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Get Free Quality CSS Templates
Today I was searching for some free CSS templates for my new project and found a nice resource of such templates, for which I am going to talk about :
Rambling Soul is your one stop resource for free quality CSS templates, with new options updated regularly which you can preview and then download to your system in just a few minutes. The site was produced by freelance Web designer Roshan, who has an inventive and creative approach to web design and offers a fantastic range of high quality, free standard compliant website templates.
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) are essential in web design as they describe how a document should be presented on the Internet, and there are many different ways in which these can be written, to suit different types of media. CSS can be a part of an HTML document of a separate file that can be applied to several HTML documents, and Rambling Soul provides a number of options including:
- RS14 Free CSS Template – this download offers a corporate style template, with quality code and design, which can be used for setting up a simple, professional looking website, but this is less suitable for blogs as it is not easy to port to Wordpress.
- RS12 Free CSS Template – this download offers a simple but effective CSS template suitable for blogs and general websites, easily transported to Wordpress.
Rambling Soul provides a useful blog feature which supports the downloads available and includes general info CSS and web design issues, but the most impressive part of the website is the personal involved by the web designer. If you are having trouble downloading or applying any of the free templates then you can contact the designer with the problem and it will sorted out for you in no time at all, and you can also communicate on the blog, leaving comments on your experience of using the downloads that the designer will personally respond to.
You can see from the blog the extent of the interaction between the designer and those visiting the site and using the downloads, and this high level of support makes using this websites as easy as possible for all skill levels. 
Online Photoshop For Free
One of the most fun websites I have come across in the last few months is picjoke.com, which has some fantastic online photoshop technology features that allow you to transform your digital photos with some impressive special effects, from putting your and your friends images up in lights on billboards all around the world, to seeing how you would look on the latest film and designer brand name posters. I created some funny pics with it and would like to share with out.
The quality of the effects on picjoke is amazing, and as you can see on the picture below a simple personal digital photo can completely transformed into a very realistic sign advert in just a few seconds.
There are also some very funny pictures effects that will make you and your friends smile, such as this cute cat photo and a painter painting my pic :
If you have ever wanted to see your image up in lights then picjoke is the website for you, and there are some very special effects that will combine your photos with those of the rich and famous, such as the latest film posters:
It is completely free to use all many impressive special effects on picjoke.com, and you will not need to download any software as everything is done online, so all you need to do is select the effect you want to play with and then browse your computer for the photo you want to use and upload it to the website. It only takes a few seconds to transform your photo with the special effect you have chosen, and then you can either save the photo to your computer or move on to the next effect.
There are over 100 special effects to choose from on picjoke.com, with new ones being added every day, so you can have hours of fun choosing which impressive effects you are going to use on your photos, and create your very own special photo gallery full of amazing and funny photos.
BTW comment on my photos 
Promotional Products for Your Business
Promotional products are basically low cost giveaway items which are designed to circulate your brand name and company logo both inside the office and to customers, affiliates and partners, and traditional promotional products include items such as cups, memo pads, sweat shirts and pens.
Promotional product companies these days are offering a wide range of interesting and unique giveaway items with everything from fridge magnets to useful and practical custom folders and binders that come in a wide range of styles and colors, which will promote your brand both in the office and also when your staff are on the move or attending conferences and meetings.
You can also buy custom USB drives, which can be used to store important data on any type of computer or laptop and are ideal for handing out to employees, and come in a range of data storage sizes and designs. Because the USB drives are printed with your company logo and name they are easy to keep organised and separate, and can be used to back up important projects and general data as an additional layer of protection against computer problems.
Adcentives are one of the leading suppliers of promotional products in the industry, and provide a fantastic range of different types of products that can be branded with your company name and logo from the finest high end clothing through to branded tools and hardware. Isn’t that great ?
