Web Design Mash | Design, Web and Inspiration Resources

Most Popular #Design Tweets of the Week #7

Starr De Alexandris — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 00:00:07 +0000

Here at Web Design Mash we are huge fans of Twitter and on this weekly post you will find the 10 most popular links tweeted by our Design Blend Account on Twitter throughout the week. These are not the top 10 links chosen by us but chosen by you and the amount of clicks they received.

If you wish to stay up to date with all the latest design news and links then follow us on Twitter and you can also click on our Twitter page for a real-time up date of our ‘Love Design‘ List featuring over 170 designers and design enthusiasts.

40 Naturally Beautiful Photos of Trees – PSD Fan

The Art of Body Painting and Best 63 Examples – Design Your Way

Wow! 6 Jaw-dropping Realistic Images Done with a Pencil – The Inquisitr

So You Call Yourself A Designer? – Design Reviver

7 Must Have #WordPress Plugins For Every Blog – 1stwebdesigner

The Great Sex Divide of the Web – Colour Lovers

20 Sports Movie Poster Designs – Online Poster Printing

30 High-Quality Free Website Templates to Download - dzineblog

Creative and Beautiful Package Designs – 1stwebdesigner

Tricks of the Trade: Great Portfolio Design (Part 2) – PSD Fan

This weekly post will be changing after #10. If you ever need promotion of any of your blogs or articles then DM Design Blend over on Twitter.

Happy to help – sharing is caring!

40 Beautiful Anime Illustrations Part 1

Starr De Alexandris — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 23:40:52 +0000

I’ve grown up with anime all of my life and ever since I was little it’s been my favourite type of animation. Anime アニメ basically in English refers to a particular style of animation which comes from Japan. Well known for characters with their very large eyes and outrageous haircuts and influenced by Manga Japanese comic books. There are no age boundaries with anime and it is aimed at children and adults alike and leaves no subject or taboo left untouched.

This is Part 1 – Featured in this collection is one of my all time favourite anime characters – Totoro from ‘My Neigbor Totoro’ by the legendary Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli see if you spot him!

Truly Inspired – Websites of the Week #4

Jay-C — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:12:12 +0000

Truly Inspired is a weekly article that goes back to the roots of Web Design Mash and showcases our Top 10 sites of the week. If you wish to submit a future showcase of your site or a site that you think is worthy then please contact us via the contact page.

Thank you to all the sites listed below and their designers for inspiring us this week.

Neat Examples of Creative Photography

Jay-C — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:10:50 +0000

I’m always on the lookout for excellent photography and I wasn’t originally going to do this post as I was researching for another article about a different subject of photography but I was so intrigued by some of these photos below that I decided to put that post on the back burner and do this small post about ‘Creative Photography’ instead. Click on the images for original source and photographer. Hope you like.

Most Popular #Design Tweets of the Week #6

Starr De Alexandris — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 23:10:30 +0000

Here at Web Design Mash we are huge fans of Twitter and on this weekly post you will find the 10 most popular links tweeted by our Design Blend Account on Twitter throughout the week. These are not the top 10 links chosen by us but chosen by you and the amount of clicks they received.

40 Naturally Beautiful Photos of Trees – PSD Fan

50 Beautiful Examples of Flower #Photography – Noupe

Tricks of the Trade: Great Portfolio Design (Part 2) – PSD Fan

Getting Clients as a Freelance Designer - Acuity Design

Vintage Ads with Weird Creative Ideas – Graphic Mania

30 Minimal Logo Designs that Say More with Less – Web Design Ledger

100+ Vintage Textures & Photoshop Brushes – PSD Vault

35 Amazing “Single Letter Logos – Graphic Design Blog

40 Photoshop Actions for Designers and Photographers – Design M.ag

20 Beautiful Nature Wallpapers – Abduzeedo

Ways to Find Design Inspiration

Starr De Alexandris — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 10:00:14 +0000

This is a post continuing from a blog I did earlier- How Do You Conquer Designer Burnout?

