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Author Vitaly Friedman

564 articles

Vitaly Friedman loves beautiful content and doesn’t like to give in easily. When he is not writing, he’s most probably running front-end & UX workshops. He loves solving complex UX, front-end and performance problems. He also runs Smart Interface Design Patterns, a video course and UX training for passionate UX designers.

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Vitaly Friedman wrote

How We Improved SmashingMag Performance

In this article, we’ll take a close look at some of the changes we made on this very site — running on JAMStack with React — to optimize the web performance and improve the Core Web Vitals metrics. With some of the mistakes we’ve made, and some of the unexpected changes that helped boost all the metrics across the board. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Writing For Smashing Magazine

Smashing Magazine’s primary goal is to deliver quality content for the web development and design community. If you have valuable tips, tricks, ideas or techniques to share, then you’re more than welcome to write for us and help provide others with solid articles and useful insights. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Smart Interface Design Patterns In Your Pocket: Checklist Cards PDF

Meet our Smart Interface Design Patterns Checklist Cards, a deck of 100 cards with common questions to ask when tackling a common interface challenge — carousel, table, date picker, autocomplete, filtering, sorting, search, configurator, slider, timeline, map, web forms, reviews and testimonials, onboarding, pricing plan, authentication and many others. Get the PDF deck right away. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Smart Interface Design Patterns In Your Pocket: Checklist Cards PDF

Meet our Smart Interface Design Patterns Checklist Cards, a deck of 100 cards with common questions to ask when tackling a common interface challenge — carousel, table, date picker, autocomplete, filtering, sorting, search, configurator, slider, timeline, map, web forms, reviews and testimonials, onboarding, pricing plan, authentication and many others. Get the PDF deck right away. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

#BlackLivesMatter

We stand firmly behind the Black Lives Matter movement. We have always stood strongly behind introducing a wide range of voices to Smashing publications and conferences. Positive change is difficult, but it’s possible. It takes work, time, and dedication. We are fully committed as a team to see it through. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Respect Always Comes First

As designers and developers, we focus on beautiful interfaces and fast experiences, but there is one side often missing: respect towards privacy, security, inclusivity, authenticity, personality, and ethics. It’s about time we change that. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

“You Must Unlearn What You Have Learned” — Meet SmashingConf San Francisco #breakout (April 17-18)

Meet SmashingConf San Francisco, packed with smart front-end and UX techniques to challenge everything about how you design and code. We’ll unlearn old habits and dig into strategies for breaking out: leaving behind the generic solutions, exploring new design workflows, understanding new performance techniques, and all the capabilities that we have at our hands already and in the near future. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Smashing Consultancy

Before you can start to improve things, you need to convince management that things need improving. That can be challenging! Management is not always digitally savvy and don’t grasp how significantly things have changed. Creating a case for change can be hard when you are working alone. We want to help you with that. We have years of experience writing business cases and presenting to management. Let us guide you through the process.’ Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

SmashingConf 2018: Fetch Those Early-Bird Tickets!

Great conferences are all about learning new skills and making new connections. That’s why we’ve set up a couple of new adventures for SmashingConf 2018 — just practical sessions, new formats, new lightning talks, evening sessions and genuine, interesting conversations — with a dash of friendly networking! Taking place in London, San Francisco, Toronto. Tickets? Glad you asked! Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

We’ve Got A Lil’ Announcement To Make: Rachel Andrew Is SmashingMag’s New Editor-In-Chief

Sometimes things evolve faster than you think. Something that started as a simple WordPress blog back in September 2006, has evolved into a little Smashing universe — with books, eBooks, conferences, workshops, consultancy, job board and, most recently, 56 fancy cats (upcoming, also known as Smashing Membership). We have a wonderful team making it all happen, but every project requires attention and focus and every project desperately needs time to evolve and flourish and improve. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Uploading Directories At Once With webkitdirectory

If you’ve ever tried to implement a bulletproof, good-looking file uploader, you might have encountered an issue: uploading an entire folder or folders of files is usually quite a hassle, as files in each folder have to be selected manually. And then some folders might contain sub-folders as well. Well, we can use webkitdirectory, a non-standard attribute that allows users to pick a directory via a file input. Currently supported in Chrome, Firefox and Edge. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

We’re Touring Through Southeast Asia: Join The Mozilla Developer Roadshow!

We love exploring opportunities. While many of us are quite familiar with publications and events surrounding us, we often lack the global perspective on what’s happening in the web industry across the world. For example, do you know what the state of web design in Singapore is? What about front-end events in Kuala Lumpur? What about the acceptance of UX-driven processes in Hong Kong? That’s exactly what we want to find out! Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Designing The Perfect Feature Comparison Table

For a price tag that meets a certain threshold or if we are particularly invested in the quality of a product, we want to be absolutely certain that we are making the right choice and are getting a good product for a good price. That’s where a feature comparison table makes all the difference. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Learn From What You See: It All Starts With Inspiration

The world around us is full of little things and experiences that shape us, our way of thinking, but also how we tackle our work. Influenced by these encounters, every designer develops their unique style and workflow, and studying their artwork — the compositions, geometry of lines and shapes, light and shadows, the colors and patterns — can all inspire us to look beyond our own horizon and try something new. It really doesn’t take much to let your mind wander. Always remember to take a closer look at things around you; you’ll be sure to find inspiration in the little things. But for now, let’s dig into another collection of brilliant illustrations and photographs. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Designing The Perfect Slider UX

When we think about a slider, we usually imagine an image gallery slider, or the infamous carousel, or perhaps off-canvas navigation, with the overlay sliding in from the side. However, this article is not about those kinds of sliders. Instead, we’ll look into the fine details of designing better slider controls for selecting a value or a range of values. Think of price range sliders, 360-degree-view sliders, timeline sliders, health insurance quote calculators, or build-your-own-mobile-plan features. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Challenge Yourself More Often By Creating Artwork Every Day

Whether you’re into good ol’ drawing and painting, or quick editing in Photoshop or Illustrator, one thing’s for sure: they’re all creativity’s best friends. Some draw pictures all day, while others find their inspiration in uncommon sources in order to break out of the box. Whatever it is that you decide to do, it’s good to challenge yourself more often and get out of your comfort zone. If you don’t, you may never discover something that you love doing, or perhaps even worse, never learn a whole lot about yourself. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Designing The Perfect Date And Time Picker

Well, not every date picker fits every interface, just like not every interface actually needs a date picker. But when a date picker is required, quite often it’s just a bit too tedious and annoying to specify that one date, and too often it produces irrelevant results or even a zero-results page, although just a few minor refinements would make it much easier to use. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Designing The Perfect Accordion

Design patterns. An almost mythical phrase that often inspires either awe or resentment. As designers, we tend to think of design patterns as generic off-the-shelf solutions that can be applied to various contexts almost mechanically, often without proper consideration. Navigation? Off-canvas! Deals of the day? Carousel! You get the idea. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

As Far As The Eye Can See: Colorful Sceneries, Posters And Covers

With the lovely weather we’ve been having here in Belgium, all of my senses actively engage when I’m riding my bike. I find myself picking up colorful sceneries while the smell of fragrant flowers and the birds’ singing somehow doesn’t manage to escape me. Oh yes, it’s Summer alright! Not sure about you, but this is the period when I usually feel most inspired, probably, because I’m spending way more time outside. After all, nature is where I find most of my inspiration as it sets my mind free and I feel at ease. Hopefully, you’re enjoying some sunny days, too. Give yourself a moment of repose. Sit back, relax, have a refreshing drink and let the stream of inspiration come in. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Finding Inspiration In The Little Things Around Us

Can you believe it is May already? Time flies! Here in Belgium, spring has arrived and has brought along its bright colors, the delicate odours of blooming flowers, as well as the cheerful chirping of birds. I try to soak it all in as this is my favorite time of the year. On a related note, if we only looked closer, we would find gems of inspiration in the things around us. For me, nature is my personal and biggest gem. What’s yours? Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

From Small CSS Tricks To Great Design Mysteries: SmashingConf Barcelona 2017

In the brave new responsive web, previously established techniques are getting revised and abandoned. Design workflow changes. Front-end solutions adapt. Performance optimizations get refined and creative, holistic design thinking is required more than ever. It isn’t easy to keep up with all those changes, and that’s where our community conferences come into place. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Vibrant Illustrations To Let Your Mind Wander

On days when things don’t seem to go as you’d like them to and inspiration is at its lowest, it’s good to take a short break and go outside to try and empty your mind. That always seems to be the best remedy for me, especially whenever I jump on my bike and go for a short ride. Now the time has come to enjoy these moments even more as the spring season finally starts to show up in nature. We’re starting to see green leaves on the trees again, and every morning I wake up to the sounds of the birds chirping. I really enjoy these small joys of spring — who doesn’t? Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

35 Joyful Easter Wallpaper ? Funny Bunnies And Painted Eggs

Bunnies ahead! These fluffy little fellows are an unmistakable sign that Easter is here. Along with their companions in crime, yellow chicks, of course. But did you know that Easter bunnies can be much more than cute? Some of them have a secret passion for skateboarding, others take it up even with their natural predators to protect their easter eggs. Don’t believe it? Well, wait and see.

In this post, we compiled the best Easter wallpapers from our monthly contest for you. It all started back in 2008 and it’s still running today thanks to the love and patience that artists and designers from all across the globe put into creating unique, inspiring, and, well, simply beautiful, wallpapers each month anew. So without further ado, let’s dive right into the world of bunnies, cheeky chicks, blooming flowers, easter eggs, and — how could we forget — chocolate, of course. Happy Easter!

Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Inspiring Illustrations With Plenty Of Bright Colors And Cool Patterns

It’s almost time to leave winter behind us here in the Northern Hemisphere. Most of the time, the weather can’t quite make up its mind, and so the days pass by with half of the sky sunny while the other half gray. Nature usually tends to have a strong impact on my mood, and so these days I feel like I’m literally in a gray zone — between winter and spring. I’m not sure about you, but with springtime lurking around the corner, my need for extra inspiration is even bigger. So, I hope that this month’s set will give you just that spark you need to cheer you up and boost your creativity. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Colorful Inspiration For Gray Days: Illustration And Photography At Their Best

If it’s still snowy where you live, then you’re probably tired of the cold weather by now. Winter may be in full swing but that shouldn’t stop us from hunting for inspiration. While the gray days always seem to find a way to make us more and more anxious for springtime to finally arrive, it’s also a time we can use to reflect on our work and perhaps better decide what it is that we hope to improve or change in the next months. Believe it or not, some of these photographs and illustrations are the starting point of a design that I create. They are the spark that sets the process of creation in motion. It doesn’t take much; it can be any part of an element that catches my eye, be it a particular color, style, texture, or anything really. You’ll find a bit of everything in today’s selection: Architecture, colors, some of the best photographs from 2016, and more. I hope you’ll like my playground! ;) Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

SmashingConf New York 2017: Don’t Let Bad Front-End/UX Be Your Kryptonite!

While designing for the web today, there are so many unknowns that getting things right appears to be a task that requires quite… special abilities. Don’t you feel like Wonderwoman or Superman when squishing that annoying CSS/JavaScript bug or improving front-end performance, or making the UX workflow smooth at your company? Well, we do! Now, we also love sharing, and as we know from Superman, “Do good to others, and everybody can be a Superman”! That should hold true for cats, too, right?

SmashingConf NYC 2017 won’t solve all complex problems, but once it’s over you’ll know how to conquer yours. With practical front-end and UX techniques, battles, fights, wins and losses, we’d love you to learn and share your special abilities and your experiences! So reserve that plane, that bird, or flying superhero and meet us in New York City! To the tickets.

Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Freebie: Clothing Icons (40 Icons, 9 Styles, AI, EPS, SVG, PNG)

Winter means getting out your scarf and a cozy hat to brave the cold — if you’re located in the Northern hemisphere that is. For all those occasions when your projects may need to get dressed up a little, we are happy to present to you the free Clothing Icon Set created by the design team at Creativebin today. The set includes 40 icons with everything ranging from shirts, pants and dresses to a blazer, hat and even a scarf. Available in nine styles and four formats (AI, EPS, SVG and PNG). Please note that this icon set is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported. You may modify the size, color or shape of the icons. No attribution is required, however, reselling of bundles or individual pictograms is not cool. Please provide credits to the creators and link to the article in which this freebie was released if you would like to spread the word in blog posts or anywhere else. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

50 Examples Of Stellar Use Of Light, Shadow And Texture To Kick Start Your Inspiration

Many people find it difficult to get their minds back into work after a holiday season filled with love, food, and friends. May 2017 bring you a healthy and inspiring adventure. As for that kick-start inspiration, I hope this article will help get you back in the creative mindset. The above illustration has a style that I’m sure everyone will admire. The combination of colors used is simply marvelous — so simple, yet so complex. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: January 2017

New year, new beginnings! To cater for a fresh start into 2017 and all the challenges, endeavors and adventures it might bring along, artists and designers from across the globe put their creative skills to the test and created unique desktop wallpapers for you to indulge in. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Front End Performance Checklist 2017 [PDF, Apple Pages]

Are you using progressive booting already? What about tree-shaking and code-splitting in React and Angular? Have you set up Brotli or Zopfli compression, OCSP stapling and HPACK compression? Also, how about resource hints, client hints and CSS containment — not to mention IPv6, HTTP/2 and service workers? A front-end performance checklist of things to keep in mind when optimizing for performance. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Breaking Out Of The Box: Design Inspiration (December 2016)

Time moves pretty fast. A new year will be upon us soon, and most of us probably haven’t even realized it. So while we’re almost ready to leave the autumn season (and 2016!) behind, let’s refuel our inspiration for another month and start working on our New Year’s resolution list. Observe closely at the following techniques used, and how the colors have been applied to add contrast and character. As always, there is a lot to learn. I hope that these illustrations and photographs will inspire you to get creative and get ideas which you can apply in your own projects. Go ahead, don’t let anything come in your way, and let your artistic juices flow so you can create something beautiful and unique yourself. Let’s begin. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: December 2016 - Festive Christmas Edition

New month, new wallpapers! To get you in the right mood for December, designers and artists from across the globe got their ideas bubbling and created unique and inspiring Christmas wallpaper calendars to deck your desktop. This monthly wallpapers mission has been going on for eight years now, and we are very thankful to everyone who challenges their artistic skills and contributes to it each month anew. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Freebie: Thanksgiving Icon Set (15 Icons, PNG, PSD, AI, SVG)

With Thanksgiving coming up next week, have you already thought about ways how to spend your days before the holiday? Well, you could send simple “Thank You” emails to your past clients, perhaps design something free for somebody, or take some time to improve your website. To those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving, we’ve got a nice icon set for you today — all available in PNG, PSD, AI and SVG formats. This set of 15 free icons was created by the design team at ucraft. Please note that this icon set is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported. You may modify the size, color or shape of the icons. No attribution is required, however, reselling of bundles or individual pictograms is not cool. Please provide credits to the creators and link to the article in which this freebie was released if you would like to spread the word in blog posts or anywhere else. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

SmashingConf San Francisco 2017: Somethin’ Is Cookin’ In The Kitchen!

Imagine a cloudy, rainy November evening. After a long day, you walk home along the streets, following the dimmed street lamps. Everybody seems to be busy, rushing somewhere, crossing paths with strangers and lonely stores. It’s dark and cold outside, and it’s difficult to see things through, so you decide to take a shortcut route to shorten the path. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Breaking Out Of The Box: Design Inspiration (November 2016)

With autumn starting to show its full glory, there is really no reason to stay inside and drink your hot cacao. No, it’s time to go outside and soak up all those warm colors nature has to offer, especially the vibrant golden-yellow leaves that can now be found almost everywhere you look. It’s the season of hazy mornings, and beautiful warm color palettes. In this month’s collection, I’ve gathered a couple of illustrations and photos that express this seasonal feeling. The illustration presented above shows a brilliant way of how to spend your days before winter arrives. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Meet “Inclusive Front-End Design Patterns”, A New Smashing Book

We might not realize it, but as developers, we build inaccessible websites all the time. It’s not for the lack of care or talent though — it’s a matter of doing things the wrong way. In our new book, Inclusive Design Patterns, Heydon Pickering explains how we can craft accessible interfaces without extra effort — and what front-end design patterns we can use to create inclusive experiences. Quality hardcover, 312 pages. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Breaking Out Of The Box: Design Inspiration (October 2016)

Whenever I work on an illustration, the objects don’t always have to look like they do in real life. They can look like how I perceive them in my mind. Breaking away from reality is the privilege you have as an illustrator. There are, in fact, no boundaries. Illustrating is creativity in its pure form. It is endless and that’s why I love it so much. The illustration above is an inspiring example of using geometric shapes to create a bicycle with a minimum of detail. Sit back, relax, and feed your appetite. Here’s your monthly dose. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Breaking Out Of The Box: Design Inspiration (September 2016)

Inspiration isn’t tied to a specific timeframe or shows up when you need it. There isn’t a magic formula to rely on. Luckily, this year’s summer vacation was fruitful in providing us with many visual stimuli to get the creative process going. Enjoy! This illustration, just like all the other ones featured in today’s article, takes on curiosity and exploration of different tastes and flavors. Its composition and color palette are truly inspiring. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

83 Flat Line UX And E-Commerce Icons For Free

How often do you have to explain the purpose of a study, objectives, goals or measurements within your company? Maybe you need to prepare a presentation or a brief overview of what next steps should be taken, or maybe you simply need to build a shiny, new pattern library? Whatever project you may be working on, today’s icon sets will come in handy. All of the vector icons were tirelessly crafted by the design team at Ecommerce Website Design, and come in various formats that can be used for personal as well as commercial purposes. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Breaking Out Of The Box: Design Inspiration (August 2016)

How about trying a very different drawing technique or illustration style for your next project? Maybe a weird geometric shape? Or a more abstract form? Or a retro-futuristic color scheme? Not sure about you, but holiday or no holiday, my need for some fresh inspiration never stops. This month, I’ve continued my journey in search for some inspiring and beautiful artwork — and I’ve found some real treasures! As a designer, I feel that there is so much that I can learn from the techniques and color combinations in these little gems. Let’s dive in, and get inspired to leave our comfort zones for our next designs! Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: August 2016

Since eight years, our monthly desktop wallpapers challenge is a Smashing favorite that wouldn’t be possible without the tireless efforts of talented designers and artists from across the globe. On a quest to cater for wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd, we challenge you, the design community, to get your creative juices flowing and produce some interesting and inspiring designs each month anew. And, well, it wasn’t any different this time around. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Grab Your Sunglasses: 40 Vibrant Icons To Welcome Summer

You deserve a vacation, don’t you think? Now, you might need icons on your website to indicate that you’re away, or even use some for your auto-reply. For whatever reason you decide to use today’s icon set, we’re sure they’ll bring happy summer vibes to anyone who comes their way. This set of 40 icons was created by the design team at Printerinks.com. Please note that this icon set is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported. You may modify the size, color or shape of the icons. No attribution is required, however, reselling of bundles or individual pictograms is not cool. Please provide credits to the creators and link to the article in which this freebie was released if you would like to spread the word in blog posts or anywhere else. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Breaking Out Of The Box: Design Inspiration For July

With the summer holidays coming up, I’d like to share a couple of inspirational illustrations and photos which I hope will help you daydream and relax. There’s no doubt that there are a lot of great techniques out there — they just need to be discovered. While going through this month’s collection, you’ll notice some pretty interesting and refreshing color combinations. I’ve made sure to include a good bunch we can all admire and learn from — I hope you’ll agree! Get ready to enter the summer with a big spark of inspiration. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: July 2016

To help you start into July freshly inspired, artists and designers from across the globe challenged their artistic abilities and created desktop wallpapers for you to indulge in. This monthly creativity mission has been going on for eight years now, and each month the enthusiastic work of the community brings forth interesting, beautiful, and unique results. Wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

12 Colorful Months And Seasons Illustrations [Freebie]

Time goes by fast, so today we’d like to share a colorful freebie to remind ourselves to appreciate each and every month of the year. Have you stopped to smell the pink blooming trees in March, or pluck plenty of fruits in the generous month of August, or enjoy the falling colorful leaves in rainy November? Every month of the year comes loaded with unique energy, so that it can give us inspiration and ideas, and then leave so many special memories behind. This background collection, dedicated to the charm and uniqueness of the twelve months of the year and its seasons, is available in PNG, SVG, AI and EPS and is all set to energize any project it becomes a part of. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Breaking Out Of The Box: Design Inspiration (June 2016)

There’s no doubt that simple design is hard, since it requires much more thought and inspiration. It’s about understanding exactly what your users need. Colors play a major role, and today I’d like to show you a couple of illustrations that may motivate you to try out some new color combinations and techniques. Take a look at the following photographs, posters and book covers that have been created with some really inspiring shades and color palettes, and some even show how to cleverly use negative space. From 3D illustrations to artwork created with ink and watercolors, I’m sure there’s something that’ll spark your inspiration. Be warned though, some of them may even give you wanderlust from just looking at them. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: June 2016

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting and unique artwork, and as designers, we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one: desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

40 Otherworldly Space Icons [Freebie]

We’ve featured a lot of different icon sets in the past, but we still haven’t had one dedicated to rockets, satellites and solar systems (well, don’t forget supernatural aliens as well). There’s so much to explore in the world of astronomy, and it’s about time we did. Today’s icon set was created and designed by the team at Iconshock, and consists of 40 icons in AI, PNG as well as SVG formats. So, dear space troopers out there, what are you waiting for? Please note that this icon set is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported. You may modify the size, color or shape of the icons. No attribution is required, however, reselling of bundles or individual pictograms is not cool. Please provide credits to the creators and link to the article in which this freebie was released if you would like to spread the word in blog posts or anywhere else. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Breaking Out Of The Box: Design Inspiration (May 2016)

Today we’ll be looking at eye candy that will undoubtedly help you start the new week with your creativity freshly nurtured. Grab your cup of coffee or tea, and let these designs shine on you with their smart details, fantastic textures, and well-chosen color palettes. I’ve sifted through the web to dig up little nuggets of inspiration to indulge in — just for you. This time I’ve collected a potpourri of styles ranging from delicate and subtle to bold and playful. Nothing but design goodness. So please lean back and soak it all in. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

On Design Systems: Sell The Output, Not The Workflow

So how do you sell a design system to the client? How do you establish a shared commitment within the company to put a pattern library on the roadmap? As designers and developers, we often know and see the benefits of an overarching system that radiates consistency throughout the different experiences of a company. But sometimes it’s seen as a very unpredictable investment, and the value isn’t necessarily visible right away. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

39 Tuneful Musical Instruments Icons [Freebie]

Music plays an important part in all cultures and comes in many forms. It’s a great way to stimulate our thinking and our creativity, and music instruments often even support therapy and healing. Designed by the team behind IconCrafts, this music instrument icon set is dedicated to all music lovers. It consists of 39 carefully crafted vector icons. All icons are available as 48, 64 and 128px PNG (+ @2x 256px versions + sprites), as well as SVG files. Five different styles are available. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Freebie: Hotel And Spa Icon Set (55 Icons PNG, SVG)

Our daily routine can be quite challenging at times. The more roadblocks we experience in fulfilling the demands of our workplace, the more we look forward to a seamless holiday experience to break out from our everyday tasks. This wonderful hotel and spa icon set can help you to design a visually delightful holiday experience for the customers of your tourism clients. Designed by the team behind IconCrafts, this icon set consists of 55 carefully crafted vector icons. All icons are available as 48px, 64px and 128px PNG (+ @2x versions + sprites), as well as SVG files. The icons come in five styles different styles. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Breaking Out Of The Box: Design Inspiration (April 2016)

Editor’s Note: Some people simply have the magic touch for digging up design goodness. Today, we are proud to present the brilliant gems that Veerle Pieters has dug out, letting us explore a fresh breeze of photography, art, type, print as well as web design projects. As designers, we have our good and bad days. Some days ideas come naturally. Other days we struggle or have moments where we are really stuck. We are in urgent need of inspiration. Let me help you get through these moments of pain and suffering. Let me nurture your creativity. Sit back, relax, and feed your appetite. Here’s your monthly dose. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: April 2016

Since eight years, we start into the new month with a collection of desktop wallpapers — the best way to fuel some fresh inspiration, as we find. And it’s not any different this time around. Designers and artists from across the globe shared their creations with us for April 2016. The result is a collection of desktop wallpapers with a unique mix of ideas and styles, eye candy that is bound to cater for new idea sparks. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Useful WordPress Tools, Themes And Plugins

If you’re looking for some great ways to improve your WordPress workflow, read on for a massive collection of free themes, plugins, tools and tutorials. These resources were all linked via the Smashing Magazine Twitter stream, Facebook stream, and other social-media streams around the Web. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Dirty Tricks From The Dark Corners Of Front-End (Slides, PDF)

You know how it works: you spend hours trying to find a workaround for a problem that you have encountered, just to realize that it doesn’t quite work in, you know, that browser. Finding little techniques and tricks to help you get to results faster can immensely improve your productivity, so you don’t have to waste time on solutions that will never see the light of day. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Monday Morning Design Inspiration

