Fuel Your Creativity

Inspiration in Purple: The FYC Edition

Rob Bowen — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:33:25 PST

Another week has worked its way to Wednesday and we have compiled another installment of our series of colorful inspirational inquisitions here on FYC. As our testing of the waters winds down where we attempt to determine if the source that feeds our inspiration, if it tends towards a singular color, can tend to aim our creative output in the same direction as elements associated with that color. Last week we rolled out Inspiration in Blue: The FYC Edition, and so the color wheel keeps turning as the series nears its end.

Welcome back once again to the FYC edition of the popular Inspiration in Color series. This series of posts focuses on images that are made up of a primarily, or at least a predominantly, singular selected color. Moving ever forward, we continue to cross the color spectrum and this week we land on purple. Inspiration in Purple: The FYC Edition, features another awesome collection of imaginative and emotive works from all around the design world with two distinct purposes. The first, of course, is to inspire you, but also to see whether or not that inspiration tends to manifest elements that are associated with the color of choice. Nobility, sensuality, spirituality, creativity, wealth, mystery, enlightenment, arrogance, flamboyance, mourning, and pride are generally associated with the color purple. Who knows where this inspiration will take you, but you will be the only one that can tell…

Graphic Design

Branding and Print Design

Fashion and Make-up Design

Web Design

Product and Packaging

Photography

Wallpapers

That’s a Wrap!

So now the ball is in your court. If you have found yourself inspired by this series then by all means, please submit the end results of those inspirations to the FYC Flickr Group, and simply tag them ‘fycincolor’. Regardless of if you want to show us the work you created, we would love to hear your thoughts on this experimental inspirational process, so let your thoughts flow in the comment section below.

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Inspiration in Purple: The FYC Edition

Think Wallpaper

Tim Smith — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:29:07 PST

File Type: JPG
Number in Set: 8
Sizes: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 320×480 (iPhone)
License Type: Creative Commons 3.0
Author: Tim Smith

Tim Smith (or @timothybsmith, if you know him on Twitter) is a creative graphic designer and blogging dynamo who was hand picked to head up the Fuel Your Blogging site as editor. Taking his love of community and graphic design and merging the two together, Tim devised and designed the Think wallpaper for the FYC readers. We know Tim shares our sentiments in hoping that you all enjoy the new background! Thanks again, Tim.

Preview

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Think Wallpaper

26 Must Have Resources for the Web Developer’s Toolbox

Angie Bowen — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:00:04 PST

In every creative field, there are certain tools that one always keeps handy in order to get the job done. As developers (who also design) the toolbox inventory needs to be broad to encompass all the necessary areas to keep you moving and productive. Below is a list of the resources that we felt should be included in any developer’s toolbox.

We have broken it down into different categories to help you keep your tools organized a little bit better. We hope that the list proves useful.

Design

While Photoshop is the best graphics tool for designers, we realize that it’s above some new designer’s budget. GIMP is a close second whose price you can’t beat (free), especially for web designers who don’t need all of the features of Photoshop.

Graybit is an online accessibility testing tool designed to visually convert a full-color web page into a grayscale rendition for the purpose of visually testing the page’s perceived contrast.

The Color Wizard lets you submit your own base color, then automatically returns matching colors for the one you selected, complete with hex codes. It returns a set of hue, saturation and tint/shade variations of your color, and suggests color schemets based on your color’s complementary color, split complementary colors, and other variations.

FavIcon Generator allows you to easily create a favicon from an image.

Grids

The Grid System is an ever-growing resource where graphic designers can learn about grid systems, the golden ratio and baseline grids.

The 960 Grid System is an effort to streamline web development workflow by providing commonly used dimensions, based on a width of 960 pixels. There are two variants: 12 and 16 columns, which can be used separately or in tandem. Also check out Fluid 960

jQuery

jQuery is a fast and concise JavaScript Library that simplifies HTML document traversing, event handling, animating, and Ajax interactions for rapid web development.

The jQuery Visual Cheat Sheet is an useful and practical 6 page reference to jQuery 1.3 for web designers and developers containing the full jQuery API reference with detailed descriptions and some sample code.

jQuery Plugins contains plugins, extensions and tutorials developed by jQuery contributors for the jQuery JavaScript Library.

CSS

Code Beautifier is a free online CSS formatter, optimiser, and parser.

Em Calculator is a small JavaScript tool which helps making scalable and accessible CSS design. It converts size in pixels to relative em units, which are based on a text size.

Text Editors

Notepad++ is an open source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages. Running in the MS Windows environment, its use is governed by GPL License.

TextWrangler is a powerful and richly featured tool for composing, modifying, and transforming text stored in plain-text files for Mac.

WordPress

The WordPress Codex is the place to go if you have any WordPress related questions.

The Wordpress Virtual Cheat Sheet is a 5 page practical reference guide to WordPress 2.8. It contains the full reference guide to WP Template Tags with detailed descriptions and sample code.

Thematic is a free, open-source, highly extensible, search-engine optimized WordPress Theme Framework featuring 13 widget-ready areas, grid-based layout samples, styling for popular plugins, and a whole community behind it.

