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Graphic Design: Most Popular Articles

These articles are the most popular over the last month.
What is Graphic Design?
An introduction to the basics of graphic design and its different applications.
Website Wireframes
Website wireframes are simple line drawings that show the placement of elements on a web page. Learn the focus, benefits and elements of a properly constructed website wireframe.
The Graphic Design Process
When starting a new design project, there are steps of the graphic design process to follow that will help you to achieve the best results. You can save yourself time and energy by first researching the topic, finalizing your content, starting with simple sketches, and getting several rounds of approval on designs.
PDF Portfolios
Many graphic software programs, such as InDesign and Illustrator, have the option of exporting a design as a PDF, which allows you to create a PDF portfolio. This PDF portfolio can be a custom designed brochure-style piece showcasing your best work, which can be emailed to prospective clients or employers.
Elements of Design
elements of graphic design shapes lines colors type fonts typography typefaces text art illustrations photography texture photos
Graphic Design Tools
There are several tools that are essential to graphic design. See how a computer and software, design books, a sketchpad and even other designers can be essential to your design process and business.
The Grid System
The grid system in graphic design is a way of organizing content on a page, using any combination of margins, guides, rows and columns. By using the grid system, a consistent design can be achieved through all the pages of a project.
Color Properties
The HSV color space is important to look at because it describes color based on three properties: Hue, Saturation and Value. As you edit these values, the full spectrum of colors can be created.
How To Design a Website
A step by step guide to designing a website, from research and brainstorming to creating wireframes, developing the website and promoting it.
Website Proposals
A website proposal contains many aspects different from other graphic design proposals, in that technical elements must be addressed along with creative ones. While print proposals do address items such as printing procedures, website proposals must specify web hosting, systems for maintaining content, programs or programming languages to be used and other technical specifications.
Illustrator Pen Tool
The pen tool is perhaps the most powerful tool in Illustrator. It can be used to create countless lines, curves and shapes, and serves as the building block for illustration and design. The tool is used by creating “anchor points,” and then by connecting those points with lines, which can be connected further to create shapes. Use of the pen tool is perfected through practice.
copyright
Copyright refers to laws that regulate the use of the work of a creator, such as an artist or author.
Graphic Design Business Cards
Whether you are a freelancer or you own your own design firm, it is crucial to have business cards for your graphic design business. A well-designed card with the right content will help you look professional, show off your work, and land new clients.
Timeline History Part 1
A timeline noting key moments in graphic design history from 15,000 BC to 1900, including the first visual communication, the invention of movable type, the opening of the first type foundry, and the development of the first Caslon Old Style font.
Project Outlines
Before beginning the design phase of a job, it is helpful to create a graphic design project outline. It will provide you and your client with some structure when discussing and creating the pages and elements of a project.
Successful Website Layouts
Successful website layouts depend on many variables including consistent navigation, proper balance, use of space, and clear delivery of content. See examples of successful layouts in a variety of industries.
Successful Flash Portfolios
A well-designed flash portfolio must show the designer’s best work and present it effectively, using the flash to do so without overwhelming the user with animation or loading time. The design of the website itself becomes part of the portfolio, and should be treated as such.
Types of Portfolios
When trying to break into the field of graphic design, having a solid portfolio is crucial for landing jobs and clients. The online, PDF and classic "book" portfolios each have benefits and drawbacks.
Graphic Design Software
Graphics and business-related software are key for graphic design. Products such as the Adobe Creative Suite, including Photoshop, content management software, and time tracking software will help you stay creative and organized.
Photoshop Clone Stamp Tool
Learn to use the clone stamp tool in Adobe Photoshop to retouch photos by copying one area of an image onto another area.
Graphic Design Hourly Rate
Setting a graphic design hourly rate is important because it will position you in relation to your competitors, determine what your flat rates are for projects, and of course directly affect what you earn.
Graphic Design Books
Sometimes the quickest way to get creative inspiration for a project is to see what others have done. You’re not looking to copy anything, of course, but rather see a concept, color, shape, typeface or any other element that might spark your next great idea. This list of graphic design books provides inspiration in different areas of design.
Mac vs. PC
One of the most common ongoing debates in the computer world is whether to get a Mac or a PC. Macs, produced by Apple, have often been used in the design world, with the PC (running the Windows operating system) dominating most of the business world. When looking at the two for graphic design work, the focus is on the handling of graphics, color, and type, the availability of software, and overall ease of use.
Email Newsletters
An email newsletter is an important tool for growing a graphic design business. It is one of most effective ways to spread the word-of-mouth on what type of work you are doing and looking for.
Hourly vs. Flat Rates
A common decision to be made when starting a graphic design project is whether to charge a flat or an hourly rate. Each method has pros and cons, as well as ways to work towards a fair deal for both you and your client.
Graphic Design Contracts
Graphic design contracts are important to protect the designer and clearly spell out the terms of an agreement and project. This list describes sections to include in a graphic design contract.
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop has long been considered essential software for graphic design. Photoshop’s primary functions include photo editing, website design, project layout, and the creation of elements for any type of project.
Graphic Design - Articles
An index of articles for the Graphic Design guide site.
Business Ideas
Starting or building a graphic design business can be a daunting task. These graphic design business ideas are tips to help spread the word, show off your work and set your rates, as well as suggestions for meeting with clients and managing projects.
Website Navigation
Navigation is a key component of a website, and here are five rules to follow to help design yours effectively.
Photography for Inspiration
Photography is a great source of graphic design inspiration. There are many online resources that give you access to vast photo collections, from photography portfolios to stock photography websites.
Graphic Design Flat Rates
Charging a flat rate for graphic design projects is often a good idea, because both you and your client know the cost from the start. Unless the scope of the project changes, the client doesn’t have to worry about going over budget, and the designer is guaranteed a certain amount.
Timeline History Part 2
A timeline noting key moments in graphic design history from 1900-1990, including the opening of the Bauhaus school, the designing of the IBM and MTV logos, and the release of the first Macintosh computer and Adobe Photoshop.
Letter Anatomy
There is a standard set of terms to describe the parts of a character. These terms, and the parts of the letter they represent, are often referred to as "letter anatomy" or "typeface anatomy." By breaking down letters into parts, a designer can better understand how type is created and altered and how to use it effectively.
Free Fonts from Dafont.com
Dafont is a free font website, offering downloadable freeware, shareware, demo and public domain typefaces for windows and mac.
Illustrator Type Tools
There are several tools for creating type, all found on the Illustrator toolbar, and each with a different function.
Project Management Software
As client lists and project sizes grow, turning to graphic design project management software is a great way to stay organized by using to-do lists, calendars, collaboration, automated billing and more.
Where to Find Illustrations
Illustration is commonly used in graphic design projects. A beautiful illustration can often grab the attention of your audience just as well as a photograph, and in many cases it can be even more effective. Illustrations are often necessary to “illustrate” a point, such as in graphs, charts and maps or in a set of icons for a website. There are several sources of illustrations, each with advantages and disadvantages in terms of quality, cost and time.
Typography Terminology
Basic typography terminology to help with the understanding how type is described and measured.
Print vs Web Design
An overview of the differences between designing for print and for the web, with a a focus on audience, layout, color, technology and careers.
Color Models: CMYK
The CMYK color model is used in printing. Although computer monitors display color in RGB, final printed pieces will be in CMYK, and so it is important to understand this model and the printing process.
Time Tracking Software
As a graphic design business grows, using time tracking software can help you keep organized, properly bill your clients, set your rates and study your workflow. There are many stand-alone time tracking applications, as well as options that are part of larger project management packages.
Buy a Website Domain Name
Domain names or website addresses, such as google.com or facebook.com, are available for purchase from many website services or registrars. While of course the names mentioned above are far from available, there are countless website addresses that can be purchased, often whether they are already owned or not.
Get Organized
When working as a graphic designer, it is important to get organized. If your business is not organized, there is a good chance your design will ultimately suffer. Keeping track of design tasks, leads, client requests, finances, emails, and phone calls is all part of getting, and staying, organized.
