In this day and age of chain stores, multi-nationals and homogenized rubbish, Etsy is  there, providing an antithesis to all this bland conformity. Artists, designers and makers finally have a platform and a vehicle to sell their beautiful handmade wares to you and me.

I know that if you’re visiting this blog, chances are you’re a designer or artist, or else you have someone in your life who loves design and typography, well this list will help you out if you’re stuck for a gift or just feel like looking at pretty things.

On April 8th, 2009, I went with a group of Griffith University students to the one day Semi-Permanent event in Brisbane. A few of us had been to the event held in 2008, so we knew what to expect, but every year, there are different speakers and the day is only as good as they are, so we were excited about what was in store. What follows is a review of this year’s event, along with photos, links and other good stuff.

I’m quite new to Wordpress and the first thing that struck me is how many really beautiful and professionally designed Wordpress themes are available for free download. Most of the time, the only “payment” or restriction, is that you attribute the design to the designer, and keep the link back to their site. In this collection, you’ll find 11 awesome, high-quality, free WordPress themes. I’ve chosen magazine style themes because they’re my favourite, and in the hunt for the theme I customised for Moonsail Design, I found many other lovely ones that I’d like to share with you.

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds and the website TED.com is devoted to presenting videos of these riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world. While it is a wonderful resource, the main problem is that there are so many inspiring videos that it can sometimes be overwhelming. This is the first of a series of TED Talk reviews here at Moonsail Design where I will try and identify the best of the best for your easy edification.

The iPhone is such a great productivity tool, but there are so many apps, it’s hard to know which ones to choose.

Here is a list of ones I use all the time. They’re a great help if you’re a designer, and best of all, they’re free!