Just because you missed that awesome conference, doesn’t mean that you can’t still watch the lectures! This weekend we’re sharing a great talk by Bill Van Hecke and The Omni Group. In this talk, Bill shares his thoughts on Designing Graceful, Gracious Interfaces for iPad

Vectortuts+

We’re pleased to announce our 7th in-depth course available to Tuts+ Premium members: Identity Design with Ben Gribbin. Over 18 lessons and nearly 3hrs of video training, you’ll learn all the foundational skills needed to start doing identity design work for clients. This includes: research, brainstorming, sketching, designing a logo, business cards, print flyers, web elements (such as banner ads), as well as timescaling, pricing and where to find clients.

Not a member? Not to worry! There are four public lessons available. Links after the jump.

Public Lessons

• Introduction to Identity Design – We’re going to first look at what Identity Design is and consider what the main differences are between a logo, a brand, and an identity.
• Understanding and Interpreting the Design Brief – We’re going to look at what is often the first step in an identity design project: the design brief. We’ll look at what a design brief does and how it effects your design process.
• Brainstorming & Sketching – Today we are covering sketching and brainstorming. Specifically we’re going to look at brainstorming an identity design project.
• What is a Logo? – We’re going to cover just exactly what a logo is and what makes a good logo. A logo is not a brand. So just exactly what is a logo and where does it fit in your brand?

If you’re on the fence about joining, try becoming a member for a single month, and see how it goes! We have a 30-day, no questions asked, money back promise.

Members: Get Started!

Make yourself a cup of coffee, a pot of tea, or a cool glass of water – and get started with the first lesson!

Questions?

If you have any questions about the Tuts+ Premium service, just leave a comment; I’d be glad to help out any way that I can.

Psdtuts+

Looking for a new web design job? The FreelanceSwitch Job Board is a great resource of freelance gigs and opportunities. New opportunities are posted every day for web designers, and come from a wide range of potential clients. Today we’re showcasing a few of the latest positions that might be perfect for Webdesigntuts+ readers!

Web Developers and PSD to XHTML/CSS/Javascript Experts

Budget: 0 to ,000 — Location: Anywhere

We’re looking for freelance web developers to lend a hand for a few projects we’re working on.

We’re looking for web developers who have a good experience of building things on the web, and have big ambitions when it comes to delivering development. If you have experience working with…

• HTML5 & CSS3
• XHTML & CSS2
• jQuery & Javascript
• WordPress
• PSD Conversions
• RoR
• PHP, MySQL / LAMP

We have a high standard and quality verification office for the coding and development, we use basecamp and provide with free accounts for dropbox for our most talented people, we want to work on long terms so we will pay invoice for services weekly.

Find Out More

Senior Web Designer

Budget: ,000+ — Location: Columbia, MO

The primary purpose of this role is to provide senior graphic design services on an on-going basis for Veterans United Home Loans and its divisions. This position will also assist with the creative and art direction of projects, and marketing communication campaigns.

The Senior Graphic Designer will assist the Graphic Designers and direct them on the layout, design and production of projects.

Find Out More

Website UI Designers

Budget: 0 to ,000 — Location: Anywhere

Do you have the creative sense for User Interface (UI) Design? Then, we are inviting you to showcase your talent now. Exvo.com is looking for web UI designers who are expected to do the following key functions:

• Create user-friendly UI designs and applications which maintain a consistent look-and-feel for each of the Exvo applications
• Work on a variety of projects that require a passion for the user experience and an eye for detail
• Work closely with our Front-End Development team to understand user needs and create interactive mock-ups by using Adobe Fireworks
• Contribute to the user experience and continually improve interface designs

Requirements:

• Extensive experience in user-friendly UI designs- Must be creative and open to new technology- Must have vast knowledge and application of Adobe Fireworks

Note: Be ready for a quick skills test!

Find Out More

Freelance Designer for Web App

Budget: ,500 to ,000 — Location: United States

We’re developing several Web applications that gather specific information from the user and then display relevant information to them.

We’re looking for a talented designer to work with our content team to design the GUI for the Web app, basing it off our existing website design and color scheme (to be provided). We would also like to find a provider who can, upon design approval, create valid HTML/CSS markup for the design, though this is not required. Please note, however, that you will NOT need to code the functionality of the application; you would only need to provide the GUI markup.

Applicants should have experience building Web application GUIs and experience in user experience design and concepts. You also MUST be based on the United States and agree to not outsource any aspect of the project.

To apply, please provide links to samples of Web application GUIs you’ve developed as well as what hourly rate you charge. Please also indicate whether you can provide HTML/CSS markup services.

Designer must be willing to sign a non-disclosure, confidentiality and transfer of ownership agreement. Applications without work samples or hourly rate will not be considered. Non-U.S.-based applicants will not be considered.

Find Out More

And Lots More…

These are just a handful of the positions currently being offered over at at Job Board, so be sure to head over and take a look at the full selection. We also have a few RSS feeds that will keep you updated with new openings, and you can even choose only to hear about those specific to web design!

To apply for any of these jobs, simply pick up a FreelanceSwitch membership for an affordable a month. See something you like? Join now!

Webdesigntuts+

If you’re looking for tribal graphics, inspired by ancient tattooed warriors, woven wings, fire-breathing dragons, swirling ornamental body art, and more, then you’ve landed on the right article. We’ve collected a truckload of tribal vector artwork, all available for free download.

These free vector tribal graphics are great for adding a powerful feel to your art, stamping stylish ornamentation to rockstar projects, and to give your designs a timeless sharp edge. Grab a multitude of tribal, tattoo-inspired designs to add to your collection, which are available in EPS, CSH, AI and other vector formats for free download. Whether you use Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape, or prefer another vector software package, you can download these sets and use them in your next design.

Also, if you’re looking to create your own tribal vector graphics, then check out the tutorial we have here on Vectortuts+ by head honcho Bill Beachy from GoMedia, which is titled Illustrator CS5 Variable Width Stroke Tool: Perfect for Making Tribal Designs! It’s a great workflow to follow to quickly create awesome tribal shapes, woven patterns, and sharp tattoo-inspired graphics in Illustrator.

Note: Many of these graphics are available for commercial use, as well as personal use. Some may have stronger restrictions though, so as always check the usage rights before using.

Free Tribal Vector Graphics Inspired by Tattoo Designs

Free Vector Tribals

This set of free vector tribal graphics are intricately designed. They have a barbed wire rockstar feel, swirling ornaments, and weaving flames. SadMonkeyDesign put together this tattoo inspired set of free tribal graphics.

You can use them to design your next rock poster or decorate your metal website. This set is also unique in that it contains vector ornament components that you can snap together to create your own tribal vector art. You can download this vector freebies set in EPS format.

Tribal Tattoo Designs

This small set of free tribal vector graphics is designed by Stock-Graphic-Designs. They have an interlocking swirled design, with rounded edges. These graphics have been inspired by tribal tattoos and would make an excellent vector element to use in decorating a mixed martial arts event. These free tribal designs are available in EPS format.

Tribal Dragons

These tribal dragon graphics are powerful, free vector art silhouettes. The interlocking designs swirl and cut into negative space with sharp angles and ferocious detail. This collection of high quality, scalable dragon shapes can be used in all sorts of designs or to print from vector to vinyl decals. Grab this set of free tribal clipart, which are available to download in AI and CSH formats.

Tribal Tattoo Vector

This woven linear tribal design is inspired by arm band style tattoos. You can download this free tribal vector graphic in AI format and use it in your next stylish design. This free tribal clipart was created by macbooksee.

Tribal Flames Vector Design

Vectorportal.com put together these free vector tribal flames. These flaming symbols have a burning flow that captures the tribal spirit. Use them to add racing fire down your next design. These free tribal vector graphics are available for download in EPS freebie format. Grab these free vector art silhouettes while they’re hot.

Ornaments Tribals

These swirl vector ornaments have a tribal graphic influence. They are created by Renan A. Lima and excellent for using in designs that call for a softer tribal swirling pattern. These free tribal vectors are available in AI format.

Vector Tribal Wings

These free tribal vector wing ornaments are composed of multiple curving flames with sharp cutting edges. Download these free vector art silhouette, tribal designs, which are available in EPS format and provided on DeviantArt by djog.

Tribal Tiger Vector

This roaring stock vector tiger is available for free download in AI format. It’s provided by Jorenl over on Vecteezy.com. This free tribal clipart would add a powerful image to brand a youth targeted book or other design. You have to love this beautifully drawn tribal vector graphic.

Panthera Tribal Vector

This tribal inspired panther design appears to roar. It has a smooth style linear composition of interlocking shapes. This wild tribal vector graphic is available for free download in EPS freebie format. Vectorportal.com put this free tribal clipart together and has released it through 123freevectors.com.

Cool Tribal Borders

This pack of tribal inspired designs includes 10 vector borders, which can be used as seamless lines, seamless borders, or frames. Use them to set off a quote inside barbed wire, or a photo inside a woven tribal tattoo vector border. These tribal vector graphic borders are designed by VectorVaco and available in AI and EPS formats.

Free Tribal Vectors

This set of cool tribal design elements is created by VectorVaco. The set of tribal vector graphics are designed as wide tattoo influenced symbols of interlocking sharp slashes. The design of these vector tribal signs are simple and elegant. You can download these vector freebies in AI and EPS formats.

FREE Vector Graphics and EPS Clip Art: Tattoos

This resource hosts loads of vector tribal and tattoo graphics. There is a large variety of tribal wings, abstract tattoo shapes, ornamental flames, woven wires, and more. These free tribal vector graphics are available for download from Vectorgraphics.info in EPS, CDR, and WMF formats. Also click the top left links for more pages of free tribal clipart and freebie tat graphics.

Tribal Art Using Vector (EPS) Graphics

This tribal art set is created in Illustrator by Opengraphicdesign.com. There are various tattoo inspired patterns and borders. With just a few simple shapes, the artist has flipped, rotated, and distorted these into a a fine set of free tribal vector graphics. These freebies are available in vector EPS and AI formats. The set is extend into another two parts as well, which are shown below.

Tribal Art Using Vector Graphics – Part 2

This next set of tribal art graphics by Opengraphicdesign.com are a little more defined. The tribal skull is really cool, and there are tribal bands, borders, swirling tattoo inspired graphics and more. These free vector tribal graphics are the second of three sets and are available in AI and EPS formats.

Tribal Art Using Vector Graphics – Part 3

This third set of tribal vector drawings by Opengraphicdesign.com are inspired by traditional and oriental style tattoo patterns. The mask in the center is interesting and there are multiple swirling ornamental designs, interlocking wires, and more for free download. You can grab this set in AI and EPS vector formats as a free vector download.

More Large Collections of Free Vector Downloads on Vectortuts+

• 250+ Free, Vintage Graphics: Flourish Vector Ornaments
• Free Vector Downloads: 50+ Illustrator Patterns for Vintage Design
• Massive Collection of Vintage Vector Graphics: Floral Borders, Corners, and Frames
• 150+ Free, Vintage Vector, Medieval Heraldry Graphics
• Best of, Free Vector Business People Silhouette Packs
• 23 Free, Vector Icon Packs for Social Media
• 13 Brandable, Free, Vector People Graphics: Mascots and Character Designs

Vectortuts+

What better way to win new customers than by offering something for nothing? Join me in this quick screencast, and we’ll design a versatile free trial badge in Photoshop.

Watch Screencast

Webdesigntuts+

Just because you didn’t get to go to that awesome conference doesn’t mean that you can’t still watch the footage! The Unmatched Style podcasts regularly feature top players in the web design industry – this week, Gene Crawford talks to Cameron Moll about going solo, Authentic Jobs, and letterpress posters..

Watch the Interview

Webdesigntuts+

As the year comes to an end and we pack up our vector tools for some well deserved rest and relaxation, let’s take a look back at some of the best and most inspiring Vectortuts+ articles and tutorials for 2011.

The following collection is just a fraction of the fantastic content we have published this year, if there’s a tutorial or article that you have found particularly useful or inspiring this year, let us know about it in the comments section below.

Sessions

• 

  Beginners Guides to InDesign

  InDesign is a powerful design program with so many tools and features it can a bit tricky to find a topic to begin with. With this in mind, we’ve put together a collection of beginner guides on various InDesign topics like the best way to create a new document, how to import text and images and even useful advice on what to do when a document is corrupted and how to make comments and track changes. Work your way through the guides and you will be well on your way to mastering InDesign.

  Visit Article

• 

  Vector Portraits

  Learning to draw the human figure and create stunning vector portraits can be an arduous task. Working with models, or photo references, finding the right pose, using just the right blend effect for skin, the correct vector brush for hair, are all subtle skills needed for the vector portrait artist.

  In this Creative Session, take your vector people portrait work to the next level, by grabbing a heavy dose of inspiration from professionals working in the field, as well as hands on tutorials that teach you the big brush strokes and artistic nuances that will transform your vector portrait work.

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• 

  Vector Text Effects

  The right text effect can be one of the most important elements in any design or illustration. Often text effects involve an interesting combination of unique vector tool usage, artistic innovation, a designers eye for font choice, drawing skills, and an illustrator’s touch. In this Creative Session, take your text to the next level with these vector text effect tutorials.

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• 

  Poster Design

  Successful poster designs communicate a clear message, make you halt and look, then draw you into the finer details. Posters are large canvases that give designers plenty of space to make masterpieces. In this session, you’ll learn how to incorporate the right font for the needed text, compose an effective layout, mix your illustration and design skills, grab attention, and more.

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  Icon Design

  Icons can range in level of detail, from the simple and symbolic, to those with realism and intricate detail. In either case, they need to be metaphorically meaningful and instantly recognizable. They have to communicate at a glance. We’ve assembled the best tutorials, articles, and resources we have on icon design here on Vectortuts+ into this Creative Session. Learn how to create functional and beautiful vector icons that will fit seamlessly within your designs.

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Quick Tips

• 

  Quick Tip: How to Create a Retro Style Textured Logo

  Learn how to create a retro vector seal logo in Adobe Illustrator with Ryan Quintal. Well be using simple shapes, effects, transparency masks, and a free grunge texture pack from PSD TutsPlus to create the final effect.

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• 

  Quick Tip: Create an Old-School Print Style Illustration

  Ryan shows us how to get that old-school printed look. Mis-registered lines is key, as well as blending modes and more. You may even learn a lesson or two in the way things are printed classically. To kick us of, we will grab some resources from the Envato network.

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• 

  Quick Tip: Create a Transparent Ruler Illustration

  In the following tutorial you will learn how to create a transparent ruler. The grid and the snap to grid will come in handy as we are about to create several paths with accurate dimensions. Using multiple fills and stroke with various blending modes and opacity percentages we will create the overall ruler illustration. For the final details we will use a built in brush and some basic effects.

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• 

  Quick Tip: Combine Envelope Distort with Grids

  You can get some interesting effects by combining Envelope Distort with the Rectangular and Polar Grid tools. In this Quick Tip you will learn how to create a few different effects that may spark your imagination.

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• 

  Quick Tip : Create a Fresh Cucumber Text Effect

  Follow this quick tip to learn how to create a fresh and realistic cucumber text effect. You will work with multiple appearances, blending modes and effects like: Feather, Inner Glow, Roughen and Pointillize. You will also learn to create a multipurpose water drop. Let’s start.

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• 

  Quick Tip: How to Make a Repeating Japanese Wave Pattern in Adobe Illustrator

  Repeating patterns can be confusing to make and sometimes creating a quick and easy pattern will leave you with a result that is less than professional. In this basic Quick Tip tutorial you will learn how easy it is to use the Appearance Panel and an arch shape to create a harmonious Japanese Wave Pattern. Let’s get started!

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• 

  Quick Tip: How to Create a Beautiful Vector Bokeh Effect

  In this video Quick Tip, learn how to use Symbols and the Symbolism tools to create a luminous autumn background. Let’s get started!

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• 

  Quick Tip: Designing a Basic Letterhead with InDesign CS5

  For today’s Quick Tip we are going to set up a letterhead within InDesign. However, before we can start, you need to have a logo, some content (you can also use place holder text) and contact details ready. I will be using a logo from GraphicRiver which happens to be the free file for October.

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• 

  Quick Tip: Create the iCloud Icon in Illustrator

  Learn how to create a radial mesh and a brushed metal effect as the basis for this stylish icon. Then make a beveled graphic style, which can be applied to any shape.

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• 

  Quick Tip: Create a Slick Golden Text Effect with Adobe Illustrator

  In the following tutorial you will learn how to create a slick golden text effect. Although it’s a pretty short tutorial, the sixteen steps cover many techniques and effects that can be used for other projects. The Pen Tool steps may be a bit challenging, but with patience and some basic knowledge you will succeed.

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• 

  Quick Tip: How to Cell Shade and add Texture to a Vector Comic Character

  This tutorial will show you how to create a cell shaded character in Adobe Illustrator, this is a fast technique utilizing the Live Paint bucket for block coloring, the gradient tool to add depth and form, and masked blended shapes for texture.

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• 

  Quick Tip: How to Create a Floral Repeating Pattern

  Learn how to create a repeating floral pattern that’s perfect for gift wrap, desktop wallpapers or textile designs. This tutorial uses one of our very own free vector packs and is great for readers with a beginner to intermediate skill level.

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• 

  Quick Tip: How to Create a Watercolor Background Using Adobe Illustrator

  In this tutorial we will learn how to create Watercolor Background using a Gradient Mesh, tools of deformation and Blending Modes. The techniques which are described here allow the creation of complex textural backgrounds in a simple and effective way.

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Tutorials

• 

  Create a Painterly Landscape with the Blob Brush Tool

  Illustrator’s Blob Brush is an intuitive and versatile tool. When used with a graphics tablet, you can create loose, painterly images that venture far from the sharp, clean lines usually associated with vector graphics. These files retain all the benefits of vector files, however, allowing you to experiment and be flexible with scale, color and composition. Let’s get started!

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• 

  Design Wedding Rings Using Adobe Illustrator

  In this tutorial we create two wedding rings using 3D modeling in Illustrator. We learn a few operation techniques with gradient mesh. If you need to create an upcoming wedding invitation, this can serve as an excellent centerpiece for that kind of design.

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• 

  Create a Vector, Space Rocket in Illustrator CS5

  In this tutorial you’ll learn how to create a colorful rocket from simple geometric forms and 3D effects. We’ll use filters like Blur to create smoothness and movement in some of the illustration elements. Effects like Inner Glow will also be used to accentuate the depth of the 3D forms.

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• 

  Illustrator CS5 Variable Width Stroke Tool: Gestural Sketches and Digital Inking!

  Hey Vectortuts+ faithful! Welcome back for part two of my tutorial series on the advantages of using the Variable Width Stroke Tool. If you haven’t read the first tutorial, I suggest you go back and read: Illustrator CS5 Variable Width Stroke Tool: Perfect for Making Tribal Designs!, which covers how to use the tool, and then shows how to create tribal designs with it. You’ll need to know those basics before proceeding with this part two of the series, where we use it to create gestural sketches and digital inking.

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• 

  Create a Vector Chopper with Illustrator CS5 and VectorScribe

  This tutorial will cover a set of tools and techniques for creating a photorealistic vector chopper, such as Blends, Gradient, Gradient Mesh and most importantly we will meet the new VectorScribe plugin, which will make your job easier.

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• 

  Create a Padlock with Adobe Illustrator and VectorScribe

  In this tutorial you will learn how to use Shape Building, Clipping Paths and Opacity Masks to make a metallic Padlock. You will also learn how to use the VectorScribe Adobe Illustrator plug-in to save time when creating vector illustrations and designs.

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• 

  Coloring and Line Work in Illustrator CS5

  Do a search on “coloring comics,” and you get dozens of Photoshop tutorials. They all seem to involve building up areas of color with transparent brushes. Now you can achieve that same effect with Illustrator CS5, using the Bristle Brush.

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  Create a Loving Cup of Tea in Illustrator CS5

  In today’s tutorial, I’ll show you how to create a quick, loving cup of tea using Adobe Illustrator CS5 using 3D effects and the Bristle Brush Tool.

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• 

  Shape-Building with VectorScribe

  VectorScribe is an Illustrator plug-in that will change the way you work in your favorite vector drawing program. After you’ve used it for a while, the old ways of file construction will feel cumbersome and tedious. VectorScribe is powerful and intuitive, but like everything, it has a learning curve and takes some getting used to. Don’t let that deter you &mdash once you know your way around this toolset, you’ll work faster, smarter and more cleanly. Let’s get started!

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• 

  Create a Marker Text Effect in Illustrator

  In the following tutorial I will show you how to create a marker illustration. This tutorial involves intermediate vector shape building skills in Illustrator to create the markers, along with some layering and script usage to create the text effects. Let’s get started.

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• 

  How to Illustrate an Auction Gavel Icon

  This work is a common project created together with Iaroslav Lazunov and Oleksandr Iegupov. We have used 3D-modeling, Gradients, Blends, and Gradient Meshes for creating this picture. Lets get started!

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• 

  Create a Photo-Realistic Candle with Gradient Mesh

  Gradient Mesh can be intimidating for novice and experienced Illustrator users alike, but sophisticated results can be achieved with a simple mesh and careful coloring. This tutorial will set you on the road to mesh mastery. Let’s get started!

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• 

  Creating Simple Origami Style Typography in Illustrator

  In this tutorial you will learn how to create a simple Origami style piece of Typography. You will create a set of basic shapes to build letters from and see how to refine those into a more realistic look of your type. Gradients and the appearance panel will help us, to create the final completely custom type.

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• 

  How to Create a Nice Emoticons Icon Set

  In the following tutorial you will learn to create an attractive emoticons icon set. Learn an easy to follow workflow for creating each of these little emotional character faces in Adobe Illustrator.

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  Create a Security Seal in Illustrator Using Guilloche Patterns

  In this tutorial you’ll learn how to create a security seal using Guilloche, the artistic technique that is typically used in banknote design and other documents to prevent them from being forged.

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• 

  Create a Classic Baby Stroller in Adobe Illustrator

  In the following tutorial you will learn how to create a classic baby stroller illustration. If you’re looking to create vintage stroller art, modern baby stroller graphics, for stock art or to illustrate your next graphic project, then jump into this tutorial and learn every detail: from constructing the bassinet area, carriage handle, to wheels and more.

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• 

  How to Color a Cute Character using Graphic Styles

  Coloring a character sketch can sometimes take much longer than anyone expects. With a few layer tricks and Graphic Styles, I will show you how to create a character that is quick to ink, easy to edit and a breeze to re-color. Let’s get started!

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• 

  How To Create an Impossible Shape in Illustrator

  Infinite shapes are fun to design. In this Illustrator tutorial, learn how to create a specific impossible shape: an ‘Infinite Triangle.’ This vector drawing of an impossible object couldn’t be physically constructed, but we can design it in Illustrator in around an hour. You will be using Guides, Gradients, the Rotate Tool, and a simple Transparency Blend for the final touches.

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• 

  Create a Vector Bamboo Forest with Blends, Brushes and Profiles

  In today’s tutorial you’ll learn how to create a bamboo vector illustration with the help of custom art and pattern brushes, blends and profiles on strokes in Adobe Illustrator CS5. Vector bamboo is an excellent element to use in your work to give a classic Japanese fine art print feel, for use as bamboo forest art background in a larger illustration, and to make your vector pictures stand out with stylish bamboo art. So let’s jump straight into it!