Adobe CS3
The Adobe Creative Suite 3 (CS3) comes in many editions, each with a different focus. The “Design Standard” edition, which includes Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Acrobat Professional, is ideal for graphic designers.
iStockphoto
iStockphoto is an excellent stock photo site where members generate the content, which includes photography, illustrations, video and flash files.
Color Separation
Color separation is the process by which original artwork is separated into individual color components for printing.
Illustrator Selection Tool
The Illustrator selection tool is for selecting objects in your layouts, such as shapes and blocks of type. Once selected, you can use the tool to move, transform, or apply any number of filters or effects to the selected objects.
Questions for Clients
At the start of a project, it is important to know what to ask graphic design clients to gather as much information as possible. This will often occur before you have landed a job, as it is necessary to have this meeting to help determine the cost and timeframe of the project.
How are Lines Used in Design?
Lines are used to divide space, direct the eye, and create forms. At the most basic level, straight lines are found in layouts to separate content, such as in magazine, newspaper, and website designs. This can of course go much further, with curved, dotted, and zigzag lines used as the defining elements on a page and as the basis for illustrations and graphics.
Apple iMac Review
The Apple iMac claims to be “the ultimate all-in-one,” and it truly is. While marketed as Apple’s consumer model, the Apple iMac certainly packs enough power to use for professional graphic design, with a lower cost than the Mac Pro. Tools such as iLife and Font Book, and Apple's great handling of colors and fonts, make the Apple iMac an excellent tool for graphic designers.
Texture in Graphic Design
Texture can refer to the actual surface of a design or to the visual appearance of a design. In the first case, the audience can actually feel the texture, making it unique from the other elements of design. In the second case, texture is implied through the style of design. Rich, layered graphics can create visual texture that mirrors actual texture.
Using Typography and Fonts
Typography is crucial to almost all design projects. It is important to understand basic typography terms, how to use it effectively and how to find and identify the best fonts for a project.
OmniGraffle Review
OmniGraffle, now in version 5, is Mac software that simplifies the creation of wireframes, flowcharts and other diagrams by providing shape, line, arrow, text and graphics tools to use on a blank canvas. Many stencil sets, which are collections of graphics with a particular theme, are available that make the software even more powerful.
Color Models: RGB
The RGB model is so important to graphic design because it is used in computer monitors. Therefore, when designing websites and other on-screen projects, the RGB model is used because the final product is viewed on a computer display.
Shapes
Shapes are at the root of graphic design. They are figures and forms that make up logos, illustrations and countless other elements in all types of designs. Altering the size, form, angles, colors and other characteristics of the shapes in a design can significantly impact its message and success.
Using Color in Graphic Design
Color is an interesting element of graphic design because it can be applied to any other element, changing it dramatically. It can be used to make an image stand out, to show linked text on a website, and to evoke emotion. Graphic designers should combine their experience with color with an understanding of color theory, including rgb color, cmyk and the hsv color model.
Layout for Print
When preparing a document to send to a printer, there are several specifications and elements to include in your layout. These specs help to insure that the printer will provide your final project as intended.
Working on a Retainer
A retainer is a fee paid for a pre-determined amount of time or work. Most commonly, a percentage of a retainer is paid up-front for a specified number of hours or days of work within a time period.
Time Tracking
There are many benefits to time tracking in your graphic design business. Keeping track of the hours you spend on projects, and specific tasks, can help you set your rates, improve your business, and even save time in future projects.
Photoshop Crop Tool
The Photoshop crop tool serves two main purposes. The first is to crop, which means to cut out an area of an image by selecting the area that you wish to keep. It is also handy for quickly resizing images. These functions can also be used at the same time to crop and resize a photo (or any type of image) at once.
Photoshop Save for Web Tool
As a graphic designer, you may often be asked to deliver web-ready images, such as photos for a web site or banner ads. The Photoshop “Save for Web” tool is a simple and easy way to prepare your JPEG files for the web, helping with the trade-off between file size and image quality.
Veer
Veer is a high-end stock site offering quality images and typefaces through a clear, user-friendly website. Images are available from a large selection of stock providers, including Comstock, Photodisc and Digital Vision.
