This one’s easy: take a shot, send us the image and win a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS digital SLR camera. Typography and icons are everywhere: they surround us, guide us, help us find the right path every day. As Web designers and graphic artists, we can learn from observing the type and public signage around us. How do designers of those graphics combine type, visual design and pictograms? How do they guide us through our day? More importantly, how do they design their graphics to meaningfully serve their purpose in particular settings?That’s what we want to find out with this photo contest. We encourage you to go out with your camera, shoot nice typography or public signage, and send the photo (or photos) to us (see details below). And the best part: everyone can participate.[By the way, did you know we have a free Email Newsletter? Subscribe now and get fresh short tips and tricks in your inbox!]What Are We Looking For?We are looking for original, manually shot photographs of typography and public signage. The most obvious elements that come to mind are street signs, building facades, highway markers and road signs, as well as wayfinding graphics (i.e. directional signage) in public venues such as stadiums, malls, museums, cinemas, theaters and cafés. Bus stop signs, underground signs, park signs, metro signage, hospital room signs, conference, hotel and office signs, emergency and exit signs and signs in shops and stores would work, too. Look around, pay attention and have a camera ready. That’s really all you need! At Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, numbers in each terminal’s letter indicate the walking time. Simple yet beautiful. (Image credit.)It would be nice to see signage in a variety of languages and in globally diverse locations. We’re hoping to find similarities that communicate visually across cultures. Please feel free to submit unusual and humorous signs as well! Check out examples of what we’re looking for to get your creative juices flowing. “This Is How You Find ↓.” A wayfinding sign in IKEA in Sweden. (Image credit.)Contest DetailsSo what do you need to participate? And what are the rules?Curious About the Prize?The camera below can be yours. One participant in this contest will win this best-selling digital SLR camera, the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS (EOS 1000D), with a 10.1 megapixel CMOS sensor, high-precision 7-point wide-area autofocus sensor, and an Image Stabilizer-equipped EF-S 18–55mm f/3.5–5.6 IS Lens. The winner will be chosen randomly from among all accepted submissions.SpecificationsFormat: JPGAll photos should have a width of at least 700 pixels.The total file size of your submission should not exceed 15 MB.Each participant can send at most three photos.Submission GuidelinesPlease download the starter kit first.The starter kit folder contains a plain-text file, details.txt. Please edit it by adding details about your submission.Please name your photos meaningfully, and don’t use empty spaces or special characters.Please add your photo (or photos) to the folder. Do not include any advertisements.With your images in the folder, archive the folder as a ZIP file. The file should have a clear name (e.g. shining-airport-signage.zip).Please send your submission to contest {at} smashingmagazine {dot} com.Please note: submissions will be processed automatically. Please make sure your submission follows the requirements above, otherwise it will not be processed.Copyright, Labels, WatermarksEmbedding copyright information, a watermark or URL in a photo will spoil it; please avoid adding anything that isn’t a part of the image itself. Participants should own the copyright of any photos they send. You can specify the license under which you want your image(s) to be released using the starter kit. Photos should not be already available elsewhere on the Web.Deadline and AnnouncementSend us your photos by 27 August 2010. The winner will be announced a few days after. We will present all interesting photos here on Smashing Magazine, including the names and URLs of the participants chosen, of course. If we get enough submissions, we will sort and categorize the photos in the article.ExamplesThis contest is all about creativity, so get out your camera and start shooting. Good signage doesn’t necessarily have to be “clean.” On the contrary, some beautiful and original examples can be found where nobody bothers to look. Just be curious, and take a closer look around you. You may want to look at these articles for ideas: Vintage and Retro Typography Showcase and Showcase Of Beautiful Vintage and Retro Signage.Good luck, and get creative, folks!(al)© Vitaly Friedman for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine Post tags: contest, photography
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I posted to smashingmagazine.com
The World Of Signage Photo Contest: Join In and Win a Digital SLR Camera!