Cross Browser Testing

The Spoon Browser Sandbox allows you to run any browser directly from the web.

Adobe BrowserLab allows you to preview and test your web pages on leading browsers and operating systems – on demand. It probably won’t be free forever so use it while you can.

IETester is a free WebBrowser that allows you to have the rendering and javascript engines of IE8, IE7 IE 6 and IE5.5 on Windows 7, Vista and XP, as well as the installed IE in the same process.

Other

Web Developer’s Tools for Firefox is a collection of firefox plugins to speed up the development process. Troubleshoot, edit, and debug web projects without ever clicking away from Firefox.

Filezilla is a free FTP solution for Windows, Mac and Linux.

WampServer is a Windows web development environment which allows you to create web applications with Apache, PHP and the MySQL database. It also comes with PHPMyAdmin to easily manage your databases.

MAMP installs a local server environment in a matter of seconds on your Mac OS X computer, be it PowerBook or iMac. Like similar packages from the Windows- and Linux-world, MAMP comes free of charge.

Coda is an all in one web development tool for Mac. It includes a text editor, ftp client, CSS editor, terminal and more.

CSS Tricks Code Snippets is a large repository of useful code snippets in the areas of HTML, CSS, JavaScript (raw), JavaScript (jQuery), PHP, and WordPress.

HTML-Ipsum is a Lorum Ipsum snippets site for adding dummy content to your web designs.

Here Endeth the List

That concludes our compilation. Feel free to hit us up in the comments for your thoughts and opinions. And if there are any tools that you feel we overlooked, feel free to throw us a link and let us know a bit about it.

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26 Must Have Resources for the Web Developer’s Toolbox

Friday FUEL Fix (11/06/09)

Angie Bowen — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:58:05 PST

Call Craig and his cousin Day-Day, everybody, it’s Friday! And this week on FYC we felt that it was time for another fix, in fact we felt that with all the great FUEL content that has been coming out recently, that it was overdue. So we assembled a little November rain in the form of a Friday FUEL Fix (was the rain a good thing in the song…it’s been a while. I guess if it inspired a song, it was a good, right? Moving on). We usually take a look at some Twitter followers in the fix, but we thought we would mix it up this week and look at some lists, not to mention give a nod to some Flickr members who have been contributing to the FYC Flickr group. So strap yourselves in, this ride is just getting started.

Twitter Lists You May Want To Look At

With the latest addition of lists to Twitter, the home of that little blue bird has been the place to be, and lists are the latest buzz that are stirring things up in the nest. So we thought that we would take a moment in this post and recognize some of those who have begun building helpful and community oriented lists, expanding Twitter’s ability to engage its users in on a whole new level.

@urbanjungleboy’s Design Resources list

@myinkblog’s Top Design Blogs list

@ilovetypography’s Type Foundries list

@designcoyote’s Awesome Designers list

@Will_Powered’s Creative Community list

The FUEL Fix

As we have said before, there are so many amazing sister sites in the FUEL Network that we want to keep our spotlight shining over on the content that their awesome editors and writers are continuously putting together. Each of these fantastic FUEL sites is loaded with inspiring and insightful posts and discussions so take a look down through the showcase and see if you have missed any of these must-reads.

Fuel Your Motionography

Fuel Your Motion has stepped up to the plate and continues knocking them right out of the park with powerful and poignant post after post coming in from the youngest site in the FUEL ranks. Editors Christy Lai and Michael A. John and their team are keeping your graphics in motion for sure.

Check out this fine post from Fuel Your Motionography
As We Walk Through the Uncanny Valley

Follow on Twitter – @fuelyourmotion | @christy_lai | @michael_a_john
Subscribe to Fuel Your Motionography

Fuel Your Blogging

Editor extraordinaire Tim Smith has taken his team of writers and Fuel Your Blogging to brilliant heights in the short time that they have been apart of the FUEL family. Taking the blogosphere by storm and leading them towards a better more informed horizon.

Check out this fine post from Fuel Your Blogging
Should You Write Short or Long Blog Posts?

Follow on Twitter – @fuelblogging | timothybsmith@
Subscribe to Fuel Your Blogging

Fuel Your Branding

The Branding team has quickly established Fuel Your Branding as an incredible go-to resource for all things branding related. Editors Lisa Kribs and Beth LaPierre are delivering on their promise to bring the community the best tips and tales on building and maintaining your personal or professional brand.

Check out this fine post from Fuel Your Branding
Building Trust Into Your Brand

Follow on Twitter – @fuelbranding | @bethlapierre | @lisakribs
Subscribe to Fuel Your Blogging

Fuel Your Photography

Editors Stacy Christian and Thayne Shumway have built a resource that no photog enthusiast or pro should be without in Fuel Your Photography. And the site just keeps the helpful and inspired content coming.

Check out this fine post from Fuel Your Photography
5 Ways to Improve Pictures for your Blogs

Follow on Twitter – @fuelphotography | @stacychristian | @thayneshumway
Subscribe to Fuel Your Photography

Fuel Your Apps

Fuel Your Apps, headed by the Chad, also known as the Engle, or his Chad Engleness is you’re not into the whole brevity thing, is your one stop haven for all things App!

