LoudStyle Links 69

• Loving Apparat's beautiful album cover
• Surprised I like a painting that includes glitter
• Thought you might enjoy J Smooth's commentary on the State of the Union and the Democratic candidates
• Adding the character count plugin to Pidgin IM for easier Twitter posting via IM
• Grooving to a band from Denton, TX called Ghosthustler (didn't expect that sound from Denton)
• Staring in disbelief at the new Capital One logo featuring "a swoosh with gradients and bevels"
• Sharing links to Obama's New Hampshire speech & subsequent all-star music video
• Disgusted by the turn of events in Denton at the old Fry Street "development" near UNT campus. Historic buildings with local businesses were torn down and/or relocated to make way for a generic shopping center with a CVS, whose plans appear to be falling through.

As seen on Twitter.

LoudStyle Links 66

• Looking through the abstract paintings of Jackie Saccoccio (via ArtCal)
• Really enjoying the direction Moby has taken with the new song Alice, tinyurl.com/289ony. The album drops in March.
• Planning a visit to the Dallas North Aquarium. I may get more fish for my new tank
• Amazed that Bob Staake is using Photoshop 3 in this video creating a fun illustration
• Planning to purchase the Charles & Ray Eames postage stamps when they're released next summer, tinyurl.com/3aejd8
• Installing the Windows freeware app DisplayFusion to manage my dual-monitor desktop wallpaper, www.binaryfortress.com/displayfusion/

As seen on Twitter.

LoudStyle Links 65

• Admiring Mike's marker & pencil illustrations of several vintage Leica cameras
• Listening to Diplo spin his BBC Radio 1 Essential mix (stream or DL), tinyurl.com/28cbo4 (via Party Ben at tinyurl.com/2aj9un)
• Considering the Pixel Tools tee shirt, www.insanelygreattees.com/shirt/pixeltools
• Becoming a fan of The National way late. The Boxer album is fantastic - it sounds like alt-country Joy Division, tinyurl.com/2zmebq

As seen on Twitter.

LoudStyle Links 64

• Digging this letterpress poster for a recent Spoon concert that was printed with "wood type & actual 45's," tinyurl.com/yuaj89
• Watching the making of the 1966 cartoon "How The Grinch Stole Christmas!" - hosted by Phil Hartman, tinyurl.com/2aelht (via drawn.ca)
• Ordering the Helvetica documentary DVD, www.helveticafilm.com (I couldn't get a seat at the SXSW screening this past spring).
• Geeking out watching the creator of the xkcd.com comic speak to a group at Google, tinyurl.com/248g96 (via laughingsquid.com)
• Listening to Refinery29's favorite albums of the year (stream or download), tinyurl.com/388mso (via Michael at DesignNotes.info)

As seen on Twitter.

LoudStyle Links 55

• Reminding myself that CTRL-ALT-T in Photoshop allows you to copy & move/change a layer, while CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-T repeats the copy & move/change. #
• Contemplating a very interesting mixed media piece on Etsy full of circles of seemingly random stuff, tinyurl.com/2hmk3p #
• Admiring another piece on Etsy - an interesting acrylic & enamel painting, tinyurl.com/293pzw #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter.

LoudStyle Links 53

• Enjoying the vibrant colors of Jane Booth's abstract paintings, tinyurl.com/2pzas6 (via dearada.typepad.com) #
• Listening to an "up-beat, funky, tough and edgy" mix on Funky House London Style, tinyurl.com/2mytw3 #
• Bookmarking this paper-folding video "Paper Transformer" to try out later, tinyurl.com/2bnw4h (via andyrutledge.com) #
• Watching "Chank Fonts Across America" and remembering when Mike Cina was in the Chank Army, tinyurl.com/2gfzkz #
• Ordering a handful of Tombow MONO 100 HB pencils from the kind folks at Pencil Things, tinyurl.com/338hqw #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter.

