Dribbble Blog

Dribbble + United Pixelworkers + Jon Contino

Thu, 10 May 2012 14:32:42 -0400

We teamed up with our friends at United Pixelworkers on a shirt designed by illustrator extraordinaire, Jon Contino (Dribbble profile). It’s available for pre-order now!

We love Jon’s vintage basketball (laces!) and custom type in his infamous, vintage, New York aesthetic. The fine folks at UP are soft-hand printing this one on a tri-blend black tee from American Apparel. You’ll want three or four of these for the summer.

Many thanks to United Pixelworks and Jon Contino for making this happen!

Time Out with Kendrick Kidd

Mon, 07 May 2012 11:31:28 -0400

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

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

My name is Kendrick Kidd and I live/work in sunny Florida as a designer/illustrator. I 9 to 5 at Shepherd, an ad agency in Jacksonville, and spend the moments in between freelancing for myself, and Halftone Def Studios. I love exploring design, and regularly seek out new types of projects I’ve yet to try.

What are you working on?

My wife and I recently had our first child, so I’ve been working pretty hard at being a good dad, haha. Beyond that, I’ve been designing a few shirts for Spitfire Wheels, and a small summer apparel line for Modus Bearing Company. Kinda pumped to work on anything skate/surf related, so work’s been pretty fun lately.

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

I’m pretty stoked on this little black & white boot I did recently. I love trying to convey detail in a single color, and thought this little guy had just the right amount. Restraint can be a real S.O.B. sometimes, but it’s also super rewarding when it works out.

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

My tool setup varies depending on what I’m trying to achieve but the staples are: a mechanical pencil, scanner, the Adobe suite, coffee, beer and water. My work area is littered with sketches, work samples, posters & crumbs. My mother will probably cringe when she see this, as my work desk closely resembles my bedroom as a teenager. Sorry mom, not much has changed.

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

This was pretty tough… I see a heap of rad shit on dribbble, daily. I could easily pick 50 favorites and have another 50 that were a close second. The quality of work around here is bananas. That said, I feel like the Monarch playing cards shot from Curtis Jinkins is pretty up-there, for me. Curtis’s work always has a sense of craft about it. Doesn’t really matter if it’s simple or complex, the care he puts into his pieces is ever-present. The Monarch cards in particular are a great example of this. There’s literally nothing he could add, or take away that would make the packaging any better. It’s about as perfect as a design gets.

Time Out with Allison Grayce

Fri, 04 May 2012 11:04:58 -0400

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

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

Howdy team! My name is Allison Grayce, and I’m a web designer and teacher at Treehouse in Orlando, FL. My day to day usually consists of writing blog posts, writing my curriculum, designing or recording screencasts. Since we work a 4-day workweek, on my days off I’ll work on personal or freelance design projects to keep the skills I teach fresh (and because I just love to design!).

What are you working on?

I’m always working on new content for my curriculum and blog posts for Think Vitamin. This past week, the teachers and I worked closely with our oober-talented video team to write narratives and reward videos to coincide with our students’ learning experience at Treehouse. We called it “Movie Week.” All of our remote folks came in from out of town and pitched in by either acting, screenwriting or helping on set. It was rewarding to break out of the routine and have a hand in something completely outside of my comfort zone and the work I usually do. As far as design projects go, I’m working on a photography portfolio/blog and fashion blog.

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

I’d say the Treehouse Badges is one of my favorite shots. It actually ended up as an ad for Treehouse, which was funny to see when it showed up on Dribbble via The Deck. Having to come up with unique and consistent iconography for all of our courses (especially JavaScript, Ruby on Rails, & iOS which are naturally not very visual) was/is challenging. But when I see them all together, I’m pretty proud of the way they turned out.

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

I’d say 90% of my day is spent in Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator CS4. (Though I’ve been using Photoshop CS6 beta lately and love the improvements!) The other 10% is spent in TextMate, recording screencasts with iShowU, staying informed with Reeder, and sane with Spotify.

As far as hardware goes, I use my 15” MacbookPro with a 27” cinema display and it sits on top of my beloved Geek Desk. Other essentials are my iPhone 4, iPad 2, Dot Grid Book, Browser Pads and a squishy stress ball to play with while I think. :D

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

This is so hard to do, especially lately since the Dribbble community and talent has just skyrocketed. I think I’d have to go with Ryan Putnam’s Amberbranch Packaging. Besides the fact that it’s an ampersand, this is a perfect example of shots that inspire me beyond the web. I get lost in user interfaces, and stumbling across this kind of stuff encourages me to get crafty every once in awhile.

