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adam

admin_tutorialstorage

alex tass

antonitudisco

AoiroStudio

aturtur

Expand your limits from aturtur on Vimeo.

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ChocoLoco

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exsoniaapatricio

Fabio

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DesignModo

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Google has been awfully protective of their latest version of Android, but thanks to the folks over at RootzWiki and Android Police, we may have our first ever glimpse at Ice Cream Sandwich. As always, keep those grains of salt handy — they claim their source is solid, but there’s no guarantee this isn’t just a smartly skinned Nexus S.

We reported a few months ago that Ice Cream Sandwich would have a revamped UI, and these images seem to confirm that statement. One thing to note right out of the gate is that it seems to be much more spaced out: the distances between app icons and their names have increased a bit, and though the change is minor, it makes the whole layout more open. This could be a hint at the hybrid phone/tablet nature that Ice Cream Sandwich is shooting for.

The notification bar is probably the biggest change, with room for bigger icons and updates. The app drawer also seems to have undergone a facelift, with different headers for apps and widgets, and an integrated link to the market for easy access. And you probably noticed the neon blue highlights; apparently Google is sticking with Tron as their design inspiration.

Both sites sport different changelogs, but in short, the IRK36b build packs the following:

• Brand-new launcher and app drawer interface
• Will launch with Google Shopper and support NFC-capable devices
• Gmail has been totally re-themed to match ICS (not pictured)
• Nexus S will be receiving ICS via update, but the “Nexus Prime” will be getting it first
• Mostly UI changes – many older devices should be able to run it
• The apps on the homescreen may be “stackable”
• Google search bar embedded at the top of the homescreen, a la Honeycomb

If this is in fact a fake, it’s a pretty convincing one. It’s admittedly an early build, and pixels will certainly shift between now and the release date, but it seems quite possible that Ice Cream Sandwich will ultimately look like this.

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This post is part of our daily series of posts showing the most inspiring images selected by some of the Abduzeedo’s writers and users. If you want to participate and share your graphic design inspiration, just send us, via email, the image with the link from where you found it, also use “Daily Inspiration” in the subject, and don’t forget to send your Abduzeedo username; or via Twitter sending to http://twitter.com/abduzeedo

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adrianpoputoaia

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>

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Folklore Design

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Hysterical Minds

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This post is part of our daily series of posts showing the most inspiring images selected by some of the Abduzeedo’s writers and users. If you want to participate and share your graphic design inspiration, just send us, via email, the image with the link from where you found it, also use “Daily Inspiration” in the subject, and don’t forget to send your Abduzeedo username; or via Twitter sending to http://twitter.com/abduzeedo

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Abban

adam

al b sure

alex tass

Antoni Tudisco

Arthur

Arthur Presser

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MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

Bishopave

Brian Hollingsworth

Brukhar

Coolvibe

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Felipe Nicoletti Demo Reel from Felipe Nicoletti on Vimeo.

Fksd

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Megan Palero

Meng To

Oliver13

Shoelace Graphics

Solomon Reese

thaeger

Visions Paradox

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abban

Adam

al b sure

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Arthur Presser

AoiroStudio

Action Thriller 4: Time-lapse process from James White on Vimeo.

Bertrand

Coolvibe

Cuded

Eugene Kim

fabian de lange

Fabio

Fabiano

Fksd

3

Hdk

Jason Solowczuk

Jurgen Doe

Meng To

mr_suave

Newyorkiz

Nico Hallaert

Oliver13

Oscar Henderson-Pennington

Rokas Mezetis

thaeger

thethinktank

Thiago Christo

Thiago Gomes

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ZAC

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26PM

Abban

Adam

Al b sure

alex tass

Allan Roubertie

Antoni Tudisco

AoiroStudio

Arthur Presser

blackandwhite

Coolvibe

Cuded

Eugene Kim

Fabio

Fabiano

fantasyinspiration

Feature Me

Fksd

HdK

Jurgen Doe

Lalle Gustafson

Matter Fisher

Matter Fisher from Moth on Vimeo.

melvin zelissen

MOMSN

Newyorkiz

Oliver13

Ronaldo

Sandeep Kothiyal

thaeger

Visions Paradox

Visual-idiot

Yesterman Sux

TDD Stella & Sergio from Othoniel on Vimeo.

ZAC

Zak Bratto

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@JorgeJuniorr

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<!–break–>

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Adam

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brianholli

Cuded

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Daniel Crowley

Domhnall Smith

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Faheema Patel

fantasyinspiration

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Gaétan Lancelle

Ghoode

HdK

Jurgen Doe

Meng To

nagiViTy

Oliver13

Renan Artur Vizzotto

Solo

taquito143

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/>

@andaurstudios

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@typographyEcho

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Adam

al b sure

alex tass

Anderson Tomazi

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blackandwhite

Bruno Victor

Coolvibe

cuded

DesignModo

Digital Ant

DxG Aqua

Fabiano

Fabio

Faheema Patel

fantasyinspiration

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Julian Weise

Meng To

Moisés Sousa

Oliver13

thaeger

Tiago Monteiro

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Mexican Sugarskull by Deni Dessastra

Abstract Peacock by Nick La

Inazuma 2.0 by Kervin Brisseaux

Electric Feel by Sebastian Andaur

Greatest Hits by Peachbeach

This post is part of our daily series of posts showing the most inspiring images selected by some of the Abduzeedo’s writers and users. If you want to participate and share your graphic design inspiration, just send us, via email, the image with the link from where you found it, also use “Daily Inspiration” in the subject, and don’t forget to send your Abduzeedo username; or via Twitter sending to http://twitter.com/abduzeedo

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Aardvark

Adam

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Alexandre Trevisan

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Batuira

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Eugene Kim

Fabio

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fantasyinspiration

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Femstah

Gabi Miranda

Gzmnrd4j

Justin Vorbach

Meng To

nagiViTy

Nikolay

Oliver13

Sergey

tarek

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This post is part of our daily series of posts showing the most inspiring images selected by some of the Abduzeedo’s writers and users. If you want to participate and share your graphic design inspiration, just send us, via email, the image with the link from where you found it, also use “Daily Inspiration” in the subject, and don’t forget to send your Abduzeedo username; or via Twitter sending to http://twitter.com/abduzeedo

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Start Over Again from Gustavo Brazzalle on Vimeo.

leguian

liverasol

luXo

Meng To

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nicolasraybaud

Oliver13

Richard Davies

Taylor James

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Visions Paradox

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Pichichix

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7D PL Mount from 7D PL mount on Vimeo.

