50 Designers to Follow on Twitter

50 Designers to Follow on Twitter

I only have a few “designer” friends I can share my thoughts with on graphic and web design. I use Twitter as a way to reach people with similar interests and offer an exchange of ideas. I have also used it as a means to expand my freelance design business....
Designer Spotlight: Beth Chapleau

Designer Spotlight: Beth Chapleau

Beth Chapleau is a designer based out of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She spends her working days in the Marketing and Communications department of Durham College in Oshawa, Ontario. And, like many in-house designers, she spends her spare time freelancing. As a young designer, this is a great way to build...
13 Great Portfolio Designs

13 Great Portfolio Designs

Your work is the only thing that really matters when it comes to your portfolio. However, with your website portfolio, you have an opportunity to showcase your work, explain your process, reveal the design brief and the tools you used to carry out the job. Remember, if you’re a freelancer,...
Latest entries
Link: "Top 10 Things I Wish I Knew When I Graduated College"

Link: “Top 10 Things I Wish I Knew When I Graduated College”

Debbie Millman spoke to designers in February at Creative Mornings in New York. Her presentation talks about the always fun, engaging and retrospective topic of “if I only knew then, what I know now”. 2011/02 Debbie Millman from CreativeMornings on Vimeo. Debbie Millman is a partner and president of the design division at Sterling Brands,...
Advice From Ira Glass for New Creatives

Advice From Ira Glass for New Creatives

I’ve reached capacity for motivational quotes. My Twitter feed has a dozen or so everyday and they tend to lose their shine when you’re overwhelmed with their “inspiration”. However, the following piece of advice from Ira Glass came through my feed and is so important for new creatives that I felt it important to share....

Non-Profit Graphic Designers

Link: The 50 Things Every Graphic Design Student Should Know

Link: The 50 Things Every Graphic Design Student Should Know

28. Never work for free. Not only does this devalue the profession, but it makes you look weak. Even a ‘nice’ client will take advantage of this. #the50 50 tweets have been written and compiled by Jamie Wieck to form a fun and informative article for graphic design students leaving college. This is real advice. Some...
Open Source Design Software

Open Source Design Software

The Adobe Creative Suite is expensive. After your computer, you won’t spend more on a tool in your design toolbox than you will on your design software. That is, unless you use open source software. Open source software has typically been collaborated on by programmers and developers to create something that is freely distributed to...
Link: Photoshop Tutorials for Beginners

Link: Photoshop Tutorials for Beginners

PSDTuts is a great resource for learning the ins and outs of what is probably the most used tool in your toolbox, Adobe Photoshop. PSDTuts has put together a list of tutorials for beginner users of Photoshop. Even if you don’t find the end result to be useful, tutorials are an excellent way of figuring...
5 Logo Resources for New Designers

5 Logo Resources for New Designers

In my opinion, logo design is one of the more difficult specialties in graphic design. Clients want their logos to be unique and capture the essence their company’s personality. This is rarely an easy task. Beyond the technical skills, designing a logo requires plenty of research and an ability to understand a client’s abstract instructions....
Link: Letting Bad Design Decisions Happen

Link: Letting Bad Design Decisions Happen

Jason Gross has written a great article over at Six Revisions about a designers role in the decision making process of a website project. The core of the article pits the designer and the client as opposing forces. This is often the case when clients make decisions about the design of their site that conflict...
What the Font?!

What the Font?!

Identifying fonts has never been an easy task for me. With so many variations and similarities I quickly go cross-eyed looking through my font library for a specific set of characters. Luckily, MyFonts.com has created a web-based and mobile version of the popular What the Font. Available for the iPhone and any browser, What the...