Tuesday, September 25, 2007

100 (Legal) Sources for Free Stock Images

http://www.virtualhosting.com/blog/2007/100-legal-sources-for-free-stock-images/
"If you’ve ever tried to design a website or blog, you’ve probably felt the need to add images to your creation. It can be easy to see the Internet as a free-for-all, but images belong to the people who created them. Staying legal means you’ll have to either create your own images or buy them from stock sites. Fortunately, there are a number of sources for free images, and we’ve collected them here. So read on for 100 sources where you can find free stock images: and don’t worry — they’re all legal!"

Saturday, September 22, 2007

muse: a collection of inspiration

http://muse.drewwilson.com/
" Muse is a project designed and developed by Drew Wilson. My reason for developing Muse was to create a gallery where the focus is on the Artist, rather than simply the Art.
I have often wondered what inspires great artisits/creators, and that is where Muse came from. Muse will not only showcase great art, but it will also attempt to showcase the inspiration behind the art. And ultimaely the inspiration of great artists/creators.

My intention is keep keep Muse as fresh as absolutely possible. Meaning more new content, more often. New Showcases will be added as often as possible, but that all depends on how quickly the interviews from Showcase artists are returned to me. That's why I have the Inspiration Feed. It's a collection of links that I have found inspiring, and I can update it as often as I like.

If you have any questions or comments, use the form below. Or you can email me at: muse@drewwilson.com"

Drew Wilson Portfolio

http://www.drewwilson.com/work/
"Art has been my passion since I was a kid. Everything from drawing & painting to videos & photography. I merged the traditional arts with the computer when my dad bought Adobe Photoshop 3. It's been my main platform for artistic expression ever since, and I have been designing websites with it since 1996. I am blessed to be able to make a living at what I love doing."

85+ Free Killer Resources Every Designer Should Know

http://www.snap2objects.com/2007/06/06/85-killer-resources-every-designer-should-know/
"Well the good news is that you just need courage to persist and the light of information to scare those monsters away.

You got the courage. I got the Info.

Here I’ll give the info that could take you ages to find by yourself or another designer to tell (maybe because of lack of time or selfishness). I tried to cover most of the aspects that will help you in your journey, in a total of 15 aspects. Let’s start with some healthy tips for images."

Branding Strategy: Branding Judgement vs. Luck

http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/2007/09/branding-judgem.html
"In 1968, 3M research scientist Dr Spencer Silver was attempting to improve the adhesives 3M uses on many of its tapes. By complete accident he managed to create a robust adhesive that could stick temporarily to any surface and then be removed and reapplied continually. Baffled but enthused, Dr Silver spent the next five years presenting his discovery to fellow 3M scientists."

Smashing Magazine: CSS Frameworks + CSS Reset: Design From Scratch

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/09/21/css-frameworks-css-reset-design-from-scratch/
"You don’t have to write the same CSS-code or (X)HTML-Markup over and over again. Whatever project you’re starting to work with, at some point you have to define classes and IDs you’ve already defined in your previous web-projects. To avoid unnecessary mistakes you might want to start not from a blank file, but from an almost “perfect” scratch. The latter might contain some basic definitions you’d write in your code anyway. However, once you’ve decided to create such a scratch, you need to make sure it is really bulletproof — besides, if the stylesheet also sets up optimal typographic rules and basic form styling you manage to kill two birds with one stone."

37 Signals Manifesto (from 1999)

http://37signals.com/manifesto
" The 37signals manifesto was our original site from 1999-2001. It's a collection of 37 nuggets of online philosophy and design wisdom. It's a great introduction to the 37signals' school of thought and a fun, quick read to boot."

Minimalism: New Minimalism in Web Interface Design

http://rainfall-daffinson.com/minimalism/
"Web minimalism has come back as a trend in the summer of 2007. Rainfall Daffinson adores the concept of minimalism, zen culture and the essence of things. We chose 24 moments of minimalism web interface design in the last decade, selected several quotes to easily define the minimalism and represent some of the best new minimalism websites."

CSS Globe: Floater

http://cssglobe.com/post.asp?id=955
"Here's a simple little trick on how to have make secondary content float to the right of the title. You can use this for variety of purposes like put an icon to rss feed or link to full article. View example page to get an idea :).

Why should this make any sense?

Usually when putting floated content, developers put it BEFORE the element in the flow. i.e. images before paragraphs. When it comes to titles (and we all use heading tags for that right? :) ) the situation is a tiny bit different. Title should represent the beginning of the section and anything related to it should come AFTER it in the markup structure. So "click for full story" links should be below the title not above it."

