Inspiration

Top 13 Design Blogs on Twitter That Post More than Just Lists.

The title is a lovely contradiction isn’t it? Well luckily due to the lack of lists here on Creative Fluff I thought it would be great to dedicate one to other people who are more than just design resource listing websites and blogs. So here we are today with the top thirteen design blogs that I’ve seen on Twitter that fulfill that requirement.

1. @adellecharles [ Fuel Your Creativity ]

A new personal favorite of Creative Fluff, I’ve noticed that Fuel Your Creativity offers a lot of thoughtful food for designers especially in the realms of graphic design, branding, and web design. They offer a lot of found resources with detailed descriptions and analyzations instead of just posting links to places they haven’t researched thoroughly. Their interviews with other designers in the community are a great way to see the methodology and process behind their work.

2. @aaroni268 [ This is Arrons Life ]

Arron’s blog “This is Arrons Life” is a great source for not designers, creatives, and marketers alike. Posts like his recent “Building a Successful Development Team” give an indepth look into how you should structure your development team within a business. Resources like these are hard to come by and he has great tips for web programmers across the board that are worth taking a look at if you’re ever stuck in a problematic rut.

3. @mocoloco [ Moco Loco ]

There aren’t a lot of resources for Industrial Designers where you can find more in a post than just “This is a nice product because it’s shiny”. MocoLoco changes this by giving thoughful critiques of new products and innovations on the market. If you go through their posts you’ll find great posts on sustainable design in architecture and product design. Even if you just happen to like shiny things, you’ll find what you’re looking for here.

4. @Colorburned [Color Burned]

Driven by Resources, the folks over at ColorBurned have managed to bring us everything from relevant giveaways such as laptop bags, to resources like brushes, graphics, and other miscellaneous items to be used in Adobe programs. Interviews with people such as the Art Director for Marvel comics offer resources to illustrators within the design community for getting a look at tough-to-get-into industries.

5. @creativefluff [Creative Fluff]

Creative Fluff is an eclectic group of young designers, artists, writers, and critics. Some of these individuals hail from esteemed design colleges such as Parsons, The New School for Design, or famous liberal art colleges such as Boston University. Creative Fluff’s Posts range from the minute and meaningless design resources such as desktop wallpapers, to essay (tirades really) of critical issues in design and ethics.

6. @DannyOutlaw [Outlaw Design Blog ]

Another blog that Creative Fluff has become acquainted to through Twitter, The Outlaw Design Blog captures some of the more interesting bits of the design community through posts like ” How to make money by giving things away”. They’ve created a great place for designers to go to and connect with one another. They have reviews of books and software and even tutorials to get you going on the design process if you’re having trouble.

7. @fubiz [ Fubiz ]

As you’ll come to find out, I don’t speak foreign languages other than Latin, which is dead, and could not actually read the content over at Fubiz. Luckily our team member @fiammetta137 could go through the text and together we decided they offer some of the most up to date happenings within the design community in regards to graphic design, photography, fashion, and product design.

8. @creattica [Creattica]

Filled to the brim with daily links and resources as they are created and published around the world by designers, Creattica has become a central news resource for designers to keep on top of everything new no matter what your field of design. If you need inspiration, resources, or just to connect to people in your field it’s a great place to get what you’re looking for.

9. @designobserver [Design Observer]

This is a personal favorite of mine. It’s hard to find long and thoughtful essays on design that are well put together and relevant to today’s world in design across the board. Their blog has topics related to design within culture and how the two are directly related to each other. If you’re leaning towards the intellectual side of design rather than the creative, you should check out their blog. Even if you’re purely a visual creative, they have something to offer you too.

10. @thedieline [ The Die Line ]

Brand. Package. Market. Repeat. The Die Line is one of the better blogs about branding and packaging design. Their name is aptly put, as they focus on bringing you the most up to date in packaging aesthetics. Their website has just undergone a redesign (I believe) and it works out in their favor by putting more emphasis on the product packaging inspirations they showcase.

11. @chrisspooner [ Spoon Graphics ]

Paper, cardboard, cardboard paper, pens & pencils are the sort of aesthetic you’ll find at SpoonGraphics. I remember finding them on my own a long time ago and I’ve always traveled to their site for inspiration and design related resources but more and more we’ve been taking a closer look at them and what they offer. Their abundance of resources in terms of tutorials are a great help to the design community whether you’re new or old so you should take a look at their blog for anything you might need.

12. @michaelSurtees [ Design Notes ]

Their recent post called “LOOKING AT: GOP 100 Deconstructing Dumbo” which features the deconstruction of the GOP image is just an example of the awesomely eclectic stuff going on over at Design Notes. They have create resources in terms of articles on design & the worldwide recession along with simple design related quotes to keep you going through the day.

This is of course Creative Fluff’s list of only a few great design blogs, websites, and communities that offer -you- more than just lists to keep you going. Let us know what you think of the list and be sure to drop all of these wonderful people a line.

Mar 30, 2009 | Categories: Inspiration, Recent Posts, Resources | Tags: design blogs, design lists, lists of stuff, Resources, twitter, twitter design | 5 Comments »

Repetitive Splendor – Patterns in Art and Design

Patterns patterns everywhere… though this has slowly turned into a ridiculous idea of mine, mainly because it has taken so long to compile, I hope that it really isn’t so ridiculous. Possibly slightly helpful? or inspirational? Who knows. So now that this post is complete…what exactly is it? This isn’t a post about patterned wallpaper found in your Nanna’s bathroom. This post is a celebration of sorts, of patterns and artists and designers who create them and create with them. So here’s a list of different pattern resources that I found.

