BlogmyQuery – BMQ

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, we’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.

We continue to nourish you with a monthly spoon of inspiration for the next 12 months. This post features 40 free desktop wallpapers created by artists across the globe for February 2011. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free. It’s time to freshen up your wallpaper!

Please note that:

• All images can be clicked on and lead to the preview of the wallpaper,
• 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 want to take a look at February 2011 Windows 7 Themes as well.

For the Birds

"An old birdcage in the sky." Designed by Kristen Cook from USA.

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

Madonna And Chihuahua

"Dog is the new Child." Designed by Olivia Osik from Estonia.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440

Focus

"Focus. “Work it harder, make it better do it faster makes us stronger.” – Daft Punk." Designed by Angle Sharp Design from USA.

• preview
• with calendar: 640×480, 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 640×480, 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Blue Clutter

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

Journey

"It’s still not too late to plan your 2011." Designed by Ssu-Hua Chen from Australia.

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

Winter Shrub

"A hearty shrub peeks out from the snow on a serene winter day." Designed by Kate Hunsinger from USA.

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

Pale February

Designed by Vinteum from Brazil.

• preview
• with calendar: 1152×864, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080
• without calendar: 1152×864, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080

Bunch of Snowdrops

Designed by Maja Petric from Serbia.

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

Valentine’s Day Sucks

"Take that, Valentine’s Day!" Designed by Jimmy Finazzo from USA.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Knsqnt Interactive

Designed by knsqnt interactive from Germany.

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

Awake

Designed by Romy Campos Menegazzi from Brazil.

• preview
• with calendar: 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024
• without calendar: 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024

Join the Party!

Designed by Andrei Verner from Russia.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Stitches and Cloth

Designed by Jeroen Verplanke from the Netherlands.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×720, 1280×960, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080
• without calendar: 1280×720, 1280×960, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080

Fairy Wood

"There is a strong fairy-tale feeling in a winter forest." Designed by cheloveche.ru from Russia.

• preview
• 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

Usher in the Year of the Rabbit

"February is here and along with February the Chinese will celebrate Chinese New Year. With this being said the Chinese will usher in the year of the Rabbit by first telling the Tiger to leave, they will then lure the fabled long eared beast with an appetizing, delectable, exquisite, luscious, palatable, savory, scrumptious and well-prepared, fresh out of the ground wholesome carrot. YUM SENG!!" Designed by siewhui from Singapore.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×800, 1680×1050, 1920×1440
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1680×1050, 1920×1440

Bundle Up

Designed by Kristin G Jackson from USA.

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

Too Long

"February, because sometimes, months are just too long." Designed by Ben Garratt from England.

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

Month of Love

"Single day (14th) of a month for love is too little, so celebrate the full February as a Month of Love." Designed by Rana Majumder from India.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×800, 1280×1024

No Beer This Year

"My Near resolution “No beer this year” and my calendar theme too:)." Designed by Ravi Solanki from India.

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

The Real Super-hero

"Hanuman is a Hindu deity, who is an ardent devotee of Rama, a central character in the Indian epic Ramayana.A general among the vanaras, an ape-like race of forest-dwellers, Hanuman is an incarnation of the divine, whose fate itis to aid the hero Rama in the struggle against the demon king Ravana.Known also as Anjaneya, Maruti, Pavanputra, Anjaniputra, Bajrang Bali and Hanumat, Hanuman’s exploits are much celebrated in a variety ofreligious and cultural traditions, particularly in Hinduism, so much so that he is often the subject of worship according to some bhaktitraditions.Jai Haniman :)." Designed by Rsmehra from The Republic of India.

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

Masks

"Mistic Tribal Masks temporary exposition in Turin. They really remind to an alien atmosphere." Designed by Ester Liquori from Italy.

• preview
• with calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×720, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200
• without calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×720, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200

Swan Love

Designed by Francisco Jesús García Linares from Spain.

• 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

All Is Full Of Love

"More at. All is full of love is a project about the lifes of 200 calendars." Designed by graphic design studio Punkt from Bulgaria.

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

Chinese New Year

"This is a Chinese New Year month, wishing you a Happy Chinese New Year. May you & your family enjoy Prosperity & Good Health in 2011!" Designed by CK.ew from Singapore.

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

Fuzzy Feeling (see Large View)

"We all have the fondest dreams that give us this warm, fuzzy feeling inside. Even if they seem too incredible to come true, always cherish them, as they keep us alive. Happy February everybody!" Designed by Lina Itskovitch from USA.

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

Winter’s Hope

"Februar is usually the coldest month – but spring is already lingering behind the lone tree:-)." Designed by Stefan M. Schmidt from Germany.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Indian Valentines Day

"An Indian Valentines Day Decorative Typography." Designed by Atma Creative Team from India.

