25 Beautiful Minimalist Websites – Part X
Published June 14th, 2011 in Galleries - 17 Comments
Minimalism in web design has always been a favorite topic of our blog readers, and today we continue the series with our tenth edition of minimal showcases. The websites shown here manage to achieve an attractive design without the clutter.
You may also be interested in the previous posts in this series:
- 25 Beautiful Minimalist Websites – Part IX
- 25 Beautiful Minimalist Websites – Part VIII
- 40 Beautiful Minimalist Websites – Part VII
- 35 Beautiful Minimalist Websites – Part VI
- 25 Beautiful Minimalist Websites – Part V
- 25 Beautiful Minimalist Websites – Part IV
- 25 Beautiful Minimalist Websites – Part III
- 25 Beautiful Minimalist Websites – Part II
- 25 Beautiful Minimalist Websites
Macro Photography: 20 Inspiring Examples
Published June 13th, 2011 in Galleries - 17 Comments
Macro photography, the art of taking close-up photos, can produce incredible results that show us the world in a different way than we normally see it through our own eyes. The details in macro photos can be stunning, as you will see below.
In this post we’ll showcase 20 different examples of macro photography from a variety of photographers. If you see something that you would like to view in full size, please click the image or the credit link to be taken to the source.
Photo credit: Hajdu Tamas
10 Tips to Ensure the Success of Your Design Projects
Published June 9th, 2011 in Business - 15 Comments
For web designers, having successful client projects leads to happy clients, more referrals, a proven track record, and valuable experience and knowledge that can be used in future projects. But there is a lot that goes into making a project a success, and simply completing the design on time is not enough. In this article we’ll take a look at 10 things you can do to make your projects more successful.
1. Truly Get to Know the Client and Their Customers/Visitors
In order to create a website that maximizes its potential for your client, you’ll first have to get a clear understanding of the client, how they do business, how they brand themselves, and you’ll also need to become familiar with their target market. Depending on your familiarity with the client and their industry, this may require a considerable amount of time and effort. The better understanding you have, the more likely you will be to create a site that meets the needs of the client and their users.
A common mistake, especially for new designers, is to jump right into the design process without dedicating time to getting familiar with the client. This often leads to a site that may look good on the surface, but doesn’t effectively fit the needs and personality of the client.
Different designers have their own methods for getting to know their clients, so do whatever works best for you. Some designers have a standard intake questionare or form that they have clients fill out to get information about their business and their customers. Others meet with clients, discuss and observe. Whatever your process, be sure that you prioritize the need to get to know your clients, and account for this in your estimates and scheduling of projects.
Comment to Win a Pro License from TN3 Gallery!
Published June 7th, 2011 in Site News - 112 Comments
TN3 Gallery is a new HTML-based customizable image gallery with slideshow, transitions and multiple album options. It’s powered by jQuery to give your image galleries and sliders fantastic appearance and usability. They have kindly offered to give three readers of the Vandelay Design blog the Pro License for free. All you have to do to enter the contest is leave a comment on this post. TN3 Gallery comes from the talented people behind Webdesigner Depot, Mighty Deals, and Brush Lovers.
Ultimate Collection of Free Photoshop Styles
Published in Design, Tools - 23 Comments
Photoshop users can save time during the design process by making use of layer styles. Whether you are saving your own custom style to be used multiple times throughout your design (such as with a button), or using pre-made styles created by other designers, taking advantage of this feature in Photoshop can greatly speed up your workflow.
In this post we’ll link out to a number of useful Photoshop layer styles that can be downloaded for free. Many of them have been created especially for text, others for buttons, and some are more general. Download the styles and apply them to your layers for instant results.
30 Websites Using JavaScript Sliders
Published June 6th, 2011 in Galleries - 15 Comments
JavaScript sliders, jQuery in particular, are a very commonly used element in web design. There are countless different ways that sliders can be used and displayed. In this post we’ll feature 30 websites that make excellent use of JavaScript sliders. These sites will give you plenty of ideas and inspiration that can be applied in your own work.
For more on the subject please see:
- 25 jQuery Image Gallery/Slider Tutorials and Plugins
- 25 Excellent jQuery Slider Tutorials and Plugins
11 Leading Tools for Free Website Analytics
Published June 2nd, 2011 in Tools - 23 Comments
Every website owner or marketer needs to know what is going on with their website and visitors in order to know how to improve and get better results. Website analytics tools can provide data and show trends that will help you to know what to do to see the results improve over time.
When it comes to analytics you have a lot of options from which to chose. In this post we’ll show 11 of the leading free options (of course, there are other options that are not free) and give a brief description of each.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is leader among free analytics tools, and with good reason. Analytics is free to use on any website with no limits on pageviews that can be tracked or reports that can be generated. Basic users can get info on how many visitors and pageviews their site is receiving, what sources are sending the traffic, what search phrases are resulting in visitors, and other basic information like bounce rate. More advanced users can set up goal tracking, create custom reports, set up pivot tables and more. For new users Analytics can be a little intimidating because of how much data is available, but the basic reports are easy to find and understand.
Comment to Win a Free Copy of the WPSubscribers Plugin!
Published June 1st, 2011 in Site News - 69 Comments
WPSubscribers is a premium WordPress plugin that will help you to attract loads of new subscribers to your mailing list or blog. It has many different features and functions to give you a lot of versitility and control over how you promote your list. The developers of WPSubscribers have offered to give 3 of our readers a free triple license for the plugin, which will allow you to install the plugin on up to 3 different sites, plus free lifetime updates. This license normally sells for $47, and an unlimited license is also available for $97.
WPSubscribers will allow you to integrate your opt-in code very easily, and then you can create several different types of forms to encourage signups. I’ve been testing the plugin and getting integrated with a MailChimp sign up form was simple. Just copy the form code provided by MailChimp (or another list manager like AWeber, GetResponse, etc.) and WPSubscribers will auto detect the fields and integrate.
Action Photos: 20+ Photos that Amaze and Inspire
Published May 31st, 2011 in Galleries - 15 Comments
Some of the most intriguing photographs are those that perfectly capture a moment during intense action. Well-timed photos stop the action and present an amazing perspective. In this post we’ll showcase more than 20 different examples of outstanding action photography.
Action photography can be extremely challenging in order to get quality results, so the photos shown here should serve as inspiration to demonstrate what is possible.
To see a larger version of the photo or to see more work from the photographer, click on the images or the credit links below each photo and you’ll be led to the source.
Photo credit: Nick Rudnicki
Announcing the Winners of the Freelance Starter Kit
Published May 27th, 2011 in Site News - 3 Comments
Earlier this week we launched a contest for our most recent product, the Freelance Starter Kit. We had announced that there would be five winners, but since the response was so positive and since there were more people entering the contest than we anticipated, we decided to have eight winners instead. If you’re luck didn’t come through for you in this contest, don’t forget that you can still get $5 off the price of the Freelance Starter Kit ($24 instead of $29) by using the discount code “blogreader“.
