This latest collection of free vector graphics features a set of three illustrated sneakers with a rough, hand-drawn appearance that can give a stunning and cool effect when used together with your personal illustrative work. As always, download and use freely in your personal and commercial projects.

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As the monitor resolution and internet speed is advancing, it seems like more and more designers use over-sized photo or illustrated image as the website’s background. Large background image can create the stunning visual effect, especially for high resolution monitors. It can also add more life to your site design compared to the traditional tiled background graphic. Here is a collection of 80 websites that used large image as the site background (must-see, you won’t be disappointed).

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Thank you for your patience. The judges have been corralled for their results, the results have been tallied, public votes have been added in and tallied and we are finally ready to announce the winners of the WordPress Plugin Competition 2.5.

May we have a drum roll please?

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I’ve been pretty scathing about some aspects of WordPress over the past few weeks both here and in the comments of a few other blogs. That being the case I thought it was about time I wrote about some of the things that I really like about the current development version of WordPress; the version that will become 2.7 in the next few months.

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One of the realities of being a freelancer is that you will have a wide variety of responsibilities in regards to running a successful business. You won’t have the luxury of passing duties off to another department, and your success depends on your ability to wear multiple hats and develop some versatility. The dizzying amount of responsibilities can be overwhelming at times, but it can also be one of the perks to being a freelancer. You’ll have the opportunity to try your hand at every aspect of business, and you won’t get bored from doing the same repetitive tasks over and over again. Whether you see this diversity as a positive or a negative of freelancing, you can increase your productivity by realizing all of your responsibilities and setting a plan for success.

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In our previous releases we focused on icons and Wordpress themes; however, there is a variety of further tools that graphic designers need on a regular basis; for instance, Photoshop brushes.

Today we are happy to release Health and Beauty Photoshop Brushes: a free set of 67 Photoshop brushes ranging in resolution from 69 to 2463 pixels. The set is compatible with Adobe Photoshop 7.0, CS, CS2 and CS3 (you can use it in Photoshop Elements, Paint Shop Pro, GIMP and Paint.NET, too). The brushes were designed by Silvia Bukovac Gasevic, the creative mind behind graphics-illustrations.com, especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Some of you may remember the days when 30KB was the recommended maximum size of a web page, a value which included HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Flash, and images. I find with every new project with even the slightest bit of complexity, it’s not long before that 30 KB ideal is well out of my reach. With the popularity of CSS layouts and JavaScript-enriched web page experiences, it’s not uncommon, particularly for large sites, for the CSS files alone to jump well beyond that 30KB ceiling.

But there are some principles to consider during and after you write your CSS to help keep it tight and optimized. Optimization isn’t just minimizing file size — it’s also about being organized, clutter-free, and efficient. You’ll find that the more knowledge you have about optimal CSS practices, smaller file size will inevitably come as an direct result of their implementation. You may already be familiar with some of the principles mentioned below, but they are worth a review. Being familiar with this concepts will help you write optimized CSS code and make you a better all-around web designer.

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In this tutorial, we’ll be painting an abstract vision of a dreaming person. I will describe my progress of face painting a male character. Also, we will create a special custom brush for blending colors. I’ll show you how to paint advanced constructions by combining basic shapes. The final image is a bold man’s portrait of a head flying in the sky. All painting will be done by mouse. All you need is pure Photoshop!

Popularity: 1% [?]