Here is your freshly squeezed design inspiration for the week of July 17, 2023.

• SOMETHING GORGEOUS: Little Red Riding Hood's Quest

• PORTFOLIO OF THE WEEK: Super Hello by Dane Flighty

• [rebox.eco®]

• Banking Jungle by Chá de Bold Estúdio

• Coffee Supreme by Think Packaging®

• ONE GRAM: Truck Drawn Type

• ONE LESSON: A Little Progress Everyday

If you would like the Creative Juice newsletter sent directly to your inbox every Monday, you can subscribe here.

Resource of the Week

The PARA Method

Something I have realized over the last couple of years as a designer and a creative person is that I absolutely love to hoard links.

Does this sound familiar? You're scrolling on the web and you come across something 'interesting'. So you then add it to a Pinterest board titled 'cool visuals' or some other name, only to never see it again?

Guilty as charged...

This was me up until a couple of months ago. And in addition to Pinterest, I was also trying out a few new apps to improve this habit. Eventually, I ended up with a nasty spider web of random links in a bunch of different places. While this doesn’t sound like a big deal, in my head it was wasteful. I hate the idea of saving something and never coming back to it.

So, I set out to rehabilitate this disorganized system with the goal of actually being able to sort and find the things I saved. This took me down the path of the PARA Method by Tiago Forte. After watching a few videos online covering this method, I decided to build one myself using Notion, and I can say 100% it has been very helpful.

The main thing that hit me with the PARA method is the intentionality behind what you save and when you actually organize it. If you're like me, you can save links endlessly. But the second part of the PARA method, when it comes to Resources, is actually organizing them by categories and any other attributes you think will be helpful.

If you want to learn about how to organize your digital life and get more intentional about what and how you save things, definitely check out the PARA Method by Tiago Forte.

Get Started with The PARA Method Today

Something Gorgeous

Little Red Riding Hood's Quest

I am an absolute sucker when it comes to web-based game experiences, especially when they are considered and executed as well as this. Little Red Riding Hood's Quest by Lusion Labs is a simple game following Little Red Riding Hood, who needs to gather supplies to concoct her sick grandmother a potion to make her feel better. While the game is short, I was delighted to fully complete the quest and enjoy each story sequence as I gathered new ingredients for grandmother's potion.

The artwork is gorgeous and the subtle mouse interaction that is incorporated to reveal the beautiful color work is chef's kiss.

If you have 5 minutes at your desk today, definitely run through the game and admire it.

View more here

Portfolio Of The Week

Super Hello by Dane Flighty

Super Hello is the one-man design agency operated by Dane Flighty and the reason I love this portfolio is because it is using a new idea around how to offer your services to clients. This asynchronous design service model was pioneered by Brett Williams, who started DesignJoy. If you don't know about DesignJoy, check out this podcast episode by The Futur.

Essentially, it gives clients the ability to always have a design or creative resource available at all times by paying a flat monthly rate/retainer. Brett goes into detail about how to structure this in his podcast interviews.

Back to Super Hello… Dane's portfolio website for Super Hello is simple. There are no fancy animations or rich case study pages. However, the site is very clear and straight to the point about what it does and what it can do for clients. There are some illustrations included throughout the page (which I absolutely love). But the brilliance of this portfolio is its focus on solving client problems, which sometimes go beyond just needing good design or creative assistance.

While this portfolio website is lovely, I wanted to share it to give you an idea of how to approach packaging and offering your design or creative services differently.

Portfolio Rating: 7.2/10

Built With: Framer

View Super Hello by Dane Flighty's portfolio here

Creative Finds

[rebox.eco®]

After last week's D2C E-commerce brand-packed newsletter, this is a nice relief: a company up-cycling shipping boxes to create new ones. I would love to work with a company like this 👌

View more here

Banking Jungle by Chá de Bold Estúdio

This is for all my creatives that love to illustrate. I love branding that incorporates illustration as a main component of the identity, and this is a great example.

View more here

Coffee Supreme by Think Packaging®

Sure it’s not THE Supreme brand, but I could easily see this packaging in an article on Highsnobiety or some hypebeast’s shelf. I love it.

View more here

ONE GRAM

Truck Drawn Type

Two of my favorite things combined: large type and physical application. You know how planes create messages in the sky with clouds? Well, Ryder took that idea and turned it upside down. Ryder built and coded a water-pump device that allows him to leave drive-by messages on the road that he can send to friends and family. Slightly ridiculous? Sure. Absolutely awesome? Yes!

View more here

One Lesson

A Little Progress Everyday

At times I can get really frustrated with how slow I seem to move with either personal projects or client work. No matter how many times I make a list of to-dos or try to focus on just a few tasks, it always feels like moving through a pond of molasses.

This feeling is something I am working on personally because while I may not get 'everything' done at once, I still make strides to make progress no matter how big or small, each day, little by little.

The phrase "A little progress everyday" helps calm the anxiety of feeling like I am running out of time or someone else is going to beat me to it.

For the last couple of weeks, in addition to my strict night routine, I have been telling myself that even if I only make a little progress, if I keep making a little progress everyday, no one can beat me.

Hope you have a great start to the week!

PS. I have been reorganizing my website callthedesignguy.com to make it easier to find all of my portfolio reviews and articles.

PPS. At the end of this month, I will be sending out the second edition of The Portfolio Squeeze.

PPPS. At the beginning of next month, I will be sending out the first Beefy Brief, which is my upgraded version of a brief so you can improve your portfolio. Sign up here.

If you would like Creative Juice sent directly to your inbox every Monday, you can subscribe here.