Michael Bierut's 1979 Portfolio

May I Show You My Portfolio?

In the fall of 1979, prior to my last year of design school, on a trip to New York City, I went job hunting. I visited about six design firms. One of them, Vignelli Associates, eventually made me a job offer, and that's where I started my career one week after graduating from the University of Cincinnati's College of Design, Architecture and Art in June 1980. I didn't know it then, but that would be the last time I would look for a job.

Design Inspiration: 10 years of Webby Award Winners

Webby Awards Nominees & Winners

With nearly 70 categories, Website entries make up the majority of Webby Awards Winners, Nominees and Honorees. Some are beautiful to look at and interact with. Others are a testament to usability and functionality. And a handful excel across the board. To be selected among the best is an incredible achievement worthy of praise -- and perhaps a little bragging.

Design Process - Iteration

creativepro.com - What to Do When You're Out of Ideas

You can't always count on instant answers when you're tackling a design problem. Make iterative design part of your workflow, and you won't have to.

Write It Down!

Why You Should Write Things Down

The memory isn’t very reliable. Every time we remember something we recreate what happened rather than just replay a film from our mental archives. The recreation is directed by a number of things such our beliefs, our emotional state at the time and our self-image.

Beyond Wikipedia

Beyond Wikipedia: 20 References You Can't Do Without | Scholastici.us: Student Productivity At Its Finest

You may not know this, but there are actually a number of great references available to you that aren’t Wikipedia. Now, don’t get me wrong - I love Wikipedia, too. Whenever I first begin a project I almost always go and overview it through Wikipedia. It’s a great introduction to a subject, also connecting you easily to other related ideas, people and places. But it’s not all you have. Now, put aside the enormous amount of electronic resources your school gives you access to that you never use, this is mostly resources anyone can use (with a couple of notable exceptions). Some even make use of Wikipedia, though not in the usual way. We’ll start with general resources, and then get down to the resources available to a few specific disciplines.

How to use Facebook without Losing Your Job over it

How to use Facebook without Losing Your Job over it � Internet Duct Tape

The potential downside a lot of my friends and acquaintances don’t realize is that Facebook is more like LinkedIn than MySpace and it is “on the radar” of your employers. People have already lost their jobs because of their Facebook activity. Most people don’t think about online privacy concerns like these unless they’ve had a bad experience because of being too free with information.

Avoid Getting Fired by Facebook

How to Avoid Getting Fired by Facebook - lifehack.org

Everything is public. Act as though it is going to be on the front page of the New York Times tomorrow. Facebook just announced that in a matter of a few days or weeks, it will become indexed by the colossal Google search engine. People are now also able to search for listings from the welcome page without first signing up as a member. Welcome to the front page! Beware of what you air in places like Facebook, MySpace or Twitter that have become easily searchable, fairly permanent and highly public.

Joshua Davis Design Troublemaker

Apple - Pro - Profiles - Joshua Davis

Joshua Davis is a design troublemaker. “A lot of printers ask me how I created my work,” he says mischievously. “Because technically, it’s not actually possible.”

cool sketchbook series

sketchbooks - a photoset on Flickr

Taking Notes that Work

Advice for Students: Taking Notes that Work - lifehack.org

Note-taking is one of those skills that rarely gets taught. Teachers and professors assume either that taking good notes comes naturally or that someone else must have already taught students how to take notes. Then we sit around and complain that our students don’t know how to take notes...

Design Opinions

A Brief Message features design opinions expressed in short form—200 words or less.

Understanding Strategic Design

Understanding Strategic Design: An interview with Etienne Fang

A merging of the ability to design and the ability to understand the full and widening arc of the design process is a continually growing aspect of what defines the current role of designers. Everyone from management to production must be involved in and understand the process in order to fully contribute and fully take advantage of its benefits. We’ve come to understand that design and strategy are not in a contentious relationship. Rather, they depend on one another in the realization of successful products, services and brands. From a strategic design perspective designing can be research and research can be designing.

Cool Back to School site for design students

Core77's Hack-2-School Guide

The Ultimate Design Student Guide

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.