Daily Web Design Inspiration & Ideas
Wood look anyone? This website that belongs to Komodomedia has really nice wood theme going. It gives a warm cartoony feel. The navigation bar, the nice wood seal, the heading bars, all in wood. I also like the foliage that they have hanging here and there. Good illustration work.
Popularity: 66%
This is a simple way of creating a Lightning effect in Photoshop CS3. It could also easily be done in any version of Photoshop.
After I got done editing and publishing this video I desided to also create a Photoshop Action to make the lightning effect by just playing the Action. So here you can download the Photoshop CS3 Lightning Effect Action:
Download: Photoshop CS3 Lightning Effect Action
To use this Action, with Photoshop closed, download and unZIP the file.
Move the unZIPPED file to the following folder:
C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR_USER_NAME\Application Data\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS3\Presets\Actions\*Start Photoshop and open a new file.
Open your Actions pallet and click lightning action folder and click the lightning action, like you see in the picture below.
When ready, click the play button (looks like a triangle on it’s side) at the bottom of the pallet.
This will create a lightning bolt. You can apply additional effects that you saw in the video to this to layer more lightning bolts on top or to colorize it.
Enjoy!
Popularity: 30%
First, happy 4th of July to all. Hope you are having, or had, a good one.
For the occasion I want to take a look at our presidential candidates’ website designs. Just to compare the design for fun. 
I went and looked at McCain’s (R), Obama’s (D) and Barr’s (L) websites, these seem to be the top 3 candidates at this time. I want to say right away that I am not representing any of the candidates and am not promoting any one of them here. This is simply a look at their website design.
Here is the first impressions, this is John McCain’s website:
And here’s Barack Obama’s:
And this one is Bob Barr’s:
Right away, Barack Obama’s website stands out, the design is beautiful. The first impression is obviously pleasant to look at. If you continue to the main page of Obama’s website you will see that the entire website is done with the same beautiful design and style. Airy, light blues and whites, hints of reds and greens here and there.
The graphics on his website are worth looking at too, here is a few I took screenshots of:
Like I said before, I am not promoting Barack Obama for President here, I am highlighting the skills and talents of the website designers that created his website.
I did some digging around and according to this article, the designed of the logo is SENDER and SimpleScott designed the website.
I really wanted to post some screen shots from McCain’s and Barr’s websites but, honestly, there was really nothing to show. Pretty disapointing.
Anyway, hope you anjoyed this post. I’d love some comments, guys and girls. I’ve been getting loads and loads of SPAM comments but very few real ones. I’d love to hear from the readers. Tell me something.
Popularity: 19%
Here is a little video tutorial I did on creating a certificate seal or a badge, what ever you want to call this. I used Photoshop CS3 to create this although it can be done in Illustrator for even better results. Since Illustrator creates vector graphics, it would be a lot cleaner and would be re-sizeable. This video tutorial is a quickie.
At the end on the video, I also desided to change the color of the outer edge of the seal to gold.
Let me know what you think.
Popularity: 9%
Graphic designers, web designers, artists, and photographers can all find something cool to enjoy at Scott Hansen’s website, ISO50. Not only are there great visual artistic examples, but the music playing on the site has also been created by Scott as well. I have to say that while I was writing this post, I was definitely “enjoying the groove” of his music. Smooth, mellow and relaxing are the first words that come to mind if I were asked to describe his music. Some of it kind of reminds me of the music from the future in the movie Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (I’m dating myself here…aren’t I?!).
ISO50 is definitely a feast for the eyes and ears. Lots of retro style art, grunge, and other enjoyable genres. Take a few moments to visit his site and check out the pictures, logos, websites and everything else that he’s designed. He’s definitely a busy, yet successful designer!
Popularity: 6%
As web designers, part of your duty is to properly advertise and market your own services. Sometimes you also are enlisted to advertise and create marketing concepts for your clients too. Because of this, I’m going to start featuring some “advertising inspiration” every once in a while. Whether the advertising is physical (billboards, magazine, promotional items) or it is web based, I think it can stimulate that creative process for us.
So, here’s the first installment. This is a group of creative advertisements featured at Toxel.com. I have a couple of favorites from this group. I like the Adidas ad. I also like the drunk driver’s parking space too. What’s your favorite from the list?
Popularity: 4%
For some more inspiration, here is a nice layout that is really “refreshing”. When this page opened up I was really impressed to see this. This design is perfectly ballanced out. The flowers illustration in the front is great, the little red hearts and the arrow pop and balance the page out with the red lettering on the right. The grays and the browns work great together. Also the glossy effect that spans across the information boxes. It’s a simple thing to do but what a ifference it makes. Little stripes detail in the heading boxes, the transparent feel of the info boxes is amazing.
Awesomely refreshing design!
See the site: http://www.newconcept.hu
Popularity: 17%
While I was visiting Digg, I came across a submission for cool looking Photoshop images. So, I took the bait and went to check the images out. Several of them were really cool, creative photos. Others were just okay. But, what I did find and was really pleased about was the logo for the site. Just Creative Design is the name of Jacob Cass’ graphic design company and his blog. The logo is a great piece of work. Duality is the first word that comes to my mind. Not only is it the initials of his company, JCD, but it’s a pencil too. Awesome and creative! Of course, these days I’m very partial to logos with pencils in their design, haha!
Anyhow, check out Jacobs site. I’m sure you will find lots of useful information and inspiring tips and photos there. Enjoy!
Popularity: 6%
Back in April, I posted a short blurb about pricing and how to come up with realistic prices for web design and graphic design. While reading another blog last week, I found an article that discusses one designer’s method of establishing prices. His post at Tutorialaday.com is an interesting read. When you have some time, go check it out and let me know your thoughts on his pricing methods. I’d also still like to hear from some of you on how you determine your rates as well.
Thanks!
Popularity: 5%
Yes, this is supposed to be my Mute Monday post. But, I wanted to comment a little about it. This is an article put together by David Airey and featured in his blog under the title 5 Easy Steps to Build Trust Online. My advice would be to read through it and examine your business practices. Make sure you are doing your best to develop a reputation built on trust! Do you have any other good, solid tips on developing a trustworthy online presence? Let me know!
Popularity: 4%
