Archive by Author
Showcase of Magazine-Style Web Designs
Posted on 20. Feb, 2012 by Vandelay Website Design.
Magazine-style layouts are very popular for blogs and news sites that publish high volumes of content. This style of layout typically shows excerpts of headlines of articles from a variety of different categories or topics on the front page, allowing visitors to have easy access to more content compared to a typical blog-style layout.
In this post we’ll showcase 21 different magazine-style designs for your own inspiration.
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25 Dark and Amazing Website Designs
Posted on 15. Feb, 2012 by Vandelay Website Design.
While dark backgrounds don’t work well in all situations, they can help to create a great-looking website in the right situation. Looking for inspiration for designing a dark website of your own? In this post we’ll showcase 25 examples of beautiful dark websites to help get the creativity flowing.
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25 Nature-Inspired Websites
Posted on 14. Feb, 2012 by Vandelay Website Design.
Some of the most inviting website designs use elements inspired by nature. Whether it is a large photo background, an illustration of nature, or some other element, nature-inspired designs appeal to many visitors, and they are an ideal fit with certain industries and companies.
In this post we’ll showcase 25 nature-inspired websites for your own design inspiration.
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Showcase of Annual Report Design
Posted on 13. Feb, 2012 by Vandelay Website Design.
Annual reports are important for presenting information to a company’s investors, so having an annual report that looks professional and presents a good image can certainly help the cause. The design of the report is, of course, secondary to the content, but still important.
In this post we’ll showcase some examples of annual report design for your own inspiration. These samples come from the Behance Network, and in most cases you can see more images from each annual report by clicking on the image and following the link to Behance.
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Getting More Out of Your Blog Archives
Posted on 09. Feb, 2012 by Vandelay Website Design.
Bloggers typically dedicate a lot of thought and effort into topics that should be covered with their upcoming posts, and rightfully so, but older posts are often quickly forgotten both by the blogger and by readers. As a blog continues to publish new content the archives will grow larger and larger, and for many blogs the archives include a wealth of information and content that is not being maximized.
For most blogs, posts from the archives can continue to be useful for years to come (of course, this depends on the specific content of the post) if they are actually seen by visitors. The archives can be helpful for a number of different purposes, including attracting new subscribers, building a newsletter list, selling products, promoting your own services, promoting affiliate products, selling advertising, and more.
If your blog has been around for a while, chances are you have archives that could be doing more for you, and helping more readers at the same time. If you’re looking to get more out of your archives there are two things that you need to know first:
1. What posts from the archives are already attracting visitors? You probably have some specific posts that attract search engine traffic on a consistent basis, or maybe a popular website or blog linked to one of your posts and it results in a consistent flow of referral traffic.
2. What posts from your archives would you like to get more exposure? Maybe these are you best quality posts that would showcase your expertise, or maybe they would be good for promoting a related product or service.
Tips for Improving Posts That Already Attract Visitors
So you’ve done some analytics research and you know that a few of your posts attract a decent number of pageviews each month without any effort from you. Most likely they get a steady flow of traffic from search engines, but it could be other sources as well. The typical situation is that you probably created a quality blog post, it attracted some links, you haven’t paid any attention to it since then, but it still gets a steady flow of traffic. The traffic is great, but it could be much more valuable to you if that traffic is converted into something specific. That “something specific” will depend on your blog, the subject and content of the particular post, and the approach you want to take with your blog.
Here are some tips for getting more out of these types of blog posts.
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30 Unique Business Cards
Posted on 07. Feb, 2012 by Vandelay Website Design.
Unique business cards can help you to stand out to potential clients. Being more memorable will often result in being more likely to get hired. Fortunately, there are all kinds of possibilities to create unique business cards. In this post we’ll showcase 30 examples for your own inspiration.
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25 Websites with Awesome Backgrounds
Posted on 06. Feb, 2012 by Vandelay Website Design.
In recent years the use of large background photos and illustrations has become increasingly common in web design. In some cases the background image is the most distinct feature of the design.
There are all kinds of different backgrounds that can be used, like nature photos, nature illustrations, and abstract designs. In this post we’ll showcase 25 websites with impressive backgrounds that really make the sites stand out. If you’re looking to make a website or a design memorable, a large background may be a good option.
Museum of Science and Industry
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Design Inspiration: Blog Design Showcase
Posted on 31. Jan, 2012 by Vandelay Website Design.
Creating a quality blog design can be a significant challenge, because the design should add to the usability of the blog and should not overpower the content. Browsing through examples of beautiful blog designs can provide inspiration that can be put to good use in your own design work. In this post we’re showcasing 25 outstanding blog designs from various designers for your inspiration.
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20 of the Best jQuery Slideshow Plugins
Posted on 30. Jan, 2012 by Vandelay Website Design.
jQuery sliders, slideshows, and galleries are extremely common on a variety of different types of websites. Portfolio sites, blogs, e-commerce sites, and about any type of site can make use of a jQuery slideshow. Fortunately, there are a number of great plugins already coded that make it easy to add a slideshow in a matter of minutes. Each one offers different features and has it’s own style. In this post we’ll showcase 20 jQuery plugins that you may want to use for adding a slideshow in your own projects.
