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Adobe’s Creative Suite is dead, long live the Creative Cloud

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May 072013

Adobe’s Creative Suite and the applications that make it up—Photoshop, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Premiere, and a host of others—have been staples of many professional toolboxes for almost a decade now. The full suite itself has been available since September of 2003, and many of its applications have a history that reach back even further. Today at its MAX conference, however, Adobe announced a major shift in strategy for the software: boxed versions, along with their perpetual licenses, will no longer be available for any Adobe software newer than CS6. Going forward, subscribing to Adobe’s Creative Cloud service will be the only way to upgrade your software.

As with the boxed versions of the software, Adobe offers several different pricing options for Creative Cloud subscriptions: new users can buy a subscription at $50 a month with an annual commitment (or $75 month-to-month), which gets you access to the full suite of software plus, all of Adobe’s Edge services, 20GB of cloud storage. Users of Creative Suite versions 3 to 5.5 can get their first year of service at a reduced rate of $30 a month for the first year, while current CS6 users can subscribe for $20 a month for the first year. For individuals, these subscriptions buy you the right to use the software on up to two different computers, same as the boxed versions.

MORE: Adobe’s Creative Suite is dead, long live the Creative Cloud | Ars Technica.

Download the 70 best free fonts | Typography

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Mar 122013

Typography isn’t just about communication, it can also add subtle references to the message you’re trying to convey. Whole books have been written on the craft and nuanced world of typography and type design, but we’re keeping things simple.

In this article we’ve scoured the web to present you with a fine and varied selection of the best free fonts. Including scripts, serifs, and a range of ligatures, these fonts will give you greater flexibility in your designs, and add to your arsenal of design tools.

Some of these fonts can be used on your web projects, but check the terms. And if you’re looking at a quick overview of web font formats, check out Jonathan Snook’s post on font embedding.

So, without further ado, join us as we present you with 70 of the best free fonts, which you can download and use today. Let us know how you get on!

The 12 Trends That Will Rule Products In 2013

Design, interface, Your Brand Comments Off

Mar 122013

Near the end of 2012, a group of us at Ziba got together to review what we’d learned over the course of the year. Working with dozens of clients who serve customers around the world, we designers spend a lot of time observing people as they interact with technology, services, and experiences, noticing how they seek solutions to everyday problems and make decisions. In the process, certain patterns emerge so forcefully that they’re practically unavoidable.

Meeting over three sessions spread out over a week, 23 Zibites (designers, researchers, and creative directors) discussed the patterns we’d seen, and distilled them down to the 12 insights we thought were most current and useful, to us and to our clients. Each one is presented here, as a brief essay that suggests how it will affect business practices in 2013, and as an illustration created by one of Ziba’s designers.

via The 12 Trends That Will Rule Products In 2013 | Co.Design: business + innovation + design.

Download this bong: 3D printer templates for getting your buzz on

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Mar 062013

3D printers are gaining in popularity, with uses spanning the spectrum from moon bases to firearms, but there’s another area where the ability to construct complex shapes is beginning to provide benefits: getting high.

Online magazine Motherboard has published the story about the slow but inevitable rise of 3D-printed bongs. MakerBot’s Thingiverse site returns almost two dozen template results when searching for “bong,” all of which are downloadable in STL format and printable on tons of different 3D printers.

Common resin-based 3D printers can’t create glass, so a water pipe produced from these templates wouldn’t be entirely print-n-toke, but most appear to be ready to go as soon as glass pipes are added. The descriptions for many of the pipes indicate that they should be printed with PLA, which the Ice Bong creator notes “is biodegradable and poses no health risk and also has no smell.”

10 points I always keep in mind while designing

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Sep 242012

Fis Anton Repponen has worked with some of the worlds biggest brands. Now you can learn from that experience, as he presents his own personal checklist for better designs

This design checklist is a guide that I created for myself over time – it allows me to find the balance between the two extremes I face daily as a designer. At times I can get carried away and only focus on all the little details without seeing the project from a birds-eye view, while at other times I only think of the project from a holistic perspective, without really focusing on the important details. Following these 10 steps allows me to stay on track with multiple projects simultaneously, and allows for a healthier design process overall.

MORE: 10 points I always keep in mind while designing | Feature | .net magazine.

Make a scalable newsletter with Fireworks

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Sep 182012

There’s a preconception among designers that email clients’ lack of support for web standards means you can’t get creative with newsletters. James Parker is out to explode this theory

In the current economic climate, firms across the globe are looking to maximise their return on investment from slashed marketing budgets. With customer information databases bulging, and the ability to target people genuinely interested in what they’re selling, it’s no surprise email newsletters have become the marketers’ new weapon of choice.

