The Rebranding of a Company

Sam over at Build Internet has a great write up of how he rebranded his web design business from Cazzu Media to One Mighty Roar. Its always great to read about the reasoning behind others design choices!

Helvetica Moleskine Icon

Bigkobe over at deviant art has some sweet moleskine icons - including the two limited edition Helvetica Moleskines! if you are a swiss-nerd like me you will enjoy these! I’ll be using mine to replace the text edit icon in my dock!

When Free Fonts Aren’t Free

Web typography is about to make another major shift in implementation - weather the font foundries embrace this or not! Typekit has a great blog post about EULA agreements and how they are often times vague and need to change.

Modernizr

Have you ever wanted to do if-statements in your CSS for the availability of cool features like border-radius? Well, with Modernizr you can accomplish just that! Modernizr uses feature detection to test the current browser against upcoming features like rgba(), border-radius, CSS Transitions and many more. These are currently being implemented across browsers and with Modernizr you can start using them right now, with an easy way to control the fallbacks for browsers that don’t yet support them.

XHTML WTF

Web-God Zeldman breaks the news about the death of XHTML and the transition to HTML5. Interesting discussion going on in the comments.

Gridmaker

A sweet grid generator that will help you with your web designs. Just plug in the number of columns and generate a png file to build your designs off of!

You’ve Got 20 Seconds Or Less to Live

At the end of the day, packaging has tobe about substance, not just style, if it is going to be effective. Great article on package design by Ted mininni over at The Dieline.

Table Styling, Fixed Header and Highlighting

Just a couple of quick tricks, from scratch, on coding up tables. We use the proper semantic tags for a table header and then set it to a fixed position so when scrolling the table the header is always visible. Then we implement row AND column highlighting with a bit of semi-clever JavaScript.

Copycat!!!

Looks like the designer of this political campaign website was a little bit more than ‘inspired’ by the iconic Obama design…

Design Boost

Designboost envisions a holistic approach as a condition for sustainable design. To fulfil this vision we believe in upgrading design competence and boosting competitiveness by knowledge sharing. Our four inter-related platforms, BoostUpgrades: BoostEvent, BoostMedia, BoostResource and BoostConcept can be further explored in our periodical table of design knowledge.

The CSS Summit

An all day, all CSS online event with some big names in the design world.

Price: $139

July 18

Online

Web Design World

Web Design World Seattle is all about teaching you what you need today. Like CSS and markup that’s easy to maintain and broadly accessible. Web typography that carries your message and is beautiful to look at. JavaScript that works. Mobile design that expands your reach. Social networking instead of social not-working. Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and Flash power tips…

Price: $1395

July 20-22

Seattle, Washington

Front-End

The Front-End Design Conference will be a single-day event featuring presentations that cover details of the web design process. The discussions will begin with inspiration, progress into creating and managing content, discuss usability theory, teach how to put on the finishing details and introduce attendees to designing web apps

Price: $129

July 31

Saint Petersburg, Florida

SIGGRAPH 2009

Join us in New Orleans in August for the highest quality, most timely educational experiences the community has to offer, presented by the most powerful and most engaging leaders in computer graphics and interactive techniques.

Price: $900

August 3-7

New Orleans

ilovedesign.com LIVE presents 8×8 London

8 talented creatives have just 8 minutes each to share with us where they find their ideas, what inspires them and what motivates them to get out of bed in the morning.

Price: £15

July 1

Kensington, London

Illustrator CS4 Training

Discover Illustrator’s intuitive features such as intelligent palettes and optimized workspaces. This essential training will allow you to produce extraordinary graphics for print, video, the web, and mobile devices.

Price: $895

July 7

Phoenix

London Geek Nights: Seaside: The Revenge of Smalltalk

This Geek Night is going to cover how Smalltalk makes web development different and how Seaside is being put to use in the “Real World”. Prepare to question how your favourite web platform works and discover object-orientated programming rather than class-orientated programming.

Price: FREE

July 7

London, UK

DemoCamp Vancouver 07 - Social Platforms Edition

The featured presentations are social platforms - out of the box social networking and other social web experiences.

Price: FREE

July 7

Vancouver, British Columbia

Photoshop Complete

Interfaces 2009, hosted by the International Academy of Design and Technology, is an annual conference promoting the graphic design, digital media and game design industries.

Price: $1,395.00

July 20-22

Orlando, Florida

Designing for the Web

Explore the process of designing a website with Tyler Lee, Executive Director of Production for Sony Pictures Imageworks Interactive in Albuquerque.

Price: $249

July 23

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Images 34: the Best of British Contemporary Illustration 2010

Images is the showcase for the best of contemporary British illustration. Categories include: Advertising, Books, Children’s Books, Design, Editorial, New Media, Self-Promotion and New Talent.

Price: £38

Deadline July 31

San Francisco

TypeCon2009: Rhythm

TypeCon2009 explores type for the screen, Dutch design, type in motion, advertising typography, the new life of wood type, and much more.

Price: $375

July 14-19

Atlanta

Request for Submissions: The Good Design Book

Designer and writer Christopher Simmons (of MINE) is working on a new book about designing for the greater good. There is an open call for submissions that engage and addresses critical causes.

