2010 October | Webdesigner Depot

31 Oct
Our Favorite Tweets of the Week
Oct 25-Oct 31, 2010
Best Of, Compilation, Twitter
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Every week we tweet a lot of interesting stuff highlighting great content that we find on the web that can be of interest to web designers.
The best way to keep track of our tweets is simply to follow us on Twitter, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the best tweets that we sent out this past week.
Note that this is only a very small selection of the links that we tweeted about, so don’t miss out.
To keep up to date with all the cool links, simply follow us @DesignerDepot Read more
30 Oct
Comics of the Week #49
Comics, Funny, Humor
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Every week we feature a set of comics created exclusively for WDD.
The content revolves around web design, blogging and funny situations that we encounter in our daily lives as designers.
These great cartoons are created by Jerry King, an award-winning cartoonist who’s one of the most published, prolific and versatile cartoonists in the world today.
So for a few moments, take a break from your daily routine, have a laugh and enjoy these funny cartoons.
Feel free to leave your comments and suggestions below as well as any related stories of your own… Read more
29 Oct
Web Designer’s Guide To Copywriting Profits
Business, Writing, copywriting
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If a web design agency wants to increase their sales, there’s one way that’s easier and quicker than the rest: sell copywriting services.
When you sell copywriting to your clients, their websites will achieve more sales and better results.
In addition, your projects will run more smoothly and efficiently.
By the end of this article, you’ll be ready to sometimes even double your revenue and delight your clients at the same time.
Do you or have you considered offering copywriting services to your clients? Please share your views in the comments! Read more
28 Oct
How to Design a Great User Interface
Applications, Design, User Interface
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When designing a web app, functionality is often placed above everything else. For the most part, this is a good thing.
People (mostly) use apps because they’re useful, not because they look pretty. But that doesn’t mean you can ignore good UI design, or just slap together a generic-looking user interface. Good UI design adds to the overall user satisfaction of any web app.
Good UI design is, in many ways, similar to good web design. Principles of color theory, negative space, and layout all still apply. But UI design requires a bit more thought in many cases due to the interactivity it requires.
Visitors won’t just be looking at your site; they’ll be interacting with it, sometimes in ways you didn’t expect. It’s vital that you take the time to really explore UI design prior to embarking on a web app design.
Below are a number of principles and ideas for designing a great user interface. Read more
27 Oct
Stunning Collection of Human Flowers
Compilation, Inspiration, Photography
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Take a look at these ‘flowers’... Are you sure you’re seeing flowers actually? Look closely and be ready to be amazed…
These are human bodies! Here is an unbelievable and out of this world compilation of “human flowers”.
These stunning illusions are created through the use of cleverly laid out bodies painted in different colors. You’ll find it hard not to be amazed and inspired by these images…
In spite of our best efforts, we weren’t able to locate the name of the author of these photographs. Since WDD has a large audience, we’re hoping that one of our readers can point us to the author and source of these so that we can credit them properly.
Enjoy this amazing collection and let us know what you think in the comments!
UPDATE: Many thanks to Jared for updating us about the name of the artist. Check her site, her name is Cecelia Webber Read more
25 Oct
45+ New WordPress Themes: October 2010
Compilation, Web Design, WordPress
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New WordPress themes are released all the time, and it’s hard keeping up with the best that’s out there. And let’s face it: a lot of new themes aren’t very high quality.
Below we’ve collected nearly fifty high-quality WP themes from around the web.
A little over half of them are free themes, released under a variety of licenses.
The rest are premium themes, ranging in price from around $30 right up to $200, depending on the creator and licensing options.
Have we missed any good ones here, feel free to add their links in the comments! Read more
24 Oct
Our Favorite Tweets of the Week
Oct 17-Oct 24, 2010
Best Of, Compilation, Twitter
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Every week we tweet a lot of interesting stuff highlighting great content that we find on the web that can be of interest to web designers.
The best way to keep track of our tweets is simply to follow us on Twitter, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the best tweets that we sent out this past week.
Note that this is only a very small selection of the links that we tweeted about, so don’t miss out.
To keep up to date with all the cool links, simply follow us @DesignerDepot Read more
23 Oct
Comics of the Week #48
Comics, Funny, Humor
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Every week we feature a set of comics created exclusively for WDD.
The content revolves around web design, blogging and funny situations that we encounter in our daily lives as designers.
These great cartoons are created by Jerry King, an award-winning cartoonist who’s one of the most published, prolific and versatile cartoonists in the world today.
So for a few moments, take a break from your daily routine, have a laugh and enjoy these funny cartoons.
Feel free to leave your comments and suggestions below as well as any related stories of your own… Read more
22 Oct
How to Deal With Nightmare Clients
Business, Clients, Freelancing
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Regardless of how smoothly your business may operate, no one is completely immune to criticism and controversy. With BP’s disastrous oil spill continuing to dominate the headlines almost three months after it took place, it’s becoming alarmingly clear that even the world’s most powerful and formerly respected brands can take a hit online.
