Archive for December, 2009

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year from us to you!

We’re closed for the holidays until Jan 4th, but feel free to browse our website or blog archives to sate your design thirst in the meantime.

PaperLeafXmas

While we have you here, we’d like to thank all of our clients and all our readers for a great 2009: from those in Edmonton to those in New Zealand, and everywhere in-between (visitors from 123 countries)! 2010 already looks promising for us, and here’s hoping it does for you too! Take care & be safe this holiday season.

- Jeff & Andrea

I read a lot of design-related articles & blogs online – I mean, really, what else can you do when you live in Edmonton, which was the coldest place in North America on Dec 13 at -58C with windchill? Anyway, I’m constantly bookmarking items I think might be useful for me as a designer in the future – some I never end up using, but some I definitely do! This year, I found some great articles on web usability (always good to be able to effectively communicate why you made a particular design choice to a client), WordPress and jQuery, as well as a few others. Here are my Top Web Design Bookmarks of 2009, with thanks to everyone in the design community who keeps openly sharing their knowledge.

Perfect Full-Page Background Image

fullpagebg

CSS Tricks is a great website – a web designer’s goldmine, if you will – and this is but one of a ton of great articles on Chris’ site. I  have yet to implement it myself, but I hope to soon!

10 Usability Findings & Guidelines

10usability

Smashing Magazine is well-known in the design community, and the main reason is its well-researched and written articles pertaining to web design. Check this one out for usability tips, like where viewers look most on a website (above image – I felt it needed an explanation or else it just looks like someone’s website caught Athlete’s Foot).

Hit the jump for more! Read the whole article >

Every once in a while, a design calls for a somewhat sketchy, hand-drawn font. Perhaps it’s a gig poster; perhaps it’s for an !!ENERGY DRINK!! company; perhaps it’s something completely different. As a designer, chances are you usually have a ton of work on your plate and can’t always hand-style lettering unique to each project. That’s where hand-drawn fonts come in.

Some are sketchy; some are based off of well-known fonts; all are great. Check out this list of 10 Awesome Free Hand-Drawn Fonts! If you like it, don’t forget to check out our list of the 10 Free & Amazing Display Fonts too.

SKETCH BLOCK

sketchblock

It looks like Rockwell, but sketchy! Great for display.

JONNY QUEST CLASSIC

JonnyQuestClassic

This typeface has a nice mix of classy & old-timey elements. Legible & visually interesting.

TKACHENKO SKETCH

TKACHENKO SKETCH 4F

Slightly grungy, but not so angry and unreadable like a lot of grunge fonts.

Hit the jump for more free hand-drawn fonts!

Read the whole article >

It’s (almost) Christmas! We’re a little late on the uptake, as this wallpaper is a calendar and we’re already 11 days into December – but better late than never, right? I’m specifically looking at the dates after December 20 – when we’ll be on our holiday break. Considering it’s supposed to be minus 34 C on Monday, I think we’ll probably spend most of the break holed up like hermits unless it warms up considerably. Anyway, enough rambling – enjoy the Christmas Calendar wallpaper, designed by my lovely wife below, and subscribe to the RSS feed!


christmas-THUMB

Click to download the Christmas Calendar Wallpaper in 1920X12001680X10501440X900 or 1280X800. Pass it along!

Connect

Subscribe via RSS to the Paper Leaf Design Blog Subscribe via RSS to the Paper Leaf Design Blog Subscribe via RSS to the Paper Leaf Design Blog Subscribe via RSS to the Paper Leaf Design Blog

Search

Who?

Paper Leaf Design is a small but mighty graphic & web design studio in Edmonton. This is our blog, where we wax poetic on design.

Interested in our services?

Hire Us!