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August 16 2010, 8:43am | Comments »
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I posted to smashingmagazine.com
My Internship at Smashing Magazine: Social Sushi and Hard Work
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When I found the ad for the internship position at Smashing Magazine about six month ago, I replied within half an hour. I wrote my response quickly because, for once, I didn’t have to exaggerate my enthusiasm. I was genuinely interested in the position and confident that I fit the job.I waited a few days for an answer, during which time I could reflect on what I had just done. My academic semester hadn’t even started, so I would have had to make arrangements if I was chosen. Plus, did I really want to move to Germany? The decision came a few emails and a week later: I was accepted and was expected to be in Freiburg in two weeks.Six months have gone by since then, and I have not regretted anything for one minute. I am now about to leave this city, the friends I have made and this company. To be sure, a lot has happened since February 15th.A Team Starting-Up TogetherWith my arrival at Smashing Magazine, Vitaly Friedman and Sven Lennartz have had to manage regular employees for the first time. Because they have worked from home for the past few years, the beginning of 2010 was a big change for them, too: they moved to the same city and got an actual office.Christina Sitte (the team assistant), Manuela Müller (editor) and I all started on the same day, in mid-February. I was told to expect an office still in the process of being installed, but I actually felt comfortable from the very first day. I guess putting me in front of a computer also helped me to not feel disoriented.Even though I was the only who didn’t speak German, I never felt lost, because everyone here tried hard to speak English as much as possible. I really appreciated it, and I must say I have noticed the same with German people in general. Never would you see French people putting so much effort into making someone feel not left out.With the intention of binding this new team together, a decision was made to launch a collective project that would belong to all of us: a newsletter for the magazine. That’s when the addiction started. We set up meetings to discuss newsletter topics. The meetings led to lunches, and the lunches ended up becoming our strongest habit (even more regular than our working hours): Social Sushi. These casual Fridays, during which we could discuss anything together (except the newsletter), I will really miss… those and the free rolls. (Photo credit)Web Design CommunityI didn’t end up at Smashing Magazine by accident. After studying photography and then media, I wanted to enter a field that I liked in a more professional way: Web design. This internship happened to be the perfect opportunity for me because, in the absence of real professional experience in the field, I was still able to integrate myself, thanks to my other qualifications. In addition, I had the luxury of joining Smashing Magazine and avoiding having to start at square one. I have been immersed in this community from the very beginning, free of financial and time constraints.This visibility, though, has been a bit frightening at times. For example, the first day I arrived at Smashing Magazine, I was given my first long-term task: report on the company and relate my experiences as an intern. I had never blogged before (not that I have much more now), and the thought of potentially 200,000 Twitter followers reading all about me didn’t exactly lower the pressure. Among the posts I prepared, this interview series with Vitaly Friedman has been quite popular:Early stagesHow and why did Smashing Magazine start?NetworkingWhat is it like to be at the center of this community, and how do you deal with it?Running the businessHow do you balance your personal and professional life?IntrospectionWhat do you see looking back on the past few years?And yet, I was looking for exposure in writing for Smashing Magazine. The advantage of being part of such a popular blog is the visibility you get, along with another component: feedback. Whoever the author, the comments from readers will reflect an article’s quality. For this reason, writing rigorous articles was important. This was a driving force for me because it suited my perfectionist side. I made mistakes and learned from them, which is precisely the best thing that could have happened to me.DifficultiesThe only difficulty I faced during this internship was managing my own productivity. Even though I was already used to working a lot on the computer, this wasn’t a full-fledged problem before. When I arrived at Smashing Magazine, though, things changed, because I finally had time to dive into this lively field and engage the extremely responsive community. I started by opening a Twitter account in order to share with readers the daily life of the magazine. By doing this, I stepped into a spiral of endless conversations. At first, I had to force myself not to get dragged into all the articles I was discovering.Social Suicide wallpaper.Twitter, email and comments were all part of the territory, and I had to handle them correctly. To do this, I did what most professionals do: impose some offline time on myself. This worked quite well, as difficult as it was sometimes. As all creatives and thinkers know, writing requires a level of concentration that is sometimes hard to sustain throughout the work day. And I don’t know about other non-native speakers, but writing in English all the time was harder than I expected.LondonA significant part of my internship was not so much something I did, but rather somewhere I went. I was invited to attend The Future of Web Design conference in London from May 17th to 19th. The event, organized by Carsonified, attracts professionals from all around the world and was important to me for several reasons:I attended a great conference that I would not have been able to afford otherwise. For example, the workshop “Words and Pictures: Copy and the Design Process” by Relly Annett-Baker I found incredibly useful.I met incredible people, interactions that were largely facilitated by my “Smashingmag” badge. I was lucky to be introduced to everyone as “the girl who is interning at Smashing,” because that made me not a complete stranger.We had dinner at Google’s office to prepare the announcement of the Google Font API, and I just wanted to say that FTW.The article I enjoyed preparing the most was published by Vitaly in a London’s Starbucks at that time, also related to Google Font API. So, I was immersed in this area when it came out.The Work ItselfThe description of the internship said: “Gain valuable practical experience in online publishing, learn about editorial work, gather first-hand experience in preparing, editing, writing and publishing articles.” And this is what I got. I have been lucky to experience all of the steps that lead to the publication of an article.Writing for the Web, I’m sure you are all aware, is different than writing for print. On the Web, we scan text more than we read; our attention span is much shorter. If the first few lines don’t grab readers, they just move on to something else. That is why the big editorial guides have special sections on online writing. However, that doesn’t prevent bloggers from writing in detail. What I enjoyed a lot was researching topics and putting it all together.For my article The Beauty Of Typography: Writing Systems And Calligraphy Of The World, I spent almost a week browsing the Web and gathering material. The article (in two parts) was definitely the highlight of my writing work because I really got into the topic. I could have even spent much more time exploring it.