Before we get into this week's edition of Creative Juice, I just wanted to ask if you have had any problems with the new design of emails? When I write these emails, I'm a bit blind as to what you see on the other side—whether you open it on your phone, laptop, or a specific browser. My biggest concern right now is that none of the images are coming through. If you don't mind sending me a reply to let me know, that would be greatly appreciated!

Now let's get into it!

Creative Juice is a weekly newsletter published every Monday morning so you can start your week feeling inspired creatively to make cool sh*t and get paid for it. Every Monday I share something gorgeous, a portfolio of the week, three creative finds, one amazing post from social media, and one lesson I learned recently.

If you have an idea of how I can improve Creative Juice and make it better, feel free to submit your feedback here.

TL:DR

SOMETHING GORGEOUS: Designers Will Love This Coffee Table Book

PORTFOLIO OF THE WEEK: A Portfolio Website With No Work?

CREATIVE FIND 01: Sweet Candy With Lots of Attitude

CREATIVE FIND 02: Pruning The Botanical Garden

CREATIVE FIND 03: 60 Pages of Comic Sans Gold

One Thread: Apple Vision Pro 15 Maxxx

ONE LESSON: Is Starting Your Own Design Agency The Next Step?

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Something Gorgeous

Designers Will Love This Coffee Table Book

Braun: Designed to Keep

I am sorry to do this to you, but yet another monograph of an iconic brand with a legendary design aesthetic has been published and I will be shipping this to my place so that when I arrive home I will open it. Look through all the pages, then place it on my bookshelf to be opened in 1-3 years.

You might be familiar with the iconic German consumer products company founded in 1921. The company is known for its design aesthetic for products such as electric shavers, record players, movie cameras, clocks, and small kitchen appliances. I can remember seeing their iconic clocks in convenience stores when I was younger, not knowing that they would become a major influence in my design learning.

There is something about being a graphic designer and having resources like this in your possession. Whether you use it or not, to me it feels like a piece of design history that I don't ever want to forget.

View more here

Portfolio of the Week

A Portfolio Website With No Work?

Guillaume Beaulieu

This might just be a first for POW where I share a design portfolio website that has absolutely no design projects or work on it. In fact, this design portfolio website is a mere landing page, but I love sharing with you examples of out-of-the-box thinking.

The reason why I love this execution of a portfolio website like this is that the design of the landing page becomes a project or demonstration of one’s design skills within itself. Achieving this is not necessarily something you whip up in a day (my face when Guillaume messages me saying it was done in a day). My thought is that developing a landing page that makes an impactful impression first starts with considering what your goal or objective is at your current stage of your design career. Guillaume is an experienced designer as he is now a cofounder and co-creative director at the design studio MamboMambo.

The coolest thing about Guillaume's portfolio website is the 3D expression he is using as the background. He is using Spline and some other wizardry to have the cubes jitter and move. It's not too complex but simple enough to keep me wondering how he made that. Another point I love about Guillaume's landing page is the typeface he chose for his wordmark. The typeface is called NaN Jaune and you can find it here.

At the bottom of the page are links to fonts he produced, his Behance portfolio, Instagram, and email. The one thing I would’ve liked to see is a link to his design studio so it would save me a Google search.

Overall, while Guillaume is a bit more experienced and can nail an execution like this, his portfolio website is a great example of what to do if you have your design projects on communities like Behance or Dribbble but still want to impress visitors with a more designed and controlled landing page.

Score: 7.7/10

Built with: Webflow

View portfolio here

Creative Finds

Sweet Candy With Lots of Attitude

Chilli Bomba Visual Identity by New Genre

A sweet gourmet candy whose visual identity is all about serving spicy looks. Fun to see a brand breaking the fun and whimsical mold of the current candy market. Reminds me of Sour Strips by Maxx Chewning.

View more here

Pruning The Botanical Garden

New York Botanical Garden Visual Identity by Wolf Olins

Having lived in and around New York for years, I can say that it was time for a new look for the NYBG. I love the new headline typeface and how it gives off the botanical greenhouse vibe.

View more here

60 Pages of Comic Sans Gold

Comic Sans - is it really that bad? by Thomas Steeles

I very much enjoy Comic Sans and happen to use it in my newsletters, but this book really speaks to those who will ride or die for Comic Sans. Unfortunately, it seems the book is currently sold out, so here is to hoping they do a restock soon.

View more here

One Thread

Apple Vision Pro 15 Maxxx

@rubahitam_

All week my feed has been filled with Apple Vision Pro content and sightings. People using them in the most odd spaces—on a bus, crossing the street, you name it. I like this collage of Apple Vision Pro meets Playstation meets cyberpunk hyperpop by rifqi.

View more here

One Lesson

Is Starting Your Own Design Agency The Next Step?

As you might tell, this week you are receiving CJ on a Tuesday instead of the regularly scheduled Monday. Unfortunately, I have been busy with client work and putting together a lecture this week on web design. It will mostly be for non-designers, but I’m considering broadcasting on TikTok Live if anyone will be online at 4:30AM EST.

Anyway, this morning as I was walking from my coworking office I was catching up with Morgan Light, a super talented designer I had the pleasure of chatting with years ago over a portfolio review. Morgan and I have stayed connected through social media, and it has been amazing to see her grow as a designer. But during our quick catch up this morning, I asked her what her plan was for the future...

A bit existential I know but she knew what I meant. She currently works at one of the best design agencies in the world, and a natural next step for designers at this point would be to stick around, gain as much experience as possible, and then move on to start their own agency or studio. However, Morgan had mentioned she really had no interest in this. She was very happy with where she was and the work she was doing. This made me think because I have been having a si