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Archive for December, 2010

Dec/10

Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: January 2011

by Vitaly Friedman under Feeds, Web Design

in Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: January 2011

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. And as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, weâ€™ve discovered the best one — desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. This creativity mission has been going on for almost two years now, and we are very thankful to all designers who have contributed and are still diligently contributing each month.

As the new year begins, we will continue to nourish you with a monthly spoon of inspiration for the next 12 months. This post features 65 free desktop wallpapers created by artists across the globe for January 2011. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free. Itâ€™s time to freshen up your wallpaper!

Please note that:

All images can be clicked on and lead to the preview of the wallpaper and
You can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our Desktop Wallpaper Calendar series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them?

Update: you may be interested in Smashing Magazine January 2011 Windows 7 Theme (calendar) and Smashing Magazine January 2011 Windows 7 Theme (no calendar).

So what wallpapers have we received for January 2011?

Creative Chocolate

"January is a very cold month and it’s a perfect season to drink an hot chocolate. Even better if it’s a Creative Chocolate!" Designed by Fabrizio Venanzi from Italy.

preview
with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

One/2011

"And the winner is: January 2011! All the best for the new year!" Designed by Marco Palma from Italy/Germany.

preview
with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1366×768, 1440×900, 1600×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1366×768, 1440×900, 1600×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

A Handy New Year

"Being Designers we tend to use our hands a lot, in order to portray our most basic feelings onto a Calendar we substitute the numbers with our hands." Designed by siewhui from Singapore.

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with calendar: 1920×1400
without calendar: 1920×1400

On the ground

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with calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Frozen World

"When it is too cold outside you feel like the whole world is frozen…" Designed by Rumena Zlatkova from Bulgaria.

preview
with calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
without calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Drupal 7 is coming

"More beautiful than ever!" Designed by Jaro Mlkvy from Slovakia.

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with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Silver Winter

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with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Quiet Please

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with calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Creepy Forest

"The cold, rainy winter carries with it a surreal, gloomy and threatening ambience…" Designed by Ron Gilad from Israel.

preview
with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1440×1152, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1440×1152, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Little Gizmo

"Little Gizmo would like to wish you a happy and prosperous New Year." Designed by Mad Sprocket from USA.

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with calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 2560×1440
without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 2560×1440

Winter Fun

"Winter is the greatest time to walk, ski, play snowballs and have fun with friends." Designed by cheloveche.ru from Russia.

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with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Winter Light

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with calendar: 320×480, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050
without calendar: 320×480, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050

Snowman

"I wanted to convey something wintery, but still joyful, to keep me upbeat when I start up my laptop every chilly morning." Designed by Steph Struthers from USA.

preview
with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Winter’s Warmth

"Although England’s winter has been very, very cold – it’s also been bright and colourful. I can’t remember seeing so many outrageously “warm” sunsets. Definitely not going to complain. This was actually taken on Christmas Day. Woohoo! Happy 2011 to you all. :)" Designed by Sasha Bell from England, UK.

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with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Lost in Winter’s Fog

"One of the most beautiful things about winter is the thick, dense fog we so often get. Sometimes it’s so bad you can’t see 100 yards in front of you. It’s maddening but beautiful at the same time. Happy 2011!" Designed by Olivia Bell from England, UK.

preview
with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Winter Forest

"Happy New Year!" Designed by Oxana Kostromina from Poland/Russia.

preview
with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Hazy dawn

"I’ve always created wallpapers for my own use. This time I share one of them with you!" Designed by Agnese Ločmele from Latvia.

preview
with calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
without calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Love out of Focus

preview
with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Snow Goggles

"Perfect Powder day at ZwÅ¡lferhorn (St. Gilgen, Austria)" Designed by Maroni Gschwandtner from Austria.

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with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

In the Snow

"Hidden beauty in the snow." Designed by Rumena Zlatkova from Bulgaria.

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with calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900
without calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900

Flowers

"”Be careful – You won’t know which kind of people you will meet. There are good, evil, intrigue, etc. Open your eyes big while seeing the big and awesome world.” – Juanita OMFÂª" Designed by Juanita Ooi from London, UK (Originally Malaysia).

