most inspired

In honor of Presidents Day I thought I’d put together a small showcase of websites of heads of government from around the world.

I was surprised that many of the websites did not display the current incumbent a little more prominently. Perhaps the hope was that people would know the incumbent well enough already, perhaps that would true for their own country, but lets not forget the rest of the world.

United States

Incumbent: Barack Obama

The website for President Obama is very big upgrade from that of his predecessor, not a surprise really considering how the president made use of the Internet during his election campaign.

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Searching for inspiration for a new website design I’m working on I went looking for designs with big bold typography in a light on dark color scheme. I found the following 13 designs that I’d like to share, hope you like them.

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Rather than creating a list of my favorite picks of the designs from 2009, I’m going to be collecting links to others people selections.

• Drawar Designs of the Year: 2009

  Paul Scrivens picks his favorite designs of 2009

  What makes these sites special in my mind is that they don’t go overboard in trying to wow you. Their “wow” factor comes from the many subtle nuances that they provide. Many of them go unnoticed when you think about them individually, but when you combine them all they make for a memorable design. I can only hope that after going through these designs you to have a better appreciation of what it takes to bring together a cohesive design.

• Brand New The Best and Worst Identities of 2009

  Each identity comes with some basic details like release date and design credits, highlights from our polls for those identities that came after July when we introduced the feature, and I have selected one or two reader comments to accompany a brief summary from me.

• Six Revisions The 50 Best Photoshop Tutorials of 2009

  We’ve been searching the web from America to Germany to the UK and have managed to compile a list of the 50 of the very best Photoshop tutorials this year.

• Complex The 50 Best Comic Book Covers of 2009

  Our esteemed panel of expert judges combed through every comic book from 2009 to find the best, brightest, and most badass covers.

• WebDesignDev 50 Best Web Design Blog Posts In 2009

  There has been some breathtaking content from many web design blogs this year, but only so much content can make the list. Compiled here are tutorials, articles, inspiration, web design guides, compilations and much more!

• thedesigncubicle The Best of Twitter 2009: Graphic Design Edition

  Since starting Sweet Tweets I have accumulated 28 weeks worth of resources and for this post have hand-selected the best of each week for a Sweet Tweets 2009 Best Of the Best roundup.

• Web Design Ledger The Best Vector Tutorials of 2009

  Vector applications such as Adobe Illustrator that are used to create scalable graphics are ideal for creating such things as logos, characters, and icons. There were many great vector tutorials put out this year, which made it difficult to choose the best, but here are our picks.

• Smashing Magazine Smashing Highlights 2009

  In this post, we’ll review what has happened on Smashing Magazine over the past year: smashing highlights, setbacks, and small sensations of 2009 — which we present in a month by month timeline.

• The Design Cubicle Best of TDC 2009: Month by Month Highlights

  I only hope in someway I have helped to enlighten or inspire you in 2009 and look forward to bring even more energy and passion to TDC in 2010. Below is a month-by-month recap of 2009’s Best Articles on The Design Cubicle.

• Folio Focus 25 of the Best Portfolio Sites of 2009

  In this post you’ll see 25 portfolios with a variety of different styles (all have been featured in our gallery since it’s launch in June).

• David Airey 10 most notable logos of 2009

  The turn of the year is usually a time for reflection. We see “best of the year” this, “the year’s top” that, so to add a little slice of my own, here follows what I consider the 10 most notable logos of 2009.

• Crazyleaf Design Most Beautiful Websites of 2009

  Following the success of our last year’s article, Most Beautiful Websites of 2008, we decided to publish this year’s most beautiful and inspirational websites, handpicked from our web gallery.

• DesignOra The Best of 2009 in Flash Web Design

  To cap off the year I have rounded up some of the most interesting. amazing and inspired flash creations. Collected from the best lists roundups competitions and designers from the year of 2009. Containing the newest tuts the broadest resources and creative designs in many flash coded combination’s. Presenting a view of Flash Design from 2009.

• Vandelay Design Best Photoshop Website Layout Tutorials of 2009

  As a final post for 2009, let’s take a look back at the best tutorials for creating website layouts in Photoshop.

• Designer Daily The best design articles of 2009

  In case you’re afraid to have missed any good design article, look no further and check out the following ones.

• D-Lists The Very Best Web Designs Of 2009

  I have been through all 33 weekly web design posts and picked out my favourite, creating an amazing array of lovely web designs.

• CreativeFan The 20 Best Logos from 2009

  Certainly there are thousands of quality logos created in 2009, but these stand out as creative and clever.