• preview
• 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

Doodles

"Who says doodles isn’t art? What someone draws unconsciously can oftentimes be the most significant visualization of their stream of thought. Also, it’s therapeutic to doodle. And fun!" Designed by Jen Cheng from Canada.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 2560×1440

Love in the Air

Designed by Mohd. Aaqib from India.

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

Return

"I want to “return” to one of the greatest places at my last holiday. Photo by S.Bruett." Designed by Toni Polkowski (FKSD) from Germany.

• preview
• 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

February Fever

Designed by Becca Foster from USA.

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

Love Compose

Designed by Kayro C from China.

• 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

Broken Love

"A Valentines Day themed wallpaper, inspired by the love that must fight to exist." Designed by Celsiuspictor from Spain.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200

Sci-Fi

Designed by Darkink from South Africa.

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

Love Splash

"Happy Valentine’s Day to you all." Designed by Motion Art-ist from Turkey.

• 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

Let’s Cook

"Delicious February!" Designed by Anca Varsandan from Germany.

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

Feel Flows

Designed by Peter Geiger from USA.

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

Prehistoric Love

Designed by Kevin Fischer from USA.

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

Blot

"We want colors on our screen, if the world outside is still grey and cold." Designed by Lotum from Germany.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 640×960, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 640×960, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Blue Light (see Large View)

"Clean, crisp and textured wallpaper with a hint of blue." Designed by Atle Mo from Norway.

• preview
• 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

Alma Climber

"Like the winter in february (Northern Hemisphere), the climber is reaching the mountain top and both soon will start to slowly go down for the beginning of spring in march." Designed by Pablo Prudêncio from Brazil.

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

Winter/Summer

"Made a simple wallpaper that shows a cold/warm contrast on both hemispheres." Designed by Marco Palma from Italy/Germany.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1366×768, 1440×900, 1600×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Join in next month!

Please note that we respect and carefully consider the ideas and motivation behind each and every artist’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 weren’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!

What’s your favorite?

What’s your favorite theme or wallpaper for this month? Please let us know in the comment section below.

(ik) (vf)

© Smashing Editorial for Smashing Magazine, 2011. | Permalink | Post a comment | Smashing Shop | Smashing Network | About Us
Post tags: Wallpapers

In this post we release yet another freebie: an original set of four exclusive minimal, clean WordPress themes designed by Marios Lublinski and released for web design community. As usual, the themes are free to use for private as well as commerical projects. The themes are beautifully built with minimal and clean designs. These themes will come handy for artists, graphic designers, illustrators and photographers who’d like to have a clean, minimal portfolio to showcase their work.

The themes are simple but powerful, with a touch of traditional Swiss design and layout techniques. The unique style and design is what separates these themes from others. You will also be able to withhold the focus on your work, since you are the artist and should be in control of what the observer sees when visiting your site. Each one comes with a full video overview and support of how to use and manage it.

Features

A nice extra feature for this release is a detailed video overview for each theme. The video will walk you through thoroughly on how to install the theme and customize it:

• Valid XHTML+CSS
• WordPress 3+ Compatible
• Support and Updates
• Embraces Social Media
• Firefox, IE7+8, Safari compatible

Download the Themes for Free

All themes are released under GPLv2 General Public License. You can use them for all your projects for free and without any restrictions. Please link to this article if you want to spread the word. You may modify the themes as you wish.

Minimal Theme

• Minimal theme preview (.jpg, 0,36 Mb)
• Minimal theme live demo
• Minimal theme: video overview
• download the .zip-package
• download the .zip-package (SmashingMag’s mirror)

Studio Theme

• Studio theme preview (.jpg, 0,24 Mb)
• Studio theme live demo
• Studio theme: video overview
• download the .zip-package
• download the .zip-package (SmashingMag’s mirror)

Style Theme

• Style theme preview (.jpg, 0,40 Mb)
• Style theme live demo
• Style theme: video overview
• download the .zip-package
• download the .zip-package (SmashingMag’s mirror)

Swiss Theme

• Swiss theme preview (.jpg, 0,32 Mb)
• Swiss theme live demo
• Swiss theme: video overview
• download the .zip-package (mirror)
• download the .zip-package (SmashingMag’s mirror)

Behind the Design

As always, here are some insights from the designer:

“As you know there are thousands of free and premium themes out there for you to use. So why design another WordPress theme? Unless you design something unique and remarkable. Since everybody is focus on the Framework, Post Formats, Parent/Child, Genesis. I decided to focus on you, the artist, since I will spend exactly 3.2 seconds on your new website, I want to see something unique, modern and innovative. I want to see your work, I want to focus only on your work, NOT on the theme itself. I know there are thousands of beautiful themes out there, but once you put your work inside those themes, your work will have disappeared and the theme will stand out than the rest. This is not what I wanted to create — I want your work to be the main focus, and the theme just to be a support.”

Thank you, Marios. We appreciate your work and your good intentions!

