It’s no secret that online gambling is big on the internet, whether you agree with it or not. What surprises me though, as both a designer and an internet user, is that online casinos and their websites are not designed better, both for aesthetics and usability.
You would think that with the amount of money that an online casino would generate that they could spend more time and money on the designs of their sites and software. In my opinion, a nice design not only engages the visitor more, but also gives a feeling of security and trustworthiness - that this casino has put in the effort to make an attractive product. And trust is a big factor for anyone depositing their money into a casino. Read the rest of this entry »
January 9th, 2009 Design, Resources
If you are looking for some Photoshop layer styles that are not only free but useful and actually nice, then check out the 220 Amazing Free Layer Styles that you can download here. Awhile ago I was looking for layer styles and came across an earlier version of this pack. These layer styles are really useful for creating web buttons and titles, and help speed up design time.
Layer styles are really easy to install in Photoshop. Once you download the .ASL file simply open the “Preset Manager” (found under the “Edit” menu), choose “Styles” from the drop down and then click “Load” and find the .ASL file. Then view your styles palette (under the “Window” menu) and start making awesome web designs.
November 24th, 2008 Design
I use Gmail for my personal email, and I have it open every day. I’ve found it to be the best web based email around, the spam filtering is great and it has a nice, easy to use interface and functionality.
A few days ago when I logged into my Gmail like I do every morning I saw a little notice at the top announcing that there are now Gmail themes that I can use. Cool! So of course I tried them all, there are a number that are just different colour combinations of the standard Gmail layout. There are also a few more fun and funky ones.
Read the rest of this entry »
I wanted to create a website that presented information in a clear and easy to find fashion but that still showed my design abilities and personality. I liked the idea of making the background image the focal graphical element while layering the website information and interface over the top so that it can remain simple and easy to read.
To create the hummingbird design I converted the hummingbird itself to a vector illustration using Illustrator CS3 and the live trace tool. I then moved it over to Photoshop CS3 where I changed the hue / saturation so that it was the teal / orange colours and then added some depth and highlights with the burn tool. I also added in the long tail feathers by making paths with the pen tool.
Next I created the pink flowers and their stems and leaves. These are just simple paths created with the pen tool. Behind them I have used a mixture or leaf / flower brushes, gradient highlights and “dust” created with the dissolve blending mode.
I made the header look glassy in order to link the foreground with the background; so that the foreground content and background graphical elements were not completely removed from each other. I didn’t want the content to just be on top of the background.
There is still more that I want to do to the design of the website, such as adding some graphical elements to the background of the footer, but overall I am happy with how it has turned out so far.
