Lots of changes happening in my neck of the woods in the last week and I am looking forward to sharing more of that with you in this week's delayed edition of CJ so 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.
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TL:DR
SOMETHING GORGEOUS: My Lovely Hummus Lumps, Check Em Out
PORTFOLIO OF THE WEEK: How to Get Paid for Your Ideas
CREATIVE FIND 01: Very Graphic Italian Heritage
CREATIVE FIND 02: Breaking All Font Norms
CREATIVE FIND 03: We Love Free Design Stuff
ONE GRAM: Innovation in Illustration
ONE LESSON: Take Drastic (Safe) Action
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Something Gorgeous
My Lovely Hummus Lumps, Check Em Out
Speculative Hummus by Reddish Studio
Did you know chickpeas contain an enormous amount of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. They also make for a beautifully smooth medium that can be used to craft lovely little sculptural lumps that are ever so satisfying.
The designer duo Naama Steinbock and Idan Friedman of Reddish Studio, have developed a series of sculptures that smash together the culinary arts and world of product design titled, Speculative Hummus. While the photographs of the final sculptures could very well be considered food porn, I find their creation process even more interesting.
Naama and Idan produced a variety of plastic cut patterns that were used in combination with a piece of a wood and a pottery wheel to gently mold and smooth the hummus. Kind of like a record player over a vinyl record, sitting ever so nicely in the grooves to create a beautiful sound. I can only imagine how rich and garlic-y their studio smelt once they were finished.
Portfolio of the Week
How to Get Paid for Your Ideas
Jia
Jia is a graphic designer, tech enthusiast, and concept creator out of Beijing, China.
Before we get into portfolio website specifics, I want to focus on the phrase concept creator for just a minute. First of all, I love this. Yes we all have our traditional job titles such as graphic designer, but have you ever thought of the other ways you could articulate what you do? For me, I like to call myself a 'Visual Therapist' because I find that majority of the time, I talk to my clients more about their problems than I actually do making graphic design for them.
Anyway, I'm glad I stumbled on Jia's portfolio website for a two reasons. While his homepage acts as a simple landing page introduction, when you click over to his work page. The first two projects at the very top of the page are concept projects. Projects that aren't actually real. Why do I like this? Well besides enforcing that title of 'concept creator' this is a perfect example of presenting the work you are most excited about. The work you want to do more of. The work that you love. The projects themselves aren't exactly meaty in regards to having a case study built out for them, but it's fine.
The other thing I love about Jia's design portfolio website is not actually his portfolio website. It's his Twitter/X account that he links out to from his portfolio website. Jia is very active on Twitter/X and publishes a lot of his concept work there. This is something you've probably seen a lot of creatives do in some way and Jia has found what works for him as a graphic designer. This is a great way to market yourself! I'm sure these concept exercises he creates get pretty wide visibility on the platform and probably drives a bunch of traffic to his actual design portfolio website that he has linked in his account bio. This is the like the one-two punch of being a creative in the online world we live in.
The rest of Jia's portfolio website is very well done as he is actually still a student studying. While his project case studies could use a little more meat for my taste, he will have plenty of time to build those out later. The other page I really like about Jia's design portfolio website is his about page. I really like all the extra sections he included to share his favorite apps, everyday essentials, favorite songs etc.
Score: 8.3/10
Built with: Framer
Creative Finds
Very Graphic Italian Heritage
Ginori 1735 Visual Refresh by AUGE Design
I've been a bit obsessed with luxury brands lately and the heritage behind their businesses but I think it's safe to say that the Italians do it best. This packaging refresh by AUGE Design is gorgeous and I especially love the icons they created to identify different products. I'm also a sucker for anyone that mentions they went through "an archive of logos" to land on the final outcome.
Also checkout the AUGE Design's full website here. They have some really beautiful work.
Breaking All Font Norms
TT Norms Pro Serif by TypeType
I love me a good serif that has range and can take on many personalities. I will be exploring this typeface in some of my current client projects. Side note, there is also a TT Norms Pro Sans that over 100 styles from condensed to expanded.
We Love Free Design Stuff
Freedesignstuff.com by Ben Sterne
What more can I say? A great resource created by product designer Ben Sterne to make it easier to be a kick a$$ designer. Thanks Ben!
One Gram
Innovation in Illustration
Rob en Robin
F.C. Variable is a demonstration of curiosity, obsession, and imagination. Rob & Robin are an illustration double that love what they do. The duo were tired of sentencing their lively illustrations to be flat static images and decided to see if they could maintain a level of interactivity. Employing the same process that is used to create a variable font, they formed a new kind of club with a squad of all shapes and sizes titled F.C. Variable.
Check out their full case study here.
One Lesson
Take Drastic (Safe) Action
Six years ago I made the decision to grow my hair out. From elementary school all the way up to my mid-twenties, I would visit a barber every 3-4 weeks to have my head shaved in various shapes. In 2018, while living with friends and working in New York, I realized a lot of my friend were losing their hair due to 'old age'. This frightened me a bit. The reality that we were all getting old was happening right before my eyes. So, as anyone would do, of course I decided to grow my hair out right then and there. Thanks to good family genetics my hair grew pretty long and I achieved the trendy and hip man bun.
Last Friday I chopped all of it off. No, I didn't have a Britney moment. It was something that had been on my mind for a little while now and knew that if I didn't make a move soon, I'd probably never do it and continue to put it off.
So you're probably wondering why I'm I telling you that I shaved all of my hair off? Well in a way, for me this is a representation of a new chapter in my life. Right before my hair appointment I reached out to a colleague and discussed forming a partnership to form a design studio. Something that I was continuing to put off as I've mentioned in previous editions of CJ but now we're here.
Sometimes you may tell yourself you're not ready and you need more time. And sometimes you might actually be so ready and just scared. There will be a moment that naturally presents itself to you and you can decide to either take hold of it or let it pass by.
I will be sharing more about this design studio we are forming in the coming weeks. I am super backed up on client work so other than my commitment to Creative Juice and Portfolio Squeeze you may not see me a whole lot on TikTok for now.
PS. What is something that you have been putting off?
PPS. I am also in the process of relaunching my portfolio reviews. You can still book one directly with me using this link.
PPPS. Sorry to anyone that is currently waiting on their review. I am getting through them ASAP!
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