© Smashing Editorial for Smashing Magazine, 2011. | Permalink | Post a comment | Smashing Shop | Smashing Network | About Us
Post tags: Freebies, themes, wordpress

Web design community is strong and hard-working. We have plenty of useful resources, tools and services created, developed and released every single day: apart from goodies such as free fonts or icons, there are also many educational resources and little time-savers that can significantly improve designer’s workflow. We permanently look out for the new projects and support them by presenting them on Twitter, Facebook, in our e-mail newsletter and, evidently, in Smashing Magazine’s posts.

Today we are glad to present one of such posts: an overview of handy new resources for web designers; most of them were released recently, but some of them are a bit older. Still, they were included to supplement the overview, making the post more comprehensive and complete. Please feel free to discuss the featured resources in the comments to this post. And, of course, thank you guys for creating and maintaining all these useful resources. Your efforts are deeply appreciated.

Useful Resources for Web Designers

Fonts in Use
This site presents a catalogue for real-world typography samples and innovations in branding, advertising, signage and publishing. The regularly updated collection of trends and case studies is commented on by typography experts and gurus from around the world. The sharp, interesting comments and discussions will keep you engaged, all backed up by real examples.

Note and Point: Keynote and PowerPoint Gallery
Note and Point highlights the most beautiful Keynote, PDF and PowerPoint work on the Web, which happens to be mostly Web design-related, although various topics are covered. No doubt these presentations — which really do look that much better — might surprise you by the attention given to color, illustrations and typography.

Free High-Quality HTML Email Templates
The page presents 38 free HTML email templates (including PSD and HTML files), created by talented professional designers. Every template has been tested in more that 20 popular email clients, including Outlook 2010, Gmail, Lotus Notes, Apple Mail and the iPhone. All of the Photoshop documents are layered and ready to be tweaked. You can download all of the templates for free (320 MB) and use them for any private or commercial project. In case you use Campaign Monitor to send out newsletters, you’ll also get Campaign Monitor’s templates as an extra goodie. Mailchimp users can choose from the professional templates for Mailchimp.

The Grammar Cheat Sheet
Never mix up your dashes again, learn how to set quotations marks and remind yourself to keep paragraphs short and topical. Overall, this article is a nice little overview of suggestions that would help you improve the quailty of your copy. For a closer examination of what else might go wrong, check out “The Trouble With EM ‘n EN (and Other Shady Characters)” by Peter K Sheerin.

FPO: For Print Only
For Print Only is a blog that is dedicated to everything related to pint design. FPO celebrates that print is not dead by showcasing the most compelling printed projects. Print is alive and well as witnessed by this well organized and inspirational resource.

Graphic Atlas: History of Printing
The site is a virtual study collection that showcases printing processes from early woodcuts to modern digital print. The print-identification tool guides you through a number of explorations that replicate the experience of identifying prints using common tools. Among other things, you’ll learn about such printing techniques as relief, letterpress, gravure, silver-dye bleach, dye sublimation and direct thermal. The object explorer allows you to view two images side by side to compare traits across processes. Characteristics such as size, format, color, texture, sheen and layer structure are explained as well.

Smarthistory
Smarthistory.org is a free and open, not-for-profit art history textbook. The website covers a wide variety of the artwork usually found in art history classes, ranging from ancient cultures to post-colonialism. In addition to the audio and video, Smarthistory contains articles and images organized by style and chronology. As a bonus, the user interface itself is worth looking at. The appealing design and intuitive navigation (which allows you to browse by era, style, artist and theme) makes this experience not only educational but enjoyable. A comprehensive overview of the seeds that helped sew the graphic design field.

The Photoshop Etiquette Manifesto for Web Designers
This site lays out a number of guidelines for creating Photoshop files and workflows that are conducive to productivity and team collaboration. By following these guidelines, you make it easier for others to work with your files, and more likely that your project will go smoothly. Some of the things included are common-sense (proofread before exporting), but others aren’t necessarily something you’d think of if you’re not used to collaborating or working on big projects (use folders, keep logos as vector smart objects). It also includes helpful illustrations for each example, so there’s no confusion.

Desks Near Me
This site features places all over the world that designers and developers might like to work in, be they offices or cafés. The website provides detailed information, including hours of operation and reviews. Some places charge a small fee for use, and many throw in a few goodies like food, drink and access to equipment.

Dark Design Patterns
Dark Design Patterns aims to expose these black-hat designs whose sole aim is to misdirect and deceive visitors. Anti-usability design patterns that are currently identified on the website include the “Roach Motel,” “Bait and Switch,” “Privacy Zuckering” and “Forced Information Disclosure,” among others. Examples of each are included, and visitors can add their own in the comments on each page. It’s a great website to show clients when they ask you to implement a questionable “feature” on their website.

The Anatomy of a Perfect Landing Page
Formstack explains how design translates to users and ten key landing page features that draw them in. A useful breakdown of elements to include in your designs and things to keep in mind during your design-work.

100 Principles for Designing Logos and Building Brands
Inspiration can come from anywhere, but sometimes the simpler the better. From Brand Identity Essentials, here are some principals for designing logos and building brands. These cover example shapes, consistency, voice, meaning and flexibility.