Editor’s Note: Some people seem to have a magic touch when it comes to digging up design goodness. Veerle Pieters is one of them. As she explores print and web design, photography, art and type, she uncovers a lot of brilliant gems. And because they are too good not to share, she has compiled a selection of inspirational examples for you in this showcase. The plan is to bring out a new one every month, so let us know in the comments if you like what you see. But for now, please lean back and enjoy! Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

A Never-Ending Story On Ad-Blockers

Desperate times call for desperate measures. In attempts to fight back against the growing adoption of ad-blockers, many publishers and ad-dependent websites adopt all kinds of techniques from introducing “light” paywalls to limiting access to the site to fully blocking ad-blocker users from accessing the content altogether. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: March 2016

Inspiration lies everywhere: in a conversation, a walk through a foreign city, or, in other people’s works. To fuel your ideas, we celebrate the beginning of each month with what we found to be the best source for daily inspiration: desktop wallpapers that are a bit more distinctive than the usual crowd. This creativity mission has been going on for almost eight years now, and we are very thankful to all designers who have contributed and are still diligently contributing each month. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Design Mock-Ups Need Dynamic Content: Tools And Plugins

Nothing is perfect on the web. We can’t make sure that our websites always work as intended, but we can try our best to design resilient and flexible websites that aren’t that easy to break — both in terms of interface design and security. Yet neither resilience nor flexibility are usually reflected in our deliverables and mock-ups. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Printed Smashing Books

Our printed Smashing Books are crafted to deliver in-depth knowledge and expertise shared by experts and practitioners from the industry. We strongly believe in print and in the benefits of tangible books — they are our editorial flagships. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: December 2015

Since seven years, our monthly desktop wallpapers post is a Smashing favorite that wouldn’t be possible without the tireless efforts of designers and artists from across the globe. Each month, we challenge you, the design community, to get your creative juices flowing and produce some interesting and inspiring desktop wallpapers. And well, we are very thankful to everyone who tickles their creativity and contributes to this challenge every month. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

No Hard Feelings: The Wait For “Hardboiled Web Design” Is Over

Some books deserve a spot at your desk. The brand new Hardboiled Web Design by Andrew Clarke is one of them. In its 5th anniversary edition, Andy explains how you can use HTML/CSS efficiently in responsive design — and how to reduce wasted time in the process with developers, designers and clients. No fluff, no theory — just insights into his own experiences with clients such as ISO and WWF. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: October 2015

We always try our best to cater for fresh inspiration and well, we have found a very effective way to do so: desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. Since seven years, we challenge the design community to participate in our wallpaper mission and each month designers and artists from across the globe enthusiastically contribute their work to it. The result is a unique mix of ideas and styles, eye candy that is bound to cater for new idea sparks. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

It’s The Smashing Birthday Party, And You Are Invited (With Goodies!)

Exactly 9 years ago we published the very first article on this very website. Many things changed since then, but one thing remained the same: our obsession for publishing valuable, practical quality content. We proudly stand behind our work — the books, the eBooks, the conferences; our craft is ours, but our work serves the community and belongs to everybody. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: September 2015

As designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration, but, well, sometimes the best inspiration lies right in front of us. With that in mind, we embarked on a special creativity mission seven years ago: to provide you with inspiring and unique desktop wallpapers every month. Wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd and that are bound to fuel your ideas. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: August 2015

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork, and as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one — desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

60 Lovely Workspace Illustrations [Freebie]

Today we’re happy to release yet another freebie: a set of 60 lovely workspace illustrations of items that many web and graphic designers use every day: tablet and desktop computers, Apple Watches, cameras, Moleskine notebooks, headphones, pens, pencils, pairs of glasses — even coffee cups and cookies! The set has been designed by Anastasia Kolisnichenko, from Minsk, Belarus, and released for free for Smashing Magazine’s readers. Feel free to use all these elements and others for your projects. Grab what you need for a poster or website. You can customize everything you want: stroke width, size, color, shape — everything. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Web Design Is Dead. No, It Isn’t.

Every now and then we see discussions proclaiming a profound change in the way we design and build websites. Be it progressive enhancement, the role of CSS or, most recently, web design itself being dead. All these articles raise valid points, but I’d argue that they often lack objectivity and balance, preferring one side of the argument over another one. These discussions are great for testing the boundaries of what we think is (or is not) possible, and they challenge how we approach our craft, but they don’t help us as a community to evolve together. They divide us into groups and sometimes even isolate us in small camps. Chris Coyier has published a fantastic post recently covering the debate on the role of CSS in light of growing popularity of React.js, extensively and objectively. That’s the quality discussions we need, and that’s what keeps us evolving as a growing and maturing community. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Smashicons – A Carefully Crafted Iconset in 4 Styles [Freebie]

Today, we’re happy to release a very large icon set: the freebie contains 500 icons in four editable variants: outlined, solid, webby and flat, covering all sorts of various categories. The icons allow you to customize the stroke width and style, not to mention that you can change the color of the elements. They’re carefully crafted on a 60px grid which gives each icon consistency and crispness on all displays. Smashicons come in several styles. The AI and Sketch formats come in four styles: outline for mobile use; solid for hover state; webby for web; and flat for any creative project. The PSD format comes in two styles: outline for mobile use, and solid for hover states. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: July 2015

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork, and as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one — desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

40 Responsive Sports Icons [Freebie]

Free icons are always great to spice up our work with minimal effort. Today, we’re happy to release a free set of 40 sports icons in four styles and six formats. Each icon in this set comes in four styles: flat colored, glyph, Google material palette, and line strokes. Additionally, the line icons morph into four responsive sizes, comprising a unique icon at every breakpoint. That way, details adjust according to size while preserving the icons’ style and identity. All icons are included in six formats: AI, PSD, SVG, PNG, CSH and Sketch. We’ve optimized the SVG format, producing really light and small-size files that will enhance your websites’ and applications’ performance. Additionally, it makes creating web fonts a lot easier. The set is still in its infancy with plenty more icons currently in production. It’s licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: June 2015

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork, and as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one—desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: May 2015

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork, and as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one—desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

That’s Real-Life Responsive Web Design: Meet The Brand New Smashing Book 5

Smart “responsive” workflows, effective responsive design/UX patterns and powerful front-end techniques — if you need a good book on smart responsive design, our brand new Smashing Book 5 is just what you need. Neatly packed in a gorgeous hardcover, it covers time-saving, practical techniques for crafting fast, maintainable and scalable responsive websites. 584 (!) pages. Hardcover/eBook. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: April 2015

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork, and as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one—desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: March 2015

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork, and as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one—desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: February 2015

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork, and as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one—desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

The Delightful Dashel Iconset [Freebie]

There are icons that you can find quite easily, and icons that are difficult to come across. With this icon set, we are humbled to release a set of 45 free icons available in SVG, PSD and PNG formats, released exclusively for Smashing Magazine and its readers. Designed by Print Express. This icon set is licensed under a Creative Commons. You can use the icons in your commercial as well as your personal projects, including software, online services, templates and themes. You may modify the size, color or shape of the icons. No attribution is required, however, reselling of bundles or individual pictograms is prohibited. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: January 2015

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork, and as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one—desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

100 Fantastic Tourism & Travel Icons [Freebie]

Everyone loves a good, clean and simple icon set. Today, we’re honored to present to you a set of flat icons that are simple, useful and optimal for apps, websites as well as print. Designed by Freepik, this icon set is completely free to use for commercial as well as your personal projects, including software, online services, templates and themes. Please note that this set is licensed under Creative Commons. Feel free to modify the size, color or shape of the icons. No attribution is required, however, reselling of bundles or individual pictograms is prohibited. Please provide credits to the creators and link to the article in which this freebie was released if you would like to spread the word. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

100 Responsive And Mobile Icons [Freebie]

This responsive and mobile-themed icon set, designed by the folks behind Iconshock and Designshock, consists of 100 individual icons merging outlined as well as flat styles, all vectors built in Photoshop, in four transparent PNG image sizes and available in two color versions: a limited cold palette and a warm colorful one. The vector editable source files are included. Please note that this icon set is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported. You may modify the size, color or shape of the icons. No attribution is required, however, reselling of bundles or individual pictograms is prohibited. Please always provide credits to the creators and link to the article in which this freebie was released if you would like to spread the word. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: December 2014 (Christmas Edition)

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. And as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one—desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. This creativity mission has been going on for almost seven years now, and we are very thankful to all designers who have contributed and are still diligently contributing each month. This post features free desktop wallpapers created by artists across the globe for December 2014. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free. It’s time to freshen up your wallpaper! Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

100 Handsome Hand-Drawn Doodle Icons [Freebie]

If you want to convey an intimate, personal atmosphere in your design, you can’t rely on sterile, clean, pixel-perfect icons. So what about using hand-drawn doodles instead? That’s why we’re happy to release a quite special hand-drawn doodle icon set that has been created by Roundicons and can be used for both private and commercial projects. This icon set is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. You may modify the size, color or shape of the icons. No attribution is required, however, reselling of bundles or individual pictograms isn’t cool. Please always provide credits to the creators and link to the article in which this freebie was released if you would like to spread the word. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

45 Colorful Flat Icons [Freebie]

How often do you find yourself searching for lovely, friendly, well-designed icons that would fit well into a rather informal design atmosphere? Well, unless you tend to have only corporate clients, you could definitely use the icon set that we are releasing today. The icons are completely free to use for commercial as well as your personal projects, including software, online services, templates and themes. Please note that this icon set is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported. You may modify the size, color or shape of the icons. No attribution is required, however, reselling of bundles or individual pictograms is prohibited. Please always provide credits to the creators and link to the article in which this freebie was released if you would like to spread the word. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: November 2014

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. And as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one—desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. This creativity mission has been going on for almost seven years now, and we are very thankful to all designers who have contributed and are still diligently contributing each month. This post features free desktop wallpapers created by artists across the globe for November 2014. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free. It’s time to freshen up your wallpaper! Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Smashing Conferences & Workshops

Great conferences are all about learning new skills and making new connections. That’s why we’ve set up a couple of new adventures for SmashingConf 2018 — just practical sessions, new formats, new lightning talks, evening sessions and genuine, interesting conversations — with a dash of friendly networking! Taking place in London, San Francisco, Toronto. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Let’s Travel The World: 100 Trendy Touristic Icons [Freebie]

Icons are a lot like real monuments — they can both be easily recognized. Today’s icon set consists of a set of vector icons that represent monuments across the globe, so they can be literally used anywhere. This colorful set was carefully designed by Freepik and is completely free to use for commercial as well as your personal projects, including software, online services, templates and themes. This icon set is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported. You may modify the size, color or shape of the icons. No attribution is required, however, reselling of bundles or individual pictograms is prohibited. Please always provide credits to the creators and link to the article in which this freebie was released if you would like to spread the word. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Freebie: Icons Of Autumn (50 Icons, EPS)

There are icons that you can find quite easily, and icons that are difficult to come across. With Icons of Autumn, we are humbled to release a set of 50 free autumn-themed EPS icons illustrated in a lovely sketchy style. Designed by Nick Botner as line art in Adobe Illustrator, the icons are available in EPS, enabling you to change both the color or the weight of the strokes with ease. However, if you want to make the icons into solid shapes, it shouldn’t take much effort either. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

“There Are More Bugs In Mobile Than… Particles In The Universe!”

