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50+ New and Free Photoshop Brush Packs

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:37:37 +0000

Nearly every designer loves freshly-made, free Photoshop brushes that can be used in your designs as it is one of the most widely used graphics programs on the market. It is what some would call an incontrovertible truth. This is the reason why designers are constantly browsing the web in search of all the latest brushes to add them to their arsenal.

We have previously posted many collections of high quality Photoshop brush packs, and today we are bringing our readers another fine collection of over 50 fresh Photoshop brush sets that are sure to delight even the most discerning of designers. These high quality brushes are simply out of this world, and are all free to download and use in your projects.

This round up includes 50+ packs containing more than 500 brushes of various styles and for a range of effects. With some grunge, light effects, ornamental, abstract, paint strokes, paper, and splatter type brushes, there is a little something for everyone. Enjoy!

Note: Licenses of every brush set varies, so be sure to check that information before using them.

Photoshop Brush Packs

Glowing Swirl Brushes ( Download )
This high quality set contains 8 high resolution brushes to add glowing swirl effects.

Free Faded Splatters ( Download )
This free brush set contains 10 faded ink splatters. Download and enjoy!

Grass and Plant SET 3 PS ( Download )
This set contains 10 top quality grass and plant based brushes.

Sujune Diablo ( Download )
Download this set of 9 brushes to give your designs a bit of a grunge and abstract look.

Stone Brushes ( Download )
This set contains 11 high resolution stone brushes for adding some natural grit and stone patterns.

Celestica Brushes ( Download )
This set contains 9 brushes that you can use to add crystalline patterns to your design.

Blow Brush PS ( Download )
If you are looking for some awesome blow brushes then this set of 4 unique brushes is simply a must have.

Ink Smear Brushes ( Download )
This set contains 5 brushes that were made by dipping a Q-Tip in red food coloring then simply “drawing” on a piece of paper with it. Each brush is 2500px wide. Enjoy!

Rough Background ( Download )
Incredibly useful grunge brushes that will fill up your backgrounds with a coarse texture.

Grunge Border PS Brush Set ( Download )
This set contains 11 free high resolution grunge borders. The grunge lines were created by rubbing a graphite stick over straight edges of different objects.

Bokeh Brushes ( Download )
With this set, you will get 8 high quality bokeh brushes.

Ornamental Butterflies 2 ( Download )
This is an awesome set of Photoshop brushes that contains 35 excellent and high resolution brushes that you can use to add beautiful butterflies to your designs.

PS Cloud Brushes ( Download )
This set that contains 12 brushes, you can use to create clouds in your designs with ease.

Antique Postcard Brushes ( Download )
This set contains 6 hi-res(2500px) antique postcard Photoshop Brushes. This can act as templates for your design or as a way to add some age and texture to your work.

Number of Water ( Download )
If you want to create numbers out of water, this set of brushes was made for you.

KaRTaL Butterfly Brushes ( Download )
Here you will find 3 brushes for CS5 that you can use to add beautiful butterflies to your works.

APs Brushes: Scar Face ( Download )
These 12 brushes will help you create scarred faces quite easily and in no time.

Abstract Brushes ( Download )
Fifteen medium to large scaled abstract brushes designed especially to add energy and interest to your artwork. A great tool for any abstract piece.

Plaztique’s Lace Brushes ( Download )
This set contains 5 pixel brushes perfect for creating lace trimmings or fancy borders.

Ink Splatter Brush Set ( Download )
In this brush set, you will find 20x Photoshop splatter brushes to create flawless splatter effects.

Fractal brushes ( Download )
This set contains 12 large fractal brushes that can be used for all kinds of web projects.

Swoosh Brush Pack v.1 ( Download )
We all know how hard it can be to create print worthy swooshes, well now with this set you can simply click and colorize.

Different By Design Abstract Brush Pack ( Download )
This set contains 6 simple and hi-res brushes. This is a freeware brush pack.

Love Birds Brushes ( Download )
This set contains 30 love birds brushes, they were created in Adobe Photoshop CS4 & Inkscape. They are free for personal & commercial use.

Snowflake Brushes ( Download )
This set contains twenty-four individual snowflakes, with four variations to each.

River Side Brushes ( Download )
This exclusive brush has been designed to be used in CS5 in order to add a beautiful river side effect.

Shoujo Wonderland Brushes ( Download )
This excellent set contains 24 Photoshop brushes that you can use wherever you want.

