Every week I take some of the most popular and interesting tweets that I come across and share them with my community. Enjoy!

How to sell the value of design: An email conversation

As a designer it’s not always easy to stand up for yourself… clients often have demanding requests, tight budgets and due to one reason or another, designers will succumb to taking on labour heavy jobs at heavily discounted rates. This does not have to be.

Group Interview: Expert Advice For Students and Young Web Designers

Our readers have requested that Smashing Magazine conduct an interview with industry leaders on issues that are relevant to students and those just starting off in their design career. With the help of our panel of 16 designers, we’ll dispense advice that should help new designers get their career off to a promising start. We’ve asked a few different questions to each of the designers; you’ll see all of their responses below.

Where to find contextual image templates for your brand identity presentations

When it comes to client presentations, contextual imagery is key. The use of digital mock-ups allows your clients to visualize how their new brand identity will tie-in with the products they produce, the premises they occupy, the vehicles they drive, the clothes they wear.

So you want to create a font. Part 1

So you’re a brilliant designer, a master calligrapher, and you’ve learned all about serifs, side-bearings, and kerning. Now you want to create your own font. (What! You haven’t learned all about serifs, side-bearings, and kerning?)

Post-it philosophy and graphic design

Regular visitors to this web address will know that we’re interested in why people become graphic designers, given that it’s a fairly unusual career path (and no-one seems to give the same answer twice).

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I am approached by clients on a daily basis for graphic design work. Many are professional, but some are not. Below is a start to a new collection of things clients say, which are frustrating, yet slightly humorous.

1. CLIENT: “This project should be pretty easy if you know what your are doing.”
2. CLIENT: “I need a full scale CMS website. The specifications are attached for all of the pages.  We can afford $100. There’s not much of a budget but it could be a great portfolio piece.”
3. CLIENT: “Why isn’t the site #1 on Google yet?” more…

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Let’s face it. Every product that humans create has an impact on the planet. In today’s world our everyday life is driven by cutting-edge technology that makes mass production of manufactured materials easier than ever before. So easy in fact that it has come to jeopardize our society’s future by tainting the environment with products so long lasting and durable that we cannot control our waste amounts which end up in landfills. As graphic designers, our role is to produce marketing and product designs that influence our culture. There comes a time when we have to adjust the envelope. We have to serve our future needs and induce preventative maintenance for our planet. Exploring the options of green design will further help expand design knowledge in a ways which will benefit designers, their clients, and the environment. more…

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Recently, in my writing composition class, I was asked to write a paper using a prompt which questions my field of study. The results were quite interesting after I thought about the question and did some research.

The prompt:

“What is the most important development that has occurred in your field of studies during the last ten years?  Explain this development and how it has impacted your field.”

In the past twenty years, our world has changed greatly with the increased reliance on computers. The invention of the microchip has advanced our technology so much that we can now access many services without leaving the comfort of our homes. As a graphic designer I can also see that my industry is no exception to this revolution. Suddenly, untrained individuals have access to inexpensive tools that can be used for a variety of publications. Professional software owners are making their own fliers to promote small businesses. The invention of the internet has created a new medium demand for online web design, and the multimedia industries have also turned to more advanced design elements. more…

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Image notes: Chris Hardwick (Nerdist) recently joined forces with Chris Glass and Wire & Twineto create a new series of t-shirts. Their first creation is “Nice Tweets”, in honor of Chris’ Twitter addiction. Borrowed from http://laughingsquid.com.

Every week I take some of the most popular and interesting tweets that I come across and share them with my community. Enjoy!

Here are 40 intelligent logo designs showcasing the negative beauty of logo designing

With the present logo design awareness I think there is no need to explain the term ‘Negative Space’. To me, interpreting the negative space within a logo design is no child’s play and I deeply respect the designers who succeed coming up with such clever logo designs. Submitted by Logo Design Blog. Thanks!

