loads of fresh design news and resources, you can follow us on Twitter, on Facebook or even… read more

Motype 1.2

TEXT ANIMATION PLUG-IN FOR MACS OFFERS MORE OPTIONS

After Effects has such a powerful built-in text engine, what more could an animator need? Noise Industries has answered that question by taking a close look at existing features and augmenting them with their Motype 1.2 plug-in.

I find myself using it most often… read more

Better UI Design: Proper Use of Tables

By Cameron Chapman

Tables have been part of HTML almost since HTML began. As the internet progressed and as people started doing more things online, designers started using tables to create multi-column website layouts. This was never the intention of those who created HTML standards, but it quickly caught on and… read more

50 Useful Tools and Resources For Web Designers

An effective, well-organized workflow is an important asset of professional web designers. The more useful and time-saving your tools are, the more time you can focus on important things, thus creating a foundation for timely good-quality results. The problem is that there are just way too many tools, services and… read more

Beautiful Vector Illustration in Illustrator and Photoshop by Carol Rivello

Hey guys! For this tutorial/making of I created a fun illustration for my sister Stella’s blog. In her blog she writes about funny daily situations and I thought that it would be nice to develop an illustration that expressed that somehow. I hope that this step by step help the… read more

What Do We Really Mean By Art?

Mark Rothko, an American artist who described himself as an “abstract painter”, once said that he was not the kind of person interested in the relationship of form, color or similars. He didn’t define himself as an abstractionist, but rather as a person interested only in expressing basic human emotions such… read more

Android Versus iPhone: The OSes By the Numbers [STATS]

When it comes to Androids and iPhones, we’ve had just about enough emotionally weighted hyperbole over which device is better. For one thing, most of those arguments are subjective projections of personal opinion. For another, hey, they’re just phones; we shouldn’t get so uptight about them.

However, when ad network read more

Top 15 Online Tools For Drawing And Sketching

If you find yourself bored at work and have the artistic streak in you, you should probably busy yourself with working on a drawing project you can later show off to your friends. Instead of going the traditional way and sticking to pencil and paper, you should explore the arena… read more

Butter Up: New Facebook App Lets You Create Personalized Butter Statues

Well, this adds a whole new meaning to the term “butterface.” The Midwest Dairy Association has just launched a new Facebook app called “Butter-Fy Yourself” that allows you to — get this — create and share of image of yourself that replicates the butter statues of state fair fame.

If you’re… read more

Designing Style Guidelines For Brands And Websites

A website is never done. Everyone has worked on a project that changed so much after it launched that they no longer wanted it in their portfolio. One way to help those who take over your projects is to produce a style guide.

Edward Tufte once said: “Great design is not democratic;… read more

20 Free Web UI Element Kits and Stencils

No doubt every web designer has spent many endless hours mocking up web pages, and as such every designer should have a good set of re-usable and uniform Web UI elements that they can rely upon to save them precious time and spare headaches when they are in the initial… read more

WDL Premium: Vintage Seamless Vector Patterns

Today we’re releasing a set of vintage seamless vector patterns for our WDL Premium Members. This set from Designious has 10 vintage style vector seamless patterns that can be scaled to any size. They can be used to fill a specific area or an entire background to give your design… read more

50 Useful JavaScript and jQuery Techniques and Plugins

We are regulalry collecting useful JavaScript and jQuery snippets, libraries, articles, tools and resources and present them in compact round-ups here, on Noupe. This time we are again covering some useful JavaScript and jQuery techniques, plugins and tools that may help you improve the user experience for your site.

Useful… read more

A Complete Guide to A/B Testing

A/B testing (also called split testing) is a testing method generally used in marketing to compare results between two samples with the goal to improve conversion or response rates.

In web design, A/B tests are generally used to test design elements (sometimes against the existing design) to… read more

Weekly Design News – Resources, Tutorials and Freebies (N.46)

This is our weekly column in which we share our favorites posts, articles and resources with our readers all from the previous week.

If you would like to be kept up to date with loads of fresh design news and resources, you can follow us on Twitter, on Facebook or even… read more

Android Versus Android: Which Phones Are Winning on the Web? [STATS]

Smartphones are one of the most talked-about and hotly debated consumer electronics on the block these days, and manufacturers are pumping out more of these devices each month.

So, how are these devices measuring up in the arena of public opinion? A few 140-character user reviews can say a lot about… read more

Beyond Business: Making Quality Creative Time

One of the things that is so hard for creatives to do—despite their talents—is simply to create.

