About MediaLoot

MediaLoot is a brand new online toolbox of premium design resources. It’s a subscription based site that offers designers awesome icons, Photoshop brushes, textures, vectors, print templates, and more. It looks very promising and is created by Jon Phillips of Spyre Studios and Mason & Natalie Hipp of Freelance Folder.

Some Samples

Rather than me just chatting up the graphics, I figured you could check out some examples and judge for yourself.

The Prize

MyInkBlog and MediaLoot would like to hook up 5 lucky readers with a free 1-year account.

How To Enter

For a chance to grab this cool prize, simply signup to be a fan of MyInkBlog on Facebook, and then drop me a comment below. The 5 winners will be chosen at random. The deadline to enter is April 8th, 2010, after that point commenting on this post will be turned off. I will announce the winners in a followup post, so it’s a good idea to grab the RSS feed to find out if you win.

Facebook, your parents are now on it, and maybe even your grandparents too! Proving to have staying power, Facebook towers over the demise, and eroding of previous contender Myspace. Facebook has many interactive features, and various functions we can all take advantage of. As design sites, we have all slowly migrated over to having our own Facebook fan pages, and this can prove to be very successful in driving Facebook ‘friends’ over to your site.

My Favorite Design Blog Fan Pages

These great design sites can be found on Facebook, head over and become a fan today!

MyInkBlog on Facebook (350 Fans)

AdmixWeb (80 Fans)

AdmixWeb is an amazing web design, and development blog, owned and operated, by Teylor Feliz and Holly Lamarche.

AREA1 (33 Fans)

AREA 1 is a blog related to graphic/web design, blogging tutorials, & articles.

Colorburned (2,869 Fans)

Colorburned is a design blog featuring the best in design news, resources, and tutorials from around the web.

Coroflot (7,028 Fans)

Coroflot is a creative network for designers of all stripes. Upload your portfolio of work, and allow great employers, and observers to be able to see your skills!

Design Juices 36 Fans

Design Juices has its own facebook page. I encourage you to pass on the page to all of your friends, so we can grow in our presence online. The Facebook page is the place to go for all the updates regarding Design Juices, and is an open forum for any thoughts, and feelings you have regarding the blog.

Design Your Way (37 Fans)

Design Your Way is a great place to submit links relating to design, and offers great design articles on a range of topics.

DeviantART (216,917 Fans)

DeviantART aims to provide a place for any artist, both emerging and professional talents, to exhibit, and discuss works of art. With over 12 million registered members, and 100 million submissions, DeviantART is the world’s largest art community.

Fudge Graphics (1000 Fans)

Whether you’re looking for high quality freebies, inspiration, or design related news; Fudge Graphics has it.

Graphic River (616 Fans)

At Graphic River you can buy and sell, royalty free, layered Adobe Photoshop Files, Vector Graphics, Icon Sets, and Add-ons for Adobe Photoshop, and Illustrator.

Inspired Magazine (1,966 Fans)

Inspired Magazine is a daily inspiration source for web designers, illustrators, Twitter addicts, and other creative humans.

Inspiring Pixel (272 Fans)

Inspiring Pixel is an online inspiration repository for designers. The website features creative, and inspiring designs from Web, Graphic, and the UI design industry from professionals. This enables viewers to understand their work, and create similar designs themselves.

Lady Umbrella (3,374 Fans)

Lady Umbrella is a designer ladies t-shirt company based in Ireland. The company was established in 2008, with the dream of creating stunning t-shirts with the heroine, Lady Umbrella, in a variety of scenarios, and with a host of friends. Lady Umbrella has successfully run various giveaways, and competitions, in coorelation with improving their facebook profile. This has rapidly increased their fan base.

MacApp Storm (1,079 Fans)

MacApp Storm is a great site dedicated to Mac application news, reviews, competitions, and tips.

Naldz Graphics (257 Fans)

Naldz Graphics is a Design Blog for designers, and design lovers. They showcase the best tutorials, freebies, inspirations, and other useful, and informative resources to help, and give love to the design community.

Psd Tuts+ (3,331 Fans)

Psd Tutsplus is a blog/Photoshop site, made to house, and showcase some of the best Photoshop tutorials around.

Smashing Magazine (11,797 Fans)

Smashing Magazine delivers useful, and innovative information to Web designers, and developers. Their aim is to inform our readers about the latest trends, and fresh techniques in design, and Web development.