(Photo credit)I was also particularly interested in editorial policy and understanding how an editor-in-chief manages his content. I observed more than I acted in this respect, but I wrote a few posts about my findings. I was interested in seeing what rules are applied when publishing and also what tools are used to manage the editorial process. If you are interested in learning more about Smashing’s editorial policy, read Being an Editor-In-Chief at Smashing Magazine.Other than that, I had the opportunity to explore various topics, such as photography (Uncovering Toy Cameras and Polaroid Vintage Effects (With Photoshop Tutorials)) and the idea of community (Behind The Scenes of Smashing Magazine: Interview With Our Writers). I definitely would have liked to have written about more subjects, but time flew by.ConclusionI was lucky to have been given so much freedom during my internship. The purpose of the position was to bring new ideas to the company and a fresh point of view. So, I was particularly encouraged to propose initiatives. When writing, I could choose my own subjects and, above all, approach them the way I wanted. For example, I was interested in calligraphy, but not so much in the way it was suggested to me. So, I researched and found a different angle. Even though the stakes for writing this article were high for me, I was given carte blanche.I gained confidence in myself and, more importantly, in my ability in these creative fields that I had neglected a bit during my studies in photography. Above all, I finally found a way to combine and express all of my main interests, which were more or less separate until now: photography, visual art, writing and new technology. I learned to share my work, and I appreciate this a lot because that is the best way to evolve and gain valuable experience.This internship has certainly opened doors for me professionally, and I will remember all the people who want to keep in touch with me because they enjoyed what I did. Finally, my collaboration with Smashing Magazine is certainly not over because I will probably keep writing for it in future (after I take a vacation).Bis bald dann!Editorial’s ImpressionProbably the most remarkable Jessica’s attiude was her eagerness to learn and the ability to keep on working on things until the end, and never give up in the middle. When we were looking for a trainee, we hoped for a creative, talented and hard-working person who would be able to bring fresh wind and fresh ideas into the magazine and provide us with an approach that we have never thought of. And with Jessica this was exactly what we’ve got. She has inspired us with her own ideas, thus adding a certain shape or even a new approach to existing, but sometimes vague ideas of our own. Her input sometimes gave the crucial spark to a new project which would then develop into beautiful and useful results.We will miss Jessica a lot, but she will continue working with us as a freelance author, so you will hopefully see her name here quite frequently. However, the position as an intern at Smashing Magazine is available from now on. And that’s where you come in: we would like to give you the opportunity to gain valuable experience in online publishing and editorial work, too. If you are eager to learn, motivated, curious, hard-working and feeling confident about spending three to six months at Smashing Magazine’s office at Freiburg, Germany, please take a closer look at the details of your internship in Smashing Magazine and get in touch with us! We are looking forward to hearing from you soon.Thank you, Jessica, it was a pleasure and honor to be working with you over these last six months.(al)© Jessica Bordeau for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine Post tags:
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August 6 2010, 3:51am | Comments »
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I posted to smashingmagazine.com
New eBook From Smashing Magazine: Mastering Photoshop For Web Design
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Mastering Photoshop for Web Design is the third book in our eBook series, and it’s definitely the best eBook we’ve published so far. It was written from scratch by our regular writer Thomas Giannattasio, exclusively for Smashing Magazine and its readers. We are very proud of the result, in particular because of the high quality of tips, ideas and techniques that Thomas — who is a deep expert in Adobe Photoshop — presents in his book.Mastering Photoshop is written for advanced and intermediate designers who want to brush up on their workflow and improve their Photoshop skills. The eBook contains 178 pages, explaining fundamental techniques that Web designers need to know to produce high-quality work in Photoshop. You won’t find any generic step-by-step tutorials or learn random effects. You will gain a profound understanding of what you can do with Photoshop and how to use it effectively in your work.All chapters have undergone a careful technical review by well-known designer, illustrator and speaker Elliot Jay Stocks. The book was proofread by our regular proofreader Andrew Lobo, and it has an attractive layout. The PDF can be printed and read on all devices.The AuthorThomas Giannattasio is an interactive designer who resides in the Washington DC metro area. He specializes in Web design and front-end development, particularly art direction, website design and application design, and has 14 years of experience. Thomas cares strongly about typography, simplicity and user experience. He works as a senior designer for a global marketing firm and freelances under the name attasi.Thomas’ articles on Smashing Magazine prove his expertise in Photoshop: The Ails of Typographic Anti-Aliasing and Unknown Photoshop Tricks and Time-Savers are two of the most useful Photoshop-related articles that Smashing Magazine has published over the years.The Expert’s Opinion“Photoshop is a powerful tool, and although the basics can be easy to grasp, mastering the application can be extremely difficult. This is where Mastering Photoshop comes in: it takes readers through the app in depth and