It is easy to order custom promotional products with Adcentives and all you need to do is go online to the website at Adcentiveswest.com and select the items you want to purchase. At the check out you will then need to fill in some basic details in order to open an account, and provide your company name and logo (file formats accepted AI, BMP, DST, EPS, GIF, JPG, PSD and TIF). Then you can pay for your purchases over the secure payment portal or alternatively you could contact toll free customer services hotline on 1-800-378-4123 to place your order over the telephone. 
How to Make an Attractive Banner in 5 Easy Steps
So as a designer, I specialize in interface design. You might note that while the structure and overall aesthetic of Diligent is nice, the logo is kind of “meh.” (Thank Cthulu for Sam and the monkey!) Graphic design is one of my personal weaknesses, so when it came to designing some banners to promote my sites, I went in search of a tutorial. Imagine my surprise when I failed to find any.
Why is banner design such a closely guarded secret? I don’t know. So today I’m going to let the secret out and show you how I made the Deadly Clever Designs banner in the bottom, in hopes of getting some of you other newbies started. Let’s begin with this banner design tutorial !
Step One: Create Your Banner Layout
First things first, create a new photoshop document that is 468 by 60 px in size. Once that’s done, select a color scheme you enjoy (ideally, three colors) and fill in the document with your background color. If you need help with this, check out my post about color functions. The colors I’m using are lime green, white, and absolute black.
Step Two: Add Your Logo or Attractive Graphic
The next step in designing a banner is to add your logo. Create a new layer and paste your logo into it. Your logo should be sized to have a height of 55px to fit accordingly. If your logo doesn’t scale properly, perhaps you should consider the things you should be getting from your logo designer. The color of your logo should be the other two prominent colors in your scheme. (All three are prominent, because this is an active graphic.)
After you paste your logo into your banner file, you may notice that it’s aligned in the center. Simply use the Move Tool (v) to adjust it’s position. To be more precise, we’re going to use rulers and guides to layout the design of our banner. If you don’t have rulers enabled, use ctrl+R or View–>Rulers to enable them.
Now select your background layer (the layer we want to use for the guide reference.) Then use the Move Tool and create a new horizontal guide by clicking and dragging on the top ruler. The guide will automatically stop in the middle of the document. Next, create a new vertical guide by clicking and dragging on the left ruler and position it about 10 to 20 pixels into your design.
Now you can properly align your logo! I added a few more guides to help out with aligning text later on.
Step Three: Adding Your Website Name
If your website name isn’t in your logo, or needs to be represented more clearly, you should add it to the banner. In this tutorial, we’re going to put it next to the logo, in a font that’s about half the height of the graphic used. I position mine slightly left of the middle, using the font Nevis. My text is in my second most prominent color: white.
Step Four: Adding the Tagline
A banner with just your site name may not attract all of the clients you’re looking for. They know that my website is named “Deadly Clever Designs,” but what is it I’m designing? So let’s add a tagline! Using the rounded rectangle tool, create a rounded rectangle in your third prominent color (mine is green) that extends off the right and bottom edges, such as in the picture below:
Now let’s add some text on top. Using the text tool, add your tagline in a new layer above the rounded rectangle. I’m going to use white to contrast with the green, such as in the logo. To make it more readable, I’ve set the text style to “crisp.” (You may have to zoom to position the text correctly.)
Step Five: Exporting your Design
Once you’ve completed your tagline, it’s time to export your design to be used! In most cases, you’ll want to export your banner as a png file. To do this with photoshop, use Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S or File–>Save for Web. Adobe ImageReady should pop up to help you with formatting. Simply select PNG-24 from the dropdown menu.
And there you have it! Your attractive banner is now ready to start bringing in some clients. Obviously, this is a fairly simple tutorial and doesn’t cover animated banners or any kind of effects, but it should help the absolute beginner banner designer into the right direction. Here’s the final result:
What are your tips for banner design? What effects do you use to make your banners more attractive? Share your tips, resources, and opinions below!
