If you've been waiting ALL DAY today for the results to who won copies of the Smashing Book #2 Giveaway, they're in!

And the winners are...

CaffeinatedLifeForm

I am a student as well as a freelance web and print designer. I love looking through design books for inspiration on any topics I may be working on at any given time. The vast amount of information that can be contained in a book has always endeared them to me (not just the pretty pictures:). - comment from CaffeinatedLifeForm

Dextro

I'm a college student that's starting in the wonderful and magical world of freelance web design mostly because I've been doing it for fun over the last few years (and might as well do it for profit then).Also I'm just starting and haven't been able to scrape together the cash for either of the Smashing Books which saddens me. Does it help if I throw in a picture of a cute kitten? - comment from Dextro

Clients From Hell, the perfect follow-up book to our more recent giveaway the Smashing Book #2. For any of you in the design industry be it graphic, print or web - you will truly appreciate the contents of this book with tears of laughter. I do hope they make a desk calendar next, it would make an excellent stocking suffer!

Having worked in the design industry, encompassing all of the above, both in the office and freelancing, I can truly find a place in my heart and a special spot on my desk for this book. I can't put it down actually. It brings back those memories at the office where my boss's most frequent design direction was, "Just make it fabulous!" the sad thing is, I learned how to design around that comment. I learned to put more gold, more frill and use fancy nonsense words in our designs for a cruddy product I didn't truly believe in - at least with the way the company was directing it.

At this point in my career, my brother and I were the website and design team - he was the programmer/coder/tech support guy (as do all small companies swamp their "computer guy") and I was the font-end designer of web, print and graphics. We shared an office and could probably write our own hilarious novel re-capping the many ridiculous meetings we came out of from that place. Yes, we even got the,"I want you guys to create a MySpace, Facebook combination, BUT for sports! This is going to be such a big hit! Google will want to buy it from us!" I believe this is about the time (2006-2007ish) when Google and Yahoo were buying out popular web apps and people were going crazy trying to develop the next big thing... I'm sure my bosses were not the only ones thinking they would have the next big thing.

"We’re going to leave Zuckerberg in the dust and think about how much he makes every year. Are you in or out?" - clientsfromhell.net

So I'm on a tangent with my story, but this book brings back the reality of those days - chocolate covered in laughter and makes me question how I kept my sanity working for those guys. Some of you may have similar memories of the things your bosses or clients may have said. Some of you are probably living it daily or still get those types of clients if you're a freelancer. It's never-ending.

"Isn’t it as simple as putting in a button to select different languages? Just look at Facebook." - clientsfromhell.net

CONTEST: Design a Pattern From Hell

Did I mention that I have THREE (3) books to do with what I please? Yep! I begged for 3 extra copies (not like I'm giving up mine!) to do a contest with. So without further adieu...

To honor all those design veterans and those of you still being tortured by clients and bosses similar to the ones from this book, we are going to do a fun contest! The rules are simple:

1. Design a NEW PATTERN using the COLOURlovers Seamless Pattern Maker (you must be the creator of the pattern).

2. Color it using the Clients From Hell color palette (consisting of red, black and white ONLY).

3. Submit your entry by copy/pasting your pattern badge in to the comments - code is located on the right side under SHARE THIS PALETTE when you are viewing your pattern (or palette or color swatch). It is REALLY important that you follow this step, as you need votes (aka LOVES) to win and I need to be able to link to your contest entry pattern.

4. Include your own client from hell experience and/or find a favorite from clientsfromhell.net (make sure if you use one from CFH.net that you let us know by linking or mention please).

And the winner...needs to get the most LOVES!

A winner will be picked with the most LOVES on their pattern. So make a really super cool pattern, make all of your friends and family cookies (if you need bribery) and tweet, facebook or whatever you need to about your pattern. Get some love!! Hey you could even paste it on your fellow lovers profiles to ask for loves... just saying.

The contest will run 7 days - Tuesday to Tuesday. That would be Today, Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011 - midnight Tuesday, March 29th, 2011. Results should be posted no later than Wednesday, March 30th. You must be a user to play (so SIGN UP if you need to), make sure your email notifications are on as I will need to contact you to collect your address to send you your book. Feel free to send me a love note if you have any specific questions on using the Seamless Pattern maker, etc.

update: Let me clarify.... you don't literally have to make this a pattern FROM Hell. :) Just make a super cool pattern limited to the color palette.

