We’re working for some time at this one – our first thematic giveaway! So we’re very close to the “1st year of Inspired Mag” mark and we’re starting to celebrate with a very special giveaway – three huge posters (63 x 43.5 inches) offered by Uprinting and our illustrator friends Alex Mathers, Noper and Xavier Gallego.

The Tar Pit Creature by Alex Mathers

Alex Mathers is an illustrator & designer, writer of contemporary illustration blog Ape on the Moon and self promotion methods site RedLemonClub. Also check out one of the most popular osts here on Inspried Mag, written by Alex himself -  The Secret of Finding Inspiration in Your Network

The Wolf Man by Noper

Noper is a Romanian illustrator with a thing for animation. And forsurreal-funny-fantastic creations.

Eyesores Birthday Party by Xavier Gallego

Xavier is living, eating, and falling  in love in Barcelona. He always wanted to be an illustrator (as well as a Ninja Turtle), and he’s the creator of a very popular Facebook app called Eyesores. Click here to download the special Social Eyesores icon pack Xavier did for our readers.

Uprinting

We couldn’t offer you these beauties without the help of our friends from Uprinting – click here to get 10% poster printing!

How to Get the Posters?

Enter to win one of the three HUGE posters – 63 x 43.5 inches is almost an entire wall (shipping US only)!

• join the Inspired Forum and answer (or ask) a design or blogging question
• tweet this message: Win a HUGE inspirational poster from @InspiredMag http://su.pr/30yCTt RT to enter the giveaway!
• tell us in the comments what poster do you like best

The Winners

Thanks for your interest guys and congrats to the winners!! Check out our latest giveaway here!

• Jenny Lloyd won The Tar Pit Creature by Alex Mathers
• Leslie Bilger won The Wolf Man by Noper
• Matthew Kammerer won Eyesores Birthday Party by Xavier Gallego

The winners will be announced about the shipping of the posters in the coming week.

We’re starting the 2010 series of Freebie Friday giveaways with the most creative social icon pack you’ll ever come across on the Interwebs! The author is Xavier Gallego Moya, the Barcelona based artist who created the Eyesores world! And while you’re at it, check out the first Inspired Release – The Social Bird Icon Set

The Icon Pack

The Eyesores

When they’re not offered as the coolest icon pack in the hood (Download here), the Eyesores are unique, creative and funny characters that live inside a popular Facebook application with over 740,000 users. They are virtual gifts, ready to be sent around the world to places as far flung as Indonesia, Colombia and the USA. Each Eyesore carries a quirky message and the unique hand-drawn style of Xavier, making the Eyesores application one of the most loved virtual gift platforms on Facebook.

We’re almost there ppl – we’re almost one year old! I actually can’t believe this – it’s been an absolutely fantastic year for Inspired Mag, but we’ll talk about that in a future post. Now I’ll walk you trough some changes, updates and future plans you should be really excited about because we’re bringing much more to the table. Please take a seat!

Social Sharing Bar

First of all, I want to introduce you the new social thingy we’re very proud of – a nice sharing bar you can easily spot on the left (thx Mike). So if you like our posts, we’d buy you a beer we’d be very grateful if you’ll click on the bar and share our articles with your friends (or enemies). Now we have sharing options for Twitter, Stumble, Digg & Facebook, plus the most relevant social news sites for the design niche – Design Bump, Design Float and The Web Blend. We also supported Design Moo but it’s been sold and right now it’s on hold. So if you think we should consider more sharing options, please let me know in the comments.

Facebook Fan Page

A few days ago we’ve launched our Facebook fan page and it’s been such a surprise to see it grow to more than 700 fans so quickly (thx Alex). Anyway, we hope our daily selected stories, news, links & videos we publish almost once an hour will be appealing enough to grow our fanbase even more. BTW, you can check here to see if you are an Inspired Fan – if you get the image above that means you’re not; so if you want a good karma you should press the Become a Fan button right away.

