Larissa Meek

Ideas

• Idea Generator
  If you’re ever feeling stuck in a rut for a simple or big idea give the wheel a spin! The best ideas are the simple ones. In this case, get yours in only three words.
  
• Staying Motivated
  Feeling inspired and staying motivated is a huge challenge. A List Apart provides much needed insight on how to stay motivated.
  
  
• 18 Tricks to Make New Habits Stick
  Breaking BAD habits is tough. Starting a good habit is easy and keeping it going is - not so easy. Here’s 18 tricks that might help. Tape not required.
  

Art

• Damon Soule
  Damon Soule’s work is a mix of collage and modernism. It mixes a sense of tangibility with futurism. This site holds his works back to 1997 and you can capture an idea of how his work has transitioned to the unique style it is today. Also notice the repetition of triangles throughout his work. It is both cute and spooky.
  
  
  
• Amy Sol
  Amy Sol is a talented artist who brings life to muted color on wood surfaces. I’ve never seen colors so pale have so much life. Her work is inspired my manga, folk art, vintage illustration and modern design. And - she’s self taught!
  
  
• Drawer Geeks!
  Drawer Geeks is a fun thing where professional artists (mostly from the comic book, animation, illustration and design fields) all draw their version of a fiction character.
  

Crafts

• Paper Critters
  Paper Critters is an on-line application for creating and sharing digital paper toys. Make your very own critter or just take a gander at the colony.
  
• Craft Zine
  CraftZine is a hidden jem, full of DIY projects. Celebrating the DIY spirit, CRAFT’s goal is to unite, inspire, inform and entertain a growing community of highly imaginative and resourceful people who are transforming traditional art and crafts with unconventional, unexpected and even renegade techniques, materials and tools; people who undertake amazing crafting projects in their homes and communities.
  
• Craftster
  Get your creative on! This community site is for people who have crafty urges, but who are not excited by cross stitched bunnies and crocheted toilet paper cozies, can show off their current craft projects, ask advice on future projects and get inspiration for new endeavors.
  

Design

• Old Fashioned Advertising
  A Flickr Gallery full of old fashioned packaging. You will feel nostalgic or inspired - or even maybe both.
  
• Design Fckr
  An e-zine which keeps track of all things creative, so you don’t have to. DFCKR™ is a publication created with the intention of keeping track of design related news and resources, and as a place to give recognition to up and coming designers and illustrators.
  
• 30 Elm
  Looking to re-decorate or maybe even re-design your whole place? Then 30 Elm is the place to start. 30elm is the first online community for professional home design. Their goal is to make home remodeling and building easier, from concept to completion. For savvy industry professionals, 30elm provides unparalleled tools for showcasing their best work to motivated homeowners.
  
  

Entry Filed under: Web Design

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I get more emails about how this than anything else:

“Dear Larissa,

How do you achieve that cool image gallery affect on your about page where the images overlay your content? It is so cool! I would love to do that on my site!”

For some reason I assume the whole world has heard of Lightbox JS but then I remember not everyone is a web designer. The great news is, it is really easy to achieve! Lightbox JS is the best invention next to sliced bread YouTube. This effect is achieved using JavaScript and CSS. Basically an external image is loaded into a hidden div which becomes visible when called. This has been growing in popularity over the last 2 years and is a great method for displaying larger images without the use of pop-ups (*cringe*) or a page refresh.

Here’s a variety of useful LightBoxes.

• Lighbox JS
• Light Box 2
• ThickBox 3
• WP lightbox JS WordPress plugin
• Lightbox 2.0 for WordPress
• Highslide JS
• Suckerfish HoverLightbox Redux
• Grey Box
• Lightbox Gone Wild

Entry Filed under: Web Design

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CSSremix is my favorite CSS gallery (Move over FWA) and I was saddened by the recent hacker. But great news! John Mills did some changes to refresh the site without a major overhaul to the design. CSSRemix has some truly wonderful improvements! This is an excellent example of a refresh without shocking your users into figuring out a whole new layout. The changes increased usability dramatically and the new layout provides for some very well thought out and unobtrusive ad placement.

• The left and right columns have been removed. This allows the content to take center stage. LOVE IT!
• Great job on integrating the branding through the logo, rating system and clever animation behind the logo. It’s perfect.
• The top 5 ad spaces give sponsors a great value for the investment without competing with the site’s design.
• The rating system is more intuitive and subtly mimics the CSSRemix Logo.
• From the Archives: this well planned module utilizes some AJAX to randomly display sites from the past.
• Promote yourself: A brilliant and innovate way to create advertising space. I predict a lot of sites will utilize a similar method.

Entry Filed under: Web Design

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So CSS Remix got hacked. I’d link directly but it looks scary. I hate hackers. I’ve had issues with them previously. Looks like they are also trying to install an exploit or something when you go to the site - so warning… DO NOT INSTALL! If you see a spider and a bunch of red text, beware. It looks like the hack replaced the index page and I think CSSRemix is powered by WordPress so I hope the vulnerability gets fixed. It could also be the host not having a secure environment.

I think the hacker is Turkish. I hate hackers.

Entry Filed under: Web Design

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Just in case you wanted to check it out.

Entry Filed under: Web Design

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