Typography soap—what will they think of next? I think this image needs no further explanation. [via swissmiss]|DBK
Lather Up
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Love is Life
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A simple, modern type treatment seems to be where I always end my journey of designing and redesigning.Here’s a card I designed recently for Escargot Studio. |DBK
Drinks Well
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You gotta love it when beautiful design comes together with functionality. These wine bottles for Drinks Well Wine marries the two flawlessly. Designed by UK-based Robot-food, the bottles are friendly and approachable, and are color-coded by types and regions. I love everything about them. [via Lovely Package] |DBK
Icon Finder: Search for icons by keyword
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Icon Finder helps you find relevant icons by searching for keywords.
Icon Finder has a clean and minimalist design. Thankfully, the site is not stuffed with ads – there are just a couple of private ads and an AdSense unit at the bottom of the site. One can only hope that this lack of advertising does not cause the site to be closed down in future.
Searching for some typical keywords (like computer, camera etc.) turned up relevant results. The accuracy of results would probably depend on the type of keywords used. The quality of results found by search was not amazing, but browsing the icon packs (link to which is on home page) turns up quite a few good icons.
There are a few options to be tweaked while searching for icons – number of icon previews to be listed per page, background color and size of icons.
On clicking through to an icon’s download page, you can see more details about the icon – including name of designer, license, and whether it is part of any icon set (in which case, a link to the icon set is also displayed).
Other sizes and versions of the icon, and other icons from the same icon set are listed after this, so that you can explore further in case the icon in question does not satisfy your needs.
A original article by Design Blurb
Memories
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I think all children (and adults) should grow up playing this
typography memory game by the Brazilian design studio ps.2. Oh, how type-savvy the world would be! [via Twig & Thistle] |DBK
TextureLovers: A source of free texture downloads
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Graphical components, like brushes, gradients, textures and vectors are never enough. There are plenty of sites online for downloading these for free, but sadly, many of them suffer from lack of visitors and promotion. Every week, here at Design Blurb, we shall feature good free resources. If you like/own such a site, please contact me informing the same.
Texture Lovers: Free texture resource
Texture Lovers is a website dedicated to showcasing free texture resources.
Texture downloads are neatly categorized as single textures (including exlusive textures), texture packs, texture inspiration and tutorials. Textures are further classified – for example, single texture category contains sub-categories like wood, paper, stone and foliage.
Textures on the site are also tagged, so if you liked a particular style, you could click on a tag and continue browsing. Related textures are also displayed at the end of each texture page. The site is well designed and neatly categorized, making lazy texture browsing a breeze. It is also one of the better examples of non-blog sites powered by WordPress. The design, features, categorizing and preview images are worth noting.
Currently, the number of textures cataloged on the site is not huge, but that is understandable since the site was launched only a couple of months ago.
Overall, Texture Lovers is a website worth adding to your collection of texture resources – particularly considering how easy it makes the whole process of finding, previewing and downloading textures.
A original article by Design Blurb
Crowdsourcing that Actually Encourages Creativity
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A couple of weeks ago I stumbled across the site Kickstarter.com from a tweet I saw, mentioning a new crowdsouring site for creatives. Of course I assumed that Kickstarter must be another site commoditizing creativity to the point of uselessness, so I clicked through to see how low things had gotten. But I was completely surprised to see a site that actually used to help individuals with creative ideas get their projects off the ground.
A New Approach
To those of you who have not heard of Kickstarter yet, you will be surprised to find out that the site turns the idea of crowdsouring around. The individual posts their idea for the project, and then the community helps by making donations. You could think about it as the small guy’s public television drive without the annoying hosts and panel of phone operators in the background. However, the key differentiator is the lack of risk associated with making a donation. If the project doesn’t reach its goal within the timeframe, then no money exchanges hands. This avoids a project being 35% funded with no way to fulfill the promises it made to its backers. For more even more information on how the site works, check out the “learn more” page.
Currently the projects being posted are by invitation only, which may be why so many of the projects listed on the site are interesting. Part of me thinks that maybe it should stay that way? Right now the projects are all highly interesting and full of potential, the obvious result of careful oversight by a panel talented and influential individuals. But I am digressing; the true innovation here is how quickly Kickstarter has changed my perception of the idea of crowdsourcing.
As it currently stands, Kickstarter is using crowdsouring to launch the projects of talented individuals, not take advantage of them. A system built to achieve good things, things that may exist outside the boundaries of what is financially lucrative. Things that make people smile. Right now I think we all could agree that we could use a couple more things like those being created utilizing the Kickstarter community.
