Win Free Business Cards from UPrinting
Published July 7th, 2009 in Reviews - 95 Comments
UPrinting has offered to give away 5 prizes of 1,000 business cards to readers of the Vandelay Design blog! If you’re not familiar with UPrinting, they have been a printing leader for over 25 years and they offer a very wide variety of quality printing services, including business cards, brochures, calendars, menus, posters, postcards, envelopes, and more.UPrinting offers convenient ordering for business cards. Their site includes a pricing calculator that allows you to choose all of the size, stock, color, and quantity so you can see the price before even getting started. Shipping costs can also be calculated.
35 Beautiful Minimal Websites – Part 6
Published July 6th, 2009 in Galleries - 53 Comments
Collections of well-designed websites with a minimal approach have always drawn a great response from our readers, so we’ll continue the series with the 6th showcase post of this kind.
Due to the large percentage of our readers that are interested in minimal designs, last month we launched a gallery site, Minimal Exhibit, that focuses on these types of sites. Many of the sites featured in this post have also been featured at Minimal Exhibit, so if you like what you see here, be sure to follow Minimal Exhibit where many new sites are added each week.
25 Websites with Creative and Unique Layouts
Published June 30th, 2009 in Galleries - 61 Comments
If you’re looking for a way to break out of the box with a design, creating a unique layout is one way to accomplish this. In this post we’ll look at 25 sites that make use of a creative and unique layout.
25 Photoshop Tutorials for Creating 3D Text Effects
Published June 24th, 2009 in Design, Photoshop Tutorials - 73 Comments
With some creativity you can create amazing text effects with Photoshop. In this post we’ll feature 25 of the best tutorials for creating 3D text effects. There are a variety of different types of effects, so hopefully you can find some new tricks to learn.
If you’re looking for examples of inspirational uses of text, please see our new gallery site, TypeInspire.
Awesome Milk Typography Effect in Photoshop
35+ Horizontal Websites for Your Design Inspiration
Published June 22nd, 2009 in Galleries - 65 Comments
Websites that use horizontal scrolling in addition to, or instead of, vertical scrolling are becoming more popular. While this trend isn’t a good idea in every situation, the sites showcased here may give you some ideas or inspiration for using this approach in one of your own projects.
Premium Theme and Template Options for Real Estate Websites
Published June 18th, 2009 in Galleries - 16 Comments
Most people who are looking to buy or sell a home are doing research online. As a result, there is a great need for real estate companies and agents to have a website that will provide potential buyers and sellers with the information that they are looking for.
Having a website that can be easily maintained is ideal since listings will come and go rather frequently. WordPress is pretty popular for real estate sites because some quality premium themes exist and it gives the agent or the company the ability to manage the site on their own.
In this post we’ll feature 19 premium themes and templates that have been created specifically for real estate. While there are some free real estate themes and templates available, the quality is generally much lower than the premium options. Of course, having a custom design will allow for much more flexibility, but these are the options for low price ranges.
If you have any experience working with real estate agent sites and you have any recommendations, please share in the comments.
WordPress Themes:
Agent Theme – $59.95 at Studio Press
25 of the Best Photographer Portfolio Websites – Part Two
Published June 15th, 2009 in Galleries - 105 Comments
Last year I published 25 of the Best Photographer Portfolio Websites. Today I’d like to follow up with another set of 25 sites for your design inspiration.
In this collection you’ll see a good deal of variety between the sites. Some use a minimal layout that showcases the photos without distraction, and others are a bit more flashy.
Win a Free License for Fanurio Time Tracking and Invoicing Software
Published June 10th, 2009 in Reviews - 106 Comments
Tracking time and dealing with invoices and finances are not the favorite part of freelancing for most designers. Fortunately, there are products that can help to make it less painful and cumbersome. Fanurio is offering five free licenses to their time tracking software to Vandelay Design readers.
Gallery of 3D Elements in Web Design
Published June 8th, 2009 in Galleries - 49 Comments
If you pay attention to web trends you have probably noticed that a growing number of sites are using designs that give the appearance of three dimensions. 3D design elements can help to make the design look more unique, as well as to highlight something in particular by drawing the visitor’s attention. In this post you’ll see 25 websites that use some type of 3D element in the design.
Announcing the Launch of 5 Niche Galleries
Published in Galleries - 40 Comments
Today I’m happy to announce that I have launched a network of five niche gallery sites! Many of us visit design and CSS galleries on a consistent basis for design inspiration, and there is no shortage of galleries to choose from. Some of my favorite galleries are those that exist to showcase work of a specific kind (We Love WP is a good example, it is a showcase of WordPress-powered sites).
Niche galleries are especially useful for designers because they allow you to get the specific type of inspiration that you are looking for without being overwhelmed by too much that doesn’t interest you. You can go to a niche gallery and quickly find helpful and relevant inspiration that applies to your own situation. With that in mind, I have chosen five topics for galleries that I thought would be of use to many designers.
If you have any interest in some of these types of design, please check out what has been posted already and subscribe to the feed or follow on Twitter. Each gallery has been launched with more than 30 showcased items and they will be updated consistently (The amount of new additions will depend partly on how many quality submissions are received, so please feel free to submit your work for consideration. Ideally, there will be about 10 additions each week per gallery).
Minimal Exhibit
Some of the most popular posts that have ever been published on the Vandelay Design blog are the collections of websites with a minimalist design style. Minimal Exhibit is a niche gallery that showcases only sites with excellent use of minimalism in the design.
