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Time Out with Teresa Wozniak

Timeouts are lightning-quick interviews. Five questions to help you get to know the players holding court at Dribbble. Many thanks to Teresa for being today’s interviewee.

Who are you? Let us know where you hail from and what you do.

I’m a student, graphic designer and hand letterer, and I hail from all over Canada: born in Calgary, raised in Ottawa and educated in Halifax.

What are you working on?

I’m always lettering and illustrating something. Right now I’m working on Christmas cards, a cuckoo clock calendar and a bunch of identities.

Choose a favorite shot of yours. Tell us why it’s a favorite.

One of my favourite shots is this snapshot of my Bucket List poster. It was probably some of the most fun I’ve ever had making and printing something, and for Pete’s sake, it’s neon:

Tell us about your setup. What tools did you use to create the shot(s)? (e.g. hardware, software, pens, paper, blowtorch, etc.)

My set up is pretty basic. I work mostly in Illustrator for just about everything I do, and only ever use my mouse and trackpad because tablets drive me nuts. When it comes to lettering, I freehand most of it with a nice fine tip Faber-Castell. If I’m doing fraktur lettering, I use a Copic Wide, which honestly every hand letterer should own.

Choose a favorite shot from another player. Tell us why you dig it.

This is such a hard question. I love just about everything that Sam Kaufman and Craig Robson crank out. This is my favourite of Sam’s:

Perfect angle, perfect texture, and perfect balance between light and dark—just beautiful.

Craig Robson’s work makes the amateur tattooist in me weep with joy, and this pastel take on traditional rose imagery has a great balance between harsh and soft:

Time Out with Dan Matutina

Timeouts are lightning-quick interviews. Five questions to help you get to know the players holding court at Dribbble. Many thanks to Dan for being today’s interviewee.

Who are you? Let us know where you hail from and what you do.

I’m Dan Matutina, a designer and illustrator from sunny Philippines. I’m based in Katipunan, Quezon City and I work in our new studio called Plus63. I also go by the name Twistedfork online.

What are you working on?

I’m working on a website for Revolver Studios, it’s almost done so I’m pretty excited about it. I’m also working on an illustration for Help Ink & illustrations for a holiday-themed print for Heima, a local furniture shop.

Choose a favorite shot of yours. Tell us why it’s a favorite.

The backgrounds of the Black & Gold series was my first exploration in doing monochromatic illustrations. It started as a requirement for a project, so I decided to use a different process (far from my usual one) to make the illustrations. It greatly affected (in a good way) the direction of my current illustration style.

Tell us about your setup. What tools did you use to create the shot(s)? (e.g. hardware, software, pens, paper, blowtorch, etc.)

I work mostly on my laptop, but sometimes I work on my desktop computer especially for illustrations that are RAM and storage intensive.  I use my iPad to check for notes, references and distractions (emails, Twitter & Facebook :p). The software I use are mostly Photoshop & Illustrator. To create the textures, I use ink & watercolor on textured paper.

Choose a favorite shot from another player. Tell us why you dig it.

I love the The Empire State shot by Simon Ålander. It’s really beautiful: the custom type, the textures and the overall art direction. That piece looks alive! :)

Time Out with Kelli Anderson

Timeouts are lightning-quick interviews. Five questions to help you get to know the players holding court at Dribbble. Many thanks to Kelli for being today’s interviewee.

Who are you? Let us know where you hail from and what you do.

I hail from New Orleans but returned to Brooklyn, the birthplace of my maternal grandparents, for grad school 9 years ago. Strangers can no longer get away with cutting me in line (or equivalent breaches of the social contract) so I *officially* call myself a New Yorker. 

I do work as a tinkerer and designer and artist and illustrator and printmaker—guided by my interests and the demands of whatever interesting projects float my way. (My sincere hope is that I’ve been doing each of those things long enough to dodge dilettantism.) My favorite projects are the ones that succeed in finding a loophole in things that at first seem limiting, creating an unexpected portal of “disruptive wonder” in the everyday-boring. I’ve worked on a fake New York Times and a paper record player, which is how a lot of people know about my work. I left my job at the Natural History Museum earlier this year (I volunteer-work now) and have just last week survived my first TEDx talk.

What are you working on?

A website for an awesome artist friend named Steve Lambert, a (for now) secret project involving attribution in online journalism, a book cover, the design for the library at Amer. Mus. of Natural History’s new image archive, merchandise-galore for the film Girl Walk//All Day, an iPhone app’s design, holiday stuff for Airbnb, an infographic thingy, some holiday letterpressed gift cards for 20x200, branding for the “#OWS Bookmobile”, and a physical cut-and-paste art project with someone I’ve long admired. 

Oh… and a floaty pen design. (incidentally, it does not feature a naked lady.)

Choose a favorite shot of yours. Tell us why it’s a favorite.

