Online portfolios are one of a freelancer’s greatest marketing tools. You can reference it in your business cards, promotional campaigns, email signatures, and clients can find you on their own through search engines – generating you new business.
Your portfolio is the face of your business and needs to communicate well on its own online. Your business goals with a portfolio are clear: you want to convert those visitors into customers.
When it comes to Adobe Illustrator, internet is full of interesting and impressive tutorials but checking each and every tutorial is a tedious task. Thus we have collected a list of most recent and important Illustrator Tutorials.
These tutorials will help you to hone your Illustrator skills and you will produce dazzling and eye-popping vector artworks. Follow these fresh Illustrator tutorials and perfect your skills.
Tumblr is raising between $75 and $100 million at an $800 million valuation. The biggest names in the game - DST, Kleiner Perkins, Andreessen Horowitz, and Sequoia - are interested in participating in the round.
Why?
Because the microblogging site has posted huge growth over the past year and shows no signs of slowing down. New funds can help them scale even faster.
Much wisdom about Apple's inner workings—and life in general—can be gleamed from interviews with Steve Jobs. His Stanford commencement address, in particular, is one the most highly watched inspirational speeches on YouTube, trailing only Al Pacino and President Obama.
In light of recent news, much media attention has now shifted from Jobs to his successor Tim Cook. Consensus is that Apple is in good hands, but that Cook is no Steve Jobs—in particular when it comes to creative vision, personal gravitas and negotiating chutzpah.
With so much of photography being focused on still life imagery, and using said imagery to evoke emotion, we wanted to shift gears. Turning our focus instead on some of the awesome captures of photography in action. Those perfect pics that freeze a moment, stealing it from its momentum and forward drive, while still carrying so much of that action and energy with it. Welcome to Photography in Action: Performing Arts.
Below is a showcase of some very inspiring photographs by some talented artists who trained their eye on the performing arts to steal moments from. So much life bursting forth from each one that it is hard to not feel their push as you browse through them. Take a look and get inspired.
AT&T's plans to acquire T-Mobile recieved a setback today when the U.S. Justice Department filed an antitrust complaint requesting that the deal be blocked, Bloomberg reported.
The controversial plan, which was announced in March, would result in AT&T paying $39 billion to acquire T-Mobile from its parent company Deutsche Telekom. AT&T touted the merger as a way to roll out Long Term Evolution (LTE) 4G networks to more customers and foster innovation. Some of its competitors and a few lawmakers have been more skeptical of the deal, while a group of customers have sued AT&T in an attempt to block the merger.
Photoshop is a digital imaging application of the most widely recommended by the graphic designers. This is because these programs have many advantages with the various tools that exist when compared with similar applications. In addition there are also some features that are fairly complete, ease of use, and also compatibility with some special digital imaging plug-in. With so many tools available in Photoshop application allows you to be creative to produce work of high art and artistic. Some applications that exist in Photoshop is capable of producing various kinds of image effects, photo manipulation, image abstract design, 3D, and several other design features with a very satisfactory quality. In this post we gathering together more than 40 different Photoshop tutorials to help you learn amazing features of this graphic design software to create stunning photo effects.
AT&T is trying to build support for its proposed merger with T-Mobile, but the plan isn't going well. Now the carrier claims it will bring 5,000 jobs--presumably call center positions--back to the U.S. if the deal goes through.
So in the past few weeks, we’ve told you it’s a bad idea to be a digital sharecropper, building your business entirely on someone else’s land (like Facebook, Tumblr, or any other third party you don’t control).
We also poked a pin in the sacred cow of social media authenticity, telling you that your audience and customers don’t want an unedited version of the “real” you.
So you may be asking yourself — OK, what should I be doing with social media marketing?
Business Card is a card printed or engraved with a person’s name and business affiliation. Normally attach on it could be information such like title, address, telephone number and even logo of a company or private. Using Business card is useful in a way to promote yourself on other people. Are you planning to make your own business card but don’t have any idea or some inspirations to start? Here’s a showcase of 60+ Most Beautiful and Creative Business Card Designs to enhance more your creativity and get inspired.
There’s no shortage of articles that examine the qualities of a successful entrepreneur. But after working with countless entrepreneurs and business owners over the years, I have a slightly different take. Succeeding as an entrepreneur is more than just great ideas and execution. You’ll also need to develop the personality traits that will anchor you and keep you sane amid a hectic lifestyle. After all, your happiness is a top priority, right?
I’m constantly browsing the web looking for inspiration and bookmarking some of the most unique, innovative and attractive examples of minimal web design I come across. This post contains a few of the sites I’ve liked over the past couple of weeks. Enjoy.