Subtle Wood Brushes ( Download )
This set contains five subtle woodgrain Photoshop brushes that can add some quick surface and texture to your designs. They offer some great attributes like knotholes and some different grain patterns. Each brush is 2500×2000.

Ink Splatter Brushes ( Download )
This set contains 5 hi res ink splatter brushes, each brush is 2500×2000.

Abstract Brush Set ( Download )
This set contains 2 exceptional abstract brushes that every designer must have.

Trend Element ( Download )
This awesome set contains 4 brushes to make your designs trendier and stylish.

Scratches Photoshop Brushes ( Download )
This set of Photoshop brushes contains 14 scratch patterns that you may prove to be just what you are looking for.

Crane Brushes ( Download )
These 2 brushes are perfect for adding some visually alluring effects to your designs and make them look more appealing.

Bokeh Brushes ( Download )
These 5 versatile and re-usable bokeh brushes will be a valued addition to your toolbox. Each brush is 2500px wide.

Melting Texture Border Brush ( Download )
This is a collection of 9 melting effects texture borders created in Photoshop CS3.

Thin Smoke Brushes ( Download )
Download this useful set of Photoshop brushes if you need some high quality thin smoke brushes.

Brick Photoshop Brushes ( Download )
This set contains 6 diverse and hi-res brick wall brushes. Each brush is 2500×2000.

Industrial Zone Grunge Brushes ( Download )
The set includes various industrial type brushes, from grunge/floor textures to gears, and from machines to industrial buildings.

Halftone Brushes Pack 2 ( Download )
Pack of 17 halftone Photoshop brushes free to download.

Psycho Grunge ( Download )
It contains 99 vector Photoshop brushes of 2500px resolution. Download for free.

Floral Fireworks ( Download )
In this set, you will find 2 brushes for PS to create stunning fireworks effects in your designs.

Grungy Arrow Brushes ( Download )
This pack contains 25 grungy arrow brushes made with Photoshop CS4. There are different types of arrow symbols so you can easily integrate them in your designs.

Free Falling Sparks Brush Set ( Download )
This free Photoshop brush set contains 10 falling sparks brushes. This set is great for creating abstract lighting.

Line Art ( Download )
This set contains 5 line art Photoshop brushes for adding artistic lines in your projects.

Concrete Wall Brushes ( Download )
This set contains 7 hi-res concrete brushes. Each brush is 2500×1800 and will add some instant grunge, texture, and atmosphere to your designs.

Star ( Download )
Download this brush set and start creating astonishing stars in no time.

Watercolor and Salt Photoshop Brush Set ( Download )
This brush set contains 10 watercolor splatters over salt. The salt soaks up the watercolor giving it an interesting texture.

Noise and Dust A Free Photoshop Brush Set ( Download )
An awesome brush set for adding a bit of dust and noise to your designs.

Ribbon Brushes ( Download )
Download 14 large ribbon brushes to add to your designing tools.

Lightning Brushes Photoshop ( Download )
Create awesome lightning effects in your designs with this outstanding set of Photoshop brushes that contains 19 variations.

Moon Brushes ( Download )
This set of brushes will allow you to create the different phases of the moon using the 10 different brushes it includes.

Cloud Brushes ( Download )
This set contains 10 high-resolution cloud brushes for Photoshop. Brush sizes range from 879px to 2295px.

Scratchy Grunge Brushes ( Download )
This set contains 7 scratchy grunge brushes, these brushes come from an interesting source, microscopic photos of some hand-scratched 35mm film.

(rb)

Noupe

New High-Quality Free Fonts

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 04:23:12 +0000

Every now and then, we look around, select fresh free high-quality fonts and present them to you in a brief overview. The choice is enormous, so the time you need to find them is usually time you should be investing in your projects. We search for them and find them so that you don’t have to.

In this selection, we’re pleased to present Homestead, Bree Serif, Levanderia, Valencia, Nomed Font, Carton and other quality fonts. Please note that while most fonts are available for commercial projects, some are for personal use only and are clearly marked as such in their descriptions. Also, please read the licensing agreements carefully before using the fonts; they may change from time to time.

Free Fonts

Homestead
Homestead is a very distinctive Slab Serif typeface that leaves a lasting impression with its geometric forms and a modern, progressive look. The family is available in 6 weights: Regular, Inline Display, One, Two and Three. Released by the Lost Type foundry with the “name-your-price” pricing scheme. Homestead can be used freely for any personal or commercial use.

