2007 Trends in Logo Design

LogoLounge.Com - 2007 Trends

By Bill Gardner

At LogoLounge.com we look at A LOT of logos and see plenty of trends: Some are aesthetic, some conceptual, and some cultural. As the internet's largest database of logos – over 50,000 to date – you can't help notice the evolution of design – and trends.

The Story of Stuff = Must See

The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard

The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute film that takes viewers on a provocative and eye-opening tour of the real costs of our consumer driven culture—from resource extraction to iPod incineration.

Annie Leonard, an activist who has spent the past 10 years traveling the globe fighting environmental threats, narrates the Story of Stuff, delivering a rapid-fire, often humorous and always engaging story about “all our stuff—where it comes from and where it goes when we throw it away.” Leonard examines the real costs of extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal, and she isolates the moment in history where she says the trend of consumption mania began. The Story of Stuff examines how economic policies of the post-World War II era ushered in notions of “planned obsolescence” and “perceived obsolescence” —and how these notions are still driving much of the U.S. and global economies today.

The Website Development Process

PingMag - The Tokyo-based magazine about “Design and Making Things” - The Website Development Process

Time Management for Creative People

creativepro.com - Control and Creativity: A Match Made in Heaven

Some people think of creativity and organization as opposites. But Mark McGuiness believes that concentration is a must for the best creative work. If you don't consciously make time for being focused, you're vulnerable to interruptions that can stop your creative flow mid-stream.

How NOT to Plagiarize

Advice for Students: How NOT to Plagiarize - lifehack.org

With final essays and term papers coming due (at least here in the States) I thought I’d take a moment to offer some well-needed advice to this year’s crop of young plagiarizers who are about to fail there classes because of really dumb decisions they’re making as I write this.

Special Report on Design

Special Report - Innovation & Design - Business Week

Articles & lists of the best design schools.

Advice for design students

Advice for students - AIGA Design Conference 2007

To prepare for her role as moderator of the "Next" student symposium, UnBeige's Alissa Walker asked design luminaries to give their best advice and inspiration for students.

Visual Plagiarism

Obey Plagiarist Shepard Fairey

Most well known for his "Obey Giant" street posters, Shepard Fairey has carefully nurtured a reputation as a heroic guerilla street artist waging a one man campaign against the corporate powers-that-be. Infantile posturing aside, Fairey’s art is problematic for another, more troubling reason - that of plagiarism.

Image Resolution Info

creativepro.com - The Truth About Resolution

When I became a pixel pusher years ago, one of the toughest concepts to wrap my brain around was that of image resolution: What the heck was it, how did I change it without trashing my image, how much did I need when, and so on.

Advanced SearchTechniques

The ultimate guide to advanced searching within Yahoo, Google and MSN operators � Hybrid Search Engine Marketing | SEO Consulting to Help Rank Better

Have you ever taken the time to think about a Search Engine’s Query? Is there an easy way to monitor links to your site through these queries? How advanced can “searching” really get? Within this post I will show how Google, Yahoo and MSN have created “shortcuts” for their Search Engines.

More Typographic Inspiration

Jeff Canham

Typographic Snowflake Creator

TYPEflake*

Creative Business Cards

Hey Good Lookin'

We've collected the most beautiful, distinctive and offbeat business cards from creatives around the country. See how these designers make a great first impression.

All About Type

TeachingType

TeachingType is an initiative by tutors, students and people interested in typography, typographic education and related subjects. The aim of this platform is to develop and refine graphic design education. We believe that a constant discussion and evolution is happening in our profession and so it is in happening in its educational methodologies. Those procedures, aims, and purposes change not just from college to college or from student to student, but also from day to day. Rather than passively seeing where this fast moving current is taking us and our students, we passionately navigate in this stream; enjoying the journey; enthusiastically learning.

More Writing Resources (you know you need them!)

150 Resources to Help You Write Better, Faster, and More Persuasively

As a student, writer, author, journalist, poet, or screenwriter, you know that you probably spend more time on research, editing, and proofreading than you do on the actual writing. Therefore, you might not have time to find resources to help you write better, faster, or more persuasively. This is where our list comes to your rescue, as the following links focus on places where you can conduct research, software that is free and easy to use, and services that will remove that 'extra work' monkey from your back.

Interview Questions & How to Answer Them

For my soon to be graduating seniors and students interviewing for internships:

64 Interview answers you need to know

Yound Designers Competition Results

“propose a strategy to raise the turnout of voters between 18 and 24” - brilliant solution - read it to the end!

Except You

If we've learned anything from MySpace and Facebook, it's that my generation values being a part of the group and having a say. We're mavericks of social networking, communication and internal organization. We become passionate about anything the peer consensus agrees to rally around, including skateboarding dogs. So why not focus that social muscle on something that really matters? Something like going to war. Or global warming. It's obvious that we care about those things. Getting us to act is the hard part.

Design Students and Typography

Interesting tale from portfolio reviews:

Type Means Never Having To Say You’re Sorry

It’s not the designer’s voice that concerns me here so much as the designer’s understanding of history — a body of knowledge that once acquired, can be edited, modified, even jettisoned at will, but only after giving it a good, hard think. Designers in general (and students in particular) have an overwhelming tendency to consider anything that’s been achieved in the past as a kind of “been there, done that” straitjacket, while the opposite is not only true, it’s surprisingly actionable.

Fun Hand Drawn Type Inspired by Spam

Spam One-liners - a photoset on Flickr

Improve Your Writing

Improve Your Writing with these Editing Tips - lifehack.org

Teachers, business people, and just about everyone else it seems complain often and loudly that people today (usually “kids today”) don’t know how to write. I’m convinced, though, that a big part of the problem (perhaps the biggest part of the problem) is that people don’t know how to edit. We labor under the notion that good writing flows easily from the pen or typing fingers, and that editing too much will “kill” our work.

