design advice

Tips to Make Your Designs Better

When reviewing your designs to make sure that you have created the best design and solution possible for your client, it is good to ask yourself a few questions. Does it flow well? Does your design have a good rhythm? The overall flow and movement of your design can...

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Typography: Part One

There are many different ways to classify typefaces. They come in many different weights, widths, and contrasts, and have different x-heights, ascenders and descenders. They may also be set to different angles, such as an italic version, or a script typeface. This is...

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Is Education the Key to Design Success?

After going through school, and learning all of the basic information, design theory, receiving critiques, working an internship, finding jobs, etc., I have to wonder if going to school makes a difference. I know many design firms will only hire someone if they have a...

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Design Laws: Part Two

Proximity- This has to do with items that are close together. You can change the meaning of a design based on what elements are placed close together. If there are multiple groups, they are divided visually depending on which elements are close to each other, and...

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Design Laws: Part One

In design there are principles out there that make our designs interesting and there are others that are valuable aspects to consider when creating a design. These principles can be used to your advantage, making your designs stronger. One aspect of design is that our...

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Designing for the iAd: A New Design Horizon?

Starting July 1st, the iAd venture is supposed to be launched. With this in mind, companies are jumping to advertise on this new platform. Most of us are print designers, and a lot of us are web designers, and we are used to the different formats associated with them....

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Is There a Limit to How Much We Can Do?

I was having a discussion with a colleague the other day about design and all the things that we know how to do. The topic came up where he found out that i don't know ajax, which I admittedly, don't even know exactly what that does. My response to him was that I am a...

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Resume Tips for Designers and other Creative Fields

Resume Tips for Designers and other Creative Fields

Resume Tips for Designers 1. Design Your Own If you are a graphic designer, then you should design a custom resume. When I finished college, our professors had us create our resumes in Word and send them out to prospective employers. Needless to say, none of us...

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Creative Contrast With a Background Blur

Creative Contrast With a Background Blur

This tutorial is great for adding quick and simple contrast to a photo. When using this in your design, it is a good idea to choose a subject that has to do with target market. To start, find a photograph with a main figure of subject in the middle, with a lot going...

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Pushing the Envelope: Design and Life

One thing that I have always vowed never to do in life is to just blend in. Blending in gets you nowhere, and it is getting noticed that gets you the things that you want out of life. Think about employment and dating for instance. If you simply blend into the...

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Equipment: does it really make our designs any better?

There have been so many times where I have been talking to colleagues and other digital artists and I have heard them say "I am saving up for a new Apple Macbook Pro", or "I am saving up to build a new super PC, I will be able to design much better on a faster...

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My Take on Steve Jobs and Flash

I am sure that everyone has heard the buzz going on around the internet with Steve Jobs not supporting Flash on Apple devices. I have gotten dozens of emails asking my take on this issue, which I will address. While I am not an avid animator, I certainly understand...

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Why I Respect Professional Photographers

1. They have an eye for telling a story. They use their keen eyes to find a scene or a place in time that tells a story to their audience. Photojournalists are some of the best at this, because it captures a moment in time and history, that can't be recreated....

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Playing Nice with Others: What Networking Can Do For You

I have been a graphic designer for a few years now, and I will have to admit that fresh out of school, I had no idea the level of importance networking had. I didn't even understand how to go about it, and what the point was. It took a long time to find a job in the...

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Methods to the Mayhem

What I have realized from being an artist for years is that we all have a different ways of doing things when it comes to creating our artwork. Some of us like to do a mainly traditional route and sketch everything out. Some people like to take a bunch of photographs...

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Does Going Green Save Green?

As Designers, especially in print, it is out responsibility to consider our impact on the world, not only visually, but environmentally. Many times we consider green printing products and think of big budget clients, but there are many options out there that are cost...

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