Post pobrano z: Grab 15 Freshest WordPress Templates Of This Spring [WITH 35% DISCOUNT!]

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The ultimate sleekness and magnetism of this new template would resonate with the tastes of the most demanding auditory. The theme brings you four impressive homepages that feature four most appealing, present-day layouts based on mosaic grids. What’s more, this Retina-ready template contains unlimited color presets, handy custom widgets, advanced typography options, and 700+ Google fonts. Like most Photography WordPress Themes Art contains a functional portfolio gallery for presenting pieces.

Mechanicum: Car Repair Services WordPress Theme

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Mechanicum theme employs the classy red, white and dark grey color palette as its basis and jazzes it up with trendy gradients. Its customization becomes way simpler thanks to Elementor drag-n-drop editor, enhanced by the collection of more than 20 widgets. With the purpose of incorporating the latest functionality to your site in mind, designers pre-built Mechanicum with an adjustable Mega Menu, empowered its visual awe with JetElements pack and designed a number of unique professional layouts. All this makes Mechanicum one of the most advanced and prolific car repair templates out there.

BuildIcon: Construction Company WordPress Website

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This iconic template lets you build a compelling web presence for a construction company. The theme is equipped with all the needed trust signals to persuade new clients to go for your company rather than for your competitors. In this vein, the theme brings you the impressive ‘Testimonials’ and ‘Our Team’ sections, pinpoints your physical location on Google map, lets people connect with your profiles on social media, etc. What’s more, all the construction-related imagery that you see on Live Demo also becomes yours once you purchase this exemplary template.

YummBlog: WordPress Site for Food Bloggers

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Charming and minimal, the YummBlog template will make your food blog exceptional and engaging. The template comes with the library of built-in layouts, including 8 ready-made homepage layouts for choosing the right style for your blog’s main page. Moreover, YummBlog theme comes with 10 pre-defined color schemes and allows you to create your own color scheme without touching any code. The theme is responsive and cross-browser compatible, providing for perfect display on different screens and in different browsers.

Love Life: Responsive Personal Blog WordPress Design

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Blogging will be a pleasure and a true creativity outlet if you go for Love Life theme. The clear and trendy design of this theme is totally responsive, which means that your blog will be a pleasant read even on mobile. What’s more, social options make sharing your posts on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms as easy as cake. Additionally, you can use this template to power a designer portfolio as all the tools needed for this come handy.

Dezingo: WordPress Theme for Creative Startups

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If you’re after eye-candy grid-breaking layouts and artsy typography, Dezigno theme would make an ideal creative web presence for you. The neat, material-design inspired homepage of this theme becomes quite engaging thanks to intricate microinteractions that users see when scrolling it down. Dezigno theme is SEO-optimized to let you fit Google guidelines for websites and improve your position in search engine search results.

MediaTel: Youtube/Vimeo Video News Aggregator WordPress Template

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MediaTel is the theme that lets you built an impressive, media-rich website. It’s powered by the reliable Unyson framework and brings you a custom visual page builder. The template is ready to harbor intense video integration, still remaining responsive and fast-performing. What’s more, it brings you a number of custom widgets and advanced customizer options.

Industry Multipurpose WordPress Website

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Do you represent an architect business, building company, chemical factory or machinery business? With the multipurpose Industry theme, your website will hit home with a lot of site guests. Industry theme provides for showcasing your popular services and some details about your company, introducing your craftsmen and team members, presenting your accomplished projects, etc. Moreover, all your website sections will look stunning thanks to added Parallax and Smooth Transition effects.

Amenity: Business One Page WordPress Site

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Amenity is an impressive one-pager for businesses of any kind. Its ultra-modern UI is underpinned by Parallax backgrounds, trendsetting color palettes, asymmetrical dividers, mosaic image grids, animated counters and more. This theme runs on polished-to-perfection Redux Framework and provides for streamlined customization with Elementor builder. What’s more, Amenity theme offers you a number of ready-made header and footer styles, sidebar variations, unlimited Google Fonts, custom handpicked color schemes, etc.

Lily: Clean & Stylish Blog WordPress Design

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Lily is one of the best new themes for personal blogging. It delivers you improved performance, cleaner design, faster loading and sleeker UX. Lily lets you choose from 10 different layouts for your homepage. Moreover, this blog theme brings you a number of advanced customization options that let you fine-tune the appearance of tags and categories, as well as search results and archives on your website.

Lanterno: Inspiring Outsourcing Company WordPress Theme

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Are you searching for a company website design that will truly inspire your clients? Lanterno is just what you need for your case. This theme looks light as a feather thanks to blue-and-white color scheme and sophisticated font choice. The powerful Elementor page builder allows you to set up the main website content without any coding skills. Lanterno also brings you JetElements add-on that adds a number of custom site blocks to your layouts.

Webion: Trendy Minimal Multipurpose WordPress Template

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Webion template stands on the verge of web design innovation and brings you a sleek UI that resonates with 2018 web design trends. Thanks to Elementor and JetElements, creating intricate layouts and adding diverse content blocks is a non-issue even if you’re completely unfamiliar with coding. Moreover, Webion template is loaded with Cherry plugins, different Blog and footer layouts, custom widgets and more. Also, it lets you power an Ecwid-based e-store section in case you need e-commerce functionality.

