Free download: 48 flat designer icons

The flat design juggernaut continues to roll on, crushing everything in its path. With an emphasis on simplicity, it’s easy to manage basic design principles when you’re working flat.

Essential to any flat design is a consistent set of icons, so we’re delighted to be able to bring you this free set of 48 office, social and travel icons, designed by our friends at Vecteezy.

Supplied as .ai and .png files, these fabulous icons in three complimentary styles — full color and monochrome coral — are fully scaleable and add a touch of flat design to any website.

Download it from:

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2013/08/free-download-48-flat-designer-icons/

Which Mustache Do You Like Most?

According to Wikipedia, a moustache is facial hair grown on the upper lip. It may or may not be accompanied by a type of beard, a facial hair style grown and cropped to cover most of the lower half of the male face. Moustaches can be groomed by trimming and styling with a type of pomade called moustache wax.

Here you can free download the kinds of mustaches and choose the best one for yourself.

Free Download: http://goo.gl/odRxwl

How to transition app designs to iOS 7

There’s been a lot of talk about iOS 7 since its unveiling earlier this month and most of it has been centered around the design, in particular the new icons. Now, as we’ve all had time to mull over the changes, questions are beginning to be asked about how they will affect the design of our own apps. As a result, a debate has broken out about how much of an influence iOS 7′s new UI should have.

While some believe that apps should remain true to their own style and shouldn’t be redesigned purely to match the look of iOS 7, others believe that apps should be redesigned in order to make them feel more native. To add to this, there appears to be some confusion over how strict actually are. 

In an effort to clear things up, I’ve taken a long look at the documents within
and will use this post to share some of my findings.

Understanding Apple’s guidelines

With regards to the debate over whether all apps should now adopt a “flat” aesthetic, it’s purely a matter of opinion. If you use custom UI elements in your design then ultimately stylistic decisions lie with you and your team. Although Apple do suggest that you revisit the use of drop shadows, gradients, and bezels, I’ve seen no evidence to suggest that this is a strict requirement.

In the snippet of text below, taken from the iOS 7 UI Transition Guide
, more details are given on different levels of customization and how each will affect the amount of work that you need to do in order to prepare your apps for the transition.

Think of app customization as being divided into the following three types:

• Standard. The app contains only standard, uncustomized UI elements provided by UIKit.
• Custom. The app presents a completely custom UI that doesn’t include any UIKit UI elements.
• Hybrid. The app contains a mix of standard and custom elements, including standard elements that you customized using UIKit tinting and appearance-customization APIs.

For a standard app, you need to decide whether your visual and user experience designs still make sense in the iOS 7 environment. If you decide to keep the current layout and interaction model, most of the work involves making minor adjustments and ensuring that the app handles the new systemwide gestures correctly.

Custom apps—that is, apps that use no UIKit UI elements—require a more nuanced approach. For example, if you feel that the current UI and experience of the app is still appropriate, there may be very little to do. On the other hand, if you feel that the app’s personality and user experience should change in order to delight iOS 7 users, you have more work to do.

Hybrid apps vary in the amount of work required, depending on the customizations you did and how you combined custom and standard elements. In addition to revisiting the overall design of a hybrid app, you need to make sure that your customizations still work well and look good when they’re integrated with standard elements.

“

It’s also noted at the end of the document quoted above that an app that mimics standard iOS 6 UI in a completely custom way is likely to require a lot of work because it will simply look out of date. This is certainly a prospect that you’re going to want to consider.

Also taken from the iOS 7 UI Transition Guide is the text below, which features two lists — things every app must do and things every app should do. Given the change in language, I’d consider the first to be a list of strict requirements and the second to be a list of things that at the very least should be given some thought.

Things every app must do

• Update the app icon. In iOS 7, app icons are 120 x 120 pixels (high resolution).
• Update the launch image to include the status bar area if it doesn’t already do so.
• Support Retina display and iPhone 5 in all your artwork and designs, if you’re not already doing so. 

