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.