Review: Dotgrid.co A4 Notebook

The Dotgrid.co A4 Notebook is one of the best sketch pads that I have bought in a long time. It’s made in the UK, which is awesome, and the paper quality is amazing. Like the name suggests, the pages are dotted which makes it easy to sketch out user interfaces, icons and logos. The A4 size gives you lots of space to work with and the ability to sketch out multiple design and add notes.

The pages are wirebound so they are easy to rip out, but the book doesn’t fall apart. The cover is water-resistant so your sketches won’t get wet. The pages are quite thick so ink doesn’t bleed, which is pretty helpful.

If you are looking for a new notepad then go with any of the Dotgrid.co notebooks. They are high quality and perfect for pretty much everything.

My Thoughts on Facebook Home

Facebook Home was released this week for a small number of Android Devices, and I decided that I would post my thoughts on the app-launcher-lockscreen-thing.

Facebook says that Home is “The family of apps that puts your friends at the heart of your phone.”. The only problem I have with this is that I don’t like what my Facebook ‘friends’ posts. Home places fullscreen photos on your lock screen and if you aren’t friends with professional photographers, your phone is going to look pretty bad. I’d rather have a nice looking wallpaper than some blurry picture of someone’s cat.

Chat Heads on the other hand look pretty helpful, and would be great as a standalone app/widget?. You can keep chatting with your friends whilst using your phone for other things, like web browsing or finding directions. Your friends profile picture is a layer above of everything else, and you can move it around the screen at your will. You can also swipe it down to get rid of it. The fact that you can move it around is quite helpful, and being able to swipe it away is also pretty cool.

I personally don’t like Facebook Home. I’m more of a Twitter person, follow me?, and I’d rather have ‘Twitter Home’. I don’t like the fact that the pictures that appear on your lock screen are random. I’d rather select a few certain friends, people who actually take good photos, and have them appear instead of the others. It is a good launcher if you use Facebook all the time or you like to keep updated with your news feed at all times.

I will not be using Facebook Home, but will you?

You can read more about Facebook Home here.

Tekbloggers Business Cards

I designed a set of Business Cards for Tekbloggers.com, my tech blog. I used Moo.com to print them in a high quality glossy card.

I opted for the MiniCards design as they were small and easy to carry around. We plan to go to Gadget Show Live Christmas this year so we thought we should get business cards.

The design process was pretty simple. I used the same design style as the Tekbloggers YouTube Channel and other graphics. The front of the card has our contact info, and the reverse has the Tekbloggers Logo.

You can use this link to get 10% off at Moo.com.

YouTube Channel Design: Tekbloggers

I was asked to create a layout for the recently partnered YouTube channel for Tekbloggers.com.

They wanted a simplistic design that used their logo and links to their various social accounts.

I started by looking at the past design work I’ve done for Tekbloggers. I looked at a recent Twitter background I designed and borrowed a few elements from that and put them into the YouTube layout.

The bar at the top was a nice touch that elevated the elements from the background. I also use this banner in the Tekbloggers Twitter background.

I used the icons from my Metro Social Icon Pack and added a simple button below them to make the whole design look less empty and have a way for a visitor of the channel to access the main website.

I incorporated the pattern I use in the Twitter Background and logo by placing it behind the banner. This gives the background of the banner some definition and so it is not just a plain blue background.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with the way the design came out. I especially like the button that links to the main website. It was a last-minute decision and completes the layout of the banner.

If you would like me to create anything design related, submit the form at my contact page and I will be sure to get back to you.

Project: Tekbloggers

Tekbloggers.com is a technology news and reviews site that I started with my good friend Ben (@bentheapplefan) in August 2011.

We started the site with the intention to create a nice following and to give our unique view on technology news.

We are no means Journalists, but I like to think that with Tekbloggers we have learnt so many key skills in writing and reporting that we hopefully will use for the rest of our lives.

You can check out the site at Tekbloggers.com. You can also follow Tekbloggers on Twitter and Facebook. We also try to create weekly video reviews on YouTube.

View the design process for the Tekbloggers.com logo here, and check out my shirt design for Tekbloggers.com here as well!

T-Shirt Design: Tekbloggers

Recently, I had the chance to design a t-shirt for my own Tech Blog. I wanted the design to be simple enough for it to be understandable. The design process was pretty simple.

I used the service, Spreadshirt.com to get the shirt printed. I opted for a ‘Short Sleeve Baseball Shirt’ with the design printed on the front.