Things every app should do

• Make sure that app content is discernible through translucent UI elements—such as bars and keyboards—and the transparent status bar. In iOS 7, view controllers use full-screen layout (to learn more, see Using View Controllers).
• Redesign custom bar button icons. In iOS 7, bar button icons are lighter in weight and have a different style.
• Prepare for borderless buttons by moving away from supplying button background images and by reassessing your layout.
• Examine your app for hard-coded UI values—such as sizes and positions—and replace them with those you derive dynamically from system-provided values. Use Auto Layout to help your app respond when layout changes are required. (If you’re new to Auto Layout.
• Examine your app for places where the metrics and style changes of UIKit controls and views affect the layout and appearance. For example, switches are wider, grouped tables are no longer inset, and progress views are thinner. For more information on specific UI elements
• Adopt Dynamic Type. In iOS 7, users can adjust the text size they see in apps. When you adopt Dynamic Type, you get text that responds appropriately to user-specified size changes. For more information.
• Make sure your app doesn’t respond inappropriately to the new Control Center gesture or to a navigation controller’s swipe to go back gesture, especially if you perform custom touch handling.
• Revisit the use of drop shadows, gradients, and bezels. Because the iOS 7 aesthetic is smooth and layered—with much less emphasis on using visual effects to make UI elements look physical—you may want to rethink these effects.
• If necessary, update your app to best practices for iOS 6—such as Auto Layout and storyboards—and ensure that the app uses no deprecated API.

“

iOS 7 doesn’t mean the end of the ultra detailed app icon either. The snippet of text below, suggests there is still a place for realism. However, as mentioned above, all app icons will need to be updated.

If you want to portray real substances, do it accurately. Icons or images that represent real objects should also look as though they are made of real materials and have real mass. Realistic icons accurately replicate the characteristics of substances such as fabric, glass, paper, and metal, and convey an object’s weight and feel.

“

To summarise

Although there is a lot more to the documents within Apple’s iOS 7 Design Resources, and I would recommend reading through them all, I felt that these three snippets in particular provide some much needed clarity. Apple’s new approach may do it’s best to shun drop shadows, gradients, and bezels, but it doesn’t mean that you have to follow suit, and whether you should or not is purely a matter of opinion.

Regardless of what stylistic choices you make, as long as you carefully consider all of the above, then you should have no problem in successfully transitioning your apps to iOS 7.

article source: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2013/07/how-to-transition-app-designs-to-ios-7/

Tips for a Perfect Wedding Website

You've probably RSVP’d a few times already, or bought a gift.

It’s wedding season.

Summer and fall months are a popular time for nuptials. And couples are finding that a great wedding website is a great way to communicate with family and friends without a lot of added expense. What started as a small trend is becoming more and more popular.

A website can serve as a save the date, wedding information portal (registry information, dress code, directions and more), and place to share photos and videos.

While many couples may opt for an out-of-the-box template-style wedding website, you can make your site stand out from the others. A dedicated wedding site is more personal that a simple Facebook page, and is more accessible to those who (gasp!) might not use social media.

Here we share some tips for creating a great wedding site and examples with a lot of personality – and you don’t have to rely on script typefaces and pink ribbons.

Emphasis on Landing Page

A wedding website can be as simple as a single-page design or as complicated as you can imagine. But the landing page is of utmost importance.

The wedding site landing page (or homepage) should communicate three things: The couple should be clearly identifiable, the wedding date should be visible and all other navigation should be clear and easy to find.

The information a couple decides to put on the page can vary but should often include event information and directions (include accommodation information for out of town guests), wedding-related events, RSVP, gift registry link and contact information.

Make it Personal

The most important part of designing a wedding website is personalization and personality.

Your site should reflect who you are as a couple. The theme should match your personality – fun, formal, nontraditional or quirky.

There are no rules when it comes to what a wedding site must look like. It should appeal to the couple as a whole. (Too many wedding templates feature a feminine look that is not always universally appealing.) Opt for typefaces and colors that both of you like. Consider pulling the idea for the theme for the big day into the web design, using the same colors and typefaces.

Use the site to tell your story. How did you meet or come to be a couple? What path led you to marriage? Remember some of your guests may not know the full story; this can help them better connect with you before the big day.

Include Photos and Updates

Another way to personalize your site is to include plenty of photos and wedding updates. Some sites go as far to include a blog, which can be a fun way to share wedding news.

Adding photos is a great way to get a lot of bang out of all those portraits as well.

And remember to have fun. Show off your best pictures as a couple – fun moments, portraits and or even photos that showcase some of your favorite places or the wedding venue.

Many couples also continue to update the site after the wedding, sharing photos from the ceremony and reception or honeymoon.

Include Event Information

This may not be the most fun part of your website, but it is the part that will get a lot of clicks from visitors and wedding guests.

Make sure to include all relevant event information, from where the wedding will be held and how to get there to dress code, dinner and drink options (if applicable) and whether your event is child-friendly.

Then think about a digital RSVP if you don’t want to deal with paper responses. (This can also save you some return postage.)

Include gift registry links as well. While some couples may shy away from this idea, it can make it much easier for people who want to buy a gift.