If you must have this book now, you can also order it on Amazon.com here (available in both print and on the kindle)...annnnd if having the book just isn't enough, there are a few other funnies you can get from the CHF store here.

And just because I can't get enough of these...

"I’m not trying to be cheap, I just don’t have that much money." - clientsfromhell.net

“I want the visitors to have a fresh experience each time they visit. So, I want you to design atleast 25 different websites so that every time they visit they will get a new experience.”  - clientsfromhell.net

“In the interests of working together, I would appreciate it if you could do this free of charge.”  - clientsfromhell.net

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What an amazing opportunity for you! One of our great partners, Spoonflower.com is joining forces with Michael Miller Fabrics to find their next license designer for the Michael Miller Fabrics' line. This is an opportunity of a lifetime! Check the full details on projectselvage.com. CONTEST ENDS MARCH 24th

There will be 10 finalists not to mention an ultimate WINNER. Finalists get some great goodies!

• * $100 Spoonflower Credit
• * 10-yards of Michael Miller Fabric (chosen by finalist)

While you might be sitting there thinking, well I don't have design software at my fingertips, actually, you do...and for free to boot. If you don't already know about it, COLOURlovers.com has it's very own Seamless Pattern maker on hand, on site. Just go to Create > Pattern > Design a Pattern (see below image).

While you are probably going to find it a tough competition if you've never used this type of design tool before, this is an opportunity for COLOURlovers who already create some pretty fantastic work with this tool to utilize their talents and maybe win big. Do make sure you read the rules to enter throughly.

We would love to see any design you submit, so please by all means post it in the comments. Good Luck!

If you don't plan on submitting anything, please feel free to post your own Michael Miller inspirations related to the contest.

Don't go anywhere!!! There's a super fantastic book giveaway after our feature presentation!

Just holding this book makes me go, "ahhh..."

Everyone is raving about the quality of book #2 compared to book #1 (or published media in general). I don't blame them. I almost didn't mention it, because everyone else has, but that was ALSO my initial thought upon receiving my copy of the book. Straight from the box, I instinctively noticed these things in this order:

First, I noticed that I can plop it in my purse, no problem (and I don't carry an overly-large purse!). It's not too heavy or too many square/cubic inches. That's important, because I dread getting a great book, but eyeballing how thick it is sometimes hurts as I rarely have time for reading real books. My arms aren't going to fall off trying to hold it up while I'm laying in bed reading it.

Second, most definitely the quality. Smashing Magazine did not skimp on getting this little ditty published. Quality, stitch-bound, hard cover and hefty pages that produce sharp graphics. It's a nice tight number that you'll probably keep on your desk or prop on a shelf just because it's so pretty.

Third, artwork and graphics, amazing! They seriously couldn't go wrong with using Yiying Lu (yes, forever known as the creator of the famous Fail Whale from Twitter.com). But seriously, who can resist that kind of work, I know my three year old can't! What three year old do you know peruses a web and graphic design book with focus and interest? I will admit mine has a great attention span, but still... I'm caught flipping through the pages simply studying the chapter artwork. I have to laugh at myself.

Fourth and last, the cutest little ribbon bookmark comes attached. What a nice little touch! I bet this is the most talked about ribbon bookmark in the history of books. I suppose I will not be lazily dog-earing my new book.

So hands down on the book construction and makeup. Smashing you get a full applause in that area (I think everyone else would agree, no?)!

My thoughts from reading & perusing...

Chapters include:

2. #1 The Principles of Great Graphic Deisign
3. #2 Visible vs. Invisible Design
4. #3 Designing Mobile User Experiences
5. #4 Sketching, Wireframing and Prototyping
6. #5 Red Flags (Warning Signs) in Web Development
7. #6 The Future of Web Typeography
8. #7 Applying Game Design Principles to User Experience Design
9. #8 When they Click: Psychology of Web Design and User Behavior
10. #9 Design Patterns in e-Commerce Websites (Study)
11. #10 How to Make a Book (Like this One)

I realize that you can make something look pretty dang great, but fill it with garbage. Not in this case. I might be a bit bias because I am a HUGE fan of Smashing Magazine and the fantastic information they continue to provide to the design and web communities.... I will note, however, that the previous Smashing Book #1 seemed somewhat of a letdown to a "few" folks, which has become more prevailiant with Book #2 being such a positive hit and maybe with more of a comeback in the comparisons being made.

