Google Webmaster Tools Crawl Errors: How To Get Detailed Data From the API

Posted on March 18, 2012 by Portsmouth Media in Blog Leave a comment

An article I was reading about html5

Earlier this week, I wrote about my disappointment that granular data (the number of URLs reported, the specifics of the errors…) was removed from Google webmaster tools. However, as I’ve been talking with Google, I’ve discovered that much of this detail is still available via the…

Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

How to Create a Vector Character Using the Dynamic Sketch Tool and Adobe Illustrator

Posted on March 17, 2012 by Portsmouth Media in Blog Leave a comment

An article I was reading about jquery

Today we will learn a new drawing tool for Adobe Illustrator called the Dynamic Sketch Tool — one of the tools of the new DrawScribe plugin. The Dynamic Sketch Tool has many convenient features that makes your daily creative work much easier. Mastering the new tool should not take you much time as it’s easy to manage and its user-friendly features are quite understandable.

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Good-Tutorials: Newest Tutorials

An explanation of Photoshop Blending Modes

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Portsmouth Media in Blog Leave a comment

An article I was reading about photoshop

href=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/thumbnail1.jpg”> class=”size-full wp-image-30634 alignleft” title=”thumbnail” src=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/thumbnail1.jpg” alt=”Layer Blending Modes” width=”200″ height=”160″ />One of the most commonly used features of Adobe Photoshop is Layer Blending Modes. This allows you to blend layers, or groups, together to create interesting effects.

Although there are 29 blending modes available we will be focusing on 8 of these modes.

Having a knowledge of the varying blending modes will enable you to create better images and allow you to add more effects.

The following 3 photographs will be used in the examples throughout so you can always make reference to the base images.

Each photograph has varying characteristics so each blend mode will have a slightly different impact on each photograph. id=”more-30632″>

href=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/BASE1.jpg”> class=”image-border” title=”BASE1″ src=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/BASE1.jpg” alt=”" width=”615″ height=”412″ />

href=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/BASE2.jpg”> class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-30636″ title=”BASE2″ src=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/BASE2.jpg” alt=”" width=”615″ height=”412″ />

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To observe the differences between blend modes, each of the example images is blended with the same color, a red with a Hex value of #d04747.

It’s always important to understand 2 key terms: blending color and base color, and set up Photoshop to understand each mode. The base color is the color of the images on the bottom layer, in our case the photographs, whereas the blending color is the color of the layer you are going to blend with, in our case a solid red (#d04747) layer which is placed on top of the base layer. The blending color layer is the layer that we will be applying the blending mode to as it sits above the photographs.

It’s important to note that in this guide we are looking at blending a block color with an image rather than blending 2 images together. Also, for simplicity’s sake, the opacity of both layers is set to 100%.

The descriptions for each blending mode are simplified and adapted from the Adobe list and advanced users can find detailed descriptions, and the many more layer blending modes that are available rel=”nofollow” href=”http://help.adobe.com/en_US/photoshop/cs/using/WSfd1234e1c4b69f30ea53e41001031ab64-77e9a.html” target=”_blank”>here.

This is how the Photoshop layers dialogue is set up for this guide:

href=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/Screen-Shot-2012-03-06-at-21.52.36.png”> class=”image-border” title=”Screen Shot 2012-03-06 at 21.52.36″ src=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/Screen-Shot-2012-03-06-at-21.52.36.png” alt=”" width=”263″ height=”131″ />

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Normal

This is the default layer blending mode. As you can see it simply turns the canvas the color of the top layer which, in our case, is the red color. /> href=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image1.jpg”> class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-30640″ title=”image1″ src=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image1.jpg” alt=”" width=”615″ height=”412″ />

href=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image1.jpg”>

Overlay

Perhaps one of, if not the most, commonly used blending modes is overlay. In this mode the blending color’s pixels are placed over the base layer’s pixels whilst maintaining the lightness and darkness of the base image. This can be seen in our examples below where the shadow of the photographs is maintained yet the overall color changes.

