This is a guest post by Jan Rajtoral AKA Gonzo the Great, founder of gonzodesign, who provides design services across the full spectrum of Brand Identity, Graphic Design, Print and Advertising Design & Website Design.

In this new series of posts we’re going to take a look at what has been published last month in the Blogosphere. We hand-picked the best stuff including resources, tutorials, scripts/snippets, WordPress related posts and a lot more. All these design-related links have been mentioned on Twitter in the last month, and collated in this single article. So, I hope you’ll enjoy this roundup cause we think that having resources and staying up-to-date is important in your personal growth and development as a (web) designer or developer.

HTML, CSS, PhP, Coding & Resources

HTML5 Please - Look up HTML5, CSS3, etc features, know if they are ready for use, and if so find out how you should use them – with polyfills, fallbacks or as they are. Use the new and shiny responsibly.

When can I use… Support tables for HTML5, CSS3, etc - Compatibility tables for support of HTML5, CSS3, SVG and more in desktop and mobile browsers.

PHP script to find malicious code on a hacked server - When hackers get into a server, they often modify files to inject malicious code, install PHP backdoor scripts, or modify .htaccess to redirect requests to another site.

Filament Group’s Open Source Code Repositories - This page will serve as a centralized list of all projects, which we’ll keep updated as we develop new widgets and techniques. Look below for links to downloadable code, live demos, and articles explaining our thought process

Javascript Best Practices - a list of best practices and preferred ways of developing javascript code, based on opinions and experience from many developers in the javascript community. Since this is a list of recommendations rather than a list of absolute rules.

The State Of HTML5 Video - HTML5 has entered the online video market, which is both exciting and challenging for developers in the industry. Our State of HTML5 Video Report is a place for us to share with other developers/users in the industry just what HTML5 can and cannot support.

The Lowdown on :Before and :After in CSS - What is a pseudo-element and how does it differ from a pseud-class? Why do pseudo-elements sometimes have one colon and sometimes have two? How are :before and :after implemented in CSS?

Using webfonts to insert characters or symbols in a website - In this article I am not gonna talk about the greatness of webfonts in general—the opportunity to pick any type style we want for our website—or the possibility to use sets of vector pictograms instead of bitmap images.

Responsive Data Table Roundup - The idea of the original was to abandon the grid layout of the table and make each cell it’s own line. Each of those lines is labeled with a pseudo element. This creates a much taller table, requiring more vertical scrolling, but does not require horizontal scrolling.

Design • Curate - Design Curate is a collection of free and commercial resources for designers. All our free resources are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license.

Tutorials

Filter Functionality with CSS3 - Using the general sibling combinator and the :checked pseudo-class, we can toggle states of other elements by checking a checkbox or a radio button. In this tutorial we will be exploring those CSS3 properties by creating a experimental portfolio filter that will toggle the states of items of a specific type.

(Better) Tabs with Round Out Borders - A good-looking tab control usually has one feature that I’ve always found impossible to reproduce without images: borders that bend to the outside at the bottom of each tab. In this article I would like to show how you can use the CSS :before and:after pseudo elements to create this effect without using images.

Textarea Auto Resize - On a current project, I was trying to find a way to auto-resize a textarea according to some content that would be loaded in dynamically via Ajax. I didn’t know the height of the content and the textarea element doesn’t resize naturally like other HTML elements, so I needed to update the height of the element with JavaScript each time the content changed.

CSS Buttons with Pseudo-Elements – I’ve been experimenting with the power of CSS pseudo-elements, specially when it comes to mixing them with buttons and that way recreating some great effects that were only possible to do with sprites, in the past. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to create buttons with a twist, using just one anchor tag per button and the great power of CSS.

git – the simple guide - just a simple guide for getting started with git. no deep shit ;)

Tools (web applications, bookmarklets, frameworks etc.)

3×4 Grid Builder - Drag and drop. View the code. Grid Builder enables you to easily build an HTML grid with a simple drag and drop interface.

deCSS3 - A bookmarklet for testing your graceful degradation. Use this bookmarklet to get a whiff of what your site will look like on older browsers that don’t support CSS3 (Currently supports: Chrome, Safari).