The best writers know differently, of course — their memoirs and biographies and writing manuals are filled with stories of books that needed to be cut in half to be readable, sentences that took weeks or months to get just right, and lifetimes spent tinkering with a single work that never strikes them as “just right”. To paraphrase a common saying among writers, there is no good writing, only good re-writing.

99 Useful Resources for Graphic Designers

99 Useful Resources for Graphic Designers at You the Designer - Graphic Design Blog

I have used every one of these resources as a graphic designer and website developer and have hand picked all of these resources based on their usefulness and overall quality. I hope you find these resources as useful as I do! Enjoy!

Create Advanced Online Galleries

creativepro.com - View Source: Create Advanced Online Galleries

Do you need an online portfolio or just want to post photos from your kid's birthday party? The free Lightbox2 adds sophisticated JavaScript functionality you can customize. The best part? You don't have to do a lick of programming.

Font Design Spot with Steven Heller

IDD majors - this is a must see:

YouTube - Font Design

Software & Services that Are Free - NOT Scams

creativepro.com - Software and Services that Are Free -- and Not Scams

From file transfers to audio editors, conference calls to color explorations, here are free services and programs you won't regret trying. And no, we're not getting kickbacks from these companies -- we just think this stuff is cool.

Typographic Inspiration

ALPHABET: An Exhibition of Hand-Drawn Lettering and Experimental Typography

Focusing on an ordinary subject that we see each day, often by the hundreds of thousands, Alphabet presents 26 letters as more than just shapes for conveying information. The 51 artists and designers in this show conceive and interpret the alphabet in surprising and inventive ways, ranging from graceful and polished to witty and unconventional. The 63 alphabets featured in Alphabet were created by artists in North America, Europe, and Asia, and represent work from well-known typographers and designers as well as rising artists and design students.

Tips for concentrating and focused study

10 Ways to Make Your Study Sessions More Productive | Enhanced with Minerals for Taste

Establish a routine that utilizes any or all of these things to make your study sessions more productive.

And from the University of Kent:
Concentration

Concentration means directing one's attention on whatever one intends. We all have a natural ability to concentrate. Have you noticed how difficult it is to get young children's attention when they are playing? Do you remember the time when you were completely engrossed in an interesting novel, a super film, an exciting match or an exhilarating piece of music? You were concentrating then. At this very moment you are reading these words, you are concentrating.

The ultimate “mouse trap”

Remember the game? Well here is a real life conglomeration with too many brilliant devices to even try to describe.
Watch this!

Fast Food: Ads vs. Reality

Fast Food: Ads vs. Reality

Each item was purchased, taken home, and photographed immediately. Nothing was tampered with, run over by a car, or anything of the sort. It is an accurate representation in every case. Shiny, neon-orange, liquefied pump-cheese, and all.

Forever Skull

Forever Skull: Voice: AIGA Journal of Design: Writing: AIGA

The skull. Immortal icon of mortality. Overused, overexposed, overdone—and yet evergreen, everlasting, ever in play.

Muriel Cooper: The unsung heroine of on-screen style

Muriel Cooper: The unsung heroine of on-screen style - International Herald Tribune

If you're a digital design buff or graphics geek, you may know who she is. Otherwise you're probably thinking, Muriel Who? Cooper was one of the first graphic designers to apply her skills to the computer screen. Having co-founded the Visible Language Workshop at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1973, she ran it until her death in 1994, and taught many of today's most gifted software designers.

Michael Bierut's 1979 Portfolio

May I Show You My Portfolio?

In the fall of 1979, prior to my last year of design school, on a trip to New York City, I went job hunting. I visited about six design firms. One of them, Vignelli Associates, eventually made me a job offer, and that's where I started my career one week after graduating from the University of Cincinnati's College of Design, Architecture and Art in June 1980. I didn't know it then, but that would be the last time I would look for a job.

Design Inspiration: 10 years of Webby Award Winners

Webby Awards Nominees & Winners

With nearly 70 categories, Website entries make up the majority of Webby Awards Winners, Nominees and Honorees. Some are beautiful to look at and interact with. Others are a testament to usability and functionality. And a handful excel across the board. To be selected among the best is an incredible achievement worthy of praise -- and perhaps a little bragging.

Design Process - Iteration

creativepro.com - What to Do When You're Out of Ideas

You can't always count on instant answers when you're tackling a design problem. Make iterative design part of your workflow, and you won't have to.

Write It Down!

Why You Should Write Things Down

The memory isn’t very reliable. Every time we remember something we recreate what happened rather than just replay a film from our mental archives. The recreation is directed by a number of things such our beliefs, our emotional state at the time and our self-image.

Beyond Wikipedia

Beyond Wikipedia: 20 References You Can't Do Without | Scholastici.us: Student Productivity At Its Finest

You may not know this, but there are actually a number of great references available to you that aren’t Wikipedia. Now, don’t get me wrong - I love Wikipedia, too. Whenever I first begin a project I almost always go and overview it through Wikipedia. It’s a great introduction to a subject, also connecting you easily to other related ideas, people and places. But it’s not all you have. Now, put aside the enormous amount of electronic resources your school gives you access to that you never use, this is mostly resources anyone can use (with a couple of notable exceptions). Some even make use of Wikipedia, though not in the usual way. We’ll start with general resources, and then get down to the resources available to a few specific disciplines.

How to use Facebook without Losing Your Job over it

How to use Facebook without Losing Your Job over it � Internet Duct Tape

The potential downside a lot of my friends and acquaintances don’t realize is that Facebook is more like LinkedIn than MySpace and it is “on the radar” of your employers. People have already lost their jobs because of their Facebook activity. Most people don’t think about online privacy concerns like these unless they’ve had a bad experience because of being too free with information.

