Creattica Blog » Tools

A is for Apple

Roger — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:18:02 +0000

Thought we’d start this off with an easy one!

Last year a friend recommended I move from Windows PC’s to Apple, I was a skeptic!

Then I did it, and the Apple bug hit me!

I bought a Macbook which was joined by an iPhone then added an iMac and have very recently bought an iPad (O.K it’s my wife’s but it’s still in MY house ;) )

Here are some Apple related sites, images etc to keep any Apple fanboy or girl salivating for more!

Interesting reads!

MinimalMac – Keeping your Mac lean and mean!

Mac.appstorm.net – Mac software reviews and roundups from the Envato network

MacStories – Lot’s of interesting news and reviews.

Cult of Mac – Apple, News, Reviews and How tos.

Smoking Apples – Apple, Mac and iPhone news, views and reviews.

iPhone.appstorm.net – iPhone & iPad Apps, Games, Roundups & Giveaways.

Mac Rumors – Apple Mac Rumors and News you care about.

Awesome apps!

These are some of the apps I use on a daily basis and would recommend, of course there are many many others, and I’ve tried to keep it to Utility like software, obviously there are code editors and ftp apps and design software but we’ll leave that for another time, leave a comment if you feel strongly about a particular app!

AlfredApp – (Free) a quicklaunch application for Mac OS X, which aims to save you time in searching your local computer and the web.

Cinch – (7$) Cinch gives you simple, mouse-driven window management.

DelibarApp – (18$) Delibar focuses on giving Mac OS X users an easy and quick tool for searching, managing and sharing their bookmarks.

Dropbox – (2Gb Free) Dropbox allows you to sync your files online and across your computers automatically.

Skitch – (Free’) Easy screen capture and if you wan’t also sharing via skitch.com.

Notify – (7$) An awesome email notifier for Mac OS X.

TimeMachineEditor – (Free) One simple purpose, to change the default one-hour backup interval of Time Machine.

MagicPrefs – (Free) Improving the functionality and options of your Magic mouse.

TextExpander – ($34.95) saves time by using customised abbreviations for frequently used text eg. email sigs, code snippets.

AppCleaner – (Free) a small app allowing you to thoroughly uninstall unwanted apps.

Fliqlo – (Free) That cool clock screensaver!

Image credit: Charles Brooks

The Best of Twitter – July 2009

Travis — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:33:27 +0000

There’s always a ton of great design related links making their rounds on Twitter. So we’ve put together another list of some of the links that caught our eye this month!

42 Creative Movie Posters of 2009

A collection of 42 Cinematic Poster Arts that are creative and dare to be different, all from 2009 films.

Roundup of WaterColor in Web Design

The watercolor look is coming up in a big way. Run through 25+ examples of the best watercolor site designs on the web and 50+ Resources And Tutorials on how to make the look.

WWIII Propaganda Posters

A funny look at some possible WWIII Propaganda Posters.

40 Top-Notch Print Based Tutorials

If the world of print baffles and confuses you, let Tutotial9 shed some light with it’s list of 40 great print based tuts.

12 Essential Rules to Follow When Designing a Logo

Webdesigner Depot outlines 12 essential rules to follow in order to design an effective logo.

45 Incredibly Useful Web Design Checklists and Questionnaires

I’m a fan of questionnaires but find them difficult to put together. Smashing Mag looks at a bunch of questionnaires and what makes them successful.

Five Minute Upgrade – Making Your Design Pop

Surely you have at least five minutes to make your next website stand out? Build Internet looks at some of the little things that make a site pop.

9 SEO Tips You’ve Probably Forgot About

Is Just Creative suggesting that we have a bad memory? Take a peak at Jacob’s 9 SEO tips that may have slipped your mind.

Best of The Web – June 2009

TWebDesignDev’s rundown of the best of June from the world wide web.

Busted! 10 Common Freelancing Myths

SitePoint busts down some of the misconceptions about freelancing, hiring a freelancer and what the life of a freelancer is really like.

