Recommendations (1st qt 2011)

This section of each magazine is dedicated to shining a spotlight throughout the online freelance design and development communities. Here we will be featuring some of our friends that we enjoy interacting with through the various social media outlets that we populate. We will also be highlighting some noteworthy content that we enjoyed from the community that we found to be useful. After all, that is the purpose and meaning of a community!

Designers to Follow on Twitter

@IconicImagery is an awesome tweep. Lisa is always uber supportive and super social. If you are not following her stream, then you might want to see to that.

Speaking of social superflies, another stream full of useful content and always friendly interactions is that of one @marcofolio. Make no mistake about it, Marco is tops!

@iamhenrym is another tweep that we had to feature in our first recommendation post with the relaunch. Henry is a fun and dialed in fella that you won’t regret following.

Speaking of fun folks to keep in your feed, jonbergan is a web developer and online friend from down under. @Jonbergan is another supportive tweep with bags of personality.

When it comes to personality in spades, another tuned in, and super savvy tweep that fits the bill is @sheenaoosten. Sheena is another designer who just gets it right.

Design Blogs

Attack of Design is the first blog that we are showcasing, and it is one that we are relatively new to ourselves. But in the short time that we have been following this fantastic blog we have fallen head over heels for it. Both with its wonderful content and wonderfully clean, original design.

One blog that is not so new to our radar, and that we hope will at least now be on yours, is The Web Design Blog. It covers, well, web design, but you probably guessed that from the name. With a couple of years worth of fun and informative posts, this blog is bound to keep you busy for a bit.

Speaking of loaded archives full of some truly inspiring and inspired web design related goodness, Web Design Mash is another blog that really ranks high in our feed. As a result we wanted to turn our spotlight their direction and tip our hats to this design blog that truly does stand from among the masses.

Outstanding Articles from the Community

Last month, Web Designer Depot had an awesome post that will hopefully get a lot of people in the community thinking about their professional behavior. Ethics in the Design Field, by Cameron Chapman. If you haven’t read it, know that it comes highly recommended.

Another brilliant and thoughtful piece that we wanted to call your attention to just in case it slipped by you, was published over at WebDesign Tuts+ and put together by Shaun Cronin. 6 Tips for Improving Website Accessibility explores ways to open your site up to the widest available audience.

Another article that was published recently which really struck a chord with us and we felt obligated to feature as a result, hails from our buddy Sheena Oosten and her blog. There’s Nothing Free About Freelancing looks behind the scenes at the world and working assumptions about freelancing.

Resources for Freelancers

TeuxDeux is a free online to do app for freelancers, with enhanced features for those on the go. Certainly worth checking out. Very simple and straightforward.

Readability is a brilliant bookmarklet that takes any site that you visit and can remove any visually uncomfortable elements, stripping the site down to a simple black and white presentation that focuses on, well, readability.