Change Is Coming, Change is Good

June 25th, 2009 in Uncategorized | 4 Super Comments

Welcome to the spoonfed revolution

I’m not a big fan of “state of this blog” type posts. But here we go anyway, because I need to introduce myself. My name is Scott. Matt has moved on to bigger and better things, and now it’s in my hands to make Spoonfed Design a bigger and better blog.

First the basics. Great original design articles, tips and tutorials, and discussions of inspiring work have always been what Spoonfed Design is all about, and will remain so. But you will also be seeing some changes in the months ahead, as SFD adopts a new look and branches out in some new and perhaps unexpected directions. As that process gets underway, I want to take this opportunity to ask for the continuing support of the great community of designers, graphic artists and other readers already established here. Don’t abandon this ship–regular posting will resume soon!

I’m also going to need the help of a few talented individuals who may be interested in contributing to the site in a more significant way. More about that in a minute. But first, a few words about me.

I may as well confess: I’m not much of a designer. I’m actually a writer (science writer, blogger, poet) with some background in ecology and strong interests in art, design, the creative process, and the present and future state of the internet. To name a few. Accordingly, I’ll leave the writing of this site’s nuts-and-bolts, how-to design content to a few experts who really know their stuff.

What I hope to do is engage with the design world, and all of you, from a bit of an outsider perspective. Sometimes as critic, sometimes as questioner of assumptions, and mostly just as a blogger trying to get at some of the larger issues surrounding this simple word: design. Not just for the sake of discussion; my hope is that everything posted here will offer something of value to you in your daily design practice.

To give you a hint of what lies ahead, one of my central interests is the role that design plays, or might play, in our crazy world of diminishing resources and destructive politics. Design in all forms, it seems to me, is movement away from diminishment and destructiveness. That’s why it matters, from the highest levels all the way down to the individual just starting to learn the tools of his or her trade, or building a first website, or simply trying to make a living.

Which brings me to my other main interest: You. Individual designers. You have inside you a creative spark and (hopefully) a healthy does of ambition. You have acquired a set of skills, either on your own or through formal training, and now here you are, doing whatever it is you do. And as I see it, particularly if you are working with any sort of digital media, you’re on a treadmill. It may not always feel that way, day-to-day. But as your practice evolves over time you face a never-ending flow of new tools, new ideas and assumptions, new vocabularies that must be mastered.

How do you bear up under that constant smashing of new information, and still get any creative work done? How do beginning or aspiring designers, in particular, get started on a productive path? What is there in the world that facilitates your work, or hinders it? How do you strive to produce work that isn’t merely current, and won’t appear antiquated five years from now? How do you balance your purely creative energies with the need to function–and compete–in the marketplace? Is your primary impulse creative or commercial–or something else entirely?

These are some of the issues Spoonfed Design will be addressing. Not just through my own writing, but also in interviews with influential designers and developers, through guest posts, and hopefully through lots of comments and participation from all of you.

My fundamental goal is to offer support and guidance to the creative community in as many ways as possible. So, practical tips and tools, yes, but also some reflection on larger issues within and surrounding what you do.

Oh yes…I said I’d be needing some help. If you might be interested in joining Spoonfed Design as a regular contributor of articles, design tutorials or other related content, I’d like to hear from you. Send a tweet with an introduction and a link to your site or some of your work. Or email me at myfirstname at thisdomain.

And for everyone: I’ve just started a new Twitter account for this blog and would appreciate your follows! Send me a hello and tell me your suggestions about the kind of content you most want to see on SFD. I look forward to getting to know some of you in the weeks and months ahead.

Credits due: The Artifex (single spoon) and zenobia_joy

20 Budgeting, Planning, and Management Applications for Freelancers

May 7th, 2009 in Freelance | 9 Super Comments

Productivity and good management is of the essence for freelancers and designers on a team. Here is a list of twenty applications, most geared toward freelancers, to help increase productivity and efficiency. Included in the list are web applications and software for task management, invoicing, billing, budgeting, and more. Got any to add to the list? Feel free to leave a comment!

1. Things

Things is a very highly rated and popular task management Mac application. Within a great interface, you can mange to-do items with several organization features. You can organize items with tags, areas of responsibility, by importance, and more

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Quick Tip: Add an Easy Sunburst to Photography

April 29th, 2009 in Tutorials, photography | 5 Super Comments

Today, we will take a look at an interesting photography technique, manually adding a sunburst to photographs. This can be a great way to liven up images, and it can be a lot of fun to play around with. Look at the image below; this shows what will be creating.

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Hover Effects in Web Design: Best Practices and Examples

April 15th, 2009 in Showcase | 27 Super Comments

Design is in the details. No matter what field of design you work with, you will always hear that, because it is very true. The slightest details have a direct effect on the design as a whole. This is true in web design, too. Everything from the amount of white space between two interface elements to the size of a header will impact a website. Another one of those details is hover effects. In navigation, usability is essential; hover effects not only help styling but they also help usability. Why is that? A good hover effect will tell a user when they have a link under focus, and which link they have under focus.