My favorite is always the latest thing I’ve posted, really—I must have a limited memory. In recent history, I’m super-excited about this:

I designed this insanely fast (within a period of about 12 hours) for n+1 / Verso Book’s new collection of essays on Occupy Wall street featuring a diverse group of writers, including Angela Davis and Slavoj Žižek:

http://www.versobooks.com/books/1122-occupy

It is my favorite because:

1. They are printing it with spot-gloss on the lettering on the cover (!).
2. I can’t wait to read the essays this book.
3. 3-dimensional type makes me stupidly, irrationally happy- it defies reasonable explanation.

Tell us about your setup. What tools did you use to create the shot(s)? (e.g. hardware, software, pens, paper, blowtorch, etc.)

Nothing but a 13” macbook pro while traveling with limited fonts (yikes!)  But normally I work from home with an iMac, wacom, letterpress, scanner, piles of art supplies, two cats, etc. I like the have the best, most efficient tool within arm’s reach for any project. Along with actually making the work, that is my other life-goal.

Letterpress photo from Design*Sponge.

Choose a favorite shot from another player. Tell us why you dig it.

Can I have two, please?

ed.: Why yes. Yes you can.

I really like this whole series of type-as-physical machines by Jeff Hamada:

He has the belt type, the lightbulb-blinky type, and the piles-on-my-desk type and they are all wondrous (and should totally exist in real-world-life).

This type-illustration by John Passafiume obeys the laws of physics but also has a flat, graphical power that just floors me:

Time Out with Jon Contino

Timeouts are lightning-quick interviews. Five questions to help you get to know the players holding court at Dribbble. Many thanks to Jon for being today’s interviewee.

Who are you? Let us know where you hail from and what you do.

My name is Jon Contino (Dribbble) and I’m currently living and working in Brooklyn, New York. I grew up only about 20 minutes east of here on the south shore of Long Island, so I am 100% born and bred New Yorker. These days it seems I do a bit of everything, but currently I’m a freelance illustrator, designer, and brand consultant, and I also co-founded and creative direct the menswear brand CXXVI Clothing Co. Oh yeah, and you might also know me for my lettering work.

What are you working on?

I’m always in the middle of working on and launching lines for my brand CXXVI. Fall/Winter 2011 just launched and Spring/Summer 2012 is just around the corner. Aside from that, I’m wrapping up a few illustrations for Rachael Ray’s magazine, some branding for a new line of beer, and what seems like a hundred designs for various apparel lines. 

Choose a favorite shot of yours. Tell us why it’s a favorite.

I had a tough time deciding between two shots and it turns out they’re both named “Freedom,” but as a shot, I think this one is my favorite.

For some reason, the way it’s encapsulated in that 400x300 pixel box just makes me really happy. It’s one of the few that I feel could live on its own as an actual final piece of work.

Tell us about your setup. What tools did you use to create the shot(s)? (e.g. hardware, software, pens, paper, blowtorch, etc.)

My setup is pretty basic. An HB pencil, a few Micron pens of varying widths, a kneaded eraser, a mechanical eraser, a stack of the cheapest available printer paper, a basic wooden ruler with metal edge, a Canon scanner, a 27” iMac, and of course Photoshop and Illustrator. There’s probably a sandwich and some iced tea thrown in around there somewhere as well.

I also built myself a desk out of a great piece of butcher block and it’s quickly become my absolute favorite surface to draw on. Besides that I have a few rogue items that make their way into my work sometimes, like nibbed pens, india ink, and a Dremel engraver.

Choose a favorite shot from another player. Tell us why you dig it.

Even though I disputed him on the name (I thought it should be Horrorble), this shot from Richard Perez is too awesome to ignore. The lettering and the halftones give a great overall vibe and I love how simply it sits on the black background.

O Designer, Where Art Thou?

Today we’re fired up to announce a new feature for Pro members. Find Designers is a powerful tool to search for Dribbble members by location, skills, work availability, and more. Location search has been one of the most requested features since we started the site, so we’re thrilled to finally make it available. Being able to wade through the community’s ever-growing talent pool makes discovering and connecting with designers that interest you even easier.

Pro members can start using Find Designers today (just click the new ‘Designers’ tab on the main menu). If you’re a drafted player who hasn’t gone Pro, you can see example results in “Practice Mode” to get a feel for how it works.

We realize that non-players, particularly those looking to hire designers, will also be interested in finding users. We’ll be turning our attention to this crowd in the very near future, so stay tuned.

In addition to search, we’ve added lists of the cities, countries, and skills on Dribbble (accessible from the Find Designers page). This gives, quite literally, the lay of the land of our global community. 

We’ve made skills, previously a Pro-only feature, available to all players and prospects. Any player or prospect can now add skills to their profile from the Account page (Pros: this has moved from your Account/Pro page). We hope this will help with finding more members and drafting prospects.

We’ve discovered many new local designers and globetrotting Dribbblers during development. We hope you Find Designers as much fun as we have.

The New 400×300 Tee

We have a brand-spanking new t-shirt over at the Dribbble Store!

Available now in Guys and Girls sizes. Wear it with pride, Dribbblers.

