Design & Development

Clouds are the noble contributor for awesome photos. Have a look at these following photos: #1, #2, #3, and #4. They are some of the really great examples of natural portraits taken by professional photographers and as you can see, in each of every photo, the clouds defines or deliver the dramatic effect. Moving on, clouds comes in various forms and some can only be seen in certain weather and places. Taking a decent photo of beautiful cloud is no easy task.

Here, with great attempts we collected various stunning photographs of clouds. We’ve split the entire collection into several categories: the beautiful, the rare and some extremely rare clouds you don’t often see. Enjoy and lets see if you get clouded or lighten.

Beautiful Clouds

Below are the first part of the showcase where we sorted beautiful clouds. When we said clouds are beautiful, it usually means when we look at it, we feel tranquility and sublime. These clouds are cumulus clouds that are usually formed in lower altitude.

Purple smoke (by fallen-angel-24)

Loch Tree Clouds Reflections (by idg)

The other side of the clouds (by kees straver)

Sky (by Nadia Noguera)

Bohol Beach Club (by Lost in The RP)

Black Clouds And Dreams (by Rein)

Above the clouds (by kyokosphotos)

Just morning (by Antakistas)

Winter dream on christmas eve (by Gregor Halbwedl)

Before The Storm (by Philipp Klinger )

Breadth (by Nicholas_T)

Giant cloud (by rexguo)

Storm In Whistler, Bc, Canada (by hailey-lane)

Long Jetty Cloud Reflection (via maureen_g)

n/a

I See Light (via Ben Heine)

Voices of Solitude (via Ben Heine)

Show at 35,000 ft-Summer (via ming)

Rare Clouds

By rare we meant they are probably not ordinary clouds you get to witness everyday. Also what may makes these clouds be complimented as rare is because they formed in unique locations which lures the beauty of these clouds.

n/a

Nature’s Art (via Schristia)

Mammatus Cloud (via extremeinstability.com)

Mammatus Clouds Over Courtland (via rhythmandcode)

Fury (via rawheadrex)

A little bit of everything on a hot summer day (via Connie)

Omarama Fallstreak (via wikipedia)

Fallstreak hole (via Flying Jenny)

Fallstreak Cloud 2 (via arbyreed)

n/a

Every cloud has a silver lining (via s0ulsurfing)

Von Kármán Vortex Street (via wired.com)

(Extremely) Rare

These extremely rare clouds can be seen when the weather are messed up which caused abnormality to the clouds. The formations are very unique and is usually be regarded as a disastrous event. Take “eye wall” and storm cloud as example.

Heart From Cloud (via FlickCollection)

n/a

Clouds of Purple (via Nashmetro)

Mountain (via prelovac)

n/a

Anvil Cloud (via wired.com)

Hole in the Sky (via Aditya Kolli)

Kelvin Helmholz waves cloud (via wired.com)

Lenticular clouds (via wired.com)

(bellefoong)

  

Plenty of creative business card showcases are available out there. Many of these are beautifully done and well thought out, and they serve as inspiration for those who would like their business card to be more than the standard rectangular piece of paper. Yet little explanation accompanies these examples, and figuring out just how to bring your idea to life can be overwhelming, to say the least. This guide is meant to help you decide which technique is right for you, how to correctly prepare the files and what to look for in a printer.

I never tire of repeating this to anyone who will listen. Don’t base your business card design on the fact that your printer has a special limited-time offer on round corners or metallic inks. Think in terms of what the design will add to your message. Tempted to use rounded corners just because the cool kids are doing it? Maybe your card would stand out more by not using this technique.

You may be interested in the following related posts:

• Business Card Design: Better Than A Plain Ol' Business Card
• Business Card Design Starter Kit: Showcase, Tutorials, Templates

  

Everyone is always looking for interesting and effective ways to organize their website and allow users to move about and find things. But there’s a fine line between unexpected and unusable. Three points to consider in any navigation scheme are consistency, user expectations and contextual clues.

If page is long and provides different levels of navigation, will users be able to find their way through the site and use proper navigation quickly? Forcing visitors to use certain keystrokes to navigate, rather than what they're used to, might be novel, but is that effective if you have to explain instructions prominently on your home page? Here are some examples for your reading pleasure.

