• Mike Radcliffe’s Inspector. A key feature, now solid as a rock,
• Jan ‘Honza’ Odvarko’s expanded and refined Net panel, with accurate timings,
• Steve Roussey’s reworking of HTML editing and entity support,
• Kevin Decker’s CSS and Style side panel improvements,
• Support for dynamic, graphical breakpoints through out Firebug.
• Tested support for the soon-to-be-released Firefox 3.6

This is a big deal. The release is out *before* Firefox 3.6. No more “oh man we have a new Firefox but it doesn’t work with Firebug argh”. Awesome.

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Online document management where you can organize and store all your organization’s documents in one secure location in the cloud. It allows you the freedom to access and work on your documents anywhere. Get to the Internet and login to all your documents. Create, edit, share and collaborate with others. Organize into folders based on clients or projects. Search the content of your Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF’s, and emails. Have the peace of mind knowing your work is backed up and secured in world-class data centers.

Ideal for large and small law firms, financial services, accountants and small businesses.

http://www.netdocuments.com

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We shared the Pomodoro Technique, the brainchild of Francesco Cirillo, with you back in October. While Cirillo has a free e-book on his techniques the basic framework is:

1. Choose a task to be accomplished
2. Set the Pomodoro to 25 minutes (the Pomodoro is the timer)
3. Work on the task until the Pomodoro rings, then put a check on your sheet of paper
4. Take a short break (5 minutes is OK)
5. Every 4 Pomodoros take a longer break

Chromodoro is a small Google Chrome extension that puts a little Pomodoro tomato in the toolbar. Clicking the icon starts the timer and when the time is up a break reminder pops up. The default settings are 25 minutes of work/5 minute breaks, but you can tweak the times in the options menu to suit your work situation and needs.

Chromodoro is free and works wherever Chrome does. Have a favorite tool, computer-based or otherwise, for working with the Pomodoro technique?

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As I’m sure you all know, the nation of Haiti was completely devastated by a powerful earthquake last week. It’s kind of put things in perspective. Here I am sitting on my nice, shinny Macbook, blogging about beautiful images, logos, websites and such. Meanwhile, thousands and thousands of people have literally lost everything. For many, the loss was fatal.

Help me do my part to help with the relief work in Haiti

It may be cliched to say, but my heart aches. But I’m doing what I can to help! You can too! If you want details on what I’m doing, and how you can help, they are at the end of this post. First, though, let me tell you what Haiti means to me.

My Connection to Haiti

Back in 2006, my wife and I traveled to the Dominican Republic on a humanitarian relief effort (seriously, the Dominican is not as prosperous as some people think). There are millions of Haitian refugees living in the DR, and given the fact that I speak French (albeit not so well anymore) and they speak French Creole, I was able to communicate and speak with many of them. I was touched, transformed and above all humbled by those conversations, and one in particular.

In a tiny little village at the end of a horrible dirt road, and surrounded completely by fields of sugar cane, I met a man, who shall remain unidentified. We’ll call him Louis. Louis was Haitian. He was also educated. We talked briefly about Plato and Aristotle and I found myself amazed that I shared more than just our common humanity with this man. We shared a heritage of thought and philosophy. It stuck me then, and strikes me even harder now, that poverty does more than just rob people of material possessions.

It also robs them of their dignity, even in the eyes of those with the most sincere desire to help.

I never expected to meet such a man. Somehow, I had been expecting the poor to be simple and uneducated. The shattering of that preconception changed my life forever. And for the better.

This is me, drawing pictures for the wonderful kids at Louis’ village

As it turned out “Louis” had been a police officer in Haiti, but had found the horrible corruption too much to take. So, he had packed up his family and walked them through the jungle and into the Dominican Republic, where he worked in a factory for a minimal wage. He had a daughter, and when I met him he his wife was expecting twins. I hope and pray that they were born healthy and strong.

So, for me, the Haitian people are more than just another Caribbean nation. They are the brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, children and cousins of a man whose hand I shook, whose stories I listened to, and whose continued well being I hope and pray for on a continuing basis.

Doing My Part

Now, with the devastation in Haiti, I am doing my part. First, I am working with my youth group to design and produce a collection of T-Shirts, which we hope to sell through a variety of mediums. All of the profits from those shirts will go directly to an organization called ERDO, which will then funnel the funds into the relief efforts in Haiti. I will post more about these shirts when details become available.

Second, I am auctioning off some design work. I am making 2 logo designs and 1 poster design available to the highest bidders! Instead of me keeping the money, though, I will be donating it. Again, it will probably be going through ERDO.

• 2 Logo Designs – $300 Value; Bidding starts at $200
• 1 Poster Design – $250 Value; Bidding starts at $100

If you are interested in purchasing these services, please place a bid, either by commenting below or by contacting me directly at matt@echoenduring.com. My goal is to raise between $700 and $1000, so if the design work goes even for its standard value, I will meet that goal. But, please feel free to bid even higher. Remember, every cent of this money will be donated to the relief effort in Haiti!

I will leave the bidding open until the February 1st. Also, all payment will be up front, since we want this money to be allocated to the relief efforts as quickly as possible!

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If my design services can be of any use to you, I certainly hope that you will consider bidding.

Exclusive Content

To thank you for subscribing to my feed, I am including exclusive, feed-only content for you at the bottom of each post!

Current Freebie Code – 0rx655ws

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Cacoo is an online drawing tool that will allow you to create diagrams based on your specific needs.  The tool is for Free all you need is to sign up and you are good to go.  The tool also fully supports  support IE 7+, Safari 4+, Firefox 3+, and Chrome 2+. Older browsers should work but we cannot guarantee operation. In addition, Flash Player 10 is required.

Cacoo supports simultaneous (real time) collaboration. Multiple users can edit a single diagram at the same time. It is as if all the users are in the same room working together.  Check out the video for more information and watch the demo to see how easy it is to use.

Main Image Source: Collaborative via eLearning on Flickr

Cacoo – Real-time Collaborative Diagramming & Design from Nulab Inc. on Vimeo.

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Twitter is a form of social networking, communication, promotion and news site all under one banner. As long as what you have to say is under 140 characters you can pretty much say what you want. There is no censorship, and increasing the number of followers only goes to expand the number of people your message is going to reach.

Making New Friends

Twitter has allowed me to connect and network with other design creatives from all over the world, people who in a normal situation I would have never crossed paths with. I always love to share new ideas with creatives, and gather advice from people who are more successful and knowledgeable in their field of expertise. As I have matured using Twitter over the past few months, I have grown to love some very special people.

Lauren Thompson: @nymphont

Lauren is someone I have found a great joy to communicate with, she is often looking for a designer’s feedback on web templates and other works. So I have the privilege of having a peak at the work she is soon to release and discuss the finer nuances of her brilliant web design work and font design.

Mia Zoe: @Vegagirl5

Mia is someone I have only truly begun to converse recently with on a daily basis, she is always offering me positive feedback and lines of communication relating towards my article writing over at Design Something. She has a brilliantly diverse portfolio and I have found it a rewarding experience when talking to her about all things design related. She has been a massive help in my ideas and thoughts of my own personal website design and future thinking, offering me useful links and information on a range of topics I would otherwise be lost in.

Christy Latz: @OuttheOtherSide

Christy is probably the first designer I have had the chance to speak with on a regular basis when first setting up my blog and design portfolio online, Twitter allowed me to reach her either privately through direct messages, or simply hitting her with a quick message. She provides me with positive thoughts and always makes me smile when I’ve had a rough day with work, I attempt to do the same when we both come to discuss our workload and experiences from each week.

Chris Trude: @trudesign

Ask and he shall deliver, I wanted someone to collaborate with on a professional level and work with me on a guest posting. Chris straightaway delivered and I get a real good vibe whenever I have the chance to speak further with him, he works hard on his personal blog ‘Ruminations of designer.’ This blog holds great articles on design and everyday life.

Amanda: @GritFX

Forever working hard with her own community and website I know that if I send a message she will endeavor to take a moment out of her time to get back to me on Twitter. She is on the other side of the world in Australia and of course in different time zones but this doesn’t stop her from taking time out to communicate with me.

Special mentions must also go towards

• Andrew Houle @myinkblog
• Karen McDade @KarenMcDade
• Roberto Blake @robertoblake
• Franz Jeitz @fudgegraphics

Keeping in touch with Old friends

Facebook is often cited as the main place with which social events are seemingly organized through Facebook events, groups and wall posts. But if I want to write a quick message to friends I would normally contact by phone and text; then I am able just to address a quick point or question towards their inbox. Posting this information on Twitter means that it can be accessed by others but it does also offer the flip-side of hearing their opinions. I have left questions for friends only for another person to have seen it and offered me help in return.

Networking

Twitter is a fast acting and non-stop feed of information, you can reach so many people with a tweet and instantly receive feedback and information on an idea or problem you have undertaken. I have often found a quick precise tweet which can be responded to within a few lines, that very often sees some great useful feedback received from people. This back and forth is a quick form of communication and can often build relationships and bring to you new followers and friends.

Promotion

Twitter has helped massively in spreading the word on all sorts of activities I undertake in my online experience, the creation of my twitter page directly stemmed from me blogging about design more seriously. I wanted an outlet where I could direct people to the articles I was creating and network with other bloggers, designers, and creatives to gauge feedback, understandings and any questions helping me to improve my way of working.

Promoting My Blog

Twitter helps me to tweet about all my articles and get other people to quickly pass or RT the articles to another set of followers, which only goes to improve the possibility of the article reaching as many page views as possible. Constant re-tweeting of a personal article is counter-productive though, and I would definitely recommend to only tweet it a few times. Although the flip side to this argument is the more you tweet about one thing the bigger expanse of people you are going to reach by them clicking the link and exploring your site.

Other things which I find are helpful in promoting through twitter are Flickr groups in showing off people’s work and this promotion can also bring to it new articles. Having your own Facebook page for your blog is invaluable by increasing the page views on your site and then can be further promoted on Twitter. I have been fortunate enough to connect with some great creative personalities through my Twitter feed, this has further lead to articles being written with some people as guest authors and performing informative interviews on the blog. It is always refreshing to work with new people, and working alongside someone on an article is something which really ignites creativity and a willingness to work as hard and productive as possible.

Promotion of my personal portfolio and the work that I have created online can further be spread to large numbers of followers that will hopefully equal to more opportunities for people to be interested in my work, and can later lead towards an increase in job opportunities. Connecting with more experienced Twitter creatives and designers is often invaluable, if they become interested in your work it can lead to more exposure of your work, articles, and thoughts; if the right people tweet your links to their large numbers of followers. Increasing the amount of people you can reach can mean increased opinions, job opportunities and constructive feedback on work.

What do I Update twitter with?

Echofon was my first twitter tool I used over an extended period of time. This is a small Firefox plug-in resides on your toolbar and updates periodically alerting you of messages, tweets and direct messages. I found the user interface easy and simple to deal with, and its settings could be easy adjusted to the amount of times that the icon popped up notifying you of new messages. It also offers you the opportunity of turning the add-on off when you don’t want to be interrupted with notifications.

I have only begun to see the massive advantages of using Tweetdeck, it’s a program which is widely spoken of in twitter circles as being a great program to keep up-to-date with all things relating to your twitter account. It works as a fully functioning program and offers a lot of customization in its layout, and the settings are so minutely adjustable you will have a program which can either bother you every minute or just once an hour on your coffee break. The program also offers the advantage of working with Facebook and other social network sites so you can monitor several social network sites at once.

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I am a huge fan & user of graffiti style, as well as the more legal version street art. Im living in a safe city (lots of cameras) but it’s still a place for people who express theirselve by painting the walls of out town. These are images taken by me and a friend around Hamburg, Altona. The place we live. Respect for all the people who’s work is showcased in here.

The reason why I write this article is, beside showing you great stuff, to improve myself. I have been doing street art for quite some time and I want to share some experience’s with you. The anonymity throught internet makes it possible to share information with others without exposing your identity.

Have you done any art like this? Tell me in the comments. I’d love to discuss this with more. If you guys are really interested in Street Art I am going to do a tutorial about this.

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Wikipedia defines the fractal art as calculations of fractal objects that are processed and the calculation results are presented as still images, animation or other media. The idea behind fractal art is that calculations and equations can produce great artwork and creative inspirations as well as the tools in the artist’s hand. Although, fractal art may not include specific artistic topic, it provides deep inspiration source to fuel your ideas with the great and may be randomly generated combination of  colors and shapes. When you focus for a while in fractal art work, you may see shapes that never been and color balance ideas based on your personal experience and what you can imagine when you look at a fractal art work. In this article, I will share with you different fractal artwork inspirations. Meanwhile, I would like to share with you fractal artwork for one of the inspired fractal artists Jock Cooper. Fractal Recursions of Jock Cooper Jock Cooper is one of the talented fractal art and fractal animation artists, during his experience with fractal design animation, he did not just produced many fractal artworks, but also he changed our view to this type of art. He is the writer for Fractal Recursions, a collection of his fractal artwork. Below, we will start our journey in the fractal art work with an amazing collection of Jock fractal artwork.

Please note that Jock Cooper artwork that are shown below are under the copy right:

Jock Cooper / CC BY-NC 3.0

Fractal Exploration 02

Flower Shower Cap

Fantasy Lover

Dragon In The Evening Desert

Cubik Olympic

Caribbean Evening

Blue November

Love is in the Air

My Rainbow Garden

The Awakening III-Rebirth

Strawberry Fields

RR2- Wonderland Forever

Mycology

Lunar Cycle

Equation Carlson 1, Angle Double Function

Apophysis-scribble Space Webs

11 Copy

Manic

Boquet of Fractal

Apoprip

Good Morning

Related topics you may like to read

• Six Artists, Six Revolutions in the Digital Surreal Art History
• Graphic Mania New Look, New Fresh Content and More
• Conceptual Surreal Art
• Patterns in Nature..Amazing Patterns inspiration
• 20 Gorgeous Black Wallpapers
• Design from the Street – Graffiti Art
• 23 Magical Photographs – No Effects!!

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It takes me around 11/2 hours to finish my ritual and for others I know takes a much longer time.  Specially if you have kids that you need to take care of and get ready for school before you can actually have the time for yourself.

Found this very funny and amusing video that I hope will cheer you up, and who knows you might even get a pointer or two from the Japanese guy who participated in this television show on how fast can you get up, eat breakfast and get ready for work in 5 minutes. Yes, you read it right 5 minutes.  Watch and see how he does it.  The language of the video is in Japanese.

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He developed his beach calligraphy technique and photographs his work to capture the quickly eroding art, which normally only survives an hour after creation. This does not seem to halt his artistic desire to create more, as he states, “I leave no footprints and the tide leaves me with a clean slate.”

His work is incredibly stunning, and his passion is obvious. He believes, “Even wordless writing must have a logic, a system of movement, a poetry.”

Andrew also has a passion for simple names as you will see in the photos. To have your name captured in the sand (currently listed on his site at $75.00), you can contact him via Behance messaging or email him: beachcalligraphy (at) gmail.com to commission his creations.

All Photos From Andrew van der Merwe

Thanks to @Longnu for finding this wonderful artist and sharing him with me.

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Abstract photoshop brushes are one of my favorite brushes which I use in my designs. Abstract brushes are very appealing and suites all kinds of design work and it is one of the best and useful resource used by designers. Using a photoshop brushes saves you a lot of time when you come want to give an effect to your design work. In this post I have collection 20 awesome and High quality abstract photoshop brushes sets. Each set contains several brushes that will be more than 270+ awesome abstract photoshop brushes!

I hope you enjoy this good list of compilation and put these brushes to good use for your next design work.

1.

Abstract brushes from Rubina – (6 brushes)

2.

Veruct Brushes by Disporatik (8 brushes)

3.

Starwalt Abstract light brushes by gigistar (6 brushes)

4.

Abstract splash brushes by Rce-Ordinary (12 brushes)

5.

Ecol Brushes by Rubina (6 brushes)

6.

Silicon Brushes by Axeraider (5 brushes)

7.

Abstract Brushes by Metal-CX (8 brushes)

8.

Fractal Chaos by Javier ZhX (10 brushes)

9.

Dawn Brushes by differentxdreamz (12 brushes)

10.

Serenity Brushes by Axeraider (15 brushes)

11.

Abstract Brush pack by Forty-winks (4 brushes)

12.

Spaxio Brushes by Flow Graphic (4 brushes)

13.

Beser Brushes by Rubina (8 brushes)

14.

Curvy Lines by Differentxdreamz (12 Brushes)

15.

Streaks of Light by Colorburned (40 brushes)

16.

Sparking Light Effects from Colorburned (24 brushes)

17.

Abstract Curves Brushes by Fresh eMedia (28 brushes)

18.

Radial Brushes by Rubina (14 brushes)

19.

Abstract Brushes by You The Designer ( 25 brushes)

20.

3D Abstract Lines by env1ro (24 brushes)

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It was a real treat to see the work of the Curb, the world’s first natural media company. For Natural Media, it means that they solely use natural earth elements, such as sand, snow, water, grass, etc, all for the sake of our media needs. And they rock doing it.

“We have created a portfolio of unique eco-advertising services and a crack green team of creative experts, to provide clients with outstanding natural marketing which impacts on their target consumer without impacting on the environment.”

Check out their site for more of their great work: Mind the Curb.

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Renan Molin is a visual and communication designer from Curitiba, Brazil. He and other three friends had started a design studio 5 years ago, but somehow they decided that the best thing would be to keep up with their freelancer’s career. By checking Renan’s work we can tell you that they had, I mean, still have, a lot of talent.

For more information visit Renan’s site at http://www.dmolin.com/ or his Behance Profile.

if you want to see more works feel free to drop me a line, and i’m available for freelance work. renan@dmolin.com.

identity done with Pedro Lopes.

Lilica Ripilica

A film for Lilica Ripilica, a children’s fashion clothing brand of brazil.

Espelhos from dmolin on Vimeo.

luxúria

meio digital

pepsi

deluxe

Illustration for Deluxe Magazine, done with Ale Tauchmann.

workchopp

Other Works

bb 200 anos from dmolin on Vimeo.

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We are very fortunate to have Pixelcrayons as an advertiser and supporter of this blog, and I was excited when Richard asked me to interview Manish Rawat about this whole process. Aside from the business aspect of this interview, I was most impressed with the amazing people that work at Pixelcrayons. They are truly one big family and as you’ll see in the pictures, they have a lot of fun at their office!

You can learn more about Pixelcrayons by clicking on the green rectangle to the right of this article, or by visiting http://xhtml.pixelcrayons.com.

Questions

Bit Rebels (Diana Adams): Thank you, Manish, for taking the time for this interview today. We are excited to feature you on Bit Rebels. I’m a newbie to this process, so if you had to describe what Pixelcrayons does in one sentence, what would that be?

Manish: Thank you for interviewing us for Bit Rebels. We are excited about this. Pixelcrayons offers high quality hand coded pixel-precise markup services and implementation into skins, themes, CMS, shopping carts and more. We accept files in all common formats (PSD/AI/PNG/PDF) and even existing markup.