My primary area is Design. Both in print and web. And I will openly admit, I'm not ever going to be in the one of the top designers of the world because of this and that - so a book like this is absolutely PERFECT for me. I think anyone who wants a nice review, more insight

What I enjoyed in the first chapter was the correlation between the two, how different and yet similar they are.

"It stands to reason, then, that the process of design involves making deliberate and appropriate graphical choices in order to best communicate the intended message. This applies as much to designing for the Web as it does to designing for print." - excerpt, page 15

What I most enjoyed about this chapter was it's focus on using design effectively and timelessly. When I was reading through the pages of Timeless Thinking - which included talk about simplicity, adding too much gaudy junk (aka ornaments), minimalism, contrast, space and tension... it really brought me back to the basics in art school and working with drawing techniques. Sometimes I feel that I start a project over-designing and after I get that part about needing to impress the client out of my system and go minimal, it never fails to be the winning pick - this chapter was a kick in the pants refresher.

Then I read on to variations of  Type and its effectiveness as well as the role it plays. Overall, a golden chapter to set your path a little straighter or teach you a few things.

"While a good graphic designer works to create an attractive design for the client, a great graphic designer pushes further, striving to understand the  crux of the project's objective. The great designer builds on the various concepts ..." - excerpt, page 44

My other favorite, is chapter 7: Applying Game Design Principles to User Experience Design. What I most enjoyed was the play off of understanding the correlation between the two to make an easier way to think about UX Design. My favorite part starting with the section, The Name of the Game which goes through each of the five key attributes of the "game" of online interaction. It became a fun way to think about UX Design.

In conclusion, I like that the end of each chapter will sum up with a number of useful resources, about the author, some history from that section and even a nice extra Reading List for more in-depth study on a subject if interested - actually, I would have liked more reading resources at the ends of more chapters. I thought that was very helpful and resourceful to place in one area, instead of having to dig back through my dog-eared and highlighted pages and notes to locate a good resource I just know I marked.

I do find that this book is something I will be keeping on my desk for some time to reference and re-reference when my mind is fogged or fighting to go a direction my gut knows I shouldn't.

THE GIVEAWAY!

Are you tired of hearing me blab blab blab about the book? Are you just dying to get your hands on your own copy? Well here's your chance, we have 3 copies in our giveaway!

Contest Rules are simple. This will be a random drawing of three lucky commenters who provide the following information in their comment:

Please provide what your specialty is be it Design Warlord, Freelance Web Designer or Couch Potato... but seriously, I would like to know what you do for money or fun in the relationship to wanting the book in your grubby little paws.

The contest will run from March 10th, 2011 through March 18th, 2011 - Winners will be announced the following week, Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011. Winners will also be emailed via Love Notes on COLOURlovers.com so make sure you turn your notifications ON for both in-site and email so that I can collect your address and get your prize out ASAP. Contest is for COLOURlovers.com users only, so if you aren't a member, get signed up and get commenting!

update: Did I forget to mention you can of course buy the book here (at SmashingMagazine.com) as well as preview a sample from the book and get other details. Pop on over and check it out!

But wait there's MORE! Apparently there was just too much good stuff to go to print, so Smashing Magazine is GIVING you a FREE eBOOK called The Lost Files (free eBook).

*********SUBMISSION TO THE CONTEST IS CLOSED*********

Results will be posted Tuesday, March 22nd (unless they magically appear on Monday the 21st. ;) Have a great weekend everyone!

We're going to outer space with NASA and Etsy as they team up for a craft / design contest; the winner will get a $500 worth of Etsy delights, a good seat at the next Space Shuttle launch, and they might even put your work into orbit. We witness three distinctly colored lobsters at The Maritime Aquarium, one of the one of the rarest occurrences in the history of marine biology, according to NBC Connecticut. We take in some soft wood tones with recycled wood flooring by Staybull Flooring. Then find color inspiration with the collage work of Jacob Whibley.

Science

1 in 900,000,000,000,000,000,000

Via TreeHugger

...one is sky blue, one pumpkin orange, and the other is calico with yellow spots. Lobster shells are normally blackish-green while they are alive, but genetic abnormalities can cause them to turn different colors.

