Thursday, 31 January 2019
Tuesday, 29 January 2019
3 Solutions to Help Your Agency Manage Many Websites at Once
Running an online web management and marketing agency can be both exciting and exhausting. You will face more stress as you scale your client base, especially if you need to manage all of your clients’ websites. Fortunately, you can minimize the time you spend on website management by using a single platform to do so. […]
The post 3 Solutions to Help Your Agency Manage Many Websites at Once appeared first on Vandelay Design.
from Vandelay Design https://www.vandelaydesign.com/3-solutions-help-agency-manage-many-websites/
Monday, 28 January 2019
Sunday, 27 January 2019
Friday, 25 January 2019
Thursday, 24 January 2019
Wednesday, 23 January 2019
7 Free SVG Pattern Generators
We review a brief history of vectors and explore seven of the many excellent, free resources out there for creating perfect vector patterns.
The post 7 Free SVG Pattern Generators appeared first on Vandelay Design.
from Vandelay Design https://www.vandelaydesign.com/7-free-svg-pattern-generators/
Tuesday, 22 January 2019
Monday, 21 January 2019
Virtual Private Networks: Why Every Web Developer Needs One
As a web developer or designer, you are often made responsible for presenting the information your client gives you in an aesthetically appealing and organized way. You also must make sure that the site you set up – including the private information on it – is safe from hackers who have malicious intentions when it comes to the data you are entrusted to work with. How do you protect yourself? This is where VPN’s come in handy.
What is a VPN?
“VPN” stands for virtual private network. It is exactly that – many computers/networks joined together on the internet. When you gain access to this network, you will be able to control which data center you access – and more importantly, enjoy the benefits of where that data center is located, all under a private guise.
As these data centers are located on different parts of the world, you may access certain network resources (such as certain websites, software, music, memberships) that are, for their own reasons, exclusive to the country or designated area that data center is located in. In short, although you may have a different local area network or LAN, you may access other LANs from other countries, and do so safely and with added encryption to protect you.
How Web Develops Benefit from This
This special, private passageway that you have then you subscribe to a VPN, giving you that connection to a remote access server or RAS is what heavily guards you against anyone who is out to steal information from you using exploitive software, or just finding out your location via your IP address.
As a web developer, you have a lot of information about your client in your care. If your client asks you to create a website for a newly launched product, their competition could easily hack into the website you’re making (if you’re not using a VPN) and find out what those products are. This could cause big problems for your client, as their competitors get a leg-up in the race of who claims proprietary over the new product.
That doesn’t just apply instances where proprietary is involved. Sensitive information can be anything from unreleased movies, television shows, trailers, soundtracks, and tour dates of famous artists. A leak involving this kind of data can cause a security breach large enough to end careers, and possibly your own, as a web designer. Having a does not only protect you in your profession but your client as well.
Lessening Risks – Not Eradicating Them
Uploading any kind of sensitive information into a website – whether you’re updating it or building it from scratch – always imposes some form of risk. Having a VPN does not 100% guarantee that your information cannot be accessed, as almost anything on the internet can be hacked with enough of the right resources such as money, time, and skill – but it is much, much less likely than if you were to rely on just any other unsecured network.
Another risk involved – which is less likely to happen – is that the VPN provider you choose to use secretly stores your information. There have been reports of a certain company that stored its VPN users’ data, as this data was collected and used by the FBI, thus many people have since pulled out of acquiring VPN from that provider.
The Bottom Line
Having a VPN is always good – whether you’re a web developer or someone who just enjoys surfing the web, you could always use the extra security it offers. It masks your identity, does not broadcast your activity, gives you access to different parts of the world thus broadening your content reach, and effectively stops any third-party snoopers check out what’s been in your activity logs and cookies. Which VPN should you choose, though?
There are many companies that may provide you access to a VPN for a fee, but there are also free VPN options. The free options may come with limitations such as lesser bandwidth, but at least it lets you explore what it’s like to have security on while you work. For those who are working on larger-scale projects, bigger budgets, and sensitive information, go for the top-notch VPN choices available out there. As with any other product, take the time to research which VPN company has the best deals, as well as good reviews.
