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Found Friday Vol 59

Jeff — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 14:00:11 +0000

This week’s best design finds are varied, enlightening and entertaining. We have: ten free tools to manage snippets of code; an innovative design solution to littering; an article on letting go of pixel-perfect web design; a great look at the new Van Gogh museum identity system; and a camera that lets you focus your shot after you’ve taken it. Read on!

10 Free Desktop Applications for Managing Code Snippets

I reuse snippets of code all the time, especially with WordPress sites – can’t remember everything! This list showcases 10 different desktop apps that help you organize these snippets (I use Snippley, personally).

Play with Trash

Check out Lucerne’s (city in Switzerland) solution to get people to throw away their garbage – make it fun. Now that’s design – solves a problem, and looks good while doing it.

Time to Give Up on Controlling Our Designs

This article is a must-read for old, new and aspiring web designers alike. Can we control our designs, now that we have to deal with a wider array of desktop browsers, plus mobile applications, RSS readers, and the like? Short answer: no.

Van Gogh Museum Identity Redesign

This look into the new Van Gogh Museum identity is a perfect example of a visual identity being more than the sum of its parts. The logo by itself is underwhelming. But how it is used within the identity, and how the identity is rolled out across various mediums, is great.

Lytro Camera

This camera lets you change the focus of your photo after you’ve taken it. Click through to Wired’s article and a working demo too. Pretty interesting tech.

See you next week!

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Found Friday Vol 58

Jeff — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 14:00:01 +0000

This week’s Found Friday is a great one – especially if you’re a WordPress guy/gal who likes the odd beer now and then. We have: a new, free WordPress e-commerce plugin; a web app to manage multiple WP installs from one location; a new web app for dealing with faxes (somehow this is still a thing, in 2011); a nifty grid calculator application; and a fridge with a built-in beer tap.

Jigoshop

This free e-commerce WordPress plugin looks great, plus it has solid documentation. Customizable too, and it’s built on WordPress 3′s custom post types functionality.

ManageWP

From their site: “All your sites under one dashboard! ManageWP helps you manage all your WordPress sites from one dashboard, keeping them updated and secure.” Nice. Free right now, but they’ll introduce pricing at some point.

HelloFax

I can’t believe the ol’ facsimile machine is still something people use in today’s day and age. We can go to the moon; we can fly; we can use our phones to watch hi-def video, unlock our cars and set our DVRs to record. Yet we still get requests to fax stuff. Sigh. Anyway, maybe Hellofax will solve this problem – you can sign, edit & fax documents from your computer. Free for 5 faxes; very reasonable costs afterward.

GridCalc

Math is for losers and people much smarter than me. Thus, I rely on tools like GridCalc to do my design math for me. Set your total width, column width & gutter width, click go, and watch the magic happen.

Northstar Brew Master Fridge

Hear me out… beer is related to design because I like one after work. Plus this fridge, with its built-in tap, is a unique design. See? It totally fits in this post.

See you next week!

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Found Friday Vol 40

Jeff — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 15:00:13 +0000

Ahoy hoy. It’s time for Found Friday – volume 40. To send you off on your weekend, we have the following this week: an article on the elements of retro web design, an article on email etiquette (some great tips), a look at the new HTML5 logo, a tutorial on styling WordPress navigation for you noobs out there, and a good read from Smashing Magazine on identifying good/bad clients.

The Elements of Retro Web Design

This article provides an in-depth look at the retro trend sweeping web design right now. Vintage looks, light texturing, simple shapes… we’re seeing more and more of this stuff each day. Here’s what to look for and some mini-tutorials on how to do it.

Email Etiquette for the Super-Busy

Email is overwhelming and easy to screw up – this article (via swiss-miss) provides some really useful tips on how to be an efficient and clear emailer. The only one I don’t agree with is “Never send a ‘thank-you’ email”. Yes, it clutters up the inbox, but I know I appreciate them… and immediately delete them.