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Detran / ES – Faixa de Pedestre from Estúdio Happy de Criação on Vimeo.

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fksd

Time For Yourself from FKSD on Vimeo.

Fran Ferriz

grohsARTig

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Marmota Vs Milky

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Shizo

Trisme

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A roundup of the best design inspiration posted on Dribbble this week

Sign-up

Trippin’

Quick Contact Form

Radio Player

Voting UI

Basetrack app

Calendar

Retro Camera Icon

Platform Counters Final

Dial

For the win

Icons

UI Podcast Player

Dashing Dish Redesign Final

Artificial Horizon

If you like this post you may also want to look at:

This week in Dribbble #4

This week in Dribbble #3

Why not follow me on twitter: @atikusdesign
or to ensure you are updated with every D-Lists posts follow: @d_lists

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Design is an iterative process. It takes inspiration, perhaps from others’ work, and it takes feedback from others on what you’re doing right and where you’re missing it. After all, don’t forget Picasso’s famous quote that’s been popularized by Steve Jobs: “Good artists copy. Great artists steal.” After the break, we’ve put together a list of a dozen of our favorite sites that can get you inspired to create and help you get feedback on the things you’ve created.

Get Inspired and Share Your Best Work

There’s many ways you could share your new designs with the world, and there’s many ways to get inspired about design. These sites bring the best of both together. They let you share your best designs for cred and feedback, and let you get inspired by looking at the logos, typefaces, letterpress, websites, and more that the top people in design are making today.

Some are more exclusive than others, so it might take a Just looking, no touching period before your ready to share your designs. But be careful: it’s easy to waste hours admiring the beautiful designs on these sites instead of actually making your own work!

Dribbble

Dribbble

Dribbble is the the world’s most popular site for sharing designs, and most of the art here is nothing short of mindblowing. But don’t rush out to sign up. While anyone can now sign up to comment and favorite shots, only the select few who are special enough to get a coveted Dribbble invite can share their work. But that’s ok. There’s enough beautiful stuff on Dribbble, you can still use it to get inspiration even if you don’t have an invite. It’s a great place to catch a glimpse of the best upcoming sites, apps, and more from the top designers in the world. Plus, the Envato design team regularly shares their latest creations on the Envato Design Team Dribbble page, so be sure to check it out to get a glimpse of what’s next for our family of sites!

Favwork

Favwork

Favwork is a newer site for sharing your designs and voting up the ones you want. It’s designed somewhat like Dribbble, but is open for anyone in the whole wide world with a Twitter account. You can whip together your designs, upload them, and share them with your friends and colleagues to see what they think. That doesn’t guarantee your design will get to the front page, though. Even though Favwork isn’t as large as Dribbble, it’s already got a large number of beautiful designs that can inspire you.

Forrst

Forrst

Forrst is a fast-growing community full of everything design-related: logos, mockups, articles on design, sample code for web design, and more. Just like most of the other site,s you can mark your favorite items, and give feedback on the things others have made. It’s almost like a customized Tumblr just for sharing your design stuff with the community, and is very nicely done. It’s also a private site, but it’s a tad easier to get Forrst invites than Dribbble invites.

Creattica

Creattica

Creattica is Envato’s own design inspiration site, and it includes an incredibly wide range of creative works. From business cards to desktop wallpapers to advertisements, you’ll find brilliant examples of the best in design here. You can subscribe to each type of design in an RSS feed so you never miss the latest stuff in your favorite category. And if you’d like to see your own work featured, you can create an account and submit it to the editor as well.

Designmoo

Designmoo

Designmoo is a design site with a mission. It’s designed to let leading designers share some of their favorite designs with the community, complete with the original source files. If you find something that inspires you, you can usually download the PSD file to tweak it for your own use or learn how others put their designs together. If you’ve got something to contribute, you can create an account and join in the fun.

Bēhance

Bēhance

The Bēhance network is a great place to look at designs and images from a variety of creative industries. It’s used by many leading firms to discover upcoming talent, so if you think you’ve got a chance at design stardom, you can feature your pictures on it and create your own creative portfolio. With full-sized images, it’s got a different focus than the other design sites we listed, but it’s still a great spot to get inspired or share your work with the world.

Zootool

Zootool

Zootool may be a bookmarking tool, but it’s one of the best for saving the design inspirations you come across online. All of your bookmarks are viewable as image galleries, which you can flip through for inspiration or share with the world. You can also view popular public bookmarks from your account, giving you a fresh dose of inspiration every time you log in. Check out our review to learn more about this great tool for saving your favorite designs: Zootool: Creative & Fun Bookmarking.

GitHub

Github: If coding design you crave, Github may just be your fave

GitHub isn’t the first thing you’d think of when looking for design inspiration. It’s a site to store your source code in Git, and quickly find and fork other publicly available code.  Not the kind of thing designers usually are looking for. But, most web design is powered by intricitate CSS and HTML code, and there’s tons on GitHub for you to learn from. When you’re ready to get serious about coding that masterful site, check out what the pros are doing with CSS and more, and find some great new Javascript to integrate into your site. And if you’d like to see what our Envato dev team is up to with code, check out the Envato team GitHub profile.

And When Feedback’s All You Need…

Sometimes, you’ve already got all the inspiration you need, and you’re not ready to share your design with the world. In fact, you might want to get some more private feedback from the people you trust the most. In that case, there’s some great design apps that are ready for you. Here’s some of our favorites.

CloudApp

CloudApp

CloudApp is one of my most-used apps, both to share random images and files with others, and to get feedback on quick snippets of text or parts of a design. You can upload files through the web app, or drag-and-drop them to the Cloud icon in your Mac menu bar or FluffyApp in Windows. Your files can be kept private or shared with the world: your choice. Upgrade to a pro account, and you can share your designs, text, links, and more with your own private short URLs, too. For more info, check out our sister site Mac.AppStorm’s review of CloudApp: Effortlessly Share Files with CloudApp.

