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This post is part of our daily series of posts showing the most inspiring images selected by some of the Abduzeedo's writers and users. If you want to participate and share your graphic design inspiration, You can submit your images and inspiration to RAWZ via http://raw.abduzeedo.com and don't forget to send your Abduzeedo username; or via Twitter sending to http://twitter.com/abduzeedo

Do you want to see all images from all Daily Inspirations? Check out http://daily.abduzeedo.com

AoiroStudio

DK-Studio

Fabio

Fabiano

Jacob Plumridge

Noémie Beaulieu

Send your suggestions via Twitter to http://twitter.com/abduzeedo using #abdz in the end of the tweet.

@Daniel_Nelson

@LetMeBeInspired

Send your RAWZ suggestions via Raw.Abduzeedo.com

2D

Audry5

Cosme

chrisblissdesign

cuded

deiasartori

Dinesh Dave

fksd

freshowl

grossmandesign

inspirationfeed

Karim Balaa

Mauricio Bramorvsky Jr

mrbradbeatwork

MXRCOFER

nenuno

nicolasberlin

Pascal Meyer

raid71

seankanedesign

siwokudesign

thaeger

Velizar Dimchev

WhatAnART

We've seen some great 365 projects in the past. Talented artists choose to make a piece of art in each day of the year and the result can get really awesome, like these pieces by graphic designer Jan Nagra.

From super-heroes to celebrities, Jan has amazingly portrayted some great examples of pop-culture. Gotta love the simplicity and awesomeness of these. These are only a few of his pieces, so for more, you should visit Jan's personal portfolio. I hope you enjoy these! Cheers. ;)

As cliché as it sounds, the best camera is the one you have with you. Fret not if you don’t have an expensive DSLR. When you have your iPhone cam ready, under the right conditions, it can take some amazing images! With the help of these 10 tips, you’ll be able to your iPhone shooting images that look as great as any point-and-shoot.

1. Do not use the zoom function; your feet is the best zoom.

No matter how tempting, don’t use the digital zoom in. If you really want to take that shot from afar, it’s a sure thing that you won’t get the photo quality you’d want — a picture with noisy background, grainy texture and pixilated outcome. Instead, if possible, get closer to the subject and click on the camera button to shoot.

2. Do not use the flash function; get more light in the background.

The iPhone’s flash is not enough to shine good lighting over on the background and give you truly great digital photos. Rather, it tends to wash out or overexpose everything horribly, particularly the subject’s eyes. The problem can be solved with natural or indoor lighting. Though you may not see the dimness in your screen before taking the shot, once the photo has been taken, you will clearly see the difference when light is more present.

3. Stabilize your hand when holding the iPhone.

Notice that when either you or the subject you’re taking is moving or isn’t steady, the result of the photo would be blurry. To solve this, advise the subject to stay very still. For your part, hold your iPhone like a regular type of camera — steadily. Count to three and if you can’t make one hand stabilized enough, use both hands or find something like the wall or a chair to lean your back or arms on. Slowly click the shutter button to capture the subject and let the lens absorb more light to expose the photo nicely.

4. Tap to focus.

With built-in aperture, the autofocus function is already present in the newer version of the iPhone’s OS. It would automatically take the focal point and show a square on the subject to make it appear clearer. However in some cases, when it is not readily recognized, you have to suggest where the focus should be. Simply move closer and tap directly on the main spot of the subject to focus for better lighting and exposure and higher quality photos.

5. Try different angles.

The standing-straight position can sometimes be just boring, when you can have a lot more. Because the iPhone is just light and easy to carry and turn around, you have the advantage of playing with gravity. As the iPhonographer, try different angles to snap more interesting shots. Be artistic and build up on your imagination! You can try squatting down and shoot at a view lower than the usual eye or shoulder level. To be more comfortable, don’t be shy to sit down on the floor or stand on a chair in a crowded place. You will notice that you will not only capture the subject but also give the impression of how big the room is. You can make your subject loom bigger or smaller, with more dominance or greater depth, emphasis and drama.

6. Keep the iPhone cam’s lens clean.

Most of us carry our phones around everywhere but not our camera. When you have and use your iPhone with you all the time, even if it has protected casing, there is a good chance that the camera lens will get dirty. The iPhone cam’s lens is so small that even a small smudge or a fingerprint on it would affect the quality of your taken photos. Clean it regularly to maintain brightness with a handy microfiber polishing cloth, that piece of cloth you use to wipe off your eyeglasses or your old cotton t-shirt. Also clean the flash near the lens with soft circles, as to remove dust or blotches. Never use any polishing agent on the lens or the touch-screen area with aerosol purifiers, especially those which contain liquor, ammonia or other chemicals or severe substances. These could be harmful for your iPhone’s delicate, oil-repelling touch-screen technology.

7. Take again and again until you capture the best.

Unlike the old days when you had to buy films to practice your camera shooting abilities and find the best frames, digital cameras today offer us with the great incentive of trying and trying until we go tired. There’s no cost except for the draining of the battery and the memory space, of course. But these things can be easily replenished once charged up. Similarly like any regular digital cam, you can have lots of mistakes in using your iPhone camera. Take multiple shots of the same scene and just select the best afterwards. Don’t get disappointed and delete the comparatively “bad” photos as well; you can always use other photo-editing applications or software to improve their quality later on.

8. Experiment with apps!

As mentioned, you can use the many photography app available in the AppStore to edit photos. You can make a collage, combined photos with creative frames, different filters and gradient backgrounds, cartoon versions, embed them with layers of text and stamps and so much more. Install and mix these features from multiple apps. You’ll be surprised with the various results from these exciting applications.