For people who have turned their passion into a full-fledged creative business, they can be so caught up in administrative tasks, completing projects and meeting deadlines, that their creativity depletes fast. Even though writers… read more

Sites of the Week #111

For this Sites of the Week we have selected some great sites such as Hugs for Monsters and Roambi. Also we’re featuring the new Hicks’s blog called Hickensian and much, much more! As usual we would love to hear from you, keep sending your suggestions to us and we will… read more

6 Crucial Social Media Tips for Traditional Media

Now more than ever, traditional media outlets are embracing social media as a way to generate story ledes, increase site traffic and create conversations with readers.

Over the past decade, we’ve witnessed a growing shift in readership and advertising dollars from traditional media (print, radio, and broadcast TV) to online outlets…. read more

Showcase of Sweet Chocolate Websites

The word chocolate can be associated with many words: dark, white, milk, hot, sweet, spicy, etc. But have you tried to combine it with the word web design? We did. We searched the Web for websites in any way related to chocolate and what we found is worth to be… read more

Creative Sessions: Creative History

Did you know that the idea for Creative Sessions started way back in December 2008? We’ve added some of our best tutorials and articles ever to our Graphic Design and Web Design Sessions

New Creative Session – Web Design

The first Session seed planted on Tuts+ was Web Design, featuring 10 carefully… read more

10 Landscape Composition Tips: Illustrated with Pictures from Eastern Washington

A Guest post by Amar Ramesh.

Composition for a photograph is like a screenplay for a movie. If the picture isn’t composed well, it won’t strike a cord with the viewer regardless of the technical expertise or the story being told. Composition skills improve over time with constant practice. Here are… read more

HOW TO: Use Game Mechanics to Power Your Business

Shane Snow is a regular contributor to Mashable and tweets at @shanesnow. This post was co-authored by Phin Barnes, a principal at First Round Capital, SneakerheadVC and creator of the Xbox game, Yourself!Fitness. He has also served as a consultant to MTV games.

Before Foursquare managed to storm social media, GPS… read more

Weekly Design News – Resources, Tutorials and Freebies (N.45)

This is our weekly column in which we share our favorites posts, articles and resources with our readers all from the previous week.

If you would like to be kept up to date with loads of fresh design news and resources, you can follow us on Twitter, on Facebook or even… read more

Vector Effects in Adobe Illustrator

In this tutorial we’re going to explore the graphics created for the Olympic Winter Games recently held in Vancouver, British Columbia. Throughout the winter games, they had a continuing graphic theme of very stylized vector art. Here, we’ll achieve a similar effect using only Adobe Illustrator and a PSD file… read more

Travel Photography Subjects: Socializing

This post is number six of twenty one subjects that will help you focus when on your next journey and you wish to bring back a well rounded story of where you were.  If you’re just going on vacation and only want pictures of yourself by the pool sipping… read more

Can Robots Run the News?

To the chagrin of sports reporters everywhere, a team from Northwestern University’s engineering and journalism schools has created a program that automatically generates sports news stories. Stats Monkey uses the box score and play-by-play — even quotes, if they’re available online — to compile articles that follow one of the… read more

Must Have Dark Textures Pack for Designers

Dark design is always appealing to the viewers whether you are creating a website or poster design. Adding dark textures can take your design to next level because textures always makes your design pop and aesthetic. In this post we have collected some of the best dark textures packs on… read more

40 Examples Of Eye Popping Pixel Art

By Tim Mercer

Pixel art was brought to the mainstream with the release of gaming consoles in the early eighties. Those 8-bit graphics we all loved back then often evoke feelings of nostalgia and take us back in time. Nostalgia aside, pixel art is a beautiful art form on its… read more

A Beginner’s Guide to Design Patterns

Ever wondered what design patterns are? In this article, I’ll explain why design patterns are important, and will provide some examples, in PHP, of when and why they should be used. What are Design Patterns? Design patterns are optimized, reusable solutions to the programming problems that we encounter every day…. read more

Add Magical Mouse Gestures to Your Mac with Quicksilver

Remember Quicksilver? OS X’s ultimate but long-dormant launcher has quietly been updated to work on OS 10.6 and above. I thought I’d take the opportunity to dredge up an old but useful trick to boost your productivity.

Below I’ll show you how to setup Abracdabra with Quicksilver and add magical… read more

7 Situations When Manual focus is better than Auto

Image by Michael Markieta

Auto focus is of unquestionable benefit in a large variety of shooting scenarios, but there are often times when it could actually be wiser to plump for manual focus. In these scenarios, which are outlined below, it is fair to say that autofocus doesn’t perform as well… read more

Showcase Of Web Design In Poland

Vodka, pickled cucumbers and Pope John Paul II might spring to mind when someone mentions Poland. Obviously there’s more to Poland than that. On the world map of design, Poland is marked by creative agencies that produce high-level design and employ some of the best programmers in the world. There’s… read more

30 Useful Frameworks for Designers

Some designers view frameworks as constricting and limiting in their creative efforts. They look at a framework as something they have to bend their work to fit.

