Free Texture Pack:

A few weeks ago we released the first free resource pack from Vandelay Premier. If you are not already a member you can still download this set of 4 textures as a sample of what is available.

Plain Brown Paper Textures

Vectors:

Ink Splatter Vectors

Yesterday we published a tutorial for creating these splatter vectors.

Vector Tags

Grunge Vectors

PSD Files:

iPad PSD

Corporate Website Layout

Web Hosting Banner Set

Textures:

Urban Textures Part II

Peeling Paint Textures – Part I

Old Paper Textures – Part II

Bubble Wrap Textures

Rust Textures – Part I

Cracked Pavement Textures – Part I

Dark Fabric Textures

Icons:

E-Commerce Icon Set

Brushes:

Illustrator Brush Strokes Brushes

Watercolor Photoshop Brushes

Career Resources:

Making Money from Texture Sales: An Interview with Caleb Kimbrough

Launching a WordPress Theme Shop: An Interview with Brian Casel of ThemeJam

More Discount Offers for Members

Our marketplace launched with 13 partners offering discounts on great products and services to our members. We’re happy to add 3 more partners this month! Vandelay Premier members can:

• Save 20% at Flashloaded in September (15% after September)
• Save 20% at Deposit Photos
• Save 10% at Rapid XHTML

There is More on the Way!

We released 19 resources/packs in August and we plan to have about 20 in September. We’ve got some great resources already prepared and we’re always working with our team of designers on more. Members get unlimited access to download new resources as well as all of those from the archives. Also, all of the design resources come with an extended, multi-use license. If you’re interested in learning more about Vandelay Premier you can take the tour or browse through the available resources. Membership costs just $9 per month, or $79 per year (sign up here).

The textures can be downloaded from their page at Vandelay Premier. If you enjoy the textures please take a moment to see the other resources available at Vandelay Premier, or take the tour.

The unlimited plan includes a number of upgrades:

• Use your own domain.
• No ads – removes the Wix ads from your site’s footer and sidebar.
• Remove Wix logo – removes the wix logo from your site including favicon and loader.
• Google Analytics – You can track site visitors, where they come from, how long they stay, what keywords they use to find your site and more.
• 2.5GB storage – Increasing your storage space will enable you to upload large files and high-resolution content with ease.
• Unlimited Bandwidth – Increasing your bandwidth will allow more data to be transmitted at a faster and smoother speed.
• Premium support.
• $125 voucher – $75 Google AdWords voucher + $50 Facebook voucher + free domain coupon + tips on how to use your vouchers & info on connecting your Wix site.

About Wix

Wix is a free website builder tool, for quick and easy creation of quality Flash websites. Wix’s advantage is that it’s search engine friendly, allowing you to create a website that looks great without knowledge in coding or programming. The welcoming editor is a simple drag n’ drop tool that makes life easy and fun.

Contest Details

If you would like to enter to win one of the two free accounts, please leave a comment on this post. The winners will be selected at random on Friday, August 13th. At that time this post will be updated to announce the winners, and the winners will be contacted by email. You will have 30 days to claim your prize and we will provide you with instructions to do so.

Sample Wix Sites

UPDATE: The contest is now over. Thank you to everyone who participated. The winners are:

• Rahul
• Kerri Larson

Bundle Hunt offers $1,400 worth of resources for a ridiculously low cost of $49. The bundle includes the items shown below.

We’re especially excited about BundleHunt because we have the privilege of being a part of it. The bundle includes 100 premium resources from our recently launched Vandelay Premier.

The bundle will only be available until August 16th. You can stay up-to-date by following BundleHunt on Twitter or Facebook.

Giveaway Details:

If you would like to enter to be one of the five winners please leave a comment on this post. On Saturday, August 7th the 5 winners will be selected at random. At that time the winners will be contacted by email and this post will be updated to announce the winners.

Good luck!

UPDATE: The contest is now over. Thank you to everyone who participated. The winners are:

• Terri
• Khaz
• Eve
• Hygor Budny
• Justin Chmura

There are a lot of marketplaces, membership-based communities, and stock sites where designers can purchase resources. We see value in this variety, and we think Vandelay Premier is different from the others in a few key ways:

• Career resources in addition to design resources. In effort to help our members achieve greater levels of success in their careers as designers, we provide informational resources (like interviews, short e-books, and special reports) that cover various topics relevant to designers and freelancers.
• Extended license. Our design resources come with an extend license that allows mutiple uses on personal and commercial projects, including use in themes, templates, and other resources that will be distributed in mass. Extended licenses can get very costly with most resources, but with Vandelay Premier there is no additional fee.
• Marketplace with exclusive discounts. We have partnered with a number of companies that provide products and services for designers, and we’ve negotiated discounted rates for our members. More info on these partner companies in a minute.
• Low price. Members get unlimited access to our design resources, career resources, and marketplace for just $9 per month. Or if you would like to save a little bit of money there is an option of $79 annually. You can sign up here.

