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Grab Your WordPress Bootcamp Seat Today and Save $200

If you’re looking for a fast way to learn WordPress, LearnWebDevelopment.com has created the perfect program. It’s their WordPress Bootcamp – a training course that will teach you how to build a fully-functioning WordPress website in just 8 weeks! And, because they give all their students weekly feedback as they go through the course, you’ll never be left alone.

The only catch is … early-bird pricing (and the option to save $200 off the regular price) is ending soon. You have until Thursday, June 20, 2013 at midnight.

If you’d like to quickly become an in-demand WordPress website designer, sign up here now.

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In the shadow of similar online blogs like FreelanceSwitch you will find stock photography everywhere. It can provide a very specific train of thoughts which becomes ingrained into your visitors for each article. Having the ability to purchase new stock photography opens your world up to a myriad of additional options.

But for this brief gallery I want to showcase examples of various freelancing stock photographs. You can pick up anything you like from 123RF for very reasonable fees. The idea of using photographs to illustratrate freelancing can be as common on 10+ other blogs online. Many designers and copywriters will argue this is still a cheesy gimmick, but it draws attention to mainstream media news sources every day. Stock photos are only useful for brands and websites which have a common mindset.

Street Photographer

In The Hammock

Taking Notes

By The Pool

Working From Home

Stressed

A Quick Stretch

Freelance Writing

Connecting the Symbols

Coworking

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Judging by the past years events and major acquisitions of software companies, as well as the people stepping up to the political platter, it seems the world is moving towards technocracy as a whole. Newspapers are now online, job interviews and even more so personal memorabilia, just to name a few things that traditionally would happen in a different environment. Sitting on a couch at grandma’s and going through her old photo albums that has visual records of any significant life event that may have happened since, like… ever is now kind of obsolete because those pictures were scanned for posterity and uploaded in the cloud. As it should be, really, it’s the only way decent way of storing anything that deserves it and even what doesn’t.

Because the online became such a big part of everyday life there are more and more job openings in all related fields and, as it happens, a lot of the resources needed for them can also be found through a simple search. For instance any project that a designer has to finish is no longer a huge chore because of the multitude of resource depositories available to him and the staggering number of options within each. When the offer abunds the next thing to look at is quality.

Depositphotos is the fastest growing stock photo agency that can provide a virtually endless pool of premium royalty-free stock photos, illustrations and vector images therefor making it a prime target for any visual aid for an ongoing project. You can browse it not only to find the best image that would showcase your work, but you can also move over to the backgrounds and textures tab and find exactly what you need to add that extra layer of ‘Wow’ to it, as well as what it is you need to dot the ‘I’s and cross the ‘T’s for the best result.

With a growth of over 4 million files added in the past half year alone, their repository is ever expanding while keeping the same quality standards that made it grow so fast in the first place. This only means one thing for their customer database also expanding at the same pace: a cornucopia of answers. The fact that they offer what seems to be a gazillion payment offers, suitable for every pocket definitely helps.  You can either buy a subscription, of which there are two kinds, daily and monthly, or go for what they call ‘Pay-As-You-Go Credits,’ an option that lets you select exactly what you want to pay, based on your specific needs, the closest thing to a real-life 7-Eleven.

And thinking back to grandma’s couch and the hours spent going through her albums. When you’ll be old you’ll have your virtual glasses and show your grandkids the projects you’ve worked on and they’ll still look stunning.

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We have teamed up with Photaki and we’re offering three 1 month subscriptions (a total worth of $546!) to their cool services. During this time you will be able to download up to 10 credits worth of images per day from a database of more than 4.5 million beautiful images and vectors.

Since each monthly subscription is worth $182 you shouldn’t miss the chance to try out their services. On Photaki, you’ll find a good diversity of images with categories ranging from architecture, gastronomy, historical places, landscapes, plants or animals, sports, concepts, but also textures, vectors and backgrounds. Furthermore their services are amongst the cheapeast on the market, starting at just $0.26.