When working in the design industry it’s easy to find inspiration everywhere you go, by everything you see, hear and touch and you don’t need to be sat at your computer to get inspiration either.

— You don’t need eyes to see – you just need vision. Here are some examples that influence me when I’m working on new projects.

Browse design blogs and galleries

There is a never ending amount of design blogs out there and these are great for inspiration and displaying current and upcoming trends. Another great source is the gallery sites which showcase websites, portfolios, and logos etc. My favourite design blogs and galleries at the moment are Abduzeedo, The Design Inspiration, CSS Remix and Web Design Ledger just to to name a handful.

Sometimes the old ones are the best

Look at your past design work. Design trends come around full circle over and over. Take a look at your portfolio and see which ones were the most successful.

Music

Music is one of the biggest inspirations for me. It sets a mood and keeps me uplifted and motivated throughout those tough redesign sessions.

Movies & TV

Sitting down to watch the TV or movie can be a great inspiration. Just by seeing some great titles with typography, a logo or an advertisement on screen can re-ignite your creative flow.

Look around you

The world is an amazing place. Just look around you; cityscape’s, the countryside, the sea, all of Mother Nature’s finest are there to be admired. Even when I go shopping I get influenced by the smallest thing and to some people it may sound weird but it’s really easy for me to be inspired by the typography on a shop’s carrier bag or the colours on a chocolate bar wrapper.

Sleep

Sleep does the mind good and by taking a rest from it all can boost and re-energise those creative juices. Just make sure that you don’t sleep too long especially if there is a deadline!

Travelling

This again is the whole ‘look around you‘ point again. Many a times if I have to go on a long journey and see the world go by I take a look at the beautiful scenery and places and there is a whole range of inspiration out there. Remember that we live in the digital age so hopefully you will have access to a digital camera whether it be an actual camera itself or a cell phone camera. Why not take some pictures of the things that inspire you?

Magazines

Magazines like the TV is full to the brim with great typography and advertisements. Remember if you are working on a brochure or a blog then just look at the layouts in the magazine and these may also inspire you as well.

Sketching and Doodling

It’s always great to have some kind of notepad at hand. When you get an idea in your head it’s good to write or sketch down any ideas like a logo, a layout for a blog or site or some kind of brochure. Doodling helps too and you don’t have to be great at drawing or illustrating to do it. I used to doodle a lot and could fill books of the stuff and it’s where a lot of my creativity came from when I was younger.

Shutdown the computer

Turn the computer off, relax, unwind and switch off your mind. Maybe actually not thinking about design related work is when you get that ‘eureka’ moment!

Truly Inspired – Websites of the Week #3

Jay-C — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:19:42 +0000

Thank you to all the sites listed below and their designers for inspiring us this week.

Gavin Castleton

Life’s Not Fair but My Knickers Are!

Chirp

Boxee

Cosmo Pet Sitting and Walking Service

The Hipstery

Harajuku Lovers

Santa Monica – Escola Bilingue

Kinetic Shadows

Me In Tru 3D

20 Free Splat Brushes for Photoshop

Starr De Alexandris — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 21:33:32 +0000

Okay… It’s a strange reason why I was influenced and inspired to write this post. Well to be honest it was because I spilt some red wine on my nice cream carpet and was in awe at the great splatter pattern the wine had made but then I snapped out of it and swore really loudly and rushed to get something to clean it up. Anyway here are 20 stains and splat brushes worth checking out for some cool effects.

26 Hand-written Fonts You Have to Have

Jay-C — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 10:57:51 +0000

Typography plays a big importance in design and if you have been looking for some new fonts for that special design project that you have been working on then you might like this small collection of freebie fonts.

If you want to give a more ‘human touch’ to any of your work then here you will find 26 hand-written or drawn styled fonts which will hopefully be of some help and the best thing about them is they are all free for personal and commercial use.