Fostering Innovation

Pixar’s Brad Bird on Fostering Innovation - GigaOM

This week The McKinsey Quaterly asks: what does stimulating the creativity of animators have in common with developing new product ideas or technology breakthroughs? Apparently, a lot.

I especially appreciated this part (as you can imagine):

Brad Bird: I got everybody in a room. This was different from what the previous guy had done; he had reviewed the work in private, generated notes, and sent them to the person… I said, “Look, this is a young team. As individual animators, we all have different strengths and weaknesses, but if we can interconnect all our strengths, we are collectively the greatest animator on earth. So I want you guys to speak up and drop your drawers. We’re going to look at your scenes in front of everybody. Everyone will get humiliated and encouraged together…

More Portfolios!

Steve Badowski - Graphic Design

ChrisYerkes.com � About/Contact Me

TJ Centanni > Portfolio

Carl Will Work for Pie

Jennifer!

and another...

Katherine Bellando Portfolio Site

Coming in a fast third...

lauren aufderheide

2nd Place in the race to finish

Krys' design portfolio

First Finished IDD Portfolio!

Matt comes in first in the great race to graduation. Yay!

matt/furtado

Flickr: The international graphic design Pool

Take a swim - it will be inspiring.

Flickr: The international graphic design Pool

For my IDD seniors about to graduate

I think you may need a few smiles this weekend. Design Coding by m0serious. Enjoy.

Designer Portfolios

Design Meltdown � Designer Portfolios

Designing your own portfolio is probably the most frustrating thing in the world. Everyone I talk to starts over multiple times. I restarted mine at least 5 times before settling in on the current design. Which I am of course not nearly satisfied with. Clearly it is our connection to our own work that clouds our judgment. Most designers who I have talked to about their frustration with their portfolio seems silly. Usually the portfolio looks fantastic, it is just the individual that sees it in a way no one else does.

Building Your Portfolio Website

Building Your Portfolio Website: Six Things to Always Do

So by now perhaps you've read through last week's advice column on how to keep from making the most common mistakes when creating your online portfolio (and perhaps you've written in to say how horrified you are that coroflot would suggest using a template, rather than building the whole thing from scratch -- that's fair, there are some good arguments on both sides). Assuming you've decided to make the leap and start publishing your work, whether through a template, a custom-designed site, a hacked blog, or something else of your own (hopefully low-Flash) design, there are a few additional suggestions that have cropped up since then from an array of sources.

Your Individual Development Plan

Your Individual Development Plan - Lifehack.org

Where do you want to be in 5 years?

This question is one of the lynchpins of the personal development field. It’s usually followed by instructions to visualize yourself having achieved those goals, and maybe an admonishment to ask yourself if what you’re doing now will get you there.

None of this is hard. What is hard, though, is making a plan that will get you there, once you cut out all the stuff that won’t. It’s fairly easy to figure out the steps you need to take for a big project, even one that spans several years. It’s harder to plan for big life goals — things like becoming better at your job, spending more time with your family, getting more organized.

Footers In Modern Web Design

Footers In Modern Web Design: Creative Examples and Ideas | Design Showcase | Smashing Magazine

According to classic principles of web design, everything at the bottom of the page isn’t that important. Most users think like that. And most designers are convinced that this is true. Site elements at the bottom of the page aren’t really able to catch visitors’ attention which is why footers are often forgotten or ignored and not given the attention they deserve.

Mid Century Modern Design Inspiration

Flickr: The Mid Century Modern - Sticker, Label Stamp Club Pool

Package Design Blog

TheDieline.com: The Leading Package Design Blog

TheDieline.com was founded by Andrew Gibbs, a senior packaging designer in Southern California. “I started The Dieline because as a packaging designer, I wanted a resource where I could go to see the latest design trends and styles. When he realized something like that didn’t exist, The Dieline was born.” The Dieline was launched in January of 2007, and has quickly become the web’s leading packaging design blog. “Product packaging not only secures and protects a product, it is the direct link between the brand and the consumer. It is what determines if a product will be a success or failure. Packaging plays a pivotal role in influencing a consumer’s perception of the brand and product.” TheDieline.com defines good packaging and is the ultimate resource for packaging designers in the field.

Designing with type characters

Techniques for designing with type characters ~ Authentic Boredom

After weeks of code speak, let’s totally shift gears and talk exclusively about visual design in all its splendor and beauty.