50+ Tools To Make You a More Efficient & Organized Designer

Design Reviver runs through some tools help you code faster and become a bit more organized.

10 Studios That Find Clients Easier Because They Have Funny Websites

Thinking of injecting a little humor into your website? Inspired Mag looks at 10 Studios with funny websites

How to work with a professional designer

As it gets harder to book a designers and professionals, Pixelmatrix goes over some tips on how to work with professional designers.

Best of the Week 7/10

Niki — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:06:15 +0000

Wow…this week has been crazy! Carsonified did a massive redesign, The Obox guys didn’t sleep all week and released a theme shop, Chat Creative had their first video chat, and rainbow gradients attempted to take over the internets! Leave a comment and let us know if we missed any great articles or inspiring designs.

Carsonified Redesigns

Carsonified redesigned their site with a wonderfully illustrative and colorful design! Click around the site and let them know what you think.

Obox Theme Shop

Obox Design launched their theme store this week. I’m really digging their hand done ‘left handed’ theme. Go check it out! Great work guys!

Chat Creative

Chat Creative exists to connect the creative community one video chat at a time. Very cool idea to get to know other designers/bloggers and connect with them and learn!

Mrs. Green

Von Glitschka talks about his process of designing a character and how this expresses a brand.

Bio-Bak.nl

Flashy website with some interesting navigation…

Scrolling Background Effect

Nice header background animation tutorial from youlove.us. Nice use of png’s and jquery!

via The River Current

Packaging With Attitude

Love this simple packaging and identity system and witty copy-writing for Brooklyn Fare. I’m sure all the designers out there would love to have clients like this! :) By Mucca Designs

Post-it Note Stop Animation

Checkout this awesome stop motion post-it note video. I’m amazed at the complexity and length of this video!

Copyright 101 for Designers

Amy has some great tips for designers on basic copyright info over at design sponge. A must read if you a newbie designer or student.

PIXELATED – a lightweight IconKit

PIXELATED is extremely lightweight – the icon file sizes average 60 bytes!
All icons contain only two colors: #222 and #EEE. (I’m considering releasing a developer’s package with PSDs so users can easily customize their colors)
Since the icon’s edges are hard, these transparent GIFs will work on any background.

The icons are free to use – no strings attached.

How To Create a WordPress Theme

Themeshaper has an 11 part tutorial covering wordpress from beginning to end. Good through tutorial for beginners.

Free Typography

Love free (and decent) typefaces? Check out freetypography.com for all the latest on great free typefaces!

Rainbows oh my…

This site might cause you to have a seizure, but this is the glory of the internets. Prepare to bask in the warm glow of animated rainbow gradients :)

Screen Jelly

Screen jelly allows you to record your screen from within the browser. Pretty cool for on the fly tutorials or demonstrations.

247 web usability guidelines

User Focus has put together a HUGE checklist of usability guidelines for web projects. Great in depth resource!

Best Of The Week: Video & Podcast Edition 6/20

Niki — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:47:17 +0000

Lots of bloggers and designers are making the jump from blogging to video and podcasting. It’s always nice to put a face and a voice to the names you see on the web. Check out this list of video blogs and podcasts that cover tutorials and interviews from print to web design.

Technique For Creating A Hand Drawn Website

The guys at From The Couch have a great video tutorial on a technique for creating hand drawn websites. Definitely check it out if you are looking to try something different!

Rounded Corners In FireFox And Safari

A quick tutorial on CSS3 selectors that make rounded corners a piece of cake in FF and Safari!

Stop Trying Start Doing

Another great video blog from the guys at From The Couch.

Interview with the guys ‘From The Couch”

Tired of the from the couch links yet? Ha! Well this is the last. Check out this interview Aaron did! Its cool to see how the guys got their start video blogging and what they are inspired by.

Build a Photo Gallery Tutorial

Chris from CSS-Tricks seems to never run out ideas for video tutorials. Check out this tut on building a photo gallery.

jQuery for Beginners

Looking to learn jQuery but don’t know where to start? Check out Jeff’s video series that will teach you how to use jQuery from the ground up!

