From minimalist layouts to colorful ones, from plain and simple menu navigations to parallax scrolling, you will find plenty here to inspire you. Take some time and check them all out, and let us know which one is your favorite.

Rodesk

House

iamcreative.me

Valentine Favre

wit creative

Pipe Digital

dj Xeeder

Valerie

Matt Brothers

Grind – Work Liquid

Revolver Design Studio

Design Embraced

Free Range

Jeremy Mansfield

Demi Creative

dangers of fracking

Launch Factory

Grayden Poper

rtraction

jlern

HatBox

vysagh.in

two fish illustration

One Page Love

Be sure to check out Union Actions for more incredible Photoshop actions.

Texturize from Union Actions is designed to bring a whole new dimension to an otherwise average-looking image.

Texturize

Examples

Download Texturize Pack

29 WAYS TO STAY CREATIVE from TO-FU on Vimeo.

Typophile Film Festival 5 Opening Titles from Brent Barson on Vimeo.

The Alphabet from n9ve on Vimeo.

The Alphabet 2 from n9ve on Vimeo.

Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo.

Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.

FUTURA LE SPECIMEN ANIMÉ from Thibault de Fournas on Vimeo.

Upside Down, Left To Right: A Letterpress Film from Danny Cooke on Vimeo.

Nagging Doubt Viognier from Dana Tanamachi on Vimeo.

Kinetic Typography Tutorial

Kinetic Typography Tutorial from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.

Rex

Ferrica Light

FV Almelo

Hagin

Archive

Sullivan

Noticia Text

Exo

Bemio

Static

In this article we’ll go over tips to figuring out exactly what your clients are looking for. At times it can seem like communication has fallen through and all is lost. But the ranging issues of a freelance project should not stifle your creativity. Once you understand how to effectively ask questions it’s not so difficult to get your clients on the same page.

Build a List

A great way to kick start the planning process is with a list of ideas. You can’t go wrong with a bulleted list since it’s easy to skim and provides a bare-bones outline of the project work. In this way the client can peruse what you’ve made and possibly suggest changes if needed.

Try not to get descriptive with the first draft. Put down only the ideas which need attention and explain them in 2-3 sentences. This should be enough for your client to gauge if you understand their thought processes. If it’s beneficial to include examples of other websites with similar traits(design patterns, navigation, etc.) then create a sub-list underneath each of your examples.

This list may consist of any number of ideas – UI features, page elements, graphics, or even functionality. It can become a working draft that you and the client may edit. Furthermore it allows collaboration between a single set of achievable goals and the project isn’t so wishy-washy from the start.

Provide Examples

The best way to clarify details with your client is through examples. Whenever you are discussing the project it will likely be difficult for the client to explain what they mean in technical terms. This can relate to design, but also interface effects with jQuery.

If you have a portfolio of works then maybe you’ve previously built similar functionality you can showcase. Otherwise try to keep a handful of websites in mind as you can utilize them for references. Clients will provide more valuable specs and you will feel confident when building each phase. If you can’t find a particular example try googling for better results.

With so many freebies on the web you can run into just about any pre-made open source script. There are plenty of great examples for image carousels, jQuery popups, navigation menus, and other page elements.

Keep Them Updated

Throughout the pre-planning and design process send your ideas over and communicate. Though in the end it is your client who has the final say in these matters. So pressure is on for your to conform with their desires and build what they are paying you to build.

Why get started coding a website layout when you don’t even know if the design is properly setup? There are only so many times you can go back-and-forth like this. Plan out an “average” schedule ahead of time so you have the details fresh in your mind. Touch base once during the sketching/wireframing process and again after the design has been polished off.

Work With Newer Ideas

Some clientel are smart enough to understand the basics of a website. Many will try to suggest how you should do the job, but this can feel slightly backwards. Don’t be afraid to point out some of the new source technologies available to web designers.

For example, just because your client has never used WordPress doesn’t mean their website wouldn’t benefit from the CMS engine. This is possibly one of the greatest hassles since editing page content and website administration can easily be accomplished through WP. Yet when you have a client who insists on building in straight HTML it makes your job a lot tougher.

Even other code solutions may help with smaller-scale concepts. Check through resources like Github which are host to thousands of scripts in PHP, Ruby, Python, jQuery, and SQL. Working on top of these newer code libraries will speed up development time tremendously. It also eliminates the issue of buggy code since most authors scrutinize their work religiously.

