Fresh

Our lovely admin assistant, Catt Clark, sent around Time’s list of the 50 Best Websites 2010. Most of these are sites that I’m familiar with, but some were completely new to me. While I perused through the list, and clicked through to check out most of these sites, I noticed a commonality amongst some of my favorites.

You might ask, “What made them similar?”

Each of these websites uses a feedback tool of some sort. These feedback tools are immensely helpful to use on sites, particularly those with complex functionality. Before websites launch, they (should) go through an extensive QA process; despite all of the testing and pre-launch preparedness, there will always be little things that the QA team or testing group missed. By having feedback tools available to the end users, you’re able to collect feedback from some of the best testers: your actual website visitors!

Here’s my list of faves, and you’ll notice that all of them use the nifty feedback tool.

Stay

This websites provides travel guides for major cities around the world, and they’re available both online and for download. Why lug around Rick Steve’s (another favorite of mine) blue book when you can keep all of this information online? I like the flexibility of managing your travel information in whatever format you prefer: read it online, save it electronically, or print it out and take it with you. Note how easy it is to supply feedback should you notice something funky on the site.

Stay

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Poster design is something very close to my heart. I got my start as a designer doing gig posters for my music-promoter-intern roommate after graduating college, and have been pumping them out in the evenings and on weekends ever since.

There are rarely any rules or design parameters when doing show posters, aside from including all the pertinent information and staying within the limits of basic printing capabilities. Poster design is a virtual designer’s playground where we are given license to experiment with typography, color, illustration and layout to express our visions; there is rarely any sort of creative filter or limitation.

Given the fact that I primarily contribute inspiration posts to Fresh, and I moonlight as a poster designer while not pushing pixels at eROI, this post will combine these two constants. I would like to share some of the work of Toronto-based designer and screen-printer brother-duo Andrew and Matt McCracken, otherwise known as Doublenaut.

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Color is such a huge part of what draws me in to a website, interior or piece of advertising.  Choosing color is one of my favorite aspects of the creative process. It is so important and can mean so much!

This grouping of color palettes is inspired by all of the beautiful, lackadaisical colors of late summer. School is starting again, Fall is on the horizon, and leaves are starting to turn.  I’m thinking about enjoying a drink on the porch, watching the sunset.

I selected these from palettes created by users on Colourlovers (an awesome source for inspiration). If you haven’t checked out this site before, take a peek and see which color palettes inspire you!

Roses by Earth

Love, love, love the fuchsias of my first choice!
It is on the more lively (and less relaxing) side of my group today. Hot!

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Like a lot of ladies, I revel in great accessories. These accessories may help enhance an outfit, pull everything together, or even help you function better throughout the day.

When I think of the accessories that help us function better throughout the day, they’re usually something digital: an iPod for listening to tunes while we strut down 5th Avenue (I’ve only been accused of doing this a time or two), a cell phone, or a laptop.

These digital accessories can be shown some serious love by spicing them up with stickers, covers, or any other kind of decal to personalize them to your tastes. Here are some of my personal faves for your accessorizing enjoyment.

Cell Phones

One of our very own eROI designers, Tom O’Toole, designed this fancy case, “New Vibes“, for Grove. This bamboo case is pretty sweet, and for those of you who prefer something a bit more distinct and sustainable, Grove gives you plenty of great options. And — BONUS — Grove offers free wallpaper downloads of your favorite designers. So, you can heart your fave designers by showing your love on an iPhone cover and on your desktop.

New Vibes, Grove

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One of the most interesting things about working here at eROI is the variety of clients in which we deal with on a regular basis. On any given day we work with large national brands, and then turn around and help a start up company grow from the ground up. In both cases, it has become essential to have a comprehensive style guide for several reasons:

For the larger brands, it is a simple way for a client to communicate the essential elements and rules as they apply to their brand in a concise document. A large brand may have multiple agencies working on projects at any given time, and this ensures consistency across the board. This is especially important when working on projects with tight timelines; there is little time for brand misinterpretation. A good style guide will cover all of the major elements, which allows for a Creative Brief to be more focused on the project at hand.

For smaller companies, a style guide is equally important as it becomes the blueprint from which the brand evolves. A small company may not have the resources to employ a marketing/brand manager, and so a style guide needs to work that much harder.