Design Is History
A wonderful reference site for all designers and provides brief overviews of a wide range of topics — for us, designers, it is improtant to understand where design originates from.

NounProject
NounProject provides a huge collection of highly recognizable symbols, available for free download and use. The designers are committed to quality in what they do, and so the icons are indeed designed very well.

Ethics for Web Designers
Robot Regime is dedicated to ethics and Web design, and it discusses what our ethical obligations are — to ourselves, our colleagues and our clients. The site already features some nice pieces, including posts about fair pricing, misrepresenting yourself as a designer and giving clients what they want.

Politely Decline Speculative Work
“I won’t do free design work to win your business — here’s why” is a Web page that offers a stock letter you can send to clients explaining why spec work is bad for everyone involved. It’s concise and professional, and it presents clear arguments against spec work, with links to additional information. Plus, you can personalize the letter by adding the recipient’s name to the end of the URL.

Type Tips
A nice short overview of quick useful tips on all things related to Web typography by Harry Roberts from CSS Wizardry.

OnTwik
The website brings together lectures, screencasts and conferences from around the world. Both expert and novice developers and designers should be able to find topics of interest, whether it’s CSS and HTML5 or start-ups and creativity. Ontwik is free, and anyone can suggest content for the website; you can even submit your own lectures.

Design Moo
“Join together and share valuable free Web design resources.” This could be the slogan of this design community, created and curated by front-end developer Chris Wallace. The project is a network of designers and a high-quality collection of free design resources: fonts, icons, illustrations, patterns, textures and Web layouts. All goodies are tagged for easy navigation, and you can follow new releases on Twitter. You might want to check Boxtuffs and Premium Pixels as well, another websites featuring free high-quality resources.

Design Kindle: Free High-Quality Design Files
This site offers a ton of free high-quality design files that you might actually want to use, all without restrictions on personal or commercial use. Everything from design elements to images to full themes is included. Design Kindle doesn’t have a big library of files just yet, but more are sure to be added soon.

365psd: A Free PSD Every Day
Every day, this site offers a free PSD file for you to download. These files are almost all design elements that you can use in Web and application designs, including buttons, progress bars, navigation elements and more, and they are well designed. Currently, there are more than 300 days worth of freebies, all tagged, browsable and searchable.

Guidelines for Mobile Web App Design
This article presents a comprehensive list of links to official user interface and user experience guidelines from various manufacturers. The guidelines include samples, tips and descriptions of common weaknesses for mobile platforms such as iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, webOS and Mee Go. Many of the guidelines focus on native application development, but they can be applied to design of mobile applications in general, too.

List of Freely Available Programming Books
Here is a list of programming books on programming languages or about computers in general with open-source licenses and others. If you’ve been searching for some freely available programming books on the Internet, this list will surely give you some good tips.

Secure Password Generator
The tool lets you enter parameters, including the length of the password, whether to include uppercase and/or lowercase letters or numbers or punctuation and whether to eliminate characters that resemble each other (such as i and l, 1 and I, and o and 0). Then, just select the number of passwords to generate, and it returns a list. It even includes phonetics for each password to make it easier to read out loud (in case you’re giving a password to someone over the phone, for example).

Keyonary
This tool is a nice little application for finding shortcuts in Mac OS X, Photoshop and so on. Currently, more than 300 Photoshop shortcuts are available. Simply type the name of application in the search box, and it spits out a long shortcut list.

Let’s Swap
A place where artists and designers can swap art for free. The site is an experiment: if you are an artist or designer, you probably have something hanging around and you’ll be willing to swap it for something else. The site gives you the opportunity to do exactly that; just put out an open invitation and see what happens. Very interesting idea.

Starting with Git: Cheat Sheet
After freshening up her git skills, Loma Jane Mitchell shares her ‘cheat sheet’ — the commands that she uses on a day-to-day basis when working with git. Also note that GUI tools and IDE plugins are available for Git, so it is worth taking a look at what is available for the development environment you use.

Rails 3 Cheat Sheets
The site provides Rails 3 Cheat Sheets for Activemodel, Actionmailer and Actioncontroller, XSS protection and UJS, Activerelation, Bundler and Routing API.

Bounce Rate Demystified
If you are doing business on the web and have Google Analytics set up for your website, it’s very likely that you know the bounce rate for your website. But, do you know anything about how it’s calculated, what your industry’s average bounce rate is or even what factors affect your bounce rate? Inspired by common questions, KissMetrics created this infographic to give you answers and some tips to help you improve your bounce rate.

InspireUX
User Experience quotes and articles to inspire and connect the UX community.

Quotes on Design
A growing collection of useful quotes by designers for designers and developers.

IA TV
Information Architecture Television features a collection of videos from around the Web that all focus on information architecture. Hundreds of videos dating back to 2008 offer a great wealth of information on everything from design thinking to usability.

