Will You Be My Valentine…Font?

As a special Valentine's Day treat, we wanted to share with you some great fonts that remind us of love and friendship. (And the best part is—they're all low-cost or FREE! Just be sure to read the usage rights!) From classic to quirky, these fonts can make even the most unromantic message seem like a Casanova original. Well, that may be stretching it a bit. But we'll let you be the judge:

We hope you'll get some use out of these lovely, fun fonts for Cupid's Day! See below for a little bit of info about each typeface, as well as links to where you can find them! Happy Valentines Day from Kalico Design!

Wisdom Script  by James T. Edmondson was designed for Woods of Wisdom, a 50 part poster series on bad advice. But we promise you that using THIS font for Valentine's Day would be GOOD advice!

Sunshine in my Soul was created by Kimberly Geswein and is a lovely, playful handwritten script. 

Available in two styles – normal and sketch, this font has a sweet and delicate look not just in caps!

Seriously, can you go wrong with candy hearts on V-Day? A sweet combination of handwriting and illustration make this a fun and friendly font.

A classical romantic script. Be careful with the spacing on this one. A little bit goes a long way, though, and this font can produce a beautiful and extravagant piece.

Knight in shining armor anyone?! Who says chivalry is dead? Not when you dawn your princess a parchment sporting this writing!  You'll be a knight gleaming with "amore". (We crack ourselves up over here!)

First appearing as numerals only. Ribbon was designed by Dan Gneiding.

Vevey font was originally inspired by travel posters from the French Riviera. I know this font takes me away!

Pompadour! This font only comes in numerals. But oh what numerals they are. It is best used large so be creative in how you place it!

Lost Type Co-Op – A Dream Come True!

Recently, I came across this amazing website. I was re-directed there to see about downloading a font I had researched online. Once I explored the site, I realized I had stumbled upon a magical place!

Founded by designers Riley Cran and Tyler Galpin, the Lost Type Co-Op is a very unique type foundry. It's Pay-What-You-Want Type foundry, the first of its kind, and offers users the option to “pay-whatever-you want” (even if it's $0). All contributions are paid directly to the designers. Lost type takes no cuts of the sales, and holds no funds.

Lost Type Co-op has become a full fledged foundry, distributing quality fonts from designers all over the world!

When you're viewing the fonts on the site make sure you notice the photos along the bottom and the white box on the right. These areas will give you the useful info on what actually comes with the font.

Interested in submitting a font? Shoot them an email and maybe you can be one of the designers whose work becomes showcased.

So, go ahead. Check out Lost Type, I know it'll definitely be bookmarked on my browser!

Favorite "F" words: FREE and FONTS!

Who doesn’t love free? And who doesn’t love fonts? (well, okay, at least WE love fonts!) For those of you who love both, we've put together a list of some our favorites. First up, Kalico's graphic designer, Jen Tyler lists some of her favorite FREE fonts…

It was a hard task to limit the list to so few. However, these are the ones that made the cut in my book. (Kim will be adding her favorites in a later post so keep an eye out.) If you find you can’t live without them either, just click on the name and you’ll be re-directed to download the font.

I love the controlled curvy nature of this script. Its perfect connections (“ligatures”) really give me an affinity for this font. It makes a bold statement and is also fun used as outlines.

This delicate little font could be used in so many instances. Holidays, Babies, Handwriting, the list goes on and on.

This is probably one of the fonts I use the most. I have been giving it a rest for a little while but it seems to work almost anywhere. It makes a nice statement alone as well as in a group

Fun in outlines or with a color dropped behind it. The rough edges add a nice texture too!

A great retro inspired script font.

I like the imperfection of this font. It has that indie feel to it. It also comes with a nice set of anchor-dings. However, use caution. This font has no numerals.

A nice throwback font. Endless possibilities. Best used as a display font, we wouldn't recommend using this below 18pt.

I like this font for its playfulness. The texture makes it feel more natural. This also has many applications and is fun paired with an equally thinner font.

Okay so this font is not “FREE”, it's “free for personal use” and you should always make sure and check the terms of use before you use a font. That being said, this font is so beautiful. It just makes my imagination soar.

For a quick a recap, take a look at all of them together, below. And stay tuned for Kim's list of favorites to come soon! Plus, let us know what some of your favorite FREE fonts are!

Time Tracking that Changed My Life!

OK, so maybe the headline is a little dramatic, but seriously, Paymo Time Tracker has definitely made a huge impact on how I run my business! I started Time Tracker in September, when I hired my first part-time employee. Basically, I was just looking for a way to track the amount of time she spent on projects (you know, to keep an eye on the progress and all). But, what I got was an entirely different way to track the amount of time I spent on projects, and oh so much more! Plus, the two best thing about Paymo Time Tracker is 1) it's free for freelancers (up to two users), so perfect for my small studio and 2) IT'S FREE FOR FREELANCERS!

Let me walk you through a few of my favorite features:

1. The Dashboard. This is a quick overall look at my progress over a month's time span, as well as a comparison of recent company stats.

 

2. Milestones. You are able to set milestones (or, due dates, as us graphic designers like to call them) for each project, and then visually see your progress, and check them off as they are completed.

3. User Data. You can also view the overall statistic per user. As I mentioned above, the free version of Time Tracker allows for 2 users. To add additional users, you would have to invest in Premium Business Plan, for  less than $4 a month! (that's all, seriously?)

OK, so those are a few of my own favorite features. To be honest, I'm still testing some of the most effective ways to use this business source! Some of the other great features include alphabetized search listings by client or project, multiple report options, an easy-to-use time tracker, invoicing options (which I haven't explored yet), as well as online user log-in (so you can access it from any computer).

Have other questions about Paymo's Time Tracker? Take their tour! If you try this program out, please let me know what you think and what you favorite feature is!