Mobile is a difficult, unpredictable beast. If you run into technical problems in mobile, then you’ll know how annoying fixing them can be. That’s why we’ve teamed up with Peter-Paul Koch to create The Mobile Web Handbook, our practical new guide to dealing with front-end challenges in mobile. The book is finally ready and is now shipping worldwide. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: October 2014

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. And as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one—desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: September 2014

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. And as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one—desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. This creativity mission has been going on for six years now, and we are very thankful to all designers who have contributed and are still diligently contributing each month. This post features free desktop wallpapers created by artists across the globe for September 2014. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free. It’s time to freshen up your wallpaper! Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: August 2014

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. And as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one—desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. This creativity mission has been going on for six years now, and we are very thankful to all designers who have contributed and are still diligently contributing each month. This post features free desktop wallpapers created by artists across the globe for August 2014. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free. It’s time to freshen up your wallpaper! Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

“Making It Right”: Product Management For A Startup World

You’ve seen this happen a thousand times. An organization struggles with a high level of internal enthusiasm and creative chaos that team leaders don’t know how to handle any more. To bring order into projects, a new product manager is appointed, under huge expectation, and with unclear responsibilities and big goals defined within a very short timeframe. Making It Right is a book about just that: what product management is, what it isn’t, why it’s important, and how to approach it strategically and meaningfully to get things done well. Available today. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

36 Beautiful Rounded Icons - Meet The Ballicons 2 [Freebie]

The value of icons lies in their ability to support content in web design and communicate with users in more intuitive and effective ways. Most users are known to first scan a page for visually interesting content, and only after something grabs their attention will they actually begin reading. In short, icons are a simple, effective way to draw users into the content of your website. Today’s icon set consists of a passionate set of icons in two styles (flat and light gradient). The icons have been carefully designed by PixelBuddha and released exclusively for Smashing Magazine and its readers. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: June 2014

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. And as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one—desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: May 2014

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. And as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one—desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Meet The Mobile Web Handbook

Argh! Weird browser bugs, inconsistent CSS/JavaScript support, performance issues, mobile fragmentation and complicated nuances such as device pixels, viewports, zooming, touch event cascade, pointer/click events and the 300ms delay. To make sense of it all, we created The Mobile Web Handbook, a new practical book by Peter-Paul Koch to help you understand technical issues on mobile and deal with them effectively “Mobile Web Handbook, a new Smashing Book by Peter-Paul Koch”) Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: April 2014

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. And as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one—desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

60 Stylish Round Icons - Meet The Roundicons

Everyone loves a good, clean and simple icon set. Today, we’re honored to present to you a set of 60 vector round icons which was cleverly designed by the creative trio at Roundicons and released exclusively for Smashing Magazine and its readers. Crafted with great attention to detail, this icon set is extremely easy to use and will most probably be the next ultimate resource for any one of your design projects. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Smashing Book 4 (Nov 2013)

Written by well-respected designers and developers, the book contains lots of actionable takeaways that will help you improve your workflow. Think of it as a reliable playbook for issues that keep following you in every project. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

128 Colorful Nice Things Icons For Free

Inspiration strikes at funny times. Chris Behr was just watching TV and playing around with the Shape tools in Illustrator. He casually divided a square into a grid, then randomly colored it. Then he combined the grid with a couple of icons that he had been doodling the night before. Thus, Nice Things was born, a set of 128 original, beautiful icons that we are honoured to present to you. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: November 2013

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. As designers, we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one: desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd “Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: November 2013”) Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: October 2013

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. As designers, we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one: desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd “Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: October 2013”) Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Good Content Is Too Valuable To Die

When I started developing websites back in the day, I was lucky to have hundreds of valuable, practical articles that would help me become better at what I did. I could learn day and night, and whenever I discovered a new tool or technique, I would bookmark it on Delicious for future reference. I knew the value of each article and of each bookmark, and I kept revisiting and carefully tagging them for months and months — almost every day. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: September 2013

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. And as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one—desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd “Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: September 2013”) Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: August 2013

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. And as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one—desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd “Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: August 2013”) This creativity mission has been going on for over five years now, and we are very thankful to all the designers who have contributed and are still diligently contributing each month. This post features free desktop wallpapers created by artists across the globe for August 2013. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free. It’s time to freshen up your wallpaper! Please note that: * All images can be clicked on and lead to the preview of the wallpaper, * You can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our Desktop Wallpaper Calendar series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them? Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: July 2013

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. And as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one — desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

16 Lovely St. Valentine’s Day ? Icons For Free

Today, it is our great pleasure to present to you a fantastic St. Valentine’s icon set  —  exclusively designed by our illustrator Ricardo Gimenes for Smashing Magazine and its loyal readers. The icons presented are available in transparent and non-transparent PNGs (256×256px, 512×512, 1024×1024px), as well as in EPS format and are perfect for any projects you have coming up for St. Valentine’s Day. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Welcome To The Smashing UX Design Section!

There has been a slight change in the UX Design editorial team. Unfortunately, Francisco Inchauste is stepping down from the UX Editor role to pursue new opportunities. We’d like to introduce you to our new editor, Chui Chui Tan, who will continue to publish high-quality articles in this section. Whilst we wish Francisco only the best in his new adventures, we hope you’ll continue supporting and enjoying the future articles published in this section. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: February 2013

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. And as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one—desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. This creativity mission has been going on for over five years now, and we are very thankful to all designers who have contributed and are still diligently contributing each month. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Christmas Icon Set (10 Quality Icons, 256×256px PNG)

Today, we have a beautiful Christmas icon freebie for you created by the talented, hard-working folks at RocketTheme. The icon set contains ten icons available as 256×256px PNGs that have been lovingly and exclusively prepared for Smashing Magazine and the Web design community. As usual, this set is released under a Creative Commons license and can be used in commercial and private projects. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Exclusive Videos And Interviews (Part 1)

In September 2012 we ran the very first Smashing Conference — friendly, valuable and inspiring community event — in a beautiful medieval building in our home town Freiburg, Germany. The conference was a huge success, and we haven’t anticipated the fantastic feedback we’ve received during and after the event. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

42 Chunky Pika Style Icons [Freebie]

We have a delicate and useful icon set for you, again. Dutch designers from Dutch Icon created a new set of 42 Pika-style vector icons, released with Smashing Magazine for the Web design community. The icons are available as PNG (in two sizes) and AI source files. The icons are released under a Creative Commons Attribution license. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Useful Talks And Videos From Web Design Conferences

As a Web professional, you can get great inspiration from a good conference session. While conferences may not bring value to all industries, the Web industry is stacked high with inspirational experts and quiet little geniuses beavering away from small home offices. A good Web conference shines a light on these clever souls and promotes professional growth and shared knowledge. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: November 2012

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. And as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one—desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. This creativity mission has been going on for over four years now, and we are very thankful to all designers who have contributed and are still diligently contributing each month. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

The Brand New Printed Smashing Book: “The Mobile Book”

The future is mobile. As more and more people are turning to mobile devices, designers and developers are facing new challenges and opportunities. Web design has to adapt, but before it can do so, we have to do our homework first. We have to understand the new medium, discover the right techniques and tools, and be well-prepared before we start designing for it. The Mobile Book, our brand new printed book, serves exactly this purpose. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

10 Thrilling Movie And TV Icons

Today, we present yet another freebie — a free set of icons related to movies and television, designed by Samuray and released for Smashing Magazine and the design community. The icons are available in six different sizes as transparent PNG files, JPG files as well as Photoshop PSD source files. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: October 2012

This post features free desktop wallpapers created by artists across the globe for October 2012. Many of the wallpapers this month are related to Halloween which seems to have become a tradition on Smashing Magazine over the years. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free. It’s time to freshen up your wallpaper! Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Useful JavaScript Libraries and jQuery Plugins

If you have a problem and need a solution for it, chances are high that a JavaScript library or jQuery plugin exists that was created to solve this very problem. Such libraries are always great to have in your bookmarks or in your local folders, especially if you aren’t a big fan of cross-browser debugging. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Practical JavaScript Libraries and jQuery Plugins

If you have a problem and need a solution for it, chances are high that a JavaScript library or jQuery plugin exists that was created to solve this very problem. Such libraries are always great to have in your bookmarks or in your local folders, especially if you aren’t a big fan of cross-browser debugging. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: September 2012

We continue to nourish you with a monthly spoon of inspiration. This post features free desktop wallpapers created by artists across the globe for September 2012. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free. It’s time to freshen up your wallpaper! Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Useful Print And Online Magazines For Web Designers

One of the advantages of working in a creative industry is the number of designers and developers who take their craft seriously. The design community shines in one regard in particular: the design community seems to be less willing to hoard knowledge and skills. Instead, we present them, elaborate on them and keep improving on each other’s techniques — among other media — magazines and books. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Beautiful iPhone And iPad Retina Wallpapers

Back in 2009, Smashing Magazine presented 100 (Really) Beautiful iPhone Wallpapers. In the meantime Apple has shaken the industry with iPhones 4, 4S and 5, as well as iPad 1, 2, 3, and not to forget to mention the brand new iPad mini and iPad 4 — devices that steal the show with the best ever displays and gigantic resolutions. Having your hands on these masterpieces, how about enriching your device with a high-resolution Retina wallpaper that makes your thingamajig look even better than it already does. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Bored?

In this overview you will find posts featuring some of the more entertaining articles which have been published on Smashing Magazine over all the years. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

40 Delightful High-Quality Free Fonts

Every now and then, we look around, select fresh free high-quality fonts and present them to you in a brief overview. The choice out there is enormous, so the time you need to find them is usually time you should be investing in your projects. We search for them and find them so that you don’t have to. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: March 2012

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. And as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one — desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. This creativity mission has been going on for over two years now, and we are very thankful to all designers who have contributed and are still diligently contributing each month. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

The Smashing Book #3: All Good Things Come In Threes

Yes, the brand new Smashing Book #3 is coming. The printing press is warming up, the illustrations are finished, and the chapters are being proofread. This third book is the best printed book we’ve produced so far: it is a valuable, cutting-edge, high-quality printed book that any Web designer should have on their bookshelf. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

10 Free St. Valentine’s Day Icons ???

Every now and then, we release useful freebies for all of our highly valued readers. Today, it is our pleasure to present to you Cuberto’s fantastic St. Valentine’s icon set  —  exclusively designed for Smashing Magazine and its loyal readers. The icons presented are available in transparent PNGs as well as Photoshop PSDs (128x128 px) and are perfect for any projects you have coming up for St. Valentine’s Day. Enjoy! Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: February 2012

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. And as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one — desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. This creativity mission has been going on for over two years now, and we are very thankful to all designers who have contributed and are still diligently contributing each month. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

23 Splendid High-Quality Free Fonts

Every now and then, we look around, select fresh free high-quality fonts and present them to you in a brief overview. The choice is enormous, so the time you need to find them is usually time you should be investing in your projects. We search for them and find them so that you don’t have to. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Free New Twitter Profile Page GUI PSD

Today we are glad to release a yet another freebie: a Twitter GUI PSD for the recently released Twitter UI update, designed by Jon Darke and released exclusively for Smashing Magazine and its readers. The PSD provides the full mockup with all layers in vectors, allowing you to scale up the design elements without loss of quality. The set includes two versions: one for personal accounts and also the new Twitter Enhanced profile page with 835×90 header image for brands and advertisers. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

20 Festive Christmas Icons [Freebie]

The year is slowly coming to an end and we’re glad to present to you a festive icon set to inspire you in your designs. In this post we present a minimalist collection of 20 free festive vector (.EPS) icons created by offset media. The pack includes color and grayscale versions. The pack includes mostly Christmas related icons, such us the gingerbread man, nutcracker, snowman and the very well-known fir tree. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: December 2011

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. And as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one — desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. This creativity mission has been going on for over two years now, and we are very thankful to all designers who have contributed and are still diligently contributing each month. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: November 2011

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. And as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one — desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Gallery Of Coffee Mug Photos

Three weeks ago, we launched a photo contest in which everyone could submit a photo of their favorite coffee mug. For those who have participated, thank you for taking shots of your beloved mugs and sending them to us. We received around 470 mugs from all over the world and only a couple of them could make it onto the poster we’ve created exclusively for our dear fans. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

80 Organic Vector Elements in EPS [Freebie]

Today we are delighted to release another freebie for our design community. This set contains over 80 original high quality vector files designed by the team at Vecteezy. These masterfully created, hand drawn organic elements are saved as Illustrator 10 EPS files and are perfect to add a touch of nature to any design project. The set includes items like swirly vines and weeds, Hawaiian flowers, Japanese cherry blossoms, butterflies, and much more. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Free E-Commerce WordPress Theme: Balita

In this post we release yet another freebie: the Balita WordPress theme, a theme dedicated to shops that sell products for children. The theme was designed by Tokokoo and released exclusively for Smashing Magazine and its readers. As usual, the theme is absolutely free to use for both private and commerical projects. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Free Twitter GUI PSD

Updating your Twitter profile can give you really unnecessary headaches. In today’s post, we proudly present to you a Twitter UI GUI template, designed by Shelby White which has exclusively been released for Smashing Magazine and its readers. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

The Smashing Cartoons

Smashing Cartoons was a regular section on Smashing Magazine in which we used to publish a new cartoon every Friday illustrated by the one and only Ricardo Gimenes. All of the cartoons are dedicated to design and Web development, but also have a comic twist about everything happening around the Web as well as give you some insights behind the curtains of Smashing Magazine. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: April 2011

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. And as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one — desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. This creativity mission has been going on for almost two years now, and we are very thankful to all designers who have contributed and are still diligently contributing each month. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: March 2011

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. And as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one — desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. This creativity mission has been going on for almost two years now, and we are very thankful to all designers who have contributed and are still diligently contributing each month. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

CSS: Innovative Techniques and Practical Solutions

Although CSS isn’t that difficult, useful CSS techniques are not easy to find. Sometimes finding a cross-browser solution might take time, but you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every single time. Other designers may have had the same problem in the past and thus the main goal of this round-up is to share with you a goldmine of new techniques which you will hopefully find very useful and valuable. We also hope that these tutorials and articles will help you solve common design problems and find new ways of approaching tricky CSS issues. The main goal of the article is to present powerful new CSS techniques, encourage experimentation in the design community and push CSS forward. Please notice that we feature both experimental demos and practical techniques in this article. Next week we will present even more useful new tools and resources for front-end developers. We sincerely appreciate the efforts of the design community — thank you, guys! Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Useful Web Services, Tools and Resources For Web Designers

