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1. He has Photoshop, Dude.

Their nephew has a hacked version of Photoshop 7 that he pulled off of The Pirate Bay. That’s as good as any up to date design program you have, I assure you. He also is amazing at making reflections and stuff in there so, you’re already a step behind.

2. He’s Cheaper and/or Free

Let’s face it, good design costs money. When the clients nephew works for pizza or just a family favor his cost is already way less than you can conceive. He has no overhead because this is just a hobby. It’s also important to note that his quality will be better because he “knows”.

3. He provides unlimited revisions

That’s pretty self explanatory, you can’t even compete with that.

4. He has a longer client relationship than you’ll ever have

Their nephew has known them since he was born and well, you just met them. So, don’t take it to hard when you realize that they already have a lifetime of first hand experience with the client. The client saw their first steps. What did you see? Their poorly designed website and inquired about the re-design?

5. He will be praised at Christmas dinner (Where you won’t be)

What better time to haggle and praise him than at Christmas. His parents will be so proud that he is still working on this amazing site that they’ll brag about him to all the family. Heck, even the client will be there. You can’t offer this kind of service so, just hang it up already.

6. He’ll make the logo…well, bigger

He knows everything about the web already. He knows that a logo is better when it’s the biggest possible thing on the screen. Plus, he’s not afraid to make it bigger than you’re ever willing to make it.

7. He has Photoshop, Remember?

Again, Photoshop. He has it.

8. He practically created the interwebs

He’s had all kinds of classes in school like intro to keyboarding. He was basically around when Al Gore created the internet so, he knows all the tricks. He doesn’t even bother with SEO because capital letters are “teh suck“.

9.This Technically accurate list post says so

Because we know, that you know, we know. Ya know?

10. He has a Myspace account

Myspace is social media at its finest. He doesn’t have a twitter account or a website or waste time on analytics. He just puts up on myspace that he is a designer and viola. He is. Because out of all his 62 creepy old guy Myspace friends they’ll give him more traffic than you ever could through campaigns or any other well designed campaign launch.

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Selecting a color has not always been something that was achieved with just a few clicks. Color had to be collected from pigments of the earth and then dyed into fabric. You had to collect the berries to make the purple-ish/reds or dirt to get a brown. Color, binds the creative realm together be it graphic design, photography, interior design, textile design, transportation design etc. Of course you can take pictures in black & white or make a logo black with greys but the colors are where we can experience emotion. That emotion ties us to the image, art, design or product. The colors bring the brand, the curtains, the rug, the subject, the foreground or the background to life.

Do you just start picking colors and hope for the best or is there more science at work? In order to make your color picking easier there are several different color relationships that will help you along the way. These are the basic fundamentals of color wheel.

Primary Colors

Primary colors are the basis of the color spectrum. With these three colors, you can create any other color in the spectrum. Red, Yellow & Blue. This is a bold and powerful color scheme when used together.

Secondary Colors

Secondary colors are made by mixing two primary colors together. They lie opposite of the primary colors on the color wheel. Green, Violet & Orange. These colors are very bold like primary colors, when used together.

Tertiary Colors

The colors in-between the secondary & primary colors are what make up the tertiary colors. You can create these colors by mixing one primary color and one secondary color. Using tertiary colors as a color scheme is very bright and vibrant.

Monochromatic Colors

Monochromatic color schemes use a single hue (green above) and then use various tints and shades of that original color. They are very low in contrast but can be used very easily because of their simplistic nature.

Analogous Colors

Analogous colors are adjacent to each other on the color wheel. One of the colors is dominate while the others are accents for the main color. These schemes are easy to create and have unity and consistency.

Clash

Clash color schemes pair a first color with a second to the left or right of it’s color wheel compliment. Clash colors are VERY bold and have high contrast. The more colors you add the harder it is to make clash colors work effectively.

Split Complementary

Split complementary colors are created by taking the colors directly beside your original colors compliment. (purple above so yellow is purples compliment) Split complementary colors can be very difficult to make work correctly. Try using one color as the main color and the other two as accent colors.

Neutral

Neutral colors are a mix of a hue and its compliment and is sometimes mixed with black. These colors schemes are not bright and commanding but they can be calm & effective.

Tertiary Triad

Tertiary triads are a set of three tertiary colors that are equal distance from each other on the color wheel. Tertiary triads are some of the least recognizable color schemes. They are very vibrant and comfortable to the eye.