A slogan longer than a single word should fulfill at least two of these three criteria: It should have a rhythm, it should rhyme, and it should have a ring to it. Slogans, whether read or heard, should be pleasing to the ear; rhythmic and fluid-sounding slogans are much more recognizable and memorable for later recall. Bonus points for making the slogan into a jingle or song; studies consistently show that words presented in a song are remembered significantly better than words presented in normal speech.
Mark Cuban is not a fan of Google's YouTube purchase.
"I said it was a huge mistake back then, and I still think it's a huge mistake. Because on one hand, you say, 'Wow, YouTube has got all these people that come to their site.' But think about what's really going on YouTube," he told CBS.com's What's Trending.
"All YouTube is, is Google subsidizing the bandwidth of every individual in the world."
In 2010, eBay's pre-tax profits totaled $848 million, according to research conducted by the Institute for Policy Studies.
Amount of taxes paid to the United States government: $0.
Not only that but eBay received more than $131 million in a refund.
CEO John Donahoe earned $12.4 million.
If you're looking to go freelance or you're already out there running your own business, we've put together these top tips on how to make a success of yourself and your work.
With the economic downturn affecting all of us; a lack of jobs on the market and more creative graduates qualified more than ever before - the industry is saturated with freelancers - and that's why it's so important to be the very best, so you not only attract clients, you retain them.
It's hard for some people to imagine, but Sony was the first major brand to offer an e-book reader back in 2006--beating the original Amazon Kindle to market by at least 14 months. Since then, however, the company's e-book strategy has been one step forward and two steps back as it plays catch-up with upstart competitors Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Consider the 2010 Sony Readers: the models pioneered e-ink touch screens months before the Nook and Kobo, but they inexplicably omitted Wi-Fi from most models--instead requiring readers to tether to a PC and download new e-books. Those Sonys were also priced far above competing Kindle and Nook models at the time.
Typography is one of the purest manifestations of the craft of the designer: the intersection of meaning, purpose and expression. The beauty (and challenge) of compositions centered on type is that they allow the designer or artist to convey a message through his or her lettering skills, as well as through the words or phrases themselves. Below, you’ll find a collection of some of the most interesting, finest type designs and letter treatments we’ve seen recently.
There are usually two camps among designers when it comes to typeface choices.
One group has a handful of favorite typefaces they adapt to every design they create, believing that these handful of typefaces can be suitable for every situation.
The other camp believes in using a huge variety of typefaces, picking and choosing each one based specifically on the project at hand. Regardless of which camp you fit into, the typefaces below should interest you.
One of the reasons that freelancing attracts so many people is the ease of entry. With a computer and a few basic programs anyone can learn enough to put together websites and start working as a freelancer. It can be be debated (and it has been) whether this is good or bad for the industry as a whole, but the fact is that there are a lot of freelancers out there, part-time and full-time, that don’t have loads of experience as a designer.
Two months after the deadline for compliance hit, it’s now clear The Financial Times and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) can’t come to a compromise over the new requirement that in-app subscription payments must go through iTunes Store.
Well, it's been a long time coming, but you fine folks living in the good ol' U-S-of-A are finally getting blessed with Galaxy S IIs to call your own. Conspicuously missing from the party is Verizon, but Sprint, T-Mobile and AT&T are all getting in on the Super AMOLED Plus action under the guise of the Epic 4G Touch on Sprint and just plain old Galaxy S II on AT&T and T-Mo. As we had heard earlier the Epic 4G Touch is sporting a slightly larger 4.52-inch screen as will the T-Mobile variant, while AT&T is sticking with the 4.3-inch panel found on the international model.
After being let go from the company he helped found, Steve Jobs made his next move. Taking to Redwood City, California, Jobs created yet another computer company, NeXT. NeXT produced a PC OS and two generations of workstations, each of them an inky black contrast to the Snow White design scheme he chose for Apple. As a company NeXT saw little success and was ultimately eaten up by Apple as a prelude to Jobs’ return. The NeXT platform may be better known for what was done with it than for what it actually did: in 1991, Tim Berners-Lee used one to create the first web browser and web server.
Today, Mike Arrington wrote that Dropbox, a four-year-old file sharing and storage company, raised a massive round at a $4 billion valuation.
(If you're wondering what business model justifies such a high valuation, we wrote about it here.)
Dropbox would not comment on the round, merely stating: "We do not comment on rumors or speculation."
LinkedIn VP of Product Management Adam Nash is leaving the company. Sources said it seems likely he will join LinkedIn investor Greylock Partners.
Nash is clearly loyal to LinkedIn, having recently built a four-foot-by-four-foot sculpture of the company’s logo using more than 10,000 Lego bricks. He has been with the recently IPOed professional network since 2007, when he joined from eBay.
