• 8 Mar

    Why Designers Shouldn’t Settle

    Business, How to, Web Designers

    58

    Ugly designs abound on the web, and behind each and every one of them is a “designer”.

    In many of these cases the designers behind the sites are simply incompetent.

    They’re often amateur designers or those who have little or no design training or people who design their own sites based on a book from their local library that’s ten years out of date.

    But there are other times when the designer was perfectly capable of creating a better site.

    So why would a perfectly competent designer create a site that isn’t very good? The answer is simple: they settled. It happens all the time. Read more

  • 2 Mar

    Win 5000 Business Cards from UPrinting

    Contests, Freebies, Web Designers

    498

    We all know that as web designers, we should market ourselves both online and offline.

    For online purposes, a great portfolio website or blog is a perfect way to spread the word, but for offline purposes, nothing beats the traditional business card.

    We’ve partnered with UPrinting to bring an amazing contest to WDD. One week from today, we will be awarding 10 prizes of 500 free business cards each!!!

    You can choose from a variety of business card styles, such as the traditional US Standard, square, slim and specialty shapes. Let your creativity flow and design the cards any way that you want. We will ship them to you worldwide absolutely free of charge.

    Read on for more details on how to enter this contest… Read more

  • 3 Feb

    How to Grow as a Web Designer

    How to, Web Design, Web Designers

    90

    The field of web design is constantly changing and growing.

    Getting in a rut is often the result of not staying up to date with the latest trends and technologies in the industry. Even if we do stay up to date, many of us at one time or another feel anxious about whether we’re advancing.

    If you’re at a firm, you may be working towards a raise or promotion, or perhaps you’re thinking of jumping ship to a bigger and better company.

    For the freelancers out there, we of course determine our own destiny; but far too often our careers feel stagnant, too.

    This article goes over some ways to reignite your growth as a web designer. Read more

  • 22 Oct

    Systematizing the Graphic Design Process

    Business, Design, Web Designers

    40

    Unlike other forms of art, graphic design is not just about taking paper and pen and letting the work flow.

    Graphic designers have to help viewers get the message and help sell a service or product.

    Creating a design for a client with little or no strategy just doesn’t work. Unlike traditional art, graphic design has to convey a very narrow message.

    Developing a system for the graphic design process can help the designer achieve the best results.

    Systematizing any sort of project, whether graphic design, web design, programming or otherwise, gets the work done faster, keeps the project organized and yields better results.

    Here is a simple six-step graphic design process, which you may want to take wholesale or build on. Read more

  • 24 Sep

    How to Create an Organic Web Design
    (and Showcase)

    How to, Inspiration, Web Designers

    67

    Organic design is commonly applied to products such as chairs, electronic equipment, books and home décor.

    Following the same principles, organic web design has recently emerged as a trend.

    Professional designers and companies have taken a more natural approach to creating their websites, logos and packaging, leaving behind the overtly technological sheen of the early 2000s.

    Yes, fellow designers, it is safe to say that the new age of organic design for websites and corporate logos has taken effect.

    Whether overt or subtle, whether scanned elements or graphics that mimic nature, organic web design has taken on many forms. But what constitutes organic design? What makes it successful? Let’s find out… Read more

  • 28 Jul

    Interview with SpecWatch:
    The Naked Truth About Design Contests

    Contests, Interviews, Web Designers

    134

    “Spec work” stands for speculative work. It’s a term used to refer to any job for which the client expects to see examples with no guarantee of payment.

    The Internet has accelerated its growth in the form of “design contest” websites, and these businesses have advertising machines that draw in thousands of unsuspecting designers who think it’s normal to give away their intellectual property for nothing.

    With the increasing prominence of “spec work” businesses, we’re witnessing more and more about the downsides of the practice, and there’s one initiative in particular that’s documenting what goes on — SpecWatch.

    David Airey, a well respected graphic designer, has approached WDD with this important issue and we felt it was necessary to bring light to this important subject.

    Here’s the exclusive interview David conducted with SpecWatch for WDD readers. Designers take note… Read more

  • 27 Jul

    Massive Compilation of Designer Tools

    Add Ons, Plugins, Web Designers

    79

    Web designers have a wealth of tools available to them, for doing everything from organizing their thoughts about a particular design to debugging the final design.

    But with so many tools out there, how do you ever determine which ones are really useful and which ones are just going to waste your time?

    We’ve compiled a massive list of some of the best and most useful tools out there for web designers.

    Purposely left off the list are common tools most designers are likely already using (like Dreamweaver or Panic’s Coda, Photoshop or GIMP, and similar common software programs that pretty much every designer already has in their toolkit).

    These are tools that will save you time, make you a more effective designer, simplify or speed up your design process, or otherwise make your life easier.

    Read more

  • 15 Jul

    5 Pet Peeves Developers Have With Designers (and How to Avoid Them)

    Web Designers, Web Developers

    112

    Cats and dogs. Cain and Abel. Designers and developers. These are just a few of the great historical face-offs.

    Designers and developers often seem to come from different planets and have completely different brains.

    Developers want a website to work right, designers want it to look right.

    A few weeks ago, we explored the main pet peeves that web designers have with web developers, and suggested some solutions for them.

