Typography plays an important role and is an integral part of any design; be it print or web. Sometimes, when there is no room for images, typeface is all you’ve got to give the audience an idea what the whole thing is all about.

E-commerce design requires much of the same design knowledge and skill as any other type of web design. The pages are built from many of the same elements – headers, footers, columns, graphics, and text, among other things. But there are additional elements that need to be considered, from both a design and usability standpoint. Site architecture is often more complicated, with products sometimes falling into multiple categories. Product pages need to be laid out in a way that makes it easy for customers to see exactly what it is they’re getting. And the checkout process needs to be as simple and streamlined as possible while still capturing necessary information and encouraging repeat business. Overall, e-commerce design takes a bit more planning and care than simpler website forms.

A good e-commerce design will guide customers through finding the product they’re looking for through the end of their purchase. It will make them comfortable making an online purchase in general, and specifically from your site. And it will do so in a way that’s as user-friendly as possible. Design can play a huge part in this process, as a good design will guide them through the process seamlessly.

Below is a roundup of more than 100 e-commerce site resources. There are sources to inspire you, a collection of excellent shopping carts and e-commerce platforms, a ton of stock icons you can use in your designs, and a few tutorials to help you out. We’ve even included some ready-made e-commerce templates that you can customize and that can be used with or without a CMS.

1. Inspiration

The first place to start with any new website design is with inspiration. Below are some great roundups and collections of inspiring e-commerce designs to get you thinking.

General Inspiration

20 of the Best e-commerce Websites – A roundup of excellent e-commerce site designs from Tutorial Blog.

Cart Craze – A gallery that showcases only e-commerce site designs.

23 Excellent Examples of How to Design Online Stores – A great roundup of fantastic e-commerce sites from InspectElement.

20 Well Designed E-Commerce Websites – A showcase of site designs from Dzine Blog.

50 Inspirational e-commerce Website Designs – An awesome showcase from Vandelay Design Blog.

35 Excellent e-commerce User Interface Designs – Another great e-commerce design showcase from Vandelay Design Blog.

Call to Action Buttons

107 Add to Cart Buttons of the Top Online Retailers – A roundup of add to cart buttons from some top online stores, as well as some analysis.

80 Examples of Add to Cart Buttons for Design Inspiration – This is a phenomenal collection of add to cart buttons assembled by Six Revisions.

20 e-commerce Add To Cart Buttons For Your Inspiration – Another excellent roundup of real-world examples.

"Add to Cart" Button Showcase – A post from Vandelay Design Blog that showcases a variety of add to cart buttons.

2. Shopping Carts and e-commerce Platforms

Unless your e-commerce site has very, very unique needs, you’ll save yourself a lot of time by using a ready-made shopping cart or e-commerce platform. Below are some of the best, many of which are free, and some of which will work alongside other CMSs.

Stand-Alone Carts

PrestaShop – A free, open-source, scalable shopping cart with an intuitive interface.

OpenCart – A free, PHP-based, open-source shopping cart that includes support for product reviews, automatic image resizing, and downloadable products.

Magento – An e-commerce platform that includes both free community versions and paid enterprise versions.

CubeCart – A shopping cart with two versions available, one of which is free.

Zen Cart – A free open-source shopping cart with free add-ons available.

osCommerce – A free and open source shopping cart that powers more than 225,000 online stores around the world.

Digistore – A free, open source shopping cart built on osCommerce.

StoreSprite – A free and powerful PHP/MySQL shopping cart that’s easy to use.

BossCart – A PHP-based shopping cart with free and premium versions available.

FatFreeCart – A copy-and-paste shopping cart solution that works with PayPal or Google Checkout and doesn’t require you to sign up for an account or install anything.

Plugins

WordPress e-Commerce – A free, open source plugin for WP with free and paid add-ons.

Shopp – An incredibly easy to use, premium shopping cart for WP.

Ubercart – A shopping cart plugin for Drupal 5 or 6.

Drupal e-Commerce – An e-commerce plugin for Drupal that works with PayPal, Authorize.net, and other payment systems.

VirtueMart – A free shopping cart plugin for Joomla.

Seber Cart – A small, easy to use shopping cart plugin for Joomla.

Joomla jQuery Cart – jCart is an easy-to-install and customize, free Ajax shopping cart.

3. Stock Icons and Design Elements

There’s no sense in reinventing the wheel. Rather than creating all of your icons from scratch, why not see if there are some stock icons out there that suit your needs? Below are dozens of great options, as well as some general design elements (like pricing tables) you can use on your site.

Stock e-commerce Themes

35 Free High-Quality E-Commerce Templates – A great roundup of premade e-commerce themes, most of which can be adapted to meet your own needs, from Smashing Magazine.

25 Magento Templates for Your E-Commerce Business – Another great collection from Smashing Magazine of Magento templates.

20+ Best e-commerce (WordPress Themes, Templates, Icons, Flash Sites) Collection – An excellent collection of templates and other design elements.

The Clothes Shop Theme – A plugin-free WordPress online clothing store theme.

The Furniture Store Theme – A plugin-free furniture store WordPress theme.

enVirashop – A plugin-free, flexible e-commerce theme for WordPress.

wpShop Reloaded – A flexible WordPress e-commerce theme with two child themes.

RGBSTore e-commerce – An e-commerce-ready HTML template that can work with Magento, osCommerce, Zen Cart and others.

Boutique – An elegant e-commerce HTML template.

Sancart – A simple OpenCart e-commerce template.

OScomm E-Commerce Template – An e-commerce HTML template.

ClassyShop – An e-commerce template built on the 960 grid system.

Store Theme – A theme from Templatic that turns your standard WP installation into an online store.

Crafty Cart Theme – A great, free WP theme that turns your WP site into an online store.

SimpleCart(js) – Another free WP theme to turn your site into an online store.

Market Theme – Market is yet another theme that lets you turn a standard WP installation into an online store.

ShopperPress – A WP theme that turns your WP install into an e-commerce site that works with Google Checkout, PayPal, Authorize.net, and a number of other payment gateways.

Design Elements

e-commerce Web Elements, Dark Grey & Green – A set of design elements in dark gray and lime green for your e-commerce site.

Web 2.0 Button (e-commerce #2) – A collection of e-commerce call to action buttons.

e-commerce Web Elements – A set of editable design elements with customizable color schemes.

Web Pack (Price Table, Banner, Buttons…) – A set of black and gray buttons and other design elements.

Price Table – Customizable price table elements.

Colorful Pricing Table – A very colorful, fully customizable price table element.

Pricing Tables – 5 Pack – A collection of pricing tables that includes 3D, horizontal, and vertical versions.

Pricing Tables – A pricing table element that includes a features list.

Super Bright Pricing Tables – A collection of pricing tables in four colors that can be mixed and matched.

General Icons

Vector Free Shipping Bag Set – A set of free shipping shopping bag vector icons.

Free Shipping Tag Icon – A vector hang tag with a "free shipping" message.