Typography and typefaces, without a doubt, are two of the most fascinating aspects of visual design. Great designers can execute great designs with typefaces and nothing else, if required, and certainly if preferred. Design legends Saul Bass and Paula Scher have proved this many times over, and they comprise only a fraction of a very long list of luminaries who can wield type brilliantly.

Fabulous Design Internship

2008/2009 Walker Art Center Design Fellowship

Since 1980, the Walker Art Center Design department has maintained a graphic design fellowship program that provides recent graduates (both undergrad and grad) the opportunity to work in a professional design studio environment. Selected from a highly competitive pool of applicants, fellows represent a diverse range of graphic design programs, such as Art Center College of Design, California College of Art, California Institute of the Arts, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Eastern Michigan University, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, NC State University, Rhode Island School of Design, Royal College of Art, Werkplaats Typografie, and Yale University, among many others.

Another Film/TV Titles Blog

The Art of the Title Sequence -

Helpful Illustrator How-to

Illustrator How-to: This Technique is a Real Knockout | CreativePro.com

My friend at Nike was struggling to create double stitching. Knowing how often apparel designs change, and how newer designs evolve from existing designs, it becomes increasingly important to work with objects that can easily be edited. If you had to draw two paths to simulate a double-stitched line, that would make it twice as more difficult to make edits.

Portfolio Website: Six Things to Never Do

Coroflot - Coroflot's Creative Seeds Blog

So, you've got a corefolio posted; you've put together a nice PDF sampler; you've printed out a gorgeous little book to take to interviews. You're working your networks, both real and virtual, and so far...not much. Potential employers are looking over your work, and maybe they like what they see, but somehow this isn't translating into more gigs, or that one crucial interview.

Why do I make you blog?

Here are some of the reasons in a wonderful article by Henry Jenkins, Director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program:
Confessions of an Aca/Fan: Why Academics Should Blog...

Current students. By design, students in our program come from many professional and disciplinary backgrounds, and will follow many career paths after they graduate. Early on, several students began to create blogs around their thesis projects -- in part to motivate them to write regularly, in part to get feedback on their ideas. Ilya Vedrashko, for example, started a blog called the Future of Advertising, which quickly became a favorite among industry insiders and reporters. The blog's visibility opened up new contacts and resources, which supported his research. Before long, he was also being courted by some of those companies for postgraduation jobs. Eventually, a major company created a position specifically for him.

Great Illustration How-To

This is How We Do.

A documentation of illustrative process of Frank Chimero in 16 easy steps.

Modern products made to look vintage

Worth1000.com | Photoshop Contests | Are you Worthy™ | contest

The rules of this game are thus: Take modern products and advertise them in a vintage way, or take vintage products and advertise them in a modern way. As always, quality is a must. We will remove poor entries no matter how much we like you. You'll have 48 hours for this contest, so make your submissions count.

Designer Manifestos

<img src='img/menubarDA1.gif' alt='header file' /> Manifestos, etc. | design activism

If you need evidence that designers are struggling with the questions of activism and becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the way the profession engages is social and environmental issues, you need look no further than a spate of recent manifestos, etc. Although some of them are discipline-specific, many are not, and they are not institutionally specific. That is, they speak to the broad population of their audience, whether across disciplines or within a discipline. Often adopting the language of politics–revolution, even– these texts urge designers to take more action for social and environmental good. Here are some examples, arranged in a timeline.

Louise Fili creates a restaurant's brand

A Logo Is Worth 1,000 Words - Best of Buzz - Zagat Survey

Learn how Louise Fili creates a restaurant's brand from the logo to the bill.

Chip Kidd Interview

Chip Kidd by Robert Birnbaum - The Morning News

The estimable Chip Kidd, designer of books’ fronts, backs, and spines, chats with our man in Boston, ROBERT BIRNBAUM, about what it’s like to work on the words that come in between.

Excellent Design History Blog by Students

Design History Mashup

Rather than viewing history as the linear progress of civilizations or chronicles of “great men,” we will explore alternative approaches, having short, tempestuous affairs with historical designers and movements that allow us to “give birth” to new work. Our mascot is Kid Eternity, the 1940s comic book character who could summon dead heroes to help him fight evil.

Movie Titles Galore!

www.titulosdecredito.org

another good design blog...

grain edit

Grain edit is focused on classic design work from the 1950s-1970s and contemporary designers that draw inspiration from that time period. Site content includes interviews, articles, designers’ libraries as well as examples of rare design annuals, type specimens, Ephemera, posters and vintage kids books from our bookshelves.

