Eco web and logo design blog

We love prowling the web for the latest trends and design inspiration. Here we have composed a list of common resources we use. The primary focus of this list is inspiration, it can come from a photograph, font, or a website. The secondary focus is improving your design skills, which can be done by keeping up to date with tutorials and reading other graphic design blogs.

We come across many great eco and nature based website designs through our design gallery cssnature.org. We have decided to do a regular posting of our favorite designs and ethical companies that are making a difference in the world.

We wanted to start a collection of great eco based companies around the world that are really making a difference. We are starting with 101 companies and will be expanding this list in the future to include some up and coming bright start-up companies. If you have any other suggestions for this list please feel free to contact us with your ideas.

We wanted to create a list of nature based desktop wallpapers that would inspire. We have composed a selection of environmental inspired desktop wallpapers. Some are relaxing, others have stunning colour schemes, the one thing they all have in common is that they are all incredible examples of the amazing world around us.

1. HEMLOCK PRINTERS VICTORIA BC
Hemlock was named the Most Environmentally Progressive Printer in Canada three years in a row. The company philosophy “Integrity in Colour”, summarizes things well for Hemlock, with priding themselves on reducing the environmental impact of the entire graphic arts industry. In 2007 they successfully eliminated 80% of all manufacturing-derived waste from the landfill stream.

The importance of building a congruent color palette for web design is paramount. A person’s eye will automatically make judgments on color based upon their human instinct. Green is seen as a representative of nature, purple reflects that of royalty, and white portrays a feeling of neutral calm and so forth. When selecting your own color scheme from a photo, online color palette generators can be a helpful tool to work with.

Why choose eco-hosting?
Deforestation, global warming and polluted waterways are just a few of the myriad of environmental disasters hitting the headlines each day. As web professionals, there’s something substantial and economical we can do to help address the problem and to demonstrate to our clients our social conscious.

We find it very helpful to build on our current design skill sets on a daily basis. An excellent resource site we have found (and check daily) is a site called PsdTuts. They offer Photoshop tutorials, inspiration, articles and an entire community of design related people. Another great design resource if you have time to check it out is the Flickr stream of user submitted artwork and completed tutorials.

How did you enter the world of graphic design?
I’ve always been interested in design. Even when I was a child, I loved to draw and had an eye for detail and colours. I didn’t go down the traditional route of university. Instead, I taught myself how to use programs such as Photoshop and Cinema 4d to create art, and eventually built up a basic portfolio of work. I then applied for jobs locally

What is the core reason for creating Sprout?
At our core, we want to free people from having to think about how to get information. People shouldn’t waste their time and brain power on where information is and how to find it. So, we created Sprout to give users news and blog articles that they’ll enjoy with a minimum amount of effort. Sprout is just the beginning in our low-cognitive load, information solutions.