13 E-Commerce Icons – A great collection that includes sale, credit card and shopping cart icons.

Universal Icons – Set 16 (Shopping) – A set of premium icons from iStockPhoto.

Sale and Shopping Icons – Alto Series – Another set of premium icons from iStockPhoto.

Shopping & Consumerism Icons – White or Black Series – A set of simple premium icons from iStockPhoto.

Set of 77 Web Icons – A huge set of blue icons that includes a shopping cart and various other icons useful for an e-commerce site.

BlueSakura – A set of 45 icons, including various shopping cart icons.

Icon Set n9 – Commerce – A set of e-commerce icons that includes a shoping cart, basket, sign, gift, and more.

Icon Set n8 – Commerce – Another set of glossy e-commerce icons, including a credit card, shopping cart, and hang tag.

Stylish Cardboard Tag Icons – A set of customizable hang tag icons.

Beautiful e-commerce Icons – A free icon set from Nettuts+ that includes shopping cart, bag, cash register, and other icons.

Hola Icons – Shopping – A set of glossy, informal icons.

Simple Icons on Black Background – Set 4 – A set of simple grayscale icons including a shopping cart and basket.

Shopping Icons Set – A set of bright e-commerce icons that includes a sale tag, credit cards, and shopping basket.

Shopping Icons Fresh Collection – Set 10 – A set of cartoonish e-commerce icons.

Smooth Icon Set – A set of glossy icons that includes shopping carts and credit cards.

Shopping Icons Retro Revival Collection – Set 9 – A set of retro, illustrated e-commerce icons.

Green Icons Retro Revival Collection – Set 5 – A set of green-themed icons that includes a shopping basket among others.

Shopping Icon Set (Isometric) – A mostly yellow and green set of icons.

E-Commerce Icon Set – A set of green-toned icons, including a shopping cart, shopping basket, and credit card icon.

Themes Ultimate Icon Set – A collection of icons that includes a shopping cart and other e-commerce icons.

200 Mini Icons – A huge collection of mini icons that includes shopping cart icons.

Web Icon Set – A set of blue e-commerce and other icons.

Glossy Internet Icons – Set 4 – A collection of square, glossy icons that includes shopping carts, credit cards, shopping baskets, and various other useful e-commerce icons.

Colorful Stickers Part 3 Icon Set – A sticker-style icon set that includes a number of shopping cart icons.

Flames Web Icons – A collection of 50 flaming circle icons, including a shopping cart, dollar sign, and others.

Glossy Icon Set – A set of fuschia e-commerce icons.

Futuristica Icons – A set of icons styled like robots that includes a shopping cart icon.

Shopping Icons – Smooth Series – A set of very polished-looking e-commerce icons.

Free Shipping Icon – A vector cardboard box free shipping icon.

Web Assortment – A collection of colorful icons that includes a hang tag and shopping basket.

Halloween Shop Icons – A set of Halloween-themed icons that includes a shopping cart, basket, and gifts.

Free Shipping Icon – Another cardboard box free shipping icon.

Credit Card and Payment Method Icons

Credit Card Icon – A generic credit card icon, available as a 256×256 pixel PNG.

Chalkwork Payments (Free) – A free and royalty-free set of icons from Mezzoblue that includes credit cards and other payment methods.

Free Icons – e-commerce – Three credit card icons: Visa, MasterCard, and American Express.

Credit Card Icons Set – A set of free credit card icons available up to 72 pixels square.

Credit Cards – A generic credit card icon.

Country Flag Icons

Country Flag Icons – A set of 36 glossy, country flag icons.

243 Country Flag Icons – A huge set of country flag icons with a slight gloss effect.

World Flag Icons Pack – A set of round country flag icons with a total of 288 icons included.

XP Flags Icon – A set of wavy flag icons that includes the flags of the UK, US, Scotland, England and Spain.

Flag Icons – A set of 247 flag icons in GIF and PNG formats.

World Flag Orbs – A set of orb-shaped icons of world flags.

Flags – A collection of round country flag icons.

110 Famous City Flag Icons – While not as widely useful as country flags, these city flags might also come in handy on some e-commerce sites.

50 Flag Icons – A set of square flag icons with rounded corners.

Rounded Flag Icons – A set of glossy, round icons available in 3 sizes: 124×124, 48×48 and 24×24.

Shopping Cart, Bag and Basket Icons

Shopping Basket Icon – A free icon of a shopping basket, available up to 256×256 pixels.

Shopping Paper Bags Icons – A set of paper shopping bag icons in a variety of colors.

Free Icon Set – This set from Luka Pensa includes four different shopping cart icons (as well as some others you may find useful).

Shopping Basket Icons 3D – A 3-dimensional shopping basket icon set designed by OoflyingmoonoO.

Bubble Icon Series – Shopping Baskets and Carts – A set of premium shopping cart and basket icons from iStockPhoto.

Shop Cart Icons – A set of four shopping cart icons, including add to cart and remove from cart icons.

Shopping Cart Icon – A slightly different shopping cart design from Bartelme Design.

E-Shop Icon – Another interesting shopping cart icon design.

Shopping Cart – A shopping cart icon with a twist.

Shopping Cart – A small, simple shopping cart icon/button.

3D Shopping Cart – Another 3D shopping cart icon.

4. Tutorials

If you need a bit of extra help with the design and setup of your e-commerce site, the articles and tutorials below are a good place to start. Check out general design tutorials, too, as many elements of e-commerce sites are shared with other types of sites.

General Tutorials

Design an e-commerce Website in Photoshop – A great design tutorial from DesignM.ag.

How to Build an Online Store with WordPress – A simple tutorial for building an e-commerce site with WordPress.

How To Create an e-commerce Websit with WordPress in Under 5 Minutes – A video tutorial from WordPress.tv.

Call to Action Buttons

Add-to-Cart Buttons: Bigger is Better – An analysis of how size impacts the effectiveness of add-to-cart buttons.

How to Design Buttons to Help Improve Usability – While not strictly limited to add to cart buttons, this post offers great insight on creating better buttons.

Add to Cart Button Tutorial – The Best Converting Button to Use – A simple tutorial from Internet Marketers Arsenal for creating a high-performing add to cart button.

Scalable CSS Buttons Using PNG and Background Colors – A tutorial for creating CSS buttons from David’s Kitchen.

Add to Cart Photoshop Tutorial – A tutorial for creating a rounded add to cart button from PSD Master.

Web 2.0 Button – A tutorial for creating a Web 2.0-style call to action button.

Further Resources

• Open Source E-Commerce Shopping Carts – Best Of – Hongkiat.com
• 15 Free Shopping Cart Icons – [Re]Encoded.com
• 30 High-Quality Icons Sets for E-Commerce Designs – Six Revisions
• Shopping Cart Icons – Hidden Pixel
• Ultimate e-commerce Starter Kits for WordPress Users – WebDesignBooth

Is there any thing we’ve missed out? Drop us a comment

About Author – Cameron Chapman is a professional Web and graphic designer with over 7 years of experience. She writes for a number of blogs, including her own, Cameron Chapman On Writing. She’s also the author of Internet Famous: A Practical Guide to Becoming an Online Celebrity.

