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.

What is the Perfect Web Design Application?

As designers we spend huge portions of our days staring into screens, looking at the same buttons and dialogs and essentially repeating the same processes over and over again, so hopefully it’s not unjustified to sometimes question the tools of our trade that essentially become our lives when we’re in front of our computers.

The MediaLoot HTML5 Compendium

Let’s face it, it’s difficult to keep up with all of the new coding languages. Despite that difficulty, and the fact that some of these standards aren’t even finalized, there’s still a lot of pressure for designers to start using HTML5. The purpose of this compendium is to make it easier for everyone by providing an up-to-date reference on the new features and uses of HTML5.

See the compendium:

The Future of Web Design

The year is 2011 and we have again found ourselves at dawn of a changing web. Emerging technologies like smartphones and web-enabled tablets have left us unsure of how users are browsing our websites, and new coding standards like HTML5 and CSS3 are turning web design into something more like print design. With all of this change comes massive opportunity for growth, but only for those who are prepared…

5 Tips for Creating Perfect Icons

For designers working on important projects, finding the perfect icons to compliment their designs can become a bit of an issue, but there are a few ways in which we usually solve this issue; downloading free and premium icons or outsourcing icon design to others. A lot of the time one of these options will work just fine, but what about the times when you just can’t find those perfect icons?

How to Transform a Good Web Design into an Incredible Web Design

Sometimes you have a good web design, possibly even great in terms of the layout and the hierarchy of the pages, but for some reason the wireframes you sketched or mocked up on your computer were more exciting than the final product is.

The key to incredible design is nothing magical - it basically all comes down to attention to detail. Of course the website has to be easy to use and effective in delivering information, but if you want a final product that you would be proud to put into your portfolio you had better start looking at the small things. Here are a few tips to transform a good design into an incredible design:

3 Reasons to Use Fireworks Instead of Photoshop for Web Design

It’s pretty much established that web designers use Photoshop to mock up their design concepts, but why is that we’re all drawn to Photoshop? After all, it is an application that has never been specifically marketed as a user interface or web design solution, surely there is something else out there that is more suitable? Well, yes there is, and it’s called Fireworks (you probably have it installed but have never used it).

As a former Photoshop user who has switched to Fireworks around about a year ago I’m going to try and encourage all the designers out there who are searching for something better to try Fireworks.

10 Ways to Kick-Start a New Design Project

Sometimes starting a new design project is a piece of cake. You have this amazing idea and the design just seems to flow together. Othertimes, you may end up procrasticating for a full week before you have the will power to start the sketch or create a new file.

Whatever situation you’re in, there are tons of different ways to begin the design process. Here are ten of them:

3 Ways to Get your Website Designs Up and Running Faster

We’ve all been there before. You’ve created a beautiful website and are really excited to make it live, but coding may not be your strong suit and you continue to bump into problems that set you back hours! There’s no way around it, right? Wrong. There are a few ways you can drastically cut down on your site coding time and make your web design a reality much sooner.

Great Examples Of Icons Used In Website Design

Here at MediaLoot we love icons. I’m sure you do too.

Of course icons can be used in a variety of situations, from applications to print design and of course web-design. There are some things to keep in mind when using icons in web-design projects though. Too many attention-grabbing icons can really distract users and ruin the experience. And of course the opposite is also true: some designs could be improved by using some choice icons in particular places like the navigation or pricing tables.