New Flare Preset: Overcast

I still love the Iconfactory’s Flare app for the Mac. I’ve actually gotten to use it on some print projects lately with great results. Sure, with a little effort, I could probably replicate the effect in Photoshop, but Flare’s a lot more fun and pretty much effortless.

I’ve posted a new preset: Overcast. It will make a photo look dramatically overcast by desaturating it and adding a vignette and rough-edged border.

My new favorite technique with Flare is to apply it to art created in Illustrator. Adds a whole bunch of texture and character. The design below is a sample of my new Raceday font. On the left, the JPG exported from Illustrator. On the right, processed by Flare with my Overcast setting. Big difference.

SbB Sorts

SbB Sorts is a symbol font comprised of 66 simple icons. Over the years, I’ve needed many of these symbols for a quick layout or comp and had to take time to draw them. So I made this as a time saver for me, but figured someone else out there might also benefit from it. SbB Sorts includes:

• Social symbols: Simple icons for Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and more. Plus a Like-style thumbs up.
• Random shapes: Locks, triangles, stars, a heart, dice and other potentially useful items.

A quick tip: If you are using a Creative Suite app, your best bet for finding a particular icon is to use the Glyphs Palette. Much faster than randomly typing characters.

You can download SbB Sorts for free in the Download Fonts section.

Design and Code: My Next Steps

I haven’t posted in a while – mainly because of a newborn baby and the corresponding lack of time and energy. But I’ve also taken a break because I’ve been thinking about what I want to do with Sketchbook B.

Sketchbook B is my outlet for side projects. Those fun or challenging projects that end up in my sketchbook that I want to build for myself. What I’ve noticed recently is that most of the side projects that I’m really interested in will require me to learn to program to some degree.

I’ve worked with web design before, but I never really truly embraced writing HTML/CSS/Javascript by hand. I’ve played around with Objective C, but I’m ready to get serious about iOS development. I’ve designed type, but I never tapped into the added power of using Python.

If I really want to design in these spaces – and have the control I want – I need to get comfortable with code.

I’m started the process of learning. My real focus is on Objective C, Xcode and iOS development. I’ve already been working off and on since last year on learning Objective C. I’m going to try and move forward with developing some apps. I’ve got a bunch of resources that I will be trying out and hopefully posting about.

I’m working a little bit with HTML/CSS/Javascript with CodeAcademy. I do know HTML/CSS reasonably well, but I figured a refresher wouldn’t hurt. And I’ve never really done much more than tinker with Javascript.

I’m leaving Python for last. The typeface development tools are pretty sophisticated as they are. I’m happy with Glyphs and I look forward to working with RoboFont in the future. Python adds power to the development process, but I can develop type without learning Python. So I’ll hold off on that until I have Objective C under my belt.

The result of all this learning is that I will likely be doing fewer typefaces and one-off projects over the next year. Instead, I’m going to be posting about the learning process and other topics that interest me.

But my real focus for the foreseeable future is learning a ton. And hopefully – eventually – that will mean lots of new projects in new areas.