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.

2006 Best 50 hacks for your Life

2006 LifeHack Review: Best 50 hacks for your Life - lifehack.org

I’ve selected the best 50 life hacks of the year, based on their popularity and contents in different categories. Invest your time - read them. Bookmark this page and mark reading them as one of your new year resolutions.

Design Tips: Logo Inspiration

creativepro.com - Design Tips: Logo Inspiration

Design legend Malcom Grear reveals how to create memorable logos. The many examples are sure to spark your own creativity.

Top 50 Music Videos Of 2006

DoCopenhagen: Top 50 Music Videos Of 2006

Here we go again... Our top 50 videos of 2005 was a huge success. This year we decided to do things a little bit differently. All the videos are from You Tube and can therefore be watched in the browser. If you want to download the videos to your computer and watch it on your ipod or TV we recommend that you use this download tool from Lifehacker.com

Digital Photography Tips

creativepro.com - Photo Recipes to Help You Get "The Shot"

Even if you're not an expert photographer, you can whip up incredible images. A few simple ingredients make it happen.

Another Color Palette Generator

Another handy web color tool:
Color Blender

Pick a color value format, input two valid CSS color values in the format you chose, and pick the number of midpoints you'd like to see. The palette will show the colors you input as well as the requested number of midpoint colors, and the values of those colors.

Pure Design Inspiration

Speak Up: High Priority Contest

These are the entries received for the November 2006 contest to design New York magazine’s “High Priority” feature for their year-end double issue.

Granularity for students - lifehack.org

Granularity for students - lifehack.org

Granularity is a tremendously useful strategy for students. The typical spiral-bound student-planner doesn’t seem to encourage it; that tool is often little more than a place to store due dates: “research paper due.” But no one can just write a research paper. That paper can only be the result of numerous small-scale tasks. It’s not surprising that students who think of “write research paper” as one monolithic task are likely to put it off far longer than they ought to. Instead of “write research paper,” one could think of these tasks: go to library to look up sources; organize them by call number; read first three sources and take notes; get article from JSTOR; read remaining three sources and take notes; organize notes on computer; check bibliography format; ask professor about endnote form; make rough outline; and so on. Each of these “granular” tasks is far more do-able than “write research paper.” Thinking of work in terms of granularity can be one way to overcome the overwhelming dread of getting started. And keeping track of such tasks on paper and crossing them off one by one gives the satisfaction making progress and getting closer to done.

77 Ways to Learn Faster, Deeper, and Better

Hacking Knowledge: 77 Ways to Learn Faster, Deeper, and Better | OEDb

If someone granted you one wish, what do you imagine you would want out of life that you haven't gotten yet? For many people, it would be self-improvement and knowledge. New knowledge is the backbone of society's progress. Great thinkers such as Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, and others' quests for knowledge have led society to many of the marvels we enjoy today. Your quest for knowledge doesn't have to be as Earth-changing as Einstein's, but it can be an important part of your life, leading to a new job, better pay, a new hobby, or simply knowledge for knowledge's sake — whatever is important to you as an end goal.

Color Palette Generator from Adobe Labs

kuler

You need Flash Player 9 for this fabulous site.

Design Life Now Exhibition

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum | National Design Triennial: Design Life Now

The third Triennial brings together the experimental designs and emerging ideas—including animation, new media, and fashion, robotics, architecture, product, medical, and graphic design—at the center of American culture from 2003 to 2006.

Life 2.0: The little book of Flow

Life 2.0: The little book of Flow - revised

The premise of this essay is that those exquisite but all too rare moments when we experience 'flow', when we are truly creative, happy and intuitively know exactly what is needed, are simply those instances when we glimpse our original and true nature. It sets out to show how, instead of trying to fathom the conditions for flow, we can realise this 'true nature' and make 'flow' our normal way of being, wherever we are and in whatever we do.

Design Tips: The Power of Grids

creativepro.com - Design Tips: The Power of Grids

Grids can bring valuable consistency to your print and Web layouts. Find out when to rely on grids and when to ignore them, then put theory into practice with tips for using grids in Adobe InDesign.

Coroflot's 2006 Design Salary Survey

coroflot.com - Coroflot's 2006 Design Salary Survey

Global Aesthetic-Practice Estimate
2979 respondents from 64 countries reporting $158,480,126 in wages earned in the fields of Design Management, Graphic Design, Industrial Design, Interactive Design / Web Design, Interior Design and for the first time, Architecture and Fashion Design

50 Essential Bookmarks

Communication Arts: Resources

We asked six designers, each with a unique voice and perspective, to share a list of sites they consider to be vital to their work. Due to space limitations, we only included the sites not already listed in "50 Essential Bookmarks.”

Get Smarter

Believing You Can Get Smarter Makes You Smarter

Thinking about intelligence as changeable and malleable, rather than stable and fixed, results in greater academic achievement, especially for people whose groups bear the burden of negative stereotypes about their intelligence.

Photoshop 411

creativepro.com - Dr. Phil for Photoshop

All relationships are complex, but there's nothing more confusing than the complicated relationship between megapixels, file size, image size, and print size. Julieanne Kost and Daniel Brown explain the difference and advise you on the best sizes for scanning, printing (for both a desktop printer and a press), slideshows, and Web sites.

how to be interesting...

russell davies: how to be interesting

...the core skill of any future creative business person will be 'being interesting'. People will employ and want to work with (and want to be with) interesting people.

Pictures of designers working with their hands not computers!

Basics in Design - Basel School of Design

The Basel School of Design invites students, professionals, and teachers to apply for study in the famous foundation programme, the “Vorkurs”, for either
one or two semesters, and to concentrate on the main
topics in process-oriented and form-oriented basic
design work.

Fun Font Game

FontBook: Digital Typeface Compendium from FontShop

Choose Pummel and ”Fight the FontBook“

FontBook is a type encyclopedia with an abundance of carefully researched notes on type designers, year of publication, similar fonts, and additional language versions.

Inspiration for designers & students

Incomplete Manifesto - Bruce Mau Design

4. Love your experiments (as you would an ugly child). Joy is the engine of growth. Exploit the liberty in casting your work as beautiful experiments, iterations, attempts, trials, and errors. Take the long view and allow yourself the fun of failure every day.

Design How-To: Modular Design

creativepro.com - Design How-To: Use Lego-Like Modules

Want a simple format that's useful when designing everything from postcards to Web pages? Use snap-together modules that provide endless variety.

Thinking like a Genius

Thinking like a Genius

"Even if you're not a genius, you can use the same strategies as Aristotle and Einstein to harness the power of your creative mind and better manage your future."

The following eight strategies encourage you to think productively, rather than reproductively, in order to arrive at solutions to problems. "These strategies are common to the thinking styles of creative geniuses in science, art, and industry throughout history."

Career Advice for Designers

HOWdesign.com - Job Bank - Career Advice

A designer's personal qualities outweigh technical skills every time. Recent grads, take note: The intangibles have a very real value to employers, colleagues and clients.

Information Architects & Typography

Information Architects Japan � Blog Archive � Web Design is 95% Typography (1)

95% of the information on the web is written language. It is only logical to say that a web designer should get good training in the main discipline of shaping written information, in other words: Typography.

From consumer consciousness to a new vision for industry...

WorldChanging

Worldchanging: A Users Guide for the 21st Century is a groundbreaking compendium of the most innovative solutions, ideas and inventions emerging today for building a sustainable, livable, prosperous future.