Inspiredology - Design Inspiration Lab » Chad



Friday Fix January 9 – January 13
Chad — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:35:10 +0000
The Friday Fix is a weekly recap of all things inspiring. We look at new web apps, portfolios, beautiful websites and anything else design related.
Winner of the Fotolia 3-month Membership
And the winner is… Chris! — http://san-claire.co.uk


Guilherme Garcia

Creative Market

Adrians

JustBurns

Branding 10,000 Lakes

One Minute With

Two Arms Inc

UI Details

Pick’n'Roll

Scorekeeper XL for Playbook by Matt Rix

Web Critique Week
Next week we are trying something new! We will be posting a web critique everyday next week. Our newest lab member Mike has already posted 3 since he has joined the team, but we thought he deserved to take center stage for a week. Don’t worry Mike isn’t stealing the show Andrew and myself will be chiming in as well. So make sure you subscribe to our RSS or follow us on twitter.




Friday Fix – 2011 Year Review
Chad — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 14:04:50 +0000
Once a week we throw up the Friday Fix that showcases some of the best goodies that week churned out. It’s always fun to at the end of the year to see all the “Best Of” posts—I can assure you that, if not you have not already, you will be overwhelmed with “Best of 2011″. 
Well Inspiredology is no different, we want to showcase the “Best of the Friday Fix”. The following sites were all featured here on Inspiredology and deserved to be a part of our year in review post.
This year we have seen lots of great things in web design and these examples surely prove just that. Lots of great grid based layouts, the distressed design style and lots of beautiful product images scoured the web, and I am sure you will all agree, that the Parallax Effect was used one to many times. We can’t forge the emergence of HTML5 and CSS3 based sites that really tells us where the future in web design is headed.
Handle With Love

 

Atlantic Records


Vlog.it

Wunderkit

Nest

VW Beetle

Corkcicle

Square

Activate

AW Digital

Dynamit

Teehan+Lax

Threads Not Dead

DesignersMX

Lost Type Co-Op

Nike Better World

So1o

Contrast Rebellion

Steve

We hope you stay along for the ride and enjoyed our Friday Fix throughout the year, I always enjoy finding the gems for each week. Did you have any favorite Fix’s? Share in the comments below!



Top 5 of 2011 from The Lab
Chad — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 13:58:08 +0000
Every year around this time, we see the same old “Best Of the year” posts, well for now, we wanted to add our own take and get to the “Best of” later.
2011 was a big year for Inspiredology as we brought on Mike Puglielli as another Lab member to continue expanding the quality and amount of content for The Lab. He is our lead editor and has done a fabulous job around here, bringing new ideas and helping out with some great collaboration posts.
As such, in today’s post, we are recapping our “Top 5 of 2011″ from each of the team members of The Lab. We recognize that everyone sees things differently, holding their own values of what they find importnat, and assimilates their own highlight reel—Andrew, Mike and I would like to offer up our picks for this years “Top 5 of 2011″.
Mike
The Passing of Steve Jobs
“Steve Jobs was quite an innovative mind for his industry—I think everybody will agree that this is one of the biggest, unfortunate stories for 2011.”

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP
“I tested, played with, and downloaded a lot of apps…a lot of apps and in so many different categories. S&S is the Best Mobile App I played this year, bar none—it made a long lasting and great impression on me.”


Audience Calibration Procedure from Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery  on Vimeo.
The Verge
“The Verge is this years hottest new tech blog. They bridge the gap between style, unbiased journalism, and tech and is my favorite blog for the year; I look forward to the great content they will provide 2012.”

 Microsoft Buys Skype
“I think this acquisition didn’t get the credit or attention it deserved. Microsoft’s dominate roll in the Xbox 360 as a home entertainment device yields incredible possibilities when you think of the symbiotic relationship this could become.”

Gaming
“2011 was one of the best years for any gamer and for the gaming industry as a whole. I thoroughly enjoyed the epic battle of the modern shooters—Battlefield 3 won and is my #1 shooter of the year.”

Andrew
Sparrow
“My favorite Mac App of the year goes to Sparrow—those guys made email sexy again. Email me. Now. Please.”

Passing of Steve Jobs
“Just like Mike, this is a powerful story and I became enamored by the iconic image that came from it.”

Fab.com
“From 0 – 1.2million users in 6 months, and closed a $40million round, what else is there to say? This place is great.”