Deep Mind: Psychology Clinic WordPress Website

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DeepMind would constitute the basis of a perfect present-day psychology clinic’s web presence. Template interface emphasizes informativeness and lets you tell everything your clients need to know about the clinic and services you provide. DeepMind theme brings you an exhaustive set of astonishing and elegant ready-made pages for your easy site customization. Customize the theme on the fly with Elementor and WordPress Live Customizer and launch your new web presence in record time!

Tristana: Immersive WordPress Site Design for Bloggers

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Tristana is a sleek and elegant WordPress blogging theme that’s impossible not to fall in love with. It features grid-based galleries, asymmetrical layouts, trendsetting pixel-perfect fonts and prolific social options. For example, social icons are placed above the fold both in PC and mobile viewports and allow you to grow the audience of devoted followers. Moreover, the Instagram-powered gallery, situated on the home page, projects best flicks from your lively profile in this social network and invites to follow you there.

Wheattico: Crop Farm Responsive WordPress Site

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If you work in the agriculture niche, you can power an aesthetically pleasing, nature-inspired website with Wheattico template. This theme opens up with an immersive Parallax-enhanced hero image that instantly catches visitors’ attention and streamlines them to learn more about your company. Thanks to Elementor visual editor, you can get astonishing customization results effortlessly. No doubt, Wheattico template is SEO-optimized, responsive and cross-browser compatible, so that there won’t be a single obstacle on your way to online prominence!

You’ve just reviewed the 15 newest and most inspiring WordPress templates of this spring. Hurry up to get hold of any of them on April 9 – 11 with an impressive 35% discount!

What is the theme that appeals to you most? Let us know about your preferences in the Comments section below.

Stay tuned for more!

Post pobrano z: DINA: the lamp you need to pay to get some light

When you stop for a moment and think about it for a second, technology is amazing. Take lamps for example, all you need is to hit a button and you get some light. It’s almost too simple and maybe the reason why we spend so much electricity unnecessarily.

This could have been the thought process behind the creation of DINA, a lamp that requires that you insert a coin before you can use it. Although you can get your money back easily, the fact that you need to pay when using the light is a recurring reminder that cool technology comes with an energy price.

This cool modern desk lamp was designed by MOAK, a design studio from Cali in Colombia who specializes in lighting and furniture.

Post pobrano z: Brilliant Ways To Advertise Inspiration Resources Daily Work

To make your brand stand out while advertising, you need to find the perfect elements to include in your campaigns. As you can learn from AuthorityAdviser, every marketer wants to create eye-catching advertising that can be noticed by many people, and for this they will struggle to include the most interesting information that will get viewers thinking about the message hidden in the advert. There are brilliant ways you could create inspirational messages that will improve the impact of your advertising. Here are some of the tactics you could apply that are effective.

Trick the Eye with Juxtaposed Imagery

While creating an advertising campaign, one of the things you want to take care of is presentation. Crafting a perfect message includes using tools of communication like imagery and juxtaposition to help create visualization in the minds of your audience. The good thing about this technique is that it often results in adverts that are interesting and many people will want to get more information about what the presentation is all about. It is one of the best ways to stand out and capture the attention of the audience.

Proportion

Proportion is another aspect of advertising that you can use to create impactful ads. In this case, you try to make some parts of the advertisement louder and eye-catching in a manner that no one can ignore. However, using proportion may not always offer a beautiful outcome, but the advantage is that it creates an unusual image that will trigger the attention of the audience.

Use Exaggeration

You can also apply exaggeration in some concepts while advertising. The purpose of this is to ensure the advert does not look obvious and is unique in the eyes of the viewer. Exaggeration will help you to present a message in a manner that is different and intended to help the audience understand what you are communicating more profoundly.

Edit Photos to Add Clever Effects

Don’t always give people the obvious while presenting your message through photos. You can edit them to add special effects that create a dramatic result. Such messaging sticks better in the minds of the audience and could carry more impact if shared well. You should stretch your creativity, but also be careful not to reach limits where some people will be made to feel offended by the way you craft the message.

Play with Scale

Scale helps mostly when you want to show how convenient something can be to the user. It is a form of exaggeration that will help to show the audience how the item could be useful to them. It’s a subtle formula of saying a lot with little.

Marketing is a field filled with many possibilities and you should explore all of them to bring out the results you desire for your projects. There are many tactics you could employ to make your messages more impactful including using exaggeration and proportion to illustrate what you are saying. The idea is to be different and stand out from the competition. See some ideas you could employ above.

Post pobrano z: Have you noticed these web design trends in 2018?

As a space of ideas, fresh design and inspiration, the internet is a space which is constantly changing and evolving.  As designers add new elements of imagination each and every day, there is no wonder design is subject to shifts.

Web designers have grown with the increase in technology.  Sites are now more dynamic but still user-friendly and precise.

Each day designers create websites which fit in with business needs, adapt to new screen sizes and are aesthetic all at once.

In 2017, mobile browsing changed the face of web design.  More and more users switched from desktop browsing to tablets or mobile phones.

In 2018, there is a need for designers to stay relevant by adjusting their designs to a range of different screen sizes.  As a designer, you might be wondering which other trends are emerging for 2018, and how this will influence the work you are doing.

The striking impact of subtle shadows

Flat design has been trendy for a while now.  This trend removed all shadow from a site, creating a two-dimensional effect.  2017 saw the return of subtle shadows.

However, 2018 brings a range of new options.  As designers play with grids, shadows are being used more than ever.  These shadows evoke imager of a world that exists beyond the screen.

Shadows not only enhance the aesthetics of the page but also assist with directing user attention.  Shadows can be used to highlight a link or emphasize a call to action.