Show & Tell Boston Lineup

We just wanted to send a quick reminder about the first-ever Dribbble Meetup in Boston which is less than a week away. Start time is 7pm Monday, October 17 and our Show & Tell lineup of short talks includes:

• Dan Cederholm with an introduction
• Adam Darowski and Jeffrey Chupp on their Dribbble API web application, Liiikes
• Chris Arvin on bringing Expedia Hotels to the iPad & tablets
• Jeremy Weiskotten and Joe Lind on Sass
• Bruce Spang on using ImageMagick to browse images by color
• Mat Marquis on the responsive (re)design of the Boston Globe
• Rich Thornett on what’s coming soon to Dribbble

There will be pizza, letterpressed coasters, buttons, stickers, and we’ll be raffling t-shirts that feature a brand new design.

After the meetup, we’ll be heading over to The Good Life for drinks and conversation.

Please note: The 1 Financial building where Gemvara’s offices are located has tight security. You MUST be on the attendee list and have a photo ID to get in to the event.

If you can’t attend, please change your RSVP status so someone from the waiting list can. 

We look forward to seeing you on Monday!

Dan & Rich

Time Out with Mary Kate McDevitt

Timeouts are lightning-quick interviews. Five questions to help you get to know the players holding court at Dribbble. Many thanks to Mary Kate for being today’s interviewee.

Who are you? Let us know where you hail from and what you do.

My name is Mary Kate McDevitt and I currently live in Portland, OR. I work from home in my studio as a freelance illustrator mostly drawing and painting letters. I also like to hang out with my cat Peppy Mew Mew and bike around the town.

What are you working on? 

Some historical-type lettering for Lehigh University, fun holiday lettering for Better Homes and Gardens, and my poster for Art Crank.

Choose a favorite shot of yours. Tell us why it’s a favorite. 

I think it would be Cheat Local. It was a fun little project I did for the cover of the Willamette Week, a weekly paper here in Portland. I have a career crush on sign painters so it was fun to experiment with that style.

Tell us about your setup. What tools did you use to create the shot(s)?

My tools include a pencil, micron pens, calligraphy pen, brushes, tracing paper, paper, slate, scanner, photoshop.

From my sketch, I created the lettering using a brush and ink to capture the style of hand painted letters on a sign and scanned it in, added color on the computer and pieced the decorative elements that I also scanned in. 

Here are some peaks into part of my workspace. This is my desk where I will work on sketches, doodles, and where I scan and sometimes piece together work on the computer. I also spend a good amount of time looking at the internet.

The other part of my studio is in our basement where screen printing, building, painting and messy art making goes on.

Choose a favorite shot from another player. Tell us why you dig it.

I have a new favorite on Dribbble just about everyday! But this shot sticks out in my head for sure, Jerk Pix by Dan Cassaro.

I really love anything that makes me laugh and beautiful lettering, which Dan Cassaro is a master at both. I used it for my desktop for about a day but I would really love to see this as a print and on my wall.

Time Out with Riley Cran

Timeouts are lightning-quick interviews. Five questions to help you get to know the players holding court at Dribbble. Many thanks to Riley for being today’s interviewee.

Who are you? Let us know where you hail from and what you do.

I’m Riley Cran, I’m an independent designer and illustrator, and I enjoy designing brands and spot illustrations for cool companies.

I live in the Pacific Northwest of Continental North America.

What are you working on?

I’m almost always working on a couple of branding projects, a personal project, and a display face for my pet project with Tyler Galpin, The Lost Type Co-op.

Choose a favorite shot of yours. Tell us why it’s a favorite.

I had a great time recently designing a t-shirt for a startup called Yardsale. I wanted to make a shirt that appealed to a set of special interest groups, mainly: Foodies, Photographers, Crafters/Sewers, Electronics Hobbyists, Fashionistas, Artists, Bicyclists, Collectors and Music Lovers.

Tell us about your setup. What tools did you use to create the shot(s)?

I work on a 13” Macbook Pro, and I prefer to use a single button mouse, which I understand is somewhat peculiar these days.

I can’t wrap my head around all the buttons and things. I’m sick of triggering exposé every time I wanna throw a bézier :-)

A majority of my work is done in Illustrator, and I use Photoshop for the other bits.

I like scribbling out ideas in any number of Moleskine/Field Notes books I have laying about.

I work at an ikea desk that has this crazy 10 bulb light fixture on it (here’s a photo):

My walls feature a bunch of prints by fellow Dribbble players. Here’s a shot of some Curtis Jinkins (Neighborhood Studios) prints, and a small portion of the Coke bottles I’ve been collecting for years.

Choose a favorite shot from another player. Tell us why you dig it.

Hard to choose! I have enjoyed so much work over the past year or so that I’ve been using dribbble.

Right now, I’m super into this shot by Bobby McKenna:

I love the pattern of those half-circles, and that bold color scheme.

Thanks for having me Dan + Rich, and thanks for keeping Dribbble running so smoothly!