I’ve had a love affair with graphics and design for a decade now. Photoshop has been my faithful friend for many years now. Not a day or two goes by that I’m not creating something. But as any designer can tell you, sometimes the creativity just stops cold in it’s tracks. Some days I’m unstoppable and other days it’s a bad case of Photoshop Block, when I can’t design my way out of a paper bag! Times like that, I decide it’s time for some inspiration, always only a few mouseclicks away. I have a certain style, I guess we all do as designers but I feel like I’m forever trying to break out of it and change it up a bit. There are definite trends in design. Last year it seemed to be everything had to be reflected. I admit I do love that look!

This year it seems to be a retro grunge, with the use of vectors and almost a throw back to the 70’s type of style that’s popular. I love this look too! In my recent explorations to ignite my own creative spark, I’d like to share a few of my artfully beautiful findings and give major props to these exceedingly talented artists, all displaying their work on the awesome Behance.net showcase site.

The Looking Glass

Good Morning Stranger

ARTWORK 2008

Alcohol Unity

Bowienet

GP Poster

Smashing Magazine 2nd Anniversary Poster

November 2008

VALENDIA

March 2009

Weird Retro Color Trends

Miscellaneouz

Broken Type Experiment

Vinyl Record Font

Rise

Project Love Baby

Afternoon Delight

Artwork 2009

The Margarets: Single Covers

Day to Day 2009

Turn it Up

As you may have already noticed by the recent posts on this site, yours truly has been ever so slightly bitten by the Twitter bug. While I don’t consider myself a social networking junkie in any sense of the word, I definitely now recognize the value of this awesome micro blogging mode of communication. So simple, yet very powerful as a marketing tool. Whether you’re tweeting to promote a new piece of software, pimp your themes and designs, writing a book, you name it, Twitter can end up your absolute online BFF.

In keeping with the spirit of the big T, I’ve started offering a few of my own Twitter services, in the form of graphical goodness. If you’re looking to spruce up your Twitter page and low on Photoshop skill and cash, please feel free to check out my absolutely FREE Twitter Backgrounds. There are 100 in total I’ve created but I’m only putting up 20 at a time so be sure and check back weekly. If you’re wanting a more unique solution, in a few weeks I’ll be offering exclusive custom Twitter designs. There’s a brand new site coming for this service so again, stay tuned!

Happy Tweeting & Don’t Forget To Follow Me On Twitter!

Not everybody who tweets also runs a website, but if you are a site owner, there’s a decent chance you’re powered by Wordpress. There are other frameworks and CMSs of course, such as Joomla, Drupal, Typepad, etc but for those of you who are using Wordpress and Twitter, there are many ways in which you can integrate your tweets and more right into your site! Joomla is a wonderfully powerful feature filled CMS, and I run a few sites with it, but for the ease of use and simple functionality, I encourage you to take another look at Wordpress for your site needs. Now onto the Twitter/Wordpress love!

• How To Add Twitter Favorites To Your Site
• How to Run Multiple Twitter Feeds on the Same Page
• Add Twitter Counter to Your Page
• Twitter Followers Counter Tutorial
• Add a Tweetroll Badge to Your Site
• Add Twitter to Your Blog – Step by Step

Wordpress Plugins for Twitter

• Tweet Suite
• Tweetbacks
• Twittar – Twitter Avatars
• Twitter Tools
• Twitter Friendly Links
• Tweet Tweet
• Twitter Digest
• Word Twit
• Tweet This
• WP My Twitter
• Twitturls
• Twitter Updater
• TwitterPress
• Bird Feeder
• Twitter Doodle
• Twitter Auto Linker
• Twitgets
• Twitter for Wordpress
• Twitter Widget
• 52 Plugins for Twitter

Twitter & Wordpress Integration Guide – Free Download
13 Essential Tools for Twitter Integration
10 Twitter Hacks for Your Wordpress Blog

FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER!