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Showcase of 30 Funny 3D Characters

AndrewG — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 22:34:00 +0000

With the use of some of the 3D tools it’s possible to create really impressive effects. One can make his characters pictures and images look more vivid and lifelike. Today, we have collected some funny and cartoon 3D characters. Enjoy the showcase and express your opinion by sharing it in the comments.

Rockabilly Girl, fabiowasques

Pirate Lady – Making Waves, Rico Cilliers

valkyrie, Sergii Savchenko

Brute, Marco Hakenjos

Charlotte, Maciej Rasala

Writers Write, Jessi Ruselowski

Jullie, ricardo manso

Tribe girl, Luigi Monaldi

Tryky and Puk, Teodoru Badiu

Punk, ricardo manso

Beauty-Salon, rohith rao

Catarina, Ariane Pelissoni

Six-winged space seraph, Liudmila Kirdiashkina

Muse, Santiago Betancur

Father and son…, ricardo manso

The Trap, Jonathan Simard

First Valentine, Aiman Akhtar

Zefinha, Ariane Pelissoni

Arvin Farm, Davood Ansari

“The Kid”, Nick Gunn

Pop Mech, Luigi Monaldi

Jane by HokeunChoi

Red by Rakan Khamash

Amelie Viking by Gerardo Castellanos

Mujer Mandarina by Juan David Pulido

Red Twins by ricardo jose clemente manso

Misdirection by Julian Santiago

Memories Island by Victor Marin

My Neighbor Pigman by Victor Hugo Queiroz

ASTROBOOT mark2 by Dor Shamir

Fresh Toolbox for Web Developers – August 2015

AndrewG — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 22:34:00 +0000

Web developers should always be aware of the current news. In order to help them in their work brilliant web developers from all over the world always try to invent new tools and find bright decisions. We want to bring to your attention a selection of some useful tools such as generators, jquery plugins, frameworks and other helpful resources and services. You will definitely find something to your taste and interest among them.

lazysizes

High performance lazy loader for images (responsive and normal), iframes and scripts, that detects any visibility changes triggered through user interaction, CSS or JavaScript without configuration.

Sublime Text packages for Front-end Development

Styleguide

A tool to make creating and maintaining styleguides easy.

ClickSpark.js

ClickSpark.js is a javascript utility that adds beautiful particle effects to your javascript events.
Add image-files as single particles and configure where and when a particle fountain should be fired.

Markdown UI

It [Markdown-UI] helps the developer to focus on the big picture on paper or text-editors, and with few details it lessen the cognitive load which means having meaningful productivity which equates to happiness!

Sassline

Set text on the web to a baseline grid with Sass & rems using a responsive modular-scale.

Punk CSS

Punk CSS puts your viewport in an iframe. Allowing you to rescale your design while keeping the right proportions and functionality and giving you more room to code and debug.

Quantity Queries

A tool to help build Quantity Queries for your projects.

CSS 2 SASS/SCSS Converter

Crayon.css

Crayon.css is a list of css variables linking color names to hexadecimal values, usable with postCSS or with your favourite CSS preprocessor, being it Stylus, Sass or Less.

Purifycss

Remove unused CSS. Also works with single-page apps.

Gridstack.js

gridstack.js is a jQuery plugin for widget layout. This is drag-and-drop multi-column grid. It allows you to build draggable responsive bootstrap v3 friendly layouts. It also works great with knockout.js and touch devices.

xtypejs

Elegant, highly efficient data validation for JavaScript Apps. http://xtype.js.org

Basscss is a lightweight collection of base element styles and immutable utilities designed for speed, clarity, performance, and scalability.

The HTML 5 Mega Cheat Sheet

Sketch-Flex-Layout

Plugin for Sketch allowing for CSS Flexbox layouts using stylesheets and prototypes.

git-commander

A git tool with an easy terminal interface.

FormButtons

Forms within buttons.

Stretchy

Form element autosizing, the way it should be.

Substituteteacher.js

substituteteacher.js is a JavaScript library that lets you substitute sentences for each other, swapping only the words necessary.

Pannellum

Pannellum is a lightweight, free, and open source panorama viewer for the web. Built using HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and WebGL, it is plug-in free.

minigrid

Minimal 2kb zero dependency cascading grid layout.

emojify.js 0.9

A Javascript module to convert Emoji keywords to images.

FormFiller

FormFiller: A Javascript bookmarklet for repopulating forms.

getawesomeness

To retrieve all amazing awesomeness from Github.

codedoodl.es

codedoodl.es is a showcase of curated creative coding sketches. The aim of these doodles is to exhibit interactive, engaging web experiments which only require a short attention span. No loading bars, no GUI, no 5MB 3D models or audio files, just plain and simple doodles with code.

JAWS

AWS: The Javascript + AWS Stack – A server-free, webapp boilerplate using bleeding-edge AWS services that redefine how to build massively scalable web applications.

Tips for designing models for 3D printing

Monique Craig — Sun, 20 Mar 2016 22:34:00 +0000

It’s clear that 3D printing is not just another curiosity that will generate a hype and then fall into oblivion – the uses of this cutting-edge production method are multiple and varied, so it’s definitely here to stay. As you can imagine, designing objects to be printed in 3D requires a lot of care and experience. Here are some tips to help you successfully design for the purpose of 3D printing.

1. Know your printer and its limitations

To make sure your model is printable, you should not only know its details, but also the potential limitations of your printer. Some desktop 3D printers cannot print models or elements that are too small – have a look at your printer’s thread width to determine how far you can go in your design.

Thread width is generally determined by the diameter of your printer’s nozzle – most have one of 0.4 or 0.5mm. If you decide to design a circle, such a model will be two thread widths deep – created with a nozzle of 0.4mm, the circle will be 0.8mm thick. The common rule of 3D design is that the smallest features in your model should be of double thread width.

2. Follow the 45 degree rule

The famous 45 degree rule is there to be followed, so if you design overhangs that are greater than 45 degrees, you can be sure that they will need some support material. If you want to avoid that, there are some design tricks that can help you to get the model right to print. One way to do this is by deigning your own bringing or supporting objects and incorporating them to your model. Using cones and other supports, you can effectively deal with the 45 degree rule.

3. Avoid support materials

Support materials generate many problems – they can leave undesirable marks on your prints and are generally time-consuming to remove from your model. That’s why it’s best to design your models without printable support – support algorithms may be constantly improving, but following the 45 degree rule to avoid support materials is simply less complicated.

4. Orient for optimum resolution

It’s worth to orient your model for the best resolution available to that particular model. Remember that if you find it problematic, you can always slice your model and then reassemble it. If you use a Fused-Filament Fabrication printer, you’ll only be able to control the Z resolution of your model. What about X and Y then? They’re determined by thread width, so if your model has small features make sure to print it with the right orientation.

5. Design to fit tolerance when facing interlocking parts

So, your object has many interlocking parts and you’re at loss as to your next step? Make sure to get your tolerance right – it’s not a piece of cake. To set the correct tolerance, you should use a 0.2mm offset for tight fit and 0.4mm for loose fit. The former is perfect for connecters and the latter for things like box lids or hinges. Always test the tolerance in your model to see whether it fits or not.

6. Keep stress in mind

When designing your model, make sure to minimize stress by orienting it so that print lines are perpendicular to points where pressure will be applied. This will help to keep your prints safe from breaking once force is applied to their parts in use.

Even though 3D printing is at its infancy, you can be sure that people working with such cutting-edge printers are busy developing new standards and practices that will be tested – and there’s nothing better you can do than keep up with them and learn more about great 3D design.

30 WordPress Themes for Many Types of Business

Splashnology Editors — Sun, 20 Mar 2016 22:34:00 +0000

Looking for an awesome WordPress theme for your business on the net? It may be a rather time-consuming occupation if you don’t know where to search for it, of course. Good news, you may go no further. Here you will find 30 terrifically cool premium WordPress themes for various types of businesses. Need a serious theme for your consulting, financial, construction, industrial or auto service company? No problem, look for them herein under. Have an IT, fashion or interior & furniture business? Your future website is also there, just have a look below.

Needless to say that all of the featured themes, built on WordPress, the most popular blogging platform, possess all its user-friendly features like extreme simplicity of customization, uninterrupted operation and easy maintenance.

Sure enough that WordPress themes collected here have modern, stylish layouts as they are a result of well-coordinated team work of web design industry leaders. This fact guarantees the highest quality and compliance with the latest web design trends and technologies, which is very important.

Most of the designs are created in flat style, with the usage of colored blocks, sketchy icons, transparent elements, prominent typography, ordered and hierarchical content styling.

Impressive sliders and visual animated effects add dynamics to the web pages. Only HD imagery has been used at themes’ creation. This makes them look more professional and expensive. Project galleries highlight the best company works. The themes are supplied with social media icons, which you can link to you corporate social media profiles.

The responsive nature of the WordPress themes guarantees their perfect rendering at any screen resolutions, be they desktop computers or smartphones.