Notebox

Notebox

Notebox is designed for getting feedback on designes of all types. Upload your images, PDFs, or any other design file, add your own notes about the design, and share it with anyone you want. Come back later, and you can flip through all of the comments and see what everyone thought about your designs. One great option is to share multiple styles of your design, then check and see everyone’s feedback on the different ones to see which one will be a hit. Learn more about it at our review: Easy Design Feedback with Notebox.

Notable

Notable

Notable is a great app to help you get feedback on your full site and other large designs. Upload an image, share it with your colleagues and test groups, and see what they think about what you’ve created. They can add notes and markup your design, so you can see what you should change for next time. For more info, check out our review of Notable, though don’t forget, you can upload any design for critique, not just websites: Easy Website Feedback with Notable

FiveSecondTest

FiveSecondTest

FiveSecondTest is a brilliant way to see if your design comes across to viewers like you think it will. It’s designed to be used for testing website designs, but can work for any image testing you want: logos, typography, layouts, and more. Just upload your image, then enter questions to see what your design made users think of. If people figured out what your design was for, congrats … you must be on the right track! Otherwise, you can go back to the drawing board and tweak your design so it makes sense to everyone.

Conclusion

If great resources and examples could make you a world-class designer, then we’d all be making such beautiful works of art that the MoMA would be overflowing with designs. Sadly, it takes more than just looking at designs to get good at it. You’ve got to keep trying, get feedback, incorporate it into your design, rinse, and repeat. Once you’ve done it enough, you’ll be able to take the best ideas and put them together with your creativity into something so impressive and unique that it’s finally your own true work.

These apps and sites should help you get started, but there’s tons more out there that can help you learn to be a world-class designer. What’s your favorite design-centric web apps and sites that you can’t live without?

Go to Source

Design is an iterative process. It takes inspiration, perhaps from others’ work, and it takes feedback from others on what you’re doing right and where you’re missing it. After all, don’t forget Picasso’s famous quote that’s been popularized by Steve Jobs: “Good artists copy. Great artists steal.” After the break, we’ve put together a list of a dozen of our favorite sites that can get you inspired to create and help you get feedback on the things you’ve created.

Get Inspired and Share Your Best Work

There’s many ways you could share your new designs with the world, and there’s many ways to get inspired about design. These sites bring the best of both together. They let you share your best designs for cred and feedback, and let you get inspired by looking at the logos, typefaces, letterpress, websites, and more that the top people in design are making today.

Some are more exclusive than others, so it might take a Just looking, no touching period before your ready to share your designs. But be careful: it’s easy to waste hours admiring the beautiful designs on these sites instead of actually making your own work!

Dribbble

Dribbble

Dribbble is the the world’s most popular site for sharing designs, and most of the art here is nothing short of mindblowing. But don’t rush out to sign up. While anyone can now sign up to comment and favorite shots, only the select few who are special enough to get a coveted Dribbble invite can share their work. But that’s ok. There’s enough beautiful stuff on Dribbble, you can still use it to get inspiration even if you don’t have an invite. It’s a great place to catch a glimpse of the best upcoming sites, apps, and more from the top designers in the world. Plus, the Envato design team regularly shares their latest creations on the Envato Design Team Dribbble page, so be sure to check it out to get a glimpse of what’s next for our family of sites!

Favwork

Favwork

Favwork is a newer site for sharing your designs and voting up the ones you want. It’s designed somewhat like Dribbble, but is open for anyone in the whole wide world with a Twitter account. You can whip together your designs, upload them, and share them with your friends and colleagues to see what they think. That doesn’t guarantee your design will get to the front page, though. Even though Favwork isn’t as large as Dribbble, it’s already got a large number of beautiful designs that can inspire you.

Forrst

Forrst

Forrst is a fast-growing community full of everything design-related: logos, mockups, articles on design, sample code for web design, and more. Just like most of the other site,s you can mark your favorite items, and give feedback on the things others have made. It’s almost like a customized Tumblr just for sharing your design stuff with the community, and is very nicely done. It’s also a private site, but it’s a tad easier to get Forrst invites than Dribbble invites.

Creattica

Creattica

Creattica is Envato’s own design inspiration site, and it includes an incredibly wide range of creative works. From business cards to desktop wallpapers to advertisements, you’ll find brilliant examples of the best in design here. You can subscribe to each type of design in an RSS feed so you never miss the latest stuff in your favorite category. And if you’d like to see your own work featured, you can create an account and submit it to the editor as well.

Designmoo

Designmoo

Designmoo is a design site with a mission. It’s designed to let leading designers share some of their favorite designs with the community, complete with the original source files. If you find something that inspires you, you can usually download the PSD file to tweak it for your own use or learn how others put their designs together. If you’ve got something to contribute, you can create an account and join in the fun.

Bēhance

Bēhance

The Bēhance network is a great place to look at designs and images from a variety of creative industries. It’s used by many leading firms to discover upcoming talent, so if you think you’ve got a chance at design stardom, you can feature your pictures on it and create your own creative portfolio. With full-sized images, it’s got a different focus than the other design sites we listed, but it’s still a great spot to get inspired or share your work with the world.

Zootool

Zootool

Zootool may be a bookmarking tool, but it’s one of the best for saving the design inspirations you come across online. All of your bookmarks are viewable as image galleries, which you can flip through for inspiration or share with the world. You can also view popular public bookmarks from your account, giving you a fresh dose of inspiration every time you log in. Check out our review to learn more about this great tool for saving your favorite designs: Zootool: Creative & Fun Bookmarking.

GitHub

Github: If coding design you crave, Github may just be your fave

GitHub isn’t the first thing you’d think of when looking for design inspiration. It’s a site to store your source code in Git, and quickly find and fork other publicly available code.  Not the kind of thing designers usually are looking for. But, most web design is powered by intricitate CSS and HTML code, and there’s tons on GitHub for you to learn from. When you’re ready to get serious about coding that masterful site, check out what the pros are doing with CSS and more, and find some great new Javascript to integrate into your site. And if you’d like to see what our Envato dev team is up to with code, check out the Envato team GitHub profile.

And When Feedback’s All You Need…

Sometimes, you’ve already got all the inspiration you need, and you’re not ready to share your design with the world. In fact, you might want to get some more private feedback from the people you trust the most. In that case, there’s some great design apps that are ready for you. Here’s some of our favorites.

