icon sketch, stamp of approval

Here are some sketches for the new set of icons I’m working on. This collection is called Process, and just as with my previous collections of desktop icons, I started off by asking you what kind of icons you need the most. The answer this time was that you need icons that indicate which stage of the process your important files and documents are in. You need to know at a glance where your sketches and drafts are, what’s overdue or urgent, what needs to be done today and which one is the final and approved version. So here we go…

The creative process starts by sketching the basic shape that creates an identity for the icon. A clear and distinct silhouette helps the user to quickly and easily find what they’re looking for. When I start designing the icons, I think about giving each icon a distinctive look that stands out on the desktop. Striving for a simple solution, less is more. [To be continued... ]

Process icon collection, sketches of lock, calendar and moleskine

Tags: creative process, design, ink, sketch

Here’s a second roundup of useful and inspiring resources and links.

It’s a mixed bag. Ideas for easy blogging. Thoughts on digital downsizing and social media as well as some beautiful and thoughtful inspiration for life.

EASY SUMMERTIME BLOGGING

• Take the 7 Link Challenge Today. The idea is to create a “sneeze page” that helps visitors to find the highlights of your blog, even as they drop off the front page of your blog. It’s an easy and fun challenge, and of course you can be creative and modify the questions if you like. From ProBlogger.
• Take a break from the pressures and expectations of regular blogging and let your photos do the all the talking for the month of August. The August Break is hosted by talented and lovely photographer & writer Susannah Conway.
• Blogging In a New Light: Simple Blogging. Turn your day into a poetic, enchanting poem accompanied by a photo. By mixed media artist Susan Tuttle.

TIME TO TAKE A BREAK FROM SOCIAL MEDIA?

• Time for a Digital Sabbatical? By Gwen Bell who owns a yoga studio, is writing a book about digital intimacy and is one of 2010′s Most Influential Women in Tech.
• Have you ever felt like you were spending too much time on social networking? Here’s a great read: Breaking Up the Social Networking Way. By paper aficionado Jen who creates delightful things made of paper and blogs at Simply Said.
• Social Media Has Damaged My Attention Span. An interesting article by jewelry designer and blogger Brandi who lives her life inspired by colour. Find Brandi’s jewelry at Catie’s Blue and her blog at Brandi Girl.
• Input vs. Creativity (Or, Thoughts on Surfing the Web) an interesting read by the ever resourceful, helpful, talented and friendly Sister Diane of CraftyPod.

INSPIRATION FOR LIFE

• Here are three thought-provoking articles for people who want to live life on their own terms by self development guru cowboy, Jonathan Mead of Illuminated Mind: Write Your Own Permission Slip, The Three Ways to Deal With Difficult Emotions and How to Overcome Limiting Beliefs.
• Finally, don’t miss writer and crafter Megs’ inspirational manifesto Live Like a Handful of Smarties. From Made By Megs.

Did you miss the first roundup of Resources for Creative Entrepreneurs?

Have you got any good reads about blogging, social media and digital downsizing that you’d like to share?

Tags: blogging, how-to, Inspiration, resources, social media, tutorials

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by desktop clutter and you’re looking for a quick and easy method to tidy up your desktop and keep your digital environment tidy and organized, here’s a technique to get organized once and for all.

Maria João Valente has been using Workflow Desktop Icons to structure her digital workflow with a minimum of effort, for more than a year.

“Basically it allows me to keep files organized and an uncluttered desktop (both essential to my sanity).”

Workflow Desktop Icons

Everything revolves around three main folders, “Doing”, “To-do” and “Archive”. These can be accessed directly via the Dock on a Mac, and are regularly checked or re-organized according to the workflow. All other folders are out of sight and serve as permanent storage for further use.

Here’s a flow chart of Maria’s digital workflow.

• The Work Zone contains all the files or folders that are being used now (i.e. this week).
• The To-Do Zone has stuff to be reviewed as soon as I have the time. (Hint: most of the downloaded files get here, to be organized later. Another Hint: I use Hazel to keep this place organized by file type.)
• The Out Zone folder is where I place all files or folders that are going to be exported and stored off my computer, either on an external HD, a DVD or online.

