Once again, the week winds down and gives way to the next, as we here at Arbenting take a look back at the one we are leaving behind. The design community shone once more with some amazing contributions, and we have gathered them for a showcase for our readers to enjoy once more. It was an especially busy week for the online design community, especially in the new launch arena! Some really great launches arrived this week, and in case you missed them, get ready for a few hours lost to the cyber-surfing because there is a lot to check out. As always, don't forget to stop by and check out the dose of inspiration we have gathered for you below. Enjoy the week ahead as much as we have enjoyed the one we showcased for you here.
Article - 10 Free Apps to Fuel your Productivity - As a freelancer, good productivity is a really big deal to me. I’m constantly on the lookout for apps that will add a little fuel to my productivity fire. This is the list of 10 productivity boosting apps that I simply could not live without.
Tutorial - How to Create Your Own Photoshop Brushes - A lot of people don’t realize how easy it is to create your own photoshop brushes. If you find yourself drawing the same elements over and over you can save a lot of time by creating a brush of that particular element.
Tutorial - Introduction to the Twirl Tool - After the success of our last freebie, we thought we would teach folks the simple process for making their own swirl vectors. So we decided to move forward with a basic introduction to the Twirl Tool, which makes those grunge swirls possible.
Article - The Design Community Bids Farewell to Design Float? - The site has been riddled with spam for the past few months and has been hacked numerous times. The latest hack infected the site with malware posing a threat to anyone who visits. The Design Float website has been infected for around 3 weeks now with no word from the owner about when or if it will be fixed.
Article - 10 Steps for Turning Gmail into a Productivity Center - Gmail is by far the best mail client available, online or off, and it’s level of customization just makes it that much better. In this guide, I’ll be showing you how to do some things that will allow you to turn Gmail into the ultimate productivity tool.
How AJAX Works: 10 Practical Uses For AJAX - AJAX has gotten more and more popular over the years, and has allowed web applications to act more and more like desktop applications. AJAX can provide a lot of additional functionality that could not be accomplished any other way.
Hit a Plateau? 4 Ways to Improve Your Skills - Today I want to look at plateaus in terms of ability, and four tried and tested methods to help you get through them. The journey of mastery is an on-going process, but there are lots of ways to improve our talents along the way.
16 Free Phenomenal Plugins That Will Enhance Your Comment Area and Start More Conversations - The comment area on a blog is a very important place on a blog, and I feel like many bloggers under-utilize it. Sometimes, to get a good conversation started on a blog, there’s more to be added than just a comments form and the threaded enhancement.
15 Effective Tips and Tricks from the Masters of CSS - Tips and tricks from coders well-known for their mastery of CSS and all that goes along with it. Read on for their tips and tricks with regards to everything from avoiding hacks to understanding the box model.
Why Designers Should Learn How to Code - The hard truth is that the buck of development should stop with designers. For optimum efficiency, designers should not only be concerned with painting the bigger picture but also building it! In this article, I’d like to share with you some reasons why designers should learn how to code.
20 Tools to Make the Life of a Web Developer Easier - Developing a well-rounded aesthetically pleasing website can be a daunting task even for the most seasoned web developer. You must identify current trends and standards and determine ways to incorporate them into your designs. Luckily, there are many free tools which are available that can help you speed up your efforts and work in a more efficient manner. Below are 20 tools which are sure to benefit all developers.
Building Your Portfolio With Zero Clients & No Spec Work - So how do you build your portfolio with zero clients and zero spec work? In this article I hope to show you some clear cut, easy methods to building an awesome portfolio that will attract your perfect clients and also showcase your best work — all without doing spec work and without having any clients.
30 More Essential PDF Documents every Designer Should Download - The original was the most popular article I have ever posted on this blog receiving well over 500,000 unique views – fueled by twitter referrals and stumble upon. I believe that this collection is even better than the first so please enjoy these links from some of the web’s most well respected authors.
CSS Beginners Do’s and Dont’s Part 2 - In part one, I went over general tips and reminders, in this article I would like to go over more of the technical aspects of CSS.
Taking typography seriously - Whether you’re a print designer or web designer or both - please never overlook the importance of typography. Imagery, colour, composition, copy, layout, usability, accessibility and cross-browser compatibility are all essential building blocks of the design process but typography should never by any means be considered the quiet kid in the corner, it should never be overlooked.
16 Free Hand Dyed Paper Textures - I have a pretty epic set of textures for you guys today. I spent a lot of time, dirtied a lot of dishes, and went through about 40 tea bags for these hand-dyed paper textures.
Exclusive Freebie: Vectorlab Vector Pack - This sample comes after a lot of new additions to the VectorLab site (some really awesome engravings, BTW), as well as a new blog.
Days Typeface - Free for Download - Ideal for Logo Designs - Days is another neat and free typeface, again found on Behance, a real treasure trove of delights. This is so clean, modern and stylish. Love the curves, the rounded edges, the compact ’squared’ feel. I can see this being perfect for certain styles of logo designs.