The Web Blend (133 Fans)

The Web Blend is a community for designers, developers, and tech junkies that keeps you current with a summary of the latest in web related news and trends.

Visual Swirl (80 Fans)

Visual Swirl is a creative design blog from the mind of Chris Thurman, dishing out tasty snacks for the creative mind.

Promoting your Facebook Page

Well, now that you have your Facebook page up and running, you want people to visit it?

• Use the great Facebook badge, and place it on your site. This is done with a simple piece of code provided by Facebook themselves, it simply fits inside your sidebar (or wherever you wish to place it.) This allows users to see your latest posted updates, and become a fan right away.
• Run a competition/giveaway through your site/Facebook page, and encourage users to become a fan in order to enter the giveaway. Simple ideas like this (with the right prize) often bring you hundreds of new readers and fans. (you can encourage them to follow your blog in various social network sites.)
• Syncing your twitter feed to your Facebook page is only a click away.
• Post up your new articles on your Facebook page, allowing you to receive additional traffic.
• Promote Facebook button at the bottom of your posts.
• Be interactive on the page, but don’t over-run users with updates, typically a one or two posts per day is necessary.
• Encourage your community of readers to comment on Facebook posts, and respond, encouraging conversation.

I was definitely preoccupied this month with the MyInkBlog redesign, so this MyInkTrail is shorter than usual. Nonetheless, I did stumble into some great stuff. Here are the best articles, tutorials, inspiration and more from the design community for February 2010.

Articles

Tutorials

Inspiration

Featured Stuff

Quick Nav

• Mind Mapping and Cluster Diagrams
• Using Statistics
• Browse Through Related Blogs
• Social Media
• Use Your Own Growth
• More Useful Tips
• Tools

In this post we are going to take a look at the fine art of brainstorming. Analyzing the ways and means that some of us use to get those clouds rolling in, and the storms raging relentlessly inside our heads.

I have talked in the past about the importance of the content on your blog, especially for garnering new readers, and so I decided that I would do a post that could help you achieve this content for your site. In this post we are going to take a look at the fine art of brainstorming. Here we will examine the important role that this plays in the creative process, and how it can be a blogger’s most invaluable content contributor.

The creative process is an involved structure with many pieces, fueled by our imaginations. In order to run wild with the process, we need to have the idea that is steering the wheel. For bloggers, this process is no different. But how do we find those ideas when we are facing this topical drought? Well, below are some ideas that tend to work in our house for this pair of creatives, so I thought it was time to share the style behind our storms, in hopes that they might work for others as well.

Mind Mapping and Cluster Diagrams

Cluster Diagrams, sometimes more commonly referred to as Mind Maps, are often times the visual representation and centerpiece of a brainstorming session. Transferring virtual thought clouds to paper have long been a staple in the productivity arena. By generating ideas that center around a single topic, and allowing for sub-categories to emerge through this mapping of your thoughts, you can help maximize the output of your storm.

Most of us, whether we have used them ourselves or not, are familiar with this type of thought structure, and have seen them in some form or another. They can be used to thoroughly examine a topic by allowing you to group information into clusters, and follow multiple avenues to draw connections to other areas or ideas. This can lead you to all kinds of content ‘clusters’,  allowing you tackle a topic from every possible angle. This also deters areas of your discussion to fall through the cracks, leaving gaps that readers will want filled in.

Using Statistics

A great way to understand your readers is to use your site statistics, such as Google Analytics or Mint. This offers some perspective as to what people are interested in. Find out what your readers are seeking, and then work towards giving it to them. This at least gives you a direction in which to point your creative output.

Now if you find that you have covered the area that is being searched, and are bringing people in to your site to the degree that you really cannot find a fresh approach, or at least an updated approach, then don’t. Have the presence of mind to know when enough is enough, and remember that re-hashing the same content over and over only diminishes the impact and effectiveness of your site’s posts.

Browse Through Related Blogs

Do not mistake what I am saying here. I am not advocating content theft or idea stealing by any stretch of the imagination. Copycatting is not exactly finding your way to your own content, as much as it is, helping yourself to someone elses. But simply browsing through blogs related to your topic can often times spark ideas separate from what you were looking at, yet still would not have come to without this jaunt through the blogosphere.

