Back In The Saddle

Well, for the two people in Scandinavia who never gave up hope that I would blog again your patience is going to be rewarded today. I'm dusting off my blogging shoes (yes, the ones made by blogging shoe elves no less) and I'm going to be making updates to my blog again and generally filling the blogosphere with the yummy design goodness it's been missing. Aren't you glad? Of course you are.

I wasn't feeling very inspired this past year. Let's just say I took an occupational detour that did not lend itself to creativity. But I'm designing again and feeling very good about it. So to get things started I'm posting some links to make your design day a little brighter, whiter, and smilier.

Linkage to make you smiley:

Hand Drawn Font
Are you envious of all of those handwritten elements popping up all over the place? Create your own handrawn font. This tutorial will walk you through the process.
http://www.bittbox.com/fonts/how-to-make-a-hand-drawn-font

Image Capture & Sharing
This is the best screen capture software in the universe. Lots of cool features make taking captures and organizing them a breeze. You can also share your images online.
http://skitch.com

Vintage Ads
If you love vintage ads the way I love vintage ads then you have to give this page a visit.
http://wellmedicated.com/inspiration/50-inspiring-vintage-advertisements

Argyle Pattern Swatches For Illustrator
Why? Because Argyle is the new black.
http://colorburned.com/2008/10/50-astonishing-argyle-pattern-swat.html

Free Seamless Background Patterns
You know what they say. You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too many seamless background patterns. Am I right?
http://patterns.ava7.com

Well, that's enough for today. Enjoy!

Best and Worst of 2007 (My Top Picks)

Yep. It's the end of the year. You know what that means? Lots and lots of best of and worst of lists for 2007. You can add mine to the heap. I've put together a list of the stand-out services and software I used in 2007. Some of them I loved. Some of them I despised with a fiery, I-can't-believe-it's-not-butter kind of passion. Enjoy.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVED IT (2007's top picks)

COLOURlovers (online color tools and community)

I love this site. Did I mention the word love? Because I'm going to do just that, at the very least, about 20 more times. COLOURlovers allows its users to create custom palettes, colors, and patterns and share them. I learned about COLOURlovers earlier this year but never really used the service until recently when I needed to source a palette for a new project. I signed up for an account and I've been hooked ever since. I love creating palettes and blogging them. COLOURlovers has a nifty tool that allows me to link to a picture that inspires me and create a palette based on that image. The instant feedback from other users is great. I love the community and interaction of this site (think: flickr meets color). I also love having an archive of colors that I've used for my blog or for a project right at my fingertips when I need it. If you're a designer and you haven't spent the time to sign up for an account, then do it. Do it now. (Okay, not right now. Finish reading my blog first). This is a great service that is only going to get better. If it were a puppy, I'd buy it and take it home and feed it yummy kibble.

Tumblr (blogging platform)

This is a fun service that simplifies blogging via tumblelogs (think mini-blogs). It's a snap for novice users (or really dumb people) to sign up and start posting content online. I love their layouts, the customization options, and the fact that you can post music. Are there things I would change? Yes. But overall, I have had a great experience with my own tumblelog. I'm excited to see the direction this company takes in 2008.

Flickrriver (photo tool)

This little service does one simple thing and it does it well (letting you view flickr content). Maybe that is the key to success with good companies and services - Keep it simple. Flickrriver lets me grab photos or a photo set from a flickr account (via a username) and create a simple widget (or a cool, infinite scroll-y widget) to embed in my website or blog. I recently showcased Eric Natzke's work on my blog via a flickrriver widget. Check it out.

FontDoc (font software)

A freeware program that lets you preview text (that you type) with the fonts installed on your machine. Nifty when you are quickly trying to select a typeface for a logotype or tagline.

LOOP for Firefox (extension to upload, covert and combine your files to PDF)

You can assemble pdfs in a breeze with this tool. It came in handy for me a couple of times this year when I needed to combine multiple single pdf files together in one file but didn't have the Adobe software to do it.