Avoid Getting Fired by Facebook

How to Avoid Getting Fired by Facebook - lifehack.org

Everything is public. Act as though it is going to be on the front page of the New York Times tomorrow. Facebook just announced that in a matter of a few days or weeks, it will become indexed by the colossal Google search engine. People are now also able to search for listings from the welcome page without first signing up as a member. Welcome to the front page! Beware of what you air in places like Facebook, MySpace or Twitter that have become easily searchable, fairly permanent and highly public.

Joshua Davis Design Troublemaker

Apple - Pro - Profiles - Joshua Davis

Joshua Davis is a design troublemaker. “A lot of printers ask me how I created my work,” he says mischievously. “Because technically, it’s not actually possible.”

cool sketchbook series

sketchbooks - a photoset on Flickr

Taking Notes that Work

Advice for Students: Taking Notes that Work - lifehack.org

Note-taking is one of those skills that rarely gets taught. Teachers and professors assume either that taking good notes comes naturally or that someone else must have already taught students how to take notes. Then we sit around and complain that our students don’t know how to take notes...

Design Opinions

A Brief Message features design opinions expressed in short form—200 words or less.

Understanding Strategic Design

Understanding Strategic Design: An interview with Etienne Fang

A merging of the ability to design and the ability to understand the full and widening arc of the design process is a continually growing aspect of what defines the current role of designers. Everyone from management to production must be involved in and understand the process in order to fully contribute and fully take advantage of its benefits. We’ve come to understand that design and strategy are not in a contentious relationship. Rather, they depend on one another in the realization of successful products, services and brands. From a strategic design perspective designing can be research and research can be designing.

Cool Back to School site for design students

Core77's Hack-2-School Guide

The Ultimate Design Student Guide

Make this Your Best Semester Yet...

Advice for Students: 11 Ways to Make this Your Best Semester Yet - lifehack.org

Right about now, America’s students are heading back to school for the Fall semester. Last week, I gave some very specific advice about using a wiki to store and organize notes, but keeping good notes is just part of being a successful student. Over the weekend, I decided to offer up some more general, all-purpose advice for students. Whether you’re just starting college or returning, the tips below will help you make the most out of the coming school year.

Daily Design Inspiration

The Serif

Your daily dose of design inspiration

Don't miss their blog on redesign challeges:
Redesigners

They also have a Facebook Group:
Facebook | The Serif

Make Ideas Happen

Behance :: Make Ideas Happen

The Behance team develops knowledge, products, and services for the creative professional community.

Our mission is to help creative people and teams make ideas happen. Why? Because we think that life is more interesting (and every industry is advanced) when the ideas in the minds of brilliant creatives actually happen.

Our work is based on the theory of Productive Creativity. The theory reveals a number of critical components for pushing ideas to fruition.

Life Management Tips

How to Work Like the Masters | LifeRemix

So when it comes to life itself, why wouldn't you at least consider what experts think? Trust me, I completely understand that the term 'expert' is often self-proclaimed. Nevertheless, it is up to you to hear, interpret, and evaluate information. What you do with it is ultimately your call.

Cool Project!

Skulking & Schlepping 2007

Type Gone Wild

The Best 80 Photoshop Text Effects on the Web

For some unknown reason, each time we try a new graphics application, we feel the uncontrollable desire to apply the most cheesy effects to beautifully designed typefaces. These so called text effects or type effects are carefully hidden guilty pleasures that most designers enjoy to try, but would never dare to apply in real life work.

For those like me that love text effects and have the courage to admit it, here’s a thorough guide to the best 80 text effects available on the web.

Type in Motion

mediabistro.com: UnBeige

Thanks to Mark Klaverstijn and Roel Wouters, we have a two-parter of the most amazing type-based title sequences known to man, edited together in a lovely non-chronological manner that links them together stylistically.

Graphic Design Students from Across the Pond

Central St Martins BA (Hons) Graphic Design 2007

Most students have a web portfolio link on their name page. Some really good work - check it out.

Data can be beautiful...

Data Visualization: Modern Approaches

Data presentation can be both beautiful, elegant and descriptive. There is a variety of conventional ways to visualize data - tables, histograms, pie charts and bar graphs are being used every day, in every project and on every possible occasion. However, to convey a message to your readers effectively, sometimes you need more than just a simple pie chart of your results. In fact, there are much better, profound, creative and absolutely fascinating ways to visualize data. Many of them might become ubiquitous in the next few years.

So what can we expect? Which innovative ideas are already being used? And what are the most creative approaches to present data in ways we’ve never thought before?

Hourly Rate Calculator

For my graduates doing freelance work, here’s a little tool to help you think about what you could/should be charging for your hourly rate. (Don't forget about the Graphic Artist’s Guild's Pricing and Ethical Guidelines.)

FreelanceSwitch Hourly Rate Calculator

We have developed this hourly rate calculator to give you a guide based on your costs, number of billable hours and desired profit. It is a simple tool for you to play with.

Business Week - Pushing the Boundaries of Design

Pushing the Boundaries of Design

Innovation often arises out of crossing disciplines and combining technologies. That's a focus of our look for the top cutting-edge designers

InDesign's Pathfinder Commands

creativepro.com - Better Than Ginzu Knives: InDesign's Pathfinder Commands

This fun and accessible how-to gives you a grounding in Pathfinder basics, then walks you through two recipe-like formulas for using these tools.

Better Type in Photoshop

creativepro.com - Better Type in Photoshop

Got questions about creating, committing, managing, masking, filtering, or otherwise transforming type in Photoshop? Want quick answer to those questions? I thought so!

