Easy post today folks. I wanted to toss in a few links to share some of my resources with all you designers out there.

Seamless Textures has some really nice textures to pull from – paper, grunge, fabric, etc. These guys make it easier to play around with all the retro and grunge designs.

I found this really cool site called Your Fonts. You can fill out their worksheet and send it back to them and it will generate a font based on your own handwriting. Pretty sweet! I’m hoping to play with it later this week.

And finally, for two of the all around best resources I’ve found online….wait for it……Web Resources Depot and Smashing Magazine. Tons of everything: tutorials, css resources and Photoshop awesomeness. Many of you are probably well aware of these, but for the wayward traveler or new-to-the-design world, I thought I’d pass these on.

That’s it! Happy Monday! 

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I heard on NPR yesterday (Morning Edition: Boyish Charm: Disney XD Woos Young Princes) that the Walt Disney Company remembered that boys are a part of their audience too. Well, ok, that wasn’t specifically said, but that is what I got out of the segment. In all of their fanatical success with the Princess craze, High School Musical and Hannah Montana, Disney has begun to target their young male audience. What sorts of things capture the attention of boy ages 6 – 14 these days? Honestly, when my choices are the above mentioned, I wouldn’t answer with “Disney”.  (Heck, I still miss Ninja Turtles.)

Apparently, Disney is looking to make themselves edgier, with Disney XD – a cable channel marketed towards the 18 million young male viewers. I specifically heard “edgier font” in the interview and that is what piqued my interest.

Edgier Font, huh?

It all comes back to branding folks. You can put content geared toward your viewers online, but the look has to match who you are targeting. You don’t want  a grunge, distressed look for your corporate bank website. You don’t want a sterile, boring and flat layout for a restaurant. A huge part of Disney recapturing these guys’ attention is to appear more authentic. Cause really, there is only so much “edgier” Disney can get while keeping it real.

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