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  How to Create a Vector Stamp Set in Illustrator

  In the following tutorial you will learn how to create a vintage, vector stamp set in Adobe Illustrator. Learn how to build a stamp illustration, shape by shape. We’ll construct the stamp border vector shape, highlight the edges, create the branding, and give the vector postage stamp a vintage texture, and final illustrator stamp effect. Let’s get started with making this vector stamp in Illustrator and then transform this into a vector stamp set.

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  Make a Fun Holiday Reindeer Illustration

  Take an in-depth look at the process of designing and illustrating a holiday reindeer illustration. This tutorial covers illustration style, color selection, shading and touches on typography. The process of adapting your illustration during creation is also covered. This tutorial is created by Jesse Hora and Darrin Higgins. Time for some holiday fun!

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  Create a 3D Grungy Text Effect in Illustrator

  In the following tutorial you will learn how to create a grungy, 3D text effect. Learn how to draw highlights and shadows on your text to give it that 3D punch. Then design grunge effects using blending modes and other Illustrator tools. This grungy text effect is relatively simple to create, though does require quite a bit of attention to detail. Jump into this Illustrator text effect tutorial.

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Premium Tutorials

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  Create a Retro Style, Airline Destination, Travel Poster – Vector Premium Tutorial

  Today, we have another Vector Premium tutorial exclusively available to Premium members. If you want to learn how to create a poster design, in the style of 1950′s air travel tourism. We’ll take a look at the typographic qualities and composition of late 50′s posters, then utilize modern digital rendering techniques to create an illustrated Australia tourism ad campaign.

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  Create a Backlit, Elegant Female Portrait in Illustrator – Vector Premium Tutorial

  Today, we have another Vector Premium tutorial exclusively available to Premium members. If you want to take learn how to create an elegant female portrait from a photo, then we have an awesome tutorial for you. The reference photo in this tutorial is used mostly for structure and some color points, a dramatic transformation takes place through the vector drawing process. Learn some key cosmetic tips as well.

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  Adding Faux 3D Style to Your Vector Work – Vector Premium Tutorial

  Today, we have another Vector Premium tutorial, which is available exclusively for Premium members. If you want to learn how to create a faux 3d style object with creative flavour, then we have an awesome tutorial for you. Learn how to quickly add dimension to your work, which will give your skills an edge in the marketplace.

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• 

  Create a Rainbow Beetle Using Adobe Illustrator – Vector Premium Tutorial

  Today, we have another Vector Premium tutorial, which is available exclusively for Premium members. If you want to learn how to create complex vector art with Illustrator’s gradient tools, then we have an awesome tutorial for you. Learn how to use a variety of inovative advanced Illustrator techniques in your work.

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• 

  Create a Light Painting, Bokeh Effect in Illustrator – Vector Premium Tutorial

  Today, we have another Vector Premium tutorial, which is available exclusively for Premium members. Learn how to create light painting effects in Illustrator, with high style and professional results. The key to this effect are Vector Brushes and Blend Modes.

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• 

  It’s Time for a Change – Vector Premium Tutorial

  Today, we have another Vector Premium tutorial, which is available exclusively for Premium members. If you want to learn how to use Illustrator’s Paintbrush Tool to bring your sketches to life, then we have an awesome tutorial for you. Learn how to give your work a sharp outline, and use limited color to add lighting and dimension, which will which will give your work a striking and professional look.

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  Creating a Stylish Line Art Portrait with Illustrator CS5, Vector Premium Tutorial

  Today, we have another Vector Premium tutorial, which is available exclusively for Premium members.

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  Creating a Fun Editorial Illustration – Vector Premium Tutorial

  Today, we have another Vector Premium tutorial, which is available exclusively for Premium members. If you’ve thought of becoming an editorial illustrator, then this tutorial is a must read. It reviews the complete editorial illustration with loads of tips inside as well. The process from sketch, through research, communication with the art direction, and vector build process is covered. If you’re a Premium member, then you’re in for a treat.

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  Create a Magical Vector Landscape Using Illustrator – Vector Premium Tutorial

  Today, we have another Vector Premium tutorial, which is available exclusively for Premium members. Learn how to paint imaginative landscapes in vector. Today, Zzanthia shares her workflow with us. If you’re looking to create unique vector illustrations, with an exotic feel, then this tutorial is a must read.

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Quizzes

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  Vectortuts+ Quiz: Adobe Illustrator Basics

  Test your knowledge of Adobe Illustrator with the Vectortuts+ Illustrator Basics Quiz! How well do you know the basics of Adobe Illustrator? Find out at the jump!

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  Vectortuts+ Quiz: Adobe Illustrator Type Basics

  Test your knowledge of Adobe Illustrator with the Vectortuts+ Illustrator Type Basics Quiz! How well do you know the basics of using type and text with Adobe Illustrator? Find out at the jump!

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Interviews

• 

  Interview With Travis Price

  Meet Travis Price, freelance designer and illustrator from Australia. He also runs a kids label called Mister Mista. Travis says as a child he did a lot of drawing and was fascinated with skateboarding, graffiti and clothing design. Those early influences can be seen intertwined in his work. His style of illustration is versatile, having the ability to appeal to both kids and grown-ups. Travis also creates a lot of print posters. He tells us that posters are the perfect medium where you can combine typography and illustration. Let’s have a chat with him.

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• 

  Interview with Alex Storch, Editor-in-Chief of Carson Mag

  Today we have an exciting interview with Alex Storch of Carson Mag. Get to know his passion for magazines, and how working with David Carson, and his team, they’re pushing forward with a quality publication. Readers can appreciate these themed issues conceptually and touch the nuanced design details of every page. Get inside the mind of the Editor-in-Chief of Carson, and take a look at this exciting new publication from the trenches.

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• 

  Interview with Chris Spooner

  Today we’ll meet British designer Chris Spooner. He became widely known thanks to his two successful blogs Blog.SpoonGraphics and Line25. Chris has written plenty of excellent tutorials on vector graphics and web design. Learn more about Chris Spooner, his tutorials and blogs after the jump.

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• 

  Interview with Michael Doret

  Michael Doret’s career works have influenced generations of designs. You might be familiar with his design works if you have seen his logo for the NY Knicks or one of his many Time covers or the album cover design for KISS band and the Squirrel Nut Zippers.

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• 

  Interview with Karan Singh

  Today we meet Australian designer Karan Singh. Karan is an experienced designer who has worked with a wide range of clients from local boutiques to internationally recognized brands. Learn more about Karan and his Illustrations after the jump.

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• 

  Interview with Sant Valentin

  Today our guest is a true expert and person who will be interesting to talk to – Ukrainian designer Sant Valentin. “I believe that line should be alive, it does not have to have clearly defined directions, the more smooth and hasty lines, the more there is life in illustration style. I did not make up the name for my style, but to me it vaguely resembles watercolor,” says Valentin about vector graphics, and his style.

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• 

  Interview with Andrea Austoni

  Today we are going to meet our old friend, great Italian designer Andrea Austoni, who wrote some brilliant tutorials for Vectortuts+. Andrea is a many-sided personality, beside design, he is interested in music, learning foreign languages, cooking, the eastern philosophy. “Only by partaking of a large spectrum of life’s many offerings will you become a better person and thus a better designer”- he says. Learn more about Andrea, his thoughts and illustrations after the jump.

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• 

  Interview with Dismecha

  Meet Yoann Lim aka Dismecha, a vector artist from France. In this interview he talks about his childhood passion and fondness towards drawings and comic books and how it led him to become a self- taught vector artist. He has developed his own distinctive style of drawing. He loves to create doll-like characters which are colorful, detailed and have a theme behind them. Read on to learn more about his working process, ideas and inspiration.

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Case Studies

• 

  Creating the ABC Animals iPad Application

  ABC Animals is a fun and engaging application that teaches kids how to write letters. My client, a savvy developer who had done other apps in the past, came to me with an existing concept for this application. ABC Animals for the iPhone had already been produced and my client was looking to migrate this concept over to the iPad. With increased visual real estate and a rapidly increasing interest in the device, this application is ideally suited for the iPad. This article details the process of creating the design for this application.

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• 

  The Making of an “ELITE” Identity

  Deep down inside every designer loves a good ol’ fashion logo. In-fact, as a kid you probably redrew the Nike or Lacoste logo over and over, just for fun. Or was that just me? So when a start-up business owner of an athletic training company approached me to help with their identity I was super excited about the opportunity. In this case study I will cover the process that I went through to the create the logo as well as a few of the identity pieces.

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• 

  Illustrating a Series of Application Icons

  Infinite Skills is a software company that develops learning materials for people to enhance their knowledge of a variety of applications, from industry software to commonplace word processing programs. Infinite Skills approached me to create a series of application icons that will accompany their software. Needless to say, with my insatiable appetite for icon design and branding it was game on!

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Articles

• 

  How to Survive a Job Interview, 10 Tips for Creative Professionals

  Are you the kind of person that — no matter how many job interviews you attend — youre a ball of nervous energy? Youre not alone! In the following article I will share a few tips on how to be prepared and sail though your interview like a professional.

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• 

  Careers in Vector Illustration and Design

  Want vector to pay your bills or an extra piece of income with your vector illustration and design skills? Then you’re in the same boat as me, as I want to know more about careers in vector too! Check out today’s article that asks the question to some big names in vector, as well as what qualities you need to make that career launching step!

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• 

  Learning at the Speed of Technology

  If you’ve been using design software for as long as I have, you will no doubt have more than a few obsolete skills up your sleeve. Those of you who have mastered the notoriously difficult QuarkXPress will know what I mean. Dropping to a 25% market share, behind InDesign, many Quark users found themselves having to learn a new piece of software just to stay relevant in the workforce. With the current speed of software updates, how can you be sure that your skills will stay relevant in the future?

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• 

  Your Portfolio, Starting Out with a Low Budget

  So you’ve decided you want a portfolio, but aren’t sure what you want in it, or which route to go. Maybe you’ve just started out and have a low budget. In today’s article I look at starting a new portfolio with advice from vector artists and a look at two low budget portfolio options.

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• 

  Hope for Japan, Artists and Designers Show Their Support

  On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9 Earthquake hit Japan. The Earthquake and the subsequent Tsunami caused wide spread damage to the country and many people lost their lives. As the shocking events unfolded, artists and designers from across the globe created images to show their support for the people effected by this disaster and began to raise funds for the Japanese disaster relief efforts. Find out how you can help.

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• 

  Using Design Principles to Create Exceptional Vector Illustrations

  Making an image is fairly straightforward, but making an image that stands out from the crowd is more science than it is luck. With the right combination of aesthetic and design, you can turn a good idea into a great piece of illustration. Today we will take a look at nine different design principles and how to apply them to the world of illustration.

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• 

  Discussion: What Type of Computer do you use for Design?

  Mac ‘vs’ PC, ‘vs’ Linux, ‘vs’ Mobile Device… Is the competition really worth it? In the past, "Computer A is better than Computer B" may have been a fair argument, but with multi platform graphics applications and more power in a mobile phone than a room full of vintage computers, is there really an ideal machine for Graphic Designers? Read on and share your thoughts with the Vectortuts+ community.

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• 

  Discussion: Is Vector a Form of Art?

  Original artworks can be highly sought after, but how does digital media fit into the equation? Because a Vector file can be infinitely reproduced, will this form of art ever be held in the same esteem as its traditional cousins? Join us in our community discussion: Is vector an art form?

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• 

  Vector Purity vs Raster Live Effects: Where do you stand?

  Consider an artist using 90% vector in their work and only 10% raster live effects, would you class this artist as a “vector artist” or would you see them as a “mixed medium artist”? Do you think “vector art” should be without raster live effects? Today’s article looks at this debate.

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• 

  How to Make a Happy and Safe Office Space

  Lately I have been working some extraordinarily long days in front of the screen. Not only has it been exhausting it has made me think much more seriously about the importance of a proper office setup. Today I will share some tips and ideas for your office space that will make you more productive and keep the aches and pains away.

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• 

  The Art of Skin Shading

  Skin shading is a large part of creating portrait and people art. In today’s article I’m going to show you different styles of skin shading and give you some helpful tips on creating flawless skin in your vector work!

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• 

  What is Vexel Art?

  Vexel art has been mentioned on a variety of websites, be it talking about vector art and vexel art, or featuring the wonderful work created by vexel artists. However, do you actually know the answer to “What is vexel art?”

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• 

  Traits of a Successful Icon Designer

  What makes a successful icon designer? Is it their skills in digital rendering, the clever ideas they have or is it something else? The truth is, it’s managing to be many things at once and keeping a balance between communicating a concept and crafting great designs. Do you have what it takes to be a productive, happy and successful icon designer? Find out at the jump.

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Thankyou!

Thankyou to all of the Vectortuts+ writers and contributors for making this year truly fantastic and teaching us some pretty cool things along the way. To everyone who participated in one of our Community Projects this year, it’s been lots of fun running them, and to our Facebook fans, Twitter followers and Google+ circle, we hope you have a safe and happy new year, and look forward to an inspired and productive 2012!

Vectortuts+

Using the Google Maps API is one of the most popular (if not the most popular) way to show geo-locations on today’s websites. In this tutorial I’ll demonstrate how I give my google maps a more realistic look and I’ll give you some tips on how to make your own maps really shine!

Step 1: Warming Up

Our aim is to give the map a realistic look, while still allowing the user to zoom and pan it.

We’re going to obtain this effect by creating a semi-transparent .png image that will mask the map, then we’ll use some CSS to position it on top of the map.

Before opening Photoshop I suggest you take a real map, or a sheet of paper, and fold it like the map you’re trying to render. This will really help you understand how the surface reacts to the light source. Take that as a general suggestion, since I think it’s always nice to play with a piece of paper before grabbing the mouse!

While doing this you should also grab a screenshot of a google map of your choice – we’re going to use this screenshot in Photoshop as a reference.

Tip: if you’re on a Mac and want to grab a screenshot of a specific region of you screen, you can just press “command + shift + 4″, then click and drag to draw a rectangular selection of what you want to be captured.

Step 2: Map and Background

Once you’ve grabbed the screenshot you can open it in Photoshop and we’ll start working!

The first thing to do is to make the file transparent. Double-click on the background layer that contains the map and hit enter, by doing this we transform the background to a normal layer. Now we want to give ourselves some extra-space to play with, so go to Image > Canvas Size (alt + shift + C) and scale your canvas up a little bit. I added 90 pixels on each side but the dimensions are up to you and depend on the final look you want to obtain; anyway don’t worry, this size can be changed again at any time.

Now it’s time to add a background image. Just choose something that looks nice underneath a map, I chose a timber texture I found on CGtextures.com, but you can use whatever you want, be it a picture or maybe just a nice gradient.

Once you’ve chosen your background put it on a new layer at the bottom of the hierarchy.

Step 3: The Edge

At this point it’s time to give the map some shape, since this rectangle doesn’t really look like a folded piece of paper.

To do this we just use the polygonal lasso and draw the edges. At this point it really helps to place some guides where you want to create the folds, so I created a rough 3×2 grid. It doesn’t have to be accurate, but we’re going to need it often in the next steps.

Once the selection is closed you can hit the layer mask button, this will automatically create a mask that only shows the selected area.

Step 4: Folds

Having cut the edges, the following steps will deal with giving the map some depth. The first thing we want to do is making the map look like it’s folded.

First things first, create a new transparent layer, then grab the rectangular selection tool and, following the grid you set-up earlier, select 3 opposite rectangles (larger than the map) and fill them with plain black.

We’re now going to apply a mask to this layer – it has to be the same as the one we applied to the map. The easiest way to do this is to alt-click and drag the mask of the map layer and drop it on the layer we’re currently working on.

One remaining task is to turn the opacity of the layer way down to around 6-10%.

Step 5: White Border (it’s the New Black)

At this point I like to add a white border around the map. To do so create a new layer, fill it with any color you like, turn its fill to 0% and apply the same layer mask you applied to the map layer.

At the moment there’s not much to see, but that will change in a second: double-click the layer and apply a white inner stroke of 8-10 pixels. It’s very important that you apply and inner stroke because the outer stroke would have round corners which don’t look great in our case.

Step 6: Dodge and Burn

Let’s improve the lighting. We’ll do so with something similar to the dodge/burn effect. What we can do here is create 2 different layers and once again apply the usual layer mask, one layer will lighten up some folds and one will darken the others.

Select the light layer, grab a large soft white brush with low opacity and flow, then start painting close to the folds on the light rectangles of paper (the ones that don’t have the black transparent rectangles on top).

This part is hard to explain with words, but the pictures will do much better.

I set my brush to 20% opacity and 20% flow, then I draw some strokes following the grid. This doesn’t have to be accurate because we’re going to use layer masks once again.

At first it’s difficult to see these light strokes on top of the map, so, for the sake of clarity, I applied a 50% gray background underneath the layer. Obviously you don’t need to do so.

Once I’m happy with the white strokes I select the layer mask on this layer, grab the rectangular selection tool, and with the help of the grid I select the squares where I want to hide this effect. Once I have the correct selection I fill it with black.

Now you can turn the opacity of this layer down depending on how opaque your strokes are.

Tip: remember we’re creating a .png overlay for the map, so “normal” is the only blending mode we can use. This also means that if you exaggerate these white or black strokes and make them too opaque the final result may look awkward.

Step 7: Dodge and Burn Reloaded

It’s now time to do the same for the darker sides, so select the empty layer you created earlier and repeat Step 6. This time you’ll use a black or dark grey brush and you’ll select the squares you didn’t select previously.

Step 8: Drop Some Shadow

Time to draw the shadow.

To make it nice and realistic, create a new layer and use the polygonal lasso tool to draw a shape that will roughly resemble the shadow, then fill it with black.

It’s quite tricky to make the shadow look realistic, but remember this: the farther the map is from the table, the softer the edge of the shadow will be.

The smudge tool can help you a lot, I use to grab it and apply a lot to the corners, the intensity of the red represents where I concentrated more with the smudge.

The final result should look something like this:

Step 9: Cut a Hole

At this point you should have something similar to this. We’re almost done with Photoshop.

All that’s left to do is apply the usual layer mask to the shadow and background layers, so once again alt click and drag the layer mask from the map layer to the background layer, same goes for the shadow layer. Once you’ve done that, invert these two masks so select the layer mask and hit command + I (control + I on a PC).

The very last thing to do is turn off the visibility of the map layer. This way we cut a hole through all the layers and a good portion of the image is transparent.

Now the bottom of your layer stack should look like this:

Step 10: Png

Export for Web in a transparent png-24, name the file “mask.png” and close Photoshop!

Step 11: HTML and JS

The hardest part is done, now relax and open your favorite text editor.

Now you just need to create a new HTML file that uses the google maps API and a CSS file to style the thing a bit.

A lot of documentation about this API is present on Google anyway you will see in the next steps you don’t need to be an expert coder, you just need to write a few lines:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
	<head>
		<title>Webdesign.tutsplus - Google Maps realistic look</title>
		<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css" media="screen" />

		<!-- src and initialize the google maps api -->

		<script type="text/javascript"
		    src="http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?sensor=false">
		</script>

		<script type="text/javascript">
			function initialize() {
				var latlng = new google.maps.LatLng(45.466, 9.186); /* latitude and longitude for the center of the map*/
				var myOptions = {
					zoom: 14, /* zoom level of the map */
					center: latlng,
					mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.ROADMAP,
					mapTypeControl: false, 		/* disable the Satelite-Roadmap switch */
					panControl: false, 			/* disable the pan controller */
					streetViewControl: false, 	/* disable the streetView option */
					zoomControl: false, 		/* disable the zoom level buttons, the user will still be able to control the zoom by scrolling  */

					scaleControl: true, 		/* optional: shows the scale of the map */
					scaleControlOptions: {
						/* since we decided to show the scale, we tell the script to show it in the corner we like, in this case Bottom Left */
					    position: google.maps.ControlPosition.BOTTOM_LEFT
					}
				};
			    var map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById("map_canvas"),
			        myOptions); /* show the map in the element with the id: map_canvas */
			}
		</script>
	</head>
	<body onload="initialize()">
		<div id="map_container">
			<div id="map_canvas"></div>
			<div id="mask"></div>
		</div>
	</body>
</html>

As you see, the code is pretty straightforward, I just decided to change some options:

	mapTypeControl: false, 		/* disable the Satelite-Roadmap switch */
	panControl: false, 			/* disable the pan controller */
	streetViewControl: false, 	/* disable the streetView option */
	zoomControl: false, 		/* disable the zoom level buttons, the user will still be able to control the zoom by scrolling  */

	scaleControl: true, 		/* optional: shows the scale of the map */
	scaleControlOptions: {
		/* since we decided to show the scale, we tell the script to show it in the corner we like, in this case Bottom Left */
	    position: google.maps.ControlPosition.BOTTOM_LEFT
	}

I disable the ability to switch to Satellite view as I don’t think it matches with this realistic feeling. I disabled the pan controller, streetView and zoom level for the same reason, but you’re free to do whatever you want here.

Step 12: CSS

What follows is the bare minimum to be written in the linked CSS file, and as you will see there’s nothing too complicated.

#map_container {
	width: 1000px;
	position: relative;

	margin-left: auto;
	margin-right: auto;
}

#map_canvas {
	position: absolute;
	top: 70px;
	left: 85px;
	height: 445px;
	width: 845px;
}

#mask {
	position: absolute;
	top: 0;
	left: 0;

	height: 586px;
	width: 1000px;

	background: url('mask.png') no-repeat;
	background-size: 100%;

	pointer-events:none;
}

27 lines of this code are just to make the thing look right and you can change them any way you like, the only line you need to care about is the last one pointer-events: none;.

pointer-events: none; prevents the mouse from interacting with the #mask div, so the cursor will be able to interact with whatever’s below it. In this way the map continues to work, even if it’s obscured by a mask or something else.

If you look for pointer-events amongst your favorite documentation you will see it’s mainly used with SVG files. I think its use with the “none” value is underrated and as yet unexplored!

The rest of the CSS isn’t particularly exciting; it just places the map and mask in the right position. The map_canvas is set to be 1202px wide and 622px tall because that happens to be the size of the grid where the map is contained (red rectangle in the picture), top: 97px and left: 97px are the offset of that grid from the top left corner (blue rectangle in the picture).

Possible Applications

Now that you understand the basics you can apply this technique in many different ways.

When I designed this map it was a proof of concept and I wasn’t thinking of a particular application, but after I started writing the tutorial I figured it would be interesting to show you guys a practical way to use it. So I laid out a simple contact page and I thought it would be nice to give the map some perspective.

To do this I just selected all the layers and used Edit > transform > perspective to give the map the right distortion.

In the same way I distorted a wood texture to create the board and added a bit of shadow underneath it.

It’s an effective result and is usable at a generous size, but the png-24 file of the mask can become heavy very quickly, so this was a good size/weight compromise.

Download the source files and check out the additional .psd for yourself.

Conclusion

I hope I’ve been clear enough and you’ve succeeded making a cool map for your websites.

If you can suggest alternative ways to do this, or improvements to the workflow, please note down your thoughts in the comments section. Thanks for reading!

Webdesigntuts+

We have another Photo Premium tutorial exclusively available to Premium members today. In this tutorial, we’ll be learning about building your web presence as a photographer. Learn more at the jump!

You cannot just expect people to discover you by chance. Maintaining a website or blog is easy, often free and if done right it can take very little time. Tie that in with some social media and you have a great marketing tool at your disposal.