LoudStyle Links 52

• Surprised that Denton band Midlake collaborated w/ the Chemical Brothers, tinyurl.com/2hfacy (old story: tinyurl.com/2ywmwx) #
• Loving the serve in today's Layer Tennis: great textures, color saturation, & an old school joystick, layertennis.com/071109/01.php #
• Watching Radiohead in studio covering Ceremony - a classic Joy Division & New Order song, tinyurl.com/25aayt (thanks @hotdogsladies) #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter.

LoudStyle Links 51

• Thinking this accordian portfolio treatment would work well with slices of art images for the title bars, www.mariusroosendaal.com/ #
• Thinking it would be cool to have the moon in my room, tinyurl.com/23eque (via blog.wired.com/geekdad) #
• Going big beat on b00mb0x, "Want You To Push It!" tinyurl.com/245y94 (Fatboy Slim, Groove Armada, Bassbin Twins, Tim Deluxe & others) #
• Installed Samurize on my XP laptop to add a battery meter to the desktop after ditching the system tray display, tinyurl.com/y3o2qo #
• Listening to a smooth hip hop track by Consequence featuring an old Brazillian jazz sample (Milton Nascimento), tinyurl.com/38dyjd #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter.

LoudStyle Links 50

• Looking through the abstract paintings of Gisela Colon, giselacolon.com/ (via the October issue of Metropolitan Home) #
• Adding a bio to Last.FM for Denton band Ten Hands, www.last.fm/music/Ten+Hands/ #
• Watching a great tribute to design legend Paul Rand, tinyurl.com/2mu8or (via blog.onpaperwings.com/) #
• Organizing photos on Flickr from my four-images-per-frame lomography camera and expired Lucky film from Heather, tinyurl.com/2w8ksf #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter.

LoudStyle Links 49

• Watching a short CBS segment on typography, tinyurl.com/2ocyde (via Quipsologies 75, tinyurl.com/3e3f8v) #
• Impressed by the behind-the-scenes breakdown Chris Glass gave of last week's Layer Tennis match, tinyurl.com/26946e #
• Listening to Dave Gahan's new disc - RS says it is a "very Depeche-sounding album indeed." They're streaming it at tinyurl.com/2dkpdw #
• Pre-ordering the new Saul Williams album that Trent Reznor produced. You choose a $5 or $0 payment for MP3 or FLAC, niggytardust.com #
• Listening to Saul Williams rock it out on his last album, tinyurl.com/2mnm6u & tinyurl.com/277mhf #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter.

LoudStyle Links 48

• Finding GEMO, tinyurl.com/2pvrrp #
• Listening to "Now Is The Winter Of Our Discotheque" or as Lenodd puts it, "classic disco without too much cheese" tinyurl.com/2spsxm #
• Listening to Spoon's 10/23 concert on NPR, tinyurl.com/2rb4fe (a nice preview before I see them in Dallas next week) #
• Reading "The content of form" on Typies (a typography & graphic design blog), tinyurl.com/2nlu4p (via dfckr.com/) #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter.

LoudStyle Links 44

• Layer Tennis should invite Jason Santa Maria for the blood bath #
• Jamming to Postal Service live on KCRW a few years ago, tinyurl.com/3959h6 (using the Flash Audio player on playr.hubmed.org/) #
• Trying out Andy Rutledge's podcast "examining design fundamentals, business, culture, and professionalism" show.andyrutledge.com/ #
• Laughing at this Wheel of Fortune clip where Vanna tells Pat which fonts she uses, yourmonkeycalled.com/post/15161336 #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter.

