Update 1/2019: We shut down our tracking stats! Sorry to see it go, but we moved on to other projects!

We are tracking nearly 2000 of the most popular web fonts across 10,000 of the most visited websites ranked by Alexa. Head on over to Fonts of the World to see and explore the data, and click some examples to see what you are missing!

The data is very interesting. Arial has the lions share of usage. Will Arial be the most popular font…forever? And look at how widespread the usage of icon fonts has become: as of today, the fifth most popular web fonts in the world is an icon font.

Most popular web fonts usage trends: coming soon!

We are adding weekly data and trending charts so we can track web font usage over time. It will be fascinating to see what the data reveals as the weeks go by and the data piles up.

Stop by Fonts of the World, and don’t forget to sign up for the newsletter!

We got involved with local SEO in Rhode Island back in 2004. We moved our freelance graphic design business from Columbus, Ohio, and needed to optimize our website to pick up local clients. Back in those ancient days of the web, it took very little to rank highly in the categories we wanted. Those were they days! Search engines have changed a lot since those halcyon days.

Our Providence SEO adventure

Years later we are still highly ranking for any term we need to for our graphic design blog, BonFX. Our media has sold at the top of it’s category for over 5 years. For instance, google “font combinations” and buy our book 🙂 Our Rhode Island design agencies post is still our most visited local, Rhode Island-optimized post. We have had thousands of visitors to that page, for years. That is not going to change any time soon. It’s safe to say  you need this kind of “web traffic” too.

More leads through website optimization

It’s very simple to get started using the form below or visiting us here, and we now offer this service to you as a part of our expanding web and design business based in Warwick. Our methods are simple, proven, and powerful! You can rank your local RI business, in most cases, very easily if you know what to do. And you need a real Providence SEO to pull it off.

And yes, you really do need the kind of traffic from being in the top 10 of the search engine results (watch our 30 second video: SEO RI).

Well, what do you do? You hire us, and get going to work for you. Our powerful domain software coupled with our exclusive trade methods can get just about any local business in on the first page of Google in a very short period of time. Each client is different, but the method is the same.

Yes, you are interested.

And what is the final question?

Do you have too many clients for your local business?

This is a problem you probably don’t have, right? Our job is to give you that problem, by getting positioning you as highly as possible through our proven methods.

Help us do our job for you!

Talk to us!

So please have a little chat with us. We invite you to look at how the process will work for your site.

 

 

 

Do you wonder why people doodle 3d boxes? Don’t think too hard about it but do check out the video below to start doodling your own masterpieces!

Watch how the Black Widow and Carrot Alien are drawn in 3D Doodle Boxes available in the Mac App Store:

So there is 3D Doodle Blocks in action for today! Download it today!

“Allowing influences into your work is one  of the ways that you expand your expressive range. Designers enrich their work — not diminish it — by looking for ways to ‘incorporate’ new and radical modes of expression into their work, especially from places outside contemporary design. Shutting out influences because of an obsession with ‘originality’ is a trap. But you have to be able to acknowledge the debt to your sources. Copyists never own up to it; the talented always do. That’s the difference.”

—Adrian Shaughnessy, How to be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul

“I don’t believe in originality as an absolute, I think it’s more to do with interesting twists on existing forms. Borrowing from the Modernist designers of the recent past, for instance, is not plagiarism; it’s more a continuation of the processes and ideas that they set in motion. I’m influenced by Polish poster art of the 1960’s, which was influenced by Pop Art and Surrealism, and which in turn appropriated commercial art, comic book art, cinema and Victorian engravings, etc. I think the key to whether it’s good or not lies in the viewer’s response to a piece of design. Do they say “I’ve seen it before” or, “I’ve seen it before but not in that way.”