Four Things I’ve Learned About Designers

For the last two years, I’ve been doing to designers what they usually do unto others. Which is to say, I’ve been observing and studying them, asking a lot of questions and trying to discern patterns. Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way.

30 Typographic Print ads… Hard to ignore!!

One has to agree…within last few years advertising industry has manifestly overtaken the media world. Today print ads are conveying big messages to the world in an impressive and unforgettable manner. I believe print ads to be one of the fastest ways to attract potential customers but if they are not interesting or memorable, then they are useless. Lately, brands have been releasing such clever ads that without any description about the product, they have conveyed their message to their customers.

10 Mistakes Logo Designers Can Make When Designing Logos

There are many mistakes we can make when designing logos for our clients or even ourselves. I have compiled a list of 10 common mistakes I’ve seen in mine and others work. This list is merely my view of a Top Ten.

Interesting Negative Space Logos

Here are 40 intelligent logo designs showcasing the negative beauty of logo designing.

Check Out This Weeks Notable Tweet Submissions From Visitors

25 Naughty Logo Designs

Is it important that every time we talk about logo designing, we should do it seriously? Don’t get me wrong here…I don’t aim to underestimate the value of logo designing. But, all the logo design topics available on net reveal it as an unexciting and boring industry. We ignore the multiple aspects of logo designing, including its fun part.

35 Red Logo Designs

Have you ever imagined the earth without colors…how boring and dull our lives would have been. My journey as a graphic designer has helped me learn the symbolic and psychological impact of different colors. Every color has a unique personality and delivers a different message. Therefore, when you get a logo design for your company, be very careful with the color selection. Always pick those colors which reflect the nature and characteristics of your business.

How to get inspired when you are not inspired

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Mosaic illustration made by Tsevis Visual Design for an article about Twitter for the Greek best selling computer magazine “RAM”. Best viewed large.

Every week I take some of the most popular and interesting tweets that I come across and share them with my community. Enjoy!

Colors can change your logo design fate – 10 careless color contributions!!

We can’t deny the exceptional value of colors in our life…Red is the color of love, blue is the sadness that drips from our eyes while Black signifies our evil side. Unquestionably, the world of graphic design wouldn’t have existed without colors. Being a graphic designer, we are well-aware that simply changing a color can make a logo design go from “good” to “bad” or “bad” to “good”. Submitted by Graphic Design Blog. Thanks!

Milton Glaser on design studios

The great benefit of this [everyone sitting together in a single room] is that you can hear what everybody’s saying. I’ve never written a memo in my life, because everybody knows exactly who I’m talking to and what I’m doing. Everybody here knows everybody’s business. If you have a deep sense of privacy I don’t think that you could work for me.

How 20 designers charge their clients – part 3

The final part of the series — how 20 designers charge their clients. Here you’ll find more financial insights from talented designers, as well as some very useful resources from excellent websites.

The Foundations Of Typography Explained

It is essential for all print and multimedia designers to have a firm grasp of both the technicalities and aesthetics of typography if they are to successfully deliver a message.

30 Dual Element Logos, Do You See Them All?

All of these logos combine two or more individual concepts to create one seamless design. Some are a little more obvious than others, but all equally impressive.

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Every week I take some of the most popular and interesting tweets that I come across and share them with my community. Enjoy!

24 Numerical and Punctuation Logos – The Unusual Logo Designs!!

So, here is a collection of 24 numerical and punctuated logo designs showing how creatively designers have played with these ignored features. It will be real fun to see how exclamation marks, brackets, semicolons, question marks and digits have decorated these logo designs. Submitted by Graphic Design Blog. Thanks!

15 Examples of Well Designed Contact Pages

We showcase 15 designers who go above and beyond in designing their contact pages. These pages show that a little extra effort can lead to stunning results in your website design!

Tutorial: How To Create An Iconic Logo Design

Logo design is arguably one of the hardest parts of graphic design though with a little insider knowledge, you may find it’s not so difficult after all. By understanding what makes a “good” logo and the principles behind effective logo design you will be on the right track in no time. In this tutorial you will be guided through the logo design process, from initial brief right through to delivery while being given vital logo design tips along the way.