Another Job Listing Site

This one is specific to the creative industries. Check it out:
mediabistro.com: Jobs

I have been hearing from quite a few IDD grads that have been successful in the job market. Congratulations! And those of you still looking - don't give up hope - it sometimes takes a while to find the right thing.

How to hire the best people you've ever worked with

OR in your case, I want you to think how this applies to becoming the best person that someone has ever hired...

blog.pmarca.com: How to hire the best people you've ever worked with

Drive is independent of educational experience, grade point averages, and socioeconomic background.

(But Marc, isn't a 4.0 GPA a sure sign of drive? Well, it's a sign that the person is driven to succeed on predefined tests with clear criteria and a grader -- in an environment where the student's parents are often paying a lot of money for the privilege of having their child take the tests. That may or may not be the same thing as being driven to succeed in the real world.)

Graphic Design Forum - Critiques

HOWDesign.com - Design students/professors: How do you critique?

Senior Portfolios

This year’s crop of graduating IDD Majors:

IDD480A

Maria B (no url)

John-Austin C

Kelly D

Matthew H

Lindsay K

Jaclyn L

Claudia L

Rebecca R

IDD480B

Timothy A

Caitlyn C

Matthew K

Patrick K

Jared LS

Ilana LG

Justin LB

Michael M

Jennie M (missing url)

Jean-Patric M

James MC

Stefano S

Jessica S

Cassandra S

Ame U

Alex V

Cool business card designs

Man, I wish this post had been around in February when the seniors were working on their designs....

Cool business card designs | creativebits

You want a new business card, don't you? Of course. This is the most important element of your visual identity. It's the first thing people see when they meet you.

Here is a collection of cool business cards to inspire you. Most of them are from the Business Cards flickr pool, some of them from Ads of the World.

Here’s the Flikr Pool - some good & some not:
business cards - a photoset on Flickr

IDD315 Student Websites

These are the final project websites that the students in Scripting class created to house their ActionScript experiments.

Craig A.

Thomas C.

Matt F.

Mercedes I.


Amanda L.

Claudia L.

Billy M.

Dan S.

Eric W.

What do you wish you'd been told before you left school?

Ask The Readers: What do you wish you'd been told before you left school? - Lifehacker

It's the fair month of May, which means countless graduates will walk across a stage and receive their diploma in the coming weeks. An educator at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics in Hungary writes in:

Some of my students will finish the university this year and leave the dormitory. We've spent 5-6 really fine years together and I'd love to give them some tips before they enter life. What is the thing you wish you'd been told when you just left school?

I could fill a book with things I know now that I wish I knew then, but instead I'm putting the question to you wise lifehackers. Got a life tip to share with graduates everywhere? Share it in the comments - and congratulations, graduates.

6 Month Action Plan

1. Make list of books to read & start reading

2. Target software tutorials (if you don't use it - you lose it)

3. Make new stuff!

4. Update portfolio (& show it off!)

5. Research - whatever interests you...

6. Classes & Workshops - take ‘em

7. Network: with people in the field, attend AIGA meetings & design conferences, look up successful IDD grads (Facebook?)

8. Keep eyes open for new ideas (study design, trends, developments)

9. Get out of yourself… breathe, stretch, meditate, self-care, dance, relax, sing…

10. Keep in touch: with friends & professors

Possible Results from these actions:

-Build confidence
-Stimulate creativity
-Personal growth
-Economic growth (?)

***No matter how long your job search takes, Don’t Let It Get You Down, and Don’t Give Up!!!!***


Thank you for all your hard work and congratulations. I will miss you all.

XXPB

ya gotta tune into zefrank

the show with zefrank

'ugly, designers, myspace, ugly, ugly song, mushy peas, momma, happy birthday becky'

Posters from California Institute of the Arts, Graphic Design Program

EARTHQUAKES & AFTERSHOCKS

The Earthquakes and Aftershocks exhibition is comprised of a selection of 64 silk-screened posters from the archives of California Institute of the Arts, Graphic Design Program, covering a period of 20 years. These striking specimens represent a small sampling of over 1000 unique posters, created by the Program students that reside in a permanent archive housed at CalArts.

Live a More Positive Life

9 Great Ways to Live a More Positive Life

I like finding ways to improve my life and bring more positivity into it. Although I´m just at the beginning of that journey I´ve already found some useful ideas for doing just that. Maybe they can help you too to have more fun, improve your relationships, your business, your health and your life. I hope so.

Paper To Do Lists...

Web Worker Daily – Blog Archive Six More Reasons to Use a Paper To Do List

You’d think the proliferation of webware might make paper to do lists obsolete. For some people, though, no electronic task list can replace the joys of paper and pen. In my almost six months writing for Web Worker Daily, I’ve come across many appealing web-based to do list managers — Gubb and Remember the Milk are two especially nice options — but none that can overcome my commitment to paper to do lists.

Never stop learning...

listeningtowords

Find, listen, and discuss free lectures from around the web.

What to do in college to be successful in your career � Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk

What to do in college to be successful in your career from Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk

For those of you about to start another year at school, here’s a list of things to keep in mind: Twenty things to do in college to set yourself up for a great job when you graduate.

Talent Isn’t Everything

Talent Isn’t Everything

Here’s a common myth: To be a successful creative professional, all you need is talent. It’s a nice myth to believe in. “Talent” suggests a divine or evolutionary genetic gift, so if you’re blessed with the talent gene, you’re special and can be a cool creative person. If not, you’re destined to be an accountant.

After working three years at MetaDesign and since starting my new position at Dubberly Design Office, I’ve noticed this myth of talent has very little to do with the success of a junior designer. Instead, I have found that those who survive and last more than six months practice these seven habits...

