October 2011
1 post
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Weekly Inspiration #31
After a really long break (for lots of reasons, the main one being time) I thought I’d get the weekly roundups happening again. Let’s kick straight off… 1. First up is Sunday Best Designs. Nice one pager with nicely themed sections: 2. InCub has a great clean design with some vertical scrolling as a nice touch: 3. Chimp Chomp’s graphical touches make this a nice site...
May 2011
2 posts
May 4th Be With You
Happy Star Wars Day!
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Weekly Inspiration #30
Hey online peeps, back with week 30 with some great designs… 1. Digital Hands up first. The parallax header is what jumps out immediately but it’s also the rest of the site that also impresses; spacious layout, clean type and simple CSS effects: 2. Cohenspire is a site that looks classy and professional. Nice copy and layout: 3. Phase2 Design Studio is using a growing trend of long...
March 2011
2 posts
2 tags
How to Make Your Personal Project a Success
As designers and developers we constantly strive for creative outlets and other areas away from our day-to-day work where we can show the world “what we’re really made of”. That is, at work we might get asked to put together a dull looking web page or site build because that’s what the client wants and if we had it our way, would look totally different. Very rare do I find...
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Weekly Inspiration #29
Hey all, roundup 29 is here so let’s get crackin’ 1. The City is Burning is the portfolio of Leeds based designer Pete. Nice texture and graphical touches: 2. Wigolia Design has a distinct brown/grey palette and some nice illustrations: 3. Design by Ashfall is a great looking one-pager. Lot’s of focus on type and clean layout: 4. Next is RxBalance. All round great looking...
February 2011
1 post
2 tags
Weekly Inspiration #28
G’day all, it’s been a little while so let’s crack on with No28… 1. First up is Inservio. I’m a sucka for large illustrations and this is a good example: 2. Janko at Warp Speed is one of those sites that are a joy to read through. Nice typography throughout: 3. Facio Design grabs you straight away with some nice custom type, some grunge and some nifty javascript: ...
January 2011
2 posts
2 tags
Weekly Inspiration #27
Hey all. The first round up of 2011! Last year went so fast (it seems) and we featured some awesome sites over the last 26 posts. I can imagine this year becoming even better as designers push the boundaries of layout, CSS and HTML5 even further. Let’s check out this weeks sites: 1. Forever Heavy is the brand for designer Nick Coates and is a slick looking site with some good illustration...
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Happy New Year!
I’d like to wish all my followers and interweb peeps a very Happy New Year and hope you all have a fantastic 2011. I hope to get more posts and tutorials going from next week onwards and I also have numerous other projects that should launch in 2011 so keep an eye out for those. Have a great year everyone! Garry
December 2010
4 posts
2 tags
Weekly Inspiration #26
Hello all and Happy Holidays! Some top sites this week… 1. The Interlink Conference site for 2011 is a grungy looking but simple design with some nice distressed graphics: 2. Large custom font headings, texture and a stylish layout are the order for Mo Blues: 3. Next is UniResort, a site for accommodation for students in Brisbane. Great use of imagery and jQuery effects as well as a...
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Free PSD - Simple Contact Form
As it’s Christmas I thought it would be festive to release some free design elements. Here is a simple contact form PSD that you can use anywhere. It’s a clean and tidy form that would suit a one page portfolio or could sit in a footer. It’s completely editable so tweak it to your hearts content. Share and Tweet!
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Weekly Inspiration #25
Welcome back to week 25. Let’s dive straight in… 1. First this week is a site that caught everyone’s eye due to its awesome one page scroll effect. You follow “Ben” as he walks the dangerous streets and dodging danger. Best way to explain it is to go and see yourself. The app in question also looks very cool: 2. The Pink Mitten site is very, well, pink! It’s...
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Weekly Inspiration #24
Hey all. Week 24 is, albeit a week late, here with some awesome sites so without further ado… 1. Ideaware’s site is first up and you can immediately see why. Pixel-perfect design, great use of texture and some great CSS animation happening: 2. You may remember Launch List a few months ago. It launched with great appeal and received lots of good feedback among the design community....
November 2010
3 posts
2 tags
Weekly Inspiration #23
More great sites in this weeks inspiration collection. Let’s go. 1. Momento is a great app that’s grown a lot in popularity recently. The website features a great clean layout and attention to detail like subtle 1px highlight lines and transparency: 2. Infinvision’s site features some great illustrations and a cool layout: 3. Advent Calendr is an interesting concept of...
