Glass artist Joe Hobbs wears many hats for CLA
Suddenly Joe Hobbs' job description has more hyphens than a British phone book. In his new role as registrar/preparator/graphic designer/resident artist at the Centre for the Living Arts, Hobbs says he will document and catalog artwork at Space 301, deal with the artists, receive and ship the artwork, create posters and e-mails, and handle any ...
Our Favorite Tweets of the Week Jul 26-Jul 31, 2010
Every week we tweet a lot of interesting stuff highlighting great content that we find on the web that can be of interest to web designers. The best way to keep track of our tweets is simply to follow us on Twitter, however, in case you missed some here?s a quick and useful compilation of the [...]
Stones n Leaves
Inspired by nature, this Blogger template has a nice looking. It has a natural feel of leaves and stones and a large RSS button. This template is suitable for most personal and nature related blogs. Installation and SetupInstallationSearch Engine Optimization DownloadView DemoEssential Tips
Feizy Rugs' 2009 catalog receives graphic design award
Feizy Rugsa 2009 Home Catalog has been selected as a Best Catalog Design winner in the 2009 American Inhouse Design Awards sponsored by Graphic Design USA magazine.
CSS Design: Core Engine
Core Engine is an awesome looking site with a sort of fantasy adventure theme complete with rocket shops, UFOs and faux Iron Man characters.
I love the use of contrast and textures as well as the quality of the illustrations in the slider.
This design was featured on the 1st August 2010 . It falls under the category of Portfolio, and has a layout style of Other.
If you'd like, you can visit this site, or view all our other featured designs.
One Minute Portraits
Perhaps Warhol was the first to open up the art world to the idea of fast art, smashing the notion that the quality of art is parallel to the time spent creating it.
Link About It: This Week's Picks
Sleeping in a canyon, crafting a Daft Punk helmet, abstract Kenneth Anger Missoni and more in our Saturday link special by CH Contributor in Travel on 31 July 2010 A self proclaimed dork, graphic designer Harrison Krix recently spent 17 months recreating the iconic gold helmet worn by Daft Punk's Guy Manuel de Homem-Christo. From molding the cast ...
Spectrum 2
Spectrum 2 is beautiful premium Blogger template. The design is very clean, decent and is of high quality. This template would definitely be a popular among most premium Blogger layouts. Installation and SetupInstallationSearch Engine OptimizationSetting up Link Lists DownloadView DemoEssential Tips
links for 2010-07-31
links for 2010-07-30 | AndySowards.com :: Daily Professional Web Design, Development, Programming Freelancer, Hacks, Downloads, Math and being a Web 2.0 Hipster? Lessons Learned From Maintaining a WordPress Plug-In – Smashing Magazine Good read – anyone that has ever maintained anything (tags: ping.fm) If you like this, You’ll love These. No Related Posts
Web Design Software Pick of the Week: Rendera
Rendera is an online HTML editor. I found it while I was looking for HTML editors that can edit HTML 5 and CSS 3. This tool does not make a great editor for building entire sites, but if you're looking for a way to test how HTML 5 and CSS 3 tags and properties might look, it's a great tool. You just go in and type up the HTML and CSS you want to see rendered and it will display it in the same window.
- Try Out HTML 5 and CSS 3: Rendera
- What is HTML 5
- What's New in HTML 5
- New Tags in HTML 5
- What is CSS3?
- CSS 3 Selectors That Work Right Now
- CSS 3 Opacity
- See all the Software Picks
- Suggest Software for the Pick of the Week
Body ink goes from crass craft to high art at Vissionary Tattoo Fest
Though she was a veteran, Juanita Wrzesinski grimaced, held her hands over an open mouth and smiled nervously.
via @Frozzare RT @readelicious: 50 Useful Tools and Resources For Web Designers - Smashing Magazine
via @Frozzare RT @readelicious: 50 Useful Tools and Resources For Web Designers - Smashing Magazine http://goo.gl/fb/Jt7Rx #usability...[Filtrs in article: "web design" ][FiltrRank: 6][Source: twitter.com/JQueryBot]
RT @readelicious: 50 Useful Tools and Resources For Web Designers - Smashing Magazine http://goo.gl/
RT @readelicious: 50 Useful Tools and Resources For Web Designers - Smashing Magazine http://goo.gl/fb/Jt7Rx #usability #css #jquery[Filtrs in article: "web design" ][FiltrRank: 4][Source: twitter.com/Frozzare]
Unicorn Will Help you Validate Everything
The W3C announced on July 27th a new all-in-one validator called Unicorn. What's fabulous about this validator is that now you can check your HTML, your CSS, and your RSS all in one place. You just type in your URL (or upload a file or paste in the code you want checked) and Unicorn will check it all for you. One thing I found when validating one site I wrote is that the blog template didn't include the blog's RSS feed in the HTML. I'll definitely need to fix that (and all the other errors it found!!).
