Hi, I'm Grace Smith » Industry

My latest article contributions…

Grace — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 18:09:11 +0000

I’ve recently had the privilege to contribute to two amazing resources this week – Derwent Pencils and Graphic Design Blender.

Derwent Pencils

Derwent Pencils asked me to write an article on how I use sketching to develop ideas for my design work. Sketching isn’t optional for me as a designer, it’s essential. I can’t go straight to digital at the start of a project, I always start off with some browser templates or Moleskine (and a few Derwent pencils!)

Sketching kick-starts my creativity and allows me to get ideas out on paper and is the fastest way to brainstorm and convey as many ideas as possible with the least amount of effort.

Head on over and read the entire post

Graphic Design Blender

On the Graphic Design Blender, I was asked to contribute to an article on giving advice to new Freelancers.

I concentrated on an often overlooked area of freelancing – finances. To any freelance newcomer I would say first and foremost you need to think realistically about costs, such as equipment, software, insurance, premises, tax, the list goes on. You also need to think about your potential earnings and ask yourself ‘what do I need to survive on?’ Being honest and realistic about your financial requirements is important.

Head on over and read the entire post.

My latest article contributions… is a post from: Hi, I'm Grace Smith

Big App Giveaway Code: ProductivityRocks

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Announcing My New Project – Sc.ripted.com

Grace — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 14:31:56 +0000

Sc.ripted.com is is an archive of curated links of creative interest updated on a daily basis.

I tweet interesting articles and resources on a daily basis on Twitter, and not just the usual links that are retweeted to death or that most people will have already found (from the larger sites). I know this is a large reason as to why so many people follow me.

However I’ve never taken the time to archive or keep note of these finds (I stopped using Delicious some time ago). I felt it could be very beneficial to create a way to share these links with people without relying on them following me in real-time. This is why (the new) sc.ripted.com was born.

I’ve had the domain for over a year, originally it was bought to be the hub of my website network, but in reality it just lay dormant once I had installed WordPress, installed a simple theme and added some initial content. I love the domain and decided to revitalise the site for something much more useful.

On Tumblr

Quite a few people on Twitter questioned my move from WordPress to Tumblr, but it’s rather unfair to dismiss the platform without acknowledging it’s strengths. For Sc.ripted.com I wanted a site that required no back end maintenance and could be updated in just a few seconds. I’ve used Tumblr before and always loved it’s simplicity and features, so it was my first choice when it came to choosing a platform. I also love the community that surrounds Tumblr.

There are now over 100 posts linking to a variety of awesome creative links and resources, so now is the time to make Sc.ripted one of your go to destinations for inspiration.

How To Follow

Website: http://sc.ripted.com
Twitter: @5cripted

I’d love to hear your feedback and suggestions for the site, so please get in touch via the comments below!

Announcing My New Project – Sc.ripted.com is a post from: Hi, I'm Grace Smith

Big App Giveaway Code: ProductivityRocks

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Show Me Your Dock Series! Part 34

Grace — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 17:05:39 +0000

Michael Beckwith is an Interactive Developer from South Dakota, USA. He has a passion for the ideas behind open source and collaborative work. Open standards and pushing the way people interact with it has long been an interest to him.

When it comes to web development he is enamored with the upcoming HTML5/CSS3 changes coming in the near future. He is always looking for ways to incorporate those technologies now, whether through an isolated test instance or through a new wordpress website, his favorite CMS, that he is theming from scratch. He is a constant thinker who is always striving to put new ideas into his box of tricks.

The Intro…

This is actually the first Mac that I have worked on with any consistency. It came with the job, and all my previous mac experience came in college/university in the form of a single computer lab. Needless to say, coming from years of Linux and occasional Windows use, it has been a bit of a change for me. I still get keys mixed up when I switch between setups.

