bitts {on graphic design}

/Some of my favorite resources

At last night's design meet up many of you asked if I would post a list of my fav sources and blog about my experience + struggles + happy moments of starting out as a freelancer. Lets start with the goodies, this should hold you over until the weekend :) Post your comments linking to other sites or articles you love, follow a noteworthy blog or just want to say 'gracias.' So get your delicious tags ready, happy exploring!//

Resources

Freelance Switch has a job board, forums and a ton of resources about making the switch  

Creativebits writes for the design community, offers critique posts, jobs and design news

Keep Designing vector freebies

Strip Generator 

DesignMag freebies, resources, jobs, freelancing, tuts

QVectors free vetors

Famous logos in vector format + share site

Colourlovers love this site! Make your own color palettes, share or choose theirs

CMYK/HEX/HTML/color chart conversion. Color happiness.

Freelance Rate Calculator

Portfolio + Network sites

Coroflot great national + international exposure, agencies + recruiters

DesignRelated portfolios, network, jobs, inspiration

Flickr lots of awesome designers + groups, network

Twitter follow your fav designers, they post tips, links, resources, follow me

Our facebook meet up group

Deviant Art  portfolio site

Talent Database International Design network

Creative + Inspiration

abduzeedo blogs about inspiration, interviews + tuts

Creemy CSS web design showcase

Web cream web design showcase

Blogs

Chad Engle hosts a twitter forum #DCTH on Thursday nights 7p EST and writes about trends, tuts, freebies

Youthedesigner writes about freebies, forums, contests and jobs

WebDesignerWall this blog is often featured for inspiration and design trends, they write about techie news, web trends and post tutorials

Just Creative Design Jacob writes about logos, design, fonts, must-know articles + resources

David Airey (UK) logos, type, copy writing, blogging

Bittbox Jay blogs about trends, freebies (lots), has a large following, flickr showcase group

Technical + apps

35 absolutely essential mac apps list of handy tools

Billings3 awesome time tracking + billing software, 21-day trail, LUV this! Make my life easy. Mac friendly.

Need to send large files? If you don't have access to an ftp site this one is free (100MB) or check this list.

/Trying hard to be creative?

If you don't know where to start when you have 'creative block' check out this list of "to-dos'. Kudos go to author Blake Phillip an Art Director for Vibra Design in North Carolina.