Finally, make sure to include contact information. Whether it is an email, phone number or physical address, it should be easy for people to find you. Worried about spam or unwanted visitors to your site? Consider using password protection – you can provide the information as a link or in a mailed invitation – or de-listing your site from search.

Friendly User Interface

It almost goes without saying, but remember to make your wedding site user friendly.

Links should be easy to find and click. Navigation should be simple. A wedding site does not have to be massive. Many are even only one scrolling page.

Consider a mobile friendly version as well or a website built with responsive design.

Design on Trend

We discuss a lot of trends here at Designmodo and you can make some of these work for a wedding design as well.

Courtney and Andrew’s wedding site combines three trends into one great site, using flat design, parallax scrolling, and retro color.

The site has a super-modern look and feel and stands out because of its on-trend look. (We’re guessing from the bios that the site looks so great because Andrew has “a knack for web design and web development.”

Conclusion

Wedding websites are increasing in popularity daily.

Just like the dress, most couples would rather have a site that is unique and perfect for the day. Whether you opt for a template or custom site, remember to make it yours.

Source: http://designmodo.com/wedding-website/#ixzz2bRukdgJC

Useful jQuery Snippets and Plugins for Your iPad

We live in the world of devices. We have them in our houses, we can't imagine our working day without them, even our free time is full of different mechanisms. It is a vicious circle: we buy some device, than we buy a "device for device" (to improve the previous one) and so on...
Today, I'd like to give you a few tips that will make your site both mobile- and tablet-friendly with the help of jQuery plugins. Need to detect which devices your customers use for viewing your site? Want to know which type of mobile browser they prefer? Interested what the current orientation of the iPad in Safari is? I'll show you how easily you can get all this information. All you need to do is just scroll down, check out these plugins and apply them. Extremely easy, isn't it? You're gonna enjoy the process of making your device work EXACTLY as you want it to , I'm sure. All snippets contain JavaScript, CSS and HTML chunks of code.
1. Detecting iPad Orientation in Safari using JavaScript
2. jQuery add drag/touch support for iPad
3. jQuery detect Mobile Devices - iPhone iPod iPad

4. Implementing doubletap on iPhones and iPads
5. Add iPhone/iPad Orientation to Body Class
6. Javascript / jQuery Snippet for doing Retina Resolution Images
7. Signature Pad
8. iScroll

9. GloveBox
10. Zoomooz.js
11. TouchSwipe a jQuery plugin for touch devices
Slideshow jQuery compatible iPad, iPhone Android et autres mobiles

Read more: http://www.webdesign.org/useful-jquery-snippets-and-plugins-for-ipad.22278.html

How to Own More Scores In Web Design?

All of us generally make use of outlines with regard to putting an emphasis on sides in addition to setting out the actual curves associated with items. Collection symbols could possibly be the greatest design associated with any kind of site style, obviously for those who have an art to style all of them completely.

Exactly what are collection symbols?
Let us find out what collection really is. The actual outlines may make a few suitable feeling or even sensation of the motion. Remaining static designs, collection symbols could make a type of false impression from the powerful items. The actual feeling depends upon the actual outlines path. Horizontally outlines within collection symbols incorporate peace, tranquility as well as balance as the up and down types shoot for the actual gentle motion. Power and much more effective powerful sensation refer towards the diagonal outlines. If you'd like create perfect as well as ultra-modern collection symbols styles you need to use mixture of directly outlines as well as figure.

Triumph associated with collection artwork. Certainly the initial type of collection artwork which acquainted in order to plenty of designers is actually contour sewing. This kind of kind of collection artwork had been created using the assist associated with posts of numerous colors as well as hook. Initially the actual canvas had been the cardboard. This particular motion can also be well-known because "String Art". Initially it had been discovered through Jane Boole since the item materials with regard to children to assist all of them research geometry associated with perspectives as well as areas. Prior to the pictures made an appearance collection artwork resided additionally as pictures with regard to printing resources as well as incorporated just monochrome colours. Therefore it's not the same as pictures or even multi-color piece of art. This kind of artwork is known as collection sketching as well as collection duplicate too.

Numerous means of collection symbols development
Frequently collection symbols would be the items using the layed out curves. They are known as shape sketches. You will find products without having a few rigid describes which are instead a few touch compared to real shape associated with collection symbols. They are called motion sketches. This kind of sketches are now being popular through skilled designers who are able to replicate the actual describes from the item following viewing this. It's not an entire artwork but instead the drawing which often needs 20-30 mere seconds to become attracted.