The Bazaar
On this site you can create galleries, upload your artworks and specify your products which you would like to sell. Once the buyer has checked out and has made the payment, your artwork is printed, wrapped and delivered.

A Collection of Materials Related to Interaction Design
This IxD library provides you with an ultimate collection of posts, articles, PDFs as well as videos related to interaction design for you to read and gain more knowledge and inspiration.

Pinterest — Catalog the Things You Love
Pinterest is a social catalog service. Think of it as a virtual pinboard — a place where you can post collections of things you love, and “follow” collections created by people with great taste.

WordPress Snippets
WP-Snippets can come in handy when you’re designing a WordPress theme. Rather than start from scratch when building some functionality or another, why not grab a snippet of code that has already been tested? The website includes many useful snippets, from highlighting author comments to listing random posts to filtering the loop. Make sure to read the comments for each snippet because they could contain helpful information on whether the code works in certain WordPress versions.

CSS Terms and Definitions
This article discusses the consistency in the use of terms with reagrds to CSS.

CSS Vocabulary
“I realized quite late that to say something meaningful about CSS, I would have to know exactly what the terms used means. Often, I have asked for help in forums, and have got stuck wondering how exactly to describe my problem. So I thought it would be a good idea to describe all the common terms of CSS.” A nice overview of common CSS terms and definitions and a good addition to the article “CSS Terms and Definitions” described above..

Bagcheck
BagCheck lets you share your personal collections and also lets you browse through other ‘bags’ to find out common hobbies or activities that helps you connect with people and their interests.

ManyBooks: Repository of Free E-Books
This site offers a huge collection of public domain e-books, as well as other newer books that have been released in the public domain or under Creative Commons licenses, in a variety of formats. You can download classics such as Pride and Prejudice, as well as newer books such as The Gospel of the Knife, in formats such as ePub, Mobi, PDB and even PDF and plain text. Books are also browsable by genre, author and title. And of course, there is a search function.

Last Click

Should I Work for Free?
Who’s ready to stop working for free? Hopefully you are! If you have any doubts, consult this handy chart below. Start in the middle and work your way to your answer.

Email Etiquette for the Super-Busy
In a recent blog post, venture capitalist Fred Wilson talked about his ongoing struggle with email management and the various solutions he’s tried, concluding: “Every time I make a productivity gain, the volume eventually overwhelms me.” It’s a familiar problem. We’re all extremely busy, and we all get too much email. So what to do?

The Future of Advertising
An article on advertising; stating that advertising is on the cusp of its first creative revolution since the 1960s brings us to a new prespective. This involves the ad industry that just might get left behind. Click here to read and find out more. Very interesting read.

Why Your Form Buttons Should Never Say ‘Submit’
When you see a ‘Submit’-button on a form, what comes to your mind? One could easily reason that clicking the button submits the user’s information into the system for processing. A ‘Submit’-button describes what the system does well, but it doesn’t describe what the user does at all. The article suggests to stop using the wording ‘Submit’ on buttons and provide more meaningful, task-specific names instead.

© Smashing Editorial for Smashing Magazine, 2011. | Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: education, resources, time-saving, tools, useful

Today we release Spectacular, a free WordPress theme that aims to provide a warm and pleasurable atmosphere for personal musings and ramblings. The theme comes in two flavors: HTML 4.01 and HTML5. Also, both German and English versions of the theme are included in the download package. The theme is cross-browser compatible and supports Opera, Safari, Chrome, IE7+, and FF. Support for IE6 is not available, though the theme works in IE6, too.

The theme was commissioned by Smashing Magazine and designed by Maleika Esther Attawel exclusively for Smashing Magazine. As usual, the theme is absolutely free to use in private and commerical projects.

Download the theme for free!

The theme is released under GPL. You can use it for all your projects for free and without any restrictions. Please link to this article if you want to spread the word. You may modify the theme as you wish.

• live demo
• large preview (.jpg, 1.2 Mb)
• download the .zip-package (zip, 21.1 Mb, including instructions)

Screenshots

Front page area (large preview)

Table and content (large preview)

Archives page (large preview)

Post page (large preview)

Comment area (large preview)

Front page area (large preview)

Comments view (large preview)

Blog post (large preview)

Thank you, Maleika. We appreciate your work and your good intentions.

Feel free to suggest your ideas for the freebies you’d like to see on Smashing Magazine in the comments area below.

© Smashing Editorial for Smashing Magazine, 2011. | Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: Freebies, themes, wordpress

As most of you may already know, Noupe is a subsidiary of Smashing Magazine. For those of you who don’t, we offer books on the best practices in modern Web Design. Our books share technical as well as practical tips on coding, usability, optimization, typography and much more!

Is the Book Really Coming?

What’s the best way to start a new year? Not just with resolutions and good intentions, but with good deeds! Therefore, today we have the pleasure of announcing that a new Smashing Book is on its way. And not only that: it’s not just a book but an annual event.

