These changes have resulted in a clutter-free and visually uncomplicated experience for users. We are in the era of clean web design. To highlight this aesthetic, we’ve selected twenty-five websites that encapsulate the abovementioned factors. Each site, in its own unique way, showcases the beauty of clean design.

From minimalist layouts and bold typography to striking color schemes and simple navigation, these websites demonstrate the power of clean design to create a memorable and fantastic user experience. Whether you’re a web designer looking for inspiration or simply appreciate good web design, these sites are sure to impress.

Clean web design is here to stay, and it’s easy to see why. By focusing on content and simplifying the design elements, web designers can create sites that are both aesthetically pleasing and accessible. So, embrace it and explore the beauty of clean web design below!

The post 40 Beautiful Examples of Clean Web Design for Inspiration & Ideas appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

Still, for all of that high-tech beauty, there’s something to be said for the simplicity that classic pixel-based art brings to the table. It not only reminds us of the good old days, but it can also be an effective design technique.

Which brings us to today’s topic – the use of pixels as a background. On the right project, they can add an element of fun and a surprising amount of creativity. Let’s take a look at some code snippets that show the potential of the pixel.

The post 8 CSS & JS Snippets for Creating Pixelated Backgrounds appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

Remember, though, that being highly selective with its use is key to the success of the distortion, as users don’t typically like overly obtrusive effects. Tread carefully if you plan to make use of this tiny design trend.

Today, we have a collection of stunning CSS and JavaScript snippets for creating text distortion effects for your web design inspiration. Enjoy!

You might also like our collection of glitch effect Photoshop Actions.

The post 10 CSS & JavaScript Snippets for Text Distortion Effects appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

A good resume may be adequate in some job-seeking situations, but more often than not, good is not enough. In today’s competitive market, you need a resume that stands head and shoulders above the rest. You want a resume that tells a story, makes a great first impression, can open the door to a new career, or make, rather than break, a job application.

Your goal must be to create a resume that represents you to your best advantage; for that to happen, it must be not only presentable but polished until it positively gleams. Let’s make that happen.

Choose Your Fonts Wisely

There are two primary groups of fonts – serif and sans serif– each has its place.

Serif fonts stand out when larger font sizes are needed, but as they are reduced in size, they tend to become less legible, creating a cluttered look. Avoid using serif fonts in the main body of your resume. Save them for use in section headers.

Sans serif fonts should be your choice for the body text. A change in font between headers and the body can create visual separation and clarity. If, however, you want to stick with one font group, sans-serif should be your choice.

Your Personal Brand & the Importance of Uniformity

A strong degree of uniformity is essential to best promote your brand. What you don’t want is to have your resume, cover letter, and portfolio appear to have been created by three different people.

All of the elements that make up your application need to look professional, and that can best be achieved by treating your job application as an exercise in uniformity when it comes to presenting your brand.

Black type on a white background can say a lot, but it is not always the best way to convey your talent for creativity and uniqueness. A sample of your current work, a photo of yourself, or colors that reflect your brand will brighten up your resume.

That can say more about you and your creative talents than several paragraphs of text.

The Resume Layout is All-Important

A Well-Organized Layout

Organization may be dull, but lack of it will only distract and possibly confuse the reader. A well-planned, well-designed, and well-organized resume will make a statement about you – as can a poorly organized one!

Once you’ve completed the first draft, the next step is to edit it down to a single page. Your challenge then is to separate the content into visually digestible chunks. Most resumes lack that feature, one that will make yours stand out, which is what you want someone who has been plowing through resumes to notice.

Start with a Grid Structure

A good way to visually organize the layout for your resume is to start with a grid structure, complete with columns, rows, and visual spaces or dividers. By doing so, it is much easier for the recipient to focus on or refer to individual items of interest.

A prospective employer, who is in the midst of pouring through a series of look-alike resumes, will sit up and take notice of one that is a pleasure to read, and not a chore.

Keep It Simple

As a designer and an expert at working with typography, colors, and layout design techniques, keeping things simple should be right up your alley.