    Today, we will discuss the other side of the coin: the five most common gripes that developers have with designers. Read more

  • 13 Jul

    40 Great Adobe AIR Applications for Designers and Developers

    Applications, Web Designers, Web Developers

    35

    Adobe AIR is one of the most under-appreciated application platforms, but the number of applications available for AIR make it incredibly useful.

    There are apps for everything from business to shopping to image management to video editing.

    And plenty of applications are useful to designers and developers, including HTML text editors, Flickr search apps, color palette management tools and even ones to help with the business side of the industry.

    Below are 40 awesome AIR apps that we have selected to help you streamline your design and development workflow. Read more

  • 6 Jul

    Great Designers Steal?

    Design, Web Design, Web Designers

    78

    You often hear designers say, “Good designers copy. Great designers steal.”

    Well, anyone who says this is one of three types of designers:

    One who copies, one who steals or one who admits that not copying and stealing is hard but still tries not to anyway.

    For some reason, a lot of web designers believe that there’s nothing truly unique left to create and that there is no such thing as originality.

    I disagree, or at least I don’t want to accept that notion. You shouldn’t either. Read more

  • 23 Jun

    5 Pet Peeves Designers Have With Developers (and How to Avoid Them)

    Web Designers, Web Developers

    124

    Cats and dogs. Cain and Abel. Designers and developers. These are just a few of the great historical face-offs.

    Designers and developers often seem to come from different planets and have completely different brains.

    Developers want a website to work right, designers want it to look right.

    While these goals have a lot of overlap (and, of course, I’m stereotyping here a bit), the differences often come down to the designer and developer’s expectations of success.

    Managing expectations is a matter of communication: making points clearly to the other side, finding common ground, and agreeing on goals.

    Okay, so maybe it’s not that easy, but it is important for both sides to at least try to understand each other.

    In an effort to promote goodwill between designers and developers, I will share some pet peeves I have encountered and explore the issues that lead to them and their solutions. Read more

  • 22 Jun

    25+ Useful Infographics for Web Designers

    Data Visualization, Infographics, Web Designers

    142

    Infographics can be a great way to quickly reference information.

    Instead of pouring over figures and long reports to decipher data, an infographic can immediately make apparent exactly what a dataset actually means.

    Below are more than 25 infographics that can be useful to web designers.

    Some are incredibly practical, some provide information that might be of interest to designers and some just present data that might be interesting to those who design websites all day.

    If you know of any good ones that we may have missed, please add them in the comments section below. Read more

  • 3 Jun

    25 Awesome Facebook Apps for Designers

    Applications, Facebook, Web Designers

    32

    Facebook might not have all the glittery text and obnoxious backgrounds that MySpace has, but it still has its fair share of useless apps.

    This is especially true if you have ever tried to search for creative Facebook apps or those that may be of interest to creative people.

    If you have ever searched for such a thing, you have no doubt realized that there is an abundance of useless apps. This is the reason that I went through just about every app on Facebook to find the very few that were best suited for creative individuals, or had some sort of visual flair about them.

    So here are 25 awesome Facebook applications that most designers will enjoy in their Facebook pages. Read more

  • 21 May

    30 Artistic and Creative Résumés

    Design, Resumes, Web Designers

    295

    In these tough economic times, many designers find themselves applying for jobs and freelance gigs on a regular basis.

    So, how can we stand out from the rest and grab the attention of a design agency when they’re usually bombarded with hundreds of applications?

    The best way to do this is in the design of your resume. Assuming that you have the skills that they’re looking for, a striking and visually appealing resume will go a long way at getting you the creative job that you want.

    In the worst case scenario, it will at least buy you a few seconds by catching the eye of a recruiter and may become the difference between getting hired or not.

    In this article, we’ll take a look at 30 creative resumes that can inspire you to think outside the box when designing your own resume. Read more

  • 11 May

    Advantages and Disadvantages of Working with Multiple Screens

    Productivity, Technology, Web Designers

    58

    Two characteristics that represent most web designers are a need for productivity and a love for technology.

    This desire for increased efficiency and productivity leads many designers to look to technology for methods that will improve their work flow.

    One common approach for designers (and others who want to improve productivity) is to use multiple monitors. Using two or more monitors can bring a number of significant advantages to designers.

    In this article we’ll present some basic pros and cons of using multiple monitors, general instructions for setting them up, as well as a showcase of workstations that feature multiple monitors. Read more

  • 7 May

    Worldwide Conferences for Web Designers

    Conferences, Web Designers

    45

    We’ve arranged a massive list of events of interest to graphic design professionals.

    Listings are arranged by country and date. All prices listed are for the packages that give you complete access to the event, without discounts or early-bird rates. Cheapefitr packages are generally available with more limited access to the events.

    Please note that some conferences or events may already be sold out at the time this article goes live. Also, please take into account that this article is presented for informational purposes only and is not meant as an endorsement of any of the events.

    We purposely did not include events that had “sold out” on their website, like UX London. We also didn’t include events that have already taken place.

    If you know of an event that you believe should be added, please leave a comment or email us and we will update the page regularly based on your feedback. We will only include events that are of interest to web design professionals. Read more

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