Now we offer you to browse all 30 WordPress themes, view their live demos and detailed information on their features. We are sure you’ll find something useful for yourself.

Collection of New & Free Fonts for June 2015

AndrewG — Sat, 19 Mar 2016 22:34:00 +0000

Every month we showcased some great collections of free fonts and we are not going to stop there! We would like to present to you a free fonts and typefaces for June 2015. You can use some of these fonts for specific purposes and others can be used for general use. Feel free to visit our site to get more updates for our next font collections.
Warning: A font, like any other software, has a license attached to it, so you’d better check up the license before using them in your commercial works or other projects.

Phelix Boomgartner Free Font by Michal Slovak

ETNA Free Font by Krisjanis Mezulis

Shumi Free font by Ivan Shumikhin

QUIP Free Font by Nail Husyainov

Geoma by Studio Typo

Gecko by Mans Greback

Long Shot by MattyDeCesare

Bisous by dcoxy

Ardeco by Jovanny Lemonad

Thin Cool by Galdino Otten

Rounded Elegance by Douglas Charles Cunha

Generica

Bellico Free Font by seventhimperium

Quango Free Font by NimaVisual

Gidole Free Font by Andreas Larsen

Darleston Free Font by Youssef Habchi

Oak Lawn Free Font by FontMonger

Variane Script Free Font by Work Ins Studio

Melo Free Font by freegoodies

Typo Grotesk Rounded font by studiotypo

3D Printing – A New Opportunity for Commercial Printers

Jenny Richards — Sat, 19 Mar 2016 22:34:00 +0000

In recent years, the concept of 3D printing has taken the world by storm, promising to change forever the process involved in manufacturing. The process is also often referred to as additive manufacturing because it adds on layers of materials rather than carving out something by cutting it up. The concept has excited all since for the very first time users got access to a technology that could design and produce prototypes extremely quickly without having to go through the conventional melting, molding, casting, and fabricating route involved in conventional manufacturing.

However with the technology becoming more accessible and inexpensive as well as more capable, a host of options has opened up for businesses that offer low volume but custom-built products. Visit jakprinters.com for more information on how this process is changing the manufacturing landscape.

Why Is 3D Printing So Attractive for Business?

As 3D printing becomes more commercialized by the day with both price and technology barriers collapsing, it has become extremely attractive for businesses, especially small outfits to offer branded goods in very small order quantities and that too at a fraction of the cost of conventional manufacturing. 3D printing thus has carved out a new business model for businesses to offer completely customized products relevant to the needs and aspirations of the target audience. These could be as simple as custom-built guitar picks, dice with custom branding, tile racks for scrabble that have names of each player or fashion jewelry designed by the wearer herself. Under normal circumstances, offering these goods to retailers in the gaming industry, suppliers of handcrafted apparel or music shops would have been prohibitive and practically impossible.

Why Has 3D Printing Become Competitive?

According to experts, 3D printing receivedpositive response from businesses because it eases the pressure to make investments in supply chain and inventory management. Because the quantities are small and customized for the buyer, the logistic costs, the warehousing and cost of storage can be almost completely eliminated. Further, as a manufacturing process, it has become cost-effective because of a number of factors such as the requirement of lesser steps of processing, little assembly and lesser use of energy, while minimizing waste. The process of additive manufacturing also means that it is no longer necessary for manufacturers to produce large quantities of products and parts. The technology of 3D printing permits manufacturers to adopt a direct path from design to production without the intermediary tooling requirement, so not only it saves time but also allows manufacturers to be more agile in meeting customer demands.

The additive technology process also means that parts can be manufactured on demand making inventory and storage a thing of the past. 3D manufacturing also comes in extremely handy for maintaining legacy systems as the required parts can now be manufactured on demand without the necessity of maintaining stock. Learn more on how you can become an economical supplier of custom maintenance parts and services. It needs to be appreciated that additive manufacturing does not compete with traditional manufacturing for replacing it but instead complements it and creates completely new markets, hitherto untapped. The strength of additive manufacturing lies in being able to produce parts that are not possible by conventional manufacturing processes.

Success Stories in Additive Manufacturing

One company that has successfully adopted rapid prototype manufacturing has already become a key supplier to large OEMs in the defense and aerospace domains. It manufactures a variety of products like air ducts and parts of CT scanners using stainless steel and tungsten, among others. Apart from defense and aerospace, tremendous headway has also been made by companies involved in the medical, tooling, petroleum, consumer products, automotive and electronics industries. All these industries have taken additive manufacturing from the rapid prototyping stage to direct digital manufacturing.

The application of 3D printing is constrained only by imagination; you have implants being made by the medical industry while the electronic industry is successfully using it to embed electronic so that you end up with more functionality in less space. Though even now the cost of additive manufacturing is higher than manufacturing by the conventional process, returns are more than assured due to better performance and increased low volume customization.

Impact of 3d printing affecting the design industry

Jacey Johnson — Fri, 18 Mar 2016 22:34:00 +0000

3D printing or Additive manufacturing is revolutionising the world. What exactly does it mean? You can get three-dimensional physical objects printed right out of a printer. Wait, this is a different kind of a printer. So far, traditional printing was restricted to two dimensions.

This fabulous technology goes one step further- it creates 3d objects right from a digital file. How does it do that? Successive layers of the object are laid down one after another, thus building it up from bottom to top. This is, thus, an additive or incremental process. The layers can be visualised as thin horizontal cross-sectional slices of the object. The virtual design of the object is created using CAD. The great advantage of 3d printers to designers and manufacturers is that you do not have to do everything in one place; you can spread it out such as production could be in one place and design in another.

3d printing technology has affected industry as we know it, as it now makes possible mass production of objects according to needs and requirements. Unlike traditional manufacturing and production, where different products would need different kinds of equipment for t heir manufacture, 3d printing of diverse objects can be carried out in the same space. Currently, the industry is expected to grow from 3.07 billion to 21 billion revenues by the year 2020.The increasing usage of 3d Printing is expected to lead to a situation where manufacturing and production is customised as per demands of customers.

No other industry would be expected to feel as keenly the effect of 3d Printing, as the design industry. 3d printers will change the way designers create designs. It is definitely bound to have impact on the speed and efficiency with which designers can come up with unique and interesting designs, tailored to the demands of their customers.

Encourages demand for work

Many brands are already using 3D printing in their design process as it helps them a lot in streamlining their manufacturing process. The use of 3D printing saves a lot of time. The designing and printing can be done within the company, without the need for external inputs. Previously, it was a more long drawn out process with many stages including the requirement of a product on which the new design would be made. Designers can expect increased demands for different kinds of designs now that there are ways to get them printed efficiently. Manufacturing would be more efficient, faster. Testing can be done in small batches before the large scale production of the product. This saves time, money and resources.

Encourages creativity

Artists and designers can see opportunities for creative efforts increase. Earlier the limits of production would have restricted designers from using the full extent of their powers. But with 3d printing liberating the manufacturers from various constraints, designers can come out with more interesting and exciting ideas that would definitely find a market. With the increased availability of 3d printing to a larger number of people, there would be increased pressure on designers to come out with more quality designs. Designers from various fields are stimulated to produce new ways and designs- ranges from designers of bi

Customers get to play a more pro-active role

Whereas earlier designers had the major role in determining the kind of design to go into production, now customers will play an increasing role. Their needs and specifications would now be accommodated by designer. The designer was earlier producing designs for a larger group of people; now his clientele could be select categories or even individuals. The payments could be higher as now customers would pay more to get things done according to their taste.

In short, designers and design industry look set to have good times ahead, as there would be an increased demand for innovative and creative designs from an expanding range of customers. Companies would also look to hire more designers now that creating good designs has become easier and affordable.

5 High-end WordPress plugins tailored to please 3D printing fans

Jason Roiz — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 22:34:00 +0000

Just like the growing success and popularity of WordPress web development, even the 3D printing industry has witnessed an incredible amount of growth over the recent years. If you own a WordPress powered website and are keen on sharing your 3D designs with the world, there are several plugins that can help you do the same in utmost convenient way.

Thanks to the continuous advancements in the field of WordPress plugin development, we don’t have to go far for finding the best plugin that can suit our varied requirements. In this post, I’ve served you with a list of top quality WordPress plugins which can help you make the most of 3D printing via your WordPress powered blog/website. So, let us take a closer look at these stunning WordPress 3D printing plugins.

1. Octoprint for WordPress

Octoprint is a remarkable WordPress plugin which uses Octoprint API for displaying the status of the connected 3D printer. This information is being displayed using a widget or on the web page via a suitable shortcode. It’s quite easy to install Octoprint plugin into your WordPress site/blog. All you need to do is simply activate API in the Octoprint settings, followed by copying API key in the settings fields and setting URL to access the Octoprint plugin. It is quite essential to ensure that Octoprint is accessible for your web server.