The post Virtual Private Networks: Why Every Web Developer Needs One appeared first on SpyreStudios.
from SpyreStudios https://spyrestudios.com/virtual-private-networks-why-every-web-developer-needs-one/
Best CSS Tools & Webapps For Developers: The Ultimate Collection
There’s a custom tool for pretty much everything these days. From free webapps to more premium tools, you can find a lot online if you just search. If you need something to speed up your workflow, I’d bet someone else had that same need and already created a tool for it. This is especially true […]
The post Best CSS Tools & Webapps For Developers: The Ultimate Collection appeared first on Vandelay Design.
from Vandelay Design https://www.vandelaydesign.com/css-tools-for-developers/
Thursday, 17 January 2019
Slack Changes Their Logo and Designers Disapprove
Is it just me or are there other people who taught for a second that they accidentally downloaded a new game on their phones? Slack decided to evolve, but is it really an evolution? Let’s find out.
Over the past few years, Slack has gone through a few, very minor logo changes. All of them, however, had their iconic hashtag icon as its centerpiece. As of January 16, 2019, slack has announced another logo change, but this one is a little more drastic.
Why did it change?
As I said earlier, the Slack logo was well known among the digital community. It was easily recognizable. Slack starts their announcement by stating that they loved the old logo, but explained that they’ve, “Decided to evolve.”
The reason behind the change seems quite sincere. In the announcement, they explained that the logo was just hard to get right. With the large variety of colors, the logo had to be placed carefully, as any color background except white would absorb some of the colors in the logo.
They went on to explain that they tried to develop many different varieties of their famous logo, but that meant that they had many different app logos, and that simply didn’t sit well. Each logo looked great by itself, but when compared to each other, they almost looked as if they each represented a different company.
The backlash
Since Slack has a very, and I mean very large user base, it makes sense that there would be a response from them, and well, it’s not great. The logo went from a colorful, perfectly designed masterpiece that made so much sense for the app, to a standard, run-of-the-mill logo that can easily get lost in a sea of apps.
The team at Pentagram that helped design it had this to say:
“After exploring a wide range of possibilities, the designers decided to retain the equity of the hashtag, or octothorpe, rebuilding it with two basic geometric shapes, a speech bubble and lozenge, that can be extracted and used as graphic elements.”
There was a lot of thought that went into this new logo. There are many elements that make sense. Even the speech bubbles were a clever idea. But the reality is, it’s nothing but a fancy Google logo, and they thought of it first, thus the criticism.
Quite many publications wrote about the new logo and, oh man, it’s bad. Here are some:
digg.com writes: “It’s… well, it’s not great! The jaunty angle is gone. The colors are still there, but suddenly it would be hard to pick out Slack in a sea of same-y startup logos.”
thenextweb.com says: “It went from a unique, quirky logo to something that looks like it belongs at your local pharmacy. Or maybe a Web 2.0 law firm or bank. Perhaps a summer arts program at the local middle school?”
Erin Scott Johnson went viral on Twitter with an eye-opening tweet: “The negative space in the new Slack logo makes it look like a whimsical swastika. Thank you for coming to my TED talk about how the internet has ruined my brain forever.”
And from there, the new Slack logo that was supposed to be a symbol of the tool’s evolution becomes a meme.
HisReptilianMajesty tweets: “#Slack has a new logo that I’m pretty sure is actually four ducks sewn together in an uroboros human/duck centipede. You add eyes and you can’t miss it.”
What do you think about the new logo? Let us know in the comment section below.
Read More at Slack Changes Their Logo and Designers Disapprove
from Web Design Ledger https://webdesignledger.com/slack-changes-their-logo-and-designers-disapprove/
10 Amazing Glitch Fonts for Your 2019 Projects
At the beginning of each year, we need to throw our old, worn out tools, and add new, fully functional ones. When it comes to virtual tools, we have to do the same thing. Granted, there are tools that we’ve been holding onto for years now, and they never let us down. Photoshop, Sketch, Dropbox, and you can continue naming your favorites. When it comes to staying up to date with your designs, these tools are amazing, they allow you to create unimaginable designs. In a world where less is much, where any piece of art can be transformed into a kitsch with a simple extra line, we need to be extremely careful with how, what, and why we design what we design.