Every photographer who is looking for work or wishing to showcase their photos should have an impressive website. Nowadays it is cheap and easy to connect with people all around the world. So why not go ahead and do it?

You don’t have to hire a website designer or learn a single line of code. With the web tools available today it’s easy to create an amazing portfolio.

Keeping a blog

Within your main website, I believe it is very important to keep a blog. Blogging gives you the opportunity to write about your photography with both a professional and unprofessional slant. You don’t have to be an amazing writer, you just have to create content that others might find interesting.

Lots of photographers choose to blog about their experiences on a day out shooting in new locations, or about a new style of photography they have been learning about. I use my own website to write photography tutorials. The best thing about blogging is there is no right or wrong way of doing it.

Examples of popular blogs (other than Phototuts+, of course) are:

• Stuck In Customs – Trey Ratcliff posts tutorials and articles as well as reviews for camera gear. Trey’s helpful content and relaxed style of writing has made his blog the #1 Travel Photography Blog in the world with over 175,000 photo views every day.
• Canon Rumours – Canon rumours focuses on providing fresh content on the world of Canon. People follow it to stay up-to-date without having to do the research themselves. Users will often share the content they read about through other forms of social media. There is also a Nikon Rumours site.
• PetaPixel – PetaPixel is a generalist photography blog. They post about industry news, trends, interesting techniques and even crafts. This site is great because they post multiple things each day, which means you’ll visit it when you get to work, at lunch and on your phone during the boring afternoon meeting.

Posting up your own reviews of products can often create discussion between photographers and help to draw people to your blog. An example of this on Phototuts+ would be the recent review of X-Rite’s ColorMunki Monitor Calibrator written by Daniel Sone.

By drawing people to your website and blog there is a good chance that they will try to view your portfolio. Ideally they will start to share your work with others through social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter. This should increase your chances of finding more work or bigger and more important jobs.

In this article, we will be looking at different blog setups and variations of social media, to help you better target your audience.

Features your website/blog should aim to have:

Comments

If your selected blogging software doesn’t allow people to comment on your work, then you might as well start looking for different blogging software now. Having interactivity with your audience is a key part of sustaining an online presence.

Search bar

Giving a user the option to search for specific content on your site allows them to find the article or page quicker than browsing through everything. Effort dissuades people, so help them exert as little as possible.

EXIF data

When you upload a photo onto your blog, it’s great if the photo keeps the EXIF data tagged to it. This will tell other photographers which settings and equipment you used to originally capture your image.

Tune In for More

Didn’t hear about Photo Premium? You can find out more here. It’s an additional, in-depth article, published each week just for our Premium subscribers (on top of all our regular free content!)

Join Today!

Join Premium and Expand Your Photography Knowledge!

This is a really interesting technique to perfect, and you’ll be really pleased with the result! This Premium tutorial will help you get started with ease.

For those unfamiliar, the family of Tuts+ sites runs a premium membership service. For per month, you gain access to exclusive premium tutorials, screencasts, and freebies from Phototuts+, Nettuts+, Psdtuts+, Cgtuts+,Activetuts+, Aetuts+, Audiotuts+, and Vectortuts+! For the price of a pizza, you’ll learn from some of the best minds in the business.

Become a Premium member and download this tutorial today!

What Do You Want to See on Premium?

Is there a specific technical aspect of photography that you really want to learn more about? How about a very advanced technique that you could never quite grasp fully?

We really want to make our Premium content as relevant and useful to you as possible, so do send through your comments and requests to photo@tutsplus.com. Let us know what you want to see, and we’ll commission top-notch photographers to teach you!

Phototuts+

Let’s be honest, most of Photoshop’s default filters and effects don’t give you much flexibility and don’t always look very realistic. Filter Forge is a powerful third-party plugin for Photoshop that allows you to do some pretty amazing things with filters, and even create your own. Today, our friends at Filter Forge are giving away a copy of Filter Forge 3.0 to 3 lucky Psdtuts+ readers.

Version 3.0 features support for multiple source images, improved preview interactivity, new amazing filters, and much more.

On the surface, Filter Forge is just a Photoshop plugin, a pack of filters that create visual effects, enhance photos, generate textures, and process images. However, there are some things that make Filter Forge unique:

1. All users get free access to thousands of filters. Anyone can contribute their textures and effects to the online filter collection so it grows with every submitted filter.

2. You can create your own filters. If you cannot find an appropriate filter in the library you’ll love the Filter Editor – a visual node-based tool for creating custom-tailored textures and effects. All filters are constructed by connecting components that represent basic operations such as blurs, gradients, color adjustments, noises, distortions, or blends – without writing a single line of code.

To win a free copy of Filter Forge, all you need to do is enter using the form below.

Up For Grabs

• 1 copy of Filter Forge Basic to 3 readers

Rules

• To enter, submit your entry using the form above.
• You may only enter once.
• Make sure to enter a valid email address so that we can contact you.
• Entries will be accepted until Friday, December 23, 2011 at 11:59 PM, EST.

To learn more about Filter Forge, visit their website, download the demo version of the software, and check out their gallery.

Psdtuts+

“What did you find most memorable about the world of web design in 2011?” That’s the question I posed to some of our industry’s shining stars last week. One word cropped up more than any other (can you guess?) and everyone had plenty to say. See for yourself after the jump, and let us know what rocked your boat in 2011!

The Contributors

A huge thanks to everyone who gave up their time in contributing to this article. We’ve collected commentary from Authors, Designers, Developers, UI & UX Architects, Speakers and Community Experts from all across the globe. Here they are, in no particular order.

Jump to any Section of this page quickly by following a link below:

• Steve Fisher Yellow Pencil
• Sarah Parmenter UI Designer
• Vitaly Friedman Smashing Magazine
• Paul Irish Google Chrome
• Harry Roberts CSS Wizardry
• Jonathan Snook Web Designer and Developer
• Janna Hagan .net Young designer of the Year
• Paul Boag Headscape
• Veerle Pieters Duoh!
• Aaron Weyenberg UX Lead, TED Conferences
• Eivind Uggedal mediaqueri.es
• Peter Gasston Top10
• Aarron Walter MailChimp
• Lea Verou Front-end Web Developer

Steve Fisher
Yellow Pencil

The web is not fixed width. Responsive design has helped us really understand that.

For me 2011 was the year where I feel like the web industry finally came to grips with its medium. The web is not fixed width. Responsive design has helped us really understand that. Not only that, it has helped our clients, the people we make these wonderful websites for, understand it. Abstracting our content, understanding its message, and informing our design decisions through that lens transforms how a website is created. I’ve never been more excited about web design as I have been this year.

Steve Fisher
web: hellofisher.com
twitter: @hellofisher
dribbble: hellofisher

Sarah Parmenter
UI Designer

I’m hoping responsive design isn’t so much a buzz word in 2012 but becomes entirely part of what we do.

The rise of responsive design and content strategy has been most memorable to me in 2011. It’s been a big year for both of these assets this year, and one that I’m entirely behind. I’m hoping responsive design isn’t so much a buzz word in 2012 but becomes entirely part of what we do, and that we see more people understanding why the content of our websites is important, and to stop designing with “Lorem Ipsum” text.

Sarah Parmenter
web: www.sazzy.co.uk
twitter: @sazzy
dribbble: sarah

Vitaly Friedman
Smashing Magazine

we are getting better at working on the core of what design actually means

Most memorable for me was the growing acceptance of Responsive Design in the community. The times have changed and this year we started to completely rethink and reconsider how we approach Web design and how we find solutions to the new challenges caused by the myriad of mobile devices.

I feel that right now we are getting better at working on the core of what design actually means: communication and problem-solving. And it’s exciting times to be a part of it. Seeing how responsive mindset is getting established in the various part of the Web design — be it audio/video, forms, navigation, ads etc. – is just intoxicating. I am sure that 2012 will bring us many new techniques that will benefit end users and improve the experience of Web users. And I am looking forward to those times!

Vitaly Friedman
web: smashingmagazine.com
twitter: @smashingmag
google+: vitaly

Paul Irish
Google Chrome

The ecosystem of tools has blown up in 2011

On a scale from blogs to webapps, there is a lot of grey area of how our best practices best apply to enhance the work. A clearer understanding of the inner-workings of browsers helps identify the best techniques, and thus creates the best possible user experience. Meanwhile, the ecosystem of tools has blown up in 2011: things like Sass & Compass, CodeKit, LiveReload, and ImageOptim are not only doing work for us, but can also solve browser support issues on our behalf. I’m eager to see what 2012 has in store to help create the most ideal authoring experience.

Paul Irish
web: paulirish.com
twitter: @paul_irish
google +: paulirish.com/+

Harry Roberts
CSS Wizardry

Pure CSS logos (yak!)

For most people, 2011 has been a year of responsive design, CSS experiments, pure CSS logos (yak!) and parallax scrolling.

For me, 2011 has been a year of powerful, pragmatic and performant front-ends. What some might see as the duller end of the spectrum I’ve been seeing as a more challenging, interesting and useful side of web development. As UIs get more complex, we need ways of keeping their code simple, as devices begin to vary, we need ways of keeping code performant. Whilst most people have been burying themselves in media queries and CSS3, I’ve been going back to the drawing board and working on modular, scalable, good ol’ normal CSS and front-end development.

Harry Roberts
web: csswizardry.com
twitter: @csswizardry
dribbble: csswizardry

Jonathan Snook
Web Designer and Developer

We used to have a very singular perspective: the 1024 pixel wide desktop.

What I’m finding most memorable is the shift in how we think about and build web sites. We used to have a very singular perspective: the 1024 pixel wide desktop. It has taken the explosion in mobile and tablet devices to force us to think about how we design and serve our content in better ways.

Jonathan Snook
web: snook.ca
twitter: @snookca
flickr: jonathansnooka

Janna Hagan
.net Young designer of the Year

It’s exciting to see the different directions this industry can take.

Most memorable for me during 2011 was the rise of responsive design with HTML5 and CSS3. It’s exciting to see the different directions this industry can take and how quickly technology can change within a year. This kind of change is inevitable and we must be able embrace it as creatives.

Janna Hagan
web: www.jannahagan.com
twitter: @_jannalynn
dribbble: _jannalynn

Paul Boag
Headscape

2011 has to be the year of mobile.

2011 has to be the year of mobile. We have seen a continued explosion in mobile web usage and the emergence of responsive design as a solution to the challenges this presents.

It is now possible to adapt any website to work better on mobile devices without excessive expenditure. Best of all, new builds can be constructed from the ground up to function across almost all devices (both present and future). This can be done at a fraction of the cost of previous solutions.

From my perspective this is a huge step forward.

Paul Boag
web: headscape.co.uk
twitter: @boagworld
podcast: boagworld.com/podcast

Veerle Pieters
Duoh!

2011 has changed my way of thinking when designing for the web.

Up to a certain point, 2011 has changed my way of thinking when designing for the web, because of the ever emerging mobile web. While designing I try to keep in mind that a mobile version of my design is possible. Depending on the type of site/project, and a few other parameters, it could go as far as creating a fully responsive design. When this is the case, my usual thinking path needs a lot of adaption, because I tend to forget boundaries and limitations for a bit when I’m in the middle of my creation process, because it has lead me to my most creative and successful designs.

Certain basic criteria are easy to keep in mind at all times, even in the middle of my process, but smaller obstacles are kept as a CSS challenge for me to try to solve later on. This way I also force myself to think more creatively during the coding process, and I try to push boundaries as well. With a fully responsive design, I need to keep more of these boundaries and limitations in the back of my head, and so it makes my typical way of designing that I’m so used to much harder. The challenge lays of course in finding the right balance between keeping some basic limitations at the back of my head, while still giving myself enough freedom to try to create a unique design. The fact that we also can add a level of animation in our designs is another factor that plays its role in this way different way of thinking.

Veerle Pieters
web: veerle.duoh.com
twitter: @vpieters
dribbble: veerlepieters

Aaron Weyenberg
UX Lead, TED Conferences

..you can’t avoid it..

Most memorable to me in the web design in 2011 was the rate at which responsive design is being adopted by the design and development community. Over the last year there have been more tools, plugins, resources, tutorials and conference talks on this approach to web design than any other topic I can think of.

I’m still not convinced on the long term practicalities of this technique, but you can’t avoid it — everyone should be competent enough in what it is and how it’s done to decide if it’s the right approach to any given project.

Aaron Weyenberg
web: aaronweyenberg.com
twitter: @aweyenberg
dribbble: aaronweyenberg

Eivind Uggedal
mediaqueri.es

More and more web designers choose fluid grids in favor of fixed grids.

The growth Responsive Web Design has seen during 2011 was something I never imagined when I launched mediaqueri.es in January.

Not only has the amount of sites that are suggested to me risen, but more and more web designers choose fluid grids in favor of fixed grids. We’ve also seen several high profile sites like The Botson Globe and Barack Obama being relaunched with responsive or adaptive designs.

eivind_uggedal
web: uggedal.com
twitter: @uggedal
github: uggedal

Peter Gasston
Top10

If you make your living from building the web you can’t fail to be heartened by this flourish of new life

I’d say that Microsoft’s announcement of IE10 was the biggest surprise of the year; not only did it come on the heels of the release of IE9, but the previews showed it to be fast, standards-compliant, yet still experimental in the right ways. And not only that, but it would be used as the basis of the Windows 8 tablet OS – a real mark of trust in open web technologies by Microsoft, and a sign that they aren’t ready to concede defeat. I firmly believe that strong competition around open standards is a great win for the user, so this was definitely the most memorable moment of 2011 for me.

I think it’s been a really exciting year for our industry; the explosion of web browsing away from the desktop, HTML5 beginning to prove itself as the best option for cross-platform development, the newly-resurgent Microsoft making good browsers again… if you make your living from building the web you can’t fail to be heartened by this flourish of new life. There’s been a great appetite for discovery of new browser features, with lots of demos being made using cutting-edge and experimental CSS, HTML and JavaScript, so the curious amongst us have had plenty to satisfy us.

Slightly less pleasing was that the combination of the web explosion and the appetite for new features has led to making some people impatient, and leading to cut corners: people stating that they’re not going to support legacy browsers on their websites, or making demos and examples that provide no fallback for non-supporting browsers (and are not maintained when those browsers do implement the relevant features). So here’s looking forward to making the web work well for everyone in 2012.

Peter Gasston
web: www.broken-links.com
twitter: @stopsatgreen
book: The Book of CSS3

Aarron Walter
MailChimp

2011 was a year of design.

2011 was a year of design. Google redesigned Gmail, Reader, Maps, Search and many other web properties, and for the first time it appeared that designers not engineers were shaping the direction of their interface. Facebook acquired a great deal of design talent, and gave an impressive preview of their new story-based profile pages at their F8 conference. No doubt their acquisition of Gowalla will influence the design direction they pursue in the new year.

And the loss of Steve Jobs in October has so many of us reflecting on the role of design in the world. It stirs our passions and inspires innovation. Design was on our mind a great deal in 2011, which has set the stage for some big things to come in 2012.

Aarron Walter
web: aarronwalter.com
twitter: @aarron
book: Designing for Emotion

Lea Verou
Front-end Web Developer

The best is yet to come.

During 2011 we saw many advances in our field. Responsive web design evolved from a cool extra touch to being a necessary part of every website, CSS gradients became popular and were pushed to their limits, CSS and JavaScript preprocessors gained traction as “the new workflow“, new layout techniques finally became somewhat viable, new APIs made things possible that used to need plugins or server-side code…

However, what I consider more memorable is not the individual technologies and techniques but the bigger picture. We’ve always had cool new toys to play with and make our work better. I think the last few years, especially 2011, will be remembered as the first time in history when browsers are fiercely competing for the attention of web developers, not against each other but towards the common goal of supporting open web standards.

If we tried to describe our times to the web designers of the past decades, they would have a hard time believing us. Let’s stop complaining for a moment and acknowledge how far we’ve come and how much better we have it now. Even better, the best is yet to come. Fasten your seatbelts, fellow webbies, because the train of progress is moving into high gear!

Lea Verou
web: lea.verou.me
twitter: @leaverou
github: LeaVeroue

Your Turn

So, what was most memorable for you in 2011? Let us know in the comments!

Webdesigntuts+

The year was 2007, and Apple Inc. was poised to change the cellular and photography world in dramatic ways. They weren’t reinventing the phone or even the cameraphone, but they were going to revolutionize the device with enhanced interconnectivity and features. Like iPod for music, the iPhone changed the phone and cameraphone market forever.

Now, nearly five years later, there are over 360 million smartphone users worldwide with nearly all of them containing a camera. This is more than 3 times the number of digital cameras sold in 2010. Within that time, smartphone photography went from hated to loved by nearly all who own them.

So, where is it now and where will it go?

A Controversial History

Back in the early days, before the iPhone really broke through and made smartphones seriously popular. The images coming from phones weren’t much better than Post-It Note doodles. Grainy, fuzzy, and nearly colorless images were as good as it got. Even as the image quality improved, there really wasn’t an efficient way to share or back-up those images. So, phone photography wasn’t really a threat.

The low image quality and lack of effect filters kept cameraphones on the back burner for a while. Here, I used my car’s window tints as a blue polarizing filter. (Photo: Daniel Soñé)

All that changed with the iPhone.

There were other smartphones out there with decent cameras and internet connections, but none of the other manufacturers had as successful a marketing campaign as the iPhone. The touchscreen interface made it even more appealing than it’s keypad counterparts. iPhone and its Android counterparts also rode, and in some ways caused, the explosion of wireless Internet use. Now, information and connectivity in photography was more mobile than it had ever been.

It was the ease of use and and ease of sharing that made smartphone photography the same “threat” that the 35mm film camera, polaroid, and digital camera were in their day to photography and their professionals.

There was a widespread concern over further democratizing photography. Increasing the supply of photography would drive down the demand for it and therefore prices. In short, the professionals were concerned that making photography too easy would make their craft banal.

However, the cameraphone hasn’t made photography as banal as early critics said it would. It has increased the availability, but since more people have access to it, more people have taken up an interest. It actually helped push photography more into the forefront of society and as the preferred method of recording events both trivial and significant alike.

Smartphones & Social Media

The first explosion of cameraphone use was when the quality of images of these devices was decent enough for many consumers to be happy with. Even professionals found the quality of the images eyebrow-raising – they were (un)pleasantly surprised.

The second and current explosion of cameraphone use was the integration with ultra-popular social media websites. Now, images are not only floated via email and SMS, but could be easily published directly to the web and shared with friends.

This social form of photography is where we are now. In a few short years, the cameraphone has become a major part of our lives and an integral part of a professional’s personal work.

Professional photographers such as Chase Jarvis have even made apps that enable smartphone users to apply filters and effects usually reserved for Photoshop. The increased and creative use of the cameraphone by top-notch photographers further legitimized the cameraphone as a viable creative option.

Because of its simplicity and connectivity, the cameraphone has become the new point-and-shoot – or snapshot camera – of our time. Everyday people as well as the world’s top photographers are using these devices to record their lives.

More and more “baby’s first steps,” weddings, parties, dates, and more are being recorded on a phone then they are with a point-and-shoot camera. Of course, the cameraphone can’t compete with the image quality of decent point-and-shoots (yet), but their nearly inherent attachment to social media and our pockets makes them more preferred and available.

Vignette’s great filters, full-res quality, and ease of sharing make it my “go to” camera app. Since late 2010, I’ve taken and shared over 1000 phone photos. Nearly all of them have been shared on social media. (Photo: Daniel Soñé)

The apps that combine creativity and social media are numerous. Instagram, Twitpic, and Vignette are perhaps the top three cameraphone apps that achieve this. There are many more out there that are great, but it all comes down to user preference.

Smartphones & Professional Work

Most of our experience, including my own, is casual use of our phone’s camera and sharing it on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or blog. However, some camera manufacturers as well as app developers have taken integrating the smartphone (and tablet) into the professional’s workflow. There are apps everywhere that enable the photographer to remotely control and view
images taken by their high-end cameras.

Phase One’s ad for Capture Pilot.

One such app is ShutterSnitch (.99) that works both for the iPhone and iPad. ShutterSnitch enables you to wirelessly transmit and review photos taken by your camera – provided you have a Eye-Fi card or other wireless transmitter. ShutterSnitch also allows you to arrange your shoots into albums, send them via FTP, and share them on social networks.

Another app, also for the iPhone and iPad, is from the digital medium format camera giant, Phase One. Their application, Capture Pilot (free), adds wireless previewing, rating, and even tethered functionality for both their medium format systems and DSLRs. The catch is that you’ll need their RAW-processing program, Capture One Pro 6 (9), to use it, and of course one of their cameras.

Unfortunately, Android users are behind the curve when it comes to applications that enable the professional photographer to work as seamlessly as an iPhone/iPad user. I do find it interesting that an open-platform manufacturer such as Phase One would only develop an application for a closed-platform device. However, this is one of the few places Android-using photographers come up short.

Other common applications that are helpful to photographers are:

• Weather
• Maps/gps
• Voice-recording
• Note pad
• Sun angle
• Calendar

Smartphones of both main camps (Android and iOS) have other productivity programs that are essential to photographers on the go. For the all-important model/property release there is Easy Release (.99) and for getting paid on-the-go, there is Square (free). These two applications help streamline two very tedious parts of photography: money and legal. With these both the photographer and client have records in their email instantly.

I use my phone to record lighting setups during shoots. (Photo: Daniel Soñé)

Integrating your phone as I’ve described into your professional workflow isn’t necessary for success or maximizing efficiency. It is just another method of getting the job done. And since it isn’t as commonplace as an Instagram photo, it definitely adds a ‘wow’ or ‘cool’ factor to a shoot.

Into the Future

So where is the smartphone photography going to be in the next few years?

I believe that the camera on our phone, much like the remote control on our televisions and the automatic transmission in cars, is here to stay. I think that the image quality will continue to improve as well as the interconnectivity. Already parts of movies and entire television commercials have been shot using these things, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that continued to expand. Just a few years ago, DSLRs “invaded” the movie scene, it was only a matter of time before phones did too.

The current niche for smartphones in photography for amateurs is the snapshot and the niche for professionals is workflow. But going forward, I see that the phone will continue to appeal to the masses but gain considerable steam as professional tool in the shoot itself (i.e. shooting the final image).

I predict the next big thing for cameraphone technology is one where you have much more control over the image capture much like a camera with manual controls. Yes, there are phones and apps out there that allow for brightness, contrast, WB, etc. to be changed, but I’m talking about more precise control like aperture, shutter speed, and even remote flash triggering.

Hmmm, being able to use my phone to remotely trigger or even control flash? – are you listening Pocket Wizard?

Phototuts+

This set of hand crafted, infinitely scalable glyph icons is intended for use in web and desktop applications. You’ll find both crisp 16x16px and 32x32px versions of the icons in PNG. You can also customize the icons to your heart’s content using the source file PSD.

These web app icons are free for download and application in both commercial and personal projects (just don’t redistribute them).

Webdesigntuts+

This tutorial takes you step by step through the process of creating an upload web button. You will learn how to use just a few simple, yet effective, tools and techniques to create this eye-catching design.

Vectortuts+

In this tutorial I’ll demonstrate how easy it is to create a jQuery Mobile theme in Fireworks, preview the theme, and move it into an HTML5 jQuery sample in Dreamweaver CS 5.5.