2. STL Viewer

Installing the STL Viewer plugin onto your WordPress blog/site will enable Thingiview javascript on your site/blog and you’ll be able to avail the freedom of sharing all your 3D designs with different visitors. All you need to do is simply use a shortcode for displaying STL files on a specific WordPress page. All the 3D files displayed using STL Viewer use the WebGL technology which allows your chosen browser to use the GPU(graphics card) directly. Here, an important point that needs to be kept in mind is that while uploading any high-resolution STL file, your browser needs to download STL Viewer plugin once, each time you choose to open or refresh the web page.

3. Shapeways Widget

As a yet another interesting WordPress plugin for 3D printing, Shapeways Widget allows you to display your 3D designs or shop items in an appealing way. Whether it’s about changing your site’s title, rows, columns, style or the shop information; everything is possible and hassle-free with the Shapeways Widget cum WordPress plugin. The best thing about this plugin is that it can work in two modes viz: in an individual post and also as a WordPress widget.

4. Sculpteo

Sculpteo is a brilliant WordPress plugin which when installed in your WordPress blog will allow you to integrate 3D files or an entire gallery into the same. The plugins comes with three handy modules viz: SketchUp, Blender and WordPress. While the SketchUp module allows you to upload a particular 3D file to sculpteo.com using the ‘Sculpteo’ button and an extra menu item; Blender module also allows you to do the same using the ‘Sculpteo’ button available within export menu. Last, but definitely not the least, the WordPress module allows you to integrate 3D files or your unique personal gallery into your WordPress blogging site.

5. 3DHubs

As an easy-to-install WordPress plugin, 3DHubs will allow you to display a 3DHubs button in sidebar or directly within a particular text field. You can use the shortcode [3DHubs] for enabling the 3DHubs button in all your website sections which contain normal text, for eg: article, web page etc. You can set the URL for shortcode linking to 3DHub using the settings page. When it comes to installing the 3DHubs plugin, it can be conveniently installed just like any other WordPress plugin. For installation, you can either opt for the tool available within the WordPress admin dashboard or go ahead with uploadng zip file to the web server via plugin directory or directly using the dashboard.

In Conclusion

When it’s about upgrading to the latest technology concepts, WordPress has never lagged behind. 3D printing is also not an exception to this. Here’s hoping the brief explanation of five top-notch WordPress 3D printing plugins given above would undoubtedly aid you in exploring multiple possibilities available in the world of 3D printing.

25 Fresh Examples of Minimalist Web Designs

AndrewG — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 22:34:00 +0000

Minimalistic designs in art have always been popular because they are able to convey an idea with limited resources. The sphere of web design is highly influenced by minimalistic approach and many talented designers create extraordinary sites with a few simple tools such as fonts and other design elements. The advantage of a minimalistic design is not only its elegant style but also the web page loading time that is an important factor for many sites and services. We’ve gathered the collection of latest minimalistic web designs for your inspiration.

aiaiai

Jurai Molnar

Migel Trias

Jp Schneider

Spotify Lovers

Relab Studios

Panic

Base Media

Malte Demuth

Daniel Spatzek

onscreen

Truth Labs

F L P N Y

Anakin

FootJoy and Boa

L’Avenir

VoetsDesign

Aristide Benoist

Updroid

Gaetan Pautler

Stilt Media

Nua Bikes

Le Printemps du Polar

Christian MacMillan

Weget

STL Viewer – A Handy Plugin for displaying 3D STL files on WordPress site

Amy Brown — Tue, 15 Mar 2016 22:34:00 +0000

With the 3D printing trend taking the web world by a wave, it is interesting to know about all the plugins that can be used by 3D printer owners for sharing their exclusive 3D designs on their specific WordPress website. If you too own a WordPress powered blog/site and are interested in displaying 3D STL files on the same, STL Viewer is the plugin which will allow you to do the same using a simple shortcode for embedding WebGL viewer.

Continue to stay on this post for learning mor about the STL Viewer plugin which is a must-have for WordPress site/blog owners who want to make the most of 3D printing and its associated advantages.

What exactly are STL files?

A common client requirement during WordPress website development, STL files are displayed on a majority of WordPress websites available over the internet. An STL file is basically a standard file type which is being used by a majority of manufacturing systems. It is a triangulated representation of 3D CAD model wherein all the parameters used for outputting the STL will actually affect the amount of faceting that occurs for the 3D CAD model. Additionally, an STL file may also be considered as a file format that’s being used by Stereolithograohy software for generating information that’s required for producing 3D models on the Stereolithography machines.

Understanding the criticality of checking .stl files before 3D printing them

While a huge count of downloadable .stl files for 3D print rendered by different platforms have already been checked for 3D printing, it is not a bad idea to check the same for yourself before getting the 3D designs printed using your 3D printer. It is important for you to understand that every 3D printing technology like SLS, FDM etc. comes with its own set of pros and cons. For preparing your model for 3D printing, it is vital for you to know all the boundaries of your machine. If you aren’t able to do so, then it is recommended to follow the guidelines for selecting the universal maximum size that’s based on the beam diameter and volume of the selected 3D printer. Ensure that your model fits into 15x15x15 cm cube and doesn’t contain walls with the value for thickness less than 1mm.

Now, let’s dig deeper into STL Viewer plugin that’s custom-made for WordPress websites/blogs

If you own a WordPress blog/site and are interested in sharing 3D Designs with your audience, then the STL Viewer plugin is for you. Installation of STL Viewer plugin onto your WordPress blog/site will enable Thingiview- a javascript 3D model viewer and STl/OBJ parser which allows you to share 3D designs via your WordPress powered online portal. Once you’re done with installing this plugin onto your WordPress site, you’ll be able to use a simple shortcode which can be enabled and embedded into a WebGL viewer for displaying 3D STL files.

The WordPress shortcode that’s utilized for displaying an interactive 3D object model in your page is shown below:

[ stlview stlpath=”PATH” w=”px” h=”px” rmode=”smooth / flat / point / wireframe” ]

Dependent on HTML5/Javascript technologies, STL Viewer runs within your chosen browser and is extremely light on your system resources. Additionally, a range of sample STL object models has been included for demonstrating the usage of this plugin in utmost efficient format. Some of the most commendable features included within the STL Viewer plugin are:

Four instant rendering models viz: Wireframe, Points, Flat and Smooth
Zoom in/out facility
Lightweight Javascript based 3D engine
An easy WordPress shortcode
Support for binary and ASCII .STL files

A brief at using variables for position of lights

With the STL Viewer plugin, you receive a 4-dimensional vector called dimensions. You can use this vector as a container for holding four different values and placing lights in accordance to the 3D object’s dimensions. Here’s a look at how this vector can be used:

x provides you the length of 3D Object in x-axis. Same applied to dimensions.y and dimensions.z.
w provides the radius of sphere which contains the 3D object. Here, it is vital to remember that no part of the 3D object is out of this radius.

The variable can hence be utilized in the WordPress shortcode or the settings page.

That’s it!

Conclusion

If the idea of embedding 3D models in your WordPress website has been bothering you lately, then the above explained STL Viewer plugin can undoubtedly serve as your great help tool. You can download some free STL files on 3DExport marketplace as well.

48 Flat and Free Icon Sets for June 2015

AndrewG — Mon, 14 Mar 2016 22:34:00 +0000

Every designer knows that icons can do a lot when it’s needed to make a design look complete. You look into our fresh collection of best free icon sets from all the web. Most of these icons created in popular flat design style. We hope you enjoy and find it useful!

Free Glyphs [AI] by Airytram

Epic Flats Freebie by Adrian Goia

Pixelified 15 Free icons by Keyamoon

Multimedia Iconset by kalachakravarthi

Google Icons by Ranjith Alingal

Smashicons Space Icons – Flat Version by Oliver

Nucleo – Free Social Icons by Sebastiano Guerriero

Free Flat Icon set by www.PixsHub.com

20 Free Food Icons by Eddy Tritten

Watch OS X Volume III by Jason Zigrino

Mall site icons by Madalin Dragnea

Free Flat Long Shadow Multimedia Icons by Zee Que

Icon Food by Julia

I love Hawaii by creativebythesea

Line Icons Freebie by Twitch Creative

Smart House Icon Set by Roman Malashkov

Some Icons 1.0 by Justin Greene

Animal Icons Free by marta

Sketch iOS7 line icons by kalachakravarthi

Pharmacy Icons Part 2 by Zlatina Petrova

Icon set – “Home layout” theme by Dimz

Free Outline Iconset by www.PixsHub.com

Free Landmark Icons by Wassim

Free Junk Food Icon by Rizki Kurniawan

Weather Freebie by Eight Black Dots

Free Icons by Twitch Creative

Japan Icons by DEN DESIGN

Free Flat Animal Attributes Icon Set by Oxygenna

Sketch Icons by DEN DESIGN

Pharmacy Icons by Zlatina Petrova

30 FREE eCommerce Line Icons by Travis Howell

Social icons .sketch by Konstantin Savchenko

Device Icon v1 by Sun Joo

231 Icon Set by Cosmin Negoita

Web Icons by Pavel Kozlov

Shoe Icon by Nick Pellegrini

“Mega Man” Mega Minimal Iconset by Bruno O. Barros

Forge Icon v1 by Sun Joo

Free Animal Attributes Icon Set by Oxygenna

Puppy Icons by Dan Shipley

60 FREE FRESH LINE ICONS IN VECTOR by Free goodies for designers

Free Foody Icons by Studio Smacznego

Free Awesome Weather Icons by www.PixsHub.com

Icons Basic Freebie by Eight Black Dots

Android Lollipo Icons Freebie by Adrian Goia

Unravel Icons by Sherzod Max

Free Space Icons by Justas Galaburda

Pixelified by Keyamoon

3D printed food. The future of cooking

Kristy Bernales — Sun, 13 Mar 2016 22:34:00 +0000

The concept of 3D printing is a relatively new concept in print technology. Although this concept started to take shape much earlier, the actual term of 3D printing was heard for the first time in 2010. The process involves using 3 axis namely the x, y and z as opposed to only x and y in a conventional 2D printing. Generally 3D printers are being used for printing out mechanical plastic parts commonly for commercial as well as recreational use.