HTML5 Logo Unveiled

The HTML5 logo has been unveiled; here’s a look at it and what it means.

How to Style WordPress Navigation Menus

WordPress as a CMS – perhaps the most popular choice for web designers these days. Here’s an easy-to-follow tutorial on how to style WP navigation menus for those who don’t know.

How to Identify Good Clients (and Avoid Bad Ones)

This in-depth article is a must-read for a couple reasons: one, it provides tips as the title would suggest. However, the part I found most interesting was seeing how bigger studios/agencies handle budget inquiries. The size and cost of these agencies’ web projects are astronomical (compared to what we charge, which isn’t peanuts by any means). Granted, the scope and reach of their projects are generally much larger, but it was a real eye-opener.

Thanks & see you next week!

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Found Friday Vol 38

Jeff — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 15:00:29 +0000

Welcome to Found Friday, Vol 38: the first instalment of 2011! This week we have the following: a great website that lets you immediately preview all the fonts on your machine, a list of 30 great apps now available in the new Mac App store, Brand New’s take on the new Starbucks logo, a good quick read on strengthening your design business, and a list of free fonts (some good, some not so good; some old, some new).

Wordmark.it

This is the single best way to preview your fonts. Quick, simple, free. A must-bookmark for any designer.

30 Killer Apps Now Available in the Mac App Store

The Mac App store just launched yesterday; I briefly checked it out, but the folks over at Appstorm wrote this nice roundup for you. A bunch of great design apps in here, and some for fun too.

New Starbucks Logo

Starbucks unveiled a new logo this week, and with it comes the usual storm of controversy – mainly from people who have no idea what they’re talking about. The gents at Brand New give their take on it in this article, and they’re bang-on as usual. Personally, I think the new look is perfect. Simple, iconic, and clean. They’re going the way of Nike, branding themselves with the symbol alone. Kudos to the designers who worked on this project.

Build Your Design Business

You can’t do it all yourself; this is a lesson that all freelancers and/or graphic design business owners need to learn. This article is a quick-read on how to strengthen your business by learning this lesson and applying it.

My Personal Favorite Free Fonts

Everyone likes free stuff, and designers love free fonts! Check out this list – there’s some in here you’re bound to have, as well as hate, but I bet you find at least one or two worthy fonts to add to your collection.

See you next week!

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Found Friday Vol 34

Jeff — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 15:00:27 +0000

Last week it was Found Friday #33 – Scottie Pippen – this week, #34. Shaq? Fernando Pisani? Walter Payton? Your call. You’re all probably wondering what the hell is wrong with me, but this is actually how I remember numbers. Anyway, back on topic: this week’s design finds from the depths of the internet are splendid: tips on speeding up WordPress, a Star Wars typography poster series, awesome Marshall headphones (gotta have music at your desk, right?), custom dock icons for designers, and a must-read article from A List Apart on Art Direction vs. Design. Read on, readers!

15 Ways to Speed Up WordPress

WordPress…. a flexible, powerful and all-around-great CMS for many. We use it here and for our clients, so this article on maximizing its speed is a good one for us – and for you too, I imagine!

May the Force of Typography Be With You

Star Wars AND typography? It’s pretty much a nerd overload. Must…buy…

Marshall Headphones

I personally don’t have to use headphones at my workstation (I’M MY OWN MAN!) but many of you might; these awesome Marshall headphones look good, I’d bet they sound great, and they show off how down you are with the rock and rolls. That’s what the kids say these days, right?

Fancy Custom Dock Icons

Bored of your stock Mac dock icons? Hit the link to download some beautiful, free replacement icons – and to watch a video on how to install ‘em.

Art Direction & Design

This article hits close to home for us; sometimes we’re tasked with art direction AND design, sometimes just design, sometimes just art direction. It’s important to know your role in the project, and this article helps clarify what can sometimes be a murky distinction.

Thanks for reading!

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