Bree Serif Regular
This typeface is the serif cousin of the playful, charming and versatile type family Bree which was designed by Veronika Burian and José Scaglione back in 2008. Actually, Bree is also the typeface used in the Smashing Cartoons. An italic font weight of Bree Serif should be available very soon. Released under the liberal OFL license (via Typografie.info).

Lavanderia
Lavanderia is a script font based on lettering found on Laundromat windows of San Francisco’s Mission District. It features numerous OpenType features such as swashes, titling alternates, figures, stylistic alternates, ligatures. It is available in three weights, with Uppercase, Lowercase, Numerals and Punctuation sets. Designed by the talented type designer James T. Edmondson and released by the Lost Type Co-Op foundry. Free for personal and commercial use.

RBNo2
This new gothic sans serif font was inspired by the late 19th century industrial fonts that contained german roots regarding straightness and geometry. Combined with other sans serifs, slab serifs and serif fonts, it catches the eye when used in headlines and short copy texts. Alternate versions turn the font into a perfect partner for modern, technical and contemporary impressions as well as high-quality, luxury and timeless environments. Free to use in commercial and non-commercial projects. Designed by Rene Bieder.

Cassannet
Cassannet is a geometrical art deco typeface available in Regular, Bold and Outline weights, based on lettering seen on Cassandre posters. This typeface contains ligatures, capitals, numbers, small capitals and also titling alternates. You can pay a random amount of money or alternatively send out a tweet or a Facebook post to download the fonts for free.

Valencia
Valencia is a condensed, art-deco inspired typeface that includes five weights, ranging from hairline to black, with matching obliques for each weight. The typeface has a nice corporate vintage look which makes it a great fit for large headlines and prints as well as any collateral or stationery. Valencia’s distinctive appearance stems from its low horizontal crossbars and its full-circle curves. Released by the Lost-Type Co-Op foundry with the “name-your-price” pricing scheme and hence freely available for personal and commercial use.

Jura
Jura is an elegant serif typeface with narrow proportions and distinguishing details. The rounded, wedge-shaped serifs offer a contemporary feel and also achieve to maintain legibility even with its range of small sizes. This typeface is available in four weights: Regular, Italic, Bold and Bold Italic and is available for free download and use.

Nomed Font
Nomed Font is a free typeface that can help you achieve a modern and sophisticated look in your designs. The triangular geometric shapes may be a bit hard to read but that’s exactly the highlight of this particular style, and it makes the typography unique and original.

Carton
This typeface, designed by Nick McCosker, is a strong yet sensitive slab-serif inspired by letterpress. Its sturdy appearance makes it a perfect fit for posters, headings and taglines, in both classic and contemporary contexts. Released by the Lost Type Co-Op under the “name-your-price” pricing scheme.

Novecento (Registration on MyFonts is required!)
This typeface is an uppercase-only font family with some pretty impressive geometric forms that have been inspired by historical European typographic tendencies. It was designed to be used mostly for headlines, visual identities or short sentences — both in big and small sizes. The family contains 471 glyphs and 32 font weights whereas six of the font weights of the wide-version (Light, Book, Normal, Medium, Demibold and Bold) are available for free download and use.

Fjord
Fjord is serif typeface that has specifically been designed for book publications. It is intended to be used in long texts and in relatively small print size. Fjord features sturdy construction, prominent serifs, low-contrast modulation and long elegant ascenders as well as descenders relative to the ‘x’ height. Fjord performs well in sizes starting from 12px and higher; nevertheless, it can also be a distinctive font choice for larger text headlines and in corporate design. This serif typeface include Cyrillic and Greek characters and is available at Google Web Fonts. It has been released under the SIL Open Font License, 1.1. Feel free to take a look at the designer’s free font Armata as well.

Hero
Hero is a crisp geometrical typeface applicable for any type of use: print, Web, logos, posters, booklets. This typeface contains 162 characters and is free for personal and commercial use. Available in the OpenType format for PC and Mac.

Otama e.p.
Here’s a quite confident typeface to use for expensive and fashionable designs. Strong steams and thin serifs shows similarities to the well-known traditional Didot typeface. This typeface is free for personal and commercial use.

Ribbon
This typeface is a geometric display face which includes OpenType features for an alternate alphabet. The family contains sets for Uppercase, Numerals and Punctuation. Released by the Lost Type Co-Op under the “name-your-price” pricing scheme and designed by Dan Gneiding. If you decide to buy the font for or more, you will get a beautiful Ribbon Specimen Book as well.