And for a lot of designers, that’s just not something they want to do. But with the dozens of frameworks available… read more

Capturing Textures And Patterns In Photography

Capturing Textures And Patterns In Photography

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The World Collabs #3 – with James White

Abduzeedo takes pride in being one of the worlds leading design blogs. Having interviewed a bulk of the most infamous creative geniuses, we want to use our potential to introduce a new star on the Abduzeedo stage …YOU.

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This is our third contest for The World Collabs. Our new cutting… read more

Best of the Vector Web – June 2010

As you know, each month, we scour the Internet for the best vector content on the web and post it here for you all to enjoy. This month we found some excellent tutorials, freebies, and articles ranging from character design tutorials, free 3D vector iPhone designs, and inspirational articles; featuring… read more

Quick Tip: How to Create Multi-tone Vector Noise

The following tutorial will show you how to create a subtle multi-tone noise texture in Adobe Illustrator. Similar to a filter or effect you would use in photography, this method is 100% vector and can be scaled and edited as much you like.

Step 1

Start by opening a new document.
Go… read more

The 7 Most Advanced (And Free To Use) System Security Tools For Windows 7

Who does not have any concern to protect his windows based PC from virus, torjans and other threats but to find a best solution to get rid of online threats is not that easy. You don’t need to worry at all and leave this responsibility on us. You might do… read more

Learn How to Make Seamless Patterns in Photoshop

Learn How to Make Seamless Patterns in Photoshop

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How to Get the Best Results from Ultra-Wide Lenses

These days, most kit lenses on consumer DSLRs are wide-angle. 18mm on an APS-C sensor camera (or 27mm in old 35mm speak) is wide enough for most occasions. Ultra-wide angle lenses are those that are shorter than 16mm in focal length. It is here that we’ll strike new creative possibilities… read more

30 Free Seamless Photoshop Patterns

30 Free Seamless Photoshop Patterns

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Five Goals to Strive for with Every Site You Design

Goals are important to have in life. They are especially important for website design, because without any goals, you have nothing to shoot for in the end and nothing to measure your success by. Goals help designers focus on the important things and not lose sight of what you want… read more

The Beauty Of Typography: Writing Systems And Calligraphy, Part 2

The beauty of writing systems is that each has something unique from which to draw inspiration. Two weeks ago, in the first part of this article, we covered Arabic and East-Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese) and a few Indic scripts (Devanagari, Thai and Tibetan).

We are now back for… read more

Inspiring Shapes from Dutch Architecture Photography

In this post you will see a beautiful and very inspiring series of Dutch Architecture photography by the photographer Allard Schager. These photos bring you both sides of the Dutch architecture, the old and the new, the classic and the modern, full of incredible shapes and patterns it’s a world… read more

Eighteen Artists Share Their Opinions on Artistic Style – Part II

Talk to some artists or take a look at an online conversation about artwork and there’s a mighty good chance you’ll hear or read a mention of artistic style at some point. But for as often as it’s mentioned, style seems under-appreciated and misunderstood. So what exactly is… read more

How To Control Flow Within Your Web Designs

Think of your favorite song. In all likelihood the sound rises and falls throughout, the pace quickens and slows, and the rhythm and melody lead you to hear chords and notes that are about to be played. Music has a flow that guides you from one moment to the next…. read more

From A Childs View: 30+ Creative Children’s Book Covers

This inspirational post is all about showing you a great selection of different ways the digital medium is put to use in the modern day world to create illustrations for children’s book covers: from toddlers’ short novels and picture books, to books about color for the youth, to older kids… read more

New App Helps Charities Make More Money Online

Mashable’s Spark of Genius series highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, see details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.

Name: Nadanu

Quick Pitch: Nadanu transforms the electronic giving into a simple, fun and accessible experience.

… read more

Design Better And Faster With Rapid Prototyping

The old adage, “a picture speaks a thousand words” captures what user interface prototyping is all about: using visuals to describe thousands of words’ worth of design and development specifications that detail how a system should behave and look. In an iterative approach to user interface design, rapid prototyping is… read more

Showcase Of Big Online Stores

By Tomas Laurinavicius

The main task of any store is to sell its products, so there is an important usability and user experience factor, making conversion rates and selling figures a primary consideration. However, marketing objectives often tend to conflict with design goals which way too often results in clumsy, overcrowded… read more