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Confession: I am a Design Junkie

June 8th, 2007 at 02:19 pm

Hello.

My name is Tina, and I am a Design Junkie. (Hi Tina)

If you don't know what I mean, then read on and it might get a little clearer.

The concept of a junkie can apply to any type of design, really. Do you collect paint chip cards, fabric and wallpaper swatches, and pages from magazines with pictures of great rooms? Then you, my friend, are an Interior Design Junkie (IDJ). If you watch shows like "Pimp My Ride" or "OverHaulin" and get hyped up when the Discovery channel runs a show on future cars, the you are an Automotive Design Junkie (ADJ).

Personally, I'm a Graphic Design Junkie (GDJ). The symptoms:

1. I belong to a website called

Text is ColorLovers and Link is http://www.colorlovers.com
ColorLovers where people put together color palettes and you can collect them. I have 128 on my 'favorites' list and I want to find ways to use them all. When I look at some of these palettes of color, I can instantly see a business card or website or brochure made out of them. I just need to find a client to go with it.

2. I have over 1300 fonts. This isn't enough. When I have nothing else to do I scour the web looking for more. Got any good ones? Wanna trade (like baseball cards)?

3. I have so many fonts, I use a separate program to organize them. It's called
Text is The Font Thing and Link is http://members.ozemail.com.au/~scef/tft.html
The Font Thing. I can group them together in whatever method makes sense to me, so I have a groups like 'retro', 'futuristic', 'classic', 'funny', 'typewriter', etc. I can temporarily install a font, use it, and then uninstall it to keep things like MS Word from having 1300 fonts in it's list.

4. I have willingly browsed the
Text is Flickr set on business card design inspiration and Link is http://www.flickr.com/photos/dailypoetics/sets/72057594104389710/
Flickr set on business card design inspiration.

5. When I get bored and can't find any good fonts, I do weird things like make web 2.0 badges (aka 'violators' aka those star shaped sticker lookin' thingies on websites), glassy orbs and globes, cartoon flowers and people, and logos using Open Source software like
Text is the GIMP and Link is http://www.gimp.org
the GIMP and
Text is Inkscape and Link is http://www.inkscape.org
Inkscape. Just for fun, you know.

6. I can completely rationalize my desire to spend a couple hundred dollars on a used Wacom digitizer tablet (where you draw with a stylus instead of a mouse). After all, think of the money I'll save on co-pays and wrist braces by NOT developing carpal tunnel...

Edit: Can't believe I forgot # 7!
7. I have visited three online color picking and combining websites within the past month. Two of them are still up in one of my browser windows.
Text is Color Jack and Link is http://www.colorjack.com/sphere/
Color Jack let's you combine colors and then download the palette in several different formats.
Text is Well Styled's picker and Link is http://wellstyled.com/tools/colorscheme2/index-en.html
Well Styled's picker gives you fewer color combination options but more palette downloading options.
Text is VisiBone's ColorLab and Link is http://www.visibone.com/colorlab/
VisiBone's ColorLab has been around for years and is still one of the most popular pickers around. You can't download the palette, but it is the only one I've seen that will show you how one color will look like on another when used for text. Too neat...

*Sigh*

So, there you have it. My dirty little secret is out: I am a Graphic Design Junkie.

OK, enough writing. I'm gonna go drool over some pretty colors and download some more fonts!!! Big Grin

13 Responses to “Confession: I am a Design Junkie”

  1. monkeymama Says:
    1181312449

    Now you just have to figure out how to turn that into a career - sounds like your calling.

    You drool over colors and fonts like I drool over numbers and mutual fund prospectuses. Wink

    I can't say I *get it* but most people don't get me either - hehe. We all have our passions!

  2. pretty cheap jewelry Says:
    1181314154

    HAR HAR I need to learn how to write a brief appealing e mail newsletter this summer-any advice?

  3. moi aussi Says:
    1181314632

    you sound like a geek (in a good way, pls don't get mad.)

  4. tinapbeana Says:
    1181315345

    Moi, I freely admit I am quite the geek. It usually is a good thing, unless I get entered into some "who's got the best suntan" competition. Then I'm just hosed Big Grin  
     
    MM: Don't worry, I get your thing for numbers. There's something beautifully symetrical about double-entry accounting (wow, I AM a geek!). Playing with spreadsheets kinda goes with the whole geek thing. Plus, I get to add all the pretty auto-format cell background colors!

    PCJ: What type of newsletter do you need to send out? I'll be happy to see if I can find some tips for you...

  5. scfr Says:
    1181316423

    May I say that your blog design is just lovely? Smile

  6. pretty cheap jewelry Says:
    1181318612

    Tinap I will send you a private message-THX!

  7. homebody Says:
    1181319549

    Have you seen apartment therapy?? That's my design junkie thing, love, love, love the contests.

  8. koppur Says:
    1181320358

    LOl I am totally a IDJ! Worse part: I rent so I cna't even change my wall colors. But oh, the books I have, the magazines I read, the folders of scraps I have...

    Big Grin

  9. tinapbeana Says:
    1181320790

    Thanks for the compliment, Scfr! Being a color fiend, I'm always tempted to change it up...

    Koppur: Even an IDJ would love the colorlovers website I linked to in the post. Some of those palettes I can COMPLETELY see being the colors for a room: walls, trim, chairs, drapes, they're all right there... You should check it out, see if you find some inspiration. Well, some more Big Grin

    And Homebody, I haven't seen apartment therapy. Sounds like something Koppur might also enjoy!

  10. homebody Says:
    1181326191

    http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/small-cool-2007-entries/index

    Here is the link. It is kind of a difficult site to manever around actually, so thought this might be easier.

  11. moi aussi Says:
    1181328764

    ohhh apartment therapy = love

  12. fairy74 Says:
    1181330709

    IDJ all the way, I have been known to (ahem) come down with a bout of the "flu" when trading spaces marathons are on TLC!

  13. pjmama Says:
    1181363511

    AHAHAHAHAHAHA. You sound like my loving BF. He has the waicom tablet, the pantones, the fonts, EVERYTHING. He gets comm arts and print delivered every issue. Of course, he's a design major. He bought a beautiful Mac Pro with a bagillion inch screen so he could design magazine spreads in realsize while his toolbox was still in view. Honestly, compared to him I dont think you're the worst Wink I have a great admiration for your type!

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