Besides working away on our library refresh set to launch imminently and mentoring our talented community of designers and illustrators we've been busy adding some fresh drops to Good Finds, our curated list of resources, tools, podcasts, blogs and inspiration sites.
From personalised colour palettes and underground texture packs to hot-off-the-press typefaces and remote working job boards, we're covering anything and everything we can to help you take your knowledge of the design industry to the next level.
Sound good? Let's get started...
1) Khroma
One of the most difficult parts of being a graphic designer is sourcing unique colour palettes that effectively compliment one another but haven't simply been lifted from another client's live project.
Khroma, developed by digital designer George Hastings and featuring beautiful patterns and illustrations by Lucie Bajgart, is an AI-assisted tool that learns which colours you like simply by asking users to curate a selection of 50 of their favourite colours from a pre-generated list.
The benefit of this approach is that if you're into relaxing pastel colourways and can't stand working with vibrant neon colours, then Khroma will know to remove these suggestions from your dashboard.
It comes with a wide variety of different views, including typographical, image-based gradient maps and more, enabling you to see first-hand how a given colour palette will work in your latest project without having to go to a great amount of effort in your chosen design suite first.
2) Logobook
Starting a new branding project can always be tricky, and it's all too easy to explore the Instagram and Dribbble feeds of fantastic graphic designers without considering whether their responses have a place in the 'real world'.
Logobook is a handy tool that enables designers to search through a growing selection of the worlds finest logos, symbols and trademarks, all taken from live projects for some of the largest companies in the world.
Arguably one of the most beneficial features of the tool is that every logo on the platform is presented monochromatically, enabling a designer to focus completely on the form of the logo itself without being distracted by a particular colour-way.
http://www.logobook.com/
3) Social Sizes
Simply put, Social Sizes in an online resource for designers looking to create social media images at a given platform's most recently defined resolutions.
A vast library of template files are available to download for free for either Sketch, Figma, XD, Photoshop or Illustrator, enabling you to jump straight into the design process without any background research or document set-up required.
Notes from the developers are also included, so if an image is likely to be cropped slightly on mobile then you will know to make adjustments beforehand, saving you real time that would otherwise have been spent cropping, exporting, uploading and repeating until everything lined up correctly.
https://socialsizes.io/
4) F37 Foundry
F37 Foundry is an award-winning typographic foundry based out of Manchester, UK. The talented typographers at F37 specialise in helping brands find their voice, crafting bespoke typefaces that align with both a brand's message and their own company values.
Alongside developing custom commissioned typefaces for clients around the world, a selection of 30 stunning font families are available to download from their website for either desktop or website use.
https://f37foundry.com/
5) Future Fonts
Future Fonts is a fantastic resource for designers looking to get ahead of the game and jump on a new typeface before other brands and designers get there first.
All of the typefaces listed on Future Fonts are in development and are yet to be officially released, meaning that you're able to snap up a licence at a discounted rate before it goes on sale to the general public at full price.
Alongside giving your brand identity a more unique voice, you're also supporting a bunch of up-and-coming typographers and helping them further their craft, which feels pretty great if you ask us.
6) BLKMARKET
If you're into distressed, grungy or brutalist design and are constantly looking to take your projects to the next level, then BLKMARKET are the go-to resource for premium photoshop plugins, high-resolution textures, hand-cut PNGs and much more.
There's tons of different resources to explore, all of which have been specifically crafted to ensure that your designs contain all of the deliberate physical imperfections that can really make or break a more disruptive, underground aesthetic.
https://beta.blkmarket.co/
7) Dieline
Dieline is the blog for print and physical product designers, featuring packaging from some of the best projects all around the world.
What's more, Dieline are currently looking to feature design students' work all week long from 23rd - 27th August as part of their official Student Week.
If you have the time and are looking to get your work featured in one of the biggest packaging design blogs, why not check out one of our Print and Packaging Brief Sets and submit your completed project here no later than Thursday 19th August for your chance to be featured.
8) Career Vault
Built for remote workers based on any continent, Career Vault is an online jobs board that focuses specifically on designers, developers and marketers looking to find remote working opportunities.
Like most other industries, the design industry is one that has had to learn to adapt following the recent pandemic, and during the design industry's recovery more and more agencies have realised that long-term remote working can often have its benefits over more conventional, office-based roles.
With creative opportunities ranging from Junior Developers all the way up to Senior Designers, Career Vault's jobs board is updated with hundreds of new vacancies from all around the world, every day.
🎤 Podcasts added to Good Finds
Being Freelance
'The podcast where creative freelancers chat about, being, well, freelance.'
Focus on Brand
'A podcast from the team at Focus Lab, a global B2B brand agency building brands that lead and inspire.'
That just about covers it for this month! Be sure to check back in with Briefbox HQ in August where we'll be sure to share more tools and resources designed to help take your design game to the next level.