Less is always more when it comes to great website design, as this list compiled by Vandelay Design shows, but then again I am reasonably biased in this regard. It seems that everyone has a different opinion of what qualifies as a minimalistic design. Here are 25 websites that make use of very little unnecessary design elements but still manage to pull off a beautiful appearance. When it comes ... Read full entry

That's not quite one of a series of business tips and observations from communications designer Eric Karjaluoto, but a similar idea applies when he says: Talk to your clients like they are your spouse: when I start to think of others as "them", something is lost. When I can find a way to cut through the formalities, however, something real happens. And for those, I mean, you, who ... Read full entry

Where Do You Draw Inspiration From? About 70 creatives, as of the time of writing this, had answered the Smashing Magazine question. Inspiration means captivate an idea and develop it further. Imitation means identify an idea and use it. As a professional when getting creative, you need to make sure that you pick the right path to follow.

Simple Idea: Focus Chris Wilson says FOCUS. Focus in on strengths. Then focus on making strengths stronger. Another in the short, simple and excellent Simple Idea series at The Marketing Fresh Peel.

Overcoming blankcanvasphobia. Cameron Moll tackles creative block... by comparing it with abseiling. But is what feels like "making something out of nothing" really akin to scaling a rock face? What you're ultimately trying to accomplish when filling a canvas is the exercise of solving a problem. In my experience, rarely have I designed an interface for the likes of which someone else hadn't already designed something similar. I find solace in ... Read full entry

The Time Machine: first there was the The Internet Archive, or WayBack Machine, which currently stores snapshots of some 85 billion web pages. Now Internet Archive creator, Brewster Kahle, has an even bigger goal in mind: "We're out to help build the Library of Alexandria version 2, starting with humankind's published works, books, music, video, web pages, software, and make it available ... Read full entry

What sort of writer are you? That is, how do you go about preparing and composing your blog posts, and the other articles, you write? Do you plan, or schedule, your posts? Or do you prefer to work on the fly, inspired by something you just saw on say your RSS aggregator, or in a discussion forum? Do you, like ... Read full entry