If you’re a fellow designer, I’m sure you’ll appreciate this short film by Joe Hollier, monologue by Mike Lacher. It was done in Fall 2010 while Hollier was a student. If you didn’t like it, well then hopefully you at least appreciated the badass stop animation.
A Handful of Eye-Catching Landing Page Designs
One of my current projects at work is designing a landing page for our US team, so I’ve been researching a bit of trends for 2013 in landing pages, and these are some of my favorites I’ve found (funny enough, a lot came from the same designer, Iceberg Landing Page Design). Continue reading
A Designer’s Holiday Wish List
Ever wonder what to get a designer for Christmas? Or perhaps YOU’RE the designer and don’t know what to ask for? Well I’ve got a list of 10 fun gifts any designer would appreciate. Continue reading
Can’t…stop…pinning!
Current Obsession: Pinterest.
I always heard people talk about Pinterest, but never really cared to see what it was all about. As a designer, homeowner, DIY junkie, photography lover…shame on me. 
If you haven’t checked out Pinterest, you need to. It’s a place to save all your favorite images, DIY project links, future ideas for your house, places to visit, fitness tips… you get the idea. There are all sorts of things out there that you may not find by just searching via Google.
Here’s a link to my Pinterest page. Sign up, it’s free. Happy Pinning!
Current Obsession: Chicago’s Threadless
C’mon, who doesn’t love a good t-shirt? Add in a ridiculously AWESOME graphic & you’ve got yourself a winner, my friend. That’s why I’m currently obsessed with Threadless, a Chicago-based company that allows their fans to pick/submit the art they print. And guess what, they don’t just print on tees, they also have iPhone cases, beer coozies, scarves, & tons more. Check ‘em out!
How To Get Your Site Noticed
When I started as a “professional” graphic & web designer in 2007, I perused galleries all over the place for inspiration, wondering what it took to make it onto these sites. I assumed these had to be well-known designers with an amazingly deep understanding of development, compliant coding, or were born with endless amounts of creative ideas. I’m not saying they aren’t those people, but it’s not all of them. I know this, because I’ve recently found myself surprisingly amongst them. Continue reading
Yay for some lovin’ from OnePageLove.com!
This morning I woke up, did my usual, wandered into the office to check my Google Analytics, and saw I already had 143 hits from around the world and it was only 10 am. I immediately thought my site got hacked.:p Once I delved into the traffic sources a bit more I realized a lot were referrals and from the site OnePageLove.com. According to their website, “One Page Love showcases the best one page website designs on the internet.” (ballerrrr) I completely forgot I submitted my site to them and I was soooo excited when I saw they decided to feature it. How awesome is that?! I believe they only pick a handful a day so I was super geeked to see they chose mine. Thanks, OnePageLove… Check it out! Continue reading
MySQL databases, php forms, & dynamic results, oh my!
So when I first moved to Maryland I had several interviews going on in one week. One of the companies was looking for a web designer/developer so I thought I’d give it a try. For my interview they asked me to put together a page where someone can register/login, take a survey, and then produce live results once they hit submit. I suppose I should emphasize I’m more on the design than development side of things so this kind of frightened me (oh, and I had 1 day to put it together). After a few moments of wondering if I should cancel the interview I finally said to myself, why not take a stab at this, what’s the worst that could happen, you and they both realize it’s not the job for you and you’ve learned something new in the process. Click here to see it & try it out. 
Can’t Miss Tutorials for Graphic Designers
I love when I can sit down and take the time to learn new tricks for my print designs, photography, or interactive stuff. Over the years I’ve created a bookmark haven of inspiring tutorials and now I want to share them with YOU! You may find some of the tips to be tedious or too extensive, but once you apply them to your designs, they can truly enrich your skills & take your work to the next level.
A handful of uber creative websites from 2011
Well it’s that time of year again, the time when every web design blogger puts together a list of the trends from 2011. I honestly got close to doing that myself. But I’m still one of those designers who goes out and looks for the posts ABOUT the past and future trends, so I’ll spare everyone from just reiterating someone else’s post. Instead I’ll share some pretty darn cool, adventurous, clean, inspiring websites I’ve seen and personally enjoyed over the last year.
Continue reading