The online design community has its fair share of articles, comics and websites about the downsides of design work. Forums and comments are rife with stories about being “forced” to create poor work; dealing with irrational clients; breakdowns in communication and more stress-inducing cons of being a design professional. These negatives can’t be denied – every designer has had a poor work experience at some point, I’d imagine, myself included – but what about the flipside? What are the best parts of being a designer?
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Archive for the ‘Design’ Category
The Best Parts of Being a Designer
January 2, 2012
Not too long ago, I received a book in the mail: the uniquely titled The Blue Lady’s New Look and Other Curiosities. This book – a collection put together by jones knowles ritchie design firm – contains 52 articles related to design & marketing, and is a solid read for any designer looking to think a little deeper about what (s)he does.
What’s It All About?
The tagline on the front of the book reads “posts from the crossroads of design & marketing”, and that pretty much sums up the collection. You’re not going to find any list posts; no Illustrator or Photoshop tutorials; no CSS tricks. Instead, you’ll read various cerebral takes on design/marketing and its effect on the viewer. From takes on packaging design to virtual branding; from building trust to limited edition designs; a wide range of topics are covered here.
A small sample of articles inside include:
- Can graphics make a car go faster?
- Even no branding is branding
- Is gender bending ok for brands?
- Can bad taste make for a good design
The jkr Design Gazette has been posting daily for two years; it is a respected source for design & marketing journalists, industry experts & more. The design expertise is applied to offer an informed perspective on branding & marketing topics.
How to Get More Design Referrals
January 24, 2011
Freelancers and small design companies do not have large marketing budgets. There may be a few dollars here or there to spend on Google AdWords, Facebook ads or perhaps a small print campaign, but by and large we survive on one things: referrals.
When someone begins his/her freelance design career, all we have are referrals: from our friends, schoolmates, even our parents and family. As we land our first clients and complete our first design jobs, it’s important to realize the importance of referrals and think about how to maximize them. The more clients we get, the more opportunity for referrals, which brings in more clients, and so on. It grows exponentially and, if you take steps to ensure you get more referrals, you may not have to spend a cent on advertising. Ever. Read the whole article >
My Attempt at the Worst Logo Ever
November 22, 2010
On November 15, 2010, some fine ladies & gents launched a fun contest for graphic designers called How Low Can Your Logo? The gist of the contest is for designers to “willingly create that which you spend your entire life trying not to create: the worst logo ever. ” It’s an awesome way to bring the design community together and have some laughs, and it was a really fun, quick project to complete.
Perhaps the most fun part of the whole contest is the client writeup, where you get the most jargon-laden client brief to work from ever. Full of contradictions and punchlines seemingly pulled straight from ClientsFromHell, I had a good laugh reading it. Here’s a few sections pulled from the client brief, so you can see what we were tasked to create:
Meet the Client
Excellencico (established in 1996) is a global leader in providing a focused, broad range of services to a world-class, international, region-centric clientele. Excellencico harnesses evolving, dynamic e-technologies to provide unparalleled levels of synergistic e-products to a heterogeneous set of unperpendiculated e-applications…
Direction
Our logo needs to be simple and yet detailed, complex yet spare. We prefer that the logo convey the forward-thinking nature of our company without looking too futuristic or flashy but we also don’t want anything too conservative or neutral. “Just right” is the vibe we are looking for. We believe that “e” best defines our unique approach and core company culture. We’re very drawn to the colors one finds in a rainbow but color wheels are a significant turn-off. I have attached a picture of our puppy. We don’t want the puppy incorporated into the logo but we do want you to capture her spirit and attitude and expect that to be conveyed through design elements.
Pure designnerd comedy gold, I tell ya. Armed with this information, I opened up Illustrator and, with much thought, created this monstrosity of a logo: Read the whole article >
The Designer’s Most Important Skill
November 15, 2010
A graphic designer in today’s day and age has to have a wide-ranging skill set. Along with the obvious grasp of design principles like contrast, balance, color and such and the knowledge of how to use the industry-standard software, many clients also expect designers to be developers, illustrators, strategists and more. I agree with most of these expectations (so long as they’re realistic); however, there is one specific skill that can and does, in my opinion, mark the difference between a good designer and a great designer: the art of clear communication.
