Links for January Part 2

Okay here's part two of my January finds, really should give a nod to some of the great blogs I find some of this stuff on. I tend to upload interesting sites on a daily basis on to ScrnShots so can't always link back, but to name a few that you really should check out: 

CMYKern

AisleOne

Design Is Kinky

Computerlove

FormFiftyFive

Creative Review

Human Resources

 

Great folio with a distressed style from fabien barral 

Interesting insight into Museum of Art and Design branding and the processes involved on Pentagram's blog 

There's some great illustrators on the Debut Art Agencies books, well worth a look

Design Studio 10.5 have some really nice work and a nice clean site.

There's lots of places to get free textures for all your photoshop needs but the Lost&Taken blog is one of the best and you can submit your own to share the love

Great photography from David Lindsay Wade with interesting option to navigate the site via your webcam

SixScents is a collaboration between six artists and perfumers, series one is beautifully packaged and a very elegant logo

FontExplorer X Pro

Well the guys at Font Explorer must have heard my previous musings about possibly switching to Suitcase and worked round the clock to release FontExplorerX Pro! 

Having used the free version for a year or so I was loathed to move to Extensis Suitcase but the extra features seemed worth the investment. But now the Pro edition of FontExplorer has all you need; with an easier to resolve font conflicts area, the all important font auto activation (with PlugIns for all versions of CS including 4), and the same easy to navigate userface as the free version.  I was especially impressed that all my smart sets/ folders and groupings were imported without me having to lift a finger. 

Also as a bonus till the end of Feb it's 50% off, £34 (inc vat) as apposed to Suitcase which comes in at around £80. If you have a hefty amount of fonts to manage I'd recommend downloading the free trial

Crash Competition Update

Well in one of my first posts on this blog I mentioned the JG Ballard Crash Cover design competition.  The Times/ Harper Collins competition was posted December 2007(!) and not a lot of  news has come through since. Still no news from The Times but the Ballardian has news of an update so hopefully we will get to see the winner and some of the other entries in the next few months. My entry can be found here. 

Links from January Part 1

Here's part one of my round up of hot links from January.

Great 2 part packaging design inspiration overview from Dzineblog

Useful resource of blank stock imagery, add your designs here. Great for pitching your designs and visualisation. Downloads come as layered photoshop files to make life even easier

Spoonfed design gives 11 essential tips for print typography

Great portfolio of Californian designer Tomi Lahdesmaki

Chester based freelancer Jon Lord's work makes me quite jealous  

Oslo based studio Your Friends have some great clean typographic posters and layouts

Book cover design archive is a great, expanding resource of book jacket design. Also worth checking is Smashing Magazines round up

Talking Typography 2

Been rather busy last couple of weeks so apologies for my lack of postings. Be back in a few days though with a bumper round up my hot links from January. In the mean time here's a couple of typography links worth checking.

Regime is the first typeface in about a year from Barnbrook's Virusfonts. In 8 weights plus italics it's pricey but a beauty.

If you are feeling the pinch but want to expand you collection then fontsquirrel is worth checking out. Hand picked 100% free fonts, so save yourself hours of trawling on other free font sites for anything half decent and take a look. 

Design Forums

Recently joined up to Design Forums, well designed and thought out website with a good selection of contributors. Definitely worth a look if you have any nagging design related questions or want feedback/advice on your work from other professionals.

Talking Typography

If you're a designer than a good selection of quality typefaces are as essential as your pen and paper, but building a decent collection can be an expensive game. However don't be tempted to download millions of free fonts from da font, 1001 free fonts, or freebies from Computer Arts etc. Whilst a few of the fonts on these sites will do you for display purposes, you will rarely find quality for free and will inevitably end up spending many an hour deleting all the rubbish (I used to be a bit of a type hoarder and recently deleted over 5000 fonts that I had never and would never use, which was a bore to say the least). Below are some links to some quality font foundries and resources that have reasonably priced and some free wares to boost your collection.

You Work For Them has a great selection of interesting typefaces and vectors at a reasonable price.

If you like your type dirty then you'll love Misprinted Type, some great display typefaces and a fair few quality freebies.

Identikal have a good selection of futuristic/ geometric gems.

Hypefortype bring together some great typographers every three months to give you limited edition typefaces from as little as £10.

The Linotype collection is extensive and if your looking for some free font management software you can't get better than FontExplorer 10. 

If you have some money to spend on your font management than Extensis Suitcase fusion looks worth a go (30 day free trial available if you want to test it). Main advantage over Linotype is it's automatic font activation system, which if it works as suggested has me tempted; won't miss searching my 200+ variations of Helvetica for the correct one to activate.

Finally get yourself some nice typography based i-phone and desktop wallpapers at Typenuts.