Inspired Publishers

We always supported new blogs in the design community by publishing a roundup every month, but starting this January we began to do more: publishing amazing guest posts from up-and-coming or established bloggers in the design community and introducing their blogs to our readers, compiling a Twitter list with the new Inspired Publishers and offering them exposure trough the widget we show in the sidebar (that means everything they write is seen by our visitors) plus whitelisting the selected blogs for our sister website Inspired News (and there’s another widget in the sidebar for that). A new creative directory it’s also on its way so if you feel you belong to the Inspired Publishers family don’t hesitate to write me an email with your blog and some guest post ideas.

Sister Websites

Inspired News – the one-stop relevant design news service – it’s been our only sister website for a while, but this is gonna change because very soon you’ll see two new websites joining the inspired network. Can’t reveal too much but I must tell you we put a lot of passion & research in these two so the results will really blow your colored socks off.

Inspired Blogging – the secrets behind running a successful design blog

And the biggest announce I’m going to make today is that we’re preparing an exclusive guide on how to get a successful design blog in a short period of time – a small ebook packed with tips, strategies and insights from the team behing Inspired Mag.

That’s it for now guys, I’d be more than happy if you’d leave some comments about our plans and about how Inspired Magazine is going, what would you like to see next on our blog, on our Facebook page, on our Twitter account and so on. Have a great 2010!

ustwo™ is a multi platform development studio based in London, UK and Malmo, Sweden – 50 strong and growing rapidly in notoriety. During 2009, the studio developed and released 16 apps including the infamous MouthOffTM, .TM (48hour series), SteppinTM, and Reebok’s iSprint.

ustwo’s apps have sold globally and have become brands in their own right. Mills is well known within the industry with his refreshingly honest and open approach being well received by developers, gamers and fans alike.

I’ve written this Mobile Appifesto™ to share some of the many lessons that we’ve learnt over the last 12 months.  In that time we’ve launched 16 apps on the iPhone platform (although much of this is applicable to all platforms) – we’ve experienced the highs and lows of iPhone app development.  This Appifesto’s intention is to help inspire some of the design focused newbies to the world of app development and I hope it sets a precedent.  It really is the only way.

Build solid foundations

Focus on creating a studio, company or tribe, (influenced by Seth Godin’s Tribes – a must read).  This will form the basis of your brand, your very own style, your USP, what you stand for and this thinking will influence what you produce and create.  Ultimately if you can create an app that users identify your handiwork in – you’re there.

Long term vs. short term

Think about longevity when it comes to your career as an app developer – it’s not about short term wins and the chances are that you won’t be one of those bedroom developer success stories that we’ve all read about – you’re probably more likely to be struck by a bolt of lightning.  But remember, lightning does strike and when it does, it burns.  Plot and build the bridges to success.  It will come to those who really want it.

Passion

Passion leads to excitement, excitement leads to action, action leads to success.  All of these are required in the game of app development – they are the necessities and bedrock to creating something special.  You have to be driven by love of what you create over chasing the pot of gold.  If you believe in what you are doing, others will want to taste the quality.

Innovation

I’m talking about design solution led, fully animated and UI focused apps that remain on iPhones and aren’t deleted in a few hours.  I’m talking quality apps that innovate and make the community proud.  Think of apps that you would want to use.  A great idea is not just unique, it actually serves a purpose.

Originality

No room for copycats in this industry – that’s for total joker pretender studios. (Twitter clients are the exception as they are all pushing one another to make a better experience for the rest of us).  Countless copycat apps are just blocking the pros pathway to success. If your idea has been copied – remember imitation is a form of admiration.  Use the frustration of seeing bad apps made by passionless developers to drive you to succeed.

Usability

All about logical, engaging and beautiful user interface design – if users like using your app they will spread the word – simple.  Bad design will mean instant deletion and bad ratings.

Sound effects

Think about sound from the very minute you start out. Sound adds an invisible physicality to button presses and motion on a touch screen. Sound immerses the user into the experience and helps to hold the attention. Without sound an app is only half the man.