Time Out with Logan Faerber

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:38:28 -0400

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

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

My name is Logan Faerber. I’m originally from Newport, RI, but am currently living in Boston, MA. Primarily I’m an illustrator, but having experience in graphic design, painting, typography and printmaking has allowed me to work on a variety of projects.

What are you working on?

Currently I’ve been working on several comics, one of which was recently picked up by 215 Ink called “Re-pro-duct”. It’ll be a 6 issue mini-series that will follow a robot protagonist in a world where people and robots live unanimously.

There’s also a couple of other comics that will be featured in two separate anthologies. One book is a collection of stories inspired by “metal” and the story I’m doing for that is titled, “Six-Barrel Shotgun”. The other story is in a collection inspired by the seven deadly sins. I was given the one titled, “Envy”.

Along with these comics, I’ve also been developing a company with my partner Steve Trevathan titled, “Dobot” that we will be working on together in order to create and develop for people and ideas we strongly agree with and would like to support.

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

One of my favorite shots that I posted was “Hiking”. There was a huge response to this shot immediately after posting it, and it began as just a simple stock photo image amongst a series, but it took on a life of its own when I added to the depth and volume of all the objects within in. I love it because it was a piece I wasn’t expecting to love, or for anyone else to love for that matter, but it ended up accomplishing both.

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 honestly pretty basic. I’ve got a desk next to my bed that has a variety of pens and pencils including Microns, Copics, Pentel drafting pencils (0.5 blue lead, 0.5 HB lead) and Prismacolor architectural pencil holders. I love all these devices because they can get very fine and varied lines, which is something very important to me when creating my style that needs to have a very fluid and natural feel.

I do almost all of my illustration work in Moleskine notebooks and on smooth Bristol paper. That way I can retain control of my lines. Most all of my final inking is done with 00, 1, 3 size round brushes and India Ink. On occasion I use acrylic paints as well, and for those I have always stuck to Golden brand, since their flow, color and blending have worked beautifully for each and every project.

Once all the on hand technical drawing is done, I transfer the image into Photoshop (primarily) or illustrator for coloring and additional touch-ups. For all computer related works I use a Wacom tablet.

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

I’m going to cheat here a bit because it’s hard for me to choose a favorite shot from this person since to me they seem to be part of a large series. Matt Kaufenberg’s redesigned characters are one of my personal favorites. I love them because as an illustrator I’m always considering the various exaggerations and styles in which to depict character, and each one of these figures is right on and perfect for the feeling he’s going for; they are fun and lovable. This is especially true since I’m currently working on a children’s book of my own and these are always inspiring.

I’d also love to give a shout out to the runner up pick, Chris Sandlin. Another fantastic character designer!

Mo' Pro, Yo!

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:53:31 -0400

Just over a year ago, we launched Dribbble Pro to make power features such as attachments, stats and projects available to designers. A bit later, we added the Hire Me button through which thousands of work inquiries have been sent to Dribbble members. Following that, we released Find Designers and subsequently made Pro accounts available to anyone, providing a search tool that any designer, fan or employer of designers, can use to find for members of interest by skill and location.

Seeing Pro features get enthusiastically adopted—there have been thousands of projects, attachments, work inquiries, and location searches—has been truly rewarding. It’s also been a great year for Dribbble as a business. A year ago, we spent a lot of time worrying about how to survive. Now with revenue from Pro accounts and Dribbble Jobs for Designers, we’re focused on how to thrive. We can’t thank you enough for your support in helping us make that leap.

But we can make Pro better. To kickoff the second year of Pro accounts, we’ve launched two new features. For Players, we’ve added attachment and project views to your Pro Stats. Views were made available on individual attachment and project pages not long ago, and now we’re excited to roll these into Pro Stats as well.

We’re also introducing what we think will be an extremely popular feature: Lists. All Pro members (Players, Prospects and Scouts) can now build public and private lists of Dribbble members. You can add members to a list from their profile as well as their player card. Lists not only allow you to organize members of interest into meaningful groups, they offer another powerful way to discover designers by browsing anyone’s public lists.