Devlounge: 30 Fonts You Want to Have

http://www.devlounge.net/articles/30-fonts-you-want-to-have
"Everyone has their own personal preferences when it comes to deciding what fonts to you one their designs. Depending on the project type and what the design is for, certain fonts make more sense in certain situations than in others. There are millions of fonts out there - not one list could ever list them all. Some are available for free, and others will cost you a little bit of dinero, but in the end, the larger font collection you have the better off you’ll be in ensuring you have the perfect font to meet your clients needs.

We’ve compiled our own list of 30 fonts we think you should have if you don’t already have them. The list is a mix of some popular ones as listed in a “Favorite Font” thread over at Mintpages, and some of them I have added myself because I happen to be a big fan on them. Each font also has a url listed where you can grab it from (damn we make it convenient for you huh?) Enjoy!"

Vandelay Web Design: Designing to Save Time on Maintenance

http://www.vandelaydesign.com/blog/design/designing-to-save-time-on-maintenance/
"If you’ve ever tried to redesign a website (especially one that was designed by someone other than yourself) you know how frustrating it can be. Even performing routine maintenance can be difficult if you don’t spend a lot of time on the site and you’re not familiar with the structure. There are a few things you can do when you design a new website that will make maintenance and a future redesign a much smoother and less painful process."

Branding Strategy: The Language of Branding: 'Brand'

http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/2007/09/the-language-of.html
"It is important to establish a common brand management vocabulary in your organization. Establishing this common vocabulary will ensure that people can communicate with fewer misunderstandings. More importantly, it will help communicate and reinforce key brand management principles."

Esjay is nice: a portfolio

http://www.esj.com.au/
"Design portfolio of Simon Andrew James"

456 Berea St: 10 colour contrast checking tools to improve the accessibility of your design

http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/200709/10_colour_contrast_checking_tools_to_improve_the_accessibility_of_your_design/
"At my dayjob we create the graphic design for most of our clients’ sites, but not for all of them. Sometimes the client or the client’s design agency creates the visual design and leaves conversion to HTML + CSS + JavaScript and CMS-ifying to us. When that happens, I almost always find problems with insufficient colour contrast in the design. Sometimes the problems are minor enough to be acceptable, but often there are areas that need to be adjusted."

Design Bliss: 7 Sites for Free Vector Logos

http://www.designbliss.com/2007/09/18/7-sites-for-free-vector-logos/
"There are a number of sites out there that provide free vector logos of major corporate brands, etc. These could be very useful for mock-ups or student portfolio work."

Alan Bernard's F&Ckn Mayhem!

http://www.alanbernard.com/mayhem/
"Alan Bernard is a self educated Google junkie that runs his humble business from home. He does stuff like web and graphic design and is also currently in the midst of setting up his own apparel company.
It all began when he decided that he wanted to stop working for someone else because although the pay was good, he was not able to satisfy his other needs, like proper sleep and self enrichment. Well, he still does not sleep much, even lesser at times, but he is much more happier these days, and walks around with a permanent grin on his face, which can be awkward sometimes."

Create a timed stylesheet using PHP

http://www.prdesign-studio.co.uk/HarryRoberts/index.php?2007/09/10/08/15/29-create-a-timed-stylesheet-using-php
"Hi all, as this is the first tutorial I've posted I thought I'd make it an easy one (for my sake). Basically this tiny PHP script will show you how to make a stylesheet switch depending on the time of day, similar to the one found here."

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Yahoo! Food: 10 Tips For the Greatest Grilled Cheese

http://food.yahoo.com/blog/editorspicks/2430/10-tips-for-the-greatest-grilled-cheese
"It's the childhood favorite you never outgrow, the most comforting comfort food of all time -- the grilled cheese sandwich. American, cheddar, gouda ... whatever your pleasure, follow these ten tips from Laura Werlin, author of Great Grilled Cheese, and have yourself a slice of melted heaven."

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

iPhone-specific Web Development Misguided

http://www.christopherschmitt.com/2007/09/11/iphone-specific-web-development-misguided/
"Working with the web since 1993, Christopher Schmitt directs Heatvision.com, Inc., a small new media publishing and design firm. The author of several books, including CSS Cookbook and Photoshop in 10 Simple Steps or Less, Schmitt is also a contributor to many web development magazines."

