sadesigns

Good stuff! Loved the pubbli cafe website.. Really nice work there. I'm not sure how the last one is going to work in terms of where content will be displayed but you're a great illustrator! Oh yeah and, it really sucks that your client screwed you over, but to make sure that doesn't happen, give them previews only in a reduced resolution. Not too low, they need to see the details, but not high enough that they can rip the design. If possible, also give them a poorly compressed image. That way they would likely need to hire someone else to clean it up if they want to rip the design, and they won't go through with that kind of headache.

So I was looking for icons for 'nearby' functions within apps, and I didn't want to use the standard 'map' or standard 'pin' icons that everyone uses, so I thought I might make my own. I've never really made custom icons before so I just wanted to see what others would think of this one. FYI, this is an icon to be used in an iOS app interface, typically on the UI tabs (usually featured in the lowest portion of the screen). Apologies for the ****ty compression and watermarking... Just didn't want anyone to steal it in case I eventually make a collection of icons.

Guarantee that picture was made the exact same way I made mine.

If I were you I would aim for a cross-platform app, but it's much smarter to start on iOS. Why? Apple still holds a whopping 82% of the application sales market. Android users largely don't like to pay for apps, as they've shown year after year. Big developers like Rovio chose to *only* an ad-supported Angry Birds game on Android, because they new if they made a paid version, people would simply pirate it. This way no matter what way the user obtains the app, they are paying Rovio indirectly via ad revenue. Anyway, iOS without a doubt yields the absolute highest profits in virtually any category of mobile apps. With the profits you will make from iOS (provided you have a good idea and a great aesthetic), you can easily port the app over to other platforms afterwards. @ayoungh If you do something like a web app, you sacrifice the important differences between the varying platforms, and the platform specialization which is very important for a successful app.

I did scale it from a smaller icon. That's kind of essential to what I am doing XD

"Oishii App Studio" Originally I had illustrated the squid character in illustrator, but I decided to make an 8-bit logo because, well, it's cute and trendy and I just like it. haha Basically I am putting out my first iPhone app on the 1st of October (hopefully), which is based on work organisation, and I've decided to start a business with my developer as my partner. The second title we will be doing will likely be a game, as my developer wants to work with OpenGL and 3D stuff. So basically this logo for my app company. What do you guys think about this?

My advice to you would be to copy pieces of other designers' work in order to learn. You can learn some important things about modern styling. Look at what they're doing and think about the message they are communicating with their design. As a general rule, I would advise you to never (ever) use highly offset dropshadows like you are using on your nav items, and avoid using such a bright colour in such a high capacity. A colour like you're using should really only occupy 10-15% of the page at most. What you've created here looks like something straight out of mid-90s webdesign. I would almost expect to see a .GIF of some cartoon mascots flying around the page, and in a few years a windows media video might appear.

I actually really like the logo, I feel like it communicates the idea of building while playing on the letter V.. I think the website is ok but it's nothing special to be honest. The area where the logo is featured should be pure white, by the way. The logo really doesn't look as good when you put it on grey.

This is great! I think it's a really nice logo. Definitely going with the first one, though. The second doesn't really look right, i.e. 'Mara' vs Maria as another has said. I do think the lower font is a wee bit too 'impact'-like in its manliness (considering what it is for). Would be better if you can find something similar but just a little softer or slightly more rounded, but I think it looks pretty good like this.

That would be effective as hell.. Expensive though haha...

I think it's fun to be critical... haha And I always like giving people a different perspective. Yes i'm a designer. You should +1 me if you appreciate my post? haha

I agree with Alluzion that it would look better with just one pawprint.

Completely agree with porkchops. At first glance I really like this for web. I think it's cute, and I think pet owners would enjoy it! Now, when being pixel-perfect, I would suggest that you do not make the inner shadow so off-set. It should really only be off-set a few pixels. The idea is to give the illusion of an engraved depth, not that there is nothing there at all. From there keeping that same thing in mind, I would also add a 0px (or 1px), 1-2px offset dropshadow, white at 75% opacity to the text, at the same angle as the inner shadow. As for the crystals, I would also reduce the size and offset of their dropshadow, and make the colour something just a pinch lighter. I might also try putting a 50% white colour overlay on top of them, so that they aren't so busy and don't take away from the main focal point. Hope I was helpful Edit: I also prefer the purple version to the grey version, however you could use a less saturated purple or texturize it to acheive a middle ground, which could look really nice.

1. Very messy code... You really need to work on this before you start sending to possible clients. 2. iMac slideshow is kitschy, un-intuitive, and does nothing to actually assist in showing your work. In fact it is currently limiting the size of your designs to the point where I can't see anything of value by viewing this slideshow, and the fact that it's an old model of the iMac makes you seem not exactly astute. 3. You should not put an image of your portfolio site in the portfolio of your portfolio site... The viewer does not want to get inception'd... That, and, it's redundant as hell. In terms of the overall design of the site... I don't like it, but I am highly allergic to bees, so... Take what you will from that.