Today the concept of 3D printing has started to gain monumental success with organizations like Boeing and Airbus industries successfully producing airplane parts with 3D printers. NASA sent over a 3D socket wrench printing file to the international space station, where it was downloaded and the first socket wrench was printed out of a 3D printer in outer space.

The process of 3D printing holds the key to the future and promises many new innovations which could benefit and influence practically every industry. 3D printing is quickly changing human behavioural patterns and the way we see and perceive things. A few years back in 1985 a blockbuster movie “Back to the Future II” was released. I remember seeing the movie on cable. It showed how the McFly family uses an appliance called the Hydrator to re-hydrate a button sized de-hydrated pizza into a freshly made pizza within a few seconds.

On similar lines the Star Trek series featured a gadget called the “food synthesizer” or a “replicator” used for creating on demand food within seconds. Who would have thought 30 years back on seeing such science fiction movies that 3D printing would bring us in close proximity with such possibilities. Yes, you have read me correctly; hold your breath as a 3D food printer could be an integral part of your kitchen sooner than you might think.

NASA has already started exploring the possibilities of 3D food printing in outer space and is funding projects for finding such solutions. NASA plans to explore such possibilities to colonize the red plant and enable astronauts to print out their own food, as sending payloads of food from the earth takes years and months and costs a lot of money.

A few private ventures in the meantime are already up to the task of providing 3D food printing solutions. A Spanish company by the name of Natural Machines is almost ready to launch its 3D food printer named “FOODINI” by mid 2015. Pretty soon you could be printing out a pizza for lunch and cookies for your evening cup of coffee. The company plans to establish 3D food printers as standard equipment in home kitchens pretty soon, just like a microwave.

FOODINI is capable of printing out real food made from fresh ingredients prepared before the printing process. It can easily print out otherwise complicated dishes like Pasta, Chocolates, Cookies, Pizza, Ravioli etc. in the quickest possible time. It features variable printing speeds to initiate the cooking process depending on the instructions passed on to it through the internet. A recipe can be selected by the user from the device touch screen or can be sent via internet. The raw materials like dough, sauce and cheese are put in its stainless steel capsules and then FOODINI adorns the chef cap and takes over preparing your meal from scratch. It first lays out the layer of dough and then subsequent layers of sauce and cheese to prepare a pizza for you.

The device has also been designed to be space saving and measures just 17 inches in width and 18 inches tall. The weight of the appliance is roughly around 30 pounds. The price of FOODINI is expected to be around 1300 US$, which is pretty steep. But you know how it happens with technology. As soon as more competition arrives, the prices would come down to almost half in no time. The company is expecting a huge demand for the product and plans to sell 1000 units in the first go.

Much like Natural Machines, another German company named Print2Taste Bocusini has come up with its own version of a 3D food printer which uses inkjet like technology with pre-filled syringes of food materials in paste form, much like ink cartridges and a printhead. The company also plans to introduce a kit for converting an existing 3D printer into a food printer. This 3D food printing technology seems to have advanced way ahead before anyone could have anticipated.

In conclusion, although the concept of 3D food printing might be in its early evolutionary phase, it promises a lot of innovation for the future. I am thoroughly convinced that 3D food printing will never be able to replace good old conventional cooking, but it is surely a fresh new concept which provides a good option for people who are generally averse to the idea of cooking food themselves due to either lack of skill or shortage of time. The companies which are developing these 3D food printers are targeting not just home users but also professional chefs and hotels for the creativity which 3D food printers can offer. It could turn out to be a concept which could re-invent our food and our eating habits. Only time will tell as to what these 3D food printers are able to achieve, but our dining tables are sure to look different in the future.

You can download some free 3d printable models for your food printing on 3DExport Marketplace.

3D Printing: Awesome Android apps that help you get started

Splashnology Editors — Sat, 12 Mar 2016 22:34:00 +0000

Fading away of the 2D ecosphere has created room for the emergence of the 3D Universe. Whether you’re a regular customer or the owner of an established enterprise, 3D printing definitely holds a special place in all your tasks.

Fortunately, we now have 3D printers which can be conveniently operated via your laptop, desktop or smartphones; provided you have an in-depth knowledge about the concept of 3D Printing. Specially talking about smartphones, irrespective of whether you own an Android phone, an iPhone or a BlackBerry phone, there are apps which make it flexible and comfortable for you to control your 3D printers.

As an uncontrollably addictive trend, 3D printing is for you if you’ve a creative bend of mind and love printing new things, shopping online, browsing forums and doing a lot of fun stuff online. Being an Android user offers you the opportunity of making the most of your passion for printing things. There are tons and tons of Android apps which will take your 3D printing experience to a whole new level of excellence. Backed by a small learning curve, these apps allow you to enjoy control over your 3D Printer. Today, through this post, I’m inclined on highlighting few of these finest Android apps which help you make the most of your 3D printing journey. So, without any further adieu, let’s simply hop onto these Android apps custom-made for 3D Printing.

1. Autodesk 123D Catch

Since the contemporary smartphone devices don’t offer any options for capturing 3D images, relying on a suitable app is perhaps the right option. If you’re an Android user who’s looking for printing 3D photographs which have been captured using the smartphone camera, then the Autodesk 123D Catch is the app for you. With this app installed in your device, you can conveniently capture a 3D Image by simply merging a series of images that have already been clicked around a particular object. The best assets of this Android app include the following:

Flexibility of sharing the 3D images with other 123D Catch customers and
Flexibility of extracting and converting the end result into a format that can be handled by your 3D printer.

2. GCodePrintr

As one of the most popular and highly recommended Android apps for 3D printing, GcodePrintr allows you to transform your existing Android smartphone into a full-fledged 3D printer via a USB-OTG cable. Installing this app in your Android smartphone will offer you basic and advanced printer controls including Extruder, XYZ Movement, Heat etc. This app offers you complete 3D printing control. You’re just required to load your gcode/3D model into it and the same would get printed directly without the need for any desktop computer. Some of the other interesting features available in GcodePrintr app include the following:

Touch screen control interface
Print simulation
Layer by layer visualization
Support for SD Card printing
Support for wireless printing over Bluetooth
A seamless web interface for viewing the print status remotely
Flexibility to view printing details like speed, estimated time, cost, filament usage etc.

3. GcodeTouch3D Beta

GCodeTouch3D is currently available in its beta version and is simple to a level that even your kids can use it for painting and printing anything in 3 dimension. With GcodeTouch3D app, you just need to paint the very first layer using your fingers and the app would automatically add extra layers on the top of the object, followed by printing the final result on your 3D printer. While the current version of the app supports addition of new layers(keeping the geometry as it is), the later versions would also include the flexibility of adding multiple transformation utilities such as shrink layer, rotate layer etc. The best thing about GCodeTouch3D app is that it works with a wide collection of 3D printers like Ultimaker, Robot3d, Reprap, Solidoodle and many more. Plus, it also works with popular firmwares including Marlin, Sprinter, Smoothie etc.

4. Tinkerplay

As a free-to-install Android app, Tinkerplay allows you to unleash the creative side of your personality by designing, customizing and 3D printing scary creatures, cartoon characters and almost everything that you can image. All you need to do is simply access the built-in library, drag specific parts, merge them and snap them to form a particular texture/shape. If you’re done with creating your design and are interested in customizing your creation, just top to change the entire portion or you may also opt for switching to the magnifying mode for re-designing the shape in a lot more detail. If you don’t want to create your own characters, Tinkerplay app has some absolutely commendable built-in character templates. You can simply mix up parts and go ahead with creation of a ninja or a scorpion- printing the same via your 3D printer.

Conclusion

Gone are the days when 3D printing seemed to be a daunting task. Thanks to the continuous advancements in the field of mobile technology, we can now use it for controlling the working of our 3D printer. So, get going and install the above Android apps to enjoy an enticing and fun-filled 3D printing experience.

