Congratulations to Graham Paterson

Graham Paterson is the official winner for our second dribbble invite contest. Please welcome him and have a look at his artwork.

Winners were not chosen at random and it was a tough process with so many great candidates. Our goal was to not only find a great piece of art, and Graham’s go green campaign sold us, but to see great quality and craftsmanship in the work. It was a hard choice with over 25 submissions, but the choice ended up being clear. With that said, we will be doing a seperate post within a week to showcase the top honorable mentions—You’ll get a chance to show a great piece of art and get some publicity in the process!

Congratulations everyone and thanks for being part of the contest, we really appreciate it!

On to the Fix

We are Pollen

Who Makes Apps

Instagram Blog

The Code Zombie

Elliot Jay Stocks

WP App Store

Decorated Playlists

Pure Pleasure Design

These bad ass designers bring their “A” game time and time again and we hope that you will find this as a great design resource and be introduced to a few fellow peers along the way.

Dann Petty

Website | Twitter | Behance | Dribbble

With every Web Critique we choose to focus on things that are relevant to the website and how they’re trying sell their brand while pushing a website that is product-centric, functional, and looks great.

We spend a lot of time looking at big name blogs and sites, its not often we take a look at a portfolio, which most designers have themselves…and we could all use a little help in how we show off our good stuff. With that said, I wanted to show off one of my favorite artist (or group of artists?) portfolio; but is Always With Honor’s portfolio my favorite? Find out.

Always With Honor

Its the simple idea that your art sells itself and Always With Honor certainly believes it too. At one point is it too much or too little? AWH (Always With Honor) does a pretty decent job of this marriage.

They get away with this style by having many pieces of their most current/recent artwork on one page. They might make it more “artsy” if they only had one circle thumbnail, capitalizing on negative space, but losing the audience to a “poor navigation”. With very subtle rollover animations that reveal the actual colors of that particular project, and this subtlety is matched perfectly with the slowly rotating planet (Corusant?). The minimalism AWH packs is great, maybe I’d like some more brand awareness like site name, etc, but it still is great.

Style & Function

Like we mentioned earlier, AWH packs a lot of minimalism in a lot of space. With subtle rollover animations, AWH attempts to stay relevant, but fail to stay up to snuff with decent trends or standards. It isn’t to say the site is bad or ugly, but it isn’t entirely inviting to browse or find what you’re looking for—and with the small text on the left navigation, its tough to see what the buttons are.

Essentially, the navigation on the left filters all the artwork you originally see on the homepage, by the navigation button you selected. The only problem is that you don’t notice this filtering. It seems to confuse me as a viewer to where I am on the site or what I am looking at when I keep noticing the same artwork.

Best way to resolve this would be to create simple and subtle animations (keeping in line with the branding) so that the user can see the filtering happen, otherwise we are left to our own devices, excusing my crude animation. The product pages, those that show a particular piece, remain simple. These pages simple show the graphic and all its glory, and god are they good. If it wasn’t for my initial gripes with navigation and showcase style, their work would look even better—as it is, AWH has great product and I love browsing through the many pages of artwork.

Worsely (yep, just said that), AWH isn’t the least bit responsive. I am not asking for a full responsive site, but I do believe in a site that always adapts based on the browser size—designing with % rather than 0,0 (x & y locations). With wide monitors nowadays, designing everything from the 0,0, we end up having so much empty space on the right side and it really pulls away from the quality of the site—the artwork doesn’t expand to fill the x horizontal.

Can I get a footer

Now, most portfolios don’t need a footer. There isn’t the same need you have for a larger sites like blogs, etc.  Its always important to keep in mind what the design for the content you build. Because AWH has such a simple style and navigation, they really need to remind you where information is. A simple footer could be a great touch with this; finding things like about and contact pages, rather than squinting to see links on the left.

Your Turn

The idea here is to take real world examples and explain what we think were the design decisions and share those thoughts. This is a great way for novice and veteran designers to find things to debate and hopefully learn from.

We also want to encourage user submissions—break down a fan’s portfolio or website—submit it and we’ll take a look. Recommendations or suggestions just send us a tweet @inspiredology, @MikePuglielli, or email me.

What do you think of Always With Honor’s portfolio site?

Spatially aware devices from Ishac Bertran on Vimeo.

hypercompact from Igor Ginzburg on Vimeo.

Starbucks™ & YWFT Hannah from YouWorkForThem on Vimeo.

Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering from Ars Thanea on Vimeo.

iphone- diorama from Mike Ko on Vimeo.

Submit your best, get a dribbble invite

It really is that simple, nothing fancy here. Show us your best piece (more accurate directions below) and, if we like your piece the most, you’ll get an invite. If you want to make something new, go for it, just make sure its the best you’ve got.