9. Explore around you. Be adventurous!

Take the initiative to go around places and discover great things to capture candidly. People have stories within them and they change in every second with their emotions. Every corner of an establishment has something worthwhile. Whatever event may it be a birthday, a talent showcase, or a sports event there’s something in there you’ll find interesting. Look at the signs and slants of the street and document the wonders of normal everyday life. Magical memories happen only once. Just keep your thumb ready to click and snap them away.

10. Hold, then release.

Want the subject to be in focus and the background blurred out? The trick is to not take it easy and tap the shutter button right away! Instead, before doing so, hold it down for a few seconds until you’re ready to release it to prepare and compose yourself first. This will also relieve you from shaking probabilities and prevent crappy photos.

Platinum is a creative studio of 13 artists from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, mastering and mixing their skills in photography, illustration, 3D and CGI. Platinum creatives just seamlessly good together, you clearly see why they just have clients all around the world. Hope you will enjoy these incredible and creative advertisements.

To find out more about Platinum, you can check out their website at Platinumfmd.com.br.

This is a guest post by Cameron Tyler from Technected - a site dedicated to helpful tech tips and tricks, and innovations in the industry. We always welcome new contributors, so stop by anytime and become a part of our great community!

When the iPad first hit the streets, both critics and fans were skeptical of its ability to ever become a practical computing solution. Now, years after its release, the device has changed the mobile computing landscape and generated some sophisticated applications in business and everyday use. Some uses are more natural than others, and from the outset it wasn’t much of a stretch to consider the device’s impact on the graphic design and artist community. Due to the touch-based nature of the iPad’s screen, art was clearly meant to intersect with the digital realm in the iOS environment. Graphic designers can now perform complex photo editing, and create intricate compositions on the fly with iPad new mobile-based apps like Photoshop Express and Adobe Creative Cloud.

Why the Cloud Matters to Designers

Graphic and Web designers traditionally had to spend thousands of dollars on high-powered computer systems, as well as industry-standard design software to stay ahead of the curve. As with any computer-based profession, state-of-the-art software requires lots of processing power. Processing is expensive, especially as computing trends and technology changes so quickly. Cloud-based design applications take the processing ball out of the designer’s court by providing processing resources over several shared servers in a cloud-computing environment. Basically, this means that designers can use powerful design applications seamlessly on the Web.

Adobe to the Cloud

Adobe, the premier name in industry-standard design and photo editing software saw the cloud coming and responded in kind. They recently introduced Adobe Creative Cloud. Essentially, you subscribe to this cloud service and you have access to all desktop applications without having to download them all onto one hard drive. Designers can even sync all their design files within the cloud environment and download them on any desktop, laptop or tablet PC (yes, that includes the world’s iPad population).

Cloud Computing, Web Designers and Collaboration

Web design has always been a trade of collaboration. Both major and minor Web development projects require several pairs of eyes to ensure each Web page is functioning at the highest level possible. It’s not uncommon to send big files back and forth, share them through shared network drives or through a specialized email client. Using cloud-based resources allows web designers to quickly and easily share files between devices across multiple platforms and even to open a file simultaneously to collaborate in real time as you might on a Google Doc.

Bridging the Gap: Computer Design and Art

The latest iPad processing technology mixed with the latest in iOS applications re-invents the iPad as a virtual sketchpad for artists. For instance, Nomad Brush is a living, breathing paintbrush designed specifically for the iPad, which essentially transforms the tablet PC into a mobile easel. More and more creative-minded hardware makers are taking the stylus concept a step further to make it something that artists can easily integrate with their design efforts.

Mobile is Always Better

As the world became more mobile, it was evident the designers behind that mobile technology would need like-minded tools. Now designers don’t have to separate their art from the computers they create on. Sophisticated hardware makes the artistic process more fluid than ever. Additionally, artists and designers will no longer have to keep up to date with computer systems sporting inflated hard drives and server-level processing chips. Through a combination of mobile integration and cloud-based application solutions, the Web will shoulder the workload.

This is a post from Inspired Magazine. If you like it, you may want to subscribe to our RSS full feed to be updated on every article we're publishing. Also, it's highly recommended to follow us on Twitter! Tablets and the Future of Graphic Design

Tuesday Total Textures is post series that will bring a new life to your Tuesdays. Every week I'll be posting some free hi resolution textures that you can download to use in your projects. Check out this week's free textures, download the ones you like and start making your texture collection.

For more texture visit http://abduzeedo.com/tags/ttt

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The first thing web developers consider when they need to create an extremely stylish and trendy website is CSS3 and HTML5. This is because of the functionality and features they offer and why HTML5 and CSS3 are a major topic for web designers. Taking this into account, we thought to compile another fresh and cool collection of some professional HTML5 and CSS3 templates. So, here we are with 45 free, but fresh, templates that you can download. So, enjoy this collection and have more fun in making the web experience more pleasurable and gratifying. Let us have a close look!

1. Interio

( Demo | Download )

2. Art School Template

( Demo | Download )

3. Folder

( Demo | Download )

4. Template for Business Project

( Demo | Download )

5. Nova

( Demo | Download )

6. CSS3 Seascape Two

( Demo | Download )

7. Kroft

( Demo | Download )

8. Thom Sander

( Demo | Download )

9. Scenic Photo

( Demo | Download )

10. Hatha Yoga

( Demo | Download )

11. Connoisseur

( Demo | Download )

12. Point

( Demo | Download )

13. Vivid Photo

( Demo | Download )

14. Pro Soft

( Demo | Download )

15. Photo Style Two

( Demo | Download )

16. Animated Template for Design Studio

( Demo | Download )

17. CSS3 Six Dark

( Demo | Download )

18. Free Website Template with JustSlider

( Demo | Download )

19. Trinity HTML5 Template

( Demo | Download )

20. Shinra

( Demo | Download )

21. Zeni

( Demo | Download )