Our favorite aspect of lists: They also produce shot streams from list members, making it easy to follow subsets of designers. With them, you can quickly tap into the work of designers in a specific area of interest, or view a more targeted stream of shots on days when your Following stream feels overwhelming.

When signed in, you can access all of ‘Your Lists’ from the ‘You’ menu in the header. When viewing your Following page, you can also get to any individual list using the ‘Your Lists’ select menu on the right, which will appear after you’ve created a list.

We’re already using lists at Dribbble HQ and slightly giddy about them. We hope they are just as big a hit with Pro members. Thanks yet again for your paid support of this amazing community. We will keep working hard to make it worthwhile.

Time Out with Diane Faye Zerr

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 11:39:40 -0400

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

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

My name is Diane Faye Zerr, of Faye & Co from Reading, Pennsylvania. I’m a graphic designer and illustrator, most known for my tattoo-style stationery and lettering. I work from my home studio in and live with my husband, Dustin and our son, Cody. I also have a cat who sleeps entirely too much, and a very squawky but small-sized parrot.

What are you working on?

I literally just finished up a rush order for nautical-style wedding invitations this morning. I’m also working on a local florist’s promotional materials, websites, and a ton of other projects!

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

My favorite shot out of my profile would have to be the hand-lettered tags shot that I did over the holidays. They were fun and I loved the reaction from the recipients.

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

For my favorite shot, I used black card stock, black grommets, and black & white twine. For the lettering, I used my favorite white gel pen, a uni-ball Signo broad. It’s the best white pen out there!

Every day I use a sketchbook, Canson Marker Layout tablets (they are the best!), pencils, Faber-Castell artist pens, and a variety of pens and markers of all sorts. I also couldn’t work without a metal ruler, protractor, my circle template, and other handy-dandy tools. I depend on my Epson scanner, iMac, and Adobe software once it’s time to go digital, and an Epson Stylus Photo 1400 printer for production.

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

As for my favorite shot, it has to be the Dr. Jones logo icon by Tymn Armstrong. Braces are kind of a scary thing and this just makes it look so dang friendly! I mean look at that little brace hugging that big ol’ tooth. It’s adorable!

New Equipment: Charge Tee

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:28:33 -0400

Our popular Charge Tee is back in stock over at the Equipment Shop. Simple black battery icon printed on a 90% cotton, heather grey tee from American Apparel. Wear it to the gym, coffee shop, pub—or wherever you recharge.

This is our first tee featuring our new custom woven hem tag, and we think it looks fantastic. Buy one or five for the forthcoming warm weather.

Time Out with Joey Ellis

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:55:07 -0400

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

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

My name is Joey Ellis and my wife and I run our own illustration and design studio here in Charlotte, NC. I love doing character design and being the biggest nerd on the planet (I would be elected King of the Nerds if we would ever organize). I also have two boys and they aren’t allowed to play with my toys. You tell them to get their own.

What are you working on?

I’ve currently got a few mascot/identity projects going on as well as a hefty iOS project that I’ve been lucky to be a part of. I’m also a big fan of doing self-initiated projects so I’ve got several personal pieces going on (current estimates have my personal pieces being completed in March of 2063).

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

My “Band of Louies“ piece was a benchmark for me as far as landing on a style that I finally felt good about, that I could sell to clients, and that I would enjoy spending a career to improve upon.

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

I do a lot of research and drawing on every project that I do. Homework beforehand is king.

I tend to keep several sketchbooks going at a time. Typically one sketchbook is dedicated to a single client/project as I have found that makes it easier to go back and find things. I draw in red and clean up in black. I like the way that looks, but more importantly, I don’t tend to take a “red drawing” very seriously, meaning I don’t fall in love with it and can keep changing things about it. It’s just the way my brain works, yo.

My tools are my red and black Polychromos pencils, Illustrator, Photoshop—all the usual suspects. My studio is in a room above the garage. It’s not cool or glamourous and is filled with crap. It’s kinda like an episode of Hoarders, but there aren’t any dead animals in here yet. I have my iMac and an old Wacom along with a few iPads for iOS stuff. I have tons of toys and half-filled coffee cups strewn about.

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

Oh, my “likes” are filled with Matt Stevens, Jared Chapman, Matt Kaufenberg, Chris Sandlin, Melanie Matthews, Dave Mott, Ty Wilkins, Rob McClurkan, Todd Bright (just to name a few) but one of my all-time-favorite shots is Troy Cummings’ “Hike”. I love the shapes used in the characters. I love how the bear fits with the hiker. I love the depth of the forest. Love love love. Also love.