Check out this fine post from Fuel Your Apps
10 User Experience Related Resources & Findings

Follow on Twitter – @fuelyourapps | @chadengle
Subscribe to Fuel Your Apps

Fuel Your Illustration

With a loose cannon like Alex Eben Meyer manning the helm of Fuel Your Illustration, you truly never know what to expect from the site, but you know it is always going to shine! With such a rich niche to draw from, FYIllustration is always delivering inspiring and informative posts.

Check out this fine post from Fuel Your Illustration
Cardboard Artist: Chris Gilmour

Follow on Twitter – @fuelillustrate | @ebencom
Subscribe to Fuel Your Illustration

Fuel Your Interface

Editor Jonathan Cutrell, the imaginative driving force of Fuel Your Interface keeps all things interface…well, in your face. Can I get an LOL? Alright. But seriously, with fabulous tips and insightful articles, FYInterface is always at the top of our RSS reads.

Check out this fine post from Fuel Your Interface
Three Minute Tip! 3 Quick Photoshop Tips to Help Your Interface Creation

Follow on Twitter – @fuelinterface | @JCutrell
Subscribe to Fuel Your Interface

Fuel Your Writing

What can we say about the award winning always awesomesauce filled Fuel Your Writing that we haven’t said already? This wonderful writer’s resource has done nothing but delight us since it launched that we are running out of nice things to say about them. Good thing they are always stepping it up to give us more reasons to say them.

Check out this fine post from Fuel Your Writing
8 Nasty Writing Habits You Should Quit

Follow on Twitter – @fuelyourwriting | @mishikraz
Subscribe to Fuel Your Writing

Fuel Your Coding

If it is code you need, then just turn your developmental eye to Doug Neiner and his coding wizkids at Fuel Your Coding. Another community resource that never ceases to bring it, Doug and the FYCo team are favs in our feed.

Check out this fine post from Fuel Your Coding
JavaScript Can Learn: Now Teach It Tricks!

Follow on Twitter – @fuelyourcoding | @dougneiner
Subscribe to Fuel Your Coding

Fuel Brand Network

Fuel Brand Network has a blog attached to the main Network site so make sure that you stop by to see what Peter Liao and Megan Wantz are cooking up!

Follow on Twitter – @fuelnetwork | @HeyPeterman | @Ehmdoubleyou
Subscribe to Fuel Brand Network

Fuel Your Creativity Español

Do not be mistaken, just because FYC Español is another Creativity incarnation in the Network that they have all the same posts and content as the English counterpart…far from it! Javier and his team have assembled some hard hitting and awesomely inspired material for the Network so make sure that you get your bilingual butt in gear and get subscribed to FYC Español!

Fuel Your Creativity Japanese

Once more, this incarnation of the Creativity site, FYC Japanese, is jam packed with fresh content and inspired articles. Aki has crafted an astounding arsenal of posts that are sure to get your creative fires burning without end. If you have not been checking out the feed from FYC Japanese, then you are definitely missing out on some stellar design related inspiration. So get on over and check them out!

FYC Flickr Group Showcase

mariani alberto : rupertalbegraphics wallpaper

SchemingEye : Untitled

teodoru : GasTon and Tento

LouisCarnage : Philippe Auger

Stéphane Massa-Bidal : LIFE (BY PLANE)

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Friday FUEL Fix (11/06/09)

Inspiration in Blue: The FYC Edition

Angie Bowen — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:56:56 PST

It’s humpday once again and that means the blogosphere is about to get a little more colorful as our series where we delight in a bit of an inspirational inquisition here on FYC continues. Looking to test the waters to determine if the source that feeds our inspiration, if it tends towards a singular color, can tend to aim our creative output in the same direction as elements associated with that color. Last week we rolled out Inspiration in Green: The FYC Edition, and so the color wheel keeps turning as the series carries on.

So welcome back to the FYC edition of the popular Inspiration in Color series. Once again this series of posts focuses on images that are made up of a primarily, or at least a predominantly, singular selected color. Moving ever forward, we continue to cross the color spectrum and this week we land on blue. Inspiration in Blue: The FYC Edition, features another awesome collection of imaginative and emotive works from all around the design world with two distinct purposes. The first, of course, is to inspire you, but also to see whether or not that inspiration tends to manifest elements that are associated with the color of choice. Peace, unity, trust, confidence, water, loyalty, dependability, depression, coldness, idealism, are generally associated with the color blue. Who knows where this inspiration will take you, but you will be the only one that can tell…

Graphic Design

Branding and Print Design

Fashion and Makeup Design

Photography

Interior and Industrial Design

Wallpapers

Product and Packaging Design

Website Design

That’s a Wrap!