In all honesty, the Smashing Book 1 could have been better in several ways: the overly long shipping times and poor quality of the binding were critical mistakes we made with that first book. But we did our homework and learned from our mistakes. We wanted to make the Smashing Book 2 better than its predecessor in every respect: the hardcover book will cost $29.90 USD (like the first one), but it will have more pages and much better binding and will be more comprehensive and of higher quality.

As you read this, the Smashing Book 2 is already in the final stage of production: printing started in late December. This means we will start shipping the books by February at the latest, and the pre-order period will be much shorter than the one with Smashing Book 1. You can pre-order your copy today and get a huge discount: 20% off the regular price.

What’s in the Book?

Like its predecessor, the Smashing Book 2 is a printed book about best practices in modern Web design. This book shares valuable practical insight into design, usability and coding. It provides professional advice for designing mobile applications and building successful e-commerce websites, and it explains common coding mistakes and how to avoid them.

You’ll explore the principles of professional design thinking and graphic design and learn how to apply psychology and game theory to create engaging user experiences. We also feature interviews from experts on the future of Web typography and describe how you can publish a book on your own.

Well-respected professionals have worked with us to provide exciting and comprehensive chapters:

• “The Principles of Great Graphic Design,â€� Matt Ward and Alexander Charchar,
• “Visible vs. Invisible Design,â€� Francisco Inchauste,
• “Designing Mobile User Experiences,â€� Mike Rundle,
• “Sketching, Wireframing and Prototyping,â€� Janko Jovanovic,
• “Red Flags in Web Development,â€� Christian Heilmann,
• “The Future of Web Typography,â€� Vivien Anayian,
• “Game Design Techniques Applied to UX Design,â€� Christoph Kolb,
• “When They Click: Psychology of Web Design,â€� Susan Weinschenk,
• “Design Patterns on E-Commerce Websites (A Study),â€� Steven Bradley,
• “How to Make a Book (Like This One),â€� The Smashing Magazine Team.

Free Sample (PDF)

You will find more information below, and you can read a sample chapter — “Visible vs. Invisible Design� (PDF, 5.6 MB) by Francisco Inchauste — for free.

Exclusive Artwork for the Book

The Smashing Book 2 features exclusive full-page illustrations for each chapter. And here we’ve got something special for you. The illustrations were created by the talented Australian illustrator and our dear friend Yiying Lu, who is well known as the designer of Twitter’s famous “Fail Whale.â€� She has designed an exclusive new series called “Smashing Animalsâ€� for this book, and (by the way) you can purchase it as wall art on Yiying’s website.

Yiying lovingly cares for her cat on the wall. You can see this illustration in the chapter “Visible vs. Invisible Design,� written by Francisco Inchauste.

Names of Our Readers in the Book

In November 2010, our readers and fans had the opportunity to add their names to the book. We sorted all of the participants alphabetically and created an exclusive double-page feature on pages 6 and 7. Overall, 2970 names form the “S� in Smashing — ASCII art at its best.

The Smashing Book 2 is Available Only in the Smashing Shop… and Nowhere Else

The Smashing Book 2 will be a hardcover book with quality stitched binding, 360 pages and a bit larger of a size than its predecessor. The price is again just $29.90, but there is more. We want to make the book affordable to everyone, so Smashing Magazine will pay a large part of the shipping costs and ship the books at a fixed price of $3.50/€3.50 per copy, no matter where you live in the world.

And it gets even better: books will be sent only via air mail (except within Germany). The delivery will take between 3 and 15 working days at most (you can check delivery times for your country). The books will be shipped from Berlin, Germany. And of course, if you are not satisfied or have questions, there is a 100-day money-back guarantee and a live chat in our recently redesigned Smashing Shop.

But That’s Not All, Right?

Right! Initially, the book was supposed to contain more chapters, but because most of our contributors delivered (much) more content than the book’s size could accommodate, we couldn’t include them all. (We could have added more pages, but then shipping costs would have increased significantly.) So, we will release four chapters as a free bonus eBook, called “The Lost Files.â€� This eBook will be available in PDF, ePUB and Mobipocket formats. In February, every registered customer will be able to download the book, even if they haven’t bought the Smashing Book 2. So, make sure to check out the Smashing Shop in February.

Here are the pieces that will be presented in the free bonus eBook:

• “The Ultimate Web Design Questionnaire and Checklist,â€� Kat Neville,
• “Plagues in Web Design and How to Deal With Them,â€� Speider Schneider,
• “Interviews: Expert Tips From Renowned Designers,â€� Steven Snell,
• “Web Design Community: Where Are We Going?,â€� Paul Scrivens (Drawar).

Features of the Book

If you pre-order the Smashing Book 2 now, you will get a huge discount: 20% off the regular price. You’ll pay just $23.90 USD and will get:

• A solid printed hardcover book,
• Quality stitched binding with a bookmark,
• 360 pages with full-color images on coated paper,
• Worldwide availability,
• Reduced air mail shipping — just $3.50/€3.50 per copy,
• Risk-free purchase with a 100-day money-back guarantee,
• Free bonus eBook with four chapters,
• Pre-order your Smashing Book 2 now and save 20% off the regular price!