About the author

Rick Brown is a skilled iPhone app developer for Mobiers Ltd – a reliable iPhone app development company. You can explore more about the development tips and tricks by clearing your queries with him.

Download some free 3d printable models for your printing apps on 3DExport Marketplace.

Spring Collection of Fantastic 3D Characters

AndrewG — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 22:34:00 +0000

With the use of some of the 3D tools it’s possible to create really impressive effects. One can make his characters pictures and images look more vivid and lifelike. Today, we have collected some fantastic and cartoon 3d characters. Enjoy the showcase and express your opinion by sharing it in the comments. Download 3D Character Models

Warrior by funkyboy

Monster by azin janati

Umojan guard Unit. SC2 fanart by Alessandro Manzani

Seven Lords of Hell – Card Art by Herman Serrano

Unit by Sandesh Chonkar

Demon Grande Gueule by chalian

Helghast Commando – Killzone Shadow Fall by Arno Schmitz

The aliens-GX_05 by funkyboy

Clanner by ghasem mollahasani

Katzenjammer by Pablo Vazquez

armed soldier by ajay pandey

A Light Before Death by Alaa Abdelwahed

Six-winged space seraph by Liudmila Kirdiashkina

Demon king by funkyboy

The Priest by Federico Monetti

Mars Eagle Concept Art by Lucas Ribeiro Fernandes

Fat warrior by funkyboy

Pop Mech by Luigi Monaldi

King by Nuttavut Baiphowongse

Lord of the Caves, Reza Sedghi

Mass Effect by Sebastian Appel

Frankenstein’s Lil’ Cousin, James Gardner

Pig by Fuze Image Maker

DOZER by DEISIGN STUDIO

THU Tribe CG Challenge 2015 by Lorett Foth

40 Flat and Free Icon Sets for May 2015

AndrewG — Thu, 10 Mar 2016 22:34:00 +0000

64 Free Fanaticons (AI + PNG + SVG) by www.PixsHub.com

Free icon set by Pauline Sdrigotti

Koelsch Icons – Free by Benjamin Hartung

75 Various Outline Icon Set by HevnGrafix Design

Floder freebie by Jason Lv

Righteous gestures by Martin Cajzer

Free Shoes/Lifestyle Icon Set by Oxygenna

100 Icon Set by The Hungry JPEG

Free Arrows Icons by Creative Tail

Good Idea Icon Set by Agata Kuczminska

Lily software icon by Artyom Pasko

Free Fantasy Icons by Boris Kondratenko

15 icons PSD download by krishnanunni

96×3 Free Icons by Darius Dan

Free Outline Web Icon Set by Oxygenna

Educate Icon Set by www.PixsHub.com

Pamoke: Free Icon Set by Miguel Ángel Avila

Toolbar Icons by Emily Rosen

Icon set by Peecheey

Spring’s In The Air by New Haircut

Banking icon set by Nikolay Ivanov

Nautical Vectors by Sarah Nelson Carte

Free Icons – Interaction gestures by Paul Idrobo

45 Icon Set In Svg, Psd, Png by www.PixsHub.com

25x Editable Icons by The Hungry JPEG

21 Flat iOs Icon Set by HevnGrafix Design

Flat Camera by Huzaifa Ratlam

Art Icons by Wassim

Icons by Michal Salva

Free Drinks/Lifestyle Icon Set by Oxygenna

70 Simple Icons by Young Kang

Smashicons by Oliver

Stripes & Co Line Styled Icon Set by www.PixsHub.com

Free Polygon Flat Writing And Drawing Equipment Icon Set by Oxygenna

Credit Cards by Tim Parker

Class Learning Achievement Icons by Create the Bridge

Free CV Icon Pack by www.PixsHub.com

Happycons – 40 Free icons by Darius Dan

Random Stuff Free Iconset by Ghani Pradita

20 Examples of Creative Typography for April 2015

AndrewG — Wed, 09 Mar 2016 22:34:00 +0000

We think that a lot of our readers are already acquainted with the magical things that can be achieved in design with the help of typography. It’s possible to create many cool and funny effects which will suit and complete the style and the vision of the design you are working on. To your attention we present a fresh examples of stylish typography to bring some inspiration and new ideas.

Typography by Marco Ciervo

Gold Skies by Peter Galadik

A maze – typography by Elroy Klee

Typography by christophe Toocar

Typography by Srishti Garg

Tadhana Typography by Iya Camalig

Love is by Galih Pradana

Rhythm & Sound by Mario De Meyer

Experimental typography by Magnolija Three

Introducing poster by AI AI AI

Type 3 Alphabet Project by Anthony Arriola

AFTA 2015 by Diego Garcia

Typography by tang tang

Hand Painted Typography by Matt Corbin

Typography 3D by Alexis Persani

“Pepper Turns 3!” Food Typography by Nikko Pascua

The History Boys Typography by Kate Hofstad

Love Begins Typography by Kate Hofstad

Secret of Nimh Typography by Kate Hofstad

42 Fresh and Free Icon Sets for Designers

AndrewG — Tue, 08 Mar 2016 22:34:00 +0000

100 Icon Set by The Hungry JPEG

Free Shoes/Lifestyle Icon Set by Oxygenna

Free Colorful Flat icons by sketch by Jory.ji

100 Free Angular Icons by Vincent Le Moign

Water Gun by Sunbzy

Free Line-Icon Set by Shab Majeed

Audio Icons by Daniele De Santis

Wireframer icon pack by Eugene Dobrik

Documents by Hannah Milan

Flat Ui Kit Freebies by www.PixsHub.com

Giveaway contest by Ion Popa

Mini icon kit by Bulat Zalyayev

Free File Types Icons by Creative Tail

Breakfast Pattern Freebie by Strahinja Todorović

Free Flat Color Icons by www.PixsHub.com

Nucleo – Free Test Pack by Sebastiano Guerriero

64 Free Fanaticons (AI + PNG + SVG) by www.PixsHub.com

Free icon set by Pauline Sdrigotti

Koelsch Icons by Benjamin Hartung

75 Various Outline Icon Set by HevnGrafix Design

Designer’s Essentials Free Icons by Darius Dan

Soundflower by Jason Zigrino

Free Audacity App Icons by Justin Wilson

Free Medical and Science Icons by GraphicsFuel

Free flat icon by Alamin Mir – CreativeMine

Free emoticons Icons by Icons Mind

Aircons – 66 light icons by Dmitriy Sidorov

Free Icon Set by Pavlo Tyshchuk

Barker Icon Set by Matthew Skiles

Playing with some flatties by Dmitriy Sidorov

Free Shopping Cart Icons by Alexey Tretina

Epic Outlines Font + Freebie by Adrian Goia

Free UI set #3 by Mario Purisic

Free PSD Chart Icons! by Eric Müller

Whisky Break Free Icons by Evgeniy Artsebasov

Robicons Font by Rohan Bhangui

Free Line Icon Set by Vladimir Potapov

Freebie file type icons by Artem Chernyshev

Free icons from – Vkontakte redesign concept 2015 by Senya Ars

Multipurpose Icons by Kevin Moran

Free Minimalistic Icon Set by Matt Cooper

Free SVG Icons by Yevgeny Makarov

Free download: 300+ Flat Color Icons

Splashnology Editors — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 22:34:00 +0000

Download 300+ Flat Color Icons for free! This great set of 300+ Free Flat Color Icons provided by Icons8.com. The icons are supplied in SVG format and released under the Good Boy License. Download the files beneath the preview.

Preview

Check 10000+ icons in any format, size and color bu Icons8.

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24 Free Responsive WordPress Themes for April 2015

AndrewG — Sun, 06 Mar 2016 22:34:00 +0000

Free themes for WordPress for several years already remain a hot trend in search engines. WordPress is the most famous CMS system, which received its popularity due to wide possibilities of customizing your website, regular updates and user-friendly interface. People who are far from web design and development can easily understand and use this system to create their project. If you do not want to invest in your site extra money, free theme can be a great option to start. Today we have gathered here fresh and free themes for the last 3 months and we hope that you will find among them a good one for you. We encourage you to see the previous collections that have free themes for WordPress, if you have not seen them before. Enjoy!

BizSphere

HTML5 & CSS3 Responsive WordPress Business theme with business style home page layout with welcome section, 3 product/services blocks and a client quote/testimonial section. 2 logo section layout options. 2 premade (Blue, Red) ready to use color schemes/skins. 3 widget areas in footer, 1 widget area in sidebar. 2 page layouts including a full width page template. Social media icons in footer.

Demo

Kepler

A minimalist Child Theme for Stargazer.

Demo

Euclid

Euclid is a free 2 column wordpress theme from ThemeSmarts. It comes with an elegant design which will suit any kind of blogs/magazines.