A Sample of the Design Resources Already Available

We’ve launched the site with more than 40 resources available for download, so it’s already a great deal! There are already almost 300 textures on the site, up to 4000 px by 3000 px in resolution. New resources will be added regularly, so the value of the membership should be constantly increasing. If you’d like to stay up to date with the additions to the site you can subscribe to the RSS feed or follow us on Twitter. Here are just some of the resources that are already available (click on the links to see more details).

One-Page Portfolio Template

The highly-talented Soh Tananka designed and coded a one-page portfolio template that is great for showing off your work.

Highly-Detailed Filigree Vectors

Chadlonius designed this beautiful set of filigree vectors.

Hand Drawn Floral Vectors

Sebastiano Guerriero of WeGraphics designed these vectors that are great for giving your work a hand-drawn effect.

General Website Icons

This set of icons includes many of those iconcs that you need all the time in web design. It was created by Andy Gongea of Graphic Rating.

Laptop PSD

Mohammad Jeprie of Desain Digital has created a few PSD files for us, including this one of a laptop.

Old Paper Textures

Caleb Kimbrough of Lost and Taken has done a few texture packs for our members, including this one of old paper.

Brown Paper Textures

This set provides one of the staples that every designer needs, brown paper textures.

Urban Textures

Caleb Kimbrough’s urban textures are great for adding grunge effects to your design.

Rusty Dumpsters Textures

Very high res textures that make something positive out of old dumpsters.

Grunge Bricks Textures

This set adds a grunge twist to the popular brick texture.

Stone Wall Texture

A high res set of textures from a nice stone wall.

Leaves Textures

Caleb Kimbrough has contibuted two sets of leaves textures that are great for nature-inspired design.

Bokeh Textures/Backgrounds

There are two sets of bokeh textures in a wide variety of colors.

Watercolor Textures

Sebastiano Guerriero created this set of beautiful watercolor textures.

Acrylic Brushes

A set of 18 high res Photoshop brushes, with more on the way.

Brush Strokes Brushes

There are already 2 sets of brushes in this series.

Career Resources

How to Use a Blog to Market Your Design Business

Over the past 3 years this blog has proven to be the most valuable asset to Vandelay Design, and this short e-book (40+ pages) looks at the topic of how designers can use their blog as a promotion tool to improve their business or their career.

Selling Stock Graphics: An Interview with Ryan Putnam

Selling stock is a great supplement or alternative to client work. Ryan Putnam of Rype Arts has sold a lot of stock illustrations and icons over the past few years and in this interview he shares from that wealth of knowledge and experience.

Using Twitter to Market Yourself: An Interview with Andy Sowards

Twitter has proven to be a very productive resource for many designers, and Andy Sowards is one of the best examples of the impact that Twitter can have on a career. In this interview he shares his tips and insight to help other designers achieve success with Twitter.

If you want to get access to all of these items and more you can sign up for just $9 per month or $79 per year.

Marketplace: Exclusive Discounts for Members

Here is a list of the current deals that are available to our members. They will change from time-to-time and more will be added.

• Site5 – 25% off shared or re-seller hosting, or 10% off shared cloud hosting.
• StudioPress – 25% off any theme.
• Pro Theme Design – 15% off any theme.
• UpThemes – 80% off the first month of a standard or developer club membership.
• ThemeJam – 10% off any theme.
• Shopify – 20% off any hosted e-commerce plan.
• Surreal CMS – $50 off the first year of an annual Pro account.
• Ronin – 20% off a team plan.
• Snobby Slice – $30 off coding services.
• Code My Concept – 20% off coding services.
• Jumpeye Components – 20% off any product.
• Pixmac – An extra 15% on any purchase of credits.
• MOO – 15% off printing services for new customers.

Sample Pack of Resources:

We’ve put together a small sample pack of a few resources that will give you an idea of the quality of resources available. You can download the sample pack for free and visit Vandelay Premier to see everything that is available to members.

Want to Design for Us?

We are looking for talented freelance designers to join our team to create resources for members. Ideally we would like to find designers who are interested in working together on a long-term basis, but one-time projects are ok too. We’re interested in help with creating resources like:

• Vectors
• Icons
• Brushes
• PSDs and design elements

If you would like to pursue the possibility or working together, please email us at info@vandelaydesign.com. Please provide a link to some work samples, preferrably the types of items that you would like to design for us. Due to the amount of inquiries that we have been receiving we will not be able to respond to everyone, but we will do our best.

Thank You!

The first 3 years of the Vandelay Design Blog have been a lot of fun and a great learning experience. Thank you very much for reading our blog and for making it possible to extend our business in this way. Without our readers the posts would have ended a few years ago and none of this would be possible. Thank you!

SlideShowBox makes it easy to add photo slide shows to any website. There is a free version available for non-commercial use and Premium HTML and Flash versions are available for $99. These include 24 templates, future upgrades, a commercial license, and technical support. The Premium Plus license is $149 for both the HTML and Flash versions.