In 2018, shadows are being combined with vibrant colors and gradients in order to enhance the effect and create a striking impact.

A new vibrancy

2018 has seen the introduction of a range of vibrant new colors.  The subtle, safe colors of the past are being replaced with a saturated selection.

These colors have a dramatic impact.  Headers are no longer timid, and now give a shout out to viewers with cheerful hues and slashed designs.  Gone are the subdued sites as the internet starts to brighten up.

Brands who want to set themselves apart from traditional designs or corporate colors are now presented with an inspiring new palette to work with.

Particle backgrounds

As the design is shifting and changing towards images in motion, so are websites.  The particle effect enables designers to create an evolving background image which loads quickly.

Sites with great visual impact resonate with viewers, creating a memorable user experience.  Designers use images to strike an emotional chord.  A moving image has a much greater impact.

In addition, moving images can be used on social media sites, with a backlink to your site.

Design for mobile devices

2017 saw a massive increase in internet browsing via mobile devices.  These devices are highly personal and can be easily used while out of office or on the run.

As a result, designers have had to adjust, ensuring that navigation panels are effective and easy to use.  Imagery has to be adapted to a small screen as well.

This ensures that a carefully selected image has the impact that designers intended.  Sites are becoming simpler in order to adjust to small screens.

Broken grid layouts

Grids give the designer the ability to add content, images and even videos in an orderly format.  Grids bring a sense of harmony to designs.

In a quest for a new level of innovation, designers are now using broken grids to keep order without the constraint.  Broken grids allow designs to drift while keeping the flow.

Illustrations become predominant

Imagery is always evocative and resonates deeply with the viewer.  This is why a picture will always say a thousand words.  As 2018 starts to unfold, illustration is starting to take center stage.

Both GIFs and photographic imagery still have a role to play.  However, the unique very human touch that illustration brings is gaining new prominence.

Illustration creates a sense of nostalgia, taking us back to the world of 1960’s fashion.  As technology grows and advances at a rapid level, illustration provides a human touch to both our websites and our lives.

Organic shapes

Sharp edges and right angles have dominated website design for the past few years, giving a clear and modern feel.  However, in 2017, this started to change.

A new trend began to emerge, with big players such as Google, Twitter and Facebook adding a softer element to their designs.

However, it isn’t just site designs which are changing.  Large blobs of color are starting to give a new and very organic feel to background designs.

With the corresponding rise of illustration, this means that real-world imagery is now being given a playful and almost cartoonish element.

Superimposed images and duotones

As the internet begins to burst with color, it is time for designers to be more playful.  Google launched Material Design in 2014 and shifted the boundaries of internet design.

As vibrant colors become more popular web designers are also bringing in additional features such as dual toned backgrounds or superimposed images in order to create aesthetic appeal.

Contrasting colors such as red and green create both depth and interest.  Add gradients and photo saturation and the end result is intriguing.  Websites are becoming far more vibrant and multidimensional.

Innovative Typography Choices

In recent years, typography has focused on clarity and simplicity, but this is beginning to change.  Minimalism is being replaced by a sense of adventure and innovation.

Typography is becoming an art in its own right and is no longer willing to take a backseat in web design.  As a result, 2018 will bring fonts which are bolder, brighter and more innovative.

Think cutouts, misshapen words, transparent text and larger, bolder lettering.  Legibility is still key, so designers need to utilize a great deal more skill to achieve a cutting-edge effect.

Spacing is unusual in 2018.  This still requires the technical eye of a designer to prevent the results from being utterly chaotic.  Words are more widely spaced and this impact can be very effective when done well.

Alongside the recent growth in handmade fonts, typographers will be bringing new innovations into text this year.  The results will have a massive impact.

Subtle animations

With fonts becoming bigger and bolder and colors more vibrant, the animation is becoming more subtle.  Designers are saying hello to a range of micro-interactions which guide users on how to use the site.

Think of the button which shakes when you enter your password incorrectly or the text which unfolds to assist you with finding your way around a site.

These subtle animations delight viewers as they offer a deeper level of engagement.  However, they largely stay in the background, allowing vivid colors and bold typography to take center stage.  Balance is a large part of web design trends for 2018.

Summary

As 2018 unfolds, web design presents a brighter, bolder opportunity for designers to create a massive impact.  Sites are taking a more playful approach to design, with bright colors, bold text, and integrative animations.

The mobile phone era is changing the face of design, offering up the opportunity for brighter colors and simple imagery.  Use of illustration is making a comeback, adding a very human touch to a technological world.

As a web designer, 2018 is a time of innovation and change.  Working towards expressive sites and subtle effects allow designers to forge personality into brands or sites more easily than ever before.  The move away from minimalist sites and flat design can only be a welcome change.

Post pobrano z: Buying Domains in 2018: How to Figure Out a Good Name for your Site

Your website’s name and URL address are how customers remember you. Your website also has an IP address that anyone can find for free using WhoIs.com

In the screenshot above, you can see the result of a WhoIs search for Amazon.co.uk. The IP address is highlighted. But who is going to remember the IP address of every site they visit? Site names make the Internet possible for ordinary people to use.

What Makes a Poor Site Name?

Users must be able to remember your site’s name.

• Avoid numbers (either written or numerical eg three or 3) – people have to say “number” or ‘word’ every time
• Avoid dashes (-) – Sites with hyphens are often perceived as low quality
• Avoid underscores (_) – Who is going to say “underscore” when they are talking about your site?
• Avoid trademarks (eg Hoover, BBC) – That way you avoid expensive legal battles you will lose
• Avoid mis-spellings (eg hoovver) – Their legal team has more clout than yours
• Avoid triple letters (eg MissScunthorpe) – They are hard to remember

A good site name must be memorable, easy to say and have an unambiguous pronunciation.