An additional method is actually including a few halftones as well as tones towards the item. It is possible by utilizing brief outlines as well as crosshatching. Do not scared to alter their own rate of recurrence as well as pen stress. This particular range produces much more three-dimensional turn to the item. It might appear truly impressive whenever becoming put on collection symbols style. The actual outlines could be gesture-like, parallel, shape and so on. too. Shape sketching includes excellent simpleness as well as processing associated with collection style. You might be wish to know what is bezier figure within pc images? It's this kind of kind of the actual figure that are essential for making complicated collection designs. The great point -- that you can do this without having additional initiatives as well as period. In addition, you can easily go back to the prior changes because of the background solar panel. By the way, if you want to build a responsive and awesome website, you can take a tour from Magic Theme.

Top 5 Plugins To Help Optimise WordPress Blog/Website For Mobile

We are now in the age where mobile devices is gradually becoming popular and more people are accessing the web using it. it only wise as a web developer or blogger to optimize your blog for mobile devices so as not to loose out in traffic generated from mobile.

If your blog or website is using WordPress CMS, there are some plugins to help optimize your website for mobile devices without you doing any coding. In no particular order, below are some top WordPress plugins to help optimize your blog for mobile devices.

1. MobilePress

This my favorite WordPress mobile plugin, it what i use in optimizing my blog for mobile. MobilePress is a plugin that renders a mobile friendly version of your WordPress website or blog. It allows for custom themes and a few other mobile friendly settings.

2. WordPress Mobile Pack

The WordPress Mobile Pack is a complete toolkit to help mobilize your WordPress site and blog. It includes a mobile switcher to select themes based on the type of user that is visiting the site, a selection of mobile themes, extra widgets, device adaptation and a mobile administration panel to allow users to edit the site or write new posts.

3. WP Mobile Edition

This plugin help to fully optimized for the best performance on smartphones, compatible with: iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry. Simple and easy to use: An Intuitive setting page gives you complete control. The pack contains the following functionality: Mobile switcher, Mobile XML Sitemap Generator, standard mobile theme, option to use a subdomain.

4. Duda Mobile Website Builder

The DudaMobile WordPress plugin makes it easy to convert your WordPress website into a mobile-friendly site. It’s fast, free and easy. Works with all WordPress themes including websites and blogs.

It features include: converts your WordPress website into a mobile-friendly site Retains the look and feel of your WordPress site, automatically syncs with your WordPress site Optimized for all smartphones, automatically redirects mobile visitors to your mobile website, free site analytics, mobile SEO friendly, works with Google Analytics and AdSense.

5. WPtourch

WPtouch automatically transforms your WordPress website for mobile devices, complete with ajax loading articles and smooth effects when viewed from popular mobile web browsing devices like the iPhone, iPod touch, Android mobile phones, BlackBerry OS6+ mobile devices, and more!

The admin panel allows you to customize many aspects of its appearance, and deliver a fast, user-friendly and stylish version of your site to touch mobile visitors, without modifying a single bit of code (or affecting) your regular desktop theme.

The theme also includes the ability for visitors to switch between WPtouch view and your site’s regular theme.

More details from: http://tech4sky.com/plugins-optimise-wordpress-blog-website-mobile/

How to Build a Website for Free with Weebly?

Question:
I am looking to build a website for a small business venture, I need to use something that has a decent page allowance and customization options with necessarily paying the premium fees for straight away.

Answer: Weebly Absolutely

Weebly is a free web-hosting service that features a drag-and-drop website builder.Time ranked Weebly number four out of the 50 Best Websites of 2007, and Weebly has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, the San Francisco Chronicle, andNewsweek.

The Weebly Website builder chrome app is an application that connects to the Weebly.com free web hosting service. You can use the Chrome app to connect to your website or use their online tools in other browsers. I got frustrated fairly quickly when I tried to upload an image and it wouldn't let me because the image was “too large”. It told me to edit it and try uploading again. But for this type of application, I would want the editing to be right in the tool, not force me to go somewhere else to edit the image and then re-upload. Plus, it didn't tell me how small it needed to be. And was the size issue due to dimensions or space? I don't know. If you want to play around with a website, Weebly is a good starting position. It even offers Google AdSense integration (they take 50% of the revenue).

Instructions to Build a Free Website on Your Own

Step 1: 1Weebly isn't the answer if you want a professional site that is valid and accessible. However, if you want something quick and free and don't really care what's going on in the code behind the scenes, you can make a website using weebly.

Step 2: Open an account with weebly.com (see link below). You can immediately click Create a Site and get started.

Step 3: The editing tools are simple drag and drop. Pick one of the Designs. Then choose from Elements to find things to add to your pages. Create new pages under the Pages menu. And fill in the information about your site in Settings.