  

Lately, Apple Keynote has been gaining popularity among designers as a wireframing and prototyping tool. Features like multiple slide masters, styles, grouping, animation and hyperlinks make it ideal for crafting interactive prototypes and UI narratives. Today's freebie, Keynotopia, is a free set of interface elements for Keynote that makes it possible for anyone to create these prototypes in minutes. All elements are hand-crafted in Apple Keynote, and organized in nested groups for easier manipulation and customization. The templates can be used in Keynote 09 and 08 and are designed by Amir Khella.

Start with a blank presentation, and create a new slide for each application screen. Then copy/paste elements from the wireframe templates into your slides, and edit their labels, sizes and colors. To save time, group elements together, and use master slides to share common interface and navigation components across multiple screens. Finally, add hyperlinks to enable user interaction, and use slide transitions to create cool interface animations.

The amount and diversity of technology available today is unbelievable. Apple per se have made remarkable achievements over the years and today we are featuring iPad. To a certain extent, an iPad changes the tide of web designer’s routine. iPad enables the potential for designers to accomplish their task and project on time because it is a portable workstation that allows designers to work on the dot. With a touch of a your finger, the magazines apps springs into life and whats more, the pictures are vivid and it satisfy the sophisticated taste for every designer. Now reading articles can be fun, immersive and inspiring.

Given that an ipad delivers the joy of convenience, the designers now can anytime kick their creative juices into high gear. In order to accompany a designer’s muse factory, an ipad is packed with thousands of creative apps that can enhance and assist web designers on their project. Here’s a collection of iPad Apps for your designing needs.

You may also be interested in these following iPad related articles:

• Beautiful Examples of iPad Finger Painting
• 30 Useful iPad Apps for Business & Presentation

Sketch & Illustration SketchBook Pro

Free your creativity. Sketch and communicate your ideas digitally. SketchBook Pro combines high-quality digital pencils, pens, markers, and airbrushes with a Multi-Touch gesture-based user interface.

SketchPad HD

SketchPad HD is like having a new plain white sheet of paper ready to take note and share your thoughts via email.

TypeDrawing

If you love typography, this poetic visual art app is absolutely yours. Start by typing a sentence you want to say, and then just draw with your finger.

Freeform

Drawing tool for creating vector-based illustrations, sketches and doodles.

Adobe Ideas 1.0

A free app featuring vector-based drawing tools, zoom control, sizable brushes, layers, and the ability to email PDF documents for editing in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.

Draft

A simple way to get ideas out of your head and into a quick sketch.

iMockups

Quickly create wireframes and layouts of interfaces for Web, iPhone and iPad applications. iMockups has taken the process of ìmockupsî to the next level.

Productivity iThoughtsHD (Mindmapping)

Start with a blank slate. Keep the creative process flowing by moving your ideas around the map and relink them through this application. Capture topics in a free form and then record your ideas and thought in the form of topic bubbles.

OmniGraffle

Magically organize diagrams so your ideas come to life. With OmniGraffle, quickly create superior documents and a perfect diagram layout.

FontShuffle

A great source of typographic inspiration. Hundreds of font families are sorted by visual similarity.

Penultimate

A note taking app where you write with your finger right on screen. The app gives you a pen type interface to write with and options for paper type.

Evernote

An ultimate cross-platform note taker that makes you remember just about everything. It’s an extension of your brain.

Font Book

If you’re thinking of a font to use for your next project, this app will let you preview fonts for your inspiration.

FTP On The Go PRO

You can change your website from anywhere and transfer files via FTP daily. Just browse, upload, and download from your FTP server with this intuitive FTP program.

Dropbox

If you’re always on the go and needed to edit some of your design projects, a Dropbox account will help you access your uploaded files and share it online.

Markup for iPad

With this app, you can connect to your website’s FTP, edit text files wthin them, and organize with greater speed.

Keynote

Keynote allows you to create, edit, and share multimedia presentations with graphics, animations, and charts.

Photo and Imaging Photogene

Tons of photo editing features in a very easy to use app providing you access to all your photos in your library.