Initializr - With Great Templates Comes Great Responsivity! (Responsive Template, boilerplate code of a responsive layout)

Fbootstrapp - Fbootstrapp is a toolkit designed to kickstart development of facebook iframe apps in both relevant sizes. It includes base CSS and HTML for typography, forms, buttons, tables, grids, navigation, and more, styled in the typical facebook look and feel.

dabblet- an interactive playground for quickly testing snippets of CSS and HTML code. It uses -prefix-free, so that you won’t have to add any prefixes in your CSS code. You can save your work in Github gists, embed it on websites and share it with others.

CSSrefresh - CSSrefresh is a small, unobstructive javascript file that monitors the CSS-files included in your webpage. As soon as you save a CSS-file, the changes are directly implemented, without having to refresh your browser.

w3clove - Site-wide markup validation. There’s no need to manually submit all your URLs. Just give us the URL of your home page and we’ll scrape it to get its internal links.

WebINK’s free plugin – Server based Font management, use real web fonts in Photoshop for your web designs. Design with Google and WebINK web fonts.

Bootstrap Generator - Kick-start your Twitter Bootstrap project the way you want. Simply alter some options and click “Generate” to get your compiled Bootstrap CSS file.

Gridpak - an interactive web application for generating responsive grid layouts very quickly. Once you have setup the layout, a custom download is ready which includes a CSS, LESS, SCSS file, etc.

hextone – A great tool to convert HEX color codes to RGB

jQuery Plugins, Javascript, etc.

impress.js - It’s a presentation tool inspired by the idea behind prezi.com and based on the power of CSS3 transforms and transitions in modern browsers.

Scrollorama - The jQuery plugin for doing cool scrolly stuff (any numeric CSS property). Design and build your site, dividing your content into blocks. Embed scrollorama.js after jQuery and initialize the plugin, passing the blocks class selector as a parameter.

Sugar - Sugar is a Javascript library that extends native objects with helpful methods. It is designed to be intuitive, unobtrusive, and let you do more with less code.

Lightbox_me - Lightbox_me is an essential tool for the jQuery developer’s toolbox. Feed it a DOM element wrapped in a jQuery object and it will lightbox it for you, no muss no fuss.

slabText – a jQuery plugin for producing big, bold & responsive headlines. Put simply, the script splits headlines into rows before resizing each row to fill the available horizontal space.

PxLoader - A Javascript library that helps you download images, sound files or anything else you need before you take a specific action on your site (like showing a user interface or starting a game). You can use it to create a preloader for HTML5 games and websites.

ResponsiveSlides.js - ResponsiveSlides.js is a tiny jQuery plugin that creates a responsive slideshow using images inside a single container. It work with wide range of browsers including all IE versions from IE6 and up.

CraftMap - jQuery plugin that converts a simple image into a functional map. Like Google Maps, you can place your own marker icons and add location information to specific markers with a draggable image interface.

Popcorn.js – An HTML5 media framework written in JavaScript for filmmakers, web developers, and anyone who wants to create time-based interactive media on the web. Popcorn.js is part of Mozilla’s Popcorn project.

TextExt Plugin for jQuery - TextExt’s modular design allows you easily turn a standard HTML text input into a wide range of modern, tailored to your needs input field without bloating your source code and slowing down your site with the code that you aren’t using.

Arctext.js – The main idea behind the Arctext plugin is to rotate letters with CSS3 transforms in order to place them along a curved path. The curve is always a segment of a circle (hence arc) for which the radius can be specified.

Sharrre (Social Sharing jQuery Plugin) - All sharing buttons are different, with Sharrre you can create uniform buttons to integrate with your designs. With Sharrre, the API buttons are called on demand and once, regardless of how many buttons you have.