Kinematic Typography

Great Scenes from TV and Film, Told Using Only Typography (and Sound) | AlwaysWatching.org

But what happens when you combine typography with motion? That's the process of kinematic typography and the results, when paired with some excellent scenes from your favorite films and TV shows, can be moving and marvelous. Here are some of the best examples of film kinematic typography on the web.

Rag & Bone Blog

You should always be be looking at the inspiring work posted to The Rag & Bone Blog.

MSU Graphic Design Exhibition

Some must-see, goodlookin’ student design - File Save As...Soiree Show Installation - a photoset on Flickr

Inspiration: SXSW Web Awards Winners

SXSW Web Awards Winners

The 11th Annual SXSW Web Awards // Presented by Adobe uncover the best new websites and celebrate those who are building and implementing tomorrow's online trends.

This just in! We are pleased to reveal the 11th Annual Web Awards Winners. Make sure to explore all the finalists honored at this year's ceremony. SXSW Web Awards Hundreds and hundreds of innovative web designers and developers from across the globe submitted websites in this year's competition, all sites that have been launched or completely redesigned in 2007.

Visual Complexity

visualcomplexity.com | A visual exploration on mapping complex networks

VisualComplexity.com intends to be a unified resource space for anyone interested in the visualization of complex networks. The project's main goal is to leverage a critical understanding of different visualization methods, across a series of disciplines, as diverse as Biology, Social Networks or the World Wide Web. I truly hope this space can inspire, motivate and enlighten any person doing research on this field.

New Job Board on Design Observer

Design Observer (my favorite design culture blog) has collaborated with Coroflot to post a Job Board on the site.

Athletic Scholarships: Expectations Lose to Reality

Athletic Scholarships: Expectations Lose to Reality - New York Times

But the expectations of parents and athletes can differ sharply from the financial and cultural realities of college athletics, according to an analysis by The New York Times of previously undisclosed data from the National Collegiate Athletic Association and interviews with dozens of college officials.

How 'bout a device free Spring Break?

I Need a Virtual Break. No, Really. - New York Times

I TOOK a real day off this weekend: computers shut down, cellphone left in my work bag, land-line ringer off. I was fully disconnected for 24 hours.

What Do You Look For in a Designer?

Another good one from the Coroflot Blog (A blog dedicated to creative work: How-to's on finding design work and creative recruiting, advice on what leading designers are looking for, and showcases of great work from Coroflot portfolios.)

What Do You Look For in a Designer? : Nicolas Roope, Poke

Why Young Designers Should Avoid "Design Capitals"

Small Pond, Smart Fish: Why Young Designers Should Avoid "Design Capitals"

Automakers have Detroit, investment bankers have New York, and film actors have Hollywood: the bright shining centers of their respective industries. For those seeking a career in one of these fields, going to the Capital City is often a given, whether to get a foot in the door, or build an existing career. The creative professions have their Meccas too, and the gravity they exert on designers and other creatives is strong indeed; perhaps too strong.

To Score The Perfect Job...

To Score The Perfect Job, HR Professionals Suggest Geeking Out Online

The Black Hole. The Fortress. The Bottomless Pit (of despair). When recounting their last job search, friends and colleagues in the creative professions are prone to using terms like this to describe their most desired employers' HR departments. Most of us can probably recall a time when we felt the same way; as if every studio and firm we really wanted to get into had an army of technicians cleverly sealing off every point of access, and perhaps enfolding all the good jobs in a cloaking field of some sort. There are ads out there, of course, encouraging us to spend weeks tuning our portfolios and resumes, and so we hop through the HR hoops, then fling everything into that hole, never to be heard from again.

A Designer's Guide to Surviving Design Competitions

Coroflot - Coroflot's Creative Seeds Blog

What all these articles are pointing out is that there's great potential for exploitation here, and I'm inclined to agree with them. Yet most of us know about it, and we continue to enter, despite the downsides. Shortly out of school, I designed a piece of flat pack furniture for Designboom.com, and got a Shortlisted Entry out of it. No money, not a lot of notoriety, but I didn't feel cheated, and I'd do it again--in fact I'm working on an entry for Dell's Re-Generation competition at this moment.

Winners of the What is Graphic design poster competition

Winners of the What is Graphic design poster competition | Veerle's blog

The moment of truth is finally here! I’m ready to announce who is in for a prize. This wasn’t easy, as you’ve seen in my previous post there are a lot of great entries in this pool. I’ve picked a bunch of favorites let them rest for a bit and came back to them and made my final decision.

