Design RushWeb design resources and tutorials

Whether you are just getting started in the world of web design or have been designing websites for years, there is always something new you can learn. Additionally, for most designers, there are areas where they can improve. In many cases, there may be something you have been doing for years, but this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good thing. Fortunately, with a little work, it’s possible to break these bad habits.

So, without further ado, I would like to introduce the five principles of excellent CSS design. Regardless of how much (or how little experience you have), take time to absorb these principles, and then beginning applying them to your daily work flow.
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If you have ever searched for WordPress themes, it probably didn’t take you long to realize just how many there are floating around on the Internet. Although there are a lot of great free WordPress themes for you to choose from, there are just as many (if not more) that are pretty poor, which is why there is a demand for Premium WordPress themes. While it would take a much longer list to profile all of the quality free WordPress themes I have came across, this post features seven themes that are free, but would still be extremely popular even if they cost money to download:

Guzel Pro Magazine: News and magazine style themes are some of the most popular types of Premium themes. However, the Guzel Pro Magazine theme (which was just recently released) won’t cost you a dime, and it offers the same (if not more) quality than the majority of the Premium news themes I have seen.
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Regardless of how talented of a web designer you are, sooner or later, you are going to wake up one day and feel like your creative edge has been washed away. In fact, for most web designers, this unpleasant scenario rears its ugly head on multiple occasions over the course of their career. Although it may seem like the end of the world when you get this feeling, you have to remember that it happens to the best of designers, and sooner or later things will go back to normal.

However, even though most designers know that they will eventually get their edge back, most can’t afford to be stuck in creative quicksand for very long. Therefore, it’s important to understand how you can minimize the amount of time that you feel like you can’t create anything new. Just like the designs they make, every designer is different. This means that there is no clear cut cure for everyone when it comes to this issue. However, many designers share a lot of similar traits, so I’ve drawn upon my own personal experience (along with the experience of others) to offer a few useful remedies for this dreaded situation:
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Thanks to modern web standards, it’s possible for web designers to achieve the exact look they want for a website with the help of CSS. Although CSS is an extremely flexible language, it can be somewhat tedious to hand code from scratch. While most designers will still choose to manually write a lot of their own CSS, there are some great free tools that can help you become more efficient when you are coding CSS. Below are five CSS tools that I not only think are quite useful, but that are also all free:
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If you haven’t created a Twitter account yet, you need to head over to their website and sign-up for one today. Because Twitter can be used in so many different ways, it can be a confusing service when you first sign-up. However, once you spend a little time using Twitter, it will start to make a lot more sense.

As I said, there are a lot of different ways that people can use Twitter. However, one concrete use for Twitter is connecting with other people in your industry. If you are a web designer, Twitter can be a great way to network with other web designers. Not only can networking be useful in helping you find new clients, but having designers you can interact with on Twitter can be a great way to brainstorm and get solutions to your problems.
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If you are like most web designers, your daily schedule is packed from morning to night. Between communicating with prospective clients, handling work for your current clients and trying to squeeze in time to work on your own personal projects, most web designers I know wish that they could add at least a few more hours to the clock everyday. Although your days are still going to be full of work, this list of great tools can help you increase your productivity and get more work done in a shorter amount of time:

Firebug: If I had to pick one Firefox add-on that I couldn’t live without, it would have to be Firebug. There are a lot of great Firefox add-ons for designers (as you will see as you continue to go through this list), but none of them can top Firebug. For any web page, Firebug allows you to debug, edit or monitor CSS, HTML and JavaScript. Best of all, all of the work you do through Firebug is done live.
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Having a great looking menu for your website that is built with CSS can not only enhance the visual appeal of your website, but it can also make your website more usable for your visitors. Unfortunately, building a CSS menu from scratch can be a time-consuming process that is filled with lots of frustration and trying to redo work that you thought was already complete.

Luckily for you, the days of needing to start from scratch when you want to build a CSS menu are over. With CSS Menu Builder, you can create the perfect menu for any website. Whether it is a personal website, a company website or a website that you are building for a client, you can use CSS Menu Builder to create a clean looking CSS menu.
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As a designer, you have a lot of invaluable tools in your arsenal. However, the tools that you rely on the most probably come with a hefty price tag. Although the design world is filled with cutting edge tools that are anything but cheap, there actually are some great tools out there that don’t cost a dime. While these tools won’t replace the high-end ones that you already use, all five of these free online tools can make you a better designer. Whether it’s providing you with a helpful function or simplifying your work flow, I highly recommend taking the time to check out each of these free online tools:
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