Looking for some nice cursive/script typefaces to use on your designs or on your website? Here’s a collection of 10 fonts that can help you create the handwritten or classic look you’re looking for:

Ballpark
Ballpark is a cursive font that, although comes only in one style, has presence. Created by Mickey Rossi, this typeface is inspired by baseball. It will look especially good in headings and titles.

Champignon
Champignon is a feminine typeface that has been around for quite a while. Its thin and elongated ascenders and descenders may not always fit in the body of a text but it can work well as title or header.

Dancing Script
Dancing Script is a font designed by Pablo Impallari that uses references to popular script typefaces from the 50s. It’s fun, bouncy and spontaneous. It comes in bold and regular.

Freebooter Script
Freebooter Script is one of my favourite cursive fonts with its delicate shape and curly swashes. It was developed by Apostrophic Labs and it has a classical look to it that will look good in titles and headings.

JaneAusten
JaneAusten is a font that was designed by Pia Frauss who wanted to pay homage to the author Jane Austen, writer of the renowned Pride and Prejudice novel. The typeface is based on her handwritten calligraphy, giving it a very natural shape and flow. The designer demonstrates that it looks good even applied on a whole paragraph as well as headings and titles.

Leckerli One
Leckerli One is a fat brush script font designed by Gesine Todt. It works really well when used as bigger display text but also proved itself to be good-looking on medium headlines and short sentences.

Pacifico
Pacifico is another brush script, this one inspired by the 50s American surf culture. It was designed by Vernon Adams and it’s gained a lot of popularity since its release, especially on the web where it’s used in headlines and titles. It’s cute and fun.

Pushkin
Pushkin is another font that has been around for some time now (c.1999). This typeface is based on the Russian author Alexander Pushkin’s calligraphy and will give a romantic feel to your titles, headings or paragraphs. It was designed by ParaType.

Wisdom Script
Wisdom Script is a typeface that was released in spring 2011 by James T. Edmondson. It was designed to be on a thirty degree incline to get perfect vertical strokes. Its design is refreshing and it looks nice in smaller and bigger sizes.

Yellowtail
Yellowtail is an old-school flat brush script designed by Astigmatic. This font is a mix of connecting and non-connecting letterforms. Original and unpredictable, it can be interesting for paragraphs but looks best in headings and titles.

If you liked this article, you should also check out 10 Nice Free Thin Fonts for your designs and 10 Big Badass Free Fonts for your designs.

Your weekly dose of design inspiration, resources and awesomeness.
Here are Weekly Wonders 23′s champions:

Web: Art of the Title
Art of the Title is a web resource of film and television title design from around the world. Remember those splendid opening scenes from, say, 300, Batman, Enter the Void or Dexter? At Art of the Title, they decorticate those title sequences and discuss the work of the great designers who created them.

Design: Nikolai Nowolodski
Nikolai Nowolodski is a designer based in Germany. He works with photomontages and photomanipulation to produce nice poster-like designs. Most of his creations are quite sharp and well executed. Check out his portfolio for more of his work.

Art: Tsuneharu Zarame (aka HasaBattle)
Tsuneharu Zarame is a skilled Japanese artist who depicts beautifully-made digital paintings of monsters and young men. While the topic of his paintings can seem quite gruesome, the colors he uses are bright and intense, resulting in very beautiful and sometimes emotive portraits.

Freebie: Lieveheersbeestje Soft Red Photoshop Action
Looking for some nice Photoshop actions to turn your photos into soft and nice vintage-like pictures? This action will do just that. I tested it and the results are surprisingly good. Download it and try, you’ll see!

App: iTunes U – Free
Surely you know iTunes U, right? If you don’t, know that it’s Apple course catalogue. That’s right, thousands of courses from leading universities available for free. Interested in design, photography or art history classes? Download iTunes U for iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, sit tight and let the lessons begin.

Check us out next week for more weekly wonders!

When asked what I do and answering “I’m a web designer”, people usually understand by that that I make websites. Which is true. But that would be over-simplifying it a bit too. So what exactly does a web designer do? What does “creating websites” imply? And what differentiates a good from a bad web designer?

Designing a website: The conceptualization

Every major website you visit was first imagined by a web designer. Someone sat down and thought about what the site should look like. And while methods differ from a designer to the other (some do wireframes and mock-ups while others just start coding right away), there are some aspects of a website all designers have to take into consideration: the user interface, the client and the latest design trends.

A good designer will pay special attention to each element of the website in order to create a pleasant and easy navigational experience for the users. Nothing is left at random and every detail counts: “Where should the menu go?”, “Is the text big enough for people to read?”, “Does the website look good on smaller resolutions and smartphones?” and “How will the colors impact the visual hierarchy for the user?” Those are all questions a designer considers while he’s preparing a mock-up.

The web designer also has to study his client well before producing a website. Who the client is and what kind of product, service or message they want to promote through their website will play a big role in the final look of the page. For instance, you would not produce a flowery pink website for a sports brand that targets men. Similarly, you do not necessarily want to copy the other websites of the same industry; so you need to find what makes your client different from the competition and highlight it in your design.

Design trends and conventions are also important. Our discipline is one that changes every year, a bit like fashion, only based on usability and efficiency more than pure aesthetics (although aesthetics definitely are part of it). For example, while big typography and using images as background seem to be in vogue right now, narrow Flash-based websites with tiny text are so… 2005.

Of course, a web designer is free to ignore user interface conventions and design trends. Only, if he decides to do so, he needs to be able to justify his choices. The further he goes from what people is used to, the more questions and feedback (positive or negative) he’ll get from his peers and the users. It’s not always a bad thing though; breaking the conventions and rules can produce amazing results. Just make sure you know what you’re doing.

Designing a website: Graphics

Creating the design itself (the graphics and images) is usually done with software like Photoshop, Illustrator and/or Fireworks. And while some designers take time to create a mock-up of the whole website and its content, then cutting it into pieces that will later be assembled thanks to HTML and CSS, others jump to the coding right away, using Photoshop to create the graphics as they are needed. There is nothing wrong with either method; each designer has its own routine. The important is that the job gets done and that the website looks good in the browser.

As for myself, I’m part of the first group: I like to prepare wireframes on paper to get a good grasp of the elements of the site in advance. Then I create a full mock-up that I cut after having it approved by the client.

HTML & CSS

Must a designer know HTML and CSS? While there is an argument about this question, I strongly believe designers should master HTML and at least know the basics of CSS, especially if they work alone. How else can a designer pretend to put together a website if he doesn’t know how to use the languages to do so? A very poor grasp of HTML and CSS can result in non-functional websites, errors in validation and even inconsistencies from a browser to another (i.e. a website works beautifully in Chrome but looks deformed in Internet Explorer).

If you work in pair with a programmer, understanding markup and style sheet languages will create a better synchrony between your partner and yourself; you will take into consideration the structure of the page while creating and cutting your web design, thus easing the job of the programmer and speeding the work. But no matter how you work, it all boils down to this: Knowing HTML and CSS will make you a better more efficient designer.

If you’re new to the discipline, you might also want to look into JavaScript, particularly jQuery. It mimics what Flash can do and at least knowing how to use it could add a dynamic component to your design. A designer must think interactively, even when his initial concept was a static image made with Photoshop.

Being a web designer is doing all of this and more. It’s creating a web design and turning it into an experience. Designing for web isn’t only coming up with a good idea of what a website should look like and make an image of it in Photoshop; it’s imagining how the user will navigate the website and acting consequently. Because a website is so much more than just text and images on a colorful background; it’s a visit, an experience, its own tiny museum. And we, web designers, are the curators.

I’ve heard so many times people saying that eBooks will never replace good old books, made of paper and trees… That the feel of a book is more important than practicality, that its scent is tantalizing. But with the increasing popularity of Kindle, the Nook and the iPad, it’s more and more evident that eBooks are slowly taking over the book industry. I’m personally a huge eBook fan and haven’t purchased a paper volume in ages; since I bought my first iPod Touch back in 2009, I’ve read all my books in digital format. There’s really no point in buying bulky paper books when I can carry hundreds of them in my pocket… literally.

The eBook revolution has started and it seems to go only faster and faster. Could it be the end of traditional books?

