One of the easiest and best ways to save money on many everyday items is by shopping seasonal sales. And of course, it’s necessary to know when and where to make the purchases.

This time, Templates.com - one of the good resources for web designers - provides every registered user with a 50% discount on each 3D model. By the way, the registration is also free. So you can easily become Templates.com’s member and buy the high quality 3D model at half-price.

Of course, this attractive opportunity won’t last forever. And every good thing has its own end. So, during the period of June 23rd until July 23rd all of Templates.com’s 3D Models will become twice cheaper than they usually are and more affordable!

For more information, you may visit this page: 3D Models Sale at Templates.com

For now, enjoy this original and impressive 3D models that may greatly enhance the quality of your design for web and print!

Humanoid 3D Robot.

Silvery Laptop 3D Model.

Mansion 3D Model.

3D Khaki Server.

Futuristic Airship 3D Model.

3D Model of an Orange Spider Robot.

Cartoon 3D Model of Aerosole Paint Cans.

3D Model of a Black Sports Car.

Stylish 3D Building with Rounded Corners.

Cartoon Cow 3D Model.

A new week has been started. And here is a new portion of free fresh wallpapers from Templates.com. I must admit that I love this resource, so I won’t keep this fact back.

Templates.com has a keen interest in robots and robotics. The resource provides the really original and impressive robot illustrations and 3D models. Some of them have become an excellent basis for fresh wallpapers.

What does “being romantic” mean to you? Right, the answers vary widely form person to person, but the only thing all people agree with is that to be romantic is to be creative and sincere. Romance can be practiced everyday. And this eye-catching wallpaper will help you to get into romantic mood

Relieve the monotony and have fun with Templates.com!

Hello, my readers!

A couple of months ago I wrote a post about one useful resource - Templates.com, that sells complete website templates, high-end vector illustrations, icon sets and high polygonal 3D models (Templates.com - new opportunities in the world of design!). But recently it has added one more product to its wide assortment - beautiful and elegant wallpapers. These wallpapers are based on the top-rated illustrations and 3D models, and they are absolutely free for Templates.com registered members. Just take a look at some of them!

Here are some funny works Oh, and this one is my favorite.

These wallpapers impress by originality and bright colors. They evoke cheerful and pleasant feelings and will definitely make everybody smile!

If you are fond of science fiction, unusual and futuristic things, these wallpapers are designed right for you.

The collection of wallpapers is regularly updated. And each week you will find three new impressive wallpapers.

As you know, I frequently surf through online forums and blogs in search of something interesting. And actually in this time it was not in vain. I’ve found a secret discount code from Template Monster. As I wrote in my previous post, the company celebrates its 6th birthday and offers everybody a 5% discount. But what I have found is a 10% discount, originally meant for SmashingMagazine audience.

I’m really glad to share it with all my readers and hope, it will be useful! So, don’t waste the time (and money, by the way) and follow the link to the secret page with a code: http://www.templatemonster.com/presentations/2008birthday_smashmag.php

Best of Luck!

Template Monster celebrates its sixth anniversary! That means that during all these long six years Template Monster has been working hard and tirelessly to make our life easier, brighter and more professionally looking.

On the occasion of this holiday the company presented a new design for their official site having made it more original, elegant and impressive. Well, just compare:

Old design:

New design:

So, can you feel the difference? Undoubtedly, it looks better!

Moreover, Template Monster gives an opportunity to all their customers to purchase the products with 5% discount that will be active for a whole month. Don’t let the chance by!

Read more about this event on TemplateMonster Blog.

Today I would like to talk about web templates customization.

If you have purchased a web template but still worry that the same web site design can be used by others, you have two ways. The first one - you may choose to pay for a “unique purchase” for a higher fee and lock the design from being sold to others. In this case you will have not quite original design because of the previous sales that will lead to potentially the same design with others. And as the alternative of this, you may customize the template and make it more suitable to the needs of your project.

Some people mislead the others saying that customization of the website templates can cost them as much as hiring a webmaster or designer. Well, everything depends on the type of work and the preferred changes.

Once I purchased a template and ordered customization at templatetuning.com. So I would be happy to share my experience with all of you.

Templatetuning.com being a partner of Template Monster sells TM’s products and provides customization services. With their help you may change graphics, image animation, feel and look of a menu, modify page content, layout and resolution. Your any wish will be fulfilled within a couple of business days.