When it comes to high-end 3d computer graphics and 3d modeling software package, Autodesk Maya is always one of application to be considered. Maya plays an important role in the 3d visualization and animation industry and they are top choices for many designers on large or small-scale production.

If you are looking to picking up Maya to design your 3d models, this article is for you. We’ve collected more than 100 useful Maya 3D tutorials, ranging from beginner level to intermediate and advanced users. Full list after jump.

For Beginners

Flying Butterfly Animation – Tutorial for Beginners
This tutorial will teach you to make a simple butterfly and animate it.

Animate a Logo Forming from Particles in Maya
In this tutorial Abed Ibrahim will walk you through the process of creating an animated logo using particles in Maya, and then reverse the rendered animation in any video editing software of your choice.

Create a coin 3D model
This tutorial will show you how to create very realistic coin using only maya 3d.

Flying Arrows
This tutorial will teach you how to create flying arrows.

Creating Text In Maya
This tutorial covers how to create text in Maya.

Make A Screw-Driver
This is a basic modelling tutorial that will teach you how to make a screw-driver and render it.

Basics Of Maya Key Frame Animation
This tutorial will teach you the fundamentals of the way Maya animates.

3D Street Lamp Modeling
This tutorial will teach you how to modeling 3d street lamp.

Melting Text
This tutorial will teach you explore some of the tools and options of fluid to create melting text effect like smoke.

Spiral Modeling
Learn how to model a spiral.

5 Tricks On Using Cameras In Maya
This tutorial covers 5 cool tricks you can do using cameras in Maya.

Create 3D Heart Model
Learn how to create a heart from poly cube.

Create Awesome Cloth Simulations using nDynamics in Maya
In this tutorial you will learn how to use nDynamics’ passive colliders and ncloth objects, in conjunction with fields like air and gravity, to easily simulate realistic dynamic objects such as a windy flag or a water container.

Boolean Modeling in Maya
This tutorial covers in depth, basic boolean operations, anatomy of a boolean, where to use booleans, and common boolean errors.

Basic Technique of Creating An Animation
In this tutorial you’ll learn the very basic technique of creating an animation in Maya.

Animated Arrows
This tutorial will teach you how to create animated arrows.

How Shaders Work In Maya
This tutorial teaches you how materials work, and how to create materials in Maya.

Grab and Move an Object
In this tutorial I will explain how to grab and move an object.

Finding Distances In Maya
This tutorial teaches you how to find distances in Maya.

Duplicate Special
Duplicate Special lets you duplicate objects, change the transformation attributes of the duplicated object(s), and duplicate mulitple objects at a time.

Creating Natural Light
This tutorial will teach you how to make a light rig that will generate a nice, clean, soft overall light that’s tinted green.

Creating Lightning In Maya
This tutorial covers how to create lightning effects in Maya.

Create Simple Wave
Create simple wave using Sine Deformer for flag wave if you not using soft body or for fish tail.

How to Rendering Shadow Only
This tutorial will teach you how to rendering shadow only. This is simple and fast.

Importing Audio Into Maya
This tutorial covers how to import audio into Maya.

Making Blendshapes
This is the first part of a multi-part tutorial on blend shapes.

Modelling Hammer
In this tutorial we will be modeling a hammer with help of poly and subdiv.

Model and Texture a Photo-realistic USB Cable with Maya and Mental Ray
In this tutorial you will go through the process of modeling and rendering a Photo-realistic USB cable in Autodesk Maya.

Modeling a Face
This tutorial will teach you how to model a basic face that can be used for cartoon or realistic.

Modeling A Knife
This tutorial will teach you how to model a knife quickly, using Maya.

Modeling Saw
n this Maya tutorial we will learn how to modeling saw.

Parent/Child in Maya
Learn how parent and child function works in Maya.

Pivot Points
This tutorial covers how to edit pivot points in Maya.

Creating Gears
This tutorial will teach you how to create gears.

Getting started with Mental Ray’s Final Gather
This tutorial was designed to teach anyone who is interested in rendering with Mental Ray’s Final Gather.

Two Tips For Move And Rotate Tools
This covers some tool settings that I found useful to help the modeling process.

Understanding Lights in Maya
This tutorial will explore Maya’s default light options for every and each light in the list

Using Revolve
This tutorial will teach you how to use revolve tool in Maya.

Using The Extrude Tool
This tutorial will cover in depth the extrude tool and all of its functions.

Modelling LCD Monitor
This tutorial will use allot extrude, scale, move, and split polygon object to create a LCD Monitor.

Building a Polygon Arch
This tutorial will show the method I used for making my arches in a building.

Wireframe Rendering
In this Maya tutorial we will learn how to create wire-frame rendering.

How to Create a Wine Glass
Create a wineglass using the curve tool.

For Intermediate Users

Modeling a Coca-Cola Bottle
This tutorial is intended to show you how to make a Coca-Cola bottle using Maya.

How do Create A Flash Photography Effect
This tutorial will teach you how to create a flash photography effect in Maya.

Modeling A Head Using Nurbs
Modeling a head using Nurbs-Polygon technique by Sasan Rafiee.

3D Modeling Keroro Gunso
In this Maya tutorial we will learn how to modeling Keroro Gunso.

Realistic Ear Modeling
This tutorial is mainly aimed at those users with experience in polygon modeling.

Realistic Eye Modeling for 3D Characters
A tutorial on how to model and apply shaders to get realistic eyes, the “windows of your character’s soul”.

Build a Reusable Light Rig in Maya
In this tutorial you will learn how to setup a basic lighting rig in Maya.

Caustics
Tthis tutorial will teach you how to make a picture of a glass using caustics.

Modelling in Alias – Ceiling light
Learn how to create ceiling light in Maya.

Modeling Kempston Pro Joystick
In this tutorial you will learn how to model kempston pro joystick using polygons and NURBS.

Animate a Dancing Ice Cream Bar in Cinema 4D and After Effects
In this 125 step monstrosity of a tutorial you will learn everything you need to know to make a dancing ice cream bar animation in Cinema 4D, and then composite it in After Effects.

Adding A Vase on Your Table
Table is a multiple functioned object, but without a nice flower vase looks incomplete. Follow the tutorial and see how it’s made in Maya.

Create Fire in Maya
In this tutorial we will learn how to create fire effect from scratch using Maya particle system which will help you achieving your desired look.

Create a New York Subway Entrance in Maya
Learn how to model the low-poly mesh from reference, and then move on to creating the high-poly source for the purpose of baking normal maps.

Tutorial on How to Make Car Rims
This tutorial will guide you on how to create a realistic looking chrome car rims.

Creating A Holiday Ball
This tutorial will teach you how to create a holiday ball from polygonal primitives.

Creating a Lava Lamp in Maya
This tutorial presents a step by step project for the modeling, shading, lighting and rendering of a realistic lava lamp.