The ability to create jQuery Mobile pages in Dreamweaver CS 5.5 is a really neat addition to the line up. For a designer, though, the fact that jQuery Mobile is a code framework can make life a little difficult, especially when it comes to creating themes for mobile projects targeted to smartphones or tablets.

1: Introduction

2: Creating a Theme

3: Moving to Dreamweaver

Webdesigntuts+

In the following tutorial you will learn how to create a toilet plunger illustration. You’ll use basic shape building techniques, along with advanced Illustrator tools, to compose the best plunger artwork you’ve ever made. You can use these techniques you’ll learn to create numerous household tools as well.

Step 1

Create a 700 by 300px, RGB document. First, turn on the Grid (View > Grid) and the Snap to Grid (View > Snap to Grid). Next, you’ll need a grid every 2.5px. Go to Edit > Preferences > Guides > Grid, enter 2.5 in the Gridline every box and 1 in the Subdivisions box.

You can also open the Info panel (Window > Info) for a live preview with the size and position of your shapes. Do not forget to replace the unit of measurement to pixels from Edit > Preferences > Unit > General. All these options will significantly increase your work speed.

Step 2

Pick the Ellipse Tool (L), create a 65 by 47.5px shape and fill it with any color. Continue with the Ellipse Tool (L), create a 60 by 65px shape and place it as shown in the second image.

Reselect the two shapes created so far and click on the Intersect button from the Pathfinder panel. The resulting shape should look like the fourth image shown. Fill it with R=171, G=30, B=45.

Step 3

Now, you need to add some roundness for the shape created in the previous step. The Round Any Corner script will come in handy for this. You can find it in the Vectortuts+ article 20 Free and Useful Adobe Illustrator Scripts. Save it to your hard drive and grab the Direct Selection Tool (A).

Select the bottom anchor points (highlighted in the first image) and go to File > Scripts > Other Script. Open the Round Any Corner Script, enter a 2px Radius and click OK. In the end your shape should look like the second image shown. Select it and make a copy in back (Command + C > Command + B). Go to the Layers panel, find this copy and make it invisible. You’ll need this shape later.

Step 4

Reselect the shape edited in the previous step, make a copy in front (Command + C > Command + F) and grab the Ellipse Tool (L). Create a 65 by 40px shape, fill it with R=161, G=30, B=45, place it as shown in the first image, and send it to back (Shift + Command + Left Bracket key).

Select this new shape, along with the fresh copy, and click on the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel. The resulting shape should look like the third image shown. Select it and make a copy in back (Command + C > Command + B). Go to the Layers panel, find this copy, and make it invisible. You’ll need it later.

Step 5

Disable the Snap to Grid (View > Snap to Grid) and focus on the shape created in the previous step. First, select it and make two copies in front (Command + C > Command + F > Command + F). Next, select the top copy and hit the up arrow once. Reselect both copies and click on the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel. Fill the resulting group of shapes with R=131, G=30, B=45.

Step 6

Reselect the shape created in the fourth step and go to Object > Path > Offset Path. Enter a -3.3px Offset and click OK. Fill the resulting shape with R=237, G=28, B=36, lower its Opacity to 70%, and go to Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Enter a 1.5px radius and click OK.

Step 7

Re-enable the Snap to Grid (View > Snap to Grid). Once again, select the shape created in the fourth step and make a copy in front (Command + C > Command + F). Continue with the Ellipse Tool (L), create a 62.5 by 45px shape, and place it as shown in the second image. Select this new shape, along with the fresh copy, and click on the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel. Fill the resulting shape with R=121, G=30, B=45, and lower its Opacity to 25%.

Step 8

Select the shape created in the fourth step and go to the Appearance panel. Open the fly-out menu and click on Add New Fill. This will add a second fill for your shape. Select it and use the linear gradient shown below. The yellow zero from the gradient image stands for opacity percentage. Finally, reselect the entire path and go to Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow. Enter the data shown below and click OK.

Step 9

Let’s move to the red shape created in the third step. First, disable the Snap to Grid (View > Snap to Grid). Next, select this shape and make two copies in front (Command + C > Command + F > Command + F). Select the top copy and hit the up arrow once. Reselect both copies and click on the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel. Fill the resulting shape with R=131, G=30, B=45.

Step 10

Enable the Snap to Grid (View > Snap to Grid). Reselect the shape created in the third step and make a new copy in front (Command + C > Command + F). Continue with the Ellipse Tool (L), create a 65 by 57.5px shape, and place it as shown in the second image. Select this new shape, along with the fresh copy, and click on the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel. Fill the resulting shape with R=121, G=30, B=45. Now lower its Opacity to 25%.

Step 11

Next, you need to turn the shape created in the third step into a mesh. Grab the Mesh Tool (U) and simply click on the point indicated by the arrow below. Continue with the Direct Selection Tool (A), select the five mesh points, one by one and use the colors shown below.

Step 12

Pick the Ellipse Tool (L), create a 10px circle, and place it as shown in the following image. Fill it with R=242, G=182, B=117. Lower its Opacity to 50% and go to Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Enter a 5px radius and click OK.

Step 13

Switch to the Rectangle Tool (M), create four 2.5px squares, and place them as shown in the first image. Fill them with white, group them (Command + G), and go to Object > Transform > Rotate. Enter a 45 degrees angle and click OK.

Step 14

Reselect the group created in the previous step, lower its Opacity to 7%, and go to Effect > Warp > Arc. Enter the data shown below, click OK, then go to Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Enter a 1px radius and click OK.

Step 15

Return to the Ellipse Tool (L), create a 20 by 10px shape, and place it as shown in the first image. Fill it with R=131, G=30, B=45. Now go to Object > Path > Offset Path. Enter a 0.5px offset and click OK. Select the resulting shape and lower its Opacity to 50%.

Step 16

Pick the Rectangle Tool (M), create a 20 by 7.5px shape, fill it with R=131, G=30, B=45, and place it as shown in the first image. Select this rectangle, along with the ellipse created in the previous step (the first one), and click on the Unite button from the Pathfinder panel.

Step 17

Pick the Ellipse Tool (L), create a 20 by 10px shape, fill it with the linear gradient shown below, and place it as shown in the following image. Make a copy of this shape in back (Command + C > Command + B) and make it invisible. You’ll need it later.

Step 18

Select the shape created in the previous step and make a copy in front (Command + C > Command + F). Select this copy, along with the shape created in the sixteenth step, and click on the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel. Fill the resulting shape with R=161, G=30, B=45. Now make a copy in back (Command + C > Command + B) and make it invisible. You’ll need it later.

Step 19

Reselect the shape created in the previous step, add two new fills, and use the linear gradients shown below. Don’t forget that the yellow zero from the gradient images stands for Opacity percentage, while the white number stands for location percentage.

Step 20

Disable the Snap to Grid (View > Snap to Grid). Return to the shape created in the seventeenth step and make two copies in front (Command + C > Command + F > Command + F). Select the top copy, hit the up arrow once, then reselect both copies, and click on the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel. Fill the resulting shape with R=239, G=65, B=54, and lower its Opacity to 75%.

Step 21

Reselect the shape created in the seventeenth step and make two new copies in front (Command + C > Command + F > Command + F). Select the top copy and hit the down arrow and the right arrow twice. Reselect both copies and click on the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel. Fill the resulting shape with R=121 G=30 B=45 and lower its opacity to 50%.

Step 22

Re-enable the Snap to Grid. Pick the Rectangle Tool (M), create a 10 by 140px shape, fill it with R=196, G=154, B=108, and place it as shown. Select it and go to Effect > Warp > Arc Lower. Enter the data shown below, click OK, and go to Object > Expand Appearance.

Step 23

Again, you will need the Round Any Corner script. First, disable the Snap to Grid (View > Snap to Grid) and focus on the shape created in the previous step. Pick the Direct Selection Tool (A), select the top anchor points, and go to File > Scripts > Other Script.

Open the Round Any Corner Script, enter a 5px Radius, and click OK. Move to the bottom anchor points, select them, and go again to File > Scripts > Other Script. Open the Round Any Corner Script, enter a 1px Radius, and click OK. The result should look like the second image shown.

Select it, make a copy in back (Command + C > Command + B), and make it invisible. You’ll need it later. Reselect the remaining visible shape and go to Object > Path > Offset Path. Enter a -4.5px Offset and click OK. Fill the resulting shape with R=242, G=182, B=117. Now move it 1px to the right.

Step 24

Select the thicker shape created in the previous step and make two copies in front (Command + C > Command + F > Command + F). Select the top copy and hit the right arrow once. Reselect both copies and click on the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel. Fill the resulting shape with R=169, G=124, B=80.

Step 25

Reselect the thicker shape created in the twenty-third step, make a copy in front (Command + C > Command + F), and bring it to front (Shift + Command + Right Bracket key). Select this copy, go to the Appearance panel, and replace the flat color with the radial gradient shown below. Don’t forget that the yellow zero from the gradient image stands for Opacity percentage.

Step 26

Select the shape created in the previous step and make a copy in front (Command + C > Command + F). Select this copy, lower its Opacity to 20%, and change the blending mode to Multiply. Now go to the Appearance panel and replace the existing gradient with the one shown below.

Have a closer look at the gradient image and you’ll notice that you have two gradient sliders overlapping at 40% (Location). One should have the Opacity set at 100% and the color at R=139, G=94, B=60. The other should have the Opacity set at 0% and the color at R=196, G=154, B=108.

Step 27

Select the two shapes created in the twenty-third step, go to Object > Blend > Make, then apply Object > Blend > Blending Options. Select Specified Step from the drop down menu, enter 45 in the white box, and click OK. In the end, your blend should look like the second image shown.

Step 28

Enable the Snap to Grid (View > Snap to Grid) and focus on the bottom area. Pick the Ellipse Tool (L), create a 65 by 40px shape, and place it as shown in the first image. Fill it with black, lower its Opacity to 15%, and go to Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Enter a 2px radius, click OK, then create a second shape.

Make it 75px wide and 47.5px tall and place it as shown in the second image. Fill it with black, lower its Opacity to 15%, and go to Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Enter a 5px radius and click OK. Reselect both shapes and send them to back (Shift + Command + Left Bracket key).

Step 29

Go to the Layers panel and turn back to visible the invisible shapes created so far. Select all five shapes, bring them to front (Shift + Command + Right Bracket key), and click on the Unite button from the Pathfinder panel. Fill the resulting shape with R=35, G=31, B=32.

Step 30

Select the shape created in the previous step, send it to back, and apply Effect > Warp > Fish. Enter the data shown below, click OK, and go to Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Enter a 3px radius, click OK, then lower the Opacity of this shape to 15%.

Step 31

Reselect the shape edited in the previous step and make two copies in front (Command + C > Command + F > Command + F). Select both copies and go to the Appearance panel. Remove the Warp and the Gaussian Blur effect, raise the Opacity to 100%, and move them 7.5px up and to the right. The Snap to Grid will ease your work here.

Step 32

Focus on the two dark shapes created in the previous step. Select the top shape and make it invisible for the moment. Select the remaining visible shape and fill it with the linear gradient, as shown in the first image. Lower its Opacity to 20% and apply Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Enter a 5px radius and click OK.

Turn back to visible the other dark shape, fill it with the same linear gradient (as shown in the third image), and lower its Opacity to 10%. Reselect both shapes and go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Free Distort. Add the angle shown in the following image and click OK.

Step 33

Pick the Ellipse Tool (L), create a 122.5 by 37.5px shape, and place it as shown in the following image. Fill it with R=39, G=170, B=225, lower its Opacity to 10%, and apply Effect > Distort & Transform > Zig Zag. Enter the data shown below, click OK, and apply Effect > Distort & Transform > Roughen. Again, enter the data shown below, click OK, and go to Effect > Stylize > Inner Glow. Once again, enter the data shown below and click OK.

Continue with the Ellipse Tool (L), create a 92.5 by 35px shape, and place it as shown. Fill it with R=39, G=170, B=225. Now lower its Opacity to 10%. Then add the Zig Zag, Roughen and Inner Glow effects.

Create a 75.5 by 30px shape and place it as shown. Fill it with R=39, G=170, B=225. Now lower its Opacity to 10%. Then add a the Zig Zag, Roughen, and Inner Glow effects.

Create a 20 by 10px shape and place it as shown in the following image. Fill it with R=39, G=170, B=225 and lower its opacity to 10%. Now add a the Zig Zag, Roughen, and Inner Glow effects.

Create a 65 by 25px shape and place it as shown in the following image. Fill it with R=39, G=170, B=225, and lower its Opacity to 10%. Now add a the Zig Zag, Roughen, and Inner Glow effects.

Create a 10 by 5px shape and place it as shown. Fill it with R=39, G=170, B=225 and lower its Opacity to 10%. Now add a the Zig Zag, Roughen, and Inner Glow effects.

Step 34

Select all the shapes created in the previous step and group them (Command + G). Select this group and send to back (Shift + Command + Left Bracket key).

Step 35

This is how your illustration should look so far.

Step 36

Select all the shapes created so far and group them (Command + G). Make a copy of this group and move it to the right as shown.

Step 37

Focus on the second plunger created in the previous step. Select all the shapes that make up the rubber and click on the Recolor Artwork button from the top menu bar. The Recolor Artwork window will open.

Click on the Edit button, check the Link harmony colors button, adjust the brightness slider, then drag the color handles as shown. In the end, the rubber should look like the second image below.

Step 38

Duplicate the plunger edited in the previous step. Move this copy to the right then select the shapes that make up the rubber and click on the Recolor Artwork button.

Again, click on the edit button, check the Link harmony colors button, adjust the brightness slider, then drag the color handles as shown. In the end, this third plunger should look like the following image.

Step 39

Finally, let’s add the background. Pick the Rectangle Tool (M), create a shape the size of your artboard, and fill it with the linear gradient.

Step 40

Pick the Ellipse Tool (L), create a 700 by 50px shape, and place it as shown. Fill it with white and go to Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Enter a 15px radius and click OK.

Step 41

Switch to the Rectangle Tool (M) and create a 700 by 165px shape. Place it as shown in the first image and fill it with the left linear gradient. Continue with the Rectangle Tool (M) and create a second shape. Make it 700px wide and 135px tall. Place it as shown in the second image and fill it with the right linear gradient.

Step 42

Select the second shape created in the previous step and make a copy in front (Command + C > Command + F). You will need a built-in pattern for this copy. Go to the Swatches panel, open the fly-out menu and go to Open Swatch Library > Pattern > Basic Graphics > Basic Graphics_Textures. This will open a new window with some nice patterns. Reselect the copy and replace the linear gradient with the “USGS 7 Vineyard” pattern.

Step 43

Select the shape created in the previous step and make a copy in front (Command + C > Command + F). Fill this copy with the linear gradient shown in the second image. Select it, along with the patterned shape, and go to the Transparency panel. Open the fly-out menu and click on Make Opacity Mask. Lower the Opacity of this masked shape to 10% and you’re done.

Conclusion

Now your work is done. Here is how it should look.

Vectortuts+

This tutorial is another collaboration with a very good friend Ciursa Ionut. In this web design tutorial we will create a portfolio web layout using fabric textures. You will be taken through the process of designing the logo using Adobe Illustrator, creating spotlights for the "services" area and how to apply textures to the layout in a subtle way that will increase the quality of the final result. Let’s get started!

Tutorial Assets

The following assets were used during the production of this tutorial.

• 960 Grid System
• Fabric patterns
• Subtle grunge brushes
• Oswald font
• Twitter birds

Introduction

In this tutorial we will use the 960 Grid System. Download it and unzip the archive file. Then open the “960_grid_12_col.psd” file in Photoshop.

The 12 red columns that you see is the grid that we are going to use. You can hide the red bars by clicking on the eye icon of the “12 Col Grid” layer. This PSD file contains some guides as well, which will be very useful. To activate them go to View > Show > Guides, or use the shortcut Command/Ctrl + ;. I usually hide the red bars and activate the guides whenever I need them.

Also, smart guides are very useful when designing web layouts. Activate/deactivate them by going to View > Show > Smart Guides. They will help you align each layer depending on the position of other layers.

During this tutorial you will be asked you to create shapes with certain dimensions. When you create a shape you will see its exact width and height in the Info panel (Window > Info).

Now that we covered the basics of using the 960 Grid System, we can move on to creating the actual web layout. Let’s get started!

Step 1: Setting up the document

Open the "960_grid_12_col.psd" file in Photoshop. Then go to Image > Canvas Size and set the width to 1200px and the height to 2400px. This will give us enough space to work with.

Step 2: Creating the header of our web layout

Create a new group and name it "Header". Select the Rectangle Tool (U) and create a rectangle with the dimensions 1200px by 520px and the color #595e61. Name this layer "header bg", right-click on it and select Convert to Smart Object.

Go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise and use the settings from the image below. This will create a nice subtle texture.

Download this pack of fabric patterns and open the .PAT file in Photoshop. Then double-click on the "header bg" layer to open the Layer Style window and add a Pattern Overlay effect with the settings from the image below and a pattern from the pack you downloaded.

Step 3: Creating the navigation background

Select the Rectangle Tool (U) and create a rectangle at the top of your document with the height 120px and the color #000000. Name this layer "navigation bg". Set the Fill of this layer to 20%, double-click on it and use the settings from the image below for Inner Shadow.

Now we will add a circle to the "navigation bg" layer to make room for the logo later on. Select the Ellipse Tool (U) and click on the "Add to shape area (+)" button from the option bar above your image.

Click on the vector mask of the "navigation bg" layer to make it active. Then using the Ellipse Tool, hold down the Shift key and create a circle in the middle of the navigation bar with the radius 140px. Take a look at the following image for reference.

Step 4: Creating a dotted line pattern

Create a new document (Command/Ctrl + N) with the dimensions 3px by 1px. Zoom in as much as you can. Then select the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) and create a square selection as you see in the following image. Create a new layer and fill the selection with white.

Hide the "Background" layer by clicking on its eye icon. Then hit Command/Ctrl + D to deselect. Save your pattern by going to Edit > Define Pattern. Give your pattern a name and click OK.

Go back to your web layout document. Select the Line Tool (U) and set the Weight to 1px. Then hold down the Shift key and create a horizontal line at the bottom of your navigation bar.

Set the Fill of this layer to 0% and the Opacity to 20%. Double-click on this layer to open the Layer Style window and add the pattern you created earlier.

Now we need to erase the area of the dotted line that goes over the circle. Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) to select that area. Then go to Layer > Layer Mask > Hide Selection.

Step 5: Adding gradients to the header background

Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) to create a selection as you see in the image below (1). Then go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Gradient and use the settings from the following image (2).

Click on the mask of this layer to make it active. Then select a black soft brush (B) and paint with it over the area where the gradient covers the navigation bar circle (3). Set the opacity of this layer to 3% (4).

Now we will add a radial gradient at the bottom of the header background. Hold down the Command/Ctrl key and click on the thumbnail of the "header bg" layer to load a selection of it. Then go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Gradient and use the settings from the image below (1).

With the Gradient Fill window still opened, click on your image and drag down. Set the blend mode of this layer to Soft Light 40%.

Step 6: Adding subtle grunge brushes to the header background

Download this pack of brushes and open them in Photoshop. Create a new group and name it "brushes". Then create a selection of the "header bg" layer (hold down the Command/Ctrl key and click on its thumbnail). Make sure that the "brushes" layer is active and go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection. Now everything we put inside this group will be visible only over the header area.

Create a new layer inside this group. Set the foreground color to white. Select the Brush Tool (B) and use some of the brushes you downloaded to add a subtle grunge effect to the header. Create a new layer for each brush you use and adjust the opacity of each layer. Then set the blend mode of the "brushes" group to Soft Light. Take a look at the following image for reference.

Step 7

Select the Line Tool (U), hold down the Shift key and create a horizontal line with the Weight 1px and the color #50565a. Name this layer "1px line" and put it at the bottom of the header area.

Duplicate this layer (Command/Ctrl + J), select the Move Tool (V) and hit the up arrow key on your keyboard to move it one pixel up. Change the color of this line to #8e9496.

Step 8: Creating the logo

To create the logo we will use both Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. First, we will create the text and a circle with dashed stroke in Illustrator and then we will complete the logo using Photoshop.

Fire up Adobe Illustrator and create a new document. Select the Type Tool (T) and write "My Folio". Put each word in a separate object. The font that I used is called Akzidenz-Grotesk Condensed Medium Italic.

Select the two text objects using the Selection Tool (V) and go to Object > Expand. This will make the text layers editable so we can modify the anchor points.

Select the word "My" and move it down to connect the bottom area of the letter "Y" with the top area of the letter "F".

Use the Direct Selection Tool (A) to select the anchor points from the bottom of the "Y" letter, as you see in the image below. Then hit the Backspace key to delete them.

Use the Pen Tool (P) to reconstruct the bottom area of the letter "Y" and connect it to the "F" letter. Make sure that you close the path. Take a look at the following image for reference.

Now we need to create a circle with a white dashed stroke. Select the Ellipse Tool (L), hold down the Shift key and create a circle with no Fill and a 1pt white Stroke. Then go to the Stroke panel (Window > Stroke) and use the settings from the following image.

Change the color of the text to white. I added a grey rectangle underneath all objects in order to see the text and the circle.

Finishing the logo in Adobe Photoshop

Go back to Photoshop, create a new group and name it "Logo". Then select the Ellipse Tool (U) and create a circle with the dimensions 125px by 125px and the color #2e3134.

Name this layer "circle", double-click on it to open the Layer Style window and add a Pattern Overlay effect using the following settings. The leather pattern that I used is from the pack you downloaded at the beginning of this tutorial.

Copy the text objects from Illustrator, go back to Photoshop and paste them as a smart object. Use Free Transform (Command/Ctrl + T) to change the size of this layer and put it in the center of the dark circle. Add a Color Overlay effect to this layer using the color #f4f4f4.

Copy the dashed circle from Illustrator and paste it in Photoshop as smart object. Use Free Transform (Command/Ctrl + T) to change the size of this layer and put it in the middle of the dark circle. Name this layer "dashed circle" and set its opacity to 60%.

Duplicate the "dashed circle" layer (Command/Ctrl + J). Use Free Transform (Command/Ctrl + T) to change the size of this layer until it reaches the curved edge underneath the logo. Name this layer "bottom border".

Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) to select the upper area of the circle as you see in the image below. Then go to Layer > Layer Mask > Hide Selection. This will leave a dotted curved line underneath the logo, just like we want.

Step 9: Adding the navigation

Create a new group and name it "Navigation". Select the Type Tool (T) and write the name for your navigation menu items using the font Oswald and the color white. Spread your navigation items equally in the left and right hand side of the logo.

Creating the style for the active menu item

Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool (U) and set the Radius to 4px. Then create a rounded rectangle underneath one of our navigation items with the height 32px and the color black.

Set the Fill of this layer to 25%, double-click on it to open the Layer Style window and use the settings from the following image.

Step 10: Creating the "Featured" area

Create a new group and name it "Featured". Select the Type Tool (T) and write the name of your project using the font Oswald with the size 22pt and the color white. Put this layer in the left hand side of the layout and at 50px underneath the navigation bar.

Select the Line Tool (U) and create a horizontal line with the width 300px. Set the Fill of this layer to 0% and the Opacity to 50%. Double-click on this layer and add the dotted line pattern that you created earlier in this tutorial.

Use the Type Tool (T) to add a block of text underneath the horizontal line. Use the font Helvetica with the color white and the size 13pt. Go to the Character panel (Window > Character) and set the leading (the distance between lines of type) to 24 pt to make the text more readable.

