Published November 4th, 2009 in Galleries
While front pages are usually the part of blogs that get showcased, blog design includes a lot of other details that can add to the overall look and appearance of the blog, not to mention usability. The pages of individual blog posts provide opportunities for design and styling in a number of different areas.
In this post we’ll look at a few aspects of blog posts and showcase some design elements that are used to make the post more helpful, inviting, or attractive.
Intro Areas:
At the start of posts, some blogs include additional elements or design techniques to improve the post in one way or another.
ANidea
ANidea’s appraoch is pretty unique. Each post has a lead image that appears above the right sidebar, and just below that is a list of related posts.

Published November 2nd, 2009 in Galleries
Color schemes have a huge impact on the end result of a design. In this post we’ll feature 25 websites that use bright and vibrant color schemes very effectively. This is the fifth post that has been published in this series. You can see the previous four here.
Gary’s Real Life

Published October 28th, 2009 in Design
Pricing pages are very common for sites of web apps, web hosting and other types of services. These pages are critical to the success of the company because they will have a significant influence on the visitors who are trying to make a buying decision. Pricing pages typically give the necessary details regarding the various plans and options, and they encourage visitors to take action.
In this post we’ll look at a number of trends in pricing page design, along with several examples for each.
Emphasis on One Option:
Most of the pricing pages that we are looking at in this post include some sort of table or chart that shows the various options that are available for purchase. Obviously, this is helpful for buyers to be able to compare their options and determine which is the best choice for them. However, sometimes having too many possible choices can actually make things more difficult. Some pricing pages are using an emphasis on one option to help it stand out to visitors. In some cases it is listed as the most popular or best value, and in other cases it is simply emphasized in some way.
Aside from attempting to make the decision easier for visitors, emphasis also gives the designer the ability to control which of the options will get the most attention from visitors. In some cases it is used on the most expensive option, but in many cases it is not. Let’s look at some examples.
Crazy Egg
Crazy Egg emphasizes their basic plan (the lowest-priced option) by using a green background color compared the the gray background of the other plans, plus the column background is also a little bit larger.

Published October 27th, 2009 in Site News
UPrinting has offered to give 500 die cut business cards to five readers of the Vandelay Design blog! If you’re interested in having a unique business card that helps you to stand out to potential clients, this is a great opportunity.

Published October 26th, 2009 in Design Process
PSD to HTML conversion is a critical step in the web design and development process. Whether you are coding your own design or outsourcing it, the quality of the final project will be significantly influenced by the work that is done at this stage. In this post you’ll find 75 resources, including PSD to HTML providers, PSD to WordPress providers, sites for reading reviews of the service providers, automated resources, and PSD to HTML tutorials.
PSD to HTML Tutorials:
If you’re interested in learning more about doing the PSD to HTML coding yourself, these tutorials will be very helpful.
From PSD to HTML, Building a Set of Website Designs Step-by-Step

Published October 21st, 2009 in Galleries
Since I launched CartFrenzy a few months ago I have enjoyed seeing a lot of great e-commerce websites from designers all over the world. Many e-commerce sites aren’t much to look at, but there are plenty that feature attractive designs. In this post we’ll feature 25 sports-related e-commerce sites.
Size?

Published October 20th, 2009 in Design Process
PSD to HTML services have become incredibly popular in the past few years and many designers use these services regularly. Personally, I was hesitant to try PSD to HTML providers for a few reasons, one of them being that I just wasn’t sure how it worked and what was involved. I assume that many other designers out there are curious about PSD to HTML services, so I asked Tyler from Snobby Slice to do this interview to help those designers.

Published October 19th, 2009 in Design
One of the great things about Photoshop (and others from the Adobe Creative Suite) is the ability to extend the possibilities with 3rd party plugins. In this post we’ll feature more than 50 plugins/extensions/add-ons for Photoshop, some are free and others are premium.
Premium Photoshop Plugins:
Bokeh – $199

Published October 14th, 2009 in Web Development
Membership websites have increased in popularity in recent years. They present an excellent income opportunity for the site owner and a great value (depending on the content) for users. If you have thought about setting up a membership site but weren’t sure where to get started, here is a look at 14 options that will allow you to get started with your own membership site.
AMember
AMember is probably the most popular choice for managing a membership site. It is ideally suited for sites that sell digital downloads. A built in two-tier affiliate program is included, as well as many other features including free installation, easy web-based administration, automated signups and expirations and more. The price of AMember is $179.95.

Published October 13th, 2009 in Site News
Our friends at IconShock have designed a set of 5 icons with portfolio sites in mind. The set includes PNG files of 512 pixels and 256 pixels, plus the source files (Illustrator). The icons are free for use in both personal and commercial projects.
If you have suggestions for future icon sets, please leave a comment.

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