CloudApp

CloudApp

CloudApp is one of my most-used apps, both to share random images and files with others, and to get feedback on quick snippets of text or parts of a design. You can upload files through the web app, or drag-and-drop them to the Cloud icon in your Mac menu bar or FluffyApp in Windows. Your files can be kept private or shared with the world: your choice. Upgrade to a pro account, and you can share your designs, text, links, and more with your own private short URLs, too. For more info, check out our sister site Mac.AppStorm’s review of CloudApp: Effortlessly Share Files with CloudApp.

Notebox

Notebox

Notebox is designed for getting feedback on designes of all types. Upload your images, PDFs, or any other design file, add your own notes about the design, and share it with anyone you want. Come back later, and you can flip through all of the comments and see what everyone thought about your designs. One great option is to share multiple styles of your design, then check and see everyone’s feedback on the different ones to see which one will be a hit. Learn more about it at our review: Easy Design Feedback with Notebox.

Notable

Notable

Notable is a great app to help you get feedback on your full site and other large designs. Upload an image, share it with your colleagues and test groups, and see what they think about what you’ve created. They can add notes and markup your design, so you can see what you should change for next time. For more info, check out our review of Notable, though don’t forget, you can upload any design for critique, not just websites: Easy Website Feedback with Notable

FiveSecondTest

FiveSecondTest

FiveSecondTest is a brilliant way to see if your design comes across to viewers like you think it will. It’s designed to be used for testing website designs, but can work for any image testing you want: logos, typography, layouts, and more. Just upload your image, then enter questions to see what your design made users think of. If people figured out what your design was for, congrats … you must be on the right track! Otherwise, you can go back to the drawing board and tweak your design so it makes sense to everyone.

Conclusion

If great resources and examples could make you a world-class designer, then we’d all be making such beautiful works of art that the MoMA would be overflowing with designs. Sadly, it takes more than just looking at designs to get good at it. You’ve got to keep trying, get feedback, incorporate it into your design, rinse, and repeat. Once you’ve done it enough, you’ll be able to take the best ideas and put them together with your creativity into something so impressive and unique that it’s finally your own true work.

These apps and sites should help you get started, but there’s tons more out there that can help you learn to be a world-class designer. What’s your favorite design-centric web apps and sites that you can’t live without?

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Here, I’ll continue the theme, but focusing on modern design movements (mainly 20th century) that have lessons to teach us and inspiration to offer.

The challenge with modern design is that there are dozens of movements, and they all overlap each other in a tangled mess.

Things are no longer as simple as a century-long Renaissance or Baroque period. To keep it manageable, I have selected a few movements to review here.

Arts and Crafts movement

We’ll begin our journey with the Arts and Crafts movement, which began around 1860 and flourished until about 1910. The movement emphasized craftsmanship and simplicity and was sensitive to the actual materials used to create the work.

Fundamentally, the movement was a direct response to the modern machine age, and it challenged it in its style and decoration. With a focus on simplicity, functionality and craftsmanship, the Arts and Crafts movement offers many things that the modern designer can draw on.

Granted, drawing principles from a movement that was fundamentally opposed to modern machinery and applying them to web development presents an obvious problem. But let’s see what we come up with.

Preoccupied with purpose and technological simplicity, designers of the period relied heavily on ornament and patterns, while still attending to overall quality and style. These elements were so fundamental that a book from this period was devoted to them, The Grammar of Ornament.

Ornament, patterns and refinement

This page from The Nature of Gothic, as printed by Kelmscott Press, shows painstaking craft and an aesthetic that is fundamentally opposed to mass production. How can we apply this to web design? The leap is rather difficult, but I think we have a winner here:

Despite the fact that a website, at its most basic level, represents an embrace of technology, this particular website is a fantastic bridge between the Arts and Crafts style and the web.

For starters, it has a remarkably handcrafted feel to it. The background most likely was handcrafted, before being converted to digital vector format. The website clearly reflects the subject matter (i.e. letterpress), which itself has a direct connection to craftsmanship. Most of all, the lack of graphics or decoration, in addition to its refinement, truly makes this fit the style.

Another interesting, though very different, example is Zaarly, which packs a distinct visual punch. The website combines modern functionality with a craft-oriented style. The hand-rendered illustration and natural color palette connect this design to tangible handicrafts. In many ways, the designer distances this design from the cold, sterile technologies used to create it, going instead for a personal, natural feel.

The website certainly doesn’t abstain from modern tools, though, with its Facebook, Twitter and Google Maps integration. In fact, the beautiful design would be useless without its modern application and relevance.

Let’s consider the impact of this style. One might assume that it was randomly decided on. I would propose that it was carefully calculated. It represents a radically different approach than that of Craigslist, a competitor of Zaarly’s. By making the website personal and less “digital,” the designers have attempted to appeal to people on a totally different level. The design serves a very definite purpose with the product, which is totally in line with the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement.

Art Nouveau

The Art Nouveau movement was popular right around 1900 and is most frequently recognized for its impact on architecture of the time. The style captured floral and plant elements, with stylized flowing lines. This combination of elements makes art from this period relatively easy to identify.

The beautiful poster Maude Adams as Joan of Arc by Alfons Mucha embodies all of the core principles of Art Nouveau. Clearly visible are the floral patterns and flowing lines. The style of the painting is highlighted by the technique used to create it, without distracting from the absolutely beautiful result. It’s like a combination of the realistic and decorative elements of other more stylized movements (Impressionism, for example).

I couldn’t have stumbled on a better example of Art Nouveau elements in modern design than idesign’s website. The flowing elements at the top are the most obvious reference to this period. Throw in the other elements, including the rooster, bicycle and hand, and you have a very clear homage to the early 1900s.

While the connection to Art Nouveau is clear, the modern touches are what make the website truly outstanding. Foremost are the simple animations at the top of the page. Little elements like these go a long way to bringing the page to life.

Bauhaus

Bauhaus was a German school that ran from about 1919 to 1933. It had a tremendous influence on modern design and almost all forms of art that followed, especially the commercial arts.

As most movements do, the Bauhaus style contrasted starkly with its predecessors. Absent are the ornamentation and decoration of the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau styles. In its place is the merging of design and function, which was in many ways the birth of true minimalism. The attempt to harmonize function and design is remarkably similar to the user experience efforts of the web design community today.

