[Infographic] The State of WordPress Themes: Current Trends And Classifications

WordPress is the most popular CMS out there. It powers a good number of websites and blogs, and owing to its popularity, the number of extensions and themes that are available for WordPress surpasses those of any other CMS by a mile.

Speaking of WordPress themes, the market is filled with options. You have free themes, premium themes, themes created by design agencies, themes created by casual designers just to kill time, themes created with passion and, sadly, themes containing spam and shady links. However you look at it, I guess the point is clear:

30 Inspiring Non-Profit Website Designs

Non-profit organisations do incredibly important and noble work, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t have to try as hard as any other business to engage with their audience. They still need to convince people to part with their money, to support their particular cause, so a well-designed website is a must.

This showcase brings together thirty charity websites that are instantly engaging. Bold choices are common, such as large header images and vibrant colors, and there is often a lot of content. Take a look at how these designs present all that content without getting too cluttered.

Robin Hood

Charity:Water

Michael J. Fox

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25 Excellent Premium WordPress Themes of December 2012

Regarding the design, trends changed a bit. Responsive was the hot keyword of the year and it became from feature, a must have for every theme. The release of Windows 8 also influenced design world, including WordPress. It seems that themes which follow the metro style are more successful than traditional themes.

Color Palette Tools for Designers

Choosing a color scheme can seem like a simple decision, but this isn’t always the case. Color decisions should be made carefully as the impacts are significant and far reaching. For web designers, the color scheme will impact the entire web design. Fortunately, there are a number of helpful tools and resources that can be used in situations where you’re struggling to find the right palette.

In this article we’ll look at 19 different resources that are outstanding to have on hand. Each one is a little bit different. Some will allow you to browse color schemes and palettes created by other users, some will help you to create your own palette with help, some will allow you to see what colors appear in a photograph, and others will do different things.

Kuler

Kuler, from Adobe, is an excellent resource for browsing a huge selection of color palettes. You can also create your own palettes, or use Kuler directly from Adobe software like Photoshop and Illustrator.

ColourLovers

ColourLovers is a community site for designers. One aspect of the site is the color palette gallery where users have submitted over a million palettes that can be browsed for your own inspiration.

COPASO

COPASO is color software from ColourLovers.

ColorSchemer

The ColorSchemer is an excellent resource for browser color schemes.

Kolur

With Kolur you can browse color palettes in a different way than with other color scheme tools. Kolur shows images or photos and along with the color palettes for a different visual.

Color Calculator

The Color Calculator from Sessions College is an interactive color wheel that helps designers select HTML, RGB, or CMYK colors, and identifies color harmonies and schemes.

Contrast-A

Contrast-A is a really helpful tool for identifying accessible color combinations. It checks color combinations for sufficient contrast and displays the results according to WCAG 2.0 (Luminance Ratio) as well as the results according to older accessibility guidelines, WCAG 1.0 (Difference in Brightness and Color).

4096 Color Wheel

4096 Color Wheel can help you to find color schemes while identifying web safe and web smart colors. Just hover over a color on the wheel and it will show web safe, web smart, and web unsafe versions.

Color Blender

With Color Blender you will pick two colors, choose the number of midpoints, and it will generate those midpoint colors for you.

Color Scheme Designer

When you’re looking for help creating a full color scheme, Color Scheme Designer can be a great resource. Choose the type of scheme you want (monochromatic, complement, triad, tetrad, analogic, or accented analogic), click on a color and the tool will provide you with other colors to complete the scheme.

ColoRotate

ColoRotate can be used online or as an iPad app. You can browse through a huge sample of color palettes, or create your own with the help of a 3D color wheel.

ColorBlender

ColorBlender is a pretty helpful tool if you have one color as a starting point. You can also browse color palettes generated by other users.

Color Wizard

With Color Wizard you will enter a base color and the tool will generate other colors to complete your scheme. It will let you choose between monochromatic, analogous, triadic, tetradic, complimentary, an split complimentary schemes. You can go back and forth from the different types of schemes easily, and you can also adjust your base color and the schemes will adjust on the fly.

ColorExplorer

Color Explorer includes a few different color tools. You can register and save your own palettes, browse color libraries, use the color matching tool, and more.

Colorspire

Colorspire is a simple tool for creating your own color palettes. Click on a color on the wheel and it will provide other colors to complete the color scheme.

ColRD

ColRD helps you to create your own color palettes, and you can also browse colors, palettes, and patterns created by other users.

DeGraeve Color Palette Generator

The DeGraeve tool is simple, but useful. You enter the URL of a photo or image and it will create a palette of prominent colors from the photo or image.

Color Hunter

With Color Hunter you can also create palettes from photos, but you can also browse the palettes that others have created from photos.

ColorCombos.com

ColorCombos.com allows you to create your own color combinations, and you can browse a huge library of existing combinations.

 

http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/design/color-palette/

14 New and Free PSDs for Web Designers

Designers are always looking for new design elements to use in their projects, and that’s why it’s very important to have a good library to count on. To help you increase your resources, today we gathered 14 new free PSDs for you. From icons to UI controls, and buttons, there’s a lot of useful elements here. Enjoy.

50 Mini Icons (PSD)

Google Maps UI Controls (PSD)

Apple iPhone Chat Bubbles (PSD)

Dashboard UI Design

Free iPad Mini PSD

Add/Remove Circular Buttons (PSD)

Slider PSD

free PSD – light grey UI kit

Mobile Devices Icons V 2.0 [PSD]

Social Icon Set

Circular Player Widget

Grooveshark Search

Sign In

Dark Chart UI Kit

http://webdesignledger.com/freebies/14-new-and-free-psds-for-web-designers

Beautiful Houses: Glen 2961 In Cape Town

I have been doing the Beautiful Houses post for a while now, and I am also a big fan of architecture. And although I browse architecture related sites looking for inspiring houses, every single day I get impressed with new architectural master pieces.

 
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Web Revenge! Dirty tricks for Halloween

My therapist says I’m obsessed with revenge. He’ll be sorry he said that! It’s not that I’m paranoid about all of the people who are against me; I just want to make them all pay dearly.

I truly believe that the web is the greatest revenge weapon invented since the burning bag of dog poo on someone’s doorstep, and the novelty squirting flower filled with sulphuric acid.

Of course, I’m kidding about being so enamored with revenge. People just misunderstand my desire for social justice in our unjust society, world and universe, just like there’s a fine line between cuddling and holding someone tightly so they can’t get away.

Sometimes revenge is needed, so to be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target. You just need to fight fire with fire, although, to be fair, the fire department does fight fire with water.

Let’s face it, there are two things about human beings. The first is that we never really grow up; we only learn how to act in public. The second is that those who don’t learn how to act in public are social outcasts and turn to causing problems for others on the internet.

Well, Halloween is here and so it’s time for Trick or Treat! But why go out in the cold autumn weather and be a witch with a coat or a skeleton with a parka? You can have trick-filled fun and in front of a warm computer and not have to worry about weight gain or cavities from a huge bag of candy.