Weekend Links: Present&Correct

I saw Present&Correct linked to on the Fossil blog, and it is so delightful. It's a neat online shop with fun office + home items that have a bit of a retro, whimsical feel. I like almost everything on the site. Please check it out! I will post a few pictures and links below.

colour book | present&correct | HERE

patterned planner | present&correct | HERE

eraser mix | present&correct | HERE

Learning

You may have noticed that lately, I've been posting a lot about inspiration, even after my inspiration series finished. Part of that is just a result of what I've been spending my time on lately: school is up and running and I haven't been doing a lot of design projects. But part of it actually reflects something I've been thinking on lately.

That thing is learning...and that's what I'm supposed to be focusing on.

I spent the first year of my business thinking a lot about my business, and that was fine. I did sales and promotions and found lots of clients. That was fine. I learned a lot through setting up my business and I'm glad I started doing freelance work.

But I still have a lot to learn. It seems like the more time goes on, the more I realize how much I don't know. I have lots to learn about art and design and what it means to be a good designer, as well as many other things, academically and spiritually. I think that's where my focus needs to be over the next few years.

Of course I will still do freelance work and take on some projects, but I'm not going to be as zeroed in on building my business in the same way anymore. I want to pay more attention to learning. Part of learning is doing work hands-on, but that's not all of learning, and I want to be sure I'm learning in a variety of ways.

So if you see less design work posts and more inspiration posts, that's part of the reason why. I'm seeking to learn from the things that inspire me. I also just love sharing the things I like, and it's truly fun for me to enjoy and absorb great design in various forms.

Just wanted you all to know what I was thinking and where I'm headed with the blog these days. Thanks for being such faithful readers.

Neat Fabric Idea

I really enjoy the blog How About Orange (which I have mentioned here before), and I saw an idea there for wallpapering with fabric. This is such a cool concept and I am thinking I might try to apply it to my bulletin board sometime. Here's a picture of a the fabric-covered door in the How About Orange post. Read how to use this technique here!

Jessica from How About Orange mentioned that she got the fabric for this project from Ikea, so I checked out some of their neat fabrics online. The handwriting print Jessica linked to is great, and I found two others I like, too. Here are pictures and sources.

Britten Nummer Fabric

Ikea Stockholm Blad Fabric

Kajsastina Fabric

I like that all these designs have just two colors each - that makes them very simple, striking, and so Ikea-like. What do you all think of this idea and these Ikea fabrics?

Some Type Inspiration

Ran across some neat type inspiration that I thought was really cool. I wanted to share it with you!

First, Helveticards from CB2 (yes, I'm on a CB2 streak...it is just so cool!). But aren't these playing cards neat? If ever there was a deck of cards that was just perfect for me, this is it. I love the modern, so completely "Helvetican" design of the cards.

Buy these here.

Next up, I got the MyFonts "Rising Stars" newsletter in my inbox recently, and I was actually very impressed and surprised. It chronicles new, popular fonts, and the whole newsletter is quite lovely and well designed. Here's one image from the newsletter, demonstrating the font Samantha Script.

Buy Samantha here.

I like the way the colors are coordinating, and the little image really does a good job of showing the font and its feeling. If you'd like to subscribe to the MyFonts newsletter, you can do so here. It looks like you have to subscribe to both "Rising Stars" and "Creative Characters," which I also got and skimmed through quickly. It looked interesting but not quite as visually fun as "Rising Stars."

I also came across a blog article by David Airey called "13 typefaces for graphic designers." All the typefaces he features are top-notch. I'd love to own many if not all of them one day. Here are two fonts he mentioned that I don't think I've talked about on my blog yet.

This was the first ever sans serif font!

This is Clarendon, a really nice bold serif font.

To read more and to find links to the font, check out the post on DavidAirey.com.

Finally, I saw this super cool printed calendar on FPO. This isn't only typography, but it's interesting type-wise because it emphasizes the numbers of the typeface used. The numbers themselves are very striking! Here are a few images, but please read the post to see more.

I like the neat texture in the background and the way the white numbers stick out. The rest of the calendar is great too.

I'd love to know what you all think of this typography inspiration!

