Inspiration is all around us.

David Airey said on his logo design blog two months ago that nature provides some of the most striking and beautiful colour palletes imaginable. I thought this was an exceptionally clever observation.

Yesterday these words came to mind as I sat outside of a cafe in bustling Birmingham City centre, enjoying a sunny day out with my husband two young children.
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Eighty One Graphic Design recently blogged about being inspired by a foray into the retail world (shopping), and I commented that indeed I too am extremely inspired by what I see when out and about and often take photos with my new super fab mobile phone camera.

So talking of retail inspiration, I was wowed when in Boots on Saturday and saw this beautiful bit of product packaging by No.17 cosmetics brand. Called ‘The Vintage Collection’, apparently for the 40th anniversary of the 17 brand.

Now what is really interesting though is how this design relates to a beauty brand design I created in July last year…..
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Cast your eyes to the right in the ‘Pages’ section in the right hand navigation, I have created some cute badges for you to use….

When esteemed client and owner of Boutique Babylon contacted me this week asking for an e-flyer design for her birthday party event and told me that she was looking for a Kitsch Barbie theme with barbie doll images (including Ken/Action Man) and lots of pink, I could barely contain my excitment over the thought of such a fun project.

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I was perusing istockphoto.com for photos today (very low cost stock agency extremely popular with graphic designers) and saw a nice swirling flower pattern and decided it might be useful to select a few good creative patterns from istockphoto and showcase them here.

Each image has a corresponding link to it’s page in the image stock library.

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Some top marketing ideas to get you off the blocks ahead of your competitors for 2008!

1. Sale Fever
Sales aren’t just for retailers only, get in on January sales fever also. Sales can include general discounts and discounts for bundles. Get the word out using e-newsletters, blogging, social networking, flyers, posters, direct mailings (targeted).

2. Launch something:
Ideas can including launching a new look for your business or a new product and/or service. You could even launch a business blog or podcast. Use press releases to get the word out, include opening offers, and you could even consider a swanky launch event.

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I recently came across an interesting blog called ‘gaping void‘. What first grabbed my attention were the amusing comics littered throughout the blog - after delving further I discovered that these are described as ‘cartoons on the back of a business card’, I soon realised there were more interesting things to discover…

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Desk top wallpapers for you to download!
All based on 1024×768 if you want a larger size, please email me - amanda@trulyace.com

Right click and choose ’set as desktop background’. Or click the link to see the full sized image and save to your hard drive before setting it as your background.

These images are copyright of Truly Ace, and so cannot be re-distributed or sold or copied without permission.

A while ago I saw details of a website called Illustration Friday on another blog and thought it was an interesting concept but did nothing more for some months.

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I was driving back from the seaside one summer Monday some weeks ago, and spotted the above van.

It’s typical for me to eyeball company branding as I drive past vehicles (I don’t drive, I’m always the passenger), which amuses me on long motorway journeys and when I saw this van I was immediately impressed and started snapping away with my phone camera.

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