Be careful about adding embellishments. They can attract attention, but by doing so, they can just as easily become distractions. Your goal here is not to impress, but to make for easy reading.

White space creates visual separation and can be a powerful method of providing focus. When you are trying to place the information you feel is necessary on a single page, the amount of white space you can effectively use can be limited.

The challenge is to make the best use of the space you have while avoiding a busy or cluttered appearance.

Consistency is important. Your headers should be similar in font and color. The same is true for your bulleted lists. Consistency in the look of your resume can speak volumes about your approach to your design assignments.

Make Your Resume Memorable

A presentable resume may or may not get your foot in the door, but a memorable one can improve your chances immeasurably. A good way to achieve this is to inject your personal traits and interests into the content.

It’s hard to project your personality and your willingness to respond to whatever challenges may be presented to you when you are not in the room. The test here is to present your bio in a short, informal, and punchy fashion – hobbies, outside activities, or interests, for example.

Find Creativity and Professionalism Balance

A Subtle Form of Creativity

Strike a finely-tuned balance between professionalism and creativity in the way in which you present yourself and in your resume’s design.

A resume is not the same as a flyer, a poster, or a billboard. It should not be flashy, especially for your profession, and, if anything, it should be a bit understated.

Judgments about your personality will be made before the prospective employer ever sets eyes on you or calls you on the phone. The same will be true when it comes to your professional capabilities.

Remember the goal of your resume. Its purpose is not to get you the job. Its purpose is to get you to the interview stage.

Creative, Yet Carefully Laid Out

The below example is packed with information, yet it is not cutesy, flashy, or weighed down with gradients that make it appear overly clever. It is creative yet not too experimental.

Avoid trying a unique, off-the-wall approach to writing your resume unless you don’t really care if you will be granted an interview. There is (at times) a fine line between presenting yourself as being ultra-creative and convincing the reader that you are a loose cannon.

You might also like to take a look at these free resume templates. They’ve all been created by designers for designers.

The post The Essential Elements of Creative Resume Design appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

The thing is, there are probably some people who share your opinion, but many more who don’t. This is perfectly okay, because it means that you as a designer have even more opportunities to reach your own special niche audience.

Don’t Think Of Everyone

You don’t have to try to make that “perfect design” that will appeal to everyone. I can’t even imagine what that would look like, but it likely would be terrible.

Why? Because people have such different expectations that trying to fulfill them all is always going to fail miserably.

This is why generic designs never sell as well as many clients seem to think they will.

The next time your client insists that you try to reach a more “general” audience with your design, remind them that no one wants to bother with something that’s made with “everyone” in mind.

Think about it: what else is made for “everyone”?

Let’s see… car dealerships (with a thousand different choices and options), hospitals and health care facilities (with multiple specialists to cater to virtually anyone’s particular problem), newspapers (with hundreds of sections for people to flip right to the information that interests them).

Do you see a pattern here? Even things that are supposedly for everyone have many, many sub-categories, so that “everyone” can filter themselves into more easily manageable groups.

What You Want Vs. What Is Best

You have to line up your message with the needs of your niche audience. If this happens to include your own needs, then it will be easier for you to engage personally with whatever it is you’re selling.

There’s a lot to be said for being able to stomach the work you must do as a designer. If you hate the message you’re sending out, perhaps you need to question whether or not you need to find new clients.

The relationship between designer and client should be symbiotic, and also sync up with whatever it is your client’s target market is looking for.

Which Version Is The “Right” One?

There is never one perfect solution to a design problem that will satisfy absolutely everyone. There are only a series of perfect solutions, each one tailor-made to fit a very specific group of people – sometimes extremely specific.

Malcolm Gladwell famously outlined this tendency of ours to prefer a multitude of different solutions in his legendary TED talk about spaghetti sauce.

He gave examples of the spaghetti sauce manufacturer, Prego, that stumbled upon a completely untapped market when it began offering “chunky” spaghetti sauce, in addition to the thinner, more traditional Italian-style sauces.

To use an even more specific example of multiple solutions to problems, most cat owners are perfectly happy training their cat to use the litter box.