Teamwork

Bring the best people to the table and work with them to help you.  As a small developer don’t be afraid to ask your network for help – they could help you in aspects of business you may not have experience in.  For example you may be the world’s best developer but know nothing about marketing – use your contacts, if you don’t have them, find them.

Build Fast

Speed is key – you must get your apps out there quickly.  Not only to beat copycats, but also to keep development costs down.  Every minute you spend on your app is quantifiable by the need to sell another app to recoup the costs.  There are 2 schools of thought when it comes to the basics of development and building your app – either develop as you go (i.e. build and test) or plan it all out first then build the structure around it.  All you need to be aware of is time is money.

Prototype

Flash is a perfect tool to build a test version of your app before getting heads down into the iPhone SDK.  It allows you to see the design, sample gameplay, test transitions, and get a feel for your app.  All about testing, testing and more testing – simple but so many apps have too many bugs when launched.

Knowledge is power

Hone your skills continually pushing the boundaries of what you know.  Read as much about your chosen area as you can and make sure you know your stuff.

Influencers

It’s going to be almost impossible to get any traction with the ‘big tech journos’ so look to build relationships with niche and growing app review sites that will one day lead the way – AppBoy, AppSmile, app.it.ize.us, 8 bit Feed, CreativeApplications, PocketGamer.biz, Razorian Fly all gave us help from day 1.

Networking

Embrace other developers as fellow comrades in the battle for survival, learn from one another and pay respect to the masters out there and let their work inspire you, BUT don’t be afraid to speak your mind, get your views out there. No man’s an island.

Marketing

Tell your story to whoever will listen – the first steps in marketing what you do.  It’s all about engaging with as many people as possible including users, potential users and influencers.  So many marketing channels to explore from working with publishers, to banner ads, creating an email campaign, creating a website or a viral video on YouTube.   Try and be as creative as possible and experiment – see what works for you and what drives downloads.

Social Media

Harness the power of social media intelligently!  This is the simplest way to build a fan base and generate interest surrounding what you do.  Get people on your side who will help spread the word.  For example someone with 1000 contacts maybe able to influence his or her contacts on your behalf.

PR

Master the basics of PR – build anticipation – tell your story and engage with your audience.  All about turning eyeballs into downloads.  Some tips – on the day your app launches write a simple press release about your app and send it out to your favourite iPhone related sites.  Should guarantee some PR coverage.  You can then build on this – more sites – a bigger audience.  List the sites that pick up your releases and give them future scoops.

Stats

Use Flurry, AppViz or similar to fine tune your approach – understand what updates have driven downloads, the importance of seasonal fluctuations in terms of sales and which marketing efforts have had a positive impact on your app.

Sell in/out

Approach big companies and organisations about the possibility of doing a branded version of your app.  Anything is possible especially if your app has achieved a moderate level of success – a branded version will give your app a new lease of life.  Big corps are always hungry for niche ideas and creativity.

Dedication

If you take a knock like with anything in life – get back up and keep trying.

Your turn

Feel free to leave other tips, opinions and questions in the comments!

Here comes a new edition of Inspired Talks, a journey we started a few weeks ago in search of inspiration sources, stories and rants from interesting people in the creative community. Today our host is Alex Mathers, aka Moon Ape, also responsible for the new Inspired Mag logo. Thanks Alex!

For me, inspiration comes in many forms, and often at very unexpected times, including in the shower. These days, the bulk of inspiration comes to me via the web. With the work I do, I keep an eye out for the mainly visual work of other artists. One of the best sources of inspiring work comes from what people alert me to in my online network. Sometimes a friend will send me an email with an interesting link, or I’ll see something mind-blowing on social media sites.

Because I make a point of building up a network of people that share my passions online and offline, I am in constant connection with things like artwork, design and photography. It is those pieces that excite me that form the inspirational framework of my daily life. Anything that is completely remarkable or unique will inspire me, but it is particularly work that transmits a strong message whilst remaining effortlessly simple that will grab me the most. An example of this that I came across recently on Twitter was a blog post with a list of simple, but beautifully designed logos.