A library in your hands

If eBooks are doing so well, it’s primarily because of their convenience. EBook readers, whether we are talking about Kindles, iPads, Nooks, Sony Readers or smartphones, can each carry thousands of books. They are usually very light and made to fit inside your schoolbag, purse or, in the case of the iPhone/iPod, in your pocket. Their backlit monitor (for the newer models that have one) means you can read in total darkness or sunshine. And since all recent eBook readers have integrated Wifi (sometimes even 3G) internet access, you can download new books anywhere at any time. There’s no more going to the library or book shortages. EBooks are a world of literature embedded in a single handheld device.

And who wouldn’t want that, really? It’s almost as if you snap your fingers and a new book materializes in front of you. The prices or eBooks are also usually lower than paper books. I never paid more than $9.99 for an eBook. Most of the books I encountered, even bestsellers, have a price tag varying from $5 to $8. EBooks are very affordable.

But there’s a catch, isn’t there? Well yes; you have to buy the eBook Reader first. Unlike what you might think though, they are not that expensive. Depending on your needs, you will be looking at prices varying between $99 to $300 for regular eBook readers like Kindle and Nook. Different models offer different features but, if you’re on a tight budget, there’s the Nook Simple Touch Reader around $100 or the very basic Kindle for $79. You can also click here if you want to take a look at a comparative chart of all eBook readers.

There’s also the iPad with a higher price tag, but you will not only be getting an eBook reader then; you’ll get a tablet computer that can run complex applications and that can enables you to watch video, listen to music, browse the web, write documents, play games and so much more. If you would like to carry all your media in one single device but are looking for something smaller, there’s the iPod Touch or even the iPhone. Some will say the screens of the iPhone and iPod are a bit small but I’ve been reading on them since forever. You can easily adjust the font size on the iBooks and Kindle apps.

As you can see, eBook readers come in all sizes, shapes and prices. You only have to pick the model that fits your needs and your budget.

Apple’s new textbooks for iPad

It’s hard to speak about the rise of eBooks without talking about Apple’s new textbooks for iPad program. In case you haven’t heard, last week Apple introduced interactive and dynamic virtual textbooks for education. Could this mean the end of heavy schoolbags and expensive textbooks? Apple’s new CEO, Tim Cook, seems to think so! Textbooks for $15 is what they propose to high schools and, very soon, higher education too.

I remember when my university made me pay almost $50 for a pile of photocopied papers they called a course pack, more than once. I felt cheated every time because they must have been making some good profit out of that mockery of a textbook. As if university wasn’t expensive enough… It seems that in a few years, we could finally see the end of it.

There’s only one tiny problem; iPads are expensive. You will need an iPad with a lot of storage in order to carry around those heavy textbooks (2-3GB each) so we’re talking about a 32 or 64GB for $599 or $699 respectively. Now imagine you have 3 kids going to school… Ka-Ching! $1800 out of your pocket. That’s a lot of money. Regular textbooks would never cost so much and your kids might have reused them or even sold them at the end of the semester.

The dream of every kid owning an iPad filled with beautiful dynamic volumes is sweet but unless Apple and institutions come up with a plan, it’s not going to happen outside private schools. iPads for everyone? Significant rebates for students? 2 for 1 rebates? Free iPads for students with good grades? I’m just throwing in ideas.

Perhaps books will never completely disappear but something’s clear; eBook sales are tripling year over year as paper book sales decline. Nothing seems to be stopping this phenomenon. Are you prepared for the revolution? Will you embrace it or resist it?

Your weekly dose of design inspiration, resources and awesomeness.
Here are Weekly Wonders 22′s champions:

Web: Looks Like Good Design
Looks Like Good Design describes itself as a “fucking high quality inspiration” blog. And it is. Created by Swiss designer Jonas Kamber, it features the work of highly skilled photographers, designers and artists from everywhere. It’s definitely a website you’ll want in your bookmarks or in your RSS feed.

Design: Pavel Ripley
Pavel Ripley is a Russian designer and illustrator based in Moscow. Using bright colors and contrasts, he creates beautiful posters, prints and other imagery, skilfully integrating both fine art and design to form dynamic artworks. Often seen in his work is a bright saturated red, a signature and obvious personal preference for this color. Hit his website to see more.

