Here is your freshly squeezed design inspiration for the week of July 31st, 2023.
- SOMETHING GORGEOUS: The Aerial Work of Tom Hegen
- PORTFOLIO OF THE WEEK: Pepperclip Studio
- If an A-bomb falls by The First The Last
- Pixel Riders by Kostman
- Five Best Barbie Campaigns
- ONE TOK: Printed Matter ASMR
- ONE LESSONG: Surround Yourself With Design
If you would like the Creative Juice newsletter sent directly to your inbox every Monday, you can subscribe here.
Resource of the Week
Master Adobe Portfolio
Adobe Portfolio is one of the most mentioned portfolio website building tools on my TikTok account and for good reason. It comes free with any Adobe Creative Cloud subscription and the majority of the creative industry runs on Adobe. But I continue to see designers and creatives struggle with how to use it. Why is this?
Well for starters, its not the most intuitive portfolio website builder to use. While Adobe is known for constantly updating their suite of products. Adobe Portfolio seems to be way at the bottom of their priority list which means that there hasn't been any meaningful updates or improvements to the platform in quite a while. Resulting in designers and creatives getting lost and frustrated while trying to build their portfolio websites.
While I may recommend other portfolio website builders regularly in this newsletter and on my TikTok account, it is hard for me to ignore how valuable Adobe Portfolio can be for designers and creatives. So I decided to answer all of the questions I get about Adobe Portfolio by putting together this completely free 4 video lesson mini-course that will walk you through the ins and outs of Adobe Portfolio.
- Creating an engaging case study design for your projects.
- Designing your Adobe Portfolio homepage.
- Saving time by using text styles.
- Navigating Adobe Portfolio's interface.
- Effectively using the SEO features within Adobe Portfolio.
- Syncing projects between Behance and Adobe Portfolio.
By the end of this free mini-course, I promise you will be a lot more comfortable working with Adobe Portfolio and on your way to create a powerful portfolio website so you can start landing more opportunities in your career.
If you would like to receive this mini-course for free, all you have to do is click here or the button below!
Get Started with Master Adobe Portfolio Today
Something Gorgeous
The Aerial Work of Tom Hegen
A perspective we rarely get to see, Tom Hegen is a German artist who focuses on the earth's surface and how it has been transformed by the impact of humans. You may have seen some of his work from his very famous beach series that is all over Pinterest. I'm not sure what it is about an aerial view that I love so much. Is it the new textures from familiar objects that you don't see often? Is it a fascination with how the earth's landscapes can create such organized and abstract patterns? Or do I just love seeing smol objects as if they are toy figures on the floor?
In any case, Tom's art for seeking out and creating this beautiful images is definitely something gorgeous and hopefully one day I will be able to afford a massive print of his work.
Portfolio Of The Week
Pepperclip Studio
Pepperclip Studio is a Paris based agency with a portfolio website that has a lot of personality. As I've mentioned before, I hesitate to share agency portfolio websites for the POW because they usually have different objectives in mind when it comes to their portfolio website. But there are so many good bits with Pepperclip Studio's website that I want to breakdown for you.
First, let's talk about personality. As soon as you land on the homepage of Pepperclip Studio and begin to scroll, instead of revealing a grid of projects, you are met with a wonderful animation of a game wheel spinning. This game wheel scrolls through a variety of different logo options of the Pepperclip Studio wordmark showing the quirkyness of the studio and also encouraging you to navigate further into their work. Additionally I love the little animations and micro-interactions Pepperclip has sprinkled throughout the site, especially the hover interaction on their work page.
Second, curation. One of the first links I click into when reviewing portfolio websites is the work section or page and I love this presentation method from Pepperclip. Rather than having a grid of selected projects that speak to the studio's focus, they have included a list of what seems like every project they have worked on. Additionally, not every project in that list is available to click into to review further. The reason why I love this presentation method is because it shows the studio as a living and breathing studio. This list gives me the impression that the studio is constantly working with a number of different clients and may not have the time to do a full case-study for every project. It shows how active the studio is and that to me instills confidence.
Third, 'street cred'. Within Pepperclip's navigation you can find a peculiar link labeled 'Street Cred' which I have never seen before but was delighted when I clicked into it. This page is dedicated to testimonials from previous clients and accolades that Pepperclip has acquired over time. Testimonials are a great way to continue to build confidence with customers while effectively boosting your street cred within your industry.
Portfolio Rating: 8.1/10
Built With: Webflow
View Pepperclip Studio's portfolio here.
Creative Finds
If an A-bomb falls by The First The Last
Feeling like the world is falling apart? Here is a quick survival guide just in case things get hairy. Lovely site design developed by The First The Last.
Pixel Riders by Kostman
For all you pixel pushers out there, now your kicks can be just as perfect as your photoshop files. Interesting shoe concept to say the least but I'm not sure if Santa will be shelling out $200+ for these.
Five Best Barbie Campaigns
While I'm over all of the Barbie and Ken social media content, I have enjoyed the extensive marketing efforts that have surrounded this movie and here are 5 of the best marketing campaign rounded up by Creativeboom.
One Tok
Printed Matter ASMR
A moment of digitized, printed matter satisfaction. TraceLoops has a very interesting and satisfying process when it comes to creating his loops that involves meticulously cutting, peeling, painting, and photographing the pieces needed to create his loops. Definitely check out some of his work on his account.
One Lesson
Surround Yourself With Design
In the last week I've spoke with more than a few designers that have asked how can they become a better graphic designer. While some of those designers are currently in programs at universities, some are also pursuing graphic design on their own while working other jobs. This question is a little hard to answer exactly because there are so many different paths you can take to becoming a better graphic designer or creative especially when we start thinking about all the different goals they may have in mind. Such as a getting better at making logos, or finding more clients. There are so many different "sub-questions" that can be pulled out within this one question.
However, if we think holistically about becoming a better graphic designer, I think we can agree that becoming a better graphic designer doesn't necessarily rely on mastering a certain skill. It can be more dependent on becoming more knowledgable about graphic design and other industries that can then influence what steps you take to becoming a better graphic designer.
I know this is sounding a bit fluffy, but stick with me here. For example, let's look at logo design. Sure you can go down a rabbit hole of tutorials on Youtube teaching you the fundamentals and technical skills to make a better logo. But within that path you lose out on the reasoning, the history, and understanding of what makes a good logo in the first place. Instead of doing this, I recommend seeking out other designers and sources of inspiration that have made logos you find interesting and surrounding yourself them. Obsessing over every detail and decision they've made and dissecting it.
If I'm being completely honest, tutorials are a dime a dozen and there will always be a new tutorial on the new shiny thing. Just about every day I find myself looking up a tutorial on youtube about graphic design, Ai, or writing. However, aside from watching a few minutes of tutorials here and there. I put more energy and emphasis on expanding my knowledge of graphic design by finding new and exciting design studios, work that is pushing the boundary in a certain areas, and trying to forecast where the industry is going as a whole.
Design is a major part of my life and everyday I am thinking about it in some way and this is what I mean by surround yourself with design. Obsess over it, because I truly believe this is what separates good designers from the great designers.
I hope this edition of Creative Juice has inspired you to make some cool sh*t this week.
Send me a reply if you want to hear more about this topic and how you can continue to grow as a designer or creative.
PS. Be on the lookout for the second edition of Portfolio Squeeze this week!
If you would like Creative Juice sent directly to your inbox every Monday, you can subscribe here.