Graphic Artists Guild Handbook
The Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing and Ethical Guidelines is an excellent resource that covers pricing and business practices across all types of design professions, contracts, law, professional relationships and more.
Pantone Swatches
When designing for print, a common issue that has to be dealt with is the difference between the color on your computer display and on paper. To deal with this problem, you can use the Pantone Matching System, or PMS. The PMS has an industry standard book of color swatches with reference numbers that you can give to the printer, who will then use ready-made inks that match these numbers to complete the job.
Rights to a Graphic Work
Unless otherwise specified in a contract, the graphic designer retains the right to his or her creations, and should always attempt to do so.
What the Font
What the Font is a great tool that can help identify fonts. Just upload an image or enter an image URL and let "What the Font?!" do the rest, telling you what font is being used.
Organize Graphic Design Files
As graphic designers take on more and more projects, organizing the files related to the projects becomes increasingly important.
Apple MobileMe Accounts
An Apple MobileMe account (formerly .Mac) is a great way to sync essential data on several computers or devices and to back up files. A MobileMe account costs $99 per year and gives you online access to your bookmarks, contacts, calendars, email, with 20GB of storage.
Design Projects - Movie Poster
This exercise is a brainstorming activity and a way to practice your design skills. Design a poster for a movie about your life, or a book cover for your autobiography.
We Love Typography
We Love Typography is a simple and clever website dedicated to all things type, with images, video and text submitted by a small group of contributors. The dedicated group of contributors makes the site a great source of inspiration for designers looking for amazing use of typography.
Emma Email Newsletters
Emma is an online service that manages email newsletter marketing, from organizing contacts to creating design templates to statistics reporting.
Career Paths
There are many career paths to take within the field of graphic design. Graphic designers may choose to work as book designers, in web design, branding, illustration, logo design or often a combination of several fields.
Paul Rand Profile
Paul Rand was one of the most famous and influential graphic designers in history. He is best known for his logo design and corporate branding, creating timeless icons such as the IBM and ABC television logos.
Tip - Always Have a Contract
When working as a graphic designer, there may be situations where a contract does not seem necessary. However, it is a good rule to have a contract regardless of who the job is for, the length of the job or the amount of work involved.
Brainstorming
Before you even begin to create a first version of a design in graphics software, it is important to harness your creativity to come up with concepts and ideas for a project. Unless the winning idea simply pops into your head (it has been known to happen), it is often difficult to sit down and start designing without a brainstorming session.
Photoshop Tool Presets
Creating tool presets in Photoshop is an excellent way to speed up your workflow and remember your favorite and most-used settings. A tool preset is a named, saved version of a tool and specific related settings such as width, opacity and brush size, all handled through the tool presets palette.
Apple Software
The software that is included with all new Apple computers can be very handy for managing tasks beyond your personal life. Here are some tips for using Mac applications in your design business.
Type Families
The different options available within a typeface, such as roman, bold and italic, make up a type family.
Websites Portfolios
The web is full of portfolios for graphic designers, web designers, photographers, artists, illustrators and other creative professionals. When building a new online portfolio, there are many factors to consider and decisions to make to set yourself apart and properly showcase your work. You must determine your goals, create an outline, categorize and select your work for presentation, write your content, and design and launch the website.
Top Font Picks
The best fonts for different types of projects and businesses.
Photoshop Marquee Tool
The Photoshop marquee tool, a relatively simple feature, is essential for several tasks. At the most basic level, the tool is used to select areas of an image, which can then be copied, cut or cropped. There are four options within the tool to select different types of areas: rectangular, elliptical, a single row or a single column.
Legal Tips
The legal side of graphic design includes important issues such as contracts, copyrights, and the settling of disputes, all of which are key to the success of a design business.
Kuler by Adobe
Kuler by Adobe is a great tool for creating color palettes and viewing color palettes created by others. Accessed through a browser, Kuler allows you to easily edit color palettes and save them for use in Adobe applications such as Photoshop or Illustrator.
Color Scheme Generator
The Color Scheme Generator is an online tool that helps you create color sets for design projects.
Word of Mouth
At any stage of a business in graphic design, word-of-mouth is one of the most effective ways to land more jobs.
