How to Design Cool Stuff with John Mcwade

I read the "Before & After: How to Design Cool Stuff" book and found it to be an educational read with clear visuals of important design principles. The auther John Mcwade takes apart a design that you know looks good and then breaks it down and explains why it's visually pleasing. You can watch his free videos - short and with super useful techniques. Here's an example of one I love:

Jewelry by Rivka Friedman

Came across Rivka Friedman's Jewelry on Ruelala.com the pieces are very affordable since they're only covered in 18-karat yellow gold. Here are 3 of my favorites from the collection.

Midnight Bottles - Oil on Canvas

First oil on canvas titled 'The Midnight Bottles'. Painted at Mussie Greenberg's art studio.

 

My Mini Moos

Here's a set of mini moo business cards I designed for myself thanks to winning them on web design shock. I got inspired by this set that uses quotes from Seth Godin's books, and so I put together quotes from designers I admire. The cards came out nice, only thing I would do different is to make the front text legible. As of now it's really small and you can barely read it... didn't realize just how mini the mini cards are.

JPC - Noooooooo!

Good going JC Penney. Here's their ad campaign announcing a new system to hit their stores. People apparently freaked out about it, but I just love it. It shakes the established system, setting grounds for a totally new look and feel.

30 Illustrator Video Tutorials Every Designer Should See

Chris Spooner does another wonderful roundup of illustrator tutorials here. I know the basics and perhaps a little more but there are treasures in illustrator so I'm linking to his post in the hopes that I'll get to go through them.

Coloring in the lines

I was creating this postcard for a Tu B'shvat wine and cheese tasting event and found that the line art in the cork was begging to be colored in. I used the wacom tablet with the brush tool in photoshop.