Last week we picked our winner for the UPrinting.com contest which we had here at prodigalconcepts.com last May 9 – 15, 2011, and our lucky winner is… “drum roll goes here”

Ms. Dolly Coffman

We sent you an email notifying you of being selected and confirming your email address. The representatives of UPrinting.com will contact you regarding details of your shipping preference.

I would like to thank each and everyone who have participated in this momentous occasion, I hope that you could all check back often to read our latest articles and join our future contests. To get the latest updates of what’s going on at prodigalconcepts.com please like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

I would also like to thank the guys at UPrinting.com for their support and for giving prodigalconcepts.com the opportunity to be a big part in their online promotions. Cheers!

Update: May 16, 2011

Contest ended, winner will be announced!

This is a very exciting day for us here at Prodigal Concepts, because we have teamed up with the guys from UPrinting.com a leading company for online printing services based out of Los Angeles and Van Nuys, CA. to give away some US$80 worth of die cut Business Cards or Postcards to one very lucky visitor.

Postcard prints from UPrinting.com

About UPrinting.com

UPrinting.com is an online printing services company, that has established itself as a major player in the industry with its distinct vision and clear approach to helping small businesses grow. They have earned customer loyalty by offering more customizable options than other online printers. The company is popular for its Free File Review, a complimentary proofing service which requires no upfront payment.

And aside from online printing services they also offer convenient marketing support such as design services and direct mailing to help the small or medium-sized businesses grow. They are committed to social responsibility and eco-friendly initiatives that support non-profit organizations and environmental sustainability.

Business card prints from UPrinting.com

How to win

1. All you have to do is leave a Comment on this post letting us know which set of prints you would like to win. And make sure you leave your name and a valid email address so we can contact you. Simple as pie!

2. Then you can either subscribe to our RSS feed, “Like us” on Facebook or follow us on Twitter so you can get updated when we have picked the winner and news of future contests.

This contest will end on May 15, 2011 (one week), winners will be randomly chosen.

What you can win

The winner can choose from a set of Business Cards or Postcards

100 Postcards
5” x 7” 14pt Cardstock Gloss
Front Only printing 2 Business Days Print Turnaround Time

OR

250 Die Cut Business Cards
1.75” x 3.5”, 2” x 3.5”, or 2” x 2”; 2.5” Diameter (Circle)
Die Cut Business Cards (Rounded Corners, Leaf, Rounded Single-Corner, Half-Circle Side, Circle);
14pt Cardstock Gloss / Matte / High Gloss (UV), or 13pt Cardstock Uncoated
on a 6 Business Days Turnaround; Front Only or Front and Back printing

Disclaimer: This giveaway is sponsored by UPrinting, no monetary compensation was given. For more information about postcards or business cards, please visit UPrinting online printing services.

Restriction: Limited to US residents 18 years old and above only.

I’ve compiled 10 web resource sites of free fonts that houses some of the best and latest font styles available for personal and commercial use.

(Disclaimer: Do keep in mind that some of them may have some form of reserved rights attached so be sure to read the Terms and Conditions before downloading for any commercial purposes).

And if the font really helped you it’s always a good idea to donate to the font authors and designers, this will help them to continue giving away their awesome font creations for us to devour. Or simply give them some credit, we all know how it feels not getting credited for something we worked so hard for.

Hope you guys find these useful, continue reading and enjoy!

dafont.com

One of the most popular and my favorite source of free fonts is dafont.com it holds a huge collection of very cool fonts. What I like about them is the way they’ve categorized each font by theme, this allows you to view related fonts without wasting time going through the entire font archive because it’s really tough to search for the right font if you don’t even know the font name. I find it convenient that their latest added fonts get their own category listing, you will find their latest font additions displayed on the first page. And it also has this neat option that you can type any word you want and it will be displayed using the styles of the font themes they have . So if you are just looking for some visual suggestions of how your text will look this is a feature that will work wonders for you. For me that’s just awesome!

neatfonts.com

This is probably one of my earliest font resource discoveries, and as their name suggests neatfonts.com carries a library of pretty neat fonts. Like most font archive websites neatfonts.com has a large inventory of contemporary fonts. A little harder to navigate compared to dafont.com because they’ve archived their fonts alphabetically, and unless you already know the name of the font style you’re looking for it’s really time consuming to get through each one. But on the other hand if you’re not in a hurry it’s exciting to discover new styles along the way, because like dafont.com, neatfonts also allows you to view your chosen word or title in the style of the fonts you are currently browsing that makes searching for the right font quite fun.

urbanfonts.com

If there will be a rival to dafont.com in terms of usability and ease of use then it could be urbanfonts.com. Like dafont.com, urbanfonts categorized their font resources by theme. And they also have a featured font category.

fonts2u.com

This latest addition proves to be a contender for the the best font resource website, not only does it support multiple languages it also has a font converter to support the following formats.

- TrueType (.ttf)
- OpenType (.otf)
- PostScript Type 1 (.pfb)
- Macintosh OS X Data Fork (.dfont)

fonts2u.com even has a list of font designers linked to their set of work. This is something new for me and should be given extra points. It enables you to browse the font designs by author. Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think.

fontsquirrel.com

This looks like fun, fontsquirrel.com finds all of the quality freeware that is licensed for commercial work, and then they manually select typefaces and presents them in an easy-to-use format. They’ve done the hard work for us and put it in one place so that we can take our picks hassle free. That’s so nice of them isn’t it?

And then there will always be the “Others”

Not as exciting as my chosen top half of this roundup in terms of design and usability but a font resource nonetheless. And you will never know what exciting font styles you will find hidden in these next set of free font resource websites.

1001freefonts.com

simplythebest.net

acidfonts.com

actionfonts.com

ele-fonts.com

fontgarden.com

fontspace.com

If you have a font resource of your own that’s not included here and you would like to share it with the rest of us please use the comment form below this post so we could check it out.

Special thanks goes to

Dominic Le-Hair for the tribbon font I used for my excerpt image.

noupe.com for providing a free downloadable copy.

I think we can learn a few pointers from Mr. Mathers about creativity, after all he’s been hacking it up in one of the toughest creative business environment for awhile and he seems to be doing pretty well. This makes him a brilliant wire-frame of what you could do to come up with killer design concepts or articles when the juices aren’t flowing.

Introspect and retrospect

Eminem’s music always talks about things that happened to him or people he knows, personal life experiences that he artistically shares with us. As creative’s we should not wander too far from who we are, and what we’ve learned from our past. Dig into that memory and look within yourself to get some inspiration. An old movie you saw, the billboard that jumped at you while you were cruising, these seemingly innocent bits of memories can be a springboard of ideas. Your music and literary preferences can speak for you so make sure you start by knowing who you are. Seek your inner flame and let it burn bright.

You will always be hated

Sometimes I freeze dead on my tracks during a creative process because I’m already thinking ahead and hearing how people hate my work keeps me from getting anything done. Eminem had people picketing against him, he was so hated early in his career that his songs wasn’t even getting airplay from any radio station. There’s really no point in trying to please everybody because you can’t, no one can, there will always be someone, somewhere who will hate you no matter what you do. So take out pleasing everyone out of the equation, remove it, trash it and dump it in the bin because you have your niche and people who share the same interests will follow just the same. So keep them in mind and write or design for them and keep the haters hating. After all there’s no such thing as bad press.

Don’t be afraid to go against the flow and get burned

In real life going against the flow is tiring, it feels literally like swimming opposite the current. But if you believe in what you do you will get to where you want to be soon enough. Marshall Mathers had everything going against him, a white boy in a black dominated industry, but he kept on and now it seems nothing can stop him. So don’t be afraid to try something new something that’s never been done. You don’t have to follow a path you can always be a trail blazer .