Because I am very active with my contemporary illustration site, Ape on the Moon, I find that from a visual perspective, it is most of the inspiration that I need to keep motivated about my own work. I am in contact with very special illustrators on most days, and spend a lot of time looking through often jaw-dropping creative work. Part of the reason for setting up the blog was to allow myself and others to gain a regular stream of inspiration from a large range of illustration talents.

My main recommendation for those seeking concentrated and meaningful inspiration, would be to keep building up connections with people that really share your interests and passions, interact with them regularly and actually share what you find that inspires you with other people. You never know what you will get back one day in the form of inspiration. Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are great places to start and build these crucial relationships, as are your email contacts. I have just launched a blog called Red Lemon Club, which discusses a lot on issues related to online networking.

In today’s crowded, highly connected and fast-paced world, with seemingly endless sources of information, it is important for everyone to to build a network that focuses on what inspires us.

Here’s the fresh new roundup made in collaboration with our sister website – Inspiredlog. For more goodies be sure to check out the website and feel free to Submit things!

For more visual goodies please check out Inspiredlog and don’t hesitate to to Submit things to the website!

The second edition of our brand new Shopping Guide is here to help you decide what kind of digital goodies you should get for your web projects. We have 10 fresh Wordpress themes, 10 highly creative domain names, and 5 amazing under construction / coming soon templates you should get your hands on before everybody else! Here is the first installment of the shopping guide!

Wordpress Themes

Post It | $20 | Details | Demo

A Wordpress Theme designed for all creative bloggers  Theme Features, with 4 characters / skins to choose from, 960 Grid System, and easy customization with theme options page

Rascals DJ’s | $20 | Details | Demo

This template is a complete site compatible with all the browsers IE6 , IE7 , IE8 , Firefox 2, Firefox 3, Safari 3, Safari 4, and Google Chrome

Cleanism | $25 | Details | Demo

Cleanism is a clean, minimal and sleek Wordpress template made to showcase your portfolio. The design was created to blend into the background and make your work stand out

Gallery Pro | $25 | Details | Demo

Two themes in one! Highly upgraded version of the popular Gallery theme! Gallery Pro is a flexible, beautiful showcase-style WordPress theme with a very flexible layout, the ability to change thumbnail sizes, post videos, and more!

Delicate | $70 | Details | Demo

Delicate is the combination of a blog and a portfolio with many advanced features. The homepage features a jQuery powered slideshow to showcase your latest projects. Also, the front page displays your latest blog posts, with a link to your complete blog page, it supports pagination

BizFolio | $25 | Details | Demo

A professional business theme with creative portfolio layout and included blog layout with 6 Different Colors, Awesome portfolio layout, and 9 Widget ready areas

Monograph | $ 70 | Details | Demo

MultiMedia Reloaded | $25 | Details | Demo

Many possible situations have been thought through to make the use of the theme as flexible as possible. Of course we have by no means exhausted all possibilities so as you use the theme feel free to suggest the addition of more options in the comments below

Zoom Gallery | $49 | Details | Demo

A premium Wordpress theme which can be used for many purposes, including a Photoblog, Portfolio, Personal Blog, Product Reviews, etc

Modern Portfolio | $25 | Details | Demo

A fully customizable CMS theme – you can easily create a whole site with a homepage, subpages and a blog. I wanted to make it as user friendly as possible while still giving you full control over your content.