href=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image4.jpg”> class=”image-border” title=”image4″ src=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image4.jpg” alt=”" width=”615″ height=”412″ />

href=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image5.jpg”> class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-30642″ title=”image5″ src=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image5.jpg” alt=”" width=”615″ height=”412″ />

href=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image61.jpg”> class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-30644″ title=”image6″ src=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image61.jpg” alt=”" width=”615″ height=”412″ />

The Overlay mode, as seen above, can easily form the basis of creating a vintage image by overlaying different colors onto the image.

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Darken

This mode does exactly what it implies: it darkens the base color. This mode uses the darkest color between the blend or base color in each channel, replacing the lighter pixels in either.

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href=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image9.jpg”> class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-30647″ title=”image9″ src=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image9.jpg” alt=”" width=”615″ height=”412″ />

As can be seen many of the colors originally present in the photographs are no longer visible in the resulting image, this is especially evident for the first resulting image.

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Color Burn

Using Color Burn creates some interesting effects as can be seen below. Photoshop looks at the color channel information and darkens the base color by increasing the contrast between the base and blend colors.

href=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image10.jpg”> class=”image-border” title=”image10″ src=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image10.jpg” alt=”" width=”615″ height=”412″ />

href=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image11.jpg”> class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-30649″ title=”image11″ src=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image11.jpg” alt=”" width=”615″ height=”412″ />

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Interestingly, the brightly colored flower in the third base image doesn’t change much; this is because of its contrast from the surrounding colors in the original photograph. The change in contrast in the first photograph is also very apparent.

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Multiply

Another very popular blending mode is Multiply; this simply multiplies the base color by the blend color using the color information in each channel, which results in a darker color.

href=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image13.jpg”> class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-30651″ title=”image13″ src=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image13.jpg” alt=”" width=”615″ height=”412″ />

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Difference

Again, difference does exactly what it suggests. The color information in each channel is analyzed and then the blend color is subtracted from the base color or vice versa depending on the which has the greater brightness value. A less advanced version of this mode is Subtract,which simply subtracts the blend color from the base color.

href=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image16.jpg”> class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-30654″ title=”image16″ src=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image16.jpg” alt=”" width=”615″ height=”412″ />

href=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image17.jpg”> class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-30655″ title=”image17″ src=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image17.jpg” alt=”" width=”615″ height=”412″ />

href=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image181.jpg”> class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-30657″ title=”image18″ src=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image181.jpg” alt=”" width=”615″ height=”412″ />

Difference creates an interesting effect; the range of colors present in the third base image can clearly be seen.

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Screen

Screen is similar to Multiply in that it is multiplying each channel’s color information but Screen inverts these colors before multiplying them together. The images below show that Screen creates a lighter image that appears to be washed out, as opposed to Multiply‘s darker resulting image.

href=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image19.jpg”> class=”image-border” title=”image19″ src=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image19.jpg” alt=”" width=”615″ height=”412″ />

href=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image20.jpg”> class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-30659″ title=”image20″ src=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image20.jpg” alt=”" width=”615″ height=”412″ />

href=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image21.jpg”> class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-30660″ title=”image21″ src=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image21.jpg” alt=”" width=”615″ height=”412″ />

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Linear Dodge (Add)

Dodge, another commonly used blending mode, brightens the base color using the information in each channel’s color information. The base color is brightened by increasing its brightness. The resulting images are very similar to those created by the Screen blending mode.

href=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image22.jpg”> class=”image-border” title=”image22″ src=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image22.jpg” alt=”" width=”615″ height=”412″ />

href=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image23.jpg”> class=”image-border” title=”image23″ src=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image23.jpg” alt=”" width=”615″ height=”412″ />

href=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image24.jpg”> class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-30663″ title=”image24″ src=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/image24.jpg” alt=”" width=”615″ height=”412″ />

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Things to consider

Whilst the examples here all use one layer of a solid color blending with a photograph, it is possible to multilayer and mix different blending modes within and between groups of layers to create different effects. Having a basic knowledge of what each mode does, however, will make this process easier and allow you to create the effects that you want, with less trial and error.