Demo

Boldly Go Green

Boldly Go Green is as brightly colorful as the name suggests. It makes a bold statement about your mood and your company’s green mission. This theme would be excellent for a landscaping business, a nonprofit corporation, or a personal blog.

Demo

Acitpo

A minimalistic single-column HTML5 WordPress theme built for personal bloggers. It’s design was inspired by the microblogging format as a departure from traditional multi-column blog designs.

Preus

Preus is an absolutely Free WordPress theme, built on the powerful Mobile First Bootstrap 3.0 Framework, from Twitter. While designing this theme, we have given utmost importance to speed and comaptibility with modern devices. The theme doesn’t use any image for theme components, and is built using vector icons. This makes your theme 100% Retina Display Comaptible. The theme is fully responsive on all Devices ranging from Huge Desktops to Smartphones. Preus is one of our best creations till date.

Demo

News WordPress Theme

Times-Teel is our newest creation dedicated to media, news and press WordPress websites with different features for highlighting the relevant content you publish. It is composed of nice textures and patterns, smooth social integration, compelling menus and widgets, and the best of all, free to download and ready to install, so you give a new face to your news WordPress site!

Demo

Reviewgine Lite

Demo

gimliii

Very simple and clean green theme , supports custom header , custom background , comes with two widgets and three footer widget areas , sidebar widgets.

Demo

Flato

Flato is a simple blogging theme with a flat design. It is responsive, has theme options and 4 footer widgets.

Demo

Opus

Opus is a simple yet elegant free wordpress theme built for personal blogs. It comes with responsive layout which will make your blog look great on any browser/devices.

Demo

KwikLoad

An ultrafast loading theme made especially for tech article users for superfast loading, minimising load on the server and speeding up the site. Added New Social Icons. Better control over icons display. Fixed Issues with Dropdown menus, sidebar issues, minor fixes made.

Demo

Sassy Starter

A starter theme for Sass.

Demo

Bootpress

A WordPress Theme based on Bootstrap 3 framework, from Twitter. It features a 100% responsive layout, a superb gallery and image handling with a custom image meta widget and the GLYPHICONS Icon set, a clean and simple design and a lot more! Bootpress runs on HTML5 and CSS3, a 12-column grid and comes with custom jQuery plugins. Bootpress supports 12 custom bootstrap themes from Bootswatch.

Demo

Parallax-effect

Parallax-effect is the wordpress theme you need: elegant, simple, feature rich. Slider Responsive WordPress Theme comes with custom background and modern design great theme to showcase your portfolio or blog. Features: Background Slider, 2 Sidebars, custom menu, post thumbnails, page navigation, widget ready.

Demo

Pieces

Pieces is a grid based clean and minimalist WordPress theme designed to showcase your artwork. Fully responsive to support various devices from smartphone, tablet to desktop.

Demo

Homeblog

Homeblog is one of the best stylish and clean themes for interior WordPress blog. It has designs which are good-looking. It comes with advanced features allows you to make changes to the theme without code editing.

Demo

WallPress

Free Responsive WordPress Theme which lets your content shine. Perfect for Portfolio, News or Magazine website.

Demo

GreenSun

GreenSun is an amazing free WordPress theme, great solution for blog about nature. The theme comes with easy-to-use administrative panel and lots of configurations provide a great base to build on.

Demo

Music

Demo

Business

An interactive theme which has one single page. It can be used for any business. Everything is very colorful, with catchy sections, a modern design, an original arrangement of every section’s content and animation effects. This theme has many visual elements that catch the eye from the beginning. It’s responsive, widgetized, portfolio-like and has parallax scrolling.

Demo

Customizr

Customizr is a free WordPress theme from Themes&Co. It comes with lots of cool features to make a beautiful site with WordPress. The theme has a flat and fully responsive design that can be used for small businesses, portfolios and blogs.

Demo

Maskitto-light

A light-weight, clean and simple WordPress theme for everyday use. Bunch of useful features such as responsive design, united color schemes, slider with lots of options, fast to learn administration panel layout, plus clean and easy visual design and it’s all free. Currently, the project is in development stage, but we think it’s better that way because with your help we can fine tune it to perfection!

Demo

OMG Theme

OMG is a full width, fully responsive design especially suited to bloggers who want to feature bold images on their home page and archive pages. It also offers easy customization options for the logo, favicon, color scheme, social media icons, slider behaviour, and optional author bios and related posts display.

Demo

Laurels

Laurels is a lightweight, faster, clean, super flexible and bootstrap based responsive theme for business or personal websites. Laurels Theme is built on top of Twitter Bootstrap which means that your site can be displayed on every device (pc, laptop, mobile devices, tablets etc) without horizontal scrolling. It has got custom widgets, theme-options etc in order to get it customized as per your needs.

Font and Logo Design for the New Entrepreneur

Splashnology Editors — Sat, 05 Mar 2016 22:34:00 +0000

When building a web page, designing a company brochure or flyer, or creating a logo; the first step most people take is clicking on the drop down menu and selecting a font. Usually the main criterion is that the font looks “cool”.

The science and art of selecting typefaces is not new to the internet age and is known as typography, and despite a long history which proves that the font used plays a crucial part in a product’s image, it is applied far too infrequently.

Some fonts have become so identified with a particular brand that it is impossible to see any message set in that particular type without thinking of the brand. Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Disney and Lego are perfect examples.

Book publishers have long understood the importance of selecting the correct font and many include a note about not only which font was used but why on the end pages.

In the multi-dimensional world of the web, making the correct choices is even more important, as it can help engage the audience and give them a preview of the type of information that is being presented.

The analogy most often used when it comes to selecting a font is to think of it in terms of choosing what you are going to wear. A font can be anything from a tuxedo, a business suit, business casual, backyard barbeque attire or a masquerade costume. Regardless of the message, the font has a powerful impact on how the viewer interprets the message.

The typeface is just part of the overall impact of a logo or webpage and has to be considered in concert with the colors used and the overall design. The type must bring all of the aspects together.

The first step in choosing a font is to ask yourself some questions:

Sans Serif or Serif? – This may seem way too simplistic but this simple choice can set the tone for your message. Almost all typefaces fall into one of these two categories. Sans serif typefaces are perceived as more modern, while serif fonts (meaning the letters have “feet” at the ends of the letter is considered old fashioned, but have a long-standing image of being more readable.

What is your purpose? – If your message or product is serious, your logo and fonts should reflect that. If your product and message is fun, then use a “fun” logo, but keep in mind that some of the more unique fonts can wear out their welcome quickly. Also keep in mind that most people have a limited number of fonts installed on their computer. So while you may have found the perfect font for your logo and product page, it is useless if your audience can’t see it. If you are becoming bored with your normal font, experiment in the headings and titles, not the main copy.

Is your intention clear? – Many web page and logo designers attempt to create a sense of contrast in order to make a point. One of the tricks used is to use two different fonts. While it is more effective to use different weighting of the same font, like bold or italics, if you feel that the design is strengthened by using two different fonts, make sure they are from completely different genres. Using two old style fonts together actually serves to confuse your audience instead of reinforcing your message.

Did you test your design? – All browsers are not created equally. While a logo and web page may look great on a couple of browsers, make sure that it looks equally good on all of them. You mainly have to worry about the big three – Chrome, IE, and Firefox – but you should look at some of the even more obscure ones if your content appeals to specialty users.

Do you have enough information? – Make sure you truly understand the basics when designing your logo and webpages. One of the best books available is The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst.

Here is a sobering fact about logo design: there is a good chance that someone has already had a similar idea. Part of this is due to the sheer volume of information that we take in daily; a great deal of this information becomes part of our subconscious memories. It happens to songwriters; it happens to logo designers.

Designer Mike Donaldson summed it up well when he said, “Tell yourself at every step in the design process that someone has undoubtedly already thought of this and what can you do to really set it apart. In design, and particularly logo design, the pessimistic axiom that ‘everything has already been done’ is becoming more and more true, and it is only the virtuous designer who can continue to stand out in a sea of sameness.”

One of the classic examples of this is the NBC logo of 1976. In an effort to update the old “peacock” logo, the network debut a trapezoid logo. Part of their efforts to introduce the logo included a member of the Saturday Night Live cast appearing on stage in a costume of the new logos. A month after the introduction, NBC was contacted by the Nebraska ETV Network who stated that the new logo infringed on their logo which had been in use for over two years. The two reached an out-of-court settlement which included NBC giving Nebraska more than $800,000 in new equipment and paying $55,000 for the design and marketing of a new logo.

Paul Brand is famous for creating some of the more iconic logos in the world, including IBM, ABC and UPS. He said that “A logo does not sell (directly), it identifies. A logo derives meaning from the quality of the thing it symbolizes, not the other way around.”

Great logos all share five basic elements:

Simplicity
Timelessness
Appropriateness
Versatility
Memorability

Here are four logos that are examples of effective use of all five elements:

Nike – The Nike “swoosh” is the ultimate in simplicity and works as well today as when first introduced. The logo gives the impression of movement and activity, and works in any print environments. The Nike logo is the one of the most recognizable in the world.