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Inspiration in Blue: The FYC Edition

Preview Exploiting Chaos: 150 Ways to Spark Innovation During Times of Change

Angie Bowen — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:44:37 PST

We recently had some time to sit down and check out the preview of Exploiting Chaos: 150 Ways to Spark Innovation During Times of Change from Trend Hunter founder Jeremy Gutsche. From this full-color and wonderfully illustrated preview it seems that Exploiting Chaos promises to be as visually stimulating as it is verbally engaging, and the powerful first chapter of this book had us scribbling down ideas and longing to get our hands on a full copy. For that reason, we wanted to recommend that anyone interested go check out the first chapter for themselves, to see what we are talking about. We are sure that you once you do, you will never approach creativity the same way!

It is a colorful and rebellious guide to innovation, with glowing blurbs from people like Guy Kawasaki, Daniel Pink and CEO Read. John Jantsch from Duct Tape Marketing even called it the “best book on innovation”.

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Preview Exploiting Chaos: 150 Ways to Spark Innovation During Times of Change

Creative Discussion – What Gets Your Creative Butt In Gear?

Rob Bowen — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:20:54 PST

In our first Creative Discussion on beating the creative blocks we tackled an issue that most people who are involved with the creative process have run into, a problem of inspiration. In this month’s discussion we are addressing a different sort of bump in the road, a problem of motivation.

For creatives and non-creatives alike, sometimes the issue that arises is not necessarily a block of ideas, in fact, there may be times when you have an over abundance of inspiration, but you just cannot seem to get started. For whatever the reason, we come across the times when we are unable to find the drive to push us forward and into action.

Remember this is an open discussion with the creative community, so feel free to chime in below in the comments to keep the flow of dialog moving. After leaving the discussion open for the month, we will be compiling some of the responses into a post on the topic at hand, so be sure to keep checking in on the talk as things develop.

What Gets Your Creative Butt In Gear?

Alright everybody, the torch has been passed…Discuss!

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Creative Discussion – What Gets Your Creative Butt In Gear?

A Month In The Creative Community: An October Round-Up

Angie Bowen — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:22:54 PST

Falling into the winter’s grip, we leave another month behind shuffling towards the year’s end. October has drawn to a close and that means it is time for the FYC monthly round-up. So we scoured the feeds and stopped by our favorite cyberspace hangouts to grab the best content that the creative community had to offer in October. Whether you caught them the first time around or you are seeing them for the first time, the showcase below is what we believed should not be left behind with the days we dropped along the way. So we hope you enjoy these fantastic features!

Inspiration

45+ Inspiring Examples of Vintage in Web Design

Who said old style was never been cool in web design? In fact, using Vintage photo, paper and fashion became trendier now a day. If you’re looking for Vintage Web Design inspiration, then this is what your looking for. Today we will showcase some of the best sites applying vintage concept on their layout.

30 amazing packaging designs for your inspiration

Packaging is one of the aspects of design that we see the most, we get packaged products at home, work or wherever we go. The following are great example of well done packaging that add value to the product.

30 Beautiful Examples of Illustrated Twitter Backgrounds

Twitter can be a powerful tool to communicate and connect with people through words, but it can also be a great way to promote your brand through visual design. Twitter does limit you when it comes to customizing your page, but you do have full control over the background image.

35 Smart Logos With Second Thought To Make You look Twice

One more logo showcase, but in this one you really will need to look twice! Every logo is carefully picked with second thought and I think such logos are really hard to create. Get inspired, hopefully this article will help you to look different at logo creation – it’s not always just about typography, good looking font and nice animation.

50 Mind-Blowing Examples of Macro Photography

I love the amazing details you can find in these shots. When we want to we can find a whole other world, the world of the small. Its a very alien looking world to say the least but a beautiful one at that. I hope you enjoy these shots as much as I have.

Awesome Brochure and Print Design Inspiration

Print design is becoming quite influential in web design, we have seen more and more websites using big headers, lots of white space and nice font size contrasts. As I am looking for print design references for a brochure I am working on, I decided to select some nice brochures and print design examples to share with you.

Interviews

Interview With Jacob Gube, The Man Behind Six Revisions

I have had the pleasure of connecting with Jacob, the man behind the very popular design blog Six Revisions, on multiple occasions through various social sites and I recently interviewed him for SpyreStudios. I hope you’ll enjoy this interview with Jacob! Make sure you stop by in the comment section and feel free to ask Jacob questions!

Chris Spooner on Inspiration

Chris Spooner, the guy behind Blog.SpoonGraphics and Line25 was kind enough to take the time to answer some questions for us this past weekend on the topic of Creativity and Inspiration. Chris is a self employed designer, who earns a fulltime living with a mix of blogging and the odd design project.

Designer’s Studio: 7 Amazing Premium Wordpress Theme Designers Explain

The WordPress following could be compared to the one of any given religious group. By the core of this community stand the ones who have dedicated their whole portfolios and businesses to develop some of the most sold, used and appraised WordPress themes – The Premium Wordpress Theme Designers.

Interview With Steven Snell From Vandelay Design & DesignM.ag

I first connected with Steven back when I used to run Freelance Folder almost 2 years ago (Steven wrote some great articles there) and we’ve been in contact ever since. Here’s the interview I did with Steven recently, I hope you like it!

A Chat With Ace Graphic Designer Francesco Mugnai

Six months ago I returned to designing and blogging after a sabbatical of almost 5 years. As I slowly started sifting through the plethora of websites and blogs that were out there, I came across a page so blue, it brightened my whole demeanor.