Collaborate

I’m sure EM has a free flowing spring of ideas, but he makes them fresh and diverse by collaborating with other artists, Dr. Dre, Dido, 50 Cent, D-12, Pink, Sir Elton John (during the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards in 2001) and now Rihanna. So don’t be a lone wolf, creative work blooms when there’s more than one person with a single idea. But take care in choosing who to collaborate with.

Related article

Find a Collaboration Partner That Fits Your Style

Create something from something

Eminem did not pioneer hip-hop, it was already flourishing when he embraced it as his own thing. Sometimes you don’t have to create something from scratch, I hate to sound like an American Idol judge but you can always take something that’s already there and make it your own. Create something else of what’s already out there and give it some WOW with your magic touch, do an Andy Warhol.

Go green

Recycling is not only good for mother earth, your creations can be recycled and be given new life. Eminem does it all the time, you can hear words or phrases in his lyrics that he used in one song and reused on another. I don’t think it’s laziness or lack of new material that makes EM recycle his lines, because he reuses them with a touch of genius. “I just drank a fifth of vodka – dare me to drive?” from – My Name is (Slim Shady), reused in Stan. So go dig up your old files and take something from it that will work with your latest project. Who knows it might be the missing piece you’ve been losing sleep over.

That’s it ladies and homies

Take what you can and use it accordingly, and be sure to check out Eminem’s latest album “Recovery”, just pop it in then crank it up and if the neighbors complain you can always flip ‘em the bird Eminem style. Meanwhile let’s all sit back and enjoy the disturbingly steamy scenes between Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan for the “Love the way you lie” music video.

Watch: Love the way you lie – Eminem ft. Rihanna

As an enthusiast “image trapper” I’ve compiled some of the textures I was able to capture in the past few weeks and I’m sharing it with all of you totally gratis, yup it’s free for your personal and commercial use (some rights reserved). If you happen to find these textures useful a comment or a link-back to this post would really be much appreciated. Thank you and Enjoy!

(Disclaimer: Use with caution not all are very good quality, some needs tweaking. Perfect for practice though.)

Related readings

How to Create a 3D Leaf from a Texture Photograph

Photoshop Tutorial: How to Apply Textures to Photos

Using Light to Create Texture in Your Photography

How to add texture to a photo using Photoshop

Add Stock Textures to Images for extra ‘Oomph’

FREE Assorted Textures

Working sample

Textures can add a lot of character even to the simplest layout like a poster, here is one I created using the grayish textile texture that’s included with this set. Love it or hate it, just leave your comments…

Food for thought

Before I wrap this up, one of the best sites to get quality textures is at “graphicriver.com”, they provide some of the best quality textures online at very affordable prices. But if you want to make some extra cash instead, grab your camera and take pictures of your very own textures because “graphicriver.com” will also help you sell them. Who knows your texture could end up on the next blockbuster movie poster or the web site that will topple the Facebook empire, “You are only limited by your own imagination”.

Texture photography tips

10 Texture Photography Tips

10 Tips for Shooting for Graphic Textures

How to photograph textures

Ultimate Guide for Creating High Quality Textures

Aside from comments and link-backs, donations are now being accepted.

If the internet is a mall then we all agree that it’s a very humongous mall. As of the latest survey for July 26, 2010 around 9:46 am, wiki answers gives us approximately 1,474,822,045 of the world’s population goes online every day. Wow, that’s a lot isn’t it? That’s how big your potential market is.

Like so many who goes online to browse I hate the walk around. I prefer the simpler walk through, I’m a busy guy myself who has other sites to visit like those super funny gags on Youtube, hehehe, so funny. So let me breakdown the avenues that could make you some real money on the internet.

If you’re into Photography then you can sell,

Pictures or photographs

You don’t have to be an expert to sell your pictures. There are a number of websites where you can post your images to and if they are really good pictures you are bound to sell a copy. They don’t even have to be award winning shots either, some images or photographs are sold as stock photos because they can be a part of something else, ex. background images like a nice wall or a clear summer’s day at the beach or the park can get you paid. Anything goes with selling photos, you will never know who will need an image of your cute dog or that grungy close up texture of your peeling wall paint, or a shot of someone eating their favorite burger unless you post it up for sale. But the quality has to be there. Be sure to check your focus and perspective.