FlickStackr

FlickrStackr lets you mark photos from you or any other people and save on your iPad to review photos later.

Masque

Edit your image with this amazing app and apply creative effects to your photos. Use your creativity to make your pictures even better.

Adobe Photoshop Express

This app is free and has some of the features of its expensive big brother. You can redesign online, edit, and upload your work instantly. You can also work on multiple photos in sequence from within a single workflow and upload it to Facebook.com simultaneously.

Reading Tools & Magazines iPDF Reader

The worldís slimmest eBook and PDF reader.

GoodReader for iPad

A PDF file viewer that offers wonderful reading experience with horizontal page turning for PDF files and support for VGA monitor.

Flipboard

This app is your personal magazine. You can check out your status updates, links, videos, photos and what your friends have shared via Facebook and Twitter. It has a huge amount of news content that is shared through social media networks.

Wikipanion

A simple way of navigating through Wikipedia’s website.

Dictionary and Thesaurus

Reference for words, synonyms, and antonyms for your creative process.

Phaidon Design Classics

Phaidon Design Classics is a design encyclopedia with access to an endless illustrated history of design concept with precise information and historical context.

Cool Hunting

Cool Hunting is a daily buzz on ideas and products in the crossroads of art, design, culture and technology, plus inside looks at the people who produce them.

Web Designer Magazine

Get updated with what’s new with Web Designer, an online magazine defining the internet through beutiful design.

Computer Arts

Browse through Computer Arts Magazine straight from your iPad and learn what’s new in digital design and computer graphics.

Social Networking StumbleUpon

Discover great websites and share it. Boost your creativity and be inspired with millions of ideas just by browsing your iPad thru StumbleUpon.

Twitterrific

An excellent social networking app for web designers to stay in touch with your blog followers in twitter and post your tweets with ease quickly.

IM+

Be notified of new email in Hotmail, Yahoo, or GMail accounts, as well as sending push notifications of new IMs on all supported networks to keep in touch with your fellow designers and your clients.

More Tools WordPress

Connect to your wordpress blog using this application. Take advantage of the huge widescreen and large on-screen keyboard while skimming through and moderating your comments.

Analytics HD

A very powerful iPad app that offers almost everything a blogger needs to keep track of traffic, referring URLs, exit points, and all that jazz.

Gusto

Combines code editing and FTP access that lets you produce various projects for all your website.

World Atlas HD

Tons of country information and geography for your creative work.

Craigslist

Great for scouting for design projects and gigs.

Graphics Designer ToolBox

For calculations and print sizes, this app will help out designers who are always on the go.

PCalc Lite Calculator

Get exact measurements with your designs.

(bellefoong)

  

If you work as part of an in-house Web team, you have my sympathy. If that in-house team is within a large organization, then doubly so. Being part of an in-house Web team sucks. Trust me, I know. I worked at IBM for three years and now spend most of my days working alongside battle-weary internal teams.

It's hardly surprising that most in-house teams are worn down and depressed. They face almost insurmountable challenges. Too often, a website becomes a battleground for pre-existing departmental conflicts. Political power plays can manifest themselves in fights over home page real estate or conflicts over website ownership. After all, is the website an IT function or a marketing tool?

Google is taking site’s loading speed into consideration in determining its ranking. Even though this will not land a big impact, it is still something we (webmasters) should really look into. The reason is pretty simple – majority of visitors are usually in rush and no one is fond of waiting half a century before the website finally load its content or failed to load.

In another words, if your site is slow, you are subjected to lose a lot of visitors. Visitors are traffic, traffic affects reputation and they can potentially generate revenue. It can be a domino effect if one ignore the consequences of a slow-loading site.

It is essential to identify what builds up your website before you jump into the codes trying to speed things up because it cannot be done without knowing the culprits that are slowing down your website. This article compile a collection of useful web service and tools that will help you to diagnose and analyze you site, allowing you to understand your site better.

Web Services Pingdom

Test the load time of all Website objects (html, images, Javascript, css, iframes and others). You can also check how fast every element of your Website load and improve the slow-loading items. At the summary of test results, you see the report of the site loading time, loading time of each element, element sizes and the total number of elements.

