Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/1stwebdesigner/~3/Y1YMa9qWQv4/

Why reinvent the wheel designing elements that already have free designs online? Blockquotes remain a staple of text-heavy websites and they come in so many distinct styles.

I’ve curated my top picks for the best free blockquotes you can find. Every one of these designs uses pure CSS code so they’re easy to replicate.

Circular Quote

Perhaps the most unique and stylish quote of this entire post is this literature circular quote.

It rests on a bright orange background so this may not be practical for your typical layout. But with some minor color adjustments it would look nice on a white background regardless of the layout.

The most spectacular part is that every element is created with pure CSS including the rounded circle pattern. It’s a truly pragmatic blockquote that also pushes the boundaries of CSS.

BQ Patterns

For tamer examples check out these blockquote patterns created by developer Derek Wheelden.

This again relies purely on CSS3 with different classes for each blockquote. The last of the 3 has the footer element to cite the quote source. It’s an optional feature that some people like, certainly not necessary for a simple website though.

It goes to show how much you can achieve with unique fonts and some minor CSS tweaks.

Notepaper

It might be hard to believe but this notepaper blockquote is created entirely with CSS3 code. No background images, no vectors, just CSS gradients and transforms.

I can’t say how many people would find this design useful. It’s a fantastic notecard that really does replicate the style of paper. But regardless of how it can be used, this design is beyond incredible and it proves how far CSS has come.

The HTML is fully semantic with modern blockquotes and this should work in all modern browsers. A magical use of web technology if I’ve ever seen it.

Classy Blockquotes

Sometimes it makes sense to include a photo of the person being quoted. This may sound tough but you can clone these blockquotes by Andrew Wright to get this effect on your site.

Andrew’s pen uses placeholders for images so they do look a little… basic. But there’s nothing to stop you from changing some colors, updating the fonts, and adding a photo to spice up your quotes.

A very simple design and pretty easy to restyle on your own.

Simple Block

This is by far my favorite blockquote because it really can work on any website. Developer Harm Putman uses the cite attribute from the blockquote to populate a citation at the bottom.

I really like the dividing bars that clearly separate the blockquote from the rest of the content. This includes a small quotation mark icon fixed in the middle to let the user know this is a clearly a quote.

Sleek, elegant, and simple. Three traits that work well in any website.

Greyed Block

For a darker approach check out this greyed blockquote that can double as a pullquote if resized.

It has a pretty clean design using Font Awesome blockquotes and lively text. I think it’d look a lot better with a stronger font but it’s certainly legible with anything you use.

I consider this as a solid “base” for building on top of and styling your own blockquote from there.

Automatic Quotes

This design by Luke Watts is more of a pullquote than a blockquote. The quoted text pulls to the side of the body text, but it still draws attention with bright colors and quotation marks.

It’s called an automatic quote because it adds the quote marks into the design via CSS. So you can just wrap your text in the proper tag and it’ll automatically style it with quotations. Pretty sweet!

However as a blockquote this would be fairly basic. I think this works best as a pull quote and does its job well.

Raised Blockquote

You can do a lot with CSS box shadows to create depth and clarity. This raised blockquote by Lukas Dietrich is pretty simple and real easy to clone.

It has one background color and a pretty clear box shadow near the bottom. This also uses a custom Google font called Bitter for the upright quotation marks.

If you have a darker layout or if you’re willing to adjust the drop shadow a bit then this quote style can fit almost any web project.

Alternating Quotes

These alternating quotes by Tommy Hodgins prove that you don’t need much to create fantastic blockquotes.

By adding a small grey border to one side you separate the text from the rest of the page. It will clearly stand out against the page body which and makes browsing any page a whole lot easier.

Plus the alternating styles let you add these with any orientation you like.

Material Design Blockquote

Last but not least I found this cool material blockquote using similar colors and styles from Google’s material design rules.

The background icon is what really makes this stand out and feel like a true blockquote. I do think the font color is a tad light, but this can always be adjusted for use in your own website.

This is the coolest material-style blockquote you’ll find and it’s totally free.

All of these blockquote styles are fantastic but certainly not the only ones. You can find many more online with lots of variety to pick from. So if you’re looking to browse more check out the blockquote tag on CodePen to see what else is out there.