The three lobsters together in Norwalk are probably something never seen before or will ever be seen again... Continue Reading

Home

Recycled Wood Flooring by Staybull Flooring

Via Inhabitat

Recycled flooring manufacturer Staybull Flooring is working to cut out the waste cycle in the flooring industry by salvaging over 20 species of discarded lumber from mills across the world. The strips are fused together with VOC-free adhesives and finished to create an eco-friendly flooring product with many benefits. The material has an extended lifespan compared to concrete installations and features a unique, mosaic-like aesthetic.

Read more: Staybull Makes Recycled Wood Flooring Out of Lumber Scraps | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World

Contest

NASA + Etsy

If you've ever been inspired by astronauts, black holes and zero gravity, you're in luck! Etsy is partnering with NASA to host an exciting contest.

After 50 momentous years and over 130 missions to the cosmos, NASA's Space Shuttle Program will draw to a close in 2011 as it reaches its long-term goal of completing the International Space Station. To honor the program and celebrate its many accomplishments, we're calling for designs inspired by NASA, its programs and the wonders of space exploration. Invigorate your inner maker with all that is known (and unknown) about our universe.

So get on board! There are three categories under which to enter your design(s):

2D Original Art (painting, drawing, hand-pulled print, mixed media or flat collage)
2D Art Reproduction (photographic or computer-generated print)
3D Art (any size or material — this includes anything not 2D, wearable art and soft sculpture are acceptable)

With the whole cosmos for inspiration, the contest prizes are beyond stellar:

Grand Prize Winner (1): The Grand Prize winner will receive a $500 Etsy shopping spree and an all-expenses-paid trip with a guest to attend the shuttle launch at Kennedy Space Center in Cocoa, Florida in February as NASA's VIP guests. Includes a VIP tour.
Best in Category Winners (3*): Best in Category winners will receive $250 and swag from Etsy and NASA.
*Please note: the Grand Prize winner will be taken out of the running for Best in Category.
Winning designs (or photographs of designs) may even be flown up into space on the shuttle!

More Contest info can be found here.

Art

Collages by Jacob Whibley

Via but does it float

At the end of 2009 we launched a fun app to let you the people define and share what color you saw representing 2010. Well this year isn't over and we still want you to name the color you feel best embodies this year... and to sweeten the deal, we're going to give away a huge box of color goodies to 5 random color trendsetters that name their color.

See, we at COLOURlovers think the smartest and most talented people in the world really do set the color trends... they create the next great designs that shape our creative landscape and they vote with their dollars and purchase the colors they love... So we want their option, YOUR opinion. Name your color of 2010 and win awesome COLOURloving stuff.

Name Your Color of 2010. Click Here.

All you need to do is use ColoroftheYear.com - to name & describe your Color of 2010.
Your thoughtful entry will get you in the running for one of those 5 goodie boxes... and if you share your color via Facebook or Twitter, you'll double your chances and get a second entry in the drawing.

Win an Awesome Creative Goodie Box Worth $200+

We'll award 5 random trendsetters with a creative goodie box that includes:

				ColorSchemer Software ($49.99) The best professional color software from creative folks. The new ColorSchemer let's you browse palettes on COLOURlovers and a future update will let you start making and publishing palettes to COLOURlovers too.
				COLOURlovers Sponsorship (x2) ($40.00) We'll give you two sponsored memberships to COLOURlovers. Use one and give another to a friend. It lasts all year... and we're adding more and more great benefits for sponsors.
				COLOURlovers T-Shirt (x2) ($36.00) You share the color love all the time... Now you can wear the color love too! You'll get our logo shirt and our color love blind shirt.
				Spoonflower Gift Certificate ($50) Have you made some beautiful patterns with Seamless? Well, why not order that pattern on some fabric from our friends at Spoonflower?
				Action Method - Journal ($17.50) Take notes about all your wonderful ideas with an Action Journal. http://www.creativesoutfitter.com/Products/Action-Journal/19
				Moo Mini Card Pack($20) Moo prints mini cards with a selection of some great palettes from COLOURlovers... but you could also put something else beautiful on your cards... like your face. You decide!

Name a Color in 5 Easy Steps.

As you complete one step, the next will automatically give you suggestions to help you find your color.
1. Describe Your Color
2. Choose Your Hue
3. Set Your Mood
4. Select Your Color
5. Woohoo! You Found Your Color

Now all you need to do now is name your color. Share it with your friends and post the badge in the comments below too.