PokerStars – The world’s largest online poker site’s logo is a perfect example of a logo that appeals to the audience. Spades have always had the image of being the trump card, so placing a star inside the spade icon is simple and effective. The logo is ready made for use in collateral materials ranging from t-shirts to poker accessories.

AOL – America Online served as many people’s introduction to the web. While AOL’s importance is drastically diminished, the logo is still instantly recognizable and still fits a company whose main business is as a web portal.

Apple – Perhaps the best logo of all time, not just of the modern age, is Apple’s. It is instantly recognizable, can be applied with ease to any device or gadget the company develops, can be any color or combination of colors that is desired, and of course is laughably simple.

The digital age has proven the biggest catalyst to entrepreneurship since the Industrial Revolution. One of the key factors is the simplicity of starting and establishing one’s own brand. However, this same simplicity can lead to faulty implementation. It is important to look at the simple things, like fonts and logos, as part of any business strategy.

Collection of New & Free Fonts for April 2015

AndrewG — Fri, 04 Mar 2016 22:34:00 +0000

Every month we showcased some great collections of free fonts and we are not going to stop there! We would like to present to you a free fonts and typefaces for February 2015. You can use some of these fonts for specific purposes and others can be used for general use. Feel free to visit our site to get more updates for our next font collections.
Warning: A font, like any other software, has a license attached to it, so you’d better check up the license before using them in your commercial works or other projects.

Gluten Font by Font Slots

FAKEDES Free Font by Cyril Mikhailov

Mayhem Font by aaron may

MOSCÚ Free font by Tano Veron

Hokage Free Font by Ezeqvïel Ergö

Noni Free Handwritten Font by Ahmed Barakat

GOVORY Free Font by Natalia Kryzhak

Bobz Type Free Font by Fariz Ikhsan

Kanyon Free Typeface by Misha Panfilov

ATHENA – Post-modern Typeface by Alcir Heidemann

Alcodings Font by Studio Smacznego

ACHI Free Font by Shibu PG

Dogtown typeface by simon stratford

Leto Text Sans by Glen Jan

LP Print Free Typeface by Lena Plaksina

Mono16 – Open Source Coding Fonts by Andreas Larsen

LoLo Typeface by nasser khalaf

Blood Shade by dcoxy

F3 Secuencia Round FFP by deFharo

KG Tightrope by Kimberly Geswein

Fresh Toolbox for Web Developers – March 2015

AndrewG — Thu, 03 Mar 2016 22:34:00 +0000

Selectordie

Here we go again, yet another jQuery plugin to style select elements. That’s pretty much it. Scroll down and take a look if it might be something for you.

CSS SANS

Slideout.js

A touch slideout navigation menu for your mobile web apps.

Web UI Design for the Human Eye: Colors, Space, Contrast

Learn How To Use Visual & Interaction Design To Create Meaningful First Impressions

Flipside

A button that seamlessly transitions from action to confirmation

SkyBlue CSS Framework

SkyBlue is a minimal framework that is meant to be starting point for my projects.

localFont

Implement localStorage web font caching in seconds.

Epic Favicon Generator

Generates code and icons. Saves you a ton of time!

Сorysimmons

SCSS or Stylus fractional grid system built with calc(), based on Bootstrap, with a modified Jeet fallback.

epicGrid

A pure, lightweight, responsive javascript solution for building grid systems.

vivus

Vivus is a lightweight JavaScript class (with no dependencies) that allows you to animate SVGs, giving them the appearence of being drawn. There are a variety of different animations available, as well as the option to create a custom script to draw your SVG in whatever way you like.

Booom!

A better UI for Dribbble.com to make life easier for designers.

Unicoder.js

Unicoder.js is a small JS library, which converts given text to some of the more artistic unicode alphabets. You know, for social media and stuff.

Rin

A lean, gulp-based HTML & SASS boilerplate for better front-end coding

Critical-path (Above-the-fold) CSS Tools

Tools to prioritize above-the-fold (critical-path) CSS.

Swiper

Swiper – is the free and most modern mobile touch slider with hardware accelerated transitions and amazing native behavior. It is intended to be used in mobile websites, mobile web apps, and mobile native/hybrid apps. Designed mostly for iOS, but also works great on latest Android, Windows Phone 8 and modern Desktop browsers.

jQuery.imgx

Extension for serving Hi-Res images on desktop / mobile.

Plyr

A simple HTML5 media player with custom controls and WebVTT captions.

ai2html

ai2html is an open-source script for Adobe Illustrator that converts your Illustrator documents into html and css.

MUI

MUI is a lightweight HTML, CSS and JS framework for sites that follow Google’s Material Design guidelines.

UnderlineJS

A javascript library that sets out to do one simple job: draw and animate the most perfect and playful text underline.

Littlebox

Each littlebox icon is made up of three or fewer elements, but can be called with as a single element with class .lb-icon followed by the .lb-* class associated with the requested icon.

CSS Ruler

FoundationPress

FoundationPress is a WordPress starter theme based on Foundation 5 by Zurb.

jQuery.scrollSpeed

Extension for custom scrolling speed and easing.

Datedropper

Datedropper is a jquery plugin that a privedes quick and easy way to manage dates for input fiels.

transfer.sh

Easy file sharing from the command line.

Awesomplete

Ultra lightweight, customizable, simple autocomplete widget with zero dependencies, built with modern standards for modern browsers. Because still doesn’t cut it.

Decorator

Decorator Front-End Framework. The framework is being rewritten from scratch. A brand new modular and lighter angular.js supported version of framework.

42 Free and Flat Icon Sets for Designers

AndrewG — Wed, 02 Mar 2016 22:34:00 +0000

Free E Commerce Icons by Icons Mind

77 Essential Icons by Bryn Taylor

Free Icons Part 1 by Agilo

Freebie Icons by Volodymyr Kurbatov

Apple Watch Icon Template by Expressive Media

Donuts icons by Stefano Fois

Free 16 line icons PSD by Sheik Gama Aman

Captain Icon Sketchapp by Mario del Valle

“Hope and Rise” Icons by Alexey Radzhabov

Sketch Icons Freebie by igor leygerman

Valentine’s Icon Pack by Hyperactive

Freebies #1 by Brice Séraphin

Material Design Powerpoint & Keynote icons by Kyle Ledbetter

Free StreetWill.co icons by buatoom

20 Free Arrow Icons by Creative Tail

Swifticons by Darius Dan

Media Icons by asgar khan

UXPin Icon Set by UXPin

Icons – Free PSD by Sergey

47 Free Hipster Icons by Creative Tail

50 Free Business Icons by Creative Tail

Space icon .ai for free & sketch by BEASTY

Fruity Icons PSD Freebie by Luís Monteiro

Free icons – PSD by Krenskiy Dmitriy

Free icons by Elmira Gokoryan

Camping Essentials by Justas Galaburda

Colorful icons set by Peecheey

The Nice and Serious UI Icon Set by Nice and Serious

Iconsmind 50 Free Icons by Creative Tail

Country flags – Retail Loyalty Congress 2015 by Khanh Ly

Free Pin-icons by Kien Tran

Free Sport Icons by Creative Tail

Business Icons by Peecheey

Swifticons by Darius Dan

Marvel Icons by Abraham Guerra

What? Another Weather App! by Prashant Bhatnagar

March Icons by Tea Tomescu

CSS-Ready 500 Icons by Hakan Ertan

1450 free icons by Min Tran

Weather Icons by Shakuro

100 Responsive Line Icons by PixelBuddha

Free pattern by Volodymyr Kurbatov

30 Free Vector Line Icons by Sparklin

Free download: Globe Business Icons Set

Splashnology Editors — Tue, 01 Mar 2016 22:34:00 +0000

Looking for awesome Globe Business Icons Set for free? Great, then you came to the right place! This great set of 32 Globe Business Icons Set provided by FreeVectors. This set licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. This collection of icons includes a PNG file, a PSD file, AI formats and EPS files. Download the files beneath the preview:

Preview

See here more free resources by FreeVectors.

Download Building Icons Set Now

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30 Latest Articles and Tutorials for Web Designers

AndrewG — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 22:34:00 +0000

This Friday our showcase consists of the freshest and useful tutorials and articles for web developers that we have collected here in order to save your precious time and make your workflow more fun and easy!