Shutterstock
Shutterstock is a subscription only stock site, offering a large collection of photos and illustrations at reasonable monthly rates.
Do I Need to Know How to Draw?
You don't need to be a fine artist to be a graphic designer. While it could help your career and your creative side, it is not necessary to be a sketch artist, painter or other type of artist in the traditional sense. Graphic design is about taking elements such as type, photos, illustrations, and color and combining them to create effective messages.
Design Firm on a Low Budget
If you can’t afford to start a design business, how can you get into graphic design? One of the best ways is to start small. Starting a career in design doesn’t necessarily mean starting a design “firm,” at least in the traditional sense. You don’t need to start with an office space or employees… your firm, or freelance business, can just be you. While there are some startup costs, a design business can be one with relatively low overhead.
Wacom Pen Tablets
It is often difficult and awkward to design with a mouse, especially when working on illustrations or precise image retouching. Pen tablets give graphic designers the feel of working with an actual pen and pad, and Wacom tablets are the industry standard.
Campaign Monitor
Sending an email newsletter is a great way to spread word-of-mouth on your design business. There are many ways to do it for free, but there are also many services that offer email marketing tools and software, giving you control over design, contact management and statistics to test the effectiveness of your emails. Campaign Monitor is a great, user-friendly email marketing service with affordable pricing.
WayBack Machine
The WayBack Machine allows users to find old web pages in their extensive website archive of billions of web pages.
Photoshop Tools
The tools available on the Photoshop toolbar and menus are the basis for working in the software. Learning tools such as the crop, clone stamp and marquee, and the use of tool presets, will help facilitate design and improve workflow.
Basecamp
Basecamp is an excellent online software package that makes project management and collaboration easy. Created by 37signals, the entire Basecamp system is accessed and managed online, so none of the software or data is actually stored on your computer.
Make-Ready
The term "make-ready" refers to everything done on a press to prepare for the final print job.
Digital Printing
Digital printing refers to modern printing methods that use digital files, such as PDFs, instead of printing plates.
Font Doctor
When working as a graphic designer, you are bound to have hundreds of fonts on your computer. When dealing with so many fonts, it is common to run into problems such as corrupted files, multiple fonts with the same name, and messy organization. Font Doctor for the Mac will help repair and organize your fonts to clean up and avoid these problems.
Branding
To create a brand for a company is to create their image, and to promote that image with campaigns and visuals. Working in branding allows a graphic designer or design firm to get involved with many aspects of the industry, from logo design to advertising to copywriting and slogans.
Graphic Design Credit Line
Getting your credit line on your work is a great way to spread word-of-mouth on your business. It is satisfying, and lucrative, when someone sees your work and contacts you for a project.
Tell Me Why
Tell Me Why tells the story of the first two years of New York design firm karlssonwilker inc. The company was started in 2000 by Hjalti Karlsson and Jan Wilker, on a small budget and even smaller client base. The book proves to be an inspiration, and a wake-up call, to those looking to freelance or start a firm of their own.
Lipsum.com Text Generator
Lipsum.com is an online resource that generates any requested length of Lorem Ipsum dummy text for graphic design projects.
Featured Websites
The ongoing list of featured websites from the about.com graphic design blog. These websites exhibit successful design, layout and typography.
Saul Bass Profile
Saul Bass was a Bronx- born graphic designer who took his New York style to California and became famous for his work in film and classic logo design. He studied in New York at the Art Students’ League as a teenager and developed a unique style that is both recognizable and memorable.
Working as a Web Designer
Website design, while a relatively new industry, is now an essential part of a company’s image, brand, and advertising, marketing and public relations campaigns.
Book Design
Working in book design can mean several things. For some, it may be creating elaborate book covers and jacket designs from scratch. For others, it may mean hours of detailed-oriented layout work.
Creating an Email Newsletter
An email newsletter is an important tool for growing a graphic design business. It is one of most effective ways to spread the word-of-mouth on what type of work you are doing and looking for.
