Who knew that a college graphic design project could turn into an overnight viral sensation?

On Tuesday, December 22nd, UK-based graphic design student Matt Dempsey, 21, launched a cute primer called Comic Sans Criminal.

The elegant site instructs amateur designers how to use the most juvenile-looking typeface in a designer’s toolbox.

His cheeky project caught on, causing “Comic Sans” to trend on Twitter on Wednesday and gaining nearly 200,000 unique viewers in the first 30 hours of its launch.

Grace Bello interviewed Dempsey on behalf of WDD, about his design background, the popularity of Comic Sans Criminal, and the typeface personalities with which he’d like to go out for a beer. Read more

Client relationships almost always start out really well. You’re both excited to be working together, they’re looking forward to a new site and you’re looking forward to creating something really amazing.

Sometimes it stays this way throughout the process and the working relationship between web designer and client goes smoothly. Other times… not so much.

One of the most frustrating things about client relationships going south is that you often feel like there was absolutely no way to have anticipated it.

Sometimes this is absolutely true but the majority of the time there are little warning signs which you can pick up on very early and use to your advantage.

Today we’re going to be looking at how to deal with the difficult situations which arise when the project doesn’t go quite as smoothly as everyone anticipated.

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WordPress continues to dominate the blogging market as publishers continue to embrace the platform to get their content on the web.

You can make the most of WordPress by learning as much as you can about it and this is why you’ll love today’s giveaway.

Que’s publishing has a long and reputable history for great books and they have recently announced the USING series of books.

They’re more than just books, as they include step-by-step video tutorials, audio sidebars and web content to complement these books.

One week from today, we’ll be giving away 5 copies of the USING WordPress books to 5 lucky WDD readers.

Read on for more details and for instructions on how to participate. Read more

While millions of people share the dream of working from home, very few understand its difficulties.

From online distractions to technical malfunctions, online entrepreneurs and freelancers face thousands of potential setbacks, each one threatening a decline in income or a pause in cash flow. We’re all familiar with this problem.

Yet the problem doesn’t affect every designer and developer. With so many tools available, anyone can optimize their work routine and increase productivity.

Becoming productive is about changing not only your behavior, but also your office environment, work style and software.

By using the right collection of software, online applications and utilities, changing your routine and managing your business can be fairly simple.

The following 14 applications are geared toward the design industry but would be effective in almost any online field. Read more

Photoshop is probably one of the most indispensable pieces of software in a designer’s toolbox.

It can be used for everything from retouching photos to creating entire web layouts or original artwork.

And specific design tutorials are a great way to familiarize yourself with what Photoshop can do and how to do it.

Below are 50 of the best Photoshop tutorials from 2010. They cover everything from manipulating photos to creating icons to digital painting and text effects.

There are tutorials for all skill levels, whether you’re new to Photoshop or a seasoned pro. Read more

Have you ever looked at a website and felt that you could tell whether it was likely designed by a man or a woman?

Studies have shown that men and women tend to have very different approaches in the way that they use design elements such as colors, shapes, objects and fonts – sometimes even having complete opposite views.

In today’s post we’re showcasing an infographic, designed exclusively for WDD, which depicts some of the different approaches men and women tend to take with their designs.

The graphic shows the different tendencies for each gender covering areas such as typeface colors, the use of straight lines and favorite colors.

This graphic is by no means a rule or generalization for web design by either gender, but it does give us a very rough insight as to how each gender views design and it may even help to influence design decisions when creating a website that targets a specific demographic.

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