Some owners, on the other hand, choose to take things a step further, and actually hire someone to train their cat to use the toilet. That’s right. There are cats who are actually potty trained.

Quite literally, there is a product or service out there that caters to every possible need.

Don’t confuse your personal favorite designs with the one your target audience is hungry for. Make sure you choose a market that you understand and you can satisfy without selling your soul.

Figure out that unique, perfect solution to your clients’ needs, and the needs of their customers, and everything will be just “perfect” from there.

The post Is There a Perfect Solution to a Design Problem? appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

I had that feeling a lot during my early days in this industry. My work wasn’t great, mind you. But I felt the thrill of doing things I’d never done. And it was even better if I had made a client happy.

There was a lot of creative energy back then. The web was a new medium – and we were building it as we went along.

It’s no secret that the industry has changed dramatically. The old methods of building websites are gone. Now, we work with advanced tools and premade elements.

I sometimes feel like web design has lost its creative flair. Has it? Or have we changed how we use our creativity?

Let’s explore what it means to be creative in modern web design.

We No Longer Build from Scratch

An original web design isn’t always a top priority these days. We often prioritize efficiency, usability, and accessibility in our builds.

To that end, we start projects with frameworks and themes that provide a head start. Tools like Tailwind CSS feature readymade layouts and components. WordPress themes may offer a complete website for us to customize. And we can’t forget about the advent of block patterns.

That’s the reverse of how things used to work. We used to fire up Photoshop or some other design tool. We’d start with a blank canvas and build from scratch.

It’s easy to romanticize that era. We may think of web design as a lost art. It’s as if we were craftspeople who built sites the right way. None of these modern tools could match those techniques.

But that practice isn’t sustainable for busy designers. There’s not enough time or budget for a long design process. Not when there are multiple projects to complete.

For better or worse, our workflows have changed. Web designers have had to adapt to keep pace.

Adding a Personal Touch to Predesigned Components

How can we be creative when using predesigned components? Complete originality may be out of the question. However, there’s still an opportunity to add a personal touch.

There is no shortage of areas to change. An element’s color, size, and typography are prime examples. We don’t have to settle for the default look.

We can also choose components that include minimal styling. The WordPress block editor works this way. A default implementation is typically barebones. Tailwind CSS also prioritizes utility over looks.

Knowledge of these tools also helps. We can design in Figma with specific components in mind. That allows us to use our imagination while staying within the lines.

The process is reminiscent of a collage artist. It’s about pulling all of these different pieces together. From there, we seek to create a seamless user experience. The results can be compelling.

The added layer of convenience might make us feel guilty, though. For instance, page builder tools take the pain out of design. It’s more paint-by-numbers than drawing from memory.

Did we even “create” anything here?

Modern Web Design Is a Different Artform

Sure, the design process has changed. That doesn’t mean we’re no longer being creative, though.

We’re still using our creativity – just in a different way. We’re using our knowledge and experience to build the best website possible. And we’re using our keen eye to make it beautiful and functional.

If anything, we’re fortunate to have these new tools and frameworks. Websites are becoming more complex all the time.

Perhaps that makes web design harder than ever. Designing from scratch and managing functionality might be too much to handle.

Our focus needs to be in many places at once. So, maybe we’re creating a collage while juggling!

Find New Ways to Be Creative

One positive development is that designers don’t have to reinvent the wheel. We spend less time on the basics. That allows us time to concentrate on the details.

It’s the little things that can make a website stand out. We now have the tools to give us a head start.

Yes, these new methods can be limiting at times. However, web designers have plenty of experience in that area.

There have always been parameters for us to work within. It used to be the limits of CSS or user devices. Now, we try to bend and shape tools to match our needs. That also takes creativity.

You know what? Despite my initial concerns, those “a-ha” moments still exist. The change is in how we create them.

The post Creativity Hasn’t Left Web Design – It’s Just Different appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

The exact definition of glassmorphism can vary a bit. However, it’s essentially a “frosted” or semi-transparent element that mimics the look of glass and appears to hover over the rest of the page. Thus, the container’s background is allowed to shine through. You may even see some refraction in more realistic interpretations.