Ideally, it will include what you do, be one word that you can trademark, eg, WordPress or two words run together, eg, InMotion or LinkedIn.

Where Should You Buy Your Domain Name?

Most web hosting companies give you a free domain name, but experts agree this is an unwise option to take up for your company name: Rather, you should buy your site address from a different company.

Trust is essential when searching for a domain name, and your searches must be private. Some name resellers sell your search data to unscrupulous domain “investors” who buy the domain you searched for and try to blackmail you into paying ten times what they paid.

LCN is one domain name seller you should look at.

LCN offers free domain privacy so a simple WhoIs search won’t reveal your name and address. They keep your searches private so that you can come back the next day and no domain sitting parasite will have ‘stolen’ your preferred URL.

Do .shop and Similar Domain Names Work?

You have a whole galaxy of domain name suffixes to choose from. Forget them all: Nothing works like .com or .co.uk.

Country-level domains work well within that country, but .com domains are essential for international businesses: Nothing else conveys the same authority.

Can You Use Your Business Name as Your Site Name?

Yes if someone hasn’t already registered that URL.

Should you do so is another question.

If your website visitors come from Google and Bing, your URL should tell users about the services you offer. This is less important if yours is a high street business with mostly word-of-mouth custom.

BobJones.com will work for a company with mostly local trade where everyone knows who you are and what you do. If you are targeting a broader geographic area through search engines, BobJonesHardware.com will work better

Think about your business exit strategy before settling on a site name. The name would need to be attractive to anyone buying your business. If your preferred URL were HarrogateHardware.co.uk, that would only appeal to potential buyers of your business from North Yorkshire. Similarly, avoid local colloquialisms, eg, JonesButties.com, because ‘butties’ is meaningless to many outside the North. (If you are not a Northerner, it means sandwiches.)

Other Ideas for Your Site Name

If you are setting up your business and website simultaneously, then you must check any business name you think of to check if the .com domain name is available.

Think of adding an extra letter to a URL that is unavailable, eg, Cowws.com or Letterss.com. Another trick is to use homophones, eg, Lyft.com or Silli.com.

Long Story Short

Never search for a web address on an untrustworthy site, and that includes many web hosting company sites. Only search on a website that is entirely trustworthy and guarantees your search data will remain private.

Look for a .com site name that reflects what your business does and that will have a broad appeal to buyers. If possible, your URL should be similar to your ‘trading as’ business name, but it must not include numbers or dashes.

Once you have set up your site there is more to be done – Check out this TechDonut guide to improving it.

Post pobrano z: What inspires you as a designer?

As a designer, you never know when inspiration will strike.  Although we might feel inspired while working, it is normal while taking a break that we find ourselves inspired.

This because during off times, our minds are free to process our experiences and to come up with new ideas.  As a result, we often feel inspired by walking, spending time with friends, going out to dinner or watching a movie.

Without our design inspirations, we often don’t add fuel to our creative fires.  This often results in a ‘creative block’.  It is therefore very important to surround yourself with artistic inspiration in order to feed your imagination.

Inspiration gives us the energy to create new designs and to work hard to ensure they fit with our image or vision.  It is when we are inspired that we produce our best work.  Inspiration assists us with brainstorming, mapping out new ideas and with bringing these new ideas to life.

As designers, inspiration assists us with keeping our creativity alive.  When we are innovative, we are able to produce ideas that have never been seen before.  It is our creativity which produces ideas which are ‘fresh’, ‘new’, out of the box or even genius.

As a designer we can use simple things around us to get inspiration, as example having a motivational wallpaper on your desktop is a very good option for this job.

So how do we ensure we remain inspired?

Set the parameters

When we are working towards creative design, it is important to consider the purpose of your graphic.  Explore:

What do you hope to achieve with your work?

What message would you like to create and how would you like to deliver it?

Are you working towards an online design or will your design be printed?

Who are your clients, and what guidelines have they given you?

Who would your audience be?

By taking your design brief into consideration, you will be able to create parameters for your design.  This helps you to eliminate possibilities and focus clearly on your options.

Source your inspiration

When we work creatively, there is a wide range of possibilities which are available.  We can find inspiration for dinner, other people, photographs, ideas and even experiences.  In order to find inspiration, we simply need to open our eyes to the world around us.

Often, we may have a specific aspect or area where we go to find inspiration.  We may explore the designs or color palette within nature.  Alternatively, the designs of others may fill us with wonder.

This often means taking ourselves to a specific place, such as the beach at dusk or an art museum.  At other times we may find inspiration during times of rest or relaxation.  We may find it when we run to catch the bus, walk in the park or are on the verge of sleep.

However, we do know that people or situations inspire us, fill us with awe and motivate us to add to the aesthetics we see around us.  We are often inspired by something extraordinary, just as we find delight in an exquisite restaurant meal when compared to a takeaway.

However, sometimes an everyday object or event can also offer up a sense of wonder when we open our eyes and truly see it for the first time.  Many historical artists were able to depict the beauty in everyday objects such as apples on a kitchen table.

Inspiration often has an emotional impact on us and leaves us touched by wonder.  Our minds feel inspired to create.