Top 10 Portfolio Mistakes

HOWdesign.com - Job Bank - Career Advice

Top 10 Portfolio Faux Pas
by The Creative Group

A well-crafted portfolio can open doors to new jobs and clients. But if you submit a sub-par book, you'll likely find 'no entry' signs at just about every door you knock on. Following are some mistakes that can drive hiring managers a little crazy, especially when they need to find a talented designer quickly. These 10 portfolio faux pas can cause employers to pass on your book and move onto the next one. Avoid these errors, and you'll have an immediate advantage over the competition.

(Thanks for the link Matt H!)

Time Magazine’s Design 100

The Design 100 | TIME

Good design is everywhere these days. Great design—the objects, places and ideas that fuse functionality and aesthetics and then push the boundaries a step further to capture the imagination—is more elusive. Take a look at the standouts.

Doodle Blog

Michael Showalter

I always wanted to be a cartoonist like Charles Schulz or The New Yorker guys, but I never had the patience to draw the same thing twice. Instead, I just doodled in class and didn't pay attention and got crappy grades and pissed off my teachers. These are all doodles from my Filofax. Much of the words refer to appointments and stuff like that.

Good Interview with cartoonist Chris Ware

P.O.V. - Tintin and I . On Cartooning . Chris Ware | PBS

Chris Ware is the author of the award-winning book, Jimmy Corrigan — The Smartest Kid on Earth. He talks about the difficulty of drawing cartoons, and why Tintin never caught on in America.

Scrapblog

Scrapblog // Create a world for your pictures.

1. Create multimedia scrapblogs. It's drag and drop easy!
2. Share your creation with friends, family or the world.
3. KEEP or give your creations as photo books, DVD's, etc.

QUICKCOMIC.COM

Excuse the caps, but that's the way they do things...

QUICKCOMIC.COM

QUICKCOMIC IS POWERED BY VISITORS LIKE YOU. VISIT THE 'CREATE' SECTION TO MAKE COMICS ABOUT THE THINGS YOU LOVE AND THE THINGS YOU HATE, AND SHARE THEM WITH YOUR PALS OR POST THEM ON YOUR BLOG. VIEW THE COMICS CREATED BY YOUR PEERS IN THE 'GALLERY' SECTION; USE THE DROPDOWNS TO SORT THROUGH THEM. COME BACK OFTEN TO SEE THE LATEST QUICKCOMICS!

2007 Webby Award Nominees

Webby Awards:

2007 Webby Nominees Announced. Vote for Your Favorites.

The Nominees and Official Honorees for the 11th Annual Webby Awards have been announced. See them all and vote for your favorite Nominees in the People's Voice until April, 27th

An Amazing Senior Degree Project

Nick Sherman > Senior Degree Project > Introduction

As an alternative to tools currently in use, I proposed to develop a prototype of a new dynamic tool for navigating the universe of typography, which will inherently connect the user with more appropriate typefaces for their needs.

Be sure to check out the other sections of his site - http://www.nicksherman.com/

Putting Your Best Blog Forward

creativepro.com - Putting Your Best Blog Forward

Blogs and podcasts aren't just for blowhards who like to hear themselves talk. Done properly, they can bring potential customers to Web sites -- including your own. Here's how to create them.

A Peek into the Design Process...

On Five: Designs on Dassin

Good design should speak for itself, like a joke. If you have to explain why it works, then it probably doesn’t. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be interesting to see how things come together. In that spirit, designer Eric Skillman offers us a peek behind the curtain at the Criterion Collection art department...

Design Business Blog

BoDo: Business of Design online

BoDo blogs about the business of design including: starting your own design business (online or off); marketing; dealing with clients; working with printers, photographers, copywriters and other surrounding industries; pretty much anything to help a design business grow.

motion design research blog

motion design

This is a research blog on the subject of Motion Design. It serves as a means to discuss, share and develop ideas that will be used for a feature length documentary film.

Monument to Design Plagiarism

Plagiarize This!

A new museum near Cologne houses a collection of the most egregious examples of counterfeit goods

On Apr. 1, a new museum of counterfeit goods opens in the German city of Solingen, near Cologne. The Museum Plagiarius, housed in a converted railway building, will permanently exhibit 300 original products together with seemingly identical rip-offs.

How to stifle your creativity in 10 easy steps - lifehack.org

nuff said... How to stifle your creativity in 10 easy steps - lifehack.org

Podcast interview with Adrian Shaughnessy

wodcast.org : Adrian Shaughnessy

Adrian Shaughnessy is a designer, writer and editor. His current agency, This is Real Art, brings the roster format to the design agency world, and amongst his current books, How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul tops the design bestsellers lists. This discussion covers globalisation, shared design experiences and the future of visual design in the digital music era. It took place in Glasgow, March 2007.

Graphic Designer or Communication Designer?

Speak Up › Untitled

I have a friend—a designer—who often says that his clients ask him not to call himself a “graphic designer,” because it makes them think he draws things. He feels that the term “graphic design” actually does him a disservice in the eyes of his clients. This of course is part of an ongoing debate in the world of design as organizations and schools scrap the word “graphic” in favour of “communication” or something else. But as those former graphic designers struggle to elbow their way into the corporate zeitgeist, I begin to wonder what they are leaving behind and why.

you are what you pretend to be

The gentle art of selling yourself

You are your own finest creation, says our design critic, Stephen Bayley. Here are his tips for making the best possible impression.

Adaptive Path on Design School

Design Schools: Please Start Teaching Design Again

This isn’t to say that we’re looking for glossy stylists either: we want designers who create thoughtful, meaningful designs: designs that pay attention to details, and have emotion and craft in them, as well as reason and cleverness. The world desperately needs those designers. Start making them again.

Great Web Development Inspiration

south by southwest festivals conferences

We are pleased to reveal the 10th Annual Web Awards Winners below. Don't forget to explore all the amazing finalists from the 2007 competition.

Stop double spacing after sentences!

