Great Information Coming!

I have been away for the past couple of weeks at Web Conferences. First I was in DC at An Event Apart, what a great conference by the way, I would suggest it to all my fellow web nerds! Currently I am in NYC attending the Web 2.0 Expo. I am learning a lot of [...]

HTML5 and the Kitchen Sink

Think there’s too much? The HTML5 Boilerplate is delete-key friendly. A great starting point for building with HTML5 elements and building a site in general and as stated, you can delete everything you don’t need and use that as a custom starting point for future projects.

Themed Fonts Download Free Movie and Music Fonts

Themed Fonts Download Free Movie and Music Fonts

5 Vote(s)

The Trend of Minimalist Graphic Design

Tweet Our rendering technology is unthinkable, yet we still study Mondrian. Great minimalist work is striking, elegant, and classic. Within the colorful world of advertising, a minimalist ad stands out from the crowd. They can be a hard sell,...

3 Vote(s)

Freelancing & Caring for Family

I’m the emergency point of contact for more than a few of my family members: my work means that I don’t have to ask for leave and, at least in theory, I can drag my laptop along to emergency rooms and elsewhere with little concern. The situation makes sense to me and I don’t have nearly the qualms about it that I have when friends and relatives ask me to drop everything and wait for their cable man.

But caring for family can go beyond short-term emergencies. When a longer-term situation comes up, the fact that a freelancer works at home and has more flexibility makes us the obvious solution. My grandmother passed away a few years ago and I spent her last month caring for her. It was a situation where everyone knew what was coming and wanted to provide in-home hospice care for her.

I made a conscious choice to be a caregiver. Other family members stepped up as well, but I spent several weeks living in the spare bedroom and working from there. I am grateful for the time I had with my grandmother.

The Conscious Choice

I know certain of my relatives were hoping I would take on the role I did, thinking that I was the logical choice. I’m pretty sure that part of that was due to the fact that they didn’t think I had a lot of work on my hands at the moment, as well as the fact that most of them had jobs or businesses where they had to show up every day.

It’s not a surprising set of assumptions. I’ve seen other freelancers face similar situations. But while I was comfortable taking on the role of caregiver, that isn’t a universal. There are more than a few freelancers who face such assumptions but aren’t in a position to cut back on their work anymore than a relative with a job. That can only make a difficult situation worse.

When asked to take on that sort of family responsibility, you have to make a conscious decision on what the best overall option is. That includes making the best choice for yourself, no matter what your family really thinks.

Handling the Discussion

I have once again found myself in a position where a family member needs long-term care. Rather than waiting until someone points out who could conveniently provide that care, I’ve brought it up from the start. No discussion like this is pleasant, but putting it off truly will make it worse. Not only are we in the middle of a very stressful situation, but it’s easy for some relatives to fall into the assumption that there’s already someone in the family whose employment situation makes them the most suitable candidate to provide care ? and convincing them otherwise can lead to arguments and more stress.

Bringing it out into the open means that we’ve been able to discuss a variety of different options and what would be necessary to actually implement them. None of us want to leave family members in a bad situation, but that doesn’t mean that we can simply pick up and move a freelance business that easily. In my experiences, there simply isn’t the time to keep up a full workload when acting as the primary caregiver, even if you need a full-time income.

But when you are able to look at the matter, there are options available. Perhaps the family can make sure that you don’t need to work full-time or perhaps another caregiver can be found. Until you talk about these sorts of crises, it’s difficult to find solutions.

Insert Ignore On Duplicate Key Update

I have been working on a project for several weeks now. This project involves downloading information from a server and storing that information in a database to be accessed locally. After setting up a typical relational database schema, I puzzled over how to add and change the data in the database with the [...]

Creating Graphs With Adobe Illustrator

Office applications are getting very advanced these days offering all sorts of fancy features for data visualization. Graph generation is a standard feature in desktop applications like Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice.org Calc, but it can also be achieved in non-spreadsheet applications like Adobe Illustrator.

If you're unfamiliar with the process of creating graphs in Adobe Illustrator, this article will help in giving you some insight into the work-flow. It might also help you decide whether Illustrator is the right tool for this kind of assignment.

Adobe Illustrator offers 9 graph types to visualize data. You can choose from the following graphs: column, stacked column, bar, stacked bar, line, area, scatter, pie and radar.

savvybelfast.com

Really love the giant header type on this site. This single page website just feels really full to me. I love the illustrative headers over each paragraph and the form/contact area in the footer space is very well done. Love the animated boat too, nice touch.

Usability Tips for Web Designers

With the online competition getting fierce day-by-day there has emerged a need for the web designers to make their website more of its worth. Usability is something which reflects how easy your website is to be used by the visitors. It shows the level of accessibility of your website and serves a sole purpose to [...]

cssigniter.com is now live!

I am so happy to announce that our premium WordPress themes store is now live! You will find 4 themes in the gallery at the moment and you can grab them for $79! In the zip file of each theme you will find both xhtml and html5 versions, not only WordPress ones, but plain html [...] Related posts:

40 Brilliant Examples of Sketched UI Wireframes and Mock-Ups

Creating wireframes and mock-ups is quite easy to do digitally these days. Applications are available everywhere, and there's one for every style. While many prefer to do that part of the work digitally during the process, there are still quite…

5 Steps to a Stronger Social Media Presence

Social media and social networking sites present tremendous opportunities to all kinds of business, including web design. If you're not currently active with social media you are missing out on one of the best methods for networking and for free or low-cost marketing. Many designers who are using social media are not getting the most out of it. In this post we'll look at 5 simple steps that you can take to improve your effectiveness with social media, regardless of whether you are already a user or if you have not yet gotten started with social media.

Step 1: Identify Your Goals and Priorities

It's important to set a solid foundation for your efforts with social media by first defining what you hope to get out of it. This is a critical step that many designers and freelancers overlook. Yes, social media can have a significant impact on your business, but you need to have some direction or else you will be wasting your time. Some common goals or priorities for designers who are using social media include finding new clients, networking with other designers, increasing traffic to their website or blog, improving name recognition and branding, finding a new job, and simply enjoying activity with the community of users. It's possible to improve your business or career in any number of ways with social media, but you need to be aware of what is important to you because it should shape the way in which you use social media.

Giveaway: Win $200 Coupon on T-Shirts from BlueCotton.com

BlueCotton.com, a site for getting high-quality custom t-shirts, has offered up an awesome coupon (worth $200) to a lucky Six Revisions reader. The coupon is valid for use on orders with a U.S. shipping address. Read on to see how you can win this wonderful giveaway. What is BlueCotton.com? BlueCotton.com is the place to go for high-quality, [...]

Yoast: Affiliate Links and SEO

Google will always say they won't penalize you for affiliate links per se, but for thin content around it. I can make this into a long story, but let's make it short: there's very good reasons for me and several other highly respected SEO's and affiliates around the world to think otherwise. Let me show [...]

