Archive for the ‘Graphic Design’ Category
I just found this website for potential project work. Firm seems to be Chicago-based. Looks kind of interesting. For the designers in our group (or who happen to drop by our blog), take a look at CrowdSpring. I just skimmed it but here’s the premise: a buyer who needs a logo, website, etc. can post the project, list what he’s willing to pay, and then designers submit their designs. The fee is set and from what I saw, you certainly won’t get rich. But if biz is slow, you’ve got the time, you want to build your portfolio, etc., it might be worthwhile. You do get to work with a worldwide audience! It appears that people can critique your designs and you also get feedback from the buyer (move this, tweak that, I hate that color, this needs to be redone — oh sorry, that was from one of my projects). I’m not sure how the winning design is selected but am sure it explains.
If you’re looking for a paper stock in a certain color (in my case, light grey), check out The Paper Mill Store’s page where you can search papers by color. They sell lots of paper brands so you should end up with plenty of papers to choose from.
If you’re a designer who specs paper — or just looking for creative ideas — paper promotions are a great resource. Visit the Must Haves section of the PaperSpecs website for quick links to ordering the latest paper swatchbooks and promotions.
You may want to consider this update I received from colleague and Kyle Shannon mystery series author, Linda Mickey. An excerpt: “Happy Spring. There is some big news in the publishing world that has a direct impact on me and thousands of other writers. Amazon announced that unless certain publishing companies (mine included) use Amazon’s printing company, Amazon will not sell the book. An article in Business Week points out that Amazon’s real goal is to print ALL the books it sells on a print-to-order basis. Why? Because warehousing is costly. If Amazon switches to a print-on-demand business model, it will save millions of dollars. It’s a smart business move on their part and they have the marketplace muscle to pull it off. There’s only one problem. Amazon’s print company, Booksurge, is not a good printer. iUniverse (my publisher) and others switched to Booksurge’s competitor because of quality issues. The Internet is full of complaints about Booksurge’s quality. (Some copies of my first book, Greased Wheels, had green pages that matched the cover.) Why am I telling you all this? Because I want to assure you that my books are available at www.bn.com and www.powells.com and many other book selling sites. If they order from Amazon, I cannot guarantee the books will ever ship. Barnes and Noble also has a $25 free shipping program. As always, thank you for your support. Keep reading!”
After one of my regular visits to the JohnsonBanks (UK design firm) website’s “Thought of the Week”, I was directed to this post in DesignObserver (that I somehow missed). It discussed the seepage of the title phrase into the client’s lexicon and the potentially destructive quality to encouraging this. Below are some excerpts, but here’s the full post. Today, the term has seeped into everyday usage, and it has become widely used by commissioners of graphic design. Why? Is it because it’s a piece of useful shorthand that emphasizes the importance of usability in modern strategy-driven communications? Or is it a babyish term that reduces the designer to the role of decorator — someone who gets asked to “color-in” strategic plans made by smart marketing wonks who think design is a no-brainer? British designer Michael Johnson … noted an increase in usage of the term: “Yes, people use it a lot,” he says. “I’ve always mistrusted it as a phrase — apart from sounding vaguely pornographic, I think when you succumb to ‘look and feel’ you’re only a hop and a skip away from mood boards, and that really is the end of design as we know it. It’s the kind of phrase that researchers love to throw around in focus groups, a process almost always destined to remove the last hints of creativity from a project.” Ever since W.A. Dwiggins became the first person to call himself a graphic designer, designers have agonized over the nomenclature of their trade. In recent decades, they have been dumping the word design as fast as they can in favor of more business-friendly terms such as corporate image, corporate identity, and most recently, branding. Does any of this matter? If clients are happy to refer to the output of graphic designers as “look and feel,” where’s the harm? Well, the harm is that it’s a euphemistic term that no better describes what good design can do that “nip and tuck” describes the work of a skilled brain surgeon. We encourage its use at our peril. Resist, I say
…. with five pages of (downloadable!) usefulness in this Visual Enforcement Kit. I stumbled across the DesignPolice website and thought their super handy templates were a crack-up. Use responsibly….
Heads up, Creativos. Sharpie has just launched a new Web site, mysharpie.com, which enables you to customize fine point Sharpie pens! The pens are available in a eight different colors, and there are 10 different fonts and about 20 different pieces of clip art to choose from. Okay, only six of the fonts are really fun and the clip art is kinda lame, but it’s still a cool idea. And they’re not too expensive, about $12 for six pens. Plus shipping, of course.
The August 2007 issue of HOW magazine had a great article on planning your professional future (Plotting Your Course, by Julie Sims). It’s geared toward graphic designers, but the tips can apply to other creatives as well. One of points mentioned is to keep your portfolio up to date. Her suggestion: regularly collect samples of your work and write descriptions to go with each. I think it’s a great idea, as it’s easy to forget details (or to request samples) post-project. And the descriptions come in handy when writing copy for your website or other promotional pieces. (For graphic designers, it’s also useful to note paper stock or other production details) I’ve created a section in my To-Do List, where I note completed projects, as a reminder to request samples — and now, to start writing descriptions for each! |
Using third-party environmental certifications (such as the recycled symbol and