2012
05/26
In honor of this happening last week, I thought I’d count down my favorite Chrome extensions for web designers and developers.
I ♥ Chrome for a lot of reasons. I think it provides a great browsing experience, I think the combination address/search bar is genius, it scores pretty awesomely in the HTML5 test, and it has so many great extensions, especially if you work on the web, that just make your life easier.
Here’s what my toolbar looks like on a daily basis:
Continue reading →
2012
04/01
In an effort to push myself while having some fun I’ve been working on some creative personal projects lately.
While balancing my day job, freelance projects, and a redesign of this site, I’ve also been brushing up on some great reads (like these and these) and working on some projects that will help me improve in areas where I’m not the strongest.
I’ve always found Illustrator to be a bit frustrating and challenging (I’m more of a Photoshop girl myself), but it’s is a very powerful program and let’s be honest, Photoshop can’t do it all. So a few of these personal projects I’ve been working on have been focused on fine-tuning some of my Illustrator skills, while at the very least, getting myself in the program more so I can feel more comfortable with it. I thought I would put them here when I’ve finished, so here goes — round one!
To get my feet wet I thought I’d tackle some movie posters. You see these all over the interwebs created by designers, fans, etc, so I took a stab at a few of my all-time favorites. This first project includes Caddyshack, Jurassic Park, A Christmas Story, and Valley of the Dolls. I think if all goes well I might get some of these printed to put up on all our new wallspace since we moved.
2012
02/09
I’m kind of obsessed with these pixel popup heart valentines. Might have to craft some of these for my loves! Get the directions and templates here. UPDATE: I made these and they were a huge success! See my photos here and here.
They’d go really good with a box of my favorite Valentine’s Day treat: See’s Candy truffles.
Hint hint :)
{ Photo Found Here }
2012
02/06
I’m all about red, white, and gold for Valentine’s Day this year. Here are my wants/needs (same thing, right?!):
{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}
2012
01/15
2012
01/13
I just really love these paperweights! Designed by Dana Tanamachi, a Brooklyn-based graphic designer and chalk letterer {tres cool!}. I really <3 the K and the O!
Check out the time-lapse videos of her creating custom chalk signs. It’s good watchin’!
2012
01/01
Earlier last month I was fortunate enough to attend An Event Apart in San Francisco. For those of you that don’t know, An Event Apart is a series of web design conferences put on by the lovely folks at A List Apart. Now, I had been wanting to attend one of these for some time, seeing as I’m an avid A List Apart reader, and let me tell you, it did not disappoint! In fact, I’d say it exceeded my expectations!
Not only did I get to hear some amazing people (some might even refer to them as the rock stars of web design) talk over the course of two days, but I also got to meet a lot of other great folks that are in the same field (always lovely talking with your own people!), and hang out with the previously mentioned rock stars and chat over drinks. Some highlights:
- sat at a table in a bar with Jeffrey Zeldman while he proceeded to test the accessibility of a website on his phone
- talked with the wonderful Jeremy Keith and Tantek Çelik about karaoke and colorful shirts
- rode in an elevator at Typekit HQ with Jessica Hische (man, talk about elevator pitch moment {or lack thereof}…literally)
But besides the fun stuff, there was a lot to take in and a lot of really good presentations. Now, two weeks later, here’s a little recap: What I learned at An Event Apart. Continue reading →
2011
12/25
2011
12/10
{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9}
2011
09/05
There are many sources of inspiration for color palettes online. Here are some of my favorites. What are yours?
THE ULTIMATE COLOR EXPERIENCE
{For when you need a color palette based on a certain color, or word, or press of a button!}
Adobe Kuler
No fluff, just colors. You can search by term or view most popular, highest rated, newest, or random. You can also create palettes or tweak others for your own use. C’mon it’s from Adobe, of course it’s great.
ColourLovers
I love ColourLovers! You can search by term, hex number, and about a million other things. You can create palettes and patterns and save others’ palettes for your own inspiration. It’s a real community of color lovers, not just a clever name. Totally addictive, and if you add a color that has not been added before, you get to name it. Like name it for everyone else from here on out. Dream Crayola job — check!! Check out my profile here.
COLORFUL INSPIRATION
{For when you need a some inspiration from pretty pictures!}
Design Seeds
Design Seeds is great because you all the palettes come from pictures, which are shown next to the palette. But you can also search by color family, season, or type of picture the palette came from.
Flights of Fancy
Flights of Fancy is the blog of Betsywhite Stationary Boutique and it contains all sorts of inspirational pictures. Most of the images are collages of beautiful pictures of food, clothes, places, shoes, etc, and then feature a palette below of the main colors from the collage.
100 Layer Cake Inspiration Binder
I found 100 Layer Cake when I was planning my wedding (since it’s a wedding blog after all). But their inspiration binder is really great because they also use the blog-picture-collage format and have really beautiful photos that will get you daydreaming about your wedding all day long. A lot of the collages do what Flights of Fancy does, taking a palette from the images and displaying it below. But I really love the way they do their palettes. Like REALLY love. From the texture to the color names in curly brackets below, I’m hooked.
