I’m doing something a little different this week for the inspiration post: I’ll be talking about inspiration, rather than giving a huge list of inspirational images and resources. What is inspiration? You’ve doubtlessly heard that repeated endlessly across many different design blogs. This time, what I really mean to ask is: What is inspiration to [...]
Confession time: I am not the best designer. In fact, in the spectrum of designers living now, I am probably among the bottom 30%, at most. But I don’t care. Here’s why: I’ll get better. Think of sucking like the chicken pox. Everyone gets them at some point or another, typically when they’re young, but [...]
Don’t compare yourself. It’s too easy to look at other peoples work on sites like Dribbble and Forrst and cry silently to yourself, thinking that you’ll never be as good as them. Well, you want the truth? You never will be. Well, as long as you keep comparing yourself. A good way to think of [...]
If you’ve mastered HTML and CSS you may be wondering: where do I go from there? Well, I have the answer right here, and it’s called PHP. Now, now, don’t be scared! This won’t be a web development series, this series will show you how to use PHP to enhance your existing HTML and CSS [...]
I hate bad design. I don’t mean that I think the colors are bad, or the font is unreadable, I mean that I really hate bad design. To the point that I won’t buy a product if the logo is ugly, or I won’t shop at a store if it features a cliched icon. Alternatively, [...]
I’m taking a little departure from the norm this week in that instead of displaying web designs, I will be showcasing 25 inspiring Desktop Wallpapers. I don’t know about you, but my desktop is an ever-changing wasteland of abandoned files, folders, and everything in between. In fact, I often dread the time when I have [...]
Semantics. The oft-talked about, but rarely explained element that makes HTML what it is. But what is it? In this article, let’s find out together. Before I talk about what it is, let’s discuss a closely related matter: the separation between content and presentation. If you’ve read many articles on the internet, you’ve doubtlessly come [...]
Now what, may you ask, is “The Design Gnome Week in Review?” Well, here at The Design Gnome, we spend a good amount of time on the internet, as you may imagine given that this is, after all, a web design blog. Every so often we come across articles or tutorials that are just soo [...]
If you’re a web developer, whether front or back-end, you’ll likely have heard of frameworks. However, if you’re unfamiliar, then take a seat and let me tell you a story. There are many, many web languages available to a web developer. From CSS styles to full on Ruby development, there’s something for everyone. However, with [...]
As designers, we can draw inspiration from seemingly infinite places. CSS Galleries, architecture, clothing, art, and even (gasp) nature. Recently, Brian Hoff wrote an article about this very subject, and in it he discusses how to draw inspiration from real life. It’s a great post, and I highly recommend you check it out, but that’s [...]