Archive for month: October, 2022

Original Source: https://designrfix.com/reviews/best-duotang-folder-with-prongs

When choosing the best duotang folder with prongs for your needs, we narrowed down our top picks based on the following factors: size, variety of types, warranties, and customer sentiment. We also included some options and some of the most trusted brands that have proven to work for an extended period with no loss of … Read more

Original Source: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2022/10/3-essential-design-trends-october-2022/

This month, it’s all about the images. Each of the design trends we spotted has to do with the images you select – or don’t select – for a project and how you use them.

Here’s what’s trending in design this month.

1. Floating Images

Sometimes you design off the grid intentionally. Other times you are designing on a grid that’s maybe not-so-obvious. One of these things is happening with the floating images website design trend.

Here, you’ll see images and image containers that don’t seem to have any direction with their placements. They may or may not include animation, that further emphasizes the floating effect.

Floating images can include:

Cutouts that aren’t anchored to anything or any container
Images that are scattered on the canvas
Images in oddball placements that don’t seem to serve a purpose
Any image or element with an obvious off-the-grid location or spacing
Images that use different orientations or lack depth for perception

The challenge with this style is that it can look cohesive and organized or can turn into a jumble of parts rather quickly. It can take a lot of user testing to find the right balance.

Repeat uses animated, outline-style images in the background that have seemingly random placements. The floating effect is further emphasized by animation and the overlapping of images and other elements.

HummingYard uses images in a container in the design but the placements don’t have obvious meaning. There’s also a floating leaf on the right side of the canvas and a call to action button that appears to be off the grid as well. Each of the elements seems almost haphazardly placed, creating a floating effect for the entire design.

Wealthsimple uses a bunch of smaller different images to create a floating cascade of elements. The three-dimensional icons almost look like they are falling down the screen. Some overlap text elements, but most do not. It all feels a little random, but the images do frame and help bring the eyes toward the center-screen text elements and call to action.

2. No Images

If floating images aren’t your thing when considering a trendy design element, maybe no images is the answer.

In this design trend, the aesthetic comes together without any true imagery. The design uses mostly text with maybe an icon, logo, or small divot. The result can be a fairly stark design, but there’s a distinct focus on the words.

This trend is not so difficult to design, but storytelling and language are vital if you want users to interact with the design. No images can sometimes be off-putting to users who are looking for something visual.

Fandes Consulting uses a super simple black and white design with a simple call to action on the homepage. The scroll cue has a nice animation that helps you get a little deeper into the design quickly. (There are also more interactive elements and images after the scroll.)

Diego also uses a simple and stark aesthetic for his website. Again, there’s a simple animation for engagement and there’s more color and some imagery beyond the scroll.

Ashfield MedComms has the most color of these no-image website examples. With a navy background and a green icon, you can feel your eyes moving more on the screen here. There’s also more to read and a scroll animation to further the engagement.

3. Merged Text and Images

The merged text and images trend is the most complex of these design examples. Here, designers are creating overlapping layers for text and image (or animated) elements on the screen so that there’s a lot to consume visually. This can be a highly engaging concept, but also one that’s difficult to develop.

This design trend can be immensely beautiful when done well. Layered elements are exciting and have a “designed” feeling to them.

The visual challenge is this: Maintaining the readability of words and letters, especially when you are thinking about the responsiveness of the website. Animation or motion can add another level of complication.

If you are planning a design like this, it is important to plan for breakpoints and even have a fallback for what to do when readability becomes a concern. The desktop and mobile aesthetics might have different feels here to ensure that you have an easy-to-understand visual theme for both.

The Most Dangerous Places for Sailors includes text and an image element (the ship) that are tucked behind an animated water layer. What’s especially nice about this design is how the water looks just as dangerous as the words convey thanks to motion and the shape and color of the graphics.

Meow overlaps text and an image in a way that almost obscured readability, but the word has enough context that it’s generally understood. If you click through, there’s a fun little animation with the cat as well.