More...
RT @readelicious: 50 Useful Tools and Resources For Web Designers - Smashing Magazine http://goo.gl/
RT @readelicious: 50 Useful Tools and Resources For Web Designers - Smashing Magazine http://goo.gl/fb/Jt7Rx #usability #css #jquery[Filtrs in article: "web design" ][FiltrRank: 6][Source: twitter.com/Fabyan65]
COMMENT: More Conferences for Growing Small Businesses
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by SmallBizBee, Weboptium, Peg McDermott, Business & Marketing, Small Business and others. Small Business said: More Conferences for Growing Small Businesses: This week s list has some excellent opportunities for growing comp http://bit.ly/bIMc8L [...][Filtrs in article: "web design" ][FiltrRank: 6][Source: freeinternetvideomarketing.com/services-ideas-inspiration]
Alltop: 50 Useful Tools and Resources For Web Designers - Smashing Magazine http://goo.gl/fb/Jt7Rx #
Alltop: 50 Useful Tools and Resources For Web Designers - Smashing Magazine http://goo.gl/fb/Jt7Rx #usability #css... http://bit.ly/9hTHuU[Filtrs in article: "web design" ][FiltrRank: 6][Source: twitter.com/WebLightCarlos]
tenderapp.com
mightyverse.com
createpdf.in
adaptiveconsultancy
Software Spotlight: CLCL
CLCL is a clipboard cache/manager for Windows that I’ve been using for a few years now. Once launched it sits idly in your system tray waiting to be used. It’s simple to use yet highly customizable, letting you configure options such as shortcut keys, menu width, number of items stored in the cache, and left [...]
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What is the Relationship Between Graphic Design and Web Design?
A newsletter subscriber sent me this question recently. A lot of people view web design as primarily a graphic discipline.
No More Boring Maps: 100 Old Maps for Inspiration
“Get some inspiration from these old map designs. If you look closely, you?ll find some excellent patterns, flourishes, line-work and attention to detail.” View Post
Quote of the Day #1
Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches. - Steve Ballmer (Microsoft CEO)
Splendid Minimal Web Design Portfolio Examples
A great collection of simple but attractive portfolio designs. View Post
HTML5 Test
How well does your browser support HTML5? Find out by visiting html5test.com, created by Niels Leenheer with thanks to Henri Sivonen and his HTML5 parser tests. Hat tip: Ralph Resnik.
Mixr Site: KooGa
Mixr Site: KooGa (http://www.kooga.com.au)
Announcing the Launch of Vandelay Premier, Exclusive Resources for Designers
Through this blog we have always been committed to providing our readers with fresh, helpful, and inspiring content. Today we are excited to announce that Vandelay Design is extending beyond the blog and is now bring high-quality resources to web and graphic designers! We've launched Vandelay Premier, which is a membership-based community, in effort to provide designers with resources to make their lives easier, their work more effective, and their business and careers more successful. 
There are a lot of marketplaces, membership-based communities, and stock sites where designers can purchase resources. We see value in this variety, and we think Vandelay Premier is different from the others in a few key ways:
- Career resources in addition to design resources. In effort to help our members achieve greater levels of success in their careers as designers, we provide informational resources (like interviews, short e-books, and special reports) that cover various topics relevant to designers and freelancers.
- Extended license. Our design resources come with an extend license that allows mutiple uses on personal and commercial projects, including use in themes, templates, and other resources that will be distributed in mass. Extended licenses can get very costly with most resources, but with Vandelay Premier there is no additional fee.
- Marketplace with exclusive discounts. We have partnered with a number of companies that provide products and services for designers, and we've negotiated discounted rates for our members. More info on these partner companies in a minute.
