Posted: 20 Dec 2013 07:01 AM PST

Besides helping to reduce stress at work, having a neatly organized desk would also help you leave a professional or favorable impression on your boss or clients. However, getting a desk organized is usually easier said than done, especially if you are just not naturally inclined to pick up after yourself.

Lucky for us, there are many cool products that will not only add a touch of style to your workspace, but also make it fun for you to keep your desk clean and organized. Here are just a compilation of 20 of these crazy-cool desk organizers you would love to have on your desk.

Recommended Reading: Inspirational Workspace – 60 Awesome Setups

Modo: Modular Desktop Organizer. Modo is a highly flexible and customizable desk organizer; in fact, the number of possible setups you can get with it is virtually limitless. Perfect for the creative type.

iStick Multifunction Desktop Organizer. iStick Multifunction Desktop Organizer will help you save heaps of space – you can keep your phone, stationery, photos, etc. neatly arranged between your monitor and keyboard. It also has USB ports, phone charger, and a memory card reader.

Pratonzolo: The Green Side of Your Desk. Besides holding things like stationery and business cards, Pratonzolo also makes for a cool decorative item for your desk. Go green!

3D Printed Desk Accessories. These brightly colored desk accessories are made using 3D printing technology. They can be used to hold things like smartphones and stationery.

SOTO II Mobile Caddy. This mobile caddy helps you turn the space under your desk into a 2-layer storage for your bag, documents, etc.

W+W Pen Holder Tray. This is a simple yet elegant wooden holder that you can use to hold things like your phone, stationery, notes, and a roll of adhesive tape.

Pockit Pocket Clip. This handy pocket clip will add space to any desk or shelf, and keep all your small items together so you’ll never lose them again.

Cordies Executive. This is an ideal desk organizer for those who usually have messy cords lying all over the desk. It can also be used to hold other thin objects like smartphones, e-book readers, and notepads.

Hive Pencil Organizer. This is surely one of the best ways to keep all your colored pens/pencils organized. It is made up of 6 triangular prisms that can be rolled up to form a hexagonal honeycomb for easy storage.

H-Supplies Kit. Made of birch plywood and traditional Korean paper (Hanji), H-Supplies Kit is a collection of 6 desk organizers with multiple purposes.

Loopits: Elastic Band for Creative Wall Storage. Loopits is another handy organizer that makes use of space around a desk – in this case, it’s the wall. Perfect for holding small to medium-sized objects like scissors or water bottles.

BackPack: Hidden Organizer for iMac. Place the BackPack, either on the back or front of an iMac stand, and use it to hold things like a stationery holder, portable hard drive, an iPhone or even a Macbook Air.

Tablette Pöl. Tablette Pöl is another elegant wooden organizer for your desk that you can use to hold things like writing utensils, adhesive tape, notes, business cards, and paper clips.

Chip the Robot Desk Organizer. Meet Chip, a robot-shaped desk organizer that can help your kids keep their desk neat and tidy. Chip can hold, among other things, paper clips with its magnetic head and small pieces of paper in its front pocket.

DIY Eco Cardboard Animals. Have eco-friendly, cardboard "animals" masquerading as common items you will find in the office: pen holders, clocks, desk lamps, speakers and bookmarks.

Eco iPhone Dock and Organizer. This has got to be one of the most eco-friendly iPhone docks out there. Made of solid birch wood, it’s compatible with iPhone 4/4S and has extra space for storing stationery, business cards, and glasses.

I/O Desk Organizer. Moving right along with our eco-friendly theme, we have here a multipurpose desk organizer that is made of walnut wood and felt.

Pen Zen: Desk Organizer. Pen Zen is a stylish and attractive holder for your writing utensils. With hidden magnets within its body, it’s also capable of holding paper clips and other similarly sized magnetic objects.

Converge: Docking + Display Station. Charge all your devices together and on keep them all in one place. No more messy charging cables lying about.

Space Bar Desk Organizer. The Space Bar not only elevates your Mac, it also gives you space for storing your keyboard, mouse, wallet, car keys, and has a 6-port USB hub.

Win 10x PSD To WordPress Coding Services Worth $200 each by CodeinWP

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 05:01 AM PST

It’s the end of a great year and before we hop into 2014 for an even better year, let’s have one last giveaway for 2013. If slicing PSD files manually and turning them into a WordPress theme is back-breaking for you, then let the professionals do all the hard work, so you can focus on your design, business or product instead.

For this giveaway, we have partnered up with CodeinWP to bring you $2000 worth of conversion services for turning PSD/HTML to WordPress.

