Check out the full preview and/or Download the FREE PSD.

Hope you guys can get some use from it.

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Cheers.

Check out the full size and/or download the PSD.

Hope you guys can get some use from it.

Follow me for more Freebies on my dribbble account.
Cheers.

Price is a Pro and a Con:

Subscribers gain access to all of their creative suite software and online storage space. There are many online storage sites now and some free for up to 10 to 20 GB so I am not sure that this is truly a benefit and the higher storage plan is certainly not worth the additional cost.

Adobe products are top notch but very expensive so for someone wanting to gain access to a large amount of Adobe products but cannot afford thousands for one of their suite packages this should be a good alternative. Adobe does offer a 30 day free trial on most of their products including the Adobe Creative Cloud so you can test drive it before you buy it with no obligation. No credit card required just a sign up so it really is a no risk opportunity to check it out.

There are many pricing options but all are still very high if you are a new or struggling web designer. While cheaper than buying one of the Creative Suite packages it may not be cheaper than buying the one product you really need.

For example if you really only need Adobe Photoshop you can buy Photoshop CS6 directly from Adobe for approximately $900 or places like Amazon for about $600 – $900 depending on the day. There are many other sites you can get it on sale from time to time as well. If you get it for $600 that is roughly the same as one year of Adobe Creative Cloud (lower storage plan) therefore if you would use the desktop application for 2 – 3 years you would save by buying just the software you need.

You could get a $9.99 package for Creative Cloud – Photoshop Photography Program however you have to already have a CS3 or higher product key. If you had CS3 I am not convinced this plan is worth the expense.

Cons:

When I started it seemed to have many errors which was very frustrating although this is very common among all software programs and will improve with each update.

Most of the plans require an annual commitment and billed monthly. Did not see an opportunity to pay multiple months and get a discount either. You can get a complete plan that allows cancellation at any time but it is $74.99 a month. Ouch!

The free membership is limited access to services which is normal but the limit on the storage is 2 GB. This less than most free email/storage accounts give today.

Similar to the movement of Microsoft to “Microsoft 365” which is also cloud based this will end the era of the desktop application packages once they move to a new version beyond CS6. For those who use these products in their career once CS6 is no longer supported and becomes unusable for the most part it will force the use of the cloud.

You must connect with your Adobe ID via internet at least every 30 days. Not a problem for most but what if your work takes you a bit off the beaten path sometimes? Or what if you go to a vacation and when you return, 1 month later, you have no internet connection and you need to send your client a small design update?

Pros:

Adobe has added a new feature to Autosave which has not been an option on their desktop application products. Other software companies have utilized autosave for years successfully. What this does is it automatically saves every few minutes so you don’t lose all of your work if you experience a power outage or your computer crashes unexpectedly. It was really helpful when Adobe Photoshop Crashed, and that is a real bad habit of my Photoshop CC edition.

The ability to sync brushes, swatches, workspaces and more across all apps.

You always have access to the newest version or update. No waiting until you can afford an upgrade since that is included.

Students and teachers can still get a discounted rate. For the Adobe Creative Cloud it is about 50% of the costs to others.

A great tool photographers, web designers or web graphic designers is the option to publish your portfolio through Behance and Prosite.

Awesome tools for designers or developers of smart phone or tablet applications to create content and apps using the Digital Publishing Suite.

Unlike some other cloud based products you do not have to be connected via the internet at all times and it isn’t web based so if you do lose connection to the internet you should be able to continue working and save your work locally until you reconnect to the cloud. You can then sync with the cloud.

Download 15 Freebie Psd Glass Ribbons here

Download 15 Freebie Psd Ribbons here

Download 3 Freebie Arrow Icons here

Download Free Flat PSD Icons here

You can use them for free in all your personal and commercial projects! Also please like or follow my work for future PSD freebies on Dribble.
Thanks.

Responsive Web Design

Responsive web design (RWD) focuses on a method of using a fluid grid, flexible images, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) media queries to design websites so that no matter what device the end user accessing the site from it fits the screen.

This is accomplished by setting percentages instead of pixels or points thereby making the site responsive to the screen you are viewing it on. For example a logo may typically be set as a specific size in pixels that takes up about 1/6^thof the header whereas using RWD it might be set as 16% of the header size.