• COLOURlovers Best Magazine Covers of 2009

  From the Magazine Publishers of America and Amazon, here are the winners of the best magazine covers of 2009. Which, by the looks of it, are mostly blue.

• Abduzeedo 2009 – Sites of the Year

  This year we’ve featured a lot of great sites, I mean, a bunch of sites every single week! And I know you love this serie of posts. Thinking on it, and to bring to the memory the best sites we shown you in 2009, I’ve selected 60 of them to remember.

• Fuel Your Creativity Best of 2009 in the Creative Industry

  It’s been a quick ride but it’s had some amazing creativity & content that could keep us fueled through the next year. Check out some of the best and most memorable from this year.

Related

• wpbeginner: Best WordPress Tutorials of 2009
• Web Design Ledger: The Best Free Texture Packs of 2009
• Web Design Ledger: The Best Free Fonts of 2009
• Vandelay Design: 50 of the Best Free Icon Sets of 2009
• 120 Tips, Tricks, and Tuts from 2009 Worth your Time
• Monday By Noon: Year in Review: Highlights from 2009
• The Design Cubicle: 50+ Top Design Blogs Highest Ranked Posts in 2009
• Smashing Apps: 16 Popular Website Redesigns Of 2009
• 1stwebdesigner: 65 Creative And Stylish Footer Designs of 2009
• MyFonts: Top 10 fonts of 2009
• Design Chair: A Collection Of The Best Design Resources from 2009

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As designers our entire career is leveraged on our ability to create a piece of modern art. Some may take this as an exaggeration; however the truth as we know is that we create a miniature masterpiece when we design. From time to time our skills will feel as if they are diminishing and that we don’t have the ability to create designs as we had done before.

With this in mind, I have contrived a list of simple things which I do which have proven to alleviate designer’s block. Other suggestions mentioned are those which I have seen more professional and senior designers undertake when they suffered from this.

1. Deadlines

Deadlines cause stress to the best of us and the pressure can assemble such that we lose our creative skills. One must start on time and leave enough time to comfortably complete your assignment. This will help you design to the best of your ability and also maintain your respect as a designer.

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Typography is everywhere, from the web to the print industry. In fact, there’s a lot of talk about beautiful typography in web design, but let’s not forget about the print industry – this is where it all comes from.

Today we’re showcasing 25 excellent print ads that feature great typography. What most of these ads have in common is that they use typography in a very interesting manner in order to get their message across. Of course typography alone is great, but here we’re featuring some ads that combine type and images to convey a strong and influencing message. Enjoy!

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About a year ago I started to use the Kohana framework to build websites where PHP was the preferred language. I’ve used many PHP frameworks in the past, from Fusebox, CakePHP and my own home brewed framework that I called Fraction. For me Kohana has proved to be far superior to all of those.

Kohana is a PHP 5 framework that uses the Model View Controller architectural pattern. It aims to be secure, lightweight, and easy to use.

Although Kohana was originally forked from Code Igniter it has been rewritten from the ground up since for — amongst other things — strict PHP5 compatibility.

Despite being a solid framework that provides great performance, with an awesome community Kohana’s popularity still lags behind the other PHP frameworks. So I thought I’d put together a little showcase of sites built with Kohana to show what can be done with this excellent framework.

Ember

emberapp.com

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During current economical times, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find and secure good clients. A “good” client is one who plays on time and presents his/her needs in a precise, and efficient manner. That’s why freelance designers need to work on their marketing a bit more to secure better clients, and this is where blogging comes into the mix.

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The branding and image of a company is extremely important, because ultimately a good image leads to more sales – period. Psychology dictates that a person is more likely to buy a product/service if they have an emotional attachment (which can be achieved visually) to that product or service in the way it is presented. In basic terms, if a visitor “likes” your website they’re more inclined to buy something from it. The way you can build an emotional attachment is through design aesthetics which create a feel of quality or affordability (dependent on which image you’re going for).

So, how do you go about planning and implementing a design such that you produce one that presents a positive image? Have you always wanted to adopt a technique that allows you to plan and develop the aesthetics of a website, logo, or poster design to a high degree? Well, I think mood boards are for you.

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Appearance is crucial for obvious reasons in the fashion industry. With that in mind, many fashion e-commerce sites can be an excellent source of design inspiration.

In this post we’ll feature 35 inspirational fashion website designs that represent a variety of styles that are sure to inspire you.

Remember when you designed your first logo, illustration or poster? Yeah… try not to cringe. I recently found some of my old design work and had a hilarious walk through memory lane. I thought I’d share some of my design gems from the past give you the chance to share yours as well!