Here is your freshly squeezed design inspiration for the week of April 24 2023.
- SOMETHING GORGEOUS: Rain Szeto's Fairytale Watercolors
- PORTFOLIO OF THE WEEK: Augstin & Inés
- Sundance Film by Porto Rocha
- Fontshare by ITF
- Ai Powered Apple Watch Game App Design
- ONE TOK: Design ASMR
- ONE LEARNING: The Fear of Starting
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Resource of the Week
Img.Upscaler
Have you ever had a client hand you a low resolution image and expect you to create something magical with it? Most of the time I would panic and apply a million different textures and treatments to it to make it "cool" when really I was trying to hide it. The resolution would be so low that I would always tell myself I would never let my clients do this to me next. I just "wouldn't work with them".
Well, flash forward to today where I still work with clients that hand me low-resolution images but rather than agonizing over it, I found Img.Upscaler. It's a web-based photo enlarger that uses Ai and machine-learning to allow you to increase the size of any image without losing quality, sharpen blurry photos, and make those crappy images your clients hand you crisp.
Best part, no subscription needed. Buy it once and use it for life.
How I used to love those days buy a CD and having it forever...
Get Started with Img.Upscaler Today
Something Gorgeous
Rain Szeto's Fairytale Watercolors
When I picture fairytales, Rain's work is exactly what I imagine. None of this Disney cinderella animation. I want to live in every one of Rain's pieces and experience them.
Not only because of the cute cats that live within them. But also because of the intricate and extensive detail Rain includes throughout every scene that makes it feel so lifelike.
I think my absolute favorite part about Rain's work is her ability to capture these amazing shadows as if the sun was right behind you and it is gorgeooooooous.
Make sure to checkout her print shop here as well!
Portfolio Of The Week
Augstin & Inés
Inés Rama and Agustin Posse, are both designers hailing from Buenos Aires, Argentina where they have collaborated on a concept for a banking app with no technical or visual limitations and has made me wonder why all apps aren't designed like this.
Three things I love about this week's portfolio of the week. Firstly, this is a perfect example of what I mean when I say on social media, "come up with a project on your own'. Inés and Agustin state in their case-study that this was an exploration and they wanted to see if they could find balance between functionality and visual creativity. AKA practice! Secondly, their portfolios are primarily on Behance, which I have always said is a still a great place to have your work and use for your portfolio. Thirdly, this is a great example of why the contents of your portfolio and case-studies matter the most.
Portfolio Rating: 8.1/10
Make sure to check on Inés's and Augstin's Behance pages.
View Augstin & Inés's portfolio here.
Creative Finds
Sundance Film by Porto Rocha
New York Design Studio Porto Rocha has created the first long-term brand for Sundance Film Festival. Not only does it use Helvetica (or a helvetica look-a-like). The motion package is wonderful and gives me like a 90s MTV vibe.
Fontshare by ITF
Fontshare is a free fonts service launched by the Indian Type Foundry (ITF). It’s a growing collection of professional grade fonts that are 100% free for personal and commercial use. Great resource for every designer.
Ai Powered Apple Watch Game App Design
I mentioned using Ai to help me build a script to correct a problem on my website a couple of weeks ago. However, this is a great example of you can use Ai to help assist in building an entire app.
ONE TOK
Design ASMR
Valerio Dimario develops wonderful animations and this one put me in a nice moment of zen while scrolling. I love me some beautiful colors, relaxed music, and shapes shifting into blobby forms over and over again.
One Thing I Learned
The Fear of Starting
This week I had a portfolio review with a talented designer that mentioned to me they would love to be able to develop and sell their own products and have that be a part of their income. I love getting to talk about this topic with other creatives because it is very much something I am trying to do in my career as well.
I then asked the question "what are you doing to get there?".
I ask this because I know at times it can be a struggle to just get started and get that momentum we all need. Usually while we are chatting about this I discover that everyone is either experiencing the age old analysis paralysis syndrome where they start to overthink and talk themselves out of ever starting.
- Fear of failing
- Fear of what others may think
- Overwhelmed by number of options
- Overwhelmed by thought of how long it may take
- You don't have enough information
- Outside of your family, no one really cares what you do, so to worry what those who are not the closest to you might think is useless.
- Research and experiment, if something interests you, learn more about it to help you decide if you should pursue it but don't let this research and experimentation go on for too long.
- When you do make a decision or choose an option, stick with it until it doesn't excite you to work on it anymore.
- Turn your big goal or idea into smaller tasks, it makes it easier to acknowledge progress, rewards you for consistency, and makes things less overwhelming.
- Never be afraid to ask for help or seek the advice from someone who inspires you. Chances are they experienced a similar feeling whatever it might be and can give you new perspective of how to get through it.
- Give up on being perfect, nothing is perfect, life isn't perfect, and chances are no matter how messy the thing you make is, someone will find it to be beautiful and enjoy it.
I hope this helps and you make some cool sh*t this week! If you have any questions or want a different perspective on something living inside of that brain of yours. Feel free to send me a note ✌️
PS. I am off to Bali at the end of the month, if you are around the area let's grab a coffee.
PPS. Please send any and all recommendations my way 🙏
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