Slides
Slides is a jQuery slideshow plugin built for simplicity.Features include captions, multiple slideshows, and more.
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Ultimate Roundup of Photoshop Custom Shapes
Posted on 25. Jan, 2012 by Vandelay Website Design.
Photoshop presets like brushes and patterns get more attention, but custom shapes can be equally useful. Because custom shapes are vectors, they can be scaled to larger sizes with no decrease in quality.
In this post we’ll link to some of the best custom shapes sets that can be downloaded for free. As always when working with freebies, be sure to read the terms of use or license details to make sure that you are using it in accordance with the designer’s guidelines.
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Showcase of Outstanding Portfolio Websites
Posted on 24. Jan, 2012 by Vandelay Website Design.
Portfolio websites are a major marketing tool for most designers and design agencies. The portfolio site allows you to showcase your work, provide information about your services, and receive inquiries from those who are interested in your services. Portfolio sites are often examples of quality design work, as every designer wants to make a positive impression through the design and usability of the portfolio site.
In this post we’ll showcase 30 fresh examples of well-designed portfolio sites for your inspiration.
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25 Amazing Nightscape Photographs
Posted on 23. Jan, 2012 by Vandelay Website Design.
The same scene captured in a photo at night will have a completely different feel than one taken during the day. Night photos can be intriguing and amazing, but the low levels of light make them a challenge to master.
In this post we’ll showcase 25 examples of beautiful nightscape photos taken by various photographers. To see any of them in a larger size simply click on the image to be directed to the source.
You may also be interested in Showcase of Night Photography.
Photo credit: Byrd Thanakiatkrai
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25 Corporate Websites for Design Inspiration
Posted on 17. Jan, 2012 by Vandelay Website Design.
Every company, regardless of the industry, can benefit from a quality website. While design is certainly not the only factor in creating a quality website, it does play a significant role. In this post we’ll take a look at 25 excellent examples of corporate website design. You’ll see examples from a wide variety of industries, and hopefully this showcase can provide inspiration for your own work.
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How to Photograph Your Own Textures
Posted on 12. Jan, 2012 by Vandelay Website Design.
Textures are used all the time by designers for both web and print projects. A effective use of texture adds character and makes a design more interesting and appealing (for some examples see our post 35 Websites with Outstanding Use of Textures). At Vandelay Premier we provide high resolution textures to our members and customers, and there are of course countless other places where you can buy textures. However, creating your own textures is also an option, and in this article we’ll provide some tips to help make your texture photography more effective.
For the purposes of this article, we’re assuming that your goal for photographing textures is to use them in your own graphic design, or to distribute them to other designers. Someone who wants to photograph textures for the art of photography may approach things differently. We’re primarily interested in photos that will be highly useful for incorporating into graphic design. Scanning textures is also an effective option for flat objects like paper and fabric, but for this article we’ll focus on photographing textures.
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35 Stunning Infrared Photos
Posted on 11. Jan, 2012 by Vandelay Website Design.
Infrared photos are taken using a filter, allowing infrared light to pass through the filter while blocking other light. When used with infrared-sensitive film or sensors amazing results are possible. In this post we’ll showcase 35 examples of infrared photos from various photographers. If you want to learn more about infrared photography, this post is a good source of information.
Photo credit David A. Evans
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Design Trend: Circles
Posted on 10. Jan, 2012 by Vandelay Website Design.
Every now and then we like to look at a particular web design trend. You may have noticed a trend recently with sites using more circles in designs, especially circular logos. in this post we’ll showcase 35 examples of websites using circles, and hopefully it will provide some inspiration that can be put to use in your own work.
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Photoshop Actions for HDR Effects
Posted on 09. Jan, 2012 by Vandelay Website Design.
A few weeks ago we posted a showcase of beautiful HDR photography. True HDR photography involves taking multiple shots of the same subject with different exposures and combining them, but Photoshop allows you to mimic those effects with just one image. While you can always go through this process manually, there are also a number of Photoshop actions that can do the work for you very quickly. In this post we’ll highlight some of the best HDR Photoshop actions that will make it easy for you to create your own HDR images.
Premium HDR Photoshop Actions:
HDR Legendary Image Action by mrcharlesbrown $5
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Showcase of Creative Logos
Posted on 03. Jan, 2012 by Vandelay Website Design.
Logos are an important part of a company’s identity and branding efforts. Creative logos can help to convey something meaningful about the company and it’s products/services, or they can simply help to capture interest and to make the brand more memorable. In this post we’ll showcase more than 30 logos created by various designers. All of these logos are unique and creative in some way that makes them interesting and memorable.
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25 Beautiful Ecommerce Websites
Posted on 02. Jan, 2012 by Vandelay Website Design.
If done effectively, the design of an ecommerce website can help to improve the user’s experience, which will also improve the results for the company. While many ecommerce sites are lacking in terms of design quality, that is not the case with all of them. In this post we’ll showcase 25 websites that prove ecommerce websites can be attractive.
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Showcase of Splash Photography
Posted on 26. Dec, 2011 by Vandelay Website Design.
Photographs that capture a splash at just the right moment are always intriguing and captivating. In this post we’ll showcase 25 amazing photographs that show various splashes in action. To see them in a larger size please click on the image and you’ll be led to the source.
Photo credit: Dave Nitsche