Webdesigner Depot

Contests

Win 7 WordPress Themes from Template Monster

Feb. 3, 2011 | 134 comments

WordPress themes continue to grow popular among designers needing to deploy websites effectively while looking always sharp and professional.

By now you’ve probably heard of Template Monster. It’s actually one of the longest standing companies offering website templates, and also WordPress Themes. They feature over 1000+ beautifully designed themes for the most popular blogging platform.

They have recently launched a nice campaign where you can now get all of their WP themes with an amazing 20% discount. This offer expires February 20th and is now available on their site for anyone to take advantage of.

Today, WDD is partnering with Template Monster to give away 7 WordPress Themes to 7 lucky WDD readers, that is one WordPress theme per winner.

Minisite Designer says: Wow! What a great contest. I'd love to win a copy of: #32402. That slider is simply sublime and would look amazing as the site...

Fonts

Eight Ways to Combine Typefaces

Feb. 2, 2011 | 20 comments

Good typography is paramount to any good design.

An otherwise-beautiful design can really suffer if the typography choices are wrong. But combining fonts beyond the basic serif/sans-serif pairing can be tricky and confusing to a lot of designers.

While a lot of what goes into good typography is subjective, there are some guidelines that can point you in the right direction. From there, it’s up to you to experiment and try out different things.

Don’t be afraid to try new things in your typography, but trust your eye and your instincts as a designer. Sometimes, even things that follow all the “rules” of typography can still look awful (and vice versa).

Michael M. Grant says: This article just became a required reading for my intro instructional development students. Thanks for sharing and thinking...

Usability

Design = emotions + usability

Design

Common usability errors to avoid at all costs

Usability

The perils of A/B testing

Optimization

Mobile first: Luke Wroblewski interview

Mobile

How to use the download attribute

Code

Community

Introducing MightyDeals' New Affiliate Program

Feb. 1, 2011 | 4 comments

Since November last year, we’ve been running some truly amazing deals for designers at MightyDeals.com

As you’ve probably seen by now, the deals are really awesome and the discounts (sometimes up to 85%!) are simply out of this world!

What’s so great about MightyDeals is that it’s a win-win situation for everyone involved.

For you, our valued audience, you get to hear about new products and services, and a chance to buy them at a fraction of their regular price.

On the other hand, merchants get free publicity and great sales with no risk involved. And things are getting even hotter with our newly launched Affiliate Program!

Vivek Parmar says: Mighty deals great. just sign-up as an affiliate and now looking forward to promote it on my blog and earn some money :)

Apple

Changes to the Apple.com Design

Jan. 31, 2011 | 51 comments

Apple.com has undergone some adjustments to its design in the past week or so, changes that, if you weren’t paying close enough attention, you may not have even noticed.

Although many reports are referring to this as a “redesign”, I think it’s difficult to classify it as such. There certainly are some significant changes, but the changes are not exactly a complete overhaul as was the case for CNN.com in late 2009.

Nonetheless, the changes are significant to web designers, so I’ll briefly look at them here. If there’s anything about the changes that I’ve neglected to mention, feel free to comment.

Louis says: For a number of reasons. First, because it gives you more room to type. Small search boxes are annoying to use. So, when it...

Best Of

Our Favorite Tweets of the Week
Jan 24-Jan 30, 2011

Jan. 30, 2011 | 2 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

Gaurav Mishra says: This post! should not be missed I wonder. just 1 comment so far :D

Comics

Comics of the Week #62

Jan. 29, 2011 | 14 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…

Lucian says: I'm a freelancer, or more exactly something simmilar, website owner, with my own bed-desk, but I get out at least every 3 days.

Color

Applying Color Schemes Requires Seeing Them Anew

Jan. 28, 2011 | 10 comments

Many online resources exist for designers to explore, tweak and download great color combinations.

Playing with complementary, analogous, monochromatic and other combinations opens us to exciting possibilities, and there’s no shortage of freebies.

But there’s a difference between a winning color scheme and a winning design that uses it.

Choosing colors is the first step. Adapting them to fit your design requirements is just as important.

What looks good in a swatch may not work well on a web page—but that doesn’t mean you have to return to square one. We’ll explore here new ways to look at color schemes.

Steff says: thanks for sharing! design is probably more important then content sometimes, if done properly! design a website that will...

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Business

Starting A Web Design Business

Jan. 27, 2011 | 51 comments

If you don’t like the idea of working for somebody else and you’re quite attracted to idea of world domination then starting a web design business might be right up your alley.

Unfortunately though, contrary to popular speculation, it’s not an easy ride.

In fact it’s probably the number one most difficult path which you could choose to follow in this industry.

But, if it’s the right decision for you, then it’ll all be worth while regardless of whether you’re a student or working at a full-time job and looking for a change.

In today’s post we’re going to cover the most important things you need to know about starting a web design business, and get input from other people throughout the industry.