Free Textures - 24 High-Res Grunge Texture Pics - I’ve put together this pack of 24 super-high-resolution Grunge Texture Pictures. They were fun to shoot, despite the Texas heat ;)
Watercolor Free Icon Pack - Each icon is in .png format sized at 256×256px with transparent backgrounds. The 36 different icons have varying opaquness that allow the background and texture seep through the icons like watercolor on canvas. This is a freebie you can’t pass up!
Free Vector Wings - Vector wing illustration from Golden Black by Pale Horse. HQ detailed hand-drawn wings in black and white variations.
An Interview with Alice Savoie - Alice Savoie started out with a foundation course in Applied Arts and then studied graphic design and typography for four years in Paris. She then set sail for the UK to follow the MA in Typeface Design at Reading University. Upon graduating in 2007 she relocated to London to work as a graphic designer. In March 2008 Alice joined Monotype Imaging as a full-time type designer.
Interview - Elena Savitskaya - I believe many of us have seen before the beautiful works of Elena Savitskaya over Flickr, blogs, design magazines and etc. Today we are very proud to have an interview with Elena here. Check out how this Marketing Manager turned into a Professional Graphic Designer!
Interview with Chris Coyier, CSS-Tricks - Chris Coyier, the man behind css-tricks.com, are my sites up and script & style, is a well known web developer. He lives in Portland and as he said himself; soon to be Chicago. With his creativity, Chris has given us tons of great tutorials and creates beautiful websites. We were very honored to be able to interview him.
Interview with Nathan Jurevicius, Touch My Pixel and Renmotion - Best known for creating the quirky world of Scarygirl, Nathan Jurevicius is one of the industry's hardest working illustrators. Not only is he the creative force behind a swag of collectible figures, various mini comics, solo exhibitions in both Australia and overseas, a graphic novel (due to be released October '09) and a proposed feature film.
Meet Master Illustrator And Prolific Doodler Von Glitschka -
- There are so many illustrators out there, but what sets Von apart is his incredibly delightful sense of humor, his boundless energy, his ability to connect with people and his generosity in sharing his knowledge.
Building a Forum From Scratch with Ruby on Rails - Today, we will be building a simple forum using Ruby on Rails, and we will be working up from the basics covering things like authentication and more advanced database techniques.
WordPress hack: Adding a bio block to a post - This article will tell you how to hack your own bio box into WordPress without using a single plugin! A great way to start developing in WordPress.
Two simple ways to create text embossing effect - Embossing is very popular trend in web design (the actual term for this effect is "inset", although many people call it embossing). In the same time it is very simple to create. This short tutorial will show you how to create this effect usng pure CSS and using Artweaver.
Design a Cool Outlaw Flyer with InDesign Tutorial - InDesign is a beast of a program to get in to; mostly because it’s so complex. This tutorial should scratch the surface a little bit of what it’s capable of, and introduce you to many of the fun tools.
How to Create a Dark and Sleek Web Design from Photoshop - In this web development tutorial, you will learn, step-by-step, how to create a beautiful dark and sleek web layout using standards-based HTML and CSS. Along the way, you will witness how to use CSS Sprites and CSS Text Image Replacement.
Post Pic
Creating user-defined RSS feeds in WordPress - RSS feeds are very useful, and indeed, very popular. WordPress creates RSS feeds by default, which is good in 99% of times. But how to create your own, custom RSS Feed? Just read this post to find out!
Announcing the Launch of 5 Niche Galleries - Vandelay Design announces the launch of five new Niche Galleries. Minimal Exhibit, CartFrenzy, Folio Focus, Blog Design Heroes, and TypeInspire.
Fuel Your Apps - The newest Fuel Brand Network launch, Fuel your Apps will bring you all of the coolest news on the hottest apps. Not to mention how-tos on how to create them, reviews of the latest crazes, and a look inside the minds of the people who do them the best.
Texture Lovers - Texture lovers is a site that only collects free to use textures that can be used for commercial and personal use without permission. You’ll also find texture related inspiration and tutorials.
WordPress Guerrilla - As a sister-site to the ever growing Guerrilla Freelancing website, WP Guerrilla discusses all things wordpress related. Tips, tricks, resources, inspiration, ect.
CG Tuts+ - We'll be publishing a combination of step-by-step written tutorials and screencasts, with preview images and videos so you can see the final result before you invest time in it. At Cgtuts+ we'll be pioneering the concept of multi-day tutorials, allowing us to produce detailed and in-depth end results without over-complicating the process.
Inspiring Wallpapers for Designers
A beautiful and inspiring desktop is a must for designers. And your wallpaper plays a huge role in the aesthetics of your desktop so it's not an element to be chosen lightly. A great wallpaper is beautiful, inspirational, and stays out of your way when and where you need it to. That is why we have featured them here today, to show you what we believe that means.
Click on any of the images below to download the wallpaper.
Submit
Have something you would like to see showcased next week? Send it to us!
Loading...
The best round up I’ve seen in a while. So many links, so little time :)
Thanks for including my article on Freelance Folder.
Mike Smith´s last blog ..Wordpress Wednesday Weekly Round Up
very good!