We are on a roll here with another delivery of Creative Juice! How am I doing so far?
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: GIF Me Baby One More Time
- PORTFOLIO OF THE WEEK: The Only Sidebar I'm OK With
- Making Expenses Rad
- Music Is the Answer
- An Easier Way to Animate? Maybe?
- ONE GRAM: The Magical Artificial World of Marius Troy
- ONE LESSON: When You Finally Work on Projects You Like
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Something Gorgeous
GIF Me Baby One More Time
MOMENT 3D Camera by Olga Orel
3D photography has been around for a while now and has had a resurgence over the last couple of years, with curious creatives and hipsters using old 3D film cameras to create and share images with motion and life in them. I find it ironic though how we are still using an analog tool to create a digital result. This laborious process requires you to develop the film, color correct, then scan and compile the images together, all for a 4 second GIF/video.
Well industrial designer, Olga Orel, decided to develop a solution for this inconvenient yet joyful genre of photography, by developing a contemporary camera design which creates a unique GIF image that you can easily export to your laptop or mobile device.
The absolute whirlwind of tabs I opened up immediately after seeing this camera design. You have no idea. I am sad to say that this camera design would seem to be all conceptual but Olga, if you are reading this, please please please make this real and take my money. While I currently travel with a digital camera that has a million megapixels for photography and video work, as well as a drone, I rarely use them. I am very intentional when it comes to wanting to carry this gear around as I personally like to travel light, as well as take my time when I set out on photo or video missions.
Most of the time I find myself whipping out my iPhone which is plenty for sharing images on social platforms and even the occasional print. Before setting out on this trip to Asia I thought about purchasing a polaroid camera because of the nostalgic feeling of having physical prints, but instead I opted for a polaroid printer because again, I do not need another camera.
BUT THIS camera I do NEED. It's tiny form factor combined with it's perceivably easy-to-use interface would make this a great camera for nights out with friends or just hanging out on the weekends. I could throw it in my little satchel and not worry about taking up too much space.
Would you buy this camera if it was real?
PS. Olga if you are reading this, I would love to test this camera 😅
Portfolio of the Week
The Only Sidebar I'm OK With
Daniela Muntyan
I don't think it's any secret how I feel about sidebars when it comes to your portfolio website design. I am not the biggest fan of them as it was for a while, a very popular trend in web design that was overtaken by the standard and more useful top navigation. However as with anything there are exceptions, and Daniela's portfolio website design is one of them.
First, let me just make my point about sidebars. Daniela's website utilizes a sidebar navigation that houses links to her about page, download her resume, and visit her socials. This sidebar is visible from a browser width of 1300px and above. If the browser width goes below 1300px, then the sidebar navigation changes to a top navigation. Now, as a designer who has developed websites, for this small fraction of a window, personally I would've just gone with building the top navigation from the largest breakpoint on down to simplify the development but that's just me.
Aaaaaanyway, Daniela's design portfolio website is still magnificent. Let's start with her homepage first. Simple in presentation but meticulous in execution. Daniela has presented a lovely two-up grid of thumbnails that grab your eyes with beautiful motion and framing. I love how she mixes in content other than her case studies such as articles she has written or speeches she has given into the grid. My favorite is her 'Public Speech" thumbnail where she has a clip of her from the talk playing as the thumbnail.
Next, I want to highlight her about page before we get into her work. I can tell that Daniela really took the time to sit down and put together a thoughtful bio. And she very well should. She is a co-founder of a her project Spellar which is an Ai driven speech assistant as well as a senior designer at Ucraft. Below her bio, Daniela has included all her experience from previous roles as well as awards she has gained along the way.
Finally, let's talk about Daniela's project pages. WOW. These things are just great. Specifically I want to highlight her case-study for her work done for Translator Guru. The reason why I like this project so much because it's a great example of how explaining your process in great detail is more important than fancy visuals or shiny design mocks. On this specific case-study Daniela includes a section for what the project is, the problem, the research, the solution, specific features, and the results from the project. I will caveat this by mentioning again that Daniela is a product designer and so that comes with the territory. BUT still, this can be adapted for any genre of design.
