Post pobrano z: The Best and Smartest WordPress Themes for 2017

Looking for the right WordPress theme can be a chore. One looks better than the last one; and, after a while, they all begin to look alike. If this has been your experience, look no further. To get the New Year off to a great start, we’ve listed several features you should be looking for […]

The post The Best and Smartest WordPress Themes for 2017 appeared first on Web Resources Depot.

Post pobrano z: Awesome Deal: 30 Sparkling Glitter Brushes from The Artifex Forge

Your designs are about to get a whole lot shinier. With this sparktacular Mighty Deal, you’ll get yourself 30 Sparkling Glitter Brushes that feature some amazing levels of detail. Created from real glitter designs, each of these brushes are easy to customize and cover a wide range of different brush strokes. Highlights: 30 Sparkling Glitter […]

The post Awesome Deal: 30 Sparkling Glitter Brushes from The Artifex Forge appeared first on Web Resources Depot.

Post pobrano z: 3 Reasons to Invest in Great Web Design

Web design is the core of the digital web experience. Web design determines how sites look, how they function, how they relate to the overall brand narrative, and so much more. Companies like WSI are the best web designers Northern Ireland has to offer, but many people are tempted to forego professional web design services […]

The post 3 Reasons to Invest in Great Web Design appeared first on Web Resources Depot.

Post pobrano z: 5 Great Solutions for Team Collaboration and Workflow Management

To complete a large and complex design project, a diversity of skills is generally necessary. The team leader’s challenge, is to take a diverse set of individuals, each with their own skill set and degree of experience, and get them working toward the same goal. recognizing that a good team is greater than the sum of its […]

The post 5 Great Solutions for Team Collaboration and Workflow Management appeared first on Web Resources Depot.

Post pobrano z: 10 Responsive Slider jQuery Plugins

We’ve all heard about why we should be using responsive design (beyond the fact that it’s current design trend). But the decision to go responsive raises a number of development questions. One of the biggest issues is handling media. And one of the most common features on a media-heavy website is a featured content carousel (or image slider, image rotator, etc). This post will help you find a solution for your responsive slider needs. We’ve gathered a number of the best  jQuery responsive image sliders to compare and share.

10 Responsive jQuery Image Sliders

Flexslider 2 – Free

I use Flexslider more than any other image slider (responsive or not) so it’s a great place to start. Flexslider offers a fullly skin-able and customizable slider that works great across all screen sizes. I  use it with both images and images with text/calls to action. It also offers both horizontal and vertical sliding as well as multiple slider support so you can have multiple image sliders on a single page. Definitely gets my vote!

Royal Slider – Premium

Another great slider that I have personal experience with. Royal Slider has a myriad of configuration options (my favorites being the “Gallery with Visible Nearby Images” or the “Video Slider”). The only thing keeping this plugin from the top spot is that it isn’t free (Flexslider is).  However, a very affordable and super-powerful plugin awaits. There’s also a great wordpress version.

Camera – Free

Camera slideshow is an open source project, based on Diapo slideshow and offers a variety of skin and customizable options. I’ve never personally used Camera but the documentation looks thorough and the sampel they provide in the demo looks really nice and clean.

Elastic – Free

Elastic is presented in a tutorial fashion and includes the downloadable code to get you started using it on your site. This plugin has a much more specific look than some of the other plugins mentioned but there are some cool javascript animations being used.

Advanced Slider – Premium

Another premium slider, Advanced Slider is fully responsive, mobile-ready, and can be used with either HTML markup or XML. The plugin also provides an easy to use API to customize it to your specific site. It comes with various pre-built styles that look nice out of the box.

All in One Responsive Slider – Premium

All In One is an Advanced Jquery Slider which comes in 5 flavors: Banner Rotator, Thumbnails Banner, Banner with Playlist, Content Slider, Carousel. It allows you to easily create powerful sliders with animated text using HTML standard tags, making the slider very easy to setup and maintain.

Responsive Image Gallery – Free

Another tutorial by Codrops on how to create a responsive image gallery with a thumbnail carousel using Elastislide. This slider is inspired by Twitter’s “user gallery” and is more useful for image galleries than a featured content carousel. But a free and great plugin nonetheless.

UnoSlider – Premium

UnoSlider is a premium jQuery content slider plugin that’s core feature is the number of transition animations offered (the plugin developer claims “unlimited transition animations”). It’s also touch enabled, and offers a variety of other features similar to what’s been mentioned before.

Fluid CSS3 Slideshow with Parallax Effect – Free

Another great freebie by Codrops (sensing a trend here?). This responsive slider mixes in a little parallax effect (another popular trend). A parallax and responsive site? This plugin is for the ambitious designers out there.

Layer Slider – Premium

We’ll end with another parallax/responsive combo (this time a premium plugin). Layer Slider offers something really cool and unique: the ability to control an unlimited number of layers with individual animations. Combing this cool functionality with the responsive aspect and you have yourself a pretty powerful and extensible tool. I’ve had quite a bit of fun playing around with this on a few websites.

What other plugins do you use?

I’m sure I’ve left off some really great plugins and tutorials. But that’s where you come in. Let me know what I’ve missed and what plugins are your favorites. Feel free to post links to examples of these plugins in action. We’d love to see your great work!

The post 10 Responsive Slider jQuery Plugins appeared first on Visual Swirl Design Resources.

Post pobrano z: 13 Beautiful 2013 Desktop Wallpapers for New Years

Welcome to 2013! To kick off another great  year I’ve rounded up 13 of the best 2013 wallpapers. Start off the new year by making a plan to clean up your desktop. Once it’s clean, you’ll want to decorate with one of these great wallpaper designs. And if you’re looking for monthly calendars for January, head over to Smashing Magazine to see some really great January 2013 calendars. So find the wallpaper that fits your resolutions (pun intended) and here’s to a happy and productive New Years!

2013 Wallpapers for a Happy New Years

Wallpaper by Upwallpapers.net

Wallpaper by demeters

Wallpaper by paha13

Wallpaper by GuilleBot

Wallpaper by paha13

Wallpaper by PSDRoman

Wallpaper by Jenova89

Wallpaper by Zakzak008

Wallpaper by tajio

Wallpaper by Concrete Love

Wallpaper by danishprakash

Wallpaper by photonica

Wallpaper by ravirajcoomar

The post 13 Beautiful 2013 Desktop Wallpapers for New Years appeared first on Visual Swirl Design Resources.

Post pobrano z: Desktop Wallpaper Calendars for August 2012

August desktop calendars just a couple days late. This collection of desktop calendar wallpapers will help keep your desktops fresh as we roll through the rest of the summer. As always, I’ve hand-picked wallpapers from talented artists and designers  around the web. Feel free to share your favorites and check back next month for some great new desktop calendars. As always, if you’d like to include your own design in future roundups, let me know.

7 Beautiful Desktop Wallpapers for August 2012

Wallpaper by Call Me Victorian

Wallpaper by Paper Leaf

Wallpaper by Oana Befort

Wallpaper by Kriegs

Wallpaper by Kinnon Elliott

Wallpaper by Sarah Hearts

Wallpaper by Happy Serendipity

 

The post Desktop Wallpaper Calendars for August 2012 appeared first on Visual Swirl Design Resources.

Post pobrano z: Desktop Wallpaper Calendars for July 2012

July desktop calendars are hot off the press. 2012 is halfway gone but these fun and inspiring calendar wallpapers will surely help you get through the dog-days of summer. These fine wallpapers have been hand-picked from talented artists and designers from around the web. Feel free to share your favorites and check back next month for some great new desktop calendars. As always, if you’d like to include your own design in future roundups, let me know.

5 Desktop Wallpaper Calendars for July

Wallpaper by Paper Leaf

Sandy backgrounds and a retro color scheme comprise this beautiful wallpaper. The script font matches nicely with this “made for the beach” design.