Save Your Eyeballs!

So, lately I've been designing like a mad-woman, trying to stay on several deadlines for the myriad of end-of-the-year projects. This heavy workload is great for business, but bad on my eyes! I've been experiencing terrible eye strain, followed by headaches and more headaches. It's not like I can just take off a few days to recover, so I started researching other ways to help relieve the eye strain. Here's two of them:

1. Take a Time Out (literally)
Another graphic designer recently introduced me to Dejal Time Out, a program specifically designed to gently remind (or force) you to take time outs throughout the day. Time Out has two kinds of breaks: a "Normal" break, typically for 10 minutes every hour, so you can move about and relax, plus a "Micro" break: a very brief 15-second every 10 minutes, so you can remember not to tense up too much for long periods. You can disable either kind of break if desired, and the breaks are automatically paused when you go away from your computer, and can be reset when you come back.

Now, I'll admit it, the 10 minute breaks are too long for me to take right now, so i just skip over them. But the micro breaks (while sometimes annoying when they arrive right when I'm in the middle of something) are actually really helpful. Just taking those few seconds to shut my eyes, take a few deep breaths and then continue on has decreased my eye strain problems immensely! By the way, did I mention this program is FREE! Go, download it now, your eyeballs will thank you!

2. Have a Cup of Tea (no, really!)
The second eye strain tip came from a life coach I recently had the pleasure of meeting and it involves, well, having a cup of tea. A chamomile tea compress will help reduce eye swelling, and it will also help you relax while you have tea bags on your eyelids or drink chamomile tea to your health. Get the full directions here!


Do you have other suggestions for combating eye strain? I'd love to hear them!

PS-Special thanks to Jessica Menk for introducing me to Time Out and to Jeanette Eleff for the Chamomile tea compress article!

Expose Yourself!

Want to get more media exposure for your business or product? It may be as easy as signing up for HARO (Help A Reporter Out)! And the best part is that it's free!

HARO was founded by Peter Shankman and runs on the philosophy that "Everyone is an Expert at Something". It is a web source for reporters around the world to find their sources, and a way for you to get the press you're looking for. HARO is currently the largest free source repository in the world, sending out over 1,200 queries from worldwide media each week.

Once you sign up to be included on the list as a source, each day, you'll receive up to three emails, each with anywhere from 15-30 queries per email. They'll all be labeled with [shankman.com] in the subject line, for easy filtering. If you see a request you can answer, go for it! HelpAReporter.com really is that simple.

I'll admit, I was a little weary of getting the daily emails, but it hasn't been a problem. The emails are divided up into categories (Urgent, Business, Travel, General, Health, etc.) for quick scanning and each request is just a very simple description of the query, contact person and publication info. When I have time to read through them, i do; when i'm too busy, I just delete them. I've also been able to send some source requests to clients, which they've greatly appreciate.

Again, sign up is super easy and FREE! And may be the chance for you to get the exposure you want!

Get Published!

Submit your work for free. Crescent Hill books produces a variety of design-related books featuring only the best of today's graphic design. And the best thing is that it is free to submit your work! No entry fees, no publishing fees, and no award fees! Go to the Crescent Hill books submission page and create an account. You can then upload your designs for potential submission in a number of great design books (some upcoming titles include The Best of Sports Marketing and Design, The Mini Book of Great Logos and The New Big Book of Layouts). Your design submissions will then be judged by Crescent Hills panel who will let you know whether they make a good fit with the publication or not.

This is a great way to get your work published! Let me know if you submit your work, so I can be sure to look for it in upcoming publications!

You Send It (no, really, you can do it!)

By now, you have probably heard of the term "FTP" when talking about file transfers. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol, and is a way to exchange and manipulate files over a computer network, such as the Internet. Basically, it is a way to send or transfer files that are too large to email. While you may not know it, chances are you've used FTP many times before. It is most commonly used to download content, such as music MP3 files.

But, what happens when you want to send a large file to one or multiple recipients? Usually, you would need to have an FTP Client, such as Fetch, SmartFTP or FileZilla, installed on your computer. An FTP Client is software that is designed to transfer files back-and-forth between computers over an Internet connection, .

I've ran into this problem with many clients: I want to send them a large file, but they are unable to download the file b/c they do not have an FTP Client installed, have problems with their FTP client, or have forgotten their user name and password, etc. In reverse, I've also had many clients unable to send me large files via FTP, which, ultimately, results in burning files to a disk and sending them the old fashioned way, courtesy of USPS, UPS or FedEx. The only problem with this solution is the time lost during shipment.

No more, my friends! I'd like to introduce you to YouSendIt.com. YouSendIt acts as a buffer between the sender and the recipients. It is an online application that allows anyone to send large files to, well, anyone. Oh, and did I mention it's free!

At YouSendIt, you upload a file and input your recipients' email addresses. YouSendIt will then send an email message to all your recipients, with a direct link to download files. It's fast, easy, and also notifies you when your files have been sent. Check it out and let me know how YouSendIt.com works for you!

Hint: You must first archive or stuff your files to combine multiple files into one single file before sending. Examples of archiving programs include WinZip and WinRar on Windows, and Stuffit on Macs. If you'd like more information on Archiving programs, feel free to shoot me an email.

Bittbox—Great Design Resources

I wanted to let everyone know about a great design resource site I've been going to for a while now — www.bittbox.com! Bittbox offers loads of free fonts, tutorials, textures, even some vector art. Bittbox is the brain child of Jay Hilgert who self characterizes himself as a "Designer, Blogger, Web Enthusiast, and an Apple Geek". Just wanted to say thanks to Jay and to Bittbox, they've been a great resource for my own designs, and I'll be sure to keep going back to them! I hope Bittbox might help you out as well—be sure to check them out!