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with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Going Home

"Peaceful scenery around my hometown in winter." Designed by Alexander Franzelin from Italy.

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with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Frost Bitten

"A collaboration between two sisters. One’s a photographer and the other is a designer." Designed by Denise Johnson and Sharleen Heist from USA.

preview
with calendar: 320×480, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
without calendar: 320×480, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

New Decade

"It’s time to welcome New Year’s 2011 – and say a fond goodbye to 2010.New Year is expected to bring good luck and charm for people and this is the reason why everybody love to celebrate it with fun and enjoyment.I designed this wallpaper to welcome the new year and show the Transition between the two years." Designed by Neelam Asrani from India.

preview
with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1060
without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1060

Twisted Winter

"A cold, vacant, and erie scene of tangled branches. Enjoy!" Designed by Colin Oakes from Canada.

preview
with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Hello 2011

"An old rotary phone breaking out of 2 old polaroid photos." Designed by Kristen Cook from USA.

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with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900
without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900

Smashing January

"My journey of 2011 starts with Smashing Magazine" Designed by Marina Aftab from Pakistan.

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with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

New Year, New Goals

"A New Year means a New Start! Get out and do something this year that impresses yourself." Designed by WaltWinchel from USA.

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with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080
without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080

Yeti weekends

"The winter sports season has arrived, beware with the deadly Yeti." Designed by joaomalveiro from Portugal.

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with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Lost Wiseman

"I Decided to make a little joke with the 3 wiseman, so I made them lost,so insted they’re in the desert they’re in a snow region." Designed by Rui Madeira from Portugal.

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with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Flowers

"”Put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard – I am who I am. I am myself. I don’t want to be anyone else. I am unique.” – Juanita OMFÂª" Designed by Juanita Ooi from London, UK (Originally Malaysia).

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with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

A Door to a New Year

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with calendar: 320×480, 800×600, 960×800, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
without calendar: 320×480, 800×600, 960×800, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Dear Diary

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with calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Bull fight, the ancient sport of heroes

"Bull fighting, called as Jallikattu is an ancient traditional sport in which young Indian men wrestle bulls with their bare hands. This hand drawn picture depicts the spirit of the gutsy game." Designed by Narendar . N from India.

preview
with calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
without calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440

Winter Light

"I wish you all a very happy and healthy new year!" Designed by Nathalie Ouederni from the Netherlands.

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with calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

CMYK 2011

"CMYK and Prinitng elements" Designed by Sherif Saleh from Egypt/France.

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with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1366×768, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Smashing 2011

"A smashing 2011!" Designed by Minhaj Mohamed from Sri Lanka.

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with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

2010 memories

"2010 Memories : As the year 2010 approaches its last few days, it’s time to look back on the previous 12 months. All 2010 photos." Designed by Sahra Tamo from Syria.

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with calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
without calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Global Greetings

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with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

New life

"Forget all bad memories,welcome something new in our lives…" Designed by Nishith from India.

preview
with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Purple Dze

"The fog that clouds our thoughts on those rainy winter days." Designed by Nicole Dominguez from United States.

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with calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900
without calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900

New Life

"I wish you an Happy New Year! After 12 months of events, emotions, moments, it’s time to restart and continue from the end. Hope everyone has the opportunity to grant his dreams!" Designed by Davide Reppucci from Italy.

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with calendar: 320×480, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
without calendar: 320×480, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Nike

"Happy New Year :)" Designed by Marta Miazek from Poland.

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with calendar: 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
without calendar: 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Snow Walk

"My dog enjoying the first snowfall at the terrace. After the first walk, she tried to eat the snow." Designed by Luis Herrero Jimenez from Spain.

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with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Tea and Tiles

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with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

New Year Celebration

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with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200
without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200

Silent Love

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with calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Tsuru

"An ancient Japanese legend promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by a crane, such as long life or recovery from illness or injury." Designed by Pedro Nobre from Portugal.

