By setting images in type, you are able to express more than words or pictures can alone.

The effect packs a lot of information into a tight space. But it can get ugly if the text and imagery are at odds with each other.

Designers can steer clear of disaster by keeping their purpose in mind: expressing the idea clearly should trump the “wow” factor of the technique.

Setting images directly in text mixes the straightforward communication of words with the emotional effect of photos.

Words state, and photos express. But when images get lost or text becomes muddled, or both, we get conflict. Images and text can be harmonized seamlessly, but only if we follow some guidelines that balance the readability of both. Read on to find out how to effectively mix text and imagery.

IconDock is the brain child of renowned designer Nick La, more known for his popular blog, Web Designer Wall, and his portfolio site, N Design Studio.

IconDock features professionally designed pixel and vector stock icons suitable for print and web projects. The site contains a great collection of both premium and free icons.

With today’s contest, we’re bringing you the chance to win 10 sets of these wonderful and useful icons.

One week from today, on July 21st, we’ll be giving away 10 sets of icons to 10 lucky WDD readers.

Check out the beautiful icon previews after the jump and read on for more details about this contest…

The content of any website is paramount to a site’s success.

High quality content, regardless of whether the site aims to inform, entertain, or sell a product, will increase the site’s likelihood of converting visitors. But beyond providing high quality content, a site also needs to organize that content in a way that makes it accessible to visitors.

Prioritizing your content is one of the best ways to make sure your visitors are finding the information you want them to find, and that they want to find. But figuring out what content is most important and how to arrange it to reflect that can get confusing, fast.

In many cases, designers and content creators feel like it’s all important, and should all get equal billing. But that’s not doing your visitors any favors. You need to get to the root of what’s most important to them, and then provide that in the most user-friendly way possible.

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…