Oh dolls, that marker of childhood innocence. That wonderful toy that many a wee child had as a favorite plaything, that oddly horrifying object that has turned so many into a quivering thing in the corner.

So, the below isn’t the ‘typical’, nor are they safe for your sanity. They are however incredible takes on such an innocent toy. Any of these would be more at home in a horror movie than in a toy chest, but they do show a lot of talent (horrifying, horrifying talent).

Click an image to start the gallery, attribution in under all images (the other works my these artists are as incredible):

The US government portal meant to give United States citizen’s information about the government and the ways to go about getting things from passports to information from the many government entities has recently been given a face-lift.

On July 2, the site rolled out several improvements: A new search tool; navigation; a mobile apps store; and public engagement platforms on government challenges, public dialogs and performance metrics. The revamped website also features a scrolling graphic at the top of the home page that highlights the most requested government services and information.

(Source: Fierce Government)

Here’s the website (front page):

What did it look like before?

Considering the sheer amount of information that needs to be packed into the website, it still manages a very clean interface.  Many of the extra little elements  find ways to display a lot of information into the small space, namely with the spiffy navigation menu towards the top.

Now, on to the design tips.

More than likely you don’t have as much information on your own website that the US government does (which is why I’m using their page as an example).They have monumental amount with their many agencies, warnings, updates, and other data they have and post up. Notice, it’s not all on the front page.

You can take to heart a few things that USA.gov website can show the average website owner.

• Navigation should be logical, and easy to use: When someone is looking for navigation they tend to look towards the top of a website, or to the right or left of the content.  It should be clearly labeled and easy to use.
• Keep information on your front page clear, concise, and minimal.  The front page of your website  can use teasers or other information to draw the user further into your website to the content (as opposed to having it all on the front).
• USA.gov is meant to be used by all ages, by the public at large.  Many of those same people aren’t entirely computer savvy, so when you design or consider a re-design of your website having that clear and concise content and navigation can help.

Another piece to take away? Re-designs can do wonders, but should be used sparingly.

This website (paradox9) has been re-designed countless times.  All using completely different templates, and without much overall thought or consideration to elements or anything else.

Do not do that.

For those in the same habit:

• While a re-design can be just the thing many websites need to start drawing in more people, if you re-design at every chance it will do more harm than good.  Instead, think about and carefully plan the changes.  Design (or pay someone to design) your website logically and with careful attention to the placement of important pieces and the plan you have made.
• Create (or install) your template and do not put it live immediately.  Test it out for a while and make note of anything that needs to be changed.

Settling on a great design may mean paying someone.

While I did the redesign myself, I also have enough coding background to do that.  If you don’t know any code, and php and html give you night sweats-look into designers to do it for you.  There are many out there to choose from.

There are a lot of times that you may need or want to have a repeating pattern for a project.  The easiest way to do this without losing your mind is to use a built in tool called ‘Define Pattern’ (in both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements).  Below is a simple tutorial on how to use the tool, with a bunch of images to help walk you through it. While the example used below is very much on the simple side, you can do this same method on more complicated patterns as well.

First, lets say we want a dot pattern.  It would take forever to individually place each and every single circle perfectly, so we will make life a bit easier and use the pattern tool.

Click any of the images below to make them larger.

Find or make the image that is going to be repeated.

Here I’ve opened a blank file to create the pattern’s image.

The circle that is going to be repeated.  It’s against a transparent background.

Go to Edit : Define pattern.

You will get a pop up that asks you to name your image.  This one is rather uninspiring named Dots.

Open a new file if you need to.

Here is the new file.  Select the paint can tool, and look towards the top where it gives you the option of filling in the image with either a solid color (Foreground) or a Pattern.  Click on the dropdown option for pattern.

A box will open, and simply find your new pattern.

Use the paint can tool by clicking on the area you want filled.

Tada! You now have a new pattern.

Working online with a primary focus on blogging, more specifically, for the last few years has taught me a bit about the business end of it.  Considering I’m also a freelancer, finding and securing those jobs that help me pay all my bills is obviously an important factor.

I can wholly admit, I never intended to be a blogger, let alone a freelancer.  It had never occurred to me that I could even make money online, especially a livable income.  I did enjoy writing even though most of my earlier bits were considerably shorter than my present standard of about 300 words (or more).  While I did enjoy it, I wasn’t in need of a job until some of life’s little things came my way at once and I had mounting bills and other financial problems that needed to be taken care of.  At the time, I did turn to the internet and found a few editing and writing gigs that I had thought would be only temporary.

Of course that was also about 4 years ago, and I’m still working in writing.  I wound up falling in love with the hours, and the ability to work wherever I wanted, with no real ‘set-times’.  Getting started is harder now it seems that it was when I started, but once you get the ball rolling jobs will come easier.