Affiliate Links and SEO is a post from Joost de Valk's Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

A Really Nice Collection of CSS3 Buttons

This is a collection of buttons that show what is possible using CSS3. Almost all of these buttons look best in Chrome and Safari on OSX. They look almost as good in Firefox, with all other browsers receiving a less-styled button.Requirements: CSS3 Demo: http://ubuwaits.github.com/css3-buttons/ License: License Free Related PostsHow to Create BonBon Buttons with CSS3 How to Create [...]

11 Useful jQuery Tab Navigation Solutions

Sometimes using tabs just makes a lot of sense. For instance, if you have a limited amount of screen real estate, tabs can allow you to save room by giving the user a way to toggle between several items in a small space. And to take your tabs a step further, you can throw jQuery [...]

The Web Font Awards

The Web Font Awards is the first ceremony to celebrate the newfound typographic freedom that Web designers are experiencing across the globe.

V&A at Dundee: Making it Happen

An exhibition of models and design concepts for the V&A at Dundee unveiled at the University of Abertay Dundee.

Wordless Wednesday - Working Designer Profiles - CJF Designs

How did you become a web designer? Fill out this form (be sure to include a photo) to be featured on the home page of About.com Web Design/HTML: Share Your Experience.

More Web design resources and help: Follow me on Twitter or Become a Fan on Facebook

This House Believes Regeneration is Dead

The Royal Institute of British Architects' (RIBA) think tank Building Futures is travelling to Manchester, to host a debate event in conjunction with regeneration Urban Splash debating the controversial motion: "This house believes regeneration is dead - what are the new tools to tackle the North-South divide?"

Positive Posters 2010 Exhibition

Positive Posters announced the finalists of the 2010 competition.

Salford House 4 Life

Salford House 4 Life is an open two stage competition to design a visionary family housing scheme on a 1.45ha brown-field site in the heart of the Greengate area of Salford across from Manchester City Centre.

jQuery and Google Maps Tutorial: #1 Basic

A step by step look at how to use jQuery to manipulate Google Maps, in conjunction with Google Map API.

The Girl Scouts New Look

This is a guest article by Ana Paula Rodrigues analysing the recent update of the Girl Scouts logo. What do you do when an iconic brand-identity needs updating? You start by giving it a haircut and then follow it up with a little nip and tuck. The Girl Scouts of America (GSA) did just that as [...]

links for 2010-09-28

I Want To Be A Web Designer When I Grow Up – Smashing Magazine good read for all web designers (and aspiring ones) (tags: career content design facebook) The BIGGEST ever list of design resources! : : ProofHQ ? Product Blog good list of all the design blogs around basically xkcd: Adjectives LOL now that is what I call research (tags: comics [...]

Which Words Does Google Instant Blacklist? [LIST]

Some folks at the Hacker publication 2600 decided to compile a list of words that are restricted by Google Instant.Except in extreme and special cases, Google is known for anything but censorship, but as weve said before, there are some terms the web giants new instant search feature wont work with.We understand Googles intentions; the team over there is trying to make sure that no one sees pornographic or violent results they might fight disturbing unless they really mean to search for them. When asked about this feature a few weeks ago, Googles Johanna Wright said the restrictions are in place to protect children.But Google has opened itself up to a potential PR problem, because some of these omissions will be at best bewildering and at worst offensive to particularly sensitive (or progressive) users who dont understand how Google Instant actually works.For example, bisexual and lesbian are among the restricted words. Type them in to Google and the instant search will immediately stop delivering new results. You have to hit enter to confirm, yes, you really do want to know about something in some way related to bisexuals or lesbians.Why Did Google Block These Words?You can still search for these terms. The issue is that when you type them, Google Instant stops reporting results on the fly, and you must hit enter to see results.That happens because Google Instant doesnt just use what youve typed to display results. It reads data collected over the years about previous users searches to predict what youre going to type. Its the same algorithm that handles auto-complete, or the Google Suggest pop-ups in the old, not-so-instant Google search. Google searches only display for the exact text that youve typed after youve hit enter.When results fail to appear after youve typed lesbian or butt, its not because the results are being censored. Google is struggling to prevent the text of offensive searches users have made in the past (there have been other controversies on this subject before) from jumping up in front of you when youre looking for something innocuous.Since countless users may have followed the word lesbian with porn, generating results inappropriate for children, Googles algorithm has decided not to immediately throw 20 links to lesbian porn sites in your face when you type lesbian, even if thats the most common search based on the algorithmic data.When we contacted Google for comment, we received this statement from a spokesperson:There are a number of reasons you may not be seeing search queries for a particular topic. Among other things, we apply a narrow set of removal policies for pornography, violence, and hate speech. Its important to note that removing queries from Autocomplete is a hard problem, and not as simple as blacklisting particular terms and phrases.In search, we get more than one billion searches each day. Because of this, we take an algorithmic approach to removals, and just like our search algorithms, these are imperfect. We will continue to work to improve our approach to removals in Autocomplete, and are listening carefully to feedback from our users.Our algorithms look not only at specific words, but compound queries based on those words, and across all languages. So, for example, if theres a bad word in Russian, we may remove a compound word including the transliteration of the Russian word into English. We also look at the search results themselves for given queries. So, for example, if the results for a particular query seem pornographic, our algorithms may remove that query from Autocomplete, even if the query itself wouldnt otherwise violate our policies. This system is neither perfect nor instantaneous, and we will continue to work to make it better.Googles highly effective SafeSearch algorithm still applies to instant search results. SafeSearch can filter out potentially offensive search results quite effectively after a user has hit enter the first page of results for lesbian with moderate safe search enabled is completely innocuous and it works for searches in progress too.Googles current implementation is far from perfect the company rep admitted that. If nothing else, wed like to see Google manually re-enter safe suggestions for some common terms that have been restricted because theyre sometimes connected with sexual, violent or hateful results.The rep told us that Google is working on improving the system, but wouldnt give us any specifics about future changes. In the meantime, check out the complete list at 2600 if youre curious.[Via Nerve]More About: blacklist, censorship, controversy, Google, Google Instant, Google Instant Search, instant, Instant Search, search terms, semantic search, sex, termsFor more Social Media coverage:Follow Mashable Social Media on TwitterBecome a Fan on FacebookSubscribe to the Social Media channelDownload our free apps for iPhone and iPad

40 Must See Cool Short Animation Websites

In our previous article State of The Art Professional Animators’ Site Graphics we presented 40 examples of the best animators’ site. In this post, however, we are going to search for an insight into this industry and we’ll analyze the newest trends in this field in terms of not only the web-design, but also the [...]

