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.

Sandi says: Great post! Another note to mention is how to successfully multi-task with several projects at once. Working with customers who...
Community

How to Use LinkedIn for Your Web Design Business

Jan. 26, 2011  |  18 comments

Maybe you’re already one of the 85 million users on LinkedIn, or perhaps you’re just getting started.

Regardless of where you fall on the social networking spectrum, LinkedIn has a number of new applications and features to enrich your experience.

In this post, we’ll look at ways to beef up your profile as well as use new applications and sections to optimize your networking with clients, prospects and others in the design community.

We’ll also cover how to find design-related groups on LinkedIn, exploit the new features of company pages to showcase your design work and keep up with developments on LinkedIn.

Please let us know in the comments area about other ways in which you could harness the power of LinkedIn in your web design business.

Debbie Hemley says: That's a great question. There are pro's and con's to each and depending on the type of business one may be more appropriate than...
Code

50+ Awesome CSS3 Techniques for Better Designs

Jan. 25, 2011  |  33 comments

CSS3 is gaining momentum, despite the fact that the standard hasn’t even been finalized.

There are hundreds of tutorials out there to teach designers how to use it, but unfortunately a lot of them cover the same ground.

And some of the tutorials teach designers to do things that they might not think of as useful, though the techniques can usually be adapted to fit a project perfectly.

Below are more than fifty awesome CSS3 tutorials. Many are strictly CSS and HTML  based, while others also incorporate JavaScript.

If you have a favorite technique or tutorial that’s not included below, please share it in the comments!

Alex says: I used a lot of CSS3 on my website. Seriously, it saves tons of time and adds tons of flexibility and reusability to your html :)...
Contests

Win 5 Free Poster Prints from UPrinting

Jan. 24, 2011  |  222 comments

Picture this… you worked dozens of hours on your coolest design yet and you’re so proud that you want to show it off and hang it on your office wall for everyone to see. A poster of your design sounds like a cool idea, doesn’t it?

Posters can indeed be great promotional tools or advertising for a web design company or a freelancer.

In fact, posters and billboards are probably one of the best ways to get your word out in the offline world.

Today UPrinting is bringing us an awesome giveaway by giving a custom Poster print to 5 WDD lucky winners.

Read on for more details and for information on how to participate in this awesome giveaway.

James says: I would love to have this happen! I'm a designer who does a lot of work in the film field...I could really impress a client or 2...
Best Of

Our Favorite Tweets of the Week
Jan 17-Jan 23, 2011

Jan. 23, 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

DesignedbyNatalie says: Nice list. I heard there is a several month wait for those iphone cookies.
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Comics

Comics of the Week #61

Jan. 22, 2011  |  6 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…

Daquan Wright says: Lol, that's quite an office.... xD I myself want a bigger room, so I can have a bigger workspace with a dual monitor set-up....
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