But even with demand at an all time high, there are still a vast number of designers hesitant to offer newsletters to their clients. Put off by the lack of support for web standards in email clients, many feel restricted as to how creative they can be.

I want to put that theory to bed. Designing in this format can be great fun, and the technical limitations of working on emails can be a blessing in disguise because they get us back to thinking about basic design principles.

In this tutorial we’ll use Fireworks to design an email newsletter for Love Barista, a social project for coffee lovers. Focusing on a sleek, scalable layout, and by considering the weight given to core elements in the design, you’ll build up an email that’ll stand out of any mailbox. At the end of the tutorial you’ll be ready to build, and as our layout would be perfect for a Campaign Monitor template, I’ll give you a few tips to help get you started.

MORE: Make a scalable newsletter with Fireworks | Tutorial | .net magazine.

Four secrets to enhancing creative productivity

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Sep 122012

Beating your head against a project’s metaphorical wall will never help you get into a creative and productive flow. Denise Jacobs presents four unconventional ways to help you get your creative productivity on

While most people attempt to force great ideas of out themselves by relentless pursuit of an answer to a problem or straining to think up original ideas, they don’t realise that most truly great ideas are borne from a more hands-off approach that comes from the back and forth dance between concentrated and diffused focus.

The road less travelled

Creative bursts occur when discrete bits of information stored in the brain connect along new neural pathways. Unfortunately, most people are typically overloaded and exhausted mentally and in a stressed state when trying to produce good work. Despite their best efforts, their brains travel along well-worn, established pathways, and they literally have one-track minds.

Clearly, a one-track mind is no place to generate awesome ideas. But, if one thing were ever true, it’s that you can’t force creativity: it needs incubation, downtime, and the space to happen on its own schedule. However, just because you can’t force creativity doesn’t mean you can’t give it the proper encouragement. Let’s take a look at four lesser-known secrets for increasing creative productivity.

MORE: Four secrets to enhancing creative productivity | Feature | .net magazine.

The ultimate freelance web design tools

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Aug 272012

Freelancing in web design and development is often a balancing act. You must carefully divide your time between doing work, getting more work, and ensuring you’re getting paid for said work. For each of these tasks, a huge range of tools exists – but it’s tough to know whether you’re using the best ones available.

We asked a number of leading designers to provide us with their favourites, so you can ensure your survival toolkit is the equivalent of a super-powered laser-armed jetpack, rather than a digital abacus.

In terms of approach, two distinct methodologies are clear. Some people, such as freelance web designer John Alex Jacob, favour a pared-down toolkit: “The way I do business has changed a lot this past year,” he tells .net. “I’ve been trying to keep things as simple as possible for my clients and me, improve efficiency and avoid unnecessary distractions while working.” He therefore advocates minimising what’s installed on your computer.

Others, however, advise exploring the diverse range of single-task indie apps and online services now available, in order to potentially boost productivity. Regardless of your own approach, we hope you find inspiration and exciting new tools in the selections provided by those we spoke to.

MORE: The ultimate freelance web design tools | Feature | .net magazine.

10 steps to get designs signed off and keep your client happy

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Aug 032012

Joey Rabbitt, a web designer and frontend developer currently working for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, shares some techniques to keep the client sign-off process smooth

I’ve worked as an in-house designer, a freelancer, and in a creative studio. The role of the client can change depending on the job, but the sign-off process is always the same. After you’ve dedicated your time and creative energy to a project, it can be demoralising if the client doesn’t like it in the way that you hoped. On top of a deflated ego, redrafting your work can cost time and money. I’d like to share some of the techniques I’ve learnt to keep the process as efficient as possible.

MORE: 10 steps to get designs signed off and keep your client happy

10 Tips for a More Beautiful and Functional Home Office

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Jul 302012

If you work from home, you owe it to yourself to set up a proper office space. It’s vital you have somewhere to concentrate that’s separate from your home life — and is hopefully a nice space to spend time in. A good working space is even more important if you operate your small business out of your home.

To help you out on this rather specific front, we have pulled together some useful tips from experienced home-workers and chatted with home office expert Lisa Kanarek, founder of WorkingNaked.com. Also keep in mind that having a home office can entitle you to certain tax breaks, so your investment can end up right back in your pocket.

MORE: 10 Tips for a More Beautiful and Functional Home Office.

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