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with calendar: 1280×720, 1280×1024, 1920×1080, 2560×1440
without calendar: 1280×720, 1280×1024, 1920×1080, 2560×1440

Smashing Magazine 2011

"Celebrate a new year with a smash!" Designed by knsqnt interactive from Germany.

preview
with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440, 2560×1600
without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440, 2560×1600

Get started with drupal 7

"Drupal 7: the best version of Drupal yet!" Designed by Jaro Mlkvy from Slovakia.

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with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Symbol of Love

"Let the coming new year be a start for One love of the world. Humans across all the countries love each other without any difference. With an open heart stop the wars and welcome peace and love between individuals. The Taj mahal which stands as a symbol of eternal love be taken as an inspiration and join the peace for human." Designed by Mohamed rafi from India.

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with calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 1024×640, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 2560×1600
without calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 1024×640, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 2560×1600

Communion Cups & Someone’s Coat

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with calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Lumanti

"Lumanti is nepali word which means remembrance. Rememberence of year 2010, every small to big things, sadness to happiness, and our every moment of 2010." Designed by Moksha Design Studio from Nepal.

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with calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
without calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

International 2011

"We love typography and we’ll love the year 2011." Designed by LOTUM from Germany.

preview
with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Another Chance

"Hope for the coming year." Designed by Kellie Gave from USA.

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with calendar: 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200
without calendar: 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200

Wonderful Winter

"A great new year with these lovely deer!" Designed by Agnes Swart from The Netherlands.

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with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Flowers

"”Hold me tight. Smile to me. You are special. You are not like any of them out there. I feel comfortable with you. So please, hold me tight and never let go. Will you?” – Juanita OMFÂª" Designed by Juanita Ooi from London, UK (Originally Malaysia).

preview
with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Join in next month!

Please note that we respect and carefully consider the ideas and motivation behind each and every artistâ€™s work. This is why we give all artists the full freedom to explore their creativity and express emotions and experience throughout their works. This is also why the themes of the wallpapers werenâ€™t anyhow influenced by us, but rather designed from scratch by the artists themselves.

A big thank you to all designers for their participation. Join in next month!

Whatâ€™s your favorite?

Whatâ€™s your favorite theme or wallpaper for this month? Please let us know in the comment section below! Wishing you a smashing Two-Thousand Eleven, guys!

(ik) (vf)

kranthi Leave a Comment more...

Dec/10

Happy New Year 2011 Wallpapers

by Noupe under Feeds, Web Design

We have come to the end of yet another year â€” just in time for another roundup of wallpapers for your New Year 2011 celebrations for your desktop! On behalf of the Noupe team, we wish you all a Happy New Year and hope that 2011 brings you much success and prosperity in all your endeavors. And don’t forget to stay creative!

New Year Wallpapers

Where Snowflakes Are Born

2011 Desktop Calendar

2011 Happy New Year

2011

2011 Typographic B&W

Resources & Wallpaper Sites

Here are a few tutorials on how to create your own wallpapers as well as a selection of galleries where you can download more wallpapers:

Wallpaper Tutorials:

Create a Wavy Blackberry Style Wallpaper Design
Learn how to create an abstract wallpaper using Photoshop only with a cool wavy pattern and interesting lighting effects similar to the Blackberry 9000 wallpaper.
Design a Vista Styled Wallpaper
In this tutorial you’ll learn how to create a black background filled with some stylish gradients decorated with abstract shapes to create a wallpaper that is inspired by the Vista backgrounds.
Create Christmas Ornaments Wallpaper
Teach yourself how to create this Christmas-themed wallpaper using a selection of different Photoshop tools.
Create Vista Themed Wallpaper
Use the Pen Tool and a handful of other tools to create a modern abstract style wallpaper inspired by Windows Vista.
Create an Abstract Retro-Pop Wallpaper
Learn how to create a beautiful, vibrant retro-pop abstract wallpaper in Photoshop.

Wallpaper Galleries:

iPhone Wallpapers Pool
A pool/group of iPhone wallpapers on Flickr.
All iPhone Wallpapers
A gallery site dedicated to iPhone wallpapers!
Creattica
Although not actually a wallpaper site, Creattica has a couple of galleries related to the topic: “Desktop Wallpapers”, “iPad Wallpapers” and “iPhone Wallpapers”, all of which are always being updated with new and awesome work!
iPad Wallpaper
Another gallery site, this time dedicated to iPad wallpaper rather than iPhone wallpaper. Some really good wallpapers on this site and a bunch of different categories, you’ll be spoilt for choice!