Inspiration touches each of us in different ways.  One person may be inspired by a bowl of fruit while another is inspired by a girl, a bridge over a canal, or the sky at nighttime.  Drawing upon our creative inspirations assists us to put together a campaign.

Working with inspiration

As designers, we depend on our inspiration in order to work creatively.  Giving our best at work depends on our creativity.  Many creative people work flexible hours, taking on tasks while their creativity moves them and allowing themselves periods of contemplation or exploration when it does not.

However, many designers have deadlines to meet and short-term projects which do not allow us to contemplate.  There is a need to draw on creativity the majority of the time.  It is therefore important to know ourselves, find out what inspires us, and understand where to look for inspiration.

Some people might have an intricate knowledge of how to find inspiration, but others are still finding what moves them.  Below are some spaces where inspiration can leap out at you.

Explore social media

Access the internet to a great peek into the collective unconscious.  Pinterest and Tumblr are image-based social media platforms which offer up great inspiration.

Both are packed with photography and design ideas and are easy to navigate and search.  Whether you’re searching for inspiration for a website design, logo or simply a color scheme, Pinterest, and Tumblr offer a great range of visual treats to explore.

Search the pages of a magazine

Design magazines are often inspiring because they offer up quick snapshots of some of the best work in the industry.  As a designer, these magazines are bound to leave you feeling awed.

Have a look at the creative use of color, composition or font and pick a look that inspires you.  You can pull out the pages you feel awed by and file them or keep them in a folder you’ll be able to refer to later on.

Gather up your inspiration

When you find websites which inspire you, bookmark them.  Pin images to your Pinterest board.  Use Twitter to follow designers who you love.  When you create a collection of images which move you, you’ll gain great inspiration for future projects.  You could even store your inspirations using Google Drive.

Make connections

Start conversations with designers or creators.  Share your projects, what inspires you, what you find challenging, and those places you find inspiration.  Other designers may give you great advice.

They may also be able to offer you solutions to some of your challenges.  However, even just sharing will enable you to think through some of the struggles you are having.  This often creates the space for solutions.

Draw on your inspiration

As a designer, it is often possible to live with continual inspiration.  You can draw on the colors of nature, the swirls within leaves or the metallics on an insect’s back.

There’s the genius present in the clothes we wear, the movies we make, the designs offered up on the internet and the work that is constantly reproduced by artists all over the world.  Once you open your eyes and begin to notice it, you will feel alive to the creativity around us.  In return, it will enliven you.

So if you need inspiration for your designs, or you would simply like to live a life of wonder, understanding what inspires you is key.  Tuning in to the world you see around you and allowing it to carry you away to another universe will awaken your imagination.  You will feel more alive.

Summary

Inspiration can come from anywhere, a verse of poetry, the sight of a bird in flight or the colors in a sidewalk might all draw your attention.  When you draw on these images, incorporating them into your own work, you will give of your best.

A design is always a collaboration.  We build on new ideas every day.  None of the work we produce on a day to day basis would ever exist without the thoughts, ideas, and visions which inspired us in the past.  We are connected to a larger world and this feeds our artistic imaginations.

Post pobrano z: Best AWWWARDS winners of the last 12 months

When did web design become an art form? We know it sure as heck wasn’t anywhere close to when sites really started hitting the World Wide Web in waves back in the 90s. With no CSS, ugly fonts (the polar opposite of these), brutal colors and a painfully slow loading time, calling websites art back then is like calling a jackhammer music. Thankfully, we now have a world where progression is expected, and much like every technological discipline out there, web design has moved forward so fast that we’re essentially playing catch-up.

It’s quite remarkable to think that we’re in an age where pre-designed website templates exist for those either unwilling or incapable of creating their own. But while what you can find here is useful for non-web designers in terms of templates, there are still those who desire to push the envelope in terms of web design and consequently change our perceptions of what makes a great website. Does it present information in a succinct and appealing manner? Yes, but how exactly does it do that? That’s what Designer Daily is all about, as we want to delve deeper and showcase the sites which take that information and make it art.

However, it’s not just us, as AWWWARDS.com does a great job of featuring brilliantly functional and gorgeously designed sites which can’t help but put a smile on your face. AWWWARDS gives out honors for site of the day, site of the month, and site of the year (alluding to design, creativity and innovation), and as that’s far too many to discuss in one article, we’re going to focus on our favorites from the site of the month category over the last 12 months.

Tao Tajima

Filmmaker Tao Tajima’s site makes such a great use of space because as soon as it loads, the screen is filled with a full-size video of Tajima’s work while the necessary text is overlaid splendidly in white. What’s more, the transitions from one page to the next seem to shimmer and dissolve, making the whole site appear as one living, breathing entity. His videos can be accessed easily enough and come with a short and interesting backstory, while a ‘Play’ button simply begs you to click. A beautiful portfolio on a cutting-edge site.

We The Fans

For ESPN’s upcoming documentary series following hardcore Chicago Bears season ticket holders, an accompanying website has been set up to add further detail and simply to hype the project. The user is greeted with a calming blue screen featuring a lit-up stadium, in addition to the typical sounds one hears in the midst of the action. After clicking ‘Start the experience,’ you can explore particular areas of the stadium and find out more details of the fans featured in the documentary. The overall experience is soothing, delightful and enjoyable, as we’re the ones who get to move around the (admittedly small) section of the digital stadium and read about the fans as and when we feel.