But what if you’re not a major brand – just a small online service provider? While failed projects and disastrous clients are unlikely to spread the word as far, they’re just as likely to cause a great deal of damage to your business.
From minor fall outs to projects that didn’t quite go as planned, there are hundreds of reasons for formerly solid client relationships to turn sour.
We’ve prepared this guide to help you respond to such situations. With Google’s dynamic search results pushing “scam” terms to the top of the ranks and speculation-friendly social media outlets giving almost any disgruntled client an outlet, monitoring your online buzz is more important than ever.
The five strategies below can help you keep your name under control, and keep your clients from turning against you. Read more
21 Oct
The 20 Most Popular Design Tools and their Users
Design, Infographics, Software
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Ever wondered which are the most popular design tools and their number of users? We did too!
So we partnered with Mostash to create an exclusive infographic depicting the 20 most popular design tools, calculated using a ‘magic’ formula based on the results taken from three different popularity ranking websites.
We used the stats from Software Informer, Wakoopa and iUseThis. For the number of tweets per minute, that you’ll see below, we used the wonderful Twitter Tussle.
The artwork was done by Ricardo Cavolo (all credits appear at the bottom).
Surprised by the results? Some tools that we were expecting to see in the top 20 are actually way down below…
To view the infographic at a larger resolution, simply click on the image below. Feel free to comment and let us know what you think… Read more
20 Oct
Win 3 licenses for Filter Forge 2.0
Contests
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As designers, we rely on Photoshop and its array of filters to create our effects most of the time.
There are many Photoshop filters out there that are usually suited for only a limited amount of effects, however, we invite you to take a look at the thousands of options available with Filter Forge.
Their software has over 7,500 filters that will suit the needs of any graphic artist, beginners and professionals alike, from scrapbookers to 3D modelers.
Their recently released version 2.0 has even more filters for advanced lighting options and shadows, that greatly improve the realism of your art works.
We’ve partnered with the fine folks at Filter Forge and one week from today, we’ll be giving away 3 licenses for Filter Forge Basic Edition (valued at $149 each) to some lucky WDD readers.
Read on for all the details and for instructions as to how to participate… Read more
19 Oct
Showcase: Funky And Experimental Websites
Compilation, Inspiration, Web Design
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If you spend enough time online, it’s surprising how much most websites start to look alike.
Sure, there are variations, but to a large extent, web design is pretty standardized.
Swap out the graphics or color scheme and you can make almost any website look similar to almost any other website.
But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t websites out there that are doing something really different and funky.
Below are over 30 websites that have added some funky elements to their designs. Whether it’s the layout, color scheme, graphics, or some combination of the three, these sites are pushing beyond the standards of web design conventions. Read more
18 Oct
Meet our new Family Member: MightyDeals.com
Review, Web Designers
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If you’re like most designers out there, the economy has affected your life in some shape or form and buying design products at high prices is either no longer an option or has been greatly impacted.
But don’t despair! Today we have some amazing news for all of you….as we take “one small step for WDD but one ‘mighty’ leap for designers”.
Meet our new family member: MightyDeals.com Early next month, we’ll be launching this new website which will be offering incredible and hard to believe discounts on the best products and services for creative professionals. And we mean cheap… dirty cheap!
We will have a maximum of one awesome deal for every 24 or 48 hour period. There are no fees to become a member or anything like that and no registration required either. Just one quick and easy way to get the best products at the best possible prices, instantly! Read more
17 Oct
Our Favorite Tweets of the Week
Oct 10-Oct 16, 2010
Best Of, Compilation, Twitter
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Every week we tweet a lot of interesting stuff highlighting great content that we find on the web that can be of interest to web designers.
The best way to keep track of our tweets is simply to follow us on Twitter, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the best tweets that we sent out this past week.
Note that this is only a very small selection of the links that we tweeted about, so don’t miss out.
To keep up to date with all the cool links, simply follow us @DesignerDepot Read more
16 Oct
Comics of the Week #47
Comics, Funny, Humor
Tweet View Comments

Every week we feature a set of comics created exclusively for WDD.
The content revolves around web design, blogging and funny situations that we encounter in our daily lives as designers.
These great cartoons are created by Jerry King, an award-winning cartoonist who’s one of the most published, prolific and versatile cartoonists in the world today.
So for a few moments, take a break from your daily routine, have a laugh and enjoy these funny cartoons.
Feel free to leave your comments and suggestions below as well as any related stories of your own… Read more
15 Oct
Review of The Web Designer’s Idea Book II
Books, Review
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I have to admit, the idea of a book that aims to inspire web designers with example websites seemed a little repetitive to me when I first thought about it.