Domain Names

DesignBro.com | $130 | Details

Excellent name for a design blog

WeAreCEO.com | $150 | Details

The best name for a new interactive studio or freelancing blog

Geeksigner.com | $150 | Details

Amazing name for a portfolio or design blog

Logovernight.com | $250 | Details

Great name for a logo design service or a logo inspiration gallery

HTMLizard.com | $200 | Details

Creative name for a Design & Dev related service or blog

UndrConstruction.com | $250 | Details

Amazing domain for a killer portfolio or fresh design blog

DesignRevenge.com  | $150 | Details

Amazing name for a design blog

Bookmarkable.net | $100 | Details

Perfect name for a new design blog or a CSS gallery

Zupersonic.com | $250 | Details

Great for a personal or company portfolio or even a product

DailyBird.net | $150 | Details

Cool domain for any Twitter related stuff

Under Construction Templates

Web 2.0 Clean ‘Under Construction’ Page | $4 | Details

A simple and clean web 2.0 ‘Under Construction’ page with Valid XHTML / CSS, Modern and Clean design, Jquery countdown plugin, PSDs, and Easy to setup simple documentation.

Under Construction Page With Twitter & Live Pie Graph | $5 | Details

Make sure your visitors know whats going on with this Under construction site template that features a feed of your latest tweets (which can be easily removed if you dont use twitter) and a pie chart that is easy to change to reflect your progress

Xzero Under Construction HTML Page | $5 | Details

This template can be used for websites which are down for maintenance and for new domains while coding/designing the website. This template is very easy to use and help your visitors to contact you

Server Error Pages – 404, 403, 500, more! | $5 | Details

This is a clean, web 2.0 design for website/server error pages. It is flexible and very easy to customize. It comes with 5 of the most common error pages (404, 403, 401, 500 and 503) but it’s very easy to add more if needed

Oops…404 page template | $4 | Details

This is a nice, clean modern and solid template for your 404 page. It is designed to go straight to the point. It also has a place for navigation, so that user doesn’t have to click the back button

If you have something to say about the first edition of the guide or to suggest other interesting bits & pieces for the design community please use the comments.

OK, everybody knows that Collis Ta’eed is the man with the plan for the Envato empire, but he’s got the best ninja to build all those beautifully crafted websites. Hello Derek!

Inspired: Hello Derek, thanks for taking the time for this interview, I know from your tweets you have a very busy schedule lately. Could you please tell us a bit about yourself and your design background?

Derek: I originally became interested in design or art when I was a little kid, but the first time I really got into design was in the early 90’s when I started doing murals and  wall art with my friends (AKA graffiti). I guess the first time I became interested in web design and development though was in 2003 when I found out about social networking and how I could use the various sites to showcase my music. I originally got into basic CSS to learn how to edit my MySpace page (believe it or not) back when it was a decent place to showcase your musical talents and not your other assets. During that time I was working as a music producer/engineer, going to college, and holding down a part time graphic design job in a high stress bureaucratic job from hell; which was the catalyst for me becoming a full time freelancer because I hate having a boss.

Freelance Switch

Anyhow, long story short I gave up music took some classes on CSS/XHTML and PHP, as well as, changed my major and started on a path towards a degree in Computer Systems Application development. A fancy term for a code geek. I find that a bit funny though because I’m more of a creative person than that title could ever represent. Valen Designs actually started as Valen Graphics and was geared towards design work only. It eventually changed when I found I was looking for jobs as a coder more often than a designer so the name was slightly changed to fit a broader audience.

What was your first design job?

I use to be a print designer and my first paying job was creating advertising posters and fliers for music production companies. To be truthful, I didn’t really like it that much, web is where it’s at for me.

I bet every single one of our readers has seen your work for the Envato crew (PSD Tuts+, Freelance Switch, and Creattica Daily to name just a few). What did you do exactly for these websites? Design, Wordpress hacks, developing 100%?

My roll at Envato is to take the designs Collis send to me and turn them into a fully functional custom WordPress web site. I take the psd’s once Collis is finished with them and we discuss what functionality is needed and if there is an already existing site what will become legacy code and what will be phased out. It’s actually a very short discovery process because Collis and I both seem to get on the same page really quickly.

Once that’s done I start doing the CSS/XHTML, JavaScript, and custom functions in order to turn the design in a WordPress theme. Collis and I also discuss and deciding what plugins we need and how things are going to work so the site can function at its best.