Talk About Services Upfront

It’s certainly best to discuss your services before even accepting any project work. Often times you’ll find clients who are looking for a jack-of-all-trades and will push these expectations onto any freelancer. Even finding a sole web designer & developer together can be tough, let alone other services such as marketing and copywriting.

Be sure that you clarify what can be accomplished and what you cannot do. It’s not worth the extra stress tackling excess work in the hopes of making your client a bit happier.

However I would be wrong to tell you to stay away from new ideas. If you have the motivation to help with a new project or Internet marketing plan then go for it! As long as the client understands you are not an expert they won’t be looking for expert results. It’s also a great way to expand your freelance portfolio.

Conclusion

Freelancing is far from the easiest job in the world. Although it can be very rewarding there are plenty of challenges to overcome. When you start working on freelance projects you need to consider a handful of strategies for dealing with clients. Networking skills are vitally important for your success.

Remember that you both need to stay focused on the same goal and communication is key. I hope these ideas can influence your process of pitching and creating new projects. Everything ultimately boils down to simplicity. Keep all the details on a very understandable level and you shouldn’t run into any problems.

Zola’s

Undercurrent

naks

Demi Creative

Matt Delbridge

Nordic Ruby Conference

The Design Office

United Pixelworkers

Leading Art

Olé Chef

bleu de chauffe

Wanda Productions

goodness

Habuhiah

Emporio Urbano

B&O Play

Ekso Bionics

Agence Crac

Sir John a Day

Phil Martinez

life in my shoes

Source:

The Best Designs
CSS Awards

Be sure to check out Go Media’s Arsenal for more awesome vectors, brushes, and more.

Here’s a preview.

Download Guilloche Vector Pack

About the Partner

Go Media is a well known design studio with a lot of passion for what they do. This passion definitely comes through in their Arsenal, which is a collection of high quality, hand crafted design elements that they’ve made available through an online store.

Actually, I do believe that it is a fad. But at the same time I also believe that you can learn a lot from it and use it to improve your skills significantly.

First of all, minimalist designs are here not without a reason. After the dark age of the ’90s (the dark age of web design, that is) came the year 2000 along with many Flash animations, fancy Photoshop graphics, and all kinds of other clutter. So finally after 20 years of noise a time of calm has come, bringing us this whole minimalism. People simply had enough off all the sites that were impossible to grasp and extremely user-unfriendly.

Minimalist designs change all that and provide a new, friendly environment. There’s nothing else on minimalist websites except for the things that absolutely need to be there. There’s no clutter and no confusion. And the sites are easy to grasp within the first 2 seconds of looking at them.

That is, of course, when done right.

So how can web designers use the trend of minimalism to improve their skills, and how to actually design a minimalist site properly?

Focus attention on the main element

Minimalist designs have very little elements incorporated into them. There’s simply no place for clutter or anything that is not essential to the site’s goal.

This forces designers to choose just one main element that will be the focal point of the whole site.

What can be such an element? It all depends on the site’s goals, but just to give you an example, let’s say that you’re designing a site for a new online service of some kind.

In such a case the main element would probably be the signup form. Consisting of a button, some screenshots, and short copy. You know that you can’t include too many things because the design is meant to be minimalist, so you only have place for the essentials. This will force you to think twice on what is really important for the site and what can be omitted.

Good designers are not the ones who can fill a whole site with stuff, but those who know how to select only the few important elements and forget about the rest.

Get those few elements right

Obviously, minimalist designs incorporate only a handful of elements to convey their message and convince visitors to take action (whatever action it might be).

This forces web designers to get those few elements just right. When working on a minimalist design you can devote more attention to each individual element. You also know that these elements need to be the best they possibly can. Because if they’re not then they’re going to stand out (in a bad way), as there will be nothing to cover them up.

Minimalist design is not about creating a site with just a few elements for the sake of it, but about using the smallest number of elements possible to reach a certain goal. Every element has its purpose in a minimalist design.

You know that you’re doing a good job if there are no more element you can remove without affecting the site’s ability to reach its goals.

Getting everything pixel perfect

This is a strictly graphics-related thing. Minimalist designs have to look exceptionally good. And in order to achieve this you have to make all elements pixel perfect (or at least try to).