Room Inspiration

I have been thinking about redesigning my bedroom, and while the process hasn't really started yet, I've been looking around for inspiration and thinking about what I want it to look like eventually. As of now, I like a gray + white + yellow color scheme, and I've found lots of neat things around the web. Most of the things (especially those from CB2) are really expensive, so I doubt I'll buy those. But these things are still fun because they have the feeling and style I'd like for my room, even if I end up applying some of the ideas by using what I have or buying less pricey things.

I'll classify things by categories, and each category will have a collage followed by links. I hope you enjoy taking a peek at my room inspiration!

1 | 2 | 3

4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

11 | 12 | 13 | 14

15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22

23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32

So sorry the last two image collages are a little blurry - I can't figure out why that is. :( Anyway, I love all of these items and I hope you do, too! What are your favorites? I think some of mine are 7, 13, 18, 21, 24, and 29.

Weekend Links: CB2

I recently looked at CB2, a home decor shop that is connected with Crate&Barrel. And I love it. It's a little bit like Ikea, but has an even more designer type of feel to it. Browse around and then check back on Monday for lots of neat home decor finds, including some from CB2. Here are two favorite things in the meantime:

6 piece cubist modular wall shelf

acrylic tripod easel

2 Logos and A Photo

This post is rather random - just a quick combination of a couple things I've come across on the internet recently. I have two logos to share and then a photo (with a link to more!).

First logo: Blurb. I really like them as a company - they do great photo books. I hadn't even realized that they redesigned their logo until I saw it here. Here's a before and after:

(And I think it was blue before as well - the gray must have been just for oldness effect). I like the redesign a lot. The typography is much better, and I like the proporstions of teh book better as well. It looks more realistic. I had wondered if the type was Gotham or maybe Helvetica, but it appears to be ARS Maquette Pro, a font I hadn't heard of. It is a good typeface, though. Here's a Blurb business card:

Very nice type. I think that's the strong point of the design.

I also recently came across some cool photography. A photographer named Rudiger Nehmzow went up in an airplane and took pictures of clouds from four miles of the ground with no window in between. The concept itself is really cool, and the images are stunning. Here's one, and you can see more here.

Isn't that so astounding? It's so neat to see such realistic pictures of a part of God's creation we don't get to look at from this perspective.

One more thing... another logo! I saw this logo here and thought it was really cool. It's another redesign. I won't show the old logo because I really don't like it, but here's the new one.

It's for Expo 2015, some kind of World's Fair in Italy. I don't really know anything about the event, but this logo is creative and hip. It was the result of a contest, and I'm not so big on design contests all around, but I'm glad that the result was good. I like the overlapping colors - that's a cool technique.

I'd love to know your thoughts on any of these things! :)

Blogger's New Interface

A couple weeks ago, I noticed a little bubble on my Blogger dashboard saying something like "try out our new interface!" So I did. And I think I'm still getting used to it a little, but overall I really like the re-design. Here's an image of one of my free fonts posts when it was in progress in both the old interface and the new one.

BEFORE

AFTER

The layout is much different from the old Blogger layout, but it seems like it will be just as user-friendly once I get used to where all the options are. Some new features I noticed...

• It's easier to access the list of posts, which honestly, is the page on Blogger I visit all the time. When I open Blogger, it's where I go first. So it's nice to have it nearby.
• The scheduling posts feature is much more obvious (before it was hidden in an expandable menu), and it now also has a calendar so you can easily select what day you want the post published.
• A "revert to draft" button on the list of posts. That will be helpful if I accidentally schedule a post I'm not done with yet. Before, you had to edit the post and hit the "save as draft" button. This new button right on the post list page saves a step. 
• Numbers of posts, comments, and pageviews are all more visible which is nice.

I think the only thing I don't like about how the layout works is that the number of comments per post isn't as obvious to see.

Design-wise, I think this interface is much better than the previous one. Here's what I like about the design:

• All the gray. A lot Blogger is gray now. Hooray!
• Orange. It's a nice, bright accent color with the gray and white.
• Much less blue. The navy blue was too obvious a combination with orange. I like the gray + orange scheme much better. Blue is still present in some text, but it's more subtle and the neutral grays and white really take center stage.
• The typography. I think (unless I'm mistaken) that Blogger chose a new main font, which is great. Reminds me of what Seth Godin said about typographic creativity on the web. Uniqueness is good.

