Design is in the details...

A Portrait of the Designer: Child’s Play

You would think that something like letterhead or business cards would be so simple that anybody could design it. After all, it’s just an application of the client’s logo and contact information onto a blank canvas. When I would bring my first round of comps to Lisa, however, she would immediately point out details that I have never before considered. Direct but patient, she indicated inconsistencies in the spacing of elements and half-point differences in type size that rendered my work inelegant.

In a great article about the importance of detail, Naz Hamid argues, “It’s a phrase you hear often: design is in the details. With design, paying attention to small details—and in some cases, obsessively focusing on ‘what isn’t right’ — can take a design from ‘nearly there’ to ‘there’ and beyond.” Paula tells me that this specificity is the basis for craft — what makes Pentagram Pentagram.

Inspirational Typography Resources

42 Amazing Resources for Inspirational Typography: Speckyboy Design Magazine

There are many theories to what constitutes good typography, its not as simple as choosing an appropriate font and setting it in the style of a particular project, that would be too easy. Theories and tutorials are one thing, putting typography into perfect practice is another, and is perhaps the hardest part of any design. Every designer you ask will give you a different answer to what constitutes good type, where is the benchmark?

PutItOn.com

PutItOn.com - Home to the World's Undiscovered Artists

* 1 gigabyte of space for your portfolio
* No transaction charge when selling your work
* Ability to stream audio/video works in their entirety
* Live personal broadcasts to your followers
* Translation of your words into 10 global languages
* And many more robust portfolio management features"

An Open Letter to Design Students Everywhere

A must read for all my IDD Majors:

Design Observer: An Open Letter to Design Students Everywhere

With structure comes freedom. And freedom, let’s not forget, is what education is all about. It is a great time to be a student. Go out and make great things, things that help us, inform us, enlighten and change and impact the world in millions of meaningful and glorious ways. Your education will not end the day you graduate: on the contrary, what you're doing is learning how to learn, and how to think, and how to visualize the ideas that percolate in your brain. So here's what you do: never stop thinking. Never stop asking questions. Never, never stop reading, looking, imagining what else can be done. And don’t be afraid to start small. You’ll get there, eventually. And when you do? Send somebody a thank you note.

Lots of Inspiration

Fast Company: 100 Most Creative People in Business

“There are no rules about creativity. Which made constructing our list of the 100 Most Creative People in Business a tricky task. We looked for dazzling new thinkers, rising stars, and boldface names who couldn't be ignored. We avoided people we've profiled in the recent past. We emphasized those whose creativity addresses a larger issue -- from the future of our energy infrastructure to the evolution of philanthropy to next-generation media. So read on. Enjoy. Quibble. Complain.”

Business Design: The curriculum of 2012

“In the near future, I believe that you'll be able to get an advanced degree in Business Design.
Some programs like the d.school (a formative experience for me) and Rotman are playing with this idea, but I don't think these programs really nail it yet.
The educational experience would be applied and pragmatic. Classes would be harder than fluid dynamics (ok maybe not, but close). As a student you would feel as inspired and challenged as you would in the most advanced studio art class. Theory alone wouldn't cut it. If you didn't do something practical by the end of the term in each class, you would fail. We would get things done.”

GOOD Transparencies Archive

“An archive of Transparencies that have run in our past issues and online at www.good.is”