Do read the guidelines of your image hosting provider/reseller, to know what images they need and what images are not allowed before you start uploading those classic self portraits that makes you look so damn cool.

Where to go
• 123rf.com
• crestock.com
• shutterstock.com
• istockphoto.com

Related reads for selling photographs
• Selling Photos Online
• How to Sell Stock Photos Online
• How to Make Money Selling Stock Photos Online

I hear you are more into graphic design? Then you can sell,

Digital art

If you don’t know digital art, then I guess this is not for you, (but do read on you might pick up something valuable). Digital art is any artistic work or practice that uses digital technology. Let’s say you are conceptually savvy and you’ve been doodleling on your parents walls long before you learned to walk. One day you discovered how to use image enhancing/editing application softwares like “Photoshop” or it’s open sourced cousins like “Gimp” then check this out. Just like photographs vector illustrations are also in demand. It’s uber cool if you can sell a copy of your original artwork as art, but swirly’s and silhouettes can also get you some dough. These types of illustrations are also used for backgrounds of conceptual designs from web to print, like posters, brochures, banners and t-shirts. Also if you are good with logo or brand design then you should definitely go with this.

Where to go
• 123rf.com
• crestock.com
• shutterstock.com
• istockphoto.com

“This is not a mistake the photo resellers also dabbles in the vector image trade”

But wait, there’s more…

• graphicriver.com
• deviantart.com
• graphicleftovers.com
• vectorstock.com

Related reads for selling vector art
• How to Make Money With Vector Art
• Do you want to earn money selling vector images?
• 40+ Places to Sell Your Designs Online

T-shirt designs

Since we are on the subject of designs, tshirt designs are also getting a piece of the web money making action, and just like photography and vector illustrations tshirt designs can give you a continous flow of income depending on how well you do your stuff.

Where to go

• cafepress.com
• redbubble.com
• spreadshirt.com

Related reads for selling tShirts
• How to sell your custom t-shirts online and make money!
• So You Want to Earn Money Online and Work For Yourself?
• How to Break into T-Shirt Design

How about turning your thoughts into reading material,

Writing

So you hate carrying a heavy and expensive camera and the only software app you can operate is your document writer/editor. Fear not because article writing is also in the list of profitable things you can do online. You can sell your articles and write-ups. If you’re a techie you can also do product reviews or write tutorials.

Where to go
• associatedcontent.com
• constant-content.com

“Do an online search for websites that pay’s for articles or tutorials like, psd.tutsplus.com“

Related reads for selling articles and write-ups
• How to Earn Money with Online Writing
• How to Write and Sell Articles to Websites and Magazines
• Writing for Money – How to Make Money Writing
• Earn Money Online Writing Articles

Blogging

Since you’re a writer another thing you can do is set up a blog and if you’re good enough to get regular traffic then ad placement is another money maker that just keeps on giving. All you need is some relevant content that a lot of people could associate with and they keep coming back for more. If you need help setting up a blog or a self hosted website on a free host then simply refer to How to set-up a free website on a free web-host for newbies.

Where to go
• Google’s adsense
• buysellads.com

These are some online money makers that a noob like me would be very interested with. If you’re a web designer you have the advantage of putting up your own site, and sell your stuff so you don’t have to pay commission fees. But the competition is pretty stiff and you would need to learn how to drive some serious traffic to your website, before you get involved with ad placements, like buysellads.com but it doesn’t stop there. You could also hook up with affiliate programs.

Affiliate programs

How it works

Affiliate programs are marketing strategies of some websites to increase memberships and traffic. Once you register to them they will give you a reference code that links back to their site. Some affiliates pays per click and some per sign-up. That means they will pay you when someone uses your link to get to their website.