Wallpaper by Webgranth

Rainy days may be a title better served for the spring (depending on your location) but regardless, this illustrated desktop calendar provides some optimism for what is typically a scorchingly hot time of year.

Wallpaper by Studio of Mae

Studio of Mae  has another nice  patterned wallpaper ready for July. As always the fonts and minimal calendar go nicely with the lovely background. Enjoy!

Wallpaper by Kriegs

This darker, grunge based design has some nice inkblot/rorschach digital art working for it. Do you see anything in the ink blots?

Wallpaper by Cromoart

Abstract shapes bursting from an evening view of the shade tree on a farm. I absolutely love the color scheme. There’s also iPad and iPhone versions available.

That’s the roundup. Please let us know which calendar is your favorite by leaving a comment below.

The post Desktop Wallpaper Calendars for July 2012 appeared first on Visual Swirl Design Resources.

Post pobrano z: How to Create a Confetti Brush in Adobe Illustrator

Who else loves brushes in Adobe Illustrator? They’re fun to create and play with. As part of „Love Week”, I’m going to show you how to create a wedding confetti scatter brush. This is ideal for beginners as it doesn’t use the Pen Tool. 

I’ll then show you how to use the brush to create a simple Graphic Style which can be used to create a stylish plaque or frame within wedding stationery.

If you’re looking for quality pre-made wedding invitation templates and wedding stationery, you can find them over on GraphicRiver. 

1. How to Create a Basic Heart

Step 1

There are many ways to create a heart shape in Illustrator. This is my preferred method as it gives an even shape, and it will introduce you to some handy features in the program.

Using the Ellipse Tool (L), create a circle. Use the Selection Tool (V) and Alt-Drag the circle to duplicate it so it’s slightly overlapping the original shape.

Step 2

Let’s combine the shapes by using the Pathfinder panel (Window > Pathfinder). Select both of the shapes and then click on the Unite button to make them one shape.

Step 3

The top of the heart is taking shape, so it’s time to form the bottom. You’ve got three anchor points at the bottom of the shape… let’s remove the ones either side of the central lower point using the Delete Anchor Point Tool (-). Mouse over the point you wish to remove with the tool and click it.

Step 4

The handles for the lowest point are creating an acute angle inwards to the shape. We can’t reverse that, but we can flatten it out. 

With the Direct Selection Tool (A), click on the offending point. Along the top of the UI, you’ll see the options for Anchor Points. Select the first option, Convert selected anchor point to corner. 

Step 5

With the point still selected, use the Down Arrow key on your keyboard to nudge the point down 30 points.

Then with the Direct Selection Tool (A), click on one of the side points. Plug the downward pointing handle bar halfway between the point and the bottom of the heart, making sure that the handle bars are still pointing in the same direction. Repeat this on the other side. This will complete your heart shape.

2. How to Create a Series of Colourful Hearts

Step 1

I’m going to be using a colour process by Beto Garza. He creates palettes by creating Blends between two shapes. I highly recommend his self-portrait tutorial.

So let’s first duplicate the original heart shape in the same manner as we duplicated the circles. Select the heart with the Selection Tool (V) and then hold-Alt-drag the shape alongside it, with enough space to fit say three further hearts in between.

Step 2

Select both hearts and create a Blend by going to Object > Blend > Mark or using Control-Alt-B. You’ll then get several hearts between each of your shapes.

To ensure you’ve got a total of five hearts, keep the blend selected and go to Object > Blend > Blend Options and select the spacing of Specified Steps and the value 3, as we want three original shapes on top of the two we have.

Step 3

When you look at the Blend group in the Layers panel, you’ll notice that when you drill into the group you’ll see three elements: the path (the line in which the blend follows) and the two original shapes. You can now select the two original shapes and alter their colours until you’ve got the gradient in colours you wish to use for your confetti. I’ve opted for a pastel pink (#f2a7cb) and indigo (#2e3192).

3. How to Arrange the Hearts 

Step 1

Before we arrange the shapes in a circle-ish shape, let’s release them from the Blend. Select the Blend in the Layers panel and go to Object > Expand. This will turn the Blend into a group of five individual shapes.

