Thinking Outside the Box: Desirable Packaging Collection
The First of hopefully many guest posts from Jared Thompson of Design Juices.This roundup features several different types of products which all have unique packaging designs, all of which I find to be of the highest quality.
A Collection of 400+ Free Fonts
Typography is an integral part of any design and getting it right can take your design from good to great. Finding the right font is the tricky part and can often take up a lot of your whilst you test out different fonts styles, etc. Font's can also be very expensive costing anything from a few quid up to several hundred which will soon eat up your budget.
Okay so my post title might sound a bit negative but don't get me wrong Twitter is great! For anyone who hasn't joined or for anyone who is in the 'I don't get it phase' well Twitter can be a great web tool, it's not all about telling the world you've just had a cup of tea or something daft like that...
5 Reason’s to work directly from your Dropbox account
Dropbox, the must have app for 2009! Right? Well for most of us with a brain it was and my god it's a life saver! For anyone who hasn't heard of Dropbox yet, in a nutshell, its a piece of software that allows you to sync your files online and across your computers automatically. Better yet, it works on Mac, PC, Linux and as from a few months back the iPhone too.
Further Reading
Tutorial: Using CSS Shorthand in your Stylesheets »
Posted in All Posts, CSS, Tutorials, Web Design on 14 Jan
Using CSS Shorthand is great for reducing the lines of code and preventing us typing lots of duplicate lines of code in our stylesheet's, but how many of us use it? I notice on a lot of developers stylesheets that they have multiple lines of code where only one is needed and I don't really understand why! I guess it's a personal preference, but here is how you can start coding CSS in shorthand.
Favourite Links of the Week (#2) »
Posted in All Posts, Freebies, Inspiration, Photography, Tutorials, Web Design, jQuery on 10 Jan
Right guys, continuing on from last week, here are some of my favourite links that I have seen in the last 7 days! Some crackers here and if you agree then help me out with a cheeky Tweet, Bump or Digg! You will find all the sharing links at the bottom of the post page. Heres my #2 set of links....
Favourite Links of the Week (#1) »
Posted in All Posts, CSS, Freebies, HTML, Inspiration, Photoshop, Tutorials, Web Design on 31 Dec
I am going to start a set of weekly posts that will show you my favourite links I have found, been sent or have used myself at some point. Please, if you have time to take a few minutes to help spread my posts using the share links at the bottom of the page I would be very greatful! Right heres my #1 set of links...
Posted in Freebies on 10 Dec
I have got 15 Google Wave invites at the moment going spare if you need one then post your details and I will send one your way! First come first serve bases though!
Tutorial: Clearing the <textarea> value onFocus »
Posted in All Posts, HTML, Tutorials, Web Design on 09 Dec
Quick tip that will always come in handy when creating forms. More often then not you will see a textarea that initially has some text in, something like... 'Type your message here...'. On some websites, I have noticed that when you go to type in that same textarea you have to first remove the message before you start typing yours which I find very frustratings.
How To: Get Chrome on your Mac with Extensions »
Posted in Browsers, Software, Tutorials on 09 Dec
Chrome officially rocks! right? I officially made the it my default web browser at work last week which is a big move for me as I have been a dedicated Firefoxian for several years. After Google added extension support to its browser I was hooked!
20 Great CSS Design Showcase Websites for Inspiration »
Posted in All Posts, CSS, Inspiration, Web Design on 08 Dec
We've all had days where our creativity becomes non-existant and are in desperate need of some inspiration to get us kick started again. Fortunately for us we have a huge variety of choice when it comes to web showcasing which means inspiration is never to far away. Below are some of my favourites showcase bookmarks that I tent to turn to in those 'desperate' times.
How To: Move WordPress to a new Domain! »
Posted in Tutorials, Web Design, WordPress on 27 Nov
For about roughly a year now I have been considering moving away from selfconclusion.co.uk to either 1) a new funky domain name, or 2) blog.stugreenham.com and yesterday in a wild move I took the plunge! Luckily things all went smoothly (he say's) and so far I have not experienced any major issues...