Want to see what all the fuss is about? We’ve put together a collection of glassmorphism effects built with CSS and other web technologies. They range from common UI elements like buttons to more abstract creations. Enjoy!

The post 8 CSS Snippets for Creating the Glassmorphism Effect appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

I happen to think that whatever users find ‘trendy’ or cool, even though it may be fleeting, is part of the service a designer provides. It’s part of what clients are paying for. If you’re offering classic, outdated solutions that nobody wants, you are only hurting your own career.

Yes, it might be annoying to feel you must bend to the whims of the ‘masses,’ but if those masses are looking for something you can’t give them, they aren’t going to pay you.

Adopting visual trends is simply a part of providing a commercial service. The only way you can really subvert a design trend is by creating one of your own, which allows you to be the thought leader and influence other designers to follow your lead instead. This is extremely difficult to do, however, and the vast majority of designers are followers rather than leaders.

Don’t believe me? Just look at the designs for tablets and smartphones both before and after the release of the iPad and iPhone. Those designs were so influential that they virtually eliminated any design possibility other than sleek, thin, and black (or white).

Mobile Phones Before the iPhone [Image Source]

The Nature Of The Beast

Yes, people are quick to jump all over a new trend, causing it to look dated in a matter of months. But, like it or not, that’s the nature of the industry these days. Ideas spread much faster than they used to, thanks to the internet. Which means that designers and clients alike are exposed to new trends constantly.

But how do you stay abreast of new trends while not running around like a headless chicken, trying to adapt to every new trend you think might get you more clients? There are three ways you can go about it, which I will explain.

1. The Puzzle Piece Approach

You can use the constant influx of new trends to your advantage as a designer, adjusting your personal style to fit the range of what clients may be looking for depending on which corner of the web they approach you from. I call this the ‘puzzle piece’ approach – you have the missing piece of the puzzle for every design project you take on.

This isn’t a bad way to do business as a freelancer if you don’t mind the constant switching and adapting. You probably won’t gain the venerable reputation of someone who sticks to their guns, but if you can continue to ride the wave and know just when and how to adapt, you’ll have a long career ahead of you.

2. The True Blue Approach

On the other hand, you may wish to develop a reputation for creating work that always bears your personal mark or style. You buck any and all new trends, and only serve clients who are looking for exactly the type of design work you specialize in.

This is a great way to build a solid, loyal client base and following, but there can be dangers here as well. You may find your base getting smaller and smaller as people’s attention is drawn to newer, more exciting trends.

Saul Bass Quote, Designed by Brittany Appel

3. The Goldilocks Approach

Personally, I think the ideal approach lies somewhere in the middle. If you’re too much of a trend hopper, you’ll have no credibility as a designer. However, if you’re too absorbed in your personal style preferences, you’ll alienate too large a portion of your potential market.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m the biggest believer in niching down your potential pool of clients. But you don’t want to go so niche that you’re unable to grow and expand your career.

The post Do We Really Need to Follow Design Trends? appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

In 1908, Japanese scientist Dr. Kikunae Ikeda did just that, when he managed to isolate the exact component that makes up the flavor of umami, or, as it’s commonly known in the West: savoriness.

What is umami? Well, um… that’s a tricky question. It’s a totally unique flavor experience, unlike any of the other four basic flavors. Parmesan cheese is loaded with umami, as is Asian fish sauce, aged beef, and perfectly ripened tomatoes.

Since umami is so unique and was discovered so recently, most people have a hard time describing exactly what it is. That weird, indescribable uniqueness is what I’m going to talk about today – how to handle it when it comes up in design, and whether or not it’s necessarily a good thing.

Too Unique For Its Own Good

We all think we want to come up with that totally unique idea, one that no other designer has ever thought of before or that no one would be able to easily copy or steal.

But is that really what we want as designers? Is it even something we should want?

Most of the time, when people talk about ‘innovation’ in the design industry, what they’re really talking about is improving on an idea that already exists.

Don’t get me wrong, that definitely takes skill and creativity. But it usually isn’t a genuinely unique, original idea you’re striving for. It’s mostly a combination of what you’ve already seen before, and what you’re influenced by. Why? Because it’s easier to work that way.