To sum up, we’re giving three lucky winners the chance to gain access to:

$182 worth of credit to spend on anything they want on Photaki

A database of more than 4.5 million images and vectors

A taste of a cool and cheap service with prices starting at $0.26

How to win the giveaway

1.   Leave a comment indicating what your newest design project is.
2.  Tweet this: Stock Photo #Giveaway: $182 free shopping spree on Photaki.com
3.  For more chances to win share this article on Facebook.Contest ends on: 10th of June 2013; the winner will be randomly selected using random.org and announced here.
4. Don’t forget to leave your email address, otherwise we won’t be able to contact you.

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Your website logo is possibly the most important graphic on any website. This is your branding and it is one of the first things your visitors should recognize. Some websites can have a very simple logo using just text or icons, and these trends work as long as it is recognizable. You want visitors to see your logo and instantly connect this design with your website.

Branding effects take time and a lot of natural talent. Some web developers and designers are easily capable of making their own logos. But it is also just as likely you could purchase a logo design and include this within your website to fit a certain branding aspect. I would like to provide a small collection of resources for pinpointing high quality logo graphics and artwork.

123 Logo Design

The premium stock photography website 123RF has been a cornerstone for webmasters and graphics designers. You have access to a wide assortment of custom logo designs which are priced using subscriptions or user account credits. Each of the logos will be downloaded as an EPS vector which can be fitted and sized to your exact specifications.

Obviously using the “browse all” feature is a quick way of glancing through what the gallery has to offer. I have been extremely impressed with their logo designs coming at such a cheap price. Vector artwork is provided to behave as a glyph or symbol next to the logo text. In this way your visitors will instantly relate this logo to your company wherever it is seen. 123RF is an excellent solution when you are just getting started and need to save money on your website branding.

The Designer’s Marketplace

Another fantastic premium marketplace is Logoturn which has been featured in countless web design galleries. I really like their homepage design because it allows visitors to quickly see the type of work which is done. Notably the prices are very expensive because these are unique exclusive ownership rights. Each logo is priced by the designer and submitted into the gallery for personal sale.

I think Logoturn is a great solution for medium to large-scale businesses who are trying to fit a new rebranding. Or even if a company is launching a new subsidiary online, the Logoturn gallery showcase may be a prime choice for selecting your next concept. But the prices are much higher than average marketplaces. And so this puts off a lot of customers from small businesses who are looking to spend less money on a working solution.

Logos for all Media

Each of the main premium galleries listed above can work well on a typical website. Any of those choices are also fine to use in other types of media, such as print or television. But consider purchasing a logo designed exclusively for these extended forms of media. I would mention BrandCrowd as a solution to those who have never heard of them.

All of the premium logos cost a great deal of money, but you are getting a complete package. This includes print logos and digital logos, plus a single domain name if needed. The website allows designers to submit their own logo designs and sell them to the public while earning a small commision through the site. I have been really impressed with their portfolio and although the other marketplaces have larger collections, I think BrandCrowd is definitely worth a bit of your time. Research different keywords related to your company and try finding the perfect logo solution for you and your web projects.

Closing

There are so many options for building your own website logo that they cannot all be put together in one place. Some ideas will work better for people than others, but it is all about your bottom line and what you can use on each project. I do hope these resources may provide a good starting point for web & graphics designers. Similarly if you know of alternative sources for logo designs please share with us below in the post comments.

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Just a quick reminder: Registration on LearnWebDevelopment.com’s WordPress Bootcamp is ending this week – May 23, 2013 at midnight.

If you want to learn WordPress – and create your first website in just a few days – this is the bootcamp for you! You’ll learn how to build a fully-functioning website using WordPress faster than ever before. Grab your seat today.

And, if you secure your seat by Thursday at midnight, you won’t have to wait for this unique training. Go here now to see what you’ll learn and what others are saying about LearnWebDevelopment.com’s training.

Did we mention that your success is guaranteed in this bootcamp?

LearnWebDevelopment.com guarantees if you keep up with the assignments, do the weekly homework lessons, and ask questions when you have them, you’ll become a successful web designer by the time the Bootcamp is over. If you don’t, they’ll refund every penny you paid. Learn more here.