Overall, Daniela's design portfolio website is a wonderful and furthers the cliche saying, keep it simple silly.
Score: 8.8/10
Built with: Framer
Creative Finds
Making Expenses Rad
Expensify Brand Identity by The Collected Works
The app that allows you to log, track, and manage your expenses had a recent brand refresh by the design studio The Collected Works. Partners Justin, Jose, and the TCW team did a great job championing the studio's mantra "Rad Work for Rad People" presenting a very playful alter universe where expense reports don't suck.
Music Is the Answer
MITA - Invest in Artists Like Stocks
Ever wish you could invest in Taylor Swift's faithful horde of swifties as she conquers the world with her music? Me neither, but it is cool idea. MITA or Music is The Answer, is an app that allows you to invest in shares of artists as if they were stocks.
I am still trying to understand the concept here and while it sounds very interesting, the landing page for this website is sick. Tons of scroll interactions and animations happening alongside some Helvetica bold. Easy way to my heart.
An Easier Way to Animate? Maybe?
Modyfi - Design & Animation Platform
Modyfi is a design platform built for multidisciplinary designers that makes designing, animating, and generating assets easier without having to switch between apps. While I am always a skeptic when it comes to new creative apps since our overlord Adobe has a monopoly on the industry, I'm not sure how I feel about this new design tool just yet. I will download it over the holidays and report back soon.
PS. If you get to it before me or have already experimented with it, please feel free to share with me your feedback here!
One Gram
The Magical Artificial World of Marius Troy
Marius Troy
Midjourney and Ai image generation can be a designer's best friend. I know from first-hand experience because in the last few months I have actually put my $10 Midjourney subscription to good use generating more than a few images that I went on to use in larger project. However, working with these tools can sometimes be frustrating. There have been nights where I have sat going back and forth with Midjourney for hours trying to tweak and adjust prompts to correct what seemed like obvious deliverables.
Then I stumbled upon the gorgeous images generated by Marius Troy. At first I thought this guy was a high-fashion photographer but was surpsied to find he used Midjourney for his creations. DISCLAIMER - this is not an ad in anyway and I am not associated with Marius. The guy has no idea who I am, but I did want to note that he has a few guides on his Ai image generation process that I plan to purchase in the coming months.
As I mentioned before, I personally see how Ai image generation can be a big value add to a solo graphic designer like myself and so I feel no shame in sharing the resources that I personally believe can help other designers and creatives as well.
I mean, if you think what I'm saying is sh*t, Marius's work is definitely worth the look.
One Lesson
When You Finally Work on Projects You Like
Recently I shared over on Threads, that after 9+ years of working as a graphic designer, 8 of those being full-time roles and the last 2 as an independent, I am finally working on projects that I am excited to work on everyday. Now this isn't any sort of post to get you to buy a course or anything but more to share that there is light at the end of the tunnel and to understand that these can genuinely take time.
For example, in the last two weeks I've gotten two music festivals come across my desk. TWO music festivals! I used to work as a graphic designer in a dark a grim nightclub with the hopes that one day I could work on stuff like this. And now it doesn't even feel like that big of a deal. I mean yes I am so happy and proud of myself. But back then I used to think, "Holy moly, you have to be so experienced and talented to work on stuff like that". When in reality, that's not the case. It's not about being the best, it's not about being at the biggest or most popular agency. It's about building relationships.
As the year comes to an end I am putting together plans for 2024. One of my goals in the new year will be to launch some sort of small design studio to continue working on projects like this on a larger scale. If you have 1-2+ years of professional experience in design, 3D, or motion fields and are interested in hearing more about this. Please send me a reply. I would love to chat and see your work.
PS. I am working on organizing again The Portfolio Squeeze newsletter so stay tuned! Fresh portfolio tips and reviews coming in 2024!
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