After all, there are dozens of excellent galleries out there online that we can access for free, that are updated on a daily or at least weekly basis.
Could a book compete with that? Or would it just be filled with the same sites we’ve all seen in every gallery and design roundup out there.
As someone who studies design galleries and roundups on an almost daily basis, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the majority of the designs included in The Web Designer’s Idea Book, Volume 2, by Patrick McNeil (who writes a monthly column for .net magazine and runs Design Meltdown), were not ones I remember seeing previously.
In fact, most of the designs in the book are fresh and new, and haven’t made the usual rounds of galleries and showcases. Read more
14 Oct
Charging Per Hour vs. Per Project
Business, Clients, Freelancing
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If you’re a corporate designer, you don’t have to worry about things like how to bill your clients, as you’re likely either on salary or have a predetermined hourly rate and regular work schedule.
But for freelancers, figuring out how best to charge clients for work completed can be a nightmare. After all, you want to charge clients a fair price, make a decent living, and get enough work so that you’re not struggling to find the next project.
In the world of web design, there are two basic ways most designers charge: per hour or per project. There are advantages and disadvantages to each method, and there are situations where one method works better than the other.
In this article, we’ve presented an overview of what’s involved in each method of charging, as well as what you need to consider when choosing a method. Read more
13 Oct
Usability Resources to Win Arguments
Usability, User Interface, Web Design
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Today’s post is a big one and it’s most definitely one for your bookmarks menu, because from time to time when speaking with clients it becomes necessary to have material to backup the statements which you are making.
Sometimes clients will suggest things such as forcing all users to register with a six page long form before they can even access the site. They aren’t web professionals, it’s not their fault for not knowing that this isn’t a good idea from a usability perspective.
If you’re going to convince them that this is a bad idea, however, then you’re going to need some rock solid material to back that up. While an element of trust is always important to a working relationship, you have to respect that sometimes clients will just need to see the facts in front of them to fully understand that what you’re saying is correct.
So, what we’ve done for you today is compiled a list of some of the biggest, most compelling usability articles which address common issues. Hopefully this should help you during tough conversations about what does and doesn’t work on a a website.
Bookmark this post, come back to it, use it in meetings and educate your clients on the things which work for other websites, so that they might also work for them.
Read more
12 Oct
60 Exclusive Free Icons: “Childish”
Design, Freebies, Icons
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As you probably know, we love great icons and we always like to give away some great sets.
Today we have a set of 60 exclusive free icons that we call “Childish”. As the name implies, these are ideal for children’s websites or for websites that are more relaxed, with a fun feeling. They’re definitely not suitable for a serious corporate website.
The set contains all of the icons in 4 different sizes, 32×32, 48×48, 64×64 and 128×128.
In addition, there’s a vector file containing all of the icons so that you can easily resize and modify them as needed.
All icons are free to use for both personal and commercial purposes, with attribution required (you can waive the attribution requirement by paying a small fee).
Redistribution is not permitted, so if you would like to share these icons with your friends, please direct them to this page so that they can download their own copy from here.
There is a full preview right after the jump and you’ll find the download button right underneath it… Enjoy the new icons! Read more
11 Oct
What’s New for Web Designers – Oct. 2010
Apps, Compilation, Websites
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New apps and websites seem to be appearing on an almost daily basis, but trying to find the good ones among them can be tough, especially considering how many are not that great.
That’s why every month we research and showcase some of the best and latest resources available for web designers.
We cover apps, web services, software, fonts and anything else that may be of interest to web designers and developers.
If you’d like to include your new product or service in our next roundup, please tweet it to @cameron_chapman and it may be included in next month’s roundup.
Please feel free to share your views on the products and services that we’re featuring this month, in the comments area below… Read more
10 Oct
Our Favorite Tweets of the Week
Oct 3-Oct 9, 2010
Best Of, Compilation, Twitter
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Every week we tweet a lot of interesting stuff highlighting great content that we find on the web that can be of interest to web designers.
The best way to keep track of our tweets is simply to follow us on Twitter, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the best tweets that we sent out this past week.
Note that this is only a very small selection of the links that we tweeted about, so don’t miss out.
To keep up to date with all the cool links, simply follow us @DesignerDepot Read more
9 Oct
Comics of the Week #46
Comics, Funny, Humor
Tweet View Comments

Every week we feature a set of comics created exclusively for WDD.
The content revolves around web design, blogging and funny situations that we encounter in our daily lives as designers.
These great cartoons are created by Jerry King, an award-winning cartoonist who’s one of the most published, prolific and versatile cartoonists in the world today.
So for a few moments, take a break from your daily routine, have a laugh and enjoy these funny cartoons.
Feel free to leave your comments and suggestions below as well as any related stories of your own… Read more
8 Oct
Photoshop Elements 9 Reviewed
Adobe, Photoshop Elements, Review
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It can be tempting for a lot of designers to consider buying Photoshop Elements rather than regular Photoshop CS5.