See also the contestants.

Manage Your Online Reputation

Life Hacker Feature: Manage Your Online Reputation

Are you happy with the results people get back when they Google your name? If not, there are easy ways to monitor and guide what information is published about you online. Two years ago we covered how to have a say in what Google says about you, and more recently, and how to track down anyone online. But a rash of social media sites have arisen that give you more tools to help you manage your online reputation and become more findable. Let's take a look.

Top film title design

Top film title design - Design Week

There’s no category for title design in the Oscars, but if there were, which movies would make the shortlist? Yolanda Zappaterra picks out some potential nominees before this Sunday’s glitz-fest

Typographic Fruit

You must see the Typographic Fruit.

Fuck style

ideasonideas – Blog Archive – Fuck style

Design is such a multi-layered practice that it’s often difficult to define. That being said, I believe that the word “design” is increasingly confused with “style”. For example, to most “I like the way it’s designed” means that they like the way that something looks.

The visual aspect of what we do is highly important, and style has a place in that. For example, if we want to connect with a particular audience, employing a style can sometimes be helpful. That being said, it seems that style often leads efforts. We have to break this habit.

IDD480 Job Resource Site

FILTER/TALENT

FILTER is a full-service creative resources company that delivers proven results. For businesses that need talent - either in-house or off-site - we offer staffing services and project-management expertise for a variety of design, production and content management needs.

By finding and fostering talent, we offer flexible, cost-efficient solutions for producing outstanding creative and marketing content. FILTER serves the creative industry like no one else, with a powerful combination of style, passion and matchmaking expertise.

Our clients include prominent technology and services companies as well as many of the leading design, advertising and interactive agencies.

Cult of the Sketch

Coroflot - Questioning the Cult of the Sketch

Designers must draw. We pretty much all agree on that one. Regardless of whether we're designing buildings, products, clothes or even web pages, a good number of us are judged--and judge each other--on our ability to snag a sheet of paper from the printer and quickly draft something beautiful and compelling.

Top 10 Interview Do’s and Don’ts for 2008 Job Seekers

creativepro.com - Top 10 Interview Do's and Don'ts for 2008 Job Seekers

For many professionals finding the perfect new job or even switching careers. For those seeking a better work environment or wanting to change their career track completely, Ron Axelrod, Senior Vice President, Business Development and Recruiting at NYC software testing firm RTTS, offers a list of job interviewing tips for those embarking on the job search and interview process. Axelrod understands how to help job seekers make the transition from one work environment to another as well as what potential employers expect during the interview process.

Bye, Bye, Facebook. Bye, Bye.

creativity/machine – Why I’m deleting my Facebook account

I know the zombies and pirates will be sad and my virtual garden/fish/panda will die, but I’m leaving Facebook. I swear it’s not a case of getting early adopter syndrome. Trust me, given my background in subculture theory, I have workshopped that one.

Courtney’s Portfolio

Here’s Courtney’s portfolio:
Courtney's Portfolio

Branding You

A New Brand

Design professionals are often great at packaging and promoting their clients ... to a defined market. However, many don't seem to consider, or take the time, to do the same for themselves,' says Jeff Fisher, 'Engineer of Creative Identity' for the one-person design shop Jeff Fisher LogoMotives.

Motion Theory in Fast Company

Loco Motion -- Video Production -- Motion Theory

The creative crazies at Motion Theory turn the video world topsy-turvy.

2008 Animated Shorts Academy Nominees

2008 Animated Shorts Nominees — OZOUX.COM

I just came across this year's nominations for Best Animated Short which is an interesting list. Notable by its absense this year is any of the shorts from the usual suspects, like Pixar's or Sony Imageworks. Here's the list...

Too bored to read this article on boredom?

Scientific American: Bored?

Don't blame your job, the traffic or your mindless chores. Battling boredom, researchers say, means finding focus, living in the moment and having something to live for...

In a quiet, darkened lecture room, you begin a frustrating fight against fatigue. The overhead projector hums, and you cannot concentrate on the slides. You stop absorbing information and doodle mindlessly. The professor lost you eons ago. You are bored.

Mastering the Informational Interview

Mastering the Informational Interview - Shifting Careers - Small Business - New York Times Blog

Informational interviews can be a useful tool throughout your career, not just when you’re thinking about a new job or a new line of work. You can do informational interviews when you want to learn more about a certain career move or even what it would feel like to get involved in a new project like writing a book, starting a blog, or running your own company.