Creative Interview with Richard Darell aka @Minervity

This week I had the opportunity to chat with one of my very good designer friends, founder of the well known Minervity.com, Richard Darell (@Minervity). If you are active at all on twitter you will no doubt recognize him as an extremely active member of the community as well as an excellent source of Information for Design, Tech, and Inspiration.

Design

3 Powerful Ways To Make Typography Talk On Your Website

Typography is a very powerful tool in a web designer’s arsenal. We have seen simple websites glorified in an instant with the use of proper typography. We have seen brilliant websites pale because the “type” tone they used was all wrong.

5 Helpful Tips for Design Students

Myself being a graphic design student and freelancer, I am constantly being pushed to my limits, balancing school work and client work that actually puts money in my pocket. It’s a tough challenge, but something that many of us tackle each and every day. But, what if you are a student and don’t seem to be gaining that many clients for freelance projects, leaving your portfolio full of projects that 50 other students have in theirs?

How a design blog is attractive to clients

I often find myself getting asked the question, “Does your blog bring you business, and how so if it’s mostly targeted at inspiring and helping other designers?”

Development

WordPress Theme Cheat Sheet for Beginners

There are many codes to memorize just to modify a WordPress theme, so it helps to have a mini cheat sheet if you are looking to make minor changes or even developing your own theme. This is why we have decided to list a few codes that you can probably use for reference when editing themes.

5 Rules To Write More Readable CSS Files

Complex CSS files can often be difficult to manage especially if you don’t use a structured way to write and organize their code.

jQuery for Absolute Beginners: The Complete Series

over the course of about a month, I posted fifteen video tutorials that teach you EXACTLY how to use the jQuery library. We start by downloading the library and eventually work our way up to creating an AJAX style-switcher. I’m very proud of this series; possibly more than any other that I’ve done for Envato.

Freebies

Free Peeling Paint Textures

I have collect 5 Awesome, high resolution and high quality Peeling Paint Textures. In this showcase you will find 5 awesome Peeling Paint Textures that you can use for any purpose, whether it’s commercial or personal. They’re extremely large-scale in dimension.

Abstract Grunge Photoshop Brushes & Texture Pack

Today’s first web treat is a combo pack of 5 high resolution abstract grunge painted textures and corresponding high resolution photoshop brushes.

Parting Ways: Free November 2009 Calendar Wallpaper

This post is part of the free calendar wallpaper series. Each month I create a new wallpaper featuring the current calendar. Looking at the same image over and over again is not very stimulating. Hence having a new desktop background each month should help getting your creative juices flowing.

Tutorials

Create a Twitter Icon in Six Easy Steps Using Photoshop

You do not need to be a Photoshop pro or Iconist to create a simple icon. Just have an idea of what you want to create and start from there. In this post we are showing you how to create a simple twitter icon for your blog or website in six easy steps.

How to effectively clean up a logo in illustrator with the pathfinder tool

Over the years I have been passed many a logo to “clean”. I also learned while I was in college that I was of the few that actually knew how to make a logo one shape so it would appear correctly on any background color.

Freelancing

How To Maximize Your Freelance Income

Freelancing income often seems as though it is a limited commodity. It seems limited by time, limited by ability, and limited by the number of opportunities available.

Freelancers: Do You Need a Business Plan?

If you tell someone that you’re going into business for yourself, he may ask to see your business plan — unless you tell him that you’re planning to freelance. There’s a certain assumption that freelancing is so plain and simple that anyone can do it, with no business plan needed.

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A Month In The Creative Community: An October Round-Up

A Showcase of Vibrant Graphic Artists

Angie Bowen — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:39:01 PDT

T.G.I.F., indeed! The weekend is just a day away and we here at FYC (not to be mistaken for FYCo, for Fuel Your Coding, which is the acronym for their site around the FUEL offices ;)) wanted to send you into the weekend with a little inspiration to carry you through til Monday. We have been contacted recently by some very talented folks, and while we cannot feature everyone in a single post, we did want to start shining our spotlight on a few of them here and there. So we gathered a few stylistically similar artists together that we have been blown away by their works to showcase. And by ‘stylistically similar’ we mean, their styles all kick ass! So here we go:

Chuck Anderson

No Pattern is the online portfolio of dynamic graphic artist, Chuck Anderson. His bold and colorful work is both breathtaking and inspiring and was an easy addition to our showcase line-up.

Irina Batkova

Nightly.me is the online portfolio of the spirited and talented graphic artist, Irina Batkova. When taking in and being effected by her powerful work two words come to mind, beautiful chaos!

Edmond Yang

Yang Media is the online portfolio of graceful graphic artist, Edmond Yang. His vibrant work accessing such a fantastic fluidity that it moves there on the screen as you soak it in.

Xavier Bourdil

Trust in Elements is the online portfolio of the striking graphic artist, Xavier Bourdil. His work’s explosive nature beautifully speaks volumes from within each piece reaching out and connecting with viewers.

