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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We love our neighborhood here at eROI.

Nestled in between downtown Southwest Portland, and the ever-classy Pearl District, Old Town / Chinatown remains one of West Portland’s neighborhoods that has held on to some of its history and gritty peripheral personality while it has changed over the years. It’s one of the last few neighborhoods where you might see a screaming crazy person, a crowd of folks eating at a fancy restaurant, and a DIY art gallery opening all within a few blocks of each other, and its residents take pride in this edgy diversity.  It’s a happening sort of place, and a lot of creativity and progression take place right under our noses, even if we might not be aware of it every day.

Image courtesy of Portland Ground

It is in this light that a committee of people who work in Old Town banded together in 2009 to create the Old Town Block Party. The concept was simple: to get businesses, restaurants, and all of their patrons and employees out in the open, share their work and culture with everyone else, have a few beers, and enjoy some good music – all for a charitable cause.  2009’s inaugural Block Party was a big success boasting over 3,000 attendees throughout the day and donating money to resurrect the historic Hung Far Low Cocktails sign, and this year’s party promises to up the ante. Killer food, drinks, and bands are only part of the reason that this free (What?! Free?!) event is going to rule this year.

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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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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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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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Today I’m going to look at three e-commerce sites that are inspiring us over here at eROI. They’re all fashion related but feature totally different aesthetics. They’ve all done a great job usability-wise, but what really impresses me is how well each of them engage the user in the brand and lifestyle for a holistic and fun shopping experience.

Kate Spade

The current home page is hot! Wow. You’ve got to go see it because the Flash is really well done. It has a 50’s paradise vacation vibe going on (they’ve got a trip to Bali contest currently running that speaks directly to the design). The background color — currently teal — is a custom element that changes frequently to match the design’s style; the last time I looked it was hot pink.

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We love bikes here in Portland! I’ll admit it though, I’m a fair weather rider. Now that the sun is shining (sporadically) biking is on my mind. I created this wallpaper with a vintage-feel in mind. There is a faint cobble-stone texture in the background which might speak a little more to Europe than Portland, but who’s keeping track?

Grab this wallpaper and you can picture yourself lazily riding through town while you’re actually inside because you’re at work or it is raining :)

Fresh Bike Ride, eROI Wallpaper

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

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