First Look at New Alvin Lustig Book

The design blog Grain Edit offers a quick write-up and some snapshots of the interior of “Born Modern: The Life and Design of Alvin Lustig” by Steven Heller and Lustig’s widow Elaine Lustig Cohen. I’ve been looking forward to this book since I first heard about the project, as there’s too little available about this Modernist master. However, Alvinlustig.com from my friends at Kind Company is a fantastic starting point. Read the full entry here.

HTML5 Support in Internet Explorer 9

What aspects of HTML5 does IE9 Beta support? Here's a couple of charts showing support for HTML5 and related technologies.

Are Kindle Owners Smarter Than iPad Owners?

Apparently, of the 400 Apple tablet owners in this survey, 65 percent were male. Compared to Sony PSP and Amazon Kindle owners, who were 62 percent and 52 percent male, respectively, it?s a pretty large bias for the iPad.

BlackBerry Playbook vs. Apple iPad

Apple iPad is one of the best selling gadgets of the year 2010. Many people who were in need of a portable PC selected iPad as their mate. When the Apple iPad was announced many companies started planning a tablet for their own brand and the iPad Killers were born.

Saving the Internet with Hyperbolic Mapping

With over a billion users online today, there are estimates of over 2 million 'black holes' or outages experienced a day. And with rapid growing demands, some experts predict existing internet infrastructure may not be sustainable even for another decade. But new research and methods such as Hyperbolic Mapping may provide ...

Awesome jQuery Techniques To Create Visually Excellent Websites

Are you looking for some cool and handy jQuery Plugins, you landed at right place. Here are few of the most useful and handy techniques that you can use in your next project and make it stand out.

45+ Very Functional Javascript Sliders and Scrollers

In this article I compiled a list of 46 Very Functional Javascript Sliders and Scrollers for you to use in developing web applications.

What?s new in Think Vitamin V2?

By Ryan Carson
We’ve been working our asses off on the new version of Think Vitamin and we think you’re going to love it. Here are some highlights for the new design, which is launching on Monday … Advisory Board We’ve invited some of the best and brightest to write for us and advise us on content. Here’s [...]

Keeping code clean with content

The CSS content property is one that has been around for a while. It's not new, nor is it particularly ground-breaking. It is however, at least in my opinion, extremely useful and extremely underused.

gri.pe

education.com

Fade Images with MooTools LazyLoad

Learn how to lazy load images and fade them in with the MooTools LazyLoad class. JavaScript is great for lazy loading images!"

Spirit

Spirit A new wallpaper has been posted to the Abstract gallery on Desktop Nexus.

Uploaded By: torinogt73
Category: Fantasy
Date Uploaded: 09/27/10
Native Resolution: 1600x1200
Points: 0
Download Count: 10

View This Wallpaper Now

twogiraffes.com

I LOVE the illustration work on this website, they immediately put this site over the top for me. Each page has it’s own unique illustration that makes me click on every page. Outside of that the design is sharp and focused and easily communicates in fun way to it’s audience. Really great work here!

Design Panel - Episode 48

Our design panel podcast featuring Jonathan LeBlanc, Chris Coyier, Matthew Smith & Jason Beaird.

Tuts+ is Taking Part in Blog Action Day 2010

Did you know that Collis and Cyan founded Blog Action Day in 2007? Though the event is now run by Change.org, Blog Action Day is still dear to our hearts here at Envato.

This year, we’ll be joining thousands of other bloggers on October 15th and posting to raise awareness about clean water and water conservation. We’ll be sharing a whole bunch of great tutorials and articles that raise awareness about clean water while teaching you something awesome, or inspiring your creativity.

Who don’t you join the Tuts+ Network in taking part in Blog Action Day on your own blog? Learn more or register your blog today.

Stay tuned for our Blog Action Day posts on October 15th!

Webfonts.info

Webfonts.info. A nice resource dedicated to webfonts & @font-face embedding. Handy.

20 Excellent Coda Tips

“Here are 20 excellent Coda tips to increase productivity that I?ve gathered during my use of Coda so far.” View Post

ASP.NET from Scratch: Routing in MVC

In today’s episode of ASP.NET from Scratch, we’ll look into URL routing in the MVC framework, and examine how a request can be routed to a controller and action method. You’ll learn how to use constraints to gain better control over your routers, and also discuss best practices in adding routes to the route table.

The Complete Series

Premium Members: Download this Video ( Must be logged in)

Sell ASP.NET Components on CodeCanyon

Did you know that you can sell your ASP.NET scripts and components on CodeCanyon? Simply sign-up for a free author account, and start selling!

Winners of Premium Accounts from Wix

Thanks to all of you who participated in last week’s contest from Wix.com. Wix is a free web based tool that allows you to quickly and easily create and deploy quality Flash websites. Their tools allow you to create a website that can look great without fussing with programing, just using a simple drag n? drop [...]

Christianity and Google Don't Mix | Christian Graphic Design

And for a little bit of money, the Gospel of Jesus Christ may well be perverted with the kind of adds Google will display on these pages. In the past...

3 Vote(s)

Top Social Bookmarking WordPress Plugins

Writing for a website used to be simple where all you need to do is [...]

Good

View in siteInspire | Go directly to Good

Brush Pilot Winners!

It’s time to announce the winners of a free copy of Brush Pilot 2.0! And the winners are: Glenn Van Bogaert, John Dickinson, and nrkinney. Congratulations to the three winners. I hope you enjoy the software. Brush Pilot has been 3 years in the making and it’s come a long way since 1.0. Oh, and [...]

11 Useful jQuery Tab Navigation Solutions

“If you?ve yet to build a tab navigation with jQuery, here are 11 tutorials and plugins to help you get going.” View Post

mikekus.com

The new(ish) portfolio site for Mike Kus (@mikekus) is simply amazing. I love the way the design sample images are arranged, it just pulls you into the website. Scrolling down this long portfolio/home page is just fun. There’s a bit of whimsy in Mike’s work as well that really comes through in most of his [...]

10 Free Fonts for Big Headlines

“Do you want to catch your readers attention with a big, eye-catching font? Then check out this post. Here you?ll find 10 beautiful fonts that are perfect for creating big, bold headlines.” View Post

Design a Skin-Textured Typography Scene in Photoshop

In this tutorial, I'll show you how to create a 3D-looking textured text effect in Photoshop without the need for any 3D tools or applications. All we need to be able to create our text effect is a good idea of perspective so that we can modify light distribution with the help of color correction tools (Burn Tool and Dodge Tool). The techniques and concepts you'll learn here can be used to apply any kind of texture (not just skin texture) to any text for simulating depth and lighting precision. Continue reading...