Create A Photo-realistic Nut

Maya’s Paint Geometry Tool
This tutorial covers the basics of Maya’s Paint Geometry Tool.

How to Create a Realistic Looking Dirt Layer using Maya Transfer Maps
In this tutorial you will learn a simple technique of adding dust and dirt to your 3d objects, without overdoing it, to finally give them a more lifelike and realistic feel.

How to Create an Awesome Fire Effect Using Maya Fluids
In this tutorial you will learn how to create a fire animation inside Maya, and adjust the settings for your own projects.

Modelling A Poly Table Fan
This video tutorial shows step by step various quick modeling techniques including curve extrude, surfaces, poly tube, Smooth, bevel, curve revolve, extrude, and more, to create a polygonal fan table.

Creating Dynamic Mud Effect Using Soft Body
This tutorial covers how to make effect that one dynamic sphere make trail on surface while moving over it’s surface, similar like some ball moving over mud.

Making Eyelid Rig with Driven Keys and Expressions
Goal for this tutorial is to make few blend shapes for 4 position of eye and drive that blend shapes automatically as eye ball rotating.

Model a Spitfire War Plane
This tutorial shows you how to model a spit fire war plane.

Modeling A Toy Dragonfly
This tutorial covers how to model, texture, and render a toy dragonfly.

Modeling Hand
This tutorial covers how to model a human hand.

Modeling Human
Learn how to model a human.

Modeling Human: Naruto Chibi
This Maya Tutorial will explain about modeling human especially in the form of anime.

Texturing Resolution Tips

Create Cool Looking Cartoon Dog
This tutorial shows you how to create this cool looking cartoon dog – Starting with the image planes and moving onto the modeling which covers nurbs, polygons and sub divs.

Spotlight Fog
Learn how to add fog to a spotlight.

Page Turn Animation
This Tutorial would teach you, how to turn a page in Maya, using Maya’s skeleton setup.

Gaseous Effects

Ford Focus Tutorial Series
Learn how to model a ford focus WRX.

Model Airplane in Maya
In this video tutorial show how to model an airline airpalne step by step as in Maya.

Video Tutorial Portal Light in Maya
Video tutorial on how to create portal light in Maya.

Using Projection Mapping in Maya
This tutorial explains how to use simple tri planar (box) projection and planar projection to shade two walls, one with decal, all done in only one material.

Making A Battleship in Maya
This tutorial will explain how to make ship in Maya using Nurbs curves, surfaces and poly geometry.

Creating a Low Poly Dragon
This tutorial will explain how to use Maya polygons to create dragon.

Creating CG nature
This tutorial is going to show you how to make terrain, trees and grass using Maya.

Chain Gun in Maya tutorial
This tutorial will show you how to model a chain gun and control rig for firing and aiming using basic MEL scripts.

Candle Flame
Learn how to build a candle flame in Maya.

The Egg and The Fog
In this exercise you are going to learn how to crack an egg and have light beams coming out of the cracks.

For Advanced Users

Non Photo Realistic Shading in Maya
This tutorial describes how to achieve a Non photo realistic shading effect in Maya

“Blind Warrior” by Ryan Lim
This tutorial will briefly describe how Ryan Lim created his blind warrior from a painting    

Modeling a foot in Maya
This tutorial will teach you how to model a realistic looking foot in Maya.

Low Poly Game Character Hair
This tutorial will go with a more interesting hairstyle.

How to Create A Simple Crowd

Making of Skull head Mobster

Sub Scattering of Particles
‘ZBrush , Blender & Maya Training: Sub Scattering of Particles – Video Tutorials’
by Jason Welsh

Dr Julian’s Texturing Tutorial
By Julian Jeremy Johnson-Mortimer.

Growing Flowers
This tutorial will show you how to create growing flowers from surface; the flowers will gradually randomly grow up and will retain their original status when they reach to growing limit.

How to Build – A Next-Gen Game Car
This tutorial is intended to present a method of creating a next gen vehicle asset.

Making of Sohrab
By Farzad Dalvand, Iran.

Making of the Standing Beauty
This tutorial will explain the steps taken to create the standing beauty.

Modeling Morgane
By Cousigne Adrien

Revolution
By Zhang Yang, China.

Secrets of Swimsuit Babe
Making an attractive woman is always a goal for most CG enthusiasts.

Create a Cool Looking Molecule Effect
This tutorial will focus on creating a cool molecule type object with Maya and finish the project off in After Effects.

Create a Realistic Tree in Maya
This tutorial will help you to make a realistic tree.

Create a Spectacular Crash Animation With Maya Dynamics
In this tutorial we will learn how to use Maya’s powerful animation, dynamics, and camera tools to create an explosive crash effect between two vehicles.

Creating an Old Farm
By Daniel VIJOI.

Creating Logo Effect from Matrix
Learn how to reproduce some of the logo effect of the film “Matrix” using maya particles and expressions.

Domino Effect
This tutorial will discuss on several issues, how to setup the geometry and how to apply passive to active key switch among them.

Facial Animation Rig for Delgo
By Warren Grubb.

Making of Varga In MAYA
This tutorial will summarize the workflow used for one of author’s characters with lots of images and some print-screens.

Making of “The Tunnel” in Maya
n this tutorial you will learn how to create a fantastic tunnel scene in Maya, and then add some final lighting touches in Photoshop.

Making of the Rider
By Christopher Adajar, France.

Making of the Prince
by Robert Vari, Hungary

Making of the Joker
By Mohammadtaghi Aibaghi Esfehani, Iran.

Making of the Alien Nature
By Pascal Raimbault, New Zealand.

Making of Portrait of a Troll
By Jonas Persson, Sweden.

Making of Kid
By Rakesh Sandhu.

Making of Gladiator
By Christopher Adajar, Paris.

Making of Cheese Platter
This tutorial will explain how the author did this Cheese Platter the best that I can.

Creating A Spaceship Fleet Using Particle Instance
This tutorial is going to show you how to use particle instancer to create fleet of spaceships flying across the planes.

The Making of Mafia Wars 3D
This tutorial is going to explain how author made this “Mafia wars” picture.

The Fisheye Camera

Surface Emitted Particles on SoftBody Tenticles
The following concept tutorial will be covering Surface Emitted Particles on SoftBody tenticles to create a spiraling array particle system for futuristic gun blasts or whatever.

Street Cop Workflow
By Mashru Mishu

Making of Tiger Zoo
By Massimo Right.

Lava Shader Effects in Maya
This tutorial will explain how to make a shader for lava effects using Maya’s material editor, called Hypershade.

Destroying a Wall Using Rigid Bodies and Particles in Maya
This tutorial will explain how to use rigid bodies, forces and particles to create shatter effect in Maya.

Organic Modeling and Animation

Creating A Flame Thrower
This tutorial will show you how can you create Flame Thrower

Creating High Res Polygonal Models
This tutorial will concentrate on how to use smoothed polygonal geometry to create high res models.

How to Create A Model of Nissan 350-Z
This is a step-by-step tutorial that explain how to create 350Z’s body using polygonal modeling in Maya environment.

