Insect photography is challenging under the best circumstances. Think about it: you’re taking photos of something that is likely smaller than your little finger (and at largest is still probably smaller than your hand), has no reason to cooperate, and likely views you as a predator or is oblivious to your presence entirely. And even if you’re taking photos of dead insects, it still takes a lot of skill (and a good macro lens) to get the right focus and lighting.
The photographers who managed to snap the photos below all deserve some serious respect. They’ve managed to capture the beauty and complexity of some of the most beautiful specimens in the insect world. Look at their coloring, their structure, the way their bodies are segmented, and let them inspire your designs. Whether you simply borrow a color scheme or go for something a bit more obvious, insects can serve as a wonderful source of artistic inspiration, one that is often overlooked.
Here are more photography related entries you might be interested:
Full list after jump.
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A well designed newsletter/email template can be the difference between success an failure. Whether its to update customers about a product, or to share information, having a well designed template can be a great starting point to guide your readers and give them a clear coherent flow when they read your email. This is crucial, considering how important the first impression is.
Here is round-up of some of the best free HTML newsletter templates on the Internet you can download without paying a penny.
Here are more related entries you might be interested:
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Breadcrumb navigation is often overlooked in the design and development process. Some people may see it as unnecessary while others may feel it is too big of a hassle for what its worth. Fact of the matter is, breadcrumb navigation will greatly increase the usability of a website. Breadcrumbs give users an alternative method of navigation, allow them to see where they stand in the hierarchy of a website, and will reduce the number of steps needed to navigate to a higher-level within a website.
Outlined here are the different types of breadcrumb navigation being used today, why they are important, and how they should best be implemented online. Also included here for your reference are over 30 examples of how breadcrumbs are being used online today. Remember, while it is likely that breadcrumb navigation will not make or break a website it will provide an added benefit to your users by increasing the overall usability and functionality of your website.
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Minimalism has been a popular website design style for years. It has so many benefits; minimalist sites load faster, take fewer server resources, and are often faster to develop than more graphically complicated designs. Plus, they give a professional, clean impression to visitors.
Many people still view minimalist designs as boring. But there’s a real art to effective minimal website designs, something not all designers can effectively master. When you limit the number of graphic elements you use and put the focus on negative space and typography, a good eye for spacing and proportion becomes crucial.
Below are more than 100 excellent examples of clean, simple and minimalist website designs. They run the gamut from simple brochure-style sites to ecommerce and portfolio sites. What they all have in common is a design aesthetic where less is more.
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We love freebies, and we love them more if they are high quality freebie. We occasionally search the Internet high and low to dig out these hidden gems to make designers’ life easier and better. This week, with the help from our friend Iconshock, we are releasing a free high quality Twitter icon set, named Blitter.
Blitter Twitter icon set comes in two sets of sizes, respectively 215×215 pixels and 512×512 pixels in transparent .PNG 24-bit format. We’ve also included the Adobe Illustrator .AI source file just in case you want a bigger version of any icon. Feel free to use, edit for any type of individual and commercial projects. However you should not re-sell or take advantage of the freebie to generate any revenue of any format.
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WordPress has pretty decent typography features in the core installation. But there are plenty of areas ripe for improvement. That’s where the plugins below come in.
Credit: Image background by fabianohikaru
Whether you just want more control over how the basic text on your site shows up or you want to do something a bit more advanced, there’s surely a plugin available to help. There are plugins to better handle things like hyphens and long URLS, plugins to replace text with images (whether in headlines or to avoid censorship), and plugins to let you add print-centric elements, like drop caps and pull quotes, to your posts.
Be sure to check out our previous post on Dynamic Image Replacement for more useful WordPress typography plugins and here are some Wordpress related plugins we’ve previously published:
Full list after jump.
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A great wave of excitement is sweeping across all Apple fans as they await for the official launch of the latest amazing Apple product by year end. Yes, it is the eagerly anticipated Apple Tablet, which was reported to be commercially available this coming November. Some of us may have seen the prototype online, and few will disagree that it is yet another beautiful creation by Apple.
In terms of the design and the aesthetic value of IT wares, there is little dispute that Apple create some of the finest and most creative design for their products that few or no other competitors can match. Over the years, product concept designs by hardcore Apple fans began to surface as Apple started to stand out among its competitors. Although these designs are not going to be marketed as actual products, it reflects the deepest wishes of die-hard Apple fans.