GTmetrix

Combines two of the most popular Firefox performance add-ons – Yslow and Google Page Speed. Gtmetrix gives you suggestions what you need to improve your website. Although Yslow and Google page speed are recommended for Firefox, it can also be applicable to other browser.

Light Speed Now

Test your website speed performance, and get the report sent to your inbox.

Load Impact

Loadimpact is a very important tool for large Website visited by tens of thousands visitors each day. A free account allows you to check the loading impact with 50 simulated users, anything more you’ll have to upgrade to a premium account.

Site-Perf

Site-Perf fully emulates natural browser behavior downloading your page with all the images, CSS, JS and other files – just like a regular visitor and on the report you can see Website page loading what files start loading at first and how fast. It as very useful performance report to find elements that you need to improve your Website loading time.

WebWait

Benchmark your website or test the speed of your web connection.

Gomez Networks

Conduct a real-time Instant Test for an individual Web page to test its performance from an external node location.

OctaGate

Allows you to monitor how long it takes for a user to download one or more of your web site pages.

Webslug

Allows you to compare your website’s speed against your competitors.

WebToolHub

Gives you the option to understand how your page is loading with different visitor’s Internet connection speeds. With Webtoolhub you will get information about page size, loading time with different Internet connection speeds and will get information about all Css, Javascript and Images that are used on page. Nothing more nothing less: all that you need for basic page speed test.

IWebTool

Iwebtool gives you the option to compare up to ten pages in same time. You also can check homepage, categories or posts loading time with just one click.

Searchmetrics

Shows the duration of a given website. This value can be used for showing how long a website take to load and if it is better to optimize the website or change a (slow) ISP.

BrowserMob

Get performance data on any website on the fly without having to create a test script.

Applications Pylot

Open source tool for testing performance and scalability of web services. It runs HTTP load tests, which are useful for capacity planning, benchmarking, analysis, and system tuning.

Google Page Speed

Page Speed is an open-source Firefox/Firebug Add-on. Webmasters and web developers can use Page Speed to evaluate the performance of their web pages and to get suggestions on how to improve them.

YSlow

YSlow analyzes web pages and suggests ways to improve their performance based on a set of rules for high performance web pages.

PageTest

Internet Explorer plugin that visually displays the underlying requests made by the browser for content. It also provides suggestions on how to improve the performance of the measured page.

Multi-Mechanize

Multi-Mechanize is an open source framework for web performance and load testing. It allows you to run simultaneous python scripts to generate load (synthetic transactions) against a web site or web service.

(bellefoong)

Google is taking site’s loading speed into consideration in determining its ranking. Even though this will not land a big impact, it is still something we (webmasters) should really look into. The reason is pretty simple – majority of visitors are usually in rush and no one is fond of waiting half a century before the website finally load its content or failed to load.

In another words, if your site is slow, you are subjected to lose a lot of visitors. Visitors are traffic, traffic affects reputation and they can potentially generate revenue. It can be a domino effect if one ignore the consequences of a slow-loading site.

It is essential to identify what builds up your website before you jump into the codes trying to speed things up because it cannot be done without knowing the culprits that are slowing down your website. This article compile a collection of useful web service and tools that will help you to diagnose and analyze you site, allowing you to understand your site better.

Web Services Pingdom

Test the load time of all Website objects (html, images, Javascript, css, iframes and others). You can also check how fast every element of your Website load and improve the slow-loading items. At the summary of test results, you see the report of the site loading time, loading time of each element, element sizes and the total number of elements.

GTmetrix

Combines two of the most popular Firefox performance add-ons – Yslow and Google Page Speed. Gtmetrix gives you suggestions what you need to improve your website. Although Yslow and Google page speed are recommended for Firefox, it can also be applicable to other browser.

Light Speed Now

Test your website speed performance, and get the report sent to your inbox.

Load Impact

Loadimpact is a very important tool for large Website visited by tens of thousands visitors each day. A free account allows you to check the loading impact with 50 simulated users, anything more you’ll have to upgrade to a premium account.

