Design Monkey

September 22, 2008

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A few Designer friends had ask me, how I manage to multitask working on copywriting and designing user-interfaces etcetera.

I don’t multi-task – its seriously too tedious.

I’d associate multi-tasking to wearing several hats, and dancing a Chimpanzee figuring out the hats, and gloves. What I do when I’m usually free is to scour the net, and read interesting tips and ideas on how to improve working the web so to speak apart from popping into Amazon.com for a sneak preview of what weekly offers I could possibly find online, and not at Borders, at the Curve. I also spend a good deal of quality minutes figuring out how secretaries actually touch type with long fingernails {which reminds me, I have to visit my manicurist again by end week!}. Sometimes when I feel like it, I’d grab out my Moleskin, and scribble user-friendly product designs for hardware… and at most times, I contemplate the Universe.

I’ve been told that the Web is aliken to a brain – I’d say it’d be an infected blob since eighty percent of it is full of trash {I wonder if human beings tinker with trash when they think!}, and wonder no more as to why attention is the number one product in a fully publicised world. I’d write a thesis on how the Universe is ‘created’ and where blackholes are usually found, but I so am not in the mood to divulge – but let me drop a hint … { a sub-structure of an energy wavelet, a neutrino for example contains ’space’ and therein that ’space’ is where photonic blackholes can be ‘borne’} in not too many words.

For Web Designer friends out there who have emailed me and asked for a list of the best resources… well, here they are – Enjoy!

1/. Qbrushes.com is a website from where you can download a good collection of free Quality Photoshop Brushes from around the net.

2/. Obsidian Dawn offers you a range of 38 Free Brushes for your Photoshop experience. You might want to check the water brushes, and work with it.

3/. Looking for some Design inspiration ? Check out these 28 must-see Menu Inspiration at Bulletproof Box

4/. If giving away buttons is your idea of getting clients to remember your firm at the end of an exhibition, and are not squirmy at working on your Badge A Minit contraption, you’d most likely opt to look at these ideas to churn your design before your next trade exhibition.

5/. If you have an eye for colours, and who doesn’t you might want to check these out – Adobe Kuler; Color Schemer or check the online Color Schemer for fast colour relief; and the Color Jack. … you might want to seriously consider Color Lovers too!

6/. Do you love icons, and buttons to spruce your websites and are rushing for a deadline ? Well, check these out, and go on a download frenzy.

7/. Firefox comes with a gazillion extensions that can help Designers design sites better – Measure It is a Firefox extension which allows you to measure the size of anything online – this would tremendously help in your hand-coding your design.

8/. Looking for some unusual fonts to create the next logotype for your clients or to play around with some ideas – check out Urban Fonts, Typetester, or Larabie Fonts

If you happen to be a blogger as well, and have yet to update your blog with some interesting news, or some rants that could send MJ12 to your doors, you might consider the Lazy Bloggers Generator. …

Darling, I just had a cup of tea and realised I have not updated this since they invented sliced bread… You would not believe how much more of a drama I could make. I’m a blogger so I will though! I am devastated with feeding the little people, soaking in the tub, just generally being a biatch to the secret service, my day is filled with fluorescent light from 8am to whenever. I am putting money aside so I can run away. Primo. I won’t promise anything to you but I will make more of an effort to blog more often until the nice men in the white coats come back. Until I need your shoulder to cry on, don’t hold your breath though – you’re likely to turn blue..

9/. Now that we’re back on track – you might not want to forget getting your Clients’ favicons in the root so that their logo is seen worldwide. Try the simple favicon generator to please your eyes instead of squinting them all the way through. Whilst you’re there you might want to check out the Lorem Ipsum generator that has us all Designers crazy once in a blue moon. You might equally want to check these free icons to hoard!

10/. When you think that your site design is almost perfect – check out Browsershots as it makes screenshots of your web design in different browsers. It is a free open-source online service created by Johann C. Rocholl.

11/. Have images that you’d like vectorized in a jiffy before you tweak it in your Illustrator application ? Try out the amazing web 2.0 application Vector Magic which lets you easily convert bitmap images to freely scalable vector images. You can thank me later for this by inviting me over to Fatty Crab!!

12/. A picture paints a thousand words or so they say – your best bet for great royalty free images are found at Stock Exchange, Turbophoto, or at Dreamstime. There are some really good online stock sites, but most of you emailed asking where you’d find free images apart from googling.

13/. Three of my favorite bookmarked sites are Skout, Corkdump and the Handbook – you’ll have almost everything in these three sites, to last you for at least until the next milkshake! Go, and enjoy yourself there.

14/. What’s the best presentation software for you ? Microsoft’s Powerpoint? Think again! I used to use Scala Interactive and found it to be truly one the best until they came up with a professional version which is best for Billboard Agencies. Well, since Scala is no longer supporting the software I used to use, have you heard of the Flowgram Maker? Creators can assemble and annotate web pages, photographs, videos etc on any topic, and add a voice narrative which provides context, emotion and consistency. This uniquely personalized package can be shared as an embeddable widget, email or as a link to either a private group or with the world. Flowgram recipients can interact with any of its pages by, for example, clicking on links, and playing and pausing videos.

15/. You’re either a twit, or a plurkee or both – if you’re a twit, and you’d love to mingle with the Who’s Who in the Design world – you might want to consider these… David Leggett, Max of Designshard, Jon Phillips founder of Freelance Folder and Spyre Studios, Graham Smith of IamJustCreative dotcom, and if you’d like more tips, ideas and help you can always follow Me!

Enjoy! and have a fantabulous week ahead