25 Tutorials for Advanced Freelance Web Designers
Posted December 3, 2008 in Tools/Resources, Web Design 46 Rockin' Comments »
In the world of web design, a good tutorial can literally be a godsend. But it’s often hard to find a suitable tut, and sometimes it seems like we’re just stuck reading the same stuff over and over again.
When it comes to advanced design, finding the right stuff can be even harder. Advanced effects require a much more in-depth tutorial, and often writers aren’t willing to go into the detail needed.
To help the situation, we’ve tracked down some of the best articles written by the web’s top designers. Here are 25 tutorials for advanced web designers:
Advanced Web Design Tutorials
Trendy Geometric Lines
Learn how to create the popular geometric line effects used in web and print design.
Mastering Keyboard Shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts are a must for anyone in advanced web design, and this tut has enough information for even the most seasoned pro.
Create a Dream Design with 3D Typography
Create 3D organic text and an accompanying design with this excellent tutorial.
9 Information Design Tips to Make You a Better Web Designer
Learn how to base your website’s visual presentation on a solid information architecture.
Grid Masking
This tutorial explains how to create a grid masking effect that can be used in print media or on the web.
Simple jQuery Spy Effect
Create a simple jQuery spy effect like that used in the Digg Spy tool.
How a Simple Layout Can Be Mixed ‘n’ Matched with Patterns, Photos and Backgrounds
How to create a single layout and then transform it into multiple different designs using png transparency.
5 Ways to Spice up Your Images with CSS
From captions to stylish borders, this tutorial shows you how to use css to spice up your images.
The Grid System
Almost every grid-related resource imaginable in one place — including tutorials, sample files, and more.
How to Mimic the iGoogle Interface
A very detailed tutorial for creating a design that mimics the interface used in iGoogle.
Create a magical rainbow color flame in Photoshop
Learn how to create a ‘magical’ flame with multiple glowing colors.
CSS Gradient Text Effect
Create a gradient effect using only CSS and text. No need to remake every image for glossy headlines anymore.
Writing an Interface Style Guide
This article by ALA gives good reasoning and good instructions for creating an Interface Style Guide for your websites.
7 Principles of Effective Icon Design
Quickly become an icon design pro by following these principles of effective icon design.
Enhance Your Web Development Using the Firefox Web Developer Extension
The Web Developer Extension for Firefox is probably in any advanced designers toolbox, and this article provides 9 more ways to use it to your advantage.
A Simple Guide on How to Effectively Talk to Clients
A simple set of instructions for dealing with clients — for those unfortunate times you’ve got to pull away from work to deal with them.
Creating a Techno Background with Illustrator and Photoshop
Several background experiments that could come in handy with web design.
Rapid prototyping in Fireworks CS3
A quick guide to using Fireworks CS# for rapid prototyping purposes.
Elements of Great Web Design: The Polish
Learn how to improve any design by focusing on the finishing touches.
Premium Wordpress Theme Design — The Mock Up
The first part in a series on creating a premium Wordpress theme.
Creating a Hand Drawn Website Layout
Learn how to create a trendy hand drawn layout using photoshop and several custom brushes.
Advanced Glow Effects
Learn how to create advanced glow effects on lines or text.
Trendy Circle Brush in Photoshop
Creating a trendy circle brush in Photoshop is easier than you might think.
Build a Sleek Portfolio Site from Scratch
Learn how one of the web’s top designers creates a portfolio site from start to finish.
Do you know of any tutorials that belong in this list? Let us know in the comments.
About the author: Mason Hipp is an entrepreneur, marketing guru, and writer. He blogs about life and business at FreelanceFolder.com and is co-author of the Book The Unlimited Freelancer.
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FreelanceFolder is a blog and resource hot-spot dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and freelancers. At FreelanceFolder, we're constantly striving to bring you the articles, information, and community you need to succeed. If we don't have an article or resource you're looking for, please contact us and let us know what it is!
