All you have to do is add water!
This week's Creative Juice features an innovative approach to delivering furniture. Writing about descriptions for your portfolio website. And more. 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: Just Add Water Furniture
PORTFOLIO OF THE WEEK: Breaking Your Portfolio Into Pieces
CREATIVE FIND 01: Get With The Floow
CREATIVE FIND 02: What The Fock?
CREATIVE FIND 03: What Era Movie Are You?
One Gram: Lines on Lines on Lines
ONE LESSON: Writing About You
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Something Gorgeous
Just Add Water Furniture
Under Pressure Solutions by ECAL
While sponges may not be the most beautiful objects to look at. The concept of using sponge material to create furniture that can expand upon delivery is gorgeous.
Inspired by the iconic UP5 armchair by Gaetano Pesce, which expanded from a compressed state, UPS(Under Pressure Solutions) explores the use of cellulose sponge, a biosourced and biodegradable material. This lightweight furniture system can be shipped in a compressed form and expands when moistened, eliminating the need for assembly. UPS builds upon the legacy of flat-pack and self-assembly furniture, offering a sustainable solution that optimizes transportation while challenging traditional aesthetics.
The case study is a great read showcasing the entire process from concept to prototyping. I was a bit curious about the weight resistance of the materials and some of the designs. However they go into detail how some pieces allow for users to sit and stand on them with no problem.
Portfolio of the Week
Breaking Your Portfolio Into Pieces
Tanya Ermolaeva
Do you hate talking about yourself?
"Who am I to say this or that about myself when I'm a new designer?"
Have you ever thought about breaking it into little pieces? Tanya is a London-based designer with 7+ years of experience and has done just that with her about section. After fiddling around with the draggable stickers of Tanya's header section. You begin to scroll past cards that contain the who, what, when, and background of Tanya. Something I had never really seen before but quite impressed with.
As I have been reviewing portfolios and designing portfolio websites for some time now. I noticed that it can be difficult for creatives to write a basic descriptions of themselves. It's never an easy task to write about yourself. But I really admire this approach of breaking that information that we know about ourselves into little cards. Now that doesn't mean you should copy this exact execution. But if you need to write an about section for your own portfolio website. Start with these simple prompts. Who are you? What do you do? When did you learn to do this? What were you doing before this? etc. Once you have written your answers for these prompts. You can piece them together to create coherent description about yourself.
Another interesting piece of Tanya's portfolio website is how she has separated her product design case studies from her visual design projects. I have seen many designers transition from visual design to product design. Sometimes they completely eliminate the idea they were something else before they got into product design. Sometimes they don't. Personally I think showing that you have experience in both is a great way to boost your profile. It shows versatility and skill.
What do you think of Tanya's portfolio website? Which section is your favorite?
Score: 8.9/10
Built with: Framer
Creative Finds
Get With The Floow
Floow Branding by Studio sch_
It would seem a lot of recent visual identities contain some sort of squiggle in them. But my favorite part of this package is the simple but very recognizable illustrated tennis ball pattern. That one tennis ball line is so iconic.
What The Fock?
Fockups Vol. 2
Designers love a sophisticated mockup. But have you ever thought what your designs actually end up on in the real world? Fockups is here to bring light to that very situation. I missed Fockups Vol. 1 but glad I found Vol. 2
What Era Movie Are You?
100 Years of Columbia Pictures Quiz by Watson Design Group
Cool interactive quiz deciphering which movies influenced you the most over the years. I got Talladega Nights!
One Gram
Lines on Lines on Lines
@paper_and_markers_official
Wasn't sure what was being drawn at first but before I knew it I was drooling. I love time lapses. Especially when they involve highlights, mid tones, and shadows.
One Lesson
Writing About You
After reviewing a ton of portfolio websites and launching two of my own portfolio website templates. I am back to the drawing board with how I can help creatives get started with creating the portfolio website they envision. But before I started designing I decided to take a look at my previous portfolio templates.
I built them with Framer which I really enjoy and think designers will too. If you have ever used Figma it's very similar. You are able to add elements to frames which are your web page. From there you can add animations and make tweaks very easily. After reviewing my previous templates I realized that I ended up making things a little more complicated then they had to be. I grouped a ton of elements together created messy layers. Over engineered some components. And ignored that many creatives starting off don't have access or resources for things like imagery throughout their portfolio. Most designers and creatives I speak to really just start off with images of their projects and their keyboards.
So with this in mind, I started creating a new template. I'm calling it Headline for now as it is using similar typography from my template Front Page. With Headline I wanted to focus on making it easy for any creative to jump in and edit any of the descriptions to match their personality. Additionally I wanted to simplify the presentation of the projects. And finally I wanted to add some animated elements to the design that would elevate the portfolio and make any creative stand out.
Here is a preview of Headline. I would love to get your thoughts on it. Positive or negative. Let me know with a reply here.
PS. Let me know if you think you could put this template to good use.
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