Here is your freshly squeezed design inspiration for the week of July 03 2023.
- SOMETHING GORGEOUS: Most(Netflix) Rebrand by Studio Nari
- PORTFOLIO OF THE WEEK: Cassie Xu
- Stride Into Nature by Outwit Design
- Matty Benedetto on Design Tangents
- Stampsolector by Shane Finegan
- ONE TOK: Redesigning Everyday Signs
- ONE LEARNING: Starting Before You're Ready
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Resource of the Week
Archives.design
A treasure trove of old and vintage design related books and resources. Not only is this cool in the case you wanted to have a physical copy of one of these but also just for the pure visual inspiration that you can pull from a resource like this.
I find myself often referencing older design materials before I go looking at the graveyard that is the internet. When the industry was limited in resources and often worked with physical design tools to create. Some of the covers are gorgeous and if I was back at my physical office, I would've already placed an order for more than a couple physical copies of these.
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Something Gorgeous
Most(Netflix) Rebrand by Studio Nari
Most is the Netflix sub-brand that is home for LGBTQIA+ storytelling. Although I'm not really sure what it looked like prior to this rebrand, part of the reason I love this campaign so much is because it was completed by one of my absolute favorite design studios, Studio Nari.
Led by Caterina Bianchini, who is one of my design heroes, Studio Nari created another gorgeous typography centric brand identity with a bold wordmark that pulls inspiration from Netflix's in-house typeface, Netflix Sans. In addition to a new wordmark, Studio Nari also created a new weight of Netflix Sans titled, Netflix Sans Most.
I mean these are the types of projects I dream about landing when I imagine having my own design studio sometime in the future and I will continue to look to Studio Nari to keep that dream alive.
Portfolio Of The Week
Cassie Xu
Cassie Xu is a UX designer based in NYC who graduated in 2022, which is one year ago but her portfolio doesn't look like it. While her portfolio website design is simple(and I say that lightly) the content is wonderful. From what I can tell, most of the projects she has on her portfolio website are either school projects or self-made.
A question I get a lot from designers is 'what if all I have on my portfolio website is school projects?'. To which I usually reply, go back and revisit them and redesign them how you would like. Cassie's portfolio is a great example of this. While school projects can sometimes be viewed as 'boring', the only thing that stopping you from making them awesome portfolio pieces is you.
Another thing I love to see with Cassie's portfolio website is that she has all her important 'client' facing work on the first page, and all of her other interests on a page labeled 'Play'! I am clapping silently in my head lol. Something I advocate constantly for in this newsletter and on social media is keeping work and play separate on your portfolio website. On Cassie's 'Play' page she has all of her awesome illustrations, painting, and other experiments but it's not the first or even second thing that I worry about clicking on. And when I finally did, I was even more impressed to see how talented Cassie is. Well done 👏!
Portfolio Rating: 8.2/10
Built with: Webflow
View Cassie Xu's portfolio here.
Creative Finds
Stride Into Nature by Outwit Design
A playful brand identity with a beautiful color palette and even better motion assets by Outwit Design. I wish I could find more information on this project!
Matty Benedetto on Design Tangents
Matty Benedetto also know as Unnecessary Inventions joins Cool Hunting on their podcast 'Design Tangents' for a wonderful conversation diving into his thought process and background of why he makes. I thought he shared a lot of valuable lessons that you can also learn from. My favorite 'Just because it's unnecessary, doesn't mean it's useless'.
Stampsolector by Shane Finegan
PASSION PROJECT ALERT! Shane is a designer who loves sneakers and stamps and storytelling. Combine those together and you get Stampsolector. Love seeing a good passion project make it into the real world and I would recommend you think about what does something like this look like for you?
ONE TOK
Redesigning Everyday Signs
I've been following Max's sign redesign videos for a while now and each time they just keep getting better and better. I am waiting for the day, when the NYC municipal board call's him up to redesign all of the Manhattan's public signage.
One Thing I Learned
Starting Before You're Ready
You may have noticed that just before the weekend you got an email for the first edition of the Portfolio Squeeze. Portfolio Squeeze is a monthly round-up of top portfolio examples from around the web as well as more focused portfolio Q&A style tips.
Now, prior to deciding to actually launch it last Friday, it was on my list of things to do for a while. And it wasn't just one thing, I had like 5 sub-tasks that I had to do in addition to organizing and writing the content. That list included setting up all the automations, designing the actual look and feel, planning what other content I would include in it, and a few others.
I could've easily pushed it off to the following month and saved myself a bunch of stress. But I knew if I did that, there would always be the potential for me to push it off for another month, and another month, and another month, and so on. So instead, I said f*ck it! Let's do this. It may not be perfect and it may need a little bit of work next month, but at least this way I'll get over the fear of it not being perfect, and I can comfortable with making this a reoccurring routine.
What is something that you keep pushing off? Maybe cause you think you're not ready, or something isn't perfect just yet? Could you just say 'f*ck it' and launch it this week or weekend?
If you want some motivation with your idea or project or just some tips to get the ball rolling feel free to hit me with a reply.
PS. What did you think of the first Portfolio Squeeze? Did you hate it? LMK
PPS. Thank you to everyone who applied for my first portfolio template Front Page. I will be going through all applications this week!
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