Weekly Inspiration #22
Hello! Thank you all for your suggestions this week. Without further ado… 1. First up is The Lambert Street Handlebar Club. These guys are participating in Movember which raises money for a male charity. Awesomely simple site with great type (oh, go and sponsor them too): 2. Counter Culture’s site features some good illustration and good type wrapped up in a one page site: 3. ...
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Weekly Inspiration #21
Hey everyone. Some awesome creative in this weeks round up so lets get crackin’… 1. You’ve probably seen a lot of buzz around Twitter when Sarah Parmenter launched the re-design for her agency YouKnowWho. Great layout and colours, funny but relative stock imagery and some amazing typography. It has it all: 2. Next is indie game developer Krillbite. Apart from the cool...
October 2010
4 posts
2 tags
Weekly Inspiration #20
Hi all, it’s been 20 (roughly) weeks of inspiration so far and I’ve seen some amazing sites. This week isn’t any different so read on and be inspired… 1. Help Scout is a soon to be released customer service tool. They’re homepage is simple and friendly with a great character illustration: 2. The portfolio site for Paul Mullett is filled with various themes of...
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Weekly Inspiration #19
Last week’s vacation left a lot extra suggestions to go through and there were lots of potentially great looking options. Lets get going… 1. SuperKrolik is the online space for visual designer Keefe Au. Great visuals and overall nice looking site: 2. Next up is Dawghouse Design Studio. This is one of those sites where the attention to the typography makes it a joy to read. Nice...
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Weekly Inspiration #18
Happy Monday everyone. Week #8 is here so lets crack on… 1. First up is Postbox 2. There are few good local email clients and Postbox is one of the better ones. Their site for Postbox 2 is really clean and flows well and features some great looking buttons: 2. Webdesignbe is the portfolio site for a small Belgium based studio. It’s the large illustrations and part-grunge look that...
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Weekly Inspiration #17
Hey all. Week No17 is here so lets get straight into it… 1. The personal site for Daniel van Cuylenburg is eye catching and interesting. Nice layout and really makes use of social media: 2. Next is the portfolio site for Vipin Sharma, a web designer from India. Good looking one-pager with clean type and soft palette: 3. Another one page portfolio, this time for design student Chris...
September 2010
5 posts
2 tags
Better Drop Shadows in Photoshop
Hey everyone. It’s been a while since I posted anything other than my weekly inspiration round-ups due to time constraints etc so I thought I’d start doing some more short tuts and quick tips. I’ve been doing a lot of designs recently for web sites and emails that feature a polaroid style image and have been experimenting with different types of drop shadow. I’ve had a good...
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Weekly Inspiration #16
Hey folks, week 16 is here so lets dive straight in… 1. Designed by Mike Kus, Amazee Labs is the perfect mix of layout, texture, type and imagery: 2. The Barrel and Barc 24 Hour Project is a colourful and easy to use site. It’s a cool ideas as well, getting their staff and volunteer’s together to get a site up and running in 24 hours: 3. Next is Racket, an Australian based...
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Weekly Inspiration #15
Hey everyone! Fifteen weeks of inspiration and showcasing the best of the web is still a struggle as there’s so many good sites to choose from. Take a ganders at what this week has to offer… 1. First up is Courier. An awesome product of sending your files to your peeps via all the popular social networks. It’s a great concept and can see this doing very well. Site wise...
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Weekly Inspiration #14
Hey! The weeks are rolling by and no14 is here already, where is the year going?!? Anyway down to business, this weeks awesome sites: 1. Hugs for Monsters grabs you straight away with it’s great illustration and heavy texture. I love Joe’s visual style and the font used in the nav and title is perfect: 2. If you don’t know the name Mike Kus, you should do. He’s a...
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Weekly Inspiration #13
Hello again, week 13 is here and more awesome sites… 1. First up is Savvy Belfast. Immediately loved the quirky large header text and round badges used for the headers. Some nice use of texture also: 2. Next is the portfolio site of Justin Edelson. I chose this site because of layout which is different to the norm: 3. Ocktoberfest has a cool palette and great type. The headers and...
August 2010
7 posts
2 tags
Weekly Inspiration #12
Week 12 is here and I’ve had a great time looking through lots of great sites. There can only be five though… 1. Tahoe Tech Talk 2010 is one of those sites where you just want to keep scrolling (huh… there’s stuff below the “fold”!) and is full of awesome illustration, typography and some nifty jQuery: 2. I love Worry Free Labs for their use of texture and...
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Weekly Inspiration #11
Week #11 is here… 1. Yipori is an illustrators dream. Love the colours, the characters and the animated clouds in the background are awesome: 2. For the Record is a nice clean site using info-graphics to display the authors record collection: 3. Next is DeployCMS which has a neat colour palette and makes good but subtle use of texture: 4. Kyle Gawley’s site is simple and loud....
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Weekly Inspiration #10
The last ten weeks seem to have flown by with some amazing designs. I hope you’re enjoying these round-ups? If there is anything you would like to see added or changed just get in touch! Without further ado, week 10… 1. Josh Sullivan’s portfolio looks different and eye catching immediately. Great design work here: 2. Another portfolio site, this time for designer/developer...
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Bye TweetMeMe, Hello Twitter Buttons
Twitter have launched their own buttons for anyone to stick on their web site, blog etc and it looks set to replace the, up until now standard for Twitter sharing, TweetMeMe. At first it seemed as though Twitter were steaming into the playground to give TweetMeMe a monumental wedgie. However, now the news has been shared officially by Twitter (on their blog) that they’ve been working closely...
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Weekly Inspiration Week #9
Hey everyone! Week 9 has crept up on us so lets get crackin’… 1. First this week is the Combine 2010. An event that brings together anyone interested in design, product development, blogging, branding, entrepreneurship etc. Great layout and illustrations: 2. Zap! Media is a really clean site for a small UK based agency. Nice simple palette and a good layout: 3. Next up is...
1 tag
Interview with designer/developer Ryan Downie
Front-end designer, developer and lover of Expression Engine, Ryan Downie has taken a few minutes to answer some questions. Lets go… Garry: Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions Ryan. Firstly can you let us know a little bit about yourself e.g what your skills are, what your main role is and your interests. Ryan: Not a Problem, I always try and find time for interviews. I...
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Weekly Inspiration Week #8
Week 8 is here so lets crack on… 1. Armitage Online has a new look thanks to @ryandownie. Great vivid colours with huge text give this new design a sweet modern look: 2. Min Tran’s blog is a gorgeous looking theme powered by Tumblr. The design speaks for itself: 3. As a fan of grunge sites this new site for Ithica Events appealed straight away. I like the hover state...
July 2010
6 posts
2 tags
HTML5 for Web Designers - Quick Review
HTML5 for Web Designers is now firmly pushed through the letterboxes of everyone who orderd one so I thought I’d throw a quick review up for anyone interested in getting a copy. First off the good. This book looks awesome. The design and layout is cleaner than Mr Muscles’ Bathroom. It was lovingly designed by Jason Santa Maria and it shows. The typography is gorgeous and is easily...
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Weekly Inspiration #7
Week seven is here already. Take a look at some eye candy on show to get your inspiration in gear… 1. Theory Design is the portfolio site for Ryan McMaster. Some nice vertical slide effect accompanying the large slider: 2. Made By Water has huge text to greet you and gets the message across instantly: 3. Justin Cline has a nice looking minimal site: 4. A modern looking site for Life...
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Weekly Inspiration #6
Hi webbers. Weeks 6 is upon us and there are some awesome sites to wet your designer taste buds. First up MailChimp 5.2… 1. MailChimp 5.2. There are a lot of little features and touches that all blend nicely into the retro style that make this site a refreshing change: 2. AIGA Minnesota has a great looking soft palette and I like the vertical offsetting for the nav and articles: 3. ...
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iPhone 4 - First Impressions
It’s been just over two weeks since the iPhone 4 was released here in the UK and I’ve had mine for about a week. Now all the initial craziness and hype has died down I thought I’d give a ‘sort of’ review and my thoughts on Apple’s new clearly, must-have device… The body As you’ve all seen in hundreds of images and videos, the iPhone 4 is slightly...
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Weekly Inspiration #5
Hey all, week five is upon us so let’s dive in… 1. First up is PlayLab, a modern looking portfolio site with nice little typography touches: 2. Next is Christoph Zillgens. A minimalist site which looks like it could be a Tumblr based blog but is built on Textpattern. Great design all round: 3. Hipinspire’s site is ‘hip’ and colourful but what caught my eye was...