Bit Rebels (Diana Adams): Can you explain in detail to me what the process is? When a designer gives you their work, what exactly do you do with it?

Manish: Sure! First one of our project managers is assigned to the project. He looks at the order and requests any additional information that might be needed. Then, a markup expert assesses the project. Now it’s time for the markup developer to get involved and he begins the actual markup process. When he is finished, the project gets passes on to our QA team who checks the work to make sure it meets all of our standards for quality, and any changes are made by the markup developer at that point. Once the QA puts their stamp of approval on the work, it is passed back to the project manager who then delivers it to the client. It’s quite a simple process really.

Bit Rebels (Diana Adams): Wow, that is incredible. It sounds like you have the whole process streamlined. So what is your favorite aspect of it all? I bet it is gratifying to see the end product.

Manish: Conceptualization and the brainstorming session is our favorite aspect of the whole Pixelcrayons process because this is the area where we put most of our effort by being creative, distinct and authentic to serve the unique and distinct needs of our clients. It is always gratifying to see your imagination taking shape in the real world and our efforts bringing accolades for us.

Bit Rebels (Diana Adams): I know you’ve been in business for five years, but paint a little picture for us. How many employees do you have? How many clients?

Manish: Yes, we have been in business since 2004. We have serviced over 1,800 clients from 38 different countries! We are proud to say that we have 120 full time staff members at the moment. Our clients love us because not only do we provide the quality they are looking for, but we also offer 100% privacy (all work is done under a non-disclosure agreement) and we offer a satisfaction guarantee or money back.

Bit Rebels (Diana Adams): Tell us a little bit about your office. Where is it located? Does everyone go to lunch together? What are the working hours?

Manish: We are located in Udhyog Nagar, New Delhi, India, our office ‘Vinove Software and Services’ is a fast growing company which behaves as a second home to all of us. This is a place where all of our employees work together with dedication. Each one of us enjoys every moment of being here and working here. The relationship between team members and their seniors is extremely friendly. The work contributed by each one of us is highly valued and appreciated by our supervisors. Yes, eating together, chatting together or getting to socialize is what we encourage for everyone. We work 24/7. The company offers an open and free work environment. We make sure that the office is like a second home to our employees, with the same warmth, comfort and care.

Bit Rebels (Diana Adams): What if someone needs help with the actual design process? Do you assist with that also or how do you handle that aspect?

Manish: Yes, if someone needs help with the design process, we assist with that also! We have over 350 web design clients from all around the world. If someone contacts us through our website at http://xhtml.pixelcrayons.com, we will provide them with the specific information they need about this.

Bit Rebels (Diana Adams): What if a client wants to see samples of your work before hiring Pixelcrayons, is that possible?

Manish: Yes, of course. Anyone can view samples of our work here: http://xhtml.pixelcrayons.com/portfolio.html If they need to see something specific that is not listed on that page, they can just request it and we will provide samples to them.

Bit Rebels (Diana Adams): What other business or company would you consider to be your role model? When you think about the future of Pixelcrayons, who do you look up to in business and why?

Manish: When a company starts relying on the possibility of coming up with a winning formula and forming its strategy reactively to keep up with the existing competition, it starts losing its uniqueness. We like to build our own individuality and work with originality. We think that taking inspiration from someone is similar to adopting their ideas. We don’t do that. We think for ourselves and we do for ourselves. We believe in becoming a role model for other companies and are pretty happy to see the achievements of Pixelcrayons up until now.

Our expert staff at Pixelcrayons will work with more zeal and passion to serve clients even more in the future. Be ready to see and hear some major milestones achieved by Pixelcrayons very soon.

Bit Rebels (Diana Adams): Where do you see Pixelcrayons in the next five years? Any juicy new things you can share with us all?

Manish: What we have achieved in the past five years, we aim to achieve more than double in the next five years. We see Pixelcrayons attaining new heights, setting new benchmarks and creating a threat for its competitors in addition to leading the industry. Vinove is a company where we give equal importance to recreational activities and do not miss out any chance to enjoy and experience that. There are events, and celebrations, all the time, and there is never a dull moment in our office.

Let us share with you one of the most interesting events of our company that we organized and participated in the month of September. Every member of Pixelcrayons took an active part in the celebration and had a blast. It was the occasion of our company’s foundation day celebration. We celebrated for five continuous days, with every new activity each day. Our company has its birthday on 10th of September and we started our celebration on the 8th, and we continued partying until the 12th of the September. Every member of our company was overjoyed and thrilled with the kind of fun and experience we had. That was, without a doubt, one of the best moments spent in our office to date.

Bit Rebels (Diana Adams): For our last question, I would like to ask you to tell us something interesting about Pixelcrayons that our readers would never know unless they read this interview. Can you share something like that with us?

Manish: The most interesting news which I am sure will interest your readers and Twitter followers would be our remarkable client retention success for this quarter. This quarter Pixelcrayons has marked 98% client retention. In this time of uncertainty, Pixelcrayons has not only gained new clients, but also managed to keep its old clients intact. All of this has become possible because of the quality of the work that we deliver, and our attention to detail when it comes to servicing our clients, which we practice every day.

Thank you to Manish Rawat and Pixelcrayons for this wonderful interview and for all their support of Bit Rebels!

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As web designers, we never know what field our next client is gonna to come from, so we always have to be prepared to work in their niche, even if it is outside our proverbial design box, and therefore outside our comfort zone. Though research comes naturally with most design work, already having a base to go from never hurts.

This base, could also mean the difference between getting the job, or getting passed over. So it beneficial to familiarize yourself with the common elements that normally make various niche sites stand out from the others in their genre. In this post, we will be looking at the elements of great band websites. So if your next client needs you to build a site for this field, here are some must-haves for your design.

Also, you will notice scattered throughout the post are a few ‘Greatest Hits’, or in other words, some of the best band sites out on the webs.

Band Photo & Member Info

The first, is the most obvious, and one of the most important elements to include. The picture of the band with band member information. Remember most of their fans not only want to know more about the music, but they also want to know more about the individuals that make up the group. So remember to make this a priority, not only because of its necessity to the site and the fans, but also because of the way it can feed the design.

With band websites you want to make sure that the design of the site matches the personality and attitude of the band without going overboard with flash. The time you invest to build the site and put everything together could all be for not if the design doesn’t embody the essence and feel of the band. Keep it simple so as to not detract from the band, make it useable so they can get all the info they need, and make it relevant to not break from the tone of the band.

Greatest Hits – Fallout Boy

Fallout Boy’s website does a great job of both showcasing the talent and allowing the band to connect with their fans. I love their Q&A section for allowing fans to ask questions, it’s a great personalization technique. Their tour info page could use some work to make it a bit clearer, but it’s not much of a deterrent. Joining and signing in may do that, but I wouldn’t recommend making fans join your site just to get your touring info.

Showcase The Music

Now given that the band’s art is their music, you want to make sure that it is highlighted on the site with an appropriately styled presentation befitting their work. So be sure to have a great looking playlist for the users. Remember not everyone visiting the site has necessarily heard the band’s music before, they could have been sent there by friends. Having a well designed playlist can draw new listeners and help to gain new fans, so pay attention to this element.

And being that past is prologue, you want to be sure that you are not only focusing on the band’s current music, but also featuring and pointing visitors to their full discography. Without listing their past body of work, you are in effect minimalizing the band’s previous efforts. And while it is not necessary to have their entire discography on the front page, you are going to want to make sure that the navigation to it is clearly marked and easy to find.

Quick tip: Don’t have the music start automatically, let the visitors decide whether they want to listen or not. Generally it is not a good idea to take over a user’s sound.

Greatest Hits – Kings of Leon

The Kings of Leon’s site is another great example of a band site done right. Their Discography allows logged in fans to rate and review the albums. This is not only a fantastic way to show confidence in the music, but also to demonstrate how much the band values their fan’s input. Their events page lets you know that there aren’t any upcoming events so you don’t have to wonder if the page is working, and removing any guesswork is a must.

Merchandise

Another main element that fans of the band are going to be looking for when coming to the band’s website is merchandise. Not every band will want sell merchandise on their site or even have any to offer, but if your clients choose to have a shop you need to make sure to use a dependable shopping cart system to set them up. Also the presentation of the merchandise is key, so pay attention to the styling you use. You want to compliment it, do not distract from it.

Once the shop is in place, you may think that your job there is done, and it very well could be, if that is how you want to play it. However this is an opportunity to go above and beyond and help steer your client in the direction of some reliable and safe outlets to provide great customer service. By helping them find a service to assist them in this arena, you are demonstrating your passion for customer service, and helping your reputation. Pointing them in the direction of services like Zendesk, and getting them a customer service base to work with helps guarantee they will not be calling you to handle these needs.

Greatest Hits – U2

If you are designing for a big name band, then you have a lot to live to up to, but in the case of U2’s site you can see another way it has been done with style. The site has a great tour page where you can actually find links to purchase tickets to upcoming shows. The depth of the Discography is also engaging, containing backgrounds on each album as well as lyrics to each song.

Calendar of Events

Another classic must have element when designing a band site, is a calendar of events. This is another area of the site that the fans are certainly going to be searching for, so you do not want to make them have to look far. You need to be sure that the fanbase knows where and when they can catch the band performing, and you as the designer need to include this section and make it really pop. You want this to be more than just a stagnant event list, you want it to draw as much attention as the rest of the site.

This can be a tricky element to effectively include, especially if the client has to be in charge of updating it regularly with information. The client may not have much experience with site maintenance, and that can often tie your hands as to how to work in an element like this. This could also offer an opportunity for you to get a recurring maintenance contract with the client to handle these updates to insure that they are done without breaking the design.

Greatest Hits – Arctic Monkeys

Arctic Monkeys are another great band with an equally awesome website. Just like U2’s site, AM’s gigs page also allows visitors and fans to purchase tickets for upcoming shows. This is one of the few band sites I came across that actually had a way to contact the band. They also have a really in depth discography allowing users to comment on their music. And most of their songs have lyrics posted on the site.

Newsletter

Beyond just a calendar to help the band’s fans keep up with what is going on with the group, the inclusion of an online newsletter than can be posted to the site is another great way to get this done. This element offers a bit more of a personal reach into the band, making more of a connection with the fans. So steering the client in this direction not only furthers the scope of the site, but the effectiveness as well.

Newsletters offer you yet another opportunity to flex your design muscles and wow your clients and site visitors alike, but again, this may not be an area that the client wants to go in. Though if you can explain the benefits effectively to them, you might soon find yourself designing the layout of a band newsletter.

Greatest Hits – Band of Horses

The Band of Horses website is an awesomely creative, extremely original and well designed site with fluid navigation that really adds to the overall feel of the band. The band incorporates a newsletter and blog into their site, along with a performance schedule to fully connect with their audience and keep them informed. Which does demonstrate a desire that your clients may share, to have all these various avenues to reach out on their site.

Contact Information

Now this next element is not necessarily specific to a band site, but the customization and styling of the contact information is still key for those looking to get into contact with the group. You also want to make sure that the information is easy to locate and access so that opportunities do not easily slip passed your cient.

Also, given that you are setting up a website for a band, the amount of contact information may be limited so the group does not get overwhelmed with fanatical followers bombarding them with fanmail spam. So it may be a better idea to set up a contact form on the site rather than simply giving out the various phone numbers or e-mail addresses. Once again, you will want to be sure that this is a form that you can customize to fit the tone and feel of the rest of the site.

Greatest Hits – Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan has been a musical icon for generations, and his transition to the digital world via his site is just as stellar as the man himself. Encompassing so much more than just what we have discussed here, Dylan’s site has some extra features that go above and beyond to highlight the fans. Like a community page that pulls in fan blogs that discuss the music and the man behind the myth.

That is a Wrap

That covers things from this end. What are your thoughts on the matter of band sites? What makes them shine? What elements would you include on your list of must-haves? And what band sites do you think are doing things right?

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New work by Glenn Stewart of Mindscape Films:

“The goal of the design was to reflect the international goals of
the water (via the small text on the front with WATER in different
languages) along with providing a design that would stand out from the
rest of the bottled water that’s currently on the market. The design of
the bottle took on and off approximately six months, going through
various different design iterations including trials on different
stocks, and was also affected by getting approval for the right launch
date.

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Typography Mania is a weekly post series that comes around every Wednesday with the best of Typography work on the web, from videos to images everything is full of great design and inspiration. Check out this weeks Mania and comeback in 7 days for more.

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Make sure to click on each image to go to original location where you can check out more work from each artist and designer.

Videos

Images

by Onesevenone

Gold

by Yaronimus Maximus

Logos Postcard

by typoretum

Letterpress Handset in Garamond

by Bundscherer

Geometric Post

by boxcarpress

Anagram Press

by Squid Ink

Queeens Typo

by Like Minded Studio

In the Year of 2009

by Phil Abel

Count Basie Letterpress Poster

by skintone

Spot the Typo

by shoter

Blast from the Past

by Nekiy

Alphabet AB

by Park Ride

Ladies Night

by jergot gotroch

WIKITYPE 9

by arnoKath

HDV Fonts

by Irmel71

T 0,2

by foddokross

Redony Reluxa

by f-auto

+

by RodrigBoy

Make Money

by enaniza

Modernidad

by foddokross

Gegranntes und Gepopptes

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That which is beautiful is increasingly difficult to come by in a world where a premium is placed on speed, and things are made to be disposable. We often sacrifice real craftsmanship at the altar of expediency. While we are still capable of recognizing the value of something that has been expertly constructed, we often choose the cheap and easy option instead.

For years, I shaved my face with a disposable razor. It did the job just fine. It was straightforward and easy. It even looked flashy. And every few weeks I’d pop off the disposable end, throw it away, and replace it with a ridiculously expensive new cartridge. I blew hundreds of dollars on razor cartridges over the years. And I never got shaves that I felt were perfect.

About two years ago, I switched over to a beautifully crafted and expertly honed straight razor. I bought a hand-made heirloom razor strop, an excellent badger-hair brush, and some high-quality shave cream. I’ve never had better shaves in my life. The process has changed from an occasional annoyance, to a pleasurable ritual. I have tools that I will have for the rest of my life. Tools that will, likely, outlive me. They work better than my old tools. And, in the long run, they’re cheaper than my old disposables.

The difference in the level of craftsmanship between my old disposable razor and my new straight razor is vast. There is a significant and noticeable difference between cheap, mass-produced products, and hand-crafted, carefully detailed ones.

The standard line in this industry is that most clients don’t really know the difference between good design and great design. While that may be true, I contend that it is always possible to detect the hand of a dedicated artisan in her creations. To that end, I want to examine what we as designers can do to bring quality craftsmanship to our work.

What is craftsmanship?

Craftsmanship is the quality that comes from creating with passion, care, and attention to detail. It is a quality that is honed, refined, and practiced over the course of a career. It is the quality that defines the difference between a Timex and a Rolex.

"Craftsmanship is what we should strive for, for the sake of both our reputations and our clients’ success."

We recognize craftsmanship in the attention to the little details. Patek Philippe SA, makers of the finest of all wristwatches, strive relentlessly for perfection in their work. From their simplest models, to their most complicated, the details are what makes the difference. Their perpetual calendar models automatically account for leap years, their star-chart models accurately reflect the sky, and even their simplest models are second-to-none in terms of elegance.

We recognize craftsmanship in an object’s functionality. Breitling’s Navitimer Chronograph wristwatches are designed with an exceptionally accurate slide-rule in the outer bezel. Well-crafted and highly effective don’t have to be expensive either. The Lamy fountain pen is inexpensive, simple, and lays down ink like a pen that cost 4 times as much.

We recognize craftsmanship in an object’s durability. My Moleskine notebook holds up perfectly, despite spending a large part of its life in my back pocket. My hand-made and carefully built razor strop will be an item I’m proud to pass along to the next generation.

What does this have to do with web design?

Our clients often want work done quickly and inexpensively. We grab our standard toolkits and templates and bags of snippets and tricks, and we put out a product that the client is reasonably happy with. So, why all this talk about watches and razors and pens and paper?

We didn’t get into this business to add to the great pool of mediocrity. There isn’t one designer out there who wants to produce work that’s just “okay”. We all want to produce web sites that impress,
and make our clients say “Wow!” We want to create the sort of quality that earns us reputations as
great designers.

Skilled professional designers and developers often find themselves in the regrettable position of
being treated like tools for the exercise of client whims. It is a rare case when we are afforded the respect and acknowledgement that we deserve for the effort and time that we have dedicated to honing our craft.

Developing craftsmanship in our work is the key to escaping those things that are less desirable about the business we’re in. It is the key to creating sites that rise above the mediocre and average, and it is key to earning the respect of clients and customers.

How do we become artisans?

Craftsmanship, obviously, isn’t something that just happens. It requires a great deal of time, patience, and effort. Becoming a real artisan requires that you commit yourself to the continuous development of your craft. Traditionally, craftsmen developed their skills through apprenticeship to those masters of the craft who came before them. While we don’t often work that way in this day and age, there are a few things that we can do to emulate that process.

The first step is to practice. Practice every day. Design something new, walk though a tutorial, work on a personal project, whatever it takes to get you working with the tools of your trade each day. The more you do something, the better (and faster) you become at doing it. Practice is, without a doubt, the most important part of developing the quality of craftsmanship in your work.

The second step is education. Web workers have the expertise of hundreds of others to draw upon, through blogs, online documents, and forums. It is critical to our craft that we take some time each week to work on building our skill sets. Use the myriad of resources available to you to further your education as a designer/developer. Read what your colleagues are writing. Participate in quality discussion. The more tools you have in your toolbox, the more likely you are to find the right one for the job.

Third, learn to accept criticism, and react appropriately. People have a hard time taking criticism of their work. When you put so much effort into a piece, it can be difficult to hear that what you’ve done isn’t good enough. However, nothing will help you improve so much as a good critic. Criticism isn’t personal. You and your critics have the same goal: a quality product. Learn to set aside your ego, and accept criticism as a means of improving the piece, rather than taking it as a personal affront. Request feedback from other designers, participate in design feedback forums, and set up usability and A/B tests. Soon, you’ll come to not just tolerate criticism, but actively appreciate how much it can help you grow and improve.

Fourth, pay attention to the details. As I mentioned earlier, this is where all of the difference is made. A true artisan is meticulous about the details. A website that looks beautiful, where the details have been attended to carefully, is a website that prompts return visits. Take the time to add polish and style to the small things that can easily go overlooked. Pay attention to hover states, borders, icon placement, grid alignment, microformats, semantic markup, and the like; these are the sorts of details that make the difference. Attentiveness to these details raises the quality of our work.

Fifth, design for the future. Items that exhibit the quality of craftsmanship are timeless. They are built well, and built to last. Our websites should be as well. I realize that there’s an extraordinary amount of mutability in the work we do. Trends and practices change rapidly, there are always new features in the software we use, people develop new tools that give us more possibilities. But, despite the ever- changing face of this industry, it is possible to do work that has longevity. Progressive enhancement to include new standards, looking forward to new specifications, careful attention to best practices, and a willingness to step outside the box and take some risks all contribute to making a website that is designed to last.