LoudStyle Links 41

• Loving the colorful illustrations in the Space Alphabet, tinyurl.com/2xw6ur #
• Jamming to Spearhead's funky anti-war track "We Don't Stop" featuring the Gift of Gab from Blackalicious, tinyurl.com/26js28 #
• @hotdogsladies: That's a great metaphor for it. Wait, um, I don't know you... in reply to hotdogsladies #
• Got the email from Radiohead that they'll send download instructions Wednesday morning for their new album - it will be ten 160KBPS MP3s. #
• Wishing I didn't already have plans Thursday night - Jeremy Johnson will be speaking at Refresh Dallas, tinyurl.com/2p9sje #
• "Making the world a weirder place, starting with my eBay Feedback page," tinyurl.com/2srylz #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter.

LoudStyle Links 39

• Reading reactions to Radiohead's "pay what you want" pricing model for their new album, tinyurl.com/2d4pba #
• Staring in disbelief at a Kurt Cobain doll, tinyurl.com/2s75e9 #
• Loving Mark Ronson's cover of the Smiths' 1987 track "Stop Me", tinyurl.com/365wwj (original tinyurl.com/2gnf7f) #
• Subscribing to the Spark podcast from CBC Radio. The latest episode features Khoi Vinh on designed deterioration, tinyurl.com/2ajvdm #
• Reading Debbie Millman's preview of Friday's Layer Tennis match (formerly known as Photoshop Tennis), tinyurl.com/yokwkw #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter.

LoudStyle Links 37

• Looking forward to the long awaited return of Photoshop Tennis, AKA Layer Tennis, layertennis.com. Friday's match is online. #
• Wow, the Hampton is already sold out for SXSW Interactive, Film, and Music, tinyurl.com/2l5odx (glad I booked for Interactive early) #
• Watching artist Phil Hansen create a portrait of Bruce Lee with karate chops of black paint, tinyurl.com/37qvl2 #
• Looking through Time Magazines's list of the 100 Best TV Shows of All Time (many with clips), tinyurl.com/2mzqkm #
• Listening to Electrocast 504 with Gorillaz, Daft Punk, Le Tigre, and LCD Soundsystem, tinyurl.com/yu2l38 #
• Subscribing to the Radio Lab podcast. "What is music? How does it work? Why does it move us?" http://tinyurl.com/3b4ud4 (via @hotdogsladies) #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter.

Twitter: LoudStyle Links 36

• 12:56 Khoi describes icon creation skills as "a special combination of artistry, patience and visual economy" tinyurl.com/2hoacx #
• 13:34 Amazed by Josh's Star Wars collection and its documentation (via SimpleBits), www.joshuabudich.com/SWCollection/ #
• 21:01 Looking through an awesome set of images of tattered posters in Paris, tinyurl.com/ys54m5 #
• 21:05 Favorite quote from Letterman while he interviewed Kevin Smith, "When you're operating in the world of blogs..." tinyurl.com/22ese5 #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter.

Twitter: LoudStyle Links 34

• 14:33 I'm optimistic about Amazon's new music download store with DRM-free MP3s at 256kbps VBR, tinyurl.com/yruhvk #
• 15:05 Sonny J's "Can't Stop Moving" reminds me of the infectious tracks put out by the Avalanches a few years back, tinyurl.com/yt7tl7 #
• 17:17 Reading Jeff Croft's summary of the Webmaster Jam Session this past weekend, tinyurl.com/32anqu #
• 17:20 Digging Helen Durant's mixed media goat (third image down), tinyurl.com/2rubny #
• 20:18 Watching John Maeda's Ted Talk, Simplicity Patterns. Rather than call his work "Eye Candy," he prefers "Eye Meat" tinyurl.com/3xh9wy #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter.

Twitter: LoudStyle Links 33

• 11:07 Reading Eric's Top 10 ways to NOT be a Web Designer Rockstar, tinyurl.com/2k66az #
• 13:14 Noticing that admission to the Nasher sculpture museum is free from 10a-2p on the first Saturday each month, tinyurl.com/3446cy #
• 13:20 Great design-related quote from Hans Hofman: "The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak." #
• 16:01 Agreeing with Rands' First Law of Information Management, tinyurl.com/2kq3ya #
• 17:27 Checking out Stephen's poster "Getting from Tasks to Experiences: What's Next in Interface Design" tinyurl.com/2lvx7y #
• 18:13 Reading that Nick Finck (@nickf) gives the Webmaster Jam Session a thumbs up, tinyurl.com/ysqljv #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter.