So, if you have already selected the desired template from their vast collection, you should pay for it first. And no one cares that the color scheme or any other template elements don’t suit your project, you pay for a template as a whole. The price includes the price for the images, layout of the pages, and the source files (fla, swf, html, psd). Also keep in mind that the cost of customization services depends on a specific web template and can vary.

Before:

After:  

Then you proceed to the Chat Room, and the Sales Manager will help you create a customization description for your template. He or she will calculate the total amount you have to pay for the customization work and set time-frames for the work to be done. By the way, here is the direct link to the templatetuning.com support chat

Moreover, every customer of Templatetuning.com acquires a login and a password to his account. The account interface will enable you to see the progress of your customization work and be in touch with Templatetuning.com Support Team.

One more example.

Before:

After:  

If you are still unsure in the quality of service they provide, you may customize the template by yourself. Customizing web templates shouldn’t be too hard … But to be honest it comes down to so many different things:

How comfortable are you around HTML/CSS?
Does the template use any other languages such as PHP and will your changes effect that?
What sort of software (if any) are you going to use to make your changes?
How complex is the template in the first place?

Being a confirmed Internet user, I frequently surf through online forums asking and replying to people’s questions. Of all the questions I answer, I see one that appears over and over again, what are pros and cons of the website templates?

So, for those of you who are interested, I decided to collect different people’s opinions apropos of this and express my own of course.

First of all let me say a couple of words about website templates and what they really are. Web templates are pre-made foundation designs for fast website creation that require some customization before uploading to your hosting provider. There are a great variety of such templates:

Flash web templates combine captivating animation effects and pleasant sound accompaniment. They are characterized by dynamism and interactivity and are very popular among Internet users and webmasters.

SWISH web template based on SWISH technology is a perfect match of live action and fascinating music.

Dynamic Flash photo gallery template is designed especially for photo galleries and can be a perfect solution for painters, photographers and artists.

E-Commerce templates are designed specially for online stores.

Blog templates or themes – with the blink of an eye you can easily change the look of your blog using these ready made web pages.

Different CMS templates - Joomla templates, Mambo templates, Drupal themes, PhpBB templates, PhpNuke templates – the list of web templates types seems to go on forever…

So, if you want to create a website, you may start with a template that can greatly work for you.

But other people may argue with this statement. They mostly think that web templates are nothing more than decorations. These products of web industry even can not be compared to what professional designers offer. To their mind, using a template is a cheating, because a true designer does not use templates. The opponents of the templates say: “These services provide a useless, even harmful distraction from what businesses and organizations actually need. Web and application design is not based on the templates. Rather, design is based on specific, contextual business and brand needs, concerns, and aims. These vary with each individual client.” But as for me, I cannot see any harmful distraction. On the contrary, the templates mostly being an original creation of professional designers can be a source of inspiration for others.

If you are a non-designer or a newbie in this sphere, you may easily use web templates to give your web pages a more professional look or just to try your skills. Website templates are great time saving and budget saving means for fast website creation. Use such templates for your routine work; this will give you more time to concentrate on the clients preferences.

Web templates make your site more consistent, so you won’t worry about each subpage correspondence to the general design. Build your first website with the help of a template until you become familiar with this work.

But unfortunately, a lot of people have an unpleasant experience with the templates. They complain of the low quality templates saying that most of them are coded improperly and with bloated markup. Bit I think it’s the matter of luck. The main thing here is to know good and reliable web templates distributors and resources that provide quality products and services.

Of course, it’s up to you whether to use the web templates or create your own design completely from scratch.

If you want to share your opinion or experience, make a post in the comment section. You are always welcome.

All the thumbnails of the website templates presented here are the original products of templatemonster.com.

The designing process is very interesting and absorbent. But there is no matter how exciting it may seem, this process requires artistic talent, experience and a working knowledge of some basic layout principles.

Here are some useful tips to think about when designing your website.

1. The needs of your visitors should be the part of the design, not as an afterthought. Don’t try to create something extraordinary and intricate to surprise everybody. This will only confuse them. Just remember that users like consistency.

2. Make sure you have a really good landing page, otherwise people will leave as fast as they came in.

3. Usability is by far the most important criterion while estimating a business website. It is closely connected to the needs of your visitors as well. So, the things like where to place the line navigation, search box and etc will all affect usability.

