MyInkTrail – Best of the Web, July 2008

By Andrew Houle | Stashed in MyInkTrail

Wow! I can’t believe I’m already putting together the best of July. These months absolutely fly by. The blog is gaining steam, I’m loving the progress.

July was stacked with more great articles, tutorials and freebies. Here’s a look at the best of what was in July ’08.

My Ink Trail for July 2008

Articles

Logo Design and Card for Hilcon

An interesting discussion on the process of creating a logo from conception to finished product. It’s fun to watch a project go from sketches in a notebook to a polished logo. Another great part about posts a David Airey’s site is the discussions they generate through the comments.

9 Ways to Get Your Portfolio Seen

It’s somewhat ironic putting this article on the list being that I’ve ignored my own portfolio site for so long. That being said, when I do get my act together I will definitely reference this article. It contains a lot of quality advice to help your portfolio get noticed.

Blog Navigation and the Ongoing Challenges that Arise

An in-depth look at handling the navigational issues that can arise from running a blog. This article covers a lot of ground on navigational theory. We all can struggle to make our content easily accessible, this post goes a long way toward helping you fix that.

The Best Time Of The Day To Do Things As A Designer

A fun look at the best time of the day to work as a designer and be the most productive. I think you’ll like noon time.

Table of Contents, Creative and Beautiful Examples

I love inspirational posts! Especially when they are on a subject often overlooked. Smashing takes a look at beautiful table of contents designs. Hey, they all don’t have to be boring and look the same.

Typography is Sexy, Part I

Another inspirational post. This one focuses on awesome typography examples. It’s great inspiration, enjoy!

10 of the Best Color Resources and Tools

One of my first posts I ever wrote for My Ink Blog looked into the importance of using color tools by showing you how to use Adobe Kuler. This article covers 10 of the most useful color resources and tools; a really nice resource to have.

Tutorials

Designing a Professional Laptop Advert

I just love the finished product of this tutorial. You will learn all kinds of useful techniques. A really good tutorial to step through.

Crazy Cool Vectors in Illustrator and Photoshop

Abduzeedo has a lot of the best tutorials on the web, amongst other useful content. This tut is no exception. I love tutorials that utilize both Illustrator and Photoshop.

Design a Sin City Style Poster

I’m not sure that I need to write anything here, just look at that graphic! I will say that you will learn some solid techniques; like using grids and vanishing point.

Submit a Form Without Page Refresh Using jQuery

I love AJAX! Anytime you can have something useful on your page, without the need to refresh it, is quite awesome to me. Although it should be noted that you shouldn’t rely totally on a technology that can be turned off. Still, real good stuff!

Custom Hang Tag

PS Hero has flat-out some of the highest quality Photoshop tutorials on the net. Handmade looking elements are super common these days in web design, this tut will teach you some nice techniques on how to create them.

How to Create a Vector Safari Compass in Illustrator

Another great tutorial from Chris at blog.spoongraphics. This tutorial also combines Illustrator and Photoshop.

Creating an Environmentally Friendly Green Type Treatment

I guess I’m going real heavy on the Illustrator tutorials in this months, best of. Vector graphics is something I’m driving myself to learn more in-depth. These awesome tuts can only help!

Freebies

Free High Res Photoshop Brushes Grungy Watercolor

More spectacular freebies from Bittbox. They also gave out some awesome watercolor textures.

Mixed Silhouettes

Free vector pack of human silhouettes. Definitely handy to have around.

Texture Brushes

Another good brush set from Brusheezy. I can never have too many texture brushes in my arsenal.

300+ Free Hi-Res Grunge Textures Youâ€™ve Never Seen Before!

300+ Free grunge textures from Design Shard. These will definitely come in handy!

Sites, That Rock; And Are New to Me

PSD Fan

This Photoshop tutorial blog is only about 2 months old now, but already it’s becoming respected in the design community for having top-notch tutorials. The site also offers the occasional quality freebie, definitely check it out.

DESIGNM.AG

Design Mag is written mostly by Steven Snell of Vandelay Website Design. Design Mag is a new blog that is starting to develop a nice community of designers. They already have some really high quality content.

Design Shard

Another fantastic brand new design blog. Design Shard has all the makings of becoming an excellent resource.

About the Author

Andrew is a primary contributer for MyInkBlog. He is a full time web developer for Niagara University. When he's not working there, he's a blogger, twitter'er, wordpress'er, silverstripe advocate, blessed father and husband.