Font.js: A Powerful Font Toolkit for JavaScript - a little font toolkit for your JavaScript that is kind of akin to the built-in Image object but for Fonts.  It gives you font loading events using a technique perfected in Mozilla’s pdf.js project, metrics information, and a better version of the canvas element’s measureText method with additional information such as height, bounding box, and leading.

WordPress Related

Weever app for WordPress - a free new HTML5 tool to build a mobile app for your WordPress site.

slYder – Lightweight WordPress Slider - slYder is an extremely lightweight wordpress slider, it allows you to add an extremely lightweight wordpress content slider anywhere in your theme via template tag or wordpress shortcode.

How to Customize the WordPress 3.3 Toolbar - You can make the WordPress interface easier for clients by removing unnecessary menus, widgets and meta boxes. However, in WordPress 3.3, the admin and header bars have been merged to create a single toolbar.

Yoast’s WordPress SEO vs All in One SEO Pack - There are currently two very popular WordPress plugins to help you strengthen your site’s search engine friendliness. Yoast’s WordPress SEO Plugin and the Grand old Daddy of SEO plugins, All in One SEO Pack.

How To Create Custom Taxonomies In WordPress - The following release of 3.1 included many features to enhance support of custom taxonomies. Better import and export handling, advanced queries with tax_query, hierarchical support, body classes and a bunch of wonderful functions to play with were all part of the package.

The WordPress Gallery Shortcode: A Comprehensive Overview - If you haven’t had the chance to use the WordPress Gallery Shortcode in the past, this is going to be a great starting out point for you. For others who have used it, we are going to be covering some features of the shortcode that you might not have considered yet.

The Ultimate WordPress Theme Development Glossary - This post is an attempt to provide a glossary for the common terms used in WordPress Themes. This glossary will help new WordPress users understand the features offered by a theme and they can make informed ..

Prevent Password Reset WordPress Plugin - It adds a checkbox to the “Personal Options” section of each user’s profile page in the WordPress admin, once this option is selected for a user, their password cannot be reset via the “lost password” form.

The Ultimate Quickstart Guide to Speeding Up Your WordPress Site - In this tutorial we will cover all aspects of W3 caching, ySlow, Google page speed, CSS sprites & htaccess rules, to achieve a high ySlow score like i have done on my blog.

If you want to stay up-to-date with the latest articles and resources from the design community, you should follow Inspired Magazine on Twitter.

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Tweet Heat – The hottest Tweets of the Month [January 2012]

I have very mixed feelings about social media. And that’s why it’s almost taken until now to really start to work with these tools in a business capacity.

For all the benefits that it provides, I have had some serious hang-ups when joining, and participating in, social media.

And, I’ll tell you why.

Loss of Content Ownership

In the fine print, Facebook lets you know that when you post things on their site, that content no longer belongs to you, it belongs to them. By virtue of using their service, that picture of you and your sweetheart overlooking the Grand Canyon on that vacation you’ll always remember no longer belongs to you. It belongs to Zuckerberg. And, why would he want that picture of you and your girlfriend anyway…

The Perfect Audience… for Paid Advertisers.

What has been created is something that doesn’t resemble the web at all, at least not what it was intended to be. The web used to be a place where anonymity and free exchange of ideas was the point of the “inter-net”. It connected people when and how they wanted to be connected. Since you didn’t have to share your personal information with a cadre of highly-trained software analysts/behavior manipulators, you were free to be honest. The problem with social networking sites is that there are levels of honesty, and different ways you can interact. But, Facebook tracks it all. Then serves you up advertisements that they think you’ll like. Rat in a cage?

It goes even deeper in that Facebook’s news feed, learns from your behavior and sends you items that you are more likely to like, and interact with – not necessarily what’s actually going on around you – a filtered version of what’s going on – to keep you addicted to facebook. The problem lies in “filter bubbles” as Eli Pariser calls them. Take a look at this amazing Ted Talk for more information:

Man Power

Who’s going to run it? Everytime I have a client ask about social media – this is my question to them. The truth is – like any medium – you get out of it what you put in – and Social Media may in fact be even more man power intense in this regard. You can/should be on networks constantly (and there are whole companies that ONLY do this!) in order to maximize the effectiveness of your social media campaigns (and catch any positive or negative situations to properly guide them).