A Call to Arms

"The standard line in this industry is that most clients don’t really know the difference between good design and great design."

We have the opportunity to change our perception of what we can deliver our clients, and give them credit for recognizing the quality we can provide. We have the opportunity to foster a perception of designers and developers as artisans, for whom craftsmanship is a top priority. It will make a difference to our business, to our clients, and to their customers. Furthermore, seeing ourselves as artisans, and working to build craftsmanship in the product we create, is the key to building quality reputations and securing our community’s future.

So, let’s get to work.

Please share with us your thoughts about this article. We’d love to have an interesting discussion about this subject so feel free to contribute to the discussion. Thank you for reading the article. You can follow the Design Informer on Twitter here.

No related posts.

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Christian Nauck is an illustrator, comic designer, and game designer from Berlin, Germany. We have stumbled upon some of his works through the Daily Inspiration and were completely dazzled by the quality. Therefore nothing better than a full feature post on Christian Nauck’s work.

For more information about Christian Nauck, visit the links below. Tip: be prepared to spend some time.

• Homepage
• Blog
• Behance
• Flickr
• Deviantart

“Ghost Riders: Heaven’s on Fire” Cover

Yep, my first (and hopefully not my last) Marvel-cover.
It’s for the last/#6 issue of the Ghost Riders Miniseries, solicited for January 2010.

Rex Plode

Rex Plode from from the great comic series Invincible!

Grifter

yeah, another fan art. This time Grifter from Wildstorm! Kick Ass Character!

Spidey vs Hulk

Am I completely in marvel fanart mode?! …seems so… This time good ol neighborhood Spidey again and his good pal Hulkyschmalky!

Wolvclops

Started as a little Cyclops sketch …. First time I painted a whole scene I guess!

Deadpool vs. Cap

yep, another fanart. Ever awesome Deadpool vs. Captain America:

Darkstalkers

My contribution to Udon’s Darkstalkers tribute book

Daredevil

Dared Evil …uhm Daredevil portfolio work. I don’t dig that the style looks a bit too similar to Marko Dj.’s stuff, but anyway.

It’s a me! Mario!

I think I did the first scribble of this pic almost a year ago after I’ve had played Mario Galaxy. And finally I managed to finish it. It’s a collab with my girlfriend Steffi aka Miss Matzenbatzen! http://miss-matzenbatzen.blogspot.com/ concept and Mario by me, background by Steffi.

Crimson Viper

This time something new. Only the colors are done by me, the lineart is done by Steven Cummings for Udon. The colors are personal work, though – kind of try-out how my colors would look on a lineart like this/which style I would end with.

Randon Works

Sketches

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New work from Vitrina Advertising:

“Description: Facelifting for Monor’s dairy products.

Monor products are known for their fresh and natural quality.

Black – whole milk
Brown – skim milk
 Dark brown – chocolate milk

You can buy them in Romania since december last year.”

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This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

With so many online productivity tools at our disposal, there’s never been a better time to check up on what’s out there to help optimize your work flow. One such class of tools that can help set up a dashboard of critical “at a glance” information is the personalized start page.

There are a number of different choices in this category, but the general gist is that a start page enables you to “stick” bits of the web like news feeds, interactive widgets and other specific blocks of information into a one-stop-shop destination you can use as your first port of call when starting a work session.

Why Use a Start Page?

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Like an RSS reader, a start page can help you stay on top of a large volume of information. What sets a start page apart is the ability to integrate far more than just news feeds, including everything from e-mail, to your calendar, to the weather report, to the current time in other places around the world where you do business.

After taking some time to set up your page with relevant feeds and resources, it can be the optimal place to check first to get a sense of what’s going on in your work and your industry. By aggregating multiple widgets and bits of information into a single interface, a start page can serve as a central hub for the most important information that’s always one click away from your regular browsing habits.

Let’s take a look at how to choose and use a personalized dashboard.

How to Choose a Start Page

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Both Google and Yahoo offer personalized start pages, the former at iGoogle and the latter with My Yahoo. If you or your business already uses web products from either company, the offered integrations with your start page might make either an obvious choice (Google Apps users tend to mesh well with the iGoogle start page, for example).

Another brace of popular options are Netvibes and Pageflakes, both of which offer full-featured start page alternatives to the big companies’ offerings. All four services offer the ability to add widgets to your pages that go beyond presenting mere news feeds (Google calls them “gadgets,” while Pageflakes refers to them as “Flakes”).

The best way to choose which start page fits is to give each one a quick try. Differences in layout, user interface, and style become apparent quickly, and you have the luxury of picking which one looks and “feels” right. Although the widget offerings tend to be fairly comparable between the platforms, you might want to spend some time browsing the available widget and gadget options as well to get a sense of which selections make the most sense for you and your business.

Alltop is a nice, clean interface that provides just that, and you can set up your own customized dashboard of feeds and/or make use of the pre-collected packages which are organized by hundreds of topics, industries and niches for a quick and pre-curated view into a number of sectors.

How to Set Up and Use Your Start Page

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Once you’ve picked your poison, as it were, you’ll want to spend a bit of up-front time setting it up for optimal use. Of course, it’s always easy to change things around on the fly as well, so as new sources become critical and you discover new widgets, it’s a simple matter to incorporate them into your start page work flow.

Each start page offers the ability to create a tabbed interface. Working much like tabbed browsing, it allows you to set up and toggle between multiple pages for different purposes (Netvibes even allows you to create multiple instances, similar to having multiple Gmail accounts versus simply forwarding multiple addresses to one inbox). Depending on your needs, you’ll want to take stock of what realms you might want to have at your fingertips. If you’re a frequent traveler, you might want a Travel tab with weather conditions, time zones, flight statuses, and news in your frequently-visited spots. If you need to monitor what’s happening in several industries, you might create a tab for each of them with appropriate sources and widgets. Multiple tabs means your personal dashboard can even live right beside your work dashboard(s) as well.

Once you have an idea which buckets you’ll want to keep track of, start thinking about what are the most high priority sources and bits of information you’d like to collect for each page. Since you can arrange your pages in any manner you wish, you’ll want to set up the highest priority widgets towards the top of the page and fill in the lower parts of the page with some of the lesser priority items.

Feel free to go nuts hunting down new, interesting, and useful widgets and gadgets and giving them a try on your tabs and pages. It’s always easy to move, re-order, or even remove them if they end up being not as useful over time. Each service offers a directory of widgets, most with suggestions of the most popular or essential tools for your pages. From note-taking to e-mail, from stocks to eBay auctions, from your Netflix queue to integrated online storage, there’s a lot of functionality that can be brought into one at-your-fingertips’ interface.

One other consideration when setting up your start page is choosing a theme — much like you can customize the look and feel of your Gmail account or your WordPress blog, you can “skin” your start page with colors and graphics that appeal to you. You’ll also want to consider whether or not you might want to make use of a public component to your start page. Netvibes gives you a public section by default, and Pageflakes allows you to create “Pagecasts” that can be public to the world or shared privately with a group. Setting up a valuable public page could be a novel way to position yourself as a resource in your niche or industry.

These are just a few ideas to help you get started on the road to personalized start page mastery. With more features and widgets being developed over time, there promises to be no shortage of information and functionality to enhance your start page. Plus, since most widgets and gadgets use existing web markup and standards, you could even build your own widgets if you need customized, business-specific information on your dashboard. Enjoy your one stop information shop!

More small business resources from Mashable:

- HOW TO: Implement a Social Media Business Strategy
– 9 Great Document Collaboration Tools for Teams
– 5 New Year’s Resolutions for SMBs
– HOW TO: Choose a News Reader for Keeping Tabs on Your Industry
– Top Mobile Productivity Tools for the Small Business
– 5 Advanced Social Media Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses
– 4 Ways Social Media is Changing Business

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, smartstock

Tags: business, how to, how tos, iGoogle, List, Lists, My Yahoo, Netvibes, organization, Pageflakes, productivity, small business

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Paul Gardner is the guy behind Florafauna which is a Minneapolis based half design office, half screen printing operation. Their work varies from different applications while always staying true to the original pursuit of creating hand made silk screened posters.

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To check out more work and to buy posters visit http://www.florafaunaworld.com

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Thanks to Archnemesis_Goldenhair for the great picture.

The open thread is, and shall always be, your weekly opportunity to talk it out with your fellow Lifehacker readers. Ask questions, offer advice, share the progress of your resolutions, or go entirely off topic with whatever you like. You can continue the conversation at any time of the week at the #openthread hashtag page, but this is the day you’re sure to get the most replies. All you’ll need to participate is a commenter account. Happy Friday!

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My first child, Jonah, was born two weeks before a book launch, and he changed all my workaholic priorities. I still log 40 hours a week, but I’m there for a third of my son’s waking hours by adapting these strategies.

Photo by jonathanjonl.

To say those early weeks were chaotic would be an understatement. I’d do phone interviews while nursing, type blog posts in the pediatrician’s waiting room, and answer readers’ comments with a stack of laundry on my lap. I was accustomed to working as many hours as I wanted to, but I realized that if I wanted to sustain my career’s momentum and still be an attentive mother, I needed some new ideas. Here are six of them that have worked for me:

Choose webinars over in-person training and meetings

Webinars allow for presentation-style communication from an individual speaker to an audience, with polling, Q&A sessions, and everything else you’d normally do in-person. The major benefit, though, is avoiding the two days spent trekking through airports on both ends of a conference. That’s a major win if you’re a working parent. Services like Cisco’s WebEx don’t require any special software or hardware, either. All you have to do is launch your Web browser from your home office and you can attend or deliver real-time training, seminars and presentations.

Rearrange your schedule to start late and stay late

You’d be surprised, but most managers don’t necessarily care when you do your work from day to day, as long as it gets done. You might ask for an arrangement in which you start later, so that you can see your kids off to daycare or school, and return to work from your home office after they’ve gone to bed. Since my son was born, I’ve gotten my best work done after 8pm, after he’s down for the night.

Combine business travel with vacation

Most working parents view business travel as yet another duty that shaves away family time. At the same time, work itself keeps us from taking the time to jet off with the kids for some getaway fun. The next time you have to fly or drive somewhere far for your job, stop and think. Even if it’s not the perfect getaway spot, is there enough to do that your spouse and kids could join you there for a long weekend? When it comes to taking time off, the perfect capital-V Vacation can easily become the enemy of the really good mini-escape.

Ask for household help instead of gifts

My relatives are always asking us what they can get us for birthdays and holidays, and I’m usually at a loss. After all, my son can only play with so many toys, and anything he really needs, we’ve probably already purchased. So they end up sending checks, which just drop unceremoniously into the bank account. The next time someone asks you about a gift, suggest a housekeeping gift certificate. Instead of spending hours at home cleaning and organizing, you can devote them to quality time with your family.

Empower other employees with valuable responsibilities

It’s difficult to transition from being a team of one to a team of several, especially if you’re a new manager. But even though you might think you can do a task better yourself, if you don’t want your family time to suffer, you must get into the habit of delegating assignments. To baby-step into doing this effectively, cherry-pick one of your tasks to delegate, based on your employee’s knowledge, skills, and willingness. Clearly state the expectations and requirements of the project, explain why the task is important, and emphasize what your your employee will get out of it. Follow up regularly to monitor progress, even if it means checking in by phone while at the park or the museum. It’s a lot less stressful than putting off plans to do it yourself, and you’ll eventually get into the habit of doing it, and doing it well.

Involve your children in your work

Despite your best efforts, you may find that your work time—along with the assorted “take just a minute” interruptions—cuts into your family time more than you would like, so you may need to get creative to ensure your children don’t feel neglected. One manufacturing employee I know brings her kids to the office and lets them create artwork for the break room. A business owner I met last year has his kids and their friends participate in focus groups and brainstorming sessions for new products. The more you involve them directly, the less they will feel like your work is taking you away from them. Photo by Amit Chattopadhyay.

Alexandra Levit is a columnist for the Wall Street Journal and the author of the new book “New Job, New You: A Guide to Reinventing Yourself in a Bright New Career.” If you’re struggling with what to do with your career in the New Year, check out NewJobNewYou.com for free guidance and resources.

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This week’s designer showcase comes from the wonderful work of Bogielicious. His drawings are so intricate and a pleasure on the eye I just had to show you all what I was lucky to stumble across a while ago. Let me know what you think of his work. Are there any designers you think should be showcased or would you like your work showcased?

BGLCS

Boquwnyez Candy

Experimental Typo

Have A Nice Day

Help Me

Indonesia

Kacao In My Mind

Lost In The Jungle

Lupa Lope Lope

No Hope No Problem

Pagan Golum Panopticon

Save The Elephant

Snow Hunger

Suicide Bomb

Ticem SkizophrenixxX

Vocarious Vomit

If you like this post you may also want to look at:

Designer Showcase – Rockfield

Designer Showcase – Mike Campau

Why not follow me on twitter: @atikusdesign
or to ensure you are updated with every D-Lists posts follow: @d_lists

Did you enjoy this post? If so please share and allow others to enjoy it:

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James White is a graphic designer from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. His personal art and design ambitions has landed him in many worldwide creative publications such as Computer Arts magazine, Computer Arts Projects, Advanced Photoshop magazine, Wired UK and the spanish DT Platinum magazine where he was included in their ‘21 People of the Century’ article. Additionally, James was also named as the Best Visual Artist in The Coast’s ‘Best of Halifax 2009’ readers poll.

James White also maintains a popular design and inspiration blog called Signalnoise.

James White and the Design Process

James, first of all just wanted to thank you for doing this interview. I absolutely love your designs. Let’s get started. Can you give us a little background of your training in design? How did you get started with it all?

Thanks very much for the opportunity to speak to your readers! My creative side started very early on, as soon as I could hold a pencil at the age of 4. I didn’t stop drawing all through school and upon graduation of grade 12, I enrolled in graphic design at a local community college in my hometown, this was 1995. I learned all the basics there, including using Photoshop and Illustrator for the first time. After that I took 2 years of interactive technology in 1997 where I learned how to make websites, CD-Roms and other technology . . . new at the time. Upon graduation in 1998, I was swept up into the web boom and have been working in the industry ever since.

Now, on to the design process. Do you think that sketching on paper first is necessary, or do you just jump straight into Photoshop or Illustrator?

"Sketching is where everything needs to start."

I have a couple of sketch books on the go all the time, whether it’s planning a current project or jotting down ideas on the fly. To plan out a specific poster design, I might sketch 40 thumbnails before landing on something I’m confident with before moving to the computer.

The power of sketching is:

1. Getting ideas out quickly.
2. Pre-planning how the composition will be built.

There are times when I jump to the computer too quickly and get mired in Photoshop trickery where I should be concentrating on the concept itself. So I’ve found the best thing to do is go to my local watering hole with a sketchbook and draw for an hour or two away from the computer. I’m normally armed with a few choice books of inspiration to keep different ideas flowing.

Colors

You have pretty much mastered the use of color in your designs. The colors in your design are bright, bold, and vibrant. How important is choosing the right colors in design? With pretty much an unlimited choice, how do you determine what colors will work on your designs?

That’s a very difficult aspect of my work to nail, and it’s an element that shifts and changes as I build each piece. Under normal circumstances, I have a very general idea of the palette I would like to use, but that inevitably changes as I start experimenting with my overlays. Typically, my colors start with simple gradient overlays which I duplicate over and over and adjust opacities and blending modes. Each time I alter a given color layer it throws the entire palette into a new direction, which 9 times out of 10 looks terrible.

I’ve worked on a few pieces where the colors turned out completely different then I intended, but this is a result of my organic process of trial and error. It’s all about watching what happens with color and making sure it benefits the design while not overblowing or taking over.

Your work definitely stands out from the crowd with the use of prismic colors. What inspired you to start using these colors?

I’m very inspired by things from my childhood, the greatest of which is old television logo animations aired during the late 70s and early 80s. The motion graphics people back then couldn’t rely on fancy computers to create their effects, so they had to create most everything by hand in order to make their logo stand out from the crowd. In terms of color choice, my biggest influence is the NBC peacock. NBC always had the brightest colors onscreen with a logo that included the full spectrum, certainly a huge influence on me and my work.

Retro-Futurism

Most of the great designers that I know have a certain style that they are known for. Most people would classify your work as retro-futurism. Would you agree with that? What is retro-futurism anyway?

The majority of my influences stem from the past’s interpretation of the future. When you look back at design (whether it’s motion or static) where a specific time period is trying to visualize the future, it is always bright and optimistic full of fancy colors, bright lights and ’state of the art’ imagery. As time passes, those futuristic representations become part of the era when they were created, which is kind of opposite of what the image was intended to be.

My work is created in the ‘now’, but is made in a way to mimic the past’s interpretation of what the future might be like. I’m very fascinated with that idea, and ‘retro-futurism’ seems to be a pretty suitable name. I started calling my work ‘retro-cosmic’ a while back as a fun nickname because I use so many themes from outer space and science fiction.

What advice can you give us that can help us create some awesome, retro-futuristic art?

Research! If you have an interest in that kind of style, don’t look at my stuff. Check out the real deal like old magazine ads from the 70s, Atari video game covers, television network id animations, Swiss poster design, special effects in sci-fi movies, the list goes on. Photoshop is wonderful for creating effects and fancy colors, but you have to keep in mind that people back in the 1970s didn’t have Photoshop, they created everything by hand which brings with it a certain human appeal. It’s not perfect, they have imperfections whether caused by the human hand or aging. And when coming up with a concept, try to get into the time period you are inspired by.

• What was popular back then?
• What were people talking about?
• What were the kids into?
• What was happening in the world?

Lines and Shapes

You have some amazing shapes in your designs. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

I started experimenting with my vector ’shard’ shapes while I was building a randomization generator in Flash a few years ago. Much like the work of Joshua Davis, I wanted to have a little program on hand which would take vector elements I create and lay them out randomly on the fly. I’m normally very meticulous about the elements I use, so this relinquished a bit of the control I had and allowed the shapes to fall randomly. I would then port these groups of shapes into Illustrator where I cleaned them up and manipulated them. After much experimenting, I discovered that overlaying these groups onto one another in Photoshop yielded some cool results, a strange intricate mess of shards and lines. I then added colors and effects to these shapes. It was all one big experiment.

Typography

I had to ask a few questions about typography since i’m a big-time fan of nice typography. What are your favorite fonts?

During my education, typography was one of the areas we didn’t get very deep into which was a bit of a disappointment. So, I had to take it upon myself to learn what typefaces were usable, and in what area. A lot of what I know comes from looking at design icons from the past, specifically Swiss, to see what they used and why. Josef Müller-Brockmann is a huge influence, as well as his usage of Akzidenz Grotesk. After looking through many magazine ads from the 1970s I discovered Bookman Swash, a lovely display face with nice swoops yet still highly readable. I’ve used Bookman many times in my work. Egyptienne is the face I use on Signalnoise.com for the titles and things, which I came across back in 2000. I’ve been using Trade Gothic quite a bit these days, a direct result of Scott Hansen over at ISO50. I think I learn more about type from Scott’s blog then anywhere else.