22. Modus

( Demo | Download )

23. IMCreatives HTML5 and CSS3 Template

( Demo | Download )

24. Template for Food Delivery Project

( Demo | Download )

25. Principato HTML5 and CSS Template

( Demo | Download )

26. Wedding Website Template with jQuery Slider

( Demo | Download )

27. Fascination HTML5 and CSS3 Template

( Demo | Download )

28. Template with jQuery Slider for Car Project

( Demo | Download )

29. AppleGreen HTML5 and CSS3 Template

( Demo | Download )

30. Template for Exterior Design Project with jQuery Slider

( Demo | Download )

31. CatTemplate HTML5 and CSS3 Template

( Demo | Download )

32. Template for Youth Organization

( Demo | Download )

33. KiteSurf HTML5 and CSS3 Template

( Demo | Download )

34. Template for Law Business

( Demo | Download )

35. Template with jQuery Slider for Consulting Business

( Demo | Download )

36. TechnicalLine HTML5 and CSS3 Template

( Demo | Download )

37. Template with jQuery Gallery for Music Site

( Demo | Download )

38. FreshIdeas HTML5 and CSS3 Template

( Demo | Download )

39. HTML5 Charity Center Template

( Demo | Download )

40. ThinkSimple HTML5 and CSS3 Template

( Demo | Download )

41. Androidian HTML5 and CSS3 Template

( Demo | Download )

42. iPhone Application Template

( Demo | Download )

43. RedX HTML5 and CSS3 Template

( Demo | Download )

44. HTML5 website template for airline company

( Demo | Download )

45. Real Estate Website

( Demo | Download )

Advertise here with BSA

Over at our sister site, Theme Trust, we’re dedicated to creating new high-quality premium WordPress themes. But we’re also committed to keeping our older themes up-to-date and fresh. We’ve just recently taken our most popular theme, Filtered, and given it a major overhaul. We’ve added new features, fixed bugs, but what’s most exciting is that we’ve made it responsive – which means it’s layout will now automatically adapt to the screen size one which it’s being viewed. This ensures that it will look great across multiple devices.

If you’ve not taken a look at Filtered yet, you should read more about it or checkout the live demo.

Full Feature List

• Responsive Layout
• Animated Thumbnail Filtering
• 3 Built-in Background Textures
• Google Web Font Integration
• TouchSwipe Slideshow Shortcode
• Custom Options Panel
• Custom Post Type for Easy Portfolio Management
• Widget Ready Sidebars
• Widget Ready Footers
• Portfolio Page Template
• Archive Page Template
• Author Page Template
• WordPress 3.0 Custom Menus
• WordPress 3.0 Custom Background Support
• Set Your Own Color Scheme
• Post Thumbnails
• Built-in Lightbox
• Smooth Animated jQuery Drop-down Menus
• Upload a Custom Logo
• Upload a Favicon
• Threaded Comments
• Twitter Integration
• Flickr Integration
• Button Shortcodes
• Column Shortcodes

As a freelancer, you need to know how to best use your time and energy when it comes to marketing. We already spend enough time actually performing our jobs, invoicing, collecting, and other tasks. To add marketing to the mix can be incredibly frustrating.

The good news is that you don’t have to waste your efforts on marketing if you jump into it with the right activities. Often, the most important choice is knowing what NOT to do and knowing that handing off some tasks to professionals may be your best bet. For those ready to go to the next level, consider these marketing materials and how to use them the most effectively.

Professionally designed logo

While not a physical piece of marketing material, your logo is an invaluable marketing asset. Hire a professional design agency, if possible, to create a logo for you. The benefit of a professional design includes the ability for your logo to work well regardless of its placement or size in web or in print. A professional corporate identity takes a great deal of thought and planning but is definitely worth it in the long run. No company should be without a logo before beginning a marketing campaign. A logo is what will help your target audience recognize and remember you no matter where or how they encounter your company’s marketing materials or products.

Trends in logo design have varied wildly over the last few years, but a few key concepts are timeless. Look at what your industry is doing first and foremost. This does not mean you should copy competitors, but you do want to be in the same general vein of design within your industry. For example, if crest logos are common, consider getting yourself a crest logo as well.

Also, make sure your logo is legible from a distance. Complicated logos can get hard to see if they are small or far away. Test to make sure your logo is clear at any size and from a reasonable distance before committing. A simple logo is also easier to remember.

Business cards

Utilize all the space on your business cards. Include a short description (tag line) of your company’s services as well as contact information. Graphics and design are important, but be sure to avoid sacrificing any descriptive qualities, potentially confusing prospective clients. Keep in mind that on your business card is where your logo can really shine.

Use both sides of your business card keeping the front of the design simple and using the back for any details. The front of your business card should be limited to very basic contact information. The back of your card can have all the details you can fit into that space. You can squeeze around 300 words in 10pt font into that area if needed. You could consider including a QR code on the back of your card to give customers quick and easy access to your website. Or you could reserve the back of the card for all of you social media information. Get creative but do keep in mind that too much information will look cluttered and unprofessional.

A common mistake is to use non-traditional sizes for your business cards. While it is accepted to use rounded corners, avoid odd shapes. Many people still store business cards in holders created for business cards to fit into. If yours won’t fit, it will likely be discarded. The only exception to this rule is if your odd-shaped card will easily slide into and out of a traditional holder.

Create and manage a comprehensive website

Make sure you have a functioning website immediately upon starting your business, or before you open your doors for business if at all possible. On your site, include helpful information about your company’s services. You will also need to include links to other, relevant, non-competitive sites, videos, pictures, and blogs if possible to create discussion with your clients and increase brand recognition with your client base.

Even if you cannot afford to go with a full-featured website, a basic site that has a professional design is absolutely critical. Companies with no websites are quickly considered to be too small to be of concern. Consumers almost always research a company’s website before making a purchase, so having even a basic site is important.