The Barcelona Chair above was designed by Mies van der Rohe, one of the directors of Bauhaus. The simple chair perfectly captures the aesthetic. It is streamlined and incredibly stylish and yet totally designed to perform its function, which are the reasons it is still being used today, 80 years on.

Finding minimalist websites is remarkably easy, but finding ones that also embrace the Bauhaus style is a tad more difficult. Identity Designed does it effectively. The website clearly embraces minimalism but goes deeper.

Function and design

In keeping with the Bauhaus style, Identity Designed has a minimalist website and has ensured that it functions extremely well. The header of the page shows simple branding, “ID.” From there, we have a simple clear menu bar; the user instantly knows how to navigate the website. It follows conventions while functioning beautifully.

Another feature of Bauhaus is its use of sans-serif typefaces. After all, a typeface can perform its function perfectly well without all of those extra serifs, ears and arms! Not to mention, sans-serif fonts can be remarkably beautiful in their own right.

Finally, notice how carefully color is used. In the Bauhaus style, stark color combinations are almost non-existent. Identity Design uses color to distinguish links, but otherwise, color is used for only the subtlest of decoration.

International Typographic Style

Also known as the Swiss Style, the International Typographic Style originated in Switzerland in the 1950s. On the surface, it embodies the functional and minimal style of Bauhaus. As you dig deeper, you’ll find a focus on typography, geometric design and grid systems.

Some of the biggest names in graphic design emerged from this movement: Paul Rand, Max Miedinger. Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann created the Helvetica typeface, which some of you may have heard of.

(Image: Joe Kral)

The sample above from Neue Grafik magazine exemplifies the International Typographic Style. Notice the almost complete reliance on typography, the strong adherence to a grid and the left-justified text.

Focus Lab’s website is not 100% in the International style, but in a way this makes it an even better example. After all, such comparisons are meant to demonstrate how these ideas from modern art can be adapted to current needs and aesthetics.

Clearly visible on Focus Lab’s website is refined typography as a stylistic element. The type doesn’t just communicate information: it is the primary design element on the page (even if it’s not quite Helvetica).

Also, the grid is critical to the effectiveness of the page. And while perhaps a subtler detail, all of the text is left-justified, very much in keeping with the style. The website is a stunning example of modern web design and proves that we can leverage any style to suit our needs.

Pop Art

Pop Art also came out of the 1950s. It originated in Britain and found its way to the US. Andy Warhol is perhaps its best known proponent.

Once again, we see an art movement challenging tradition. Pop Art incorporates everyday items like comic books, celebrity photographs, household objects and even advertising.

One of the earliest examples of Pop Art is this collage by Richard Hamilton, titled Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing? This amalgamation of disparate elements of 1950s life was a striking, perhaps shocking, demonstration of this style.

Finding websites that leverage the Pop Art style is hard, but they do exist. One is Mixbits.com:

Perhaps the biggest difference between this and the Pop Art style is that Mixbits.com is actually meant to be used, not just viewed. However, the interface does carry elements of the style. What does Pop Art aim to achieve other than to change our perspective on what art is? Mixbits.com’s interface challenges our expectations of what a web app should look like. And it works brilliantly.

We do not know the inspiration behind the Pelican Hotel’s website, but the visuals here do seem to evoke Richard Hamilton’s collage. Commercial considerations keep the designer from pasting together everyday items the way Hamilton did, but there is something collage-like about the way this page is put together.

Punk

Not everyone would consider the 1970s punk rock scene a milestone in modern art and design. But its influence is far-reaching and rather persistent. Not to mention, it forms a nice contrast to the minimalism of Bauhaus.

Some of its principal features are collage, gritty visuals, shocking content, and intense bright colors like fluorescent pink and yellow. One of the most memorable products is this album cover for the Sex Pistols’ single God Save the Queen:

This album art perfectly embodies the punk rock era: shocking graphics, collage and low production value. Let’s consider a couple of website designs to see how this style lives on.

Fortunately, many of the designers who adopt this aesthetic do not abandon principles of usability in the process. Take the two examples shown above, Serge Seidlitz’s website and the more commercial approach of Puma Talk. Granted, neither of these websites is literally “punk rock.” Neither is offensive in the least, and neither has a lo-fi feel. Still, the websites are rooted in the style, even while being heavily modernized.

Rancid is truer to the punk rock spirit. The website for this current semi-punk band lacks the offensiveness, but it certainly has the lo-fi hacked-together feel. And it suits the band well.

If you’re thinking of adopting this style, consider its effect on your audience. Puma Talk, for example, leverages a pseudo-punk style to connect with a young audience, even though users wouldn’t be old enough to have experienced the punk movement firsthand. Don’t let the style dictate the project. Instead, leverage modern techniques and approaches, and ensure that your website is relevant to current audiences.

Conclusion

Trying to unravel the countless art movements that have occurred in the last 100 years would be mind-boggling. With the globalization of communication, the styles have intertwined to the point of being overwhelming. But this is not a lesson in art history. Rather, my goal was to shed light on the origins of some of the styles we employ on the web today.

Today’s web designers leverage ideas that are decades, if not centuries, old. The true innovators of any period are able to leverage the ideas of the past, adapt to modern needs, and create fresh approaches that shape future generations of designers.

I hope this brief introduction to various art movements demonstrates the power of looking to the past. Creativity is never inhibited by considering what others have done. On the contrary: understanding the lessons others have learned helps us adapt their ideas to new styles.

Patrick McNeil is a freelance writer, developer and designer. In particular, he loves to write about web design, train people in web development and build websites. Patrick’s passion for web design trends and patterns can be found in his books on TheWebDesignersIdeaBook.com. Follow Patrick on Twitter @designmeltdown.

Do you see any other 20th-century styles represented prominently on today’s websites?

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Underscore

Taothiep

Think Galapagos

Juan David Perafan

Filippo Valente

Mobily

Quodis

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Mobile designers have become more prominent in today’s extensible web. iOS and Android apps have flooded the markets and earned a lot of money for some small development studios. The smartphone era has taken off with a huge buzz, and now app designers and developers are in high demand.