Prepress Tips for Graphic Designers

When you design artwork for print, standard practice is to send a PDF to your printer. But are you 100% sure you got the settings right? Are you confident the size is correct? Have the colours been set to print standards or client brand guidelines? What about font usage?

6 Ways To Take Your Webdesign From Good To Great

The difference between good and great webdesign is relatively small. The average person may not be able to explain the tangible differences that make up great design, but they can usually spot a design they like. By examining some awesome sites, I’ll attempt to put my finger on some of the small details that make up the difference.

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Every week I take some of the most popular and interesting tweets that I come across and share them with my community. Enjoy!

Color Psychology In Creative Design

“It’s worth repeating that the single most important thing you can do to build appeal, mood, and ambiance for your site is to select an appropriate color scheme. There really are no awful colors—any color can look attractive when placed with appropriate color companions.”

Freelance Contracts: Do’s And Don’ts

“In the world of freelancing, the entrepreneur has to take on a number of tasks for themselves that would normally be handled by a separate department at a bigger company. Most of these tasks are not part of the creative processes that freelance workers are used to, but rather are more tedious, left-brain paperwork. Right-brain creatives often shudder at the thought of these forays into linear domains. Such detail-ridden tasks would strain any freelancer who wears multiple hats, but they must be completed.”

27 Classic & Elegant Serif Fonts

“There are now about as many different varieties of letters as there are different kinds of fools.” Eric Gill
Choosing a font for a project isn’t always an easy task but hopefully this list of professional classic and elegant serif fonts will make the task a little easier… or maybe”

Legalities for Designers

“LegalitiesSM is a regular column for the Northern California Chapter of the Graphic Artists Guild by OWE member Linda Joy Kattwinkel, who is herself a visual artist and former graphic artist. In the column, Linda Joy specifically answers questions raised by visual artists, but many of the issues are equally applicable to those who create or utilize works in all creative disciplines. Writers, musicians, filmmakers, fabric designers, and industrial designers, for example, and any of their clients will also find relevant information on copyright law, trademarks, rights of publicity and privacy, licensing, gallery and agency relationships, co-authorship agreements, and publishing contracts.”

Some great free icons from Artua and very nice work in their portfolio

A great collection of MAC OS style icons for download!

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Every week I take some of the most popular and interesting tweets that I come across and share them with my community. Enjoy!

Popular Logos with Hidden Symbolisms

Some logos are very creative and have subtle symbols and messages that represents something about the company it stands for. We explore a handful of such logos in this collection.

100 Best Logo Tutorials

Finding a good logo is crucial in your pathway to achieve a good corporate identity. In my many years of work in the graphic design business, I have found that Logo work can be the most time consuming and a real sanity sucker. Itineration after itineration, you sometimes  feel you will never get to that magical moment when client and designer agree on the final product. The road is in deed long and winding. Because of that, I wanted to make a lost of great logo tutorials to help you in your everyday creative battles. Use wisely.

A Few Memorable Business Cards

The often over-looked business card. It’s amazing what a little thought can do, and here some good ones catching my eye over recent weeks.

Design Pricing Formula

Pricing is a task a lot of designers struggle with. I receive questions on a weekly basis to prove it. As much as I want to, I can’t tell you what you should be charging. The design pricing formula explains why.

100 Best Global Brands of 2009

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Being a good designer isn’t just about pushing out attractive pieces of work. One thing that an employer takes into consideration other than your portfolio is your ability to be reliable and provide design work on a timely basis. Your efficiency dictates the amount of work you can complete within your work day. I’ve dedicated this post to sharing links to resources which can speed up your projects starting with Adobe Photoshop shortcuts and exploring deeper into the codex of popular development languages. These are my most frequented cheat sheets. Please feel free to share your resources below in the comment thread because I’m sure there are plenty of other code lists that readers here would like to know about. more…

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