SpyreStudios

Web-Design and Development Magazine

How To Create a Slick Navigation Bar In Adobe Fireworks

by 7 Comments

I love Photoshop. I guess we all do. But I believe Fireworks is better suited for web-design work and I usually prefer it over Photoshop. After all Fireworks was created with web-designers in mind and it allows us to quickly prototype and design for the web, so let’s see what it can do.

I’ve created this simple yet modern navigation bar in Fireworks, and I’ll walk you through the steps necessary to create something like that. In the event there are some windows and panels you don’t see opened on your computer, simply go to the ‘Windows‘ menu and open them.

Enter to Win a Copy of Justinmind Prototyper – A $495 Value

by 37 Comments

Wireframing is a very important part of the design process and there’s a plethora of wireframing tools available out there. But for the serious web or software designers and developers, free tools probably won’t cut it.

We’ve partnered with Justinmind to give away a copy of Justinmind Prototyper to a lucky reader of SpyreStudios. Read on to learn how to enter.

Enter To Win Hosting Accounts From Eleven2

by 41 Comments

Choosing the right host for your personal or business website can be tricky. While there’s literally thousands of hosting companies out there, here at SpyreStudios we’ve been very happy with the service from Eleven2.

So happy in fact that we’ve partnered with them to give away some hosting accounts to lucky readers of SpyreStudios. Read to learn how to enter this giveaway.

Showcase of 40 Pricing Tables and Signup Pages

by 6 Comments

A well-designed pricing table and sign-up page can make or break your online business. Getting users to hit the signup button is one thing, but making the actual signup process easier and helping people chose the right plan or package is a science in itself.

Today we’ll have a look at some great pricing table examples. I hope you’ll find some inspiration from the examples showcased in this post.

Sticker Mule $100 Giveaway – Enter To Win!

by 40 Comments

I think we can all agree that getting your name out there is important. For example, putting a sticker of your logo on your laptop when you go to a design conference or skin your iPhone with your own custom design can be a great way to get people to notice you!

From laptop skins to die cut stickers, Sticker Mule makes it easy to order custom stickers and skins at very affordable prices. The good news is, we’ve partnered-up with them to offer a free $100 order to a lucky reader of SpyreStudios.

5 Ways To Streamline Your Web-Design Workflow

by 12 Comments

Productivity and efficiency are all the rage these days – and for good reasons. As a freelance designer, my income greatly depends on my ability to produce quality work, and if I can do that even slightly faster than the other guy, I will not only have happy clients, but returning customers.

In this post I’d like to share some of the things I’ve learned throughout the years that I use or do on a daily basis to help me with my workflow. Of course the more experience you gain the more time you’ll save, but let’s try to point you in the right direction. Those tips might be quite useful especially if you’re getting started as a freelance designer :)

Survd App Giveaway – 3 Licenses Up For Grabs

by 23 Comments

There’s a ton of solutions and apps out there for creating surveys. I’m sure that at some point in your career as a web-designer/developer, many of you had to either build a survey app from scratch or find a solution to create and implement a survey on a client site. Not an easy task.

I recently had the pleasure of trying out Survd, a small and simple survey app created by Matt Ward. Today we’re giving away licenses to 3 lucky readers of SpyreStudios!

Collection of 450+ Abstract and Fractal Photoshop Brushes

by 4 Comments

Creating your own Photoshop brushes is fun, and those brushes can be used in a variety of designs, from web to print. It can be quite time-consuming to create your own brushes though. Fortunately for us there’s a lot of free Photoshop brushes sets out there!

Today we’ve collected over 450 abstract and fractal brushes. I hope you enjoy the collection. Feel free to share your thoughts and leave a comment at the end of the post.