The local design community Dribbble often features shots from mobile designers. These include sketches and mockups for iOS, interfaces, tab buttons, splash screens, tables, and a whole lot more. If you are familiar with XCode and building iPhone/iPad apps then you’ll recognize some of these terms. But for beginning designers the whole system can seem a little convoluted.

Below I’ve collected a beautiful gallery of 40 mobile user interface designs. These are all shots submitted into Dribbble with each author’s profile link included. Many of these are designed specifically for iOS which is the powerhouse of our modern smartphone market. If you have any thoughts or links to similar UI designs, please share with us in the discussion area below.

iPhone App UI

Designers Page →

Contact Us Page: Mobile

Designers Page →

Compass Menu Detail

Designers Page →

Some UI elements

Designers Page →

Team Mate Activity Stream

Designers Page →

Android App UI

Designers Page →

Mobile App: Neighborhood Selection

Designers Page →

Icelandic National Broadcasting Service

Designers Page →

Dayzipping App

Designers Page →

iMEData tabs for iPad

Designers Page →

Collapsable Tab Bar

Designers Page →

Hipster Mobile App

Designers Page →

Facebook for iPad

Designers Page →

Sign In

Designers Page →

Ohai There User

Designers Page →

Man Saver iPhone App

Designers Page →

Eventtie app

Designers Page →

Social App In Progress

Designers Page →

iPhone app

Designers Page →

Golf app

Designers Page →

App Remix: Lose It!

Designers Page →

Mobile iPhone iOS app UI

Designers Page →

Sky+Drib

Designers Page →

iPhone Tab Bar UI

Designers Page →

ShoeStore.com

Designers Page →

On the go

Designers Page →

Main Feed On-Screen

Designers Page →

iPhone “Wood” Keyboard

Designers Page →

iOS Buttons

Designers Page →

UI for mobile app

Designers Page →

Transaction List

Designers Page →

Happening

Designers Page →

Balance

Designers Page →

Hyperlinks For iPad

Designers Page →

Twitter and Deals

Designers Page →

iPhone app design

Designers Page →

iPhone app UI

Designers Page →

App WIP

Designers Page →

iPhone Radio App

Designers Page →

Jouleapp

Designers Page →

You may also like…

Android App Developers GUI Kits, Icons, Fonts and Tools →
iPhone Development GUI Kits, Wireframe Stencils and Icons →
20 Free Web UI Element Kits and Stencils →
50 Free PSD UI Kits and Templates for Web Designers →
40 Professional and Detailed Web Layout PSD Templates →
A Collection of Useful Web Design Wireframing Resources →
A Collection of Printable Web Browser Sketching and Wireframe Templates →
A Useful Selection of Android Developer Tools and Resources →
Illustrator Template Toolbox for Web, Mobile and App Developers →

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This post is part of our daily series of posts showing the most inspiring images selected by some of the Abduzeedo’s writers and users. If you want to participate and share your graphic design inspiration, just send us, via email, the image with the link from where you found it, also use “Daily Inspiration” in the subject, and don’t forget to send your Abduzeedo username; or via Twitter sending to http://twitter.com/abduzeedo

If possible use the HTML code: <p class="imgC"><a href="Link to the page you found the image"><img src="Link to the Image" /></a></p>

Do you want to see all images from all Daily Inspirations? Check out http://daily.abduzeedo.com

adam

admin_tutorialstorage

al b sure

alex tass

Allan Roubertie

AoiroStudio

Arthur Presser

Best Bookmarks

blackandwhite

Coolvibe

Cuded

Eugene Kim

Fabio

Fabiano

fantasyinspiration

Feature Me

fksd

Gabi Miranda

HdK

JØRN

Joseph

Justin Rampage

mangomarin

mdcarter7

melvin zelissen

Meng To

moisespb

nagiViTy

newyorkiz

Popshot Magazine

RedHeadRoad

Romeo Nicoloso

video reel from 7D PL mount on Vimeo.

Shizo

Visions Paradox

ZAC

Via Twitter

Send your suggestions via Twitter to http://twitter.com/abduzeedo using #abdz in the
end of the tweet.

@cadofigueiredo

@daniel_nelson

@letmebeinspired

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This post is part of our daily series of posts showing the most inspiring images selected by some of the Abduzeedo’s writers and users. If you want to participate and share your graphic design inspiration, just send us, via email, the image with the link from where you found it, also use “Daily Inspiration” in the subject, and don’t forget to send your Abduzeedo username; or via Twitter sending to http://twitter.com/abduzeedo.

<!–break–>

If possible use the HTML code: <p class="imgC"><a href="Link to the page you found the image"><img src="Link to the Image" /></a></p>

Do you want to see all images from all Daily Inspirations? Check out http://daily.abduzeedo.com

365days

Adam

admin_tutorialstorage

alex tass

Altaf

Best Bookmarks

Coolvibe

cuded

David Fréchou

a>

Email Inspiration

Fabiano

Fabio

fantasyinspiration

Feature Me

Gisele

HdK

Jiddy

marco puccini

Meng To

nagiViTy

thaeger

Visions Paradox

Wobo

Via Twitter

Send your suggestions via Twitter to http://twitter.com/abduzeedo using #abdz in the end of the tweet.

@andaurstudios

@letmebeinspired

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A showcase of the very best web designs from the last week

Carnivale Du Vin

UW Design Show

Hugo & Marie

Hard Graft

Sunborn

Web Typography For The Lonely

Iconmonstr

Maersk

Yoggrt

Moody International

Jenier

Growcase

Niketo

The Lit Pub

Pucket

If you like this post you may also want to look at:

Weekly Web Design Inspiration #106

Weekly Web Design Inspiration #105

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A roundup of the best design inspiration posted on Dribbble this week

Task tracking counter

Video component update

100% Happiness

Facebook app version

Construction

Brazilian flip-flop

Making choices…

Search

Battery stats

Dashboard beta 2

Virgin uploading

Bunker app

Meal invite for iPhone app

Super Action Bros Completed

Ohlando Type Treatments

If you like this post you may also want to look at:

This week in Dribbble #3

This week in Dribbble #2

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or to ensure you are updated with every D-Lists posts follow: @d_lists

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A showcase of the very best web designs from the last week

Renault

Type Media

Kout

Mario Kart

The Battle Of The Bit

Us Two

Oobafit

The Music Bed

Syropia

Starting Bloc

Design/Array

Badgeville

Foodily

Souljade

If you like this post you may also want to look at:

Weekly Web Design Inspiration #105

Weekly Web Design Inspiration #104

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or to ensure you are updated with every D-Lists posts follow: @d_lists

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People in every trade do this, including those in photography, painting, sculpture and architecture. Why should web designers be any different?