relates all tasks back to the creative process. There’s much to learn in here, for beginners and experts alike.” — Elliot Jay Stocks, designer, illustrator and speakerThe eBook, in PDF format, is ideal for archiving, for armchair or mobile reading (including the iPad and iPhone via iBooks and other apps) and of course for printing. You can order your copy of Mastering Photoshop for just $19,90 (or €16.95 if you live in the EU) starting now and exclusively in our Smashing Shop.The book contains eight chapters:Color Management Colors can appear lighter or darker, more or less saturated, cooler or warmer, or just plain wrong depending on the user’s environment. This can be quite a problem, especially with a client’s brand-specific colors. As Web designers, our responsibility is to ensure that the experiences we craft are as true to the original as possible.Paths While Illustrator’s vector tools are much more powerful, Photoshop’s benefit lies in its ability to blend vector and raster data together seamlessly. Because Photoshop documents are based on a pixel grid, the path tools in Photoshop make them superior to Illustrator for designing on-screen media.Layer Styles Layer Styles are essential to creating flexible and non-degradable documents, because they’re separated from the layer’s actual content. In this chapter, we’ll cover how to create great-looking and reusable styles. We’ll also cover some unique effects and non-typical uses that help to consolidate excess layers.Brushes Mastering the digital brush is by no means easy. It carries the same difficulties as the sable brush hidden at the bottom of your art bin. In fact, the difficulty is multiplied by the disconnect between the hand and monitor. Developing Photoshop brush skill takes time, but it is well worth the effort.Typography While the majority of type on the Web is rendered by HTML, Photoshop is still necessary to handle treatment beyond the grasp of CSS. In this chapter, we’ll explore Photoshop’s type tools and discover ways to maximize the software’s typesetting capabilities.Photography A photograph — especially of the human face — immediately draws the user’s attention and can be used to direct eye flow to important areas of the page. Placing a large photograph above the fold is a common way to provide an entry point to the content. Because photographs are high above other elements in the hierarchy, they need to be handled with care and precision.Exporting Once you’ve polished every last pixel, it’s time to get your work into the browser. This is a pretty straightforward process, but properly optimizing your images is crucial. You need to maintain a balance between clarity and download speed. This requires multiple formats, varying levels of compression and other optimization techniques. In this chapter, we’ll explore the workflow of exporting images via the “Save for Web and Devices” dialog.SummarySample Chapter and ScreenshotsYou can download the Chapter 4, Brushes (4.7 Mb, PDF) for free. Please consider buying the eBook if you find it useful or helpful.Large viewLarge viewLarge viewMotivation behind the bookIn the foreword, Thomas describes his motivation:“This book was written in the hope of filling a gap — a gap that has existed for as long as designers have been using Photoshop for Web design; a gap that we so often fill with tutorials focused on the latest trends and on inspiration galleries that are quickly browsed and forgotten; a gap that is growing as quickly as our technologies. It’s a gap of foundation.The fast pace of the Internet has focused us on the latest and greatest techniques, which typically have a lifespan of only a few months. Rarely do we focus on the fundamentals — the principles that outlive the trends. Unfortunately, the principles often appeal to us less than the shiny and new.Photoshop tutorials offer quick results. They hold our hands step by step until something incredible appears, but they rarely explain in depth the principles that allow us to create something unique and incredible of our own. If you’re a beginner, I hope this book gives you the comprehension you need to bring your ideas to life. If you’re a veteran, I hope it unveils some of the mysteries that have always boggled you.”The book is not protected by DRM and is available exclusively in the Smashing Shop. Please respect our work and the hard effort of our writer. If you received this book from a source other than the Smashing Shop, please support us by purchasing your copy in our online store.Thank you.(al)© Vitaly Friedman for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine Post tags: ebook, mastering, photoshop, smashing
July 27 2010, 5:23am | Comments »
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I posted to smashingmagazine.com
Behind The Scenes of Smashing Magazine: Interview With Our Writers
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July 16 2010, 2:59am | Comments »
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I posted to smashingmagazine.com
CSS3 Design Contest: Join In and Win SSD Hard Drive!
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We used to develop websites with ugly hacks, dirty workarounds and unmaintainable code. We had to create rounded corners with “corner” background images and nasty divs. Cross-browser transparency was dirty; shadows were quirky; and do you remember resizable buttons and tabs that had to be implemented with CSS sliding doors? All of these workarounds were extremely time-consuming and resulted in bloated code. With CSS3, these creepy hacks are becoming history. And better still, we can use CSS3 right now.CSS3 is powerful, simple and very easy to learn. Although Internet Explorer does not support most CSS3 properties yet, many designers are experimenting with the new features, gracefully degrading their designs for users with older browsers and offering rich CSS3 interactivity to users on modern browsers. CSS3 is being used (as it should be at the moment) as an additional layer to enrich the user experience by making websites cleaner, more adaptive and more responsive. It’s time to start using CSS3 today.Seeing the Web as a dynamic medium is a good thing, and it’s good to create rich user experience for those who are already use modern browsers or will be soon. Whatever your perspective, it doesn’t make any sense to keep looking back, afraid to look ahead, and thus avoiding experimenting with and learning about new CSS3 properties today. This is why we keep publishing articles about CSS3.To get you really excited about CSS3, we have decided to organize a CSS3 contest to encourage designers to experiment with CSS3, and then showcase the results on Smashing Magazine.