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12 May
Designing for Over Twenty Million Users: WordPress 3.0
Community, Web Design, WordPress
58

WordPress 3.0 is, without doubt, one of the most exciting updates to the platform in a very long time.
As well as things that all users will notice such as custom menus, custom backgrounds and a new default theme, there are also massive additions to the code-base such as the ability to run multiple sites from a single install and custom post types.
These things bring WordPress up to speed as an extremely powerful CMS as well as a publishing platform.
Since January of this year I’ve been getting involved with the core WordPress community to contribute back to its ongoing development and today I’d love to tell you a little bit about how that works. Read more
12 May
Winners of “TypeFaces” Playing Cards
Contests, Freebies, Web Designers
16

For the past week, we’ve been running a great contest to win sets of awesome playing cards from Typefaces.
These super cool cards feature world renowned designers such as Veerle Pieters, Jeffrey Zeldman and Jason Santa Maria, among many others.
The official Typefaces site also carries wallpapers for each of the designers which you can download for free.
All winners were chosen at random and the results appear after the jump. Typefaces will contact all winners via email with details as to how to receive their prizes.
Read on to see if you won… Read more
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11 May
Showcase of Blogs with Unique Post Designs
Blogs, Design, Web Design
48

The trend of creating unique designs for each post on a blog is growing.
A few years ago the idea of creating a custom design for each post on a blog either meant you had to forgo traditional blogging software or hack the source code to allow for custom designs.
With the advent of WordPress plugins like Art Direction it’s now relatively simple for a designer to create a custom design for each post on their blog.
The sites below are some of the best examples of sites that use custom designs for many or all of their posts. Some play around with the general layout and color scheme of each post, while others create completely unique concepts for every post.
In either case, the posts are much more interesting because of their design and are reminiscent of magazine layouts (the term “blogazine” is often used to describe these types of blogs and posts). If you know of other sites with custom post designs, please share them in the comments area below. Read more
10 May
Creating a Logotype Depends More on the Means Than the End
How to, Logos, Web Design
38

The process of designing a type-based logo is similar to that of designing a shape-based logo. Both logos need to convey a message, do it quickly and appease the client’s taste.
All of these objectives can be accomplished by defining goals, favoring message over convention and questioning our assumptions as designers—even to the point of considering Arial or Helvetica.
Anyone who designs a logo faces many questions. What should it look like? In what formats will it be presented? Does a particular color scheme need to be followed? As rough drafts are refined, the urge to find a general “solution” overrides the importance of these initial questions, which often end up neglected. When design becomes a question of preference, the end result is debatable.
Graphic design is a process of solving problems through visual communication. The process of designing a logo can be regarded as a series of steps that solves a series of questions. This article tells the story of a process that focuses on those questions. Read more
9 May
Our Favorite Tweets of the Week
May 2-May 8, 2010
Best Of, Compilation, Twitter
4

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 Read more
Active discussions:
- How to Make an Internet Web Page
  Sheer and utter brilliance. The mind boggles!
- The Weirdest Clouds that You'll Ever See
  I think maybe some of them will be photoshopp...
- 100 Extraordinary Examples of Paper Art
  Noteworthy!!! Awesome!
- 40 Seriously Funny Print Ads
  Thanks, funny pics)
- Winners of Custom Stickers from Sticker Mule
  Holy Moly! That's Us! Thank You! San Fran...
8 May
Comics of the Week #24
Comics, Funny, Humor
15

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… Read more
7 May
Win 10 Sets of “TypeFaces” Playing Cards
Contests, Freebies, Web Designers
416

What are TypeFaces? They’re “top-trumps” style card packs featuring 20 well known designers.
For each designer, a typeface was selected to match their overall vibe. Each card has also been individually designed to reflect their vibe, supported typographically with the selected typeface.
The official site also carries wallpapers for each of the TypeFaces characters which you can download for free right away.
And today, we have 10 great sets of these cards ready to be shipped to you. The contest is open to WDD readers worldwide. Only one entry per person.
Read on for more details and information on how to participate and win one of these awesome sets of cards. Read more