We know how hard it is to find good useful tools that all of your developers and designers out there spend hours searching for. And for that reason, we’re regularly collecting useful online web services, tools and resources — little time-savers that can boost every designer’s workflow and save time that would otherwise be required for mundane tasks. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: January 2011

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. And as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one — desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. This creativity mission has been going on for almost two years now, and we are very thankful to all designers who have contributed and are still diligently contributing each month. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

25 Impressive Free High-Quality Fonts

Every now and then we look around, select fresh free high-quality fonts and present them to you in a brief overview. The choice is enormous, so the time you need to find them is usually time you should be investing in your projects. We search for them and find them so that you don’t have to. [Links repaired January/15/2017] Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Why We Should Start Using CSS3 And HTML5 Today

For a while now, here on Smashing Magazine, we have taken notice of how many designers are reluctant to embrace the new technologies such as CSS3 or HTML5 because of the lack of full cross-browser support for these technologies. Many designers are complaining about the numerous ways how the lack of cross-browser compatibility is effectively holding us back and tying our hands — keeping us from completely being able to shine and show off the full scope of our abilities in our work. Many are holding on to the notion that once this push is made, we will wake to a whole new Web — full of exciting opportunities just waiting on the other side. So they wait for this day. When in reality, they are effectively waiting for Godot. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: December 2010

Desktop wallpapers can serve as an excellent source of inspiration. However, if you use a specific wallpaper for a longer period of time, it becomes harder to draw inspiration out of it. That’s why we have decided to supply you with smashing wallpapers for over 12 months. To make them a little more distinctive than the usual crowd, we’ve decided to embed calendars for the upcoming month. So if you happen to be searching for a specific day of the month, isn’t it better to show off a nice wallpaper with a nice calendar instead of launching some default time application? This post features 40 free desktop wallpapers, created by designers across the globe for December 2010. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free. Please notice: * all images can be clicked on and lead to the preview of the wallpaper; * you can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our desktop wallpaper calendar series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them? So what wallpapers have we received for December 2010? Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Web Typography: Educational Resources, Tools and Techniques

Web typography has evolved a lot over the last years. Today we see rich, accessible typography, a plethora of type design choices for the web and a number of remarkable, type-based web designs. It’s a great time for web design, and it’s a great time for web typography. Still, being as excited as we are, we should not forget about the foundational principles of good type design on the web and use them properly within our projects. Great choice is good, but, most importantly, we should be making meaningful typographic choices in our designs. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

50 Free High Quality Icons Sets

Feel free to make yourself a cup of tea or coffee right now because you’ll be investing an hour or so in today’s post. We’ve published our last icons round-up six months ago and since then we’ve collected over 50 new free high quality icon sets that you can use for your projects. While most freebies may be used for commercial projects as well, some of them may not. However, you could use all of them in your private projects. If the set is available for private use only, it’s clearly indicated in the caption. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

18 Credit Card, Debit Card and Payment Icons [Freebie]

Today we are glad to release a Payment Icon Set, a set with 18 payment icons in PNG format, in the resolutions 32×32px — 128×128px. This set was designed by Phil Matthews and released especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers. The icons are inteded to be used on e-commerce websites where you can show what types of payment the shop accepts. Each icon comes in curved and straight edge variations. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

50 Powerful Time-Savers For Web Designers

There are tools that make our lives much easier. However, finding those obscure time-savers which would save time in every single project isn’t easy and requires a lot of time. At Smashing Magazine, we are regularly looking for such useful tools, gather them, review them and eventually prepare for a truly smashing round-up. Such posts are quite lengthy and extensive, but they are always worth checking out. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

50 New Useful CSS Techniques, Tutorials and Tools

These are great times for front-end developers. After months of exaggerated excitement about HTML5 and CSS3, the web design community now starts coming up with CSS techniques that actually put newly available technologies to practical use instead of abusing them for pure aesthetic purposes. We see fewer “pure CSS images” and more advanced, clever CSS techniques that can actually improve the Web browsing experience of users. And that’s a good thing! In this post we present recently released CSS techniques, tutorials and tools for you to use and enhance your workflow, thus improving your skills. Please don’t hesitate to comment on this post and let us know how exactly you are using them in your workflow. However, please avoid link dropping, but share your insights and your experience instead. Also, notice that some techniques are not only CSS-based, but use JavaScript, or JavaScript-libraries as well. Our job is to promote good, high-quality content and resources. If you wrote or developed something useful, contact us — we will do our best to spread the word and help you out. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Useful Photoshop Techniques, Tutorials and Tools

As web designers, we always have something new to learn. Over the last decade our workflow has changed dramatically — it’s become more sophisticated and highly diversified. Not only do we have a much larger variety of improved tools to use; there’s also an endless stream of new techniques emerging and spreading within the web design community via social networks. [Updated June/14/2017] Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Keynotopia Wireframing Set: Free Wireframing Templates for Apple Keynote

Lately, Apple Keynote has been gaining popularity among designers as a wireframing and prototyping tool. Features like multiple slide masters, styles, grouping, animation and hyperlinks make it ideal for crafting interactive prototypes and UI narratives. Today’s freebie, Keynotopia, is a free set of interface elements for Keynote that makes it possible for anyone to create these prototypes in minutes. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

65 Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: September 2010

Desktop wallpapers can serve as an excellent source of inspiration. However, if you use some specific wallpaper for a long period of time, it becomes harder to draw inspiration out of it. That’s why we have decided to supply you with smashing wallpapers over 12 months. And to make them a little bit more distinctive from the usual crowd, we’ve decided to embed calendars for the upcoming month. So if you need to look up some date, isn’t it better to show off a nice wallpaper with a nice calendar instead of launching some default time application. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Modernist: Free WordPress Theme with Focus on Typography

Today we are glad to release a yet another freebie: a beautiful Modernist WordPress theme, designed by Rodrigo Galindez and released for Smashing Magazine and its readers. The theme is based on the design ideas of Jan Tschichold, Josef Müller-Brockmann, Dieter Rams, and other modernists. Beautifully built yet transparent, it was designed with a focus on optimal typography in order to better showcase your content: text, images and video. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

55 Beautiful Free High-Quality Fonts To Jazz Up Your Designs

Every now and then we look around, select fresh high-quality free fonts and present them to you in a brief overview. The choice is enormous, so the time you need to find them is usually time you should be investing in your current projects. We search for them and find them so that you don’t have to. In this selection, we’re pleased to present Piron, Nobile, St Marie, Code, Arcus, Crimson Text, Quadranta, Juice, Prociono, Mr Jones, Ibarra Real and various useful symbol fonts. Please note that some fonts are for personal use only and are clearly marked as such. Please read the license agreements carefully before using the fonts; they can change from time to time. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

50 Useful Tools and Resources For Web Designers

An effective, well-organized workflow is an important asset of professional web designers. The more useful and time-saving your tools are, the more time you can focus on important things, thus creating a foundation for timely good-quality results. The problem is that there are just way too many tools, services and resources out there, so it has become difficult to keep track on them and find those tiny little time-savers that will spare you headaches and save time in a long run. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Free Full Layered Facebook GUI PSD Kit

In this post we release a free Facebook GUI PSD Kit, designed by SurgeWorks and released for Smashing Magazine and its readers. The main idea behind the kit is to speed up the prototyping of Facebook application UIs and Facebook fan pages, thus sparing you from drawing all the comps and letting you customize all the texts, buttons and data as you need. As usual, the kit is free to use in all projects, without any restrictions. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

12 CMS Icons For Content Management Systems [Freebie]

Today we are glad to release CMS Icon Set, a set with 12 high quality icons in 48×48px, available in the .png-format. The set was designed to be used in content management systems, but can also be useful for other user interface designs. This goodie was designed by the Russian design studio Pixel-Mixer and released especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Showcase of Sweet Chocolate Websites

The word chocolate can be associated with many words: dark, white, milk, hot, sweet, spicy, etc. But have you tried to combine it with the word web design? We did. We searched the Web for websites in any way related to chocolate and what we found is worth to be collected in this showcase. The interesting thing is that you would probably never stumble upon some of the sites, so the overview below may provide you with a unique perspective and get your creative juices flowing. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

CSS3 Design Ideas

To get you really excited about CSS3, last month we announced the CSS3 Design Contest and encouraged designers to experiment and get creative with CSS3. As expected, we have received many creative and original submissions. To choose the winners of the contest, we considered the originality of the technique or approach and its uniqueness. The idea mattered more than the execution. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Showcase of Beautiful Photography

Sometimes, a picture can be powerful enough to be inspirational material all by itself. To provide you with some inspiration for the upcoming week, this sunday we feature some truly beautiful and impressive images from talented artists and photographers worldwide. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Showcase of Wonderful Photography

Sometimes, a picture can be powerful enough to be inspirational material all by itself. To provide you with some inspiration for the upcoming week, this sunday we feature some truly beautiful and impressive images from talented artists and photographers worldwide. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Hello. Let’s talk.

Whatever you would like to share with us, we are always prepared to listen. Our email system forwards messages to our Smashing team members, who take care of inquiries as soon as possible. To receive an answer, you will need to provide us with your email address, of course. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Start Using CSS3 Today: Techniques and Tutorials

We have been publishing articles about CSS3 for a while now, and we keep receiving angry e-mails from some developers who complain that it doesn’t make sense to use CSS3 today. Yes, Internet Explorer doesn’t support most CSS3 properties. And yes, CSS3 vendor prefixes are bad for maintainability (and this is why we recommend extracting vendor prefixes in a separate CSS3 file). Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

50 New Useful CSS Techniques, Tools and Tutorials

Over the last years we’ve got a pretty good understanding of what CSS does, how it works and how we can use it for our layouts, typography and visual presentation of the content. However, there are still some attributes that are not so well-known; also, CSS3 offers us new possibilities and tools that need to be understood, learned and then applied in the right context to the right effect. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

FIFA Football World Cup 2010 Wallpapers (for Minimalism Lovers)

The 2010 Football World Cup is coming up in a couple of days and we decided to celebrate this event with an exclusive set of very simple Footbal World Cup wallpapers for minimalism lovers, created by Oliver Twardowski especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers. The World Cup will be held in South Africa, between 11 June and 11 July 2010, and will involve 32 teams competing for the title. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Download a Free Magento Theme: HelloWired

Magento, an open source e-commerce web application, is often a good choice for an e-commerce website. The system is quite powerful and the community around the product is strong, making Magento one of the first options to consider when choosing an engine for your online shop. In this post we present our first Magento-release: a simple and beautiful HelloWired Magento Theme, designed by HelloThemes and released especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers. The theme features a clean white background with a simple navigation that will allow you to customize the colors very easily. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

28 Ideas And Examples Of Amazing Paper Art

The times when paper was considered to be the primary medium for artistic expression is long gone. Many writers and designers use digital media to improvise and develop their ideas. However, there is something particuliar in this “physical” canvas — something that keeps us getting back to paper when we want to brainstorm ideas in a notebook, doodle around in a sketchbook, collect inspiration in a scrapbook or just draw some sketches for the next project. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

12 Free Icons to Charm Up Your Online Portfolio

Today we are glad to release a Designer’s Portfolio Icon Set, a set with 12 original high-quality icons in the resolution 256×256px. This set was designed by MediaLoot and released especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers. Both layered PSDs and transparent PNGs are included. The set contains icons related to avatar, portfolio, brushes, mail / envelope, color palette, colored pencils, tablet, laptop computer, moleskine notebook, DSLR camera, easel with canvas and coffee cup. [Links checked March/03/2017] Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Web Design Trends 2010: Real-Life Metaphors and CSS3 Adaptation

In our earlier article about Web design trends for 2010 we covered the strong influence of print design techniques, keypress navigation, horizontal layouts, rich typography and aesthetically pleasing designs. Web design today is developing rapidly, breaking the limitations of conventional approaches and exploring the possibilites of upcoming technologies. Designers are not only experimenting with new techniques and design approaches, but they are improving the quality of their designs in both technical and conceptual respects. Modern websites have great strengths, such as flexibility, cross-browser compatibility and personalization, but they are also becoming increasingly simple and intuitive. This is being done through the application of subtle usability enhancements, drawn either from the Web itself or from offline interactive systems. The Web today is increasingly complex, while usage of the Web is becoming increasingly simple. In this article, we’ll explore some new design approaches and techniques that you may want to develop for your own projects. We’ll present rather unusual or unconventional design approaches and try to understand what’s actually interesting about them and how we can apply them to modern Web design. More specifically, we will discuss the following: real-life metaphors that are applied to the Web, hidden complexity, subtle interactivity, context-sensitive navigation and rapid CSS3 adaptation. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

