N.Design Studio - Blog & Design

Facebook App for WIRED Science

Nick — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 06:10:47 +0000

Finally, the Facebook app that I designed for WIRED Science is officially launched. The app is called "WIRED SCIENCE: What Element Are You?" It is basically a fun app that lets you take a short quiz to find out what element you are from the periodic table. Then you can combine your element with your friends and it will tell you the relationship between the two of you. If you are interested in adding me to your network, here is my Facebook profile. (more…)

I am Still Alive

Nick — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 13:42:17 +0000

Yes, I’m still alive. It has been more than two months since my last update on this site. So, what’s up with me? Well, I have a lot of new work coming up. I’m working on a new site of mine (yes, another one) and designing a Facebook app for Wired Science. But I can’t show you another of the new work yet (they are still in progress). Meanwhile, don’t forget to check out my other sites Web Designer Wall and Best Web Gallery.

Learn My Illustrator and Photoshop Techniques

Nick — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 09:06:07 +0000

Want to learn my Illustrator and Photoshop techniques that are commonly used in my design work? Please read the article, Vector Polishing Techniques that I just posted on Web Designer Wall. I have posted 9 Photoshop techniques on how you can add more depth, color, contrast, and texture into the vector art. The 9 techniques included: lens flare effect, dusty effect, rainbow, glowing lights, particles, color dodge, blurred, watercolor, and vintage texture. Some of them are commonly asked, such as the rainbow and particles effects appeared on N.Design. Let me know your thoughts on the article and don’t forget to Digg it.

FreeRice.com

Nick — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 08:39:50 +0000

I recently came across this site, FreeRice.com, which I thought it is very nice and creative. It is nice because you can learn vocabulary and help end the world hunger. The idea is very creative. This is how it works: you go to FreeRice.com and play their vocabulary game, for each question answered correctly 10 grains of rice will be donated by the sponsors to help people living in poverty. It is a win-win situation - you get to play the game, FreeRice get the traffics, advertisers get their exposure, and people get the free rice. If you like the idea, please help to spread out the word. For more details, please read their FAQ page. (more…)

See You at the FOWD Event

Nick — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 06:53:01 +0000

First, I would like to thank Carsonified and Lisa Price (marketing director of Carsonified), who offered a free admission to this year hottest design event — Future of Web Design, New York 2007. For those who don’t know about the FOWD event, it is a design event and workshop organized by Carsonified. They also organize many other events, visit their website for more details. Anyway, if you are going to the event, feel free to contact me and perhaps we can meet up. And if you haven’t registered, it is still not too late yet (couple days left).

How to Create an Advanced CSS Menu

Nick — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 05:12:00 +0000

A few people have asked me how did I create the sidebar menu on Web Designer Wall. Some people thought it was done by Javascript. Actually, it is just some basic CSS image replacement tricks. So I decided to write a tutorial on how to design and code an advanced CSS menu. Typically, a CSS menu either goes horizontal or vertical. In this tutorial I will show you how to utilize the CSS position property and place the menu buttons anywhere you want. It is a two-part tutorial (and don’t forget to Digg it):

Part 1 - Design Watercolor Effect Menu (Photoshop)
Part 2 - Advanced CSS Menu (CSS)

Building a Better WordPress Theme

Nick — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:50:53 +0000

Want to build a custom and dynamic WordPress theme as seen on my sites: N.Design Studio, Web Designer Wall, and Best Web Gallery? Check out my recent article, WordPress Theme Hacks on Web Designer Wall. I have listed most of the common used WordPress features (with code samples) such as Conditional Tags, Query Posts, Custom Fields, WP List Pages, and Page Template. Check out the theme hacks article and don’t forget to digg it if you like it.

Best Web Gallery Rebuilt

Nick — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 05:45:41 +0000

After several weeks of hard work, I finally completed rebuilding one of my projects, Best Web Gallery. Note, it is a rebuild, not redesign. I literally went to every single site in the gallery and re-captured the screenshots. Now Best Web Gallery is powered by the latest release of WordPress 2.3. Beside of the WordPress upgrade, I also added many new features such as image tooltip, different display modes (thumbnails, full image, and detailed mode), open external link options, and tag cloud. Check out the gallery now and let me know your feedbacks.

Speed Up Your Photoshop Productivity

Nick — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 18:19:25 +0000

Want to boost up your productivity? Check out my recent article on Web Designer Wall about Photoshop Shortcuts. It will show you 30 secret Photoshop shortcuts that I’ve learned from my experience. You will be amazed to find out that your mouse scroll wheel is also a powerful shortcut input. If you find this article useful, please support me by digging this article.

New Work - Next2Friends

Nick — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 00:35:19 +0000

Lately, I have been focusing on Web Designer Wall and haven’t updated this site for a long time. It is about time to give you guys some updates here. I’m currently working on a new project for Next2Friends, as a lead web and interface designer. Next2Friends is a social networking and video sharing site with some cool features. I can’t give you too much secret yet as we are still working on the beta version (coming in this December). If you are eager to find out what is it all about, visit Next2Friends now and pre-register for free. You could also have a chance to win a Dell laptop giveaway. Visit Next2Friends for more details.