Related article

Affiliate Marketing Is A Number One Online Business

My affiliate sites
• justhost.com – web / domain hosting provider
• neobux.com – PTC or paid to click programs that also pays to refer new members
• ad.ly – a twitter based ad publisher

That’s a wrap!

Before we roll out the credits I would just like to add that the brilliant guys who built psd.tutsplus made a series of web sites that could open up a new can of worms with making money online which they call Envato or the Envato marketplace from website templates and flash animations to music samples and 3D works even video after effects and what programmers do in their sleep, coding and scripting. So go check them out and see what they have that fits your skill sets that will eventually give you the power to buy your friends coffee. (Uhurmmn, clears throat then winks)

Well that is all there is to it my friends, wasn’t it short and sweet? I’m pretty sure I’ve only uncovered the tip of the iceberg. But as a noob I’d like to start with the easy ones. I’m not saying it will be a breeze, remember the golden rule “if it’s too good to be true it probably is” so don’t quit your day job or stop looking if you’re on sabbatical like me *wink, wink. In the end it’s not how you find opportunities to earn that’s important it’s your willingness to find opportunities, always keep an open mind and weigh things that could be good or bad for you. Until next posting, rakenrol!

“Aside from life changing comments and flattering link-backs, donations are now being accepted. THANK YOU!“

I have always wondered how one separates amateur photography from professional photography, is it experience? Is it the process you go through to get those award winning shots? Is it public recognition? Is it the guy who came to my high school graduation asking me to pay for a picture taken of my back?

Professional photography is one of those self proclaimed titles, theres so much gray area on the subject matter its like an out of focus photo. With practice and a lot of passion plus the right equipment anyone can be a professional photographer these days. All the resources you need are literally at your fingertips. The web is full of resources that would help you get started and help you get better. We have a community of professionals and enthusiasts always willing to lend a hand to those who would be interested in taking up this visually rewarding skill and they are ready to share the knowledge they’ve accumulated through experience that you will need to turn this hobby into a full time career if you want to.

Some helpful readings:

• How to Differentiate Amateur From Professional Photography
• Mostly Lisa’s – My Photographic Journey
• 225 photography tips to inspire you
• Photography tips, tricks and tutorials
• Top 20 Photography tips on Shooting Macros

My wife and I are just hobbyists or week-end photographers, our love of photography is a by product for our love of travelling. Lately we’ve been hit by the camera shutter bug and we go on photo-walks just for the fun of it. I’ve compiled a few of our shoots and borrowed a couple from my sisters flicker account to share with you and I hope it will give you some inspiration on whatever project you are working on.

Having worked for a phone development company as a user interface designer made me appreciate icons even more. With a small area to work with, I found how icons can boost a regular message of a mediocre button, and tell the user what it represents, and why people should click on it.

Here are a few cool sites that are generously sharing their icons to all of us, it’s a mixed round-up of web and phone icons. Don’t forget to link to them to say Thank You, for their creativity and hard-work.

Vintage Postage Stamps by dawghousedesign

Who let the dogs out? dawghousedesignstudio.com has been actively giving away some really cool icons, check out her latest offering of vintage stamp inspired social media icons.

Function Icon Set by wefunction

Its like Christmas at wefunction.com with this 128 set of assorted icons for your web design projects. Now that’s just amazing isn’t it?

Vector Social Media Icons by icondock

Nick La of ndesign-studio.com has a passion for creating beautiful icons, his passion is so great that he put up a separate site to hold all his masterpieces and he appropriately called it icondock.com where designers and website owners usually go to buy icons for various projects. And from time to time the rest of us lucky ones gets a piece of the action totally gratis.

Turqua – 3D Isometric Icons by monofactor.com

Clean looking icons for your minimalistic web designs from monofactor.com

Rockin’ Emoticons by skirozeng@deviantart

A lot of emotion, hard-work and creativity went into this set of icons that would make some cool gravatars, or avatars.