Continue Reading: Design a Skin-Textured Typography Scene in Photoshop

Twitter Surpasses MySpace in Traffic

Twitter has surpassed MySpace in traffic, and taken a place in the top three busiest social networking sites. Twitter's 96 million unique visitors last month (up 75% from last year!) topped MySpace's 95 million (down 17%). Enter a description

Free High Quality PSD Buttons, Icons & Badges

Designer community can settle nothing less than the Best. This thumb-rule applies on Icons, Buttons & Badges as well. While making any web-design, you need icons, buttons and badges. We have collected some of the Best Free PSD Icons, Buttons and Badges which meet global standards and what else, you can also learn the making procedure from the PSD files.

The Romantic Scholar: A New Approach to Student Life

School shouldn't be a trial to survive. Adopt the "Romantic Scholar" approach and find awe in learning again.

Niche Internet Marketing

Since we are just getting started in internet marketing there are a lot of options to look at. I?d like to start by talking about niche marketing. Other words, instead of trying to market to the whole world we would be attorney specific, landscape specific, plumbing specific, etc.. There are a lot of advantages in [...]

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization “Marketing is not an event, but a process… It has a beginning, a middle, but never an end, for it is a process. You improve it, perfect it, change it, even pause it. But you never stop it completely.” ~ Jay Conrad Levinson “This Is A Step-By-Step Guide For Starting An Online [...]

10 Mouthwatering Tips on Can Achieve Mega Blogging Success!!

That’s what I titled a quick presentation I put together for this past Barcamp Tampa Bay. I thought I’d publish the slides here.

I’ll also summarize:

Never title things like that. It’s sensationalist, poor English, and doesn’t say much about what lies ahead.
Of course you have to be passionate about what you blog about it. In other words, your life should already be about what you are blogging about, and the blog is an extension of

…

27 Websites leveraging jQuery Masonary

We all know jQuery has become a huge platform, and the different techniques and effects are all over the web. jQuery is a very powerful platform, and usually accompanied with CSS and WordPress, developers can create some amazing projects. David DeSandro created a layout plugin called Masonary. “Think of it as the flip side of [...]

Ultimate Collection of 55 Awesome Photoshop Text Effect Tutorials

Photoshop skills can be polished in many ways. The most effective way is to practice, practice and then practice some more. While some people prefer to just play around with buttons, others enjoy doing tutorials. We believe that this is a great way to boost your skills. Here are XX great text effect tutorials. Some [...]

Create A Realistic Loaf of Bread in Photoshop

A while back I saw a still life photo of a loaf of bread sitting on a table. That photo inspired me to attempt to recreate this still life photo using Photoshop. In today’s tutorial, I will demonstrate how to create a realistic looking loaf of bread in Photoshop. Let’s get started!

Step 1

Begin by creating a 1000 x 550 px document. Create a new group called “BG”. Inside this new group, create a new layer called “Tile BG” and fill with a medium brown color.

Step 2

Set your Background Color to white and add the Tiles filter (Filter > Stylize > Tiles) with the following settings:

Step 3

Use the Paint Bucket tool to fill the white with a light gray color. (Repeat the Fill several times). To add some color variation to the tiles, select the square brush and set its size to the same size of the tiles (in this case, it is roughly 108 px). Use this brush to Dodge and Burn individual tiles.

Step 4

Keep going until you are happy with the variation in the tiles. Next, go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise and set the amount to 12%, Distribution to Gaussian, and check the Monochromatic box. Next, add a Gaussian Blur of 1.4 px

Step 5

Now that we have a good sampling of some tiles, we can start to build the back two walls. To do this, we need to resize and reposition the tiles. Copy and paste this layer as you see fit to fill in the back wall. Transform one of the layer copies to resemble a side wall as shown below. Before we continue, we can merge the extra layers back into one layer named "Tile BG." (For the sake of this tutorial I am merging into one layer, however, you can also merge to a new layer if you prefer).

We need to adjust the lighting on the tiled walls. Start by selecting the back wall (not the side wall) with the Polygonal Marquee Tool to adjust its levels. Do the same to the side wall, but make it lighter.

Step 6

Create a new layer called “Shadow 1″ and use a dark brown color and a large brush tool with 0% hardness to add some shadows in the corner. Set the Blending Mode to Multiply and the Opacity to
53%. Add a second layer called “Shadow 2″ and paint in some more shadows toward the bottom. Set this layer’s Blending Mode to Multiply and Opacity to 74%.

Step 7

We want to get a nice depth of field effect, so we need to blur this back wall. To do this, select the “Tile BG” layer and give it a Gaussian Blur of 7.0 px. For added detail, create a new layer called “Sunlight” and use white to paint in some areas of direct sunlight on the side wall. Give this layer a Gaussian blur of 20 pixels and set its Blending Mode to Overlay and its Opacity to 90%.

Step 8

Now it’s time to add a counter top to our image. Create a new layer called "Table Top" and fill with a brownish-gray color. Open up the Layer Style and add a Gradient Overlay and Pattern Overlay as shown below. In order to properly edit this layer in the next step, we will need to merge the Layer Styles to the layer. Do this by right clicking on the Effects sub-layer and selecting Create Layers. This will expand the Layer Style on to their own layers. We can now merge (Cmd/Ctrl + E) these layers.

Step 9

Now that the “Table Top” layers have been merged, we can Transform (Cmd/Ctrl + T) this layer into perspective to resemble the counter top.

Step 10

We want to make the counter appear out of focus towards the back. To do this, we are going to use smart filters. Start by converting this layer for smart filters (Filter > Convert for Smart Filters). Now you can add a Gaussian Blur (set to 6.1px) and it will appear as an editable layer. We will complete the effect in the next step.

Step 11

When the Gaussian Blur Smart Filter was added, it also added a mask for the filter. Select this mask and with your foreground and background colors set to black and white, add a gradient to hide the effect as it gets closer to the foreground.

Step 12

The counter looks a little too blurry—we can easily change this since we’re using smart filters. Double click the Gaussian Blur effect to open the properties and change the Radius to 4.4 px. We are now done with the background!

Step 13

To start the cutting board, create a new group called “Cutting Board” and add a new layer called “Board” inside it. Position this above the “BG” Group

Step 14

Use the pen tool to create the shape of a cutting board. It may help to turn on the grid. Fill this with a tan color.

Step 15

To add a texture to the cutting board, start by setting your foreground and background colors to a light and dark tan (such as #CCAA7B and #A07349). Next, go to Filter > Render > Fibers and set the Variance to 8.0 and the Strength to 12.0. You can click “Randomize” until you have a good texture. When you’re done, Transform (Cmd/Ctrl + T) this into perspective.

Step 16

Copy the “Board” layer and rename it “Board Shadow.” Postion this layer below the original. Now, move the “Board Shadow” down on your canvas and adjust the Levels (Cmd/Ctrl + L) to make it darker.

Step 17

Create a new layer called “Board Side” and place it in between the two existing layers. Use a brush tool with a similar tan color to paint in the rest of the board as shown:

Step 18

Create a new layer called “Grain” and position it as shown. Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to create a long rectangle filled with a light tan color. Add Fibers (Filter > Render > Fibers) to this layer, just like we did in step 15.

