Free icons to help you be more productive with neatly organized projects.

Vintage Folder Icons

Vintage Folder Icons is a series of free icons inspired by vintage textures, retro textiles and old film. With their grainy texture, these icons bring a touch of nostalgia to your desktop, while helping you stay organised by color coding your projects. They fit nicely together with the popular series, Luminous Folder Icons.

To maximize your productivity, all of the Vintage folder icons have got small, crisp hand-drawn versions for the small sizes that show up in list-view.

Available in Seaside (red, blue and sand).

Luminous Folder Icons

Luminous Folder Icons are designed to kick start your desktop with an uncluttered, productive and beautiful desktop environment. Bring a splash of colour to your digital environment and inhabit your desktop with your favourite colours. This series of free icons is designed to help you visually personalize your desktop and color code your projects to work more efficiently.

To maximize your productivity, all of the Luminous folder icons have got small, crisp hand-drawn versions for the small sizes that show up in list-view.

Available in Blue, Purple, Orange, Pink and Ready Steady Go (red, yellow and green).

Legacy Icon Archive

Looking for the icon archives? Here’s a decade of free icons, designed for what now are vintage operating systems. From pixel art like Hype Hair and Knot Right? (How to tie a tie), to icons in a modern style such as Daffodils and Hieroglyphica (Egyptian hieroglyphs).

You’ll find these retired icons in the Legacy Icon Archive.

Tags: blue, color code, digital environment, ease, folder icons, getting organized, green, Luminous Folder Icons, orange, pink, pixel art, productivity, purple, red, simplicity, yellow

A Bed of Roses. Collage.

New Year’s Eve will be lit by a Blue Moon and the moonlight will welcome the new year, 2010. Obviously, this only happens once in a blue moon!

As I prepared my dreamboard for the Full Moon Circle, I thought a lot about this. The Blue Moon shining as fireworks go off and the new year rings in. The passage between the first and second decade of this century.

Then I thought about the word I’ve chosen to guide me through the New Year. My word is “ease”. I thought of clouds and minimalism. But in the end my research of the word and its origin lead me to the synonym “bed of roses”, and that was irresistible! So here it is, passionate, romantic ease!

Tags: collage, dreamboard, dreams, ease, full moon, making wishes, red, vintage, yellow

The creative process of The Full Cold Moon

Here you can get a peek into the creative process of The Full Cold Moon.

How it started off with the basic composition with bare trees and a full moon. How I added snow and then a bird that got too detailed to fit in with the rest of the image. How I gave the bird flat colours so it would fit in with its surroundings, although I still miss the bird in all its glory!

Tags: art, birds, creative process, full moon, grey, red, snow, white, winter

Dreamboard. Full Cold Moon. December 2009.

Something astonishing happened while I was creating this dreamboard. Three nights in a row, I heard a bird sing just as I was watching the moon. That’s something quite unusual at this time of year, to hear a bird sing at all, and particularly at night… So I realised that a bird had to be part of this dreamboard, and I created a bird that is red and alone, so the bird would stand out as clearly as the birdsong I had heard.

I’m asking December to bring me a peaceful and white winter. Time to recharge. To appreciate the beauty around me and bring it into my home. I see effortless, playful minimalism and strength in this dreamboard too. And music.

This is the third dreamboard I’ve made and the first one that actually has the moon in it. Here you can see some images from the creative process behind The Full Cold Moon.

My previous dreamboards have been about exploring creative expressions and giving my creativity wings, but when I look at this dreamboard I see a winter holiday card and a pattern for textiles. I’d like to make curtains like this! I’m not sure how I could make it a repeating pattern vertically, but I’ll see what I can do to put this idea into print. This is a creative dream I’d like to bring into my new year!

I love the intuitive process that these dreamboards bring out! It’s so exciting and powerful! Thank you Jamie for hosting the Full Moon Dreamboard Circle!

Tags: birds, dreamboard, dreams, full moon, grey, making wishes, nature, red, snow, trees, white, winter

iPhone photography: Autumn landscape by the lake

This time of year each day comes with subtle or startling changes and it makes me feel so present, my senses alert, my heart happy and grateful.

iPhone photography: Yellow and orange leaves

Sometimes I wonder if I could express my impressions in the form of textile prints and tableware, but the whole industrial process seems pretty daunting!

iPhone photography: Oak and pine tree

On my walks I’ve been listening to CraftSanity podcasts, a recommendation from New York artist Dana Barbieri who is working on a an inspiring Art Book project. I also joined a Facebook group “Faceless for six days”, the idea is to see how it feels to not use Facebook. So be warned, my Facebook footprint will be even tinier than usual!

Saturday’s The Experience Animation and Technology Exhibition 2009 where students of Hyper Island featured interactive and digital art powered by Wii technology turned out to be an exciting sensory overload! A few projects that made a deep impression were Soul Music (create music and light effects by dancing), The Jacksson Pollock Experience (make your own virtual “drip” technique paintings), The Triforce Installation (create ambient sounds and light animations) and the ingenious ThisPlay (hand held touch screen paper displays).

iPhone photography: Orange leaves

Here’s another image with leaves that makes me think of transferring my impressions into pattern design.

Then again, I’m enjoying the ease of photography. The fast process is perfect for capturing ideas and makes such a contrast to the long and sometimes complicated process involved when I create with other techniques.

I hope you’re enjoying your weekend and that next week will glow exhilarating!

Tags: autumn, carpe diem, gratitude, inspiration, iPhoneography, leaves, nature, orange, podcasts, red, seize the day, senses, sensual, yellow