Word Wise: Spaced Out

The practice of double spacing after a period is a holdover from the days when typewriters had “monofaced” type, meaning fonts in which every letter had exactly the same width (in other words, “m” used the same amount of space as “i”). Because of the monoface font, two spaces after a period made it easier to see where one sentence ended and another began.

I Am Not A Graphic Designer

We’re Not Wired Right – I Am Not A Graphic Designer

“The borders between graphic design and its associated creative disciplines have been blurring for some time. The discipline is currently in a state of flux. This is due in part to the computer revolution and the multimedia phenomenon, but mainly to a changing attitude towards design itself. Design is now referred to holistically. Multi-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary practise is growing.”

Thoughts on Portfolios

Be sure to read the comments on this post for an interesting discussion on what people choose to put in their portfolios and what people want to see in portfolios.

Speak Up › Thoughts on Portfolios from Someone Making One

I am finding out, in the advertising world at least, there are two divergent schools of thought on what should go in a book. “Creative firms,” like Wieden, don’t necessarily want to see a book of real/fake ads. They want to see more of who you are, what your point of view is. The overall question then, is “what do you dig?” Painting? Dirty poetry? Film reviews? Home movies? Whatever can get across that which makes you a special human, they are interested in seeing.

19 Things NOT To Do When Building a Website

Josiah Cole = 19 Things NOT To Do When Building a Website

Art Directors Club Awards

ADC 85th Annual Awards

Cool Photo to Painting Technique

creativepro.com - Photoshop How-To: Brushstroke Bonanza

The inspiration for my watercolor-conversion technique, which my company uses for standalone wall art and as storyboard introductory material in our event videos, comes from two intriguing personalities: Karl Lagerfled's hand-colored fashion sketches for the House of Chanel metamorphose on the screen into breathing models, glamorously enfolded in texture and shimmering fabric. Celebrity interior designer Candice Olson fades her precision architectural renderings into finished interiors with the new furniture, lighting, and accessories all magically in place.

Students & Portfolios

Be sure to read the comments to the post:

Student Economics

As a student, I was very lucky. I was charmed by circumstance and financial support: I could not work while in school, as there was no visa that would allow me to do both, and my parents were okay with that. Many, if not most, of my classmates were not as lucky, piling daily expenses on yearly loans. As a teacher, I am lucky again: I am surrounded by students that range in every aspect possible, giving me and the class a deliciously rich experience.

Forget the film, watch the titles

Forget the film, watch the titles

You know what they say about first impressions. That’s why both Hollywood and independent studios are spending valuable time and resources to create the most appropriate main title sequences for their films. At its very best, a title sequence is a self-contained hybrid that combines several moving image techniques – film, animation, cgi – to compress the essence of the film it introduces.

On SubmarineChannel, we love a good main title. That's why we've started an online collection of the most stunning and original ones. Some are engaging or wildly entertaining, funny, exhilarating or deadly beautiful. Some are oozing with visual treats while others hit you hard with their bold and audacious style.

A Very Cool Game

Ambrosia Software, Inc. -- games/SketchFighter 4000 alpha

SketchFighter 4000 Alpha redefines "retro" by bringing together the imaginative pen and paper sketches from your youth with a killer resolution independent OpenGL graphics engine. SketchFighter also boasts a unique synthesis of exploration and action game play, which has you alternately blasting cute little lady bugs into oblivion and then puzzling your way through the hand-drawn challenges presented to you.

Need dummy text for your project layout?

Lorem Ipsum - All the facts - Lipsum generator

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

Design VS Software

A good article from the AIGA Education section:

Software Equals Interactive Design Education?

When it comes to learning software, students can be divided into two categories: self-reliant and instructor-dependent. The self-reliant student will dabble, toy, and experiment until they reach some level of mastery with the given tools; peers will rely on them for help either during or outside the class. Oftentimes the instructor even looks to these students for technical assistance, and moreover, the self-reliant student is the model teacher’s assistant. On the other hand, instructor-dependent students feel the teacher must direct them in times of need, and when instructors continue to help students with even the smallest problems, they will hinder the student’s growth because this prevents them from exploring and troubleshooting on their own. For designers, the willingness to discover and take risks is a valuable asset that mirrors the design process itself. Play yields inquiry, forcing one to ask questions about the matters at hand and then observe, act, and react in order to reach an objective.

New AIGA site design

AIGA

AIGA, the professional association for design, is the place design professionals turn to first to exchange ideas and information, participate in critical analysis and research and advance education and ethical practice. AIGA sets the national agenda for the role of design in its economic, social, political, cultural and creative contexts. AIGA is the oldest and largest membership association for professionals engaged in the discipline, practice and culture of designing. Founded as the American Institute of Graphic Arts in 1914 as a small, exclusive club, AIGA now represents more than 19,000 designers through national activities and local programs developed by more than 55 chapters and 200 student groups.

They have a great section on design education:

Design education: Education: AIGA

A collection of articles exploring burning questions, old prejudices, new ideas and truisms in design education. How do students learn? Are mandatory computer buys a good idea? Does writing have a role in a studio design class? How can programs attract and train strong adjunct faculty? Should a design education prepare students for a career in the field or teach a more general way of thinking? What kind of design research is tenurable? How should technology be integrated into the classroom? What should design students know?

More Blogs for Design Students

Notes on Design

Inspired

Inspired

At last! A book that actually gets inside the heads of the world’s top creatives and reveals some of the things that make them tick. Questions addressed include: What inspires them? What thought processes do they employ? How do they go about their work? How do they create a working environment in which ideas can be easily generated. Inspiration talks to 40 top European creatives from a wide range of design disciplines including art direction, fashion design, architecture and photography and looks at the atmospheres in which they operate. All are different, all use different approaches and all are highly successful. Inspiration is a process oriented source book that includes excerpts from scrapbooks and notebooks, and an interesting array of doodles.