Price: FREE

Deadline August 1

For Print Only

FPO is a blog dedicated to both the visual stimulus and the detailing of the development and production of printed matter: Annual reports, books, business cards, stationery suites, collateral materials, posters, packaging and anything else where ink meets substrate. A subject matter we know, love and understand.

Blurb

Looking to have a nice printed bound book of your work? Check out Blurb - I had several friends use this service to print their portfolio books to leave behind at job interviews. Very nice and professional!

3 Deadly Sins of Print Design

A great article with some simple and straight to the point tips about print design. Sometimes we all just need to be reminded of the basics.

Setting Up Crops and Bleed

A design destined for print requires setting up to certain specifications to ensure that the work is printed correctly by industrial lithographic or digital print firms. This often starts with the initial document upon which the design is to be created by adding the correct bleed area and crop marks. Let’s take a look at what crops and bleed actually are, why they are required and how to set them up in your favourite Adobe package.

Lovely as a Tree

Lovely as a Tree - the website that tells you everything you need to know to be a more environmentally aware graphic designer.
We give you the low down on how your choices of design, paper and print impact upon the environment.

Flogged Magazine

Has a client rejected on of your amazing print designs recently? You keep looking at the design, it excites you, it pisses you off, it excites you, it pisses you off. Send it to flogged! they celebrage good designs that hve been blogged in a monthly magazine.

Rethink Design

Rethink Design is an extensive resource for professionals and students in the field of graphic design. It takes considerable time to research and interpret the information needed to make sustainable choices easily. Today’s fast-paced market makes it difficult to find sufficient time for this. Rethink Design makes this information and helpful tools readily accessible for making smart choices easily.

How to typeset headlines

Headlines can become more than just the biggest piece of text on the page. The way you set the type can be come a defining element for your layout or even the entire campaign. Here are different headline styles you may want to explore or build upon in your next design.

Preflight checking in InDesign

The term preflight check originates from the aviation industry where it is a standard procedure for pilots to go over a checklist before lift-off. Preflight checks (preflighting) for print documents have a similar idea in mind. They run trough all the files you used in the document to see if they’re missing, changed or anything else that might have happened to the file.

11 Essential Tips for Good Print Typography

Typography is a huge part of print design and design is a huge part of type. You can’t just throw text on a page, it has to be laid out and organized in a clean way that adds to the information being presented. Here are 11 tips to help you convey information in print the right way.

DIY screen printing tutorial

A great DIY tutorial on screenprinting! Its always good to get off the computer and play with other areas of print design.

Capturing and Optimizing Screenshots for Print

This tutorial came in handy for me when preparing my portfolio last year. Its always good to know how to set up your screenshots to print well. Nothing looks tackier than pixelation - even if you are a web designer!

Before and After Magazine

Before & After magazine has some great pdf tutorials on several topics relevant to both print and web design.

Brush Pilot

Do you have too many photoshop brushes? Have trouble finding that *one* brush that you need? Check our Brush Pilot™ by @bittbox. Brush Pilot is designed to save you time by allowing you to instantly preview your brushes without having to load them into Photoshop.

Silverback

I know Silverback isnt new, but I heard this app mentioned like CRAZY and An Event Apart Boston this week. If you are in need of a way to do some quick usability testing cheaply check this app out!

A Feed Apart

Didn’t make it to An event apart this year? Well you are in luck! The designers that did attend TWEETED like CRAZY! The awesome folks over at Lion Burger made a cool site that aggregates tweets and pics by speaker and session. Go enjoy! Its just like you were there!

Mac Dock Icon Spelling!

I’m not the only geek that notices this: inadvertent spellings in your dock! Check out this gallery of doc arrangements that spell out words. A great time waster :)

Building Findable Websites: Web Standards, SEO, and Beyond

I attended Aarron Walter’s session on building findable websites this past week at An Event Apart boston. This is the companion website that has some valuable tools and tips on making your website findable.

Paul-Rand.com

A Paul Rand tribute site that contains biography information, writings, and his works - great if you are looking for classic logo inspiration.

Cardon Copy

1 find crappy hand drawn poster
2 redesign
3 post

Apple Nav in Pure CSS

Tutorial on how to make the apple nav using nothing but HTML and CSS. Pretty impressive!

Left Channel

Left Channel just updated their portfolio and show reel with some sweet new motion work. Go check it out!

1,000 Clients or 1,000,000 Fans

Great discussion from the Couch boys on whether it’s better to be loved or successful.

3 Ways To Get Clients From Twitter

Twitter seems to polarize people. You either love it or hate it. For those that use it, Freelance Folder has 3 tips for getting clients using Twitter.

22 CSS Button Styling Tutorials and Techniques

CSS button styling can be tricky and sometimes tedious. If you are looking for a simple and effective way of creating dynamic CSS buttons with cross browser compatibility, these tutorials are for you.

When and How to Pay a Blogger

A good article by Advertising Age on how to manage your credibility with your monetary requirements.