The Dock…

Terminal – Usually used to kill programs which have stalled, however it also proves useful for an occasional git pull.
Tweetdeck – My preferred twitter client on the mac when not using my Motorola Droid.
XChat – Good ole IRC where I hang out in the official chat rooms for WordPress, CSS, and HTML5.
Newsfire – RSS feed reader that I use to read work-relevant blogs and website feeds.
Textmate – What can I say about Textmate that hasn’t been said before. One of the best.
CSSEdit – I like to keep my website markup and template files so separated from CSS that I use a totally different program!
Cyberduck – This is a case of I wanted easy to use FTP access, but one that also allowed me to edit files right from the server in my external editors. I didn’t want to have to go through the process of hitting upload and download all the itme. Cyberduck automates that half and I just need to hit save.
Color Picker – I forget exactly what I did, but this is a built in mac color picker that I wanted easier access to, when I need to change between RGB and html hex.
Evernote – My ultimate note taker whether I have a piece of paper or not. I also have the Clip To Evernote chrome extension both at work and at home for easy bookmarking for if I need to save something for either location.
Skype – While it is not limited to work contacts, when at work, I use skype for a lot of communication with people within the project I’m working on.
Dropbox – Another app that needs no real introduction. It is also used for sharing things with myself between home and work, as well as a central place for some code/wordpress plugins that are being done outside of work need.
Mail – To check my company email of course.
Songbird – I am not a fan of iTunes at all other than for its podcast management and use Songbird for any music listening when not using a small 8gb music clip.
Photoshop – Since I’m a lot more on the developer side still, I use photoshop primarily to slice mockups provided to me and turn them into the working template files for use on project sites. I’d like to get into a position of doing some designing as well.
Chrome/Firefox4/Opera/Safari – Two are shown, but I have all four in a custom Mac OS Stack for easy access and less dock clutter. For any IE testing, I use an old personal laptop with XP still on it and a program called IETester.

———————————————————————————————————–
A huge thanks to Michael for taking time out to take part in the Dock Series.

If you would like to be featured in the Dock Series simply:

Download the Dock Series Template.
Email it along with the necessary images to: hi [at] gracesmith.co.uk.

Check out the other creatives in the series.

Show Me Your Dock Series! Part 34 is a post from: Hi, I'm Grace Smith

Big App Giveaway Code: ProductivityRocks

WIN: A Beautiful Heritage iPhone Case (Closed)

Grace — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 12:31:05 +0000

Apologies for the delay in announcing the winner. However I can now announce that Adam Cartlidge has won this gorgeous iPhone case. The winner was chosen using Random.org. Laura from Late Late Gifts will be in touch with you to confirm all the details.

A huge thanks to everyone that entered, I know I’ll be getting one of these for myself as it’s both beautiful and functional. Make sure to subscribe to have a chance to win more swag like this!

———————-
Thanks to Late Late Gifts, I have one of these georgous iPhone cases, worth $45, up for grabs.

This Limited Edition, ultra chic luxury iPhone case is handmade in Austria using premium materials. Your phone will remain secure between two layers of Asphalt grey 100% wool felt with the case also featuring a brown leather lower trim section which has been tanned using natural vegetable dyes, making each case slightly different and unique from the next.

Late Late Gifts is the ultimate next day delivery gifts guide, helping you find those perfect last minute presents – and gets them delivered pronto!

With 270+ shops, you’ll find everything from flowers to lingerie available. The site tells you what each sells, what express delivery costs – and what time to order by for guaranteed delivery to avoid disappointment.

Entry & Deadline

Leave a comment below giving one reason you should win.
The deadline for entries is Wednesday 13th October.
The winner will be announced on this blog post on Thursday 14th October.

Best of luck everyone!

WIN: A Beautiful Heritage iPhone Case (Closed) is a post from: Hi, I'm Grace Smith

Big App Giveaway Code: ProductivityRocks

Show Me Your Dock Series! Part 33

Grace — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 13:54:44 +0000

Martin Lucas is a freelance website designer based in Colchester, specialising in building websites for small local businesses and individuals – usually building their first website and launching them on to the great big world wide web. He is passionate about the social web and WordPress.

The Intro…

Currently on my second Mac, a 13in MBP which I brought 3 months ago; this was after owning a 12in G4 Powerbook – which was becoming a struggle to work on.

