Design Resources

[the_wallcrawler]

i am looking for some cool design resources online. what are your favorites? i'm looking for fonts, dreamweaver tutorials, flash tutorials, and photoshop stuff. maybe illustrator. hook it up folks.

[FatTony]

Flashkit (http://www.flashkit.com/index.shtml) is good for flash examples and tutorials. They have some links for fonts and art, too.

I also go to Mac Design Online (http://www.macdesignonline.com/index.html) for tips on Photoshop. They also have tips for other programs.

[mrjamin]

as far as fonts go; all the best ones you have to pay for really. The freebie ones are generally pretty crappy and the kind of thing you see in MS Publisher (*shudders*). Interesting how M$ didn't port Publisher or FrontPage in with their Mac Office versions. Well, i guess its not actually interesting, just common sense since they'd get laughed at.

Anyway, back ontopic:

My advice for design inspiration is look at designers websites (if you're looking to design for the net). The chances are they're gonna work really hard to make it look especially pukka so potential clients get blown away by it. Thats the way i generally look for inspiration.

edit: another note on free fonts. Their spacing is all over the place! The biggest difference between a pro's work and an amateur is that all the text looks amazing in titles etc because they play with the spacing of the letters - it can really make a difference to your work.

another edit: as for dreamweaver, the WYSIWG view is really annoying - its pretty inaccurate if you ask me. Your best bet is to look up some HTML/XHTML tutorials and learn how to make your code valid. If you learn how to do valid html/xhtml right from the start, you'll put yourself on much better footing than your average webby. Everyone knows someone who can make a half decent site, which is why you have to be better than the rest. ALWAYS validate your sites using http://validator.w3.org. Having said that, Mozzy browsers aren't xhtml 1.0 compliant! Test your sites in several browsers - there's nothing more annoying than your site looking crappy in certain browsers and on certain systems.

[the_wallcrawler]

Originally posted by mrjamin
as far as fonts go; all the best ones you have to pay for really. The freebie ones are generally pretty crappy and the kind of thing you see in MS Publisher (*shudders*). Interesting how M$ didn't port Publisher or FrontPage in with their Mac Office versions. Well, i guess its not actually interesting, just common sense since they'd get laughed at.

Anyway, back ontopic:

My advice for design inspiration is look at designers websites (if you're looking to design for the net). The chances are they're gonna work really hard to make it look especially pukka so potential clients get blown away by it. Thats the way i generally look for inspiration.

edit: another note on free fonts. Their spacing is all over the place! The biggest difference between a pro's work and an amateur is that all the text looks amazing in titles etc because they play with the spacing of the letters - it can really make a difference to your work.

another edit: as for dreamweaver, the WYSIWG view is really annoying - its pretty inaccurate if you ask me. Your best bet is to look up some HTML/XHTML tutorials and learn how to make your code valid. If you learn how to do valid html/xhtml right from the start, you'll put yourself on much better footing than your average webby. Everyone knows someone who can make a half decent site, which is why you have to be better than the rest. ALWAYS validate your sites using http://validator.w3.org. Having said that, Mozzy browsers aren't xhtml 1.0 compliant! Test your sites in several browsers - there's nothing more annoying than your site looking crappy in certain browsers and on certain systems.

mrjamin, very good points much appreciated.

i too think its good just to surf the net for ideas......to "borrow" of course. but i wasnt looking so much for inspiration as i am for good learning/tutorial/tip sites.

and yes, i do know how to straight code html but usually use a dreamweaver/bbedit combo. i have never tried that validator though, i will have to do it from now on.

i have found some good free font sites before but i re-installed my os to clean everything out after school and i didnt save my safari prefs so i lost all of them. i hoping some great mac heads come here and give me some direction...........:)

[medea]

Originally posted by the_wallcrawler
i am looking for some cool design resources online. what are your favorites? i'm looking for fonts, dreamweaver tutorials, flash tutorials, and photoshop stuff. maybe illustrator. hook it up folks.
There are some good free fonts out there.
check http://www.girlswhowearglasses.com/

[pEZ]

I feel the urge to defend Dreamweaver, once again.

With the release of Dreamweaver MX, the WYSIWYG interface was MUCH improved, and is much easier to control what goes where on my page. I have no need to learn HTML/XML/XHTML and have no desire at the moment, plus I have no time to learn it. The interface is good enough, and you can make some killer sites if you know how to use Dreamweaver well.

Aside from the rant, I know you said online tutorials, but for Flash I'd recommend the books put out by Macromedia; they're called Training from the Source. There are two versions - one is more of a beginner tutorial, and the other is more focused on Actionscript. (I live for the day when I can understand and write my own Actionscript.)

I'd also highly recommend Lynda.com (http://www.lynda.com) because the tutorials are done in a movie format, it helps a ton. Subscription is something like $25, not too bad for what you get.