Here is your freshly squeezed design inspiration for the week of May 22 2023.
- SOMETHING GORGEOUS: The Work of Megan Bogonovich
- PORTFOLIO OF THE WEEK: Daniele Buffa
- MAOWOO by DXD Studio
- Inflatable Explorations by Steve Messam
- Brand Identity by Excel Spreadsheets
- ONE GRAM: Out With The Old in With The New
- ONE LEARNING: Connecting Beyond Messages
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Resource of the Week
For Creatives Only
Recently I had a client project that required me to find what their website colors would be for printed posters. This meant that I had to somehow acquire one of those fancy Pantone books to make sure I get the color correct.
I knew I was in a bit of trouble because currently I am in Bali, Indonesia and Amazon isn't the easiest to get delivered out here.
So I did what any panicked designer would do and reached out to the For Creatives Only Slack group to see if anyone could help me out. Thankfully, one of the designers came to my rescue and helped me out with their Pantone Connect service.
I was relieved and so thankful for starting this slack group because this is exactly what I hoped for. Designers and creatives coming together to help each other out as we work in the trenches of client projects and grow in within our careers.
Connect with other designers and creatives today in the For Creatives Only Slack Group.
Get Started with For Creatives Only Today
Something Gorgeous
The Work of Megan Bogonovich
Megan Bogonovich is an artist based out of Norwich Vermont creating absolutely gorgeous sculptures that capture the strength and adaptability of nature.
All I can say is wow.
In my opinion, Megan's sculptures depict what nature could potentially look like in a world without humans. Something you would see in a post-apocalyptic movie or an episode of Last Of Us. Where nature and the plants that remain, grow to become to primary predatory and require the evolutionary traits such as spikey limbs and attractive camouflage to hunt prey.
When I do have a home, I can see myself having one of these in every room.
Portfolio Of The Week
Daniele Buffa
Design is Funny and that is indeed the case with Daniele's portfolio website, incorporating a smiley face throughout his homepage.
Daniele is a designer based in London with over 10 years of experience and now currently working at the agency OddCommon. I love Daniele's portfolio homepage as it keeps things really simple yet well designed. It has a lovely eye-catching header incorporating 3D, motion, interaction, and of course the smiley face. Below is a straight about section introducing Daniele and his experience working with companies like Google, Sony, Headspace, and more. Next is the project section designed in one of my favorite layouts, a nice big list. And Finally below that is a contact section.
Daniele's portfolio website is a keen example of not overthinking your portfolio homepage but also being thoughtful with the design. I would also recommend checking out his case studies for Headpsace, Insider and Fresco. I really appreciate the layout he established for each project making sure to include a project overview and design solution section.
Portfolio Rating: 8.9/10
Daniele's portfolio website is using Prismic.io which I am not familiar with but his site can be replicated in Webflow or Framer.
View Daniele Buffa's portfolio here.
Creative Finds
MAOWOO by DXD Studio
Maowoo is a cat care brand that believes in producing quality cat care products that also can look good in your home. DXD Studio cleverly transformed the Chinese characters "毛兀" into the cat whiskers that you see throughout the entire branding and I love it.
Inflatable Explorations by Steve Messam
Previously I shared the work of Design In Air with their inflatable work for Mumbai Opera House. Steve Messam is an environmental artist that also works with inflatables! I'm not sure which one I like more but I don't think I have to choose either.
Brand Identity by Excel Spreadsheets
This is a project that I have held onto for a while and glad I can include it finally. Oficina + Parque is a bar located in a park and Studio Ingrid Picanyol asked the question, 'What comes to mind when you think of an office?'. A graphic identity was born out of the visual language of Microsoft Office Excel.
ONE GRAM
Out With The Old in With The New
This was a very cool project that I saw while scrolling recently by Harry Isaac. Harry has been enjoying the quality of camcorder footage and decided to redesign what their ideal camcorder would look like. I love the boxiness of their approach and also the translucent casing choice. Well done Harry 👏
One Thing I Learned
Connecting Beyond Messages
I have been thinking a lot lately about the For Creatives Only Slack group that I started a while back. Usually each week I would schedule messages each day to share to hopefully start conversation and while it worked at times, it didn't feel like we were really connecting.
More recently I have been asking some of the designers that I have connected with about the group and what they would like to get out of it. While I have taken a break from scheduling messages, I have been playing around with the idea of how I can bring the group closer together. At the moment I am thinking of doing a monthly or even weekly 'Office Hours' Zoom that will have some sort of topic or theme that we can discuss or even just talk about what we are struggling with at that time.
I am curious what you think? Is this something that might sound helpful?
Some of the topics that have come up in discussions have included, portfolios, finding clients, making money that is solely dependent on clients, and a few others.
What topics would you like to hear about from other designers?
If you have any thoughts or would like to help, please send me a reply here.
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