Time Out with Ryan Brinkerhoff

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 14:42:59 -0400

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

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

My name is Ryan Brinkerhoff. I am a designer/illustrator hailing from Columbus, Ohio. I am Art Director at Origo Branding Company, a marketing and communications agency located in downtown Columbus. On my free time, I make posters and various illustrations at Bandito Design Co., which I started in 2009 when I graduated from the Columbus College of Art & Design.

What are you working on?

Right now I am working on an illustration project for Yay Bikes! I am creating 12 “bike monsters” that each represent a monthly themed bike-ride organized by Yay Bikes! Buttons and posters are generated from the illustrations. The themes are pretty fun, ranging from music to back-to-school. See some of it here.

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

A favorite shot of mine was a recent one: Don’t Tread on Me. I like it because it gives a snippet of the final poster, has the entire poster attached, and also has a link in the comments to an animated gif revealing the initial sketch. I really enjoy seeing the process of an illustration, so recently I’ve been trying to share as much of it as possible.

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

I usually do a rough thumbnail sketch on paper or in illustrator with the pencil tool (really rough, in that case). Then I just work through the illustration in illustrator. My textures are all vector, either created by me or modified versions of this vector brush pack by Ryan Clark. Animated gifs are obsessively created in Photoshop. Photoshop is pretty much only used for image creating for web, and animated gifs.

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

I really dig this Frog Prince shot by Graham Erwin. There are so many great little things going on in this shot; it tells so many awesome little stories. The texture is intense, but works really well for the piece. The combination of the first shot and the rebounds of the final printed poster is when it gets really good. Again, I really enjoy seeing projects go from beginning to end!

Time Out with Tim Boelaars

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 13:42:32 -0400

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

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

My name is Tim Boelaars and I live and work in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Iʼm a freelance graphic designer and illustrator. Apart from that, I co-founded Frame Inc., a small branding studio here in Amsterdam.

What are you working on?

Iʼm working on several things, some of which I canʼt tell too much about. It seems Iʼll be doing some more branding work and art-direction for several cool products this coming summer.

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

Even though it was rejected, I quite enjoy this logo I did a while back.

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 on a 27” iMac since last summer and love it. Since Iʼm usually only working when Iʼm in the studio, itʼs really nice to have such great hardware. Itʼs lightning fast, because it has a SSD and fast memory etc. I donʼt know much about it, but Iʼm really happy with its performance. I use a Wacom Intuos 4 as mouse and a Moleskine or some other notebook to write or sketch down some ideas. Most of the stuff I make is done in Illustrator and Photoshop.

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

Really tough question, because there is so much good stuff on Dribbble. One shot that struck me in particular was this beautiful illustration by Matt Stevens.

Time Out with Richard Perez

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 11:07:03 -0400

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

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

Hello hello, Richard Perez here. I’m an illustrator and designer currently residing in San Francisco, CA, but originally from the Los Angeles area. The burritos are better here but the tacos are more delicious in LA. How is that possible?! After a few years at the awesome Office I recently decided to go out on my own, under my Skinny Ships moniker and hopefully make some pretty sweet stuff for your eyeballs to take in.

What are you working on?

Let’s see what was on the plate this week: Doing some branding identity work, a couple of spot illustrations for an upcoming issue of Popular Mechanics, a tee shirt graphic, plus starting on a series of art prints and tee’s that should be out early summer.

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

I think this little doodle portrait of my girlfriend of 5 years, Jen and I. We both work out of our home office so she is (and our cats Buffins and Tibbles) constantly the subject of many of my little doodles. I love the sorta chibi style I drew us in (my head isn’t really that big) and the funky color palette.

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

I recently simplified my work set up after a few years of having a ridiculously cluttered desktop filled with books, notes and other junk. Now it’s just my 21.5” iMac, a few 7×10” notebooks, an assortment of pens and an old Godzilla figure. Occasionally the desk is also occupied by one of my furry assistants, they’re great at disrupting the creative process with their adorableness.

As far as workflow goes: lots of sketching and scanning of doodles, plenty of time vectorizing things in Illustrator and occasionally some extra touches in Photoshop. And coffee throughout that process.