A Closer Look at the Book’s Chapters

The Principles of Good Graphic Design, Matt Ward and Alexander Charchar
This chapter looks at some key concepts of graphic design as they relate to modern Web design. It looks at a number of the central elements and methodologies that drive the act of designing itself, and it discusses the sometimes subtle but always significant divide between the merely good and truly great.

This chapter is about: The meaning of graphic design. The difference between good and great design. Timeless design. Relational minimalism. Importance of contrast, space and tension. Typography. Visual voice.

Visible vs. Invisible Design, Francisco Inchauste
Basic principles and techniques of producing the visible layer of design in tools such as Photoshop are widely covered in books and online. Design is generally understood to be only what we see: a visual and primarily artistic medium of communication. However, the invisible part of design takes on several forms. When we design a website or application, we don’t (and shouldn’t) start from scratch. We start with certain patterns, and we need to understand their limitations in order to create effective solutions and experiences. Balancing invisible and visible designs enables us to create effective and meaningful interfaces for websites and applications.

This chapter is about: Seeing the invisible in design. Designing how users think. Mental models. Excise design. Design patterns and interface guidelines.

Designing Mobile User Experiences, Mike Rundle
The best apps work well, but building an app that looks good and works well isn’t easy. Designing a mobile app’s user experience is particularly challenging because it requires skill in a variety of disciplines: interaction design, graphic design, information architecture and ergonomics, to name a few. User experience design is a combination of disciplines, and so designing a fantastic mobile app calls for a combination of perspectives and skills.

This chapter is about: Building and selling apps. Peculiarities of mobile software. Principles of good app design. User interface design patterns for mobile apps. Visual design of mobile apps.

Sketching, Wireframing and Prototyping, Janko Jovanovic
Every design process starts with an idea. Many ideas, actually. The truth is, only a few of them prove to be good, and the others are just bad. Many people believe that they have an excellent idea and know the path to realizing it, yet most fail. And that’s not surprising, because having an idea is not enough. Knowing how to choose an idea, shape it and develop it is crucial to success. This chapter describes the process of moving from abstract ideas to concrete solutions and explains the workflow, tools and techniques available when designing websites and user interfaces.

This chapter is about: Design process. Ideation through sketching. Storyboards. Techniques and tools. Wireframing. Prototyping. Testing and refining.

Red Flags (Warning Signs) in Web Development, Christian Heilmann
We spend a big part of our lives working hard to clean up and maintain products, rather than building great things to make the lives of our users easier. That’s just the way it is. If your code is hard to clean up, then you’ll be eating up even more time in the already short development process. Discovering that the product you’re having trouble extending or fixing is your own from some time ago is all the more aggravating. That’s when you start thinking that something must have gone wrong along the way. Well, something has. A few things will make good solutions go bad and start to smell, and this chapter goes over them.

This chapter is about: Building for maintenance, not the moment. Why HTML and CSS code go bad. HTML painting and convoluted CSS syntax. Issues with JavaScript and back-end code.

The Future of Web Typography, Vivien Anayian
In the foreword to The Elements of Typographic Style, Robert Bringhurst points out that the underlying principles of typography are independent of any particular typesetting medium. Yet it is only after almost 20 painful years of setting type on the Web that designers can finally breathe better and apply the essential elements of style without compromising on detail or execution. Recent years have been pivotal in shaping the future of typography on the Web; what was unthinkable only a few years ago has become possible today, and it will get even better tomorrow.

This chapter is about: Evolution of Web typography. @font-face. WOFF. The open-source type movement. Font licensing. Web font services. Current problems in Web typography. Fonts Module and CSS3. Exclusive interviews.

Applying Game Design Principles to User Experience Design, Christoph Kolb
The ultimate goal of a business is simple: to engage as many people as possible in favorable interactions. These interactions could include buying a product, spreading the word, advertising or just generally becoming a fan. Such objectives clearly require us to explore paradigms and perspectives that go far beyond aesthetics and traditional user interaction. This is where game design theory comes in handy. We can apply game design to certain areas of interaction to create user experiences that engage people and bind them to the company. In this chapter, we will learn how to apply some of techniques and theory of game design to website design, user experience and business.

This chapter is about: Combining social psychology, game design theory and economics. Game mechanics: world, players and rules. Winning strategies for users and companies. Playbook and strategy for interaction designers. Game design techniques and real-life examples.