Movavi
Movavi is a sans serif font that is available only in the font weights Black and Black Italic. Obviously, the typeface wouldn’t work for body copy, but it might work nicely in short headings or “groovy” art works. Available for free download and use on PC and Mac.

Satellite
Satellite is a geometric sans serif font designed by Matt Yow. The typeface can be a great fit for short headlines, short body copy or slogans. Released under the SIL Open Font License.

Open Sans
Open Sans is a very clean font family by Ascender Fonts. It includes ten styles (Light, Regular, Italic, Semibold, Bold, Bold Italic, Extrabold) and each one consists of more than 900 glyphs: Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, many of the regular diacrytic letters as well as “hanging” numbers. Also available at Google Web Fonts and released under the Apache License version 2.

Mosaic Leaf
The glyphs of this expressive typeface are built out of leaves of different sizes. Mosaic Leaf also contains numbers, punctuation and currency symbols. The .zip-package contains PDF, OTF and TTF files; the fonts support Western and Central European encoding, and also Baltic, Nordic and Turkish. The typeface is free to use in commercial and non-commercial projects. Designed and prepared by Lukasz Kulakowski and Zbyszek Czapnik.

Amaranth
Amaranth is a sans serif font family of four basic styles (regular, italic, bold, bold italic) with individually shaped letter forms that makes typeface more playful. Suitable for both Web and print, longer texts and headings. Available at Google Web Fonts and licensed under the SIT OpenType License. Image credit and source: dersven.

Siruca Pictograms
A pictogram open source font made as a part of Siruca signage system designed by Fabrizio Schiavi. The font contains many picograms related to sport, signage, home, social meetings, free time activities and business.

Erler Dingbats
For the first time in the entire history of Unicode standard, the full encoding range for dingbats is now covered by a complete, contemporary quality font. FF Dingbats 2.0 features more than 800 glyphs and is mainly a tool for professional designers and has been created for everyday communication purposes. It includes a wide range of popular symbols and pictograms such as arrows, pens, phones, stars, crosses and checkmarks, plus three sets of cameo figures on round backgrounds. Free of charge. (via fontblog)

Further Free Fonts

SD Sansimillia
SD Sansimillia is a playful, yet elegant typeface suitable for many different applications. Originally cut for a local advertising brand, SD Sansimillia is inspired by the Antenna Family built by Cyrus Highsmith in 2007 as well as Erik Spiekermann’s FF Din Family cut in 1994. It is issued in regular, bold and black weights.

Mimic Roman
Mimic Roman is a modern sans serif face with evenly balanced strokes and a counter on a slight angle, giving it a 1950s retro look.

Roboto
Roboto Family is a linear sans serif font, available in 8 different styles of which each includes more than 900 glyphs — Greek and Cyrillic, too. This font was designed by Google for Andorid and is licensed under the Google Android License.

Mate
An elegant serif font designed by Eduardo Tunni. This typeface was primarily designed to be used in longer body copies in printed material. It is simple in structure and has sharp as well as generous counter-shapes which create a medium texture that calls for page color. It can also be used as display typography and is available at Google Web Fonts.

Last Click

Shape Type
If you are passionate about typography and have fun experimenting with glyphs, then you will certainly like the rather unusual type-design game created by the interaction designer Mark MacKay. The idea of this JavaScript-based letter-shaping game is simple: you get 10 modified letters from various classic typefaces, and you have to try to make them right by dragging curves along their axes. It’s an engaging way to explore what makes or breaks a glyph.

Font-Bot Project
It is time for your favorite font to stand its ground. The idea is to build robots out of a type face, showcase them and hope others put together a potential opponent. Once there are two font-bots ready to compete against each other, only thing left would be to “let the battle begin!” Participating is not hard, the rules are clear: all robots must be built of type alone (letters A to Z). Let’s see if your font has what it takes to defend its corner. Fight!

Further Resources

Lost Type Co-Op
The Lost Type Co-Op is a Pay-What-You-Want Type foundry. Users have the opportunity to pay whatever they like for a font; you can type in ‘′ for a free download. 100% of all funds from these sales go directly to the designers of the fonts themselves, respectively.
The League of Moveable Type
The open-source type movement for bringing high-quality tyepfaces to the Web. The creators of the project keep releasing quality fonts every now and then so be sure to stay tuned!
Google Web Fonts
A growing directory of hundreds of free, open-source fonts optimized for the Web. Google also provides ready-to-use snippets for integrating the fonts to your website.
Typography and Free Fonts on Smashing Magazine
An overview of typography-related articles and free font round-ups on Smashing Magazine.

