New Design Contents May 2016

A new group sharing tool from Google Spaces is a new small group sharing platform from Google. Create a Space for anything, from comic books to a study group, with just a single tap. Then invite friends and share whatever you want to! It has Google search and YouTube built-in to make sharing content even easier.

More visually balance layouts Visual Center is not the same thing as the actual center of an element. And while creating a layout based on the actual center of something might be more "technically correct", it can often look off-balance. This tool pinpoints the visual center of your element, so that you can create layouts that look balanced to the human eye.

Musicians take note! Musician Robert Ellis has an amazing website, and one that takes a very unexpected twist for a musician: his website doesn't auto-play any audio! It also includes a very cool layout, with photos that fracture as you scroll, and generally come back together when you stop. A transparent menu shows pre-order information, a mailing list signup, and upcoming tour dates.

Want some layout inspiration? The Experimental Layout Lab of Jen Simmons is a fantastic spot to find all sorts of experimental layouts, most with the code available via Codepen. There are hexagonal layouts, Mondrian Art layouts, "jazz poster" grids, image galleries, "cover sheet" demos, and a whole lot more.

An OS X Gmail app to make you more productive Go for Gmail is a Mac OS X email client specifically for Gmail, so you can access your inbox without having to open your browser. It's built for speed and to be easy to use, with color-coded notifications and audio alerts, window opacity control, and fullscreen support, among tons of other great features.

Need a creative brief? CreateBrief.com makes it way easy to get the information from your clients that you need to effectively complete their projects. Just fill out the questionnaire and you'll get an on-point design brief that has everything you need for the project at hand. And there's no sign-in required!

Ambient wallpapers for your TV Vindora provides some gorgeous ambient video wallpapers for your AppleTV or other connected TV or projector. Their team collects only the most beautiful scenes for the service, with the footage meticulously inspected, edited, and processed before being served to your device.

Want to use fonts that just don't "go" together? Have you ever looked at two fonts and thought, "These just don't go together." How to Use Clashing Fonts is a fantastic guide to how to break all those typography rules about which fonts you should and shouldn't put together, primarily focusing on using fonts that are quite similar (and which traditional design advice has said to avoid pairing).

If you design in the browser, check this out Do you design in the browser? If so, then be sure to check out Blisk, a free browser that was developed specifically for designing and testing your designs. It fully emulates phones and tablets, refreshes the page on every file change, and has DevTools for debugging mobile and desktop sites.

What's your favorite font? What your font choice says about you is a fun infographic from Creative Bloq that gives insight into your personality based on your favorite font. Created by Curtis Newbold, the chart pokes fun at some of the most popular (and not so popular) fonts out there, from Raleway to Garamond, and those who use them.