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

So many cool peeps doing rad stuff, this is tough. This icon set by Eric R. Mortensen is probably my favorite, mainly though for two reasons: A) It’s for NASA! how awesome is that! B) The balance of forms / color inside those hexagons. Man I love hexagons, probably my favorite polygon.

Time Out with Richie Stewart

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 15:30:54 -0400

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

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

Just another dude trying to make rent with Letter-Picture Combo Platters. I live, work & get weird in my most loved & hated city in the world: Boston, MA. I recently left my comrades at Oat to open up my own shop Commoner, Inc. with my better half, Brook Lyn. Our job is to listen to people’s stories, interpret, and consequently visualize them with letters and shapes.

What are you working on?

At the moment, it seems to be quite a bit of ‘boutique branding’ projects. Two coffee shops, a clothing company, a barber shop, an antique luggage restoration company and a website which sells custom tumblr themes. I am also in the midst of making a deck of cards for a certain playing card company & some things for Salvation Army’s WarDrobe project. Oh, and a TypeFight match coming up, which I’m pretty stoked on.

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

I think this little fella would probably be my favorite shot:

This holds a special spot for me as it was made for a very dear friend of mine who brews pretty stellar craft beer. A labor of love, as it were, his main goal is to make the best beer he can for no other reason than to give to his friends and put something into the world that didn’t already exist. No financial gain…just straight up passion. That kind of attitude inspires me, which hopefully comes through in the design.

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

To be completely honest with you, I’m a straight-up caveman in this digital age of ours. A No. 2 pencil and the pen tool in illustrator is about the extent of my arsenal. The pathfinder, occasionally, but that’s kind of a guessing game until things work. Then a minor bit of Photoshop to add texture if needed. I suppose something about embracing the simplicity and straight-forwardness of the more traditional tools, helps to inform my style and process. Though it would be nice to be more well rounded in my knowledge of the Creative Suite, I was never really inclined to learn any Photoshop wizardry. And for the most part, the type of work I do rarely calls for anything more than the aforementioned tools.

Also, coffee & beer usually sneak their way into the mix at some point.

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

I think this little ditty by Chris DeLorenzo is just beautiful:

Something about looking at an image with such ‘simple & limited’ shapes, without becoming bored after 2 seconds, is really impressive to me. The stark geometry, subtle shading, palette, scale, proportion…it just has this quiet, but at the same time, incredible energy to it. Also, it seems in his description it was created for no other reason than, ‘just to make something.’ That kind of thinking is rad as hell and more designers (people in general) should embrace that kind of attitude.

All-Pro

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 16:11:45 -0500

We’re happy to announce that Find Designers, a powerful tool for searching designers by location, skill and other criteria, can now be accessed by anyone. Long available to players (designers invited to post their work) who have purchased Pro accounts, we’ve explored a lot of product and pricing options to expose this feature to a wider population.

Find Designers is clearly a power tool for employers seeking design talent. However, we also wanted any designer—or fan of designers—to be able to grow their local or skill-based creative network. As such, we attempted to make it affordable to anyone.

So how can you get access to Find Designers if you don’t have it already? Pro Accounts, which come with Find Designers, may now be purchased by anyone. To do so, simply sign up if you don’t have an account, or sign in if you do, and navigate to the Accounts / Pro page. There you can see a full description of the Pro feature set and a prompt for purchasing.

Please note that we’ve raised the price for Pro accounts by … one dollar. Anyone can go Pro now for $20 per year.

The other piece of this release is that we’ve tried to improve our sign up process with clearer concepts and messaging. We’ve introduced Scout accounts, which replaces Spectators as the term for non-designers at Dribbble. If your focus is to find, follow or hire designers, sign up as a Scout. If you’d like to be invited to share your work on Dribbble, you can still sign up as a Prospect.

To those who already have Pro accounts—thank you yet again. It was your support that allowed us to survive the early days and your support that enables us to work full-time on this little project that has gotten bigger than we ever expected. CHEERS!

What's your favorite place on Earth?

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 14:44:49 -0500

The buzzer just went off on our latest rebound playoff. 205 Dribbblers answered the question, “What’s your favorite place on Earth?”. We had some wonderful entries, as usual.

The top 5 most-liked shots, as well as a Coaches’ Pick, will get to choose a t-shirt from our Equipment Shop.

Infographic Postcard by Kerem Suer
Ketchum, Idaho by Alex Rinker
Boston by Seth Nickerson
Lietuva - Lithuania by Julius Seniūnas
Orlando by Rob Dozier
Colorado by Kevin F.J. Harris (Coaches’ Pick)

Thanks to all who rebounded and voted!