How can we achieve the shiny-type effect?

That’s all vector, man. I started dissecting the type effects found on Metallica’s ‘Ride the Lightning’ cover, as well as ‘Painkiller’ by Judas Priest to see how they created that cool chrome effect. It was a lot of experimenting in Illustrator but it all came down to Offset Path, adding Clipping Masks and applying selective gradients. I’d like to say there is one way of achieving the effect every time, but every set of letters is different and the method varies from word to word. After the vectors are done, drop on some big lens flares and start your guitar solo.

Improving and Inspiration

I saw your website’s design graveyard. Man, your designs have come a long way since your original sites. What are some things that you did to improve your skills?

"I never stopped working, it’s that simple."

Even now when I look back at my earlier designs I can see what I was trying to accomplish, what I was inspired by, and what tools I was learning at the time. I cringe a lot when looking at my work from 10 years ago, but it’s all just a path that leads to something else. If I didn’t make that crumby looking angel thing, I wouldn’t have understood how layer masks work. All of those designs from the Graveyard are things I did on my own time, outside of my day job. I felt compelled to make something that was my own, away from clients and employers, which is why I kept trying as hard as I could to create things . . . anything really. Website designs, comic books, character designs, flyers. I just kept learning because I loved it.

Can you give us your main sources of inspiration?

I have a lot of art and design books onhand all the time to keep the inspiration flowing. I not only have books about Swiss poster design and Bauhaus, but also more traditional works by Roger Dean, Drew Struzan, Picasso, Norman Rockwell, Moebius, etc. I love looking at traditional works with design sensibility, and these guys used their hands to create, not a computer.

That said, I gain lots of inspiration from modern artists and designers such as Scott Hansen, Joshua Davis, Chuck Anderson, Aaron Draplin, Robert Hodgin and Mike Orduna.

Outside of specific artists, I get a full meal of inspiration everyday from websites such as Ffffound.com, Abduzeedo.com, Drawn.ca, The Canadian Design Resource and Surfstation.com.

Looking at so many different designs and websites every day, how do you keep yourself from becoming a copy-cat?

"I proudly wear my inspirations on my sleeve."

If I create a poster inspired by the work of others I’ll talk about it on my website and provide links or images to tell the story. When it comes to any given poster, the idea is the at the epicenter. When I’m coming up with the overall idea or message I want to put into my work, I stay away from inspiration so I can get an original concept free from influence. This way it’s more personal. Style is one thing, but ideas are what sets us all apart as artists.

In closing, any last words of advice for those designers who are aspiring to be a the level where you are at?

Never stop! If you love what you do, never stop creating things as you will only get better. Make things for yourself, think about what makes you happy and why you enjoy them and use that creatively. Don’t bide your time waiting for a client to come along in order to create something, just do it yourself and things will happen. In short, never stop creating. Work hard!

The Work of James White

James White is an amazing designer. Not only is his work quality, but he also has a large quantity of finshed work. Here are just a few of the many wonderful designs that James has done over the years. By the way, every single design that James creates is definitely breathtaking and you can definitely tells that he gives it his best. You can also see more of his work on his Flickr.

Conclusion

Again, I just want to say thanks to James for doing this interview. I really appreciate the fact that he took time from his busy schedule to give detailed, well thought out answers to the interview questions. Personally, I have learned so much from the interview and it has also inspired me to create and design better things.

The next topic will be another interesting and helpful one. I don’t want to give out too much details just yet, so please stay tuned. You can follow me on Twitter and subscribe to the RSS feed here.

Related posts:

1. Ask the Expert – Starting a Design Blog with Grant Friedman of Colorburned
2. Understanding the Value of Constructive Discussion in the Design Community
3. Ask the Expert – Designing a Logo with David Airey

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The first thing that caught my eye was the huge bold heading “Creative Engaging Branding”, this instantly tells the reader exactly what the company specialize in.

To the right of this great looking title is a slideshow of recent work from the agency, giving anyone interested an idea of the style of work they produce and the sort of clients they have worked with. I particularly like the way the work slides in using an array of different techniques, making it interesting throughout. It would have been very easy to put the same transition on every slide but I’m glad they put a little extra effort in to make them all different.

I know the Charles Elena Design site uses a very commonly seen colour scheme of Red, White, Grey and Black but they have used it to great effect throughout the site to give the whole thing a very striking impact.

Every section in the site has a different background colour making each unique, with the supporting colours used expertly to give hierarchy to the page. The pages with the red background are my personal favourite.

I really love the use of huge graphics throughout the site, these are very much in-line with the big bold headings on every page. There are more and more sites online these days incorporating massive font and graphics and Charles Elena Design is a great example of why. As you travel down the page you are treated to some lovely shapes that really show off the agencies skills.

One point I would make though is that the speed at which the page scrolls down means that these graphics are shown too briefly in my opinion. While you can scroll to the graphics and take them in properly it wouldn’t hurt to slow down the scroll speed.

While I’m suggesting improvements that could possibly be made I’d like to highlight the very small copy font that is used on occasion. In the example above the copy font size is 10.67px which is very small for such a long paragraph of text. I would love to see this bumped up a pixel or two because it’s currently very hard to read.

One final improvement I would love to see would concern the presentation of their portfolio. They have used a scrolling carousel to display their work, which in my opinion, is difficult to use as it makes focusing on specific work very fiddly. An option to scroll through the work one by one would be my preference.

Also, their is currently no way to enlarge the work on offer. I’d love to have the chance to open their work up in a lightbox and see it in all it’s glory.

I don’t want to seem too negative here though because overall I really love this site and think it’s a great piece of work. With that in mind, I want to now go onto my favourite design feature on the site, the fixed logo and navigation. As you take a journey down the page the logo and navigation come with you staying in a fixed position on your screen.

This may not seem special but the designers of the site have thought about this journey and incorporated the logo into the background graphics. In the example above the logo merges with the curved graphic to make it look as if the curve is bleeding out. There are numerous examples of this as you go down the page and it is small touches like this that, in my opinion, makes sites stand out from the crowd.

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From the inside out, Symphony is rooted in the very same principles that you adhere to in your own work. Openness. Standards compliance. Flexibility. Symphony doesn’t just help you get the job done, it helps you get the job done right.

• Open Architecture
• Flexible Templating
• Elegant Interface
• Vibrant Support System

http://symphony-cms.com/

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I’ve always liked the word “build”. To me, it has obvious connotations of creativity, but also of hard work – and there’s something ultimately rewarding in creating something that took a lot of work. I also enjoyed the scene in Napoleon Dynamite where they used the phrase “build a cake”. Thus, this week’s Free Friday Wallpaper is all about inspiring you to get out there and build something – whether it be a killer website, a sweet patio, an igloo (if you’re from where I’m from) – whatever you like. Enjoy, share and subscribe to the RSS feed!

Click to download the BUILD wallpaper in 1920X1200, 1680X1050, 1440X900 and 1280X800.

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Twenty Ten

In other news, partner of this site Authentic Jobs is running a sweet campaign. Regular readers will know that there is this yearly promotion. This year however we are going to do something a little different.

We’re calling it the Twenty Ten promotion. It works like this: Post a listing between now and January 22 and you’ll receive 20% off your listing. More importantly, 10% of your purchase will be donated to Charity:Water to help bring clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations.

Promo code

Use promo code VEERLE10.

You may also join in and donate to our campaign independent of posting a listing. We’re hoping to raise $5,000, which is enough to fund the development of a freshwater well in one village.

Here’s to a fantastic (and cleaner) 2010. Oh right, one more thing!

Veerle’s blog 3.0 sneak peek

Here is a little sneak peek of my new blog

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This showcase will consist from 50 3D Flash websites, which really stood out from crowd, have received unique attention and got awards! Don’t think this is just another list – you’ll find here endless inspiration in these websites, where each one of them is a huge masterpiece!

1. Element

Hard to describe how cool this website is! Very stylish intro and superb 3D animations combined with great looking website.

2. Ge

Cool website with beautiful 3D objects and animations. Every page has its own good looking 3D objects.

3. Gears Of War – Emergence Day

Brilliant peace of art! Massive 3D scene with animations. Beautifully made 3D fade-in, fade-out transitions for every page.

4. Audi A6

Simple but very good looking website with 3D menu and 3D transitions.

5. Summer Festival

Good looking website with fantastic 3D balloons and stunning animations. And also it has a great feature – if you just wait for some time and do nothing, then after some period of time a jet-man will run out of fuel and will fall from the sky with interesting animation. This website was awarded as “site of the day” on FWA.

6. Coca Cola

What’s that? Hey, it’s Coca Cola! Very creative website which consists of many different sub-websites where every website is different from each other with its own style, design and animation.

7. Optus Whale Song

Beautifully made website. Great underwater 3D scene. This website was awarded as “site of the day” on FWA.

8. Martini Asti

Very classy website with 3D graphics and animations. Also it has cool 3D transitions.

9. White Void

Very beautifully made 3D menu. This 3D portfolio is very good representation of the style called “minimalism”.

10. The Eco Zoo

Well made 3D website. This website consists not only of some 3D elements but whole website is like a 3D world and almost every animation is in 3D. Good work.

11. Premiyum

Beautiful 3D website with great 3D effects. Fantastic. This website was awarded as “site of the day” on FWA.

12. Get the Glass

Interesting Flash website with brilliant Flash intro which has tons of 3D elements.

13. Sensi Soft

Beautiful work with beautiful 3D scene and animations. Consists of many different 3D scenes where each scene is like a different period of time.

14. Plantate

Beautiful and cartoon style website. A 3D planet in the middle of website which you can rotate using your mouse.

15. Soft Whiteroom

Beautiful website. Everything is in 3D and very nicely responds to mouse movements.

16. Ha-py Island

Very cheerful website. Whole website is in 3D where you can walk around with bear. It feels like you are playing some 3D game. This website was awarded as “site of the day” on FWA.

17. Hatica

Beautiful and simple website with 3D object in the middle of website.

18. The Egg Republic

Beautifully made website. It has great 3D animations and transitions from one page to another. It’s also great that every page responds to movements of your mouse. This website was awarded as “site of the day” on FWA.

19. Foxtel I am uniQue

Social networking website where you can create your own unique 3D portrait. Fantastic idea with great work of 3D.

20. Cortex Design

Good looking 3D photo gallery with beautiful reflections. Just clean and simple.

21. The Morph

This website is brilliant! Turn on your webcam and see how all 3D objects follow your motions. Or if you don’t have a webcam then this website also responds to movements of your mouse.

22. Twist and Drink

Cartoon style 3D website with mini games and that kind of stuff for children. Very well made, amazing!

23. Chuyue

Great piece of work! Beautifully made 3D menu and animations. You can even choose 4 types of 3D menu layout.

24. Mr A

Very cool website with awesome 3D work. Great 3D reflections and effects and there is also a mini game in the background of this website.

25. Dasai

A simple website with 3D navigation menu as a planet. Good use of Papervision3D.

26. Orange

Great piece of work. Everything is in 3D. You walk from one page (room) to another. Well made 3D animations.

27. TBC

Very simple website with pretty cool 3D menu as a library. And also it has a cool animation when you choose something in this 3D menu.

28. New Work City

Pretty interesting corporate website with some 3D animations. It also has a stunning design. Great work.

29. Off The Street Club

Interesting website with many 3D objects which can be rotated.

30. Eight Interactive Studio

Just clean and simple website with 3D animations, beautiful!

31. Ecsw

Great 3D website with cool Flash intro, and one of the coolest 3D features this website has, is that you can walk around the building by yourself.

32. Zeebee visual communications

A small website with 3D effects which looks brilliant. This website was awarded as “site of the day” on FWA.

33. Thinking Space

Flash website which has a menu with very interesting 3D effect. Good looking 3D transitions.

34. Domenico Tedone design

Clean and simple 3D website. Very well made. This website was awarded as “site of the day” on FWA.

35. Silenzio

This is like a 3D movie library with beautiful 3D transitions. Every animation is very smooth. Good work.

36. Philter Design

Simple and clean 3D website.

37. Rule the Stars

Interesting way of how to draw something – draw it in the sky with stars! Great 3D work. Can also be like a nice little present for your girlfriend/boyfriend (your drawing of course) – she/he will like it, I promise. This website was awarded as “site of the day” on FWA.

38. LBi Atlanta

Good looking website with very cool 3D navigation menu. Just hit “Browse” on the right side of the website to see 3D navigation menu.

39. 3spin

Very good looking website with awesome 3D navigation menu where you fly from one page to another.

40. Comcast Town

Very big and cheerful flash website with many interesting 3D elements.

41. Fendi

Website with 3D photo gallery. Looks very good.

42. Roca Meridian

Cleand and simple website in 3D cube.

43. Air Canada Leaveless

Beautiful corporate style website with some 3D elements. Very smooth 3D animations, for example, smooth animation when the card flips over.

44. Grillhelden

Website with 3D background which responds to mouse movements. Good looking website with greeat use of Papervision3D.

45. 13flo

Good looking website with 3D menu. You can choose 4 different layouts of this menu.

46. Inavi 3D

Great piece of work. Almost whole scene is in 3D with awesome 3D transitions.

47. Njoore

Completely 3D website with very cool and entertaining loading as a mini game. I really enjoyed this little cheerful mini game. This website was awarded as “site of the day” on FWA.

48. Cristof Echard

Portfolio website with beautiful 3D transition effects.

49. X-Prime

Very cool Flash website with 3D elements. It has an interesting 3D menu.

50. 3 Words Game

Very cool 3D navigation menu. You can choose even a layout of this menu.

Related posts:

1. 50 Gorgeous Flash Websites You Definitely Should See
2. Beverage companies: Excellent artworks and Flash designs
3. 30 Sources To Get Your Web Design Inspiration
4. 35 Websites To Teach You How To Use CSS Effectively
5. Showcase Of 50 Best Inspiring Gaming Websites

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It’s always nice to go to a bookstore, grab a book of logo designs, sit down, inhale that new-book smell and absorb the goodness. But knowing where all of these designs, fonts and creative elements have come from is also good. In this article, we look at modern art movements and a series of diverse logos inspired by those movements. You may be surprised by how easily these colors, shapes and strokes can be adapted to logo design. Have a look, see how logo design works and maybe even draw inspiration for your own creativity.

Bauhaus

J. Schmidt, Bauhaus

In 1919, the Bauhaus school was founded in Weimar Germany. More of a lifestyle than a school, Bauhaus was based on the static rules of Art Deco. One basic idea of the Bauhaus was to remove everything superfluous and break a design down to its essential elements. This static minimalism changed everything and can still be found in design today, such as in the logos of Faboo Taboo and Axion.

Kandinsky, On White II.
Paul Klee, Castle and Sun.

From an artistic standpoint, Bauhaus shares elements with Russia’s constructiveness movement in its simplicity and boldness. According to the aesthetic, designs should be simple, daring, bold and uncomplicated. These designs stick out in your mind because of their lack of ornamentation and beautiful, brutal simplicity. Red and black are favored colors; some goofing around in Illustrator should yield the right washed-out shades. For inspiration, look at Wes Anderson’s films, especially The Royal Tenenbaums, which make extensive use of Bauhaus’ Futura font and have a modernist aesthetic.

Art Deco

A.M. Cassandre, Pivolo

Art Deco began parallel to Bauhaus in the 1920s but originated in Paris. Both schools share an elegance of form, sparsity of material and strength of color. Art Deco is distinguished for its stylized representation of shapes. Art Deco artists seemed to use the geometric rules of architecture. One of those artists was A. M. Cassandre, who became popular for his logo design for Yves Saint Laurent. His poster design Pivolo is highly representative of Art Deco. The aesthetic has been adopted by Miau and Machine for their corporate identities.

Tamara de Lempicka, The Musician.
Michael Kungl, Americana Deco Coffee.

Principal elements here are a celebration of geometry and a near-fetishization of the machine. Pay particular attention to big sweeping curves, which have a luxurious quality to them. Art Deco reached its nadir in the 1920s and shares that era’s opulence and wastefulness. Designs share the Bauhaus school’s fascination with form but celebrates form as a means to a “new” aesthetic, rather than trying to reconcile it with function. Art Deco’s most lasting influences can be found in grandiose architecture and industrial design, so look to New York City’s Rockefeller Center, Chicago’s Mather Tower and the paintings of Tamara de Lempicka.

Blaxploitation

Superfly poster

Blaxploitation was an American movie genre that had its heydey in the 1970s, with movies like Coffy, Foxy Brown and Shaft. Accompanied by funky music by such artists as Isaac Hayes and Curtis Mayfield, the movies brought a new lifestyle to the black community, one that encouraged black empowerment and love, backed by soulful, funky beats. This culture can be found not just in movies but in music and fashion and even diverse logo designs, such as this one by Form.

The Sugar Hill and Cotton Comes to Harlem posters.

The blaxploitation aesthetic seen here was typical of 1970s poster design. It featured large sweeping letters that favored aesthetic and form over readability: a stark contrast to European designs of the same era, which favored minimalism and functionality. In your own designs, use bright lively colors for the base, and add a washed-out effect to deafen the colors and give it that vintage look.

Dadaism

Theo van Doesburg, Kleine Dada Soirée

Dadaism, also known as Dada, was founded in 1916 by diverse artists in Switzerland and Germany. The idea was to explicitly reject “conventional” art and genres. To put it bluntly: destroy and rebuild! This provocative aesthetic was a revolt against art by the artists themselves. This irony still exerts a big influence on design and art. These two logos evoke Dadaism in all respects by destroying something and rebuilding it completely new.

Hannah Höch, Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany.
Marcel Duchamp, Fountain.

What is Dada? Dada is adad? Dada? Adadadaa? What is Dada? Dada is nonsense, an unstable, poorly defined morass of liberalism and irrationality. Dada is deconstruction run wild, and Dadaists do not worry about what is or is not Dada. Dadaists originally theorized that such a world that could descend into the mindless violence of World War I ought to have an art that reflected this state of irrationality. Is art not an imitation of life? What is life but death? Dada questioned all established convention and the very origins of design. Why is an eye an eye? What makes an eye? At what point do we stop recognizing an eye as an eye? Why is a “G” a “G” and a “6″ a “6″? This deconstruction and arduous critical examination is what yields a truly Dada result. But what is a result? Who is to say what your result is? I have to go lie down now.

Hard-Edge Painting

Frank Stella, Agbatana III

Hard-Edge painting was a contemporary art genre popular in the 1960s, best represented by the American artist Frank Stella. As the name implies, the genre is about planned, simple forms and stripes that contribute to an overall colorful picture. This polychromism and color intensity, as done by Frank Stella, can be found in diverse logo designs today, such as Optik: Split Stitch Division.

