Post pobrano z: Heavenly City: an Art Project by Yang Yongliang

Yang Yongliang is a Chinese artist based in Shanghai. He has a background of traditional Chinese art, such as calligraphy or painting, that started from a very early age. He pursued further art education at Hong-Kong Chinese  and Shaghai Fine Arts Institute. He turned this knowledge into something new using modern digital art techniques. His work has been exhibited all around the world.

Yongliang’s project Heavenly City is one of his recent works, it uses digital techniques and photography to create scenes that look like traditional Chinese paintings with a twist. Entire cities seem built upon clouds of destruction, making it look ephemeral scenes doomed to disappear quickly.

Post pobrano z: When design goes wrong: 10 wonderful design fails

The easiest way to demonstrate the purpose of design is maybe the absurd way. Good design isn’t always spectacular, while bad design will show you exactly what parts of the work the designer is paid for. Here are 10 examples of design fails that will make you smile.

1. Fashion Fart

When using a capital letter in a big format, make sure that people understand which word it belongs too. With poor positioning, it can take a whole new meaning.

2. Congratulations you have cancer

This is not the right way to announce a baby to new parents, even if she or he is born between June 21 or July 22.

3. M&Ms sticker placement

Not a mistake at first, but the label placement makes this packaging illustration very ambiguous. Not sure if I would remove it.

4. Failed price tag

Certainly, the worst possible way to add a price tag to clothes.

5. Nothing is possible

This doormat was designed with good intention, it was supposed to send a motivational message to cheer you up. Poor contrast and text placement turned it into a depressing way to welcome people.

6. This advertisement for a job

It’s either a poor URL choice or a genius way to test applicants’ dedication to get the job. If you can apply to this, you really displayed a certain focus ability.

7. This newspaper title

Yes, adding a reflection to a text that is integrated into the water makes sense, but you should be careful with any potential changes to the meaning.

8. Quit school

This anti-smoking advertisement was placed on a school bus, it totally changed the message.

9. Pregnancy test advertisement

Apparently, even after 7 months of pregnancy, you can have some doubt. Take the test!

10. Disabled elderly pregnant children

Yes, commas matter when it comes to sending a message.

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.

10+ Best-Selling Premium Fonts

Make room in your typeface toolbox! It’s time to grab this sweet deal full of more than 10 premium best-selling font families. From Charlie to Sweetie to Sharpeye Type, you’ll get a wonderful variety of fun, curvy fonts that will work perfectly with your latest designs. Use them on everything from T-shirts to logos.

$14 instead of $114 – Get it now!

Create Amazing Hero Images with WuHoo! Scene Generator

Attract attention to your website with powerful Hero Images. Thanks to the WuHoo! Scene Generator, you can now easily whip up colorful, fun professional Hero Images in no time flat. It couldn’t be easier too, thanks to a simple drag-and-drop feature, along with a variety of text editing tools.

$15 instead of $39 – Get it now!

120+ Unique, Premium Typefaces – 31 Font Families

It’s time to fall into a fantastic font sale! This Autumn Font Sale is overloaded with more than 120 gorgeous typefaces, culled from 31 different font families. You’ll be privy to a wide variety of styles ranging from vintage to cartoony, not to mention a slew of extras like alternates. No matter your latest project, you’re bound to find the perfect font in this collection.

$9 instead of $1550 – Get it now!

Laura Worthington’s Industrial Typeface Voltage

Reach back to the Industrial Age, full of big, bold words and cars! The Voltage Font Family by Laura Worthington offers up a practical typeface that’s both assertive yet down to earth. Loaded with hundreds of OpenType Features from swashes to ligatures, this is one charged-up font family that you won’t want to miss out on.

$9 instead of $35 – Get it now!

80 Beautiful, Liquid Style Brushes

Want to add a bit of motion to your designs? Consider a Fast Style approach using this collection of 80 Liquid Style Brushes. These brushes feature a modern-yet-retro digital style that creates round-ended lines giving off an almost dripping appearance. Use the handy reference guide to quickly choose the right brush to whip up a clean illustration or icon.