Site-Perf

Site-Perf fully emulates natural browser behavior downloading your page with all the images, CSS, JS and other files – just like a regular visitor and on the report you can see Website page loading what files start loading at first and how fast. It as very useful performance report to find elements that you need to improve your Website loading time.

WebWait

Benchmark your website or test the speed of your web connection.

Gomez Networks

Conduct a real-time Instant Test for an individual Web page to test its performance from an external node location.

OctaGate

Allows you to monitor how long it takes for a user to download one or more of your web site pages.

Webslug

Allows you to compare your website’s speed against your competitors.

WebToolHub

Gives you the option to understand how your page is loading with different visitor’s Internet connection speeds. With Webtoolhub you will get information about page size, loading time with different Internet connection speeds and will get information about all Css, Javascript and Images that are used on page. Nothing more nothing less: all that you need for basic page speed test.

IWebTool

Iwebtool gives you the option to compare up to ten pages in same time. You also can check homepage, categories or posts loading time with just one click.

Searchmetrics

Shows the duration of a given website. This value can be used for showing how long a website take to load and if it is better to optimize the website or change a (slow) ISP.

BrowserMob

Get performance data on any website on the fly without having to create a test script.

Applications Pylot

Open source tool for testing performance and scalability of web services. It runs HTTP load tests, which are useful for capacity planning, benchmarking, analysis, and system tuning.

Google Page Speed

Page Speed is an open-source Firefox/Firebug Add-on. Webmasters and web developers can use Page Speed to evaluate the performance of their web pages and to get suggestions on how to improve them.

YSlow

YSlow analyzes web pages and suggests ways to improve their performance based on a set of rules for high performance web pages.

PageTest

Internet Explorer plugin that visually displays the underlying requests made by the browser for content. It also provides suggestions on how to improve the performance of the measured page.

Multi-Mechanize

Multi-Mechanize is an open source framework for web performance and load testing. It allows you to run simultaneous python scripts to generate load (synthetic transactions) against a web site or web service.

(bellefoong)

Google is taking site’s loading speed into consideration in determining its ranking. Even though this will not land a big impact, it is still something we (webmasters) should really look into. The reason is pretty simple – majority of visitors are usually in rush and no one is fond of waiting half a century before the website finally load its content or failed to load.

In another words, if your site is slow, you are subjected to lose a lot of visitors. Visitors are traffic, traffic affects reputation and they can potentially generate revenue. It can be a domino effect if one ignore the consequences of a slow-loading site.

It is essential to identify what builds up your website before you jump into the codes trying to speed things up because it cannot be done without knowing the culprits that are slowing down your website. This article compile a collection of useful web service and tools that will help you to diagnose and analyze you site, allowing you to understand your site better.

Web Services Pingdom

Test the load time of all Website objects (html, images, Javascript, css, iframes and others). You can also check how fast every element of your Website load and improve the slow-loading items. At the summary of test results, you see the report of the site loading time, loading time of each element, element sizes and the total number of elements.

GTmetrix

Combines two of the most popular Firefox performance add-ons – Yslow and Google Page Speed. Gtmetrix gives you suggestions what you need to improve your website. Although Yslow and Google page speed are recommended for Firefox, it can also be applicable to other browser.

Light Speed Now

Test your website speed performance, and get the report sent to your inbox.

Load Impact

Loadimpact is a very important tool for large Website visited by tens of thousands visitors each day. A free account allows you to check the loading impact with 50 simulated users, anything more you’ll have to upgrade to a premium account.

Site-Perf

Site-Perf fully emulates natural browser behavior downloading your page with all the images, CSS, JS and other files – just like a regular visitor and on the report you can see Website page loading what files start loading at first and how fast. It as very useful performance report to find elements that you need to improve your Website loading time.

WebWait

Benchmark your website or test the speed of your web connection.

Gomez Networks

Conduct a real-time Instant Test for an individual Web page to test its performance from an external node location.

OctaGate

Allows you to monitor how long it takes for a user to download one or more of your web site pages.

Webslug

Allows you to compare your website’s speed against your competitors.

WebToolHub

Gives you the option to understand how your page is loading with different visitor’s Internet connection speeds. With Webtoolhub you will get information about page size, loading time with different Internet connection speeds and will get information about all Css, Javascript and Images that are used on page. Nothing more nothing less: all that you need for basic page speed test.