Setting up your own website for writing, and potentially impressing a prospective client isn’t easy and you will need to work on a few basics before getting into the full swing of things.  Once you do however, all that work will be more than worth it.

Read:

Read other blogs in your intended niche.  While you do not want to copy them at all, it can help to see what voices are already out there are see what you can add to the discussion.  If you have an inspiring thought that you think should be said, write down the general idea for the next step.

Write:

Consider first your topics and intended audience, and think up a few entries to get you started.  Write out at least 10 or so full posts before your launch, and write and polish them until they are the best they can be.  While you don’t have to use them all immediately, it really helps to have that cushion in case you won’t be able to post on a few days or so.

Design:

Having a special design for your blog can help create a more memorable feel for it.  While it doesn’t have to be too fancy, it does help.  Make sure it is what you are looking for as switching constantly typically can make you look unprofessional and chaotic.  Your design can set the tone for the rest of your website, so think long and hard about it.  It should fit nicely into the theme of your website, and while it doesn’t need to be overblown or outrageous, a nicely designed website can really help out and work wonders.  At times, the perfect design will be unique and mesh well to the point of not really being noticed.

Research:

A fair portion of the typical blogger’s time is spent on research.  From chasing stories to looking up relevant links to add to those stories.  It’s not the easiest thing for a good portion of the time, but the more consistent research you put into your writing, the more knowledgeable you will be.  Being knowledgeable is a good chuck of where your readership will grow from.

Learn:

It’s the same with anything that can payoff, it really is a continuous learning process.  If someone offers you advice, it may be wise to take it under consideration.  Be it through contacts, or comments- constructive criticism will help you grow not only as a writer, but as a blogger as well.

Choosing the way you display your art and photography can be as important as your work itself.  Finding a simple and stunning choice with so many options out there can be difficult and time consuming.   Below are 12 stunning options that are as simple as they are elegant.

GalleryView

Demo/Download

GalleryView is a very simple but wonderful option.  If you are looking for something lightening fast and simple, it could suit your needs perfectly.  The overlay title and description is a wonderful part of the GalleryView script (plus, it really looks amazing with the simplicity). It definately success in it’s mission to provide jQuery users with a flexible, attractive content gallery that is both easy to implement and a snap to customize.

Supersized: Fullscreen background/ sideshow jQuery plugin

Demo/Download

Supersized really lives up to it’s name.  It’s a fullscreen gallery that is great for high definition photos, and anything with a lot of color would really pop out.

* Resizes images to fill browser while maintaining image dimension ratio
* Cycles Images/backgrounds via slideshow with transitions and preloading
* Navigation controls allow for pause/play and forward/back

Moving Boxes – jQuery Image Gallery

Demo/Download

MovingBoxes is  a very fun little gallery.  It’s incredibly simple to use, and the look is fantastic. The script uses there are buttons to change panels and the panels zoom in and out.

PiroBox

Demo/Download
Here are just some of the features:

* The script now weights only 12.5KB, (9KB Minified)
* There is a choice between five different styles
* Slideshow option More…
* Multiple image set option More…
* PngFix for Internet Explorer 6
* Keyboard navigation: Right arrow [next], Left arrow [prev], ESC [close]
* Broken Link Check
* Automatic repositioning of the image in the browser window
* Browser compatibility = FireFox 2+, Opera9.5+, Chrome, Safari (Mac/Windows), IE 6+

You can even check out some of the fantastic themes that the plugin uses.

PiroBox is similar to lightbox (and the many other versions) and is great for a simple and effective option.

Image Rotator with Preview

Demo/Download

You can use the Image Rotator for images, blog posts, and a few other things as well. It’s a great way to display portfolio pieces, eCommerce product images, or even as an image gallery. With both a simple and effective design, it’s also easy to implement and customize.

Spacegallery – jQuery plugin

Demo/Download

SpaceRotator has a fun and elegant animation when switching views.

AD Gallery

Demo/Download

AD Gallery is another simple, but visually pleasing option.

Zoomer Gallery

Demo/Download

Zoomer Gallery is really fun and it would be a great choice for someone that has a lot of images to display (much like PiroGallery) it adds in a simple ‘zoom’ effect, and could easily be customized to fit other needs as well. It has flash-like effects but is written in javascript.

ImageFlow

Demo/Download

ImageFlow is a very graceful and elegant gallery/ slider.  It has a gorgeous reflection and while it’s simple visually- it is still very user friendly and beautiful. It has quite a few features for such a considerably small plugin.

jQuery jsGallscroll Plugin

Demo/Download

Another simple and effective option. jsGallscroll takes list of images and creates a smooth scrolling photo gallery scrolling vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. The plugin will also create pagination to allow you to flow through your photos.