Then let’s release the shapes from the group by keeping it selected and going to Object > Ungroup. You’ll see the shapes are now ungrouped in the Layers panel.

Step 2

Using the Selection Tool (V), arrange the shapes in a circle… it doesn’t have to be perfect as this will be skewed later on. 

Step 3

Then using the Free Transform Tool (E), rotate each one of the hearts. The effect of the brush is to have the confetti randomised, so having the hearts at different angles plays to this effect.

Step 4

Let’s resize the hearts so they’re more randomised. With the Selection Tool (V), select a couple of the hearts. Then go to Object > Transform > Scale. I’ve reduced the size to 50%.

I then reduce the size of the other hearts to 40%, so there is a slight variation.

You’ll be left with something similar to the below before we create the brush.

4. How to Create a Scatter Brush

Step 1

Let’s get creating this brush. Select All (Control-A) and then open the Brushes panel (Window > Brushes). Click on the New Brush button along the bottom of the panel.

Step 2

You’ll be presented with a pop-up window asking which brush you wish to create; select Scatter Brush and click on OK. You’ll now have the Scatter Brush Options window.

Name your brush, and then let’s go through each one of these settings so you know why you’re selecting them.

• Random: They’re all set to random, because we don’t want a uniform appearance to the scattered confetti. When selecting this option, you’ll get to set the parameters between specific values.
• Size: As I created the hearts rather large, I’m giving the Size a small range and not varying it too much. The reason is that the confetti is not being viewed in perspective. 
• Spacing: This value is as low as it can be with a small variation. This is because the confetti will appear bunched together.
• Scatter: Scatter refers to how much the shapes deviate from the path drawn… I want it relatively tidy.
• Rotation: The shapes need to fall in random directions… therefore the rotation is set at both extremes.

Click on OK once you’re done.

Step 3

You can now apply your confetti brush to any path you wish… here it is on a straight line.

5. How to Create a Basic Frame

Step 1

So let’s use this brush to create a basic graphic. I’m going to add a fancy confetti frame around the names of our fictional couple, Gwen and Karen.

Using the Ellipse Tool (L), draw a circle behind the names so we know that the frame won’t overlap the names. Open up the Appearance panel (Window > Appearance). 

Step 2

Click on the Stroke line where it has the brush and you’ll get a dropdown showing you the brushes in your Brushes panel. Select your confetti brush. By default, this will have a 1 pt Stroke Weight, which you can double check by clicking on the Stroke link (which takes you to the Stroke panel settings).

Step 3

Let’s add more confetti. With the Stroke line highlighted, click into the drilldown menu in the top-right corner and select Duplicate Item. This will duplicate all the values and settings in the Stroke line. We’re going to edit this slightly by clicking on the Stroke link and changing the Stroke Weight to 0.75 pt.

Step 4

Now drag the Fill line to the top of the Appearance panel and change the fill colour to white. This finishes our frame.

Step 5

If you want to save this pretty frame for future use, open the Graphic Styles panel while the design is selected and click on New Graphic Style. This will save it for future use to apply it to other shapes.

Awesome Work, You’re Done!

I hope you’ve enjoyed creating this multi-object confetti brush. If you’ve got any questions on creating this or you’ve completed the project, please shout off in the comments!

Making confetti brushes or scatter brushes in general can be a lot of fun. Knowing the settings to make these brushes is the key to making awesome creations. Why not check out more of the many scatter brush tutorials we have here on Envato Tuts+.

• 
  Tools & Tips
  Learn More About Art and Scatter Brushes While Drawing Abstract Trees
  Diana Toma

• 
  Illustration
  Quick Tip: Create a Bat Scatter Brush in Adobe Illustrator
  Cheryl Graham

• 
  Tools & Tips
  Quick Tip: Create a Set of Neon Art and Scatter Brushes in Illustrator
  Diana Toma

• 
  Vector
  Create a Multicolored Splashed Text Effect in Adobe Illustrator
  Diana Toma