Google Sync now supports Push Mail »
Posted in News, Tutorials, iPhone on 23 Sep
Back in February I wrote a post about Google Sync and how you can sync your Google Calendar and Contacts to your iPhone wirelessly using the exchange feature on your iPhone. Well Google have now added support for push mail to their sync feature! In their blog post they write about their decision to add this.
Tutorial: Display your Latest Tweet on your Website using SimplePie »
Posted in All Posts, Social Networking, Tutorials, Web Design on 13 Sep
Okay so if you read my blog you will know I have already posted a tutorial showing you how to add your latest tweet to your website. Well this is part 2, and in part 2 we look at how to add your tweets to your blog/website in a much better way, using SimplePie.
Posted in All Posts, Browsers, Hacks, Tutorials, Web Design on 27 Aug
If you tend to put a lot of PNG images on your websites like I do, then you will know how much of a pain IE6 is! IE6 can display PNG images but it doesn't play to well with transparent ones, in fact, the transparency won't work at all! To get around this I have been using the following css hack to display a GIF image in IE6...
Tutorial: Image hover/fade effect using jQuery »
Posted in All Posts, Tutorials, Web Design on 16 Aug
I recently came across this cool about us page and instantly fell in love with the hover over effect they used on the images. Well anyways, I tought myself how to do this same effect and now I'm going to show you guys how to do it! It's very easy to do but very effective! Here is another cool site that has also used a similar effect and I'm sure you will agree it really makes the page stand out!
Collection of 1280×800 Wallpapers »
Posted in All Posts on 15 Aug
If you own a 13" MacBook like me, then you will know the resolution for the screen differs from that of 90% of PC Laptops, and therefore, the most common of Desktop wallpapers come in 1024 by 768 format. Here is a compilation of some of my favourite 1280 by 800 wallpapers I have collected along the way! I haven't been able to put a source or author on any of these because I have downloaded them over a long period of time so if one of the wallpapers listed is your creation, then comment me and I will add it on for you! :) Anyways, here is the collection....
Posted in Browsers, Web Design on 05 Aug
Where to start with IE6! Well for a web designer, its the devil! Literally! It's been a nightmare for many years now. The browser is so out of date its unreal, and its Microsoft's responsibility to do something about it. They have now had long enough, and now its our duty to give them a push!
Tutorial: Display your Google Feedburner count on your Website »
Posted in Tutorials, Web Design on 28 Jun
Following on from my tutorial that shows you how to display your latest Tweet on your website, I will now show you how to show of your Feedburner subscribers count in plain text on your website. Feedburner does already give you the option to display your count on your site using their 'chicklets' but these are widget like icons that aren't particularly customizable and for my site, they did not look right!
Tutorial: Display your Latest Tweet on your Website »
Posted in Tutorials, Web Design on 13 Jun
You will have noticed that I display my latest Tweet in the header of my website (look up). Until recently I have been using the Twitter for WordPress plug-in, but I was experiencing problems and 9/10 times my page loaded I would get the error message instead on my Tweet! This became increasingly frustrating, as my site would get featured on someone else's blog and the screenshot would contain this error message.
Twitter beta ‘Verified Accounts’ feature »
Posted in Social Networking on 13 Jun
Today I read of a new feature Twitter has announced, which is 'Verified Accounts'. This new feature will no doubt be Twitters attempt at minimizing impersonation and identity confusion, which is becoming more of a problem as more and more celebrities sign up to get an account.
Posted in iPhone on 10 Jun
I came across an interesting application today for my iPhone, called Ego. It gives you up to date stats from your Google Analytics, Feedburner, Mint, Squarespace and Twitter accounts all in one neat little Application. The interface is really cool, and slick looking and its very simple to use.
Reverse Your Email with CSS and Prevent Spam »
Posted in All Posts, CSS, Hacks, Tutorials, Web Design on 30 Apr
SPAM... Literally the most annoying word! When I used to work in IT Support, I would constantly get asked how to stop spam, and my reply would always be that you can't! There is only so much software you can install / filters you can set going before you realise, the spam eventually reaches you anyway, fact! It's just part or web life.