I created the graphic in Photoshop. The design only contains two elements. The Tekbloggers logo and the main logotype for website.

The shirt was printed to a very high quality, and the colours were perfect. If you are looking for a service to get T-Shirts printed quickly and relatively inexpensively, then I highly recommended Spreadshirt.

New Year, New Projects

With 2013 here, I have a few things planned for the year ahead.

While in this blog post I will not go into detail about them, I have many things planned and already in the works.

One of the main things I want to focus on is my Technology Blog, Tekbloggers.com. I have been working on re-branding everything about the site for the past few weeks and I am just going over with the team on all of the changes and get their input on them. These changes will hopefully include a brand new site design along with a new logo.

I also want to home my skills in applications such as InDesign and Illustrator as I am trying to incorporate them into my design workflow.

One of the main things however, is that I want this blog to have better content and be updated regularly. I’m working on getting a domain and theme ready for when I want to turn this site into my portfolio.

Stay tuned to this space, or my twitter, for updates and information regarding my new projects.

I’m going to leave this post on here till the end of 2013, then hopefully I will post a follow up post that shows what I’ve actually done in the year.

Tutorial: How To add a WordPress.com Blog to a YouTube Account’s “Associated Website”

Here is a pretty helpful tutorial on a seriously specific issue. Recently I was trying to add a WordPress.com blog to a YouTube Channel, so I could use external annotations. Here is how to do it so you can use external annotations.

Logo Design: Tekbloggers

Tekbloggers Logo Design

Tekbloggers.com is tech blog that focuses on tech news and reviews on mobile phones, social media and product announcements.

With it being a tech website, I wanted a logo that was very unique as well as simple. I first started with the base logotype. This logotype would be used as the “long-version” of the logo.

Tekbloggers Logo Design – Long Version

Then I created the actual logo. This would be used as the “short-version” of the logo.

Tekbloggers Logo Design – Short Version

I then combined the two and created the final logotype

Tekbloggers Log Design – Final Logotype

Overall I am quite happy with how this logo turned out.

Logo Design: TechSmartt

TechSmartt is a YouTube Channel and Blog that focuses on Tech Reviews. I was approached by TechSmartt to create a logo and YouTube Channel design for him.

TechSmartt Logo

The logo itself is pretty simple. It is a text based logo with a triangle implemented into it. The triangle helps make the logo stand out and adds a customised feel to the logo.

I was asked to use only 2 colours, grey and blue and make the logo simple. I indeed did that and I think the logo is perfect.

I was also asked to design a YouTube channel background for TechSmartt.

TechSmartt YouTube Channel

The channel design also has the simple feel to it. The logo is present at the top left and there are links to Subscribe to the channel and visit his various social networking profiles.

Overall I am pretty happy with the logo design and channel design. I especially love the blue and the simplicity of the logo.

Check out Techsmartt’s Blog and YouTube Channel.

Do you like this Logo? Want a Logo for you or your business? Visit my contact page and submit an application!

Practise: Colour Ring

I was looking around the web for Photoshop tutorials and came across this. It was a really interesting tutorial on how to create a “Vibrant Color Ring”. I watched the full 44 minute tutorial and learnt a lot about Paths and layer blend modes.

YouTube Channel Design: TechnoGadget

TechnoGadget is a YouTube channel that focuses on tech news and reviews. They contacted me and asked me to make them a partner channel design for there channel.

They wanted a retro style background with a two colour design. I opted for a grey because it looks nice agains the bold blue ribbon at the top.

The social icons used in the banner at the top I created myself and are used on a variety of sites and are available to purchase. The TechnoGadget text on the banner is simple and too the point, I used one of my favourite fonts at the moment and it to has a slight gradient applied.

Overall I am pretty satisfied with the design, the colours are great and the whole design flows perfectly.

Check out TechnoGadget here.

Do you like this channel design? Want a channel design for you or your business’ YouTube channel? Visit my contact page and submit an application!

My thoughts on the new Twitter logo

Today Twitter updated ‘larry’ (their bird logo) and I thought I would just post my thoughts on the change.

I really liked the old logo as I do with the new but I do honestly prefer the new logo. I don’t really know why, maybe the slight tilt or the way that it is only 3 sets of overlapping circles, I just don’t know why I like it.

I also like the fact that Twitter have used a darker blue opposed to the old lighter, and rather ugly, blue.

But hey great job Twitter, love it!!!

How about you follow me on Twitter? or clicking the Tweet button below