UV mapping Techniques and Workflow
This tutorial is designed to show most of the UV mapping techniques and tricks that I use day in and day out.

Making of ‘Snapshot of a Zombie’
By Jelle Van de Weghe.

About Author – Cameron Chapman is a professional Web and graphic designer with over 7 years of experience. She writes for a number of blogs, including her own, Cameron Chapman On Writing. She’s also the author of Internet Famous: A Practical Guide to Becoming an Online Celebrity.

With more than 11 months to go for year 2010, we certainly hope this article isn’t too late. Not too long ago we’ve put on a showcase of 49 innovative calendars created by creative designers all over the world. Today we are giving you some calendars, but the difference is – you can use them.

In this article, you’ll find more than twenty beautiful calendars for the 2010 that you can print as hardcopies and use as desktop wallpapers. Full list after jump.

Printable Calendars

Firefox calendars for 2010
The kind of Firefox that stays when you turn off your computer.

D.I.Y 2010 Calendar
Your very own “wallet and earth-friendly desktop calendar” to spice up any desk or wall!

Compact Calendar 2010
A simple printable calendar created using Microsoft Excel’s date calculation functions and presented like a candy bar o’ time.

Tiger 2010 Calendar
Tiger calendar for the Chinese tiger new year.

Spin Calendar
Print off, tack up, spin on. 

2010 Calendar

Microsoft 2010 Calendar Templates

2010 Calendars
Enjoy 2010 from January till December with artworks from Vladstudio!

2010 Accordion Calendar
A papercraft calendar by Bryan.

2010 Calendar Hexahedral

Foldable Calendar 2010
Calendar 2010 made with “~vorad0r” eps template.

2010 Vertical Desk Calendar

2010 Dodecahedron Cube Calendar

Calendar Wallpapers

2010 Calendar Wallpaper
Available size(s): 1920×1200

2K10 Desktop Calendar
Available size(s): 1920×1200, 1600×1200, 2560 ×1600

Fluid 2010 Wallpaper Calendars
Available size(s): 1024×600, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200, 1680×1050

2010 – sub88 + mpk
by *mpk
Available size(s): 1024×768, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Heavy Equipment Calendar
A production of Bauforum24 – Daily News from the Equipment Industry. Available size(s): 1024×600, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050

2010 Desktop Calendar – Pin Up
The package has the 12 months, sizes 1440×900 and 1280×800, plus Brazilian and American holidays.
Available size(s): 1440×900, 1280×800

2010 Wallendar
12 beautiful calendar wallpapers for iPhone and iPod Touch

More 2010 Calendars:

Here are more calendars you should also know:

• Free printable calendars – Calendar Labs
• Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: January 2010 – Smashing Magazine
• 21 Calendars & Wallpapers for 2010 – Designi1
• Downloadable 2010 Calendars – Threadbanger

It’s hard to distinguish between a WordPress and a Blogger powered blog because of the various themes being used. If there’s a beautiful WordPress theme available out there, chances are it has already been ported over to Blogger as well. Therefore, there’s no excuse to have a dull looking design on a Blogger.

In this post we’ll be featuring 52 most wanted Blogger templates according to its impressive design, advanced features and attractiveness – something you wouldn’t want to miss. Give your blogs a fresh new look and start hunting for your favourite template.

More Blogger templates we’ve previously showcased:

• Beautiful Blogger templates Part I,
• Beautiful Blogger templates Part II,
• Beautiful Blogger templates Part III

Full list after the jump.

Arclite | demo | download

Arto | demo | download

Blogger Press | demo | download

Blogger Tube | demo | download

Bulletin Board | demo | download

Burn Out Bright | demo | download

Cosmetic Girl | demo | download

Christmas New Year Eve | demo | download

Cupcake Cookie | demo | download

Edens Garden | demo | download

Evidens White | demo | download

Falkner Press | demo | download

Fashion Press Lite | demo | download

Gamma Ray | demo | download

Grante | demo | download

Grunge Girl | demo | download

Healthy Lifestyle | demo | download

Hybrid Gallery | demo | download

ImpreZZ | demo | download

Ink Stain | demo | download

Irresistible | demo | download

Leopress | demo | download

Letter Frame | demo | download

Ligneous | demo | download

Marikit | demo | download

Massive Attack | demo | download

Masunurin | demo | download

Mosaicus | demo | download

Music Globe | demo | download

Mystique | demo | download

Noteboook | demo | download

Paper Craft | demo | download

Panorama | demo | download

Peach Bloom Spring | demo | download

Photoplus Light | demo | download

Presents | demo | download

Red Light | demo | download

Rockstar | demo | download

Schemar Mag | demo | download

Scrapbook Mania | demo | download

Scrappy | demo | download

Showcase Light | demo | download

Spring | demo | download

Starlite Diva | demo | download

StudioPress Red | demo | download

Tequilas Flamejantes | demo | download

Theater Room | demo | download

Treasure Hunters | demo | download

Urban View | demo | download

Water Color | demo | download

Wooden Fence | demo | download

Woody | demo | download

Community Galleria | demo | download

About Author – Agape Wu is a social media marketer, and a serious blogger who’s addicted with Blogger template. She likes to study social media and Blogger design, while sharing her very personal thought in her Wretch’s blog. You can contact her through seriphimofsarov@hotmail.com.

Today for the very first time in hongkiat.com, we are releasing stock photos. The collection is made up of 45 high quality fruit photos and they are all free to download with no strings attached.

You can use these photos in all sorts of individual or commercial project without any restriction. However, you may not be able to resell, hotlink, re-distribute or make profit out of these photos. Please link to this article if you find these photos useful and would like to help spread a word.

Download Fruits Stock Photos

Left click to open up image in a new window for preview, or right-click, "Save link as" to download.

Behind the scene

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Min Thu for the generosity to release these stock photos (for free) in hongkiat.com.

My intention was to shoot these photos and to use them on free templates specifically created for flashmo.com and templatemo.com websites. Then, I think it would be really great to share with other people who love those kinds of photos around the world.

The photos were shot using Canon Kiss X3 (also known as 500D) mounted Canon F/4L 70-200mm lens. Some of them are shot using a tripod (Velbon DV-6000). I put the fruits on the 5×2 feet white table located at a big open-air balcony of my home.

Hongkiat is a very great place for web designers and developers on the net and it occasionally features photography related posts and useful freebies. I think it would be great giving free stock photos that can be used for any purpose for Hongkiat readers – Min Thu.

Thank you very much Min Thu for the great intention, we really appreciate it!

Back when Mickey Mouse was drawn by Walt Disney in 1928, it was all pencil and paper, and the frequent use of the ever dependable eraser. More than 80 years has passed and yet we still see Mickey Mouse cartoons all around the world.

That 80+ years has also brought advances in computer technology and software which now allows us to move away from the pencil, paper and the ever dependable eraser, to advanced drawing applications and input (drawing) devices. In this edition/article, we’ll be featuring the best 40+ tutorials on drawing cartoons with Adobe Illustrator and we hope it would expand your creativity and imagination to be the next Walt Disney.