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A Showcase of Vibrant Graphic Artists

Live and Let Die : A Creative Discussion #4 Wrap-up

Rob Bowen — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:13:46 PDT

This month’s Creative Discussion tackled the topic of deciding when it is time to let an idea die. It was a lively dialog from the very beginning and it generated some fantastic ideas. There was also a bit of discussion on the language of the query as well, and whether or not ‘die’ was too harsh a term.

True, ‘die’ is a harsh term, it evokes a visceral response and that is why I used it. Because the idea of letting a creative idea die should be something that effects us viscerally. It should never be easy…

In some productivity oriented schools of thought, there are those who believe that whenever we have an idea it stays in our heads clinging to the back of our minds. Never giving us rest from the idea until we have seen it through or let the idea go. So it was swimming through this school that brought on this discussion, and we called on the community to share their thoughts on this demise.

Never Say Die

Though the whole idea behind the post, was determining when it is time to let go, there were some who do not believe that there is ever an occasion when throwing in the towel is the answer. They do not think that surrendering the idea is ever the right course of action for a creative mind to take.

Andrew Gerber – …There is no need to say die. If an idea doesn’t work know the most important thing for you is to make a deep analysis and realize what is going wrong. Don’t stop doing the analysis of mistakes. Correct your mistakes and you will see that any idea can work.

Alberto Pichardo – An idea as it is never dies i mean theres times when im just playing with PS or ILL and sometimes brilliant ideas comes to me and seems wonderfull at first, but then it just evolve into something else, it could go to both ways, it can change ur first idea completly or modifiying the current, so im not sure if theres a time when you can say “now is the time to quit” cause at lest on my case ive never found me saying ok thats it for this idea

Take Time With A Wounded Hand

Flying back towards our topic with some help from the Stone Temple Pilots, one of the more popular ideas that was discussed was all about taking time away from the idea. Stepping back from a project whenever we feel like we are going nowhere with it can prove to be the key in deciding whether or not we will ever be able to fully make the idea work. Otherwise we end up forcing the idea and settling on a finished product that does not meet the full potential the project once had. So take time and come back with a refreshed and renewed perspective before condemning the idea to die.

chunkydesign – When you look at what you´re doing, and you think it is bad, and you no longer feel any kind of will to keep on working that idea, it may be the time to let it die. But, I think, that before letting it die, the best is to give it a rest. When you´re too involved with your work, you´ll be the worst person to judge it, so step back from it. For a few hours, days, weeks, whatever… Go work on something else, and when you´ll come back to it, you´ll probably have a better perspective of what can be done to make it work. If you still feel the same way than before, then just put it on your archive of failed projects.

Jeff – I see your quote and raise you another quote, “Do, or do not. There is no try.” -Yoda :)

But seriously, I agree with what chunkydesign said above. Step away from it for a while and come back, you may not be in the right frame of mind to take it to the level it could become.

Sometimes it’s as simple as a walk or a hot shower to the right music or complete silence. If none of that works, Kill It!

I Like To Steal

…Not literally, but it went with the lyrics from the first header, so we ran with it. Besides it does work when you think about taking pieces of the idea that you cannot see through and letting them be worked into other projects. Stealing elements that we are too fond of to ever let fall by the wayside, and incorporating them elsewhere, seems to be a bit of a time honored tradition among creatives. So before you toss an idea aside, make sure that you have salvaged any parts that still send sparks shooting through you.

Kate – I think the main thing I try to keep in mind is to understand when to let go and move in another direction. Don’t be charmed by the initial “oh this will be cool” feeling if you have put serious effort and it is still weak. It is easy to hang on too tightly to a style/element/overall concept and drive it into the ground just because you thought it was going to be cool. Make sure you get regular feedback, and don’t be afraid of criticism. Accept your failures and learn from them. Maybe that idea that needs to “die” will be reincarnated into something else. If not, then at least you have gone through the mental exercise of playing with it and learning something from it.

Jason Garrison – …Even when I feel like I’ve hit a brick wall, I take elements of my original idea into another draft. Creativity is a fluid process, not with stops and starts but with plateaus. The starting levels build a foundation for the peak.

Give It Away, Give It Away, Give It Away, Now!

Changing gears to a more Chili Pepper kind of place, another popular idea that surfaced from the discussion was to give the idea away to someone else to try and make it flourish. An awesome and inspirational suggestion that really feeds that sense of community which drives many creative people. This way, there is no true death for an idea, it is simply passed on to the next architect of its evolution. For many, the thought of handing over any creative idea is a hard one, but it is certainly one with merit that can allow the idea to soar to heights from which you were holding it back. So before you give up, give away.

Brandon Cox – I think you let it die when you realize you’re already trying to cultivate one too many, therefore you know that going for it will only result in mediocre execution. Better yet, it’s a good time to give the idea away.

Yaritsa Arenas – I usually try to get a second (or third) pair of eyes involved. Sometimes you’ve lived with something for so long that your view becomes a bit narrow. I find if even someone else’s input can’t help resuscitate it, then it’s time to let the idea go. Or like Brandon said, give it away.

That’s The Wrap-up!