The Dock…

Dashboard – I do actually have a couple of apps I use in here, apart from the Calculater and Conversion tool – I use a Loren Ipsom generator by Tobias Ahlin which is rather nice.
Photoshop – I’ve been using PhotoShop for over 10 years now, I do all my designing in it – when possibly Illustrator and Fireworks could be better suited – but I’m so comfortable with PS it takes half the time.
Dreamweaver – Using this less and less now-a-days as I’m working with WordPress more and more, I even looked into switching to Coda – but I couldn’t as there are too many features I’d miss; especially the server behaviours which I rely on for my PHP / MySQL work.
Adobe Illustrator – As I said, I don’t use this as much as I should – so last year I started designing T-Shirts to sell online and forced myself to do all the designing in Illustrator and it’s definitely helped me learn the application and work out how I can use it more in the future.
CyberDuck – My FTP client of choice.
MAMP – I’ll either develope a site on the live hosting / domain or I’ll work offline on my laptop with this Apache / MySQL and PHP setup.
Text Editor – Editing and viewing simple documents, I also use Google Docs.
Stickies – I used to organise all my work and life on these things, now I use them for simple lists of current projects so I can quickly see what I have on and what I can coming up in the future.
CurdBee – This is my invoicing app of choice, I’ve used the Fluid App to create an application from this superb web based invoicing application.
Dictionary – My spelling can by quite bad at times, so this gets me out of trouble on a regular basis.
Contacts – Keeps all my addresses.
iCal – I try to organise as much of my work / personal life in iCal as I can.
Tweetie – Just switched from TweetDeck to this and enjoying the cleaner interface and the less is more approach when compared to all those columns I had going on previously.
Skype – Only just signed up, hoping it will come in hand with future clients that like to use it.
GMail – Another Fluid App, this time my Google Mail account as a separate application.
FireFox – Browser of choice, and had been since my recent MBP upgrade.
Safari – Now only used for testing.
Opera – Surprised me how quick this browser is – but still only use it for testing.
Chrome – Another speedy alternative browser, and again only really used for testing.
Camino – The least used of my browsers, and one for just us Mac users. I occasionally use it when I feed the need for a stripped down simple browser.
Paparazzi – Screen grabs of individual web pages, handy for taking screen shots for portfolio pieces.
iTunes – Music all day long with this.
LastFM – I also use LastFM’s radio stations based on artists and keywords (my username is djmartinlucas if you’d like to find me).
Spotify – I’ve only just started using Spotify but I’m already building a nice collection of albums and playlists and really like saving a few pennies as I actually don’t mind the adverts.
Preview – I use it as my PDF reader, I find it quicker to use than Adobe Acrobat.
iPhoto Buddy – This is cool, it allows me to have 2 separate iPhoto albums (or more if you wanted), I have one for all my stock photos and a second for my personal photography.
iPhoto – See above.
Linotype Font Explorer – I use this to browse and organise my fonts.
App Cleaner – If I didn’t have this then I would end up with a whole load of applications (and all their files) installed on my Mac that I had tried and then forgot about. This makes it really easy to uninstall any unneeded application that you want to get rid of.

———————————————————————————————————–
A huge thanks to Martin for taking time out to take part in the Dock Series.

If you would like to be featured in the Dock Series simply:

Download the Dock Series Template.
Email it along with the necessary images to: hi [at] gracesmith.co.uk.

Check out the other creatives in the series.

Show Me Your Dock Series! Part 33 is a post from: Hi, I'm Grace Smith

Big App Giveaway Code: ProductivityRocks

5 Invites To New Digg Up For Grabs

Grace — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:42:48 +0000

This is just a quick post to offer 5 of you access to the new Digg, which is currently invite only.

The new Digg is much more streamlined with a clean, refined design and with a renewed focus on building personal recommendation networks.

The first 5 people to click on the image below will grab an invite, so be quick:

Be sure to connect with me – Postscript5 once you’re in! I’d also be interested in hearing what you think of the new Digg, let me know in the comments below.

5 Invites To New Digg Up For Grabs is a post from: Hi, I'm Grace Smith

Big App Giveaway Code: ProductivityRocks

Bumper Print Giveaway From Next Day Flyers

Grace — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 17:15:13 +0000

The deadline has now passed and the winner is Nicole Foster.