As mentioned before, you can also blend different layers together regardless of whether they are solid color or not which adds further use to blending modes.

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Advanced

However, for more advanced users interesting effects can be created by painting onto the blended layer using the Blending Mode dialogue for the brush tool along with experimenting with opacity and multiple layers. The image below uses these techniques to create a vintage effect.

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In this example a black brush has been painted around the edges of a solid cream (#edc173) layer with Color Burn mode selected whilst maintaining the blended layer; the opacity of the cream color layer is 81%.

The base image has been desaturated as well to further add to the vintage effect. If you look closely you can see the clouds stand out, this has been achieved by overlaying another red layer over just the clouds with Color Burn selected as the blending mode.

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href=”http://dspickett.co.uk”>David Pickett is a Web Designer and Musician from the UK. Follow his rel=”nofollow” href=”http://twitter.com/dspickett”>twitter.

Have you spent much time experimenting with Photoshop’s Blending Modes? Share any tips you might have in the comments! />

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Webdesigner Depot

The LessMoney Conference from the guys at LessEverything

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Portsmouth Media in Blog Leave a comment

An article I was reading about photoshop

href=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/lessmoneythumb.jpg”> class=”alignleft size-full wp-image-30895″ title=”lessmoneythumb” src=”http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/2012/03/lessmoneythumb.jpg” alt=”LessMoney Conference” width=”200″ height=”160″ />If you own your own creative business, you’re probably interested in learning how to make more money doing what you’re already doing. Maybe you’re having issues closing sales, generating leads, marketing, making payroll, or other with other aspects of your business. The href=”http://lessmoney.lesseverything.com/”>LessMoney Conference can help you learn to better deal with all those issues and more.

A lot of conferences out there for creative pros and small businesses are huge affairs, with hundreds of people and very little personability. The LessMoney Conference is different.

Limited to just fifty attendees, this two day conference (June 6th and 7th) in Tampa, Florida allows for a much more personal experience. There’s plenty of time for answering questions, looking at each attendees individual approaches, and making sure you have a clear view of how to make your business more profitable. This intimate setting provides so many advantages over the large, impersonal conferences usually available. id=”more-30893″>

Check out the promotional video:

classid=”clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000″ width=”614″ height=”312″ codebase=”http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0″> name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true” /> name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always” /> name=”src” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/z0haHu8oSuM?version=3&hl=en_US” /> name=”allowfullscreen” value=”true” /> type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”614″ height=”312″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/z0haHu8oSuM?version=3&hl=en_US” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true”>

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The LessMoney Conference covers:

How to shape your business so it fits you by picking clients and projects you’ll enjoy.
Why it’s beneficial to have a business partner, how to find one, and how to maintain this relationship.
Marketing your skills and getting unsolicited leads.
Shaping your portfolio into something better.
How you can sell a 0k project, make clients realize they’re better off with you than without you, and how to close more sales.
Handling clients, managing big projects, dealing with upset clients, and how to keep your clients happy by managing their expectations.
Building a keeping a team, including how to find the best talent for the best rates, retaining employees, and creating an environment where people actually want to work.
Legal issues, including contracts, and how to avoid being sued.
Where you’re wasting money and how to avoid going out of business.

The LessMoney Conference is run by Allan Branch and Steve Bristol from LessEverything. They build LessEverything from scratch to a company that does over a million dollars a year in web consulting work plus over half a million dollars from their applications. According to them:

After blogging for a few years about running our business we noticed the highest traffic blog post were the ones where we talked in depth about the challenges we faced. So in late 2011, we decided to host a few small workshops about the business side of freelancing and growing a web consultancy (design or development shop).