Ghost Recon Wildlands

This site is made for the new Ghost Recon video game, and after the intense and quite shocking video, we’re treated with a map view of Bolivia, where we can play side missions relating to the story. While the missions are mostly observation and don’t involve the user doing too much, it’s still an immersive experience and overall, makes you feel invested in the world. The map design is fantastic, and the moving elements such as cars and helicopters turn it into something so much more.

If you’re a web designer who wants to be a trailblazer and smash preconceptions of what a website is capable of, then the AWWWARDS are merely a way of simultaneously motivating you to try harder and be inspired by the work of others.

Post pobrano z: Improve Your Brand With Typography

Branding goes beyond the logo.  It also transcends the product or service and creates an emotional resonance with the public.  Typography assists with creating a brand.

As we move into a digital world, new products or brands are being given the opportunity to shine.

If you’re looking at building a brand which stands out amongst the competition, focus on the role typography plays in creating a deep emotional resonance with your audience.

Designers today work with digital and web technology.  This includes video, illustration and social media.  However, text-based website content plays an important role in building a relationship with an audience.

Once a video has been played, the audience will interact with the text of a website.  In fact, there is probably more text on a website than anything else.  As a designer, you can ensure this makes an impact.

Typeface helps to identify a brand

There are many free fonts available online, but if you’re looking at identifying your brand, paid fonts or unique font designs have their place.  Companies such as The New York Times and Coca-Cola are immediately recognizable by the fonts they use.

Using a single identifiable font gives your page a clean feel.  As a page is not simply made up of headers or titles, you can use other fonts as well.  Limiting your number while creating a neat feel to your page helps to create an identifiable brand which is familiar to readers.

Classic brands have used digital imagery to create an online presence.  This means that their brands remain easy to identify both online and off.  The quality of the design creates a positive experience for online viewers.

What do fonts add to a brand?

Fonts are expressive and give words a visual representation or language.  They are also durable because they help to create an identity for a brand that will remain in the minds of the public.

Brands such as Coca-Cola, American Eagle, Apple, Vogue, Disney and Calvin Klein all use distinctive fonts that help to identify their products and communicate their message.  It is no wonder companies pay such large quantities of money to have a logo designed.

Through using typography, brands communicate a message.  Think of Disney’s typeface logo, which communicates fun, imagination, vibrancy and nostalgia.  However, branding goes beyond the typeface used for a logo.

Aligning you’re the typeface on a website with a company’s message helps to add another layer to the brand.

Which typeface should you use?

There are a great number of different typeface fonts in the world.  Some are wonderful, some terrible, and opinion is sometimes personal.  However, there are some basic design principles to take into account when choosing a font.

Body fonts

When selecting your body font choose lettering which is simple and easy to read.  Some fonts come with serifs or finishing strokes (serifs) between letters, such as Times New Roman.  Others are without these strokes and are sans serifs.

In the printing industry, serifs are often used for text.  Online, however, the copy is often sans serif, and fonts like Helvetica are popular choices.

Fonts for headings

When selecting headings, fonts can be dramatic or full of flourish.  It should also be bold enough to command attention.  Display fonts break up your page, add contrast and direct the user’s attention.  You can use fonts which are eccentric, elegant, beautiful or full of flourish.

The font does have to be easy to read, however.  This is because headings often give a site user quick insight into the contents of a page.  If the font is difficult to read, it will lose its design purpose.

When working with a font, it is often helpful to limit your choice to two options, but vary the weight and height in order to create emphasis or hierarchy within the text.  This will help to create a sense of consistency as well as keep your page uncluttered.

When selecting a typeface, take the following into consideration:

Legibility:  Does your typeface feel familiar to your readers?  Are the letters easily distinguished?  Look at the spacing between the typeface.  Does it flow, so that readers can follow easily?

Readability:  Is it easy to make sense of the text?  Each letter should disappear into the background as the reader recognizes the overall shape of the words.  This makes the text enjoyable for the reader.

Suitability:  Look for a font which is suitable for the product or brand.  Apple, for example, uses a slick, clean-lined and modern typeface as a part of its brand.  Remember to pick a typeface which fits the purpose of your design as well.

Free versus paid for typeface

Many people use the term typeface and font interchangeably.  However, from a technical perspective, typeface refers to the name of the lettering (such as Helvetica or Arial) whereas font refers to the variation within the lettering, such as Bold or Light.

A typeface which is freely available online often comes in only one font.  This means it doesn’t come with a variety of weights and styles.  This might limit your options as a designer.

Many free fonts are also untested, which means that they do not always look the same across web browsers.  This can limit your ability to design your page according to the message you would like to portray.

Quality fonts which have been tested and which are helpful to the design industry are not normally free.  There is a range of typefaces which are fairly inexpensive (between $35 and $75) which will give you a range of options and weights in order to create a cohesive and well-designed site.

There are, however, some designers who charge a great deal for their lettering.  Determine your client’s budget in order to establish how much you have to spend on a typeface.

Services such as Adobe Typekit are helpful to access fonts across the web.  Typekit obtains fonts from different artists, testing them across different browsers to ensure uniformity and quality.  Users can obtain typeface from Typekit.

Creative Cloud is a desktop application which enables you to sync fonts available from Typekit onto your computer.

If you’d like to build up a library of font purchases on your own computer, you can use sites such as fonts.com or myfonts.com.

These fonts can be purchased by you for a set fee.  If you do choose to purchase your fonts, ensure that everybody who will need access to them will have a license to do so if you’re working in a team.  Otherwise, this might exclude certain members of your team from working on a project.