If we all attempted to come up with the next design equivalent of umami, our brains would short-circuit and we’d never get any work done. It’s just not practical, nor is it commercial, to strive for true uniqueness and originality.

When it happens, as was and continues to be the case with umami, people are at a loss to explain it. It becomes something of a curiosity – a conversation starter at a party, perhaps, or a cautionary tale of woe among other creative professionals.

Image Source: What is Umami?

Anyone who’s been in the industry for any length of time has a story or two about one of their peers who tried to get too creative and found themselves out of a job.

Yes, perhaps they were “ahead of their time.” That’s perfectly valid, but it does you no good when you’re trying to scrape together this month’s rent money.

There’s something to be said about following trends and learning how to reinterpret them.

Making Adjustments

When you stop to think about it, we’ve developed some surprisingly sophisticated methods for adjusting the taste of our food. Our taste buds can detect changes in flavor down to extremely minute quantities. You know, for example, when something is just slightly too salty, too sweet, too sour, or too bitter.

And conversely, you know when something doesn’t quite have enough of any of these flavors. But how do you tell when something is “too umami,” or not “umami enough?”

There are a range of opinions ranging from the mundane (“when you find yourself reaching for the salt shaker”) to the weird (“when your appetite becomes ‘fatigued'” – huh?).

The truth is, since umami is such a newly discovered flavor, we haven’t really come to a consensus on how to tell when it’s too prominent or too lacking in our food.

Completely original designs are the same way. Sometimes we can’t tell when something is too original and when it needs to be more relatable, precisely because it’s so original.

Many designers love to rave about their completely obscure discoveries, myself included. In addition to design, I also studied fine art painting in school. I have plenty of abstract personal projects that I absolutely love, but that are completely unmarketable to anyone except other weirdos like me.

Since there aren’t too many of us out there, I’d have a hard time making ends meet by producing projects like that. But sometimes we just don’t have the perspective to know if something is appropriate for our target market.

In that case, I always find it helpful to call in other people from that market.

Sneaking It In

So, does this mean you should throw in the towel on ever being unique or original? Absolutely not.

There are ways you as a designer can “sneak in” some truly creative, original elements into your designs that won’t detract from their marketability, and that won’t leave people feeling like they’re simply getting a rehash of something they’ve already seen before.

This is the ideal you want to strive for as a designer – that perfect balance between what’s new and what’s familiar to your users.

There’s a common trick used in the culinary world by chefs who like to experiment with umami. Asian fish sauce is typically considered to be the ultimate umami flavor.

On its own, it can be rather unpleasant, but when used in small amounts in other dishes, Asian or not, it can add a special burst of umami that diners won’t be able to quite put their finger on, but that they’ll definitely recognize when they taste it.

When you design something that’s an alternate take on a previous idea, and you sneak in your special “fish sauce” of pure originality, you create something that’s completely relatable and marketable to your target audience, but that also has that strange, wonderful element that people won’t be able to describe, but they’ll definitely love.

Just as umami is not an earth-shattering element in the culinary world, complete and total originality isn’t the ultimate holy grail we should be reaching for as designers.

It’s an important element, which can add a lot to the attempt to balance the different “flavors” of marketability, quality, and relevance which are the backbone of design.

The post How to Handle Indescribable Uniqueness in Design appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

Whatever you want your flyer to be, it is vital to stick to the basics. It is a traditional handout advertisement that, as a rule, holds all of the company’s vital information on a small sheet of paper. Anywhere from A4 to postcard size gives you enough space to show off and, at the same time, avoid overwhelming onlookers. This limitation forces designers to pay particular attention to their choice of information to include as well as design features to use.

Be Informative

As the times change, our priorities change as well. There was a time when your office address was of top priority, then a link to a website was enough. Let’s face it – the digital contacts are the front-runners nowadays. Even a phone number is not as important for potential clients as the ID of your Skype, Viber or Telegram accounts.

Links to a website, social media profiles and other platforms are must-haves. Also, do not forget about the QR code. It is much easier to use a scanner app and quickly open the necessary page or a chat with instant feedback instead of retyping a link manually.