- Low price. Members get unlimited access to our design resources, career resources, and marketplace for just $9 per month. Or if you would like to save a little bit of money there is an option of $79 annually. You can sign up here.
Dribbble Shots of the Week #1
I’ve definitely become quite sucked into the strange exclusive designer club that is Dribbble.com. Too often “design inspiration” implies ripping off the entire concept of someone else’s work. With Dribbble it’s really easy to find tiny bits of inspirational art that will spark a design idea where the final result is completely different than the [...]
Take Zoopolis tour of nature
Behold wildflowers and grasses and hear songbirds and frogs. They're just a few of the sights and sounds of Zoopolis.
"Dream big, implement small."
?Dream big, implement small.?
- twitter.com/simplebits
Linkswitch #29: Upselling, Report Writing, Meeting Deadlines
How to Balance Your Internet Life with Your Real Life Hi, I?m Carl, and I?m a blogger. I really started blogging back in 1997 when I created an e-mail newsletter for the newspaper. I would start each daily e-mail with some personal insights then list the day?s headlines. I didn?t know it but it was blogging. I [...]
22 Colorful Creations from Flickr
These awesome colorful creations were found on Flickr. They were put together by two different artists, Ben Heine and Luke Bott. Click any image to
igloosoftware
2ndspeak.com
The Top 5 Qualities of Productive Creatives (And How to Identify Them!)
A recent BusinessWeek article reported that, ?According to a new survey of 1,500 chief executives conducted by IBM's Institute for Business Value (IBM), CEOs identify ?creativity? as the most important leadership competency for the successful enterprise of the future.? While the study?s results will come as no surprise to hard-working creative professionals, they do raise an important question: How do we identify ? and hire for ? the qualities that add up to creativity? By our lights, the notion of ?creativity? can?t be separated from the skills required for creative execution. So our analysis of the characteristics crucial to creativity focuses particularly on the skills that facilitate putting ideas into action.
Below, we outline five key qualities of particularly productive creatives, followed by some recommendations for how to uncover them in potential hires, co-workers, and collaborators.
1. Communication skills. As Albert Einstein said, ?If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.? Whether you?re leading a team, managing clients, or training a new hire, the ability to communicate clearly and concisely is an absolutely essential skill. We must all develop the capacity to efficiently manage our communication channels (email, Twitter, Facebook, etc), to rally people around our ideas, and to play well with others ? our coworkers and our clients.
How to test for it:
One easy way to test this ability is by having a candidate explain a simple task. If you were hiring a Systems Administrator, for instance, you might ask something like, ?Walk me through the process of setting up a web server.? It doesn?t have to be a hard question; the point is to get insight into their ability to communicate clearly.
2. Pro-activeness.
We tend to judge people based on their experience. This is, of course, the whole basis of the resumé. Yet, while on-the-job experience is valuable, we must dig deeper. A better indicator of productive creativity is one?s willingness to act, to take the initiative to put an idea in motion. As we?ve written elsewhere on 99%, ?Those who take initiative possess tenacity and a healthy degree of impatience with idleness.?
How to test for it:
Inquire about past instances where the candidate was proactive. Have them explain how and why they started that club, magazine, or film series listed on their resumé. You can also get a glimpse into their future willingness to take initiative by asking questions like: ?If I put you in charge of the company today, what would you do differently?? or ?What are some things that you would change about the product (or sales process, or website, etc.) if you had the chance??
3. Problem-solving.
?Thinking outside of the box? is really nothing more than creative problem solving ? the ability to arrive at new solutions by looking beyond obvious or traditional approaches. As designer Michael Beirut taught us at the inaugural 99% Conference: ?The problem contains the solution.? In this way, successful creatives don?t see problems as problems at all ? they see them as opportunities.
How to test for it:
Aside from using Karl Duncker?s classic ?candle task? to test problem-solving abilities, there are a few other options. When interviewing candidates for your creative team, don?t focus on leading questions. Instead, ask questions that emphasize shades of grey, and offer insight into the candidate?s thinking. For a Community Manager position, a good question might be, ?How would you deal with an irate customer who won?t stop posting negative comments on message boards??
4. Curiosity. ?Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.? So said French philosopher Voltaire. As anyone who?s had a ?Eureka!? moment knows, daring to ask a new question goes a long way toward finding the right solution. What?s more, a high level of curiosity ? the hallmark of an inquiring mind ? is typically indicative of other good qualities, such as inventiveness, resourcefulness, and fearlessness. It also tends to ward off boredom and apathy ? sentiments that will poison any creative endeavor.