CSS Variables Are a Bad Idea

Measurement Units in CSS

Full-Screen Pushing Navigation

Writing a CSS Parser in JavaScript

How Simple, Classic Design Works

The History of Graphic Design and Computational Form

The Quick Start Guide to a Career in UX

Soft skills advice from design leaders

How to Remove Plugin Scripts & Stylesheets in WordPress

Deconstructing Dropbox’s Animated Guide

Digital Disruption Disrupted

How To Prevent ‘Sudden Client Designer Syndrome’

Starting a SASS workflow with Alfred

Making a Single Page App Without a Framework

The Power of Minimalism: A Story of Redesigning Yelp

Pagination

The When, Why and How of Designing in Browser

How to Create a Haggis Infographic in Adobe Photoshop

The Evolution of UI vs. UX In WordPress Web Design

The Truth about Web Design Trends

The Personal Process of Choosing the Right Design Tool

Design Principles

Better SVG Fallback and Art Direction With The (picture) Element

Positioning in web design

How to Create (Animated) Text Fills

Sliding Header Layout

Resizing and Cropping Images with Canvas

Positioning Offset Background Images

Flexible Image Carousels for Responsive Web Design

How to create a Front-end Login Page in WordPress

Collection of New & Free Fonts for February 2015

AndrewG — Sun, 28 Feb 2016 22:34:00 +0000

Ordnung Free Font by Przemysław Zięba

Nordic Free Font by Yana Bereziner

Monthoers Free Font by Agga Swistblnk

Slot Free Font by Adrien Coquet

Bodolive Free Font by Kyle Johnston

Kagome Free Font by Ezequiel Ergo

Kagura Free Font by Ezequiel Ergo

Unseen Free Font by David Szebenyi

Runaway Free Font by Iulian Maftei

Rhetoric Regular Free Font by Tshepo Mosoeu

Hummingbird Free Font by Freebies PSD

TriColore Free Font by Ivan Filipov

Serendipity Free Script Font

ONE DAY Free Font by Nawras Munier

Elcsa Free Font by Asclê de Oliveira

Lausanne Free Font by Ivan Filipov

Felt Pen Light Free Font by traint Andrew

RANCHO Free Typeface by NACH OH!

Gallow Tree Free Font by simon stratford

Bauru Free Font by Pier Paolo

Gadaj Free Font by Przemysław Zięba

Growl Free Font by Arron Croasdell

Maroline Fontpack Free Font by Ryan Prasetya

Get Coffee by Peter Olexa

DK Bungehuis by Hanoded

The Best Sleeper Graphics of 2014

Splashnology Editors — Sat, 27 Feb 2016 22:34:00 +0000

Brought to you by Graphicstock.com

Sometimes, the stock image that gets 40,000 downloads is truly 100 times stronger than the stock image that gets 400—but other times, that difference in popularity is more due to exposure than strength or quality.

In concert, there were certainly some graphics that “flew under the radar” this last year, and we’d like to remedy that by sharing them here. Unlike our favorite stock images of 2014, these graphics are our favorite “sleepers” that often went unnoticed deep in the search results.
In an effort to give them better homes in 2015, we’re bringing them into the limelight in our The Best Sleeper Graphics of 2014 category for use in your future design projects.

Click here for you 7 day free Trial on Graphicstock.com

We’d love to see these in action if you end up using them—so send any resulting projects to showcase@graphicstock.com if you’d like to share or be considered for a future post!

The Best Sleeper Graphics of 2014
Find more on Graphicstock.com

47 Fresh and Flat Icon Sets

AndrewG — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 22:34:00 +0000

Filo Icon Set by Alexander Slash

Material Design Powerpoint & Keynote icons by Kyle Ledbetter

Inbox Icon by Peecheey

Free Icon Set #1 by Geovani Almeida

Free Glyphs by Bogdan Rosu

Hand drawn icons by ILYA

Free Bike and Go Pro Icons by Wattle & Daub

Free Sketch Icons by Hakan Ertan

Timely Dock Icon by Jeffrey de Groot

Flatrice by Brice Séraphin

20 Food & Drink Icons by Creative Tail

Valentine’s Icon Pack by Hyperactive

Free Dandy Icons by Francesca Pelliccioni

Bricolage Icon by Roberto_Savino

Valentine’s Day icons by Alexander Slash

Free Flat Finance Icons by Ferman Aziz

St Valentine’s Day icon set by Tamara

Free 15 Icon by Paulo Chow

60 Vicons by Alexander Slash

Free Travel Icons by Justas Galaburda

75 Free Line Icons by Jakob Treml

Free Icon Set Pack vol. 1 by Kuba Gaj

More To Love icons freebie by Jacek Łupieński

Animated Icons by Jesper Bolther

Free Finance Icons by Ferman Aziz

Collection of icons by Oleg Pirogov

WeChat Icon by Airytram

Tiny Social Icons by slavomier

Square Icon Set by Chris Evans

Viro Modern Icon Set by GraphBerry

35 Free Map Pin Icons by Dorinel Nedelcu

Free Icons by Luca Guglielmi

SEOshop Flags: Europe by Hidde van der Ploeg

36 Free Line Icons in Vector by Free goodies for designers

The Weather Is Round Free Icons by Evgeniy Artsebasov

35 Scary Icons by Creative Tail

Tasty Icons Free by Hatchers

35 Free Scary Icons by Creative Tail

100 Free Awesome Icons by Creative Tail

Lynny Icon Set by Matthew Skiles

Valentine’s Day freebie by Eight Black Dots

Bertie Icon Set by Matthew Skiles

Filo Icon Set by Matthew Skiles

Lulu Icon Set by Matthew Skiles

Digital stuff icon set by Raymond Wong

New Chrome Replacement Icon by Gary Keeler

22 People Icons by Creative Tail

Fresh Toolbox for Web Developers – February 2015

AndrewG — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 22:34:00 +0000

randomColor

A color generator for JavaScript.

Rimg

A responsive image solution for browsers that support mediaqueries. Pure javascript and no server-side code.

React Canvas

High performance

Msngr.js

msngr.js is a small messaging library http://www.msngrjs.com/.

Interaction Design Best Practices: Mastering the Tangibles

Learn How To Design Interface Copy, Visuals, And Space For Inspiring IxD

Transformicons

Animated icons, symbols and buttons using SVG and CSS.

A Hilarious Collection of CSS Puns & Jokes

Stickshift

A clean & modern SQL data interface.

HubPress.io

A web application to build your Blog on GitHub.

Agency

A clean, stylish, one page Bootstrap portfolio theme perfect for your agency or small business.

Semantic UI

User Interface | is the vocabulary of the web.

Animsition

A simple and easy jQuery plugin for CSS animated page transitions.

The Ultimate Guide to Prototyping

Learn The Methods, Tools, And Processes For Low And High Fidelity Rapid Prototyping.

Overscroll.js

Overscroll.js, is a small javascript library, giving you the ability to peak and show small easter eggs when the screen is scrolled beyond the height of the window.

Vivaldi

A new browser for our friends.

Editor.md

A simple online markdown editor.

spaceBase

spaceBase is the front-end starter files for any new web project. It sets up your Sass architecture and normalizes your CSS and native HTML elements. It provides the structural groundwork for your application.

Flexbugs

A community-curated list of flexbox issues and cross-browser workarounds for them.

cssPlusWebsite

Robust, fast and cross browser layout scaffolding based on Flexbox.

Pixlbrowser

The quickest way to browse designers websites…

ResumeCards

ResumeCards is a Markdown based resume generator. It looks great on mobile/desktop and can be saved as PDF.

GitHub Cheat Sheet

A list of cool features of Git and GitHub.

MINIMALUU

Awesome Portfolio WordPress Theme.

Web Design Inspirational Cocktail #105

AndrewG — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 22:45:00 +0000

Nowadays, the development of new site designs is not standing on the same place. Web designers use various tools, their skills and when they get inspired they create a new masterpiece. If you do not have new ideas or just want to look at the work of other authors, then you should certainly see our weekly selection of the best web site designs for inspiration. Here you’ll find some amazing, funny, creative and sometimes unusual designs.

Splashnology.com

Showcase of 30 Funny 3D Characters

Fresh Toolbox for Web Developers – August 2015

Tips for designing models for 3D printing

1. Know your printer and its limitations

2. Follow the 45 degree rule

3. Avoid support materials

4. Orient for optimum resolution

5. Design to fit tolerance when facing interlocking parts

6. Keep stress in mind

30 WordPress Themes for Many Types of Business

Car Responsive WordPress Theme

Furniture & Interior Responsive WordPress Theme

Business Corp WP Theme

Senior Care Responsive WordPress Theme

Writer WordPress Theme

Cigars WordPress Theme

Real Estate Responsive WordPress Theme

Architectural Company WordPress Theme

Tobacco Co WordPress Theme

Extreme Sports Club WordPress Theme

House Construction WordPress Theme

Hosting Provider WP Theme

Gas and Oil WordPress Theme

Church WordPress Theme

Auto Service WordPress Theme

Consulting WordPress Theme

Windows & Doors Co WordPress Theme

Accountant WordPress Theme

Financial WordPress Template

Juice Co Responsive WordPress Theme

Gaming WordPress Theme

Oil & Gas Provider WordPress Theme

Stylist WordPress Theme

Any Kind of Business WordPress Theme

Web Design Co Responsive WordPress Theme

Web Design Agency Responsive WordPress Theme

Hot Sauna WordPress Theme

Industrial Co WordPress Theme

Art of Architecture WordPress Theme

Investment Solutions WordPress Theme