Design Inspirations for July 7th

18 Seriously Helpful Cheat Sheets for Easier Coding is a great resource (and the second of Henry Jones' cheat sheet posts) that give the aspiring/struggling/overworked coder something to refer too that's less than 400 pages long. Granted, like all good things, most hints/manuals are just a Google search away, but who has time to type "Expression Engine Ref..." see? I got called away. Anyway, enjoy this post - it's a good-un!

I like using smart icons on a site (not this one) to help the user figure out where they're going. This nice trick, courtesy of blog.liviuholhos.com makes a smart icon even smarter.

Tutorials are more than just instructions, they're a great source of inspiration. Pro Blog Design has a nice list of UI tutorials that may just help you (read: me) get unstuck from that design block you're (read: I'm) wrestling with.

This nice post by elite Chris Coyier over at CSS Tricks is a wonderful tool for those of us who don't have the right connections between our eyes/mind and our hands. This is a great exercise for your design muscles.

It takes a long time to come up with over 1500+ Photoshop brushes and list them, so I'll let DesignM.ag take care of that this time. They're so much better at the resources game than I am. And I'm much better at writing the angsty designer posts.

Nice little list of stock photo sites, free with some usage restrictions (always read the license). There's a few here I've used for years, and some brand new gems that I'll add to my bookmarks. Thanks to Web and Designers for the list.

Such a necessary trick it has its own URL. New CSS Sticky Footer - 2009. This is a no brainer for most people, but I often overlook the little things like this while I wait for content. Most of what we do at my "day place" is guerilla design and not for the faint of heart. Every little tool helps.

I can't explain my love of typography. It's a mystery to me sometimes, as if there's a secret to it that's just hidden, out of my reach. I feel the same way about pool. I love that game, but I'm terrible at it, and that haunts me. Anyway, here's a great article from i love typography about creating your first font. The first one’s the hardest

By way of CSS-Tricks I discovered this nice little article by Dan Rubin at 24 ways: Absolute Columns. I'm always looking for better ways to get the column layout I need without tables. I'm posting just as much for my reference as yours. Enjoy.

The adorable David Hamill writes over at UX Booth about the theory behind Good Call-To-Action Buttons.