Remember, there’s nothing to cover up this one elements that’s not so good looking. Everything needs to be nice or else your main element won’t be the one that’s the most visible … the ugly duckling will.

Crafting minimalist designs teaches you how to be pixel perfect. In fact, there’s no other way of creating a great minimalist design than by doing just that (whatever it might mean to you – there’s no one definition of “pixel perfection”).

Working on your typography

Typography is yet another element of minimalist designs, and probably one of the most important ones.

Since there’s not much to show on a minimalist website the text becomes an element on its own. That’s why choosing the right font, size and decoration is so crucial.

This is an area often neglected by many web designers. In some cases, Arial seems to be perfect for everything, but for minimalist designs it rarely is. Choosing the right font takes time and teaches you the basic rules of typography.

Every minimalist website needs to make a striking impression in terms of typography. If you just choose some random fonts the design won’t make much sense and the visitors will see this. Well, they probably won’t be able to name it, but they will notice.

Learning to use whitespace

Whitespace is one of those things that only the more experienced designers are not afraid to use. Many beginners feel that every piece of HTML real estate needs to be occupied by something, while it’s not the case at all.

When you’re creating a more complex design you get tempted to use every possible piece of space and fill it with that one more element. While it might work in some cases, it surely won’t work for minimalist designs.

Whitespace is yet another crucial element for minimalist designs. The sole fact that a minimalist design uses only a handful of elements forces us to space them out evenly on the site. They can’t just simply be placed all in one place.

The skill of using whitespace is somewhat volatile for web designers. Creating minimalist designs makes you simply better at using it, and this comes handy in every possible piece of design work imaginable.

Standing behind your opinion

In other words, believing that the work you’ve done is the absolute best you could do.

Here’s what I mean. If you’re a freelancer you might be reluctant about delivering a simple design. You might feel that your client won’t be so eager to pay if there are only a handful of elements on the website, and if the form is rather simplistic.

By sticking to minimalism you’re making your skin thick, and you’re learning how to stand behind your designs and be able to explain what their values are.

This is not a strictly design-centered skill, but it’s surely helpful in your freelance career.

Besides, once you learn how to explain the value of minimalist designs to your clients you’ll end up understanding them more yourself. So it’s a win-win scenario.

10 Minimalist examples

What follows is a set of 10 really nice minimalist designs for inspiration.

madebysofa.com

cargocollective.com/christopherose

fellswoop.com

madewithlove.be

thepokerclock.com

eutelnet.biz

soulwire.co.uk/hello

rodrigogalindez.com

theconsult.com

epidemialab.it

What do you think about the whole minimalist design fad? Do you think it’ll stick for more than a couple of years? What will follow?

Dolody (@dolody) is a weekly design magazine that brings together the latest (and, yes, the greatest) tutorials, articles, freebies & webcasts on the topics of UX and UI design for the web and mobile worlds. Each issue is dedicated to a single wow-tastic topic that is sure to rock the socks off today’s leading designers, developers and agencies.

This week’s issue is about one specific topic: “What’s New and What’s Next”

“Welcome to the inaugural issue of Dolody! We’re pretty sure you’re gonna look back on this moment like that damn lucky Ed Sullivan Show audience looked back on seeing The Beatles’s first show. (Hey, we can dream, right?) So you know, every week, we’ll fill every square pixel of Dolody with articles on one design topic. For this issue, we’ve decided to put on “a really big shew” and share articles, apps and tools about ground-breaking design & UX trends and techniques. Enjoy! (PS: Catch that Ed Sullivan reference?)”

To celebrate the release of every issue a free premium design resource or Mac application is given away for free. This week you can download a FREE copy of “Professional Web Design” e-book Vol. 2. by SmashingMagazine. The book will be available for free for the next 7 days.

To participate, simply click on the download button you can see at the top right of Dolody’s homepage. For more information, visit Dolody.com. You can also follow them on Twitter and Facebook, or sign up for their newsletter.

La Piuma

Kipling

BdeB

Rainstar Boutique

The Work Cycle

Michela Chiucini

Inzeit

Stora Enso

Appex

Plus Plus

Neotokio

Guilherme Garcia

Dawid Wadach

Reserved

sénic

Nicola Cozzolino

ChurchMedia

Blind Barber

Salt Surf

one pause

Girl with a Camera

Source:

CSS Design Awards
The Best Designs
Awwwards