Step 19

Transform (Cmd/Ctrl + T) the “Grain” Layer to cover the entire side of the cutting board, making the grain run parallel to the side. Make this layer a clipping layer by Alt + Clicking in between the “Grain” and “Board Side” layers.

Step 20

Use Liquify (Filter > Liquify) on the “Grain” layer to add some realistic distortions (the Forward Warp Tool works best). You can also add some grain to the small area of the cutting board we haven’t touched yet.

Step 21

Use the Dodge and Burn Tools to add highlights and lowlights to the cutting board. It will be necessary to dodge and burn the “Board” and “Grain” layers separately.

Step 22

The cutting board appears to be floating. In order to ground it, we need to work on the shadows. Select the “Board Shadow” layer and make two extra copies.

Select the top “Board Shadow” layer and give it a Motion Blur (Filter > Blur > Motion Blur) with an Angle set to -67 degrees and a Distance of 6 px.

Select the second shadow layer and make this shadow black (you can use Levels to do this). Give this layer a Motion Blur (Angle: 0 degrees; Distance: 40 px) and a Gaussian Blur (Radius: 5.0 px).

Select the thirds shadow layer and give this layer a Motion Blur (Angle: 0 degrees; Distance: 40 px) and another Motion Blur (Angle: 90 degrees; Distance: 7 px). Set the Blending Mode on all three layers to Multiply and you’re done.

Step 23

To finish the cutting board, we need to add a reflection. Do this by selecting the three cutting board layers and merging them to a new layer (Cmd/Ctrl + Alt + E). Position this layer at the bottom of the Cutting Board group stack. Set the Opacity to 42% and create a new Layer Mask to mask out part of the reflection as shown. Give the layer a Motion Blur with an Angle of 90 degrees and a Distance of 7 px. We are done with the cuttin board!

Step 24

To start the bread, create a new group called “Bread” and a layer inside called “Sketch.” Go ahead and rough in a sketch of a loaf of bread.

Step 25

Create a new layer called “Bread Base” and use a nice brownish-orange color (#B07344) to paint in a rough shape of the loaf of bread. Use the sketch as a guide. It is not necesssary to be exact, adding organic bumps on the bread will add to the realism.

Step 26

Next, we need to add some complex textures. Open the Layer Style on the “Bread Base” layer and give it a Pattern Overlay using the “Blistered Paint” texture. Go ahead and create this effect in to its own layer.

Step 27

Notice that the texture looks pixelated. To fix this, add a Median filter (Filter > Noise > Median) with a Radius of 2 px.

Step 28

Invert the colors by pressing Cmd/Ctrl + I and give it an Emboss (Filter > Stylize > Emboss) with an Angle of 90 degrees, a Height of 2 px and an Amount of 54%. Set this layer to Overlay.

Step 29

We need to create another texture very similar to the last one. To do this, we will repeat the last three steps with some small changes. Start by creating another Layer Style on the “Bread Base” layer, but this time, use the different settings shown.

Go ahead and create this effect in to its own layer. You may get an error, but just click “OK” (Photoshop is just warning you that you have a clipping layer already applied to this layer). Since this is a smaller texture, we can skip the Median filter. Invert the colors by pressing Cmd/Ctrl + I and give it an Emboss (Filter > Stylize > Emboss) with an Angle of 90 degrees, a Height of 2 px and an Amount of 54%. Set this layer to Overlay with an Opacity of 34%.

Step 30

Add a Layer Mask to both texture layers we just created. Mask out some areas on each layer to make the textures less uniform.

Step 31

To give the bread some added realism, we want to recreate the small air bubbles that bake in to the bread. To start, create a new brush with the following settings:

Create a new layer called “Bubbles” and paint in some bubbles as shown. When you’re done add a Bevel and Emboss with the settings shown. Set the layer’s Blending Mode to Overlay, the Opacity to 67% and the fill to 53%. You may need to use a layer mask to make some of the bubbles more subtle.

Step 32

In order to continue, we need to merge all bread layers together. Just copy the “Bread” group and merge that group. Use the Dodge and Burn tools to add lowlights and highlights to the bread.

Step 33

The bread is still too smooth. To add more variation to the texture, create a new brush (similar to the one we used for the air bubbles) and use it to dodge and burn areas of the bread. You can get more detail by adjusting the size of the brush as you work.

Step 34

To create the texture for the top of the bread, we need to create a new layer called "Bread Top" and fill it with white. With the Foreground and Background Colors set to Black and White, go to Filter > Render > Difference Clouds. Add the same filter a few more times (Cmd/Ctrl + F) and use Levels to adjust the contrast.

Next, scale the layer down to cover just the top of the bread. Change the opacity to 25% so we can see where we’re working. Use Edit > Transform > Warp, and start warping this layer around the top of the bread.

Step 35

To finish this effect, go to Filter > Stylize > Emboss. Set the Blending Mode to Vivid Light and make it a clipping layer. Use this technique to add more texture to the top of the bread as you see necessary.

Step 36

To create shadows for the bread, use the same technique we did for the shadows of the cutting board. It helps to create a new group called “Bread Shadows”

Step 37

To finish the shadows, we need to give the bottom of the bread the subtle appearance that it is casting shadows on itself. To do this, we will create a new layer called “Casted Shadows” and clip it to the “Bread copy” layer. We can now paint in some subtle shadows.

Step 38

Almost done! The last step is to add a reflection of the bread on the cutting board. To start, make a copy of the "Bread Copy" layer (Be careful not to un-clip all of your clipping layers.) Place this copy inside the "Cutting Board" group at the top of its stack.

Flip the copy of the bread layer vertically (Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical) and position it as shown below. Give this a Motion Blur of around 50 px at 90 degrees. Make this layer in to a clipping layer and set its Blending Mode to Overlay and its Opacity to 24%. You’re done!

Final Image

Creative Examples Of Infographics

Today we have an exciting and enticing post which covers handy and innovative infographics. Infographics is basically derived from two words: ‘information’ and ‘graphics’, and it stands for the graphical representation of data and information. Data visualization techniques have been often used in modern maps to incorporate variety of information, for instance for network [...]

WordPress Podcast: The Genesis of Microsoft and WordPress.com

At the very beginning of this episode there’s a short interview with Toni Schneider, the CEO of Automattic, and Dharmesh Mehta, Director of Product Management, Windows Live. Only an hour before we recorded this interview they were on stage at … Continue reading →

Sport-Tribe

ForeverList

WebCollaboration.com

recruiterbox.com

hurli.com

Art & Copy to Premiere on the PBS Series Independent Lens

George Lois, Mary Wells, Dan Wieden, Lee Clow, Hal Riney, and others featured in Doug Pray's Art & Copy may not be household names, but the advertising slogans they helped create - "Just Do It," "I Love NY," "Where's the Beef?," "Got Milk," and "Think Different" - are embedded in our national psyche.