CSS 2.1 and CSS 3 Help Cheat Sheets (PDF)

Today we are glad to release two useful cheat sheets that will help you quickly look up the right CSS 2.1-property or an obscure CSS 3 property. The style sheets contain most important properties, explanations and keywords for each property. The CSS 2.1 Help Sheet covers Syntax, Font, Text, Margins, Padding, Border, Position, Background, List, Media Types and Keywords. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Women In Web Design: Group Interview

A couple of weeks ago we published the article Expert Advice for Students and Young Web Designers, in which we presented a group interview with professional designers and developers. We tried to find answers to questions that are particularly useful and interesting for those just starting to design websites for a living or considering diving into the Web design industry. In the comments to that article, many readers wished we’d invited more female designers on the panel — in particular because, “There is no way of discerning how the experience of a female designer might differ, simply because there is a complete lack of representation.” So, we decided to prepare an article featuring specifically professional women designers giving their expert advice for young Web designers. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

50 Helpful Typography Tools And Resources

We love beautiful typography, and we appreciate the efforts of designers who come up with great typographic techniques and tools or who just share their knowledge with fellow designers. We are always looking for such resources. We compile them, carefully select the best ones and then prepare them for our round-ups. And now it’s time to present a beautiful fresh dose of typography-related resources. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

40 Useful jQuery Techniques and Plugins

Over the last year, Smashing Magazine has evolved. We’ve been publishing fewer lists and more in-depth articles about design and Web development. We have invited professionals and high-profile developers to write for us. We’ve been investing more resources in the quality and relevance of our articles. We’ve also explored new formats; and on weekends we’ve been publishing more inspirational pieces, leaving the in-depth articles to weekdays. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

750 Web Designer Icons [Freebie]

There are thousands of free icon sets out there, and every other day we see new sets being released by the design community. In fact, Smashing Magazine has been releasing icon sets for years now, too. But today’s release is a bit different. [Links checked & repaired March/06/2017] Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Imperial Porcelain: Free Icon Set

Today we are glad to release Imperial Porcelain Icons Set, a set with 5 beautiful original icons in .png (160×160px). This set was designed by Roman Khramov and released especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers. It can be used in various settings — for instance, on hotel and restaurant websites, in e-commerce-sites or even on food-related blogs. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

50 Stunning Free High-Quality Icon Sets

Today we are glad to provide our readers with a yet another round-up of high-quality icon sets that perfectly suit this time of year. Below, you will find free sets covering a wide range of subjects. Please read the license agreements carefully before using the icons, and feel free to follow the links: they will certainly come in handy when you’re designing a new website or looking for inspiration. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

45 Fresh Useful JavaScript and jQuery Techniques and Tools

Yes, this is another round-up of fresh and useful Javascript techniques, tools and resources. But don’t close the tab yet, as you might find this one very useful. In this selection we present calendars, forms, buttons, navigation, debugging, optimization and compatibility tables as well as handy resources and tools. We also cover various jQuery-plugins that will help you extend the functionality of your website and improve user experience with ready components or coding solutions. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

60 Live-Saving Medical Icons [Freebie]

This set was designed by the user interface design agency Centigrade and released exclusively for Smashing Magazine and its readers. The icons can serve as great in-app icons for desktop or RIAs in the medical domain. With perspective and reflective effects these can be a real stunner on landing pages or in touch screen application menus. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Photoshop Shortcut Keys Cheat Sheet [PDF]

Over the last months we released a variety of icon sets, tools and templates, but now we would like to release something a bit different for a change. In this post we are glad to release Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts, a PDF-file with a handy overview of most useful keyboard shortcuts available in Adobe Photoshop. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

50 Cool Javascript Examples And CSS3 Tricks

CSS3 is coming. Although the browser support of CSS 3 is still very limited, many designers across the globe experiment with new powerful features of the language, using graceful degradation for users with older browsers and using the new possibilites of CSS3 for users with modern browsers. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Smashing Highlights 2009

2009 was a very successful year for Smashing Magazine. It was a year of ambitious goals and an intense time schedule, which brought many changes over the past year. In 2009 we published more posts than ever (on average, 8 posts per week). We broadened our areas of interest: for instance, we explored freelancing and the business side of web development, but also tackled user interface design and mobile web design. We also discovered new formats, such as the “Global Web Design” series and Q&A-Sessions — unfortunately, the latter (the Ask SM series with Chris Coyier) lasted only a couple of months. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Yummy! Free Food and Cakes Icon Set

Today we are glad to release something extremely tasty — Yummy Icon Set, a set with 20 beautiful, original and sweet icons in resolutions 48×48px – 128×128px and formats .png, .ico, .incs and .tif. Also, the vector source (.eps) is available for free download as well. This set was designed by our friends Iconeden and released for Smashing Magazine and its readers. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

50 Beautiful Free Icon Sets For Your Next Design

Round-ups of beautiful and useful icons are almost legendary here, on Smashing Magazine. While some readers complain about the annoying “list”-style of some of our articles, we are confident that useful round-ups of relevant resources are very valuable and useful for designers. This is why over months we collect useful links and then present them in posts in the magazine. Like it or hate it, but the feedback that we get from the design community when we publish such posts is mostly positive which is why we keep doing it. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Smashing Christmas Icon Set [Freebie]

Christmas is coming and, of course, it’s just the right time to provide you with some nice freebies to fresh up your designs. To celebrate the holidays, our friends from IconEden designed “Smashing Christmas”, a free icon set, dedicated to the design community and released especially for Smashing Magazine’s readers. The set contains 39 beautiful, well-crafted icons with warm and welcoming color scheme. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

The Death Of The Blog Post

Let’s face it: the classic blog post is boring. Barring the text and images, each one generally has the exact same layout. We see little originality from one post to the next. Of course, consistency and branding are extremely important to consider when designing a website or blog, but what about individuality? Does a blog post about kittens deserve the same layout as one about CSS hacks? Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

20 Free High Quality Playful Fonts

Every now and again we take a look around, select “fresh” high-quality free fonts and present them to you in a brief overview. The choice is enormous, so the time you need to find them is usually the time you should be investing in your current projects. We search for them and we find them, so you don’t have to. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

50 Useful New jQuery Techniques and Tutorials

The simplicity, advanced features and strong support are common arguments for developers preferring jQuery against other JavaScript-frameworks. In fact, jQuery is one of the most popular JavaScript frameworks, with powerful tools that can significantly improve the user’s interaction with Web applications. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Android GUI PSD Vector Kit

In this post we release Android GUI Starter Kit, a set that comes with several button elements as well as different interface options for Android GUI. This set was designed by Pavel Maček and released especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Beautiful New Free Fonts For Your Designs

Every now and again we take a look around, select “fresh” high-quality free fonts and present them to you in a brief overview. The choice is enormous, so the time you need to find them is usually the time you should be investing in your current projects. We search for them and we find them, so you don’t have to. In this selection we’re glad to present you Calluna, Andika Basic, Mentone, Sovereign Regular, Medio, Tiresias Infopoint and many other high-quality free fonts. Please read the license agreements carefully before using the fonts — the license can change from time to time. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

50 New Beautiful Blog Designs

There are things that can’t be showcased too often. For instance, beautiful blog designs. We have presented hundreds of beautiful blog designs in the past and now it’s time to provide our readers with a fresh portion of tasty design inspiration. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

CSS3 Cheat Sheet (PDF)

Just last week we released an extensive printable HTML 5 Cheat Sheet that lists all currently supported HTML 5 tags, their descriptions, their attributes and their support in HTML 4. In comments to this post we received many requests for a similar CSS 3 cheat sheet that would present the main features of CSS 3 in a handy, printable reference card. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

HTML5 Cheat Sheet [PDF] Free Download

XHTML 2 is dead, long live HTML5! According to W3C News Archive, XHTML 2 working group is expected to stop work end of 2009 and W3C is planning to increase resources on HTML5 instead. And even although HTML 5 won’t be completely supported until 2022 (yes, 2022), it doesn’t mean that it won’t be widely adopted within the foreseeable future. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Beautiful High-Quality Free Fonts For Your Designs

Every now and again we take a look around, select “fresh” high-quality free fonts and present them to you in a brief overview. The choice is enormous, so the time you need to find them is usually the time you should be investing in your current projects. We search for them and we find them, so you don’t have to. In this selection we’re glad to present you Chunk, Titilium, Amputa Bangiz, Serif Beta, Quatro, Rough Draft, Comfortaa and a couple of other high-quality free fonts. Please read the license agreements carefully before using the fonts — the license can change from time to time. * 15 Beautiful High-Quality Free Fonts * 40 Excellent Free Fonts For Professional Design * You can find over 80 more free fonts in our section Fonts. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

6 Free PSD/(X)HTML-Templates

We love our readers. We respect the hard work of designers and developers across the globe. And we do our best to make the web design community stronger and the Web a little bit prettier. Therefore we ask talented artists and creative professionals to showcase their skills and release something unique and beautiful as a gift to the community. And when designers agree, truly impressive works see the light of day. A couple of weeks ago we released DelliStore, a professional CSS/(X)HTML-template with PSD-sources. In the poll and in the comments to this post our readers asked for more (X)HTML/CSS-template, so here are 6 more professional template that you can use without any restriction for your private or commerical projects. The template were designed by Templateworld and released for free especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Flavour Extended: The Ultimate Icon Set For Web Designers

A couple of months ago we released the beautiful Flavours Icon set that was designed by Oliver Twardowski, a graphic designer from Bonn, Germany, the set aimed to help designers in their Web and user interface designs, containing 177 icons in a resolution of 48×48 pixels. In this post we release the updated version of the icon set, now with 452 icons, freely available to use in private or commercial projects. The files are transparent PNGs, and the source file (.psd) is available for download as well (see the links below). As always, the set is completely free and may be used for any private or commercial project without any restrictions whatsoever. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

15 Fresh High-Quality Free Fonts

Every now and again we take a look around, select “fresh” high-quality free fonts and present them to you in a brief overview. The choice is enormous, so the time you need to find them is usually the time you should be investing in your current projects. We search for them and we find them, so you don’t have to. In this selection we’re glad to present you Junction, Nadia Serif, Nilland, CartoGothic Std, Bergamo Std, Comic Serif, Birra Stout, Vegur and a couple of other high-quality free fonts. Please read the license agreements carefully before using the fonts — the license can change from time to time. * 15 Beautiful High-Quality Free Fonts * 40 Excellent Free Fonts For Professional Design * You can find over 80 more free fonts in our section Fonts. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

DelliStore: A Free Professional CSS/XHTML/PSD-Template

Over the last months we’ve heard numerous complaints about the lack of quality in our freebie releases. We are aware that our readers have high expectations and we try to do our best to meet them in our posts. In this post we release a beautiful high-quality (X)HTML/CSS-template (including its PSD-source) that will hopefully meet your expectations and come in handy in your projects. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Acorn Icon Set For Free Download

In this post and in the previous one we release two beautiful professional icon sets that will hopefully meet your expectations and will come in handy in your projects. This icon set was designed by Monica Corduneanu and released especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers. The set contains 17 beautiful icons-illustrations: an envelope, book, home, laidy and the tramp, magnifying glass, mister, mister and misses, newspaper, paperclip, pencil, rain, the French, the gangster, the kids, the reader, twins and, of course, the Smashing addict. You can find more excellent freebies in our site section Freebies. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Free Photoshop Brushes: Watercolor, Space, Canvas

Over the last months we focused on releases of icons and themes, so we thought that it may be useful to release Photoshop brushes and vector graphics for a change. Hence, in this post we release a set of Photoshop brushes for space effects, a set of brushes to simulate the effect of a painted canvas, a hand-drawn vector illustration set and a Moleskine icon set. You can use the sets (except the bonus set) for all of your projects for free and without any restrictions. You can freely use it for both your private and commercial projects, including software, online services, templates and themes. The set may not be resold, sublicensed, rented, transferred or otherwise made available for use. Please link to this article if you would like to spread the word. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

New Smashing Freebies For Designers and Bloggers

As you may or may not know, we love to smash freebies around. Today we are glad to release the Web Developer icons set, designed by Pedja Rusic, a WP Smashing WordPress theme, designed by Greg Johnson and a Cafe icon set, designed by Enk. All icons and the theme are available for free download and can be used without any restrictions whatsoever. Please feel free to suggest ideas for next icon sets or single icons in the comments to this post. We have noticed Pedja Rusic from Serbia over a year ago, when we presented his icon sets in our free icons round-up. A while ago we contacted him and commissioned the design of icons dedicated to designers and developers. The icons should pay close attention to the smallest details, look original, cool and still remain recognizable. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