Photo: Chris Round
Chris Round is a Sydney-based photographer who takes beautiful urban photos using digital and film formats. His speciality resides in human-influenced environments, usually parts of the Australian landscape. His photos, under-saturated and a bit cold, are powerful and precise. Take a look at his Tumblr to see his frequently updated feed.

Freebie: ZeroBundle
ZeroBundle is an awesome free bundle of goodies for designers. Those freebies include icons, buttons, login forms, vector shapes, interface elements, PSDs, high-res textures, Photoshop brushes and more. It’s free for a limited time only so hurry up and download away!

App: Evernote – Free
Evernote is an app that won many awards. Here’s why: it’s an easy-to-use free app that lets you note down pretty much anything. From text, audio, to-do lists and photos, Evernote does it all. You can also sync your Evernote content between devices and on your computer thanks to browser add-ons, for instance. It’s available for iOS5 but also for many other OS such as Android, BlackBerry, Palm WebOS and even for Windows Phone. The only drawback I found is that the web version can be a bit slow at times. Otherwise, thumbs up.

Check us out next week for more weekly wonders!

I was a big Firefox fan. Actually, I still am. And I’ve been using the tool Mozilla carefully crafted for many years. Until a few months ago I didn’t see any need to change my habits. But then things started getting spiky between Firefox and I…

How Firefox let me down

First, some compatibility issues arose between my add-ons. After updating my browser, some of them would work and others would not. If I wanted to use Feedly for example, I had to disable Firebug, the #1 tool for programmers and web designers. This lasted for a few weeks during which I had to enable and disable, close and reopen my Firefox to get one of my add-ons working. Besides this annoying bug, there was also the other issue of great add-ons becoming unusable for what could last from a few days to a few months whenever there would be a new version of Firefox out. It was a bit of a mess.

I could have lived with my add-ons not working, really. But then, since Firefox 7 or 8, Mozilla started eating up all my available memory. I built my computer in late 2009 and although it’s not the big bomb it used to be (back then, 4GB used to be a lot, now it’s okay), I never had memory problems before Firefox decided to take up to 1GB of RAM whenever it was running in the background. No problem running Photoshop and InDesign simultaneously (I have a good video card, I must admit), but Firefox? It slowed down my whole system.

And then, last week, it was the last straw: Firefox 9.1 would randomly freeze on me every 30 seconds or so. I closed everything else, rebooted even, but the issue persisted for as long as my browser was running. I was at an impasse; I simply could not use Firefox anymore, no matter how much I liked it.

So I switched to Chrome. And here’s what I discovered:

It’s much faster

I double click on the icon and, immediately, it opens. I browse the web and the speed is incredible. Pages load much faster than on Firefox. No wonder Google’s browser is crowned as the fastest browser since 2009. Chrome also renders JavaScript better and faster. You’ll notice it quite quickly, especially if you work in web design or programming. Also, not all new CSS3 animations work with Firefox. But with Chrome, they do. You can see an example of this with this gorgeous CSS3 Slicebox example here. On Chrome you get to see a beautiful 3D animation. On Firefox though, the images simply slide because the browser does not recognize the function.

It doesn’t eat up my memory

While Firefox 8 took up to 1GB of my RAM in its worst days and Firefox 9 around 600 to 700MB (an improvement, but still too much), Chrome hasn’t taken more than 500MB since I started using it, and that is while browsing with many tabs open. I can finally jump from a software to the other without having to worry about closing my browser in case it starts swallowing my RAM like a starved beast.

Its appearance is similar to Firefox

Pinned tabs? Check. Compact design? Check. Nice themes? Check. Overall, Chrome isn’t that different from Firefox in terms of looks. I was happy to find that you can use beautiful themes on Chrome too (something that originally made me fall in love with Firefox) and that my add-ons are available on the top right corner of the window. Once I imported my bookmarks, a task that was quite easy, it felt like home again.

The Chrome Web Store rocks

The Chrome Web Store is very simple and user-friendly. It’s populated with attractive images of each add-on and you require only one single click to see previews of it, or a mouse-over to read the description. Firefox’s own Add-on page isn’t bad but it’s not nearly half as attractive and fun as Chrome’s. Google makes me want to come back and install more, just because the experience is so pleasant and easy.

