Inspiredology - Design Inspiration Lab » Inspiration

Friday Fix August 23 – August 27

Chad — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:57:32 +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.

Design Cocktail

These design bundles are really catching on, I love it. Believe me, you want this bundle – it’s a great collection of vector resources. Be sure to grab this one.

Theme Trust

Henry Jones of WDL has released a new theme store, with some nice themes. It seems like everyone is doing this – not sure if the market is being over-saturated or not but – the themes are great.

Our friend Ryan Imel just recently purchased WPCandy, and has really put his own spin on it, but also keeping the some of the features that made WPCandy special. Ryan seems to have a great handle on what he wants to accomplish with WPCandy, a very exciting site to subscribe to.

Naomi Atkinson Products

Track Record

John O’Nolan Interview

Chad — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:30:39 +0000

First of all can I just say thanks for having me here! I got started playing with html at a very young age but I didn’t really start building websites until about six years ago when I started making sites for bands at the university which I was attending. After a couple of years working at agencies and in-house for start-up companies, I decided to make the jump into self employment. In the last 18 months I’ve been running my own web design business, serving clients such as Ubisoft and Virgin Atlantic Airways. I also contribute to open-source projects as a member of the Core WordPress UI Team, and I do a bit of writing and photography too.

Where do you look for sources of inspiration?

Well if you’d asked me this a few years ago I probably would’ve given the standard answer of “CSS Galleries” and similar resources on the web, however these days I try to stay well clear of them. The problem with finding inspiration on the web is that it’s very hard not to make whatever you’re doing look exactly like whatever it is you’re being “inspired” by. These days I spend a lot of time looking at print and packaging design in particular, with a few bits of product design thrown in for good measure. I find it much more interesting to try to take a really good idea from outside your own industry and try to adapt it and apply it to the web.

What is your favourite aspect of web design?

I think my favourite part would have to be when you have that great idea for a small change which is really going to make the whole site, and it all just comes together. At the start of this year I was building the new blog for vtravelled, Virgin’s new travel website, and we went through quite a few design iterations that were getting closer and closer to the end product. At one meeting I spontaneously came up with the idea to run a live twitter feed up the left hand side of the blog using some beautiful icons which they had already created for the main site. This was really one of those moments, and I think the scrolling feed and colourful icons are now what makes that site most memorable.

What are your top 5 favourite websites?

This is pretty much impossible for me to answer I’m afraid, I don’t think I could even pick one? Let’s go with Twitter, because Twitter leads me to all other websites!

Who do you look up to in your field?

Oh so many: Cameron Moll, Jason Santa Maria and Mark Boulton for their unprecedented understanding of design that just leaves all of the rest of us rolling around in the gutter wondering which way is up. Ryan Carson and Andy Budd for founding amazing agencies and conferences. Tim Van Damme for his attention to detail, and Adii Pienaar for his raw business acumen.

How has using Twitter helped the popularity of your online brand?

Twitter has pretty much been the cornerstone of everything for me. Without it, I would be nowhere. Every big client I’ve ever had, every opportunity and every break has come through Twitter. If they started charging $100 a month just to use it – I would probably do it. It’s connected me with thousands of new people and I couldn’t live without it now.

What do you think are the main benefits for offering free advice online? (Whether it’s a tutorial, quick snippet of code, advanced tutorial)

I think the main benefit has got to be that it establishes you as someone who knows what they’re talking about. Building up that sort of reputation is hugely beneficial because (if you do it right) then people will think of your name first when they need xxx bit of work done, so it all comes back. Like karma.

What inspires you to create and maintain a blog?

I’m not sure if there’s anything that inspires me as such. I like the idea that by publishing my own mistakes (which is what makes up 80% of my posts), other people can learn from them and not fall into the same holes. It’s also partially for myself, I like being able to look back at where I was and compare it to where I am now and just how much has changed.

What would be your perfect dream project?

It would comprise of several factors: The client would give me free reign, have no revisions, pay immediately (like within an hour of being invoiced), and the project itself would be something significant. I’ve experienced all of these individually, but so far I’ve never had them all together in a single client.

What advice would you give to someone looking to specialize in web design?

From a business point of view I would say focus on branding. There are hundreds (maybe thousands) of really really bad web designers out there who make a very healthy income purely because they’ve made a name for themselves. If you can make a name for yourself and you’re actually a good designer… well then that’s all you need really.

From a design point of view you just have to keep on pushing. Never allow yourself to settle for average, to just repeat the same old tired full width header that you used on your last ten designs. This is probably the hardest thing you’ll ever do, and if you’re a good designer, you’ll never be happy or satisfied with any of your work.

Looking into a crystal ball, what do you think will be the next design trend?

Honestly? Whatever Elliot Jay Stocks does next. That guy has an uncanny knack for doing new and awesome things, but I think he’s also probably one of the most influential designers in the world because no matter what he does: a week after it launches the CSS Galleries are full of sites using whatever his latest style is.

What can we expect from John O’Nolan in the upcoming year?

Loads. I’ve pretty much been feeling my way along since leaving full time employment and in the next year I really want to go places now. I have huge ambitions to do great things and I won’t stop until I get there.

In the immediate future, I’m writing a book, editing another book, working on a startup… and I’ll be making one other big move in the next couple of weeks that I can’t talk about yet, so watch this space!

Want more John?

http://john.onolan.org/
http://twitter.com/johnonolan

Friday Fix August 16 – August 20

Chad — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 12:05:23 +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.