If it were me, I would want the whole thing a lot tighter (that's what he said... teehee). The music notes trail off too far, and I don't think they should all be the same note (or size), either (and I don't feel they should overlap). So overall, tighten everything up, include several different types of music notes, don't let the notes trail off too far, use varying note sizes, and dont overlap anything. But that's just my opinion, you have gotten a lot of positive feedback from others.

2nd one for sure in my opinion. The 1st is interesting, but the 2nd has that classic appeal that older people and younger people can both be attracted to.

I like it! I do agree however that the handwriting font is a little unprofessional, especially because that's not a particularly unique font, either. The website, however, is very bad. Forgive me for being harsh, but I hope you are going to change that website a great deal before you go out looking for clients. Please ignore me if it's not the final design, I just had to say something just in case.

I really like the overall look of your site, I think it's very appealing and you're sending a very positive message to the viewer. Being the perfectionist that I am, there are a few things I would change, though: Firstly, make the "Apply now" buttons CSS styled buttons, not plain images. It looks a little more professional, and you can use a 1px wide gradient img, corner rounding and border in CSS to reduce load times. The images you're using now frankly look poorly compressed. Secondly, I'm a sucker for the iTunes-style sliders, but 1px of them is getting cut off at the top and it's pretty noticeable. That's a pretty easy fix. It's not too hard to make that image, and there are plenty of photoshop tutorials incase you can't salvage this one or you can't find another better one. Thirdly, the timer image styling is not in keeping with the rest of the page. I think the styling is great as long as it is uniform. If you can find a similarly illustrated timer image, it would help unify the styling of your page and overall brand image. Also the illustration of the man is a little bit fuzzy.. I don't know if you have the ability to sharpen that up, but if you can, you should. Not something everyone will notice, but I definitely noticed. And finally, I think it's a little odd to have a large block of text at the bottom of the page with very little supporting it on the sides. If anything that sort of mission statement text should be in the middle of the vertical contents, or at least above the "A bad credit loans company you can rely on" div, which seems like it should be in the footer of the page. The way it's designed now, the mission statement looks like a disclaimer that nobody will really want to read. Overall though I do think it is a good design!

I would suggest, if you are going for this colour-blocking style, you should remove the dropshadow/border that is around the main navigation. Also, how are you handling the mouseover on the navigational links? That could be pretty important, too. Also, I think it actually might be better to have the header in the dark grey instead of in the same green colour as the body. Otherwise I think it's a nice, interesting design

Thanks.. Someone finally replied! haha

Copy people! Be shameless. Steal all the interesting little ideas that you come across on others' websites. When you go to a website, criticize it. Look at what the designer has done and where you think they could have done better. Go with the trends. Now, these are (mostly) not things an experienced designer should be doing, but for someone who is learning to become a designer, these things are extremely important. You have to copy to learn. An illustrator doesn't start their life drawing their own original characters, they draw the little mermaid or other things they have seen before. They study others' styles, they don't start with their own. Hope this is helpful to you!

Ok, so I know this is ridiculous, but I haven't really made a lot of websites using Divs. Most of the sites I've done on my own have used tables, as programming is not really my forte (most of the time the coding is passed off to someone else, and they take it from my PSD). I know there are thousands of tutorials on taking a PSD to a DIV website. But I am asking about something a little more specific. Basically I want to know what kind of structural changes I will have to make if I want the various content pages to slide in vertically when selected. This is my design. I want to make it so that Home, Features, and Feedback are basically in a row top-to-bottom (on the right half of the main div, left half is always the same). When someone clicks Features, Home will slide up and features comes up from the bottom (all within the bounds of the white box). When home is clicked from Features or Feedback, it will slide in from the top. Other combinations should follow that order. If anyone has any tips on how this is done they would be greatly appreciated!

Yeah I'm kinda at a dillemma because of this... Thanks for the advice, I might try to make them look more like they do in the app. A little softer with more dimension.

Hey. I am in the process of designing a marketing site for my upcoming iPhone app. For the navigation, I am thinking of using a tab system inspired by the tabs I've created within the app. Because it will be accessed from a PC however, I am creating it based on the Mac OS finder tabs UI, with some slight styling changes. I'm worried about this seeming a little kitschy. So I was hoping I could get some helpful feedback from you guys on whether you think this is an acceptable design choice or not. Thanks in advance for all your opinions! Website Nav - Top App Nav - Bottom

Hi guys! I'm Sam, from Toronto. I've never been a part of any web design forums before (somehow), so this is new for me. I've been working in freelance graphic design for around 2.5 years now, and I've been using Adobe Creative Suite and other softwares since childhood (I am now 20). I am really passionate about UI design (mostly mobile, iOS specifically), and I also love illustration. My portfolio was recently hacked so I don't have one online at the moment but I do have a tumblr account that I'm currently using as a backup before I put up my new portfolio. www.sadesigns.net