After all, Elements will cost you less than $100, whereas Photoshop could cost you ten times that amount. And not everyone is clear on what the differences are between the two.
Elements 9, the newest version, adds some functionality that brings it closer to the full version of Photoshop. But is it really suitable for a professional designer? Probably not.
Elements focuses on home and hobby users who are more interested in photo editing and manipulation, rather than designing from scratch.
Of course, if you’re looking for an inexpensive program that’s great at retouching photos, then Elements might be just what you’re looking for. Read more
7 Oct
100 Stunning Demonstrations of Light Painting
Compilation, Inspiration, Photography
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Light painting is the process of using long camera exposures to create stunning lighting effects.
By having a camera’s shutter open for extended periods of time, often well over a minute, trails of light can be drawn with LEDs, flashlights, or even sparklers.
Light painting, also known as light drawing or light graffiti, can produce some truly stunning results but don’t be fooled, it isn’t as simple as just waving a little light in front of a lens. This is a very hard technique to master.
In this massive compilation, you can find 100 amazing demonstrations of light painting. If you know of any other great examples, please share them with us in the comments below…
Read more
6 Oct
Win $2,500 from CodeMyConcept
Contests
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One of the worst nightmares of some designers can be dealing with the coding aspect of a website. Design comes easy for many of designers, but not everyone.
This is where Code My Concept comes to the rescue. They’re a great company offering PSD to HTML conversions at really great prices.
All their work is 100% hand coded, and they don’t just do plain HTML conversions, they can also handle WordPress, Drupal, Magento and Joomla implementations. All of their work comes with a 100% money back guarantee.
One week from today, we’ll be giving away $2,500 worth of Code My Concept services in gift cards to 4 lucky WDD readers, which you can use for your design conversions with them.
Read more about Code My Concept and our great giveaway after the jump. Read more
5 Oct
The design process vs. design-as-product
Design, Web Design
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The trouble with the word “template” is that its meaning depends on one’s point of view.
To some, a template is a ticket to an instant website. Many content management systems allow owners to change plug-and-play themes as easily as they change clothes, and inexpensive skins are just a Google search away.
To others, templates are learning tools. Studying samples of real-world code and style is more practical for them than following examples in a book or reviewing lecture notes.
Templates can represent independence. Anyone, even someone without basic design or development skills, can choose from hundreds of templates without fear that a “design expert” will question their decision. Read more
4 Oct
The New Bundle Hunt is Out!
Review, Software
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A few weeks ago we gave away some copies of Bundle Hunt to some of our readers. As you probably know by now, Bundle Hunt compiles awesome applications, products and services and slash the price really low to make it as affordable as possible.
Today, the Bundle Team has announce a brand new Bundle, called simply Bundle Hunt 2. I’m personally excited to see some great Mac apps, attractive icons and some professional fonts bundled all together in a really high quality package.
The new bundle is packed with even more applications at much higher discounts than before. As usual, Bundle Hunt delivers a high quality collection of goodies, including many Mac apps, fonts, WP themes and much more.
And there’s even a daily lucky draw for Twitter followers! Read more
3 Oct
Our Favorite Tweets of the Week
Sep 26-Oct 2, 2010
Best Of, Compilation, Twitter
Tweet View Comments
Every week we tweet a lot of interesting stuff highlighting great content that we find on the web that can be of interest to web designers.
The best way to keep track of our tweets is simply to follow us on Twitter, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the best tweets that we sent out this past week.
Note that this is only a very small selection of the links that we tweeted about, so don’t miss out.
To keep up to date with all the cool links, simply follow us @DesignerDepot Read more
2 Oct
Comics of the Week #45
Comics, Funny, Humor
Tweet View Comments

Every week we feature a set of comics created exclusively for WDD.
The content revolves around web design, blogging and funny situations that we encounter in our daily lives as designers.
These great cartoons are created by Jerry King, an award-winning cartoonist who’s one of the most published, prolific and versatile cartoonists in the world today.
So for a few moments, take a break from your daily routine, have a laugh and enjoy these funny cartoons.
Feel free to leave your comments and suggestions below as well as any related stories of your own… Read more
1 Oct
Ultimate Collection of Social Media Icons
Icons, Social Media
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Social media integration has become an important part of modern web design.
And icons are one of the most useful methods of adding social media links to your site, whether you want to add only a service or two or dozens.
In this post we’ve collected over 100 of the best free social media icon sets available. Although we’re sure you’ve seen many of these before, we’re also pretty sure that you’ll discover some great new sets here that you can use.
Included are icons to fit virtually any website design style, from sleek and modern to vintage or grungy.
This page may take a while to load, so please be patient. Have we missed your favorites? Please share them in the comments area… Read more