4. One of the main rules is to keep your website design simple. The simplicity of navigation, simplicity of the text is a guarantee that user does not leave your site as soon as possible.

5. Make sure that your site has enough information to meet the standards. But at the same time, don’t overwhelm it with lots of facts, forms, tables and info blocks. Everything should be balanced and harmoniously combined.

6. If you are selling something, of course, you should write effective and informative products descriptions. Don’t try to use ornate writing style just only to draw your visitors’ attention. The more stiltedly you write, the lesser people trust. Speaking about it I always recollect the words of David Ogilvy: “What you say is more important than how you say it”.

7. Define your target audience so it wouldn’t appear that you are selling “ice cubes to Eskimos”.

8. Make sure you have a really good and informative “About” page where you may tell the visitors who you are and give them a reason to trust your advise and services.

9. Don’t overwhelm your site with the text and graphics, tables and data. Having an empty space is also very important. Whitespace should be carefully planned because it helps to create balance and unity of the whole web site.

10. When you think that your site is almost ready and the work is nearing to the end, have someone to evaluate it. For this purpose you may write a post on different web design forums asking for reviews and constructive criticism. Practice shows that no matter how much you would look, others can find more.

Template Monster is proud to present a new product - Drupal themes, designed especially for use with the Drupal CMS platform. These Drupal themes are remarkable for their high quality and professional look. The elegant and elaborate designs, great functionality and reliability will definitely meet your expectations.

Drupal is one of the most popular content management systems on the Internet nowadays. It is based on PHP/MySQL and characterized by flexibility and reliability combined with its elaborate design. Drupal is extremely scalable, making it ideal for both a simple personal website as well as a complex industrial or commercial web application.

This software doesn’t require you to be an expert in HTML, PHP and CSS. Drupal installation is simple and “transparent” unlike other open source CMS. It allows you to easily publish, manage and organize a great variety of content on a website. With its help and with a little knowledge, extremely powerful and professional content can be created. So, Drupal’s approach is much better in terms of usability: if you want to edit an item, you just go to it like your site visitors would.

Drupal has a sophisticated role based access control system, which is fundamentally important for controlling how users access your site. This CMS will suit anyone who has a need to create a content rich website, whether you are adding a personal web page, building a forum or creating a blog. Drupal will be great for quick automated community sites as well.

One of the key features of Drupal CMS is a themes support. Through the use of themes you have a possibility to create the attractive interfaces.

So, Drupal is one of the best choices to setup a new websites easily and quickly. It is a powerful, flexible, long term solution. And if you need a really captivating and original design for your project, you may take advantage of the Drupal themes offered by Template Monster. Just take a look around and enjoy the quality of products!

While searching the web I came across a really wonderful site - Templates.com. It is a brand new resource for those who are looking for different design products. Everything a designer might need is gathered right there. So you will find there complete website templates, high-end vector illustrations, icon sets and high polygonal 3D models. Personally, I was impressed by such variety of styles and originality of products that are characterized by high quality and professional design.

Here are some samples of the complete templates presented at Templates.com.

Flash website templates really met my expectations. These templates are designed with the advantages of friendly navigation, amazing Flash effects and captivating animation. They can serve as a good basis for fast creation of a high quality website. Just take a look!

Each art work at Templates.com is a complete composition. All products have unique designs and meet high standards of quality. These colorful icon sets, vector illustrations and 3D models can be used to brighten up any project: web pages, multimedia presentations, posters, greeting cards and invitations, email, t-shirts, sign-making, print-making, etc. Add zest to your project using this elegant and breathtaking art graphic!

If you need professional and unique 3D models for your project and do not want to waste your time and money searching for a qualified web master, you may take advantage of using this exciting 3D art presented at Templates.com.

On the other hand Templates.com is a unique marketplace service which is aimed towards brining mutual benefits to its users, both buyers and sellers. So, designers may contribute their artworks and benefit from selling them. To start buying or selling you need to register an account. Registration is free. Templates.com uses a common payment processing that is based on a “credits” – unified means of payment. Right now 10 credits equal $11.

Templates.com is one of the fastest growing projects in the design segment which - if combined with a products quality - makes it a subject of high interest for designers and web professionals. But it’s better to see one time than to hear hundred times. So, don’t hesitate and visit Templates.com right now!