Another way that this can be especially useful is if you take the time to read through the comments to see if the readers are asking for more information, or have questions that were not addressed. Then you are not stealing their ideas, but you are expanding on them to help supplement the original post (which you should link to and credit so that readers can get the whole pie not just your piece), and fill in any informational gaps on the topic that have gone unbroached.

Social Media

Another great way to find content that is needed by the community, is by of course, going social. Media, that is. Get out on the various social media networks and find out what questions are being asked, and more importantly, which ones are not being answered. (I should qualify that with relevant questions.) This is another way to connect your content with the community, and that always helps it land.

Try to work a little social media into your brainstorming sessions, and you may just find that they tend towards the more fruitful end of the scale. Though, once again, be self aware and know if this media reach is actually helping, or simply distracting you from your search for content. And know that if you cannot find any questions that need tackling, take the initiative and ask some of your own. Find out via the SM outlets if there are any topics or questions your followers would like to see you take on for the blog. The outlets are there at our disposal, so make the most of them.

Use Your Own Growth

Another great place to look for ideas when you are brainstorming, is you. Look at the path that you have been on, and the many ways in which it has grown, and splintered, and what those changes have meant to your development and shaping. What have you learned on this road that you wished you had known before you got started?

What bumps in the road did you encounter, that had you known about them ahead of time, you would have avoided?

Your personal experience in your field can offer a look into that arena that others may not have noticed themselves. And as unique as you feel your tale will be, it can always assist others in their journey, even if their path does not always resemble your own. As you learn and grow in your craft take your readers along with you. You are a cog in the machine that is your industry, add value to your contributions by offering helpful insights to others from your own growth, so as to help them do the same.

More Useful Tips

• Schedule 1 to 2 half hour sessions a week for brainstorming to keep a cache of ideas. Try to make it a time when you can get through the half hour without any interruptions at all.
• Write down everything, even incomplete ideas. Don’t judge or criticize your ideas while brainstorming, just let them come, write them all down and make judgments later. This is the one time you want to go for quantity instead of quality.
• Keep a small notebook with you at all times so that you can jot down ideas as they come to you – it’s really easy to forget an idea if you don’t get it out of your head immediately.
• Set goals for brainstorming sessions. I might spend an entire session focusing on just freelance article ideas.
• Know the limits of an idea, and extend it as far as you reasonably can. Let it lead you to other places and down other avenues.
• Gap Filling. Identify your current spot – Point A – and your end goal – Point B. What is the gap that exists between A and B? What are all the things you need to fill up this gap? Write them down, and find out what it takes to get from point A to point B.
• Have a backup of your ideas. I recently lost aprox 40 article ideas because I only had them stored in one place.
• Free writing, free speaking, word association and the spider web
• If you feel like you’ve completely run out of ideas, free write for 5 minutes. Write anything and everything that comes into your mind.

Tools

Freemind is a premier free mind-mapping software written in Java. The recent development has turned it into a high productivity tool. We are proud that the operation and navigation of FreeMind is faster than that of MindManager because of one-click fold / unfold and follow link operations.

Mindmeister brings the concept of mind mapping to the web, using its facilities for real-time collaboration to allow truly global brainstorming sessions. Users can create, manage, and share mind maps online and access them anytime, from anywhere. In brainstorming mode, fellow MindMeisters from around the world (or just in different rooms) can simultaneously work on the same mind map and see each other’s changes as they happen.

StumbleUpon helps you discover and share great websites. As you click

Stumble!, we deliver high-quality pages matched to your personal preferences. These pages have been explicitly recommended by your friends or one of 8 million+ other websurfers with interests similar to you. By rating the sites you like () it automatically shares them with like-minded people – and helps you discover great sites your friends recommend. Use the search feature to stumble specific topics for ideas.

Cluster diagrams are a type of non-linear graphic organizer that can help to systematize the generation of ideas based upon a central topic. Using this type of diagram, the student can more easily brainstorm a theme, associate about an idea, or explore a new subject. Enchanted Learning offers a collection of printable graphic organizer templates for creating cluster diagrams.

Dabbleboard is an online collaboration application that’s centered around the whiteboard. With a new type of drawing interface that’s actually easy and fun to use, Dabbleboard gets out of your way and just lets you draw. Finally, the whiteboard enters the digital age!

Your Turn

What are some brainstorming techniques you depend on when your mind is on empty. Share your thoughts with a comment below.