You may also want to check out the following:

(ik)

Web Design Leave a Comment more...

Dec/10

How to Maintain Your Personal Brand as a Corporate Employee

by Jeff Gothelf under Feeds, Web Design

A strong personal brand is beneficial on many levels. At the core it differentiates the designer, developer, marketer, etc, from the rest of the pack within crowded disciplines. It functions as a self-promotion agent that works for the practitioner 24/7/365 ultimately ensuring this person becomes a magnet for new and interesting work opportunities.

The foundation ofÂ a personal brand is initially created by consistently doing good work. From there, commenting, interacting and reacting in public discussion forums, blogging, Twitter, Facebook and the publication of articles and even books further solidify an individual as a thought leader.

However, â€œthe idea of personal brand is often associated with independent practitionersâ€�, as David Armano puts it. And for independents there are typically no conflicts as they are in the business of promoting themselves, their skills and knowledge. However, for practitioners working within corporations and interactive agencies, the challenge becomes balancing their personal brands with the corporate brand.

Many opportunities for friction

As a corporate employee you donâ€™t represent â€œyouâ€� out in public — you represent the company. The opinions, theories and expertise you present publicly all get attributed to your employer. If you say something controversial, the story that will propagate is not â€œJohn Smith saidâ€¦â€� but â€œJohn Smith, Lead Developer for Company X, saidâ€¦â€�Â Add to this the risk of disclosing proprietary or sensitive financial information and itâ€™s no surprise many corporations arenâ€™t interested in promoting individuals (outside of C-level executives) externally.

These same corporations are only now beginning to comprehend the power of the social web and donâ€™t understand the need for external â€œcorporate ambassadorsâ€�. Colleagues within the organization can also be points of friction as they begin to question whether the now-public practitioner is actually a â€œwork horse or a show horseâ€�, as Christian Crumlish, Director of Consumer Experience at AOL, puts it. If itâ€™s not clear that the company is getting more benefit than the individual, resentment can build causing the individual to start defending their activities.

Crumlish also suggests some companies are concerned that making their star employees visible exposes them to competitive employers looking to poach talent. This alone may make an organization reticent to promote individuals externally.

Finally, if the practitioner works for a less-established brand, there is a risk the personal brand will ultimately outshine the corporate brand. While this is certainly not an issue for global corporations, start-ups who have one or two star employees could face this challenge.

Overcoming these hurdles

The challenges may seem risky but there are some specific ways to mitigate these risks. By following the guidelines featured below, you will be able to convince your employer to not feel insecure or threatened about you strengthening your personal brand and encourage you to participate in public events.

Make your employer the star

To alleviate any concerns that you are attempting to promote your brand more than your employerâ€™s, make it obvious who that employer is and that youâ€™re speaking on their behalf. Any public facing documents you present must have company branding. This includes white papers, conference posters and slide decks. In addition to branding your thought leadership, all online profiles (Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, et al) and blogs should clearly disclose where you work. Finally, all client associations should also be disclosed to minimize the risk of perceived conflicts of interest or favoritism.

Luke Wroblewski, former Chief Design Architect at Yahoo! and Lead Designer at Ebay, who is a popular speaker at many design conferences, ensured all his presentations were branded with the Yahoo! and Ebay logos. Like Wroblewski, Crumlish, a mainstay on the design conference circuit, also made sure he was seen as a â€œYahoo! Personâ€� in all of his public efforts.

Participation in conferences is a good way to strengthen your personal brand and solidify yourself as a thought leader. Image source: Fronteers conference

Make your colleagues smarter, bring back learnings

Conferences, meetups and other professional extra-curricular activities provide tremendous learning opportunities. As much as you are a presenter at these events, you must also be an attendee. The opportunities for learning and growth are tremendous. Itâ€™s important to capture that knowledge and bring it back to your organization to share with your colleagues.