Step 4: When you've added all the text, pages, photos, or other elements you want, click Publish. The first time you publish, you must decide whether to publish on the weebly site (if you added a blog, you must choose this one for the blog to work) using a URL like somename.weebly.com.

Step 5: Weebly will also let you buy a domain name or publish a site to a domain you already own. These two options involve purchasing and setting up a domain with a domain registrar, then making sure that weebly has the information about where to publish your web pages.

Step 6: Once your site has been published the first time, you can sign in to weebly and edit it at any time. All the sites you have at weebly will show up on the weebly homepage when you log in. Simply click Edit Site and you're ready to modifiy or add pages.

10 Best Web Design Firms of 2013 - The Creative Momentum Ranks No.1

ATLANTA, March 6, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The Creative Momentum, a full-service creative & digital marketing agency, specializing in custom website design and development, has secured the No. 1 position on 10 Best Design's list of 10 Best Web Design Firms of 2013. This award validates The Creative Momentum's ability to deliver clean, modern and innovative website design solutions that stand out.

"We hear these accolades from our clients every day, but it's awesome to see a well-respected third party recognize our talent ahead of some very strong players around the U.S.," said Carl Widdowson , CEO and president, The Creative Momentum. "We were selected because of our unique ability to listen to a client's idea, create a customized strategy, and run with a full-service creative solution to quickly get their idea into motion."

The Creative Momentum was ranked No. 1 on the March 2013 list, having received a 98.75% review grade. Recipients of the award were evaluated based on an in-depth review by 10 Best Design that includes analysis of client work, client feedback/satisfaction ratings, website analytics and more. The list was developed to help those seeking web design services find a company that gives them a truly remarkable website.

"We got into the business of ranking, reviewing and awarding web design firms when we saw a discrepancy between the aesthetic potential of the Internet and the often less-than-visually appealing sites which many development companies were producing for their clients," said 10 Best Design.

The full list of 10 Best Web Design Firms of 2013 can be found from: http://www.10bestdesign.com/firms/

About The Creative Momentum
The Creative Momentum is an Atlanta-based, full-service creative and digital marketing agency, specializing in custom web design and development for businesses that feel their branding strategy is "coasting" at best. Recently ranked #1 in the 10 Best Design Firms of 2013 by 10BestDesign, The Creative Momentum provides custom Web/Interactive, Marketing, SEO, Custom Graphic/Logo Design, Branding, Advertising, Media, Mobile Design and Strategic Planning to clients in high-tech B2B, B2C, consulting, security and non-profit.

News from: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/10-best-design-firms-2013-130700178.html

Four Easy Ways to Create a Free Website

Yola, Weebly, Webstarts and Wix are four of the most popular tools for creating free websites. Each of these free website builders makes it easy to establish a professional looking site to serve as your home base in social media.

As Web 2.0 services, they also integrate well with other online tools, such as blogs, wikis and social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

All four use pre-designed templates to let you create free pages with no design skills or coding knowledge required. You can basically click on any design you like, then drag and drop images to give the site your own look and feel. All four offer free hosting, which means they "host" or store your pages on the Internet. None requires special knowledge of Web publishing. You fill out their forms with the text you want to appear on your pages, upload any photos you want to display from your computer, and then click "publish'' or "submit" to publish your website.

What you don't get for free is an original Web address--your site won't be located at yourname.com, for example, unless you are willing to pay a little extra. Another downside is that these services often show ads on your pages, which is how they pay the bills for the free publishing.

Four Top Website Builders and Their Key Features

Weebly.com -- Weebly offers one of the best deals because its free version has no limits on the number of pages, or on how much data (text and images) can be stored, or on how much bandwidth/traffic the site can consume. You can buy an original domain for a fee or configure your own domain to work with a free Weebly site. Weebly optimizes its pages for display on smart phones and offers integration with other blogging services and social networks.

Yola -- Yola's free version limits storage to one gigabyte of data, and individual file sizes to 15 megabytes. The $99-a-year "silver" service raises the data storage limit to 5 gigabytes and the individual file limit to 100 megabytes.

Webstarts -- The free version of Webstarts offers up to five pages and 10 megabytes of storage for text and images. To create unlimited pages, no ads on pages, and an original domain or Web address, the premium fee is $7.16 a month.

Wix.com -- Wix specializes in Flash-based websites, which means its pages are created using Adobe's popular interactive design software called Flash. Its free sites allow unlimited pages but have storage and traffic limits--200 megabytes of file storage and 500 megabytes of bandwidth a month. Wix sites tend to look hip and cool, but also are bandwidth-intensive, so their pages typically take longer to load. Designers and artists tend to love pages that use Flash, while business-oriented publishers often shy away from them.