If you can’t afford a complex site, you can use a site like Blogspot.com or Wix.com and purchase a domain name of your own. From here, you can design a professional site fairly easily using the provided templates. Make sure to keep your blog up-to-date and take advantage of the blogging features as a way to create relevant commentary. Even if you have a professional website, creating a separate blog on which you post news, how-to articles, inspirational roundups, and anything else of relevance to your target audience is a great way to guide new customers to your site as well as create brand recognition.

Create company uniforms

Adding company t-shirts, uniforms, or simply dress codes will increase brand recognition. Your company will also appear more professional and competent. Once again, this is where your logo can come in very handy.

Uniforms are not necessarily a complete wardrobe. You may just stick with a ball cap or a logo on a polo shirt. The key is to get your brand in front of customers on a regular basis. The more they see it, the more likely they will remember you when they need your services.

Establish a formal brand definition

Make sure your marketing designs adhere to basic design principles and you stick with consistent use of colors and logos. A brand definition does not have to be complicated; in fact, some can be defined on a single page. The key is to include your color swatches you want to use and re-use, your logo, and the fonts you plan to stick with throughout your marketing campaign. You can go so far as to define the voice or tone of your marketing campaign and other stylized details.

Some brand definitions are incredibly exhaustive, pushing several hundred pages. As a freelancer, you probably don’t have the time to create such a formal policy. But you should take the time to put your color swatches and logo files in a single location so you can find them quickly when needed. You can also save a short list of fonts you want to stick with if you end up taking the time to look through some sites like DaFont.com and finding some fonts you want to use for marketing purposes.

Create brochures

Brochures are capable of being used for multiple purposes. Hand them out at networking events, mail them to potential customers, or use them to elaborate on the range of services you provide when talking to clients. A brochure is an indispensable tool that you should keep on hand at all times.

Some simple points to remember with brochure design are to use professional photographs, be consistent with your brand, make sure to include contact information, and don’t be afraid to go over-the-top. Including your website, social media sites, and even a QR code are great ways to help prospects more easily connect with your business.

A big mistake made all too often in brochure printing is using a cheap design and print quality. A black image on yellow paper in a tri-fold shape doesn’t cut it these days. It’s better to not even have a brochure if you don’t make a polished finished product. Consider hiring a designer if you have no experience with marketing design.

Develop posters

Even as a freelancer you can take advantage of posters. If you can find out where your typical customer may spend some time as a group – a convention, for example – you can put posters up to grab attention. Use a QR code so they can quickly get to your website by scanning the poster with their smartphones.

A poster is one of those marketing materials that has to grab attention fast, so get the help of a designer to put together an eye-catching design that drives clients to your website or to call you. Keep in mind that the less information you include on the poster, the better. A large, catchy headline along with an irresistable image, possibly a line or two for extra explanation, and one or two contact methods (and your logo, of course) is about all that is needed on most advertising posters.

Send postcards

One of the least expensive ways to get your logo and brand in front of future customers and current clients is through a postcard campaign. Once again, you have to grab attention fast, so make sure your design is rock-solid and that you include an incentive, such as a coupon.

A postcard is another great place to include a QR code so that clients can scan it with a smartphone and go straight to your website or other campaign specific page. Posters can be a friendly reminder to stop by a special event, a "thank you" for being a client, or a call-to-action for a special sale. But never miss out on the opportunity to get your logo and brand integrated into the design and in front of customers.

Use professional cameras or hire professionals

Professionally rendered photographs and videos are a strong indication to potential clients that your business is serious and will deliver. Your website will stand out from the pack and promote the growth of your business. This is where hiring professionals may be better than investing in equipment, but the end product should be high-end.

Cheap looking graphics are design killers. Your marketing materials need to look professional and images that are low-quality can absolutely ruin a brochure or website, for example. You can also purchase professional photos from websites as well, but this is only for stock photos. If you have product-specific photos, your own bio image, or other unique photos needed, it’s worth getting professional gear or hiring a photographer to get these taken the right way.

Create an email signature

Each individual email you send out is an opportunity to include a marketing message. Include contact information, a web address, and a logo. Keep the signature simple. Avoid trying to cram too much information into this space as it’s annoying to get an email from someone whose email signature is far longer than the message.

Skip the long quotes or company mission statements. People don’t want to see these over and over. Your logo, on the other hand, is always appropriate, but keep the graphic small. You don’t want your graphics to be too large from a file size or image size standpoint.

Also, always left-align your content. Do not center or right-align your signature. Keep the design simple and standardized – the email signature is not where you want to try to stand out.

Create a company mission and vision statement

A company mission and vision statement can range from a single sentence to a paragraph. Create a statement that can be a reminder for employees and a guarantee to clients of your commitment to maintain a high level of performance and service. Use this statement where appropriate, such as on the company "About" page, in brochures, on business cards, and the like.

The mission and vision statements set the tone for what your company intends to do. You can keep this short and simple. Even statements to the effect of "to provide the highest level of customer service and professional service in the {your industry here}" are fine and let your clients know you are serious about serving their needs.

This also helps potential customers understand what it is you do best. When new clients are researching you, they may not be familiar with your industry, and a concise statement of your vision can help them focus on your strengths. Just be sure that you write in a language that clients will understand. Leave the techie speak for your employee manuals and give prospects a clear picture of what it is you do.

Elevator pitch

Create a 30 second description for your company that details the service you provide. Practice the statement until you are capable of reciting it word for word. You don’t want to sound unsure about the service you provide, and any prospective clients will gravitate towards a confident presentation. You may never know when you might need to be able to quickly give someone a high-level pitch, so be ready!