Same rules apply to fonts. The multitude of available fonts out there makes the decision so hard, so many times. We have hand-written fonts, serifs and sans serifs, minimalist, modernist, bold fonts, vintage fonts, etc. In this ocean of fonts, there is a specific category that designers seem to like now more than ever and more than anything else. Glitch Fonts.
This ageless font genre never ages and designers love it. For this very reason, we catalogued the best glitch fonts online plus a bonus Photoshop Glitch Tutorial.
1. Photoshop Tutorial – Glitch Text Effect
First things first, try creating your own glitch effect. Here is a comprehensive tutorial that will allow you create a font just the way you want it.
2. Corruptor LDR by Neoqueto
Corruptor make a great font for SF movies, though quite hart to read, it adds a little touch of unknown that catches the eye of the viewer.
3. Pixel Reto / Pixel Reto Shadow / Pixel Reto Outline by Gabriel Figueiredo
Pixel fonts are cool but they need to be chosen with care. They don’t favor all projects so you need to activate your professional eye when working with such fonts.
4. Laborate by Klaudia Gal
I love this font and the possibilities it comes with. How can a font look fluid and segmented? Ask Klaudia, she knows.
5. Neuro by Ludovic DELESPIERRE
While this font takes us to another dimension, its cinematic looks are incontestable.
6. Sango by Andrew Herndon
.
I see claws dragging letters where they don’t want to be. The result? An amazing glitch font.
7. Phelix Boomgartner by Michal Slovák
What makes glitch fonts so unique? The infinite possibilities of creating one. It’s quite hard to go wrong with a glitch font, and Michal’s font confirms it.
8. g l i t c h / Glitch Progressive by Will Bindley
Coded messages are always transmitted through glitch fonts. This is where Will’s font comes in play. Send that message, and send it with class.
9. Fault
Fault has no faulty features. The font creates an atmosphere that many would come for more.
10. Glitzy
Glitzy – a typeface with attitude that vibrates.
What do you mainly use glitch fonts for? Why do glitch fonts work better than others? We love the unpredictability that comes with such a oldie but goodie font. Please let us know what is your favorite glitch font, if you ever created one or if you will try after you watch the tutorial above.
At Web Design Ledger we always try to stay up to date with the design world and we try to help our readers do the same. If you like our content, make sure you visit us daily for more snippets of creativity and inspiration.
Also, if you own an agency, if you are a designer, or you created an online product that our readers could benefit from, don’t hesitate to email us at webdesignledger.blog@gmail.com for a chance to be featured on our blog. We look forward to hearing from you.
Read More at 10 Amazing Glitch Fonts for Your 2019 Projects
from Web Design Ledger https://webdesignledger.com/10-amazing-glitch-fonts-2019-projects/
Looking for a Change in 2019? Any of These Best-Selling WordPress Themes Can Make It Happen
Have you made up your mind that 2019 is going to be a breakout year for your web design efforts? Then, the best way to start is by using the WordPress CMS as your design platform.
Unless you’re already using WordPress, the next step involves the choice of a WordPress theme. It will help you to get the New Year off to a roaring start. We mean selecting one or more themes that will best suit your needs. You can go from building better than average websites to building awesome ones.
Our short reviews are designed to make your search as easy as possible. We’ve selected the best and brightest WordPress themes for 2019. They range from multipurpose and creative themes to specialty themes. Latter are loaded with features you won’t find elsewhere.
Let’s get started with –
We’ve started with Be Theme for a reason. This multipurpose WordPress theme is big, brash, and bold in its approach to website design. Its powerful set of core features (40 of them) provide all the tools, templates, and design options you need to create any type of website you can think of and do so without the need for a single line of code.
Be Theme’s design flexibility and ease of use are due to several factors, the primary one being its library of over 400 pre-built websites. These pre-built websites, any of which can be installed with a single click, address more than 30 different website types and industry and business sectors.
Furthermore, they are professionally designed, customizable, responsive, and feature functionalities that enable you to create websites that lead to UX solutions compliant with the latest industry design trends and standards.
Tools include the popular MuffinBuilder page builder, a powerful Admin Panel, Layout and Short Code generators, and Be’s new and improved Header Builder. This WP theme is a great way to get the New Year off to a blazing start.