Retina Ready Graphics

Apple products hold a very high percentage of the market for smart devices. In June Apple announced over 600 million devices sold that use iOS. Originally iOS was introduced for the iPhone but has now expanded to iPads and iPods. Apple products such as the iPad are now utilizing retina ready graphics on the retina display screens. The retina display screen on an iPad contains over 3 million pixels and a resolution of 2048 by 1536-pixels.

Up scaling existing graphics can be tricky and if not executed properly will only pixelate making the site look much worse on Apple devices.

Stay updated with the font trends

It is vital to stay updated with font trends. Mixing the wrong font with a design can make your site look bad to customers who have millions of websites at the touch of the fingertip to compare your site to. If you follow the new flat design trend then selecting the right font to go with your flat design will help make your design a successful one.

Did you know that font is also effected by the retina display screens? For example a website without retina ready font will look just great on an Apple MacBook Pro without the retina display but that same font may look fuzzy on one with the retina display feature.

Over 30 million devices with retina display being sold means that many potential customers may bounce from your website within 10 seconds of landing there.

Icons retina ready

Icons will need to be retina ready in 2014. Smart devices are quickly being snapped up by customers as fast as they can be produced. Apple releases draw lines of customers waiting sometimes hours to get their hands on the newest version of the iPhone or iPad.

But retina ready icons aren’t just for Apple products they will help the look on any platform. Almost all touch screen devices now have the capability to pinch or zoom an image larger or smaller. As you expand a normal image you will see pixilation around the edges and ultimately the entire image if the resolution is too small.

Style is going flat

Web design is going flat as some of you may recall decades ago when the internet was in its infancy stage websites were a very flat style. Because so many devices are a flat surface where 3D imaging isn’t representative in appearance the trend is heading back to the days of flat designs.

Flat designs take away the drop shadows and utilize strong lines with little to no gradients. Use of bright colors and stylish typography with no 3D effects is going to be a strong trend in 2014. Flat web designs are a popular demand right now leading up to a new year filled with sites changing their look to a flat design.<

Framework

The most popular responsive HTML5 framework packages:

Bootstrap by Twitter is known for being a powerful very mobile front-end/UI (User Interface) framework. Bootstrap is a large toolkit with a collection of CSS and HTML that encompasses typography, forms, tables, buttons and more.

Foundation by Zurb boasts of being the most advanced responsive front-end framework in the world. Its flexibility makes it a good option for building prototypes or production codes.

Skeleton is as the name implies a boilerplate that is more a kit or collection of CSS that includes the most basic styles to create a base or foundation to build off of. This is a not a UI framework, relatively lightweight and uses a simple grid system.

Flat colors schemes

Flat color schemes are becoming more and more popular by the day as site owners want their sites to be minimalized so that they are not cumbersome for potential customers or clients. Flat color schemes will be bright and bold or retro in appearance. These flat color schemes will be used to create the flat design websites that are setting the trends heading into 2014.

You can find more Flat color schemes @ colorlovers.com

The Freebie Trend is the deed of giving lots and lots of freebies away. The web design field has begun giving tons of freebies away. Although this isn’t just a trend among the web design industry. It is across many industries and has been around for years with manufacturers of tangible products to entice their target consumers.

In the United States of America nearly every hospital that offers child birthing services also provides free samples for diapers, pacifiers, baby powder, baby oil and formula. These products are provided to the hospitals by companies as promotional items to lure parents into buying their brand and it works.

The goal of any business is to motivate consumers to stop being window shoppers and turn them into customers. Consumers are less predictable than in the past because as technology becomes increasingly focused on connecting consumers with companies at the touch of a button.

Why should you offer freebies?

In web design it is fundamental to build a solid reputation as well as win a great audience. Offering freebies can help you achieve both of these goals.

Let us imagine that you have a potential client who simply cannot afford a large design budget but they have somehow found you. They really enjoy what they see or hear from you but your price is just out of their range.

Now imagine that this potential client was Steve Jobs or Bill Gates back many years ago when they were struggling to bring their ideas to life. And you were the one who gave them a few moments of your time to design a simple logo or Ad space.

It took you half an hour and you won’t make any money from it today but you gained something far more precious for the future. You gained the trust, respect and admiration of a now very famous and well off client. Your work would now be seen by billions of potential clients and it only took a half hour of your time.