Creating a "Read More" button

Create a new group and name it "button". Select the Rectangle Tool (U) and set the Radius to 4px. Then create a rounded rectangle underneath the block of text with the size 110px by 30px and the color #9ca2a6. Name this layer "button".

Duplicate the "button" layer (Command/Ctrl + J) and move this new layer underneath the original one. Select the Move Tool (V) and hit the down arrow on your keyboard once to move this layer one pixel down. Set the opacity of this layer to 50%.

Duplicate the previous layer (Command/Ctrl + J) and change its color to #54585b. Move this layer one pixel down and set its opacity to 100%.

Now you should have three "button" layers. Double-click on the top one to open the Layer Style window and use the settings from the image below. The color that I used for the Stroke effect is #54585b.

Hold down the Command/Ctrl key and select the two "button" layers from the bottom. Right-click on one of them and select Convert to Smart Object.

Double-click on this layer to open the Layer Style window and use the settings from the following image for Gradient Overlay. This will add a subtle 3D effect to the button.

Hold down the Command/Ctrl + Shift keys and click on the thumbnail of the "button" smart object and then on the vector mask of the "button" layer. This will create a selection of the entire button. Create a new layer and fill the selection with white. Hit Command/Ctrl + D to deselect.

Right-click on this layer and select Convert to Smart Object. Then go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise and use the settings from the image below. Set the blend mode of this layer to Multiply 25%.

Now select the Type Tool (T) and write "Read More" on your button using the font Oswald with the size 15pt and the color white. Double-click on this layer to open the Layer Style window and use the settings from the following image for Drop Shadow.

Step 11: Adding an image slider

Create a new group and name it "image slider". Select the Rectangle Tool (U) and create a rectangle with the dimensions 620px by 300px. Name this layer "image_holder", double-click on it to open the Layer Style window and use and use the setting from the following image for Outer Glow.

Open an image in Photoshop that you want you feature in this area and move it into your web layout document using the Move Tool (V). Name this layer "image" and put it over the "image_holder" layer. Then right click on it and select Create Clipping Mask. Now your image will be visible only over the area of the "image_holder" layer.

Creating the image slider arrows

Select the Custom Shape Tool (U), right-click on your image and select one of the arrow shapes. Then create an arrow in the right hand side of your image slider using the color #e2e6e8.

Name this layer "right arrow", double-click on it to open the Layer Style window and use the settings from the following image. Right-click on this layer and select Convert to Smart Object. Then set its opacity to 40%.

Duplicate this layer (Command/Ctrl + J) and name the new one "left arrow". Then go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal. Move this arrow in the left hand side of the web layout. Take a look at the following image for reference.

Creating the navigation bullets for the image slider

Create a new group and name it "navigation bullets". Select the Ellipse Tool (U), hold down the Shift key and create a circle with the dimensions 10px by 10px and the color #4d5357. Name this layer "navigation bullet".

Duplicate this layer (Command/Ctrl + J) a few times and arrange them as you see in the image below.

Select the Ellipse Tool (U) again and create a smaller circle in the middle of a navigation bullet to indicate the active image. For this circle use the color #9ca2a4.

Step 12: Creating "Services" area

Create a new group and name it "Services". Select the Rectangle Tool (U) and create a rectangle with the height 450px and the color #fafafa.

Name this layer "services bg", right-click on it and select Convert to Smart Object. Then go to Go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise and use the settings from the following image.

Double-click on this layer to open the Layer Style window and use the settings from the following image for Inner Shadow and Outer Glow.

Select the Line Tool (U) and drag a horizontal line at the bottom of the "services" area using the color #d2d2d2. Name this layer "1px line".

Duplicate this layer (Command/Ctrl + J) and change the color of the new line to white. Then move this layer 1px up.

Step 13: Adding the content for the "Services" area

Select the Type Tool (T) and write the word "Services" with the size 38pt and the color #5b656a. Put this layer in the left hand area of the web layout and at 40px underneath the "featured" area.

Create a new group and name it "web design". Create another group inside this one and name it "spotlights". We will design a 3D-looking room with some spotlights over an image.

Select the Rectangle Tool (U) and create a rectangle with the dimensions 300px by 100px and the color #3b444a. Name this layer "border", right-click on it and select Convert to Smart Object.

Go to Go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise and use the settings from the image below. Then double-click on this layer to open the Layer Style window and use the settings from the following image for Gradient Overlay.

Now I will show you how to create the 3D-looking room. First, select the Rectangle Tool (U) and create a gray rectangle with the dimensions 286px by 86px and put it in the center of the "border" rectangle. This is a temporary layer that will help us create the walls.

Select the Rectangle Tool (U) and create a rectangle with the height 22px and the color #434f57. Make sure this layer does not go over the gray rectangle. Name this layer "floor", double-click on it to open the Layer Style window and use the settings from the following image.

Create a new rectangle with the dimensions 240px by 64px and the color #3b4851. Name this layer "front wall" and position it as you see in the image below. Ten add a Gradient Overlay effect to this layer.

Using the Direct Selection Tool (A), select the upper right hand corner of the "floor" layer and move it to the left. Then select the upper left hand corner and move it to the right. Take a look at the following image for reference.

Create a rectangle in the left hand side of the 3D room with the color #39444b. Use the Direct Selection Tool (A) to reposition the bottom right hand corner of this rectangle, as you see in the image below. Double-click on this layer to open the Layer Style window and use the settings from the following image.

Duplicate this layer (Command/Ctrl + J) and move it to the right. Then change the angle of the Gradient Overlay to 0.

Create a new rectangle at the top of the 3D room using the color #505e67. Name this layer "ceiling" and use the Direct Selection Tool (A) to adjust the bottom corners like you did for the "floor" layer. Double-click on this layer to open the Layer Style window and use the settings from the following image.

Now you can delete the gray rectangle you added at the beginning of this step. Below you can see how my "3d room" group looks like.

Right-click on the "3d room" group and select Convert to Smart Object. Then go to Go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise and use the settings from the following image.

Double-click on this layer to open the Layer Style window and use the settings from the image below.

Step 14: Creating the spotlights

Create a new group and name it "top lights". Then select the Ellipse Tool (U) and create a white circle, as you see in the image below. Right-click on this layer and select Convert to Smart Object. Then go to Filter > Blur > Radial Blur and use the settings from the image below. Name this layer "light 1".

Create a new circle, bigger than the previous one. Name this layer "light 2" and convert it to smart object. Then apply a Radial Blur Filter with the same settings.

Repeat the process one more time with a bigger circle. Name this layer "light 3". Take a look at the following image for reference.

Group the three "light" layers together and set the opacity of each one as follows:

• "light 1" – 70%
• "light 2" – 50%
• "light 3" – Soft Light 40%

Duplicate the group two times and arrange your spotlights as you see in the image below.

Hold down the Command/Ctrl + Shift keys and click on the thumbnail of each "light" layer to select them. Then go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue & Saturation and use the settings from the following image. This will add a subtle blue color to the lights.

Some of the lights might go over the border of the 3D room. To correct this, hold down the Command/Ctrl key and click on the thumbnail of the "3d room" layer. Then click on the "top lights" group to make it active and go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection.

Create a new group and name it "floor lights". Then use the Ellipse Tool (U) to create three ellipses as you see in the image below. Convert each layer to a smart object. Then add a Gaussian Blur filter and a Noise filter to each layer. Set the opacity of these layers to 40%.

Then you can add an image in the middle of the 3d room that represents the design service you added. I used the Webdesign Tuts+ logo.

Step 15

Select the Rectangle Tool (U) and create a white rectangle with the dimensions 300px by 210px underneath the spotlights area. Name this layer "content bg", double-click on it to open the Layer Style window and use the settings from the following image for Outer Glow.

Select the Pen Tool (P) and create a triangle shape using the color #d1d6da, as you see in the image below. You can activate the guides to help you create this shape.

Name this layer "top triangle", double-click on it to open the Layer Style window and use the settings from the following image. The color that I used for the Stroke effect is #c5cace.

Select the Type Tool (T) and add the content for this service box. For the headline use the font Oswald with the size 20pt and the color #747d82.

For the block of text use the font Helvetica Regular with the size 13pt and the color #5f6c74. Also, set the leading of this text layer to 24pt from the Character panel.

Create a new black dotted line pattern just like you created the white one at the beginning of this tutorial. Then use the Line Tool (U) to drag a horizontal line between the headline and the block of text. Set the Fill of this layer to 0% and apply the pattern you created.

Copy the "Read more" button from the "featured" area (right-click on its group and select Duplicate Group). Then move the new button underneath the block of text from the "services" area. Take a look at the following image for reference.

Step 16

Duplicate the "web design" group two times and arrange the new columns as you see in the image below. Then replace the headlines and the images that are under the spotlights.

Step 17: Creating the "Portfolio" area

Create a new group underneath the "Services" group and name it "Portfolio". Then select the Rectangle Tool (U) and create a rectangle with the height 590px and the color #f1f1f1 underneath the "services" area.

Name this layer "portfolio bg", right-click on it and select Convert to Smart Object. Go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise and use the settings from the following image. Then double-click on this layer to open the Layer Style window and apply one of the fabric textures you downloaded.

Select the Type Tool (T) and write "Portfolio" in the upper left corner of this area. I used the font Oswald with the size 38pt and the color #5b656a.

Step 18: Adding the portfolio items

Create a new group and name it "images". Then select the Rectangle Tool (U) and create a rectangle with the dimensions 180px by 140px. Name this layer "image_holder".

Duplicate this layer (Command/Ctrl + J) and move the new rectangle to the right at 10px distance from the first one. Continue to duplicate this layer until you create a grid like you see in the image below.

Open some images that you want to showcase in the "portfolio" area. Drag each image over one "image_holder" layer, right-click on the layers of the images and select Create Clipping Mask. This will put an image inside each rectangle.

In the image below there are two columns where I did not add any images. We will use that area to add a detailed portfolio item.

Step 19: Adding a detailed portfolio item

Create a new group and name it "active project". Select the Rectangle Tool (U) and create a rectangle over the two columns that have no images using the color #595e61.

Select the Rectangle Tool again and create an image holder with the dimensions 330px by 160px. Open an image that you want to display in this area and put it over the "image_holder" layer. Right-click on the "image" layer and select Create Clipping Mask.

Select the Type Tool (T) and add some content to this area. For the headline use the font Oswald with the size 22pt and the color white. For the block of text use the font Helvetica Regular with the size 13pt and the color #fafafa.

Duplicate one of the previous "Read more" buttons and put it underneath the block of text from the "active project" area.

Create a new group and name it "close button". Select the Rectangle Tool (U), hold down the Shift key and create a square with the dimensions 20px by 20px and the color #484c4f. Put this rectangle in the upper right corner of the "active project" area.

Select the Line Tool (U) and create two diagonal lines to form an "X" shape. Hold down the Shift key to drag a line at 45°.

Step 20: Creating the "Blog" area

Create a new group and name it "blog". Select the Rectangle Tool (U) and create a rectangle with the height 340px underneath the "portfolio" area using the color #fafafa.

Right-click on this layer and select Convert to Smart Object. Go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise and use the settings from the image below.

Select the Line Tool (U) and create a horizontal line at the top of this rectangle using the color #d2d2d2. Duplicate this layer (Command/Ctrl + J) and move the new line one pixel down. Change the color of this line to white.

Step 21: Adding blog posts

Select the Type Tool (T) and write "Blog" in the upper left corner of this area using the font Oswald with the size 38pt and the color #5b656a.

Create a new group and name it "post #1". Select the Rectangle Tool (U) and create an image holder with the dimensions 180px by 140px. Open an image that you want to display in this area and drag it over the "image_holder" layer. Right-click on the "image" layer and select Create Clipping Mask to make it visible only over the area of the "image_holder" layer.

Select the Type Tool (T) and add some content next to the image. For the headline use the font Oswald with the size 22pt and the color #747d82. For the block of text use the font Helvetica Regular with the size 13pt and the color #5f6c74. Also, set the leading of this paragraph to 24pt. Then add a "Read more" button underneath the block of text.

Duplicate the "post #1" group and move the new one to the right. Then you can change the image and content for this new blog post.

Step 22: Creating the "Footer" area

Create a new group and name it "footer". Duplicate the "header bg" layer (Command/Ctrl + J) from the "Header" group and move it at the bottom of the layout, underneath the "Blog" area. Name this layer "footer bg".

Hold down the Command/Ctrl key and click on the thumbnail of the "footer bg" layer to select it. Then go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Gradient and use the settings from the image below. While the Gradient Fill window is still opened, click on your image and move the gradient up, as you see in the following image.

Set the blend mode of this layer to Soft Light 40%.

Select the Line Tool (U) and create a horizontal line at the top of your "Footer" area using the color #50565a. Name this layer "1px line".

Duplicate this layer (Command/Ctrl + J) and move it one pixel down. Then change the color of this line to #8e9496.

Step 23: Creating the "About" area

Now we will split the footer into three columns: "About", "Twitter" and "Contact".

Create a new group and name it "about". Select the Type Tool (T) and write "About me" at the top of the first column. Leave a distance of 40px between the top edge of the "footer" area and this text layer.

Select the Line Tool (U) and create a horizontal line underneath the headline. Set the Fill of this layer to 0% and the opacity to 50%. Then apply to this layer the white dotted line pattern that you created in this tutorial.

Use the Type Tool (T) to add a block of text underneath the dotted line using the font Helvetica Regular and the color #fafafa. Set the leading of this paragraph to 24pt from the Character panel. Then add a "Read more" button underneath the block of text.

Step 24: Creating the "Follow me" area

Create a new group and name it "follow me". Then add a headline and a couple of tweets in this area. Use the same dotted line to separate the blocks of text.

Add a "Read more" button underneath the tweets. Select the Type Tool (T) and change the text into "Follow me".

Download this set of Twitter birds and move a couple of them into your web layout document, underneath the "follow me" area. Add a Drop Shadow effect to these bird layers using the settings from the image below.

Step 25: Creating the "Contact" area

Create a new group and name it "Contact". Then add a headline to this area and a dotted line underneath it.

Use the Rectangle Tool (U) to create the contact form, as you see in the following image. Fill each rectangle with the color #eff0f0. Then add an Inner Glow and a Stroke effect to each rectangle layer. The color that I used for the Stroke layer style is #4d5254.

Select the Type Tool (T) and write inside each rectangle what it represents (name, subject, email, message).

Add a "Read more" button button underneath the Contact Form and change the text to read "Send".

Step 26: Adding the "Copyright" area

Create a new group and name it "Copyright". Then select the Rectangle Tool (U) and create a black rectangle as you see in the image below. Name this layer "copyright bg" and set its the blend mode to Overlay 20%.

Select the Line Tool (U) and create a horizontal line at the top of the rectangle you created earlier. Set the Fill of this layer to 0% and the Opacity to 35%. Then apply the dotted line pattern that you created in this tutorial.

Select the Type Tool (T) and add a copyright statement in the middle of the dark rectangle. Use the font Helvetica Regular with the size 12pt and the color #b1b5b7.

Final Result

We’re finished. Below you can see the final result of this tutorial. Click on the image to see the full-size version.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and you learned some new things for designing web interfaces. Leave any comments or questions you have in the comments section below.

Psdtuts+

In this part of our Building a Website in Progressive Steps series we’re going to cover a wide array of elements on a web page, how they are placed, then we’ll discuss the importance of each. So let’s dig into the tutorial and start talking web page elements!

Step 4: Web Page Elements

Webdesigntuts+

A while back, we asked Webdesigntuts+ readers to weight in on the state of the industry in the 2011 Web Design survey. And boy did you ever! Over 5,200 of you responded and shared your experience with web design. All respondents who provided an email were entered in the grand prize drawing to win an Apple iPad 2 and the entire Rockable Press library of e-books, more than 00 USD in prizes. I’m happy to say we have a winner! Read on to find out about our winner and get a sneak peek at the results of the survey.

Congratulations go to Michael Freytag! He’ll receive a 32GB wifi Apple iPad 2 and a copy of Rockable’s entire line-up of ebooks. I asked Michael what he thought of the survey and the state of web design:

To see the changes in the web over the past 13 years and where its going is amazing. With web sites being able to be viewed in such a variety of ways, the design and development have a serious impact on the users’ experience. Being a member of Tuts+ for the past year has been worth it; it’s been a great resource. With the different articles on the latest technology, designers and developers are able to keep up on their education and share their experiences. I’m glad to have helped provide data for the Web Design survey. It will be great to see how the web design and development community is growing.

Once again, congratulations to Michael!

The full results of the 2011 survey are going to be shared in the up-coming book “Web Design Confidential” published by Rockable Press, but I wanted to thank everyone for participating by giving a sneak peek of what turned out to be some really interesting, surprising results. For example, we asked web designers about their education and skills:

The majority of web designers found their formal education was only marginally relevant to their work. However, most designers also indicated learning new skills was vital to their job and on-line learning from web tutorials and articles were voted as top resources. Most of us are aware that it takes more than a simple degree to make a good web designer, but when I dug down into responses, I was surprised to find what other factors made a huge difference to success.

We’ll be looking at all that and more in the results of Web Design Confidential, but I would love to hear your thoughts now! How was your education relevant to web design? Is a college degree worth it for a web design career, or is there a better way to get your start?

Webdesigntuts+

In this part of our Building a Website in Progressive Steps series we’re going to discuss putting a single blog page together, and go over the various elements within the page while pointing out the importance of each. So let’s dig into the tutorial and start talking setting up a blog page!

Step 5: Blog Page

Webdesigntuts+

Just because you missed that awesome conference, doesn’t mean that you can’t still watch the lectures! This weekend we’re sharing a great talk from Carsonified. In this talk at FOWD NYC, Paul Boag covers strategies for working better with design clients.

Vectortuts+

Welcome to this, a collection of guidelines on designing for Magento. We’re going to get to know the platform, by walking through each of the aspects you’ll need to consider in your designs.

The purpose of this guide is to raise awareness of designing for a specific purpose and technology (Magento), while implementing general best practices for e-commerce design.

Introduction

Who should read this? Well, everyone involved in creating Magento e-commerce experiences, meaning: The designer, web-developer and finally the client. Educating everyone about the process, platform and the approach is essential.

It’s Magento

Magento as a framework is now three years old and even at the beginning it had one huge advantage over the competition (besides being the powerhouse it is and its marketing): a well designed default theme which exposed its possibilities loud and clear. In fact, the Modern theme alone made me take a better look into the whole framework making it my profession today.

The point is that just by installing Magento you get years of experience, testing and best practices in e-commerce. Whether you take a look at the product page, catalog page, or the whole checkout process, good foundations are already laid out for you. It’s not all appropriate for every shop of course, and that’s where you come in.

In this guide I’ll go through all of the important page views in Magento

It’s necessary to go through the whole shopping experience to get the feel for the platform you’re designing for. The best way to do that would be to visit the demo store after reading this guide and to go through the process of shopping for products, searching for a specific product, reviewing the process of checking out as a registered or unregistered customer.

The next step would be really putting yourself in the position of the store owner by going into the administration panel to get a perspective of how settings and inputs from the administration panel affect the front-end.

In this guide I’ll cover important aspects of designing the user experience by going through all of the important page views in Magento. By doing so, you’ll have a complete outlook on the store, making it easy to keep track of project progress, and it will help you present your design decisions/propositions to the client.

Let’s begin…

Main Parts of the Store

There are several major sections that need to be covered with each Magento design:

• CMS pages
• Category product listing page
• Product view page
• User login/register page – (logged or guest view)
• User account page
• Checkout process

In order to fully grasp the sections mentioned above it’s advisable to go over to the Magento demo store and take some time to explore both the front-end and the back-end. At the bottom of the demo page there are three choices for Front-end, back-end and then the multi-store demo for the Magento Community Edition.

Home page

Home page is the store front and should always address both newcomers and regular customers, registered or unregistered, with your store to keep them informed and engaged.

One of the best practices is to display featured and new products for loyal customers, besides displaying main product categories for newcomers. Presenting users with clearly defined options that engage instantly is the key, although finding the balance is actually hard work that involves real data testing. Luckily, you can always use different layouts and content variations while doing A/B testing and see what works.

This is also an excellent place to state the not so obvious: Shipping availability, Secure shopping, Info about the shopping process, links to store policies and so on. Everything that can resolve doubts, answer questions is welcome. In return, it ensures a good relationship from the start.

I won’t go into detail about this particular page since there are a lot of articles addressing this challenge already.

Category Page

Demo URL: Category page

The belly of your store needs extra attention. This is where your catalog has to shine from both an architectural and front-end standpoint. You can’t afford to have to go back and re-design the whole thing just because your shop inventory wasn’t set properly, attributes, categories, prices etc. I’ll address this either as “Catalog design” or “Catalog Architecture”

Assuming you’ve set your product catalogue with care and attention you’ll now have these important aspects of the page to care of next:

Product Filtering

• Grid view
• List view

Presume you’ll need both down the road, it’s important to design both these views.

Product Sorting

This is a feature which reflects how well the “Catalog Design” has been carried out, and you’ll need to pay extra attention to the needs of your customers if you intend to empower them to find what they’re looking for.

By default in Magento, sorting the products in a category and its respective subcategories is done by way of a drop-down containing the list of attributes you’ve set to be sortable in the admin panel.

From a usability point of view, you should consider customizing this one by removing the need for that “arrow” which is used for ascending and descending the values.

Tip: It’s only a few hours of extra work but it pays of to have the options of “A-Z” and “Z-A” listed one below the other than using an extra unintuitive click for that.

Prices

Sooner or later you’ll have to deal with: “Special prices”, “Tier prices”, “From-to” display of prices, “Price as configured”, so it’s better to have those planned already in wireframes. Prices have their own section later on in this article.

Rating

Besides all of the data for a single product listing on the category page here, ratings are another aspect that needs to be planned ahead early in the wireframes, or at least at the design stage.

They are particularly interesting since their visibility can be set on a permission level so that only registered users can actually review. This creates different versions of the page based on viewing permissions.

Category page is also the perfect place to tag products that are “On Sale“, “Hand Picked” or perhaps “Coming Soon” with some nice looking informative graphics.

Product Page

With Magento you have 6+3 product types at your disposal, where those +3 are placed across the store as “Up-Sell“, “Cross-Sell” or “Related” products.

You need to know the platform you’re designing for

It is essential to discuss what types of products will be used in the store, so that you can effectively design for the particular ones.

At this stage, designing the product page, this is the moment you’ll really need to get yourself acquainted with the layout and template structure if you haven’t already. Alternatively, consult with Magento experts about what implications your design will have on developing the actual page.

Simple Product

Demo URL: Nokia 2610 Phone – Product page

The following elements of the “Simple Product” are, in general, common to all product types:

Tip:Use “Firebug” or “Web inspector” to take a look at the elements on the actual demo page for yourself.

• Product essential box
• Product collateral box

Product essential box

• Product image box
  • Product image
  • Image Zoom slider
  • More views – image thumbnails

• Product shop
  • Ratings box
  • Availability box
  • Price box
  • Add to box – holding add to cart button and “Add to wishlist” and “Add to compare”
  • Quick Overview box

Product collateral box

This section of the product page is dedicated for the “Details”, “Up sell products”, “Reviews”, “Tags” etc.