Magic Tricks for iPhone

http://www.hottrix.com/software/index.shtml
"

Hottrix is the professional entertainer's leading supplier of wacky magic gimmicks and magic software titles. The instant download online shop accepting all major Credit Cards, our strong warranties and excellent customer support as well as the instant download section guarantee, that you will break the ice performing magic as successfully as thousands of satisfied magicians over the past decade.

"

Frenzic

http://frenzic.com/
"You are about to embark on a frenetic journey that will heighten your reflexes and get your pulse pounding. Minutes to learn and months to master, Frenzic is an all new puzzle-based game for Mac OS X.
  • A fast-paced, addictive game that makes Tetris look like child's play
  • Compete against your personal best or other players via the Internet
  • Complete power-ups for increased abilities
  • Climb through seven levels of Devotion from Newbie all the way to Frenzic Grandmaster!"

Bullet Madness / a free bullets project at Stylegala

http://www.stylegala.com/features/bulletmadness/
"Bullet madness is a list of 200 bullets, arrows and icons uploaded by our users.

A handy collection of bullets for your webdesign needs - these icons can add that little extra to your design and make your site stand out from the crowd.

You may use these icons as you wish, but since the bullets are uploaded by anonymous users, some of them might be subject of copyright law."

The Astigmatic One Eye Typographic Institute

http://www.astigmatic.com/
"One score and seven years ago on a bitter Winter evening, Ezra and Madeleine Bonislav, exhausted from a long voyage across the Atlantic, stepped foot on American soil to begin their new life together.

Ezra was a studious man with an acutely irritating propensity for mathematics and sciences came from a noble family in Warsaw, Poland. His father William "Goodie" Bonislav was the original creator and patent holder of the first plastic hair pick and other personal grooming devices."

Brandient

http://brandient.com/
"A brand is ultimately a delicate yet powerful sign. But not all signs are brands.

Consumers need their daily intake of aspiration and some certainty in a world of endless choice.

Reputation is a reward of vision. If brands are not for value, they are for nothing.

It takes time and fervor, from the single acorn to the living forest, to build a sign of value.


This is the story we believe in."

77 Resources to Simplify Your Life as a Web Designer

http://www.vandelaydesign.com/blog/design/resources-simplify-design/
"77 Resources to Simplify Your Life as a Web Designer"

Monday, September 10, 2007

Mashable: 5000+ Resources to Do Just About Anything Online

http://mashable.com/2007/09/08/5000-resources-to-do-just-about-anything-online/
"Since May 2007, we’ve been bringing you resources and tools to be more productive on the web. Due to popular demand, we’ve brought all these lists together into one gigantic meta-list: 5000+ Resources to Do Just About Anything Online. Enjoy! And don’t forget to subscribe to Mashable for the latest web news and resources."

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Ask Metafilter: Website design copyrighted?

http://ask.metafilter.com/71121/Website-design-copyrighted
"Q: How much protection is there for unique website designs (not content like text or graphics) but layout, colors, etc? If I model my website on someone else's that I like, am I in hot water?"

NY Times: Assessing the ‘Surge’: A Survey of Baghdad Neighborhoods

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/09/06/world/middleeast/20070907_BUILDUP_MAIN_GRAPHIC.html
"To study the ground-level effects of the American troop buildup, reporters and video journalists for The New York Times visited Baghdad's neighborhoods, interviewing residents, Americans on patrol and Iraqi officials. To explore the videos and written reports, select a neighborhood below."

A new typography.com: Hoefler & Frere-Jones (H&FJ)

http://www.typography.com/home/index.php
"It’s the all new typography.com.
New features, new resources, new ideas, new tools — and, of course, new fonts. Come see what’s inside."

Information Architects Japan: A Word on Design Value

http://www.informationarchitects.jp/a-word-on-design-value
"The other day we got a telephone call from a guy that wanted to “exponentially increase” his Internet performance. He had an existing, custom built CMS and he wanted a complete re-design and re-build. We met with him, and he explained that he would like us to “design everything, ready to program”. He would then send our “detailed plans” to India and let a cheap team program the whole site.

His budget? $1000

Our first suggestion to go with our off the rack solution for small companies didn’t really satisfy him. The naivety of this particular guy – all in all a very nice and polite person by the way – was refreshing, but at the same time it border-lined on insolence: He figured that he could hire an information architect for a thousand bucks to fully sketch out a CMS and eCommerce solution, and then hire a programming team in India to produce it for another $3,000. He figured that all he needed to do is invest $4,000, crack the whip and then see the money roll in."