Here are some related post you might be interested:

• 12 Sites To Create Cartoon Characters of Yourself
• 50 Websites For Free Vector Images Download
• Free Unique Cartoon and Comic Fonts

Full list after jump.

Happy Sun Character
Learn how to create fun sun character tutorial in Illustrator. This intermediate tutorial is great for logos, children illustrations, and other projects relating to climate change. Moreover, you can easily apply this tutorial to other illustrations, logos, and projects!

Cute Baby Seal
Simple tutorial to teach you how to create a super cute baby seal. At the end of tutorial you will get really nice, cute cartoon seal character.

Cartoon Duck
This tutorial will take you through basic shapes, using basic tools ie pathfinder, knife and eyedropper tools to create a cute duck character.

Furry Vector Monster
Follow these steps in Adobe Illustrator to create your very own super cute fuzzy monster character. We’ll be working with the basic shapes to start, then use a variety of gradients to add depth. We can then finish it off with some detailed fur effects to really lift the design from the screen.

Stinking Zombie Flesh-Eater
In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a cartoon zombie in Illustrator. Starting by creating a fresh corpse, we will then ‘yuck’ it up using a number of techniques.

Cute Hippo
This tutorial will show you how to create cute Hippo Character using simple shapes and a really simple effective drawing technique . This technique has been adopted from recent addition to the store of Animal Head Graphic Set , latest addition to the store.

Owl DiNG
In this tutorial we will walk through taking a pencil sketch into Illustrator and creating vector artwork. Then we’ll bounce over to Photoshop and add some details and give it a washed look.

LeBron James Cartoon Character
In this tutorial, you will learn how using Adobe Illustrator create vector cartoons. Learn how to create Lebron James Cartoon Character.

Leprechaun for St. Patrick’s Day
Create yourself a wee Leprechaun for St. Patricks Day 2009 with this Illustrator tutorial. Easy and interesting Illustrator tutorial.

Cartoon Character with Expressive Lines
This tutorial covers the necessary steps for creating a colored multicolor cartoon character that includes shadings.

Cute Emo Kid

In this tutorial we will go through the process of drawing cute cartoon character. The concept is based on the Emo trend, we will go trough all the steps from sketch to full color vector.

Cute Panda Bear Face Icon
How to create a cute panda bear face icon all from ellipses. The great part about this tutorial, is that you can easily apply the techniques to other icons, illustrations, logos, or other projects.

Gang of Vector Ninjas

Constructing a group of cool vector ninja characters using just the basic shapes and a variety of simple tools, making it a good start for Illustrator beginners.

Cute Bunny Vector Character
This tutorial uses simple shapes and gradients that are easy to apply to other character illustrations.

Cartoon Snail
Lean how to draw snail in Adobe Illustrator with some easy steps. Learn how to with Illustrator basic tools create cute snail.

Killer Chainsaw Bunny Character
This tutorial shows you how to build a Bucket ‘o’ Thought character and add a dynamic background effect.

Cute Vector Monster
Follow this Adobe Illustrator walkthrough on the creation of a cute little vector monster character, beginning with a quick pencil sketch on paper.

Grumpy Dude
Create grumpy dude in Adobe Illustrator with the brush tool. In this tutorial you will learn some digital drawing tips and how to fix little mistakes after you’ve drawn your stroke.

Fat Cat Vector
This tutorial aims to guide you from sketchbook to screen; a “Fat Cat” doodled with biro translated into a neat vector caricature. Intermediate knowledge of Adobe Illustrator is advised.

Freddy the Fish
Follow this tutorial to create your own vector character – Freddy the Fish.

Vector Pirate Cartoon Character
By firstly using the power of pen and paper a character design is created, which is then scanned into the computer to use as a base for tracing with Adobe Illustrator. The final outcome is a colourful cartoon character in vector format!

Twisted Monkey Studio Mascot
In this tutorial author will explain the process that he followed at the time of designing by order the mascot in vector format for Twisted Monkey Studios, producers of horror films.

Blob Monster – The Scream
It is really simple to create Blob Monster and doesn’t take long to complete. This technique can also be used for nearly any type of simple shape / monster.

How to Create a Web Site Mascot
In this tutorial, author will give an overview of how developed a character from the initial brief through to the final site mascot and then to go on to create several poses for different parts of the site.

Create Your Own Monster
In this Adobe Illustrator tutorial author will take you through the process of creating a completely unique, memorable monster that’s not at all humanoid in form.

Adding Dimension to Your Characters
In this tutorial author will show you how to add the illusion of dimension to your vector illustrations by combining the effects of Adobe Illustrator’s versatile linear and radial gradients.

Creating Bart Simpson Vector Character in Illustrator
This is a short beginner tutorial. You will use Layers, utilize the Pen Tool and its sister tools, such as the Convert Anchor Point Tool, Direct Selection Tool, etc, to draw and colorize a vector Bart Simpson in Adobe Illustrator.

How to Create a Vector Illustration and Prepare it for Micro-Stock Sale
This tutorial details a professional workflow for creating vector illustrations and prepping the artwork for Micro-Stock Sales. Author also included a bunch of time-saving tools and tips as well.

Creating Convincing Characters
In this tutorial, you’ll learn some basic skills for converting your character from a pencil doodle to a complete, fully-coloured image – learning some crucial Illustrator skills along the way.

Symmetrical Illustration: Thug Bunny!
This tutorial will go through the method of using symmetry in your artwork. Learn how to do half the work but still get the full benefit from your artwork. We’ll also feature a plugin for AI that speeds up your build time and cover the topic of “Opacity Masks.”

Patch Illustration 2
The following tutorial will show how author go about creating a set of NBA licensed embroidery patches featuring portraits of many of the leagues greatest players.

Basic Shading and Lighting
This tutorial goes over the elementary fundamentals when it comes to shading and lighting within a digital illustration.

Create A Vector Art Twitter Bird Character Icon In Adobe Illustrator
This tutorial will walk you through the steps from sketch to vector in creating an original cartoon-style character vector illustration.

Vector Tutorial: Anime Coloring
In this tutorial will be detailed explain how in Adobe Illustrator coloring sketches, in this tutorial author will use anime sketch.

Adobe Illustrator Cartoon Bug Tutorial
Here is one more cartoon characters tutorial in Illustrator. This time you will learn how to create nice fly cartoon.

Adobe Illustrator Cartoon Tutorial with a Wacom Tablet
In this Illustrator tutorial author will explain how using Wacom tablet you can at first draw cartoon sketch and than create vector cartoon.

Adding Gradients to Illustrations in Adobe Illustrator
In this tutorial you will learn how to use gradient tool in Illustrator. Author will explain how to add gradient to illustrations.

Monster Character Series Part 1
First of two Spoongraphics mini-series of tutorials on how to create a set of simple monster characters. This is very simple tutorial, so if you beginner of Illustrator, you can learn some basic tools.