We sincerely appreciate the time and effort of all type designers featured in this post. Please keep in mind that type design is a time-consuming craft which truly deserves reward and support. Please consider supporting type designers who create and release amazing typefaces for all of us to use.

(vf) (il)

Smashing Magazine Feed

20+ Free Android Apps for a More Productive 2012

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 21:36:51 +0000

As the new year beckons, resolution time is upon the masses once more. For those who are wishing that they can keep themselves more productive in 2012, we have put together a list of apps for all those Android users (who some readers have suggested we have been neglecting) to help them keep their resolutions going all year long. We took to the reviews and looked around at the various suggestions offered around the web to find a range of apps that we hope can help cover all of your bases for staying on track.

With over 20 different free Android apps featured (some you have seen before and some you may have not), we are pretty sure that most of you will not be leaving this post without a few new apps in tow. Get ready to get more productive!

Apps to Increase Your Productivity

Evernote

How could we make a productivity list of apps and not include the ever-popular Evernote? Most of our readers are probably already a bit familiar with this helpful application, and may actually be using it on other devices. Now its power and organizational aids can be added to your Android mobile arsenal, complete with a handy widget.

Advanced Task Killer

While not necessarily needed for newer versions of the Android OS, some users still like having a quick and easy task manager for managing their apps and battery life. Advanced Task Killer is the one many users turn to for this added management and peace of mind.

Google Goggles

A timesaving way to search your surroundings and more using your phones built in camera. Google Goggles is an interesting new way for users to explore not only the web, but the world around them as well. From images to phrases and more, your camera can capture a wide range of information that will be automatically searched for (or translated) via Google.

Dropbox

Another definite oldie but goodie, Dropbox can allow Android users to now easily access their synced and saved data, without having to switch to a new device. Streamlining your workflow even more, by bringing one more area of connectivity between your devices for data sharing.

CamScanner – Phone PDF Creator

An extremely handy little app that turns your smartphone into something of a compact document scanner and PDF creator. CamScanner brings even more functionality to your mobile devices, giving that extra punch of productivity on the go without having to lug around any extra equipment.

Vlingo Virtual Assistant

iPhone users have been very responsive to Siri, but Android users are not short of their own alternatives. Vlingo is one of the more popular Siri alternatives currently on the market. Its a wonderfully useful app that transforms your Android into your very own personal assistant.

Easy Uninstaller

While the Android OS has a fairly user friendly app manager, Easy Uninstaller gives users even more power to control their devices. With the ability to do batch uninstalls, search for files and get detailed file info, easy uninstaller is a helpful addition to anyone’s app arsenal. The one drawback is that you cannot uninstall any of the apps that came pre-installed.

Voice Recorder

For those looking for a simpler app for dictating notes than say the much more loaded Evernote, Voice Recorder is the app for you. Easy to use, and manage the files. What more can you ask for from a simple recorder?

Astrid Task/Todo List

If you are looking for a todo list that is both fun and feature rich, then look no further, Astrid Task/Todo List is the perfect app for you. Complete with reminders, syncing options, task sharing and much more, Astrid allows users to get more done on the run with their Android device. Even has a widget for quick and easy access.

WiFi Manager

When on the go, and needing to spare your data plan, use WiFi Manager to quickly find an access point and get online to access or share the files you need. Uploading and downloading files can become quite costly if your provider is a little less than forgiving when it comes to overages, so finding a usable WiFi hotspot is a good way to keep things economical and accessible.

Cloud Print

If you are looking to be able to print from apps on your smartphone, but do not have a wireless ready printer, Cloud Print is there to the rescue. Using a new service from Google, there is a slight setup that one has to go through to make this work smoothly with the PC your printer is hooked up to (unless you happen to already have a Cloud Print or HP E-Print ready printer), but the guide is pretty straightforward.

Springpad

Being able to take notes on the go is important for many of our readers, and while we have featured Evernote, we wanted to provide our users with more options. And while there are many options out there, another popular one that many users have turned to for all of their mobile notetaking (plus) needs is Springpad. Allows you to save notes, locations, products and more, and even automatically organizes them for you.