A simplified morning routine

Sit.Read.Write: Zen Habit's Leo Babauta's enviable mourning routine.

The New Yorker debuts on the iPad

Debut digital issue features a Coppola directed short with Jason Schwartzman.

New Aging: International Conference on Aging and Architecture

The Department of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design announced New Aging, an international conference on aging and architecture.

Tupperware's Take on Building Design Teams for Successful Products Globally

Loyalty can be achieved if you care about the people who buy your products and strive to make their life a little bit easier, says Susan Perkins, Vice President - Global Design at Tupperware.

5 Biggest Copyright Pitfalls for Web Designers

When it comes to design, copyright is often a very muddled gray area. Just as the lines between plagiarism and homage are often confusing, so too is the line between infringing and non-infringing use of copyrighted material. Since it is natural and even expected of Web designers to incorporate elements from other sites and other creations, it is important to understand the risks and hazards when it comes to copyright in Web design. As such, here are five of the most common copyright pitfalls Web designers face and how to best avoid them.

1. Images

The most common issue many web designers face when it comes to copyright law has to do with the images they use in their layouts. For some designers, it is common practice to find images they need by doing a Google search or pulling an unlicensed image from a stock photo library.

The problem with this is that, as Google itself warns, these images are usually protected by copyrights, and their use as part of a layout almost certainly constitutes an infringement. Historically, artists have not had many resources for finding such infringements, but as detection tools improve in quality and drop in price, more infringements are being detected.

It is important that you always make sure you have the rights to use an image in your layout, even if it is just a placeholder.

If you need to locate free images that you can use legally, search for Creative Commons-licensed work on Flickr or visit StockXchng (sxc.hu) to find high-resolution images you can use legally – as long as you are sure to follow the terms of the licenses carefully.

2. HTML/Source Code

Most Web designers are expected to crib some of their source code, either from other sites or their previous work. But where taking a portion of a page to get a table format or a few CSS elements from a stylesheet likely won’t raise any alarm, large scale copying, such as taking an entire style sheet or whole theme elements, likely constitutes copyright infringement.

The problem is that HTML code, much like computer software, is considered an original work of authorship, even if it is created with the help of tools, and enjoys copyright protection. Though you can’t copyright the general look of the site, meaning Google can’t copyright a white background with a center logo, you can protect the code that created that work.

The best way to avoid any issues over your source code is to create as much of it yourself as possible and limit any copying to only things that you could trivially reproduce but wanted to save time on. The more it becomes clear where your code came from, the more likely the copyright holder may become upset.

3. Platform Licensing

The days of static websites went out nearly a decade ago. Most sites today are built on top of a platform of some variety or another, be it WordPress, Joomla, Presta Shop or some other software. However, many of these tools have strict and/or unusual licensing requirements and it is easy for designers to run afoul of their terms when setting up a new site.

The most common mistake is installing a purchased application on too many sites; for example, by buying a one-domain license on ThemeForest for an application, but using it with multiple clients.

However, even open source applications carry risks as many designers, in an attempt to keep the site clean, remove attribution lines in the code and files on the server that are required as part of the license.

When using any software to build a site, take a moment to read thorough the license and understand what it means. Follow those terms closely. Developers are constantly becoming more savvy about tracking down those who violate their licenses and even authors that license under the GPL are becoming more aggressive about enforcing their terms.

4. Open Source Blunders

A related mistake comes when web designers use and publish works based on open source code, particularly GPLed code (which includes many WordPress themes) and forget to either retain the license information and/or fail to donate their modified code back to the GPL.

If you create a derivative work of a GPL-licensed one, such as making a GPL WordPress theme a different color, the new theme has to be licensed under the GPL.

If you are unsure of whether your new work meets the requirement for GPL “inheritance”, this 2001 article by Lawrence Rosen (http://www.sitepoint.com/article/public-license-explained/) explains it quite nicely.

5. Dummy Copy

Though the use of dummy text is largely a hold over from the print design world, many web designers continue to use it for various reasons. It can pose a great risk if the dummy copy is pulled from another site. Even if the copy is just for testing purposes, it still constitutes an infringement. It may be unwittingly harming the original authors if the search engines have detected the test site.

Generally speaking, it is best to either use content from the client’s current site if possible, or true lorem ipsum text if it isn’t (http://www.lipsum.com/). Considering that lorem ipsum text is actually more flexible than using articles and content from other sites, it makes sense in nearly every regard.

Be especially careful of scraping RSS feeds for the purpose of filling up a test application or blog, this is especially frowned upon by bloggers and may have your test site mistaken for a spam blog.

Bottom Line

In the end, it is important to keep copyright infringement in mind when designing websites and services. This is especially crucial if your test sites are public facing or may be indexed by the search engines – as you may find your test pages taken down by your host.

However, even if you test solely on a private server, it’s worth keeping these issues in mind so you do not pass along an infringing site to your clients, even by accident. Nothing will sour a relationship with a client faster than them receiving cease and desist letters or take-down notices for content in your layout.

Given the minimal amount of effort that it takes to remain on the right side of copyright law, it doesn’t make sense to even take the chance. It only takes a few minutes to do things correctly but it takes just one copyright infringement complaint to sandbag an entire design career.

This article was originally posted on the ThemeForest blog. We are currently porting over some of the more popular articles to Nettuts+.

3D Motion Graphics Video Design

What Can Insivia Do for You Interactive Graphs and Charts Games Commercials Product Tours and Training Marketing and Tradeshow Videos Animated Banners, and much, much more It’s time to captivate your audience with Insivia?s motion graphics services, contact Andy at 216.373.1080.

Quick Tip: Dissecting jQuery ? Text

In this latest episode of “Dissecting jQuery,” we’ll discuss the text() method, as well as a new feature, as of jQuery 1.4, that you may not be aware of yet.

Premium Members: Download this Video ( Must be logged in)

Subscribe to our YouTube page to watch all of the video tutorials!

jQuery Source for the `text` Method

 text: function( text ) { 		if ( jQuery.isFunction(text) ) { 			return this.each(function(i) { 				var self = jQuery(this); 				self.text( text.call(this, i, self.text()) ); 			}); 		}  		if ( typeof text !== "object" && text !== undefined ) { 			return this.empty().append( (this[0] && this[0].ownerDocument || document).createTextNode( text ) ); 		}  		return jQuery.text( this ); 	}

Keep in mind that the ability to pass a function to the text() method is only available, via the user of version 1.4 or higher. But that’s no problem; and if you’re still using 1.3, you should really stop!

