Top 20 Best Sources To Find Free WordPress Templates
WordPress is that wonderful content management system that has made professional blog pages available to anyone, whether for personal or business use. Even better news is that you don’t have to fork over a truckload of cash for the design. There are pages of free WordPress themes/templates just waiting to be discovered. Here is a list of 20 of the best sources for your free WordPress theme.
1. WordPress.org contains a variety of fresh themes available for your blog. As expected, each theme is has a very professional look.
2. LeadCamp, Inc. has a great collection of wordpress themes organized by category, so it’s easy to find that perfect template for your blog.
The Top 7 Amusing Things You Can Find in Brochures
Many Photoshop mistakes make for an entertaining brochure.
1. Check out this poor lady’s oversized left paw from a Sears brochure. (Many photos here presented by photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com – check it out, it’s too funny!)
2. Talk about “The Ghost Whisperer”! Jennifer Love Hewitt has nothing on this brochure photo featuring a ghost hand! Many funny brochures include a floating or forgotten body part:
3. Or, body parts just seem unnatural. Does this guy have a great manicure or what? And this double- or tripled-jointed woman seems right up his alley!
4. Deep Springs College, an all male college, sent recruitment brochures to women. The college bought a mailing list that included SAT criteria among their other recruiting criteria. The one criterion they forgot to check? The “male” box!
5. A urologist’s office is a great source of funny brochures, especially when the brochures seem 20 years older than the urologist himself! Check out this oldie, but goodie: the guy looks a little too happy and pleased by his self-exam! A good reason to have other’s opinions when it comes to your brochure’s photo selection!
6. How ’bout a scratch-n-sniff brochure that smells like poo? That’s exactly what officials in Michigan mailed out to prospective residents that were thinking of moving to Ottawa County. “It’s an attention grabber,” said Mark Knudsen, director of the county’s planning and grants department. “The whole purpose is that people should not move into a rural area unless they’re willing to accept and embrace the practices that happen on a farming operation.”
7. Double check phone numbers! Honda learned this the hard way by printing an 800 number instead of an 888 number on a brochure sent to 1.2 million US owners (they’ve also misprinted another number in an Acura owner’s manual). Instead of reaching customer service, customers who called reached a phone sex line!
Top 10 Picks of Outstanding Surreal Artwork for the Week
There is no mistaking the grandeur and prestige when it comes to the timeless art pieces of Da Vinci, Van Gogh and Monet. But timeless as they may be, they are still marks of a certain defined art during a certain period. In the 21st century, we also have certain ways by which we define art and, albeit with the help of more accurate technology, we still employ some concepts inherent in the art pieces of old. Here are our 10 picks of Outstanding Surreal Modern Artworks from the talented artists of deviantart.
Classifications of Today’s Modern Poster Art
To some people, posters are just another piece of (gigantic) paper. But to many, especially teenagers, posters can reveal something personal. Posters are a reflection of a person’s personality. And there are a lot of types of poster art, ranging from art deco to vintage to abstract to surrealism. Here’s a roundup of the most popular classifications of modern poster art. (more…)
Graphic Designers Making a Difference
Graphic designers design because they love it. They love coming up with new concepts, with new ways to communicating. And with the environmental and poverty issues creeping up in the news and even the most recent Presidential race, many designers are designing to make a difference. (more…)
17 Ultra Cool Presidential Poster Designs
As a tribute to our new President, I’ve gathered some poster designs that are well-designed, moving or are just plain smart. The amazing thing is that many of these designers aren’t even American, but they believe in what Obama can bring to the American people so much that they’ve been moved to design.
19 Exciting Examples of Green Design, Products and Architecture
Sustainability and style are what make green design, well, green. Green design balances environmental, economic, social and aesthetic concerns. Green design can go by many names: “sustainable design,” “eco-design” or “design for environment.” Green design produces buildings, products and artwork that reduces the amount of non-renewable resources. This helps minimize environmental impact and relates people with the natural environment. Green design is one answer to the global “environmental crisis” – i.e. the rapid growth of economic activity and the booming population coupled with the depletion of natural resources.
Everything from architecture to people’s bodies and computers are being covered with greenery. (Seems like it would be itchy, no?) (more…)
20 Inspiring Logos
I love logos that contain some kind of play on words or a play on images. I like the intriguing logos that make me look twice. Your logo should reinforce your brand identity, and it also needs to fit on all of your product packaging, as well as your marketing materials. A good logo is good whether it’s in black and white or color.
Here are 20 inspiring logos that will hopefully give you some ideas for your own.
Polishing the Chrome
The wars for internet browser dominance have come a long way from the early struggle between netscape and internet explorer which was plagued by a lack of design standards and an emphasis on adding proprietary features over fixing bugs. That fight ended with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer becoming the de facto web browser of choice and the slow demise of Netscape. For years Microsoft’s IE browser has held dominance and the vast majority of web surfers don’t even realize there are alternative browsers available to them. That has slowly been changing with the growing success of Mozilla’s Firefox browser, followed by other would be contenders like Apple’s Safari and Opera Software’s less creatively named Opera browser.