What else should you include on your business flyer? Without a doubt, there should be some oldie-but-goodie information, such as:

• Logotype;
• Company name;
• Slogan or tagline;
• “About us” block;
• Services;
• Bonuses, and other promotional offers.

Corporate Business Flyer by mahmud reza

Must-Have Design Elements

Wondering how to turn your flyer into an effective marketing force? Here are the design-related features you’ll want to include:

Blue Tones

When it comes to a businesslike atmosphere, we always opt in favor of neutral coloring. Light shades like white, grey and beige are primary colors that are used for backgrounds.

As for the secondary color, in the majority of cases it is blue. The reason is simple: Designers rely on the psychological aspect: Blue inspires safety, serenity and creativity. It also instills a sense of trust and responsibility.

All of these feelings and moods are ideal for promoting your business. Add to this the fact that blue is considered to be one of the most favored colors, and you will get a reasonable, practical and time-proven option. Although, using blue will make it quite difficult to stand out from the crowd since everyone else is using it, too. However, the design will meet the expectations of those viewing it, and that means a lot.

Blue is good, blue is time-proven and with blue your flyer will certainly look businesslike. However, if you are a true fashionista, then you should follow examples of industry giants such as Apple and Samsung, whose teams use lots of bright colors in their promos. Stick to their doctrine and go for drastic color combinations and gradients to dazzle the audience with unique coloring.

Business Corporate Flyer Design by Rashel Mia

Geometry

The current obsession with geometric details and stylistic choices that overpopulate the web design sphere has taken its toll on graphic design as well. With its sharpness, authenticity, openness, plainness, elegance and, in some way, brutality, the trend works great for business designs.

The trend manifests itself through various elements, such as:

• Asymmetry in layouts;
• Circles;
• Triangles;
• Narrow diagonal panels;
• Polygons of various shapes, etc.

Creative Business Flyer by Design Strom

A Website-Like Layout

A Company flyer is kind of like a paper analog of a landing page. It bears the same key information such as provided services, contacts, advantages of choosing the company and more. As a rule, it is broken into three main sections.

The first one is a header with a prominent hero area, the second is content and the third is a footer. Sound familiar? Yes, the arrangement is the same as on a website. So why not to use some tricks from the latter?

Furthermore, the website layout is a time-tested method of displaying blocks. Modern flyer design has many similarities. For example:

A relatively big image located at the top. It could be a photo of a metropolis that feels urban and strong or a photo of an office routine that oozes confidence and professionalism. It can be corporate or motivational photography.

A bold statement. It can be a catchy slogan, a tagline or a short promo phrase.

A multi-column layout. The layout holds only the essential information such as a list of services, an “about us” block, etc.

Sometimes flyer designs adopt the same tricks, like an overlapping trend that is quite popular among web designers these days. Just take a look at Corporate Business Flyer by Humaiara Akter Shorna. It looks refreshing.

Corporate Business Flyer by Humaiara Akter Shorna

Icons

Like the previous trend, icons are an integral part of every website and have become an essential of business flyers as well. It’s something that you cannot just ignore or toss out from the design. It may seem that they are just accompanying details that bring nothing special to the project.

However, people need these visual cues. In the beginning, everyone scans rather than reads. Icons serve as focal points that lead a visitor’s eyes to the important information. When well chosen, they can even enhance the message by making it clearer and stronger.

Big, small, oversimplified or sophisticated – you can stumble upon various stylistic choices. An icon should support the statement. And if you need it to be bright, detailed and graphical, then that is the way it should be.

Corporate Flyer by Mukhlasur Rahman

Spread Your Message with Just a Single Page

The pamphlet of present-days is not just a primitive, single-page leaflet that contains boring facts. It is a well-written synopsis that is presented in a beautiful package.

Designers use various tricks, including psychological ones, to make data presentation pleasing to the eye. They follow the trends and result in flyers that get straight to the point.

Now that you know the elements of a great business flyer, what will you create?

The post How to Design Effective & Modern Business Flyers appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.