In some cases I have even been know to write a plugin or two to extend the functionality of the theme beyond the basic functions.php. In a nutshell, Collis designs while I make all of his requests a reality using CSS, WordPress, jQuery, PHP and on occasion a smidgen of Rails. In the end, I build web sites for Envato, but I don’t design them.

Mac App Storm

So at this moment, if you had to choose just one position, you would recommend yourself as a UI designer, a backend developer, or a Wordpress ninja?

I would say WordPress Ninja with a healthy side of UI design would best describe my abilities. Mainly, because I do a lot of design that never goes in my portfolio but my strongest assets is WordPress manipulation. I think a lot of the time most clients seems to butcher web sites once you pass them off, so I don’t add them unless I know they are going to leave it that way for a while and is why you see a lot of Envato sites in my Portfolio.

What is your favorite Envato web site that you’ve worked on and why?

That is a really hard question. I have been involved with almost every new Envato site built on WordPress for the last year and to pick a favorite is tough. I really liked building the Tuts+ Dashboard because of the awesome JavaScript that went into that, but theming aMember was a bit horrific. I guess if I had to pick I would say Freelance Switch and for two reasons. First, it’s an amazingly well designed site and an interesting opportunity to work on WordPress, bbPress, and Rails all at the same time. Also, it really stretch my abilities and I got to learn a lot while doing it. Second, I remember when I was freelancing pre-Envato and came across that web site and was like, “I want to build stuff like this” and now I had the pleasure of being one of the three who made that site a reality was a huge deal for me. It’s not everyday that you get a chance to rebuild a site you hold in such high regard.

How do you know when a project is “ready”?

Another tough question. Really, what it comes down to is if all the requirements have been met and you feel good about it and a couple fresh eyes have checked links to make sure you didn’t forget anything or make spelling errors. There is no rule that says if you have done this you are ready to launch. It’s all just making sure everything is working correctly, all the tickets are finished, and whichever team or person you’re currently working with also feels it’s good to go. Then we push it out to the world and hope you guys fall in love with it.

Creattica Daily

You recently published a post about the larger 1200px wide design for the new version of Creattica Daily. Do you think we could start thinking of a wider standard for web design?

I think that eventually there might be a shift in the width of web sites as computers mature and as the masses upgrade their old machine. It wasn’t that long ago that 800px was the standard and in the past few months I have personally built quite a few sites that utilized at least 1000px, so it’s not that far fetched to think that 1200px is right around the corner.

Do you have any time management tips you’d like to share?

I would not take time management tips from me. I’m the worst at managing my time and making sure I’m following a set plan. I work crazy odd hours and do my best work under pressure and fully stressed. Don’t work like I do, find a healthier way to get things done, that’s my advise.

You run Valen Designs – a solo studio. What do you enjoy about being on your own, and not in a design firm environment?

Design firms pay less and work you until there is nothing left to give. To me it seems like large firms strip away your creativity, at least that was my experience. I would say if you can or really have the drive, freelancing is definitely the way to go. On the downside, if you don’t have the clientele it can be very discouraging at first.

Valen Designs

I know you were thinking of hiring a sidekick from Portland. Is the offer still valid?

I’ve been toying with the idea of hiring someone, but they would need to work out my home office. Mainly, because I’m a control freak LOL and I want someone who will learn how I work and code how I code. I don’t want to loose my credibility so they need to be close and I can keep an eye on their work.

So to answer your question, yes I’m looking for someone but I might have found them already. I’m just in the process or seeing what they know and don’t know.

What could you tell us about your inspiration sources?

Well, I’m a Mac fanatic so a lot of the stuff that I’m currently designing reflects that kind of style. As well, Collis has been a pretty huge source of inspiration. I did a lot more designing before I started working with Envato, but the style I had at the time was very similar and for me was a perfect situation because I already coded the way Collis designs. Also, there are many many galleries out there that come in handy when you are looking to get some ideas about color or what have you. When I first started I would look at cssmania.com a lot for ideas and inspiration.