I was contacted by the lovely team at Next Day Flyers last week to offer my readers a chance to win $40 of credit for any of their services. That may not sound a lot, but when you can get 1000 full color business cards with a 2-4 day turnaround for just $19 from their site, you realise it’s actually a pretty rad prize!

Next Day Flyers is an offset printer you can use to print custom designed materials from menus, to business cards, to brochures. They offer two types of paper stock; a thick 14 point card stock, and a 100 lb glossy paper.

You can upload directly to the website, which also has an Online Design Center where many templates can be found and layouts can be created online. Another impressive piece of the service is the fact they offer same day printing for orders that are in before 10AM PST.

Giveaway Details

For a chance to win, just leave a comment below with a brief description of what you would like to spend the credit on. The winner will chosen at random.
The giveaway ends on Thursday 19th August with the winner announced on this blog post on Friday 20th.

Good luck! | Photo Credit

Bumper Print Giveaway From Next Day Flyers is a post from: Hi, I'm Grace Smith

Big App Giveaway Code: ProductivityRocks

Nine Dribbble Invite Winners Announced!

Grace — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 16:33:20 +0000

The response to the Dribbble invite giveaway was overwhelmingly positive with 169 entries! It was far and above my expectations and I have to thank all of those who contributed invites, including; John O’Nolan, Ryan Downie, Chris Gibbons, Paul Stanton and Emma Taylor.

Each entry was checked thoroughly and after several hours, a decision was made. Without further ado, the following are the lucky recipients of one Dribble invite each:

1. Craig Richardson
2. Jeremie (Evasion)
3. Sorel Mihai
4. Jan Cavan
5. Gary Aston
6. Andrea Austoni
7. Martin Boath
8. Zsolt Jakab
9. Marc Thomas

I will be in touch with all the winners within the next 24 hours with details on the signup process.

A huge thanks to everyone who took the time to enter….I’m only sorry I don’t have 169 invites to give each and every one of you!

I hope to organise another giveaway once I have more invites so please subscribe to make sure you don’t miss out on the next chance to get drafted.

Nine Dribbble Invite Winners Announced! is a post from: Hi, I'm Grace Smith

Big App Giveaway Code: ProductivityRocks

Nine Dribbble Invites To Win – Get Drafted!

Grace — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:48:48 +0000

You’re here for the invites…right? Well there’s no need for me to explain what Dribbble is in much depth, as most of you know it’s a pretty rad community where you post sneak peaks of what you’re currently working on, in the form of 400 x 300 px images. The quality of work is exceptional and the chance to interact, critique and inspire is second to none.

Dribbble invites are like gold dust. I’ve been a member for several months and only just got my first two invites this week. While I can think of several people who I could give these to immediately, I wanted to open this up to a wider audience.

In the world of Dribbble who you draft is a big deal. No one wants to draft the guy who uploads pictures of his cat, so I’m going to be pretty picky as to who scores these invites. I’m held responsible for the quality of work being uploaded by someone I draft so I’m taking the selection process seriously.

The über cool John O’Nolan has also kindly donated one Dribbble invite, bringing the total to three. So if you want drafted, make sure you follow the instructions below.

How To Enter

1. Leave a comment below with a few words of the type or style of work you would be uploading.
2. Post a link to your favourite bit of artwork you’ve produced.

Deadline

The deadline to enter is 1pm (UK) on Thursday 5th August, comments will then be closed.

On Friday 6th August I will announce the three winners on this blog post and Twitter. Good luck to all!

EDIT: The super kind Ryan Downie, Chris Gibbons and Paul Stanton have also now donated an invite, while the lovely Emma Taylor has donated THREE invites. Taking the total to Nine invites to win!

Nine Dribbble Invites To Win – Get Drafted! is a post from: Hi, I'm Grace Smith

Big App Giveaway Code: ProductivityRocks

Show Me Your Dock Series! Part 32

Grace — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:59:44 +0000

Jack Franklin is an 18 year old web designer and developer who lives in the beautiful area of England, Cornwall. Having started out with HTML and CSS at the age of just 13, Jack has been extending his skill-set ever since and works regularly with HTML, CSS, Javascript and PHP, although his main area of enjoyment lies in jQuery.