Digitalization adds new options to design

In the past, printing relied on letter setting. When a book or pamphlet was about to go to press, blocks of letters were arranged in a printing press.  Lettering options were limited.  It was also harder to make changes because this would mean rearranging all of the letters in the typeset.

These days, it is much easier to make changes to a page as you go along.  This means making copy easier to read.  You can add or subtract headlines and break up the text.  You can also try out a number of different lettering styles until you are happy with your design.

How does your font speak to your audience?

Each typeface has its own personality.  Some fonts are clean-lined, sleek and modern.  Others speak of elegance and heritage. They bring a sense of trustworthiness and reliability.

The personality of your typeface should combine with the message behind a brand in order to send out the correct message.  This is particularly true with a logo.

Your design should send out a message or first impression to a potential client or customer.  This message will be clear before the client purchases a product.

What meaning will the audience take from it?

A typeface will have to mean to your reader.  If a font is familiar, it will often feel as trustworthy as an old friend.  This doesn’t mean you have to limit your choices.  Instead, consider carefully what your brand is portraying.

Fonts are often related to products we’ve seen in the past and will remind viewers of a range of products, from pickles to candy.  Some fonts are associated with ceremony while others with technology or creativity.

When it comes to font, consider the size, weight and height of your typeface as well.  This will enable your font to whisper, shout or make a simple, bold statement.

As a designer, you have the ability to use type to create a statement.  And to ensure you are putting across the right message.

Understand how your message is received

The choice you make in selecting your font will determine how your readers determine a brand or product.  Are you contemporary, innovative, trustworthy or old fashioned?

How you present a brand will determine audience response.

Although some responses are subjective, it is often helpful to determine how an audience sees a design or product before making a final commitment.

Selecting the best choice for a brand often means determining how the audience interprets your design.

Researching or understanding public perceptions of a typeface will help you to establish the meanings you create for a product and the way that your brand speaks to the audience.

Your design should be invisible

If your design is doing its job, your audience shouldn’t notice your typeface.  This is because the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

You want your audience to gain an overall impression of a brand which transcends both your design and the product.

This might be one of creativity, honesty, reliability, innovation or even intelligence.  This is because it’s the emotional resonance with a brand which motivates a client to make a purchase.

An effective design assists clients to understand a product, organize information, easily digest what is being said and it attracts attention.

This enables the audience to build a story.  In effect, a good design is like the backstage work in a theatre which ensures the audience is able to resonate with the production.

Summary

The story we absorb, or the end product we perceive (form) follows a process of careful and practical planning or creation.  As designers, we want our work to be attractive.

However, it is the thought and creativity we put into it which will result in the emotional resonance with a brand or product.  It is therefore crucial that this is well thought through.  Without it, we simply create an attractive image.

Typography, when used with care, can turn a product into a brand which has a deep emotional resonance with its audience.

Post pobrano z: Design deals for the week

Every week, we’ll give you an overview of the best deals for designers, make sure you don’t miss any by subscribing to our deals feed. You can also follow the recently launched website Type Deals if you are looking for free fonts or font deals.

The Crafters Delight Bundle Volume III

Following on from the popularity of Volume I and II, Volume III comes jam packed with over 1000 design elements and 16 fonts this bundle is perfect for all your craft projects.

$24 instead of $422 – Get it now!

The Perfect Grid: A Creative’s Guide to Instagram eBook

Instagram is a powerful way to self-promote and with The Perfect Grid, you’ll learn all the crucial aspects to get you there! This easy-to-read eBook is packed with over 100 pages of actionable items to help you cultivate and grow your audience. No matter what type of background you have or theme you’re looking to portray, this guide walks you through it all and even reads like an entertaining story.

$7.99 instead of $14.99 – Get it now!

650+ Unique Characters in the Stunning Splendis Script Font

Elegance comes in all forms. In this case, it’s a stunning script font called Splendis. This handwritten typeface includes more than 650 unique characters, as well as tons of alternates so you can create an endless array of font varieties. With a lifetime commercial license, this beautiful font is a wonderful mix of elegance with flexibility.

$6 instead of $18 – Get it now!

Protect Your Business with a Legal Pack of Essential Business Documents

Whether you’re a freelancer or you run a full-fledged business, this Legal Pack will be your best friend. An essential business bundle, this collection features a set of professionally drafted legal contracts. You’ll get everything from the standard Client Agreement to the Transfer of Intellectual Property. Because when it comes to you and your work, it’s definitely better to be safe than sorry!

$29 instead of $149 – Get it now!

How To Become a UX Designer Course

Knowing how your customer thinks and what he wants is critical to any business’ success. That’s where a solid UX Design comes in handy. With this powerful online course, you’ll learn all you need to know to Become a UX Designer! Master everything about user experience from the responsibilities of a UX designer to the tools of your trade.

$29 instead of $328 – Get it now!

Post pobrano z: How to make a great freelance portfolio for yourself

If you’re a freelancer, you know your portfolio is going to be your selling point.  If you are just starting out and have little work to add to your portfolio, you might wonder how you can build up your business?

It might feel like a Catch 22 situation, where lack of experience prevents you from getting a job, but you cannot get experience without finding work.

The key to breaking this cycle is to add samples to your portfolio.  You will only need a few samples before you can start to market yourself to paying clients.  This will enable you to launch your freelance career.

Find your place in the field

Your specialty is the area of work you would most like to be known for, even if you haven’t built up your reputation yet.  The term designer is a broad title, but you might know you’d ultimately like to create websites or become an illustrator.  Focusing on what you would like to do helps you to attract clients who would like your services.