IWebTool

Iwebtool gives you the option to compare up to ten pages in same time. You also can check homepage, categories or posts loading time with just one click.

Searchmetrics

Shows the duration of a given website. This value can be used for showing how long a website take to load and if it is better to optimize the website or change a (slow) ISP.

BrowserMob

Get performance data on any website on the fly without having to create a test script.

Applications Pylot

Open source tool for testing performance and scalability of web services. It runs HTTP load tests, which are useful for capacity planning, benchmarking, analysis, and system tuning.

Google Page Speed

Page Speed is an open-source Firefox/Firebug Add-on. Webmasters and web developers can use Page Speed to evaluate the performance of their web pages and to get suggestions on how to improve them.

YSlow

YSlow analyzes web pages and suggests ways to improve their performance based on a set of rules for high performance web pages.

PageTest

Internet Explorer plugin that visually displays the underlying requests made by the browser for content. It also provides suggestions on how to improve the performance of the measured page.

Multi-Mechanize

Multi-Mechanize is an open source framework for web performance and load testing. It allows you to run simultaneous python scripts to generate load (synthetic transactions) against a web site or web service.

(bellefoong)

Here it is, our winners for ShortrunCard custom-printed plastic cards contest. Sorry for the slight delay!

A little recap of what the winners will be getting before we announce the list. 3 winners, each getting a $200 gift card, $100 gift card and $50 gift card, courtesy of ShortRunCard. These gift cards can be used to order customized plastic cards.

Some of you raised the concern whether this includes the shipping fees – the answer is yes/no. Assume you won the $200 gift card, and your total bill plus shipping is $210; after redeeming with your gift card you will only pay $10 extra.

Without further ado, here are our winners!

• Ebta ($200 gift card)
• Swat Chap ($100 gift card)
• Shawn ($50 gift card)

(ref)

More giveaways coming up!

We’ve got more contest and giveaway coming right up. Stay tuned – subscribe to the RSS feed, become a fan in Facebook or follow @hongkiat on Twitter to be amongst the first to know.

  

The business of building websites is one of constant change, adaptation and strategy. The way designers and developers build websites is often informed by the methods of others and their own trial and error. In light of this, we can draw a number of parallels — some philosophical, to a certain extent — between Web professionals and one of the oldest and most popular board games of all time (counting traditional and digital games). This game is chess.

In this article, we’ll explore the relationship between the game of chess and the Web industry. We’ll learn fundamental lessons from the pawn, rook, knight, bishop, queen and king, and we’ll highlight the factors — both offline and online — that determine best practices. The game is beloved by many professionals, so it seems fitting to apply its great strategy and elegance to the digital age; certain practices might help you lead a more successful working life.

  

They say the first bite is taken with the eye. If so, these appetizing restaurant websites succeed in whetting our appetites, inviting us to a savoury next bite. In these designs, color scheme and introductory copy show vastly different aspects of the restaurant experience. Moody warm tones create atmosphere, vibrant greens underscore freshness, and earthy colors communicate a relaxed, friendly attitude.

Because customers are increasingly using mobile browsers to make decisions on the spot, restaurant websites are doing a better job of communicating core information quickly. Similarly, full Flash websites with no mobile alternatives are seeing some decline. Especially interesting is how these businesses are improving their online menus by replacing PDF-only downloads with Web-optimized alternatives that are more readable and easier to navigate.

Vintage design is always described as outdated, old looking design with most updated products like Facebook or Nintendo Wii featured… what?

Yeah it’s not a typo, I mean it, and you’re gonna witness 24 modern products adapted into vintage style advertisement. Some of them are created by modern designer, yet others are modified directly from genuine vintage ads originated from your parent’s era.

So get amused, get inspired, who knows vintage might be the design direction for your next viral ad campaign!

Social Media Facebook

“Striking, miraculous social team-up!” Designed by advertising agency Moma.

Skype

“The fabulous voice system able to put your family together.” Designed by advertising agency Moma.

Twitter

“The sublime, mighty community with just 140 letters!” Designed by advertising agency Moma.