Original Source: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2018/09/20-best-new-portfolios-september-2018/

Hello Readers. It’s September, so as soon as your kids are off to school, maybe you can finally have a five-minute power nap. Take that power nap with equal parts gusto and relief, dear Reader. You’ve earned it.

Last month, one of you asked for less “ultra-modern” designs, and the design gods have seen fit to provide. We still have some of that ultra-modern goodness — because apparently now that it’s been started, we can’t make it stop — but I managed to find and sprinkle in a few more classic-feeling designs. Enjoy.

Note: I’m judging these sites by how good they look to me. If they’re creative and original, or classic but really well-done, it’s all good to me. Sometimes, UX and accessibility suffer. For example, many of these sites depend on JavaScript to display their content at all; this is a Bad Idea, kids. If you find an idea you like and want to adapt to your own site, remember to implement it responsibly.

45royale

45royale is one of those sites that combines minimalism with a healthy love of gradients.The layouts are simple, and the type is good, but it’s the use of color that truly makes this site stand out.

Platform: WordPress

RedElegant

RedElegant embraces a classic and more corporate-client-friendly aesthetic with just a touch of that material design feel. It’s the sort of design you’d expect to see at a bank.

Interesting side note, the WordPress theme used seems to be a heavily customized version of the Twenty Seventeen default WordPress theme. The extent of the customization makes this site impressive, as I would never have guessed this if I hadn’t looked at the source.

Platform: WordPress

5e Rue

5e Rue combines a fairly minimalist and classical feel with light hints of more modern artistic flourish, and a bold use of blue. The serif heading type overlaps with illustration-style bits in a way that creates a beautiful yet staid experience. It puts me in mind of a classic Parisian café, and not just because the studio itself is in Paris, okay?

Platform: Static Site

Co-Partnership

Co-Partnership has gone for the solid background with the big sans-serif text, and just a little bit of asymmetry. Well, there’s nothing at all wrong with using a tried and true formula.

I particularly like what they do with their logotype. The ever-shifting branding is a nice touch of art direction on an otherwise very simple site.

Platform: WordPress

Object

Object goes hard on the use of color as art direction. Just about every page has a different palette, and the overall effect is quite pleasing. While I’ll admit that the “hero” section on their home page is a bit of an eye-gouger, the overall effect is a pleasant one.

Platform: WordPress

60fps

60fps specializes in motion design, so it’s to be expected that their site will be a bit JavaScript-heavy. Even so, the animation used feels understated, even while making its presence known so clearly. With unique-feeling layouts and good typography, the whole experience is one of the better ones I’ve seen in the “presentation site” category.

I just wish they would stop with the scroll-jacking. I’m not a fan.

Platform: Static Site

Hochburg

Hochburg uses a very light touch with animation and a very simple, minimalist, and grid-based look. One thing I do rather like about the home page is this very light animated static effect to highlight portfolio pieces when you hover on them. It’s just a good-looking plain old dark layout, and I love it.

Platform: Contao CMS

Rimini Berlin

Rimini Berlin is interesting for in that the entire site is an accordion element. Sure, the implementation is a bit too JS-dependent for my taste, but it does preserve navigational context on this one-page site in a fairly clever way. Give me a pure CSS implementation, or at least some simple fallbacks, and I’d have nothing to complain about.

Platform: WordPress

ED.

ED. goes for full minimalism, and a classic three-ish-column approach. In fact, I’m kind of a fan of the way the columns shift around a bit when you click on a project, even if I’m unsure about this trend of letting your branding clip onto the content of your site. It’s a simple effect, but it works, and allows for a certain flexibility in this simple layout.

Platform: WordPress

Intervaro

Intervaro goes for full minimalism with a touch of material design, by which I guess I mean drop shadows and a fixed navigation bar. That’s Material Design, right? And Material Design is the new corporate aesthetic?

Whatever, it’s a simple and good-looking portfolio site. Bonus points: they implemented a rather fantastic-looking dark mode for users who find that easier on their eyes.

Platform: WordPress

Modest Department

I find myself fascinated by the choices made on Modest Department’s portfolio site because they went with very intentionally small thumbnails for everything. Is it to fit with the name? Is it to save people’s bandwidth? Either way, it does both.