Download the Color Wheel in Vector Format

File Type: Ai
Number in Set: 1
License Type: Creative Commons 3.0
Author: Chad Engle

Ai – Illustrator Download

Compatible with CS1+ and comes with 1 color wheel.

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Do designers dream in Pantone with visions of rainbows in their heads? Color is a vital part of any graphic designer’s life – after all, they’re the ones paid to come up with pleasing color combinations that will sell a product. That’s why you often see a bold use of color for logos (think Pepsi’s use of primary-color red and blue) as well as websites (such as Graphic Design Blog’s paint-spattered header). While color definitely garners attention, there are times that black and white or a sepia tone will generate a different feeling. Think of how The Wall Street Journal, with its use of black and white, commands a serious, all-business sense, or how photos from the 1800s and early 1900s have an old-timey look with their sepia tone. Here are some more examples.

David Airey's blog

Graphic designer David Airey maintains a simple website with clean lines and black text on a white background. That lets the color photos on his blog – which are often of his work – shine through. The lesson here? Use black and white when you want other elements, such as your portfolio pieces, stand out.

i live here:SF blog

Nothing says “classic” like a tone down from bright colors. Color photos can be beautiful, of course, but sometimes they can be garish. A sepia tone works well when you want to use a photograph on, for example, invitations, memorial service cards and business cards, because it conveys a sense of respect. A two-tone color scheme also works for the website example above because it creates a sense of contentment and relief; a full-color photo would have signaled more joy, but the essay – about recovering from cancer – is more about a happiness well earned after a lot of heartache.

Graphic design is not always about flashy and new. There is a time and a place to go back to basics and choose black and white instead of color. Just be sure to identify what feeling you want to bring out with your project as well as how you want yourself or your client to be represented.

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The advent of mobile phone internet access has signaled a change in the job description of the average web developer. Designing websites for a (relatively) simple desktop browser is now only one part of web development, and web developers must adapt to the surge in popularity of the smaller, mobile format.

So to help make sure this little transitional phase runs as smooth as possible, we’ve collated a list of top tips to ensure you’re fully prepared and equipped to take things mobile.

Image: williamhook

1. Recognize The Difference

Perhaps the most important thing to remember when designing for the mobile web is that it is a completely different format than that of the desktop browser. As a developer, it is important to get into the mindset of treating the mobile web world separately.

For example, lazy or slack coding that may go unnoticed on a large scale could be crucial when dealing with the much more concise mobile format.

2. Simplify Your Design

A key principle to bear in mind is that when it comes to the mobile web, simple is always better. Whether it be the visual design of the page, the actual coding or the content itself, trimming it down to its most simple is always most effective.

Simply taking a web page and downsizing it to fit on a mobile screen will look cluttered and unreadable. Follow the example of sites like Digg and keep your page lean and stripped to the bare bones.

3. Be Flexible

Just as the mobile format differs from the desktop, a level of flexibility is needed within the format itself. For example, when designing graphics, consider screen size, shape and resolution: designing one uniform graphic and expecting it to fit every phone type would be a grave error!

4. Test, Test, Test

With so many different formats to consider, regular and effective testing is an absolute must. It doesn’t matter how you do it, whether it be renting time, buying a range of phones to experiment with or simply asking your friends and colleagues to give up their phones for a few minutes, there is no substitute for real time testing.

5. Prioritize Your Pages

The amount of time people spend browsing on phones is minimal compared to on their home computers or laptops, so you need to make sure the page gets the most important information across first. Users often only tend to browse for minutes at a time, so if they can visit your page and get the information they need in seconds they will be sure to visit again in future.

6. Know Your Audience

If you’re going to prioritize your pages, you’ll need a good grasp of your target audience. For example, if your page is a general blog mainly used for casual browsing, you will want to keep most of the detailed information off the front page, looking more for a general overview.

It may seem overkill, but it’s these seemingly trivial issues which can a separate and average page from a very good one.

7. Keep Up To Date

Like most forms of modern technology, the mobile phone is constantly developing, and as a developer, it’s your job to keep up with the latest advancements. Take the iPhone as an example. It completely revolutionized mobile browsing, and its thousands of applications mean you can do pretty much anything from it.

The takeaway here is that as a developer, you simply can’t afford to be left behind by the fast paced progress of the mobile world.

