Adobe Illustrator has become one of the leading products for vector design, especially icon design. But when you start to create your first icon, you have to keep one thing in mind – bitmap or vector? (As the guys of firewheeldesign point out, vector icons are less work than those made with Photoshop. On the other hand, scaled vector graphics don’t look very nice in comparison to icons created with Photoshop) All in all it’s a decison between saving time and getting the best possible quality.

To understand the basics of icon design, read the following articles:

7 Principles of Effective Icon Design by PSDTUTS

10 Mistakes in Icon Design by Turbomilk

Now that you are a bit familar with Icon design – try these tutorials:

Vectortuts.com

Create a Detailed Camera with Photo Icon

Create a Vector Film Slate Icon

Make a Handy 3D Vector Calendar Icon

How to Create a Vector Light Bulb Icon with Inkscape

How to Turn Glasses into a Great Geek Icon

Illustrate a Fun Magnify Zoom Icon

SpoonGraphics

Create a Vector RSS Icon with Illustrator

Translucent IM Style Illustrator Icon Tutorial

How to Create a Vector iMac Graphic in Illustrator

N.Design Studio

iTune icon

Glassy Button

Other:

Complicate Orb Icon by Hatching Egg Story

Designing a Sleek Pencil Icon by Design Blurb

Creating A Folder Icon by MagnusFx

Create an envelpe icon with a satin feel by aiVault

Design Float Circle Icon by Qbrushes

Do you have a banner for your website or blog? If not, create one right now! In order to do this, I summed up a few basic tips.

1. Be professional: A banner is your virtual business card. People are getting their first impressions of your website based on your banner ad, so you must to be sure that it presents you in the best possible manner. This means you should be very careful with using correct spelling and grammar. Also, choose font sizes, styles and colors that maximize your banners readability. If you don’t do so some people might get a bad feeling of your site.

2. Ask for an action: What do you want people to do when they see your banner? Most probably you want them to visit your website. Write something like “click here” or “enter now” on it. On the Internet you can see many examples of this strategy.

3. Keep it simple: Most people are looking at a banner for less than a second. You must be sure that the message of your graphic can be easily understood. Organize your banner/advertising clear and concise to increase the possibility that the viewer gets your message. It’s very important to use just a few plain words because you can provide the user with more information on your website.

4. Raise attention or emotion: Use words like free, secret or other to raise the user’s attention. Make the viewer curious in your website. Maybe use a pun or contrast.

5. We want benefits, not features: What’s the difference between a feature and a benefit? A feature is the service you offer your visitors. A benefit is the effect on your visitors. What seems to be most appealing to you? – “We are specialized in finding deductions” (feature) or “Pay less tax” (benefit)? It is only important to say how your service improves your visitors life and not how you do that.

6. Test it: Design several ads and think about different slogans. Then run them for a short time and compare the traffic you get by the different ads. Use the most successful one and be sure your banners are always up-to-date!

7. Other important things to know: Be sure that your banner isn’t bigger then 20kb that it loads quickly. Also use the common formats as you can see at the bottom of this post.

If you don’t know where to place your banner, take a look at Google’s “AdSense Ad-Locations Heatmap”

• Ads closer to the center of the page tend to perform better
• Ads above the fold tend to perform better than those below the fold
• Ads placed at the end of articles tend to do well, even though they’re below the fold
• Ads placed near site navigation or by images or other rich content tend to do well, too

Standard Internet Ad Sizes:
Ad Size Ad Type
468 x 60 Full banner
392 x 72 Full Banner/ Vertical Navigation Bar
234 x 60 Half Banner
125 x 125 Square Button
120 x 90 Button #1
120 x 60 Button #2
120 x 240 Vertical Banner
728 x 90 Leader board
160 x 600 Wide Skyscraper
120 x 600 Skyscraper
300 x 600 Half Page Ad

I have rounded up 10 CSS resources, codes and files that support you making more attractive CSS designs. There are a few very good coded and designed menus in this list… and a lot of other great stuff that maybe give you an inspiration for your own CSS Layout.

Exploding-boy – Free tab menus for you

aplus – Design your own advanced CSS menu

Mycelly – Nice and free CSS templates

CSS Tinderbox – Valid CSS layouts

Dynamicdrive- Comprehensive collection of menus, layouts and more

Mitchbryson – 71 CSS gallery sites

CSSvault – A shine site for inspirations

Smileycat- Always useful: hover effects in lists

Pullquotes – A great CSS code for remarkable quotes

Ryanfait – A CSS footer that is easily to use

With Adobe Photoshop people can create everything. From Logos to complex virtual worlds; nothing is impossible!

I collected more than 30 websites that offer over hundreds of great Photoshop tutorials for everyone, no matter you are a total beginner or a designer professional.

PSDTuts – Spoonfed Photoshop Tutorials

Photoshopstar – Tutorials and Resources

blogwatts – Several nice Tutorials

upupmedia – Photoshop Tutorials

tutorialized – Where everything is a Tutorial

Photoshopsupport – Photoshop Tutorials

good-tutorials – 22,737 Tutorials listed

planetphotoshop – Photoshop Tutorials, Tips and News

pixel2life – Learning made Simple

pslover – 11,209 Adobe Photoshop Tutorials

Photoshoptutorials.us – Listing Only Quality Tutorials

tutorialguide – Best Photoshop Tutorials

Photoshopcafe – Photoshop Tutorials, Tips…

lightroomkillertips – Adobe Lightroom killer tips

pagecurve – Adobe Photoshop Tutorials

eyesontutorials – Design and Art

visualdesigncore – Adobe Photoshop Tutorials

depiction – Webmaster Resources

PSTut – Easy to Follow

eyesondesign – Create stunning Photoshop effects

photoshop.0tutor – Adobe Photoshop Tutorials

adobetutorialz – The graphics Community

n-sane – Photoshop Tutorials for the Masses

entheosweb – Free Resources

photoshoptutorials.ws – Photoshop Tutorials

photoshoplab – Tutorials, Tips, Tricks,News and Reviews

iris design – Tutorials for Photoshop

pscloud – Tutorials from Heaven

talk-mania – Forum for Photoshop Tutorials

yourphotoshopguide – Your personal guide

empiredezign – Adobe Photoshop Tutorials

pegaweb – Web design & Photoshop Tutorials