Richard Anuszkiewicz, Temple of the Radiant Yellow.
Theo van Doesburg, Counter-Composition V.

Harsh angles in art, as a semiotic shorthand for conflict, has existed for centuries, but only during the 20th century did it assume its status as an artistic tool in the new abstract painting schools. Stella, among others, adopted Hard-Edge as a reactionary style against east-coast America’s abstract expressionism in the 1960s. Where abstractionists preached free expression of emotion and impulse as an art, the hard-edgers practiced a highly impersonal, extremely purposeful style of painting. The alienation of the viewer forces a critical appraisal of the work, similar to Brecht’s “Verfremdungseffekt,” or distancing effect. To force such an effect, the designer must put design above purpose. Design for the sake of art is a nearly foreign concept because it violates the rule that corporate design must raise awareness of the brand. Design that puts art first alienates the consumer, who then approaches the work with a critical eye, as they would for a Hard-Edge painting.

Light Painting

Picasso, Vase of Flowers

Pablo Picasso and photographer Gjon Mili might be the first Light painters in history. Picasso’s self-portrait in 1949 opened new doors in the world of modern art. To create this special effect in this Light painting, Picasso chose a dark room and diverse light sources, along with the help of the longer exposure time of photo cameras. By moving the light, Picasso created mind-blowing images, which could serve as great inspiration for logos. Use lines side by side to build objects, letters and even words.

Cenci Goepel and Jens Warnecke, Untitled.
Vicki da Silva, Obama Hope at the End of the Tunnel.

Light painting is like graffiti and theater mashed up. The spirit is of street art, with the freedom to make anything a canvas. The ephemeral nature of the execution comes from performance art: while the process can be documented, it can never really be accurately recreated. The aesthetic elements are easy enough to emulate in Illustrator, but the real appeal comes from channeling the spirit of Light painting. While it would take some effort, animating a static logo would make it a real attention-getter.

African Art

Masson Magalie, Massais

Early African artists created beautiful sculptures, mostly out of wood. That canvas did them little service, because the climate and elements made the sculptures susceptible to termites and other vermin. This makes any African art older than 150 years very rare. The art was influenced by native African myths, celebrations and rituals. The world of ancestors and gods is kept alive in this artwork. That’s why artists mainly used masks and figures, which protected people against diseases and evil spirits. The artistic approach is deeply spiritual, and its forms can be applied to logos and corporate designs.

Fronty Aurelia, Au Marche.
Obote Jerome, African Tunda.

To channel the aesthetic of African tribal art, use heavy abstraction to create simple, effective shapes that catch the eye. Abstraction and bright colors are key. Conversely, you could scale back the abstraction and use natural, familiar shapes that evoke African art. Something as familiar as a woman’s profile can take on additional layers of meaning when they are given colors and patterns common to African culture.

Art Nouveau

Alphonse Mucha, Job

Art Nouveau is an artistic movement from the late-19th and early-20th century. The school originated in Europe, particularly Germany, where it was interpreted differently, depending on the area. Broad similarities remained, though: decoratively curved lines and floral ornamentation. Both are timeless elements that can be found in many designs today.

Aubrey Beardsley, The Peacock Skirt.
Alphonse Mucha, Bieres De La Meuse.

Art Nouveau at its peak was not merely a style but a way of life, encompassing architecture, clothing, painting, sculpture, even furniture. For your own logo, you can bring in the incredibly intricate details and textures and the thick full-bodied line work. The movement borrowed heavily from Japanese woodcut design in its ornamentation and execution, so the work of Hokusai and Utamaro will give you some thematic elements. Art Nouveau originated partially as a rejection of Gothic revivalism’s cluttered pattern work, so remember not to go overboard with your ornate floral decorations and patterns.

Cubism

Pablo Picasso, Figure au Corsage Rayé

Along with Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso might be one of the most popular modern artists in this genre, which he turned into a milestone in visual art at the beginning of the 20th century. Like Dada, Cubism was a particular critique of traditional art forms. Abstract perspectives were added, inspired by distant epochs and primitive cultures. Cubism was a new attempt to create harmony and unity in two dimensions. The “Cubist Coffee House” is obviously an heir to this movement.

Georges Braque, Woman With Guitar.
Juan Gris, Still Life with Fruit Dish and Mandolin.

Cubists were originally interested in the power that simple designs could exert in art, in contrast to Europe’s traditional ornamental art. Perhaps the most radical element to remain conscious of is the absence of “perspective.” One challenge will be to find your inspiration; Cubist Coffee mashes up a face with a coffee cup: an effective decision. One of the most controversial elements of early Cubism was some of the grotesque faces that evoked African masks. These exaggerated features were a hallmark of Cubism. Moreover, the interplay between elements—a core aspect of Synthetic Cubism—will further strengthen your logo’s association with this style. Your aim is a sort of detachedness in technique, resulting in grotesque, exaggerated forms.

Pop Art by Roy Lichtenstein

Hopeless and That’s the Way.

Aside from Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein was the most popular representative of the genre known as Pop Art, which originated in the 1980s. His style, reminiscent of classic newspaper comics, was truly groundbreaking. In the early 1960s, Lichtenstein began to experiment with this form, which unexpectedly exploded into a full-blown movement. The “lowbrow” style makes for a distinctive image and is a good way for a company to get attention.

Whaam and Drowning Girl.

Lichtenstein’s Pop Art was different from Warhol’s in that it celebrated the commercial designer and focused on art that we’re already familiar with and ignore. These are works we automatically recognize and take for granted. And just what are we as a society taking for granted? This critical examination of everyday art and design in the vein of Duchamp solicits more than a nod of recognition. The simple, fast and effective communication practiced by commercial designers and artists is strongly codified, and these logos channel these conscious and unconscious levels. A familiar “Click” logo is made more powerful and memorable by comic art’s ubiquity among consumers.

Pop Art by Andy Warhol

Marilyn Monroe and Marilyn.

No one has missed Andy Warhol’s polychromatic Marilyn Monroe portraits. For years, Warhol created variations on the theme that influenced not only art but the fashion world in innumerable ways. We can’t be surprised that this style is still an inspiration for simple, effective corporate designs.

Campbell’s Soup I and Zebra.

Warhol famously refused to analyze his own works in public. He suggested that any meaning of his work should be obvious from the outset. The Marilyn Diptych was originally thought to be a commentary on the life and death of the actress, though the more colorful “life” half is remembered better. Don’t just create simple color squares; choose instead subtle variations. Something as minor as a rounded corner or adjustment in shape can speak volumes to your audience, though it’s ultimately up to them to figure out what it means.

Tibetan Art

Chenrezig, Tibetan Thangka

Tibetan art is a great source of inspiration. The centuries-old culture of Tibet has its own icon, such as the Mudra hand gesture, which represents happiness and shows respect to the gods. The lotus flowers represent purity and fertility and represents also the “Chakra,” which consists of the seven elements in Tibetan myth. A semiotic approach to logo design implementing Tibetan designs and motifs will show your company’s deeper appreciation of spiritual matters.

Gordon Wiltsie, Buddhist Painting Inside the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, Tibet.
An Important Tibetan Thang.ka Depicting Bkra.Shis.Dpal.

Tibetan spiritualism is renowned worldwide, and you’d be remiss not to tap into this goldmine of deities, myths and symbols. Traditional Tibetan art is rife with angry gods and harsh brutal symbols, so reconcile it with modern Buddhist understanding by reducing the elements to their most recognizable aspects. For example, lotus flowers (representing purity) and the various Mudra hand gestures are extremely well-known elements of Buddhism and Tibet in particular. Use these elements as you would use Western symbols, to communicate your design.

Summary

• When creating your designs, look anywhere and everywhere for inspiration.
• The further you look from your industry, the more original your designs will be.
• Don’t be afraid of where you draw inspiration from. Paul Rand said it best: “Don’t try to be original. Try to be good.”
• Modern art can provide a lifetime’s worth of inspiration for design.
• For a more original design, draw on abstract elements from various images; such as the color from one image, line work from another and composition from yet another.

Other Resources

Literally hundreds of renowned movements fall under the umbrella of modern art. Learning about these movements is not just fun but brings new life and perspectives to your work.

• Wikipedia: Modern Art
  For an extensive list of modern art movements, start on Wikipedia.
• Pop Art Survey
  A Smashing Magazine survey of famous pop artists, and a great place to get started with reference material.
• Bauhaus Survey
  A Smashing Magazine survey of the Bauhaus movement, and a great place to get started with reference material
• Vital Tips for Effective Logo Design
  If you’re just getting started with logo design, this post is a great starting point to turn your favorite modern art piece into a quality logo.
• Taschen Books
  Unfortunately, not a whole lot of quality modern art is easily accessible online. Your best bet is to buy some cheap art books from your local bookstore. Taschen is a good publisher to start with if you’re having trouble at the bookstore.
• Google Images
  If you’re broke or don’t want to buy books, type in a movement you like into Google Images
• Modern Art Infographic
  Check out this awesome visual timeline of the origins of modern art.
• Modern Art Timeline
  An interactive timeline of modern art, with in-depth information on many movements and artists.

By the way…

Smashing Magazine is offering a student trainee position in Smashing Magazine’s Office in Freiburg, Germany. We are looking for a motivated trainee student who wants to learn about online publishing and editorial work. You can gather a first hand experience from one of the most successful blogs by working side by side with the Smashing Magazine’s editorial team. Details.

And for our German readers: Smashing Magazine sucht Unterstützung für die Redaktion — Stelle: (Online)-Redakteur m/w. Details.

About the Author

Moritz Schürmann is a contributing editor of Freshbump.com, Formatmag.com and Collect3d.com.

(al)

© Daniel Eckler for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | 32 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: art, bauhaus

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Plants

Adding plants not only adds colour and life but can help to counteract the electromagnetic fields omitted by your computer and any other electrical equipment you may have.  These EMF’s are linked to various health and wellbeing issues including stress and fatigue – not good when there’s work to be done!  I like spider plants and peace lilies as they’re lovely and green, have lots of leaves and are very easy to look after!

Lighting

Unfortunately, we can’t always have the lovely natural light, especially if others are like me and work a lot at night so what lighting should we choose?  Although we’re all encouraged to use energy saving light bulbs I have to admit that in my work space I prefer normal, old fashioned bulbs, preference being the blue bulb.  Designed for arts and craft areas I find it omits a bright light that seems less artificial than yellow standard bulbs.  It might not seem like a lot but it makes a huge difference to my productivity.

One area I’d like to explore are light boxes rather than traditional lamps, these simulate natural sunlight and are apparently a healthier option.  They look good and I’d love to try one out.

Air Quality

Again this is an area people don’t always consider.  Working in a rural setting our air quality is pretty good but even if you live in a city there are steps you can take to improve.  Things like avoiding aerosols, cleaning chemicals (go natural, a whole other topic!) and again, introducing plants can all help towards creating a purer environment.  I’m sure there are people wondering what difference it makes to creativity and output – you’ll just have to take my word for it that it really can help.

I find that anytime over a couple of hours spend on the computer I start to feel a bit unwell.  This is similar to motion sickness which some believe is caused by the static from the screen.  To help combat this, I wipe the screen each morning with a damp microfiber cloth.  Do this at the end of the day also to reduce the risk.

Inspiration

Pictures, books…whatever your chosen form of inspiration make sure it’s displayed.  If you have a collection of books don’t let them collect dust in a corner, put them near your computer on a shelf for instant inspiration.

Wall Colours

Colours are very important, instilling different moods and emotion.  In your work area you should use colour to your advantage.  The biggest single block of colour in your office is most probably the wall space, so make sure it’s not wasted.   Shades of white, yellow or blue can be good in the office, one colour alone of combinations of these.  Colours to avoid are browns, greys and blacks which can cause a tiredness feeling which is not what we need from a work space!

Distraction

Once, in a time management course I was advised to only have on my desk the project on which I was working.  Personally, I find this pretty impossible as I tend to have personal bits, business bits, client bits and more around me!  Having said that, I’ve included it in this guide as I think its good advice for someone more organised than me!

A Few Useful Links :

• EMFs -  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_radiation_and_health
• Cleaning without chemicals – http://housekeeping.about.com/cs/environment/a/alternateclean.htm
• Colours in the home -  http://freshome.com/2007/04/17/room-color-and-how-it-affects-your-mood

Vicki Willingham is a freelance graphic designer living in Suffolk, UK. She runs VictoriaAnn Design. You can find out more about Vicki here. You can also find her on Twitter here : twitter.com/Victoria_Ann

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Typography Mania is a weekly post series that comes around every Wednesday with the best of Typography work on the web, from videos to images everything is full of great design and inspiration. Check out this weeks Mania and comeback in 7 days for more.

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Make sure to click on each image to go to original location where you can check out more work from each artist and designer.

Video

Images

by m R. t R i P

by m R. t R i P

by Eurico Sá Fernandes

by Jonatan Pettersson

by Brandon Moore

by Vivien Urtiaga

by Riah Goodison

by Dinushi Perera

by Roman Pellejero

by Michaela Istokova

by Iacopo Boccalari

by Elvis Benício

by extraverage

by Mark Andrew Webber

by Network Osaka

by LikeMindedStudio

by mil3n

by Gizo

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By Obaid ur Rehman

This post contains 35 awesome examples of Digital Art and Manipulation. You may find numbers of posts and tutorials about photo manipulation, but we are confident that the list that we are going to provide you with will make you look twice at it.

We really appreciate the work of these brilliant designers who have created these art wonders by their hard work, imagination and creativity it will refresh your mind when you start browsing through it in detail. Please share your comments with us!

Beautiful Photo Manipulation Artworks

Requiem

Summer Experiments

Ultimo-segredo

Sex Slaves

Disintegration

Desejo

VIBE

Altered state of consciousness

I see decay all around me

We All Fall

Digital

Flame and Ice

End of summer

Forever without you

Souvenir

Don’t Smoke

Freedom

Image-Diary

Feel My Greatest Temptation III

Migration

TIME

O Harpista e O Maestro

Touch the Sky of Dreams

Twenty

SlashThree

Candy Clouds

Crescendo

Green

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So if we work so much in our daily lives, shouldn’t we be making out like bandits? Umm, honestly, I’m not hitting on you, silly. I’m talking about our success. We work and work and work. Shouldn’t we be filthy, stinking rich? Well… okay, that’s not quite what I mean either. I’m not necessarily talking about money (though that could potentially be a part of it). I’m talking about success — as in feeling a true sense of accomplishment and feeling happy about what we do and why we do it.

It’s important to feel accomplished and a general happiness in our work. To make out like a bandit (or have an incredible amount of success), you can either get lucky or work hard for it. And if you’re going to work hard for it, you might as well make it all meaningful and worthwhile. This is what I strive for in my own work and my life, and the following points I’m sharing with you are the steps I am taking to work toward this.

I know the price of success: dedication, hard work & an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen. — Frank Lloyd Wright

Learn. Participate. Do.

The best way to get good at something is to keep doing whatever it is you’re doing that you want to be good at. For example, a sushi-enthusiast might take a sushi-making class because she wants to learn to make sushi for herself. It totally makes sense while the teacher demonstrates all the procedures, materials, and methods needed to make good, beautiful sushi. Later, the student goes home and tries to make sushi on her own, she gets totally confused and lost. Okay, I’m not even going to hide it, I’m talking about myself (this happened to me). As much as I love sushi, I couldn’t even begin to make good sushi because I’ve never really practiced.

Take advantage of learning opportunities where possible. Whether you’re learning CSS, Actionscript, or visual design, the best way to grasp how to do things is to participate, practice, do. Apply what you learn in your work. Participation is so vital to your success. If you have problems, let people know, and ask. But definitely practice on your own. And as cliché as it may sound, believe in yourself because if you don’t think you can do it, no one else will think you can either.

Maintain momentum

With whatever it is you’re doing, if you find yourself “on a roll”, you should take advantage of that momentum and keep moving. Sure, you’ll definitely want to take breaks here or there, but remember that momentum can be very difficult to obtain again once you’ve lost it. Get it done!

Deal with people

Whether you love or hate people, the fact is, you gotta deal with them — even the difficult ones. If you’re in a management position, then you know pretty well that most people don’t like being told what to do (even if that’s their job). Find ways to get people excited about what they’re doing. Make people feel that they (and what they do) are needed — people respond better if they’re valued, not commanded. Even if you’re not in a management position, this still applies to the way you work with your coworkers, clients, vendors, etc.

Resolve any conflicts right away. Conflicts will inevitably happen. Move on to how you can improve the situation, and do it as quickly as possible. Don’t spend too much time focusing on whose screw up it is — nobody feels good in this situation. Also, try to keep people informed on whatever it is you need or what it is you’re doing. If you’re waiting on something from someone, and it’s been a while, don’t be afraid to say something (tactfully). Sometimes people are forgetful — or just slacking. Hey, it happens!

Help yourself by helping others

What are some of the small, simple things you can do when you’re working that will help the people you work with (and in most cases, will end up helping yourself)? For example: if you’re a designer, perhaps taking a couple minutes now to organize and name your Photoshop layers will end up saving time later (since it will be easier to find things). This is going to help both you and your team. Or, developers: taking some time to write some documentation (even if it’s as simple as a comment in the code, or a well-written commit message) could potentially save valuable time for both you and your team later. Maybe you have to take a little time to sit down with a coworker and explain why something works the way it does. This helps them out tremendously — and will most likely lead to them respecting you a little more. This is a benefit.

If you make little things like this a habit, people will notice. People will enjoy working with you. People will trust you and rely on you. Sure, it might seem beneficial at any given moment to be “in it for yourself” (and therefore only helping yourself), but that won’t last very long. Helping others (whether it be a small or large feat) will cause a positive impact in the long run — and that is what will be more valuable to you and your career.

Do work that is meaningful

One of the best ways to feel successful about what you do is to feel good and happy about it. And a great way to feel good and happy about what you’re doing is to actually do good. This could be purpose-driven work that focuses on sustainability and environmentalism, or work that helps support causes and charity. Perhaps the work simply inspires people. Or maybe the work is just something you are very passionate about. Whatever the work may be, try working on projects that are meaningful to you. You’ll do well simply by being more motivated and interested. And it’s a double-win if the project is meaningful to others as well.

I feel very fortunate to work at a place like Crush + Lovely, where we have found quite frequently that the projects that inspire people, focus on global and social good, and create some sort of positive impact are the very projects that bring us more paid projects. But more importantly, we are happy and excited to do it. You might not work at a company that takes on those types of projects. But perhaps you have your own personal endeavors that create this excitement for you. Elliot Jay Stocks wrote about having pet projects. Do you take on side projects? What are those projects?