Intramural NYC

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:41:11 -0500

Last Thursday night, Rich and I trekked down to Manhattan to attend a special Dribbble meetup hosted by our friends at Squarespace. When we arrived in SOHO, we quickly realized this wasn’t going to be just another meetup. The folks at Squarespace had designed a team competition: Renting a mini hoop basketball game, using the Dribbble API to assign attendees to color-coded, headbanded teams. Team members’ profiles were displayed along with their shots and projected on the wall.

Competition was fierce. Elbows were thrown. Tube socks were pulled up high. And in the end, a winner emerged, winning a black basketball signed by myself, Rich and Squarespace Creative Director (and hoop master), Tyler Thompson, among other prizes.

We can’t thank Squarespace enough for putting together a very memorable night. It was fantastic meeting ~80 local NYC Dribbblers, hearing how they use the service, getting feedback, and seeing a portion of the community in person. The hoop tournament, beer, headbands, swag, and snacks have set the bar high for future meetups, and perhaps created a model for others around the globe.

We’ve just added @ mention support in comments! This is a...

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:16:00 -0500

We’ve just added @ mention support in comments! This is a little screencast showing how it all works. Mentions will also show up in your Activity, making it easier to keep track of what other players are saying about you.

Big thank you to Dribbble consultant-at-large @monkeyatlarge for his 800lb gorilla-sized contributions to the new mentions feature.

Time Out with Alex Rinker

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:46:08 -0500

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

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

My name is Alex Rinker. I’m originally from Ketchum/Sun Valley, Idaho but have been living and working in Southern California the last 12 years. Currently I am working at Ted Perez + Associates in Venice, CA as Art Director / Designer / Illustrator. I’m also one of the dudes behind www.generalssurplus.com & www.ascottee.com.

What are you working on?

Currently in the works that I can talk about… Putting the finishing touches on new goods for The General’s Surplus that will be launching very soon! A full blown redesign of my personal site and organizing 10 years of work for that (It’s been 5+ since the last update—yes I know that’s lame)

Currently in the works that I have to keep somewhat vague… Destroying major U.S. cities (via Photoshop) to look post-apocalyptic for a certain video game media campaign, as well as a Logo / Branding project codenamed “The Harbor Project”.

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

My favorite shot is the Cocktail Recipe Cards I did these for the bar (The Buck Turgidson) we have here at the office, and pretty stoked how they came out. Eventually I would like to do a second set and maybe a third. Who knows maybe get them all letterpressed and sell as a set—depends on if people would be interested in buying them or not.

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 standard: AI, PS, pen, paper, wacom, imac, chair, brain. The office itself is a little more interesting… All sorts of artifacts, taxidermy, vintage goods, busts, and art surround the space.

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

Like everyone else, it is very hard to choose one. Here’s a couple that have stood out recently and why I dig em.

This shot has all sorts of amazing going on. First off I love classic “The End” screens from old movies, then through in an Ale Paul typeface w/ interlocking ligatures, blow it out three dimensionally, add a lil film grain and POW!

Carl Spackler!

Jim Phillips was one of my favorite artists growing up. I had a multiple Santa Cruz skate decks and had his stickers on everything. Matthew’s work/style reminds me of Jim Phillips’ work and I dig that.

Time Out with Regina Casaleggio

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:10:38 -0500

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

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

Hey folks. I’m Regina Casaleggio. I live Cape Town, South Africa. I’m a user interface designer. I mostly design web apps, websites and recently mobile apps. My days are spent alongside my husband Christo in our studio called Yarn where we freelance but also design, illustrate and code projects together. I’m also a foodie, lover of craft beer and red wine (Merlot being my favorite), addicted to anything local and handmade and craft/organic food markets.

What are you working on?

I’m currently working on a few fun projects; the most exciting which is a collaboration with Kelly Smith of Curious Office. I’m working on the redesign of Zapd, a mobile app that allows you to build a website on your mobile. It’s my first mobile app design and I’m learning a lot and having a blast! Hopefully I can show some of it soon.

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

I’m quite fond of this shot of a Tumblr theme I designed for Style Hatch at the end of 2011. Jonathon Moore (of Style Hatch) gave me complete creative freedom. The brief was to design something I would use for my own Tumblr theme and this is just very me—excited to see it launched soon.