This shared learning can take two forms. The first is sharing the specific things you learned while at the event. What did the other presenters discuss? How does it relate to the challenges you face as a team? How can it be applied? These are the domain-specific elements you picked up from the other presenters.

The second is sharing with your colleagues how to become more successful and active within these external communities. Youâ€™re likely not the only person in your organization who is interested in furthering their personal brand. Bringing this education to your colleagues who did not attend the conference and sharing your techniques on how to become more active on that front helps minimize any jealousy that may develop in your colleagues and positions you as a mentor.

Your employer is now a thought leader

When attempting to convince your superiors to allow you to participate in public forums on behalf of the company, itâ€™s imperative to remind the organization the benefits the corporate brand gets from this exposure. Active engagement in industry-specific forums and conferences gives the company the chance to stand in front of peers as a thought leader and, in many cases, frame the conversation on a particular topic. Brand perception of your employer improves as adjectives like cutting-edge, innovative and supportive (of new thinking) are associated with it.

In addition, both your business development and talent acquisition departments benefit from the corporate brand enhancement youâ€™re facilitating. Every interaction that is publicly available from the employees of a company provides an opportunity to strengthen that companyâ€™s public persona. Tweets and blog posts about the kind of work or processes taking place there humanize the company and increase the attraction of higher caliber employees as well as potential new customers.

This may not be obvious at first to your employer. Itâ€™s imperative that you showcase these successes internally. Positive mentions for the company in tweets, blogs and post-conference meetings should be forwarded to the organizationâ€™s management. When employment candidates express interest in the company, try to make sure that they are asked how they heard of the company. Each time a candidate mentions a public appearance or some thought leadership showcased in an industry forum, make sure your superiors are aware. If possible, quantifying (in dollars) the value of these appearances should further your cause.

High-level talent that is acquired through word of mouth is significantly less expensive than talent acquired through staffing agencies. Also, have your business development team assess the source of new leads and customers to see how many were driven by the companyâ€™s public presence. Each one of those leads and customers has a monetary value which, when tallied, can justify the expense of sending you to the next event to present.

Be bold, yet humble

In some companies, your superiors may not see the immediate value of your personal brand. In these situations it may prove more successful to ask for forgiveness rather than permission.Â Write a blog post on an industry or domain-specific topic and share it publicly. If it drives discussion and positive perception of your employer, tell someone.

Attend the next local meetup and present a quick deck on your latest thinking. Â Did someone tweet about it? Share that with your boss. Was there a strong discussion on your blog that reflected well on your employer? Point your PR person to it. Showcasing the success of a low-profile activities or blog posts should engender some level of support from your boss. One word of caution though: ensure that youâ€™ve consulted your companyâ€™s policies on such activities, as Crumlish advises. You donâ€™t want to end up violating corporate policies that could put your job at risk.

Choose the right employer

If creating and maintaining a personal brand is something you value then itâ€™s imperative to view your employer through that lens to understand if your goals align. As your personal brand has been developing and growing, has your employer been supportive? Is there a broad corporate understanding of the benefits you can bring through promoting your thought leadership externally? If the answer is ‘No’ then it may be time to evaluate new opportunities.

Becoming an independent practitioner is the easiest option but may not be viable for everyone. In that case, how much do prospective employers â€œgetâ€� the concept of employee empowerment? This is a discussion that should be clear from the outset with a potential new employer. Set the right expectations in your interviews and, if possible, have public-facing activities that grow both your personal brand and the corporate brand written into your job description. Thereâ€™s no more effective way to balance your personal brand as a corporate employee than to actually have it as one of your positionâ€™s responsibilities.

Conclusion

Ultimately, for the personal brand to grow, the “company should get more value than the individual”, as David Armano said. If that balance is off, then you should consider becoming independent. That doesnâ€™t mean that you cannot create, cultivate and curate a personal brand within a corporation. In fact, a personal brand can be crucial to your continued success and career progression. Be respectful of your employer and their policies but find creative ways to promote yourself while promoting your company at the same time. Personal branding enhances corporate branding. It makes the company appear more â€œhumanâ€� and approachable. It makes people want to work there and it attracts good press. If balanced correctly, this is a win-win for all parties involved.