$9 instead of $15 – Get it now!

Post pobrano z: Essential design subreddits you have to check out

When working in the world of design, you often need to call upon a pool of different resources. Whether it’s to find the correct tool or maybe for some inspiration, the internet is a wonderful place to find these resources. However, given the breadth and depth of everything that’s out there on the web, finding what you’re looking for can be a challenge, to say the least. A salvation and a massive time saver can be found within the subsections of Reddit – called subreddits to those who lurk its pages daily. These subreddits are filled with thousands of active users who either work within or admire the design industry.

Whether you’re designing a logo or laying out a user interface, there exists within a specific subreddit those with the knowledge and wherewithal to help you out or put you in the correct direction. Don’t end up on one of these lists, instead, peruse some of the best subreddits for designers.

/r/design

The granddaddy of everything to do with design, /r/design boasts almost 200,000 users. The content features everything from graphic design to comic book sketching all the way to furniture and architecture. It’s a very general subreddit that is a good starting point if you’re looking for more niche design-related content, and if you can’t find what you’re looking for, merely create your own post and wait for someone in the know to correct your course.

/r/graphic_design

For anything and everything related to graphic design. It’s the perfect subreddit for those who are looking for news, theory, resources and inspirations for their respective projects. This includes anything that has to do with quality design such as logos, magazines, posters and illustrations.

/r/photoshopbattles

The place where the internet dukes it out, not with words or bullets, but with Photoshop edits. A lot of people prefer using other programs in lieu of Adobe’s popular software, but the concept remains the same: make something funny and sharable. You’ll need to have a good sense of humor and an eye for the uncanny and ridiculous, but when people start commenting, liking and sharing your work, you know you’ve hit the big time.

/r/designthought

For more in-depth academic posts that delve into the how and why of design, /r/designthoughts is the place for you. It’s a much smaller community than the other subreddits listed here, but the topics discussed tend to be much deeper, more thoughtful conversations than you would find listed elsewhere. Expect links to longer articles discussing the context of design, the societies that it reflects and how terminology can be used to shape the culture surrounding design.

Post pobrano z: 14 free Android apps for designers

Android devices may not be as trendy as iPhones, but they are very popular too. If you are looking for buying latest android mobiles, you can check out Theandroidportal.com to find your dream smartphones. Developers enjoy creating apps for Android too and the market gets tons of free applications to choose from. If you are a designer with a phone or a tablet with the Android OS, you may be interested by the following cool (and free) apps.

1. Sketchbook Mobile Express

Drawing and painting application that allows you to create quick sketches from your mobile device.

2. Fontest

A typography tool for developpers that lets you preview how fonts display on Android devices.

3. Adobe Photoshop Express

Of course this version of Photoshop is not exhaustive, but it can be a practical tool for editing your images.

4. AndFTP

Very complete FTP client for Android devices, supports FTP, SFTP, SCP and FTPS. Lets you manage several FTP servers.

5. Thinking space

One task that you can easily work on from pretty much anywhere is looking for ideas. Mind mapping helps you to organize those ideas, Thinking space is perfect if you get an Android device.

6. Magic Color picker

Color selection tool suitable for designers, artists and programmers for selecting colors using different color models. Supports 7 different modes and RGB, HSV, HSL and YUV color models.

7. SilverEdit

Web files editor for Android with syntax highlighting, a simple FTP client and more functionalities.

8. Typography Junkies

Stay up to date with the very latest in typography and font news on your Android Phone.

9. Color Dictionary

A reference of colors, provides RGB/HEX/CMYK/Lab values and detailed color analysis.

10. View web source

Check out the source of any web page, you will also be able to select text, search for text as well as copy and paste the HTML.

11. Evernote

Take notes of everything and in every format: photo, text, audio,…

12. Pocket color chart

A Pantone reference in your Android app.