Design Book Review

creativepro.com - The Art of Business: The Bold and the Beautiful

Two Design Books Take Completely Different Tacks, but Both Are Winners.

Successful Resume tips

Rands In Repose: A Glimpse and a Hook

The terrifying reality regarding your resume is that for all the many hours you put into fine-tuning, you've got 30 seconds to make an impression on me. Maybe less.

It's unfair, it's imprecise, and there's a good chance that I make horrible mistakes, but there's a lot more of you than me, and while hiring phenomenal teams is the most important thing I do, I'm balancing that task with the fact that I need to build product and manage the endless stream of people walking into my office.

But here's a glimpse. I'm going to walk through the exact mental process I use when I look at a resume. I don't know if this is right or efficient, but after fifteen years and staring at thousands of resumes, this is the process.

Eye & Brain Candy

Welcome to Foreign Office

Just can't get enough design courses?

Sign up for guest lectures, design history and graduate thesis podcasts from the School of Visual Arts in NY.

SVA Podcast Series

Photoshop How-To

creativepro.com - Photoshop How-To: Easier Transformations

Three short videos show you better ways to straighten crooked images, crop and straighten photos automatically, and correct perspective with the Crop tool.

Sound effects search resource

FindSounds - Sound Types

Taking care of your brain...

22 Ways To Overclock Your Brain at Ririan Project

The brain is a three-pound supercomputer. It is the command and control center running your life. It is involved in absolutely everything you do. Your brain determines how you think, how you feel, how you act, and how well you get along with other people. Your brain even determines the kind of person you are. It determines how thoughtful you are; how polite or how rude you are. It determines how well you think on your feet, and it is involved with how well you do at work and with your family. Your brain also influences your emotional well being and how well you do with the opposite sex.

Online Scrapbook Site

Welcome to Flip.com | Make Flipbooks | Make Friends

Definitely aimed at girls. Check it out - pretty cool site. Will it catch on?

Interesting Vector Project

Introduction: The Shapes Project | Allan McCollum

Working over the past few years, I've designed a new system to produce unique two-dimensional "shapes." This system allows me to make enough unique shapes for every person on the planet to have one of their own. It also allows me to keep track of the shapes, so as to insure that no two will ever be alike.

Interview with the Co-Founders of MySpace

SPIEGEL Interview with the Co-Founders of MySpace: "We Have Replaced MTV" - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

SPIEGEL: Mr. Anderson and Mr. DeWolfe, how many friends do you have?

Anderson: I think there are about 140 million right now on my MySpace profile.

SPIEGEL: And in the real world?

Anderson: In person I don't have that many friends. I'm a pretty tight-knit guy with the people that I know. Offline, I have no more than four or five friends.

On Design & Writing (again)

creativepro.com - You Can't Dance and Drive a Race Car at the Same Time...

But you can tap your toe while you're driving in traffic. An innovative company demonstrates that writing and designing simultaneously improves both aspects of the final product.

Instructables: step-by-step collaboration

You are going to love Instructables: step-by-step collaboration, but I found this little gem that will make you smile and maybe even help you out.

How to Get Good Grades

Improving your grades requires three things: Your teacher's good will, your work, and good timing. Okay, just the first two.

During this instructable I will teach you how get on your teacher's good side and stay there. I'll teach you how to choose courses you are most likely to get good grades in, what NOT to do, and why this instructable will work for you. I'll also dispell some myths about good grades. In short, I'll tell you how to raise your GPA.

Font based on “Snake”

Alex Robbins – Font based on the mobile phone game, Snake

Lovely Hand Drawn Valentines

Marian Bantjes: 150 Valentines

For 3 years now I’ve adopted Valentine’s Day as my time to make contact with people. This year I got the crazy idea to draw each one by hand. I liked the idea that each person would get something unique, with their name on it, but that there would be a larger whole that they would also be part of. It did require that I brutally slash my mailing list, but I made sure that everyone on the list knows me (although I haven’t met them all): most of the people are somewhere between friendly and friend to me. I intended to do 125, but as I remembered people I’d left out, it grew to 150.

Social Networking Site for Design Students

designerID > designers

Launched February 2006, designerID.com is a web-based, virtual design community serving designers, design students and schools, organizations and suppliers. It provides members with an easy-to-use way to stay in touch with fellow designers and an easy-to-search design library.

How to create a vintage-look photo

creativepro.com - Vintage Photoshop How-To: Part 1

Nothing can conjure a certain mood like a hand-tinted photograph with the soft scratches and spots that come with age. Unless you have the time to paw through every photo bin in an antiques store to find just the right image, try this Photoshop tutorial on creating a vintage look.

The Best in Newspaper Design

San Francisco Chronicle:: Best Front Newspaper Design

Today's BFD goes to the San Francisco Chronicle, which led with the mayor's mea culpa.

This page succeeds in obvious ways and one not-so-obvious way. The lead headline serves as an "umbrella" to organize all the related content. It also conveys the emotion-laden nature of the story and clearly communicates its message. Secondary headlines quickly speak to the salient issues.

Most pictures get their pop from large image size, but this page does something unusual: using small image size to tell the story. The face of the mayor is the tiniest on the page – smaller than any other, even in the promos. He is dwarfed by the media and diminished by his act – which speaks volumes. It's story-telling by cropping.

Another Excellent Senior Blog

Lindsay K.'s

It’s here, IDD 480: Senior Seminar and Portfolio. I’m not going to lie, I’m a little frightened. Creating a digital portfolio with all the work I’ve done throughout my Quinnipiac career is a scary thought. But I am most definitely excited.

