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Introducing a fresh new look for Elixir
If you're a regular visitor to the site you've noticed by now that we've completely revamped the entire site, from head to toe. If you're new to the site — Welcome!
While many redesigns are purely about aesthetics I've done much more with this update than to just slap on a new coat of paint. Everything has been rebuilt from the ground up and I've added additional functionality for you as well as given Elixir room to grow.
I'll stop beating around the bush though and get down to what's new and what has been updated.
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Introducing our new Fudge theme for RapidWeaver
With the introduction of the new Elixir site design I wanted to also release a new RapidWeaver theme. I built this theme a while back and have just been hanging on to it for this occasion. It has been hard to hold onto this one for so long. I'm sure that by now the beta testers have even forgotten what this new theme looks like.
I hope you all enjoy the Fudge theme and put it to good use.
[Read more]Drop caps done the easy CSS3 way
Drops caps have always been fairly easy to accomplish through the use of CSS. But with CSS3 it has become even easier, and the code is even more simple than before.
But before we jump into how to do it the new, sexy, cool CSS3 way, let's look at the less graceful way...
[Read more]Creating letterpress text with just CSS
The letterpress look is in. There's no denying it. It is another of those trends that Apple made really popular, really quickly.
It can give elements of your site design a nice look, when used appropriately. It is also an effect that can overwhelm your visitors if not used sparingly enough. So please, let's not use this little beauty on every piece of text in your site design, OK?
[Read more]Creating simple stylish buttons in PhotoShop
Buttons abound on the web. They’re little elements that all sites have, in some form, and believe it or not can really help set the tone for a site. As the worldly ‘Dude’ said in The Big Lebowski: “That rug really tied the room together. ” Well, the same can be said of our little friend, the button.
I’m going to walk you through building a simple, yet flexible and editable, button in PhotoShop. You should be able to take what you learn here and expand it into your own button styles that will help your site.
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A cute pink little pixel-cube-thingy
When I was building the new Elixir site I knew I wanted to bring our sister site, the Icon Lab, to the Elixir site and make them one. But with all of the big, bold page headers I was creating I was stumped as to how to convey pixels in a large illustration.
After much head scratching and soul searching (mostly head scratching) I came up with using a lot of little cubes to represent pixels. I posted the work in progress on Dribbble and got a great response to it, as well as interesting in the little cube's composition.
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