In today’s day and age, a designer has to be more than just that. They have be an all-rounder; a business person, sales person, logo designer, graphic designer, web designer, web developer, SEO specialist, modern day superhero (okay, maybe not the last one but you get the drift). However, sometimes these things go unnoticed when [...]
Take a virtual stroll through the online design galleries–the ‘inspirational’ curated showcases and the user-generated ‘portfolio’ sites–and you’ll see as vast amount of creative output. It will wow you, tire you, inspire you and frustrate you, but, what else will it do? When I see trends emerge I ask myself: what triggered the sudden influx [...]
Have you every said or thought “I’m too busy”? Or perhaps, “I don’t have the time”? Have you had a great idea only to get put off for fear you’ll never complete it, or it’ll be too difficult? I say: find the time. Think about a time that you said “no” to a request based [...]
Begin Hey, there, stranger! Boy, you wouldn’t believe the day I just had at work. I work at a web agency, you see. Yeah, I’m the designer. And depending on who you ask, I have the good or bad fortune of being the only one there in a sea of programmers. But that’s not what [...]
As a designer I get to do what I love best and be creative for a living. But when you do something with a passion regularly over a long period of time, there will come a point when you hit that ‘block’ and run out of inspiration. It’s inevitable and happens to the best of [...]
A great friend and mentor of mine taught me a principle of success found in a simple technique he’d incorporated into his everyday life. Each morning while filling his pockets with all the bits and pieces necessary for the day, he’d slip in a small painted stone, which he called his boulder. The principle was [...]
Maintaining motivation within the design process can be difficult with looming deadlines and demanding clients. How do we stay motivated? Caleb Ogden (@calebogden) Most of my motivation comes from seeing the great work and success of other professionals. When I see stellar work, new ideas, or innovative tweaks to old techniques being performed by other [...]
A previous mentor in my design career told me: Design is Art to a grid. Given no further thought this sounds like a reasonable description. But in my option it is very wrong. I loved this statement at the time – as a budding young and naive fresh faced designer I preferred to think of [...]
Have you ever heard the phrase, “No news is good news.” Well it’s not true. As a freelance designer, this statement couldn’t be scarier. The idea suggests that not hearing about a situation implies that nothing bad has happened. Designers: you know that feeling, right? It’s been two weeks since you sent those designs over [...]
I hate graphic design. Ok, that’s a bit of an overstatement just to get your attention, but I am definitely a healthy dose of frustrated towards the profession as a whole. See, I think every designer or artist providing a service knows the trials and tribulations of client feedback. If you are anything like me, [...]