Twitter: LoudStyle Links 32

• 15:52 Following along with Jeff Croft's presentation slides on typography at tinyurl.com/2wws8o #
• 17:10 Attending Molly's presentation on browsers and standards. The slides are online (from an earlier conference), tinyurl.com/22eggc #
• 18:12 Great quote for design: "Make all visual distinctions as subtle as possible, but still clear and effective." Edward Tufte (via Jeff Croft) #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter.

Twitter: LoudStyle Links 31

• 09:11 Looking through Griego's iPhone photos from the Sabre Usability Labs on Tuesday night, tinyurl.com/ynqw84 #
• 14:31 Listening to a big fave, Depeche Mode's Black Celebration, after seeing it at #3 in TMN's Top 10 Albums of 1986, tinyurl.com/254j8o #
• 17:46 Flipping through all of the record sleeves on Record Envelope, "A reference for vinyl geeks and graphic artists" tinyurl.com/yr5xp4 #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter.

Twitter: LoudStyle Links 30

• 16:50 Love this low tech video of the high tech features in Google Docs, tinyurl.com/yqebxa - More on www.commoncraft.com/show #
• 21:01 Watching the video for "The Girl Who Fell Through The Ice" by Aim featuring Kate Rogers (via @stoplookingswan), tinyurl.com/3xa3lp #
• 21:11 Considering paying way too much for a dozen black on black Faber Castell design pencils ($28 w/ S&H), tinyurl.com/24ssyv #
• 21:25 Recommending a couple web books to a friend from the review list on 456 Berea Street, tinyurl.com/29roz8 #
• 21:28 Liking the coloful patterns in this colorful bedding collection, boodalee.com/spacecollection.html #
• 22:58 Really digging this ISO50 turntable poster, tinyurl.com/3cgb3h and a t-shirt there too, tinyurl.com/2lkhbn #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter.

Twitter: LoudStyle Links 29

• 22:03 RSVPing for Tuesday night's Usability Professionals Association tour of the Sabre Usability Labs, www.dfw-upa.org/ #
• 22:05 Pleasantly surprised to find a couple new Photoshop shortcuts I had not see before, tinyurl.com/22yu56 #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter.

Twitter: LoudStyle Links 27

• 14:28 Disabling Firefox extension Firebug to slow any memory leak (right click on its icon). I can re-enable it for use, tinyurl.com/2caxvn #
• 13:03 Thinking I'd rather update Twitter from my browser sidebar & not in a slick standalone app line Snook's Snitter, snook.ca/snitter/ #
• 13:05 Reading "25 Art Forms to try and Artists who already use them" and thinking I have a lot of catching up to do, tinyurl.com/ytc7q3 #
• 13:09 Listening to the latest CMG Podcast that includes tracks by Spoon, Coconut Records, Wheat, and Vampire Weekend, tinyurl.com/yu4pa8 #
• 13:15 Reading "Beyond The 'T' - Coordinating Realistic Design Teams" www.peterme.com/?p=580 via www.xplane.com/xblog/ #
• 16:10 Digging this typographic collage print by Enja Wong, tinyurl.com/25f996 #
• 22:25 Buying a pack of Moleskine Cahiers - small journals for notes or sketching, tinyurl.com/25hpzb #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter.

