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 to navigate.  The first problem with the original site is that it does not work in most browsers.  Early version of IE, yes. But Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, or even IE 8, not at all.

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' and full of push-pins, magazines, postcards, and one special memento (place cards from my lunch with the president of the Ravens). Almost every square inch is covered. This is not my only repository of samples, but it is the place where I keep the most useful, relevant and interesting pieces. I also rotate the pieces on a monthly basis as I get more beautiful design work to look at.
Here's to getting organized!
-Bueno SuertE!

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 sparingly

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.

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.

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 ya!

Download the full set at Flickr

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 in his travels in Baltimore and parts beyond.Here are bits of the Baltimroe skyline, as seen by spike 55151:
-Here's Baltimore's famous Skyline
-Mt. Royal Station and Meyerhoff
-Bromo Seltzer tower
-Aquarium and Power Plant

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

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 you.

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 I know little about. The joy, for me,  in a redesign is in:

•  the research of an industry, 
• selecting colors that compliment my subject
• creating typographic styles that speak without images
• and bringing this all together in an elegant finished product.