Avoiding the Unavoidable

Everyone is on some kind of network these days. You (and I’m really telling myself this) must be where your clients are.

So, forgive me for my hesitation, though I feel that I was (am) thoughtful about my reasoning, but I’m now at the table. We’re “social” and it’s really cool. So, drop me a line if you think that I was being a bit neurotic. Drop me a line if you think I wasn’t. Or just hit me up with your Twitter links in the comments, and I’ll chase after your tweets!

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On Social Media

We asked the CSS Awards team to create a selection with the greatest submissions from the last week. Check them out below and suggest other entries in the comments! Also, feel free to submit here other cool finds or your own creations.

Ascension Latorre

ala

We are Royale

Planilandia Agencia Creativa

Phil Martinez Design

AGENCE CRAC

Cassius

Cymetriq Studio

Sir John A Day

inTacto 10 years

Parnas

Virrral

paiko

Vuu Media

screendesigner.ideenfrische

Kathy Gomez R

Chiara Pontiggia

Edoardo Leo

ORCIANI

Unit Portables

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CSS Awards – 20 Beautifully Designed Websites

For those of you who have been waiting expectantly on the edge of your seats for my next article to inspire your imagination and spark you to even greater heights (okay, that’s enough of the soaring rhetoric, I won’t be running for office any time soon!), this article is about what I consider to be one of the best training and educational tools available in the web development realm.

Team Tree House: Web Development Made Fun

“Gamification” is a relatively new term that uses graphic “awards” to show progress – to inspire continued performance. The experts over at TeamTreeHouse.com have used this carrot system to teach web design and iOs application development to iNoobs.

Founded by Ryan Carson, web-trepreneuer Team Treehouse is boasting a 49% increase in membership each month. They’ve been featured in the Wall Street Journal. They’re giving aspiring web designers, app developers, and web-trainees the education they need at a fraction of the cost of a computer sciences degree.

No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers’ dirty looks!

Serial Web Entrepreneur Hires Outrageous Talent to Teach

And I guess that was the inspiration for spinning Team Tree House (formerly Think Vitamin) into a gamified alternative to the classroom. And, it works. And, it’s relevant.

According to their inspiring mission statement:

Our goal is to teach Web Design, Web Development and iOS, to everyone in the World who wants to learn. Millions of people can’t afford a quality technical education, or if they can, it’s out of date immediately when they graduate. We aim to change that.

Staying Abreast (can I write that?) of Technology

Kudos to you, TeamTreeHouse for the visionary goal. As an owner of a Fort Myers Web Design Firm, I have seen web designers fresh out of college or “tech” school who have all the skills necessary to be successful web developers and designers. These “noobs” spend a couple of years without work (thank you foreclosure crisis and economic recession) and their skills are nearly obsolete.

Technology changes just too fast for you to blink for a moment. If you do, it’s gone and you’re back to the drawing board…

Different Kind of Chalk Board, Better Knowledge

And, that’s where Ryan Carson and his crew of deadly expert staff enter. They’ll keep you out of school (good thing – in my opinion), teach you what you need to know, and… *pregnant pause* …even make it fun.

Okay, inhale again. I know, my techno-nerds, this is just what you were waiting for. But don’t take my word for it. Click on over to judge for yourselves and see if those techies can’t take you to the treetops of design (over the top with the extended metaphor, I know, but I had to do it!).

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Team Tree House Rocks

We asked the CSS Awards team to create a selection with the greatest submissions from the last week. Check them out below and suggest other entries in the comments! Also, feel free to submit here other cool finds or your own creations.