The icon designer need not be weighed down by the contents of his or her toolkit. A combination of three or four good-quality tools is sufficient for producing sleek, polished and professional icons that will help users navigate their way around computers and the web. For icon designers, and pretty much everyone else in the design related industries, Adobe CS4, or at least Photoshop, is a vital tool. Without it, your competitiveness in the job market will be severely limited. Beyond CS4 you can take your pick from a wealth of additional tools that will make your life a lot easier. We explore the best of the bunch below.

1. Adobe CS4

Adobe CS4 is an absolute must for icon designers. It might seem prohibitively expensive, but it includes a lot for your $1,799. For icon designers, CS4’s most useful tools include Photoshop, the market leading piece of image editing, manipulation and compression software; Illustrator, an artwork program used throughout the creative industries; and Fireworks, which lets you optimize images for the web. When deliberating over whether or not you have enough money to shell out for CS4, bear in mind that Photoshop costs $699 by itself, and the combined value of all the tools included in the CS4 package is well over $4,000.

2. IconBuilder

Available for both Mac ($79) and Windows ($49), IconBuilder works together with Adobe Photoshop and Fireworks to make creating icons easy. It gives users the ability to create icons of any size (up to 1024 x 1024); create icons of any shape; save all icon resources as one Photoshop layer; use keyboard shortcuts; import existing icons; save icons in numerous different formats in one click; view items against numerous backgrounds and colours; and create, save and share grids to use as templates. In other words: it does a lot!

3. Icon Machine

Icon Machine is a $25 shareware program for Mac users only (Mac OS X 10.2 or later). It contains various tools that make it possible for you to produce rich, attractive icons in a range of colours and sizes. If you prefer, you can import icons that you’ve created in Photoshop, and edit them using the Machine. Drag and drop functionality, as well as the Edit Icon plugin, which lets you open files in Icon Machine from the Finder, make this tool a pleasure to use.

4. Iconographer

Mscape Software is no longer supporting Iconographer, but you can still download this piece of software and use it for free, ideal for those of us not so willing to splash the cash! With Iconographer, available for Mac only, you can create and customize your own folder icons. As well as, change the icons of items, edit the icon resources used by programs, and convert icons between platforms.

5. Axialis IconWorkshop

Icon Workshop, priced at $49.95, is a highly versatile piece of icon creation, editing and conversion software available for Mac, Windows and Unix. Besides the standard features you would expect, IconWorkshop is the only icon editor which lets you create and edit Image Strips for toolbars. With Image Strips, you can edit, add and remove individual icons without any of the problems traditionally associated with wide bitmaps. IconWorkshop also simplifies the icon creation process by providing you with a vast array of basic image objects, which you can drag and drop on top of one another for professional looking results.

6. Microangelo

Microangelo, for Windows only, is a family of icon software comprising On Display ($24.95), Toolset ($49.95) and Creation ($59.95). You can buy the whole package for $79.95, saving $55. On Display lets you right click on and change any icon, wherever it is on your computer. Toolset includes an icon editor, icon manager, icon explorer and animated cursor editor. And last, but not least, Creation lets you make icons and cursors that look stunning in Windows XP, using a similar set of tools to Photoshop, with layers, gradients and a fully customizable colour palette.

7. IconPackager

With IconPackager, for Windows, you can change all of the icons on a computer’s desktop at the touch of a button. Rather than changing the Windows theme, which leaves many of your icons unaffected, use IconPackager to transform hundreds of icons at once. There are tons of icon packages available for you to use, so you’re bound to find one that’s perfect for the project at hand. You can trial the software for free, or buy it for just $9.95.

8. IcoFX

IcoFX is a completely free icon creation, extraction, and editing tool. Windows users should feel instantly at home with its image editing interface, which looks like a superior version of Microsoft Paint. As well as creating your own icons using the 40 or so tools available, you can convert any image to an icon, or an icon to an image, at the touch of a button. You can also convert Mac to Windows icons and vice versa.

9. Favicon Generator

Favicon Generator is a browser based tool, meaning that it’s accessible from any computer in the world, provided that it’s connected to the internet. It really couldn’t be easier to use. Simply select an image from your computer and click “Create Icon” to generate a 16 x 16 favicon for use on a website or blog. You can even merge your image with a 32 x 32 desktop icon or a larger, 48 x 48 XP icon. Favicon Generator’s completely free to use.