I’m overall very happy to have switched. Chrome is Firefox minus the issues plus the speed. The only thing I miss is Firebug; there is a version of this add-on on Chrome but it’s not nearly as good as on Firefox. It’s quite sad but if leaving it behind means I get to actually use a browser that will not choke my whole computer or freeze every 30 seconds, I can definitely live without it.

A few days ago, a friend of mine asked me this question via Facebook. Bothered by the issue, he asked if it was too late to draw and if there was a certain age you reach where there’s just no point bothering.

Initially confused by the question, I sat down and proceeded to answer quickly, promising him a blog article about this touchy topic which must also haunt the thoughts of other aspiring artists in this world. You see, this friend of mine dreams of becoming a comic book artist. However, in the last few years he’s been working full time as a computer technician, leaving him too little time to draw. Or so he says.

Here’s what I answered to my friend:

Dear, it’s never too late

Unlike being an athlete or pursuing a career that requires you to be young and strong in order to excel, art requires no such thing. Can you hold a pen? Are your eyes good enough to see the paper in front of you? As long as you can do these two simple tasks, there’s nothing stopping you from becoming an artist. The visual arts are wonderful for that; no matter how ugly, old or cripple you are, it does not matter. At all. What people will judge will be your work, not your appearance or age. So saying it’s too late is a poor, bad excuse to give up pursuing that field of work.

But I’m so busy…

Really, are you? This is excuse #1 I hear all the time from friends and acquaintances who say they would like to get better at arts. They are so, so busy… To that, I answer: “Are you really? How many hours a day do you work? 8 hours? And when you come back home, how many hours do you spend sat in front of the TV or the computer watching a TV Show or playing games?” At that point, most start babbling more excuses about how they need to “relax” after their hard day at work. And hey, I’m not blaming them; working 9-5 isn’t easy. If something, it’s a motivation killer and that’s why I decided to leave my job and work to my own. What their pretexts tell me though is that playing games and sitting on the couch for hours is more important to them than improving their skills.

I’m not going to start a debate about how good or evil TV is. I got rid of mine a long time ago and I never play games either. So my stand on the issue is pretty clear. All I’m saying is that if you want to become better at something, if you want to realize your dreams, you need to put some efforts into them. You need to MAKE time. Ask yourself: What is more important, really? Playing WoW or becoming the artist you always wanted to be?

Beware instant gratification; concentrate instead on long-term goals

Instant gratification is very tempting. It’s everywhere; in your TV, on the internet, on your gaming console… the promise of fun and immediate pleasure. In the end though, you will accomplish nothing if you don’t put aside some of it in order to concentrate on your long-term goals.

Becoming an artist, whether you are into fine arts, design, photography or fashion, isn’t something you can do overnight. As I said earlier, it takes time and dedication. That’s what scares most people away from their own dreams; so much work… why bother? Bother because you want to surpass yourself and fulfill your ambitions and aspirations.

My advice is to start small and increase your efforts with time. You want to become better at drawing? Then make one sketch every night. Devote 20 minutes of your evening to that. Start with something simple, something you like. Just have fun! Then, after a few weeks, when this new practice becomes a routine, set yourself goals; learning/mastering anatomy and perspective is a very good objective for artists of all levels. But it could also be getting better at drawing clothes, portraits, architecture, pets… anything you like, anything you want to get better at.

Minutes will become hours, hours will become weeks. Then after a few months, you’ll be able to look back and witness how much you’ve improved. Time and dedication, that’s all it takes.

You lack discipline? Go public!

Some people lack discipline (myself included). Some days you just don’t feel like working at all and it’s easy to just go “Eh, I’ll do it another day…” but then days pass and you’ve still accomplished nothing. Rings a bell? I know how that feels.

Some of us need a kick in the butt to get to work sometimes. The best cure to laziness and procrastination I found was to make your goals public. If your new resolution is to become a master comic book artist, open a Tumblr blog or create a DeviantART portfolio and post there your daily creations. When you start getting fans and followers supporting you, you will not want to disappoint them. They’ll become part of your motivation and you will not want to let them down.