[Offtopic: By the way, did you know that Smashing Magazine has a mobile version? Try it out if you have an iPhone, Blackberry or another capable device.]What Prizes Can You Win?Of course, as always, we have prizes for some of the participants. The winners of the contest will be determined by the Smashing Magazine editorial team. Each winner will receive one of the following prizes (the winner is free to choose the prize they want).First PrizeIntel 2.5″ 160 GB SSD Hard Drive (X25-M Mainstream SATA II) The Intel X25-M Mainstream SATA II Solid State Drive provides faster disk performance and greater durability than traditional hard drives. The X25-M is a Solid State Drive (SSD), and it uses flash memory for storage, giving you dramatically faster data access. The X25-M is a SATA II hard drive with a capacity of 160 GB.Second PrizeSennheiser HD-555 Audiophile Headphones The HD 555 features a special internal Surround Reflector, which generates an extended spatial sound field, making it the optimal headphones for home theater, as well as music. A comfortable, high-quality headphone system with acoustic refinement for sound channeling for a new kind of listening experience.Third — Fifth PrizesFinally, Web design books. We will be giving away:Handcrafted CSS: More Bulletproof Web Design, by Dan Cederholm and Ethan Marcotte,HTML and CSS Web Standards Solutions: A Web Standardista’s Approach, by Web Standardistas,Designing with Web Standards (3rd edition), by Jeffrey Zeldman and Ethan Marcotte.RulesTo participate, please follow these steps:Come up with an original, beautiful and readable design or technique that uses CSS3 styling. It could be anything: a typographic design, an original footer design, an interesting treatment of images or a complete CSS layout — it’s up to you. Also, feel free to use any CSS3 feature that you like. What’s important is that your submission is unique. The more distinctive it is, the better your chances of winning a prize!Download our blank template.Use this template to code your own (X)HTML and CSS. You may use JavaScript, but you don’t have to; pure (X)HTML and CSS3 is fine. You can use either XHTML or HTML 4.0 or HTML 5.Make sure the design looks right in modern browsers (Firefox 3.5+, Opera 10.5+, Safari 4+, Google Chrome 4.0+, Internet Explorer 9+, etc.).Make sure the design or technique degrades gracefully in older browsers.You can submit more than one design for the contest. Once you’ve completed these steps, do the following:Create a screenshot of your design in the browser (you can use the Fireshot Firefox Extension to do it).Pack everything (both the screenshot and code) in a ZIP file.Attach the ZIP file to an email, addressed to css3@smashingmagazine.com and with the subject line [CSS3 Contest] Your_theme’s_title.In the email, please state your name, your main URL and the country where you reside. If possible, please also briefly describe the ideas that were the driving force behind your design. Be creative, use unusual techniques, explore new skills, do whatever it takes — we want you to get really excited about this.DeadlineWe’ll consider all entries that we receive until 29th of June 2010. The best entries will be published briefly after the contest has ended. The winners will be determined Smashing Magazine’s editorial team and announced shortly after the deadline.All entries will be released for free downloading and available for free use, without any restrictions whatsoever (you will be credited in the release post, of course). You may include at most one link to your website in the footer of the design.To Get Your Creative Juices FlowingTo get some ideas to begin, take a close look at previous CSS3-related articles published on Smashing Magazine in recent months:Start Using CSS3 Today: Techniques and Tutorials The ultimate starting point for your CSS3 designs. In this article, you will find everything you need to get started on your CSS3 experiments.50 Brilliant CSS3/JavaScript Coding Techniques In this post, we present 50 useful and powerful CSS3/jQuery techniques that can strongly improve the user experience and designer’s workflow and that can replace those old dirty workarounds we used in Internet Explorer 6 et al.Take Your Design to the Next Level With CSS3 This article covers in detail what you need to know about every CSS3 feature, with examples and useful links.CSS3 Solutions for Internet Explorer This articles lays out a number of options that developers can consider when support for a CSS3 feature is required for all versions of Internet Explorer (IE6, IE7 and IE8—all of which are still significantly used).… Also check out even more previous articles on CSS3.Again, you can design any (X)HTML + CSS template you want: for any blog, portfolio, corporate website, product page, “Coming Soon” page, maintenance page or other page. But the design should be original and designed specifically for this contest. Of course, you must own the copyright for the design and the code.CSS InspirationHomer Simpson in Cross-Browser CSS A classic by Roman Cortes. Pure CSS3 Page-Flip Effect By using CSS3 gradients, transitions, 2-D transforms and clipping, Roman Cortes achieved this pure-CSS3 page-flipping effect (no JavaScript is used). But it works in Webkit browsers only (Safari and Chrome).Create a Vibrant Digital Poster Design with CSS3 CSS has come a long way in recent years, and with new browser support for a handful of CSS3 properties, we can begin to replicate design styles directly in the browser that before were possible only in our designing applications. Follow this walkthrough by Circlicious, a vibrant and abstract digital poster design made purely with HTML and CSS.CSS3 Leopard-Style Stacks Pure CSS3 (and experimental CSS). No JavaScript. An experiment by Gordon Brander.Wicked CSS3 3-D Bar Chart An attempt to create a 3-D bar chart using CSS3. This example works only in the latest versions of Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera.Selectable Headlines With Color Transition (CSS3) A CSS3 color transition applied to selectable text using CSS3. Works only in Safari and Chrome.Our Solar System in CSS3 This is an attempt to recreate our solar system using CSS3 features such as border-radius, transforms and animations. The result is surprising and quite interesting.Fun With CSS Gradients This album display, similar to that of the iPhone, uses a radial gradient (not a linear one) as the background for the track names. The overall effect is a dim light. Odd-numbered tracks are also given a gradient to take advantage of -webkit-gradient’s support of alpha values.CSS3 Bookshelf An interesting idea that doesn’t quite look right because of the rotation rendering, but worth the experimentation nevertheless.Pure CSS Twitter Fail Whale The curves here are done using various uneven border-radius properties. Stranger angles (such as the strings) are masked using containers set to overflow: hidden;.Good luck, and get creative, folks!Icon design by LazyCrazy(al)© Smashing Editorial for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine Post tags: contest, css3
June 18 2010, 3:34am | Comments »
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I posted to smashingmagazine.com
Successful Freelancing for Web Designers: Our Brand New eBook