Designing websites seems to appeal to a certain niche of people. Sure, we get called geeks and nerds (and we somehow find it endearing), but that doesn’t begin to cover the wide array of personalities that make up the design community. In this post the last thing I want to do is to paint all designers with a broad brush, but I do want to get to the bottom of what makes being a web designer so appealing to so many of us.

One common denominator seems to be the design process itself, and how it tends to be the perfect blend of creativity and logic, but that only touches the surface. In this post I’ll uncover my top 5 reasons why I love being a web designer.

The Creative Process

Photo by LookatLao

I love the start of any design. It’s awesomely open and full of potential. It’s our job as designers to tap into the creative potential and to give a project direction.

The importance of sketching has been touted across the design community for a while now. Not only is it extremely helpful, but it’s also a lot of fun. I just purchased my first Moleskine sketchbook to optimize this portion of the design process. The feeling you get when an idea begins to take shape is unparalleled in almost any other profession.

Logical Thinking

Although the creative process is a blast, I sometimes just like to figure out the best way to make things work. Fortunately, in web design the next logical step… is, well logical. Making my designs look as good in a browser as they do in a mock up can be very challenging, however it’s the learning process and the road blocks that inevitably follow that help me learn and develop my skills. These challenges that always ensue definitely strike a cord in my determined personality. There is a lot of satisfaction in the ah-ha moment.

Constantly Changing Technologies

Photo by Guillermo Esteves

Chris Coyier over at CSS Tricks recently put together a fun, tongue in cheek list of of all the things a modern web designer should know. Although it was mostly a joke, it was also pretty true. The list was enormous, but for me that’s part of the intrigue of being a designer. I don’t ever want to get to point of contentment. If I did then I would lose a lot of the drive and desire that made it interesting in the first place.

A Great Community

You’ve probably heard a lot of us design bloggers boast about the so-called “Design Community”. I know I’ve raved about it before, and I’ve created a design news section to share the community with you.

I think the thing that separates this community is it’s willingness to help each other. In what other field do people in direct competition go out of their way to help one another? I also love the helpful advice I get anytime I ask a design question in Twitter or Facebook.

A Much Needed Service

In a poor economy it sure is nice to be in a position of need. I’m not suggesting it’s always easy to get a job or freelance gigs, but the opportunities are out there. We’re at a point in time where almost every business needs a website. That’s great news for those of us that make a living creating them. It’s awesome to play a role in such an important aspect of a business. It’s easy to take pride in your work when you feel you are very much needed.

That’s A Wrap

If you are into web design (and I’m assuming you are if you’re reading this) then I’m quite curious to see if you agree with these reasons, and to find out what other ones you may have. Feel free to join the discussion and drop a comment below.

The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics has begun and it is certainly a spectacular event. Over 80 countries around the world are participating. In this article, you will find websites designed for the Winter Olympics from around the world. These well-designed websites beautifully demonstrate the ‘Winter Olympics’ theme. Check them out and be inspired.

Australia

Austria

Canada

China

France

Finland

Germany

Great Britian

Japan

Korea

Norway

Poland

Slovakia

Sweden

United States

I was once told an inspirational little nugget of truth that I have clung to since, and allowed its influence to guide me along my path. The saying was told to me by an old manager whom I worked under for only a short time, but whose simple words stuck with me. He said, ‘Good is the enemy of great.’, and the words took a second to wash over me and for me to fully grasp what it was he was saying, but it was simply this. If you are content with being good, then you will never by great.

I thought about this for a while, as we often do when things strike us profoundly. In essence, we get to a point where we consider ourselves, or say our design skills are good and rather than continue to allow ourselves to grow, we stay stagnant. Satisfied with our progress to the point where, even if we don’t realize it, we stop progressing. We are good, and we know that, and as long as we are happy with that label, we will never strive to improve and possibly become great.

At one time, we are all beginners, but it is where we take ourselves from that starting point that matters. We all have different abilities when it comes to design, and though our strengths and talents may fall in different areas, it is how we play to and outside of these strengths that really set us apart. It is a case of good vs. great, and here is a look at what I mean.