Monster Character Series Part 2
Here is second Illustrator tutorial from Spoongraphics mini-series of monsters tutorials where you will take a look at the Dumb Blue Sucker Monster! Again, using mostly the basic tools and shapes making the tutorial suitable for beginners to Illustrator.

Create a Twitter Style Bird Mascot
Using some basic shapes, effects, and gradients author will show you how to create a Twitter mascot for your blog or website.

Maintaining Rhythm and Flow in Vector Character Design
In this tutorial you will break down the basic process of creating a character from sketching through to the final vector file. Whether you’re interested in creating vector mascots for branding design, or making interesting characters to use in your animations, you’ll find these techniques helpful.

Create a Traditional Japanese Koi Carp Illustration
Koi Carp have been painted and illustrated by the Japanese for centuries and are familiar to people all over the world. This tutorial will take the intermediate Adobe Illustrator user through the techniques and processes needed to imitate what the Japanese have perfected.

A Cow As Chinese New Year Zodiac For 2009
At the begining of 2009 – Cow year, Kailoon.com create special new year Illustrator tutorial, where you can learn how to draw 2009 year symbol – Cow. Very interesting tutorial and result is amazing – very cute Cow .

The Making of a Chocolate Bar Character.
In this tutorial Author take the concept from sketch through to vector final. You will learn how to create sweet cartoon character – Chocolate bar character.

Character Illustration
The following tutorial will walk you through a project, a character design for Fanta soda to use in their Halloween promotion.

Ilias Sounas’ Condomunity Member Illustration Tutorial
It’s basically a character design tutorial like many others out there – just that Author wanted it to be more like an illustration and possibly also an rss icon. Author picked 5 illustrators to hand in an artwork in their own typical style.

How to Create a Cute, 3D, Vector Robot
If you want to learn how to create a rounded robot character from sketch to finished vector art, then we have an awesome tutorial for you.

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.

Breadcrumb Types

Path

Path-based breadcrumbs indicate the steps, or path, a user has taken to arrive at the current page of a website. Furthermore, users will see links to pages they have previously visited to reach the current page. Out of the three types of breadcrumb navigation, Path-based breadcrumb navigation is least popular online. Reason being, Path-based breadcrumb navigation provides the similar functionality to the “Forward” and “Back” buttons on a browser. For most websites Location-based and Attribute-based breadcrumb navigation offers better functionality.

Location

Location-based breadcrumbs indicate to the user where the current page stands in the hierarchy of the website. This type of breadcrumb navigation is most commonly seen on websites with more than two levels of depth or content. Upon moving further into a website users are provide with links to pages, or categories, that act as a “parent” or a level up from the page they are currently viewing. For example, a user may be on the “Speak” page however the “What we do” page is a parent of the “Speak” page while the “Home” page is a parent of the “What we do” page.

Clearleft Ltd

Attribute

Attribute-based breadcrumbs indicate to the user the attributes or categories ascribed to the current page within a website. Often seen on e-commerce websites, products may not only fall under a category but under certain attributes as well. For example, a vehicle may be categorized as an SUV then have the attributes of being the color black and released in the year 2010.

Cars.com

Why Use Breadcrumbs?

• Great Usability
  Breadcrumbs provide an additional means by which users can easily navigate a website. If a user lands on an internal page on your website from another source breadcrumbs will allow the user to see exactly where they stand within the sites hierarchy. User are also given the opportunity to move up to a higher level of the website at any given time without any hassle.
• Easy to Backtrack
  Primary navigations are not designed to be followed backwards were breadcrumbs are. Since backtracking is extremely popular online providing a little additional help can go a long way.
• Eliminate Additional Clicks
  Breadcrumbs allow users to jump from one level of a website to the next without having to use the “forward” or “backward” buttons on the browser. Additionally breadcrumbs eliminate the need for users to continually resort to the main navigation.
• Shows Users Hierarchy
  The primary navigation of a website will not reflect the hierarchy of every page within the site. Giving users breadcrumbs will allow them to see the hierarchy of a page within a website.
• Visually Pleasing
  Not only do breadcrumbs provide users with additional usability, they do so without taking up much room or space on the page. Breadcrumbs are easy to implement into the visual design of your website and provide a great benefit to users.
• Provides Additional Help
  It is entirely possible that some users may not understand how a websites primary navigation works and in some cases users may not even know what they are looking for. Giving users breadcrumbs will allow them to see the overall progress and structure of a website thus allowing them to navigate the website better.
• Lower Bounce Rates
  Typically breadcrumbs will provide a more detailed navigation than the primary navigation. In doing so, users will be given more options on how to navigate a website. Giving them the opportunity to easily back track a few levels within the website will lower your bounce rate.
• Builds Interest
  When a user lands on an internal page of a website odds are they are already on a page of interest. Breadcrumbs may provide links to additional pages and information of which the user is also interested in without making them start from square one.

Breadcrumb Best Practices

• Use Breadcrumbs at the Top of a Page
  The most common and instinctual placement for breadcrumbs is within the top of a page. This allows users to find the breadcrumbs in an uncomplicated manner and make use of them accordingly.
• Use Breadcrumbs Consistently
  If you do decide to use breadcrumbs make sure that you use them across your entire website. Giving users breadcrumbs on some pages and not others will only confuse and frustrate them. (One prime example of this is Amazon as they remove breadcrumbs from the individual product pages.)
• Breadcrumbs Should Degrade Gracefully
  Breadcrumbs should always start with the home page and degrade to the currently page. In doing so your breadcrumbs need to go from the highest level to the lowest level one step at a time.
• Stylize Breadcrumbs Appropriately
  You want your breadcrumbs to be seen however you do not want them to be the focal point. You also want to make it apparent that your breadcrumbs are not part of the main content to a page, only additional support to it. Find a happy medium where your breadcrumbs are noticeable however not overbearing.
• Categorize Pages Clearly
  If you have pages that fall under two or more categories you may not want to use breadcrumbs on your website. Trying to place a page under two or more categories will likely only produce unclear breadcrumbs and puzzle the user. Make sure your website has an organized hierarchy and is displayed accordingly through your breadcrumbs.
• Clearly Separate Each Level
  Make sure users are able to distinguish the difference between each breadcrumb level. The most common separator between levels is the ‘greater than’ character (>). Other good separators include right double angle quotations (»), slashes (/), and arrows (→). If using a plain text character, only use one. (» is more appealing and effective than >>)
• Single Out the Current Page
  Use a different style on the last item of a breadcrumb list to establish that it is the currently page being viewed. You can accomplish this by making the item bold, changing its color, or emphasizing it.
• Do Not Make the Current Page a Link
  There is no need to make the last item of a breadcrumb list a link because it is the current page being viewed. Creating a link here will only confuse users, especially when they click on it and are not taken to a new page.
• Do Not Use Breadcrumbs as a Page Heading
  Using the last item of a breadcrumb list as the heading of a current page is ineffective. If you choose to use breadcrumbs do so with the addition of a page heading as well.
• Breadcrumbs Do Not Replace Primary Navigation
  Breadcrumbs are only to be used as support to the primary navigation, never to replace the primary navigation altogether. You should always provide users with a primary navigation from which they can navigate a website before using breadcrumb navigation.