Champoleon the Valley of Dreams tucks part of the text into the mountains for a foreground to text to background layer set that’s beautiful and unified. There are a lot of layers in this design, making it much more complex than it appears on the surface. On the scroll, the rest of the site continues this layered theme with text and images that overlap and share space.

Conclusion

Which of these image trends is most appealing to you? They are vastly different approaches to website design and can work for different projects in different ways. They also range in development complexity, from super easy to manage – no images at all – to potentially challenging – merged text and images.

Source

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The post 3 Essential Design Trends, October 2022 first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

Original Source: https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/11-sites-to-create-cartoon-characters-of-yourself/

If you are not comfortable using real photos to represent yourself in any online profiles and avatars, why not create a cartoon character of yourself? It’ll be fun and unique to others when you are representing yourself in a cartoonized way in your online profiles.

Thanks to many free web services, you don’t have to pay an artist for your cartoon illustrations. All you have to do is upload your photo or run some mix-and-match. Here are 13 websites that allow you to create a cartoon character of yourself.

10 Websites to Have Fun With Your Photos

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10 Websites to Have Fun With Your Photos

Getting a little bored with how your photos are presented online? How about injecting some fun and humor… Read more

1. Cartoonify.de

Cartoonify is a straightforward online tool for creating cartoon avatars. You can choose from 300 different graphic elements to add to your character and save your creation in PNG, SVG, or upload to Gravatar. There’s also a how-to guide to help you create your character on the site.

2. AI Cartoonizer

AI Cartoonizer can turn any photo into a cartoon-style image. It lets you turn your face into anime, caricature, or Disney-style characters within a few seconds. The tool is also available for Android and iOS. You can edit and tinker with the created characters and add text, frames, and additional effects.

3. Media.io

Meda.io is an instant cartoon character maker that fast and free. Just upload your photo, start the process, and get an interesting image within seconds. You can give effects to your photos or turn them into caricatures and share the characters with friends or on social media. Plus, you don’t have to create an account to convert your photos.

4. VanceAI Toongineer

VanceAI Toongineer is an AI-powered tool that turns your normal photos into cartoons in the quickest way possible. You can give your pictures some amazing effects and artistic touch. The created images are high-quality, so you can easily get them printed.

5. Image to Cartoon

Image to Cartoon enables you to turn your photos into cartoon characters and avatars with just a few clicks. You can add any interesting body (batman, superman, aviator) to your characters and add your characters to a cool background and have fun with it. The best part is, the image you’ll create will be deleted from the app within 3 hours.

6. Bitmoji

Create realistic and creative cartoon characters with Bitmoji. On the website, you need to create an account and start making a perfect bitmoji adding your peculiar features. Moreover, you can share the created bitmoji in any iOS or Android app and add them to iMessage, Gboard, or as a Chrome extension to your browser.

7. Photokako

Claiming to be one of the best online photo editors in Japan, Photokako lets you turn your photos into different effects and characters. Interestingly, the site features hundreds of effects or editing samples so you can easily pick the best for your photos. Plus, its free and really easy to use.

8. Avatar Maker

Avatar maker can help you create an interesting avatar for yourself or for your projects. Through an interesting interface, you can add different elements to your avatar in terms of hair, face, eyes, clothes, and background. Once done, you can download your character in SVG or PNG format.

9. Cutout.pro

An AI-powered tool, Cutout.pro, can turn your portrait photos or selfies into 3D cartoon characters. You can drag-and-drop, upload, or paste the image URL and cartoonize it with one click. The website is also available as an Android and iOS app.

10. Befunky Photo to Cartoon

Befunky Photo to Cartoon lets you upload your photos on PNG, JPG, or BDF format and convert them into cartoon characters. There are different editing features for changing color, touchups and adding text, graphics, and frames etc. You can also choose from a number of pre-made effects and apply to your photos.

11. Instructables craft

The site has detailed instructions how to create a drawing or cartoon of yourself in Photoshop or Illustrator. Note: you need to have Photoshop or Illustrator to follow the instructions and perhaps some drawing skills.