SanDisk Memory Zone (Beta)

When it comes to managing the data stored on your Android, SD card, and even select online cloud services SanDisk Memory Zone is a powerful and easy to use tool that should definitely be on your radar. Though it is still in beta, this promising new app is a powerful memory and data manager.

My Work Clock

Perfect for those who need to be able to keep track of the time spent on their projects for more precise billing and client reporting. Work Clock lets you punch-in and out just like you were working a standard 9 to 5 job. Comes with its own dashboard widget for easy tracking, plus supports multiple jobs at a time.

SwipePad: Hyperspace Jump

Multitasking like a boss is how some would describe this shortcut creator. SwipePad allows you to quickly and easily access your apps no matter what is running or where you are in your phone. Shortcuts made near effortlessly intuitive and simple.

Remember the Milk

For those fans of the online version of this popular todo list service, now you can have all of the organizational power of Remember the Milk on your Android. Get synced and organized on the go, with the service that millions of users have trusted for years.

handyCalc Calculator

With many practical uses, handyCalc Calculator is a useful little app to have, well, handy. Especially if you find yourself freelancing, it can assist you with its currency converter when you are dealing with clients from other countries and needing to ensure proper pricing for reasonable quotes.

Package Buddy

With the web allowing for widespread connectivity, shipping remains an important part of keeping our businesses running smoothly, especially for all of those less than instantly and digitally transmittable deliveries. Package Buddy takes so much of the headache and time out of tracking those packages through a huge range of international shippers.

Advanced Task Accelerator

Battery drain is a huge problem for smartphone users, and Android devices are not immune. Using Advanced Task Accelerator can help you keep those unused background apps from draining important phone resources. Simulates a reboot to keep your main apps running without unnecessary sluggishness.

Recycle Bin

If you are familiar with the problem of deleting an app and later wishing that you could get it back; and even one step further along this route is the problem of having issues recalling just what the app was called in the first place, then this app is right up your alley. With Recycle Bin logging the apps you delete from your phone, you can reacquire them with a click.

DroidEdit Free

For many web design and developers, being able to access and quickly modify source code from our mobile devices is the dream. Okay so maybe less of a dream, and more of a necessary evil at times. Rather than discovering the problem on a mobile device and waiting until you can access your computer, just being able to get the job done quick and easy. With DroidEdit Free that dream is brought within reach.

B-Folders Secure Organizer

Cloudless and secure syncing and sharing of all of your important data is not always an easy thing to find, especially in such a feature rich and optimized fashion. However, B-Folders rises to meet this challenge head-on, and in rare form too.

Root Uninstall

A quick and easy way to remove the bloatware apps from your phone, even those system apps the phone doesn’t want you to unload. One click and they are now gone with the help of Root Uninstall. A very handy app to have at your disposal. Pun completely intended…

Seesmic for Android

Most of our readers are probably already familiar with this old favorite, but we had to include this handy app for managing your social networking all in one place without having to run multiple apps at a time. Especially when focusing on productivity. Seesmic is known around the community, and their reputation stands with their extension to Android devices. Reliable and solid as ever.

That’s a Wrap

That concludes this showcase of free Android apps to keep your new year on a more productive track. What are some of your favorites that were not included? Which ones featured have you tried, and what are your thoughts on them? Feel free to share them and more with us in the comment section below.

(rb)

Noupe

Freebie: Free Vector Web Icons (91 Icons)

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 13:25:12 +0000

Today’s freebie may be the last one for this year, but that doesn’t mean it will be the last of our freebies on Smashing Magazine — no siree! Before this year does come to an end, we are happy to present to you a fresh new Web UI set includig 91 icons created by August Interactive for the holiday season. The set is a collection of widely used UI elements, including volume, zoom, player, view, and download controls.

Designed by Tomas Gajar, the set was developed using Adobe Fireworks and has been exported as a fully editable layered Photoshop file as well. The set is clean, pixel perfect, and meant to full your everyday needs for UI design.

Download the Set for Free!

This freebie offers vectors, all scalable, Adobe Photoshop PSDs as well as Fireworks PNGs. The icon set is completely free to use for commercial or personal applications without any restrictions. Please link to this article if you want to spread the word.

large preview
download the free icon set (.zip, 3,4 Mb)

Behind the Design

As always, here are some insights from the designers:

“For us, the end of the year usually brings some precious time to reflect on our work and how our love for design remains relevant to the user interface design community. Our revelation this year is that clean, pixel perfect vector icons have become immensely important to our work. This means we typically spend the extra time to develop the icons that fit the specific need of the job at hand. As you can imagine, this ‘extra’ time takes considerable effort — effort that is often not a part of a clients’ original scope of work.

