orange you glad it's honey? » Freebie of the Week http://blog.honeydesign.com Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:06:18 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Freebie of the Week: Thin Things http://blog.honeydesign.com/freebie-of-the-week-thin-things/ http://blog.honeydesign.com/freebie-of-the-week-thin-things/#comments Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:57:26 +0000 Rina http://blog.honeydesign.com/?p=902

I was on a phone call the other day and I found myself drawing this entire font set for the duration of the call. I decided to produce the font with the help of  Fontographer 5. Now I give it to my loyal readers for free – Thanks for reading. ALSO: Alternate characters included as lowercase.

Download Opentype [OTF] + EPS

P.S. I figured I’d get a little illustration practice in there. It was a nice exercise. Thank you Bill Compton.

]]> http://blog.honeydesign.com/freebie-of-the-week-thin-things/feed/ 0 Mr. Cleft and the Pigeon http://blog.honeydesign.com/mr-cleft-and-the-pigeon/ http://blog.honeydesign.com/mr-cleft-and-the-pigeon/#comments Wed, 25 Aug 2010 05:20:19 +0000 Rina http://blog.honeydesign.com/?p=886

His name is Mister Cleft, the Street Pirate. He lives in the concrete jungle of New York City, searching for one notorious pigeon who took two of his fingers (and you all know how lethal NYC pigeons can be). Now he has two peg fingers… though removable for knife fittings, screwdrivers, and other such handy tools… I was playing with this crazy character today and I decided to create some wallpapers.

Download: For iPad |  For iPhone 4 |  For Desktop (Widescreen)

IN ACTION:

]]> http://blog.honeydesign.com/mr-cleft-and-the-pigeon/feed/ 0 iFontmaker for iPad – Review http://blog.honeydesign.com/ifontmaker-for-ipad-review/ http://blog.honeydesign.com/ifontmaker-for-ipad-review/#comments Sat, 03 Jul 2010 17:09:44 +0000 Rina http://blog.honeydesign.com/?p=827

I love typography. When I first saw this I got pretty excited about it. Not only because I could make fonts on my iPad, but because the kinds of applications developers are striving for are fantastic. Really? A portable font creator? Wow. Those are the strides I like to see. Kudos.

The app is called iFontMaker: The First & Fastest Font Editor for iPad – from The 2TTF and is currently available on the App Store.

I ran my test using a stylus my friend Matt made for me. (Good to know an engineer) I felt it the perfect application for a stylus.

PROS:

  • Speed – Once you draw the glyphs, you can export a TTF, (fully editable) PDF, or PNG (of composed type) in a matter of minutes.
  • Sharing – You can share the link to download your font right away.
  • Responsive - The drawing is quite smooth and responsive.
  • Guides – Multiple grid options and template overlays to get you aligned and even.
  • Live Font Testing – You’re able to type out words and phrases and see instantly how it’s looking. You can even adjust the tracking.
  • Simple, Clean Design – I like the white-on-black chic style. It’s appropriate here because it creates maximum contrast without being distracting or hard to read (as sometimes white on black can be).
  • Blob Brush – Strokes act like the blob bush in Illustrator – This is kind of fun actually, but does have a few drawbacks since it’s the only functionality of the brush.
  • Price Tag – At $5.99 (current sale until July 7th – normally $7.99) it’s definitely worth it. Even if it can’t handle heavy lifting, it still makes font creation pretty fun.

CONS:

  • There is No “Real” Editing -  After you create your strokes you can’t really manipulate them. There isn’t even a simple eraser tool. It would be great delete some of those unwanted strokes without having to redraw the entire thing.
  • No Landscape Mode - Landscape mode feels best for iPad – sits more comfortably on your lap and typing is a breeze. Unfortunately when you change the orientation of your iPad, nothing happens.
  • Precision – I wish the pen tool were really a pen tool. Add some bezier options and we’ve got a winner.
  • Tools leave much to be desired - Giving a few more brush options would be fun. If this isn’t about making a “perfect” amazing typographic work (a la the next “Gotham” font) then we need to see some more fun here by way of brushes and manipulation. Other options such as editing the angle and tip of the brush would be fantastic. It doesn’t have to be complex, just a few options much like the Brushes app. Perhaps there is some sort of “Warp” brush, additional brush heads, etc. that can push and pull ad ben your glyphs.
  • Bugs –  Still a few glitches. This is an annoying one. The strokes go haywire a bit.
  • Some of the UX is confusing – At first editing the brush and its sizes may not be totally intuitive or logical. i.e. I should be able to get “brush options” (such as style and size) when clicking the brush icon.
  • Exporting – All export options should appear together. Currently “Glyphs” and “Compose” modes have different export options.