If it’s a WordPress theme that’s oriented toward creative website designs you’re looking for, Bridge is worth checking out. This best-selling creative theme gives you loads of website building options to work with, and due in large part to its open-ended customizability, Bridge can lay claim to be the most popular creative WordPress theme on the market; that is if 100,000+ satisfied customers who’ve given it a 5-star rating have a say.
Selecting among Bridge’s library of 376 (and counting) pre-made websites will get any project off to a quick start, and this theme’s modular design approach makes it easy for you to maintain your momentum.
You’re given the tools you need to build a blog, create listings and design a magazine or an online store without any need for coding. Visual Composer, Layer Slider, Revolution Slider, and Timetable Responsive Scheduling come with the package.
Browse the pre-made websites. Then, sit back and think of the possibilities.
It’s not solely the features that make a WordPress theme like Brook a ThemeForest best seller, it’s the great performance resulted from the theme’s flexibility, usability, and compatibility as well. Brook’s authors have made enormous efforts to ensure that their work is pixel-perfect and squeaky-clean enough to run smoothly & seamlessly.
Brook offers a huge collection of homepage layouts, which are continuously updated to ensure they’re always in sync with the latest web design trends and standards. You’ll also benefit from the diverse styles of blogs, portfolios, and custom pages included in the theme package.
As for the tools, powerful plugins like WPBakery Page Builder, Slider Revolution, WooCommerce, Font Awesome 5 Pro, etc. all of these will be more than enough to keep your workflow moving, and most importantly, to ensure a UX that will engage new site visitors and keep them coming back for more.
This WordPress theme’s impressive array of layout designs and drag and drop content elements allows you to showcase your work just as you’ve always envisioned doing so, whether your new at website design or a pro.
Kalium’s secret lies in its unique and well-organized assortment of demos and premium bundled plugins and fonts. Kalium always maintains compatibility with the latest WordPress updates and versions and is always in sync with the latest web design standards and trends.
According to most users and reviewers, TheGem is the most amazing multipurpose theme on the market and the most beautiful as well. This high-performance multipurpose theme, created by the Behance network of top designers, is modern in its design, extremely flexible, and responsive.
TheGem is a complete website-building toolkit you can use for everything from businesses to non-profits, from online shops to blogs, and everything in between.
With Uncode, it’s only a matter of choosing a template and customizing it any way you wish to build an attention-grabbing portfolio in a few short hours. This premium WordPress theme is flexible, extremely user friendly, and it features all the design options and functionality you’re ever likely to need.
This theme’s showcase of user-created websites is a genuine source of inspiration, plus it clearly demonstrates what you could accomplish by buying into this theme.
You’ll like what this innovative and elegant theme has to offer if your objective is to create websites that feature the same characteristics and are distinguished by fast performance as well. Grenada’s super-fast Ajax page load feature accounts for the speed, plus this WordPress theme is responsive and totally compatible with the latest WordPress version – 5.0
It’s also worth noting that Grenada is fully compatible with Gutenberg, the new WordPress editor.
Businesses really like website and app features and functionalities that perfectly fit their business models. This is definitely true of real estate agencies that have their own unique business models to design to.
Houzez is a highly flexible specialty theme that, in addition to its advanced property search and listings functionalities, unique property management system, and many other features, can easily be customized to fit any realtor’s business model and meet any realtor’s business needs.
Avada not only makes it possible for you to create virtually any design style; it also makes it almost ridiculously easy to do so since there’s never a need for custom coding to achieve what you want.
Avada has been atop the best-selling list for the past 5 years and shows no sign of settling for anything less. Its users particularly like Avada’s unlimited design capabilities, responsive framework, multiple design options and tools, and excellent support.
A significant number of Real Homes’ community of 17,500+ customers have, in their reviews of this specialty WordPress theme, given it a 4.66/5-star rating. Customers seldom rate a theme this high unless it offers excellent support, is easy to work with, and provides them with a set of features that more than adequately address end user needs.
In Real Homes’ case, these features include customizable property search and listing functionalities and property submission and payment gateway options.
With Schema in your design toolbox, SEO just got a lot easier. This WordPress theme deciphers the mysteries of what search engines look for in a website by guiding them through your website one content element at a time to help them find the features they’re looking for.