Youtube

“Send and watch splendid and captivating films, 24/7.” Designed by advertising agency Moma.

Gaming Console GameBoy Advance SP

“Gonna be an exciting night… ;)” Adapted by photality.

Guitar Hero

Have a rockin’ Christmas! Adapted by Partyshot.

Nintendo Wii

“Meet the amazing Nintendo Wii.” Adapted by gugacurado.

Nintendo Wii & Guitar Hero

“Amaze your friends with heroic guitar music!” Adapted by steveRS.

Playstation 3

“The simple rule ‘Homework first – Playstation second’ has solved the problem in thousands of homes.” Adapted by larzuc.

XBox

“Back in the Fifties, I always wanted one of these.” Adapted by WhoElse.

Computer IBM ThinkPad T22

“Women know what they want. ;)” Adapted by cccvrcak.

iMac

“Beauty. Brains. And now more brawn.” Adapted by ShayLaVie.

Macbook Pro

“Pure beauty. Pure power.” Adapted by chrisulloa.

Power Mac G5

“All computers are not created equal.” Adapted by fxchick.

Music Device iPod

The extraordinary iPod that brought back Apple empire. Adapted by tahias.

Mobile Phone Handphone

Perhaps it’s a Sony Erricson phone, but the ads is quite fabulous and amusing. Adapted by RebelD0g.

Nokia

It’s Nokia! Adapted by brypro63.

Nokia Cellphone

Surely cellphone is better. Adapted by kawabunga2002.

Samsung Smartphone

“Think mobile. Think Samsung smartphone.” Adapted by nicootje.

Automobile Chevrolet Silverado

By far the best blending work I have witnessed from this series of ads. Adapted by Gavh.

Ford Mustang

“Because it’s a better car.” Adapted by abbott567.

Hummer

“There’s nothing like a new car for gayety.” Adapted by mayfae.

Scion

“So if you’ve wanted to buy a car that sticks out a little, you know just what to do.” Adapted by unrealcity.

Segway

This can surely change the history of automobiles. Adapted by DocMinor.

Household Appliance Roomba

Just because your wife deserves the best. Adapted by MeanMrMustard.

Washing Machine

“My grandmother would of loved one of these back then.” Adapted by mehere.

More Vintage

Looking for more vintage design or create your own? Well you came to the right site!

• Retro and Vintage Web Design – Best of
• Vintage and Aging Photo Effect Tutorials – The Ultimate Round-Up
• 40 Incredibly Inspirational Retro & Vintage Photoshop Tutorials

  

Today we are glad to release iCandies Icon Set, a set with 60 high quality icons in 64×64px, 48×48px and 32×32px, available in .EPS, .AI and .PNG. The set is designed by the talented folks from IconEden on a sole purpose of giving your projects a sleek and geeky style or provide crisp, attractive icons for your modern and fashionable-looking interfaces. All the icons in this pack — 60 icons in total — are designed in Round Rectangle shape.

You can use the set for all of your projects for free and without any restrictions. You can freely use it for both your private and commercial projects, including software, online services, templates and themes. The set may not be resold, sublicensed or rented. Please link to this article if you want to spread the word.

Here’s another giveaway of great stuff. This week, we are giving away 3 gift cards, worth $350 in total to our readers, courtesy of ShortRun Card.

So if you are thinking of printing your own business card, this might be a chance you can get it done for free, or at a very discounted price. Before we start, let’s take a look at who’s giving you guys this free stuff, and what you are about to get.

About Shortrun Card

This South Florida, US based company do more than just ordinary business card, these folks produce plastic cards at amazing turnaround time. What are these cards good for? You can use it as business card, membership card or even cards for a private club. At 30 mil of thickness, these plastic cards are very similar to the shape and size of credit cards.

Shortrun Card produce different types (colors) of plastic cards, from silver to black, white and gold. Click here to find out more.

So What Are The Prizes?

3 winners will walk away with gift cards, each at a different value. Respectively a

• $200 gift card,
• $100 gift card, and
• $50 gift card.

How to Win

If you are interested in winning some free plastic cards for business, membership or other purposes, leave a comment below.

Contest starts today, ends on the 31th of August, Tuesday. Good luck!

