Resources. Leather bound book with green apple.

Its time for a new icon contest! Tell me what you want me to design for you! If you could pick one icon, that you’d have an enormous use of, what would it be?

I’m going to design a new collection of beautiful and handy icons. There will be around ten icons in the set, based on the ideas of the winners who’ll get the collection for free!

This time the theme is taking care of business, whether it’s the administrative aspect of your life such as filing taxes, planning your next vacation, dealing with your budget or running a small business, it makes it much more fun and easy when you can locate what you need with ease! Adding beauty to your digital space will make these tasks more enjoyable too.

As an example, this icon of a leather bound book and a green apple with dew from the Organizer Collection is an icon symbol for “resources”, but it would also work for “to read”, “legal”, “stash”, “research”, “reference”, “writing”, “book”, “learning”, “teaching”, “nutrition”, “tutorials” or anything else you feel that it represents.

Which files and projects do you need to find with ease? What kind of files and folders do you create on a regular basis? What do your most important and favourite projects look like? It might be an icon that’s a metaphor for documents that need printing, receipts from online purchases or sales, travel expenses, itineraries, art and crafting supplies, invoices, marketing materials, there are endless possibilities! You can enter the competition with one idea for an icon and one idea for the name of the set.

I’d love to hear if you have more ideas or thoughts around the project, but to make it fair to everyone, your main idea will be the one that you can enter the competition with.

The deadline for the icon contest is in two weeks, Friday 19th of March. So take the chance to influence this collection of icons with your ideas and thoughts and needs. Win the icons you really, really want! Please comment to enter the competition.

Tags: getting organized, Icons, organize, productive, productivity

A New Year Begins

Colourful Stationery

A New Year begins with a blend of old and new. I decided to actually use some of the scrumptious stationery that I keep saving for a special day, a special project. Why not start the year by making 2010 special, I thought, and broke in my orange leather note and sketchbook with some sketches for fabric designs.

One of my Christmas presents was a new diary from Swedish Ordning & Reda, whose range of funky, colourful stationery make your eyes smile!

For daily use, I like the calligraphy pen and packs of gel ink pens from earth-friendly, minimalist and innovative Muji from Japan.

Origami To-Do Notes

The box of delightful origami paper has been salvaged from my collection of paper treasures and I’m using it for notes and to-do’s. It felt like a bold step, but I wasn’t prepared for just what a huge difference it makes to my days! It’s a simple technique. I write down one thing to do on the back of a piece of origami paper, and when the job’s done the origami paper goes on my notice board, creating a beautiful collage, and a rewarding, visual payoff. It’s so inspiring and tactile to handle and use these gorgeous origami papers daily, and in a casual way.

A Personalised Computer Desktop

Now that my desk has a little stack of purple and orange stationery to keep me inspired and on track, I cleaned up my disastrously messy computer desktop and populated my current projects with Luminous Purple and Orange Folder Icons. Then I weeded out my RSS feed, e-mail subscriptions and bookmarks to a minimum.

Now I feel happy and wildly virtuous, and I think I’ll put-off sorting out my e-mail and have lunch instead!

A box of origami paper.

Origami to-do notes.

Tags: carpe diem, getting organized, goals, Japan, Luminous Folder Icons, motivation, organized, origami paper, productive, productivity, seize the day, stationery, to-do list, workspace

About the Workflow Collection

The Workflow Collection brings an essential, flowing and harmonious structure to your desktop with a minimum of effort, by organically following your workflow.

Workflow is designed to give your desktop or design a graceful, timeless and classic look & feel, featuring a vibrant colour palette and wood textures that contribute to a fluid and natural design. The Workflow Collection effortlessly integrates a Getting Things Done (GTD) approach into your digital life.

Workflow Personal Licence $7
Workflow Commercial Licence $27

• Inbox, full wooden inbox, to organize, to sort out
• To Do, wooden clipboard with paper, to read, to learn, to listen to
• Doing, metal gear, current, WIP, work in progress, ongoing, doing now, active project
• Pending, hourglass, deal with later, perhaps
• Done, empty wooden inbox, finished, completed, to archive
• Archive, wood filing drawer, archived
• Matching Wooden Folder, available as free sample download.

Download a free sample of the Workflow collection.

Tags: folder icons, getting organized, Getting Things Done, glass, GTD, metal, organized, paper, productive, productivity, texture, wood, workflow

About the Organizer Collection

The Organizer Collection is designed to give you the elements for tailoring an original, stylish and efficient strategy for your desktop.

Crafted with attention to detail, Organizer introduces a contemporary and efficient collection of icons with a rich colour palette and elegant leather textures.

Workflow Personal Licence $7
Workflow Commercial Licence $37

• Downloads, shoe box, to organize, to sort out
• Clutter, Matryoshka, Russian nested doll, to sort out, disaster, miscellaneous
• Resources, book and apple, stash, research, reference, to read, legal
• Finances, leather wallet and coins, economy, invoices
• Inspiration, a rainbow and clouds, nice things, love to do, dream projects
• Work, leather briefcase, business, formal
• Freelance Work, leather satchel, bag, portable, informal, travel
• To Publish, red plastic pushpin, files ready to post online
• Learn & Teach, blackboard with chalk and eraser, tutorials, school, presentations
• Code, laboratory glassware, flask, coding, experiment, chemistry
• Backup, umbrella, backed up files and data
• Genealogy, tree with stylized, green leaves, family tree, family history
• Matching Leather Folder Icon, available as free sample download.

Download a free sample of the Workflow collection.

Tags: folder icons, getting organized, glass, leather, organized, paper, plastic, productive, productivity, texture, wood

About the Creative Collection

Stylish, tactile and unique, the Creative Collection is designed to give you the tool to be an inspired, creative bohemian and still have an effective system for finding your creative projects at your fingertips.

Creative is a refined and original collection of icons with a vibrant, radiant colour palette and elegant wood textures.

Workflow Personal Licence $7
Workflow Commercial Licence $37

• Writing, quill pen, documents
• Books, stack of books, to read, reading
• Published, printing block and printed green leaf, gone to print, eco-friendly printing
• Composing Music, pencil and pencilled g-clef
• Music, vinyl LP album, music collection
• Photos, photographic camera lens, photography, camera, photo collection
• Design, color wheel, graphics, swatch, colors
• Art, palette, paints, colours
• Needlework, cotton reel, knitting, wool, crochet, weaving, embroidery, quilting
• Crafting, scissors, scrapbooking, editing,
• Recipes, recipe book with traditional red and white check tablecloth pattern, my cooking experience, nutrition
• Gardening, plant in clay plant pot, garden and landscaping, growing, growth, ecological, eco, environment, green
• Matching Light Wood Folder Icon
• Matching Dark Wood Folder Icon, available as free sample download.

Download a free sample of the Creative collection.

Tags: creative, Creativity, folder icons, getting organized, glass, organized, paper, productive, productivity, texture, wood