Life in my Shoes

2Fly Comunicação

adevby.me

Swift Sport

Atomic United / Creative studio

Timberland Mountain Athletics

Dear Seven

Pixus Interactive

Kings of Mambo

Interaktiva Digital Marketing

poglie.com

Source4Style

Dawid Wadach

design technology

Besser Leben mit Lehm

CaptainDash

MOST BEAUTIFUL CAR OF THE YEAR 2011

Alain Rodriguezz

Giutzy

Joanna Ostafin’s portfolio

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CSS Awards – 20 Fabulous New Websites For Your Inspiration

A while back our team launched the Boosted platform, a series of fun social media-focused games on behalf of Samsung and Intel. The first was Tweetwrap, which is fairly self explanatory, the second, Tweetcracker, allowed you to discover clues to a secret combination and eventually crack a real safe with a laser.

The encore took a bit longer to come up with.

After a slew of ideas relating to the speed of the Series 7 notebook computer, our clients asked us to pull back and focus on ideas relating to clue-based gaming that made Tweetcracker so successful.

The idea for Secret Sites came during one of those obnoxiously cliche moments when people claim inspiration strikes – neither my partner Anthony Dines nor I remember which one of us actually came up with the final idea, and it happened after we felt like we had exhausted concepts for the day.

We had talked about stashing Series 7’s around the United States using its web cam to give visual clues of its location. It was complex, out of budget, and didn’t feel creative enough to be called Boosted, but the nugget of the idea was there – a clue-based scavenger hunt.

We were talking about hiding clues on funny websites around the Internet when one of us said “How about hiding the websites themselves?” Then we wrote the puzzle on a piece of paper: www._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _  _.com. We had our idea, and added the incentive that the fastest person to find a site could win a Series 7.

Our social media team helped us focus our executions to single-serving sites, the “knock-knock jokes” of the Internet. We had a few sites in mind like www.TheHillsRaliveWiththeSoundofMusak.com but wanted to open the forum to all Barbarians on an internal email thread. Rye, our senior strategist from the Austin office, thought of ScratchandSniffWebsite.com.  And ladyzombo.com pays homage to the godfather of single serving sites, zombo.com. We moved on with whatever made us laugh the most, and wrote the remainder. One of our favorites, clientdreamwebsite.com was a bit of an inside joke about the push/pull between clients and their agencies (make the logo bigger! more product!) with a slightly hidden long scroll dialogue.

Every site is branded with contextually relevant ads, all driving to the Series 7 product page. There’s branding, but it is fun, and in the context of something people actually get a kick out of.

Each Boosted campaign is not just an exercise in growing a fan base from scratch; it’s a study in how to communicate a particularly influential, but jaded, type of audience. We couldn’t have made it without TBG’s love of weird Internet culture that attracts the notoriously finicky techie target. For Samsung and Intel, Boosted is turning into something more than an experimental side project and informing what it means to earn attention through cool experiences rather than stealing attention through a banner ad.

—

Oh hey, we’re The Barbarian Group. We’re a digital-centric creative agency. Which means we think the Internet has finally won, and become the most important channel in people’s lives–just like we always knew it would. So from brand planning, to attention-grabbing ideas, to innovative applications, products and platforms, we combine strategy, technology, creative and media to make everything brands need to navigate this awesome new world.

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Wanna Know a Secret?

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Top 5 Tumblr Themes for Photographers

For years I’ve been asked “how can you not be an Apple guy? Don’t you do web design…?”

Yup, and nope, I’m not (or wasn’t) a “Mac/Apple” guy.

My History With Apple Mac

Let me go back 15 years. My first computer was a Mac. I couldn’t even tell you what model it was. I’m not sure how many family came to own it, or what purpose it was supposed to serve. But after years of sitting in the attic I turned it on and to my surprise – was able to find the “making of Myst” video buried on its hard drive. The idea that I could double click this file and watch a video play was pretty amazing.

Through school, most of the computers I used were Macs (up until High-school) – who didn’t love Myst and The Oregon Trail! Ohh and don’t forget Mavis Beacon.

Once in High School everything switched, every computer I was using was now a PC (Windows 98 was the devil). But, they were inexpensive, you could build a really powerful one for relatively cheap and my friends and I were really into computer games…

About this time I was also allowed to use my Bosses nice 17″ Macbook pro for extended periods which was a nice change.