30 Vector Icons (iPhone ready) by dezinerfolio

I have been following the guys at dezinerfolio.com like a mad stalker who hasn’t taken his medication for sometime now and it just so happened I had a project that was a bit challenging for me and it was a good thing that they have what I needed to get the job done.

Just a short run through, iphone tabbar icons are a bit tricky, the iphone’s tab application can’t read colors, instead it reads alpha transparencies and it converts solid colors to black or white like film negatives. I had to learn this the hard way, with a lot of research and thanks to the educational resources I got from osmorphis iphone and itouch development guides part one and part two I was able to swim through the challenging waters of GUI in phone development.

That’s all we have for today…

But if you’re hungry for more free iPhone tabbar icons? Then head out to phodder blog’s tabbar twosdays where they’ll treat you to two designs of iPhone iCons every Tuesday. You can even make a request if you happen to hit a wall or in need of a particular iphone icon (I’m speaking from experience), just remember to ask nicely and don’t forget to link back, comment, share or say Thanks. Cheers!

So please download with care and allow me to present a few wallpaper source sites that I’m hoping will give you inspiration and add some character to your “hohumn” screens. Most of them are wallpapers that I personally love, or I’m a fan of the genre. So in a kind of selfish way these are all designs that I personally like but which I’m generously sharing with all of you, right? So enjoy!

Fringe Wallpapers

I featured Fringe’s web design in my article Inspirations: Cultural themed website designs, and it was during my research that I discovered they were giving away some really cool wallpapers (which instantly put me in the sharing mood) and the best part of it is you need to play a Hidden Object Game (like the popular Ravenhearst from BigFish) before you unlock all the freebie wallpapers. You have 60 seconds to find 10 hidden objects, the more hidden objects you find the more wallpapers you will be able to unlock for download, awesome right? It may be up for a limited time only so better hurry up. Don’t worry if you’re not able to unlock all the wallpapers on the first try because you can always hit “Play Again” then it turns into a hybrid memory game. Sweet!

Le-BD-Vore Collection

Growing up I was conditioned not to buy comic books because I was told it’s a waste of money, sad part is I listened. And now I’m trapped in a neurological jail cell that prevents me from just going for it. But my interest in comic books did not totally die out. I still love them but not enough to collect them I think my brain needs to be re-formatted to remove that early childhood programing. I do love DC’s Justice League characters! Batman’s my favorite, of-course Spider-man and Wolverine makes it on my list too. The back story of the characters delivers an interesting read, and the graphics never fails to wow the inner child in me, from Bob Kane to Jack Kirby to Stan Lee to Alex Ross to Frank Miller to Georges Rémi (The Adventures of Tin Tin) to Takeshi Obata (Death Note) the list just goes on and on. I found this site lebdvore.com some time ago while looking for a background to use on my social network profile (*hint the customizable one…), it houses a superb collection of comic book super hero wallpapers, the only kicker is that its in French, par les vous Francais? Well even if you don’t the images can definitely speak for themselves.

Alex Ross Originals

Since were on the subject of comic book graphics, Alex Ross is also giving away some of his original works for free on his website alexrossart.com, pay him homage by using his artwork on your lap/desk-top monitors. You can also buy prints from his website, so if you’re a hardcore fan or an intellectual lover of the arts, or just a regular guy who likes the work of Alex Ross don’t forget to check it out.

Deviant Design Blog’s Retro Compilations

OK so you’re not into weird science TV programs, you’re also not interested in comic book graphics, but if you are looking for some old school inspirations then the Deviant Design (not to be mistaken for deviantart.com) compilation might just do the trick. Its a design blog resource from the Federal Republic of Germany and they have 25 retro inspired wall papers gathered from all over to share with all of us.

End credits

Thank you for dropping by and I hope you will enjoy the free wallpapers and appreciate the talents that went in designing them. Till next post, keep on sharing!

Special thanks to the source sites and to the people behind them:

www.fox.com/fringe

www.lebdvore.com

www.alexrossart.com

www.deviant-blog.de