Welcome to the very first edition of Creative Juice after a very plentiful 'growing season'. You may notice that the newsletter has a new splash of that purple stuff from your childhood bestie's refrigerator along with some updated content and a few other touches. Feel free to send me an email with your thoughts and how the new design is looking.
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: A Cafe Where the Sun Never Sets
- PORTFOLIO OF THE WEEK: The Proof Is In The Pudding (or Portfolio)
- I Got the Nummies
- Just Muuling About
- Is it Just Me? Or is Reddit Lame Now?
- ONE GRAM: One Twist a Day Keeps the Monsters Away
- ONE LESSON: Taking Your Time Does Not Mean It is Not Happening
If you would like Creative Juice sent directly to your inbox every Monday, you can subscribe here.
Something Gorgeous
A Cafe Where the Sun Never Sets
Café Nuances by Uchronia
F*ck off Starbucks, this Parisian cafe is serving vibes with its coffee. Developed by multidisciplinary creative collective, Uchronia, the interior of Cafe Nuances captures that beautiful moment when the sun dips below the horizon creating a beautiful gaussian blur of day and night.
I am not saying this cafe looks cheap at all! BUT it reminds me of when I was in design school and tasked with organizing an exhibition with little-to-no budget. We needed to figure out what applications would feel elevated but not break the wallet and I wish we had the thought to use a gradient like this somehow.
Portfolio of the Week
The Proof Is In The Pudding (or Portfolio)
Félix Péault
What if you're portfolio website was so good that when clients visited it, they hired you right away? I think that might be the case for Félix.
Félix is an art director and digital designer with a lovely portfolio website that put my eyes in a chokehold. With a firm grip on color theory, typography, and a heavy sprinkling of micro-interactions. Félix has a portfolio website that will impress anyone who visits it. If you're wondering how Félix was able to achieve such smooth animations and scrolling effects. I am almost positive he is using a library called GSAP. I haven't played around with it much but definitely something I plan to learn more about before the new year.
Here are 5 observations from Félix's portfolio website that you should pay attention to...
1.) You can never go wrong with big type, ESPECIALLY when it animates between regular and italicized on view.
2.) My eyes love color and when you can alter your palette throughout the page in a subtle way, it's a big W.
3.) There is nothing wrong with filling space with a well-considered shape or icon, especially if it is animated in some way.
4.) If you can use a video over static imagery do it.
5.) Master your use negative space!
There is definitely a lot more I can cover with Félix's portfolio website so let me know with a reply if you'd like me to go deeper in January's edition of Portfolio Squeeze, which btw if you're not signed up for you can do so here.
Score: 9.1/10
Built with: Custom Coded
Creative Finds
I Got the Nummies
NUMMIES Brand Identity by Sweety & Co
There seems to be a new trendy well-designed supplement out every other week and I'm kind of ok with that as long they look as goodas Nummies. With the 'life hacker' and supplement industries heating up, I will continue to be hesitant about these products and their benefits but, hey, at least they will look good on your shelf.
Just Muuling About
Botanic Water Muuling Brand Identity by Tomnick
'Plant-based' 'botanic' water. Yep I never thought those words would be uttered in the same sentence when it comes to H20 but here we are. Regardless of the level of marketing absurdity, the design and consideration around the naming, wordmark, and visual identity, I think is beautiful and definitely worth reading the full case-study on Tomnick's site.
Is it Just Me? Or is Reddit Lame Now?
Reddit Brand Refresh by Pentagram
My assumption is that this brand refresh comes about as a result of Reddit trying to look more 'formal' and 'profitable' as a company for its investors. And while the quality of work produced by Natasha Jen and the Pentagram team is great, it does it feel like any spec of cool that was left within Reddit is now totally gone?
Hit me with a reply if you're a reddit og and still enjoy using it.
One Gram
One Twist a Day Keeps the Monsters Away
Camilo Castillo Diaz
Completely amazed at the quality and final product of these monster rubik's cubes produced by Camilo. I want one and also want to get one for my dad.
One Lesson
Taking Your Time Does Not Mean It is Not Happening
You've made it to the very first lesson/learning in the new Creative Juice. My fingers feel like they are about to cry tears for some reason.
Taking your time does not mean it is not happening...
This very phrase hit me hard in the face recently as over the last couple of weeks and it seemed that my 'to-do' list was becoming filled with more tasks than there were actually being completed. My brain can always think of a million things that I NEED to do, but realistically my body and mind can only finish 2 to 3 tasks a day. And so I try to make a little bit of progress everyday. Just a tiny bit. Because over time, all of that tiny that progress will result in a cascading moment where you start ticking off tasks one by one.
As a result of this tiny continuous effort, I was able to launch the beginning of my e-commerce shop called Pixel Mart. Finally get around to redesigning this newsletter along with getting ready to launch The Portfolio Squeeze and Beefy Briefs newsletters as well.
Don't underestimate the power of tiny little efforts and stop being so harsh on yourself when everything on your to-do list isn't completed in a matter of hours or days.
PS. Thank you everyone who took the time to share their feedback with me on the survey. What do you think of this first edition of the new Creative Juice newsletter redesign?
If you would like Creative Juice sent directly to your inbox every Monday, you can subscribe here.