The Premium HTML licenses that are being given away here will allow users to create slideshows as embeddable SWF objects, and some as pure JavaScript slideshows. Everything can be customized without the need for coding through the online panel available here. You can see the slideshow examples here.

The Giveaway Details:

If you would like to enter to win one of the licenses, please leave a comment on this post. On Friday, July 16th the winners will be selected using a random integer generator. At that time this post will be updated and the winners will be notified by email.

Good luck!

UPDATE: The contest is now over. Thank you to everyone who participated. The winners are:

• TheodorosPloumis
• Justi
• satrya
• Arlen
• Sheena

I first came across concrete5 in last year while researching a post on content management systems, and I was very impressed considering it was a CMS that I was not familiar with. concrete5 is free and open source, but if you don’t want to download it and set it up on your own server you can also host it with them. Hosting plans start at less than $8 per month and go up to a dedicated server for $250 per month (free trials available). Their hosting accounts come with support, which may be helpful especially when using a CMS for the first time.

One of the main features of concrete5 is in-context editing, meaning you don’t have to go to a dashboard or admin panel to edit the text and images on the site. For working with non-tech-savvy clients, this can be a great feature.

Other noteworthy features include:

• Automatic navigation menus
• Track versions and compare differences
• File manager with bulk upload and image manipulation using Picnik
• Detailed permissions – create editor groups, approve content, and see an audit trail
• Drag-n-Drop content
• Flexible meta data & vanity URLs for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Scrapbook lets you copy content and functionality from one part of your site to another
• See more

The system is also well-documented. Their site includes a “basics” section that includes documentation (including videos) on the various features and how to use the system. There’s also a developer’s guide that includes all the information needed to get started working with the CMS.

The concrete5 community seems to be rather active with a forum, job board, and member network all located on the concrete5 site.

There is also a marketplace where you can buy add-ons, such as the eCommerce and discussion forums licenses being given away here. The marketplace includes add-ons developed by concrete5 as well as others from various developers. The marketplace also includes themes for purchase ($20 – $25), as well as a number of free themes.

If you’re looking for the right CMS for a specific project I recommend that you see what concrete5 has to offer.

The Giveaway Details:

The winner of this giveaway will receive a free license for the eCommerce add-on and the Discussion Forums add-on. To enter the giveaway please leave a comment on this post, and be sure to leave a valid email address so we can contact you if you win. On Friday, July 2 we will select the winner using a random integer generator, and this post will be updated at that time.

Good luck!

UPDATE: The contest is now over. Thank you to everyone who participated. The winner is Rob Busby!

I’ve worked a few times with Sebastiano of WeGraphics and I’m always impressed with the quality of his work. Here are some sample graphics of the resources available to WeGraphics members.

The Giveaway Details:

WeGraphics is giving a free 3-month membership to five readers. The regular price of membership is $7 per month or $49 per year. If you would like to enter to win the contest, please leave a comment on this post. On Friday, June 4th the five winners will be selected by using a random number generator. At that time this post will be updated to list the winners and the winners will be contacted by email.

If you haven’t visited WeGraphics before, please take a few minutes to see what they have to offer.

UPDATE: The contest has now ended. Thank you to everyone who participated. The winners are:

• Melinda J
• Brad
• Mamoun Issa
• David
• Catherine

If you’re not familiar with UPrinting, they are an online printer offering a wide variety of products including brochures, flyers, posters, calendars and much more in addition to business cards. They have templates to help you design your business cards online, and they offer custom printing services to meet your specific printing needs.

The Giveaway Details:

Eight winners will receive:

• 500 premium business cards
• Sizes:  2 x 3.5”, 2 x 2” (square card) or 1.5 x 3.5” (slim card)
• Paper: 14 pt gloss cardstock, 14 pt matte cardstock or 13 pt recycled uncoated cardstock
• Full Color Both Sides
• Free UPS Ground Shipping (U.S.)

Eligibility: Limited to US Residents only, must be 18 and above to enter

If you would like to enter the contest, leave a comment on this post. You can tell us why you would like the business cards, how you would use them, or simply state that you would like to enter. Winners will be selected on Friday, May 28th using a random number generator. This post will be updated to list the winners and the winners will be notified by email. UPrinting will provide the winners with instructions for claiming their prize.

Good luck!

UPDATE: The contest has ended. Thank you to everyone who participated. The winners are:

• Duncan
• Zack Esgar
• John Von Vincent
• Dave
• Julia Jones
• Ian
• Megan Y
• Christy Price

If you’re in need of quality stock icons, please see what IconShock has to offer. You may also be interested in their blog, Icon Library, and their Twitter account, @iconshock.

Download the Icons (1.6 MB zip file)

If you like these icons, you may also be interested in these other sets designed by IconShock for our readers:

• Portfolio Icons
• Finance Icons
• Gadget Icons
• Office Icons
• Business Icons