Other Episodes in the “Dissecting jQuery” Series

Filters
Grep

Google Now Indexes SVG Images

In related news to our earlier post about Adobe adding HTML5 tools to Illustrator CS5, Google has recently announced that they are starting to index SVG image files: You can now use Google search to find SVG documents. SVG is an open, XML-based format for vector graphics with support for interactive elements. We?re big fans [...]

Google Now Indexes SVG Images is a post from: GoMediaZine

Go Media is a creative agency based in Cleveland, Ohio. Besides the GoMediaZine, we also work for clients and sell stock artwork and design files on the Arsenal.

Just Good Harmless Fun.

Apparently this ain’t nuttin’ new, but it is really fun. I like using it to fly around and destroy sites that have products I love but are too expensive for my pocketbook. Paste this into address bar when viewing any page: javascript:var%20s%20=%20document.createElement(‘script’);s.type=’text/javascript’;document.body.appendChild(s);s.src=’http://erkie.github.com/asteroids.min.js‘;void(0);

Offline Marketing vs Online Marketing

I?d like to take a minute and explain why there is big money in SEO, SMO and Internet Marketing. First, is the fact that for every $1.00 you spend in offline advertising, it?s worth $5.00 in online advertising? Second, you stand a chance of your product, website, or social media marketing going viral. Third, print [...]

Website Conversion

Okay?the idea is to drive lots of traffic to our website and then convert as much of that traffic into buyers as we can. This means we need to make a connection with every visitor that lands on our site. Even those, not ready to buy. We are going to do this by offering a [...]

Online Marketing & SEO

I want to try and show you the potential in the SEO business. I?ve currently got 5 SEO jobs, and I?ve not yet started my SEO business. Now?each customer currently pays me $1,800.00 per month for SEO work. That means, if all I do is keep my current SEO clients happy, I?ll make over $100,000.00 [...]

Rhomobile Enables Devs To Create iPhone Apps

Rhomobile announced today that its RhoHub now allows developers to create native iPhone and iPad apps from a Windows-based PC. The RhoHub hosted service allows iPhone developers to write their application in HTML, Javascript and Ruby instead of in Objective C using the open source Rhodes framework. RhoHub now allows developers ? on Mac, Linux and Windows-based [...]

The Only Thing a Router Is Good For

Like many people reading this, I have a broadband connection in my home that manifests itself as a router — a vaguely futuristic, plastic box attached to a cable that runs into my wall. To that router, I’ve attached an Apple AirPort Extreme, a VOIP router and a switch for additional Ethernet connections. It’s a bit of a mess, and it could probably be simplified, but for the most part it works fine.

I make whatever minor adjustments are needed to these devices through software; either browser-based interfaces or Apple’s own AirPort utility. In fact, the only time I ever have to physically touch the whole setup is on the rare occasion when something goes wrong with the cable connection itself. Admittedly, in recent months that’s been more often than I’d like with my current Internet provider, but for the most part it happens rarely.

One True Purpose

When it does happen, the only thing I do is power the devices down and then power them back up. That’s it. Unplug them. Wait thirty seconds or so. Plug them back in.

So it completely bewilders me why these devices universally place their power supplies in the back. For each of them, and for every such device I’ve ever owned and used, the only way to power cycle them is to reach around to their back — where I can’t even see the connections — and find the power supply cable. And, of course, some device’s power connections are on the right and some are on the left and I can never remember which is which. Once I’ve unplugged them, I wait a half a minute or so, and then I have to blindly try to re-connect the power cable to its corresponding port — again, without the benefit of seeing the back side.

Right: Even Apple’s AirPort Extreme router stashes its power connection at the back.

Are there devices out there that acknowledge this real world use case? It seems to me that it’s a simple enough problem to solve, but more importantly it’s the main problem to solve. The only real purpose driving the design of this hardware at all would be the ability to easily power them on and off. It’s just illogical to me that so many designers could misunderstand this.

Breaking Down Doors: Promoting Yourself To Dream Clients

There?s a saying that the School of Visual Arts in New York City once used in its ads: ?To be good is not enough when you dream of being great.? We all have dream clients that we would like to add to our portfolio, but either we don?t know how to reach them or have no idea how to even start. Promotion is not a big subject at art school, and I know way too many creatives who stare at the phone and wonder why it?s not ringing.

There are many ways to promote yourself, and as with any product, you have to target your audience as efficiently and as cost-effectively as possible. Let?s go over some problems and solutions.

If you want people to know you and consider you a valuable contact, then you must promote yourself. If you see your career as being surrounded by rainbows and unicorns, then may you be paid with singing flowers and pixie sparkles. If you look at your career as a business, then as with any business, you must promote it.

Rumors On AMZN Android App Store

Android developers may soon have another place to sell their apps. Rumor has it that Amazon is preparing an app store, and while nothing’s been confirmed just yet, enough details have leaked to create a fairly complete picture of how the store should function. Earlier today, Sarah Perez brought together all the semi-facts in a single [...]

Tee Franklin

A beautiful cut of the classic typeface Franklin Gothic created by the Finnish company Suomi Type Foundry. Its almost excessively elegant details and availability in thin, light and ultra light weights are explained by the fact that it was originally commissioned by British Vogue, though the magazine ultimately never used it.

Their loss is your gain — the complete family is available for just US$200 from YouWorkForThem. A steal.

Take Two Tablets, Or Three ...

If it's a day ending in "y," some company has probably announced that it?s producing a tablet computer. The latest tablet computing entry was the PlayBook from Research in Motion. The device is aimed squarely at business users, which makes sense since so many businesses insist on tethering their employees to BlackBerrys. What doesn't make sense is thinking someone would be excited about an even bigger BlackBerry.

Exclusive: Review and Video of the Apple TV

Check out PCMag's exclusive full review and hands-on footage of the new Apple TV—including the new Remote app.

How Popular Is the iPhone, Really? [INFOGRAPHIC]

While the iPhone is a very popular smartphone, Apple's overall share in the mobile phone market is still very low compared to giants such as Nokia and Samsung.

CWG : An honor or a horror ?

