Computer – check. Photoshop  – check. Lots of free time – check. It seems that this is all that is necessary to call yourself a ‘designer’ these days. I believe that there is far more to a designer than software, computers and free time. Designers should have critical thinking skills, understanding of design principals, knowledge of grid systems, typography and much more.

Here are some essential tips for designers and not only. Some of them are universal and can be ascribed with many other similarities in your own life even if it’’s not really with design. All tips are connected between so you should better read them all to get perfect understanding. Those tips are from my personal experience and knowledge which I found out helps me a lot daily, weekly, monthly and more! Almost every profession requires never ending learning and self educating, but especially it’s important in design field – new software, websites, tools come out every day, it’s your task to keep up, evolve your view and find the best ways to do specific tasks!

The Web Design community literally takes that old Nokia slogan “Connecting People” and makes it happen. Everyday, literally thousands of talks take place via social networks connecting more and more designers with the same interest and views.

There are hundreds of amazing portfolios, top quality blogs, rich showcase websites, etc. where you can certainly loose endless hours looking, getting inspiration and tips…and that’s a good thing right? Well it certainly is if you can manage your time and focus well, otherwise, trust me, it can be a real problem.

Recently, the notion of killing the design community has come up on a few blogs (sometimes indirectly), creating many intense conversations on the direction the design community has taken over the past couple of years, and what can be done about it.

The possibility that such discussions are going to improve the design community is quite troubling.

In the interests of taking advantage of this recent trend (namely, writing about “killing the community”), I felt it would be necessary to address this issue by describing some easy-to-learn and practical tips that will help all of us do our part in killing the community.

As the first thing visitors see, home pages and headers often steal the design spotlight.

But above-the-fold thinking neglects the natural flow of vertical page layout. What happens when people reach the end of a page?

You can bet that a simple copyright statement won’t hold visitors’ attention, but many pages are designed with the expectation that people will find their way… or so we assume.

The bottom of a page is not the end of a website. An informative, compelling footer is the natural place to lead people to more information within the site rather than wandering aimlessly.

Read more about the trends and innovations that follow page content and answer the unspoken question, where to from here?

Are you stuck with your project? Nothing is coming to your mind to make your project look fine? Need some inspiration? Here you’re at right place. We have gathered 25  fresh ideas to embellish your creativity with a number of breath taking  advertisements, product designs and concepts.
We hope you find something interesting for you in this post.  Just drop us a line here and tell us which design is your favorite, and if we have missed out your favorite one please feel free to let us know!

With a “less is more” mentality, we’ve selected 10 very simple and impressive design techniques that can drastically improve the performance and appearance of your designs.

The basics first. Because you’ve got to crawl before you can walk, let’s start with the fundamental concepts of simple and effective design.
Sadly, adding extra contrast is one of the most overlooked and under-used techniques.

Some have a passion for web design; others consider it a mere task! This article is for those who consider web design more than just a task, in fact, it is meant for those who always have a passion to create something new! Bringing together elements of design and technicality is an exciting task, if you love website design that speaks and conveys its message effectively.

The approach taken towards design is the key to the entire site. This is also the reason why some websites grab user-attention whereas others tend to drive users away from the page.

Today’s guest post is a special piece from Jeff Archibald – a graphic designer hailing from the Great White North – Canada. When he’s not building igloos, fighting polar bears or writing tongue-in-cheek articles about failing at design, he runs a modestly popular design blog over at Paper Leaf Design.

This is it. You’ve worked many long, hard hours developing your Pen tool skills in Illustrator to the point you could probably add “Pen Tool Ninja” to your business card. You’ve learned so much about graphic design that your head is bigger than Rush Limbaugh’s waistline. You know so much about web design that you pretty much invented the Internet. Now’s the time.

There’s no formula for a perfect portfolio. There’s no format that’s guaranteed to land you clients, as long as you follow it. However, there are certain questions that a prospective client has in mind when he’s looking for a web designer. If your portfolio can supply the answers a client wants, you can improve your portfolio’s ability to convince a client and land a new project.