MJ Creations

Fotoshop by Adobé

Mark — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 09:35:37 +0000

As quoted by Jess Rosten “This commercial isn’t real, neither are society’s standards of beauty.”

2011 – A Year in Web Design

Mark — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 09:00:45 +0000

A collection of thoughts from various designers, developers, speakers and community experts, in response to the following:

“What did you find most memorable about the world of web design in 2011?”

And surprise surprise, one thing was mentioned more than others… but don’t get me started on that!

8 Faces #4 Magazine

Mark — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 13:32:41 +0000

So the next instalment of the beautiful 8 Faces magazine has landed on my desk. The first thing that catches the eye is the cover artwork which has been produced by Jessica Hische.

Along with the general focus on 8 designers, there are several great articles, the first of which being ’8 Steps to Beautiful Paragraph Text on the Web’ by Tim Brown. The essay outlines key areas that should be considered when styling paragraph text, most of which could be easily overlooked in the development stage on the web.

Other features of the magazine include a review of ‘Typography Sketchbooks’ and a ‘Showcase of Typography Design in the Digital Domain’.

As luck would have it, there is still a few copies available! So hurry along to 8faces.com and get your copy.

‘Tweet Your Wisdom’ Prints

Mark — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:29:22 +0000

Saw these prints over at Erskine Labs recently and really liked the idea behind it. Erskine set up a website – tweetyourwisdom.com – to collect words of wisdom that were to be printed onto posters and given away at a conference. The entries were called in from Twitter that included the hashtag #tweetyourwisdom. Very clever.

*Featured tweet from Matt Berridge

Lost Type Co-op

Mark — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 22:10:16 +0000

Whilst browsing through some inspiration on Dribbble, I came across a number of fonts that had been downloaded from losttype.com. The Lost Type Co-op essentially works on a ‘pay-what-you-want’ basis, with all funds of sales going directly to the designers of the fonts.

Over the last few months, Lost Type has grown hugely, and now features 35+ high quality typefaces. Some of the fonts have been used in high profile projects, such as Nike’s ‘Nikevision Winter 2011 Campaign‘, and even on Barack Obama’s website.

Keep us informed if you see any high profile websites using any of these fonts!

Hero

Mark — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 12:37:56 +0000

Hero is a stunning illustration created by Miguel Endara. The illustration of his father is made up of 3.2 million individual dots. This video shows the process.

The Icon Handbook

Mark — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 15:40:52 +0000

The much anticipated launch of The Icon Handbook by Jon Hicks is set for 20th December 2011. The handbook takes a look through the history of icons, and guides you through the basics and all the way through to being able to create stunning iconography.

“Have you ever needed to create an icon for something and not known where to start? How do you go about crafting the right message, the tone, the line work and getting it to work in the environment it’s supposed to; be it mobile, operating system, or browser. Thankfully we now have the place to go.

Jon Hicks’ ‘The Icon Handbook’ will become the go-to book for the modern designer; for uncovering the thought processes, the skills and the reference for designing your own icons.”

More to follow once I’ve got my hands on a copy!

Jon Hicks – The Icon Handbook

Sharing too much information with Facebook?

Mark — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 14:53:46 +0000

Ever thought that you are sharing too much information on Facebook? Take a look at this www.takethislollipop.com, and be prepared to be a bit freaked out.

RIP Steve Jobs

Mark — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 09:09:33 +0000

RIP Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

8 Faces #3 Magazine

Mark — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 23:00:03 +0000

The shiny new installment of 8 Faces was delivered to my desk this morning. Limited to just 2000 copies worldwide, this again sold out quickly. But never fear! You can still get your hands on a PDF version. Take a look at 8faces.com.

The magazine focuses on 8 designers and asks the question:
“If you could only use eight typefaces for the rest of your life, which would you choose?”

It also focuses on a number of topics including ‘Type Rendering & Web Fonts‘ along with featured artwork by Mc Bess.

So #3 has been added to my collection. Gutted I haven’t got #1 to complete the set. If you have a spare/neglected copy, leave a comment and I’ll gladly give it a new loving home!