One Magento quirk here is the “Reviews” which was is shown to the user after a page reloads, replacing all other content in the collateral box. Bear this one in mind while designing, or check out these articles on how to make it work for you out of the “default” template content flow.

Simple Product with Custom Options

Demo URL: Simple Product with options

Simple product with custom options adds an options section with “Add to Cart” box placed inside, since the product’s acquisition depends on both required and non required options. This must be kept in mind since this page has to be updated in the design for the simple product.

Price can be set as “Special price” or “Regular price” in which case both need to be addressed in the design. Also, there is an option of Tier pricing which is explained in the Magento knowledge base.

Bundle Product

Demo URL: Bundle Product

The Bundle product page has a similar layout to the simple product, with the exception of the price that can be displayed as “From/To” and “As low as”, and with the addition of “The price as configured.

In Bundled product types, there are also differences in the General and Prices pages, as follows:

Bundle Items: Bundled Items appear in the store as a list of available options. For each option you can configure the title, input type (single and multiple selection fields are available), whether the field is mandatory (for example: it can be True for a computer processor and False for an additional battery of a laptop computer) and its position on the page.

Price View: Specifies whether the product’s price is shown as a range, from the least expensive component to the most expensive (Price Range), or is only the least expensive shown (As Low As).

Grouped Product

Demo URL: Grouped Product

The only significant difference when compared to the “Simple Product” page view is that all the products of a group are presented inside a table.

Configurable product

Demo URL: Configurable product

This product type page has the configurable product options in form of a drop down similar to the ones seen on the “Bundle product”.

Downloadable Product

Demo URL: Downloadable Product

The layout is very similar to the layout of the “Simple Product” and has the “Sample” feature that provides a link to the downloadable portion of the actual “Downloadable product”.

After the purchase, customers can download the product from the checkout page.

If you haven’t already, you should get to know all the products inside-out by going through the Magento documentation and exploring the inner workings of the layouts and templates.

The main point of listing each and every “Product Type” page view is that you’ll need to pay attention to where you place the actual “Buy button” in your designs. As a logical rule of thumb, it should always be positioned after all the choices and options are listed. Common mistakes like placing an extra “Buy button” both on top and the bottom of the product page are usability and technical nightmares, yet I’ve seen such examples backed by the “The button is way below the fold” reasoning or worse.

This example is an extreme one but it illustrates well what happens if the design strays from the path of usability or just breaks the function of the page.

One other common case is when the product is out of stock, yet is still visible in the store. In that case the “Add to cart” section is not displayed. This needs to be addressed in the design as well.

Up Sell, Cross Sell and Related Products

As mentioned at the beginning of this “Product types” section, they are not special by type, but by placement on the page or the site section.

Up Sell products

Demo URL: Up Sell Product

Up sell products are displayed on the product page in the product description. This example presents a more expensive keyboard and other products as up-sells to the less expensive keyboard.

Cross sell products

Demo URL: (Add something to Cart first) Cart Page

Cross-sell products appear next to the shopping cart by default. When a customer navigates to the shopping cart page (whether automatically after adding a product or otherwise), these products are displayed as cross-sells to the items already in the shopping cart.

Cross-sell products can be seen as impulse purchases, like magazines and candy at the cash registers in grocery stores.

It’s advisable to use this space in situations when there’s no cross sell product (not available, out of stock and so on) for a store banner, message to the customer and the like.

Product types and Price(s)

This is the point where I’ll need to make a recap of the product types and various price options. Please refer to Magento documentation afterwards.

Types of products:

• Simple product and Simple product with options
• Grouped product
• Bundle product and “Bundle” with options
• Configurable product and “Configurable” with options
• Downloadable product and “Downloadable” with options
• Virtual product and “Virtual” with options

Types of prices:

• Regular price
• Special price
• From/to price
• Price as configured
• Tier prices

Every product can have a special price in addition to the regular price. Also, a special price can be set to start and expire on a desired date.

“From/to” and “Price as configured” are displayed on a bundle product where the price is ranged from the item with the lowest price up to the item with the highest price in the bundle. On the category page there will be only a “From/to” price displayed for the same product.

Tier pricing is a promotional tool that lets you price items differently for higher quantities. This is an effective way to move more merchandise.

For example: you sell office supplies and you want to create a promotion where customers who buy three boxes of printer paper save money compared to buying just one box.

Next we’ll go through the “Cart page” thus getting one step closer to the actual Checkout process.

Shopping Cart

Demo URL: (Add something to Cart first) Cart

Obviously, there are two states of the Cart : Empty and Populated.

Populated Cart

Here we have the page laid out in two rows. The first being the table displaying all the products waiting to be purchased. Below them we’ll usually have the “Cross Sell” products (see “Cross Sell” products), Discount codes, Shipping and Tax and finally the checkout section with subtotals, grand totals and the “Proceed to checkout” button.

In brief:

• Shopping cart
• Cross sell box
• Discount & shipping & checkout button

The shopping cart is a table displaying the cart items with class names for alternating the styles of each table row. This helps distinguish products from each other when there are more then 4 products in the cart.

Cross sell box appears only if the product has an cross sell product or products are assigned from the store admin panel. Please see the Cross Sell page.

Shipping & Discount codes with the Checkout button are placed inside a div (.cart-collateral-block) and since they contain input fields which are displaying error messages those need to be designed too.

Empty Cart

The empty cart page is displayed when there are no products in the cart, so it’s a great opportunity to make it valuable to the user by designing it with some call to action content. You can place a category listing, Advanced search box and/or provide the link back to the last Catalog page visited.

Checkout (One page)

Demo URL: (Add something to Cart first) One page Checkout

There are two main sections in the “One checkout page”:

• “Your checkout progress” – displays checkout progress
• “Main content” – Checkout steps in tabs
  • Checkout Method
  • Billing Information
  • Shipping Information
  • Shipping Method
  • Payment Information
  • Order Review

The purpose of the “One page” checkout is to avoid the “many steps” feeling you would get if every part of the checkout process from the “Main Content” was on a separate page. Therefore, here we have all the steps combined on one page and the data is passed back and forth to the server via AJAX.

Unless you’re challenged with creating a fully customized checkout it’s strongly advisable to just “skin” this part.

By doing so you’ll get fewer headaches with development and it will be easily upgradable in the future (something to advise the client for sure).

One possible change in behavior of “tabs” is to make them visible one at a time and use CSS3 or JavaScript animation for sliding for the next or previous step. Of course, you’ll still need the “Progress indicator” which can be set on top of the checkout steps indicating all the steps in the process and highlighting the current one.

Finally, once the order has been placed, Magento will display the “Success Page” and that’s a great candidate for adding extra information about the purchase, product shipment date, order summary and maybe some incentives to continue shopping which are more engaging than the plain old “Continue Shopping” button.

If things don’t go as planned with the checkout, well, then the user gets an error message which we’ll go through next.

Message Boxes

In Magento all of the contextual interaction between the user and the store is handled by message boxes. Message boxes can have “Error Messages” or “Success Messages” presented to the user.

Since these interactions are an essential part of the user experience their design and placement should be considered as a priority and not as an after thought.

Error message example in context:

Success Message example after submitting valid data:

Error Message example after submitting non-acceptable data:

Notice Message example after submitting data:

Primary consideration should be the placement of message boxes minding layout and context.

Design should be pretty straightforward, since they only need to fit into the look and feel of the site.

Search

Demo URL: Search result

Magento’s built-in search function on the frontend has three ways of searching for products:

• Regular search – using the search box
• Catalog Advanced search – using a separate page with options for the search settings
• Search with Autocomplete – search with automatically suggested results

It should definitely be a key factor in every online store strategy. That’s why you’ll need to pay special attention when designing the page for the following:

No Results page

What will the user get to see besides the default “Message box” informing that nothing was found?

Will you provide them with suggestions in case of a misspelled word, and/or an advanced search page where your regular informed or savvy users can search by SKU among other criteria?

Advanced Search

Advanced search form

Advanced search results

Search Autocomplete

404 page

Demo URL: There’s nothing to see…

The 404 page comes as default with Magento but, just like the favicon, it can slip through the cracks and not get the attention it deserves. Being a CMS page you can plan for the “Oh No!” user scenario by making it less stressful and provide emergency strategy for the user.

Sidebar Blocks

I’m using the “Sidebar blocks” term for everything that appears outside of the main content, for example, in two or three column layout templates.

• Layer navigation
• Currency selector
• Newsletter
• Popular Tags
• Poll
• Product Comparison
• Related Products
• My Cart

There’s no need to go into detailed description for each, I rather just listed them for everyone to serve as a reminder.

My Account and Transactional Emails

My Account

Woohoo! We finally got to the part that in the end matters the most.

The My Account area of the site is what users will regard as their own place to get all they need concerning the status of their orders, shipment and any other feature that you have in store for them.

It’s a great place to establish trust between the customer and the store, avoiding unnecessary communication by informing registered users about each and every aspect of their shopping experience.

Designing the “My Account” area without any real data about customer needs is tricky, but try to search for inspiration on other sites by becoming their customers or pinpoint what’s good and the bad about the stores you’re already registered to.

Transactional Emails

These are the PR and Customer Relations’ right hand. For every order that’s been placed, shipment or general inquiry being sent to the customer each of these represents the store and determines how well it’s perceived.

You should have the designs for these emails ready before the launch since they need to blend in with the rest of the brand’s visual identity.

Luckily, Magento allows you to have complete control over them. You can find answers in one of my older posts.

Conclusion

I realize this one was a bit of a long read so I’m listing some of the highlights and important stuff at the end.

You should come back as often as you can and refer to this article as a sort of general guide or a reminder when discussing projects and during design.

General guidelines

• Get to know the platform – you’ll need that for your designs to work
• Shopping experience – It’s invaluable. Get one.
• Consult Magento experts – Prompt feedback when in doubt
• Think – Back and forth: As a customer, store owner and developer

Design deliverables

These are recommendations regarding your PSDs delivered to a developer or a client. It would also be great to use some kind of a “Cloud Service” like “Dropbox” for sharing.

• One PSD – Organize in Layer Comps or Layer Groups
• Add notes – Describe What, Where, How and Why when needed
• Define Colors – This one is extremely helpful when coding CSS
• Define hover, visited, active and normal states for links

This is it. You’ve come to the end of the article and will hopefully use these guidelines in your project. Be aware that you can always come back and reference it when you need to.

Remember, nobody notices what you do until you don’t do it.

Webdesigntuts+

One of the really neat things about CSS3 is the ability to create objects containing special effects such as gradients, rounded corners and even drop shadows. In this tutorial I’m going to show you how a new Fireworks extension can do all the hard work for you.

The Fireworks CSS3 Mobile pack, found on Labs, gives you the ability to create an object in Fireworks CS5.1, extract its CSS3 properties and add them to an HTML page in Dreamweaver CS5.5.

I’ll also show you how to preview your effects in various browsers – code free.

Watch the Screencast

Additional Resources

• Fireworks CSS3 Mobile pack

Webdesigntuts+

A lot people believe their photography will improve “if only…” With the holidays approaching, a lot of avid wanna-be photographers, amateurs, and professionals will be making wish lists for gear that they erroneously believe will make them better photographers. There are many forums, YouTube videos, and articles pandering how camera/lens/light/brand/voodoo doll will make your photos better. Today, we’ll examine that idea.

Not helping the situation are the photography merchants and manufacturers themselves. New bodies, lenses, and accessories are either released or announced around this time, creating some anxiety for those who are considering upgrading and those who feel their photography will never improve enough to “catch up” to top-tier gear.

This article is meant to refute that whole gear-oriented mentality and help trim those holiday wishlists down and make those future investments wiser. There is no reason to purchase something you’ll rarely use, and it makes even less sense if a piece of equipment actually does nothing to improve your photography.

Photography Brands

Each brand has its pros & cons, but using one brand or another doesn’t make you any more or any less of a photographer.

Brand loyalty is perfectly fine in nearly every profession, sport, or just about anything. However, brand fanboy-ism/fangirl-ism, isn’t an acceptable stance when considering serious investments into photography equipment.

One has to take into consideration many factors when investing into a particular brand, including that brand’s customer service, not just who is using what. So, the whole “brand vs brand” argument is meaningless if the gear you use gets the job done well.

One of the best examples is to compare the world’s top photographers and their images. Some use Canon, some use Nikon. Others use Toyo or Hasselblad or Mamiya. After enough searching you’ll quickly realize that it actually doesn’t matter.

Each company and camera model follows that company’s principle as well as the line of work it was designed to do. Those principles and designs have their advantages and disadvantages. There is no single brand that can do it all and no brand has the ability to make you a “real” photographer.

In fact, many of the master photographers one studies in school, predate the top three DLSR companies: Canon, Nikon, and Sony. Their artistic or technical abilities didn’t lie in the signal-to-noise ratio a particular sensor size produced or which had the most extensive lens line-up. None of those things mattered, yet generations of photographers – myself included – aspire to have and express such artistry, power, and insightfulness.

Does it really matter which camera manufacturer’s gear was held up to Steve McCurry’s eye when he shot the iconic “Afghan girl” image?

No.

In that moment, the brand disappeared. In fact all the mechanical stuff separating McCurry and his subject disappeared. They blended seamlessly into a timeless portrait.

Cameras

There is also a lot of debate as to which camera type and sensor size “make” better photographs. Some people advocate APS-C, APS-H, Full-Frame (35mm), Four-Thirds, or 645 (medium format). However, the size of the camera’s sensor and/or it’s aspect ratio doesn’t have much to do with making a photograph better.

This doesn’t mean that they can’t be compared to each other, but compared to the low tech film Cartier-Bresson used, they are all fine.

What needs to be understood is that sensor size affects the field-of-view and the signal-to-noise ratio. It is true that larger sensors have less noise and tend to have wider color gamut and dynamic range, but that doesn’t necessarily make the final product better. And using a cropped sensor camera doesn’t make you any less of a photographer than one who uses a full-framed sensor.

I’ve seen many, many people running around with 5D Mark II’s, D700′s, and other flagship cameras and still take the same kind of crappy photos they did with their point-and-shoot. These are versatile and excellent tools, but the inexperience and ignorance of the user limits it to the capabilities of a low-end camera.

An example why the most expensive camera isn’t necessary for a great photo. (Canon Powershot D10)

If you haven’t stretched the limits of your current camera body, or your work doesn’t regularly require the features a higher-end body provides, then wait. Spending 00, 00, or even 00 on a camera when you won’t be using it’s best features isn’t a wise investment.

Lenses

F/1.2, f/1.4, f/2, zoom vs prime. Which one is the best for photos?

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-4.5 kit lens. The trick is to know the limitations of any lens you use. (Photo: Daniel Sone)

The real answer, like camera bodies, really doesn’t matter too much in most situations. However, lenses are important tools in your photography arsenal as they, more than the camera body itself, determine a lot of the aesthetics of your image and limits of your camera.

Fast lenses – lenses with low f-stop numbers – enable the photographer to work in lower light situations and have a shallower depth-of-field. This doesn’t mean that you should only use the lens at it’s widest aperture, that won’t work very well in bright sunlight.

Also, the zooms vs. primes debate really falls apart when a professional is behind the lens. They’ll be able to make great photographs whether it’s a 24-70mm zoom or a 300mm prime. Fast prime lenses are cheaper and sharper than fast zooms, but sacrifice on versatility and speed that zooms offer.

Lenses are updated less often than camera bodies and good glass is expensive. Because of this reality, lenses are more of a long-term investment than bodies that are updated every few years. For example, the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM was introduced in 2001. It didn’t get an update until 2010. The longevity of lenses is a good case of concentrating your investment into the best glass you can afford rather than the best camera.

Buy the best glass you can get that fits into your field of photography and shooting style. A good lens will enable you to maximize your camera’s capabilities as well as the situations you will be able to effectively address.

Lights & Light Modifiers

When Joe McNally and David Hobby pushed the limits of what speedlights could do, the debate regarding if one really needs large studio lights spiked to all-time highs. Then Zack Arias impressed many with the versatility of just one light. The discussions further complicated themselves. In Europe, Bert Stephani also promoted the use of speedlights and stretched the notions of what they could do accomplish as well. However, as their needs expanded, you’ll notice that all of them have made large studio lights increasing players in their amazing image-making.

Speedlights are great. Studio lights are great. But the key to effectively using them is understanding light and lighting in the first place. And the key to pushing these units seemingly outside their capabilities takes lots of practice and an expert understanding of photography. Even with that expert understanding, it is still a lot of trial-and-error. In some cases, the aforementioned professionals can reach their intended shot sooner.

When purchasing lights and light modifiers, take a good look at the kind of photography you mainly do as well as the photography you’re aiming to eventually do. Since photojournalism and wedding photojournalism are the bulk of my work, my gear has to be light and portable. The trade-off is power, but my speedlights fulfill 90% of my flash needs.

My go-to light-modifier are umbrellas: silver, shoot-thru, and a softlighter II. They’re quick to set-up and like my speedlights, do most of what I need.

Umbrellas are super versatile modifiers for soft, directional light. Their versatility and speed come at the cost in controllability.

On the flipside, larger studio lights offer some great advantages at the expense of the extreme portability of speedlights. The two main advantages is power and recycle time. A 580EX II at full-power can take over 6-seconds to recycle, a studio light can usually do it under 2 seconds.

I usually break out the studio lights for easier overpowering of the sun and the ability to use the lights farther away while still having a small aperture. In that situation, I can work a lot faster because I have plenty of power to work with allowing for shorter recycle times.

There are a huge variety of manufacturers of speedlights, studio lights, and modifiers to choose from. My suggestion is to pick equipment that will satisfy the most needs while remaining within budget. These things can get expensive because of the accessories that you’ll need as your lighting becomes more complex.

Computers & Software

This section is a lot like the lens section. This is a place where one should be a little investment-heavy. A good, powerful computer and good software will save you lots of time in post-production. Whether you’re a Mac or a PC user, it is important to get as much power and space as possible.

Nowadays, a professional system should have no less than 8GB of RAM and a multi-core processor more than 2Ghz. The graphics card doesn’t need to be the best, but if you regularly use the video features of your camera, you’re going to want it. A graphics card of 128MB or more is highly suggested.

An oft-neglected part of the computers is the hard disk speed. A slow hard drive can hobble your systems overall speed because the read/write speed can’t keep up with demands. Spend the extra money of 7200rpm drives. You’ll appreciate it when you try to open or save the 16MP+ sized RAW files and even larger TIFFs.

For software, Adobe’s products have become the industry standard and 95% of photographers as well as academia (tutorials, etc.) use them. However, not using Adobe products doesn’t make you less of a photographer and can be just as effective. An excellent alternative is Corel’s Paintshop Pro X4 Ultimate. For the very low budget consumer, there is The GIMP, a free open source photo editing program that does a pretty job considering it’s FREE.

Finally, the monitor is also important. Large displays are tempting, but quality and control is more important. A graphics display is very expensive, but there are alternatives which have 98% Adobe RGB and high native resolutions too. If you’re color-correcting your own photos, get a calibration device.

Education, Training, and Associations

Since the 10-inches behind the camera is the most important thing in photography, pay considerable attention to it. Study the masters and keep an eye on the trends in photography. There isn’t a need to “follow the crowd,” but taking time to experiment with a trending technique or style only adds to your arsenal of skills.

Majoring in photography or art isn’t necessary to become world-class, but a few classes with a good teacher doesn’t hurt either. Photography classes will get you the basics, but a good mentorship and endless practice and disappointment is what will sharpen those skills and help develop your eye.

Joining an association can be a good idea, if it’s relative to your line of work. A lot of photographers join associations to boost their marketability, but this membership says nothing about their talent. In most cases you pay a fee and bam, you’re in. I suggest joining an association with the most benefits in terms of discounts on gear, networking, and education.

If you’re strapped for cash, there is a huge amount of free information online that can at least get you started on the basics or give you a glimpse into a technique. There are many websites and videos out there that give quality information, and all for free. As a take-away from the Internet, I highly recommend books too. All photographers should have a few books featuring iconic photographers and their works as well as a few books on specific areas of photography, including business and legal.

As with any education, if you don’t practice or apply your knowledge, it is even more useless than if you never learned it.

In Closing

I hope this article has helped you realize that getting more gear or upgrading isn’t directly connected to better photographs. I also hope it slows down that impulsive-buyer side in all of us whenever big sales or new toys come out.

Whenever considering making an investment, take into careful consideration the kind of work you do, the quality of it, your skill level, as well as your budget. After that, do additional research regarding specific products and try to get the best one. The best one isn’t always the biggest, most expensive, or the most popular, it is the gear that will work best for you.

You’ll notice that I didn’t make any specific suggestions regarding brands or models because each photographer works differently. Yes, there are things that nearly every photographer has, but that doesn’t mean you need it for what you do. The fact is, that there is no “best” for .

The best photographs depend more upon the photographer than upon the equipment.

Happy wise investing!

Phototuts+

You don’t have to search the web for very long to find a web ribbon in the corner of an image. In this quick tip tutorial we will show you how to create your own. Let’s get started!

Tutorial Assets

The following assets were used during the production of this tutorial.

• Chunk Five Font
• PSD Tuts+ Screenshot

Step 1

Create a new document and name it “Ribbon”. For this example, we’ll do a 600×600 pixel canvas.

Step 2

Create a new layer and name it “Background Texture”. Now fill it with a light color (I used #cccccc). Now go Filter > Noise > Add Noise and add some noise to the layer to help create some texture. I used the following settings:

• Amount: 10%
• Distribution: Gaussian
• Monochromatic: Checked

Now set the “Background Texture” layer opacity to 15%

Step 3

Now let’s create the box where our image goes. For this example, I am using the rectangle tool with a fixed dimension of 300×200 pixels.

Just place it in the middle of the canvas and name the layer “Clipping Mask”

Step 4

Add the following layer styles to the “Clipping Mask” to give it a nice shadow and outline.

Step 5

Using whatever image you like (I used the PSD Tuts screenshot) place it in the document, on top of the “Clipping Mask” layer and go to Layer > Create Clipping Mask

Step 6

Now we’ve got our image upon which we’ll place our ribbon. Start by using the rectangle tool and draw the ribbon. You’ll then want to rotate it about 35 degrees. Use the free transform tool (keyboard shortcut for free transform (Command/Ctrl + T) or go to Edit > Free Transfrom). Make sure your ribbon’s corners extend beyond the image mask size.

The ribbon color doesn’t matter right now because we’ll set a gradient overlay in the layer settings. Name the layer “Ribbon”.

Step 7

We’re going to make a layer mask for the “Ribbon” layer. This will hide the parts of the ribbon that extend beyond the image. Do the following:

1. Command/Ctrl + Click the vector mask of the “Clipping Mask” layer. This will create a scrolling marquee around the clipping mask.
2. We want our ribbon to extend slightly beyond the boundaries of the image, so expand the selection by going Select > Modify > Expand and expand the selection by about 4 pixels.
3. With your current selection, choose the “Ribbon” layer and create a layer mask. You can do this one of two ways:
   • Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection
   • Click the “Add Layer Mask” at the bottom of the Layers panel (see image)

Step 8

Let’s apply some layer styles to our ribbon shape. These styles help give our ribbons some shadows, highlights, and texture to improve it’s look. We’ll apply the following:

• Drop Shadow (outer shadow)
• Inner Glow (texture)
• Bevel and Emboss (edge highlights)
• Gradient Overlay (ribbon coloring)
• Stroke (help define the outer edge of the ribbon)

We now have something that looks like this:

Step 9

No we want to create the folds in the ribbon. Remember how we made sure the Ribbon expanded beyond the image’s edges by about 4 pixels? This is where we will add the fold in the ribbon, as if it is bending behind the image.