Now a new contender enters the fray. Originally intended to launch on September 3rd, the beta of Google’s entrant into the battle for browser dominance, Chrome, leaked a day early and has created a firestorm of interest among internet users, due in no small part to the popularity of Google’s search engine.
Like the other new contenders for Microsoft’s throne, Google’s new browser is open source, which means that the program code is available to internet users so that they can add to the code in an effort to improve performance and add features or utility.
In many regards Chrome is a natural progression of the open source browsers that went before it and is largely an evolution of the browser rather than a revolution, though it does have few revolutionary features. Overall, the user interface is clean and simple, incorporating elements that have become standard to other browsers. The greatest difference of note is that tabs for tabbed browsing are placed on top of the browser rather than below the address bar, a placement common for other browsers.
Most of the improvements implemented by Chrome would go largely unnoticed to the uninitiated or uninformed. The most notable of which is the JavaScript V8 engine that is purported to enhance browsing speed and make it the fastest browser available. From my own testing I can confirm that Chrome is indeed faster and more responsive than Firefox version 3, which had been the leader in browsing speed.
Snappiness aside, the next most noteworthy feature of the new browser is that each tab opened in Chrome is separate or “sandboxed.” This similar to Internet Explorer 7’s “Protected Mode”. What this effectively does is segregate any processes or scripts that run in a tab from the rest of the computer. Though I haven’t had the chance to experience this first hand, this should significantly improve the safety of internet surfing, as mal-ware and spy-ware have become a growing threat to computer users and were one of the primary factors behind users looking for alternatives to the weak security of Internet Explorer’s earlier iterations.
Perhaps the most novel addition to the feature list is “incognito” mode, which enables you to browse the web in complete privacy. In incognito mode no traces of your web surfing activities (such as cookies, cached pages or browsing history) are saved. Score another hit to dwindling workplace productivity.
No beta release escapes public scrutiny unscathed, though, and there are already a handful of complaints about the new browser. The earliest noted issue is a flaw in chrome that can trick users into launching malicious executables directly from the browser and bypassing the sandboxing feature. Supposedly, this has already been addressed in Java and this will likely be patched quickly.
Perhaps of more significance, is reports from users that upon uninstalling Chrome, the HKCU:Run registry and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Services/gusvc keys are not deleted, along with the updater. This has lead to some inconveniences for those who have deleted the program, as they still receive update notices even after the program has supposedly been removed from their computer. This can be alleviated by deleting the left over directory and making a few simple changes with window’s registry editor, but, honestly, this is an issue that Google should address in later iterations of the browser.
With the amount of positive buzz it has generated, one can safely call the launch of Google Chrome an unparalleled success. It remains to be seen what share of the browser market Chrome will ultimately steal away from its competitors, but the burgeoning browser is off to a good start. With the improvements that are sure to come out of its beta phase, Chrome has potential to be the new king of the web browser hill.
Cool Gadgets that Implement Awesome Design
I love Smashing Magazine’s Web site (www.smashingmagazine.com). I especially love the article showcasing “Innovative Design and Devices” for 2008.
A few of my faves:
The Sony “apple” remote control. I put apple in quotes because I was confused at first – is the remote made by Sony or Apple? It’s made by Sony and just looks like a fresh green apple. Green apples are my fave, by the way. The remote is different from other remotes in that instead of pushing buttons to change the channel and volume, you just wave the remote around in the air. It’s quite weird and intriguing. Wave it to the left to turn the volume down; wave it to the right to turn the volume up. For coach potatoes, it could be just that little amount of exercise they can tolerate. You wave your remote in the air…wave it ’round like you just don’t care. Okay, channeling some 90s hip hop there. But that’s seriously what the illustrating photo looks like. Check it out.
The Toast Messenger is another fave of mine. It’s totally a want and not a need. It’s really a waste of money, but no more so than lottery tickets, in my opinion. You write a message on the top of this one-slice toaster and badaboom: your toast comes out with your message lightly burned into the top of it. This would be very sweet for your sweetie in the morning, leaving love messages in his or her toast. Yeah, okay, blech – too sweet! On another note, it might help parents get their kids to eat toast, that is, if their kids don’t like toast. I’ve never known a kid that didn’t like toast, but then again, I don’t know many kids.
I’m also digging the Eclipse Partitioning System, which is a non-cubicle cubicle. It’s a desk in a pod. The pod’s hood opens and closes and the coolest part is that that hood can change colors. It can also change scenery. That’s right, scenery, people. So when you’re sitting in your pod and you want to be outside, just push a button and the pod’s hood changes the scene so you’re watching a golden field sway in the wind. You can also gaze at a sunset sky filled with oranges, yellows and blues. The whole pod is on wheels, which makes it super portable, which I believe was the main point, but I was too taken with the scenery changes to care about moving it. Why move it when the scenery can change without you moving? Channeling all coach potatoes….
Last but not least I’d like to mention the Vaio Zoom notebook. This is an awesome laptop that doubles as a piece of art, almost. It uses holographic technology to make the laptop screen clear (the whole screen is clear, no plastic or other material holds the screen) and the keyboard goes opaque when the computer is turned off. When it’s on, you can see the keyboard, and the screen looks like a normal computer screen. It sounds quite distracting – perfect for work!