While you may not go to the lengths of actually formalizing your elevator pitch, the key is to practice hitting the high points very quickly and concisely and then handing off your business card or brochure so you can continue the conversation later.

Resources

For more information, here are a few more resources for finding out how to make marketing work for your freelance business:

• 5 Tips for Professional Marketing Materials
• 8 Image-Building Tips
• Marketing Materials Checklist for Small Business

Product packaging is regarded as the most commonly seen illustration of graphic design. Aside from showcasing relevant and essential product details and facts, the packaging is now a fundamental... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

If you come to think of it, a user would not be pleased to look into a website that looks unorganized and confusing. That is why every designer has to see to it that every single aspect and detail of... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Responsive design is obviously a popular topic in the web design industry right now, and WordPress continues to grow as one of the most popular content management systems. Many bloggers and site owners who are using WordPress are interested in having a responsive website, and the result is a quickly-increasing number of responsive themes that are available for WordPress.

In this post we’ll take a look at 55 responsive WordPress themes, including free and premium themes. The majority of the themes showcased here are premium. Although there are some good free responsive themes available, the time and effort required to create one is rather significant, so most of the good ones must be purchased. There are more free responsive themes available aside from the ones we’ve mentioned here, but we tried to showcase only the best ones regardless of whether they are free or premium.

Free Responsive WordPress Themes:

Skeleton

Responsive Twenty Ten

Meeta

BonPress

Mixfolio

Respo

Orion

Leon

Origin

Oxygen

Hatch

Yoko

iTheme2

Premium Responsive WordPress Themes:

Hero ($49)

Uber ($49)

Reveal ($49)

Infinity ($49)

DailyJournal ($39)

Trim ($39)

Pioneer ($35)

Angular ($35)

Swagger ($35)

innoVative ($35)

Office ($35)

Zig Zag ($35)

Next ($35)

Gigawatt ($30)

Aware ($35)

Propulsion ($40)

Good Minimal ($35)

Reaction WP ($35)

Good Space ($35)

PixelPower ($35)

Super Skeleton ($35)

Whitelight ($70)

SMPL ($70)

Unsigned ($70)

Shelflife ($70)

Olya ($70)

Beveled ($70)

Currents ($70)

PhotoTouch ($39)

Simfo ($39)

Micro ($50)

LitePress ($69)

PhotoNote ($69)

Momento ($60)

Knead ($60)

XO ($35)

Jigsaw ($35)

Akita ($35)

Website ($35)

ELOGIX ($35)

ProMotion ($35)

Modernize ($35)

For more WordPress resources please see:

• The Best WordPress Themes for Churches and Non-Profits
• 27 of the Best WordPress Themes for Photographers
• 25 of the Best Real Estate Themes for WordPress
• WordPress E-Commerce

Have you noticed that, for instance, when browsing the latest WordPress themes, they almost all include a slider of some sort, whether it is an image gallery or a content slider, or better still, has the capability to incorporate both?

Sliders are becoming increasingly popular because they resolve a lot of space problems. Content sliders can offer the viewer a lot of information in a small space, and both content sliders and image galleries can provide user-interaction.

Here we have rounded-up 15 jQuery content sliders and carousels, including a couple of tutorials, for your perusal.

jQuery Space-Saving Content Sliders and Carousels

TN3 Gallery TN3 Gallery is a jQuery image gallery with slideshow, transitions effects, multiple album options, CSS skinning and much more. It's compatible with all modern desktop and mobile browsers. It's the world's best photo gallery.

Anything Slider A fully-featured, customizable content or slide show slider.

Slide Deck Slide Deck comes bundled with a bunch of super-awesome features designed to save you development time and give you the flexibility to use it in a variety of ways - whether you're building anything from an image gallery, to a product tour and lots of things in-between.

Build a Content Slider with jQuery

There are a ton of tutorials already out there about creating content sliders with jQuery. So why bother writing another one? While I don’t think that the existing tutorials are incorrect, bad, or otherwise unacceptable, I haven’t found one that met my needs.

Slider Gallery This ‘product slider’ is similar to a straight forward gallery, except that there is a slider to navigate the items, i.e. the bit the user controls to view the items. Simple stuff. jQuery already has the plugins to create these effects so we don’t have to go about creating them ourselves from scratch.

Compact News Previewer The news previewer will show some list of articles on the left side and the preview of the article with a longer description on the right. Once a news on the left ...

Awkward Showcase Awkward Showcase is a plugin for the JavaScript Framework jQuery. We call it a Content Slider. But it can do more then just slide the content.

Coda Slider Effect Recreating this effect is simple to do if you know what plugins to use. There are plugins out in the wild already, but we want our jQuery to satisfy the following requirements: Degrades perfectly without JavaScript enabled, Sliding panels effect without hogging browser CPU, Next and previous buttons added using JavaScript because they hold no use without JavaScript.

Smooth Div Scroll The basic principle behind Smooth Div Scroll is simple: let one div  scroll inside another div.Ether two hotspots are used to trigger the actual scrolling or you can let it autoscroll. The scroll Wrapper determines how much of the scrollableArea that should be visible - everything outside the scrollWrapper is hidden from view.

Wow Slider The most strong and popular web design trend over last couple of years is a sliding horizontal panels also known as Sliders or Carousels. It's a very effective method to increase the web site usability and engage the user.

Simple Controls Gallery Displays images either as an automatic or manual slideshow, with the image faded into view over the previous. A Navigational Panel slides up when the mouse rolls over the gallery to play, pause, or step through to a specific image within the gallery. In automatic mode, set the number of cycles before the script stops rotating.

Making a Content Slider With jQuery

There will be too many of these elements to display at once, so we can use the slider to move the different content blocks in and out of view. jQuery UI is the official library of widgets and utilities built on top of jQuery; it’s very easy to use, highly configurable and robust, and extremely easy to theme.

