Sketch 2: A Worthy Photoshop Competitor?

Here at MediaLoot we don’t often review software, but as I am somewhat of a dedicated Fireworks fan, and an avid believer that the industry is in dire need of a tool specifically created for professional UI designers, I think that Bohemian Coding’s Sketch 2 deserves a mention.

How To Prepare for The High-Resolution Web

Whether we’re ready or not, the future of the web is going to be in High Definition. However, by following a few simple techniques, you can future-proof your web designs today.

Skeuomorphic Design: What it is, Who uses it, and Why You Need to Know

This article looks at some of the most notable examples of the style that Apple is making popular on the iPad in iOS, and weighs up the pros and cons. Is skeuomorphism the future of interface design?

The Birth of the iPhone App Theme

Arguably one of the biggest web-design buzz words from 2011 into 2012 has been the word mobile. Mobile web-design, mobile user interfaces, mobile screen sizes—and mobile apps.

With over 500,000 mobile apps currently in the Apple App Store, apps have officially taken over. These applications have become an undeniable part of our future.

The surprising part of this explosion (from a design perspective) is how few resources are currently out there to help designers and developers make awesome apps. In this article we’re going to take a look at that, and at the birth of a new resource: the iPhone application theme.

What Goes Into a MediaLoot Design Resource?

In this video we intend to give you an insight into the process behind making one of our MediaLoot premium design resources.

Designing From Home

Working from home is an extremely exciting, but also daunting lifestyle choice for designers. It can be quite different to going freelance and renting office space, but it is worlds apart from working in a traditional office environment for an employer.

This article aims to cover some of the reasons why working from home is becoming an ever more appealing idea for designers, and share some essential tips for overcoming the potential problems that can arise when you do co-habit your house with your own business.

Infographic: A Visual History of Design Tools

This infographic displays the progression of graphic design tools, on a timeline covering the last 27 years. Starting with MacPaint in 1984, passing by now obsolete applications such as Macromedia Freehand, xRes, and Adobe Pagemaker and ending up with some of the new kids on the block including Pixelmator, ArtRage and iDraw for the iPad.

It is a great, visual way to see how long some of these applications have been in development, especially in relation to their competitors and milestones on the timeline. You might even have a little shock when you realize which tool is the longest running on the timeline.

Fireworks For Beginners: A Complete Getting-Started Toolbox

Despite sometimes feeling like the un-loved, adopted child to the Adobe Creative Suite family, Fireworks remains for a lot of professional web and user interface designers to be the most useful, productive tool in their arsenal, however due to the vast popularity of a certain other graphics application in the creative suite, it doesn’t gain anywhere near the recognition it deserves for what it does best.

5 Tips to Teach Yourself a New Creative Skill

I’m sure at some point we have all seen something, maybe a shot on Dribbble, or a photograph on a billboard, and thought “Wow, I want to do something like that”, but for whatever reason, a lot of the time, that gut instinct we have to teach ourselves a new creative skill is never acted upon.

For example, a designer might read a captivating novel, and all of a sudden become full of inspiration and have aspirations of writing something of their own that could be that awesome. Or maybe you have your have your own personal aspirations of creating something to sell and make your millions, but for some reason, it never works out, usually due to either not knowing where to start or feeling like you would never have the time, or that it is out of your league.

In this article, I will drawn on some of my own and other’s experiences with learning new skills, and hopefully help you feel a little more positive about broadening your own skill set. I’m sure I don’t need to convince anyone of why learning new skills is cool, but suffice to say, at the very least it’s something to add to your resume and give yourself a feeling a self accomplishment (which is always a good feeling to have).

How To Get More Out Of Layer Styles

Using layer styles to style objects is something that takes some time to truly master, understanding layer styles in Photoshop, Fireworks and Illustrator can mean that your designs will never fall short in visual appeal whatever environment you’re using.