13. Photo enhance

Enhance and correct your photos, crop it or adjust it with this great little app.

14. Astrid

For the productive designer, a great to-do list and task management application.

Post pobrano z: Notebooks covers with amazing embroidery

Fabulous Cat Papers is an Etsy shop with tons of amazing notebook covers, some of which include gorgeous embroidery that enhance the drawings. We have also found some of the best blouse embroidery designs from embdesigntube.

Post pobrano z: Design book: Can graphic design save your life?

As designers, we are familiar with the crucial role graphic design plays in conveying information in a more efficient matter. Good graphic design actually goes much further than that; it goes as far as saving lives.

Specialized publisher GraphicDesign& recently released a book that demonstrates how graphic design, when done right, can save your life.

From unbranded cigarette packaging to apps about the human body, minimalist pill packaging to hospital information systems, and urgent public health warnings to revolutionizing health awareness campaigns, this well-illustrated book perfectly shows the vital need for good graphic design.

In a small, practical format, the book was conceived by asking to graphic designers, clients, and health professionals their answer to the question: “Can graphic design save your life?”.

Post pobrano z: What Is An EV SSL Certificate and why do you need one?

Touted as the highest form of security verification currently available, an EV SSL Certificate (Extended Validation Secure Sockets Layer Certificate) confirms your identity and authority as a website owner. High-security browsers, such as the most recent editions of Safari, Explorer and Firefox can determine whether your SSL certificate has been subjected to Extended Validation. When it has, the browser address bar turns green, so your customers can readily determine your site has been subjected to this authentication.

Secure Sockets Layer Certification Explained

The standard tech for setting up an encrypted link between servers and browsers, SSL keeps your data private as it wends its way through the web from browser to the server and back to browser. To work, the server must have certified information about you to verify the data came from your machine. This is the certification part of the process in the name.

To get the certificate, a third party verification organization confirms all of the identifying information you provide when you request a domain name and hosting service. When the authentication process is complete, you’re issued a certificate of verification. Users see a lock next to the URL, which begins with “HTTPS” (S=secured) rather than simply “HTTP” when your site is SSL Certified.

Extended Validation Goes Even Farther

To qualify for an Extended Validation Certificate, your site must get through a more in-depth identity verification procedure. The goals are to confirm your existence as a certified entity, your exclusive right to use the domain and that your identity matches official records. Further, it affirms you requested to be certified. Once approved, your verification information travels with your data over the web. Browsers running high security protocols recognize EV SSL and will render the name of your organization as the site’s owner and your organization’s country of origin in the address bar.

Why Is This Important?

Scammers have become increasingly sophisticated and fake websites have become more prevalent—as well as exceedingly difficult to detect. The need for an improved system to counter this and verify the authenticity of a site emerged so users could feel better about trusting it. This is particularly critical in ecommerce, where financial information could potentially be exposed. Recognizing this need, the best free website template providers for ecommerce, such as Shopify, have incorporated accommodations for EV SSL into their platforms.

How To Acquire an EV SSL Certificate

The certificates are somewhat difficult to procure in order to maintain their validity. The Certification Authority Browser Forum (also known as the C/A Browser Forum) requires certified domains and servers to be listed with an officially recognized registration agency.

Corporations, general partnerships, unincorporated associations, government agencies and sole proprietorships are eligible to apply—if they already have a SSL Certificate and are located in a country approved by the U.S. government. Individuals are not eligible for certification. Certain industries are prohibited as well.

Your organization’s registered legal name, registration number, registered address, physical business address and any assumed business names will be investigated for verification. Your right to use the domain name will be verified as well. The investigating entity will also confirm you requested the issuance of an EV SSL certificate.

While it can be something of an arduous process, Extended Validation Certification benefits your online business by assuring your shoppers of your identity. By the way, the latest versions of Firefox, Safari and Explorer warn users when they are accessing unverified sites. This could cause them to leave your store and seek a validated place to shop. If you have yet to apply for EV SSL Certification, now is a good time to do so.