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Mason Hipp is a marketer, designer, and entrepeneur. Mason helps freelancers and small businesses of all types, and he is the current owner of FreelanceFolder.... →
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46 Rockin' Comments
serj
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:04 pminteresting, intriguing and very beautiful but will you consider web design a art or just a way to communicate something to a target market?
anyone knows that when you crate a web grafic, like a logo you implement marketing , when you design a header or introduce a design that has only 3 colors, for exmaple it’s created around marketing.
the question that bugs me, when does the marketing stop and when can you adress to a design as art?
mason?
Janet Martin
December 3rd, 2008 at 3:30 pmThanks! This is a great collection. I’m not a designer but feel as a web writer the more I know about design the better. These are very helpful.
Doug Heacock
December 3rd, 2008 at 4:07 pmGreat article, Mason, and a great collection that I will definitely bookmark for later. Thanks!
joyoge designers' bookmark
December 3rd, 2008 at 5:32 pmnice list, thank you so much…
Mason Hipp
December 3rd, 2008 at 7:14 pmHey everyone, thanks for the positive comments :-)
@Serj — The line between marketing/business and art is very fine when it comes to web design. Almost every design project will have some constraints that need to be worked around, but how constraining they are will vary by project. Also, it varies a lot by the designer. Some designers will only work on artistic or very creative projects, while others are happy to apply their creativity to a more business-oriented project.
Shawn Bouchard
December 3rd, 2008 at 8:15 pmHi Mason,
Thanks for putting this list together. My company’s blog offers our customers this kind of information. I’m going to add your site to our resource list. Thanks!
aljuk
December 4th, 2008 at 5:45 amWhat exactly does learning to “create a ‘magical’ flame with multiple glowing colors” in photoshop have to do with web design (aside from nothing)? “Advanced glow effects”???
wallpapers
December 4th, 2008 at 6:56 amadvanced glow! nice!
Mason Hipp
December 4th, 2008 at 10:22 am@aljuk — Do you use creative visual imagery in your web designs? If so, then things like the glow and flame effects could come in handy.
Análisis
December 4th, 2008 at 10:46 amCongratulations, good post!.
Henry
December 4th, 2008 at 12:39 pmExcelent…!!! Great post
http://www.crea-t.net
Clara E Mejia
December 4th, 2008 at 9:46 pmThanks!!!!! It’s an incredible list. It;s a wonderful tool for learning and improving our skills. Thanks again.
Rhys
December 5th, 2008 at 2:07 amThis has to be the stupidest list in existence.
Yes, as an advanced web developer, I’m all about the advanced glow effects. Oh, and I’m glad i can now cross that advanced techo text barrier that I’ve been hitting (not to mention the ever impossible CSS gradient effect).
Mason Hipp
December 5th, 2008 at 2:26 pmThanks everyone for the positive comments, I hope this list will prove beneficial to you :-)
To the naysayers, I’ll happily consider your suggestions when I’m writing my next roundup.
Raymond Selda
December 5th, 2008 at 9:50 pmGreat list! If I can read articles like this everyday then I don’t need to go to design school. hehehe. Thank you for this post.
Jared Walker
December 6th, 2008 at 9:46 pmThanks for the list. Some very interesting tutorials and a nice variety.
Mr Javo
December 6th, 2008 at 10:22 pmThanks for sharing these awesome tutorials!
Alberto Villalobos
December 7th, 2008 at 5:36 amGood list, but i´ll dont call it a list of tutorials for advanced web designers, i could say i am a benginner and i have read many of these, i think css, xhtml and wordpress template are more apropiate to this list.
Eric Shafer
December 8th, 2008 at 4:55 pmTracked back from here: http://www.presidiacreative.com/web-picks-1/
piskorapci
December 12th, 2008 at 8:45 amthankx çok güzel olmuş devamını bekleriz
cutt
December 24th, 2008 at 1:36 pmgreat post!
Thanks
Sean
January 9th, 2009 at 8:51 pmI’ve had this list saved in bloglines forever - finally getting to it and reading several here. Thanks for the great post.
dave
January 13th, 2009 at 4:56 pmthank you, some GREAT stuff here that ive been looking for
Chiang Mai Web Design
January 27th, 2009 at 2:47 amGreat Tutorials. thanks.
wazime
February 23rd, 2009 at 5:02 pmThanks for a great list of resources.
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