When I graduated from the Art Institute, I wanted my first design job to be one where I could work under the direction of a more seasoned designer/art director. I always understood that what I had learned in school was largely theoretical (its proven to not be to the extent that I imagined). I wanted to learn from someone with more working experience than me.
Last semester I had the chance to work on re-branding a small business and get school credit for it. I decided to approach my friend Arlene Santos who together with Fatima Mendoza, own and teach dance at Lumina Academy of Dance. They both share a passion for dancing and they invest the same amount of passion into their business, but like many small businesses, their budget had not yet allowed them to hire someone to help them solidify their brand into a visual language.
Its taken me a couple of weeks to finish, but version two of "They Call Me Marty" is live! Technically this is version three. Version one was around for three months a couple of summers ago. Once in a while I stumble upon a screen shot on someone's blog or gallery, but those are the only places where version one lives.
This entry is long due, but to reward your patience I have saved the best for last. I am finishing up this series with a designer whose work I really admire, Liz Andrade of CMD+Shift Design.
Liz is a web designer, blogger, and self described internet nerd and crazy cat lady. She runs a one-woman web studio in Seattle, WA. She has been called one of the top influential female designers and her work has been featured around the web in several design galleries.
Hey everyone. First of, let me appologize for the lack of activity on the blog. The thing about life is that sometimes it gets in the way of work and this time it was the passing of a dear family member on my wife’s side that took me away from the blog for a couple of weeks.
Continuing with our series “Short Conversations With a Pro” today I am talking with freelance web designer, wife, and mother of three girls Natalie Jost.
Going to art school will teach you the mechanics of using software and computers. It will be a place to network and to learn to think like a designer and a problem solver. School will do many things, but the one thing that school will not do is train your eyes.
Today I am starting a new series of posts entitled “Short Conversations With a Pro.” Each Monday for the next several weeks I will post a short conversation with some of the design community’s more established and talented individuals. I am starting the series by chatting with designer and co-founder of BlackMoon Design, Robert Podgorski.
The internet is a different type of monster than the non-digital print beast, and you should approached it differently. If you are a graphic designer thinking about adding web design to your list of skill-sets, here are four things you should know.
We are so saturated with information that we don’t pay attention to it most of the time, traffic signs, parking signs, store signs, addresses, phone numbers. Most of it is plain and functional, but a huge chunk of it is atrociously designed. Every once in a while however, we run into information that is so well designed that we just have to comment on it or stare at it a little bit longer. These are 30 examples of information designed exceptionally well. Enjoy!
One of the gripes I have with ExpressionEngine is that it doesn’t give you a true preview of an entry. ExpressionEngine will show you the content inside of the control panel, but it is not a representation of what it will visually look like on your site. In order to see what your entry is actually going to look like you have to set the status to “open” and view your entry on your live site. That means having to release your entry into the wild, without being sure if you like how it looks. You can use Leevi Graham’s LG Live Look extension to give ExpressionEngine the ability to display a true preview of an entry, but I don’t think the extension has been ported over to EE 2.0. I will show you a way to get around this using ExpressionEngine’ conditional tag if and a custom entry status.
This semester I am taking 18 units of design classes at Cal State Dominguez Hills. This is my first project for Art 446 - Design Practices.
I don’t know about you, but I sometimes get more inspiration from reading about the design process of great designers than from the finished design. To me the final design is as much about the first scribble with pencil and paper as the final digital version (or print). Here are 10 behind the scene posts and 1 list of designer comments about the role of sketching in their design process. Enjoy!
Some time ago, while working on a project alongside a desiner friend of mine. We were looking over one of the drafts I was submiting for consideration when he said that I should use the designer’s rule of thumb. I asked him to explain and this is what he said. “If you can put your thumb over something in the design, and if that design still works without that element, throw it out.”