Blogger (blogging platform)

I have been mostly pleased with the big upgrade that Blogger launched this past year. In some ways it's much easier for me to adjust the look and feel of my blog template. The auto saving when composing a draft is terrific and the platform seems really stable. I haven't experienced much, if any, down time. There are a few things that still need improving. For instance, I absolutely cringe at the way Blogger handles the photos that are uploaded through their interface. The image degradation is terrible. I've discovered that the best solution is to link directly to my flickr images. I would also really, really like it if Blogger made it possible for me to upload music files (like those cool kids at Tumblr). But all in all, Blogger provides me with a nice, customizable blogging solution. And it's free. So I can't complain (although some nifty new layouts would be the definition of sweet).

I DIDN'T LOVE IT (2007's not-so-top picks)

ClassicFTP (ftp software for the mac)

Oh. My. God. This ftp client freezes up every single time I double click a folder. Terrible.

DropSend (online storage...allegedly)

I signed up for a paid account on DropSend even though they were a bit more expensive than other online storage solutions I found. But I didn't mind. I liked the design of their site, the simple interface, and their nifty uploader software. I had a big warm fuzzy for this service. Well, that changed. I missed ONE billing cycle because I lost my debit card. A new one was issued but I didn't get the new card info posted before they tried to bill me for that month. So basically, I forgot to update my account with the new card information (these things happen, right?). When I realized that I needed to update the information I tried to log into my account to update it. Guess what? My account didn't exist and DropSend DELETED everything. My account contained photos and other items that I did not have backed up anywhere else (because I thought they were safe). I lost all of my files. When I contacted the company they were incredibly slow to respond, unsympathetic, and eventually put me in touch with some programmer who told me my stuff was gone and he couldn't get it back. Unbelievable. Seriously, my card could only have been rejected one time. It wasn't like my account had lapsed for months. To make matters worse I never received an email (yes, I've heard Zoto users claim this kind of thing, too). But in my case, it's the truth. I was surprised because at Zoto we keep people's photos around a LONG time (like FOREVER). Dropsend? DELETES your crap ASAP. I didn't have a backup of my dropsend backup which means that every single dime I spent on this service was wasted. I might as well have driven around and thrown money out of my car window. How can I best describe how I feel about this service? Let me put it to you like this. If Dropsend was a run by a group of sweet little old ladies, I wouldn't care, I'd still kick them in the shins (hard) and tell them they suck.

ConceptShare (online design collaboration)

Concept share allows designers to post their design comps online for review and collaboration (perfect for teams who work remotely). The concept is great. But our team tried it and I really wasn't that impressed with V1 of the site. To be fair they've released a V2 of the site I haven't checked out yet. Don't get me wrong. It's not a bad service but I definitely didn't love it and I was not impressed enough with it to keep shelling out $20 bucks a month for it. I did like aspects of the product like the ability to circle and make notes on the comps (for me this was the most useful part of the application). But even that functionality was a bit awkward and fell short of my expectations. I do a lot of interface design work. It can be a bit overwhelming to manage because there are tons of design comps. Even something simple, like a sign up form, can have dozens of comps associated with it, all depicting the different scenarios of user interaction. Those designs have to be reviewed, discussed, modified, resubmitted, and the final (approved designs) have to be uploaded to a place where the programming team can reference the final comps along with notes about functionality. In fact I would estimate that the Zoto 3.0 redesign had virtually hundreds of comps designed for it by the time it was complete. It stands to reason that any project with Zoto's kind of scope and magnitude is going to require a pretty awesome tool. But Conceptshare isn't that tool. Although it would probably be a useful tool for small (baby) projects, it falls short in meeting the needs of large (big boy) project work. As a UI designer I need to batch upload dozens of comps easily and quickly, mark on them, tag them, make notes, and then send them to everyone on the team. I also need a really good way to keep everything organized. I wasn't able to do this easily on Conceptshare. In the end, I went back to the solution we used for developing Zoto - a dedicated wiki. This service does have a lot of potential and I'll definitely keep my eye on it. If they made some enhancements to the UI (a nifty batch organizer like Zoto?) and combined it with an invoicing utility it would be the most rockin' freelancing tool ever.