Charging Rush Fees
When working as a graphic designer, you are bound to have clients who want projects done on a short deadline. When this happens, you have to first decide if you have the time to complete the project on deadline, and then decide whether or not to charge a rush fee. There several things to consider that can help you decide whether or not to charge more for work done quickly.
Working as an Illustrator
Illustration, while often closely related to graphic design, is for many a separate profession. Most commonly, illustrators work in software such Adobe Illustrator or Corel Painter, and often incorporate hand-drawn elements into their work.
MaxBulk Mailer Review
MaxBulk Mailer is a stand-alone application ideal for sending newsletters and other emails to large groups.
Graphic Design Blogs
There are many benefits to writing your own graphic design blog. Writing a blog can build a community around your website, promote your business, and help to establish yourself as an expert in the field.
Interview with Veerle Pieters
An interview with graphic designer Veerle Pieters of Duoh!
Museum Directory
Visiting museums of all types can be a great source of graphic design inspiration. This museum directory has a focus on modern art, design and technology.
NYU Design Courses
The New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies offers a wide variety of design courses for different levels of experience, including Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Typography and Portfolio classes.
Ask About the Clients Budget
The most simple and straightforward approach to determining a budget is to ask the client what they can spend.
Offset Lithography
Offset lithography is a process used for printing on a flat surface, using printing plates.
Billings Time Tracking
Billings, by marketcircle, is time tracking and invoicing software for the Mac. Billings has a simple and clean user interface that makes time tracking easy, and it allows for complete control over design of estimates and invoices.
Free Fonts from Dinc Type
Dinc Type offers a great selection of free fonts for download. While a much smaller selection than other free font sites, the Dinc Type fonts are interesting and well-designed, making the site a nice stop when you don’t feel like sorting through thousands of typefaces for something new to play with.
Free Fonts from UrbanFonts.com
UrbanFonts.com is a well-designed free font website with over 8,000 freeware fonts for download. UrbanFont’s attractive site makes browsing fonts easier than on some other free font sites.
Work-for-Hire
Work-for-hire refers to the situations in which a creator of a work does not retain the rights to that work. By default, and artist or designer owns the copyright to his or her work. Work-for-hire includes two exceptions to that rule.
Contract are Two-Way
When reaching the stage of a project when it’s time to seal the deal, you may find clients are hesitant to sign a lengthy contract or scared of the term “contract” in general. Therefore, it is important to treat contracts as two-way agreements and present them as such to your clients.
When a Client Will Not Pay
In a perfect world, clients would always pay on time and in full. However, over the course of a graphic design career, it is almost inevitable to come across late paying clients.
Advertising
Like many graphic design fields, working in advertising takes you far beyond creating designs and page layouts. While a specific job may be to create a print ad for a campaign, this field requires an understanding of marketing, public relations and consumers.
Los Logos Review
Los Logos is a 400-page showcase of modern logo design. It’s a great graphic design book to flip through to see 3,500 examples of contemporary logos.
Interior Design Blogs
Interior decorating and product design for the home are great sources of inspiration. The colors, patterns, shapes and textures of anything from a couch to a coat rack to a fully decorated room can provide great examples of well-executed design. Below are some blogs and websites on interior design to check out.
OmniDiskSweeper Review
OmniDiskSweeper, by The Omni Group, is a great Mac utility for discovering what files are taking up your hard drive space. The software costs $15 and serves one simple, but very helpful, function.
Digital Asset Management
As a graphic designer’s collection of stock photos, PDFs, artwork and other images grows, it is helpful to use software to browse files. Rather than sift through folders, various software packages offer efficient ways to find what you are looking for.
Work within a Limited Budget
When working as a graphic designer, you will inevitably come across clients with limited budgets. In some cases, this may mean you need to decline the job. However, other projects have benefits beyond pay, and you will find yourself looking for ways to work within the client’s budget. There are several reasons you may want to do so, and several ways to make it less likely to regret your decision.
The Little Know-It-All
The Little Know-It All is an excellent resource for graphic designers to keep handy at all times. It covers design, typography, digital media, production, marketing, law and organization.
WordPress.com Review
WordPress.com offers free blogs with optional paid upgrades, and a full set of features that make it a great blogging option.