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Other conference speakers include Geoff DiMasi, of href=”http://punkave.com/”>p’unkave, Carl Smith of href=”http://www.ngenworks.com/”>ngen works, and Chad Pytel of href=”http://thoughtbot.com/”>Thoughtbot. They’ll reveal all their secrets for running a more successful, more enjoyable business.

And see what some past Conference attendees have had to say about the LessMoney Conference:

Less Money was life changing. I made some great friends and was able to immediately change things for the better. Already making more $. — Vic from href=”http://parablesoft.com”>ParableSoft.com

LessMoney is group therapy for small business owners. It’s the most honest, open forum I’ve found for discussing the ins-and-outs of growing a consulting business. — Jason from href=”http://surprisehighway.com”>SurpriseHighway.com

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Early bird tickets to the conference are 0. The LessMoney Conference is also running back-to-back with the href=”http://frontenddesignconference.com/”>Front-End Design Conference!

Webdesigner Depot readers get 10% off the retail price with the discount ‘depot’

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[Disclaimer]: This is a sponsored review for the LessMoney conference.

href=”http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2012/03/the-lessmoney-conference-from-the-guys-at-lesseverything/”>Source

Webdesigner Depot

A Dad’s Plea To Developers Of iPad Apps For Children

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Portsmouth Media in Blog Leave a comment

An article I was reading about css3

I spend a lot of time buying and testing iPad apps for kids. To be more specific, I lovingly do this for a certain two-year-old girl who is currently on a very successful #OccupyiPad mission in my house. Through extensive observational research, I’ve discovered what works and doesn’t work for my daughter, so I’m going to shamelessly generalize my findings to all children and propose four essential guidelines for developers who work on iPad apps for children.

Affordance Is King

Most apps for children show a bunch of different things on the screen that you can touch to make stuff happen. Cows moo, windows open and close, honey pots need to be collected, etc. But most of these apps give no indication of which elements are interactive and which are not. This usually results in a frantic and frustrating game of whack-a-mole to find the elements that actually do something.

The solution is simple: affordance. Give the elements in question a characteristic that indicates they are touchable. The Disney Puzzle Book apps do this really well. For example, in the Winnie the Pooh Puzzle Book app, the honey pots wiggle around to show the user that they need to touch them in order to collect them.

Pagination Is A Primary Action

Pagination is so important to the enjoyment of most children’s apps, but it is often a quagmire. Almost every app does this differently. The most common methods of pagination are touch-based arrows and swipe-based gestures (indicated by a skeuomorphic curled-up page corner). Both of these interactions are valid solutions, but because swipes can be tricky for tiny fingers and the gestures usually require some precision, the arrow approach is much better for kids.

Also, the entire bottom part of the screen is a hot area and needs to be avoided. Kids constantly touch that part of the tablet by accident, which makes accidental pagination inevitable if the controls are placed there. I like how the Old MacDonald app implements pagination: clearly marked forward and backward arrows at the top of the screen.

The Menu Is A Distant Secondary Action

Speaking of the bottom part of the screen: don’t put any interactive elements in the bottom part of the screen — especially menu actions, which are not important anyway once a child gets going with the app. The number of times I’ve had to stop the car to dismiss a random menu brought on by an accidental touch… well, it’s dangerous. The Mickey Mouse Puzzle Book app is a good example of this frustrating practice:

PlayTales has a clever implementation of the menu action in many of its books. First, the menu button is placed in the top-right corner, out of accidental reach (although the top middle would be better, in keeping with the top-left and top-right pagination mentioned in the previous point).

More importantly, it uses a two-touch method to bring up the menu. The menu icon is semi-transparent in its normal state. One tap removes the transparency, and a second tap brings up the menu. Although not foolproof, it’s an excellent way to avoid accidental taps.

