Now is the time to build a brand that is bold and unique

Nubby has completed her 2009 media kit, "What is Nubby" and I'm so happy that she's sharing it. It's definitely a beautiful, compelling package! Most times I have this perception that designers are quite protective of their own branding/marketing that I'm amazed when Nubby has the balls to let everyone in on her process and design. I follow a lot of tutorials and guides on putting together your own marketing package but the process itself becomes clearer when someone actually shows you the work.



Tip of the hat to you Nubby!

Source: nubbystwiglet.com

Don't hide your jewellery, display them

I am digging the way these displays are put together!



Of course I'll have to start a collection of beautiful jewellery so that they'll be worthy of display. The following is a collection that really drew me in and I saved them in my inspiration folder, but now I'm having a hard time trying to find the original owner or store.



Here are a couple more from my inspiration folder:



I have so many images that I've saved for personal inspiration and I hope to share them here and hope they inspire you too! I'll do my best to post the source but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Happy Canada Day!

Holiday festivities started yesterday as I co-hosted a casual gathering with my roomie. I'm really happy with everyone who came hope that they all had as much fun as I did! Clearly, dancing till 4am without getting a single neighbourly compaint is a sign of how truly awesome we are!

I hope you all have a great holiday, celebrating Canada Day! This one is an oldie but a goodie.



Did someone say beaver?

My Milk Toof by Inhae Renee Lee

Oooh, I came across this does of adorable-ness! I'd describe it to you but Inhae says it better:

"When I was young, I placed my baby teeth under my pillow and when i woke up I'd find a shiny new quarter. But whatever happened to those little teeth? Where did they go? Would I ever see them again?

Many years later, a little tooth was standing at my door. It looked familiar. It's name was ickle. Welcome home, my milk toof!"



Source: My Milk Toof

Mario Testino, Best of Beauty Photoshoot, Allure

I'm entranced with the gold in this photoshoot, it makes me think of being bathed in the sunlight. Did I mention that I love the sunshine?



Source: Mario Testino

Emma Watson in Teen Vogue, August 2009

I'm not at all embarrassed to be keeping up with Teen Vogue, not when they've got Emma Watson wearing outfits that incite dreamy feelings. I am down with full skirts in silk or satin - with bows!



Source: Teen Vogue

ColorZilla for Firefox

This is a must have tool to add to your arsenal as a web designer because it's small, fast and convenient. ColorZilla is an extension for Firefox featuring an advanced eyedropper, colour picker, palette viewer and more!

I've used this extension to instantly select colours from websites/images then grab the colour code and paste into my CSS directly. Or I can paste into an online colour palette generator and build a custom palette faster than it would take to load up Photoshop and do the same. I love it because it's unobtrusive and always ready to go.

Eyedropper: I see an colour I like on some random website, I want it and looky, I got it!



Main Menu: Quickly call up my menu and get the colour code and voila, ready to paste!



Palette List View: I can even save my colour selections.



Webpage Colour Analyzer: Curious to know all the colours used on a website? Don't grab it one pixel at time, let ColorZilla analyze it for you!



Yep, this one is a fantastic extension to have on hand and I highly recommend that it be part of your workflow. I'll continue to post about the tools, resources and websites that have helped me when I'm designing and developing websites. Do you have any extensions that have made designing easier for you? Let me know and see you in the comments.