When you know what interests you the most, you are able to position yourself in the marketplace.

Look at these graphic designer websites. They’re good at what they do and they showcase it well.

Knowing exactly what you want to do is the strongest advice business leaders give to blossoming entrepreneurs.  Knowing what you want to do assists you with marketing your strengths and appealing to clients who want what you have to offer.

Present shining examples of your work

Once you know the type of work you would like to do, create a portfolio which shows off your best pieces.

Your work could include school projects or volunteer work you have done.  However, if you have any shining examples which show what you are capable of, be sure to make these a priority.  If you have worked for any big-name clients, make this work a priority too.

Include any forms of recognition you might have achieved in your portfolio.  Perhaps you have won a prize, been part of an art exhibition or had your work featured in a magazine.  Include this work too.

Make your work relevant

Once you’ve chosen the direction you want to take, and you know the work you want to display on your site, make sure that it is relevant.  This means creating samples of work that would interest your client.  Display only your best work.  You can always leave your client wanting more.

If you don’t have relevant work samples, create one.  As long as you’re aiming to do similar work in the future, it is worth spending time on self-created projects.  You can also volunteer, create products for friends and family or design your own products.

If you are an illustrator, use this technique on your website.  If you want to design logos, create one for yourself.  Find ways to show your clients what you are capable of and you’ll win their trust.

Make yourself contactable

When you’re first searching for work, make yourself contactable.  Include your email address, phone number, and social media contacts so that clients will be able to connect with you easily should they want to engage further.

When setting up a website for your portfolio, make your site easy to navigate.  This way it will be easy to find out how to contact you.  Add links to your social media accounts.  These often provide a way for clients to engage further or ask questions.

Show some personality

Let clients know who you are and what interests you.  This will set you apart from designers with a similar education or level of experience.  You might have qualities, hobbies, interests or even quirks that a client can relate to.

Your passion for Neil Gaiman may make you the perfect candidate for an indie bookshop.  Your love for the environment may appeal to NGOs working on slow living.  Sharing who you are will enable you to work with clients who you connect with, and who are on your wavelength.

Include a photo

Your photo puts a face to your work and enables people to see you.  This makes you feel more trustworthy to clients.

Place a friendly but professional photo on your site.  Choose an image which would give the impression of you being both approachable and capable.

Create a backstory

Let clients know who you are, why you enjoy your work and where your interests lie.  Andrew Wise shares that sales and marketing have changed.  Where people used to meet in person, sales now often take place over a computer.

As a result, you need to show people who you are online in order to establish a relationship with them.  Almost all clients will read an ‘About Me’ page before making contact with you.

Your ‘About Me’ page needs to prove that you are an authority in your industry.  You need to prove that you are capable of doing the work.  This will prove to your viewer that you are reliable and trustworthy.  Add testimonials to your page if you have them.

Relevant Skills and Education

When you create your portfolio, you want to show potential clients that you know what you are doing.  Keep it relevant to the work you’re doing now.  This will keep your information simple and prevent you from overwhelming your viewers.

Show the skills you have which are relevant to the work you would like to do now.  This will help you to get the project you want.  Your goal is to show clients you have the relevant knowledge to provide an excellent service.

Include a call to action

Your goal in creating a portfolio is to get your client to hire you.  Make it easy for your clients to contact you via your site by offering them the opportunity to sign up online, receive a free quotation or ask a question.

Many sites offer ‘contact’ or ‘hire me’ buttons.  You could also place a button which says ‘find out more’.  You could also invite your viewers to follow you on social media.

Create an honest representation of who you are

As a freelancer, the work you present to your clients has to be your own.  Providing examples of work that other (more experienced) designers have done is counterproductive.  This is because you won’t be capable of producing the work once you’ve been hired.  You might also find yourself in legal trouble for misleading your clients.

Your references need to be honest as well.  This means they should be easy to verify and not made up by either you, a friend or a family member.

It may be harder to start off as a freelancer when you run an ethical practice, but it is important for building up a reputation.  Clients who can trust you, who know what to expect, and who are happy with your services, will recommend you in the future.

Unhappy clients will spread the word if they believe you can’t be trusted.  It will be harder to create a practice as a dishonest freelancer than it will be as an inexperienced one.  Give yourself time.  You’ll eventually develop the trust and experience you need to grow and develop as a freelance designer.

Build on your networks

If you would like to begin building up your portfolio, begin with people who know you on a personal level.  This reduces the risk to the client who will have an idea of who you are as a person, and what your capabilities are.  You might also have a good idea of the type of work the client is looking for.

Draw on your experience.  If you have had a student job working at a bookshop, you’ll know the clients the business is marketing to, the atmosphere the company is trying to create and the types of designs which would help them achieve it.

Working in an industry you understand well will assist you with applying new skills.  A newer industry may be harder to break into, even if it is your ultimate goal.  This doesn’t mean you should give up on the idea.  Instead, build up a couple of jobs as a designer first so that you can attract new clients in your chosen area of expertise.  The more work you have, the more dependable you prove yourself to be.

Summary

Your portfolio is an excellent marketing tool which will assist you in attracting new clients.  It enables you to showcase your creativity and share your interests in the design field.  Add your most relevant (and significant) work.  Take the time to show your clients who you are and what interests you in the field of design.  You can change and adjust your portfolio over time.

Your portfolio will never be static and will evolve with your experience as a designer.  However, you always want it to represent you, who you are and where you are going as a designer.  Use it as part of an ongoing marketing tool to attract new clients.