What’s new for designers, July 2014

The July edition of what’s new for web designers includes new web apps, frameworks, grid systems, game platforms, inspirational resources, Photoshop plugins, text editors, and some really great new fonts.

Many of the resources below are free or very low cost, and are sure to be useful to a lot of designers and developers out there.

As always, if we’ve missed something you think should have been included, please let us know in the comments. And if you have an app or other resource you’d like to see included next month, tweet it to @cameron_chapman for consideration.

Inbox

Inbox is a new email app that aims to change the way we deal with email, by innovating in a space where many of the established companies have stopped. You can sign up or run it yourself.

Format

Format is a new portfolio host for creatives. There are multiple themes available, and plans start at under $6/month (and there’s a 14-day free trial).

Slight

Slight is a free anonymous chat app for iOS that lets you chat with everyone in your immediate vicinity (like a room).

Base

Base is a simple responsive framework that’s fast and lightweight. It’s built on Normalize.css and includes styles for typography, lists, tables, blockquotes, forms, and more.

Sitedrop

Sitedrop makes it easy to collaborate visually using Dropbox. Just pick which folder to turn into a Sitedrop and then you can gather feedback, receive files, and manage everything from your desktop.

Crafted by Love

Crafted by Love is a gallery of beautiful website designs, broken down by category. It includes agency sites, blogs, event sites, news sites, and much more.

CodeSnip.it

CodeSnip.it is a free code snippet tool with free, private storage. It includes a search function so you can quickly find what you need, plus syntax highlighting.

Name Mesh

Name Mesh is a domain name search tool that includes over six million words and over 20 generators. You can search for the most common TLDs or new GTLDs, find domains that mix words, create short domains, and more.

Kuoto Swiss

Kuoto Swiss is a complete CSS framework and toolbox for Stylus.

Tavern

Forrst has gotten a big update, and is now known as Tavern, currently only a private release. The site is devoted to product design, and gives designers a place to be heard, share opinions, and share your experiences.

Teleport

Teleport is a “search engine for digital nomads”, giving creatives insight into how relocating would affect their income. It will include info on both relative incomes and expenses in various cities when it’s released.

Meeet

Meeet aims to bring together designers and developers who can help each other complete side projects. You can list your own idea or find one to collaborate on.

Cardboard

Cardboard is a simple virtual reality project from Google that aims to transform your smartphone into a VR headset using a no-frills enclosure.

Web Starter Kit

Google’s Web Starter Kit is a boilerplate and toolkit for multi-device development. It helps ensure that you’re following the Web Fundamentals guidelines right out of the box.

Outdated Browser

Outdated Browser shows you what the latest version is of each of the major modern browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Opera.

Headstart

Headstart is an automated front-end setup that’s easy to use and gets you up and running in seconds. It uses a no-class grid system, supports rudimentary templating, and includes image and SVG optimization, among lots of other features.

Odyssey

Odyssey is an easy platform for journalists, designers, and other creatives to craft interactive stories. Just pick a template to start creating your story.

Frontenda

Frontenda is a drag and drop Bootstrap 3 EVObuilder that lets you create responsive templates in just 3 easy steps. It includes a drag and drop editor, HTML editor, Less, and CSS editor, among other features.

PixiClip

PixiClip is an interactive whiteboard that lets you upload images, draw sketches, and share with others. You can even include audio and video messages.

Minimalist Newsletter Subscription Form

This Minimalist Newsletter Subscription Form has an intuitive UI, and only presents the submit button once a correctly-formatted email address has been entered. It’s also available in plugin form.

Licon

Licon is a set of useful icons created with pure CSS3. There are SASS and LESS versions, too.

Simple Sharing Buttons Generator

This Simple Sharing Buttons Generator makes it easy to create HTML sharing buttons for Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and other social networks. No JavaScript required.

Niice

Niice is a tool for gathering inspiration and ideas. It provides you with your own private inspiration space, and makes it easy to create moodboards with a drag and drop interface.

Bootsketch

Bootsketch is a Bootstrap 3 theme for wireframing, providing a sketch render that removes all the “design feeling”. It includes typography, buttons, tables, labels, and more.

Type Sample

Type Sample is a tool to make identifying and sampling of webfonts easy. Just drag the bookmarklet to your bookmarks toolbar to get started.

Octicons 2.1

GitHub’s Octicons 2.1 are a set of open source icons that can be used for any project. Just download and install them as a font to use them locally, or include them in your projects.

Splashbase

Splashbase is a collection of free, public domain, high resolution photos from around the web. You can search or browse, and the home page shows you what’s new each week.

Android Material Illustrator Kit

This Android Material Illustrator Kit puts all of the interface elements in a single document rather than scattered across multiple files.

LiveShare PS

Ever wanted to have a real-time meeting right inside Photoshop? LiveShare PS is a free plugin that lets you do just that.

Focus

Focus is a free Mac app that blocks distracting websites so you can get more work done.

New Emoji List

The Unicode 7.0 update is going to include around 250 new emoji characters, chronicled in this New Emoji List. While not all have images associated yet, the list itself is complete.

Boom Boom Boom

Boom Boom Boom is a Chrome web app that interacts with audio to create visuals on your screen. You can even link it with your mobile device.

Homeless Fonts

Homeless Fonts is a series of fonts based on the handwriting of homeless people, with proceeds from their sale going to the Arrels Foundation.

Random ($5+)

Random is a typeface that consists of what appears to be a random collection of fonts, exploring the visual value of letters and extremes in dramatic forms.

Brite Script ($25)

Brite Script is a brush script typeface that isn’t overly perfected, so it retains an authentic and organic aesthetic.

Awning Display ($15)

Awning Display is an approachable, easily legible display font inspired by a bike ride through downtown LA.

Clarke ($10)

Clarke is a caps only sans-serif typeface that has rounded edges and a bit of a vintage feel.

ATC Timberline ($40+)

ATC Timberline is an ultra-wide sans serif that comes in seven weights and fourteen styles, with Latin accents and ligatures included.

AM Gaea (free)

AM Gaea is a free display typeface that is a marriage of Times and Helvetica, combining the two typefaces in each letterform.

AENEA (free)

AENEA is a free sans-serif display typeface designed by Veronica di Biasio. It includes caps, numbers, and a variety of glyphs.

Anders (free)

Anders is a free geometric typeface perfect for display use.

Peaches and Cream ($65)

Peaches and Cream is a bold brush style script font with three weights, plus an ornament and an all-caps font.

Felt Noisy ($32)

Felt Noisy has a cool organic feel, and comes with four variations for each letter and two for each number. It was drawn with a bad felt tip pen, resulting in two well-paired fonts.

Cameron Chapman

Cameron Chapman is a freelance writer and designer from New England. You can visit her site or follow her on Twitter.