LinkedIn spokesman Hani Durzy offered the following statement:
The highly anticipated Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG still lacks a release date, but Bioware isn't shying away from showing off some end-game content.
As a bit of background for the uninitiated, gamers can group together in SW:TOR and tackle challenges called "operations," which are similar to raids or instances found in World of Warcraft. These types of areas are critical to those who have reached the maximum level possible by offering intensive teamwork experiences and the chance to acquire high-powered items. Dallas Dickinson, Bioware's director of production, previews one of those operations, Eternity Vault, in a 10-minute video released a few days ago.
In July, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman wore a strange device on his wrist as he gave a talk to the MIT Media Lab. The QSensor, developed by the lab's Affective Computing Group, blinked to display Hoffman's overall stress level as he spoke. Behind him, the live Twitter feed for #MediaLabTalk scrolled by on two giant screens. One tweet noted, "You can see Reid Hoffman's stress monitor blink faster as he struggles to recall details of an article he just read." Hoffman's stress level also elevated each time his high-tech accessory was mentioned, as when Media Lab Director Joi Ito joked that the Media Lab planned to enhance all future talks by hooking presenters up to lie detectors.
Mobile-browser maker Layar is about to make augmented reality all that you thought it could be. The company has added visual search to its augmented-reality browser. Point your phone's camera at an object in the real world and an appropriate digital activity will occur on your handset.
For instance, point your phone at a historic house and a video clip will play; point your phone at your friend's new shoes and a buy button will pop up; or point your phone at an article in a paper magazine and a social-media button will pop up asking if you want to share the digital version with friends.
Rumors have been swirling about the massive round Dropbox is raising.
Today, TechCrunch zeroed in on the final valuation and the lead investor. Index Ventures is leading a round that will give Dropbox a $4 billion valuation, says Mike Arrington.
The valuation falls at least $1 billion short of earlier reports. At one point Dropbox was rumored to be getting offers at $8 billion.
The containers — large metal boxes stowed on ships and moved from port on trucks — are familiar sights on bases in Iraq and Afghanistan where troops use them for storage, shelter and building material. Yet each 20-foot container returned late can rack up more than $2,200 in late fees. Shipping companies charge the government daily "container detention fees" after the grace period ends for the box to be returned.
The $720million represents a thin slice of the Pentagon's $553billion budget. Yet military spending is under intense scrutiny as the Defense Department has been ordered to trim $350billion in spending over the next 10 years and could face steeper reductions from budget cutters.
Striking ads make a special place in everybody’s heart and mind and people are intrigued to check more about the product which results into more buying.
We have collected striking ads around the world which will make you say wow. You will be amazed to see the creativity and concepts these ads have picked up and you will also become fan of these ads like we are.
343 Industries dropped a bomb on Halo Fest attendees this past weekend, revealing that Halo 4, revealed earlier this summer in an E3 trailer, would kick off “The Reclaimer Trilogy,” continuing the story of series protagonist Master Chief and his AI sidekick Cortana. That plot thread has been sidelined in recent years as Bungie wrapped up its commitments to the franchise it created with Halo: ODST and Halo: Reach.
Dropbox is finally moving to close that massive valuation venture round we’ve been talking about all summer. According to multiple sources, Index Ventures will lead the round, which values Dropbox at around $4 billion.
At some point I hope that the entire story comes out about this round. Nearly everyone in Silicon Valley has taken a look. There was early interest at valuations of $8 billion or more, although one source says that it may have been firms who threw out huge numbers just to get a look at the company’s financials. As of a couple of weeks ago I had “firm” information that the round would close at $5 billion or more.
In an investor's note released yesterday, Kumar said the next iPhone, expected to launch in October, could account for almost 25 percent of the total volume in the fourth quarter, leaving the iPhone 4 to grab the lion's share of Apple smartphone customers over the rest of the year.
Rumors have run rampant as to whether the iPhone 5 would represent a major upgrade over the iPhone 4, or sport just a few changes but retain the same basic features as its predecessor. Some reports have suggested that Apple could even unveil two phones--one a new and improved iPhone 5; the other a lower-cost version of the iPhone 4.
“First off, I’m not alone in my photographic endeavors. My wife Theresa contributes to our Flickr stream whenever I can get her to put down our digital camera in favor of film. We live in Seattle and do our best to get out on some kind of adventure whenever we can, the main goal being to explore and take pictures, often for our blog (Orange Juice, ETC).
I’ve developed a thing for landscapes, and medium format film of late. I just can’t get over the clarity and resolution compared to 35mm. My primary goal with photography is the pursuit of honest, un-manipulated beauty. To evoke in the viewer a similar emotion or experience to mine. If I can do that, I consider it a successful photo.