Twitter: LoudStyle Links 26

• 19:18 Watching a narrated slideshow about Zhang Huan's massive art studio in China, tinyurl.com/2s5r88 #
• 19:23 Contemplating the Deborah Kass painting of colorful rings on ArtCal, tinyurl.com/35rpwz #
• 20:57 Subscribing to the @media 2007 podcast feed. There are 16 sessions online for your listening pleasure, tinyurl.com/33ory8 #
• 20:58 Listening to Tegan & Sara on Jared's post, tinyurl.com/37hzdk - I had only heard a rad T & S mashup prior, tinyurl.com/38apgg #
• 21:03 Changing my USB drive's assigned drive letter after reading the first response on an existing Metafilter post, tinyurl.com/29tyy4 #
• 22:55 Reading a new site from Khoi & Liz featuring "design opinions expressed in short form - 200 words or less." abriefmessage.com/ #
• 23:01 And the winner for the most crazy long URL is . . . httpcolonforwardslashforwardslashwwwdotjenniferdanieldotcom #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter.

Twitter: LoudStyle Links 20

• 12:44 Reinstalling the GreaseMonkey script that shows TinyURL targets and adding "link.href = match[1]" per comment 3, tinyurl.com/mgd2g #
• 16:28 Rocking to DKR's "old school mix tape" that includes Cloud Cult, The Lodger, and The Cribs, tinyurl.com/yw7xgu #
• 19:23 Admiring the vintage watches on www.watchismo.com/gallery.htm #
• 20:51 Reading a comparison of poor audio quality in compressed MP3s to that of cheap transistor radios in the 50s & 60s, tinyurl.com/3d39yp #
• 20:58 Looking at a photo of the wildfires in Greece w/ an ancient statue "appearing to gasp for air through the smoke", tinyurl.com/2xfx7u #
• 22:36 Listening to great 2004 releases from MIA & Diplo. They're reviewed & available for download on Coke Machine Glow, tinyurl.com/7e2wt #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter.

Twitter: LoudStyle Links 19

• 09:37 Scrolling through David's favorite info graphics on Logic + Emotion, tinyurl.com/28gvwd #
• 21:18 Watching a short documentary on letterpress printing and poking around Etsy #
• 21:24 Laughing at a video of a cat passing out because Derek Powazek said it might be his favorite internet video ever #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter.

Twitter: LoudStyle Links 16

• 13:45 Watching a video on targeted image resizing or seam carving, tinyurl.com/2m8frc (via Khoi) #
• 19:29 Staring at Peter Fox's painting "Bury My Heart", tinyurl.com/25kc2d #
• 19:33 Downloading a Depeche Mode remix set called The Butterfly Effect 5, tinyurl.com/3ch6lr #
• 21:20 Trying iconfinder's icon search and am impressed, www.iconfinder.net (via BittBox) #
• 21:37 Looking through the tutorials in Adobe's CS3 Video Workshop, tinyurl.com/2ymyyh #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter.

Twitter: LoudStyle Links 12

• 09:23 Considering the Dot Grid Book that Garrett posted - it has dots to help UI sketching instead of full grid lines, tinyurl.com/2j7g82 #
• 12:53 Looking forward to playing LEGO Indiana Jones, tinyurl.com/2ke9vq. The Star Wars releases were great. Via cameronmoll.com/linkage. #
• 16:20 Wondering why Polyphonic Spree did the theme song for the pro soccer team FC Dallas, tinyurl.com/2fcu4n #
• 16:56 Remembering a great song and video from 1994, Lucas with the Lid Off, tinyurl.com/yppbvp #
• 20:46 Tipping my hat to legendary jazz drummer Max Roach, who passed away today, tinyurl.com/23jc4e #
• 00:26 Watching the Lost orientation film for the Orchid Station, released at Comic-Con, tinyurl.com/ytucak #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter.

Twitter: LoudStyle Links 11

• 20:52 Ordering a Dirty Panda t-shirt and a couple buttons (via Preshrunk.info), tinyurl.com/2vmut4 #
• 20:58 Flipping through a lot of funky images in back issues of Ruby (via Cina at YouWorkForThem.com/blog), tinyurl.com/3545ar #
• 22:22 Watching a great roundup of typography in video, AKA Motion Type, that Dave Shea pulled together, tinyurl.com/yqbwvh #
• 23:24 Admiring the beautiful glass work on ColourLovers by Dale Chihuly, who also did the glass flowers at the DMA, tinyurl.com/3d6apt #
• 23:37 Uploading another abstract Photoshop piece to Flickr, tinyurl.com/25qy5f #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter.

