Fresh

I am so in love with this project from Bill Zeman: Tiny Art Director. It’s a blog that documents the paintings and drawings he does that are directed and critiqued by his daughter. It started when his daughter was two years old. She is four now, and a very opinionated art director!

Tomato Monster by Bill Zeman

There are a lot of dinosaurs. Be sure to check out “poo poo airplane” for a good laugh. It is also hilarious to see how many pieces he lists as “rejected.” Love, love, love it!

Via Owltastic

Now here’s an initiative that lends some heart and soul to the (oftentimes) silly seriousness of branding. Enter Save Your Logo. The basic gist is that the initiative “creates an opportunity for companies represented by a plant or animal in their logo to contribute to the conservation of that species.”

Wow – what a great idea that we can all get behind. As a matter of fact, Lacoste has already committed to conservation efforts related to crocodiles.

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I love books. I love design. I love me a good book cover!

“But I’m a web designer! What do I care?” you say. Well, so am I my friend!  Looking at media outside of the web is so crucial for inspiration for me, though. It gets me thinking outside the confines of my screen. For some reason, getting away from the media that you typically work with can really generate inspiration.

Book covers are also somewhat similar to the home page of a website. They have to communicate the essence of a story. They have to be captivating enough to grab someone’s attention enough so that they will read the whole story (or browse the entire site, if you will.) Sometimes there is a lot of information to convey, sometimes a little. You have to think about hierarchy. What is most important to communicate? Least?

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Often here on Fresh we bring you what we’re digging and what inspires us. We give ways to make what you create easier, ways to solve development issues creatively, and generally anything that we think you’d value. Sometimes we find problems that need to be solved that are staring us right in the face and we don’t even realize they exist.

After visiting An Event Apart this past month, I came face-to-face with one such situation. Have you ever wondered why sometimes when you create a website for a client, launch, then hand over the keys – things go haywire? All of a sudden the format is broken and the copy no longer makes sense, and all you’re left to do is shake your head and pray you took a screenshot before they took the reigns. Before you know it, the client is back at the drawing board wondering if they should’ve just changed that background color or moved things around on their home page a bit. Should we simply resign ourselves to blaming the client and moving on to the next project? I think not.

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