Maintaining a peaceful and productive desktop is easy when you follow your workflow.

By sharing her process, Maria hopes to help you get you going organizing your digital stuff. (Or share with us the process you’re already using.)

Maria João Valente is an archaeologist, university professor and a passionate Mac user. She lives in Portugal and blogs about her interests at Mac ao Quadrado. You can read my interview with Maria here or follow her on Twitter.

Tags: customer story, digital environment, getting organized, how-to, Inspiration, organized, overwhelm, productivity, simplicity, tutorials, workflow

White Persian Cat Icon

These Cute Cat icons have just been released over at the Iconfactory. The collection includes six cat breeds: the Abyssinian, American Shorthair, Bombay, Russian Blue, Siamese and White Persian.

It was a snowy weekend in January, when these super cute, kawaii inspired cat illustrations first turned up. It started with one, and although I wasn’t sure what to do with them, they gradually expanded into a whole family of cat characters and suddenly it became clear to me, that they wanted to be icons.

Now I’m writing from the middle of July. There’s a heat wave. Summer dresses made of cotton or linen, watermelon, iced coffee, Gazpacho (cold Spanish vegetable soup), Chlodnik (Polish chilled beetroot soup), Ajo Blanco (Spanish chilled almond soup), nectarines, feta cheese and midnight swims in the lake are my life savers. And the creative process for Cute as a Button illustrations seems far away. In deep winter. But here they are, the first volume of Cute Cat icons.

Tags: cats, character, creative process, cute, Cute as a Button, illustration, Japan, kawaii

iPhone photography: city walls Visby

Here’s my letter from my journey to Visby on Gotland, my snapshots, my postcards, some of my thoughts and visual inspirations. A letter from “the island of roses and ruins”.

iPhone photography: blue cottage with roses, Visby, Gotland

This adorable cottage covered in roses is one of many in Klinten, the upper part of old Visby. So picturesque that it’s almost surreal! And yet, Klinten used to be a poor part of town. Today, these properties fetch a high price.

iPhone photography: ruined cathedral, Visby, Gotland

In the old part of Visby there are so many ruined churches from the 11-13th centuries that you can easily lose count. But why are the ruins still there? Why, in all these centuries, didn’t anyone tear them down? These ruins in the middle of a city that played such an important role? Because all ruins start off as derelict buildings, and it isn’t until hundreds of years later that we can appreciate them as ruins and even think of them as romantic.

Some sources claim that after the churches were abandoned, they were used to keep cattle in and that the city by then was so poor that they couldn’t afford to pull down the buildings. It’s intriguing. And to think if there will be any ruins left from our time? To imagine people in hundreds of years, strolling through ruins built in our days, snapping photos and imagining our time…

iPhone photography: poppies

On my way to the beach to gather my thoughts, I came across these poppies and I snapped this shot before wandering along the seashore.

iPhone photography: the baltic sea

I was thinking about cities, and how they grow with time, how the patchwork of different times gets stitched into the weave of the city and how it reminds me of growth and “imperfection”. Memories living on the same doorstep as day-to-day life. That a city evolves much like a human, with bits and pieces from different times, with scars, additions, broken parts, victories, plans, dreams and losses. That all these layers of truths, or identities, each as valid, blend into the identity of the city. Or the person.

iPhone photography: purple poppy

As I cut through the Botanical Gardens, I took a photo of this purple poppy. When I got back home I was struck by the serendipity of it! What happened? Where did the glow come from? I don’t know, but it looks magic.

iPhone photography: flowers on patterned table cloth

At the crêperie in Visby I’m taken aback by the combination of romantic flowers in a vase and a bold, modern, black and white pattern on the table cloth.

iPhone photography: peacock pattern

Café Krönet has the most amazing view of the Baltic Sea as well as the most imaginatively designed restroom with this fabulous peacock pattern on the wallpaper as well as framed as a picture.

And finally, another serendipitous photo, this time of a poppy. Ordinary magic.

iPhone photography: poppy

Tags: identity, imperfection, iPhoneography, layers, patterns, serendipity, travel