12. Portrait Illustration Maker

Portrait Illustration make is a free cartoon avatar generator. Just hit the “Randomizer” button and the site will automatically generate avatars randomly. You can save the Avatar image by right-clicking them and using the Save Image As option from the context menu.

13. Pho.to

This awesome site can not only turn your landscape photo into a watercolor drawing, but also make your face morph. Just upload your photo to the website and get numerous changes of facial expressions.

The post 13 Sites to Create Cartoon Characters of Yourself appeared first on Hongkiat.

Original Source: https://ecommerce-platforms.com/articles/best-logo-maker

The best logo maker can be an excellent tool for new businesses hoping to develop a memorable image. After all, your logo is more than just a crucial part of your website design, it’s how your customers identify your business, and how you differentiate yourself from the competition.

A basic logo maker, or logo generator might not be able to give you the full creativity and scope you’d get from a professional designer or graphic artist. However, it can offer a fantastic starting point when you’re struggling to find your ideal image.

Logo makers offer quick and convenient solutions for bringing your brand to life, often enhanced by artificial intelligence, and endless customization features. They can even act as a source of inspiration when you’re searching for ideas to give your designer.

Today, we’re going to look at some of the top logo makers on the market, chosen for their versatility, feature-richness, and customization capabilities.

What are the Best Logo Makers?

Hatchful (by Shopify)

Hatchful is the state-of-the-art logo creator produced by the team at Shopify, the world’s leading ecommerce site builder. This convenient online logo maker promises a quick, simple, and affordable way to design a custom logo in seconds, with minimal effort. You can choose from hundreds of templates, and experiment with designs specially chosen for different industries.

The high-resolution logo maker works on Android and iOS, and has already created logos for more than 140,000 business owners. Outside of the various templates available to get you started, you also get a range of fantastic customization features. You can adjust your icons, fonts, and color combinations within a straightforward design studio.

As an added bonus, Hatchful allows you to download assets for your social media sites, as well as your website, alongside business card designs, and even images for your merchandise. Features of the Hatchful service include:

Dedicated mobile appsWide range of designs by industryFull brand packages for social mediaHundreds of pre-designed templatesIntuitive design studio

Pricing

It’s free to create a logo with Hatchful, even if you don’t have an existing Shopify account. However, there are some limitations on what you can get for free. If you want to download your logos, you’ll need to pay for each file you access. You’ll also need to pay extra for premium logo templates and features within the app.

Pros 👍
Cons 👎

Pros 👍

Fast-paced and convenient logo design
Great for experimenting with brand designs
Free social media assets optimized for online channels
High resolution logo downloads available
Convenient range of industry templates

Cons 👎

Extra fees for premium templates
Some limitations on custom assets

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Wix Logo Maker

The Wix Logo Maker tool was designed by the company at Wix to provide business users with an easier way to launch their own brand journey online. You will need to sign up for an account with Wix to get started, but once you do, the full process is extremely straightforward. Wix leverages the power of AI to help guide you towards the correct design.

The system will ask you what kind of styles you prefer, what industry you’re involved with, and more, to ensure you get the most relevant logo for your needs. There are tons of ways to explore different assets by category and industry. What makes Wix particularly impressive is the customization available for your design elements.

There’s a comprehensive design tool where you can edit your DIY logo by adjusting shape, style, opaqueness, and even color combinations. You’ll also be able to see how your logo might look on different backgrounds. There’s even the option to download a low-res file formats for free. Features include:

AI guidance for choosing your logoBusiness card and social media asset creationMock-ups for your branded merchandiseLogo design inspiration and adviceVarious download files

Pricing

While free logo design is available, your logo options will be limited. You will need to pay to access your logo in a range of higher-quality file types. The free option has a very low resolution, so it won’t do much for a growing brand. You can start by downloading your logo from around $20 for full commercial rights and standard files. Upgrading to the Advanced package at $50 gives you higher resolution.