As a WP expert what tips do you have for designers who are interested in creating WordPress themes?

The WordPress codex is your freaking BFF. As well, I found the forums to be a big help for the tougher questions I had when starting out. When I began using WordPress there wasn’t any books written on the subject so I had to learn from trial and error. I guess the most useful tip I can give is download some of the free white label theme frameworks and learn how to take your sliced psd’s and integrating them into one of those. There really isn’t a correct way to learn, just whatever feels right for you. I say learn as much CSS as you can and theming will become easier.

You’re one of the most popular authors on Theme Forest with Sharp theme scoring almost 400 sales. When do you plan to release a new theme and how could you describe it?

I don’t make many themes because of my limited time to code and support them. I have one coming in the next month or so that will be interesting. It’s for showcasing various groups or collections of web related stuff. It’s kind of hard to explain without giving it away completely.

PSD Tuts Plus

Any current or future projects you would like to talk about?

I have a lot of projects that I’m working on right now, but the one I really like is the Billing/Project Management App I’m doing as a solo project. Hopefully I will find some more free time to work on it so I can give you a more legit timeline but for now it’s only me working on it and it might be a while before it launches. Another project coming up is the Envato marketplace blogs are all getting a makeover, so keep an eye out for that.

If you had to give our readers one ultimate advice, what would that be?

Be obsessive and don’t let other people tell you what you should do with your life.

What would you like to receive for your birthday?

Wow, interesting question. I would like a really big party with tons of available pool tables.

How can our readers socialize with you online?

The best way to socialize would be at @valendesigns or on my blog at http://valendesigns.com/notebook.

Thanks for the interview Derek, you gave us amazing insights, good luck with all your projects!

Thank you for being interested enough in my work to ask me these questions, it’s very exciting and I’m honored. Cheers!

Bottomline: Derek is a modest, awesome, and very talented all-in-one web ninja who almost never sleeps. Word!

The first installment of our brand new Shopping Guide is here to help you decide what kind of digital goodies you should get for your web projects. We have 10 new Wordpress themes, 10 highly creative domain names, and 10 ready made logos + brand packages you should get your hands on before everybody else!

Wordpress Themes

Blue Glow | $25 | Details | Demo

Clean and appealing Portfolio/Corporate Worpress Theme with CMS functionality, JQuery homepage slider with a little bit of custom touch, JQuery Lightbox, Working Ajax based contact form, Live form email validation, and Valid XHTML /CSS – Clean, commented code

Minimal | $25 | Details | Demo

This template is packed with great features: Custom Fading Taglines, Easy to edit, large home promo items, Custom admin page: edit colors, options, tagline, footer and much more!, Custom widgets: Social Media, Stylish Recent Posts, and 4 Sidebars

Circo | $25 | Details | Demo

This theme is a fixed layout built with 960 grid System and best suitable for all types of business and a corporate business sites, Company Portfolio, Freelancer Portfolio or blog sites who want to have it in web 2.0

Pressfolio | $25 | Details | Demo

Pressfolio is a clean and modern wordpress theme that can be used for blogs and portfolios. Pressfolio is highly customizable and has many backend options. I´m answering the emails within 24 hours

Coffee Break | $70 | Details | Demo

Coffee Break is a professional theme built specifically to showcase your business, services or products. Heavily influenced by our recent WooThemes re-design, and packed full of loads of in-built theme options, you have complete control over what pages display on the home page

Proeminence | $25 | Details | Demo

Prominence is the Wordpress version of the popular HTML theme, and is a clean and fresh design geared towards portfolio/marketing, although the layout can be used in many different contexts

Concept | $25 | Details | Demo

This theme is a complete Wordpress Theme, designed from the ground up to function as a comprehensive Wordpress theme that can be used for just about any site that needs a beautiful layout

