Computer – check. Photoshop – check. Lots of free time – check. It seems that this is all that is necessary to call yourself a ‘designer’ these days. I believe that there is far more to a designer than software, computers and free time. Designers should have critical thinking skills, understanding of design principals, knowledge of grid systems, typography and much more.
Critical Thinking Skills
Designers need to be able to think, reason, research and back up their designs. Critical thought is the backbone of design. Critical thinking is what separates designers from your clients cousins 10 year old kid with Photoshop that can ‘make a logo in 5 minutes’. Design without meaning or concept is merely decoration.
Understanding of the Principles of Design
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The design community is choc-full of great blogs who publish articles that cover insightful tutorials, in-depth articles, impressive and inspirational showcases and an endless supply of free resources. It is a community unlike any other were the user is not only a reader but also a contributor, who in turn give something back to the community, through there own personal blogs and there design and development skills.
For today’s news we have collected and want to share five of the best articles from the design community in last week. We also are not only contributors, we are also readers as well, as is the nature of this great community.
E-Commerce Design Resources: The Ultimate Round-Up
E-commerce design requires much of the same design knowledge ...
In this tutorial, we’re going to create the Nokia 7610 mobile phone which is also known as the Supernova. This process will include the use of the least opaque gradients in the aim of replicating the 7610’s characteristic translucency. In the other part of the tutorial, we’re going to create a theme poster for the phone that reflects a supernova.
The difficulty with creating a phone is its 3d posture. Since we’re not creating a flat image, it will be a bit cumbersome to mark out the shape with rulers or guidelines to position the various elements of the Nokia phone.
Step 1
We start off by setting up a 900 by 780 pixel document with a white background and a resolution of about 200 dpi. Drawing a rounded rectangle, on the ...
First of all, thank you for all the great feedbacks and suggestions on the Vector Social Media Icons I released on IconDock. I updated the set with the new Google Buzz, Microsoft Bing, Picasa, Meetup, Feedburner, Ebay, Drupal, Gowalla, ICQ, Metacafe, Yelp, Xing, Paypal, Podcast, and various color buttons. Head over to IconDock to download the latest zip.
This week a contentious and highly debatable question was asked on Answers and, as expected, we received a lot of great answers favorable for both sides. We felt it was such a good question that we are opening it up to our trusty Design Reviver readers to hopefully settle the issue.
So, here goes… What’s Better For Designing A Website, Photoshop Or Fireworks?
The original question was asked by Angela last Monday, and has so far received a hand-full of answers (you can read them below). We would love to hear your opinion, you can post it in the comments below or you can post an answer on the original questions thread here: What's Better For Designing A Website, Photoshop Or Fireworks?
“Have you asked a question yet?“
What's ...
Choosing the perfect font can be one of the most difficult aspects of design. You will probably use one font for the logo, another for the headings and yet another for the content. And on top of that each design you create will have its own character and the font you choose will need to compliment it. Just how do you find that perfect font for that particular design?
For today’s news round-up we have collected the best and the freshest font collections to expand your font libraries and help you choose that perfect font.
30 Free Fonts Ideal for Business Logos
30 Free Fonts Ideal for Business Logos »
20 Fonts Ideal for Big and Powerful Headings
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Getting to know your client is an important part of determining if you’re a right fit for the project. Not only that, but you should always ask questions before-hand to compile information that you will later use to accurately design a website or logo for them. If you quote a client for a project without knowing what it truly entails, then you’re setting yourself up for the possibility of loosing valuable time and money.
Now we know that asking questions before you begin a project is vital, but what about after you’ve completed a project? Although this may seem somewhat insignificant it’s actually an important step to finalizing the completion and delivery of your project. Below you will find various questions that you can ask your client, even though you may ...
While I was coding the Notepad theme, I’ve learned some new CSS3 features and now I would like to share it with you. View the demo to see a Mac-like multi-level dropdown menu that I’ve created using border-radius, box-shadow, and text-shadow. It renders perfect on Firefox, Safari and Chrome. The dropdown also works on non-CSS3 compitable browsers such as IE7+, but the rounded corners and shadow will not be rendered.
View Demo CSS3 Dropdown
Preview
The image below shows how the menu will look if CSS3 is not supported.
One Gradient Image is Used
A white-transparent image is used to achieve the gradient effect. Because the new CSS3 gradient feature is not supported by all browsers yet, it ...
Fundamentally a web design has to convey a message or project a clear definition of meaning to the user within the first few seconds of landing on your site. Without a hook the chances are high that the user will simply pass by your site and will be just as quickly forgotten.
A popular trend at the moment is headline grabbing over-sized typography. This type of hook is unmissable and it helps the user focus there attention instantly on your site.
Now, there is a right way and a wrong way to do this – you can't just change your CSSes <h1> tag to 100px – and the typography showcases below show you how it can be and should be achieved.
55 Examples of Huge Typography in Web Design
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We’re going to create a relatively simple water effect in this tutorial. This will be flowing water ending with a splash.
Step 1
First off, create a new document with a white background and set the canvass size at 500 by 600 px. Increase the resolution of the document to 260 pixels. Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) and draw a vertical rectangle all the way down to the canvass.
Step 2
Now select the Gradient Tool (G) and on the Gradient Tool Presets or settings, click to edit the gradient. From the left-hand side, these are the colours of the “stops.” 1.#c8d3df 2.#e8edee 3.#c4c9cf 4.#e4e7e9 5.#98999a 6.#c1cad3 7.#f6f7f8. For the Opacity Stops from the left: 60%; 65%; 50%; 60%.
Step 3
As shown below, drag the Gradient Tool within the Marquee ...
