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Slideshows, carousels and sites that are generally image-driven is a web design trend that has been with us for a while now and shows no signs of going out-of-date. Reading and writing seems to be a dying art in terms of imparting information, and that is mainly due to our very busy lifestyles nowadays. Road signs have been imparting information in image form for many years, and I suppose it was only a matter of time before other informational sources grasped the concept. So now when designers and developers have a new project, the question is not ‘Do you want to include images?’

Rather, ‘Where, how many and what size do you want your images, and how would you like them presented?’ And that makes slideshows and carousels very important and necessary elements in website design. Here is a collection of some of the best, free jQuery slideshows and carousels available at the time of writing.

The subtle use of textures in web design has been very well documented and showcased, so today we are bringing you a collection of web designs that use texture as a major part and effect of the design. Here the designers have used texture to style the design, creating various effects, including vintage, organic and modern/trendy. These examples show how effective it is to base web design around a texture.

It is becoming more and more important for companies to promote their products or services as much as possible. The importance of using social media is well documented, but the value of sending a beautiful, regular newsletter to subscribers is enormous. HTML newsletter templates are extremely time-saving, usually customizable to your own requirements, and a pleaure for subcribers to receive. Here we have listed some of the best free HTML email newsletter templates currently available, along with a short round-up of email marketing sites through which you can regularly email your subcribers and target prospective clients.

Retro and vintage has been a trend in web design for some time now, and shows no signs of going out of fashion. It therefore follows, that this style is also trending in logo design. There is a lot of skill involved in designing logos, the designer is expected to create a ‘feel’ in a very small piece of art and/or text, and to convey the message the company wants to put across to their existing and potential customers.

In this round-up we have selected 60 retro and vintage logos that have been beautifully designed, some of which have been designed for companies, others have been created for practise or for portfolios.

Google Chrome was fully introduced in December 2008, and as of February 2013, Chrome has a 37% worldwide usage share of web browsers, making it the most widely used web browser in the world, and with those kind of statistics, it is no wonder there are thousands of extensions available for Chrome. Here we have collected some of the most useful and essential google chrome extensions available for web designers and developers.

Organic website design is a style of design that uses natural textures such as wood and paper, as well as scenic or floral imagery. There are many, many sites that could be considered organic in their design, and in this collection we have selected 30 of the best we could find that are beautifully presented and use organic elements to their very best effect.

‘A picture is worth a thousand words’ according to Frederick R. Barnard, and it seems web designers have eventually taken this quote on board with fullscreen background images seriously trending in web design right now. This collection of more than 40 websites that use fullscreen background images comprises some static images and some sites that incorporate another current trend: a fullscreen slideshow.

There is no doubt that these sites are user-friendly in terms of visual appeal, but using this style of design gives the designer the problem of how to incorporate navigation. Why not visit the sites listed here and see how the designers have worked the navigation into the fullscreen background.

Vertical scrolling is predicted to be one of the trends of 2013, and it makes a lot of sense. Actually, many of the predictions for new trends lean towards mobile device browsing, and given the rise in the use of mobiles, it is no surprise! Vertical scrolling is the art of putting all the site’s content on one long landing page, and the user simply has to scroll down through the site. The clear advantage of this style of design is reduced time waiting for the next page to load, especially for mobile users.

In this collection of vertical scrolling sites, the only links that take you away from the page are those to blogs or other sites, otherwise the entire website content is on one page and clicking the navigation links will take you up or down the page.

Christmas, once again, is just around the corner, it is believed that 45% of the world’s population celebrates Christmas to one degree or another. Therefore, perhaps designers should be considering hanging decorations not only in their homes and offices, but also on their websites.

Here we have collected a selection of free Christmas decorations related resources including icons, PSD files, vectors and fonts specifically themed on the festive season.

Many e-commerce websites are not well designed and presented, so it is a real pleasure to find those ones that are. It is a juggling act for the designer to create a great user experience, whilst projecting the style of the company’s products at a glance. The plethora of slider and carousel plug-ins that are currently available go a long way to helping with this dilemma, but a beautifully presented e-commerce website still remains a relative rarity compared to the amount of poorly designed sites.