Other notes and wishful thinking:

  • Glyph pagination – I wish swipe for pagination was added here.
  • Importing – Would be really fantastic to be able to import paths / line work into the app. Even if a template or special file needs to be used, this would be a really expansive feature.
  • Project Manager with previews – Rather than an informal pop-up, it would be great to get an overview of the fonts in progress by seeing a page of thumbnails of each font. (See quick mockup below)

. . .

While the “Cons” seem a bit overwhelming, this application is pretty solid and a great start. I’m eager to see how it evolves over time. I’d definitely recommend playing around with it.

Oh, and you can download this font I made as a test, Cloud Doodle TTF. PIN: 0870

]]> http://blog.honeydesign.com/ifontmaker-for-ipad-review/feed/ 3 Freebie of the Week: Round Things http://blog.honeydesign.com/freebie-of-the-week-round-things/ http://blog.honeydesign.com/freebie-of-the-week-round-things/#comments Thu, 20 May 2010 00:42:07 +0000 Rina http://blog.honeydesign.com/?p=781

I was taking a break today and decided to doodle a bit. These “Round Things” are the result of that. The only rule was to try and keep it circular. Download them if you like as vector EPS.

]]> http://blog.honeydesign.com/freebie-of-the-week-round-things/feed/ 0 Freebie of the week: Trick of the light 001 Textures: Halloween http://blog.honeydesign.com/freebie-of-the-week-trick-of-the-light-001-textures-halloween/ http://blog.honeydesign.com/freebie-of-the-week-trick-of-the-light-001-textures-halloween/#comments Fri, 11 Dec 2009 04:44:40 +0000 Rina http://blog.honeydesign.com/?p=507 hal1

This week’s Friday Freebie is brought to you by Halloween. I realize that sounds a bit odd, but I took these on Halloween night. I used to experiment with light and take loads of photos with light trails – create some nice raw textures for my artwork. I hope you enjoy.

26 High Resolution Images  [3888 x 2592 px]
Download

hal2

hal3

hal4

hal5

]]> http://blog.honeydesign.com/freebie-of-the-week-trick-of-the-light-001-textures-halloween/feed/ 0 Freebie of the Week: Cherry 001 Photoshop Brushes http://blog.honeydesign.com/freebie-of-the-week-cherry-001-photoshop-brushes/ http://blog.honeydesign.com/freebie-of-the-week-cherry-001-photoshop-brushes/#comments Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:30:38 +0000 Rina http://blog.honeydesign.com/?p=390 cherry1

I want to keep up the trend of “Friday Freebies.” This week I’ve got a collection of 11 high resolution Photoshop Brushes. The textures were made from some pitted cherries on a paper plate. Download ‘em here.

cherry2

]]> http://blog.honeydesign.com/freebie-of-the-week-cherry-001-photoshop-brushes/feed/ 0 Freebie of the Week: Pug Font http://blog.honeydesign.com/freebie-of-the-week-pug-font/ http://blog.honeydesign.com/freebie-of-the-week-pug-font/#comments Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:38:09 +0000 Rina http://blog.honeydesign.com/?p=381 pug1

Since working on my buddy’s flyer for the Curly Tail Pug Rescue benefit, I created a complete character set for that hand drawn font. I’ve since called it Pug. And I’m giving it away to you folks. Enjoy. Download here as an EPS.

pug2

]]> http://blog.honeydesign.com/freebie-of-the-week-pug-font/feed/ 4 Freebie of the Week: Security Patterns 001 http://blog.honeydesign.com/freebie-of-the-week-security-patterns-001/ http://blog.honeydesign.com/freebie-of-the-week-security-patterns-001/#comments Sun, 18 Oct 2009 05:58:17 +0000 Rina http://blog.honeydesign.com/?p=258

Taken directly from my mailbox to yours, these Security Patterns shed some light on pattern creation.

Download Here

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