And downsides to the design? I'm not so crazy about how the post editor box is "floating" in that big gray area. I like that white space is used, but it seems like there could be some way to make it look a little more anchored. And also, the spacing between the posts on the view posts page is a little too big for me. They look a little overly spread out. But these errors are minor, and overall, I think the design is a good move.

If you use Blogger, do you like the new interface? Or even if you're not a blogger, do you think it was a good move based on the screenshots and my comments?

More New Free Fonts, Part 2

Here's part two of my two posts on free fonts I've downloaded recently. I've used the same color scheme for both posts, too. The download links are under the images! If you didn't see yesterday's post, please scroll down and check that out, too. It has some important info. about free fonts.

Junegull | download here

Litera Serial | download here

Magesta Script Mix | download here

Museo Sans | download here

Museo Slab | download here

Neo Retro Draw | download here

Pona Display Demo | download here

Sketchetik | download here

I'd love to hear what your favorite fonts are! Which do you like best?

More New Free Fonts, Part 1

I posted awhile ago about some new free fonts I had downloaded, and I thought I'd do another post like that. I recently got some free fonts, mostly from from MyFonts. MyFonts mainly sells commercial fonts, but many of the fonts they sell have free versions that you can download through a checkout process. I tried it and it was a great experience! I'd like to share a few that I downloaded both from there and elsewhere. There are a lot of fonts I want to show you, so I'll divide this post into two parts - the next part will be up tomorrow. I'll put links to the download page underneath each image. But before I get to that, I've got a couple important things to say about free fonts:

• Some of the fonts that have commercial versions only come in "demo" versions. Sometimes they're missing some pieces (like punctuation), and other times, only one of many versions of the font is free. It sometimes limits what you can do with them, but nonetheless, it's nice to have fonts for free.
• Keep in mind that some of the sample text you see on free font websites isn't always the most uplifting or appropriate. It's not necessary to read the sample text, so you can just skip it and download the font if you don't find it helpful!

Now, finally, here are some fonts I've downloaded...

Budmo | download here

Classic Round | download here

Coolvetica | download here

Ephesus | download here

Erato Light | download here

Fertigo Pro | download here

Banda | download here

Geometry Soft | download here

What do you all think of these fonts? I'd love to hear what your favorites are!

Weekend Links: The Vitrine

Today's weekend link is to an online shop called The Vitrine. They have some neat, creative items that I think you'd enjoy looking through. For example...

This cool yellow tray.

And this woven bracelet that is so neat!

Inspiration: Graphic Design, Part 3

Today is the last post in my graphic design category, and the last regular post in my entire inspiration series! Tomorrow, there will be a related weekend links post, and then the series will be done. Thank you all for sticking with me all this time.

I thought I'd end with graphic design, since this blog is mostly about that after all. I have some design items to show you that I hope you will like. Instead of specific pieces, I have two websites of design to talk to you about, and then some freebies from other sites to share.

First up is Hum Creative, which is Kate Harmer's design company. She does some really stellar work. I'll share a couple things with you, then comment on them all in general, and if you like what you see, check out the work section of her site.

I love these wedding invitations. They're letterpress, which scores big points in my book, and the design is simple and elegant but at the same time, fun and charming.

I love the colors - just white, brown, and turquoise. It's a pretty combination of colors. The use of white space on the folding part as well as the blue envelope (? - I'm guessing it's an envelope) is nice as well, and keeps the design from being too busy. The silhouettes of the bride and groom is a creative idea, as well. I love the way silhouettes look in general, and these are certainly good ones. See more pictures of this project here.

This business card, as part of an identity system for someone involved in music and photography, is excellent, too. (And more letterpress - yay!)

The combination of sans serif and serif typefaces actually works quite well - I think the consistent colors help a lot. The image part of the logo (heart in outline) is also good. It's not too busy, but at the same time, it's complex enough to look cozy and inviting.

