February 4th, 2010 —
Typography on the web has previously been confined to a set of web-safe fonts due to their dependance of being on every computer but now that has changed. It’s one of the most satisfying and rewarding aspects of web design when you get it right but can also be one of the most difficult to do so. Here are some tools, resources and free fonts to help you on your quest for quality typography.
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January 25th, 2010 —
HTML5 is the future of web development but believe it or not you can start using it today. HTML5 is much more considerate to semantics and accessibility as we don’t have to throw meaningless div’s everywhere. It introduces meaningful tags for common elements such as navigations and footers which makes much more sense and are more natural.
This is a run through of the basics of HTML5 and CSS3 while still paying attention to older browsers.
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January 19th, 2010 —
A benefit of building a portfolio using WordPress is you have the ability to use the powerful blog features alongside your portfolio. A blog discussing your work or more about your processes and inspiration will add to the personality and allow potential clients to get to know you more increasing the attractiveness of you as a web designer. WordPress can also act as a more than adequate CMS for displaying your portfolio work.
Previously we’ve looked at Fantastic Presentation Styles of Web Designers’ Portfolios so taking what has been learnt from there, let’s look at WordPress themes which make great portfolio displays. Many people are of the assumption that WordPress is nothing more than a blogging platform but it can easily be adapted to behave more like a traditional content management system as the following themes demonstrate.
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January 15th, 2010 —
When designers talk about web design trends, more often than not, they’re referring to a visual design style such as letterpress or gradients but a trend doesn’t have to be something you see.
So this doesn’t mean you have to resort to using a minimalistic design to achieve simplicity in web design. Far from it. Applying simplicity to your websites or designs can be as simple as removing unnecessary elements or by reducing the steps it takes to complete a specific task.
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January 11th, 2010 —
Any good website owner knows that they need to be constantly looking at ways to improve their site even through small little tweaks. If you’re using Wordpress you’ll notice that it isn’t easy to create a development version without creating a separate installation. Of course, you can make changes directly on a live WordPress site but that isn’t recommended for anything other than minor tweaks.
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January 7th, 2010 —
With 2009 complete, we can take a good look back and realise that it was a great year for web design. It’s time to reflect and see what redesigns really were the best of the bunch from such a great year. While redesigning Inspect Element, I took the time to see what other sites had done to reinvent themselves and breathe new life into their projects. Here are just some fantastic examples from the last year and what makes them so great.
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January 4th, 2010 —
Portfolios are an important part of a web designer’s job hunting arsenal. In most cases they are the only thing that a prospective client or employer have to decide if you are the right person they are looking for. More importantly, portfolios are extensions of our own work so don’t just think of them as dumb pages to show off your work. Treat your portfolio design as just another piece of your own work as they deserve to be.
This is something I’m currently researching myself as I start preliminary work into redesigning my own rather dull portfolio display so it would make sense to share my findings with you all.
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