—Julian House

“Most designers are untroubled by the notion of originality, but others are obsessed with it, and I see many problems caused by the delusional quest for originality. In my view originality is an overrated and misunderstood quality in contemporary graphic design. Copying is bad, no question. Infringing someone’s copyright for personal gain is immoral, not to mention illegal in most countries. But the only people who copy are the terminally second-rate and the downright dishonest, whereas the good designer freely borrows and adapts from sources in precisely the way artists have done for centuries. And furthermore, the good designer readily admits to this ‘appropriation.’ It is a quality of many good designers that their influences and sources are clearly visible and readily acknowledged.”

—Adrian Shaughnessy, How to be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul

“Typography is known as an invisible art, because if a typographer has done a good job and produced a page that flows and is ‘easy on the eye’, he has done his job and the reader doesn’t notice. A page that is badly designed will be difficult and irritating to read. Whether you are reading in the office for work, or at home for pleasure, and no matter how interesting the actual content , if a book is uncomfortable on the eye then the enjoyment of reading is spoiled.”

—Jim Williams, Type Matters!

“The grid system is an aid, not a guarantee. It permits a number of possible uses and each designer can look for a solution appropriate to his personal style. But one must learn how to use the grid; it is an art that requires practice.”

—Josef Muller-Brockmann

 

“I still reserve the right, at any time, to doubt the solutions furnished by the Modular, keeping intact my freedom, which must depend on my feelings rather than my reason.”

— Le Corbusier

“The graphic design process—the search for visual concepts—has been compared to the running of a maze. In both cases the solution remains mysterious until the end of the exercise. From an established starting position, the designer works out a logical plan and follows it only to be turned back by the constraints encountered along the way. As in a maze, the designer continues the exploration through further applications of logic, some intuitive guesswork, and a certain amount of trial and error until the problem is solved.”

—Allen Hurlburt, The Design Concept

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“Throughout this century, there has been first a gradual and then an accelerated movement of communication patterns until today the public is virtually bombarded by printed and projected images until most of them become blurred andmeaningless. This burden of visual ideas places new demands on the designer for more knowledge and for a greater involvement in the planning and problem-solving aspects of communication. Whether he likes it or not, the contemporary art director must be at ease with editorial thinking, advertising objectives, market strategy, human response, and social responsibility—if  his layouts are to move from the egocentric boundaries of the drawing board to the excitement of the printed page.”

-Allen Hurlburt, Layout: The Design of the Printed Page

“Creativity is essentially a lonely art. An even lonelier struggle.  To some a blessing. To another a curse. It is in reality the ability to reach inside yourself and drag forth from your very soul an idea.

—Lou Dorfsman

“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery – celebrate it if you feel like it.”

—Jim Jarmusch

“Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple.”

—C.W. Ceram

“There is no design without discipline. There is no discipline without intelligence. The life of a designer is a life of fight. Fight against the ugliness. Just like a doctor fights against disease. For us, the visual disease is what we have around, and what we try to do is cure it somehow with design.”

-Massimo Vignelli

“…cultural awareness (you can call it research, if you like, but it’s really something larger) ranks higher than technical ability and academic qualifications in the designer’s portfolio of attributes. When the British writer lain Sinclair was asked if he did research for his books, he replied that his whole life was research. I can’t think of a better adage for the modern graphic designer. Without constantly scanning, scrutinizing and absorbing what goes on around you, you cannot become a successful designer.”

-Adrian Shaughnessy, How to be a Graphic Designer, Without Losing Your Soul

So, Ms. BonFX is getting on board with graphic design blogging and a new focus on typography.  I’ve gathered some of the classic typography books and of course, my favorite coffee mug. I’ll be sure to recommend some great reads and resources along the way! Stay tuned…

Want some simply gorgeous random color scheme inspiration? This is the script for you!

I’m working on a new ebook about color combinations to be released later this year. Part of the work for that book entails some very cool Photoshop and Illustrator scripting. One of the scripts, the intriguing one I’m sharing with you today, takes four random colors and creates a stunningly beautiful gradient from them.

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