Twitter: LoudStyle Links 5

• 11:09 Admiring the beautiful design of the Web Designer Wall site by Nick La (via ThinkVitamin), tinyurl.com/2qfwah #
• 16:29 Grooving to the music and creeped out by the video, Hawker Beat, with cameos by Richard Simmons and Bart Simpson, tinyurl.com/34wj39 #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter.

Twitter: LoudStyle Links 4

• 18:49 Reading Dallas Morning News' commentary on 10 classic hip-hop albums listed in the book "Check the Technique," tinyurl.com/2j2dao #
• 21:36 Reviewing an information design article with lots of great illustrations, "The dashed line in use," via xBlog, tinyurl.com/ysolo4 #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter.

Twitter: LoudStyle Links 2

• 14:19 Setting up LoudTwitter to post a daily digest of each day's Twitter posts to my blog via email, tinyurl.com/2pvwp7 #
• 16:37 Looking forward to a Rothko episode of Schama's Power of Art on PBS July 30th, tinyurl.com/yohy8j #
• 17:46 Scrolling through fifty posters in 50 Years of Helvetica, tinyurl.com/2gyp77 via dfckr.com/ #

Automatically posted by LoudTwitter.

Design: My Snowboard Design

I created a couple snowboard designs for the Design Your Ride contest. Click the boards below to vote on Woody or Bleach and then browse the rest of the entries.

Thanks Nick for the reminder to enter.

Category: Design

Design: Titles Designed By Saul Bass

Take a run through the great Titles Designed by Saul Bass on Not Coming To A Theater Near You:

Bass’ techniques are various and decidedly inconsistent: cutout animation, montage, live action, and type design to name only his more prominent exercises. Secondly, Bass exhibits an exemplary use of color and movement. Often sequences begin with a solid, empty frame of color (as with Exodus’ blue or North by Northwest’s green). His design tactic in this context, although characteristic, possesses subtly and variety.

[via Jason's article on white space]

Category: Design

Design: A Logo Of Letters Lesson

Companies of every kind sign their names with linked letters called ligatures. Ligature means to tie. Ligatures make excellent business signatures. They're handsome, simple and compact. And they're fun, too -- we all have initials!

Some letters link in one typeface but not another. Others link in lowercase but not in upper. What follows are a variety of ways to get your letter pairs beautifully together.

John McWade presents many examples in his Before & After article How to design a logo of letters. The full article is in PDF format (2.8 MB).

Category: Design

Design: Gig Posters

GigPosters.com features nearly fifty thousand concert posters viewable by band or designer:

This site is dedicated to the artists, designers and musicians who create amazing gig posters to advertise shows and events. The art of gig posters, flyers, and handbills showcases the talent of many designers who see little to no profit for creating gig posters. I am pleased to host this site for the world to see all of the amazing art and dedication to promote the music scene.

[via Asterisk]

Categories: Design, Music

Design: That Is Just Decoration

Most of the time people talk about design and nobody understands what the subject is. Nobody ever thinks about it. Somebody thinks about design as something he saw in a tie design, or a bathroom wallpaper, or a design in a carpet. That is the general understanding of what design means. That does not mean design, that is just decoration.

From Paul Rand's visit to Arizona State in 1995.

[via mchell.cult.bg]

Category: Design

Design: Typography Workshop

The University of Delaware's Visual Communications Program offers an online Typography Workshop:

We have developed this web site and its exercises to help students develop a tasteful sensitivity when setting type. We have over 75 exercises to help students learn to artfully control letter spacing. Letter spacing is a fine-tuning process that demonstrates a designer's sensitivity towards typography. Words are made up of what seems to be an infinite number of letter combinations. But not all of these letter fit together very well.