The Commonwealth Games 2010 or the CWG 2010 as they are more popularly known now are always in the headlines . Sometimes for good reasons and sometimes for not so good reasons . India has got this opportunity to host a major sporting event . Many would consider this as an honor for the nation to play hosts to an event of such a large magnitude and involving so many nations .But the execution and the run up to this major event has been ridden with a lot of major horrors . So as Indian public , should we consider this an honor or a horror ? That is a very intriguing and complicated question to answer , let us try and look at this whole thing in depth and analyze this . So how did the games come to Delhi ? The two principal bids for the 2010 Commonwealth Games were from Delhi, India and Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. A ballot of members was held in November 2003 at the Commonwealth Games Federation General Assembly in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Delhi bid won by a margin of 46 votes to 22, confirming Indias first successful bid for the Games.The bid was Canadas attempt to hold the games for the fifth time. Indias bid motto was New Frontiers and Friendships. India shifted the balance in its favour in the second round of voting with a promise that it would provide US$100,000 to each participating country, along with air tickets, boarding, lodging and transport. The successful 2003 Afro-Asian Games held in Hyderabad was also seen as having showed India has the resources, infrastructure and technical know-how to stage a big sporting event. The official total budget estimated for hosting the Games is Indian rupee 11,494 crore (US$2.5 billion) and this amount excludes non-sports-related infrastructure development in the city like airports, roads and other structures. Business Today magazine estimates that the games cost Indian rupee 300 billion (US$6.51 billion). This makes the 2010 Commonwealth Games the most expensive Commonwealth Games ever. So , that is the background to the event , now on to why it is on the news always and mostly for the wrong reasons . The games initially came to the limelight when there was public sparring between Mr.Hooper who is part of the CWG international governing group and Mr.Suresh Kalmadi over the readiness of various deliverables for the games . There was a public spat on media cameras and the image of Brand India started taking a hit there . Unfortunately the media also went overboard and played up the whole thing . As the time to start the games draws closer , the number of hurdles that are coming up to a smooth start is increasing everyday . It all began with the stadia not being ready on time . Then the infrastructure to host all the teams and their support staff for the games was not ready on time . The Organizing Committee started playing the blame game and saying that the DDA and the Delhi government werent helpful enough. Finally we got to hear that the CWG Athletes village was ready and a contingent of media representatives was taken around on a very publicized tour and they all beamed impressive pictures of the village and hailed it as better than any athletes facility they had seen anywhere else . The Games authorities also went on record praising the village . But then all hell broke loose , segments of european and other foreign media started publishing photos of really filthy staying quarters for the athletes and kicked up a furore . Then the Indian media joined the party started lambasting the facilities that they sang praises of just a few days ago . Various countries started having reservations about coming down to such filthy conditions and started going out in public and making frivolous statements about why they will not come to India and stake their health to filth and their life to terror attacks . They all spoke about India like it was a war zone . There was an ill-timed attack on tourists at the Jama Masjid in New Delhi to add fuel to fire . There were australian sportsmen going on TV and giving emotional speeches about life being costlier than a medal . By this time , the media also invented a new season for Delhi The Dengue Season . Even the Australian PM went on record expressing concern for the sportpersons travelling to India. There was even a snake of unknown nationality in the South African sector of the village . After all the hullabaloo , finally the government stepped in and speeded up the efforts to clean up and set things right .After this , most of the countries that had reservations about coming seem to have relented and willing to come over . I believe that the games are headed for a start now and that they will be smooth . But as an Indian , is this an honor or a horror ? An honor when I heard that we were hosting the games , a horror when I knew that we were actually paying the member nations to come and participate her . That when we have millions of people below the poverty line to take care of , these people make less than 20 Rupees a day . It was an honor when I came to know that Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes are getting together to represent the nation again . A horror when i saw the hoardings and bamboo boards that were put up to obscure visions of poverty from the teams that are partcipating . An honor when I heard that Sania Mirza and Saina Nehlwal will be representing India on home turf in their respective sports . A horror when I heard that six whole years were wasted doing next to nothing and around thirty five thousand crores have been spent over this . An absolute horror when I see the extent of damage that India as a brand has taken over this whole rigmarole . I would like to see the games begin , played in the right spirit and closed in the same spirit of sportsmanship . I wish that the media , both Indian and international started focusing on the sport and not the other things , I wish that the organizers pulled their socks up and cleaned up their act . I wish that the international athletes stopped making a big fuss and got on with the games . I wish that my country India , that is so dear to me and all of us , stopped getting hit over the follies and failures of a few incompetent people who are too short sighted to see beyond their own personal gains . Phew ! That is a LOT of wishes . In summary , let the games begin !

Vote for the 2010 People's Design Award

The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum is asking you to vote for what you think is the best design of 2010.

Sali Tabacchi Creates New Identity for Interior Design Show

Toronto branding and design studio Sali Tabacchi has been selected to create a new identity for the Interior Design Show, Canada's largest annual contemporary design event.

Package Design Book: A Guide to Contemporary Packaging Design Worldwide

Taschen has teamed up with Pentawards to produce the most comprehensive publication on package design available.

MetaDesign Welcomes Stan Zienka as Creative Director in San Francisco

MetaDesign added Stan Zienka as Creative Director to San Francisco office.

How Analog Rituals Can Amp Your Productivity

As a society, we are engaged in a constant pursuit to be more productive. For the most part, this is a good thing. We want to work smarter. We crave efficiency. Time is our most precious commodity, and productivity tools help us spend it more wisely. Over the past few years, I have observed all sorts of methods for productivity. One consistent surprise is the role of monotonous rituals and what could be described as "analog drudgery" among the especially productive. For such accomplished people, I am shocked by the apparent lack of efficiency in their daily routines.

At one point during my research for Making Ideas Happen, I interviewed Bob Greenberg, the legendary CEO of the digital agency R/GA. With high-flying clients like Nike and other household names, Greenberg is overseeing a tremendous number of heavyweight projects at any point in time. He's a busy guy and he's been leading his industry for decades.

One consistent surprise is the role of monotonous rituals and what could be described as 'analog drudgery' among the especially productive.

Despite his digital interests, Greenberg's productivity tools are entirely analog. He uses a paper agenda with a series of lists written at the top that he writes every single day. In the morning, Greenberg will manually bump uncompleted tasks from the previous day to the current day. He also re-writes the names of key clients and other areas of focus; often transcribing the same names again and again, daily, for weeks if not months or years.

When I hear about such monotonous and repetitive work, my instinct is to make it more efficient. If Greenberg used a digital system ? even a spreadsheet ? he could save a significant amount of time. Even better, he could use an online project management tool that automatically bumped everything to the following day for him. Scratch that; he's a CEO! Why doesn't he have an assistant that does this all for him?!

For Greenberg, it's all about feeling the granularity of prioritization. By manually bumping a certain task every day, he feels that it is incomplete. He is faced with the reality and forced to either complete the task, delegate it, or bump it again.

And it's not just Greenberg who operates like this. Many admired (and extremely effective) leaders use an analog approach to productivity as a way to stay accountable and feel connected to their decisions around how they spend their energy.

It's all about feeling the granularity of prioritization.

Yes, monotony and routine can be truly wearisome. They transform our colorful, over-stimulated existence into black and white. But a task left undone SHOULD be a burden. If you make your system for productivity too productive, you will become anesthetized to your responsibilities.

We are left with an important lesson: The manual labor involved with productivity is valuable. Repetitive rituals will make you pause. You will feel burdened, but you will also catch a glimpse of just how busy you are and what you should prioritize.

The best design and web development news

My personal blog