Steven Meisel

[Images from http://www.artandcommerce.com/AAC/...]

These two images are from a series by Steven Meisel is actually what inspired me to do this crazy post. A brilliant set of photographs for a Spring issue of Italian Vogue, though I’m not sure about when the issue came out, it may have been in 2007. The human form and organic shape created by the clothing all blend together into an optically exhilarating flow of patterns and prints.

The Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones, edited by Maxine Lewis

[Images from http://www.amazon.com/Grammar-Ornament-Owen-Jones/... ]

This book is a great little resource for inspiration, and as a reference to the basic characteristics of cultural ornament. And if you’ve been wondering what history behind it is it offers that as well. I bought it for the pure purpose of visual inspiration a while back and it has proved to be very helpful in times of creative blocks.

The book can be found on Amazon here.

Helen Dardik

[Images from http://www.oneluckyhelen.com/index.html]

These are just a few of a bunch of playful and colorful patterns, and there were oh so many great ones to choose from. Observing the details of each one of Helen Dardik’s patterns is absolutely necessary.

Pattern by Tricia Guild and Elspeth Thompson

[Image from http://belindaschneider.wordpress.com/2007/04/03/tricia-guild-pattern-book/]

This book has received great praise from pretty much everyone who owns it. It showcases bold patterns and their wonderful homes having been incorporated into decoration, a difficult task. Here’s just a little snippet of the product description offered by Amazon:

Tricia Guild is known for her bold and original fabric and wallpaper collections and her extraordinary ability to use colour and pattern in decoration. She is inspired by fabrics, techniques, motifs and designs from all over the world and from every period of history – brocades and damasks from the Far East; the rich history of botanical illustration and flower painting; checks, plaids and stripes from northern Europe; vibrant ethnic prints from India and Central America; painterly designs from Chinese and European porcelain; the bold abstracts and geometric patterns of contemporary painters.

The book can be found on Amazon here.

Rick Leong

[Images from http://rickleong.carbonmade.com/projects/25547]

This artist is based in Montreal, Canada. His many imaginative paintings have a softness to them, the same kind of fuzzy effect that appears in watercolors or painted silk.The patterns that emerge in his work are nature inspired, relating to the ocean… like waves or underwater landscapes, and lush magical forests.

Design*Sponge

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[Images from http://www.designspongeonline.com/2008/05/welcome-julia...]

Ever wondered how you could turn that wonderful illustration into your own repeating pattern? Design*Sponge offers a little step-by-step tutorial by guest blogger Julia on how exactly you can do this. A very useful guide and definitely something to read through if you don’t already know how to do this.

Sølve Sundsbø

[Images from http://community.livejournal.com/foto_decadent/1907831.html]

The photo series entitled “Bloom” from an edition of V magazine is photographed by Sølve Sundsbø and captures patterns and texture in extreme movement. The billowing plumes of floral fabrics create spectacular effect, each image featuring a stunning compostion that features body and garment as art.

dchan on DeviantART

[Images from http://dchan.deviantart.com/]

Another set of illustrated patterns that really benefit from a close up. The vibrant illustrations include blob monsters, Mexican wrestlers, music-loving cheese burgers, and dancing condiments. With the wild clash of activity in the patterns it all kind of looks like Paul Frank on acid.

Tatiana Plakhova’s Wrapping Paper Collections on The Behance Network

[Images from http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Wrapping-Paper-Collections/90569]

Though these aren’t downloadable, Behance has a good number of wrapping paper designs by Tatiana Plakhova, all beautifully illustrated. Each has its own unique geometric design ranging from the basic pinstripe, to the 70’s floral, to the very ornate optical illusion.

Patternhead

[Images from http://www.patternhead.com/]

Patternhead is a good place to find some crazy pattern tiles designed by John Rawsterne. There are a number of patterns available for free, and other detailed, high quality downloads available through the Patternhead store.

MEANNORTH: work by Naja Conrad-Hansen

[Images from http://www.meannorth.com/index.html]

This was an especially exciting find because artist and designer Naja Conrad-Hansen has a spectacular and broad collection of work. Her pattern work is more a combination of fashion illustration and an overflow of pattern, sometimes with a hint of photo-collage-like influences. Some very wonderful work here.

Web Design Ledger

[Images from http://webdesignledger.com/freebies/200-beautiful-seamless-patterns-perfect-for-web-design]

Finally, the popularity of using patterns is growing in webdesign, moving into the other parts of the website anatomy, no longer kept only in the background. There’s a long list of different patterns from Web Design Ledger. These patterns were pulled from deviantART and have a variety of uses.

Feb 09, 2009 | Categories: Fashion Photography, Freebies, Graphic Design, Illustration, Inspiration, Painting, Photography, Recent Posts, Resources, Traditional Art, Wallpapers | Comments Off

Design Inspiration – What Music Designers Jam To.

So I’m not sure where this crazy idea came from, but I thought to myself: You know, I listen to music while designing anything, I wonder what everyone else is listening to? So I posed the question to the design community and here were their answers!