MyInkTrail: Best of the Design Community, April 2010

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MyInkTrail: Best of the Design Community, April 2010

Another busy month in the books. This month’s MyInkTrail is short but very useful. Here are the best articles, tutorials, freebies and more from the design community for April 2010.

Articles

Why Web Design Doesn't Cost £40 Why Web Design Doesn’t Cost £40

Grace Smith puts together this compelling argument about why web design doesn’t come cheaply. When you add it all up, web design takes a lot of time and effort.

 

Quick and Easy CSS @font-face Code Quick and Easy CSS @font-face Code

Getting @font-face fonts to render in every browser isn’t too difficult, but it can be a little tricky to remember all the code you need. This post makes for a nice bookmark the next time you need to use @font-face.

 

WordPress Caching: What's the best Caching Plugin? WordPress Caching: What’s the best Caching Plugin?

A very comprehensive study about the best WordPress caching solutions available. Awesome descriptions and graphics of each solution.

 

Smashing Magazine Redesign: Photographs & Screenshots Smashing Magazine Redesign: Photographs & Screenshots

In this post, Liam of Function discusses the Smashing Magazine redesign they did. It was very interesting to read through the process and check out some of the elements Smashing decided to leave out.

 

The Myth of Inspiration? The Myth of Inspiration?

I think at times I’ve been a victim of the myth of inspiration. The truth is we can be inspired by work found at gallery sites, however Matt suggests that “Inspiration is not a product to be picked off the shelf. It is much more vital, much more organic and far less predictable.” Well said!

 

Tutorials

Retro 3D Arcade Text Effect in Illustrator Retro 3D Arcade Text Effect in Illustrator

I couldn’t help but include this retro tutorial. I love the old school look of this arcade style text effect.

 

Build a Simple Image Slideshow with jQuery Cycle Build a Simple Image Slideshow with jQuery Cycle

jQuery sliders and slideshows have been covered more than enough at this point, but I like the straight forward simplicity of this tutorial.

 

Touch The Future: Create An Elegant Website With HTML 5 And CSS3 Touch The Future: Create An Elegant Website With HTML 5 And CSS3

This tutorial is a great learning tool if you are trying to learn or get better at using HTML 5 and CSS 3. Good code + good design = great tutorial.

 

Freebies

Plain Fabric Textures: Free Hi-Res Photoshop Brush Set 1 Plain Fabric Textures: Free Hi-Res Photoshop Brush Set 1

This is a really handy set of 12 high resolution texture brushes to grunge up your designs with an organic feel.

 

Free Marker-Style Icon Set Free Marker-Style Icon Set

Be sure to download this beautifully simple marker style icon set from the very talented Nick La.

 

42 More Subtle Grunge Textured Photoshop Brushes 42 More Subtle Grunge Textured Photoshop Brushes

Function has some of the highest quality freebies in the design community and this brush set doesn’t disappoint. I love that they are subtle enough to build up some awesomely organic textures.

 

Featured Stuff

This Is Apple's Next iPhone This Is Apple’s Next iPhone

With about 10 million page views this story has taken on a life of its own, but in case for some strange reason you missed it, Gizmodo allegedly found and showcased Apple’s next iPhone.

 

Dribbble Dribbble

Dribbble is an invite only design community where designers participate in a game of show and tell to gather feedback and be inspired. I’m still eagerly awaiting an invite.

 

1STWD Q&A E-book : Interviews With 25 Popular Bloggers 1STWD Q&A E-book : Interviews With 25 Popular Bloggers

This is a free e-book that includes 5 questions with 25 popular bloggers. I was flattered to be a part of this compilation.

 

UpThemes UpThemes

UpThemes is a new premium WordPress Theme site offering up some very good looking themes at very reasonable prices.

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.

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  • http://www.designfollow.com designfollow

    great articles,

    thank you very much.

  • http://blog.echoenduring.com/ Matt Ward

    Hey Andrew.
    Thanks for including the Myth of Inspiration in this roundup. Glad you enjoyed the article, and I hope that some of your other readers will take a minute to check it out.
    Great roundup, as always!

    • http://www.myinkblog.com Andrew Houle

      Your welcome. Thanks for contributing such awesome content lately :)

  • http://nestdev.com nestdev

    That’s great list. thank’s for sharing. your article has been there check this out http://nestdev.com/web-design/myinktrail-best-of-the-design-community-april-2010/ and join our Community. thanks :)

  • http://wpblast.com wpBlast

    Very nice roundup!

  • http://dyvantity.com Dany Vilela

    Thanks for this roundup Andrew.

    I love the subtle grunge textured brushes, that’s exactly what I needed for my website.

    Stumbled!
    Regards.

  • http://www.webdesign-gm.co.uk Website Design Bristol

    I’ve been reading a lot about HTML5 recently and we have put together a series of articles in place showing how to create a simple HTML 5 template so reading the PMV article helped a lot.

  • http://www.searchengineoptimization.co.uk Mike

    Good remind if we missed any post of april….seems i have gone through all these and good work

  • http://www.kenreynoldsdesign.co.uk Ken Reynolds

    Cool list, cheers.
    Enjoyed the ‘Myth of inspiration’ article especially.

  • http://go4webapps.com/ Go4webapps

    Hi Andrew,

    I liked all the articles and specially the Myth one,,,

  • http://www.sjlwebdesign.co.uk SJL Website Design

    Great post, it’s good to go back through these post to refresh our memories!! And also check out the ones we’ve missed!

    Thanks.

  • http://www.kchains.com keychains

    Thanks for your share ! Great list !

  • http://www.w3mag.com/ W3Mag

    Indeed tons of useful and informational articles! Thank you!

  • http://traciewells.co.cc/ Tracie Wells

    Cool list, cheers. Enjoyed the ‘Myth of inspiration’ article especially.

  • http://www.dotpeak.com Dotpeak web design

    Nice one!! like all but enjoyed ‘Quick and Easy CSS @font-face Code’.

  • Karan

    Nice list friend.

  • Julee Rayo

    Thanks for this gr8 article. I found it with dmoz and i find it very interesting. i will look for more interesting new articles at this wordpress blog. (=

  • Games

    Great collection of design articles. Really interesting stuff. 1stWD ebook is a really nice read – thanks!