One more thing from Hum Creative before I move on... this CD packaging for a band called She & Him. I know nothing about their music so I'm not recommending them - I just like the packaging!

I didn't notice at first that there's both a full size record album and a CD to this design. That in itself is pretty cool - I didn't know anyone was actually still making records. There's something endearingly vintage about that. As for the design, I like it. The freehand, almost cartoon look to it makes it seem cheerful, but at the same time, thoughtful and serious. Here's a closer look at the CD packaging:

The notebook paper looking insert is cool, as well as the envelope. I like the creativity and outside-the-box style of this whole music project.

So what inspires me about the work of Hum Creative? A couple things:

• The balance between clean & simple and friendly & warm.
• The customization of everything. The client wanted letterpress? So be it. A record as well as a CD? Sure! I'd love to get to the place where I can design like that, find a printer who will work with me, and just go for it. That really inspires me.

Now I'd like to let you know about the second website I wanted to share today, Louise Fili, Ltd. It's a design firm in New York City and boy would I love to intern there sometime. Their work is great. It was started (and named) for Louise Fili, a designer who has made it into the Art Director's Hall of Fame. I didn't even know there was such a thing until I read about it on the about page. How neat! I'll show you three things I like from Louise Fili, Ltd., but please check out their website - they've done such a large volume of work!

First up, some bottled water packaging, perhaps the most unique I've seen (Ethos would take second place.) Take a look:

This packaging design is actually more minimalistic than most of what I see on Louise Fili, but it still has a charming, funky air to it. The big droplet of water is eye-catching and I really like the typography of "Aqua Forte." Perhaps the best thing about this design is the empty space where there isn't any design. That gives it a really distinctive look. Also, the fact that the design isn't printed on one of those wrap-around water bottle labels makes it more unique and sets it apart from just a normal bottle of water.

The second thing I want to show you from Louise Fili is a logo and menu combo for a restaurant called Marseille. Here's the logo:

It's certainly well-designed - classy and elegant, but not stuffy or stuck up looking. It's interesting how the logo translates so well to a neon sign (see here), and the typography itself seems to be quietly reminiscent of neon. But what I really like about this logo is how it's applied to menus...

You'd expect to see a lot more decoration in going from the logo on its own to a menu design, but it's not there. The only decoration on the outside of the menu is the logo, and I think that's absolutely brilliant. It takes different forms, all the way from one letter out to a whole word, but each thing really coordinates well. I love that the logo is flexible enough to be translated so literally into the menus. That's some good design.

Finally, I want to show you the cover design for a book by Louise Fili and Stephen Heller (a writer on graphic design). This cover is excellent.

I'd actually be interested to thumb through the pages of Design Connoisseur, but for now, I'll focus on what I can see from the picture: the design. This book contains type from the 20's, 30's, and 40's, and I think the cover has an appropriately vintage feel to it. I like the ornate yet not overwhelming style of the cover. It's very detailed and swirly looking, but there is some nice white space as well to balance out the busyness. I also like the way the lines of the green pattern point towards the title.

Louise Fili, Ltd. inspires me because of...

• The interesting work they do with typography.
• Louise Fili's own accomplishments, i.e. the fact that she designed 2000 book jackets while she was the art director at Pantheon Books. Is that impressive or what?
• The mix of things that are fresh and modern and more timeless looking. The style isn't always exactly the same, but everything is good, solid design. It reminds me that different styles are okay.

Now that I've let you glimpse two neat design websites, I want to share some links to design freebies that you might enjoy.

First, there are some neat freebies to be found on Veer's freebie page.

They have a weekly photo and illustration and a monthly font for download, as well as some desktop backgrounds and screensavers. The typography movie posters are neat. (Saw them originally on How About Orange.)

Also, Fossil has some new desktop backgrounds to enjoy. This one is really cute:

I recently saw something on How About Orange that I thought was really cool. It's called Silk, and it's an interactive website where you can drag your mouse to create pretty abstract silk patterns. Here's a screenshot of the website with one of my silks on it. Try it here!

It's fun to play with, and if you go scroll down on the homepage, you can also download some neat Silk computer wallpapers.

I hope you all liked today's post... please let me know what you think of the design you've seen! I love your comments.