Funky Friday Collection – 27 March 2009

Here’s a selection of the best posts I’ve come across on the web this week. Perfect for killing some time on a quiet Friday.

Design Inspiration

‘Font Series: Arial is everywhere’ – designworkplan

A great overview of the widespread use of the Arial font, and its development from Helvetica. An excellent selection of images and captions demonstrates how Arial is used all over the world and in a multitude of different mediums. As one of the most widely used fonts on the web, seeing some of these powerful uses of the font can be a great inspiration.

Design Technique

‘White Space: How to get it right’ – thinkvitamin

I love minimal design. Using white space is a vital part of that kind of design. With examples from the news media and advertising, this article shows you how much of a difference white or ‘negative’ space can make to visual impact. It examines white space in relation to both text and imagery, and is a must read.

‘42 Pagination Design Inspiration’ – KomunitasWeb

Many sites use pagination – navigation for browsing through page numbers. You’ll have seen it all over the web, but rarely well designed. It’s an overlooked aspect of design, but this article goes some way to addressing that. 42 excellent examples, plus links to style sheets to work from when developing your own.

Freelancing

‘9 Steps Towards Genuine & Effective Networking’ – Freelance Switch

Most advice about networking limits itself to how to network at conventions, conferences and special events. Freelance Switch goes well beyond that, with an easy to understand and comprehensive overview to great networking that will develop business opportunities.

‘How one question transformed my business’ – Hi, I’m Grace Smith

Ever thought that social networking wasn’t really going to provide any great business benefit? Grace Smith demonstrates exactly how powerful a strong web presence and developing online networks can be in its impact on your professional life.

Social Media

‘How Twitter Makes You A Better Writer’ – copyblogger

A nice outlook on one of the less obvious advantages of Twitter. So many people write in a flowery way, Twitter doesn’t give you the space to do that in its 140 characters. As a result it’s great training to simplify your language, and that training can extend to your blog writing and elsewhere.

‘Bringing Conversations (Back?) to Blogging’ – Productive Flourishing

A relatively lengthy but fascinating piece on how to bring back more productive conversations to blogging. Examines how it’s all too easy to fall back on links and posts, but encourages a more considered view of the online conversation. You’ll feel inspired not only to comment on someone’s blog post, but to write your own blog post in response, and extend the conversation across the web.

Geek Interest

‘7 Seriously Enviable Office Desk Setups’ – Ahoys

Pretty much a self explanatory title. Seven desktop setups ranging from an insane number of gadgets to multimedia dreams and superbly minimalist setups. The kind of office space that we all wish we had the time, money and inspiration to set up.