The Snazzy Web: Four Trends in Innovative Web Design

By Michelle Shull, July 9th, 2009 in Design Articles, Web Design | 4 Super Comments

Four styles dominate the current trends in web design. Many lists have been compiled of the best examples of each, so in this article we’re going to examine what makes each style unique.

Hand-Drawn

Hand-drawn web design is a relatively new innovation, although I have seen some web designers experimenting with the concept for a few years. I think some of the inspiration for this trend has come from scrapbookers and crafters. This style typically avoids any of the traditional “boxy” elements found in most conventional websites, instead relying on a more casual, freeform design.

Many hand-drawn sites use extra elements, like sticky notes or other embellishments, to achieve a very creative and personal design style. (Of course when some of these creative twists become ubiquitious they no longer seem so personal!) We can see lots of hand-drawn detail in television actress Mariska Hargitay’s personal website, below.

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Change Is Coming, Change is Good

By Scott, June 25th, 2009 in Updates | 6 Super Comments

Welcome to the spoonfed revolution

I’m not a big fan of “state of this blog” type posts. But here we go anyway, because I need to introduce myself. My name is Scott. Matt has moved on to bigger and better things, and now it’s in my hands to make Spoonfed Design a bigger and better blog.

First the basics. Great original design articles, tips and tutorials, and discussions of inspiring work have always been what Spoonfed Design is all about, and will remain so. But you will also be seeing some changes in the months ahead, as SFD adopts a new look and branches out in some new and perhaps unexpected directions. As that process gets underway, I want to take this opportunity to ask for the continuing support of the great community of designers, graphic artists and other readers already established here. Don’t abandon this ship–regular posting will resume soon! (more…)

20 Budgeting, Planning, and Management Applications for Freelancers

By Matt, May 7th, 2009 in Design Tools, Freelance | 10 Super Comments

Productivity is of the essence for freelancers and designers on a team. Here is a list of twenty applications, most geared toward freelancers, to help increase productivity and efficiency. Included in the list are web applications and software for task management, invoicing, billing, budgeting, and more. Got any to add to the list? Feel free to leave a comment!

1. Things

Things is a very highly rated and popular task management Mac application. Within a great interface, you can mange to-do items with several organization features. You can organize items with tags, areas of responsibility, by importance, and more

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A Quick and Easy Sunburst Effect in Photoshop

By Matt, April 29th, 2009 in Photoshop, Tutorials | 5 Super Comments

Today we will look at a quick and easy way to add a sunburst to photographs, using an image editor such as Photoshop. This can be a great way to liven up images, and it can be a lot of fun to play around with. Look at the image below; this shows what will be creating.

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Hover Effects in Web Design: Best Practices and Examples

By Matt, April 15th, 2009 in Design Tips, Web Design | 30 Super Comments

Design is in the details. No matter what field of design you work with, you will always hear that, because it is very true. The slightest details have a direct effect on the design as a whole. This is true in web design, too. Everything from the amount of white space between two interface elements to the size of a header will impact a website. Another one of those details is hover effects.

In navigation, usability is essential; hover effects not only help styling but they also help usability. Why is that? A good hover effect will tell a user when they have a link under focus, and which link they have under focus.

In the following article, I will go over the best practices and techniques for hover effects. I will be using over 30 examples to show good use of hover effects.

Gradient Hovers

The more common type of hover effect is the gradient. There are many uses of this, here are a few.

Gradient vs. Gradient

Take a look at the navigation shown below to understand what this means. The normal button, not under focused and not selected has a gradient fill that goes from darker at the bottom to lighter at the top. When under focus, the gradient flips from dark at the top and light at the bottom. This is an especially good hover effect because the hover button is very different from the normal, and adds depth to the design. Look at the two buttons side by side. You can very easily determine the difference between the two. This is essential what you should aim for: hover effects that are easily recognizable and distinguishable.

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Design a Clean Corporate Website With Illustrator

By Matt, April 12th, 2009 in Tutorials, Web Design | 40 Super Comments

Corporate web design is rather simple, because it often follows basic guidelines and trends. Today, we will go over the complete process of creating a clean and relatively simple corporate web design using Adobe Illustrator.

I will talk about the best techniques and approaches to creating a web design started in Illustrator, which is a great tactic. The image below shows what we will be creating. This style of design can be used universally, as it follows many trends, and looks very professional. We will use the most common corporate structure, which consists of a header, an introduction with welcome text and screenshots, and a simple grid-based information layout. After completing the interface in Illustrator, I will go over how to use the Slice Tool to prepare the design for the development stage.

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Welcome to SFD v1.0!

By Matt, April 8th, 2009 in Updates | 5 Super Comments

SFD has been has been in what one may call “beta” mode for some time now, but the version 1.0 is finally here! After a large amount of development and planning Spoonfed Design version 1.0 is finally here, and there’s a lot of new stuff to dive into.

An All New Look

First and foremost, you will notice the all new design. It is a clash of a simple content layout, with a detailed and vibrant background and header illustration. The illustration is a mix of vector shapes and paths, lighting effects, and elements that relate to design, such as the iMac.

Get Paid Up to $150 to Write for SFD

Another big update is the guest posting system. In an effort to get more writers to share their knowledge, we are offering $100 to $150 for articles. If you want to write for SFD, give me a shout via matt@vaeou.com, I’d love to have you on board.

Community Links Feature

SFD is growing as a community, so we are now offering a new feature to support the community, a community links feature. This is located in the sidebar, and you can add links to your work, blog posts, articles, and other useful resources.

Threaded Comments

Furthermore, we have fixed up the comment form, and one new feature is threaded comments. You can now reply to specific comments very easily. Just click the “Reply” button under a comment to do so.

New Navigation and Daily Inspiration

Finally, there are numerous features that were moved and altered. First, the navigation was moved to the sidebar. Also, the daily inspiration section is in the footer, so it can be accessed easily from every page.

More to Come!

SFD still has more to come, including a few more tweaks to version 1.0 and more features that are currently in development, and of course, we’ll keep the content coming. Thanks to all for the readership, and we hope you enjoy SFD v1.0!