While many companies are already familiar with brand guidelines that include things like logo usage and brand statements, I want to focus instead on what specific elements should be considered for the digital space and the screen.

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One of the most important things to my design work is constant experimentation. Whether it is a new photographic technique or an entirely new program I am always looking for a new way to create innovative graphic communication. Here at eROI experimentation is encouraged and in my last fit of unbridled creativity I pulled out a new program and tried my hand at some 3D work. Nothing innovative but in terms of someone that has NEVER worked in 3D I thought I did pretty darn good. The result was a few Fresh themed wallpapers for you to use… so go ahead and download them.

Need this wallpaper in a specific size? You got it!

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If you use the internet, chances are that you have seen a 404 error page. It is basically inevitable. The 404 error page will be displayed whenever someone asks for a page that is not available. There are many possible reasons for this error; it could be an incorrect link somewhere on your site or someone made a typo when entering the URL.

At the bottom of this post is a table that explains the various error code messages.

Unfortunately the 404 error page is usually an afterthought, or not a thought at all. Let’s get creative! When designing a custom 404 error page, consider the company’s culture, and the type of response desired by their audience. These will no doubt lighten the actuality of the situation (the page they wanted can’t be found) and possibly steer them into a different direction and increase exploration of the site.

I have scoured the web for clever 404 error pages and compiled a list of 25 for your enjoyment. This list is relatively short compared to other websites such as:

• 60 Really Cool and Creative Error 404 Pages
• 49 Nice and Creative Error 404 Pages
• 36 Cool custom Error 404 Pages
• The 100 Most Funny & Unusual 404 Error Pages

Get inspired to create a custom 404 error page for your site!
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Lately there seems to have been an explosion of 3D typography on the web so I thought I would give it a go myself and share it with you. Took a little time out of my day to experiment with type and light and this is what happened.

This little wallpaper was made with a combination of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator and a lot of time on the Wacom tablet. The majority of the work took place while trying to make the shadow look natural. Shadows have always been really difficult for me to get right. All in all I think it was a worthy afternoon of exploration and creativity. Enjoy.

Need this wallpaper in a specific size? You got it!

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1280×800

1280×1024

1440×900

1680×1050

My contributions to this blog have all fallen into the category of inspiration – sharing the artists, designers, and even the tunes that drive me to be a designer and part-time aspiring artist. It all adds fuel to my fire, and I’m kind of a pack rat when it comes to saving images, bookmarking portfolio sites and subscribing to RSS feeds. Taking it all in helps me put out more creatively even though this process is quite the time-suck.

In this light, I am going to continue to share this time-suck with all you Fresh readers.

This post is a spotlight on Los Angeles-based designer, art director, artist, entrepreneur and skateboarder, Michael Leon.

I have been keeping up with the guy’s projects, brands, and aesthetic for the past few years, and am constantly inspired.  He has the ability to design simply and boldly while maintaining a certain whimsical feel-good quality, leaving me with a smile on my face and a warm, fuzzy feeling in my gut.

He captures fun, skateboarding, California, drawing, and all of the youthful energy that inherently comes emotionally packaged with these things into each piece. It’s honest and original — two of the hardest things to consistently embody as an artist or designer.

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I’m proud to announce that after almost 2.5 years at our 5th and Couch location, we have finally completed our street level signage and entrance design. When we relocated from the Alber’s Mills to Old Town, it had a profound effect on our company. We became a part of a growing neighborhood with a unique energy and flavor that paired well with our company culture. Old Town isn’t your average Portland neighborhood. It’s one of the few places in Portland where I actually feel like I’m living in a real city. It’s fashion, youth, small business, food, and art. All of this juxtaposed with a dodgy past makes for an interesting few blocks. When it came time to design a sign for our new office we wanted to make sure to acknowledge the roots of the neighborhood while adding our own piece to the mix.

When we first began concepting ideas, we needed to clearly define why it was we even needed a sign. After all, we aren’t a retail space or a restaurant where people are walking in off the street for their next online campaign. Most people that come to our office know who we are and are simply looking for a clearly marked street address. It’s more way-finding than anything. We had to take into consideration things such as public transportation and parking, so we could position the sign in a place that made sense. Once people found us they needed to be buzzed in, so we also included an integrated call box into the entrance.

Initial sketches

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