I asked Jack if he would give us the lowdown on the applications he relies upon as a designer and developer on a daily basis.

The Intro….

I picked up my first Mac about a year ago having been an admirer for a number of years. It wasn’t much, an old G5 iMac, 17″ screen but it was mine and I loved it. I did all my website work on there and soon became so fond of some of the apps available. I’ve since moved onto an older Macbook, from 2007, which runs Snow Leopard. I plan to upgrade in the next few months to one of the new iMacs and maybe an iPad.

The Dock…

Finder – It’s just Finder. For some reason some people hate it but I don’t know why, it does its job very well.
Things – If you’re a Mac user and have not heard of Things, you should. It’s a superb to-do app. If I’m honest I prefer The Hit List, but the lack of iPhone app means Things wins. It’s a pleasure to use, and notice how I have no due tasks. I am efficient.
Safari – It runs very quickly on my Macbook, and V5 is the best yet. My default browser for all day to day browsing.
Mail – Mail is the best mail client I’ve ever used. It’s brilliant. I use lots of rules to organise mail into lots of folders, meaning I know exactly where everything is. It’s search facility is a real winner.
Skype – I use this to talk with people from all over the place, whether it be just for a friendly chat or a client. The fact I can go on Skype and call someone else on Skype who might be thousands of miles away and not be charged any money is amazing..
Transmit 4 – The best FTP app ever. Period. The recent update to version 4 has transformed it from a good FTP app to a superb one. The design is awesome and everything works as expected..
Fireworks – I rarely touch Photoshop now, all my mocking-up work is done in Fireworks. It’s made for it, whereas Photoshop is all about image editing at heart.
Textmate – I’m a geeky coder at heart and Textmate offers unrivalled features when it comes to coding. The bundles allow me to set up shortcuts to increase the speed at which I can code and it’s lighting quick.
Spotify – Does it need an introduction? Free music! At the moment I’m not subscribed on a paid plan but I’m considering it, however the free version suits my needs perfectly for the time being.
Ecoute – Ecoute sits in your dock and is a way to play all your iTunes music (including songs that you bought on iTunes, aka DRM protected ones) without loading up iTunes, which is one of Apple’s only bad apps at the moment. It’s quick, easy and works, for just $10 it’s a great steal. I love how the icon updates to show the song artwork. (PS – that’s not Glee playing, definitely not!).
Forrst via Fluid – Forrst is a website that allows you to share work and get honest feedback by others. I use this so much, both for giving advice and help to others and also getting help. Using an app called Fluid it allows me to use the website as if it was a proper application and access it from the dock.
MAMP – MAMP installs Apache and MySQL to your computer so you can run PHP locally. Invaluable for development.
Curdbee via Fluid – Once again I used Fluid to bring Curdbee to my desktop. Curdbee is a very good, simple invoicing app which I use to keep track of my money.
1Password – I use this to keep track of my passwords on websites and all the serials for all my software.
Firefox – Firefox + Web Developer Toolbar + Firebug is the best web development browser by a mile.
AppCleaner – You drag an Application icon to AppCleaner and it uninstalls it and all the extra files the app installs. I just use it to keep everything neat and tidy in my Applications folders..
Stack: Browsers – All the browsers I have sit in this stack, as I tend to try different ones all the time..
Stack: Recently used Apps – This lists my 8 most recently used apps which sounds not that useful but it really is.
Folder: Public Folder – This is a quick shortcut to my public folder, working in an office things always get sent from laptop to laptop via everyone’s public folders so often I need to get to this folder.
The Trash – I try and keep this empty but sometimes it fills up.

———————————————————————————————————–
A huge thanks to Jack for taking time out to take part in the Dock Series.

If you would like to be featured in the Dock Series simply:

Download the Dock Series Template.
Email it along with the necessary images to: hi [at] gracesmith.co.uk.

Check out the other creatives in the series.

With more amazing creatives lined up, make sure to check each week for the latest Dock Series installment.

Show Me Your Dock Series! Part 32 is a post from: Hi, I'm Grace Smith

Big App Giveaway Code: ProductivityRocks