“In May we announced the Typographic Layout Design Contest that aimed to collect beautiful typographic (X)HTML+CSS-based layouts created by the design community and release them for free as a gift for the web design community. The response was overwhelming and we really had a hard time going through the designs, analyzing them and deciding which templates deserve the awards. Unfortunately, many templates were just copies of the current designer’s blog and some weren’t related to typography at all. So in the end many templates didn’t make it to this post.

However, we did receive a number of brilliant typographic templates that we are happy to release for free download and personal and commerical use as the gift for the web design community. We hope that these templates will help you to improve the quality of typography in your future designs!”

» View the full article over at Smashing Magazine

There’s an awesome article on Swiss Style Graphic Design over at Smashing Magazine. Swiss Graphic Design is one of my biggest personal influences, you can see that reflected in my Standard WordPress Theme, and Mini WordPress themes.

Check out the Swiss Minimal collection on graphicriver.net

“Also known as International Style, the Swiss Style does not simply describe a style of graphic design made in Switzerland. It became famous through the art of very talented Swiss graphic designers, but it emerged in Russia, Germany and Netherlands in the 1920’s. This style in art, architecture and culture became an ‘international’ style after 1950’s and it was produced by artists all around the globe. Despite that, people still refer to it as the Swiss Style or the Swiss Legacy.

This progressive, radical movement in graphic design is not concerned with the graphic design in Switzerland, but rather with the new style that had been proposed, attacked and defended in the 1920s in Switzerland. Keen attention to detail, precision, craft skills, system of education and technical training, a high standard of printing as well as a clear refined and inventive lettering and typoraphy laid out a foundation for a new movement that has been exported worldwide in 1960s to become an international style.”

» Read the full article over at Smashing Magazine

Free WordPress Theme: Notepad Chaos

Features:
» Two columns
» Vibrant, colorful design
» Hand-written headers and titles
» PSD source files included

» View Preview
» Download

Free WordPress Theme: Imprezz

Features:
» beautiful 3 column layout
» Great for a magazine, corporate or personal blog
» WordPress 2.7.1 compatible
» PSD files included

» Download Theme

Free WordPress Theme: Magazeen

Magazeen is a awesome WordPress theme from SmashingMagazine.com. “This bold magazine 2-col-theme was designed with the main focus being on typography, grids and magazine-look.”

» View Demo
» Download

WordPress specific hosting solutions from WPWebHost.com.

For more info about using the @font-face property, please check out an article over at SmashingMagazine.com

New Fonts Available When Using CSS 3

The ability to import fonts with CSS 3 opens up a new copyright can of worms. At this point, there is no broad sweeping decision or license for releasing the use of every possible font in your library. However, there is a list of legal fonts over at webfonts.info that you can reference.

At this point, there are about 25 new font options to pick from. YES! That is already way better than the number of system fonts we’ve been held to in the past. As time goes on, and CSS 3 becomes more common, this list is sure to grow. Check it out now and start using some of these new fonts in your web design projects.

1. Border Radius: adding rounded corners with CSS
2. Border Image: using an image within a border
3. Box and Text Shadow: adding a shadow to boxes and text
4. Transparency: Controlling transparency with CSS
5. Custom Fonts: Using fonts outside of the regular web system font options
6. The pros and cons of using these new features in your current web design projects
]]> http://www.cardeo.ca/2009/taking-advantage-of-css-3/feed 0 http://www.cardeo.ca/2009/most-useful-web-design-posts-from-2008 http://www.cardeo.ca/2009/most-useful-web-design-posts-from-2008#comments Sat, 03 Jan 2009 22:03:26 +0000 admin http://cardeo.ca/?p=983 What are your favorite web design posts from 2008? Feel free to post a link(s) in the comments. Here’s 5 of the most useful web design posts I came across in 2008.


Most Useful Web Design Posts of 2008

01. 10 Useful Techniques To Improve Your User Interface Designs

02. How a Simple Layout Can Be Mixed ‘n’ Matched with Patterns, Photos and Backgrounds

03. 5 Techniques to Acquaint You With CSS 3

04. Setting Type On The Web To A Baseline Grid

05. Using Sweetcron As A Mashup Tool

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