Pros 👍
Cons 👎

Pros 👍

Useful AI guidance for beginners
Lots of customization options for your logos
Help with mocking up different merch designs
Various industries and themes to choose from
Easily add your logo to business cards and websites

Cons 👎

Can be expensive for high-res files
Requires an account sign-up.

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Squarespace Logo Maker

Squarespace is another well-known website builder which can also support companies in creating custom logos. The easy-to-use designer makes it simple to sort through available templates according to your industry. You can even download a version of your logo for free, provided you already have a Squarespace account.

Squarespace has a range of customizable fonts, colors, and icons to choose from. You can play around with the composition of your logo, and produce different variations to see which appeal most to your brand shareholders. All you need to do to get started is enter the company name. After that, you’ll get the option to seek out icons and designs based on keywords.

You can adjust the color palette of your images as you go, and move the positioning of different icons. There’s even guidance from Squarespace to help ensure your logo makes the right impact. You don’t have to sign up until you’re ready to download either. Features include:

Wide variety of pre-existing iconsCustomize colors, fonts, and icon positionsEasy to use environment with customer supportHigh-resolution downloads in greyscale and colorFree access for Squarespace account holders

Pricing

As mentioned above, the Squarespace Logo Maker is free to use for logo creation, but you won’t be able to download the design until you’re ready to sign up for a Squarespace account. Squarespace starts at $16 per month for the basic account, if you want to build a portfolio website or blog.

Pros 👍
Cons 👎

Pros 👍

Wide selection of logo designs and customizations
Easy-to-use ecosystem
Great support from the Squarespace team
Free access for Squarespace users
Lots of freedom for positioning icons

Cons 👎

Limited icon options
Does require a Squarespace account

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Canva Logo Maker

Widely regarded as one of the most popular tools on the market for simple graphic design, Canva makes it easy to create a host of social media posts, graphics, and visuals for your online presence. The Canva logo maker is specifically designed to make creating a beautiful new logo as quick and simple as possible.

All you need to do is launch the Canva app and use the “logo” option to browse through a library of professional-looking templates, built for modern businesses. There are various industry options available, to ensure you get something specific to your audience. Once you’ve chosen a template, you can tweak everything from color combinations to fonts.

The drag and drop tool also ensures you can combine various icons to make your own templates from scratch. You can experiment with photo filters and image flip, and even add animations to your logos to make them more eye-catching. Features include:

Wide range of color, image, and background choicesConvenient drag-and-drop builderDownloads for PNG, JPEG, and PDFAnimation functionality availableMock-up generator for adding your logo to merch

Pricing

You can get started with the Canva logo maker for free, but you’ll be limited in the number of customizations you’ll have. Upgrading to a premium package will give you more access to animations, unique templates, and the ability to download a transparent version of your logo, which means you’ll have more freedom for where you can position it. Plans start at $12.99 per month.

Pros 👍
Cons 👎

Pros 👍

Excellent range of customization options
Fantastic templates and icons for beginners
Excellent animations for videos
Mock-up generator included
Lots of download options

Cons 👎

Can take some time to get used to the features
Premium packages have the best capabilities

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Looka

When it comes to quick and simple logo design, Looka is one of the better-known tools on the market. The company offers users a convenient AI platform where they can design and build eye-catching images for their brand, and even add logos to various pieces of merchandise.

Using Looka is extremely straightforward. The AI system will ask you a few questions about your business and branding requirements. From there, you can explore potential logo suggestions intended to represent your company perfectly. The customization options allow you to adjust brand colors, fonts, and icons. Once you’re done, you can mock-up a range of brochures and business cards.

Looka supports the development of everything from basic logo designs, to comprehensive logo files in a range of resolution types. You can create full brand kits and social media templates too. Some of the features include:

Black and white, color, and transparent logosWide selection of different file options20 asset types for mock-ups, including invoices and email signaturesPerfectly optimized social media assetsBusiness card designs and templatesBrand kit creation

Pricing

There are a few ways to purchase a perfect logo from Looka. The first option is to simply buy one of your logos in the form of a PNG file, for £15. After that, you can upgrade to a one time purchase of a logo in multiple file types for £50. Alternatively, you can access full branded subscription kits for £84 a year, or £156 per year if you want to build a website too.