My Macbook Today

After a month of using the macbook almost daily I’ve got a much larger perspective on the Mac vs. PC debate that has raged for some years – and some insight on why it’s now irrelevant.

Disclaimer – the Macbook I’m using is a little dated – 2.1 GHZ Dual Core Processor, and 4GB Ram. 

Pros of the Macbook

To some extent I think the pros of the Macbook simply come down to software, and the packaging. Now that everything is Intel there’s virtually no difference in the actual processing capabilities, speed, etc.

The Case – The Macbook feels more solid than other laptops I’ve used, it feels like a brick, is perfectly sized for daily use (mostly surfing the web, emailing, writing, etc.)

Mousepad – Sucks on most other computers – I really like the one on my macbook, plus the ability to right click in what I’ve discovered is a more natural way (with three fingers) is very helpful – although that might be equal parts software.

Other – The magnetic power cord is great. Has already saved me a couple of times!

The Software – Using OS X is nice – 10.5.8. – it’s pretty user friendly and straight forward, although it’s hard to put myself into an inexperienced users shoes. There’s things I like about OS X, but little I love.

Networking – Networking can be a pain in the ass, and although competitors like windows have made strides to make this easier, Mac OS X and my macbook consistently, and flawlessly connect to networks with little or no hassle. It “just works” – for me it’s not that big of a deal as I can configure things myself, but for most, this alone is invaluable.

Cons of the Macbook

Overpriced – For the hardware you get, I feel you pay too much. I know there’s a lot behind the brand and the build quality is slightly better, but not worth the price premium.

Mac OS X – For its bells and whistles, I feel Windows 7 is a superior operating system. I can just do more – do it faster, and it feels peppier on similar hardware. Also, I wanted to test this system with Lion, but am unable to purchase a physical copy of Snow Leopard (which must be installed prior to upgrading to Lion via the new appStore)? Seems needlessly complicated.

Keyboard – I like the keyboard for conventional typing, but there are certain things, like using “command+” for various actions that seem more a strain for my hand than other environments. Plus, the absense of a delete AND backspace key sucks in some applications.

Applications – Again, there a number of issues here. There’s less of an offering for many applications or their sister applications seem less peppy, capable, or with less speedy interfaces than their Windows counter parts (for example I like the latest version of Outlook for OS X, but feel Windows’ is easier to use and I can get more done more quickly). Also I was asked to auto-upgrade the ONLY piece of software I purchased for the system and upon upgrading was told my new software was incompatible with the version of OS X I had. I found this very strange.

Overall I love my Macbook for writing, it’s lightweight, has great battery life and is more convenient than my other monstrous laptop. However, I was able to purchase this one in a very special case through a partner – if I had to choose for me personally, I’d save some money and buy a PC (or spend the same amount and get a more powerful computer).

Why The Mac vs. PC Debate is Over

EVERYONE I talk to think Mac’s are “cool.” They’re now an extension of one’s ego. To own a mac is to “cool.” However, even with the master branding Apple has managed to achieve, for all but the largest power users a stand alone computer is becoming unnecessary.

So am I a convert? Not entirely, Apple makes very nice, well built computers. I like the feel of using the computer. I enjoy the experience of the OS. But for my time and money, I prefer to use a more powerful Windows’ based computer.

PS – I think what the world really needs is a quality branded windows based computer. Something that lies between an Apple (which has “work[ed] very, very hard to convince customers to pay high margins” – Jeff Bezos - and the rest of the PC market (which has worked very, very hard to give customers extremely low margins.  A company with a similar eye for design, but a more modest price point. Dell has some really nice offerings, but they just don’t feel like the same build quality of an apple.

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Macbook (a PC Guy’s) First Impressions

Freebie Friday again here @ Inspired Mag – a special Christmas edition brought to you by our friends from Solo – an all-in-one Project Management tool for freelancers that integrates basic financial business stats, time-tracking and invoicing, with a twist. Solo combines great functionality with beautiful design and focuses on maximizing your use of time and business data. We’re giving away 5 premium yearly subscriptions! Scroll down to see how to grab the!