These holidays, we decided that the best gift we could offer our friends and colleagues is free access to some of our favorite custom UI icons. They are available in Adobe Photoshop PSDs, and for our really special friends, Fireworks PNGs. All vector, all scalable, all free to use for commercial or personal applications. Stay tuned for more in 2012!”

Thank you, Tomas Gajar and August Interactive. We appreciate your work and your good intentions!

(il) (vf)

Smashing Magazine Feed

An Inspired Collection of Free Live Wallpapers for Android

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 21:36:47 +0000

Since we have been compiling wallpapers for our readers, we wanted to turn our decorating eye towards the Android series of devices as we have not had a dedicated wallpaper post for those users. Today we address this with a collection of wonderful live wallpapers specifically targeted at the Android line. These animated backgrounds have been a big draw for users since Android introduced them with version 2.1.

The problem many Android users run into is that there are so many of the live wallpapers out there and loads that are not very stable, or worse, just do not work. Then there are those which are somewhat uninspired. So we decided to sort through the hordes and bring our readers some of the cream of the crop. Below is a selection of backgrounds that we hope you will get some use out of. Or at least a little inspiration.

Get Live

(rb)

Noupe

Awesome Free Texture Packs from 2011

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:36:59 +0000

As the year draws to a close, we tend to take a look back over the year and take stock. This post is here to not only sort of serve that purpose, but to also stock up on some of the year’s top free texture packs from around the web. Knowing how much use the web design community gets from resources like these, we felt like it would close the year in style to showcase some of 2011′s freshest and most useful textures that were released throughout the year.

So get your virtual web design toolboxes ready for an extra healthy heaping of these awesome resources to be piled into the mix. Some of these you may have seen throughout 2011, and some may have slid under your radar and you are seeing them for the first time. Either way, we hope that they not only provide you with new resources, but also get you inspired to start a new project or implement them into an existing one. Enjoy!

TuTsRUS - All Adobe Tutorials - Photoshop | Illustrator | Encore | Premeire | After Effects » Free

50+ New and Free Photoshop Brush Packs

Photoshop Brush Packs

New High-Quality Free Fonts

Free Fonts

Further Free Fonts

Last Click

Further Resources

20+ Free Android Apps for a More Productive 2012

Apps to Increase Your Productivity

Evernote

Advanced Task Killer

Google Goggles

Dropbox

CamScanner – Phone PDF Creator

Vlingo Virtual Assistant

Easy Uninstaller

Voice Recorder

Astrid Task/Todo List

WiFi Manager

Cloud Print

Springpad

SanDisk Memory Zone (Beta)

My Work Clock

SwipePad: Hyperspace Jump

Remember the Milk

handyCalc Calculator

Package Buddy

Advanced Task Accelerator

Recycle Bin

DroidEdit Free

B-Folders Secure Organizer

Root Uninstall

Seesmic for Android

That’s a Wrap

Freebie: Free Vector Web Icons (91 Icons)

Download the Set for Free!

Behind the Design

An Inspired Collection of Free Live Wallpapers for Android

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White Christmas

Steampunk Skull

Captain America

Rotating Live Wallpaper

Nicky Bubbles Lite

Digital Wall

Butterfly Dream-Cool Free

Blooming Night

Biomechanical Bog Free

Christmas Tree

Melody

Biomechanical Skull

Summer Time Scene Lite

Lake View Scene Lite

Aquarium

Night Shadow Lite

Analogy Clock

Fractal Clock

Dandelion Field

Feng Shui Yinyang

Mystical Life Basic

WP Clock Light

NeonGears Basic

Mystic Halo

Musical Note

Sweet Tree Free

Love Creatures Lite

Celtic Garden Free

Pixel Rain

Ladybug

Awesome Free Texture Packs from 2011

Texture Packs

18 Hand Stained and Colored Paper Textures

Crumpled Paper Textures

Bamboo Texture Pack

15 Natural Stone Textures

10 Exclusive High Resolution Wood Textures by TextureQualityPro

5 Subtle Blue Grunge Textures

Autumn Leaves Textures

8 Free Original Hi-Res Old Brown Paper Textures