If You Try To Trick My Kid Into Buying Stuff, You’re Dead To Me

I’m looking at you, Talking Tom Cat. A lot of apps do this, but Talking Tom Cat is the absolute worst. The screen is a landmine of carefully placed icons that lead to accidental purchases — not to mention the random animated banner ads that are designed to draw attention away from the app itself. GoDaddy’s dark patterns that try to trick users into buying more domains are one thing, but if you try to use persuasive design on my young daughter, all bets are off. Your app will be deleted, and we’ll never do business again.

Conclusion

Designing apps for children is extremely hard. Not only is quality, age-appropriate content hard to create, but designing the flow and interaction of these apps is made more difficult because designers must refrain from implementing advanced gestures, which would only confuse and frustrate kids (and, by extension, their parents). Yet all apps can and should adhere to certain basics. Hopefully, the four guidelines discussed here can become fixtures of all children’s apps.

(al)

Smashing Magazine Feed

Top Non-Destructive Photoshop Techniques

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Portsmouth Media in Blog Leave a comment

An article I was reading about css3

The creative process is not a linear one. As artists and designers, we often set off in one direction only to decide that the proper solution lies somewhere else completely. Unfortunately, many of the creative software packages we use (Photoshop in particular) can be pretty unforgiving when in comes to making changes late in the game.

Sure, we’ve got “Undo” for a quick change of heart, but often we don’t realize we need to make an adjustment until several steps (or days) later. Luckily, Photoshop has some great features built in that allow us to work in ways that protect our precious pixels—truly freeing us to do our best work.

In this video post, I’ll show you some of my favorite techniques and tools for keeping your files flexible, including Smart Objects, Smart Filters, Layer Styles, Adjustment Layers, Masks and more. The approaches shown in this video should provide a solid starting point. But like anything in Photoshop, there is no “one right way” to approach it. The key is to find the method that best supports your workflow so please feel free to add your favorite non-destructive tricks in the comments section below!

Designing or editing photos is a pretty organic process. Allowing yourself to make edits to your document that don’t affect the original pixels provide you with a lot of flexibility when making decisions throughout your design process.

Chime In With Additional Tools And Techniques!

Smashing Magazine Feed

The Smashing Book #3 Cover Design

Posted on March 11, 2012 by Portsmouth Media in Blog Leave a comment

An article I was reading about css3

Around the end of October last year, Vitaly Friedman of Smashing Magazine asked me if I would be interested in contributing to the new Smashing Book #3. There were a few options as to how I could contribute to it. But since my days were already filled until Summer 2012, it was clear to me that I could only find time to design the cover.

After some doubting on my end (as I was slightly concerned about the timing), I decided to take on the project. This was just too good an opportunity, as the briefing basically said “Do your thing. We want your design”. It would have been foolish to refuse such a fun, creative challenge. In this post, I’d like to shed some light on the creative process behind the cover design and the rationale behind the cover design.

Sketches & Ideas

My basic idea for the cover design was to do something in combination with the logo, using the shape of the letter “S” as my starting point. I thought I would try out some kind of a geometrical pattern overlaying the logo. When I described this basic concept to Smashing Magazine team, there was already a positive reaction. They were really quite intrigued by the idea, and couldn’t wait to see what I would came up with.

Another idea I had in mind was an “Escher-like” surrealistic 3D effect. Once I sketched both ideas, I was less convinced of this 3D idea as the “S” would be too obvious, while the initial concept was to hide the “S”. What I wanted to achieve was some kind of a blend between some sort of pattern and the logo, making the logo a bit less obvious, but still there at the same time.

My sketches for the cover design. Large preview.

At first I tried to stick with only very minimal shapes (like circles and straight lines, etc.) keeping it all strictly geometrical. But the problem was that the “S” shape from the logo didn’t allow me to do this. As soon as I tried to overlay this on top of the logo, things got messy, because the “S” doesn’t follow the straight lines, or perfect circles; I was afraid this would be the case, but then thought I would just have to try it anyways to see if it could work. Sometimes the clear vision I had in my mind was wrong, and only knew for sure if I made a quick test. So I decided to start from the “S” shape instead, and go from there, which resulted in a more organic form, though still rather minimal.