Overview

Solo is an all-in-one, Project Management tool that allows freelancers to make the most of their business data.

Here at Thrive we know how easy it is for freelancers to get wrapped up in a project and push the financial stuff to one side. In a world of decreasing profit margins and increasing competition we need to be as efficient as possible. Solo integrates basic financial business stats, invoicing and time-tracking in an affordable package; making it the ideal solution for solo workers looking to save both time and money.

What stands Solo apart from other Project Management tools is that it’s tailored specifically for freelancers and small business owners. The app places a huge emphasis on presenting complex business data in a clean, visual form and it’s stunning design is what makes it so appealing among creative minded professionals.

Whilst the minimalist design of Solo provides a very natural user experience, this is achieved without compromising attention to detail. Solo’s beautiful project dashboard page allows you to easily keep track of the day-to-day things that really matter; making managing finances so much more rewarding than scouring through cumbersome spreadsheets. The data is at your fingertips. What you do with it is up to you.

Solo: Beautiful Project Management for the modern freelancer

here are some of the benefits:

• Dashboard- YOUR BUSINESS OVERVIEW: The hub of the Solo experience. Allows you to easily keep track of the day-to-day things that really matter. Instant access to all of your core project data including; deadlines, daily tasks, hours worked and money earned.
• Projects- STAY IN CONTROL: Keep on top of your projects with Solo. Intelligently track how much time you’ve spent and what you’ve spent it on. Graphs show a visual project breakdown. Quickly see your quote, time to deadline, project progress and project contacts.
• Planner- BE ORGANIZED: Manage deadlines, milestones, meetings, tasks and to-dos all in one place. Keep up-to-date, you’ll never miss another meeting again (this isn’t a guarantee by the way). We’re also busy working on Apple iCal and Outlook integration.
• Invoicing- GET PAID ON TIME: Send branded invoices to your clients, Solo lets you know when they’re due to be paid, are overdue or need to be sent. Quickly look at turnover for your current year, month or week. In the future we’ll be offering Sage and QuickBooks integration.
• Contacts- STAY IN TOUCH: Easily import all of your contacts via vCard. Keep all of your contact details in one place. Attach a main contact to a project so they receive invoices etc. Store the contact data for all your clients, prospects and subcontractors.

WIN a 1-year Premium Subscriptions to Thrive’s Solo Project Management Tool

• tweet this: win 5 premium subscriptions to @ThriveSolo project management tool from @InspiredMag
  
• leave a comment telling us what would you use the subscription for

* Note: the giveaway is not available for current Solo subscribers.

We’ll randomly pick five winners and make the announce here next week. Good luck everybody!!

Winners:

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Inspired Giveaway: 5 Premium Subscriptions to Thrive’s Solo Project Management Tool

Before you go any further and jump to the 5 places to find a job in web design I would like to preface this post with a tip from someone that has hired dozens of web designers and web developers over the years:

Put yourself in your (future) bosses shoes. 

It’s that simple. From the very first step – that of finding a job that piques your interest – through the final hand shake or signature confirming your employment (and honestly for the rest of your career) – try to get inside your bosses head/shoes. And if you envision your future boss as a member of the opposite sex, feel free to cross dress.

Wait… what did he just write?

In all seriousness I’ve interviewed candidate after candidate that was very interested in the position and what it brought them. I understand – we’re all up in our own heads all of the time, but as an employer I would LOVE (and have hired) those that come to me who understand my needs, my company needs, and offer solutions.

Employers are usually problem definers, and problem solvers.

People come to my company not for a website, but for a solution (usually) to the problem of “I want more business.”

I have refined my ability to target the problem and present a solution over the years.

As a potential employee you’re doing the same thing – the reason you’re sending your resume, submitting an application, or walking through the front door for an interview…

…IS NOT TO…

• Project an image
• Explain your abilities in photoshop
• Prove you are a CSS goddess… etc.