CodeinWP is a team of 10+ professionals who convert your PSD files to high-quality, W3C-valid WordPress themes that are cross-browser compatible and responsive. They have worked with more than 100 clients from around the world, on over 450 different projects.

The Prizes

We are looking for 10 winners to take home $200 vouchers each by CodeinWP. You can use it to claim services for turning your PSD or HTML code to WordPress, to customize your WordPress theme or create custom plugins.

How To Enter

To win, just follow the instructions. Using the Rafflecopter widget below.

Login via your Facebook account / Email Address.
Like Us on Facebook (if you aren’t already a fan).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Find out how else you can earn entries (and a higher chance of winning) in the widget. [More info]

Contest ends 27th December 2013. Good luck!

How To Explore Design Projects Out Of Your Comfort Zone

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 02:01 AM PST

Everyone knows that the best way to improve your skills as a designer is to venture outside your comfort zone and try things that will challenge you. But the problem is, no one ever tells you how to actually do that, and for most of us that usually is a strong enough excuse to go ahead, and not do it.

Today, we’re going to fix that problem and explore some specific techniques you can use to expand your design skill set. Not to worry, they are relatively simple and if you are not careful, you may even have a lot of fun in the process.

Recommended Reading: 5 (More) Tips To Getting More Design Projects

Schedule and Plan Ahead

It’s nice to say you’re going to start on a fun side project “one day,” but unless you take the time to plan out exactly what you’re going to do and how you’re going to do it, it doesn’t count.

A big problem many designers have (myself included, of course) is that they don’t give the same serious consideration to their personal projects as they do to their client work. This is one of the biggest mistakes you can possibly make as a designer. Why?

The sooner you adopt the mindset that exploring new creative avenues is the most important thing you can do as a designer, the faster your career will take off.

Personal Work Always Matters More

Client work has two functions:

To provide someone else with a solution to their problem (for a fee)
To show new potential clients that you’re competent enough to handle their design problems.

It’s a closed cycle, and while it does allow us to pay our bills, client work alone is not going to take us to the heights within the industry that we dream about. It will be much easier to make time for side projects and exploration if you remind yourself that that is literally your ticket to catching the attention of those elusive, high-end clients you’d really like to work for.

One Skill At A Time

It can be overwhelming at times to attempt to fill every single need that your clients have. Whether it’s a code, new logo or brand redesign, UX, or even photography or copywriting, clients seem to be looking more and more for a jack-of-all-trades when they hire a freelancer.

If you really want to have multiple specialties, there is a way to develop them without driving yourself nuts in the process. Simply take one single skill you want to learn – say CMS for web design clients – and develop a project that deals specifically with that skill.

Don’t add in anything else to your agenda – no typography or logos or content strategy. You want to focus and get really good at that one thing before moving on to something new. If you try to take on multiple skills at once, you’ll just end up confusing yourself even more, and nothing will get done.

Despite popular opinion, humans are actually terrible at multitasking. Do your brain a favor and go with baby steps.

Start With A Sketch

I’ve written about how so many designers are deathly afraid of sketching. But sketching out your ideas on paper (not in Photoshop or Illustrator) can help open up your imagination in ways you might not even expect.

There’s something very visceral about holding a pencil and sketchpad in your hands that can inspire you even before you make any marks.

If you leap into Photoshop with every new side project (which, I admit, I do a lot), give sketching a try. I find that, when I put the tablet down and pick up a real pencil, the ideas flow much more easily and quickly. Complex design problems I could have been chewing over for days suddenly disappear.

Don’t Forget About The Process

You probably have a set method for developing designs for clients, but it might not occur to you to have one for your personal work as well. The more efficiently you can approach new work, the faster your brain adapts and begins to excel at it.

For example, say you want to get better at photography. This is a completely new skill with its own set of rules and guidelines that’s completely different than, say, web design or coding. Ask your photographer friends how they start their day and see if you can incorporate any of their methods when you pick up your camera.

Don’t Get Stuck

Lastly, if you find that you’re just not seeing any improvement in your new skill area no matter how much you practice, it may be time to take some drastic measures. For a skill you absolutely must learn to increase your appeal to clients, taking a class or getting a tutor is almost always worth the investment.

Alternatively, you can make friends with a talented person in that industry and ask them to critique your work. It may be that you’re just slightly off in your process, and, once you correct your course, you’ll begin to see major results.

Hongkiat.com: 20 Crazy-Cool Desk Organizers for Your Inspiration