Working From Home: 10 Unconscious Cues to Create a Work-Life Balance

Whether you work in your pajamas or not, you’ll appreciate Jonathan Field’s tips on striking a happy balance while working at home.

I’m the worst designer

Kyle Steed writes about how designers get caught in a cycle of constant comparisons, and how we can break out of it.

Why EXACTLY Designers Hate Comic Sans!

Clients love it, designers hate it. We’re talking about the prolific Comic Sans. The Design Cubical talks about what exactly they dislike about Comic Sans.

22 Extremely Well Written Icon Design Tutorials

If you’re looking at adding icon designer to your list of skills, Web Design Ledger has a nice rundown of icon design tuts.

60+ Really awesome Typography Showcases

Tripwire Magazine hits us with a typography tour de force.

Announcing the Launch of 5 Niche Galleries

Looking to get your work featured on something more specialized than the typical CSS gallery? Vandelay Design points us in the direction of 5 new niche galleries.

Spot the Fake Logo Quiz

How’s your logo sniffer? Wallet Pop puts it to the test with a Spot the Fake Logo quiz.

How to get Creativity running through your veins!

If coffee ever stops working for you, you’ll want to check out Creative Den’s article on “How to get Creativity running through your veins!”.

Website FAIL - 30 Web Designs That Will Hurt Your Eyes

Do you enjoy pain? Do you enjoy personal anguish? Then you’ll want to check out Datadial’s Website Fail.

Bad Logos - When Logos Go Bad

If your checked out that last link you’ll probably want a good laugh (or cry) about now. Head over and find out what happens when logos go bad.

15 Coolest Minimalist WebDesigns Using Photograph as Background

A great list of designs that use big, powerful imagery.

50 Websites to follow if you’re into Web Design

As if you needed more sites in your RSS feed, right? :)

24 Beautiful Calligraphy fonts

Warm up the font installer, Logo Studios drops 24 beautiful calligraphy fonts.

The Real Secret to Becoming a Popular Blogger

Want to have riches, fame, and babes? Copyblogger shares their tips on the secret to becoming a popular blogger.

The Three Ds That Will Make or Break Your Blogging Career - Desire

Skellie hits us with the first in a three part installment of what can make or break your blogging career.

Mustache Typography

A series of posters designed for the University of Brighton 2009 Degree Shows. The theme emphasizes the fact that the University is 150 years old on this year with a Victorian tongue-in-cheek look at University life. Very interesting use of typography with a fake beard… :)

Typophile

Looking to learn the ins and outs of type design? Hand around the pros! Check out Typophile - an active community of type designers. Check our the forums, wiki and blogs.

Exljbris

I’m sure we have all seen and used Exljbris’s fonts:
Delicious, Fontin, Fontin Sans, Tallys, Fertigo Pro , Diavlo, Anivers, Museo and Museo Sans. But have you seen how others are using them? Check out this flickr group of Exljbris fonts in use.

Typographic Posters Directory

Looking for typographic poster inspiration? Check out this massive directory of posters submitted by designers.

Suprb

Suprb has some interesting experimental and custom type work.

PX to EM Conversion

PX to EM helps you convert your text sizes based on a body font size.

Birra Stout

Darden Studio is giving away Birra Stout! This font is bold and chunky and has lots of quirky character.

Sessions

Another free font for you guys! This font was made with the online type tool fontstruct.
Via ILT

Moo

Another free super bold blocky font available for free download. I’ll admit that there are alot of these fonts out there, but you can’t argue with free!
Via I’m Just Creative

Technique For Creating A Hand Drawn Website

The guys at From The Couch have a great video tutorial on a technique for creating hand drawn websites. Definitely check it out if you are looking to try something different!

Rounded Corners In FireFox And Safari

A quick tutorial on CSS3 selectors that make rounded corners a piece of cake in FF and Safari!

Stop Trying Start Doing

Another great video blog from the guys at From The Couch.

Interview with the guys ‘From The Couch”

Tired of the from the couch links yet? Ha! Well this is the last. Check out this interview Aaron did! Its cool to see how the guys got their start video blogging and what they are inspired by.

Build a Photo Gallery Tutorial

Chris from CSS-Tricks seems to never run out ideas for video tutorials. Check out this tut on building a photo gallery.

jQuery for Beginners

Looking to learn jQuery but don’t know where to start? Check out Jeff’s video series that will teach you how to use jQuery from the ground up!

Diving Into Php

Another great series by Jeff over at Theme Forest & Nettuts is diving into PHP. I’m currently going through these tutorials and learning a ton!

From Design to Print Podcast

Enough web stuff - let’s talk about print design: Bleeds, die cuts, paper types oh my! Check out this podcast if you want to learn more about all things print related. (itunes link!)

Boagworld Podcast

Another great web design related podcast to check out, subscribe to and follow religiously: Boagworld. This weeks show is about conflicts that surround design decisions.

Rookie Designer Podcast

Adam over at Rookie Designer runs a great podcast that covers important topics that newbies need to know about. This most recent episode Adam talks about how hiring a sales person to bring in new business may or may not help freelancers out there.

Grasshopper

Last but not least - check out this typography based video on entrepreneurship. Quite inspiring! :)