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It’s time for something completely different. Recently, we launched an eBook series. The first eBook was about Professional Web Design. And now our second eBook, brand new, is dedicated to Rules and Guidelines For Successful Freelancing. The book contains 260 pages and contains some articles that have appeared here on Smashing Magazine.Being a great Web designer or developer is one thing — running a successful freelance business another. Whether you already have work experience in companies or have just graduated from design school, being self-employed entails a number of tasks that you most likely haven’t had to deal with so far. As a freelance Web designer, you also have to be a project manager, office administrator, accountant, controller and IT expert.The eBook is, like its predecessor, a summary, a “best of” compilation of articles about professional freelancing that have been published on Smashing Magazine and Noupe in 2009 and 2010. We re-arranged everything, corrected it carefully, added beautiful illustrations and — where necessary — updated the content. Many screenshots and links were removed to make the book easier to read and print.The eBook, in PDF format, is ideal for archiving, for arm chair or mobile reading and, of course, for printing. In addition to the 21 published articles, the eBook contains 2 exclusive newly written pieces, with 20 exclusive beautiful illustrations by Ricardo Gimenes.download a free book sample (in PDF).buy Successful Freelancing for Web Designers for only $9.90 (or €).The book is not protected by DRM and is available exclusively in the Smashing Shop. Please respect our work and the hard efforts of our writers. If you have received this book from a source other than the Smashing Shop, please support us by purchasing your copy in our online store.The authors are: Robert Bowen, Tim Mercer, Cameron Chapman, Paul Boag, Andrew Follett, Sam Barnes, Graham Smith, Ryan Scherf, Aurimas Adomavicius, Andy Rutledge, Luke Reimer, Rob Smith, Jeff Gardner, Peter Smart, Aaron Griffith, Alyssa Gregory and Thursday Bram. [By the way: The network tab (on the top of the page) is updated several times a day. It features selected articles from the best web design blogs!]Table of ContentsIn the 260 pages, spread over four chapters, you will read:Essential Habits of an Effective Professional FreelancerCommon Questions of Web DesignersThe Designer Who DeliversCritical Mistakes Freelancers MakeThe Importance of Customer ServiceCreatively Handling the Admin Side of FreelancingPitching Like a ProThe Finances of FreelancingHow to Identify and Deal With Different Types of ClientsHow to Improve Designer-Client RelationshipsHow to Communicate with Developers EffectivelyHow to Educate Your Clients on Web DevelopmentHow to Explain to Clients That They Are WrongHow to Respond Effectively to Design CriticismHow to Persuade Your Users, Boss or ClientsHow to Create the Perfect Client QuestionnaireGetting Clients: Approaching the CompanyConverting Prospects into ClientsMarketing Rules and Principles for FreelancersHow Many Ideas Do You Show Your Clients?Freelance Contracts: Do’s And Don’tsWhat’s in a Price: Guidelines for Pricing Web DesignsQuality-Price Ratio in Web Design(al)© Smashing Editorial for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine Post tags: ebooks, PDF
June 9 2010, 6:01am | Comments »
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I posted to smashingmagazine.com
Smashing Magazine Needs Your Help
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What happened here today, on the Smashing Magazine’s website? Well, here is the thing: we need your help. Only sound financial conditions can guarantee the steady stream of high quality content which you are used to on Smashing Magazine. Today we need your financial support. Please help us by buying our new eBook “Professional Web Design”.The book contains a selection of our best articles about professional Web design and the business side of web development. It contains 10 already published articles and 2 exclusive, newly written pieces. The book costs only $9.90.Please do not worry:This page will be displayed for exactly 24 hours, not longer and it won’t appear again.Smashing Magazine is not about to go out of business.Thank you![Offtopic: by the way, did you know that Smashing Magazine has one of the most influential and popular Twitter accounts? Join our discussions and get updates about useful tools and resources — follow us on Twitter!]About the BookThis e-book contains a selection of the best articles about professional Web design that have been published on Smashing Magazine in 2009 and 2010. The articles have been carefully edited and prepared for the PDF version; some screenshots and links were removed to make the book easier to read and print out. Free book sample (pdf).This book presents guidelines for professional Web development, including communicating with clients, creating a road map to a successful portfolio, rules for professional networking and tips on designing user interfaces for business Web applications. The book shares expert advice, and it also helps you learn how to respond effectively to design criticism, use storytelling for a better user experience and apply color theory to your professional designs.Buy now and download PDF right away!This book is not protected by DRM. It is available exclusively here, in the Smashing Shop. Please respect our work and the hard efforts of our writers. If you received this book from a source other than the Smashing Shop, please support us by purchasing your copy in our online store. Thank you.Table of ContentsOn 242 pages you will read:Harsh Truths About Corporate Websites (Paul Boag)Portfolio Design Study: Design Patterns and Current Practices (Vitaly Friedman)Creating A Successful Online Portfolio (Sean Hodge)Better User Experience With Storytelling (Francisco Inchauste)Designing User Interfaces For Business Web Applications (Janko Jovanovic)Progressive Enhancement And Standards Do Not Limit Web Design (new article by Christian Heilmann)Color Theory for Professional Designers (Cameron Chapman)Is John The Client Dense or Are You Failing Him? (Paul Boag)How To Identify and Deal With Different Types Of Clients (Robert Bowen)How To Respond Effectively To Design Criticism (Andrew Follett)Web Designer’s Guide to Professional Networking (new article by Steven Snell)Group Interview: Expert Advice For Students and Young Web Designers (Steven Snell)Please also spread the word on Twitter and share on Facebook. We appreciate your support!© Smashing Editorial for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | Be the first to comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine Post tags:
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March 22 2010, 10:12am | Comments »
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I posted to smashingmagazine.com
Smashing Newsletter Challenge… And Giveaway!
