Lots of changes happening in my neck of the woods in the last week and I am looking forward to sharing more of that with you in this week's delayed edition of CJ, so let's get into it!

Creative Juice is a weekly newsletter published every Monday morning so you can start your week feeling inspired creatively to make cool sh*t and get paid for it. Every Monday I share something gorgeous, a portfolio of the week, three creative finds, one amazing post from social media, and one lesson I learned recently.

If you have an idea of how I can improve Creative Juice and make it better, feel free to submit your feedback here.

TL:DR

SOMETHING GORGEOUS: My Lovely Hummus Lumps, Check Em Out

PORTFOLIO OF THE WEEK: How to Get Paid for Your Ideas

CREATIVE FIND 01: Very Graphic Italian Heritage

CREATIVE FIND 02: Breaking All Font Norms

CREATIVE FIND 03: We Love Free Design Stuff

ONE GRAM: Innovation in Illustration

ONE LESSON: Take Drastic (Safe) Action

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Something Gorgeous

My Lovely Hummus Lumps, Check Em Out

Speculative Hummus by Reddish Studio

Did you know chickpeas contain an enormous amount of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals? They also make for a beautifully smooth medium that can be used to craft lovely little sculptural lumps that are ever so satisfying.

The designer duo Naama Steinbock and Idan Friedman of Reddish Studio have developed a series of sculptures that smash together the culinary arts and the world of product design titled Speculative Hummus. While the photographs of the final sculptures could very well be considered food porn, I find their creation process even more interesting.

Naama and Idan produced a variety of plastic cut patterns that were used in combination with a piece of wood and a pottery wheel to gently mold and smooth the hummus—kind of like a record player over a vinyl record. I can only imagine how rich and garlic-y their studio smelt once they were finished.

View more here

Portfolio of the Week

How to Get Paid for Your Ideas

Jia

Jia is a graphic designer, tech enthusiast, and concept creator out of Beijing, China.

Before we get into portfolio website specifics, I want to focus on the phrase concept creator for just a minute. First of all, I love this. Yes, we all have traditional job titles such as graphic designer, but have you ever thought of other ways to articulate what you do? For me, I like to call myself a 'Visual Therapist' because most of the time, I talk to clients more about their problems than I actually do making graphic design for them.

Anyway, I'm glad I stumbled on Jia's portfolio website for two reasons. While his homepage acts as a simple landing page introduction, the first two projects on his work page are concept projects—not actually real. Why do I like this? It reinforces the title of 'concept creator' and is a perfect example of presenting the work you are most excited about.

The other thing I love about Jia's design portfolio website is not actually his portfolio—it's his Twitter/X account. Jia is very active on Twitter/X and publishes a lot of his concept work there. This drives traffic to his portfolio and is a clever way to market yourself online.

The rest of Jia's portfolio is very well done, especially considering he is still a student. His about page is also great, sharing favorite apps, daily essentials, songs, etc.

Score: 8.3/10

Built with: Framer

View portfolio here

Creative Finds

Very Graphic Italian Heritage

Ginori 1735 Visual Refresh by AUGE Design

I've been obsessed with luxury brands lately, and the heritage behind their businesses—but the Italians do it best. This packaging refresh by AUGE Design is gorgeous, especially the icons they created to identify different products. They even went through "an archive of logos" to land on the final outcome.

Check out the AUGE Design full website here for more beautiful work.

View more here

Breaking All Font Norms

TT Norms Pro Serif by TypeType

I love a good serif that has range and can take on many personalities. I will be exploring this typeface in current client projects. Side note: there is also a TT Norms Pro Sans with over 100 styles from condensed to expanded.

View more here

We Love Free Design Stuff

Freedesignstuff.com by Ben Sterne

A great resource created by product designer Ben Sterne to make it easier to be a kick-a$$ designer. Thanks, Ben!

View more here

One Gram

Innovation in Illustration

Rob en Robin

F.C. Variable demonstrates curiosity, obsession, and imagination. Rob & Robin are an illustration duo who wanted to make their work interactive. They formed a new kind of club titled F.C. Variable.

Check out their full case study here

View more here

One Lesson

Take Drastic (Safe) Action

Six years ago I made the decision to grow my hair out. From elementary school to my mid-twenties, I would visit a barber every 3-4 weeks. In 2018, I realized many friends were losing their hair due to 'old age'. This frightened me a bit. So I decided to grow my hair out, achieving the trendy man bun.

Last Friday I chopped all of it off. This was something I had been thinking about for a while, and I knew if I didn't act, I never would.

Why am I telling you this? For me, this represents a new chapter. Right before my hair appointment, I reached out to a colleague about forming a design studio—something I had been putting off.

Sometimes you may feel not ready, or maybe you're just scared. Opportunities will present themselves—you can either take hold of them or let them pass.

I will share more about the design studio in the coming weeks. I am super backed up on client work, so besides Creative Juice and Portfolio Squeeze, you may not see me much on TikTok for now.

PS. What is something you have been putting off?

PPS. I am relaunching my portfolio reviews—you can still book one here.

PPPS. Sorry to anyone waiting on their review. I’m getting through them ASAP!

If you would like Creative Juice sent directly to your inbox every Monday, you can subscribe here.