(Only 1 entry per person will count towards the drawing, but you're free to name more than 1 color of 2010. You have to name your color by September 9th... We'll announced the winners September 10th.
*And make sure you login somehow otherwise we won't know how to get your your goodie box.*)

One thing this community isn't short of is creativity around playing with color. Using our pattern tool to make designs for a RYZ shoe helped create more than 1,500 contest entries. As with any contest with so many great entries, choosing an overall winner was near impossible. We used your votes (more than 20,000) and our panel of judges to make the hard decision... and the winner is:

Suwaili by Darkstar

You can Pre-order the COLOURlovers shoe here.

Along with the grand COLOURlovers winner, there was also one original pattern winner:
Polygon Camo by MEKAZOO

This original pattern will be added to our library of patterns for your enjoyment.

Thanks to all our lovers for participating in this great contest. We look forward to working with RYZ more in the future and finding new and interesting ways to use our pattern maker to color your real lives.

RYZ is a very cool design community from our local hood of Portland OR, and we're excited to be doing a joint contest with them around the patterns on our site.  It's easy.  All you have to do is color one of our pattern templates so that it makes an awesome shoe design and you could win $1,000.

For the Love of Patterns, RYZ & COLOURlovers invite you to design the FIRST PATTERN ONLY SHOE to be included in the RYZ Collection.

How To Enter

1. Use the COLOURlovers' Pattern Tool to create the best pattern on the block. (We put all the patterns we can use for this contest in one category in our pattern tool.)

2. Once you have your colors just right, publish the pattern to save it.

3. On the viewing page for your pattern cick the Download the RYZ Show Template button.

4. Save the template to your computer and then upload it on the RYZ site.

You can upload as many patterns as you want, so clear your calendar for the next week until June 30th when submissions end.

Voting begins July 1st and will end July 14th. The winner will be announced July 20th. Check here for more details.

Only 3 designs max. per participant can make it into the final round - the voting cycle. 18 designs will make it into the voting round and only 1 will take home the grand prize - $750 cash and $250 store credit to the RYZ shop - plus free sponsored memberships at COLOURlovers.

You all are just way to talented! Choosing 3 winners from the 1,500 entries was an incredibly difficult task. It actually took more than a few hours to look at all the entries. (You can view all the contest entries here: Photo Color Inspiration with LuckyOliver) So many were creative, interesting and works of art themselves... but in the end we only have enough prizes for 3 winners and here they are:

1st Prize 8GB iPod Touch or $300 via US check or PayPal 50 LuckyOliver tokens

2nd Prize iPod Shuffle or $79 via US check or PayPal 50 LuckyOliver tokens

3rd Prize iTunes Gift Card or $25 via US check or PayPal 25 LuckyOliver tokens

Honorable Entries

Getting 3 from 1,500 was nearly impossible. Along the way we kept trimming the list of palettes we loved down to a smaller number and the palettes below stayed with us for most of the way. Even though they didn't win, we wanted to share a little extra love with these palettes.

LuckyOliver is a growing stock photo marketplace that helps creative people buy and sell images. LuckyOliver's quality, low cost stock photos are used by designers, small businesses, marketers and DIY enthusiasts.

The Contest is Now Closed.

Wow! So many amazing entries. We're now looking at the more than 1,500 entries to find the winners of the contest. We'll be posting the results very soon. Thank you to all who shared some of your color inspiration.

Contest Details:

LuckyOliver.com is a great place to get wonderful stock photos at a good price... and COLOURlovers is a great place to share color ideas and inspiration. With your help we want to showcase some of the great photos on LuckyOliver and also your color loving talents at making color palettes. All you need to do to enter this contest is create a color palette inspired by a photo on LuckyOliver. We know you love sharing your color inspiration with others and now we're giving you the opportunity to win some awesome prizes for doing exactly what you love to do... So crank up your inspiration motors and start sharing the photo and color love.

This content will end March 17th and the winners will be announced on both COLOURlovers and LuckyOliver.com. Winners will be selected for the best palettes that captured the spirit / mood of the inspiration photo. Enter early and enter often.

How to Enter:

Step 1

Browse the great images at LuckyOliver.com and choose one that inspires you.

 

Step 2

Save the watermarked photo preview to your computer

 
And Copy the URL to the photo