tripwire magazine

CSS3 is introducing loads of new and exciting functions and features like text-shadow, box-sizing, opacity, multiple backgrounds, border-radius, border-image. It is expected that CSS3, once it is fully developed and supported, will leads to greater flexibility and make it simpler to create complex and dynamic visual effects. Even though it is not currently all the leading browsers that support new CSS3 features some of them has been introduced in latest versions of browsers like Firefox, Safari and Chrome.

It is time to start investigating CSS3 and get familiar with it but be aware that CSS3 features are not yet accessed directly in most browsers and in some it is not even implemented at all, ex. Internet Explorer. Firefox use a prefixed with -moz-, resulting in fx. -moz-box-sizing. Safari 3 / WebKit uses -webkit-box-sizing and Opera just accepts plain box-sizing. Coding CSS3 is therefore currently a bit irritating as you have to write the same code multiple times with different prefixes. Anyway playing with and understanding the opportunities that new features in CSS3 will offer is is worth the effort. In this article tripwire magazine provides a large collection of CSS3 resources, Cheat Sheets and Tutorials to get web designers started.

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Textures are used more often than one may think and in fact they are essential building blocks for designers. The reason why most people are not aware that textures are being used everywhere is that textures usually remain in the background or fade into other elements, supporting the overall design. This way textures are used to create a more realistic ore authentic atmosphere.
How you use textures is entirely up for you but I’m sure you can’t resist to take a closer look at the selection you will find below.

In this article I have selected 40+ great textures on Flickr, all with Creative Commons license. I have also included a stunning list of texture resources that you can’t afford to miss.

Before you use any of the textures make sure you check the license carefully.

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Adobe Flash goes back several years and have turned into an excellent development platform. It allows developers to push the boundaries for what is possible to achieve with a web page. Flash even have allowed companies to create great online games running in web browsers. Even though they are not so common as earlier some websites rely completely on Flash. In my opinion Flash should be used wisely and only where it adds value. Avoid being tempted to having different kinds of images and text flying in from all sides just because it is possible. Also it is important not to build too large Flash animations as visitors may press back if the “loading…” messages is shown for more than a few seconds.

Adobe Flash is extremely popular and you’ll find several websites that are mainly dedicated to providing articles and tutorials on how Flash works and how to develop great Flash solutions. This article provides a list of 20 awesome online Flash resources that will help you boost your Flash development skills.

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Wordpress needs no introduction. It powerful, highly popular and have a huge community providing loads of free and premium themes and plugins. Still you may fell like creating your own themes or plugins could be fun or a way to get the functionality and look and fell you need. It is not that hard to customize a theme but starting from scratch requires some experience or assistance. I have previously provided an article that could get you started by itself, 40+ Awesome Tutorials and Techniques For WordPress Theme Developers. Still having access to a good set of cheat sheets will for sure help you speed up development even more. This article provides a cpmprehensive list of all the Wordpress Related Cheat Sheets I have been able to find and some are really useful. Let me know in a comment if I missed anything!

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Animated sliding effects can if not used wrong or to much add excellent dynamics and uniqueness to websites. They are often seen as components that give access to multiple featured articles in an elegant and very space optimized way. Generally sliding effects are created using CSS and Javascript and typically javascript frameworks like jQuery and mootools are used to make the code more robust and compatible.

In this article tripwire magazine present more than 25 techniques for sliding and scrolling content, a must have collection for Web Developers!

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In celebration of 25 years of business, Minneapolis based Duffy & Partners (one of the most renown and internationally recognized design firms) has created a gallery showcasing logos from 1984 to the present. The slideshow on the Duffy website (select 25 years in the top left menu). The logos are awesome I believe and it is very interesting to see how logo trends have developed over the last 25 years. A few of the featured logos have been picked out and included below.

Besides the logo showcase Duffy & Partners have created a time line telling the story of how it all started and how the company became what it is today. Besides showcasing loads of brands, logos and products they have worked with over the years, hovering some of the images will briefly give you the story and context for specific projects and events.

Finally just recently Duffy & Partners have created a slide show capturing a day in the life of Duffy’s logos – presenting how design influences our everyday lives. There are some really awesome photographs, statements and colour to enjoy here and they are linked together into a story bringing it all together.

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Readers at tripwire magazine daily submit links and short descriptions to highly relevant and worth investigating articles. User links are normally JUST PUBLISHED articles and have gone through a check to be relevant for designers and developers. This is a round-ups providing latest user links submitted. See all user submitted links here

A great thanks to anyone contributing!

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I have previously created large lists of tutorials on how to create web designs fx. 160+ Mega Web Design Tutorial Roundup and Essential Web Designers Guide on PSD to HTML/CSS. While articles like these are clearly focussed on the techniques needed for creating the design in fx. Photoshop and make it ready for being sliced up and implemented there are some really key aspects completely missing. If you’re serious about web design you need to familiarize yourself with Industry Best Practice and experience of what is working in real life and what is not. In the end it is the end users experience that counts and where some designers are focusing mainly on look and feel I can assure you that the end user will first of all require it to be easy to navigate, read etc. (usability) and to be loading fast and reliably.

As a supplement to previous articles on web design this article will close the gap and provide you with the best resources providing trends, best practice, tips and trick on good design, usability, standards compliance and much more. This is Essential reading for web designers. Please post a comment if I missed an Important article or resource!

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Images talk a lot more than words do, and as Icons are images specifically designed to deliver a message they are simply great at it. For that reason Icons can be really handsome when you’re designing a web site or a blog and can kick start or support the creative process. There are thousands of free Icons available which is very good but it can be hard to find the Icon Sets suitable for use in web design. This article gives you one of the largest compilations of Free Icon Resources and Icon Sets aimed for use in web design. Please let me know if any Resources or Icon packs that should have been included are missing. Always make sure you read the license before using any Icons as this may change rapidly.

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