[via The Skinny]

Category: Design

Design: Milton Glaser

BD4D recommended a very nice video of design legend Milton Glaser speaking on art, design, life, and maintaining "your capacity for astonishment" (37 MB).

Category: Design

Design: The 8 Steps of Image Editing

Matt LeClair leads us through The 8 Steps of Image Editing with Photoshop:

1. Crop, Rotate & Scale
2. Fix Scratches & Dust using the Clone Tool
3. Expand the Tonal Range using Levels
4. Add Contrast using Curves
5. Adjust Midtones using Curves
6. Adjust Color using Curves
7. Improve Sharpness using Unsharp Mask
8. Compare

Categories: Design, Photoshop

Design: Casino Carpet Gallery

Peruse the casino carpet gallery Die is Cast:

Casino carpet is known as an exercise in deliberate bad taste that somehow encourages people to gamble.

In a strange way, though, it's a sublime work of art, rivalling any expressionist canvas of the past century. Note the regal tones of Caesars Palace, the bountiful bouquet of Mandalay Place, the soft, almost abstract pointilism of Paris, all whispering, 'gamble, gamble' just out of the range of consciousness as people walk to the nearest slot machine.

[via Speak Up]

Category: Design

Design: Photoshop History

I especially like the old Photoshop icons in this short Photoshop history. Version 1.0 shipped in February of 1990. My first experience with Photoshop was version 4.0 in early 1997.

[via The Unofficial Photoshop Weblog]

Category: Design, Photoshop

Design: Steps to Designing Grid Systems

After Mark's well received typography series, his new series is titled "Five simple steps to designing grid systems."

• Preface
• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5

Category: Design

Design: Photoshop Blending Modes

You may download Ben's Advanced Blending Modes Handbook in PDF format on his blog:

Photoshop's blending modes seem to be one of the most mysteries features for most users. All it takes is a basic idea of how these wonderful features work in order to start to use them at a more advanced level. You don’t have to know how each individual mode work, instead it's usually more useful to have a general idea of how they are organized and to know what’s unique about each grouping of modes.

[via The Unofficial Photoshop Weblog]

Category: Design, Photoshop

Design: The Principles of Design

Digital Web Magazine's The Principles of Design is the first of three articles that look like a great foundation for web designers without a graphic design background:

Let’s begin by focusing on the principles of design, the axioms of our profession. Specifically, we will be looking at the following principles:

• Balance
• Rhythm
• Proportion
• Dominance
• Unity

Categories: Design, Web

Design: The Case for Reviving Communication

I enjoyed Robin Fuller's article Keep It Simple, Stupid: The Case for Reviving Communication.

Though we are taught that communication is our number one goal as designers, time and again, simplicity, clarity, and legibility fall by the wayside in favor of a slick image. In blind pursuit of a certain look, we are dabbling dangerously in the realm of pure art.

If you want your work left open for interpretation, I have news for you: you’re an artist. Book a gallery and knock yourself out.

Category: Design

Design: Type Resources

• Education & Commentary
  
  • Counterspace
    
  • Thinking With Type
    
  • Typographica
    
  • Usable Type
  
  
• Foundries
  
  • Chank
    
  • dincTYPE
    
  • Phil's Fonts
    
  • Test Pilot Collective
    
  • WeWorkForThem
  
  
• Free Fonts
  
  • Extra
    
  • Fontleech
    
  • Font Paradise
    
  • Larabie Fonts
    
  • Orgdot
  
  
• Search
  
  • Font Pool
    
  • Type Index
    
  • Type Navigator

Category: Design

Design: Posters from the WPA, 1936-1943

By the People, For the People: Posters from the WPA:

Posters from the WPA, 1936-1943 collection consists of 908 boldly colored and graphically diverse original posters produced from 1936 to 1943.

Part of the American Memory historical collections from the Library of Congress.