Web Designer Mag: Top Ten CSS Sites

http://www.webdesignermag.co.uk/images/wd_features/top_tens/css/css.html
"Web Designer is the only serious tutorial-driven monthly publication dedicated to online
creativity available in the UK. Each issue boasts over 25 pages of regular Dreamweaver, Flash, and Photoshop walkthroughs across a wide range of topics and disciplines from some of the country’s most knowledgeable technology writers."

Friday, September 7, 2007

Multi color SIFR

http://webdesign.maratz.com/lab/multi_color_sifr/
"Multi-color sFIR implementation is easy – just add sEmColor:"#FF4400", sStrongColor:"#FF0000" and sSpanColor:"#EE6600" into you named argument call function at the bottom of the .html file and if the script finds a strong, em or span elements, each one will be colored3. And they can be nested, too."

60 Advanced Adobe Photoshop Tutorials

http://www.dennisplucinik.com/blog/2007/08/28/60-advanced-adobe-photoshop-tutorials/
"The techniques shown are advanced level and require more than just technical knowledge of Photoshop, they actually require talent and knowledge of design, layout, balance, color theory, subtlety, etc. If you are an advanced user, I hope you find these techniques inspiring and helpful."

7 time saving Photoshop tips for web designers

http://www.jay-han.com/2007/08/29/7-photoshop-time-saving-tips-for-web-designers/
"As a Photoshop user for more than several years, although cannot consider myself as Photoshop experts, but I did had some tips and guides for Photoshop beginners and fresh web designers to do stuff faster and more efficient in Photoshop. With this tips, you can know more about Photoshop and learn some essential time saving skills. Here I have 7 in total."

CSS+Javascript power. Fancy menu

http://devthought.com/cssjavascript-true-power-fancy-menu/
"When it comes to creating the navigation part of your Website, the first thing you might think of is an unordered list that you style as tabs. Lately, such navbars are everywhere, as many people believe they’ll make their site more Web 2.0-compatible. Personally, I just think they’re semantically better and accessible.

In this article I’ll go through the creation of a custom navigation bar with some cute Javascript effects that will certainly impress your friends. Thanks to the great Mootools library, this beauty is contained in 1.5kb. Not only that, but it’s also cross browser (tested on Internet Explorer 6/7, Firefox and Safari) and accessible!"

FastFind Menu Script

http://labs.activespotlight.net/jQuery/menu_demo.html
"This page demonstrates the ActiveSpotLight FastFind Menu Script. ActiveSpotLight provides the javascript related to this project under the BSD License (See Below). This software is provided as-is and without any warranty. ActiveSpotLight assumes no responsibility for any loss or damage as a result of using this software, please do so at your own risk.

This script is still under development and has been tested in FF1.5-2, IE 6-7, Opera 9, and Safari. The current build has the following issues in Safari: Arrows do not appear to show in-menu versus external links, as appear in the other browsers."

polldaddy: Free polls for your blogs, websites, MySpace, hi5 and Facebook accounts with PollDaddy.com

http://www.polldaddy.com/
"PollDaddy is an online tool, which allows you to create free polls and place them on your website, blog, MySpace, hi5, Friendster or Xanga account or anywhere online that you can paste a bit of JavaScript or Flash!"

Code Central: YUI Based Lightbox - Revisited

http://thecodecentral.com/2007/08/17/yui-based-lightbox-revisit
"In the previous article of YUI based lightbox, I've shown you how easily one can create a lightbox using YUI's Dialog class. Although the lightbox we created in the previous article has the basic skeleton of a lightbox, it still lacks some crucial features and it looks quite ugly too. Luckily YAHOO released YUI 2.3.0 not long ago, which included a eye candy skin (sam) that is more attractive than one bundled by default. We will use the new skin for the revised lightbox. Since we don't need all the features provided by the Dialog class (e.g., submitting data), I replaced the Dialog class with Panel for the container class of the new lightbox."

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Colour Lovers: Landmark Colors: Peru (Inspiration & Support)

http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2007/09/04/landmark-colors-peru-inspiration-support/
"Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. The estimated population in July 2007 was 28,674,757. Although the culture is primarily Amerindian and Spanish, traditionally, it has been influenced in its cooking, clothing, music, dance, and art by a number of African, Asian, and European ethnic groups. Because of this blending, Peru is a country so vibrant in colour."