Senior Blog Links

I've added links to the senior blogs in the side bar. If your name is missing, it’s because you have not sent me your URL. Now you can start reading and commenting on your classmates’ posts. First post is due Thursday.

Getting Design Done

creativepro.com - Getting Design Done

Here's how to apply the principles of a well-known productivity system to your creative process. The resulting creative habits can boost your design skills while they reduce stress and free your mind to tackle big problems.

Inspiring Business Cards on Flickr

IDD Seniors – here's some inspiration for the tasks to come...

Business Cards - a photoset on Flickr

An Alternative Spring Break Anyone?

south by southwest festivals conferences

The SXSW Interactive Festival features five days of exciting panel content and amazing parties. Attracting digital creatives as well as visionary technology entrepreneurs, the event celebrates the best minds and the brightest personalities of emerging technology. Whether you are a hard-core geek, a dedicated content creator, a new media entrepreneur, or just someone who likes being around an extremely creative community, SXSW Interactive is for you!

Good Examples of Innovative Thinking

19 Best Ads I Have Ever Seen - UADDit

R/GA in the New York Times

This is the company I mentioned in class yesterday:
Madison Avenue’s 30-Second Spot Remover - New York Times

Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes - the ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules and they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing that you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things."
- Apple Computer ad, 1997

Online Marketing Tools for Creative Pros

creativepro.com - Online Marketing Tools for Creative Pros

It seems like each month brings another new-fangled online marketing tool -- too many, really, and who knows whether they work or will be gone by next year? Are they worth the time and money? It's hard to know, but here are some pros and cons of the latest relatively inexpensive and easy-to-use options.

Are you as creative as you want to be?

Are you as creative as you want to be? - Lifehack.org

The “genetic” view of creativity may explain part of each person’s ability to innovate, but any gift has to be nurtured and released to make it useful. I think that a “naturally gifted” person who takes his or her creativity for granted, and does little to keep it sharp, may well be less innovative in practice than someone with less natural aptitude but more determination to develop.

With that in mind, I offer these observations on ways to extend and polish your own innovative powers, whatever they might be. By using such approaches diligently, you can indeed become more creative than you are today — and maybe more creative than you even imagine.

The Ultimate Student Resource List

The Ultimate Student Resource List - Lifehack.org

It’s back to school time, yet again. In the spirit of the season, I decided to gather together the best tools, websites, and advice I know of to help make you a more effective and relaxed student this semester. Since I know you’re broke, it’s all free!

New Public Domain Images on Flickr

Flickr: The Commons

Back in June of 2007, we began our first collaboration with a civic institution to facilitate giving people a voice in describing the content of a publicly-held photography collection.

The key goals of this pilot project are to firstly give you a taste of the hidden treasures in the huge Library of Congress collection, and secondly to show how your input of a tag or two can make the collection even richer.

You're invited to help describe photographs in the Library of Congress' collection on Flickr, by adding tags or leaving comments.

More Library of Congress Photos on Flickr

Cool Posters of advice from graduating students to freshman

advice to sink in slowly

Advice to sink in slowly is a series of posters designed by recent and established graduates of University College Falmouth for the purpose of passing on advice and inspiration to first year students.

A poster is given as a welcoming gift to every first year student when they enroll.

Watch out for the Design Police!

They are coming to a classroom near you...

Design Police | Bring bad design to justice.

3 Graphic Designers Recreate D-Day

You have to watch this!



via Design Observer

Time to start planning for your portfolio website...

creativepro.com - View Source: The Easy Way to Add Dynamic Elements to Web Sites

Until recently, you probably only used the word 'spry' to describe an aging yet still nimble person. But Dreamweaver CS3 introduced the world to a new meaning of the word: an exciting set of tools based on Adobe's Spry Framework for Ajax. Spry is a set of JavaScript files that let you easily add dynamic elements, such as drop-down navigation menus, tabbed panels, and interactive data tables, to a Web page.

You really should start thinking about portfolios

Speak Up › Small Design Ephemera: The Alternative Portfolio

A designer I met earlier this year, John Walsh, who paid me a visit while traveling in New York all the way from Manchester, UK was kind enough to gift me with an alternative portfolio. A hand-bound eight-by-eight-inch book with colorful tassels hanging from the spine, in a black cardboard sandwiched set of glossy pages with a rough-hewn look and feel that was hard to resist. A one of a kind book. Just for me. Inside, it was filled with loose images, logos, typographic treatments, spreads (or parts of spreads) and other things that may or may not be part of other projects...

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.