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It’s time for something brand new and exciting on Smashing Magazine. Actually, we have quite a few things in the works, and today we are happy to reveal one of them. Over the years, we have published many lengthy articles, and now we want to write some shorter ones for a change. We want to launch the Smashing Email Newsletter and we prepared some nice prizes for our subscribers.Every week our editorial team will work on short, entertaining and (of course) relevant articles for the upcoming issue. The newsletter will be sent out once a week, probably on Tuesdays, and will contain unique tips and tricks for designers and Web developers, written by us exclusively for our email subscribers.The 10,001 Subscribers ChallengeAnd to make it a bit more interesting, we decided to create a challenge for us and our readers. Here’s the deal: the Smashing Newsletter will be published only if we get at least 10,001 subscribers. (The earliest we would send it out is next Tuesday.) So, it’s up to you to decide whether we should launch the newsletter. And you can help right away: just type in your (valid) email address, confirm the subscription (opt in) and you’re done!Subscribe to Smashing Newsletter Now!Email Address Email Format html text mobile If the form doesn’t work in your RSS-feed reader, please view the article in your web browser. Sorry for any inconvenience!Of course, you can cancel your subscription at any time. The Smashing Newsletter will always be free of charge. We respect your privacy: we will never give your data to third parties, and we will never spam you. You have our word.[Offtopic: by the way, do you know the Smashing Network has its own Smashing Network RSS Feed with excerpts of the post?]Join In To Win One Of Our Prizes!Of course, we knew it wouldn’t be as much fun without an incentive, which is why we are giving away some beautiful gadgets and books to some lucky subscribers. The winners will be announced in the first edition of the newsletter (if we meet the challenge). And here are the prizes:Wacom Bamboo Fun Pen and Touch (Medium)The Wacom Bamboo Fun Pen and Touch is a unique device to harness your creativity. It’s perfect if you want complete control with a pen or finger tap input. It has single- and double-finger functions, supports left- and right-handed use and has an integrated pen holder.Microsoft SideWinder X8 Laser Gaming MouseThe ultimate wireless gaming mouse, with advanced tracking, 12 buttons (7 of which are programmable), scroll wheel with tilt and full-speed USB reporting.Harman Kardon SoundSticks II Speaker SystemThe Harman Kardon SoundSticks II combines performance and an attractive visual design, a combination that always makes our hearts beat a little faster. It’s nearly perfect, save for a few design flaws.Microsoft Arc Mouse BlackThe Arc Mouse has the comfort of a desktop mouse and the portability of a notebook mouse. It folds to 60% of its fully expanded size for when you’re on the go. Two color options are available to match your style.Last But Not Least, The Books!Confessions of a Public Speaker, by Scott BerkumDecoding Design, by Maggie MacnabThe Laws of Simplicity, by John MaedaSmashing WordPress, by Thor HaedengrenUniversal Principles of Design, by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden and Jull ButlerPlease participate only once, and spread the word about the challenge to your friends and colleagues. Thanks, and let’s get this rolling, folks!(al)© Smashing Editorial for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | 46 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine Post tags: e-mail, newsletters
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February 24 2010, 4:30am | Comments »
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I posted to smashingmagazine.com
Smashing Network Update: Add Widget To Your Site and New Members
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In the last few months, you may have noticed some major changes happening on Smashing Magazine’s front page. Since November 2009, when we launched the Smashing Network, which features manually selected articles from the best design blogs, we’ve been working hard to improve the usability of our website and make the navigation easier to use and the content easier to read.Indeed, we have been continually looking for a nice clean design that would allow Smashing Magazine’s brand to dominate the website, while boosting the visibility and exposure of our network members. We have considered various solutions, and one seemed to be just perfect. The result (we hope) is a cleaner separation of the magazine’s posts and network’s posts, by way of tabbed navigation at the top of the page.[Offtopic: by the way, did you already get your copy of the brand new Smashing Book?]Magazine And Network TabsSo, what exactly does this mean? It’s very simple. At the top of the page, you’ll notice two tabs, one for Smashing Magazine’s posts and one for the Smashing Network’s posts. You can now easily switch between the magazine and network’s content without using the scroll bar. You can also visit the network’s content page, which wasn’t possible before, and use Smashing Magazine’s good old front page, which now features only Smashing Magazine’s posts. Also, the tabbed solution is the first step towards something huge that we have planned for 2010. Smashing tabs in use. You can now easily switch between the magazine and network’s content on every single page of Smashing Magazine.This change obviously means that our network members would get much less traffic from our website to theirs. So, to compensate, we have decided to add the tabbed navigation not only to our front page (as was done earlier) but to all pages on Smashing