Here are some examples of why you should offer freebies:

• Working directly with that potential client on their freebie project allows you the opportunity to build a great relationship. Relationships can make or break a decision to buy from you.
• Doing freebie work for companies that are doing humanitarian works can often bring you a reputation you couldn’t buy with a million dollars. For example if you had done the design work for the ribbons used for fighting breast cancer.
• Freebie work can help you build your portfolio. Designers must have a portfolio of works done to impress potential clients. This is a good idea for a new web designer who might be able to build part of their portfolio by doing freebie work.
• If it is free people will normally test it out and if they like it they will buy it.
• Maybe you offer a free website template available to anyone. It isn’t customized specifically for them but they use it for now to get setup but later they want it customized so they become a paying client in the future.

Why shouldn’t you offer freebies?

Now that I have ran away with my imagination and became famous by helping a struggling entrepreneur it is time to face reality. We can’t live on hopes and dreams no matter how wonderful they are. Offering freebies can come with some risks or challenges. For example:

• The project could sound like a simple 5-30 minute job but turn into a nightmarish day(s) long adventure.
• The potential client could come to expect you to always do the work for free or substantially discounted.
• The potential client could be a very frugal person who just searches around for freebies and has no intention of ever becoming a paying client.
• The potential client fails at their endeavors and thus will not become a client.
• Giving freebies might reduce what your work is worth and could have a negative impact on your reputation if you are already very successful.

10 Tips to help you join The Freebie Trend:

1. Do your best work always so just because you aren’t getting paid for this job doesn’t mean don’t put your best foot forward. Remember you are trying to gain future clients.
2. Take the opportunity to build a relationship with the company or individual that you are doing the freebie work for.
3. If possible always include with it a read me file with info on how to contact you for future work.
4. Be clear on what End User License Agreement for usage you are giving them. There are many samples of these online. Include that in your read me file.
5. State your terms and conditions up front so there is no misunderstanding of what is expected of either party.
6. Have fun with it since you aren’t getting paid make it something you enjoy!
7. Keep it short in the time involved. Your goal is to gain a potential client not simply waste your time.
8. Be a good judge of character and try to weed out those who aren’t seriously interested in your work.
9. Certain freebies can be tax deductible as promotional advertising depending on your tax laws and what country you are in.
10. Ask to be able to include this work in your portfolio or make that a condition of doing the work if you have a slim portfolio. Most will agree because it is a way of free advertising for them as well.

Have you heard that employees need feedback to grow into the best employees?

I recently read that in business management there is a high focus on feedback and how feedback helped make people be more productive in their work performance. While you might think the CEO’s feedback would be the most relevant to your design work however I find that it is not for this particular type of work. Feedback on your design work as a graphic designer should not be given by the CEO. The CEO should not give feedback on color, fonts or space to use in the design itself.

Certainly you should welcome any feedback and criticism that your client offers because it will enhance your ability to provide designs your client needs. So, why not from the CEO? Design work is heavily driven by competition, seasonal work and subject to the economy. To be successful in graphic design you need to be able to envelope ideas from your surroundings, be inspired easily and have the ability to mentally imagine what is being described by a person or marketing team. Most of all you must be able to explore your creativity and adequately display that in your design.

Designers do not need instructions

Designers do not need instructions but instead feedback on the problems that might appear. Most requests however are more of an idea that you base your work off of. You must then try to bring the idea to life in your designs. For example if you are designing a banner ad you may be given a general concept of what the ad is for, colors or an idea of what symbols the client wants included.

Graphic design is a very competitive field that is so very difficult to thrive in for more than a year or two due to the volatile nature of the business many cannot overcome the constant need for change. As with technology a graphic design style may be obsolete by the time you are fully up to speed on a technique. Designers are under an insane amount of pressure which is very stressful. Criticism from the CEO may create even more undue stress and increase the risk of failure. By the time the graphic designer begins working on a project the marketing team has likely already formed a marketing plan that has been approved by upper management including the CEO. The plans are based on research and focus group results that represent how the public perceives your client. Once the details of the requirement have been collected designers will ask questions for clarification and explore multiple possibilities while working on a design project until the client is happy with the end results.

Develop a working relationship with the designer

CEO direct feedback may result in pressure due to his/her stature to design only to the liking of that one individual’s tastes and not represent the desired image of the corporation or company. Should a CEO need to critique your work he/she should express their criticisms through the proper management personnel back to you. CEOs do not typically have a one on one relationship with graphic designers. The best received feedback comes from someone within the clients company that has developed a working relationship with the designer.