In the following article, I will go over the best practices and techniques for hover effects. I will be using over 30 examples to show good use of hover effects.

Gradient Hovers

The more common type of hover effect is the gradient. There are many uses of this, here are a few.

Gradient vs. Gradient

Take a look at the navigation shown below to understand what this means. The normal button, not under focused and not selected has a gradient fill that goes from darker at the bottom to lighter at the top. When under focus, the gradient flips from dark at the top and light at the bottom. This is an especially good hover effect because the hover button is very different from the normal, and adds depth to the design. Look at the two buttons side by side. You can very easily determine the difference between the two. This is essential what you should aim for: hover effects that are easily recognizable and distinguishable.

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Design a Clean Corporate Website With Illustrator

April 12th, 2009 in How To | 31 Super Comments

Corporate web design is rather simple, because it often follows basic guidelines and trends. Today, we will go over the complete process of creating a clean and relatively simple corporate web design using Adobe Illustrator. I will talk about the best techniques and approaches to creating a web design started in Illustrator, which is a great tactic. The image below shows what we will be creating. This style of design can be used universally, as it follows many trends, and looks very professional. We will use the most common corporate structure, which consists of a header, an introduction with welcome text and screenshots, and a simple grid-based information layout. After completing the interface in Illustrator, I will go over how to use the Slice Tool to prepare the design for the development stage.

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Welcome to SFD v1.0!

April 8th, 2009 in Updates | 5 Super Comments

SFD has been has been in what one may call “beta” mode for some time now, but the version 1.0 is finally here! After a large amount of development and planning Spoonfed Design version 1.0 is finally here, and there’s a lot of new stuff to dive into.

An All New Look

First and foremost, you will notice the all new design. It is a clash of a simple content layout, with a detailed and vibrant background and header illustration. The illustration is a mix of vector shapes and paths, lighting effects, and elements that relate to design, such as the iMac.

Get Paid Up to $150 to Write for SFD

Another big update is the guest posting system. In an effort to get more writers to share their knowledge, we are offering $100 to $150 for articles. If you want to write for SFD, give me a shout via matt@vaeou.com, I’d love to have you on board.

Community Links Feature

SFD is growing as a community, so we are now offering a new feature to support the community, a community links feature. This is located in the sidebar, and you can add links to your work, blog posts, articles, and other useful resources.

Threaded Comments

Furthermore, we have fixed up the comment form, and one new feature is threaded comments. You can now reply to specific comments very easily. Just click the “Reply” button under a comment to do so.

New Navigation and Daily Inspiration

Finally, there are numerous features that were moved and altered. First, the navigation was moved to the sidebar. Also, the daily inspiration section is in the footer, so it can be accessed easily from every page.

More to Come!

SFD still has more to come, including a few more tweaks to version 1.0 and more features that are currently in development, and of course, we’ll keep the content coming. Thanks to all for the readership, and we hope you enjoy SFD v1.0!

40 Beautiful and Creative Typefaces and Custom Fonts

April 8th, 2009 in Showcase | 17 Super Comments

Typography can be more than just words, much more. Typography is a form of art that is nearly limitless, and is a field where expression is a key factor, and originality is crucial. When I say nearly limitless, there is only one true limit; and that is the fact that typography always needs to be legible. Here are 40 beautiful and very creative typefaces, as well as a few awesome custom fonts.

Destructive Vintage TyPO experiment

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35 Inspirational Software and Application Websites

April 2nd, 2009 in Showcase | 22 Super Comments

In web designs, trends are very easy to spot, and they greatly impact us as designers because we are often inclined to follow those trends. You will notice many trends based on the type, or category, of site you are looking at. One category of websites that allow follow similar trends are software and application websites. This includes everything from Mac applications to web-based apps.

No matter what type of app, the trends are always visible. One of those trends is the use of a strong and attractive introduction. The introductions welcome the user and provide a very brief but informative description of the software or app. Also, you will notice the use of screenshots, often placed within this introduction. Not only that, the screenshots for web-based applications all follow the trend of placing the screenshot with the browser, generally Safari. There are many software sites that don’t have screenshots though. Instead, you will see that they often include a detailed and vibrant illustration in the introduction.

Furthermore, you will notice trends in navigation. Most sites will use a very simple main navigation bar. The throughout the sites are often similar, too. Software sites usually include pages such as About, Support, Pricing, Features, Tour, and sometimes blog. Finally, you will notice throughout these pages strond use of icons. Icons are an excellent way to support text based elements within a content heavy design.

With all that in mind, take a look at these 35 excellent examples of well-designed software and application websites. To view the full page in further detail, follow the link of the screenshot. Pay attention to the numerous trends mentioned above, and how each one helps the overall usability and visual aspect of the website.

GoodBarry

An eCommerce CMS with many features including Email Marketing, Analytics, and CRM.

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