Start And Stop Slider

A little while back I did a tutorial on a Featured Content Slider. It was neat, but a little limited in customization possibility. The two most requested features were being able to add/remove "panels" and a stop/start button.

Agile Corousel Slider Implement your slideshow with the Agile Carousel JQuery plugin. Highly customizable so you can build according to your requirements. JSON data format is used to provide easier integration with external data or data from your CMS. Use it for agile web development.

Create a Slick and Accessible Slideshow Create a usable and web accessible slideshow widget for your site using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (jQuery). In the process, you’ll see the concept of Progressive Enhancement in action.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that sliders of one kind or another are becoming the trend, they are eye-catching and effective, as well as providing enormous space-saving opportunities.

Do you have a favorite slider or carousel that we have missed from this list? Please share your links and comments with us in the section below.

• QuickValidate: Building a jQuery Validation Plugin
• 15 Stunning jQuery Lightbox Plug-ins for Your Upcoming Designs
• 15 Simple & Effective jQuery Plugins that Enhance Your Forms
• Animating Colors: Using CSS3 Transitions with jQuery Fallback

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In this giveaway, we’ve teamed up with our friends at TheAdStock to give five lucky Six Revisions readers each 100 points of credit (worth $99) that they can use on TheAdStock stock photography site. Read on to find out how you can be one of the five lucky winners!

About TheAdStock

TheAdStock is a stock photography site where you can buy images for your banner ads, websites, blogs, flyers, brochures and other advertising materials, digital or printed.

Check out their growing collection of stock images (they add to the collection each week).

TheAdStock was created by Smartketer LLC, the same company that came up with BannerSnack (an online banner generator). TheAdStock was a natural step in the company’s efforts to help users create the best banners. The idea grew into a collection they’d like to offer to anyone who’s into making ads, websites or prints, to help make their jobs simpler.

Smartketer has other tools for creative professionals such as SliderWall, SnackTools and JS Charts.

Follow TheAdStock on Twitter and Like them on Facebook.

How to Win

For a chance to win, simply answer the following question in the comments:

• How would 100 points on TheAdStock be useful to you?

Giveaway Details

This giveaway ends on Tuesday, May 29, 2012, after which the comments section on this post will be closed and you will no longer be able to leave a comment. Please leave a valid email address when filling out the comment form so that we can contact you if you’ve won. Please only comment once. The winners will be randomly selected using a similar method as previous Six Revisions giveaways. The winners will be announced on a separate post. You are advised to subscribe to our RSS feed so that you can be quickly notified when the winners announcement post has been published. Please note that comments are moderated and so your comment may not show up right away. Please note that comments that do not follow the instructions on how to win (described above) may not be published, or may be removed later on.

Related Content

• Excellent Examples of Using Photos in Web Design
• 26 Professional Photoshop Retouching Tutorials
• 22 Professional Photoshop Image Enhancing Tutorials
• Related categories: Tools and Resources

About the Author

Jacob Gube is the Founder and Chief Editor of Six Revisions. He’s also a web developer/designer who specializes in front-end development (JavaScript, HTML, CSS) and also a book author. If you’d like to connect with him, head on over to the contact page and follow him on Twitter: @sixrevisions.

It’s not just me; I’ve asked around: You will probably be your own very worst client. Ever.

Every trade has a similar story to the point where it’s almost cliché: the carpenter’s house is falling apart, the mechanic’s car is a rattling jalopy, and the barber is a balding chatty guy who’s always forcing loved ones into drawn-out awkward small-talk. It only makes sense then that the web designer’s site would be mired in all sorts of miserable problems.

Working on your own site is incredibly hard! You’ve just worked all day on other people’s websites, now you’re going to do yours, on your own time — for free. Ugh! Add to this the pressure of doing your “best work”; you start thinking of incredible ideas and scope-creeping the possibility of it being doable into oblivion.

We’re web designers — this medium is our message, but it’s also where most of our amazing community spends a lot of free time. The pressure to do something outstanding can be pretty crushing. All too often we psych ourselves out, or produce something that doesn’t satisfy.

You’re not alone in this struggle.

I recently refreshed my own personal site into its tenth iteration. That’s right. I’ve done this ten times. The previous nine times have been the dismal and painful worst-case experience I’m talking about. I have been a terrible client. I’ve been demanding, unreasonable, and had vague goals. I never gave this problem much thought until this recent work. These are all symptoms of being unfocused, and not looking at the problem objectively.

If this is something you have gone though, or are in the midst of now it’s time to approach this project different than you would a client’s site. For version 10 for ArleyM.com I decided not to compromise anymore. I invented a few ground rules for myself right from step one. This made the project a joy to work on.

Every client is different (especially when the client is you!) Consider reworking these, or making your own rules to fit with your project:

1. Have fun with it

Self explanatory: if I’m not enjoying working on it, I won’t enjoy the end product, and I’ll never update it. This is my free time. I need a personal project to be fun; this can’t be just-another website. I wasn’t working to a goal or deadline, so I had a freedom to make this rule: the instant this work becomes a drudgery I will go and do something else. I’ll come back to this when I’m feeling inspired and pumped about it again.

2. Break your own rules

This goes hand-in-hand with step one. At work I keep best-practices in mind: write clean semantic code, and make a professional product worthy of our client’s money. I relate following rules to work, which isn’t always fun. At home I shouldn’t hold myself to these restrictions. Browser hacks? Sure! Messy code? OK! Doing crazy impractical things? Yup! I’m the boss of this website, so I will break rules if I feel like it.