  

In celebrating the merits of free software and the excitement over this radical networked production method, an important truth is left unspoken. Networked collaboration shines in the low levels of network protocols, server software and memory allocation, but user interface has consistently been a point of failure. How come the networked collaboration that transformed code production and encyclopedia-writing fails to translate to graphic and interface design?

The following is an investigation into the difficulties of extending the open-source collaboration model from coding to its next logical step: interface design. While we'll dive deep into the practical difference between these two professional fields, the article might also serve as a note of caution to think before rushing to declare the rise of "open-source architecture," "open-source university," "open-source democracy" and so on.

Surreal photo is basically displays of a designer’s rich imagination of subjects which then injected into real pictures. Most of these surreal pictures are captivating be it pleasant or not because it is not what we experience in our daily life hence it is out of norm. Given it is not an event we could not possibly experience, it leaves a huge dimension for viewers to interpret what does the designer was trying to convey through their work. This is what makes surreal photos a challenge for the designers and in the same time, an awesome adventure for the viewers. Yes, all of that in a picture.

Today we have 40 manipulated surreal photos to share in this post. Hope it will manage pull you out of the box and have your head tilted figuring out these pictures.

(bellefoong)

  

Desktop wallpapers can serve as an excellent source of inspiration. However, if you use some specific wallpaper for a long period of time, it becomes harder to draw inspiration out of it. That’s why we have decided to supply you with smashing wallpapers over 12 months. And to make them a little bit more distinctive from the usual crowd, we’ve decided to embed calendars for the upcoming month. So if you need to look up some date, isn’t it better to show off a nice wallpaper with a nice calendar instead of launching some default time application?

This post features 75 free desktop wallpapers, created by designers across the globe. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free.

Please notice:

• all images can be clicked and lead to the preview of the wallpaper;
• you can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our desktop wallpaper calendar series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them?

So what wallpapers have we received for September 2010?

  

Desktop wallpapers can serve as an excellent source of inspiration. However, if you use some specific wallpaper for a long period of time, it becomes harder to draw inspiration out of it. That’s why we have decided to supply you with smashing wallpapers over 12 months. And to make them a little bit more distinctive from the usual crowd, we’ve decided to embed calendars for the upcoming month. So if you need to look up some date, isn’t it better to show off a nice wallpaper with a nice calendar instead of launching some default time application?

This post features 75 free desktop wallpapers, created by designers across the globe. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free.

Please notice:

• all images can be clicked and lead to the preview of the wallpaper;
• you can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our desktop wallpaper calendar series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them?

So what wallpapers have we received for September 2010?

What’s great about .PSD files? For one, we can observe and learn how experts create awesome designs by exploring the different layers and techniques they use. Beginners can appreciate how different functions in Photoshop can affect their images, and hence gain an understanding of how to bring out their desired effects. What’s more, .PSD files allow us to experiment with several layers within the file itself, providing maximum customization for any curious user.

If you can recall, we had previously showcased 60 High Quality Photoshop PSD Files For Designers some time ago. Thankfully, designers are often willing to share their works to the public, so we now have yet another 45 Splendid High Quality PSD Files for downloads. We all hope designers will continue to showcase their creations to inspire others to pick up their exceptional knowledge and skills.

Full list after jump.

Android GUI

Blue Orb Wallpaper

Cars Logo

Chrome MkII

Curved Bill Baseball Template

Customizable Speaker

Interface Control

Orb

Knife party

Lunch

Retro rocket

Radio

Retro Clock

Beer Can

Knob Mash

Miri’s grunge freebie

Nikon D90

Orange

PSD Book

Tree Leaves

Vector Glases and Jug

Afterglow

Airport Express

Art PSD

Audio Tape

Coffee cup

Cup Of Coffee

Custom Hang Tag

Stylish Mail Icon

Dueling Mandos

Brochure

Free PSD Avatar

Freebie Interface

Grunge Box

Mac Logo Design

Magazine Page Flip

Black Burning Bomb

Camera Film Reel

Camera Lens

World Map Icon

Vote Buttons

Terra Nova

Uniq

Ace Of Spades

Cinema PSD