35 Truly Stunning, Beautiful And Unusual Pictures

We love beautiful photography. In photos, the beauty isn’t necessarily reflected in an eye-catching combination of colors; perspectives, angle, composition and, most importantly, the idea behind the shot or the situation in which the shot was taken, are particularly important when it comes for our showcases. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Smashing Retro Icon Set

Over the last few months, we have extensively covered the influence of retro and vintage style on modern Web design. We have looked at recent vintage Web designs, showcased posters and typography and presented vintage tutorials. In fact, we are confident that vintage is still in, and that many designers are experimenting with this style to achieve unusual, creative and (hopefully) effective results. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Really Cute Twitter Icons: Tweeters & Birdies

We continue to deliver fresh high-quality freebies to our readers and we continue to pursue the diversity of subjects that we are going to cover on Smashing Magazine. From the beginning of the year each icon set is supposed to be dedicated to some specific theme or topic that may turn out to be useful for your next project. Today we are releasing 2 free high-quality icon sets. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Smashing Magazine Comic Strip: Episode 1

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated Cartoons and Comic Strip Art and, to be honest, there was a good reason why we took some time to research on this topic. The truth is that we are pretty tired of the same kind of content appearing in the Web over and over and over again. During our winter break in December we came up with some new ideas, concepts, formats and projects that we will try to achieve with Smashing Magazine in 2009. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

3 Heavenly Christmas Icon Sets [Freebie]

In December we asked few designers to come up with some creative, beautiful, memorable yet usable icon sets. Some designers had a tight schedule and couldn’t get work done in time, but three designers agreed and delviered their high-quality Christmas icon sets — right in time before the deadline. In this post we are glad to release three beautiful high-quality Christmas icon sets — you can use them for free without any restrictions whatsoever. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

22 Extremely Useful And Powerful CSS Tools

We love useful stuff. For months, we have been bookmarking interesting, useful and creative CSS tools and related resources. We have been contacting developers, encouraging them to improve their tools and release their handy little apps to the public. Last year we prepared and published some of them in a series of smashing posts about CSS. Now again is the time to give these tools the attention they deserve. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

iPhone PSD Vector Kit

In this post we release the iPhone Starter Kit, a set that comes with several button elements as well as six different interface options for iPhone. This pack may be useful for mobile developers and front-end designers who need a professional way to show mock-ups to clients or to work out ideas. This set was designed by Renee Rist especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Retro and Vintage In Modern Web Design

Retro and vintage are becoming a new trend. Once rarely used in this robust, dynamic medium, early, retro and vintage elements are now becoming more and more popular in a variety of design contexts. Online shops, corporate designs, portfolios and blogs incorporate both styles on a small and large scale. When applying “old-style” elements to their works, designers produce creative and appealing designs that make their websites stand out and look really different. As a matter of fact, if executed carefully, such designs almost never look boring, although one might intuitively think that the opposite would be the case. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Practika: A Free Icon Set

Today we are glad to release Practika: a free set of 11 practical and useful high-quality icons, designed by DryIcons, especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers. The icons are available in resolutions 64×64px, 128×128px and 256×256px, in 32-bit transparency PNG. These icons can be used for a variety of purposes — in particular, in portfolios and in corporate designs. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Free Fonts Myndraine, Museo Sans

Every now and again we take a look around, select “fresh” high-quality free fonts and present them to you in a brief overview. The choice is enormous, so the time you need to find them is usually the time you should be investing in your current projects. We search for them and we find them, so you don’t have to. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Tribute To Graffiti Art: 50 Beautiful Street Artworks

Street culture and graffiti are well-known for being provocative, appealing, bold and uncompromising. Originally used by gangs to mark their territory in some urban area, graffitis have now become a rich medium for unrestricted expression of ideas and statements. In fact, creative designers and artists across the globe use this form of art to deliver their message and showcase their work. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

40 Creative Design Layouts: Getting Out Of The Box

Over the last months we have seen a strong trend towards more individual web designs. These designs often use realistic motifs from our regular life as visuals. However, apart from visual design elements one can also get creative with the layout of the site – its structure and the way the information is presented and communicated. To provide you with some ideas of how exactly it can be done, we have collected examples of creative design layouts. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

10 Futuristic User Interfaces

Good user interfaces are crucial for good user experience. It doesn’t matter how good a technology is — if we, designers, don’t manage to make user interface as intuitive and attractive as possible, the technology will hardly reach a breakthrough. To gain the interest in a new product or technology, users need to understand its advantages or find themselves impressed or involved. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

5 Useful Coding Solutions For Designers and Developers

Often creative and truly remarkable design solutions remain unknown because we, designers, simply overlook them. Being busy with our own projects, we sometimes try to grasp the intuition behind (probably) complex and cluttered code of other designers to understand how they manage to implement particular design ideas. In fact, by just observing the code of other developers we can learn a lot from them; we can find interesting ideas and improve the quality of our work. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Pop Art Is Alive: Classics and Modern Artworks

As a visual art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s, pop art aims to emphasize the nature of things popular in our daily routine. In pop art, most artists use mechanical means of rendering techniques that downplay the expressive hand of the artist. Being an art movement, it has some expressive attributes other styles do not possess. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Let There Be Light: Light Paintings and Sculptures

Although light is considered to be rather a practical than an artistic tool, it has some properties which designers can effectively explore in their works. Indeed, light can also be considered as a medium for more powerful and more vivid artistic expression. In fact, many artists and crews make use of it creating quite impressive works of art. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

50 Georgeous Nature Wallpapers

When it comes to beauty nothing can beat the beauty of nature. Although we, designers, can derive inspiration from almost everything, nature often manages to provide us with beautiful eye-catching perspectives we would never have explored otherwise. We have collected hundreds of wallpapers already (see links below). In this post we would like to focus on wallpapers which emphasize the variety and beauty of nature. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Table of Contents: Creative Examples

Table of contents is often considered to be one of the most unspectacular design elements ever invented. Because of its simple, usual form, table of contents is often not given the attention it may deserve — after all, it is just a list of the parts of a book or document organized in the order in which the parts appear. But why not use exactly that and surprise the reader of a booklet, brochure, annual report or a book with some beautiful and original table of contents? In fact, many creative approaches are possible. And this post attempts to prove exactly that. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Web Form Design Patterns: Sign-Up Forms

If you want to maximize the revenue of your service you need to maximize completion rates of your web forms. Unless you have some revolutionary ideas to impress your visitors at first glance, it is not enough to simply enable users to sign up on your site. To make it possible for the service to reach a maximal exposure we, designers, need to provide users with a good user experience. We need to invite them, describe to them how the service works, explain to them why they should fill in the form and suggests the benefits they’ll get in return. And, of course, we should also make it extremely easy for them to participate. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Creative Calendar Designs

How many creative solutions for calendar design are out there? If you take a look around you’ll find out that most calendars are designed in a “standard” linear fashion. Calendar cards usually have the same structure: the month is designed in bold while the days are placed below within a rigid grid structure. Well, it doesn’t have to be like this. In fact, there are a number of creative approaches one can consider when designing calendars. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Beautiful Brochures and Booklets

In corporate design brochures and booklets are a standard tool for promotion and advertising. They are tiny books or magazines which lay around in conference halls, offices and waiting rooms. Sometimes they contain an annual report of the company or showcase the portfolio of an artist. Brochures can also be included in CDs and DVDs; however, usually they are given away as freebies (e.g. they may contain a calendar or some poster inside). Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Beautiful Black and White Photography

If you’ve been following Smashing Magazine for a while, you know that almost all posts from the Monday Inspiration series are pretty colorful and eye-catching. This post is an exception. Compared to colorful designs where catchy colors help the design to stand out, in black-and-white designs the ability to stand out depends only on its ability to communicate rather than on its appealing visual presentation. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Beautiful and Expressive Packaging Design

Packaging design has the primary goal to attract customers’ attention. For this purpose, package designs can not simply inform the customers, but also provoke feelings and communicate emotions. An effective packaging looks attractive, impresses with its creativity and is just nice to have on the shelf. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Applying Divine Proportion To Your Web Designs

Effective web design doesn’t have to be pretty and colorful — it has to be clear and intuitive; in fact, we have analyzed the principles of effective design in our previous posts. However, how can you achieve a clear and intuitive design solution? Well, there are a number of options — for instance, you can use grids, you can prefer the simplest solutions or you can focus on usability. However, in each of these cases you need to make sure your visitors have some natural sense of order, harmony, balance and comfort. And this is exactly where the so-called Divine proportion becomes important. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Beautiful And Original Product Designs

Successful product design manages to reveal useful functionality beyond its appealing form. No matter how excellent a design looks like, most customers aren’t likely to spend money on something they won’t be able to use. On the other hand, most people are likely to buy something useful despite the design it has. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

40 Professional Icon Packs For Free Download

When it comes to icons, web designers and graphic artists have an excellent opportunity to showcase their craft, prove their experience and explore their creativity. A sweet, nice icon set is a perfect showcase of designer’s work and a powerful instrument to build up your reputation online. In fact, designers make use of it, creating absolutely amazing icon sets and offering them for free download. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Sexy, Bold And Experimental Typography

Sometimes typography is all you need to communicate your ideas effectively. Graphics can support the type or type can support the graphics, but to deliver the message precisely, you need to make sure your type is expressive enough, your design is distinctive enough and the composition is strong enough. The results are sometimes crazy, sometimes artsy, sometimes beautiful, but often just different from things we’re used to. Thus designers explore new horizons and we explore new viewing perspectives which is what inspiration is all about. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Improving Code Readability With CSS Styleguides

Once your latest project is finished, you are very likely to forget the structure of the project’s layout, with all its numerous classes, color schemes and type setting. To understand your code years after you’ve written it you need to make use of sensible code structuring. The latter can dramatically reduce complexity, improve code management and consequently simplify maintainability. However, how can you achieve sensible structuring? Well, there are a number of options. For instance, you can make use of comments — after all, there is always some area for useful hints, notes and, well, comments you can use afterwards, after the project has been deployed. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

(Really) Stunning Pictures and Photos

Photography is a very powerful medium and a very difficult craft. Excellent photos don’t only display some facts — they tell stories, awake feelings and manage to share with the audience the emotions a photographer experienced when clicking the shot button. Taking excellent pictures is damn hard as you need to find a perfect perspective and consider the perfect timing. To achieve brilliant photography you need practice and patience. However, it is worth it: the results can be truly stunning. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Five More Principles Of Effective Web Design

Web design has significantly improved over the last years. It’s more user-friendly and more appealing today — and there is a good reason behind it: over the years we’ve found out that design with focus on usability and user experience is just more effective. Modern cut-edge design isn’t filled with loud happy talk and blinking advertisements. We’ve learnt to initiate the dialogue with visitors, involve them into discussions and gain their trust by addressing their needs and speaking with them honestly and directly. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Celebration Of Vintage and Retro Design

Retro and vintage designs are often considered as being outdated, looking old, unattractive and dull. That’s not true. Although compared to modern design, retro is mostly a completely different realm, it has a large variety of benefits modern graphic designers often tend to overlook. And that’s a pity. Because we, as designers, can learn a lot from it. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Excellent Book Covers and Paperbacks

Book covers are hard to design and nice to look at. An effective book cover manages to catch human’s eye and convey the idea behind the book on one single page. However, it’s getting even harder: to make a book really hard to forget, designers need to design the cover in a unique, creative and striking way. That’s not that different from Web where it’s important to build a sound information architecture upon a rather restricted design layout. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Beautiful Handwriting Styles, Lettering and Calligraphy

Handwriting seems to have lost some of its attraction over the last years. Nobody writes beautiful handwritten letters, and uses digital means of communication with smileys, abbreviations and standard lettering instead. And that’s a pity. Since handwriting is unique, it has a tremendous expressive power a standard lettering isn’t able to achieve. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Slick Laptop Designs and Concepts

Laptop design doesn’t have to be boring. Although often laptops look exactly as we expect them to look like, there is a number of design solutions and approaches which are completely different — unusual, creative, beautiful and damn useful. In fact, over the last years designers came up with a number of interesting concepts which have somehow stuck between the prototyping stage and the production stage. Nevertheless, much is possible. And this post is supposed to prove this point. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

60 Brilliant Corporate Fonts

Typography is more than being legible and looking good. Among other things, effective typography manages to achieve two important objectives: a) to create an appropriate atmosphere and enable users to develop trust toward the site and b) to make sure visitors get the main message of the site and (if possible) become interested in the services offered on the site. Since written text is the most efficient instrument to communicate with visitors precisely and directly, the power of typography shouldn’t be underestimated. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Laptop Sleeves, Skins and Stickers