Digg (popular social news site)

I used to love this site. That's right. You spell that L-O-V-E with a capital L. But not so much lately. The bottom line is that unless you take the time to cultivate a group of friends who are willing to reciprocate diggs (votes), your stories are NEVER going to make it to the front page. That is a fact. As a reader I am also disgusted by the sheer volume of (how can I put this politely?) crap that makes it to the front page. And the most important section of the site (to me at least), the design section, is anorexic of any genuine design-related content (hey kids, CSS is not design - fyi). I still visit the site and try to submit articles from my blog because the site is immensely popular and someday I'd like to have more than 5 regular readers. But when Digg changed its format and opened up the floodgates to mainstream users it killed a really good thing. Sorry, Mr. Rose. But your news site suck balls. Nuff said.

Twitter (post stuff you're doing)

I tried. In earnest. Really. But I still don't get it. I know I'm supposed to like it because everyone else likes it and thinks it's très genius. I do think that the site is pretty (just my 2¢ cents) and I will admit that the popularity of this service has made it fun to find people and "follow" their Twitter posts (daily snippets). I've particularly enjoyed reading about the trials and tribulations of the WGA and I would love, love, love to follow Joss Whedon on Twitter (if he had an account). So KUDOS to Twitter for legitimizing the voyeuristic, stalker-y tendencies of some internet users and simultaneously capitalizing on the narcissistic natures of others. But at the end of the day, it's just people blogging sentences. Plain and simple. What is even worse, is that most of the time it's stuff like, "I had coffee at Starbucks. The hippie girl at the counter had a nose ring". Um, okay. See what I mean?

Notes:
I mentioned Zoto quite a bit in this post. In case you are wondering, Zoto is an online photo hosting and sharing application. I've spent the past 2 years working on their interface and redesigning it. The new design launched in March of 2007.

Tasty Design Nibblets

Oh, yes. These are the num-num-nummiest design links you will find all day.

Rock Band Logos


Ali Edwards Art Journals
The beautiful layouts of this scrapbooking maven are beyond words.



Design*Sponge
Design*Sponge is a daily website dedicated to home and product design run by Brooklyn-based writer, Grace Bonney. A great resources and I love the the scrappy shabby-chic design.



Scrapbooks = Genius
"All the best creative people I've ever worked with have kept scrapbooks. They're always snappers-up of ideas and the physicality of a scrapbook ads something to the process."

Russell Davies wrote this great entry way back in 2006. I just stumbled across it again in my old bookmarks. Great little read for creative types.



WEAR palettes
Love, love, love the concept of blogging color (as you can see from the daily color inspiration posts that I recently introduced as a regular part of my blog). Most of my inspiration comes from vintage albums, posters, and misc artwork. Wear Palettes is a creative little blog that takes its inspiration from fashion. Like me, they also post palettes from COLOURlovers. Enjoy perusing this fantastic color palette blog based on fashion photos from the satorialist.

Yummy Linkage

I swear that some days I find the best sites. Here are some new links I'm loving. Take a quiz, be inspired, or buy a vintagey-modern poster. Mmm...yummy design related goodies for your tummy.


Tavis Coburn's Posters
http://shop.taviscoburn.com
A hot designer with a modern take on vintage poster design. Ooh la la.


The Album Art of Saul Bass
http://rateyourmusic.com
Saul Bass rocketh.



David Levine's Collection Of Graphic Design Ephemera
http://www.travelbrochuregraphics.com
What an amazing resource. I know that I personally will be spending hours pouring over his archives.



Got Wood? - Part 4 (From the Design Meltdown blog)
http://designmeltdown.com
Ha! I'm not the only one who has noticed how hot wood elements in web design have become. Great resource with lots of examples for inspiration.



Is It Art Or Is It Crap?
http://www.modestypanel.com/artorcrap
Take this quick quiz that is sure to leave you scratching your head.



Sound Splash 08
http://soundsplash.motherland.co.nz
An event website with a fun and fresh design. I totally dig it.

Scrappy Fonts

Scrapbook-ish and handwritten fonts can add whimsy and warmth to a design. I've zipped up an archive of scrapbook fonts for download. Below is a sample of some of my favorites from this collection. I've also included some links to some free sites where you can download scrapbook fonts and create your own handwritten fonts.

Samples:


Download: Scrapbook Fonts Zip (5.4 MB)

Free Scrapbook Fonts

Scrap Village
http://www.scrapvillage.com
Kevin & Amanda
http://www.kevinandamanda.com

Create Your Own Handwritten Font

My First Font
http://www.myfirstfont.com
Fontifier
http://www.fontifier.com

Goodies For Tuesday

Vector Freebies & Tutorials
http://createsk8.com
All the vector your little heart could desire.

