Writer and poet, Simone Eva Alexis has more talent in her left eye than I do in my whole being when it comes to the spoken and written word. She amazes me every time I see her. Her site did not, however. We discussed a redesign over a year ago and played phone tag or just drank wine when we should've been talking business. Today we've begun a project that will make her site more accessible and easier...

Just back from some R’nR in Costa Rica to a new post on ENVATO Notes .  Lasts week's discussion topic was about the state of our work space-- is your desk messy? The short answer is YES, my desk is more messy than not.  A great stopgap measure that  I devised was my sample wall. I post designs that I'm presently in love with on the wall and refer to that as needed. The wall is 6'x4'...

If you're on the lookout for a serious grunge look--before it completely falls out of fashion--take a look at Action of The Time - New The latest update of this ultra-bold, distressed, grunge font shows more cross hatching than the last. It looks like what happens to glass or mirrors after some seriously rough treatment. Note: use sparin...

I remember when I first found Bleeding Cowboys back in '07-I'd sought out the font on the urging of designer, Jay Higgert of Bittbox. Needless to say, it was love at first sight. Today, I pay it forward. If you're in the market for an uncomplicated sans serif with a slender stroke, clean lines, that's exceedingly readable at the smallest point size, then Chapenettoer 8 THIN is the typeface for y...

You can achieve halftones many different ways. The effect--properly executed-can really make an illustration or design come to life. Here are a few of the free halftones that I've found and used from around the web. There's also a handy-dandy how-to that I've found invaluable for creating patterns. ThinkDesignBlog.com - 40 clean and grunge AI vectors Cline&Co Graphic Design Studio - color...

In a recent blog redesign, I came upon a problem of finding the right image to place. I needed an afro-centric, woman-centric graphic and could find nothing suitable. Eventually, I took some existing photography and created an illustration that was suitable. I snapped some pics of different Batik fabrics and have themavailable for download on Flickr.  The set has medium to hi-res images for...

On a recent project, I was hard-pressed to find –in my photographic archive, istock, and wiki searches—images of Baltimore. I  ran outside with a camera, but still couldn't find the perfect shot. Eventually I ended up hitting the mother load of creative commons on Flickr and All-silhouettes. Here are a few of the pics I found and the artist link. spike55151 has taken nearly 20,000 photographs...

DIY, natural, crafty, and cute. That's the look of SkinnySkin...

click on the image to view a larger version Honey packaging is some of the most consistently lovely. I found this doing an online search and I had to share with y...

I declare the week of April 11, Creative Commons Week!As a designer working in the non-profit sector, cost is a major consideration in the majority of my work.Through the years I’ve found some awesome photographic and Web resources that helped me achieve my graphic design goals. So, it’s time to pay homage to Creative Commons creators and to put some of my own out there as well. This means there'll...

It's so easy to look at something and say, this or that should be different. However, it's not always easy to bring your ideas to life. A lot of folks have a try -try -until you get it right approach--and frankly I do at times too-- but more often I try a methodical and creative approach. What's that mean exactly? As a designer, I love the chance to get my hands on a variety of projects, even ones...