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.