Solidarity Design

Design a Watercolor Effect Menu

Chris — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 03:19:14 +0000

Web Designer Wall has put together a nice and simple tutorial on how to make a watercolor effect menu. Here is their intro to part one:

This is a two-part tutorial on how to create an artistic and un-typical CSS list menu as seen on Web Designer Wall. In the first part (this article), I will show you how to design a watercolor effect menu in Photoshop. Then in next tutorial, I will show you how to slice the menu and code in CSS. If you need some inspiration on creating an artistic menu, visit our previous post on artistic websites. Ready?

21 Free Icon Sets

Chris — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 06:01:12 +0000

I’m a firm believer that its the small details that really make a design. But creating new icons can take a lot of time. So you may want to check out this set of free icons, called sizicon, from randomjabber (pictured above). I like the simple and clean feel.

If that’s not quite what you are looking for, you may want to check out Smashing Magazine’s list of 20 Free and Fresh icon Sets (pictured below). There are thousands of icons showcased in the sets and they represent a little bit of everything.

Free Font: Olho de Boi

Chris — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 02:56:03 +0000

Graphic artist Billy Argel has created a nice looking script called Olho de Boi. You can download it for free.

(hat tip: bittbox)

Button Devkit from Bartelme

Chris — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 20:43:55 +0000

Bartelme Design has published another Devkit, which Bartelme defines as “a Photoshop file ready to use, adapt, and reinterpret.” This devkit is a collection of round button images which you can easily mess around with and customize.

100 Web Design Template Sources, Tools and Resources

Chris — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 16:37:02 +0000

Mustafa over at Design Vitality has put together The Open Source Web Design Toolbox: 100 Web Design Template Sources, Tools and Resources. This is a really great resource for those that would like to put together their own website but don’t have the time, money, or know-how to start from scratch.

Maintenance Mode Plugin

Eric — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 20:08:52 +0000

Michael at Software Guide has crafted a terrific WordPress plugin that I have been using for all of my consulting work. It’s called “Maintenance Mode.” It allows my clients to see their site while logged into WordPress. Non-logged-in users simply see a custom away message. This plugin is wonderful for those times when you want to do a little refurbishing to your WordPress theme, demo a site for a client but not the entire world, or simply turn off your site for a while.

How to make wood grain texture in Photoshop

Chris — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 13:52:43 +0000

Tutorio.com has an easy four-step description on how to create wood texture using Photoshop. Due to their use of photos, i’m just going to link to the tutorial.

Top Wordpress Tools

Chris — Wed, 30 May 2007 18:22:05 +0000

roScripts has put together a really nice list of Wordpress plugins, widgets, tutorials and themes under the banner of “Top Wordpress Tools of the Month“. Its worth checking out.

from roScript:

Wordpress is the phenomenon (yeah I do believe it is one) that made a lot of dreams come true. It created a bridge between people without any kind of programming knowledge and the fact of being live and writing for people. The road is so much shorter for many of them. Why start a new website from scratch when you have the most popular CMS available for download for free. Why pay for that when the result might never be better or sooner. In a very small amount of time it managed to change the internet by making the information run faster. It managed to let people show their writing skills and earn good money by doing it…it even managed to make you look for widgets, seo’s, plugins or themes in our “top wordpress tools of the month”.

Tutorial : Rays of Light

Chris — Sun, 27 May 2007 19:53:36 +0000

Bartelme Design has a nice and easy tutorial on how to make rays of light (like the ones you find in Mac backgrounds). Go check it out!

35 Designers, 5 Questions, Tons of great tips

Chris — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 12:26:00 +0000

I know its been a while since we’ve posted on this site. We’ve all been a little too busy. People seem to want their websites like they want everything else in the spring - fresh and invigorating. Who can blame them? And since it means more clients for me, you won’t find me complaining.

But i didn’t want to completely ignore the site, so i thought i’d share a great article from Smashing Magazine. They interviewed 35 web designers and asked them each five questions. The result is a really great primer for those that are interested in stepping into or ramping up their web design skills. The answers are all really short and concise (mostly one sentence) and many include links. There are also some good book recommendations. And if you happen to wonder what my answers would be, they are as follows:

Usability/User experience - sites aren’t about the company they represent. they are about engaging your target audience, the user, and getting them to check out more and more of your site and your organization. without a sound plan for usability and user experience, they’ll gladly and quickly move on.
Sliding Doors - its my favorite way to make accessible buttons. a very close second is image replacement, which i actually probably use more often.
Helvetica - i really don’t know what else to say besides you can’t beat the original. clean and sans-serif
The Principles of Beautiful Web Design - I admit that i haven’t read the whole thing yet. I don’t read many web design books anymore and the ones i have read are certainly out of date now. But what i’ve read of this one is really great for beginners.
I don’t really read any web related magazines, but i do check out lots of design related sites and blogs. I guess you might include A List Apart as a web magazine. if you do, i choose that one. and i do check out Smashing Magazine from time to time.