That concludes the wrap-up for this month’s creative discussion, but the dialog carries on. So keep the comments coming either here in the wrap-up or in the original post. Either way, always remember:

Eric – “Good ideas don’t die, they’re just abandoned” – a paraphrase from Martin Scorsese.

Sometimes an idea can become beautiful in the hands of one and wither in the hands of another. If an idea is starting to with wither then it is time to bring in some reinforcements – as has already been mentioned, give it time, step back, look at it in a different way, get some feedback from some fresh eyes. If it’s still withering, then it is time to abandon the idea.

But this doesn’t mean that all hope is lost. Save your idea, this same idea work on a different project. Share your idea, someone else could use this inspiration. Good ideas never “die,” they exist in the ether of humanity. While an idea may not work with this project a good idea will find a new home somewhere else…

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Live and Let Die : A Creative Discussion #4 Wrap-up

Go Media’s New Color Radials Vector Pack

Angie Bowen — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:00:04 PDT

Chances are, if you are into the awesomeness that are vectors, then you are already familiar with the Go Media Arsenal. And furthermore, chances are that if you are familiar with Go Media, then you, like us, get excited whenever the Go Media crew releases a new set of vectors into the community. Well, then get excited, friends, because the time is upon us! And the exciting news doesn’t stop there…

The team over at Go Media contacted us, asking if we wanted to give away a couple of the vectors from the new set, and we jumped at the opportunity to share them with you all. Below is a summary of the latest vector set from the Arsenal and a special bonus announcement for the readers of our blog.

There are quite a few (4 of 7) packs featuring brilliant Technicolor in Vector Set 16, but none quite as bold as “Color Radials”. We wanted to follow up our original “Radials” pack with a younger, hipper sibling. Now that we have all the wavelengths of the rainbow with which to work, things get interesting! Inside the full pack you’ll find color wheels, sunbursts, ornate circles, and pigment bombs. I think Adelle chose two of the coolest images in the pack to share with you for free, so thank her for her good taste!

They have also created a product-specific discount coupon for Color Radials.

Code: fuelyourcolor

This code gets our readers 15% off of the Color Radials vector pack.

And Now, The Freebie

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Go Media’s New Color Radials Vector Pack

Inspiration in Green: The FYC Edition

Rob Bowen — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:24 PDT

It is that time of the week once again as we bring the blogosphere the next edition of our series on this inspirational inquisition here on FYC where we test the waters to determine if the source that feeds our inspiration, if it tends towards a singular color, can tend to aim our creative output in the same direction as elements associated with that color. Last week we rolled out Inspiration in Yellow: The FYC Edition, and we keep running down the rainbow as the series pours on.

So welcome back to the FYC edition of the popular Inspiration in Color series. Once again this series of posts focuses on images that are made up of a primarily, or at least a predominantly, singular selected color. Moving ever forward, we continue to cross the color spectrum and this week we land on green. Inspiration in Green: The FYC Edition, features another awesome collection of imaginative and emotive works from all around the design world with two distinct purposes. The first, of course, is to inspire you, but also to see whether or not that inspiration tends to manifest elements that are associated with the color of choice. Intelligence, nature, fertility, youth, wealth, good luck, vigor, generosity, go, cunning, jealousy, greed are generally associated with the color green. Who knows where this inspiration will take you, but you will be the only one that can tell…

Graphic Design

Branding and Print Design

Photography

Interior and Industrial Design

Wallpapers

Fashion and Make-up Design

Website Design

That’s a Wrap!

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Inspiration in Green: The FYC Edition

The Best Adobe Air Apps to Increase Productivity

Angie Bowen — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:00:47 PDT

One of the greatest elements to Adobe Air is its cross platform capabilities allowing the apps run through its framework to be accessible on all three major operating systems (Windows, Linux & Mac). Not only did this open the door for app junkies everywhere to rejoice, but now this framework has given the productivity minded a few reasons to shout as well! This is a list of go to apps to keep you productive regardless of what OS you are beholden to.

Even if productivity is not quite your forte, those of us in the freelancing forum always need ways to keep our minds on the current tasks at hand, and our focus in a fixed range. So the following apps can prove beneficial in these instances as well, so it may behoove you to take a gander through what we have gathered here.

In order to use the apps listed below, you will need to first install Adobe Air.

Focus Booster

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management technique that works great for anyone who needs help in focusing on a single project as well as those of us who have trouble stopping to take breaks, you can easily give it a try yourself by downloading the free ebook and taking it for the proverbial spin. Focus Booster is an outstanding Air app designed to help you keep track of your Pomodoro sessions. Whether you use the Pomodoro technique or something a bit different, this app will help you enhance your focus and productivity.

Klok

Klok is a time tracking app with a lovely user interface giving you a clear look at how much time you spend on specific projects as well as helping you estimate time frames for future tasks. With the ability to enter notes on projects, adjust times, create subtasks, retrieve accidentally deleted items and view full featured reports, this is a fantastic full service app to keep track of where you are spending your time, and perhaps more importantly, where you aren’t.

