Funky Friday Collection – 1 May 2009

After some transatlantic travel this week and subsequent jet-lag, I was surprised that I ended up with so many cool links. Here’s this Friday’s selection of the best and most interesting I found on the web this week.

Design Inspiration

Japanese Web Design Compared To American Web Design – letscountthedays

The global reach of web design means that we often think that websites look the same everywhere. But design techniques and aesthetic preferences still differ widely by country. This is a great comparison of a large number of Japanese web sites and their American counterparts.

Paintings – Joanna Kustra

There’s usually at least a couple of Behance projects that inspire me every week. This one is fascinating, and I’m still trying to work out the combination of photography and painting that’s led to the end result.

Little Adults – Anna Skladmann

First saw this highlighted on Laughing Squid. Fascinating, and in some cases slightly disconcerting, photography of the children of Russia’s nouveau riche. Great variation and some inspiring photos of very interesting subject matter.

Design Technique

Maximize The Use Of Hover – Web Designer Wall

All web designers are familiar with hover effects. We use them for text, links, images. This article really expands the idea of hover effects though, demonstrating how versatile they can be and opening your mind up to new design possibilities.

Design Resources

Traps To Avoid When Designing An Online Portfolio – My Ink Blog

I’m in the process of slowly redesigning the fog of eternity website at the moment, and one of the main areas of redesign will be my portfolio. This is an invaluable tutorial for anyone looking to showcase their work online.

18 Search Engines For Designers – Minervity

When you say search engine you automatically think of Google. But there are many search engines that are more focused in their subject matter. Here’s a great collection of design specific search engines that focus on icons, tutorials, fonts, graphics etc.

Freelancing

Are You A Dreamer, Doer, Or A Reviewer – Productive Flourishing

Knowing your own strengths and weaknesses is invaluable to your productivity and your own happiness. Productive Flourishing outlines three thinking styles, and how to use those styles to complement your work and how to work with others.

Important Elements Of A Web Design Contract – PromotionWorld

A lot of resources for web design contracts online seem to provide a standard contract layout. That’s not always the best way to go about things, because you should be comfortable with your own contract. This is a nice overview of some of the important factors that need to be considered when drawing up a contract for website design.

Social Media

The Mirror Game – chrisbrogan.com

There’s a balance between listening to other people’s conversations about you, and taking criticism too much to heart. Some criticism is well meant, sometimes people just don’t like you – particularly if you’re high profile. This article really goes well beyond just social media, but it’s great advice in terms of how to avoid seeing yourself just in terms of the ‘mirror’ of others’ opinion.

Geek Interest

Guerilla Web Design – pureCaffeine.com

You may have heard of Guerilla Gardening, where people illicitly beautify cities with plants and ground clearing. This is the web equivalent, the idea of finding businesses that have no web site and taking half an hour to set up a Wordpress blog or similar to give them some online presence. It’s an interesting idea in demonstrating to businesses just how easy getting online can be.

In addition to all the web pages linked to here, I’m choosing one of my favourite Flickr images from the past week available under Creative Commons. This week’s original image is by Flickr user Sarihuella.