June is here (or nearly here, anyway)! With it comes sunshine, patios and a new desktop calendar wallpaper for our readers. Various download sizes below – please share, & enjoy!
Click to download the June 2011 Desktop Calendar Wallpaper in 2560X1600, 1920X1200, 1680X1050, 1440X900 and 1280X800 pixels.
This week’s instalment of Found Fridays is a mixed bag of greatness. We have: a great article on the disconnect between designers & clients; how to create a “body border” that goes around the inside of a browser window; caffeinated popcorn for you late-night designers; an article on WordPress image management; and a nice, free display typeface from the League of Movable Type.
This a must-read for any and all designers, I think. The author, Ross, talks about his struggles with design, client revisions, and the like. If you’re a designer, you will relate.
A (older but updated to reflect new methods) tutorial on how to create a border that goes around the inside of your browser window. Web design trickery!
Designers & developers can be known to burn the midnight oil. Instead of brewing up a pot of coffee to keep you awake to hit that deadline, why not try caffeinated popcorn? Weird. I think I’ll stick to the coffee.
WordPress is our CMS of choice; that’s been beaten into the ground by this point. However, it’s not perfect and there are always ways to improve it – and this article touches on exactly that, focusing on handling images within the CMS.
Odd name, pretty cool typeface. 5 different fonts are in this family, and they’re good for display use (exclusively, I’d say).
See you next week!
The other day, I was surfing reddit. I swear it was on the weekend. Anyway, somewhere in a redditland conversation, someone posted this comment: I think you’re confusing cost with value. This got me to thinking – of course, in terms of running a graphic & web design business – how many of us confuse cost with value, and how does this affect our business as a whole?
Dictionary.com defines cost as “the price paid to acquire, produce, accomplish, or maintain anything: the high cost of a good meal.” It’s pretty straightforward: “This magazine cost me $5.95″. “The cost of this website came to $3,500″. Essentially, it is simply the price paid, when all is said and done, in monetary terms.
Hit the jump for the whole article! Read the whole article >
This week’s finds are heavy on the awesome/free! We have: a pay-what-you-want type foundry; a resource for free design elements with a unique business model; a site with free, simple desktops; a huge collection of design-related apps & resources on mega-discount; and a company that offers neat-looking, recycled goods like binders, presentation folders and the like.
This “type co-op” (aka foundry) commissions typefaces from a variety of designers. You pay what you want – the Radiohead model, if you will – and that money goes to the type designer. Some cool display faces in here.
Freebie Pixels offers resources for designers to download and use; however, those designers who submit resources that get accepted earn “Pixel Points”, which can be used to buy other resources from their Pixel Store. Interesting concept.
If you’re a fan of minimalism, you’ll like the wallpapers that Simple Desktops have to offer. But be sure to come back here on the first of every month for our monthly desktop calendar wallpapers!
While I might be feeling a little overwhelmed with the explosion of “deals” around these ‘ere Innernet parts, BundleHunt 4 offers some great stuff- 13 Mac Apps & resources for designers, to be specific, at a combined 93% discount.
Rebinder is a company that offers truly sustainable office products. I dig the look of what they’ve got going, and you get to feel good about doing your part too! Their goods could have potential for branding collateral for a lower-budget, eco-focused client too.
See you next week!
Over here at Paper Leaf Design, we make much ado about communication & process. In our minds, these two elements are key to a successful design project – whether it be print, identity, web or something else.
A while ago, I made up an infographic detailing our process. The purpose of this infographic was to give our clients a quick overview as to how we work, from meeting through launch, so they know what to expect in a design project. We haven’t really used this infographic yet – our own marketing materials are constantly being pushed to the backburner – but I thought some people may find it interesting. The end version will likely see a few changes to better reflect the direction we’re heading as a business, but overall the process remains more or less the same. Here’s the graphic (click to view large version):
Our process is generally broken down into these elements:
Nothing groundbreaking, but if you’re at a loss as to how to maximize your efficiency and keep your projects on point (scope creep is bad! Boo!), give this process a try.
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