HD Live 10

Justin M.Maller

Virb

Kiluka

E Skate Boarding

Carbon Ads

Hide Your Arms

Friday Fix August 9 – August 13

Chad — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 12:23:43 +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.

iStockphoto

iStock finally redesigned their site, the site before was fine, but just needed a refresher.

Pancake Payments

Design by Raul

Larissa Meek

Marketing Profesional

Themify.me

Our friend Nick La, launched his new project. With the help of super dev Darcy Clarke, they are offering some really cool WordPress themes and some very nice features.

New Adventures Conference

Treehaus Collaborative Workspace

Had the opportunity to check out this spot yesterday. The workspace look fantastic, a very exciting and energetic company.

We are Synapse

Glenn from down under in Australia, sent me some examples of work. They just recently designed their new portfolio. Their works is very unique and creative, check them out!

Friday Fix August 2 – August 6

Chad — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 12:41:25 +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.

Zero Watches

Derick sent me his new business cards early in the week and I thought the cards were really kick ass. Not only that but looking further in the company – their watches are phenominal. I am a big fan of watches, and Zero watches are – pushing the boundries on their new concept watches. On top of it, they also have a really cool looking iPhone app. This German company is really turning things up. Can’t wait till I get my hands on one of these watches.

Prologue

FoundationSix

A beautiful redesign from F6, I was pleasantly surprised that F6 is from Hamilton. Right down HWY6 from us, it would be awesome to collaborate with these guys.

Delicate News Theme

I don’t normally put WordPress themes – but I couldn’t help myself. This is a fantastic theme by Elegant Themes.

Designers Couch

Bundle Hunt

Mike McQuade

Midnight Shift Studio

Deaxon

Logic By Design

Band Themer

Inspiredology Lab Wallpapers

Chad — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 13:30:06 +0000

The new design of Inspiredology has been welcomed with open arms. We can’t be happier with the site and the feedback we have received is fantastic.

We thought that it would be nice to give you something back, like the new design wasn’t enough. We threw together some cool wallpapers for you to dress up your desktops, iPhones, and iPads.

Design Inspiration Lab

Desktop

iPhone

iPad

Available Sizes

1920×1200
1680×1050
1440×900
1280×1024
1024×768
iphone
ipad

Download Set

Experiment Gone Bad

Desktop

iPhone

iPad

Available Sizes

1920×1200
1680×1050
1440×900
1280×1024
1024×768
iphone
ipad

Download Set

Friday Fix July 26 – July 30

Chad — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:34:23 +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.

As many of you already know, we recently launched The Lab design for Inspiredology. It has been a few days now, and we would just like to thank everyone for helping promote the launch, as well as all the great feedback that we have been given. We know our servers have been slow, and we appreciate you being patient with us.

Please feel free to send us any bugs or browser issues, we are still working out the kinks. There are a few new features we are working on, and we hope to launch in the upcoming weeks. Be sure to subscribe to our RSS feed to stay updated.

The Timeless Beauty of National Geographic

Diacarta

Hotel Rottnest

Bowtie.

Mind Work 3D

Alexandre Gomes

A Friday Fix Extra

Nate Smith of FP Media was inspired by our 28 Minimalist Movie Posters post that he created 3 posters as well. He sent me an email earlier this week – the quality is again top notch. Take a look for yourself. Be sure to check him out on twitter!

17 Inspiring Moodboards

Chad — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:10:32 +0000

With the recent launch of Projekt19, we are taking on more client work. With client work, one of the most exciting parts of the process is discussing the clients expectations and then brainstorming on what we can come up with.

In order to collect the ideas from your client, as well as some of your own ideas – create a Moodboard. Whether you decide to show the client or use it internally, it’s a very helpful tool. One document that you can source for ideas, colour palettes, web elements for the entire project. I thought it would be a great idea to share the Moodboards I have used over the past month. Looking through them you can get an idea of what type of site the moodboard was created for, and hopefully you will also be inspired.

I have included two zip files – one with the entire hi-res collection of Moodboards, as well as the blank psd template I use.

Download

Download Entire Hi Res Collection of Moodboards – 29mb

Download Blank PSD Moodboard Template

Extra Resources

John ONolan posted a very creative way to use Moodboards with Moo Cards; Getting Creative: Moo’d Cards

Friday Fix July 19 -July 23

Chad — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 12:42:58 +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.

Flipboard

Layers Magazine

Shitty Day

Dave Rupert

FriendsWithYou

Sharif Lukman

abduzeedo

mealeo

Lega Lega

21 tutorials to make you a better Icon Designer

Chad — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 13:10:44 +0000

You have asked us to post more tutorials on Inspiredology. We will admit tutorials haven’t been a huge category on Inspiredology. With that said we are going to post more articles on tutorials, where to find the best tutorials, we will post a few tutorials here from time to time.

Inspiredology is about inspiration, and some tutorials are inspiring, but they are more about teaching and learning the techniques. Our previous round-up of “16 Photoshop Tutorials to make you a better designer” was a great post, and thought we could follow that format and just dive a but deeper into Icon Design.

Icon design is more popular now then every before, with the popularity of mobile apps, and internet based apps. Icons are becoming a powerful tool to help users understand functions and actions within an environment. With these tutorials, we hope that if you are a beginner or a seasoned pro you will have learned a new technique or been inspired to start designing your own icons.