Tools & Resources articles

One of the perks of freelancing is that you can work from pretty much anywhere. However, the pressures of staying connected to work may leave you stuck behind a computer all day anyway. While there’s something to be said for the levels of productivity and output you achieve from a dedicated workspace, there’s no reason you can’t keep the momentum going while you’re out and about. The following list of tools and mobile apps will help you...

I’m not going to lie, I’ve been biased toward the Vivaldi project ever since its first release in 2015. While it has (until now) lacked the sort of polish that would make it my go-to browser on a long term basis, the developers have been chugging along steadily. Now, it’s looking pretty… well… pretty. And pretty stable/fast. Plus, Vivaldi doesn’t track any of your data unless you opt in to the sync function (more on that below). In...

The typeface Gotham is one of the most popular sans-serifs in circulation. Designed at the turn of the millennium by Tobias Frere-Jones for the Hoefler & Co. type foundry, it is based on the basic letterforms that Frere-Jones saw in use on buildings around Manhattan, in signage and architectural lettering. The quintessentially American feeling in the design has resulted in the typeface’s use in countless branding projects—Barack...

The hotly anticipated Smashing Book 6: New Frontiers in Web Design, is released today. Dedicated to some of the thorniest problems we face in our professional lives, it takes a swing at some of the biggest headache-triggering issues in contemporary web design, from the accessibility of single-page apps in React and Angular, to designing for Smart watches. You’ll find solutions to problems with CSS’ latest layout tool CSS Grid, as well...

This month’s collection of new tools and elements for designers has a common theme – productivity. There are so many things here to help you do work better and more efficiently. But there’s fun too…make sure to look for some of the hidden design gems deep in this article. They’ll bring a smile to your face for sure. If we’ve missed something that you think should have been on the list, let us know in the comments. And if you know of a new...

What’s old is new again; that’s the theme this month with new tools for designers with a few new tools that are rooted in the “old” concepts of design theory. From working with typefaces, to a color wheel, this roundup is packed with goodies. And then there are some new “new” tools as well, including a couple of cool 3D elements. If we’ve missed something that you think should have been on the list, let us know in the comments. And if...

What kind of projects are you working on? It might be the hotter days (with more time at a computer) that have me focused on ways to enhance productivity. In this month’s roundup of new design tools and information, you’ll find plenty of helpful items that relate to workflow. If we’ve missed something that you think should have been on the list, let us know in the comments. And if you know of a new app or resource that should be featured next...

It’s no real secret that the size of web pages is increasing. We’re adding more and more assets, slowing down sites, and ruining user experience. But even though we’ve identified the problem, we still won’t take responsibility. Instead, we lean on coders to streamline their output—we ask then to drop useful libraries like jQuery, just because it saves us 80kb. Meanwhile, we’re designing layouts with 1mb images. If we’re serious...

No summertime blues here. With so many new tools, the dog days of summer will be filled with playing with new elements and expanding your design portfolio. If we’ve missed something that you think should have been on the list, let us know in the comments. And if you know of a new app or resource that should be featured next month, tweet it to @carriecousins to be considered! Cool Backgrounds Cool Backgrounds is a pretty nifty tool to help you create...

Bauhaus (meaning School of Building) is a legendary design school, based in Germany in the early part of the 20th century. Although it survived just 14 years—closed by political pressure as the Third Reich rose to power—and despite constant philosophical changes under the leadership of Walter Gropius, Hannes Meyer, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the school has directly, or indirectly influenced every generation of designers since....

We’ve been developing websites using the Joomla CMS (Content Management System) since its inception way back in September of 2005. During this time we have planned, designed, developed and supported hundreds of websites. In this article, I’ll give you the rundown on some of the wonderful extensions that we consistently use during website development. Although the majority of the extensions I detail are paid downloads, we believe...

CSS Grid is here, people are starting to use it, and it’s even referenced by our industry’s latest official buzzword. I could go on about how it’s the future of web design and layout. I could wax lyrical about how anyone not using Grid will be left behind when the Rapture happens, and everybody on Wikipedia’s list of Internet pioneers will come back to take us to the great LAN party in the sky. Comcast (yes, all of them) won’t be invited....

Do you ever get bogged down with some of your tools? They work, but you know there’s got to be a better way to do something. Hopefully, this month’s collection has the solution. It’s packed with design tools that are lightweight and functional. If we’ve missed something that you think should have been on the list, let us know in the comments. And if you know of a new app or resource that should be featured next month, tweet it to @carriecousins...

In a step clearly intended to maintain dominance in an increasingly competitive market, Adobe have announced that XD CC (eXperience Design) is being released to the community as a free application. XD is amongst the most well-rounded, reliable, and innovative UX design applications available; by making it free of charge to both Mac and Windows users, Adobe are hoping to make it the de facto choice. Intriguingly Adobe executives are now openly...