When They Click: Psychology of Web Design and User Behavior, Susan Weinschenk
From the chapter: “I’m a psychologist by training and education. This means that I consider design in the context of the mental model of the user. Whether the design is of software, a website, a medical device, online instructions or product packaging, I can’t help but see it from a psychologist’s point of view. I enjoy applying what psychology research tells us about how people think, learn, play and work to design challenges. I take research and insight into the brain, the visual system, memory and motivation and extrapolate design principles from them.�

This chapter is about: Different views on design. The importance of social interactions. Unconscious decision-making. Social validation. Goal-gradient effect. Using distractions to grab attention. “Satisficing.� Mental models. Error handling. Inattentional blindness.

Design Patterns in E-Commerce Websites (Study), Steven Bradley
Designers of e-commerce websites have to take into account many things that designers of informational websites don’t. How to design the check-out process? How will the website establish trust so that visitors are willing to hand over sensitive credit card data? Common design patterns have evolved over time, and this chapter explores how well e-commerce websites match up with theory and best practices. What’s the average number of check-out pages for an e-commerce website? Do certain patterns emerge from the data to show how different websites approach such issues? Shopping websites were chosen and surveyed each based on a set of elements in several categories.

This chapter is about: Layout. Information architecture. Navigation. Color. Product, check-out and shopping cart pages. Wording and design of call-to-action buttons. Contact and support pages. On-site marketing.

How to Make a Book (Like This One), The Smashing Editorial Team
Holding your very own book in your hands for the first time is a truly remarkable experience. You suddenly realize that you’ve given your ideas — ideas conceived in some abstract state in your mind — a certain shape, a physical reality, making them tangible, visible and enduring. The feeling is overwhelming: it fills your heart with pride, in the way that a painter admires their creation. The feeling has not been alien to those who have participated in book manufacturing over the centuries, and yet experiencing it has never been so affordable and accessible as it is now.

This chapter is about: Printing a book on your own or with a publishing house. Writing, editing and preparing the book for printing. Pricing, marketing and fulfillment. eBook production: PDF, ePUB, Mobipocket. Print on demand.

FAQ

Here are some frequently asked questions and answers related to Smashing Book 2.

Contents and Format of SM Book 2

• What’s the difference between Smashing Books 1 and 2?
  Both books cover best practices in Web design and Web development, and they have similarities, but on a broad scale they cover different areas of design. Book 1 presents coding and layout techniques, color theory und UI design, while Book 2 covers psychology, designing for mobile devices, graphic design, wireframing and book production. They complement each other very well but are also distinct enough for standalone reading.
• Is Smashing Book 2 an update, a new edition or a completely new book?
  The content was written from scratch, specifically for the book. It’s a completely new book.
• Is Smashing Book 2 available as eBook?
  No. We don’t want it to be just one of the many books available everywhere, but rather be an exclusive annual event. Our goal was to print a large, unique, comprehensive and extremely valuable physical book. We don’t have any plans to release it as an eBook yet.
• What’s with the extra eBook (the “Lost Filesâ€�)?
  Initially, the book was supposed to contain more chapters, but because most of our contributors delivered (much) more content than the book could accommodate, we couldn’t include them all in the book. (We could have added more pages, but then shipping costs would have increased significantly.) Therefore, we will release four chapters as a free bonus eBook called “The Lost Files.� The eBook will be available in PDF, ePUB and Mobipocket formats. In February, every registered customer will be able to download the book, even if they haven’t bought the Smashing Book 2. So, make sure to check out the Smashing Shop in February.
• Will the book be available in other languages?
  Not yet.

Payment, Costs, Shipping

• Can I get a bulk discount?
  Yes, of course! Please contact our book sales manager, Michael Dobler. He will be glad to answer all of your questions!
• What are the shipping costs for my country?
  The shipping cost per book is €3,50 (for Europe) and $3.50 (for the rest of the world). We’re paying part of the shipping cost ourselves to make it possible for anyone to purchase the book, wherever they are in the world. We don’t have any hidden costs and haven’t made any tricky calculations.
• What are the delivery times for my country?
  All books will be shipped via air mail to keep the delivery times as short as possible. You can find the anticipated delivery time for your country in the delivery times overview.
• What payment methods are accepted?
  We support primarily PayPal, VISA, MasterCard and American Express. In Germany Lastschriftverfahren and EC-cards are supported, too. We use a secure connection, with 256-bit AES encryption and a GeoTrust Extended Validation SSL CA certificate.
• Is there a money-back guarantee?
  Yes, absolutely! There is no risk involved. Our 100-day full money-back guarantee keeps you safe. Don’t hesitate to return your purchase. You’ll get your money back; no ifs, ands or buts about it.
• I’m experiencing problems with the check-out?
  You can either check our Smashing Shop FAQ page or contact our live support team by clicking the “Chat� button in the upper right of any Smashing Shop page.
• I have a problem not discussed here.
  Please leave a comment below, or contact our live support team by clicking on the “Chat� button in the upper right of any Smashing Shop page. We would love to help you in any way we can!

Please Spread The Word

We’ve tried our best to make the book affordable and useful to every designer and Web developer worldwide. Please spread the word about the Smashing Book 2 in your blog posts and tweets. We really appreciate your support.
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