Schema takes into account page load times, code quality, and Google algorithm friendliness, and leads to both UX improvement and higher website rankings.
Pofo focuses on three areas, ties them neatly in a bow, and presents you with the ingredients to build the type of website creatives love to have; a website that combines a stunning portfolio with an engaging blogging section and an eCommerce store.
This modern, creative theme is ideal for artists, agencies, creative teams, businesses, and bloggers. The package features 150+ pre-built design elements along with an excellent assortment of home and one-click demo pages.
The features and functionality to create a website forum is non-existent in most WordPress themes and is even lacking in most of the premium themes. The ForumPress WordPress theme is powered by the bbPress plugin, which makes it super-easy to set up a forum in seconds.
Then, it’s simply a matter of fitting your forum design the community you wish to reach, and tweaking it to match your brand.
KnowAll provides the perfect solution if your business isn’t prepared to provide customer support 24/7, or when you happen to be away from your office. This #1 in its class WordPress theme answers questions customers are most likely to ask, and even provides suggestions in those cases where a customer doesn’t know quite what to ask about.
With KnowAll, customers are not kept waiting, and the number of problem tickets to be managed can be significantly reduced.
This best-selling WordPress theme is noted for its cutting edge designs, mind-bending parallax effects, unique animations, and other attention-getting and engaging special effects.
The highly-rated MOVEDO design team recognized early on the power of movement in website design, whether that motion is real or illusionary. This theme would be worth looking into if you’ve been looking for some ideas that might add a little spark and some zest to your websites.
Conclusion
Picking a premium WordPress theme can be a problem since there are so many to choose among. After a while, they start looking the same, and you risk selecting one that doesn’t quite fill the bill.
We’ve made it easy for you with this list of 15 of the very best.
Choosing among the very best can still take a little time. But not all that much, and you’re sure to find one to carry you through 2019 and beyond.
Read More at Looking for a Change in 2019? Any of These Best-Selling WordPress Themes Can Make It Happen
from Web Design Ledger https://webdesignledger.com/looking-for-a-change-in-2019-any-of-these-best-selling-wordpress-themes-can-make-it-happen/
Wednesday, 16 January 2019
Tuesday, 15 January 2019
Best Free SVG Code Tutorials For Web Designers & Developers
Most designers create their SVGs in software like Illustrator and that’s a legit way to go. But it’s also possible to embed SVG content into a webpage solely in code. No HTTP graphics to download, no extra file to add into the page. This process is slowly growing in popularity among the web design community […]
The post Best Free SVG Code Tutorials For Web Designers & Developers appeared first on Vandelay Design.
from Vandelay Design https://www.vandelaydesign.com/best-svg-code-tutorials/
Visual Composer’s New Name and the Confusing Story behind It
The Visual Composer users have found themselves quite confused lately, and we are here to clear the things up.
You have probably seen two new names in our offer; WP Bakery and Visual Composer Website Builder.
So the big question is
“Which one is the original Visual Composer?”
If you think that the WP Bakery is a new product while the Visual Composer Website Builder is just the new name behind which is the old Visual Composer – unfortunately, you are wrong.
We admit that the whole thing is quite confusing and we understand why so many of our users, as well as long-term partners, are upset with us.
Which brings us to the reason we decided to publish this post in the first place. Above all, we want to apologize for the confusion around Visual Composer, and we want to explain the whole story of what happened here.
We are sorry for the mess we have created around Visual Composer.
We admit that we should have explained what caused this situation at the very beginning before it escalated.
So let’s finally do that and dive deeper into the mind-twisting story behind this huge mess that got even worse as we tried to fix it along the way.
It all started with one thing that caused a big domino effect of issues that went down one after another:
Changing the name of the Visual Composer Page Builder
On every major WP theme, you have probably noticed the name above. After all, it was included as a premium plugin in the majority of the all-time favorite WordPress themes.
So the big question is: Why would we change the name in the first place when it was so well-known and easily recognizable?
The truth is – because we had to; we did not have a choice.
If you want the whole story, check out the video below.
It all began with our new product, the Visual Composer Website Builder. It is worth mentioning that the Visual Composer Page Builder and the Visual Composer Website builder are two entirely different products used for different purposes.