How to test for it:
When interviewing a potential hire, note how many unprompted questions they ask, and how much they?ve already learned about your company. You can also ask simple questions like, ?Tell me about something outside of your area of expertise that you recently learned about?? or ?What was the last book you read, and why??
5. Risk-taking.
Being open to risk (and thus failure) is crucial. We can only truly learn and develop when we push ourselves outside of our comfort zones. According to choreographer Twyla Tharp, "If you only do what you know and do it very, very well, chances are that you won't fail. You'll just stagnate, and your work will get less and less interesting, and that's failure by erosion.? For Tharp, inventor James Dyson, and innumerable others, failure is a badge of accomplishment because it means that you took a risk, that you tried something new.
How to test for it:
Chief executive of The Limited, Linda Heasley, likes to ask, ?Give me an example of a situation where you think you took a risk or took a controversial point of view.? Or, for a sneakier approach, you can inquire if there?s anything the candidate regrets not doing at their previous job. As psychologist Daniel Gilbert points out in this article on risk, people usually regret the things they didn?t do, more than those they did. Thus, regret and risk-taking usually work (loosely) in inverse proportion to one another.
--
What Do You Hire For?
Any important characteristics that we missed? What's key for you when you're hiring a member of a creative team?
Foursquare and Social CRM
Foursquare is not only a powerful geo-location service but also a way to integrate the social dynamics triggered inside its network for a larger Social CRM strategy.
faabo.com - faabo.com - 35 Usability Resources for Web Designers http://is.gd/dX0oB #design http://s
faabo.com - faabo.com - 35 Usability Resources for Web Designers http://is.gd/dX0oB #design http://sns.ly/vGS44 http://sns.ly/uGS44[Filtrs in article: "web design" ][FiltrRank: 5][Source: twitter.com/faabo_webdesign]
RT @CMHWebservices: RT @WebLightCarlos-Alltop: Web Design Inspiration: 40 Green Themed Websites #des
RT @CMHWebservices: RT @WebLightCarlos-Alltop: Web Design Inspiration: 40 Green Themed Websites #design #usability http://bit.ly/d4muct ...[Filtrs in article: "web design" ][FiltrRank: 6][Source: twitter.com/web2feed]
RT @WebLightCarlos-Alltop: Web Design Inspiration: 40 Green Themed Websites #design #usability http:
RT @WebLightCarlos-Alltop: Web Design Inspiration: 40 Green Themed Websites #design #usability http://bit.ly/d4muct http://bit.ly/9Ldu0m[Filtrs in article: "web design" ][FiltrRank: 6][Source: twitter.com/CMHWebservices]
Alltop: faabo.com - Web Design Inspiration: 40 Green Themed Websites #design #usability http://bit.l
Alltop: faabo.com - Web Design Inspiration: 40 Green Themed Websites #design #usability http://bit.ly/9VfjzX http:... http://bit.ly/bQmlvu[Filtrs in article: "web design" ][FiltrRank: 6][Source: twitter.com/WebLightCarlos]
Alltop: faabo.com - Web Design Inspiration: 40 Green Themed Websites #design #usability http://bit.l
Alltop: faabo.com - Web Design Inspiration: 40 Green Themed Websites #design #usability http://bit.ly/d4muct http:... http://bit.ly/cmt7qs[Filtrs in article: "web design" ][FiltrRank: 6][Source: twitter.com/WebLightCarlos]
Understanding Mankind with 30 Awesome Interactive Designs and Tools
Among the large number of data-visualization designs that seem to grow everyday, the Interactive Infographics are my favorites, specially because of the incredible amount of information they can represent. So, I decided to select 30 of those amazing resources, some of them quite well-known, some maybe not.
Understanding Mankind with 30 Awesome Interactive Designs and Tools
Among the large number of data-visualization designs that seem to grow everyday, the Interactive Infographics are my favorites, specially because of the incredible amount of information they can represent. So, I decided to select 30 of those amazing resources, some of them quite well-known, some maybe not.
40 Dazzling Photoshop Abstract and Lighting Effects Tutorials
Tons of great tutorials on using color and blending modes in Photoshop to create cool lighting effects. View Post
name: MAGPIE