For you who love to create your sites in WordPress, @36Flavours has created this skeleton WordPress theme for you. This WordPress skeleton theme will save you time and effort when writing a theme from scratch. It includes all the basic functionality and minimal amount of files to get you up and running.

Is WordPress the best blog/content management system available? I think so, and in 2009 the Open Source CMS Awards thought so too! Smaller portfolio sites and design sites like SixCrayons to HUGELY popular sites like Spotify are all built in WordPress! Below are a few examples of sites using WordPress.

Download the Skeleton WordPress theme below

Twitter has an incredibly sparse user interface. This makes it really easy to use but doesn’t allow a lot of personal information to be shown. Creating your own Twitter background helps make your Twitter profile more personal. You can use the space for content about yourself your business or you can just chuck a giant ugly picture of yourself in there, sorta like I have. :S

Be creative with your background you have to look at your background all the time so make sure you like it. The template sizes within the PSD I have attached for you to download are:

1024 x 768  |  1280 x 1024  |  1680 x 1050  |  1920 x 1200

Download the Twitter background template below

As I work on a lot of sites/forums/email templates that use ads I am always showing clients how different sized ads will look within the layout of their websites. This PSD will hopefully act as a good guide for banner ad sizes you can place within your designs.

Below you can see a preview of the banner ad sizes PSD. Once you have downloaded the PSD you can drag and drop each ad size onto you design easily.

Download the Website banner ad template below

Web page template with 960 grid system

I pretty much use this PSD on a day to day basis as my starting point to designing web pages.

The PSD has the 12 and 16 bar 960 grid system. Even if you don’t like using the 960 Grid system you will find this template useful. Guidelines mark out your 940, 960, and the 1024 pixel lines. If you can’t see any Guidelines turn them on by pressing CTRL ‘H’ (pc) or CMD ‘H’ (mac). Using this as a default base will hopefully give you a starting point for your web designs in Photoshop.

On each of my PSD’s I will release this week you will see I have one white layer above all other layers. Saving a PSD out like this reduces its size by up to 20%. Just a little handy tip if you are struggling to reduce your PSD size.

The PSD’s dynamics are – Width: 1100px Height: 960px

Download the web page template with 960 grid system below

The iPad has been designed and created for media consumers. It is not geared towards the design community which is probably why we have had such an outcry about the usability of Apple’s new product. It runs the OS software the iPhone uses and not full OS X which is seen as a big let down by designers. Using the same software as the iPhone means that like iPhone the iPad will not allow multitasking.

The size of the device however I really do like. I like the large bezel around the edge it has be thick because of the way it’s held! Not quite sure why everybody keeps slagging this feature so much. The size of the screen is perfect for browsing sites I really don’t think there will be too many arguments about its outstanding browsing capabilities.

What the iPad does not have is a real usefulness and an area it can currently fill and help me with my design. Which brings me to my main point…

How Adobe can help the iPad and themselves

A few days ago Steve Jobs had an alleged rant about Adobe in a meeting screaming:

“Adobe are f#cking lazy! AHHHHHHH” – something like that

His comments were aimed mainly at Flash the fact he thinks it is buggy and this being the reason for not incorporating it into the iPad or the iPhone. Also saying the progress of HTML5 will make Flash more or less pointless for online videos.

However what he may have created with the iPad is the opportunity for Adobe to create a program/app so good for designers I think every designer would want it. If Adobe did get their finger out of their arse and created a PhotoShop app capable of allowing illustration with a pen straight onto the screen it could revolutionize the way we work.

It would turn the iPad into an awesome Wacom almost incomparable to other Wacoms. Small, sleek, sexy, it’s constantly connected to the internet, affordable, and most importantly, it could be superbly productive. For an app like this I would pay up to £200 for.

If you were able to create an illustration or a design layout within a PhotoShop app and then have the ability to save out the PSD you could put it on a USB device upload it to your main computer or even upload it on Dropbox through their free app on the iPad.

This wouldn’t be Apple going into the Wacom market it is them allowing programmers to make apps within the iPad that gives it the same ability’s of a Wacom. It would be small enough to carry everywhere in your rucksack/large handbag. You would be able to sketch down ideas while on the train in the park or even sitting in the pub!

The iPad already does have a working illustration app called Brushes which you draw with your finger. I personally feel this app just isn’t a strong enough reason for me to even think about buying the iPad as it is still so limited with layers and does not allow the creation of vector images.

I’m no genius when it comes to saying how the iPad will do sales wise but even if the iPad had just this one app, I would buy one and I have a feeling that a lot of designers illustrators out there would too.

At one point I was going to prepare SixCrayons a post to release over my break then decided against it. It’s not that I don’t enjoy writing blogs and tutorials but because I feel I have worked hard this year and I do now need a few weeks of doing absolutely nothing on my computer.

I needed to concentrate on having fun and seeing friends. It also gave me a chance to focus on my other hobbies, such as photography.

How are any smaller design blogs supposed to compete with this manufactured never ceasing churn of posting? Well I don’t think we are meant to. I found myself reading the few posts Web Designer Wall and other smaller blogs had written rather than the 30 odd posts Psdtuts had produced as they were of a better quality.

If I have seen ‘The top twenty Photoshop/Illustrator/Website tutorial blogs of 2009′ once, I have seen them a hundred times. There is only so many times I can see the same sites listed for being awesome before I grow tired of seeing them. I suppose what I am trying to get across is I think we need to be blog “less” for the sake of it and blog more consistent original blogs.

For example let’s please have less inspirational giving posts. Let people find inspiration for themselves. That after all is where creativity, originality and real talent comes from. By all means give lists and ways of finding inspiration but photograph after photograph of surreal landscaping and architecture is a bit uninspiring after a while.

I cannot think of one single original work of art that is not derived from earlier sources and is completely unique. We all need inspiration but maybe we need to stop over posting it. Other peoples ideas should be taken and used. Everyone will use them differently and therein lies the artistic genius.

So how often should we really blog then?

As long as you are original with your posting and not repetitive then I think you may post as much as you want. As long as 80% of your posts are not lists of other peoples design posts and icons. By all means Tweet and promote each others work but list after list is becoming daft.

As “bloggers” we are not all at the same scale of PSDtuts and other large sites who are able to pay designers $300 a post for their sites. This is where our challenge lies. We have to produce better quality articles than these sites. I have spoken to many people running successful design sites and they all say the same thing; Once you have a few well written, challenging articles,  success and popularity will eventually follow.

So…. for us small time bloggers it is all about the quality not quantity.

This Free Brush set is for use in your personal and commercial projects, and can be used without attribution. If you wish to redistribute the texture pack please link back to SixCrayons.

Fir and Pine Brushes

Download the Brush Set

In order to show the design and development process as transparently as possible they have created Blog Lettuce Tomato. Every Tuesday and Thursday they release updates on what’s going down with ‘Project Truffle’.

What is Project Truffle then I hear you say?

Project Truffle is an App that will make finances easier to understand for the masses and ultimately save people money. Sick of big corporate financial comparison sites that only show half the picture, Decode have teamed up with some more inspiring web folks to create a community where the best interests of the people are what really matters.

Here is a video from the team explaining a little more:

As you can see from the video, Decode have brought in former Carsonified teammate Mel Kirk for the social media side of things.  For the design and branding they have another former member of Carsonified Elliot Jay Stocks, leading the visual side of things.

What has got me interested in this project is the way that I am now intrigued to follow the progress of a financial app, even though I am usually not really that interested in this sort of thing. By giving me details of the people involved and why they are all collaborating to make this app special makes me feel connected to the development progress and so interested in what they come up with. The openness of the BLT blog has also been great to read. It feels like a behind the scenes tour of a websites creation, where you can just sit back follow and learn.

By sitting down and discussing the brands they loved, the Project Truffle team were able to decide on what they stood for and were against before starting on the website. Giving them clear direction on their brand identity before briefing a designer.

“We don’t want to be Money Supermarket, we want to be better! The challenge is about to begin and by jove are we ready for it!!!” – Mel Kirk

After long meetings with Elliot Jay Stocks he was let loose on the branding of Project Truffle. It had to include a pig which made his branding process quite enjoyable to read. Have a read of Elliots’ branding process here.

So with all this teasing I was ready to burst! (forgive the pun) What was the actual app and site going to be called?! I was relieved and very pleased to find out its name in the end. Once the initial branding for the Financial App was finished it was announced and put online as a holding page – http://themoneypig.com/

As you can see the branding is easily recognisable and I find it much more inviting and friendly than the usual dull financial website designs. I mean they are using a tiny cute pig! Piglet, Babe, Pumba, Porky Pig, even Miss Piggy! Everybody loves pigs! ‘calm down Harry’

So what’s next?

Well the site is now open for registrations to become a beta tester for the app. That is once they have it ready, but for now you can keep up to date on the app through the BLT blog.

Such a transparent development process takes balls and I for one take my hat off to the guys (and girl) for allowing us all to watch their exciting journey and learn from it.

How To Win an Apple Magic Mouse

Winning an Apple Magic Mouse is EASY! Just ReTweet this post on Twitter by clicking on our little Twitter bird at the top right of this post to be entered into our Christmas Draw.  The competition will close on December 11th at 1pm when a Winner will be randomly selected.

Just in time for you to get the mouse before Christmas!

For more information on the Apple Magic Mouse check out the Apple Store.

This years Christmas draw has now closed! Thanks for all your RT!

@woley was this years winner :) Merry Christmas from SixCrayons

I will be happy to add more textures to this pack on request so be sure to comment and let me know what natural texture you would like. :)

Download the Textures