3. Do something new

If you’re like me there are a few experiments and techniques that you’ve been itching to try. I like to think of my personal site as a production-level sandbox. Your take on some new technique, or trying out something that’s never been done before will make your site fun, and in the end will score you some traffic from your peers. I put a lot of time and thought into different things I wanted to try for my own site. I wrote about ten things I did on my front page on this post. The bonus to this is that it will stretch you and make you better for client projects too.

4. Be simple

The tendency is to over complicate things in the name of awesomeness. Keep in mind that simple olde-timey principle: Release Early, Release Often. You can iterate and add to your site – this isn’t print, you’re not committing this work for posterity. Think about specific problems on your current site that you’re trying to solve, and solve those. Your site doesn’t have to be everything to everyone when it launches. This sound familiar? We create requirements and goals with clients too! There is beauty in simplicity.

5. Go easy on inspiration

With so many amazing galleries out there like Dribbble, Awwwards, Best Whatever, etc. it’s way too easy to get inspiration overload. I actually usually find inspiration counter productive. Sometimes I’ll see work so great that I begin to feel like “it’s all been done”, or “it’s being done better than I can ever achieve”, or some other anti-inspiring counter productive nonsense. For me, inspiration is good to get thinking along the lines of a certain feel or aesthetic that a client is after – but for a personal project I already know what I like, and I usually have a good idea of how I want the site to look, feel and work. Force yourself to close all of those tabs, and get your head down.

These rules aren’t for everyone, but the spirit of them may be worth considering. I know I’m a “Production” guy, but it’s important to remember that for my own site I’m also the Account Manager, Project Manager, Content Coordinator, and client! For any work I ever do for myself in the future I will first write out a set of constraints like this.

Getting started

The first step is key. Have a reasonable to-do list. “ArleyM.com redesign” sat in my Gmail task list as a massive, daunting item for a very long time. Do you have a two word item on your list that represents an incredible amount of time and effort? That’s a terribly unmotivating starting point as I found out. Break that gigantic thing down into actionable steps, preferably tasks that can be done in less than an hour. Once you start making headway on a few of list items, creativity begins to snowball and the work becomes easy.

Keep going

The bad news is you’re never really done working on your site. Think of it as something continually in a state of progress. Regardless of whether you’re a terrible client to yourself, or an amazing one – you will always be your most important client, and as such you deserve regular and consistent attention.

I try to make time every week to look at polishing some detail, or writing blog posts, or simply getting involved in the conversation elsewhere online. My buddy Andy Patrick is really good at keeping his site fresh. His recent personal site redesign got some attention in online galleries, and he’s had a steady respectable amount of traffic. For many people this is the very definition of success, and a site that has reached the goal – but Andy is still tweaking pixels and details. This tiny, but regular attention will keep your site from transforming into that giant unkempt mess that you started with. Don’t be that designer who is constantly scrapping and rebuilding from scratch (trust me, I did it for years!), keep your project alive and evolving with consistent love. Andy’s approach has inspired me, and I have a list of the next three phases for upgrading my site over time.

Are you pumped? Ready to rock this thing now? My last bit of advice is to leave the computer, grab a pencil and pad and go somewhere far away from glowing screens and broadband access. Let the creativity flow and come back with a plan.

What are some barriers you’re creating that are stopping you from doing great work for yourself?

Today’s post is by Arley McBlain, a front end developer in Burlington, Ontario at Thrillworks. He has a passion for coding outside-the-box and creating unique web experiences. You can follow him on Twitter as @ArleyM.

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Without a doubt Google Maps has opened new windows to our world and enabled us to look at ourselves a little differently. The ingenuity of 3^rd party developers using the Google Maps API has created a dazzling array of apps and tools that range from the brilliant to the bizarre. Here are 30 of the coolest waiting for you to check them out.

Cool Uses of Google Maps API

The Wilderness Downtown Fantastic and revolutionary, Arcade Fire’s new music video The Wilderness Downtown enables web users to enter their childhood address to have Google Map images of the area appear within director Chris Milk’s film, creating instant nostalgia.

Tweeted Trips Simply by tweeting, Twitter users can generate a map of their journey, whether it is a vacation, road trip or cycle tour, enabling family and friends to chart their progress.

Zombie Outbreak Simulator Now available as an iPhone app, Zombie Outbreak Simulator places you in peril within a Google Map of your area overrun by marauding zombies. Kill the zombies to save your neighbours, except of course the one who won’t give your ball back.

Disney’s Giant Steps One the kids will love, this Google Maps based app lets you extend an invitation to beloved Disney character Goofy, who runs right up your street to the door of your house.

MapsTD This highly addictive tower defence game involves placing defence towers to stop invading attackers from overrunning a world generated using 8-bit map tiles and the Google Maps API.

Plane Finder Plane Finder is a rather ingenious real-time plane tracking tool that presents a clear view of the congested skies. It now also features cloud and weather layer viewing options.

Phresheez The smartphone app for skiers, cyclists, runners and hikers who not only want to chart their runs and routes on Google Maps, but have beautifully generated animations of them created to impress their friends.

Old Maps Online Cartography and history enthusiasts around the globe can now get access to historical maps published online by libraries, seeing the world through the eyes of those who came before us.

Streetviolence.org Launched by UK charity Witness Confident, Streetviolence.org is an interactive map allowing victims of muggings and assaults in London to pinpoint where the crime took place, alerting people to risky areas and enabling possible witnesses to come forward with information.

CNN iReport Map More and more news stories and footage are being sent in by citizens. The CNN iReport Map identifies where stories came from, what has occurred and enables people to share information about the events.

Floating Shiny Knot Choosing a chrome or glass finish, the viewer is treated to a wonderfully reflective shiny knot hovering through a Street View map, distorting the world around it in its mercury-like mirror.

Resource Intensity of Cities Focused solely on cities, this tool lets you hone in on any area of America’s cities to find out where over population is running rife.

