Feeling blue without your weekly dose of design inspiration? Well, we don't want to disappoint. This time there are colourful cows, ways to use the old typewriter lurking in your cupboard, more cake and a couple of animations that will have you drinking coffee by the bucket-load.
Oh, and one more thing...pinch, punch, first of the month.
29 ways to stay creative
Suffering a momentary lapse in creative flair? We have the answer! Well, the guys at @tofu_design do with this handy little video that includes 29 different ways to get the creative juices flowing. I can't say I agree with all of them – singing in the shower, for example, is more likely to get me thumped than a design award – but that said, there are some nice bits of advice in there. I, for one, will be using this as an excuse to throw away everything on my desk as soon as I've finished writing this article.
29 WAYS TO STAY CREATIVE from TO-FU on Vimeo.
Can you name a font beginning with every letter?
Another video here. This one is from the multidisciplinary design studio, N9VE, who have have created an animation that runs through 26 of their favourite fonts. The video is called 'The Alphabet' and each character featured is the initial letter of a font name - definitely one for all typography fans!
The Alphabet from n9ve on Vimeo.
Can't wait for Great British Bake Off 2014?
We're still in denial that this year's series of GBBO has ended - we event went as far as locking Liz and Liana in the kitchen and telling them they couldn't return to their desk until they'd produced a perfect selection of petit fours and a croquembouche. They failed, but we have come across this look at the work of Tom Hovey, Bake Off's resident illustrator, who puts together the drawings you see of the proposed bakes each week. Take a look at his website for more examples of his work.
Visit Tom Hovey's website for examples of his work.
Swap your Mac for a typewriter
OK, so we're never going to actually give you that advice. However, these incredible pieces of work by Keira Rathbone show that sometimes a bit of inspiration can go a long way. She uses an old typewriter to print artwork entirely composed of numbers, letters and symbols. Check out the example below, but her website is well worth a visit - if only to see what happens when you start the day with the intention of creating a typed version of Grace Jones.
Visit Keira Rathbone's site here for her portfolio.
Art painted on cows
You can't get more to the point than that. If you're a bovine enthusiast this one's definitely for you, because body paint artist Emma Hack has taken to the fields with her paint brush to design some fetching new coats for these cows in South Australia. Obviously, our favourite is the jigsaw piece - very this season.
Visit toxel.com for more examples of Emma's work.
Keep an eye out next Friday for more inspiration from our design team. In the meantime, head on over to the Jigsaw24 shop to take a look at great deals and prices on design and publishing essentials. Found something you think should have made it into the list? Pop it in the comments box below.