The small thumbnails and wide spacing naturally draw the eye in and make you really look at what they’re showing you. It would be inadvisable for an extended browsing experience, but it’s great for a quick portfolio. It’s not great for those with visual impairments, but they could zoom in, and clicking on a thumbnail gets you a full-sized video in any case.

Platform: WordPress

Koto

Koto’s studio portfolio has gone with a one-column portfolio site, relying on their use of color and branding to help them stand out. And it works. Every element feels very intentionally placed despite the almost extreme simplicity. And I can’t fault the way they use illustration-style elements.

Platform: WordPress

Jane Studios

With all of the comparably simple sites on this list so far, we were due for another artsy one. Enter Jane Studios, a site so minimalist, artsy, and generally PowerPoint-like, we might have reached peak modern design. I’ll never be a fan of that in-all-the-corners navigation, but the rest of the site is an excellent example of its kind,

Platform: WordPress

Raxo

Raxo gets a spot on this list only partly because I’m a sucker for horizontal layouts like the one they have on their home/landing page. The rest of the site is a fairly simple and business-like affair with a strong but not overwhelming use of solid red.

Once again, I’m going to complain a bit about the navigation, though. Hamburger icons are bad enough on a desktop site, but it’s not even a hamburger icon anymore. It’s a circle. Come on. The rest is pretty good, though.

Platform: Static Site

RubyAnne Designs

RubyAnne Designs, which is abbreviated very awesomely as “RAD”, is an architecture firm. Unlike many architecture sites, this one skips a lot of the fluff and just shows you the houses already. The aesthetic is nearly brutalist, but don’t let that stop you from checking it out. It’s a fantastic example of a simple, clean, and not at all overdone architecture portfolio.

Platform: SquareSpace

Robin Mastromarino

Robin Mastromarino is an interaction designer, which means you should expect lots of animation. The animation is fairly low-key, though, and doesn’t detract from this delightfully clean and well-structured site.

The click-and-drag slideshow probably works better on mobile than it does on the desktop. Well, mobile is a huge market, so that works.

Platform: Static Site

Célia Lopez

Célia Lopez’ portfolio lands squarely in artsy territory with lots of 3D-ish graphics and that aesthetic form that’s just so “modern” that I feel like inventing a new word for it. Supermodern? Anyway, as presentation sites go, this one looks absolutely lovely. I love the heading type, especially.

Platform: JS App(?)

Hamish Stephenson

Hamish Stephenson’s flim and photography portfolio is dark, simple, and… smooth? Look, it feels smooth. Maybe that’s just because Samuel L. Jackson stares out at you from the portrait section of the site, but it just looks “cool”, in that dark and honey-voiced narrator sense of the word. Like old jazz.

Man, blurry background elements have never gotten so much praise, but here we are.

Platform: WordPress

Sebastian Chen Speier

Sebastian Chen Speier’s one-page portfolio is fairly post-modern, minimalist, and basically defines the phrase “dead simple”. It does that whole hover-over-text-to-see-a-preview thing, but with a twist: click, and you’ll get different preview images. It’s not the most intuitive setup, but it’s worth checking out for the novelty alone.

Platform: Static Site

Helder

The Helder agency site is of that school of thought that holds bold text in high regard. It’s all bold. All of it. Then there’s the strong color changes (that still somehow work), the stark imagery… it’s just a design that doesn’t hold back. And yet, it still looks kind of reserved for all that.

Platform: WordPress

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Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Designrfix/~3/0ztP1spuOq4/seven-tips-that-will-help-your-start-up-graphic-design-company-be-a-huge-success

The field of graphic design is one that has completely exploded and flourished over the past decade. With an emphasis on websites, social media, and online marketing, graphic designers have never been so in demand. Even for companies that don’t have a dedicated in-house graphic design department, many are using outside consultants and companies to […]

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Original Source: https://www.sitepoint.com/adsense-and-adwords-why-use-them/

Overview There are a lot of different ways that savvy people monetise the web, of which AdSense is only one. For perfect clarity, where we are talking ‘Adsense’ we’re really talking about Adsense for content, contextual ads on the Google Adsense network that that can be utilised on blogs, websites or any other web-based properties  […]

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