Of course, we look to the very recent past through our countless web design showcases. But we can go much further back for inspiration, to the masters of old.

Let’s review some key art movements and the fundamental design principles they embraced. Based on these, we can review current web designs for elements to apply to our own work.

We’ll focus on Western art before the 20th century, and we will highlight only a few movements from among the many that took place.

The Renaissance

We’ll begin our journey in the mid-15th century, with one of the most well-known eras: the Renaissance. The height of this period saw some of the most notable artists of all time: Michelangelo, da Vinci, Raphael. One of the reasons this period was so critical, and our reason for starting here, is that it marked the transition from the medieval period to the modern era.

While many things shaped this period of art history, a few fundamental principles stand out: the use of perspective, the attempt at stability and balance in compositions, and the relentless push towards realism. To illustrate these ideas, I have selected da Vinci’s The Last Supper:

Perspective

The use of perspective was brand new to the Renaissance. The Last Supper shows an entire scene created using single-point perspective. The focal point is directly on Christ’s head, drawing the viewer’s gaze. Perspective not only increases the realism but directs the viewer’s attention to the most important area.

At first glance, the Skittles website does not scream Renaissance. But that period’s ideas can be leveraged in creative ways. Note the use of perspective on the title text, “Experience the rainbow.” It might seem purely decorative at first, but the trailing rainbow guides us down to the arrow below. It’s a more blatant use of perspective, directing the user down the page, fulfilling its purpose. The use is entirely appropriate in this case: the page scrolls infinitely, and content continues to loads the further down you go.

Stability and balance

Another key principle of the Renaissance is balance and stability in composition. The Last Supper has a sense of overall stability, enabled by the long table at the bottom of the scene. This grounds the painting and keeps it from feeling lopsided.

Also, notice the symmetry across the entire piece: six people on each side and a mirror image background, all revolving around the central figure.

And notice how Christ is shaped like a triangle, with his head at the peak. This was not accidental. This sort of balance and stability is a hallmark of Renaissance art.

Again, not much about Site Stitcher connects it to the Renaissance. However, we do see stability and balance effectively at work. First, the page has a basic triangular structure. At the top is the logo and branding; below is a summary and illustration of the company’s work; and all of this sits on top of the most critical information and action items. This not only creates structure, but leads viewers down an important series of steps. Consider your design and how you could leverage stability and balance to control the user experience and create a positive environment for your product.

Baroque

The Baroque period followed the Renaissance and peaked around the 17th century. In stark contrast to the Renaissance, it was marked by dynamic, active and highly dramatic images. Many paintings from this period appear to capture an active moment and feel very much alive, as if they could move at any second. The Baroque period continued the realism that began in the Renaissance, but it brought a drama and sense of motion that had not been done.

Some of the most important artists among the countless during this period are Caravaggio, Rubens and Bernini. Many of the most dramatic icons of certain European cities were created in this era. For example, the Trevi Fountain in Rome was designed by Bernini and is a prime example of Baroque sculpture.

We can relate the three most common characteristics of art from this period to modern design: drama, rich color, and intense dark and light contrast. Let’s look at Caravaggio’s Calling of St. Matthew:

Stark contrast

The characteristic Baroque quality of intense contrast between light and dark is clearly visible here. This fundamental principle of design is taught in our introductory design classes, so the topic certainly isn’t new to anyone. Still, let’s consider its role in this painting.

Most of all, it highlights the most critical elements. The individuals’ faces stand out boldly against the shadowy background, effectively focusing the viewer on the subject matter and minimizing the distraction of the environment. The technique is a way to ensure that the story in the painting is easily understood.

These are all qualities we want on the web. We want our designs to be easy to understand and, by extension, easy to use. We also want the critical elements — what we might call action items — to stand out. I’ve found a website that exhibits just these qualities:

On Cleatskins, we find many design elements that recall the Baroque period: the sharp contrast of black on white, the bold color palette of the products, and the action items. All of these focus you on the product itself, making for a website that is easy to use, easy to understand and highly effective.

Notice also that the images of the products have a sense of action to them. The photographic style captures a moment in time, and you feel as though movement is in progress, which is different from the style found in Renaissance art.

Drama

For a sense of drama, we turn to Golden Gopher. Everything about this design screams drama: the highly active main photograph, the rich colors and strong contrast, even the diagonal lines that add texture and motion. All of these add up to a sense of major performance, which is very much like football itself. This design embraces ideals in Baroque art and perfectly suits the topic at hand.

Rococo

The Rococo period followed the Baroque in the 18th century. During this period, artists shifted to lighter topics, focusing on things like aristocratic life and romance.

Art from this time is characterized by elaborate ornamentation and light graceful imagery. Some of the most influential artists of this period were Jean-Honore Fragonard, Watteau and Boucher. One of the most notable landmarks from this period is the Gardens of Versailles.

The ceiling painting and architecture of Wies Church, shown above, is a fantastic specimen of this period. Let’s see how the principles it embodies can be applied to modern design.

Ornamentation

To say that the ceiling is ornamental would be an understatement. It pushes the very limit of ornamentation. This is a signature of Rococo art. Ornamentation was used in unprecedented ways, adding flair and elegance like never before.

Let’s turn to the portfolio of Nathan Love. The ornamentation here defines the website, much as it would in a work from the 18th century. Of course, it has a modern flair, too, and incorporates some early-1900s elements, but the style is dominated by the aesthetic of the Rococo period.

Nathan has created a distinctive portfolio that represents his work beautifully. I particularly love the little illustrations dispersed throughout the website that give us a sense of his personality, but without interfering with the usability. The navigation and interaction are clear, despite the unusual approach.

Playful scene

The subject of many paintings from this period form an interesting contrast to the regality of the ornamentation. For example, The Swing by Jean-Honore Fragonard presents a lighthearted and trivial scene. But combined with the extreme ornamentation, it creates some internal tension.