WP Show | $25 | Details | Demo

wpShow is a video theme for your blog enables you to feature videos as posts alongside with the regular blog posts

Chronicle | $35 | Details | Demo

The Chronicle blueprint is a Wordpress theme designed for community websites. If you would like to build a strong community then this template is for you

Mortar | $ 70 | Details | Demo

Domain Names

DesignRevenge.com  | $150 | Details

Amazing name for a design blog

Bookmarkable.net | $100 | Details

Perfect name for a new design blog or a CSS gallery

Zupersonic.com | $250 | Details

Great for a personal or company portfolio or even a product

DailyBird.net | $150 | Details

Cool domain for any Twitter related stuff

DesignBro | $130 | Details

Excellent name for a design blog

WeAreCEO.com | $150 | Details

The best name for a new interactive studio or freelancing blog

Geeksigner.com | $150 | Details

Amazing name for a portfolio or design blog

Logovernight.com | $250 | Details

Great name for a logo design service or a logo inspiration gallery

HTMLizard.com | $200 | Details

Creative name for a Design & Dev related service or blog

UndrConstruction.com | $250 | Details

Amazing domain for a killer portfolio or fresh design blog

Brand Packs: identity + domain name

Tee Bone | $400 | Details

Bones of a t-shirt. “what makes a T-shirt” Suitable for clothing business or an online T-shirt shop

Travel Log | $750 | Details

A stretch away from your standard “travelogue”… This would be great for an online travel site, a site hosting travel reviews, or a company with an eco friendly edge

Urban City | $499 | Details

I’ve designed this one for use in a crest that contain the name, or all by itself. plenty of use in mortgage, urban enterprises and of course real estate

Bonylove | $850 | Details

Bonylove is a brand great for anything connected to puppies, dog food, toys, dog fashion. It can also fit for other things where it can find its place

Meatweet | $750 | Details

Horror Films | $400 | Details

Its so simple, its scary. Use your imagination for the mark

Piano Forest | $500 | Details

Trees displaying piano keys

Viralabs | $1800 | Details

Viral marketing experts

Fishicle | $300 | Details

Fishicle logo is combined with fish+vehicle and is designed with a abstract vehicle feel.Great for any travel, transport related services

Night Walks | $600 | Details

I think night walks would be a great brand for everything about night life, especially for a night life events search engine. don’t you know what to do this night? follow the walking star

If you have something to say about the first edition of the guide or to suggest other interesting bits & pieces for the design community please use the comments.

Yay, we’re 6 months old already! Thank you for being with us all this time and here’s a glimpse of what’s coming next

New Look

As some of you already noticed, we got a new facelift – nothing major – but with a better readability, more focus on the content, some search-related improvements, new comments area design, a new box in the header where you’ll find hot info every day, and an overall fresh touch by Derek from Valen Designs. We still have quite a few things to add, so stay tuned!

What’s Next

• a fresh article every day, no matter what, sometimes even in the weekend
• new interview series with the most creative guys in the design field (starting tomorrow with a webdesign superstar, stay tuned!)
• more exclusive freebies & discounts every Tuesday
• the new Digital Goodies Shopping Guide, starting later today
• at least one Inspired original release per month (like the Social Bird Icon Pack)
• some other secret projects we’re not telling you about yet :]

Thank you’s

• you, our 5k daily readers, 9k RSS subscribers & 17k Twitter followers
• Derek from Valen Designs for this awesome design and Casey from FireHost for hosting and securing our website
• Mills of ustwo™, Wes from Brandstack, Simon from Moo, Cory from Surreal CMS, Damian from DesignersCouch, Pavel from WPzoom, Brandon from ShrinkTheWeb, and the WPbest & FreshBooks teams for being kind enough to support our website
• @smashingmag @mayhemstudios @abduzeedo @adii @chrisspooner @styletime @chriswallace @cheth @andysowards @mistygirlph @minervity @cristianvasile @iblend @wpstudios and all our other Twitter friends that help us spread the word