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Archive for the ‘Found Fridays’ Category

Found Friday Vol 33

November 12, 2010

33… the number of the great Scottie Pippen. Completely unrelated to that are this week’s design finds on the internet, and we have some goodies: some great magazine layout inspiration, an awesome iPod watch band, weirdly awesome robot art notebooks, a “make a terrible logo” contest, and an important article on landing page optimization. Read on:

Magazine Cover & Layout Design Inspiration

Laying out/designing a magazine is a huge undertaking, but it is a lot of fun and can be very rewarding when you see the end product. If you have an upcoming magazine design project, check out this post for some inspiration!

iPod Watch Band

The new iPod Nano is aptly named; it’s small. And beautiful. Plus, fire an awesomely designed rubber wristband around it and you have a nifty watch… a nifty FUTURISTIC watch.

MiloCraft

Milocraft is run by a friend of ours who makes the weirdest little robot notebooks ever. She also sells the original weird robot artwork. If the notebooks aren’t a killer stocking stuffer, I don’t know what is. I love ‘em; grab them from Etsy or, if you’re in Edmonton, buy them in person at the Handmade Mafia Nov 27.

How Low Can Your Logo Go? Contest

99% of the time, the design community gets up in arms about design contests of any ilk (and rightfully so, in my opinion). This is the 1% where they don’t: a contest to design the worst logo ever. It begins November 15; I will be entering. Fun!

Landing Page Optimization Tips

There is an art to getting conversions or meeting goals on a specific page (say, getting the user to sign up for a service). Design plays a huge role in the effectiveness of these landing pages; check out this article for some great tips & visual examples of good & bad techniques.

Til next week!

Found Friday Vol 32

November 5, 2010

BAM! Jeff here, checking in with Found Friday Vol 32 – the best design finds of the week. This week: a wireless solar-powered keyboard, a great article on combining typefaces, how to change the WordPress logo in a WP install, a cool website that aggregates some of the best design resources, and an awesome piece of industrial design that easily changes your tap into a drinking fountain/faucet combo. It’s like an explosion of creative around here!

Logitech Wireless Solar-Powered Keyboard

Seems counterintuitive for the basement-dwelling designer, but Logitech claims this keyboard can run up to 3 months in total darkness. Mind=blown.

Best Practices of Combining Typefaces

Type choices can make or break a design, and there are certain rules that should be adhered to. Read this article and you’re well on your way to making good type combination choices.

Change the WordPress Logo in Your Admin Pages

This quick & easy hack allows you to display your clients’ logos in place of the default WordPress logos in their WordPress install – without a plugin. A neat value-added component you can give to your web design clients.

DesignersList.info

There are a wealth of design resources floating out there in Internetville; this website collects some of the best ones. A one-stop web designer shop, if you will! Still in its infancy though, so give it time and submit resources you think are helpful.

Tapi

A simple attachment that turns your plain ol’ kitchen tap into a tap/water fountain combo. Simple & brilliant – like most any great idea.

That’s it! See you next week.

Found Friday Vol 31

October 29, 2010

Hey all, and welcome to volume 31 of Found Fridays – the best design finds of the week. This week we’re all over the place: some fun Halloween wallpapers for your desktop, a great article on effective call-to-action buttons, furniture made from old mines (yes, mines), a must-read article for designers on justifying your design decisions, and a complete guide to WordPress as a CMS. Read on!

Festive Halloween Wallpapers to Ghost Your Screen

It’s that time of year! Know how I know? It snowed in Edmonton the other day. Thus, it must be close to Halloween. Anyway, get in the moment and rock one of these Halloween wallpapers. Well-designed to boot!

Attract Your Visitors With Call-to-Action Buttons : Best Examples

We’ve had a few questions of late from clients about call-to-action buttons – namely, their purpose and how they’re to be used. Here’s a good article talking about these very things, and showcasing some great examples.

Mine Furniture

Yes, this is furniture made from old mines. Sounds crazy – and it is – but it’s awesome. Just look at the fireplace and tell me you don’t want it.

When A Thousand Words Is Worth A Picture

As designers, we are constantly faced with the need to explain our design decisions & why we made them. It can be difficult at times, as we’ve all had clients who hire us for our expertise and then don’t use it. Read this article on Smashing Magazine to understand the importance of justifying your design decisions to clients and to learn best practices to do so effectively.

The Complete WordPress-as-a-CMS Guide

We are unabashed WordPress fiends. We use it as a CMS for a variety of reasons – it’s easy for clients to learn, it has a huge user base, it’s open source and more. This article goes in-depth about using WordPress as a CMS – read it if you’re interested in jumping into the WP realm, or even if you’re already a seasoned WP user. You might learn something new!

That’s it! See you next week.

Found Friday Vol 30

October 22, 2010

Welcome, internet trailblazers, to volume 30 of Found Friday – the best design finds of the week. This week, we have a roundup of the new announcements from Apple, a gangstafied Lorem Ipsum site, an online caricature-drawing service for $50, A List Apart’s web survey, and a free online web development estimation tool. Great stuff all around!

All the Cool New Stuff from Apple

Crazy thin Macbook Air? Check. New OS? Check. Facetime for Mac? Check. Mac App Store? Che… wait, what?!

Gangsta Lorem Ipsum

I’ve been known to have some fun with client mockups, from using placeholder photos of George Clooney & Fabio to sending along fake mockups drawn in MS Paint. If you’re like me, then, you’ll love the opportunity to use Gangsta Lorem Ipsum. If you can’t have any fun, why do anything at all?

Caricature Pro

Caricatures are a specific skill, and if you’re looking to brand yourself (or your client) as a welcoming, laid-back business person, Caricature Pro might be an option worth looking in to. Mine would probably end up with a giant ~~head~~ biceps.

The Survey for People Who Make Websites

A List Apart runs annual survey designed to gather information from web designers like you and I. Help out your own industry, take 5 minutes, and complete this survey!

Astuteo Web Development Project Estimator

A great little tool for those not completely sure about what to charge for a project, or to see if what you’re currently charging is accurate. Glad to say we were bang on! There are some items in the form that I hadn’t really thought of articulating to clients too, so that was a bonus.

That’s it! See you next week!

Found Friday Vol 29

October 15, 2010

Welcome to Found Friday, Volume 29: the best design finds of the week. This week we found some great stuff on the ol’ interwebs: a great article on usability findings that can help you back up your design decisions; a collection of great online color/code/web-related generators; a great quick tip on creating better spotlighting effects in Photoshop for web design; a fun dueling piggy bank; and a new website with some great, free design elements. Read on, readers!

Usability Resources to Win Arguments

Aesthetics are not ammunition enough to convince your client that your design decisions are good. What you need, when it comes to web design, is actual findings that back up your decisions from a usability/user experience end. This article (combative title aside) has a bunch of great findings sure to help you win over your next client.