Kickstarter
“The rise in popularity of  Kickstarter for serving as an innovative way of growing and supporting the creative community is something to keep an eye on. I love all the projects that they have helped start and hope they continue to be a game changer for start-ups in 2012.”

Siri is born
“Siri is killer. It is Google, search engine, text messaging, calendar assistant, killer—looking forward to Siri innovation and what will spawn from this push in and UI technology.”

Chad
Nest and other Beautiful Niche Products
“2011 showcased a ton of niche products including a sexy thermostat from the minds that designed the iPod as well as LunaTik and Glif, to name a few. Innovation wont stop in 2012, I can assure you that.”

Pinterest and Fancy
“Great social lifestyle sharing sites emerged this year to great success and fluid designs.”

Orman Clark
“This kid tore it up in 2011; giving away kick ass freebies and hitting a huge milestone in ThemeForest—and his stuff is great.”

Help Japan
“A horrific disaster brought millions of people together; James White did what he could and created a beautiful poster that raised over $20,000 for the cause.”

Rdio
“There were a lot of new streaming music sources this year, but Rdio hit home with me—great new source of music and an even better way to have all your tunes at your fingertips, all the time.”

Surely there are other great stories, services, or apps out there—but these took the helm for us in 2011. This selection are from the creative abysses of many talented people and no doubt we will look to 2012 for even more great innovation, design, and competition. What were some of your favorites from 2011 in either the industry or otherwise? What do you think about our selections. Let us know in the comments below.
It goes without saying, but we also want to thank the great community behind Inspiredology. We understand you are a huge part of what makes this blog run and keeps us wanting to provide greater and better content for you. With hand picked selection of so many awesome guest writers, we have a lot to be thankful for in 2012 as we continue to move forward. We appreciate your visits and have had a great time interacting with our readers both on twitter and in many of The Lab’s posts.
Thanks a bunch and make sure to merrily drink! Cheers and Happy New Years!



Friday Fix December 19 – December 23
Chad — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 13:16:35 +0000
The Friday Fix is a weekly recap of all things inspiring. We look at new web apps, portfolios, beautiful websites and anything else design related.
CSS3 Lighting Effects – Unreal!

Icon Deposit

CSS3 Patterns Gallery

William James Murray Art Print

Super Retro

Touristique

Picons Basic 3

More Air

EGO

From the Folder
Rising

 



Your WordPress Theme Destination
Chad — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:55:57 +0000
With the abundance of WordPress and Website themes piling up in every corner of the internet, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to find the right theme when you need it. Your final WordPress Theme Desitination is here.
As a designer, website themes can do one of two things; offer great inspiration or help eleviate your workload. So we decided that we needed to have an easier way of finding the best themes instead of looking through RSS or Twitter feeds. ThemeFolder focuses on the best website themes without plastering the web with a million “less-than-awesome” themes that the community would shriek at if you decided to use.

We post three times a week and with each post we give you “the low down” as well as the top 3 features of each theme.

With ThemeFolder being a theme showcase, we decided to use a theme ourselves for the site! We chose “Bookcase”, which you can check out at Bookcase WordPress Theme. It was love at first sight; so we made a few alterations and boom—ThemeFolder showcase came to life!
We also need your help! Let us know what WordPress themes you guys love and want to see as part of the site; we’re looking for input on what are the highlights you look for when searching for that perfect theme. Drop us a line in the comments below and give your feedback!



Friday Fix December 12 – December 16
Chad — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:11:45 +0000
The Friday Fix is a weekly recap of all things inspiring. We look at new web apps, portfolios, beautiful websites and anything else design related.
ThemeFolder

Wells Riley

The Geek Designer

Union Actions

YummyGum

TestFlight App

Virb Happy Holidays

Andrew Shanley




Friday Fix December 5 – December 9
Chad — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 13:10:26 +0000
The Friday Fix is a weekly recap of all things inspiring. We look at new web apps, portfolios, beautiful websites and anything else design related.
The Zed Index

Show Your Tuts

Here’s to the Crazy Ones

Work Diary

Nolte Design Letterpress

2011 Awwwards Book

TopForty.it

The Design Report

Slavery Footprint

Theme.ly

The Icon Handbook

 



Friday Fix November 28 – December 2
Chad — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 13:27:01 +0000
The Friday Fix is a weekly recap of all things inspiring. We look at new web apps, portfolios, beautiful websites and anything else design related.
MuppaBet by David Vordtriede

Protest

Josh Sullivan

Jay and Slient Bob: Colouring Contest!

Radoor & Co

Small Studio

Tubalr