Experiments showing some of the steps. Large preview.

The First Design Proposal

While covering the entire “S” with the pattern, I realized I was facing a problem: Where do I put the title? So then the idea came to mind for using the wavy line (which crosses the “S”) that is part of the logo, and trying to create some white space in the lower part of it. I also removed a bit of the pattern outside the “S” shape to avoid busyness, and to create a bit of a rest. In a way, I was thinking of creating some sort of transition between the logo and a new design.

The result was some sort of blend (or mix if you like) between the two, if you know what I mean. As an extra touch, I decided to add these white dashed lines. I thought it gave the design this extra detail (though later on, I changed my mind, which isn’t uncommon). Smashing Magazine’s team wasn’t much fond of it either, so we decided to just leave them out.

Choosing & Applying the Colors

As for colors, I decided to keep the palette “warm”, making the link again with the logo. I was mostly inspired by this particular image from my Inspiration Stream. I find it really hard to explain, in a practical way, how I apply colors. For me it has a lot to do with intuition; a feeling that certain colors go well together, and others don’t. It’s a very subjective matter, and who am I to say that, for example, a certain type of soft brown in combination with a flashy red doesn’t work well?

When I applied the colors to this design, I kept in mind that the segments could contrast well with each other. So I tried to apply them in a way that allows a dark brown segment to correspond with a lighter segment, such as yellow or orange. I also tried to make sure I was applying the same color again with a bit of space in between them (especially the darker and lighter ones, as they stand out the most).

Same goes for the blue version. Since the blue contrasted a lot with the warm colors, I made sure the blue was applied to separate locations, and also in proportion. To see if the colors are well applied — in this case with enough contrast — I usually do the test by looking at it from a distance. I enlarge the design, making it as big as possible on my screen, and I step away to look at it from a three meter distance.

After this test I decided to adjust the segment at the top that uses a gradient of yellow and pink; to me this one felt out of place, like the pink didn’t really fit in with the color palette. So I changed that segment into a yellow gradient, which is in harmony with the rest. In my first experiments, I had some magenta and pink in the mix, which was a “leftover”. It was only after this test that I felt I needed to change it. It would have made sense to keep it if there would still be magenta and other segments of pink in the design. But since this was the only segment, it felt out of place.

First steps of the initial design. Large preview

Adjusting The Design

Vitaly and his team really liked what I was proposing, especially the geometrical forms, and so it seemed that I was on the right track. One of the remarks was that the design might become a bit too complex at some point. There was also the suggestion to add more bright colors — such as blue — to match the new “Smashing” branding. Plus, there was the concern as to whether the large white area at the bottom didn’t distract too much, making it a bit difficult to recognize the “S” logo icon.

Adjusting the design, simplifying the shape, adding in some blue. Large preview.

Keeping this feedback in mind, I tried to find a balance between the original design and a lightweight version in terms of complexity — also trying to find the right balance between recognizing the “S” while maintaining the original design. I decided to reduce the segments, going from four divisions to three, instead. In this phase of the design I also began working with an empty Illustrator template to start composing the entire cover, including the back and the spine.

Another variation of the adjusted design. Large preview.

Change Of Plans

Right before I finished, as I showed Vitaly and his team the two designs (shown here above) Smashing Magazine published the article to announce the preorder of the book. They showed the initial cover design, eager to get the buzz starting for the new edition of the book. As it turned out, they also made the decision to publish a second, smaller book which wasn’t discussed in the beginning. To announce this book, which is to be called “Smashing Book #3⅓ — The Extension”, Smashing Magazine decided to create a temporary alternative blue version which was based on my initial design. In a way I found this good news, because apart from changing a few small details, I really liked my initial version. So I thought it might have a good chance after all.