My Kickstarter Project
Being the designer that I am, I immediately saw Kickstarter as the solution to a number of potential problems upon visiting for the first time. The most interesting to me, and the one I felt was potentially the best fit for the community is a book idea I had been holding on to for a while. The only problem keeping me and Marin from starting the project was a lack of initial funding to secure some necessary tools/supplies.
So with the help of Kickstarter I am proud to announce the “Chicago Griddle Guide” which if funded, will be the greasy spoon lovers dream guide to navigating the Chicago food Scene. I encourage you to check out the project and make a donation if the project interests you, Marin and I would really appreciate your support (or your help spreading the word). Plus the rewards for making a donation aren’t half bad either.
The Blah-nket
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If I could pine for an inanimate object, it would be this mini-blanket by Donna Wilson. Knitted in Sweden, the adorable 100% lambswool blanket comes in two designer colors (mustard + white shown above). [via Oh Joy!]|DBK
Elsewhere on the Web – Interview Edition
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Today’s post started out as a short one, to thank the Geek Girls Network for asking me to participate in their interview series. But I soon realized that I’ve been interviewed several times in the last year, and wanted to share those with you, as well.
Most of the interviews focus on my experiences as a web designer, business owner, and as someone who has recently taken the freelance plunge.
I’m honored to have been asked to interview by so many great bloggers – they all ask some very interesting questions, which give you a bit of an insight as to what makes this “geek girl” tick…
Geek Girls Network
By Kristin Riley – June 26, 2009
read the full interview
- When did you first become interested in Web Site Design?
- What has been your favorite/most memorable project that you have worked on?
- When did you decide and what factors were involved in making your decision to start your own business?
- Do you feel there are any pressures in this industry because you are a woman?
- What tools/skills have you acquired that you feel are vital to your success in this field?
- What has been your worst web design experience?
- What message would you give to geek girls just starting out in the web design industry?
Phire Design
By AJ Troxell – March 19, 2009
read the full interview
- How did you first get involved in graphic design, or what was your first experience w/ it?
- When did you know that this is what you wanted to do for the rest of your life?
- Did you always plan on doing design as well as development, or did it just factor in over time once you realized there was a need for people or companies to get those two things in one place?
- Why did you make the decision to go freelance? What was in it for you that you wanted to have?
- What thing in what you do, brings you the most satisfaction?
- What would you say makes you and your company different, or sets you apart from the rest?
- Who or what would you give credit to for helping you become the designer that you are, if you had to say?
- What’s your favorite part of design itself? Logos, type, color theory, etc.?
- Is there anything else you’d like to share with us about design or web development or your company, or any advice you’d like to give to anyone looking to go freelance?
BPease Design
By Bob Pease – January 16, 2009
Read the full interview
- What brought you to the wonderful world of web design?
- What was the first site you designed?
- How do you break designer’s block?
- How does the ‘real world’ inspire your web creations?
- You are very active in the design community, which social media site has been the best tool for you?
- Who do you admire most in the design community?
- What apps do you use when designing a site?
- What is your favorite platform/language to develop with?
- A question I see floating around all the time – Music while you work, is it good or bad?
- If you had to give up design, what you choose for a career?
SparkPlugging
By Wendy Piersall – July 3, 2008
Read the full interview
- Selene, you have been hanging around my site now for around 9 months or so, and I’ve watched you grow from anonymous blogger – WAH(Web)Mommy – to ‘freelance moonlighter’ blogger, and now to full time work at home freelancer. I know you sometimes struggled with some decisions along the way, too. How long have you wanted to run your own business from home, and what were the reasons why you wanted to do so?
- When you finally made the decision to work for yourself, what was your plan of action to transition from employee to self-employed? Did you create milestones for yourself, and if you did what were they?
- What were some of the ’surprises’ along the way? Did anything pop up in this process that you weren’t anticipating?
- Did you have your husband’s support during the transition? How did that influence the process?
- What role did blogging and social media play in reaching your goal?
- What resources did you use to research, gather information, and prepare yourself for running your own business?
- Now that you are truly “free”, what advice would you give to other people looking to make the jump into full time freelancing?
Where It All Began
While the interviews above pose some great questions, you might still be wondering more about my background and upbringing. If so, feel free to check out my short biography, or if you’re brave enough, the incredibly long-winded version… your choice, LOL.
Back To Our (IR)Regularly Scheduled Programming
I realize that much of my recent writing activity has been focused on other blogs more than my own, but don’t worry – we’ll be back to our irregularly scheduled design, development, business, marketing and work-life balance posts next week! 
All Types of Wallpaper
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Does your iPhone need a makeover? Check out these type-inspired iPhone & desktop wallpapers fromtypenuts.com. Free, for typography lovers! [via swissmiss] |DBK