Jared Christensen Portfolio & Blog
http://www.jaredigital.com
This site is hot. And pink. Yummy portfolio site.

Unmatched Style - Design Gallery
http://www.unmatchedstyle.com
Serving up some stylish designs. Nice source for inspiration.

Top 50 Design Blogs
http://www.davidairey.com
Blogs by designers. Check 'em out, yo.

Misc Design Links

http://www.stripedesigner.com
You need stripes? You got it.

http://www.colourlovers.com
I love this site. Fantastic for scooping up great color palettes. Save your favorites and download swatches for PS and AI.

http://redalt.com/Tools/I+Like+Your+Colors
Nab css colors from a favorite site.

http://www.vecteezy.com
Free vectors? Who doesn't want free vectors? A treat for download-happy designers like me.

http://www.brusheezy.com
Brushes, brushes, and more brushes. Check out their pattern section while you're there.

Random Links For A Rainy Monday

300loveletters
http://www.sleeptrip.com/300loveletters/2.html

An arty-fartsy little project where the author has written 300 letters to family, lovers, friends, and even crushes. Perfect if you are in the mood for a little online voyeuristic letter reading.

I love the yummy color coated interface. Each color block represents a love letter. The different colors indicate relationship types.

PostSecret
http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

An ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.

The Napkin Dad
http://www.flickr.com/photos/digioreo/sets/1494002/

A series of drawings and quotes on napkins this flickr dad put in his daughters' lunches for jr. high and high school every day over a 5 year period.

The Twinkie: Ingredients Revealed
http://www.divinecaroline.com/article/22177/35281

Because, you know, twinkies.

Some Little Gems

Just thought I'd share a couple of fun links I came across today.

PatternHead
http://www.patternhead.com/
I love this site. Raster and vector patterns for designers.

Today's Inspiration
http://todaysinspiration.blogspot.com/
Simply the coolest little blog about vintage illustration from the 40's and 50's.

Some Yummy Firefox Extensions

I thought I'd share some extensions that I have found handy and a few, recently discovered, that I'm taking for a test drive.

Loop
Upload, convert and combine your files to PDF from a tidy toolbar, without the conversion getting in the way of your Web browsing. LOOP for Firefox allows you to convert and combine files to PDF with the click of a button.

Firebug
Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page...

Snipshot
Edit any picture on the web with one right-click. The picture will be brought into the online image editor Snipshot where you can crop, resize, rotate or recolor it, then save it into a variety of formats (JPG, GIF, PNG, PDF) or to Flickr or a free image host.

Who Is This Person?
Highlight any name on a web page and see matching information from LinkedIn, Wikipedia, Google News, Technorati, Yahoo Person Search, TailRank, ZoomInfo, IMDB, MySpace and more...

LinkedIn Companion for Firefox
LinkedIn is an online network of more than 10.5 million experienced professionals. LinkedIn helps you be more effective in your daily work and opens doors to opportunities by helping you develop and manage your network of business contacts.

ColorZilla
Advanced Eyedropper, ColorPicker, Page Zoomer and other colorful goodies.

Palette Grabber
Creates a color palette for Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, GIMP, or Flash based on the current page.

Patterny Goodness

So, having survived hectic holidays, a breakup, a move to a new house, and the Ice Storm of 2007, I think it's time for a bit of blogging.

Today's menu? Patterny goodness. To be served with a piping hot, fresh side of links (hyper, that is).

I find patterns very inspiring. Here are some of my favorite resources.

Pattern Books:

Vintage Fabric from the States
Put this one on my wish list, please.

You Work For Them - Patterns
Peruse their entire pattern section. Where else can you pick up book of camo patterns that's been secretly haunting your dreams? That camo book comes with it's own CD-Rom, by the way.

Celtic Design
All the celtic motifs and designs your little heart could ever want. Cd-Rom included.

Blogs:

Print Pattern
Self described "designer and trend forecaster with a passion for pattern in all its forms." A Yummy, yummy pattern blog.

Naked & Angry
Submit pattern designs to be scored and manufactured into "blow-your-mind" products. When you get done with that wander over to the blog. If you have a hole burning through your pocket stick around and buy some wallpaper.

