My concept was based around a popular trend in photography right now - a trend that crosses many genres - of using techniques in post processing as well as added textures and layers to 'weather' a photo and give it the feel of an era a long time ago, whether its a 60's style polaroid effect, or more of a sepia vintage early 1900's effect. I really like the idea of making something that may or may not already have a sense of nostalgia (after all photos exist for this purpose) and adding that much more of a nostalgic feel.

There's a great group on Flickr for obtaining free textures for overlays: http://www.flickr.com/groups/textures4layers/

And 2 resources for awesome Photoshop actions both including various Vintage Processes are:

Totally Rad Actions: http://www.gettotallyrad.com/#photoshop-actions-for-rockin-digital-photography-7a1d9

Kevin Kubota Tools: http://www.kubotaimagetools.com/

Valli Ravindran

I was inspired to showcase some of my recent font downloads that was sitting in my font book eagerly waiting to be on a project..

All of the letters here are from Lorem Ipsum dolor amet. (even the dingbats)

The eleven free fonts that I used are:

The Quiet Scream - http://www.dafont.com/search.php?psize=m&q=the+quiet+scream

Tireshop - http://www.bittbox.com/freebies/bb-free-font-tire-shop-demo-verison

Nevis - http://www.tenbytwenty.com/products/typefaces/nevis

Osaka - http://www.urbanfonts.com/fonts/Osaka.htm

Blackout & Midnight - http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/Blackout

Makimango - http://www.dafont.com/makimango.font

Chunkfive - http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/ChunkFive

Sniglet - http://www.dafont.com/sniglet.font

Dingbats: Seeing Stars - http://www.urbanfonts.com/dingbats/Seeing_Stars.htm

Dingbats: The Freaky Face - http://jokke-svin.dk/?page_id=3476

Additional Resources:
Flipping Typical - A Site to compare and explore the typefaces you have on your computer.

Some great flickr pools for inspiration -
http://www.flickr.com/groups/86989277@N00/pool/

http://www.flickr.com/groups/typophile/pool/

Jen Huls

Nature as inspiration may not consciously be used by all but sub-consciously we use them all the time. My inspiration came from patterns I see on my daily Metro commute. I then combined these patterns with their corresponding brethren found in nature.

By Nature's Design
http://www.amazon.com/Natures-Design-Exploratorium-Book/dp/0811803295/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255701686&sr=8-1
"Writer Pat Murphy and photographer William Neill appeal to our quest for patterns with this book, based on a major exhibit at San Francisco's Exploratorium. Together they puzzle out how pebbles form clusters on the beach, how an ear of corn grows, how mountains and clouds form and how spiders make their webs: how, in short, nature sees to it that things happen in much the same way again and again."

Flickr Group - Nature's Abstracts
http://www.flickr.com/groups/natural_abstracts/

17 Techniques for Creating Designs Inspired by Nature
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/08/17-techniques-for-creating-designs-inspired-by-nature/
"Many great designers derive their inspiration from nature, and we can find tons of examples showcasing this type of inspiration online.... Here are 17 great techniques for creating original, beautiful, nature-inspired design."

25 Nature-Inspired Website Designs
http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/galleries/nature-inspired-website-designs/
"Inspiration or web design can come from anywhere. An increasing number of websites are including elements from nature in the design. Background images, photos, illustrations... nature can be used a number of different ways in web design. In this post we'll look at 25 excellent examples."

CSS Nature | Eco Green Organic Website Design Inspiration Showcase Gallery
http://www.cssnature.org/
"CSS NATURE is a showcase of well designed nature based web design"

Tanya Netayavichitr

There's something about the transition from summer to winter, the divine display of autumn leaves, crisp cool clear skies, enticing aromas of deliciousness, the essential layering of clothes and of course, certain change. My inspiration draws from the rich colors of fall, nature, texture, city life, fashion and feeling.

I created this color palette through Color Scheme Designer. Here is my actual color palette: http://colorschemedesigner.com/#0u61Tw0w0w0w0

A great resource for autumn color palettes: http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2007/09/23/seasonal-color-inspiration-autumn/

This Flickr group has many inspiration boards to spark some creativity: http://www.flickr.com/groups/inspirationboards/

Thanks everyone for such eye-candy! Cant wait until the next one with probably a bigger pool of designers!