Let's be clear -- our gadgets make our lives a little better and more managable every day.
We appreciate them and keep them by our side, and use them all the time.
But they can also be maddening.
They're expensive, they're complicated, they don't do what we expect them to do.
There are some excellent videos floating around today from Insanely Great Mac showing off the developer beta of iTunes Match.
The beta, which was released last night, scans the tracks in your iTunes library and lets you download them to any iDevice or computer tied to your iTunes account. There's no need to sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch to your computer.
The service will cost $25 per year to use once it goes live to the public.
Some people are incredibly effective and efficient. They get lots of work done – and it’s all high-quality. They seem to have boundless energy and enthusiasm. Maybe you’ve got a friend who’s like that – or perhaps it’s your colleague, or your spouse. You might think that they were born that way: they had the “productivity gene.”
Good web design is far more than a beautiful site, it’s where art meets an interactive user interface and where, in my opinion, superfluous aesthetics takes a backseat to usability and the user experience.
Ensuring that user interactions are as smooth as possible is good design — don’t ever be satisfied with art alone.
It is a difficult process mastering the art of Adobe Illustrator. The software is very convoluted, and learning each individual tool alone is also very difficult. But over the years some amazing designers have spent time cataloging their craft and writing some amazing step-by-step tutorials.
I recommend you check out our gallery of 40 best-of Adobe Illustrator tutorials. These include tips for web graphics, banners, vector shapes, icons, website layouts, and some more useful topics.
A former Anonymous hacker says that all the security tools in the world can't patch the biggest security hole: people.
Cisco interviewed the hacker known as @SparkyBlaze, who quit the group a couple weeks ago because he thought some members were spending too much time targeting innocent people.
With Google’s recent launch of another promising Social Network, the things that could potentially distract us aren’t really decreasing. As the overall buzz increases online, I found that our workflows become more complex too.
Organizing our lives in a smooth and hassle free way is therefore key I believe. So here are 8 of my favorite tools to handle everything efficiently online:
As an entrepreneur, chances are you have a wide variety of interests in addition to your primary business. Maybe you’re a shoe store owner but also interested in starting a CPA firm someday. Maybe you’re the founder of an Internet marketing agency but would love to launch a pet store in a few years. Or maybe you want to go in a different direction altogether…into the non-profit world.
Is it possible to run a non-profit while also operating your primary business? To find out, I called up three experts. Here’s what they had to say.
Finding a graphic design job or any other job is not an easy task and for most of the people it is a disappointing experience. Maybe the biggest reason of it is that people often don’t know a good step by step procedure of finding a job and they think that simply searching for it is the first step of getting the job — which is not correct!
The economic crisis of the world has made it even tougher to find a job, especially when you are a beginner or trying to find a high-level job.
Learning graphic design is a lifelong process, so graphic design students don’t worry: you’ll have plenty of time becoming an expert in your field. This said, I know that when you are getting started you are really eager to learn more quicker, that’s why I’m suggesting a selection of design books that are in my opinion worth reading for graphic design students, but also for others.
Graphic designers who want to improve their digital painting techniques can often learn a lot from watching the work of others. There are tutorials that you can follow for the process of digital painting, but watching a speed painting video can also be an interesting and insightful experience. With a speed painting video you can quickly learn a lot about the approach a particular designer uses to accomplish the end result.
I don’t suffer from writer’s block, or at least not for more than an hour or so if that much. Which of course hasn’t stopped me from writing about it.
Several years ago I found a video where Stephen J. Cannell talks about blocks. In short he says get over trying to write the perfect whatever. And I think he’s right. I do know that when I start trying to craft ever better sentences or think I can endlessly improve a piece of writing I’ve done I bog down completely for a very simple reason:
In this post we have put together some beautiful retro web designs for your inspiration. If you like these retro designs you might also want to check out some of our previous posts below. Enjoy!
Tutorials of the week is a weekly roundup of the most bookmarked tutorials on Photoshop and Illustrator that brings you the best of the tutorials from the popular design blogs. In this week’s collection we have tutorials from PSDVault, Abduzeedo, SpoonGraphics, ComputerArts, PhotoshopTutorials, VectorTuts+, VectorDiary, PhotoshopStar, DesignInstruct, PSDFan, Photoshop-Plus, Mtuts, TutorialsTag, DigitalArtsOnline, CreativeFan and VectorBoom.
While the Dow Jones industrial average and the unemployment rate get more attention, the shoppers outside a Wal-Mart in Northern Virginia offered a taste of what some economists believe is the more immediate reason that the U.S. economy may be on the verge of another recession.
Americans are still spooked.