Over the last couple years, I’ve seen some really fantastic side projects come out that are great examples of meaningful work. These projects reflect the passions and goals of the respective designers and developers involved, and therefore become quite successful (because the people involved simply love what they are doing while they’re doing it). Some of these projects include:

• Typedia is a shared encyclopedia of typefaces which serves as a resource to classify, categorize, and connect typefaces. It was founded by Jason Santa Maria, a graphic designer with a love and passion for typography. He created it as a solution to a problem he faced as a designer: finding the right typeface.
• Huffduffer was created by Jeremy Keith, a web developer who wanted to create a podcast of inspirational talks — but after he found that this could be tedious, he decided to create a tool to automate this.
• Level & Tap was created by passionate photographer and web developer, Tom Watson. It began as a photography print store for Tom’s best personal photography. Over time, more photographers were added to the site and the site has grown to become quite a great collection of beautiful photography.
• Heat Eat Review is a review blog created by information architect and user experience designer, Abi Jones. As a foodie, she is able to use this passion for this blog, as it focuses on reviewing TV Dinners, Frozen Meals, and Microwavable Foods.
• Art in My Coffee, a favorite personal project of my own, is a photo blog of coffee art I created, after I found that my friends and I were frequently posting coffee art photos to Flickr, Twitter, and other websites. After the blog became more popular, I teamed up with Meagan Fisher on the project, who has just as much a passion for coffee art, if not more.

So, what’s important to you?

This is the very, very important question here. What really matters to you most? Beyond just working on meaningful projects you are passionate about, is the work you’re doing the right work for you, so that you can live a good lifestyle? Scott Boms wrote an excellent article, Burnout, in which he shares his own experience in battling stress and exhaustion, and what he learned from it. You should definitely read the article in its entirety, but a couple of his points that are particularly excellent are:

• Make time for numero uno, in which you make time for the things in life that make you happy
• Examine your values, goals, and measures of success, in which you work toward the things you are passionate about, your own personal development, and focusing on the things that matter.

A solid work-life balance can be a challenging struggle to obtain. Of course, you can cheat this by finding ways to combine the things you love with the things you do (so then it doesn’t even feel like you’re working — oh, you sneaky little bandit!). However, there are other factors to consider beyond your general love for the work you’re doing. Take proper care of yourself physically, mentally, and socially.

So, are you making out like a bandit?

Do you feel accomplished and generally happy with your work? If not, perhaps that is something to focus on for the next year. Consider your work (both in your job as well as any side projects you may take on) and how it benefits you — present and future. Take any steps necessary to get you to where you need to be. If you are miserable, fix it!

Finally, it’s important to be thankful for the things that matter to you and make you happy. Pass it along everyday. Thank people. It’s a simple thing, really. Saying “thank you” can and will have enormous impact on the people around you. Oh. And, I apologize if the title of this article led you to thinking it would teach you how to be an amazing kisser. That’s a different article entirely for 24 ways to impress your friends!

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Have a pet project to collaborate with your friends

It’s not uncommon to find me staring at my screen, looking at beautiful websites my friends have made, grinning inanely because I feel so honoured to know such talented individuals. But one thing really frustrates me: I hardly ever get to work with these people! Sure, there are times when it’s possible to do so, but due to various project situations, it’s a rarity.

So, in order to work with my friends, I’ve found the best way is to instigate the collaboration outside of client work; in other words, have a pet project together! Free from the hard realities of budgets, time restraints, and client demands, you and your friends can come up with something purely for your own pleasures. If you’ve been looking for an excuse to work with other designers or developers whose work you love, the pet project is that excuse. They don’t necessarily have to be friends, either: if the respect is mutual, it can be a great way of breaking the ice and getting to know someone.

Figure 1: A forthcoming secret love-child from myself and Tim Van Damme

Have a pet project to escape from your day job

We all like to moan about our clients and bosses, don’t we? But if leaving your job or firing your evil client just isn’t an option, why not escape from all that and pour your creative energies into something you genuinely enjoy?

It’s not just about reacting to negativity, either: a pet project is a great way to give yourself a bit of variety. As web designers, our day-to-day work forces us to work within a set of web-related contraints and sometimes it can be demoralising to spend so many hours fixing IE bugs. The perfect antidote? Go and do some print design! If it’s not possible in your day job or client work, the pet project is the perfect place to exercise your other creative muscles. Yes, print design (or your chosen alternative) has its own constraints, but if they’re different to those you experience on a daily basis, it’ll be a welcome relief and you’ll return to your regular work feeling refreshed.

Figure 2: Ligature, Loop & Stem, from Scott Boms & Luke Dorny

Have a pet project to fulfill your own needs

Many pet projects come into being because the designers and/or developers behind them are looking for a tool to accomplish a task and find that it doesn’t exist, thus prompting them to create their own solution. In fact, the very app I’m using to write this article — Ommwriter, from Herraiz Soto & Co — was originally a tool they’d created for their internal staff, before releasing it to the public so that it could be enjoyed by others.

Just last week, Tina Roth Eisenberg launched Teux Deux, a pet project she’d designed to meet her own requirements for a to-do list, having found that no existing apps fulfilled her needs. Oh, and it was a collaboration with her studio mate Cameron. Remember what I was saying about working with your friends?

Figure 3: Teux Deux, the GTD pet project that launched just last week

Have a pet project to help people out

Ommwriter and Teux Deux are free for anyone to use. Let’s just think about that for a moment: the creators have invested their time and effort in the project, and then given it away to be used by others. That’s very cool and something we’re used to seeing a lot of in the web community (how lucky we are)! People love free stuff and giving away the fruits of your labour will earn you major kudos. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with making some money, either — more on that in a second.

Figure 4: Dan Rubin‘s extremely helpful Make Photoshop Faster

Have a pet project to raise your profile

So, giving away free stuff earns you kudos. And kudos usually helps you raise your profile in the industry. We all like a bit of shameless fame, don’t we? But seriously, if you want to become well known, make something cool. It could be free (to buy you the love and respect of the community) or it could be purchasable (if you’ve made something that’s cool enough to deserve hard-earned cash), but ultimately it needs to be something that people will love.

Figure 5: Type designer Jos Buivenga has shot to fame thanks to his beautiful typefaces and ‘freemium’ business model

If you’re a developer with no design skills, team up with a good designer so that the design community appreciate its aesthetic. If you’re a designer with no development skills, team up with a good developer so that it works. Oh, and not that I’d recommend you ever do this for selfish reasons, but collaborating with someone you admire — whose work is well-respected by the community — will also help raise your profile.

Have a pet project to make money

In spite of our best hippy-esque intentions to give away free stuff to the masses, there’s also nothing wrong with making a bit of money from your pet project. In fact, if your project involves you having to make a considerable financial investment, it’s probably a good idea to try and recoup those costs in some way.

Figure 6: The success of Shaun Inman‘s various pet projects — Mint, Fever, Horror Vacui, etc. — have allowed him to give up client work entirely.

A very common way to do that in both the online and offline worlds is to get some sort of advertising. For a slightly different approach, try contacting a company who are relevant to your audience and ask them if they’d be interesting in sponsoring your project, which would usually just mean having their brand associated with yours in some way. This is still a form of advertising but tends to allow for a more tasteful implementation, so it’s worth pursuing.

Advertising is a great way to cover your own costs and keep things free for your audience, but when costs are considerably higher (like if you’re producing a magazine with high production values, for instance), there’s nothing wrong with charging people for your product. But, as I mentioned above, you’ve got to be positive that it’s worth paying for!

Have a pet project just for fun

Sometimes there’s a very good reason for having a pet project — and sometimes even a viable business reason — but actually you don’t need any reason at all. Wanting to have fun is just as worthy a motivation, and if you’re not going to have fun doing it, then what’s the point? Assuming that almost all pet projects are designed, developed, written, printed, marketed and supported in our free time, why not do something enjoyable?

Figure 7: Jessica Hische‘s beautiful Daily Drop Cap

In conclusion

The fact that you’re reading 24 ways shows that you have a passion for the web, and that’s something I’m happy to see in abundance throughout our community. Passion is a term that’s thrown about all over the place, but it really is evident in the work that people do. It’s perhaps most evident, however, in the pet projects that people create. Don’t forget that the very site you’re reading this article on is… a pet project.

If you’ve yet to do so, make it a new year’s resolution for 2010 to have your own pet project so that you can collaborate with your friends, escape from your day job, fulfil your own needs, help people out, raise your profile, make money, and — above all — have fun.

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I understand now why he is in high demand, and why he is so passionate about his work. I am confident you will feel the same way when you get to know him. After reading this article, please click on the yellow rectangle in our sponsor section to the right to learn more about him. Sit back, get comfortable and enjoy this Bit Rebels interview with John O’Nolan.

Questions

Bit Rebels (Diana Adams): Thank you, John, for allowing me interview you today. It is a pleasure to have you featured on Bit Rebels. Let’s just jump right into it! On your website you talk about your love of the internet almost like it’s a real relationship. I can relate to that myself. I also read that you loved art and music as a child and you grew up in a tech oriented family. How did you discover your love for the internet, and more specifically, your love for web design?

John: First of all, thank you very much for having me here on Bit Rebels – I’m always humbled when anyone wants to interview me! I grew up (as you mentioned) in a very tech oriented family; my father built up one of the world’s most extensive enterprise networks as platform for collaboration between scientists. Think of a more advanced version of Basecamp and you’re pretty much there, the only difference is that he came up with all this stuff over 10 years ago when 37Signals didn’t even exist yet!

Coming from that background, I spent most of my teenage years attempting to shun the fact that I was good with computers. I’d always loved art, and I liked business, but I didn’t want to do anything computer related just because I wanted to “make my own path”. Eventually I managed to get past that when someone asked me “how much do you charge for websites?” And I figured out that people would actually pay me real money to do something I’d been doing for free anyway!

Bit Rebels (Diana Adams): I see that you are very active in social media. On Twitter you have sent over 10,000 tweets and have over 5,000 followers! How would you say social media has impacted your business overall? Do you use Twitter to gain new clients or is it more of a tool to share valuable information about your craft to others?

John: Twitter is basically the core of my entire business – strange as I’m sure that sounds too many people. I rely on it so much that if someone said I had to pay $300 a month to continue using it, then I probably would. I don’t do radio advertising, or TV, or direct mail, or cold calling, or any forms of traditional marketing. All I do is talk to people who I like on Twitter, and participate actively on other web design blogs and sites. The point of all this is that my best clients have come from social media, and my worst clients have all been local businesses.

I’ll give you some examples: Ubisoft [http://www.ubi.com/] hired me based on seeing my work in Smashing Magazine, I’ve done a lot of work for the awesome guys at OnWired [http://www.onwired.com] which started out because I interviewed their MD on my blog, and right now I’m working with Virgin Atlantic Airways (who found me through twitter) to design and build the blog for their brand new travel website. [http://www.vtravelled.com]

Those are all my great clients, now on the flip side of the coin; a local clothing shop contracted me to rebuild their ecommerce site, which I spent 2 months doing, then they refused to pay and I couldn’t afford to take them court. A local stereo company took (seriously) 8 months to pay a small deposit, then they wanted to know why the site hadn’t been started yet, and then they pulled out of the contract (even though they’d already signed it). Again, I couldn’t afford to take them to court.
What I’ve learned from this is that the best clients are the ones that seek me out because they really want to work with me, and the worst clients are the ones who just approach me because I’m “local and convenient”

Bit Rebels (Diana Adams): What is your number one favorite part of the whole design process?

John: The end! I love it when you get to the end of a design and it suddenly all comes together perfectly. It always surprises me a little, because it seems to “just happen” at a certain point.

Bit Rebels (Diana Adams): Do you work in a traditional office? What does it look like? Where is it located? Is your desk messy or neat?

John: Right now all of Lyrical Media’s staff is home-based. There’s only a few of us, and we’re all in different countries across the world, so it doesn’t make sense to have a “real” office for anyone. My desk is fairly neat at the moment, but most of the time it’s pretty messy!

Bit Rebels (Diana Adams): I read that you are working on a web app to incorporate your love for music. That sounds very exciting! Can you elaborate more on this?

John: I can’t say much about this one; it’s quite a long way away! I have 2 major side projects that I’m working on, and this one is the 2nd of the two. In simple terms it’s an application to really help out unsigned musicians in a big way, but that’s about all I can tell you at this point! The concept has had a really warm reception when run past a couple of chart-topping artists, so I’m confident it’ll be something really cool once I find time to build it.

Bit Rebels (Diana Adams): On your website, it seems like you have a lot of fun and you love what you do. Can you describe what your typical day looks like?

John: Haha! I definitely love what I do, often I think to myself “I should stop screwing around and do some work” – until I realize that what I’m doing is work! That’s one of the best feelings around, which I never (ever) got that from any of my previous jobs. Right now my routine consists of waking up around 8am, dropping off my girlfriend at work, and then getting into my office for about 6 hours of non-stop work. In the evening I pick her up from work again and relax for a little while, then I usually break out the laptop and spend another 4-6 hours in the evening doing more work. It’s a lot of hours, but like I mentioned, it doesn’t feel like work. If I had $100 million in the bank and I didn’t need to work to make any money, this is still what I’d be doing!

Bit Rebels (Diana Adams): As a new blogger myself, I am fascinated by your successful blogging career. How do you find the time to update your blog so frequently and manage the over 600 regular readers?

John: Well the answer to this is quite simple – I don’t find nearly enough time! I’ve always found with my blog that it’s most successful when I post regularly; 2/3 times a week seems to really make a big difference. Right now I’m struggling to find the time to post once a week, which has dropped my traffic, levels down a bit. To answer your question about 600 subscribers, that one is really just a matter of time. I mean I do my best to make clear calls to action with a big “subscribe” button at the end of every post, but I’ve never really focused on trying to build that number up – it just takes time!

Bit Rebels (Diana Adams): Like many creative artists, it appears that you are a bit of a perfectionist. How does that affect your work? Do you find that helps or hinders you?

John: I think it does both in equal measures. On the plus side it drives me to produce (what I hope are) some pretty good pieces of design work, but on the down side I sometimes work more hours than I bill for in order to get the design “just right”. Overall I think it’s probably a good thing, but it can be a real pain sometimes!

Bit Rebels (Diana Adams): I love this quote below of yours. Is there any other advice you would give to someone just starting out as an entrepreneur?

“Life is too short to do things you don’t enjoy. LOVE what you do and believe in yourself. If you stop loving what you’re doing for even one moment then go and do something else! I know it’s easier said than done for financial reasons, but that doesn’t matter – you can work a full time job and start doing what you love in every bit of spare time that you have, then once you’re doing well enough you can quit your full time job. Persevere!”

John: I should point out here that I’m heavily ripping off Gary Vaynerchuk, and can’t really take much credit for that message – but it is one that I completely support. My single biggest piece of advice to any entrepreneur would be to answer this question: “If I told you that your business would only ever make $20,000 dollars a year, and you’d have to work 12 hours every single day… would you still want to do it?” If the answer to that question is “no” – then get out right now, because it’ll never be successful. Once you find something where the answer to that question is “yes, definitely” – then you’re onto a winner.

Bit Rebels (Diana Adams): Since you dropped out of school yet still became wildly successful anyway, what advice would you give to a teenager today wanting to do the same thing? Do you think that decision made it more difficult for you or did it allow your creative side to bloom much sooner?

John: This is a subject that’s very close to my heart, and while I feel very strongly about it, I think that it’s something very personal to each individual. So I certainly wouldn’t tell anyone to do what I did just for the sake of it. I’ve never been great with people telling me what I can and can’t do – I genuinely believe that I (or anyone else for that matter) can do anything if I try hard enough, and I see no point at all in spending any time in this short life doing something that I don’t want to do. You can imagine how well that always went down with parents, teachers, and bosses! There’s no one in the world that could’ve prevented me from dropping out of school and finding my own way – it was something that was always going to happen, because that’s who I am. If you’re the same as me (or even if you’re not), there’s nothing I can say that will change anything. You just have to decide what you want to do, and go do that, no matter stands in your way.

Bit Rebels (Diana Adams): When you think about the future, where do you see yourself in 5 years, personally and professionally?

John: In 5 years time I’d like to be outside of the service industry. I love design, and I love the web, but I love both of those things most when I’m doing them for myself. I get the most enjoyment out of designing and building my own sites and blogs – so I’d love to build up a web based business that sells products rather than services. This is something that I’ve already started work on, and there’s a lot going on behind the scenes. 2010 should see the launch of at least one exciting new project along these lines.

Bit Rebels (Diana Adams): Now for a fun personal question, what will your next tattoo look like?

John: Good question! I have several at the moment that aren’t finished, so I should really get those completed before I start any new ones – but knowing me I probably won’t!

I think next will be a ‘new skool’ chest-piece by one of my favorite local artists called James Robinson [http://www.nineboycesstreet.com/james/], then a geometric piece covering all of my back by either Xed Le Head [http://www.xedtattoo.com/], or Tomas Tomas [http://www.into-you.co.uk/other.php?dir=french_t&loc=lon], and eventually when I have the money and the time to fly over to the US, I want my right arm filled up by Jeff Gogue [http://www.gogueart.com/].

Tattooing has always been very close to my heart from a young age, and I worked as a tattoo artist before I was a web designer. Many of the styles and influences from that industry have crossed over directly into my design work, most notably an inexplicable love for skulls, hearts, and the number 13!

Bit Rebels (Diana Adams): You know we can’t end this interview without the “would you rather” questions. Just answer with the first thing that comes to mind.

Would you rather spend the day surfing the internet or the ocean?
This is a difficult one, I really love both of those. I’d probably have to pick surfing the ocean, just because I already surf the internet every other day!

Would you rather be a dog named Killer or a cat named Fluffy?
Dog named killer, no question.

Would you rather be forced to tell your best friend a lie or tell your parents the truth?
I think I’d always rather be forced to tell a lie rather than be forced to tell the truth – I’m not sure what that says about me!

Would you rather know it all or have it all?
Know it all, definitely. Having it all is fulfilling for a little while, but knowing it all is fulfilling forever.

John, again, this has been a real pleasure for me and for Bit Rebels. We are grateful that you are one of our sponsors and I look forward learning even more from you.

You can find John O’Nolan and Lyrical Media by visiting http://john.onolan.org and following him on Twitter at @JohnONolan.

Go to Source

You may feel bored to use normal text for your document or paper work. To produce something different, you can use some nice text effect for your wording. This tutorial is simple and nice, as most of the steps are done in “layer style”. No special techniques are required.

(View This Tutorial)

Go to Source

His work is impeccable, and, more importantly, his work ethic is even more impressive. Today, we’ll talk with him about his work-flow, strategies for selling templates, and what makes him stand out among the rest.

“From sunny Southern California, Brandon Jones has been designing, drawing, photographing, and coding the world around him for the past several years. Not content to pick one media and stick with it has left Brandon with a broad range of talents that have allowed him to work on projects ranging from grungy digital art kits to Fortune 500 software prototyping.”

#1 – How long have you been in the web design business?

Over 7 years and counting. I’ve been designing as a freelancer working from my home in Southern California since 2002. I began by working on websites for local bands and musicians, then moved up to working with local businesses and small agencies in the Los Angeles area. In 2007, I jumped from working with Jetpack Studio (Los Angeles) to working with Shane&Peter Inc. (Santa Cruz) as my primary freelance team.