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

I try to keep my workspace very minimal—almost like a blank canvas, but I have a view to die for!

I keep a yellow ceramic jar on my desk I got as a gift from one of my first clients (Mud Studio) – it reminds me where I was and how far I’ve come.

I work on a Mac Book Pro and a Magic Mouse. Always open on my Mac: Photoshop, Illustrator, Safari, Dropbox, Alfred, Klok, iTunes and Skype. I use Sharpies and an A3 sketch pad I can “archive” once full.

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

I love this shot by Gerren Lamson for the Tasty Trailers website. The project is done beautifully. The textures, type, icons and colours are fantastic. I love how it’s so differnet than what you usually see for Mobile apps design and App website design.

* Also want to thank Bev for the copy editing.

Time Out with Brent Jackson

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 14:10:40 -0500

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

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

I’m a senior UX designer at LivingSocial in Washington, DC. I try to focus on mobile, Web, icon and identity design. On the side, I created Geomicons.com as a resource for other Web and UI designers.

What are you working on?

Mostly the LivingSocial iOS and Android apps, but I’ve also worked on LivingSocial’s Instant product, our brand icons and various other pieces of the desktop website.

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

I’m a huge fan of Dribbble’s Playoffs/Rebound feature. It’s an interesting take on the idea of layer tennis, and it’s a fun way to briefly step away from whatever your working on, which I find invaluable to the creative process. I’m also a sucker for simplified geometric forms.

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

At home, I have an 11” MacBook Air. I love the small form factor and being able to work at my desk, the couch, kitchen counter, coffee shop or wherever I may end up. I also find that Lion’s full screen mode really helps me focus on the task at hand. I like keeping my desk distraction-free, but I sketch a lot and usually keep a notebook and an Alvin Draft-matic pencil around. I also tend to have a phone or iPad lying around to test comps on. At work, I have a 27” iMac, but I find the extra screen real estate more distracting than useful.

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

This is by far the toughest question, because I have so many favorite shots on Dribbble. That said, this shot by Ryan Boyle really surprised me with the animation when I clicked through—a nice touch on top of a great illustration.

Time Out with Prekesh Chavda

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:44:24 -0500

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

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

Hello :) I’m Prekesh Chavda. I’m from Loughborough, in England. I’m a designer and student. I design icons and user interfaces, but I like designing anything really. I’m fascinated by all visual communication and I’m trying to explore and learn as much as I can. On the side I like to try my hand at some photography and illustration.

What are you working on?

I’ve been working on university projects for the past few months, most of the work is quite dull (and sometimes rushed!) so I don’t bother sharing it. But when I have time, I work on an icon set that I’ve been posting on Dribbble for the past couple of months, a couple of iOS UI projects and I practice developing my illustration style (which is proving to be as hard as I thought it would be).

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

I really like the icons that I’ve been creating for the past few months, this being the most recent shot from the set. I set myself a small challenge to create a larger set of icons, rather than 32px/48px I thought I’d move up one step to 128px. Not a huge challenge, but I want to move onto creating even larger, more detailed icons after this and I figured moving up gradually can help me learn more along the way.

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

I’m like most designers I guess, I use my iMac and Photoshop/Illustrator to create the majority of my work and almost all sketches are done in my many sketchbooks. Recently I’ve started taking an interest in illustration so I’ve started using pens/brushes/paint on paper to create lines and textures. I use a Canon EOS 500D (and iPhone 4S) to take photos, but that’s just a hobby that I one day hope to pursue more seriously (when I can afford it! hahaha).

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

This is tough :P, I spend quite a lot of time on Dribbble and I’m constantly blown away by work that everyone posts. I hope you don’t mind if I pick two shots, one icon and one illustration.

This shot by Artua inspires me every time I see it. I think that the icon has a great balance between functionality and realism, so that when it’s scaled down it still looks great. They’ve used the rounded-rectangle shape very well. I’m not a fan of the “fit-an-object-into-a-rounded-rectangle” trend that a lot of designers are taking part in - but this icon does this very well. Of course like all of Artua’s work the execution is flawless, the lighting and details are fantastic.

I’ve been trying to develop my own style as I’ve been learning and practising illustration. So of course I’ve been following the work of many illustrators on Dribbble. I could go on and link to a hundred awesome people but Glen’s work always inspires me and I love the mood and textures in this shot.