Companies usually share media related to their brands (logo, guidelines, images or documents) online so that they can be re-used properly by others.

Smartimage, a professional and paid web service, makes managing such media so easy and also provides a great experience for the end users.

It enables the brand admin to upload files (AI, EPS, GIF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF or PDF are supported) tag and categorize them from a clean admin interface.

Uploading is pretty easy via drag ‘n’ drops and a graphic file manager exists for editing meta data when needed.

After that, end users can browse these items from a user-friendly web page and download them in various sizes including Retina Display (different sized versions are auto-created).

The whole collection or each item can be shared with others with social links, e-mail or embedding.

And, Smartimage keeps track of all these sharing activity besides stats like “the number of downloads”.

Items uploaded can be public or private, the whole layout works in all major devices including mobile and custom domain names can be used for the hosted brand page.

The service is being improved regularly and new features like “multiple admins, customizable collections, video support” are planned to be released.

A demo exists to find out how an image collection can look like and the app can be tried freely for 45 days.

There are self-learners and others that find it easier to learn from another.

Although neither is better and “which one is easier/better for you” is the most important, learning the tricks -at least- from experts make so much sense.

For anyone willing to improve their web/graphic design-related skills, MightyDeals is offering a huge discount (50%) for the “Certified Adobe Training system: Train Simple“.

Train Simple has 3000+ video tutorials on technologies like HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript or WordPress and programs in this field (Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator..).

The deal includes a year of membership for $47/year (rather than $99) and there are also mobile apps for iOS/Android to watch them on the go.

P.S. Train Simple also provides certification once a specific track is followed through their system and they are trusted by companies like Zappos, Google, Nike and much more.

Maps are used so widely in web design and they are usually expected to be interactive when presenting data.

It can be the branches of an international company, statistics about  countries or just destinations to visualize. Like said, lots of uses.

Simplemaps is a website that provides professional, highly-customizable and interactive maps built with JavaScript and SVG (or Flash).

SVG has a wide browser-support and it works very well on mobile + tablet as well.

There are maps for “world/countries, continents, USA and Canada” and the usage +customization doesn’t require advanced development knowledge. It works by simply editing a text file and a detailed, step-by-step documentation exists.

Also, Simplemaps website has an online customization tool that enables the users to edit the countries, change colors, descriptions, links and more.

Considering that the maps are in vector (SVG), tiny or huge, they work great on all sizes. And, they even come with a zoom-in functionality.

With some JavaScript, it is so easy to add new features to them like tooltips, selectable regions and much more.

To sum up, SVG maps are definitely the way to go for modern web maps and Simplemaps has a wide range of products on the field.

P.S. For Flash fans, the website also offers similar maps in Flash with their source code.

How to join the giveaway?

Simplemaps is giving away 3 licenses (for a map of your selection). Commenting to this post is enough.

Winners will be selected on 22 April 2013 (1 week later) with the query below and announced as an update to this post.:

SELECT * FROM wp_comments WHERE comment_post_id=3981 AND comment_approved=1 AND comment_type='' GROUP BY comment_author_email ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 3

Good luck to all.

The winners

Here they are:

• Roshin C (comment #1260748)
• Jed (comment #1260726)
• DR (comment #1260708)

1260708

When it comes to the word “social network”, Facebook and Twitter are probably the first ones that come to the mind. And, creating a new one can sounds like “creating an alternative to them (which is kinda crazy)”.

However, there are lots of niche social networks out there which are used by millions of people. And, creating a new one is not something crazy, actually, something not that hard.

Dolphin, a professional PHP web application, is the most popular self-hosted solution for building such communities.

The application has all the core features (and more) that can be expected from social networks like connecting with friends, status updates, messaging, chats, image/video sharing, groups or events.

Members can discuss on forums, have personal pages or blogs and there are even e-commerce features where the site owner and/or members can create stores and sell stuff.

Visitors can register with their e-mails or sign-up with Facebook Connect to see which other Facebook friends are there (also invite them).

Considering audio/video is shared too much on social networks and handling audio/video streaming +processing can be expensive, Dolphin has a custom media server that takes care of this.
Read the rest of this entry »

Edicy is a hosted and professional CMS platform that enables designers and developers to create new sites and/or integrate any existing sites.

The platform doesn’t require a hosting account, anything to be installed and  it is always up-to-date + secure.

Many templates exist to get started with or new ones can be created with the help of a powerful templating engine.

And, optionally, there is a desktop designer tool which actually launches a small webserver that can render Edicy‘s templates. So that you can keep designing sites in your favorite editor.

There is an easy-to-use content editor to edit sites while browsing, it has a built-in and advanced image editor where you can upload with drag ‘n’ drops and rotate, crop, resize them.

Besides images, videos, tables, maps and other widgets can be inserted within few seconds. Also, a form engine exists to create any type of forms and collect data (they can be exported too).

Websites created don’t need to be all static, it can work with databases or product catalogues, has a blog engine and can be integrated with 3rd party apps.

Another very useful feature is the ability to offer the same website in different languages. Once a new language is added, Edicy simply asks you to insert the translated texts.

The service has many other features from password-protected pages to, statistics or the ability to managing your domains.

To sum up, Edicy is very handy for anyone willing to create their own site or a bunch of sites for their customers (and get support when needed).

It costs almost the price of a quality hosting account (which is included) and 300,000+ sites are already being managed by it.

Today, creating cool videos for any platform (web, TV, etc.) is not that hard with the help of high-quality footage.

VideoBlocks is a professional stock footage website to find 100,000+ stock videos, motion backgrounds, sound effects, production music and more.

Info: VideoBlocks is giving away 3 * 1 month (unlimited downloads) subscriptions ($79 value/each) to WRD readers and details can be found at the end of this post.

The website has a huge library which is well-categorized (slow-motion, nature, people, locations or cartoon, ambiance, horror.. for sounds) which eases browsing and locating the right resources.

In contrary to what you would expect, they are offered for a good price with a single plan of “unlimited downloads”. They can be used in any type of projects and no additional fees for that.

VideoBlocks’ library grows regularly with new resources being added each day and their footage is already being used by media giants ABC, MTV or National Geographic.

How to join the giveaway?

Commenting to this post is enough. Winners will be selected on 27 March 2013 (1 week later) with the query below and announced as an update to this post.:

SELECT * FROM wp_comments WHERE comment_post_id=3885 AND comment_approved=1 AND comment_type='' GROUP BY comment_author_email ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 3

Good luck.

The winners:

• dlv (comment #1182947)
• Luca (comment #1182707)
• pablo luis rey (comment #1186747)

Congratulations to the winners and thanks to everyone for joining.

A high-quality photo has the power of converting any design into something beautiful. And, that’s usually where the stock photo providers come in.

Depositphotos, one of the biggest stock photo providers, has a huge database of photos and vector images from thousands of contributors.

I remember their launch ~3 years ago, had used them those dates and now see that they grew to 12+ million images.

Well, such many images can look hard to browse but they have a good categorization and search system for narrowing the results.

It is possible to include/exclude keywords, choose orientation and filter by color (which I think is the greatest option).

Lately, they announced the acceptance of videos from their contributors as well, so, stock videos under the same service doesn’t seem so far.

Pricing

Once, stock images were costing hundreds of dollars it was hard to use them for every project. But, the pricing of Depositphotos is very reachable.

Images have different prices for their sizes but, as a short info, web-ready images would cost ~$2-4/each dollars and print-ready ones will be ~$8-10/each which is so reasonable for the result they help us to create (the even become cheaper with the subscription plans).

Become a contributor

For any photographer, becoming a Depositphotos contributor is a great way of presenting and sharing the work you created.

They have a pretty straightforward revenue-sharing model, have a modern uploader and you can always view the stats of your inventory.

Also, if you are shooting videos, this may be a good time to submit them in order to catch their launch of the videos section.

Conclusion

You should definitely check Depositphotos, browse through their repository and see how easy + good-priced the service is.

If you prefer creating websites using WordPress and make use of ready-to-use themes, MightyDeals has an offer that you may like.

MightyDeals, the creative deals website, is offering a pack of 17 high-quality WordPress themes by DX Themes for a very good price ($17 rather than $289).

The themes in the bundle include ones for creatives, businesses, parents/kids, hotels and much more.

All of them work cross-browser and most are responsive down-to-mobile.

It is possible to find features like portfolio management, responsive image sliders, AJAX contact forms, custom sidebars, testimonial widgets, price tables, SEO control, etc.

To sum up, even if only a single item in the bundle, will be a fit for a project of yours, it is still a good deal.

Every designer needs high-quality images for good-looking and/or print-ready designs.

If you are in search of such stock photos for an affordable price, Photaki, a microstock agency created by photographers and designers, is a must check.

The service has launched in 2009, grew fast in means of content + users and, right now, 5000+ images are added each day. So its always  guaranteed to find something fresh.

Like mentioned, Photaki has a focus on keeping the prices as low as possible. It works with a credit system where downloading an image without having to buy an entire credit pack only costs 1 € (or it gets much lower with the packs -down to 0.20 €-).

There are images on any keyword, they are categorized>sub-categorized well and a location-based search exists. Simply, it is pretty easy to locate the file you need.

If you are a photographer or designer, becoming a contributor makes sense with high commissions (between 50% and 80%), detailed sales/visit reports and unlimited storage. And, for artists with a large collection, they help automating the entire process.

Photaki‘s website is available in many languages and you can always keep in touch with them regarding any questions.

When working on web and mobile designs or wireframes, anything that can ease creating these layouts are highly welcomed.

GUI Toolkits is a very large collection of user interface components that has sets from mobile to desktop apps.

There are 9 toolkits offered: iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry, Facebook, Web 2.0, Mac, Windows and Windows Mobile apps.

Each of them consists of hundreds of vector shapes and icons that empower anyone (with or without design skills) to create mock-ups and clickable prototypes.

Every toolkit has versions for wireframing + production and, once purchased, any upgrades are free for lifetime.

And, GUI Toolkits come with the file format anyone get used to work with as there are versions for Illustrator, Fireworks, Visio, PowerPoint, OmniGraffle, Axure RP Pro and Apple Keynote.

Each toolkit can be purchased separately or a bundle that consists of all the items exists for a good price (which is handy for anyone regularly performing web design tasks).

In order to create faster, get your toolkit at GUI Toolkits now.

How to join the giveaway?

There are 3 bundles (includes all 9 toolkits) being given away and winners will be able to choose the file format they prefer.

In order to join, you can do one or both of the following to increase the chances:

• leave a comment stating the toolkit of choice and the platform (Illustrator, Keynote, etc.)
• share this tweet about GUI Toolkits