Dealing With Feedback

In my humble opinion, I believe you become a great designer if you try to find the middle ground of what the client likes and what you like. After all, you design for the client, not for yourself. The client has to be 100% satisfied. But don’t get me wrong here, it’s not a one-way communication where the designer blindly follows what the client dictates to them. Sometimes the client’s feedback doesn’t offer any valuable point. Then it’s up to you to explain to the client why you think his or her direction is a bad idea.

But if it’s a matter of suggestion to try things out, or perhaps personal preference (like in this situation), than it’s up to you to make sure the design gets better. So the “middle ground” I just referred to doesn’t mean you end up with a lesser design. It’s our job to always try to top our initial design — sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t, and sometimes the client may also agree with you.

Usually that happens to be the case for me, especially with clients who actually choose “me” because they like “my design style”. What I’m trying to say is, you just have to try to push yourself to the limit, being as creative as possible, to make it better, while taking feedback into account. In a lot of cases you’ll succeed, and it’s always very fulfilling when that actually happens.

Final Design

I had much hesitation when I started working on the previous designs. Based on the feedback, I was almost 100% convinced that it wouldn’t improved the design. I was afraid if I reduced the amount of divisions, it wouldn’t be that strong anymore, that the effect would be lost. But I believe I was wrong. Even though I still liked the initial design a lot, I had a hard time choosing which design I really preferred the most — the new ones seemed strong too, especially with that blue added into the mix. Smashing Magazine guys had the same feeling.

Initial design which is now final, including back and spine. Large preview.

Since there will be two books now instead of one, Vitaly and his team decided to go for one of the new designs for this second book, and keep the initial design for the original #3 edition.

Design for the smaller additional book: #3⅓ The Extension. Large preview.

These designs are now 99% final as the spine will most likely change (at least if we stick to our initial plan). There is some idea for the spine that still has to be worked out, and so this part may just be temporary. A final item still needs to be delivered to me first, to check how it relates to what we originally had in mind. It all sounds rather abstract, I know, but I thought I would show you the cover in its entirety so you can get a better idea of how things will look.

Editor’s note: Veerle Pieters has also published this post on her blog. The team here at Smashing Magazine sincerely appreciates and respects Veerle’s dedication to creative quality work and her creative direction in this project. Please note that the Smashing Book #3 and #3⅓ are already available for pre-order. If you pre-order now, you have the chance to add your name to the printed as well as the digital version of the Smashing Book #3. Stay tuned, folks!

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Slides: Building Decoupled Large-Scale Applications With JavaScript And jQuery

Posted on March 10, 2012 by Portsmouth Media in Blog Leave a comment

An article I was reading about plugins

Hey guys. Here are the slides for a talk I gave at jQuery Conf (Europe), where I presented a number of effective design patterns for scaling and decoupling your JavaScript (and jQuery) powered web apps. If you've watched my videos … href=”http://addyosmani.com/blog/jqcon-largescalejs-2012/”>Continue reading class=”meta-nav”>→
AddyOsmani.com | Articles for developers

Mind Blowing Valentine’s Day Photo Manipulation Tutorial

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Portsmouth Media in Blog Leave a comment

An article I was reading about jquery

In this tutorial you will learn how to create a sweet romantic manipulation in Photoshop using a few stock images. You will also see how to effectively use Adjustment Layers to create the mood you’re looking for.

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Good-Tutorials: Newest Tutorials

Learning JavaScript Design Patterns – An Updated Free Book For Developers

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Portsmouth Media in Blog Leave a comment

An article I was reading about plugins

Over the past year or so I've been actively trying to encourage more developers to invest time in learning about the benefits of design patterns and how they can be applied to JavaScript. To help with this, I wrote a … href=”http://addyosmani.com/blog/learning-javascript-design-patterns/”>Continue reading class=”meta-nav”>→
AddyOsmani.com | Articles for developers

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