1. Create a new layer called “Ribbon Fold” and place it above the “Background Texture” and below the “Clipping Mask”
2. Select a dark color for the foreground color (I used #240500)
3. Select the brush tool adjust the settings to a small sized brush (about 9px) with 100% hardness.

Now use the brush to paint a small circle on both of the bottom edges. Because the layer is below the clipping mask, you’ll only see the dark part of the brush around the ribbon corners that overlap the image.

To help illustrate this point, look at the image below. This is what our PSD would look like if we turned down the opacity on all the layers above the “Ribbon Fold” where we painted with our brush.

Step 10

Let’s add our text. I used the following:

1. Chunk Five
2. 24pt
3. 75 letter spacing
4. Color #240500

Place the text on your ribbon and rotate it 35 degrees (using the Transform tool as we did with the ribbon shape in step #6)

Now let’s add some layer styles to make our text appear indented on the ribbon.

Now you should have something that looks like this:

Step 11

Finally we’ll add the stitching to our ribbon. Grab the text tool and type a bunch of hyphens. Then change the character settings as follow:

1. Chunk Five
2. 13pt
3. 200 letter spacing
4. Color #700404
5. Text Layer Opacity: 50%

Place the text on your ribbon and rotate it 35 degrees (using the Transform tool as we did with the ribbon shape in steps #6 and #10). Now let’s add some layer styles to make our stitching appear more realistic.

Duplicate that text and move it down to the bottom edge of the ribbon. Now you should have something that looks like this:

Step 12

The last thing we need to do is apply a layer mask to our stitching so it doesn’t go beyond the image’s edges. To do this, simply duplicate the layer mask on the “Ribbon” layer and move it to the new text hyphen (stitching) layer.

Apply the effect to both stitching layers and that’s it! You should now have something like this:

Final Image

That’s it! Now you know how to make a simple ribbon in Photoshop. You could play around with other options like changing the colors. Or, you could try making rounded edges on the ribbon where it crosses the image. That could be accomplished by using a combination of the pen tool and the existing layer masks. Good luck!

Psdtuts+

There are hundreds of business apps out there for running virtually any kind of small business online. And a lot of those apps are well-suited, functionally, for designers. But there’s something a lot of them are lacking: good design!

After all, we’re designers. We want to use apps that are attractive and designed to be both functional and beautiful. The apps below fill both those criteria, combining form and function into an app that you can be proud to use to run your design business!

Invoices, Quotes, and Other Financials

Financial management is often the least favorite part of running a business, but also one of the most vital to a freelancer’s success. The apps below will help you keep much better track of your business’s income and expenses, as well as send invoices, estimates, and more.

1. QuoteBase

QuoteBase is a free service that lets you create PDF quotes quickly, with your own logo, and even email to create a quote. It will also track all of your estimates and quotes, and lets you collaborate with other team members.

2. FreeAgent

FreeAgent is a bookkeeping and invoicing application specifically designed for small businesses and freelancers. It includes expense tracking, time tracking, account reports, data back-ups, and more.

3. Simply Invoices

Simply Invoices is an app for creating invoices from time you’ve logged in a Basecamp project. You can download invoices as PDFs, keep track of your invoices, and create templates for quicker invoice creation.

4. Xero

Xero offers online accounting, invoicing, billing, and banking. There’s a free trial where you don’t pay anything until you’re ready, and then plans start at /month.

5. inDinero

inDinero is a financial management tool that includes a real-time dashboard and financial advising tools. Bookkeeping tools include instant categorization, automatic downloading of transactions, and instant reporting.

6. Invoicera

Invoicera offers professional-looking invoices and estimates, and allows you to receive payments through over twenty payment gateways. It also includes expense tracking and time logging. A free plan is available, and paid plans start at .95/month.

7. Outright

Outright is a free app for managing your small business finances. It lets you import data from your existing accounts, making setup quick and simple. It updates nightly from your accounts, and automatically categorizes your transactions. It also helps you track your tax liability and keeps you up to date on exactly where you stand financially.

8. CannyBill

CannyBill is an online ordering and invoicing service that’s great for selling things like digital downloads or web hosting. It even includes tools for sending targeted email campaigns. There’s a free plan that allows up to three active clients and ten invoices per month, and paid plans start at /month.

9. Blinksale

Blinksale lets you create unlimited invoices and estimates for an unlimited number of users and clients. It supports international currencies, automated billing with recurring invoices, and an optional Blinkpay add-on for built-in credit card payments.

10. The Invoice Machine

The Invoice Machine is a simple-to-use invoicing app that creates professional looking invoices for products or services. It’s excellent for freelancers and small businesses, and lets you create, manage, and send invoices directly.

11. Pulse

Pulse is a complete financial management app for small businesses. It includes multiple cash flow views, powerful reporting, and the ability to attach files. Track your income and expenses, companies and projects, and more. There’s a 30-day free trial and after that plans start at /month (there’s also a very limited free plan).

12. Expensify

Expensify is a great app for keeping track of your expenses. Just photograph your receipts and upload them, and Expensify will even match them up to imported credit card transactions. It works on iPhone/iPad, Android, WebOS/Palm, and BlackBerry phones, and it includes tools for tracking mileage and analyzing your expenses.

13. LessAccounting

LessAccounting is an easy-to-use financial management app that includes invoicing and expense tracking, suitable for freelancers with a little or a lot of bookkeeping experience.

14. CurdBee

CurdBee offers easy online billing that includes invoice and estimates, as well as time and expense tracking. It even lets you accept online payments. There are both free and paid plans, starting at /month

Time Management and Tracking

Tracking your time is vital to making sure you stay productive, even if you don’t bill by the hour. Some of the time tracking apps below even have built-in invoicing.

15. Harvest

Harvest offers simple time tracking, online invoicing, and powerful reporting to help you stay on budget, track your earnings, and better manage your business.

16. Freckle

Freckle is a time tracking app that also includes plenty of reporting and overview features so you can see which days you’ve been working, how much, and on what. You can also see what your employees or teammates are doing, too.

17. Paymo

Paymo is a time tracking app that includes online invoicing and project management tools. It’s free for freelancers (plans with up to 2 users and 3 invoices per month), and paid plans for businesses with more employees and who need to send more invoices.

18. MakeSomeTime

MakeSomeTime includes simple time tracking, invoicing, and reporting features. It’s entirely free to use.

19. mite

Mite is an online time tracking tool, perfect for designers and other creatives. It lets you collaborate with team members or share reports with clients. There’s a 30-day free trial, and after that Mite is just 5€ per user.

20. Tick

Tick is a simple time tracking app that helps you better manage your budgeted time. Organize time by project, integrate with Basecamp, and generate reports. There’s a free plan that allows for one open project, and paid plans that start at /month.

21. Toggl

Toggl is an easy-to-use time tracking application that works on your Mac, PC, iPhone, iPad, iPod, or Android phones. Toggl is free for 30 days, and after that it’s /month per user.

Business and Project Management

Managing all the projects you have going, especially if you’re working with a team, is vital to making sure everything gets done on time. Some of the apps below go even further, allowing you to manage all aspects of your business from one central place.

22. Podio

Podio is more than just project management. It’s completely customizable business management with both flexible paid and free plans. Set up your workspace with the apps you need, either from the app store or create your own.

23. WORKetc

WORKetc is a business management app that lets you manage your clients, projects, and billing right within Gmail.

24. WhoDoes

WhoDoes is a free project management tool that lets you plan, manage activities (including setting due-dates, assigning tasks, and more), and collaborate with your team members.

25. Project Bubble

Project Bubble lets you schedule your projects, track your time, share tasks and files with others on your team, and invoice directly from the app and get paid online. There’s a basic free plan as well as a number of different paid options.

26. Basecamp

Basecamp, from 37Signals, is a project management and collaboration tool. It includes communication tools, file sharing, the ability to share milestones and to-dos, set deadlines, and much more. There are even project templates to make creating new projects much faster.

27. Freedcamp

Freedcamp is a streamlined project management tool that makes it easy to share only what you want to with team members. Other features include email and SMS notifications, a central dashboard for getting a broad overview of your current projects, and project templates to save time.

28. Teamwork Project Manager

Teamwork is an online project management app that makes it possible to work with not only your team, but also your clients. It includes milestones, messaging, task management, file management, and time tracking features.

29. TeamLab

TeamLab is a virtual office suite that includes project management, collaboration, document management, calendar, CRM, and email tools. TeamLab is free for a basic account, with more storage and advanced file upload tools available for an additional cost.

30. Doolphy

Doolphy includes a number of project management features, including Gantt charts, smart planning, file sharing, expense tracking, and much more. Basic plans start at 12€, though there’s a very basic free account available, too.

31. Staction

Staction is a project management and communication tool that helps you keep your entire team up to date with what you’re doing. With paid accounts (starting at /month) you get unlimited project tags and posts, and works both in your browser and through API apps, including an AIR desktop version and a Mac dashboard widget.

32. Huddle

Huddle is an enterprise-level project management app that includes tools for collaboration, administrative control and security features (versioning, a full audit trail, and more), and tools for managing people and files.

Email Marketing

Sending out an email newsletter is a great way to keep in touch with your current and former clients. Email marketing can also be a great add-on service to offer your clients. The apps below let you manage your email marketing campaigns, either for yourself or others.

33. Emma

Emma lets you send out stylish emails and surveys to your clients or others. There are also tools for managing your clients’ email marketing, which can be a great add-on for designers.

34. MailChimp

MailChimp is an email newsletter and marketing service that can integrate with a number of other services. Their free plan supports up to 2,000 subscribers and up to 12,000 emails per month, while their paid plans offer more features and more emails. MailChimp also includes things like A/B Split Testing, social sharing, autoresponders, groups, and more.

35. Campaign Monitor

Campaign Monitor gives you tools to send email campaigns for yourself or your clients, track the results of those campaigns, and manage your subscribers. You can add your own markup to their services for your clients, and earn money. Plans start at per month, or you can pay per campaign ( plus $.01 per recipient).

36. Breeze

Breeze is an easy-to-use email campaign app that lets you create, send, and analyze marketing emails. With Breeze, you only pay when you send out a campaign: plus $.02 per recipient.

Miscellaneous

Not every app fits into a neat little category above. But the apps below are no less valuable to freelance designers.

37. Wridea

Wridea is a free “idea management” service and brainstorming tool. It helps you keep track of all your ideas for you, and makes it easy to have discussions around them with friends or colleagues.

38. Evernote

Evernote is a note taking and information capture app. You can collect via your browser, apps for your desktop, or phone apps, and keep as many notes and notebooks as you need to. Premium accounts get you more storage, priority support, larger files, and more for just /month or /year.

39. Rapportive

Rapportive gives you rich contact profiles right inside Gmail. You can see profile images, job, company, and LinkedIn information, activity in certain apps, and more. It’s a free add-on for Firefox, Safari, Mailplane, and Chrome.

40. Writeboard

Think of Writeboard as an online whiteboard application that’s perfect for writing, sharing, and revising. You can use it solo or collaborate with others.

41. Campfire

Campfire is a real-time chat application for groups. It’s entirely web-based, and can be used from anywhere, even your iPhone. There’s a limited free plan that allows chat among up to four people, and paid plans start at /month.

42. ConceptShare

ConceptShare is a tool for sharing and collaborating on creative work. It makes it simple to markup shared documents, and get feedback from others.

43. Backpack

Backpack, from 37Signals, lets you keep your documents, discussions, and schedules all in one place. Just create a page with notes, to-dos, files, photos, and dividers for whatever you need to keep organized.

44. Tungle.me

Tungle.me is a free scheduling app that makes it easy to find a time to meet, share your availability, and prevent double bookings. It also eliminates issues with scheduling across multiple time zones.

Webdesigntuts+

Today we are featuring the art of David Fuhrer AKA Microbot, David has a true knack for creating extremely detailed artwork that features an array of wonderful scenes, ranging from outer space galaxies to mechanized robots. There is a lot of stunning art to see here so make sure not to miss this great showcase.

Last Days

An exciting illustration that David submitted to Depthcore’s art exhibition Noir.

Magrathea

Another piece of art that showcases David’s unique concepts and his knack for detail.

The Homeworld

You can only truly appreciate this illustration at full view to capture every single detail in the atmosphere of this awesome non-spherical planet.

CODENAME L.A.P.D.

This piece features some amazing creativity in constructing this whole robot as well as its interesting environment.

Black Death

A rather gruesome illustration but the level of detail and accuracy can make up for that quickly.

Heart Shaped Box

This piece, done fully in Photoshop by David features some interesting surreal painting techniques and imagery.

Bot World

This is another imaginative concept with top-notch execution and attention to detail.

Subway

This is a client illustration that David made for Subway.

Menerga – Energy Systems

This is probably one of the coolest illustrations featured in this list, and we even had to cut it down because it was too long. Make sure to check this stunning piece out to see it in its full glory.

Red Apple

More surrealism mixed in with David’s signature style.

Big Tree

Another completely new and imaginative world created by David with tons of detailed parts.

Blue Moon

A breathtaking illustration that shows the highest level of artistic creativity and detail on the part of David.

Archetype

An illustration David made for the upcoming video game Archetype.

Drug Free Zone

A very ironic piece that claims it’s a Drug Free Zone yet has some very psychedelic and surreal aspects to it, either way its another imaginative design.

Far Away

A very interesting illustration that mixes David’s surreal style with some abstract characteristics.

David on the Web

• David’s Portfolio
• David’s DeviantArt

Psdtuts+

As we count down the days until Christmas, it’s time to make our lists and check them twice. Today we have an awesome gift guide full of hand picked goodies for illustrators and designers. Make sure to link this post on Twitter, Facebook and G+ – you never know – a friend or two may take it as a hint.

• 

  Vector Basic Training: A Systematic Creative Process for Building Precision Vector Artwork (Voices That Matter) by Von Glitschka

  The perfect gift for vector illustrators of all skill levels. Von Glitschka will show you how to create elegant curves and precise anchor points for your designs and teach the very best ways to make professional illustrations using Adobe Illustrator. This book also comes with a DVD!

• 

  Adobe Illustrator Keyboard Sticker Set

  Do you know someone who finds it hard to remember all of the shortcuts from Adobe Illustrator? They might need these.The Adobe Illustrator Keyboard Sticker Set is compatible with all keyboards (Mac, PC and Laptops).

• 

  How to Grab the Attention of Art Directors & Editors by the Simple Use of Postcards by Max Scratchmann

  Books make great gifts, especially ones that are full of interesting pictures or useful information. This book is packed with both. Browse a great selection of attention grabbing postcards and learn the skills to make your own.

• 

  Wacom CS100W Bamboo Stylus for iPad

  iPads are nice, but you can make them awesome with this stylus pen by Wacom. Available in six different colors, the Wacom Stylus for iPad has the comfort, elegance and sophistication you can expect from Wacom. It works great with the free Bamboo Paper App!

• 

  The Vector Brushes Sourcebook: 300 Unique Brushes for Digital Illustration
  by Emily Portnoi

  A very helpful gift for designers and illustrators who want to learn more about how to make, apply, edit and use vector brushes. This book also includes a CD with 300 high-quality, royalty-free, and original brushes. It’s like two gifts in one!

• 

  Illustration 101 – Streetwise Tactics for Surviving As A Freelance Illustrator
  by Max Scratchmann

  One of the most useful and thoughtful gifts you could give to someone who works in freelance illustration. This book is a fun to read manual on how to turbo charge your freelance career and have fun while you do it.

• 

  CMYK Light Shade

  Show your appreciation for the print designer in your life with this CMYK lampshade. It can be set as either a ceiling or a lamp shade, handy!

• 

  Drawn In: A Peek into the Inspiring Sketchbooks of 44 Fine Artists, Illustrators, Graphic Designers, and Cartoonists

  Take a peek inside the sketchbooks of artists Jessica Hische, Mike Perry, Jen Corace, Matt Leines, Jill Bliss, Camilla Engman, Anders Nilsen and many more. With large full-color images and profiles on each artist, this is a great gift for a creative daydreamer.

• 

  Cocoon GRID-IT Organizer

  Versatile organization with endless configuration, the Grid-IT organizer is designed to hold items firmly in place and keep your cords, pens, phones, pencils, USB sticks, and everything and anything that can get stuck at the bottom of your bag in place. This is a good gift for a designer on the go.

• 

  Limited Edition Icon Prints by Susan Kare

  The master of icon design, Susan Kare, has signed limited edition prints of her most memorable icon designs. Do you know a mac fanatic? They will love one of these!

• 

  Layers Frame

  Spend all day staring at artboards? Why not add some to your office. The Layers Frame comes with a metal support with a picture magnet frame and looks great with both photos and illustrations.

• 

  X-Rite i1Display 2 – Color Calibrator for LCD, CRT, and Laptop Displays
  

  This season, give the gift of high-end, accurate, on-screen color calibration for LCD, CRT and Laptop displays. It may be on the expensive end of the gift scale, but we think it’s priceless.

• 

  Pantone Espresso Gift Set

  Designers + Coffee + Pantone = the perfect gift. OK, it may not be the perfect gift for everyone, but it’s very good for designers who run on caffeine and print checks.

• 

  Pantone Folding Chair

  If Designers + Coffee + Pantone = the perfect gift, then an added Pantone chair must be even better. OK, honestly, a Pantone chair doesn’t make much sense but it could look good in the meeting room or on the office balcony.

• 

  Pantone Toothbrush Set
  

  Designers + Coffee + Chair + Pantone = Great gift, + Toothbrush = The designer is working too hard and should go out and celebrate. Happy Holidays from Vectortuts!

Vectortuts+

I don’t like CSS. Plain and simple. It makes the World go round on the web, yet the language is restrictive and hard to manage. It’s time to spruce up the language and make it more helpful by using dynamic CSS with the help of LESS.

Let me illustrate my point with an example right away. Instead of using #FF9F94 to get a dark peach color, wouldn’t it be easier to store that color value inside a variable and just use that variable? If you want to recolor your webpage you just change the value of the variable in one place and that’s that.

In other words: it would be awfully nice if we could use some programming and logic inside CSS to make it a more powerful tool. The good news is that with the help of LESS we can!

What Is LESS?

LESS is a superset of CSS. This means that all CSS code is valid LESS code but there are additional elements in LESS which would not be valid in CSS. This is great because your existing CSS is already valid LESS code, minimizing the learning curve to using LESS.

LESS adds much needed dynamic properties to CSS. It introduces variables, operations, function-like elements, even Javascript into the mix. It will make your life hassle free by enabling you to write stylesheets with a modular mindset.

How To Use LESS

There are two ways to use LESS. You can create a LESS file and convert it on-demand using a Javascript file or you can pre-compile it and use the resulting CSS file. If you just got scared because you saw the word “compile” (I always used to) please don’t go anywhere, it is extremely easy.

Using The LESS Javascript File

First of all head down to the LESS website and grab the Javascript file. Once you have it, all you need to do is link it to your page like any other Javascript file.

<script src="less.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

Next, create a file with the .less extension and link it to your page with the code below:

<link rel="stylesheet/less" type="text/css" href="style.less">

Make sure that you link your LESS file before the Javascript file.

Once you have this setup you can paste your existing CSS code into the LESS file or just write a few new rules – it should work just like plain ol’ CSS.

Compiling The LESS File

While this is a bit more tedious, in some scenarios this is preferred. LESS works by taking all the LESS code you write and converting it to CSS on the fly. Instead of doing this on demand we can convert our LESS file, save the CSS output and use that instead of doing the on-demand conversion on each page load.

If you’re a Mac user you can use LESS.app, a small application which can detect all your LESS files automatically and whenever you save them it will convert them to a CSS file with the same name. This allows you to keep on linking to your CSS file on your pages while still utilizing the potential of LESS.

If you’re on Windows you can use Winless which works in much the same way.

If you prefer command-line tools you can use the Node Package Manager (NPM) to install LESS. Some documentation is available on the LESS website. You can also grab the code directly from the Github repository.

Harnessing The Power Of LESS

Finally, let’s get started with the fun bit – writing LESS code. As you will see it is very easy to read and understand; it uses the same syntax style as CSS does so it should all be familiar to you.

Variables

Variables in LESS work exactly like they do in PHP or most other programming languages. You can use them to store a value and then use the variable instead of the value itself whenever you need it.

@header-font: Georgia;
h1, h2, h3, h4 {
	font-family: @header-font;
}
.large {
	font-family:@header-font;
}

In the example above we defined the @header-font variable and assigned the value “Georgia” to it. We can now use this variable whenever we want to use the Georgia font. If we decide we’d rather go with Trebuchet MS as our heading font we don’t need to go through our whole file, we just change the value of the variable.

I find great use for variables when defining colors for a website. In the good old days (which weren’t that long ago) I used to do something like this:

/*
 Colors for my Website
 	#ff9900 - Orange - used for links and highlighted items
    #cccccc - Light Gray - used for borders
    #333333 - Dark Black - Used for dark backgrounds and heading text color
    #454545 - Mid Black - Used for general text color
*/
body {
	background: #333333;
	color: #454545;
}
a {
	color:#ff9900;
}
h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
	color: #333333;
}

There is nothing wrong with documenting your colors like this, it is good practice, the problem is that since it has nothing to do with the functionality of your stylesheet it has no other use than documentation itself. If you decide on a different color after line 2,000 and then change your mind at line 3,567 it will be extremely difficult to ensure the right colors are used and the documentation is correct as well.

With LESS we can modify our workflow and actually use our “documentation” instead of it remaining a passive bystander in the process.

/* Colors for my Website */
@color-orange: #ff9900;
@color-gray_light: #cccccc;
@color-black_dark: #333333;
@color-black_medium: #454545;  

body {
	background: @color-black_dark;
	color: @color-black_medium;
}
a {
	color:@color-orange;
}
h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
	color: @color-black_dark;
}

Variable Scope

The scope of a variable refers to the places where it is available. If you define a variable at the very start of your LESS file it will be available to any code you write after it.

You can also define a variable inside a CSS rule. In this case the variable is not available outside of this ruleset; it can only be used locally.

a {
	@color: #ff9900;
	color:@color;
}
button {
	background: @color;
}

In the example above the LESS file will not be converted since there is an error, @color is not defined for use inside the button element. If a variable is defined outside of an element and inside of an element the local definition takes presidence.

@color: #222222;
a {
	@color: #ffffff;
	color:@color;
}
button {
	background: @color;
}

In the example above the link will be colored white, the button will have a black background.

Variable Variables

If you’re used to coding in PHP you know that you can define a variable name with another variable.

@color-chirstmas_red: #941f1f;
@name-of-color: "color-chirstmas_red";
color: @@name-of-color;

To me personally this is of less use (no pun intended) since the power of variable variables diminishes without the use of loops but I’m sure there are some clever examples out there utilizing this.

Contants VS Variables

An important thing to note is that contrary to what you just read, variables in LESS are more like constants. This means that they can only be defined once – as opposed to variables which can be defined as many times as you’d like.

Operations

You can achieve extremely granular and accurate control with the help of operations in LESS. The idea behind this is simple:

.button{
	@unit: 3px;
	border:@unit solid #ddd;
	padding: @unit * 3;
	margin: @unit * 2;
}

The above code defines a the variable @unit as 3px. It then goes on to define the border as having exactly that width, the padding to have three times that width and the margin as having twice that width.

