I would be a horrible blogger if I didn’t write about the two-ton elephant in the design room right now — flat design. It is the trend, buzzword, motto, theme, and cliché of 2013. Thousands of words have already been written about the rise and proliferation of flat design, and I’m here to contribute a few more. Keep reading more »
Wallpaper Wednesday — No. 22
On the first Wednesday of every month, I’m going to pull together some inspirations and resources I have around and make some sweet desktop wallpapers. It’s usually just going to be one or two at a time. They will be all over the place, from type related to whatever cool pattern I might be digging at the moment. As always, let me know what you like or if there is something you want to see.
It’s Not a Bug. It’s a Feature.
This month’s wallpaper is a combination of two ideas I was kicking around. I started working on some pixelated icons when I thought of the bug and this old meme. I was also playing around with a distressed, grunge bokeh idea. I liked how the two worked together — curves versus straight lines and the blocks of canvas and pixels.
2880 x 1800 (Retina display Macbook Pro)
2560 x 1440
1920 x 1200
1440 x 900
1280 x 1024
1024 x 768
640 x 1136 (iPhone 5)
This Week’s Tabs
I’ve seriously got too many tabs open of things I want to share. So here is a quick list of cool, insightful, and/or fun things to check out.
Subtle Patterns Photoshop Plugin — (the robot siren is awesome, too)
Designing Blogs for Readers — a great reminder for focusing on content
Do you really need a freelance portfolio? — a great reminder for focusing on clients
Stacked Font by Denise Chandler — landing page extraordinaire
Ductus by Thomas Jockin — this is going to show up on next month’s headline heads up
100 Pixelated Camera Illustrations — some are a little blobby, but there are some real gems
David Bushell’s opinion on designing in the browser vs mockups
BitTorrent Sync — definitely going to find something to implement this
Starters Guide to iOS Design — a well designed overview of what to look forward to
Headline Heads Up — No. 20
One Tuesday every month, I’m going to round up a couple (maybe a few) awesome display typefaces to showcase and give a little breakdown on each one. If you have a suggestion you want me to take a look at, drop me a line. Let’s jump straight into some headline goodness.
Trend Hand Made
Foundry : Latinotype
Designer(s) : Daniel Hernández, Paula Nazal Selaive
Cost: $5 — $20
Livatars — Live Avatars
Live avatars is definitely a design concept I’m going to implement in my next redesign. Subtle, personal, lively. It seems so simple an idea, I’m surprised there isn’t more of them out there.
GeoGuessr
Here’s a fun game that has already sucked up an hour or two of my time. Get dropped into a random Google Street View, look around, then take a guess where you are. You get points based on how close and you get five rounds added up for a total. It’s amazing how similar terrain can look on opposite sides of the world. (via kottke)
Instagram Cleans Up Its Logo
Instagram released a cleaned up logotype last week and designer Mackey Saturday posted some up-close and behind the scenes pictures of the work to Dribbble. The best one to me is the outline view showing the technical aspects of using as few anchors as possible and control points at 90 & 45 degrees.
It’s a great example of refinement and building on an identity already familiar to users. You can see the influence of Facebook’s acquisition as the type becomes cleaner, more professional, and more aligned with their corporate branding. There’s a little less personality but still enough to keep it interesting. All in all, a good step.
Here is Today
Want to feel really, really, really small? Step through this interactive time scale of Earth and watch today get swallowed up pretty fast in the grand scheme of things. (via swissmiss)