(sp) (vf)

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Dec/10

URL Design

by Kyle Neath under Feeds, Web Design

You should take time to design your URL structure. If there’s one thing I hope you remember after reading this article it’s to take time to design your URL structure. Don’t leave it up to your framework. Don’t leave it up to chance. Think about it and craft an experience.

URL Design is a complex subject. I can’t say there are any “right” solutions â€” it’s much like the rest of design. There’s good URL design, there’s bad URL design, and there’s everything in between â€” it’s subjective.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t best practices for creating great URLs. I hope to impress upon you some best practices in URL design I’ve learned over the years and explain why I think new HTML5 javascript history APIs are so exciting to work with.

Why you need to be designing your URLs

The URL bar has become a main attraction of modern browsers. And it’s not just a simple URL bar anymore â€” you can type partial URLs and browsers use dark magic to seemingly conjure up exactly the full URL you were looking for. When I type in resque issues into my URL bar, the first result is https://github.com/defunkt/resque/issues.

URLs are universal. They work in Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer, cURL, wget, your iPhone, Android and even written down on sticky notes. They are the one universal syntax of the web. Don’t take that for granted.

Any regular semi-technical user of your site should be able to navigate 90% of your app based off memory of the URL structure. In order to achieve this, your URLs will need to be pragmatic. Almost like they were a math equation â€” many simple rules combined in a strategic fashion to get to the page they want.

Top level sections are gold

The most valuable aspect of any URL is what lies at the top level section. In my opinion, it should be the first discussion of any startup directly after the idea is solidified. Long before any technology discussion. Long before any code is written. This is top-level section is going to change the fundamentals of how your site functions.

Do I seem dramatic? It may seem that way â€” but come 1,000,000 users later think about how big of an impact it will be. Think about how big of a deal Facebook’s rollout of usernames was. Available URLs are a lot like real estate and the top level section is the best property out there.

Another quick tip â€” whenever you’re building a new site, think about blacklisting a set of vanity URLs (and maybe learn a little bit about bad URL design from Quora’s URLs).

Namespacing is a great tool to expand URLs

Namespaces can be a great way to build up a pragmatic URL structure that’s easy to remember with continued usage. What do I mean by a namespace? I mean a portion of a URL that dictates unique content. An example:

https://github.com/defunkt/resque/issues

In the URL above, defunkt/resque is the namespace. Why is this useful? Because anything after that URL suddenly becomes a new top level section. So you can go to any <user>/<repo> and then tack on /issues or maybe /wiki and get the same page, but under a different namespace.

Keep that namespace clean. Don’t start throwing some content under /feature/<user>/<repo> and some under /<user>/<repo>/feature. For a namespace to be effective it has to be universal.

Querystrings are great for filters and sorts

The web has had a confused past with regards to querystrings. I’ve seen everything from every page of a site being served from one URL with different querystring parameters to sites who don’t use a single querystring parameter.

I like to think of querystrings as the knobs of URLs â€” something to tweak your current view and fine tune it to your liking. That’s why they work so great for sorting and filtering actions. Stick to a uniform pattern (sort=alpha&dir=desc for instance) and you’ll make sorting and filtering via the URL bar easy and rememberable.

One last thing regarding querystrings: The page should work without the querystrings attached. It may show a different page, but the URL without querystrings should render.

Non-ASCII URLs are terrible for english sites

The world is a complicated place filled with Â¿Ã¼mlÃ¥ts?, Â¡ÃªÃ±yÃ©s! and all sorts of awesome characters â˜„. These characters have no place in the URL of any english site. They’re complicated to type with english keyboards and often times expand into confusing characters in browsers (ever see xn--n3h in a url? That’s a â˜ƒ).

URLs are for humans â€” not for search engines

I grew up in this industry learning how to game search engines (well, Google) to make money off my affiliate sales, so I’m no stranger to the practice of keyword stuffing URLs. It was fairly common to end up with a URL like this:

http://guitars.example.com/best-guitars/cheap-guitars/popular-guitar

That kind of URL used to be great for SEO purposes. Fortunately Google’s hurricane updates of 2003 eliminated any ranking benefit of these URLs. Unfortunately the professional SEO industry is centered around extortion and still might advise you stuff your URLs with as many keywords as you can think of. They’re wrong â€” ignore them.