Good Designer

A good designer has taken the time to learn the basics of design, on which they will build their foundation, and they settle comfortably into this place. They nurture the developed and inherent skillsets they have refined into a good fashion with which they begin to make their mark on the design world. A good designer listens to their clients and does whatever necessary to meet the demands made of them. They take few risks that might upset the norm and challenge the trends currently shaping the community.

A good designer takes on clients that do not ask them to reach outside their settled comfort zone, allowing them to not dare beyond their safety netted borders. They are never the best at processing and handling constructive criticism, seeing it more of an attack and reason to be defensive. A good designer is fine with being a good designer as long as it is paying the bills and keeping their portfolio stocked. A good designer is just that, good, and they are happy with that. Which means, they will never be a great designer.

Great Designer

A great designer is always taking time to learn more about the complexities and subtleties of design, never resting in their pursuit of knowledge. They do not settle into a comfort zone, because their passion pushes them to keep delving into, and trying new things. A great designer engages their clients guiding them towards the right design, overdelivering on the expectations placed on them. They are always taking risks in their work allowing creativity and ingenuity to lead them over the trends that are steering so many others.

A great designer takes on clients that challenge them to reach beyond their comfort zone, and dare into new territories and unexplored landscapes. They welcome feedback and use those critiques to further hone their creative skills and efforts. A great designer does not consider themselves to be great, as much as they see themselves as successful with a gallery of interesting and varied work. You see they are always striving for more and pushing forward, knowing not that they are great, but just that they are designers.

Defining – Where It Gets Tricky

Defining this is where things can tend to get more than a little tricky, because good designers can assign themselves the title as they deem themselves worthy and a success. But alas, great designers are defined by their work and by others, merely deeming themselves a success based on their line of satisfied clients. And though the cybersea is densely populated in the design arena, there are so many various levels of professionals working in the field it can be hard to get a barometer reading as to just where it is you land. Lots of people get hung up trying to figure out where it is they are, forgetting the most important part.

It does not matter where we are, just where we take ourselves from any one point that matters. Remember that this is a journey, and as such, the wheels should never stop turning. We all have within us the potential for greatness, however, some of us get sidetracked along the way by being good at what we do.

Where Do We Go From Here?

If the question is good enough for Buffy and the gang to poignantly ponder in song, then it is certainly good enough for this path to greatness, I mean, hello, she was the chosen one. Anyway, where do we go from here, is certainly the better question to be asking yourself, than where am I at? It indicates that desire to press on and keep moving forward, which a big first step on the path to greatness. There are a few things you can do to ensure that you are heading in the right direction and they are listed below.

Keep Moving Forward

Never be satisfied with where you are at in design. It is always changing and you should be growing along with it. You should effectively never stop learning. Keep challenging yourself to learn and do more, never let your skills and talent stagnate.

Be A Leader, Not A Follower

Guide your clients to the right design choices do not let them lead you to a subpar, phoned-in performance. Yes, listen to their suggestions and know what they want, but find the best way to give it to them without compromising your talent or reputation.

Try To Set Trends, Not Be A Slave To Them

Design trends come and go almost with the seasons, and there is no shame in designing in that theme, especially if you never have before, but do not let these whims become your only bearing for what to do. Think outside the proverbial box, and find new directions to veer off in.

Critical Thinking Accepted

The design community is available to garner valuable feedback and insight regarding your work, but you have to know how to take and use constructive criticism and not let it bother or deter you. Learn to identify true criticism from callous comments intended merely to upset you, and this will be easier to do.

Collaborate, A Great Way To Reset The bar

Working with others in the community is another invaluable tool you have at your design disposal for sure. This always challenges you to step it up a notch and push yourself more so than working with a client on a project can. This can also be a fun way to learn new things from other designers, good or great.

Stay Inspired

One thing that separates the goods from the greats is passion. Our passion keeps us inspired as long as we keep it fed and the flame fanned so it does not burn out. Always turn to new avenues to find inspiration so that your creative mind stays revitalized, and your perspective fresh.

That Is All On This End

So what are your thoughts on the differences between what makes a good and great designer? What else would you add to the list of things to do?

These texture are available under the creative commons license. Please do not repackage, redistribute or direct link to the download. If you would like to share these textures please link back to this page.

I took these images on a recent trip I took to Bangladesh. They are available for download at a nice high resolution of 3008×2000. I hope you find some good uses for them in one of your next designs.