Excellent Senior Blog Example

WOAH IT'S: JAX'S BLOG '07

The first thing that I immediately related to was what Cynthia Baron said about job description titles. When writing my resume I ran into this same problem. Do I call myself a graphic artist? Digital designer? Graphic designer? Animator?

Keep Your Data Body Clean!

Reference Check: You Are Who Google Says You Are - lifehack.org

The internet and its search engines have become so powerful, available and user-friendly that your reputation is becoming defined by what the first 3 pages of yahoo or google search hits turns up. Forget about personal and professional references for making a first impression because the internet search gets done before that.

Tips for Your Term Paper

57 Tips for Writing Your Term Paper - DegreeTutor.com

So you're in college, maybe for the first time, or maybe returning after an absence. You want to do well in your courses, right? What serious student doesn't? But so many students feel lost it when it comes to effective study techniques, especially when it comes to the dreaded term paper. You know the kind: the ones assigned on the first day and due close to the last; the ones you feel intimidated by and want to ignore as much as possible.

The Design Disease

Catch it!

Noisy Decent Graphics: The Design Disease

I love my job. Absolutely love it. Not many people can say that, but then not many people get to do their hobby for a living. Ever since I was 13 I wanted to be a graphic designer (technically my school library careers guidebook called it an advertising artist, but hey) and ever since I was 13 I pretty much knew what I had to do to get there. It's not just me, I have friends who thought like that too.

Essential Graphic Design Book List

If you are serious about becoming a designer, this list is a place to start collecting and reading for your career.

PingMag - The Tokyo-based magazine about "Design and Making Things" � Archive � Toward Design Literacy: Essential Graphic Design Literature

I was urged to read certain books on graphic design during my undergraduate education, but it wasn’t until I had a few years of work under my belt and was attending graduate school at CalArts that I was able to really appreciate much writing about design...

Two Weeks to Academic Success

Just in time for the first week of classes!
Two Weeks to Academic Success - lifehack.org

Whether you’re currently in school, thinking of going back to school, or thinking of completing some industry-specific learning courses to help advance your career, it will be necessary for you to get your mindset back into “learning mode.” Gary North, PH.D. created a fifteen lesson (one per day) training plan to help you get mentally geared up. The following are links to the fifteen sessions. Even if you’re not completing all fifteen, I think there is some fantastic information in the sessions on their own...

Dreamweaver CSS

creativepro.com - Meet Dreamweaver 8's CSS Tools

You can create a style sheet for a single page, a set of pages, or an entire site. Dreamweaver gives you several points of entry into CSS style sheet creation, but the easiest way is to create an embedded style sheet and then transform it into an external style sheet, which you can link to any page you want.

Using Handmade Elements in Graphic Design

Amazon.com: Fingerprint: The Art of Using Handmade Elements in Graphic Design: Books: Chen Design Associates,Michael Mabry

Design is at a turning point. Our infatuation with--and the backlash against--technology is over. Today's best designers have learned to embrace its advantages and think beyond its limitations by combining the power of the computer with the tactile qualities of handmade elements.

Design & Writing #2

Designers who Blog: Design, Illustration, Photography, Web, Advertising, Branding …

Classic branding and marketing favors specialization. According to the conventional wisdom, the narrower you define your area of expertise, the higher the perceived value of your expertise.

But, in practice, conventional wisdom creates serious limitations. In actuality, designers who are able to write enjoy a major advantage over their competition. Being able to write as well as design offers graphic designers numerous practical and profitable dividends.

Design & Writing #1

HOWdesign.com - Design & Creativity

It's a strange paradox: So many designers whose work speaks so fluently in images flee in terror when called upon to communicate with the written word. After all, designers are nothing if not communicators, and communication is most fully realized when image and word unite.

Motion Graphics Resource

Forget the film, watch the titles

You know what they say about first impressions. That’s why both Hollywood and independent studios are spending time and resources to create the most appropriate main title sequences for their films. At its very best, a title sequence is a self-contained hybrid that combines multiple media – motion graphics, film, animation, cgi – to compress the essence of the film it introduces.

Great Article on Design Prototyping

Creating Passionate Users: Don't make the Demo look Done

When we show a work-in-progress (like an alpha release) to the public, press, a client, or boss... we're setting their expectations. And we can do it one of three ways: dazzle them with a polished mock-up, show them something that matches the reality of the project status, or stress them out by showing almost nothing and asking them to take it 'on faith' that you're on track.

The bottom line:
How 'done' something looks should match how 'done' something is.

Great Reference for Visualization Methods

A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods

Cliche Finder

Before you hand in that next paper or post to the class blog run it through the Cliche Finder.

Stress Reducers

52 Proven Stress Reducers - American Lung Association site

1. Get up fifteen minutes earlier in the morning. The inevitable morning mishaps will be less stressful.

2. Prepare for the morning the evening before. Set the breakfast table. Make lunches. Put out the clothes you plan to wear, etc.

3. Don't rely on your memory. Write down appointment times, when to pick up the laundry, when library books are due, etc. ("The palest ink is better than the most retentive memory."- Old Chinese Proverb)...

Secrets of Successful Creatives

The Art of Business: The Secrets of Sustaining Success

Starting a business is easy. Sustaining it is hard. Here's what successful creative professionals say about what makes them stay successful.

Evolution of Speechballoons

Fascinating visual history:

Evolution of Speechballoons

During the 18th century, British caricaturists changed the shape of speechballoons from gothic speech-bands or flags into fluffy balloons, our modern speechballoons.

Photoshop Image Adjustment

creativepro.com - Photoshop Fundamentals

You can do some far-out stuff with Photoshop (hello, Liquify Filter!), but image adjustment is the program's bread and butter. Here's how to fix common photo problems.

Do you ever work with images that are flat, washed out, too dark, or have a bad color cast? You don't have to accept those failings. Instead, try a few basic steps to bring them back to life.