Operations can be multiplication, division, addition and subtraction. To create a box with a border that is increasingly wide as you move clockwise along its perimeter you can use the following code.

.box{
	@base_unit: 1px;
	border: @base_unit @base_unit + 1 @base_unit + 2 @base_unit + 3
}

Color Management

My favorite features of LESS have to do with color management. You can use operations to mix colors and there are some specific color functions.

Color Operations

If you want to change the value of a color you can do so by subtracting or adding another color to it.

@color: #941f1f;
button {
	background: #941f1f + #222222;
	border: #941f1f - #111111;
}

The above operation in the background will increase each HEX value by 2. This results in “B64141″ which is a lighter variation of the original color. The operation in the border will decrease each HEX value by 1 resulting in a darker color: “830E0E”.

In practice there are quite a few cases where we start out with a base color and need a slightly darkened or lightened version.

@color-button: #d24444;
input.submit {
	color:#fff;
	background:@color-button;
	border:1px solid @color-button - #222;
	padding:5px 12px;
}

This creates a red button which has a slightly darker border. This is something you may need very often and not having to define the border color separately is great help.

The power of variables is even more obvious here. If you want to recolor the website and change the @color-button value to a green color not only does the background of the button change but the border also changes and becomes a deeper version of the green color.

Another great use of this is creating gradients. I typically choose a mid-point color and define the gradient from there. I make the start slightly lighter and the end slightly darker. This results in a nice transition, something like this:

@color: #faa51a;
.button {
	background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(@color + #151515), to(@color - #151515));
	background: -moz-linear-gradient(top,  @color + #151515,  @color - #151515);
}

Color Functions

There is a lot more that you can do with colors; LESS allows you to manipulate them on a channel level. You can lighten, darken, saturate, desaturate, fade in, fade out and spin colors. Take a look at the following examples and images to see what each of these do.

@color: #3d82d1;
.left_box {
	background:lighten(@color, 20%);
}
.right_box {
	background:darken(@color, 20%);
}

@color: #3d82d1;.left_box {
	background: desaturate(@color, 18%);
}
.middle_box {
	background: @color;
}
.right_box {
	background: saturate(@color, 18%);
}

@color: #3d82d1;.left_box {
	background: spin(@color, 25%);
}
.middle_box {
	background: @color;
}
.right_box {
	background: spin(@color, -25%);
}

Extracting Color Information

Each color in LESS is converted to HSL (hue, saturation, lightness) to enable you to manage them on the channel level. Due to this you can manipulate colors in a more sensible way and also access the channel information of a color directly:

@color = #167e8a;
hue(@color);
saturation(@color);
lightness(@color);

This might seem like micromanagement – why do we need this information when we can just enter a HEX value? If you’re like most people HEX values don’t come naturally to you. HEX values map the RGB spectrum. the first two characters controlling the amount of red, the next two the amount of green and the last two the amount of blue.

It is fairly obvious that #ff0000 is red since this would be RGB(255,0,0). Tons of red, no green and no blue. However, if you just see #1f6b2d it is hard to decypher that this is a deep green. With a HSL scale the hue controls what you would call color, the rest just sets the tone (this is not exactly right, but for all intents and purposes it is).

With that in mind if you found a nice magenta-purple color like #e147d4 you can find a different color with the exact same hue very easily. Say you want to create a creamier, more pastel version of #e147d4, here’s what you can do:

@color: #e147d4;
@new_color: hsl(hue(@color), 35%, 77%);

This new color will have the same hue but a different saturation and brightness. The result will be #c480bf which is quite difficult to arrive to from #e147d4 if you’re just thinking in HEX.

Combining Funtions

LESS allows you to use functions inside functions, so if you want to desaturate and spin a color you can do that in a jiffy like so:

@color: #c480bd;
.class {
	background-color: desaturate(spin(@color, 18), 12%);}

Nesting

When writing CSS you use a cascading style. To change the margin of paragraphs inside blog posts only you could use the following code.

article.post p{
	margin: 0 0 12px 0;
}

There is nothing wrong with this approach but when you also want to change the links, blockquotes, headings, pre-formatted text and so on inside this same element you would need to prefix each with “article.post”. This makes our code more tedious to write and harder to read.

In LESS we can nest these rules which gives a shorter and more logical version of our stylesheet. Observe.

article.post {
	p{
		margin: 0 0 12px 0;
	}
	a {
		color: red;
	}
	a:hover {
		color: blue;
	}
	img {
		float:left;
	}
}

See what I did there? The tabbing is not necessary by the way but it makes it much more legible. You can nest rules as much as you like which saves you a lot of worrying later on. Have you ever wanted to change the padding of something but were scarred because you didn’t know exactly what elements it might affect? By using nesting you can take a lot of the guesswork out of your CSS.

a {
	color:red;
}
p {
	margin:0px;
}
article {
	a {
		color: green;
	}
	p {
		color: #555;
		a {
			color:blue;
		}
	}
}

Mixins

Mixins in LESS is the feature which will save you the most typing. have you ever created a rounded border where only the top left and right corners were rounded?

.tab {
	-webkit-border-top-left-radius: 6px;
	-webkit-border-top-right-radius: 6px;
	-moz-border-radius-topleft: 6px;
	-moz-border-radius-topright: 6px;
	border-top-left-radius: 6px;
	border-top-right-radius: 6px;
}

Uggh… Each and every time… With LESS you can change all that by creating a mixin. Mixins are reusable elements which you can add as a rule to any other element. The beauty of them is that there is no additional syntax to learn.

.rounded_top {
	-webkit-border-top-left-radius: 6px;
	-webkit-border-top-right-radius: 6px;
	-moz-border-radius-topleft: 6px;
	-moz-border-radius-topright: 6px;
	border-top-left-radius: 6px;
	border-top-right-radius: 6px;
}
.tab {
	background: #333;
	color:#fff;
	.rounded_top;
}
.submit {
	.rounded_top;
}

In the above code we defined the .rounded_top element to have rounded corners on top. When we add this to any other element as a mixin (see .tab) we are basically importing the rules we created for it. Due to the syntax of mixins you can use any old element as a mixin.

.rounded_top {
	-webkit-border-top-left-radius: 6px;
	-webkit-border-top-right-radius: 6px;
	-moz-border-radius-topleft: 6px;
	-moz-border-radius-topright: 6px;
	border-top-left-radius: 6px;
	border-top-right-radius: 6px;
}
.tab {
	background: #333;
	color:#fff;
	.rounded_top;
}
.submit {
	.tab;
	background: red;
}

The CSS rules for the .submit element will now call for rounded corners on top, a color of white and a background of red (the orinal #333 is
overwritten).

Parametric Mixins

Parametric mixins sound extremely complex but they solve a problem in a very simple way. In the examples above you saw how we could define an element to have a 6px radius on its top corners. How about if we want an element to have a 3px radius? Should we declare separate mixins for all pixel values? The answer is of course not, we should use parametric mixins!

These resemble functions because you not only create a mixin but you can pass values to it when you call it. Let’s rewrite the border radius example to take a look at how it’s done.

.rounded_top(@radius) {
	-webkit-border-top-left-radius: @radius;
	-webkit-border-top-right-radius: @radius;
	-moz-border-radius-topleft: @radius;
	-moz-border-radius-topright: @radius;
	border-top-left-radius: @radius;
	border-top-right-radius: @radius;
}
.tab {
	background: #333;
	color:#fff;
	.rounded_top(6px);
}
.submit {
	.rounded_top(3px);
}

The above code will give our tab element a 6px radius while our submit element will receive a radius of 3px.

Default Values

If you usually use the same border radius but in some cases you need a different one you can give the mixin a default value.

.rounded_top(@radius:6px) {
	-webkit-border-top-left-radius: @radius;
	-webkit-border-top-right-radius: @radius;
	-moz-border-radius-topleft: @radius;
	-moz-border-radius-topright: @radius;
	border-top-left-radius: @radius;
	border-top-right-radius: @radius;
}
.tab {
	background: #333;
	color:#fff;
	.rounded_top;
}

.submit {
	.rounded_top(3px);
}

In this example the tab element will receive the default 6px border radius but the submit element will receive the 3px one as needed.

Multiple Parameters

You can also use multiple parameters to define more complex mixins.

.radius(@radius:6px) {
	-webkit-border-radius: @radius;
	-moz-border-radius: @radius;
	border-radius: @radius;
}
.button(@radius:3px, @background: #e7ba64, @padding: 4px) {
	.radius(@radius);
	background:@background;
	border: 1px solid @background - #222;
	padding: @padding;
}
.read_more {
	.button(0px);
}

Whenever you create an element with the .read_more class using the example above it will format it with a 4px padding, the background color of #e7ba64 and
with a 0px border radius.

Using All Arguments At Once

One more option you have when using arguments is to use the whole lot all at once. Shorthand properties in CSS have multiple values written one after the other.

div {
	border:1px solid #bbb;
}

You could use a function to give all required elements a gray border like so:

.gray_border(@width: 1px, @type: solid, @color: #bbb){
	border:@arguments;
}
div {
	.gray_border(2px, dashed);
}

The @arguments is a special keyword, it will output all parameters one after the other in the order given. In the above case the CSS code resulting from
your LESS file would be:

div {
	border:2px dashed #bbb;
}

Parametric Mixins Without Paremeters

It is also possible to use parametric mixins without actually using any parameters. This is used when you do not** want the mixin to show up in your CSS code but you **do want its rules applied to the elements it is used in.

.alert {
	background: red;
	color: white;
	padding:5px 12px;
}
.error_message {
	.alert;
	margin: 0 0 12px 0;
}

The CSS output of the above would be the following:

.alert {
	background: red;
	color: white;
	padding:5px 12px;
}
.error_message {
	background: red;
	color: white;
	padding:5px 12px;
	margin: 0 0 12px 0;
}

If you use an empty parameter set you can hide the .alert class.

.alert() {
	background: red;
	color: white;
	padding:5px 12px;
}
.error_message {
	.alert;
	margin: 0 0 12px 0;
}

The CSS produced from the above LESS code would be:

.error_message {
	background: red;
	color: white;
	padding:5px 12px;
	margin: 0 0 12px 0;
}

This is primarily useful for cutting down the size of your CSS file. If the .alert class is never used directly on any element there is no reason to have it in the resulting stylesheet as long as its properties are passed along to the needed elements as mixins.

Namespaces

Namespaces in programming languages are typically used to group packages of functionality together. We can achieve the same in LESS by bundling our code using mixins.

#my_framework {
	p {
		margin: 12px 0;
	}
	a {
		color:blue;
		text-decoration: none;
	}
	.submit {
		background: red;
		color: white;
		padding:5px 12px;
	}
}

When starting work on a new website based on your framework you can add this #my_framework bundle and use it without messing up any other styles you might already have or want to add in the future.

.submit_button {
	#my_framework > .submit;
}

This is also a great way to enable quick theme changing and modification. If you develop a number of themes for your company to use as templates on demand you can include all of them as bundles in the same LESS file and use use the one you need.

#fw_1 {
	p {
		margin: 12px 0;
	}
	a {
		color:blue;
		text-decoration: none;
	}
	.submit {
		background: red;
		color: white;
		padding:5px 12px;
	}
}

#fw_2 {
	p {
		margin: 8px 0;
	}
	a {
		color:red;
		text-decoration: underline;
	}
	.submit {
		background: blue;
		color: white;
		padding:8px 20px;
	}
}
.submit_button {
	#fw_2 > .submit;
}

String Interpolation

String interpolation is just a fancy word which means that arbitrary strings can be stored in variables and then used inside property values.

@url: "http://mycompany.com/assets/";background-image: url("@http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/tutorials/htmlcss-tutorials/get-into-less-the-programmable-stylesheet-language//sprite.png");

The above can be immensely helpful when creating centralized frameworks and making sure that resources are pulled from the correct place.

Escaping

In some cases you will need to use properties or values which are not valid CSS (IE rules anybody?). You may have noticed in our gradient example that I did not cater for Internet Explorer users.

If you want to create a gradient in IE you will need to do something like this:

filter:  progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient(startColorstr='#666666', endColorstr='#444444');

The above is not valid CSS so the LESS processing will not be able to complete. In this case you can escape this value which will make LESS skip it and move on. The result of this is that it will be output to your CSS without any processing.

.button {
	background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(#666666), to(#444444));
	background: -moz-linear-gradient(top,  #666666,  @color - #444444);
	filter:  ~"progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient(startColorstr='#666666', endColorstr='#444444')";}

All you need to do is encase the section in quotes and tack a tilde character in front of it. This section will not go through the LESS processor so will not throw it off.

Importing

Just like with normal CSS you can import files. LESS lets you import both CSS and LESS files with the following syntax:

@import "reset.min.css";
@import "framework.less";
@import "widgets";

The first import is pretty obvious. This will import the CSS rules defined in reset.min.css without running them through the LESS parser.

The second import will pull the contents of framework.less and process them just like any other LESS rules.

The third import is essentially the same as the second. If an extension is not given LESS presumes it to be a LESS file.

Comments

As expected, multi-line comments are available in LESS in the same way that they are used in CSS. In addition LESS allows for single line comments to be used just like in PHP; by using a double forward slash.

/*
	This is my main LESS file.
	It governs how most of the site looks.
/*
body {
	padding:0px; // This resets the body padding
}

---

What’s Missing?

While LESS is awesome you will find some shortcomings when you start using it although these are not very bothersome. One feature I’d love to see is pre-pre-processing (I agree, this makes no sense).

Remember how lines can be escaped so that they don’t run through the parser? Due to the current way LESS handles things we can’t really use gradients with variable color names.

	filter:  ~"progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient(startColorstr='#faa51a', endColorstr='#f47a20')";

The above works just fine but the colors have to be hard coded in. Since the line is escaped, variables aren’t processed. It would be nice to have an option where the indicated string is escaped but variables are processed before the output is sent to the CSS file.

Another feature I would like to see implemented is variable naming of selectors and other elements, not just values. When we were looking at namespaces we used something like the following to add rules.

a {
	#my_framework > .link
}

It would be great if we could do this something like this instead:

@framework: "#my_framework";
a {
	@{framework} > .link
}

This would enable me to add all my frameworks to a single LESS file and then choose one by simply changing the value of the variable.

There are very few bugs and a couple of other shortcomings but overall LESS is very usable and very stable.

---

Conclusion

As with all new technology and methodology there is an urge to over-use. Remember reflective logos at the beginning of the Web 2.0 era?

You don’t have to nest all your rules, you don’t have to create variables for everything and mixins for a simple border width.

If you don’t know when not to use the awesome power of LESS your LESS code will be come just as unreadable as regular CSS and just as hard to maintain. The trick is to know when to utilize the given functions and methods and when regular old CSS is best.

In addition I suggest not using LESS in production. There is nothing wrong with it but there’s simply no reason to load a LESS file and a script to process it. Apparently the script is very quick but I’m sure it isn’t quicker than not having it there. I usually develop all my websites with LESS and when I’m happy I just grab the output, minify it and use it in a regular CSS file.

Webdesigntuts+

]]>

When we think about technology, one may conjure up visions of computers and cell phones, but it is so much more than just recent technologies, or information technology. We’ll examine this concept today in a collection of photos marking the steps of progress in visual imagery.

Advances in medical technology have saved countless lives, the government develops innovative technologies to improve safety for our troops, and cars have all kinds of technology to improve our usage of them.

So whether it’s a photograph of a technological breakthrough or technology in action, or just something that made life easier and more enjoyable, enjoy this collection and get inspired to take photos that go beyond the landscape and the people who live in it.

Wind farm Copyright Chuck Coker

Retro tech Copyright James Vaughan

Tradition vs. Technology Copyright Thomas Leuthard

Architectural technology Copyright William Cho

Space technology Copyright NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Keyboard Copyright William Hook

Military technology Copyright The U.S. Army

Cellular Phones have many talents Copyright Mr. T in DC

1933 USS Macon Copyright James Vaughan

Record Player and Vinyl Copyright Steve Cadman

Advanced instruments Copyright Ibrahim Iujaz

Corrective lenses Copyright Zitona

Conference phone, projector and laptops, oh my! Copyright Eirik Newth

Vintage phone booth Copyright Krystian Olszanski

Television remote Copyright Todd Ehlers

Buy a better game with technologically smart clubs Copyright John Fischer

Pagers Copyright Steven Depolo

Lightbulb Copyright Chuck Coker

Maps Copyright mroach

Cables and Cords Copyright Eric

Radio Copyright mark sebastian

Medical technologies Copyright Steve Winton

Television eyeglasses Copyright James Vaughan

Batteries Copyright shatt0r

Portable, wearable time pieces Copyright alexkerhead

CD’s, DVD’s and Discs Copyright John Ward

Wireless internet access Copyright webhamster

Revolutionizing the way we read books and store our library Copyright Richard Masoner / Cyclelicious

Film Copyright Adriane Dizon

Walkie Talkie Copyright Fabiana

Trains Copyright Noel Zia Lee

Videotape Copyright rjp

Fax Machine Copyright Alyssa L. Miller

Cameras Copyright mark sebastian

Telephone Copyright Sleeping Sun

Electric razor Copyright photosteve 101

Servers Copyright Steve Jurvetson

Circuit Boards Copyright Jeff Geerling

Equation analyzer Copyright Maurcin Wichary

Auto technology Copyright lkiller123

Heat transfer reactor Copyright Idaho National Labratory

Rotary aviation engine Copyright Timitrius

Typewriter Copyright IvvaldzenI

Telephone cables & wires Copyright Miran Rijavec

Printing Press Copyright Mirko Tobias Schaefer

Music Technology Copyright See-ming Lee

Machine Shop Copyright ellenm1

Stealth Bomber Copyright james.gordon6108

Coal Mining Copyright Irish Typepad

Etch a Sketch Copyright Ian R

Phototuts+

The word metaphor is probably most likened to a piece of writing, when it is used as a literary figure of speech for descriptive effect. However, today, we’re going to talk about a different type of metaphor: a visual one we can use in web design.

metaphor: a figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity – WolframAlpha

On the web, we use images and icons a lot to symbolize different things. When we visit a webpage, we scan to try and find what we need as fast as possible, and imagery is used to help speed up that process. We can interpret something much faster with familiar styling and images. For example, we can instantly recognize an error when there’s something like an exclamation mark, or a yellow or red color. It’s all down to familiarity.

Especially in recent times, we’ve started to see urban metaphors appear in web design, using familiar elements like a bookshelf or a wall within a design. However, there are loads of other metaphors that are used in web design to bridge the gap between actual and virtual life.

What is a Metaphor?

The “official” definition of a metaphor has not changed from the previous section: a figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity. That’s very truthful when we look at the web and the use of metaphors on that platform. There, we use pixels as representatives of real world objects to bridge some sense of familiarity between virtual and actual life.

There are several different types of metaphors we use on the web too: those on a smaller-scale that mimic real-life objects like buttons, iconic metaphors which copy real life associations and use them on the web, and extended ones where an entire design can revolve around a metaphor.

Real Life on the Web

A button on the web isn’t actually button is it? No, it’s a bunch of pixels made to look like a button because (a) we’ve made it so and (b) our users will recognize it and know that it’s something to be pressed (or, more correctly, clicked). We make this link look like a button because we’re used to recognizing a button as a point of interaction in real life, and will be able to distinguish that particular link from the rest of the page with little effort.

Imitating real life conventions helps us interact with the virtual world. It betters our user experience because the web doesn’t turn out to be some foreign interface that requires a whole lot of learning to interact with. We know buttons are buttons because they look pretty much the same everywhere, they’re a visual cue and users interact with them instinctively.

The same goes for windows, desktops, and tabs in UI design. Steve Krug, in his usability book Don’t Make Me Think famously uses the example of folder tabs as great use of metaphors in interface design.

I haven’t been able to prove it (yet), but I strongly suspect that Leonardo da Vinci invented tab dividers sometime in the late i5th century. As interface devices go, they’re clearly a product of genius. – Steve Krug

Tabs are the classic example of an intuitive interface metaphor.

Icons

Slightly different to identical metaphors are icons, just as we talked about before. For example, exclamation marks are used to represent some state of importance or alert so we use that icon in the same context on the web. Also, we might use the symbol of a phone or a letter to signify contacting.

For a perfect example, we can look at the WordPress dashboard. Each of the menu items down the left side features some sort of metaphor, such as the push-pin to represent posts and the speech bubble for comments.

The encouragement to use such a metaphors is identical to those in the previous section: it creates some familiarity – a “link” if you will – to the real world that helps the reader to interpret and navigate a page with relative ease.

Active Metaphors

We’ve taken a brief tour of replicating real life objects and using icons to form links, but there’s one more important type of metaphor: those that extend beyond a single element. The most striking example I can think of is not a website, but an app. iBooks doesn’t look like a normal iPad app because it’s meant to imitate the look and feel of a real bookcase to add that sense of familiarity for the reader. You look at iBooks and you instantly know it’s got something to do with books. If done well, these types of websites can turn out to be really awesome!

Extended metaphors are less common that the other types which are used on the majority of website designs around the web.

Although “extended metaphor” might be the wrong terminology, this type of metaphor is still the widest type you can get. They offer a little window in your browser into real life, and can be an instant method of creating a first impression of what the website’s all about.

The Monmarthe WordPress theme.

Why Use A Metaphor?

In writing, we use a metaphor to express, explain and describe. Metaphors can be a useful way of connecting an idea with one that it is not literally similar to (where a simile would most likely be used instead), but where the two can be used in conjunction to represent one another.

Metaphors in web design, like writing, are used as a descriptive mechanism by linking real life objects and ideas to the pixels in a website. It may seem very small, and something that can be overlooked, but web readers have a shorter attention span than print readers so time is of the essence when browsing a website. And, in those circumstances, metaphors become helpful by copying real life associations (like the color red with danger, or a magnifying glass with search) and using them on the web so the process of scanning a webpage is sped up.

Attraction

As designers, we can harness metaphors to enhance attraction to the design, and make our designs memorable. We want the users to connect with the website, and, already, most websites have some form of metaphors in use in order to suit their target audience. Websites reflect real-life concepts, companies, people and objects, and the styles chosen don’t different from those in real life. Not only do metaphors create a sense of familiarity between pixels on a webpage and real life matter, but they can also be used to connect to a specific audience.

Let’s take the BBC’s CBeebies homepage for example. The site is built around a background depicting a garden with trees and rainbows, an idealistic picture of the world that is common throughout a lot of child-oriented media. The metaphor of an online garden welcomes children to use the site whereas if it were designed like Microsoft’s homepage, it wouldn’t be so attractive for children to use.

Conclusion

Metaphors are used across all media to express something as something else, and, on websites, they’re a great way of communicating familiarity and attracting readers to a design. When we consider this in the scale of the world’s 4.5 billion years, the web is still a very new medium so creating links between real and virtual is a transitionary measure but one that works.

Metaphors in Action

Flourish

Flourish is a web design agency that takes it’s name seriously. With flourish defined as “grow or develop in a healthy or vigorous way”, the concept of a growing tree in otherwise barren land and an all-around nature-based design is presented.

Interior Design XHTML Template

The “Interior Design” template is a ThemeForest item styled to represent an office, a perfect example of a metaphor in play.

Launch

Launch is