MiniTask

MiniTask is a great to do app to keep track of minor lists. It seems more fit for the immediate to-dos, and is really good for use as a secondary app covering what you need to do this week and today. Having a small to do list, separate from your more comprehensive lists, that tells you exactly what you need to focus on now is very beneficial. Featuring drag and drop reorder, reminder alarms, separator headers and a variety of keyboard shortcuts, MiniTask can really help keep you on track and focusing on those tasks that need to stay in the forefront of your mind, and cannot afford to be back-burnered.

Doit.im

If you prefer to use the David Allen GTD method then finding a great app for Windows can prove to be a daunting task. Personally we have tried so many great Mac apps, but for those who prefer to work primarily on a PC, choices are seriously lacking. Doit.im was a dream come true. It has everything you need and nothing you don’t to fully implement GTD.

The only downsides to this app is that there are a few stability issues that still need to be worked out and it is currently only available for Windows & Mac, no Linux version yet. So for another option there is:

GTD-R

GTD-R is another option for GTD on Windows. Not only does it lack a few of the features that Doit.im has, but it also lacks the clean UI Doit.im users are used to. Though it is a bit more stable and available for Linux.

Remember the Milk Notifier

If you use Remember the Milk for your to do list, then Remember the Milk Notifier is a must. Okay, so must might be a bit strong for some, but it is definitely a decent addon that can enhance your overall use of the Milk. Unfortunately this is another app that is not quite available for Linux yet, but they are working on it. In the mean time, if you need a RTM solution for Linux, you may want to check out Tasque, though this is not an AIR app.

In Closing

If we missed any must try productivity apps please comment and let us know. And if you know of a great GTD app for Windows, please recommend it even if it is not an Adobe Air app.

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The Best Adobe Air Apps to Increase Productivity

Purposeful Creativity

Jon Hu — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:49 PDT

So I was walking down around Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia one day and I came upon this painter/sketcher sitting in front of a blank canvas, looking blankly ahead as life passed all around him. Curious, I carefully approached him and hesitantly asked what he was waiting for.

“Hello sir. How are you?”

“Fine, thanks. And you?”

“Just fine also. You chose a great day to paint today – inspiration is all around!”

“Just taking my time”

“But what’re you waiting for? I mean, don’t get me wrong. I don’t intend to be intrusive or bossy, and not that I’m a stellar artist or anything. I’d just think that with so many people walking around, things happening all the time, combined with this sunny, cloudless, perfect day, sparks of creativity must be firing all around!”

“I guess so. I’m just waiting for the right time, right moment, you know? Something to let me know that the scene is just perfectly set.”

I sure hope that he found his moment, that he didn’t let anything slip by. And as I left him I began to wonder, why is it that creativity is now synonymous to random chances in time? Granted, there are many moment in life where one just knows that everything is perfect, inspired to capture that moment in some form of expression. But why is inspiration now also known as waiting. For some reason, our communities have begun to define creativity as these spontaneous bursts of “inspiration”, instantaneous thoughts of revelation that can also be so quickly lost if not somehow artistically articulated.

Creativity is so much more than a mere passive waiting. Instead, it is so much more of a continuing thought process, a phenomenon that is slowly and carefully developed over countless hours of trial and error. From what I’ve seen, those that have labored and weeded out the unwanted are the ones that have produced awesome, passion-filled pieces. Only those that have stepped out of their comfort zone and mixed their blood, sweat, and tears into their work have earned the right to be called successful individuals of self-expression. We must begin to see that we hold so much more in our hands than we have previously thought before. We must begin to give ourselves more credit, to begin to take responsibility for the art that we produce. No longer can we blame our unpolished work on a lack of creativity and inspiration; no longer can we sit around and wait for our creative minds to come to us, to be developed on their own.

It is only those who have seen the ugly that can conceive the beautiful.

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Purposeful Creativity

Inspiration in Yellow: The FYC Edition

Angie Bowen — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:10:59 PDT

It is that time of the week once again for another installment in our series of inspirational experiments here on FYC where we try to determine if the source we are inspired by, if it is made up of a predominant color, can tend to aim our creative output in the same direction as elements associated with that color. Last week we rolled out Inspiration in Orange: FYC Edition, and we are not showing any signs of slowing down yet.

So welcome back to the FYC edition of the popular Inspiration in Color series. Once again this series of posts focuses on images that are made up of a primarily, or at least a predominantly, singular selected color. As we move down inspirational spectrum, this week lands us on the color yellow. Inspiration in Yellow: The FYC Edition, features another awesome collection of imaginative and emotive works from all around the design world with two distinct purposes. The first, of course, is to inspire you, but also to see whether or not that inspiration tends to manifest elements that are associated with the color of choice. Joy, optimism, intelligence, idealism, hope, air, cowardice, hazards, dishonesty, femininity, friendship are generally associated with the color yellow. Who knows where this inspiration will take you, but you will be the only one that can tell…

Graphic Design

Branding and Print Design

Photography

Interior and Industrial Design

Wallpapers

Product and Packaging Design

Website Design

That’s a Wrap!

Sponsored by

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Fuel Your Creativity 2009 cc (creative commons license)

Inspiration in Yellow: The FYC Edition