Free Travel Icons from IconShock

Our friends at IconShock have designed another set of free icons especially for readers of the Vandelay Design Blog! This set includes 10 icons in PNG and .ai format. These can be used in your personal and commercial projects.

Showcase of Die Cut Business Cards

Last month we published a post that showcased letterpress business cards. Today we’d like to share another showcase, this time focusing on business cards that use die cuts to stand out. Die cut business cards allow for some creative ideas to become a reality, and these cards are certain to be noticed when they are handed out.

Zing Consulting

Learn Web Design: Educational Resources for Beginners

In recent weeks we have published a few posts that focused on graphic design basics: Learn Photoshop and Learn Illustrator. Both of those posts generated a lot of interest from readers, so today we’ll continue with a third post in the series, this one focusing on the basics of web design. Here you will find categorized resources and links for learning HTML, CSS, typography, the design process, and more. If you’re just getting started or looking to brush up on your skills, you may want to bookmark many of these resources.

Introductory Information and General Learning Resources

General resources for learning web design

The sites listed below are excellent places to find loads of content aimed at people who are looking to learn more about web design and front end development. Much of the content is free but some of it is available for a membership fee, which may be worth the cost to save yourself some time in tracking down the right resources.

W3Schools

25 Impressive Design Portfolio Websites

The portfolio websites of designers are often excellent sources of inspiration. Portfolio sites frequently demonstrate exceptional creativity and attention to detail. In this post we’ll feature 25 outstanding portfolio sites that are worth a look. You’ll find designs from a variety of styles here, including minimal, illustrated, nature-inspired, textured, and more.

Andreas Ovefelt

30 of the Best Websites for Online Photo Editing

Designers and photographers have a number of options when it comes to photo editing. Of course, Photoshop is the most popular software, but there are a number of websites that allow you to edit photos online. Depending on your needs, the full version of Photoshop may not be necessary. In this post we’ll look at 31 options for editing photos online.

Leading Options for Free Online Photo Editing:

Picnik
With Picnik you can grab photos from your Flickr, Photobucket or Facebook account easily. Picnik includes advanced controls and effects in addition to basic options like cropping and re-sizing. A premium version is also available with more features for a little over $2 per month.

25 Outstanding Photoshop Lighting Effect Tutorials

Photoshop allows designers to create amazing things with their creativity. Lighting effects can be done in Photoshop a number of different ways, and the results can be quite impressive. In this post we’ll feature 25 tutorials from various designers that teach how to create amazing lighting effects. If you see something you want to learn, click through and follow the steps of the designer.

How to Enhance Your Subjects with Striking Lighting Effects in Photoshop

Trends in News and Magazine-Style Web Design

News and magazine-style sites tend to follow some specific trends. In this post we’ll take a detailed look at the design trends of news sites with plenty of examples, and the end of the post includes a showcase of sites.

If you’re working on designing a magazine-style site or blog theme, taking these trends into consideration may help.

White (or Light) Backgrounds

Like most content-heavy sites, news and magazine-style sites tend to have white or light-colored backgrounds, which is generally better for readability. Of course, there are exceptions to this, but especially among the major news sites, white backgrounds rule.

Free Finance Icons from IconShock

Our friends at IconShock have designed another set of free icons especially for the readers of the Vandelay Design blog. This set includes 6 icons (in PNG format) that can be used for personal or commercial purposes.

25 Excellent Photoshop Texture Tutorials

Adding texture to a design can create drastic changes and powerful results. Photoshop provides a number of different possibilities for working with textures, which allows designers to use their creativity. In this post we’ll features 25 tutorials that will help you to learn more about working with textures in Photoshop and how to create impressive results.

How to Use Texture and Lighting to Create Rounded Artwork

Learn Adobe Illustrator: All the Basics for Beginners

A few weeks ago we published a post, Learn Photoshop, that included links to well over 100 resources for mastering the basics of Photoshop and the use of the various tools. In response to reader request, we’re publishing this post to help designers who want to get started with Adobe Illustrator, or maybe just sharpen their existing skills.

Illustrator is a powerful program, but it can be overwhelming or confusing at times, simply because of everything that is possible. If you’re new to Illustrator, taking the time to understand the basics and how to use the specific tools will go a long way towards setting you up for success. In this post we’ve categorized more than 100 resources that will teach you everything you need to learn.

Basic Intro to Illustrator and the User Interface:

What is Illustrator?