Pros 👍
Cons 👎

Pros 👍

Excellent range of high-resolution files
Social profiles and posts
Business cards and email signatures
Convenient AI solutions for logo inspiration
Easy to use design exprience

Cons 👎

No free download option
Can be expensive for some extra features

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UCraft

Unlike some of the other logo makers mentioned in this list, UCraft doesn’t leverage AI to help you make your logo, or give you a host of templates to choose from. Instead, the solution gives you more freedom to design something from scratch.

This is an excellent tool for people in search of a more comprehensive design system for building the ideal logo. You can start by choosing icons suitable to your brand and add them to your own custom canvas. From there, you’ll be able to add text elements, brand names and slogans.

You can customize the text, change the color and size of the font, add your own shapes and more. There’s even a “Preview” option so you can see what your content is going to look like. Everything is wonderfully easy to use and straightforward. The user-friendly design software is great for entrepreneurs with no experience in professional logo design. Features include:

Downloads in .PNG and .SVGConvenient range of icons to choose fromCustomization system with drag-and-drop functionalityLots of colors and iconsExtra landing page, blog, and store creators

Pricing

The pricing for UCraft gives you access to the full tool, which you’ll use to create websites, blogs, and a range of other solutions, like landing pages. The pricing options start with a free service which includes access to a multi-page website and a high-res logo file. After that, pricing begins at $10 per month.

Pros 👍
Cons 👎

Pros 👍

Lots of customization options
Easy-to-use environment
Extra free assets available for designers
Free package available
Small learning curve

Cons 👎

No AI or extensive templates
Can be confusing at first

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Adobe Logo Maker

Created by the experts at Adobe, responsible for tools like Photoshop and Lightroom, Adobe Express logo maker allows you to create attractive logos online for free. The Adobe Express logo maker tool rapidly produces a host of high-quality branded assets you can use across all digital and printed platforms, and you don’t need a credit card to sign up.

Adobe Express gives users plenty of templates and font options to choose from. When you begin using the service, you’ll start with a few questions from an AI system. You’ll need to provide information on your business name, theme, and business category, so the service can suggest potential design suitable for your organization.

The customization options with Adobe Express might not be as advanced as you’d get elsewhere, but you can rest assured all of the logo designs will look clean and professional. You can build your own templates, and download a 500px JPG or PNG file for free too. Features include:

AI logo design generationWide range of themed icons and templatesAnimated logos and videos availableStep-by-step guidanceSocial media logos

Pricing

You can use the basic version of the Adobe Express logo maker for free, which comes with a range of templates and themes to choose from, as well as customization options. If you want to download more high-resolution versions of your logo, or you’d like more advanced editing features, you can spend $9.99 per month on the premium package.

Pros 👍
Cons 👎

Pros 👍

Animated logo videos and gifs
Various social media optimized assets
AI support to help with logo generation
Easy-to-use interface for customization
Lots of support for business cards and brochures

Cons 👎

Best features reserved for the premium package
Not a lot of customization options

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Create a Quality Logo Online

Today, there are plenty of great tools for creating vectors and simple logos online with minimal design knowledge. All of the options above will help you to create a beautiful logo in as little time as possible, particularly if you don’t have the cash to buy a great logo from a designer.

However, you’ll need to be careful when choosing your ideal service. Not all solutions will give you the opportunity to download your logo ideas with a transparent background, or in a high-resolution file. Some products are also limited when it comes to creating a unique logo for your small business.

The fewer icons and color options you have to choose from, the more commonplace your logo will look. While no online design experience will give you the same quality as having your own logo made by a professional, finding a free logo maker with more flexibility will at least allow you to create a simple and effective design for your small business.

Once you have the vector files you’ve created online, you can always work with a designer to take your logo to the next level when you have a bigger budget.

The post The Best Logo Maker for Your Brand Design appeared first on Ecommerce Platforms.