The dribbble community offers a lot to aspiring and veteran artists. A previous article we wrote on Inspiredology talks about dribbble’s infancy and the direction a newcomers role can play. We want to make sure that who we pick will push the dribbble community in new and positive directions, and stay on top of their account.

Nick Agin won our last contest and has some great success in the dribbble community, bringing a fresh look and style, garnering 882 followers already. His creativity just oozes style—you are going to have the same success (we hope!). Once you get picked, follow this guide, understanding trendy posts, to a successful first shot (or don’t, if you’ve got the guts).

Here’s how to get drafted:

• Follow Inspiredology on twitter and like us on facebook.
• Tweet @Inspiredology the phrase “@Inspiredology has a @dribbble invite – I want one! http://bit.ly/JoOvwY – Here’s my entry [insert link here].”

Dribbble is show & tell for creatives. Designers, developers and other creatives using shareshots—small screenshots of the designs and applications they are working on.

Winner’s Grand Prize:

• A dribbble invite to join the club!
• Top 10 showcase pieces submitted will be showcased.

We will make a decision on the 17th of May with an announcement of the winner on the May 18th Friday Fix. Top 10 submissions will also be showcased on the Friday Fix, so make sure you’re showing your best for the whole Inspiredology community to see.

If you have any questions please feel free to post in the comments or send us a tweet and we will do our best to address.

UPDATE: This contest is now CLOSED. See who won the invite!

Lee W Robinson

Do We Have Milk? by Teehan+Lax

ImageThink

Sehsucht

Themezilla

Pinstagram

Sketch

These bad ass designers bring their “A” game time and time again and we hope that you will find this as a great design resource and be introduced to a few fellow peers along the way.

Rob Sheridan

Website | Twitter | Behance

Christian Gaillard Paintings

Cindy Sherman

Resign Film

The 2 Minute Test

Biamar

ala

Saucony

New Zealand 100% Pure

Five3

River | Absolut Svea

GlobalTV | Bomb Girls

Vesmirny Program

If you didn’t see the first batch of Parallax Scrolling Websites, swing on by! We loved seeing everyone’s recommendations and suggestions and hope you dig this second part!

Which sites are your favorite or are there some other sites you think do the Parallax Scrolling well that we didn’t list? Which are your least favorite? Let us know in the comments below!

Where things come from from Hardy Seiler on Vimeo.

When I grow up from Jasmin Lai on Vimeo.

09232011 from Charles Bergquist on Vimeo.

Morning frames from alcinoo on Vimeo.

i’m Circle from i’m watch on Vimeo.

Bonus Video

Because we love you….and you HAVE to see this

epilogue from kris anka on Vimeo.

Created for graphic designers and other creative artists in mind, Semidocile Bold is a sans serif font that was hand-spaced and contains impeccable kerning. Its uses are strikingly versatile, making it an excellent font for all types of designs and projects (minus the smallest of font sizes, as demonstrated in the image below). Those of us wishing this creative font was available in a light version are not left without hope, Merrifield plans on designing a light version for the Semidocile typeface soon.

Glyphs, glyphs, and more glyphs

Semidocile Bold includes 380+ glyphs, making it a great font for just about anything. The complete glyph set will come in especially handy for those brand managers who deal with multiple languages or measurements on a regular basis. The typeface also contains glyphs for most Latin and Western European Languages. Plus, the completely original design will give those first to use it a fresh edge when it comes to typography in designs.

Best uses: headings and more

I probably don’t need to point out that this font is especially effective as a title or heading font. The soft lines and rounded edges are still clear and easy to read, and the bold style help it to stand out rather than blend into the background. While Semidocile Bold is not ideal for body text (as with most bold, san-serif fonts), nearly any short block of text should perform very well if used on a larger scale. For instance: block quotes and other stand out elements within body text could really draw the eye when designed with Semidocile Bold. Again, keep in mind that a light version, more suited for body text, will arrive soon.

Surprisingly interchangeable styles

What struck me the most with Merrifield’s new font is how versatile it is for a number of design styles—It’s hard to find a harsh line in the font. Even though the capital letters have right angles, the font seems to move along easily, giving it a sleek and modern look and feel; even the glyphs somehow manage to retain their soft yet intense personality. The bullnosed corners have an almost brushed style to them, which gives this font a fun and playful appearance in certain designs.

If you’re looking for a fresh, modern title font, with all the glyphs you’ll ever need, Semidocile Bold is an excellent choice. For those wanting to know more or to be one of the first to know about the release date, follow Stiff Upper Glyph on Twitter or “Like” Stiff Upper Glyph on Facebook.

Are you interested in seeing more Font reviews? What other content would you like explained?