Here is a fine compilation of some of the best, coolest and most creative Apple concept designs created by fans. Don’t you just wish these are available in the market?
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Monochrome photographs are timeless, especially black and white photographs. They enhance emotional substance and have a disposition of making photos look more artistic.
Credit: Jana by LudovicMazet
They can be used on many different scenes as it’s not required to think about all the colors that should look good together and match the amount of light available. And for those who love to play with color, black and white photography doesn’t necessarily need to be boring as there are so many different shades to choose from.
Gray scale is a spectrum of black and white which evolves into shades and different depths of gray. So when we speak of gray scale we speak of how we measure tones of gray. Here are five tips you might need to know when it comes to Black & White Photography.
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Portable applications in general are software and programs you can run independently from a removable drives (like flash/pen drive) without going through the hassle of installing them. They are widely used and have been a favorite approach for professionals of different various industries.
With portable applications, you can leave your laptop behind; plug in the thumb drive in any client machine, run the application without worrying about leaving anything behind. In this post, we attempt to show a collection of useful and free applications you can run independently from thumb drives, sorting by profession by general. You’ll be surprise how many applications you can actually run without installation. Full list after jump.
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Halloween, which falls on the 31th of October is a holiday that normally associated with symbols like “Jack o’ Lanterns“, skeleton, pumpkins and activities like bonfire, costume party, "trick-or-treats", etc. As you have probably known, Halloween this year is already around the corner.
Every festive season, we’ll look out for related wallpapers to spice and refresh our desktop. We did that for Christmas, we did the same thing for Chinese New Year and this time around – Halloween is no exception. If you are already into the Halloween mode, why not decorate your desktop with some awesome Halloween wallpapers. Here’s a collection of 50+ Be-Bewitched Halloween Wallpapers for your desktop.
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A good portrait reveals something about its subject beyond the immediate appearance of the photograph. It includes layers of meaning and depth that portray the person as a whole, not just the superficial initial impression. Great portraits give us an idea of who the person really is, beyond what they’re trying to outwardly depict.
Portraits done in black and white add an additional layer of complexity to their subject. The choice to appear void of color says something about the person, though what it says varies greatly between people. Below are 100 stunning black and white portraits to give you inspiration in your designs. The range of subjects and what their portraits say about them run across the entire spectrum of the human experience, and you’re sure to find something that resonates.
More photography entries we’ve previously published:
Complete showcase after jump.
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The moment you decide to run an online store selling your favorite stuff, you are immediately thrown with dozens of questions and obstacles. For starters, you’ll need to decide between clean inventory/excess stock, then comes the resource for products. Ultimately, when it comes to open an e-commerce site, the biggest decision is – Which platform should I use?
The software you’ve decided upon will be the foundation of your entire e-commerce site and will not likely be changed in the future, therefore it’s utmost important that you know all of the best one before you choose and regret later. In this post, we want to bring to your attention some of the best (free) open-source shopping carts available on the Internet. Do check them out, test of the demo, play around with it to know if the functionality suits your business before deciding on one.
Full list after jump.
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When one speaks of retro art, images of art styles derived from advertising and propaganda posters from 1930s to 1960s usually flood the mind. The simple graphics made from oil paints reflect the less advanced technology of that time. This period is also a time of significant turbulence in our modern history, when major events such as the rise of communism and World Wars were taking ground. It is then not surprising that many posters serve as propaganda tools for the ruling governments. These propaganda images eventually contributed to the development of different retro art styles.
Many of the following retro art pieces that you will see are actual posters produced during those time. We’ve searched a couple of sources to compile a great list of retro art styles comprising not only of propaganda art pieces, but also a few other kind such as advertising posters. In addition, we have separated these pieces into two main categories, Western and Chinese retro art. Full list after jump.
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One of the things that makes a great designer is the ability to see beauty in unlikely places. And images of urban decay can really put that ability to the test.
Whether it’s images of abandoned buildings or simply a disregarded alley or nook, there is beauty to be found in the derelict and forgotten areas of the world’s cities. The images below give only a small taste of what’s out there, ready to inspire your next design project.
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