Magazine. This is why you see the tabbed navigation at the top of this page now. Aside from that, we have come up with a couple of new exciting features that will roll out this year, one of which is the Smashing Network widget.The Smashing Network WidgetWe are pleased to release a simple and customizable widget that displays the latest posts from the Smashing Network. It’s up to you to decide how to style our updates on your website. You can use your own CSS to customize the look of the widget as you wish. The widget is available right now!To embed the widget on your website, simply include a JavaScript code. You will find the details, including implementation examples, on our page “How to Add the Smashing Network Widget to Your Site“.We hope many designers and developers will integrate the widget on their websites. The main goal of the widget is to promote high-quality design-related content on the Web. We are confident that the design community will benefit significantly from the mutual support of the network websites, particularly in terms of traffic, so it would be great if you integrated it on your website, too.Welcome New Members!We are also very happy to announce that we have accepted new members into the Smashing Network. All applicants were carefully considered and tested for the relevance and quality of their content. In this second round, we have accepted the following websites.CSS-TricksCSS-Tricks is a Web design community curated by CSS ninja Chris Coyier. The website offers a variety of articles, tips, tutorials and screencasts on front-end development, mostly CSS and jQuery. The website also features useful snippets and freebies and has a growing community forum.CSS-Tricks websiteCSS-Tricks channel on Smashing MagazineDesign InformerDesign Informer is a fresh new blog that brings the latest in Web and graphic design. It has Photoshop tutorials, freebies, resources, inspiration and much more. It is one of the fastest-growing design blogs, and it strives to always deliver high-quality content to readers.Design Informer websiteDesign Informer channel on Smashing MagazineCats Who CodeCreated by Jean-Baptiste Jung in June 2008, Cats Who Code provides practical Web development tutorials and resources for both beginners and advanced developers. With a focus on such topics as WordPress, jQuery and CSS, Cats Who Code helps you build better websites. Meow!Cats Who Code websiteCats Who Code channel on Smashing MagazineUsabilityPostUsabilityPost is a blog about design. Design isn’t about what something looks like but about how it works. Making something usable means understanding what people expect from your product and thinking of ways to make their use of it simple and enjoyable. The aim of UsabilityPost is to provide relevant resources, tips and insights related to good design to help you make great products. UsabilityPost was founded by Dmitry Fadeyev in 2008.UsabilityPost websiteWeb Designer NotebookThis blog’s purpose is to shed light on CSS and front-end development for those who are starting out, while also going deeper into more complex areas such as CSS3. Created by CSS master Inayaili de León.Web Designer Notebook websiteLine25Line25 is the drawing board of creative Web design, a place where ideas and inspiration are drafted into articles, tutorials and round-ups of cutting-edge Web design. Created and updated by Chris Spooner.Line25 websiteLine25 channel on Smashing MagazineUX MagazineUX Magazine was created to provide a central place to discuss the critical disciplines that enhance user experience. An extraordinary user experience should be the goal of every interaction you deliver to users at any level. All too often, businesses (large and small) get it horribly wrong. It’s painful to watch and even worse when it happens to you.UX Magazine websiteUX Magazine channel on Smashing MagazineImpressive WebsImpressive Webs is an article and tutorial website dedicated to providing practical information on and solutions to common front-end Web development problems and issues. Created and updated by Louis Lazaris.Impressive Webs websiteImpressive Webs channel on Smashing MagazineWe are very pleased and excited to welcome these new members to the Smashing Network! We will do our best to continue promoting the best stories from the Smashing Network and to spread the word in social media.Bonus: The Smashing WordPress BookAside from the network updates, we have even more exciting news for our friends and fans. In cooperation with Wiley & Sons, we have just released Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog, a new book in the Smashing Magazine book series.The book shows you how to use the power of the WordPress platform, and it offers a creative spark to help you build WordPress–powered websites that go beyond the obvious. You will learn the core concepts needed to build just about anything in WordPress, resulting in faster deployment and greater design flexibility. The book was written by WordPress expert Thord Daniel Hedengren and costs $44.99 / €27.90.Chapter 1: Anatomy of a WordPress Install (PDF)Full table of contents including sub-chapters (PDF)Index (PDF)Buy the book in the Smashing Shop!What Do You Think?Your opinion has always been very important to us. Please let us know what you think of the changes and the widget, and let us know how you see Smashing Magazine and the Smashing Network evolving. We look forward to your constructive criticism and are open to your ideas and suggestions!Also, we will be adding more exciting features and revealing more exciting projects in the months to come, so please stay tuned for updates. Thank you.(al)© Vitaly Friedman for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine Post tags: network, smashing
February 16 2010, 2:30am | Comments »