Sometimes laptop is more than just a device. Using laptops over years, some of us tend to develop a genuine affection toward their little (or not so little) companions. We take care of them, putting them in a nice hand-made fabric, spicing them up with some fancy outfit and providing them with a personality using laptop skins. That’s not as bad as it sounds, and there are many ways to use laptop decoration (or laptops decorated by other people) as a source of inspiration. In some way you may also call it laptop art. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

35 Fantastic HDR Images

Applied carefully, High Dynamic Range-technique (HDR) can create incredibly beautiful pictures which blur our sense of the difference between reality and illusion. In graphics HDR imaging is a set of techniques that allow a far greater dynamic range of exposures than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes, ranging from direct sunlight to the deepest shadows. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Navigation Menus: Trends and Examples

Navigation is the most significant element in web design. Since web-layouts don’t have any physical representation a user can stick to, consistent navigation menu is one of the few design elements which provide users with some sense of orientation and guide them through the site. Users should be able to rely on it which is why designers shouldn’t mess around with it. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Breathtaking Typographic Posters

You can’t design without type. However, yon can use only type (or mostly only type) to create breath-taking designs. In fact, many graphic designers and artists take exactly this route to communicate their ideas through their works. The results are sometimes crazy, sometimes artsy, sometimes beautiful, but often just different from things we’re used to. Thus designers explore new horizons and we explore new viewing perspectives which is what inspiration is all about. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Powerful CSS-Techniques For Effective Coding

Sometimes being a web-developer is just damn hard. Particularly coding is often responsible for slowing down our workflow, reducing the quality of our work and sleepless nights with pizza and coffee laying around the laptop. Reason: with a number of incompatibility issues and quite creative rendering engines it sometimes takes too much time to find a workaround for some problem without addressing browsers with quirky hacks. And that’s where ready-to-use solutions developed by other designers come in handy. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

25 Mind-Blowing Gadgets

Few weeks ago we’ve presented a number of innovative gadgets, devices, designs and concepts. Unless explicitly specified, none of them has been officially released or produced yet, and none of them is currently available for end-users. But what about existing products? What about innovative designs which are already available in stores and can be bought straight away? Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Award-Winning Newspaper Designs

Print and Web are different. Traditional layout techniques from print, particularly an advanced formatting, aren’t applicable to the Web as CSS doesn’t offer sophisticated instruments to design such layouts (e.g. text floating around an embedded image; some “floating” techniques provide such results, however they produce bloated source code just as well). Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

15 Stunning Cutting-Edge Gadgets and Technologies

We live in a spectacular time. The pace of technology steadily increases, new fields of science are heavily explored and innovative concepts emerge almost every day, resulting in stunning and overwhelming products. The impact of these products can be tremendous: in fact, new technology can completely revolutionize the way we play, communicate, work and live our lives. Some of these products are just eye-candy, some are useful, some are visionary and some may become revolutionary in the next years. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

29 Cool Music Videos

Music has always been an excellent source of inspiration. Particularly if you are stuck with some problem you can’t find a workaround for, a beautiful song can give you a new perspective, let you see the problem from a different angle. And sometimes it’s just useful to make a break — for instance, watching some music videos. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Data Visualization and Infographics

The main goal of data visualization is its ability to visualize data, communicating information clearly and effectivelty. It doesn’t mean that data visualization needs to look boring to be functional or extremely sophisticated to look beautiful. To convey ideas effectively, both aesthetic form and functionality need to go hand in hand, providing insights into a rather sparse and complex data set by communicating its key-aspects in a more intuitive way. Yet designers often tend to discard the balance between design and function, creating gorgeous data visualizations which fail to serve its main purpose — communicate information. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Innovative Designs and Devices

Steve Jobs stated once that the “design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” While this statement has proven to be crucial over thousands of years, one shouldn’t misinterpret it by emphasizing the functionality despite the design. When it comes to product design, the significance of aesthetics of a given device, the way its design looks and feels, determines the choice of the customer once the functionalities of multiple devices are more or less similar. If supported by sound user interface and a well-tested, clean implementation, innovative design solutions can drastically enhance the user experience. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Smashing Magazine’s Publishing Policy

The Smashing Magazine editorial team does not publish articles arbitrarily. We follow a strict set of rules and guidelines. Every article published on Smashing Magazine fulfills certain criteria: quality of content is important to us, and our job is to advocate for and protect the interests of our readers and the design community. Every article is reviewed by at least two independent experts before it gets published on Smashing Magazine. In order for the article to get published, it has to receive at least two positive reviews. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Creative Workplaces

Your workplace and the atmosphere surrounding you determine the way you work and explore your imagination. The more inspirational your workplace is, the easier it is to break the creativity block and discover new ideas. And apparently there is a number of things you can do to improve your personal workflow. As a part of our Monday Inspiration series we present a dozen of creative and unusual workplaces; in the end of the post you’ll also find references to related resources, among them office design galleries and Flickr pools. They can serve as an inspiration once you’ve decided to spice up your work environment. You can also click on the images — they lead to the sites from which the screenshots have been taken. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

40 Excellent Free Fonts For Professonal Design

The importance of typography in design can’t be overestimated. The accuracy, precision and balance of geometric forms can give letters the elegance and sharpness they deserve. Besides, elegant fonts can help to convey the message in a more convenient way. In fact, while there are many excellent professional fonts there are literally thousands of free low-quality fonts which you would never use for professional designs. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Tag Clouds Gallery: Examples And Good Practices

Compared to conventional navigation patterns tag clouds don’t necessarily offer a more convenient and intuitive navigation. However, used properly, they can provide visitors with an instant illustration of the main topics, giving a very specific and precise orientation of the site’s content. Since human beings tend to think in concepts and models, it’s easier to get an idea of presented content if the main concepts are given straight away — in digestible pieces, and prioritized by their weight. In fact, the main advantage of tag clouds lies in their ability to highlight the most important or/and popular subjects dynamically which is not the case in conventional navigation menus. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

30 Usability Issues To Be Aware Of

You don’t have to agree upon everything. As a professional web developer you are the advocate of your visitors’ interests and needs; you have to protect your understanding of good user experience and make sure the visitors will find their way through (possibly) complex site architecture. And this means that you need to be able to protect your position and communicate your ideas effectively — in discussions with your clients and colleagues. In fact, it’s your job to compromise wrong ideas and misleading concepts instead of following them blindly. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

50 Web Designers x 6 Questions

Some months ago we’ve selected 50 prominent designers and design companies, contacted them and asked to answer five design-related questions, sharing their knowledge and experience with fellows developers. 35 designers have responded then. For each of 5 questions we’ve received 5 precise answers. The result was 35x5 professional ideas from some of the leading web-developers all around the world. Good news — planning the celebration of our 1st anniversary, we’ve decided to do some more math. We’ve selected 6 questions, which main purpose was to give fellows designers more insights in practice, and in the experience prominent designers gained during their work over the last 5-10 years. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

80 Beautiful Professional Fonts

Every now and again designers stumble upon the very same problem: the choice of a unique and beautiful typeface which manages to fulfill three basic tasks. Support the corporate identity, enrich the visual appearance and is compatible with the overall design. However, usually there are simply too many options you can consider, which is why you need time to find the option you are most comfortable with. Although the choice usually depends on clients’ requirements, it is necessary to have some pretty starting points for your font decision. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Data Visualization: Modern Approaches

Data presentation can be beautiful, elegant and descriptive. There is a variety of conventional ways to visualize data - tables, histograms, pie charts and bar graphs are being used every day, in every project and on every possible occasion. However, to convey a message to your readers effectively, sometimes you need more than just a simple pie chart of your results. In fact, there are much better, profound, creative and absolutely fascinating ways to visualize data. Many of them might become ubiquitous in the next few years. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

70 Expert Ideas For Better CSS Coding

We’ve taken a close look at some of the most interesting and useful CSS tricks, tips, ideas, methods, techniques and coding solutions and listed them below. We also included some basic techniques you can probably use in every project you are developing, but which are hard to find once you need them. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

70 Expert Ideas For Better CSS Coding

CSS isn’t always easy to deal with. Depending on your skills and your experience, CSS coding can sometimes become a nightmare, particularly if you aren’t sure which selectors are actually being applied to document elements. An easy way to minimize the complexity of the code is as useful as not-so-well-known CSS attributes and properties you can use to create a semantically correct markup. We’ve taken a close look at some of the most interesting and useful CSS tricks, tips, ideas, methods, techniques and coding solutions and listed them below. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Microformats: What They Are and How To Use Them

Web 2.0 has its positive and its negative sides. Apart from tremendous technological improvements, provided by Ajax, semantically organized content and the growing popularity of RSS-Feeds, the term “Web 2.0” still hadn’t managed to assert itself as the renewed Web rather than a new revolutionary technology as it is mistakenly being called. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

CSS Float Theory: Things You Should Know

The concept of floats is probably one of the most unintuitive concepts in CSS. Floats are often misunderstood and blamed for floating all the context around it, causing readability and usability problems. However, the reason for these problems isn’t the theory itself, but the way the theory is interpreted - by developers and browsers. Still, if you take a closer look at the float theory, you’ll find out out that it isn’t that complex as it appears to be. Most related problems are caused by the older versions of (take a guess) Internet Explorer. If you know the bugs, you can control the way information is presented in a more sophisticated, profound way. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

35 Designers x 5 Questions

35 designers. 5 questions. 5 precise answers. Result: 175 professional suggestions, tips and ideas from some of the best web-developers all around the world. In March we’ve selected over 35 prominent designers and design companies, contacted them and asked to answer five design-related questions, sharing their knowledge and experience with fellows developers. Here on Smashing Magazine. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Designing With Grid-Based Approach

The main idea behind grid-based designs is a solid visual and structural balance of web-sites you can create with them. Sophisticated layout structures offer more flexibility and enhance the visual experience of visitors. In fact, users can easier follow the consistency of the page, while developers can update the layout in a well thought-out, consistent way. However, it’s quite hard to find your way through all the theory behind grid systems: it isn’t easy at all. Some important notions and related key-facts can help to learn basics and keep essential techniques in mind. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

53 CSS-Techniques You Couldn’t Live Without

CSS is important. And it is being used more and more often. Cascading Style Sheets offer many advantages you don’t have in table-layouts - and first of all a strict separation between layout, or design of the page, and the information, presented on the page. Thus the design of pages can be easily changed, just replacing a css-file with another one. Isn’t it great? Well, actualy, it is. Over the last few years web-developers have written many articles about CSS and developed many useful techniques, which can save you a lot of time - of course, if you are able to find them in time. Below you’ll find a list of techniques we , as web-architects, really couldn’t live without. They are essential and they indeed make our life easier. Let’s take a look at 53 CSS-based techniques you should always have ready to hand if you develop web-sites. Thanks to all developers who contributed to accessible and usable css-based design over the last few years. We really appreciate it. Thanks! You might want to take a look at the article Powerful CSS-Techniques For Effective Coding. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Preventing Spam: Bulletproof Solutions

Spam is probably one of the most difficult problems we have to deal with. E-Mail-filters, such as those used in GMail, provide accurate results, but not every company is willing to use extern services for its private mails. The problem occurs when web-developers have to display e-mail-addresses on a web-page. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Web 2.0: Buzz-Monitoring and Tracking

You’d like to improve the link popularity of your site. Or maybe to keep track on the latest web buzz. It would be nice to inform your readers about it the minute the news occured. Or maybe you just want to monitor the activities of your users and be able to find the best topics they might be interested in - quickly and efficiently. In these cases tracking tools can be extremely useful and improve your search enormously. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Diagrams: Tools and Tutorials

Being a web developer means not only being able to design websites or program their functionality. Sometimes it also means to be able to explain complex issues clearly and be able to present reasonable and convincing arguments. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Become A Smashing Editor

At Smashing Magazine we cover a very broad range of subjects. To be able to do this we rely on people taking on editorial roles within their subject of expertise, helping the Editor in Chief to ensure that articles are useful, and accurate. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Smart Interface Design Patterns Checklists (Digital)

Every UI component, no matter if it’s an accordion, a hamburger navigation, a data table, or a carousel, brings along its unique challenges. Inventing a new solution to every problem takes time, and very often it’s really not necessary. We can rely on smart design patterns and ask the right questions ahead of time to avoid issues down the line.

Meet Interface Design Patterns Checklists, a deck of 166 cards with common questions to ask when tackling a common interface challenge — carousel, table, date picker, autocomplete, filtering, search, configurator, slider, timeline, map, web forms, testimonials, onboarding, pricing plan, authentication and many others. Created to help us all keep track of the things we need to consider to design better interfaces, faster. Check the preview (PDF, 825KB).

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Vitaly Friedman wrote

Writing A Smashing Article

Smashing Magazine authors are typically web designers and developers just like Smashing readers! We want our writers to share the tips and tricks they have learned, and we will give you plenty of help along the way. If you have an idea to share, here is how to turn it into a Smashing article. Read more…