Great Examples of Breadcrumbs

Vitra Direct

Trek Bikes

Illy

SiteInspire

Mia and Maggie

Intridea

Design by Humans

Roxy

Blik

SitePoint

Target

Walmart

1-800-Flowers

BestBuy

Amazon.com

Barns & Noble

Lands’ End

Apple

Google

Chase

AbsolutePunk.net

Littman Bros. Lighting

Guardian.co.uk

AREA 17

Wufoo

Girl Scouts of Middle Tennessee

The Glasgow Collective

Firstborn

Bell Canada

Grooveshark

Devlounge

About Author – Shay Howe is a professional web and user interface designer currently living in Chicago, IL. He writes about web design in his own blog over at letscounthedays and would love to hear from you on Twitter. Please feel free tell him hello!

Let’s face it, most of us don’t create every single image and icon when we do web design. It is not because we can’t but merely because we’ve got better options. Kudos to many designers and their generosity, there are in fact a lot of really nice creative common images and icons on the Internet we can take advantage. All we need to know is – where to find them.

In this post, we want to bring to your attention some of the really great search engines that will come in handy when it comes to image and icon search. Full list after jump!

Image Search Engines

• EveryStockPhoto

  A search engine for free photos come from many sources and are license-specific. You can view a photo’s license by clicking on the license icon, below and left of photos.

  

• Xcavator

  Xcavator.net is a stock photo search portal for the creative community. You can quickly browse the way you think – visually – through millions of stock images.

  

• Ginipic

  Ginipic takes image search to a whole new level. Now you can search image search engines, photo sharing websites or your own local picture collections simultaneously.

  

• GazoPa

  GazoPa is a next generation similar image search engine in private beta. Users can search images from the web based on user’s own photo, drawings, images found on the web and keywords.

  

• FreeFoto

  FreeFoto.com is the largest collection of free photographs on the Internet. FreeFoto.com features exclusive images found nowhere else on the web with new pictures being added every week.

  

• TurboPhoto – Free Stock Images

  Browse and download 2,000 (3.4 GB) free stock images from 10 categories (view all thumbnails below). Stock images are in the public domain.

  

• Feelimage

  Feelimage is not only key words search. It is also equipped phrase search, that is images search engine ‘FeelPhrase®‘.
  It’s corresponding 127 colors, and has a technology that quantifies colors like ‘red’ ‘ blue’ in images.

  

• oSkope

  oSkope is a visual search assistant that lets you browse and organize items from Amazon, Ebay, Flickr, Fotolia, Yahoo!Image Search and YouTube in an intuitive way.

  

• Incogna

  Incogna process the shape in every image and use this to build a large scale searchable visual index.

  

• Imagery

  Imagery search executes an keyword search and rollover results to get photo dimensions and options to open the source page or the image itself.

  

• ImageBase

  The ImageBase is a searchable image and text database of objects from the collections of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

  

• Pixolu

  An image search engine which lets you go deeper into the mechanism of image search and lets you find more relevant images using the image results it displays the first time you search.

  

• Picsearch

  Search the web for images. An image search service with more than 3,000,000,000 pictures.

  

• Picitup

  Picitup is a leading web 3.0 developer and provider of content based image search services.

  

• PicFog

  PicFog provides a real time image search.

  

• PicFindr

  PicFindr is a rich internet application (RIA) that helps you search several stock image and photo community sites simultaneously.

  

• Pixsy

  Pixsy powers video and image search experiences for some of the Internet’s leading brands including Pearson, Lycos, National Lampoon, Cooliris, BuddyTV, Infospace, and many others.

  

• Biomed-Search

  Search for images from biomedical articles. Currently over 1 Million images have been indexed. BioMed Seach indexes image captions along with the citations to these images.

  

• Bing Image Search

  An image search engine on Bing.

  

• Compfight

  A Flickr image search tool.

  

• Tiltomo

  Tiltomo, where you can play with our Visual Search code using two sample databases from flickr.

  

• Altavista Image Search

  Altavista image search tool.

  

• Photogen

  The source for quality, high-res FREE stock photos and images.

  

• Yahoo! Image Search

  Image search engine on Yahoo!

  

• Google Image Search

  A very powerful image search engine provided by Google.

  

• facesaerch

  Enter a name and search for faces!

  

• Multicolr

  With the Multicolr Search Lab, you can browse through 10 million of Flickr’s most ‘interesting’ Creative Commons images, and find ones that share the same colours.

  

• PicBrk

  A real time image search.

  

• PD Photo

  PDPhoto.org is a repository for public domain photos.

  

• Stock.XCHNG

  Stock.XCHNG lets you browse through the categories of our huge gallery containing over 350.000 quality stock photos by more than 30.000 photographers!

  

Icon Search Engines

• Challenger IconDB

  Challenger IconDB (Icon Database) is a database that contains icons of various sizes and keywords attached to them.

  

• ICONLOOK

  ICONlook.com is a place where to find your icons and offers a pretty handy interface for searching and downloading icon files.

  

• Icons-Search

  The Icons-Search is an Icon Search Engine that helps you to find quality icons available on the Internet. You can find icons for Windows Vista and XP, Macintosh, Linux, icons for Desktop, Software, Website, Mobile, Presentation, in sizes from 16×16 to 256×256 in PNG format and sizes from 16×16 to 128×128 in ICO format.

  

• Iconlet

  Iconlet is simple search engine for free icons, images. For every image user get information about author, image resolution, graphics format and license type.

  

• IconFinder

  Iconfinder provides high quality icons for webdesigners and developers in an easy and efficient way.

  

• IconSeeker

  The IconSeeker.com is an icon search engine on web, it contents about 50,000+ high quaility icons and each icon has PNG, ICO and ICNS formats for Windows, Macintosh and Linux Systems.

  

• Icon Library

  

• EasyIconFinder

  EasyIconFinder is a new Icon Search Engine that helps you find quality icons now available simple by filling in a keyword !

  

• Free Icons Web

  Free Icons Web is where you can browse and download Over 15,000 high quality Free Icons for Windows, Macintosh and Linux Systems.

  

• Very Icon

  The VeryIcom.com is a icon search engine, it contents over 20000 high quaility web icons in more than 1000 icon packs. Each Icon has serval file formats such as PNG, ICO, you can free browse and download for Windows, Macintosh and Linux Systems.

  

• IconsPedia

  Search and download free icons in PNG format. Arranged by categories, that include animals, food and phones.

  

Having another designer’s PSD file is as good as owning a chef’s recipe book. The only difference is – we designers are willing share and sometimes we even distribute them ourselves so others can download and learn from our techniques.

Photoshop .PSD file reveals the techniques used on a specific design, it also tells us the style of the creator and most of the time there is something new we can learn from it. In today’s post, we want to bring to your attention some of the that you can download. We suggest you consult the author before using them for commercial purposes. Full list after jump.