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Today we have an iStockphoto promo code that is going to knock your socks off!

A few weeks ago we shared with you Two Big iStock Promo Codes that we were pretty proud of. We thought they were so big that they were blog worthy and most of our visitors could use them. However, we were wrong. Today iStock reached out to us to let us know about a 24 hour sale they are running that has savings SO HUGE we’re not even sure how they can manage this.

Today only iStockphoto is offering 50% off credits for vector illustrations! And the best part about this offer is that it can still be combined with our other coupon codes!

Click on the button below to grab your coupon code and visit the 50% off landing page:

Leave a comment below and let us know how much his iStockphoto promo code saved you!

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The design industry, especially the one related to web design is a wonderful place to work in…if you see it from the outside. Many clients are saying that a web designer’s work is similar to an artist’s life: he can freely create amazing things from scratch, he can work from anywhere and he can choose his tasks however he wants. This is not quite true: being a web designer means that you must have a lot of skills starting from technical knowledge, social abilities and the right resources, preferably free stuff such as free vectors, free .psd, free UI elements and so forth.

A web designer will always have to innovate; he is in a constant battle with his competitors because usually the client chooses you, so you don’t have the luxury to say no to every project that you find difficult to work on. Sure, this happens mostly if you are a freelancer.

As I said, a web designer must be extremely efficient therefore he needs to know where he can find the resources suitable for any of his project. For example, if he’s in a hurry and he needs to quickly draw a mockup, he can use existing UI elements in order to quickly finish the design. Furthermore, if he needs to create a logo but this is not his strong point, he can start with a logo template.

Thankfully the internet is filled with free or paid resources for designers but searching for them may require a lot of time; even more, what happens if you suddenly lose your internet access? This way you always need to have a designer toolbox packed with every graphic element, tutorial, .psd, .eps or any other file ready to be used.

In this article I wanted to give you a free graphic pack filled with a lot of extremely good and free design resources which you can use in your projects. All of these graphic elements are collected from freepik.com, a great search engine in which you can find free resources such as logo templates, vectors, ui elements, .psd files and much more.

Download the full graphic pack by clicking here:

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The year is 2150. All the countries have united into a global state that now encompasses the two underwater ones as well. There is no ruling system but a meritocracy and the only currency is fame. For everything positive an individual does they are rewarded a certain amount, based on how much their product helps others with that they do, and it is enough to maintain a high living standard. Ergo everything created is free to use by everyone because subsequent works based on the original would bring the author more fame. It’s an idyllic society, with all the population working together in a tight knit community, trying to better global standards.

The year is 2013. The currencies are many, used to purchase anything and all. People have to work long and hard hours in order to obtain money and try to spend as little as possible in the process. This is where Freepik.com busts through the saloon doors of the stock photo and vectors market and makes its move towards the brighter future described above. It wasn’t a sales pitch, this is actually what sprang to mind when finding the concept behind the website.

Resembling Google in what it does with its flagship search engine, it has a couple of very interesting characteristics that make it unique. Firstly, it delivers on what it promises, namely the option to download free vectors and stock photography at a more than decent quality. Secondly, it saves a lot of time and effort by compiling the above in a database, sorted in 11 categories for photos and 28 for vectors where the search can be narrowed down from. So far it has over 1.4 million files indexed and boasts some 80.7 million downloads made through it and that ratio pretty much says it all when it comes down to the nitty-gritty.

The same people who came up with the idea of offering free resources turned their view to another very important thing that designers have to use, namely CSS tools with CSSmatic. It’s also free to use and set up so that gradients, noise texture, border radius and box shadows can all be created or changed in the same place. And why not make a 4 in 1 tool when the alternative is to fire up at least two pieces of software that do the same thing? Furthermore, as a web developer, if you liked it you can also contribute or suggest changes that you think would do the tool some good.

Some days are just better than others and in this field it’s the ones when you get a win. Both Freepik and CSSmatic are just this and will shave off valuable time and money that would have otherwise been spent just to reach the same outcome: a good project. Here are a few examples of what you can find: