Bookmarked! Best readings of the week #7
Every week the design community releases a lot of interesting articles, tutorials and showcases that can charge your creativity in different ways. With this series we want to share high-quality contents from the community to provide interesting information for our readers. It's just a small selection, but we are sure that it can help you to find cool stuff that covers a wide variety of topics. Enjoy it!
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Below a collection of awesome articles and resources that we have found in the last week. We suggest you to bookmark and read them. Take your time, get inspired!
Illustrator is great for creating sharp clean graphics. I used to rely on Photoshop for creating simple seamless textures for typography, web, and illustration projects. Since the updates to the Appearance panel in CS4 and the updated crisp graphics for web in CS5, I create these textures solely in Illustrator and actually, it?s really easy!
Read the article
By reading this tutorial you will learn how to easily create cool looking shapes with the Pattern Brush in Illustrator. Additionally I?ll show you how to make advanced Pattern Brushes and give you some tips about using them.
Read the article
"Lighting in Icon Design" was one of the topics we posted three months ago in a pretty long, multi-topic article. We had thought that it might be more convenient for readers to snatch various but relevant topics in one article. However, that was when the blog was in the old theme.
Read the article
Have you ever seen an element on a page with transparent borders? I think Facebook originally popularized it giving birth to lightbox plugins like Facebox. I don?t think Facebook sports the look anymore, but it?s still rather neat.
Read the article
In the past, in order to create layouts based upon the width of the user?s browser, we had to use JavaScript ? perhaps combined with a server-side language. Fortunately, the process is now becoming far simpler, thanks to CSS media queries.
Read the article
Have you ever been faced with a tricky design or development problem where the solution may not have been entirely obvious right off the bat? In this post we will look a situation like this that I was recently faced with, and how I used a combination of PHP and jQuery to form a solution.
Read the article
We hear plenty usability tips and techniques from an incalculable number of sources. Many of the ones we take seriously have sound logic, but it?s even more validating when we find actual data and reports to back up their theories and conjectures.
Read the article
There's no denying the inherent cool factor of modern mobile technology. The communication capabilities and ease of information access of the latest cell phones, smartphones, and tablet computers have unleashed our inner gadget-geeks and turned us all into thumb-typing, screen-tapping maniacs.
Read the article
Tomorrow, September the 18th, will complete 40 years that rock legend, guitar hero Jimi Hendrix died at age 27, in London. This crazy talented man inspired many of the guitarists we've seen after him, and will inspire many to come. Mr. Hendrix, we salute you. Rock on.
Read the article
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Creating Seamless Textures
- written by Rype
- topics: illustrator, textures, tutorial
- vectips.com
Illustrator is great for creating sharp clean graphics. I used to rely on Photoshop for creating simple seamless textures for typography, web, and illustration projects. Since the updates to the Appearance panel in CS4 and the updated crisp graphics for web in CS5, I create these textures solely in Illustrator and actually, it?s really easy!
Read the article
Create Amazing Patterns using Adobe Illustrator
- written by Bartosz Oczujda
- topics: illustrator, pattern, tutorial
- tutorial9.net
By reading this tutorial you will learn how to easily create cool looking shapes with the Pattern Brush in Illustrator. Additionally I?ll show you how to make advanced Pattern Brushes and give you some tips about using them.
Read the article
Lighting in Icon Design (revisited)
- written by Vu Tran
- topics: icon, lighting
- iconeden.com
"Lighting in Icon Design" was one of the topics we posted three months ago in a pretty long, multi-topic article. We had thought that it might be more convenient for readers to snatch various but relevant topics in one article. However, that was when the blog was in the old theme.
Read the article
Transparent Borders with background-clip
- written by Chris Coyier
- topics: css, tutorial
- css-tricks.com
Have you ever seen an element on a page with transparent borders? I think Facebook originally popularized it giving birth to lightbox plugins like Facebox. I don?t think Facebook sports the look anymore, but it?s still rather neat.
Read the article
Quick Tip: A Crash-Course in CSS Media Queries
- written by Jeffrey Way
- topics: css, media queries
- net.tutsplus.com
In the past, in order to create layouts based upon the width of the user?s browser, we had to use JavaScript ? perhaps combined with a server-side language. Fortunately, the process is now becoming far simpler, thanks to CSS media queries.
Read the article
Creative Problem Solving: PHP, jQuery and the Semi-Dynamic
- written by Matt Ward
- topics: creativity, jquery, php
- blog.echoenduring.com
Have you ever been faced with a tricky design or development problem where the solution may not have been entirely obvious right off the bat? In this post we will look a situation like this that I was recently faced with, and how I used a combination of PHP and jQuery to form a solution.
Read the article
10 Usability Tips Based on Research Studies
- written by Cameron Chapman
- topics: usability, user interface
- sixrevisions.com
We hear plenty usability tips and techniques from an incalculable number of sources. Many of the ones we take seriously have sound logic, but it?s even more validating when we find actual data and reports to back up their theories and conjectures.
Read the article
Mobile Technology for Healthcare: Just what the doctor ordered?
- written by Amy Cueva
- topics: usability, user experience
- sixrevisions.com
There's no denying the inherent cool factor of modern mobile technology. The communication capabilities and ease of information access of the latest cell phones, smartphones, and tablet computers have unleashed our inner gadget-geeks and turned us all into thumb-typing, screen-tapping maniacs.
Read the article
40 Years Without Jimi Hendrix
- written by Amy Cueva
- topics: usability, user experience
- sixrevisions.com
Tomorrow, September the 18th, will complete 40 years that rock legend, guitar hero Jimi Hendrix died at age 27, in London. This crazy talented man inspired many of the guitarists we've seen after him, and will inspire many to come. Mr. Hendrix, we salute you. Rock on.
Read the article
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