2 tags
Weekly Inspiration #4
Good Monday to you all. Week 4 has some awesome sites. Lets go… 1. Brian Hoff’s blog/portfolio/notes/digital playground etc has had a few re-designs over the last few years but this latest one looks great. Nice layout, sweet colours and, as usual, the typography is perfectly suited: 2. Next up is DW, the portfolio for Dan Wiersema. Good looking background and un-conventional left...
June 2010
5 posts
2 tags
Weekly Inspiration #3
Hey peeps, my fav inspirationals for week 3: 1. Stick with Me Baby is a bright and colourful site where you can purchase stickers to pimp out your Macbook Pro: 2. Next up is Thomas Bishop’s portfolio. Nice and clean with nice custom font usage: 3. Giant Media uses some nice illustration at each section of this long vertical scrolling site: 4. If you need a simple and fast tool for...
2 tags
Weekly Inspiration #2
Week no2 kicks off with a sweet design from You’re the Youth. Enjoy… 1. You’re the Youth is a politcal site aimed at young folk and potential first time voters: 2. Next is a great looking portfolio site from Christian Swinnen. Nice textures: 3. Arrested Development is a US comedy series starring Jason Bateman. The site uses some cool illustrations and, if you watch the...
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Weekly Inspiration #1
Welcome to the first Weekly Inspiration where I scout the web and find the best looking sites for your design inspiration. Read on… 1. First site is The Rockstar Foundation. Awesome design and build by Ryan Downie (http://twitter.com/RyanDownie), Liam McKey (http://twitter.com/liammckay) and Veerle Pieters (http://twitter.com/vpieters) 2. Next up is Endorse. A new networking site to find...
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Interview with Matt Hamm
Some time last year I interviewed Matt Hamm as I was impressed with his web design and illustration skills. At the time I was writing for an online design magazine which unfortunately didn’t progress into anything so the interview was ditched along with the blog. Recently however, Matt has re-visited my questions and has updated them based on his current work. Here it is, finally, published...
May 2010
2 posts
2 tags
Watch
A quick guide to Google’s new Custom Font API.
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CSS Quick Tip #2: @font-face Render Issues?
I was messing with @font-face again (as you do) and noticed that the text rendered slightly differently on different browsers and couldn’t understand why? It was like the text had a certain level of bold applied to it, even though in my CSS I had specified the font attributes correctly. As a bit of a perfectionist I decided that I wanted it to render the same across all browsers (who...
April 2010
6 posts
1 tag
Create a stylish content box using only CSS3
With web designers visual methods being driven more and more by CSS lately and less of a reliance on images, it’s now pretty easy to create neat elements for your site. Here’s an example of a content box based on stylish web trends made possible with, our ever improving friend, CSS3. There are some slight differences in the syntax between mozilla and webkit browsers, especially for...
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Use Google's Asynchronous Tracking
We all need some kind of analytics for our web projects otherwise it’s like selling a product and not knowing how much profit you’re making. Google Analytics suits most people as it has a huge range of features and, of course, it’s free. The issue that has plagued Google Analytics is how (or more specifically where) you placed its tracking code into your html. In a similar way to...
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CSS Quick Tip #1 - 1px Bounce Click Effect
Have you ever been on a website a wondered how to achieve that nice 1 pixel bounce when you click on a link or button? It’s easy to do with a simple line of CSS applied to the a:active state: a:active { outline: 0; position: relative; top: 1px; } Give it a try, it’s a neat little effect that adds an extra touch to your links.
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Watch
My first screencast. Tips on how to re-size rounded corners in Photoshop but maintain their radius. *Apologies for the mouse cursor turning to a black square in this video. Must be a bug in Screenr. I’ll try and fix for next time*
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Twitter aquire Tweetie →
This looks interesting, Twitter have bought AteBits so they can turn Tweetie into their official app. It’s also loosing the £2.99 tag and becoming free in the coming weeks. Lets hope development still continues for Tweetie 2!
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Hello, and welcome...
Thanks for stopping by to check out my ramblings! I’ve wanted to start a blog for a while now but couldn’t due to time constraints, that is until I discovered Tumblr. I was thinking about doing a full on WordPress blog and even designed a few concepts but after getting into it further I realised I just didn’t need all the cool stuff that WordPress has to offer and my blog...