Shane&Peter Inc. is owned by two guys (named Shane and Peter, go figure), but the team is composed of over 50 designers, developers, projects managers, and other specialists from all around the world. I’m actually the designer with the most tenure at the moment, but we’ve got a number of great contractors that have been teaming up with us for years. We’re all freelance contractors, so there are no employees here – we all work when we want to and where we want to, which is a huge perk. We call it “remote team contracting”, which means that we more or less act as a team, but we’re all working as individual contractors rather than as hired employees.

In 2007 we won a Webby award for work on Blip.tv, and since then we’ve worked on countless projects for everyone from surf magazines to tech startups to Fortune 500 companies. Aside from working on several large scale websites (that I can’t mention because of non-disclosure agreements), I’ve also had the privilege to design a bunch of well known iPhone apps, software prototypes, and high intensity internal projects for some of the biggest companies in the world.

In 2009, I began contributing to Graphic River and Theme Forest as an adventurous little side project. 7 months later, I still freelance about 70% of the time, but I’m slowly allotting more and more time into ThemeForest. Right now I’m working on several major freelance projects in addition to planning on a few awesome new releases for ThemeForest over the next couple months.

#2 – When/How id you first come across the Envato marketplaces – specifically ThemeForest?

I first came across the Envato marketplaces in early 2009. I’d been a longtime fan of all of the Envato sites, but never really dug into the marketplaces until early this year when I started becoming more interested in using micro-stock and other stock templates in my own freelance work to save time. At the time, there were a number of sites out there releasing similar content, but none with the diversity and quality that Envato authors were publishing – the price points on the products were also ridiculously affordable to use on most of my freelance projects.

I released a few of my own web-related products to GraphicRiver in Feburary to test the waters and see what kind of reception I would get. Next, I released my first PSD template to ThemeForest in March, which is what really motivated me to begin releasing full website templates using the skills that I’d been honing over the past 7 years.

#3 – You have been particularly successful when it comes to WordPress theme sales. When developing a new item, do you try to plan for PSD, Site Template, and WordPress submissions? Or do you prefer to focus only on one category per design?

Yes and no. I definitely don’t allow the traditional understanding of a WordPress theme to limit my goals for any design. That said, starting in 2007 I began producing most of my website designs with WordPress in mind because my clients loved the backend and there weren’t many limitations on what you could in terms of design… so it only seemed natural to keep this mentality when I began releasing stock templates at ThemeForest.

That said, it usually takes more time to release a product to WordPress as it does to code into HTML. As you can see from my portfolio, most of my designs start as HTML, then move up to WordPress when I’ve had the time to code them properly.

There’s a huge difference between releasing a WordPress theme to ThemeForest and building a WordPress theme for a client though. Because of the nature of an individual client, most solutions that you come up with only have to work for them specifically. When I release a theme at ThemeForest, I have to account for countless possible usage scenarios. One buyer might want to take my theme and create a photography portfolio, another might want to use it as a site for a charitable organization. This kind of diverse usage really forces me to think through as many different types of users as possible because I actually hit the submit button.

Lately, I’ve been trying to push the envelope for WordPress themes. This means incorporating more and more design elements that you normally wouldn’t consider for a traditional blog theme. With the broad range of resources available for WordPress right now on the web, it’s easy to get inspired and want to try out some of the new tricks that are out there. Having these resources available also means that I can really let loose during the design phase and trust that there’ll be some way of making it work in WordPress.

#4 – Though encouraged, we do not require that authors provide support for their items. Do you? Considering how well your items sell, how do you manage to provide quality support to so many different buyers? Any tricks/short-cuts?

Yes, absolutely! Answering custom support emails is the easiest way to learn how to release better products and documentation in the future. Hearing what roadblocks users run into, what requests they have for customizations, and what they like best about my themes gives me an inside track to understanding how buyers are putting my products to use. This kind of information is like gold if you ask me, as it grants you a continuing education on the do’s and don’ts of stock templates.

As far as the practicality of responding to every user question goes: I used to answer all emails within 24 hours like clockwork… lately though, I’ve been doing my best to answer everyone within a week at the most simply because my current freelance work keeps me busy during most days of the week. It takes time to give every email a genuine response, but it ultimately pays off with happy buyers and lessons learned. Without tapping into the kind of feedback that comes from buyer-questions, I’d have a difficult time improving the quality of work as I’ve been doing over the past 6 months.

As far as shortcuts go – there’s no magic formula. However, proper documenting your product will significantly cut down on the number of questions that buyers have. After that, maintaining a FAQ page on your products that answers the most commonly asked questions will help out a lot as well.

#5 – Do you, or have you considered selling on the different Envato marketplaces as well?

Yep – I’ve worked in Flash for several years as well, and I’m hoping to begin releasing Flash templates in early 2010. I also release products now and then at GraphicRiver.

#6 – Many successful authors have noted that the biggest advantage to selling their designs through us is that it takes the client completely out of the design process, and, instead, allows the author full control. Would you agree? Any other advantages?

I totally agree! Not having to cater a design concept to one particular customer is incredibly liberating. If a user doesn’t like what I’ve done with a design, they can keep browsing until they find what’s right for them… but for those users who do like what I’m doing – they get an entire website for under $30! That’s not bad for either side of the transaction if you ask me.

The other major advantage that I’ve seen with releasing work at ThemeForest is the lack of deadlines. I live and die by deadlines in my freelance work. At ThemeForest, you can take as long as you want to get a product “just right”, and there’s no client breathing down your neck waiting to see the final product. I have a number of people that follow my work now and always want to see the latest work that I’m releasing, but it’s a totally different phenomena from “needing” to hit a deadline or risk getting into trouble with a client.

#7 – Do you take advantage of our referral program, or promote your items in any additional ways to increase sales?

I use as many ways to promote my products and I can think of. I release blog posts whenever I release a new product. I try to write for Envato as often as I can. I make twitter posts. I let people know on Facebook (politely, I hate spammers). I also join contests on other sites to garner extra exposure. I don’t really focus on getting a referral cut for any of those links, but it definitely doesn’t hurt when it happens.

#8 – Without giving away any of your key techniques, if you could only make one choice, what would be the most important thing to keep in mind when selling with us?

Think of the end-user! This is my mantra. It doesn’t matter how gorgeous your design is if a buyer can’t use the final product. Organize your files and coding as if your grandmother were going to have to use it. Document it as thoroughly and simply as you possibly can. Include images, instructions, links, FAQ’s, and any other sort of resource that might help out a buyer in the end. Good design is only one piece of a complex mechanism that creates a truly great stock product. Keep this in mind and you’ll do just fine.

I usually have my fiance’ read my documentation and instructions before I release a file. She has almost no experience at all with coding or web design, so it gives me a totally different response than when I read it. Things that make sense to me won’t to her – so it allows me the unique opportunity to re-write certain aspects of my documentation to help the most users possible. It helps that she has a degree in publicity and marketing though

#9 – A new member signs up with ThemeForest, and is hoping to upload his or her first item. Any advice?

Do your homework! Look around to see what’s selling the best. Follow your favorite authors to see what they do and how they work. Read the forums and product threads to see how authors and buyers interact. Read the blogs to see what’s new at the marketplace. All of these are crucial to really diving in and understanding what it takes to become successful at ThemeForest.

#10 – Final question. What’s next for you? Any special items planned before the end of the year?

I actually have a batch of new products coming out in November and December, including at least 4 new WordPress themes, a handful of new HTML templates, even more PSD templates, and a few other surprises up my sleeve.

Here’s a sneak peek of my upcoming Reverb theme:

Thanks for reading!

If you Enjoyed this Interview…

…and would like to sty up to date on the latest from Brandon:

• Subscribe to his Blog
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Go to Source

This year we’ve featured a lot of great sites, I mean, a bunch of sites every single week! And I know you love this serie of posts. Thinking on it, and to bring to the memory the best sites we shown you in 2009, I’ve selected 60 of them to remember. It’s time do inspire your eyes again, or if you had not seen some of them yet, now it’s your chance! Enjoy, and Happy New Year guys!

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Carsonispace – space.carsonified.com

Carsonified, a creative web company, is renting out five desks in our office in beautiful Bath, England.

Pallian Creative – pallian.com

Adarsh Pallian is the founder of Tweetizen and the creative force behind Pallian Creative. With over 10 years of experience, he has the passion, creative flair and technical expertise to deliver innovative websites and web applications with a unique user experience.

Is It Normal? – isitnormal.com

Are You Normal? Curious how others might perceive your situation? Submit your story today and find out what others think…

Ui Tuneup – uituneup.com

Smart, low-cost re-design in less than a week. We’ll simplify your most complex webpage, and make your site elegant and easier to use. Your users will thank you.

Ciriljazbec – ciriljazbec.com

CirilJazbec Photography.

Matthamm – matthamm.com

My name is Matt Hamm. I am co-founder and Creative Director of Supereight Studio. Pete Orme and I started the company in March 2009 after working together as web designers at Kyan.

Deluge Studios- delugestudios.com

In short, the web is opportunity. Opportunity to solve our client’s problems. Opportunity to reach people in unexpected ways. Opportunity to design, to create, to collaborate & engage. We love helping our clients succeed, and the web is our opportunity to do just that.

The 99% Conference – the99percent.com

Behance is partnering with Cool Hunting to host “99%.” A conference that focuses less on inspiration, and more on how idea generation and organization come together to make ideas happen.

KISSmetrics – kissmetrics.com

KISSmetrics not only measures results, it helps you improve them. The initial product, a metrics solution designed for developers, product managers and marketers is almost ready. Enter your email address below to get on the beta launch list.

LE CAID – lecaid.com

Le Caid was founded 2001 in hamburg. Specialized in corporate design & web. We are driven by the ambition to always learn new things and to gain experience.

IconDock – icondock.com

IconDock is brought to you by N.Design Studio. We know your time is valuable, that is why we offer stock icons in vector and pixel format that you can quickly snap in your projects to speed up the development.

Mailchimp – mailchimp.com

MailChimp manages over half a billion subscribers for over 60,000 users, and we deliver millions of emails a day. We strive to make MailChimp easy and affordable enough for a small business to get started, but powerful enough for a large company that’s looking for an enterprise level solution.

Kraft Foods – Food & Family – kraftfoods.com/foodandfamily

The new digital edition of you favorite food magazine is now online!

Creative State – creativestate.com

Creative State is built by people who know what it means to bring an idea to life. We live it and breathe it, and we have the experience to back it up. We know the web. We know brand. We know user experience and information architecture and user interface design and graphic design and database design and content management. And we use that knowledge in a collaborative environment to provide you with a nearly endless set of possibilities for your ideas.

Starbucks – starbucks.com

What we are all about Starbucks purchases and roasts high-quality whole bean coffees and sells them along with fresh, rich-brewed, Italian style espresso beverages, a variety of pastries and confections, and coffee-related accessories and equipment — primarily through its company-operated retail stores.

Tuts Plus – tutsplus.com

From graphics to web development, audio to video and more, get the skills you want from our family of tutorial and resource sites. Need more? We also offer a Plus program where you can access source files and bonus tutorials.

Tank – withtank.com

Tank is a clean, simple and fun way to build a website.

Postbox – postbox-inc.com

A new way to work with email messages and content. Postbox helps you make the most of your email, offering powerful new ways to find, use, and view email messages and content, organize your work life, and get stuff done.

Krop Creative Database – krop.com/creativedatabase

Quickly organize your work in our beautiful template. Designed for creatives with impossibly high standards, and built to the specification of creative recruiters at companies that already use Krop to find talent. (including Apple, Gucci, Nike, Mtv, etc.)

Sarah Longnecker – sarahlongnecker.com

I am a graduate of Pellissippi State Community College with an Associates Degree in Video Production and a Certificate in Video Editing. My love for video production came during my high school years with numerous projects in History, Spanish, and various other classes.

Clearleft – clearleft.com

We create sites that are elegant, engaging and easy to use. We have Big Agency skills but small agency flexibility and you’ll be able to remember all our names. We can work with you. We are Clearleft.

Basecamp – basecamphq.com

The Better Way To Get Projects Done. Trusted by millions, Basecamp is the leading web-based project collaboration tool.

Transparent House – transparenthouse.com

TRansparent House, we create the reality.

Carrot Creative – carrotcreative.com

Carrot Creative is a new media agency located in DUMBO, Brooklyn, NY. We specialize in social media, application development, and user experience, all in the name of brand development.

Invoice Machine – invoicemachine.com

The Invoice Machine is an online invoicing service which simplifies your invoicing and makes it beautiful.

45royale Inc. – 45royale.com

45royale is an enthusiastic web design studio located near the bustling metropolis of Atlanta, Georgia. We promote web standards and bring energy and commitment to our work every single day.

The work of Nick Jones – narrowdesign.com

Freelance Flash designer / actionscript / animator.

Hellomonday – hellomonday.net

Hello Monday is a Flash-revolutionizing, identity-building, talent-cultivating, image-moving, illustration-loving, campaign-developing, fun-sharing, idea-growing boutique “designery”.

Twitshirt – twitshirt.com

Ever wish you could wear a Tweet? For $20, we can turn it into a comfy Twitshirt! And each time we sell one with your Tweet on it, we give you a cut.

rw/2 studios – rw2studios.com

rw/2, (formerly rushwade2) is a studio capable of taking on productions of any size. Located in the midwest, rw/2 is a collective of photographers, producers, retouchers and a talented team of professional support staff. Our photographers have produced work for hundreds of national ad campaigns for some of the top advertising agencies and their fortune 500 clients, along with numerous national magazine editorials.

StackOverflow – stackoverflow.carsonified.com

A full day of inspiration and learning for developers, brought to you by the team behind StackOverflow.com and FogBugz. Lunch is provided so you’ll have plently of time to hang out and meet other developers. Hope you can join us!

Ecoki – ecoki.com

Ecoki.com is a fresh, new eco-lifestyle community filled with enthusiasm for all things eco-related. At ecoki.com, we’re passionate about all things green – whether it’s the latest in scientific research, the newest eco-fashion fad, or an update on organic foods. Regardless of your interest(s), ecoki.com strives to provide you with up-to-date news, great green tips, or even a recipe for dinner.

Thumbslap – thumbslap.com

Arrange & find game nights to play in Thumbslap makes it easy to arrange game nights with your clan, friends or other players whether it’s for Xbox 360, PS3, PC or Wii.

Finch – getfinch.com

Finch is online presence of Francisco Inchauste. He is an “insert buzzword here” designer of finely crafted pixels for web and interaction. During the day he is a UX Specialist for the finest purveyor of RIAs around, Universal Mind. At night he is a design-addict scouring the world for beauty in type and color.

Good – good.is

GOOD is the integrated media platform for people who want to live well and do good. We are a company and community for the people, businesses, and NGOs moving the world forward. GOOD’s mission is to provide content, experiences, and utilities to serve this community.

Krop – krop.com

Krop is a Job Board and career resource website for creative professionals. Whether you’re looking for job, or hunting top-notch talent, Krop’s simple and powerful tools are geared towards connecting the worlds brightest minds with the best companies.

Odopod – odopod.com

Walk into our studio. You’ll meet experts of all sorts – designers, developers and strategists. We’re refugees from the worlds of advertising, product design, branding, gaming and beyond. We’re happy collaborators, bringing our diverse, original perspectives to bear on every problem. What do we share in common? Endless curiosity and a deep love for all-things-digital.

Inkd – inkd.com

We are an experienced team, working hard to create the world’s first online marketplace for cutting edge print designs. This marketplace is targeted at the business sector. We know we can’t do this without great designers, and this platform is designed to help the best designers find new outlets of revenue and commissioned work.

37signals – 37signals.com

A Better Way To Work. Over 3 million people use our web-based apps to get things done the simple way. Web-based means it works right in your web browser. You don’t have to download, install, or update anything. No “IT guy” required.

EveryBlock – everyblock.com

EveryBlock filters an assortment of local news by location so you can keep track of what’s happening on your block, in your neighborhood and all over your city.

We Choose The Moon – wechoosethemoon.com

Wechoosethemoon.org is an interactive experience recreating the historic Apollo 11 mission to the Moon in real time. Once where only three men made the trip, now millions can. Live event begins 9:32 AM EDT July 16, 2009. Exactly 40 years after Apollo 11 lifted off.

Spoon Graphics – spoongraphics.co.uk

By now I’m sure you’ve gathered that I’m a creative designer, an avid blogger and that I’m generally crazy about pretty colours and shapes. If you want to know more, grab a warm drink, light the fire and cuddle under a soft blanket while I condense my life story into a few paragraphs.

Carsonified – carsonified.com

At Carsonified we believe in treating other people like we want to be treated: with friendliness, patience and respect. We believe that the web industry is one of the most exciting places in the world, and that it’s an honor for us to connect, encourage and train that community through our events. We believe in being more creative than we need to be and having fun while we’re at it.

Nike + Dashboard – nikerunning.nike.com

Nike Running

Tapbots – tapbots.com

Tapbots are utility robots designed and engineered for your iPhone and iPod Touch. Our applications are easy to use, focused, and lots of fun. These amazing little robots are dreamed up and brought to life by Mark Jardine and Paul Haddad. We slave the night away creating—not to make a quick buck, but because we love software (particularly Mac and iPhone/touch software). We hope our robots will create the same love for software that we have.

Josh Puckett | 55Eleven – 55eleven.com

Welcome to 55Eleven.com, the portfolio of Josh Puckett. I’m a visual designer, and I create beautiful and functional websites, logos, printed media, and more. I’d also love to work with you.

wellknown.as – wellknown.as

Business opportunities through social engagement. We are a bunch of folks working hard on a new idea: a new concept of social engagement for the mobile professional.

Fever – feedafever.com

Your current feed reader is full of unread items. You’re hesitant to subscribe to any more feeds because you can’t keep up with your existing subs. Maybe you’ve even abandoned feeds altogether. Fever takes the temperature of your slice of the web and shows you what’s hot.

Huxley Prairie Fest – huxleyprairiefest.com

Prairie Fest is back and is bigger than ever. Get the latest info on all of the returning events as well as the new ones you and the entire family will enjoy.

Area 17 – area17.com

AREA?17 is located in New York City and Paris, France. We take an interdisciplinary approach — blending the practices of design, technology and branding — to create modern interactive systems.

Analog – analog.coop

Analog is a company of friends who make web sites. It’s a co-operative where imagination, design, and engineering thrive; good people doing good work.

Nocturn – nocturn.ro

We are a small group (population: 2) of design enthusiast offering mainly design & creative solutions to our clients, partners and friends. We are currently covering a large area of interest such as: identity (starting with naming and logo design, reaching out to implementation campaigns, developing detailed visual identity manuals etc.), print (from small flyers to large outdoor banners, both design and dtp) and web services (from layout and implementation until seo and online marketing campaigns).

Less – lesscss.org

LESS was inspired by its predecessors—especially Sass, a ruby project which provides an ingenious solution to a lot of the common problems CSS designers and web developers face when developping large websites.

Adhemas Batista – adhemas.com/

Adhemas Batista – I’m Selling Colors

Zee – zee.com.br

We work with the internet, develop web projects emphasizing design and technology exploring creativity, user satisfaction and an honest and open relationship with our customers.

Electrolux Infinity – electrolux.com.br/infinity/

Electrolux Infinity

Project 365 – project365.co.uk

We are a cutting edge design and marketing company who specialise in maximising your ROI. We create stunningly designed landing pages and deliver traffic on a CPM, CPC or CPA basis. Whichever way, the results are the same, with us its all about sending the right people at the time to the right section of your site…oh and did we mention we make it look good too?

Fontanel – fontanel.nl

Fontanelle is an online magazine that focuses on the latest developments in the design world with a focus on the young, talented and upcoming generation. (via Google Translate)

Authentic Jobs – authenticjobs.com

Authentic Jobs is a targeted destination for web & creative professionals, and the companies seeking to hire them.

Haystack – haystack.com

Haystack helps you find the best Web Designer for your project. If you’re like most web designers, you have a great site but you’re having a hard time getting qualified leads to visit your site. Haystack is here to help drive potential clients to your site. We promote Haystack to thousands of businesses, they find your work on Haystack, and then we direct them to your site so you can finish wowing them. Haystack helps them find you so you can do your magic.

About the author

I’m from Brazil, co-founder of Zee with Fabio. Nowadays I like to play with Fireworks, Photoshop and improve my skills in CSS. If you wanna request some posts, please feel free to contact me or follow on Twitter.

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A common misconception about successful independent workers is that one day, in dramatic fashion, they quit their dayjob, hung a shingle, and lived happily ever after. The truth is, most freelancers start off moonlighting, volunteering, interning, and doing client work at night and on weekends in addition to a nine-to-five gig. If you fantasize about living the freelancer life, you can do the same—even in a recession, starting now. Let’s turn some of your free time into a new career without giving up the steady paycheck.

Freelancing in a Recession: Inroads and Safety Nets

Armies of employees have gotten laid off in the past year, and when you’re one of the survivors still on payroll, the natural instinct is to feel grateful you were spared, hunker down, and not make a peep. The idea of looking for contract work when the unemployment rate is so high may seem ludicrous. However, there are contracts to be had. Freelancers cost companies less than full-time employees, and major waves of layoffs often create opportunities for contractors to fill in the gaps.

Doing freelance work in a time of job insecurity benefits you in two ways. First, it diversifies your income stream. When you freelance on the side, you don’t depend on a single check to pay your bills. If you do get let go or have to take a salary cut or furlough, the side income softens the blow to your bank account. Secondly, freelancing for clients is the best way to show off what you can do to potential employers. When you freelance you’re in constant “interview” mode, hoping to get re-hired or recommended to other clients. If you lose your job or decide to leave, you’ve essentially already interviewed for your next gig.

The point here is that even in a recession, freelancing is far from impossible—in fact, it’s downright smart.

Put Yourself on the Market

The tough part about becoming a freelancer—especially for introverts—is putting your name out there and having to hustle to sell your services. In addition to whatever work you do, being a freelancer means you also have to be a salesperson.

How you should put yourself on the market and showcase your offerings depends on your field. If you have no idea where to start, find some great freelancers that do what you do, and follow their example. It’s probably safe to say you’ll need some kind of web site, business card, and a portfolio or CV. Don’t skimp on this stuff: Instead of settling for a free hosting account somewhere, spend the $20 to register a domain name and put together at least a one-page web site describing who you are, what you offer, and contact information. (It’s more important than ever to have a say in what Google says about you.) If you’re a photographer, include a gallery of your best photos; a programmer, a list of projects you’ve contributed to; a project manager, a list of companies you’ve worked for. If showing off actual work you’ve completed isn’t possible, gather together some testimonials from folks you’ve worked for that get across your best skills.

Don’t do anything crazy like advertise your services in the newspaper or on Craigslist right away. The best way to find work is through people you know and referrals from happy clients.

How to Find Contracts—and When to Work Pro Bono

Once you’re officially on the market, it’s time to get some clients. Remember that old saying about who you know versus what you know? It’s so true. In my experience, referrals from people you know—the most vague acquaintances, even—yield the best business opportunities. Let your friends, business associates, former co-workers, fellow book club members, and the guy sitting next to you at the barber shop know you’re available to do freelance work. Don’t be annoying, but don’t be shy, either. People are much more likely to hire someone recommended by someone they trust, so it’s up to you to work your network. When you do, remember that other freelancers are not your competition—they’re your friends. Knowing other contractors who do the same or similar work just widens your pool of contacts and potential clients. Be generous and send referrals their way, and they’ll return the favor.

When you’ve exhausted referrals from folks you know in person, you can try advertising your services more broadly, but use the right outlets. The key is to find your audience. A freelance web designer, for example, will find a different potential clientele on Haystack than on Craigslist. Figure out where your ideal clients look for contractors and get yourself listed there.

If you’re just starting out and need to fill in your portfolio AND kickstart potential referrals, consider doing pro bono work for a non-profit or deeply-discounted work for a desirable client. I hate advising fellow freelancers to charge anything less than what they’re worth, but the reality is that sometimes you have to give something away to prove yourself and earn opportunities down the road. (In fact, I was in the right place at the right time to start Lifehacker precisely because of a barely-paying internship.) You don’t have to work for free on an ongoing basis to use this strategy: try speaking at a local event for free (and mention that you’re for hire), or offer a free trial of your services for potential clients. But remember: Only give these freebies to good prospects.

Pricing Yourself: When Time Really Is Money

Even after seven years of freelancing part and full-time, answering the question “What’s your rate?” is still a challenge for me. Your hourly rate will depend on the project, your industry, market, location, the economy, your experience, and how deep-pocketed your client is. Pricing conversations can be a scary game of chicken that takes pluck, confidence, and a strong sense of self-worth to navigate. As a general rule, when you’re quoting an hourly rate, overestimate both time and money.

When you’re just starting out, the tendency is to underprice yourself because you really want to score the contract and you’re optimistic about the number of hours it’ll take to complete. However, you’ll forget to take into account things like taxes and time for administrative tasks. As you get more experience, you’ll adjust your prices, learn how to read different types of clients and what their budget range will be, and have enough confidence to walk away from contracts that aren’t worth taking. I’m much more likely to do interesting work for lower prices, but I’ll only take on tedious stuff that’s well-paid. When it’s time to ask for the upper range, I use an unscientific method: I quote the highest rate I can while still keeping a straight face.

When it comes to scheduling, don’t forget that you’ll be doing this work at night and on weekends, and things almost always take longer than your initial gut estimate. So, overestimate the number of hours a job will take. It’s always better to set expectations and deliver early than have to pull an all-nighter and barely break even.

The Financial Life of a 1099er

Sending out invoices and chasing down unpaid ones, filing quarterly estimated taxes, itemizing tax deductions, managing your own retirement fund, collecting 1099 forms—these are all necessary parts of a freelancer’s financial life. Do yourself a favor and put a good system in place for making sure 1.) that you’re getting paid for the work you do by invoicing promptly and following up and 2.) that you’re putting aside money to pay estimated taxes on that money. Once you get that system down—and it should be easier with the cushion of a dayjob’s steady paycheck—you’ll be ready to face the “feast or famine” state that is a full-time freelancer’s financial reality later on. I use a simple “Waiting for payment.txt” file and schedule calendar reminders to check that list once a month and pay my estimated taxes each quarter. Start slow, see how your side gigs affect your financial picture, and work from there.

With your dayjob in hand, you can start your freelance career with less pressure to make loads of money right away; you’ll be able to get the word out, establish a client base, build a portfolio, and set your prices on your own time. Do you moonlight as a freelancer? What’s your best piece of advice for those just starting out? Let us know in the comments.

Gina Trapani, Lifehacker’s founding editor, welcomes you to the ranks of the self-employed. Find her at Smarterware and on Twitter.

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Then I thought there must be a less humiliating way to ring in the new year.

So, instead of a vision board, I decided to simply write a good old fashioned list of New Year’s resolutions.

1. Keep your workspace clean

This should be easy. The definition of a clean workspace is different for everyone. Some people like everything on their desk to be at 90-degree angles. Some people would rather just have "a place for everything." Regardless of how you like to keep your workspace, there’s no doubt that being organized in some way is beneficial.

So get rid of all the Twinkie wrappers you’ve been hiding in your desk drawers, shake out all the Hot Pockets crumbs in your keyboard, and then take some industrial-strength solvents and wipe down your workspace. You’ll feel refreshed and ready for the next year at work.

But the trick is, you have to keep it clean throughout the year.

2. Get some exercise

This one seems to always slip by me year after year – but it’s important to keep fit. Exercise has been shown to elevate endorphins (which I assume is a good thing) and increase brain function (which is essential for creativity).

If you put those two facts together, you’ll inevitably come to the conclusion that physical exercise is good for creativity.

Besides, sitting in front of a computer or at your desk the whole day is just plain terrible for your health (see: mirror).

Join a gym, find a jogging partner, walk the dog, or play some stickball – whatever keeps you active and away from the computer for an hour or two a day.

For the upcoming year, aim at designing your body into a beautiful and well-chiseled work of art. Wait… what? I can’t believe I just said that. Whatever. Let’s move past it.

3. Live beyond your workspace

Please stand up and examine your work chair. Does the seat cushion have a perfect imprint of your behind?

Don’t answer that. Just get out there. Do something out of the ordinary in this upcoming year. Gain some new experiences. It’s easy to get stuck in front of the computer monitor and forget that there’s a whole world that exists beyond your desk.

You must actively seek out new adventures and new experiences because you will not find them while sitting on your chair (World of Warcraft does not count).

As long as your new chosen activity doesn’t involve traumatic blows to the head or non-stop consumption of alcoholic beverages and hallucinogens, you will surely gain some new tools to put in your creative arsenal. But, such activities did work for Hunter S. Thompson and Jack Kerouac, so maybe…

The bottom line is that you have to live beyond your desk and take your experiences into your designs; that’s the only way you’ll grow as a designer.

4. Don’t be scared of the dark side, take more risks

Taking risks is all a part of a designer’s job. Granted, design is a profession with a history and many traditions for many people so it’s understandable that some designers may find it hard to take bigger risks, or even convince clients to take bigger risks when formulating a new design. That’s because great design is design that stays.

However, it must be said that great design is also design that is fresh – and fresh is risky. We can even argue that taking risks is one of the biggest traditions of the design industry. Sure, the rules are comforting because they’ve been shown to work in the past, but that’s exactly where you’ll stay if you always choose the path of "righteousness."

Don’t be scared of the dark side. Take more risks. If Darth Vader didn’t move to the dark side, we wouldn’t have the original Star Wars!

5. Work on stuff outside your comfort zone

Work on a design that you never thought you’d do. Take on a project that you don’t think would fit your "style" and adapt to the situation. Not only is this good for adding variety to your portfolio, but it’ll also give you a chance to test your limits as a designer and see what you’re truly capable of. Maybe you can even reinvent yourself in the process.

6. Read more

Working in digital media can be really great. It can also make you forget that there is other media out there. Did you know that they still print newspapers? On real paper… even when there are sites like this! Shocking, I know.

Visit your local bookstore and browse the Design section. Or if leaving your computer is too much of stretch at the moment, you can order books off the internet and wait a couple of days (just in time for the new year).

Regardless of how you choose to add to your library, the fact is there’s always something interesting coming out in print and other traditional media that you can definitely take advantage of. Make a resolution to pick up and read more good old fashion books in 2010.

7. Make time for personal design projects

Personal design projects are a great way to boost creativity and get out of a rut. Not only will personal projects enrich your portfolio with new self-initiated work, you’ll also keep the Boring Monster at bay by periodically focusing on your passions and reminding yourself of why you got into this business in the first place.

It’s easy to neglect projects that are for ourselves; the paid jobs always come first because we all have to eat. But personal design projects have many benefits that, in the long run, will result in better quality work (which in turn, equates to higher-paying projects – it’s simple arithmetic).

Commit to at least one personal design project next year, even if it takes the entire year to finish.

8. Network and connect with people (it’s part of the job)

You don’t have to act like a high-priced escort at a company picnic to get paid like one.

However, surely this new year will bring new gallery openings, art exhibits, conferences and other gatherings pertaining to your life as a designer, and you mustn’t let these prime networking opportunities pass you by.

You have to demonstrate your value to prospective clients. So look through your portfolio and think about your work and how to best talk about what you can do.

Networking with prospective clients is not unlike talking to someone you find attractive at a party or a bar. You talk about yourself, you listen to the other person’s needs, you make yourself attractive to them, and then you ask for their phone number or you leave them yours.  Pretty soon you’ll find yourself in meetings with new people you never thought you could get.

9. Get some business cards made

Of course, you can’t network properly if you don’t have the right tools. If you don’t already have business cards tucked in your jacket pocket/back slot of your Moleskine, or if your business cards are out of date, break out some card stock and design and print them yourself before you even step out tonight. It’s not that hard.

Business cards are like grown up trading cards. It has your name on it, your position/title, and a bunch of numbers and information about yourself, not unlike the trading cards you used to collect as kids. They’re also like mini promotional flyers that people actually keep instead of using them for to fold paper airplanes. Although there’s this thing, which, given that last sentence, is very ironic.

10. Work smarter

You know what works for you. And you know what wastes your time when you’re working. Focus on the things that work.

We have to distinguish busy work from important work. Busy work is work just for the sake of working. Important work is the things that we have to accomplish in order to get our work done.

Do you really need that 2-hour conference call with the main agenda being a discussion about whether to use #FFF799 versus #FFF568 on the masthead of a web layout? Do you really need to check your emails and respond to them every hour? Do you really need to calibrate your monitor three times a day?

Being a designer means that your time and energy is a valuable resource. The more time you spend on things that don’t matter, the less time (and energy) you have on doing what you do best: designing and creating creative solutions.

For the New Year, identify busy work, and then do something about them.

11. Use the internet to make your life easier, not harder

Twitter and RSS feeds are great tools for designers to raise their online profile. They’re also crucial in order to stay ahead of the curve and be up to date with events, new techniques, and emerging trends.

However, with so many people to follow and RSS feeds to subscribe to, sometimes it can get a little messy. By the end of the year, I’m almost certain that your RSS feed reader must be working overtime because of the number of feeds that you managed to acquire throughout the year.

Devote some time early in the New Year to trim the fat and organize your internet stuff. Unsubscribe to RSS feeds that you don’t really need or read regularly. Do the same with trivial email newsletters that clutter your inbox every day at 6:30am in the morning (Amazon.com and Newegg, I’m talking to you). Close internet accounts that aren’t essential or are redundant (goodbye Plurk and Hotmail), and reduce your "Web 2.0" website usage to the bare minimum.

Doing this not only diminishes the amount of things that you have to keep up with, but will also have the effect of you having more time to devote to stuff that matter more to you as a designer.

12. Work with more clients you actually like

In the upcoming year, commit to stop working with clients that only raise your stress levels or waste your valuable time. Waste is a thief. If all you hear from your client is a constant stream of criticism and demands for adjustments, then most likely, it means they don’t trust you to do your job well. And most likely, they won’t be great references in the future, anyway.

Focus on clients that you enjoy working with. If you wake up every morning, fearing to see another email from one of your clients – that’s a sign that you should wrap up the current project, and move on. It may mean a pay cut. It may mean that you got to go out there and network and hunt for jobs harder. But in the long run, it’ll be better for your career (and your blood pressure… you can’t design things when you keel over and die of cardiac arrest).

Some parting words

Do no try to resolve yourself to doing the things on this list. Trying is for those who do things with the intention of allowing failure. And if 2010 really is your year, then failure is not an option, is it? So let’s all follow that old shoe maker’s motto and "just do it."

Happy New Year to everyone!

What are your New Year’s resolutions? Share them with us in the comment’s section below.

Related Content

• How to Get Your Ideas Across to Clients
• Adopting a “Does It Really Matter?” Philosophy
• Feedback. The Creativity Killer.
• Related categories: Project Management and Resources

About the Author

Isaac Gube is a photographer, philosopher, illustrator, adventurer, designer, and whatever else he chooses to be on any given day. You can connect with him on Twitter @IAMTHEGUBE or visit his Flickr page to see some of his photos.

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Typography Mania is a weekly post series that comes around every Wednesday with the best of Typography work on the web, from videos to images everything is full of great design and inspiration. Check out this weeks Mania and comeback in 7 days for more.

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Make sure to click on each image to go to original location where you can check out more work from each artist and designer.

Videos

Images

Elektrotrash: A Found Art Typeface

by Alex Varanese’

Te lo dice Camarón

by ulen García

Typografi

by Iyan Fabian

2009 posters

by Grzegorz Matyszewski

Heroes Type Tshirts

by Pete Harrison

Poster Design

by xpome

Cartazes

by Adriano Frachetta

The Devil’s in the detail

by George Birch

The Singleton – Typography

by Charles Williams

Void Poster

by Chris Carbo

I would die for vodka

by http://www.behance.net/xtwice

Luyendijk – The entertainment level of news

by Thijs Janssen

About the author

Hi! I’m Paulo Canabarro and I’m here to post some really cool stuff for you, if you have any ideas or any requests please get @ me – pvpcanabarro@gmail.com you can also Follow me on twitter!

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Some time ago I was looking for some cool digital works at DeviantART (my favorite spot to check out great art), and I ran into the amazing work of a designer called Uribaani. He makes some excellent pieces, really worth taking a look.

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For more of his great work, you should seriously visit his portfolio at DA and show him some love, because he gently gave us permission to post his work here. I hope you enjoy these. Cheers!

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I came across Christopher David Ryan’s work last night and was instantly drawn to his simple, clean, and clever style. His flickr page is a mashup of t-shirt designs, pillow designs, posters, illustrations, etc., all more visually-appealing than the next.

I am Christopher David Ryan… a Portland, Maine-based graphic artist, daydreamer, pseudo-scientist, wanna-be astronaut and untrained intellectual. I tend to find inspiration in pretty much anything… especially music, the universe, the human condition and natural phenomena.

For more from Christopher, swing by his blog, and feel free to let me know what you think via twitter or facebook.

About the author

I am Amanda Macedo – a student, photography enthusiast, and lover of life. I eat, sleep and breathe art, and I hope to share with you some of my thoughts and findings here at Abduzeedo as I further my discovery of graphic design. You can also find me on Twitter: @amlight

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The great people over at HouseholdHacker is once again showing their awesomeness in delivering the ultimate guide to a work day full of Twitter updates without you ever having to worry about the boss catching you in the act of updating or reading your Twitter stream.

In just a few clicks you will be able to actually read your Twitter stream right there in Microsoft Excel while “working” on calculations and other stuff. There is nothing better than pulling in your RSS feed right into Excel and make you the king deception at work. As the clip will show you, you only have to add a convincing headline and the cover up is complete. You can watch Twitter all day long without getting caught! What a wonderful world we live in. Don’t you think? Enjoy!

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