Diving Into Php

Another great series by Jeff over at Theme Forest & Nettuts is diving into PHP. I’m currently going through these tutorials and learning a ton!

From Design to Print Podcast

Enough web stuff – let’s talk about print design: Bleeds, die cuts, paper types oh my! Check out this podcast if you want to learn more about all things print related. (itunes link!)

Boagworld Podcast

Another great web design related podcast to check out, subscribe to and follow religiously: Boagworld. This weeks show is about conflicts that surround design decisions.

Rookie Designer Podcast

Adam over at Rookie Designer runs a great podcast that covers important topics that newbies need to know about. This most recent episode Adam talks about how hiring a sales person to bring in new business may or may not help freelancers out there.

Grasshopper

Last but not least – check out this typography based video on entrepreneurship. Quite inspiring! :)

Best of the Week: Handy Tools & Apps Edition 6/12

Niki — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:33:42 +0000

There are alot of apps out there that will help you get things done, work faster and have fun. I have gathered a small collection of the apps that I have found helpful and use on a daily basis. Enjoy!

GrabUp

Grabup is a handy screenshot/uploading app. Take a screenshot…wait a second and then paste a URL to the image! I just purchased the pro version of this app a few days ago that allows me to upload to my own sever. Very handy!

Mousepose

Mousepose is a great little app that draws attention to your mouse. I have found that when presenting something to a client on screen this really helps direct their attention.

Firebug lite

I’m sure all your web designers and developers out there use Firebug religiously, but did you know theres a lite version for those *OTHER* browswers? *cough IE cough*

IconFinder

Need an icon? Go search for it at IconFinder – a handy search engine of icons.

HTML-Ipsum

I talk about this website all the time…because I use it all the time. Lorem Ipsum + HTML = WIN!

Tweetie

Tweetie is one of the newer twitter clients on the block and does not quite beat tweetdeck, but its user interface is BEAUTIFUL. Go check it out!

Ego

Are you constantly checking the # of twitter followers, hits on your site, and feedburner stats? Check out Ego app – all your handy important stats in one place!

Rocket Dock

Rocket dock is a nice windows app that emulates the mac dockbar. I have this app running on my little EEEpc and I love it!

Balsamiq

Balsamiq is a handy app that allows you to create mockups that can be shared and worked on with a team.

Press Check

Last but not least another designy-fun iphone game! PRESS CHECK is a designer ode to the old-school art of print plate alignment re-imagined as a challenge of speed and accuracy on your iPhone/iPod Touch. Show off your non-digital skills with levels ranging from the beginner 2-color set-ups to the expert 5-color jobs.

Yahoo Design Stencils

Niki — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 11:28:54 +0000

Yahoo has a great set of design stencils that will help kickstart your website mockup process. From forms to buttons to tabs to calendar and iphone interfaces – this set is very helpful!

12 Excellent Tools for Picking a Domain Name

Travis — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:51:49 +0000

As designers it seems like we’re always on the hunt for new domain names, whether it’s for projects right now, or projects down the road that we may never get to. Six Revisions has put together a list of 12 Excellent Tools for Picking a Domain Name. Happy hunting :)

Skimmer – Streamline your Social Networking

Travis — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:30:16 +0000

Creattica reader Sangeet Gyawali sent in this link to Skimmer, a new tool from We Are Fallon designed to streamline your social networking.

With so many social networks to keep track of, it can all become completely overloading. Skimmer is a tool to aggregate posts from your friends on Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, and Blogger. Check out the features here!

Get Your Logo Crit Here!

Niki — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 20:04:37 +0000

So, you have slaved for hours on end perfecting the type and tweaking the symbol into perfection – Now what? Get an outside oppinion and submit your logo to Logo Critiques!

Feed Stitch

Niki — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:26:15 +0000

Love this new rss feed-combiner-thingy by the people over at Viget labs (aka pointless corp. ). Enter your rss feeds and BAM – combined into one sweet feed! Go check out Feed Stitch and let us know what you think!