Payment Schedules
After working out a budget with a client, it’s important to set up a payment schedule. This helps to keep the project on target and makes both parties comfortable with the payments owed and the work being done.
Highrise Review
Highrise, created by 37signals, is an online system designed to manage contacts and communication with clients. The simple interface makes it easy to track the status of projects and interaction with contacts.
Estimating Projects
When creating a proposal for a new graphic design job, one of the most difficult steps is estimating the project cost. It can be helpful to break down the necessary tasks to reach a final estimate.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free statistics package with a user-friendly interface and feature set that rivals many paid statistics systems. With easy sign-up (simply add a line of code to your web page), multiple sites per account, customizable views and various export and email options, it is an excellent option for tracking website statistics.
What the Font iPhone Review
What the Font is a free iPhone application that identifies typefaces from photos. A companion to the MyFonts website with the same title, What the Font is an extremely intuitive and clever app that is a great tool for designers on the go.
Tyze Logo
Design Gallery by Veerle Pieters of Duoh!
Find Out the Budget
Finding our your client's budget can save a lot of time and aggravation. By simply asking, or researching, how much a client can spend you can often determine not only if you can take a job, but what type of service you can provide. As there are often variables that can greatly affect costs, it will help you work with the client rather than quoting blindly and potentially losing a project.
The Dieline - Packaging Design
The Dieline is a website all about package design, with a blog of beautiful packaging and a directory of package designers.
Graphic Artists Guild
The Graphic Artists Guild is a professional organization dedicated to educating and protecting its members, with a focus on the economic and legal sides of being a creative professional.
Negotiation Tip
When going into a meeting with a potential graphic design client, negotiating cost will often be the most difficult part of the conversation. Talking about the design or technical side of a project is usually relatively easy. In a negotiation, both parties should be looking for a mutually beneficial relationship; the designer gets a price he or she sees as fair for the amount of work, and the client gets quality work within their budget.
Friends and Family Projects
A common dilemma that graphic designers face is whether or not to take on projects for friends and family, and what to charge them.
SlideShowPro Review
SlideShowPro is a Flash component and Lightroom extension for presenting photo and video galleries online. The product is a great, inexpensive solution for creating professional slideshows with little to no coding required, making it useful for designers with no ActionScript experience or those looking to save time or work within a limited budget.
Tweetie Review
Tweetie for the Mac is a great Twitter application that keeps things simple, as a good Twitter app should. The best part about Tweetie, as with other Twitter software, is that it allows you to follow Twitter outside of the constraints of a web browser. It also improves the interface for direct messaging and makes shortening URLs and attaching photos easy.
Advertising Now. Print- Review
“Advertising Now. Print,” edited by Julius Wiedemann and published by Taschen, is an excellent collection of advertising from around the globe. With over 600 pages of unique, eye-catching ads the book is a perfect resource for those interested in advertising or looking for creative inspiration.
PsPrint.com
PsPrint.com is an online print shop that offers a long list of products at affordable prices, along with several paper options, same day service, and a large collection of design templates.
Communications Arts Magazine
Communication Arts magazine is a great source of inspiration, with profiles and features on top designers and work. While there is not a focus on design methods, it’s a well-designed magazine that keeps up with the latest trends.
Print Magazine
Print is a graphic design magazine with a focus on culture, society and the many sides of visual communication. Insightful and sometimes controversial, Print provides a unique look into the world of graphic design… and how graphic design affects the world.
Tweetie for iPhone
Tweetie for the iPhone, by atebits, is an extremely user-friendly and feature-rich Twitter app for managing your Twitter accounts. Now in version 2, I found this release to be faster and even easier to use than version 1, maintaining its status as one of the best Twitter applications for the iPhone.
Desktop by Veerle
Design Gallery by Veerle Pieters of Duoh!
Media Bistro Courses
Media Bistro is a web-based company that offers services to media professionals, such as job listings and networking events. They offer design and business courses online and in major U.S. cities.
Area Book Review
There are plenty of “best of” graphic design books out there, and while many are effective at focusing on a specific type of work, hardly any present such an impressive overall look at the state of graphic design as area, published by Phaidon.
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