Post pobrano z: 7 Ways to Improve Sales at Your Shopify Storefront

 

Shopify users have helped propel this storefront to iconic standing – enabling this shopping cart services provider to amass an impressive 115,000 new active storefronts over the past two years. It’s no mystery why retailers love using Shopify – the service makes it easy for just about anyone to get a professional-looking store up and running in a short matter of time. With a variety of premade free and premium templates to choose from, multichannel integration and dropship integrations, it’s never been faster or easier to start selling online.

But getting your store up on Shopify is just one part of the equation. Generating the sales you want while building your customer list is quite another. If you want more sales on Shopify, there are many tried and true methods. To help you get ahead of the game and improve your bottom line and ROI, here are 7 tried and true methods you can use that have been proven to increase sales exponentially.

Consider Using Premium Themes

Certainly, the free themes on Shopify aren’t bad. But with so many stores already using them, they are not all that unique, either. The key to really making your store stand out is with using premium themes. Your first stop should be at the official Shopify Theme Store – where you can connect with theme creators and designers to get a custom-made or premade premium theme for your store.  Another good place is Theme Forest – where you can browse thousands of awesome themes. You can also find premium themes for Shopify at places like Out of the Sandbox and many others.

Rethink Social Media Marketing

What social media marketing are you doing for your Shopify store? If you are just posting updates, blog roll posts or pictures of your products, you probably are not doing enough to really generate buzz. Instead, consider hosting contests and polls as well as showcasing your wares on Instagram and Pinterest via sponsored posts and pins. Also, explore your options with hiring social media management experts from places like UpWork or Fiverr – which offer services starting at just $5 and up.

Improve the Customer Journey with a Shopify CRM

Once your customers arrive at your store, what’s next? Perhaps they are looking at multiple channels? Maybe they’ve purchased a product from an eBay store you’ve run in the past or from your Amazon store? What about their order history, customer profile, notes and more? In order to truly improve the customer journey and get to know your market like never before, you’ll want to look into a cross-channel Shopify CRM software solution to help you piece together all your data—so you can improve loyalty and retention while enhancing the customer journey.

Expand Niche Products with Drop Shipping Options

Are you unable to carry a product inventory? Or do you feel that your existing inventory is being limited by your overall budget? You have some options here. Look into drop shipping services like Dropified or Oberlo. They offer millions of products that you can auto-import into your Shopify store and the margins are very lucrative. It’s an easy and fast way to expand your inventory and get more sales without having to worry about fulfillment or overhead.

Streamline Fulfillment & Returns Logistics

What about Fulfillment and returns logistics? You have lots of options these days with shipping software solutions and returns software. For fulfillment, consider software solutions like ReadyShipper X – which offers a multicarrier shipping solution. For returns, look to Shopify-friendly integrations like ReadyReturns, which automates your returns policy and works in tandem with ReadyShipper.

Also, make sure you look at the Shopify App Store to see all your options with products such as these. If your return and shipping volumes are low, you can always use Shopify’s included shipping and returns system. By making shipping and returns fast and easy for customers, you are 80% likelier to get more sales and earn repeat business, according to UPS.

Add Integrated Reviews & Digital Coupons

Don’t overlook the power of integrated reviews and digital coupons. More than 1 billion digital coupons were redeemed by smartphone users last year alone – and integrated reviews are a time-tested method of securing more conversions and improving customer loyalty. Shopify offers integrated apps for this, including YotPo for integrated customer reviews, and Better Coupon Box for easy digital coupons. Both will help you secure more social chatter, improve customer loyalty and trust, and will also help you improve your average order value exponentially.

 

Post pobrano z: Powerful posters and covers by Jay Shaw

The Kingdom of Nonsense is the digital playground of Jay Shaw, a designer from Texas who doesn’t leave much information about himself on his website. He does, however, share the most important: his design work. On the portfolio, you can discover eye-catching and well-designed posters, book or vinyl covers.