Rome wasn’t built in one day

Don’t get discouraged if you don’t see immediate results; becoming better at a discipline, especially arts, is something that takes a lot of practice. Once you start drawing daily and developing your observation skills, you’ll notice changes though. Little by little, you will improve. I have yet to meet an artist that worsened with practice.

Finally, good luck to all aspiring artists reading this article. If you have any question I haven’t answered, please leave a comment and I will gladly reply.

Your weekly dose of design inspiration and awesomeness.
Here are Weekly Wonders 21′s champions:

Web: Mostly Lisa
Mostly Lisa is the blog of professional Canadian photographer Lisa Bettany. She is also known for being part of the developer team for the app Camera+ (the best iPhone photography app if you ask me). Her blog is a goldmine for creative people looking to become more serious about photography. She also publishes some nice photo editing tutorials once in a while so it’s worth a look even for designers.

Photo: Ahmed W. Khan
Ahmed W. Khan is a photographer from Pakistan who is passionate about his field of work. His wedding photojournalism project where he takes photos of traditionally garbed women is quite stunning. His photos are rich in color and light, unraveling a reality that is different (for westerners at least) and yet beautiful. Hit his portfolio to marvel at his work.

Art: Zerostop
The young lady named Halisa from Olympia, WA, also known as Zerostop, is one of those artists who make sketches look so damn good it makes me jealous. Her style is rough yet wicked and dynamic, very fun to look at. Check out her DA gallery or her Tumblr to see her work.

Freebie: Filter Functionality with CSS3
Are you a web designer or web developer? If so, this free piece of code will probably interest you. This Filter Functionality comes with a handy tutorial showing you how you can filter in a very elegant manner the elements of a portfolio with CSS3. The effects proposed at fade in/out, size reduction/increment and pop in/out. It’s quite beautifully done so make sure to take a look!

App: Behance Network – Free
Behance Network released an app last week. Wish you could have your portfolio in your pocket? Not an issue anymore! Behance lets you carry your projects, view your stats, profile and feed in a few taps. It’s simple and effective.

Check us out next week for more weekly wonders!

Photos, photos, photos…

De l’auto-promotion? Mais bien sûr! Voici l’histoire pour ceux qui ne sauraient pas déjà: j’ai reçu pour Noël cette année une caméra Canon Rebel T3 et j’ai mis sur pied un petit photoblog sur Tumblr. Cela fait près d’un an que je prends des photos sur mon iPhone, les partageant à l’aide d’Instagram, en apprenant plus par la même occasion sur la photographie. Et bien que je ne suis pas une experte (pas encore en tout cas!), j’aime ça et je travaille à devenir meilleure. Je vous invite donc, si vous désirez garder un oeil sur mon progrès et mes photos, à me suis sur Tumblr ou à sauvegarder ce lien dans vos favoris:

vervex.tumblr.com

Je publie des photos plusieurs fois par semaine. Mes photos sont généralement des paysages urbains mais je planifie aussi prendre des paysages naturels (une fois qu’il ne fera plus -30 Celcius dehors). Vous y trouverez aussi de la photo culinaire et animalière, entre autre. Je travaille par petits projets en fait.

Je suis aussi ouverte à vos commentaires, tout spécialement les critiques constructives si vous croyez pouvoir en donner. J’aimerais m’améliorer et l’opinion d’autres photographes peut être précieuse.

Photos, photos, photos…

Shameless self-promotion much? But of course! So here’s the story for the ones who didn’t already know: this Christmas I got a Canon Rebel T3 and started a little photoblog on Tumblr. I’ve been taking iPhone photos and sharing them with Instagram since almost a year, getting little by little into photography. And although I realized I’m no expert (at least not yet, ah!) I really enjoy it and I’m working to become better at it. So I invite you, if you want to keep up with my photos and updates, to follow me on Tumblr or save my link to your bookmarks:

vervex.tumblr.com

I post new photos every couple of days. My photos are mostly urban but I also plan on getting more into landscape photography —once it’s not -30 Celsius (-22°F) outside anymore—. You’ll also find food and pet photography in there, among other things. I work by small projects basically.

I’m also open to your feedback, especially constructive criticism if you think you can give it. I want to get better and the opinion of other photography enthusiasts is good.