Misc Resources:

Create perfect photoshop pixel patterns
I don't care what anyone says, tiled web patterns are HOT.

Free patterns
Nice little collection of free web patterns you can use on your own site.

Online electronic swatchbook
Facinating. Samples of fashionable fabric designs from the 1830's to the 1920's. You can zoom in very close. (Nice use of the zoomr app with flash)

Symmetry and Pattern
Sound smart the next time someone asks. Applies to more than just oriental carpets, too.

Articles:

Symbolism in Asian Motifs and Patterns
Ever wondered what the recurring patterns in Asian textiles and dishware mean?

Africa's Painted Patterns
A little insight into those bold geometric patterns.

Traditional Patterns In Korea
Finally, someone explains what's up with all of those dragon patterns.

Inspiration:

Dan Funderburgh
I'm losing my mind because these pattern designs are that cool.

Josef Frank - Textiles
These are amazing textiles. I'm personally in love with "Loops".

Funkis - Fabrics
Lots of fun and funky patterns.

Flickr photo - Thursday love
Love this little photo and all the great notes describing the origins and history of these fun patterns. Why don't more people do this? Start taking pictures of your patterns. It looks like fun. Do it. Do it now.

Flickr photoset - Patterns
Luv it.

Whew. That's more than enough patterny goodness for one day.

Vintage Inspiration

Feeling a bit uninspired? Maybe this collection of vintage posters, prints, book covers, and postcards can kickstart your creative engine.

Flickr Pools

Jazz-Age in Print (20s-30s)
Celebrating the fabulous jazz-age illustrators and (graphic designers) and the illustrations and print design they created in the 1920s and 1930s.

Wartime Forties in Print
Celebrating the fabulous illustrators (and graphic designers) of the 1940s, and the illustrations and print design they created in (circa wartime) 1940s.

Beer and Booze: A Damn Fine Product
Vintage ads, product and package designs for America's favorite alcoholic beverages.

Vintage Cigarette Ads
Cigarette ads from the 40's and earlier.

Retro Kid
Illustrations associated with children's books from the mid-1940's through the mid-1960's.

Vintage Cookbooks
Pictures of vintage cookbook covers and page illustrations, from wacky to wonderful. Pamphlets, menus and old cooking advertisements.

Vintage Advertising
Advertising images from the past.

Vintage Magazines
Images of vintage magazines (including the eighties).

Vintage Illustration
Vintage illustrations from before 1970.

Vintage Childrens Books
Images from vintage childrens books and other items for children like cards, games, posters, etc.

Posters Post Cards
Posters and postcards old & new.


Flickr Sets

USSR Posters
Russian and/or Soviet propaganda & advert posters [1917-1991]

Vintage Book Illustration
Vintage illustrations.

Espacios Publicitarios
Anuncios publicados en las revistas "Clínica Rural" y "Glosa"
Años 50-60-70

Penguin Books
Retro covers of old Penguin and Penican books

Pretty Pictorals
Colorful retro children's pictorials.

Vintage Kid Books
Covers and illustrations.


Misc Online Resources

Soviet Propaganda Poster Gallery
A colorful resource of vintage soviet propaganda posters. Contains other soviet vintage galleries as well.

The Museum of Anti-Alcohol Posters
A gallery of anti-alcohol posters from soviet propaganda era.

The Ad*Access Project
Funded by the Duke Endowment "Library 2000" Fund, presents images and database information for over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955.

Chinese Public Health Posters
A collection of vintage chinese posters from the National Library of Medicine.

Hungarian Vintage Posters
Nice raw scans of an excellent group of vintage Hungarian Posters.

Vintage Print Ads
A small archive of vintage print advertising.

Misc Vintage Ads
Hilarious, shocking and creepy advertisements from the past century.


For Collectors

Vintage European Posters
A great gallery of original posters for sale from 1890-1960.

Poster Classics
A nice collection of original vintage French and Italian art posters for sale.

Rare European Advertising Posters
Authentic European Vintage Posters for sale.

Vintage Italian Advertising Posters
Original lithograph posters from the Ricordi Portfolio, published by the famous Italian printer Giovanni Ricordi in 1914.

Christopher & Co Ltd.
A great vintage collection including travel,entertainment, and propaganda posters.