Clever Inspirational Title Here
Interesting Subtitle Here
In this issue:
Tools: Photoshop on iPad
Resources: Glyphy
Design Systems: Chicago Design System
Communities: Elpha
Typography: Typographic Illusions
Category: Framer Guide to React
Thoughts: The Frequency Illusion
This newsletter was originally sent on 11/11/2019
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Photoshop on iPad—Tools
OMG. Photoshop is finally on the iPad! Now we can do digital painting, build animations, and create beautiful cat memes on a tablet. Aww yeah!
Glyphy—Resources
Glyphy is a simple online tool that allows you to easily copy special characters & symbols (also known as glyphs) to your device’s clipboard so that you can then paste them to any document or app you want. Great for finding arrows, hearts, and other stuff like this ↺⌘◆→
Chicago Design System—Design Systems
Check out the public identity of the City of Chicago. It’s an inclusive, equitable, cost-saving system for City communication and general use to show civic pride. I love how they describe all the methods used to make the system. It includes all seals, symbols, flags, UI, and accessibility. They also made Big Shoulders, a typeface designed by Patric King, available on Google Fonts — pretty cool for headings and posters.
Elpha—Communities
Elpha is an online community for women in tech. You can join discussions, ask questions, and learn from your peers. They currently have an ongoing series of conversations with experts in the community. There are some cool posts; for example, this one on what you can learn from failure. Or this one on how to negotiate as a woman of color.
Typographic Illusions—Typography
Check out these examples of optical illusions. The page features ten examples of how typographers have to play with weight and position to achieve visual balance and contrast in letters. The site has a PDF that you can use to print transparencies. Great for teaching or studying typography, or just giving fonts a closer look. Some of these examples also featured in the Netflix show Abstract.
Framer Guide to React—Learn
React has become one of the most popular ways to build web apps and create interactive UIs. Part of its popularity comes from it being component-based, declarative, and how if you learn it, you can use it anywhere. If you’ve wanted to dive into React, this free e-book by Koen Bok is for you. You’ll go through the theory, syntax, and tools of the trade.
The Frequency Illusion—Thoughts
We tend to think that things we’ve just noticed have only been around for a little while. This bias is also known as the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon. It took this name after someone, having just heard about the ultra-leftwing Baader-Meinhoff terrorist group, started seeing Baader-Meinhoff everywhere. Maybe this has happened to you too, you learn something new, or pay attention to a thing, and then you start seeing it all over the place.
Our brain has an incredible talent for pattern recognition. But, as powerful as our minds are, it would be far too complicated for it to process and remember each data input one by one. We typically only retain information that we find novel or exciting. Something new. Those things get “stuck” in our minds. We memorize just some thoughts and are inclined to overestimate their significance. So, this selective attention and confirmation bias make the Frequency Illusion possible.
In fact, if you didn’t know about this concept before, you’re gonna start seeing it everywhere now.
Art is anything you can get away with
― Marshall McLuhan, philosopher, and writer.
👋🏽 Hola. I’m Pablo Stanley. A designer who writes comics and shares tutorials. Every week I email this newsletter. I share a list of design-related gems, including inspiring work, cool typefaces, people to follow, articles to read, tools to try, and job opportunities. If you give me your email address, I’ll spam you every Monday with this stuff.