…THE PROCESS OF GETTING A JOB IN WEB DESIGN (OR ANY INDUSTRY) REALLY INVOLVES…

• Figuring out what your future boss needs
• Proving you are the solution

5 Places Get Web Design Jobs

Okay, you’ve gone through our InspiredNoobs articles, or you’ve already mastered those beginner techniques. It’s time to venture into the real world and get a job! These 5 places are excellent to visit in your quest for a web design job.

1) Craigslist Web Design Jobs

A staple of employers and those looking to sell their dope apartments, craigslist should be the first place you look, if you’re looking locally.

Here’s why – everyone knows about Craigslist, and honestly – it’s free (in most places). Employers appreciate free, and much like dudes on ladies night, we flock to wherever there is action.

Oddly enough I’ve seen more people get jobs through Craigslist than any other service, even “fancy” jobs. (BTW “Fancy” in the preceding sentence should be pronounced in a southern accent.)

I would recommend craigslist as a great place to find a starting position in web design, or web design sales (particularly on a local basis). There may be an occasional hidden gem of a job for you more seasoned professionals, but for the most part this is bottom of the barrel hunting.

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2) SimplyHired

SimplyHired is a little different than the rest here as it’s more of an aggregate place for jobs (although you can still find directly posted web design jobs).

From their website: Simply Hired is a vertical search engine company based in Silicon Valley, and we’re building the largest online database of jobs on the planet. Our goal is to make finding your next job a simple yet effective, enjoyable journey. We can’t always promise you’ll discover your dream job, but we’ll give you the best chance possible to get a bigger paycheck, a more considerate boss, or a shorter commute.

One thing I love about simply hired – much like many of the other sites listed is that it isn’t free. Free is great, except it can bring a lot of noise – and garbage. At $100/job/month SimplyHired isn’t cheap and that can be a good thing for you as someone looking for a job. Remember you’re interviewing your future employer as much as they’re interviewing you!

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3) TheLadders

TheLadders has a weird name, until you realize it’s for those of you looking to “climb that ladder.”

And by “climb” I mean “whore” and by “ladder” I mean “body of yours out to the highest bidder because youre a soulless corporate cog.”

No, it’s for those of you looking for high-end jobs, and they focus on fancy titles and highend positions:

The more successful you become, the harder it is to find solid information about new job opportunities…. TheLadders strives to make the search for relevant positions quick and effective. Today, with over 4 million members, TheLadders is the world’s leading community of professional jobs and professional job seekers.

In all seriousness TheLadders is a fantastic place to find a great job in web design.

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4) 37Signals Jobs

Web developers use Basecamp.

Basecamp is a product of 37Signals. So it stands to reason that web developers will be looking at their job board – and great eyeballs mean great employers, potentially.

If you have the chops this (and the next item in the list) is the best place to look for a fantastic job. Organized by job role, jobs are only available for 30 days at which time they shrivel up, and disappear. Jobs on this board are extremely expensive at $400/job listing, so rest assured that only larger firms/agencies or premium companies (doesn’t the word “premium” make you think of coffee?) are adding their jobs.

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5) AuthenticJobs

Cameron Moll is one of the most respected names in Web Design – essentially inventing modern web development standards (HTML, CSS, Javascript) and educating a generation on best practices through his myriad of books. He taught me CSS, and I am eternally grateful (and I happen to have a lock of his hair posted on my “Moll Mold” an effigy of Cameron I created out of clay and grass. Just kidding.

Again… what did he just write?

Back to business. AuthenticJobs probably has the most high quality jobs (and a more international base) than any of the other sites here. What it lacks in the sheer volume provided by Craigslist, it more than balances out in quality. Much like the 37Signals’ job board, it’s only those “in the know” that frequent this jobs board so it will be of high value to you – the person reading this and seeking a “web design job.”

Good luck in your hunt, and if you have any web design job boards you would like to recommend (or shamelessly promote) please feel free to leave a comment!

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5 Inspired Places to Find a Job in Web Design