8. Pick Your Domain

When it comes to choosing a domain name for your site, try and keep it as close to your normal domain name as possible. Perhaps the best way of doing so is to simply create a sub domain, which means the user doesn’t have to remember a second domain name and makes advertising a lot easier. Again, simplicity will see you reap the rewards in the long run.

9. Deal With Images

When designing for a desktop browser, a huge, eye-catching image is often a great solution to help improve the page’s visuals. However, images have to take a back seat to some extent when it comes to the mobile web. High resolution images, especially at the top of the page, can cause the page to take an unnecessarily long time to load, so try and keep images small. Image optimization is also a great way to make sure whatever images you use are of a high quality for the format.

10. Reduce Page Length

Many smaller devices actually restrict the amount of screen size that is available for any particular application, so often the ability the scroll both horizontally and vertically can be an issue.

There are a number of ways to get round this problem, perhaps most efficiently by presenting users with an intuitive means of internal navigation where they can quickly access other pages. This way, you can keep the amount of information on each page as minimal as possible.

11. Optimize Graphics

Graphic design for the mobile web requires some real restraint from the designer, especially one who’s used to developing large scale, intricately artistic creations. Their complex beauty often goes unnoticed on the small screen, hence designs often work best when kept particularly clear-cut. Stick to straight lines and contrasting colors to make your graphics stand out.

12. Play It Safe

As previously mentioned, lazy mark up will be much more damaging to a mobile web browser than a desktop. So when it comes to mark up, make sure all tags are supported to ensure your page comes out looking and functioning as well as possible.

For example, features such as tables and nested tables can take much longer to render on a mobile phone because they typically have much less powerful processors, and many casual browsers will just navigate away from your page instead of waiting!

13. Utilize White Space

An error that many inexperienced developers make is to think that because the format is smaller, it’s okay to cram the pages full of a content, so much so that the user can barely make sense of the screen. This is not good.

The right way to do it? Embrace white space. Yet again, the minimalist approach is key. Don’t be afraid of blank spaces: they simply keep the user’s attention focused on the content that really matters.

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My favorite place to go for Grid based design information is The Grid System. It’s a ‘must bookmark’ in my opinion. Don’t forget to check out the new Grid System Forum too. I’m a minimalist designer so I believe the grid is one of the most important elements of web design. There are many articles and resources on the web, I’ve chosen to pick through them all and compile my best resources/tools all in one fell swoop. Keep in mind, there are plenty of list posts out there but these are my ‘go to’ grid resources.

After all – why would you want to search for it if I’ve done it for you?

Tools

1. Grid Maker
2. 960.gs
3. Fluid 960 Grid System
4. The Golden Grid
5. Grid Calculator
6. Gridmaker for Photoshop CS4
7. Baseline Rhythm Calculator
8. Typogridphy
9. Gridr Buildrrr
10. Grid Layouts
11. GridFox
12. Illustrator 974px Grid System
13. Sharing the Grid
14. 960px Photoshop Grid Template
15. Grid Bookmarklet
16. Layout Grid Bookmarklet
17. JQuery Grid Plugin

Gallery/Showcase

1. Design By Grid Showcase
2. Grid and Column Designs

How To

1. Grid Design Basics – Grids for web page layouts
   
2. Grid-Based Design 101
3. Grid-based Layout
4. Designing Grid Systems For Flash
5. Design A Fresh Blog Theme On The 960 Grid
6. Grid-Based Design: Six Creative Column Techniques
7. Typographic Grid
8. GridControl: A Grid Overlay System for Design Development
9. Prototyping With The Grid 960 CSS Framework
10. Seven Smooth Steps to Superb Grids
11. Designing with grids in Photoshop

Wordpress Themes

1. Grid-A-Licious
2. Grid Focus
3. Modern Clix

Noteworthy Articles

Mark Boulton

1. Subdividing ratios
2. Ratios and complex grid systems
3. Grid systems for web design: Part 1
4. Grid systems for web design: Part 2 Fixed
5. Grid systems for web design: Part 3 Fluid
6. Why use a grid?
7. Grids are good – Design – SXSW
8. Feeling your way around grids

Warspire

1. Grids in Both Directions

A List Apart

1. Thinking Outside the Grid
2. Setting Type on the Web to a Baseline Grid
3. Fluid Grids

Subtraction

1. Grid Computing… and Design

.NET Magazine

1. Designing with grids

Cameron Moll

1. Gridding the 960

Divito Design

1. 960 CSS Framework – Learn the Basics

Smashing Magazine

1. Applying Divine Proportion To Your Web Designs
2. Designing With Grid-Based Approach

Design View

1. Quiet Structure

Aisle One

1. Grids In The Real World

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This continues with Part 3 of Typography is Sexy – except this time Brian from Elite by Design suggested I do a web typography focus, I hope you enjoy it! Don’t forget to check out part 1 and part 2.

Jon Tangerine

Hot Meteor

octwelve

FutonMedia

e house studio / blog

Jason Reed

Viget Labs

The Deck Network

Bob Galmarini

Abigail Wynne

dawghouse design studio

Function

Jeff Sarmiento

Winnie Lim

DM2 Interactive

New Concept

AIGA DC

Sean Klasson

The things we make / Mike Kus

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Face

Scott Hanson

Death By Colour

Isaac Tobin

Print Magazine

A2/SW/HK

Seeking Inspiration 2008

Parachute / PF Amateur Font

Cameron Moll

Watafak

Harmonie Interieure

Sarah King / Evening Tweed

Hyperakt Design Group

Alejandro Paul via Flickr

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What the heck is Behance?

Behance is a place where creative individuals can showcase their work. You can build dynamic, multimedia portfolios that are open to all or shared selectively. Thousands of visitors come to Behance so you can gain exposure to your work. This may sound like an ad for Behance, but it’s definitely not. I use Behance myself, but haven’t had a chance to upload all my work yet. It’s a great place to network, using their Groups or Circles feature. There is also a section on Tips & Resources called “Tip Exchange” which is very helpful! Oh and did I mention you can look for jobs too?

It’s one of the better, well organized portfolio sites and best of all – it’s free!

You can join Behance here.

Criteria used in evaluating the hottest portfolios:

1. Style & Typography
2. Skills in different mediums
3. Presentation
4. Range in the collection of work
5. Quality & Hotness!

Time to be inspired:

James White / Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Behance Portfolio
Website

J Kaczmarek / New York, NY, United States
Behance Portfolio
Website

Andy Gugel / Minneapolis, MN, United States
Behance Portfolio
Website

Pino Lamanna / Wuppertal, Germany
Behance Portfolio
Website

Mike Campau / Birmingham, MI, United States
Behance Portfolio
Website

Florencia Mazza / Buenos Aires, Argentina
Behance Portfolio
Website

Pete Harrison / Paignton, United Kingdom
Behance Portfolio
Website

Tony Ariawan / Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Behance Portfolio
Website

Jerico Santander / Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
Behance Portfolio

David Fuhrer / Bern, Switzerland
Behance Portfolio
Website

Andrew Dyjak / Jastrzebie Zdroj, Poland
Behance Portfolio

Barral Fabien / Clermont-Ferrand, France
Behance Portfolio
Website

NUFABRIC / Sofia, Bulgaria
Behance Portfolio
Website

Jeremy Snowsill / Auckland, New Zealand
Behance Portfolio
Website

Peter Jaworowski / Warsaw, Poland
Behance Portfolio
Website

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My Top 24 Favorite Websites (Portfolio Focused) Please keep in mind the focus of this post was not the actual work inside the portfolio (although awesome), it was to show the best portfolio design websites.

Many of my choices happened to be one page design portfolios. I always tend to gravitate towards the one-pagers because of the simplicity and easy to follow flow. I don’t like to click around to hunt good work down. If it takes me more than 5 seconds to locate your portfolio – then I am off to another site. My own portfolio is a one page site. Through my research in finding the best designed portfolio sites I looked at grids (which always hold my attention), typography and navigation / layout of the site.

If your looking for even more inspiration in designing your new site or even thinking about updating, you can look at one page love, full single & one page folios for one page sites. I recommend wplovewp for looking at blog type portfolios & faveup for flash & css sites.

———————–<Top 23><in no order>———————–

Jason Reed
Great colors & Typography
Nice work section – simple overlay, very effective. Nice focus.

Diego Zambrano
Single page, colors are so vibrant. Great portfolio!

Robbie Manson
Nice use of white space & grid design

Paul Cayrol
One page portfolio – great spacing, work pops on the background. It’s delicious.

Rob Young
Very interesting navigation, make sure to click on project details,
it’s pretty cool.

Patrick Corrigan
Absolutely love this portfolio layout. Great design. Feels almost retro to me.

David Ruiz Rincon
I admit, I can’t read any of it but it kept my interest with the layout
of the page/portfolio & I love the subtle images in the background.

Christian Wieners
Minimalist. Great use of images under the transparent logo.
Very cool way to create a portfolio.

Scott Mackenzie
Lots of information but it’s laid out so nice it doesn’t bother me that the images are small. Nice work.

Ivan Aleksic
Nice interesting use of overlays, great site design.

Alex Dukal
Great Illustrator, this portfolio is a must see. Soft grungy feel.

Mike Peters
Nice clean layout, love the sliding buttons, great use of a one page site.

Shane Seminole Mielke
Portfolio layout is beautiful. Simple with a great focus on the work.

Chuck Anderson
Tasty! Just enough white space between these colorful images. Text nicely aligned.

Danny Blackman

Check out the scroll button. Wasn’t sure if it was too distracting at first but the
artwork as you scroll is really catchy. Feels like more than one page!

William Smith

These colors are done just right together. Can’t miss the featured work,
the integration of the portfolio has a really great style.

Cesar Villegas

Mmmm…black. I am a sucker for black & white. These paragraphs are fully justified which
looks amazing. Spacing, colors and images are perfect.

Sergio del Puerto

Love the newspaper feel, placement & large type with the work jumps out just right.

Alexandru Cohaniuc

Very crisp & clean. Make sure to check out the sliding left side. I like how it reveals the
selected work.

Takashi Nakano

The hierarchy is amazing. Love the thumbnails and text on the left. Simple & clean.

Sebastien Nikolaou

Lots of scrolling on this one pager. The lines are amazing & everything lines up perfectly.

Daryl Campbell

Love the pattern behind the work, it’s not too crazy and I can still focus on the images.
Simple yet so effective.

Leigh Taylor
This was my last entry-and I am glad I caught it before I published. This porfolio design
was literally JUST completed. I think this ranks in my top 2. The background is so subtle &
yummy. Great colors & my favorite part are the “buttons” & “tabs”. Great design!

Greig Anderson

This portfolio was brought to my attention – I hate it when I miss a good one! So because I
can — I am updating it to 24 Kick Ass Portfolio Designs. This one has a great feel, very tasty
& the work is awesome too. Take a look, you won’t be disappointed!

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In case you missed it, Apex Design has posted a great roundup of 40+ Minimalist Web Designs.

Here is a short excerpt and as usual I have posted my 2 favorites below. You can check out their full post via #.

(Via Apex Design) – To start off my short series of articles on minimalist designs, I collected over 40 minimalist web designs to showcase what minimalist design looks like for those of you who are not familiar with it, and to provide inspiration for those of you who do…

Creative And Live – Simple and clean, with usability in mind.

Design Intellection – Interesting CSS tricks.

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Be sure to check out this great post by Six Revisions, “35 Beautiful Bright, Colorful Web Designs” via#.

I have posted my two favorites below.

StrawPoll

GiantPeach

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My personal list of 32 websites that inspire creativity and web design. Most of my favorites are because of the simple grid based design, typography and layout (oh and don’t forget the great content!)

Hope some of you find this list useful as I did!

Design View / Andy Rutledge

Jesus Rodriguez Velasco

Design Reviver

Webstock

Subtraction / Kohi Vinh

Statsu Design

Web Designer Wall

Hell Yeah Dude

Red and Blu

Daniel Mall

My Starbucks Idea

Simplebits

Street BMX

Warpspire

Carsonified

Mike Poss

Subdued

happilycreate

Loris Stavrinides

Alltop

Henry Jones

Designing The News

Authentic Boredom / Cameron Moll

Weightshift

5am-Studio / Samuel Bismes

Future of Web Apps / Carsonified

Hicks Design

Jason Santa Maria

Hebatec

Juxt Interactive

Erratic Wisdom

Basmati Tree

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This post just came across my feed reader and I had to spread the love. There are some amazing designs for the footer of a website, makes me want to re-do my own right now! Very inspirational.

Original article via Smashing Magazine

I have also chosen to post my two favorites below.

Bart-Jan Verhoef

YoDiv