Leafly Yes, this is real. Leafly enables people to find the finest marijuana dispensaries and strains available. The tool Cheech and Chong wished they had in their heyday, it’s all for medicinal purposes, of course.

Weather Hopper Nothing can wreck a vacation like poor weather. However, use this Google Map app and you will be prepared for all conditions as it gives a weather history for every inputted region imaginable.

KESM Brain Atlas Completely taking anything location related out of the equation, the boffins of Texas A&M University’s Brain Networks Laboratory instead used the Maps interface to capture brain scans of mice, in incredible detail. Who’d-a-thunk-it!

Startup Weekend Events In today’s economic climate budding entrepreneurs need all the help they can get. This innovative tool identifies weekend events where businesspeople can discuss their startups and seek advice.

Show Us Your Earth Hour 2012 The World Wildlife Fund has created a Google Map use enabling eco-friendly people around the globe to share pics and vids of the action they took to celebrate Earth Hour. A green way to Google.

Mapping Wikipedia Tracemedia and the Oxford Internet Institute have teamed up to create the Mapping Wikipedia project, indicating the source of all geotagged Wikipedia articles on an interactive map.

Save the Rain There are many environmentally friendly Google Map tools, revealing the laudable ethical stance of many developers. Save the Rain helps homeowners work out how much rainwater can be reaped from their roof.

CEO – Heatmap Another superb example of Google Maps being used to help combat climate change is the national CEO – Heatmap created by the UK’s Department for Energy and Climate Change, which helps people develop low carbon heat projects for their buildings.

AllTrails More than 45,000 hiking, skiing, biking and snowboarding trails have already been mapped out using the innovative AllTrails tool. Join the thriving community of 200,000+ members to share your daring routes and runs.

London Typographica Graphic design geeks will go mad for this awesome iPhone app enabling people to make a photographic record of publicly available typography adorning the streets of the big smoke.

Moet Rose Wanting to show your other half an epic display of your undying love, but don’t quite have the resources or effort to do it? That’s where this nifty little tool from Moet comes in handy. Using Street View, you can simply pick any location in the world and tag it up with slushy gold tags and squiggles.

State of Chaos Whether you’re an avid fan of Michael Bay, or you just hate the place you live; watch your place of residence get blown to smithereens in this thrilling, no holds barred joyride of a customized action flick.

First Peoples Language Map of British Columbia Discover and learn about the first languages ever spoken by all 203 First Nation communities of British Columbia, as well as how many people still communicate in the native tongue.

Minefold Minecraft continues to be an amazingly popular game. Minefold not only provides 10 hours a month free through their on demand servers, they also enable players to make an interactive Google Map of their Minecraft world.

Global Conservation Maps This tool uses the Google Maps API to show us how much is left of our worlds resources as a way to illustrate where the world should be focusing its efforts in preserving the environment.

We Tell Stories: “The 21 Steps” by Charles Cumming An example of innovative digital fiction using Google Maps, this first of six stories sees Charles Cumming rewrite John Buchan’s The 39 Steps. Check out the other great stories.

Earthquakes in the Last Week Utilizing the data from Google’s news, blog and video search options, this tool does pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. See where earthquakes have cropped up in the last week, anywhere in the world.

Map of the Dead At last, a Google Map detailing how to survive a zombie apocalypse (it’s on its way). Indicating zombie danger zones circling your abode, this fun tool helps you keep your brains. Out of my way!

Meograph While it’s still in beta, Meograph is essentially a four-dimensional storytelling experience that integrates videos, photos and imagery with Google Earth and Street View. It will be a great tool for learning about news and historical events, and, eventually, will offer the ability for everyone to indulge in pure narcissism by creating their own Meographs. Expected to open up for registration by this summer.

Fin

It’s impressive just how customizable the Google Maps API really is, especially in relation to KESM’s brain mapping example. While the Maps API can be a great tool for creating an interactive viral marketing campaign, it’s real benefit is evident in the education sector, as well as its use for non-profit purposes; especially in environmental issues.

If you’ve come across any other ingenious uses of the Maps API on your travels then please share them in the comments section.

(rb)

This is our weekly column were we share our favorite design related articles, resources and cool tidbits from the past week. Enjoy :) If you would like to receive our daily updates and keep up to date with the latest and greatest articles and resources from the design community, you can follow us on Twitter, on Facebookor by subscribing to our RSS feed.

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Here are our favorite webdev resources from the past week:

Jonathan Bergeron aka. Johnny Crap is a really skillful traditional illustrator from Quebec, Canada. Using a lot of popular references on his artworks such as Star Wars, Johnny got some hardcore feelings that remind me of the master Jim Phillips.

You can check his last updates on Johnny artworks on his Tumblr/Blog, he also got a Behance Profile.

This post is part of our daily series of posts showing the most inspiring images selected by some of the Abduzeedo's writers and users. If you want to participate and share your graphic design inspiration, You can submit your images and inspiration to RAWZ via http://raw.abduzeedo.com and don't forget to send your Abduzeedo username; or via Twitter sending to http://twitter.com/abduzeedo

Do you want to see all images from all Daily Inspirations? Check out http://daily.abduzeedo.com

AoiroStudio

Coolvibe

Fabio

Fabiano

Flyerfolio

Send your suggestions via Twitter to http://twitter.com/abduzeedo using #abdz in the end of the tweet.

@Daniel_Nelson

@LetMeBeInspired

Send your RAWZ suggestions via Raw.Abduzeedo.com

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INVALUABLEBOUTIQUE

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WhatAnART

  High Dynamic Range Photography is one of the fastest-growing trends in image manipulation today. HDR Photos are clearer, with more depth, than standard photos, making them breathtakingly crisp and clear and bringing out an almost 3D quality in the image using a greater range of shadows and tints to [...]