[via Typographica & Typephases]

Category: Design

Design: Using Photographs For Color Schemes

• Adam Polselli gives examples of color schemes created from photographs in Where'd Ya Get That Color Scheme?
• Color Palette Generator allows users to upload an image and create a color palette based on it.

[via xBlog and Angiemckaig]

Category: Design

Design: On Creativity

• iStockphoto's Faux Real (login required)
• Fast Company's The 6 Myths Of Creativity
• Gapingvoid's How To Be Creative
• Mezzoblue's Getting Unstuck

Category: Design

Design: Photoshop Tips & Upcoming Features

Veerle's blog has a couple cool Photoshop tips and a link to an article outlining what's new in Photoshop CS 2.0. I've been using Photoshop since 1997 and am repeatedly amazed that there are always new tricks and shortcuts to learn.

Category: Design, Photoshop

Design: Colors

• Adam Polselli's 2005 Color Forecast. The forecast for 2004 is there too. [via Digital Web News]
  
• ReedDesign's Pantone to RGB Conversion Table displays more than a thousand colors and their RGB codes.
  
• The Web-Smart Palette has 4,096 colors for 16- and 24-bit monitors versus the traditional 216-color web-safe palette. There are a few dozen color schemes using the web-smart palette on Spectacle.
  
• And the Color Generators I posted in October.

Category: Design

Design: Geometry of Design

Textism's quick animation What the Hell is the Fibonacci Series? is a nice introduction to geometry in design. An interesting and inexpensive book Geometry of Design: Studies in Proportion and Composition delves much deeper into the topic with many examples of how geometry is evident in nature and how it has been applied to design since the beginning of history.

Category: Design

Design: Icons

Last year I created a series of icons for the AA.com Admirals Club Locations grid. Reading the SimpleBits article The Anatomy of an Icon gives me the urge to recreate the set.

While I'm posting about icon design, Susan Kare designed the original Macintosh icons in 1983 and the playing cards for Windows 3.0 Solitaire in 1988.

Category: Design

Design: Free Design Resources

• image*after: Raw photos and textures; free for personal or commercial use.
  
• DHD Multimedia Gallery: Images for free personal or commercial use.
  
• Texture Library
  
• 1001 Free Fonts
  
• Font Paradise

Category: Design

Design: The Man Behind the FedEx Logo

The FedEx logo is an amazingly simple and effective brand - a huge improvement over their old logo (pre-1994 pictured on the truck). TheSneeze.com interviewed the logo's creator, Mr. Lindon Leader.

Category: Design

Design: 100% Handmade Friends

Order your 100% Handmade Friends, some cool Kubrick figures or a few pieces of Urban Vinyl.

Design: Color Generators

• The Color Scheme Generator from WellStyled.com, a bilingual site that also features some useful CSS articles
  
• The Site Pro Central Color Scheme Tool hosted on Steel Dolphin Creative
  
• A useful Photoshop PSD file (420KB) distributed by eScrappers that generates complimentary, triad, and analogous colors based on your chosen background color

Category: Design

Design: Photoshop Channel Chops

Photoshop Channel Chops is an essential book for anyone interested in furthering their Photoshop skills. PC-Review Online describes it well:

It covers a very big subject that is normally for advanced users of Photoshop. However, this book takes this once advanced, often scary subject, namely channels and makes them easy. It also shows just how powerful and important they are to Photoshop users.

The book is under $30 on Amazon.

Category: Design, Photoshop

Design: Photoshop Extrude Filter

Here's a quick tutorial on using the Extrude filter to create crystals. It recommends the "pyramids" setting - the "blocks" setting generates some interesting results as well.

Category: Design, Photoshop

Design: Photoshop Tutorial Sites

Many of the effects presented in these tutorials are too techie for my every day design work but the techniques are still very useful:

• Eyeball Design
  
• Phong
  
• Anders Qvicker
  

Category: Design, Photoshop