Galleriffic

Demo/Download

Gallerific allows you to have a full featured and easy to navigate (and set up) gallery. It comes with a ton of options including pagination, graceful degradation if a user doesn’t use javascript, and a ton of others including many different user-options as well. If you want something that has more features and can allow you to customize more than Gallerific can definitely be for you.

Dynamic Image Gallery and Slideshow

Demo/Download
The Dynamic Image Gallery and Slideshow is incredibly lightweight, at only 3kb. It’s elegant in addition, and it’s a user-friendly and easy choice for someone who may want the simplicity without too many other things cluttering things up. The developer has released a new version however if you want a few more options.

When looking for inspiration or a full logo don’t discount stock websites.  There are many very talented designers who use them and you may be able to find a perfect logo for your business.  Below is a gallery of a very small sampling from the very talented individuals at Stock Logo. `

It is just a very small sampling, all using the simple theme ‘Green’ just to give you an idea of the many amazing logos that can be found there.

Do you have a favorite? Admittedly, I’m personally partial to the bike to the left.

Simply click an image to start the slideshow:

Women have a love/hate relationship with shoes.  Sure, those five inch heels look great but after a while walking in them one may seriously start to reconsider their own sanity.

Yet, between designers and the ‘latest trends’ at times some shoe designs come out that are a bit more questionable than others.  Some of them make the five inch heels look downright logical.  Among the trends is a movement of shoe designs that don’t resemble the typical at all, others are trying to reinvent the clothing item into something that may be more fit for one of the seven circles of hell.

Among the designers making these questionable creations is Christian Louboutin and (the late) Alexander McQueen.  While one could argue that these are interesting art pieces and nothing more, women are still wearing them.  Namely Lady Gaga in the Bad Romance video (pictured).

Click an image to start the slide show:

Artists and designers have a way of making their point well known at times.  In response to the BP Gulf disaster, contests are being run to redesign their logo into something more fitting for their new public persona.  At times the new logos are rather fitting, but through art they are telling a lot more about the overall perception of the company that paint some interesting pictures.

It’s hard to imagine that BP will be able to really recover from this, and between the outrage at the company and the monetary damage they are taking, they may need some re-branding soon so maybe they should use of these entries. (Warning: A ton of images below)

Here are some entries from a contest run by the pros over at LogoMyWay:

For more, Check out the rest!

Here are some from a contest run by Greenpeace:

For more, check out the Flickr photo pool.

At times designers have to cram a ton of statistics into a considerably small space, the information needs to convey it’s importance, and still be visually appealing at the same time, all together it’s not a small order.

There is an entire group that are half statisticians and half artists who are able to convey an absolutely incredible amount of information in a very stylish way.

While you may not need to show quite as many stats as the examples below, they prove to show that you can still be informative and beautiful.

Government Red Tape

From Good magazine’s Flickr set and Random Walk.

Via: VectorDiary

Via:

Energy Star Infographic (Via: EnergyStar.gov)

Via: WinAndMac.com

Via infographicsnews.blogspot.com

Graphic from Público. Spanish budget for 2008

The Resume Infographic (Via: HappenUpon)

Infographics – Der Status der Welt

Via: Athleticsnyc

From The Genetics and Public Policy Center

Found Via: infographicsshowcase.com

This along with the first post image via: I Love Infographics

Themery: Steampunk

Starting with the theme Steampunk as the first official installment of this category is mainly due to my own obsession with the genre, plus my own inability to stop reading Girl Genius (awesome comic by the way).  The dirtier Victorian overall feel really does inspire me, and the look for general design is fun and relatively easy to accomplish.

Designing either real world pieces or even some digital pieces isn’t too hard when working with a Steampunk theme, while one can get bonus points for making something that has a real use, it’s doesn’t necessarily have to do much more than look awesome.  From gearings to web design, it’s a look that may be a bit limited (one may not necessarily be able to use it for more corporate uses), but is amazing when done correctly.

The leanings toward brass and darker cherry woodwork that one tends to see in Steampunk designs looks elegant.  You can also find designs with a ‘dirtier’ feel to them to highlight the lower social classes found in many art and writing involving the genre, which really does serve to contrast the rich coloring of the higher ‘social class’ themed designs.  Some designers find some incredible ways to incorporate it all into a piece that is visually stunning.

______________

Inspired?

From fonts to Photoshop brushes, creating simple Steampunk designs isn’t too difficult (and as you can  see in the banner for this post) it’s an attractive look that can be combined with other elements for a few different purposes.  Steampunk has been going through it’s own resurgence lately, and while there are some incredible pieces out there, the things below are all to help you make something a bit simpler.

Dr Wicked:  Suggestions for a Steampunk typography.

Instructables: Some projects to get your creative gears flowing.

Steampunk Workshop / Steampunk Magazine: Articles and information on Steampunk, great for some more inspiration.

So, what was missed?  Have a great resource or more information?  Post it up in the comments.