The ten commandments of creativity

Even if you are an experienced creative, sometimes it’s good to look back and remember these sacred rules that all  trainees know by heart. Recall will give a bit of fresh air to your ideas and get you out of a mechanical method of work. I love going over and over again my books from college and challenge myself, looking for different creative techniques. I would say that, almost always, this helps me when I’m blank.

1. Stay engaged with the objectives

2. Open your mind, use the five senses

3. Separate the creation phase of the evaluation

4. Avoid the spoilers of ideas, surround yourself with a proactive team

5. Use sketches

6. Bring the product to the limit: do not stop picking up new ideas even if you have found a good one

7. Mistakes are good, can lead you to better ideas

8. The quantity (of ideas) leads to quality

9. Develop your sense of humor

10. When the brainstorming is finished do not test the ideas immediately, keep a safe distance, more objective.

Follow this and feel good!

13 websites that will make your virtual life easier

Really useful websites that will help you to save time and keep your inner peace in critical or stressful moments in front the computer. The sites solve at least one problem really well and they all have simple web addresses that you can easily learn by heart thus saving you a trip to Google.

If you know other good websites, leave us a comment and contribute to the virtual good karma. =)

1. iconfinder.com – the best place to find icons of all sizes.

2. lovelycharts.com – create flowcharts, network diagrams, sitemaps, etc.

3. printwhatyoulike.com – print web pages without the clutter.

4. myfonts.com/WhatTheFont – quickly determine the font name from an image.

5. wetransfer.com – for sharing really big files online.

6.  polishmywriting.com – check your writing for spelling or grammatical errors.

7.  marker.to – easily highlight the important parts of a web page for sharing.

8. gtmetrix.com – the perfect tool for measuring your site performance online.

9. google.com/history – found something on Google but can’t remember it now?

10. sxc.hu – download stock images absolutely free.

11. teuxdeux.com – a beautiful to-do app that looks like your paper dairy.

12. talltweets.com – Send tweets longer than 140 characters.

13. fiverr.com – hire people to do little things for $5.

Top 10 best slogans ever

Do these slogans sound familiar to you?

#10

#9

#8

#7

#6

#5

#4

#3

#2

#1

The personality of the typography

Found that beautiful typefaces at Nicole’s classes. Enjoy them!

By the way, all of them are free, so you can download them fearless.

Vintage moments by the sea

As approximately 75% of the human body is water, we could also say that 75% of Darma smells like seawater. I grew up near the sea in Barcelona and Darko, the other 50% of Darma, lived in that city for some years. So now that we’re in Ljubljana, we miss the sea, the sun, the smell of salt, the flip flops, the tapas and the beers with friends at sunset. Today it seems that the sun has awakened in the Slovenian capital, and I (the true 100% mediterranean part of Darma) feel little melancholic.

I can’t help myself, many of our designs are inspired by the vintage spirit, we love the aura given off by the images of other times and the detail and dedication of the old crafts. That’s why today I felt for those vintage beach pictures, because I love antiques and I love the sea. Enjoy them and even feel the smell of the salt and the sea breeze caressing your face.

Vintage photos of famous architecture around the world

The Empire State in the 40’s

La Predrera. Barcelona

The Brooklin Bridge in 1943

Somewhere in Brooklin

The Chrysler building

The Golden Gate Bridge

The Big Ben

París, Eiffel Tower.

The New Metropolitan Life Insurance Company

Inspiration: the sweetest logos

It’s almost 5:00h, tea time, in spanish “merienda” time. In Darma we are always hungry for good design and inspiration. So here they go, the sweetest logos!

The (almost creepy) power of the color in our purchase decisions.

Though there are many factors that influence how and what consumers buy, color is one of the most powerful weapons to persuade people. When launching new products it’s important to consider that consumers place visual appearance and color above other factors such as sound, smell and texture.

Whether you’re a consumer or if you work for “the dark side”, after reading this post, your visit to the retail store will never be the same.

85% of the shoppers place color as a primary reason for why the buy a particular product. Other factors as smell or texture are insignificant. It’s also very important to take care about brand color, using the corporative chromatic range increase brand recognition by 80%. Did you know that brand recognition is directly connected with customer confidence?

Pychology of color is used in design to empower the message. It’s true that cultures understand colors in different ways, but generally, colors arouse the same feelings. Here a basic diagram:

Color also attracts different typology of customers and changes shopper behauvior. Red, orange, black or royal blue are more pregnant for impulsive shoppers. These colors are able to “speed” the buying decision, that’s why are used in outlets, fast food or clearance sales.

Tradicional buyers sympathize with pastel tones (rose, sky blue, pink, aquamarine, lavender, peach…) and mostly are used in clothing stores, boutiques, etc. These color shades slow down and calm the shoppers, making them feel more comfortable in the store.

The navy blue, teal and, in general, all the “cold” colors suit the shoppers on a budget, inspire confidence and loyalty, so they’re used in banks and shopping malls.

But is color the only difference between a consumer purchasing an identical item at one retail shop over the other? Definitelly not, the power of the words, or the evironment of a store, the behavior of the employers, etc. make some brands more customer friendly than others.