Some additional points to keep in mind:

Underscores are just bad. Stick to dashes.
Use short, full, and commonly known words. If a section has a dash or special character in it, the word is probably too long.

URLs are for humans. Design them for humans.

A URL is an agreement

A URL is an agreement to serve something from a predictable location for as long as possible. Once your first visitor hits a URL you’ve implicitly entered into an agreement that if they bookmark the page or hit refresh, they’ll see the same thing.

Don’t change your URLs after they’ve been publicly launched. If you absolutely must change your URLs, add redirects â€” it’s not that scary.

Everything should have a URL

In an ideal world, every single screen on your site should result in a URL that can be copy & pasted to reproduce the same screen in another tab/browser. In fairness, this wasn’t completely possible until very recently with some of the new HTML5 browser history Javascript APIs. Notably, there are two new methods:

onReplaceState â€” This method replaces the current URL in the browser history, leaving the back button unaffected.
onPushState – This method pushes a new URL onto the browser’s history, replacing the URL in the URL bar and adding it to the browser’s history stack (affecting the back button).

When to use `onReplaceState` and when to use `onPushState`

These new methods allow us to change the entire path in the URL bar, not just the anchor element. With this new power, comes a new design responsibility â€” we need to craft the back button experience.

To determine which to use, ask yourself this question: Does this action produce new content or is it a different display of the same content?

Produces new content â€” you should use onPushState (ex: pagination links)
Produces a different display of the same content â€” you should use onReplaceState (ex: sorting and filtering)

Use your own judgement, but these two rules should get you 80% there. Think about what you want to see when you click the back button and make it happen.

A link should behave like a link

There’s a lot of awesome functionality built into linking elements like <a> and <button>. If you middle click or command-click on them they’ll open in new windows. When you hover over an <a> your browser tells you the URL in the status bar. Don’t break this behavior when playing with onReplaceState and onPushState.

Embed the location of AJAX requests in the href attributes of anchor elements.
return true from Javascript click handlers when people middle or command click.

It’s fairly simple to do this with a quick conditional inside your click handlers. Here’s an example jQuery compatible snippet:

$('a.ajaxylink').click(function(e){
  // Fallback for browser that don't support the history API
  if (!('replaceState' in window.history)) return true

  // Ensure middle, control and command clicks act normally
  if (e.which == 2 || e.metaKey || e.ctrlKey){
    return true
  }

  // Do something awesome, then change the URL
  window.history.replaceState(null, "New Title", '/some/cool/url')
  return false
})

Post-specific URLs need to die

In the past, the development community loved to create URLs which could never be re-used. I like to call them POST-specific URLs â€” they’re the URLs you see in your address bar after you submit a form, but when you try to copy & pasting the url into a new tab you get an error.

There’s no excuse for these URLs at all. Post-specific URLs are for redirects and APIs â€” not end-users.

A great example

ASCII-only user generated URL parts (defunkt, resque).
“pull” is a short version of “pull request” â€” single word, easily associated to the origin word.
The pull request number is scoped to defunkt/resque (starts at one there).
Anchor points to a scrolling position, not hidden content.

Bonus points: This URL has many different formats as well â€” check out the patch and diff versions.

The beginning of an era

I hope that as usage of new Javascript APIs increases, designers and developers take time to design URLs. It’s an important part of any site’s usability and too often I see URLs ignored. While it’s easy to redesign the look & feel of a site, it’s much more difficult to redesign the URL structure.

But I’m excited. I’ve watched URLs change over the years. At times hard-linking was sacrificed at the altar of AJAX while other times performance was sacrificed to generate real URLs for users. We’re finally at a point in time where we can have the performance and usability benefits of partial page rendering while designing a coherent and refined URL experience at the same time.

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Dec/10

Beautiful Churches Around The World

by Prakash Ghodke under Feeds, Web Design

Churches are places of worship â€” but apart from that, churches have been carved and built so magnificently, in a way that they make everyone simply stand and marvel at their great architecture. Today we present to you a showcase of some quite beautiful and breathtaking churches around the world.

Church of the Assumption of Mary