Turning again to Nathan’s website, it has a rather serious style, and yet it is infused with some rather playful elements. The small animated figures, silly videos and lightheartedness of the content form a counterpoint to the overall seriousness of the aesthetic. These show the human behind the website, someone with personality and humor but who understands how to make a product look fabulous and serve its function.

This combination is exactly what a business owner wants when hiring a designer. As such, his website is a fantastic example of how Rococo principles can be adapted with clear intent. Of course, Nathan probably wasn’t thinking of the Rococo style when he was creating his website, but we see how it applies nonetheless.

Neoclassical

As usually happens in art, one generation rejects the previous and goes in the completely opposite direction. In the Neoclassical period, artists rejected the trends of the Rococo period, regarding them as over the top and trivial. They reverted to classical approaches, including those of the Renaissance and Classical Greek and Roman art.

The Neoclassicists embraced what they viewed as ideal standards to produce optimal results. This meant embracing the most notable artists, works of art and methods of these ideal periods.

The movement covered the mid-18th and early-19th centuries, giving us such artists as Jacques-Louis David, Rembrandt Peale and Antonio Canova, to name but a few. These artists adopted styles and subject matter from earlier eras. It’s easy for us to overlook that a painting such as Jacques Louis-David’s period-defining Oath of the Horatii would have been considered “classical” at the time.

Some of the defining characteristics of this period are simplicity, order, stability and classical subject matter. Let’s see how these could be applied to modern design, using David’s piece from this period.

Historical

David’s painting is above all a historical reference. It depicts a scene from a work of Classical Roman historian Livy. David was in effect recalling an era long past.

At first glance, you would be hard pressed to relate the Thread’s Not Dead website to this period in art history. But consider the design’s semi-retro style. The worn look adds age to the website, making it feel like the product of a bygone age. And yet it fits the modern web just fine. Thematically, it looks to the past, but topically, it is very relevant.

This could just as well describe Oath of the Horatii. The subject matter is historical, but it evokes the modern age (the soldiers on the left) embracing the past (the forefather on the right). This is exactly what artists were doing.

The Thread’s Not Dead website conveys quality and experience through its connection to the past, a kind of “been there, done that” mentality. And guess what? The author has been there and done that. The theme fits the subject matter brilliantly.

Romanticism

The Romantic period in art history began in the middle of the 18th century and was strongest in Europe.

Despite its name, it wasn’t concerned with what you would consider typical Romantic matter. Instead, artists sought to imbue their works with strong emotion, including shock, fear, uncertainty and, of course, love. Some of the most prominent artists of the time were Francisco Goya, Eugene Delacroix and Thomas Cole.

The objective of generating an emotional response from a design is almost a given. Most often, the intention of a website is to elicit a physical response from the user: getting them to click on something, buy something, read something or the like. Playing on emotion can be a powerful way to accomplish this.

Emotion

A painting such as this wears its emotions on its sleeve. One need not understand its particular historical reference to fully appreciate it. The painting oozes with emotion, and the subject matter is clear when you know the title, The Voyage of Life, and especially considering it as one of the four paintings in a series. A painting like this is meant to be thought-provoking, to generate an emotional response, to awaken the viewer.

One need not look far to find a website design that elicits an emotional response. In the world of advertising, this seems to be the number one approach. On the Charleston Family Fun website, we see a clear attempt to generate such a response. The nostalgic photograph crosses barriers and presents us with a timeless sense of peace. The kids are getting along, sipping on Cokes, munching on peanuts, evoking an age gone by, as if in a parental dream. Everything here is an attempt to make parents want to go to Charleston.

While the website certainly doesn’t look like a painting from the Romantic period, it does make a strong emotional response its primary goal. There are many ways to sell a product, and appealing to raw emotion is one of the most powerful.

It is not hard to imagine how these principles could be applied to modern design; after all, we are already doing it. Still, as with most things, exploring the roots of the approach is worthwhile. When you dig into a technique like this one, you often find very practical reasons for why it came to be and, therefore, a greater understanding of how it can be leveraged.

Apparently I am not the first to observe this. Aaron Walter is writing a book titled Designing for Emotion, due to be released this summer. I doubt he will connect his theory to the Romantic period, but my point stands nonetheless.

Conclusion

The notion of looking to the past for inspiration and understanding is not new. It is the reason every creative-related educational program includes a load of art history courses. As a former student of such courses, I can attest that they often bore and frustrate many students. But with an open mind, we can find timeless ideas that apply to our daily work.

Of course, this article merely skims the surface of these periods in art history. But I hope the dots are starting to connect for you. Embrace our rich history, and draw inspiration and techniques from it. You will be amazed by what you can learn and use in your own work.

This brings us up to the beginning of the 20th century, which I will cover in another article.

Patrick McNeil is a freelance writer, developer and designer. In particular, he loves to write about web design, train people in web development and build websites. Patrick’s passion for web design trends and patterns can be found in his books on TheWebDesignersIdeaBook.com. Follow Patrick on Twitter @designmeltdown.

Do you see any other elements in these periods of art history that we can apply to modern websites?

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A showcase of the very best web designs from the last week

Bruno Mayer

5 Emegauche

1 Minus 1

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Influ Ads

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A showcase of the very best web designs from the last week

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Forside

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A roundup of the best design inspiration posted on Dribbble this week

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Save Appointment

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A showcase of the very best web designs from the last week

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A roundup of the best design inspiration posted on Dribbble this week

Moodometer

Branch iPhone App

Nike Stats

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Shopping Cart

Music Player

End Drawing Mode

Glyphs

Clean On Off

Tiny Do

Experimental UI

Kawiky Nav

Beta Has Launched

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A roundup of the best design inspiration posted on Dribbble this week

Moodometer

Branch iPhone App

Nike Stats

Game Interface Wip

Inbox

Shopping Cart

Music Player

End Drawing Mode

Glyphs

Clean On Off

Tiny Do

Experimental UI

Kawiky Nav

Beta Has Launched

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This Week In Dribbble #1

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A list of beautiful websites using the very ‘fashionable’ subtle texture

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Instrument

Pixel 2 HTML

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Mind Epic

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Node Beat

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A list of beautiful websites using the very ‘fashionable’ subtle texture

CXXVI

Instrument

Pixel 2 HTML

Alex Pierce

Mind Epic

Buzz Chips

Justin Burns

iPhone Icon

Railroad Revival