The Page Builder is an Envato-exclusive product with a lifetime license (like all products sold with Envato). The Website Builder, on the other hand, was meant to move away from the lifetime license model. We wanted to create a product much more complex in features and specially designed for the users whose building needs have rapidly evolved.
However, the new features came hand in hand with much higher development costs which that could only be sustained with a yearly license model. In addition to that, we wanted to be in the direct touch with our users because we recognized the need for the best support we could possibly provide.
However, our plans took a wrong direction because
We overlooked a crucial detail that forced us into a difficult decision
And that detail in question was the contract we signed with Envato and all its limitations.
Long story short, we were not allowed to sell another product under the Visual Composer name outside their platform.
At that point, we had to choose our next step. We had two options:
- We could adjust our new product to fit the lifetime license model and put it up on Envato.
- We could change the product name to lift the contractual limitations.
It was not an easy choice to make, and we knew that both options had significant downsides. We weighed our two options over and over again, and eventually, we decided to go with the option 2. We decided not to compromise the quality of our new product, and this was the only way to do it.
And that is how the Visual Composer Page Builder became WP Bakery
And that is where the whole confusion started. Not only were we buried in the developing process of our new product which required our full attention, but we also had to deal with a whole new set of unplanned changes.
Dealing with all that work, we did not immediately notice the vast confusion we created.
Not only were people confused about the name change, but they also didn’t understand what our new product, Visual Composer Website Builder, was. Was it a new product or just a rebranding of the old one? And what about WP Bakery?
So let’s take it step by step and explain the difference between the two once and for all.
What is Visual Composer Website Builder and what does it do?
The Visual Composer Website Builder is a live-preview editor with drag-and-drop features. It is not the same thing as the Visual Composer Page Builder. It is an entirely new tool. It comes in two versions; the free and the Premium version.
There are hundreds of ready-to-use content elements to choose from that will help you turn your ideas and visions into reality. It is easy to use thanks to the drag-and-drop features, and you can see all the changes instantly.
It can be used with any theme, including your existing themes. On top of that, you can choose from a variety of WP templates for different types of pages (landing pages, portfolios, corporate websites, product pages and many more).
Page editing works in two ways; frontend editor and tree view. With the tree view, you can navigate through the elements available on the page which will save you a lot of time during the process.
One big perk of the Visual Composer Website Builder is the fact that there is a header, footer, and sidebar editor available in the Premium version of the product.
In addition to that, you can access numerous useful add-ons that you can get from the third-party developers or the Visual Composer’s dedicated Hub.
Are Visual Composer Website Builder and WP Bakery the same thing?
Short answer: No. These are two entirely different tools. Let’s take a moment to explain the main differences between the two.
Some people believe that the Visual Composer Website Builder is merely a premium version of the WP Bakery. It is not.
Visual Composer Website Builder’s code was built from zero with React.Js. It does not use any of the WordPress shortcodes. It was developed using the feedback from our users to offer them the best experience possible.
However, the most significant difference between the two products is that WP Bakery is only for the content part, while Visual Composer Website Builder allows you to build a complete website (with Headers and Footers).
Like mentioned before, Visual Composer Website Builder does not use any shortcodes, while WP Bakery is shortcode-based.
In practice, this means that the VC Website Builder:
- allows you to generate clean code
- doesn’t get messy if you disable the plugin (like it happens with shortcode-based plugins)
On top of that, VC Website Builder comes with a cloud-based Hub from which you can download all the elements you find useful. Basically, you can handpick the elements you need and download only them rather than bloating the website with a bunch of unnecessary assets.
There’s a full list of difference between the two products that you can check right here.
That being said, we also have to point out that WP Bakery is still getting the same amount of work and attention as it did before we developed VC Website Builder. Both of the products are equally as important to us, and we want to offer the best user experience possible.
Thank you for taking a moment to go through this story with us. If you have any additional questions regarding our products, please leave a comment, and we will try to give you the answer as soon as possible
Read More at Visual Composer’s New Name and the Confusing Story behind It
from Web Design Ledger https://webdesignledger.com/visual-composers-new-name-and-the-confusing-story-behind-it/