The Lost Workshop - Graphic Design, Web Design, and Art - Vancouver, BC http://www.thelostworkshop.com/design Vancouver graphic design, web design, web development, and art Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:26:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 en hourly 1 My Favourite Online Resources for Graphic Designers and Web Designers http://www.thelostworkshop.com/design/367/my-favourite-online-resources-for-graphic-designers-and-web-designers/ http://www.thelostworkshop.com/design/367/my-favourite-online-resources-for-graphic-designers-and-web-designers/#comments Mon, 16 Mar 2009 22:41:57 +0000 admin http://www.thelostworkshop.com/design/?p=367 Here’s a list of some of my favourite websites for designers… the ones that I ACTUALLY use. I bookmark a lot of useful-looking sites, but these are the ones I actually revisit.

CG TexturesCG Textures
I *love* browsing through the photos at CG Textures. They have boatloads of good quality hi-res texture photos, and they’re well-organized so you can find what you want quickly. Plus, they’re free!

Stock.xchng and StockXPERT
Two affiliated royalty-free stock photo sites

Brusheezy
Free Photoshop brushes

ColourLovers
A great site for picking out colour combos

psdtutsPSDTuts+
This is far and away my favourite website for Photoshop tutorials. The lessons and sample projects unveil the secrets of professional-looking Photoshop wizardry, and the steps involved are clearly explained. Anytime I feel like learning or trying something new, I go here.

CSS Zen Garden
Ahh, the magic of CSS! When I was first learning CSS, I stumbled upon this website and was amazed by all the variation you can get just by changing your style sheet. I go back every now and then to get inspired.

Design Reviver
This is the kind of website I can accidentally spend three hours browsing around. SO many helpful tips, tutorials, and freebies.

wordpressWordpress
Wordpress is a free blog and content management system that you can install on your own web server. It kicks ass! When I first started using content management systems, I messed around with Drupal, but in the end I found Wordpress to be more user friendly.

Loren Ipsum Generator
There always comes a time when I’m working on a new website design that I need some garbage text to fill in the layout. Loren Ipsum Generator to the rescue! You can specify how many words/paragraphs/lists you want.

W3 Schools
This is THE place to look up anything code-related. It’s a good place to learn coding too, if you are so inclined to enter the mad worlds of XHTML, CSS, Javascript, AJAX, PHP, DOM, ASP, XML… Ahh!

HTML Validator and CSS Validator
Check your code! When I’m finished coding a site, I always run it through these validators. It can be pretty dreadful if it says, “Hey, you have A BAZILLION ERRORS!”, but in the end, it’s better to know and fix it than to not know and have broken code.

Floatutorial
For anybody out there trying to figure out what the heck is going on with their CSS floats, this is a useful little tutorial. I think floats are probably the thing that screw you up the most when you’re first learning CSS.

BrowserShots
With this site you can check what your website looks like in different browsers and operating systems. Useful! It’s free, which is awesome, but that also means that when you submit your site you have to wait wait wait wait wait to get your screenshots.

Alright, that’s it for now. If you know of any other online resources you think I might like, let me know or post a comment.

]]> http://www.thelostworkshop.com/design/367/my-favourite-online-resources-for-graphic-designers-and-web-designers/feed/ The New Lost Workshop Site is UP! http://www.thelostworkshop.com/design/61/the-new-lost-workshop-site-is-up/ http://www.thelostworkshop.com/design/61/the-new-lost-workshop-site-is-up/#comments Mon, 16 Feb 2009 23:51:39 +0000 admin http://www.anneemberline.com/design/?p=61 Yes, it’s time to take a break from staring at the lines of code beneath all this wonderful websitey-ness. I love crunching my brain around the logic of coding a website, but I also need to have a “No coding more than four days a week” rule - to make sure that I do things like, well, go outside and have human contact. Actually, I guess the rule is really, “No coding more than four days a week UNLESS THERE IS A DEADLINE A-COMIN’”, and in this case, I’d given myself a deadline of February 24th so that I’d have the website done for the music networking party I’m headed to that evening. Today is the 16th, so I’m eight days ahead of schedule, which means that my break from coding can also contain rewards for finishing early, like fancy muffins and walks in the sunshine and new guitar strings.

muffinMuch as I still want to keep tinkering, tweaking, and adding little details, eventually it’s got to be time to say, “There, it’s done,” and skip off to the muffin store for a reward, so… Off I go!

]]> http://www.thelostworkshop.com/design/61/the-new-lost-workshop-site-is-up/feed/