Posted in All Posts, Freebies, Web Design, WordPress on 26 Apr
This post is long overdue I know, but I thought I would share the latest goings on in the land of (Nerd)Press, which is that version 1.0 is officially released onto the web for all you WordPress fans to download and use should you want to!
Finally.. A Sync between Google and iPhone »
Posted in All Posts, Tutorials, iPhone on 10 Feb
Now this is something I have been patiently waiting for ages now! The option to Synchronize my Calendar data between my Google Account and my iPhone! Woop! Well here it is, be it only in beta mode at present, Google Sync.
Working with Custom Fields in WP »
Posted in All Posts, Tutorials, Web Design, WordPress on 31 Dec
Every one who uses WordPress for there blog will have no doubt at some point noticed the section labelled 'Custom Fields'. Now be honest, how many of you use this feature on your Website? or how many of you at least understand what it does? The feature is infact very handy and with a few simple steps, it can really make your WP Theme stand out, but there are many who don't take advantage of it! Hopefully if your reading this you have some understanding of how WordPress works, and fingers crossed you are aware of the WP Loop that pulls your posts to display on your site. If you are not familier with the Loop then this page will be ...
Posted in All Posts, iPhone on 26 Oct
The most annoying thing is that, although it can take, even edit (thanks to certain apps) photos, it lacks the ability to send them to my mates via MMS. Fair enough, I could still take a snap and Email to a friend, or maybe even upload to my Facebook for everyone to see, but there have been many times where I have needed this function.
Removing the Dotted Hyperlink Borders »
Posted in All Posts, CSS, Hacks, Tutorials, Web Design on 12 Oct
I love Firefox, it is my favoured browser but there is one little thing that really frustrates me, especially from a designer point of view. You may, or may not have noticed that the browser adds a dotted border around hyperlinks that only become visible upon activating the link. For many this is probably not a problem as its not exactly causing any problems to anyone, but I don't like it.
Posted in All Posts, Freebies, Tutorials, Web Design, WordPress on 08 Sep
If you have read any of my previous posts about the mighty WordPress, then you might be able to work out I am a big fan! Very true indeed! Infact 99% of the sites I have done use it. When creating a design I won't build it into WordPress from the start, main reason is that I can concentrate fully on the HTML/CSS code and not have to worry about PHP loops, etc. Much simpler!
Community
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7 Black and White Photoshop Conversion Techniques
Another great tutorial from Photo Tuts + showing 7 different method's of converting an image to black and white all done in Photoshop.
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How To Use Curves in Photoshop
Good tutorial from Tutorial9 showing you how to use the curves tool. Something I've used many times but always good to brush up on your skills once in a while!
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Great tool for any grid users out there. Break away from using the same grid each time and generate your own using this tool from Zurb that even provides you with the code to get you started!
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600+ Photoshop Gradients to Download
Huuugge collection of gradients brought to you by Best Design Options!
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Start BitTorrent downloads remotely with Dropbox
Great tutorial / tip showing how any mac users can use Dropbox to set torrents to automatically download remotely!
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The Ultimate iPhone Setup for Web Designers (40+ Apps)
The perfect post for any Web Designing iPhone lovers! A huge list of some great apps which will help us all be that little bit more productive! Thanks Appstorm!
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How To Write The Perfect Tweet
Interesting post from Twittercism looking at things we can do to help us write better Tweets. I'm guilty for a lot of these but a good article for anyone looking to use Twitter as a marketing tool.
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130+ Stunning Examples of Macro Photography
Great article from Photo Tuts+ showcasing over 130 amazing close up Macro shots. Mainly insects here but still amazing to see so close up!
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jQuery Resources for One-Page Portfolios
Another good post from Vandelay Design showing off some nice tools and tips for one page websites. I've just become a fan of the Smooth Anchors myself!
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