Download Textures »

Preview

I’ve been chatting up a redesign for MyInkBlog on Twitter and this site for quite some time now. The redesign/rebranding of my blog has proven to be one of the most challenging design jobs I’ve ever had to complete. I’m not at all surprised that most designers are their own worst enemy, and I was certainly no exception to that theory. I mocked up a new design, threw it out, then started again about 5 times before completing the design iteration you’re seeing now. I’m pretty stoked with the final result, but I’ll never be fully satisfied; more tweaks and changes are sure to come.

About the New Logo

The first thing I did when I started to brainstorm for the redesign was to rethink the logo. I figured most of the branding and styling would fall into place much smoother after that. I’m not sure it actually did, but it seemed like a good place to begin.

I was definitely ready for a new logo, the previous one had begun to feel dated, and unoriginal. I wanted something more customized, something that fit my blog’s style and personality a little better.

Out With the Old

In With the New

For my new logo I began sketching on paper, long before I ever opened up a design program. I hashed out a bunch of different ideas before going with Museo for the words ‘My’ and ‘Blog’. The ‘Ink’ portion of the logo is a customized script I created from my drawings. I scanned in my sketch and traced ‘Ink’ with the pen tool in Illustrator. A few more tweaks later, and that’s the new logo you see now.

Typography

One of my main concerns obsessions with the redesign was improving the site’s typography. Site’s like Brian Hoff’s and Elliot Jay Stock’s have always inspired me because of their attention to detail in this crucial area. The aesthetics and readability of a site are so important to me, and most every designer, so being a design-focused blog I really wanted to make some considerable improvements in this area.

Utilizing Typekit

For the headers, I felt that I needed a unique, bold, but simple font. I decided to check into Typekit and look through the awesome new options that are available. Forever limited to web-safe fonts, it was quite liberating to have an exhausting array of choices at my disposal. I eventually selected Ronnia condensed bold.

The sidebar headers are a serif font stack headed by Palatino. Other meticulous decisions were made on spacing, contrasting levels of grays, and the new, more vibrant blue that you see for the links.

Comment Improvements

I also spent a considerable amount of time trying to improve the comments area. After all, you folks and the discussions that you help create, are vital to the health of this blog. I made an effort to improve the styling, and added threaded comments. So you can now directly respond to anyone’s comment.

Having Fun With CSS 3

I’ve spoke often on this blog about how awesome I think the features in CSS 3 are. It rocks that only 17% of my visitors use IE. That gave me plenty of confidence to use styles like rounded corners and box shadows. It’s nice to add a bunch of progressive enhancements knowing that many of you will get to enjoy them.

I didn’t completely ignore my IE users. I added DD Roundies to the corners for most of the divs that needed them, and I did my best to make this site look good in IE 7 & 8. I did run into a few unexpected, frustrating issues, but I suppose those areas will just have to be examples of graceful degradation. As far as IE 6 is concerned, I very consciously did not support it. The joy of running a design-focused blog is that less than 3% of my readers use IE 6. And if sites like YouTube can stop supporting it, then I think MyInkBlog can as well :)

Author Pages

MyInkBlog is far from a 1-man-show. There are a lot of talented authors that drive the content on this blog. I wanted to add more ways to highlight who they are, and what they’ve done. Every author now has an author page with their bio, links, and the articles they’ve written.

Category Navigation & Search

I have future plans to organize the navigation even more efficiently, but for now I’m happy to have the category links in a more prevalent location. I hope that moving the nav to the top of every page helps you find what you are looking for even quicker. In the same breadth of usability I moved the search bar to the header.

Big Ole Footer

I really like the trend of designing big, informative footers on blogs, so I decided to join that club. I figured it was a great place to add some inspiration, twitter updates, friend icons, and site info. The footer was one of the places on the blog that I tried to infuse a little more personality, but I hope that shows throughout the site.

More On the Way

I’ve got a bunch of future plans bouncing around in my head, but if I tried to accomplish everything at once I may never actually launch this redesign. I’ll leave those plans as a teaser for next time. On a side note, this is actually my 3rd version of MyInkBlog, but unfortunately I couldn’t find a screenshot of how terrible the first version looked.

Your Thoughts & Feedback

I’m really looking forward to getting your feedback. Staring at your own design too long makes you blind to the obvious bugs and usability issues that persist. So drop me a comment and give me an honest assessment of what you think. Hopefully I can use your invaluable feedback to improve and refine this design even further.